It was on the opposite side of the landing that what Mme. Fortin pompously called "Maxence"s apartment" was situated.
It consisted of a sort of antechamber, almost as large as a handkerchief (decorated by the Fortins with the name of dining-room), a bedroom, and a closet called a dressing-room in the lease. Nothing could be more gloomy than this lodging, in which the ragged paper and soiled paint retained the traces of all the wanderers who had occupied it since the opening of the Hotel des Folies. The dislocated ceiling was scaling off in large pieces; the floor seemed affected with the dry-rot; and the doors and windows were so much warped and sprung, that it required an effort to close them. The furniture was on a par with the rest.
"How everything does wear out!" sighed Mme. Fortin. "It isn"t ten years since I bought that furniture."
In point of fact it was over fifteen, and even then she had bought it secondhanded, and almost unfit for use. The curtains retained but a vague shade of their original color. The veneer was almost entirely off the bedstead. Not a single lock was in order, whether in the bureau or the secretary. The rug had become a nameless rag; and the broken springs of the sofa, cutting through the threadbare stuff, stood up threateningly like knife-blades.
The most sumptuous object was an enormous China stove, which occupied almost one-half of the hall-dining-room. It could not be used to make a fire; for it had no pipe. Nevertheless, Mme. Fortin refused obstinately to take it out, under the pretext that it gave such a comfortable appearance to the apartment. All this elegance cost Maxence forty-five francs a month, and five francs for the service; the whole payable in advance from the 1st to the 3d of the month. If, on the 4th, a tenant came in without money, Mme. Fortin squarely refused him his key, and invited him to seek shelter elsewhere.
"I have been caught too often," she replied to those who tried to obtain twenty-four hours" grace from her. "I wouldn"t trust my own father till the 5th, he who was a superior officer in Napoleon"s armies, and the very soul of honor."
It was chance alone which had brought Maxence, after the Commune, to the Hotel des Folies; and he had not been there a week, before he had fully made up his mind not to wear out Mme. Fortin"s furniture very long. He had even already found another and more suitable lodging, when, about a year ago, a certain meeting on the stairs had modified all his views, and lent a charm to his apartment which he did not suspect.
As he was going out one morning to his office, he met on the very landing a rather tall and very dark girl, who had just come running up stairs. She pa.s.sed before him like a flash, opened the opposite door, and disappeared. But, rapid as the apparition had been, it had left in Maxence"s mind one of those impressions which are never obliterated. He could not think of any thing else the whole day; and after business-hours, instead of going to dine in Rue St. Gilles, as usual, he sent a despatch to his mother to tell her not to wait for him, and bravely went home.
But it was in vain, that, during the whole evening, he kept watch behind his door, left slyly ajar: he did not get a glimpse of the neighbor. Neither did she show herself on the next or the three following days; and Maxence was beginning to despair, when at last, on Sunday, as he was going down stairs, he met her again face to face. He had thought her quite pretty at the first glance: this time he was dazzled to that extent, that he remained for over a minute, standing like a statue against the wall.
And certainly it was not her dress that helped setting off her beauty. She wore a poor dress of black merino, a narrow collar, and plain cuffs, and a bonnet of the utmost simplicity. She had nevertheless an air of incomparable dignity, a grace that charmed, and yet inspired respect, and the carriage of a queen. This was on the 30th of July. As he was handing in his key, before leaving, "My apartment suits me well enough," said Maxence to Mme. Fortin: "I shall keep it. And here are fifty francs for the month of August."
And, while the landlady was making out a receipt, "You never told me," he began with his most indifferent look, "that I had a neighbor."
Mme. Fortin straightened herself up like an old warhorse that hears the sound of the bugle.
"Yes, yes!" she said,-"Mademoiselle Lucienne."
"Lucienne," repeated Maxence: "that"s a pretty name."
"Have you seen her?"
"I have just seen her. She"s rather good looking."
The worthy landlady jumped on her chair. "Rather good looking!" she interrupted. "You must be hard to please, my dear sir; for I, who am a judge, I affirm that you might hunt Paris over for four whole days without finding such a handsome girl. Rather good looking! A girl who has hair that comes down to her knees, a dazzling complexion, eyes as big as this, and teeth whiter than that cat"s. All right, my friend. You"ll wear out more than one pair of boots running after women before you catch one like her."
That was exactly Maxence"s opinion; and yet with his coldest look, "Has she been long your tenant, dear Mme. Fortin?" he asked.
"A little over a year. She was here during the siege; and just then, as she could not pay her rent, I was, of course, going to send her off; but she went straight to the commissary of police, who came here, and forbade me to turn out either her or anybody else. As if people were not masters in their own house!"
