"Can you really be a coward? Can you be one of those who seduce a woman, and then throw her over, through sheer caprice?"
He became pale, and renewed his arguments; he pointed out to her the inevitable consequences of such an action to both of them as long as they lived--how their lives would be shattered and how the world would shut its doors against them. She replied obstinately: "What does it matter when we love each other?" Then, all of a sudden, he burst out furiously:
"Well, then, I will not. No--do you understand? I will not do it, and I forbid you to do it." Then, carried away by the rancorous feeling which had seethed within him so long, he relieved his heart:
"Ah, d.a.m.n it all, you have now been sticking on to me for a long time in spite of myself, and the best thing for you now is to take yourself off.
I"ll be much obliged if you do so, upon my honor!"
She did not answer him, but her livid countenance began to look shriveled up, as if all her nerves and muscles had been twisted out of shape. And she went away without saying good-bye.
The same night she poisoned herself.
For a week she was believed to be in a hopeless condition. And in the city people gossiped about the case, and pitied her, excusing her sin on account of the violence of her pa.s.sion, for overstrained emotions, becoming heroic through their intensity, always obtain forgiveness for whatever is blameworthy in them. A woman who kills herself is, so to speak, not an adulteress. And ere long there was a feeling of general reprobation against Lieutenant Renoldi for refusing to see her again--a unanimous sentiment of blame.
It was a matter of common talk that he had deserted her, betrayed her, ill-treated her. The Colonel, overcome by compa.s.sion, brought his officer to book in a quiet way. Paul d"Henricol called on his friend:
"Deuce take it, Renoldi, it"s not good enough to let a woman die; it"s not the right thing anyhow."
The other, enraged, told him to hold his tongue, whereupon d"Henricol made use of the word "infamy." The result was a duel, Renoldi was wounded, to the satisfaction of everybody, and was for some time confined to his bed.
She heard about it, and only loved him the more for it, believing that it was on her account he had fought the duel; but, as she was too ill to move, she was unable to see him again before the departure of the regiment.
He had been three months in Lille when he received one morning, a visit from the sister of his former mistress.
After long suffering and a feeling of dejection, which she could not conquer, Madame Poincot"s life was now despaired of, and she merely asked to see him for a minute, only for a minute, before closing her eyes for ever.
Absence and time had appeased the young man"s satiety and anger; he was touched, moved to tears, and he started at once for Havre.
She seemed to be in the agonies of death. They were left alone together; and by the bedside of this woman whom he now believed to be dying, and whom he blamed himself for killing, though it was not by his own hand, he was fairly crushed with grief. He burst out sobbing, embraced her with tender, pa.s.sionate kisses, more lovingly than he had ever done in the past. He murmured in a broken voice:
"No, no, you shall not die! You shall get better! We shall love each other for ever--for ever!"
She said in faint tones:
"Then it is true. You do love me, after all?"
And he, in his sorrow for her misfortunes, swore, promised to wait till she had recovered, and full of loving pity, kissed again and again the emaciated hands of the poor woman whose heart was panting with feverish, irregular pulsations.
The next day he returned to the garrison.
Six weeks later she went to meet him, quite old-looking, unrecognizable, and more enamored than ever.
In his condition of mental prostration, he consented to live with her.
Then, when they remained together as if they had been legally united, the same colonel who had displayed indignation with him for abandoning her, objected to this irregular connection as being incompatible with the good example officers ought to give in a regiment. He warned the lieutenant on the subject, and then furiously denounced his conduct, so Renoldi retired from the army.
He went to live in a village on the sh.o.r.e of the Mediterranean, the cla.s.sic sea of lovers.
And three years pa.s.sed. Renoldi, bent under the yoke, was vanquished, and became accustomed to the woman"s persevering devotion. His hair had now turned white.
He looked upon himself as a man done for, gone under. Henceforth, he had no hope, no ambition, no satisfaction in life, and he looked forward to no pleasure in existence.
But one morning a card was placed in his hand, with the name--"Joseph Poincot, Shipowner, Havre."
The husband! The husband, who had said nothing, realizing that there was no use in struggling against the desperate obstinacy of women. What did he want?
He was waiting in the garden, having refused to come into the house. He bowed politely, but would not sit down, even on a bench in a gravel-path, and he commenced talking clearly and slowly.
"Monsieur, I did not come here to address reproaches to you. I know too well how things happened. I have been the victim of--we have been the victims of--a kind of fatality. I would never have disturbed you in your retreat if the situation had not changed. I have two daughters, Monsieur. One of them, the elder, loves a young man, and is loved by him. But the family of this young man is opposed to the marriage, basing their objection on the situation of--my daughter"s mother. I have no feeling of either anger or spite, but I love my children, Monsieur. I have, therefore, come to ask my wife to return home. I hope that to-day she will consent to go back to my house--to her own house. As for me, I will make a show of having forgotten, for--for the sake of my daughters."
Renoldi felt a wild movement in his heart, and he was inundated with a delirium of joy like a condemned man who receives a pardon.
He stammered: "Why, yes--certainly, Monsieur--I myself--be a.s.sured of it--no doubt--it is right, it is only quite right."
This time M. Poincot no longer declined to sit down.
Renoldi then rushed up the stairs, and pausing at the door of his mistress"s room, to collect his senses, entered gravely.
"There is somebody below waiting to see you," he said. ""Tis to tell you something about your daughters."
She rose up. "My daughters? What about them? They are not dead?"
He replied: "No; but a serious situation has arisen, which you alone can settle."
She did not wait to hear more, but rapidly descended the stairs.
Then, he sank down on a chair, greatly moved, and waited.
He waited a long long time. Then he heard angry voices below stairs, and made up his mind to go down.
Madame Poincot was standing up exasperated, just on the point of going away, while her husband had seized hold of her dress, exclaiming: "But remember that you are destroying our daughters, your daughters, our children!"
She answered stubbornly:
"I will not go back to you!"
Renoldi understood everything, came over to them in a state of great agitation, and gasped:
"What, does she refuse to go?"
She turned towards him, and, with a kind of shame-facedness, addressed him without any familiarity of tone, in the presence of her legitimate husband, said:
"Do you know what he asks me to do? He wants me to go back, and live under one roof with him!"
And she t.i.ttered with a profound disdain for this man, who was appealing to her almost on his knees.
Then Renoldi, with the determination of a desperate man playing his last card, began talking to her in his turn, and pleaded the cause of the poor girls, the cause of the husband, his own cause. And when he stopped, trying to find some fresh argument, M. Poincot, at his wits"
end, murmured, in the affectionate style in which he used to speak to her in days gone by: