CHAPTER III
Madame Nanteuil lived with her daughter in a little flat on the fifth story of a house in the Boulevard Saint-Michel, whose windows opened upon the garden of the Luxembourg. She gave Chevalier a friendly welcome, for she thought kindly of him because he loved Felicie, and because the latter did not love him in return, and ignored on principle the fact that he had been her daughter"s lover.
She made him sit beside her in the dining-room, where a c.o.ke fire was burning in the stove. In the lamplight army revolvers and sabres with golden ta.s.sels on the sword-knots gleamed upon the wall. They were hung about a woman"s cuira.s.s, which was provided with round breast-shields of tin-plate; a piece of armour which Felicie had worn last winter, while still a pupil at the Conservatoire, when taking the part of Joan of Arc at the house of a spiritualistic d.u.c.h.ess. An officer"s widow and the mother of an actress, Madame Nanteuil, whose real name was Nantean, treasured these trophies.
"Felicie is not back yet, Monsieur Chevalier. I don"t expect her before midnight. She is on the stage till the end of the play."
"I know; I was in the first piece. I left the theatre after the first act of _La Mere confidente_.
"Oh, Monsieur Chevalier, why didn"t you stay till the end? My daughter would have been so pleased if you had waited. When one is acting one likes to have friends in the house."
Chevalier replied ambiguously:
"Oh, as to friends, there are plenty of those about."
"You are mistaken, Monsieur Chevalier; good friends are scarce. Madame Doulce was there, of course? Was she pleased with Felicie?" And she added, with great humility: "I should indeed be happy if she could really make a hit. It is so difficult to come to the fore in her profession, for a girl who is alone, without support, without influence!
And it is so necessary for her to succeed, poor child!"
Chevalier did not feel disposed to lavish any pity upon Felicie. With a shrug of the shoulders he replied bluntly:
"No need to worry about that. She"ll get on. She is an actress heart and soul. She has it in her bones, down to her very legs."
Madame Nanteuil indulged in a quiet smile.
"Poor child! They are not very plump, her legs. Felicie"s health is not bad, but she must not overdo it. She often has fits of giddiness, and sick headaches."
The servant came in to place on the table a dish of fried sausage, a bottle of wine, and a few plates.
Meanwhile, Chevalier was searching in his mind for some appropriate fashion of asking a question which had been on the tip of his tongue ever since he had set foot on the stairs. He wanted to know whether Felicie was still meeting Girmandel, whose name he never heard mentioned nowadays. We are given to conceiving desires which suit themselves to our condition. Now, in the misery of his existence, in the distress of his heart, he was full of an eager desire that Felicie, who loved him no longer, should love Girmandel, whom she loved but little, and he hoped with all his heart that Girmandel would keep her for him, would possess her wholly, and leave nothing of her for Robert de Ligny. The idea that the girl might be with Girmandel appeased his jealousy, and he dreaded to learn that she had broken with him.
Of course he would never have allowed himself to question a mother as to her daughter"s lovers. But it was permissible to speak of Girmandel to Madame Nanteuil, who saw nothing that was other than respectable in the relations of her household with the Government official, who was well-to-do, married, and the father of two charming daughters. To bring Girmandel"s name into the conversation he had only to resort to a stratagem. Chevalier hit upon one which he thought was ingenious.
"By the way," he remarked, "I saw Girmandel just now in a carriage."
Madame Nanteuil made no comment.
"He was driving down the Boulevard Saint-Michel in a cab. I certainly thought I recognized him. I should be greatly surprised if it wasn"t he."
Madame Nanteuil made no comment.
"His fair beard, his high colour--he"s an easy man to recognize, Girmandel."
Madame Nanteuil made no comment.
"You were very friendly with him at one time, you and Felicie. Do you still see him?"
"Monsieur Girmandel? Oh yes, we still see him," replied Madame Nanteuil softly.
