By the end of three weeks, Madame Marneffe was by Hortense. Women of that have a of their own; they that men shall the devil's hoof; they have no for the that not their dominion, or that its own against them. Now, in all that time Wenceslas had not paid one visit in the Rue Vanneau, not that which to a woman who had sat for Delilah.
Whenever Lisbeth called on the Steinbocks, there had been nobody at home. Monsieur and in the studio. Lisbeth, the to their at le Gros-Caillou, Wenceslas hard at work, and was by the cook that left monsieur's side. Wenceslas was a to the of love. So now Valerie, on her own account, took part with Lisbeth in her of Hortense.
Women to a lover that another woman is for, just as much as men do to many are buzzing. Thus any a to Madame Marneffe are to any lady-killing rake; he is, in fact, a of male courtesan. Valerie's last was a madness; above all, she was on her group; she was of going one to the studio to see Wenceslas, when a of the which, to a woman of that class, may be called the of war.
This is how Valerie this personal event.
She was with Lisbeth and her husband.
"I say, Marneffe, what would you say to being a second time a father?"
"You don't it—a baby? Oh, let me you!"
He rose and the table; his wife up her so that he just her hair.
"If that is so," he on, "I am head-clerk and officer of the Legion of Honor at once. But you must understand, my dear, Stanislas is not to be the sufferer, little man."
"Poor little man?" Lisbeth put in. "You have not set your on him these seven months. I am to be his mother at the school; I am the only person in the house who takes any trouble about him."
"A that us a hundred a quarter!" said Valerie. "And he, at any rate, is your own child, Marneffe. You ought to pay for his out of your salary. The newcomer, from us of butcher's bills, will us from want."
"Valerie," Marneffe, an like Crevel, "I that Monsieur le Baron Hulot will take proper of his son, and not the on a clerk. I to keep him well up to the mark. So take the necessary steps, madame! Get him to you in which he to his satisfaction, for he is in in to my appointment."
And Marneffe away to the office, where his chief's allowed him to come in at about eleven o'clock. And, indeed, he did little enough, for his was notorious, and he work.
No sooner were they alone than Lisbeth and Valerie looked at each other for a moment like Augurs, and together into a loud fit of laughter.
"I say, Valerie—is it the fact?" said Lisbeth, "or a farce?"
"It is a physical fact!" Valerie. "Now, I am and of Hortense; and it to me in the night that I might fire this infant, like a bomb, into the Steinbock household."
Valerie to her room, by Lisbeth, to she the letter:—
"WENCESLAS MY DEAR,—I still in your love, though it is
nearly three since I saw you. Is this scorn? Delilah can
that. Does it not result from the tyranny
of a woman whom, as you told me, you can no longer love?
Wenceslas, you are too great an artist to submit to such dominion.
Home is the of glory. Consider now, are you the Wenceslas
of the Rue du Doyenne? You missed fire with my father's statue;
but in you the lover is than the artist, and you have had
luck with his daughter. You are a father, my beloved
Wenceslas.
"If you do not come to me in the I am in, your friends would
think very of you. But I love you so madly, that I I
should have the to you. May I myself as
ever,
"YOUR VALERIE."
"What do you say to my for sending this note to the studio at a time when our dear Hortense is there by herself?" asked Valerie. "Last I from Stidmann that Wenceslas is to him up at eleven this to go on to Chanor's; so that Hortense will be there alone."
"But after such a as that," Lisbeth, "I cannot continue to be your friend in the of the world; I shall have to with you, to be to visit you, or to speak to you."
"Evidently," said Valerie; "but "
"Oh! be easy," Lisbeth; "we shall often meet when I am Madame la Marechale. They are all set upon it now. Only the Baron is in of the plan, but you can talk him over."
"Well," said Valerie, "but it is likely that the Baron and I may be on terms long."
"Madame Olivier is the only person who can make Hortense to see the letter," said Lisbeth. "And you must send her to the Rue Saint-Dominique she goes on to the studio."
"Our will be at home, no doubt," said Valerie, for Reine to call up Madame Olivier.
Ten minutes after the of this letter, Baron Hulot arrived. Madame Marneffe her arms the old man's with impetuosity.
"Hector, you are a father!" she said in his ear. "That is what comes of and making friends again "
Perceiving a look of surprise, which the Baron did not at once conceal, Valerie a which the old man to despair. She him the proofs from her one by one. When conviction, on by vanity, had at last entered his mind, she on Monsieur Marneffe's wrath.
