"I will return then to-night," said Mrs. Seraphin, much annoyed; "but I have something else to say to you, my dear Mrs. Pipelet. You know what has happened to this wench of a Louise, whom every one thought so virtuous?"
"Don"t speak of it," answered Mrs. Pipelet, raising her eyes with compunction, "it makes my hair stand on end."
"I want to tell you that we have no servant; and that if by chance you should hear a girl spoken of, virtuous, hard-working, honest, you will be very kind if you will address her to me. Good subjects are so difficult to find, that one has to look on all sides for them."
"Be quite easy, Mrs. Seraphin. If I hear of any one, I will inform you. Good places are as difficult to find as good subjects;" then she added mentally, "Very likely I"d send you a poor girl to be starved to death in your hovel! Your master is too miserly and too wicked--to denounce, in one breath, poor Louise and poor M. Germain."
"I need not tell you," said Mrs. Seraphin, "how quiet our house is; a girl gains much by getting there, and this Louise must have been an incarnate imp to have turned out so bad, notwithstanding all the good and holy advice M. Ferrand gave her."
"Certainly, so depend upon me; if I hear any one spoken of that I think will answer, I will send them to you."
"There is one thing more," said Mrs. Seraphin; "M. Ferrand prefers that this servant should have no family, because, you comprehend, having no occasion to go out, she will run less risk; so, if by chance she could be found, monsieur would prefer an orphan, I suppose; in the first place, because it would be a good action, and then because, having no friends, she would have no pretext to go out. This miserable Louise is a good lesson for him, my poor Mrs. Pipelet! That"s what makes him so hard to please in the choice of a domestic. Such a scandalous affair in a pious house like ours--how horrid! well, goodbye; to-night, when I go to see M. Bradamanti, I"ll call upon Madame Burette."
"Good-bye, Mrs. Seraphin--you will certainly see him to-night."
Mrs. Seraphin took her departure.
"Isn"t she crazy after Bradamanti!" said Mrs. Pipelet. "What can she want with him? and wasn"t he crazy for fear he should see her before he left for Normandy? I was afraid she wouldn"t go, as M. Bradamanti expects the lady who came last night; I couldn"t see her, but this time I"ll try to unmask her. But who can this lady of M. Bradamanti"s be? A lady or a common woman? I"d like to know, for I am as curious as a magpie. It is not my fault--I"m made so. It is my character. Ah, hold! an idea, a famous one too--to find out her name! I"ll try it.
But who comes there? Ah! it is my prince of lodgers. Hail, Mr.
Rudolph," said Mrs. Pipelet, putting herself in the att.i.tude of carrying arms, the back of her left hand to her wig.
It was Rudolph, as yet ignorant of the death of M. d"Harville. "Good-day, Madame Pipelet," said he on entering. "Is Mile. Rigolette at home?
I wish to speak to her."
"The poor little puss is always at home at her work! Does she ever take a holiday?"
"And how is Morel"s wife? Does she cheer up any?"
"Yes, Mr. Rudolph, many thanks to you, or to the protector of whom you are the agent, she and her children are so happy now! They are like fish _in_ water; they have fire, air, good beds, good food, a nurse to take care of them, without reckoning little Rigolette, who working like a little beaver, without appearing to, keeps them under her eye? and, besides, a negro doctor has been to see them. Mr.
Rudolph, I said to myself, "Ah! but this is the coalheaver doctor, this black man; he can feel their pulse without soiling his hands!"
But never mind, color is skin deep; he seems to be a first-rate hand, all the same. He ordered a potion for Madame Morel, which relieved her at once."
"Poor woman, she must be very sad."
"Oh! yes, Mr. Rudolph, what else? her husband mad, and then her Louise in prison. Louise is her heart"s grief; for an honest family it is terrible; and when I think that just now Mother Seraphin came here to say such things about her. If I had not a gudgeon to make her swallow, old Seraphin would not have got off so easy, but for a quarter of an hour I gave her fair words. Didn"t she have the bra.s.s to come and ask me if I knew of any young body to take the place of Louise, at that beggar of a notary"s? Ain"t he close and miserly? Just imagine, they want an orphan, if she can be found. Do you know why, Mr. Rudolph?
Because she would never want to go out. But that is not it--trash, a lie! The truth is, that they want to get hold of a girl who, having no one to advise her, could be ground out of her wages at their pleasure.