"That was perfectly absurd!" objected Maxence, who was determined to gain the good graces of the landlady.
"Never heard of such a thing!" she went on. "Compel you to lodge people free! Why not feed them too? In short, she remained so long, that, after the Commune, she owed me a hundred and eighty francs. Then she said, that, if I would let her stay, she would pay me each month in advance, besides the rent, ten francs on the old account. I agreed, and she has already paid up twenty francs."
"Poor girl!" said Maxence.
But Mme. Fortin shrugged her shoulders.
"Really," she replied, "I don"t pity her much; for, if she only wanted, in forty-eight hours I should be paid, and she would have something else on her back besides that old black rag. I tell her every day, "In these days, my child, there is but one reliable friend, which is better than all others, and which must be taken as it comes, without making any faces if it is a little dirty: that"s money." But all my preaching goes for nothing. I might as well sing."
Maxence was listening with intense delight.
"In short, what does she do?" he asked.
"That"s more than I know," replied Mme. Fortin. "The young lady has not much to say. All I know is, that she leaves every morning bright and early, and rarely gets home before eleven. On Sunday she stays home, reading; and sometimes, in the evening, she goes out, always alone, to some theatre or ball. Ah! she is an odd one, I tell you!"
A lodger who came in interrupted the landlady; and Maxence walked off dreaming how he could manage to make the acquaintance of his pretty and eccentric neighbor.
Because he had once spent some hundreds of napoleons in the company of young ladies with yellow chignons, Maxence fancied himself a man of experience, and had but little faith in the virtue of a girl of twenty, living alone in a hotel, and left sole mistress of her own fancy. He began to watch for every occasion of meeting her; and, towards the last of the month, he had got so far as to bow to her, and to inquire after her health.
But, the first time he ventured to make love to her, she looked at him head to foot, and turned her back upon him with so much contempt, that he remained, his mouth wide open, perfectly stupefied.
"I am losing my time like a fool," he thought.
Great, then, was his surprise, when the following week, on a fine afternoon, he saw Mlle. Lucienne leave her room, no longer clad in her eternal black dress, but wearing a brilliant and extremely rich toilet. With a beating heart he followed her.
In front of the Hotel des Folies stood a handsome carriage and horses.
As soon as Mlle. Lucienne appeared, a footman opened respectfully the carriage-door. She went in; and the horses started at a full trot.
Maxence watched the carriage disappear in the distance, like a child who sees the bird fly upon which he hoped to lay hands.
"Gone," he muttered, "gone!"
But, when he turned around, he found himself face to face with the Fortins, man and wife; who were laughing a sinister laugh.
"What did I tell you?" exclaimed Mme. Fortin. "There she is, started at last. Get up, horse! She"ll do well, the child."
The magnificent equipage and elegant dress had already produced quite an effect among the neighbors. The customers sitting in front of the Cafe were laughing among themselves. The confectioner and his wife were casting indignant glances at the proprietors of the Hotel des Folies.
"You see, M. Favoral," replied Mme. Fortin, "such a girl as that was not made for our neighborhood. You must make up your mind to it; you won"t see much more of her on the Boulevard du Temple."
Without saying a word, Maxence ran to his room, the hot tears streaming from his eyes. He felt ashamed of himself; for, after all, what was this girl to him?
"She is gone!" he repeated to himself. "Well, good-by, let her go!"
But, despite all his efforts at philosophy, he felt an immense sadness invading his heart: ill-defined regrets and spasms of anger agitated him. He was thinking what a fool he had been to believe in the grand airs of the young lady, and that, if he had had dresses and horses to give her, she might not have received him so harshly. At last he made up his mind to think no more of her,-one of those fine resolutions which are always taken, and never kept; and in the evening he left his room to go and dine in the Rue St. Gilles.
But, as was often his custom, he stopped at the Cafe next door, and called for a drink. He was mixing his absinthe when he saw the carriage that had carried off Mlle. Lucienne in the morning returning at a rapid gait, and stopping short in front of the hotel. Mlle. Lucienne got out slowly, crossed the sidewalk, and entered the narrow corridor. Almost immediately, the carriage turned around, and drove off.
"What does it mean?" thought Maxence, who was actually forgetting to swallow his absinthe.
He was losing himself in absurd conjectures, when, some fifteen minutes later, he saw the girl coming out again. Already she had taken off her elegant clothes, and resumed her cheap black dress. She had a basket on her arm, and was going towards the Rue Chariot. Without further reflections, Maxence rose suddenly, and started to follow her, being very careful that she should not see him. After walking for five or six minutes, she entered a shop, half-eating house, and half wine-shop, in the window of which a large sign could be read: "Ordinary at all hours for forty centimes. Hard boiled eggs, and salad of the season."
