"Then allow me to tell you that, for want of employing one of your most precious qualities, you lose vast enjoyments, which would not only fill up that void in your heart, but would distract you from your domestic sorrows and supply that need of stirring emotions, excitement, and,"
added the prince, smiling, "I dare almost to venture to add,--pray forgive me for having so bad an opinion of your s.e.x,--that natural love for mystery and intrigue which exercises so powerful an empire over many, if not all, females."
"What do you mean, my lord?"
"I mean that, if you would play at the game of doing good, nothing would please or interest you more."
Madame d"Harville surveyed Rodolph with astonishment.
"And understand," resumed he, "I speak not of sending large sums carelessly, almost disdainfully, to unfortunate creatures, of whom you know nothing, and who are frequently undeserving of your favour. But if you would amuse yourself, as I do, at playing, from time to time, at the game of Providence, you would acknowledge that occasionally our good deeds put on all the piquancy and charms of a romance."
"I must confess, my lord," said Clemence, with a smile, "it never occurred to me to cla.s.s charity under the head of amus.e.m.e.nts."
"It is a discovery I owe to my horror of all tediums, all wearisome, long-protracted affairs,--a sort of horror which has been princ.i.p.ally inspired by long political conferences and ministerial discussions. But to return to our game of amusing beneficence: I cannot, alas, aspire to possess that disinterested virtue which makes some people content to entrust others with the office of either ill or well distributing their bounty, and, if it merely required me to send one of my chamberlains to carry a few hundred louis to each of the divisions in and around Paris, I confess, to my shame, that the scheme would not interest me nearly as much as it does at present, while doing good, after my notions on the subject, is one of the most entertaining and exciting amus.e.m.e.nts you can imagine. I prefer the word "amusing," because to me it conveys the idea of all that pleases, charms, and allures us. And, really, madame, if you would only become my accomplice in a few dark intrigues of this sort, you would see that, apart from the praiseworthiness of the action, nothing is really more curious, inviting, attractive, or diverting, than these charitable adventures. And then, what mystery is requisite to conceal the benefits we render! what precautions to prevent ourselves from being discovered! what varied, yet powerful, emotions are excited at the aspect of poor but worthy people shedding tears of joy and calling down Heaven"s blessing on your head! Depend upon it, such a group is, after all, more gratifying than the pale, angry countenance of either a jealous or an unfaithful lover, and there are very few who do not cla.s.s either under one head or the other. The emotions I describe are closely allied to those you experienced this morning while going to the Rue du Temple. Simply dressed, that you may escape observation, you go forth with a palpitating heart; you also ascend with a throbbing breast some modest _fiacre_, carefully drawing down the blinds to prevent yourself from being seen; then, looking cautiously from side to side that you are not observed, you quickly enter a mean-looking dwelling, just like this morning, you see, the only difference being that, whereas to-day you said, "If I am discovered I am lost!" then you would only smile as you mentally uttered, "If I am discovered, they will overwhelm me with praises and blessings!" Now, since you possess your many adorable qualities in all their pure modesty, you would employ the most artful schemes, the most complicated manoeuvres, to prevent yourself from being known, and, consequently, wept over and blessed as an angel of goodness."
"Ah, my lord," cried Madame d"Harville, deeply moved, "you are indeed my preserver! I cannot express the new ideas, the consoling hopes, awakened within me by your words. You are quite right; to endeavour to gain the blessing and grat.i.tude of such as are poor and in misery is almost equal to being loved even as I would wish to be; nay, it is even superior in its purity and absence of self. When I compare the existence I now venture to antic.i.p.ate with the shameful and degraded lot I was preparing for myself, my own reproaches become more bitter and severe."
"I should, indeed, be grieved," said Rodolph, smiling, "were that to be the case, since all my desire is to make you forget the past, and to prove to you that there are various modes of recreating and distracting our minds; the means of good and evil are very frequently nearly the same: it is the end, only, which differs. In a word, if good is as attractive, as amusing, as evil, why should we prefer the latter? I am going to use a very commonplace and hackneyed simile. Why do many women take as lovers men not nearly as worthy of that distinction as their own husbands? Because the greatest charm of love consists in the difficulties which surround it; for once deprived of the hopes, the fears, the anxieties, difficulties, mysteries, and dangers, and little or nothing would remain, merely the lover, stripped of all the prestige derivable from these causes, and a very every-day object he would appear; very much after the fashion of the individual who, when asked by a friend why he did not marry his mistress, replied, "Why, I was thinking of it; but, if I did, where should I go to pa.s.s my evenings?""
"Your picture is coloured after nature, my lord," said Madame d"Harville, smiling.
