"It must be there! That"s where all the bigwigs meet."
"I admit that the conjectures of the "bigwigs" will have very little influence on our mode of life. We care little for society, but we are not desirous either to be looked upon as bears; and Agathe is old enough not to avoid society. When the opportunity presents itself to make Madame Droguet"s acquaintance, we shall not let it pa.s.s; but there is no hurry, is there, Agathe?"
"Oh, no! my dear; and so far as I am concerned, when we have time to walk, it will be much more agreeable to go in the direction of the Tower, than to that lady"s house who hides in the bushes to spy upon people. The acquaintance of that beautiful dog, who manifested such a liking for me, is the acquaintance I am most anxious to cultivate."
During the day which followed this conversation, Poucette came to Honorine to say that Monsieur Luminot desired to pay his respects, as one of her neighbors.
"Show Monsieur Luminot in," said Honorine.
"Neighborliness is about to commence," murmured Agathe; "I have an idea that this man is a bore!"
"My dear girl, we are not in the world solely to enjoy ourselves; we need no other proof than all the trials that are imposed on us."
Monsieur Luminot, former wine merchant, was a tall, stout man, with a red face; an excellent type of those rustic buffoons, who deem themselves very clever because they make a great deal of noise wherever they are, and are always the first to laugh at what they themselves say; a device which very rarely fails to arouse the laughter of those who listen, especially as those who listen to such fellows are generally ent.i.tled to be numbered among Panurge"s sheep.
Monsieur Luminot had arrayed himself in a white cravat, and a dress coat in which he was almost as constrained as Chamoureau in his new trousers; in the country a dress coat is but rarely donned; it is kept in reserve for grand and ceremonious a.s.semblages, so that it serves for a long while. Monsieur Luminot had possessed his for four years, and it was still quite presentable. During that time, however, its owner had considerably increased his bulk, so that the coat, which had originally fitted him very well, had become much too small; nevertheless, he persisted in wearing it.
"I must wear it out," he would say; "it"s very good still. I can"t have another coat made while this looks like a new one."
"Good-morning, mesdames, how do you do? Allow me to congratulate myself on the pleasure of making your acquaintance."
"Pray be seated, monsieur," said Honorine, offering a chair to her visitor, who entered the room with a radiant expression and approached her as if he proposed to begin by embracing her.
"With pleasure, _belle dame_; I don"t like to remain standing, one has enough of that in the street. Ha! ha! ha! that is a _mot_! you will excuse me, I know; I make many _mots_! I am an inveterate joker. Ha! ha!
ha! As the ballad says: "We must laugh, we must drink to hospitality."--I believe it"s in _Le Deserteur_, but I am not quite sure."
"Does monsieur live in the neighborhood?"
"Yes, _belle dame_, within two steps--two and a bit.--Luminot, proprietor of vineyards. Always in the vines. Ha! ha! ha! Pray don"t think that I am always tipsy though; it"s another _mot_! In Paris I sold wines at wholesale--excuse this _detail_.[J] Ha! ha! Well, how do you like our countryside, _belle dame_? I say _belle dame_, because I presume that this is your daughter--_demoiselle_."
"Ah! it would be funny if I were her daughter!" exclaimed Agathe; "in that case I should have a mother only ten years older than I!"
"Oh! a thousand pardons! I am a reckless fellow," rejoined the former wine merchant; "I made a mistake; I had not looked carefully at mademoiselle; I see now that you are her aunt."
"You are not a sorcerer to-day, monsieur, you do not guess right. Agathe is simply my friend; but I love her like a daughter and a sister at once."
"Very good, I understand; she"s your cousin _a la mode de Bretagne_.--We are both happy and proud to have in our village two roses from the Capital--I might say a rose and a bud. Ha! ha! you catch my thought?
Still another _mot_! What the devil can you expect; when one has sold spirits, one must retain a little; I didn"t sell everything, and it was not in vain that I was in wines.[K] Ha! ha! ha! I beg your pardon; I can"t help it.--Oh! oh! oh!"
The portly buffoon, amazed that the ladies did not laugh also, grew calmer, and tried to be more sedate.
"You ladies have not told me whether you are pleased with this region."
"We were waiting until you had ceased laughing, monsieur.--Yes, this region pleases us exceedingly, and the surrounding country seemed lovely to us."
"Have you seen our promenade, the Poncelet?"
"No, monsieur; is it in the village?"
