R O U G E E T N O I R .
“ - d als 0 n d en ad en . 3 !i 11 (fi Zfi
FROM THE FRENCH OF
E D M O N D A B O U T ,
P HI LA D E L P H I A CLAX T O N R E M SE N H AFFE LFIN G E R , .
624 626 AR ET T R E E T , M K S .
1 8 7 3. E n t e red a cc or d m t o A c t of Co n re ss 1 1 1 th e ea r 1 8 3 b , g g , y 7 , y
CLAX T O N R E M E N HAFFE LFI N G E R S ,
n th e ffi c of th e lra n a n o f Co n 1 e s a t Wa h m o n i O e g s s gt .
T ER E PE D BY J FAGA N PHILADELPHIA S OT Y . N SO , . N T E N T S CO .
CHAPTER I . CAPT AIN BI T T E R LIN
A II CH PTER .
I CHAPTER II .
I CHAPTER V.
INNO CENT DREA M ING S
CHAP TER V .
T HE PL AY -BI LLS
I CHAPTER V .
T HE E IG H TH PASSENG ER
HAPTE II C R V .
A T O U R IN SWITZ ER LAND
HAPTE C R VIII . C O T T N E N S .
CHAPTER IX .
A U RE L IA
HA PTE X C R .
R O U G E ET N O I R
HAPTE X I C R .
S I L I E R M . V G O
HAPTE X II C R .
T H E CA FE O F T H E M USK ETEERS
CHAPTER X III . ’ HO W M E O R E FU SED E M M A S H AN D
I CHAPTER X V .
P RE PARATIO NS
CHAPTER X V .
B ATT LE I
X I CHAPTER V .
PO STSCRI PT R O UG E E T N O I R .
HA E C PT R I .
P B I T T E R LI N CA T AIN .
HEN he was asked to fil l up the last census
in papers, he wrote it all down himself, a little,
i - fi e ld dry scratch of a hand , bristl ng like a stubble
’ Bitte rlin of 60 Jean Pierre , Luneville ; years old ,
35 1 1 2 un years of active service, campaigns , wo ds ;
in 1 8 8 4 1 8 86 in 1 8 4 7 Captain , Chevalier in , retired , ” - m a n a Saint Helena medal .
‘ - se t stifl His short, thick frame was as buckram perha ps more from habits of commanding than even from years . He had never been what the seamstresses call a fi n e - looking man ; but in 1 8 5 8 he wanted a line or two of the regulation height . I am rather inclined to the opinion that his body had sun k by degrees o n the marches, from putting one foot before the other
! His one, two feet were Short and his hands big .
His — a s i face always red, and full of l ttle wrinkles as a ffill— had preserved an expression of firmness . That
R it in a s r bold oman nose , which cut two the Ape i
i n nines divide Italy, must have broken some hearts 2 H i 1 8 0 . is moustache had lost all its pliability ; n 2 1 3 1 4 G R O U E E T N O I R . ’ R u fact, no owland s Macassar had virtue eno gh to con quer it : it might be called a tooth - brush stuck on his upper li p . It was always as black a s j et fromSun W day morning till ednesday evening . If it grizzled a
is little towards the end of the week , it because the art of the dyer has not yet reached perfection . As to his hair, it was quite another thing ; it had been always
a n d fi n e black , the glossy color lasted to the day of — - h is death the hair dresser had guaranteed it . His age was so cleverly concealed that it betrayed itsel f h only by a few long , w ite hairs escaping out of his ears, and by the puckers of a face more corrugated f than a lake under the first puf s of the morning breeze . — His dress was that of a dandy of 1 8 28 a narrow his brimmed hat, a black stock nearly reaching ears , a
- frock coat buttoned under the chin , wide pantaloons t with great plai s . The gloves he had a preference for were of white cotton ; the red ribbon in his button hole glowed splendidly l ike a pink i n the month of
June . His voice was quick , imperious, and of a very w crusty, surly tone . He drawled to ards the middle of
the his sentences, and stopped with a sudden j erk at end , as if he was drilling his men . He said , How do — DO ? you in the same tone that he would have said ,
MS . w a s Present AR H is disposition the most candid , the most honest, the most delicate, but at the same time
in the sourest, the crossest, and the grumpiest the world . The Spirits of a man of sixty are nearly always such as they have been made by his previous life . Young people are j ust as nature has formed them t he old are f O u w O f a shioned by the hands, ften ro gh and a kward , C P T B I T T E R L I N A A I N .
Bitt e rlin society . Jean Pierre had been the prettiest of — d rummer boys and the merriest O f Frenchmen at the
battle of Leipsic . Fortune, who treated him like a h spoiled c ild , had made him a corporal at sixteen , and
at seventeen a sergeant . Like many another he had ’ , e O f dr amed starry epaulets , marshals batons, and per h “ ” aps something better . The word impossible had ’ been rubbed out of the army s dictionary . A bold young f ellow, without birth , and hardly able to write his name,
might aspire to anything, if opportunity would only give
Bitte rlin him a lift . had attracted attention from the first
by his steadiness, his cool courage , his activity, and all those other secondary qualities that are the small change
n . of the Fre ch soldier He merited . his first epaulet at W aterloo, but he d id not receive it till nine years after
in wards Spain . In the interim he had been tempted a hundred times to quit the service and go plant his cab bages at Luneville ; but he never gave his superiors any trouble , though discontented and a sergeant . Mechanically and without relish he continued in a pro h d fe ssion that he a embraced with enthusiasm . Between
ff - n Con stitu the co ee house , the drill , the readi g of the ti on n e l , and the pretty eyes of a milliner of Toulouse, the hours O f this discouraged warrior sped along slowly ' ' Mihta r A 71 enough . He read over and over again the y n ua l m his , to count the na es of al l comrades who had ' a n d been passed over his shoulders, such reading soured his temper . Stil l some one thing or another kept hi m i n ~ his regiment, and he followed his flag as a dog fol lows his master . In this growling resignation there is something too sublime for mere civilians to admire . Bitte rlin detested the Bourbons ; but no one served 1 G 6 R O U E E T N O I R .
m f u them ore aithf lly . If he did not get himself killed
a 1 8 30 a . on their ccount in , he came at le st very near it
a w He was ca rried to the hospit l ith a piece of lead in
I h n . V e e h is leg he recovered his senses, aft r fifteen davs of fever and delirium , he was rej oiced to hear that the government was changed a little . His craving to s his a e e f mily , that is to say his regiment , hastened his recovery . He expected that the ti me of the great wars w a s a n d coming back again , , like all true soldiers , he d reamed of nothing less than the c o n fi a gra tio n O f Eu ' - I O e . fi re p But it all ended in a few works, and even
Bitte rlin these was not ordered to extinguish . He was ’ a h ppointed captain by right of seniority , w en the fool s ” t turn came , as he himself expressed it, wi h a bitter
o cca sid n a ll grunt . His colonel , who encouraged hi m y, proved to him clearly that he should not despair . A
a —six capt in at thirty , he still had Africa before him . He u crossed the Mediterranean , took the field , but ca ght
the dysentery before getting the first sight at an enemy .
He was sent to Briancon , in the High Alps , to recover .
IVin te r seven months long , and torrents in the middle ! ff of the street There , to kill time, he married a co ee ’ - house keeper s daughter . He was hardly married when
a s he was ordered to start for Str burg with the regiment .
— I n 1 8 9 His wife followed him on the baggage wagon . 3 he became father of a daughter, who was born between the three hundred and tenth a n d the three hundred a n d eleventh mile - stone on the road from Strasburg to
Paris . The ch ild prospered , and the Captain began to i ndulge the hope that the pleasures of domestic l ife
his U n fo rtu would console him for all mischances . n a te w a s . y, his wife pretty, and a coquette Without P T B I T T E R L I N 1 C A A I N . 7 r a n d eflecting on the consequences, she liked admiration sought it ; and the Captain now experienced a worse k ind of j ealousy than he had known while reading the
l/ n n u l JIilita r A a . y He kept himself at home , closed his doors , and commenced growling . He could never be
s seen except on matters of busine s . He began to affect a refined pol iteness , as all men do whose superior skill in arms is generally recognized ; but he could bear no j oking . The young captains, however, would have their fun . He practised two or three grains of patience before he burst ou t against a comrade who had carried the fun too far ; and he was so unfortunate as to kill him . Nobody said he was wrong . Everything had é e n r le . been done strictly g However, he retired from — the service at the age of forty n ine . His pension , his ’ inheritance, and his wife s little dower, amounted in all to about five thousand francs a year , with which he came to spend the remainder O f his days at
his Ma m ie Paris . He took up quarters i n the , not
P la e R o a le O ff far from the c y , sent the little girl to the
- m téte —d convent school at St . Denis , and shut hi self up téte w i with his ife . The lonel ness killed Madame Bitter
‘ in l in less than four years . The angels themselves would have grown weary of feeding the Captain i n his i w lderness . he The evening returned to his dwelli ng , spattered
- so in knee deep with the thick mud abundant cemeteries ,
he reflected an hour or two on chance, on Providence,
O n - fe a th the prospects and final fate of that two legged , e rle ss animal called man ; and then he seriously p roposed to himself one of those pretty problems that are only
finally resolved by a pull at the trigger . However , he 2 B 1 8 O G R U E E T N O I R .
' did not kill himself. He had been alive so long that he b ended v getting used to it . His servant came to tell hi m dinner was ready ; he sa t down and contrived to swallow a few morsels . ” Eat, sir , eat , said stout Agatha, shedding a torrent of tears over the mutton stew You must take courage ’ t in and strength , now hat there s only two of us the ” world , besides Mademoiselle at St . Denis .
Da u hin Stout Agatha was a mountaineer of p y, de
f - n formed and lame . The co fee house keeper of Brianco ’ had sent her to his daughter by way of a New Year s a s gift, an inesti mable family treasure . The poor crea ture, with limited intell igence but with the heart of d — a hero , rose at awn in summer , with candle light
c in winter , breakfasted on an early Mass and a pie e of dry bread , hurried to market for provisions, and fought the market—women with a spirit equal to their own ; went after water a s soon as the street- fountains were
O pened , washed , ironed , and mended the family linen ,
- r scrubbed the red tiled floors , polished the fu niture as
as - bright a looking glass, and amused herself in her lei sure momen ts by scouring her pots and pans till they shone l ike silver . Her whole thoughts were on the
S he housekeeping , and , during the few hours that
She snatched for sleep , dreamed regularly that the lather w a s lun too blue, or that an army of cockroaches was p
dering the pantry . ’ But A gatha s talents as well as her virtues were all a
Bitt rlin e . sealed book to M . He accepted her services
his w ith misanthropical contempt . In heart he thought
hi mself an exceedingly generous fellow , because he did
a n d not turn out of doors a creature so useless ugly . T B I T T E R L I N 1 9 C A P A I N .
h o n He s rugged his shoulders every occasion , distrust fully wiped his glass though it spark led l ike polished
crystal , and ate with the tips of his teeth . He never disputed about the household expenses ; but every time
sa he examined the bills, he would y, with some bitterness ’ “ m e . My good girl , I don t think you rob But m e when I was lieutenant, my board cost fifty francs a
month , and I fared better .
Then poor Agatha would burst into tears , thank her
as in m ter for the confidence he had reposed her, and
promise to be more economical in future . This unappreciating master seldom kept himself at
home the moment he no longer had a wife to watch .
his As soon as he had made toilet, and growled over the ’ ’ M on ite ur d c Z A r me e , he would breakfast at the corner
his of the table, take hat and gloves, and pace the streets ’ six 0 of Paris till clock i n the evening . He would often
Cha m s E lsée s stop in the p y to look at the bowlers, and if he only had an O pportunity to ridicule some awkward
. e n player, he went away happy Sometimes he would
— M a m ie O ld ter a fencing school i n the , belonging to an
O f comrade h is regiment, who always received him with
marks of the highest respect . He never deigned to
touch a foil himself, but he was always ready to prove that the scholars and amateurs were miserable bungle
w a s Cha m d c His favorite place of resort, however, the p M a r s T he . sight of the uniforms gave him a kind of
bitter amusement, of which he was never weary . The fi n e movements gave him pleasure, far less, however, m than the blunders . Every time an o cer ade a mis
his take, he rubbed hands hard enough to take the skin
O ff a n d his , licked moustache like a goat licking a tender O G E T R U E N O I R .
branch . Every night after dinner he went to read the
Ca fe B o ule va r d papers in the of the Musketeers , near the
B e a uma r ha is c . The waiters gave him the best coffee and the oldest brandy , because he was the most disagree able and hardest to be pleased of all their customers .
- He gave advice to the billiard players, the draught — players, and the piquet players , and was not at all
Sparing of doubtful compli ments . But nobody m inded
his IVhe n him , for disposition was well known . invited to take a hand , he answered drily , that he never did hi s . anything of the kind , such were not principles
! f - Strange His co fee house acquaintances , the only ones he had i n Paris, treated him with a deference precisely proportioned to h is want of deference towards them
O . selves . S it is all the world over The more we despise the crowd , the more it honors us ; the more m erit we arrogate to ourselves, the more manki nd is disposed to give . ’ The Captain s sour temper was not much sweetened by an illturn done him one day by his O ld comrades they took Sebastopol without him . The first time the
Crimean war was tal ked about, he gave stout Agatha a
his formal exposition of views on the situation of France . “ ” “ My good girl , said he , of course you know ’ ’ m d nothing about these things, and I sure I on t know h w y I talk to you concerning them . But there are moments when a man would tal k to his boot-j ack !
in o R o t . France is g g . have another tussle with ussia ’ T l a O d s . hat s an idea of ours ; I might y, of mi ne In
1 8 1 1 : , when only thirteen years of age, I said We ’ R ! R must take ussia ussia knows me, Agatha ; I have
R r run over ussia from one end to the other . I measu ed C P T B I T T E R L I N A A I N . 21
. a a swords with her at Moscow I have Spoken her l ngu ge, ’ ' N i ’K a r a lz I don t forget it all yet : e t ! D a . c o ! If t he
R sa w ussians me landing in the Crimea, there would be ‘ ’ more than one to cry out : Hello ! there s that little ’ Bitte rlin again ! Stand from under ! This being the
e W a r ? cas , what will the Minister of do Do you think ? ! ! ” he will send for me Oh yes, indeed Of course No Frenchman took a dee per interest in the successes
r H is O ld and reve ses of the Allied Troops . regiment, R after covering itself with glory at the siege of ome ,
a Bitte rlin had st rted among the first for the East . , with a profound sentiment of envy, kept his eyes fixed on al l 1 0 4th the brilliant achievements of the gallant . He passed whole days poring over maps of the Crimea, and in running his pencil through the fortifications of Se b a sto o l p . Morning , noon , and night, he was lecturing
in the commanders of the expedition , the person of W u Agatha . henever he tho ght a general was too dila tory at a critical moment, he thrust him back into the reserve, mounted his horse i n his place, slashed right W t o . and left, and went bed Marshal of France hen ever the tidings were bad , he walked through the streets
f i fre O Paris shrugging his shoulders . F ve or six que n te rs of the Ca fe of the Musketeers firmly believed u that the Crimean war was never to be ended, beca se the right men were not there .
f w a s The day the news came that the Malako f taken , ’ the Captai n s heart was the scene O f another terrible bat tle O n one side were ran ged the glory of his beloved
O f old flag, the honor the French name , the delightful
O ld — thrill that runs through an soldier, at the far off sound of victory ; on the other, the agony of being 22 R O U G E E T N O I R .
m n othing , and having done nothing , at a oment when crosses , promotions , and titles were showering like hai l a on the heads of the conquerors . Al l these contr dictory sentiments attacked him at once , and with such violence h that he actually shed tears , wit out wel l knowing hi m
it . sel f whether was through joy or grief Stout Agatha, who did not quite understand politics , asked him inno c e n tl y, if it was from him that they had taken the Mala koff, and whether , in consequence of the loss , she should
b e obliged to omit. the second dish at dinner .
From time to time , the Captain remembered that he t was a father , and his idea , i n itself a consoling one,
only still more exasperated his incorrigible sullenness .
n y Pater it reminded him of marriage , and his marriage b ut a . had been anything a h ppy one This man , narrow i n his views , always runn ing into extremes, and imbued w m lio n o r ith the ost exaggerated ideas regard ing , stil l continued to believe himself interested in finding out if Madame Bitte rlin had been faithful to her marriage vows . An absurd doubt, but it awoke the Captain more than once in the middle of the night . His j ealousy had not expired with his w ife ; it ofte n returned l ike
a fits of periodical fever . The unh ppy man had O fte n ’ remained a quarter of an hour sta n d in g be fo re his look i n - to g glass , examining his countenance, trying find out
whether it looked like that of a deceived husband . He w as continually revolving i n his sick brain all the cir c umsta n ce s that ha d excited his suspicions ; every day he opened court with stupid gravity over an i nterminable W ’ case . hen his wife s innocence seemed put beyond all O ff doubt, he hurried to the cemetery and begged pardon ' O f the poor woman for all the harm he had ever done C P T B I T T E R L I N A A I N . 23
her . But if at that moment even the lightest doubt
fi st crossed his mind , he shook his at the ashes in the
his a tomb , and wished that wife would come to life gai n i in order to feel h s vengeance . He had forbidden the — ' stone cutter to engrave the regular words G o o d IVi e in the epitaph : the place remained vacant till further in formation . This painful though groundless uncertainty never permitted him to enj oy a real paternal pleasure in his intercourse with his daughter . Although he had not the slightest shadow of a reason for supposing that
in somebody else was her father , he remarked with ’ creasing displeasure that not one of little Emma s fea hi tures would ever resemble s . Whenever he went to
St . Denis to see her, he considered her extremely ugly n ld - i the O fashioned uniform of the Convent . He kissed her coldly o n the forehead he did not caress her with the fondness characteristic of real fathers . On her side , h h s e . s e came to the parlor as went to class M . Bitter l in acted towards her like a severe schoolmaster ; he corrected her from motives of duty .
They passed the vacations together at Auteuil . M .
Bitte rlin n d , Agatha, a the little one put themselves and i their trunks nto a yellow omnibus, and got out agai n before a Boarding Institution , a vast republican hive, composed of two hundred and fifty apartments and as
Bitte rlin s many gardens . The occupied rooms i n the third story, which commanded a glimpse of the country . Their garden was so extensive that you could not take
e it twelve st ps in in any direction . The Captai n con sid e re d such a place an absurd humbug but n e v e r the less he went there regularly year after year, j ust for the 24 G R O U E E T N O I R .
- pleasure of abusing it. Seated on the grass bank under
—c i a r c he w in his only tree , he would smoke his cent g , , g O f the half it, and gaze at Emma playing in the alley , which served a s a corridor for all the gardens of the establ ishment . And he would often ask himself what
him Bitte rlin there was i n common between , , Marshal
- of France that ought to be , and that little raw boned u girl , with the red hands , running p and down so wildly, and gesticulating so strangely with her feet and arms .
The period of green , awkward girl hood prolonged ’ itself in Mademoiselle Bitte rlin s case far beyond the
he u . s sual limits At full fifteen years was still , if not actually ugly , at least perfectly insignificant, and the
‘ Captain never scrupled to say in her presence , that the men were never going to make fools of themselves for
she her beauty . But when had completed her education , a n d n w a s returned for good to the pater al roof (it , if I
t he — am not mistaken , at vacation of when she had changed the sober uniform of the Legion of Honor m — for a pretty su mer dress of a more modern cut, the Captain was actually astounded and alarmed at the transformation that had taken place in her regard . He m u swore that her beauty was indecent, and he ade p his mind at once that a new series O f tribulations wa s in store for his old days .
R 26 R O U G E E T N O I .
as naturally as it would for a ripe apple . There , it is some little antique figure whose wicked beauty actu ally invites you to steal it . Elsewhere, it is a little
a t fa picture, a f ultless gem , tha not only scinates dis
honest people , but tempts even a saint himself to slip it
under his cloak . President De Brosses was not per b ut haps altogether a saint, he was a very good man , h and a j udge into t e barga in . Still one day he was very near forget-ting all his virtue in the presence of a l ittle
w a s Correggio, which ogl ing him in the gallery of some R m oman prince . Em a seemed to be marked out for
the same fate as the little Elzevir , the little bronze , or
the little Correggio . Correggio never painted anything
be fresher, more velvety , more savory . Her face was dewed with that impalpable down which nature sheds on peaches and on the wings of butterflies : the down of
f a youth and innocence, which the first love e f ces, and w hich faded beauty tries in vain to replace by all the
- — h powders of the drug store . Doubly a woman for s e — was a blonde under her long brown eyelashes she
a s half shaded two large blue eyes , j oyous a summer k s . y The dainty lines of her pretty mouth , the lustre
of her cherry lips , the whiteness of her l ittle teeth ,
slightly separated like those of children , the exquisite
design of her two little ears, which half lost themselves
in the golden shadow of her hair , all the harmonious
perfections of her countenance, formed a whole not ex
a c tl O f . y of angelical , but most provoking virgin ity It is not thus that Sasso Ferrato and Carlo Dolci painted the Madonna ; but it is thus that al l painters would
wish to represent Eve, and that all men would wish to m eet her . E M M A 27 ’ The Captain s epithet had been too coarse to express ’ the real character of his daughter s beauty . Nothing is O f w im more diverse than the beauty omen , except the T pression that it produces on men . here are heroic beauties who inspire us with lofty thoughts a n d chival rous sentiments ; melancholy beauties that lull us to gentle reverie ; seraphic beauties that fling us into mys tic ism and lead us to heaven by the steepest kind of roads ; seductive beauties that pl unge u s into crime “ l u and e a d . s quickly enough the other way homelike beauties that inspire us with an uncontrollable desire to become heads of families and city councillors ba c c ha n a l ian beauties that remind us O f balls and champagne ; pastoral beauties that se t us a - thinking about tending ’ W a n a d . V O st e s sheep and drinking mil k ith women ,
' a man would l ike to be selling cloth ; with those of
Teniers, he might resign himself even to smoking a R pipe ; with those of ubens, he might bring himself to regard with complacency the idea of being the father of two or thre e dozen of chubby children with those of
Vandyke, he might reconcile himself to the trouble of V V a tte a u being a king ; with those of , he would like to
- t h eat ice cream out of rosewood saucers . But in e pres
e Bitte rlin enc of Emma , as before certain portraits by T R i itian and by aphael , he would forget every nterest,
in every duty, every ambition , every consideration , order to think of nothing but love .
How had the awkward girl , who used to straddle
a - — in about at Auteuil like a big d ddy long legs, become less than a year the prettiest woman in Paris 2‘ Nature keeps to herself with j ealous care the secret of such
O n e metamorphoses . fine morning a young girl issues 28 G R O U E E T N O I R .
a s out of her childhood , if out of a shell , not a vestige of w hich remains . All the sharp angles with which the
ri in l ittle Emma had been b stli ng al l over, disappeared d a few months . Her arms filled out, her waist rounde , ’ her bust modelled itself as if it had been i n a statuary s u mould , her features grew beautif l and fell into place . lf he r wa s hands continued red , it only to save the prin c iple and to maintain the color of vi rtue ; nothing but a little hasty whitening w a s wanti ng to make them the
T he prettiest hands i n the world . change was so great that even her companions who sa w her every day could remark it . They experienced the same astonishment as bewilders the traveller who arrives at night in a
sun strange country, when , next morning, the rising d iscloses to his view forests , rocks , rivers , and a charm i ng landscape , the existence of which he had not even suspected the evening before . The girl soon found out that she was pretty : the wonder would be if she was the l a st to perceive such
- things . There was no looking glass so small that she could not admire herself i n it . In her own mind she
she compared herself to Cinderella, and by no means despaired of seeing some evening the grand gold car
d six - h r ia e . W g drive up , rawn by mouse gray horses y O f not She smiled at her neat little foot, thinking the e fairy tale . Her first vocation had b en that of teach
a ing , the l st resource of women who are unprovided W with either beauty or fortune . ithin the four walls
she of the Convent at St . Denis had expected to per f form her voyage o life . But the Sisters had not much
w a s trouble i n combating this idea . She not long i n convincing herself that she had a face altogether to o worldly for the austere duties of instruction . M M 29 E A . ’ Her father s reception surprised her a l ittle : she had expected a regular domestic ovation . Agatha alone was loud in her admiration and tol d her that she was to ’ marry some king s son . Unfortunately however, ’ king s sons were not l ikely to come to visit her i n the
R u e d e Vos e s Jlf a r a is g , in the , and her father did not at all seem disposed to take her into society . He ha d no society to take her into but the Cafe of the
Jllu ske te e r s O ld sur . The fellow, selfish and surly, had rounded himself with a wall of Ch ina ; and now when
sa w he that he had a treasure to guard , he only thought of fortifying himself the more strongly . He dreaded
so S so so lest this little being educi ng, pretty, portable , should become the prey of some robber ; the idea of making a present of her to some respectable man never once came into his head . He had a sovereign contempt for that policy of the English and of all prudent mammas which consists i n finding an outlet for their home pro d u i n s e t o . As greedy of his blood as of his money , he considered i t perfectly natural to save up his daughter hi t and his crowns for s old days . His firs measure was to leave Auteuil he dreaded the young men of the
- boarding house and the liberty of country life . He told his daughter that he w ould never let he r o ut of his she w a s n sight, and that not to go to the window u less hi i n s company . ’ Emma took this menace of her father s , and indeed
a ll i n . his severities, very good part Little birds are ’ a s n quite comfortable in the cage lo g as they can t fly, ’ and we don t trouble ourselves much about liberty until ’ m l t She t such time a s we know how to e p oy i . accep ed without a murmur all the laws that the Captain thought 30 G R O U E E T N O I R .
his proper to proclaim in house . She let herself be put
she se e she under lock and key , consented to nobody , u played the part of the princess shut p i n the tower, without once suspecting that at this kind of game she
O f a n might win the epaulets old maid . The only thing ’ w a s that troubled her her father s bad humor . It hurt t o her be surrounded by so morose a personage, and she
she felt it to be her duty to tame him a l ittle . In fact, considered it a point of honor to do something of the
. w a s ki nd The desire to please , innate in all women , dominant in her , and to such a degree, that if even a total stranger had looked at her without smiling , she would have felt it as l ittle short of an insult . She had commenced her apprenticeship in the art of pleasing in those days when she had to get her face excused and after the metamorphosis she did not u nderstand why she should be looked at crossly by a man who w a s neither deaf nor blind , and who was her own father into the bargain . She began then to surround the Captain with a net of little attentions and caressing ways that would have surely entrapped any one else . She waited on him continually , she fondled h im , she anticipated al l
w she h is ants ; in short, exhausted on hi m alone all the she love that a girl of seventeen expends as well as can , i n embracing l ittle cats and i n kissing little birds . But f the more af ectionately she treated the old boy, the more churlish he showed h imself. All these filial blandish ments reminded the Captain of other caresses quite as captivating , but of the sincerity of which he was by no means convinced . Emma resembled her mother even in her embraces , though the poor woman had never given her any lessons . Every graceful gesture, every E M M A 31
w sprightly expression of the girl , oke up the ol d j ealousy of the husband and the surly pr ud ence of the ff father . He actually su ered severely whenever he re cognized i n his daughter some of those w inni n g ways that he had so much deplored i n her mother ; he even confided to stout Agatha, who did not understand a word he said , his serious apprehensions of being dishonored over again . I n his fits of misanthropy he would often reproach the poor child with her “ eternal smile and her fawn ” ing ways . One evening, noticing her to be a little “ thoughtful before dinner , Attention he suddenly ’ exclaimed you r e setting your cap at the decanter !
she w a s Another ti me, as putting her arms around his him neck to embrace , he repulsed her roughly, and “ ’ so sa r e ! forgot himself far as to y, You too light You ll end badly W ithout comprehending the exact
meaning of these words, Emma felt the sensitive del i
she cacy of her soul wounded , and for the first time re ’ i w plied with a spir t somewhat mutinous, I don t kno ” n how I Shall end , but I do not comme ce very well . The length of the days was terrible i n this way of
l iving, where the company was close without being inti
n mate . They arose early through habit, ever reflecting
so that doing only gave them a few hours more to kill . m Em a dressed herself for the whole day very simply, but with such exceeding neatness that the Captain often it f grumbled at and called it af ectation . He made war
on sponges and scented soaps, asserting seriously that
s with women cleanliness is the mother of all the vice .
a n d After breakfast the father smoked , walked up down
the room, scolded, opened and shut the windows, and 32 R O U G E E T N O I R
. the ha n d k e r tapped at barometer . Emma hemmed a chief or embroidered a collar, or sang a song or. two at the upright piano , which her mother had left her .
Sometimes she read . The Captain saw no harm in that ,
his O f and gave her free use of library , which consisted the following works ranged in the following order
The R ur a lR e tr e a t Dor a t The Thir t - S e ve n Co d e s , , y ,
Vi to r ie s a n d Co n ue sts o the F r e n ch Arms Vo lta ir e c q f , , ’ ’ F o u ue t s The Wa r /cs o the Abbe R a n a lDo q Edition f y ,
me stic flfe t lic in e T he Hi sto r o N a ole on o rv in s , y f p , by N ;
The R ui n s y The. I mita tion o Christ , by Volne ; and f , bound i n black and bearing the letters of Madame Bit ’ rlin m t e s na e . Emma was neither a silly simpleton nor a George
Sand , but she had a pretty l ittle feminine mind of her
O w n a n d , candid , cheerful , inquiring , intelligent, trained
n i n the best school we have in France . Naturally e ough , ’ then , her father s books wearied her to death , for not a single one of them excited her curiosity or gratified her
taste . ’ O a h At four cl ock every evening , the milit ry our , the i Captain trotted her out as a groom does h s horses . He
P la e R o a le J a r d i n d e s took her to the c y , or to the
d m r ha i P la n te s B o ule va r B e a u a s . , only seldom to the c
On Sundays she was treated to a little trip to Vincennes , e or to Bi vre , or to some other tranquil retreat where the Sight of a pretty woman does not make the promenaders
turn about to gaze . Father and daughter always got ’ home at Six o clock precisely , and they dined together
as they had breakfasted . After the dessert, idleness and
w a s c o n weariness asserted their rights , until sleep the
O f sequence . During one those dreary hours , Emma
o a s k f o n e e v e n imr t ok the courage to her ather , a ) if he
G 34 R O U E E T N O I R .
O lletter addressed to his daughter . He pened it at once and read as follows :
— M Y D EAR L ITTL E DES I RE - T o - PL EAS E Here
I am back from the country ; Henrietta ditto , Julia and
T he Caroline ditto , ditto . gentle Madel ine informs me — \V — that she will be d itto to morrow . ith you and — w ithout you nothing ca n be good the number of the
r r M ha s i imn o ta ls i wil l be complete . amma decided that the first r e un io n of the I n sep a r a ble s is to take place
a t W ! our house . hat a glorious day The idea makes ’ o u me leap with j oy . Don t y blame anything else for . the big blot that has j ust fallen right in the centre of
r is . my lette . It to be Monday morning Ask the — l R u VVo f e . Papa to have you taken to the St Arnaud , 4 No . , before daybreak we shal l send you back safe to
d n e . W e your i n the evening shal l dance , perhaps, but
a n d certainly we shall chat gabble, and of course laugh ’ ’ “ e l ike crazy people, and that s the best part of it . are talking about making arrangements for our winter
on a ra n d sca le amusements g , as our poor dear old Pro
fe ssor sa se e used to y. I hope we shall each other every
day till we are married , and afterwards too for that mat
se e the r e lr la n O the m a i n ter . You it is gu a p f ca p g we
have to sketch out but my brother the soldier , j ust ar
o u l us his in va lu rived leave of absence, wi l aid with ’ hun able experience . He won t bel ieve that you are a d r e d time s p r e ttie r tha n I ; these Lieutenants of the Eu g in e e rs are incredulous to a degree that is positively ! shocking . Monday ! Monday ! Monday Another
! ie blot A regular pie this time . No matter . The p
ma lce r embraces you with all he r heart . “ L IS DE M A R A N N E S O U E . E M M A . 35
The Captain , who had once been a young man , and ’ an amiable one too , answered Emma s companion as a dog would a rabbit . — MAD EMO IS ELL E I have received the letter which you have done me the honor to address to my daughter, u and beg to state i n reply that, tho gh much honored by the invitation therein included , I think I neither over step my rights nor fall short of my duties when I i nfor m you that Emma never goes to any house where her father does not l ikewise go, and that her father finds himself m uch more comfortable at his own house than anywhere else . She eats and laughs at home j ust as much as her health requires, and never bestows a thought on those questions regarding marriage , from the discussion of which no young lady can keep herself too much aloof,
she however little regard may have for her reputation . ’ Bitte rlin S In short, Captain daughter is not in the habit of being reviewed by lieutenants, even if they do have a the adv ntage O f belonging to the Engineers . “ I have the honor to be, Mademoiselle, your very ” humble, most devoted , and obedient servant .
s A few day after, Emma said to her father I am surprised that Louise does not write to me ; ” a she must cert inly have returned from the country . T he Captai n replied with a frown i ” has w r tten to you . ! She Ah ! ”
Yes, all kinds of trash . But I have answered her ’ as she ou l ought to be answered , and I ll warrant y shal not hear from her again in a hurry . 36 R U G E E T R O N O I .
cor re S o n d e n c a n d In fact, that was the end of the p e ; three or four other freaks O f the Captain soon isolated h is daughter a s perfectly as if she had never se t her — foot i n a board ing school . So she l ived for eighte en months i n this overwhel m
téte - a - téte ing loneliness , with the most crossgrained of
. n o t ff mortals Her health , however , d id su er, and even ff her temper experienced no i ll e ects from the ordeal . Oh ! blessed privilege of youth ! It stands the rudest shocks of l ife with i mpunity . Just as children knock their heads against all the sharp corners of the furniture
a r and never bear away a so to tell it .
