The dessert was over; they pa.s.sed into the drawing-room, which was hung, like that of the Marechale, in yellow damask in the style of Louis XVI.
Pellerin found fault with Frederick for not having chosen in preference the Neo-Greek style; Senecal rubbed matches against the hangings; Deslauriers did not make any remark.
There was a bookcase set up there, which he called "a little girl"s library." The princ.i.p.al contemporary writers were to be found there. It was impossible to speak about their works, for Hussonnet immediately began relating anecdotes with reference to their personal characteristics, criticising their faces, their habits, their dress, glorifying fifth-rate intellects and disparaging those of the first; and all the while making it clear that he deplored modern decadence.
He instanced some village ditty as containing in itself alone more poetry than all the lyrics of the nineteenth century. He went on to say that Balzac was overrated, that Byron was effaced, and that Hugo knew nothing about the stage.
"Why, then," said Senecal, "have you not got the volumes of the working-men poets?"
And M. de Cisy, who devoted his attention to literature, was astonished at not seeing on Frederick"s table some of those new physiological studies--the physiology of the smoker, of the angler, of the man employed at the barrier.
They went on irritating him to such an extent that he felt a longing to shove them out by the shoulders.
"But they are making me quite stupid!" And then he drew Dussardier aside, and wished to know whether he could do him any service.
The honest fellow was moved. He answered that his post of cashier entirely sufficed for his wants.
After that, Frederick led Deslauriers into his own apartment, and, taking out of his escritoire two thousand francs:
"Look here, old boy, put this money in your pocket. "Tis the balance of my old debts to you."
"But--what about the journal?" said the advocate. "You are, of course, aware that I spoke about it to Hussonnet."
And, when Frederick replied that he was "a little short of cash just now," the other smiled in a sinister fashion.
After the liqueurs they drank beer, and after the beer, grog; and then they lighted their pipes once more. At last they left, at five o"clock in the evening, and they were walking along at each others" side without speaking, when Dussardier broke the silence by saying that Frederick had entertained them in excellent style. They all agreed with him on that point.
Then Hussonnet remarked that his luncheon was too heavy. Senecal found fault with the trivial character of his household arrangements. Cisy took the same view. It was absolutely devoid of the "proper stamp."
"For my part, I think," said Pellerin, "he might have had the grace to give me an order for a picture."
Deslauriers held his tongue, as he had the bank-notes that had been given to him in his breeches" pocket.
Frederick was left by himself. He was thinking about his friends, and it seemed to him as if a huge ditch surrounded with shade separated him from them. He had nevertheless held out his hand to them, and they had not responded to the sincerity of his heart.
He recalled to mind what Pellerin and Dussardier had said about Arnoux.
Undoubtedly it must be an invention, a calumny? But why? And he had a vision of Madame Arnoux, ruined, weeping, selling her furniture. This idea tormented him all night long. Next day he presented himself at her house.
At a loss to find any way of communicating to her what he had heard, he asked her, as if in casual conversation, whether Arnoux still held possession of his building grounds at Belleville.
"Yes, he has them still."
"He is now, I believe, a shareholder in a kaolin company in Brittany."
"That"s true."
"His earthenware-works are going on very well, are they not?"
"Well--I suppose so----"
And, as he hesitated:
"What is the matter with you? You frighten me!"
He told her the story about the renewals. She hung down her head, and said:
"I thought so!"
In fact, Arnoux, in order to make a good speculation, had refused to sell his grounds, had borrowed money extensively on them, and finding no purchasers, had thought of rehabilitating himself by establishing the earthenware manufactory. The expense of this had exceeded his calculations. She knew nothing more about it. He evaded all her questions, and declared repeatedly that it was going on very well.
Frederick tried to rea.s.sure her. These in all probability were mere temporary embarra.s.sments. However, if he got any information, he would impart it to her.
"Oh! yes, will you not?" said she, clasping her two hands with an air of charming supplication.
So then, he had it in his power to be useful to her. He was now entering into her existence--finding a place in her heart.
Arnoux appeared.
"Ha! how nice of you to come to take me out to dine!"
Frederick was silent on hearing these words.
Arnoux spoke about general topics, then informed his wife that he would be returning home very late, as he had an appointment with M. Oudry.
"At his house?"
"Why, certainly, at his house."
As they went down the stairs, he confessed that, as the Marechale had no engagement at home, they were going on a secret pleasure-party to the Moulin Rouge; and, as he always needed somebody to be the recipient of his outpourings, he got Frederick to drive him to the door.
In place of entering, he walked about on the footpath, looking up at the windows on the second floor. Suddenly the curtains parted.
"Ha! bravo! Pere Oudry is no longer there! Good evening!"
Frederick did not know what to think now.
From this day forth, Arnoux was still more cordial than before; he invited the young man to dine with his mistress; and ere long Frederick frequented both houses at the same time.
Rosanette"s abode furnished him with amus.e.m.e.nt. He used to call there of an evening on his way back from the club or the play. He would take a cup of tea there, or play a game of loto. On Sundays they played charades; Rosanette, more noisy than the rest, made herself conspicuous by funny tricks, such as running on all-fours or m.u.f.fling her head in a cotton cap. In order to watch the pa.s.sers-by through the window, she had a hat of waxed leather; she smoked chibouks; she sang Tyrolese airs. In the afternoon, to kill time, she cut out flowers in a piece of chintz and pasted them against the window-panes, smeared her two little dogs with varnish, burned pastilles, or drew cards to tell her fortune.
Incapable of resisting a desire, she became infatuated about some trinket which she happened to see, and could not sleep till she had gone and bought it, then bartered it for another, sold costly dresses for little or nothing, lost her jewellery, squandered money, and would have sold her chemise for a stage-box at the theatre. Often she asked Frederick to explain to her some word she came across when reading a book, but did not pay any attention to his answer, for she jumped quickly to another idea, while heaping questions on top of each other.
After spasms of gaiety came childish outbursts of rage, or else she sat on the ground dreaming before the fire with her head down and her hands clasping her knees, more inert than a torpid adder. Without minding it, she made her toilet in his presence, drew on her silk stockings, then washed her face with great splashes of water, throwing back her figure as if she were a shivering naiad; and her laughing white teeth, her sparkling eyes, her beauty, her gaiety, dazzled Frederick, and made his nerves tingle under the lash of desire.
Nearly always he found Madame Arnoux teaching her little boy how to read, or standing behind Marthe"s chair while she played her scales on the piano. When she was doing a piece of sewing, it was a great source of delight to him to pick up her scissors now and then. In all her movements there was a tranquil majesty. Her little hands seemed made to scatter alms and to wipe away tears, and her voice, naturally rather hollow, had caressing intonations and a sort of breezy lightness.
She did not display much enthusiasm about literature; but her intelligence exercised a charm by the use of a few simple and penetrating words. She loved travelling, the sound of the wind in the woods, and a walk with uncovered head under the rain.
Frederick listened to these confidences with rapture, fancying that he saw in them the beginning of a certain self-abandonment on her part.