Cousin Bette (64 page)

‘In the Faubourg.…'

‘Yes, but which?'

‘Oh, rue de Charonne, Madame.'

The inhabitants of the faubourg Saint-Antoine never call that notorious district anything but ‘the Faubourg'. To them it is the only faubourg worth mentioning,
the
faubourg, and even factory-owners understand by the term specifically the faubourg Saint-Antoine.

‘Has no one ever taught you the difference between right and wrong?'

‘Mama used to beat me when I didn't do things like what she wanted.…'

‘But did you not know that you were doing wrong when you left your father and mother to go and live with an old man?'

Atala Judici looked haughtily at the Baroness, and did not answer.

‘The girl is a complete heathen!' Adeline said, as if to herself.

‘Oh, there are plenty more like her in the Faubourg, Madame!' said the stove-fitter's wife.

‘But, good heavens, she knows nothing – not even the simple meaning of the word
wrong
! Why don't you answer me?' the Baroness asked the child, trying to take her hand.

Atala angrily drew back a step.

‘You're a silly old woman!' she said. ‘My father and mother had had nothing to eat all week I My mother wanted to make something very bad of me, because my father beat her and called her names. And then Monsieur Vyder paid all my father's and mother's debts, and gave them money.… Oh! a whole bagful! And he took me away with him, and my poor Papa cried… but we had to part! Well, was that wrong?'

‘And are you very fond of this Monsieur Vyder?'

‘Am I fond of him?…' she said. ‘I should just think I am, Madame! He tells me nice stories every evening! And he has given me fine dresses, and underclothes, and a shawl. I'm dressed up like a princess, and don't wear sabots any more! And for the past two months I haven't known what it is to be hungry. I don't live on potatoes now! He brings me sweets, burnt almonds! Oh, what delicious things chocolate almonds are.… I do anything he wants for a bag of chocolates! And then my old Papa Vyder is so kind, he looks after me so well, he's so good that it makes me see what my mother might have been like.… He is going to get an old servant to help me, because he doesn't like me to get my hands dirty doing the cooking. This month he has been earning a fair lot of money. He brings me three francs every evening… and I put them away in a money-box! The only thing is he doesn't like me going out, except to come here.… He's a love of a man really, so he does whatever he wants with me.… He calls me his little kitten! And my mother only called me a little bitch, or all sorts of bad names, thief, varmint, goodness knows what!'

‘Well, why, child, don't you marry Papa Vyder?'

‘But I have, Madame!' said the girl, full of pride, looking at
the Baroness without a blush, her brow serene, her eyes untroubled. ‘He told me that I was his little wife; but it's very tiresome to be a man's wife! Well, if it wasn't for the chocolate almonds!'

‘Good God!' said the Baroness under her breath. ‘What kind of monster can this man be to have taken advantage of such complete and blessed innocence? To set this child on the right path again surely would redeem many of my sins! I knew what I was doing,' she said to herself, thinking of her scene with Crevel, ‘but she – she knows nothing!'

‘Do you know Monsieur Samanon?' Atala asked cajolingly.

‘No, my dear; but why do you ask?'

‘Really and truly?' said the artless creature.

‘You don't distrust Madame, do you, Atala?' said the stove-fitter's wife. ‘She's an angel!'

‘It's because my nice gentleman is afraid of being found by that Samanon, and that's why he's hiding… and I only wish he was free.…'

‘Why?'

‘Well, of course, because he would take me to see Bobino! Perhaps to the Ambigu-Comique!'

‘What a charming creature!' said the Baroness, putting her arms round the little girl.

‘Are you rich?' asked Atala, playing with the lace at the Baroness's wrists.

‘Yes, and no,' replied the Baroness. ‘I am rich for good little girls like you, when they are willing to let themselves be taught Christian duties by a priest, and walk in the right path.'

‘What path?' said Atala. ‘I have stout legs for walking.'

‘The path of virtue!'

Atala gave the Baroness a sly and laughing look.

‘You see Madame. She is happy since she returned to the bosom of the Church,' said the Baroness, indicating the stove-fitter's wife. ‘You have got married like the animals that mate.'