"It"s on the square; a charming, delightful promenade; you would think that you were on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, barring the size."
"We haven"t seen it yet."
"I venture to think that the society here will please you also. We have a little nucleus[L] of agreeable and clever people--not large, but large enough; you shall be one of us, you shall be our almond--Ha! ha!--but not bitter.--Ha! ha! ha!--joker that I am; I am the life of the whole neighborhood.--We generally meet at Madame Droguet"s--a good house, well kept up; they live very well indeed; we play cards, and sometimes dance; Droguet is mad over dancing. I myself used to be rather a fine dancer once. I could do my little _entrechat_--in the good old way, I a.s.sure you! But I"ve put on a good deal of flesh, so that I am not so light of foot as I was. However, I can still hold my own in a quadrille! You ladies should be fond of dancing?"
"Not I, monsieur; but Agathe is very fond of it."
"In that case, madame, you will play cards with Madame Droguet. Do you know bezique?"
"No, monsieur."
"Why, you surprise me! that refined, intellectual game, which has caused a revolution in Paris!"
"I do not care for cards, monsieur."
"Then you can talk with Madame Jarnouillard, a woman of much intellect--although it doesn"t appear. We also have Madame Remplume, her husband and her daughter--very _comme il faut_ people! Mademoiselle is very good-looking, although slightly humpbacked; but when she is facing you, it is less apparent; still it has kept her from being married; men don"t take to the _hump_! Ha! ha!"
After a moment or two, Monsieur Luminot, discomfited to find that he was laughing all by himself and that his jests did not make the ladies gasp with merriment, rose to go, saying:
"Pardon me, ladies, for disturbing you in your household duties; I do not desire to intrude. I leave you, hoping that you will permit me to cultivate your delectable acquaintance."
"Whenever it is agreeable to you, monsieur," said Honorine, rising to show her visitor to the door.
"Those women are very good-looking," he said to himself as he went away, "but they don"t seem to be very cheerful."
"Mon Dieu! what a foolish man!" cried Agathe, when Monsieur Luminot had gone. "If that"s a fair specimen of the society of the place, we shall do well to deprive ourselves of it."
"My dear girl, we must not be too severe; everything is relative. It may be that this gentleman is very agreeable in the circle that he frequents; we are not yet accustomed to his language, but perhaps we shall end by laughing at it with the rest."
"Let us hope that we shall never reach that point."
"However, I am fully persuaded that he did not consider us agreeable, because we failed to laugh at what he said."
Not five minutes after the former dealer in wines had taken his leave, Poucette announced that Monsieur Jarnouillard desired to know if he could see the ladies.
"This is our day for callers," said Honorine; "let us see Monsieur Jarnouillard; he is married, and he comes first, which surprises me; he must be anxious to know us.--Show the gentleman in."
The newcomer was a man of some fifty years, very thin, very ugly, and very slovenly in his dress, although it was plain that he had tried to make himself clean for his visit to his neighbors. He wore a cravat that was almost white, and a shirt collar almost black; a long _redingote_, which fell to his heels, and might at need be used as a dressing-gown; shoes half blacked; and a broad-brimmed straw hat like those worn by women who work in the fields.
Monsieur Jarnouillard had a long, pointed nose, a square, protruding chin, prominent cheek-bones, tawny, furtive eyes, thin, compressed lips and an earth-colored complexion, like one who deems any sort of ablution superfluous.
All this formed an ensemble which did not prepossess one in his favor.
He bowed almost to the floor as he entered the room, as if he were executing a Turkish salaam. But even while he saluted the two young women before him, his eyes found time to make the circuit of the room in which they received him, to scrutinize each article of furniture, and perhaps to estimate its value.
"Mesdames, pray permit me to pay my respects," said Monsieur Jarnouillard in a clear, metallic voice, p.r.o.nouncing every syllable distinctly. "Jarnouillard, land-owner and annuitant; it is several years since I retired from business and came to this place to live, with my wife. She will come to pay her respects to you; she did not come with me to-day because we have a stew for dinner and she had to stay at home to watch it; we have no servant, my wife does everything; it amuses her and distracts her thoughts. I have asked her several times: "Do you want a maid? if so, take one."--But she replies: "Indeed I will not! to have everything stolen!"--It is true that servants are a vile lot; one is very lucky when one can do without them."
"Since it suits yourself and your wife, monsieur, you are very sensible to adopt that course; one should always follow one"s own tastes, and not worry about what people may say."