Cousin Betty........................................................................................................................................................1

One day, about the middle of July 1838, one of the carriages, then lately introduced to Paris cabstands, and

known as Milords, was driving down the Rue de l'Universite, conveying a stout man of middle height in the

Among the Paris crowd, who are supposed to be so clever, there are some men who fancy themselves

infinitely more attractive in uniform than in their ordinary clothes, and who attribute to women so depraved a

taste that they believe they will be favorably impressed by the aspect of a busby and of military

The countenance of this Captain of the Second Company beamed with a selfsatisfaction that added splendor

to his ruddy and somewhat chubby face. The halo of glory that a fortune made in business gives to a retired

tradesman sat on his brow, and stamped him as one of the elect of Parisat least a retired deputymayor of

his quarter of the town. And you may be sure that the ribbon of the Legion of Honor was not missing from

his breast, gallantly padded a la Prussienne. Proudly seated in one corner of the milord, this splendid person

let his gaze wander over the passersby, who, in Paris, often thus meet an ingratiating smile meant for sweet

The vehicle stopped in the part of the street between the Rue de Bellechasse and the Rue de Bourgogne, at the

door of a large, newly build house, standing on part of the courtyard of an ancient mansion that had a

garden. The old house remained in its original state, beyond the courtyard curtailed by half its extent.

Only from the way in which the officer accepted the assistance of the coachman to help him out, it was plain

that he was past fifty. There are certain movements so undisguisedly heavy that they are as tell tale as a

gatekeeper, went up the outer steps to the ground of the new house with a look that proclaimed, "She is

The concierges of Paris have sharp eyes; they do not stop visitors who wear an order, have a blue uniform,

This ground floor was entirely occupied by Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervy, Commissary General under the

Republic, retired army contractor, and at the present time at the head of one of the most important

departments of the War Office, Councillor of State, officer of the Legion of Honor, and so forth.

This Baron Hulot had taken the name of d'Ervythe place of his birth to distinguish him from his brother,

the famous General Hulot, Colonel of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, created by the Emperor Comte

de Forzheim after the campaign of 1809. The Count, the elder brother, being responsible for his junior, had,

with paternal care, placed him in the commissariat, where, thanks to the services of the two brothers, the

Baron deserved and won Napoleon's good graces. After 1807, Baron Hulot was Commissary General for the

Having rung the bell, the citizencaptain made strenuous efforts to pull his coat into place, for it had rucked

up as much at the back as in front, pushed out of shape by the working of a piriform stomach. Being admitted

as soon as the servant in livery saw him, the important and imposing personage followed the man, who

On hearing the name, singularly appropriate to the figure of the man who bore it, a tall, fair woman, evidently

"Hortense, my darling, go into the garden with your Cousin Betty," she said hastily to her daughter, who was

After curtseying prettily to the captain, Mademoiselle Hortense went out by a glass door, taking with her a

witheredlooking spinster, who looked older than the Baroness, though she was five years younger.

"They are settling your marriage," said Cousin Betty in the girl's ear, without seeming at all offended at the

The cousin's dress might, at need, have explained this freeandeasy demeanor. The old maid wore a merino

gown of a dark plum color, of which the cut and trimming dated from the year of the Restoration; a little

worked collar, worth perhaps three francs; and a common straw hat with blue satin ribbons edged with straw

plait, such as the old clothes buyers wear at market. On looking down at her kid shoes, made, it was evident,

by the veriest cobbler, a stranger would have hesitated to recognize Cousin Betty as a member of the family,

for she looked exactly like a journeywoman sempstress. But she did not leave the room without bestowing a

little friendly nod on Monsieur Crevel, to which that gentleman responded by a look of mutual understanding.

"And here am I, madame, at your orders," said the citizencaptain, bowing again to Madame Hulot.

He gave such a look at Madame Hulot as Tartuffe casts at Elmirewhen a provincial actor plays the part and

"If you will come into this room with me, we shall be more conveniently placed for talking business than we

are in this room," said Madame Hulot, going to an adjoining room, which, as the apartment was arranged,

It was divided by a slight partition from a boudoir looking out on the garden, and Madame Hulot left her

visitor to himself for a minute, for she thought it wise to shut the window and the door of the boudoir, so that

no one should get in and listen. She even took the precaution of shutting the glass door of the drawingroom,

smiling on her daughter and her cousin, whom she saw seated in an old summerhouse at the end of the

garden. As she came back she left the cardroom door open, so as to hear if any one should open that of the

As she came and went, the Baroness, seen by nobody, allowed her face to betray all her thoughts, and any

one who could have seen her would have been shocked to see her agitation. But when she finally came back

from the glass door of the drawingroom, as she entered the cardroom, her face was hidden behind the

impenetrable reserve which every woman, even the most candid, seems to have at her command.

During all these preparationsodd, to say the leastthe National Guardsman studied the furniture of the

room in which he found himself. As he noted the silk curtains, once red, now faded to dull purple by the

sunshine, and frayed in the pleats by long wear; the carpet, from which the hues had faded; the discolored

gilding of the furniture; and the silk seats, discolored in patches, and wearing into strips expressions of

scorn, satisfaction, and hope dawned in succession without disguise on his stupid tradesman's face. He looked

at himself in the glass over an old clock of the Empire, and was contemplating the general effect, when the

After dropping on to a sofa, which had been a very handsome one in the year 1809, the Baroness, pointing to

an armchair with the arms ending in bronze sphinxes' heads, while the paint was peeling from the wood,

"The word is too feeble," said he, placing his right hand on his heart, and rolling his eyes in a way which

almost always makes a woman laugh when she, in cold blood, sees such a look. "A lover! A lover? Say a man

"Listen, Monsieur Crevel," said the Baroness, too anxious to be able to laugh, "you are fiftyten years

younger than Monsieur Hulot, I know; but at my age a woman's follies ought to be justified by beauty, youth,

fame, superior meritsome one of the splendid qualities which can dazzle us to the point of making us

forget all elseeven at our age. Though you may have fifty thousand francs a year, your age counterbalances

"No, monsieur, such obstinacy!" said the Baroness, interrupting him to put an end to his absurdity.

"A claim!" cried Madame Hulot, rising sublime with scorn, defiance, and indignation. "But," she went on,

"this will bring us to no issues; I did not ask you to come here to discuss the matter which led to your

"What! still?" cried she. "Do you not see, monsieur, by the entire ease and freedom with which I can speak of

lovers and love, of everything least creditable to a woman, that I am perfectly secure in my own virtue? I fear

nothingnot even to shut myself in alone with you. Is that the conduct of a weak woman? You know full

"No, madame," replied Crevel, with an assumption of great coldness. He pursed up his lips, and again struck

"Well, I will be brief, to shorten our common discomfort," said the Baroness, looking at Crevel.

Crevel made an ironical bow, in which a man who knew the race would have recognized the graces of a

"It would not be done at all, I suspect," said the baroness hastily. "However, you have nothing to complain of.

My son is not only one of the leading pleaders of Paris, but for the last year he has sat as Deputy, and his

maiden speech was brilliant enough to lead us to suppose that ere long he will be in office. Victorin has twice

been called upon to report on important measures; and he might even now, if he chose, be made

AttorneyGeneral in the Court of Appeal. So, if you mean to say that your soninlaw has no fortune"

"Worse than that, madame, a soninlaw whom I am obliged to maintain," replied Crevel. "Of the five

hundred thousand francs that formed my daughter's marriage portion, two hundred thousand have

vanishedGod knows how!in paying the young gentleman's debts, in furnishing his house

splendaciouslya house costing five hundred thousand francs, and bringing in scarcely fifteen thousand,

since he occupies the larger part of it, while he owes two hundred and sixty thousand francs of the

purchasemoney. The rent he gets barely pays the interest on the debt. I have had to give my daughter twenty

thousand francs this year to help her to make both ends meet. And then my soninlaw, who was making

thirty thousand francs a year at the Assizes, I am told, is going to throw that up for the Chamber"

"This, again, Monsieur Crevel, is beside the mark; we are wandering from the point. Still, to dispose of it

finally, it may be said that if my son gets into office, if he has you made an officer of the Legion of Honor

and councillor of the municipality of Paris, you, as a retired perfumer, will not have much to complain

"Ah! there we are again, madame! Yes, I am a tradesman, a shopkeeper, a retail dealer in almondpaste,

eaudePortugal, and hairoil, and was only too much honored when my only daughter was married to the

son of Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervymy daughter will be a Baroness! This is Regency, Louis XV.,

(Eildeboeufquite tiptop!very good.) I love Celestine as a man loves his only childso well indeed,

that, to preserve her from having either brother or sister, I resigned myself to all the privations of a

widowerin Paris, and in the prime of life, madame. But you must understand that, in spite of this

extravagant affection for my daughter, I do not intend to reduce my fortune for the sake of your son, whose

"Monsieur, you may at this day see in the Ministry of Commerce Monsieur Popinot, formerly a druggist in

"And a friend of mine, madame," said the experfumer. "For I, Celestin Crevel, foreman once to old Cesar

Birotteau, brought up the said Cesar Birotteau's stock; and he was Popinot's fatherinlaw. Why, that very

Popinot was no more than a shopman in the establishment, and he is the first to remind me of it; for he is not

proud, to do him justice, to men in a good position with an income of sixty thousand francs in the funds."

"Well then, monsieur, the notions you term 'Regency' are quite out of date at a time when a man is taken at

his personal worth; and that is what you did when you married your daughter to my son."

"But you do not know how the marriage was brought about!" cried Crevel. "Oh, that cursed bachelor life! But

"Once more have done with recriminations over accomplished facts," said the Baroness anxiously. "Let us

rather discuss the complaints I have found on your strange behavior. My daughter Hortense had a chance of

marrying; the match depended entirely on you; I believed you felt some sentiments of generosity; I thought

you would do justice to a woman who has never had a thought in her heart for any man but her husband, that

you would have understood how necessary it is for her not to receive a man who may compromise her, and

that for the honor of the family with which you are allied you would have been eager to promote Hortense's

settlement with Monsieur le Conseiller Lebas.And it is you, monsieur, you have hindered the marriage."

"Madame," said the experfumer, "I acted the part of an honest man. I was asked whether the two hundred

thousand francs to be settled on Mademoiselle Hortense would be forthcoming. I replied exactly in these

words: 'I would not answer for it. My soninlaw, to whom the Hulots had promised the same sum, was in

debt; and I believe that if Monsieur Hulot d'Ervy were to die tomorrow, his widow would have nothing to

"And would you have said as much, monsieur," asked Madame Hulot, looking Crevel steadily in the face, "if

"I should not be in a position to say it, dearest Adeline," cried this singular adorer, interrupting the Baroness,

And adding action to word, the fat guardsman knelt down on one knee and kissed Madame Hulot's hand,

seeing that his speech had filled her with speechless horror, which he took for hesitancy.

"What, buy my daughter's fortune at the cost of? Rise, monsieur or I ring the bell."

Crevel rose with great difficulty. This fact made him so furious that he again struck his favorite attitude. Most

men have some habitual position by which they fancy that they show to the best advantage the good points

bestowed on them by nature. This attitude in Crevel consisted in crossing his arms like Napoleon, his head

showing three quarters face, and his eyes fixed on the horizon, as the painter has shown the Emperor in his

"To be faithful," he began, with wellacted indignation, "so faithful to a liber"

"To a husband who is worthy of such fidelity," Madame Hulot put in, to hinder Crevel from saying a word

"Come, madame; you wrote to bid me here, you ask the reasons for my conduct, you drive me to extremities

with your imperial airs, your scorn, and your contempt! Any one might think I was a Negro. But I repeat it,

and you may believe me, I have a right toto make love to you, for But no; I love you well enough to

"You may speak, monsieur. In a few days I shall be eightandforty; I am no prude; I can hear whatever you

"Then will you give me your word of honor as an honest womanfor you are, alas for me! an honest

"If that is the condition on which you speak, I will swear never to tell any one from whom I heard the horrors

"Oh, if you still really love Hulot, it will distress you. Shall I say no more?"

"Speak, monsieur; for by your account you wish to justify in my eyes the extraordinary declarations you have

chosen to make me, and your persistency in tormenting a woman of my age, whose only wish is to see her

"Yes, beautiful, noble creature!" cried Crevel. "You have indeed been too wretched!"

"Do you know, madame, how Master Hulot and I first made acquaintance? At our mistresses', madame."

"Yes, madame, at our mistresses'," Crevel repeated in a melodramatic tone, and leaving his position to wave

"I, a widower five years since," Crevel began, in the tone of a man who has a story to tell, "and not wishing to

marry again for the sake of the daughter I adore, not choosing either to cultivate any such connection in my

own establishment, though I had at the time a very pretty ladyaccountant. I set up, 'on her own account,' as

they say, a little sempstress of fifteenreally a miracle of beauty, with whom I fell desperately in love. And

in fact, madame, I asked an aunt of my own, my mother's sister, whom I sent for from the country, to live

with the sweet creature and keep an eye on her, that she might behave as well as might be in this

"The child, whose talent for music was striking, had masters, she was educatedI had to give her something

to do. Besides, I wished to be at once her father, her benefactor, andwell, out with ither lover; to kill two

birds with one stone, a good action and a sweetheart. For five years I was very happy. The girl had one of

those voices that make the fortune of a theatre; I can only describe her by saying that she is a Duprez in

petticoats. It cost me two thousand francs a year only to cultivate her talent as a singer. She made me

musicmad; I took a box at the opera for her and for my daughter, and went there alternate evenings with

"Yes, madame," said Crevel with pride, "the famous Josepha owes everything to me.At last, in 1834, when

the child was twenty, believing that I had attached her to me for ever, and being very weak where she was

concerned, I thought I would give her a little amusement, and I introduced her to a pretty little actress, Jenny

Cadine, whose life had been somewhat like her own. This actress also owed everything to a protector who

"Bless me!" cried Crevel, more and more astounded. "Well! But do you know that your monster of a husband

"As Jenny Cadine and Josepha were both aged twenty when they first met," the extradesman went on, "the

Baron had been playing the part of Louis XV. to Mademoiselle de Romans ever since 1826, and you were

"That falsehood, madame, will surely be enough to wipe out every sin you have ever committed, and to open

to you the gates of Paradise," replied Crevel, with a knowing air that brought the color to the Baroness'

cheeks. "Sublime and adored woman, tell that to those who will believe it, but not to old Crevel, who has, I

may tell you, feasted too often as one of four with your rascally husband not to know what your high merits

are! Many a time has he blamed himself when half tipsy as he has expatiated on your perfections. Oh, I know

you well!A libertine might hesitate between you and a girl of twenty. I do not hesitate"

"Well, I say no more. But you must know, saintly and noble woman, that a husband under certain

circumstances will tell things about his wife to his mistress that will mightily amuse her."

Tears of shame hanging to Madame Hulot's long lashes checked the National Guardsman. He stopped short,

"To proceed," said he. "We became intimate, the Baron and I, through the two hussies. The Baron, like all

bad lots, is very pleasant, a thoroughly jolly good fellow. Yes, he took my fancy, the old rascal. He could be

so funny!Well, enough of those reminiscences. We got to be like brothers. The scoundrelquite Regency

in his notionstried indeed to deprave me altogether, preached SaintSimonism as to women, and all sorts

of lordly ideas; but, you see, I was fond enough of my girl to have married her, only I was afraid of having

"Then between two old daddies, such friends asas we were, what more natural than that we should think of

our children marrying each other? Three months after his son had married my Celestine, HulotI don't

know how I can utter the wretch's name! he has cheated us both, madame well, the villain did me out of

my little Josepha. The scoundrel knew that he was supplanted in the heart of Jenny Cadine by a young lawyer

and by an artistonly two of them!for the girl had more and more of a howling success, and he stole my

sweet little girl, a perfect darlingbut you must have seen her at the opera; he got her an engagement there.

Your husband is not so well behaved as I am. I am ruled as straight as a sheet of musicpaper. He had

dropped a good deal of money on Jenny Cadine, who must have cost him near on thirty thousand francs a

year. Well, I can only tell you that he is ruining himself outright for Josepha.

"Josepha, madame, is a Jewess. Her name is Mirah, the anagram of Hiram, an Israelite mark that stamps her,

for she was a foundling picked up in Germany, and the inquiries I have made prove that she is the illegitimate

child of a rich Jew banker. The life of the theatre, and, above all, the teaching of Jenny Cadine, Madame

Schontz, Malaga, and Carabine, as to the way to treat an old man, have developed, in the child whom I had

kept in a respectable and not too expensive way of life, all the native Hebrew instinct for gold and

"So this famous singer, hungering for plunder, now wants to be rich, very rich. She tried her 'prentice hand on

Baron Hulot, and soon plucked him bareplucked him, ay, and singed him to the skin. The miserable man,

after trying to vie with one of the Kellers and with the Marquis d'Esgrignon, both perfectly mad about

Josepha, to say nothing of unknown worshipers, is about to see her carried off by that very rich Duke, who is

such a patron of the arts. Oh, what is his name?a dwarf.Ah, the Duc d'Herouville. This fine gentleman

insists on having Josepha for his very own, and all that set are talking about it; the Baron knows nothing of it

as yet; for it is the same in the Thirteenth Arrondissement as in every other: the lover, like the husband, is last

"Now, do you understand my claim? Your husband, dear lady, has robbed me of my joy in life, the only

happiness I have known since I became a widower. Yes, if I had not been so unlucky as to come across that

old rip, Josepha would still be mine; for I, you know, should never have placed her on the stage. She would

have lived obscure, well conducted, and mine. Oh! if you could but have seen her eight years ago, slight and

wiry, with the golden skin of an Andalusian, as they say, black hair as shiny as satin, an eye that flashed

lightning under long brown lashes, the style of a duchess in every movement, the modesty of a dependent,

decent grace, and the pretty ways of a wild fawn. And by that Hulot's doing all this charm and purity has been

degraded to a mantrap, a moneybox for fivefranc pieces! The girl is the Queen of Trollops; and nowadays

At this stage the retired perfumer wiped his eyes, which were full of tears. The sincerity of his grief touched

"Tell me, madame, is a man of fiftytwo likely to find such another jewel? At my age love costs thirty

thousand francs a year. It is through your husband's experience that I know the price, and I love Celestine too

truly to be her ruin. When I saw you, at the first evening party you gave in our honor, I wondered how that

scoundrel Hulot could keep a Jenny Cadineyou had the manner of an Empress. You do not look thirty," he

went on. "To me, madame, you look young, and you are beautiful. On my word of honor, that evening I was

struck to the heart. I said to myself, 'If I had not Josepha, since old Hulot neglects his wife, she would fit me

like a glove.' Forgive meit is a reminiscence of my old business. The perfumer will crop up now and then,

"And then, when I was so abominably deceived by the Baron, for really between old rips like us our friend's

mistress should be sacred, I swore I would have his wife. It is but justice. The Baron could say nothing; we

are certain of impunity. You showed me the door like a mangy dog at the first words I uttered as to the state

of my feelings; you only made my passionmy obstinacy, if you willtwice as strong, and you shall be

"I do not know; but it will come to pass. You see, madame, an idiot of a perfumerretired from

businesswho has but one idea in his head, is stronger than a clever fellow who has a thousand. I am smitten

with you, and you are the means of my revenge; it is like being in love twice over. I am speaking to you quite

frankly, as a man who knows what he means. I speak coldly to you, just as you do to me, when you say, 'I

never will be yours,' In fact, as they say, I play the game with the cards on the table. Yes, you shall be mine,

sooner or later; if you were fifty, you should still be my mistress. And it will be; for I expect anything from

Madame Hulot looked at this vulgar intriguer with such a fixed stare of terror, that he thought she had gone

"You insisted on it, you heaped me with scorn, you defied meand I have spoken," said he, feeling that he

"Oh, my daughter, my daughter," moaned the Baroness in a voice like a dying woman's.

"Oh! I have forgotten all else," Crevel went on. "The day when I was robbed of Josepha I was like a tigress

robbed of her cubs; in short, as you see me now.Your daughter? Yes, I regard her as the means of winning

you. Yes, I put a spoke in her marriageand you will not get her married without my help! Handsome as

"Well, just ask your husband for ten thousand francs," said Crevel, striking his attitude once more. He waited

"If he had the money, he would give it to the woman who will take Josepha's place," he went on, emphasizing

his tones. "Does a man ever pull up on the road he has taken? In the first place, he is too sweet on women.

There is a happy medium in all things, as our King has told us. And then his vanity is implicated! He is a

handsome man!He would bring you all to ruin for his pleasure; in fact, you are already on the highroad to

the workhouse. Why, look, never since I set foot in your house have you been able to do up your

drawingroom furniture. 'Hard up' is the word shouted by every slit in the stuff. Where will you find a

soninlaw who would not turn his back in horror of the illconcealed evidence of the most cruel misery

there isthat of people in decent society? I have kept shop, and I know. There is no eye so quick as that of

the Paris tradesman to detect real wealth from its sham.You have no money," he said, in a lower voice. "It

"Would you like me to disclose any more hideous mysteries that are kept from you?"

"Monsieur," cried Madame Hulot, whose handkerchief was wet through with her tears, "enough, enough!"

"My soninlaw, I tell you, gives his father money, and this is what I particularly wanted to come to when I

began by speaking of your son's expenses. But I keep an eye on my daughter's interests, be easy."

"Oh, if I could but see my daughter married, and die!" cried the poor woman, quite losing her head.

Madame Hulot looked at Crevel with a hopeful expression, which so completely changed her countenance,

that this alone ought to have touched the man's feelings and have led him to abandon his monstrous schemes.

"You will still be handsome ten years hence," Crevel went on, with his arms folded; "be kind to me, and

Mademoiselle Hulot will marry. Hulot has given me the right, as I have explained to you, to put the matter

crudely, and he will not be angry. In three years I have saved the interest on my capital, for my dissipations

have been restricted. I have three hundred thousand francs in the bank over and above my invested

"Go," said Madame Hulot. "Go, monsieur, and never let me see you again. But for the necessity in which you

placed me to learn the secret of your cowardly conduct with regard to the match I had planned for

Hortenseyes, cowardly!" she repeated, in answer to a gesture from Crevel. "How can you load a poor girl,

a pretty, innocent creature, with such a weight of enmity? But for the necessity that goaded me as a mother,

you would never have spoken to me again, never again have come within my doors. Thirtytwo years of an

honorable and loyal life shall not be swept away by a blow from Monsieur Crevel"

"The retired perfumer, successor to Cesar Birotteau at the Queen of the Roses, Rue SaintHonore," added

Crevel, in mocking tones. "Deputymayor, captain in the National Guard, Chevalier of the Legion of

"Monsieur," said the Baroness, "if, after twenty years of constancy, Monsieur Hulot is tired of his wife, that is

nobody's concern but mine. As you see, he has kept his infidelity a mystery, for I did not know that he had

"Oh, it has cost him a pretty penny, madame. His singingbird has cost him more than a hundred thousand

"Have done with all this, Monsieur Crevel. I will not, for your sake, forego the happiness a mother knows

who can embrace her children without a single pang of remorse in her heart, who sees herself respected and

"Amen!" exclaimed Crevel, with the diabolical rage that embitters the face of these pretenders when they fail

for the second time in such an attempt. "You do not yet know the latter end of povertyshame, disgrace.I

have tried to warn you; I would have saved you, you and your daughter. Well, you must study the modern

parable of the Prodigal Father from A to Z. Your tears and your pride move me deeply," said Crevel, seating

himself, "for it is frightful to see the woman one loves weeping. All I can promise you, dear Adeline, is to do

nothing against your interests or your husband's. Only never send to me for information. That is all."

Up to now the Baroness had bravely faced the threefold torment which this explanation inflicted on her; for

she was wounded as a woman, as a mother, and as a wife. In fact, so long as her son's fatherinlaw was

insolent and offensive, she had found the strength in her resistance to the aggressive tradesman; but the sort

of goodnature he showed, in spite of his exasperation as a mortified adorer and as a humiliated National

Guardsman, broke down her nerve, strung to the point of snapping. She wrung her hands, melted into tears,

and was in a state of such helpless dejection, that she allowed Crevel to kneel at her feet, kissing her hands.

"Good God! what will become of us!" she went on, wiping away her tears. "Can a mother sit still and see her

child pine away before her eyes? What is to be the fate of that splendid creature, as strong in her pure life

under her mother's care as she is by every gift of nature? There are days when she wanders round the garden,

"Must I place her in a convent?" asked the Baroness. "But in such cases religion is impotent to subdue nature,

and the most piously trained girls lose their head!Get up, pray, monsieur; do you not understand that

everything is final between us? that I look upon you with horror? that you have crushed a mother's last

Madame Hulot looked at Crevel with a frenzied expression that really touched him. But he drove pity back to

Virtue is always a little too rigid; it overlooks the shades and instincts by help of which we are able to tack

"So handsome a girl as Mademoiselle Hortense does not find a husband nowadays if she is penniless," Crevel

remarked, resuming his starchiest manner. "Your daughter is one of those beauties who rather alarm

intending husbands; like a thoroughbred horse, which is too expensive to keep up to find a ready purchaser. If

you go out walking with such a woman on your arm, every one will turn to look at you, and follow and covet

his neighbor's wife. Such success is a source of much uneasiness to men who do not want to be killing lovers;

for, after all, no man kills more than one. In the position in which you find yourself there are just three ways

of getting your daughter married: Either by my helpand you will have none of it! That is one.Or by

finding some old man of sixty, very rich, childless, and anxious to have children; that is difficult, still such

men are to be met with. Many old men take up with a Josepha, a Jenny Cadine, why should not one be found

who is ready to make a fool of himself under legal formalities? If it were not for Celestine and our two

grandchildren, I would marry Hortense myself. That is two.The last way is the easiest"

"Paris is a town whither every man of energyand they sprout like saplings on French soilcomes to meet

his kind; talent swarms here without hearth or home, and energy equal to anything, even to making a fortune.

Well, these youngstersyour humble servant was such a one in his time, and how many he has known!

What had du Tillet or Popinot twenty years since? They were both pottering round in Daddy Birotteau's shop,

with not a penny of capital but their determination to get on, which, in my opinion, is the best capital a man

can have. Money may be eaten through, but you don't eat through your determination. Why, what had I? The

will to get on, and plenty of pluck. At this day du Tillet is a match for the greatest folks; little Popinot, the

richest druggist of the Rue des Lombards, became a deputy, now he is in office.Well, one of these free

lances, as we say on the stock market, of the pen, or of the brush, is the only man in Paris who would marry a

penniless beauty, for they have courage enough for anything. Monsieur Popinot married Mademoiselle

Birotteau without asking for a farthing. Those men are madmen, to be sure! They trust in love as they trust in

good luck and brains!Find a man of energy who will fall in love with your daughter, and he will marry

without a thought of money. You must confess that by way of an enemy I am not ungenerous, for this advice

"Oh, Monsieur Crevel, if you would indeed be my friend and give up your ridiculous notions"

"Ridiculous? Madame, do not run yourself down. Look at yourselfI love you, and you will come to be

mine. The day will come when I shall say to Hulot, 'You took Josepha, I have taken your wife!'

"It is the old law of titfortat! And I will persevere till I have attained my end, unless you should become

extremely ugly.I shall succeed; and I will tell you why," he went on, resuming his attitude, and looking at

Madame Hulot. "You will not meet with such an old man, or such a young lover," he said after a pause,

"because you love your daughter too well to hand her over to the manoeuvres of an old libertine, and because

youthe Baronne Hulot, sister of the old LieutenantGeneral who commanded the veteran Grenadiers of the

Old Guardwill not condescend to take a man of spirit wherever you may find him; for he might be a mere

craftsman, as many a millionaire of today was ten years ago, a working artisan, or the foreman of a factory.

"And then, when you see the girl, urged by her twenty years, capable of dishonoring you all, you will say to

yourself, 'It will be better that I should fall! If Monsieur Crevel will but keep my secret, I will earn my

daughter's portiontwo hundred thousand francs for ten years' attachment to that old glovesellerold

Crevel!'I disgust you no doubt, and what I am saying is horribly immoral, you think? But if you happened

to have been bitten by an overwhelming passion, you would find a thousand arguments in favor of

yieldingas women do when they are in love.Yes, and Hortense's interests will suggest to your feelings

"What! Old Fischer? He is winding up his concerns, and that again is the Baron's fault; his rake is dragged

"Oh, madame, your husband has already made thin air of the old General's savings. He spent them in

"Goodbye, monsieur. A man easily gets over a passion for a woman of my age, and you will fall back on

The Baroness rose to oblige the captain to retreat, and drove him back into the drawingroom.

"Ought the beautiful Madame Hulot to be living amid such squalor?" said he, and he pointed to an old lamp,

a chandelier bereft of its gilding, the threadbare carpet, the very rags of wealth which made the large room,

"Monsieur, virtue shines on it all. I have no wish to owe a handsome abode to having made of the beauty you

The captain bit his lips as he recognized the words he had used to vilify Josepha's avarice.

"And for whom are you so magnanimous?" said he. By this time the baroness had got her rejected admirer as

far as the door."For a libertine!" said he, with a lofty grimace of virtue and superior wealth.

After bowing to the officer as a woman bows to dismiss an importune visitor, she turned away too quickly to

see him once more fold his arms. She unlocked the doors she had closed, and did not see the threatening

gesture which was Crevel's parting greeting. She walked with a proud, defiant step, like a martyr to the

Coliseum, but her strength was exhausted; she sank on the sofa in her blue room, as if she were ready to faint,

and sat there with her eyes fixed on the tumbledown summerhouse, where her daughter was gossiping with

From the first days of her married life to the present time the Baroness had loved her husband, as Josephine in

the end had loved Napoleon, with an admiring, maternal, and cowardly devotion. Though ignorant of the

details given her by Crevel, she knew that for twenty years past Baron Hulot been anything rather than a

faithful husband; but she had sealed her eyes with lead, she had wept in silence, and no word of reproach had

ever escaped her. In return for this angelic sweetness, she had won her husband's veneration and something

A wife's affection for her husband and the respect she pays him are infectious in a family. Hortense believed

her father to be a perfect model of conjugal affection; as to their son, brought up to admire the Baron, whom

everybody regarded as one of the giants who so effectually backed Napoleon, he knew that he owed his

advancement to his father's name, position, and credit; and besides, the impressions of childhood exert an

enduring influence. He still was afraid of his father; and if he had suspected the misdeeds revealed by Crevel,

as he was too much overawed by him to find fault, he would have found excuses in the view every man takes

It now will be necessary to give the reasons for the extraordinary selfdevotion of a good and beautiful

Three brothers, simple laboring men, named Fischer, and living in a village situated on the furthest frontier of

Lorraine, were compelled by the Republican conscription to set out with the socalled army of the Rhine.

In 1799 the second brother, Andre, a widower, and Madame Hulot's father, left his daughter to the care of his

elder brother, Pierre Fischer, disabled from service by a wound received in 1797, and made a small private

venture in the military transport service, an opening he owed to the favor of Hulot d'Ervy, who was high in

the commissariat. By a very obvious chance Hulot, coming to Strasbourg, saw the Fischer family. Adeline's

father and his younger brother were at that time contractors for forage in the province of Alsace.

Adeline, then sixteen years of age, might be compared with the famous Madame du Barry, like her, a

daughter of Lorraine. She was one of those perfect and striking beautiesa woman like Madame Tallien,

finished with peculiar care by Nature, who bestows on them all her choicest giftsdistinction, dignity, grace,

refinement, elegance, flesh of a superior texture, and a complexion mingled in the unknown laboratory where

good luck presides. These beautiful creatures all have something in common: Bianca Capella, whose portrait

is one of Bronzino's masterpieces; Jean Goujon's Venus, painted from the famous Diane de Poitiers; Signora

Olympia, whose picture adorns the Doria gallery; Ninon, Madame du Barry, Madame Tallien, Mademoiselle

Georges, Madame Recamier.all these women who preserved their beauty in spite of years, of passion, and

of their life of excess and pleasure, have in figure, frame, and in the character of their beauty certain striking

resemblances, enough to make one believe that there is in the ocean of generations an Aphrodisian current

Adeline Fischer, one of the loveliest of this race of goddesses, had the splendid type, the flowing lines, the

exquisite texture of a woman born a queen. The fair hair that our mother Eve received from the hand of God,

the form of an Empress, an air of grandeur, and an august line of profile, with her rural modesty, made every

man pause in delight as she passed, like amateurs in front of a Raphael; in short, having once seen her, the

Commissariat officer made Mademoiselle Adeline Fischer his wife as quickly as the law would permit, to the

great astonishment of the Fischers, who had all been brought up in the fear of their betters.

The eldest, a soldier of 1792, severely wounded in the attack on the lines at Wissembourg, adored the

Emperor Napoleon and everything that had to do with the Grande Armee. Andre and Johann spoke with

respect of Commissary Hulot, the Emperor's protege, to whom indeed they owed their prosperity; for Hulot

d'Ervy, finding them intelligent and honest, had taken them from the army provision wagons to place them in

charge of a government contract needing despatch. The brothers Fischer had done further service during the

campaign of 1804. At the peace Hulot had secured for them the contract for forage from Alsace, not knowing

that he would presently be sent to Strasbourg to prepare for the campaign of 1806.

This marriage was like an Assumption to the young peasant girl. The beautiful Adeline was translated at once

from the mire of her village to the paradise of the Imperial Court; for the contractor, one of the most

conscientious and hardworking of the Commissariat staff, was made a Baron, obtained a place near the

Emperor, and was attached to the Imperial Guard. The handsome rustic bravely set to work to educate herself

for love of her husband, for she was simply crazy about him; and, indeed, the Commissariat office was as a

man a perfect match for Adeline as a woman. He was one of the picked corps of fine men. Tall, wellbuilt,

fair, with beautiful blue eyes full of irresistible fire and life, his elegant appearance made him remarkable by

the side of d'Orsay, Forbin, Ouvrard; in short, in the battalion of fine men that surrounded the Emperor. A

conquering "buck," and holding the ideas of the Directoire with regard to women, his career of gallantry was

To Adeline the Baron was from the first a sort of god who could do no wrong. To him she owed everything:

fortuneshe had a carriage, a fine house, every luxury of the day; happinesshe was devoted to her in the

face of the world; a title, for she was a Baroness; fame, for she was spoken of as the beautiful Madame

Hulotand in Paris! Finally, she had the honor of refusing the Emperor's advances, for Napoleon made her a

present of a diamond necklace, and always remembered her, asking now and again, "And is the beautiful

Madame Hulot still a model of virtue?" in the tone of a man who might have taken his revenge on one who

So it needs no great intuition to discern what were the motives in a simple, guileless, and noble soul for the

fanaticism of Madame Hulot's love. Having fully persuaded herself that her husband could do her no wrong,

she made herself in the depths of her heart the humble, abject, and blindfold slave of the man who had made

her. It must be noted, too, that she was gifted with great good sensethe good sense of the people, which

made her education sound. In society she spoke little, and never spoke evil of any one; she did not try to

shine; she thought out many things, listened well, and formed herself on the model of the bestconducted

In 1815 Hulot followed the lead of the Prince de Wissembourg, his intimate friend, and became one of the

officers who organized the improvised troops whose rout brought the Napoleonic cycle to a close at

Waterloo. In 1816 the Baron was one of the men best hated by the Feltre administration, and was not

reinstated in the Commissariat till 1823, when he was needed for the Spanish war. In 1830 he took office as

the fourth wheel of the coach, at the time of the levies, a sort of conscription made by Louis Philippe on the

old Napoleonic soldiery. From the time when the younger branch ascended the throne, having taken an active

part in bringing that about, he was regarded as an indispensable authority at the War Office. He had already

won his Marshal's baton, and the King could do no more for him unless by making him minister or a peer of

From 1818 till 1823, having no official occupation, Baron Hulot had gone on active service to womankind.

Madame Hulot dated her Hector's first infidelities from the grand finale of the Empire. Thus, for twelve years

the Baroness had filled the part in her household of prima donna assoluta, without a rival. She still could

boast of the oldfashioned, inveterate affection which husbands feel for wives who are resigned to be gentle

and virtuous helpmates; she knew that if she had a rival, that rival would not subsist for two hours under a

word of reproof from herself; but she shut her eyes, she stopped her ears, she would know nothing of her

husband's proceedings outside his home. In short, she treated her Hector as a mother treats a spoilt child.

Three years before the conversation reported above, Hortense, at the Theatre des Varietes, had recognized her

She too had seen Jenny Cadine; but instead of feeling a pang when she saw how pretty she was, she said to

She suffered nevertheless; she gave herself up in secret to rages of torment; but as soon as she saw Hector,

she always remembered her twelve years of perfect happiness, and could not find it in her to utter a word of

complaint. She would have been glad if the Baron would have taken her into his confidence; but she never

dared to let him see that she knew of his kicking over the traces, out of respect for her husband. Such an

excess of delicacy is never met with but in those grand creatures, daughters of the soil, whose instinct it is to

take blows without ever returning them; the blood of the early martyrs still lives in their veins. Wellborn

women, their husbands' equals, feel the impulse to annoy them, to mark the points of their tolerance, like

points at billiards, by some stinging word, partly in the spirit of diabolical malice, and to secure the upper

The Baroness had an ardent admirer in her brotherinlaw, Lieutenant General Hulot, the venerable

Colonel of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Infantry Guard, who was to have a Marshal's baton in his old age.

This veteran, after having served from 1830 to 1834 as Commandant of the military division, including the

departments of Brittany, the scene of his exploits in 1799 and 1800, had come to settle in Paris near his

This old soldier's heart was in sympathy with his sisterinlaw; he admired her as the noblest and saintliest

of her sex. He had never married, because he hoped to find a second Adeline, though he had vainly sought for

her through twenty campaigns in as many lands. To maintain her place in the esteem of this blameless and

spotless old republicanof whom Napoleon had said, "That brave old Hulot is the most obstinate republican,

but he will never be false to me"Adeline would have endured griefs even greater than those that had just

come upon her. But the old soldier, seventytwo years of age, battered by thirty campaigns, and wounded for

the twentyseventh time at Waterloo, was Adeline's admirer, and not a "protector." The poor old Count,

So long as Baron Hulot d'Ervy was a fine man, his flirtations did not damage his fortune; but when a man is

fifty, the Graces claim payment. At that age love becomes vice; insensate vanities come into play. Thus, at

about that time, Adeline saw that her husband was incredibly particular about his dress; he dyed his hair and

whiskers, and wore a belt and stays. He was determined to remain handsome at any cost. This care of his

person, a weakness he had once mercilessly mocked at, was carried out in the minutest details.

At last Adeline perceived that the Pactolus poured out before the Baron's mistresses had its source in her

pocket. In eight years he had dissipated a considerable amount of money; and so effectually, that, on his son's

marriage two years previously, the Baron had been compelled to explain to his wife that his pay constituted

"Be quite easy," said the official, "I will leave the whole of my salary in your hands, and I will make a fortune

The wife's deep belief in her husband's power and superior talents, in his capabilities and character, had, in

What the Baroness' reflections and tears were after Crevel's departure may now be clearly imagined. The

poor woman had for two years past known that she was at the bottom of a pit, but she had fancied herself

alone in it. How her son's marriage had been finally arranged she had not known; she had known nothing of

Hector's connection with the grasping Jewess; and, above all, she hoped that no one in the world knew

anything of her troubles. Now, if Crevel went about so ready to talk of the Baron's excesses, Hector's

reputation would suffer. She could see, under the angry experfumer's coarse harangue, the odious gossip

behind the scenes which led to her son's marriage. Two reprobate hussies had been the priestesses of this

union planned at some orgy amid the degrading familiarities of two tipsy old sinners.

"But he sees her every day; will he try to find her a husband among his goodfornothing sluts?"

At this moment it was the mother that spoke rather than the wife, for she saw Hortense laughing with her

Cousin Bettythe reckless laughter of heedless youth; and she knew that such hysterical laughter was quite

as distressing a symptom as the tearful reverie of solitary walks in the garden.

Hortense was like her mother, with golden hair that waved naturally, and was amazingly long and thick. Her

skin had the lustre of mother ofpearl. She was visibly the offspring of a true marriage, of a pure and noble

love in its prime. There was a passionate vitality in her countenance, a brilliancy of feature, a full fount of

youth, a fresh vigor and abundance of health, which radiated from her with electric flashes. Hortense invited

When her eye, of deep ultramarine blue, liquid with the moisture of innocent youth, rested on a passerby, he

was involuntarily thrilled. Nor did a single freckle mar her skin, such as those with which many a white and

golden maid pays toll for her milky whiteness. Tall, round without being fat, with a slender dignity as noble

as her mother's, she really deserved the name of goddess, of which old authors were so lavish. In fact, those

who saw Hortense in the street could hardly restrain the exclamation, "What a beautiful girl!"

"What do they mean, mamma, by calling me a beautiful girl when I am with you? Are not you much

And, in point of fact, at sevenandforty the Baroness might have been preferred to her daughter by amateurs

of sunset beauty; for she had not yet lost any of her charms, by one of those phenomena which are especially

rare in Paris, where Ninon was regarded as scandalous, simply because she thus seemed to enjoy such an

Thinking of her daughter brought her back to the father; she saw him sinking by degrees, day after day, down

to the social mire, and even dismissed some day from his appointment. The idea of her idol's fall, with a

vague vision of the disasters prophesied by Crevel, was such a terror to the poor woman, that she became rapt

Cousin Betty, from time to time, as she chatted with Hortense, looked round to see when they might return to

the drawingroom; but her young cousin was pelting her with questions, and at the moment when the

Lisbeth Fischer, though the daughter of the eldest of the three brothers, was five years younger than Madame

Hulot; she was far from being as handsome as her cousin, and had been desperately jealous of Adeline.

Jealousy was the fundamental passion of this character, marked by eccentricitiesa word invented by the

English to describe the craziness not of the asylum, but of respectable households. A native of the Vosges, a

peasant in the fullest sense of the word, lean, brown, with shining black hair and thick eyebrows joining in a

tuft, with long, strong arms, thick feet, and some moles on her narrow simian facesuch is a brief

The family, living all under one roof, had sacrificed the common looking girl to the beauty, the bitter fruit to

the splendid flower. Lisbeth worked in the fields, while her cousin was indulged; and one day, when they

were alone together, she had tried to destroy Adeline's nose, a truly Greek nose, which the old mothers

admired. Though she was beaten for this misdeed, she persisted nevertheless in tearing the favorite's gowns

At the time of Adeline's wonderful marriage, Lisbeth had bowed to fate, as Napoleon's brothers and sisters

Adeline, who was extremely sweet and kind, remembered Lisbeth when she found herself in Paris, and

invited her there in 1809, intending to rescue her from poverty by finding her a husband. But seeing that it

was impossible to marry the girl out of hand, with her black eyes and sooty brows, unable, too, to read or

write, the Baron began by apprenticing her to a business; he placed her as a learner with the embroiderers to

Lisbeth, called Betty for short, having learned to embroider in gold and silver, and possessing all the energy

of a mountain race, had determination enough to learn to read, write, and keep accounts; for her cousin the

Baron had pointed out the necessity for these accomplishments if she hoped to set up in business as an

She was bent on making a fortune; in two years she was another creature. In 1811 the peasant woman had

Her department, that of gold and silver lacework, as it is called, included epaulettes, swordknots,

aiguillettes; in short, the immense mass of glittering ornaments that sparkled on the rich uniforms of the

French army and civil officials. The Emperor, a true Italian in his love of dress, had overlaid the coats of all

his servants with silver and gold, and the Empire included a hundred and thirtythree Departments. These

ornaments, usually supplied to tailors who were solvent and wealthy paymasters, were a very secure branch

Just when Cousin Betty, the best hand in the house of Pons Brothers, where she was forewoman of the

embroidery department, might have set up in business on her own account, the Empire collapsed. The olive

branch of peace held out by the Bourbons did not reassure Lisbeth; she feared a diminution of this branch of

trade, since henceforth there were to be but eightysix Departments to plunder, instead of a hundred and

thirtythree, to say nothing of the immense reduction of the army. Utterly scared by the ups and downs of

industry, she refused the Baron's offers of help, and he thought she must be mad. She confirmed this opinion

by quarreling with Monsieur Rivet, who bought the business of Pons Brothers, and with whom the Baron

wished to place her in partnership; she would be no more than a workwoman. Thus the Fischer family had

The three brothers Fischer, who had been ruined by the abdication at Fontainebleau, in despair joined the

irregular troops in 1815. The eldest, Lisbeth's father, was killed. Adeline's father, sentenced to death by

courtmartial, fled to Germany, and died at Treves in 1820. Johann, the youngest, came to Paris, a petitioner

to the queen of the family, who was said to dine off gold and silver plate, and never to be seen at a party but

Johann Fischer, then aged fortythree, obtained from Baron Hulot a capital of ten thousand francs with which

to start a small business as foragedealer at Versailles, under the patronage of the War Office, through the

These family catastrophes, Baron Hulot's dismissal, and the knowledge that he was a mere cipher in that

immense stir of men and interests and things which makes Paris at once a paradise and a hell, quite quelled

Lisbeth Fischer. She gave up all idea of rivalry and comparison with her cousin after feeling her great

superiority; but envy still lurked in her heart, like a plaguegerm that may hatch and devastate a city if the

"Adeline and I are the same flesh and blood, our fathers were brothers and she is in a mansion, while I am

But every New Year Lisbeth had presents from the Baron and Baroness; the Baron, who was always good to

her, paid for her firewood in the winter; old General Hulot had her to dinner once a week; and there was

always a cover laid for her at her cousin's table. They laughed at her no doubt, but they never were ashamed

to own her. In short, they had made her independent in Paris, where she lived as she pleased.

The old maid had, in fact, a terror of any kind of tie. Her cousin had offered her a room in her own

houseLisbeth suspected the halter of domestic servitude; several times the Baron had found a solution of

the difficult problem of her marriage; but though tempted in the first instance, she would presently decline,

fearing lest she should be scorned for her want of education, her general ignorance, and her poverty; finally,

when the Baroness suggested that she should live with their uncle Johann, and keep house for him, instead of

the upper servant, who must cost him dear, Lisbeth replied that that was the very last way she should think of

Lisbeth Fischer had the sort of strangeness in her ideas which is often noticeable in characters that have

developed late, in savages, who think much and speak little. Her peasant's wit had acquired a good deal of

Parisian asperity from hearing the talk of workshops and mixing with workmen and workwomen. She, whose

character had a marked resemblance to that of the Corsicans, worked upon without fruition by the instincts of

a strong nature, would have liked to be the protectress of a weak man; but, as a result of living in the capital,

the capital had altered her superficially. Parisian polish became rust on this coarsely tempered soul. Gifted

with a cunning which had become unfathomable, as it always does in those whose celibacy is genuine, with

the originality and sharpness with which she clothed her ideas, in any other position she would have been

formidable. Full of spite, she was capable of bringing discord into the most united family.

In early days, when she indulged in certain secret hopes which she confided to none, she took to wearing

stays, and dressing in the fashion, and so shone in splendor for a short time, that the Baron thought her

marriageable. Lisbeth at that stage was the piquante brunette of oldfashioned novels. Her piercing glance,

her olive skin, her reedlike figure, might invite a halfpay major; but she was satisfied, she would say

And, indeed, she found her life pleasant enough when she had freed it from practical anxieties, for she dined

out every evening after working hard from sunrise. Thus she had only her rent and her midday meal to

provide for; she had most of her clothes given her, and a variety of very acceptable stores, such as coffee,

In 1837, after living for twentyseven years, half maintained by the Hulots and her Uncle Fischer, Cousin

Betty, resigned to being nobody, allowed herself to be treated so. She herself refused to appear at any grand

dinners, preferring the family party, where she held her own and was spared all slights to her pride.

Wherever she wentat General Hulot's, at Crevel's, at the house of the young Hulots, or at Rivet's (Pons'

successor, with whom she made up her quarrel, and who made much of her), and at the Baroness' table she

was treated as one of the family; in fact, she managed to make friends of the servants by making them an

occasional small present, and always gossiping with them for a few minutes before going into the

drawingroom. This familiarity, by which she uncompromisingly put herself on their level, conciliated their

servile goodnature, which is indispensable to a parasite. "She is a good, steady woman," was everybody's

Her willingness to oblige, which knew no bounds when it was not demanded of her, was indeed, like her

assumed bluntness, a necessity of her position. She had at length understood what her life must be, seeing

that she was at everybody's mercy; and needing to please everybody, she would laugh with young people,

who liked her for a sort of wheedling flattery which always wins them; guessing and taking part with their

fancies, she would make herself their spokeswoman, and they thought her a delightful confidante, since she

Her absolute secrecy also won her the confidence of their seniors; for, like Ninon, she had certain manly

qualities. As a rule, our confidence is given to those below rather than above us. We employ our inferiors

rather than our betters in secret transactions, and they thus become the recipients of our inmost thoughts, and

look on at our meditations; Richelieu thought he had achieved success when he was admitted to the Council.

This penniless woman was supposed to be so dependent on every one about her, that she seemed doomed to

The Baroness only, remembering her illusage in childhood by the cousin who, though younger, was stronger

than herself, never wholly trusted her. Besides, out of sheer modesty, she would never have told her domestic

It may here be well to add that the Baron's house preserved all its magnificence in the eyes of Lisbeth

Fischer, who was not struck, as the parvenu perfumer had been, with the penury stamped on the shabby

chairs, the dirty hangings, and the ripped silk. The furniture we live with is in some sort like our own person;

seeing ourselves every day, we end, like the Baron, by thinking ourselves but little altered, and still youthful,

when others see that our head is covered with chinchilla, our forehead scarred with circumflex accents, our

stomach assuming the rotundity of a pumpkin. So these rooms, always blazing in Betty's eyes with the

As time went on, Lisbeth had contracted some rather strange old maidish habits. For instance, instead of

following the fashions, she expected the fashion to accept her ways and yield to her always out ofdate

notions. When the Baroness gave her a pretty new bonnet, or a gown in the fashion of the day, Betty remade

it completely at home, and spoilt it by producing a dress of the style of the Empire or of her old Lorraine

costume. A thirtyfranc bonnet came out a rag, and the gown a disgrace. On this point, Lisbeth was as

obstinate as a mule; she would please no one but herself and believed herself charming; whereas this

assimilative processharmonious, no doubt, in so far as that it stamped her for an old maid from head to

footmade her so ridiculous, that, with the best will in the world, no one could admit her on any smart

This refractory, capricious, and independent spirit, and the inexplicable wild shyness of the woman for whom

the Baron had four times found a matchan employe in his office, a retired major, an army contractor, and a

halfpay captainwhile she had refused an army lacemaker, who had since made his fortune, had won her

the name of the Nanny Goat, which the Baron gave her in jest. But this nickname only met the peculiarities

that lay on the surface, the eccentricities which each of us displays to his neighbors in social life. This

woman, who, if closely studied, would have shown the most savage traits of the peasant class, was still the

girl who had clawed her cousin's nose, and who, if she had not been trained to reason, would perhaps have

It was only her knowledge of the laws and of the world that enabled her to control the swift instinct with

which country folk, like wild men, reduce impulse to action. In this alone, perhaps, lies the difference

between natural and civilized man. The savage has only impulse; the civilized man has impulses and ideas.

And in the savage the brain retains, as we may say, but few impressions, it is wholly at the mercy of the

feeling that rushes in upon it; while in the civilized man, ideas sink into the heart and change it; he has a

thousand interests and many feelings, where the savage has but one at a time. This is the cause of the

transient ascendency of a child over its parents, which ceases as soon as it is satisfied; in the man who is still

one with nature, this contrast is constant. Cousin Betty, a savage of Lorraine, somewhat treacherous too, was

of this class of natures, which are commoner among the lower orders than is supposed, accounting for the

At the time when this Drama opens, if Cousin Betty would have allowed herself to be dressed like other

people; if, like the women of Paris, she had been accustomed to wear each fashion in its turn, she would have

been presentable and acceptable, but she preserved the stiffness of a stick. Now a woman devoid of all the

graces, in Paris simply does not exist. The fine but hard eyes, the severe features, the Calabrian fixity of

complexion which made Lisbeth like a figure by Giotto, and of which a true Parisian would have taken

advantage, above all, her strange way of dressing, gave her such an extraordinary appearance that she

sometimes looked like one of those monkeys in petticoats taken about by little Savoyards. As she was well

known in the houses connected by family which she frequented, and restricted her social efforts to that little

circle, as she liked her own home, her singularities no longer astonished anybody; and out of doors they were

lost in the immense stir of Paris streetlife, where only pretty women are ever looked at.

Hortense's laughter was at this moment caused by a victory won over her Cousin Lisbeth's perversity; she had

just wrung from her an avowal she had been hoping for these three years past. However secretive an old maid

may be, there is one sentiment which will always avail to make her break her fast from words, and that is her

vanity. For the last three years, Hortense, having become very inquisitive on such matters, had pestered her

cousin with questions, which, however, bore the stamp of perfect innocence. She wanted to know why her

cousin had never married. Hortense, who knew of the five offers that she had refused, had constructed her

little romance; she supposed that Lisbeth had had a passionate attachment, and a war of banter was the result.

Hortense would talk of "We young girls!" when speaking of herself and her cousin.

Cousin Betty had on several occasions answered in the same tone"And who says I have not a lover?" So

Cousin Betty's lover, real or fictitious, became a subject of mild jesting. At last, after two years of this petty

warfare, the last time Lisbeth had come to the house Hortense's first question had been:

"Pretty well, thank you," was the answer. "He is rather ailing, poor young man."

"I should think so! He is fair. A sooty thing like me can love none but a fair man with a color like the moon."

"A prince of artisans, as I am queen of the bobbin. Is a poor woman like me likely to find a lover in a man

with a fine house and money in the funds, or in a duke of the realm, or some Prince Charming out of a fairy

"He must be some monster of an old clerk, with a goat's beard!" Hortense said to her mother.

"But if you have a lover, why don't you marry him, Lisbeth?" said the Baroness, shaking her head at her

daughter. "We have been hearing rumors about him these three years. You have had time to study him; and if

he has been faithful so long, you should not persist in a delay which must be hard upon him. After all, it is a

matter of conscience; and if he is young, it is time to take a brevet of dignity."

Cousin Betty had fixed her gaze on Adeline, and seeing that she was jesting, she replied:

"It would be marrying hunger and thirst; he is a workman, I am a workwoman. If we had children, they

"I believe you! I love him for his own sake, the dear cherub. For four years his home has been in my heart."

"Well, then, if you love him for himself," said the Baroness gravely, "and if he really exists, you are treating

Cousin Betty's head fell, and her glance would have made any one shiver who had seen it; but her eyes were

"If you would introduce your socalled lover to us, Hector might find him employment, or put him in a

"He has fought for Poland. He was a professor in the school where the students began the rebellion; and as he

"He was just fourandtwenty when the insurrection broke outhe is twentynine now."

"What a wonderful imagination you old maids have!" exclaimed the Baroness. "To hear you talk, Lisbeth,

"You see, mamma, he is a Pole, and so accustomed to the knout that Lisbeth reminds him of the joys of his

They all three laughed, and Hortense sang Wenceslas! idole de mon ame! instead of O Mathilde.

"These children," said Cousin Betty, looking at Hortense as she went up to her, "fancy that no one but

"Listen," Hortense replied, finding herself alone with her cousin, "if you prove to me that Wenceslas is not a

"He was his granduncle. His own father settled in Livonia after the death of the King of Sweden; but he lost

all his fortune during the campaign of 1812, and died, leaving the poor boy at the age of eight without a

penny. The Grand Duke Constantine, for the honor of the name of Steinbock, took him under his protection

"I will not break my word," Hortense replied; "prove his existence, and you shall have the yellow shawl. The

Cousin Betty, who, since her first arrival in Paris, had been bitten by a mania for shawls, was bewitched by

the idea of owning the yellow cashmere given to his wife by the Baron in 1808, and handed down from

mother to daughter after the manner of some families in 1830. The shawl had been a good deal worn ten

years ago; but the costly object, now always kept in its sandalwood box, seemed to the old maid ever new,

like the drawingroom furniture. So she brought in her handbag a present for the Baroness' birthday, by

This present was a silver seal formed of three little figures back to back, wreathed with foliage, and

supporting the Globe. They represented Faith, Hope, and Charity; their feet rested on monsters rending each

other, among them the symbolical serpent. In 1846, now that such immense strides have been made in the art

of which Benvenuto Cellini was the master, by Mademoiselle de Fauveau, Wagner, Jeanest,

FromentMeurice, and woodcarvers like Lienard, this little masterpiece would amaze nobody; but at that

time a girl who understood the silversmith's art stood astonished as she held the seal which Lisbeth put into

In design, attitude, and drapery the figures were of the school of Raphael; but the execution was in the style

of the Florentine metal workersthe school created by Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Benvenuto Cellini,

John of Bologna, and others. The French masters of the Renaissance had never invented more strangely

twining monsters than these that symbolized the evil passions. The palms, ferns, reeds, and foliage that

wreathed the Virtues showed a style, a taste, a handling that might have driven a practised craftsman to

despair; a scroll floated above the three figures; and on its surface, between the heads, were a W, a chamois,

"Well, just my lover," replied Lisbeth. "There are ten months' work in it; I could earn more at making

swordknots.He told me that Steinbock means a rock goat, a chamois, in German. And he intends to mark

"Do you suppose I could buy such a thing, or order it? Impossible! Well, then, it must have been given to me.

Hortense, with an artfulness that would have frightened Lisbeth Fischer if she had detected it, took care not to

express all her admiration, though she was full of the delight which every soul that is open to a sense of

"Yes, it is pretty," said her cousin; "but I like an orangecolored shawl better.Well, child, my lover spends

his time in doing such work as that. Since he came to Paris he has turned out three or four little trifles in that

style, and that is the fruit of four years' study and toil. He has served as apprentice to founders, metal

casters, and goldsmiths.There he has paid away thousands and hundreds of francs. And my gentleman tells

"He adores me," replied Lisbeth very seriously. "You see, child, he had never seen any women but the

washed out, pale things they all are in the north, and a slender, brown, youthful thing like me warmed his

"And he will fare like the five others," said the girl ironically, as she looked at the seal.

"Six others, miss. I left one in Lorraine, who, to this day, would fetch the moon down for me."

"Where can that be turned into money?" asked her cousin. "It takes wide lands to benefit by the sunshine."

These witticisms, fired in quick retort, and leading to the sort of giddy play that may be imagined, had given

cause for the laughter which had added to the Baroness' troubles by making her compare her daughter's future

lot with the present, when she was free to indulge the lightheartedness of youth.

"But to give you a gem which cost him six months of work, he must be under some great obligations to you?"

"Oh, you want to know too much at once!" said her cousin. "But, listen, I will let you into a little plot."

"Oh, ho! you want so much to see him! But, as you may suppose, an old maid like Cousin Betty, who had

managed to keep a lover for five years, keeps him well hidden.Now, just let me alone. You see, I have

neither cat nor canary, neither dog nor a parrot, and the old Nanny Goat wanted something to pet and

"As long as that," said Lisbeth, holding up her shuttle filled with gold thread. She always took her lacework

"If you ask too many questions, you will be told nothing," she went on. "You are but twoandtwenty, and

"My lover has finished a bronze group ten inches high," Lisbeth went on. "It represents Samson slaying a

lion, and he has kept it buried till it is so rusty that you might believe it to be as old as Samson himself. This

fine piece is shown at the shop of one of the old curiosity sellers on the Place du Carrousel, near my lodgings.

Now, your father knows Monsieur Popinot, the Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, and the Comte de

Rastignac, and if he would mention the group to them as a fine antique he had seen by chance! It seems that

such things take the fancy of your grand folks, who don't care so much about gold lace, and that my man's

fortune would be made if one of them would buy or even look at the wretched piece of metal. The poor

fellow is sure that it might be mistaken for old work, and that the rubbish is worth a great deal of money. And

then, if one of the ministers should purchase the group, he would go to pay his respects, and prove that he

was the maker, and be almost carried in triumph! Oh! he believes he has reached the pinnacle; poor young

"Michael Angelo over again; but, for a lover, he has kept his head on his shoulders!" said Hortense. "And

"Fifteen hundred francs. The dealer will not let it go for less, since he must take his commission."

"Papa is in the King's household just now," said Hortense. "He sees those two ministers every day at the

Chamber, and he will do the thing I undertake that. You will be a rich woman, Madame la Comtesse de

"No, the boy is too lazy; for whole weeks he sits twiddling with bits of red wax, and nothing comes of it.

Why, he spends all his days at the Louvre and the Library, looking at prints and sketching things. He is an

The cousins chatted and giggled; Hortense laughing a forced laugh, for she was invaded by a kind of love

which every girl has gone through the love of the unknown, love in its vaguest form, when every thought

is accreted round some form which is suggested by a chance word, as the efflorescence of hoarfrost gathers

For the past ten months she had made a reality of her cousin's imaginary romance, believing, like her mother,

that Lisbeth would never marry; and now, within a week, this visionary being had become Comte Wenceslas

Steinbock, the dream had a certificate of birth, the wraith had solidified into a young man of thirty. The seal

she held in her handa sort of Annunciation in which genius shone like an immanent lighthad the powers

of a talisman. Hortense felt such a surge of happiness, that she almost doubted whether the tale were true;

"But I think the drawingroom door is open," said Lisbeth; "let us go and see if Monsieur Crevel is gone."

"Mamma has been very much out of spirits these two days. I suppose the marriage under discussion has come

"Oh, it may come on again. He isI may tell you so mucha Councillor of the Supreme Court. How would

you like to be Madame la Presidente? If Monsieur Crevel has a finger in it, he will tell me about it if I ask

"Leave the seal with me," said Hortense; "I will not show itmamma's birthday is not for a month yet; I will

"But I will let papa see it, that he may know what he is talking about to the ministers, for men in authority

"Well, do not show it to your motherthat is all I ask; for if she believed I had a lover, she would make

The cousins reached the drawingroom just as the Baroness turned faint. Her daughter's cry of alarm recalled

her to herself. Lisbeth went off to fetch some salts. When she came back, she found the mother and daughter

"It was nothing; a little nervous attack.There is your father," she added, recognizing the Baron's way of

Adeline rose and went to meet her husband, intending to take him into the garden and talk to him till dinner

should be served of the difficulties about the proposed match, getting him to come to some decision as to the

Baron Hector Hulot came in, in a dress at once lawyerlike and Napoleonic, for Imperial menmen who

had been attached to the Emperor were easily distinguishable by their military deportment, their blue coats

with gilt buttons, buttoned to the chin, their black silk stock, and an authoritative demeanor acquired from a

habit of command in circumstances requiring despotic rapidity. There was nothing of the old man in the

Baron, it must be admitted; his sight was still so good, that he could read without spectacles; his handsome

oval face, framed in whiskers that were indeed too black, showed a brilliant complexion, ruddy with the veins

that characterize a sanguine temperament; and his stomach, kept in order by a belt, had not exceeded the

limits of "the majestic," as BrillatSavarin says. A fine aristocratic air and great affability served to conceal

the libertine with whom Crevel had had such high times. He was one of those men whose eyes always light

up at the sight of a pretty woman, even of such as merely pass by, never to be seen again.

"Have you been speaking, my dear?" asked Adeline, seeing him with an anxious brow.

"No," replied Hector, "but I am worn out with hearing others speak for two hours without coming to a vote.

They carry on a war of words, in which their speeches are like a cavalry charge which has no effect on the

enemy. Talk has taken the place of action, which goes very much against the grain with men who are

accustomed to marching orders, as I said to the Marshal when I left him. However, I have enough of being

bored on the ministers' bench; here I may play.How do, la Chevre! Good morning, little kid," and he

took his daughter round the neck, kissed her, and made her sit on his knee, resting her head on his shoulder,

"He is tired and worried," said his wife to herself. "I shall only worry him more.I will wait.Are you

"No, children. After dinner I must go out. If it had not been the day when Lisbeth and the children and my

The Baroness took up the newspaper, looked down the list of theatres, and laid it down again when she had

seen that Robert le Diable was to be given at the Opera. Josepha, who had left the Italian Opera six months

This little pantomime did not escape the Baron, who looked hard at his wife. Adeline cast down her eyes and

"Come, what is it, Adeline?" said he, putting his arm round her waist and pressing her to his side. "Do not

"Who put that into your head?" exclaimed the Baron, releasing his wife, and starting back a step or two.

"I got an anonymous letter, which I burnt at once, in which I was told, my dear, that the reason Hortense's

marriage was broken off was the poverty of our circumstances. Your wife, my dear Hector, would never have

said a word; she knew of your connection with Jenny Cadine, and did she ever complain?But as the

Hulot, after a short silence, which was terrible to his wife, whose heart beat loud enough to be heard, opened

his arms, clasped her to his heart, kissed her forehead, and said with the vehemence of enthusiasm:

"No, no," cried the Baroness, hastily laying her hand upon his lips to hinder him from speaking evil of

"Yes, for I have not at this moment a sou to give to Hortense, and I am most unhappy. But since you open

your heart to me, I may pour into it the trouble that is crushing me.Your Uncle Fischer is in difficulties,

and it is I who dragged him there, for he has accepted bills for me to the amount of twentyfive thousand

francs! And all for a woman who deceives me, who laughs at me behind my back, and calls me an old dyed

Tom. It is frightful! A vice which costs me more than it would to maintain a family!And I cannot

resist!I would promise you here and now never to see that abominable Jewess again; but if she wrote me

"Do not be so distressed," cried the poor woman in despair, but forgetting her daughter as she saw the tears in

"Your diamonds are worth scarcely twenty thousand francs nowadays. That would not be enough for old

This was all the scolding he got. Adeline sacrificed her jewels, the father made them a present to Hortense,

"He is the master; he could take everything, and he leaves me my diamonds; he is divine!"

This was the current of her thoughts; and indeed the wife had gained more by her sweetness than another

The moralist cannot deny that, as a rule, wellbred though very wicked men are far more attractive and

lovable than virtuous men; having crimes to atone for, they crave indulgence by anticipation, by being lenient

to the shortcomings of those who judge them, and they are thought most kind. Though there are no doubt

some charming people among the virtuous, Virtue considers itself fair enough, unadorned, to be at no pains to

please; and then all really virtuous persons, for the hypocrites do not count, have some slight doubts as to

their position; they believe that they are cheated in the bargain of life on the whole, and they indulge in acid

Hence the Baron, who accused himself of ruining his family, displayed all his charm of wit and his most

seductive graces for the benefit of his wife, for his children, and his Cousin Lisbeth.

Then, when his son arrived with Celestine, Crevel's daughter, who was nursing the infant Hulot, he was

delightful to his daughterinlaw, loading her with complimentsa treat to which Celestine's vanity was

little accustomed for no moneyed bride more commonplace or more utterly insignificant was ever seen. The

grandfather took the baby from her, kissed it, declared it was a beauty and a darling; he spoke to it in baby

language, prophesied that it would grow to be taller than himself, insinuated compliments for his son's

benefit, and restored the child to the Normandy nurse who had charge of it. Celestine, on her part, gave the

Baroness a look, as much as to say, "What a delightful man!" and she naturally took her fatherinlaw's part

After thus playing the charming fatherinlaw and the indulgent grandpapa, the Baron took his son into the

garden, and laid before him a variety of observations full of good sense as to the attitude to be taken up by the

Chamber on a certain ticklish question which had that morning come under discussion. The young lawyer

was struck with admiration for the depth of his father's insight, touched by his cordiality, and especially by

the deferential tone which seemed to place the two men on a footing of equality.

Monsieur Hulot junior was in every respect the young Frenchman, as he has been moulded by the Revolution

of 1830; his mind infatuated with politics, respectful of his own hopes, and concealing them under an

affectation of gravity, very envious of successful men, making sententiousness do the duty of witty

rejoindersthe gems of the French languagewith a high sense of importance, and mistaking arrogance for

Such men are walking coffins, each containing a Frenchman of the past; now and again the Frenchman wakes

up and kicks against his English made casing; but ambition stifles him, and he submits to be smothered. The

"Ah, here is my brother!" said Baron Hulot, going to meet the Count at the drawingroom door.

Having greeted the probable successor of the late Marshal Montcornet, he led him forward by the arm with

The older man, a member of the Chamber of Peers, but excused from attendance on account of his deafness,

had a handsome head, chilled by age, but with enough gray hair still to be marked in a circle by the pressure

of his hat. He was short, square, and shrunken, but carried his hale old age with a freeandeasy air; and as

he was full of excessive activity, which had now no purpose, he divided his time between reading and taking

exercise. In a drawingroom he devoted his attention to waiting on the wishes of the ladies.

"You are very merry here," said he, seeing that the Baron shed a spirit of animation on the little family

gathering. "And yet Hortense is not married," he added, noticing a trace of melancholy on his sisterinlaw's

"That will come all in good time," Lisbeth shouted in his ear in a formidable voice.

"So there you are, you wretched seedling that could never blossom," said he, laughing.

The hero of Forzheim rather liked Cousin Betty, for there were certain points of resemblance between them.

A man of the ranks, without any education, his courage had been the sole mainspring of his military

promotion, and sound sense had taken the place of brilliancy. Of the highest honor and cleanhanded, he was

ending a noble life in full contentment in the centre of his family, which claimed all his affections, and

without a suspicion of his brother's still undiscovered misconduct. No one enjoyed more than he the pleasing

sight of this family party, where there never was the smallest disagreement, for the brothers and sisters were

all equally attached, Celestine having been at once accepted as one of the family. But the worthy little Count

wondered now and then why Monsieur Crevel never joined the party. "Papa is in the country," Celestine

This perfect union of all her family made Madame Hulot say to herself, "This, after all, is the best kind of

The General, on seeing his favorite Adeline the object of her husband's attentions, laughed so much about it

that the Baron, fearing to seem ridiculous, transferred his gallantries to his daughterin law, who at these

family dinners was always the object of his flattery and kind care, for he hoped to win Crevel back through

Any one seeing this domestic scene would have found it hard to believe that the father was at his wits' end,

the mother in despair, the son anxious beyond words as to his father's future fate, and the daughter on the

At seven o'clock the Baron, seeing his brother, his son, the Baroness, and Hortense all engaged at whist, went

off to applaud his mistress at the Opera, taking with him Lisbeth Fischer, who lived in the Rue du Doyenne,

and who always made an excuse of the solitude of that deserted quarter to take herself off as soon as dinner

was over. Parisians will all admit that the old maid's prudence was but rational.

The existence of the maze of houses under the wing of the old Louvre is one of those protests against obvious

good sense which Frenchmen love, that Europe may reassure itself as to the quantum of brains they are

known to have, and not be too much alarmed. Perhaps without knowing it, this reveals some profound

It will surely not be a work of supererogation to describe this part of Paris as it is even now, when we could

hardly expect its survival; and our grandsons, who will no doubt see the Louvre finished, may refuse to

believe that such a relic of barbarism should have survived for sixandthirty years in the heart of Paris and

in the face of the palace where three dynasties of kings have received, during those thirtysix years, the elite

Between the little gate leading to the Bridge of the Carrousel and the Rue du Musee, every one having come

to Paris, were it but for a few days, must have seen a dozen of houses with a decayed frontage where the

dejected owners have attempted no repairs, the remains of an old block of buildings of which the destruction

was begun at the time when Napoleon determined to complete the Louvre. This street, and the blind alley

known as the Impasse du Doyenne, are the only passages into this gloomy and forsaken block, inhabited

perhaps by ghosts, for there never is anybody to be seen. The pavement is much below the footway of the

Rue du Musee, on a level with that of the Rue Froidmanteau. Thus, half sunken by the raising of the soil,

these houses are also wrapped in the perpetual shadow cast by the lofty buildings of the Louvre, darkened on

that side by the northern blast. Darkness, silence, an icy chill, and the cavernous depth of the soil combine to

make these houses a kind of crypt, tombs of the living. As we drive in a hackney cab past this deadalive

spot, and chance to look down the little Rue du Doyenne, a shudder freezes the soul, and we wonder who can

lie there, and what things may be done there at night, at an hour when the alley is a cutthroat pit, and the

vices of Paris run riot there under the cloak of night. This question, frightful in itself, becomes appalling

when we note that these dwellinghouses are shut in on the side towards the Rue de Richelieu by marshy

ground, by a sea of tumbled pavingstones between them and the Tuileries, by little gardenplots and

suspiciouslooking hovels on the side of the great galleries, and by a desert of buildingstone and old rubbish

on the side towards the old Louvre. Henri III. and his favorites in search of their trunkhose, and Marguerite's

lovers in search of their heads, must dance sarabands by moonlight in this wilderness overlooked by the roof

of a chapel still standing there as if to prove that the Catholic religionso deeply rooted in Francesurvives

For forty years now has the Louvre been crying out by every gap in these damaged walls, by every yawning

window, "Rid me of these warts upon my face!" This cutthroat lane has no doubt been regarded as useful, and

has been thought necessary as symbolizing in the heart of Paris the intimate connection between poverty and

the splendor that is characteristic of the queen of cities. And indeed these chill ruins, among which the

Legitimist newspaper contracted the disease it is dying ofthe abominable hovels of the Rue du Musee, and

the hoarding appropriated by the shop stalls that flourish therewill perhaps live longer and more

In 1823 the low rents in these already condemned houses had tempted Lisbeth Fischer to settle there,

notwithstanding the necessity imposed upon her by the state of the neighborhood to get home before

nightfall. This necessity, however, was in accordance with the country habits she retained, of rising and going

to bed with the sun, an arrangement which saves country folk considerable sums in lights and fuel. She lived

in one of the houses which, since the demolition of the famous Hotel Cambaceres, command a view of the

Just as Baron Hulot set his wife's cousin down at the door of this house, saying, "Goodnight, Cousin," an

elegantlooking woman, young, small, slender, pretty, beautifully dressed, and redolent of some delicate

perfume, passed between the wall and the carriage to go in. This lady, without any premeditation, glanced up

at the Baron merely to see the lodger's cousin, and the libertine at once felt the swift impression which all

Parisians know on meeting a pretty woman, realizing, as entomologists have it, their desiderata; so he waited

to put on one of his gloves with judicious deliberation before getting into the carriage again, to give himself

an excuse for allowing his eye to follow the young woman, whose skirts were pleasingly set out by

"That," said he to himself, "is a nice little person whose happiness I should like to provide for, as she would

When the unknown fair had gone into the hall at the foot of the stairs going up to the front rooms, she glanced

at the gate out of the corner of her eye without precisely looking round, and she could see the Baron riveted

to the spot in admiration, consumed by curiosity and desire. This is to every Parisian woman a sort of flower

which she smells at with delight, if she meets it on her way. Nay, certain women, though faithful to their

duties, pretty, and virtuous, come home much put out if they have failed to cull such a posy in the course of

The lady ran upstairs, and in a moment a window on the second floor was thrown open, and she appeared at

it, but accompanied by a man whose baldhead and somewhat scowling looks announced him as her husband.

"If they aren't sharp and ingenious, the cunning jades!" thought the Baron. "She does that to show me where

she lives. But this is getting rather warm, especially for this part of Paris. We must mind what we are at."

As he got into the milord, he looked up, and the lady and the husband hastily vanished, as though the Baron's

"It would seem that they know me," thought the Baron. "That would account for everything."

As the carriage went up the Rue du Musee, he leaned forward to see the lady again, and in fact she was again

at the window. Ashamed of being caught gazing at the hood under which her admirer was sitting, the

The sight of the Government official had, as will be seen, made a deep impression on this couple.

"Why, it is Baron Hulot, the chief of the department to which my office belongs!" exclaimed the husband as

"Well, Marneffe, the old maid on the third floor at the back of the courtyard, who lives with that young man,

is his cousin. Is it not odd that we should never have known that till today, and now find it out by chance?"

"Mademoiselle Fischer living with a young man?" repeated the husband. "That is porter's gossip; do not

speak so lightly of the cousin of a Councillor of State who can blow hot and cold in the office as he pleases.

