At that instant--provoking as rain in the midst of a picnic--Madame de la Bastie came up to ask me if I had been to see Nathan"s last drama.
Monsieur Dorlange was forced to give up his seat beside me, and no further opportunity for renewing the conversation occurred during the evening.
I have really, as you see now, no light upon the matter, and yet when I recall the whole manner and behavior of Monsieur Dorlange, whom I studied carefully, my opinion inclines to his perfect innocence. Nothing proves that the love I suspected plays any part in this curious affair; and I will allow you to think that I and my terrors, with which I tormented you, were terribly absurd,--in short, that I have played the part of Belise in the _Femmes Savantes_, who fancies that every man she sees is fatally in love with her.
I therefore cheerfully abandon that stupid conclusion. Lover or not, Monsieur Dorlange is a man of high character, with rare distinction of mind; and if, as I believe now, he has no misplaced pretensions, it is an honor and pleasure to count him among our friends. Nais is enchanted with her preserver. After he left us that evening, she said to me, with an amusing little air of approbation,--
"Mamma, how well Monsieur Dorlange talks."
Apropos of Nais, here is one of her remarks:--
"When he stopped the horses, mamma, and you did not seem to notice him, I thought he was only a man."
"How do you mean,--only a man?"
"Well, yes! one of those persons to whom one pays no attention. But, oh!
I was so glad when I found out he was a monsieur. Didn"t you hear me cry out, "Ah! you are the monsieur who saved me"?"
Though her innocence is perfect, there was such pride and vanity in this little speech that I gave her, as you may well suppose, a lecture upon it. This distinction of man and monsieur is dreadful; but, after all, the child told the truth. She only said, with her blunt simplicity, what our democratic customs still allow us to put in practice, though they forbid us to put it into words. The Revolution of "89 has at least introduced that virtuous hypocrisy into our social system.
But I refrain from politics.
VIII. THE COMTESSE DE L"ESTORADE TO MADAME OCTAVE DE CAMPS
April, 1839.
For the last two weeks we have heard nothing more of Monsieur Dorlange.
Not only has he not seen fit to renew the conversation so provokingly interrupted by Madame de la Bastie, but he has not even remembered that it was proper to leave his card at the house after a dinner.
While we were breakfasting yesterday morning, I happened to make this remark (though without any sharpness), and just then our Lucas, who, as an old servant, sometimes allows himself a little familiarity, had the door swung triumphantly open to admit him, bearing _something_, I knew not what, wrapped in tissue paper, which he deposited with great care on the table, giving a note to Monsieur de l"Estorade at the same time.
"What is that?" I said to Lucas, on whose face I detected the signs of a "surprise," at the same time putting out my hand to uncover the mysterious article.
"Oh! madame must be careful!" cried Lucas; "it is fragile."
During this time my husband had read the note, which he now pa.s.sed to me, saying:--
"Read it. Monsieur Dorlange sends us an excuse."
The note said:--
Monsieur le Comte,--I think I observed that Madame la comtesse granted me rather reluctantly her permission to profit by the audacious larceny I committed at her expense. I have, therefore, taken upon myself to change the character of my statue, and, at the present moment, the _two sisters_ no longer resemble each other. Nevertheless, as I did not wish that _all_ should be lost to the world, I modelled the head of Saint-Ursula before retouching it. From that model I have now made a reduction, which I place upon the charming shoulders of a countess not yet canonized, thank G.o.d! The mould was broken as soon as the one cast, which I have now the honor of sending you, was made. This fact may, perhaps, give some little additional value to the bust in your eyes.
Accept, Monsieur le comte, etc., etc.
While I was reading the note, my husband, Lucas, Rene, and Nais had eagerly extracted me from my swathings, and then, in truth, I appeared no longer a saint, but a woman of the world. I really thought my husband and children would go out of their minds with admiration and pleasure.
The news of this masterpiece spread about the house, and all our servants, whom we rather spoil, came flocking, one after another, as if sent for, crying out, "Oh, it is madame"s own self!" I alone did not share in the general enthusiasm. As for Monsieur de l"Estorade, after working for an hour to find a place in his study where the bust could be seen in its best light, he came in to say to me:--
"On my way to the Treasury to-day I shall go and see Monsieur Dorlange, and if he is at liberty this evening I shall ask him to dine with us.
To-day is Armand"s half-holiday, and I would like him to see the boy.
The a.s.sembled family can then thank him for his gift."
Monsieur Dorlange accepted the invitation. At dinner Monsieur de l"Estorade inquired further about his candidacy, giving it however, no approval. This led straight to politics. Armand, whose mind is naturally grave and reflective and who reads the newspapers, mingled in the conversation. Against the practice of youths of the present day, he thinks like his father; that is, he is very conservative; though perhaps less just and wise, as might well be expected in a lad of fifteen. He was consequently led to contradict Monsieur Dorlange, whose inclination as I told you, is somewhat jacobin. And I must say I thought the arguments of my little man neither bad nor ill-expressed. Without ceasing to be polite, Monsieur Dorlange had an air of disdaining a discussion with the poor boy, so much so that I saw Armand on the point of losing patience and replying sharply. However, as he has been well brought up, I had only to make him a sign and he controlled himself; but seeing him turn scarlet and shut himself up in gloomy silence, I felt that his pride had received a blow, and I thought it little generous in Monsieur Dorlange to crush a young lad in that way.
