The doctor, surprised, insisted:
"But why does he dance like that at his age?"
She shrugged her shoulders and turned red from the anger which was slowly rising within her and she cried out:
"Ah! yes, why? So that the people will think him young under his mask; so that the women will still take him for a young dandy and whisper nasty things into his ears; so that he can rub up against all their dirty skins, with their perfumes and powders and cosmetics. Ah! it"s a fine business! What a life I have had for the last forty years! But we must first get him to bed, so that he may have no ill effects. Would you mind helping me? When he is like that I can"t do anything with him alone."
The old man was sitting on his bed, with a tipsy look, his long white hair falling over his face. His companion looked at him with tender yet indignant eyes. She continued:
"Just see the fine head he has for his age, and yet he has to go and disguise himself in order to make people think that he is young. It"s a perfect shame! Really, he has a fine head, monsieur! Wait, I"ll show it to you before putting him to bed."
She went to a table on which stood the washbasin a pitcher of water, soap and a comb and brush. She took the brush, returned to the bed and pushed back the drunkard"s tangled hair. In a few seconds she made him look like a model fit for a great painter, with his long white locks flowing on his neck. Then she stepped back in order to observe him, saying: "There! Isn"t he fine for his age?"
"Very," agreed the doctor, who was beginning to be highly amused.
She added: "And if you had known him when he was twenty-five! But we must get him to bed, otherwise the drink will make him sick. Do you mind drawing off that sleeve? Higher-like that-that"s right. Now the trousers. Wait, I will take his shoes off-that"s right. Now, hold him upright while I open the bed. There-let us put him in. If you think that he is going to disturb himself when it is time for me to get in you are mistaken. I have to find a little corner any place I can. That doesn"t bother him! Bah! You old pleasure seeker!"
As soon as he felt himself stretched out in his sheets the old man closed his eyes, opened them closed them again, and over his whole face appeared an energetic resolve to sleep. The doctor examined him with an ever-increasing interest and asked: "Does he go to all the fancy b.a.l.l.s and try to be a young man?" "To all of them, monsieur, and he comes back to me in the morning in a deplorable condition. You see, it"s regret that leads him on and that makes him put a pasteboard face over his own. Yes, the regret of no longer being what he was and of no longer making any conquests!"
He was sleeping now and beginning to snore. She looked at him with a pitying expression and continued: "Oh! how many conquests that man has made! More than one could believe, monsieur, more than the finest gentlemen of the world, than all the tenors and all the generals."
"Really? What did he do?"
"Oh! it will surprise you at first, as you did not know him in his palmy days. When I met him it was also at a ball, for he has always frequented them. As soon as I saw him I was caught-caught like a fish on a hook. Ah! how pretty he was, monsieur, with his curly raven locks and black eyes as large as saucers! Indeed, he was good looking! He took me away that evening and I never have left him since, never, not even for a day, no matter what he did to me! Oh! he has often made it hard for me!"
The doctor asked: "Are you married?"
She answered simply: "Yes, monsieur, otherwise he would have dropped me as he did the others. I have been his wife and his servant, everything, everything that he wished. How he has made me cry-tears which I did not show him; for he would tell all his adventures to me-to me, monsieur-without understanding how it hurt me to listen."
"But what was his business?"
"That"s so. I forgot to tell you. He was the foreman at Martel"s-a foreman such as they never had had-an artist who averaged ten francs an hour."
"Martel?-who is Martel?"
"The hairdresser, monsieur, the great hairdresser of the Opera, who had all the actresses for customers. Yes, sir, all the smartest actresses had their hair dressed by Ambrose and they would give him tips that made a fortune for him. Ah! monsieur, all the women are alike, yes, all of them. When a man pleases their fancy they offer themselves to him. It is so easy-and it hurt me so to hear about it. For he would tell me everything-he simply could not hold his tongue-it was impossible. Those things please the men so much! They seem to get even more enjoyment out of telling than doing.
"When I would see him coming in the evening, a little pale, with a pleased look and a bright eye, would say to myself: "One more. I am sure that he has caught one more." Then I felt a wild desire to question him and then, again, not to know, to stop his talking if he should begin. And we would look at each other.
"I knew that he would not keep still, that he would come to the point. I could feel that from his manner, which seemed to laugh and say: "I had a fine adventure to-day, Madeleine." I would pretend to notice nothing, to guess nothing; I would set the table, bring on the soup and sit down opposite him.
"At those times, monsieur, it was as if my friendship for him had been crushed in my body as with a stone. It hurt. But he did not understand; he did not know; he felt a need to tell all those things to some one, to boast, to show how much he was loved, and I was the only one he had to whom he could talk-the only one. And I would have to listen and drink it in, like poison.
"He would begin to take his soup and then he would say: "One more, Madeleine."
"And I would think: "Here it comes! Goodness! what a man! Why did I ever meet him?"