The only friend she had now left was stout Agatha, w s hose re ources , however, out of her kitchen , were
n rather limited . This poor creature had a religious v c ’ n s I n cration for her you g mistres s beauty . her she found points of resemblance with all the beautifully colored saintly virgins that she kept between the leaves
- W of her prayer book . henever she was permitted to
o n escort Emma to high Mass Sundays, or on some l ittle shopping matter two or three steps from the she h . S e house, she felt so proud that grew a foot taller o n e o ut said to her, day as they were coming of church ’ I don t know what I shall do when you get married . ’ T he O ld to gentleman won t allow me leave him , and I ’ can t live away from you . If I could only make two halves of myself ! ” “ DO you think , then , that Papa has any notion of getting me married asked Emma . m d DO I ? Of course he has . Girls are a e for
on e - w nothing else, unless when happens to be a scare cro ” l ike myself. M M 37 E A .
Perhaps Louise is married by this time . — h d . Q uite possible . To ay one , to morrow anot er
Not later than yesterday, seven couple were married at ’” St . Paul s . ’ But Papa don t know any one in Paris .
is e n o u h I That l ikely g , grant, still I guess he has ’ i A sk his deas . him , if you want to know ; he won t ” eat you . ’ “ ! Oh Agatha, I would n t do such a thing for the ’ ” m i M n n e so . world Besides , I no hurry . are cross “ ” Not all of them . — d a r e m ov m . The same y, on g the table cloth , Agatha
- put the question to her master point blank . “ ’ ’ sir Is n t it true, , that you re sometimes thinking O f ge tti g our ye ung lady married p ’ The Captain s answer was so rude that I shall not d are to write it down . If he did not beat the poor
w a s creature black and blue , it simply because he was able to fi n d i n the v o ca bula r v of the French language a lita n v of oaths that were j ust as good as so man y
wa blows . His conclusion s that all women were Shame
o — less, all servants were g betweens, all men were rascals without law or honor, and that he had not raised his daughter with so much care for the purpose of throwing f her away on any scoundrel O the ki nd . This profession of faith was made i n so loud a voice
that all the other inhabitants of the house , the porter i ncluded , went to bed certain that Mademoiselle Bit
te rlin ld should die an O maid . m Fro that day, poor Agatha did her best to prove to
her young mistress the superiority O f sm le blessedness . ’ g Had n t she everything in the world that she wanted ? 3 G 8 R O U E E T N O I R .
a A good father , a devoted serv nt, a lovely little room
h in wit blue curtains, a comfortable bed n icely tucked
f a n d every night, and every day the best cof ee in Paris , permission to play on the piano a s long as she liked ?
u in It was a reg lar paradise on earth , and another man the family would only be an incu mbrance . And what ? great things were men , after all She herself, Agatha, had j ogged her way tliro ugh the world for forty years ’ itho ut as much as ever touching a man s arm , and she ” a ! felt none the worse for it, quite the contr ry
0 T these arguments Emma had no reply to make, for
h a s e w s not in love . M E O . 39
HAPT E R III C .
MEO
Z lfa r a is u HE is a peaceable q arter of Paris, but it would be much more so if it had fewer boarding schools . Q uiet people , who have removed out towards
A n to in e R ue S t. the i n search of repose , are liable to encounter four times a day some one or other of those n oisy caravans of students that are on their way to the u Cha r le ma gn e Lyce m . These u nlicked youths are the hope of their country and the terror of their n eighbor It hood . would not do to tell this to their parents . Their mothers and sisters would never bel ieve that a boy who is gentle and pol ite at home can become coarse l and impertinent among his comrades . Neverthe ess, every bourge ois offering the slightest O pportunity for a
m a n remark or a laugh , every with a peculiar nose, and i all women w thout exception , go a mile regularly out of their way to avoid having their ears saluted with — boarding school slang .
Agatha forgot this important precaution , one morn
n she o ut i g that had gone with Emma . She had taken “ ’ ” r her to the famous store calle The Ladies Paradise,
A n to in e R u e St. , to buy a dress for summer . On her
sa w e way back , she a crowd of students hast ning as t e fas as they could towards the Lyc um . To avoid meeting them , she turned thoughtlessly i nto the first a n d she street, there found herself caught between the ' endless ranks of two other schools , as if between two w T he parallel alls . poor girls got along pretty wel l till 4 0 R O U G E E T N O I R
a - t he bout half way ; the l ittle boys , who led march , ’ m ur s perhaps made some observations about E ma s n y.
4 n e a r But before they reached No . , the end of the m street, they found themselves right i n the idst of a crowd of the grown - up students ; and the young logi eiaus , and the rhetoricians, reinforced by a squad of the m mathematicians, immediately began to assai l the with
- their well known refined and original gallantries . “ ’ n t Mademoiselle , had I the honor of dancing with you at the Close r ie d e s Lila s ’ “ m Mademoiselle , only I afraid of compromising ’ ’ ” you , I d offer you a cent s worth of gingerbread .
m a r m a s f ar Made oiselle, do accept my as the board ” i n - g school . “ Mademoiselle , ask the Prefect for my hand ; he ’ ” won t refuse you .
m o n Made oiselle, come see me in the parlor Thurs ” i a ma o u day ; my name s S j . “ ’ Ca That ain t true, Mademoiselle ; his name is boche ’ I can t tel l what in the world the Prefects were think
. w ing of at the time One of them , I kno , was watching t he early swallows, and the other was eying the counter
of a neighboring store ; whilst poor Emma, red as a h cherry, struggled wit her elbows to cut her way ’ s through the enemy, and Agatha fists fell hot and
heavy among the crowd . ” w f a m e ta h I kno who you are , air m sk , said a p y i n sic a to the servant . You are Vulcan disguised a s a ” woman to accompany Venus to Paris .
n R A other repeated some passage from abelais, which , m fro the boisterous applause of the crowd , must have
of n been brillia t wit and exceedingly apropos .
4 2 R O U G E E T N O I R .
W hat an ad venture she exclaimed ; only I ” hope Papa will never hear of it ! She looked a round
- for a looking glass to arrange her hair in , but could find nothing exce pt a l ittle o n e about the size of her hand . “ ” Our friend is no dandy , she observed . “ ’ ” s My own opi nion is that he not very rich , repl ied
A - u n gatha, pointing at the straw bottom chairs, the “ - - t . painted deal able , and the boarding school bed The ’ whole room does not contain two hundred francs worth
u of furniture , except the pictures wh ich once m st have ’ r e cost a nice penny . But now that you through , we ’ him can cal l in . She opened the door and called out, ’ ”
r e . Come i n , young gentleman ; we finished he stranger was a fine specimen of the Italian type in
a llits . beauty and all its strength He was , however ,
m a n no mere stripling , but a of full thirty years wel l
— n — counted , tall , dark complexioned , braw y shouldered
his face radiant with health and vigor . His eyes , his w — teeth , his ell polished nails, and some little j ewelry that
he wore, formed so many luminous points to dazzle and ’
h a e . c arm a girl of Emma s g The elegance of his dress,
in co m li ke the beauty of his pictures , seemed altogether patible with the modesty of his furniture ; nor did his distinguished manners and refined language form a less violent contrast with this poor room of sixty dollars a year, situated on the ground floor and facing the street, ’ s l ike a porter lodge . He asked his protegees if they wanted a n ythin ox ” “ us Excuse , said stout Agatha, but we want to make
o ff . right away , before master hears of our doings
Emma, thank the young man ; we are very much ” obliged to hi m indeed . M E O . 4 3
” m h so I am ore t an paid , he replied with a smile , let us hear no more about a service which I am almost ashamed of having rendered . I wish I had killed m somebody, if it would only ake me agreeable to Mademoiselle ! ” a n I should be very sorry for it, said Emma, st d v ing in the doorway, whereas at present I depart ery ” happy to have met you . He escorted her to the street with a multitude of bows by no means ungraceful , and at the moment of bidding her adieu , as the young girl was repeating her thanks for the last time, he looked at her sadly, and said Perhaps this is a great misfortune for me ; for I am no longer in a position to obtain your hand , and I feel ” that I shall love you for the rest of my l ife . Emma started violently at hearing this abrupt d e c la ’ o fi t — ration let wi hout warning, point blank on the side walk . ’ ” Don t do anything of the kind , I entreat you , she “ it a s replied , hurrying away ; would be as much your l ife is worth The Italian pursued her with his eyes as far a s the t end of the s reet, but without an idea of following her .
He remained for some time at the door, plunged in
m a n thought, and bareheaded , like a who cares very
c - m r e little about what lo kers e may sa y . All at once ’ me mbe r in g that he neither knew Emma s name nor h r e b ut . address, he started after , it was too late R u eturning back in a quarter of an ho r, he found his
O room still wide pen , and sitting down immediately , he e wrote three letters, which I wish to present here becaus 4 4 O O R U G E E T N I R . they give a most faithful description of the state of his
feelings . In the translation , permit me to preserve as m u i ch of all the Italian simpl city as I can .
“ T o O E M A E SO N I a t his P a la ce THE N BL COUNT , ,
B o o lgn a .
“ — MO ST E S TEEM E D FR I E N D z T O your last very
ff in a ectionate letter I have not written a line reply,
m n because I had nothing to com unicate . I have bee
e e ta tin g g rather than living, and nobody writes the
- in h istory of a plant . But to day, for the first time my
' I - life, feel myself to be a man , for it is to day that I ’ n i n ! have begu to love . Yes , I m love The great sa : o u y is said y may reveal it to all your friends , to — I the entire universe , to Heaven itself only wish it
would go so far . That fellow Meo, colder though less v irtuous than Hippolytus, that same Meo, whom you used to accuse O f having a heart as frozen as a n E n g ’ f lishm a n s n o w O . , is burning with all the fires love He has at last experienced the violent commotion which upsets the most deep - rooted ideas and the most unbend i n u g resol tions . Shall I draw you a portrait of her
? N G O whom I love 0 . look at the sun the first time
fle e c he rises among the y clouds of morning , and be persuaded that in comparison with her he is far from ’
a sk she . brilliant . Don t me if is rich and noble I — bel ieve she belongs to the middle class the most in t e lli e n t m in g , the ost honorable, and really the first this she h O f country . But were even the daug ter a beggar, you know that O bstacles O f such a nature should never
u r stand in o way when we are in love . But there are
she others that I foresee , which herself has warned me 4 5 M E O .
‘ ’
f. ou . o It would cost y your life, said she Perhaps it is some rival ! Let him come ! I will teach him what my friends and enemies know equally well , m na ely, that fire and sword are only playthings to the
s . ons of the House of Miranda But this name, which
I have no longer the right to bear, recalls me to busi ’ n sa ness matters (I wo t y serious business matters, for
is there nothing more serious than love), to tiresome business matters . Send me back the thousand crowns w n hich I have been remitti g you , a penny at a time , during the last five years, and which , together with my
in future savings, were to be employed buying back the lands and title of Miranda . This money is absolutely necessary to me j ust now, for of course you foresee that Meo in love is no longer going to degrade himself by
it ca n O f working . Add to as much as you your own ,
~ without forgetting, however , that I may never be per
b a ck haps i n a condition to pay you a cent . In short, aid me to be happy ; that is all to which henceforth aspires, “ u Yo r most faithful and devoted friend , N BARTOLOMEO ARNI , who is not in a fair way of ever becoming again T H E COUNT OF MIRANDA .
Sili r T he . v e o Dire c next letter was addressed to M g ,
f — - tor O the Franco Italian printing house at Paris .
MO ST R ESP ECTED SI R : I should be the m ost uh grateful and the vilest of m e n if I could ever forget the gen erous readiness with wh ich you supplied me w ith i t the means of existence that day when , an ex le and wi h 4 6 R O U G E E T N O I R .
the . out resources , I knocked at your door for first time
O f m in e x e r i By giving me, i n spite y acknowledged p
ence , the very honorable and sufficiently l ucrative post i of proofreader, you l terally put bread into my mouth . ' sir le a v e o u Be assured , then , my very dear , that if I y
— a n d w to day , without warning ithout preparation , now that my services have become somewhat val uable to you , it is not through a cowardly desire to avoid paying a
debt of gratitude , but rather because I am no longer
master of myself, a force superior to my wil l having
assumed a n absolute sway over my soul . Of this irre sistible force need I m ention the name ? N O one ha s
ever arrived at your age, my dear and excellent sir , without experiencing at least once al l the violence O f l ! ove . Ah if I could only show you the divine l ittle
i n a n hand which I pressed mine hardly hour ago, you would be the first to encourage me in my desertion of w ork and in my resolution to give up everything for my
th e - th passion . I am aware that I leave printing o ee
greatly embarrassed by my departure, and that, occur ri n g a s it does at a moment when yo u are overcro wded
w n ith work , my abse ce will cost you some money ; but can money be weighed i n the balance against happiness Put yourself in the place of a m a n who has never been
i n love before, and who is now really in love for the
se fi rst time of his life . How could he apply himself ‘ r io usly to anything but his love 7 “ O f Accept, then , my dear sir, my resignation the post which you have been so kind as to confer upon
in O f me, and believe the eternal gratitude your much ” devoted B . NARNI . N B C . 4 7
e te two He these letters without hesitating , or seek ing for a word , letting his pen run freely under the sen tim e n t of the moment ; nor w a s he a j ot more embar ra sse d while scribbling O ff the following curiosity
T O S SS I ta lia n THE ILLU TRI IMA SIGNORA AURELIA ,
O e ra P a r is p , . — DEAREST AU R E L I A z Do you remember telling O w a s w me ften that I colder than ice , and that I kne nothing at all about love ? Still I fancied I was in love
o u f in c re d u with y , and suf ered so much at seeing you t lous , that to convince you I got by heart all the mos violent expressions ever used by the poets for the pur O f pose painting the passion . Now at last I feel that
w . you ere right, and your reproaches j ust, for I have i j ust experienced a new and strange sensat on , the like
in of which , all the previous course of my life, I never so u a s a n d m ch guessed at . I am burning freezing at the same time ; my heart beats furiously, and then of a sudden seems to lose all movement . I feel myself at
in once as bold as a lion and as timid as a lamb ; short, ’ I m another man altogether . You could easily under
if H o w stand my madness you had only seen its cause . beautiful she is! \Vha t heavenly eyes ! W hat a n e n ! chanting voice Her whole person exhales, as it were, i s . innocence and candor . She an angel From this
in if moment my life is her hands, for I do not succeed i n marrying her, I will quit this world at once , rather h t an see her wedded to another . Thus I am at the samel time the happiest and the most miserable of men . Shal I not go talk to you about my pleasures and my suffer ings ? W hy should not a good friendship exis t between 4 8 T O R R O U G E E N I .
? us m e a s y a s If you really love , you say ou do , and
I firmly bel ieve , you will interest yourself in a . matter which has become the only and final aim of all my aspi w rations . I ill speak to you about her ; you will con sole me in my troubles ; you wil l counsel m e i n my dangers ; you will even aid me if aid be necessary . It
t O f is a par worthy such a heart as yours . In return , rely forever on the sincere friendship a n d eternal devo ” m f M E tion of yours ost af ectionately , O .
He who thus laid bare h is soul with the simple ego tis m and unthinking si ncerity of a ch ild , was one of
O f y the boldest and most distinguished men young Ital . N Bartolomeo , or more familiarly Meo , arni , citizen of the noble city of Bologna, was the last scion of a family as old as the Gaetani or the Pepol i . In the grand hall
O ld O a ra c c i of his palace , Annibal has painted the three
Kings O f the East prostrated before the arms of . the
Mirandas (a golden star on an azure field), with this
flf ir a n d R ion s m heroic device a eg . The inco e of this 1 8 50 illustrious house amounted , even in , to seven or
M e o eight thousand dollars a year , and , young , brilliant,
c edu ated in one of the best schools in Piedmont, cut a
- great figure in the eyes of h is fellow citizens . His dis tin u ishe d g name, his generous disposition , the spirit with which he expressed the fashionable ideas O f the
e his time, all marked him out, in spit of extreme youth , for the suffrages of the Bolognese . He was elected
O f A i n R member that ssembly ome, which Prime
R . Minister ossi , to his own misfortune, had convoked “ He was also made a Deputy under the R oman R e ” b u t public, the honor of representing the people cost
50 R O U G E E T N O I R .
- had A corn speculator, named Giacomo Filippo , the lands and the title O f Miranda assigned him for eighty thou
Fo r s lt sand francs . thi last o alone did our madcap bethink h imself of stipulating for the right of re d e m p tion ; not because the land was worth double the price paid for it, but because whoever had the land had the
W s title too . hen all his account were squared , he found h imself as bare as St . John in the desert .
Thus comfortably settled in the world , he started for
France , where he knew nobody , and he passed the best years of his youth in eating dry bread on the streets of 1 8 5 2 him Paris . In , an honest printer furnished with the means of l iving, at a moment when the portraits of his ancestors were his last resource . Thanks to good
Silive r o - old g , twenty four generations of the Mirandas were saved from the picture - dealers as miraculously a s
Moses from the waters of the Nile . You know the it rest of the story . An incredible part of is , that a young ma n who earned less than s ix hundred dollars a
sum year, could have managed to save the of a thousand dollars in five years . But the Ital ians , high and low ,
- can exercise at a pinch the most heroic self denial . These salad and macaroni - eaters have received from n ature a simplicity of taste which is in itself at once riches and independence . Unhappy is the man who ! has wants The superb Meo, who in his time had rev ’ e lle d in fortune s smiles as j oyously as another, easily i accustomed himself to l ve on a l ittle . He took his meals in some hole unknown to gods and men but he
f n o w was al ways dressed like a lord , dran k his cof ee ’ and then at Tortoni s , and was never without some small chan ge to give the poor . It was the only way he ever thought of getting rid of them . I C S 1 N N O E N T D R E A M I N G .
R I CHAPTE V.
C S INNO ENT DREAMING .
HEN a man at the age for falling in love , that is
sa m - fi v e to y fro fifteen to seventy , has met in the theatre or at a bal l a woman who has pleased him , he carries away in the bottom of his heart a little stock of pleasure which is not used up in a single day . For a
b e whole week , someti mes even longer , is haunted by an after - ta ste of tenderness ; he looks on the world with a more sympathizing eye ; and he finds in the most in di fferent O bjects something that reminds him O f the d W - elicious aroma of love . ith day dreamers this state of indolent enj oyment lasts longest ; they w ho relish it most are those secluded and languish ing hearts that take a month to digest the perfume of a rose . They abandon themselves without an effort to the current O f a sweetly ' ’ pensive hope ; in memory s magic mirror they gaze with delight on the enchanting and well remembered face ; and to make the most of their charming dream , they obstinately shut their eyes against the glaring light O f real ity .
so But this very face, which we had stowed away
O f preciously in the depths our heart, which had been at so a first bright and clear and sharply outlined , after
d is few days begins to change . It grows blurred and t o rte d a n d , the imagination i nvests i t with a thousand i capricious features . It s soon as faint and shadowy as the form O f the early angler that we discover through the mists of morn ing at the other end of the meado w . 5 2 R O U G E E T N O I R .
A secret instinct warns us that it is about to disappear .
\Ve i t a n d n f grasp at try to retai it, but our e forts are
O f vai n . Our hands are as empty as those Ulysses when he tried to seize the fleeting phantoms of his O ld friends . At last it vanishes forever , unless some lucky meeting o n ce more brings before our eyes the bright
O f f origi nal the aded portrait . It was thus that Meo came very near losing the i mage f of the air Emma . For a whole month he had aban
u doued himself q ietly to the mere pleasure of lovi ng, w in hich exists us all . He fancied somehow or other
she fa r O ff that did not live very , and he calmly waited O T o or for some pportunity of seeing her again . his pp t un ity he made no efforts whatever to seek ; you would have said that he made a scruple of forcing chance to be in his favor . Every time that he closed his eyes and ’ sa w the sunny locks on Emma s pretty little head , the
O f a s veins his neck swelled , j ust, in fact, if Cupid had seized hi m by the throat . He told his love to every body friends and strangers were al ik e regaled with the o v e rflo w in gs of his heart ; b ut he felt no immediate necessity for repeating to Emma what he had O nce said “ . m to her If some one ca e and said , You wi ll never ” se e her again ! it m ight perhaps have given hi m a mortal shock ; still he was not very impatient to see
a s her immediately . He loved passively , j ust we feel
heat or cold . It was only the thought of danger that aroused in
wa O f hi any y the vigor s character . He imagined he
so w had a rival , and , thinking , he was al ays provided
with an excellent dagger . He was one of the most b ut u peaceful of men , he had his own Ital ian idea abo t C S 53 I N N O E N T D R E A M I N G .
the removing of O bstacles . If his rival had been pointed
r m out to him in the st eet, he would consider it a ere
o n e a l matter of course to kill him the spot, not from j o us y or wounded vanity, but simply to have a rival no longer . m O f In the idst these thoughts , he became aware one m orning that the image of the beautiful Unknown was not nearly as distinct in his memory as usual . This
l his surprised him . He c osed eyes to examine the
the better, but features of the enchanting countenance began to float about as confusedly as the reflection of a R castle i n the rapid current of the hine . The colors All were as bright as ever, but the outline was gone . his efforts to fix it only helped to efface it still more .
‘ w a s He li ke the awkward fellow who , wishing to get a
- better look at the l ittle water color pai nting , cleaned it ’ O fi very nicely with his sleeve . Then he was seized b itte r lv with despair, and he moaned and lamented as
O ver his illusion as if it were dead , because he felt it to But m se t be dying . at the sa e time he the springs of
s his will i n motion , and he began to cour Paris l ike a wood to se e if he could beat up Emma .
m Bitte r lin On her side, Made oiselle had carried away in the bottom of her heart a tender little remembrance,
a s weak and puny an infant picked up under an arch , and she nourished it secretly . On her return home, a h after the great adventure of her life , her only and sorbing sentiment was fear . She trembled lest the Cap ’ tain s eye should read what was written in her soul , and the fact of the matter is that her tell - tale countenance w a s absolutely as transparent as crystal . The day , she
a n she r thought, would never come to end , and t ied to 5 96 E T R O U G E N O I R .
ff hurry through it by doing a hundred di erent things . She hust le d about more than usual ; she could h ardly bear to sit still a moment ; she was like a little bird i n the wood , j umping from limb to limb . She tried to sing , but the tone of her voice was no longer natural ; l instead of soft and sweet, it sounded harsh and meta lic . She dared not look at her father or at her accomplice ’ Agatha . She was so much in dread of the Captain s f “ ? ” amiliar question , What are you thinking of that in his presence she was afraid O f thinking at all . Her heart was like a hiding- place where we have secreted some ill - gotte n treasure ; we are afraid even to look towards it ourselves, for fear that doing so might render it suspected by the eyes of j ustice .
Her father took her to the J a r d in d e s P la n te s . She
in a h had not been there for a long time, and her
sun sence, spring had made some progress . The was s warm , and fragrant blossoms clothed the early tree .
The Captain railed at the mud , abused the little boys that drove their hoops between his legs , and execrated
O O f c the stale dor the lila s , which gave hi m the head ache . But his daughter inhaled with delight these light perfumes of the young year ; she tripped over the moist earth as lightly a s over a velvet carpet ; she even thought the candy moustaches O f the childre n made them i look prettier . The white bear wagged his head wear ly hi f over s trough O dirty water . Emma looked with
s i compa s on on the poor melancholy exile , and considered
i . i his countenance quite nteresting But the g rl , who
h itherto had been a regular little babbler, and always
accustomed to think aloud , now forgot to impart a single
n thought to her father . O ly the previous even ing , she C S 5 5 I N N O E N T D R E A M I N G . had been as lavish of her ideas as those prodigals are of their money who give it to everybody and keep noth h ing for themselves . But the moment t at we begin to
r e l ay something by, is the moment when we begin to trench our expenditure .
Night came at last . After a dinner passed in silence, and an evening more gloomy than usual , Emma, safe and sound in her room , hurried through her even i n g toilet, slipped shivering into her little blue bed , ex tin uishe d g the candle, and said to herself, almost aloud , ” Now I m at home ! It w a s then that she cautiously groped her way down into the most secret recesses O f it her soul , and , curious to know all about , she began to dissipate the light clouds t hat kept troubling the se re n it she y of her conscience . The ideas that had been
o f n putting ever since the morning, now came crowdi g
a on her all at once , and , in the tumultuous assembl ge,
a n she did not know where to begin . The fine lords d
in l a dies the gilt frames, the bewildered countenance of
t he i poor Agatha, beautiful young man , the mpudent
- sc—hool boys, her father the Captain , and the white bear what a legion ! How could she entertain so many
a t ? visitors once But, little by little , the secondary i personages w thdrew into the background , and the
m a n R u e t Ca the rin e young of the S . remained stand in g alone in a grand blaze of light, like some glorious R i saint of aphael , whose radiant nimbus llumi nates the whole picture . Emma wa s n ot yet quite certain that he was good
O f looking , and that a woman might be proud appear in a r m a g in the street on his . She had been d zzled by
his i a n d she . br lliancy, that was all could remember 56 T R O U G E E N O I R .
The poor ch ild was only a novice in the ways O f the world . She had not the practised glance O f the experienced d O f amsels society , who measure a man from head to
a n d foot , note all the strong weak points of his charac
a n d i n ter, , short, enable themsel ves to write out his t passpor , without once even looking at him or even ff o . a taking their eyes their embroidery This t lent, l ike that of the Sporting gentleman who never makes any
s O f in thing but winning bet , demands a series stud ies
O f the science comparison , and can not be acquired with “ ” a out passing few years in the ring . But Emma,
se t - having never foot i n a ball room , of course had never witnessed a race between those young steeds that
t Ce lla r ius w ho the grea trains to run for a prize , and a re married O ff as soon as possible when they can run no more .
She could not tel l whether his figure was fine , his
se t - hair well , his eye bright, or his leg wel l shaped . She had been so poorly raised that she had no idea of
- what we call a wel l made man . She knew little more O f the O pposite sex than that she had always avoided
h o n t em the sidewal k . But she remembered that the stranger was young and poor, brave and respectful , kind a n d u him melancholy . She felt gratef l to for having defended her , and for not having followed her . Above all , she remembered these words, wh ich had flashed “ through her heart like an electric shock , I wi ll love ” you a llmy life ! This sentence rang continually in
e a rs f m w a her , and whatever e forts she ade to drive it a y , w t it al ays re urned , more importunate and more barmo i b n o us . An invisi l e orchestra played infinite variations “ on this monotono us but charming theme . He is surely
5 8 T O R O U G E E N I R .
! ” the better I am rather i ncl ined to think , however ,
bit w so that she her l ips at the ords, m uch the better ! ”
she n s Had been surrou ded by the plea ures of her age , no doubt she would have forgotten in a week this stran ger, who was really nothing to her . But it is dangerous
a n d w t to isolate a young girl , to shut her up i hi n her
if i n re self, particularly company with something to
f s member . Her ather, eeing her thoughtful one day, said What ails you “ ? ” Nothing ; w hy do you ask ’ ” u o u D n ? Yo re s q iet . O you want amuseme t
Not at all , papa ; I have amusement enough all to
myself.
k e t he r She p thoughts to herself, not sharing them even with stout Agatha ; indeed she considered them too
u absurd to be talked about . She even caref lly avoided
h he r touching on the subj ect at al l wit , as if poor Agatha had n o t l ong ago forgotten every single particle
of the adventure .
One morning that the Captain had left them together, Agatha said Made moiselle !
Hold your tongue, replied Emma, putti ng her ’ “ sa hand on the servant s mouth . I order you not to y ” one word about it . But about what ? ”
About what you wanted to talk about . ’ You don t want me to tell yo u that my stone - grate is burned ! I tell you I must have a n e w one : it saves ” coal . C S 9 I N N O E N T D R E A M I N G . 5
Emma , nevertheless, remained quite persuaded that Agatha had been trying to open the door for co n fi d e n tial disclosures , and she admired herself for having kept
mum she her secret . A month later, of her accord , broke
n this profound silence . She was going to church o e
i n t he morning company with Agatha, for Captain took
m a n o n her everywhere but there . The amiable was
a s bad terms with the other world well as with this .
r Emma stopped a moment, and said , looking st aight ’ into the servant s eyes “ ’ in You ve no longer any confidence me, then ’ W hy don t you tal k to me about our lover ? W ? ” hat lover asked Agatha .
IVh w the y, our protector, you know, ith black beard ; him w ho said he was going to love us all his ” life . Are you thinking of him “ is us ! I no more than he of But tell me, Agatha, why do men am use themselves in tell ing us stories that they forget the moment after ? ‘Nhat do they gain by it ? \Vho , do they think , are fooled by their stories “ ’ ’ ” d M e n I on t know, I m sure, replied Agatha . h ave never told me any stories . But I can understand
ca n in o u how a man fal l dead love with y . Good rea ” son for it ! Oh I give them all permission to fal l dead in love ’ w re m ore ith me, if they not troublesome than the first ” one . “ ” R r o u a r e him ? eally, then , thinking about
I should not know him if I met him . w As she said these ords, all the blood of her heart
a s . crimsoned her face , if to give her the lie . She had 6 0 R O U G E E T N O I R . ’ n Pa ul o t s. j ust seen Meo standing the steps of S . At h i a s e . e v l st, then thought He was look ing for her ’ d e n tl VVo me n s y, but he had not yet seen her . eves
“
are quicker than ours , and when we cross glances
with them , the man is the first hit . Emma profited by her advantage to examine with attention that fine face which had commenced to become rather indistinct
in her memory . She found it less florid , more sombre,
sud and far more interesting than on the first day . But d e n ly it lit up the eyes sparkled the recog n ition had
been m utual . The stranger sal uted her eagerly , and with such demonstrations O f j oy that Emma was afraid she should see him make a dash for her right through
the crowd . She hurried stout Agatha along, and flung
c hurc h a s herself into the into an asyl um , while Meo,
too much excited to stir a foot, remained nailed to the
spot . The two women thre w themsel ves kneeling on the
u n chairs, poor lame Agatha ready to drop from such “ W ? ” usual exertion . hat on earth ails you said she
to her mistress . “ ’ Did n t you se e h im He was standing before the ” church . He is pursuing us .
VVllO ? ’
e . H . O W , I tell you There s not two of them ’ stupid you are ! “ ! Oh now I understand , said Agatha, who really
had not the least idea of what was going on . Emma read her Mass that morning with unusual fer
e n vor . She was no d votee, havi g l ittle more piety than is generally acquired in good boarding—schools
s O f but at the lea t appearance danger, timid souls take I 1 N N O C E N T D R E A M I N G S . 6
y refuge i n pra er . If you had seen her move her lips ,
b a c k close her eyes, throw her head in a sort of half
m e d ifi e d ecstasy , you would have been very uch , I am w her perfectly certain . But hile lips murmured broken
O f n sentences of the Latin text, two tears emotio gl it
te r e d — in her long eyelashes charming tears , which f the angels sought not to collect, but allowed to all to d earth , because very probably they had not been i ntende
for heaven . the It all went on very well till reading of the gospel .
a t the But, very first verse, the young girl was seized
with a strange uneasiness , wh ich was not however with
fi i out its charm . She found it as dif cult to read as f a
s un - f ray had come to dance on the pages o her missal .
In ho lv w a s Spite of her reverence for the place She in , she felt herself a ssailed at on ce by every roguish imp that waits on Cupid by the one who slips the portrait ' of an absent person i n between our closed eyelids ; by
the one who flutters around our ears, always murmuring the same n ame ; by the o n e that forces us to turn our ’ head towards those that we don t want to se e ; by the
w a i n one that makes a lover lose his y the park , until
t O f he is brought up, in spi e himself, before the door he detests by the one that waves under our nose an invisi
ble feather , fragrant with the perfumes of adored ring lets ; by the one that guides our han ds when we write
things that prudence absolutely forbids . Attacked on
al l sides by this buzzing multitude, poor E mma tried
O e t v . f recollect herself, but in ain In spite of al l her
n forts to d irect her thoughts inwardly, a secret agitatio
i d O mpelle her towards external bj ects . She felt some times a s if the band of winged imps had made their way 6 62 T R O U G E E N O I R .
a s - into her brain , into an ill guarded chamber,and that
w the O f they ere throwing furniture out the windows . For nothing in the world would she have turned her
r O f head a ound , so great was her fear finding herself
a a she f ce to f ce with the stranger . But raising her eyes , saw Meo sta nding in the Shadow of a pillar and a d m ir
a ing her quite at his c se .