Prettyvery prettyMadame Marneffe, the natural daughter of Comte Montcornet, one of Napoleon's most

famous officers, had, on the strength of a marriage portion of twenty thousand francs, found a husband in an

inferior official at the War Office. Through the interest of the famous lieutenantgeneralmade marshal of

France six months before his deaththis quilldriver had risen to unhopedfor dignity as headclerk of his

office; but just as he was to be promoted to be deputychief, the marshal's death had cut off Marneffe's

ambitions and his wife's at the root. The very small salary enjoyed by Sieur Marneffe had compelled the

couple to economize in the matter of rent; for in his hands Mademoiselle Valerie Fortin's fortune had already

melted awaypartly in paying his debts, and partly in the purchase of necessaries for furnishing a house, but

chiefly in gratifying the requirements of a pretty young wife, accustomed in her mother's house to luxuries

she did not choose to dispense with. The situation of the Rue du Doyenne, within easy distance of the War

Office, and the gay part of Paris, smiled on Monsieur and Madame Marneffe, and for the last four years they

Monsieur JeanPaulStanislas Marneffe was one of the class of employes who escape sheer brutishness by

the kind of power that comes of depravity. The small, lean creature, with thin hair and a starved beard, an

unwholesome pasty face, worn rather than wrinkled, with red lidded eyes harnessed with spectacles,

shuffling in his gait, and yet meaner in his appearance, realized the type of man that any one would conceive

The rooms inhabited by this couple had the illusory appearance of sham luxury seen in many Paris homes,

and typical of a certain class of household. In the drawingroom, the furniture covered with shabby cotton

velvet, the plaster statuettes pretending to be Florentine bronze, the clumsy cast chandelier merely lacquered,

with cheap glass saucers, the carpet, whose small cost was accounted for in advancing life by the quality of

cotton used in the manufacture, now visible to the naked eye,everything, down to the curtains, which

plainly showed that worsted damask has not three years of prime, proclaimed poverty as loudly as a beggar in

The diningroom, badly kept by a single servant, had the sickening aspect of a country inn; everything

Monsieur's room, very like a schoolboy's, furnished with the bed and fittings remaining from his bachelor

days, as shabby and worn as he was, dusted perhaps once a weekthat horrible room where everything was

in a litter, with old socks hanging over the horsehairseated chairs, the pattern outlined in dust, was that of a

man to whom home is a matter of indifference, who lives out of doors, gambling in cafes or elsewhere.

Madame's room was an exception to the squalid slovenliness that disgraced the living rooms, where the

curtains were yellow with smoke and dust, and where the child, evidently left to himself, littered every spot

with his toys. Valerie's room and dressingroom were situated in the part of the house which, on one side of

the courtyard, joined the front half, looking out on the street, to the wing forming the inner side of the court

backing against the adjoining property. Handsomely hung with chintz, furnished with rosewood, and thickly

carpeted, they proclaimed themselves as belonging to a pretty woman and indeed suggested the kept

mistress. A clock in the fashionable style stood on the velvetcovered mantelpiece. There was a nicely fitted

cabinet, and the Chinese flowerstands were handsomely filled. The bed, the toilettable, the wardrobe with

its mirror, the little sofa, and all the lady's frippery bore the stamp of fashion or caprice. Though everything

was quite thirdrate as to elegance or quality, and nothing was absolutely newer than three years old, a dandy

would have had no fault to find but that the taste of all this luxury was commonplace. Art, and the distinction

that comes of the choice of things that taste assimilates, was entirely wanting. A doctor of social science

would have detected a lover in two or three specimens of costly trumpery, which could only have come there

The dinner, four hours behind time, to which the husband, wife, and child sat down, betrayed the financial

straits in which the household found itself, for the table is the surest thermometer for gauging the income of a

Parisian family. Vegetable soup made with the water haricot beans had been boiled in, a piece of stewed veal

and potatoes sodden with water by way of gravy, a dish of haricot beans, and cheap cherries, served and eaten

in cracked plates and dishes, with the dulllooking and dullsounding forks of German silverwas this a

banquet worthy of this pretty young woman? The Baron would have wept could he have seen it. The dingy

decanters could not disguise the vile hue of wine bought by the pint at the nearest wineshop. The table

napkins had seen a week's use. In short, everything betrayed undignified penury, and the equal indifference of

the husband and wife to the decencies of home. The most superficial observer on seeing them would have

said that these two beings had come to the stage when the necessity of living had prepared them for any kind

of dishonor that might bring luck to them. Valerie's first words to her husband will explain the delay that had

"Samanon will only take your bills at fifty per cent, and insists on a lien on your salary as security."

So poverty, still unconfessed in the house of the superior official, and hidden under a stipend of twentyfour

thousand francs, irrespective of presents, had reached its lowest stage in that of the clerk.

"I rather think so," replied she, understanding the full meaning of his slang expression.

"What is to become of us?" Marneffe went on. "The landlord will be down on us tomorrow. And to think of

your father dying without making a will! On my honor, those men of the Empire all think themselves as

"Poor father!" said she. "I was his only child, and he was very fond of me. The Countess probably burned the

will. How could he forget me when he used to give us as much as three or four thousandfranc notes at once,

"We owe four quarters' rent, fifteen hundred francs. Is the furniture worth so much? That is the question, as

"Now, goodbye, ducky!" said Valerie, who had only eaten a few mouthfuls of the veal, from which the maid

had extracted all the gravy for a brave soldier just home from Algiers. "Great evils demand heroic remedies."

"Valerie, where are you off to?" cried Marneffe, standing between his wife and the door.

"I am going to see the landlord," she replied, arranging her ringlets under her smart bonnet. "You had better

The ignorance in which the dwellers under one roof can exist as to the social position of their fellowlodgers

is a permanent fact which, as much as any other, shows what the rush of Paris life is. Still, it is easily

conceivable that a clerk who goes early every morning to his office, comes home only to dinner, and spends

every evening out, and a woman swallowed up in a round of pleasures, should know nothing of an old maid

living on the third floor beyond the courtyard of the house they dwell in, especially when she lives as

Up in the morning before any one else, Lisbeth went out to buy her bread, milk, and live charcoal, never

speaking to any one, and she went to bed with the sun; she never had a letter or a visitor, nor chatted with her

neighbors. Here was one of those anonymous, entomological existences such as are to be met with in many

large tenements where, at the end of four years, you unexpectedly learn that up on the fourth floor there is an

old man lodging who knew Voltaire, Pilatre de Rozier, Beaujon, Marcel, Mole, Sophie Arnould, Franklin,

and Robespierre. What Monsieur and Madame Marneffe had just said concerning Lisbeth Fischer they had

come to know, in consequence, partly, of the loneliness of the neighborhood, and of the alliance, to which

their necessities had led, between them and the doorkeepers, whose goodwill was too important to them not

Now, the old maid's pride, silence, and reserve had engendered in the porter and his wife the exaggerated

respect and cold civility which betray the unconfessed annoyance of an inferior. Also, the porter thought

himself in all essentials the equal of any lodger whose rent was no more than two hundred and fifty francs.

Cousin Betty's confidences to Hortense were true; and it is evident that the porter's wife might be very likely

to slander Mademoiselle Fischer in her intimate gossip with the Marneffes, while only intending to tell tales.

When Lisbeth had taken her candle from the hands of worthy Madame Olivier the portress, she looked up to

see whether the windows of the garret over her own rooms were lighted up. At that hour, even in July, it was

so dark within the courtyard that the old maid could not get to bed without a light.

"Oh, you may be quite easy, Monsieur Steinbock is in his room. He has not been out even," said Madame

Lisbeth made no reply. She was still a peasant, in so far that she was indifferent to the gossip of persons

unconnected with her. Just as a peasant sees nothing beyond his village, she cared for nobody's opinion

outside the little circle in which she lived. So she boldly went up, not to her own room, but to the garret; and

this is why. At dessert she had filled her bag with fruit and sweets for her lover, and she went to give them to

She found the hero of Hortense's dreams working by the light of a small lamp, of which the light was

intensified by the use of a bottle of water as a lensa pale young man, seated at a workman's bench covered

with a modeler's tools, wax, chisels, roughhewn stone, and bronze castings; he wore a blouse, and had in his

hand a little group in red wax, which he gazed at like a poet absorbed in his labors.

"Here, Wenceslas, see what I have brought you," said she, laying her handkerchief on a corner of the table;

"It will do you good, poor boy. You get feverish by working so hard; you were not born to such a rough life."

"Eatcome, eat," said she sharply, "instead of looking at me as you do at one of your images when you are

On being thus smacked with words, the young man seemed less puzzled, for this, indeed, was the female

Mentor whose tender moods were always a surprise to him, so much more accustomed was he to be scolded.

Though Steinbock was nineandtwenty, like many fair men, he looked five or six years younger; and seeing

his youth, though its freshness had faded under the fatigue and stress of life in exile, by the side of that dry,

hard face, it seemed as though Nature had blundered in the distribution of sex. He rose and threw himself into

a deep chair of Louis XV. pattern, covered with yellow Utrecht velvet, as if to rest himself. The old maid

"What absurd notions you have!" she exclaimed with some annoyance. "Have you not had a good genius to

keep an eye on you?" she said, offering him the sweetmeats, and watching him with pleasure as he ate them

"I know," said he, with a look at Lisbeth that was at once affectionate and plaintive, "but for you I should

"Ah! there we come to the point!" cried she, interrupting him, her hands on her hips, and her flashing eyes

fixed on him. "You want to go wasting your health in the vile resorts of Paris, like so many artisans, who end

by dying in the workhouse. No, no, make a fortune, and then, when you have money in the funds, you may

amuse yourself, child; then you will have enough to pay for the doctor and for your pleasure, libertine that

Wenceslas Steinbock, on receiving this broadside, with an accompaniment of looks that pierced him like a

magnetic flame, bent his head. The most malignant slanderer on seeing this scene would at once have

understood that the hints thrown out by the Oliviers were false. Everything in this couple, their tone, manner,

and way of looking at each other, proved the purity of their private live. The old maid showed the affection of

rough but very genuine maternal feeling; the young man submitted, as a respectful son yields to the tyranny

of a mother. The strange alliance seemed to be the outcome of a strong will acting constantly on a weak

character, on the fluid nature peculiar to the Slavs, which, while it does not hinder them from showing heroic

courage in battle, gives them an amazing incoherency of conduct, a moral softness of which physiologists

ought to try to detect the causes, since physiologists are to political life what entomologists are to agriculture.

"Die!" cried she. "Oh, I will not let you die. I have life enough for both, and I would have my blood injected

"Do not be unhappy, my little Wenceslas," said Lisbeth with feeling. "My cousin Hortense thought your seal

quite pretty, I am sure; and I will manage to sell your bronze group, you will see; you will have paid me off,

you will be able to do as you please, you will soon be free. Come, smile a little!"

"And why not?" asked the peasant woman, taking the Livonian's part against herself.

"Because you not only fed me, lodged me, cared for me in my poverty, but you also gave me strength. You

have made me what I am; you have often been stern, you have made me very unhappy"

"I?" said the old maid. "Are you going to pour out all your nonsense once more about poetry and the arts, and

to crack your fingers and stretch your arms while you spout about the ideal, and beauty, and all your northern

madness?Beauty is not to compare with solid pudding and what am I!You have ideas in your brain?

What is the use of them? I too have ideas. What is the good of all the fine things you may have in your soul if

you can make no use of them? Those who have ideas do not get so far as those who have none, if they don't

"Instead of thinking over your ideas you must work.Now, what have you done while I was out?"

"Who told you she was pretty?" asked Lisbeth sharply, in a tone hollow with tigerlike jealousy.

"That was only to see your face. Do you want to go trotting after petticoats? You who are so fond of women,

well, make them in bronze. Let us see a cast of your desires, for you will have to do without the ladies for

some little time yet, and certainly without my cousin, my good fellow. She is not game for your bag; that

"Why, your bed is not made!" she exclaimed, looking into the adjoining room. "Poor dear boy, I quite forgot

The sturdy woman pulled off her gloves, her cape and bonnet, and remade the artist's little camp bed as

briskly as any housemaid. This mixture of abruptness, of roughness even, with real kindness, perhaps

accounts for the ascendency Lisbeth had acquired over the man whom she regarded as her personal property.

If the Livonian had happened to meet Madame Marneffe instead of Lisbeth Fischer, he would have found a

protectress whose complaisance must have led him into some boggy or discreditable path, where he would

have been lost. He would certainly never have worked, nor the artist have been hatched out. Thus, while he

deplored the old maid's grasping avarice, his reason bid him prefer her iron hand to the life of idleness and

This was the incident that had given rise to the coalition of female energy and masculine feeblenessa

In 1833 Mademoiselle Fischer, who sometimes worked into the night when business was good, at about one

o'clock one morning perceived a strong smell of carbonic acid gas, and heard the groans of a dying man. The

fumes and the gasping came from a garret over the two rooms forming her dwelling, and she supposed that a

young man who had but lately come to lodge in this atticwhich had been vacant for three years was

committing suicide. She ran upstairs, broke in the door by a push with her peasant strength, and found the

lodger writhing on a campbed in the convulsions of death. She extinguished the brazier; the door was open,

the air rushed in, and the exile was saved. Then, when Lisbeth had put him to bed like a patient, and he was

asleep, she could detect the motives of his suicide in the destitution of the rooms, where there was nothing

"No one is to be accused of my death; my reasons for killing myself are, in the words of Kosciusko, Finis

"The grandnephew of a valiant General under Charles XII. could not beg. My weakly constitution forbids

my taking military service, and I yesterday saw the last of the hundred thalers which I had brought with me

from Dresden to Paris. I have left twenty five francs in the drawer of this table to pay the rent I owe to the

"My parents being dead, my death will affect nobody. I desire that my countrymen will not blame the French

Government. I have never registered myself as a refugee, and I have asked for nothing; I have met none of

Mademoiselle Fischer, deeply touched by the dying man's honesty, opened the drawer and found the five

She went downstairs to fetch her work, and sat stitching in the garret, watching over the Livonian gentleman.

When he awoke his astonishment may be imagined on finding a woman sitting by his bed; it was like the

prolongation of a dream. As she sat there, covering aiguillettes with gold thread, the old maid had resolved to

As soon as the young Count was fully awake, Lisbeth talked to give him courage, and questioned him to find

out how he might make a living. Wenceslas, after telling his story, added that he owed his position to his

acknowledged talent for the fine arts. He had always had a preference for sculpture; the necessary time for

study had, however, seemed to him too long for a man without money; and at this moment he was far too

weak to do any hard manual labor or undertake an important work in sculpture. All this was Greek to Lisbeth

Fischer. She replied to the unhappy man that Paris offered so many openings that any man with will and

courage might find a living there. A man of spirit need never perish if he had a certain stock of endurance.

"I am but a poor girl myself, a peasant, and I have managed to make myself independent," said she in

conclusion. "If you will work in earnest, I have saved a little money, and I will lend you, month by month,

enough to live upon; but to live frugally, and not to play ducks and drakes with or squander in the streets.

You can dine in Paris for twentyfive sous a day, and I will get you your breakfast with mine every day. I

will furnish your rooms and pay for such teaching as you may think necessary. You shall give me formal

acknowledgment for the money I may lay out for you, and when you are rich you shall repay me all. But if

you do not work, I shall not regard myself as in any way pledged to you, and I shall leave you to your fate."

"Ah!" cried the poor fellow, still smarting from the bitterness of his first struggle with death, "exiles from

every land may well stretch out their hands to France, as the souls in Purgatory do to Paradise. In what other

country is such help to be found, and generous hearts even in such a garret as this? You will be everything to

me, my beloved benefactress; I am your slave! Be my sweetheart," he added, with one of the caressing

gestures familiar to the Poles, for which they are unjustly accused of servility.

"Oh, no; I am too jealous, I should make you unhappy; but I will gladly be a sort of comrade," replied

"Ah, if only you knew how I longed for some fellowcreature, even a tyrant, who would have something to

say to me when I was struggling in the vast solitude of Paris!" exclaimed Wenceslas. "I regretted Siberia,

whither I should be sent by the Emperor if I went home.Be my Providence!I will work; I will be a better

"Well, then, I will adopt you as my child," said she lightly. "Here I am with a son risen from the grave.

Come! we will begin at once. I will go out and get what I want; you can dress, and come down to breakfast

That day, Mademoiselle Fischer made some inquiries, at the houses to which she carried her work home, as

to the business of a sculptor. By dint of many questions she ended by hearing of the studio kept by Florent

and Chanor, a house that made a special business of casting and finishing decorative bronzes and handsome

silver plate. Thither she went with Steinbock, recommending him as an apprentice in sculpture, an idea that

was regarded as too eccentric. Their business was to copy the works of the greatest artists, but they did not

teach the craft. The old maid's persistent obstinacy so far succeeded that Steinbock was taken on to design

ornament. He very soon learned to model ornament, and invented novelties; he had a gift for it.

Five months after he was out of his apprenticeship as a finisher, he made acquaintance with Stidmann, the

famous head of Florent's studios. Within twenty months Wenceslas was ahead of his master; but in thirty

months the old maid's savings of sixteen years had melted entirely. Two thousand five hundred francs in

gold!a sum with which she had intended to purchase an annuity; and what was there to show for it? A

Pole's receipt! And at this moment Lisbeth was working as hard as in her young days to supply the needs of

When she found herself the possessor of a piece of paper instead of her gold louis, she lost her head, and went

to consult Monsieur Rivet, who for fifteen years had been his clever headworker's friend and counselor. On

hearing her story, Monsieur and Madame Rivet scolded Lisbeth, told her she was crazy, abused all refugees

whose plots for reconstructing their nation compromised the prosperity of the country and the maintenance of

"The only hold you have over this fellow is on his liberty," observed Monsieur Rivet.

"Imprisonment is no joke for a foreigner," said he. "A Frenchman remains five years in prison and comes out,

free of his debts to be sure, for he is thenceforth bound only by his conscience, and that never troubles him;

but a foreigner never comes out.Give me your promissory note; my bookkeeper will take it up; he will get

it protested; you will both be prosecuted and both be condemned to imprisonment in default of payment;

then, when everything is in due form, you must sign a declaration. By doing this your interest will be

The old maid allowed these legal steps to be taken, telling her protege not to be uneasy, as the proceedings

were merely to afford a guarantee to a moneylender who agreed to advance them certain sums. This

subterfuge was due to the inventive genius of Monsieur Rivet. The guileless artist, blindly trusting to his

benefactress, lighted his pipe with the stamped paper, for he smoked as all men do who have sorrows or

One fine day Monsieur Rivet showed Mademoiselle Fischer a schedule, and said to her:

"Here you have Wenceslas Steinbock bound hand and foot, and so effectually, that within twentyfour hours

This worthy and honest judge at the Chamber of Commerce experienced that day the satisfaction that must

come of having done a malignant good action. Beneficence has so many aspects in Paris that this

contradictory expression really represents one of them. The Livonian being fairly entangled in the toils of

commercial procedure, the point was to obtain payment; for the illustrious tradesman looked on Wenceslas as

a swindler. Feeling, sincerity, poetry, were in his eyes mere folly in business matters.

So Rivet went off to see, in behalf of that poor Mademoiselle Fischer, who, as he said, had been "done" by

the Pole, the rich manufacturers for whom Steinbock had worked. It happened that Stidmannwho, with the

help of these distinguished masters of the goldsmiths' art, was raising French work to the perfection it has

now reached, allowing it to hold its own against Florence and the RenaissanceStidmann was in Chanor's

private room when the army lace manufacturer called to make inquiries as to "One Steinbock, a Polish

"Whom do you call 'One Steinbock'? Do you mean a young Livonian who was a pupil of mine?" cried

Stidmann ironically. "I may tell you, monsieur, that he is a very great artist. It is said of me that I believe

myself to be the Devil. Well, that poor fellow does not know that he is capable of becoming a god."

"Indeed," said Rivet, well pleased. And then he added, "Though you take a rather cavalier tone with a man

who has the honor to be an Assessor on the Tribunal of Commerce of the Department of the Seine."

"I am delighted," the Assessor went on, "to hear what you say. The man may make money then?"

"Certainly," said Chanor; "but he must work. He would have a tidy sum by now if he had stayed with us.

"They have a proper sense of their value and dignity," replied Stidmann. "I do not blame Wenceslas for

walking alone, trying to make a name, and to become a great man; he had a right to do so! But he was a great

"That, you see," exclaimed Rivet, "is what all young students aim at as soon as they are hatched out of the

"It spoils your touch to be picking up coin," said Stidmann. "It is Glory's business to bring us wealth."

"All these gentlemen have as much caprice as talent," said Chanor, looking at Stidmann. "They spend no end

of money; they keep their girls, they throw coin out of window, and then they have no time to work. They

neglect their orders; we have to employ workmen who are very inferior, but who grow rich; and then they

complain of the hard times, while, if they were but steady, they might have piles of gold."

"You old Lumignon," said Stidmann, "you remind me of the publisher before the Revolution who said'If

only I could keep Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau very poor in my backshed, and lock up their breeches

in a cupboard, what a lot of nice little books they would write to make my fortune.'If works of art could be

hammered out like nails, workmen would make them.Give me a thousand francs, and don't talk nonsense."

Worthy Monsieur Rivet went home, delighted for poor Mademoiselle Fischer, who dined with him every

"If you can only make him work," said he, "you will have more luck than wisdom; you will be repaid,

interest, capital, and costs. This Pole has talent, he can make a living; but lock up his trousers and his shoes,

do not let him go to the Chaumiere or the parish of NotreDame de Lorette, keep him in leadingstrings. If

you do not take such precautions, your artist will take to loafing, and if you only knew what these artists

mean by loafing! Shocking! Why, I have just heard that they will spend a thousandfranc note in a day!"

This episode had a fatal influence on the homelife of Wenceslas and Lisbeth. The benefactress flavored the

exile's bread with the wormwood of reproof, now that she saw her money in danger, and often believed it to

be lost. From a kind mother she became a stepmother; she took the poor boy to task, she nagged him, scolded

him for working too slowly, and blamed him for having chosen so difficult a profession. She could not

believe that those models in red waxlittle figures and sketches for ornamental workcould be of any

value. Before long, vexed with herself for her severity, she would try to efface the tears by her care and

Then the poor young man, after groaning to think that he was dependent on this shrew and under the thumb

of a peasant of the Vosges, was bewitched by her coaxing ways and by a maternal affection that attached

itself solely to the physical and material side of life. He was like a woman who forgives a week of illusage

Thus Mademoiselle Fischer obtained complete power over his mind. The love of dominion that lay as a germ

in the old maid's heart developed rapidly. She could now satisfy her pride and her craving for action; had she

not a creature belonging to her, to be schooled, scolded, flattered, and made happy, without any fear of a

rival? Thus the good and bad sides of her nature alike found play. If she sometimes victimized the poor artist,

she had, on the other hand, delicate impulses like the grace of wild flowers; it was a joy to her to provide for

all his wants; she would have given her life for him, and Wenceslas knew it. Like every noble soul, the poor

fellow forgot the bad points, the defects of the woman who had told him the story of her life as an excuse for

One day, exasperated with Wenceslas for having gone out walking instead of sitting at work, she made a

"You belong to me," said she. "If you were an honest man, you would try to repay me the money you owe as

The gentleman, in whose veins the blood of the Steinbocks was fired, turned pale.

"Bless me," she went on, "we soon shall have nothing to live on but the thirty sous I earna poor

The two penniless creatures, worked up by their own war of words, grew vehement; and for the first time the

unhappy artist reproached his benefactress for having rescued him from death only to make him lead the life

of a galley slave, worse than the bottomless void, where at least, said he, he would have found rest. And he

And she clearly explained to the Pole that within twentyfour hours he might be clapped into prison for the

rest of his days. It was a crushing blow. Steinbock sank into deep melancholy and total silence.

In the course of the following night, Lisbeth hearing overhead some preparations for suicide, went up to her

"Here, dear child, forgive me," she said with tears in her eyes. "Be happy; leave me! I am too cruel to you;

only tell me that you will sometimes remember the poor girl who has enabled you to make a living. What

can I say? You are the cause of my illhumor. I might die; where would you be without me? That is the

reason of my being impatient to see you do some salable work. I do not want my money back for myself, I

assure you! I am only frightened at your idleness, which you call meditation; at your ideas, which take up so

many hours when you sit gazing at the sky; I want you to get into habits of industry."

All this was said with an emphasis, a look, and tears that moved the highminded artist; he clasped his

"Keep these pieces," said he with a sort of cheerfulness. "Why should you send me to Clichy? Am I not a

This episode of their secret domestic life had occurred six months previously, and had led to Steinbock's

producing three finished works: the seal in Hortense's possession, the group he had placed with the curiosity

dealer, and a beautiful clock to which he was putting the last touches, screwing in the last rivets.

This clock represented the twelve Hours, charmingly personified by twelve female figures whirling round in

so mad and swift a dance that three little Loves perched on a pile of fruit and flowers could not stop one of

them; only the torn skirts of Midnight remained in the hand of the most daring cherub. The group stood on an

admirably treated base, ornamented with grotesque beasts. The hours were told by a monstrous mouth that

opened to yawn, and each Hour bore some ingeniously appropriate symbol characteristic of the various

It is now easy to understand the extraordinary attachment of Mademoiselle Fischer for her Livonian; she

wanted him to be happy, and she saw him pining, fading away in his attic. The causes of this wretched state

of affairs may be easily imagined. The peasant woman watched this son of the North with the affection of a

mother, with the jealousy of a wife, and the spirit of a dragon; hence she managed to put every kind of folly

or dissipation out of his power by leaving him destitute of money. She longed to keep her victim and

companion for herself alone, well conducted perforce, and she had no conception of the cruelty of this

senseless wish, since she, for her own part, was accustomed to every privation. She loved Steinbock well

enough not to marry him, and too much to give him up to any other woman; she could not resign herself to be

no more than a mother to him, though she saw that she was mad to think of playing the other part.

These contradictions, this ferocious jealousy, and the joy of having a man to herself, all agitated her old

maid's heart beyond measure. Really in love as she had been for four years, she cherished the foolish hope of

prolonging this impossible and aimless way of life in which her persistence would only be the ruin of the man

she thought of as her child. This contest between her instincts and her reason made her unjust and tyrannical.

She wreaked on the young man her vengeance for her own lot in being neither young, rich, nor handsome;

then, after each fit of rage, recognizing herself wrong, she stooped to unlimited humility, infinite tenderness.

She never could sacrifice to her idol till she had asserted her power by blows of the axe. In fact, it was the

As to the poor youth himself, highminded, meditative, and inclined to be lazy, the desert that his protectress

made in his soul might be seen in his eyes, as in those of a caged lion. The penal servitude forced on him by

Lisbeth did not fulfil the cravings of his heart. His weariness became a physical malady, and he was dying

without daring to ask, or knowing where to procure, the price of some little necessary dissipation. On some

days of special energy, when a feeling of utter illluck added to his exasperation, he would look at Lisbeth as

These harsh fruits of indigence, and this isolation in the midst of Paris, Lisbeth relished with delight. And

besides, she foresaw that the first passion would rob her of her slave. Sometimes she even blamed herself

because her own tyranny and reproaches had compelled the poetic youth to become so great an artist of

On the day after, these three lives, so differently but so utterly wretchedthat of a mother in despair, that of

the Marneffe household, and that of the unhappy exilewere all to be influenced by Hortense's guileless

passion, and by the strange outcome of the Baron's luckless passion for Josepha.

Just as Hulot was going into the operahouse, he was stopped by the darkened appearance of the building and

of the Rue le Peletier, where there were no gendarmes, no lights, no theatreservants, no barrier to regulate

the crowd. He looked up at the announcementboard, and beheld a strip of white paper, on which was printed

He rushed off to Josepha's lodgings in the Rue Chauchat; for, like all the singers, she lived close at hand.

"On the contrary, sir, it is because I have the honor to remember you that I ask you, Where are you going?"

"If you go up to Mademoiselle Mirah's rooms, Monsieur le Baron, you will find Mademoiselle Heloise

Brisetout thereand Monsieur Bixiou, Monsieur Leon de Lora, Monsieur Lousteau, Monsieur de Vernisset,

"Well, she is now in the Rue de la Ville l'Eveque, in a fine house, given to her, they say, by the Duc

Having ascertained the number of the house, Monsieur Hulot called a milord and drove to one of those pretty

modern houses with double doors, where everything, from the gaslight at the entrance, proclaims luxury.

The Baron, in his blue cloth coat, white neckcloth, nankeen trousers, patent leather boots, and stiffly starched

shirtfrill, was supposed to be a guest, though a late arrival, by the janitor of this new Eden. His alacrity of

The porter rang a bell, and a footman appeared in the hall. This man, as new as the house, admitted the

The victim mechanically looked round the room in which he found himselfan anteroom full of choice

flowers and of furniture that must have cost twenty thousand francs. The servant, on his return, begged

Though the Baron had been familiar with Imperial luxury, which was undoubtedly prodigious, while its

productions, though not durable in kind, had nevertheless cost enormous sums, he stood dazzled,

dumfounded, in this drawingroom with three windows looking out on a garden like fairyland, one of those

gardens that are created in a month with a made soil and transplanted shrubs, while the grass seems as if it

must be made to grow by some chemical process. He admired not only the decoration, the gilding, the

carving, in the most expensive Pompadour style, as it is called, and the magnificent brocades, all of which

any enriched tradesman could have procured for money; but he also noted such treasures as only princes can

select and find, can pay for and give away; two pictures by Greuze, two by Watteau, two heads by Vandyck,

two landscapes by Ruysdael, and two by le Guaspre, a Rembrandt, a Holbein, a Murillo, and a Titian, two

paintings, by Teniers, and a pair by Metzu, a Van Huysum, and an Abraham Mignonin short, two hundred

thousand francs' worth of pictures superbly framed. The gilding was worth almost as much as the paintings.

She had stolen in on tiptoe through a noiseless door, over Persian carpets, and came upon her adorer, standing

lost in amazementin the stupid amazement when a man's ears tingle so loudly that he hears nothing but

The words "my good man," spoken to an official of such high importance, so perfectly exemplified the

audacity with which these creatures pour contempt on the loftiest, that the Baron was nailed to the spot.

Josepha, in white and yellow, was so beautifully dressed for the banquet, that amid all this lavish

"Isn't this really fine?" said she. "The Duke has spent all the money on it that he got out of floating a

company, of which the shares all sold at a premium. He is no fool, is my little Duke. There is nothing like a

man who has been a grandee in his time for turning coals into gold. Just before dinner the notary brought me

the titledeeds to sign and the bills receipted!They are all a firstclass set in there d'Esgrignon,

Rastignac, Maxime, Lenoncourt, Verneuil, Laginski, Rochefide, la Palferine, and from among the bankers

Nucingen and du Tillet, with Antonia, Malaga, Carabine, and la Schontz; and they all feel for you

deeply.Yes, old boy, and they hope you will join them, but on condition that you forthwith drink up to two

bottles full of Hungarian wine, Champagne, or Cape, just to bring you up to their mark.My dear fellow, we

are all so much on here, that it was necessary to close the Opera. The manager is as drunk as a corneta

"Now, can anything be more absurd than explanations?" she broke in with a smile. "Look here; can you stand

six hundred thousand francs which this house and furniture cost? Can you give me a bond to the tune of thirty

thousand francs a year, which is what the Duke has just given me in a packet of common sugared almonds

"What an atrocity!" cried Hulot, who in his fury would have given his wife's diamonds to stand in the Duc

"Atrocity is my trade," said she. "So that is how you take it? Well, why don't you float a company? Goodness

me! my poor dyed Tom, you ought to be grateful to me; I have thrown you over just when you would have

spent on me your widow's fortune, your daughter's portion.What, tears! The Empire is a thing of the

Through the door, left ajar, there came, like a lightningflash, a streak of light with an accompaniment of the

crescendo of the orgy and the fragrance of a banquet of the choicest description.

The singer peeped through the partly open door, and seeing Hulot transfixed as if he had been a bronze

"Monsieur," said she, "I have handed over the rubbish in the Rue Chauchat to Bixiou's little Heloise

Brisetout. If you wish to claim your cotton nightcap, your bootjack, your belt, and your wax dye, I have

This insolent banter made the Baron leave the room as precipitately as Lot departed from Gomorrah, but he

Hulot went home, striding along in a fury, and talking to himself; he found his family still playing the game

of whist at two sous a point, at which he left them. On seeing her husband return, poor Adeline imagined

something dreadful, some dishonor; she gave her cards to Hortense, and led Hector away into the very room

where, only five hours since, Crevel had foretold her the utmost disgrace of poverty.

"Oh, forgive mebut let me tell you all these horrors." And for ten minutes he poured out his wrath.

"But, my dear," said the unhappy woman, with heroic courage, "these creatures do not know what love

meanssuch pure and devoted love as you deserve. How could you, so clearsighted as you are, dream of

"To be sure, take away the Duc d'Herouville's fortune, and she could not hesitate between us!" said the

"My dear," said Adeline with a final effort, "if you positively must have mistresses, why do you not seek

them, like Crevel, among women who are less extravagant, and of a class that can for a time be content with

little? We should all gain by that arrangement.I understand your needbut I do not understand that

"Oh, what a kind and perfect wife you are!" cried he. "I am an old lunatic, I do not deserve to have such a

"I am simply the Josephine of my Napoleon," she replied, with a touch of melancholy.

"Josephine was not to compare with you!" said he. "Come; I will play a game of whist with my brother and

the children. I must try my hand at the business of a family man; I must get Hortense a husband, and bury the

"The creature has no taste to prefer any man in the world to my Hector. Oh, I would not give you up for all

the gold on earth. How can any woman throw you over who is so happy as to be loved by you?"

The look with which the Baron rewarded his wife's fanaticism confirmed her in her opinion that gentleness

But in this she was mistaken. The noblest sentiments, carried to an excess, can produce mischief as great as

do the worst vices. Bonaparte was made Emperor for having fired on the people, at a stone's throw from the

spot where Louis XVI. lost his throne and his head because he would not allow a certain Monsieur Sauce to

On the following morning, Hortense, who had slept with the seal under her pillow, so as to have it close to

her all night, dressed very early, and sent to beg her father to join her in the garden as soon as he should be

By about halfpast nine, the father, acceding to his daughter's petition, gave her his arm for a walk, and they

"Let us look into the shop windows, papa," said Hortense, as they went through the little gate to cross the

"We are supposed to have come to see the pictures, and over there" and she pointed to the stalls in front of

the houses at a right angle to the Rue du Doyenne"look! there are dealers in curiosities and pictures"

"And what do you want to do?" said the Baron, who, finding himself within thirty yards of Madame

Hortense had dragged her father in front of one of the shops forming the angle of a block of houses built

along the front of the Old Louvre, and facing the Hotel de Nantes. She went into this shop; her father stood

outside, absorbed in gazing at the windows of the pretty little lady, who, the evening before, had left her

image stamped on the old beau's heart, as if to alleviate the wound he was so soon to receive; and he could

"I will fall back on a simple little citizen's wife," said he to himself, recalling Madame Marneffe's adorable

Now, this was what was happening at the same moment outside and inside the curiosity shop.

As he fixed his eyes on the windows of his new belle, the Baron saw the husband, who, while brushing his

coat with his own hands, was apparently on the lookout, expecting to see some one on the square. Fearing lest

he should be seen, and subsequently recognized, the amorous Baron turned his back on the Rue du Doyenne,

or rather stood at threequarters' face, as it were, so as to be able to glance round from time to time. This

manoeuvre brought him face to face with Madame Marneffe, who, coming up from the quay, was doubling

Valerie was evidently startled as she met the Baron's astonished eye, and she responded with a prudish

"Indeed, monsieur?" said she, turning suddenly, like a woman who has just come to some vehement decision,

"Then, as chance has twice made our eyes meet, and I am so fortunate as to have interested or puzzled you, I

may tell you that, instead of doing anything foolish, you ought to do justice.My husband's fate rests with

"He is employed in your department in the War Office, under Monsieur Lebrun, in Monsieur Coquet's room,"

"Dear little Madame Marneffe, to do injustice for your sake.I have a cousin living in your house; I will go

to see her one day soonas soon as possible; bring your petition to me in her rooms."

"Pardon my boldness, Monsieur le Baron; you must understand that if I dare to address you thus, it is because

"I am at my wits' end, but I am an honest woman!" she went on. "About six months ago my only protector

"Indeed! Poor little woman! The Marshal died suddenly of apoplexy. But, come, madame, hope for the best.

The State must do something for the daughter of one of the Chevalier Bayards of the Empire."

Madame Marneffe bowed gracefully and went off, as proud of her success as the Baron was of his.

"Where the devil has she been so early?" thought he watching the flow of her skirts, to which she contrived to

impart a somewhat exaggerated grace. "She looks too tired to have just come from a bath, and her husband is

Madame Marneffe having vanished within, the Baron wondered what his daughter was doing in the shop. As

he went in, still staring at Madame Marneffe's windows, he ran against a young man with a pale brow and

sparkling gray eyes, wearing a summer coat of black merino, coarse drill trousers, and tan shoes, with gaiters,

rushing away headlong; he saw him run to the house in the Rue du Doyenne, into which he went.

Hortense, on going into the shop, had at once recognized the famous group, conspicuously placed on a table

in the middle and in front of the door. Even without the circumstances to which she owed her knowledge of

this masterpiece, it would probably have struck her by the peculiar power which we must call the briothe

goof great works; and the girl herself might in Italy have been taken as a model for the personification of

Not every work by a man of genius has in the same degree that brilliancy, that glory which is at once patent

even to the most ignoble beholder. Thus, certain pictures by Raphael, such as the famous Transfiguration, the

Madonna di Foligno, and the frescoes of the Stanze in the Vatican, do not at first captivate our admiration, as

do the Violinplayer in the Sciarra Palace, the portraits of the Doria family, and the Vision of Ezekiel in the

Pitti Gallery, the Christ bearing His Cross in the Borghese collection, and the Marriage of the Virgin in the

Brera at Milan. The Saint John the Baptist of the Tribuna, and Saint Luke painting the Virgin's portrait in the

Accademia at Rome, have not the charm of the Portrait of Leo X., and of the Virgin at Dresden.

And yet they are all of equal merit. Nay, more. The Stanze, the Transfiguration, the panels, and the three easel

pictures in the Vatican are in the highest degree perfect and sublime. But they demand a stress of attention,

even from the most accomplished beholder, and serious study, to be fully understood; while the

Violinplayer, the Marriage of the Virgin, and the Vision of Ezekiel go straight to the heart through the portal

of sight, and make their home there. It is a pleasure to receive them thus without an effort; if it is not the

highest phase of art, it is the happiest. This fact proves that, in the begetting of works of art, there is as much

chance in the character of the offspring as there is in a family of children; that some will be happily graced,

born beautiful, and costing their mothers little suffering, creatures on whom everything smiles, and with

This brio, an Italian word which the French have begun to use, is characteristic of youthful work. It is the

fruit of an impetus and fire of early talentan impetus which is met with again later in some happy hours;

but this particular brio no longer comes from the artist's heart; instead of his flinging it into his work as a

volcano flings up its fires, it comes to him from outside, inspired by circumstances, by love, or rivalry, often

by hatred, and more often still by the imperious need of glory to be lived up to.

This group by Wenceslas was to his later works what the Marriage of the Virgin is to the great mass of

Raphael's, the first step of a gifted artist taken with the inimitable grace, the eagerness, and delightful

overflowingness of a child, whose strength is concealed under the pinkandwhite flesh full of dimples

which seem to echo to a mother's laughter. Prince Eugene is said to have paid four hundred thousand francs

for this picture, which would be worth a million to any nation that owned no picture by Raphael, but no one

would give that sum for the finest of the frescoes, though their value is far greater as works of art.

Hortense restrained her admiration, for she reflected on the amount of her girlish savings; she assumed an air

"Fifteen hundred francs," replied the man, sending a glance of intelligence to a young man seated on a stool

The young man himself gazed in a stupefaction at Monsieur Hulot's living masterpiece. Hortense,

forewarned, at once identified him as the artist, from the color that flushed a face pale with endurance; she

saw the spark lighted up in his gray eyes by her question; she looked on the thin, drawn features, like those of

a monk consumed by asceticism; she loved the red, wellformed mouth, the delicate chin, and the Pole's silky

"It is antique, mademoiselle," the dealer remarked, thinking, like all his fraternity, that, having uttered this ne

"Excuse me, monsieur," she replied very quietly, "it was made this year; I came expressly to beg you, if my

price is accepted, to send the artist to see us, as it might be possible to procure him some important

"And if he is to have the twelve hundred francs, what am I to get? I am the dealer," said the man, with candid

"Oh! mademoiselle, take it; I will make terms with the dealer," cried the Livonian, beside himself.

Fascinated by Hortense's wonderful beauty and the love of art she displayed, he added:

"I am the sculptor of the group, and for ten days I have come here three times a day to see if anybody would

"Come, then, monsieur, with the dealer, an hour hence.Here is my father's card," replied Hortense.

Then, seeing the shopkeeper go into a back room to wrap the group in a piece of linen rag, she added in a low

voice, to the great astonishment of the artist, who thought he must be dreaming:

"For the benefit of your future prospects, Monsieur Wenceslas, do not mention the name of the purchaser to

The word cousin dazzled the artist's mind; he had a glimpse of Paradise whence this daughter of Eve had

come to him. He had dreamed of the beautiful girl of whom Lisbeth had told him, as Hortense had dreamed

The look that passed between the lovers may be imagined; it was a flame, for virtuous lovers have no

"I have been spending twelve hundred francs that I had saved. Come." And she took her father's arm.

"Ah! that is the question!" replied the happy girl. "If I have got a husband, he is not dear at the money."

"No, my dear. A great artist in these days is a prince without a title he has glory and fortune, the two chief

"It is very poor business," replied Hulot, shaking his head. "It needs high patronage as well as great talent, for

Government is the only purchaser. It is an art with no demand nowadays, where there are no princely houses,

no great fortunes, no entailed mansions, no hereditary estates. Only small pictures and small figures can find

"And so he counts on that of Mademoiselle Hortense Hulot?" said the Baron ironically, with an inquisitorial

"This great artist, a Count and a sculptor, has just seen your daughter for the first time in his life, and for the

space of five minutes, Monsieur le Baron," Hortense calmly replied. "Yesterday, you must know, dear little

father, while you were at the Chamber, mamma had a fainting fit. This, which she ascribed to a nervous

attack, was the result of some worry that had to do with the failure of my marriage, for she told me that to get

"So unparliamentary!" Hortense put in with a laugh. "No, she did not use those words; but I know that a girl

old enough to marry and who does not find a husband is a heavy cross for respectable parents to bear.Well,

she thinks that if a man of energy and talent could be found, who would be satisfied with thirty thousand

francs for my marriage portion, we might all be happy. In fact, she thought it advisable to prepare me for the

modesty of my future lot, and to hinder me from indulging in too fervid dreams.Which evidently meant an

"Your mother is a very good woman, noble, admirable!" replied the father, deeply humiliated, though not

"She told me yesterday that she had your permission to sell her diamonds so as to give me something to

marry on; but I should like her to keep her jewels, and to find a husband myself. I think I have found the man,

"Well, come, my child, tell the whole story to your good old father," said he persuasively, and concealing his

Under promise of absolute secrecy, Hortense repeated the upshot of her various conversations with her

Cousin Betty. Then, when they got home, she showed the muchtalkedofseal to her father in evidence of

the sagacity of her views. The father, in the depth of his heart, wondered at the skill and acumen of girls who

act on instinct, discerning the simplicity of the scheme which her idealized love had suggested in the course

"You will see the masterpiece I have just bought; it is to be brought home, and that dear Wenceslas is to come

with the dealer.The man who made that group ought to make a fortune; only use your influence to get him

"How you run on!" cried her father. "Why, if you had your own way, you would be man and wife within the

"Must we wait so long?" said she, laughing. "But I fell in love with him in five minutes, as you fell in love

with mamma at first sight. And he loves me as if we had known each other for two years. Yes," she said in

reply to her father's look, "I read ten volumes of love in his eyes. And will not you and mamma accept him as

my husband when you see that he is a man of genius? Sculpture is the greatest of the Arts," she cried,

The child's complete and effervescent innocence had restored her father's peace of mind.

"A confession of the first importance," said she. "I loved him without knowing him; and, for the last hour,

"A little too crazy!" said the Baron, who was enjoying the sight of this guileless passion.

"Do not punish me for confiding in you," replied she. "It is so delightful to say to my father's heart, 'I love

him! I am so happy in loving him!'You will see my Wenceslas! His brow is so sad. The sun of genius

shines in his gray eyesand what an air he has! What do you think of Livonia? Is it a fine country?The

idea of Cousin Betty's marrying that young fellow! She might be his mother. It would be murder! I am quite

jealous of all she has ever done for him. But I don't think my marriage will please her."

"I should have to show her the seal, and I promised not to betray Cousin Lisbeth, who is afraid, she says, of

"You have scruples about the seal, and none about robbing your cousin of her lover."

This adventure, patriarchal in its simplicity, came admirably a propos to the unconfessed poverty of the

family; the Baron, while praising his daughter for her candor, explained to her that she must now leave

"You understand, my child, that it is not your part to ascertain whether your cousin's lover is a Count, if he

has all his papers properly certified, and if his conduct is a guarantee for his respectability.As for your

cousin, she refused five offers when she was twenty years younger; that will prove no obstacle, I undertake to

"Listen to me, papa; if you really wish to see me married, never say a word to Lisbeth about it till just before

the contract is signed. I have been catechizing her about this business for the last six months! Well, there is

"Well, she looks evil when I say too much, even in joke, about her lover. Make inquiries, but leave me to row

"The Lord said, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me.' You are one of those who have come back again,"

After breakfast the dealer was announced, and the artist with his group. The sudden flush that reddened her

daughter's face at once made the Baroness suspicious and then watchful, and the girl's confusion and the light

Count Steinbock, dressed in black, struck the Baron as a very gentlemanly young man.

After admiring it on trust, he passed it on to his wife, who knew nothing about sculpture.

"A statue! Monsieur, it is less difficult to execute a statue than to make a clock like this, which my friend here

The dealer was placing on the diningroom sideboard the wax model of the twelve Hours that the Loves were

"Leave the clock with me," said the Baron, astounded at the beauty of the sketch. "I should like to show it to

"Who is the young man in whom you take so much interest?" the Baroness asked her daughter.

"An artist who could afford to execute this model could get a hundred thousand francs for it," said the

curiositydealer, putting on a knowing and mysterious look as he saw that the artist and the girl were

interchanging glances. "He would only need to sell twenty copies at eight thousand francs eachfor the

materials would cost about a thousand crowns for each example. But if each copy were numbered and the

mould destroyed, it would certainly be possible to meet with twenty amateurs only too glad to possess a

"A hundred thousand francs!" cried Steinbock, looking from the dealer to Hortense, the Baron, and the

"Yes, a hundred thousand francs," repeated the dealer. "If I were rich enough, I would buy it of you myself

for twenty thousand francs; for by destroying the mould it would become a valuable property. But one of the

princes ought to pay thirty or forty thousand francs for such a work to ornament his drawingroom. No man

has ever succeeded in making a clock satisfactory alike to the vulgar and to the connoisseur, and this one, sir,

"This is for yourself, monsieur," said Hortense, giving six gold pieces to the dealer.

"Never breath a word of this visit to any one living," said the artist to his friend, at the door. "If you should be

asked where we sold the group, mention the Duc d'Herouville, the famous collector in the Rue de Varenne."

"Well, then, if the persons whom I shall consult are satisfied with your work, I can secure you the

commission for the statue of Marshal Montcornet, which is to be erected on his monument at PereLachaise.

The Minister of War and the old officers of the Imperial Guard have subscribed a sum large enough to enable

"Oh, monsieur, it will make my fortune!" exclaimed Steinbock, overpowered by so much happiness at once.

"Be easy," replied the Baron graciously. "If the two ministers to whom I propose to show your group and this

sketch in wax are delighted with these two pieces, your prospects of a fortune are good."

"Bring me your papers, and say nothing of your hopes to anybody, not even to our old Cousin Betty."

"Lisbeth?" said Madame Hulot, at last understanding the end of all this, though unable to guess the means.

"I could give proof of my skill by making a bust of the Baroness," added Wenceslas.

The artist, struck by Madame Hulot's beauty, was comparing the mother and daughter.

"Indeed, monsieur, life may smile upon you," said the Baron, quite charmed by Count Steinbock's refined and

elegant manner. "You will find out that in Paris no man is clever for nothing, and that persevering toil always

Hortense, with a blush, held out to the young man a pretty Algerine purse containing sixty gold pieces. The

artist, with something still of a gentleman's pride, responded with a mounting color easy enough to interpret.

"Yes, madamemy works of art. It is not the firstfruits of my labor, for I have been a workman."

"And take it without scruple," added the Baron, seeing that Wenceslas held the purse in his hand instead of

pocketing it. "The sum will be repaid by some rich man, a prince perhaps, who will offer it with interest to

"Oh, I want it too much myself, papa, to give it up to anybody in the world, even a royal prince!"

"But it would not be this one," replied she; and then, as if ashamed of having said too much, she ran out into

"Then I shall break the mould and the model as soon as I go home," said Steinbock.

"Fetch me your papers, and you will hear of me before long, if you are equal to what I expect of you,

The artist on this could but take leave. After bowing to Madame Hulot and Hortense, who came in from the

garden on purpose, he went off to walk in the Tuileries, not bearingnot daringto return to his attic,

Hortense's adorer conceived of groups and statues by the hundred; he felt strong enough to hew the marble

himself, like Canova, who was also a feeble man, and nearly died of it. He was transfigured by Hortense, who

"Well, dear mamma, you have just seen Cousin Lisbeth's lover, who now, I hope, is mine. But shut your eyes,

know nothing. Good Heavens! I was to keep it all from you, and I cannot help telling you everything"

"Goodbye, children!" said the Baron, kissing his wife and daughter; "I shall perhaps go to call on the

"Oh! little girl!" cried the Baroness when Hortense had poured out her poem, of which the morning's

adventure was the last canto, "dear little girl, Artlessness will always be the artfulest puss on earth!"

Genuine passions have an unerring instinct. Set a greedy man before a dish of fruit and he will make no

mistake, but take the choicest even without seeing it. In the same way, if you allow a girl who is well brought

up to choose a husband for herself, if she is in a position to meet the man of her heart, rarely will she blunder.

The act of nature in such cases is known as love at first sight; and in love, first sight is practically second

The Baroness' satisfaction, though disguised under maternal dignity, was as great as her daughter's; for, of the

three ways of marrying Hortense of which Crevel had spoken, the best, as she opined, was about to be

realized. And she regarded this little drama as an answer by Providence to her fervent prayers.

Mademoiselle Fischer's galley slave, obliged at last to go home, thought he might hide his joy as a lover

"Victory! my group is sold to the Duc d'Herouville, who is going to give me some commissions," cried he,

He had, as may be supposed concealed Hortense's purse; it lay next to his heart.

"And a very good thing too," said Lisbeth. "I was working myself to death. You see, child, money comes in

slowly in the business you have taken up, for this is the first you have earned, and you have been grinding at

it for near on five years now. That money barely repays me for what you have cost me since I took your

promissory note; that is all I have got by my savings. But be sure of one thing," she said, after counting the

gold, "this money will all be spent on you. There is enough there to keep us going for a year. In a year you

may now be able to pay your debt and have a snug little sum of your own, if you go on in the same way."

"I will fit you out in a black suit, and get you some new linen," said Lisbeth, "for you must appear

presentably before your patrons; and then you must have a larger and better apartment than your horrible

garret, and furnish it property.You look so bright, you are not like the same creature," she added, gazing at

"Well, so much the better! Do some more," said the arid creature, who was nothing but practical, and

incapable of understanding the joy of triumph or of beauty in Art. "Trouble your head no further about what

you have sold; make something else to sell. You have spent two hundred francs in money, to say nothing of

your time and your labor, on that devil of a Samson. Your clock will cost you more than two thousand francs

to execute. I tell you what, if you will listen to me, you will finish the two little boys crowning the little girl

with cornflowers; that would just suit the Parisians.I will go round to Monsieur Graff the tailor before

Next day the Baron, perfectly crazy about Madame Marneffe, went to see Cousin Betty, who was

considerably amazed on opening the door to see who her visitor was, for he had never called on her before.

She at once said to herself, "Can it be that Hortense wants my lover?"for she had heard the evening before,

at Monsieur Crevel's, that the marriage with the Councillor of the Supreme Court was broken off.

"What, Cousin! you here? This is the first time you have ever been to see me, and it is certainly not for love

"Fine eyes is the truth," said the Baron; "you have as fine eyes as I have ever seen"

"Come, what are you here for? I really am ashamed to receive you in such a kennel."

The outer room of the two inhabited by Lisbeth served her as sitting room, diningroom, kitchen, and

workroom. The furniture was such as beseemed a welltodo artisanwalnutwood chairs with straw seats,

a small walnutwood dining table, a work table, some colored prints in black wooden frames, short muslin

curtains to the windows, the floor well polished and shining with cleanliness, not a speck of dust anywhere,

but all cold and dingy, like a picture by Terburg in every particular, even to the gray tone given by a wall

paper once blue and now faded to gray. As to the bedroom, no human being had ever penetrated its secrets.

The Baron took it all in at a glance, saw the signmanual of commonness on every detail, from the castiron

stove to the household utensils, and his gorge rose as he said to himself, "And this is virtue!What am I here

for?" said he aloud. "You are far too cunning not to guess, and I had better tell you plainly," cried he, sitting

down and looking out across the courtyard through an opening he made in the puckered curtain. "There is a

"Madame Marneffe! Now I understand!" she exclaimed, seeing it all. "But Josepha?"

"Alas, Cousin, Josepha is no more. I was turned out of doors like a discarded footman."

"And you would like . . .?" said Lisbeth, looking at the Baron with the dignity of a prude on her guard a

"As Madame Marneffe is very much the lady, and the wife of an employe, you can meet her without

compromising yourself," the Baron went on, "and I should like to see you neighborly. Oh! you need not be

alarmed; she will have the greatest consideration for the cousin of her husband's chief."

At this moment the rustle of a gown was heard on the stairs and the footstep of a woman wearing the thinnest

boots. The sound ceased on the landing. There was a tap at the door, and Madame Marneffe came in.

"Pray excuse me, mademoiselle, for thus intruding upon you, but I failed to find you yesterday when I came

to call; we are near neighbors; and if I had known that you were related to Monsieur le Baron, I should long

since have craved your kind interest with him. I saw him come in, so I took the liberty of coming across; for

my husband, Monsieur le Baron, spoke to me of a report on the office clerks which is to be laid before the

"You have no need to play the petitioner, fair lady," replied the Baron. "It is I who should ask the favor of

The Parisienne had so confidently counted on the chief's visit and intelligence, that not only had she dressed

herself for so important an interviewshe had dressed her room. Early in the day it had been furnished with

flowers purchased on credit. Marneffe had helped his wife to polish the furniture, down to the smallest

objects, washing, brushing, and dusting everything. Valerie wished to be found in an atmosphere of

sweetness, to attract the chief and to please him enough to have a right to be cruel; to tantalize him as a child

would, with all the tricks of fashionable tactics. She had gauged Hulot. Give a Paris woman at bay

The man of the Empire, accustomed to the ways to the Empire, was no doubt quite ignorant of the ways of

modern lovemaking, of the scruples in vogue and the various styles of conversation invented since 1830,

which led to the poor weak woman being regarded as the victim of her lover's desiresa Sister of Charity

This modern art of love uses a vast amount of evangelical phrases in the service of the Devil. Passion is

martyrdom. Both parties aspire to the Ideal, to the Infinite; love is to make them so much better. All these

fine words are but a pretext for putting increased ardor into the practical side of it, more frenzy into a fall than

of old. This hypocrisy, a characteristic of the times, is a gangrene in gallantry. The lovers are both angels, and

Love had no time for such subtle analysis between two campaigns, and in 1809 its successes were as rapid as

those of the Empire. So, under the Restoration, the handsome Baron, a lady's man once more, had begun by

consoling some old friends now fallen from the political firmament, like extinguished stars, and then, as he

Madame Marneffe had placed her batteries after due study of the Baron's past life, which her husband had

narrated in much detail, after picking up some information in the offices. The comedy of modern sentiment

might have the charm of novelty to the Baron; Valerie had made up her mind as to her scheme; and we may

say the trial of her power that she made this morning answered her highest expectations. Thanks to her

manoeuvres, sentimental, highflown, and romantic, Valerie, without committing herself to any promises,

obtained for her husband the appointment as deputy head of the office and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

The campaign was not carried out without little dinners at the Rocher de Cancale, parties to the play, and

gifts in the form of lace, scarves, gowns, and jewelry. The apartment in the Rue du Doyenne was not

satisfactory; the Baron proposed to furnish another magnificently in a charming new house in the Rue

Monsieur Marneffe got a fortnight's leave, to be taken a month hence for urgent private affairs in the country,

and a present in money; he promised himself that he would spend both in a little town in Switzerland,

While Monsieur Hulot thus devoted himself to the lady he was "protecting," he did not forget the young

artist. Comte Popinot, Minister of Commerce, was a patron of Art; he paid two thousand francs for a copy of

the Samson on condition that the mould should be broken, and that there should be no Samson but his and

Mademoiselle Hulot's. The group was admired by a Prince, to whom the model sketch for the clock was also

shown, and who ordered it; but that again was to be unique, and he offered thirty thousand francs for it.

Artists who were consulted, and among them Stidmann, were of opinion that the man who had sketched those

two models was capable of achieving a statue. The Marshal Prince de Wissembourg, Minister of War, and

President of the Committee for the subscriptions to the monument of Marshal Montcornet, called a meeting,

at which it was decided that the execution of the work should be placed in Steinbock's hands. The Comte de

Rastignac, at that time Undersecretary of State, wished to possess a work by the artist, whose glory was

waxing amid the acclamations of his rivals. Steinbock sold to him the charming group of two little boys

crowning a little girl, and he promised to secure for the sculptor a studio attached to the Government marble

This was a success, such success as is won in Paris, that is to say, stupendous success, that crushes those

whose shoulders and loins are not strong enough to bear itas, be it said, not unfrequently is the case. Count

Wenceslas Steinbock was written about in all the newspapers and reviews without his having the least

suspicion of it, any more than had Mademoiselle Fischer. Every day, as soon as Lisbeth had gone out to

dinner, Wenceslas went to the Baroness' and spent an hour or two there, excepting on the evenings when

The Baron, assured of Count Steinbock's titles and position; the Baroness, pleased with his character and

habits; Hortense, proud of her permitted love and of her suitor's fame, none of them hesitated to speak of the

marriage; in short, the artist was in the seventh heaven, when an indiscretion on Madame Marneffe's part

Lisbeth, whom the Baron wished to see intimate with Madame Marneffe, that she might keep an eye on the

couple, had already dined with Valerie; and she, on her part, anxious to have an ear in the Hulot house, made

much of the old maid. It occurred to Valerie to invite Mademoiselle Fischer to a housewarming in the new

apartments she was about to move into. Lisbeth, glad to have found another house to dine in, and bewitched

by Madame Marneffe, had taken a great fancy to Valerie. Of all the persons she had made acquaintance with,

no one had taken so much pains to please her. In fact, Madame Marneffe, full of attentions for Mademoiselle

Fischer, found herself in the position towards Lisbeth that Lisbeth held towards the Baroness, Monsieur

The Marneffes had excited Lisbeth's compassion by allowing her to see the extreme poverty of the house,

while varnishing it as usual with the fairest colors; their friends were under obligations to them and

ungrateful; they had had much illness; Madame Fortin, her mother, had never known of their distress, and

had died believing herself wealthy to the end, thanks to their superhuman effortsand so forth.

"Poor people!" said she to her Cousin Hulot, "you are right to do what you can for them; they are so brave

and so kind! They can hardly live on the thousand crowns he gets as deputyhead of the office, for they have

got into debt since Marshal Montcornet's death. It is barbarity on the part of the Government to suppose that a

clerk with a wife and family can live in Paris on two thousand four hundred francs a year."

And so, within a very short time, a young woman who affected regard for her, who told her everything, and

consulted her, who flattered her, and seemed ready to yield to her guidance, had become dearer to the

The Baron, on his part, admiring in Madame Marneffe such propriety, education, and breeding as neither

Jenny Cadine nor Josepha, nor any friend of theirs had to show, had fallen in love with her in a month,

developing a senile passion, a senseless passion, which had an appearance of reason. In fact, he found here

neither the banter, nor the orgies, nor the reckless expenditure, nor the depravity, nor the scorn of social

decencies, nor the insolent independence which had brought him to grief alike with the actress and the singer.

He was spared, too, the rapacity of the courtesan, like unto the thirst of dry sand.

Madame Marneffe, of whom he had made a friend and confidante, made the greatest difficulties over

"Appointments, official presents, anything you can extract from the Government; but do not begin by

insulting a woman whom you profess to love," said Valerie. "If you do, I shall cease to believe youand I

like to believe you," she added, with a glance like Saint Theresa leering at heaven.

Every time he made her a present there was a fortress to be stormed, a conscience to be overpersuaded. The

hapless Baron laid deep stratagems to offer her some triflecostly, neverthelessproud of having at last

met with virtue and the realization of his dreams. In this primitive household, as he assured himself, he was

the god as much as in his own. And Monsieur Marneffe seemed at a thousand leagues from suspecting that

the Jupiter of his office intended to descend on his wife in a shower of gold; he was his august chief's

Madame Marneffe, twentythree years of age, a pure and bashful middle class wife, a blossom hidden in the

Rue du Doyenne, could know nothing of the depravity and demoralizing harlotry which the Baron could no

longer think of without disgust, for he had never known the charm of recalcitrant virtue, and the coy Valerie

The question having come to this point between Hector and Valerie, it is not astonishing that Valerie should

have heard from Hector the secret of the intended marriage between the great sculptor Steinbock and

Hortense Hulot. Between a lover on his promotion and a lady who hesitates long before becoming his

mistress, there are contests, uttered or unexpressed, in which a word often betrays a thought; as, in fencing,

the foils fly as briskly as the swords in duel. Then a prudent man follows the example of Monsieur de

Turenne. Thus the Baron had hinted at the greater freedom his daughter's marriage would allow him, in reply

And a thousand times already the Baron had declared that for fiveand twenty years all had been at an end

"You shall have it," said the Baron, made happy by this demand, by which his Valerie committed herself.

Hector had then been compelled to reveal his plans, already being carried into effect in the Rue Vanneau, to

prove to Valerie that he intended to devote to her that half of his life which belonged to his lawful wife,

supposing that day and night equally divide the existence of civilized humanity. He spoke of decently

deserting his wife, leaving her to herself as soon as Hortense should be married. The Baroness would then

spend all her time with Hortense or the young Hulot couple; he was sure of her submission.

Madame Marneffe, having heard Steinbock's history, was frantically eager to see the young Count; perhaps

she wished to have some trifle of his work while they still lived under the same roof. This curiosity so

seriously annoyed the Baron that Valerie swore to him that she would never even look at Wenceslas. But

though she obtained, as the reward of her surrender of this wish, a little teaservice of old Sevres pate tendre,

So one day when she had begged "my Cousin Betty" to come to take coffee with her in her room, she opened

"My dear child," said she, for they called each my dear, "why have you never introduced your lover to me?

"He is going to execute the statue of my father, and I could be of great use to him and help him to succeed in

the work; for Madame Montcornet cannot lend him, as I can, a miniature by Sain, a beautiful thing done in

1809, before the Wagram Campaign, and given to my poor motherMontcornet when he was young and

Sain and Augustin between them held the sceptre of miniature painting under the Empire.

"Nine feet highby the orders of the Minister of War. Why, where have you dropped from that I should tell

you the news? Why, the Government is going to give Count Steinbock rooms and a studio at Le Gros

Caillou, the depot for marble; your Pole will be made the Director, I should not wonder, with two thousand

"How do you know all this when I have heard nothing about it?" said Lisbeth at last, shaking off her

"Now, my dear little Cousin Betty," said Madame Marneffe, in an insinuating voice, "are you capable of

devoted friendship, put to any test? Shall we henceforth be sisters? Will you swear to me never to have a

secret from me any more than I from youto act as my spy, as I will be yours?Above all, will you pledge

yourself never to betray me either to my husband or to Monsieur Hulot, and never reveal that it was I who

Madame Marneffe broke off in this spurring harangue; Lisbeth frightened her. The peasantwoman's face

was terrible; her piercing black eyes had the glare of the tiger's; her face was like that we ascribe to a

pythoness; she set her teeth to keep them from chattering, and her whole frame quivered convulsively. She

had pushed her clenched fingers under her cap to clutch her hair and support her head, which felt too heavy;

she was on fire. The smoke of the flame that scorched her seemed to emanate from her wrinkles as from the

"Well, why do you stop?" she asked in a hollow voice. "I will be all to you that I have been to him.Oh, I

"Well, then," said Madame Marneffe, with a breath of relief, "if you only love him in that way, you will be

"Hortense!" shrieked the old maid, striking her forehead, and starting to her feet.

"My dear, we are bound for life and death, you and I," said Mademoiselle Fischer. "Yes, if you have any love

affairs, to me they are sacred. Your vices will be virtues in my eyes.For I shall need your vices!"

"I give it up. I cannot understand," said Valerie. "In that case you are neither betrayed nor cheated, and you

ought to be very happy to see him so well married; he is now fairly afloat. And, at any rate, your day is over.

Our artist goes to Madame Hulot's every evening as soon as you go out to dinner."

"Adeline!" muttered Lisbeth. "Oh, Adeline, you shall pay for this! I will make you uglier than I am."

"You are as pale as death!" exclaimed Valerie. "There is something wrong?Oh, what a fool I am! The

mother and daughter must have suspected that you would raise some obstacles in the way of this affair since

they have kept it from you," said Madame Marneffe. "But if you did not live with the young man, my dear,

"Ah, you don't know," said Lisbeth; "you have no idea of all their tricks. It is the last blow that kills. And how

many such blows have I had to bruise my soul! You don't know that from the time when I could first feel, I

have been victimized for Adeline. I was beaten, and she was petted; I was dressed like a scullion, and she had

clothes like a lady's; I dug in the garden and cleaned the vegetables, and sheshe never lifted a finger for

anything but to make up some finery!She married the Baron, she came to shine at the Emperor's Court,

while I stayed in our village till 1809, waiting for four years for a suitable match; they brought me away, to

be sure, but only to make me a work woman, and to offer me clerks or captains like coalheavers for a

husband! I have had their leavings for twentysix years!And now like the story in the Old Testament, the

poor relation has one ewelamb which is all her joy, and the rich man who has flocks covets the ewe lamb

and steals itwithout warning, without asking. Adeline has meanly robbed me of my happiness!Adeline!

Adeline! I will see you in the mire, and sunk lower than myself!And HortenseI loved her, and she has

cheated me. The Baron.No, it is impossible. Tell me again what is really true of all this."

"Valerie, my darling, I will be calm," said the strange creature, sitting down again. "One thing only can

"Your Cousin Hortense has the Samson grouphere is a lithograph from it published in a review. She paid

for it out of her pocket money, and it is the Baron who, to benefit his future soninlaw, is pushing him,

"Water!water!" said Lisbeth, after glancing at the print, below which she read, "A group belonging to

Madame Marneffe fetched some water. Lisbeth took off her cap, unfastened her black hair, and plunged her

head into the basin her new friend held for her. She dipped her forehead into it several times, and checked the

incipient inflammation. After this douche she completely recovered her selfcommand.

"Not a word," said she to Madame Marneffe as she wiped her face"not a word of all this.You see, I am

quite calm; everything is forgotten. I am thinking of something very different."

"She will be in Charenton tomorrow, that is very certain," thought Madame Marneffe, looking at the old

"What is to be done?" Lisbeth went on. "You see, my angel, there is nothing for it but to hold my tongue,

bow my head, and drift to the grave, as all water runs to the river. What could I try to do? I should like to

grind them allAdeline, her daughter, and the Baron all to dust! But what can a poor relation do against a

"Yes; you are right," said Valerie. "You can only pull as much hay as you can to your side of the manger.

"Besides," said Lisbeth, "I shall soon die, I can tell you, if I lose that boy to whom I fancied I could always be

There were tears in her eyes, and she paused. Such emotion in this woman made of sulphur and flame, made

"Well, at any rate, I have found you," said Lisbeth, taking Valerie's hand, "that is some consolation in this

dreadful trouble.We shall be true friends; and why should we ever part? I shall never cross your track. No

one will ever be in love with me!Those who would have married me, would only have done it to secure

my Cousin Hulot's interest. With energy enough to scale Paradise, to have to devote it to procuring bread and

water, a few rags, and a garret!That is martyrdom, my dear, and I have withered under it."

She broke off suddenly, and shot a black flash into Madame Marneffe's blue eyes, a glance that pierced the

"And what is the use of talking?" she exclaimed in reproof to herself. "I never said so much before, believe

me! The tables will be turned yet!" she added after a pause. "As you so wisely say, let us sharpen our teeth,

"You are very wise," said Madame Marneffe, who had been frightened by this scene, and had no

remembrance of having uttered this maxim. "I am sure you are right, my dear child. Life is not so long after

all, and we must make the best of it, and make use of others to contribute to our enjoyment. Even I have

learned that, young as I am. I was brought up a spoilt child, my father married ambitiously, and almost forgot

me, after making me his idol and bringing me up like a queen's daughter! My poor mother, who filled my

head with splendid visions, died of grief at seeing me married to an office clerk with twelve hundred francs a

year, at nineandthirty an aged and hardened libertine, as corrupt as the hulks, looking on me, as others

looked on you, as a means of fortune!Well, in that wretched man, I have found the best of husbands. He

prefers the squalid sluts he picks up at the street corners, and leaves me free. Though he keeps all his salary to

And she in her turn stopped short, as a woman does who feels herself carried away by the torrent of her

confessions; struck, too, by Lisbeth's eager attention, she thought well to make sure of Lisbeth before

"You see, dear child, how entire is my confidence in you!" she presently added, to which Lisbeth replied by a

An oath may be taken by a look and a nod more solemnly than in a court of justice.

"I keep up every appearance of respectability," Valerie went on, laying her hand on Lisbeth's as if to accept

her pledge. "I am a married woman, and my own mistress, to such a degree, that in the morning, when

Marneffe sets out for the office, if he takes it into his head to say goodbye and finds my door locked, he

goes off without a word. He cares less for his boy than I care for one of the marble children that play at the

feet of one of the rivergods in the Tuileries. If I do not come home to dinner, he dines quite contentedly with

the maid, for the maid is devoted to monsieur; and he goes out every evening after dinner, and does not come

in till twelve or one o'clock. Unfortunately, for a year past, I have had no ladies' maid, which is as much as to

"I have had one passion, once have been happya rich Brazilianwho went away a year agomy only

lapse!He went away to sell his estates, to realize his land, and come back to live in France. What will he

find left of his Valerie? A dunghill. Well! it is his fault and not mine; why does he delay coming so long?

"Goodbye, my dear," said Lisbeth abruptly; "we are friends for ever. I love you, I esteem you, I am wholly

yours! My cousin is tormenting me to go and live in the house you are moving to, in the Rue Vanneau; but I

"That was, no doubt, the motive of his generosity," replied Lisbeth. "In Paris, most beneficence is a

speculation, as most acts of ingratitude are revenge! To a poor relation you behave as you do to rats to whom

you offer a bit of bacon. Now, I will accept the Baron's offer, for this house has grown intolerable to me. You

and I have wit enough to hold our tongues about everything that would damage us, and tell all that needs

"Through thick and thin!" cried Madame Marneffe, delighted to have a sheepdog, a confidante, a sort of

respectable aunt. "Listen to me; the Baron is doing a great deal in the Rue Vanneau"

"I believe you!" interrupted Lisbeth. "He has spent thirty thousand francs! Where he got the money, I am sure

I don't know, for Josepha the singer bled him dry.Oh! you are in luck," she went on. "The Baron would

steal for a woman who held his heart in two little white satin hands like yours!"

"Well, then," said Madame Marneffe, with the liberality of such creatures, which is mere recklessness, "look

here, my dear child; take away from here everything that may serve your turn in your new quartersthat

"You are doing more for me in a breath than my rich relations have done in thirty years!" she exclaimed.

"They have never even asked themselves whether I had any furniture at all. On his first visit, a few weeks

ago, the Baron made a rich man's face on seeing how poor I was.Thank you, my dear; and I will give you

Valerie went out on the landing with her Cousin Betty, and the two women embraced.

"Pouh! How she stinks of hard work!" said the pretty little woman to herself when she was alone. "I shall not

embrace you often, my dear cousin! At the same time, I must look sharp. She must be skilfully managed, for

Like the true Creole of Paris, Madame Marneffe abhorred trouble; she had the calm indifference of a cat,

which never jumps or runs but when urged by necessity. To her, life must be all pleasure; and the pleasure

without difficulties. She loved flowers, provided they were brought to her. She could not imagine going to the

play but to a good box, at her own command, and in a carriage to take her there. Valerie inherited these

courtesan tastes from her mother, on whom General Montcornet had lavished luxury when he was in Paris,

and who for twenty years had seen all the world at her feet; who had been wasteful and prodigal, squandering

her all in the luxurious living of which the programme has been lost since the fall of Napoleon.

The grandees of the Empire were a match in their follies for the great nobles of the last century. Under the

Restoration the nobility cannot forget that it has been beaten and robbed, and so, with two or three

exceptions, it has become thrifty, prudent, and stayathome, in short, bourgeois and penurious. Since then,

1830 has crowned the work of 1793. In France, henceforth, there will be great names, but no great houses,

unless there should be political changes which we can hardly foresee. Everything takes the stamp of

The bitter pressure of poverty which had stung Valerie to the quick on the day when, to use Marneffe's

expression, she had "caught on" with Hulot, had brought the young woman to the conclusion that she would

make a fortune by means of her good looks. So, for some days, she had been feeling the need of having a

friend about her to take the place of a mothera devoted friend, to whom such things may be told as must be

hidden from a waitingmaid, and who could act, come and go, and think for her, a beast of burden resigned

to an unequal share of life. Now, she, quite as keenly as Lisbeth, had understood the Baron's motives for

Prompted by the formidable perspicacity of the Parisian halfbreed, who spends her days stretched on a sofa,

turning the lantern of her detective spirit on the obscurest depths of souls, sentiments, and intrigues, she had

decided on making an ally of the spy. This supremely rash step was, perhaps premeditated; she had discerned

the true nature of this ardent creature, burning with wasted passion, and meant to attach her to herself. Thus,

their conversation was like the stone a traveler casts into an abyss to demonstrate its depth. And Madame

Marneffe had been terrified to find this old maid a combination of Iago and Richard III., so feeble as she

For that instant, Lisbeth Fischer had been her real self; that Corsican and savage temperament, bursting the

slender bonds that held it under, had sprung up to its terrible height, as the branch of a tree flies up from the

To those who study the social world, it must always be a matter of astonishment to see the fulness, the

Virginity, like every other monstrosity, has its special richness, its absorbing greatness. Life, whose forces are

always economized, assumes in the virgin creature an incalculable power of resistance and endurance. The

brain is reinforced in the sumtotal of its reserved energy. When really chaste natures need to call on the

resources of body or soul, and are required to act or to think, they have muscles of steel, or intuitive

knowledge in their intelligencediabolical strength, or the black magic of the Will.

From this point of view the Virgin Mary, even if we regard her only as a symbol, is supremely great above

every other type, whether Hindoo, Egyptian, or Greek. Virginity, the mother of great things, magna parens

rerum, holds in her fair white hands the keys of the upper worlds. In short, that grand and terrible exception

Thus, in one moment, Lisbeth Fischer had become the Mohican whose snares none can escape, whose

dissimulation is inscrutable, whose swift decisiveness is the outcome of the incredible perfection of every

organ of sense. She was Hatred and Revenge, as implacable as they are in Italy, Spain, and the East. These

two feelings, the obverse of friendship and love carried to the utmost, are known only in lands scorched by

She accepted this detail of her part against her will; she began by making a curious attempt, due to her

ignorance. She fancied, as children do, that being imprisoned meant the same thing as solitary confinement.

But this is the superlative degree of imprisonment, and that superlative is the privilege of the Criminal Bench.

As soon as she left Madame Marneffe, Lisbeth hurried off to Monsieur Rivet, and found him in his office.

"Well, my dear Monsieur Rivet," she began, when she had bolted the door of the room. "You were quite

right. Those Poles! They are low villainsall alike, men who know neither law nor fidelity."

