ANOTHER EXAMPLE. A child belonging to the genus Terrible, exclaims in the presence of everybody:
"Mamma, would you let Justine hit me?"
"Certainly not."
"Why do you ask, my little man?" inquires Madame Foullepointe.
"Because she just gave father a big slap, and he"s ever so much stronger than me."
Madame Foullepointe laughs, and Adolphe, who intended to pay court to her, is cruelly joked by her, after having had a first last quarrel with Caroline.
THE LAST QUARREL.
In every household, husbands and wives must one day hear the striking of a fatal hour. It is a knell, the death and end of jealousy, a great, n.o.ble and charming pa.s.sion, the only true symptom of love, if it is not even its double. When a woman is no longer jealous of her husband, all is over, she loves him no more. So, conjugal love expires in the last quarrel that a woman gives herself the trouble to raise.
Axiom.--When a woman ceases to quarrel with her husband, the Minotaur has seated himself in a corner arm-chair, tapping his boots with his cane.
Every woman must remember her last quarrel, that supreme petty trouble which often explodes about nothing, but more often still on some occasion of a brutal fact or of a decisive proof. This cruel farewell to faith, to the childishness of love, to virtue even, is in a degree as capricious as life itself. Like life it varies in every house.
Here, the author ought perhaps to search out all the varieties of quarrels, if he desires to be precise.
Thus, Caroline may have discovered that the judicial robe of the syndic in Chaumontel"s affair, hides a robe of infinitely softer stuff, of an agreeable, silky color: that Chaumontel"s hair, in short, is fair, and that his eyes are blue.
Or else Caroline, who arose before Adolphe, may have seen his greatcoat thrown wrong side out across a chair; the edge of a little perfumed paper, just peeping out of the side-pocket, may have attracted her by its whiteness, like a ray of the sun entering a dark room through a crack in the window: or else, while taking Adolphe in her arms and feeling his pocket, she may have caused the note to crackle: or else she may have been informed of the state of things by a foreign odor that she has long noticed upon him, and may have read these lines:
"Ungraitfull wun, wot du yu supoz I no About Hipolite. k.u.m, and yu shal se whether I Love yu."
Or this:
"Yesterday, love, you made me wait for you: what will it be to-morrow?"
Or this:
"The women who love you, my dear sir, are very unhappy in hating you so, when you are not with them: take care, for the hatred which exists during your absence, may possibly encroach upon the hours you spend in their company."
Or this:
"You traitorous Chodoreille, what were you doing yesterday on the boulevard with a woman hanging on your arm? If it was your wife, accept my compliments of condolence upon her absent charms: she has doubtless deposited them at the p.a.w.nbroker"s, and the ticket to redeem them with is lost."
Four notes emanating from the grisette, the lady, the pretentious woman in middle life, and the actress, among whom Adolphe has chosen his _belle_ (according to the Fischtaminellian vocabulary).
Or else Caroline, taken veiled by Ferdinand to Ranelagh Garden, sees with her own eyes Adolphe abandoning himself furiously to the polka, holding one of the ladies of honor to Queen Pomare in his arms; or else, again, Adolphe has for the seventh time, made a mistake in the name, and called his wife Juliette, Charlotte or Lisa: or, a grocer or restaurateur sends to the house, during Adolphe"s absence, certain d.a.m.ning bills which fall into Caroline"s hands.
PAPERS RELATING TO CHAUMONTEL"S AFFAIR.
(Private Tables Served.)
M. Adolphe to Perrault,
To 1 Pate de Foie Gras delivered at Madame Schontz"s, the 6th of January, fr. 22.50 Six bottle of a.s.sorted wines, 70.00 To one special breakfast delivered at Congress Hotel, the 11th of February, at No. 21---- Stipulated price, 100.00 ______
Total, Francs, 192.50
Caroline examines the dates and remembers them as appointments made for business connected with Chaumontel"s affair. Adolphe had designated the sixth of January as the day fixed for a meeting at which the creditors in Chaumontel"s affair were to receive the sums due them. On the eleventh of February he had an appointment with the notary, in order to sign a receipt relative to Chaumontel"s affair.
Or else--but an attempt to mention all the chances of discovery would be the undertaking of a madman.
Every woman will remember to herself how the bandage with which her eyes were bound fell off: how, after many doubts, and agonies of heart, she made up her mind to have a final quarrel for the simple purpose of finishing the romance, putting the seal to the book, stipulating for her independence, or beginning life over again.
Some women are fortunate enough to have antic.i.p.ated their husbands, and they then have the quarrel as a sort of justification.
Nervous women give way to a burst of pa.s.sion and commit acts of violence.
Women of mild temper a.s.sume a decided tone which appalls the most intrepid husbands. Those who have no vengeance ready shed a great many tears.
Those who love you forgive you. Ah, they conceive so readily, like the woman called "Ma berline," that their Adolphe must be loved by the women of France, that they are rejoiced to possess, legally, a man about whom everybody goes crazy.
Certain women with lips tight shut like a vise, with a muddy complexion and thin arms, treat themselves to the malicious pleasure of promenading their Adolphe through the quagmire of falsehood and contradiction: they question him (see _Troubles within Troubles_), like a magistrate examining a criminal, reserving the spiteful enjoyment of crushing his denials by positive proof at a decisive moment. Generally, in this supreme scene of conjugal life, the fair s.e.x is the executioner, while, in the contrary case, man is the a.s.sa.s.sin.
This is the way of it: This last quarrel (you shall know why the author has called it the _last_), is always terminated by a solemn, sacred promise, made by scrupulous, n.o.ble, or simply intelligent women (that is to say, by all women), and which we give here in its grandest form.
"Enough, Adolphe! We love each other no more; you have deceived me, and I shall never forget it. I may forgive it, but I can never forget it."
Women represent themselves as implacable only to render their forgiveness charming: they have antic.i.p.ated G.o.d.
"We have now to live in common like two friends," continues Caroline.
"Well, let us live like two comrades, two brothers, I do not wish to make your life intolerable, and I never again will speak to you of what has happened--"
Adolphe gives Caroline his hand: she takes it, and shakes it in the English style. Adolphe thanks Caroline, and catches a glimpse of bliss: he has converted his wife into a sister, and hopes to be a bachelor again.
The next day Caroline indulges in a very witty allusion (Adolphe cannot help laughing at it) to Chaumontel"s affair. In society she makes general remarks which, to Adolphe, are very particular remarks, about their last quarrel.
At the end of a fortnight a day never pa.s.ses without Caroline"s recalling their last quarrel by saying: "It was the day when I found Chaumontel"s bill in your pocket:" or "it happened since our last quarrel:" or, "it was the day when, for the first time, I had a clear idea of life," etc. She a.s.sa.s.sinates Adolphe, she martyrizes him! In society she gives utterance to terrible things.
"We are happy, my dear [to a lady], when we love each other no longer: it"s then that we learn how to make ourselves beloved," and she looks at Ferdinand.
In short, the last quarrel never comes to an end, and from this fact flows the following axiom: