"I will wait, my son, until there is something worthy of an artist"s endeavour. A Palace of Justice in an important town, or an Opera House.
Hospitals for infectious diseases do not inspire one, and I need inspiration. Besides, the visit to Melford would break the continuity of my work. I begin, my son Asticot, when I come back, and then you will see. An ancient Prix de Rome, _nom de nom!_ has artistic responsibilities. He must come back in splendour like Holger Danske when he wakes from his enchanted slumber to conquer the earth."
Poor Holger Danske! When he does wake up he will find his conquering methods a trifle out of date. Paragot did not take this view of his simile. I believed him, however, and looked forward to the day when his winning design for a cathedral would strike awe into a flabbergasted world.
"My son," said he a day or two after he had resolved upon this Resurrection in State, "I want Blanquette. An orderly household cannot be properly conducted by the intermittent ministrations of a concierge."
Our good Blanquette, believing as I had done, that the Master was riding about France on a donkey, was still in villegiatura with our farmer friends near Chartres, and in order that she should have as long a holiday as possible he had hitherto forbidden me to enlighten her as to his change of project.
"Besides," he added, "Blanquette has a place in my heart which the concierge hasn"t. I also want those I love to share the happiness that has fallen to my lot. You will write to her my son and ask whether she wants to come home."
"She will take the first train," said I.
"Blanquette is a curious type of the absolute feminine," he remarked.
"She is never happier than when she can regard us as a couple of babies.
Her greatest delight would be to wash us and feed us with a spoon."
"Master," said I, somewhat timidly, "I think Blanquette is sometimes just a little bit miserable because you don"t seem to care for her."
He regarded me in astonishment.
"I not care for Blanquette? But you ridiculous little lump of idiocy!
will you never understand? She, like you, is part of myself." He thumped his chest as usual. "In the name of petticoats, what does she want? In Russia I met an honest German artisan who had married a peasant girl.
After a month"s unclouded existence she broke down beneath the load of misery. Her husband didn"t love her. Why? Because they had been married a whole month and he hadn"t beaten her yet! Does the child want me to beat her? I believe lots of women do. And you, mindless little donkey, what do you want me to make of her? Your head is full of the imbecilities of the studio. Because I keep her here like my daughter, and have not made her my mistress, you take it upon yourself to conclude that I have no affection for her. Bah! You know nothing. You have lived with me all these years, and you know nothing whatever about me. You don"t even know Blanquette. Beneath an unprepossessing exterior she has a heart of gold. She has every large-souled quality that a woman can stuff into her nature. She would live on cheese-rind and egg sh.e.l.ls, if she thought it would benefit either of us. I not care for Blanquette?
You shall see."
So the following afternoon when we met Blanquette"s train at the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paragot had taken her into his arms and planted a kiss on each of her broad cheeks before she realised who the magnificent, clean-shaven welcomer in the silk hat really was.
When he released her, she stared at him even as I had done.
"_Mais--qu"est-ce que c"est que ca?_" she cried, and I am sure that the comfort of his kisses was lost in her entire bewilderment.
"It is the Master, Blanquette," said I.
"I know, but you are no longer the same. I shouldn"t have recognised you."
"Do you prefer me as I used to be?"
"_Oui, Monsieur_," said Blanquette.
I burst out laughing.
"She is saying "_Monsieur_" to the silk hat."
"_Mechant!_" she scolded. "But it is true." She turned to the master and asked him how he had enjoyed his holiday.
"I never went, my little Blanquette."
"You have been in Paris all the time?"
"Yes."
"And you only send for me now? But _mon Dieu!_--how have you been living?"
Visions of hideous upheaval in the Rue des Saladiers floated before her mind, and she hurried forward as if there was no time to be lost in getting there. When we arrived she held up horror-stricken hands. The dust! The dirt! The state of the kitchen! The Master"s bedroom! Oh no, decidedly she would not leave him again! She would only go to the country after she had seen him well started in the train with a ticket for a long way beyond Paris. There was a week"s work in front of her.