"And who want to set Europe on fire," said the peaceable Rivet, "to ruin every trade and every trader for the

sake of a country that is all bogland, they say, and full of horrible Jews, to say nothing of the Cossacks and

the peasantsa sort of wild beasts classed by mistake with human beings. Your Poles do not understand the

times we live in; we are no longer barbarians. War is coming to an end, my dear mademoiselle; it went out

with the Monarchy. This is the age of triumph for commerce, and industry, and middleclass prudence, such

"Yes," he went on with animation, "we live in a period when nations must obtain all they need by the legal

extension of their liberties and by the pacific action of Constitutional Institutions; that is what the Poles do

"You were saying, my dear?" he added, interrupting himself when he saw from his workwoman's face

"Here is the schedule," said Lisbeth. "If I don't want to lose my three thousand two hundred and ten francs, I

The Rivets, successor to Pons Brothers, had kept their shop still in the Rue des MauvaisesParoles, in the

ancient Hotel Langeais, built by that illustrious family at the time when the nobility still gathered round the

"If he suspects nothing, he can be safe in prison by eight o'clock in the morning," said Rivet, consulting the

almanac to ascertain the hour of sunrise; "but not till the day after tomorrow, for he cannot be imprisoned

till he has had notice that he is to be arrested by writ, with the option of payment or imprisonment. And

"As to that," said Lisbeth, interrupting him, "I will take the paper and hand it to him, saying that I have been

obliged to raise the money, and that the lender insists on this formality. I know my gentleman. He will not

"Not a bad idea, not bad, Mademoiselle Fischer! Well, make your mind easy; the job shall be done.But

stop a minute; to put your man in prison is not the only point to be considered; you only want to indulge in

"To be sure; I forgot that the Minister of War had commissioned him to erect a monument to one of our late

customers. Ah! the house has supplied many an uniform to General Montcornet; he soon blackened them

A marshal of France may have saved the Emperor or his country; "He paid on the nail" will always be the

"Very well. And on Saturday, Monsieur Rivet, you shall have the flat tassels.By the way, I am moving

"You are very right. I could not bear to see you in that hole which, in spite of my aversion to the Opposition, I

must say is a disgrace; I repeat it, yes! is a disgrace to the Louvre and the Place du Carrousel. I am devoted to

LouisPhilippe, he is my idol; he is the august and exact representative of the class on whom he founded his

dynasty, and I can never forget what he did for the trimmingmakers by restoring the National Guard"

"When I hear you speak so, Monsieur Rivet, I cannot help wondering why you are not made a deputy."

"They are afraid of my attachment to the dynasty," replied Rivet. "My political enemies are the King's. He

has a noble character! They are a fine family; in short," said he, returning to the charge, "he is our ideal:

morality, economy, everything. But the completion of the Louvre is one of the conditions on which we gave

him the crown, and the civil list, which, I admit, had no limits set to it, leaves the heart of Paris in a most

melancholy state.It is because I am so strongly in favor of the middle course that I should like to see the

middle of Paris in a better condition. Your part of the town is positively terrifying. You would have been

murdered there one fine day.And so your Monsieur Crevel has been made Major of his division! He will

Lisbeth believed that she had secured her Livonian to herself by cutting him off from all communication with

the outer world. If he could no longer work, the artist would be forgotten as completely as a man buried in a

cellar, where she alone would go to see him. Thus she had two happy days, for she hoped to deal a mortal

To go to Crevel's house, in the Rue des Saussayes, she crossed the Pont du Carrousel, went along the Quai

Voltaire, the Quai d'Orsay, the Rue Bellechasse, Rue de l'Universite, the Pont de la Concorde, and the

Avenue de Marigny. This illogical route was traced by the logic of passion, always the foe of the legs.

Cousin Betty, as long as she followed the line of the quays, kept watch on the opposite shore of the Seine,

walking very slowly. She had guessed rightly. She had left Wenceslas dressing; she at once understood that,

as soon as he should be rid of her, the lover would go off to the Baroness' by the shortest road. And, in fact,

as she wandered along by the parapet of the Quai Voltaire, in fancy suppressing the river and walking along

the opposite bank, she recognized the artist as he came out of the Tuileries to cross the Pont Royal. She there

came up with the faithless one, and could follow him unseen, for lovers rarely look behind them. She escorted

him as far as Madame Hulot's house, where he went in like an accustomed visitor.

This crowning proof, confirming Madame Marneffe's revelations, put Lisbeth quite beside herself.

She arrived at the newly promoted Major's door in the state of mental irritation which prompts men to

commit murder, and found Monsieur Crevel senior in his drawingroom awaiting his children, Monsieur and

But Celestin Crevel was so unconscious and so perfect a type of the Parisian parvenu, that we can scarcely

venture so unceremoniously into the presence of Cesar Birotteau's successor. Celestin Crevel was a world in

himself; and he, even more than Rivet, deserves the honors of the palette by reason of his importance in this

Have you ever observed how in childhood, or at the early stages of social life, we create a model for our own

imitation, with our own hands as it were, and often without knowing it? The banker's clerk, for instance, as he

enters his master's drawingroom, dreams of possessing such another. If he makes a fortune, it will not be the

luxury of the day, twenty years later, that you will find in his house, but the oldfashioned splendor that

fascinated him of yore. It is impossible to tell how many absurdities are due to this retrospective jealousy;

and in the same way we know nothing of the follies due to the covert rivalry that urges men to copy the type

they have set themselves, and exhaust their powers in shining with a reflected light, like the moon.

Crevel was deputy mayor because his predecessor had been; he was Major because he coveted Cesar

Birotteau's epaulettes. In the same way, struck by the marvels wrought by Grindot the architect, at the time

when Fortune had carried his master to the top of the wheel, Crevel had "never looked at both sides of a

crownpiece," to use his own language, when he wanted to "do up" his rooms; he had gone with his purse

open and his eyes shut to Grindot, who by this time was quite forgotten. It is impossible to guess how long an

So Grindot, for the thousandth time had displayed his whiteandgold drawingroom paneled with crimson

damask. The furniture, of rosewood, clumsily carved, as such work is done for the trade, had in the country

been the source of just pride in Paris workmanship on the occasion of an industrial exhibition. The

candelabra, the firedogs, the fender, the chandelier, the clock, were all in the most unmeaning style of

scrollwork; the round table, a fixture in the middle of the room, was a mosaic of fragments of Italian and

antique marbles, brought from Rome, where these dissected maps are made of mineralogical specimensfor

all the world like tailors' patternsan object of perennial admiration to Crevel's citizen friends. The portraits

of the late lamented Madame Crevel, of Crevel himself, of his daughter and his soninlaw, hung on the

walls, two and two; they were the work of Pierre Grassou, the favored painter of the bourgeoisie, to whom

Crevel owed his ridiculous Byronic attitude. The frames, costing a thousand francs each, were quite in

harmony with this coffeehouse magnificence, which would have made any true artist shrug his shoulders.

Money never yet missed the smallest opportunity of being stupid. We should have in Paris ten Venices if our

retired merchants had had the instinct for fine things characteristic of the Italians. Even in our own day a

Milanese merchant could leave five hundred thousand francs to the Duomo, to regild the colossal statue of

the Virgin that crowns the edifice. Canova, in his will, desired his brother to build a church costing four

million francs, and that brother adds something on his own account. Would a citizen of Parisand they all,

like Rivet, love their Paris in their heartever dream of building the spires that are lacking to the towers of

NotreDame? And only think of the sums that revert to the State in property for which no heirs are found.

All the improvements of Paris might have been completed with the money spent on stucco castings, gilt

mouldings, and sham sculpture during the last fifteen years by individuals of the Crevel stamp.

Beyond this drawingroom was a splendid boudoir furnished with tables and cabinets in imitation of Boulle.

The bedroom, smart with chintz, also opened out of the drawingroom. Mahogany in all its glory infested the

diningroom, and Swiss views, gorgeously framed, graced the panels. Crevel, who hoped to travel in

Switzerland, had set his heart on possessing the scenery in painting till the time should come when he might

So, as will have been seen, Crevel, the Mayor's deputy, of the Legion of Honor and of the National Guard,

had faithfully reproduced all the magnificence, even as to furniture, of his luckless predecessor. Under the

Restoration, where one had sunk, this other, quite overlooked, had come to the topnot by any strange

stroke of fortune, but by the force of circumstance. In revolutions, as in storms at sea, solid treasure goes to

the bottom, and light trifles are floated to the surface. Cesar Birotteau, a Royalist, in favor and envied, had

been made the mark of bourgeois hostility, while bourgeoisie triumphant found its incarnation in Crevel.

This apartment, at a rent of a thousand crowns, crammed with all the vulgar magnificence that money can

buy, occupied the first floor of a fine old house between a courtyard and a garden. Everything was as

spickandspan as the beetles in an entomological case, for Crevel lived very little at home.

This gorgeous residence was the ambitious citizen's legal domicile. His establishment consisted of a

womancook and a valet; he hired two extra men, and had a dinner sent in by Chevet, whenever he gave a

banquet to his political friends, to men he wanted to dazzle or to a family party.

The seat of Crevel's real domesticity, formerly in the Rue NotreDame de Lorette, with Mademoiselle

Heloise Brisetout, had lately been transferred, as we have seen, to the Rue Chauchat. Every morning the

retired merchantevery extradesman is a retired merchantspent two hours in the Rue des Saussayes to

attend to business, and gave the rest of his time to Mademoiselle Zaire, which annoyed Zaire very much.

OrosmanesCrevel had a fixed bargain with Mademoiselle Heloise; she owed him five hundred francs worth

of enjoyment every month, and no "bills delivered." He paid separately for his dinner and all extras. This

agreement, with certain bonuses, for he made her a good many presents, seemed cheap to the exattache of

the great singer; and he would say to widowers who were fond of their daughters, that it paid better to job

your horses than to have a stable of your own. At the same time, if the reader remembers the speech made to

the Baron by the porter at the Rue Chauchat, Crevel did not escape the coachman and the groom.

Crevel, as may be seen, had turned his passionate affection for his daughter to the advantage of his

selfindulgence. The immoral aspect of the situation was justified by the highest morality. And then the

experfumer derived from this style of livingit was the inevitable, a freeandeasy life, Regence,

Pompadour, Marechal de Richelieu, what nota certain veneer of superiority. Crevel set up for being a man

of broad views, a fine gentleman with an air and grace, a liberal man with nothing narrow in his ideasand

all for the small sum of about twelve to fifteen hundred francs a month. This was the result not of hypocritical

On the Bourse Crevel was regarded as a man superior to his time, and especially as a man of pleasure, a bon

vivant. In this particular Crevel flattered himself that he had overtopped his worthy friend Birotteau by a

"And is it you?" cried Crevel, flying into a rage as he saw Lisbeth enter the room, "who have plotted this

marriage between Mademoiselle Hulot and your young Count, whom you have been bringing up by hand for

"You don't seem best pleased at it?" said Lisbeth, fixing a piercing eye on Crevel. "What interest can you

have in hindering my cousin's marriage? For it was you, I am told, who hindered her marrying Monsieur

"You are a good soul and to be trusted," said Crevel. "Well, then, do you suppose that I will ever forgive

Monsieur Hulot for the crime of having robbed me of Josephaespecially when he turned a decent girl,

whom I should have married in my old age, into a goodfornothing slut, a mountebank, an opera

"Amiable, very amiabletoo amiable," replied Crevel. "I wish him no harm; but I do wish to have my

"Ah, ha! then you were courting my fair cousin?" said Lisbeth, with a smile. "I thought as much."

"And she treated me like a dog!worse, like a footman; nay, I might say like a political prisoner.But I

"Poor man! It would be dreadful to catch his wife deceiving him after being packed off by his mistress."

"Josepha?" cried Crevel. "Has Josepha thrown him over, packed him off, turned him out neck and crop?

Bravo, Josepha, you have avenged me! I will send you a pair of pearls to hang in your ears, my

exsweetheart! I knew nothing of it; for after I had seen you, on the day after that when the fair Adeline

had shown me the door, I went back to visit the Lebas, at Corbeil, and have but just come back. Heloise

played the very devil to get me into the country, and I have found out the purpose of her game; she wanted

me out of the way while she gave a housewarming in the Rue Chauchat, with some artists, and players, and

writers.She took me in! But I can forgive her, for Heloise amuses me. She is a Dejazet under a bushel.

" 'DEAR OLD CHAP,I have pitched my tent in the Rue Chauchat. I have taken the precaution of getting a

few friends to clean up the paint. All is well. Come when you please, monsieur; Hagar awaits her Abraham.'

"Heloise will have some news for me, for she has her bohemia at her fingers' end."

"Impossible!" cried Crevel, stopping in a parade as regular as the swing of a pendulum.

"I know that," said Crevel, "but in one point we are alike: Hulot cannot do without an attachment. He is

capable of going back to his wife. It would be a novelty for him, but an end to my vengeance. You smile,

"I am smiling at your notions," replied Lisbeth. "Yes, my cousin is still handsome enough to inspire a

"Cut and come again!" exclaimed Crevel. "You are laughing at me.The Baron has already found

"He is a lucky man if he can find a second Josepha within twentyfour hours!" said Crevel. "But I am not

altogether surprised, for he told me one evening at supper that when he was a young man he always had three

mistresses on hand that he might not be left high and drythe one he was giving over, the one in possession,

and the one he was courting for a future emergency. He had some smart little workwoman in reserve, no

doubtin his fishpondhis Parcauxcerfs! He is very Louis XV., is my gentleman. He is in luck to be

so handsome! However, he is ageing; his face shows it.He has taken up with some little milliner?"

"Oh!" cried Crevel, "what would I not do to hinder him from hanging up his hat! I could not win back

Josepha; women of that kind never come back to their first love.Besides, it is truly said, such a return is

not love.But, Cousin Betty, I would pay down fifty thousand francs that is to say, I would spend itto

rob that great goodlooking fellow of his mistress, and to show him that a Major with a portly stomach and a

brain made to become Mayor of Paris, though he is a grandfather, is not to have his mistress tickled away by

"My position," said Lisbeth, "compels me to hear everything and know nothing. You may talk to me without

fear; I never repeat a word of what any one may choose to tell me. How can you suppose I should ever break

"I know," said Crevel; "you are the very jewel of old maids. Still, come, there are exceptions. Look here, the

"But I have my pride," said Lisbeth. "I do not choose to be an expense to anybody."

"If you will but help me to my revenge," the tradesman went on, "I will sink ten thousand francs in an annuity

for you. Tell me, my fair cousin, tell me who has stepped into Josepha's shoes, and you will have money to

pay your rent, your little breakfast in the morning, the good coffee you love so wellyou might allow

"I do not care so much for the ten thousand francs in an annuity, which would bring me nearly five hundred

francs a year, as for absolute secrecy," said Lisbeth. "For, you see, my dear Monsieur Crevel, the Baron is

"Oh yes, long may that last! I advise you to trust him," cried Crevel. "Where will he find the money?"

"Ah, that I don't know. At the same time, he is spending more than thirty thousand francs on the rooms he is

"A lady! What, a woman in society; the rascal, what luck he has! He is the only favorite!"

"Really and truly?" cried Crevel, opening wide eyes flashing with envy, quite as much as at the magic words

"Yes, really," said Lisbeth. "Clever, a musician, threeandtwenty, a pretty, innocent face, a dazzling white

skin, teeth like a puppy's, eyes like stars, a beautiful foreheadand tiny feet, I never saw the like, they are

"I tell you, in few words, a gem of a womanand highminded, and modest, and refined! A beautiful soul,

"A Marshal of France!" shrieked Crevel, positively bounding with excitement. "Good Heavens! by the Holy

Piper! By all the joys in Paradise!The rascal!I beg your pardon, Cousin, I am going crazy! I think I

"I dare say you would, and, I tell you, she is a respectable womana woman of virtue. The Baron has forked

"He is promoted to be second in his officethis husband who will oblige, no doubt;and his name is down

"The Government ought to be judicious and respect those who have the Cross by not flinging it broadcast,"

said Crevel, with the look of an aggrieved politician. "But what is there about the manthat old bulldog of a

Baron?" he went on. "It seems to me that I am quite a match for him," and he struck an attitude as he looked

at himself in the glass. "Heloise has told me many a time, at moments when a woman speaks the truth, that I

"Oh," said Lisbeth, "women like big men; they are almost always good natured; and if I had to decide

between you and the Baron, I should choose you. Monsieur Hulot is amusing, handsome, and has a figure;

but you, you are substantial, and thenyou seeyou look an even greater scamp than he does."

"It is incredible how all women, even pious women, take to men who have that about them!" exclaimed

"The difficulty does not lie there," said Betty. "You must see that a woman who is getting so many

advantages will not be unfaithful to her patron for nothing; and it would cost you more than a hundred odd

thousand francs, for our little friend can look forward to seeing her husband at the head of his office within

two years' time.It is poverty that is dragging the poor little angel into that pit."

"He must be uncommonly fond of the woman?" he inquired after a pause, while his desires, thus goaded by

"You may judge for yourself," replied Lisbeth. I don't believe he has had that of her," said she, snapping her

thumbnail against one of her enormous white teeth, "and he has given her ten thousand francs' worth of

"What a good joke it would be!" cried Crevel, "if I got to the winning post first!"

"Good heavens! It is too bad of me to be telling you all this tittle tattle," said Lisbeth, with an air of

"No.I mean to put your relations to the blush. Tomorrow I shall invest in your name such a sum in

fivepercents as will give you six hundred francs a year; but then you must tell me everythinghis

Dulcinea's name and residence. To you I will make a clean breast of it.I never have had a real lady for a

mistress, and it is the height of my ambition. Mahomet's houris are nothing in comparison with what I fancy a

woman of fashion must be. In short, it is my dream, my mania, and to such a point, that I declare to you the

Baroness Hulot to me will never be fifty," said he, unconsciously plagiarizing one of the greatest wits of the

last century. "I assure you, my good Lisbeth, I am prepared to sacrifice a hundred, two hundredHush! Here

are the young people, I see them crossing the courtyard. I shall never have learned anything through you, I

give you my word of honor; for I do not want you to lose the Baron's confidence, quite the contrary. He must

"He is crazy about her," said Lisbeth. "He could not find forty thousand francs to marry his daughter off, but

"Oh, what an owl I am!" cried Crevel, "when I myself allowed Heloise to keep her artist exactly as Henri IX.

allowed Gabrielle her Bellegrade. Alas! old age, old age!Goodmorning, Celestine. How do, my

jewel!And the brat? Ah! here he comes; on my honor, he is beginning to be like me!Goodday,

Celestine and her husband, as a hint to their father, glanced at the old maid, who audaciously asked, in reply

Crevel put on an air of reserve which was meant to convey that he would make up for her indiscretions.

"That of Hortense," he replied; "but it is not yet quite settled. I have just come from the Lebas', and they were

talking of Mademoiselle Popinot as a suitable match for their son, the young councillor, for he would like to

By seven o'clock Lisbeth had returned home in an omnibus, for she was eager to see Wenceslas, whose dupe

she had been for three weeks, and to whom she was carrying a basket filled with fruit by the hands of Crevel

She flew up to the attic at a pace that took her breath away, and found the artist finishing the ornamentation

of a box to be presented to the adored Hortense. The framework of the lid represented hydrangeasin

French called Hortensiasamong which little Loves were playing. The poor lover, to enable him to pay for

the materials of the box, of which the panels were of malachite, had designed two candlesticks for Florent

"You have been working too hard these last few days, my dear fellow," said Lisbeth, wiping the perspiration

from his brow, and giving him a kiss. "Such laborious diligence is really dangerous in the month of August.

Seriously, you may injure your health. Look, here are some peaches and plums from Monsieur

Crevel.Now, do not worry yourself so much; I have borrowed two thousand francs, and, short of some

disaster, we can repay them when you sell your clock. At the same time, the lender seems to me suspicious,

"For whom are you making this pretty thing?" said she, taking up the model sprays of hydrangea in red wax

"I do not know. Stidmann asked me to make something out of them, as he is very busy."

"But these," she said in a deep voice, "are Hortensias. How is it that you have never made anything in wax

for me? Is it so difficult to design a pin, a little boxwhat not, as a keepsake?" and she shot a fearful glance

"That is indeed an ardent mademoiselle!Why, you have been my only thought since I found you

dyingjust there. When I saved you, you vowed you were mine, I mean to hold you to that pledge; but I

made a vow to myself! I said to myself, 'Since the boy says he is mine, I mean to make him rich and happy!'

"How?" said the hapless artist, at the height of joy, and too artless to dream of a snare.

Lisbeth could not deprive herself of the savage pleasure of gazing at Wenceslas, who looked up at her with

filial affection, the expression really of his love for Hortense, which deluded the old maid. Seeing in a man's

eyes, for the first time in her life, the blazing torch of passion, she fancied it was for her that it was lighted.

"Monsieur Crevel will back us to the extent of a hundred thousand francs to start in business, if, as he says,

you will marry me. He has queer ideas, has the worthy man.Well, what do you say to it?" she added.

The artist, as pale as the dead, looked at his benefactress with a lustreless eye, which plainly spoke his

"I never before was so distinctly told that I am hideous," said she, with a bitter laugh.

"Mademoiselle," said Steinbock, "my benefactress can never be ugly in my eyes; I have the greatest affection

"I am fortythree," said Lisbeth. "My cousin Adeline is fortyeight, and men are still madly in love with her;

"Fifteen years between us, mademoiselle! How could we get on together! For both our sakes I think we

should be wise to think it over. My gratitude shall be fully equal to your great kindness.And your money

"My money!" cried she. "You treat me as if I were nothing but an unfeeling usurer."

"Forgive me," said Wenceslas, "but you remind me of it so often. Well, it is you who have made me; do

"You mean to be rid of me, I can see," said she, shaking her head. "Who has endowed you with this strength

of ingratitudeyou who are a man of papiermache? Have you ceased to trust meyour good genius?

me, when I have spent so many nights working for youwhen I have given you every franc I have saved in

my lifetimewhen for four years I have shared my bread with you, the bread of a hardworked woman, and

"Mademoiselleno more, no more!" he cried, kneeling before her with uplifted hands. "Say not another

word! In three days I will tell you, you shall know all.Let me, let me be happy," and he kissed her hands. "I

"Well, well, my child, be happy," she said, lifting him up. And she kissed his forehead and hair with the

eagerness that a man condemned to death must feel as he lives through the last morning.

"Ah! you are of all creatures the noblest and best! You are a match for the woman I love," said the poor artist.

"I love you well enough to tremble for your future fate," said she gloomily. "Judas hanged himselfthe

ungrateful always come to a bad end! You are deserting me, and you will never again do any good work.

Consider whether, without being marriedfor I know I am an old maid, and I do not want to smother the

blossom of your youth, your poetry, as you call it, in my arms, that are like vinestocksbut whether,

without being married, we could not get on together? Listen; I have the commercial spirit; I could save you a

fortune in the course of ten years' work, for Economy is my name!while, with a young wife, who would be

sheer Expenditure, you would squander everything; you would work only to indulge her. But happiness

creates nothing but memories. Even I, when I am thinking of you, sit for hours with my hands in my lap

"Come, Wenceslas, stay with me.Look here, I understand all about it; you shall have your mistresses;

pretty ones too, like that little Marneffe woman who wants to see you, and who will give you happiness you

could never find with me. Then, when I have saved you thirty thousand francs a year in the funds"

"Mademoiselle, you are an angel, and I shall never forget this hour," said Wenceslas, wiping away his tears.

"That is how I like to see you, my child," said she, gazing at him with rapture.

Vanity is so strong a power in us all that Lisbeth believed in her triumph. She had conceded so much when

offering him Madame Marneffe. It was the crowning emotion of her life; for the first time she felt the full tide

of joy rising in her heart. To go through such an experience again she would have sold her soul to the Devil.

"I am engaged to be married," Steinbock replied, "and I love a woman with whom no other can compete or

The words fell like an avalanche of snow on a burning crater. Lisbeth sat down. She gazed with despondent

eyes on the youth before her, on his aristocratic beautythe artist's brow, the splendid hair, everything that

appealed to her suppressed feminine instincts, and tiny tears moistened her eyes for an instant and

immediately dried up. She looked like one of those meagre statues which the sculptors of the Middle Ages

"I cannot curse you," said she, suddenly rising. "Youyou are but a boy. God preserve you!"

"She is in love with me, poor creature!" said Wenceslas to himself. "And how fervently eloquent! She is

This last effort on the part of an arid and narrow nature to keep hold on an embodiment of beauty and poetry

was, in truth, so violent that it can only be compared to the frenzied vehemence of a shipwrecked creature

On the next day but one, at halfpast four in the morning, when Count Steinbock was sunk in the deepest

sleep, he heard a knock at the door of his attic; he rose to open it, and saw two men in shabby clothing, and a

"You are under arrest, sir. You must come with us to prisonto Clichy.Please to get dressed.We have

done the civil, as you see; I have brought no police, and there is a hackney cab below."

"You are safely nabbed, you see," said one of the bailiffs; "and we look to you to be liberal."

Steinbock dressed and went downstairs, a man holding each arm; when he was in the cab, the driver started

without orders, as knowing where he was to go, and within half an hour the unhappy foreigner found himself

safely under bolt and bar without even a remonstrance, so utterly amazed was he.

At ten o'clock he was sent for to the prisonoffice, where he found Lisbeth, who, in tears, gave him some

"My dear boy," said she, "never say a word of your arrest to anybody, do not write to a living soul; it would

ruin you for life; we must hide this blot on your character. I will soon have you out. I will collect the

moneybe quite easy. Write down what you want for your work. You shall soon be free, or I will die for it."

"Oh, I shall owe you my life a second time!" cried he, "for I should lose more than my life if I were thought a

Lisbeth went off in great glee; she hoped, by keeping her artist under lock and key, to put a stop to his

marriage by announcing that he was a married man, pardoned by the efforts of his wife, and gone off to

To carry out this plan, at about three o'clock she went to the Baroness, though it was not the day when she

was due to dine with her; but she wished to enjoy the anguish which Hortense must endure at the hour when

"That's well," replied Hortense. "I will go and tell them to be punctual, for you do not like to be kept

Hortense nodded reassuringly to her mother, for she intended to tell the manservant to send away Monsieur

Steinbock if he should call; the man, however, happened to be out, so Hortense was obliged to give her orders

to the maid, and the girl went upstairs to fetch her needlework and sit in the anteroom.

"And about my lover?" said Cousin Betty to Hortense, when the girl came back. "You never ask about him

"To be sure, what is he doing?" said Hortense. "He has become famous. You ought to be very happy," she

added in an undertone to Lisbeth. "Everybody is talking of Monsieur Wenceslas Steinbock."

"A great deal too much," replied she in her clear tones. "Monsieur is departing.If it were only a matter of

charming him so far as to defy the attractions of Paris, I know my power; but they say that in order to secure

"When did you hear that?" asked Hortense, who felt as if her heart had the cramp.

"Well," said the villainous Lisbeth, "a person to whom he is bound by the most sacred tieshis wifewrote

yesterday to tell him so. He wants to be off. Oh, he will be a great fool to give up France to go to Russia!"

Hortense looked at her mother, but her head sank on one side; the Baroness was only just in time to support

"Lisbeth! you have killed my child!" cried the Baroness. "You were born to be our curse!"

"Bless me! what fault of mine is this, Adeline?" replied Lisbeth, as she rose with a menacing aspect, of which

At this instant the door opened, the women both looked round, and saw Wenceslas Steinbock, who had been

"Hortense!" cried the artist, with one spring to the group of women. And he kissed his betrothed before her

mother's eyes, on the forehead, and so reverently, that the Baroness could not be angry. It was a better

restorative than any smelling salts. Hortense opened her eyes, saw Wenceslas, and her color came back. In a

"So this was your secret?" said Lisbeth, smiling at Wenceslas, and affecting to guess the facts from her two

"But how did you steal away my lover?" said she, leading Hortense into the garden.

Hortense artlessly told the romance of her love. Her father and mother, she said, being convinced that Lisbeth

would never marry, had authorized the Count's visits. Only Hortense, like a fullblown Agnes, attributed to

chance her purchase of the group and the introduction of the artist, who, by her account, had insisted on

Presently Steinbock came out to join the cousins, and thanked the old maid effusively for his prompt release.

Lisbeth replied Jesuitically that the creditor having given very vague promises, she had not hoped to be able

to get him out before the morrow, and that the person who had lent her the money, ashamed, perhaps, of such

mean conduct, had been beforehand with her. The old maid appeared to be perfectly content, and

"You bad boy!" said she, before Hortense and her mother, "if you had only told me the evening before last

that you loved my cousin Hortense, and that she loved you, you would have spared me many tears. I thought

that you were deserting your old friend, your governess; while, on the contrary, you are to become my cousin;

henceforth, you will be connected with me, remotely, it is true, but by ties that amply justify the feelings I

"Cousin Betty," said the Baroness, embracing Lisbeth in her excitement at seeing matters so happily settled,

"the Baron and I owe you a debt of gratitude, and we will pay it. Come and talk things over with me," she

So Lisbeth, to all appearances, was playing the part of a good angel to the whole family; she was adored by

"We wish you to give up working," said the Baroness. "If you earn forty sous a day, Sundays excepted, that

She raised her eyes to heaven, so deeply was she moved at the thought of all the labor and privation such a

Lisbeth, misunderstanding the meaning of the exclamation, took it as the ironical pity of the successful

woman, and her hatred was strengthened by a large infusion of venom at the very moment when her cousin

"We will add ten thousand five hundred francs to that sum," said Adeline, "and put it in trust so that you shall

draw the interest for life with reversion to Hortense. Thus, you will have six hundred francs a year."

Lisbeth feigned the utmost satisfaction. When she went in, her handkerchief to her eyes, wiping away tears of

joy, Hortense told her of all the favors being showered on Wenceslas, beloved of the family.

So when the Baron came home, he found his family all present; for the Baroness had formally accepted

Wenceslas by the title of Son, and the wedding was fixed, if her husband should approve, for a day a fortnight

hence. The moment he came into the drawingroom, Hulot was rushed at by his wife and daughter, who ran

"You have gone too far in pledging me to this, madame," said the Baron sternly. "You are not married yet,"

"Come, children," said he, leading his daughter and the young man into the garden; they all sat down on the

"Monsieur le Comte, do you love my daughter as well as I loved her mother?" he asked.

"So I should think!" said the Baron, smiling. "Hortense is the daughter of the Baron Hulot d'Ervy, Councillor

of State, high up in the War Office, Grand Commander of the Legion of Honor, and the brother to Count

Hulot, whose glory is immortal, and who will ere long be Marshal of France! Andshe has a marriage

"It is true," said the impassioned artist. "I must seem very ambitious. But if my dear Hortense were a laborer's

"That is just what I wanted to know," replied the Baron. "Run away, Hortense, and leave me to talk business

"My dear Steinbock," said the Baron, with elaborate grace of diction and the most perfect manners, as soon as

he and the artist were alone, "I promised my son a fortune of two hundred thousand francs, of which the poor

boy has never had a sou; and he never will get any of it. My daughter's fortune will also be two hundred

"You go too fast," said Hulot. "Have the goodness to hear me out. I cannot expect from a soninlaw such

devotion as I look for from my son. My son knew exactly all I could and would do for his future promotion:

he will be a Minister, and will easily make good his two hundred thousand francs. But with you, young man,

matters are different. I shall give you a bond for sixty thousand francs in State funds at five per cent, in your

wife's name. This income will be diminished by a small charge in the form of an annuity to Lisbeth; but she

will not live long; she is consumptive, I know. Tell no one; it is a secret; let the poor soul die in peace.My

daughter will have a trousseau worth twenty thousand francs; her mother will give her six thousand francs

"Will you listen to me, effervescent youth!As to the remaining hundred and twenty thousand francs, I have

"You will get them from the Government, in payment for commissions which I will secure for you, I pledge

you my word of honor. You are to have a studio, you see, at the Government depot. Exhibit a few fine

statues, and I will get you received at the Institute. The highest personages have a regard for my brother and

for me, and I hope to succeed in securing for you a commission for sculpture at Versailles up to a quarter of

the whole sum. You will have orders from the City of Paris and from the Chamber of Peers; in short, my dear

fellow, you will have so many that you will be obliged to get assistants. In that way I shall pay off my debt to

you. You must say whether this way of giving a portion will suit you; whether you are equal to it."

"I am equal to making a fortune for my wife singlehanded if all else failed!" cried the artistnobleman.

"That is what I admire!" cried the Baron. "Highminded youth that fears nothing. Come," he added, clasping

hands with the young sculptor to conclude the bargain, "you have my consent. We will sign the contract on

Sunday next, and the wedding shall be on the following Saturday, my wife's feteday."

"It is alright," said the Baroness to her daughter, who stood glued to the window. "Your suitor and your father

On going home in the evening, Wenceslas found the solution of the mystery of his release. The porter handed

him a thick sealed packet, containing the schedule of his debts, with a signed receipt affixed at the bottom of

"MY DEAR WENCESLAS,I went to fetch you at ten o'clock this morning to introduce you to a Royal

Highness who wishes to see you. There I learned that the duns had had you conveyed to a certain little

"So off I went to Leon de Lora, and told him, for a joke, that you could not leave your country quarters for

lack of four thousand francs, and that you would spoil your future prospects if you did not make your bow to

your royal patron. Happily, Bridau was there a man of genius, who has known what it is to be poor, and

has heard your story. My boy, between them they have found the money, and I went off to pay the Turk who

committed treason against genius by putting you in quod. As I had to be at the Tuileries at noon, I could not

wait to see you sniffing the outer air. I know you to be a gentleman, and I answered for you to my two

"Leon and Bridau do not want your cash; they will ask you to do them each a groupand they are right. At

least, so thinks the man who wishes he could sign himself your rival, but is only your faithful ally,

"P. S.I told the Prince you were away, and would not return till tomorrow, so he said, 'Very

Count Wenceslas went to bed in sheets of purple, without a roseleaf to wrinkle them, that Favor can make

for usFavor, the halting divinity who moves more slowly for men of genius than either Justice or Fortune,

because Jove has not chosen to bandage her eyes. Hence, lightly deceived by the display of impostors, and

attracted by their frippery and trumpets, she spends the time in seeing them and the money in paying them

which she ought to devote to seeking out men of merit in the nooks where they hide.

It will now be necessary to explain how Monsieur le Baron Hulot had contrived to count up his expenditure

on Hortense's wedding portion, and at the same time to defray the frightful cost of the charming rooms where

Madame Marneffe was to make her home. His financial scheme bore that stamp of talent which leads

prodigals and men in love into the quagmires where so many disasters await them. Nothing can demonstrate

more completely the strange capacity communicated by vice, to which we owe the strokes of skill which

ambitious or voluptuous men can occasionally achieveor, in short, any of the Devil's pupils.

On the day before, old Johann Fischer, unable to pay thirty thousand francs drawn for on him by his nephew,

had found himself under the necessity of stopping payment unless the Baron could remit the sum.

This ancient worthy, with the white hairs of seventy years, had such blind confidence in Hulotwho, to the

old Bonapartist, was an emanation from the Napoleonic sunthat he was calmly pacing his anteroom with

the bank clerk, in the little groundfloor apartment that he rented for eight hundred francs a year as the

The official, in his gray uniform braided with silver, was so convinced of the old Alsatian's honesty, that he

was prepared to leave the thirty thousand francs' worth of bills in his hands; but the old man would not let

him go, observing that the clock had not yet struck eight. A cab drew up, the old man rushed into the street,

and held out his hand to the Baron with sublime confidenceHulot handed him out thirty thousandfranc

"Here, young man," he said, returning to count out the money to the bank emissary, whom he then saw to the

When the clerk was out of sight, Fischer called back the cab containing his august nephew, Napoleon's right

"You do not want them to know at the Bank of France that you paid me the thirty thousand francs, after

"Come to the bottom of your little garden, Father Fischer," said the important man. "You are hearty?" he

went on, sitting down under a vine arbor and scanning the old man from head to foot, as a dealer in human

"Ay, hearty enough for a tontine," said the lean little old man; his sinews were wiry, and his eye bright.

"A very nice country!The French went there with the little Corporal" (Napoleon).

"To get us all out of the present scrape, you must go to Algiers," said the Baron.

"An official in the War Office, who has to retire, and has not enough to live on with his pension, will buy

"Supply the Commissariat with victuals, corn, and forage; I have your commission ready filled in and signed.

You can collect supplies in the country at seventy per cent below the prices at which you can credit us."

"Oh, by raids, by taxes in kind, and the Khaliphat.The country is little known, though we settled there

eight years ago; Algeria produces vast quantities of corn and forage. When this produce belongs to Arabs, we

take it from them under various pretences; when it belongs to us, the Arabs try to get it back again. There is a

great deal of fighting over the corn, and no one ever knows exactly how much each party has stolen from the

other. There is not time in the open field to measure the corn as we do in the Paris market, or the hay as it is

sold in the Rue d'Enfer. The Arab chiefs, like our Spahis, prefer hard cash, and sell the plunder at a very low

price. The Commissariat needs a fixed quantity and must have it. It winks at exorbitant prices calculated on

the difficulty of procuring food, and the dangers to which every form of transport is exposed. That is Algiers

"It is a muddle tempered by the inkbottle, like every incipient government. We shall not see our way

through it for another ten years we who have to do the governing; but private enterprise has sharp

eyes.So I am sending you there to make a fortune; I give you the job, as Napoleon put an impoverished

"I am ruined, my dear Fischer; I must have a hundred thousand francs within a year."

"I see no harm in getting it out of the Bedouins," said the Alsatian calmly. "It was always done under the

"The man who wants to buy your business will be here this morning, and pay you ten thousand francs down,"

"As to capital out there, be quite easy. I will draw the remainder of the money due if I find it necessary."

"Oh, do not be uneasy," said Hulot, fancying that his uncle saw more clearly than was the fact. "As to our

excise dealings, your character will not be impugned. Everything depends on the authority at your back; now

I myself appointed the authorities out there; I am sure of them. This, Uncle Fischer, is a dead secret between

us. I know you well, and I have spoken out without concealment or circumlocution."

"For two years, You will have made a hundred thousand francs of your own to live happy on in the Vosges."

"That is the sort of man I like.However, you must not go till you have seen your grandniece happily

But even taxes and raids and the money paid by the War Office clerk for Fischer's business could not

forthwith provide sixty thousand francs to give Hortense, to say nothing of her trousseau, which was to cost

about five thousand, and the forty thousand spentor to be spent on Madame Marneffe.

Where, then had the Baron found the thirty thousand francs he had just produced? This was the history.

A few days previously Hulot had insured his life for the sum of a hundred and fifty thousand francs, for three

years, in two separate companies. Armed with the policies, of which he paid the premium, he had spoken as

follows to the Baron de Nucingen, a peer of the Chamber, in whose carriage he found himself after a sitting,

"Baron, I want seventy thousand francs, and I apply to you. You must find some one to lend his name, to

whom I will make over the right to draw my pay for three years; it amounts to twentyfive thousand francs a

yearthat is, seventyfive thousand francs.You will say, 'But you may die' "the banker signified his

assent"Here, then, is a policy of insurance for a hundred and fifty thousand francs, which I will deposit

with you till you have drawn up the eighty thousand francs," said Hulot, producing the document form his

"Be quite easy; I only raised the question to show you that I was not devoid of merit in handing you the sum.

"My daughter is to be married," said Baron Hulot, "and I have no fortunelike every one else who remains

in office in these thankless times, when five hundred ordinary men seated on benches will never reward the

"Well, well; but you had Josepha on your hands!" replied Nucingen, "and that accounts for everything.

Between ourselves, the Duc d'Herouville has done you a very good turn by removing that leech from sucking

your purse dry. 'I have known what that is, and can pity your case,' " he quoted. "Take a friend's advice: Shut

This dirty business was carried out in the name of one Vauvinet, a small moneylender; one of those jobbers

who stand forward to screen great banking houses, like the little fish that is said to attend the shark. This

stockjobber's apprentice was so anxious to gain the patronage of Monsieur le Baron Hulot, that he promised

the great man to negotiate bills of exchange for thirty thousand francs at eighty days, and pledged himself to

Fischer's successor was to pay forty thousand francs for the house and the business, with the promise that he

This was the desperate maze of affairs into which a man who had hitherto been absolutely honest was led by

his passionsone of the best administrative officials under Napoleonpeculation to pay the

moneylenders, and borrowing of the moneylenders to gratify his passions and provide for his daughter. All

the efforts of this elaborate prodigality were directed at making a display before Madame Marneffe, and to

playing Jupiter to this middleclass Danae. A man could not expend more activity, intelligence, and presence

of mind in the honest acquisition of a fortune than the Baron displayed in shoving his head into a wasp's nest:

He did all the business of his department, he hurried on the upholsterers, he talked to the workmen, he kept a

sharp lookout on the smallest details of the house in the Rue Vanneau. Wholly devoted to Madame Marneffe,

he nevertheless attended the sittings of the Chambers; he was everywhere at once, and neither his family nor

Adeline, quite amazed to hear that her uncle was rescued, and to see a handsome sum figure in the

marriagecontract, was not altogether easy, in spite of her joy at seeing her daughter married under such

creditable circumstances. But, on the day before the wedding, fixed by the Baron to coincide with Madame

Marneffe's removal to her new apartment, Hector allayed his wife's astonishment by this ministerial

"Now, Adeline, our girl is married; all our anxieties on the subject are at an end. The time is come for us to

retire from the world: I shall not remain in office more than three years longeronly the time necessary to

secure my pension. Why, henceforth, should we be at any unnecessary expense? Our apartment costs us six

thousand francs a year in rent, we have four servants, we eat thirty thousand francs' worth of food in a year. If

you want me to pay off my billsfor I have pledged my salary for the sums I needed to give Hortense her

"You did very right!" said she, interrupting her husband, and kissing his hands.

"I shall have to ask some little sacrifices of you," he went on, disengaging his hands and kissing his wife's

brow. "I have found in the Rue Plumet a very good flat on the first floor, handsome, splendidly paneled, at

only fifteen hundred francs a year, where you would only need one woman to wait on you, and I could be

"If we keep house in a quiet way, keeping up a proper appearance of course, we should not spend more than

six thousand francs a year, excepting my private account, which I will provide for."

"How happy I shall be, beginning again to show you how truly I love you!" she exclaimed. "And what a

"We will have the children to dine with us once a week. I, as you know, rarely dine at home. You can very

well dine twice a week with Victorin and twice a week with Hortense. And, as I believe, I may succeed in

making matters up completely between Crevel and us; we can dine once a week with him. These five dinners

and our own at home will fill up the week all but one day, supposing that we may occasionally be invited to

"My kind, divine Hector, I shall bless you with my latest breath," said she, "for you have done well for my

This was the beginning of the end of the beautiful Madame Hulot's home; and, it may be added, of her being

Crevel, the important and burly, being invited as a matter of course to the party given for the signing of the

marriagecontract, behaved as though the scene with which this drama opened had never taken place, as

though he had no grievance against the Baron. Celestin Crevel was quite amiable; he was perhaps rather too

much the experfumer, but as a Major he was beginning to acquire majestic dignity. He talked of dancing at

"Fair lady," said he politely to the Baroness, "people like us know how to forget. Do not banish me from your

home; honor me, pray, by gracing my house with your presence now and then to meet your children. Be quite

easy; I will never say anything of what lies buried at the bottom of my heart. I behaved, indeed, like an idiot,

"Monsieur, an honest woman has no ears for such speeches as those you refer to. If you keep your word, you

need not doubt that it will give me pleasure to see the end of a coolness which must always be painful in a

"Well, you sulky old fellow," said Hulot, dragging Crevel out into the garden, "you avoid me everywhere,

even in my own house. Are two admirers of the fair sex to quarrel for ever over a petticoat? Come; this is

"I, monsieur, am not such a fine man as you are, and my small attractions hinder me from repairing my losses

The conversation, begun in this strain, ended in a complete reconciliation; still Crevel maintained his right to

Madame Marneffe particularly wished to be invited to Mademoiselle Hulot's wedding. To enable him to

receive his future mistress in his drawingroom, the great official was obliged to invite all the clerks of his

division down to the deputy headclerks inclusive. Thus a grand ball was a necessity. The Baroness, as a

prudent housewife, calculated that an evening party would cost less than a dinner, and allow of a larger

Marshal Prince Wissembourg and the Baron de Nucingen signed in behalf of the bride, the Comtes de

Rastignac and Popinot in behalf of Steinbock. Then, as the highest nobility among the Polish emigrants had

been civil to Count Steinbock since he had become famous, the artist thought himself bound to invite them.

The State Council, and the War Office to which the Baron belonged, and the army, anxious to do honor to the

Comte de Forzheim, were all represented by their magnates. There were nearly two hundred indispensable

invitations. How natural, then, that little Madame Marneffe was bent on figuring in all her glory amid such an

assembly. The Baroness had, a month since, sold her diamonds to set up her daughter's house, while keeping

the finest for the trousseau. The sale realized fifteen thousand francs, of which five thousand were sunk in

Hortense's clothes. And what was ten thousand francs for the furniture of the young folks' apartment,

considering the demands of modern luxury? However, young Monsieur and Madame Hulot, old Crevel, and

the Comte de Forzheim made very handsome presents, for the old soldier had set aside a sum for the purchase

of plate. Thanks to these contributions, even an exacting Parisian would have been pleased with the rooms the

young couple had taken in the Rue SaintDominique, near the Invalides. Everything seemed in harmony with

At last the great day dawnedfor it was to be a great day not only for Wenceslas and Hortense, but for old

Hulot too. Madame Marneffe was to give a housewarming in her new apartment the day after becoming

Who but has once in his life been a guest at a weddingball? Every reader can refer to his reminiscences, and

will probably smile as he calls up the images of all that company in their Sundaybest faces as well as their

If any social event can prove the influence of environment, is it not this? In fact, the Sundaybest mood of

some reacts so effectually on the rest that the men who are most accustomed to wearing full dress look just

like those to whom the party is a high festival, unique in their life. And think too of the serious old men to

whom such things are so completely a matter of indifference, that they are wearing their everyday black

coats; the longmarried men, whose faces betray their sad experience of the life the young pair are but just

entering on; and the lighter elements, present as carbonicacid gas is in champagne; and the envious girls, the

women absorbed in wondering if their dress is a success, the poor relations whose parsimonious "get up"

contrasts with that of the officials in uniform; and the greedy ones, thinking only of the supper; and the

There are some of every sort, rich and poor, envious and envied, philosophers and dreamers, all grouped like

the plants in a flowerbed round the rare, choice blossom, the bride. A weddingball is an epitome of the

At the liveliest moment of the evening Crevel led the Baron aside, and said in a whisper, with the most

"By Jove! that's a pretty womanthe little lady in pink who has opened a racking fire on you from her eyes."

"Listen, Hulot; I will try to forgive you the ill you have done me if only you will introduce me to herI will

take you to Heloise. Everybody is asking who is that charming creature. Are you sure that it will strike no one

how and why her husband's appointment got itself signed?You happy rascal, she is worth a whole

office.I would serve in her office only too gladly.Come, cinna, let us be friends."

"Better friends than ever," said the Baron to the perfumer, "and I promise you I will be a good fellow. Within

a month you shall dine with that little angel.For it is an angel this time, old boy. And I advise you, like me,

Cousin Betty, who had moved to the Rue Vanneau, into a nice little apartment on the third floor, left the ball

at ten o'clock, but came back to see with her own eyes the two bonds bearing twelve hundred francs interest;

one of them was the property of the Countess Steinbock, the other was in the name of Madame Hulot.

It is thus intelligible that Monsieur Crevel should have spoken to Hulot about Madame Marneffe, as knowing

what was a secret to the rest of the world; for, as Monsieur Marneffe was away, no one but Lisbeth Fischer,

The Baron had made a blunder in giving Madame Marneffe a dress far too magnificent for the wife of a

subordinate official; other women were jealous alike of her beauty and of her gown. There was much

whispering behind fans, for the poverty of the Marneffes was known to every one in the office; the husband

had been petitioning for help at the very moment when the Baron had been so smitten with madame. Also,

Hector could not conceal his exultation at seeing Valerie's success; and she, severely proper, very ladylike,

and greatly envied, was the object of that strict examination which women so greatly fear when they appear

After seeing his wife into a carriage with his daughter and his son inlaw, Hulot managed to escape

unperceived, leaving his son and Celestine to do the honors of the house. He got into Madame Marneffe's

carriage to see her home, but he found her silent and pensive, almost melancholy.

"My happiness makes you very sad, Valerie," said he, putting his arm round her and drawing her to him.

"Can you wonder, my dear," said she, "that a hapless woman should be a little depressed at the thought of her

first fall from virtue, even when her husband's atrocities have set her free? Do you suppose that I have no

soul, no beliefs, no religion? Your glee this evening has been really too barefaced; you have paraded me

odiously. Really, a schoolboy would have been less of a coxcomb. And the ladies have dissected me with

their sideglances and their satirical remarks. Every woman has some care for her reputation, and you have

"Oh, I am yours and no mistake! And I have not an excuse left but that of being faithful to you.Monster

that you are!" she added, laughing, and allowing him to kiss her, "you knew very well what you were doing!

Madame Coquet, our chief clerk's wife, came to sit down by me, and admired my lace. 'English point!' said

she. 'Was it very expensive, madame?''I do not know. This lace was my mother's. I am not rich enough to

Madame Marneffe, in short, had so bewitched the old beau, that he really believed she was sinning for the

first time for his sake, and that he had inspired such a passion as had led her to this breach of duty. She told

him that the wretch Marneffe had neglected her after they had been three days married, and for the most

odious reasons. Since then she had lived as innocently as a girl; marriage had seemed to her so horrible. This

These insinuating lies, with which almost every woman in Valerie's predicament is ready, gave the Baron

distant visions of the roses of the seventh heaven. And so Valerie coquetted with her lover, while the artist

and Hortense were impatiently awaiting the moment when the Baroness should have given the girl her last

At seven in the morning the Baron, perfectly happyfor his Valerie was at once the most guileless of girls

and the most consummate of demonswent back to release his son and Celestine from their duties. All the

dancers, for the most part strangers, had taken possession of the territory, as they do at every weddingball,

and were keeping up the endless figures of the cotillions, while the gamblers were still crowding round the

The morning papers, carried round the town, contained this paragraph in the Paris article:

"The marriage was celebrated this morning, at the Church of Saint Thomas d'Aquin, between Monsieur le

Comte Steinbock and Mademoiselle Hortense Hulot, daughter of Baron Hulot d'Ervy, Councillor of State,

and a Director at the War Office; niece of the famous General Comte de Forzheim. The ceremony attracted a

large gathering. There were present some of the most distinguished artists of the day: Leon de Lora, Joseph

Bridau, Stidmann, and Bixiou; the magnates of the War Office, of the Council of State, and many members

of the two Chambers; also the most distinguished of the Polish exiles living in Paris: Counts Paz, Laginski,

"Monsieur le Comte Wenceslas Steinbock is grandnephew to the famous general who served under Charles

XII., King of Sweden. The young Count, having taken part in the Polish rebellion, found a refuge in France,

where his wellearned fame as a sculptor has procured him a patent of naturalization."

And so, in spite of the Baron's cruel lack of money, nothing was lacking that public opinion could require, not

even the trumpeting of the newspapers over his daughter's marriage, which was solemnized in the same way,

in every particular, as his son's had been to Mademoiselle Crevel. This display moderated the reports current

as to the Baron's financial position, while the fortune assigned to his daughter explained the need for having

Here ends what is, in a way, the introduction to this story. It is to the drama that follows that the premise is to

In Paris, when a woman determines to make a business, a trade, of her beauty, it does not follow that she will

make a fortune. Lovely creatures may be found there, and full of wit, who are in wretched circumstances,

ending in misery a life begun in pleasure. And this is why. It is not enough merely to accept the shameful life

of a courtesan with a view to earning its profits, and at the same time to bear the simple garb of a respectable

middleclass wife. Vice does not triumph so easily; it resembles genius in so far that they both need a

concurrence of favorable conditions to develop the coalition of fortune and gifts. Eliminate the strange

prologue of the Revolution, and the Emperor would never have existed; he would have been no more than a

second edition of Fabert. Venal beauty, if it finds no amateurs, no celebrity, no cross of dishonor earned by

squandering men's fortunes, is Correggio in a hayloft, is genius starving in a garret. Lais, in Paris, must first

and foremost find a rich man mad enough to pay her price. She must keep up a very elegant style, for this is

her shopsign; she must be sufficiently well bred to flatter the vanity of her lovers; she must have the brilliant

wit of a Sophie Arnould, which diverts the apathy of rich men; finally, she must arouse the passions of

libertines by appearing to be mistress to one man only who is envied by the rest.

These conditions, which a woman of that class calls being in luck, are difficult to combine in Paris, although

Providence has, no doubt, vouchsafed protection to clerks and middle class citizens, for whom obstacles of

this kind are at least double in the sphere in which they move. At the same time, there are enough Madame

Marneffes in Paris to allow of our taking Valerie to figure as a type in this picture of manners. Some of these

women yield to the double pressure of a genuine passion and of hard necessity, like Madame Colleville, who

was for long attached to one of the famous orators of the left, Keller the banker. Others are spurred by vanity,

like Madame de la Baudraye, who remained almost respectable in spite of her elopement with Lousteau.

Some, again, are led astray by the love of fine clothes, and some by the impossibility of keeping a house

going on obviously too narrow means. The stinginess of the Stateor of Parliamentleads to many

At the present moment the laboring classes are the fashionable object of compassion; they are being

murderedit is saidby the manufacturing capitalist; but the Government is a hundred times harder than

the meanest tradesman, it carries its economy in the article of salaries to absolute folly. If you work harder,

the merchant will pay you more in proportion; but what does the State do for its crowd of obscure and

In a married woman it is an inexcusable crime when she wanders from the path of honor; still, there are

degrees even in such a case. Some women, far from being depraved, conceal their fall and remain to all

appearances quite respectable, like those two just referred to, while others add to their fault the disgrace of

speculation. Thus Madame Marneffe is, as it were, the type of those ambitious married courtesans who from

the first accept depravity with all its consequences, and determine to make a fortune while taking their

pleasure, perfectly unscrupulous as to the means. But almost always a woman like Madame Marneffe has a

husband who is her confederate and accomplice. These Machiavellis in petticoats are the most dangerous of

A mere courtesana Josepha, a Malaga, a Madame Schontz, a Jenny Cadinecarries in her frank dishonor

a warning signal as conspicuous as the red lamp of a house of illfame or the flaring lights of a gambling

But mealymouthed propriety, the semblance of virtue, the hypocritical ways of a married woman who never

allows anything to be seen but the vulgar needs of the household, and affects to refuse every kind of

extravagance, leads to silent ruin, dumb disaster, which is all the more startling because, though condoned, it

remains unaccounted for. It is the ignoble bill of daily expenses and not gay dissipation that devours the

largest fortune. The father of a family ruins himself ingloriously, and the great consolation of gratified vanity

This little sermon will go like a javelin to the heart of many a home. Madame Marneffes are to be seen in

every sphere of social life, even at Court; for Valerie is a melancholy fact, modeled from the life in the

smallest details. And, alas! the portrait will not cure any man of the folly of loving these sweetlysmiling

About three years after Hortense's marriage, in 1841, Baron Hulot d'Ervy was supposed to have sown his

wild oats, to have "put up his horses," to quote the expression used by Louis XV.'s head surgeon, and yet

Madame Marneffe was costing him twice as much as Josepha had ever cost him. Still, Valerie, though always

nicely dressed, affected the simplicity of a subordinate official's wife; she kept her luxury for her

dressinggowns, her home wear. She thus sacrificed her Parisian vanity to her dear Hector. At the theatre,

however, she always appeared in a pretty bonnet and a dress of extreme elegance; and the Baron took her in a

Her rooms, the whole of the second floor of a modern house in the Rue Vanneau, between a forecourt and a

garden, was redolent of respectability. All its luxury was in good chintz hangings and handsome convenient

Her bedroom, indeed, was the exception, and rich with such profusion as Jenny Cadine or Madame Schontz

might have displayed. There were lace curtains, cashmere hangings, brocade portieres, a set of chimney

ornaments modeled by Stidmann, a glass cabinet filled with dainty nicknacks. Hulot could not bear to see his

Valerie in a bower of inferior magnificence to the dunghill of gold and pearls owned by a Josepha. The

drawingroom was furnished with red damask, and the diningroom had carved oak panels. But the Baron,

carried away by his wish to have everything in keeping, had at the end of six months, added solid luxury to

mere fashion, and had given her handsome portable property, as, for instance, a service of plate that was to

Madame Marneffe's house had in a couple of years achieved a reputation for being a very pleasant one.

Gambling went on there. Valerie herself was soon spoken of as an agreeable and witty woman. To account

for her change of style, a rumor was set going of an immense legacy bequeathed to her by her "natural

With an eye to the future, Valerie had added religious to social hypocrisy. Punctual at the Sunday services,

she enjoyed all the honors due to the pious. She carried the bag for the offertory, she was a member of a

charitable association, presented bread for the sacrament, and did some good among the poor, all at Hector's

expense. Thus everything about the house was extremely seemly. And a great many persons maintained that

her friendship with the Baron was entirely innocent, supporting the view by the gentleman's mature age, and

ascribing to him a Platonic liking for Madame Marneffe's pleasant wit, charming manners, and

conversationsuch a liking as that of the late lamented Louis XVIII. for a wellturned note.

The Baron always withdrew with the other company at about midnight, and came back a quarter of an hour

The secret of this secrecy was as follows. The lodgekeepers of the house were a Monsieur and Madame

Olivier, who, under the Baron's patronage, had been promoted from their humble and not very lucrative post

in the Rue du Doyenne to the highlypaid and handsome one in the Rue Vanneau. Now, Madame Olivier,

formerly a needlewoman in the household of Charles X., who had fallen in the world with the legitimate

branch, had three children. The eldest, an underclerk in a notary's office, was object of his parents'

adoration. This Benjamin, for six years in danger of being drawn for the army, was on the point of being

interrupted in his legal career, when Madame Marneffe contrived to have him declared exempt for one of

those little malformations which the Examining Board can always discern when requested in a whisper by

some power in the ministry. So Olivier, formerly a huntsman to the King, and his wife would have crucified

What could the world have to say? It knew nothing of the former episode of the Brazilian, Monsieur Montes

de Montejanosit could say nothing. Besides, the world is very indulgent to the mistress of a house where

And then to all her charms Valerie added the highlyprized advantage of being an occult power. Claude

Vignon, now secretary to Marshal the Prince de Wissembourg, and dreaming of promotion to the Council of

State as a Master of Appeals, was constantly seen in her rooms, to which came also some Deputiesgood

fellows and gamblers. Madame Marneffe had got her circle together with prudent deliberation; only men

whose opinions and habits agreed foregathered there, men whose interest it was to hold together and to

proclaim the many merits of the lady of the house. Scandal is the true Holy Alliance in Paris. Take that as an

axiom. Interests invariably fall asunder in the end; vicious natures can always agree.

Within three months of settling in the Rue Vanneau, Madame Marneffe had entertained Monsieur Crevel,

who by that time was Mayor of his arrondissement and Officer of the Legion of Honor. Crevel had hesitated;

he would have to give up the famous uniform of the National Guard in which he strutted at the Tuileries,

believing himself quite as much a soldier as the Emperor himself; but ambition, urged by Madame Marneffe,

had proved stronger than vanity. Then Monsieur le Maire had considered his connection with Mademoiselle

Indeed, long before his accession to the civic chair of the Mayoralty, his gallant intimacies had been wrapped

in the deepest mystery. But, as the reader may have guessed, Crevel had soon purchased the right of taking

his revenge, as often as circumstances allowed, for having been bereft of Josepha, at the cost of a bond

bearing six thousand francs of interest in the name of Valerie Fortin, wife of Sieur Marneffe, for her sole and

separate use. Valerie, inheriting perhaps from her mother the special acumen of the kept woman, read the

character of her grotesque adorer at a glance. The phrase "I never had a lady for a mistress," spoken by

Crevel to Lisbeth, and repeated by Lisbeth to her dear Valerie, had been handsomely discounted in the

bargain by which she got her six thousand francs a year in five per cents. And since then she had never

allowed her prestige to grow less in the eyes of Cesar Birotteau's erewhile bagman.

Crevel himself had married for money the daughter of a miller of la Brie, an only child indeed, whose

inheritance constituted three quarters of his fortune; for when retaildealers grow rich, it is generally not so

much by trade as through some alliance between the shop and rural thrift. A large proportion of the farmers,

corn factors, dairykeepers, and marketgardeners in the neighborhood of Paris, dream of the glories of the

desk for their daughters, and look upon a shopkeeper, a jeweler, or a moneychanger as a soninlaw after

their own heart, in preference to a notary or an attorney, whose superior social position is a ground of

suspicion; they are afraid of being scorned in the future by these citizen bigwigs.

Madame Crevel, ugly, vulgar, and silly, had given her husband no pleasures but those of paternity; she died

young. Her libertine husband, fettered at the beginning of his commercial career by the necessity for working,

and held in thrall by want of money, had led the life of Tantalus. Thrown inas he phrased itwith the

most elegant women in Paris, he let them out of the shop with servile homage, while admiring their grace,

their way of wearing the fashions, and all the nameless charms of what is called breeding. To rise to the level

of one of these fairies of the drawingroom was a desire formed in his youth, but buried in the depths of his

heart. Thus to win the favors of Madame Marneffe was to him not merely the realization of his chimera, but,

as has been shown, a point of pride, of vanity, of self satisfaction. His ambition grew with success; his brain

was turned with elation; and when the mind is captivated, the heart feels more keenly, every gratification is

Also, it must be said that Madame Marneffe offered to Crevel a refinement of pleasure of which he had no

idea; neither Josepha nor Heloise had loved him; and Madame Marneffe thought it necessary to deceive him

thoroughly, for this man, she saw, would prove an inexhaustible till. The deceptions of a venal passion are

more delightful than the real thing. True love is mixed up with birdlike squabbles, in which the disputants

wound each other to the quick; but a quarrel without animus is, on the contrary, a piece of flattery to the

The rare interviews granted to Crevel kept his passion at white heat. He was constantly blocked by Valerie's

virtuous severity; she acted remorse, and wondered what her father must be thinking of her in the paradise of

the brave. Again and again he had to contend with a sort of coldness, which the cunning slut made him

believe he had overcome by seeming to surrender to the man's crazy passion; and then, as if ashamed, she

entrenched herself once more in her pride of respectability and airs of virtue, just like an Englishwoman,

neither more nor less; and she always crushed her Crevel under the weight of her dignityfor Crevel had, in

In short, Valerie had special veins of affections which made her equally indispensable to Crevel and to the

Baron. Before the world she displayed the attractive combination of modest and pensive innocence, of

irreproachable propriety, with a bright humor enhanced by the suppleness, the grace and softness of the

Creole; but in a tetea tete she would outdo any courtesan; she was audacious, amusing, and full of original

inventiveness. Such a contrast is irresistible to a man of the Crevel type; he is flattered by believing himself

sole author of the comedy, thinking it is performed for his benefit alone, and he laughs at the exquisite

Valerie had taken entire possession of Baron Hulot; she had persuaded him to grow old by one of those subtle

touches of flattery which reveal the diabolical wit of women like her. In all evergreen constitutions a moment

arrives when the truth suddenly comes out, as in a besieged town which puts a good face on affairs as long as

possible. Valerie, foreseeing the approaching collapse of the old beau of the Empire, determined to forestall

"Why give yourself so much bother, my dear old veteran?" said she one day, six months after their doubly

adulterous union. "Do you want to be flirting? To be unfaithful to me? I assure you, I should like you better

without your makeup. Oblige me by giving up all your artificial charms. Do you suppose that it is for two

sous' worth of polish on your boots that I love you? For your indiarubber belt, your straitwaistcoat, and

your false hair? And then, the older you look, the less need I fear seeing my Hulot carried off by a rival."

And Hulot, trusting to Madame Marneffe's heavenly friendship as much as to her love, intending, too, to end

his days with her, had taken this confidential hint, and ceased to dye his whiskers and hair. After this

touching declaration from his Valerie, handsome Hector made his appearance one morning perfectly white.

Madame Marneffe could assure him that she had a hundred times detected the white line of the growth of the

"And white hair suits your face to perfection," said she; "it softens it. You look a thousand times better, quite

The Baron, once started on this path of reform, gave up his leather waistcoat and stays; he threw off all his

bracing. His stomach fell and increased in size. The oak became a tower, and the heaviness of his movements

was all the more alarming because the Baron grew immensely older by playing the part of Louis XII. His

eyebrows were still black, and left a ghostly reminiscence of Handsome Hulot, as sometimes on the wall of

some feudal building a faint trace of sculpture remains to show what the castle was in the days of its glory.

This discordant detail made his eyes, still bright and youthful, all the more remarkable in his tanned face,

because it had so long been ruddy with the florid hues of a Rubens; and now a certain discoloration and the

deep tension of the wrinkles betrayed the efforts of a passion at odds with natural decay. Hulot was now one

of those stalwart ruins in which virile force asserts itself by tufts of hair in the ears and nostrils and on the

How had Valerie contrived to keep Crevel and Hulot side by side, each tied to an apronstring, when the

vindictive Mayor only longed to triumph openly over Hulot? Without immediately giving an answer to this

question, which the course of the story will supply, it may be said that Lisbeth and Valerie had contrived a

powerful piece of machinery which tended to this result. Marneffe, as he saw his wife improved in beauty by

the setting in which she was enthroned, like the sun at the centre of the sidereal system, appeared, in the eyes

of the world, to have fallen in love with her again himself; he was quite crazy about her. Now, though his

jealousy made him somewhat of a marplot, it gave enhanced value to Valerie's favors. Marneffe meanwhile

showed a blind confidence in his chief, which degenerated into ridiculous complaisance. The only person

Marneffe, wrecked by the debauchery of great cities, described by Roman authors, though modern decency

has no name for it, was as hideous as an anatomical figure in wax. But this disease on feet, clothed in good

broadcloth, encased his lathlike legs in elegant trousers. The hollow chest was scented with fine linen, and

musk disguised the odors of rotten humanity. This hideous specimen of decaying vice, trotting in red

heelsfor Valerie dressed the man as beseemed his income, his cross, and his appointmenthorrified

Crevel, who could not meet the colorless eyes of the Government clerk. Marneffe was an incubus to the

Mayor. And the mean rascal, aware of the strange power conferred on him by Lisbeth and his wife, was

amused by it; he played on it as on an instrument; and cards being the last resource of a mind as completely

played out as the body, he plucked Crevel again and again, the Mayor thinking himself bound to subserviency

Seeing Crevel a mere child in the hands of that hideous and atrocious mummy, of whose utter vileness the

Mayor knew nothing; and seeing him, yet more, an object of deep contempt to Valerie, who made game of

Crevel as of some mountebank, the Baron apparently thought him so impossible as a rival that he constantly

Valerie, protected by two lovers on guard, and by a jealous husband, attracted every eye, and excited every

desire in the circle she shone upon. And thus, while keeping up appearances, she had, in the course of three

years, achieved the most difficult conditions of the success a courtesan most cares for and most rarely attains,

even with the help of audacity and the glitter of an existence in the light of the sun. Valerie's beauty, formerly

buried in the mud of the Rue du Doyenne, now, like a wellcut diamond exquisitely set by Chanor, was

worth more than its real valueit could break hearts. Claude Vignon adored Valerie in secret.

This retrospective explanation, quite necessary after the lapse of three years, shows Valerie's balancesheet.

Lisbeth Fischer filled the place in the Marneffe household of a relation who combines the functions of a lady

companion and a housekeeper; but she suffered from none of the humiliations which, for the most part, weigh

upon the women who are so unhappy as to be obliged to fill these ambiguous situations. Lisbeth and Valerie

offered the touching spectacle of one of those friendships between women, so cordial and so improbable, that

men, always too keentongued in Paris, forthwith slander them. The contrast between Lisbeth's dry

masculine nature and Valerie's creole prettiness encouraged calumny. And Madame Marneffe had

unconsciously given weight to the scandal by the care she took of her friend, with matrimonial views, which

An immense change had taken place in Cousin Betty; and Valerie, who wanted to smarten her, had turned it

to the best account. The strange woman had submitted to stays, and laced tightly, she used bandoline to keep

her hair smooth, wore her gowns as the dressmaker sent them home, neat little boots, and gray silk stockings,

all of which were included in Valerie's bills, and paid for by the gentleman in possession. Thus furbished up,

and wearing the yellow cashmere shawl, Lisbeth would have been unrecognizable by any one who had not

This other diamonda black diamond, the rarest of allcut by a skilled hand, and set as best became her,

was appreciated at her full value by certain ambitious clerks. Any one seeing her for the first time might have

shuddered involuntarily at the look of poetic wildness which the clever Valerie had succeeded in bringing out

by the arts of dress in this Bleeding Nun, framing the ascetic olive face in thick bands of hair as black as the

fiery eyes, and making the most of the rigid, slim figure. Lisbeth, like a Virgin by Cranach or Van Eyck, or a

Byzantine Madonna stepped out of its frame, had all the stiffness, the precision of those mysterious figures,

the more modern cousins of Isis and her sister goddesses sheathed in marble folds by Egyptian sculptors. It

Saved from want for the rest of her life, Lisbeth was most amiable; wherever she dined she brought

merriment. And the Baron paid the rent of her little apartment, furnished, as we know, with the leavings of

"I began," she would say, "as a hungry nanny goat, and I am ending as a lionne."

She still worked for Monsieur Rivet at the more elaborate kinds of goldtrimming, merely, as she said, not to

lose her time. At the same time, she was, as we shall see, very full of business; but it is inherent in the nature

Every morning, very early, Cousin Betty went off to market with the cook. It was part of Lisbeth's scheme

that the housebook, which was ruining Baron Hulot, was to enrich her dear Valerieas it did indeed.

Is there a housewife who, since 1838, has not suffered from the evil effects of Socialist doctrines diffused

among the lower classes by incendiary writers? In every household the plague of servants is nowadays the

worst of financial afflictions. With very few exceptions, who ought to be rewarded with the Montyon prize,

the cook, male or female, is a domestic robber, a thief taking wages, and perfectly barefaced, with the

Government for a fence, developing the tendency to dishonesty, which is almost authorized in the cook by the

timehonored jest as to the "handle of the basket." The women who formerly picked up their forty sous to

buy a lottery ticket now take fifty francs to put into the savings bank. And the smug Puritans who amuse

themselves in France with philanthropic experiments fancy that they are making the common people moral!

Between the market and the master's table the servants have their secret toll, and the municipality of Paris is

less sharp in collecting the citydues than the servants are in taking theirs on every single thing. To say

nothing of fifty per cent charged on every form of food, they demand large New Year's premiums from the

tradesmen. The best class of dealers tremble before this occult power, and subsidize it without a

wordcoachmakers, jewelers, tailors, and all. If any attempt is made to interfere with them, the servants

reply with impudent retorts, or revenge themselves by the costly blunders of assumed clumsiness; and in

these days they inquire into their master's character as, formerly, the master inquired into theirs. This

mischief is now really at its height, and the lawcourts are beginning to take cognizance of it; but in vain, for

it cannot be remedied but by a law which shall compel domestic servants, like laborers, to have a pass book

as a guarantee of conduct. Then the evil will vanish as if by magic. If every servant were obliged to show his

passbook, and if masters were required to state in it the cause of his dismissal, this would certainly prove a

The men who are giving their attentions to the politics of the day know not to what lengths the depravity of

the lower classes has gone. Statistics are silent as to the startling number of working men of twenty who

marry cooks of between forty and fifty enriched by robbery. We shudder to think of the result of such unions

from the three points of view of increasing crime, degeneracy of the race, and miserable households.

As to the mere financial mischief that results from domestic peculation, that too is immense from a political

point of view. Life being made to cost double, any superfluity becomes impossible in most households. Now

superfluity means half the trade of the world, as it is half the elegance of life. Books and flowers are to many

Lisbeth, well aware of this dreadful scourge of Parisian households, determined to manage Valerie's,

promising her every assistance in the terrible scene when the two women had sworn to be like sisters. So she

had brought from the depths of the Vosges a humble relation on her mother's side, a very pious and honest

soul, who had been cook to the Bishop of Nancy. Fearing, however, her inexperience of Paris ways, and yet

more the evil counsel which wrecks such fragile virtue, at first Lisbeth always went to market with

Mathurine, and tried to teach her what to buy. To know the real prices of things and command the salesman's

respect; to purchase unnecessary delicacies, such as fish, only when they were cheap; to be well informed as

to the price current of groceries and provisions, so as to buy when prices are low in anticipation of a

rise,all this housekeeping skill is in Paris essential to domestic economy. As Mathurine got good wages

and many presents, she liked the house well enough to be glad to drive good bargains. And by this time

Lisbeth had made her quite a match for herself, sufficiently experienced and trustworthy to be sent to market

alone, unless Valerie was giving a dinnerwhich, in fact, was not unfrequently the case. And this was how it

The Baron had at first observed the strictest decorum; but his passion for Madame Marneffe had ere long

become so vehement, so greedy, that he would never quit her if he could help it. At first he dined there four

times a week; then he thought it delightful to dine with her every day. Six months after his daughter's

marriage he was paying her two thousand francs a month for his board. Madame Marneffe invited any one

her dear Baron wished to entertain. The dinner was always arranged for six; he could bring in three

unexpected guests. Lisbeth's economy enabled her to solve the extraordinary problem of keeping up the table

in the best style for a thousand francs a month, giving the other thousand to Madame Marneffe. Valerie's

dress being chiefly paid for by Crevel and the Baron, the two women saved another thousand francs a month

And so this pure and innocent being had already accumulated a hundred and fifty thousand francs in savings.

She had capitalized her income and monthly bonus, and swelled the amount by enormous interest, due to

Crevel's liberality in allowing his "little Duchess" to invest her money in partnership with him in his financial

operations. Crevel had taught Valerie the slang and the procedure of the money market, and, like every

Parisian woman, she had soon outstripped her master. Lisbeth, who never spent a sou of her twelve hundred

francs, whose rent and dress were given to her, and who never put her hand in her pocket, had likewise a

small capital of five or six thousand francs, of which Crevel took fatherly care.

At the same time, two such lovers were a heavy burthen on Valerie. On the day when this drama reopens,

Valerie, spurred by one of those incidents which have the effect in life that the ringing of a bell has in

inducing a swarm of bees to settle, went up to Lisbeth's rooms to give vent to one of those comforting

lamentationsa sort of cigarette blown off from the tongueby which women alleviate the minor miseries

"Oh, Lisbeth, my love, two hours of Crevel this morning! It is crushing! How I wish I could send you in my

"Two old men lovers! Really, I am ashamed sometimes! If my poor mother could see me."

"Oh! if I had but been pretty, what adventures I would have had!" cried Lisbeth. "That is your justification."

"But you would have acted only at the dictates of your heart," said Madame Marneffe, with a sigh.

"Pooh! Marneffe is a dead man they have forgotten to bury," replied Lisbeth. "The Baron is as good as your

husband; Crevel is your adorer; it seems to me that you are quite in orderlike every other married woman."

"No, it is not that, dear, adorable thing; that is not where the shoe pinches; you do not choose to understand."

"Yes, I do," said Lisbeth. "The unexpressed factor is part of my revenge; what can I do? I am working it out."

"I love Wenceslas so that I am positively growing thin, and I can never see him," said Valerie, throwing up

her arms. "Hulot asks him to dinner, and my artist declines. He does not know that I idolize him, the wretch!

What is his wife after all? Fine flesh! Yes, she is handsome, but II know myselfI am worse!"

"Be quite easy, my child, he will come," said Lisbeth, in the tone of a nurse to an impatient child. "He shall."

As may be seen, these two women were but one. Everything Valerie did, even her most reckless actions, her

pleasures, her little sulks, were decided on after serious deliberation between them.

Lisbeth, strangely excited by this harlot existence, advised Valerie on every step, and pursued her course of

revenge with pitiless logic. She really adored Valerie; she had taken her to be her child, her friend, her love;

she found her docile, as Creoles are, yielding from voluptuous indolence; she chattered with her morning

after morning with more pleasure than with Wenceslas; they could laugh together over the mischief they

plotted, and over the folly of men, and count up the swelling interest on their respective savings.

Indeed, in this new enterprise and new affection, Lisbeth had found food for her activity that was far more

satisfying than her insane passion for Wenceslas. The joys of gratified hatred are the fiercest and strongest the

heart can know. Love is the gold, hatred the iron of the mine of feeling that lies buried in us. And then,

Valerie was, to Lisbeth, Beauty in all its glorythe beauty she worshiped, as we worship what we have not,

beauty far more plastic to her hand than that of Wenceslas, who had always been cold to her and distant.

At the end of nearly three years, Lisbeth was beginning to perceive the progress of the underground mine on

which she was expending her life and concentrating her mind. Lisbeth planned, Madame Marneffe acted.

Madame Marneffe was the axe, Lisbeth was the hand the wielded it, and that hand was rapidly demolishing

the family which was every day more odious to her; for we can hate more and more, just as, when we love,

Love and hatred are feelings that feed on themselves; but of the two, hatred has the longer vitality. Love is

restricted within limits of power; it derives its energies from life and from lavishness. Hatred is like death,

like avarice; it is, so to speak, an active abstraction, above beings and things.

Lisbeth, embarked on the existence that was natural to her, expended in it all her faculties; governing, like the

Jesuits, by occult influences. The regeneration of her person was equally complete; her face was radiant.

This little scene, in which the two friends had bluntly uttered their ideas without any circumlocution in

expressing them, took place immediately on Lisbeth's return from market, whither she had been to procure

the materials for an elegant dinner. Marneffe, who hoped to get Coquet's place, was to entertain him and the

virtuous Madame Coquet, and Valerie hoped to persuade Hulot, that very evening, to consider the

"You hope sowhy? Have you come to sleeping with Adeline to drink her tears while she is asleep?"