A ssum tion s O f In certain p the Spanish school , you must have seen a group of disciples on their knees b e
ha s fore the miracle . Murillo best rendered the ecstatic
O f transport these believing souls . Holy faith Sparkles in their eyes ; their swarthy faces seem to be interiorly h burning with the mystic fires of divine l ove . Suc ’ pretty nearly was Meo before the Captain s daughter ; he w a s absol utely worshipping her . A woman Should have a singular turn of m ind indeed to feel offe nded at such worship as that ; and Emma naturally looked two or three times withou t much malevolence at the ma n h w o rendered her such discreet homage .
sa w n she She him agai on leaving the church , and m ade no scruple whatever i n ackno wledging his bow as
he saluted her and disappeared . Every Sunday after
him h sa w that She saw in t e same place . She sometimes
him on the sidewal k in the street before her windows .
m a n He always passed like a in a hurry , and even the Captain himself could have ne ver guessed what the im
T he portant business was . first consequence of these comings and goings was that the young people thought of nothing but each other during the rest of the week
a s O f m d and each the deserved to be love , they were ’ not long in doing each other j ustice . The Captain s watchfulness and their own timidi ty kept them a proper O C S 63 I N N E N T D R E A M I N G .
distance apart, but when their eyes met, it was like an embrace . Innocent young hearts ! I have heard a witty lady
Da u hin sa is from p y y that love fed like silkworms . A — little tender mulberry leaf satisfies them while young ,
- u but when full grown they eat p everything , even to the v ery j oists of the floor . m o e E ma said n day to her father, when he was al most “ : a w e i n good humor Dear little p pa, are going to live this w a y al ways
O ld m a n The made a grimace, and answered i n a tone “ half kind , half bitter Dear l ittle daughter , we re not
e going to live always , seeing that we are not i mm r ! m tal . Patience, child One of these fine ornings, the undertaker will rid you of your poor O ld shred of a ” a father . Emma wept seven d ys and seven nights, li ke ’ J e htha s p daughter, and her father pretended not to see it . But he gave stout Agatha an awful scolding , and ended by threatening to turn her out of doors if she ’ continued to be filling her young mistress s head with i deas . “ ! h it y! Oh the dear good eaven , is possible cried
- the poor creature, horror struck at such an accusation . ’ Ideas ! I m blessed if I know what in the livi n g earth an idea is ! ” 64 T R O U G E E N O I R .
CHAPTER V .
- B S THE PLAY ILL .
E O u so n , without a friend , and witho t a , was the
m e n O ld o S iliv e r o happiest of . His patr n , M . g ,
a n had answered him i n round terms, You are ingrate
in ingratitude is the worst of vices, and the Egyptians the good old times did right i n punishing it with death .
I only hope some day or other you will want me again . f I luxuriate in the idea of Shutting the door in your ace . Should desire or necessity ever impel you again to seek
y o u . employment, I would advise to apply elsewhere O In short, I take advantage of the pportunity to swear that henceforth I will never oblige anybody again .
Henceforward , I shall never interest myself i n the case
of any unfortunate man , however great his merits may seem , and your conduct is the cause of the whole of ” it .
The . Same day , his countrywoman , Signora Aurelia, t h R ue S . a t e rin e had hastened in a carriage to the C .
o n N O 4 She came down . l ike an avalanche, which in
she O ld fact really was ; but, not finding her friend at
home, she could not have the consolation of tearing his ’ eyes out . Falli ng back on the porter s lodge , she there
d a R id e told al l her sorrows to Monsieur and Ma me ,
in whom she saw for the first time . These good folks te r rupte d their dinner to listen to her lamentations . She had thrown herself on a chair with a famil iarity “ thoroughly Italian ; she called the porte r my dear
6 T R O U G E E N O I R . o ur adversaries only ten . If the appeal wh ich they have lodged a s a last resource is not granted by the
R ota sha lla , I h ve gained my suit, provided , of course ,
S e n a tur a n o t that the g does reverse the decision . The
- R ota twenty one decisions rendered by the , for and
us R n against , have cost me a thousand oma crowns apiece ; the whole s uit then will have cost me t w e n tv
wn if one thousand cro s I gain it, and if I lose it I am
w a re irretrievably ruined . But hat riches or poverty ? to a heart really happy For fifteen years , not a cloud i has disturbed the serenity of our love . It is n vai n that the j ealous Marquis tries to frustrate our plans te n times a week we contrive to se e each other every day
b m n . a i n pu lic, but very seldom i n private The would
- tie poor Hersilia to the leg of his arm chair, if he dared you know yourself that he never left her chain very
‘ in fi r mitie s h m a s long . His serve i a pretext for keep in g her i n the house ; he is quite hyppish . The worst is of it is, no one can tell when he going to get well he
h sub m a y bury us all yet . Hersilia waits on him wit a i n w lime devotion . Many a woman her place ould rather help him to his grave . I have free access to the house on all occasions, though the Marquis, I am sure,
O t regards me with secret hostility . Very f en in his very
- i presence, in his room, near his arm cha r, a glance from Hersilia or a pleasant word suppl ies me with happiness for the rest of the day . In the masked war that I pa tie n tl o n y wage against him , his own ground , I have on i my s de Hersilia, the servants , and the whole city ; his only ally is his great booby of a so n whom we shall soon l get rid of, p ease goodness , by means of a good marriage . O In spite of all troubles, all ppositions , all j ealousies, - 7 T H E P L A Y B I L L S . 6
I actually l ive in paradise, for not a moment passes a m wit hout reminding me that I love and beloved .
Dear Meo , once i n the early period of our happiness, ’ \Vh you were our confidant . y can t I have you here now to share with you my pleasures and my pains !
a n d Hersilia is becoming dearer dearer to me every day . Do you remember how pretty she was sixteen years ago ’ M a rche tti s 1 8 4 2 ? at ball , in At present, since nature
she has put the finishing touch to her beauty , is really
t a t e divine . a sweet harmony unites our souls ! W w understand each other ithout uttering a single word , as if Nature had placed within us the two halves of the
W h ? a sk same heart . y are you not here I again . I d shoul so like to tell you about her, and to recite for you — with living , burning words this sweet l ove poem that the p e n is wholly powerless to write . Well ! Man does not command fate . But, near or distant, remember that
I am your other self, and as such I remain , with my person and all my . worldly goods unreservedly at your
: M A R SO N disposal G . L m P . S . I had almost forgotten all about that iser able gold of yours . In conformity with your desire, I i t . have put at six per cent on the first mortgage . It
i st lst w ll be due, with accrued intere , on January ,
Meo required no further encouragement to begin sell
his ing his ancestors . His cash was all gone ; furniture, o l ng since reduced to what was absolutely necessary ,
him a s could not keep al ive a month ; for his j ewels , he and they were i nseparable —they formed a part of i him . Meo w thout j ewels would be Meo no longer . t Pardon him this little weakness . Nothing was lef 68 R O U G E E T N O I R .
t l then but his family portrai s , which he had smugg ed w i nto Paris out of Italy . He did not kno exactly what the whole collection might be worth , but he did know that the list bore the names of the greatest masters of
O d e r i i a the Bolognese school , from g , a contempor ry of
Pa sin e lli R - A u ustulus Dante , down to , the omulus g of that long dynasty . Among other rare pieces , it con ta in e d t he a Francia (which Louvre has not), and a ’ b 1 600 lady s portrait painted by Al ano i n , when that
in - artist was his twenty second year, and used to paint large pictures for churches . The three Caracci , Domeni e hin o o n , and Guercino daubed with black , lived there ’ friendly terms with Guido of the rosy fingers . I don t
S peak of the twenty or th irty others, tolerable, bad , or miserable, which of course were to be found there as
re well a s in all other portrait galleries . Meo coolly
O f viewed the sacred legion his ancestors, like a shepherd selecting from a flock the animals that he wants to sell . He reserved the oldest and the latest portraits ; the former , because they proved the antiquity of his family ; the latter, because they reminded hi m of some relations
n d that he had known a loved . Five or six others he also laid aside, because they represented the most cele b ra te d a personages of the house of Mirand , or those w ith whom he felt most sympathy . General Augusto
w a s 1 5 25 Narni , for instance , who killed in at the battle of Pavia, and likewise the beautiful Olympia, who took w poison sooner than marry a Bentivoglio, ere exempted
m O ff fro the sale . The rest were packed straight to ’ L a ti n o lle s — M g , to the curiosity shop of a ilanese picture d i n f ealer, who traded old originals and manu actured w them too . Meo kne him but slightly , whereas the — S 9 T H E P L A Y B I L L . 6 other was very well acquainted w ith the Miran da
m a n gallery . As soon as the young had acquainted
O ld him with his resolution , the rogue says to him : You c a n make fifty thousan d francs out of your pic fi ve . tures, or hundred , j ust as you please Shall we take R the whole collection to the City Auction ooms , with
e m ittin out g a Single one, not even the portrait of your father the Count ? In that case we shall get out im mense posters all over Paris , announcing the sale of the
a n d Miranda gallery, complete unreserved . Your col lection is wel l known : amateurs will come ; plenty of money will come too . But what you bri ng me here is neither complete nor authenticated . Signatures prove n othing out of a celebrated gallery . Every week I ” O ld m Sign a picture with the name of some aster . ” M o But the pictures are good ! exclaimed e . ’ ’ I don t deny it, but they ll bring nothing if you ’ ’ don t listen to me . Such amateurs as buy, don t care ‘ a j e t for good pictures ; a celebrated gallery is all they trouble themselves about . Your Francia, which ’ is worth ten thousand francs in a collection , won t bring ” a hundred and fifty if sold separately . But Meo was too proud to stick up the Miranda
- family on bills at the street corners , and well the dealer ’ knew it . The poor fellow s sensitiveness and his utter ignorance of business matters left him , bound neck and
o heels, c mpletely at the tender mercy of the cunning
in Milanese . He acknowledged innocently that he was
r e love, could not bear to work , and had not a single
u in so rce left the world ; for the present, a crust of
d him fo r bread suffice his future, he trusted altogether to luck , being utterly ignorant in what quarter anything 70 R O U G E E T N O I R .
' could turn up in his favor ; still he w o uld n o t con sent o n any account that his family should be exposed to a
in public sale . He bargained more ti midly than a thief ’ a receiver s d e n higgling over the plate he has stolen ; a n d he took two t housand francs for a treasure t well worth twenty or thir y ti mes as much . A certain i O f — him nstinct self defence, however, i nspired with the
n the idea of stipulati g for right of redemption , as he had d o n e when selling his title ; to this the broker
y n readil consented , his mi d being quite easy as to the ’ brilliancy of poor Meo s prospects . It was then agreed u pon and drawn up in writing that M . Bartolomeo
Narni , formerly Count of Miranda , could redeem his
ancestors at any ti me within two years, on the payment ’ of o n e thousand R oman crowns (about Vi ha t
ever might happen , the purchaser was pretty sure of
having made a good in vestment . To a crazy fellow who l ived altogether in the present
s u m i n moment, the of two thousand francs ready him money was quite a fortune, for it enabled to exist a whole year without bestowing a thought o n anything
but his love . I have already told you how he employed the first leisure moments that he had obtained by the
l am m i n sa e of his f ily . To meet E ma at church or the
se e street, to her at her window, to send her occasionally
in a look full of fire , to receive return a little glance n ot - over cruel i n its expression , such were the elements of the contemplative felicity that satis fied him for a
long time . If from contempl a tion he passed one morning to a c
Bi rli . tte n w a s tion , M alone the cause . The very day after that o n which the Captain had threatened to turn E P - B I S 1 T H L A Y L L . 7
t wo Agatha out of doors, Meo met the women on their
a n d sa w h way to church , he by t eir eyes that they had H is m been weeping . first movement was to accost the unceremoniously , the natural consequence of which was that they sprang ba c k a s Shrinkingly as if they had f trodden o n a serpent . But hle was too much a fected by their sorrow to mind their a arm , and he said to Emma , w ithout any preamble and a s if continuing the mute conversation that they had been holding together during
: the last month My angel , my life, my love, who is the man that has ma de you weep Shall I kill h im ” a n d is ! Say the word , it done
Startled at the sudden meeting and at such an address, trembling lest her father had followed her, and quite
r beside herself both from su p rise and fear, the young
she girl replied as hurried away , hardly knowing what “ ’ ’ she : B ut sir u ! ! said , , yo re mad I don t know you
! is Kill my father It he who has made us weep . He
r w ill neve consent to our marriage . He detests every
— : body , you , me, Agatha he has talked of turning her
! sa w us out of doors If he together, we should be all ” I n sir ! undone . the name of heaven then , , go away She redoubled her speed and ran O ff to the church
a n d without once stopping to take breath , without being aware that she was all the time mechanically clinging to ’ n Meo s arm . Her astonishment was inexpressible whe ’ h in - t P a uls s e S . found herself seated , a side chapel of , — between Agatha and the good looking stranger . The Mass which they heard that day was not entered
to their credit in the ledger of Paradise .
Meo , as an Italian , considered it quite natural to
a - t carry on love affair in church ; Emma, a far bet er 72 R O U G E E T N O I R
b ut u Christian , yielded finally , not witho t a severe
. im struggle At one time , reproaching herself for the
u O f she in pio s levity her conduct, would take refuge — her prayer book and prav w it h such feverish devotion that she h e ard no other sound than the murmur of he r l own lips ; at another ti me , she cou d hardly help yield ’ i ng to the pleasure of hearing Meo s poetic , passionate ,
ra fe w O and ext vagant language . A woman a Years lder and of a riper understanding would have perh a ps laughed at such a flood of i ncoherent and i nflated words , comically seasoned by a foreign accent and a rather c a
r ic io us p grammar ; but the infatuation of love, the most
i n contagious thing the world , by degrees gai ned the young heart that was already so well prepared for its reception . Meo was not a man of very great sense of that the history of his youth is proof enough ; he could not even ring any changes on the l ittle silver bel l which the French cal l wit . But all the wit and all the sense i n the world have not, i n the eyes of young girls
u bon a of nineteen , half the val ue of one grain of gen ine
d e a n d fi passion . The most d istrustful the most marble
- hearted of them all , thinks more of a good sized silly
ma n tear dropping from the nose of a of heart, than of the most elegantly expressed phrases in the most beauti ~ d c la a t io n ful and studied e . ’ a To a cool listener, Meo s language would have p
e a re d p not only absurd , but perhaps even sinful and a n d wicked . When a man without position without prospects assails a yo ung girl condemned to cel ibacy by the wish of her father ; when he stuns her c a rs by the v iolence of his sentiments ; when he swears that he
loves her to madness, and that he will die if he cannot
R O U G E E T N O I R
- h Agatha , who , not being quick witted , oug t to have
d a s . been suspicious , yiel ed bl indly as her mistress ’ she Don t be uneasy , dear child , said , in a whisper, to “ ’ Emma ; there s no sin in listening to good words ; it ’ n t W is every day we have a holiday . hile you l isten , ’ a I ll pr y double , so the dear good God will be no loser . Meo escorted them as far back as the corner of the
R u e d cs Vos e s a n d g , that was the end to all dread of the Captain or his thunderbolts . From that moment, e the weeks , hith rto so long , passed like lightning, in the expectation of Sunday . Meo discovered a way to make
cor re s o n them stil l shorter, by inventing a kind of p
a R ue d e s Vos e s dence . The rcade running from the g
P e o l - b to the la c R ya e is a famous Spot for play ills .
Every morning at half past eleven the Italian came there ,
n and , pull ing a pencil out of his pocket , he underli ed a printed letter here and there , so that the whole formed
a n m . words, sentences , and quite epistle for E ma Such
a n d a a j ob requires patience, is not al ways very e sy but he had served his apprenticeship at it in the days of his grand misery , when he used to correspond with his friends in Bologna by means of an old number of the
Debuts . Emma, walking out with her father , naturally stopped to read the bills announcing the amuse ments of W the day . hat pretext could the Captain invent for refusing her a gratification so innocent ? On the first bill appeared
o fin R I E c m m F AN QA S . 2 1 8 58 5 . J eudi , mai , ’ Le s co mé diens ordinaires de lE mpe re ur donneront
GABRIE LLE . - B S T H E P L A Y I L L . 75
o ff M a olie Emma had no difficulty in reading , j (my she pretty one), and in the other bills made out the rest of the letter . This same arcade was a favorite resort for the Cap
his a tai n himself. He too cast his eye , e gle eye, over the play - bills and always contrived to render them use
a ful i n teaching Emma some lesson in mor lity . He made her remark how the play - writers are reduced to give their productions the most absurd names for the purpose of attracting the public to the theatre ; of the plays themselves he spoke with contempt, and assured
w a s her that the French nation sick of them . You “ in d e e t are very happy said he, in knowing no more
f L e of such stu f than their titles . Just look at that .
ils u ’ h is L r ui F N at r e l. F t d W . e e y, it scandalous
u L o ie a it a r fe n d Absolutely immoral . a j f p e W hat wretched nonsense ! Le s Li on n e s p a uvr e s Wh a t does a ll 9 W h i that consist of y, rid culous stories without head or tail , and even indecencies very probably . The ’ rabble that write such trash don t earn enough to keep ’ m I . o u body and soul together, and glad of it Are y ? ” coming Emma, who had got through her reading, touched the corner of th e last bill with the dusty tip of her parasol , and the light mark showed Meo that his
i s letter had reached t destination . How the Captain would have sworn if he had even suspected that the v ery daughter he guarded so carefully w a s actually cor h responding wit her lover , and that too even before his o wn eyes ! so Towards the end of June , Emma had become de c id e d ly captivated that her only thought henceforth was i n Meo . All her ideas ran on him , every nerve her 7 ! O n o r m 6 U G E E T .
heart beat for hi m . The bril liant Italian had become w in her eyes a sort of demigod . She kne neither his w birth , his rank , nor his fortune but it is when we kno the least that we love the best . Had Meo been one of those unscrupulous lovers who consider everything they
find in their net as their own , the poor , in nocent, mother less girl would have no more resisted hi m than the women f w o mythology resisted Jupiter . But the honest fello n o more thought of even pressing her hand than you do of plucking to pieces a beautiful rose, or of crushing
n betwee your fingers the amber calyx of a magnol ia .
Accordingly, this secret and very i mprudent intercourse was of an ideal purity . Chance and sympathy had wedded two hearts , but it was like one of those unions which dipl omacy used to effect long ago between two i roya l ch ldren still in their infancy . — Stout Ag atha , however , with her good home spu n — m “ common sense , said to them fro time to time, All
in this is very fair and good , but what is it all to end
You must marry some time or other, and Master will ” never give his consent . ? Ho w do you know that repl ied Meo . He does ’ not know who I am . I ve a strong notion of going into the house with you and asking his consent . If he ” refuses me , I shal l be very much surprised , indeed . But Emma screamed with horror at such a proposi tion , and that was the end of it . “ i One morning Meo said to them , I have my dea .
W e shall enter the church together , and go straight to ‘ ’ sa . i ! a priest . I shall y to him , This is my w fe and ’ o u ! y will add , This is my husband He will give us his blessing anyhow . Such a thing is often done in — S 7 T H E P L A Y B I L L . 7
d id sa Italy Emma not exactly y no , but Agatha assured them that such a marriage would be good for nothing in France . n the Another day, Agatha i formed lovers that they ’ Bitte rlin s w . ere rich . She had been counting up M i ncome . His yearly pension was eighteen hundred francs his inheritance brought him two thousand ’ ’ francs a year ; Emma s mother s dowry was the regu w lar t elve hundred francs a year , without which no
in woman is permitted to marry a captain ; short, the total income was about fi v e thousand francs a year, and the Captain had been saving at least two thon 1 48 sand francs a year since 8 . ? ” ’ What of that said Meo . I don t want any ” money .
You have enough of your own then asked Agatha . “ ’ ” No ; but I don t want any . ’ m W use It is true, added E ma . hat is the of ’ v e money ? I never had any money , and what have I been the worse for it ? ”
M e o in d , France , now began to stu y the laws in his own country he had helped to make them . He turned “ ” - - over the Thirty Seve n Codes in a reading room . He learned from this i nvestigation that Emma could ’ u n ot she marry witho t her father s consent, but before — had arrived at the age of twenty one , and had thrice respectfully demanded permission . He thought it too l e ng to wait . Emma wished to examine the same sub
o w n j cet herself, and with her l ittle hands she carefully ’ - d is rummaged through her f ather s law books . She covered that her happiness absolutely depended on the l Captain for two years an d some months onger . 7 x 78 O R O U G E E T N I R .
This gloomy prospect i n spired her with an heroic W’ . n a n resolution ithout consulti g y one, she seriously
s sought an audience with the ma ter of her destiny, and said to him , with her own l ittle air of decision ’ ” m My dear father , I i n love . ! ” “ Just li ke you roared the Captain . Who the
’ I m i n love with a young m a n that you will like very much yourself as soon as you see hi m , and whom
I will present to you if you promise to do him no harm . Ever since the month of April we have been meeting each other, and corresponding together . He has my
his promise, and I have ; the only thing we want is ’ re your consent . If I were not your submissive and s e ctful p child , I would wait till I came of age, and then get married without your consent with no other dowry ’ than my mother s twenty - four thousand francs Some rascally lawyer has been giving you a lesson I
NO I n indeed , my dear little papa; have see it all ’ i n — your o w n law books . But I don t want to vex you i n so u any respect, I entreat you , in the name of all yo r kindness for me and of my love for you , to let me marry ” my lover as soon as possible . The Captain had laid it down as a maxim that chil d ren should be treated with mildness, and he severely condemned anything like corporal punishment ; but this hi time his anger got the better of s principles . The poor child received a pair of cuffs on the ear that you would
- al most think were too much for a blundering errand boy .
An hour later , Agatha was flying down stairs without counting the steps . The Captain nearly died of apo plexy, and perhaps he really would have started for the - S 9 T H E P L A Y B I L L . 7
his other world , only he was afraid departure might make some people happy i n this . ’ t Agatha entered straight into Meo s service, to dus the few pictures that were still left, and to hunt up news f she about Emma . Her light had been so hasty that found in her trunk collars, sleeves, wristbands, and al l u sorts O f things belonging to her mistress . She wo ld have restored them to the owner , even at the risk of having her bones broken , if the Italian had not i mme d ia te l m y seized the and made them his own , like cer tain pious devotees who have no scruple i n stealing whatever relics they can lay their hands on . He would
- w a s not even give up the big house key , though it a pound or two in weight, but, wrapping it up with the
his other treasures, he placed it next heart, and kept it there religiously n ight and day . It is not without some show O f reason that the Paris
m llf a r fi ians co pare the a s to a little country town . The ? ’ itt r lin s B e . whole quarter rang with M . resentment The good creatures told each other how the Captain had
a n d left his daughter for dead , flung the servant out of h the window . They insisted that poor Agat a had broken
le her g from the fall , and those who had seen her go off l imping were ready to swear to the fact in a court of ’ in j ustice . Everybody was interested Emma s unhappy
h s s e w a . fate , because pretty On the other hand , the ’ Captain s sour visage had never excited much sympathy his among neighbors , and more than one mother used ’ ’ sa o u r e ll to y to her chi ldren , If y not good , I j ust go
Bitte r lin N e bring in M . . o housekeep r, no servant was willing to succeed Agatha and expose herself to the same danger ; even the O ld porter and his wife almost 8 0 O R U G E E T N O I R .
m refused their services , and gru bled sullenly as they m the ade the beds . The keeper of a l ittle restaurant in P la ce R og/a le consented to send cooked provis ions to the ’ O - gre s well known den , but the waiter who carried them covered up in a basket, used to look at the Captain pretty m a s a uch people look t the common hangman .
Bitte rlin A fortnight passed without M . and his daughter ever being seen together . The windows were
O a pened every morning and evening , but nothing p ’ e a re d p there except the Captain s surly countenance .
The report. ra n that the pretty girl of the R u e d e s Vosg e s w a s she locked up i n a black hole , and that should never
ou t come again except feet foremost .
O f y Such reports, course, had greatl exaggerated ’ ff she Emma s su erings . Still , it must be said that was neither very free nor very happy . Torn from her only O f she friend , deprived of the sight the man whom loved ,
she shut up withi n four wal ls, the penance underwent w a s a decidedly very severe . Her f ther could never
r pardon her fo the ridiculous part he had been playing .
b se lf~ co n fi d e n c e This man , ursting with pride and , struck
his s h is wig angrily with clenched fist , whenever he
ho w Of - thought a little goose a girl , and a half witted
ha d creature from the country , disconcerted all his deep
laid plans of precaution . He foamed at the idea that a man had succeeded in winning the affections of a girl so
a well watched , and thence he drew the s ge conclusion
a that his wife, a thousand times less strictly gu rded , had t had it a housand times in her power to dishonor him . Perhaps he would have been a little more indulgent if
his daughter had made a full , detailed acknowledgment but of her fault ; Emma, seeing how her sincerity had
8 2 R O U G E E T N O I R .
” tenant with as hot a temper as yours ? B ut this time the s mile had given way to a more serious expre ssion .
n a n d He looked the Captai right i nto the eyes, said , almost severely ' ? ” M a y I dare to a sk how iS yo u r daughter His tenant answered in a tone which adm itted of no reply ' t My d aughter is j ust as I want her o be .
A n d w . , ithout waiting for his change, he left the room w i But the landlord follo ed him , murmuring very aud bly something about the abuse of paternal power, scan d a lo us tyranny , the publ ic opinion , the displeasure of
n the neighbors , the possible i nterventio of j ustice, an d — the w ell known sentence lately pronounced a gainst a couple who had ill - treated the children of a former mar
ia a r e . g The C ptai n pretended not to hear, but he felt very uneasy by the time he reached his own door . The porter r a n up stairs after him with an anony
O f in mous letter, written to hi m in the name all the habitants of the quarter . The unknown correspondent
- him called him Father Blue Beard , and ordered to show
h r his daughter at the window, if he had not murdered e .
a n d w Furious, he tore the paper to pieces, s ore he would
the quit accursed spot forever in three months .
n o t his But this was the end of surprises . At four ’ O clock he received a visit from a doctor well known
Jlf a r a is and highly respected in the , the very one who m had cured Em a of some sl ight i ndispositions, and had
Bitte rlin attended Madame in her last illness . ” “ W his ell , said he, laying aside cane, it seems my pretty l ittle patient wa nts me again I hope in good ” n ess you are exaggerating the thing . - B S 3 T H E P L A Y I L L . 8
W ? ” hat thing stammered the Captain , turning as ’ W ho red as a tomato . went after you ’ Have n t you sent your servant for me ? “ ’ ? No t —o r —I m I at all rather, yes, of course ” v ery much obliged to you , Doctor . ! Oh I see . The patient has recovered without the
h so permission of t e Faculty . Young people are irreg
e n e ? ular . She is g out, perhaps “ — sa se e Yes that is to y, no . Do you want to her ’ O n She s no prisoner, I assure you . I have no bj ectio to her seeing as much as she pleases of people of the ’ b right kind . Indeed , you ll e an invaluable doctor if i ” you only succeed n loosening her tongue . ’ ? W ! se e . Ah that s it, eh ell , we must about it w But hat is the matter with yourself, Captain I have e seen you look much better . B l ieve me, and get your
. N self bled some of these days o hurry, of course . But ’ ’ it s a useful precaution w hen one s cravat is rather ’ short . ’ r T he Ca pta in was choking with a ge . Had not the ’ morn ing s experiences rendered him somewhat watchful over himself, he would assuredly have thrust the poor ’ f O O . Doctor out the house He pened Emma s door, how ever , and said , quite gently
’ ' There s the young lady ; yo u ca n testify that she is ” not dead . The Doctor was no more in the confidence of the vic
a n tims than he was accomplice of their executioner . He had simply come to se e Emma because stout Agatha had gone to tell him that his presence was demanded i in mmediately . But he was not long scenting one of those domestic dramas that are played every day with 8 4 R O U G E E T N O I R
out witnesses i n all the corners of Paris . He thought h that Emma was seriously changed for the worse, thoug n either to n gue nor pulse Spoke of any d isease properly s f o called . He remarked that the ather and daughter avoided Speaking to each other and addressed him alone .
A secret irritation betrayed itself in every word , and ’ their eyes gleamed with a strange fire . The girl s looks
f a n expressed at once su fering , mutiny , and earnest de
n a sire for foreig ssistance . He had a high idea of the duties of his profession . He thought that doctors are put into the world for something besides enriching
W in apothecaries . ithout pretending then to meddle
m i n fa ily secrets, he began making up h is mind some prescription which he thought might improve the moral
health both of father and daughter . Emma was deeply
moved by the i nterest he took in her condition , and per
s d so haps she would have even a ked his aid , if oing would not at the same ti me necessarily compel her to divulge the secret O f her heart . “ f ? ” Have you been suf ering long , my child asked the Doctor i n a paternal tone . is f in But, Doctor , I swear to you there no su fering ” the case at all , repl ied the Captain , hastily . “ You are told the truth , Doctor . I am not at all ” sick A l ittle sad , that is all .
Yes, we have the vapors, added the Captain . ” My life is not made very pleasant here . ’ W e don t deserve premiums for good conduct . ’ m o u t I never let of the house, and watched while ” i n I m it . ” W e used to make a bad use of our liberty . ’ It is ea sy to find fault with those we don t love . - T H E P L A Y B I L L S . 8 5
t When we wan people to love us, we conduct our ” selves properly . b Some people are very unreasona le . ” Some people are very stubborn . This w a s the tone of the consultation for several m in utes . The Doctor put an end to it by taking leave of
his little patient . “ b c o me e . Come , , said This al l proceeds from
: . the nerves rely on me , Mademoiselle Emma Cap ’ m v e d e . tain , you one well to call Let us go into your room ; I want to compose a prescription which is to ” cure the whole family . W hen they were alone, the Doctor resumed Your daughter is not sick “T ell , what did I tell you ’ n t h W . s o s e ait a minute She sick , but may die .
You re trifling .
Not a bit of it . Can you tel l me the name of the ? N illness that killed her mother O . Neither can I .
v W o m e n are not like soldiers ; bullets and bayonet s are ff not necessary to kil l them . They sometimes die o
before our faces, and we should be sadly puzzled if we w ere required to tell why . Your daughter is j ust as
delicate as her mother . Her state demands the most ” exceeding care and attention . Wh she ! y, Doctor, gets attention enough For more ’ than two weeks past we have n t se t foot once outside the ” house . “ u So m ch the worse . Of all nutriments , air is the
. n O f most necessary Youth requires ple ty it , and of ex
croise too . Add to this a good dose of recreation , pleas
T he w a s ure, fun . ancients bel ieved that laughter good 8 8 6 R O U G E E T N O I R . ’ for the l iver . In any case it can do no harm: I don t know your intentions well enough to speak to yo u of a certai n heroic remedy which more tha n one of my c o n ’ r i r e s n f would order without hesitatio . Your answer w ould be that even a coll ier is master in his own house . ’ I a m very delicate about interferi ng in other people s
W so n business, even if they are my patients . hen the
sa says yes, and the father says no , I y nothing , but take ’ u p my hat and go away . That s something not in my
n l ine . But questions of health a d diet are the very m O f ainspring our art . It is only our duty to tell the
O f father of a family that a young creature n ineteen , de
ri v e d m in p of air, of exercise , of society , of amuse ent, is great danger of going out some fine morning as effect ua lly a s the light of a lamp does under the receiver of — ” an air pump . The Captain scratched his head in visible embarrass
ment . ” “ Doctor , he said , you have known me for a long
a m t . ti me . You know that I not at hear a bad man W hat am I to do ? ”
Al most nothing . Merely to understand that a girl as del icate as your daughter can not be disciplined with
the r e d like a R ussian soldier . You have the means
of amusing her . Take her to plays , to balls “ Never ! never ! ” ’ You re puritan ical ; well , let that pass . Take her ” to visit respectable families . Are there any ? ” ’ u Yo re a misanthropist ; very well , let that pass, the too . Take her out walking every day through city . ’ Cha M s - E lsee s Show her the places of resort, the p y , the ’ ” B o is d e B o ulo n e P r e C ate Za n - a n ! g , the , y place - B S 8 T H E P L A Y I L L . 7
“ — Stop there, Doctor . I have my reasons cogent
o u a reasons , y underst nd to mistrust such places . She m has seen too much of the already, the unfortunate crea ture ! Oh ! these Parisians ’ “ You re afraid of the Parisians ? Take her to the ! ” country, then , to Germany , to China
As m to that a nice trip to somewhere far fro here,
fa r very . Look here , Doctor, if I were a rich man , I ” se t O ff would this very evening . “ ! Oh everybody is rich enough to travel now, since railroads have come into fashion . I leave you to your
s . reflection , Good bye, for a while, Captain Keep cool , get bled , take your daughter out, and remember that the dearest of a lltrips is the j ourney to the grave yarr During all this time Meo had been running through
O f m the streets Paris, totally unable to keep still . So e w men ant to see everything and superintend everyth ing, as if the mere fact of their presence could have the slight e st ff e ect on destiny . One of this class is always present ’ i n his wife s chamber at the moment an interesting
is arrival expected , or behind the scenes during the first representation of his great drama, or beside the ballot box while they are counting ho w many votes he ha s got f for the o fice he is running for . Others, on the contrary, on such occasions, run away from their houses like mad men , and have not the courage to come back for fear of w as s learning their fate . It to this second cla s that
Meo belonged . He had sent Agatha for the Doctor, but his he was too uneasy to wait to hear the result of visit . ’ six in At o clock the evening, instead of returning to
an d o ut his lodgings finding it all from Agatha, he 8 8 R O U G E E T N O I R . paced all the streets i n the neighborhood of the R ue cle s
Vos e s - n g . The street boys , seei g hi m running wildly w back ards and forwards with a bewildered countenance, ’ m b ight have asked him if he had n t missed the omni us .