‘Me?' said Atala. ‘But if you are ready to give me what Papa Vyder does, I would be very pleased not to be married.
It's a dreadful bore! Do you know what it means?'

‘Once you are united with a man, as you are,' said the Baroness, ‘virtue means that you have to remain faithful to him.'

‘Until he dies?' said Atala knowingly. ‘I shan't have it too long. If you knew how Papa Vyder coughs and puffs!… Peuh! Peuh!' she coughed, in imitation of the old man.

‘Virtue and morality require your marriage to be consecrated by the Church, which represents God, and the Mayor representing the law. You see Madame – she is properly married.…'

‘Is that more fun?' the child asked.

‘You will be happier,' answered the Baroness, ‘for no one will be able to blame you for this marriage. You will be pleasing God! Ask Madame if she married without receiving the sacrament of marriage.'

‘What has she got that I haven't?' she demanded. ‘I am prettier than she is.…'

‘Yes, but I am a proper wife… and they can call you by a nasty name.…'

‘How can you ask God to protect you, if you trample divine and human laws underfoot?' said the Baroness. ‘Do you know that God keeps a paradise in store for those who obey his Church's laws?'

‘What happens in paradise? Are there theatre shows?' said Atala.

‘Oh, paradise!' said the Baroness. ‘That's all the joy that you can possibly imagine. It's full of angels with white wings. One can see God in his glory; one can be a sharer in his power; one is happy every moment and for ever more!…'

Atala Judici listened to the Baroness as she might have listened to music; and, seeing that she was incapable of understanding, Adeline thought that she should perhaps try a different course and speak to the old man.

‘Go home, child, and I'll come and talk to Monsieur Vyder. Is he French?'

‘He is Alsatian, Madame; but he's going to be rich, I can tell you! If you would pay the money he owes that horrid
Samanon, he would pay you back! Because he says that in a few months he'll be getting six thousand francs a year, and we're going to go and live in the country then, ever so far away, in the Vosges.…'

The memories evoked by her mention of the Vosges plunged the Baroness into a profound reverie. In her mind she saw her own village again. From this painful meditation she was roused by the stove-fitter's greeting, as he came in to tell her how his business had prospered.

‘In a year, Madame, I'll be able to pay back the money you have lent us. It is God's money – it belongs to the poor and unfortunate. If I do well, one day you will be able to use our purse. I mean to repay to others, through you, the help that you brought us.'

‘At the moment,' said the Baroness, ‘I don't want money, I want your cooperation in a good deed. I have just seen the little Judici girl, who is living with an old man, and I would like to have them married in church, and legally.'

‘Ah, old Vyder! He's a very decent chap, a man worth asking for his advice. Poor and old as he is, he's already made friends in the neighbourhood in the two months he's been here. He keeps my accounts straight for me. He's a brave colonel, I believe, who once served the Emperor well.… Ah! how he worships Napoleon! He has a decoration, but he never wears it. He's waiting till he has cleared off his debts, for he owes money, poor fellow!… I think he may even be in hiding, with process-servers on his track.…'

‘Tell him that I'll pay his debts, if he is willing to marry the child.…'

‘Well, that will be easily done! Why, Madame, we could go and see him.… It's only a step away, in Sun Alley.'

The Baroness and the stove-fitter set out for Sun Alley.

‘This way, Madame,' the man said, pointing down the rue de la Pépinière.

Sun Alley – the passage du Soleil – runs, in fact, from the top of the rue de la Pépinière through to the rue du Rocher. About half way down the alley, recently made, with shops let at a very modest rent, the Baroness saw, above a shop-window screened with green taffeta curtains to a height that prevented
passers-by from gazing in, a sign with the words:
Public Letterwriter
; and on the door:

BUSINESS AGENCY

Petitions drawn up.    Accounts audited.

All business confidential and promptly executed.

The interior was like the waiting-rooms where Paris omnibus passengers wait for their connexions. A flight of stairs inside led, no doubt, to a mezzanine apartment let with the shop and looking out on the alley. The Baroness noticed a blackened deal desk, cardboard boxes, and a battered, shabby, second-hand arm-chair. A cap and greasy green silk eye-shade attached with copper wire suggested either some idea of disguise or an eye weakness not unlikely in an old man.

