"What! Don"t you know? Haven"t you heard about Mademoiselle Pearl?"
"No."
"Didn"t your father ever tell you?"
"No."
"Well, well, that"s funny! That certainly is funny! Why, it"s a regular romance!"
He paused, and then continued:
"And if you only knew how peculiar it is that you should ask me that to-day, on Twelfth Night!"
"Why?"
"Why? Well, listen. Forty-one years ago to day, the day of the Epiphany, the following events occurred: We were then living at Roily-le-Tors, on the ramparts; but in order that you may understand, I must first explain the house. Roily is built on a hill, or, rather, on a mound which overlooks a great stretch of prairie. We had a house there with a beautiful hanging garden supported by the old battlemented wall; so that the house was in the town on the streets, while the garden overlooked the plain. There was a door leading from the garden to the open country, at the bottom of a secret stairway in the thick wall-the kind you read about in novels. A road pa.s.sed in front of this door, which was provided with a big bell; for the peasants, in order to avoid the roundabout way, would bring their provisions up this way.
"You now understand the place, don"t you? Well, this year, at Epiphany, it had been snowing for a week. One might have thought that the world was coming to an end. When we went to the ramparts to look over the plain, this immense white, frozen country, which shone like varnish, would chill our very souls. One might have thought that the Lord had packed the world in cotton to put it away in the storeroom for old worlds. I can a.s.sure you that it was dreary looking.
"We were a very numerous family at that time my father, my mother, my uncle and aunt, my two brothers and four cousins; they were pretty little girls; I married the youngest. Of all that crowd, there are only three of us left: my wife, I, and my sister-in-law, who lives in Ma.r.s.eilles. Zounds! how quickly a family like that dwindles away! I tremble when I think of it! I was fifteen years old then, since I am fifty-six now.
"We were going to celebrate the Epiphany, and we were all happy, very happy! Everybody was in the parlor, awaiting dinner, and my oldest brother, Jacques, said: "There has been a dog howling out in the plain for about ten minutes; the poor beast must be lost."
"He had hardly stopped talking when the garden bell began to ring. It had the deep sound of a church bell, which made one think of death. A shiver ran through everybody. My father called the servant and told him to go outside and look. We waited in complete silence; we were thinking of the snow which covered the ground. When the man returned he declared that he had seen nothing. The dog kept up its ceaseless howling, and always from the same spot.
"We sat down to dinner; but we were all uneasy, especially the young people. Everything went well up to the roast, then the bell began to ring again, three times in succession, three heavy, long strokes which vibrated to the tips of our fingers and which stopped our conversation short. We sat there looking at each other, fork in the air, still listening, and shaken by a kind of supernatural fear.
"At last my mother spoke: "It"s surprising that they should have waited so long to come back. Do not go alone, Baptiste; one of these gentlemen will accompany you."
"My Uncle Francois arose. He was a kind of Hercules, very proud of his strength, and feared nothing in the world. My father said to him: "Take a gun. There is no telling what it might be."
"But my uncle only took a cane and went out with the servant.
"We others remained there trembling with fear and apprehension, without eating or speaking. My father tried to rea.s.sure us: "Just wait and see," he said; "it will be some beggar or some traveller lost in the snow. After ringing once, seeing that the door was not immediately opened, he attempted again to find his way, and being unable to, he has returned to our door."
"Our uncle seemed to stay away an hour. At last he came back, furious, swearing: "Nothing at all; it"s some practical joker! There is nothing but that d.a.m.ned dog howling away at about a hundred yards from the walls. If I had taken a gun I would have killed him to make him keep quiet."
"We sat down to dinner again, but every one was excited; we felt that all was not over, that something was going to happen, that the bell would soon ring again.
"It rang just as the Twelfth Night cake was being cut. All the men jumped up together. My Uncle, Francois, who had been drinking champagne, swore so furiously that he would murder it, whatever it might be, that my mother and my aunt threw themselves on him to prevent his going. My father, although very calm and a little helpless (he limped ever since he had broken his leg when thrown by a horse), declared, in turn, that he wished to find out what was the matter and that he was going. My brothers, aged eighteen and twenty, ran to get their guns; and as no one was paying any attention to me I s.n.a.t.c.hed up a little rifle that was used in the garden and got ready to accompany the expedition.
"It started out immediately. My father and uncle were walking ahead with Baptiste, who was carrying a lantern. My brothers, Jacques and Paul, followed, and I trailed on behind in spite of the prayers of my mother, who stood in front of the house with her sister and my cousins.
"It had been snowing again for the last hour, and the trees were weighted down. The pines were bending under this heavy, white garment, and looked like white pyramids or enormous sugar cones, and through the gray curtains of small hurrying flakes could be seen the lighter bushes which stood out pale in the shadow. The snow was falling so thick that we could hardly see ten feet ahead of us. But the lantern threw a bright light around us. When we began to go down the winding stairway in the wall I really grew frightened. I felt as though some one were walking behind me, were going to grab me by the shoulders and carry me away, and I felt a strong desire to return; but, as I would have had to cross the garden all alone, I did not dare. I heard some one opening the door leading to the plain; my uncle began to swear again, exclaiming: "By--! He has gone again! If I can catch sight of even his shadow, I"ll take care not to miss him, the swine!"
"It was a discouraging thing to see this great expanse of plain, or, rather, to feel it before us, for we could not see it; we could only see a thick, endless veil of snow, above, below, opposite us, to the right, to the left, everywhere. My uncle continued:
""Listen! There is the dog howling again; I will teach him how I shoot. That will be something gained, anyhow."