Pla e R o a le Old habit led h im to the arcade of the c y , where he had written so many pretty letters to Emma o n - i se e the play bills . He was very much surpr sed at i ng a little man there before hi m , the very image of the
w a s Captain . If it not h imself, it certainly was his shadow . The shadow was standing close to the wall ,
- pocket book i n hand , and copyi ng a bil l . Meo asked
Bitte r lin hi mself for a long ti me what sudden i nterest M .
le a could have taken i n dramatic it r ture . He watched
m a n a s w a s h is closely, and soon as the coast clear he ran up to investigate . The first obj ect that struck his eyes was an immense yellow poster lying a short dis
- tance beyond the last play bill . He first made sure that l — it . was here the enemy had ha ted A cigar stump , wh ich ’ l he had seen drop out of the Captain s mouth , was stil burning between two stones , and made it quite certain
‘ a n that that was the spot . He read then , with emotion a s him such poem nor romance had ever inspired with , m R an advertise ent of the Eastern ailroad, which com m e n ce d as follows
X C S O T O R GRAND E UR I N SWITZERLAND , THE HINE, — C E E T C c . THE GRAND DU HY OF BAD N, , ET .
Tiche ts o od o r O n e lllo n th w ith the P ri vile e o sto in g f , g f pp g
t a llthe P r in ci a lt ti on s e tc e t a S a . c . e tc . p , , ,
Once through his reading, he was no longer afraid of returning home ; indeed he dashed off at full speed and
90 O R U G E E T N O I R .
CHAPTER VI .
SS THE EIGHTH PA ENGER .
N - the twentieth of July , at half past seven in the
Bitte rlin hi . s evening , M and daughter were rolling a lo n g in a hack towards the terminus of the Eastern o R i a lroad . As they a scended the B oule va r d d e S éba sto
o l p , the Captain tried to look as gracious as possible, a n d said to Emm a ’ re Now you going to have a very n ice trip indeed , ’ so w m I hope you ill learn how to behave yourself. I
se e very good , you , and I want to sh ow you Switzerland ,
- e r the Grand Duchy of Baden , and Strasburg, where I p We l formed garrison duty before you were born . Shal spend a month at Luneville ; I will show you the gar den and the castle ; I will also Show you the humbl e A S roof beneath which your father first saw the l ight . to we come back , I may treat you a visit to the camp at
Chalons, provided of course that in the mean time you have been good enough to deserve it . Show me some return for all this kindness by your exemplary conduct . I shall never regret the m oney you cost me if you only go right straight on , without looking to the right or left at any of the conceited puppies that may be around you .
st e Begin at once , then , and p putting your head out of the windo w at the very m oment that your father does ” yo u the honor of addressing you . Emma commenced her tour to Switzerland pretty much as cowardly soldiers face their first fire at every
a . step they take, c sting a wistful glance to the rear It S S T H E E I G H T H P A E N G E R . 9 1 was n o w more than twenty days since She had heard
she h in from Meo, and imagined t at Meo was equally
a he r the d rk about her . Hence profound dej ection , w hich Only gre w more intense as every turn of t he w m heels took her farther and farther fro home . She ’ w a s yielding to her father s iron will from Sheer e x ha us ’ tion , for women s strongest resol utions always falter at the second determined attack ; but as the carriage rolled
wa s on , She addressing mentally the wildest and most desperate appeals to al l the powers of earth and heaven . O The earth , however, did not pen and swallow up the é' wheels , and heaven dropped no a rol ite right on the ’ is th e in d if crown of the dri ver s glazed hat . So great ference of Nature towards the sight of our miseries, that his u actually the Captain and da ghter, with all their
- trunks and band boxes , reached the terminus without t the slightest acciden . Emma shot o n e searching glance through the four corners of the w aiting - room but nothing prominent l ’ met her eye except an old Eng ish lady s set of teeth . Up to the very last m omen t she expected to se e the ’ hurried entrance of some providence in a traveller s
De us e a; ma chin a i n overcoat, some wrapped up a plaid but t hat was all she got by her expectations . The bell rang, the doors glided back in their grooves, the Cap tain seized his umbrellas ; it w a s time to get into the carriages .
Bitte rlin M . , who had had some experience in travel
his ling , at once elbowed way vigorously through the
r his c owd , and , followed by daughter, flung himself into a compartment of the first class . He was scarcely well in when he threw up fortifications as well a s he could 92 E R O U G E T N O I R . by shutting the door and letting do w n the bl inds ’ t r that s wha you do , you know, when you aspi e to travel by yourself. But a very nimble young married couple , from Germany , on their bridal trip , dashed up the
the steps and took possession of other two vacant corners .
t O m The Cap ai n was seated pposite E ma, and the bride m groo opposite his blooming bride . A moment after,
- two red headed men , the one tall and lank , the other
- short and stout, pitched after each other head foremost into the carriage . The tall one, who was a little ahead , ’ o n o n planted himself down Emma s dress, tramping ’ t a s the Cap ain s tenderest corn he passed by . The stout
sa t one down beside h im on the same seat . and al most squeezed the life out of the pl ump little German bride
O sitting in the corner pposite her husband . The Cap tai n must certainly have laid in a good stock of pa s w tiene , for, at all this he only growled and s ore a hi s . little under teeth But a new arri val , a young, good looking fellow , exceedingly well dressed , now came in , and sat down beside him on the right skirt of his over
u [lTrova tor e coat, h mmi ng all the time a snatch from
S a v e d ! sa v e d ! O Pr o vid e n c e Divi n e !
I th a n k th e e fo r a t a s , l t, d o b a n d d a n e r a st All u t g p , N ow fo r e v e rm o re p ur e ha pp in e ss is mi n e !
” ! his Sir cried the Captain , turning up moustache,
so far I have borne everything patiently, but this caps the climax ! ” W ? - hat climax , my dear sir asked the new comer . \Vhy could you not have gone i nto anoth er com ’ ’ ? a r tm e n t ? p , sir Don t you see we re sweltering here T H E E I G H T H P A S S E N G E R
sir s So much the better, ; the night are rather cool . At this moment one of the employé s O pened the
door, saying “ six ! Five, , seven ; one seat more This way, gen
tle me n ! , if you please
The Captain started up with a j ump , exclaiming
t is ! fi rst Sir, his intolerable I have come i nto a
class car riage to be alone with my daughter, and here you pack us on each other like herrings in a barrel “ I n Beg your pardon , Sir . , this compartment there ” are eight seats .
sir w But, , if you sto eight in here, what shall we do with our legs ‘ Sir, we have a good many passengers i n this trai n
for Mulhouse, and we are obliged to supply them all ” with seats .
In that case, put on another carriage .
Oh , sir, if we listened to what everybody says on the subj ect, each traveller should have a carriage for ” himself. “ ’ sir ! m The devil , I not everybody . It is possible that my name has never reached you , but I am Captain ” Bi t rli t e n . ’ lG era rd Sir, if you were even Marsha , I could n t ” b e give you a compartment all to yourself. And con “ le n d e r : ! tinned in a key This way, gentlemen One seat this way — A n eighth passenger now craned his neck into the
Bitte rlin doorway, and Mademoiselle uttered a l ittle scream . “ ’ “ Don t be afraid , child , said her father ; I have l” made up my mind to bear everything . I ll be calm 9 4 R O U G E E T N O I R . ’ Emma was n t afraid ; quite the contrary . She had recognized the eighth passenger . ’ The whistle blew, and the train started . Emma s eyes and those of Meo commenced a dialogue that was
T h - to last as fa r as Basel . e two red headed men pulled
- each out of his pocke t a paper as big as a bed quilt .
O Time s N e w Y o r k The one pened the , the other the
H e r a ld oe , and each man uvred so skilfully as to cut the other completely off from the little light that was still d left . The nimble young German couple , who forme
n h pendants to the Captai and h is daug ter , whispered , ’ w h took each other s hands , looked into the hite of eac ’ so other s eyes, and everyfive minutes or exchanged an
amorous smile, deep , artless, and transcendently tender .
The Captai n and his neighbor were soon fast asleep .
- w This neighbor was a stout , good hu mored young fello , O n e of those that can l ive in Paris without having any
thing to do . He was going to gamble away all his
he e ready money at Baden , and took the longest rout
to get there , considering everything spent on the road as
n so much gained . He had been dining well before e
n tering the carriage, and he was now e j oying that sound h sleep whic is the reward of having a good stomach .
a l The Captai n , after honoring him with the reception
so his ready mentioned , had grown accustomed to pres wa s ence, that he now leaning on him with all his weight,
the and even snoring away on his shoulder, without least
- spark of ill feeling .
m usic Encouraged by this , Meo stretching across the
a P risian , and Emma stretching across the American ,
bent towards each other, until their heads were near the the m iddle of carriage . When they were close enough T H E E I G H T H P A S S E N G E R . 5
n to hear without bei g heard , they recounted to each
a ll suf other, lip to ear , their mutual experiences and
h f n fe r in gs since the end of t e month O Ju e . Emma d id not lay much stress on the hardships of her captivity ; S he did not consider her present happiness at all dear at such a price . Meo also went rapidly through his marches and countermarches , for all the labors of the campaign are forgotten when the trumpet sounds the signal for battle . He was quite confident of his
Bitte rlin ability to measure swords with M . , to subdue
— his his i ll will , to put prej udices to utter rout, and to
Sign a lasting peace by a happy marriage .
The conversation was interrupted by the Captain , who sneezed three times , and at last awoke . He began at once to seek for the cause of the strange tickling that he had experienced i n his nose , and he soon found it in the ’ ’ st ufi w a of which his neighbor s greatcoat s made . It — w a s fi n e oo m a silky tissue of long w l , as war as fur and
a n much lighter, excellent thing , i n fact , for travell in g .
B ut Bitte rlin fi la M . had inhaled a tuft of the slender
i se t his o n ments , and the tingling tit llation had nose
fire . He gave his livin g pillow a vigorous shaking , and
sa w him as soon as he him awake, he addressed without ceremony “ is i n Sir, there any indiscretion asking you what is the name O f your tailor ?
sir Not at all , ; his name is Alfred .
! his Ah you address him by baptismal name, do you But let such inti macy pass . Sir, my tailor is my u m porter, and rely upon it, he should not have my c sto ” - long if he made me such a clumsy wa tch coat as that . “ I Sir, assure you , my overcoat is very convenient
- ir n s . and a splendid thing for sleepi g i n . Good night, 9 6 O R O U G E E T N I R .
! W in A splendid thing for sleeping i n ell , , yes,
o n IVhe n t a but , I deny . people r vel in publ ic car r ia e s g , they should take care to select coats which are ” n o t of a nature to incommode their neighbors .
s i r On the part of my coat , then , I beg your pardon .
- ir S . Please excuse me . Good night, “ m Sir, in such a case, excuses see rather ironical . k i You have no excuses to a s nor I to grant . It s I who t m have been wrong , in permit ing yself to i ncl ine towards
-a the right, when I could have leaned far more comfort
m o w n bly to the left . I return to y corner, sir , to my
S ir corner , f The Parisian was fast asleep again i n ive minutes , but the Captain took more time at it . He turned and twisted every way for more than three—quarters of an w hour . Emma, ith eyes prudently closed , awaited hi M under her veil quite patiently for s first snore . e o w O a s dreaming away with his eyes pen . He envied the
his lot of neighbor the Parisian , whose shoulder had ’ n been so privileged as to bear the Captai s head . He determined on changing place s with him as soon as he
sa could do so w ithout exciting suspicion . He w hi m t self already the constant, pa ient , and doci le companion
i r lin w hi B tte . s of M . He should al ays yield to argu
m his . ments , ad ire theories , and laugh at his j okes A sweet sympathy would spring up by degrees in this wild , untamed heart ; the old wolf would become gentle at ? last . And who knows Travelling is always full of ’ a s adventures . The Captain s foot might slip he stood W ! on the brink of some awful precipice . hat j oy l a n d Q uicker than ightning to run seize hi m , to snatch a n d him from certain death , to bear him back safe
9 8 O O R U G E E T N I R . w freshment room to take a glass of sugar and ater , and
Meo followed him . “ ” w e Sir, said he, as they ere descending the st ps of
a the carri ge , you have rather a troublesome neighbor . “ ’ Yes , but he s an original . He is troublesome , but amusing .
! re Ah in that case , then , sir, I cannot mention my ” quest . To do so might be perhaps making too free . “ ” ir s . Mention it, anyhow, I was going to ask you to change places with me ; ’ se t Bitte rlin s but if you your heart on being M . neigh bor “ ! so a s Oh not quite much that . You know him then ? ” ’ “ m I do , sir, and I would give all I worth to see his head leaning on my shoulder a s it did on yours j ust now . ’ W ! ell , there s no accounting for tastes Have him
t ! T sir for a neighbor, by all accoun s ake him , , with ” pleasure .
Thank you , sir . I thank you from the bottom of ” my heart . ’ s Not at all , my dear sir ; there no occasion for such ” thanks , I assure you . ’ N O i n occasion You don t know, then , that I am love with his daughter ? That I that he that she ! l l! ! ah Sir, it is a regu ar nove a complete romance ’ ! re quite a poem I can tell you it all . Now you my ” n d m friend a shall know al l y secrets . ’ It w a s not the poor fellow s fault if everybody did n o t know his secrets . He commenced his story with so m uch animation that his ready- made friend fo und hi m S S 9 T H E E I G H T H P A E N G E R .
. O f ih quite interesting He was a man pleasure , and ’ d itfe re n t enough towards other people s affairs ; but he soon found that Meo had not been cast in the w orn - out mould that the modern French are formed in : and he l iked him at once because he could discover nothing of
bour e oi the g s about hi m . “ ” “ And now, pursued Meo, all is settled between you and me for life and death . Your friends are mine
: I will help you to kill your enemies my head , heart, ’ ! ” arm , hand , they re al l at your service “ ’ R r l e . eally , you too kind I live in a wor d where
Is W e there neither friend nor enemy . have only pleas
O r ant acquaintances slight antipathies . I thank you , ” however, all the same . “ And on your Side, you shall aid me in getting rid ’ of my difficulties you won t forsake me ; you Shall be ” my guide and my support ; you shall get me married !
is Good heavens, my dear Sir, that not exactly my
in specialty . However, if I can aid you any way , I
t so so shall be deligh ed to do ; the more , as I am going
a n d O O f— to Baden , according to the pinion some actor or
G ra ssot . other, I believe, good actions always bring luck
But there goes the bell . Let us get in . Before me , if ” you please .
Meo did not require to be asked twice . He advanced
’ “ o n b tiptoe, begging every ody s pardon left and right, and with infinite precautions took his seat beside his
a - in - w a s f ther law that was to be . The Captain , who
his awake, looked at him , passed hand along his coat, and gru mbled between his teeth ’ “ These railroads are disgusting ! One s neighbor is ” changed ten times a day . O 1 00 R O U G E E T N I R .
Sir, said Meo , in his most insinuating tones, ex cuse th e l iberty that I have taken . From the way you spoke I thought the change would have been agreeable to you . ? And why should you think so , sir, if you please ’ The other s coat was annoying and ridiculous, but I had ” grown used to it .
The poor fellow, thoroughly silenced , tried to make
s himself as small a possible . The first brush had not been brilliant . At the end of a quarter of an hour, M .
Bitte rlin f , who did not fall asleep again , began to snu f t he air with all kinds of faces, like a horse scenting w olves . “ ’ ” a It s very strange , he said at l st, quite loud .
Emma , have you got any scent about you ” No , papa .
S ir Nor you either , asked he of the American . The tall red - headed m a n did not take the trouble to reply . ’ “ m But I not mistaken , sir, pursued the Captai n ’ ’ , seizing Meo s arm . It s you ! You smell of drugs ! ’ ! S — or of violet Yes, that it violet “ ” “ is sir It true, , stammered Meo . Someti mes , without any bad intention , of that be assured , sir, I Sprinkle my handkerchief with a little perfume of ” violets . ’ Then I don t compliment you on your taste, sir .
Sir, if I had only known
After all , you may have your reasons . Every one ” for himself in this wicked world .
O is Sir, if this dor disagreeable to you , I can return ” O ld to my place . S 1 0 1 A T O U R I N W I T Z E R L A N D .
sir ? For what do you take me, Do you think I am woman enough to die of it ? I have smelled worse
Smells than that on the field of battle . Only allow me
to let in a little air . Bitte rlin M . slept no more that night ; Emma was
condemned to silence, and Meo got an ugly cold in the
head . That was all he gained by the ride from Paris
to Basel .
R CHAPTE VII .
S A TOUR IN WITZERLAND .
HAT consoled hi m a l ittle w a s the consideration that he had a fortnight before him to retrieve his losses . Emma had fully apprised hi m of the tour her father was to take . He knew exactl y at what hotels they were to stop ; W hat evening they should pass o n ’ the summit of the R ighi at what o clock they were to R go to breakfast in front of the Falls of the hine . W ith a heart full of balmy security, then , he saw the Captain and his daughter enter the o mnibus belonging
O f to the Hotel the Three Kings, whilst he engaged a his hack for himself and new friend . ’ ” I S n -t it true, he asked the latter , every minute or
SO she , that is the prettiest little creature in the world “ ” ’ “ Not a doubt of it, replied the confidant . She somewhat resembles that little R osalie who dances at
t he is . opera . Only her styl e decidedly better 9 X‘ ' 1 0 2 R O U G E E T N O I R .
“ ’ You ve promised to help me , you know . Your presence will give me new courage . In the name of her ’ ” o u ! whom y love, don t abandon me “ W h s ir y, my dear , there is no need whatever of so
a m in much entreaty . I not the least hurry to leave you . I am going to a place where people always arrive only too soon . So , the longer I remain on the road the ” better for myself. They crossed together the city of Erasmus and of
Holbein , without ever looking to see if it were well — or ill bu ilt . The one was thinking of nothing but his
w a s . mistress, the other thinking of nothing at all The Hotel of the Three Kings is the largest cara
n sa r O ff v a y in Switzerland . Travellers file by hundreds i - R n its enormous dining room overhanging the hine . Meo and his companion found not only Emma and her
a f ther there before them , but also all their other rail is road acquaintances . This one of the great charms of a tour i n Switzerland — though to be sure it is sometimes rather Slow ” you are constantly meeting the same
persons the whole length of the route . It might be said that every chance batch of tourists is swept along to
gether as if in a kind of current .
The Englishman and the American were eating away,
back to back , each at a table by himself. The young .
German couple had j ust come down from their room ,
hand i n hand , eyes beaming on eyes . They sat down
i b - s de y Side, and the dainty, light haired darl ing placed ’ her rather large foot on her husband s boot . They " breakfasted together with their hands around each ’ other s waists, though of course they had to let go when m the trout ca e up , because even four hands are not too e many to take the bon s out . S 1 0 3 A T O U R I N W I T Z E R L A N D .
Bi r lin his tte . M . had not yet commenced breakfast He went from dining—room to terrace and from terrace
- se le c t a ta ble to dining room , without being able to or to
- a n d give his orders . The head waiter, the steward , the proprietor did everything to satisfy him , but in vain . ” “ us . Let understand each other, said he to them I want to take breakfast, but not like a glutton that
his makes a god of paunch , nor like that gentleman there below who looks like an e x gorging himself with hay . However, I must eat, for I have passed the night
on the road , and I have some j ourneying still to do to
h is a s . day . Expense no terrors for me It not to haggle f about a arthing that I start on a s ummer tour . When hi t s . one wan s to save money, he had better stay at home I should be ashamed to breakfast l ike that poor devil
of a student yonder, who is steeping a cut of bread and butter in his coffee “ ” Sir, said the proprietor, we have sal mon , trout, lobsters “ ’ Yes ; but i s your fi sh fresh ? Is n t it a regular trick of yours to pass O ff on travellers al l the old fi sh ’ ’ in it s that ever l ived Noah s ark Besides, the sauce
that makes the fish , and what do you Swiss know about ’ composing a sauce That s a French art . Awkward so lubbers like you know nothing about it, you can keep your fish for yourselves !
o n : I n The steward , in his turn , went to enumerate
game, we have venison , hares , chamois, partridges this ” is - the first day of the shooting season . m Then none of your ga e for me . Killed this morn ’ i n g ! I like that ! W hy don t you O ffer me a pair of your old boots at once ? ” 1 0 4 R O U G E E T N O I R .
’ ” for As butcher s meat , continued the placid stew e ard , we have baked mutton , roast mutton , fill t of beef, kid neys, cutlets , chops , shoulder of mutton “ ’ u Yes , and I ll bet that you st ff the whole lot with ’ ’ a ll onions . It s your mania, you know . You re the same ! Impossible to cook without onions ! ” He went up to a n i noffensive travelle r who was d is cussing with very good appetite some duck and onion
sauce . ” ? ” Sir , said he , are you really eating that fodder ' \Vh y, Sir Perhaps you would even tell me that it is a del icious dish Sir “ ’ W so ell , I don t obj ect to your saying . Speech is free ; particularly here where the animals of these canto n s have been so luxurious as to treat themselves to a republic ! But you will allow me to observe i n my
turn that a man must have a taste very false, very per
verted , very trivial in fact (excuse the expression), who ” suc h can eat and rel ish a mess as that . Then turning
w a s him towards the steward , who now staring at with
: W eye s as big as saucers , he said ell , then , making
us due allowance for everything, give for breakfast w o u ! hatever you please, and whenever y please At ” w a r ! war , let it be
They showed him to a table . Emma, much morti fi e d o n at such a display the part of her father , sat down
opposite hi m , casting a melancholy glance in the dirce
f e a n d tion O Meo . The wait r approached asked what “ a : w ine they preferred . The Capt in replied Can you give me the wine I dri nk at home in the R u e cle s Vosg e s
1 0 6 R O U G E E T N O I R .
u the Sir , said the Captain , getting p from table , “ a re all the lubbers in the world not Swiss . I have ” r the honor to wish you a ve y pleasant j ourney . Meo w a s profuse in his expressions of gratitude for the in ferest thus manifested in his behalf ; but the Captai n turned his back on him w ithout adding another word . m An hour afterwards , though they had by no eans
o n made any mutual arrangement the su bject, the whole par ty found themselves together once more i n the Basel
Museum . Each one walked about for himself, pretend i ng not to recognize the others . This , you know , is — w hat well bred travellers always do . The young Ger m a n couple succeeded in stealing a kiss on the sly ’ behi nd one of M . Calame s pictures . The fat Engl ish man admired a pretty little statue of the Middle Ages so much that he broke off a finge r and put it in his pocket i O f . book by way a souvenir The American , unwill ng
O ff to be outdone, carried the whole of the m utilated h b a n d together with a part of t e forearm . The Parisian ’ ste pped before Holbein s maste rpieces . He was of the
O pinion t hat this divine master somewhat resembled M .
Courbet of Paris, only his style was decidedly better . ’ ’ w a s Meo s greatest attraction a young girl s head , ’
a . Bitte r lin framed in Emma s str w bonnet to M . , , As his pleasure consisted in proving to his pretty compau io n that th e galleries wanted order and the catalogues
so . clearness . And every one fel t perfectly satisfied When the custodian of the Museum O pened the door
m r to let them out, Meo thought to make hi self ag eeable by paying for the whole party ; but the Captain , feeling his nerves begin to trouble him , asked him stiffly what
s u h he meant by taking c an unwarrantable liberty . A T O U R I N S W I T Z E R L A N D 1 0 7 ’ This old codger of a Captain had not known Meo s
- his face for quite twenty four hours , but antipathy — to wards him w a s already full grown . On the other hand , he had taken rather a liking for the Parisian , h who however treated him roughly enoug . Morose tempers are O ften subject to such anomal ies . Switzerland is quite up to the demands of the nine te e n th century ; the mountai n s that bristle around it are ’ no barriers against progress . Tel l s lakes reflect the
fluttering of steamboat flags . Telegraph poles are to be — met amid the wildest gorges . Lightning rods protect
ha le ts m the c , and the whistle of the loco otive has begun to unite its blast al m ost at every turn with the grand f w voices O nature . Meo al ays availed hi mself of the telegraph to bespeak a room for himself, and also two
r ln —fi e for the Bitte i family . It cost him twenty v w ords and twenty cents . At this price he was sure of dining and sleeping not far from Emma . The Captain sa w
but he u h imself served as if by enchantment, only f med against the invisible providence that envied him the ’ pleasure of domineering . The Italian s everlasting presence w a s becoming more and more d isagreeable to W him every day . hatever pains he took to avoid him ,
in he met him every carriage and in every inn . Often ,
. him o ff he would let enter one carriage , and then run a s fast a s he could with his daughter to take seats in another at the far end of the train . Useless man oe uvre ! Ten minutes afterwards Meo would be seated at his
Side, and pointing him out the beauties of the scenery . The con str uction O f the Swiss carriages renders such a
. A s in proceeding comparatively easy America, they are united together by a kind of platform , by means of 1 0 8 O R O U G E E T N I R . which the pa ssengers can pass without danger from one
the end of the train to other .
O n Saturday night, our whole party slept at Olten , W a great central point of the Swiss railroads . hen the
- hotel keeper presented his register to the travellers , the eight person a ges with whom the reader is a lre a d v a c ua in te d q , inscribed themselves as follows
Bitte rlin n O f , Captai of the first class , Chevalier the ” e tc W his Legion of Honor , etc . , ; Paris . ith daughter . “ m Bartolomeo Narni , an exile ; Paris . Happy fro ” i n travelling good company . R o ! Arthur Le y, property holder Paris . Oh ’ ! Love , thou hast ruined Troy
Frederic Moring, private gentleman Berlin . Trav elling with his dearest heart- treasure
O o n ta i n s a k e s o f b e ! O d a i si e s - s a n e d she e n ! m u , l lu p gl ” O t n e f n i hti n a e ! a n d O h m o wn Chr i s i n e ! u ul g g l , y t
T homas Plum , London .
W . . George reck , Esq , New York
un Having written their names, each one stole back ,
n know to the rest, to acquaint himself with the name
W . and standing O f his companions . hen stout Mr Pl um sa w that the American had given himself the title
E s uir e - SO of q in an hotel register , his fancy was highly
fi t tickled , and he burst i nto such a of violent laughter, t hat the two lower buttons of his waistcoat flew off at
right angles, and were never found again . They retired to their rooms without looking at the
sk w a s . neighborhood . The y dark and gloomy It was
rai ning in the valley , and snowing on the mountains .
Bitte rlin f M . had stu fed cotton into his cars ; still ,
1 1 0 R O U G E E T N O I R . he got the names of all the mountains of Switzerland
. W w n u cut on it . Mr reck follo ed his example ; only , willing to be outdone, to the already long l ist he added t he Dha w a la hir i names of Vesuvius , g , and Cotopaxi .
These monumental trophies, truthful as obelisks, were d estined for nothing more than the humble ascent of the R igh i . ’ All started in the steamboat about two o clock , and
V is they soon landed at c g , at the foot of the moun
fi n e tain . Thanks to the weather, our little troop of travellers had now swelled to about a score , and they all W made a grand assemblage in the little port of eggis .
th e u The guides, who compose whole pop lation of the village, had run up with all the litters and horses at m their disposal , but one glance told the that the supply would f al l far short of the demand . Violent disputes
O f arose immediately , in which all the languages Europe took a part ; some canes fell dow n rather heavily on some hats , and Meo for a moment indulged the fond hO p e that he was about to have an O pportunity of de
i e r lin B tt . fending M . But the Captai n was one of
a n d those that give blows, not get them ; of course he w a s accommodated long before anybody else . He
o n sprang a charger and gal loped over the battlefield , brandishing his umbrella a s if it w a s a s word O f Charle magne . He even tried once or twice to make the poor ’ e a u beast prance a little , thinking of G rard s f mous pict re His a s of Napoleo n crossing the Alps . daughter w safely instal led in a l itter by the exertions of Meo a n d
R o I o . B . Arthur Le y This duty perf rmed , the two
a n d knights pl unged into the th ick of the fight, they l were soon seen , seated on Engl ish sadd es, towering O S 1 1 1 A T U R I N W I T Z E R L A N D .
‘ high above their rivals . Moring and his bride had
o n retired apart, and , seated Side by side one of the hotel benches , they contemplated from afar the spectacle ’ of men s clashing passions : doves never take part in the war of vultures . Unfortunately, having no wings to climb the mountain , they had to walk . The English man and the American appeared to be condemned to
e n the same fate, and Mr . Plum had already begun to p
o spire at the very idea . He gazed despondingly n ’ his rival s long legs, and sighed at the idea that Old England w a s about to he left behind by the savages of
W . the New orld But four students from Leipsic, who had reasons of their own for walking, spied one of their
n countrymen on one of the best horses of Weggis . U able to bear such a sight, they seized the aristocrat by the legs and tugged at hi m so vigorously that he was soon unseated . Mr . Plum closely watched this popular commotion , and taking advantage of a favorable mo
- ment, he j umped like india rubber into the middle of
n in the the crowd , and was soo the saddle in place of young stranger This is the way that t he English always feather their nest by the Continental revolutions . T he American only shrugged his Shoulders and started O ff with a ligh t foot : he wan ted no horse to reach the i u mountain summ t before a fat, puffy John B ll . m The horse en , footmen , and litters started on their
n u a n march I picturesque order, p easy and safe road . Every Frenchman tha t ca n read knows a llabout the d R ighi : M . Alexan e r D umas has made it the scene of
one of the prettiest Sketches in his masterly work . Still “ the charming author of the Imp r e ssio n s d e Voya ge has probably exaggerated the dangers of the ascent and 1 1 2 O R U G E E T N O I R . the w majesty of the vie . To speak exactly , it is only a
a i i n m id d le ‘ o f a n h ill bout a mile high , set r ght the a mphitheatre O f mountains : it is a regular dress - circle
se e to the sun rise from , but the stairway leading to it is ffi not at all di cult .
Bitt r lin M . e curveted along at the head of his com
a s . pany , all good captai ns do Meo followed him closely , i mitating as well as he could all his Splendid feats of high horsemanship . As the magnificent scenery
O pened around them , he trusted that admiration , that
w in bond of sympathy between all noble hearts , would
m a n for him at last the friendship of the intractable old .
Besides , he still had his hopes of being soon favored with a n opportunity to pl uck him from the brink of
B ut in some terrible precipice . danger was very Slow
Bitte rlin coming, and M . seemed to be in no admiring
t e n e v e r h umor . the guide brought his caravan to a its halt at some Spot famous for commanding view, the “ Captain growled between his teeth : Humbug of a . ’ ’ ” M e o country though it s not the only one I ve seen . ’ w a s Sincerely ecstatic . His soul had been already fully
in prepared to rel ish the spectacle all its grandeur, for u l overs are the most ind lgent of critics, and they wish l wel to everything on the face of nature . But every time that he tried to express his sentiments , the Captain whistled and sneered and hammered away with his heels at the flanks of his old horse . Emma closed the march
six with five or other ladies . In all the charming land
se e w a s scape the only thing that the poor child could , ’ ’ f her ather s back turned to her lover s face .
After a march of four hours , they came in sight of
R - n i t s sa O R . the ighi Kuh , that to y, the tip p of the ighi
1 1 4 O R U G E E T N O I R . d ear sir ! But ho w have I come to be your dear sir ? Have we ever made war together ? Have yo u ever served in the Fourth Compa ny of the Second Battalion ? ’ of the One Hundre d a n d Fourth R egiment I don t
is know you . This the first time I have ever seen you . ' ’ \Ve r e not even of the same country In such a case, then “ ” “ f Sir, stammered Meo , a fection is not to be com
m a n d e d R egard , friendship , love I mean grati tude “ Gratitude fo rwhat ? I could understand your pro c e e d in gs ea s ily enough if you had any notion about
Ah I understand . In fact, it is likely enough , though
is it only to me that you pay the attentions . Could you
have got it into your head to If that be the case,
i o ff you had better say so r ght . Sir off Yes, better say so right , for my only answer would be to hurl you down headlong into that ravine
a a s bene th us , without much as giving you time to bless yourself ! Meo protested that he did not understand what he
b e meant, and resumed , in the most feel ing tones he “ : could command Sir, I comprehend your trouble , and
s . compa sionate your sufferings Doubtless, misfortune
has embittered you against the world . The first time
I had the honor of meeting you , I discovered in you one of those woe - worn souls where grief ha s left its f mark i n lines that cannot be e faced . Your merits m ust have been passed over, your services forgotten , and your confidence betrayed At this - last expression the Captain rose up on his 1 1 5 A T O U R I N S W I T Z E R L A N D . stirrups a n d cast a searching glance i nto the very depths ’ “ ” “ of Meo s eyes . Young man , he exclaimed , I cal l on you to explain yo ufse lf YVha t do you know W hat have you heard ? IVho has been trying to cover ? me with ridicule If I only thought but no, he is ’ ’ he s too stupid ; he don t know himself what saying .