‘He is upstairs,' said the stove-fitter. ‘I'll go up and tell him that you are here and bring him down.'

The Baroness lowered her veil and sat down. A heavy step made the little wooden staircase creak, and Adeline could not restrain a piercing cry when she saw her husband, Baron Hulot, appear, dressed in a grey knitted jacket, old grey flannel trousers, and slippers.

‘What can I do for you, Madame?' said Hulot politely.

Adeline rose, took hold of Hulot, and in a voice broken with emotion said:

‘At last I've found you!'

‘Adeline!…' the Baron exclaimed, in amazement. He locked the shop door. ‘Joseph!' he called to the stove-fitter. ‘Go out by the back way.'

‘My dear,' she said, forgetting everything but her overwhelming joy, ‘you can return to your family. We are rich! Your son's income is a hundred and sixty thousand francs. There is no claim now on your pension, and you only have to present a statement that you're dive in order to draw fifteen thousand francs arrears. Valérie is dead, and she has left you three hundred thousand francs. Everything has been quite forgotten. You can return to society, and you will find a fortune waiting for you in your son's house. Come, and our happiness will be complete. I've been searching for you for nearly three years, and I was so sure that I should find you that
there's a room prepared, all ready for you. Oh, come away from his place! Leave the dreadful situation I see you in here!'

‘Gladly,' said the Baron, dazedly;
'but can I bring the little girl with me?
'

‘Hector, give her up! Do so much for your Adeline, who has never before asked you to make even the least sacrifice! I promise you I'll give this child a dowry, arrange a good marriage for her, have her taught. Let it be said that one of those who made you happy is happy herself, and will not fall further into vice, into the mire!'

‘So you're the person,' said the Baron, with a smile, ‘who wanted to have me married?… Stay here a moment,' he added. ‘I must go upstairs and dress. I have proper clothes in a box up there.…'

When Adeline was alone, looking again round the dingy shop, she shed tears.

‘He was living here,' she said to herself,' while we have been living in luxury!… Poor man, how he has been punished – he who used to be elegance itself!'

The stove-fitter came to say good-bye to his benefactress, and she asked him to fetch a cab. When he returned, the Baroness asked him to take in little Atala Judici, and take her home with him there and then.

‘Tell her,' she added, ‘that if she is willing to put herself under the guidance of Monsieur le Cure at the Madeleine, on the day she makes her first communion I'll give her a dowry of thirty thousand francs and a good husband, some fine young man!'

‘My eldest son, Madame! He is twenty-two and he adores that child!'

The Baron now came downstairs. His eyes were wet.

‘You are making me leave the only creature whose love for me is anything like your own,' he whispered to his wife.' The child is in tears, and I cannot desert her like this.…'

‘Set your mind at rest, Hector. She is going to be settled with a respectable family and I can answer for what her way of life will be.'

‘Ah, then I can come with you,' the Baron said, and he escorted his wife to the cab.

Hector, now Baron d'Ervy again, had put on a greatcoat and trousers of blue cloth, a white waistcoat, black cravat and gloves. When the Baroness had taken her seat in the cab, Atala slipped in like a snake.

‘Oh, Madame,' she begged, ‘let me go with you wherever you're going!… I can tell you, I'll be very good and very obedient. I'll do anything you want; but don't leave me behind and take Papa Vyder away, my gentleman who is so kind and gives me such nice things. Because I'll be beaten!…'

‘Come, Atala,' said the Baron. ‘This lady is my wife, and we have to say good-bye.…'

‘Her? As old as that!' the girl said artlessly. ‘And shaking like a leaf! Oh, what a sight!'

And she drolly mimicked the Baroness's shaking. The stove-fitter, hurrying after the Judici child, appeared at the cab door.

‘Take her away!' said the Baroness.

The stove-fitter took Atala in his arms and forcibly bore her off to his house.

‘Thank you for that sacrifice, my dear,' said Adeline, taking the Baron's hand and pressing it with feverish joy. ‘How you have changed! How you must have suffered! What a surprise for your daughter and your son!'