"He is travelling."
"Bompain Jean-Baptiste then?"
"He"s at the Chamber with Monsieur."
Her great gray eyebrows contracted.
"No matter; take my trunk upstairs all the same."
And, with a malicious little twitching of the eye, a touch of pride, of vengeance for the insolent glances turned upon her, she added:
"I am his mother."
Scullions and grooms stood aside respectfully. M. Barreau raised his cap:
"I was saying to myself that I had seen Madame somewhere."
"That"s just what I was saying to myself too, my boy," said Mere Jansoulet, shuddering at the memory of the ill-fated festivities in honor of the bey.
"My boy!"--to M. Barreau, to a man of his importance! That instantly placed her very high in the esteem of that little circle.
Ah! grandeurs and splendors did not dazzle her, the brave-hearted old woman. She was no opera-comique Mere Boby going into ecstasies over the gildings and fine trinkets; the vases of flowers on every landing of the staircase she ascended behind her trunk, the hall-lamps supported by bronze statues, did not prevent her noticing that there was a finger"s depth of dust on the stair-rail and that the carpet was torn. They escorted her to the apartments on the second floor, reserved for the Levantine and the children, and there, in a room used as a linen closet, which was evidently near the school-room, for she could hear a murmur of childish voices, she waited, all alone, her basket on her knees, for her Bernard to return, for her daughter-in-law to awake, or for the great joy of embracing her grandchildren. Nothing could be better adapted than what she saw around her to give her an idea of the confusion of a household given over to servants, where the oversight of the housewife and her far-seeing activity are lacking. In huge wardrobes, all wide open, linen was heaped up pell-mell in shapeless, bulging, tottering piles,--fine sheets, Saxony table linen crumbled and torn, and the locks prevented from working by some stray piece of embroidery which n.o.body took the trouble to remove. And yet many servants pa.s.sed through that linen closet,--negresses in yellow madras, who hastily seized a napkin or a table-cloth, heedlessly trampled on those domestic treasures scattered all about, dragged to the end of the room on their great flat feet lace flounces cut from a long skirt which a maid had cast aside, thimble here, scissors there, as a piece of work to be taken up again.
The semi-rustic artisan, which Mere Jansoulet had not ceased to be, was sadly grieved at the sight, wounded in the respect, the affection, the inoffensive mania which is inspired in the provincial housewife by the wardrobe filled with linen, piece by piece, to the very top, full of relics of the poor past, its contents increasing gradually in quant.i.ty and in quality, the first visible symptom of comfortable circ.u.mstances, of wealth in a house. Again, that woman always had the distaff in her hand from morning till night, and if the house-keeper was indignant, the spinster could have wept as at a profanation. Finally, unable to endure it longer, she rose, abandoned her patient, watchful att.i.tude, and stooping over, her little green shawl displaced by every movement, began actively to pick up, smooth and fold with care that beautiful linen, as she did on the lawns at Saint-Romans, when she indulged in the amus.e.m.e.nt of a grand washing, employing twenty women, the baskets overflowing with snow-white folds, the sheets flapping in the morning breeze on the long drying lines. She was deeply engrossed in that occupation, which made her forget her journey, Paris, even the place where she was, when a stout, thickset man, heavily bearded, in varnished boots, and a velvet jacket covering the chest and shoulders of a bull, entered the linen closet.
"Ah! Caba.s.su."
"You here, Madame Francoise! This is a surprise," said the _ma.s.seur_, opening wide his great j.a.panese idol"s eyes.
"Why, yes, good Caba.s.su, it"s me. I"ve just come. And I"m at work already, as you see. It made my heart bleed to see all this mess."
"So you"ve come for the sitting, have you?"
"What sitting?"
"Why, the great sitting of the Corps Legislatif. This is the day."
"Faith, no. What difference do you suppose that can make to me? I don"t understand anything about such things. No, I came because I wanted to know my little Jansoulets, and then, I was beginning to be uneasy. I"ve written two or three times now without getting any answer. I was afraid there might be a child sick, or that Bernard"s business was in a bad way--all sorts of uncomfortable ideas. I had an attack of great black anxiety, and I started. Everybody"s well here, so they tell me?"
"Why, yes, Madame Francoise. Everybody "s exceedingly well, thank G.o.d!"
"And Bernard? His business? Is it going along to suit him?"
"Oh! you know a man always has his little crosses in this life; however, I don"t think he has any reason to complain. But now I think of it, you must be hungry. I"ll go and send you something to eat."
He was about to ring, much more self-a.s.sured and at home than the old mother. But she checked him.
"No, no, I don"t need anything. I still have some of my luncheon left."
She placed two figs and a crust of bread, taken from her basket, on the table, and continued to talk as she ate:
"And what about your affairs, little one? It seems to me you"ve spruced up mightily since the last time you came to the Bourg. What linen, what clothes! What department are you in?"
"I am professor of ma.s.sage," said Aristide gravely.
"You a professor!" she exclaimed, with respectful amazement; but she dared not ask him what he taught, and Caba.s.su, somewhat embarra.s.sed by her questions, hastened to change the subject.