Maxence, having crept up as close as he could, saw Mlle. Lucienne take a tin box out of her basket, and have what is called an "ordinaire" poured into it; that is, half a pint of soup, a piece of beef as large as the fist, and a few vegetables. She then had a small bottle half-filled with wine, paid, and walked out with that same look of grave dignity which she always wore.
"Funny dinner," murmured Maxence, "for a woman who was spreading herself just now in a ten-thousand-franc carriage."
From that moment she became the sole and only object of his thoughts. A pa.s.sion, which he no longer attempted to resist, was penetrating like a subtle poison to the innermost depths of his being. He thought himself happy, when, after watching for hours, he caught a glimpse of this singular creature, who, after that extraordinary expedition, seemed to have resumed her usual mode of life. Mme. Fortin was dumfounded.
"She has been too exacting," she said to Maxence, "and the thing has fallen through."
He made no answer. He felt a perfect horror for the honorable landlady"s insinuations; and yet he never ceased to repeat to himself that he must be a great simpleton to have faith for a moment in that young lady"s virtue. What would he not have given to be able to question her? But he dared not. Often he would gather up his courage, and wait for her on the stairs; but, as soon as she fixed upon him her great black eye, all the phrases he had prepared took flight from his brain, his tongue clove to his mouth, and he could barely succeed in stammering out a timid, "Good-morning, mademoiselle."
He felt so angry with himself, that he was almost on the point of leaving the Hotel des Folies, when one evening: "Well," said Mme. Fortin to him, "all is made up again, it seems. The beautiful carriage called again to-day."
Maxence could have beaten her.
"What good would it do you," he replied, "if Lucienne were to turn out badly?"
"It"s always a pleasure," she grumbled, "to have one more woman to torment the men. Those are the girls, you see, who avenge us poor honest women!"
The sequel seemed at first to justify her worst previsions. Three times during that week, Mlle. Lucienne rode out in grand style; but as she always returned, and always resumed her eternal black woolen dress, "I can"t make head or tail of it," thought Maxence. "But never mind, I"ll clear the matter up yet."
He applied, and obtained leave of absence; and from the very next day he took up a position behind the window of the adjoining Cafe. On the first day he lost his time; but on the second day, at about three o"clock, the famous equipage made its appearance; and, a few moments later, Mlle. Lucienne took a seat in it. Her toilet was richer, and more showy still, than the first time. Maxence jumped into a cab.
"You see that carriage," he said to the coachman, "Wherever it goes, you must follow it. I give ten francs extra pay."
"All right!" replied the driver, whipping up his horses.
And much need he had, too, of whipping them; for the carriage that carried off Mlle. Lucienne started at full trot down the Boulevards, to the Madeleine, then along the Rue Royale, and through the Place de la Concorde, to the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, where the horses were brought down to a walk. It was the end of September, and one of those lovely autumnal days which are a last smile of the blue sky and the last caress of the sun.
There were races in the Bois de Boulogne; and the equipages were five and six abreast on the avenue. The side-alleys were crowded with idlers. Maxence, from the inside of his cab, never lost sight of Mlle. Lucienne.
She was evidently creating a sensation. The men stopped to look at her with gaping admiration: the women leaned out of their carriages to see her better.
"Where can she be going?" Maxence wondered.
She was going to the Bois; and soon her carriage joined the interminable line of equipages which were following the grand drive at a walk. It became easier now to follow on foot. Maxence sent off his cab to wait for him at a particular spot, and took the pedestrians" road, that follows the edge of the lakes. He had not gone fifty steps, however, before he heard some one call him. He turned around, and, within two lengths of his cane, saw M. Saint Pavin and M. Costeclar. Maxence hardly knew M. Saint Pavin, whom he had only seen two or three times in the Rue St. Gilles, and execrated M. Costeclar. Still he advanced towards them.
Mlle. Lucienne"s carriage was now caught in the file; and he was sure of joining it whenever he thought proper.
"It is a miracle to see you here, my dear Maxence!" exclaimed M. Costeclar, loud enough to attract the attention of several persons.
To occupy the attention of others, anyhow and at any cost, was M. Costeclar"s leading object in life. That was evident from the style of his dress, the shape of his hat, the bright stripes of his shirt, his ridiculous shirt-collar, his cuffs, his boots, his gloves, his cane, every thing, in fact.
"If you see us on foot," he added, "it is because we wanted to walk a little. The doctor"s prescription, my dear. My carriage is yonder, behind those trees. Do you recognize my dapple-grays?" And he extended his cane in that direction, as if he were addressing himself, not to Maxence alone, but to all those who were pa.s.sing by.