"Then he would begin: "One more! And a beauty, too." And it would be some little one from the Vaudeville or else from the Varietes, and some of the big ones, too, some of the most famous. He would tell me their names, how their apartments were furnished, everything, everything, monsieur. Heartbreaking details. And he would go over them and tell his story over again from beginning to end, so pleased with himself that I would pretend to laugh so that he would not get angry with me.
"Everything may not have been true! He liked to glorify himself and was quite capable of inventing such things! They may perhaps also have been true! On those evenings he would pretend to be tired and wish to go to bed after supper. We would take supper at eleven, monsieur, for he could never get back from work earlier.
"When he had finished telling about his adventure he would walk round the room and smoke cigarettes, and he was so handsome, with his mustache and curly hair, that I would think: "It"s true, just the same, what he is telling. Since I myself am crazy about that man, why should not others be the same?" Then I would feel like crying, shrieking, running away and jumping out of the window while I was clearing the table and he was smoking. He would yawn in order to show how tired he was, and he would say two or three times before going to bed: "Ah! how well I shall sleep this evening!"
"I bear him no ill will, because he did not know how he was hurting me. No, he could not know! He loved to boast about the women just as a peac.o.c.k loves to show his feathers. He got to the point where he thought that all of them looked at him and desired him.
"It was hard when he grew old. Oh, monsieur, when I saw his first white hair I felt a terrible shock and then a great joy-a wicked joy-but so great, so great! I said to myself: "It"s the end-it"s the end." It seemed as if I were about to be released from prison. At last I could have him to myself, all to myself, when the others would no longer want him.
"It was one morning in bed. He was still sleeping and I leaned over him to wake him up with a kiss, when I noticed in his curls, over his temple, a little thread which shone like silver. What a surprise! I should not have thought it possible! At first I thought of tearing it out so that he would not see it, but as I looked carefully I noticed another farther up. White hair! He was going to have white hair! My heart began to thump and perspiration stood out all over me, but away down at the bottom I was happy.
"It was mean to feel thus, but I did my housework with a light heart that morning, without waking him up, and, as soon as he opened his eyes of his own accord, I said to him: "Do you know what I discovered while you were asleep?"
""No."
""I found white hairs."
"He started up as if I had tickled him and said angrily: "It"s not true!"
""Yes, it is. There are four of them over your left temple."
"He jumped out of bed and ran over to the mirror. He could not find them. Then I showed him the first one, the lowest, the little curly one, and I said: "It"s no wonder, after the life that you have been leading. In two years all will be over for you."
"Well, monsieur, I had spoken true; two years later one could not recognize him. How quickly a man changes! He was still handsome, but he had lost his freshness, and the women no longer ran after him. Ah! what a life I led at that time! How he treated me! Nothing suited him. He left his trade to go into the hat business, in which he ate up all his money. Then he unsuccessfully tried to be an actor, and finally he began to frequent public b.a.l.l.s. Fortunately, he had had common sense enough to save a little something on which we now live. It is sufficient, but it is not enormous. And to think that at one time he had almost a fortune.
"Now you see what he does. This habit holds him like a frenzy. He has to be young; he has to dance with women who smell of perfume and cosmetics. You poor old darling!"
She was looking at her old snoring husband fondly, ready to cry. Then, gently tiptoeing up to him, she kissed his hair. The physician had risen and was getting ready to leave, finding nothing to say to this strange couple. Just as he was leaving she asked:
"Would you mind giving me your address? If he should grow worse, I could go and get you."
THE PENGUINS" ROCK
This is the season for penguins.
From April to the end of May, before the Parisian visitors arrive, one sees, all at once, on the little beach at Etretat several old gentlemen, booted and belted in shooting costume. They spend four or five days at the Hotel Hauville, disappear, and return again three weeks later. Then, after a fresh sojourn, they go away altogether.
One sees them again the following spring.
These are the last penguin hunters, what remain of the old set. There were about twenty enthusiasts thirty or forty years ago; now there are only a few of the enthusiastic sportsmen.
The penguin is a very rare bird of pa.s.sage, with peculiar habits. It lives the greater part of the year in the lat.i.tude of Newfoundland and the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. But in the breeding season a flight of emigrants crosses the ocean and comes every year to the same spot to lay their eggs, to the Penguins" Rock near Etretat. They are found nowhere else, only there. They have always come there, have always been chased away, but return again, and will always return. As soon as the young birds are grown they all fly away, and disappear for a year.
Why do they not go elsewhere? Why not choose some other spot on the long white, unending cliff that extends from the Pas-de-Calais to Havre? What force, what invincible instinct, what custom of centuries impels these birds to come back to this place? What first migration, what tempest, possibly, once cast their ancestors on this rock? And why do the children, the grandchildren, all the descendants of the first parents always return here?
There are not many of them, a hundred at most, as if one single family, maintaining the tradition, made this annual pilgrimage.