"Suppose I go and fetch the children? Hasn"t any one told them their grandmother was here?"
"I didn"t want to take them away from their work. But I believe the lesson is over now. Listen."
On the other side of the door they heard the impatient stamping of school children longing to be dismissed, eager for room and air; and the old woman listened with delight to the fascinating sounds that increased her maternal longing ten-fold, but prevented her from doing anything to satisfy it. At last the door opened. First the tutor appeared, an abbe with a pointed nose and prominent cheek-bones, whom we have seen at the state breakfasts of an earlier day. Having fallen out with his bishop, the ambitious ecclesiastic had left the diocese where he formerly exercised the priestly functions, and, in his precarious position as an irregular member of the clergy--for the clergy has its own Bohemia--was glad of the opportunity to teach the little Jansoulets, recently expelled from Bourdaloue. With the same solemn, arrogant mien, as of one overburdened with responsibility, which the great prelates intrusted with the education of the Dauphins of France might a.s.sume, he stalked in front of three little fellows, curled and gloved, with oblong hats and short jackets, leather bags slung over their shoulders, and long red stockings reaching to the middle of the leg, the costume of the complete velocipedist about to mount his machine.
"Children," said Caba.s.su, the intimate friend of the family, "this is Madame Jansoulet, your grandmother, who has come to Paris on purpose to see you."
They halted, very much astonished, arranged according to height, and examined that withered old face between the yellow barbs of the cap, that strange costume, unfamiliar in its simplicity; and their grandmother"s astonishment answered theirs, increased by heart-rending disappointment and by the embarra.s.sment she felt in presence of those little gentlemen, who were as stiff and disdainful as the marquises, the counts and the prefects on circuit whom her son used to bring to her at Saint-Romans. In obedience to their tutor"s injunction, "to salute their venerable grandmother," they came up one by one and gave her one of the same little handshakes with arms close to their sides of which they had distributed so many among the garrets; indeed, that good woman with the earth-colored face, and neat but very simple clothes, reminded them of their charitable visits from College Bourdaloue. They felt between herself and them the same strangeness, the same distance, which no memory, no word from their parents had ever lessened. The abbe realized her embarra.s.sment, and, to banish it, launched forth upon a speech delivered with the throaty voice, the violent gestures common to those men who always think that they have below them the ten steps leading to a pulpit:
"Lo, the day has come, Madame, the great day when Monsieur Jansoulet is to confound his enemies. _Confundantur hostes mei, quia injuste iniquitatem fecerunt in me_,--because they have persecuted me unjustly."
The old woman bowed devoutly to the Church Latin; but her face a.s.sumed a vague expression of uneasiness at the idea of enemies and persecutions.
"Those enemies are numerous and powerful, n.o.ble lady, but let us not be alarmed beyond measure. Let us have confidence in the decrees of heaven and the justice of our cause. G.o.d is in the midst of it and it shall not be shaken. _In medio ejus non commovebitur._"
A gigantic negro, resplendent in new gold lace, interrupted them to announce that the velocipedes were ready for the daily lesson on the terrace of the Tuileries. Before leaving the room, the children solemnly shook once more the wrinkled, calloused hand of their grandmother, who was watching them walk away, utterly bewildered and with a sore heart, when, yielding to an adorable, spontaneous impulse, the youngest of the three, having reached the door, suddenly turned, pushed the great negro aside, and plunged head foremost, like a little buffalo, into Mere Jansoulet"s skirts, throwing his arms around her and holding up to her his smooth brow splashed with brown curls, with the sweet grace of the child who offers his caress like a flower. Perhaps the little fellow, being nearer the nest and its warmth, the nurse"s cradling lap and _patois_ ballads, had felt the waves of maternal love of which the Levantine deprived him flowing toward his little heart. The old "Grandma" shuddered from head to foot in her surprise at that instinctive embrace.
"Oh my darling--my darling!" seizing the curly, silky little head which reminded her of another, and kissing it frantically. Then the child released himself and ran away without a word, his hair wet with hot tears.
Left alone with Caba.s.su, the mother, whom that kiss had consoled, asked for an explanation of the priest"s words.--Had her son many enemies, pray?
"Oh!" said Caba.s.su, "it is not at all surprising in his position."
"But what"s all this about this being a great day, and this "sitting"
you all talk about?"
"Why, yes! This is the day when we"re to know whether Bernard is to be a deputy or not."
"What? Isn"t he one yet? Why, I have told it everywhere in the neighborhood, and I illuminated Saint-Romans a month ago. So I was made to tell a lie!"
The _ma.s.seur_ had much difficulty in explaining to her the parliamentary formality of testing the validity of elections. She listened with only one ear, feverishly pulling over the linen.
"And that"s where my Bernard is at this moment?"
"Yes, Madame."
"Are women allowed to go into this Chamber?--Then why isn"t his wife there? For I can understand that it"s a great affair for him. On such a day as to-day he will need to feel that all those he loves are beside him. Look you, my boy, you must take me to this sitting. Is it very far?"
"No, very near. Only it must have begun before this. And then," added the Giaour, a little embarra.s.sed, "this is the hour when Madame needs me."