"But my father, who was kind-hearted, went on:
""It will be much better to go on and get the poor animal, who is crying for hunger. The poor fellow is barking for help; he is calling like a man in distress. Let us go to him."
"So we started out through this mist, through this thick continuous fall of snow, which filled the air, which moved, floated, fell, and chilled the skin with a burning sensation like a sharp, rapid pain as each flake melted. We were sinking in up to our knees in this soft, cold ma.s.s, and we had to lift our feet very high in order to walk. As we advanced the dog"s voice became clearer and stronger. My uncle cried: "Here he is!" We stopped to observe him as one does when he meets an enemy at night.
"I could see nothing, so I ran up to the others, and I caught sight of him; he was frightful and weird-looking; he was a big black shepherd"s dog with long hair and a wolf"s head, standing just within the gleam of light cast by our lantern on the snow. He did not move; he was silently watching us.
"My uncle said: "That"s peculiar, he is neither advancing nor retreating. I feel like taking a shot at him."
"My father answered in a firm voice: "No, we must capture him."
"Then my brother Jacques added: "But he is not alone. There is something behind him."
"There was indeed something behind him, something gray, impossible to distinguish. We started out again cautiously. When he saw us approaching the dog sat down. He did not look wicked. Instead, he seemed pleased at having been able to attract the attention of some one.
"My father went straight to him and petted him. The dog licked his hands. We saw that he was tied to the wheel of a little carriage, a sort of toy carriage entirely wrapped up in three or four woolen blankets. We carefully took off these coverings, and as Baptiste approached his lantern to the front of this little vehicle, which looked like a rolling kennel, we saw in it a little baby sleeping peacefully.
"We were so astonished that we couldn"t speak.
"My father was the first to collect his wits, and as he had a warm heart and a broad mind, he stretched his hand over the roof of the carriage and said: "Poor little waif, you shall be one of us!" And he ordered my brother Jacques to roll the foundling ahead of us. Thinking out loud, my father continued:
""Some child of love whose poor mother rang at my door on this night of Epiphany in memory of the Child of G.o.d."
"He once more stopped and called at the top of his lungs through the night to the four corners of the heavens: "We have found it!" Then, putting his hand on his brother"s shoulder, he murmured: "What if you had shot the dog, Francois?"
"My uncle did not answer, but in the darkness he crossed himself, for, notwithstanding his bl.u.s.tering manner, he was very religious.
"The dog, which had been untied, was following us.
"Ah! But you should have seen us when we got to the house! At first we had a lot of trouble in getting the carriage up through the winding stairway; but we succeeded and even rolled it into the vestibule.
"How funny mamma was! How happy and astonished! And my four little cousins (the youngest was only six), they looked like four chickens around a nest. At last we took the child from the carriage. It was still sleeping. It was a girl about six weeks old. In its clothes we found ten thousand francs in gold, yes, my boy, ten thousand francs!-which papa saved for her dowry. Therefore, it was not a child of poor people, but, perhaps, the child of some n.o.bleman and a little bourgeoise of the town-or again-we made a thousand suppositions, but we never found out anything-never the slightest clue. The dog himself was recognized by no one. He was a stranger in the country. At any rate, the person who rang three times at our door must have known my parents well, to have chosen them thus.
"That is how, at the age of six weeks, Mademoiselle Pearl entered the Chantal household.
"It was not until later that she was called Mademoiselle Pearl. She was at first baptized "Marie Simonne Claire," Claire being intended, for her family name.
"I can a.s.sure you that our return to the diningroom was amusing, with this baby now awake and looking round her at these people and these lights with her vague blue questioning eyes.
"We sat down to dinner again and the cake was cut. I was king, and for queen I took Mademoiselle Pearl, just as you did to-day. On that day she did not appreciate the honor that was being shown her.
"Well, the child was adopted and brought up in the family. She grew, and the years flew by. She was so gentle and loving and minded so well that every one would have spoiled her abominably had not my mother prevented it.
"My mother was an orderly woman with a great respect for cla.s.s distinctions. She consented to treat little Claire as she did her own sons, but, nevertheless, she wished the distance which separated us to be well marked, and our positions well established. Therefore, as soon as the child could understand, she acquainted her with her story and gently, even tenderly, impressed on the little one"s mind that, for the Chantals, she was an adopted daughter, taken in, but, nevertheless, a stranger. Claire understood the situation with peculiar intelligence and with surprising instinct; she knew how to take the place which was allotted her, and to keep it with so much tact, gracefulness and gentleness that she often brought tears to my father"s eyes. My mother herself was often moved by the pa.s.sionate grat.i.tude and timid devotion of this dainty and loving little creature that she began calling her: "My daughter." At times, when the little one had done something kind and good, my mother would raise her spectacles on her forehead, a thing which always indicated emotion with her, and she would repeat: "This child is a pearl, a perfect pearl!" This name stuck to the little Claire, who became and remained for us Mademoiselle Pearl."
II M. Chantal stopped. He was sitting on the edge of the billiard table, his feet hanging, and was playing with a ball with his left hand, while with his right he crumpled a rag which served to rub the chalk marks from the slate. A little red in the face, his voice thick, he was talking away to himself now, lost in his memories, gently drifting through the old scenes and events which awoke in his mind, just as we walk through old family gardens where we were brought up and where each tree, each walk, each hedge reminds us of some occurrence.
I stood opposite him leaning against the wall, my hands resting on my idle cue.