About one o"clock in the afternoon, he arrived in a landau which he had hired at Ma.r.s.eilles, in front of one of those houses of Southern France so white, at the end of their avenues of plane-trees that they dazzle us and make our eyes droop. He smiled as he pursued his way along the walk before the house, and reflected:
"Deuce take it! this is a nice place."
Suddenly, a young rogue of five or six made his appearance, starting out of a shrubbery, and remained standing at the side of the path, staring at the gentleman with eyes wide open.
Mordiane came over to him:
"Good morrow, my boy."
The brat made no reply.
The baron, then, stooping down, took him up in his arms to kiss him, but, the next moment, suffocated by the smell of garlic with which the child seemed impregnated all over, he put him back again on the ground, muttering:
"Oh! it is the gardener"s son."
And he proceeded towards the house.
The linen was hanging out to dry on a cord before the door--shirts and chemises, napkins, dish-cloths, ap.r.o.ns, and sheets, while a row of socks, hanging from strings one above the other, filled up an entire window, like sausages exposed for sale in front of a pork-butcher"s shop.
The baron announced his arrival. A servant-girl appeared, a true servant of the South, dirty and untidy, with her hair hanging in wisps and falling over her face, while her petticoat under the acc.u.mulation of stains which had soiled it had retained only a certain uncouth remnant of its old color, a hue suitable for a country fair or a mountebank"s tights.
He asked:
"Is M. Duchoux at home?"
He had many years ago, in the mocking spirit of a skeptical man of pleasure, given this name to the foundling, in order that it might not be forgotten that he had been picked up under a cabbage.
The servant-girl asked:
"Do you want M. Duchoux?"
"Yes."
"Well, he is in the big room drawing up his plans."
"Tell him that M. Merlin wishes to speak to him."
She replied, in amazement:
"Hey! go inside then, if you want to see him."
And she bawled out:
"Monsieur Duchoux--a call."
The baron entered, and in a s.p.a.cious apartment, rendered dark by the windows being half-closed, he indistinctly traced out persons and things, which appeared to him very slovenly looking.
Standing in front of a table laden with articles of every sort, a little bald man was tracing lines on a large sheet of paper.
He interrupted his work, and advanced two steps. His waistcoat left open, his unb.u.t.toned breeches, and his turned-up shirt-sleeves, indicated that he felt hot, and his muddy shoes showed that it had rained hard some days before.
He asked with a very p.r.o.nounced southern accent:
"Whom have I the honor of--?"
"Monsieur Merlin--I came to consult you about a purchase of building-ground."
"Ha! ha! very well!"
And Duchoux, turning towards his wife, who was knitting in the shade:
"Clear off a chair, Josephine."
Mordiane then saw a young woman, who appeared already old, as women look old at twenty-five in the provinces, for want of attention to their persons, regular washing, and all the little cares bestowed on feminine toilet which make them fresh, and preserve, till the age of fifty, the charm and beauty of the s.e.x. With a neckerchief over her shoulders, her hair clumsily braided--though it was lovely hair, thick and black, you could see that it was badly brushed--she stretched out towards a chair hands like those of a servant, and removed an infant"s robe, a knife, a f.a.g-end of packe-bread, an empty flower-pot, and a greasy plate left on the seat, which she then moved over towards the visitor.
He sat down, and presently noticed that Duchoux"s work-table had on it, in addition to the books and papers, two salads recently gathered, a wash-hand basin, a hair-brush, a napkin, a revolver, and a number of cups which had not been cleaned.
The architect perceived this look, and said with a smile:
"Excuse us! there is a little disorder in the room--it is owing to the children."
And he drew across his chair, in order to chat with his client.
"So then you are looking out for a piece of ground in the neighborhood of Ma.r.s.eilles?"
His breath, though not close to the baron, carried towards the latter that odor of garlic which the people of the South exhale as flowers do their perfume.
Mordiane asked:
"Is it your son that I met under the plane-trees?"
"Yes. Yes, the second."
"You have two of them?"
"Three, monsieur; one a year."
And Duchoux looked full of pride.
The baron was thinking:
"If they all have the same perfume, their nursery must be a real conservatory."
He continued:
"Yes, I would like a nice piece of ground near the sea, on a little solitary strip of beach--"
Thereupon Duchoux proceeded to explain. He had ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, or more, pieces of ground of the kind required, at different prices and suited to different tastes. He talked just as a fountain flows, smiling, self-satisfied, wagging his bald round head.