"Well, then, if I can find the means of enabling you to experience the fears, the anxieties, the excitement, which seem to have such charms for you, if I can render useful your natural love for mystery and romance, your inclination for dissimulation and artifice,--you see my bad opinion of your s.e.x will peep out in spite of me," added Rodolph, gaily,--"shall I not change into fine and generous qualities instincts which otherwise are mere ungovernable and unmanageable impulses, excellent, if well employed, most fatal, if directed badly? Now, then, what do you say?
Shall we get up all manner of benevolent plots and charitable dissipations? We will have our rendezvous, our correspondence, our secrets, and, above all, we will carefully conceal all our doings from the marquis, for your visit of to-day to the Morels has, in all probability, excited his suspicions. There, you see, it only requires your consent to commence a regular intrigue."
"I accept with joy and grat.i.tude the mysterious a.s.sociations you propose, my lord," said Clemence; "and, by way of beginning our romance, I will return to-morrow to visit those poor creatures to whom, unfortunately, this morning I could only utter a few words of consolation; for, taking advantage of my terror and alarm, the purse you so thoughtfully supplied me with was stolen from me by a lame boy as I ascended the stairs. Ah, my lord," added Clemence (and her countenance lost the expression of gentle gaiety by which a few minutes before it was animated), "if you only knew what misery, what a picture of wretchedness--no! oh, no! I never could have believed so horrid a scene, or that such want existed; and yet I bewail my condition and complain of my severe destiny."
Rodolph, wishing to conceal from Madame d"Harville how deeply he was touched at this application of the woes of others, as teaching patience and resignation, yet fully recognising in the meek and subdued spirit the fine and n.o.ble qualities of her mind, said, gaily:
"With your permission, I shall except the Morels from your jurisdiction; you shall resign them to my care, and, above all things, promise me not again to enter that miserable place, for, to tell you the truth, I live there."
"You, my lord? What an idea!"
"Nay, but you really must believe me when I say I live there, for it is actually true. I confess mine is somewhat a humble lodging, a mere matter of eight pounds a year, in addition to which I pay the large and liberal sum of six francs a month to the porteress, Madame Pipelet, that ugly old woman you saw; but, to make up for all this, I have as my next neighbour, Mlle. Rigolette, the prettiest grisette in the Quartier du Temple. And you must allow that, for a merchant"s clerk, with a salary of only seventy-two pounds a year (I pa.s.s as a clerk), such a domicile is well suited to my means."
"Your unhoped-for presence in that fatal house proves to me that you are speaking seriously, my lord; some generous action leads you there, no doubt! But what good action do you reserve for me? What part do you propose for me to sustain?"
"That of an angel of consolation, and--pray excuse and allow me the word--a very demon of cunning and manoeuvres! For there are some wounds so painful, as well as delicate, that the hand of a woman only can watch over and heal them. There are, also, unfortunate beings so proud, so reserved, and so hidden from observation, that it requires uncommon penetration to discover them, and an irresistible charm to win their confidence."
"And when shall I have an opportunity of displaying the penetration and skill for which you give me credit?" asked Madame d"Harville, impatiently.
"Soon, I hope, you will have to make a conquest worthy of you; but, to succeed, you must employ all your most ingenious resources."
"And when, my lord, will you confide this great secret to me?"
"Let me see! You perceive, we have already got as far as arranging our rendezvous. Could you do me the favour to grant me an audience in four days" time?"
"Dear me! so long first?" said Clemence, innocently.
"But what would become of the mystery of the affair, and all the strict forms and appearances necessary to be kept up, if we were to meet sooner? Just imagine! If our partnership were suspected, people would be on their guard, and we should seldom achieve our purpose. I may very probably have to write to you. Who was that aged female who brought me your note?"
"An old servant of my mother"s, the very personification of prudence and discretion."
"I will then address my letters under cover to her, and she will deliver them into your hands. If you are kind enough to return any answer, address "To M. Rodolph, Rue Plumet," and let your maid put your letters in the post."
"I will do that myself, my lord, when taking my usual morning"s walk."
"Do you often walk out alone?"
"In fine weather nearly every day."
"That"s right! It is a custom all young women should observe from the very earliest period of their marriage,--either from a good or an improper provision against future evil. The habit once established, it becomes what the lawyers style a precedent; and, in subsequent days, these habitual promenades excite no dangerous interpretations. If I had been a woman,--and, between ourselves, I fear I should have been very charitable, but equally flighty,--the very day after my marriage I should, in all possible innocence, have taken the most mysterious steps, and, with perfect simplicity, have involved myself in all manner of suspicious and compromising proceedings, for the purpose of establishing the precedent I spoke of, in order to be at liberty either to visit my poor pensioners or to meet my lover."