However Sir, have you ever been at Briancon
ir s . No, Or Strasburg ’ No, sir, never . HO W long have you been living in Paris ?
Sir, I came there in Have you known the late Madame Bitte rlin
No, Sir ; I swear that I have never had that honor . Why do you swear Was there any harm in know ing her ? ” ’ ’ m Sir, I don t know, I sure . I ’ ’ ! ! Y ! How You don t know ou re doubtful , too I must be a very odd—looking husband,then Poor M e o bewildered himself i n protesta tions of r e
o ff his spect, took hat, tore out his hair in handfuls, shed tears even but he arrived at the hotel without having ’ in Bitte rli n s advanced a single step M . friendship . They found two hundred people assembled on the
un summit of the R ighi to adore the s . The god of the
Z ha s Silver bow, the god of oroaster and of Chryses , not i n all Europe a temple more frequented . Pilgrims
” come there from the four quarters of the universe, and
- ff the hotel keeper piously collects their O erings . Such
th e is ardor of the faithful , that more than one worship per has been seen there trudging about in the snow and rai n for a week at a time, j ust to catch one glimpse of 1 1 6 R O U G E E T N O I R .
so . the god . Our caravan had not to wait long The s un , who had not shown himself for the last four days ,
in condescended to retire to his couch their presence .
Bitte r lin o n l o n e M . was y slightly moved by the sight, of the most imposing spectacles that nature offers to
w a s poets for a description . He thinking of his de
f a n d u t h ceased wi e, such thoughts always p too muc black into his colors . Emma and Meo watched the ’ clouds a s they chased each other over the Captain s
\Vre c k Olympian brow . Mr . was marching around w w his w ith great strides to Sho Mr . Plum that al k had
h a n not made him tired , wh ile Mr . Plum smiled wit “ a ir sa which seemed to y, No matter , I have made
! R o America go on foot M . Arthur Le y was gazing
- a n d quite pensively at the kitchen chimneys , , amid the
c a r eternal Silence of the mountains, his was anxiously o n - the watch for the dinner bell . The young Germa n
th e and his bride, wrapped up in same plaid , were dis
a t h cussing metaphysically the esthetics of e globe . “ ” “ the n Beloved , said young wife, whe ce comes it ? that the In fi nite overwhelms me t e n we gazed o n
se a the at Ostend , I considered it rather small . Yet the ” ocean is likewise infinite . ” “ Y ho ? V can tell replied the husband . It is per ’ haps because the Infinite i n height brings us nearer to the great All ; whereas the Horizontal , howsoever far it
the may extend , can never leave the surface of earth . Beyond the limits O f the ocean we find earth again but ” n above the mountai s, heaven . May it not rather be because the se a has submitted
so se e to the yoke of man , that the Ships we in the dis ” tance are only so many tokens of bondage ?
E O 1 1 8 n o u o E T N I R .
Nobody but a G erman could ever thi nk of bap tizi n g wine with a name so absurd I t seems to me that G e r
the e many is painted to lif in this mixture of wine , l ove , ’ h ’ v e in a n d Li e n m a c mn ilc . milk . / I been love occa ’ ’ s io n a ll if I d y, as La Fontaine says ; but I ll be hanged ever b a n k e r after tasting at its natural sou rce f “ r oc k n . . Mr . di ed in front of Mr Plum The Eng l ishma n ordered a bottle of claret ; the American did m the same . Plu immediately considered it a point of
/i.c bc rtin \Vre c k honor to cal lfor a bottle o f C wn . at once accepted the challenge ; he also dran k a bottle of
e r in a . Cha mb t . Pl um replied by a bottle of Champ gne W reck drank a bottle of Champagne , too , without wink \V m i ng . hen the others rose fro the table , each of the
w f k o a t o rivals was trying to empty a las of T k y . Plum “ ha d inscribed himself i n the register a s Sir Thomas ’ ” k “ ” \Vre c W . Plum . signed hi msel f Count George reck
Al l retired to bed at an early hour . Plum slept under
- the . n a dinner table Wreck , from tional pride , slept o n it . R The two hundred guests of the igh i , scattered through their l ittle rooms , were j ust beginning to snore i w a s n unison , when a mighty voice heard thundering
its through the house, shaking it to very foundation .
Bitte r lin It was M . who , with a tricolored si lk hand
- w a s kerchief for a night cap, exclaiming to the German chambermaid ’ Yes , yes, you don t understan d a word of French .
G 0 O ff , then , and tel l a servant that does , to come here ’ immediately and make my bed over a gain 1 B 1 1 9 A D E N .
CHAPTER VIII .
BADEN .
HE Swiss tour lasted two weeks, over lakes and
Bitt rli n e . mountains, under the generalship of M .
The l ittle caravan , augmented by a few intruders of no consequence, admired in succession the beautiful m w - eado lands, the glorious old forests, the sunrises and
- the rain storms , the waterfalls and the glaciers They — gathered a few bouquets of Alp roses . Meo even took courage to present one to the Captain who put it into “ his m e t pocket, with a dry thank you . They no chamois, ate no beefsteak of bear ; nor did they ascend Mont Blanc for the pleasure of seeing the wrong side
w ha s of the clouds, hich a singular resemblance to the
in right side . They stopped twice a day hotels that were delightfully clean they took good meals off tables of snowy whiteness and fragrant odor ; they slept in b l eds of incomparable comfort . The travel er who
sa travels for the sake of travelling, that is to y, to eat w well , to j ourney comfortably , and to rest at night ith out being tired i n the morning, should give the prefer
the a a o ence to Switzerland . Even C ptain himself
in knowledged this , whenever he happened not to be a bad humor . All the towns they went through resem
l-e d m each other ore or less . They are of all sizes R some big, some little, some overhanging the hine,
u some seated on the shore of a bl e lake . They contain many new houses and some old churches, stylish build ings of equivocal taste, varied horizons, rapid waters, 1 20 R O U G E E T N O I R .
a and porcelain pipes . Every time that the caravan p ssed before a pretty cottage embosomed i n gardens , Meo ’ r e S o n turned back his head , and always met Emma s p ' e : sh sive glance . Young Madame M ring did better e made her husband put his head out of the window and k ! issed him outside the carriage . Poor Meo He had not even the consolation O f rubbing h is moustache ’ against the Captain s .
One day , however, he came very near possessing the
w a s happiness he had been so long dreaming about . It R at Schaffhausen before the Falls of the hine . The
Captain , who despised beaten paths, ventured too near ! ” the edge and lost his footing . At last thought
ff f - in - l B u o a w . t Meo, and he dashed to save his ather — h is zeal carried him too far a little beyond the branch
Bi rlin tte . SO which M . had grasped the savior had the m o rtifi ca tio n of being saved himself by the very m a n to whose assistance he had run ; and when he tried to
w a s express his gratitude, he told that for such fool
v hardiness he richly deserved to ha e broken his neck . As he was brushing the dust O ff i n a corner in a very
R o ul melancholy manner, M . Arthur Le y, his faithf confederate , j oined him , saying “ ’ re My poor fellow , you too awkward to li ve . Two chances ! and to lose them both Two 2“
: . Yes, two a good one and a middling one First, you had the chance of seizing the old gentleman by the
- a n d . arm restoring h im to his fellow citizens This, however, I consider only a middling chance, seeing that O ld Bitte rlin will never prove anything else than an im
f - ia - la o u c w . possible ather Secondly , y had the chan e
1 22 R O U G E E T N O I R .
! . Push on , keep moving as somebody says At that
’ ' rate you ll begin to have a chance so m e w he re a b o ut 1 95 8 ’ ’ N O ll matter , I ca n t leave her . I follow her to li . Bitte r n the last And then , who knows perhaps M . W will be moved with my perseverance . hat if every thing he does is only done j ust to try me ? You might as well say that the cannon - balls pl unge
n lust through the ranks o y j to try the soldiers . The ’ : man is a brute if you don t l ike the word , we will ’ ’ sa r utifi d only y he is b e . He don t like you ; he don t like his daughter ; he likes nothing i n the world , not even the trout ; and if you ever get anything out O f ’ t him , it won t be by attacking him on his sentimen al ” side . I have said my say . “ O f But, in the name heaven , how should I attack him then ’ How the d e q can I tell you ? I don t know any
O f . thing about the handling hedgehogs My education , ” se e ! you , has in some points been very much neglected Such were the last consolations that Meo received from his friend . Towards the end of breakfast , M . Le R o y an nounced his intention of starting immediately for Baden . The Captain replied , quite graciously ” Pleasant j ourney , gentlemen . ” But, stammered Meo, we are not going excuse — me the gentleman is going alon e however, if there is no O bj ection “ What difference does it make to us ? ” replied the
Captain . Every one for himself in travelling . The
his gentleman has his business, he goes to business ; others do nothing at all ; well , then , let them do as they plea se B A D E N 1 23
! Oh as for that matter , said the Parisian , my ’ m business is very simple . I going to pay ten thou ’ sand francs to a worthy m a n who won t trouble me with a receipt . It is the fashion in Paris . Since the dis c o v e r y of California, Australia, and all kinds of coun
in i a tries ending , gold arrives in such abundance , that
us we no longer know where to stow it . It incommodes , it wearies us , it tears our pockets, it gives our hands the ’ fi d s e ts. g There no standing it, on my word of honor ! What do we do then ? W e go to Baden for the waters, and we come away perfectly cured . ’ Bitte rlin s M . brow grew as black as night . You ” are a gam bler ? said he . I should have readily
O f —O f bel ieved that many other people, this gentleman for instance, but never of you . As for me, whenever
a it a lw a v s I am asked to take a h nd , has been my uni ‘ ’ m tu be form habit to reply, I neither poor enough in want of your money, nor rich enough to make you a ’ m present of ine .
B ut sir , , I have had rich uncles enough to make me win without pleasure and lose without regret . I com m e n ce d at Paris by playing cards among a set O f rich
is young fellows . It well understood that when friends have dined together, the best way to get sober again is by exchanging bits of painted pasteboard . This kind of soda water cost me a good deal more than the ’ apothecary s . Sometimes I lost, sometimes I won ; but
h a as t ere were ladies alw ys in the party, I generally got h ome without a cent, tired out with a stupid night, my nails dirty, my head heavy , and my face sal low . I ’ d a in slept next y till five o clock the afternoon , endless ghosts of R ight Bowers and Left Bowers fluttering R O U G E E T N O I R .
d m aroun y pillow . After two or three years of practice w of this kind , hich had gained for me no enviable repu tation , I at last formed quite an heroic resolution . I dug a channel for my vice . Gaming cost me on an average f ive hundred napoleons a year, without counting health , reputation , temper, and all my friends , whom I never sa w again because I lent them money . I find it prefer able every way to lose ten thousand francs once a year
: at Baden it is less compromising , less tiresome , more healthy , and sooner over . I am always sure that the ’ in m Bank has no trumps hid away his sleeve, and I ’ perfectly certain that he won t borrow twenty - fi v e louis ’ of m e to pay for a carri a ge at six O clock in the morn i n g . If, in spite of every impossibility , I should happen t o w in , I can pocket the stakes without shame, and without the consciousness O f carrying o ff the bread be longing to some poor family . The Bank is a bodiless Personage ; you can swoop on fifty thousand of his fra n cs at R oug e e t N oir without being afraid O f hearing
“ n . ext day that he has blown his brains out If, on the ’ is s contrary , it the Ban k that snaps up my money , there n o danger of any one going to brag about it in the four quarters of Paris , and destroying my credit by asserting ’ ” that I m ruined . These are my reasons . ” ! a What, sir replied the Capt in , you are young,
- intelligent, well bred , far better bred than this gentle ’ m a n a for inst nce, and yet you ve got no better way to spend your time and money than that ? You should
! u d o try to do something Yes , confo nd it, you should something ! ’ s ! sir Ala , my studies don t qualify me to be a ma c hin ist , a hatter, nor a professor in the Sorbon ne . I
1 26 R O U O E E T N O I R
O f s u o r tm him pp g all th is expense, the green table does ” O f very little harm in relieving him his extra money .
The Captain blew his nose with great solemnity , and t hen replied : “ l fi . You have no d if cu ty in expressing yourself, sir You and your friend here belong to a society that is destined to come to a bad end some day or other by its
a n f a love for paradox . But o ficer rrived at my age never denies the principles that have been his guide
O f a c through l ife . Gaming , like every other means
is s . quiring riches without labor , in it elf morally wrong
I have forbidden it to my subalterns and my soldiers , I re have forbidden it to myself, and I would sooner nounce the name O f Bitte r lin forever than deviate one j ot or tittle from the line that honor has traced out for ’ - as me . Strait laced and innocent much as you like But it is with strait- laced innocents like me that Lyc ur gus the Spartan conquered the world ! “ But did he conquer the world
Y e s , sir, of course he did . I shall not have the f pleasure O seeing you again at Bad en . That local ity
e had been included in my rout , but now that you have O f acquainted me with the kind life led there , Baden will have to provide means to do without my pres ence ! ”
Little Madame Moring , who seldom spoke to any
he r one but husband , now exclaimed loudly against such a resolution . “ ’ ! sir n My good gracious then , , you re very wro g, “ h m a s e . said Before I married y de r Fritz , I spent a
so a s season at Baden , and I never much heard one word spoken about play . It is a delightful country, B A D E N 27 ’ shady, sylvan , verdant, poetic as one of our Gessner s i dyls . You meet the best society in Germany there ; aul ic councillors, canonesses of noble blood , knights of
R e d . the Eagle, and even reigning Highnesses Half of o ur time was passed in excursions through the Black ‘ ’ i n u Forest, picnics p in the Old Castle, at the Bear, ‘ ’ s or at the Horn ; the rest went in concert , horse
W e a n d races, balls, and plays . had French actors, pieces written expressly for us by the first authors O f
in ths . o n Paris I spent three there , and the only play ing I ever sa w was at the theatre or the opera . ff She finished her l ittle speech su used with blushes , ’ and kissed her husband s hand to keep herself in coun
te n a n c e . ” R o . Madame tells the truth , replied M . Le y . N ine - tenths O f the travel lers who lose their money at
Baden are attracted there by such baits . The landscapes ! of the Black Forest, baits The Highnesses of Ger
! R - many, baits aces, h unts, plays, concerts, baits,
! l in baits , baits I have remarked that all the wa ks the Park sloped down gently to w ards the green table
o n ve r sa tion s H a a s i n the C . I have met Highnesses
a n d out promenading , , without thinking of it, they led
- me straight to the roulette table . I have run a steeple
i n a - O f chase a p ce colored j acket, and even won a prize t wo thousand francs ; but I was not lon g in losing it
k c R o u e t N o r e i . bac again , and twi e as much besides , at g
I - O a n d ! nly j ust changed my dress , , presto my money had changed mas ters . Our artists go there to dra w the public from other resorts, but they are requested to sing f so as - alse to send their audience to the gaming table . i Our celebrated authors wr te plays for Baden , but they 1 2 R E 8 O U O E T N O I R .
are ordered to make them as tiresome as possible, so that the crowds , attracted by the name, are repelled by t he i piece . Now and then a stag s hunted in the Black
e e Forest, but still , with a sharp y for business, the beast is hardly cold before the hunters are shelled out . For ’ m y part, however , I don t complain , for I know very ’ w ell what I m going to do at Baden . It is not the ” bait that draws me there but the hook . Y ” ' e s . , added M M oring , with a keen , quiet smile . Great is the d ifference between the country we are in
w e and the country are going to . Excuse me, if I
a o w n express myself badly in a langu ge not my . It
O ld seems to me that Mother Switzerland is a good , stout
i n lady , who gives us plenty to eat and drin k a splendid
- hotel , where the wall paper is painted with moun
a n d ha le ts tains, waterfalls, c . She is the widow, she
a n d says, of a celebrated man that nobody has ever seen , w hose very existence is conte sted still she puts his por
o u - trait every chimney piece i n the house, an apple in one of his hands , and a bow in the other . You are not com p e lle d to believe everything she chooses to tell about the
ha s deceased but as she is a kind , good soul , and treated you well , you kiss her on both cheeks at parting, and
r you promise to yourself to retu n . As for Mademoisel le
Baden , she is a young lady , very brilliant, very well
she dressed ; rides on horseback , she hunts, she dances, she she sings, acts comedy , all in the perfection of fash l ’ iO ii ; but she makes free with her friends purses and
- w . w sends them a ay empty handed She is , ho ever , none ” the less pretty for al l that .
a s The conversation now became general , usually hap ’ ‘ pens a t a ta ble d hote when on e of the guests has begu n
1 O 30 R U G E E T N O I R . W Never i n the regiment , sir . hat authority could a I have exercised over my men , if I had not lways ’ preached by example ? There s no better preacher liv
a n f a f t i ng than o ficer without a f ult, as I lat er myself I
n have been . I know all kinds of games , and I am eve
n a pretty keen hand at them . At piquet, at domi oes , at bill iards , the very best of you might find me an ugly customer ; but nobody can boast of having ever seen me w in or lose anything , not even so much as a glass of absinthe or a cup of coffee ” R o No matter for that, said M . Le y, you do wel l
f T he f to keep clear O Baden . best means O avoiding ” S in is to fly from temptation . IVha t temptation For me it would be no te mpta tion whatever ! O f Loud expressions dissent came from all sides . ’ No, he resu med , not the least temptation in the ’
w . orld , and here s my proof I will conti nue my route
the same as if nothing had happened . I will go straight — to Baden . I wil l pass a whole day at the gaming table
with money in my pockets , and you will see if I ven — ” ture even a ten cent piece . W ill you take a bet on it ? ”
sir No , . In the first place , it would be robbing
you of your money ; and i n the second place, I am a ” a n d is man of principle, betting gambl ing .
so The Captain Spoke loud and with such decision ,
i O . R o that publ c pinion veered round a l ittle M . Le y certainly wa s a l ittle too generous in handing his own ’ T O failings over to others . insist to a man s face that ’ s m h v he going to begin ga bling , thoug he has ne er done
O f anything the kind for sixty years, rather borders on 1 31 B A D E N .
O f O f impertinence . Mr . Plum fered a bet twenty pounds
R o that the Captai n would not play . M . Le y accepted it at once , and then took leave of the company .
O f This departure, depriving Meo his ally, surrendered
a n d hi m up , bound hand foot, to the tender mercies of
Bitte rlin O ld n o w M . . The cantankerous man Spoke to
w a s hi m willingly and familiarly enough , but it not because he had become one bit more kindly disposed
in his in towards him . If, normal condition Paris, and
at rest, the Captain could be considered a noxious ani
mal , travelling had only rendered hi m worse . Con stant motion , bracing air , change of diet, all the details d of travelling, evelop i n a man a superabundance of l ife w hich is not likely to turn wol ves into sheep . It is a kind of plethora, a lustihood , a rage of the senses , an ’ f ha unchaining O the energies . Never d the Captain s ill - temper blazed out with more brilliant venom never had the old chords O f his excessive sensitiveness grated
his more harshly at the slightest touch . W ith daughter he tried to be gentle, because she had once held her own i w th hi m, because he expected in time to bring her back
a n d to his own way of thinking , because peopl e were
in present ; domestic tyrants, when out the world , are
always on their guard . But an unfortunate stranger him who sought his friendship , who surrendered to
without a murmur, who accepted his k icks with grati tude he of course was the victim destined to bear a ll
“ the weight of his perverse temper . Accordingly, in a
few days, Meo became his target, his hack , his patented
.
victim . He abused the mild temper of the Italian m ost shamefully . He treated him the more waspishly
as Meo was handsome and himself ugly, as Meo was 1 32 O R U G E E T N O I R .
M e n tall and himself short . of short stature when ’ a llowed their way , are implacable . The stranger s res i gnation , which would have disarmed lions and tigers , only excited the little Ca ptain to greater fury ; he only plunged his sharp talons and his rending beak with grimmer satisfaction into this unresisting and bleeding
flesh .
a Meo never , not even once , thought of str ngl ing the
d o so wicked animal , though to would have been mere ’ W child s play to hi m . ith the resignation of a martyr
in he followed a path strewed with thorns . Not only private was he perfectly submissive , but even in public , before dozens of witnesses , would he patiently pocket
n all kinds of insults . More than o ce he caught i n the eyes O f his companions looks of compassion that sent the blood boiling up to his brain b u t his love w a s O f a robust constitution , and a glance from Emma amply m consoled him for everything . French en could never he a r i e such treatment, because the r vanity constitut s
more than the half of even their most serious passions .
1 34 R O U G E E T N O I R .
Emma could legally become his . The end of two years seemed to him farther O ff than the end of the world ; he w Fo r a s sure of d ying long before that . even suppos i ng sickness of heart did not kill h im by that time ,
li a poverty would be sure to i o the business . His fin ncial report gave the last touch to the already too gloomy picture . He told her how his modest resources were completely exhausted , how the situation that had sup him ported was abandoned , and how, even if he still
O f held it , the violence his passion rendered anything
u a n l ike labor absol tely intolerable . Such artless
a x avowal , which would h ve perhaps e tinguished al l love ’ i n a woman less captivated , only redoubled Emma s
f she interest and tender a fection . Six months before, might have perhaps repelled with disdain a man with ’ f s out ortune or prospect ; but woman s love, after it has
is e acquired a certain headway , not to b extinguished by O bstacles : they rather fa n it and make it blaze more
fiercely . It is like a house on fire, water only adds fuel
f n m to the lames . The i nnoce t l ittle creature pro ised to — do everything in her power to die with Meo if she him could not live with . Of all the oaths that passion
: dictates to young people , this is the easiest to keep the
O f h annals love are full of double suicides . Meo, wit out hesitation , adopted this heroic remedy , which , how ever, has never remedied anyth ing . He considered it perfect ly natural that Emma should be willing to die h him wit him , and the thought never once occurred to that it was his stern duty to refuse with horror the a c c e ta n ce p of any such sacrifice . What clearly proves the innocence of these two great
h to babies is, that they rushed rig t straight this extrem 1 A U R E L I A . 35
ity without stopping, even mentally, at any intermediate
a if st tion . They never examined the problem of their destiny presented any sol ution less legitimate than mar r ia e A s g and less disagreeable than death . soon as they considered it plainly demonstrated that fate w ould not permit their union , their only reflection thenceforward w a s , which of all the roads leading into the other world l they shou d select . Fortunately , before they had made
Bitte rlin a choice, M . awoke, and the final decision was r the defe red until next interview . ’ u After Meo S departure, when the Captain fo nd hi m
his u self alone with da ghter, the first quarter of an hour w as t not altoge her without embarrassment . It was not
Emma that felt herself uneasy . Her resolution had
so wa s been decided , and her determination so fixed and
she in unalterable, that no longer considered herself an h abitant of the earth . She was gazing at the other world through a keyhole, as it were, waiting till her
m O lover ca e and pened the door . The Captain , who d l had no such groun s for tranqui lity of soul , felt himself ill rather unpleasantly at ease . Ever since the war his which daughter had dared to wage against him , and the truce which ha d been concluded at their departure ’ m from Paris , he had never had ten inutes conversation i n succession with the fair insurgent . If he had ever
n found himself alone with her, it was generally at ight,
a re O n when travellers only thinking of going to bed . u s s ch occasions, a little kis , very dry , supplied the place of all discourse ; then they both retired to their own rooms, closing the door of communication without lock i n sa w g it . But the day that the two adversaries them f selves, after breakfast, ace to face for the first time, 1 36 R O U G E E T N O I R .
without witnesses , i n a large room tapestried with the
O f . adventures Ps y che, Emma shut herself up in a list
o n less silence , playing the plate with the point of her fork , whilst the Captain was laboriously search ing some means of breaking the ice . He found no better way to begi n than by passing i n review all the failings and ridiculous poin ts O f the companion who had j ust left them : it was j ust his usual tact . He pitched into Meo with great spirit ; he lashed himself i nto fury over him and tore him to pieces with decided satisfaction . The
— - dear man had two edged fangs , l ike those ill trained spaniels that cannot bring back a partridge without butchering it . Emma let hi m have his say, without even shrugging her shoulders ; but her eyes expressed the deep a n d i mplacable disdain O f a devotee who b e a rs hi s god blasphemed . The orator was not long in j umping from particulars to generals ; he extended to all young m e n O f the pres
ent day the j udgment that he had passed on Meo, and proved clearly that no woman could decently fal l in love with such baboons . Emma did not maintain the con
t ra r . a d y Encouraged by this approving silence , he v a n c e d gradually , and began to scold his daughter for what he called her crotchets . He reproached her for having placed no confidence i n him ; b e congratulated
f O f himself on the good e fects the trip , and he rej oiced at seeing the family once more reconciled . He went w a s still further, for he by no means del icacy personified . ’ He ventured to tell his child that her deceased mother s
conduct had been , if not exactly guilty , at least light ; that She had rendered him unhappy that he had a right
to to some compensation , and that he expected find it in
1 38 O O R U G E E T N I R .
- tages , boxes , paper knives , and clocks of the Black For e s t , completed the curious assortment . The owner of so many wonders was walking up and down , more glo o m v i n the mid s t of his treasures than Marius among t he O f l ruins Carthage . As soon as he saw his O d com
he u m e d panion , j p to welcome him . “ ” By Jove, he exclaimed , you arrive in good time ! Have you any money
Eleven napoleons, at your service . ” Hurrah You re a Croesus . “ You think so That constitutes the sum tota lO f ” my fortune at present and to come .
He has eleven napoleons at Baden , and yet he com ! O f plains First all , my dear fellow, you invite me to dinner . ” With all my heart . ’ m Oh ! but wait a moment . I going to bring the
O f S D m Duke and Prince two friends of i ne,
n o t a . i who , like myself, have yet breakf sted Be civ l f ” with them ; they are a pair O millionaires . ’ Meo s eyes O pened wide . ’ You don t understand me , continued the Parisian . “ ’ I m cleaned out, my boy, and these gentlemen , too,
and many others besides, whom , however, I shall not b r in g for fear of abusing your hospital ity . lFor the last two days, the Bank has been simply awfu . Only think : if I had packed up and left Baden the night b e O ff f fore last, I should have carried sixty thousand rancs , clear winnings ! I began by wi nning everything before
O f me ; first a series of reds, then a series blacks . I
w a s a t holding on valiantly to black , when all once, by m pure inspiration , I scent a turn in the luck I halve y 1 39 A U R E L I A .
! k stake, and then stop altogether . Crack The ban ‘ ’ ’ n t has a r efa it and cleans the board . Had I a good ? nose I go back to the red , and the luck follows me .
T n ! w a s e reds in succession As I the leader, I did
f or very well for myself and others too . Every one ’ punted with me ; there were n t two louis on the black .
Unfortunately , the clock struck twelve . It would have taken us no more than another half- hour to break the bank i “ I must warn you , nterrupted Meo, that I do not understand the game you are Speaking of. h You ll know it well enoug only too soon , my poor friend : it is horribly simple . Then I came back to
e s this room , y , to this very cursed room , with my seventy thousand francs in notes , napoleons , fredericks ;
fi o rin there was even a among the lot . Next morning ,
O as soon as I pened my eyes, I registered a vow not to play again for a year . I visited the stores to amuse myself innocently in making purchases of no account . — I gave fi ve franc pieces to the beggars ; I lent handfuls of gold to some friends of mine that had been run dry
—a n o u i nvestment for winter, y understand . I took
- a carriage ride out in the country , and I found the scenery very fine ; I thought every leaf I sa w was signed O f by the President the Bank of France . Oh why ’ , ? ! i did n t I go back to France Ah yes ndeed , why ’ ’ ? Ste it s ! did n t I p , your fault I had promised to ! meet you here It is you who have ruined me . ’ Here s a m a n that costs me seventy thousand francs ! ’ Ten thousand I don t regret ; they had been brought
in here to be lost . But those sixty thousand were not
ha d tended to be lost, and the proof of that is, that I 1 40 O N O i R U G E E T R . w o n m ! \V ste m n h o t ha v e . ot the ell , to p my , you g to fe a m m o n ed me . I waiting for e y : a good many of us
i n t he here are very much interested arrival of the mai l .
- O ffi c e h But the post here is be ind the times , a poor one
ff r horse a ai . I thought for a moment of raising money
t he B ut with fancy goods you see lying around here . ’ those who sold them won t take them back unless at a reductio n O f eighty - fi v e per cent ! They say they are ’ m all ugly and in bad taste, and I beginning to be of
O their pinion . Do you want a pretty Swiss cottage, my ? ? poor Narn i or a cuckoo - clock or a horn O f blue c r vsta l Hey ! it is broken ! Brittle gim c ra e k e ry ! touch them with your foot and they fly into shivers ! ’ a \V Take care, don t tread on that gl ss, my brave . al k
o . ver this way among the cottages, it is more rural Apropos ! Ho v is your love affa ir getting on ? is the pretty blonde right well have you tamed the O ld Mo ’ hic n ? ? a I bet you have n t . Have they arrived here yet — I have vent ured twenty fi ve lo uis on his head ; I should him take it very kind of to let me win them j ust now . W e Ah ! I wa s forgetting . have a lady from your
in country the R oyal Hotel . She knows you I think ’ she knows you very well : I m sure she Speaks very J w O f . w ! ell you , at least A splendid oman uno i n
- person ! Sporting m e n call her the great Aurelia . She w o n o n a n d five thousand francs my luck , had the good m sense to hold on to the . I promised her your visit . Go
se e . her, old fellow ; everything consoles a little Hunts ‘ men have a proverb on this subj ect : For want of ’ f thrushes we must be satis ied with elephants . Heavens ho w amusing yo u look with that corpse - face of yours ! Could you have any remote intention of blowing your brains out
1 4 2 R O U G E E T N O I R . he even became a little fuddled ; but o n rising from the ta ble he would readily have taken poison if Made m o ise lle B itte r lin had been there to share it with him . him him They promenaded around , and at last took — Co n ve r sa tio ns II aus is to t he to the that say , house
h u n where the gambling is carried on . Here he saw dreds of pretty girls from all quarters of the globe ; but l ife with another wo man he considered less acceptable than death with E mma :
T o i v e w i th the w e re fa r e ss sw e e l m l t,
De a r o v e tha n to d ie wi th the e l ,
R o R o u e e t N oi r M . Le y pointed out to h im the g
in a n d R o ule tte b table the next room , the ta le near — where they were standing . “ R o ule tte is a game of no account , he said , j ust made
c a n for children that want to be amused . Here you risk t u the humblest stake , a florin , a coin wor h abo t forty
i o r in in in . s cents That what is called fl g , the Baden language . “ is R o u e clN a ir But it to the g table that men resort, partly because the bank there has fewer chances in its t favor, but par icularly because it gives the player an
O pportunity for exercising his skill . However, if you
o n wish to try what this is l ike , j ust put a napoleon the last six numbers ; there , look , astride on the two m l ines . Good ! 33 wins . You get six ti es your
. l ! stake It was a ucky hit of mi ne . Take them up
m h ix r N o ! T e se s a e . w take the up napoleons yours , ’ what do you think O f R oulette ? Don t you think that
a n that must be admirable institution , which , at the ex pense of a few cents, makes you forget all your troubles A U R E L I A . 1 43 for a minute or two ? From the moment you laid your money on the table until the instant the gentleman ” Thir t - thr e e R e d P a ss O d d o u cried out, y , , , , y thought
Bitte r lin in e tfa neither about Mademoiselle , nor the i ble pleasure of dying with her n a fit of colic . And such a distraction , the most powerful in the world , has cost you nothing ; it ha s eve n w o n for you a hund red ’ is n t ? But and fifty francs Admirable, it what wil l you sa y when you have got a taste of R oug e e t N o ir
O f R ou e e t N a ir Meo tried the flavor g , u nder the f eyes O his guides . This game; the easiest of all games at cards, astonished him most by its extreme simplicity . He wondered to hi mself ho w a m a n could win or lose
in fe w seventy thousand francs a minutes , merely because the banker had d e a le d thirty - seven points for the R e d
- and thirty eight for the Black . He played j ust as he
— w on a s in d if was told , won , lost , again , and remained fe re n t to his gains a n d losses as though the gold pieces were so many l ittle pebbles . At midnight, he went ba c k gloomily to his hotel , though his pockets and those of his friends had been made heavier by some W i hundreds of francs . hat pleasure could he take n ’ money now Had n t he more than enough to last hi m for the little ti me he was still to live ?
