Now, one evening, just after dinner, Herve, who appeared to be extraordinarily gay, with a sly sort of gaiety, said to me:
"Would you like to spend three hours out with the guns, in order to shoot a fox who comes every evening to eat my hens?"
I was surprised. I hesitated; but, as he kept staring at me with singular persistency, I ended by replying:
"Why, certainly, my friend." I must tell you that I hunted like a man the wolf and the wild boar. So it was quite natural that he should suggest this shooting expedition to me.
But my husband, all of a sudden, had a curiously nervous look; and all the evening he seemed agitated, rising up and sitting down feverishly.
About ten o"clock, he suddenly said to me:
"Are you ready?"
I rose; and, as he was bringing me my gun himself, I asked:
"Are we to load with bullets or with deershot?"
He showed some astonishment; then he rejoined:
"Oh! only with deershot; make your mind easy! that will be enough."
Then, after some seconds, he added in a peculiar tone:
"You may boast of having splendid coolness."
I burst out laughing.
"I? Why, pray? Coolness because I went to kill a fox? But what are you thinking of, my friend?"
And we quietly made our way across the park. All the household slept.
The full moon seemed to give a yellow tint to the old gloomy building, whose slate roof glittered brightly. The two turrets that flanked it had two plates of light on their summits, and no noise disturbed the silence of this clear, sad night, sweet and still, which seemed in a death-trance. Not a breath of air, not a shriek from a toad, not a hoot from an owl; a melancholy numbness lay heavy on everything. When we were under the trees in the park, a sense of freshness stole over me, together with the odor of fallen leaves. My husband said nothing; but he was listening, he was watching, he seemed to be smelling about in the shadows, possessed from head to foot by the pa.s.sion for the chase.
We soon reached the edges of the ponds.
Their tufts of rushes remained motionless; not a breath of air caressed it; but movements which were scarcely perceptible ran through the water. Sometimes the surface was stirred by something, and light circles gathered around, like luminous wrinkles enlarging indefinitely.
When we reached the hut where we were to lie in wait, my husband made me go in first; then he slowly loaded his gun, and the dry cracking of the powder produced a strange effect on me. He saw that I was shuddering, and asked:
"Does this trial happen to be quite enough for you? If so, go back."
I was much surprised, and I replied:
"Not at all. I did not come to go back without doing anything. You seem queer this evening."
He murmured, "As you wish," and we remained there without moving.
At the end of about half-an-hour, as nothing broke the oppressive stillness of this bright autumn night, I said, in a low tone:
"Are you quite sure he is pa.s.sing this way?"
Herve winced as if I had bitten him, and with his mouth close to my ear, he said:
"Make no mistake about it. I am quite sure."
And once more there was silence.
I believe I was beginning to get drowsy when my husband pressed my arm, and his voice, changed to a hiss, said:
"Do you see him over there under the trees?"
I looked in vain; I could distinguish nothing. And slowly Herve now c.o.c.ked his gun, all the time fixing his eyes on my face.
I was myself making ready to fire, and suddenly, thirty paces in front of us, appeared in the full light of the moon a man who was hurrying forward with rapid movements, his body bent, as if he were trying to escape.
I was so stupefied that I uttered a loud cry; but, before I could turn round, there was a flash before my eyes; I heard a deafening report, and I saw the man rolling on the ground, like a wolf hit by a bullet.
I burst into dreadful shrieks, terrified, almost going mad; then a furious hand--it was Herve"s--seized me by the throat. I was flung down on the ground, then carried off by his strong arms. He ran, holding me up, till we reached the body lying on the gra.s.s, and he threw me on top of it violently, as if he wanted to break my head.
I thought I was lost; he was going to kill me; and he had just raised his heel up to my forehead when, in his turn, he was gripped, knocked down before I could yet realize what had happened.
I rose up abruptly, and I saw kneeling on top of him Porquita, my maid, clinging like a wild cat to him with desperate energy, tearing off his beard, his moustache, and the skin of his face.
Then, as if another idea had suddenly taken hold of her mind, she rose up, and, flinging herself on the corpse, she threw her arms around the dead man, kissing his eyes and his mouth, opening the dead lips with her own lips, trying to find in them a breath and a long, long kiss of lovers.
My husband, picking himself up, gazed at me. He understood, and falling at my feet, said:
"Oh! forgive me, my darling, I suspected you, and I killed this girl"s lover. It was my keeper that deceived me."
But I was watching the strange kisses of that dead man and that living woman, and her sobs and her writhings of sorrowing love--
And at that moment I understood that I might be unfaithful to my husband.
RELICS OF THE PAST
My dear Colette,--I do not know whether you remember a verse of M.
Sainte-Beuve which we have read together, and which has remained fixed in my memory; for me this verse speaks eloquently; and it has very often rea.s.sured my poor heart, especially for some time past. Here it is:
"To be born, to live, and die in the same house."
I am now all alone in this house where I was born, where I have lived, and where I hope to die. It is not gay every day, but it is pleasant; for there I have souvenirs all around me.
My son Henri is a barrister; he comes to see me twice a year. Jeanne is living with her husband at the other end of France, and it is I who go to see her each autumn. So here I am, all, all alone, but surrounded by familiar objects which incessantly speak to me about my own people, the dead, and the living separated from me by distance.