"If only I could!" said Lisbeth, laughing. "I would not refuse. She is expiating her happinessand I am glad,

for I remember our young days. It is my turn now. She will be in the mire, and I shall be Comtesse de

Lisbeth set out for the Rue Plumet, where she now went as to the theatreto indulge her emotions.

The residence Hulot had found for his wife consisted of a large, bare entranceroom, a drawingroom, and a

bed and dressingroom. The diningroom was next the drawingroom on one side. Two servants' rooms and

a kitchen on the third floor completed the accommodation, which was not unworthy of a Councillor of State,

high up in the War Office. The house, the courtyard, and the stairs were extremely handsome.

The Baroness, who had to furnish her drawingroom, bedroom, and diningroom with the relics of her

splendor, had brought away the best of the remains from the house in the Rue de l'Universite. Indeed, the

poor woman was attached to these mute witnesses of her happier life; to her they had an almost consoling

eloquence. In memory she saw her flowers, as in the carpets she could trace patterns hardly visible now to

On going into the spacious anteroom, where twelve chairs, a barometer, a large stove, and long, white cotton

curtains, bordered with red, suggested the dreadful waitingroom of a Government office, the visitor felt

oppressed, conscious at once of the isolation in which the mistress lived. Grief, like pleasure, infects the

atmosphere. A first glance into any home is enough to tell you whether love or despair reigns there.

Adeline would be found sitting in an immense bedroom with beautiful furniture by Jacob Desmalters, of

mahogany finished in the Empire style with ormolu, which looks even less inviting than the brasswork of

Louis XVI.! It gave one a shiver to see this lonely woman sitting on a Roman chair, a worktable with

sphinxes before her, colorless, affecting false cheerfulness, but preserving her imperial air, as she had

preserved the blue velvet gown she always wore in the house. Her proud spirit sustained her strength and

The Baroness, by the end of her first year of banishment to this apartment, had gauged every depth of

"Still, even here my Hector has made my life much handsomer than it should be for a mere peasant," said she

to herself. "He chooses that it should be so; his will be done! I am Baroness Hulot, the sisterin law of a

Marshal of France. I have done nothing wrong; my two children are settled in life; I can wait for death,

wrapped in the spotless veil of an immaculate wife and the crape of departed happiness."

A portrait of Hulot, in the uniform of a Commissary General of the Imperial Guard, painted in 1810 by

Robert Lefebvre, hung above the worktable, and when visitors were announced, Adeline threw into a

drawer an Imitation of Jesus Christ, her habitual study. This blameless Magdalen thus heard the Voice of the

"Mariette, my child," said Lisbeth to the woman who opened the door, "how is my dear Adeline today?"

"Oh, she looks pretty well, mademoiselle; but between you and me, if she goes on in this way, she will kill

herself," said Mariette in a whisper. "You really ought to persuade her to live better. Now, yesterday madame

told me to give her two sous' worth of milk and a roll for one sou; to get her a herring for dinner and a bit of

cold veal; she had a pound cooked to last her the weekof course, for the days when she dines at home and

alone. She will not spend more than ten sous a day for her food. It is unreasonable. If I were to say anything

about it to Monsieur le Marechal, he might quarrel with Monsieur le Baron and leave him nothing, whereas

"Oh, dear mademoiselle, he has not been here for three weeks or more; in fact, not since we last had the

pleasure of seeing you! Besides, madame has forbidden me, under threat of dismissal, ever to ask the master

for money. But as for grief!oh, poor lady, she has been very unhappy. It is the first time that monsieur has

neglected her for so long. Every time the bell rang she rushed to the windowbut for the last five days she

has sat still in her chair. She reads. Whenever she goes out to see Madame la Comtesse, she says, 'Mariette, if

monsieur comes in,' says she, 'tell him I am at home, and send the porter to fetch me; he shall be well paid for

"Poor soul!" said Lisbeth; "it goes to my heart. I speak of her to the Baron every day. What can I do? 'Yes,'

says he, 'Betty, you are right; I am a wretch. My wife is an angel, and I am a monster! I will go

tomorrow' And he stays with Madame Marneffe. That woman is ruining him, and he worships her; he

lives only in her sight.I do what I can; if I were not there, and if I had not Mathurine to depend upon, he

would spend twice as much as he does; and as he has hardly any money in the world, he would have blown

his brains out by this time. And, I tell you, Mariette, Adeline would die of her husband's death, I am perfectly

certain. At any rate, I pull to make both ends meet, and prevent my cousin from throwing too much money

"Yes, that is what madame says, poor soul! She knows how much she owes you," replied Mariette. "She said

"No, mademoiselle. If you wish to please her, talk to her about Monsieur le Baron; she envies you your

"I beg pardon, no; the Marshal is with her. He comes every day, and she always tells him she saw monsieur in

Mariette hesitated; she could not meet Lisbeth's eye. The drawingroom door opened, and Marshal Hulot

rushed out in such haste that he bowed to Lisbeth without looking at her, and dropped a paper. Lisbeth picked

it up and ran after him downstairs, for it was vain to hail a deaf man; but she managed not to overtake the

Marshal, and as she came up again she furtively read the following lines written in pencil:

"MY DEAR BROTHER,My husband has given me the money for my quarter's expenses; but my daughter

Hortense was in such need of it, that I lent her the whole sum, which was scarcely enough to set her straight.

Could you lend me a few hundred francs? For I cannot ask Hector for more; if he were to blame me, I could

"My word!" thought Lisbeth, "she must be in extremities to bend her pride to such a degree!"

Lisbeth went in. She saw tears in Adeline's eyes, and threw her arms round her neck.

"Adeline, my dearest, I know all," cried Cousin Betty. "Here, the Marshal dropped this paperhe was in

such a state of mind, and running like a greyhound.Has that dreadful Hector given you no money

"He gives it me quite regularly," replied the Baroness, "but Hortense needed it, and"

"And you had not enough to pay for dinner tonight," said Lisbeth, interrupting her. "Now I understand why

Mariette looked so confused when I said something about the soup. You really are childish, Adeline; come,

"Thank you, my kind cousin," said Adeline, wiping away a tear. "This little difficulty is only temporary, and I

have provided for the future. My expenses henceforth will be no more than two thousand four hundred francs

a year, rent inclusive, and I shall have the money. Above all, Betty, not a word to Hector. Is he well?"

"As strong as the Pont Neuf, and as gay as a lark; he thinks of nothing but his charmer Valerie."

Madame Hulot looked out at a tall silverfir in front of the window, and Lisbeth could not see her cousin's

"Yes. But, dear me! Madame Marneffe is giving a grand dinner; she hopes to get Monsieur Coquet to resign,

and that is of the first importance.Now, Adeline, listen to me. You know that I am fiercely proud as to my

independence. Your husband, my dear, will certainly bring you to ruin. I fancied I could be of use to you all

by living near this woman, but she is a creature of unfathomable depravity, and she will make your husband

promise things which will bring you all to disgrace." Adeline writhed like a person stabbed to the heart. "My

dear Adeline, I am sure of what I say. I feel it is my duty to enlighten you.Well, let us think of the future.

The Marshal is an old man, but he will last a long time yethe draws good pay; when he dies his widow

would have a pension of six thousand francs. On such an income I would undertake to maintain you all. Use

your influence over the good man to get him to marry me. It is not for the sake of being Madame la

Marechale; I value such nonsense at no more than I value Madame Marneffe's conscience; but you will all

The Marshal now came in; he had made such haste, that he was mopping his forehead with his bandana.

Adeline colored to the roots of her hair. Two tears hung on the fringes of the still long lashes, and she silently

pressed the old man's hand; his beaming face expressed the glee of a favored lover.

"I intended to spend the money in a present for you, Adeline," said he. "Instead of repaying me, you must

He took Lisbeth's hand, which she held out to him, and so bewildered was he by his satisfaction, that he

"That looks promising," said Adeline to Lisbeth, smiling so far as she was able to smile.

"I expect him; he promised this morning that he would be here; but if he should not come, it would be

And she handed him the paper. She had invented this way of conversing with Marshal Hulot, and kept a little

"I know," said the Marshal, "he is worked very hard over the business in Algiers."

At this moment, Hortense and Wenceslas arrived, and the Baroness, as she saw all her family about her, gave

Happiness had greatly improved the artist, who was adored by his wife and flattered by the world. His face

had become almost round, and his graceful figure did justice to the advantages which blood gives to men of

birth. His early fame, his important position, the delusive eulogies that the world sheds on artists as lightly as

we say, "How d'ye do?" or discuss the weather, gave him that high sense of merit which degenerates into

sheer fatuity when talent wanes. The Cross of the Legion of Honor was the crowning stamp of the great man

After three years of married life, Hortense was to her husband what a dog is to its master; she watched his

every movement with a look that seemed a constant inquiry, her eyes were always on him, like those of a

miser on his treasure; her admiring abnegation was quite pathetic. In her might be seen her mother's spirit and

teaching. Her beauty, as great as ever, was poetically touched by the gentle shadow of concealed melancholy.

On seeing Hortense come in, it struck Lisbeth that some long suppressed complaint was about to break

through the thin veil of reticence. Lisbeth, from the first days of the honeymoon, had been sure that this

Hortense, as she embraced her mother, exchanged with her a few whispered phrases, heart to heart, of which

"Adeline, like me, must work for her living," thought Cousin Betty. "She shall be made to tell me what she

will do! Those pretty fingers will know at last, like mine, what it is to work because they must."

"Leave it so," said the Baroness to Mariette, "monsieur sometimes comes in late."

"Oh, my father will certainly come," said Victorin to his mother. "He promised me he would when we parted

Lisbeth, like a spider in the middle of its net, gloated over all these countenances. Having known Victorin and

Hortense from their birth, their faces were to her like panes of glass, through which she could read their

young souls. Now, from certain stolen looks directed by Victorin on his mother, she saw that some disaster

was hanging over Adeline which Victorin hesitated to reveal. The famous young lawyer had some covert

anxiety. His deep reverence for his mother was evident in the regret with which he gazed at her.

Hortense was evidently absorbed in her own woes; for a fortnight past, as Lisbeth knew, she had been

suffering the first uneasiness which want of money brings to honest souls, and to young wives on whom life

has hitherto smiled, and who conceal their alarms. Also Lisbeth had immediately guessed that her mother had

given her no money. Adeline's delicacy had brought her so low as to use the fallacious excuses that necessity

Hortense's absence of mind, with her brother's and the Baroness' deep dejection, made the dinner a

melancholy meal, especially with the added chill of the Marshal's utter deafness. Three persons gave a little

life to the scene: Lisbeth, Celestine, and Wenceslas. Hortense's affection had developed the artist's natural

liveliness as a Pole, the somewhat swaggering vivacity and noisy high spirits that characterize these

Frenchmen of the North. His frame of mind and the expression of his face showed plainly that he believed in

himself, and that poor Hortense, faithful to her mother's training, kept all domestic difficulties to herself.

"You must be content, at any rate," said Lisbeth to her young cousin, as they rose from table, "since your

"Mamma!" replied Hortense in astonishment. "Oh, poor mamma! It is for me that she would like to make

money. You do not know, Lisbeth, but I have a horrible suspicion that she works for it in secret."

They were crossing the large, dark drawingroom where there were no candles, all following Mariette, who

was carrying the lamp into Adeline's bedroom. At this instant Victorin just touched Lisbeth and Hortense on

the arm. The two women, understanding the hint, left Wenceslas, Celestine, the Marshal, and the Baroness to

"What is it, Victorin?" said Lisbeth. "Some disaster caused by your father, I dare wager."

"Yes, alas!" replied Victorin. "A moneylender named Vauvinet has bills of my father's to the amount of

sixty thousand francs, and wants to prosecute. I tried to speak of the matter to my father at the Chamber, but

he would not understand me; he almost avoided me. Had we better tell my mother?"

"No, no," said Lisbeth, "she has too many troubles; it would be a deathblow; you must spare her. You have

no idea how low she has fallen. But for your uncle, you would have found no dinner here this evening."

"Dear Heaven! Victorin, what wretches we are!" said Hortense to her brother. "We ought to have guessed

Hortense could say no more; she covered her mouth with her handkerchief to smother a sob, and melted into

"I told the fellow Vauvinet to call on me tomorrow," replied Victorin, "but will he be satisfied by my

guarantee on a mortgage? I doubt it. Those men insist on ready money to sweat others on usurious terms."

"What good would that do?" replied Victorin. "It would bring fifteen or sixteen thousand francs, and we want

"Dear cousin!" cried Hortense, embracing Lisbeth with the enthusiasm of guilelessness.

"No, Lisbeth, keep your little fortune," said Victorin, pressing the old maid's hand. "I shall see tomorrow

what this man would be up to. With my wife's consent, I can at least hinder or postpone the prosecutionfor

it would really be frightful to see my father's honor impugned. What would the War Minister say? My father's

salary, which he pledged for three years, will not be released before the month of December, so we cannot

offer that as a guarantee. This Vauvinet has renewed the bills eleven times; so you may imagine what my

"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Victorin. "He would take up some one else; and with her, at any rate, the worst

What a change in children formerly so respectful, and kept so long by their mother in blind worship of their

"But for me," said Lisbeth, "your father's ruin would be more complete than it is."

"Come in to mamma," said Hortense; "she is very sharp, and will suspect something; as our kind Lisbeth

"Victorin," said Lisbeth, "you have no notion of what your father will be brought to by his passion for

women. Try to secure some future resource by getting the Marshal to marry me. Say something about it this

"And you, poor little thing!" said Lisbeth in an undertone to Hortense, "what can you do?"

"Come to dinner with us tomorrow, and we will talk it over," answered Hortense. "I do not know which way

While the whole family with one consent tried to persuade the Marshal to marry, and while Lisbeth was

making her way home to the Rue Vanneau, one of those incidents occurred which, in such women as

Madame Marneffe, are a stimulus to vice by compelling them to exert their energy and every resource of

depravity. One fact, at any rate, must however be acknowledged: life in Paris is too full for vicious persons to

do wrong instinctively and unprovoked; vice is only a weapon of defence against aggressorsthat is all.

Madame Marneffe's drawingroom was full of her faithful admirers, and she had just started the

whisttables, when the footman, a pensioned soldier recruited by the Baron, announced:

"You are my relationor all is at an end between us!And so you were not wrecked, Henri?" she went on

audibly, as she led him to the fire. "I heard you were lost, and have mourned for you these three years."

"How are you, my good fellow?" said Marneffe, offering his hand to the stranger, whose getup was indeed

Monsieur le Baron Henri Montes de Montejanos, to whom the climate of the equator had given the color and

stature we expect to see in Othello on the stage, had an alarming look of gloom, but it was a merely pictorial

illusion; for, sweet and affectionate by nature, he was predestined to be the victim that a strong man often is

to a weak woman. The scorn expressed in his countenance, the muscular strength of his stalwart frame, all his

physical powers were shown only to his fellowmen; a form of flattery which women appreciate, nay, which

so intoxicates them, that every man with his mistress on his arm assumes a matador swagger that provokes a

smile. Very well set up, in a closely fitting blue coat with solid gold buttons, in black trousers, spotless patent

evening boots, and gloves of a fashionable hue, the only Brazilian touch in the Baron's costume was a large

diamond, worth about a hundred thousand francs, which blazed like a star on a handsome blue silk cravat,

tucked into a white waistcoat in such a way as to show corners of a fabulously fine shirt front.

His brow, bossy like that of a satyr, a sign of tenacity in his passions, was crowned by thick jetblack hair

like a virgin forest, and under it flashed a pair of hazel eyes, so wild looking as to suggest that before his birth

This fine specimen of the Portuguese race in Brazil took his stand with his back to the fire, in an attitude that

showed familiarity with Paris manners; holding his hat in one hand, his elbow resting on the velvetcovered

shelf, he bent over Madame Marneffe, talking to her in an undertone, and troubling himself very little about

This fashion of taking the stage, with the Brazilian's attitude and expression, gave, alike to Crevel and to the

baron, an identical shock of curiosity and anxiety. Both were struck by the same impression and the same

surmise. And the manoeuvre suggested in each by their very genuine passion was so comical in its

simultaneous results, that it made everybody smile who was sharp enough to read its meaning. Crevel, a

tradesman and shopkeeper to the backbone, though a mayor of Paris, unluckily, was a little slower to move

than his rival partner, and this enabled the Baron to read at a glance Crevel's involuntary self betrayal. This

was a fresh arrow to rankle in the very amorous old man's heart, and he resolved to have an explanation from

"This evening," said Crevel to himself too, as he sorted his hand, "I must know where I stand."

"I beg your pardon," said Crevel, trying to withdraw his card."This Baron seems to me very much in the

way," he went on, thinking to himself. "If Valerie carries on with my Baron, well and goodit is a means to

my revenge, and I can get rid of him if I choose; but as for this cousin!He is one Baron too many; I do not

That evening, by one of those strokes of luck which come to pretty women, Valerie was charmingly dressed.

Her white bosom gleamed under a lace tucker of rusty white, which showed off the satin texture of her

beautiful shouldersfor Parisian women, Heaven knows how, have some way of preserving their fine flesh

and remaining slender. She wore a black velvet gown that looked as if it might at any moment slip off her

shoulders, and her hair was dressed with lace and drooping flowers. Her arms, not fat but dimpled, were

graced by deep ruffles to her sleeves. She was like a luscious fruit coquettishly served in a handsome dish,

"Valerie," the Brazilian was saying in her ear, "I have come back faithful to you. My uncle is dead; I am

twice as rich as I was when I went away. I mean to live and die in Paris, for you and with you."

"Pooh! I mean to speak to you this evening, even if I should have to pitch all these creatures out of window,

especially as I have lost two days in looking for you. I shall stay till the last.I can, I suppose?"

"Remember that you are the son of my mother's sister, who married your father during Junot's campaign in

"What, I, Montes de Montejanos, great grandson of a conquerer of Brazil! Tell a lie?"

"Marneffe, like all dying wretches, who always take up some last whim, has a revived passion for me"

"And where did you get all this splendor?" the Brazilian went on, just struck by the magnificence of the

She had felt two burning flashes of jealousy which had moved her so far as to make her look at the two souls

in purgatory. Crevel, playing against Baron Hulot and Monsieur Coquet, had Marneffe for his partner. The

game was even, because Crevel and the Baron were equally absent minded, and made blunder after blunder.

Thus, in one instant, the old men both confessed the passion which Valerie had persuaded them to keep secret

for the past three years; but she too had failed to hide the joy in her eyes at seeing the man who had first

taught her heart to beat, the object of her first love. The rights of such happy mortals survive as long as the

With these three passions at her sideone supported by the insolence of wealth, the second by the claims of

possession, and the third by youth, strength, fortune, and priorityMadame Marneffe preserved her coolness

and presence of mind, like General Bonaparte when, at the siege of Mantua, he had to fight two armies, and

Jealousy, distorting Hulot's face, made him look as terrible as the late Marshal Montcornet leading a cavalry

charge against a Russian square. Being such a handsome man, he had never known any ground for jealousy,

any more than Murat knew what it was to be afraid. He had always felt sure that he should triumph. His

rebuff by Josepha, the first he had ever met, he ascribed to her love of money; "he was conquered by

millions, and not by a changeling," he would say when speaking of the Duc d'Herouville. And now, in one

instant, the poison and delirium that the mad passion sheds in a flood had rushed to his heart. He kept turning

from the whisttable towards the fireplace with an action a la Mirabeau; and as he laid down his cards to cast

a challenging glance at the Brazilian and Valerie, the rest of the company felt the sort of alarm mingled with

curiosity that is caused by evident violence ready to break out at any moment. The sham cousin stared at

This state of things could not last; it was bound to end in some tremendous outbreak. Marneffe was as much

afraid of Hulot as Crevel was of Marneffe, for he was anxious not to die a mere clerk. Men marked for death

believe in life as galleyslaves believe in liberty; this man was bent on being a firstclass clerk at any cost.

Thoroughly frightened by the pantomime of the Baron and Crevel, he rose, said a few words in his wife's ear,

and then, to the surprise of all, Valerie went into the adjoining bedroom with the Brazilian and her husband.

"Did Madame Marneffe ever speak to you of this cousin of hers?" said Crevel to Hulot.

"Never!" replied the Baron, getting up. "That is enough for this evening," said he. "I have lost two

He threw the two gold pieces on the table, and seated himself on the sofa with a look which everybody else

took as a hint to go. Monsieur and Madame Coquet, after exchanging a few words, left the room, and Claude

Vignon, in despair, followed their example. These two departures were a hint to less intelligent persons, who

now found that they were not wanted. The Baron and Crevel were left together, and spoke never a word.

Hulot, at last, ignoring Crevel, went on tiptoe to listen at the bedroom door; but he bounded back with a

prodigious jump, for Marneffe opened the door and appeared with a calm face, astonished to find only the

"My wife," said Marneffe. "She is gone upstairs to speak to mademoiselle your cousin. She will come down

"Well," said Marneffe, "Mademoiselle Lisbeth came back from dining with the Baroness with an attack of

indigestion and Mathurine asked Valerie for some tea for her, so my wife went up to see what was the

The wheels of a departing carriage were audible in the street. The Baron, counting Marneffe for nothing,

went upstairs to Lisbeth. An idea flashed through him such as the heart sends to the brain when it is on fire

with jealousy. Marneffe's baseness was so well known to him, that he could imagine the most degrading

"What has become of all the ladies and gentlemen?" said Marneffe, finding himself alone with Crevel.

"When the sun goes to bed, the cocks and hens follow suit," said Crevel. "Madame Marneffe disappeared,

and her adorers departed. Will you play a game of piquet?" added Crevel, who meant to remain.

Monsieur Marneffe agreed. The Mayor was a match for the Baron. Simply by playing cards with the husband

he could stay on indefinitely; and Marneffe, since the suppression of the public tables, was quite satisfied

Baron Hulot went quickly up to Lisbeth's apartment, but the door was locked, and the usual inquiries through

the door took up time enough to enable the two lighthanded and cunning women to arrange the scene of an

attack of indigestion with the accessories of tea. Lisbeth was in such pain that Valerie was very much

alarmed, and consequently hardly paid any heed to the Baron's furious entrance. Indisposition is one of the

screens most often placed by women to ward off a quarrel. Hulot peeped about, here and there, but could see

"Your indigestion does honor to my wife's dinner, Lisbeth," said he, scrutinizing her, for Lisbeth was

perfectly well, trying to imitate the hiccough of spasmodic indigestion as she drank her tea.

"How lucky it is that dear Betty should be living under my roof!" said Madame Marneffe. "But for me, the

"You look as if you only half believed it," added Lisbeth, turning to the Baron, "and that would be a

And he leered at the door of a dressingcloset from which the key had been withdrawn.

"Are you talking Greek?" said Madame Marneffe, with an appealing look of misprized tenderness and

"But it is all through you, my dear cousin; yes, it is your doing that I am in such a state," said Lisbeth

This speech diverted the Baron's attention; he looked at the old maid with the greatest astonishment.

"You know that I am devoted to you," said Lisbeth. "I am here, that says everything. I am wearing out the last

shreds of my strength in watching over your interests, since they are one with our dear Valerie's. Her house

costs onetenth of what any other does that is kept on the same scale. But for me, Cousin, instead of two

"I know all that," replied the Baron out of patience; "you are our protectress in many ways," he added, turning

to Madame Marneffe and putting his arm round her neck."Is not she, my pretty sweet?"

"Well, you cannot doubt my attachment," said Lisbeth. "But I am also very fond of my cousin Adeline, and I

found her in tears. She has not seen you for a month. Now that is really too bad; you leave my poor Adeline

without a sou. Your daughter Hortense almost died of it when she was told that it is thanks to your brother

"Adeline is heroically resolved to keep her sufferings to herself. She said to me, 'I will do as you have done!'

The speech went to my heart; and after dinner, as I thought of what my cousin had been in 1811, and of what

she is in 1841thirty years afterI had a violent indigestion.I fancied I should get over it; but when I got

"You see, Valerie, to what my adoration of you has brought me! To crimedomestic crime!"

"Oh! I was wise never to marry!" cried Lisbeth, with savage joy. "You are a kind, good man; Adeline is a

"An elderly angel!" said Madame Marneffe softly, as she looked half tenderly, half mockingly, at her Hector,

"My poor wife!" said Hulot. "For more than nine months I have given her no money, though I find it for you,

Valerie; but at what a cost! No one else will ever love you so, and what torments you inflict on me in return!"

"I do not yet know on what terms you have been with this socalled cousin whom you never mentioned to

me," said the Baron, paying no heed to Valerie's interjection. "But when he came in I felt as if a penknife had

been stuck into my heart. Blinded I may be, but I am not blind. I could read his eyes, and yours. In short,

from under that ape's eyelids there flashed sparks that he flung at youand your eyes!Oh! you have never

looked at me so, never! As to this mystery, Valerie, it shall all be cleared up. You are the only woman who

ever made me know the meaning of jealousy, so you need not be surprised by what I say.But another

"It is that Crevel, that square lump of flesh and stupidity, is in love with you, and that you accept his

attentions with so good a grace that the idiot flaunts his passion before everybody."

"If Monsieur Crevel is in love with me, he is in his rights as a man after all; if I favored his passion, that

would indeed be the act of a coquette, or of a woman who would leave much to be desired on your

part.Well, love me as you find me, or let me alone. If you restore me to freedom, neither you nor Monsieur

Crevel will ever enter my doors again. But I will take up with my cousin, just to keep my hand in, in those

She rose, but the Baron took her by the arm and made her sit down again. The old man could not do without

Valerie. She had become more imperatively indispensable to him than the necessaries of life; he preferred

"My dearest Valerie," said he, "do you not see how miserable I am? I only ask you to justify yourself. Give

"Well, go downstairs and wait for me; for I suppose you do not wish to look on at the various ceremonies

"You old profligate," cried Lisbeth, "you have not even asked me how your children are? What are you going

The Baron, without taking offence at Lisbeth's tone, as despotic as Josepha's, got out of the room, only too

The door bolted once more, the Brazilian came out of the dressing closet, where he had been waiting, and he

appeared with his eyes full of tears, in a really pitiable condition. Montes had heard everything.

"Henri, you must have ceased to love me, I know it!" said Madame Marneffe, hiding her face in her

It was the outcry of real affection. The cry of a woman's despair is so convincing that it wins the forgiveness

that lurks at the bottom of every lover's heartwhen she is young and pretty, and wears a gown so low that

"But why, if you love me, do you not leave everything for my sake?" asked the Brazilian.

This South American born, being logical, as men are who have lived the life of nature, at once resumed the

conversation at the point where it had been broken off, putting his arm round Valerie's waist.

"Why?" she repeated, gazing up at Henri, whom she subjugated at once by a look charged with passion,

"why, my dear boy, I am married; we are in Paris, not in the savannah, the pampas, the backwoods of

America.My dear Henri, my first and only love, listen to me. That husband of mine, a second clerk in the

War Office, is bent on being a headclerk and officer of the Legion of Honor; can I help his being ambitious?

Now for the very reason that made him leave us our liberty nearly four years ago, do you remember, you

bad boy?he now abandons me to Monsieur Hulot. I cannot get rid of that dreadful official, who snorts like

a grampus, who has fins in his nostrils, who is sixtythree years old, and who had grown ten years older by

dint of trying to be young; who is so odious to me that the very day when Marneffe is promoted, and gets his

"I will pay him as much in an annuity," said Baron Montes. "We will leave Paris and go"

"Where?" said Valerie, with one of the pretty sneers by which a woman makes fun of a man she is sure of.

"Paris is the only place where we can live happy. I care too much for your love to risk seeing it die out in a

teteatete in the wilderness. Listen, Henri, you are the only man I care for in the whole world. Write that

For women, when they have made a sheep of a man, always tell him that he is a lion with a will of iron.

"Now, attend to me. Monsieur Marneffe has not five years to live; he is rotten to the marrow of his bones. He

spends seven months of the twelve in swallowing drugs and decoctions; he lives wrapped in flannel; in short,

as the doctor says, he lives under the scythe, and may be cut off at any moment. An illness that would not

harm another man would be fatal to him; his blood is corrupt, his life undermined at the root. For five years I

have never allowed him to kiss mehe is poisonous! Some day, and the day is not far off, I shall be a

widow. Well, then, Iwho have already had an offer from a man with sixty thousand francs a year, I who

am as completely mistress of that man as I am of this lump of sugarI swear to you that if you were as poor

as Hulot and as foul as Marneffe, if you beat me even, still you are the only man I will have for a husband,

the only man I love, or whose name I will ever bear. And I am ready to give any pledge of my love that you

"But you, son of the South, my splendid jaguar, come expressly for me from the virgin forest of Brazil," said

she, taking his hand and kissing and fondling it, "I have some consideration for the poor creature you mean to

"Yes," said the Brazilian, overpowered by this unbridled volubility of passion. And he knelt at her feet.

"Well, then, Henri," said Valerie, taking his two hands and looking straight into his eyes, "swear to me now,

in the presence of Lisbeth, my best and only friend, my sisterthat you will make me your wife at the end of

"That is not enough. Swear by your mother's ashes and eternal salvation, swear by the Virgin Mary and by all

Valerie knew that the Brazilian would keep that oath even if she should have fallen into the foulest social

The Baron solemnly swore it, his nose almost touching Valerie's white bosom, and his eyes spellbound. He

was drunk, drunk as a man is when he sees the woman he loves once more, after a sea voyage of a hundred

"Good. Now be quite easy. And in Madame Marneffe respect the future Baroness de Montejanos. You are not

to spend a sou upon me; I forbid it.Stay here in the outer room; sleep on the sofa. I myself will come and

tell you when you may move.We will breakfast tomorrow morning, and you can be leaving at about one

o'clock as if you had come to call at noon. There is nothing to fear; the gatekeepers love me as much as if

She beckoned to Lisbeth, who followed her out on to the landing. There Valerie whispered in the old maid's

"My darkie has come back too soon. I shall die if I cannot avenge you on Hortense!"

"Make your mind easy, my pretty little devil!" said Lisbeth, kissing her forehead. "Love and Revenge on the

same track will never lose the game. Hortense expects me tomorrow; she is in beggary. For a thousand

On leaving Valerie, Hulot had gone down to the porter's lodge and made a sudden invasion there.

On hearing the imperious tone of this address, and seeing the action by which the Baron emphasized it,

"You know that if any one can help your son to a connection by and by, it is I; it is owing to me that he is

"Yes, Monsieur le Baron; and indeed, sir, you may depend on our gratitude. Not a day passes that I do not

Madame Olivier had recognized Montes well enough. How could she have forgotten him? In the Rue du

Doyenne the Brazilian had always slipped a fivefranc piece into her hand as he went out in the morning,

rather too early. If the Baron had applied to Monsieur Olivier, he would perhaps have learned all he wanted to

know. But Olivier was in bed. In the lower orders the woman is not merely the superior of the manshe

almost always has the upper hand. Madame Olivier had long since made up her mind as to which side to take

in case of a collision between her two benefactors; she regarded Madame Marneffe as the stronger power.

"What! Did Madame Marneffe's cousin never go to see her when she was living in the Rue du Doyenne?"

"Oh! Was it her cousin?" cried Madame Olivier. "I dare say he did come, but I did not know him again. Next

"He has left," said Madame Olivier, understanding the situation. "The carriage is gone."

This audacious statement wrung a sigh of relief from the Baron; he took Madame Olivier's hand and

"Monsieur Crevel? What can you mean, sir? I do not understand," said Madame Olivier.

"He is Madame Marneffe's lover," the Baron repeated very positively. "How do they manage it? I don't know;

but I mean to know, and you are to find out. If you can put me on the tracks of this intrigue, your son is a

"Don't you fret yourself so, Monsieur le Baron," said Madame Olivier. "Madame cares for you, and for no

one but you; her maid knows that for true, and we say, between her and me, that you are the luckiest man in

"She gets up at ten every morning; then she breakfasts. Well and good. After that she takes an hour or so to

dress; that carries her on till two; then she goes for a walk in the Tuileries in the sight of all men, and she is

always in by four to be ready for you. She lives like clockwork. She keeps no secrets from her maid, and

Reine keeps nothing from me, you may be sure. Reine can't if she wouldalong of my son, for she is very

sweet upon him. So, you see, if madame had any intimacy with Monsieur Crevel, we should be bound to

The Baron went upstairs again with a beaming countenance, convinced that he was the only man in the world

to that shameless slut, as treacherous, but as lovely and as engaging as a siren.

Crevel and Marneffe had begun a second rubber at piquet. Crevel was losing, as a man must who is not

giving his thoughts to his game. Marneffe, who knew the cause of the Mayor's absence of mind, took

unscrupulous advantage of it; he looked at the cards in reverse, and discarded accordingly; thus, knowing his

adversary's hand, he played to beat him. The stake being a franc a point, he had already robbed the Mayor of

"Hey day!" said he, amazed to find no company. "Are you alone? Where is everybody gone?"

"No, it was my wife's cousin," replied Marneffe. "The ladies and gentlemen supposed that Valerie and Henri

might have something to say to each other after three years' separation, and they very discreetly retired.If I

had been in the room, I would have kept them; but then, as it happens, it would have been a mistake, for

Lisbeth, who always comes down to make tea at halfpast ten, was taken ill, and that upset everything"

"So I was told," replied Marneffe, with the heartless indifference of a man to whom women have ceased to

The Mayor looked at the clock; and, calculating the time, the Baron seemed to have spent forty minutes in

Lisbeth's rooms. Hector's jubilant expression seriously incriminated Valerie, Lisbeth, and himself.

"Then the sufferings of others must afford you much joy, my friend," retorted Crevel with acrimony, "for you

have come down with a face that is positively beaming. Is Lisbeth likely to die? For your daughter, they say,

is her heiress. You are not like the same man. You left this room looking like the Moor of Venice, and you

come back with the air of SaintPreux!I wish I could see Madame Marneffe's face at this minute"

"And pray, what do you mean by that?" said Marneffe to Crevel, packing his cards and laying them down in

A light kindled in the eyes of this man, decrepit at the age of forty seven; a faint color flushed his flaccid

cold cheeks, his ill furnished mouth was half open, and on his blackened lips a sort of foam gathered, thick,

and as white as chalk. This fury in such a helpless wretch, whose life hung on a thread, and who in a duel

"I said," repeated Crevel, "that I should like to see Madame Marneffe's face. And with all the more reason

since yours, at this moment, is most unpleasant. On my honor, you are horribly ugly, my dear

"A man who has won thirty francs of me in fortyfive minutes cannot look handsome in my eyes."

"Yes," said Crevel, with a smile, "you have been too much in the wars; and of the two forms of metal that

may be earned by worshiping the god of trade, you have taken the worsethe dross!" [This dialogue is

garnished with puns for which it is difficult to find any English equivalent.] And Crevel roared with laughter.

Though Marneffe could take offence if his honor were in peril, he always took these rough pleasantries in

"The daughters of Eve cost me dear, no doubt; but, by the powers! 'Short and sweet' is my motto."

Madame Marneffe now came in; she saw that her husband was at cards with Crevel, and only the Baron in

the room besides; a mere glance at the municipal dignitary showed her the frame of mind he was in, and her

"Marneffe, my dear boy," said she, leaning on her husband's shoulder, and passing her pretty fingers through

his dingy gray hair, but without succeeding in covering his bald head with it, "it is very late for you; you

ought to be in bed. Tomorrow, you know, you must dose yourself by the doctor's orders. Reine will give

"It is eleven o'clock," replied Valerie. "Really, Monsieur Crevel, one might fancy you meant to kill my

This doublebarreled speech made Crevel and Hulot smile, and even Marneffe himself. Valerie sat down to

"You must leave, my dearest," said she in Hulot's ear. "Walk up and down the Rue Vanneau, and come in

"I would rather leave this room and go into your room through the dressingroom door. You could tell Reine

Danger hemmed in Valerie on every side; she foresaw a discussion with Crevel, and could not allow Hulot to

be in her room, where he could hear all that went on.And the Brazilian was upstairs with Lisbeth.

"Really, you men, when you have a notion in your head, you would burn a house down to get into it!"

exclaimed she. "Lisbeth is not in a fit state to admit you.Are you afraid of catching cold in the street? Be

Hulot, when piqued in his old man's vanity, was bent on proving that he could play the young man by waiting

Marneffe bid his wife goodnight, taking her hands with a semblance of devotion. Valerie pressed her

"Goodnight, Crevel," said Marneffe. "I hope you will not stay long with Valerie. Yes! I am jealousa little

late in the day, but it has me hard and fast. I shall come back to see if you are gone."

"Speak low.What is it?" said Valerie, raising her voice, and looking at him with a mingled expression of

Crevel, as he met this arrogant stare, though he was doing Valerie important services, and had hoped to

"That Brazilian" he began, but, overpowered by Valerie's fixed look of contempt, he broke off.

"Is no cousin of mine," said she. "He is my cousin to the world and to Monsieur Marneffe. And if he were my

lover, it would be no concern of yours. A tradesman who pays a woman to be revenged on another man, is, in

my opinion, beneath the man who pays her for love of her. You did not care for me; all you saw in me was

Monsieur Hulot's mistress. You bought me as a man buys a pistol to kill his adversary. I wanted breadI

"You want Baron Hulot to be told that you have robbed him of his mistress, to pay him out for having robbed

you of Josepha? Nothing can more clearly prove your baseness. You say you love a woman, you treat her like

a duchess, and then you want to degrade her? Well, my good fellow, and you are right. This woman is no

match for Josepha. That young person has the courage of her disgrace, while II am a hypocrite, and

deserve to be publicly whipped.Alas! Josepha is protected by her cleverness and her wealth. I have nothing

to shelter me but my reputation; I am still the worthy and blameless wife of a plain citizen; if you create a

scandal, what is to become of me? If I were rich, then indeed; but my income is fifteen thousand francs a year

"Much more than that," said Crevel. "I have doubled your savings in these last two months by investing in

"Well, a position in Paris begins with fifty thousand. And you certainly will not make up to me for the

position I should surrender. What was my aim? I want to see Marneffe a firstclass clerk; he will then

draw a salary of six thousand francs. He has been twentyseven years in his office; within three years I shall

have a right to a pension of fifteen hundred francs when he dies. You, to whom I have been entirely kind, to

whom I have given your fill of happinessyou cannot wait!And that is what men call love!" she

"Though I began with an ulterior purpose," said Crevel, "I have become your poodle. You trample on my

heart, you crush me, you stultify me, and I love you as I have never loved in my life. Valerie, I love you as

much as I love my Celestine. I am capable of anything for your sake.Listen, instead of coming twice a

"Only let me pack off Hulot, humiliate him, rid you of him," said Crevel, not heeding her impertinence!

"Have nothing to say to the Brazilian, be mine alone; you shall not repent of it. To begin with, I will give you

eight thousand francs a year, secured by bond, but only as an annuity; I will not give you the capital till the

"Always a bargain! A tradesman can never learn to give. You want to stop for refreshments on the road of

lovein the form of Government bonds! Bah! Shopman, pomatum seller! you put a price on everything!

Hector told me that the Duc d'Herouville gave Josepha a bond for thirty thousand francs a year in a packet of

"Oh! to be loved!" she went on, twisting her ringlets round her fingers, and looking at herself in the glass.

"Henri loves me. He would smash you like a fly if I winked at him! Hulot loves me; he leaves his wife in

beggary! As for you, go my good man, be the worthy father of a family. You have three hundred thousand

francs over and above your fortune, only to amuse yourself, a hoard, in fact, and you think of nothing but

"What, still here!" cried Marneffe, hideous in his dressinggown. "What are you about?"

"He is begging my pardon, my dear, for an insulting proposal he has dared to make me. Unable to obtain my

Crevel only longed to vanish into the cellar, through a trap, as is done on the stage.

"Get up, Crevel," said Marneffe, laughing, "you are ridiculous. I can see by Valerie's manner that my honor is

As Marneffe disappeared, the Mayor took Valerie's hands and kissed them, leaving on them the traces of

"That is true love," she whispered in his ear. "Well, love for love. Hulot is below, in the street. The poor old

thing is waiting to return when I place a candle in one of the windows of my bedroom. I give you leave to tell

him that you are the man I love; he will refuse to believe you; take him to the Rue du Dauphin, give him

every proof, crush him; I allow itI order it! I am tired of that old seal; he bores me to death. Keep your man

all night in the Rue du Dauphin, grill him over a slow fire, be revenged for the loss of Josepha. Hulot may die

of it perhaps, but we shall save his wife and children from utter ruin. Madame Hulot is working for her

"Oh! poor woman! On my word, it is quite shocking!" exclaimed Crevel, his natural feeling coming to the

"If you love me, Celestin," said she in Crevel's ear, which she touched with her lips, "keep him there, or I am

done for. Marneffe is suspicious. Hector has a key of the outer gate, and will certainly come back."

Crevel clasped Madame Marneffe to his heart, and went away in the seventh heaven of delight. Valerie

fondly escorted him to the landing, and then followed him, like a woman magnetized, down the stairs to the

"My Valerie, go back, do not compromise yourself before the porters. Go back; my life, my treasure, all is

Having barred the gate, Madame Olivier told of the bribe that the War Office chief had tried to offer her.

Valerie flew like an arrow to the third floor, tapped three times at Lisbeth's door, and then went down to her

room, where she gave instructions to Mademoiselle Reine, for a woman must make the most of the

"By Heaven! only a woman of the world is capable of such love," said Crevel to himself. "How she came

down those stairs, lighting them up with her eyes, following me! Never did JosephaJosepha! she is cag

mag!" cried the exbagman. "What have I said? Cagmagwhy, I might have let the word slip out at the

Tuileries! I can never do any good unless Valerie educates meand I was so bent on being a gentleman.

What a woman she is! She upsets me like a fit of the colic when she looks at me coldly. What grace! What

wit! Never did Josepha move me so. And what perfection when you come to know her!Ha, there is my

He perceived in the gloom of the Rue de Babylone the tall, somewhat stooping figure of Hulot, stealing along

"Goodmorning, Baron, for it is past midnight, my dear fellow. What the devil are your doing here? You are

airing yourself under a pleasant drizzle. That is not wholesome at our time of life. Will you let me give you a

little piece of advice? Let each of us go home; for, between you and me, you will not see the candle in the

The last words made the Baron suddenly aware that he was sixtythree, and that his cloak was wet.

"Valerie, of course, our Valerie, who means henceforth to be my Valerie. We are even now, Baron; we will

play off the tie when you please. You have nothing to complain of; you know, I always stipulated for the

right of taking my revenge; it took you three months to rob me of Josepha; I took Valerie from you inWe

will say no more about that. Now I mean to have her all to myself. But we can be very good friends, all the

"Crevel, no jesting," said Hulot, in a voice choked by rage. "It is a matter of life and death."

"Bless me, is that how you take it!Baron, do you not remember what you said to me the day of Hortense's

marriage: 'Can two old gaffers like us quarrel over a petticoat? It is too low, too common. We are Regence,

we agreed, Pompadour, eighteenth century, quite the Marechal Richelieu, Louis XV., nay, and I may say,

Crevel might have gone on with his string of literary allusions; the Baron heard him as a deaf man listens

when he is but half deaf. But, seeing in the gaslight the ghastly pallor of his face, the triumphant Mayor

stopped short. This was, indeed, a thunderbolt after Madame Olivier's asservations and Valerie's parting

"Look here, Crevel, it is impossible. Give me some proof.Have you a key, as I have, to let yourself in?"

And having reached the house, the Baron put the key into the lock; but the gate was immovable; he tried in

"Do not make a noise in the streets at night," said Crevel coolly. "I tell you, Baron, I have far better proof

And in obedience to Valerie's instructions, he led the Baron away towards the quay, down the Rue

HillerinBertin. The unhappy Baron walked on, as a merchant walks on the day before he stops payment; he

was lost in conjectures as to the reasons of the depravity buried in the depths of Valerie's heart, and still

believed himself the victim of some practical joke. As they crossed the Pont Royal, life seemed to him so

blank, so utterly a void, and so out of joint from his financial difficulties, that he was within an ace of

yielding to the evil prompting that bid him fling Crevel into the river and throw himself in after.

On reaching the Rue du Dauphin, which had not yet been widened, Crevel stopped before a door in a wall. It

opened into a long corridor paved with blackandwhite marble, and serving as an entrancehall, at the end

of which there was a flight of stairs and a doorkeeper's lodge, lighted from an inner courtyard, as is often the

case in Paris. This courtyard, which was shared with another house, was oddly divided into two unequal

portions. Crevel's little house, for he owned it, had additional rooms with a glass skylight, built out on to the

adjoining plot, under conditions that it should have no story added above the ground floor, so that the

structure was entirely hidden by the lodge and the projecting mass of the staircase.

This back building had long served as a storeroom, backshop, and kitchen to one of the shops facing the

street. Crevel had cut off these three rooms from the rest of the ground floor, and Grindot had transformed

them into an inexpensive private residence. There were two ways infrom the front, through the shop of a

furnituredealer, to whom Crevel let it at a low price, and only from month to month, so as to be able to get

rid of him in case of his telling tales, and also through a door in the wall of the passage, so ingeniously hidden

as to be almost invisible. The little apartment, comprising a diningroom, drawingroom, and bedroom, all

lighted from above, and standing partly on Crevel's ground and partly on his neighbor's, was very difficult to

find. With the exception of the secondhand furnituredealer, the tenants knew nothing of the existence of

The doorkeeper, paid to keep Crevel's secrets, was a capital cook. So Monsieur le Maire could go in and out

of his inexpensive retreat at any hour of the night without any fear of being spied upon. By day, a lady,

dressed as Paris women dress to go shopping, and having a key, ran no risk in coming to Crevel's lodgings;

she would stop to look at the cheapened goods, ask the price, go into the shop, and come out again, without

As soon as Crevel had lighted the candles in the sittingroom, the Baron was surprised at the elegance and

refinement it displayed. The perfumer had given the architect a free hand, and Grindot had done himself

credit by fittings in the Pompadour style, which had in fact cost sixty thousand francs.

"What I want," said Crevel to Grindot, "is that a duchess, if I brought one there, should be surprised at it."

He wanted to have a perfect Parisian Eden for his Eve, his "real lady," his Valerie, his duchess.

"There are two beds," said Crevel to Hulot, showing him a sofa that could be made wide enough by pulling

out a drawer. "This is one, the other is in the bedroom. We can both spend the night here."

Crevel took a flat candlestick and led Hulot into the adjoining room, where he saw, on a sofa, a superb

dressinggown belonging to Valerie, which he had seen her wear in the Rue Vanneau, to display it before

wearing it in Crevel's little apartment. The Mayor pressed the spring of a little writingtable of inlaid work,

known as a bonheurdu jour, and took out of it a letter that he handed to the Baron.

"I have waited in vain, you old wretch! A woman of my quality does not expect to be kept waiting by a

retired perfumer. There was no dinner orderedno cigarettes. I will make you pay for this!"

"Good God!" gasped Hulot, sitting down in dismay. "I see all the things she usesher caps, her slippers.

Crevel nodded that he understood, and took a packet of bills out of the little inlaid cabinet.

"You can see, old man. I paid the decorators in December, 1838. In October, two months before, this

"How about her walk in the Tuileries?" said Crevel, rubbing his hands in triumph.

"Your lady love comes to the Tuileries, she is supposed to be airing herself from one till four. But, hop, skip,

and jump, and she is here. You know your Moliere? Well, Baron, there is nothing imaginary in your title."

Hulot, left without a shred of doubt, sat sunk in ominous silence. Catastrophes lead intelligent and

strongminded men to be philosophical. The Baron, morally, was at this moment like a man trying to find his

way by night through a forest. This gloomy taciturnity and the change in that dejected countenance made

"As I said, old fellow, we are now even; let us play for the odd. Will you play off the tie by hook and by

"Why," said Hulot, talking to himself"why is it that out of ten pretty women at least seven are false?"

But the Baron was too much upset to answer his own question. Beauty is the greatest of human gifts for

power. Every power that has no counterpoise, no autocratic control, leads to abuses and folly. Despotism is

"You have nothing to complain of, my good friend; you have a beautiful wife, and she is virtuous."

"I deserve my fate," said Hulot. "I have undervalued my wife and made her miserable, and she is an angel!

Oh, my poor Adeline! you are avenged! She suffers in solitude and silence, and she is worthy of my love; I

oughtfor she is still charming, fair and girlish evenBut was there ever a woman known more base, more

"She is a goodfornothing slut," said Crevel, "a hussy that deserves whipping on the Place du Chatelet. But,

my dear Canillac, though we are such blades, so Marechal de Richelieu, Louis XV., Pompadour, Madame du

Barry, gay dogs, and everything that is most eighteenth century, there is no longer a lieutenant of police."

"How can we make them love us?" Hulot wondered to himself without heeding Crevel.

"It is sheer folly in us to expect to be loved, my dear fellow," said Crevel. "We can only be endured; for

"And avaricious! she costs me a hundred and ninetytwo thousand francs a year!" cried Hulot.

"And how many centimes!" sneered Crevel, with the insolence of a financier who scorns so small a sum.

"I have had enough of her," replied Crevel, "for she has had more than three hundred thousand francs of

"Where is it? Where does it all go?" said the Baron, clasping his head in his hands.

"If we had come to an agreement, like the simple young men who combine to maintain a twopenny baggage,

"That is an idea"! replied the Baron. "But she would still be cheating us; for, my burly friend, what do you

"Ay, old sly fox, you are right, we are swindled likelike shareholders!" said Crevel. "All such women are

"My good man," replied Crevel, striking an attitude, "she has fooled us both. Valerie is aShe told me to

keep you here.Now I see it all. She has got her Brazilian!Oh, I have done with her, for if you hold her

hands, she would find a way to cheat you with her feet! There! she is a minx, a jade!"

"She is lower than a prostitute," said the Baron. "Josepha and Jenny Cadine were in their rights when they

"But she, who affects the saintthe prude!" said Crevel. "I tell you what, Hulot, do you go back to your

wife; your money matters are not looking well; I have heard talk of certain notes of hand given to a low

usurer whose special line of business is lending to these sluts, a man named Vauvinet. For my part, I am

cured of your 'real ladies.' And, after all, at our time of life what do we want of these swindling hussies, who,

to be honest, cannot help playing us false? You have white hair and false teeth; I am of the shape of Silenus. I

shall go in for saving. Money never deceives one. Though the Treasury is indeed open to all the world twice a

year, it pays you interest, and this woman swallows it. With you, my worthy friend, as Gubetta, as my partner

in the concern, I might have resigned myself to a shady bargainno, a philosophical calm. But with a

"I can explain her," said Crevel. "We are old; the Brazilian is young and handsome."

"Yes; that, I own, is true," said Hulot; "we are older than we were. But, my dear fellow, how is one to do

without these pretty creatures seeing them undress, twist up their hair, smile cunningly through their

fingers as they screw up their curlpapers, put on all their airs and graces, tell all their lies, declare that we

don't love them when we are worried with business; and they cheer us in spite of everything."

"Yes, by the Power! It is the only pleasure in life!" cried Crevel. "When a saucy little mug smiles at you and

says, 'My old dear, you don't know how nice you are! I am not like other women, I suppose, who go crazy

over mere boys with goats' beards, smelling of smoke, and as coarse as servingmen! For in their youth they

are so insolent!They come in and they bid you goodmorning, and out they go.I, whom you think such

a flirt, I prefer a man of fifty to these brats. A man who will stick by me, who is devoted, who knows a

woman is not to be picked up every day, and appreciates us.That is what I love you for, you old

monster!'and they fill up these avowals with little pettings and prettinesses andFaugh! they are as false

"A lie is sometimes better than the truth," said Hulot, remembering sundry bewitching scenes called up by

Crevel, who mimicked Valerie. "They are obliged to act upon their lies, to sew spangles on their stage

"Valerie is a witch," said the Baron. "She can turn an old man into a young one."

"Oh, yes!" said Crevel, "she is an eel that wriggles through your hands; but the prettiest eel, as white and

The colleagues went to bed the best friends in the world, reminding each other of Valerie's perfections, the

tones of her voice, her kittenish way, her movements, her fun, her sallies of wit, and of affections; for she was

an artist in love, and had charming impulses, as tenors may sing a scena better one day than another. And

they fell asleep, cradled in tempting and diabolical visions lighted by the fires of hell.

At nine o'clock next morning Hulot went off to the War Office, Crevel had business out of town; they left the

"To show that there is no illfeeling. For we, neither of us, will have anything more to say to Madame

By halfpast ten Crevel was mounting the stairs, four at a time, up to Madame Marneffe's apartment. He

found the infamous wretch, the adorable enchantress, in the most becoming morning wrapper, enjoying an

elegant little breakfast in the society of the Baron Montes de Montejanos and Lisbeth. Though the sight of the

Brazilian gave him a shock, Crevel begged Madame Marneffe to grant him two minutes' speech with her.

"Valerie, my angel," said the amorous Mayor, "Monsieur Marneffe cannot have long to live. If you will be

faithful to me, when he dies we will be married. Think it over. I have rid you of Hulot.So just consider

whether this Brazilian is to compare with a Mayor of Paris, a man who, for your sake, will make his way to

the highest dignities, and who can already offer you eightyodd thousand francs a year."

"I will think it over," said she. "You will see me in the Rue du Dauphin at two o'clock, and we can discuss the

matter. But be a good boyand do not forget the bond you promised to transfer to me."

She returned to the diningroom, followed by Crevel, who flattered himself that he had hit on a plan for

keeping Valerie to himself; but there he found Baron Hulot, who, during this short colloquy, had also arrived

with the same end in view. He, like Crevel, begged for a brief interview. Madame Marneffe again rose to go

to the drawingroom, with a smile at the Brazilian that seemed to say, "What fools they are! Cannot they see

"Valerie," said the official, "my child, that cousin of yours is an American cousin"

"Oh, that is enough!" she cried, interrupting the Baron. "Marneffe never has been, and never will be, never

can be my husband! The first, the only man I ever loved, has come back quite unexpectedly. It is no fault of

mine! But look at Henri and look at yourself. Then ask yourself whether a woman, and a woman in love, can

hesitate for a moment. My dear fellow, I am not a kept mistress. From this day forth I refuse to play the part

of Susannah between the two Elders. If you really care for me, you and Crevel, you will be our friends; but

all else is at an end, for I am sixandtwenty, and henceforth I mean to be a saint, an admirable and worthy

"Is that what you have to say?" answered Hulot. "Is this the way you receive me when I come like a Pope

with my hands full of Indulgences? Well, your husband will never be a firstclass clerk, nor be promoted

"Well, well, no temper," said Hulot in despair. "I will call this evening, and we will come to an

Hulot and Crevel went downstairs together without speaking a word till they were in the street; but outside on

"I have got rid of them," said Madame Marneffe to Lisbeth, as she sat down once more. "I never loved and I

never shall love any man but my Jaguar," she added, smiling at Henri Montes. "Lisbeth, my dear, you don't

"It was my own fault," said the Brazilian. "I ought to have sent you a hundred thousand francs."

"Poor boy!" said Valerie; "I might have worked for my living, but my fingers were not made for thatask

At noon Valerie and Lisbeth were chatting in the splendid bedroom where this dangerous woman was giving

to her dress those finishing touches which a lady alone can give. The doors were bolted, the curtains drawn

over them, and Valerie related in every detail all the events of the evening, the night, the morning.

"What do you think of it all, my darling?" she said to Lisbeth in conclusion. "Which shall I be when the time

"Crevel will not last more than ten years, such a profligate as he is," replied Lisbeth. "Montes is young.

Crevel will leave you about thirty thousand francs a year. Let Montes wait; he will be happy enough as

Benjamin. And so, by the time you are threeandthirty, if you take care of your looks, you may marry your

Brazilian and make a fine show with sixty thousand francs a year of your ownespecially under the wing of

"Yes, but Montes is a Brazilian; he will never make his mark," observed Valerie.

"We live in the day of railways," said Lisbeth, "when foreigners rise to high positions in France."

"We shall see," replied Valerie, "when Marneffe is dead. He has not much longer to suffer."

"These attacks that return so often are a sort of physical remorse," said Lisbeth. "Well, I am off to see

"Yesgo, my angel!" replied Valerie. "And bring me my artist.Three years, and I have not gained an inch

of ground! It is a disgrace to both of us!Wenceslas and Henrithese are my two passionsone for love,

"You are lovely this morning," said Lisbeth, putting her arm round Valerie's waist and kissing her forehead.

"I enjoy all your pleasures, your good fortune, your dressesI never really lived till the day when we

"Wait a moment, my tigercat!" cried Valerie, laughing; "your shawl is crooked. You cannot put a shawl on

yet in spite of my lessons for three yearsand you want to be Madame la Marechale Hulot!"

Shod in prunella boots, over gray silk stockings, in a gown of handsome corded silk, her hair in smooth bands

under a very pretty black velvet bonnet, lined with yellow satin, Lisbeth made her way to the Rue

SaintDominique by the Boulevard des Invalides, wondering whether sheer dejection would at last break

down Hortense's brave spirit, and whether Sarmatian instability, taken at a moment when, with such a

Hortense and Wenceslas had the ground floor of a house situated at the corner of the Rue SaintDominique

and the Esplanade des Invalides. These rooms, once in harmony with the honeymoon, now had that half

new, halffaded look that may be called the autumnal aspect of furniture. Newly married folks are as lavish

and wasteful, without knowing it or intending it, of everything about them as they are of their affection.

Thinking only of themselves, they reck little of the future, which, at a later time, weighs on the mother of a

Lisbeth found Hortense just as she had finished dressing a baby Wenceslas, who had been carried into the

"Goodmorning, Betty," said Hortense, opening the door herself to her cousin. The cook was gone out, and

"Goodmorning, dear child," replied Lisbeth, kissing her. "Is Wenceslas in the studio?" she added in a

In this room, the hangings of pinkflowered chintz with green leaves on a white ground, constantly exposed

to the sun, were much faded, as was the carpet. The muslin curtains had not been washed for many a day. The

smell of tobacco hung about the room; for Wenceslas, now an artist of repute, and born a fine gentleman, left

his cigarash on the arms of the chairs and the prettiest pieces of furniture, as a man does to whom love

"Now, then, let us talk over your affairs," said Lisbeth, seeing her pretty cousin silent in the armchair into

"Two articles have just come out in which my poor Wenceslas is pulled to pieces; I have read them, but I

have hidden them from him, for they would completely depress him. The marble statue of Marshal

Montcornet is pronounced utterly bad. The basreliefs are allowed to pass muster, simply to allow of the

most perfidious praise of his talent as a decorative artist, and to give the greater emphasis to the statement

that serious art is quite out of his reach! Stidmann, whom I besought to tell me the truth, broke my heart by

confessing that his own opinion agreed with that of every other artist, of the critics, and the public. He said to

me in the garden before breakfast, 'If Wenceslas cannot exhibit a masterpiece next season, he must give up

heroic sculpture and be content to execute idyllic subjects, small figures, pieces of jewelry, and highclass

goldsmiths' work!' This verdict is dreadful to me, for Wenceslas, I know, will never accept it; he feels he has

"Ideas will not pay the tradesman's bills," remarked Lisbeth. "I was always telling him sonothing but

money. Money is only to be had for work donethings that ordinary folks like well enough to buy them.

When an artist has to live and keep a family, he had far better have a design for a candlestick on his counter,

or for a fender or a table, than for groups or statues. Everybody must have such things, while he may wait

"You are right, my good Lisbeth. Tell him all that; I have not the courage.Besides, as he was saying to

Stidmann, if he goes back to ornamental work and small sculpture, he must give up all hope of the Institute

and grand works of art, and we should not get the three hundred thousand francs' worth of work promised at

Versailles and by the City of Paris and the Ministers. That is what we are robbed of by those dreadful articles,

"And that is not what you dreamed of, poor little puss!" said Lisbeth, kissing Hortense on the brow. "You

expected to find a gentleman, a leader of Art, the chief of all living sculptors.But that is poetry, you see, a

dream requiring fifty thousand francs a year, and you have only two thousand four hundredso long as I

A few tears rose to Hortense's eyes, and Lisbeth drank them with her eyes as a cat laps milk.

This is the story of their honeymoonthe tale will perhaps not be lost on some artists.

Intellectual work, labor in the upper regions of mental effort, is one of the grandest achievements of man.

That which deserves real glory in Artfor by Art we must understand every creation of the mindis

courage above all thingsa sort of courage of which the vulgar have no conception, and which has never

Driven by the dreadful stress of poverty, goaded by Lisbeth, and kept by her in blinders, as a horse is, to

hinder it from seeing to the right and left of its road, lashed on by that hard woman, the personification of

Necessity, a sort of deputy Fate, Wenceslas, a born poet and dreamer, had gone on from conception to

execution, and overleaped, without sounding it, the gulf that divides these two hemispheres of Art. To muse,

to dream, to conceive of fine works, is a delightful occupation. It is like smoking a magic cigar or leading the

life of a courtesan who follows her own fancy. The work then floats in all the grace of infancy, in the mad joy

of conception, with the fragrant beauty of a flower, and the aromatic juices of a fruit enjoyed in anticipation.

The man who can sketch his purpose beforehand in words is regarded as a wonder, and every artist and writer

possesses that faculty. But gestation, fruition, the laborious rearing of the offspring, putting it to bed every

night full fed with milk, embracing it anew every morning with the inexhaustible affection of a mother's

heart, licking it clean, dressing it a hundred times in the richest garb only to be instantly destroyed; then never

to be cast down at the convulsions of this headlong life till the living masterpiece is perfected which in

sculpture speaks to every eye, in literature to every intellect, in painting to every memory, in music to every

heart!This is the task of execution. The hand must be ready at every instant to come forward and obey the

brain. But the brain has no more a creative power at command than love has a perennial spring.

The habit of creativeness, the indefatigable love of motherhood which makes a motherthat miracle of

nature which Raphael so perfectly understoodthe maternity of the brain, in short, which is so difficult to

develop, is lost with prodigious ease. Inspiration is the opportunity of genius. She does not indeed dance on

the razor's edge, she is in the air and flies away with the suspicious swiftness of a crow; she wears no scarf by

which the poet can clutch her; her hair is a flame; she vanishes like the lovely rose and white flamingo, the

sportsman's despair. And work, again, is a weariful struggle, alike dreaded and delighted in by these lofty and

powerful natures who are often broken by it. A great poet of our day has said in speaking of this

overwhelming labor, "I sit down to it in despair, but I leave it with regret." Be it known to all who are

ignorant! If the artist does not throw himself into his work as Curtius sprang into the gulf, as a soldier leads a

forlorn hope without a moment's thought, and if when he is in the crater he does not dig on as a miner does

when the earth has fallen in on him; if he contemplates the difficulties before him instead of conquering them

one by one, like the lovers in fairy tales, who to win their princesses overcome ever new enchantments, the

work remains incomplete; it perishes in the studio where creativeness becomes impossible, and the artist

Rossini, a brother genius to Raphael, is a striking instance in his povertystricken youth, compared with his

latter years of opulence. This is the reason why the same prize, the same triumph, the same bays are awarded

Wenceslas, by nature a dreamer, had expended so much energy in production, in study, and in work under

Lisbeth's despotic rule, that love and happiness resulted in reaction. His real character reappeared, the

weakness, recklessness, and indolence of the Sarmatian returned to nestle in the comfortable corners of his

For the first few months the artist adored his wife. Hortense and Wenceslas abandoned themselves to the

happy childishness of a legitimate and unbounded passion. Hortense was the first to release her husband from

his labors, proud to triumph over her rival, his Art. And, indeed, a woman's caresses scare away the Muse,

Six or seven months slipped by, and the artist's fingers had forgotten the use of the modeling tool. When the

need for work began to be felt, when the Prince de Wissembourg, president of the committee of subscribers,

asked to see the statue, Wenceslas spoke the inevitable byword of the idler, "I am just going to work on it,"

and he lulled his dear Hortense with fallacious promises and the magnificent schemes of the artist as he

smokes. Hortense loved her poet more than ever; she dreamed of a sublime statue of Marshal Montcornet.

Montcornet would be the embodied ideal of bravery, the type of the cavalry officer, of courage a la Murat.

Yes, yes; at the mere sight of that statue all the Emperor's victories were to seem a foregone conclusion. And

When the progress of affairs required that he should go to the studio at le GrosCaillou to mould the clay and

set up the lifesize model, Steinbock found one day that the Prince's clock required his presence in the

workshop of Florent and Chanor, where the figures were being finished; or, again, the light was gray and

dull; today he had business to do, tomorrow they had a family dinner, to say nothing of indispositions of

Marshal the Prince de Wissembourg was obliged to be angry to get the clay model finished; he declared that

he must put the work into other hands. It was only by dint of endless complaints and much strong language

that the committee of subscribers succeeded in seeing the plastercast. Day after day Steinbock came home,

evidently tired, complaining of this "hodman's work" and his own physical weakness. During that first year

the household felt no pinch; the Countess Steinbock, desperately in love with her husband cursed the War

Minister. She went to see him; she told him that great works of art were not to be manufactured like cannon;

and that the Statelike Louis XIV., Francis I., and Leo X.ought to be at the beck and call of genius. Poor

Hortense, believing she held a Phidias in her embrace, had the sort of motherly cowardice for her Wenceslas

"Do not be hurried," said she to her husband, "our whole future life is bound up with that statue. Take your

She would go to the studio, and then the enraptured Steinbock wasted five hours out of seven in describing

the statue instead of working at it. He thus spent eighteen months in finishing the design, which to him was

When the plaster was cast and the model complete, poor Hortense, who had looked on at her husband's toil,

seeing his health really suffer from the exertions which exhaust a sculptor's frame and arms and hands

Hortense thought the result admirable. Her father, who knew nothing of sculpture, and her mother, no less

ignorant, lauded it as a triumph; the War Minister came with them to see it, and, overruled by them,

expressed approval of the figure, standing as it did alone, in a favorable light, thrown up against a green baize

Alas! at the exhibition of 1841, the disapprobation of the public soon took the form of abuse and mockery in

the mouths of those who were indignant with the idol too hastily set up for worship. Stidmann tried to advise

his friend, but was accused of jealousy. Every article in a newspaper was to Hortense an outcry of envy.

Stidmann, the best of good fellows, got articles written, in which adverse criticism was contravened, and it

was pointed out that sculptors altered their works in translating the plaster into marble, and that the marble

"In reproducing the plaster sketch in marble," wrote Claude Vignon, "a masterpiece may be ruined, or a bad

So in two years and a half Wenceslas had produced a statue and a son. The child was a picture of beauty; the

The clock for the Prince and the price of the statue paid off the young couple's debts. Steinbock had acquired

fashionable habits; he went to the play, to the opera; he talked admirably about art; and in the eyes of the

world he maintained his reputation as a great artist by his powers of conversation and criticism. There are

many clever men in Paris who spend their lives in talking themselves out, and are content with a sort of

drawingroom celebrity. Steinbock, emulating these emasculated but charming men, grew every day more

averse to hard work. As soon as he began a thing, he was conscious of all its difficulties, and the

discouragement that came over him enervated his will. Inspiration, the frenzy of intellectual procreation, flew

Sculpturelike dramatic artis at once the most difficult and the easiest of all arts. You have but to copy a

model, and the task is done; but to give it a soul, to make it typical by creating a man or a womanthis is the

sin of Prometheus. Such triumphs in the annals of sculpture may be counted, as we may count the few poets

among men. Michael Angelo, Michel Columb, Jean Goujon, Phidias, Praxiteles, Polycletes, Puget, Canova,

Albert Durer, are the brothers of Milton, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Tasso, Homer, and Moliere. And such

an achievement is so stupendous that a single statue is enough to make a man immortal, as Figaro, Lovelace,

and Manon Lescaut have immortalized Beaumarchais, Richardson, and the Abbe Prevost.

Superficial thinkersand there are many in the artist worldhave asserted that sculpture lives only by the

nude, that it died with the Greeks, and that modern vesture makes it impossible. But, in the first place, the

Ancients have left sublime statues entirely clothedthe Polyhymnia, the Julia, and others, and we have not

found onetenth of all their works; and then, let any lover of art go to Florence and see Michael Angelo's

Penseroso, or to the Cathedral of Mainz, and behold the Virgin by Albert Durer, who has created a living

woman out of ebony, under her threefold drapery, with the most flowing, the softest hair that ever a

waitingmaid combed through; let all the ignorant flock thither, and they will acknowledge that genius can

give mind to drapery, to armor, to a robe, and fill it with a body, just as a man leaves the stamp of his

Sculpture is the perpetual realization of the fact which once, and never again, was, in painting called Raphael!

The solution of this hard problem is to be found only in constant persevering toil; for, merely to overcome the

material difficulties to such an extent, the hand must be so practised, so dexterous and obedient, that the

sculptor may be free to struggle soul to soul with the elusive moral element that he has to transfigure as he

embodies it. If Paganini, who uttered his soul through the strings of his violin, spent three days without

practising, he lost what he called the stops of his instrument, meaning the sympathy between the wooden

frame, the strings, the bow, and himself; if he had lost this alliance, he would have been no more than an

Perpetual work is the law of art, as it is the law of life, for art is idealized creation. Hence great artists and

perfect poets wait neither for commission nor for purchasers. They are constantly creating today,

tomorrow, always. The result is the habit of work, the unfailing apprehension of the difficulties which keep

them in close intercourse with the Muse and her productive forces. Canova lived in his studio, as Voltaire

While Lisbeth kept Wenceslas Steinbock in thraldom in his garret, he was on the thorny road trodden by all

these great men, which leads to the Alpine heights of glory. Then happiness, in the person of Hortense, had

reduced the poet to idlenessthe normal condition of all artists, since to them idleness is fully occupied.

Their joy is such as that of the pasha of a seraglio; they revel with ideas, they get drunk at the founts of

intellect. Great artists, such as Steinbock, wrapped in reverie, are rightly spoken of as dreamers. They, like

opiumeaters, all sink into poverty, whereas if they had been kept up to the mark by the stern demands of

At the same time, these halfartists are delightful; men like them and cram them with praise; they even seem

superior to the true artists, who are taxed with conceit, unsociableness, contempt of the laws of society. This

is why: Great men are the slaves of their work. Their indifference to outer things, their devotion to their work,

make simpletons regard them as egotists, and they are expected to wear the same garb as the dandy who

fulfils the trivial evolutions called social duties. These men want the lions of the Atlas to be combed and

These artists, who are too rarely matched to meet their fellows, fall into habits of solitary exclusiveness; they

are inexplicable to the majority, which, as we know, consists mostly of foolsof the envious, the ignorant,

Now you may imagine what part a wife should play in the life of these glorious and exceptional beings. She

ought to be what, for five years, Lisbeth had been, but with the added offering of love, humble and patient

Hortense, enlightened by her anxieties as a mother, and driven by dire necessity, had discovered too late the

mistakes she had been involuntarily led into by her excessive love. Still, the worthy daughter of her mother,

her heart ached at the thought of worrying Wenceslas; she loved her dear poet too much to become his

torturer; and she could foresee the hour when beggary awaited her, her child, and her husband.

"Come, come, my child," said Lisbeth, seeing the tears in her cousin's lovely eyes, "you must not despair. A

"I have but three thousand at the most," said Lisbeth. "And what is Wenceslas doing now?"

"He has had an offer to work in partnership with Stidmann at a table service for the Duc d'Herouville for six

thousand francs. Then Monsieur Chanor will advance four thousand to repay Monsieur de Lora and

"What, you have had the money for the statue and the basreliefs for Marshal Montcornet's monument, and

"For the last three years," said Hortense, "we have spent twelve thousand francs a year, and I have but a

hundred louis a year of my own. The Marshal's monument, when all the expenses were paid, brought us no

more than sixteen thousand francs. Really and truly, if Wenceslas gets no work, I do not know what is to

become of us. Oh, if only I could learn to make statues, I would handle the clay!" she cried, holding up her

The woman, it was plain, fulfilled the promise of the girl; there was a flash in her eye; impetuous blood,

strong with iron, flowed in her veins; she felt that she was wasting her energy in carrying her infant.

"Ah, my poor little thing! a sensible girl should not marry an artist till his fortune is madenot while it is

At this moment they heard voices; Stidmann and Wenceslas were seeing Chanor to the door; then Wenceslas

Stidmann, an artist in vogue in the world of journalists, famous actresses, and courtesans of the better class,

was a young man of fashion whom Valerie much wished to see in her rooms; indeed, he had already been

introduced to her by Claude Vignon. Stidmann had lately broken off an intimacy with Madame Schontz, who

had married some months since and gone to live in the country. Valerie and Lisbeth, hearing of this upheaval

from Claude Vignon, thought it well to get Steinbock's friend to visit in the Rue Vanneau.

Stidmann, out of good feeling, went rarely to the Steinbocks'; and as it happened that Lisbeth was not present

when he was introduced by Claude Vignon, she now saw him for the first time. As she watched this noted

artist, she caught certain glances from his eyes at Hortense, which suggested to her the possibility of offering

him to the Countess Steinbock as a consolation if Wenceslas should be false to her. In point of fact, Stidmann

was reflecting that if Steinbock were not his friend, Hortense, the young and superbly beautiful countess,

would be an adorable mistress; it was this very notion, controlled by honor, that kept him away from the

house. Lisbeth was quick to mark the significant awkwardness that troubles a man in the presence of a

"Stidmann, my good fellow," said Wenceslas, in an undertone to his friend, "we are on no ceremony, you and

"It is settled," said Wenceslas, when he came in from taking leave of Stidmann. "But there are six months'

"There are my diamonds," cried the young Countess, with the impetuous heroism of a loving woman.

"Oh, I am going to work," said he, sitting down by his wife and drawing her on to his knee. "I will do odd

"But, my children," said Lisbeth; "for, as you know, you will be my heirs, and I shall leave you a very

comfortable sum, believe me, especially if you help me to marry the Marshal; nay, if we succeed in that

quickly, I will take you all to board with meyou and Adeline. We should live very happily together.But

for the moment, listen to the voice of my long experience. Do not fly to the MontdePiete; it is the ruin of

the borrower. I have always found that when the interest was due, those who had pledged their things had

nothing wherewith to pay up, and then all is lost. I can get you a loan at five per cent on your note of hand."

"Well, then, child, Wenceslas had better come with me to see the lender, who will oblige him at my request.

It is Madame Marneffe. If you flatter her a littlefor she is as vain as a parvenueshe will get you out of

the scrape in the most obliging way. Come yourself and see her, my dear Hortense."

Hortense looked at her husband with the expression a man condemned to death must wear on his way to the

"Claude Vignon took Stidmann there," said Wenceslas. "He says it is a very pleasant house."

Hortense's head fell. What she felt can only be expressed in one word; it was not pain; it was illness.

"But, my dear Hortense, you must learn something of life!" exclaimed Lisbeth, understanding the eloquence

of her cousin's looks. "Otherwise, like your mother, you will find yourself abandoned in a deserted room,

where you will weep like Calypso on the departure of Ulysses, and at an age when there is no hope of

Telemachus" she added, repeating a jest of Madame Marneffe's. "We have to regard the people in the

world as tools which we can make use of or let alone, according as they can serve our turn. Make use of

Madame Marneffe now, my dears, and let her alone by and by. Are you afraid lest Wenceslas, who worships

you, should fall in love with a woman four or five years older than himself, as yellow as a bundle of field

"I would far rather pawn my diamonds," said Hortense. "Oh, never go there, Wenceslas!It is hell!"

"Thank you, my dearest," said Hortense, delighted. "My husband is an angel, you see, Lisbeth. He does not

gamble, he goes nowhere without me; if he only could stick to workoh, I should be too happy. Why take

us on show to my father's mistress, a woman who is ruining him and is the cause of troubles that are killing

"My child, that is not where the cause of your father's ruin lies. It was his singer who ruined him, and then

your marriage!" replied her cousin. "Bless me! why, Madame Marneffe is of the greatest use to him.

Hortense was called into the garden by hearing the child cry; Lisbeth was left alone with Wenceslas.

"You have an angel for your wife, Wenceslas!" said she. "Love her as you ought; never give her cause for

"Yes, indeed, I love her so well that I do not tell her all," replied Wenceslas; "but to you, Lisbeth, I may

confess the truth.If I took my wife's diamonds to the MontedePiete, we should be no further forward."

"Then borrow of Madame Marneffe," said Lisbeth. "Persuade Hortense, Wenceslas, to let you go there, or

"That is what I was thinking of," replied Wenceslas, "when I refused for fear of grieving Hortense."

"Listen to me; I care too much for you both not to warn you of your danger. If you go there, hold your heart

tight in both hands, for the woman is a witch. All who see her adore her; she is so wicked, so inviting! She

fascinates men like a masterpiece. Borrow her money, but do not leave your soul in pledge. I should never be

happy again if you were false to Hortensehere she is! not another word! I will settle the matter."