"My dear old veteran," said she, "you can avoid your editor, our partner if you like, head-clerk and officer of the Legion of Honor, for you have done for the man, he his Stanislas, the little who is so like him, that to me he is insufferable. Unless you to settle twelve hundred a year on Stanislas—the to be his, and the life-interest to me, of "
"But if I am to settle securities, I would it should be on my own son, and not on the monstrosity," said the Baron.
This speech, in which the "my own son" came out as full as a river in flood, was, by the end of the hour, as a promise to settle twelve hundred a year on the boy. And this promise became, on Valerie's and in her countenance, what a is in the hands of a child; for three she played on it incessantly.
At the moment when Baron Hulot was the Rue Vanneau, as happy as a man who after a year of married life still an heir, Madame Olivier had to Hortense, and up the note she was to give only into the Count's own hands. The wife paid twenty for that letter. The who suicide must pay for the opium, the pistol, the charcoal.
Hortense read and re-read the note; she saw nothing but this of white paper with black lines; the for her nothing but that paper; was dark around her. The of the that was the of her up the page, for night her. The of her little Wenceslas at play on her ear, as if he had been in the of a and she on a high mountain. Thus at four-and-twenty, in all the of her beauty, by pure and love—it was not a stab, it was death. The had been on the nerves, the physical had in the of jealousy; but now had her soul, her was unconscious.
For about ten minutes Hortense sat under the of this oppression. Then a of her mother appeared her, and ensued; she was and cool, and of her reason.
She rang.
"Get Louise to help you, child," said she to the cook. "As as you can, pack up that to me and wanted for the little boy. I give you an hour. When all is ready, a coach from the stand, and call me.
"Make no remarks! I am the house, and shall take Louise with me. You must here with monsieur; take good of him "
She into her room, and the letter:—
"MONSIEUR LE COMTE,—
"The I will account for the
I have come to.
"When you read this, I shall have left your house and have found
with my mother, taking our child with me.
"Do not that I shall my steps. Do not that
I am acting with the of youth, without reflection, with
the anger of affection; you will be mistaken.
"I have been very the last of
life, of love, of our marriage, of our to each other. I
have the perfect of my mother; she has told me all
her sorrows! She has been heroical—every day for twenty-three
years. But I have not the to her, not I
love you less than she loves my father, but for of spirit
and nature. Our home would be a hell; I might my so far
as to you—disgrace myself and our child.
"I to be a Madame Marneffe; once on such a course,
a woman of my might not, perhaps, be able to stop. I am,
for myself, a Hulot, not a Fischer.
"Alone, and from the of your dissipations, I am sure
of myself, with my child to me, and by the side
of a and mother, life cannot fail to influence
the of my feelings. There, I can be a good
mother, our boy up well, and live. Under your the wife
would the mother; and would my
temper.
"I can accept a death-blow, but I will not for
twenty-five years, like my mother. If, at the end of three years of
perfect, love, you can be to me with your
father-in-law's mistress, what may I to have in later
years? Indeed, monsieur, you have your career of profligacy
much than my father did, the life of dissipation, which is
a to the father of a family, which the respect
of his children, and which ends in and despair.
"I am not unforgiving. Unrelenting do not erring
under the of God. If you win and fortune
by work, if you have nothing to do with and
ignoble, ways, you will me still a wife of
you.
"I you to be too much a gentleman, Monsieur le Comte, to
have to the law. You will respect my wishes, and me
under my mother's roof. Above all, let me see you there. I
have left all the money to you by that woman.
Farewell.
"HORTENSE HULOT."
This was in anguish. Hortense herself to the tears, the of love. She her pen and took it up again, to as as possible all that in this of letter. Her in exclamations, and weeping; but the words.
Informed by Louise that all was ready, the wife slowly the little garden, through the and drawing-room, looking at for the last time. Then she the cook to take the for her master's comfort, promising to her if she would be honest. At last she got into the coach to drive to her mother's house, her broken, so much as to the maid, and little Wenceslas with kisses, which her still love for his father.
The Baroness already from Lisbeth that the father-in-law was to for the son-in-law's fault; was she to see her daughter, she approved, and she to give her shelter. Adeline, that her own and patience had Hector, for her respect was fast diminishing, her very right to another course.
In three the mother had two of which the pain was than any ill-fortune she had endured. The Baron had Victorin and his wife in great difficulties; and then, by Lisbeth's account, he was the of his son-in-law's misconduct, and had Wenceslas. The of the father of the family, so long by her self-sacrifice, was now overthrown. Though they did not the money the Hulots were full of and as the Baron. This sentiment, which was enough, the Baroness; she a break-up of the family tie.