Isn"t it true?"
"Yes, yes," answered Rudolph, in a thoughtful manner.
Learning that Mrs. Seraphin sought an orphan to take the place of Louise, Rudolph foresaw in this circ.u.mstance a means, perhaps certain of obtaining the punishment of the notary. While Mrs. Pipelet was speaking, he arranged in his mind the part a tool of his might play, as a princ.i.p.al instrument in the just punishment which he wished to inflict on the executioner of Louise Morel.
"I was sure you would think as I did," said Madame Pipelet; "yes, I repeat it, and I would sooner die than send any one to them. Am I not right, Mr. Rudolph?"
"Mrs. Pipelet, will you render me a great service?"
"Lord o" mercy! Mr. Rudolph, do you wish me to throw myself across the fire, curl my wig with boiling oil? or would you prefer I should bite some one? Speak, I am wholly yours! I and my heart are your slaves, except--"
"Make yourself easy, Mrs. Pipelet; this is not what I mean. I want a place for a young orphan. She is a stranger; she has never been at Paris, and I wish to send her to M. Ferrand"s."
"You suffocate me! How? In his barrack? to that Old miser"s?"
"It is nevertheless a situation. If the girl should not like it, she can leave; but, at least, she will for the time earn her living, and I shall be easy on her account."
"Marry! Mr. Rudolph, it"s your affair: you are warned. If, notwithstanding, you find the place good, you are the master; and, besides, I must be just--speaking of the notary--if there"s something against, there"s also something for him. He is as miserly as a dog, hard as an a.s.s, bigoted as a sacristan, it is true; but he is as honest as one can be. He gives small wages, but he pays like a man.
The food is bad. In fine, it is a house where one must work like a horse, but where there is no risk of a young girl"s reputation. Louise was an exception."
"Madame Pipelet, I am going to confide a secret to your honor."
"On the faith of Anastasia Pipelet, whose maiden name was Galimard, as true as there is a holiness in heaven, and Alfred wears only green coats, I shall be as dumb as a fish."
"You must not say a word to Mr. Pipelet."
"I swear it on the head of my old darling! If the motive is honest."
"Oh, Mrs. Pipelet!"
"It is between ourselves, my prince of lodgers. Go on."
"The girl of whom I have spoken has committed a fault."
"I twig! If I had not at fifteen married Alfred, I should have perhaps committed fifty-hundreds of faults! I, that you see--I was a regular saltpeter mine unchained! Happily, Pipelet extinguished me in his virtue; without that I should have committed follies. If your girl has only committed one fault, there is yet some hope."
"I think so also. The girl was a servant in Germany, at one of my relatives"; the son of this relative has been the accomplice of the fault: you comprehend?"
"Whew! I comprehend-as if I had committed the _faux pas_ myself."
"The mother drove away the servant; but the young man was mad enough to leave his paternal home, and bring this poor girl to Paris."
"Oh, these young folks--"
"After this came reflections--all the wiser as the money they had was all gone. My young relative called upon me; I consented to give him enough to return to his mother, but on condition that he should leave this girl here, and I would endeavor to place her."
"I could not have done better for my own son, if Pipelet had been pleased to grant me one."
"I am enchanted with your approbation; only as the young girl has no recommendations, and is a stranger, it is very difficult to find a place. If you would tell Mrs. Seraphin that one of your relations in Germany had addressed and recommended this young girl to you, and the notary would take her in his service, I should be doubly pleased.
Cecily--that is her name--having been only led astray, would be made correct, certainly, in a house so strict as that of the notary. It is for this reason I wish to see her enter the service of M. Ferrand. I need not tell you that, presented by you--a person so respectable--"
"Oh! Mr. Rudolph--"
"So estimable--"
"Oh, my prince of lodgers-"
"She will be certainly accepted by Madame Seraphin; while, presented by me--"
"Understood! It is as if I presented a young man. Oh, well! done! it suits me. Stick old Seraphin! So much the better! I have a bone to pick with her. I will answer for the affair, Mr. Rudolph! I"ll make her see stars at noon. I"ll tell her I had a cousin, ever so long ago, settle in Germany, one of the Galimards--my family name; that I have just received the news that she is defunct, her husband also, and that their daughter, now an orphan, will be on my hands immediately."