"Anyway, my little Blanquette," said Paragot, "you are glad to be with me?"
"It is never of my own free will that I would leave you," she replied.
CHAPTER XVIII
"YOU perceive," said Paragot, waving a complacent hand, as soon as Blanquette had retired to make the necessary purchases for the evening meal, "you perceive that she is perfectly happy. You were entirely wrong. All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds."
When my master adopted the Panglossian view of the universe I used no arguments that might cloud his serenity. I acquiesced with mental reservations. We talked for a time, Paragot sitting primly on a straight-backed chair. He had abandoned his sprawling att.i.tudes, for fear, I suspect, of spoiling his new clothes. The position, however, not making for ease of conversation, he presently took up a book and began to read, while I amused myself idly by making a furtive sketch of him.
Since his metamorphosis he was by no means the entertaining companion of his unregenerate days. He himself was oppressed, I fancy, by his own correct.i.tude. The eternal reading which filled so much of his life did not afford him the same wholehearted enjoyment now, as it did when he lolled dishevelled, pipe in mouth and gla.s.s within reach, on bed or sofa. This afternoon, I noticed, he yawned and fidgeted in his chair, and paid to his book the distracted attention of a person reading a back number of a magazine in a dentist"s waiting room. My sketch, which I happen to have preserved, shows a singularly bored Paragot. At last he laid the book aside, and gathering together hat, gloves, and umbrella, the precious appanages of his new estate, he announced his intention of taking the air before dinner. I remained indoors to gossip with Blanquette during its preparation. I had considerable doubts as to her optimistic view of things, and these were confirmed as soon as the outer door closed behind my master, and the salon door opened to admit Blanquette.
She came to me with an agitated expression on her face which did not accord with perfect happiness of spirit.
"_Dis donc, Asticot_," she cried. "What does it mean? Why did the master not go on his holiday? Why did he not send for me? Why has he cut off his hair and beard and dressed himself like a _Monsieur_? I know very well the master is a gentleman, but why has he changed from what he used to be?"
I temporised. "My dear," said I, "when you first knew me I wore a blue blouse and boots with wooden soles. Almost the last time you had the happiness of beholding me, I was clad in the purple and fine linen of a dress-suit. You weren"t alarmed at my putting on civilised garments, why should you be excited at the master doing the same?"
"If you talk like the master, I shall detest you," exclaimed Blanquette.
"You do it because you are hiding something. _Ah, mon pet.i.t frere_," she said with a change of tone and putting her arm round my neck, "tell me what is happening. He is going to be married to the beautiful lady, eh?"
She looked into my eyes. Hers were deep and brown and a world of pain lay behind them. I am a bad liar. She freed me roughly.
"I see. It is true. He is going to be married. He does not want me any longer. It is all finished. O _mon Dieu, mon Dieu_! What is to become of me?"
She wept, rubbing away the tears with her knuckles. I tried to comfort her and lent her my pocket-handkerchief. She need have no fear, I said.
As long as the master lived her comfort was a.s.sured. She turned on me.
"Do you think I would let him keep me in idleness while he was married to another woman? But no. It would be _malhonnete_. I would never do such a thing."
She looked at me almost fiercely. There was something n.o.ble in her pride. It would be dishonourable to accept without giving. She would never do that, never.
"But what will become of you, my dear Blanquette?" I asked.
"Look, Asticot. I would give him all that he would ask. I am his, all, all, to do what he likes with. I have told you. I would sleep on the ground outside his door every night, if that were his good pleasure. It is not much that I demand. But he must be alone in the room, _entends-tu_? Another woman comes to cherish him, and I no longer have any place near him. I must be far away. And what would be the good of being far away from him? What shall I do? _Tiens_, as soon as he marries, _je vais me fich" a l"eau_."
"You are going to do _what_?" I cried incredulously.