Thanks to her manoeuvres, sentimental, high-flown, and romantic, Valerie, without herself to any promises, for her husband the as of the office and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.
The was not out without little dinners at the Rocher de Cancale, parties to the play, and gifts in the of lace, scarves, gowns, and jewelry. The in the Rue du Doyenne was not satisfactory; the Baron to another in a new house in the Rue Vanneau.
Monsieur Marneffe got a fortnight's leave, to be taken a month hence for urgent private in the country, and a present in money; he promised himself that he would in a little town in Switzerland, studying the sex.
While Monsieur Hulot thus himself to the lady he was "protecting," he did not the artist. Comte Popinot, Minister of Commerce, was a of Art; he paid two thousand for a copy of the Samson on condition that the should be broken, and that there should be no Samson but his and Mademoiselle Hulot's. The group was by a Prince, to the model sketch for the clock was also shown, and who ordered it; but that again was to be unique, and he offered thirty thousand for it.
Artists who were consulted, and among them Stidmann, were of opinion that the man who had sketched those two models was of a statue. The Marshal Prince de Wissembourg, Minister of War, and President of the Committee for the to the of Marshal Montcornet, called a meeting, at which it was that the of the work should be in Steinbock's hands. The Comte de Rastignac, at that time Under-secretary of State, to a work by the artist, was the of his rivals. Steinbock to him the group of two little boys a little girl, and he promised to secure for the a studio to the Government marble-quarries, situated, as all the world knows, at Le Gros-Caillou.
This was a success, such success as is in Paris, that is to say, success, that those and are not to it—as, be it said, not is the case. Count Wenceslas Steinbock was about in all the newspapers and without his having the least of it, any more than had Mademoiselle Fischer. Every day, as soon as Lisbeth had gone out to dinner, Wenceslas to the Baroness' and an hour or two there, on the when Lisbeth with the Hulots.
This of for days.
The Baron, of Count Steinbock's titles and position; the Baroness, pleased with his and habits; Hortense, proud of her permitted love and of her suitor's fame, none of them to speak of the marriage; in short, the artist was in the seventh heaven, when an on Madame Marneffe's part all.
And this was how.
Lisbeth, the Baron to see with Madame Marneffe, that she might keep an on the couple, had already with Valerie; and she, on her part, to have an ear in the Hulot house, much of the old maid. It to Valerie to Mademoiselle Fischer to a house-warming in the new she was about to move into. Lisbeth, to have another house to in, and by Madame Marneffe, had taken a great to Valerie. Of all the she had with, no one had taken so much pains to her. In fact, Madame Marneffe, full of for Mademoiselle Fischer, herself in the position Lisbeth that Lisbeth the Baroness, Monsieur Rivet, Crevel, and the others who her to dinner.
The Marneffes had Lisbeth's by her to see the of the house, while it as with the colors; their friends were under to them and ungrateful; they had had much illness; Madame Fortin, her mother, had of their distress, and had died herself to the end, thanks to their efforts—and so forth.
"Poor people!" said she to her Cousin Hulot, "you are right to do what you can for them; they are so and so kind! They can live on the thousand he as deputy-head of the office, for they have got into since Marshal Montcornet's death. It is on the part of the Government to that a with a wife and family can live in Paris on two thousand four hundred a year."
And so, a very time, a woman who for her, who told her everything, and her, who her, and to to her guidance, had to the Cousin Lisbeth than all her relations.
The Baron, on his part, in Madame Marneffe such propriety, education, and as neither Jenny Cadine Josepha, any friend of theirs had to show, had in love with her in a month, a passion, a passion, which had an of reason. In fact, he here neither the banter, the orgies, the expenditure, the depravity, the of social decencies, the which had him to with the and the singer. He was spared, too, the of the courtesan, like the thirst of sand.
Madame Marneffe, of he had a friend and confidante, the over any gift from him.
"Appointments, official presents, anything you can from the Government; but do not by a woman you to love," said Valerie. "If you do, I shall to you—and I like to you," she added, with a like Saint Theresa at heaven.
Every time he her a present there was a to be stormed, a to be over-persuaded. The Baron to offer her some trifle—costly, nevertheless—proud of having at last met with and the of his dreams. In this household, as he himself, he was the god as much as in his own. And Monsieur Marneffe at a thousand from that the Jupiter of his office to on his wife in a of gold; he was his chief's slave.
Madame Marneffe, twenty-three years of age, a pure and middle-class wife, a in the Rue du Doyenne, know nothing of the and which the Baron no longer think of without disgust, for he had the of virtue, and the Valerie him it to the utmost—all along the line, as the saying goes.
The question having come to this point Hector and Valerie, it is not that Valerie should have from Hector the of the marriage the great Steinbock and Hortense Hulot. Between a lover on his promotion and a lady who long his mistress, there are contests, or unexpressed, in which a word often a thought; as, in fencing, the as as the in duel. Then a man the example of Monsieur de Turenne. Thus the Baron had at the his daughter's marriage would allow him, in reply to the Valerie, who more than once had exclaimed:
"I cannot how a woman can go for a man who is not hers."
And a thousand times already the Baron had that for five-and-twenty years all had been at an end Madame Hulot and himself.
"And they say she is so handsome!" Madame Marneffe. "I want proof."
"You shall have it," said the Baron, happy by this demand, by which his Valerie herself.
Hector had then been to his plans, already being into in the Rue Vanneau, to prove to Valerie that he to to her that of his life which to his wife, that day and night the of humanity. He spoke of his wife, her to herself as soon as Hortense should be married. The Baroness would then all her time with Hortense or the Hulot couple; he was sure of her submission.
"And then, my angel, my true life, my home will be in the Rue Vanneau."
"Bless me, how you of me!" said Madame Marneffe. "And my husband "
"That rag!"
"To be sure, as with you so he is!" said she with a laugh.
Madame Marneffe, having Steinbock's history, was to see the Count; she to have some of his work while they still under the same roof. This so the Baron that Valerie to him that she would look at Wenceslas. But though she obtained, as the of her of this wish, a little tea-service of old Sevres tendre, she her wish at the of her heart, as if on tablets.
So one day when she had "my Cousin Betty" to come to take coffee with her in her room, she opened on the of her lover, to know how she might see him without risk.
"My dear child," said she, for they called each my dear, "why have you your lover to me? Do you know that a time he has famous?"
"He famous?"
"He is the one of conversation."
"Pooh!" Lisbeth.
"He is going to the of my father, and I be of great use to him and help him to succeed in the work; for Madame Montcornet cannot him, as I can, a by Sain, a thing done in 1809, the Wagram Campaign, and to my mother—Montcornet when he was and handsome."
Sain and Augustin them the of painting under the Empire.
"He is going to make a statue, my dear, did you say?"
"Nine high—by the orders of the Minister of War. Why, where have you from that I should tell you the news? Why, the Government is going to give Count Steinbock rooms and a studio at Le Gros-Caillou, the for marble; your Pole will be the Director, I should not wonder, with two thousand a year and a ring on his finger."
"How do you know all this when I have nothing about it?" said Lisbeth at last, off her amazement.
"Now, my dear little Cousin Betty," said Madame Marneffe, in an voice, "are you of friendship, put to any test? Shall we be sisters? Will you to me to have a from me any more than I from you—to act as my spy, as I will be yours? Above all, will you to me either to my husband or to Monsieur Hulot, and that it was I who told you ?"
Madame Marneffe off in this harangue; Lisbeth her. The peasant-woman's was terrible; her black had the of the tiger's; her was like that we to a pythoness; she set her teeth to keep them from chattering, and her whole convulsively. She had pushed her under her cap to her and support her head, which too heavy; she was on fire. The of the that her to from her as from the rent by a eruption. It was a spectacle.
"Well, why do you stop?" she asked in a voice. "I will be all to you that I have been to him. Oh, I would have him my life-blood!"
"You loved him then?"
"Like a child of my own!"
"Well, then," said Madame Marneffe, with a of relief, "if you only love him in that way, you will be very happy—for you wish him to be happy?"
Lisbeth by a as as a madwoman's.
"He is to your Cousin Hortense in a month's time."
"Hortense!" the old maid, her forehead, and starting to her feet.
"Well, but then you were in love with this man?" asked Valerie.
"My dear, we are for life and death, you and I," said Mademoiselle Fischer. "Yes, if you have any love affairs, to me they are sacred. Your will be in my eyes. For I shall need your vices!"
"Then did you live with him?" asked Valerie.
"No; I meant to be a mother to him."
"I give it up. I cannot understand," said Valerie. "In that case you are neither cheated, and you ought to be very happy to see him so well married; he is now afloat. And, at any rate, your day is over. Our artist goes to Madame Hulot's every as soon as you go out to dinner."
"Adeline!" Lisbeth. "Oh, Adeline, you shall pay for this! I will make you than I am."
"You are as as death!" Valerie. "There is something wrong? Oh, what a I am! The mother and must have that you would some in the way of this since they have it from you," said Madame Marneffe. "But if you did not live with the man, my dear, all this is a puzzle to me than my husband's "
"Ah, you don't know," said Lisbeth; "you have no idea of all their tricks. It is the last that kills. And how many such have I had to my soul! You don't know that from the time when I feel, I have been for Adeline. I was beaten, and she was petted; I was like a scullion, and she had like a lady's; I in the garden and the vegetables, and she—she a for anything but to make up some finery! She married the Baron, she came to at the Emperor's Court, while I in our village till 1809, waiting for four years for a match; they me away, to be sure, but only to make me a work-woman, and to offer me or captains like for a husband! I have had their for twenty-six years! And now like the in the Old Testament, the relation has one ewe-lamb which is all her joy, and the rich man who has the ewe-lamb and it—without warning, without asking. Adeline has me of my happiness! Adeline! Adeline! I will see you in the mire, and than myself! And Hortense—I loved her, and she has me. The Baron. No, it is impossible. Tell me again what is true of all this."
"Be calm, my dear child."
"Valerie, my darling, I will be calm," said the creature, again. "One thing only can me to reason; give me proofs."
"Your Cousin Hortense has the Samson group—here is a from it published in a review. She paid for it out of her pocket-money, and it is the Baron who, to his son-in-law, is pushing him, for him."
"Water! water!" said Lisbeth, after at the print, which she read, "A group to Mademoiselle Hulot d'Ervy." "Water! my is burning, I am going mad!"
Madame Marneffe some water. Lisbeth took off her cap, her black hair, and her into the her new friend for her. She her into it times, and the inflammation. After this she her self-command.
"Not a word," said she to Madame Marneffe as she her "not a word of all this. You see, I am calm; is forgotten. I am of something very different."
"She will be in Charenton tomorrow, that is very certain," Madame Marneffe, looking at the old maid.
"What is to be done?" Lisbeth on. "You see, my angel, there is nothing for it but to my tongue, my head, and to the grave, as all water to the river. What I try to do? I should like to them all—Adeline, her daughter, and the Baron—all to dust! But what can a relation do against a rich family? It would be the of the pot and the iron pot."
"Yes; you are right," said Valerie. "You can only as much as you can to your of the manger. That is all the of life in Paris."
"Besides," said Lisbeth, "I shall soon die, I can tell you, if I that boy to I I always be a mother, and with I on all my days "
There were in her eyes, and she paused. Such in this woman of and flame, Valerie shudder.
"Well, at any rate, I have you," said Lisbeth, taking Valerie's hand, "that is some in this trouble. We shall be true friends; and why should we part? I shall your track. No one will be in love with me! Those who would have married me, would only have done it to secure my Cousin Hulot's interest. With energy to Paradise, to have to it to and water, a rags, and a garret! That is martyrdom, my dear, and I have under it."
She off suddenly, and a black into Madame Marneffe's eyes, a that the woman's soul, as the point of a might have her heart.
"And what is the use of talking?" she in to herself. "I said so much before, me! The tables will be yet!" she added after a pause. "As you so say, let us our teeth, and all the we can get."
"You are very wise," said Madame Marneffe, who had been by this scene, and had no of having this maxim. "I am sure you are right, my dear child. Life is not so long after all, and we must make the best of it, and make use of others to to our enjoyment. Even I have learned that, as I am. I was up a child, my father married ambitiously, and almost me, after making me his and me up like a queen's daughter! My mother, who my with visions, died of at me married to an office with twelve hundred a year, at nine-and-thirty an and libertine, as as the hulks, looking on me, as others looked on you, as a means of fortune! Well, in that man, I have the best of husbands. He the he up at the corners, and me free. Though he all his salary to himself, he me where I money to live on "
And she in her turn stopped short, as a woman who herself away by the of her confessions; struck, too, by Lisbeth's attention, she well to make sure of Lisbeth her last secrets.
"You see, dear child, how entire is my in you!" she presently added, to which Lisbeth by a most nod.
An may be taken by a look and a more than in a of justice.
