Josephine consulted Claes"s notary, M. Pierquin, a young man and a relative of the family. He looked into matters, and found that Claes owed a hundred thousand francs to a firm of chemists in Paris. He warned Josephine that ruin was certain if this state of things continued.
Hitherto she had loved husband more than children; now the mother was roused in her, and for her children"s sakes she determined to act. She had sold her diamonds to provide for the housekeeping, since for six months Claes had given her nothing; she had sent away the governess; she had economised in a hundred directions. Now she must act against her husband. But her children came between her and her true life, since her true life was Balthazar"s. She loved him with a sublime pa.s.sion which could sacrifice everything except her children.
One Sunday, after vespers, in 1812, she sent for her husband, and awaited him at a window of one of the lower rooms, which looked on the garden. Tears were in her eyes. As she sat there, suddenly over her head sounded the footsteps of Claes, making her start. No one could have heard that slow and dragging step unmoved. One wondered if it were a living thing.
He entered the apartment, thin, round-shouldered, with disordered long hair, his cravat awry, his clothes stained and torn.
"Are you so absorbed in your work, Balthazar?" said Josephine. "It is thirty-three Sundays since you have been either to vespers or ma.s.s."
"Vespers?" he questioned, vaguely. Then added: "Ah, the children have been to church," and walked to the window and looked at the tulips. As he stood there, he said to himself: "But yes, why shouldn"t they combine in a given time?"
His poor wife asked herself in despair, "Is he going mad?" Then, rousing herself, she called him by his name. Without paying heed to her he coughed and went to one of the spittoons beside the wainscot.
"Monsieur, I speak to you!"
"What of that?" he demanded, turning swiftly. She became deadly white.
"Forgive me, dear," she whispered, and cried: "Ah, this is killing me!"
Tears in her eyes roused Claes out of his reverie. He took her into his arms, pushed open a door, and sprang lightly up the staircase. Finding the door of her apartment locked, he laid her gently in an armchair.
"Thank you, dear," she murmured. "I have not been so near your heart for a long time."
Her loveliness postponed disaster. Enamoured by her beauty, rescued to humanity, Claes returned for a brief interval to the family life, and was adorable to his wife, charming to his children. When they were alone together, Josephine questioned him as to his secret work, telling him that she had begun to study chemistry in order that she might share his life. Touched by this devotion, Claes declared his secret. A Polish officer had come to their house in 1809, and had discussed chemistry with Claes. The result of the conversations had set Claes to search for the single element out of which all things are perhaps composed. The Polish officer had confided certain secrets to him, saying: "You are a disciple of Lavoisier; you are wealthy, you are free; I will give you my idea. The Primitive Element must be common to oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon. Force must be the common principle of positive and negative electricity. Demonstrate these two hypotheses, and you will hold in your hands the First Cause, the solution of the great riddle of existence."
As Claes rattled away, Josephine suddenly exclaimed, against her will: "So it was this man, who spent but one night with us, that stole your love from me and your children! Did he make the Sign of the Cross? Did you observe him closely? He was Satan! Only the devil could have stolen you from me. Ever since his visit you have ceased to be father and husband."
"Do you rebuke me," Balthazar asked, "for being superior to common men?"
And he poured out a tale of his achievements. In the height of his pa.s.sion for her Josephine had never seen his face so shining with enthusiasm as it was now. Tears came into her eyes.
"I have combined chlorine and nitrogen," he rhapsodised; "I have a.n.a.lysed endless substances. I have a.n.a.lysed tears! Tears are nothing more than phosphate of lime, chloride of sodium, mucus, and water."
He ran on till she cried upon him to stop.
"You horrify me," she said, "with your blasphemies. What my love is----"
"Spiritualised matter, given off," replied Claes; "the secret, no doubt, of the Absolute. If I am the first to find it out! Think of it! I will make metals and diamonds. What Nature does I will do."
"You trespa.s.s on G.o.d!" Josephine exclaimed impatiently. "You deny G.o.d!
Ah, G.o.d has a force which you will never exercise!"
"What is that?" he demanded.
"Motion. a.n.a.lysis is one thing, creation is another," she said. Her pleadings were successful. Balthazar abandoned his researches, and the family removed to the country. He was awakened by his wife"s love to the knowledge that he had brought his fortune to the verge of ruin. He promised to abandon his experiments. As some amends, he threw himself into preparations for a great ball at the Maison Claes in honour of his wedding day. The festivity was saddened by the news of disaster to the Grand Army at Beresina. One of the letters that arrived that day was from the Polish officer, dying of his wounds, who sent Claes, as a legacy, some of his ideas for discovering the Absolute. No one danced; the fete was gloomy; only Marguerite shone like a lovely flower on the anxious company. When the guests departed, Balthazar showed Josephine the letter from the Pole. She did everything a woman could do to distract his thoughts. She made the home life enchanting. She entertained. She introduced the movement of the world into the great house. In vain. Her husband"s _ennui_ was terrible to behold. "I release you from your promise," she said to him one day.
