"You look like "Paragot," Master," said I, and, in an inexplicable way, he did--as I have before remarked. He called me a psychometrical genius and enquired the name of the young lady.
"Amelie Duprat, Monsieur," she said. "But _pour le metier_--we must have professional names for the cafes--Pere Paragot called me "Blanquette de Veau.""
"Delicious!" cried he.
"So everyone calls me Blanquette," she explained gravely. There was a silence. Paragot--he really a.s.sumed the name from this moment--refilled his pipe. The belated peasants, having finished their wine, clattered out of the cafe, and took off their hats as they pa.s.sed us.
"Life is very hard, is it not, Messieurs?" remarked Blanquette. It seemed to be her favourite philosophic proposition. She sighed. "If Pere Paragot had only lived to play at the wedding tomorrow!"
"What then?"
"I should have had ten francs."
"Ah!" said my master.
"First I lose my louis, and now I lose my ten francs! ah! _Sainte Vierge de Misericorde!_"
It was heart-rending. Sometimes they received more than the stipulated fee at these village weddings. They pa.s.sed the hat round. If the guests were mellow with good wine, which makes folks generous, they often earned double the amount. And they always had as much as they liked to eat, and could take away sc.r.a.ps in a handkerchief.
"And good wholesome nourishment, Monsieur. Once it was half a goose."
And now there was nothing, nothing. Blanquette did not believe in the _bon Dieu_ any longer. She buried her face in her arms and wept. Paragot smoked helplessly for a few moments. I, unused to women"s tears, felt the desolation of the race of Blanquette de Veau overspread me. But that I considered it to be beneath my dignity as a man, I should have wept too.
Suddenly Paragot brought his fist down on the table and started to his feet. Blanquette lifted a scared wet face, dimly seen in the half light.
"_Tonnerre de Dieu!_" cried he, "If you hold so much to your ten francs and half a goose, I myself will come with you to Chambery tomorrow and fiddle at the wedding."
"You, Monsieur?" she gasped.
"Yes, I. Why not? Do you think I can"t sc.r.a.pe catgut as well as Pere Paragot?"
He walked to and fro declaring his musical powers in his boastful way.
If he chose he could rip out the hearts of a dead Munic.i.p.al Council with a violin, and could set a hospital for paralytics a-dancing. He would have fiddled the children of Hamelin away from the Pied Piper.
Didn"t Blanquette believe him?
"But yes, Monsieur," she said fervently.
"Ask Asticot."
My faith in him was absolute. To my mind he had even understated his abilities. The experience of the disillusioning years has since caused me to modify my opinions; but Paragot"s boastfulness has not lessened him in my eyes. And this leads to a curious reflection. When a Gascon boasts, you love him for it; when a Prussian does it, your toes tingle to kick him to Berlin. His very whimsical braggadocio made Paragot adorable, and I am at a loss to think what he would have been without it.
"Of course," said he, "if you are proud, if you don"t want to be seen in the company of a scarecrow like me, there is nothing more to be said."
Blanquette humbly repudiated the charge of pride. Her soul was set on her ten francs and she didn"t care how she got them. She accepted Monsieur"s generous offer out of a full heart.
"That"s sense," said my master. "We shall rehea.r.s.e at daybreak."
CHAPTER VI
DAWN found us all in a field some distance from the cafe--Paragot, Blanquette, Narcisse, the zither, the fiddle and I, and while the two musicians rehea.r.s.ed the jingly waltzes and polkas that made up the old man"s repertoire, I tried to explain the situation to Narcisse who sat with his ears c.o.c.ked wondering what the deuce all the noise was about.
"Ah, Monsieur," said Blanquette, during a pause, "you play like a great artist."
"Didn"t I tell you so?" he cried triumphantly.
"You must have studied much."
"Prodigiously," said he.
"Pere Paragot had played the violin for sixty years, but he could not make it sing like that."
"You would not compare Pere Paragot with my master?" I exclaimed by way of rebuke.
Blanquette acquiesced humbly.
"When one hears Monsieur, one has the devil in one"s body."
"Listen to this," said the delighted Paragot jumping on to his feet and tucking the fiddle beneath his chin.
And there in the pure dawn with nothing but G.o.d"s sky and green fields around us, he played Gounod"s "Ave Maria," putting into his execution all his imaginative fervour, and accentuating the tremolo pa.s.sages in a vibrating ecstasy which to Blanquette"s uncultured soul was the very pa.s.sion of music. I have since learned that the greatest violinists do not overemphasise the tremolo.
"Ah Dieu! it is beautiful," she murmured.
"Isn"t it?" cried Paragot. "And it touches your heart, my little Blanquette, eh? We are all artists together."
"I, Monsieur?"
She laughed and ran her hands over the zither strings.
"I ought to be at work in the fields. So Pere Paragot used to say. I make no progress--I am as stupid as a goose."
Two hours afterwards we started for Chambery, as odd a procession as ever gave food for a high-road"s gaiety. From the old grey valise carried the previous day by Blanquette she had produced much property finery. A black velveteen jacket resplendent with pearl-b.u.t.tons, velveteen knee-breeches tied with ribbons at the knees, and a rakish Alpine hat with a feather adorned my master"s person. His own disreputable heavy boots and a pair of grey worsted stockings may not have formed a fastidious finish to the costume; but in my eyes he looked magnificent. Towards the transfiguration of Blanquette a Pandora box could not have effected more. She was attired in a short skirt, a white _fichu_ moderately fresh, a kind of Italian head-dress and scarlet stockings. Enormous gilt ear-rings swung from her ears; a cable of blue beads encircled her neck; her lips were dyed pomegranate, her eyes darkened and her cheeks touched with rouge. A pair of substantial gilt shoes slung over her shoulders clinked their heels together as she walked. Narcisse barked his ecstatic admiration around this beauteous creature, and had I been a dog I should have barked mine too. My dignity as a man only allowed me to cast sidelong glances at her and hope that she would soon put on the gilt shoes. As for my master, on beholding her, he doffed his hat and saluted her with a fantastic compliment, whereat the girl blushed brick-red and turned her head away.
"Motley"s the only wear, my son," he cried gaily. "In this cap and bells, I see life under a different aspect. Never has it appeared to me sweeter and more irresponsible. Don"t you feel it? But I forgot. You haven"t any motley. I apologise for my want of tact. Blanquette," he added in French, "why haven"t you found a costume for Asticot?"
Blanquette replied in her matter-of-fact way that she hadn"t any. They walked on together, and I dropped behind suddenly realising my pariahdom. I wondered whether these magnificent beings would be ashamed of my company when we arrived at Chambery. I pictured myself sitting lonesome with Narcisse in the market-place while they revelled in their splendour, and the self-pity of the child overcame me.
"Master," said I dismally, "what shall Narcisse and I do while you are at the wedding?"
He wheeled round and regarded me, and I knew by the light in his eyes that an inspiration was taking shape behind them.
"I"ll buy you a red s.h.i.+rt and pomade your hair, and you shall be one of us, my son, and go round with the hat."