"But that would be downright perfidy to one"s husband, would it not, my lord?" said Madame d"Harville, smiling.
"Fortunately for you, madame, you have never been driven to the necessity of admitting the utility of such provisionary measures."
Madame d"Harville"s smile left her lips. She cast down her eyes, and, blushing deeply, said, in a low and sad voice, "This is not generous, my lord!"
At first Rodolph regarded the marquise with astonishment, then added, "I understand you, madame. But, once for all, let us weigh well your position as regards M. Charles Robert. I will just imagine that one of your acquaintances may one day have pointed out to you one of those pitiable-looking mendicants who roll their eyes most sentimentally, and play on the clarionet with desperate energy, to awaken the sympathy of the pa.s.sers-by. "That is really and truly a genuine case of distress,"
observes your friend. "That interesting musician has at least seven children, and a wife deaf, dumb, blind," etc. "Ah, poor fellow!" you reply, charitably aiding him with your purse. And so, each time you meet this case of genuine distress, the clarionet-player, the moment he discerns you from afar, fixes his imploring eyes upon you, while the most touching strains of his instrument are directed to touch your charitable sympathies, and that, too, so successfully, that again your purse opens at this fresh appeal. One day, more than usually disposed to pity this very unfortunate object by the importunities of the friend who first pointed him out to you, and who is most wickedly abusing your generous heart, you resolve to visit this case of genuine distress, as your false friend terms it, and to behold the poor object of your solicitude in the midst of his misery. Well, you go. But, lo! the grief-stricken musician has vanished; and in his place you find a lively, rollicking fellow, enjoying himself over some of the good things of this world, and mirthfully carolling forth the last new alehouse catch. Then disgust succeeds to pity; for you have bestowed your sympathy and charity alike upon an impostor, neither more nor less. Is it not so?"
Madame d"Harville could not restrain a smile at this singular apologue.
She, however, soon checked it, as she added:
"However grateful I may feel for this mode of justifying my great imprudence, my lord, I can but confess I dare not avail myself of so favourable a pretext as that of mistaken charity."
"Yet, after all, yours was an error based upon motives of n.o.ble and generous pity for the wounded feelings of one you believed a genuine object for commiseration. Fortunately, there are so many ways left you of atoning for one indiscretion, that your regret need be but small.
Shall I not have the pleasure of seeing M. d"Harville this evening?"
"No, my lord. The scene of this morning has so much affected him that he is--ill," said the marquise, in a low, tremulous tone.
"Ah," replied Rodolph, sadly, "I understand! Come, courage! you were saying that you required an aim, a motive, a means of directing your thoughts. Permit me to hope that all this will be accomplished by following out the plan I have proposed. Your heart will be then so filled with the delightful recollection of all the happiness you have caused, and all the good you have effected, that, in all probability, you will find no room for resentment against your husband. In place of angry feelings, you will regard him with the same sorrowing pity you look on your dear child. And as for the interesting little creature herself, now you have confided to me the cause of her delicate health, I almost think myself warranted in bidding you yet to entertain hopes of overcoming the fearful complaint which has. .h.i.therto affected her tender frame."
"Oh, my lord!" exclaimed Clemence, clasping her hands with eagerness, "can it be possible? How? In what manner can my child be saved?"
"I have, as physician to myself and household, a man almost unknown, though possessed of a first-rate science. Great part of his life was pa.s.sed in America; and I remember his speaking to me of some marvellous cures performed by him on slaves attacked by this distressing complaint."
"And do you really think, my lord--"
"Nay, you must not allow yourself to dwell too confidently upon success; the disappointment would be so very severe. Only, do not let us wholly despair."
Clemence d"Harville cast a hasty glance of unutterable grat.i.tude over the n.o.ble features of Rodolph, the firm, unflinching friend, who reconciled her to herself with so much good sense, intelligence, and delicacy of feeling. Then she asked herself how, for one instant, she could ever have been interested in the fate of such a being as M.
Charles Robert,--the very idea was hateful to her.
"What do I not owe you, my lord?" cried she, in a voice of thrilling emotion; "you console me for the past; you open to me a glimpse of hope for my child; and you place before me a plan of future occupation which shall afford me both consolation and the delight of doing my duty. Ah, was I not right when I said that, if you would come here to-night, you would finish the day as you had begun it,--by performing a good action?"
"And pray, madame, do not omit to add,--an action after my own heart, where all is pleasure and unmixed enjoyment in its performance. And now, adieu!" said Rodolph, rising as the clock struck half-past eleven.
"Adieu, my lord, and pray do not forget to send me news ere long of those poor people in the Rue du Temple."