"Kiss Lisbeth, my darling," said Wenceslas to his wife. "She will help us out of our difficulties by lending us

"Now, my dear child! say yourself whether some hindrance has not come in the way every day; some

"Here!" cried Steinbock, striking his brow, "here I have swarms of ideas! I mean to astonish all my enemies. I

am going to design a service in the German style of the sixteenth century; the romantic style: foliage twined

with insects, sleeping children, newly invented monsters, chimerasreal chimeras, such as we dream of!I

see it all! It will be undercut, light, and yet crowded. Chanor was quite amazed. And I wanted some

encouragement, for the last article on Montcornet's monument had been crushing."

At a moment in the course of the day when Lisbeth and Wenceslas were left together, the artist agreed to go

on the morrow to see Madame Marneffehe either would win his wife's consent, or he would go without

Valerie, informed the same evening of this success, insisted that Hulot should go to invite Stidmann, Claude

Vignon, and Steinbock to dinner; for she was beginning to tyrannize over him as women of that type

tyrannize over old men, who trot round town, and go to make interest with every one who is necessary to the

Next evening Valerie armed herself for conquest by making such a toilet as a Frenchwoman can devise when

she wishes to make the most of herself. She studied her appearance in this great work as a man going out to

fight a duel practises his feints and lunges. Not a speck, not a wrinkle was to be seen. Valerie was at her

whitest, her softest, her sweetest. And certain little "patches" attracted the eye.

It is commonly supposed that the patch of the eighteenth century is out of date or out of fashion; that is a

mistake. In these days women, more ingenious perhaps than of yore, invite a glance through the operaglass

by other audacious devices. One is the first to hit on a rosette in her hair with a diamond in the centre, and she

attracts every eye for a whole evening; another revives the hairnet, or sticks a dagger through the twist to

suggest a garter; this one wears velvet bands round her wrists, that one appears in lace lippets. These valiant

efforts, an Austerlitz of vanity or of love, then set the fashion for lower spheres by the time the inventive

creatress has originated something new. This evening, which Valerie meant to be a success for her, she had

placed three patches. She had washed her hair with some lye, which changed its hue for a few days from a

gold color to a duller shade. Madame Steinbock's was almost red, and she would be in every point unlike her.

This new effect gave her a piquant and strange appearance, which puzzled her followers so much, that

"What have you done to yourself this evening?"Then she put on a rather wide black velvet neckribbon,

which showed off the whiteness of her skin. One patch took the place of the assassine of our grandmothers.

And Valerie pinned the sweetest rosebud into her bodice, just in the middle above the staybusk, and in the

daintiest little hollow! It was enough to make every man under thirty drop his eyelids.

"I am as sweet as a sugarplum," said she to herself, going through her attitudes before the glass, exactly as a

Lisbeth had been to market, and the dinner was to be one of those superfine meals which Mathurine had been

wont to cook for her Bishop when he entertained the prelate of the adjoining diocese.

Stidmann, Claude Vignon, and Count Steinbock arrived almost together, just at six. An ordinary, or, if you

will, a natural woman would have hastened at the announcement of a name so eagerly longed for; but

Valerie, though ready since five o'clock, remained in her room, leaving her three guests together, certain that

she was the subject of their conversation or of their secret thoughts. She herself had arranged the

drawingroom, laying out the pretty trifles produced in Paris and nowhere else, which reveal the woman and

announce her presence: albums bound in enamel or embroidered with beads, saucers full of pretty rings,

marvels of Sevres or Dresden mounted exquisitely by Florent and Chanor, statues, books, all the frivolities

which cost insane sums, and which passion orders of the makers in its first deliriumor to patch up its last

Besides, Valerie was in the state of intoxication that comes of triumph. She had promised to marry Crevel if

Marneffe should die; and the amorous Crevel had transferred to the name of Valerie Fortin bonds bearing ten

thousand francs a year, the sumtotal of what he had made in railway speculations during the past three

years, the returns on the capital of a hundred thousand crowns which he had at first offered to the Baronne

Crevel had just committed himself to a promise of far greater magnitude than this gift of his surplus. In the

paroxysm of rapture which his Duchess had given him from two to fourhe gave this fine title to Madame

de Marneffe to complete the illusionfor Valerie had surpassed herself in the Rue du Dauphin that

afternoon, he had thought well to encourage her in her promised fidelity by giving her the prospect of a

certain little mansion, built in the Rue Barbette by an imprudent contractor, who now wanted to sell it.

Valerie could already see herself in this delightful residence, with a forecourt and a garden, and keeping a

"What respectable life can ever procure so much in so short a time, or so easily?" said she to Lisbeth as she

finished dressing. Lisbeth was to dine with Valerie that evening, to tell Steinbock those things about the lady

Madame Marneffe, radiant with satisfaction, came into the drawingroom with modest grace, followed by

Claude Vignon, like many another, had become a political personagea word describing an ambitious man

at the first stage of his career. The political personage of 1840 represents, in some degree, the Abbe of the

"My dear, this is my cousin, Count Steinbock," said Lisbeth, introducing Wenceslas, whom Valerie seemed

"Oh yes, I recognized Monsieur le Comte," replied Valerie with a gracious bow to the artist. "I often saw you

in the Rue du Doyenne, and I had the pleasure of being present at your wedding.It would be difficult, my

dear," said she to Lisbeth, "to forget your adopted son after once seeing him.It is most kind of you,

Monsieur Stidmann," she went on, "to have accepted my invitation at such short notice; but necessity knows

no law. I knew you to be the friend of both these gentlemen. Nothing is more dreary, more sulky, than a

dinner where all the guests are strangers, so it was for their sake that I hailed you inbut you will come

And for a few minutes she moved about the room with Stidmann, wholly occupied with him.

This individual, a provincial Crevel, one of the men created to make up the crowd in the world, voted under

the banner of Giraud, a State Councillor, and Victorin Hulot. These two politicians were trying to form a

nucleus of progressives in the loose array of the Conservative Party. Giraud himself occasionally spent the

evening at Madame Marneffe's, and she flattered herself that she should also capture Victorin Hulot; but the

puritanical lawyer had hitherto found excuses for refusing to accompany his father and fatherinlaw. It

seemed to him criminal to be seen in the house of the woman who cost his mother so many tears. Victorin

Beauvisage, formerly a stocking manufacturer at Arcis, was anxious to pick up the Paris style. This man, one

of the outer stones of the Chamber, was forming himself under the auspices of this delicious and fascinating

Madame Marneffe. Introduced here by Crevel, he had accepted him, at her instigation, as his model and

master. He consulted him on every point, took the address of his tailor, imitated him, and tried to strike the

Valerie, surrounded by these bigwigs and the three artists, and supported by Lisbeth, struck Wenceslas as a

really superior woman, all the more so because Claude Vignon spoke of her like a man in love.

"She is Madame de Maintenon in Ninon's petticoats!" said the veteran critic. "You may please her in an

evening if you have the wit; but as for making her love youthat would be a triumph to crown a man's

Valerie, while seeming cold and heedless of her former neighbor, piqued his vanity, quite unconsciously

indeed, for she knew nothing of the Polish character. There is in the Slav a childish element, as there is in all

these primitively wild nations which have overflowed into civilization rather than that they have become

civilized. The race has spread like an inundation, and has covered a large portion of the globe. It inhabits

deserts whose extent is so vast that it expands at its ease; there is no jostling there, as there is in Europe, and

civilization is impossible without the constant friction of minds and interests. The Ukraine, Russia, the plains

by the Danube, in short, the Slav nations, are a connecting link between Europe and Asia, between

civilization and barbarism. Thus the Pole, the wealthiest member of the Slav family, has in his character all

the childishness and inconsistency of a beardless race. He has courage, spirit, and strength; but, cursed with

instability, that courage, strength, and energy have neither method nor guidance; for the Pole displays a

variability resembling that of the winds which blow across that vast plain broken with swamps; and though

he has the impetuosity of the snow squalls that wrench and sweep away buildings, like those aerial

avalanches he is lost in the first pool and melts into water. Man always assimilates something from the

surroundings in which he lives. Perpetually at strife with the Turk, the Pole has imbibed a taste for Oriental

splendor; he often sacrifices what is needful for the sake of display. The men dress themselves out like

The Pole, sublime in suffering, has tired his oppressors' arms by sheer endurance of beating; and, in the

nineteenth century, has reproduced the spectacle presented by the early Christians. Infuse only ten per cent of

English cautiousness into the frank and open Polish nature, and the magnanimous white eagle would at this

day be supreme wherever the twoheaded eagle has sneaked in. A little Machiavelism would have hindered

Poland from helping to save Austria, who has taken a share of it; from borrowing from Prussia, the usurer

who had undermined it; and from breaking up as soon as a division was first made.

At the christening of Poland, no doubt, the Fairy Carabosse, overlooked by the genii who endowed that

"Keep all the gifts that my sisters have bestowed on you; but you shall never know what you wish for!"

If, in its heroic duel with Russia, Poland had won the day, the Poles would now be fighting among

themselves, as they formerly fought in their Diets to hinder each other from being chosen King. When that

nation, composed entirely of hotheaded daredevils, has good sense enough to seek a Louis XI. among her

What Poland has been politically, almost every Pole is in private life, especially under the stress of disaster.

Thus Wenceslas Steinbock, after worshiping his wife for three years and knowing that he was a god to her,

was so much nettled at finding himself barely noticed by Madame Marneffe, that he made it a point of honor

to attract her attention. He compared Valerie with his wife and gave her the palm. Hortense was beautiful

flesh, as Valerie had said to Lisbeth; but Madame Marneffe had spirit in her very shape, and the savor of vice.

Such devotion as Hortense's is a feeling which a husband takes as his due; the sense of the immense

preciousness of such perfect love soon wears off, as a debtor, in the course of time, begins to fancy that the

borrowed money is his own. This noble loyalty becomes the daily bread of the soul, and an infidelity is as

tempting as a dainty. The woman who is scornful, and yet more the woman who is reputed dangerous, excites

curiosity, as spices add flavor to good food. Indeed, the disdain so cleverly acted by Valerie was a novelty to

Wenceslas, after three years of too easy enjoyment. Hortense was a wife; Valerie a mistress.

Many men desire to have two editions of the same work, though it is in fact a proof of inferiority when a man

cannot make his mistress of his wife. Variety in this particular is a sign of weakness. Constancy will always

be the real genius of love, the evidence of immense powerthe power that makes the poet! A man ought to

find every woman in his wife, as the squalid poets of the seventeenth century made their Manons figure as

"Well," said Lisbeth to the Pole, as she beheld him fascinated, "what do you think of Valerie?"

"You would not listen to me," said Betty. "Oh! my little Wenceslas, if you and I had never parted, you would

have been that siren's lover; you might have married her when she was a widow, and you would have had her

"Certainly," replied Lisbeth. "Now, take care of yourself; I warned you of the danger; do not singe your

No language could be so thoroughly demoralizing as this; for if you show a Pole a precipice, he is bound to

leap it. As a nation they have the very spirit of cavalry; they fancy they can ride down every obstacle and

come out victorious. The spur applied by Lisbeth to Steinbock's vanity was intensified by the appearance of

the dining room, bright with handsome silver plate; the dinner was served with every refinement and

All through the dinner Hulot was charming; pleased to see his sonin law at that table, and yet more happy

in the prospect of a reconciliation with Valerie, whose fidelity he proposed to secure by the promise of

Coquet's headclerkship. Stidmann responded to the Baron's amiability by shafts of Parisian banter and an

artist's high spirits. Steinbock would not allow himself to be eclipsed by his friend; he too was witty, said

amusing things, made his mark, and was pleased with himself; Madame Marneffe smiled at him several times

The good meal and heady wines completed the work; Wenceslas was deep in what must be called the slough

of dissipation. Excited by just a glass too much, he stretched himself on a settee after dinner, sunk in physical

and mental ecstasy, which Madame Marneffe wrought to the highest pitch by coming to sit down by

himairy, scented, pretty enough to damn an angel. She bent over Wenceslas and almost touched his ear as

"We cannot talk over business matters this evening, unless you will remain till the last. Between usyou,

"Ah, Madame, you are an angel!" replied Wenceslas, also in a murmur. "I was a pretty fool not to listen to

Madame Marneffe looked at him, seemed covered with confusion, and hastily left her seat. A young and

pretty woman never rouses the hope of immediate success with impunity. This retreat, the impulse of a

virtuous woman who is crushing a passion in the depths of her heart, was a thousand times more effective

than the most reckless avowal. Desire was so thoroughly aroused in Wenceslas that he doubled his attentions

to Valerie. A woman seen by all is a woman wished for. Hence the terrible power of actresses. Madame

Marneffe, knowing that she was watched, behaved like an admired actress. She was quite charming, and her

"If you say such things, Wenceslas, I shall to my dying day repent of having got you the loan of these ten

thousand francs. Are you, like all these men," and she indicated the guests, "madly in love with that creature?

Remember, you would be your fatherinlaw's rival. And think of the misery you would bring on Hortense."

"Ah! that is what I always told you in the Rue du Doyenne. Your groups, your statues, your great works,

"What are you talking about?" Valerie asked, joining Lisbeth."Give us tea, Cousin."

Steinbock, with Polish vainglory, wanted to appear familiar with this drawingroom fairy. After defying

Stidmann, Vignon, and Crevel with a look, he took Valerie's hand and forced her to sit down by him on the

"You are rather too lordly, Count Steinbock," said she, resisting a little. But she laughed as she dropped on to

"Alas! if I were really lordly," said he, "I should not be here to borrow money."

"Poor boy! I remember how you worked all night in the Rue du Doyenne. You really were rather a spooney;

you married as a starving man snatches a loaf. You knew nothing of Paris, and you see where you are landed.

But you turned a deaf ear to Lisbeth's devotion, as you did to the love of a woman who knows her Paris by

"You shall have your ten thousand francs, my dear Wenceslas; but on one condition," she went on, playing

"Oh, you need not be indignant; you shall make it good by giving me a bronze group. You began the story of

Samson; finish it.Do a Delilah cutting off the Jewish Hercules' hair. And you, who, if you will listen to me,

will be a great artist, must enter into the subject. What you have to show is the power of woman. Samson is a

secondary consideration. He is the corpse of dead strength. It is Delilah passionthat ruins everything.

How far more beautiful is that replicaThat is what you call it, I think" She skilfully interpolated, as

Claude Vignon and Stidmann came up to them on hearing her talk of sculpture"how far more beautiful

than the Greek myth is that replica of Hercules at Omphale's feet.Did Greece copy Judaea, or did Judaea

"There, madame, you raise an important questionthat of the date of the various writings in the Bible. The

great and immortal Spinoza most foolishly ranked as an atheist, whereas he gave mathematical proof of

the existence of Godasserts that the Book of Genesis and all the political history of the Bible are of the

time of Moses, and he demonstrates the interpolated passages by philological evidence. And he was thrice

"I had no idea I was so learned," said Valerie, annoyed at this interruption to her teteatete.

"Well, then, you promise me?" she said to Steinbock, taking his hand with the timidity of a girl in love.

"You are indeed a happy man, my dear fellow," cried Stidmann, "if madame asks a favor of you!"

"You should take madame for your subject," replied Vignon, with a keen glance at Valerie.

"Well," she went on, "this is my notion of the composition. Samson on waking finds he has no hair, like

many a dandy with a false topknot. The hero is sitting on the bed, so you need only show the foot of it,

covered with hangings and drapery. There he is, like Marius among the ruins of Carthage, his arms folded,

his head shavenNapoleon at SaintHelenawhat you will! Delilah is on her knees, a good deal like

Canova's Magdalen. When a hussy has ruined her man, she adores him. As I see it, the Jewess was afraid of

Samson in his strength and terrors, but she must have loved him when she saw him a child again. So Delilah

is bewailing her sin, she would like to give her lover his hair again. She hardly dares to look at him; but she

does look, with a smile, for she reads forgiveness in Samson's weakness. Such a group as this, and one of the

ferocious Judith, would epitomize woman. Virtue cuts off your head; vice only cuts off your hair. Take care

And she left the artists quite overpowered, to sing her praises in concert with the critic.

"Oh! she is the most intelligent and desirable woman I have ever met," said Claude Vignon. "Such a

"And if you who had the honor of being intimate with Camille Maupin can pronounce such a verdict," replied

"If you will make your Delilah a portrait of Valerie, my dear Count," said Crevel, who had risen for a

moment from the cardtable, and who had heard what had been said, "I will give you a thousand crowns for

an exampleyes, by the Powers! I will shell out to the tune of a thousand crowns!"

"Madame must do me the honor to sit for it then," said Steinbock to Crevel. "Ask her"

At this moment Valerie herself brought Steinbock a cup of tea. This was more than a compliment, it was a

favor. There is a complete language in the manner in which a woman does this little civility; but women are

fully aware of the fact, and it is a curious thing to study their movements, their manner, their look, tone, and

accent when they perform this apparently simple act of politeness.From the question, "Do you take

tea?""Will you have some tea?""A cup of tea?" coldly asked, and followed by instructions to the nymph

of the urn to bring it, to the eloquent poem of the odalisque coming from the teatable, cup in hand, towards

the pasha of her heart, presenting it submissively, offering it in an insinuating voice, with a look full of

intoxicating promises, a physiologist could deduce the whole scale of feminine emotion, from aversion or

indifference to Phaedra's declaration to Hippolytus. Women can make it, at will, contemptuous to the verge

And Valerie was more than woman; she was the serpent made woman; she crowned her diabolical work by

"I will drink as many cups of tea as you will give me," said the artist, murmuring in her ear as he rose, and

"What were you saying about sitting?" said she, without betraying that this declaration, so frantically desired,

"He will not be there to see, I hope!" replied she. "The group would be worth more than all his fortune, for

Just as Crevel loved to strike an attitude, every woman has a victorious gesture, a studied movement, which

she knows must win admiration. You may see in a drawingroom how one spends all her time looking down

at her tucker or pulling up the shoulderpiece of her gown, how another makes play with the brightness of

her eyes by glancing up at the cornice. Madame Marneffe's triumph, however, was not face to face like that

of other women. She turned sharply round to return to Lisbeth at the teatable. This balletdancer's pirouette,

whisking her skirts, by which she had overthrown Hulot, now fascinated Steinbock.

"Your vengeance is secure," said Valerie to Lisbeth in a whisper. "Hortense will cry out all her tears, and

"Till I am Madame la Marechale I shall not think myself successful," replied the cousin; "but they are all

beginning to wish for it.This morning I went to Victorin'sI forgot to tell you.The young Hulots have

bought up their father's notes of hand given to Vauvinet, and tomorrow they will endorse a bill for

seventytwo thousand francs at five per cent, payable in three years, and secured by a mortgage on their

house. So the young people are in straits for three years; they can raise no more money on that property.

Victorin is dreadfully distressed; he understands his father. And Crevel is capable of refusing to see them; he

"I don't see where he can get it. But he will draw his salary again in September."

"And he has his policy of insurance; he has renewed it. Come, it is high time he should get Marneffe

"My dear cousin," said Lisbeth to Wenceslas, "go home, I beg. You are quite ridiculous. Your eyes are fixed

on Valerie in a way that is enough to compromise her, and her husband is insanely jealous. Do not tread in

your fatherinlaw's footsteps. Go home; I am sure Hortense is sitting up for you."

"Madame Marneffe told me to stay till the last to settle my little business with you and her," replied

"No, no," said Lisbeth; "I will bring you the ten thousand francs, for her husband has his eye on you. It would

be rash to remain. Tomorrow at eleven o'clock bring your note of hand; at that hour that mandarin Marneffe

is at his office, Valerie is free.Have you really asked her to sit for your group?Come up to my rooms

first.Ah! I was sure of it," she added, as she caught the look which Steinbock flashed at Valerie, "I knew

you were a profligate in the bud! Well, Valerie is lovelybut try not to bring trouble on Hortense."

Nothing annoys a married man so much as finding his wife perpetually interposing between himself and his

Wenceslas got home at about one in the morning; Hortense had expected him ever since halfpast nine. From

halfpast nine till ten she had listened to the passing carriages, telling herself that never before had her

husband come in so late from dining with Florent and Chanor. She sat sewing by the child's cot, for she had

begun to save a needlewoman's pay for the day by doing the mending herself.From ten till halfpast, a

"Is he really gone to dinner, as he told me, with Chanor and Florent? He put on his best cravat and his

handsomest pin when he dressed. He took as long over his toilet as a woman when she wants to make the best

From eleven till midnight Hortense was a victim to terrible alarms; the quarter where they lived was now

"If he has set out on foot, some accident may have happened," thought she. "A man may be killed by

tumbling over a curbstone or failing to see a gap. Artists are so heedless! Or if he should have been stopped

by robbers!It is the first time he has ever left me alone here for six hours and a half!But why should I

Men ought to be faithful to the wives who love them, were it only on account of the perpetual miracles

wrought by true love in the sublime regions of the spiritual world. The woman who loves is, in relation to the

man she loves, in the position of a somnambulist to whom the magnetizer should give the painful power,

when she ceases to be the mirror of the world, of being conscious as a woman of what she has seen as a

somnambulist. Passion raises the nervous tension of a woman to the ecstatic pitch at which presentiment is as

acute as the insight of a clairvoyant. A wife knows she is betrayed; she will not let herself say so, she doubts

stillshe loves so much! She gives the lie to the outcry of her own Pythian power. This paroxysm of love

In noble souls, admiration of this divine phenomenon will always be a safeguard to protect them from

infidelity. How should a man not worship a beautiful and intellectual creature whose soul can soar to such

By one in the morning Hortense was in a state of such intense anguish, that she flew to the door as she

recognized her husband's ring at the bell, and clasped him in her arms like a mother.

"At lasthere you are!" cried she, finding her voice again. "My dearest, henceforth where you go I go, for I

cannot again endure the torture of such waiting.I pictured you stumbling over a curbstone, with a fractured

skull! Killed by thieves!No, a second time I know I should go mad.Have you enjoyed yourself so

"What can I say, my darling? There was Bixiou, who drew fresh caricatures for us; Leon de Lora, as witty as

ever; Claude Vignon, to whom I owe the only consolatory article that has come out about the Montcornet

"Stidmann and Bixiou came back with me along the boulevards as far as the Madeleine, talking all the way."

"It is dry then on the boulevards and the Place de la Concorde and the Rue de Bourgogne? You are not

It had been raining, but between the Rue Vanneau and the Rue Saint Dominique Wenceslas had not got his

"Herehere are five thousand francs Chanor has been so generous as to lend me," said Wenceslas, to cut

He had made a division of the ten thousandfranc notes, half for Hortense and half for himself, for he had

five thousand francs' worth of debts of which Hortense knew nothing. He owed money to his foreman and his

"Now your anxieties are relieved," said he, kissing his wife. "I am going to work tomorrow morning. So I

The suspicion that had dawned in Hortense's mind vanished; she was miles away from the truth. Madame

Marneffe! She had never thought of her. Her fear for her Wenceslas was that he should fall in with street

prostitutes. The names of Bixiou and Leon de Lora, two artists noted for their wild dissipations, had alarmed

"Now he is at work again," said she to herself, as she proceeded to dress her boy. "I see he is quite in the

vein! Well, well, if we cannot have the glory of Michael Angelo, we may have that of Benvenuto Cellini!"

Lulled by her own hopes, Hortense believed in a happy future; and she was chattering to her son of twenty

months in the language of onomatopoeia that amuses babes when, at about eleven o'clock, the cook, who had

Thanking Heaven for this piece of luck, Hortense was glad to detain Stidmann to ask some questions about

the evening before. Stidmann bowed in acknowledgment of her kindness. The Countess Steinbock rang; the

cook appeared, and was desired to go at once and fetch her master from the studio.

"You had an amusing dinner last night?" said Hortense. "Wenceslas did not come in till past one in the

"Amusing? not exactly," replied the artist, who had intended to fascinate Madame Marneffe. "Society is not

very amusing unless one is interested in it. That little Madame Marneffe is clever, but a great flirt."

"And what did Wenceslas think of her?" asked poor Hortense, trying to keep calm. "He said nothing about

"I will only say one thing," said Stidmann, "and that is, that I think her a very dangerous woman."

"Soit was atat Madame Marneffe's that you dinedand notnot with Chanor?" said she,

The Countess did not finish her sentence; she simply fainted away. The artist rang, and the maid came in.

When Louise tried to get her mistress into her bedroom, a serious nervous attack came on, with violent

hysterics. Stidmann, like any man who by an involuntary indiscretion has overthrown the structure built on a

husband's lie to his wife, could not conceive that his words should produce such an effect; he supposed that

the Countess was in such delicate health that the slightest contradiction was mischievous.

The cook presently returned to say, unfortunately in loud tones, that her master was not in the studio. In the

"If I knew where to find Steinbock, I would go and fetch him!" exclaimed Stidmann in despair.

"He is with that woman!" cried the unhappy wife. "He was not dressed to go to his work!"

Stidmann hurried off to Madame Marneffe's, struck by the truth of this conclusion, due to the secondsight of

At that moment Valerie was posed as Delilah. Stidmann, too sharp to ask for Madame Marneffe, walked

straight in past the lodge, and ran quickly up to the second floor, arguing thus: "If I ask for Madame

Marneffe, she will be out. If I inquire pointblank for Steinbock, I shall be laughed at to my face.Take the

"I tell you that my friend Monsieur Steinbock is here; his wife is very ill. It is quite serious enough for you to

And in point of fact, after waiting a few minutes in the Rue Vanneau, he saw Wenceslas come out, and

beckoned to him to come quickly. After telling him of the tragedy enacted in the Rue SaintDominique,

Stidmann scolded Steinbock for not having warned him to keep the secret of yesterday's dinner.

"I am done for," said Wenceslas, "but you are forgiven. I had totally forgotten that you were to call this

morning, and I blundered in not telling you that we were to have dined with Florent.What can I say? That

Valerie has turned my head; but, my dear fellow, for her glory is well lost, misfortune well won! She really

is!Good Heavens!But I am in a dreadful fix. Advise me. What can I say? How can I excuse myself?"

"I! advise you! I don't know," replied Stidmann. "But your wife loves you, I imagine? Well, then, she will

believe anything. Tell her that you were on your way to me when I was on my way to you; that, at any rate,

Lisbeth, called down by Reine, ran after Wenceslas and caught him up at the corner of the Rue

HillerinBertin; she was afraid of his Polish artlessness. Not wishing to be involved in the matter, she said a

few words to Wenceslas, who in his joy hugged her then and there. She had no doubt pushed out a plank to

At the sight of her mother, who had flown to her aid, Hortense burst into floods of tears. This happily

"Treachery, dear mamma!" cried she. "Wenceslas, after giving me his word of honor that he would not go

near Madame Marneffe, dined with her last night, and did not come in till a quarterpast one in the

morning.If you only knew! The day before we had had a discussion, not a quarrel, and I had appealed to

him so touchingly. I told him I was jealous, that I should die if he were unfaithful; that I was easily

suspicious, but that he ought to have some consideration for my weaknesses, as they came of my love for

him; that I had my father's blood in my veins as well as yours; that at the first moment of such discovery I

should be mad, and capable of mad deedsof avenging myselfof dishonoring us all, him, his child, and

"And yet he went there; he is there!That woman is bent on breaking all our hearts! Only yesterday my

brother and Celestine pledged their all to pay off seventy thousand francs on notes of hand signed for that

goodfornothing creature.Yes, mamma, my father would have been arrested and put into prison. Cannot

that dreadful woman be content with having my father, and with all your tears? Why take my Wenceslas? I

Madame Hulot, struck to the heart by the dreadful secrets Hortense was unwittingly letting out, controlled her

grief by one of the heroic efforts which a magnanimous mother can make, and drew her daughter's head on to

"Wait for Wenceslas, my child; all will be explained. The evil cannot be so great as you picture it!I, too,

have been deceived, my dear Hortense; you think me handsome, I have lived blameless; and yet I have been

utterly forsaken for threeandtwenty yearsfor a Jenny Cadine, a Josepha, a Madame Marneffe! Did

"Do as I have done, my child," said her mother. "Be gentle and kind, and your conscience will be at peace.

On his deathbed a man may say, 'My wife has never cost me a pang!' And God, who hears that dying breath,

credits it to us. If I had abandoned myself to fury like you, what would have happened? Your father would

have been embittered, perhaps he would have left me altogether, and he would not have been withheld by any

fear of paining me. Our ruin, utter as it now is, would have been complete ten years sooner, and we should

have shown the world the spectacle of a husband and wife living quite aparta scandal of the most horrible,

heartbreaking kind, for it is the destruction of the family. Neither your brother nor you could have married.

"I sacrificed myself, and that so bravely, that, till this last connection of your father's, the world has believed

me happy. My serviceable and indeed courageous falsehood has, till now, screened Hector; he is still

respected; but this old man's passion is taking him too far, that I see. His own folly, I fear, will break through

the veil I have kept between the world and our home. However, I have held that curtain steady for

twentythree years, and have wept behind it motherless, I, without a friend to trust, with no help but in

Hortense listened with a fixed gaze. The calm tone of resignation and of such crowning sorrow soothed the

smart of her first wound; the tears rose again and flowed in torrents. In a frenzy of filial affection, overcome

by her mother's noble heroism, she fell on her knees before Adeline, took up the hem of her dress and kissed

"Nay, get up, Hortense," said the Baroness. "Such homage from my daughter wipes out many sad memories.

Come to my heart, and weep for no sorrows but your own. It is the despair of my dear little girl, whose joy

was my only joy, that broke the solemn seal which nothing ought to have removed from my lips. Indeed, I

meant to have taken my woes to the tomb, as a shroud the more. It was to soothe your anguish that I

"Oh! if my life were to be your life, what would I not do? Men, the world, Fate, Nature, God Himself, I

believe, make us pay for love with the most cruel grief. I must pay for ten years of happiness and twentyfour

"But you had ten years, dear mamma, and I have had but three!" said the selfabsorbed girl.

"Mother," said she, "he lied, he deceived me. He said, 'I will not go,' and he went. And that over his child's

"For pleasure, my child, men will commit the most cowardly, the most infamous actionseven crimes; it lies

in their nature, it would seem. We wives are set apart for sacrifice. I believed my troubles were ended, and

they are beginning again, for I never thought to suffer doubly by suffering with my child. Courageand

silence!My Hortense, swear that you will never discuss your griefs with anybody but me, never let them be

"So it would seem," said Wenceslas, as he came in, "that Stidmann has been here while I went to see him."

"Indeed!" said Hortense, with the angry irony of an offended woman who uses words to stab.

"Well, yesterday I deceived you, my darling love; and your mother shall judge between us."

This candor unlocked his wife's heart. All really lofty women like the truth better than lies. They cannot bear

There is a strain of this feeling in the devotion of the Russians to their Czar.

"Now, listen, dear mother," Wenceslas went on. "I so truly love my sweet and kind Hortense, that I concealed

from her the extent of our poverty. What could I do? She was still nursing the boy, and such troubles would

have done her harm; you know what the risk is for a woman. Her beauty, youth, and health are imperiled. Did

I do wrong? She believes that we owe five thousand francs; but I owe five thousand more. The day before

yesterday we were in the depths! No one on earth will lend to us artists. Our talents are not less untrustworthy

than our whims. I knocked in vain at every door. Lisbeth, indeed, offered us her savings."

"But what are Lisbeth's two thousand francs? Everything to her, nothing to us.Then, as you know,

Hortense, she spoke to us of Madame Marneffe, who, as she owes so much to the Baron, out of a sense of

honor, will take no interest. Hortense wanted to send her diamonds to the MontdePiete; they would have

brought in a few thousand francs, but we needed ten thousand. Those ten thousand francs were to be had free

of interest for a year!I said to myself, 'Hortense will be none the wiser; I will go and get them.'

"Then the woman asked me to dinner through my fatherinlaw, giving me to understand that Lisbeth had

spoken of the matter, and I should have the money. Between Hortense's despair on one hand, and the dinner

"What! could Hortense, at fourandtwenty, lovely, pure, and virtuous, and all my pride and glory, imagine

that, when I have never left her since we married, I could now preferwhat?a tawny, painted, ruddled

creature?" said he, using the vulgar exaggeration of the studio to convince his wife by the vehemence that

"Yes, that is what I should have done," said her mother. "Wenceslas, my dear fellow, your wife was near

dying of it," she went on very seriously. "You see how well she loves you. And, alasshe is yours!"

"He may make a martyr of her, or a happy woman," thought she to herself, as every mother thinks when she

sees her daughter married. "It seems to me," she said aloud, "that I am miserable enough to hope to see my

"Be quite easy, dear mamma," said Wenceslas, only too glad to see this critical moment end happily. "In two

months I shall have repaid that dreadful woman. How could I help it," he went on, repeating this essentially

Polish excuse with a Pole's grace; "there are times when a man would borrow of the Devil.And, after all,

the money belongs to the family. When once she had invited me, should I have got the money at all if I had

The Baroness laid her finger on her daughter's lips, aggrieved by this complaint, the first blame she had ever

"Now, goodbye, my children," said Madame Hulot. "The storm is over. But do not quarrel any more."

When Wenceslas and his wife returned to their room after letting out the Baroness, Hortense said to her

And she watched his face all through the narrative, interrupting him by the questions that crowd on a wife's

mind in such circumstances. The story made Hortense reflect; she had a glimpse of the infernal dissipation

"Be honest, my Wenceslas; Stidmann was there, Claude Vignon, Vernisset.Who else? In short, it was good

"I, I was thinking of nothing but our ten thousand francs, and I was saying to myself, 'My Hortense will be

"And you, my dearest, what would you have done if your artist had proved guilty?"

"I," said she, with an air of prompt decision, "I should have taken up Stidmannnot that I love him, of

"Hortense!" cried Steinbock, starting to his feet with a sudden and theatrical emphasis. "You would not have

Hortense threw herself into his arms, clasping him closely enough to stifle him, and covered him with kisses,

"Ah, you do love me! I fear nothing!But no more Marneffe. Never go plunging into such horrible bogs."

"I swear to you, my dear Hortense, that I will go there no more, excepting to redeem my note of hand."

She pouted at this, but only as a loving woman sulks to get something for it. Wenceslas, tired out with such a

morning's work, went off to his studio to make a clay sketch of the Samson and Delilah, for which he had the

Hortense, penitent for her little temper, and fancying that her husband was annoyed with her, went to the

studio just as the sculptor had finished handling the clay with the impetuosity that spurs an artist when the

mood is on him. On seeing his wife, Wenceslas hastily threw the wet wrapper over the group, and putting

Hortense had caught sight of the group, had seen the linen thrown over it, and had said nothing; but as she

And a thousand suspicions cropped up in her mind, as, in India, tall, rank plants spring up in a nighttime.

By the end of three weeks, Madame Marneffe was intensely irritated by Hortense. Women of that stamp have

a pride of their own; they insist that men shall kiss the devil's hoof; they have no forgiveness for the virtue

that does not quail before their dominion, or that even holds its own against them. Now, in all that time

Wenceslas had not paid one visit in the Rue Vanneau, not even that which politeness required to a woman

Whenever Lisbeth called on the Steinbocks, there had been nobody at home. Monsieur and madame lived in

the studio. Lisbeth, following the turtle doves to their nest at le GrosCaillou, found Wenceslas hard at work,

and was informed by the cook that madame never left monsieur's side. Wenceslas was a slave to the

autocracy of love. So now Valerie, on her own account, took part with Lisbeth in her hatred of Hortense.

Women cling to a lover that another woman is fighting for, just as much as men do to women round whom

many coxcombs are buzzing. Thus any reflections a propos to Madame Marneffe are equally applicable to

any ladykilling rake; he is, in fact, a sort of male courtesan. Valerie's last fancy was a madness; above all,

she was bent on getting her group; she was even thinking of going one morning to the studio to see

Wenceslas, when a serious incident arose of the kind which, to a woman of that class, may be called the spoil

He rose and went round the table; his wife held up her head so that he could just kiss her hair.

"If that is so," he went on, "I am headclerk and officer of the Legion of Honor at once. But you must

"Poor little man?" Lisbeth put in. "You have not set your eyes on him these seven months. I am supposed to

be his mother at the school; I am the only person in the house who takes any trouble about him."

"A brat that costs us a hundred crowns a quarter!" said Valerie. "And he, at any rate, is your own child,

Marneffe. You ought to pay for his schooling out of your salary.The newcomer, far from reminding us of

"Valerie," replied Marneffe, assuming an attitude like Crevel, "I hope that Monsieur le Baron Hulot will take

proper charge of his son, and not lay the burden on a poor clerk. I intend to keep him well up to the mark. So

take the necessary steps, madame! Get him to write you letters in which he alludes to his satisfaction, for he

And Marneffe went away to the office, where his chief's precious leniency allowed him to come in at about

eleven o'clock. And, indeed, he did little enough, for his incapacity was notorious, and he detested work.

No sooner were they alone than Lisbeth and Valerie looked at each other for a moment like Augurs, and both

"It is a physical fact!" replied Valerie. "Now, I am sick and tired of Hortense; and it occurred to me in the

night that I might fire this infant, like a bomb, into the Steinbock household."

Valerie went back to her room, followed by Lisbeth, to whom she showed the following letter:

"WENCESLAS MY DEAR,I still believe in your love, though it is nearly three weeks since I saw you. Is

this scorn? Delilah can scarcely believe that. Does it not rather result from the tyranny of a woman whom, as

you told me, you can no longer love? Wenceslas, you are too great an artist to submit to such dominion.

Home is the grave of glory.Consider now, are you the Wenceslas of the Rue du Doyenne? You missed fire

with my father's statue; but in you the lover is greater than the artist, and you have had better luck with his

"If you do not come to me in the state I am in, your friends would think very badly of you. But I love you so

madly, that I feel I should never have the strength to curse you. May I sign myself as ever,

"What do you say to my scheme for sending this note to the studio at a time when our dear Hortense is there

by herself?" asked Valerie. "Last evening I heard from Stidmann that Wenceslas is to pick him up at eleven

this morning to go on business to Chanor's; so that gawk Hortense will be there alone."

"But after such a trick as that," replied Lisbeth, "I cannot continue to be your friend in the eyes of the world; I

shall have to break with you, to be supposed never to visit you, or even to speak to you."

"Oh! be quite easy," interrupted Lisbeth; "we shall often meet when I am Madame la Marechale. They are all

set upon it now. Only the Baron is in ignorance of the plan, but you can talk him over."

"Well," said Valerie, "but it is quite likely that the Baron and I may be on distant terms before long."

"Madame Olivier is the only person who can make Hortense demand to see the letter," said Lisbeth. "And

"Our beauty will be at home, no doubt," said Valerie, ringing for Reine to call up Madame Olivier.

Ten minutes after the despatch of this fateful letter, Baron Hulot arrived. Madame Marneffe threw her arms

"Hector, you are a father!" she said in his ear. "That is what comes of quarreling and making friends

Perceiving a look of surprise, which the Baron did not at once conceal, Valerie assumed a reserve which

brought the old man to despair. She made him wring the proofs from her one by one. When conviction, led on

by vanity, had at last entered his mind, she enlarged on Monsieur Marneffe's wrath.

"My dear old veteran," said she, "you can hardly avoid getting your responsible editor, our representative

partner if you like, appointed headclerk and officer of the Legion of Honor, for you really have done for the

poor man, he adores his Stanislas, the little monstrosity who is so like him, that to me he is insufferable.

Unless you prefer to settle twelve hundred francs a year on Stanislasthe capital to be his, and the

"But if I am to settle securities, I would rather it should be on my own son, and not on the monstrosity," said

This rash speech, in which the words "my own son" came out as full as a river in flood, was, by the end of the

hour, ratified as a formal promise to settle twelve hundred francs a year on the future boy. And this promise

became, on Valerie's tongue and in her countenance, what a drum is in the hands of a child; for three weeks

At the moment when Baron Hulot was leaving the Rue Vanneau, as happy as a man who after a year of

married life still desires an heir, Madame Olivier had yielded to Hortense, and given up the note she was

instructed to give only into the Count's own hands. The young wife paid twenty francs for that letter. The

Hortense read and reread the note; she saw nothing but this sheet of white paper streaked with black lines;

the universe held for her nothing but that paper; everything was dark around her. The glare of the

conflagration that was consuming the edifice of her happiness lighted up the page, for blackest night enfolded

her. The shouts of her little Wenceslas at play fell on her ear, as if he had been in the depths of a valley and

she on a high mountain. Thus insulted at four andtwenty, in all the splendor of her beauty, enhanced by

pure and devoted loveit was not a stab, it was death. The first shock had been merely on the nerves, the

physical frame had struggled in the grip of jealousy; but now certainty had seized her soul, her body was

For about ten minutes Hortense sat under the incubus of this oppression. Then a vision of her mother

appeared before her, and revulsion ensued; she was calm and cool, and mistress of her reason.

"Get Louise to help you, child," said she to the cook. "As quickly as you can, pack up everything that belongs

to me and everything wanted for the little boy. I give you an hour. When all is ready, fetch a hackney coach

"Make no remarks! I am leaving the house, and shall take Louise with me. You must stay here with

"The letter I enclose will sufficiently account for the determination I have come to.

"When you read this, I shall have left your house and have found refuge with my mother, taking our child

"Do not imagine that I shall retrace my steps. Do not imagine that I am acting with the rash haste of youth,

without reflection, with the anger of offended affection; you will be greatly mistaken.

"I have been thinking very deeply during the last fortnight of life, of love, of our marriage, of our duties to

each other. I have known the perfect devotion of my mother; she has told me all her sorrows! She has been

heroicalevery day for twentythree years. But I have not the strength to imitate her, not because I love you

less than she loves my father, but for reasons of spirit and nature. Our home would be a hell; I might lose my

"I refuse to be a Madame Marneffe; once launched on such a course, a woman of my temper might not,

perhaps, be able to stop. I am, unfortunately for myself, a Hulot, not a Fischer.

"Alone, and absent from the scene of your dissipations, I am sure of myself, especially with my child to

occupy me, and by the side of a strong and noble mother, whose life cannot fail to influence the vehement

impetuousness of my feelings. There, I can be a good mother, bring our boy up well, and live. Under your

roof the wife would oust the mother; and constant contention would sour my temper.

"I can accept a deathblow, but I will not endure for twentyfive years, like my mother. If, at the end of three

years of perfect, unwavering love, you can be unfaithful to me with your fatherin law's mistress, what

rivals may I expect to have in later years? Indeed, monsieur, you have begun your career of profligacy much

earlier than my father did, the life of dissipation, which is a disgrace to the father of a family, which

"I am not unforgiving. Unrelenting feelings do not beseem erring creatures living under the eye of God. If

you win fame and fortune by sustained work, if you have nothing to do with courtesans and ignoble, defiling

"I believe you to be too much a gentleman, Monsieur le Comte, to have recourse to the law. You will respect

my wishes, and leave me under my mother's roof. Above all, never let me see you there. I have left all the

This letter was written in anguish. Hortense abandoned herself to the tears, the outcries of murdered love. She

laid down her pen and took it up again, to express as simply as possible all that passion commonly proclaims

in this sort of testamentary letter. Her heart went forth in exclamations, wailing and weeping; but reason

Informed by Louise that all was ready, the young wife slowly went round the little garden, through the

bedroom and drawingroom, looking at everything for the last time. Then she earnestly enjoined the cook to

take the greatest care for her master's comfort, promising to reward her handsomely if she would be honest.

At last she got into the hackney coach to drive to her mother's house, her heart quite broken, crying so much

as to distress the maid, and covering little Wenceslas with kisses, which betrayed her still unfailing love for

The Baroness knew already from Lisbeth that the fatherinlaw was largely to blame for the soninlaw's

fault; nor was she surprised to see her daughter, whose conduct she approved, and she consented to give her

shelter. Adeline, perceiving that her own gentleness and patience had never checked Hector, for whom her

respect was indeed fast diminishing, thought her daughter very right to adopt another course.

In three weeks the poor mother had suffered two wounds of which the pain was greater than any illfortune

she had hitherto endured. The Baron had placed Victorin and his wife in great difficulties; and then, by

Lisbeth's account, he was the cause of his soninlaw's misconduct, and had corrupted Wenceslas. The

dignity of the father of the family, so long upheld by her really foolish selfsacrifice, was now overthrown.

Though they did not regret the money the young Hulots were full alike of doubts and uneasiness as regarded

the Baron. This sentiment, which was evidence enough, distressed the Baroness; she foresaw a breakup of

Hortense was accommodated in the diningroom, arranged as a bedroom with the help of the Marshal's

When Wenceslas returned home and had read the two letters, he felt a kind of gladness mingled with regret.

Kept so constantly under his wife's eye, so to speak, he had inwardly rebelled against this fresh thraldom, a

la Lisbeth. Full fed with love for three years past, he too had been reflecting during the last fortnight; and he

found a family heavy on his hands. He had just been congratulated by Stidmann on the passion he had

inspired in Valerie; for Stidmann, with an underthought that was not unnatural, saw that he might flatter the

husband's vanity in the hope of consoling the victim. And Wenceslas was glad to be able to return to Madame

Still, he remembered the pure and unsullied happiness he had known, the perfections of his wife, her

judgment, her innocent and guileless affection,and he regretted her acutely. He thought of going at once to

his motherinlaw's to crave forgiveness; but, in fact, like Hulot and Crevel, he went to Madame Marneffe,

to whom he carried his wife's letter to show her what a disaster she had caused, and to discount his

misfortune, so to speak, by claiming in return the pleasures his mistress could give him.

He found Crevel with Valerie. The mayor, puffed up with pride, marched up and down the room, agitated by

a storm of feelings. He put himself into position as if he were about to speak, but he dared not. His

countenance was beaming, and he went now and again to the window, where he drummed on the pane with

his fingers. He kept looking at Valerie with a glance of tender pathos. Happily for him, Lisbeth presently

"Cousin Betty," he said in her ear, "have you heard the news? I am a father! It seems to me I love my poor

Celestine the less.Oh! what a thing it is to have a child by the woman one idolizes! It is the fatherhood of

the heart added to that of the flesh! I saytell Valerie that I will work for that childit shall be rich. She

tells me she has some reason for believing that it will be a boy! If it is a boy, I shall insist on his being called

"I know how much she loves you," said Lisbeth. "But for her sake in the future, and for your own, control

While Lisbeth was speaking aside on this wise to Crevel, Valerie had asked Wenceslas to give her back her

"So now you are free, my dear," said she. "Ought any great artist to marry? You live only by fancy and

freedom! There, I shall love you so much, beloved poet, that you shall never regret your wife. At the same

time, if, like so many people, you want to keep up appearances, I undertake to bring Hortense back to you in

"I am certain of it," said Valerie, nettled. "Your poor fatherinlaw is a man who is in every way utterly done

for; who wants to appear as though he could be loved, out of conceit, and to make the world believe that he

has a mistress; and he is so excessively vain on this point, that I can do what I please with him. The Baroness

is still so devoted to her old HectorI always feel as if I were talking of the Iliadthat these two old folks

will contrive to patch up matters between you and Hortense. Only, if you want to avoid storms at home for

the future, do not leave me for three weeks without coming to see your mistressI was dying of it. My dear

boy, some consideration is due from a gentleman to a woman he has so deeply compromised, especially

"Stay to dinner, my darlingand remember that I must treat you with all the more apparent coldness because

Baron Montes was presently announced; Valerie rose and hurried forward to meet him; she spoke a few

sentences in his ear, enjoining on him the same reserve as she had impressed on Wenceslas; the Brazilian

assumed a diplomatic reticence suitable to the great news which filled him with delight, for he, at any rate

Thanks to these tactics, based on the vanity of the man in the lover stage of his existence, Valerie sat down to

table with four men, all pleased and eager to please, all charmed, and each believing himself adored; called

by Marneffe, who included himself, in speaking to Lisbeth, the five Fathers of the Church.

Baron Hulot alone at first showed an anxious countenance, and this was why. Just as he was leaving the

office, the head of the staff of clerks had come to his private rooma General with whom he had served for

thirty yearsand Hulot had spoken to him as to appointing Marneffe to Coquet's place, Coquet having

"My dear fellow," said he, "I would not ask this favor of the Prince without our having agreed on the matter,

"My good friend," replied the other, "you must allow me to observe that, for your own sake, you should not

insist on this nomination. I have already told you my opinion. There would be a scandal in the office, where

there is a great deal too much talk already about you and Madame Marneffe. This, of course, is between

ourselves. I have no wish to touch you on a sensitive spot, or disoblige you in any way, and I will prove it. If

you are determined to get Monsieur Coquet's place, and he will really be a loss in the War Office, for he has

been here since 1809, I will go into the country for a fortnight, so as to leave the field open between you and

the Marshal, who loves you as a son. Then I shall take neither part, and shall have nothing on my conscience

"In allowing myself to say so much, my dear friend, it is because your personal interest is far more deeply

implicated than any concern or vanity of mine. In the first place, the matter lies entirely with the Marshal.

And then, my good fellow, we are blamed for so many things, that one more or less! We are not at the maiden

stage in our experience of faultfinding. Under the Restoration, men were put in simply to give them places,

"Yes," the Baron put in; "and it is in order not to impair our old and valued friendship that I"

"Well, well," said the departmental manager, seeing Hulot's face clouded with embarrassment, "I will take

myself off, old fellow.But I warn you! you have enemiesthat is to say, men who covet your splendid

appointment, and you have but one anchor out. Now if, like me, you were a Deputy, you would have nothing

This speech, in the most friendly spirit, made a deep impression on the Councillor of State.

"But, after all, Roger, what is it that is wrong? Do not make any mysteries with me."

The individual addressed as Roger looked at Hulot, took his hand, and pressed it.

"We are such old friends, that I am bound to give you warning. If you want to keep your place, you must

make a bed for yourself, and instead of asking the Marshal to give Coquet's place to Marneffe, in your place I

would beg him to use his influence to reserve a seat for me on the General Council of State; there you may

"The Marshal has already taken your part so warmly at a General Meeting of the Ministers, that you will not

now be turned out; but it was seriously discussed! So give them no excuse. I can say no more. At this

moment you may make your own terms; you may sit on the Council of State and be made a Peer of the

Chamber. If you delay too long, if you give any one a hold against you, I can answer for nothing.Now, am

"Wait a little. I will see the Marshal," replied Hulot, "and I will send my brother to see which way the wind

The humor in which the Baron came back to Madame Marneffe's may be imagined; he had almost forgotten

his fatherhood, for Roger had taken the part of a true and kind friend in explaining the position. At the same

time Valerie's influence was so great that, by the middle of dinner, the Baron was tuned up to the pitch, and

was all the more cheerful for having unwonted anxieties to conceal; but the hapless man was not yet aware

that in the course of that evening he would find himself in a cleft stick, between his happiness and the danger

pointed out by his friendcompelled, in short, to choose between Madame Marneffe and his official

At eleven o'clock, when the evening was at its gayest, for the room was full of company, Valerie drew Hector

"My dear old boy," said she, "your daughter is so annoyed at knowing that Wenceslas comes here, that she

has left him 'planted.' Hortense is wrongheaded. Ask Wenceslas to show you the letter the little fool has

"This division of two lovers, of which I am reputed to be the cause, may do me the greatest harm, for this is

how virtuous women undermine each other. It is disgraceful to pose as a victim in order to cast the blame on

a woman whose only crime is that she keeps a pleasant house. If you love me, you will clear my character by

"I do not in the least care about your soninlaw's visits; you brought him heretake him away again! If

you have any authority in your family, it seems to me that you may very well insist on your wife's patching

up this squabble. Tell the worthy old lady from me, that if I am unjustly charged with having caused a young

couple to quarrel, with upsetting the unity of a family, and annexing both the father and the soninlaw, I

will deserve my reputation by annoying them in my own way! Why, here is Lisbeth talking of throwing me

over! She prefers to stick to her family, and I cannot blame her for it. She will throw me over, says she,

unless the young people make friends again. A pretty state of things! Our expenses here will be trebled!"

"Oh, as for that!" said the Baron, on hearing of his daughter's strong measures, "I will have no nonsense of

"Very well," said Valerie. "And now for the next thing.What about Coquet's place?"

"Impossible, my dear Hector?" said Madame Marneffe in the Baron's ear. "But you do not know to what

lengths Marneffe will go. I am completely in his power; he is immoral for his own gratification, like most

men, but he is excessively vindictive, like all weak and impotent natures. In the position to which you have

reduced me, I am in his power. I am bound to be on terms with him for a few days, and he is quite capable of

"He would leave me alone on condition of being headclerk. It is abominablebut logical."

"Well, thenif I were to attempt, merely to attempt, to ask the Prince for a place for Marneffe, I should be

"We are, and he has amply proved it; but, my child, there is authority above the Marshal'sfor instance, the

whole Council of Ministers. With time and a little tacking, we shall get there. But, to succeed, I must wait till

the moment when some service is required of me. Then I can say one good turn deserves another"

"If I tell Marneffe this tale, my poor Hector, he will play us some mean trick. You must tell him yourself that

he has to wait. I will not undertake to do so. Oh! I know what my fate would be. He knows how to punish

Hulot, seeing his pleasures in danger, took Monsieur Marneffe aside, and for the first time derogated from the

haughty tone he had always assumed towards him, so greatly was he horrified by the thought of that

"Marneffe, my dear fellow," said he, "I have been talking of you today. But you cannot be promoted to the

"I will be, Monsieur le Baron," Marneffe coldly repeated, looking alternately at the Baron and at Valerie.

"You have placed my wife in a position that necessitates her making up her differences with me, and I mean

to keep her; for, my dear fellow, she is a charming creature," he added, with crushing irony. "I am master

The Baron felt one of those pangs of fury which have the effect, in the heart, of a fit of raging toothache, and

During this little scene, Valerie had been explaining Marneffe's imaginary determination to Montes, and thus

Of her four adherents, Crevel alone was exempted from the rule Crevel, the master of the little "bijou"

apartment; and he displayed on his countenance an air of really insolent beatitude, notwithstanding the

wordless reproofs administered by Valerie in frowns and meaning grimaces. His triumphant paternity beamed

When Valerie was whispering a word of correction in his ear, he snatched her hand, and put in:

"Tomorrow, my Duchess, you shall have your own little house! The papers are to be signed tomorrow."

"I have a thousand shares in the Versailles rive gauche railway. I bought them at twentyfive, and they will

go up to three hundred in consequence of the amalgamation of the two lines, which is a secret told to me. You

shall have furniture fit for a queen. But then you will be mine alone henceforth?"

"Yes, burly Maire," said this middleclass Madame de Merteuil. "But behave yourself; respect the future

"My dear cousin," Lisbeth was saying to the Baron, "I shall go to see Adeline early tomorrow; for, as you

must see, I cannot, with any decency, remain here. I will go and keep house for your brother the Marshal."

She understood that her presence would be necessary at the family scene that would take place on the

morrow. And the very first thing in the morning she went to see Victorin and to tell him that Hortense and

When the Baron went home at halfpast ten, Mariette and Louise, who had had a hard day, were locking up

Very much put out at this compulsory virtue, the husband went straight to his wife's room, and through the

halfopen door he saw her kneeling before her Crucifix, absorbed in prayer, in one of those attitudes which

make the fortune of the painter or the sculptor who is so happy to invent and then to express them. Adeline,

At this sight, so unlike what he had just left, and on hearing this petition founded on the events of the day, the

Baron heaved a sigh of deep emotion. Adeline looked round, her face drowned in tears. She was so convinced

that her prayer had been heard, that, with one spring, she threw her arms round Hector with the impetuosity

of happy affection. Adeline had given up all a wife's instincts; sorrow had effaced even the memory of them.

No feeling survived in her but those of motherhood, of the family honor, and the pure attachment of a

Christian wife for a husband who has gone astraythe saintly tenderness which survives all else in a

"Hector!" she said, "are you come back to us? Has God taken pity on our family?"

"Dear Adeline," replied the Baron, coming in and seating his wife by his side on a couch, "you are the

saintliest creature I ever knew; I have long known myself to be unworthy of you."

"You would have very little to do, my dear," said she, holding Hulot's hand and trembling so violently that it

She dared not proceed; she felt that every word would be a reproof, and she did not wish to mar the happiness

"It is Hortense who has brought me here," said Hulot. "That child may do us far more harm by her hasty

proceeding than my absurd passion for Valerie has ever done. But we will discuss all this tomorrow

She understood that the Baron's return was prompted not so much by the wish to see his family as by some

"Leave her in peace till tomorrow," said the mother. "The poor child is in a deplorable condition; she has

At nine the next morning, the Baron, awaiting his daughter, whom he had sent for, was pacing the large,

deserted drawingroom, trying to find arguments by which to conquer the most difficult form of obstinacy

there is to deal withthat of a young wife, offended and implacable, as blameless youth ever is, in its

ignorance of the disgraceful compromises of the world, of its passions and interests.

"Here I am, papa," said Hortense in a tremulous voice, and looking pale from her miseries.

Hulot, sitting down, took his daughter round the waist, and drew her down to sit on his knee.

"Well, my child," said he, kissing her forehead, "so there are troubles at home, and you have been hasty and

headstrong? That is not like a wellbred child. My Hortense ought not to have taken such a decisive step as

that of leaving her house and deserting her husband on her own account, and without consulting her parents.

If my darling girl had come to see her kind and admirable mother, she would not have given me this cruel

pain I feel!You do not know the world; it is malignantly spiteful. People will perhaps say that your

husband sent you back to your parents. Children brought up as you were, on your mother's lap, remain

artless; maidenly passion like yours for Wenceslas, unfortunately, makes no allowances; it acts on every

impulse. The little heart is moved, the head follows suit. You would burn down Paris to be revenged, with no

"When your old father tells you that you have outraged the proprieties, you may take his word for it.I say

nothing of the cruel pain you have given me. It is bitter, I assure you, for you throw all the blame on a woman

of whose heart you know nothing, and whose hostility may become disastrous. And you, alas! so full of

guileless innocence and purity, can have no suspicions; but you may be vilified and slandered.Besides, my

darling pet, you have taken a foolish jest too seriously. I can assure you, on my honor, that your husband is

So far the Baron, artistically diplomatic, had formulated his remonstrances very judiciously. He had, as may

be observed, worked up to the mention of this name with superior skill; and yet Hortense, as she heard it,

"Listen to me; I have had great experience, and I have seen much," he went on, stopping his daughter's

attempt to speak. "That lady is very cold to your husband. Yes, you have been made the victim of a practical

"Dining with her!" cried the young wife, starting to her feet, and looking at her father with horror in every

feature. "Yesterday! After having had my letter! Oh, great God!Why did I not take the veil rather than

Her weeping went to Madame Hulot's heart. She came out of her room and ran to her daughter, taking her in

her arms, and asking her those questions, stupid with grief, which first rose to her lips.

"Now we have tears," said the Baron to himself, "and all was going so well! What is to be done with women

"My child," said the Baroness, "listen to your father! He loves us all come, come"

"Come, Hortense, my dear little girl, cry no more, you make yourself too ugly!" said the Baron, "Now, be a

little reasonable. Go sensibly home, and I promise you that Wenceslas shall never set foot in that woman's

house. I ask you to make the sacrifice, if it is a sacrifice to forgive the husband you love so small a fault. I ask

youfor the sake of my gray hairs, and of the love you owe your mother. You do not want to blight my later

Hortense fell at her father's feet like a crazed thing, with the vehemence of despair; her hair, loosely pinned

up, fell about her, and she held out her hands with an expression that painted her misery.

"Father," she said, "ask my life! Take it if you will, but at least take it pure and spotless, and I will yield it up

gladly. Do not ask me to die in dishonor and crime. I am not at all like my husband; I cannot swallow an

outrage. If I went back under my husband's roof, I should be capable of smothering him in a fit of

jealousyor of doing worse! Do no exact from me a thing that is beyond my powers. Do not have to mourn

for me still living, for the least that can befall me is to go mad. I feel madness close upon me!

"Yesterday, yesterday, he could dine with that woman, after having read my letter?Are other men made

so? My life I give you, but do not let my death be ignominious!His fault?A small one! When he has a

"A child!" cried Hulot, starting back a step or two. "Come. This is really some fooling."

At this juncture Victorin and Lisbeth arrived, and stood dumfounded at the scene. The daughter was prostrate

at her father's feet. The Baroness, speechless between her maternal feelings and her conjugal duty, showed a

"Lisbeth," said the Baron, seizing his cousin by the hand and pointing to Hortense, "you can help me here.

My poor child's brain is turned; she believes that her Wenceslas is Madame Marneffe's lover, while all that

"Delilah!" cried the young wife. "The only thing he has done since our marriage. The man would not work

for me or for his son, and he has worked with frenzy for that goodfornothing creature.Oh, father, kill me

Lisbeth turned to the Baroness and Victorin, pointing with a pitying shrug to the Baron, who could not see

"Listen to me," said she to him. "I had no ideawhen you asked me to go to lodge over Madame Marneffe

and keep house for herI had no idea of what she was; but many things may be learned in three years. That

creature is a prostitute, and one whose depravity can only be compared with that of her infamous and horrible

husband. You are the dupe, my lord potboiler, of those people; you will be led further by them than you

The Baroness and her daughter, hearing Lisbeth speak in this style, cast adoring looks at her, such as the

"That horrible woman was bent on destroying your soninlaw's home. To what end?I know not. My

brain is not equal to seeing clearly into these dark intriguesperverse, ignoble, infamous! Your Madame

Marneffe does not love your soninlaw, but she will have him at her feet out of revenge. I have just spoken

to the wretched woman as she deserves. She is a shameless courtesan; I have told her that I am leaving her

house, that I would not have my honor smirched in that muckheap.I owe myself to my family before all

"I knew that Hortense had left her husband, so here I am. Your Valerie, whom you believe to be a saint, is the

cause of this miserable separation; can I remain with such a woman? Our poor little Hortense," said she,

touching the Baron's arm, with peculiar meaning, "is perhaps the dupe of a wish of such women as these,

"I do not think Wenceslas guilty; but I think him weak, and I cannot promise that he will not yield to her

refinements of temptation.My mind is made up. The woman is fatal to you; she will bring you all to utter

ruin. I will not even seem to be concerned in the destruction of my own family, after living there for three

"You are cheated, Baron; say very positively that you will have nothing to say to the promotion of that

dreadful Marneffe, and you will see then! There is a fine rod in pickle for you in that case."

The Baroness embraced Lisbeth with the vehemence of a woman who sees herself avenged. The whole

family stood in perfect silence round the father, who had wit enough to know what that silence implied. A

storm of fury swept across his brow and face with evident signs; the veins swelled, his eyes were bloodshot,

his flesh showed patches of color. Adeline fell on her knees before him and seized his hands.

For we all know the secret of our own wrongdoing. We almost always ascribe to our victims the hateful

feelings which must fill them with the hope of revenge; and in spite of every effort of hypocrisy, our tongue

or our face makes confession under the rack of some unexpected anguish, as the criminal of old confessed

"Our children," he went on, to retract the avowal, "turn at last to be our enemies"

"You dare to interrupt your father!" said the Baron in a voice of thunder, glaring at his son.

"Father, listen to me," Victorin went on in a clear, firm voice, the voice of a puritanical deputy. "I know the

respect I owe you too well ever to fail in it, and you will always find me the most respectful and submissive

Those who are in the habit of attending the sittings of the Chamber will recognize the tactics of parliamentary

warfare in these fine drawn phrases, used to calm the factions while gaining time.

"We are far from being your enemies," his son went on. "I have quarreled with my fatherinlaw, Monsieur

Crevel, for having rescued your notes of hand for sixty thousand francs from Vauvinet, and that money is,

beyond doubt, in Madame Marneffe's pocket.I am not finding fault with you, father," said he, in reply to an

impatient gesture of the Baron's; "I simply wish to add my protest to my cousin Lisbeth's, and to point out to

you that though my devotion to you as a father is blind and unlimited, my dear father, our pecuniary

"Money!" cried the excitable old man, dropping on to a chair, quite crushed by this argument. "From my

son!You shall be repaid your money, sir," said he, rising, and he went to the door.

At this cry the Baron turned round, suddenly showing his wife a face bathed in tears; she threw her arms

Lisbeth, as rigid as a statue, watched the group with a superior smile on her lips. Just then Marshal Hulot's

voice was heard in the anteroom. The family all felt the importance of secrecy, and the scene suddenly

changed. The young people rose, and every one tried to hide all traces of emotion.

A discussion was going on at the door between Mariette and a soldier, who was so persistent that the cook

"Monsieur, a regimental quartermaster, who says he is just come from Algiers, insists on seeing you."

"Monsieur," said Mariette to her master in an undertone, "he told me to tell you privately that it has to do

The Baron started; he believed that the funds had been sent at last which he had been asking for these two

months, to pay up his bills; he left the familyparty, and hurried out to the anteroom.

The man, who had been fumbling meanwhile in the lining of his cap, drew out a letter, of which the Baron

"DEAR NEPHEW,Far from being able to send you the hundred thousand francs you ask of me, my

present position is not tenable unless you can take some decisive steps to save me. We are saddled with a

public prosecutor who talks goody, and rhodomontades nonsense about the management. It is impossible to

get the black chokered pump to hold his tongue. If the War Minister allows civilians to feed out of his hand,

I am done for. I can trust the bearer; try to get him promoted; he has done us good service. Do not abandon

This letter was a thunderbolt; the Baron could read in it the intestine warfare between civil and military

authorities, which to this day hampers the Government, and he was required to invent on the spot some

palliative for the difficulty that stared him in the face. He desired the soldier to come back next day,

dismissing him with splendid promises of promotion, and he returned to the drawingroom. "Goodday and

goodbye, brother," said he to the Marshal."Goodbye, children.Goodbye, my dear Adeline.And

"I?I am going to keep house for the Marshal, for I must end my days doing what I can for one or another

"Do not leave Valerie till I have seen you again," said Hulot in his cousin's ear."Goodbye, Hortense,

refractory little puss; try to be reasonable. I have important business to be attended to at once; we will discuss

your reconciliation another time. Now, think it over, my child," said he as he kissed her.

And he went away, so evidently uneasy, that his wife and children felt the gravest apprehensions.

"Lisbeth," said the Baroness, "I must find out what is wrong with Hector; I never saw him in such a state.

Stay a day or two longer with that woman; he tells her everything, and we can then learn what has so

suddenly upset him. Be quite easy; we will arrange your marriage to the Marshal, for it is really necessary."

"I shall never forget the courage you have shown this morning," said Hortense, embracing Lisbeth.

The Marshal looked on with curiosity at all the display of affection lavished on Lisbeth, who went off to

This sketch will enable guileless souls to understand what various mischief Madame Marneffes may do in a

family, and the means by which they reach poor virtuous wives apparently so far out of their ken. And then, if

we only transfer, in fancy, such doings to the upper class of society about a throne, and if we consider what

kings' mistresses must have cost them, we may estimate the debt owed by a nation to a sovereign who sets the

In Paris each ministry is a little town by itself, whence women are banished; but there is just as much

detraction and scandal as though the feminine population were admitted there. At the end of three years,

Monsieur Marneffe's position was perfectly clear and open to the day, and in every room one and another

asked, "Is Marneffe to be, or not to be, Coquet's successor?" Exactly as the question might have been put to

the Chamber, "Will the estimates pass or not pass?" The smallest initiative on the part of the board of

Management was commented on; everything in Baron Hulot's department was carefully noted. The astute

State Councillor had enlisted on his side the victim of Marneffe's promotion, a hardworking clerk, telling

him that if he could fill Marneffe's place, he would certainly succeed to it; he had told him that the man was

When Hulot went through his anteroom, full of visitors, he saw Marneffe's colorless face in a corner, and sent

"What do you want of me, my dear fellow?" said the Baron, disguising his anxiety.

"Monsieur le Directeur, I am the laughingstock of the office, for it has become known that the chief of the

clerks has left this morning for a holiday, on the ground of his health. He is to be away a month. Now, we all

know what waiting for a month means. You deliver me over to the mockery of my enemies, and it is bad

enough to be drummed upon one side; drumming on both at once, monsieur, is apt to burst the drum."

"My dear Marneffe, it takes long patience to gain an end. You cannot be made headclerk in less than two

months, if ever. Just when I must, as far as possible, secure my own position, is not the time to be applying

"If you are broke, I shall never get it," said Marneffe coolly. "And if you get me the place, it will make no

"You are too exclusively Marneffe, Monsieur Marneffe," said Hulot, rising and showing the clerk the door.

"I have the honor to wish you goodmorning, Monsieur le Baron," said Marneffe humbly.

"What an infamous rascal!" thought the Baron. "This is uncommonly like a summons to pay within

Two hours later, just when the Baron had been instructing Claude Vignon, whom he was sending to the

Ministry of Justice to obtain information as to the judicial authorities under whose jurisdiction Johann Fischer

might fall, Reine opened the door of his private room and gave him a note, saying she would wait for the

"Valerie is mad!" said the Baron to himself. "To send Reine! It is enough to compromise us all, and it

"Oh, my dear friend, what a scene I have had to endure! Though you have made me happy for three years, I

have paid dearly for it! He came in from the office in a rage that made me quake. I knew he was ugly; I have

seen him a monster! His four real teeth chattered, and he threatened me with his odious presence without

respite if I should continue to receive you. My poor, dear old boy, our door is closed against you henceforth.

You see my tears; they are dropping on the paper and soaking it; can you read what I write, dear Hector? Oh,

to think of never seeing you, of giving you up when I bear in me some of your life, as I flatter myself I have

"Do not forsake me, but do not disgrace yourself for Marneffe's sake; do not yield to his threats.

"I love you as I have never loved! I remember all the sacrifices you have made for your Valerie; she is not,

and never will be, ungrateful; you are, and will ever be, my only husband. Think no more of the twelve

hundred francs a year I asked you to settle on the dear little Hector who is to come some months hence; I will

"Oh, if you only loved me as I love you, my Hector, you would retire on your pension; we should both take

leave of our family, our worries, our surroundings, so full of hatred, and we should go to live with Lisbeth in

some pretty country placein Brittany, or wherever you like. There we should see nobody, and we should be

happy away from the world. Your pension and the little property I can call my own would be enough for us.

You say you are jealous; well, you would then have your Valerie entirely devoted to her Hector, and you

would never have to talk in a loud voice, as you did the other day. I shall have but one childoursyou

"You cannot conceive of my fury, for you cannot know how he treated me, and the foul words he vomited on

your Valerie. Such words would disgrace my paper; a woman such as I amMontcornet's daughterought

never to have heard one of them in her life. I only wish you had been there, that I might have punished him

with the sight of the mad passion I felt for you. My father would have killed the wretch; I can only do as

women dolove you devotedly! Indeed, my love, in the state of exasperation in which I am, I cannot

possibly give up seeing you. I must positively see you, in secret, every day! That is what we are, we women.

Your resentment is mine. If you love me, I implore you, do not let him be promoted; leave him to die a

"At this moment I have lost my head; I still seem to hear him abusing me. Betty, who had meant to leave me,

"My dear kind love, I do not know yet what is to be done. I see nothing for it but flight. I always delight in

the country Brittany, Languedoc, what you will, so long as I am free to love you. Poor dear, how I pity

you! Forced now to go back to your old Adeline, to that lachrymal urnfor, as he no doubt told you, the

monster means to watch me night and day; he spoke of a detective! Do not come here, he is capable of

anything I know, since he could make use of me for the basest purposes of speculation. I only wish I could

"Ah! my kind Hector, I may have flirted, and have seemed to you to be fickle, but you did not know your

Valerie; she liked to tease you, but she loves you better than any one in the world.

"He cannot prevent your coming to see your cousin; I will arrange with her that we have speech with each

other. My dear old boy, write me just a line, pray, to comfort me in the absence of your dear self. (Oh, I

would give one of my hands to have you by me on our sofa!) A letter will work like a charm; write me

something full of your noble soul; I will return your note to you, for I must be cautious; I should not know

where to hide it, he pokes his nose in everywhere. In short, comfort your Valerie, your little wife, the mother

of your child.To think of my having to write to you, when I used to see you every day. As I say to Lisbeth,

"And tears!" said Hulot to himself as he finished this letter, "tears which have blotted out her name.How is

"Madame is in bed; she has dreadful spasms," replied Reine. "She had a fit of hysterics that twisted her like a

withy round a faggot. It came on after writing. It comes of crying so much. She heard monsieur's voice on the

The Baron in his distress wrote the following note on office paper with a printed heading:

"Be quite easy, my angel, he will die a secondclass clerk!Your idea is admirable; we will go and live far

from Paris, where we shall be happy with our little Hector; I will retire on my pension, and I shall be sure to

"Ah, my sweet friend, I feel so much the younger for your letter! I shall begin life again and make a fortune,

you will see, for our dear little one. As I read your letter, a thousand times more ardent than those of the

Nouvelle Heloise, it worked a miracle! I had not believed it possible that I could love you more. This evening,

Reine carried off this reply, the first letter the Baron had written to his "sweet friend." Such emotions to some

extent counterbalanced the disasters growling in the distance; but the Baron, at this moment believing he

could certainly avert the blows aimed at his uncle, Johann Fischer, thought only of the deficit.

One of the characteristics of the Bonapartist temperament is a firm belief in the power of the sword, and

confidence in the superiority of the military over civilians. Hulot laughed to scorn the Public Prosecutor in

Algiers, where the War Office is supreme. Man is always what he has once been. How can the officers of the

Imperial Guard forget that time was when the mayors of the largest towns in the Empire and the Emperor's

prefects, Emperors themselves on a minute scale, would come out to meet the Imperial Guard, to pay their

respects on the borders of the Departments through which it passed, and to do it, in short, the homage due to

At halfpast four the baron went straight to Madame Marneffe's; his heart beat as high as a young man's as he

went upstairs, for he was asking himself this question, "Shall I see her? or shall I not?"

How was he now to remember the scene of the morning when his weeping children had knelt at his feet?

Valerie's note, enshrined for ever in a thin pocketbook over his heart, proved to him that she loved him more

Having rung, the unhappy visitor heard within the shuffling slippers and vexatious scraping cough of the

detestable master. Marneffe opened the door, but only to put himself into an attitude and point to the stairs,

The Baron tried to pass him, Marneffe took a pistol out of his pocket and cocked it.

"Monsieur le Baron," said he, "when a man is as vile as I amfor you think me very vile, don't you?he

would be the meanest galleyslave if he did not get the full benefit of his betrayed honor.You are for war;

it will be hot work and no quarter. Come here no more, and do not attempt to get past me. I have given the

"What a low scoundrel!" said Hulot to himself, as he went upstairs to Lisbeth. "I understand her letter now.

Valerie and I will go away from Paris. Valerie is wholly mine for the remainder of my days; she will close

Lisbeth was out. Madame Olivier told the Baron that she had gone to his wife's house, thinking that she

"Poor thing! I should never have expected her to be so sharp as she was this morning," thought Hulot,

recalling Lisbeth's behavior as he made his way from the Rue Vanneau to the Rue Plumet.

As he turned the corner of the Rue Vanneau and the Rue de Babylone, he looked back at the Eden whence

Hymen had expelled him with the sword of the law. Valerie, at her window, was watching his departure; as

he glanced up, she waved her handkerchief, but the rascally Marneffe hit his wife's cap and dragged her

"Oh! to be so well loved! To see a woman so ill used, and to be so nearly seventy years old!" thought he.

Lisbeth had come to give the family the good news. Adeline and Hortense had already heard that the Baron,

not choosing to compromise himself in the eyes of the whole office by appointing Marneffe to the first class,

would be turned from the door by the Hulothating husband. Adeline, very happy, had ordered a dinner that

her Hector was to like better than any of Valerie's; and Lisbeth, in her devotion, was helping Mariette to

achieve this difficult result. Cousin Betty was the idol of the hour. Mother and daughter kissed her hands, and

had told her with touching delight that the Marshal consented to have her as his housekeeper.

"And from that, my dear, there is but one step to becoming his wife!" said Adeline.

The Baron was welcomed home with such charming proofs of affection, so pathetically overflowing with

Marshal Hulot came to dinner. After dinner, Hector did not go out. Victorin and his wife joined them, and

"It is a long time, Hector, said the Marshal gravely, "since you gave us the treat of such an evening."

This speech from the old soldier, who spoiled his brother though he thus implicitly blamed him, made a deep

impression. It showed how wide and deep were the wounds in a heart where all the woes he had divined had

found an echo. At eight o'clock the Baron insisted on seeing Lisbeth home, promising to return.

"Do you know, Lisbeth, he illtreats her!" said he in the street. "Oh, I never loved her so well!"