Balthazar returned with Lemulquinier to the attic, and the experiments began anew. He was quite happy again.
A year pa.s.sed; the Absolute was undiscovered. Once more ruin haunted the state room of the Maison Claes. Josephine"s confessor, the Abbe de Solis, who had sold her jewels, now suggested selling some of the Flemish pictures. Josephine explained the situation to her husband.
"What do you think?" he cried. "I am within an ace of finding the Absolute. I have only to discover--"
Josephine broke down. She left her husband, and retired downstairs to her children. The servants were summoned. Madame Claes looked like death. Everybody was alarmed. Lemulquinier was told to go for the priest. He said he had monsieur"s orders to see to in the laboratory.
_III.--The Pa.s.sing of Josephine_
It was the beginning of the end for Josephine. As she lay dying, she saw judgment in the eyes of Marguerite--judgment on Balthazar. Her last days were sorrowed by the thought that the children would condemn their father. Balthazar came sometimes to sit with her, but he appeared to be unaware of her situation. He was charming to the younger children, but he was dead to the true condition of his wife.
One thing gave her peace. The Abbe de Solis brought his nephew to the house, and this young man, Emmanuel, who was good and n.o.ble, evidently created a favourable impression on Marguerite. The dying mother watched the progress of this love story with affectionate satisfaction. It was all she had to light her way to the grave. Pierquin told her that Balthazar had ordered him to raise three hundred thousand francs on his estate. She saw that ruin could not be averted; she lay at death"s door, deserted by the husband she still worshipped, thinking of the children she had sacrificed. The n.o.ble character of Marguerite cheered her last hours. In that child, she would live on and be a providence to the family.
One day she wrote a letter, addressed and sealed it, and showed it to Marguerite. It was addressed: "To my daughter, Marguerite." She placed it under her pillow, said she would rest, and presently fell into a deep slumber. When she awoke, all her children were kneeling round her in prayer, and with them was Emmanuel.
"The hour has come, dear children," she said gently, "when we must say farewell. You are all here"--she looked about her--"and he..."
Marguerite sent Emmanuel for her father, and Balthazar"s answer to the summons was, "I am coming."
When Emmanuel returned, Madame Claes sent him for his uncle the priest, bidding him take the two boys with him; then she turned to her daughters. "G.o.d is taking me," she said. "What will become of you? When I am gone, Marguerite, if you are ever in need of food, read this letter which I have addressed to you. Love your father, but shield your sister and your brothers. It may be your duty to withstand him. He will want money; he will ask you for it. Do not forget your duty to your father, but remember your duty to your sister and brothers. Your father would not injure his children of set purpose. He is n.o.ble, he is good. He is full of love for you. He is a great man working at a great task. Fill my place. Do not cause him grief by reproaches; never judge him; be, between him and those in your charge, a gentle mediator."
One of the servants had to go and bang on the laboratory door for Claes.
"Madame is dying!" cried the indignant old body. "They are waiting for you to administer the last sacrament."
"I"ll be there in a minute," answered Claes. When he entered the room, the Abbe de Solis and the children were kneeling round the mother"s bed.
His wife"s face flushed at his entrance. With a loving smile, she asked: "Were you on the point of resolving nitrogen?"
"I have done it!" he answered, with triumph; "nitrogen is made up of oxygen and------" He stopped, checked by a murmur, which roused him from his dream. "What did they say?" he asked. "Are you really worse? What has happened?"
"This has happened," said the Abbe; "your wife is dying, and you have killed her."
Priest and children withdrew.
"What does he mean?" asked Claes.
"Dearest," she answered, "your love was my life; I could not live without it."
He took her hand, and kissed it.
"When have I not loved you?" he asked.
She refused to utter a reproach. For her children"s sake she told the narrative of his six years" search for the Absolute, which had destroyed her life and swallowed up two million francs, making him see the horror of their desolation. "Have pity, have pity," she cried, "on our children!"
Claes shouted for Lemulquinier, and bade him go instantly to the laboratory and smash everything. "I abandon science for ever!" he cried.
"Too late!" sighed the dying woman; then she cried, "Marguerite!"
The child came from the doorway, horrified by the stricken face of her mother. Once again the loved name was repeated, "Marguerite!" loudly, as though to fix in her mind the charge laid upon her soul. It was the last word uttered by Josephine. As the soul pa.s.sed, Balthazar, from the foot of the bed, looked up to the pillows where Marguerite was sitting, and their eyes met. The father trembled.
In the sorrow of bereavement Marguerite discovered that she possessed two friends--Pierquin the notary, and Emmanuel de Solis. Pierquin thought it would be a suitable thing to save the wreckage of the estate and marry the beautiful Marguerite, whose family was doubly n.o.ble.
Emmanuel offered to prepare Marguerite"s brothers for college, with a tact and a charm which declared a fine nature. Pierquin was a man of business turned lover. Emmanuel was a lover turned by misfortune into a man of action.