He had forgotten Mademoiselle Aurelia, but he met her next morning under the beautiful trees O f the
Li h n h l c te t a . The poor girl uttered a loud cry , a
- him regular stage scream , and ran and kissed on the
c he ck s a n two , to the great scandal of English family that wa s passing by at the time . ” My dear big baby, She exclaimed , where are you ” coming from ? where are yo u going to are you happy ? O E T O R U G E N I R .
a He nswered , with visible embarrassment , that he had
w O f arrived the previous evening , that he had been a are
- her presence in Baden Baden , and that he had intended
paving her a visit soon . “ ” “ A visit ! she replied ; to tal k so coolly of paying a ceremonious visit to one who ha s thought more O f yo u than of all the rest O f the world besides ! You must have
become either very wicked or very unhappy . Are you still under the same banner Are you going to tal k to me about the girl with the bl ue eyes ? You seem to ! ” have had it pretty hard , my poor big lamb ” Y e s \Vhy , said he . ask me what I told you long ’ ” ago I m i n love for the first time in my life . “ She a Thank you for the compliment . is far head
O f O f us then , course “ i i . s I make no compar sons She more than pretty ,
more than beautiful , more than charming . She is grace
is m and beauty itsel f ; she the bal y light of my life, the ’
. ou Oh , I ll d ispense with the rest I think y might have had the good taste to praise her to so m ebody b e
W . . sides me . el l , no matter Be happy I speak to u you without anger . You treated me shamef lly , but I ’ ’ can t help pardoning you . Bad as you are, I can t keep ! i n spite . Be happy “ I am not happy, Aurel ia . That I shall never be . O s I cannot succeed . Insurmountable b tacles prevent ” me . Is it possible ? Has somebody taken the trouble to ? f avenge me You are su fering in your turn . I do
not rej oice over it, Meo, but, in spite of myself, I admire ” the j ust ice of Providence .
1 46 R O U G E E T N O I R .
You never wept for me , said she ; but it was not long she before was weeping too .
W she hen had heard the whole history , and , through its incidents, studied the character of the Captain , She reflected for some time , and then said to Meo “ ’ Dear friend , I m only a woman , and even a very
commonplace woman at that, since, though I loved
O you dearly, I have never been able to btain a particle O f your affection in return . Still we women possess a deeper insight i nto the human heart than you men c a n ’ m boast of. I think I right in guessing that your Cap tain is like an O ld Florentine that lived in our house
ho w when I was a little girl . He studied continually
to do nothing that might be agreeable to his neighbors ,
relations, or friends . The more people tried to please u him the ro gher he acted towards them , and the only way to get anything out of hi m was to treat him as a n
ha d enemy . He had three nephews who been humor ing hi m for te n years in order to come in for his i n he r i tance ; but he made his will in favor O f a j ud ge who had hi cast him in all s lawsuits . His niece loved a young man of the place ; but he married her to an O ld fello w
h o that s e could not bear the sight f. Your Captain is
a man of the same mould , if I am not very much mis
his e if taken . Perhaps he would give you daught r he
y o u w a s only sure that it would make both unhappy .
However that may be , you have been certainly very wrong in truckling to hi m during the tour ; that w a s him . o u quite enough to set dead against you Now, if y O ever btain his consent, it will be only by contriving h o w r . to w ing it out of him by force Face hi m boldly,
s him a n d - and try even to surpa s in stiffness ill temper . 4 A U R E L I A . 1 7
Perhaps he would allow himself to be taken by storm .
Show yourself in al l your energy and all your courage . ’ ! You ll make him afraid . Heavens I know I should ” be afraid of you if I were a man . W Meo escorted her back to her hotel . ithout well
w h . knowing y, he felt h imself a l ittle more cheerful
The future appeared to hi m less gloomy, and the Cap tain less terrible . He determined on another struggle with destiny, and not to confess himself conquered with out a good , hard fight . He warmly thanked Aurelia him for having shown so much devotedness, and given o him s much courage . “ ” It is heaven that has brought you to Baden , he
a s hi said he took s leave . “ ” she a Not at all , replied with her It lian candor ; “ is ld Siliv e r O . o it only an printer, M g , who has vol un te e re d to protect me during my visit to the waters . 1 4 8 R O U G E E T N O I R .
CHAPTER X .
I R ROUGE E T N O .
1 4 T was on Tuesday, the th of September , that Meo m e t . had Aurelia That day , the next, and the f ollowing Thursday , the two friends saw a little of each
Siliv e r o other everywhere , except at their hotels . M . g , who watched over his protegee at a respectful dis tance , and began , as everybody said , to regard her with
w a s matrimonial notions, rather uneasy at these meet d ings , but he would not con escend to recognize his old
- o n proof reader . Meo, his side, felt no great desire to
O f in rush into the arms his surly patron . He was the separable companion O f Le R oy and the j oyous band of the other broken players . These gentlemen received their money , lost it, recruited their finances by a few
fo r lucky hits , and kept fortune i n check three succes
w t he si ve days . Meo ro ed in same boat with them ; losing , wi nning , and laughing at everythi ng . They considered him quite i mproved , and gave Mademoiselle
Aurelia full credit for the change . He defended him self warmly from the i mputation , protested his fidel ity, and swore that the Captain should soon come to terms ’ with him , or he d know for what . He repeated his story to every listener so readily that it soon became quite popular . All the young Parisians knew that
Bitte rlin w a s Captai n coming, and rumor already de scribed h im like some fabulous animal . They never s uppre d at the R estaurant without drinking to the down fall O f the savage Captain . Emma was regarded as a
1 50 O O R U G E E T N I R .
d i nva ed , like the others , by bad humor . Standing at ’ h n e w w the banker s right and , at every deal he thre
R e d down a napoleon on the or on the Black , and shrugged his shoulders impatiently as he saw the rake b o o k in g in his money . rm S hu At last, new cards had been ed ; Meo had cut
m wa s the with his own hand , and he j ust dropping his last stake on Black , when a well remembered cough m ade hi m look around , and he suddenly found himself nose to nose with the Captain . Certainly he had had plenty of time to prepare him self for this interview and to have his arms ready . “ R o Only an hour before , he had said to M . Le y, I shall tame that Captain ! ” He had made up his mind to insult his father - in - law wherever and whenever he might meet him . The moment had now come ; here w a s O an excellent pportunity , and even the grounds for a pretty little quarrel were already furnished , for the — Captain had always denounced cards and card players . But the sight of that big nose suddenly looming up i n
his a me e the midst of .g , disconcert d poor Meo completely . A fortnight O f respectful terror and filial obedience is ’ not to be forgotten i n an instant . All the Captain s strictures on the immorality of gambl ing immediately
O ld flashed on his mind . His habit of submission ,
his stronger than late resolutions, entirely cowed him , a n d he Slunk away stealthily, like a schoolboy detected ’ i i n some trick by h s master s watchful eye . ’ Bitte rlin six O M . had arrived by the clock evening train , charged to the muzzle with morality . Ever since
i ai s the profess on of f th that he had made at Schaffhau en , a s he almost looked on himself a reformer, sent on a 1 5 1 R O U G E E T N O I R . l Specia mission . On the broad foundations of his virtue, he had erected a grand and glittering castle . Like another
O f wa s a t Hercules, the subduer monsters, he going to t ack and subdue the Hydra of gambling at the very
- fountain head , and thereby gain the eternal applause of
- al l well regulated families . His word and example should convert the punters in hundreds at a time, and finally Bé n a z e t himself and all the other gambling house proprietors would present themselves before him and solemnly renounce forever all connection with this idol of the million . He scarcely gave himself time to change his dress and lock up his daughter in the
Con ve r sa tion s H aus hotel . He asked the way to the , and entered it as resolutely as Polye u cte s and N e a rc hus entered the temple of Jupiter . The first pagan he met
w a s R o M . Le y, surrounded by a circle of friends . The i young man , perceiv ng him , called him by his name and “ : said Be qu ick about commencing to play, I want to win that twenty pounds ! You are a s welcome here as ” Mademoiselle Mars in the middle of Lent . The
r e Captain pulled up his black stock with dignity, and “ plied : I shall enable you to w in more than twenty if l pounds, I teach you how to overcome your gamb ing ” propensities and to renounce cards . He continued his
ste i n way, only pp g a moment to shrug his shoulders at the s ight of Monsieur and Madame Moring playing
R oule tte . The news of his arrival had been Spread R o . through the saloons bythe friends of M . Le y All
eyes were turned towards him he was pointed out, fol
lowed , and examined by two hundred persons ; people
even ran after him to look at him more closely . He if n his marched on as in a procession , turni g head right 1 5 2 R O U G E E T N O I R . a n d in : left, and muttering his moustache It appears that they are not much accustomed here to see a man of ! ” pri nciple He recognized Meo , and posted himself behind hi m to greet him with one of his compli ments as ’ n J I he w soon as he should tur round . poor fel lo s cow “ ” W —so ! a rd ly flight made him laugh . hat a milk p O f ! ! said he . He has not even the courage vice Hey He has forgotten his t w enty francs ! T wenty francs a go ! W hat extravaga n ce ! Two h undred pounds O f ammun itio n bread He was tempted to pick up the u gold piece and ret rn it to Meo , but a scruple restrained
r e him . He was full of that coarse del icacy which ’ s e c ts p another s property , even to the most absurd de
gree . Besides he promised himself a good laugh as soon a s the rake should come to haul in the money and
give the gambler a lesson . He , however , had not this ’ a the : satisf ction first time Black won , and Meo s napo
leon found a companion . “ W ” m ? ell , thought the Capta , what of that My ff big simpleton Shall lose it all next o er . In this hope
n his he lea ed with elbow on the table . But the second
O f f er, as well as the first, was favorable to Black , and
the Captain saw eighty francs lying before him . He looked with contempt at the gambling - polluted
- gold . It was coin fresh from the mint ; the lamp l ight O ff o ff w flashed it as so many j e els . Their radiant glitter carried him back in spite O f himself to the first ' his o w n four louis he had ever cal led . They were
— — O f twenty four franc pieces yellow gold , very ancient,
very much worn , and even rather clipped on the edge . His mother had ta ken them out of an old stocking and Sl ipped them into his hand on the day he started for the
1 5 4 R O U G E E T N O I R .
the - Black won for seventh time , and a bank note, escorted by fourteen napoleons, came to increase the ’ Italian s riches .
a s The play was becoming interesting . It w the first
a u n e x series that had h p pened since morning . The p e c te d success of Black resounded through all the
a ll saloons , and people came crowding from quarters to ’ f ar l se e how the l ucky run wou d go . The Captain s
r e reputation , his grimaces , but particularly the very
S e c ta ble p stake lying before hi m , attracted all eyes his w way . Already three or four pretty omen had come to ask hi m for the loan of five louis, and had been met as the dogs are met by a wild boar . u m t Black turned p again for the eighth ti e , and lef before hi m a total of five thousand one hundred and twenty francs .
b e Never, Since he was a child , had witnessed any thin g so surprising . This rapid accumulation O f gold
r- mlli d him a ma z e d him s a a z e . assuredly , but , still more ’ ! w o n in Five thousand francs A whole year s income, fe w minutes by the mere caprice O f chance ! He ex pe rie n c e d a certain satisfaction i n putting back a fe w l ouis that had Sl ipped a little off the heap . Of course he was proud of remain ing a disinterested spectator O f all this hubbub : he pitied from the bottom O f his heart all the poor wretches whose e a ge r glances betrayed the palpitating emotion with which they watched every turn f O . the cards But, taking it all i n all , he was by no means sorry for having got such a good look into things, and felt the recoil as it were of such exciting passions . He even thought for a moment that if the del irium of
s play ever could be excusable, it should be so a suredly 1 R O U G E E T N O I R . 55
n on grand occasio s like the present, which give or take away whole fortunes at a blow . He was already catch f ing a distant glimpse of a rich morality, very dif erent from the poor morality that he had been practising for
his sixty years . The wealth spread out before eyes ex
his his cited strange emanations i n brain , and ideas took a s it were a new color . One of the servants of the hi m establishment brought a chair . He refused to take i a t . w , saying that he did not pl y Ho ever, as the chair
so felt convenient, particularly as the emotions of the
sa t play made his knees tremble, he finally down . The banker began turning up the cards once more, and gave
- the Black row exactly thirty one points . The Captain
fi noticed the rueful countenance of this of cer, who prob
a n ably had interest in the profits of the bank . The thought occurred to him that it would be a n oble and chivalrous thing to despoil such immortal enterprises w and to pay them back in their own coin . And hen he had his ten thousand two hundred and forty francs
o n la s lying before him , he looked himse f the champion of virtue, who had j ust won a great victory over the demon of gambling . ’ so i n All these events , new the Captain s l ife , had
n 1 1 1 take place less than a quarter of an hour, quite time h enoug for the bank , once fairly started, to ruin a man or to make his fortune .
o ff r u n hun Meo, though driven by fear, had not a ' dred leagues away . The thought of Emma, the great resolutions he had taken , and the reflection that he must conquer or die , soon brought him back to the field of
. w a s R o le tte R his battle He in the u oom , flapping wings
m his to get up so e courage, when a player of acquaintance 1 56 R O U G E E T N O I R .
‘ said as he passed by Hey ! is tha t the way you watch your luck The hand that you out has already w o n n ine ti mes ! ” All at once he thought of the twenty franc piece that he had left on the table . Though he w a s fa r from suspecting his good fortune , he slipped back stealthily into the crowd surrounding t he R ouge ct N o ir his —in - table , and began to look for father law a n d e his money . He discover d them , one brooding over the other, and arrived j ust i n time to hear the banker sa y to the Captain How much are you going ‘ sir 2 to stake , ’ I n don t k now, replied the Captain , redder tha ’ “ I — M — a hundred lobsters ; don t play . y princi ples ' Or o u z e r You are aware, sir , said a neighboring p , h ” that the maximum stake is six t ousand francs . A ll eyes were fixed at once on this audacious punter
w ho m was staking more than the aximum , and the Captain felt himself cower under the weight of the
publ ic curiosity . He threw a frightened glance around ’ c ou n t e the room , expecting to catch a gl impse of Meo s
n ance, but catching nothing of the kind , and seeing
that all only awaited his decision to renew the play , he
in s sir answered a stifled voice Six thousand franc , . — I think so at least . It is not I
His hands trembled ; he counted the six bank notes,
w . left them on the Black , and dre the rest to himself
The co ntact of this treasure gave him a kind of vertigo . A swarm of golden butterflies began to fl utter in his head he grasped the table tightly with his hands and
closed his eyes . The smothered exclamations of the
crowd soon made him open them again . Black had ! won again , for the tenth time
1 58 R O U G E E T N O I R .
a f a beloved Capt in , ruin me as st as vou can , and do it so e ffectively that I shall not have a single cent left ! ’ a a But that w s the l st of the Captain s thoughts . His
t o n a n d firs impression had been e of surprise regret .
a w his The departure of th t money , hich was not , and t w . hich he had no right to lose, rather s unned him A m ountai n of scruples Sprung up at once in his con
He w a s science . asked himself if he not responsible before the law for the misfortune that had j ust occurred , and if the stranger would not be perfectly j ustifiable in
O aski ng him for those six thousand francs . He pened his mouth to ask the banker to put back the money, R since the legitimate owner w a s absent . emark besides that a great tumult had been excited by the triumph of
R e d the , the noise of a hundred persons talking all at the same time was not calculated to cal m his disturbed brain He heard everybody around h im say that it w a s
t r ic k only a false break in the luck , a mere of fortune to throw the players o ff the scent ; that Black wa s still good for ten offers more ; and that it would be madness
b a c k to desert it for so little . The idea of wi nni ng for
M . Narn i the sum that he had j ust been the cause of his losing , insinuated itself by degrees i nto the crevices
hi m e c ha n ic a llv n of s brain . He began turni g over the
- bank notes remaining in his hands , l ike a general count ' n hi h in W i g s fres troops the heat of battle . hat ! “ said he to h imself ; I have w o n thirty thousand francs
a n d six with a single napoleon , shall I not try to win thousand with all tha t I have left ? Six thousand francs A miserable trifle ! Black is good still every ? W w . body says so . hat ould M Narni do in my place He would keep on pl a ying ; he would l ike to win back O 5 9 R U G E E T N O I R .
what I have j ust lost, and after having won it back , he w ! ould still go ahead As for me , I am more prudent , so I shall venture only one offer more to win back that six - thousand francs, and then good night to the com pany Perhaps he would have followed this wise resolution if he had only recovered his six thousand fra n cs on the n - ext turn . But the banker turned up thirty one both R d e . for and Black , which gave him hal f the stakes
The Captain dispatched fresh troops to the field , and his n a s first e gagement w favorable . He returned to the charge, lost, won , forgot all his ideas of prudence, and r ushed headlong like a blind man into the thickest of the
fight . For a long time past he had not been seated , and his chair had been driven far behind him by a n
his energetic movement . Standing bolt upright, hands
— R e d o n full of gold and ban k notes, he punted away on ,
Black , on Color, according to the inspiration of the
. w a s moment His face pale, and the perspiration glit t re d e o n his forehead in little pearls of dew . As the banker turned up the cards, he counted the points i n
lo w a voice, regardless of the spectacle that he afforded to the spectators . He sol iloquized audibly , and swore
u o n sometimes between his teeth . You may depend p
n e w u it, he thought very little abo t the Ital ian , and no l onger troubled himself to look around t he room for i him him . Had Meo been ndiscreet enough to offer
vi . ad ce, he would have been received at bayonet point
His attitude, voice, gesture, everything in h im breathed of the passionate energy of frenzied enthusiasm ; you would have called him a desperate lover exerting his ’ last e fi o rts to make Fortune his own . 1 60 O O R U G E E T N I R .
O - He won ften , and won much ; bank notes of a th e n
u sand francs came to him in handf ls . He crumpled m them in his hands , thrust the into his pockets , piled t u in u n c o n hem p heaps on the table , al l by j erks and
N o scious movements . w and then the Ban k had al most exhausted its last resources ; t wo or three times in one half hour the public confidently expected to se e it break . R ? eader, have you ever hunted the gazelle It is the ff mildest, the most ino ensive , the most amiable of ani mals . Its silky ski n invites caresses , and when you its look at its pretty pensive head , and beautiful eyes,
n you ca hardly help embracing it . The whole huma n race d oes not contain a being unnatural enough to wish harm to so charmi ng a creature .
But when the dogs have started the gazelle, and when the horses are gall oping on its track over the burning
n sands of the desert, then the panting hu ter spurs his d stee , cracks his whip , and asks all the winds of heaven to lend him their wings . Nothing stops him , neither thickets , nor rocks, nor torrents , nor ravines, nor certain u death yawning i n the q agmires . He pursues the enemy, he tires hi m out, he gains on him , he nears him , he reaches him and screams aloud with j oy and victory ;
his he seizes hi m in his arms , pl unges a knife into throat, and murders with infin ite del ight, a poor inno cent animal that a n hour before he would have caressed
l i n — wi th p easure the drawing room or in the garden .
his This explai ns how, in spite of al l reasons to dis
m B itte rlin l o f . approve ga bling , M never stopped p ay i ng that night until he absolutely broke the Bank , at ’ - precisely twenty fi ve minutes to twelve o clock .
O 1 02 R O U G E E T N I R . emp tied his pockets o n the table a n d scrupulousl y d counted up the sum that he had won , in or er to find
. s u m out the exact amount th a t he owed Meo . The
- totted up , he took out a rather plump pocket book , and ,
o ff on the same page where a month before he had co pied ,
a d n Fi i - la E rc urs ion Tr a in s to S witz e r la n d a n d, B e r s ss , c ” — ' tic /re fs o n e hun d r e d a n d o r t o n e r a n s t e n time s , f y f c fif y c , he n o w pencilled down the very imposing figure of one hundred and twenty - one thousand two h undred and forty francs ! A Paris newspa per reporter who had ar O ff rived that very evening, read it all over his shoulder
and immediately made a note of it . At the same mo
R o ment, M . Le y came up to salute the melancholy con ‘7 ue ro r q , saying Are the sheep counted The Cap “ : Y e s tain blushed and replied , a hundred and twenty thousand and o d t “ n Bitte r lin By the bye , dear Mo sieur , how shall we designate you henceforward You know you have lost your name !
The reporter hastened to put down : B itte r lin . ’ I don t reproach you for it . You have made me
win my bet . The Englishman got neatly gammoned . But what a man you are ! What coolness ! W hat a
! n head I saw you punti g away like Mithridates , the ” king of Pontus .
The Captain Sighed profoundly . ” “ I swear to you , said he, that this is the first time
i n my life I have ever gambled ; and the last too . This hundred and twenty thousand francs ha s been won with i a single napoleon that did not belong to me . There s
i n f . . N somelfatality the a fair It all belongs to M arni I wi l carry it all to him th is very evening, as a soldier ” should do . S I L I V E R G O . 1 63 M .
' R o obs W hile M . Le y and the others were uttering a n d (1 1 78 in , the persevering reporter was writing down “ his note - book ! O n e n a p ole on ; n e r e r p la ye d befor e ; ” “ l kin o P on tu s : llfi thri t a te s . Yor n i . And underneath , g f t ” T o un .
p g It had cost the Captain much painful trouble to force up from the bottom of his thr e a t the above confused ex
: his planation . He was quite ill at ease he made wig all crooked by trying to scratch his head , and every time
o ff he used his hand kerchief, it carried a bluish stai n W from his perspiring moustache . hilst the crowd
him his stared at as at a curious ani mal , eyes were eagerly
i n searching for somebody all quarters of the saloon , and he was chewing under his teeth a little string of
n pretty epithets intended for a certai absent i ndividual .
His nearest neighbors, and even the distant ones occa sio n a ll h a s : y, could hear every now and t en such words “ The beggar ! the beast ! the big coward ! the stupid ! booby I shall pay him , but he shall pay me, too
He was breaking up the sitting, when an u nforeseen obstacle kept hi m in his place somewhat longer than he desired . The noise made by the explosion of the ban k had reached the ears of the little aristocratic circle that
F a ubo ur S a in t G e r ma in is, so to speak , the g of Baden .
- Away i n the recesses of a remote drawing room , beyond R the estaurant saloons, seven or eight old dowagers of gre at name and great virt ue were qu ietly enj oying th h w selves in flaying alive the w ole human race, hen the é attach of some embassy brought them the news . All “ ” at once the demon of cha r ity took possession of their souls ; they all felt at the same time a strong itching to relieve the winner of so me of his gains for the benefit 1 4 O 6 R U G E E T N O I R .
of the city hospitals . Full of this good thought, they
e n ma sse rose , and the venerable troop put itself i n pro c i n l B itte r lin e ss o a motion until it reached M . . The ’ Captain s eyes became as big a s saucers when he sa w
- hi mself harangued by these demi centenarians . They paid him a little sneering compliment on h is good for tune ; they told him that i f gambling could be tolerated
w a s o n at all by religion , it only condition that the winner would not forget the poor ; and finally they
- ha w a s handed him a work g, which to receive whatever
mites his O pulence might choose to bestow .
he w a s The poor Captain could hardly speak in fact , “ sa almost smothering . Ladies, he at last tried to y, ladies I a m not accustomed to publ ic speaking
nor to gambling , either be assured of that . I am an honest soldier ; I am father of a f amily ; and totally free
a s from vice . My principles I have good principles
hi x a s s se . any one, let or his religion be what it may
A s to this money , it is none of mine ; I swear it by this — cross of honor which no matter what . Here is a
fi e — v franc piece of my own . I give it to save further t trouble . M . Narni will do what he pleases wi h his
own money that is , provided he chooses to do anyth ing
at all . Ladies , I have the honor of bidding you good ” night .
a — He flung five fr ncs into the work bag , dashed head
fo l t he remost into the crowd , e bowed his way through
a n d o ff saloons, started like a madman , in quest of Meo .
‘ The same public that had applauded hi m so warmly a
few mi nutes before , now pursued hi m with an insulting
m a u urmur, but the Capt in did not mind it . He t rned
ba c k m w wa s his on the ga bling palace, s earing it the
1 66 R O U G E E T N O I R .
Sir 7‘
I admire your style of play very much .
a I never play , sir or at le st
Yes , yes , I understand . That discourse of yours
W l c o m e i n the hotel was rich . il you to Homburg w ith me ? ”
W s ir hat for, To play R o ug e e t N o ir I stake a hundred thousand
a . francs , you stake nother hundred thousand francs ” Between us we shal l burst the ban k . Hey l “ s ir ! Hey yourself, I tel l you you are altogether ’ ” ir ! m . s istaken in me You don t know me , “ fi rs - I know that you play t rate . How much a year do your winnings amount to ! Death and fury Sir, I win nothing, because I n ever play, and I never play because I am a man of — i n sir a n principle, you understand other words , , honest man “ ! Bitte rlin Oh in my country, Monsieur , the most ” honest man is the man that makes the most money . ’ “ Then I d advise you to brag of your country !
W . Good night, Monsieur reck By the way, do you know in what hotel M . Narni lodges , that long gawk of a fellow who travelled with us ’ “ ? That young man Oh , yes . He don t play a s
Bi r li a s tte n . well you , Monsieur He has been losing the ” whole day . ’ ’ s That right, pity hi m Don t you know at what hotel he is ste ppin g ’
e s . s w Oh , y He at the Victoria here I am . You might have said so sooner I have been asking you that question for the last hour . S I L I E R G O . 1 67 M . V
And I have been asking you if you are willing to ' break the bank at Homburg . I should l ike dearly to ” break it . “ W ! sir hat , can you find no better way to spend ’ ? your time and your fortune Gambling, the scourge of regiments, the destruction of families “ Y e s e s . , y ; quite correct You said all that, you know, f fi rst— already at Scha fhausen . A rate j oke Decidedly ri ch ! That stupid beast of an Englishman thought hi s . you were in earnest , and lost twenty pounds on it ” is Served him right ! Hey ! Here the Victoria . “ — ” Very much obliged to you . Good night . ’ W Oh I I don t want to go to bed yet . hat do you sa y to a little game of poker for ourselves up in my room You and your games may go to the devil mut te re d n a s the Captai i n a rage, he walked off in another
n direction . He soo returned , however, and discovered that Meo had not yet come back ; the key of his door ’ w a s . still hanging i n the porter s room He lit a cigar, u w and walked p and down the street, aiting for his i creditor . A drizzling ra n , cold and penetrating, came
t he j ust in time to render promenade still more attractive .
his Now and then he would blow on wet fingers, and con sult the gold d ial of his watch at least once every te n
in minutes . It might be easily supposed that Meo was the meantime supping quietly at the R estaurant ; but the Ca ptain preferred waiting for him there to going so far
w a s back after him . He afraid of missing him on the road , but he particularly dreaded meeting any more a dow gers . While he was thus doggedly keeping guard a n d 1 68 O O R U G E E T N I R .
his t u exhausting all the oaths in his collection , fu re son ’ in — law was kicking up a commotion in Aurelia s hotel . Not a single particular of the famous game had escaped ’ ’ VVre c k s Meo s attention . Concealed behind Mr . shoul d ers, he had watched the very low level of his fortune fl d o v e r o we . rising , rising , unti l at last the river He
ha s w since confessed , ith his usual sincerity, that during ’ the last seven or eight deals Emma s image had been
rather indistinct in his mind . Young girls of fifteen will perhaps never pardon him for this quarter of a n ’ u hour s forgetf lness but I swear to you , my dear
young ladies , that he was thin king no more of his money
hi A s than of s mistress . lthough he a w a pretty round
su m awaiting him in the hands of his agent, he never
his once thought of buying back his name , lands, or his
his h pictures ; only desire, the most ardent wis of h is T se e its . O heart, was to the Bank burst to last cent that m degree he was a real huntsman . There are oments when you would risk killing your best horse and your ’ i i n self nto the bargain , j ust to be for the fox s death ;
but that is not because you want to eat hi m . 7 “ w a s hen the beast at last run down , he enj oyed the
its full sight of the death in all details ; however, he
took good care not to show hi mself. He had too much delicacy to go touch the Captai n on the shoulder and “ ” say : Let us count up ! W hy run at all after a for tune which w ould be sure to run after him He knew
Bitte rlin u M . to be as scrupulo sly honest as he was
d ifli c ult to l ive with , and he believed hi m to be as inca
ble o f u a s a . p ’ an nworthy action of a gracious one But, his though sure of money , he began again to entertain his T he s doubts regarding happiness . little exclamation
1 70 R O U G E E T N O I R .
Bi te rlin t . M . Meo i mmedi a tely decamped , counting on t this diversion as a mask for his retrea . Al l the reflections that he made ' ou the way served to confirm his confidence i n the advice he was proceeding k “ ” a s . Y e s to , said he to hi mself, rubbing his hands “ and quickening his pace, yes , this adventure, this m oney must be made to turn to our a dvantage and to secure our marriage . There is something that is to be ’ W ? done . hat is it I don t know . Neither does
W e c a n Emma . are too much i n love ; people in love n A ever think . urelia alone is able to get us out of our f se e d i ficulty . Aurelia has wit . Aurelia would like to u s ! ! happy , the dear good creature Excellent Aurelia ” o u ! ! Thank y , Aurelia Hurrah for the noble Aurelia
Every step he took , every word he spoke, ani mated
h i m more and more, so that when he arrived at the hotel
he was running and shouting . ” The Signora Aurelia ? said he to the porter . ” She is in her room . Where is her room ? Q uick ! ” ” Y e s , sir , said the German , reading the register ;
Siliv e r o R 1 5 . 8 M g ; Signora Aurelia ; ooms and , ” Corridor A , first floor . Meo w a s already beating a reveille with his fists on
8 . 0 . the door of Number N reply He pounded louder . The noise of somebody moving inside was n o w plainly d hear . Meo worked away with hands and feet, shout ing like a madman : Open ! it is I A husky basso voice asked i n Ital ian Chi é ? ! ” Ah exclaimed Meo, recalled all at once to a sense
of the real ity . He resumed i n more measured tones, using his mother - tongue S I L I E R G O 1 7 1 M . V .
Silive r o My dear Monsieur g , I am exceedingly glad
n . to meet you . Ope the door It is I , Bartolomeo
Y o u . Narni . know me very well ’ “ w I don t kno you any longer, replied the bass voice . “ m ! ” Open , anyhow . I ust get in What do you want ?
To see the Signora Aurelia .
She is in her room , locked up . No matter ; you must go and call her ; I have to ” se e her . “ ” This is no time to make visits . l “ l ? ” i y , what time is it ’ ” Twelve o clock .
Never mind . Open . I must speak to the Signora. ” Aurelia in your room . “ is She asleep i n her own . Wake her up
But, sir Have pity on a miserable lover Sir ! Bitte rlin is back : we have broken the Bank : he is ’ u : w if f rious against me I don t kno what to do, and ’ ”
O . you don t open at nce, I shall burst i n the door so He roared loud that the whole house woke up . Presently eight or te n travellers were standing at their d in — oors their night dresses, lamp in hand . The ser v ants of the hotel soon appeared . One of them observed
a ll in German that the hour was unseasonable, and that honest folks had long gone to bed . Meo despised this
so remonstrance , the more as he did not understand the
e s first w ord of it . The German tried to explain by g 1 72 R O U G E E T N O I R .
tures . Meo j umped at h im l ike a tiger, and exclaimed , “ What ! you rascal Do you dare to raise your hand ’ ” to ! ll ! a Miranda I teach you the cost of that And , suiting action to word , he gave the poor wretch a kick that sent him fl ying like a rocket to the other end of
N O 1 . 5 the corridor . At the same moment, the door of opened , and Aurelia, half dressed , j oined Meo in pound
ili r o in . 8 S v e g at No and crying out to M . g to open . “ ” “ Sili r O . v e o Sir, said M g , I pen the door to put a stop to your scandalous conduct, but only because the
ha Signora s requested me to do so . Meo could not help bestowing a look of admiration
hi n - s . on the old printer in ight dress Short, stoop
fa t - shouldered , paunched , and dressed i n white, M . S ilive rgo with his bass voice offered no bad resemblance ” - in sir to a hunting horn massive silver . Come in , , “ his - said he to old proof reader, come in ; I see I was not much m istaken in prophesying that you would come ” to a bad end . “ ” Y e s i n ! , come , my poor boy added the Signora, hastily arranging her dressing gown . You have u done well to wake me p , if I can only be of any use ’ Silive r o : to you . M . g has not common sense don t
us mind what he says . Tell all about your love They ’ ? m have arrived ! Anything new I all attention .
Signor Geronimo , light up all the candles in this sitting ’ ”
e . room . W can t throw too much light on the subject ” ! O ld But, my dear obj ected the gentleman .
No buts ! repl ied Aurel ia . ” No buts ! added Meo . He rapidly detailed to his
A s old friend the great news of the evening . soon as she Ba n k heard that the had been broken for his benefit,
1 74 O R O U G E E T N I R .
a d My bagg ge is at the hotel , sai Meo .
Sili e r o Leave it there ; M . v will send it to you to ’ g morrow . “ ? ” And my bill , which is not yet paid “ ” S ili r . v e o M g will pay it . “ I said the printer . ! ? ” Of course By the way, have you any money
0 is N , but my ticket good to take me back to Paris . ’ No matter for that ; you can t start o ff without a
l r . Si iv e o cent in your pocket Monsieur g , lend hi m five ” hundred francs . “ I lend him five hundred francs ! “ ! Heavens cried Meo, how stupid you are Are you afraid I shall break you ? I have won more than a hundred and tw e n tv thousand francs this very day at R ouge e t N oir Then how is it that you want five hundred francs ? ” ’ Have n t you heard ? Yes ! ” ’ Then you have n t understood No ‘
W . ell , the Signora will explain it all after I am gone
But first let me have those five hundred francs, for I ’ ! ” have no time to lose, and the trai n won t wait
Meo took the money , embraced Aurelia, embraced
Siliv e r o g , embraced the waiter that he had been kicking i n the corridor, and never stopped to take breath till he arrived at the station . C A R E S S 1 75 T H E O F T H E M U K E T E E R .