"I never imagined that Valerie loved you so well," replied Lisbeth. "She is frivolous and a coquette, she loves

to have attentions paid her, and to have the comedy of lovemaking performed for her, as she says; but you

"Why, this," said Lisbeth. "She has, as you know, been on intimate terms with Crevel. You must owe her no

grudge, for that, in fact, is what has raised her above utter poverty for the rest of her life; but she detests him,

"Rue du Dauphin!" cried the thriceblest Baron. "If it were for that alone, I would overlook Crevel.I have

"Here, then, is the key," said Lisbeth. "Have another made from it in the course of tomorrowtwo if you

"Well, I will dine at your house again tomorrow; you must give me back Valerie's key, for old Crevel might

ask her to return it to him, and you can meet her there the day after; then you can decide what your facts are

to be. You will be quite safe, as there are two ways out. If by chance Crevel, who is Regence in his habits, as

he is fond of saying, should come in by the side street, you could go out through the shop, or vice versa.

"Well, Adeline is a Baroness!" retorted Betty in a vicious and formidable tone. "Listen to me, you old

libertine. You know how matters stand; your family may find itself starving in the gutter"

"And if your brother were to die, who would maintain your wife and daughter? The widow of a Marshal gets

at least six thousand francs pension, doesn't she? Well, then, I wish to marry to secure bread for your wife

"I had not seen it in that light!" said the Baron. "I will talk to my brotherfor we are sure of you.Tell my

And the Baron, having seen Lisbeth go into the house in the Rue Vanneau, went back to his whist and stayed

at home. The Baroness was at the height of happiness; her husband seemed to be returning to domestic habits;

for about a fortnight he went to his office at nine every morning, he came in to dinner at six, and spent the

evening with his family. He twice took Adeline and Hortense to the play. The mother and daughter paid for

three thanksgiving masses, and prayed to God to suffer them to keep the husband and father He had restored

One evening Victorin Hulot, seeing his father retire for the night, said to his mother:

"Well, we are at any rate so far happy that my father has come back to us. My wife and I shall never regret

"Your father is nearly seventy," said the Baroness. "He still thinks of Madame Marneffe, that I can see; but he

will forget her in time. A passion for women is not like gambling, or speculation, or avarice; there is an end

But Adeline, still beautiful in spite of her fifty years and her sorrows, in this was mistaken. Profligates, men

whom Nature has gifted with the precious power of loving beyond the limits ordinarily set to love, rarely are

During this relapse into virtue Baron Hulot had been three times to the Rue du Dauphin, and had certainly not

been the man of seventy. His rekindled passion made him young again, and he would have sacrificed his

honor to Valerie, his family, his all, without a regret. But Valerie, now completely altered, never mentioned

money, not even the twelve hundred francs a year to be settled on their son; on the contrary, she offered him

money, she loved Hulot as a woman of six andthirty loves a handsome lawstudenta poor, poetical,

The fourth meeting between this couple had been agreed upon at the end of the third, exactly as formerly in

Italian theatres the play was announced for the next night. The hour fixed was nine in the morning. On the

next day when the happiness was due for which the amorous old man had resigned himself to domestic rules,

at about eight in the morning, Reine came and asked to see the Baron. Hulot, fearing some catastrophe, went

out to speak with Reine, who would not come into the anteroom. The faithful waitingmaid gave him the

"DEAR OLD MAN,Do not go to the Rue du Dauphin. Our incubus is ill, and I must nurse him; but be

there this evening at nine. Crevel is at Corbeil with Monsieur Lebas; so I am sure he will bring no princess to

his little palace. I have made arrangements here to be free for the night and get back before Marneffe is

awake. Answer me as to all this, for perhaps your long elegy of a wife no longer allows you your liberty as

she did. I am told she is still so handsome that you might play me false, you are such a gay dog! Burn this

"MY LOVE,As I have told you, my wife has not for fiveandtwenty years interfered with my pleasures.

For you I would give up a hundred Adelines.I will be in the Crevel sanctum at nine this evening awaiting

my divinity. Oh that your clerk might soon die! We should part no more. And this is the dearest wish of

That evening the Baron told his wife that he had business with the Minister at SaintCloud, that he would

come home at about four or five in the morning; and he went to the Rue du Dauphin. It was towards the end

Few men have in the course of their life known really the dreadful sensation of going to their death; those

who have returned from the foot of the scaffold may be easily counted. But some have had a vivid experience

of it in dreams; they have gone through it all, to the sensation of the knife at their throat, at the moment when

waking and daylight come to release them.Well, the sensation to which the Councillor of State was a

victim at five in the morning in Crevel's handsome and elegant bed, was immeasurably worse than that of

feeling himself bound to the fatal block in the presence of ten thousand spectators looking at you with twenty

Valerie was asleep in a graceful attitude. She was lovely, as a woman is who is lovely enough to look so even

In his horizontal position the Baron's eyes were but three feet above the floor. His gaze, wandering idly, as

that of a man who is just awake and collecting his ideas, fell on a door painted with flowers by Jan, an artist

disdainful of fame. The Baron did not indeed see twenty thousand flaming eyes, like the man condemned to

death; he saw but one, of which the shaft was really more piercing than the thousands on the Public Square.

Now this sensation, far rarer in the midst of enjoyment even than that of a man condemned to death, was one

for which many a splenetic Englishman would certainly pay a high price. The Baron lay there, horizontal

still, and literally bathed in cold sweat. He tried to doubt the fact; but this murderous eye had a voice. A

"So long as it is nobody but Crevel playing a trick on me!" said the Baron to himself, only too certain of an

The door was opened. The Majesty of the French Law, which in all documents follows next to the King,

became visible in the person of a worthy little policeofficer supported by a tall Justice of the Peace, both

shown in by Monsieur Marneffe. The police functionary, rooted in shoes of which the straps were tied

together with flapping bows, ended at top in a yellow skull almost bare of hair, and a face betraying him as a

wideawake, cheerful, and cunning dog, from whom Paris life had no secrets. His eyes, though garnished

with spectacles, pierced the glasses with a keen mocking glance. The Justice of the Peace, a retired attorney,

"Pray excuse the strong measures required by our office, Monsieur le Baron!" said the constable; "we are

acting for the plaintiff. The Justice of the Peace is here to authorize the visitation of the premises.I know

Valerie opened her astonished eyes, gave such a shriek as actresses use to depict madness on the stage,

writhed in convulsions on the bed, like a witch of the Middle Ages in her sulphurcolored frock on a bed of

With one bound she passed the three spectators and crouched under the little writingtable, hiding her face in

"Monsieur," said Marneffe to Hulot, "if Madame Marneffe goes mad, you are worse than a profligate; you

What can a man do, what can he say, when he is discovered in a bed which is not his, even on the score of

"Monsieur the Justice of the Peace, Monsieur the Police Officer," said the Baron with some dignity, "be good

enough to take proper care of that unhappy woman, whose reason seems to me to be in danger.You can

harangue me afterwards. The doors are locked, no doubt; you need not fear that she will get away, or I either,

"You, come here, miserable cur!" said Hulot in a low voice to Marneffe, taking him by the arm and drawing

him closer. "It is not I, but you, who will be the murderer! You want to be headclerk of your room and

"Nay, nay!" said Marneffe knowingly. "These gentlemen must draw up their report as eyewitnesses to the

fact; without that, the chief evidence in my case, where should I be? The higher official ranks are chokeful of

rascalities. You have done me out of my wife, and you have not promoted me, Monsieur le Baron; I give you

"Yes; letters which prove that you are the father of the child my wife expects to give birth to.You

understand? And you ought to settle on my son a sum equal to what he will lose through this bastard. But I

will be reasonable; this does not distress me, I have no mania for paternity myself. A hundred louis a year

will satisfy me. By tomorrow I must be Monsieur Coquet's successor and see my name on the list for

promotion in the Legion of Honor at the July fetes, or elsethe documentary evidence and my charge

against you will be laid before the Bench. I am not so hard to deal with after all, you see."

"Bless me, and such a pretty woman!" said the Justice of the Peace to the police constable. "What a loss to

"She is not mad," said the constable sententiously. The police is always the incarnation of

scepticism."Monsieur le Baron Hulot has been caught by a trick," he added, loud enough for Valerie to

Valerie shot a flash from her eye which would have killed him on the spot if looks could effect the vengeance

they express. The police officer smiled; he had laid a snare, and the woman had fallen into it. Marneffe

desired his wife to go into the other room and clothe herself decently, for he and the Baron had come to an

"Gentlemen," said he to the two officials, "I need not impress on you to be secret."

The policeofficer rapped twice on the door; his clerk came in, sat down at the "bonheurdujour," and

wrote what the constable dictated to him in an undertone. Valerie still wept vehemently. When she was

dressed, Hulot went into the other room and put on his clothes. Meanwhile the report was written.

Marneffe then wanted to take his wife home; but Hulot, believing that he saw her for the last time, begged the

"Monsieur, your wife has cost me dear enough for me to be allowed to say goodbye to herin the presence

"There is nothing left for us but to fly, but how can we correspond? We have been betrayed"

"Through Reine," she answered. "But my dear friend, after this scandal we can never meet again. I am

disgraced. Besides, you will hear dreadful things about meyou will believe them"

"You will believe them, and I can thank God for that, for then perhaps you will not regret me."

"He will not die a secondclass clerk!" said Marneffe to Hulot, as he led his wife away, saying roughly,

Valerie left the house, Crevel's Eden, with a last glance at the Baron, so cunning that he thought she adored

him. The Justice of the Peace gave Madame Marneffe his arm to the hackney coach with a flourish of

gallantry. The Baron, who was required to witness the report, remained quite bewildered, alone with the

policeofficer. When the Baron had signed, the officer looked at him keenly, over his glasses.

"Suppose that she does not care for you?" the man went on, "that she is deceiving you?"

"I have long known that, monsieurhere, in this very spot, Monsieur Crevel and I told each other"

"You are very much in love," said he. "I say no more. I respect an inveterate passion, as a doctor respects an

inveterate complaint.I saw Monsieur de Nucingen, the banker, attacked in the same way"

"He is a friend of mine," said the Baron. "Many a time have I supped with his handsome Esther. She was

"And more," said the officer. "That caprice of the old Baron's cost four persons their lives. Oh! such passions

"What had you to say to me?" asked the Baron, who took this indirect warning very ill.

"Oh! why should I deprive you of your illusions?" replied the officer. "Men rarely have any left at your age!"

"In the first place, the husband!" said the other, with the calm acumen of a surgeon practised in unbinding

wounds. "Mean speculation is stamped in every line of that villainous face. But you, no doubt, set great store

"So much so, that I always have it about me," replied Hulot, feeling in his breastpocket for the little

"Leave your pocketbook where it is," said the man, as crushing as a thunderclap. "Here is the letter.I now

know all I want to know. Madame Marneffe, of course, was aware of what that pocketbook contained?"

"So I supposed.Now for the proof you asked for of her collusion with her husband."

"When we came in here, Monsieur le Baron, that wretched creature Marneffe led the way, and he took up this

letter, which his wife, no doubt, had placed on this writingtable," and he pointed to the bonheurdujour.

"That evidently was the spot agreed upon by the couple, in case she should succeed in stealing the letter while

you were asleep; for this letter, as written to you by the lady, is, combined with those you wrote to her,

He showed Hulot the note that Reine had delivered to him in his private room at the office.

"It is one of the documents in the case," said the policeagent; "return it to me, monsieur."

"Well, monsieur," replied Hulot with bitter expression, "that woman is profligacy itself in fixed ratios. I am

"That is perfectly evident," said the officer. "Oh, they are not all on the streets! When a woman follows that

trade in a carriage and a drawingroom, and her own house, it is not a case for francs and centimes, Monsieur

le Baron. Mademoiselle Esther, of whom you spoke, and who poisoned herself, made away with

millions.If you will take my advice, you will get out of it, monsieur. This last little game will have cost

you dear. That scoundrel of a husband has the law on his side. And indeed, but for me, that little woman

"Now we will lock up; the farce is played out, and you can send your key to Monsieur the Mayor."

Hulot went home in a state of dejection bordering on helplessness, and sunk in the gloomiest thoughts. He

woke his noble and saintly wife, and poured into her heart the history of the past three years, sobbing like a

child deprived of a toy. This confession from an old man young in feeling, this frightful and heartrending

narrative, while it filled Adeline with pity, also gave her the greatest joy; she thanked Heaven for this last

catastrophe, for in fancy she saw the husband settled at last in the bosom of his family.

"Lisbeth was right," said Madame Hulot gently and without any useless recrimination, "she told us how it

"Yes. If only I had listened to her, instead of flying into a rage, that day when I wanted poor Hortense to go

home rather than compromise the reputation of thatOh! my dear Adeline, we must save Wenceslas. He is

"My poor old man, the respectable middleclasses have turned out no better than the actresses," said Adeline,

The Baroness was alarmed at the change in her Hector; when she saw him so unhappy, ailing, crushed under

his weight of woes, she was all heart, all pity, all love; she would have shed her blood to make Hulot happy.

"Stay with us, my dear Hector. Tell me what is it that such women do to attract you so powerfully. I too will

try. Why have you not taught me to be what you want? Am I deficient in intelligence? Men still think me

Many a married woman, attached to her duty and to her husband, may here pause to ask herself why strong

and affectionate men, so tender hearted to the Madame Marneffes, do not take their wives for the object of

This is, indeed, one of the most recondite mysteries of human nature. Love, which is debauch of reason, the

strong and austere joy of a lofty soul, and pleasure, the vulgar counterfeit sold in the market place, are two

aspects of the same thing. The woman who can satisfy both these devouring appetites is as rare in her sex as a

great general, a great writer, a great artist, a great inventor in a nation. A man of superior intellect or an

idiota Hulot or a Crevelequally crave for the ideal and for enjoyment; all alike go in search of the

mysterious compound, so rare that at last it is usually found to be a work in two volumes. This craving is a

Marriage, no doubt, must be accepted as a tie; it is life, with its duties and its stern sacrifices on both parts

equally. Libertines, who seek for hidden treasure, are as guilty as other evildoers who are more hardly dealt

with than they. These reflections are not a mere veneer of moralizing; they show the reason of many

unexplained misfortunes. But, indeed, this drama points its own moralor morals, for they are of many

The Baron presently went to call on the Marshal Prince de Wissembourg, whose powerful patronage was now

his only chance. Having dwelt under his protection for fiveandthirty years, he was a visitor at all hours,

"Ah! How are you, my dear Hector?" said the great and worthy leader. "What is the matter? You look

anxious. And yet the session is ended. One more over! I speak of that now as I used to speak of a campaign.

And indeed I believe the newspapers nowadays speak of the sessions as parliamentary campaigns."

"We have been in difficulties, I must confess, Marshal; but the times are hard!" said Hulot. "It cannot be

helped; the world was made so. Every phase has its own drawbacks. The worst misfortunes in the year 1841

The Marshal gave Hulot one of those eagle flashes which in its pride, clearness, and perspicacity showed that,

"I find myself under the necessity of applying to you for the promotion of one of my second clerks to the

head of a roomas a personal favor to myselfand his advancement to be officer of the Legion of Honor."

"He has a pretty wife; I saw her on the occasion of your daughter's marriage.If Rogerbut Roger is

away!Hector, my boy, this is concerned with your pleasures. What, you still indulge? Well, you are a

credit to the old Guard. That is what comes of having been in the Commissariat; you have reserves!But

have nothing to do with this little job, my dear boy; it is too strong of the petticoat to be good business."

"No, Marshal; it is bad business, for the police courts have a finger in it. Would you like to see me go there?"

"Well, I am in the predicament of a trapped fox. You have always been so kind to me, that you will, I am

"And you, Prince, will you allow my brother to die of grief, a man you love so well; or leave one of your staff

in the War Office, a Councillor of State, to live in disgrace. This Marneffe is a wretched creature; he can be

"I am the last of the first batch of Marshals," said the Prince. "Listen, Hector. You do not know the extent of

my attachment to you; you shall see. On the day when I retire from office, we will go together. But you are

not a Deputy, my friend. Many men want your place; but for me, you would be out of it by this time. Yes, I

have fought many a pitched battle to keep you in it.Well, I grant you your two requests; it would be too

bad to see you riding the bar at your age and in the position you hold. But you stretch your credit a little too

far. If this appointment gives rise to discussion, we shall not be held blameless. I can laugh at such things; but

you will find it a thorn under your feet. And the next session will see your dismissal. Your place is held out as

a bait to five or six influential men, and you have been enabled to keep it solely by the force of my

arguments. I tell you, on the day when you retire, there will be five malcontents to one happy man; whereas,

by keeping you hanging on by a thread for two or three years, we shall secure all six votes. There was a great

laugh at the Council meeting; the Veteran of the Old Guard, as they say, was becoming desperately wide

awake in parliamentary tactics! I am frank with you.And you are growing gray; you are a happy man to be

able to get into such difficulties as these! How long is it since ILieutenant Cottinhad a mistress?"

"Monseigneur, you are as a father to me! I dared not mention my anxiety on that point."

"I still wish I had Roger here," cried the Prince, as Mitouflet, his groom of the chambers, came in. "I was just

going to send for him! You may go, Mitouflet.Go you, my dear old fellow, go and have the nomination

made out; I will sign it. At the same time, that low schemer will not long enjoy the fruit of his crimes. He will

be sharply watched, and drummed out of the regiment for the smallest fault.You are saved this time, my

dear Hector; take care for the future. Do not exhaust your friends' patience. You shall have the nomination

this morning, and your man shall get his promotion in the Legion of Honor.How old are you now?"

"What a scapegrace!" said the Prince, laughing. "It is you who deserve a promotion, but, by thunder! we are

Such is the sense of comradeship that binds the glorious survivors of the Napoleonic phalanx, that they

always feel as if they were in camp together, and bound to stand together through thick and thin.

"One more favor such as this," Hulot reflected as he crossed the courtyard, "and I am done for!"

The luckless official went to Baron de Nucingen, to whom he now owed a mere trifle, and succeeded in

borrowing forty thousand francs, on his salary pledged for two years more; the banker stipulated that in the

event of Hulot's retirement on his pension, the whole of it should be devoted to the repayment of the sum

This new bargain, like the first, was made in the name of Vauvinet, to whom the Baron signed notes of hand

On the following day, the fateful police report, the husband's charge, the lettersall the paperswere

destroyed. The scandalous promotion of Monsieur Marneffe, hardly heeded in the midst of the July fetes, was

Lisbeth, to all appearance at war with Madame Marneffe, had taken up her abode with Marshal Hulot. Ten

days after these events, the banns of marriage were published between the old maid and the distinguished old

officer, to whom, to win his consent, Adeline had related the financial disaster that had befallen her Hector,

begging him never to mention it to the Baron, who was, as she said, much saddened, quite depressed and

So Lisbeth had triumphed. She was achieving the object of her ambition, she would see the success of her

scheme, and her hatred gratified. She delighted in the anticipated joy of reigning supreme over the family

who had so long looked down upon her. Yes, she would patronize her patrons, she would be the rescuing

angel who would dole out a livelihood to the ruined family; she addressed herself as "Madame la Comtesse"

and "Madame la Marechale," courtesying in front of a glass. Adeline and Hortense should end their days in

struggling with poverty, while she, a visitor at the Tuileries, would lord it in the fashionable world.

A terrible disaster overthrew the old maid from the social heights where she so proudly enthroned herself.

On the very day when the banns were first published, the Baron received a second message from Africa.

Another Alsatian arrived, handed him a letter, after assuring himself that he spoke to Baron Hulot, and after

giving the Baron the address of his lodgings, bowed himself out, leaving the great man stricken by the

"DEAR NEPHEW,You will receive this letter, by my calculations, on the 7th of August. Supposing it

takes you three days to send us the help we need, and that it is a fortnight on the way here, that brings us to

"If you can act decisively within that time, you will have saved the honor and the life of yours sincerely,

"This is what I am required to demand by the clerk you have made my accomplice; for I am amenable, it

would seem, to the law, at the Assizes, or before a council of war. Of course, you understand that Johann

Fischer will never be brought to the bar of any tribunal; he will go of his own act to appear at that of God.

"Your clerk seems to me a bad lot, quite capable of getting you into hot water; but he is as clever as any

rogue. He says the line for you to take is to call out louder than any one, and to send out an inspector, a

special commissioner, to discover who is really guilty, rake up abuses, and make a fuss, in short; but if we stir

"If your commissioner arrives here by the 1st of September, and you have given him your orders, sending by

him two hundred thousand francs to place in our storehouses the supplies we profess to have secured in

remote country places, we shall be absolutely solvent and regarded as blameless. You can trust the soldier

who is the bearer of this letter with a draft in my name on a house in Algiers. He is a trustworthy fellow, a

relation of mine, incapable of trying to find out what he is the bearer of. I have taken measures to guarantee

the fellow's safe return. If you can do nothing, I am ready and willing to die for the man to whom we owe our

The anguish and raptures of passion and the catastrophe which had checked his career of profligacy had

prevented Baron Hulot's ever thinking of poor Johann Fischer, though his first letter had given warning of the

danger now become so pressing. The Baron went out of the diningroom in such agitation that he literally

dropped on to a sofa in the drawingroom. He was stunned, sunk in the dull numbness of a heavy fall. He

stared at a flower on the carpet, quite unconscious that he still held in his hand Johann's fatal letter.

Adeline, in her room, heard her husband throw himself on the sofa, like a lifeless mass; the noise was so

peculiar that she fancied he had an apoplectic attack. She looked through the door at the mirror, in such dread

as stops the breath and hinders motion, and she saw her Hector in the attitude of a man crushed. The Baroness

stole in on tiptoe; Hector heard nothing; she went close up to him, saw the letter, took it, read it, trembling in

every limb. She went through one of those violent nervous shocks that leave their traces for ever on the

sufferer. Within a few days she became subject to a constant trembling, for after the first instant the need for

action gave her such strength as can only be drawn from the very wellspring of the vital powers.

"Hector, come into my room," said she, in a voice that was no more than a breath. "Do not let your daughter

"Two hundred thousand francs? Where can I find them? I can get Claude Vignon sent out there as

commissioner. He is a clever, intelligent fellow.That is a matter of a couple of days.But two hundred

thousand francs! My son has not so much; his house is loaded with mortgages for three hundred thousand.

My brother has saved thirty thousand francs at most. Nucingen would simply laugh at me!Vauvinet? he

was not very ready to lend me the ten thousand francs I wanted to make up the sum for that villain Marneffe's

boy. No, it is all up with me; I must throw myself at the Prince's feet, confess how matters stand, hear myself

told that I am a low scoundrel, and take his broadside so as to go decently to the bottom."

"But, Hector, this is not merely ruin, it is disgrace," said Adeline. "My poor uncle will kill himself. Only kill

usyourself and me; you have a right to do that, but do not be a murderer! Come, take courage; there must

"Not one," said Hulot. "No one in the Government could find two hundred thousand francs, not if it were to

"My uncle! poor man! Hector, he must not be allowed to kill himself in disgrace."

"There is one more chance," said he, "but a very remote one.Yes, Crevel is at daggers drawn with his

"Listen, Hector it will be better for your wife to perish than to leave our uncle to perishand your

brotherthe honor of the family!" cried the Baroness, struck by a flash of light. "Yes, I can save you

She clasped her hands, dropped on her knees, and put up a prayer. On rising, she saw such a crazy expression

of joy on her husband's face, that the diabolical suggestion returned, and then Adeline sank into a sort of

"Go, my dear, at once to the War Office," said she, rousing herself from this torpor; "try to send out a

commission; it must be done. Get round the Marshal. And on your return, at five o'clock, you will find

perhapsyes! you shall find two hundred thousand francs. Your family, your honor as a man, as a State

official, a Councillor of State, your honestyyour sonall shall be saved;but your Adeline will be lost,

and you will see her no more. Hector, my dear," said she, kneeling before him, clasping and kissing his hand,

It was so heartrending that Hulot put his arms round his wife, raised her and kissed her, saying:

"If you did," said she, "I should die of shame, or I should not have the strength to carry out this last sacrifice."

Hortense came in to wish her parents goodmorning. They had to go to breakfast and assume a false face.

"MY DEAR MONSIEUR CREVEL,I have to ask a service of you; I shall expect you this morning, and I

count on your gallantry, which is well known to me, to save me from having too long to wait for you. Your

"Louise," said she to her daughter's maid, who waited on her, "take this note down to the porter and desire

The Baron, who was reading the news, held out a Republican paper to his wife, pointing to an article, and

This was the paragraph, one of the terrible "notes" with which the papers spice their political bread and

"A correspondent in Algiers writes that such abuses have been discovered in the commissariate transactions

of the province of Oran, that the Law is making inquiries. The peculation is self evident, and the guilty

persons are known. If severe measures are not taken, we shall continue to lose more men through the

extortion that limits their rations than by Arab steel or the fierce heat of the climate. We await further

information before enlarging on this deplorable business. We need no longer wonder at the terror caused by

the establishment of the Press in Africa, as was contemplated by the Charter of 1830."

"I will dress and go to the Minister," said the Baron, as they rose from table. "Time is precious; a man's life

"Oh, mamma, there is no hope for me!" cried Hortense. And unable to check her tears, she handed to her

Madame Hulot's eye fell on a print of the group of "Delilah" by Count Steinbock, under which were the

The very first lines of the article, signed V., showed the talent and friendliness of Claude Vignon.

Alarmed by her mother's tone of indifference, Hortense looked up, saw the expression of a sorrow before

"What is the matter, mamma? What is happening? Can we be more wretched than we are already?"

"My child, it seems to me that in what I am going through today my past dreadful sorrows are as nothing.

"Come, my angel, help me to dress.No, no; I will not have you help me in this! Send me Louise."

Adeline, in her room, went to study herself in the glass. She looked at herself closely and sadly, wondering to

She lifted up her fine golden hair, uncovering her temples; they were as fresh as a girl's. She went further; she

uncovered her shoulders, and was satisfied; nay, she had a little feeling of pride. The beauty of really

handsome shoulders is one of the last charms a woman loses, especially if she has lived chastely.

Adeline chose her dress carefully, but the pious and blameless woman is decent to the end, in spite of her

little coquettish graces. Of what use were brandnew gray silk stockings and high heeled satin shoes when

she was absolutely ignorant of the art of displaying a pretty foot at a critical moment, by obtruding it an inch

or two beyond a halflifted skirt, opening horizons to desire? She put on, indeed, her prettiest flowered

muslin dress, with a low body and short sleeves; but horrified at so much bareness, she covered her fine arms

with clear gauze sleeves and hid her shoulders under an embroidered cape. Her curls, a l'Anglaise, struck her

as too flyaway; she subdued their airy lightness by putting on a very pretty cap; but, with or without the cap,

would she have known how to twist the golden ringlets so as to show off her taper fingers to admiration?

As to rougethe consciousness of guilt, the preparations for a deliberate fall, threw this saintly woman into a

state of high fever, which, for the time, revived the brilliant coloring of youth. Her eyes were bright, her

cheeks glowed. Instead of assuming a seductive air, she saw in herself a look of barefaced audacity which

Lisbeth, at Adeline's request, had told her all the circumstances of Wenceslas' infidelity; and the Baroness had

learned to her utter amazement, that in one evening in one moment, Madame Marneffe had made herself the

There is no curiosity so great as that of virtuous women on such subjects; they would like to know the arts of

"Why, they are seductive; it is their business," said Cousin Betty. "Valerie that evening, my dear, was, I

"There is no principle, only practice in that walk of life," said Lisbeth ironically.

The Baroness, recalling this conversation, would have liked to consult Cousin Betty; but there was no time

for that. Poor Adeline, incapable of imagining a patch, of pinning a rosebud in the very middle of her bosom,

of devising the tricks of the toilet intended to resuscitate the ardors of exhausted nature, was merely well

"Woman is soup for man," as Moliere says by the mouth of the judicious GrosRene. This comparison

suggests a sort of culinary art in love. Then the virtuous wife would be a Homeric meal, flesh laid on hot

cinders. The courtesan, on the contrary, is a dish by Careme, with its condiments, spices, and elegant

arrangement. The Baroness could not did not know how to serve up her fair bosom in a lordly dish of lace,

after the manner of Madame Marneffe. She knew nothing of the secrets of certain attitudes. This highsouled

woman might have turned round and round a hundred times, and she would have betrayed nothing to the keen

To be a good woman and a prude to all the world, and a courtesan to her husband, is the gift of a woman of

genius, and they are few. This is the secret of long fidelity, inexplicable to the women who are not blessed

with the double and splendid faculty. Imagine Madame Marneffe virtuous, and you have the Marchesa di

Pescara. But such lofty and illustrious women, beautiful as Diane de Poitiers, but virtuous, may be easily

So the scene with which this serious and terrible drama of Paris manners opened was about to be repeated,

with this singular difference that the calamities prophesied then by the captain of the municipal Militia had

reversed the parts. Madame Hulot was awaiting Crevel with the same intentions as had brought him to her,

smiling down at the Paris crowd from his milord, three years ago. And, strangest thing of all, the Baroness

was true to herself and to her love, while preparing to yield to the grossest infidelity, such as the storm of

"What can I do to become a Madame Marneffe?" she asked herself as she heard the doorbell.

She restrained her tears, fever gave brilliancy to her face, and she meant to be quite the courtesan, poor, noble

"What the devil can that worthy Baronne Hulot want of me?" Crevel wondered as he mounted the stairs. "She

is going to discuss my quarrel with Celestine and Victorin, no doubt; but I will not give way!"

As he went into the drawingroom, shown in by Louise, he said to himself as he noted the bareness of the

"Poor woman! She lives here like some fine picture stowed in a loft by a man who knows nothing of

Crevel, seeing Comte Popinot, the Minister of Commerce, buy pictures and statues, wanted also to figure as a

Monsieur the Mayor, a political personage, now wore black broadcloth. His face, at the top of this solemn

suit, shone like a full moon rising above a mass of dark clouds. His shirt, buttoned with three large pearls

worth five hundred francs apiece, gave a great idea of his thoracic capacity, and he was apt to say, "In me you

see the coming athlete of the tribune!" His enormous vulgar hands were encased in yellow gloves even in the

morning; his patent leather boots spoke of the chocolatecolored coupe with one horse in which he drove.

In the course of three years ambition had altered Crevel's pretensions. Like all great artists, he had come to

his second manner. In the great world, when he went to the Prince de Wissembourg's, to the Prefecture, to

Comte Popinot's, and the like, he held his hat in his hand in an airy manner taught him by Valerie, and he

inserted the thumb of the other hand in the armhole of his waistcoat with a knowing air, and a simpering face

and expression. This new grace of attitude was due to the satirical inventiveness of Valerie, who, under

pretence of rejuvenating her mayor, had given him an added touch of the ridiculous.

"I begged you to come, my dear kind Monsieur Crevel," said the Baroness in a husky voice, "on a matter of

"I can guess what it is, madame," said Crevel, with a knowing air, "but what you would ask is

impossible.Oh, I am not a brutal father, a manto use Napoleon's wordsset hard and fast on sheer

avarice. Listen to me, fair lady. If my children were ruining themselves for their own benefit, I would help

them out of the scrape; but as for backing your husband, madame? It is like trying to fill the vat of the

Danaides! Their house is mortgaged for three hundred thousand francs for an incorrigible father! Why, they

have nothing left, poor wretches! And they have no fun for their money. All they have to live upon is what

Victorin may make in Court. He must wag his tongue more, must monsieur your son! And he was to have

been a Minister, that learned youth! Our hope and pride. A pretty pilot, who runs aground like a landlubber;

for if he had borrowed to enable him to get on, if he had run into debt for feasting Deputies, winning votes,

and increasing his influence, I should be the first to say, 'Here is my pursedip your hand in, my friend!' But

when it comes of paying for papa's follyfolly I warned you of!Ah! his father has deprived him of every

"Alas, my dear Crevel, it has nothing to do with the children, poor devoted souls!If your heart is closed to

Victorin and Celestine, I shall love them so much that perhaps I may soften the bitterness of their souls

"Yes, for a good action badly done! That is half a crime," said Crevel, much pleased with his epigram.

"Doing good, my dear Crevel, does not mean sparing money out of a purse that is bursting with it; it means

enduring privations to be generous, suffering for liberality! It is being prepared for ingratitude! Heaven does

"Saints, madame, may if they please go to the workhouse; they know that it is for them the door of heaven.

For my part, I am worldly minded; I fear God, but yet more I fear the hell of poverty. To be destitute is the

last depth of misfortune in society as now constituted. I am a man of my time; I respect money."

She was a thousand miles from her point, and she felt herself on a gridiron, like Saint Laurence, as she

She looked down; then she raised her eyes to gaze at Crevel with angelic sweetnessnot with the inviting

suggestiveness which was part of Valerie's wit. Three years ago she could have bewitched Crevel by that

"I have known the time," said she, "when you were more generousyou used to talk of three hundred

Crevel looked at Madame Hulot; he beheld her like a lily in the last of its bloom, vague sensations rose

within him, but he felt such respect for this saintly creature that he spurned all suspicions and buried them in

"I, madame, am still the same; but a retired merchant, if he is a grand gentleman, plays, and must play, the

part with method and economy; he carries his ideas of order into everything. He opens an account for his

little amusements, and devotes certain profits to that head of expenditure; but as to touching his capital! it

would be folly. My children will have their fortune intact, mine and my wife's; but I do not suppose that they

wish their father to be dull, a monk and a mummy! My life is a very jolly one; I float gaily down the stream. I

fulfil all the duties imposed on me by law, by my affections, and by family ties, just as I always used to be

punctual in paying my bills when they fell due. If only my children conduct themselves in their domestic life

as I do, I shall be satisfied; and for the present, so long as my folliesfor I have committed follies are no

loss to any one but the gullsexcuse me, you do not perhaps understand the slang wordthey will have

nothing to blame me for, and will find a tidy little sum still left when I die. Your children cannot say as much

"You are very unkind about my husband, my dear Creveland yet, if you had found his wife obliging, you

She shot a burning glance at Crevel; but, like Dubois, who gave the Regent three kicks, she affected too

much, and the rakish perfumer's thoughts jumped at such profligate suggestions, that he said to himself,

"Does she want to turn the tables on Hulot?Does she think me more attractive as a Mayor than as a

And he assumed the position of his second manner, looking at the Baroness with his Regency leer.

"I could almost fancy," she went on, "that you want to visit on him your resentment against the virtue that

resisted youin a woman whom you loved well enoughtoto buy her," she added in a low voice.

"In a divine woman," Crevel replied, with a meaning smile at the Baroness, who looked down while tears

rose to her eyes. "For you have swallowed not a few bitter pills!in these three yearshey, my beauty?"

"Do not talk of my troubles, dear Crevel; they are too much for the endurance of a mere human being. Ah! if

you still love me, you may drag me out of the pit in which I lie. Yes, I am in hell torment! The regicides who

were racked and nipped and torn into quarters by four horses were on roses compared with me, for their

Crevel's thumb moved from his armhole, he placed his hand on the work table, he abandoned his attitude, he

smiled! The smile was so vacuous that it misled the Baroness; she took it for an expression of kindness.

"You see a woman, not indeed in despair, but with her honor at the point of death, and prepared for

Fearing that Hortense might come in, she bolted the door; then with equal impetuosity she fell at Crevel's

She thought there was some generous fibre in this mercantile soul, and full of sudden hope that she might get

"Buy a soulyou were once ready to buy virtue!" she went on, with a frenzied gaze. "Trust to my honesty as

a woman, to my honor, of which you know the worth! Be my friend! Save a whole family from ruin, shame,

despair; keep it from falling into a bog where the quicksands are mingled with blood! Oh! ask for no

explanations," she exclaimed, at a movement on Crevel's part, who was about to speak. "Above all, do not

say to me, 'I told you so!' like a friend who is glad at a misfortune. Come now, yield to her whom you used to

love, to the woman whose humiliation at your feet is perhaps the crowning moment of her glory; ask nothing

of her, expect what you will from her gratitude! No, no. Give me nothing, but lendlend to me whom you

At this point her tears flowed so fast, Adeline was sobbing so passionately, that Crevel's gloves were wet.

The words, "I need two hundred thousand francs," were scarcely articulate in the torrent of weeping, as

stones, however large, are invisible in Alpine cataracts swollen by the melting of the snows.

This is the inexperience of virtue. Vice asks for nothing, as we have seen in Madame Marneffe; it gets

everything offered to it. Women of that stamp are never exacting till they have made themselves

indispensable, or when a man has to be worked as a quarry is worked where the lime is rather scarcegoing

On hearing these words, "Two hundred thousand francs," Crevel understood all. He cheerfully raised the

"Come, come, bear up, mother," which Adeline, in her distraction, failed to hear. The scene was changing its

character. Crevel was becoming "master of the situation," to use his own words. The vastness of the sum

startled Crevel so greatly that his emotion at seeing this handsome woman in tears at his feet was forgotten.

Besides, however angelical and saintly a woman may be, when she is crying bitterly her beauty disappears. A

Madame Marneffe, as has been seen, whimpers now and then, a tear trickles down her cheek; but as to

melting into tears and making her eyes and nose red!never would she commit such a blunder.

"Come, child, compose yourself.Deuce take it!" Crevel went on, taking Madame Hulot's hands in his own

and patting them. "Why do you apply to me for two hundred thousand francs? What do you want with them?

"Do not," said she, "insist on any explanations. Give me the money! You will save three lives and the

"And do you suppose, my good mother, that in all Paris you will find a man who at a word from a halfcrazy

woman will go off hic et nunc, and bring out of some drawer, Heaven knows where, two hundred thousand

francs that have been lying simmering there till she is pleased to scoop them up? Is that all you know of life

and of business, my beauty? Your folks are in a bad way; you may send them the last sacraments; for no one

in Paris but her Divine Highness Madame la Banque, or the great Nucingen, or some miserable miser who is

in love with gold as we other folks are with a woman, could produce such a miracle! The civil list, civil as it

may be, would beg you to call again tomorrow. Every one invests his money, and turns it over to the best of

"You are quite mistaken, my angel, if you suppose that King Louis Philippe rules us; he himself knows

better than that. He knows as well as we do that supreme above the Charter reigns the holy, venerated,

substantial, delightful, obliging, beautiful, noble, everyouthful, and allpowerful fivefranc piece! But

money, my beauty, insists on interest, and is always engaged in seeking it! 'God of the Jews, thou art

supreme!' says Racine. The perennial parable of the golden calf, you see!In the days of Moses there was

"We have reverted to Biblical traditions; the Golden Calf was the first State ledger," he went on. "You, my

Adeline, have not gone beyond the Rue Plumet. The Egyptians had lent enormous sums to the Hebrews, and

"You know nothing of the devotion of every city man to his sacred hoard!" he went on, after a pause. "Excuse

me. Listen to me. Get this well into your head.You want two hundred thousand francs? No one can

produce the sum without selling some security. Now consider! To have two hundred thousand francs in hard

cash it would be needful to sell about seven hundred thousand francs' worth of stock at three per cent. Well;

and then you would only get the money on the third day. That is the quickest way. To persuade a man to part

with a fortunefor two hundred thousand francs is the whole fortune of many a manhe ought at least to

"It is going, my dear kind Crevel, to save the lives of two men, one of whom will die of grief and the other

will kill himself! And to save me too from going mad! Am I not a little mad already?"

"Not so mad!" said he, taking Madame Hulot round the knees; "old Crevel has his price, since you thought of

"They submit to have a man's arms round their knees, it would seem!" thought the saintly woman, covering

"Ay, mother! but that was three years ago!" replied Crevel. "Well, you are handsomer now than ever I saw

you!" he went on, taking the Baroness' arm and pressing it to his heart. "You have a good memory, my dear,

by Jove!And now you see how wrong you were to be so prudish, for those three hundred thousand francs

that you refused so magnanimously are in another woman's pocket. I loved you then, I love you still; but just

"When I said to you, 'You shall be mine,' what object had I in view? I meant to be revenged on that rascal

Hulot. But your husband, my beauty, found himself a mistressa jewel of a woman, a pearl, a cunning hussy

then aged threeandtwenty, for she is sixandtwenty now. It struck me as more amusing, more complete,

more Louis XV., more Marechal de Richelieu, more firstclass altogether, to filch away that charmer, who,

in point of fact, never cared for Hulot, and who for these three years has been madly in love with your

As he spoke, Crevel, from whose hands the Baroness had released her own, had resumed his favorite attitude;

both thumbs were stuck into his armholes, and he was patting his ribs with his fingers, like two flapping

wings, fancying that he was thus making himself very attractive and charming. It was as much as to say,

"There you are my dear; I had my revenge, and your husband knows it. I proved to him clearly that he was

basketedjust where he was before, as we say. Madame Marneffe is my mistress, and when her precious

"And went back to her," replied Crevel. "And I allowed it, because Valerie wished to be the wife of a

headclerk; but she promised me that she would manage things so that our Baron should be so effectually

bowled over that he can never interfere any more. And my little duchessfor that woman is a born duchess,

on my soul!kept her word. She restores you your Hector, madame, virtuous in perpetuity, as she saysshe

is so witty! He has had a good lesson, I can tell you! The Baron has had some hard knocks; he will help no

more actresses or fine ladies; he is radically cured; cleaned out like a beerglass.

"If you had listened to Crevel in the first instance, instead of scorning him and turning him out of the house,

you might have had four hundred thousand francs, for my revenge has cost me all of that.But I shall get

my change back, I hope, when Marneffe diesI have invested in a wife, you see; that is the secret of my

"You do not know Valerie, madame," replied Crevel gravely, striking the attitude of his first manner. "She is

a woman with good blood in her veins, a lady, and a woman who enjoys the highest consideration. Why, only

yesterday the vicar of the parish was dining with her. She is pious, and we have presented a splendid

"Oh! she is clever, she is witty, she is delightful, well informed she has everything in her favor. For my

part, my dear Adeline, I owe everything to that charming woman; she has opened my mind, polished my

speech, as you may have noticed; she corrects my impetuosity, and gives me words and ideas. I never say

anything now that I ought not. I have greatly improved; you must have noticed it. And then she has

encouraged my ambition. I shall be a Deputy; and I shall make no blunders, for I shall consult my Egeria.

Every great politician, from Numa to our present Prime Minister, has had his Sibyl of the fountain. A score of

deputies visit Valerie; she is acquiring considerable influence; and now that she is about to be established in a

"A fine locomotive! That is what such a woman is. Oh, I have blessed you many a time for your stern virtue."

"It is enough to make one doubt the goodness of God!" cried Adeline, whose indignation had dried her tears.

"You know nothing of the world, my beauty," said the great politician, deeply offended. "The world, my

Adeline, loves success! Say, now, has it come to seek out your sublime virtue, priced at two hundred

The words made Madame Hulot shudder; the nervous trembling attacked her once more. She saw that the

experfumer was taking a mean revenge on her as he had on Hulot; she felt sick with disgust, and a spasm

"You touched me deeply," said Crevel, reminded by these words of the woman's humiliation, "when I beheld

you there, weeping at my feet! You perhaps will not believe me, but if I had my pocketbook about me, it

As she heard this question, big with two hundred thousand francs, Adeline forgot the odious insults heaped

on her by this cheapjack fine gentleman, before the tempting picture of success described by

MachiavelliCrevel, who only wanted to find out her secrets and laugh over them with Valerie.

"Oh! I will do anything, everything," cried the unhappy woman. "Monsieur, I will sell myselfI will be a

"You will find that difficult," replied Crevel. "Valerie is a masterpiece in her way. My good mother,

twentyfive years of virtue are always repellent, like a badly treated disease. And your virtue has grown very

mouldy, my dear child. But you shall see how much I love you. I will manage to get you your two hundred

Adeline, incapable of uttering a word, seized his hand and laid it on her heart; a tear of joy trembled in her

"Oh! don't be in a hurry; there will be some hard pulling. I am a jolly good fellow, a good soul with no

prejudices, and I will put things plainly to you. You want to do as Valerie doesvery good. But that is not

all; you must have a gull, a stockholder, a Hulot.Well, I know a retired tradesmanin fact, a hosier. He is

heavy, dull, has not an idea, I am licking him into shape, but I don't know when he will do me credit. My man

is a deputy, stupid and conceited; the tyranny of a turbaned wife, in the depths of the country, has preserved

him in a state of utter virginity as to the luxury and pleasures of Paris life. But Beauvisagehis name is

Beauvisageis a millionaire, and, like me, my dear, three years ago, he will give a hundred thousand crowns

to be the lover of a real lady.Yes, you see," he went on, misunderstanding a gesture on Adeline's part, "he

is jealous of me, you understand; jealous of my happiness with Madame Marneffe, and he is a fellow quite

"Enough, Monsieur Crevel!" said Madame Hulot, no longer controlling her disgust, and showing all her

shame in her face. "I am punished beyond my deserts. My conscience, so sternly repressed by the iron hand

of necessity, tells me, at this final insult, that such sacrifices are impossible.My pride is gone; I do not say

now, as I did the first time, 'Go!' after receiving this mortal thrust. I have lost the right to do so. I have flung

"Yes," she went on, in reply to a negative on Crevel's part, "I have fouled my life, till now so pure, by a

degrading thought; and I am inexcusable!I know it!I deserve every insult you can offer me! God's will

be done! If, indeed, He desires the death of two creatures worthy to appear before Him, they must die! I shall

mourn them, and pray for them! If it is His will that my family should be humbled to the dust, we must bow

to His avenging sword, nay, and kiss it, since we are Christians.I know how to expiate this disgrace, which

"I who speak to you, monsieur, am not Madame Hulot, but a wretched, humble sinner, a Christian whose

heart henceforth will know but one feeling, and that is repentance, all my time given up to prayer and charity.

With such a sin on my soul, I am the last of women, the first only of penitents.You have been the means of

bringing me to a right mind; I can hear the Voice of God speaking within me, and I can thank you!"

She was shaking with the nervous trembling which from that hour never left her. Her low, sweet tones were

quite unlike the fevered accents of the woman who was ready for dishonor to save her family. The blood

"And I played my part very badly, did I not?" she went on, looking at Crevel with the sweetness that martyrs

must have shown in their eyes as they looked up at the Proconsul. "True love, the sacred love of a devoted

woman, gives other pleasures, no doubt, than those that are bought in the open market!But why so many

words?" said she, suddenly bethinking herself, and advancing a step further in the way to perfection. "They

sound like irony, but I am not ironical! Forgive me. Besides, monsieur, I did not want to hurt any one but

The dignity of virtue and its holy flame had expelled the transient impurity of the woman who, splendid in

her own peculiar beauty, looked taller in Crevel's eyes. Adeline had, at this moment, the majesty of the

figures of Religion clinging to the Cross, as painted by the old Venetians; but she expressed, too, the

immensity of her love and the grandeur of the Catholic Church, to which she flew like a wounded dove.

"Madame, I am your slave, without conditions," said he, in an inspiration of generosity. "We will look into

this matterand whatever you wantthe impossible evenI will do. I will pledge my securities at the

She prayed to Heaven with such fervor as touched Crevel deeply; Madame Hulot saw that he had tears in his

"Be a friend to me, monsieur," said she. "Your heart is better than your words and conduct. God gave you

your soul; your passions and the world have given you your ideas. Oh, I will love you truly," she exclaimed,

with an angelic tenderness in strange contrast with her attempts at coquettish trickery.

"Am I trembling?" said the Baroness, unconscious of the infirmity that had so suddenly come upon her.

"Yes; why, look," said Crevel, taking Adeline by the arm and showing her that she was shaking with

nervousness. "Come, madame," he added respectfully, "compose yourself; I am going to the Bank at once."

"And come back quickly! Remember," she added, betraying all her secrets, "that the first point is to prevent

the suicide of our poor Uncle Fischer involved by my husbandfor I trust you now, and I am telling you

everything. Oh, if we should not be on time, I know my brotherinlaw, the Marshal, and he has such a

"I am off, then," said Crevel, kissing the Baroness' hand. "But what has that unhappy Hulot done?"

Crevel bent one knee, kissed Madame Hulot's skirt, and vanished, saying, "You will see me soon."

Unluckily, on his way from the Rue Plumet to his own house, to fetch the securities, Crevel went along the

Rue Vanneau, and he could not resist going in to see his little Duchess. His face still bore an agitated

He went straight into Valerie's room, who was having her hair dressed. She looked at Crevel in her glass, and,

like every woman of that sort, was annoyed, before she knew anything about it, to see that he was moved by

"What is the matter, my dear?" said she. "Is that a face to bring in to your little Duchess? I will not be your

Duchess any more, monsieur, no more than I will be your 'little duck,' you old monster."

"Reine, child, that will do for today; I can finish my hair myself. Give me my Chinese wrapper; my

Reine, whose face was pitted like a colander, and who seemed to have been made on purpose to wait on

Valerie, smiled meaningly in reply, and brought the dressinggown. Valerie took off her combingwrapper;

she was in her shift, and she wriggled into the dressinggown like a snake into a clump of grass.

"What a question!" said Valerie."Come, tell me, my big puss, have Rives Gauches gone down?"

"On my honor, I give it up!" said Madame Marneffe. "If I am expected to extract my friend's woes as you

pull the cork out of a bottle of Bordeaux, I let it alone.Go away, you bore me."

"It is nothing," said Crevel. "I must find two hundred thousand francs in two hours."

"Oh, you can easily get them.I have not spent the fifty thousand francs we got out of Hulot for that report,

"And do you suppose, you great baby of a Machiavelli, that I will cast off Henri? Would France disarm her

fleet?Henri! why, he is a dagger in a sheath hanging on a nail. That boy serves as a weatherglass to show

"That is not nearly enough!" cried she, jumping on to Crevel's knee, and throwing both arms round his neck

as if it were a peg to hang on by. "I want to be loved as much as ten millions, as much as all the gold in the

world, and more to that. Henri would never wait a minute before telling me all he had on his mind. What is it,

"Can a man with a nose like that," she went on, "have any secrets from his Vavaleleririe?"

And at the Vava she tweaked his nose to the right; at lele it went to the left; at ririe she nipped it straight

"Valerie, my treasure, promise me on your honorours, you know?not to repeat a single word of what I

"Of course, Mayor, we know all about that. One hand upsoand one footso!" And she put herself in an

attitude which, to use Rabelais' phrase, stripped Crevel bare from his brain to his heels, so quaint and

"Can despair possess virtue?" said she, nodding gravely and crossing her arms like Napoleon.

"It is poor Madame Hulot. She wants two hundred thousand francs, or else Marshal Hulot and old Johann

Fischer will blow their brains out; and as you, my little Duchess, are partly at the bottom of the mischief, I am

going to patch matters up. She is a saintly creature, I know her well; she will repay you every penny."

At the name of Hulot, at the words two hundred thousand francs, a gleam from Valerie's eyes flashed from

"What did the old thing do to move you to compassion? Did she show you what?herher religion?"

"Do not make game of her, sweetheart; she is a very saintly, a very noble and pious woman, worthy of all

"Am I not worthy of respect then, heh?" answered Valerie, with a threatening gaze at Crevel.

"I never said so," replied he, understanding that the praise of virtue might not be gratifying to Madame

"I am pious too," Valerie went on, taking her seat in an armchair; "but I do not make a trade of my religion. I

She sat in silence, and paid no further heed to Crevel. He, extremely ill at ease, came to stand in front of the

chair into which Valerie had thrown herself, and saw her lost in the reflections he had been so foolish as to

"Oh, Monsieur Crevel, I was thinking of the day of my first communion! How pretty I was! How pure, how

saintly!immaculate!Oh! if any one had come to my mother and said, 'Your daughter will be a hussy, and

unfaithful to her husband; one day a policeofficer will find her in a disreputable house; she will sell herself

to a Crevel to cheat a Hulot two horrible old men' Poof! horribleshe would have died before the end

"You cannot think how well a woman must love a man before she can silence the remorse that gnaws at the

heart of an adulterous wife. I am quite sorry that Reine is not here; she would have told you that she found me

this morning praying with tears in my eyes. I, Monsieur Crevel, for my part, do not make a mockery of

"I will never allow it to be mentioned in my presence. I can make fun of anything under the sun: Kings,

politics, finance, everything that is sacred in the eyes of the worldjudges, matrimony, and loveold men

and maidens. But the Church and God!There I draw the line.I know I am wicked; I am sacrificing my

"No, unless you could see into my heart, and fathom the depth of my conviction so as to know the extent of

my sacrifice! I feel in me the making of a Magdalen.And see how respectfully I treat the priests; think of

the gifts I make to the Church! My mother brought me up in the Catholic Faith, and I know what is meant by

Valerie wiped away two tears that trickled down her cheeks. Crevel was in dismay. Madame Marneffe stood

"Dear Heaven! I am not bad all through!" she cried, clasping her hands. "Vouchsafe to rescue Thy wandering

lamb, strike her, crush her, snatch her from foul and adulterous hands, and how gladly she will nestle on Thy

"Yes, Crevel, and, do you know? I, too, am frightened sometimes. The justice of God is exerted in this nether

world as well as in the next. What mercy can I expect at God's hands? His vengeance overtakes the guilty in

many ways; it assumes every aspect of disaster. That is what my mother told me on her deathbed, speaking

of her own old age.But if I should lose you, she added, hugging Crevel with a sort of savage frenzy"oh!

Madame Marneffe released Crevel, knelt down again at the armchair, folded her handsand in what a

"And thou, Saint Valerie, my patron saint, why dost thou so rarely visit the pillow of her who was intrusted to

thy care? Oh, come this evening, as thou didst this morning, to inspire me with holy thoughts, and I will quit

the path of sin; like the Magdalen, I will give up deluding joys and the false glitter of the world, even the man

"No more of the 'precious duck,' monsieur!" said she, turning round like a virtuous wife, her eyes full of tears,

"Leave me," she went on, pushing him from her. "What is my duty? To belong wholly to my husband.He

is a dying man, and what am I doing? Deceiving him on the edge of the grave. He believes your child to be

his. I will tell him the truth, and begin by securing his pardon before I ask for God's.We must part.

Goodbye, Monsieur Crevel," and she stood up to offer him an icy cold hand. "Goodbye, my friend; we

shall meet no more till we meet in a better world.You have to thank me for some enjoyment, criminal

"You great pumpkin!" she exclaimed, with an infernal peal of laughter. "That is how your pious women go

about it to drag from you a plum of two hundred thousand francs. And you, who talk of the Marechal de

Richelieu, the prototype of Lovelace, you could be taken in by such a stale trick as that! I could get hundreds

of thousands of francs out of you any day, if I chose, you old ninny!Keep your money! If you have more

than you know what to do with, it is mine. If you give two sous to that 'respectable' woman, who is pious

forsooth, because she is fiftysix years of age, we shall never meet again, and you may take her for your

mistress! You could come back to me next day bruised all over from her bony caresses and sodden with her

tears, and sick of her little barmaid's caps and her whimpering, which must turn her favors into showers"

"In point of fact," said Crevel, "two hundred thousand francs is a round sum of money."

"They have fine appetites, have the goody sort! By the poker! they sell their sermons dearer than we sell the

rarest and realest thing on earthpleasure.And they can spin a yarn! There, I know them. I have seen

plenty in my mother's house. They think everything is allowable for the Church and forReally, my dear

love, you ought to be ashamed of yourselffor you are not so openhanded! You have not given me two

"Then, sir, you meant to lend that old horror the two hundred thousand francs due for my hotel? What a

"If you were giving the money to some idiotic philanthropic scheme, you would be regarded as a coming

man," she went on, with increasing eagerness, "and I should be the first to advise it; for you are too simple to

write a big political book that might make you famous; as for style, you have not enough to butter a

pamphlet; but you might do as other men do who are in your predicament, and who get a halo of glory about

their name by putting it at the top of some social, or moral, or general, or national enterprise. Benevolence is

out of date, quite vulgar. Providing for old offenders, and making them more comfortable than the poor devils

who are honest, is played out. What I should like to see is some invention of your own with an endowment of

two hundred thousand francssomething difficult and really useful. Then you would be talked about as a

"But as to throwing two hundred thousand francs into a holywater shell, or lending them to a bigotcast

off by her husband, and who knows why? there is always some reason: does any one cast me off, I ask

you?is a piece of idiocy which in our days could only come into the head of a retired perfumer. It reeks of

"Go and pay the money in where it will be saferun, fly; I will not admit you again without the receipt in

She pushed Crevel out of the room by the shoulders, seeing avarice blossoming in his face once more. When

"Then Lisbeth is revenged over and over again! What a pity that she is at her old Marshal's now! We would

have had a good laugh! So that old woman wants to take the bread out of my mouth. I will startle her a little!"

Marshal Hulot, being obliged to live in a style suited to the highest military rank, had taken a handsome

house in the Rue du MontParnasse, where there are three or four princely residences. Though he rented the

whole house, he inhabited only the ground floor. When Lisbeth went to keep house for him, she at once

wished to let the first floor, which, as she said, would pay the whole rent, so that the Count would live almost

For some months past the Marshal had had many sad thoughts. He had guessed how miserably poor his

sisterinlaw was, and suspected her griefs without understanding their cause. The old man, so cheerful in

his deafness, became taciturn; he could not help thinking that his house would one day be a refuge for the

Baroness and her daughter; and it was for them that he kept the first floor. The smallness of his fortune was

so well known at headquarters, that the War Minister, the Prince de Wissembourg, begged his old comrade to

accept a sum of money for his household expenses. This sum the Marshal spent in furnishing the ground

floor, which was in every way suitable; for, as he said, he would not accept the Marshal's baton to walk the

The house had belonged to a senator under the Empire, and the ground floor drawingrooms had been very

magnificently fitted with carved wood, whiteandgold, still in very good preservation. The Marshal had

found some good old furniture in the same style; in the coachhouse he had a carriage with two batons in

saltire on the panels; and when he was expected to appear in full fig, at the Minister's, at the Tuileries, for

His servant for more than thirty years was an old soldier of sixty, whose sister was the cook, so he had saved

ten thousand francs, adding it by degrees to a little hoard he intended for Hortense. Every day the old man

walked along the boulevard, from the Rue du MontParnasse to the Rue Plumet; and every pensioner as he

passed stood at attention, without fail, to salute him: then the Marshal rewarded the veteran with a smile.

"Who is the man you always stand at attention to salute?" said a young workman one day to an old captain

"In 1809," said the captain, "we were covering the flank of the main army, marching on Vienna under the

Emperor's command. We came to a bridge defended by three batteries of cannon, one above another, on a

sort of cliff; three redoubts like three shelves, and commanding the bridge. We were under Marshal Massena.

That man whom you see there was Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and I was one of them. Our columns

held one bank of the river, the batteries were on the other. Three times they tried for the bridge, and three

times they were driven back. 'Go and find Hulot!' said the Marshal; 'nobody but he and his men can bolt that

morsel.' So we came. The General, who was just retiring from the bridge, stopped Hulot under fire, to tell him

how to do it, and he was in the way. 'I don't want advice, but room to pass,' said our General coolly, marching

across at the head of his men. And then, rattle, thirty guns raking us at once."

"And if you, like me, my boy, had heard those words so quietly spoken, you would bow before that man

down to the ground! It is not so famous as Arcole, but perhaps it was finer. We followed Hulot at the double,

right up to those batteries. All honor to those we left there!" and the old man lifted his hat. "The Austrians

were amazed at the dash of it.The Emperor made the man you saw a Count; he honored us all by honoring

"Oh, you may shoutshout away! The Marshal is as deaf as a post from the roar of cannon."

This anecdote may give some idea of the respect with which the Invalides regarded Marshal Hulot, whose

Republican proclivities secured him the popular sympathy of the whole quarter of the town.

Sorrow taking hold on a spirit so calm and strict and noble, was a heartbreaking spectacle. The Baroness

could only tell lies, with a woman's ingenuity, to conceal the whole dreadful truth from her brotherinlaw.

In the course of this miserable morning, the Marshal, who, like all old men, slept but little, had extracted from

Lisbeth full particulars as to his brother's situation, promising to marry her as the reward of her revelations.

Any one can imagine with what glee the old maid allowed the secrets to be dragged from her which she had

been dying to tell ever since she had come into the house; for by this means she made her marriage more

Her strong, clear tones enabled her to talk to him, but she wore out her lungs, so anxious was she to prove to

"He has had three mistresses," said the old man, "and his wife was an Adeline! Poor Adeline!"

"If you will take my advice," shrieked Lisbeth, "you will use your influence with the Prince de Wissembourg

to secure her some suitable appointment. She will need it, for the Baron's pay is pledged for three years."

"I will go to the War Office," said he, "and see the Prince, to find out what he thinks of my brother, and ask

"The charitable ladies of Paris, in concert with the Archbishop, have formed various beneficent associations;

they employ superintendents, very decently paid, whose business it is to seek out cases of real want. Such an

occupation would exactly suit dear Adeline; it would be work after her own heart."

"Send to order the horses," said the Marshal. "I will go and dress. I will drive to Neuilly if necessary."

"How fond he is of her! She will always cross my path wherever I turn!" said Lisbeth to herself.

Lisbeth was already supreme in the house, but not with the Marshal's cognizance. She had struck terror into

the three servantsfor she had allowed herself a housemaid, and she exerted her oldmaidish energy in

taking stock of everything, examining everything, and arranging in every respect for the comfort of her dear

Marshal. Lisbeth, quite as Republican as he could be, pleased him by her democratic opinions, and she

flattered him with amazing dexterity; for the last fortnight the old man, whose house was better kept, and who

was cared for as a child by its mother, had begun to regard Lisbeth as a part of what he had dreamed of.

"My dear Marshal," she shouted, following him out on to the steps, "pull up the windows, do not sit in a

The Marshal, who had never been so cosseted in his life, went off smiling at Lisbeth, though his heart was

At the same hour Baron Hulot was quitting the War Office to call on his chief, Marshal the Prince de

Wissembourg, who had sent for him. Though there was nothing extraordinary in one of the Generals on the

Board being sent for, Hulot's conscience was so uneasy that he fancied he saw a cold and sinister expression

"Mitouflet, how is the Prince?" he asked, locking the door of his private room and following the messenger

"He must have a crow to pluck with you, Monsieur le Baron," replied the man, "for his face is set at stormy."

Hulot turned pale, and said no more; he crossed the anteroom and reception rooms, and, with a violently

The chief, at this time seventy years old, with perfectly white hair, and the tanned complexion of a soldier of

that age, commanded attention by a brow so vast that imagination saw in it a field of battle. Under this dome,

crowned with snow, sparkled a pair of eyes, of the Napoleon blue, usually sadlooking and full of bitter

thoughts and regrets, their fire overshadowed by the penthouse of the strongly projecting brow. This man,

Bernadotte's rival, had hoped to find his seat on a throne. But those eyes could flash formidable lightnings

Then, his voice, always somewhat hollow, rang with strident tones. When he was angry, the Prince was a

soldier once more; he spoke the language of Lieutenant Cottin; he spared nothingnobody. Hulot d'Ervy

found the old lion, his hair shaggy like a mane, standing by the fireplace, his brows knit, his back against the

"Here! At your orders, Prince!" said Hulot, affecting a graceful ease of manner.

The Marshal looked hard at the Baron, without saying a word, during the time it took him to come from the

door to within a few steps of where the chief stood. This leaden stare was like the eye of God; Hulot could

"Does your conscience tell you nothing?" asked the Marshal, in his deep, hollow tones.

"It tells me, sir, that I have been wrong, no doubt, in ordering razzias in Algeria without referring the matter

to you. At my age, and with my tastes, after fortyfive years of service, I have no fortune.You know the

principles of the four hundred elect representatives of France. Those gentlemen are envious of every

distinction; they have pared down even the Ministers' paythat says everything! Ask them for money for an

old servant!What can you expect of men who pay a whole class so badly as they pay the Government legal

officials?who give thirty sous a day to the laborers on the works at Toulon, when it is a physical

impossibility to live there and keep a family on less than forty sous?who never think of the atrocity of

giving salaries of six hundred francs, up to a thousand or twelve hundred perhaps, to clerks living in Paris;

and who want to secure our places for themselves as soon as the pay rises to forty thousand?who, finally,

refuse to restore to the Crown a piece of Crown property confiscated from the Crown in 1830property

acquired, too, by Louis XVI. out of his privy purse!If you had no private fortune, Prince, you would be left

high and dry, like my brother, with your pay and not another sou, and no thought of your having saved the

"You have robbed the State! You have made yourself liable to be brought before the bench at Assizes," said

the Marshal, "like that clerk of the Treasury! And you take this, monsieur, with such levity."

"But there is a great difference, monseigneur!" cried the baron. "Have I dipped my hands into a cash box

"When a man of your rank commits such an infamous crime," said the Marshal, "he is doubly guilty if he

does it clumsily. You have compromised the honor of our official administration, which hitherto has been the

purest in Europe!And all for two hundred thousand francs and a hussy!" said the Marshal, in a terrible

voice. "You are a Councillor of Stateand a private soldier who sells anything belonging to his regiment is

punished with death! Here is a story told to me one day by Colonel Pourin of the Second Lancers. At

Saverne, one of his men fell in love with a little Alsatian girl who had a fancy for a shawl. The jade teased

this poor devil of a lancer so effectually, that though he could show twenty years' service, and was about to be

promoted to be quartermasterthe pride of the regiment to buy this shawl he sold some of his company's

kit.Do you know what this lancer did, Baron d'Ervy? He swallowed some windowglass after pounding it

down, and died in eleven hours, of an illness, in hospital.Try, if you please, to die of apoplexy, that we

Hulot looked with haggard eyes at the old warrior; and the Prince, reading the look which betrayed the

Marshal Hulot, hearing that only his brother was with the Minister, ventured at this juncture to come in, and,

"Oh," cried the hero of Poland, "I know what you are here for, my old friend! But we can do nothing."

"Nothing; you have come to intercede for your brother. But do you know what your brother is?"

The Marshal in his rage shot from his eyes those fulminating fires which, like Napoleon's, broke a man's will

"You lie, Cottin!" said Marshal Hulot, turning white. "Throw down your baton as I throw mine! I am ready."

The Prince went up to his old comrade, looked him in the face, and shouted in his ear as he grasped his hand:

"Well, then, pull yourself together! You must face the worst misfortune that can befall you."

The Prince turned round, took some papers from the table, and placed them in the Marshal's hands, saying,

"MY DEAR PRINCE,We have a very ugly business on our hands, as you will see by the accompanying

"The story, briefly told, is this: Baron Hulot d'Ervy sent out to the province of Oran an uncle of his as a

broker in grain and forage, and gave him an accomplice in the person of a storekeeper. This storekeeper, to

curry favor, has made a confession, and finally made his escape. The Public Prosecutor took the matter up

very thoroughly, seeing, as he supposed, that only two inferior agents were implicated; but Johann Fischer,

uncle to your Chief of the Commissariat Department, finding that he was to be brought up at the Assizes,

"That would have been the end of the matter if this worthy and honest man, deceived, it would seem, by his

agent and by his nephew, had not thought proper to write to Baron Hulot. This letter, seized as a document,

so greatly surprised the Public Prosecutor, that he came to see me. Now, the arrest and public trial of a

Councillor of State would be such a terrible thingof a man high in office too, who has a good record for

loyal service for after the Beresina, it was he who saved us all by reorganizing the administrationthat I

"Is the matter to take its course? Now that the principal agent is dead, will it not be better to smother up the

"The Public Prosecutor has consented to my forwarding the documents for your perusal; the Baron Hulot

d'Ervy, being resident in Paris, the proceedings will lie with your Supreme Court. We have hit on this rather

"Only, my dear Marshal, decide quickly. This miserable business is too much talked about already, and it will

do as much harm to us as to you all if the name of the principal culpritknown at present only to the Public

At this point the letter fell from Marshal Hulot's hands; he looked at his brother; he saw that there was no

need to examine the evidence. But he looked for Johann Fischer's letter, and after reading it at a glance, held

"Be quite easy, no proof can be found to incriminate you. When I am dead and your Jesuit of a Chardin fled,

the trial must collapse. The face of our Adeline, made so happy by you, makes death easy to me. Now you

"This letter will be delivered by a prisoner for a short term whom I can trust, I believe.

"I beg your pardon," said Marshal Hulot to the Prince de Wissembourg with pathetic pride.

"Come, come, say tu, not the formal vous," replied the Minister, clasping his old friend's hand. "The poor

lancer killed no one but himself," he added, with a thunderous look at Hulot d'Ervy.

"My dear friend," said the Count, addressing the Minister, "you shall have the two hundred thousand francs

within fortyeight hours. It shall never be said that a man bearing the name of Hulot has wronged the public

"What nonsense!" said the Prince. "I know where the money is, and I can get it back.Send in your

resignation and ask for your pension!" he went on, sending a double sheet of foolscap flying across to where

the Councillor of State had sat down by the table, for his legs gave way under him. "To bring you to trial

would disgrace us all. I have already obtained from the superior Board their sanction to this line of action.

Since you can accept life with dishonorin my opinion the last degradationyou will get the pension you

"You," said the Minister as Marneffe came in, "you and your wife have wittingly and intentionally ruined the

"Monsieur le Ministre, I beg your pardon. We are very poor. I have nothing to live on but my pay, and I have

two children, and the one that is coming will have been brought into the family by Monsieur le Baron."

"What a villain he looks!" said the Prince, pointing to Marneffe and addressing Marshal Hulot."No more

of Sganarelle speeches," he went on; "you will disgorge two hundred thousand francs, or be packed off to

"But, Monsieur le Ministre, you do not know my wife. She has spent it all. Monsieur le Baron asked six

persons to dinner every evening. Fifty thousand francs a year are spent in my house."

"Leave the room!" said the Minister, in the formidable tones that had given the word to charge in battle. "You

"I prefer to send in my resignation," said Marneffe insolently. "For it is too much to be what I am already,

Marshal Hulot, who had stood up throughout this scene, as pale as a corpse, studying his brother out of the

"In fortyeight hours the pecuniary mischief shall be repaired; but honor!Goodbye, Marshal. It is the last

"I came to see what can be done for his wife," replied the Count, pointing to his brother. "She is wanting

"The Devil must possess such a man," said the Prince, with a shrug. "What philtre do those baggages give

you to rob you of your wits?" he went on to Hulot d'Ervy. "How could youyou, who know the precise

details with which in French offices everything is written down at full length, consuming reams of paper to

certify to the receipt or outlay of a few centimesyou, who have so often complained that a hundred

signatures are needed for a mere trifle, to discharge a soldier, to buy a currycombhow could you hope to

conceal a theft for any length of time? To say nothing of the newspapers, and the envious, and the people

who would like to steal!those women must rob you of your commonsense! Do they cover your eyes with

walnutshells? or are you yourself made of different stuff from us?You ought to have left the office as

soon as you found that you were no longer a man, but a temperament. If you have complicated your crime

"Promise me, Cottin, that you will do what you can for her," said the Marshal, who heard nothing, and was

The Prince looked with apparent calmness at the two brothers, so different in their demeanor, conduct, and

characterthe brave man and the coward, the ascetic and the profligate, the honest man and the

"That mean creature will not have courage to die! And my poor Hulot, such an honest fellow! has death in his

He sat down again in his big chair and went on reading the despatches from Africa with a look characteristic

at once of the coolness of a leader and of the pity roused by the sight of a battlefield! For in reality no one is

so humane as a soldier, stern as he may seem in the icy determination acquired by the habit of fighting, and

Next morning some of the newspapers contained, under various headings, the following paragraphs:

"Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervy has applied for his retiring pension. The unsatisfactory state of the Algerian

exchequer, which has come out in consequence of the death and disappearance of two employes, has had

some share in this distinguished official's decision. On hearing of the delinquencies of the agents whom he

had unfortunately trusted, Monsieur le Baron Hulot had a paralytic stroke in the War Minister's private room.

"Monsieur Hulot d'Ervy, brother to the Marshal Comte de Forzheim, has been fortyfive years in the service.

His determination has been vainly opposed, and is greatly regretted by all who know Monsieur Hulot, whose

private virtues are as conspicuous as his administrative capacity. No one can have forgotten the devoted

conduct of the Commissary General of the Imperial Guard at Warsaw, or the marvelous promptitude with

which he organized supplies for the various sections of the army so suddenly required by Napoleon in 1815.

"One more of the heroes of the Empire is retiring from the stage. Monsieur le Baron Hulot has never ceased,

since 1830, to be one of the guiding lights of the State Council and of the War Office."

"ALGIERS.The case known as the forage supply case, to which some of our contemporaries have given

absurd prominence, has been closed by the death of the chief culprit. Johann Wisch has committed suicide in

"Wisch, formerly an army contractor, was an honest man and highly respected, who could not survive the

"Monsieur le Marechal the Minister of War, to prevent the recurrence of such scandals for the future, has

arranged for a regular Commissariat office in Africa. A headclerk in the War Office, Monsieur Marneffe, is

"The office vacated by Baron Hulot is the object of much ambition. The appointment is promised, it is said,

to Monsieur le Comte Martial de la RocheHugon, Deputy, brotherinlaw to Monsieur le Comte de

Rastignac. Monsieur Massol, Master of Appeals, will fill his seat on the Council of State, and Monsieur

Of all kinds of false gossip, the most dangerous for the Opposition newspapers is the official bogus

paragraph. However keen journalists may be, they are sometimes the voluntary or involuntary dupes of the

cleverness of those who have risen from the ranks of the Press, like Claude Vignon, to the higher realms of

power. The newspaper can only be circumvented by the journalist. It may be said, as a parody on a line by

Marshal Hulot drove home with his brother, who took the front seat, respectfully leaving the whole of the

back of the carriage to his senior. The two men spoke not a word. Hector was helpless. The Marshal was lost

in thought, like a man who is collecting all his strength, and bracing himself to bear a crushing weight. On

arriving at his own house, still without speaking, but by an imperious gesture, he beckoned his brother into

his study. The Count had received from the Emperor Napoleon a splendid pair of pistols from the Versailles

factory; he took the box, with its inscription. "Given by the Emperor Napoleon to General Hulot," out of his

desk, and placing it on the top, he showed it to his brother, saying, "There is your remedy."

Lisbeth, peeping through the chink of the door, flew down to the carriage and ordered the coachman to go as

fast as he could gallop to the Rue Plumet. Within about twenty minutes she had brought back Adeline, whom

The Marshal, without looking at Hector, rang the bell for his factotum, the old soldier who had served him for

"BeauPied," said he, "fetch my notary, and Count Steinbock, and my niece Hortense, and the stockbroker to

the Treasury. It is now half past ten; they must all be here by twelve. Take hackney cabsand go faster

than that!" he added, a republican allusion which in past days had been often on his lips. And he put on the

scowl that had brought his soldiers to attention when he was beating the broom on the heaths of Brittany in

Still paying no heed to his brother, the old man came back into his study, took a key out of his desk, and

opened a little malachite box mounted in steel, the gift of the Emperor Alexander.

By Napoleon's orders he had gone to restore to the Russian Emperor the private property seized at the battle

of Dresden, in exchange for which Napoleon hoped to get back Vandamme. The Czar rewarded General

Hulot very handsomely, giving him this casket, and saying that he hoped one day to show the same courtesy

to the Emperor of the French; but he kept Vandamme. The Imperial arms of Russia were displayed in gold on

The Marshal counted the banknotes it contained; he had a hundred and fiftytwo thousand francs. He saw

this with satisfaction. At the same moment Madame Hulot came into the room in a state to touch the heart of

the sternest judge. She flew into Hector's arms, looking alternately with a crazy eye at the Marshal and at the

"What have you to say against your brother? What has my husband done to you?" said she, in such a voice

"He has disgraced us all!" replied the Republican veteran, who spoke with a vehemence that reopened one of

his old wounds. "He has robbed the Government! He has cast odium on my name, he makes me wish I were

"I have been abased before the Conde of the Republic, the man I esteem above all others, and to whom I

unjustifiably gave the liethe Prince of Wissembourg!Is that nothing? That is the score his country has

"Now, as to his family," he went on. "He is robbing you of the bread I had saved for you, the fruit of thirty

years' economy, of the privations of an old soldier! Here is what was intended for you," and he held up the

banknotes. "He has killed his Uncle Fischer, a noble and worthy son of Alsace who could notas he

"To crown all, God, in His adorable clemency, had allowed him to choose an angel among women; he has

had the unspeakable happiness of having an Adeline for his wife! And he has deceived her, he has soaked her

in sorrows, he has neglected her for prostitutes, for street hussies, for balletgirls, actressesCadine,

"Go, wretched man; if you can accept the life of degradation you have made for yourself, leave my house! I

have not the heart to curse a brother I have loved so wellI am as foolish about him as you are,

Adelinebut never let me see him again. I forbid his attending my funeral or following me to the grave. Let

The Marshal, as pale as death, fell back on the settee, exhausted by his solemn speech. And, for the first time

"Brother!" said Adeline, kneeling down by the Marshal, "live for my sake. Help me in the task of reconciling

"He!" cried the Marshal. "If he lives, he is not at the end of his crimes. A man who has misprized an Adeline,

who has smothered in his own soul the feelings of a true Republican which I tried to instill into him, the love

of his country, of his family, and of the poor that man is a monster, a swine!Take him away if you still

care for him, for a voice within me cries to me to load my pistols and blow his brains out. By killing him I

The old man started to his feet with such a terrifying gesture that poor Adeline exclaimed:

She seized her husband's arm, dragged him away, and out of the house; but the Baron was so broken down,

that she was obliged to call a coach to take him to the Rue Plumet, where he went to bed. The man remained

there for several days in a sort of halfdissolution, refusing all nourishment without a word. By floods of

tears, Adeline persuaded him to swallow a little broth; she nursed him, sitting by his bed, and feeling only, of

At halfpast twelve, Lisbeth showed into her dear Marshal's roomfor she would not leave him, so much

"Monsieur le Comte," said the Marshal, "I would beg you to be so good as to put your signature to a

document authorizing my niece, your wife, to sell a bond for certain funds of which she at present holds only

the reversion.You, Mademoiselle Fischer, will agree to this sale, thus losing your life interest in the

"Good, my dear," said the old soldier. "I hope I may live to reward you. But I did not doubt you; you are a

true Republican, a daughter of the people." He took the old maid's hand and kissed it.

