"Belleville--very well; from this moment you are Chamoureau de Belleville, and you will not sign your name in any other way.
Furthermore, you will be careful to use only the last name with any new acquaintances you may make; in that way, before long your name of Chamoureau will be entirely forgotten and you will be Monsieur de Belleville!"
"Pardieu! that"s very nice! you have a mind as big as yourself! Monsieur de Belleville--that"s an altogether coquettish name, and it pleases me beyond words.--Then you consent to become Madame de Belleville?"
"I must, since you promise to agree to everything I have stipulated."
"And to everything you may order in future; I swear it at your feet!"
And Chamoureau, rising from the couch, threw himself at Thelenie"s feet, took her hand and kissed it with rapture, and even tried to take her knees; but his haughty conquest checked him, saying, with an air which had a faint suggestion of dignity:
"Monsieur! remember that I am to be your wife! and respect me until I no longer have the right to deny you anything."
"That is true!" cried Chamoureau, rising from the floor; "I am a villain! a blackguard! you did well to call me to order! I will lose no time about taking all the necessary steps, in order to enter into possession at the earliest possible moment of the charms which overthrow my reason."
"Do so; I approve your purpose and you have my consent; I will not conceal from you now that I desire the marriage to take place at once."
"Ah! dear love! you overwhelm me! I"m beside myself! You share my impatience! Oh! permit me to----"
"Well, monsieur?"
"Fichtre! I was going to put my foot in it again! Your hair is so lovely--you are so alluring!--Upon my word, I believe that I shall do well to go, for I can"t answer for myself."
"Go; to-morrow I will look about for an apartment suited to our future position; you will trust me, I suppose?"
"In everything, and blindly. Whatever you do will be approved."
"Au revoir then, my dear De Belleville."
"De Belleville! really I am mad over that name. Au revoir, my G.o.ddess!"
Chamoureau kissed once more the hand that was offered him; then took his leave, as light as a feather, saying to himself:
"She loves me, she adores me, for she wants to be married at once! Oh!
I"ll not let the gra.s.s grow under my feet.--The devil! is it only three months since Eleonore died? I certainly am an idiot! it"s an endless time since I became a widower!"
While her newly-rich adorer went away in raptures, Thelenie, alone once more, said to herself:
"A new name--an apartment in a distant quarter--a new position in society! Madame Sainte-Suzanne will be lost to sight, and she will hear no more of the Croques and the Beauregards. But she will be careful not to lose sight of those upon whom she is determined to be revenged!"
XXIV
VISITORS
Honorine and Agathe were installed in the little house at Ch.e.l.les, and Poucette was with her new mistresses. The first days were devoted to arranging the furniture, deciding where to put the various things, making the necessary changes, and attending to the innumerable petty details which follow every change of abode, and which are of much more importance when one takes possession of a house one has purchased.
During those early days the two friends hardly had time to walk in their garden or to glance at the landscape.
While they were occupied thus, a.s.sisted by Poucette, who did her best to give satisfaction and had already won the regard of her mistresses; while they arranged, placed and displaced furniture, and set the music and the books in order, the spring progressed. It was the middle of May, the time when the country is so lovely, when it is embellished every day by some new flower or leaf; and when at last Honorine and Agathe were able to sit at their windows and to go down to inspect their garden and stroll along the paths, they exclaimed with surprise and delight at the change which a few weeks had wrought in the face of nature.
Agathe would pause in admiration before a linden or an ash tree, crying:
"Ah! my dear! how lovely the trees are! I never saw this one before!"
"You did see it," Honorine would reply with a smile, "but you didn"t notice it because it had no leaves."
"Do you think so? it may be true; and the garden too seems to me a hundred times lovelier than when we first came to see the house."
"For the very same reason."
"It certainly does make a great difference! What a pity it is, when you live in the country, that it isn"t summer all the time!"
"If it were, we shouldn"t have the pleasure of seeing the leaves grow, of seeing all nature come to life anew. Believe me, my dear girl, G.o.d has done well everything that He has done, and we are ungrateful when we murmur against the order He has established."
Pere Ledrux came twice a week to look after the garden; that was quite as often as was necessary to keep the paths clean and to care for a small kitchen garden; as for the flowers, Agathe had taken it upon herself to tend them, and she did it very well, although the gardener declared that she knew nothing about it.
In short, the two women were enchanted with their new life; ennui had not once made its way into their abode, for they always found something to do which occupied their time; as a general rule, ennui visits only the slothful.
One morning, when Pere Ledrux came to work at Madame Dalmont"s, the peasant, after watching the hens for a long time, as usual, to see if they did not fight--their failure to do so always seemed to surprise him--went into the house, bowed to Honorine, who was breakfasting with Agathe, and said to her:
"I say, pardon, excuse me if I tell you this; but it"s only so that you may know it, and then you can do as you choose; it"s none of my business; I just came to tell you because sometimes folks are glad to know what other folks say about "em."
"What"s that, Pere Ledrux? do you mean that people are talking about us?" said Honorine, who, no less than her friend, had felt strongly inclined to laugh at the gardener"s long preamble.
"Bless me! that they are! You can see for yourself, it"s no more"n natural; in a little place like this the folks as is rich don"t have anything else to do but ask what the other folks do. So then, you and your friend, when you came here to Ch.e.l.les to live, you bought Monsieur Courtivaux"s house, and you paid cash for it. Now, you understand, new people--fine ladies from Paris coming here to live--why that"s a big event in the neighborhood."
"Very good, Pere Ledrux; we are an event, I understand that. What next?"
"Why, they says like this at Madame Droguet"s: "Let"s see if they come to call on us, these newcomers."--Excuse me, but as you ain"t been here long, they call you the newcomers."
"That doesn"t offend us at all. Go on."
"Monsieur Droguet says: "They"re young women, they must dance; we must invite "em to come here."--But it seems that Madame Droguet answered: "We"ll invite "em, if they come to call first; because the latest arrivals ought to make the first call on the people who live in a town, and it ain"t for us to begin by going to see them.""
"That is true; Madame Droguet is quite right."
"Then there"s Monsieur le Docteur Antoine Beaubichon, who says: "I have the pleasure of knowing these ladies already, and they"re very agreeable. As a bachelor and as a medical man I mean to go to call on "em very soon. I"ll let them get settled; we mustn"t be in too much of a hurry."--And after that Monsieur Luminot, he says: "I"m a widower, and I"m going to call on these ladies; they say they"re pretty, and I like pretty women."--Then there"s the Jarnouillards, and they says: "But we must find out first if they"re rich, and what their money"s in."--I tell you all this just as they said it, you understand."
"Yes, Pere Ledrux, and there"s no harm in it. Is that all?"
"No; for, you see, as you"ve been in Ch.e.l.les more"n two weeks, and you haven"t called on anyone yet, and n.o.body ever meets you anywhere, because you don"t go to walk--why, folks are beginning to say:
""Those ladies must be female bears; they don"t go to see anybody! they don"t go out! They"re good mates for the owner of the Tower; all they need is a dog!"--That"s what folks say, and I only repeat it so that you may know it; because it"s none of my business, after all."
"Thanks, Pere Ledrux; I am not sorry to know what people say about us.
It is at Madame Droguet"s, I presume, that public opinion is formed?"