These words made Chevalier feel almost happy. But she had deceived him; she had not spoken the truth. She had lied out of self-respect, and in order not to reveal a domestic secret which she regarded as derogatory to the honour of her family. The truth was that, being carried away by her pa.s.sion for Ligny, Felicie had given Girmandel the go-by, and he, being a man of the world, had promptly cut off supplies. Madame Nanteuil, despite her years, had resumed an old lover, out of her love for her child, that she might not want for anything. She had renewed her former liaison with Tony Meyer, the picture-dealer in the Rue de Clichy.
Tony Meyer was a poor subst.i.tute for Girmandel; he was none too free with his money. Madame Nanteuil, who was wise and knew the value of things, did not complain on that account, and she was rewarded for her devotion, for, in the six weeks during which she had been loved anew, she had grown young again.
Chevalier, following up his idea, inquired:
"You would hardly say that Girmandel was still a young man, would you?"
"He is not old," said Madame Nanteuil. "A man is not old at forty."
"A bit used up, isn"t he?"
"Oh, dear no," replied Madame Nanteuil, quite calmly.
Chevalier became thoughtful and was silent. Madame Nanteuil began to nod. Then, being aroused from her somnolence by the servant, who brought in the salt-cellar and the water-bottle, she inquired:
"And you, Monsieur Chevalier, is all well with you?"
No, all was not well with him. The critics were out to "down" him. And the proof that they had combined against him was that they all said the same thing; they said his face lacked expression.
"My face lacking in expression!" he cried indignantly. "They should have called it a predestined face. Madame Nanteuil, I aim high, and it is that which does me harm. For example, in _La Nuit du 23 octobre_, which is being rehea.r.s.ed now, I am Florentin: I have only six lines; it"s a washout. But I have increased the importance of the character enormously. Durville is furious. He deliberately crabs all my effects."
Madame Nanteuil, placid and kindly, found words to comfort him.
Obstacles there were, no doubt, but in the end one overcame them. Her own daughter had fallen foul of the ill-will of certain critics.
"Half-past twelve!" said Chevalier gloomily. "Felicie is late."
Madame Nanteuil supposed that she had been detained by Madame Doulce.
"Madame Doulce as a rule undertakes to see her home, and you know she never hurries herself."
Chevalier rose, as if to take his leave, to show that he remembered his manners. Madame Nanteuil begged him to stay.
"Don"t go; Felicie won"t be long now. She will be pleased to find you here. You will have supper with her."
Madame Nanteuil dozed off again in her chair. Chevalier sat gazing in silence at the clock hanging on the wall, and as the hand travelled across the dial he felt a burning wound in his heart, which grew bigger and bigger, and each little stroke of the pendulum touched him to the quick, lending a keener eye to his jealousy, by recording the moments which Felicie was pa.s.sing with Ligny. For he was now convinced that they were together. The stillness of the night, interrupted only by the m.u.f.fled sound of the cabs bowling along the boulevard, gave reality to the thoughts and images which tortured him. He could see them.
Awakened with a start by the sound of singing on the pavement below, Madame Nanteuil returned to the thought with which she had fallen asleep.
"That"s what I am always telling Felicie; one mustn"t be discouraged.
One should not lose heart. We all have our ups and downs in life."
Chevalier nodded acquiescence.
"But those who suffer," he said, "only get what they deserve. It needs but a moment to free oneself from all one"s troubles. Isn"t it so?"
She admitted the fact; certainly there were such things as sudden opportunities, especially on the stage.
"Heaven knows," he continued in a deep, brooding voice, "it"s not the stage I am worrying about. I know I shall make a name for myself one day, and a big one. But what"s the good of being a great artist if one isn"t happy? There are stupid worries which are terrible! Pains that throb in your temples with strokes as even and as regular as the ticking of that clock, till they drive you mad!"
He ceased speaking; the gloomy gaze of his deep-set eyes fell upon the trophy hanging on the wall. Then he continued: