"You will still be ten years hence," Crevel on, with his arms folded; "be to me, and Mademoiselle Hulot will marry. Hulot has me the right, as I have to you, to put the crudely, and he will not be angry. In three years I have saved the on my capital, for my have been restricted. I have three hundred thousand in the bank over and above my they are yours "
"Go," said Madame Hulot. "Go, monsieur, and let me see you again. But for the in which you me to learn the of your with to the match I had planned for Hortense—yes, cowardly!" she repeated, in answer to a from Crevel. "How can you a girl, a pretty, creature, with such a weight of enmity? But for the that me as a mother, you would have spoken to me again, again have come my doors. Thirty-two years of an and life shall not be away by a from Monsieur Crevel "
"The retired perfumer, to Cesar Birotteau at the Queen of the Roses, Rue Saint-Honore," added Crevel, in tones. "Deputy-mayor, captain in the National Guard, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor—exactly what my was!"
"Monsieur," said the Baroness, "if, after twenty years of constancy, Monsieur Hulot is of his wife, that is nobody's but mine. As you see, he has his a mystery, for I did not know that he had succeeded you in the of Mademoiselle Josepha "
"Oh, it has cost him a penny, madame. His singing-bird has cost him more than a hundred thousand in these two years. Ah, ha! you have not the end of it!"
"Have done with all this, Monsieur Crevel. I will not, for your sake, the a mother who can her children without a single of in her heart, who sees herself and loved by her family; and I will give up my to God "
"Amen!" Crevel, with the that the of these when they fail for the second time in such an attempt. "You do not yet know the end of poverty—shame, disgrace. I have to you; I would have saved you, you and your daughter. Well, you must study the modern of the Prodigal Father from A to Z. Your and your move me deeply," said Crevel, seating himself, "for it is to see the woman one loves weeping. All I can promise you, dear Adeline, is to do nothing against your or your husband's. Only send to me for information. That is all."
"What is to be done?" Madame Hulot.
Up to now the Baroness had the threefold which this on her; for she was as a woman, as a mother, and as a wife. In fact, so long as her son's father-in-law was and offensive, she had the in her to the tradesman; but the of good-nature he showed, in of his as a and as a National Guardsman, her nerve, to the point of snapping. She her hands, melted into tears, and was in a of such dejection, that she allowed Crevel to at her feet, her hands.
"Good God! what will of us!" she on, away her tears. "Can a mother still and see her child away her eyes? What is to be the of that creature, as in her pure life under her mother's as she is by every gift of nature? There are days when she the garden, out of without why; I her with in her "
"She is one-and-twenty," said Crevel.
"Must I place her in a convent?" asked the Baroness. "But in such cases religion is to nature, and the most girls their head! Get up, pray, monsieur; do you not that is final us? that I look upon you with horror? that you have a mother's last "
"But if I were to them," asked he.
Madame Hulot looked at Crevel with a that touched him. But he to the of his heart; she had said, "I look upon you with horror."
Virtue is always a little too rigid; it the and by help of which we are able to when in a false position.
"So a girl as Mademoiselle Hortense not a husband if she is penniless," Crevel remarked, his manner. "Your is one of those who husbands; like a horse, which is too to keep up to a purchaser. If you go out walking with such a woman on your arm, every one will turn to look at you, and and his neighbor's wife. Such success is a of much to men who do not want to be killing lovers; for, after all, no man kills more than one. In the position in which you there are just three of your married: Either by my help—and you will have none of it! That is one. Or by some old man of sixty, very rich, childless, and to have children; that is difficult, still such men are to be met with. Many old men take up with a Josepha, a Jenny Cadine, why should not one be who is to make a of himself under legal formalities? If it were not for Celestine and our two grandchildren, I would Hortense myself. That is two. The last way is the "
Madame Hulot her head, and looked at the ex-perfumer.
"Paris is a town every man of energy—and they like on French soil—comes to meet his kind; here without or home, and energy equal to anything, to making a fortune. Well, these youngsters—your was such a one in his time, and how many he has known! What had du Tillet or Popinot twenty years since? They were in Daddy Birotteau's shop, with not a of but their to on, which, in my opinion, is the best a man can have. Money may be through, but you don't eat through your determination. Why, what had I? The will to on, and of pluck. At this day du Tillet is a match for the folks; little Popinot, the of the Rue Lombards, a deputy, now he is in office. Well, one of these free lances, as we say on the stock market, of the pen, or of the brush, is the only man in Paris who would a beauty, for they have for anything. Monsieur Popinot married Mademoiselle Birotteau without for a farthing. Those men are madmen, to be sure! They trust in love as they trust in good luck and brains! Find a man of energy who will in love with your daughter, and he will without a of money. You must that by way of an enemy I am not ungenerous, for this is against my own interests."
"Oh, Monsieur Crevel, if you would be my friend and give up your "
"Ridiculous? Madame, do not down. Look at yourself—I love you, and you will come to be mine. The day will come when I shall say to Hulot, ‘You took Josepha, I have taken your wife!'
"It is the old law of tit-for-tat! And I will till I have my end, unless you should ugly. I shall succeed; and I will tell you why," he on, his attitude, and looking at Madame Hulot. "You will not meet with such an old man, or such a lover," he said after a pause, "because you love your too well to hand her over to the of an old libertine, and you—the Baronne Hulot, sister of the old Lieutenant-General who the Grenadiers of the Old Guard—will not to take a man of you may him; for he might be a craftsman, as many a of to-day was ten years ago, a artisan, or the of a factory.
"And then, when you see the girl, by her twenty years, of you all, you will say to yourself, ‘It will be that I should fall! If Monsieur Crevel will but keep my secret, I will earn my daughter's portion—two hundred thousand for ten years' to that old gloveseller—old Crevel!'—I you no doubt, and what I am saying is immoral, you think? But if you to have been by an passion, you would a thousand in of yielding—as do when they are in love. Yes, and Hortense's will to your such terms of your "
"Hortense has still an uncle."
"What! Old Fischer? He is up his concerns, and that again is the Baron's fault; his is over every till his reach."
"Comte Hulot "
"Oh, madame, your husband has already thin air of the old General's savings. He them in his singer's rooms. Now, come; am I to go without a hope?"
"Good-bye, monsieur. A man easily over a for a woman of my age, and you will on Christian principles. God takes of the "
The Baroness rose to the captain to retreat, and him into the drawing-room.
"Ought the Madame Hulot to be such squalor?" said he, and he pointed to an old lamp, a of its gilding, the carpet, the very of which the large room, with its red, white, and gold, look like a of Imperial festivities.
"Monsieur, on it all. I have no wish to a to having of the you are pleased to to me a man-trap and a money-box for five-franc pieces!"
The captain his as he the he had used to Josepha's avarice.
"And for are you so magnanimous?" said he. By this time the had got her rejected as as the door. "For a libertine!" said he, with a of and wealth.
"If you are right, my has some merit, monsieur. That is all."
After to the officer as a woman to an visitor, she away too to see him once more his arms. She the doors she had closed, and did not see the which was Crevel's greeting. She walked with a proud, step, like a to the Coliseum, but her was exhausted; she on the sofa in her room, as if she were to faint, and sat there with her on the tumble-down summer-house, where her was with Cousin Betty.
From the days of her married life to the present time the Baroness had loved her husband, as Josephine in the end had loved Napoleon, with an admiring, maternal, and devotion. Though of the her by Crevel, she that for twenty years past Baron Hulot been anything than a husband; but she had sealed her with lead, she had in silence, and no word of had her. In return for this sweetness, she had her husband's and something to from all who were about her.
A wife's for her husband and the respect she pays him are in a family. Hortense her father to be a perfect model of affection; as to their son, up to the Baron, as one of the who so Napoleon, he that he his to his father's name, position, and credit; and besides, the of an influence. He still was of his father; and if he had the by Crevel, as he was too much by him to fault, he would have in the view every man takes of such matters.
It now will be necessary to give the for the self-devotion of a good and woman; and this, in a words, is her past history.
Three brothers, men, named Fischer, and in a village on the of Lorraine, were by the Republican to set out with the so-called army of the Rhine.
In 1799 the second brother, Andre, a widower, and Madame Hulot's father, left his to the of his brother, Pierre Fischer, from service by a in 1797, and a small private in the transport service, an opening he to the of Hulot d'Ervy, who was high in the commissariat. By a very Hulot, to Strasbourg, saw the Fischer family. Adeline's father and his were at that time for in the of Alsace.
Adeline, then sixteen years of age, might be with the famous Madame du Barry, like her, a of Lorraine. She was one of those perfect and beauties—a woman like Madame Tallien, with by Nature, who on them all her gifts—distinction, dignity, grace, refinement, elegance, of a texture, and a in the unknown laboratory where good luck presides. These all have something in common: Bianca Capella, portrait is one of Bronzino's masterpieces; Jean Goujon's Venus, painted from the famous Diane de Poitiers; Signora Olympia, picture the Doria gallery; Ninon, Madame du Barry, Madame Tallien, Mademoiselle Georges, Madame Recamier. all these who their in of years, of passion, and of their life of and pleasure, have in figure, frame, and in the of their resemblances, to make one that there is in the of an Aphrodisian every such Venus is born, all of the same salt wave.
Adeline Fischer, one of the of this of goddesses, had the type, the lines, the of a woman a queen. The that our mother Eve from the hand of God, the of an Empress, an air of grandeur, and an line of profile, with her modesty, every man pause in as she passed, like in of a Raphael; in short, having once her, the Commissariat officer Mademoiselle Adeline Fischer his wife as as the law would permit, to the great of the Fischers, who had all been up in the of their betters.
The eldest, a soldier of 1792, in the attack on the lines at Wissembourg, the Emperor Napoleon and that had to do with the Grande Armee. Andre and Johann spoke with respect of Commissary Hulot, the Emperor's protege, to they their prosperity; for Hulot d'Ervy, them and honest, had taken them from the army to place them in of a government needing despatch. The Fischer had done service the of 1804. At the peace Hulot had for them the for from Alsace, not that he would presently be sent to Strasbourg to prepare for the of 1806.
