"Ah, this is a nice thing you"re making me do! Suppose your father happened to wake and miss you! Lord G.o.d, let us hope no misfortune will happen!"
In front of the Theatre des Varietes, a patrol of National Guards stopped them.
Louise immediately explained that she was going with her servant to look for a doctor in the Rue Rumfort. The patrol allowed them to pa.s.s on.
At the corner of the Madeleine they came across a second patrol, and, Louise having given the same explanation, one of the National Guards asked in return:
"Is it for a nine months" ailment, ducky?"
"Oh, d.a.m.n it!" exclaimed the captain, "no blackguardisms in the ranks!
Pa.s.s on, ladies!"
In spite of the captain"s orders, they still kept cracking jokes.
"I wish you much joy!"
"My respects to the doctor!"
"Mind the wolf!"
"They like laughing," Catherine remarked in a loud tone. "That"s the way it is to be young."
At length they reached Frederick"s abode.
Louise gave the bell a vigorous pull, which she repeated several times.
The door opened a little, and, in answer to her inquiry, the porter said:
"No!"
"But he must be in bed!"
"I tell you he"s not. Why, for nearly three months he has not slept at home!"
And the little pane of the lodge fell down sharply, like the blade of a guillotine.
They remained in the darkness under the archway.
An angry voice cried out to them:
"Be off!"
The door was again opened; they went away.
Louise had to sit down on a boundary-stone; and clasping her face with her hands, she wept copious tears welling up from her full heart. The day was breaking, and carts were making their way into the city.
Catherine led her back home, holding her up, kissing her, and offering her every sort of consolation that she could extract from her own experience. She need not give herself so much trouble about a lover. If this one failed her, she could find others.
CHAPTER XVI.
UNPLEASANT NEWS FROM ROSANETTE.
When Rosanette"s enthusiasm for the Gardes Mobiles had calmed down, she became more charming than ever, and Frederick insensibly glided into the habit of living with her.
The best portion of the day was the morning on the terrace. In a light cambric dress, and with her stockingless feet thrust into slippers, she kept moving about him--went and cleaned her canaries" cage, gave her gold-fishes some water, and with a fire-shovel did a little amateur gardening in the box filled with clay, from which arose a trellis of nasturtiums, giving an attractive look to the wall. Then, resting, with their elbows on the balcony, they stood side by side, gazing at the vehicles and the pa.s.sers-by; and they warmed themselves in the sunlight, and made plans for spending the evening. He absented himself only for two hours at most, and, after that, they would go to some theatre, where they would get seats in front of the stage; and Rosanette, with a large bouquet of flowers in her hand, would listen to the instruments, while Frederick, leaning close to her ear, would tell her comic or amatory stories. At other times they took an open carriage to drive to the Bois de Boulogne. They kept walking about slowly until the middle of the night. At last they made their way home through the Arc de Triomphe and the grand avenue, inhaling the breeze, with the stars above their heads, and with all the gas-lamps ranged in the background of the perspective like a double string of luminous pearls.
Frederick always waited for her when they were going out together. She was a very long time fastening the two ribbons of her bonnet; and she smiled at herself in the mirror set in the wardrobe; then she would draw her arm over his, and, making him look at himself in the gla.s.s beside her:
"We produce a good effect in this way, the two of us side by side. Ah!
my poor darling, I could eat you!"
He was now her chattel, her property. She wore on her face a continuous radiance, while at the same time she appeared more languishing in manner, more rounded in figure; and, without being able to explain in what way, he found her altered, nevertheless.
One day she informed him, as if it were a very important bit of news, that my lord Arnoux had lately set up a linen-draper"s shop for a woman who was formerly employed in his pottery-works. He used to go there every evening--"he spent a great deal on it no later than a week ago; he had even given her a set of rosewood furniture."
"How do you know that?" said Frederick.
"Oh! I"m sure of it."
Delphine, while carrying out some orders for her, had made enquiries about the matter, She must, then, be much attached to Arnoux to take such a deep interest in his movements. He contented himself with saying to her in reply:
"What does this signify to you?"
Rosanette looked surprised at this question.
"Why, the rascal owes me money. Isn"t it atrocious to see him keeping beggars?"
Then, with an expression of triumphant hate in her face:
"Besides, she is having a nice laugh at him. She has three others on hand. So much the better; and I"ll be glad if she eats him up, even to the last farthing!"
Arnoux had, in fact, let himself be made use of by the girl from Bordeaux with the indulgence which characterises senile attachments. His manufactory was no longer going on. The entire state of his affairs was pitiable; so that, in order to set them afloat again, he was at first projecting the establishment of a _cafe chantant_, at which only patriotic pieces would be sung. With a grant from the Minister, this establishment would become at the same time a focus for the purpose of propagandism and a source of profit. Now that power had been directed into a different channel, the thing was impossible.
His next idea was a big military hat-making business. He lacked capital, however, to give it a start.
He was not more fortunate in his domestic life. Madame Arnoux was less agreeable in manner towards him, sometimes even a little rude. Berthe always took her father"s part. This increased the discord, and the house was becoming intolerable. He often set forth in the morning, pa.s.sed his day in making long excursions out of the city, in order to divert his thoughts, then dined at a rustic tavern, abandoning himself to his reflections.
The prolonged absence of Frederick disturbed his habits. Then he presented himself one afternoon, begged of him to come and see him as in former days, and obtained from him a promise to do so.
Frederick did not feel sufficient courage within him to go back to Madame Arnoux"s house. It seemed to him as if he had betrayed her. But this conduct was very pusillanimous. There was no excuse for it. There was only one way of ending the matter, and so, one evening, he set out on his way.
As the rain was falling, he had just turned up the Pa.s.sage Jouffroy, when, under the light shed from the shop-windows, a fat little man accosted him. Frederick had no difficulty in recognising Compain, that orator whose motion had excited so much laughter at the club. He was leaning on the arm of an individual whose head was m.u.f.fled in a zouave"s red cap, with a very long upper lip, a complexion as yellow as an orange, a tuft of beard under his jaw, and big staring eyes listening with wonder.
Compain was, no doubt, proud of him, for he said:
"Let me introduce you to this jolly dog! He is a bootmaker whom I include amongst my friends. Come and let us take something!"