CHAPTER XII .
A R E S R S THE C OF THE MU KETEE . ’ in Y two o clock the morning, the drizzling rain had wa s become decidedly heavier, and it still beating ’ i His nto the Captain s face . last cigar had gone out ; his stock of oaths, the most complete and varied assort
ha s ment that the world ever witnessed , was running
short . But he was fully determined to remain on guard
until the Italian came to relieve him . At last he per
c e iv e d at the end of the dark street a human form,
preceded by a little lantern . He was sure that this belated individual wa s his man ; who else would be fool
i n enough to be on the streets such weather, and at such a n hour ? Accordingly he ran up and seized him by
the collar . u The form b rst into a fit of loud laughter, and
i n thick exclaimed a voice, not without an occasional hiccup Hello is that you , my noble captain of the R ouge e t N oir light infantry ? Do you rob lonely trav ? o n ellers on the highway , too I thought you operated
n m a gra der scale . Better leave odest employment of
- m that nature to poor shel led out individuals like yself. No matter ; I shall be able to sa y that I was attacked afte r supper by a man who had j ust won a hundred and ” twenty thousand francs . ’ R o n My dear Monsieur Le y, said the Captai , rather ’ ’ n t disconcerted , have you met M . Narni Did n t he take supper with yo u 0 N , my lord ; there wa s nobody at supper with me 1 76 R O U G E E T N O I R .
but the Duke and the Pri nce, and two confounded par t r id e s — so ! \Ve g , tough oh tough had to dissect
- w them with a cork scre . Narni must be i n his hotel . ’ ”
H e s . rather green here, you know , and goes to bed
He ha s not. come back yet ; his key is still i n the f ” O fice . “ Not come b a c k yet ! Then he must have stopped ’ n somewhere on the way . Don t be alarmed , captai of my soul ; when fast young fellows like you and me ’ s happen to stay out all night, their parent don t go next ’ ” m e orning to the Morgue to s e if they re drowned . ’ Alarmed not at all . Only I don t want to go to ” bed until I have paid him his money . W hat money There is some truth then , after all , in this wonderful improbability
! su m Sir , I never tell a lie The whole belongs to ” Monsieur Narni . ’ What a piece of inj ustice ! W hy don t it belong to m e . He no more played than I did Another time ,
Captain , you must wi n for me ; I will furnish the ma ’ n t ? chinery . But is it raining a little Come up into my room , you can wait there more conveniently
! i n - n i o rro w Thank you I prefer calling to .
W - ! ell , good night, then . Apropos Monsieur Bit ’ ” te rlin . Now you won t have to portion your daughter .
W a sir hat do you me n by that, , if you please
! y o u b w Dash it the Bank saves the trou le , you kno . ’ ” N a rn i s I am very glad of it for poor sake . “ ’ ’ u I don t understand yo . ’ ? T m You don t see it, eh hen it ust be the rain ’ h n t o u that a s got i nto your eyes . Are y aware that the young man is dead in love ? ”
1 78 R O U G E E T N O I R .
- a n d handed him his dressing gown his slippers , and
o ff s helped him with his out ide coat, which the rain had
. W o n pasted to his back hen he had put dry clothing , s he came and sat down at his feet , purring like a little
i n cat, and kissing his hands spite of him . As she k ne w with what intentions he had quitted her after d s he inner, thought it good policy to humor his hobby i a little n order to induce him to talk . “ Now, my dear l ittle father, said she, tell me what
n Con ve r sa tio n s H au s you have bee seeing . Is the a fine
? a ll place Are the saloons covered over with gold , as ? people sa y ? Had the ladies beautiful dresses And those horrid gamblers, what ki nd of faces did they make w hen they saw their money go ? Ho w you must have enj oyed it ! ” “ “ Oh , yes, yes, said the Captain , biting his nails, I ” enj oyed it hugely . “ Did they see you ? Did they observe you ? Did vou le t them know that they stood in the pres ence of a ? ” man of high - toned moral principles
Y - e —s A —little l . ” M e n of y our stamp are not often there ! ” No t very ! — ? IVe re our fellow travellers there Have they ar
? R o rived yet M . Le y must have played very high ? Did he break the Bank ? ” ’ — m o No not exactly not that I aware f. He was there though ? ” ”
e s . Yes , oh y He was there and did not play ! You must have converted him then ? ” — . t wo . Come, daughter, go to bed It is half past E S S 1 9 T H E C A E O F T H E M U K E T E E R . 7 ’ m us . Oh , let talk a little longer I not sleepy a
se e ? bit now . Did you the little German couple They ’ ”
n t . did play, of course “ Oh , no ; of course not, said the Captain . W hat right had he to betray the poor creatures, since he did not inform on himself ? But was there nobody playing at all ? I hope in gracious that Monsieur Narn i was a s good as the
is O f rest . He must have been , for he your school , you know . It is from you he has imbibed all those prin c i ls p e . ’ H m a nice scholar you would give me ! ” Ah he has been playing then ’ ” n t a I did s y so . ’ How silly I am ! Perhaps he s not at Baden at
I He S . You have seen him Y e s . Have you spoken to h im N ’ Did n t he se e you Go to bed ! We shall tal k to - morrow as much as ” you please . ’ s - W e It to morrow now . shall sleep , if you like, ’ W i till eight o clock . Then you ll give me your arm ’ and we ll have a Splendid walk through the city and i ” ts neighborhood . ” in It is raining torrents . But fortunately it will not be raining i n the Co n ve rsa tion s Ha us W e . shall pass the whole day there . Ho w delightful ! Acknowledge that our trip has done 1 80 E T R O U G E N O I R . ’ me good ! I m a hundred times more cheerfulthan ! ” before Agatha would hardly know me . ’ I have forbidden you ever to mention that creature s name i n my presence . Now then , go to bed at once ; I insist on it .
He pushed her into the neighboring room , kissed her
- on the forehead , and locked and double locked the door .
The like of this had never happened before , since the
in commencement of their tour . The Captain had been
i n the habit of leaving the door aj ar, order that Emma might sleep under the paternal protection .
This irregular proceeding did not pass un noticed .
Between love and anxiety , the young girl had become too vigilant to let anything escape her . She went to bed repeating all the monosyllables that she had ex
she i tracted out of her father, and studied nto their meaning more profoundly than if they had been so many oracles of Delphi . Even after her lamp had been ex tin uishe d g more than an hour, her m ind was still hard at work . She knew that her f ather w a s no more asleep than herself. The partition between the rooms was very
o n thin , and she heard him turning and twisting his bed , like a porpoise left high and dry on shore by the ebb
she tide . At last, heard a match scratch against the
sa w its i he r wall , and a little light making way nto room through the chinks of the door . In a few mo k ments , her ear, ali ve to the slightest noise, was struc by a certai n metallic sound . She listened with breath less attention the noise ceased , commenced , and stopped again then it sounded like the rumpling of paper, then
n the ringing sound of metal clearer tha ever . Emma w a s n o t the she more curious than rest of her sex, but
1 8 2 O R O U G E E T N I R .
- T h n bank notes bound together i nto a vol ume . e rai was rattl ing against the panes , and streaming down the
a n d glass in large gold pieces . Music was heard outside,
sa w all the class ran to the windows . Emma a regiment pass by hea ded by a band . The Colonel turned round ’ n to salute her, and Emma recognized Meo s face . The she woke up i n earnest, and heard the orchestra playing
u se e outside in the yard . She j mped up out of bed to
she Colonel Meo pass at the head of his regiment, but
he r saw only a score of musicians running away , and
father giving them money to make them r un quicker .
she Then , indeed , she began to feel that was dreaming
he i n earnest . She pinched herself to find out if s was
in still asleep . Never all her life had she seen her
so v father decidedly hostile to music ; ne er, above all , h had s e known hi m to be so generous . She was deter mined O u aski n g him for the explanation of this riddle
the first moment he would make his appearance . But
o ff he went , chasing the musicians , and did not return ’ h all t e morning . Emma s two doors still remained
locked .
a At last the Capt i n came back . He looked so wicked that his daughter at once lost all courage to speak to
him on any subj ect . A servant followed at his heels,
a H ith carrying on a tray a breakfast alre dy prepared . erto they had invariably taken their meals at the publ ic
a . a t ble Towards the end of breakf st, Emma observed ,
that, as all the rain seemed to be over, they might take
a little run through the town . ” lVe Impossible, said the Captain , peremptorily . ”
m a n d . ust get our baggage ready at once, start for Paris i To this decree, w thout appeal , the girl could make ’ A F E O F T H E S S T H E C M U K E T E E R . n o reply ; she now entertained no doubt that her secret had been betrayed . The only thing that astonished her
She a l ittle was that the Captain did not beat her . packed up her trunks and went down stairs with her father, recommending herself to the mercy of God . In the hallshe remarked that the hotel people had all fallen
a i nto l ine to get a look at her s she passed through .
In the railroad omnibus, the travellers fixed their eyes on her w ith a persistency that was actually disagreeable .
I n the station , the passport agent was betrayed into a slight start and exclamation when he saw the name, Bi li ” tte r n .
They j ogged along in the German cars as far as the a s bridge at Kehl . The Captain looked as frowning ever . Emma reminded hi m, timidly , that he had pi om i to sed show her the Cathedral of Strasburg . He a n swe 1 e d 1 1 1 , a tone that admitted of no reply They ” are repairing it . “ W ” “ ell , thought the poor child , he is taking me ’ ” home to kill me ; that s the truth of the matter . She tried to gai n some time at Lun eville ; the Captain had told her that he would make some stay there ; but he now protested that the country was unhealthy — ravaged — by the measles a n d that nothing in the world could
ste i nduce him to p in such a place . At the Chalons
j unction , he told her that there was no longer anything
e o n i n int resting going the camp , the grand manoeuvres
'
being al l over . Emma resigned herself to her fate l ike
another Iphigenia, and began bidding an eternal adieu
to the sweet sunlight . She entered her house i n the R u e d e s Vosge s a s she wo uld a tomb in which she was
to be buried alive . O 8 4 R O U G E E T N I R .
How great w a s her surprise when she found “ all the ! rooms filled with fresh flowers The mantels , the u tables , the beds even , were loaded with large, beautif l u bouquets . This lovely summer l xury suddenly changed the current of her thoughts . She laughed at herself for having been so m uch afraid ; it even made ’ l m her b ush , and she threw her ar s around her father s n eck to thank him and to ask his pardon . But Aga m emnon only turned his head sorrowfully away , and the victi m felt that it was only for a sacrifice that the altar had been decked .
a However, eight days el psed , and still she saw no
its s l gleaming knife make appearance . If her father e m dom s iled on her,he at least treated her well . He breakfasted at home with her, and took her to the res t a ura n t u h to dinner . Perhaps he wished to fatten p is victim before killing it . He shut her up all alone dur i n g a good part of the day , while he was attending to
t wa s business mat ers, for , ever since his return , he the busiest man in all Paris . Poor Captain ! Dearly indeed did he pay for the pleasure of having broken the Bank . The Baden ’ ’ musicians serenade and the m arket- women s bouquets ’ m ortifi ca tio n s w a s were the least of his . Meo s money a terrible burden . He wanted to restore it to the owner,
but the owner could not be found . The people of the Victoria hotel had first told him that Meo had not
a n d returned , then that he had departed without leaving
R o . n his address M . Le y did not know where his e w friend lived . All his own proceedings in Baden had only served to render him a most conspicuous O bj ect of the public attention , and of course he could not think of
keeping Emma any longer in so ridiculous a locality .
1 8 6 R O U G E E T N O I R .
war . He asked h imself by what miracle or by w hat treachery had all Paris happened to have heard of his n e w fortune at the same ti me ; he was not kept long in ignorance .
a Eight days after his arrival , he h ppened to enter the
Ca é o the illus/se we rs f f , where he used to amuse himself,
o w a s te n f rmerly , i n taking Sebastopol . It about ’ o clock at night, when all the old hands of the estab li h s me n t . in are always at their post . Everything was
- e full blast ; all the billiard tables wer taken , all the — domino boards crowded . The beer foamed in the pew
- ter mugs, and the tobacco smoke rose i n wreaths to the ’ A a ceiling . s soon a s the Captain s f ce loomed through the stifling atmosphere, his name started out of twenty mouths at once . The Spoons, the knives, the pipes rattled i n cadence on the coffee - cups and on the wine t bot les, and a choral hymn rose on the air in improvised é doggerel . The lite of the company left their places and came forward to present their compliments with a certain solemnity . The owner of the establishment , with a
i n bottle his left hand and a small glass in his right, solicited the honor of being allowed to offer hi m some thing . The lady seated behind the counter smiled at m hi m ost kindly . “ ! ” Death and everlasting fire cried the Captain , starting back three paces, will some of you tell me at last what is the meaning of all this 7“ Everybody h as tened to reply at once that his modesty w a s quite becoming, but that h is noble conduct, his d isinterestedness , and his magnanimity would be borne
i n through the world spite of him , on the wh ite and
h b c k s . t e a black wings of the pre s And owner, hasten ing C E r S S 1 8 7 T H E A F o T H E M U K E T E E R . l to his drawer, took out of it a arge printed sheet, torn i n several places , and covered with a thousand stains . “ ” R ead ! he exclaimed . I have preserved this num ber in my safe . These gentlemen were speaking of getting up a game of pool to have it framed ; for it is f — the glory of o ur e ofi e e house to have a customer so dis ” in u i h d t g s e as you . Hurrah for Monsieur Bitte rlin cried three young men , too intent on a game of billiards to leave the table and j oin the deputation .
1 he Captain threw himself on a chair, and began to r — ead , with many shoulder shrugs, a long article entitled
L e t r r o m B a d e n a te f .
in The writer commenced with a long dissertation , t he — fli a n t too well known pp , pretentious style of many
o n . Parisian j ournals, the summers of Paris He went on to tell how a llthe Parisians had gone to the country ho w to pluck hollyhocks, chrysanthemums , and lilacs ; he had walked the Boulevards from the Madeleine to the Bastile without meeting a single living creature ex
fe w cept a Prussian princes, and one or two chocolate ” I men That is the reason , said he, why started for
Baden to write my Paris article, at the very moment that an editor of the Abe ille d a N or d was entering Paris
“ ” i n his order to write leader for St . Petersburg . The Captain glanced rapidly over some very original refle ctions on the railroads which have superseded the
in diligences, but which the diligences course of time
rs in are to supe ede their turn , by virtue of the law of u n niversal rotatio . He skipped fifty l ines of highly d i lute d philosophy i n order to get more quickly at the part w hich concerned himself 1 8 8 O R O U G E E T N I R .
Bé n a z e . t Baden is a pasteboard city . M had it constructed a few years ago by the scene - painters of the opera . He gets it re touched every spring to k eep up
our t the ill usion . The c scene is at once imposing and
a r d e n patriarchal ; the g scene has rather a fresh look . Around the Con ve r sa ti o n s H a a s are seen practicable green wal ks, where I expect every moment to behold Monsieur Pe titpa s carrying Madame Ferraris on the tip
his sk e of finger . The y scene was not w ll managed the d a y I arrived . At first, I thought the darkness was caused by a grease spot where a lamp had fallen but in the evening, as I returned to my hotel , I found I was
: . mistaken it was not oil , but water
The saloons are very lively . The el ite of European
ha s society had promised to be there, and it kept its
the se word . Under gilded ceilings (old style) I have had the pleasure of squeezing the hand o f the Duke of A of Prince B of the celebrated Baron C and of kissing the daintily - gloved fingers of the divine Marchioness D ’ Should n t you be n icely caught, pretty reader mine, ’ if I told you nothing about the gam bling ? Don t be alarmed , however . I arrived j ust in time to be present at the m ost curious phenomenon that the meteorological h istory of Baden has recorded for the last twenty years . ’ The Bank exploded before my eyes . Don t be fright ened at the word . Since that event, everybody has been quite well , even the Ban k . “ But this miracle has been attended by circumstances so — se exceptional , and , if I dare use the expression m ! — to oral that it is my duty relate it here . Lend — me then your l ittle rose tipped ear a moment ; you shall
1 90 R O U G E E T N O I R .
Moreover, one napoleon taken at random out of the
o ff He set .
O n 1 7 th t Friday the i ns , he arrived at Baden , t r a n and withou even going to an hotel , he straight to
n r ti o n s an the Co ve sa H s .
One hour after, the Bank was broken , in consequence
of a series of Blacks .
One hour after that, the successful and faithful book
keeper took the railroad back again to Paris, without
having eaten a morsel or drunk a drop , the bearer of o n e hundred and twenty - one thousand two hundred and
for ty francs .
n N —i It is o w said that the Messrs . had been
paid in the meantime very large sums , wh ich were
altogether unexpected , and that they have forced Bitter
l i n to keep the money to buy gloves . ’ Bitte rlin This great unknown man s name is .
sa w R o u e t N ir I him at the g e o table .
ro a ll'lik e He punted away y y, Mithridates, king of
P un t- a s Pontus ( ). — m a n fi v e se ve n t lo w He is an old of from sixty to y, — sized , ugly, and common looking . “ But the star of hon or glitters on his breast . ” is He worthy of it . ’
. S S 1 91 H O W M E O R E F U E D E M M A H A N D .
CHAPTER XIII . ’ S S H o w MEO REFU ED EMMA HAND .
FTER that evening the Captain slept no more .
His so name, hitherto pure and spotless , a name
n l which , by rights, Should have bee borne by a marsha w a s of France, and which , in Spite of fate, still the n m a n - ame of a of principle, that name to be thus
branded about in the papers, an obj ect of curiosity to a heartless p ublic ! He shuddered with horror at the idea that the whole world should henceforth speak of him as
a great prestidigitator . The absurd details into which they had interwoven his adventure Should soon get him “ ” enrolled in the Gallery of Celebrated Gamblers . He ’ - would not dare to look at a picture dealer s window, for
his t fear of finding por rait there . And what would his
" daughter sa y a s soon a s she knew the conduct her father had been guilty of \Vha t respect could she preserve ’ his A n d N for authority now, to crown the j oke, arn i u could not be fo nd , and the polluting crowns still waited
for their master . The Captain felt that h is conscience would be at least a hundred pounds lighter the day that
his he could wash hands of this confounded money . In his trouble he all at once thought of employing
the a ssista n ce of the police . He had known the day fi when these agents of the Public Safety willingly inter
fe re d in private matters, and he never supposed that the world had much changed since the time when F o uc hé w a s m inister . So one fine morn ing he involved himself
fi in the labyrinths of the Head Police Of ce, and towards 1 92 O R U G E E T N O I R .
O f a the end the day , fter endless rambl ings and circum locutions , he found himself at last stranded , like a cast
in O f away , the department for the reception lost goods . The clerk who received him could not help smiling “ ” when he heard his request . Sir , said he , the service
is you demand not at all in our line . Nobody here will
y o u O f perform it for , let the reward you choose to fer be w W rc . m e v ! hat it may here should we ever end , great
‘ if we even once undertook anything O f the kind 2 Y o u know that one - half O f Paris passes its whole existence
n f i looking for the other half. The city is full O cred v itors looking for their debtors , lo ers looking for thei r
s hus mistresses , speculators looking for their capitalist ,
a b nds looking for their wives , sharpers looking for their e m dupes, insulted looking for their insult rs to greet the with a rousing kick i n the rear . Undoubtedly we should be delighted to help all honest folks in finding each other out ; but we cannot read hearts , you know ,
i n w and with the best i ntentions the orld , we could not help occasionally bringin g about the most unfortunate
t a s k resul s . You me for the address of a certain Mon sieur Narni ; I am willing to bel ieve that you do SO in perfect good faith , and that you do not entertain the
O f most remote idea i n the world inj uring him . But suppose another Narni came here to - morrow to find out your address for the purpose O f writing love - letters to your wife ? ” “ Fortunately , sir, my wife is dead , and besides “ i n . sa Excuse me, Sir, I spoke general Let us y then , if you please, that a certain Narni has a notion of steal ing into your house for the purpose O f relieving you ” of your money .
1 94 O R O U G E E T N I R . much more astonished when he chucked her under the “
: . a m chin , and said Any commands for M Narni I
him W she going to see this morning . hat ans wer made, even she herself has never since been able to tell she had a mist before her eyes and a bee - hive in each ear . But the Captai n paid no attention to such embar ra ssme n t w . He put on his hat cross ays , shut the doors with a merry swing , and went down stairs rattling his key against the banisters . Five minutes afterwards he ’ entered Meo s room without knocking at the door .
w a s The Italian waiting for him with a firm foot, though lying stretched out at full length between the sheets O f a bad bed . During the fifteen days since his return from Baden , he had been able to complete the O f plan the campaign so well sketched out by Aurel ia . He had armed himself at all points for a decisive battle
O f n e w to his arsenals skill and courage were full the brim . ! By Jove cried the Captain , seating himself astride “ on a chair , you can boast of having made me run ’ ” Hey ? W hat s the matter ? W ho goes there ? replied Meo , stretching his arms and rubbing his eyes .
Then sitting up in the bed , he exclaimed , with a j oy that seemed perfectly artless Is it you , my dear Monsieur Bitte rlin ? How good O f you to give me such a pleas ant surprise ! Such kind attention goes to my heart ! ” ” My young friend , began the Captai n Thank you for that good word ! ” interrupted the ’ ! n t Italian . Ah why did you grant me your friend ? ” ship at once Permit me to shake your hand . “ ’ ’ ’ ” That 1 1 do ! that 1 1 do ! O h ! that lldo ! And have you been very well ever since I had the ’ pleasure O f seeing you ? Is Mademoiselle Bitte rlin s health good ‘ ’ H o w S S 1 9 M E O R E F U E D E M M A H A N D . 5
“
Y e s e s . , y ; excellent But I have come to talk on
business . “ T O me on busin e ss ? N O doubt you take me for
somebody else . “ t ut ! c li a tte re r ! Tut, tut, Always a Let us talk ” less, and keep to the subj ect .
My respected friend , I am all attention . DO sa w you remember the night I you in Baden , at the gambling table
e - Meo p pped his head under the bed clothes , like a “ ” child caught committing some fault . Listen , said he,
my dear Captain I am no gambler, and if I had been
one, your fine discourses, which are always present to m y memory , would have cured me at once of such a
. c a n vice . But I am weak and easily led Peopl e do
a s i rf what they please with me, you are well a are . If I ’ had served under the Emperor s orders, or under yours, I might perhaps have become a he re ; if I had fallen ’ ’ Pa ssa to re s under Cartouche s direction , or , I should most l ikely have come to a bad end . My companions at Baden were a se t O f wild young fellows they gam
W e x l bled away from morning till night . hat more p a ? nation is needed lI allowed myself to be led o n by their bad examp e . But at least you will do me the j ustice to acknowledge that the moment I sa w you enter the room , I blushed deeply for my conduct . I remem bered our conversation at Schaffhausen ; I dreaded one O f those paternal remonstrances which your growing in h friendship would urge you to make my regard . W y need I say more ? I vanished from your presence like i weakness. from strength , folly from wisdom, v ce from ” virtue . O 1 96 R U G E E T N O I R . ’ H m a the s id Captain , clearing his throat and
his scratching head . He resumed , timidly You left ” twenty francs behind you on the table . “ ? Twenty francs Faith , l ikely enough . I hardly ” knew what I w a s doing . “ I bring you back your twenty francs . ? You , Captain Now, really , that is too kind but
is it an excellent lesson for me, and I thank you for it ” w ith all my heart . I bring them back to you with the money that they ” have won . ’ r e n Oh , you j oking My twe ty francs to win anything !” Your twenty francs have won a hundred and twenty ’ s thousand two hundred and forty francs, and here the whole He began to empty his pockets on the his l ittle table of unpainted wood . Meo watched pro d i c e e n gs with a stupef action exceedingly well played . ” Now, my young friend , continued the Captain , I — ” bid you good bye .
- Meo seized hi m by the coat tail . m DO Wait a moment ! he exclai ed . me the favor ’ to explain all this ; I m not quite awake yet ! This — money tell me how the thing took place, and prove ” to me that I am not dreaming .
Oh , it is all quite simple . Your twenty francs had ’ O f n t ? been staked with the intention wi nning , had they ’ W luc k ell , they had the , and they won that s all . I have the hon or to \Vo n But ho w Keeping on the same Spot all the time ? My poor napoleon to win such an immense ” sum ! as that Captain , you are surely making fun of me .
1 98 R O U G E E T N O I R .
I did . I happened to be standing there , and ? You gave it a helping hand I see . Of course ,
so then , you kept on doing , taking up six thousand francs every O ffer
I was standing there , and I thought it my duty
You are the best of men . But do you know that at six thousand francs an O ffer you must win 1 8 § times to get at one hundred and ten thousand fran cs ? 1 8 9 27 27 and are . Black , then , must have turned up 5
times without a single interruption . ’ “ I don t say that I
R e d Ah won at last , then ? ” To be sure it did . ” Then , of course, I lost . ” Certainly . I flatter myself that somebody took the trouble to pay for me ? ”
I was standing there , and
Thank you , Captain . But surely I could not have ’ obstinately kept on Black all the time ! Did n t I ever v enture on R e d “ ” Very likely . My money could not have walked over there by ? ” itself. Somebody helped it ; who nd I was sta ing there, and
But if you were standing there, Captain , if you took
u a n d p the money and put down the money, if you
it R e d R e d changed from to Black and from Black to ,
o u according as you thought proper, it is y that have I — it been playing , and not , is you that won the money,
and therefore it is to you that it belongs . Give me my — t ” twenty franc piece then , and take away the res . ’ S S 1 9 9 H O W M E O R E F U E D E M M A H A N D .
Sir , you know my principles . I despise gambling ; ’ ’ therefore I don t gamble , therefore I don t win , therefore ’ O f I don t accept winnings that I should be ashamed .
In a moment of forgetfulness, I may possibly have
interested myself a little in looking on at the game, and ,
if you absolutely insist on it, I may have even helped to assist the luck that enriched you . But a l ittle act of w i ndiscretion , pardonable because it was holly disinter
ted , would become a shameful fault if I made it a ” source of profit . “ Sir, I understand the motives that prompt you to
rej ect this money , but I consider it very surprising, to sa O f O f y the least it, that you Should seek to get rid your difficulty by making me a scapegoat . I forgot a
— b ut twenty franc piece on a gambling table , granted I
w a s did not ask you to play it for me . I not your part ’ ner ; I had 1 1 t even the honor of being reckoned among
f W w a s the number O your friends . hat there in com m e n ? between us Suppose that, after winning several
c thousand fran s for you , my napoleon had induced you
to keep on playing until you had lost your pantaloons, would you have then had the face to come and take mine ?
The Captain was now obliged to reflect a little while .
suc h He had not expected a reception . In his eagerness O f O to get rid the burden that ppressed him , he had never foreseen that a poor young man might possibly refuse a ready - made fortune that so docile and subm is sive a creature might resist him ; that a mind O f such m oderate abilities might be able to argue more vigor u l o s y and more logically than himself. Taken totally his unawares, then , by adversary , he grasped blindly at t argumen s merely personal and deplorably feeble . 200 R O U G E E T N O I R .
” My young friend , said he , consider that I a m h double your age, t at al l my life I have condemned
he a r gambling , and that I could never to look at myself i n the glass if I should se e nothing there but the f ace f m O a a n who had been enriched by cards . ” sir My dear , repl ied Meo, if you think that
money won by gambl ing is disreputable to keep , why do you wish to make such a present to me ? ” Because it is yours ! Wi ll you believe me when I swear on my soul and conscience that it was for you I ” w a s playing all the time ? ’ “ Will you give me the l ie if I remind you that I never gave you any authority tO do S O I would never have r un the risk of winning if I ” thought I could make a single cent by it . “ u — S ppose that to morrow, or next day , I should go
: . and say to you Captain , I killed a traveller on the St a Denis road with a knife that belonged to you . I pl n dered him O f everything that he had about hi m I swear on my soul and conscience that it was for you I took all
a n d the trouble, therefore accept this purse watch , they —m are your property , y principles condemn murder, and I would never have committed suc h an infamous ’ action if I thought I could make a Singl e cent by it . ’ t a t answer would you make Wou ld n t you sa y
O ff G O i n Be , you scoundrel wash yourself the river, ’ ’ and don t try to wipe yourself with my coat ?
Comparison is not argu ment, Monsieur Narni .
Your subtleties may embarrass me, but they shall never
is convince me . This money belongs to you , it in your
w e w a . room , do hat y ple se with it As for me, I have
a n d done my duty , I now bid you good morning
2 20 R O U G E E T N O I R .
“ the It appears, said Captain , that you did not ex
e c t p me this evening . “ a m sa I not the less flattered by your visit . You w w m that I kept my t enty francs . Good accounts ake ” good friends . “ ! i un Take care, sir Things are beginn ng to get \ l pleasant . Vil you explain to me by what means this money got back into my house ? ” “ t I never disclose my stratagems of war . You lef my house without my permission ; to enter your house ” I did not ask yours .
ir f s O . But, , that was the act a malefactor
O I ppose cunning to violence . Against a benefactor w ho o ur we u a s puts his foot on throat, defend o rselves ” well as we can . l W a w . el l , sir, I shall have recourse to The courts will force you to keep what belongs to you whether you ” l ike it or not . “ The courts will have nothing at all to do with our m affairs, ga bling debts not being recognized by the law . I f I sued you for these one hu n dred a n d twenty thou
in d sand francs, all the j udges the country woul con H demu me . o w then do you think that they can com pel me to take the money ? ” Confusion Then we shall never come to an under ” a s m ! standing for, for y part, I will never yield “ ’ m O n e O f Nor I either, Captain . I your own school ! Y o u want me to take that money ; I want you f O . to keepit . Neither us will yield an inch Are you willing to split the difference and take half ? ” O sir ! N ,
. is lho w . Nor I , either It wonderfu we agree ’ HE O S S 20 3 H O W R E F U E D E M M A H A N D .
W hat shall we do ? Of al l the modes O f settlement ’ ” there is only one possible, and that I don t want . What one is that ? “ ” O f O . It is no consequence to you , Since I bj ect to it But what is it ? ” There are plenty O f people who would accept it with ’ del ight ; but I ve already had the honor to inform yo u ’ ” m f that I not one O that kind . “ a i t i But you can at least s y what s . ’ ’ O I don t want it, I won t have it, I decidedly bj ect to it ! A marriage between your daughter and myself would end the dispute by leaving the money undi
id e d is v . It an arrangement at once easy, honorable, ’ ” and even a greeable ; b ut I don t w ant it ! ’ ! Fire and fury , Sir You refuse my daughter s ’ ’ ’ h ! ir I ff S O . and But , , don t er it to you
sir You do right, , for I would refuse it unhes ita tin l g y .
“ 6 97 so sir m a a sk ) And why , , y I f I have no explanations to Of er .
But I insist on explanations . It seems to me that my daughter is neither ugly nor disagreeable what the devil do you mean
sa i Sir , I have nothing whatever to y aga nst Made ’ m is llBitt rlin s o e e e beauty . “ Then you have something to sa y against her con duct ? f O . Nothing that I know , sir If I refuse your ’ it is daughter s hand , not because I have any personal fault to find with her . ! What do you mean by that ?
Nothing . 204 T R O U G E E N O I R .
e rson a l You said p . ” Q uite possibly . ” What is the meaning of that ? P e r son a l? \V l ! e l , personal Personal ! personal ! Is i t the family then that does not enj oy your esteem Do you mean to convey the idea that Captai n Bitte r lin is not good enough to — — be your father in law ! Heaven forbid , Captain I consider you one of the noblest men of our times . “ But then , sir , if the daughter and the father are w ? beyond reproach , ith whom do you find fault Per haps with the mother I have never had the honor of seeing Madame ” Bi rlin tte . “ Swear to me that you have never heard mention of
’ I don t know if the oath is necessary . I have heard people speak of Madame Bitte rlin a s a very ” beautiful and elegant lady . Elegant ? Why not fashionable ? \Vho told you that ? who ? ”
sir . You did so yourself, , if I have a good memory Oh ! it is written on high that I shall never know
sir u anything . So then , , you refuse my daughter beca se ’ ’ ? ” you are afraid it runs in the blood . That s it, is n t it “ I ! sir . I swear to you such a thought has never entered my heat “ Why then do you refuse my daughter ? ” ” Because . i ? ” That s no reason . Are you married
N O
20 6 O R U G E E T N O I R .
R CHAPTE XIV .
S PREPARATION .
HE One Hundred and Fourth O f the Line was gar
r iso n e d m n at Paris . The orning after the Captai
- i n - r a n o ff had declared war on his son law, he at an f — u early hour to the Military Co fee house of the R e St.