I know very well that children in these days make the mistake of wishing to be personages before their time, and that it often does them good to suppress such conceit. But really, Armand has an intellectual development and a power of reasoning beyond his age. Do you want a proof of it? Until last year, I had never consented to part with him, and it was only as a day scholar that he followed his course of study at the College Henri IV. Well, he himself, for the sake of his studies, which were hindered by going and coming to and fro, asked to be placed in the regular manner in the school; and he employed more entreaties and arguments with me to put him under that discipline than an ordinary boy would have used to escape it. Therefore this manly air and manner, which in most schoolboys would, of course, be intolerably ridiculous, seems in him the result of his natural precocity; and this precocity ought to be forgiven him, inasmuch as it comes to him from G.o.d.
In consequence of his unfortunate birth Monsieur Dorlange is less fitted than most men to judge of children in their homes, and he therefore, necessarily, shows a want of indulgence. But he had better take care; if he wishes to pay court to me merely as a friend he has chosen a very bad method of doing so.
Of course an evening in the midst of the family did not allow of his returning to the subject of his private history; but I thought he did not show any particular desire to do so. In fact, he occupied himself much more with Nais than with me, cutting out silhouettes in black paper for her during nearly the whole evening. I must also mention that Madame de Rastignac came in and I, on my side, was obliged to give my company to her. While we were conversing near the fire, Monsieur Dorlange at the other end of the room was posing the two children Nais and Rene, who presently brought me their likenesses snipped out with scissors, Nais whispering triumphantly in my ear:--
"You don"t know; but Monsieur Dorlange is going to make my bust in marble."
Since this family dinner, civil war has been declared among my children.
Nais extols to the skies her "dear preserver," as she calls him, and is supported in her opinion by Rene, who is delivered over to the sculptor body and soul in return for a superb lancer on horseback which Monsieur Dorlange cut out for him. Armand, on the contrary, thinks him ugly, which is undeniable; he says he resembles the portraits of Danton which he has seen in the ill.u.s.trated histories of the Revolution, in which remark there is some truth. He says also that Monsieur Dorlange has given me in my bust the air of a grisette, which is not true at all.
Hence, disputes among my darlings which are endless.
IX. DORLANGE TO MARIE-GASTON
Paris, April, 1839.
Why do I desert my art, and what do I intend to do in this cursed galley of politics? This shows what it is, my dear romantic friend, to shut one"s self up for years in a conjugal convent. During that time the world has progressed. To friends forgotten at the gate life brings new combinations; and the more they are ignored, the more disposed the forgetter is to cast the blame upon those forgotten; it is so easy to preach to others!
Learn, then, my dear inquisitor, that I do not enter politics of my own volition. In pushing myself in this unexpected manner into the electoral breach, I merely follow an inspiration that has been made to me. A ray of light has come into my darkness; a father has partly revealed himself, and, if I may believe appearances, he holds a place in the world which ought to satisfy the most exacting ambition. This revelation, considering the very ordinary course of my life, has come to me surrounded by fantastic and romantic circ.u.mstances which served to be related to you in some detail.
As you have lived in Italy, I think it useless to explain to you the Cafe Greco, the usual rendezvous of the pupils of the Academy and the artists of all countries who flock to Rome. In Paris, rue de Coq-Saint-Honore, we have a distant counterpart of that inst.i.tution in a cafe long known as that of the Cafe des Arts. Two or three times a week I spend an evening there, where I meet several of my contemporaries in the French Academy in Rome. They have introduced me to a number of journalists and men of letters, all of them amiable and distinguished men, with whom there is both profit and pleasure in exchanging ideas.
In a certain corner, where we gather, many questions of a nature to interest serious minds are debated; but the most eager interest, namely politics, takes the lead in our discussions. In this little club the prevailing opinion is democratic; it is represented under all its aspects, the phalansterian Utopia not excepted. That"s enough to tell you that before this tribunal the ways of the government are often judged with severity, and that the utmost liberty of language reigns in our discussions. The consequence is that about a year ago the waiter who serves us habitually took me aside one day to give me, as he said, a timely warning.
"Monsieur," he said, "you are watched by the police; and you would do well not to talk like Saint Paul, open-mouthed."
"The police! my good friend," I replied, "why the devil should the police watch me? What I say, and a good deal else, is printed every morning in the newspapers."
"No matter for that, they _are_ watching you. I have seen it. There is a little old man, who takes a great deal of snuff, who is always within hearing distance of you; when you speak he seems to pay more attention to your words than to those of the others; and once I saw him write something down in a note-book in marks that were not writing."
"Well, the next time he comes, point him out to me."
The next time proved to be the next day. The person shown to me was a short man with gray hair, a rather neglected person and a face deeply pitted with the small-pox, which seemed to make him about fifty years of age. He frequently dipped in a large snuffbox; and seemed to be giving to my remarks an attention I might consider either flattering or inquisitive, as I pleased; but a certain air of gentleness and integrity in this supposed police-spy inclined me to the kinder interpretation. I said so to the waiter, who had plumed himself on discovering a spy.
"_Parbleu_!" he replied, "they always put on that honeyed manner to hide their game."
Two days later, on a Sunday, at the hour of vespers, in one of my rambles about old Paris--for which, as you know, I always had a taste--I happened to enter the church of Saint-Louis-en-l"Ile, the parish church of the remote quarter of the city which bears that name. This church is a building of very little interest, no matter what historians and certain "Guides to Paris" may say. I should therefore have pa.s.sed rapidly through it if the remarkable talent of the organist who was performing part of the service had not induced me to remain.
To say that the playing of that man realized my ideal is giving it high praise, for I dare say you will remember that I always distinguished between organ-players and organists, a superior order of n.o.bility the t.i.tle of which is not to be given unwittingly.