"Very well, very well! everybody knows you have a carriage," interrupted M. Saint Pavin.
The editor of "The Financial Pilot" was the living contrast of his companion. More slovenly still than M. Costeclar was careful of his dress, he exhibited cynically a loose cravat rolled over a shirt worn two or three days, a coat white with lint and plush, muddy boots, though it had not rained for a week, and large red hands, surprisingly filthy.
He was but the more proud; and he wore, c.o.c.ked up to one side, a hat that had not known a brush since the day it had left the hatter"s.
"That fellow Costeclar," he went on, "he won"t believe that there are in France a number of people who live and die without ever having owned a horse or a coupe; which is a fact, nevertheless. Those fellows who were born with fifty or sixty thousand francs" income in their baby-clothes are all alike."
The unpleasant intention was evident; but M. Costeclar was not the man to get angry for such a trifle.
"You are in bad humor to-day, old fellow," he said. The editor of "The Financial Pilot" made a threatening gesture.
"Well, yes," he answered, "I am in bad humor, like a man who for ten years past has been beating the drum in front of your d-d financial shops, and who does not pay expenses. Yes, for ten years I have shouted myself hoa.r.s.e for your benefit: "Walk in, ladies and gentlemen, and, for every twenty-cent-piece you deposit with us, we will return you a five-franc-piece. Walk in, follow the crowd, step up to the office: this is the time." They go in. You receive mountains of twenty-cent-pieces: you never return anything, neither a five-franc-piece, nor even a centime. The trick is done, the public is sold. You drive your own carriage; you suspend diamonds to your mistress" ears; and I, the organizer of success, whose puffs open the tightest closed pockets, and start up the old louis from the bottom of the old woolen stocking,-I am driven to have my boots half-soled. You stint me my existence; you kick as soon as I ask you to pay for the big drums bursted in your behalf."
He spoke so loud, that three or four idlers had stopped. Without being very shrewd, Maxence understood readily that he had happened in the midst of an acrimonious discussion. Closely pressed, and desirous of gaining time, M. Costeclar had called him in the hopes of effecting a diversion.
Bowing, therefore, politely, "Excuse me, gentlemen," he said: "I fear I have interrupted you."
But M. Costeclar detained him.
"Don"t go," he declared; "you must come down and take a gla.s.s of Madeira with us, down at the Cascade."
And, turning to the editor of "The Pilot": "Come, now, shut up," he said: "you shall have what you want."
"Really?"
"Upon my word."
"I"d rather have two or three lines in black and white."
"I"ll give them to you to-night."
"All right, then! Forward the big guns! Look out for next Sunday"s number!"
Peace being made, the gentlemen continued their walk in the most friendly manner, M. Costeclar pointing out to Maxence all the celebrities who were pa.s.sing by them in their carriages.
He had just designated to his attention Mme. and Mlle. de Thaller, accompanied by two gigantic footmen, when, suddenly interrupting himself, and rising on tiptoe, "Sacre bleu!" he exclaimed: "what a handsome woman!"
Without too much affectation, Maxence fell back a step or two. He felt himself blushing to his very ears, and trembled lest his sudden emotion were noticed, and he were questioned; for it was Mlle. Lucienne who thus excited M. Costeclar"s noisy enthusiasm. Once already she had been around the lake; and she was continuing her circular drive.
"Positively," approved the editor of "The Financial Pilot," "she is somewhat better than the rest of those ladies we have just seen going by."
M. Costeclar was on the point of pulling out what little hair he had left.
"And I don"t know her!" he went on. "A lovely woman rides in the Bois, and I don"t know who she is! That is ridiculous and prodigious! Who can post us?"
A little ways off stood a group of gentlemen, who had also just left their carriages, and were looking on this interminable procession of equipages and this amazing display of toilets.
"They are friends of mine," said M. Costeclar: "let us join them."
They did so; and, after the usual greetings, "Who is that?" inquired M. Costeclar,-"that dark person, whose carriage follows Mme. de Thaller"s?"
An old young man, with scanty hair, dyed beard, and a most impudent smile, answered him, "That"s just what we are trying to find out. None of us have ever seen her."
"I must and shall find out," interrupted M. Costeclar. "I have a very intelligent servant."
Already he was starting in the direction of the spot where his carriage was waiting for him. The old beau stopped him.
"Don"t bother yourself, my dear friend," he said. "I have also a servant who is no fool; and he has had orders for over fifteen minutes."
The others burst out laughing.
"Distanced, Costeclar!" exclaimed M. Saint Pavin, who, notwithstanding his slovenly dress and cynic manners, seemed perfectly well received.