"Monsieur Hannequin," he went on, speaking to the notary, "draw up the necessary document in the form of a

power of attorney, and let me have it within two hours, so that I may sell the stock on the Bourse today. My

niece, the Countess, holds the security; she will be here to sign the power of attorney when you bring it, and

so will mademoiselle. Monsieur le Comte will be good enough to go with you and sign it at your office."

The artist, at a nod from Lisbeth, bowed respectfully to the Marshal and went away.

Next morning, at ten o'clock, the Comte de Forzheim sent in to announce himself to the Prince, and was at

"Well, my dear Hulot," said the Prince, holding out the newspapers to his old friend, "we have saved

Marshal Hulot laid the papers on his comrade's table, and held out to him the two hundred thousand francs.

"What madness!" cried the Minister. "It is impossible," he said into the speakingtrumpet handed to him by

the Marshal, "to manage this restitution. We should be obliged to declare your brother's dishonest dealings,

"Do what you like with the money; but the family shall not owe one sou of its fortune to a robbery on the

"I will take the King's commands in the matter. We will discuss it no further," replied the Prince, perceiving

that it would be impossible to conquer the old man's sublime obstinacy on the point.

"Goodbye, Cottin," said the old soldier, taking the Prince's hand. "I feel as if my soul were frozen"

Then, after going a step towards the door, he turned round, looked at the Prince, and seeing that he was

deeply moved, he opened his arms to clasp him in them; the two old soldiers embraced each other.

"I feel as if I were taking leave of the whole of the old army in you," said the Count.

"Yes, it is goodbye; for I am going where all our brave men are for whom we have mourned"

Just then Claude Vignon was shown in. The two relics of the Napoleonic phalanx bowed gravely to each

"You have, I hope, been satisfied by the papers," said the Master of Appealselect. "I contrived to let the

"Unfortunately, it is all in vain," replied the Minister, watching Hulot as he left the room. "I have just gone

through a leavetaking that has been a great grief to me. For, indeed, Marshal Hulot has not three days to

live; I saw that plainly enough yesterday. That man, one of those honest souls that are above proof, a soldier

respected by the bullets in spite of his valor, received his deathblowthere, in that armchairand dealt by

my hand, in a letter!Ring and order my carriage. I must go to Neuilly," said he, putting the two hundred

Notwithstanding Lisbeth's nursing, Marshal Hulot three days later was a dead man. Such men are the glory of

the party they support. To Republicans, the Marshal was the ideal of patriotism; and they all attended his

funeral, which was followed by an immense crowd. The army, the State officials, the Court, and the populace

all came to do homage to this lofty virtue, this spotless honesty, this immaculate glory. Such a last tribute of

This funeral was distinguished by one of those tributes of delicate feeling, of good taste, and sincere respect

which from time to time remind us of the virtues and dignity of the old French nobility. Following the

Marshal's bier came the old Marquis de Montauran, the brother of him who, in the great rising of the Chouans

in 1799, had been the foe, the luckless foe, of Hulot. That Marquis, killed by the balls of the "Blues," had

confided the interests of his young brother to the Republican soldier. (See Les Chouans.) Hulot had so

faithfully acted on the noble Royalist's verbal will, that he succeeded in saving the young man's estates,

though he himself was at the time an emigre. And so the homage of the old French nobility was not wanting

This death, happening just four days before the banns were cried for the last time, came upon Lisbeth like the

thunderbolt that burns the garnered harvest with the barn. The peasant of Lorraine, as often happens, had

succeeded too well. The Marshal had died of the blows dealt to the family by herself and Madame Marneffe.

The old maid's vindictiveness, which success seemed to have somewhat mollified, was aggravated by this

disappointment of her hopes. Lisbeth went, crying with rage, to Madame Marneffe; for she was homeless, the

Marshal having agreed that his lease was at any time to terminate with his life. Crevel, to console Valerie's

friend, took charge of her savings, added to them considerably, and invested the capital in five per cents,

giving her the life interest, and putting the securities into Celestine's name. Thanks to this stroke of business,

When the Marshal's property was examined and valued, a note was found, addressed to his sisterinlaw, to

his niece Hortense, and to his nephew Victorin, desiring that they would pay among them an annuity of

twelve hundred francs to Mademoiselle Lisbeth Fischer, who was to have been his wife.

Adeline, seeing her husband between life and death, succeeded for some days in hiding from him the fact of

his brother's death; but Lisbeth came, in mourning, and the terrible truth was told him eleven days after the

The crushing blow revived the sick man's energies. He got up, found his family collected in the

drawingroom, all in black, and suddenly silent as he came in. In a fortnight, Hulot, as lean as a spectre,

"I must decide on something," said he in a husky voice, as he seated himself in an easychair, and looked

"We cannot stay here, the rent is too high," Hortense was saying just as her father came in.

"As to a home," said Victorin, breaking the painful silence, "I can offer my mother"

As he heard these words, which excluded him, the Baron raised his head, which was sunk on his breast as

though he were studying the pattern of the carpet, though he did not even see it, and he gave the young

lawyer an appealing look. The rights of a father are so indefeasibly sacred, even when he is a villain and

"The rooms over ours in our wing," said Celestine, finishing her husband's sentence.

"I am in your way, my dears?" said the Baron, with the mildness of a man who has judged himself. "But do

not be uneasy as to the future; you will have no further cause for complaint of your father; you will not see

He went up to Hortense and kissed her brow. He opened his arms to his son, who rushed into his embrace,

guessing his father's purpose. The Baron signed to Lisbeth, who came to him, and he kissed her forehead.

"My brother was quite right, Adeline," he said, holding her hand. "I am unworthy of my home life. I dared

not bless my children, who have behaved so nobly, but in my heart; tell them that I could only venture to kiss

them; for the blessing of a bad man, a father who has been an assassin and the scourge of his family instead

of its protector and its glory, might bring evil on them; but assure them that I shall bless them every day.As

to you, God alone, for He is Almighty, can ever reward you according to your merits!I can only ask your

forgiveness!" and he knelt at her feet, taking her hands and wetting them with his tears.

"Hector, Hector! Your sins have been great, but Divine Mercy is infinite, and you may repair all by staying

with me.Rise up in Christian charity, my dearI am your wife, and not your judge. I am your possession;

do what you will with me; take me wherever you go, I feel strong enough comfort you, to make life

endurable to you, by the strength of my love, my care, and respect.Our children are settled in life; they

need me no more. Let me try to be an amusement to you, an occupation. Let me share the pain of your

banishment and of your poverty, and help to mitigate it. I could always be of some use, if it were only to save

"Well, with that forgiveness I can live," said he, rising to his feet. "I came back into this room that my

children should not see their father's humiliation. Oh! the sight constantly before their eyes of a father so

guilty as I am is a terrible thing; it must undermine parental influence and break every family tie. So I cannot

remain among you, and I must go to spare you the odious spectacle of a father bereft of dignity. Do not

oppose my departure Adeline. It would only be to load with your own hand the pistol to blow my brains out.

Above all, do not seek me in my hidingplace; you would deprive me of the only strong motive remaining in

Hector's decisiveness silenced his dejected wife. Adeline, lofty in the midst of all this ruin, had derived her

courage from her perfect union with her husband; for she had dreamed of having him for her own, of the

beautiful task of comforting him, of leading him back to family life, and reconciling him to himself.

"But, Hector, would you leave me to die of despair, anxiety, and alarms!" said she, seeing herself bereft of

"I will come back to you, dear angelsent from Heaven expressly for me, I believe. I will come back, if not

rich, at least with enough to live in ease.Listen, my sweet Adeline, I cannot stay here for many reasons. In

the first place, my pension of six thousand francs is pledged for four years, so I have nothing. That is not all. I

shall be committed to prison within a few days in consequence of the bills held by Vauvinet. So I must keep

out of the way until my son, to whom I will give full instructions, shall have bought in the bills. My

disappearance will facilitate that. As soon as my pension is my own, and Vauvinet is paid off, I will return to

you.You would be sure to let out the secret of my hidingplace. Be calm; do not cry, Adeline it is only

"Where will you go? What will you do? What will become of you? Who will take care of you now that you

The Baron rang and ordered Mariette to collect all his things and pack them quickly and secretly. Then, after

embracing his wife with a warmth of affection to which she was unaccustomed, he begged her to leave him

alone for a few minutes while he wrote his instructions for Victorin, promising that he would not leave the

As soon as the Baroness was in the drawingroom, the cunning old man stole out through the dressingcloset

to the anteroom, and went away, giving Mariette a slip of paper, on which was written, "Address my trunks to

The Baron jumped into a hackney coach, and was rushing across Paris by the time Mariette came to give the

Baroness this note, and say that her master had gone out. Adeline flew back into her room, trembling more

violently than ever; her children followed on hearing her give a piercing cry. They found her in a dead faint;

and they put her to bed, for she was seized by a nervous fever which held her for a month between life and

And this is why. The Baron had driven to the Place du Palais Royal. There this man, who had recovered all

his wits to work out a scheme which he had premeditated during the days he had spent crushed with pain and

grief, crossed the Palais Royal on foot, and took a handsome carriage from a liverystable in the Rue

Joquelet. In obedience to his orders, the coachman went to the Rue de la Ville l'Eveque, and into the

courtyard of Josepha's mansion, the gates opening at once at the call of the driver of such a splendid vehicle.

Josepha came out, prompted by curiosity, for her manservant had told her that a helpless old gentleman,

"What? you, poor old man?On my honor, you look like a twentyfranc piece that the Jews have sweated

"Alas, yes," replied Hulot; "I am snatched from the jaws of death! But you are as lovely as ever. Will you be

"Listen," said Hulot; "can you put me up for a few days in a servant's room under the roof? I have

nothingnot a farthing, not a hope; no food, no pension, no wife, no children, no roof over my head; without

honor, without courage, without a friend; and worse than all that, liable to imprisonment for not meeting a

"You laugh at me! I am done for," cried the Baron. "And I counted on you as Gourville did on Ninon."

"And it was a 'real lady,' I am told who brought you to this," said Josepha. "Those precious sluts know how to

pluck a goose even better than we do!Why, you are like a corpse that the crows have done with I can

"Come in, old boy, I am alone, as it happens, and my people don't know you. Send away your trap. Is it paid

"And is it the fact, old man," she went on, "that you have killed your brother and your uncle, ruined your

family, mortgaged your children's house over and over again, and robbed the Government till in Africa, all

"Well, I admire that!" cried Josepha, starting up in her enthusiasm. "It is a general flareup! It is

Sardanapalus! Splendid, thoroughly complete! I may be a hussy, but I have a soul! I tell you, I like a

spendthrift, like you, crazy over a woman, a thousand times better than those torpid, heartless bankers, who

are supposed to be so good, and who ruin no end of families with their railsgold for them, and iron for

their gulls! You have only ruined those who belong to you, you have sold no one but yourself; and then you

Vice, Hulot found, could forgive him; vice smiled on him from the midst of unbridled luxury. Here, as before

a jury, the magnitude of a crime was an extenuating circumstance. "And is your lady pretty at any rate?"

asked Josepha, trying as a preliminary act of charity, to divert Hulot's thoughts, for his depression grieved

"And monstrously droll? So I have been told. What does she do, I say? Is she better fun than I am?"

"And I hear she has come round my Crevel, and little Steinbock, and a gorgeous Brazilian?"

"And that she has got a house as good as this, that Crevel has given her. The baggage! She is my

provostmarshal, and finishes off those I have spoiled. I tell you why I am so curious to know what she is

like, old boy; I just caught sight of her in the Bois, in an open carriage but a long way off. She is a most

accomplished harpy, Carabine says. She is trying to eat up Crevel, but he only lets her nibble. Crevel is a

knowing hand, goodnatured but hardheaded, who will always say Yes, and then go his own way. He is

vain and passionate; but his cash is cold. You can never get anything out of such fellows beyond a thousand

to three thousand francs a month; they jib at any serious outlay, as a donkey does at a running stream.

"Not like you, old boy. You are a man of passions; you would sell your country for a woman. And, look here,

I am ready to do anything for you! You are my father; you started me in life; it is a sacred duty. What do you

want? Do you want a hundred thousand francs? I will wear myself to a rag to gain them. As to giving you bed

and boardthat is nothing. A place will be laid for you here every day; you can have a good room on the

"This is what I wish, my child. Your Duc d'Herouville has immense estates in Normandy, and I want to be his

steward, under the name of Thoul. I have the capacity, and I am honest. A man may borrow of the

"Well, it is soon done," said Josepha. "This evening, after dinner, I have only to speak. The Duke would

marry me if I wished it, but I have his fortune, and I want something betterhis esteem. He is a Duke of the

first water. He is highminded, as noble and great as Louis XIV. and Napoleon rolled into one, though he is a

dwarf. Besides, I have done for him what la Schontz did for Rochefide; by taking my advice he has made two

"Now, listen to me, old popgun. I know you; you are always after the women, and you would be dancing

attendance on the Normandy girls, who are splendid creatures, and getting your ribs cracked by their lovers

and fathers, and the Duke would have to get you out of the scrape. Why, can't I see by the way you look at

me that the young man is not dead in youas Fenelon put it.No, this stewardship is not the thing for you.

A man cannot be off with his Paris and with us, old boy, for the saying! You would die of weariness at

"What is to become of me?" said the Baron, "for I will only stay here till I see my way."

"Well, shall I find a pigeonhole for you? Listen, you old pirate. Women are what you want. They are

consolation in all circumstances. Attend now.At the end of the Alley, Rue SaintMaurduTemple, there

is a poor family I know of where there is a jewel of a little girl, prettier than I was at sixteen.Ah! there is a

twinkle in your eye already!The child works sixteen hours a day at embroidering costly pieces for the silk

merchants, and earns sixteen sous a dayone sou an hour!and feeds like the Irish, on potatoes fried in

rats' dripping, with bread five times a weekand drinks canal water out of the town pipes, because the Seine

water costs too much; and she cannot set up on her own account for lack of six or seven thousand francs.

Your wife and children bore you to death, don't they?Besides, one cannot submit to be nobody where one

has been a little Almighty. A father who has neither money nor honor can only be stuffed and kept in a glass

"Well, now, Bijou is to come tomorrow morning to bring me an embroidered wrapper, a gem! It has taken

six months to make; no one else will have any stuff like it! Bijou is very fond of me; I give her tidbits and my

old gowns. And I send orders for bread and meat and wood to the family, who would break the shinbones of

the first comer if I bid them.I try to do a little good. Ah! I know what I endured from hunger

myself!Bijou has confided to me all her little sorrows. There is the making of a super at the

AmbiguComique in that child. Her dream is to wear fine dresses like mine; above all, to ride in a carriage. I

shall say to her, 'Look here, little one, would you like to have a friend of' How old are you?" she asked,

" 'Would you like an old gentleman of seventytwo?' I shall say. 'Very clean and neat, and who does not take

snuff, who is as sound as a bell, and as good as a young man? He will marry you (in the Thirteenth

Arrondissement) and be very kind to you; he will place seven thousand francs in your account, and furnish

you a room all in mahogany, and if you are good, he will sometimes take you to the play. He will give you a

hundred francs a month for pocketmoney, and fifty francs for housekeeping.'I know Bijou; she is myself

at fourteen. I jumped for joy when that horrible Crevel made me his atrocious offers. Well, and you, old man,

will be disposed of for three years. She is a good child, well behaved; for three or four years she will have her

Hulot did not hesitate; he had made up his mind to refuse; but to seem grateful to the kindhearted singer,

who was benevolent after her lights, he affected to hesitate between vice and virtue.

"Why, you are as cold as a pavingstone in winter!" she exclaimed in amazement. "Come, now. You will

make a whole family happya grandfather who runs all the errands, a mother who is being worn out with

work, and two sistersone of them very plainwho make thirty two sous a day while putting their eyes

out. It will make up for the misery you have caused at home, and you will expiate your sin while you are

Hulot, to put an end to this temptation, moved his fingers as if he were counting out money.

"Oh! be quite easy as to ways and means," replied Josepha. "My Duke will lend you ten thousand francs;

seven thousand to start an embroidery shop in Bijou's name, and three thousand for furnishing; and every

three months you will find a cheque here for six hundred and fifty francs. When you get your pension paid

you, you can repay the seventeen thousand francs. Meanwhile you will be as happy as a cow in clover, and

hidden in a hole where the police will never find you. You must wear a loose serge coat, and you will look

like a comfortable householder. Call yourself Thoul, if that is your fancy. I will tell Bijou that you are an

uncle of mine come from Germany, having failed in business, and you will be cosseted like a

divinity.There now, Daddy!And who knows! you may have no regrets. In case you should be bored,

keep one Sunday rigout, and you can come and ask me for a dinner and spend the evening here."

"I!and I meant to settle down and behave myself!Look here, borrow twenty thousand francs for me, and

I will set out to make my fortune in America, like my friend d'Aiglemont when Nucingen cleaned him out."

"You!" cried Josepha. "Nay, leave morals to workaday folks, to raw recruits, to the worrrthy citizens who

have nothing to boast of but their virtue. You! You were born to be something better than a nincompoop; you

"You will dine with the Duke. My d'Herouville will receive you as civilly as if you were the saviour of the

State; and tomorrow you can decide. Come, be jolly, old boy! Life is a garment; when it is dirty, we must

brush it; when it is ragged, it must be patched; but we keep it on as long as we can."

At noon next day, after a capital breakfast, Hulot saw the arrival of one of those living masterpieces which

Paris alone of all the cities in the world can produce, by means of the constant concubinage of luxury and

poverty, of vice and decent honesty, of suppressed desire and renewed temptation, which makes the French

Mademoiselle Olympe Bijou, a child of sixteen, had the exquisite face which Raphael drew for his Virgins;

eyes of pathetic innocence, weary with overworkblack eyes, with long lashes, their moisture parched with

the heat of laborious nights, and darkened with fatigue; a complexion like porcelain, almost too delicate; a

mouth like a partly opened pomegranate; a heaving bosom, a full figure, pretty hands, the whitest teeth, and a

mass of black hair; and the whole meagrely set off by a cotton frock at seventyfive centimes the metre,

leather shoes without heels, and the cheapest gloves. The girl, all unconscious of her charms, had put on her

The Baron, gripped again by the clutch of profligacy, felt all his life concentrated in his eyes. He forgot

everything on beholding this delightful creature. He was like a sportsman in sight of the game; if an emperor

"And warranted sound," said Josepha in his ear. "An honest child, and wanting bread. This is ParisI have

"If you want things to keep straight, Daddy," said she, "be as firm as the Public Prosecutor on the bench.

Keep a tight hand on her, be a Bartholo! Ware Auguste, Hippolyte, Nestor, Victoror, that is gold, in every

form. When once the child is fed and dressed, if she gets the upper hand, she will drive you like a serf.I

will see to settling you comfortably. The Duke does the handsome; he will lendthat is, giveyou ten

thousand francs; and he deposits eight thousand with his notary, who will pay you six hundred francs every

Ten days after deserting his family, when they were gathered round Adeline, who seemed to be dying, as she

said again and again, in a weak voice, "Where is he?" Hector, under the name of Thoul, was established in

the Rue SaintMaur, at the head of a business as embroiderer, under the name of Thoul and Bijou.

Victorin Hulot, under the overwhelming disasters of his family, had received the finishing touch which makes

or mars the man. He was perfection. In the great storms of life we act like the captain of a ship who, under the

stress of a hurricane, lightens the ship of its heaviest cargo. The young lawyer lost his selfconscious pride,

his too evident assertiveness, his arrogance as an orator and his political pretensions. He was as a man what

his wife was as a woman. He made up his mind to make the best of his Celestinewho certainly did not

realize his dreamsand was wise enough to estimate life at its true value by contenting himself in all things

with the second best. He vowed to fulfil his duties, so much had he been shocked by his father's example.

These feelings were confirmed as he stood by his mother's bed on the day when she was out of danger. Nor

did this happiness come single. Claude Vignon, who called every day from the Prince de Wissembourg to

inquire as to Madame Hulot's progress, desired the reelected deputy to go with him to see the Minister.

The Prince had long known Victorin Hulot, and received him with a friendliness that promised well.

"My dear fellow," said the old soldier, "I promised your uncle, in this room, that I would take care of your

mother. That saintly woman, I am told, is getting well again; now is the time to pour oil into your wounds. I

"Be quite easy," said the Prince, smiling; "it is money in trust. My days are numbered; I shall not always be

here; so take this sum, and fill my place towards your family. You may use this money to pay off the

mortgage on your house. These two hundred thousand francs are the property of your mother and your sister.

If I gave the money to Madame Hulot, I fear that, in her devotion to her husband, she would be tempted to

waste it. And the intention of those who restore it to you is, that it should produce bread for Madame Hulot

and her daughter, the Countess Steinbock. You are a steady man, the worthy son of your noble mother, the

true nephew of my friend the Marshal; you are appreciated here, you seeand elsewhere. So be the guardian

"Monseigneur," said Hulot, taking the Minister's hand and pressing it, "such men as you know that thanks in

"By accepting what I have to offer you," said the Minister. "We propose to appoint you to be attorney to the

War Office, which just now is involved in litigations in consequence of the plan for fortifying Paris;

consulting clerk also to the Prefecture of Police; and a member of the Board of the Civil List. These three

appointments will secure you salaries amounting to eighteen thousand francs, and will leave you politically

free. You can vote in the Chamber in obedience to your opinions and your conscience. Act in perfect freedom

on that score. It would be a bad thing for us if there were no national opposition!

"Also, a few lines from your uncle, written a day or two before he breathed his last, suggested what I could

do for your mother, whom he loved very truly.Mesdames Popinot, de Rastignac, de Navarreins, d'Espard,

de Grandlieu, de Carigliano, de Lenoncourt, and de la Batie have made a place for your mother as a Lady

Superintendent of their charities. These ladies, presidents of various branches of benevolent work, cannot do

everything themselves; they need a lady of character who can act for them by going to see the objects of their

beneficence, ascertaining that charity is not imposed upon, and whether the help given really reaches those

who applied for it, finding out that the poor who are ashamed to beg, and so forth. Your mother will fulfil an

angelic function; she will be thrown in with none but priests and these charitable ladies; she will be paid six

"You see, young man, that a pure and nobly virtuous man can still assist his family, even from the grave.

Such a name as your uncle's is, and ought to be, a buckler against misfortune in a wellorganized scheme of

"Such delicate kindness cannot surprise me in my mother's friend," said Victorin. "I will try to come up to all

"Go at once, and take comfort to your family.By the way," added the Prince, as he shook hands with

"So much the better. That unhappy man has shown his wit, in which, indeed, he is not lacking."

"Well, you shall have six months' pay of your three appointments in advance. This prepayment will help

you, perhaps, to get the notes out of the hands of the moneylender. And I will see Nucingen, and perhaps

may succeed in releasing your father's pension, pledged to him, without its costing you or our office a sou.

The peer has not killed the banker in Nucingen; he is insatiable; he wants some concession.I know not

So on his return to the Rue Plumet, Victorin could carry out his plan of lodging his mother and sister under

The young lawyer, already famous, had, for his sole fortune, one of the handsomest houses in Paris,

purchased in 1834 in preparation for his marriage, situated on the boulevard between the Rue de la Paix and

the Rue LouisleGrand. A speculator had built two houses between the boulevard and the street; and

between these, with the gardens and courtyards to the front and back, there remained still standing a splendid

wing, the remains of the magnificent mansion of the Verneuils. The younger Hulot had purchased this fine

property, on the strength of Mademoiselle Crevel's marriageportion, for one million francs, when it was put

up to auction, paying five hundred thousand down. He lived on the ground floor, expecting to pay the

remainder out of letting the rest; but though it is safe to speculate in house property in Paris, such

As the Parisian lounger may have observed, the boulevard between the Rue de la Paix and the Rue

LouisleGrand prospered but slowly; it took so long to furbish and beautify itself, that trade did not set up

its display there till 1840the gold of the moneychangers, the fairywork of fashion, and the luxurious

In spite of two hundred thousand francs given by Crevel to his daughter at the time when his vanity was

flattered by this marriage, before the Baron had robbed him of Josepha; in spite of the two hundred thousand

francs paid off by Victorin in the course of seven years, the property was still burdened with a debt of five

hundred thousand francs, in consequence of Victorin's devotion to his father. Happily, a rise in rents and the

advantages of the situation had at this time improved the value of the houses. The speculation was justifying

itself after eight years' patience, during which the lawyer had strained every nerve to pay the interest and

The tradespeople were ready to offer good rents for the shops, on condition of being granted leases for

eighteen years. The dwelling apartments rose in value by the shifting of the centre in Paris life henceforth

transferred to the region between the Bourse and the Madeleine, now the seat of the political power and

financial authority in Paris. The money paid to him by the Minister, added to a year's rent in advance and the

premiums paid by his tenants, would finally reduce the outstanding debt to two hundred thousand francs. The

two houses, if entirely let, would bring in a hundred thousand francs a year. Within two years more, during

which the Hulots could live on his salaries, added to by the Marshal's investments, Victorin would be in a

This was manna from heaven. Victorin could give up the first floor of his own house to his mother, and the

second to Hortense, excepting two rooms reserved for Lisbeth. With Cousin Betty as the housekeeper, this

compound household could bear all these charges, and yet keep up a good appearance, as beseemed a pleader

of note. The great stars of the lawcourts were rapidly disappearing; and Victorin Hulot, gifted with a shrewd

tongue and strict honesty, was listened to by the Bench and Councillors; he studied his cases thoroughly, and

advanced nothing that he could not prove. He would not hold every brief that offered; in fact, he was a credit

The Baroness' home in the Rue Plumet had become so odious to her, that she allowed herself to be taken to

the Rue LouisleGrand. Thus, by her son's care, Adeline occupied a fine apartment; she was spared all the

daily worries of life; for Lisbeth consented to begin again, working wonders of domestic economy, such as

she had achieved for Madame Marneffe, seeing here a way of exerting her silent vengeance on those three

noble lives, the object, each, of her hatred, which was kept growing by the overthrow of all her hopes.

Once a month she went to see Valerie, sent, indeed, by Hortense, who wanted news of Wenceslas, and by

Celestine, who was seriously uneasy at the acknowledged and wellknown connection between her father

and a woman to whom her motherinlaw and sisterinlaw owed their ruin and their sorrows. As may be

Thus, about twenty months passed by, during which the Baroness recovered her health, though her palsied

trembling never left her. She made herself familiar with her duties, which afforded her a noble distraction

from her sorrow and constant food for the divine goodness of her heart. She also regarded it as an opportunity

for finding her husband in the course of one of those expeditions which took her into every part of Paris.

During this time, Vauvinet had been paid, and the pension of six thousand francs was almost redeemed.

Victorin could maintain his mother as well as Hortense out of the ten thousand francs interest on the money

left by Marshal Hulot in trust for them. Adeline's salary amounted to six thousand francs a year; and this,

added to the Baron's pension when it was freed, would presently secure an income of twelve thousand francs

Thus, the poor woman would have been almost happy but for her perpetual anxieties as to the Baron's fate;

for she longed to have him with her to share the improved fortunes that smiled on the family; and but for the

constant sight of her forsaken daughter; and but for the terrible thrusts constantly and unconsciously dealt her

A scene which took place at the beginning of the month of March 1843 will show the results of Lisbeth's

latent and persistent hatred, still seconded, as she always was, by Madame Marneffe.

Two great events had occurred in the Marneffe household. In the first place, Valerie had given birth to a

stillborn child, whose little coffin had cost her two thousand francs a year. And then, as to Marneffe himself,

eleven months since, this is the report given by Lisbeth to the Hulot family one day on her return from a visit

"This morning," said she, "that dreadful Valerie sent for Doctor Bianchon to ask whether the medical men

who had condemned her husband yesterday had made no mistake. Bianchon pronounced that tonight at the

latest that horrible creature will depart to the torments that await him. Old Crevel and Madame Marneffe saw

the doctor out; and your father, my dear Celestine, gave him five gold pieces for his good news.

"When he came back into the drawingroom, Crevel cut capers like a dancer; he embraced that woman,

exclaiming, 'Then, at last, you will be Madame Crevel!'And to me, when she had gone back to her

husband's bedside, for he was at his last gasp, your noble father said to me, 'With Valerie as my wife, I can

become a peer of France! I shall buy an estate I have my eye onPresles, which Madame de Serizy wants to

sell. I shall be Crevel de Presles, member of the Common Council of SeineetOise, and Deputy. I shall have

a son! I shall be everything I have ever wished to be.''Heh!' said I, 'and what about your daughter?''Bah!'

says he, 'she is only a woman! And she is quite too much of a Hulot. Valerie has a horror of them all.My

soninlaw has never chosen to come to this house; why has he given himself such airs as a Mentor, a

Spartan, a Puritan, a philanthropist? Besides, I have squared accounts with my daughter; she has had all her

mother's fortune, and two hundred thousand francs to that. So I am free to act as I please.I shall judge of

my soninlaw and Celestine by their conduct on my marriage; as they behave, so shall I. If they are nice to

their stepmother, I will receive them. I am a man, after all!'In short, all this rhodomontade! And an attitude

The ten months' widowhood insisted on by the law had now elapsed some few days since. The estate of

Presles was purchased. Victorin and Celestine had that very morning sent Lisbeth to make inquiries as to the

marriage of the fascinating widow to the Mayor of Paris, now a member of the Common Council of the

Celestine and Hortense, in whom the ties of affection had been drawn closer since they had lived under the

same roof, were almost inseparable. The Baroness, carried away by a sense of honesty which led her to

exaggerate the duties of her place, devoted herself to the work of charity of which she was the agent; she was

out almost every day from eleven till five. The sistersinlaw, united in their cares for the children whom

they kept together, sat at home and worked. They had arrived at the intimacy which thinks aloud, and were a

touching picture of two sisters, one cheerful and the other sad. The less happy of the two, handsome, lively,

highspirited, and clever, seemed by her manner to defy her painful situation; while the melancholy

Celestine, sweet and calm, and as equable as reason itself, might have been supposed to have some secret

grief. It was this contradiction, perhaps, that added to their warm friendship. Each supplied the other with

Seated in a little summerhouse in the garden, which the speculator's trowel had spared by some fancy of the

builder's, who believed that he was preserving these hundred feet square of earth for his own pleasure, they

were admiring the first green shoots of the lilac trees, a spring festival which can only be fully appreciated

in Paris when the inhabitants have lived for six months oblivious of what vegetation means, among the cliffs

"Celestine," said Hortense to her sisterinlaw, who had complained that in such fine weather her husband

should be kept at the Chamber, "I think you do not fully appreciate your happiness. Victorin is a perfect

"My dear, men like to be tormented! Certain ways of teasing are a proof of affection. If your poor mother had

only beenI will not say exacting, but always prepared to be exacting, you would not have had so much to

"Lisbeth is not come back. I shall have to sing the song of Malbrouck," said Hortense. "I do long for some

news of Wenceslas! What does he live on? He has not done a thing these two years."

"Victorin saw him, he told me, with that horrible woman not long ago; and he fancied that she maintains him

in idleness.If you only would, dear soul, you might bring your husband back to you yet."

"Believe me," Celestine went on, "the position will ere long be intolerable. In the first instance, rage, despair,

indignation, gave you strength. The awful disasters that have come upon us sincetwo deaths, ruin, and the

disappearance of Baron Hulothave occupied your mind and heart; but now you live in peace and silence,

you will find it hard to bear the void in your life; and as you cannot, and will never leave the path of virtue,

you will have to be reconciled to Wenceslas. Victorin, who loves you so much, is of that opinion. There is

"But such a mean creature!" cried the proud Hortense. "He cares for that woman because she feeds

him.And has she paid his debts, do you suppose?Good Heaven! I think of that man's position day and

Celestine was one of those women who, when you have given them reasons enough to convince a Breton

peasant, still go back for the hundredth time to their original argument. The character of her face, somewhat

flat, dull, and common, her lightbrown hair in stiff, neat bands, her very complexion spoke of a sensible

"The Baroness would willingly go to join her husband in his disgrace, to comfort him and hide him in her

heart from every eye," Celestine went on. "Why, she has a room made ready upstairs for Monsieur Hulot, as

"Oh yes, my mother is sublime!" replied Hortense. "She has been so every minute of every day for

sixandtwenty years; but I am not like her, it is not my nature.How can I help it? I am angry with myself

sometimes; but you do not know, Celestine, what it would be to make terms with infamy."

"There is my father!" said Celestine placidly. "He has certainly started on the road that ruined yours. He is ten

years younger than the Baron, to be sure, and was only a tradesman; but how can it end? This Madame

Marneffe has made a slave of my father; he is her dog; she is mistress of his fortune and his opinions, and

nothing can open his eyes. I tremble when I remember that their banns of marriage are already

published!My husband means to make a last attempt; he thinks it a duty to try to avenge society and the

family, and bring that woman to account for all her crimes. Alas! my dear Hortense, such lofty souls as

Victorin and hearts like ours come too late to a comprehension of the world and its ways!This is a secret,

dear, and I have told you because you are interested in it, but never by a word or a look betray it to Lisbeth, or

"Here is Lisbeth!" said Hortense. "Well, cousin, and how is the Inferno of the Rue Barbet going on?"

"Badly for you, my children.Your husband, my dear Hortense, is more crazy about that woman than ever,

and she, I must own, is madly in love with him.Your father, dear Celestine, is gloriously blind. That, to be

sure, is nothing; I have had occasion to see it once a fortnight; really, I am lucky never to have had anything

to do with men, they are besotted creatures.Five days hence you, dear child, and Victorin will have lost

"Yes," said Lisbeth, "and I have just been arguing your case. I pointed out to that monster, who is going the

way of the other, that if he would only get you out of the difficulties you are in by paying off the mortgage on

"But do you know what Monsieur le Maire's answer was?" said Lisbeth. " 'I mean to leave them where they

are. Horses can only be broken in by lack of food, sleep, and sugar.'Why, Baron Hulot was not so bad as

"So, my poor dears, you may say goodbye to the money. And such a fine fortune! Your father paid three

million francs for the Presles estate, and he has thirty thousand francs a year in stocks! Oh!he has no

secrets from me. He talks of buying the Hotel de Navarreins, in the Rue du Bac. Madame Marneffe herself

has forty thousand francs a year. Ah!here is our guardian angel, here comes your mother!" she

And presently the Baroness came down the garden steps and joined the party. At fiftyfive, though crushed

by so many troubles, and constantly trembling as if shivering with ague, Adeline, whose face was indeed pale

and wrinkled, still had a fine figure, a noble outline, and natural dignity. Those who saw her said, "She must

have been beautiful!" Worn with the grief of not knowing her husband's fate, of being unable to share with

him this oasis in the heart of Paris, this peace and seclusion and the better fortune that was dawning on the

family, her beauty was the beauty of a ruin. As each gleam of hope died out, each day of search proved vain,

The Baroness had gone out that morning with fresh hopes, and was anxiously expected. An official, who was

under obligations to Hulot, to whom he owed his position and advancement, declared that he had seen the

Baron in a box at the AmbiguComique theatre with a woman of extraordinary beauty. So Adeline had gone

to call on the Baron Verneuil. This important personage, while asserting that he had positively seen his old

patron, and that his behaviour to the woman indicated an illicit establishment, told Madame Hulot that to

"He looked like a man at home with the damsel, but his dress betrayed some lack of means," said he in

"Well, Monsieur Hulot is in Paris; and to me," said Adeline, "it is a gleam of happiness only to know that he

"But he does not seem to have mended his ways," Lisbeth remarked when Adeline had finished her report of

her visit to Baron Verneuil. "He has taken up some little workgirl. But where can he get the money from? I

could bet that he begs of his former mistressesMademoiselle Jenny Cadine or Josepha."

The Baroness trembled more severely than ever; every nerve quivered; she wiped away the tears that rose to

"I cannot think that a Grand Commander of the Legion of Honor will have fallen so low," said she.

"For his pleasure what would he not do?" said Lisbeth. "He robbed the State, he will rob private persons,

At this moment Louise came up to the family group, now increased by the arrival of the two Hulot children

and little Wenceslas to see if their grandmother's pockets did not contain some sweetmeats.

"He is in rags, mademoiselle, and covered with flue like a mattress picker; his nose is red, and he smells of

This uninviting picture had the effect of making Lisbeth hurry into the courtyard of the house in the Rue

LouisleGrand, where she found a man smoking a pipe colored in a style that showed him an artist in

"Why have you come here, Pere Chardin?" she asked. "It is understood that you go, on the first Saturday in

every month, to the gate of the Hotel Marneffe, Rue BarbetdeJouy. I have just come back after waiting

"I did go there, good and charitable lady!" replied the mattress picker. "But there was a game at pool going

on at the Cafe des Savants, Rue du CerfVolant, and every man has his fancy. Now, mine is billiards. If it

wasn't for billiards, I might be eating off silver plate. For, I tell you this," and he fumbled for a scrap of paper

in his ragged trousers pocket, "it is billiards that leads on to a dram and plumbrandy.It is ruinous, like all

fine things, in the things it leads to. I know your orders, but the old 'un is in such a quandary that I came on to

forbidden grounds.If the hair was all hair, we might sleep sound on it; but it is mixed. God is not for all, as

the saying goes. He has His favoriteswell, He has the right. Now, here is the writing of your estimable

Chardin attempted to trace some zigzag lines in the air with the forefinger of his right hand.

"The lan'lord!" said Chardin, still trying to sketch arabesques. "And then my son, you see, has come back

from Algiers through Spain and Bayonee, and, andhe has found nothingagainst his rule, for a sharp cove

is my son, saving your presence. How can he help it, he is in want of food; but he will repay all we lend him,

"To the police court," Lisbeth put in. "He murdered my uncle; I shall not forget that."

"Here are the three hundred francs," said Lisbeth, taking fifteen gold pieces out of her purse. "Now, go, and

She saw the father of the Oran storekeeper off the premises, and pointed out the drunken old creature to the

"At any time when that man comes here, if by chance he should come again, do not let him in. If he should

ask whether Monsieur Hulot junior or Madame la Baronne Hulot lives here, tell him you know of no such

"Your place depends on it if you make any mistake, even without intending it," said Lisbeth, in the woman's

ear."Cousin," she went on to Victorin, who just now came in, "a great misfortune is hanging over your

For six months past Lisbeth had very regularly paid a little allowance to Baron Hulot, her former protector,

whom she now protected; she knew the secret of his dwellingplace, and relished Adeline's tears, saying to

her, as we have seen, when she saw her cheerful and hopeful, "You may expect to find my poor cousin's

But in this, as on a former occasion, she let her vengeance carry her too far. She had aroused the prudent

suspicions of Victorin. He had resolved to be rid of this Damocles' sword so constantly flourished over them

by Lisbeth, and of the female demon to whom his mother and the family owed so many woes. The Prince de

Wissembourg, knowing all about Madame Marneffe's conduct, approved of the young lawyer's secret project;

he had promised him, as a President of the Council can promise, the secret assistance of the police, to

enlighten Crevel and rescue a fine fortune from the clutches of the diabolical courtesan, whom he could not

forgive either for causing the death of Marshal Hulot or for the Baron's utter ruin.

The words spoken by Lisbeth, "He begs of his former mistresses," haunted the Baroness all night. Like sick

men given over by the physicians, who have recourse to quacks, like men who have fallen into the lowest

Dantesque circle of despair, or drowning creatures who mistake a floating stick for a hawser, she ended by

believing in the baseness of which the mere idea had horrified her; and it occurred to her that she might apply

Next morning, without consulting her children or saying a word to anybody, she went to see Mademoiselle

Josepha Mirah, prima donna of the Royal Academy of Music, to find or to lose the hope that had gleamed

before her like a willo'thewisp. At midday, the great singer's waitingmaid brought her in the card of the

Baronne Hulot, saying that this person was waiting at the door, having asked whether Mademoiselle could

"Just tell Jean to look round and see that everything is as it should be before showing the lady in, and treat her

with the greatest respect. Go, and come back to dress meI must look my very best."

"Now, to put our best foot foremost!" said she to herself. "Vice under arms to meet virtue!Poor woman,

"I did, mademoiselle; but she declines everything, and says it is an infirmity, a nervous complaint"

"Well, make haste, child. Give me my smartest slippers, the dressing gown embroidered by Bijou, and no

end of lace frills. Do my hair in a way to astonish a woman.This woman plays a part against mine; and tell

the ladyfor she is a real, great lady, my girl, nay, more, she is what you will never be, a woman whose

prayers can rescue souls from your purgatorytell her I was in bed, as I was playing last night, and that I am

The Baroness, shown into Josepha's handsome drawingroom, did not note how long she was kept waiting

there, though it was a long half hour. This room, entirely redecorated even since Josepha had had the house,

was hung with silk in purple and gold color. The luxury which fine gentlemen were wont to lavish on their

petites maisons, the scenes of their profligacy, of which the remains still bear witness to the follies from

which they were so aptly named, was displayed to perfection, thanks to modern inventiveness, in the four

rooms opening into each other, where the warm temperature was maintained by a system of hotair pipes

The Baroness, quite bewildered, examined each work of art with the greatest amazement. Here she found

fortunes accounted for that melt in the crucible under which pleasure and vanity feed the devouring flames.

This woman, who for twentysix years had lived among the dead relics of imperial magnificence, whose eyes

were accustomed to carpets patterned with faded flowers, rubbed gilding, silks as forlorn as her heart, half

understood the powerful fascinations of vice as she studied its results. It was impossible not to wish to

possess these beautiful things, these admirable works of art, the creation of the unknown talent which

abounds in Paris in our day and produces treasures for all Europe. Each thing had the novel charm of unique

perfection. The models being destroyed, every vase, every figure, every piece of sculpture was the original.

This is the crowning grace of modern luxury. To own the thing which is not vulgarized by the two thousand

wealthy citizens whose notion of luxury is the lavish display of the splendors that shops can supply, is the

stamp of true luxury the luxury of the fine gentlemen of the day, the shooting stars of the Paris firmament.

As she examined the flowerstands, filled with the choicest exotic plants, mounted in chased brass and inlaid

in the style of Boulle, the Baroness was scared by the idea of the wealth in this apartment. And this

impression naturally shed a glamour over the person round whom all this profusion was heaped. Adeline

imagined that Josepha Mirah whose portrait by Joseph Bridau was the glory of the adjoining boudoir

must be a singer of genius, a Malibran, and she expected to see a real star. She was sorry she had come.

But she had been prompted by a strong and so natural a feeling, by such purely disinterested devotion, that

she collected all her courage for the interview. Besides, she was about to satisfy her urgent curiosity, to see

for herself what was the charm of this kind of women, that they could extract so much gold from the miserly

The Baroness looked at herself to see if she were not a blot on all this splendor; but she was well dressed in

her velvet gown, with a little cape trimmed with beautiful lace, and her velvet bonnet of the same shade was

becoming. Seeing herself still as imposing as any queen, always a queen even in her fall, she reflected that

At last, after much opening and shutting of doors, she saw Josepha. The singer bore a strong resemblance to

Allori's Judith, which dwells in the memory of all who have ever seen it in the Pitti palace, near the door of

one of the great rooms. She had the same haughty mien, the same fine features, black hair simply knotted,

and a yellow wrapper with little embroidered flowers, exactly like the brocade worn by the immortal

"Madame la Baronne, I am quite overwhelmed by the honor you do me in coming here," said the singer,

She pushed forward an easychair for the Baroness and seated herself on a stool. She discerned the faded

beauty of the woman before her, and was filled with pity as she saw her shaken by the nervous palsy that, on

the least excitement, became convulsive. She could read at a glance the saintly life described to her of old by

Hulot and Crevel; and she not only ceased to think of a contest with her, she humiliated herself before a

superiority she appreciated. The great artist could admire what the courtesan laughed to scorn.

A look in Josepha's face made the Baroness feel that she had wounded the woman from whom she hoped for

so much, and she looked at her. Her beseeching eyes extinguished the flash in Josepha's; the singer smiled. It

"It is now two years and a half since Monsieur Hulot left his family, and I do not know where to find him,

though I know that he lives in Paris," said the Baroness with emotion. "A dream suggested to me the

ideaan absurd one perhapsthat you may have interested yourself in Monsieur Hulot. If you could enable

me to see himoh! mademoiselle, I would pray Heaven for you every day as long as I live in this world"

"Madame," said she, "I have done you an injury without knowing you; but, now that I have the happiness of

seeing in you the most perfect virtue on earth, believe me I am sensible of the extent of my fault; I repent

She took Madame Hulot's hand and before the lady could do anything to hinder her, she kissed it respectfully,

even humbling herself to bend one knee. Then she rose, as proud as when she stood on the stage in the part of

"Go on horseback," said she to the manservant, "and kill the horse if you must, to find little Bijou, Rue

SaintMaurduTemple, and bring her here. Put her into a coach and pay the coachman to come at a gallop.

"Madame," she went on, coming back to the Baroness, and speaking to her in respectful tones, "you must

forgive me. As soon as the Duc d'Herouville became my protector, I dismissed the Baron, having heard that

he was ruining his family for me. What more could I do? In an actress' career a protector is indispensable

from the first day of her appearance on the boards. Our salaries do not pay half our expenses; we must have a

temporary husband. I did not value Monsieur Hulot, who took me away from a rich man, a conceited idiot.

"Well, then, you see, madame, I might at this day have been an honest woman, with only one legitimate

"You have many excuses, mademoiselle," said Adeline, "and God will take them into account. But, for my

part, far from reproaching you, I came, on the contrary, to make myself your debtor in gratitude"

"Madame, for nearly three years I have provided for Monsieur le Baron's necessities"

"You?" interrupted the Baroness, with tears in her eyes. "Oh, what can I do for you? I can only pray"

"I and Monsieur le Duc d'Herouville," the singer said, "a noble soul, a true gentleman" and Josepha related

"About six months ago, Monsieur le Duc told me that the Baron, known to the notary by the name of Thoul,

had drawn all the eight thousand francs that were to have been paid to him in fixed sums once a quarter,"

replied Josepha. "We have heard no more of the Baron, neither I nor Monsieur d'Herouville. Our lives are so

full, we artists are so busy, that I really have not time to run after old Thoul. As it happens, for the last six

"His mistress," repeated Josepha, "has not been here. Mademoiselle Olympe Bijou is perhaps divorced.

Josepha rose, and foraging among the rare plants in her stands, made a charming bouquet for Madame Hulot,

whose expectations, it may be said, were by no means fulfilled. Like those worthy fold, who take men of

genius to be a sort of monsters, eating, drinking, walking, and speaking unlike other people, the Baroness had

hoped to see Josepha the opera singer, the witch, the amorous and amusing courtesan; she saw a calm and

wellmannered woman, with the dignity of talent, the simplicity of an actress who knows herself to be at

night a queen, and also, better than all, a woman of the town whose eyes, attitude, and demeanor paid full and

ungrudging homage to the virtuous wife, the Mater dolorosa of the sacred hymn, and who was crowning her

"Madame," said the manservant, reappearing at the end of half an hour, "Madame Bijou is on her way, but

you are not to expect little Olympe. Your needlewoman, madame, is settled in life; she is married"

"No, madame, really married. She is at the head of a very fine business; she has married the owner of a large

and fashionable shop, on which they have spent millions of francs, on the Boulevard des Italiens; and she has

left the embroidery business to her sister and mother. She is Madame Grenouville. The fat tradesman"

"Yes, madame," said the man. "Well, he has settled thirty thousand francs a year on Mademoiselle Bijou by

the marriage articles. And her elder sister, they say, is going to be married to a rich butcher."

"Your business looks rather hopeless, I am afraid," said Josepha to the Baroness. "Monsieur le Baron is no

Ten minutes later Madame Bijou was announced. Josepha very prudently placed the Baroness in the boudoir,

"You would scare her," said she to Madame Hulot. "She would let nothing out if she suspected that you were

interested in the information. Leave me to catechise her. Hide there, and you will hear everything. It is a

"Well, Mother Bijou," she said to an old woman dressed in tartan stuff, and who looked like a porter's wife in

"Oh, happy? As for that!My daughter gives us a hundred francs a month, while she rides in a carriage and

eats off silver plateshe is a millionary, is my daughter! Olympe might have lifted me above labor. To have

"She ought not to be ungrateful, for she owes her beauty to you," replied Josepha; "but why did she not come

"But what have you done with him? Is he with you? She was very foolish to leave him; he is worth millions

"Heaven above us!" cried the mother. "What did I tell her when she behaved so badly to him, and he as mild

as milk, poor old fellow? Oh! didn't she just give it him hot?Olympe was perverted, madame?"

"She got to know a claqueur, madame, saving your presence, a man paid to clap, you know, the grand

nephew of an old mattresspicker of the Faubourg SaintMarceau. This goodfornaught, as all your good

looking fellows are, paid to make a piece go, is the cock of the walk out on the Boulevard du Temple, where

he works up the new plays, and takes care that the actresses get a reception, as he calls it. First, he has a good

breakfast in the morning; then, before the play, he dines, to be 'up to the mark,' as he says; in short, he is a

born lover of billiards and drams. 'But that is not following a trade,' as I said to Olympe."

"Well, the rascal turned Olympe's head, and he, madame, did not keep good companywhen I tell you he

was very near being nabbed by the police in a tavern where thieves meet. 'Wever, Monsieur Braulard, the

leader of the claque, got him out of that. He wears gold earrings, and he lives by doing nothing, hanging on to

women, who are fools about these goodlooking scamps. He spent all the money Monsieur Thoul used to

"Then the business was going to grief; what embroidery brought in went out across the billiard table. 'Wever,

the young fellow had a pretty sister, madame, who, like her brother, lived by hook and by crook, and no

"So, madame," said the old woman. "So Idamore, his name is Idamore, leastways that is what he calls

himself, for his real name is Chardin Idamore fancied that your uncle had a deal more money than he

owned to, and he managed to send his sister Elodieand that was a stage name he gave herto send her to

be a workwoman at our place, without my daughter's knowing who she was; and, gracious goodness! but that

girl turned the whole place topsyturvy; she got all those poor girls into mischiefimpossible to whitewash

"And she was so sharp, she won over poor old Thoul, and took him away, and we don't know where, and left

us in a pretty fix, with a lot of bills coming in. To this day as ever is we have not been able to settle up; but

my daughter, who knows all about such things, keeps an eye on them as they fall due.Then, when Idamore

saw he had got hold of the old man, through his sister, you understand, he threw over my daughter, and now

he has got hold of a little actress at the Funambules.And that was how my daughter came to get married, as

"What! old Chardin? As if he lived anywhere at all!He is drunk by six in the morning; he makes a mattress

"You do not understand, madame, pools of billiards, I mean, and he wins three or four a day, and then he

"Water out of the pools, I suppose?" said Josepha. "But if Idamore haunts the Boulevard, by inquiring

"I don't know, madame; all this was six months ago. Idamore was one of the sort who are bound to find their

"Well, madame, you know everything," said the old woman, smiling. "Well, if my girl had never known that

scamp, she would now beStill, she was in luck, all the same, you will say, for Monsieur Grenouville fell so

"Olympe was desperate, madame. When she found herself left in the lurch for that little actressand she

took a rod out of pickle for her, I can tell you; my word, but she gave her a dressing!and when she had lost

poor old Thoul, who worshiped her, she would have nothing more to say to the men. 'Wever, Monsieur

Grenouville, who had been dealing largely with usto the tune of two hundred embroidered China crape

shawls every quarterhe wanted to console her; but whether or no, she would not listen to anything without

the mayor and the priest. 'I mean to be respectable,' said she, 'or perish!' and she stuck to it. Monsieur

Grenouville consented to marry her, on condition of her giving us all up, and we agreed"

"Yes, madame, ten thousand francs, and an allowance to my father, who is past work."

"I begged your daughter to make old Thoul happy, and she has thrown me over. That is not fair. I will take no

interest in any one for the future! That is what comes of trying to do good! Benevolence certainly does not

answer as a speculation!Olympe ought, at least, to have given me notice of this jobbing. Now, if you find

"It will be a hard task, my good lady; still, there are a good many fivefranc pieces in a thousand francs, and I

On going into the boudoir, the singer found that Madame Hulot had fainted; but in spite of having lost

consciousness, her nervous trembling kept her still perpetually shaking, as the pieces of a snake that has been

cut up still wriggle and move. Strong salts, cold water, and all the ordinary remedies were applied to recall

"Ah! mademoiselle, how far has he fallen!" cried she, recognizing Josepha, and finding that she was alone

"Take heart, madame," replied the actress, who had seated herself on a cushion at Adeline's feet, and was

kissing her hands. "We shall find him; and if he is in the mire, well, he must wash himself. Believe me, with

people of good breeding it is a matter of clothes.Allow me to make up for you the harm I have done you,

for I see how much you are attached to your husband, in spite of his misconductor you should not have

come here.Well, you see, the poor man is so fond of women. If you had had a little of our dash, you would

have kept him from running about the world; for you would have been what we can never be all the

"The State ought to subsidize a school of manners for honest women! But governments are so prudish! Still,

"But the matter in question is how you can be helped, and not to laugh at the world.Well, madame, be

easy, go home again, and do not worry. I will bring your Hector back to you as he was as a man of thirty."

"Ah, mademoiselle, let us go to see that Madame Grenouville," said the Baroness. "She surely knows

something! Perhaps I may see the Baron this very day, and be able to snatch him at once from poverty and

"Madame, I will show you the deep gratitude I feel towards you by not displaying the stagesinger Josepha,

the Duc d'Herouville's mistress, in the company of the noblest, saintliest image of virtue. I respect you too

much to be seen by your side. This is not acted humility; it is sincere homage. You make me sorry, madame,

that I cannot tread in your footsteps, in spite of the thorns that tear your feet and hands. But it cannot be

"Poor child!" said the Baroness, moved amid her own sorrows by a strange sense of compassionate

sympathy; "I will pray to God for you; for you are the victim of society, which must have theatres. When you

"Of a martyr, madame," Josepha put in, and she respectfully kissed the Baroness' skirt.

But Adeline took the actress' hand, and drawing her towards her, kissed her on the forehead. Coloring with

pleasure Josepha saw the Baroness into the hackney coach with the humblest politeness.

"It must be some visiting Lady of Charity," said the manservant to the maid, "for she does not do so much

"Wait a few days," said she, "and you will see him, madame, or I renounce the God of my fathersand that

At the very time when Madame Hulot was calling on Josepha, Victorin, in his study, was receiving an old

woman of about seventyfive, who, to gain admission to the lawyer, had used the terrible name of the head of

Victorin felt a sort of internal chill at the sight of this dreadful old woman. Though handsomely dressed, she

was terrible to look upon, for her flat, colorless, stronglymarked face, furrowed with wrinkles, expressed a

sort of cold malignity. Marat, as a woman of that age, might have been like this creature, a living embodiment

This sinister old woman's small, pale eyes twinkled with a tiger's bloodthirsty greed. Her broad, flat nose,

with nostrils expanded into oval cavities, breathed the fires of hell, and resembled the beak of some evil bird

of prey. The spirit of intrigue lurked behind her low, cruel brow. Long hairs had grown from her wrinkled

chin, betraying the masculine character of her schemes. Any one seeing that woman's face would have said

"My dear sir," she began, with a patronizing air, "I have long since given up active business of any kind.

What I have come to you to do, I have undertaken, for the sake of my dear nephew, whom I love more than I

could love a son of my own.Now, the Head of the Policeto whom the President of the Council said a

few words in his ear as regards yourself, in talking to Monsieur Chapuzotthinks as the police ought not to

appear in a matter of this description, you understand. They gave my nephew a free hand, but my nephew

will have nothing to say to it, except as before the Council; he will not be seen in it."

"You have hit it, and I am rather proud of him," said she, interrupting the lawyer, "for he is my pupil, and he

soon could teach his teacher.We have considered this case, and have come to our own conclusions. Will

you hand over thirty thousand francs to have the whole thing taken off your hands? I will make a clean sweep

"No, my dear sir; I look for information from you. What we are told is, that a certain old idiot has fallen into

the clutches of a widow. This widow, of nineandtwenty, has played her cards so well, that she has forty

thousand francs a year, of which she has robbed two fathers of families. She is now about to swallow down

eighty thousand francs a year by marrying an old boy of sixtyone. She will thus ruin a respectable family,

and hand over this vast fortune to the child of some lover by getting rid at once of the old husband.That is

"Formerly a perfumer, a mayoryes, I live in his district under the name of Ma'ame Nourrisson," said the

"I do not know," said Madame de SaintEsteve. "But within three days I will be in a position to count her

"We must carry off the woman.Today is Sundaythere are but three days, for they will be married on

Victorin Hulot started with an honest man's horror at hearing these five words uttered in cold blood.

"For forty years, now, monsieur, we have played the part of fate," replied she, with terrible pride, "and do just

what we will in Paris. More than one familyeven in the Faubourg SaintGermainhas told me all its

secrets, I can tell you. I have made and spoiled many a match, I have destroyed many a will and saved many a

man's honor. I have in there," and she tapped her forehead, "a store of secrets which are worth thirtysix

thousand francs a year to me; and youyou will be one of my lambs, hoh! Could such a woman as I am be

"Whatever I may do, sir, will be the result of an accident; you need feel no remorse. You will be like a man

cured by a clairvoyant; by the end of a month, it seems all the work of Nature."

Victorin broke out in a cold sweat. The sight of an executioner would have shocked him less than this prolix

and pretentious Sister of the Hulks. As he looked at her purplered gown, she seemed to him dyed in blood.

"Madame, I do not accept the help of your experience and skill if success is to cost anybody's life, or the least

"You are a great baby, monsieur," replied the woman; "you wish to remain blameless in your own eyes, while

"Yes," she went on, "you want this Madame Marneffe to drop the prey she has between her teeth. But how do

you expect to make a tiger drop his piece of beef? Can you do it by patting his back and saying, 'Poor Puss'?

You are illogical. You want a battle fought, but you object to blows.Well, I grant you the innocence you

are so careful over. I have always found that there was material for hypocrisy in honesty! One day, three

months hence, a poor priest will come to beg of you forty thousand francs for a pious worka convent to be

rebuilt in the Levantin the desert.If you are satisfied with your lot, give the good man the money. You

will pay more than that into the treasury. It will be a mere trifle in comparison with what you will get, I can

She rose, standing on the broad feet that seemed to overflow her satin shoes; she smiled, bowed, and

He saw the hideous stranger to the door, a creature called up from the dens of the police, as on the stage a

monster comes up from the third cellar at the touch of a fairy's wand in a balletextravaganza.

After finishing what he had to do at the Courts, Victorin went to call on Monsieur Chapuzot, the head of one

of the most important branches of the Central Police, to make some inquiries about the stranger. Finding

"You sent me an old woman who might stand for the incarnation of the criminal side of Paris."

Monsieur Chapuzot laid his spectacles on his papers and looked at the lawyer with astonishment.

"I should not have taken the liberty of sending anybody to see you without giving you notice beforehand, or a

"I think not," said Chapuzot. "The last time that the Prince de Wissembourg dined with the Minister of the

Interior, he spoke to the Prefet of the position in which you find yourselfa deplorable positionand asked

him if you could be helped in any friendly way. The Prefet, who was interested by the regrets his Excellency

"Ever since the present Prefet has held the reins of this department so useful and so vilifiedhe has made

it a rule that family matters are never to be interfered in. He is right in principle and in morality; but in

practice he is wrong. In the fortyfive years that I have served in the police, it did, from 1799 till 1815, great

services in family concerns. Since 1820 a constitutional government and the press have completely altered

the conditions of existence. So my advice, indeed, was not to intervene in such a case, and the Prefet did me

the honor to agree with my remarks. The Head of the detective branch has orders, in my presence, to take no

steps; so if you have had any one sent to you by him, he will be reprimanded. It might cost him his place.

'The Police will do this or that,' is easily said; the Police, the Police! But, my dear sir, the Marshal and the

Ministerial Council do not know what the Police is. The Police alone knows the Police; but as for ours, only

Fouche, Monsieur Lenoir, and Monsieur de Sartines have had any notion of it.Everything is changed now;

we are reduced and disarmed! I have seen many private disasters develop, which I could have checked with

five grains of despotic power.We shall be regretted by the very men who have crippled us when they, like

you, stand face to face with some moral monstrosities, which ought to be swept away as we sweep away

mud! In public affairs the Police is expected to foresee everything, or when the safety of the public is

involvedbut the family?It is sacred! I would do my utmost to discover and hinder a plot against the

King's life, I would see through the walls of a house; but as to laying a finger on a household, or peeping into

"Well, you are the Family," said the official. "That settles it; you can do what you please. But as to helping

you, as to using the Police as an instrument of private feelings, and interests, how is it possible? There lies,

you see, the secret of the persecution, necessary, but pronounced illegal, by the Bench, which was brought to

bear against the predecessor of our present chief detective. Bibi Lupin undertook investigations for the

benefit of private persons. This might have led to great social dangers. With the means at his command, the

"Why, you ask my advice? You who sell it!" replied Monsieur Chapuzot. "Come, come, my dear sir, you are

Hulot bowed to the functionary, and went away without seeing that gentleman's almost imperceptible shrug

"And he wants to be a statesman!" said Chapuzot to himself as he returned to his reports.

Victorin went home, still full of perplexities which he could confide to no one.

At dinner the Baroness joyfully announced to her children that within a month their father might be sharing

"Oh, I would gladly give my three thousand six hundred francs a year to see the Baron here!" cried Lisbeth.

"But, my dear Adeline, do not dream beforehand of such happiness, I entreat you!"

The Baroness, all feeling and all hope, related her visit to Josepha, expressed her sense of the misery of such

women in the midst of good fortune, and mentioned Chardin the mattresspicker, the father of the Oran

By seven next morning Lisbeth had driven in a hackney coach to the Quai de la Tournelle, and stopped the

"Go to the Rue des Bernardins," said she to the driver, "No. 7, a house with an entry and no porter. Go up to

the fourth floor, ring at the door to the left, on which you will see 'Mademoiselle Chardin Lace and shawls

mended.' She will answer the door. Ask for the Chevalier. She will say he is out. Say in reply, 'Yes, I know,

but find him, for his bonne is out on the quay in a coach, and wants to see him.' "

Twenty minutes later, an old man, who looked about eighty, with perfectly white hair, and a nose reddened

by the cold, and a pale, wrinkled face like an old woman's, came shuffling slowly along in list slippers, a

shiny alpaca overcoat hanging on his stooping shoulders, no ribbon at his buttonhole, the sleeves of an

undervest showing below his coatcuffs, and his shirtfront unpleasantly dingy. He approached timidly,

"Elodie keeps everything for herself," said Baron Hulot. "Those Chardins are a blackguard crew."

"Oh, if only some one would pay my debts!" said the Baron, with a suspicious look, "for Samanon is after

"We have not paid up the arrears yet; your son still owes a hundred thousand francs."

"And your pension will not be free before seven or eight months.If you will wait a minute, I have two

"Yes, yes. Then I can wait eight months, for I have discovered a little angel, a good child, an innocent thing

"Do not forget the policecourt," said Lisbeth, who flattered herself that she would some day see Hulot there.

"No.It is in the Rue de Charonne," said the Baron, "a part of the town where no fuss is made about

anything. No one will ever find me there. I am called Pere Thorec, Lisbeth, and I shall be taken for a retired

cabinetmaker; the girl is fond of me, and I will not allow my back to be shorn any more."

"No, that has been done," said Lisbeth, looking at his coat. "Supposing I take you there."

Baron Hulot got into the coach, deserting Mademoiselle Elodie without taking leave of her, as he might have

In half an hour, during which Baron Hulot talked to Lisbeth of nothing but little Atala Judicifor he had

fallen by degrees to those base passions that ruin old menshe set him down with two thousand francs in his

pocket, in the Rue de Charonne, Faubourg SaintAntoine, at the door of a doubtful and sinisterlooking

"Goodday, cousin; so now you are to be called Thorec, I suppose? Send none but commissionaires if you

"Trust me! Oh, I am really very lucky!" said the Baron, his face beaming with the prospect of new and future

"No one can find him there," said Lisbeth; and she paid the coach at the Boulevard Beaumarchais, and

On the following day Crevel was announced at the hour when all the family were together in the

drawingroom, just after breakfast. Celestine flew to throw her arms round her father's neck, and behaved as

if she had seen him only the day before, though in fact he had not called there for more than two years.

"Goodmorning, children," said the pompous Crevel. "Madame la Baronne, I throw myself at your feet!

Good Heavens, how the children grow! they are pushing us off the perch'Grandpa,' they say, 'we want

our turn in the sunshine.'Madame la Comtesse, you are as lovely as ever," he went on, addressing

Hortense."Ah, ha! and here is the best of good money: Cousin Betty, the Wise Virgin."

"Why, you are really very comfortable here," said he, after scattering these greetings with a cackle of loud

"My dear Celestine, I will make you a present of all my furniture out of the Rue des Saussayes; it will just do

here. Your drawingroom wants furnishing up.Ha! there is that little rogue Wenceslas. Well, and are we

"That sarcasm, my dear Lisbeth, has lost its sting. I am going, my dear children, to put an end to the false

position in which I have so long been placed; I have come, like a good father, to announce my approaching

"You have a perfect right to marry," said Victorin. "And for my part, I give you back the promise you made

"Not to marry," replied the lawyer. "You will do me the justice to allow that I did not ask you to pledge

yourself, that you gave your word quite voluntarily and in spite of my desire, for I pointed out to you at the

"Yes, I do remember, my dear fellow," said Crevel, ashamed of himself. "But, on my honor, if you will but

live with Madame Crevel, my children, you will find no reason to repent.Your good feeling touches me,

Victorin, and you will find that generosity to me is not unrewarded.Come, by the Poker! welcome your

"Why, it is an open secret," replied Crevel. "Do not let us play at guess who can! Lisbeth must have told

"My dear Monsieur Crevel," replied Lisbeth, "there are certain names we never utter here"

"Monsieur Crevel," said the lawyer very sternly, "neither my wife nor I can be present at that marriage; not

out of interest, for I spoke in all sincerity just now. Yes, I am most happy to think that you may find

happiness in this union; but I act on considerations of honor and good feeling which you must understand,

The Baroness telegraphed a signal to Hortense, who tucked her little one under her arm, saying, "Come

The Baroness also bowed to Crevel without a word; and Crevel could not help smiling at the child's

"You, monsieur," said Victorin, when he found himself alone with Lisbeth, his wife, and his fatherinlaw,

"are about to marry a woman loaded with the spoils of my father; it was she who, in cold blood, brought him

down to such depths; a woman who is the soninlaw's mistress after ruining the fatherinlaw; who is the

cause of constant grief to my sister!And you fancy that I shall seem to sanction your madness by my

presence? I deeply pity you, dear Monsieur Crevel; you have no family feeling; you do not understand the

unity of the honor which binds the members of it together. There is no arguing with passionas I have too

much reason to know. The slaves of their passions are as deaf as they are blind. Your daughter Celestine has

"That would, indeed, be a pretty thing!" cried Crevel, trying to cut short this harangue.

"Celestine would not be my wife if she made the slightest remonstrance," the lawyer went on. "But I, at least,

may try to stop you before you step over the precipice, especially after giving you ample proof of my

disinterestedness. It is not your fortune, it is you that I care about. Nay, to make it quite plain to you, I may

add, if it were only to set your mind at ease with regard to your marriage contract, that I am now in a position

"Thanks to Celestine's fortune," replied Victorin. "And if you regret having given to your daughter as a

present from yourself, a sum which is not half what her mother left her, I can only say that we are prepared to

"And do you not know, my respected soninlaw," said Crevel, striking an attitude, "that under the shelter of

my name Madame Marneffe is not called upon to answer for her conduct excepting as my wifeas Madame

"That is, no doubt, quite the correct thing," said the lawyer; "very generous so far as the affections are

concerned and the vagaries of passion; but I know of no name, nor law, nor title that can shelter the theft of

three hundred thousand francs so meanly wrung from my father!I tell you plainly, my dear fatherinlaw,

your future wife is unworthy of you, she is false to you, and is madly in love with my brotherinlaw,

"Very good," said Hulot; "I am glad for Count Steinbock's sake; he may some day repay the money. But he is

"Loved!" cried Crevel, whose face showed his utter bewilderment. "It is cowardly, and dirty, and mean, and

cheap, to calumniate a woman! When a man says such things, monsieur, he must bring proof."

"By the day after tomorrow, my dear Monsieur Crevel, I shall be able to tell you the day, the hour, the very

"Ah, ha!" said Crevel, "my soninlaw is too clever by half; he is getting on. The Courts and the Chamber,

judicial trickery and political dodges, are making a man of him with a vengeance!So he knows I am to be

married on Wednesday, and on a Sunday my gentleman proposes to fix the hour, within three days, when he

can prove that my wife is unworthy of me. That is a good story!Well, I am going back to sign the contract.

Come with me, Lisbethyes, come. They will never know. I meant to have left Celestine forty thousand

francs a year; but Hulot has just behaved in a way to alienate my affection for ever."

"Give me ten minutes, Pere Crevel; wait for me in your carriage at the gate. I will make some excuse for

"My dears," said Lisbeth, who found all the family reassembled in the drawingroom, "I am going with

Crevel: the marriage contract is to be signed this afternoon, and I shall hear what he has settled. It will

probably be my last visit to that woman. Your father is furious; he will disinherit you"

"His vanity will prevent that," said the soninlaw. "He was bent on owning the estate of Presles, and he will

keep it; I know him. Even if he were to have children, Celestine would still have half of what he might leave;

the law forbids his giving away all his fortune.Still, these questions are nothing to me; I am only thinking

of our honor. Go then, cousin," and he pressed Lisbeth's hand, "and listen carefully to the contract."

Twenty minutes after, Lisbeth and Crevel reached the house in the Rue Barbet, where Madame Marneffe was

awaiting, in mild impatience, the result of a step taken by her commands. Valerie had in the end fallen a prey

to the absorbing love which, once in her life, masters a woman's heart. Wenceslas was its object, and, a

failure as an artist, he became in Madame Marneffe's hands a lover so perfect that he was to her what she had

Valerie was holding a slipper in one hand, and Steinbock clasped the other, while her head rested on his

shoulder. The rambling conversation in which they had been engaged ever since Crevel went out may be

This masterpiece of personal poetry naturally brought a regret to the artist's lips, and he said, not without

"What a pity it is that I married; for if I had but waited, as Lisbeth told me, I might now have married you."

"Who but a Pole would wish to make a wife of a devoted mistress?" cried Valerie. "To change love into duty,

"I know you to be so fickle," replied Steinbock. "Did I not hear you talking to Lisbeth of that Brazilian,

"Let me tell you, my darlingfor I tell you everything," said Valerie "I was saving him up for a

husband.The promises I have made to that man!Oh, long before I knew you," said she, in reply to a

movement from Wenceslas. "And those promises, of which he avails himself to plague me, oblige me to get

married almost secretly; for if he should hear that I am marrying Crevel, he is the sort of man that that

"Oh, as to that!" said Steinbock, with a scornful expression, which conveyed that such a danger was small

And in the matter of valor there is no brag or bravado in a Pole, so thoroughly and seriously brave are they

"And that idiot Crevel," she went on, "who wants to make a great display and indulge his taste for

inexpensive magnificence in honor of the wedding, places me in difficulties from which I see no escape."

Could Valerie confess to this man, whom she adored, that since the discomfiture of Baron Hulot, this Baron

Henri Montes had inherited the privilege of calling on her at all hours of the day or night; and that,

notwithstanding her cleverness, she was still puzzled to find a cause of quarrel in which the Brazilian might

seem to be solely in the wrong? She knew the Baron's almost savage tempernot unlike Lisbeth's too

As the carriage drove up, Steinbock released Valerie, for his arm was round her waist, and took up a

newspaper, in which he was found absorbed. Valerie was stitching with elaborate care at the slippers she was

"How they slander her!" whispered Lisbeth to Crevel, pointing to this picture as they opened the door. "Look

at her hairnot in the least tumbled. To hear Victorin, you might have expected to find two turtle doves in

"My dear Lisbeth," cried Crevel, in his favorite position, "you see that to turn Lucretia into Aspasia, you have

"And have I not always told you," said Lisbeth, "that women like a burly profligate like you?"

"And she would be most ungrateful, too," said Crevel; "for as to the money I have spent here, Grindot and I

In decorating this house, which Crevel regarded as his own, Grindot had tried to compete with Cleretti, in

whose hands the Duc d'Herouville had placed Josepha's villa. But Crevel, incapable of understanding art, had,

like all sordid souls, wanted to spend a certain sum fixed beforehand. Grindot, fettered by a contract, had

The difference between Josepha's house and that in the Rue Barbet was just that between the individual stamp

on things and commonness. The objects you admired at Crevel's were to be bought in any shop. These two

types of luxury are divided by the river Million. A mirror, if unique, is worth six thousand francs; a mirror

will sell at a public auction for three thousand francs; the same thing reproduced by casting may be made for

a thousand or twelve hundred; one is archaeologically what a picture by Raphael is in painting, the other is a

copy. At what would you value a copy of a Raphael? Thus Crevel's mansion was a splendid example of the

"Go and find Monsieur Berthier," said she to the manservant, "and do not return without him. If you had

succeeded," said she, embracing Crevel, "we would have postponed our happiness, my dear Daddy, and have

given a really splendid entertainment; but when a whole family is set against a match, my dear, decency

requires that the wedding shall be a quiet one, especially when the lady is a widow."

"On the contrary, I intend to make a display of magnificence a la Louis XIV.," said Crevel, who of late had

held the eighteenth century rather cheap. "I have ordered new carriages; there is one for monsieur and one for

madame, two neat coupes; and a chaise, a handsome traveling carriage with a splendid hammercloth, on

"Oh, ho! You intend?Then you have ceased to be my lamb?No, no, my friend, you will do what

I intend. We will sign the contract quietlyjust ourselvesthis afternoon. Then, on Wednesday, we will be

regularly married, really married, in mufti, as my poor mother would have said. We will walk to church,

plainly dressed, and have only a low mass. Our witnesses are Stidmann, Steinbock, Vignon, and Massol, all

wideawake men, who will be at the mairie by chance, and who will so far sacrifice themselves as to attend

"Your colleague will perform the civil marriage, for once in a way, as early as halfpast nine. Mass is at ten;

"I have promised our guests that we will sit at table till the evening. There will be Bixiou, your old official

chum du Tillet, Lousteau, Vernisset, Leon de Lora, Vernou, all the wittiest men in Paris, who will not know

that we are married. We will play them a little trick, we will get just a little tipsy, and Lisbeth must join us. I

want her to study matrimony; Bixiou shall make love to her, and and enlighten her darkness."

For two hours Madame Marneffe went on talking nonsense, and Crevel made this judicious reflection:

"How can so lighthearted a creature be utterly depraved? Feather brained, yes! but wicked? Nonsense!"

"Well, and what did the young people say about me?" said Valerie to Crevel at a moment when he sat down

"They will have it that you have a criminal passion for Wenceslas you, who are virtue itself."