A n to in e a R 1 58 8 . , and sked for the Army egister of
a ll Meo, on his side , after having slept night like a top, entered a reading - room and began to examine the register for the list of the officers of the One Hundred and Fourth . The two enemies had excellent reasons for
in choosing their seconds that regiment . The Captain h a d . several comrades there, and Meo several friends Both had left in it recollections and traditions that were ’ - not easily forgotten . The l ieutenants mess table was occasionally enl ivened by some historical anecdotes r e
Bitte rlin ffi lating to Captain , and all the o cers that had ’ been at the siege of R ome still remembered Miranda s
r noble bearing before the Council of Wa . The Captai n fixed his choice on two soldiers of for
his c o m a n L ie ute n a n t tune who had been sergeants in p y, Bou c a rt and Captai n R oblot - a pair of worthies true as
b a s steel , rave fire, oracles on theory , and who never
in mixed water in their brandy . He found them the n R eighborhood of the euilly Barracks, seated before a
- h cigar shop, and whetting their teet for breakfast .
his They rose at approach , and saluted him with all the respect due to the perfect model of all the virtues of a ’ h i soldier . They squeezed eac other s hands till the r S 07 P R E P A R A T I O N .
fingers cracked , and then adj ourned to eat a little . ” f its Then came the co fee , with usual fixings , three
. W cent cigars, and small glasses of brandy hen the f m o uths the three Horatii had made their too hot, y had
the to get some bottles of beer to cool them . But beer gave such a chill to their stomachs that they had to brew ' fl t a bowl of pu n ch to counteract its e e c s. The Captain had paid for the breakfast ; his brave comrades would i not be beh ndhand with h im , so the three warriors ’ rivalled each other in acts of pol iteness till fi ve o clock
1 1 1 the evening . Not until then did the old Captain expose the obj ect of his visit . Laying his cigar on the edge of the table, and taking his friends by the hand ,
m lo w he looked at the right in the eye, and said in a voice :
f a sk Boys, this is not all I have a avor to of you . R Present ! cried oblot . ” “ ” the ! Captain , added other , for life and for death ”
w u . Thank you . S ords are tr mps ’ Bravo ! Ah ! that s the little game Captain Bit le rlin is always at home in “ Ha ! ha ! Some of our swaggerers have already ” learned that to their cost . “ Boys , the thing is this ; a youngster has been inso ’ o u r e in And y go g to give him a lesson One, two, tch ’ “ ll i ” I tell you all about t . But j ust as he was on the point of commencing the his v history of grie ances against the Italian , he felt himself seized with a strange embarrassment . It was n ot his that he had forgotten that he had right on side, 20 O 8 R U G E E T N O I R .
d id . ho w w but he not exactly know to begin . Bet een
so anger, and punch , and honorable pride, he was vio le n tly agitated that he remained for a while with h is
O sa a n mouth pen before he began his story . To y that ’ i mpertinent fellow had refused his daughter s hand when it was not offered to him , seemed both absurd and com promising . The regiment had already spoken enough about Madame Bitte r lin : what was the use of exposing ’ ? Emma s reputation to the scandal - mongers F ull of this idea, he had to fall back on the one hundred and twenty thousand francs that Meo obstinately refused to hi take off s hands . A delicate question of such a nature furnished of course a mp le j ust ifi c a t io n for his hostile in
tha t tentions was provocation enough , in the regiment
m a n in especially , to draw the sword against the best
m a s O re Christendo . But j ust he pened his mouth to
a t e 1 0 4 late his doi ngs Baden , h is ye fell on the number ’ Lieute n a ii t s stamped on the buttons . You must be a soldier yourself to fully realize the mute eloquence of a number borne by the button of a military j acket . To
the man who has served with honor, the number of the
O f e s r it d e or s regiment comprises the very essence the p c p , the glory of the flag , the victories won , the duties fulfilled , the hereditary virtues which the soldiers hand down with
- their half worn uniforms . The Captain called to mind the good lessons and the good examples that he had been so a n d long giving to the One Hundred and Fourth , he " had not n o w t he courage to tell two 0 cers of the regi
n ment that he had w o a fortune at gambling . Making a wry face, therefore, like a child swallowing a marble, at last he said “ o u m e n m a n My friends, y are of honor ; I am a of
2 1 0 R O U G E E T N O I R . w o u arri r blended with the gentleman , niting book w k nowledge with a thorough knowledge of the orld ,
in strictly punctual in his duties, charming his social relations , hardened by the rugged labors of the soldier,
O ff smoothed by literature, and polished by frequenting i the society of ladies . He had carried the knapsack n h is s Bitte r lin s R o blo ts youth , j u t li ke the , the , and the Bo uc a rts ; the only way he d istinguished himself from these gentlemen had been by m aking a better use of his
leisure moments .
He recognized Meo at the first glance, for we never forget the face of a man whose head we have tried to
o strike ff.
You are welcome, said he , cord ially extending his
hand . You make me ten years younger . You reside ? W i n Paris, then hat friendly wind brings you The accuser and the accused had a long tal k o n
R — a n ome and Italy inexhaustible theme . However,
Meo by no means fo rge t his grand affair . He recounted
Bitte rlin in detail all his relations with Monsieur , h is
s his love , his tour , his proj ect , hopes , and the quarrel of
last evening, which might make all things right yet, if
he only knew how to turn it to account .
e h e M . M dine heard him to the end wit an int lligent
smile of attention . “ “ e n e m l fa My dear v, said he at ast, your af ir is one
of those that can end only in a marriage . I will be ? your second with pleasure . Have you another No ; I did not wish to see any one else before con i ” sult n g you .
W e So much the better . Shall take my nephew,
i r S a n t C . then , who is j ust leaving y I know your S 21 1 P R E P A R A T I O N .
lin Bitte r . friend , and from a long date, too He killed one of the best officers of the O n e Hu n dred and Fourth
l a t for a fi d d cstic k it was not reason enough to kick a c .
His virtue is of the outrageous and mal icious kind . You have done well to rub hi m against the grain ; we shall get some good out of him with a little violence .
I se e exactly how the land lies . Go back to your rooms
flin chin wait for his seconds without g, and send me their ’ address at seven o clock this evening I take charge of ” everything . ' Meo did not se e the gentlemen before Six ; they were perfectly polite, except that they raised their voices a little . “ ” “ ’ of Gentlemen , he repl ied , you re aware of the fence for which you demand satisfaction “ ” “ W e R is know, replied Captain oblot, that it a ” n matter admitti g of no arrangement .
You will have the kindness then , one of you , to
se e wait at your house until my friends call to you . ’ s They will have the honor to do o at eight O clock .
R h his It was Captain oblot t at gave address, for he
fi ft - fi v e had a room of y francs a month . ’ Monsieur Bitte rlin s friends experienced no Slight degree of astonishment when they saw their lieutenant ’ w colonel present himself at eight o clock , follo ed by his nephew . ” Bouca rt Colonel , stammered , we had no idea ’ — we never thought certainly if we ha d only known ” e “ Gentlemen , i nterrupted M . M dine, let us forget ” our respective grades, if you please .
in He added , a tone that betrayed the authority of a . commander O 2 1 2 R O U G E E T N I R .
There is nobody here but four officers of the O n e Hundred and Fourth met together to settle an affair of
Bitte rlin o u r honor . Captain , one of brave comrades,
ff the . has been o ended by conduct of M Narni , Count of ”
M o n e . iranda, of my friends
B c e o u a rt and R oblot saluted mechanically . M . M dine continued “ You have done w ell in taking the part of one of ffi our old O cers . Do you know the cause of the d is pute ” R Gracious heaven , no ! replied oblot .
I can explain it all in two words . M . de Miranda ’ , having somewhat compromised the Captain s daughter,
ha s se n t refuses to marry her . The Captain you to
demand satisfaction . M . de Miranda authorizes us to
accept your day , your hour , and your arms . Nothing ” se e m can be simpler, you ; the eeting is i nevitable . “ ” “
Bo uca rt . Unless , however, obj ected , M de Mi ” Bitt rlin randa may decide on marrying Mademoiselle e . “ I acknowledge that such a combination would de
d e d l I c i y be the most satisfactory . But as have hardly
any hope of making my friend accept it , we can pass ” on and regulate the terms of the meeting . ’ The hour was decided to be seven o clock next morn i n B ois d e Vin e n n es g ; the ground , the entrance to the c ;
M é d in e s for the weapon , the accepted the regulation
k n ow w army sabre . They well that it ould never leave its scabbard . As soon as the Captai n learned the result of this
his i nterview, first impression was one of surprise and
n dissatisfactio . He already sa w his daughter compro m ise d u t in the eyes of the One H ndred and Four h , he
2 1 4 R O U G E E T N O I R . ’ I h ? o u . r l i ke y V a t do I say Like yo u ! . You e ’ horrid ! You re dirty ! My son shall be beautiful as ” a n angel ! A little dog with a tail like a trumpet happened to r u n between his legs ; he threw him a so n to buy bread
fun his with . Three soldiers , up for , barricaded road ;
Meo overwhelmed them with compl iments, i nvited f them all to his wedding , took a most af ectionate leave
a n d of them ; then , meeting a plain civil ian that was
i n quietly contemplating the moon , the exuberance of h h is spirits he thrashed him wit in an inch of his l ife . He passed the rest of the night danci ng 0 1 1 h is chairs
b W in and ta les ; hereas the terrible Captain , locked up — h is own room , was practising sabre cuts before the glass, and maki n g such desperate thrusts and wicked lunges a s to shake the whole house . ’ Agatha came at six o clock in the morning to wake u p her young master, who, however , required nothing of the kind . “ Come here, he exclaimed , on seeing her, my ex c e lle n t old girl , angel of consolation , faithful companion in the days of my distress , now happily all vanished
in forever . Our miseries are over . You are to remai n ’ our service ; that s a matter of course . I shall give ’ o u you no wages . Take what y please out of Emma s purse and mi ne ! ” ” sir But, , cried the poor bewildered creature, some thing must have happened then ? “ W - ! \Vh hat a question to ask , over grown baby y,
! R un so I m going to marry Emma and tell her , and give her this key, henceforth the key of her apartments .
i u n T Tell her all about the glor o s ews . ell her that I 1 5 P R E P A R A T I O N S .
love her, that our happiness is secure, and that I am going to fight her fathe r this morning with swords
Thereupon he darted from the house l ike a madman , f which in act he was , j umped into a cab , and told the
B o i d e Vi n e n n driver to take h im to the s c e s .
Agatha really bel ieved that he had lost his senses .
She tried to run after him , but he was already too far ’ fl o . As nature had not formed her for catching car r ia e s she g driving at full speed , soon changed her course ,
u and made straight, panting and sobbing, for the ho se i n R ue d e s V the osge s .
o ff Emma, standing at her window, saw her afar , and signalled her to come up . The two friends threw them ’ d selves into each other s arms , sobbing and shed ing tor f rents O tears . For a good quarter of an hour they spoke both at the same time, asking each other ques tions and never thinking to reply . Emma had been l iving in a most fantastical kind of a world since her e return from Bad n . The strangest noises had disturbed ’ her n ight s repose : n o w it would be a cascade of gold ’ flowing over her father s bed last night it w a s a series of hollow sounds , occasionally intermingled with the clashing of steel . Her days had been disturbed by her ’ father s singular temper , which had become altogether
a : n o w inexpl ic ble at one time merry, at another sad , speaking with the greatest kindness of that poor Narni , now plunged into the gloomiest and most omi n ous silence . And Meo had never sent her a single word ! And the poor child would not dare to ask her father
she about him , for fear should betray her secret and rui n
! u sus everything But all these vag e alarms, all these
ic ion s p , all these doubts, vanished li ke the light of a 21 6 R O U G E E T N O I R .
o n f lamp before a house ire, as soon as Agatha had pro “ ” n o u n c e d u the word fight . A single bound bro ght ’ Emma before her father s arm - rack ; a single glance
w a s told her that his sabre missing . As soon as the Lady X imena i n the play hears that
her father and her lover are at blows , she turns her back
a on the Inf nta and runs to part the combatants . Em
in ma had not this resource . She could not tel l where
the wide world the Captain and Meo were to meet . Al l
s he that the poor little thing understood , was that was
herself the cause of the terrible misfortune impending .
— u m a n A sword cut sho ld ake her a widow or orphan , and in either event it was al l over with her i n this world . ’ ’ Meo s murderer could never be her father ; her father s m urderer Should never be her husband . She struggled desperately against admitting the certainty of her h S s e a w . misery , but no other possible issue Agatha
h she m endeavored to calm her , thoug could not cal
herself. ’ so she Don t make yourself miserable, said ;
perhaps it will all end i n nothing . Most likely the police will arrest them ; a Sword may break your
is . father such a terrible slasher, you know But oh , ’ ’ ’ m m ! m y poor child , I don t know what I saying I
only a poor stupid creature , I know, but never, never did I regret it so much before ! ” Then she would begin talking of going o ff and inform ing the city authorities ; next moment a notion would seize her of running to church and lighting a taper i n
honor of St . Martin , the patron of soldiers . This scene
of disorder and mortal anxiety had lasted two hours,
when all at once the door opened .
21 8 R O U G E E T N O I R .
R CHAPTE XV .
BATTLE !
E R E is the comedy that had been played that
n morning in the B o is Vi ce n n e s. ’ At seven o clock precisely, the principals and the seconds appeared on the ground with military exactness . ff The four o icers were dressed as civilians , to conceal the inequality of their grades ; this had been done at Mon ’ a 1 1 sieur Medi e s request . Salutations were exchanged 0 h both sides wit al l the ceremony usual on such occasions . The seconds m easured the weapons ; the Captain and u Meo ndressed to their Shirt and pantaloons . But j ust a s a e they were preparing to cross bl des, M . M dine, cane i n his hand , advanced towards champion , saying
is Count, since it you who are the aggressor, I think it is only the duty of the seconds to submit a last obsor v ation to your notice before proceeding to extremities . ’ There is always plenty of time for cutting each other s thre a ts , and a quarter of an hour hence our suggestions
might come a little too late . The other gentlemen of course are of my O pinion “ ” ? B u a r W h o c t . y not, Colonel Certainly , said ' ’ hin I R t . The very g was thinking of, added oblot e M . M dine continued “ I should be scrupulous about interrupting you by
any obj ection of mine , i f I did not stand in the pres
ence of two m e n of acknowledged bravery . Captai n hi A s Bitte r lin ha s satisfied s regiment on that point .
o u to you, Count, I have had the honor to meet y at a B A T T L E ! 2 1 9
a c a n d pl e where the work was decidedly hot, I can ” certify that you were not sparing of your life .
— - - - The father in law and the son in law gave a slight sal ute to the speaker, and leaned on their sabres to
O f . hear the end his discourse He resumed , addressing Meo “ ’ Count , I don t know what your reasons are for refusing the hand of a young lady whom you have innocently compromised . But whatever may be your ” secret, I respect it . “ ” “ Sir , interrupted Meo, I have no secret to keep . W hatever may come of this meeting, the issue of which , is still quite uncertain , I think it my duty to declare
in d formally, presence of the men of honor that surroun ’ Bitte r lin s me, that Mademoiselle reputation stands He r beyond all question , as likewise the loyalty of father and the memory of her mother . If I hav e resisted the very legitimate desire of becoming her im husband, the only motive for my refusal lay i n the p e r io us and domineering temper of the Captai n here present . I felt that I should utterly renounce every
a w thing like free ill of my own , the moment I set foot m in the family of a a n so absolute and overbearing . A gleam of stealthy satisfaction twinkled in the Cap ’ n tai s little eyes . ” As for the rest, added Meo, quickly , the gentle ff man has never o ered me his daughter, and I deny that ” she has been compromised by my fault . “ ” sir Excuse me, , said the Captain , in his bitterest W e m voice . are not here to discuss such atters ; but
i R o your fr end M . Le y himself has acknowledged to ” me that you compromised my daughter . 220 R O U G E E T N O I R .
fo r e Meo paused , as if searching a reply . M . M dine took advantage of his silence by saying
It is none of our business , Count, to recur to what
i n is past, and I take much pleasure believing that you have done nothing voluntarily to cast the sl ightest ’ B ut shadow on the young lady s reputation . there are two things of which I must not allow you to remain i n O n e ignorance . is, that, in consequence of the armed
- Bitte rlin discussion we hold here to day , Mademoiselle remains hereafter compromised to such a degree that s he is can never marry any one but you . The other , that, after a duel , if unfortunately you insist on going so far , the poor child would be deprived of even the resource of becoming your wife , and thus be forever d ” con emned to a life of perpetual celibacy . “ ” R It is clear , cried oblot . ” Bo uc a r t By Jove ! added . f ” “ “ She ! ell , cried the Captain , will not die of it
a n Many another girl has become old maid . But as
sir for you , “ m e As for , sir, I shall never load my conscience r with such a sou ce of remorse . In the presence of ’ ” these gentlemen , I accept your daughter s hand .
f a s Such a startl ing turn of af airs this , was what the Captain had of all things in the world the least expect ’ a ed , and perhaps he would have received the It lian s f consent with a very bad grace, had not the four o ficers i mmediately thrown themselves on him all together, congratulating him so heartily as al most to deprive hi m of his senses . The most noisy , the most eager, the Bo uca rt R most triumphant of all were and oblot, though they were no more in the secret than the ma n in the moon .
222 R O U G E E T N O I R .
something . I have all your money in the pocket of my ” . a w overcoat Do me the f vor to take it a ay .
o n But this point Meo was real ly i mmovable . He d eclared that he would never touch those hu n dred and twenty thousand francs , until the moment the wedding ’ f party were all leaving the Ma y or s o fice .
They separated without taking breakfast together, as
R a n d oblot young Medine were on duty . A restaurant keeper in the neighborhood , who , seeing the crowd , had ’ n O ff wru g a pair of chickens necks , had therefore all his trouble for nothing . For the next two weeks the Captai n rem a i ned like
- o a tightly strung bow ; he actually vibrated . The j v of victory a n d the compl iments of his seconds stunned h im Fa ubo ur St A n till he reached the middle of the g . to in e him , where the other gentlemen took leave of
- a ll before the barrack gate . But with their departure h is clear ideas seemed to have departed too, and left .his t head completely void . Then a thousand contradic ory and clashing ideas began to defile before him as if 0 1 1 drill , only they did not give him ti me to get a good look at a single one of them in the face so as to be able to meditate upon it . “ ” “ ’ Come now, says he, there s daughter married , though may old Satan seize me if I have the remotest u idea how it has been brought abo t . In all respects ,
w : ho ever, I have borne myself well for me i ndeed it is a memorable day . The fellows i n the regiment will ld understand that the o colt has a good tooth still left .
Emma, of course, will cry to heaven and earth but l ittle I f i I care for her cries . that old lover of hers is st l l
in n trotting around her head , she had better ope the gate B A T T L E ! 23
and put him out . So this young fellow is a nobleman ;
so W he never told me . ell , I get rid of that accursed
. 0 1 1 money They will be rich , and I need not encroach
i is m my ncome . That rather better than laying a Si ’ ’ l n Jl[/ ad i n e oun t r c to s O . a C e ss lVa n i n e e Bit p head pen ,
e r lin Jlf acta me oun te ss B i t r i t . I like better C t e ln d e
N a rn i ; it sounds more honorably for our family . Wh at ha s prevented myself from being a Count of the ’ ’ m ? n t E pire My chance would turn up , that s all . I shall do what I like with this poor fellow : a n d well he knows it . What a l ife I led him during that tour ! hi — My mind is of a superior order to s that is it . ’ But suppose he runs o fl to Italy before the wedding ! ’ w I will keep my eye on him , for I kno he don t care a
! fi n d straw for my daughter . Death and fury I Shall
i n h im were he the deepest, darkest, hottest crevice of ’ ! Mount Vesuvius . Ha my old sabre, so we ve done m nothing this orning, after all . I had j ust remembered u ! ! ! such a famous thr st last night . One Two Pif
You can boast of belonging to a j olly ugly customer . ’ 1 1 o Come to breakfast . I tell you they be talki ng ab ut ’ me this morni ng at the captains mess . Boys of my mettle are rather scarce i n the One Hundred and ”
h . . . Fourt . Etc , etc , etc ’ Agatha s presence in his house excited neither his surprise nor his curiosity : he had too many other fishes
I n to fry . four words he Showed his daughter all the
e m advantages of the pr posed union . E ma turned pale and red by turns , feared some snare, and at last opened her m o n th only to express her submissio n in a few m commonplace terms . He left her al ost immediately , ’ and started for Meo s residence . He soon reappeared, 22 1 O R O U G E E T N I R . ’ n him e n d a r me a 1 s hauli g along , g f shion . Here your ” future husband , he exclaimed , shoving h im into the “ she N o w parlor . You know her, knows you . , if
a n you re honorable man , go to work and make love to her , and be alive about it . The first glance exchanged between the two lovers was a n abridged poem ; it would take whole volumes to describe what it expressed . But our swain , taught by
w a s dear experience, very careful to let none of his j oy
be witnessed by the Captain . He waited for a more favorable moment to explain to his mistress the secret
so of unexpected a piece of good fortune . The cunning
little thing , on her side, understood the matter at a
glance, and likewise commenced to play her part in the
l ittle game . i Like a pig dr ven to market, the Captain made a step
forward for every one that they pulled hi m back . Emma and Meo manoeuvred so skilfully that at the
Bitte rlin end of the first interview M . forced them to
ca n exchange a cold and formal embrace . Nothing ” his ! . resist me he exclaimed , rubbing hands ’ If Meo could have followed his heart s dearest wishes, he would have passed every moment of his life in the
R ue d o s e es V g s. But he practised such admirable self
n denial , that the Captai scolded him for the shortness “ of his visits . This is not what you have promised,
s ir f - in —la w , growled out occasionally this terrible ather
o u o ff You get here late, and y start as if the house ’ w a s wa ! on fire . That s not the y to act ; what the devil Are you making a fool of me ? His daughter, too, he found fault with for her cold ” “ . m he sa ness Miss Namby Pa hy, would y, you
22 6 R O U G E E T N O I R . carriages ; it was he w ho reviewed them all at the door ’ ffi of the Mayor s o ce . He strutted into the Municipality \V Chamber l i ke Alexander entering Babylon . hen the
DO co n magistrate asked Meo the usual question , you se n t to take for your wife Jeanne Frances Emma Bit “ t e rlin the Captain was heard muttering, Does he ’ consent ? I should l ike to catch him refusing ! he d soon have me to deal with ! ” The pen used for writing the signatures i n the R egis
te r w a s - a fine large goose quill , decked with all its
- filaments, and shaped like a sabre blade . The Captain
son —in — a n presented it terribly at his law, with imperious “ — : gesture, which resembled a fencing thrust One , two,
a n d three Meo smiled , signed , fell back half fainting i w a s ! nto the nearest chair . He happy
Though they stil l had to go to the church , the guests n o w o n began congratulating the Captain h is success , for with men the civil part of the marriage is the w hole of its The striking Simpl icity of this decisive act has w often set the tears running do n a gray moustache, w hereas the emotion of women breaks forth only at t he
T he altar and the pealing of the organ . Captain repl ied ’ “ R : ir . s to M Le oy s compliment My dear , nobody
a ll f can ever know the trouble this a fair has given me . I have upheaved mountains ! But honor spoke ; I m willed , I conquered ; this is y battle of Austerl itz . H owever, excuse me, it is not all over yet ; I have to ” u - goad p these skul kers with my sword point . It was with these sentiments that he led his army to
the parish church . ’ He l istened to the priest s short discourse with a n
active, I had almost said a violent, attention . Every B A T T L E ! 227
o n word uttered the duties of married people, he con firmed and ratified by a n energetic nod intended for the benefit of Monsieur Narni . whis On quitting the church , he took him aside and “ sir pered Now, , if you were infamous enough to betray my daughter, I would kill you , sir, and no longer on the field of honor, but anywhere, and no ” a s ! matter how, I should kill a dog “ ” And you would do j ust right ! replied the son i n — law . ’ i A grand entertainment, of Agatha S cook ng, awaited
V e s w a s them in the R ue d e s osg . It what plain people
d i e un e r - d tn a toir e t call a j , for though the gues s took their seats towards noon , they did not rise from the ’ table till eleven o clock at night . Meo enj oyed , for the
ha m e ss first time in his life without constraint, the pp
I n o n e of looking at Emma . fact, only thing prevented his felicity from being complete, and that was the hun dred and twenty thousand francs, which the Captain had slipped into his coat - tail pockets i mmediately after the nuptial mass . Such a heavy load , flapping about, i ncommoded him considerably .
s . Bouca rt R The feat performed by Messrs and oblot, ’ R i n the eating department, were actual ly heroic oland s famous sword never wrought such marvels of destruction .
Sili e r o . v At the dessert, M g , a relation of the Narnis by the female side, asked permission to declaim a sonnet
his of own composition . The Splendid piece of poetry was received with all the more violent applause as
it is nobody understood the first word of . This the way that French vanity renders foreign l iterature so success ful in France . 228 R O U G E E T N O I R .
’
. R o d r in k in d e a rt M Arthur Le y, in charge of the g p e the ment, pr posed following toasts To Private Bitte r lin To Corporal Bitte r lin T0 Sergeant Bitte r lin To S u b - Lieutenant Bitte rlin To Lieutenant Bitte rlin
Bitte rlin To Captain , Cheval ier of the Legion of Honor ! l The Captain , who had religiously emptied his g ass
to at every toast, at last began soften a little . But Le
R o e y, who intended to put him under the table, swor that the first Captain of our times should never stand still on the road to glory . He put him once more under
h a s the colors , and drank his healt successively Maj or,
Colonel , General , and even the Marshal Duke de Bit te rlin ! The poor man d efended himself a s well as he
a n could from such avalanche of honors , at the same
- BO uc a r t R time drinking like a drum maj or . and oblot came over every now and then to touch glasses with
an d him , to congratulate him on his rapid advancement, of wh ich they now began no longer to have any doubt w hatever .
in They would have drowned him wine , like Clar ’ ence, only for the Doctor s friendly i nterference . That
ma n se e excellent dreaded to such a strong, intensely animal nature led into excess . He asked the Captai n i n confidence if he had ever thought of getting himself
w t : bled . The old hero replied , ith an inimi able tone “ Never ! Sir ; I shed my blood only in the presence of ” the enemy . M wa s u a n d e t . éd in e He act ally drunk , y M , a cool
230 R O U G E O E T N I R .
b w a le , in spite of the open indows . Besides, the bride and bridegroom began to look tired .
- Li ke an old steel spring , which though rusty has not
its lost a particle of strength , the Captain rose to take
his s m a ll leave of guest . He embraced the at the door , and squeezed their hands until they thought it was a vice had hold of them .
so n - in - Left alone with his daughter and law, he cried out i n his strongest voice : Change of garrison ! File \ ! ! Va it . right Forward , march till I find my belt T he company never marches without its Captai n !
u S a the r i n e R e t. C . He led them himself, on foot, to the
w a s It there that stout Agatha had prepared their nest,
until such time as Meo could find another . He gave them military benediction at the door and his last order
— - to his son in law w a s the following
Sir , my daughter is now your wife ; I command you to make her a good husband ! ” W ith these words he turned away , and , as long as the
young couple waited at their door , they heard the silent streets r e - echoing with the m aj estic step of a proud and
triumphant Marshal of France . O S S C 231 P T R I P T .
R CHAPTE XVI .
O S SC P T RIPT .
To M on sie ur ule ir e a ud J s G .
R o u E MIT me, sir, to dedicate this story to y . It w a s while I was writing it that I learned to love your charming and solid qualities . How happy we d should feel if, during a lifetime de icated to labor, we could ornament every new work with the name of a n e w friend ! But I must open the volume once m ore to tell you some bad news ; I have only j ust heard it myself. I
i m n n was far ndeed fro expecting a ythi g of the kind ,
it ha s and thrown me , as you see, quite into a state of
m a n consternation . How feeble a thing is ! The most robust health , the sol idest and soundest body , the strongest and most energetic mind , may all vanish in a moment like a shadow, and from the most frivolous of n ! t causes . Poor Captai at six y he was really younger w than we who are only thirty . Everybody that kne him , except perhaps his physician , would have advised
to a n w a s him buy annuity . He built to last a century , and he always flattered himself with the complacent
- in - hope of burying both h is daughter and his son law . All the powers of Europe had fired their cannons at
w a s him without success, and he happy and proud of
his having never been killed . For part, he had killed the a good many foreigners in battle, a few friends on
field of honor, and his wife in his own house . He had
r sometimes eceived wounds, but they had never done 232 R O G E U E T N O I R . him any harm . Nothing could equal the frank and cordial gayety with which he blotted out of the mili tary almanac the names of such i n ilk - Sops as had let themselves die .
a He had his f ults, to be sure, the worst that coul d be selected out of a ha d le t but this only renders his sudden death the more lamentable, since it left him no
t w a s time to correc them . I in hopes that he might have lived long enough to become an excellent man . I promised myself the pleas ure of seeing him act the part of a good , kind old grandfather as soon as ever he had a grandso n big enough to whip till the blood came .
v . But, poor dear Captain , all that is o er now Never
a again shall he torture mort l . The tears that his chil dren shed at his death are the last he shall ever be the cause of in this weary world . Is it too much to expect that some ki nd fate may shut hi m up forever i n the other world in the same com
a rtme n t Bitte r lin ? p with Madame For my part, my dear
Captain , I should hardly pity you any longer, if I were — once sure that your cross grained , acri monious old soul had only secured some gentle unresisting victim which you could pass the long hours of eternity in torturing !
n His daughter had bee two weeks married . Emma and Meo, perfectly happy , still contrived to keep their
his felicity out of sight , for they knew by experience ’ how much another s happiness irritated him . The R ouge ci N oir money had already redeemed m : any things the estate, the title, and the portraits of ’ 3 h the Mirandas . The Count fine property, w en wrested
s from the clutches of the ra cal that had seized it, and rented out to some good honest farmers, promised him
234 R O U G E E T N O I R . s he was cruelly stupid : that is the reason why she killed h r t th ! e mas er without meaning e least mischief. A h '
Agatha , I have had my m isgivings al l along that your stupidity was to bring some infliction on the family .
a o n ? ! a Agath , where earth was your head Oh Ag tha, ? w hat ha ve you done
a s w a s l the One mornin g, she dusting the par or,
a s he w a s Captain , tired of being alone , observed to her, chewing his cigar “ W ell , for the pious and religious woman you pre
tend to be , it must be acknowledged that you acted in a ” v ery strange way . ” sir ? she I repl ied , flinging the duster under her
’ Yes , you . Perhaps you were not your mistress s ? go - between with her first lover \Va s it for anything else that I turned you out of the house ? ” \Vha t first lover ? T he one whose name I have never been able to get ” u out of yo . ! w Oh you kno it well enough now, master, being a s u N it was Monsie r arni . “ ” N a rn i li
Do y o u think that Mademoiselle could have fallen i n tw o ? love with men No , indeed , master ; it has
been only one all along , and that one always the same . ’ n t But had the poor gentleman his own time of it, trying to make you swallo w the pill The Captain thought more in one m inute n o w than
i n h e had ever done all his life . But such thinking was not good for him : the blood rushed to his brain as P O S T S C R I P T . 235
i n fast as the ideas . It flashed on him an i nstant that ’ if Emma s lover were really Narni , that young man had completely fooled hi m ; that the Swiss tour, where he thought he had put everybody under his thumb , had been nothing but a long piece of bamboozlement that he had played R ouge e t N oir for the amusement of his son - in - law, and perhaps , too , under his very eyes that he had Spent two we eks in pursuit of game that was slyly waiting for him i n its lair all the ti me ; that the money had been refused merely to obtain the daughter, and that she had been slighted only to force him to offer her ; that the quarrel w here he fancied he had played the part of a he re had been by no means to his credit ; R that Narni , his seconds , and perhaps even oblot and
Bouca r t , had amused themselves at his expense in the
- — B ois d e Vi n ce n n es ; that the wedding day had capped
his the climax of disrepute ; and that, no doubt, at this
wa s - moment, he the laughing stock of every man i n the
One Hundred and Fourth , from the colonel down to d — the rummer boys . These thoughts shot through his
a n d brain with the rapidity of lightning, they actually ’ - crushed him like a thunder bolt . He started up ,
— n straight as an exclamation poi t, and cried out in a choking voice “ Then everybody has been playing h
he sa son - in - Very likely meant to y that his law, his
e o w n d a ught r , his servant, the officers, and even his seconds , had been making a fool of him . But he never
finished either the word or the sentence, for he was
o ff struck with apoplexy , and he went without having time to develop his idea . Perhaps such a misfortune w a ould not have t ken place, if the Captain had only 2 R O U G E 36 E T N O I R .
ha d b e e n listened to the advice of his physician , who long recommending him to get himself bled . Such , ’ O at least, was the learned Doctor s own pinion . As soon as he arrived at the house of his patient, or rather of f O . his subj ect, he could not help uttering a cry j oy “ Good ! said he ; another proof of medical foresight . It is no doubt a terrible blow to the family ; but j ust ” se e how I predicted it !
M e o i n a n d Emma and are still deep mourning , do ' a fle c nothing but weep fro m morning till night . Their tio n a te hearts will never, perhaps , be entirely consoled , though the terrible blow which they lament only secures t their comple e happiness .
T H E E N D .