This marriage was like an Assumption to the girl. The Adeline was at once from the of her village to the of the Imperial Court; for the contractor, one of the most and hard-working of the Commissariat staff, was a Baron, a place near the Emperor, and was to the Imperial Guard. The set to work to educate herself for love of her husband, for she was about him; and, indeed, the Commissariat office was as a man a perfect match for Adeline as a woman. He was one of the of men. Tall, well-built, fair, with full of fire and life, his him by the of d'Orsay, Forbin, Ouvrard; in short, in the of men that the Emperor. A "buck," and the ideas of the Directoire with to women, his career of was for some long time by his affection.
To Adeline the Baron was from the a of god who do no wrong. To him she everything: fortune—she had a carriage, a house, every luxury of the day; happiness—he was to her in the of the world; a title, for she was a Baroness; fame, for she was spoken of as the Madame Hulot—and in Paris! Finally, she had the of the Emperor's advances, for Napoleon her a present of a diamond necklace, and always her, now and again, "And is the Madame Hulot still a model of virtue?" in the of a man who might have taken his on one who should have where he had failed.
So it needs no great to what were the in a simple, guileless, and for the of Madame Hulot's love. Having herself that her husband do her no wrong, she herself in the of her the humble, abject, and of the man who had her. It must be noted, too, that she was with great good sense—the good of the people, which her education sound. In she spoke little, and spoke of any one; she did not try to shine; she out many things, well, and herself on the model of the best-conducted of good birth.
In 1815 Hulot the lead of the Prince de Wissembourg, his friend, and one of the officers who the the Napoleonic cycle to a close at Waterloo. In 1816 the Baron was one of the men best by the Feltre administration, and was not in the Commissariat till 1823, when he was needed for the Spanish war. In 1830 he took office as the fourth wheel of the coach, at the time of the levies, a of by Louis Philippe on the old Napoleonic soldiery. From the time when the branch the throne, having taken an active part in that about, he was as an authority at the War Office. He had already his Marshal's baton, and the King do no more for him unless by making him minister or a of France.
From 1818 till 1823, having no official occupation, Baron Hulot had gone on active service to womankind. Madame Hulot her Hector's from the of the Empire. Thus, for twelve years the Baroness had the part in her of assoluta, without a rival. She still of the old-fashioned, which husbands for who are to be and helpmates; she that if she had a rival, that would not for two hours under a word of from herself; but she her eyes, she stopped her ears, she would know nothing of her husband's his home. In short, she her Hector as a mother a child.
Three years the reported above, Hortense, at the Theatre Varietes, had her father in a stage-box with Jenny Cadine, and had exclaimed:
"There is papa!"
"You are mistaken, my darling; he is at the Marshal's," the Baroness replied.
She too had Jenny Cadine; but of a when she saw how she was, she said to herself, "That Hector must think himself very lucky."
She nevertheless; she gave herself up in to of torment; but as soon as she saw Hector, she always her twelve years of perfect happiness, and not it in her to a word of complaint. She would have been if the Baron would have taken her into his confidence; but she to let him see that she of his kicking over the traces, out of respect for her husband. Such an of is met with but in those creatures, of the soil, it is to take without returning them; the blood of the early still in their veins. Well-born women, their husbands' equals, the to them, to mark the points of their tolerance, like points at billiards, by some word, in the of malice, and to secure the upper hand or the right of the tables.
The Baroness had an in her brother-in-law, Lieutenant-General Hulot, the Colonel of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Infantry Guard, who was to have a Marshal's in his old age. This veteran, after having from 1830 to 1834 as Commandant of the division, the of Brittany, the of his in 1799 and 1800, had come to settle in Paris near his brother, for he had a affection.
This old soldier's was in with his sister-in-law; he her as the and of her sex. He had married, he to a second Adeline, though he had for her through twenty in as many lands. To maintain her place in the of this and old republican—of Napoleon had said, "That old Hulot is the most republican, but he will be false to me"—Adeline would have than those that had just come upon her. But the old soldier, seventy-two years of age, by thirty campaigns, and for the twenty-seventh time at Waterloo, was Adeline's admirer, and not a "protector." The old Count, among other infirmities, only through a speaking trumpet.
So long as Baron Hulot d'Ervy was a man, his did not his fortune; but when a man is fifty, the Graces payment. At that age love vice; come into play. Thus, at about that time, Adeline saw that her husband was particular about his dress; he his and whiskers, and a and stays. He was to at any cost. This of his person, a he had once at, was out in the details.
At last Adeline that the Pactolus out the Baron's had its in her pocket. In eight years he had a amount of money; and so effectually, that, on his son's marriage two years previously, the Baron had been to to his wife that his pay their whole income.
"What shall we come to?" asked Adeline.
"Be easy," said the official, "I will the whole of my salary in your hands, and I will make a for Hortense, and some savings for the future, in business."
The wife's in her husband's power and talents, in his and character, had, in fact, for the moment her anxiety.