"I love him!I should think so, my little Wenceslas!" cried Valerie, calling the artist to her, taking his face

in her hands, and kissing his forehead. "A poor boy with no fortune, and no one to depend on! Cast off by a

carrotty giraffe! What do you expect, Crevel? Wenceslas is my poet, and I love him as if he were my own

child, and make no secret of it. Bah! your virtuous women see evil everywhere and in everything. Bless me,

could they not sit by a man without doing wrong? I am a spoilt child who has had all it ever wanted, and

"Then why did you not stop his mouth, the odious legal macaw! with the story of the two hundred thousand

"They had better take care, Lisbeth," said Madame Marneffe, with a frown. "Either they will receive me and

do it handsomely, and come to their stepmother's houseall the party!or I will see them in lower depths

than the Baron has reached, and you may tell them I said so! At last I shall turn nasty. On my honor, I

At three o'clock Monsieur Berthier, Cardot's successor, read the marriagecontract, after a short conference

with Crevel, for some of the articles were made conditional on the action taken by Monsieur and Madame

Crevel settled on his wife a fortune consisting, in the first place, of forty thousand francs in dividends on

specified securities; secondly, of the house and all its contents; and thirdly, of three million francs not

invested. He also assigned to his wife every benefit allowed by law; he left all the property free of duty; and

in the event of their dying without issue, each devised to the survivor the whole of their property and real

By this arrangement the fortune left to Celestine and her husband was reduced to two millions of francs in

capital. If Crevel and his second wife should have children, Celestine's share was limited to five hundred

thousand francs, as the lifeinterest in the rest was to accrue to Valerie. This would be about the ninth part of

Lisbeth returned to dine in the Rue LouisleGrand, despair written on her face. She explained and bewailed

the terms of the marriage contract, but found Celestine and her husband insensible to the disastrous news.

"You have provoked your father, my children. Madame Marneffe swears that you shall receive Monsieur

Lisbeth was possessed by the wish to crush the haughty attitude assumed by all the Hulots.

"She seems to have arms that she can turn against you," she replied. "I do not know all about it, but I shall

find out. She spoke vaguely of some history of two hundred thousand francs in which Adeline is implicated."

The Baroness fell gently backward on the sofa she was sitting on in a fit of hysterical sobbing.

"Go there, go, my children!" she cried. "Receive the woman! Monsieur Crevel is an infamous wretch. He

deserves the worst punishment imaginable.Do as the woman desires you! She is a monstershe knows

After gasping out these words with tears and sobs, Madame Hulot collected her strength to go to her room,

"I am horrified!" said he, and his face scowled darkly. "Woe to anybody who hurts my mother! I have no

scruples then. I would crush that woman like a viper if I could!What, does she attack my mother's life, my

"She said, but do not repeat it, my dear Victorinshe said you should all fall lower even than your father.

And she scolded Crevel roundly for not having shut your mouths with this secret that seems to be such a

A doctor was sent for, for the Baroness was evidently worse. He gave her a draught containing a large dose of

opium, and Adeline, having swallowed it, fell into a deep sleep; but the whole family were greatly alarmed.

Early next morning Victorin went out, and on his way to the Courts called at the Prefecture of the Police,

where he begged Vautrin, the head of the detective department, to send him Madame de SaintEsteve.

"We are forbidden, monsieur, to meddle in your affairs; but Madame de SaintEsteve is in business, and will

On his return home, the unhappy lawyer was told that his mother's reason was in danger. Doctor Bianchon,

Doctor Larabit, and Professor Angard had met in consultation, and were prepared to apply heroic remedies to

hinder the rush of blood to the head. At the moment when Victorin was listening to Doctor Bianchon, who

was giving him, at some length, his reasons for hoping that the crisis might be got over, the manservant

announced that a client, Madame de SaintEsteve, was waiting to see him. Victorin left Bianchon in the

"Is there any hereditary lunacy in the family?" said Bianchon, addressing Larabit.

The doctors departed, leaving a hospital attendant, instructed by them, to watch Madame Hulot.

"A whole life of virtue!" was the only sentence the sufferer had spoken since the attack.

Lisbeth never left Adeline's bedside; she sat up all night, and was much admired by the two younger women.

"Well, my dear Madame de SaintEsteve," said Victorin, showing the dreadful old woman into his study and

"Ah, ha! my dear friend," said she, looking at Victorin with cold irony. "So you have thought things over?"

"Yes," replied Victorin, "for we must get on. Do you know that by one single phrase that woman has

"Well, could we hoodwink you, you, one of the shining lights of the law?" said she. "For that sum we have

"Well, then," his visitor went on, "we have purchased the honesty of Mademoiselle Reine Tousard, a damsel

"I will play blindfold," he replied. "My mother has told me that that couple deserve the worst torments"

"Your avenger is dressing; the fires are lighted at the Rocher de Cancale; the horses are pawing the ground;

my irons are getting hot. Oh, I know your Madame Marneffe by heart! Everything is ready. And there

are some boluses in the rattrap; I will tell you tomorrow morning if the mouse is poisoned. I believe she

"Well, my son, thou shalt be King. That is to say, you shall come into your inheritance," said the dreadful old

"The consultation is for tomorrow!" said she, with the gracious air of a regular client.

She saw two persons coming, and wished to pass in their eyes a pinchbeck countess.

Baron Montes de Montejanos was a lion, but a lion not accounted for. Fashionable Paris, Paris of the turf and

of the town, admired the ineffable waistcoats of this foreign gentleman, his spotless patent leather boots, his

incomparable sticks, his muchcoveted horses, and the negro servants who rode the horses and who were

His fortune was well known; he had a credit account up to seven hundred thousand francs in the great

banking house of du Tillet; but he was always seen alone. When he went to "first nights," he was in a stall.

He frequented no drawingrooms. He had never given his arm to a girl on the streets. His name would not be

coupled with that of any pretty woman of the world. To pass his time he played whist at the JockeyClub.

The world was reduced to calumny, or, which it thought funnier, to laughing at his peculiarities; he went by

Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Lousteau, Florine, Mademoiselle Heloise Brisetout, and Nathan, supping one evening

with the notorious Carabine, with a large party of lions and lionesses, had invented this name with an

excessively burlesque explanation. Massol, as being on the Council of State, and Claude Vignon, erewhile

Professor of Greek, had related to the ignorant damsels the famous anecdote, preserved in Rollin's Ancient

History, concerning Combabus, that voluntary Abelard who was placed in charge of the wife of a King of

Assyria, Persia, Bactria, Mesopotamia, and other geographical divisions peculiar to old Professor du Bocage,

who continued the work of d'Anville, the creator of the East of antiquity. This nickname, which gave

Carabine's guests laughter for a quarter of an hour, gave rise to a series of overfree jests, to which the

Academy could not award the Montyon prize; but among which the name was taken up, to rest thenceforth on

the curly mane of the handsome Baron, called by Josepha the splendid Brazilianas one might say a

Carabine, the loveliest of her tribe, whose delicate beauty and amusing wit had snatched the sceptre of the

Thirteenth Arrondissement from the hands of Mademoiselle Turquet, better known by the name of

MalagaMademoiselle Seraphine Sinet (this was her real name) was to du Tillet the banker what Josepha

Now, on the morning of the very day when Madame de SaintEsteve had prophesied success to Victorin,

"If you want to be very nice, you will give me a dinner at the Rocher de Cancale and bring Combabus. We

want to know, once for all, whether he has a mistress.I bet that he has, and I should like to win."

"He is still at the Hotel des Princes; I will call," replied du Tillet. "We will have some fun. Ask all the

At halfpast seven that evening, in the handsomest room of the restaurant where all Europe has dined, a

splendid silver service was spread, made on purpose for entertainments where vanity pays the bill in

banknotes. A flood of light fell in ripples on the chased rims; waiters, whom a provincial might have taken

for diplomatists but for their age, stood solemnly, as knowing themselves to be overpaid.

Five guests had arrived, and were waiting for nine more. These were first and foremost Bixiou, still

flourishing in 1843, the salt of every intellectual dish, always supplied with fresh wita phenomenon as rare

in Paris as virtue is; Leon de Lora, the greatest living painter of landscape and the sea who has this great

advantage over all his rivals, that he has never fallen below his first successes. The courtesans could never

dispense with these two kings of ready wit. No supper, no dinner, was possible without them.

Seraphine Sinet, dite Carabine, as the mistress en titre of the Amphitryon, was one of the first to arrive; and

the brilliant lighting showed off her shoulders, unrivaled in Paris, her throat, as round as if turned in a lathe,

without a crease, her saucy face, and dress of satin brocade in two shades of blue, trimmed with Honiton lace

Pretty Jenny Cadine, not acting that evening, came in a dress of incredible splendor; her portrait is too well

known to need any description. A party is always a Longchamps of evening dress for these ladies, each

A third woman, evidently at the initial stage of her career, gazed, almost shamefaced, at the luxury of her two

established and wealthy companions. Simply dressed in white cashmere trimmed with blue, her head had

been dressed with real flowers by a coiffeur of the old fashioned school, whose awkward hands had

unconsciously given the charm of ineptitude to her fair hair. Still unaccustomed to any finery, she showed the

timidityto use a hackneyed phrase inseparable from a first appearance. She had come from Valognes to

find in Paris some use for her distracting youthfulness, her innocence that might have stirred the senses of a

dying man, and her beauty, worthy to hold its own with any that Normandy has ever supplied to the theatres

of the capital. The lines of that unblemished face were the ideal of angelic purity. Her milkwhite skin

reflected the light like a mirror. The delicate pink in her cheeks might have been laid on with a brush. She

was called Cydalise, and, as will be seen, she was an important pawn in the game played by Ma'ame

"Your arm is not a match for your name, my child," said Jenny Cadine, to whom Carabine had introduced

And, in fact, Cydalise displayed to public admiration a fine pair of arms, smooth and satiny, but red with

"Josepha makes me sick with her pictures," said Carabine. "I want some better than hers."

Du Tillet came with the Brazilian, the hero of the feast; the Duc d'Herouville followed with Josepha. The

singer wore a plain velvet gown, but she had on a necklace worth a hundred and twenty thousand francs,

pearls hardly distinguishable from her skin like white camellia petals. She had stuck one scarlet camellia in

her black hair a patchthe effect was dazzling, and she had amused herself by putting eleven rows of

pearls on each arm. As she shook hands with Jenny Cadine, the actress said, "Lend me your mittens!"

"There's style!" said Carabine. "Quite the Duchess! You have robbed the ocean to dress the nymph, Monsieur

The actress took two of the bracelets; she clasped the other twenty on the singer's beautiful arms, which she

Lousteau, the literary cadger, la Palferine and Malaga, Massol, Vauvinet, and Theodore Gaillard, a proprietor

of one of the most important political newspapers, completed the party. The Duc d'Herouville, polite to

everybody, as a fine gentleman knows how to be, greeted the Comte de la Palferine with the particular nod

which, while it does not imply either esteem or intimacy, conveys to all the world, "We are of the same race,

the same bloodequals!"And this greeting, the shibboleth of the aristocracy, was invented to be the

Carabine placed Combabus on her left, and the Duc d'Herouville on her right. Cydalise was next to the

Oysters appeared at seven o'clock; at eight they were drinking iced punch. Every one is familiar with the bill

of fare of such a banquet. By nine o'clock they were talking as people talk after fortytwo bottles of various

wines, drunk by fourteen persons. Dessert was on the table, the odious dessert of the month of April. Of all

the party, the only one affected by the heady atmosphere was Cydalise, who was humming a tune. None of

the party, with the exception of the poor country girl, had lost their reason; the drinkers and the women were

the experienced elite of the society that sups. Their wits were bright, their eyes glistened, but with no loss of

intelligence, though the talk drifted into satire, anecdote, and gossip. Conversation, hitherto confined to the

inevitable circle of racing, horses, hammerings on the Bourse, the different occupations of the

lions themselves, and the scandals of the town, showed a tendency to break up into intimate teteatete, the

And at this stage, at a signal from Carabine to Leon de Lora, Bixiou, la Palferine, and du Tillet, love came

"A doctor in good society never talks of medicine, true nobles never speak of their ancestors, men of genius

do not discuss their works," said Josepha; "why should we talk business? If I got the opera put off in order to

dine here, it was assuredly not to work.So let us change the subject, dear children."

"But we are speaking of real love, my beauty," said Malaga, "of the love that makes a man fling all to the

The slang words, borrowed from the Street Arab, and spoken by these women, may be a poem on their lips,

"You, perhaps, may love me truly," said she in his ear, and she smiled. "But I do not love you in the way they

describe, with such love as makes the world dark in the absence of the man beloved. You are delightful to

me, usefulbut not indispensable; and if you were to throw me over tomorrow, I could have three dukes

"Is true love to be found in Paris?" asked Leon de Lora. "Men have not even time to make a fortune; how can

they give themselves over to true love, which swamps a man as water melts sugar? A man must be

enormously rich to indulge in it, for love annihilates himfor instance, like our Brazilian friend over there.

As I said long ago, 'Extremes defeatthemselves.' A true lover is like an eunuch; women have ceased to

exist for him. He is mystical; he is like the true Christian, an anchorite of the desert!See our noble

Every one at table looked at Henri Montes de Montejanos, who was shy at finding every eye centred on him.

"He has been feeding there for an hour without discovering, any more than an ox at pasture, that he is sitting

next toI will not say, in such company, the loveliestbut the freshest woman in all Paris."

"Everything is fresh here, even the fish; it is what the house is famous for," said Carabine.

"Very good! I drink to your very good health," and bowing to Leon de Lora, he lifted his glass of port wine

"Are you then truly in love?" asked Malaga of her neighbor, thus interpreting his toast.

"To the lady's health then!" said the courtesan, in such a droll tone that Lora, du Tillet, and Bixiou burst out

The Brazilian sat like a bronze statue. This impassibility provoked Carabine. She knew perfectly well that

Montes was devoted to Madame Marneffe, but she had not expected this dogged fidelity, this obstinate

A woman is as often gauged by the attitude of her lover as a man is judged from the tone of his mistress. The

Baron was proud of his attachment to Valerie, and of hers to him; his smile had, to these experienced

connoisseurs, a touch of irony; he was really grand to look upon; wine had not flushed him; and his eyes,

with their peculiar lustre as of tarnished gold, kept the secrets of his soul. Even Carabine said to herself:

"He is a rock!" said Bixiou in an undertone, imagining that the whole thing was a practical joke, and never

While this conversation, apparently so frivolous, was going on at Carabine's right, the discussion of love was

continued on her left between the Duc d'Herouville, Lousteau, Josepha, Jenny Cadine, and Massol. They

were wondering whether such rare phenomena were the result of passion, obstinacy, or affection. Josepha,

"You are talking of what you know nothing about. Is there a man among you who ever loved a womana

woman beneath himenough to squander his fortune and his children's, to sacrifice his future and blight his

past, to risk going to the hulks for robbing the Government, to kill an uncle and a brother, to let his eye be so

effectually blinded that he did not even perceive that it was done to hinder his seeing the abyss into which, as

a crowning jest, he was being driven? Du Tillet has a cashbox under his left breast; Leon de Lora has his

wit; Bixiou would laugh at himself for a fool if he loved any one but himself; Massol has a minister's

portfolio in the place of a heart; Lousteau can have nothing but viscera, since he could endure to be thrown

over by Madame de Baudraye; Monsieur le Duc is too rich to prove his love by his ruin; Vauvinet is not in

itI do not regard a billbroker as one of the human race; and you have never loved, nor I, nor Jenny

Cadine, nor Malaga. For my part, I never but once even saw the phenomenon I have described. It was," and

she turned to Jenny Cadine, "that poor Baron Hulot, whom I am going to advertise for like a lost dog, for I

"Oh, ho!" said Carabine to herself, and looking keenly at Josepha, "then Madame Nourrisson has two pictures

"Poor fellow," said Vauvinet, "he was a great man! Magnificent! And what a figure, what a style, the air of

Francis I.! What a volcano! and how full of ingenious ways of getting money! He must be looking for it now,

wherever he is, and I make no doubt he extracts it even from the walls built of bones that you may see in the

"And all that," said Bixiou, "for that little Madame Marneffe! There is a precious hussy for you!"

These three phrases were like so many pistolshots fired pointblank at Montes. He turned white, and the

"You are a set of blackguards!" cried he. "You have no right to speak the name of an honest woman in the

same breath with those fallen creaturesabove all, not to make it a mark for your slander!"

He was interrupted by unanimous bravos and applause. Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Vauvinet, du Tillet, and

"So, my coppercolored Baron, it is our Valerie that you love; and you are not disgusted?" said Leon de

"But, my most delightful customer," said du Tillet, "you were recommended to me; I am your banker; your

"Well, then," replied du Tillet, "I have the honor to tell you that I am asked to the Crevel wedding."

"Ah, ha! Combabus holds a brief for Madame Marneffe!" said Josepha, rising solemnly.

She went round to Montes with a tragic look, patted him kindly on the head, looked at him for a moment with

"Hulot was the first instance of love through fire and water," said she; "this is the second. But it ought not to

Montes had dropped into his chair again, when Josepha gently touched his forehead, and looked at du Tillet

"If I am the victim of a Paris jest, if you only wanted to get at my secret" and he sent a flashing look

round the table, embracing all the guests in a flaming glance that blazed with the sun of Brazil,"I beg of

you as a favor to tell me so," he went on, in a tone of almost childlike entreaty; "but do not vilify the woman I

"Nay, indeed," said Carabine in a low voice; "but if, on the contrary, you are shamefully betrayed, cheated,

tricked by Valerie, if I should give you the proof in an hour, in my own house, what then?"

"Well, well, say no more!" she replied, smiling. "Do not make yourself a laughingstock for all the wittiest

"Only too many," replied Carabine; "and if the mere suspicion hits you so hard, I fear for your reason."

"Is this creature obstinate, I ask you? He is worse than the late lamented King of Holland!I say, Lousteau,

Bixiou, Massol, all the crew of you, are you not invited to breakfast with Madame Marneffe the day after

"Ya," said du Tillet; "I have the honor of assuring you, Baron, that if you had by any chance thought of

marrying Madame Marneffe, you are thrown out like a bill in Parliament, beaten by a blackball called Crevel.

My friend, my old comrade Crevel, has eighty thousand francs a year; and you, I suppose, did not show such

Montes listened with a halfabsent, halfsmiling expression, which struck them all with terror.

At this moment the headwaiter came to whisper to Carabine that a lady, a relation of hers, was in the

Carabine rose and went out to find Madame Nourrisson, decently veiled with black lace.

"Yes, mother; and the pistol is so fully loaded, that my only fear is that it will burst," said Carabine.

About an hour later, Montes, Cydalise, and Carabine, returning from the Rocher de Cancale, entered

Carabine's little sittingroom in the Rue SaintGeorges. Madame Nourrisson was sitting in an armchair by

"Yes, child, I came in person to fetch my little allowance. You would have forgotten me, though you are

kindhearted, and I have some bills to pay tomorrow. Buying and selling clothes, I am always short of cash.

Who is this at your heels? The gentleman looks very much put out about something."

The dreadful Madame Nourrisson, at this moment so completely disguised as to look like a respectable old

body, rose to embrace Carabine, one of the hundred and odd courtesans she had launched on their horrible

"He is an Othello who is not to be taken in, whom I have the honor of introducing to youMonsieur le

"Oh! I have heard him talked about, and know his name.You are nicknamed Combabus, because you love

but one woman, and in Paris, that is the same as loving no one at all. And is it by chance the object of your

affections who is fretting you? Madame Marneffe, Crevel's woman? I tell you what, my dear sir, you may

bless your stars instead of cursing them. She is a goodfornothing baggage, is that little woman. I know her

"Get along," said Carabine, into whose hand Madame Nourrisson had slipped a note while embracing her,

"you do not know your Brazilians. They are wrongheaded creatures that insist on being impaled through the

heart. The more jealous they are, the more jealous they want to be. Monsieur talks of dealing death all round,

but he will kill nobody because he is in love.However, I have brought him here to give him the proofs of

Carabine went to take off her velvet wrap, and read a facsimile of a note, as follows:

"DEAR PUSS.He dines with Popinot this evening, and will come to fetch me from the Opera at eleven. I

shall go out at about half past five and count on finding you at our paradise. Order dinner to be sent in from

the Maison d'or. Dress, so as to be able to take me to the Opera. We shall have four hours to ourselves.

Return this note to me; not that your Valerie doubts youI would give you my life, my fortune, and my

"Here, Baron, this is the note sent to Count Steinbock this morning; read the address. The original document

Montes turned the note over and over, recognized the writing, and was struck by a rational idea, which is

"And, pray," said he, looking at Carabine, "what object have you in torturing my heart, for you must have

paid very dear for the privilege of having the note in your possession long enough to get it lithographed?"

"Foolish man!" said Carabine, at a nod from Madame Nourrisson, "don't you see that poor child Cydalisea

girl of sixteen, who has been pining for you these three months, till she has lost her appetite for food or drink,

Cydalise put her handkerchief to her eyes with an appearance of emotion"She is furious," Carabine went

on, "though she looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, furious to see the man she adores duped by a

"What, killing?" said old Nourrisson. "No, my son, we don't do that here nowadays."

"Oh!" said Montes, "I am not a native of this country. I live in a parish where I can laugh at your laws; and if

"No," said the Brazilian. "I do not believe in the writing. I must see for myself."

"See!" cried Carabine, taking the hint at once from a gesture of her supposed aunt. "You shall see, my dear

"Will you be good to her? Will you make her a home?" asked Carabine. "A girl of such beauty is well worth a

house and a carriage! It would be a monstrous shame to leave her to walk the streets. And besides she is in

"She is worth all she can get," said the old woman. "The point is that she can find a buyer."

"Listen!" cried Montes, fully aware at last of this masterpiece of womankind "you will show me Valerie"

For the past ten minutes the old woman had been watching the Brazilian; she saw that he was an instrument

tuned up to the murderous pitch she needed; and, above all, so effectually blinded, that he would never heed

"Cydalise, my Brazilian jewel, is my niece, so her concerns are partly mine. All this catastrophe will be the

work of a few minutes, for a friend of mine lets the furnished room to Count Steinbock where Valerie is at

this moment taking coffeea queer sort of coffee, but she calls it her coffee. So let us understand each other,

"You old ostrich," said Montes, the plumes in the woman's bonnet catching his eye, "you interrupted me.If

"To Brazil," replied the Baron. "I will make her my wife. My uncle left me ten leagues square of entailed

estate; that is how I still have that house and home. I have a hundred negroesnothing but negroes and

"Nephew to a niggerdriver," said Carabine, with a grimace. "That needs some consideration.Cydalise,

"Pooh! Carabine, no nonsense," said the old woman. "The deuce is in it! Monsieur and I are doing business."

"If I take up another Frenchwoman, I mean to have her to myself," the Brazilian went on. "I warn you,

mademoiselle, I am king there, and not a constitutional king. I am Czar; my subjects are mine by purchase,

and no one can escape from my kingdom, which is a hundred leagues from any human settlement, hemmed in

by savages on the interior, and divided from the sea by a wilderness as wide as France."

"So thought I," said Montes, "since I sold all my land and possessions at Rio to come back to Madame

"A man does not make such a voyage for nothing," remarked Madame Nourrisson. "You have a right to look

for love for your own sake, particularly being so goodlooking.Oh, he is very handsome!" said she to

"Very handsome, handsomer than the Postillon de Longjumeau," replied the courtesan.

"I came back for Madame Marneffe," the man went on where he had left off, "but you do not know why I

"Well, she had so repeatedly told me that she longed to live with me alone in a desert"

"Oh, ho! he is not a savage after all," cried Carabine, with a shout of laughter. "He is of the highlycivilized

"She had told me this so often," Montes went on, regardless of the courtesan's mockery, "that I had a lovely

house fitted up in the heart of that vast estate. I came back to France to fetch Valerie, and the first evening I

"She told me to wait till that wretched Marneffe was dead; and I agreed, and forgave her for having admitted

the attentions of Hulot. Whether the devil had her in hand I don't know, but from that instant that woman has

humored my every whim, complied with all my demands never for one moment has she given me cause to

"That is supremely clever!" said Carabine to Madame Nourrisson, who nodded in sign of assent.

"My faith in that woman," said Montes, and he shed a tear, "was a match for my love. Just now, I was ready

"And if I am cheated, if she is going to be married, if she is at this moment in Steinbock's arms, she deserves

"And how about the gendarmes, my son?" said Madame Nourrisson, with a smile that made your flesh creep.

"And the police agents, and the judges, and the assizes, and all the setout?" added Carabine.

"You are bragging, my dear fellow," said the old woman, who wanted to know all the Brazilian's schemes of

"I will kill her," he calmly repeated. "You called me a savage.Do you imagine that I am fool enough to go,

like a Frenchman, and buy poison at the chemist's shop?During the time while we were driving her, I

thought out my means of revenge, if you should prove to be right as concerns Valerie. One of my negroes has

the most deadly of animal poisons, and incurable anywhere but in Brazil. I will administer it to Cydalise, who

will give it to me; then by the time when death is a certainty to Crevel and his wife, I shall be beyond the

Azores with your cousin, who will be cured, and I will marry her. We have our own little tricks, we

savages!Cydalise," said he, looking at the country girl, "is the animal I need.How much does she owe?"

"She says littlebut to the purpose," said Carabine, in a low tone to Madame Nourrisson.

"I am going mad!" cried the Brazilian, in a husky voice, dropping on to a sofa. "I shall die of this! But I must

see, for it is impossible! A lithographed note! What is to assure me that it is not a forgery? Baron Hulot

was in love with Valerie?" said he, recalling Josepha's harangue. "Nay; the proof that he did not love is that

she is still aliveI will not leave her living for anybody else, if she is not wholly mine."

Montes was terrible to behold. He bellowed, he stormed; he broke everything he touched; rosewood was as

"How he destroys things!" said Carabine, looking at the old woman. "My good boy," said she, giving the

Brazilian a little slap, "Roland the Furious is very fine in a poem; but in a drawingroom he is prosaic and

"My son," said old Nourrisson, rising to stand in front of the crestfallen Baron, "I am of your way of thinking.

When you love in that way, and are joined 'till death does you part,' life must answer for love. The one who

first goes, carries everything away; it is a general wreck. You command my esteem, my admiration, my

consent, especially for your inoculation, which will make me a Friend of the Negro.But you love her! You

"Well, come now, you are talking too much, it strikes me. A man who means to be avenged, and who says he

has the ways and means of a savage, doesn't do that.If you want to see your 'object' in her paradise, you

must take Cydalise and walk straight in with her on your arm, as if the servant had made a mistake. But no

scandal! If you mean to be revenged, you must eat the leek, seem to be in despair, and allow her to bully

you.Do you see?" said Madame Nourrisson, finding the Brazilian quite amazed by so subtle a scheme.

She signed to Cydalise to go on with Montes, and remained a minute with Carabine.

"Now, child, I have but one fear, and that is that he will strangle her! I should be in a very tight place; we

must do everything gently. I believe you have won your picture by Raphael; but they tell me it is only a

Mignard. Never mind, it is much prettier; all the Raphaels are gone black, I am told, whereas this one is as

"All I want is to crow over Josepha; and it is all the same to me whether I have a Mignard or a

Raphael!That thief had on such pearls this evening!you would sell your soul for them."

Cydalise, Montes, and Madame Nourrisson got into a hackney coach that was waiting at the door. Madame

Nourrisson whispered to the driver the address of a house in the same block as the Italian Opera House,

which they could have reached in five or six minutes from the Rue Saint Georges; but Madame Nourrisson

desired the man to drive along the Rue le Peletier, and to go very slowly, so as to be able to examine the

"Brazilian," said the old woman, "look out for your angel's carriage and servants."

"She has told them to come for her at ten o'clock, and she is gone in a cab to the house where she visits Count

Steinbock. She has dined there, and will come to the Opera in half an hour.It is well contrived!" said

The Brazilian made no reply. He had become the tiger, and had recovered the imperturbable cool ferocity that

had been so striking at dinner. He was as calm as a bankrupt the day after he has stopped payment.

At the door of the house stood a hackney coach with two horses, of the kind known as a Compagnie

"Stay here in the box," said the old woman to Montes. "This is not an open house like a tavern. I will send for

The paradise of Madame Marneffe and Wenceslas was not at all like that of Crevelwho, finding it useless

now, had just sold his to the Comte Maxime de Trailles. This paradise, the paradise of all comers, consisted

of a room on the fourth floor opening to the landing, in a house close to the Italian Opera. On each floor of

this house there was a room which had originally served as the kitchen to the apartments on that floor. But the

house having become a sort of inn, let out for clandestine love affairs at an exorbitant price, the owner, the

real Madame Nourrisson, an oldclothes buyer in the Rue Nueve SaintMarc, had wisely appreciated the

great value of these kitchens, and had turned them into a sort of diningrooms. Each of these rooms, built

between thick partywalls and with windows to the street, was entirely shut in by very thick double doors on

the landing. Thus the most important secrets could be discussed over a dinner, with no risk of being

overheard. For greater security, the windows had shutters inside and out. These rooms, in consequence of this

peculiarity, were let for twelve hundred francs a month. The whole house, full of such paradises and

mysteries was rented by Madame Nourrisson the First for twentyeight thousand francs of clear profit, after

paying her housekeeper, Madame Nourrisson the Second, for she did not manage it herself.

The paradise let to Count Steinbock had been hung with chintz; the cold, hard floor, of common tiles

reddened with encaustic, was not felt through a soft thick carpet. The furniture consisted of two pretty chairs

and a bed in an alcove, just now half hidden by a table loaded with the remains of an elegant dinner, while

two bottles with long necks and an empty champagnebottle in ice strewed the field of bacchus cultivated by

There were alsothe property, no doubt, of Valeriea low easychair and a man's smokingchair, and a

pretty toilet chest of drawers in rosewood, the mirror handsomely framed a la Pompadour. A lamp hanging

from the ceiling gave a subdued light, increased by wax candles on the table and on the chimneyshelf.

This sketch will suffice to give an idea, urbi et orbi, of clandestine passion in the squalid style stamped on it

in Paris in 1840. How far, alas! from the adulterous love, symbolized by Vulcan's nets, three thousand years

When Montes and Cydalise came upstairs, Valerie, standing before the fire, where a log was blazing, was

This is a moment when a woman who is neither too fat nor too thin, but like Valerie, elegant and slender,

displays divine beauty. The rosy skin, mostly soft, invites the sleepiest eye. The lines of her figure, so little

hidden, are so charmingly outlined by the white pleats of the shift and the support of the stays, that she is

With a happy face smiling at the glass, a foot impatiently marking time, a hand put up to restore order among

the tumbled curls, and eyes expressive of gratitude; with the glow of satisfaction which, like a sunset, warms

the least details of the countenanceeverything makes such a moment a mine of memories.

Any man who dares look back on the early errors of his life may, perhaps, recall some such reminiscences,

and understand, though not excuse, the follies of Hulot and Crevel. Women are so well aware of their power

at such a moment, that they find in it what may be called the aftermath of the meeting.

"Come, come; after two years' practice, you do not yet know how to lace a woman's stays! You are too much

At this very moment, a mischievous waitingwoman, by inserting a knife, pushed up the hook of the double

doors that formed the whole security of Adam and Eve. She hastily pulled the door openfor the servants of

these dens have little time to wasteand discovered one of the bewitching tableaux de genre which Gavarni

"But there is some one here.Excuse me, madame," said the country girl, in alarm.

Madame Marneffe, too genuinely agitated to dissemble her feelings, dropped on to the chair by the fireplace.

Two tears rose to her eyes, and at once dried away. She looked at Montes, saw the girl, and burst into a

cackle of forced laughter. The dignity of the insulted woman redeemed the scantiness of her attire; she

walked close up to the Brazilian, and looked at him so defiantly that her eyes glittered like knives.

"So that," said she, standing face to face with the Baron, and pointing to Cydalise"that is the other side of

your fidelity? You, who have made me promises that might convert a disbeliever in love! You, for whom I

have done so muchhave even committed crimes!You are right, monsieur, I am not to compare with a

"I know what you are going to say," she went on, looking at Wenceslas, whose undress was proof too clear to

be denied. "This is my concern. If I could love you after such gross treacheryfor you have spied upon me,

you have paid for every step up these stairs, paid the mistress of the house, and the servant, perhaps even

Reinea noble deed!If I had any remnant of affection for such a mean wretch, I could give him reasons

that would renew his passion!But I leave you, monsieur, to your doubts, which will become

She took her dress and put it on, looked at herself in the glass, and finished dressing without heeding the

She had been watching Montes in the glass and out of the corner of her eye, and fancied she could see in his

pallor an indication of the weakness which delivers a strong man over to a woman's fascinations; she now

took his hand, going so close to him that he could not help inhaling the terrible perfumes which men love,

and by which they intoxicate themselves; then, feeling his pulses beat high, she looked at him reproachfully.

"You have my full permission to go and tell your history to Monsieur Crevel; he will never believe you. I

have a perfect right to marry him, and he becomes my husband the day after tomorrow.I shall make him

"Oh! Valerie," cried Henri Montes, clasping her in his arms, "that is impossible!Come to Brazil!"

"Well, if you still love me, Henri, two years hence I will be your wife; but your expression at this moment

"I swear to you that they made me drink, that false friends threw this girl on my hands, and that the whole

"Eighty thousand francs a year!" said she, with almost comical enthusiasm. "And Crevel loves me so much

"I have no scruples," thought the Baron, standing transfixed for a few minutes. "What! That woman believes

she can make use of his passion to be quit of that dolt, as she counted on Marneffe's decease!I shall be the

Two days later those of du Tillet's guests who had demolished Madame Marneffe tooth and nail, were seated

round her table an hour after she has shed her skin and changed her name for the illustrious name of a Paris

Valerie had had the satisfaction of seeing the Brazilian in the church; for Crevel, now so entirely the husband,

had invited him out of bravado. And the Baron's presence at the breakfast astonished no one. All these men of

wit and of the world were familiar with the meanness of passion, the compromises of pleasure.

Steinbock's deep melancholyfor he was beginning to despise the woman whom he had adored as an

angelwas considered to be in excellent taste. The Pole thus seemed to convey that all was at an end

between Valerie and himself. Lisbeth came to embrace her dear Madame Crevel, and to excuse herself for not

"Be quite easy," said she to Valerie, "they will call on you, and you will call on them. Simply hearing the

words two hundred thousand francs has brought the Baroness to death's door. Oh, you have them all hard and

Within a month of her marriage, Valerie was at her tenth quarrel with Steinbock; he insisted on explanations

as to Henri Montes, reminding her of the words spoken in their paradise; and, not content with speaking to

her in terms of scorn, he watched her so closely that she never had a moment of liberty, so much was she

Bereft now of Lisbeth, whose advice had always been so valuable she flew into such a rage as to reproach

Wenceslas for the money she had lent him. This so effectually roused Steinbock's pride, that he came no

more to the Crevels' house. So Valerie had gained her point, which was to be rid of him for a time, and enjoy

some freedom. She waited till Crevel should make a little journey into the country to see Comte Popinot, with

a view to arranging for her introduction to the Countess, and was then able to make an appointment to meet

the Baron, whom she wanted to have at her command for a whole day to give him those "reasons" which

On the morning of that day, Reine, who estimated the magnitude of her crime by that of the bribe she

received, tried to warn her mistress, in whom she naturally took more interest than in strangers. Still, as she

had been threatened with madness, and ending her days in the Salpetriere in case of indiscretion, she was

"Madame, you are so well off now," said she. "Why take on again with that Brazilian?I do not trust him at

"Oh, madame, I am glad to hear it; he frightens me, does that big Moor! I believe him to be capable of

"My dear little pet Nanny, what an age since we met!" cried Valerie. "I am so unhappy! Crevel bores me to

"I know," said Lisbeth, "and that is what brings me here. Victorin met him at about five in the afternoon

going into an eatinghouse at five andtwenty sous, and he brought him home, hungry, by working on his

feelings, to the Rue LouisleGrand.Hortense, seeing Wenceslas lean and ill and badly dressed, held out

"Leave me now, Lisbeth; I will explain it all tomorrow." But, as will be seen, Valerie was ere long not in a

Towards the end of May, Baron Hulot's pension was released by Victorin's regular payment to Baron

Nucingen. As everybody knows, pensions are paid halfyearly, and only on the presentation of a certificate

that the recipient is alive: and as Hulot's residence was unknown, the arrears unpaid on Vauvinet's demand

remained to his credit in the Treasury. Vauvinet now signed his renunciation of any further claims, and it was

Thanks to Bianchon's care, the Baroness had recovered her health; and to this Josepha's good heart had

contributed by a letter, of which the orthography betrayed the collaboration of the Duc d'Herouville. This was

"MADAME LA BARONNE,Monsieur Hulot was living, two months since, in the Rue des Bernardins,

with Elodie Chardin, a lacemender, for whom he had left Mademoiselle Bijou; but he went away without a

word, leaving everything behind him, and no one knows where he went. I am not without hope, however, and

I have put a man on this track who believes he has already seen him in the Boulevard Bourdon.

"The poor Jewess means to keep the promise she made to the Christian. Will the angel pray for the devil?

That must sometimes happen in heaven.I remain, with the deepest respect, always your humble servant,

The lawyer, Maitre Hulot d'Ervy, hearing no more of the dreadful Madame Nourrisson, seeing his

fatherinlaw married, having brought back his brotherinlaw to the family fold, suffering from no

importunity on the part of his new stepmother, and seeing his mother's health improve daily, gave himself up

to his political and judicial duties, swept along by the tide of Paris life, in which the hours count for days.

One night, towards the end of the session, having occasion to write up a report to the Chamber of Deputies,

he was obliged to sit at work till late at night. He had gone into his study at nine o'clock, and, while waiting

till the manservant should bring in the candles with green shades, his thoughts turned to his father. He was

blaming himself for leaving the inquiry so much to the singer, and had resolved to see Monsieur Chapuzot

himself on the morrow, when he saw in the twilight, outside the window, a handsome old head, bald and

"Would you please to give orders, sir, that a poor hermit is to be admitted, just come from the Desert, and

This apparition, which suddenly reminded the lawyer of a prophecy uttered by the terrible Nourrisson, gave

"He will poison the place, sir," replied the man. "He has on a brown gown which he has never changed since

The old man came in. Victorin's keen eye examined this socalled pilgrim hermit, and he saw a fine

specimen of the Neapolitan friars, whose frocks are akin to the rags of the lazzaroni, whose sandals are tatters

of leather, as the friars are tatters of humanity. The getup was so perfect that the lawyer, though still on his

guard, was vexed with himself for having believed it to be one of Madame Nourrisson's tricks.

Victorin took a fivefranc piece from a little pile on his table, and handed it to the stranger.

"That is not much on account of fifty thousand francs," said the pilgrim of the desert.

"The question is an offence, my son," said the hermit. "If you do not choose to pay till after the funeral, you

"The world moves on," said the old man, as he withdrew, "and the dead move quickly in Paris!"

When Hulot, who stood looking down, was about to reply, the stalwart old man had vanished.

"I don't understand one word of all this," said Victorin to himself. "But at the end of the week I will ask him

again about my father, if we have not yet found him. Where does Madame Nourrissonyes, that was her

On the following day, Doctor Bianchon allowed the Baroness to go down into the garden, after examining

Lisbeth, who had been obliged to keep to her room for a month by a slight bronchial attack. The learned

doctor, who dared not pronounce a definite opinion on Lisbeth's case till he had seen some decisive

symptoms, went into the garden with Adeline to observe the effect of the fresh air on her nervous trembling

after two months of seclusion. He was interested and allured by the hope of curing this nervous complaint.

On seeing the great physician sitting with them and sparing them a few minutes, the Baroness and her family

"You life is a very full and a very sad one," said Madame Hulot. "I know what it is to spend one's days in

"I know, madame," replied the doctor, "all the scenes of which charity compels you to be a spectator; but you

will get used to it in time, as we all do. It is the law of existence. The confessor, the magistrate, the lawyer

would find life unendurable if the spirit of the State did not assert itself above the feelings of the individual.

Could we live at all but for that? Is not the soldier in time of war brought face to face with spectacles even

more dreadful than those we see? And every soldier that has been under fire is kindhearted. We medical

men have the pleasure now and again of a successful cure, as you have that of saving a family from the

horrors of hunger, depravity, or misery, and of restoring it to social respectability. But what comfort can the

magistrate find, the police agent, or the attorney, who spend their lives in investigating the basest schemes of

selfinterest, the social monster whose only regret is when it fails, but on whom repentance never dawns?

"Onehalf of society spends its life in watching the other half. A very old friend of mine is an attorney, now

retired, who told me that for fifteen years past notaries and lawyers have distrusted their clients quite as much

as their adversaries. Your son is a pleader; has he never found himself compromised by the client for whom

"The decay of religion," said Bianchon, "and the preeminence of finance, which is simply solidified

selfishness. Money used not to be everything; there were some kinds of superiority that ranked above it

nobility, genius, service done to the State. But nowadays the law takes wealth as the universal standard,

and regards it as the measure of public capacity. Certain magistrates are ineligible to the Chamber;

JeanJacques Rousseau would be ineligible! The perpetual subdivision of estate compels every man to take

"Well, then, between the necessity for making a fortune and the depravity of speculation there is no check or

hindrance; for the religious sense is wholly lacking in France, in spite of the laudable endeavors of those who

are working for a Catholic revival. And this is the opinion of every man who, like me, studies society at the

"The true physician, madame, is in love with his science," replied the doctor. "He is sustained by that passion

"At this very time you see in me a sort of scientific rapture, and many superficial judges would regard me as a

man devoid of feeling. I have to announce a discovery tomorrow to the College of Medicine, for I am

studying a disease that had disappeareda mortal disease for which no cure is known in temperate climates,

though it is curable in the West Indiesa malady known here in the Middle Ages. A noble fight is that of the

physician against such a disease. For the last ten days I have thought of nothing but these casesfor there are

two, a husband and wife.Are they not connections of yours? For you, madame, are surely Monsieur

"What, is my father your patient?" asked Celestine. "Living in the Rue BarbetdeJouy?"

"I positively forbid it, madame," Bianchon quietly said. "The disease is contagious."

"But you go there, monsieur," replied the young woman. "Do you think that a daughter's duty is less binding

"Madame, a physician knows how to protect himself against infection, and the rashness of your devotion

"Monsieur," said Victorin to Bianchon, "have you any hope of saving Monsieur and Madame Crevel?"

"I hope, but I do not believe that I may," said Bianchon. "The case is to me quite inexplicable. The disease is

peculiar to negroes and the American tribes, whose skin is differently constituted to that of the white races.

Now I can trace no connection with the coppercolored tribes, with negroes or halfcastes, in Monsieur or

"And though it is a very interesting disease to us, it is a terrible thing for the sufferers. The poor woman, who

is said to have been very pretty, is punished for her sins, for she is now squalidly hideous if she is still

anything at all. She is losing her hair and teeth, her skin is like a leper's, she is a horror to herself; her hands

are horrible, covered with greenish pustules, her nails are loose, and the flesh is eaten away by the poisoned

"Oh!" said the doctor, "the cause lies in a form of rapid blood poisoning; it degenerates with terrific rapidity.

I hope to act on the blood; I am having it analyzed; and I am now going home to ascertain the result of the

labors of my friend Professor Duval, the famous chemist, with a view to trying one of those desperate

"The hand of God is there!" said Adeline, in a voice husky with emotion. "Though that woman has brought

sorrows on me which have led me in moments of madness to invoke the vengeance of Heaven, I hope God

Victorin felt dizzy. He looked at his mother, his sister, and the physician by turns, quaking lest they should

"If you insist on going, madame, and you too, monsieur, keep at least a foot between you and the bed of the

sufferer, that is the chief precaution. Neither you nor your wife must dream of kissing the dying man. And,

indeed, you ought to go with your wife, Monsieur Hulot, to hinder her from disobeying my injunctions."

Adeline and Hortense, when they were left alone, went to sit with Lisbeth. Hortense had such a virulent

"Cousin Lisbeth," she exclaimed, "my mother and I are avenged! that venomous snake is herself bittenshe

"Hortense, at this moment you are not a Christian. You ought to pray to God to vouchsafe repentance to this

"What are you talking about?" said Betty, rising from her couch. "Are you speaking of Valerie?"

"Yes," replied Adeline; "she is past hopedying of some horrible disease of which the mere description

Lisbeth's teeth chattered, a cold sweat broke out all over her; the violence of the shock showed how

"I do not careI must go!Poor Crevel! what a state he must be in; for he loves that woman."

"He is dying too," replied Countess Steinbock. "Ah! all our enemies are in the devil's clutches"

Lisbeth dressed in the famous yellow Indian shawl and her black velvet bonnet, and put on her boots; in spite

of her relations' remonstrances, she set out as if driven by some irresistible power.

She arrived in the Rue Barbet a few minutes after Monsieur and Madame Hulot, and found seven physicians

there, brought by Bianchon to study this unique case; he had just joined them. The physicians, assembled in

the drawingroom, were discussing the disease; now one and now another went into Valerie's room or

Crevel's to take a note, and returned with an opinion based on this rapid study.

These princes of science were divided in their opinions. One, who stood alone in his views, considered it a

case of poisoning, of private revenge, and denied its identity with the disease known in the Middle Ages.

Three others regarded it as a specific deterioration of the blood and the humors. The rest, agreeing with

Bianchon, maintained that the blood was poisoned by some hitherto unknown morbid infection. Bianchon

produced Professor Duval's analysis of the blood. The remedies to be applied, though absolutely empirical

Lisbeth stood as if petrified three yards away from the bed where Valerie lay dying, as she saw a priest from

SaintThomas d'Aquin standing by her friend's pillow, and a sister of charity in attendance. Religion could

find a soul to save in a mass of rottenness which, of the five senses of man, had now only that of sight. The

sister of charity who alone had been found to nurse Valerie stood apart. Thus the Catholic religion, that

divine institution, always actuated by the spirit of selfsacrifice, under its twofold aspect of the Spirit and the

Flesh, was tending this horrible and atrocious creature, soothing her deathbed by its infinite benevolence

The servants, in horror, refused to go into the room of either their master or mistress; they thought only of

themselves, and judged their betters as righteously stricken. The smell was so foul that in spite of open

windows and strong perfumes, no one could remain long in Valerie's room. Religion alone kept guard there.

How could a woman so clever as Valerie fail to ask herself to what end these two representatives of the

Church remained with her? The dying woman had listened to the words of the priest. Repentance had risen on

her darkened soul as the devouring malady had consumed her beauty. The fragile Valerie had been less able

to resist the inroads of the disease than Crevel; she would be the first to succumb, and, indeed, had been the

"If I had not been ill myself, I would have come to nurse you," said Lisbeth at last, after a glance at her

friend's sunken eyes. "I have kept my room this fortnight or three weeks; but when I heard of your state from

"Poor Lisbeth, you at least love me still, I see!" said Valerie. "Listen. I have only a day or two left to think,

for I cannot say to live. You see, there is nothing left of meI am a heap of mud! They will not let me see

myself in a glass.Well, it is no more than I deserve. Oh, if I might only win mercy, I would gladly undo all

"Do not hinder this woman's repentance, leave her in her Christian mind," said the priest.

"There is nothing left!" said Lisbeth in consternation. "I cannot recognize her eyes or her mouth! Not a

"You don't know," said Valerie, "what death is; what it is to be obliged to think of the morrow of your last

day on earth, and of what is to be found in the grave.Worms for the bodyand for the soul,

what?Lisbeth, I know there is another life! And I am given over to terrors which prevent my feeling the

pangs of my decomposing body.I, who could laugh at a saint, and say to Crevel that the vengeance of God

took every form of disaster. Well, I was a true prophet.Do not trifle with sacred things, Lisbeth; if you

"I!" said Lisbeth. "I see vengeance wherever I turn in nature; insects even die to satisfy the craving for

revenge when they are attacked. And do not these gentlemen tell us"and she looked at the priest "that

"And where did you get this gangrene?" asked the old maid, unmoved from her peasant incredulity.

"I had a letter from Henri which leaves me in no doubt as to my fate. He has murdered me. Andjust when I

"Lisbeth, give up all notions of revenge. Be kind to that family to whom I have left by my will everything I

can dispose of. Go, child, though you are the only creature who, at this hour, does not avoid me with

horrorgo, I beseech you, and leave me.I have only time to make my peace with God!"

The strongest affection known, that of a woman for a woman, had not such heroic constancy as the Church.

Lisbeth, stifled by the miasma, went away. She found the physicians still in consultation. But Bianchon's

"At any rate, we shall have a splendid postmortem," said one of his opponents, "and there will be two cases

Lisbeth went in again with Bianchon, who went up to the sick woman without seeming aware of the

"I know your possibly," said Valerie. "I shall look like a woman who has fallen into the fire! No, leave me to

the Church. I can please no one now but God. I will try to be reconciled to Him, and that will be my last

"That is my poor Valerie's last jest; that is all herself!" said Lisbeth in tears.

Lisbeth thought it her duty to go into Crevel's room, where she found Victorin and his wife sitting about a

"Lisbeth," said he, "they will not tell me what state my wife is in; you have just seen herhow is she?"

"She is better; she says she is saved," replied Lisbeth, allowing herself this play on the word to soothe

"That is well," said the Mayor. "I feared lest I had been the cause of her illness. A man is not a traveler in

perfumery for nothing; I had blamed myself.If I should lose her, what would become of me? On my honor,

"Oh, Papa!" cried Celestine, "if only you could be well again, I would make friends with my stepmotherI

"You do not know, perhaps," said the lawyer gently, "that your disease is contagious, monsieur."

"To be sure," replied Crevel. "And the doctors are quite proud of having rediscovered in me some long lost

plague of the Middle Ages, which the Faculty has had cried like lost propertyit is very funny!"

"Papa," said Celestine, "be brave, and you will get the better of this disease."

"Be quite easy, my children; Death thinks twice of it before carrying off a Mayor of Paris," said he, with

monstrous composure. "And if, after all, my district is so unfortunate as to lose a man it has twice honored

with its suffragesyou see, what a flow of words I have! Well, I shall know how to pack up and go. I

have been a commercial traveler; I am experienced in such matters. Ah! my children, I am a man of strong

"Never," replied Crevel. "What is to be said? I drank the milk of Revolution; I have not Baron Holbach's wit,

but I have his strength of mind. I am more Regence than ever, more Musketeer, Abbe Dubois, and Marechal

de Richelieu! By the Holy Poker!My wife, who is wandering in her head, has just sent me a man in a

gownto me! the admirer of Beranger, the friend of Lisette, the son of Voltaire and Rousseau. The

doctor, to feel my pulse, as it were, and see if sickness had subdued me'You saw Monsieur l'Abbe?' said

he.Well, I imitated the great Montesquieu. Yes, I looked at the doctorsee, like this," and he turned to

show threequarters face, like his portrait, and extended his hand authoritatively"and I said:

"His order is a pretty jest, showing that even in death Monsieur le President de Montesquieu preserved his

elegant wit, for they had sent him a Jesuit. I admire that passageI cannot say of his life, but of his

deaththe passageanother joke!The passage from life to death the Passage Montesquieu!"

Victorin gazed sadly at his fatherinlaw, wondering whether folly and vanity were not forces on a par with

true greatness of soul. The causes that act on the springs of the soul seem to be quite independent of the

results. Can it be that the fortitude which upholds a great criminal is the same as that which a Champcenetz so

By the end of the week Madame Crevel was buried, after dreadful sufferings; and Crevel followed her within

On the very day after the funeral, the friar called again on the lawyer, who received him in perfect silence.

The monk held out his hand without a word, and without a word Victorin Hulot gave him eighty

Young Madame Hulot inherited the estate of Presles and thirty thousand francs a year.

Madame Crevel had bequeathed a sum of three hundred thousand francs to Baron Hulot. Her scrofulous boy

Stanislas was to inherit, at his majority, the Hotel Crevel and eighty thousand francs a year.

Among the many noble associations founded in Paris by Catholic charity, there is one, originated by Madame

de la Chanterie, for promoting civil and religious marriages between persons who have formed a voluntary

but illicit union. Legislators, who draw large revenues from the registration fees, and the Bourgeois dynasty,

which benefits by the notary's profits, affect to overlook the fact that threefourths of the poorer class cannot

afford fifteen francs for the marriagecontract. The pleaders, a sufficiently vilified body, gratuitously defend

the cases of the indigent, while the notaries have not as yet agreed to charge nothing for the

marriagecontract of the poor. As to the revenue collectors, the whole machinery of Government would have

to be dislocated to induce the authorities to relax their demands. The registrar's office is deaf and dumb.

Then the Church, too, receives a duty on marriages. In France the Church depends largely on such revenues;

even in the House of God it traffics in chairs and kneeling stools in a way that offends foreigners; though it

cannot have forgotten the anger of the Saviour who drove the moneychangers out of the Temple. If the

Church is so loath to relinquish its dues, it must be supposed that these dues, known as Vestry dues, are one

of its sources of maintenance, and then the fault of the Church is the fault of the State.

The cooperation of these conditions, at a time when charity is too greatly concerned with the negroes and

the petty offenders discharged from prison to trouble itself about honest folks in difficulties, results in the

existence of a number of decent couples who have never been legally married for lack of thirty francs, the

lowest figure for which the Notary, the Registrar, the Mayor and the Church will unite two citizens of Paris.

Madame de la Chanterie's fund, founded to restore poor households to their religious and legal status, hunts

up such couples, and with all the more success because it helps them in their poverty before attacking their

As soon as Madame Hulot had recovered, she returned to her occupations. And then it was that the admirable

Madame de la Chanterie came to beg that Adeline would add the legalization of these voluntary unions to the

One of the Baroness' first efforts in this cause was made in the ominouslooking district, formerly known as

la Petite PologneLittle Polandbounded by the Rue du Rocher, Rue de la Pepiniere, and Rue de

Miromenil. There exists there a sort of offshoot of the Faubourg SaintMarceau. To give an idea of this part

of the town, it is enough to say that the landlords of some of the houses tenanted by working men without

work, by dangerous characters, and by the very poor employed in unhealthy toil, dare not demand their rents,

and can find no bailiffs bold enough to evict insolvent lodgers. At the present time speculating builders, who

are fast changing the aspect of this corner of Paris, and covering the waste ground lying between the Rue

d'Amsterdam and the Rue FaubourgduRoule, will no doubt alter the character of the inhabitants; for the

trowel is a more civilizing agent than is generally supposed. By erecting substantial and handsome houses,

with porters at the doors, by bordering the streets with footwalks and shops, speculation, while raising the

rents, disperses the squalid class, families bereft of furniture, and lodgers that cannot pay. And so these

districts are cleared of such objectionable residents, and the dens vanish into which the police never venture

In June 1844, the purlieus of the Place de Laborde were still far from inviting. The genteel pedestrian, who by

chance should turn out of the Rue de la Pepiniere into one of those dreadful sidestreets, would have been

dismayed to see how vile a bohemia dwelt cheek by jowl with the aristocracy. In such places as these,

haunted by ignorant poverty and misery driven to bay, flourish the last public letterwriters who are to be

found in Paris. Wherever you see the two words "Ecrivain Public" written in a fine copy hand on a sheet of

letterpaper stuck to the window pane of some low entresol or mudsplashed groundfloor room, you may

safely conclude that the neighborhood is the lurking place of many unlettered folks, and of much vice and

crime, the outcome of misery; for ignorance is the mother of all sorts of crime. A crime is, in the first

While the Baroness had been ill, this quarter, to which she was a minor Providence, had seen the advent of a

public writer who settled in the Passage du SoleilSun Alleya spot of which the name is one of the

antitheses dear to the Parisian, for the passage is especially dark. This writer, supposed to be a German, was

named Vyder, and he lived on matrimonial terms with a young creature of whom he was so jealous that he

never allowed her to go anywhere excepting to some honest stove and fluefitters, in the Rue SaintLazare,

Italians, as such fitters always are, but long since established in Paris. These people had been saved from a

bankruptcy, which would have reduced them to misery, by the Baroness, acting in behalf of Madame de la

Chanterie. In a few months comfort had taken the place of poverty, and Religion had found a home in hearts

which once had cursed Heaven with the energy peculiar to Italian stovefitters. So one of Madame Hulot's

She was pleased at the scene that presented itself to her eyes at the back of the house where these worthy

folks lived in the Rue Saint Lazare, not far from the Rue du Rocher. High above the stores and workshops,

now well filled, where toiled a swarm of apprentices and workmenall Italians from the valley of Domo

d'Ossolathe master's family occupied a set of rooms, which hard work had blessed with abundance. The

After a quarter of an hour's questioning, Adeline, having to wait for the father to inquire how his business

was prospering, pursued her saintly calling as a spy by asking whether they knew of any families needing

"Ah, dear lady, you who could save the damned from hell!" said the Italian wife, "there is a girl quite near

"She is the granddaughter of a master my husband formerly worked for, who came to France in 1798, after

the Revolution, by name Judici. Old Judici, in Napoleon's time, was one of the principal stovefitters in

Paris; he died in 1819, leaving his son a fine fortune. But the younger Judici wasted all his money on bad

women; till, at last, he married one who was sharper than the rest, and she had this poor little girl, who is just

"And what is wrong with her?" asked Adeline, struck by the resemblance between this Judici and her

"Well, madame, this child, named Atala, ran away from her father, and came to live close by here with an old

German of eighty at least, named Vyder, who does odd jobs for people who cannot read and write. Now, if

this old sinner, who bought the child of her mother, they say for fifteen hundred francs, would but marry her,

as he certainly has not long to live, and as he is said to have some few thousand of francs a yearwell, the

poor thing, who is a sweet little angel, would be out of mischief, and above want, which must be the ruin of

"Thank you very much for the information. I may do some good, but I must act with caution.Who is the

"Oh! madame, he is a good old fellow; he makes the child very happy, and he has some sense too, for he left

the part of town where the Judicis live, as I believe, to snatch the child from her mother's clutches. The

mother was jealous of her, and I dare say she thought she could make money out of her beauty and make a

"Atala remembered us, and advised her gentleman to settle near us; and as the good man sees how decent we

are, he allows her to come here. But get them married, madame, and you will do an action worthy of you.

Once married, the child will be independent and free from her mother, who keeps an eye on her, and who, if

she could make money by her, would like to see her on the stage, or successful in the wicked life she meant

"There was no necessity for it, you see," said the Italian. "And though old Vyder is not a bad old fellow, I

fancy he is sharp enough to wish to remain the master, while if he once got marriedwhy, the poor man is

"Could you send for the girl to come here?" said Madame Hulot. "I should see her quietly, and find out what

The stovefitter's wife signed to her eldest girl, who ran off. Ten minutes later she returned, leading by the

hand a child of fifteen and a half, a beauty of the Italian type. Mademoiselle Judici inherited from her father

that ivory skin which, rather yellow by day, is by artificial light of lilywhiteness; eyes of Oriental beauty,

form, and brilliancy, close curling lashes like black feathers, hair of ebony hue, and that native dignity of the

Lombard race which makes the foreigner, as he walks through Milan on a Sunday, fancy that every porter's

Atala, told by the stovefitter's daughter that she was to meet the great lady of whom she had heard so much,

had hastily dressed in a black silk gown, a smart little cape, and neat boots. A cap with a cherrycolored bow

added to the brilliant effect of her coloring. The child stood in an attitude of artless curiosity, studying the

Baroness out of the corner of her eye, for her palsied trembling puzzled her greatly.

Adeline sighed deeply as she saw this jewel of womanhood in the mire of prostitution, and determined to

"Did your parents ever take you to church? Have you been to your first Communion? Do you know your

"Madame, papa wanted to make me do something of the kind you speak of, but mamma would not have it"

"She was always beating me. I don't know why, but I was always being quarreled over by my father and

"Oh, yes, papa and mamma often said 'Good God,' and 'In God's name,' and 'God's thunder,' " said she, with

"A church?NotreDame, the Pantheon?I have seen them from a distance, when papa took me into town;

The inhabitants of the Faubourg SaintAntoine never call that notorious district other than the Faubourg. To

them it is the one and only Faubourg; and manufacturers generally understand the words as meaning the

"But did you not know that it was very wicked to run away from your father and mother to go to live with an

"There are a great many like her in the Faubourg, madame," said the stovefitter's wife.

"But she knows nothingnot even what is wrong. Good Heavens!Why do you not answer me?" said

"You are an old fool!" said she. "Why, my father and mother had had nothing to eat for a week. My mother

wanted me to do much worse than that, I think, for my father thrashed her and called her a thief! However,

Monsieur Vyder paid all their debts, and gave them some money oh, a bagful! And he brought me away,

"Fond of him?" said she. "I should think so! He tells me beautiful stories, madame, every evening; and he has

given me nice gowns, and linen, and a shawl. Why, I am figged out like a princess, and I never wear sabots

now. And then, I have not known what it is to be hungry these two months past. And I don't live on potatoes

now. He brings me bonbons and burnt almonds, and chocolate almonds.Aren't they good? I do anything

he pleases for a bag of chocolate.Then my old Daddy is very kind; he takes such care of me, and is so nice;

I know now what my mother ought to have been.He is going to get an old woman to help me, for he

doesn't like me to dirty my hands with cooking. For the past month, too, he has been making a little money,

and he gives me three francs every evening that I put into a moneybox. Only he will never let me out except

to come hereand he calls me his little kitten! Mamma never called me anything but bad namesand thief,

"But he is, madame," said the girl, looking at Adeline with calm pride, without a blush, her brow smooth, her

eyes steady. "He told me that I was his little wife; but it is a horrid bore to be a man's wife if it were not for

"Good Heaven!" said the Baroness to herself, "what monster can have had the heart to betray such perfect,

such holy innocence? To restore this child to the ways of virtue would surely atone for many sins.I knew

what I was doing." thought she, remembering the scene with Crevel. "But sheshe knows nothing."

"You have nothing to fear from this lady," said the Italian woman. "She is an angel."

"It is because my good old boy is afraid of being caught by Samanon. He is hiding, and I wish he could be

"Yes, and No," replied Madame Hulot. "I am rich for dear little girls like you when they are willing to be

"Look at madame," said the Baroness, pointing to the stovefitter's wife, "she has been quite happy because

she was received into the bosom of the Church. You married like the beasts that perish."

"I?" said Atala. "Why, if you will give me as much as Daddy Vyder gives me, I shall be quite happy

"But when once you are united to a man as you are," the Baroness put in, "virtue requires you to remain

"Till he dies," said Atala, with a knowing flash. "I shall not have to wait long. If you only knew how Daddy

"Virtue and morality require that the Church, representing God, and the Mayor, representing the law, should

consecrate your marriage," Madame Hulot went on. "Look at madame; she is legally married"

"You will be happier," said the Baroness, "for no one could then blame you. You would satisfy God! Ask her

"Yes, but I am an honest woman," said the wife, "and you may be called by a bad name."

"How can you expect God to protect you if you trample every law, human and divine, under foot?" said the

Baroness. "Don't you know that God has Paradise in store for those who obey the injunctions of His Church?"

"Paradise!" said Adeline, "is every joy you can conceive of. It is full of angels with white wings. You see

God in all His glory, you share His power, you are happy for every minute of eternity!"

Atala listened to the lady as she might have listened to music; but Adeline, seeing that she was incapable of

understanding her, thought she had better take another line of action and speak to the old man.

"Go home, then, my child, and I will go to see Monsieur Vyder. Is he a Frenchman?"

"He is an Alsatian, madame. But he will be quite rich soon. If you would pay what he owes to that vile

Samanon, he would give you back your money, for in a few months he will be getting six thousand francs a

year, he says, and we are to go to live in the country a long way off, in the Vosges."

At the word Vosges the Baroness sat lost in reverie. It called up the vision of her native village. She was

roused from her melancholy meditation by the entrance of the stovefitter, who came to assure her of his

"In a year's time, madame, I can repay the money you lent us, for it is God's money, the money of the poor

and wretched. If ever I make a fortune, come to me for what you want, and I will render through you the help

"Just now," said Madame Hulot, "I do not need your money, but I ask your assistance in a good work. I have

just seen that little Judici, who is living with an old man, and I mean to see them regularly and legally

"Ah! old Vyder; he is a very worthy old fellow, with plenty of good sense. The poor old man has already

made friends in the neighborhood, though he has been here but two months. He keeps my accounts for me.

He is, I believe, a brave Colonel who served the Emperor well. And how he adores Napoleon!He has some

orders, but he never wears them. He is waiting till he is straight again, for he is in debt, poor old boy! In fact,

"Oh, that will soon be settled.Suppose you were to see him, madame; it is not two steps away, in the

The alley runs, in fact, from the bottom of this street through to the Rue du Rocher. Halfway down this

passage, recently opened through, where the shops let at a very low rent, the Baroness saw on a window,

screened up to a height with a green, gauze curtain, which excluded the prying eyes of the passerby, the

The shop was like one of those little offices where travelers by omnibus wait the vehicles to take them on to

their destination. A private staircase led up, no doubt, to the livingrooms on the entresol which were let with

the shop. Madame Hulot saw a dirty writingtable of some light wood, some letterboxes, and a wretched

secondhand chair. A cap with a peak and a greasy green shade for the eyes suggested either precautions for

"He is upstairs," said the stovefitter. "I will go up and tell him to come down."

Adeline lowered her veil and took a seat. A heavy step made the narrow stairs creak, and Adeline could not

restrain a piercing cry when she saw her husband, Baron Hulot, in a gray knitted jersey, old gray flannel

"Adeline!" exclaimed the Baron in bewilderment, and he locked the shop door. "Joseph, go out the back

"My dear!" she said, forgetting everything in her excessive joy, "you can come home to us all; we are rich.

Your son draws a hundred and sixty thousand francs a year! Your pension is released; there are fifteen

thousand francs of arrears you can get on showing that you are alive. Valerie is dead, and left you three

"Your name is quite forgotten by this time; you may reappear in the world, and you will find a fortune

awaiting you at your son's house. Come; our happiness will be complete. For nearly three years I have been

seeking you, and I felt so sure of finding you that a room is ready waiting for you. Oh! come away from this,

"Hector, give her up! Do that much for your Adeline, who has never before asked you to make the smallest

sacrifice. I promise you I will give the child a marriage portion; I will see that she marries well, and has some

education. Let it be said of one of the women who have given you happiness that she too is happy; and do not

"So it was you," said the Baron, with a smile, "who wanted to see me married?Wait a few minutes," he

"He has been living here, and we rolling in wealth!" said she to herself. "Poor man, he has indeed been

The stovefitter returned to make his bow to his benefactress, and she desired him to fetch a coach. When he

came back, she begged him to give little Atala Judici a home, and to take her away at once.

"And tell her that if she will place herself under the guidance of Monsieur the Cure of the Madeleine, on the

day when she attends her first Communion I will give her thirty thousand francs and find her a good husband,

"You are forcing me to desert the only creature who had ever begun to love me at all as you do!" said he in a

"Be quite easy, Hector. She will find a home with honest people, and I will answer for her conduct."

Hector, the Baron d'Ervy once more, had put on a blue coat and trousers, a white waistcoat, a black stock, and

gloves. When the Baroness had taken her seat in the vehicle, Atala slipped in like an eel.

"Oh, madame," she said, "let me go with you. I will be so good, so obedient; I will do whatever you wish; but

do not part me from my Daddy Vyder, my kind Daddy who gives me such nice things. I shall be beaten"

"She! As old as that! and shaking like a leaf!" said the child. "Look at her head!" and she laughingly

"Take her away!" said Adeline. The man put his arms round Atala and fairly carried her off.

"Thanks for such a sacrifice, my dearest," said Adeline, taking the Baron's hand and clutching it with

delirious joy. "How much you are altered! you must have suffered so much! What a surprise for Hortense and

Adeline talked as lovers talk who meet after a long absence, of a hundred things at once.

In ten minutes the Baron and his wife reached the Rue LouisleGrand, and there Adeline found this note

"Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervy lived for one month in the Rue de Charonne under the name of Thorec, an

anagram of Hector. He is now in the Passage du Soleil by the name of Vyder. He says he is an Alsatian, and

does writing, and he lives with a girl named Atala Judici. Be very cautious, madame, for search is on foot; the

The Baron's return was hailed with such joy as reconciled him to domestic life. He forgot little Atala Judici,

for excesses of profligacy had reduced him to the volatility of feeling that is characteristic of childhood. But

the happiness of the family was dashed by the change that had come over him. He had been still hale when he

had gone away from his home; he had come back almost a hundred, broken, bent, and his expression even

A splendid dinner, improvised by Celestine, reminded the old man of the singer's banquets; he was dazzled

"A feast in honor of the return of the prodigal father?" said he in a murmur to Adeline.

"I am sorry to say that she is in bed," replied Hortense. "She can never get up, and we shall have the grief of

At daybreak next morning Victorin Hulot was informed by the porter's wife that soldiers of the municipal

guard were posted all round the premises; the police demanded Baron Hulot. The bailiff, who had followed

the woman, laid a summons in due form before the lawyer, and asked him whether he meant to pay his

father's debts. The claim was for ten thousand francs at the suit of an usurer named Samanon, who had

probably lent the Baron two or three thousand at most. Victorin desired the bailiff to dismiss his men, and

Lisbeth, miserable already at seeing the family so prosperous, could not survive this happy event. She grew

so rapidly worse that Bianchon gave her but a week to live, conquered at last in the long struggle in which

She kept the secret of her hatred even through a painful death from pulmonary consumption. And, indeed, she

had the supreme satisfaction of seeing Adeline, Hortense, Hulot, Victorin, Steinbock, Celestine, and their

children standing in tears round her bed and mourning for her as the angel of the family.

Baron Hulot, enjoying a course of solid food such as he had not known for nearly three years, recovered flesh

and strength, and was almost himself again. This improvement was such a joy to Adeline that her nervous

"She will be happy after all," said Lisbeth to herself on the day before she died, as she saw the veneration

with which the Baron regarded his wife, of whose sufferings he had heard from Hortense and Victorin.

And vindictiveness hastened Cousin Betty's end. The family followed her, weeping, to the grave.

The Baron and Baroness, having reached the age which looks for perfect rest, gave up the handsome rooms

on the first floor to the Count and Countess Steinbock, and took those above. The Baron by his son's

exertions found an official position in the management of a railroad, in 1845, with a salary of six thousand

francs, which, added to the six thousand of his pension and the money left to him by Madame Crevel, secured

him an income of twentyfour thousand francs. Hortense having enjoyed her independent income during the

three years of separation from Wenceslas, Victorin now invested the two hundred thousand francs he had in

Wenceslas, as the husband of a rich woman, was not unfaithful, but he was an idler; he could not make up his

mind to begin any work, however trifling. Once more he became the artist in partibus; he was popular in

society, and consulted by amateurs; in short, he became a critic, like all the feeble folk who fall below their

Thus each household, though living as one family, had its own fortune. The Baroness, taught by bitter

experience, left the management of matters to her son, and the Baron was thus reduced to his salary, in hope

that the smallness of his income would prevent his relapsing into mischief. And by some singular good

fortune, on which neither the mother nor the son had reckoned, Hulot seemed to have foresworn the fair sex.

His subdued behaviour, ascribed to the course of nature, so completely reassured the family, that they

enjoyed to the full his recovered amiability and delightful qualities. He was unfailingly attentive to his wife

and children, escorted them to the play, reappeared in society, and did the honors to his son's house with

He was a most agreeable old man, a ruin, but full of wit, having retained no more of his vice than made it an

Of course, everybody was quite satisfied and easy. The young people and the Baroness lauded the model

father to the skies, forgetting the death of the two uncles. Life cannot go on without much forgetting!

Madame Victorin, who managed this enormous household with great skill, due, no doubt, to Lisbeth's

training, had found it necessary to have a mancook. This again necessitated a kitchenmaid. Kitchenmaids

are in these days ambitious creatures, eager to detect the chef's secrets, and to become cooks as soon as they

have learnt to stir a sauce. Consequently, the kitchenmaid is liable to frequent change.

At the beginning of 1845 Celestine engaged as kitchenmaid a sturdy Normandy peasant come from

Isignyshortwaisted, with strong red arms, a common face, as dull as an "occasional piece" at the play,

and hardly to be persuaded out of wearing the classical linen cap peculiar to the women of Lower Normandy.

This girl, as buxom as a wetnurse, looked as if she would burst the blue cotton check in which she clothed

her person. Her florid face might have been hewn out of stone, so hard were its tawny outlines.

Of course no attention was paid to the advent in the house of this girl, whose name was Agathean ordinary,

wideawake specimen, such as is daily imported from the provinces. Agathe had no attractions for the cook,

her tongue was too rough, for she had served in a suburban inn, waiting on carters; and instead of making a

conquest of her chief and winning from him the secrets of the high art of the kitchen, she was the object of his

great contempt. The chef's attentions were, in fact, devoted to Louise, the Countess Steinbock's maid. The

country girl, thinking herself illused, complained bitterly that she was always sent out of the way on some

pretext when the chef was finishing a dish or putting the crowning touch to a sauce.

One night, Adeline, roused by some unusual noise, did not see Hector in the bed he occupied near hers; for

they slept side by side in two beds, as beseemed an old couple. She lay awake an hour, but he did not return.

Seized with a panic, fancying some tragic end had overtaken himan apoplectic attack, perhapsshe went

upstairs to the floor occupied by the servants, and then was attracted to the room where Agathe slept, partly

by seeing a light below the door, and partly by the murmur of voices. She stood still in dismay on recognizing

the voice of her husband, who, a victim to Agathe's charms, to vanquish this strapping wench's not

Three days later the Baroness, who had received the last sacraments, was dying, surrounded by her weeping

Just before she died, she took her husband's hand and pressed it, murmuring in his ear:

"My dear, I had nothing left to give up to you but my life. In a minute or two you will be free, and can make

This desperateness of vice had vanquished the patience of the angel, who, on the brink of eternity, gave

The Baron left Paris three days after his wife's funeral. Eleven months after Victorin heard indirectly of his

father's marriage to Mademoiselle Agathe Piquetard, solemnized at Isigny, on the 1st February 1846.

"Parents may hinder their children's marriage, but children cannot interfere with the insane acts of their

parents in their second childhood," said Maitre Hulot to Maitre Popinot, the second son of the Minister of

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 Second Home A Prince of Bohemia Letters of Two Brides The Muse of the

Department The Imaginary Mistress The Middle Classes The Country Parson In addition, M. Bianchon

Bixiou, JeanJacques The Purse A Bachelor's Establishment The Government Clerks Modeste Mignon

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Firm of Nucingen The Muse of the Department The Member for Arcis

Bridau, Joseph The Purse A Bachelor's Establishment A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Start in Life

Modeste Mignon Another Study of Woman Pierre Grassou Letters of Two Brides The Member for Arcis

Chocardelle, Mademoiselle Beatrix A Prince of Bohemia A Man of Business The Member for Arcis

Esgrignon, Victurnien, Comte (then Marquis d') Jealousies of a Country Town Letters of Two Brides A Man

Grassou, Pierre Pierre Grassou A Bachelor's Establishment The Middle Classes Cousin Pons

Grindot Cesar Birotteau Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Start in Life Scenes from a

La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de The Muse of the Department A Prince of Bohemia

La Palferine, Comte de A Prince of Bohemia A Man of Business Beatrix The Imaginary Mistress

La RocheHugon, Martial de Domestic Peace The Peasantry A Daughter of Eve The Member for Arcis The

Lebas, Madame Joseph (Virginie) At the Sign of the Cat and Racket Cesar Birotteau

Lora, Leon de The Unconscious Humorists A Bachelor's Establishment A Start in Life Pierre Grassou

Lousteau, Etienne A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment Scenes from a Courtesan's

Life A Daughter of Eve Beatrix The Muse of the Department A Prince of Bohemia A Man of Business The

Massol Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Magic Skin A Daughter of Eve The Unconscious Humorists

Montauran, Marquis de (younger brother of Alphonse de) The Chouans The Seamy Side of History

Montcornet, Marechal, Comte de Domestic Peace Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes

Navarreins, Duc de A Bachelor's Establishment Colonel Chabert The Muse of the Department The Thirteen

Jealousies of a Country Town The Peasantry Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Country Parson The Magic

Nucingen, Baron Frederic de The Firm of Nucingen Father Goriot Pierrette Cesar Birotteau Lost Illusions A

Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Another Study of Woman The Secrets of a

Rastignac, Eugene de Father Goriot A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The

Ball at Sceaux The Commission in Lunacy A Study of Woman Another Study of Woman The Magic Skin

The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve The Gondreville Mystery The Firm of Nucingen The Member

Ronceret, Madame Fabien du Beatrix The Muse of the Department The Unconscious Humorists

Samanon A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Government Clerks A Man of Business

Stidmann Modeste Mignon Beatrix The Member for Arcis Cousin Pons The Unconscious Humorists

Tillet, Ferdinand du Cesar Birotteau The Firm of Nucingen The Middle Classes A Bachelor's Establishment

Pierrette Melmoth Reconciled A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of

Trailles, Comte Maxime de Cesar Birotteau Father Goriot Gobseck Ursule Mirouet A Man of Business The

Member for Arcis The Secrets of a Princess The Member for Arcis Beatrix The Unconscious Humorists

Turquet, Marguerite The Imaginary Mistress The Muse of the Department A Man of Business

Vernou, Felicien A Bachelor's Establishment Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from

Vignon, Claude A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Daughter of Eve Honorine Beatrix The Unconscious