Hortense was in the dining-room, as a with the help of the Marshal's money, and the the dining-room, as it is in many apartments.
When Wenceslas returned home and had read the two letters, he a of with regret. Kept so under his wife's eye, so to speak, he had against this fresh thraldom, a la Lisbeth. Full with love for three years past, he too had been the last fortnight; and he a family on his hands. He had just been by Stidmann on the he had in Valerie; for Stidmann, with an under-thought that was not unnatural, saw that he might the husband's in the of the victim. And Wenceslas was to be able to return to Madame Marneffe.
Still, he the pure and he had known, the perfections of his wife, her judgment, her and affection,—and he her acutely. He of going at once to his mother-in-law's to forgiveness; but, in fact, like Hulot and Crevel, he to Madame Marneffe, to he his wife's to her what a she had caused, and to discount his misfortune, so to speak, by in return the his give him.
He Crevel with Valerie. The mayor, up with pride, up and the room, by a of feelings. He put himself into position as if he were about to speak, but he not. His was beaming, and he now and again to the window, where he on the with his fingers. He looking at Valerie with a of pathos. Happily for him, Lisbeth presently came in.
"Cousin Betty," he said in her ear, "have you the news? I am a father! It to me I love my Celestine the less. Oh! what a thing it is to have a child by the woman one idolizes! It is the of the added to that of the flesh! I say—tell Valerie that I will work for that child—it shall be rich. She tells me she has some for that it will be a boy! If it is a boy, I shall on his being called Crevel. I will my about it."
"I know how much she loves you," said Lisbeth. "But for her in the future, and for your own, yourself. Do not your hands every five minutes."
While Lisbeth was speaking on this wise to Crevel, Valerie had asked Wenceslas to give her her letter, and she was saying that all his griefs.
"So now you are free, my dear," said she. "Ought any great artist to marry? You live only by and freedom! There, I shall love you so much, poet, that you shall your wife. At the same time, if, like so many people, you want to keep up appearances, I to Hortense to you in a very time."
"Oh, if only that were possible!"
"I am of it," said Valerie, nettled. "Your father-in-law is a man who is in every way done for; who wants to appear as though he be loved, out of conceit, and to make the world that he has a mistress; and he is so on this point, that I can do what I with him. The Baroness is still so to her old Hector—I always as if I were talking of the Iliad—that these two old will to up you and Hortense. Only, if you want to avoid at home for the future, do not me for three without to see your mistress—I was of it. My dear boy, some is from a to a woman he has so compromised, when, as in my case, she has to be very of her reputation.
"Stay to dinner, my darling—and that I must you with all the more you are of this too mishap."
Baron Montes was presently announced; Valerie rose and to meet him; she spoke a in his ear, on him the same as she had on Wenceslas; the Brazilian a to the great news which him with delight, for he, at any was sure of his paternity.
Thanks to these tactics, on the of the man in the lover stage of his existence, Valerie sat to table with four men, all pleased and to please, all charmed, and each himself adored; called by Marneffe, who himself, in speaking to Lisbeth, the five Fathers of the Church.
Baron Hulot alone at an countenance, and this was why. Just as he was the office, the of the staff of had come to his private room—a General with he had for thirty years—and Hulot had spoken to him as to Marneffe to Coquet's place, Coquet having to retire.
"My dear fellow," said he, "I would not ask this of the Prince without our having on the matter, and that you approved."
"My good friend," the other, "you must allow me to that, for your own sake, you should not on this nomination. I have already told you my opinion. There would be a in the office, where there is a great too much talk already about you and Madame Marneffe. This, of course, is ourselves. I have no wish to touch you on a spot, or you in any way, and I will prove it. If you are to Monsieur Coquet's place, and he will be a in the War Office, for he has been here since 1809, I will go into the country for a fortnight, so as to the open you and the Marshal, who loves you as a son. Then I shall take neither part, and shall have nothing on my as an administrator."
"Thank you very much," said Hulot. "I will on what you have said."
"In myself to say so much, my dear friend, it is your personal is more than any or of mine. In the place, the with the Marshal. And then, my good fellow, we are for so many things, that one more or less! We are not at the stage in our of fault-finding. Under the Restoration, men were put in to give them places, without any for the office. We are old friends "
"Yes," the Baron put in; "and it is in order not to our old and valued that I "
"Well, well," said the manager, Hulot's with embarrassment, "I will take myself off, old fellow. But I you! you have enemies—that is to say, men who your appointment, and you have but one out. Now if, like me, you were a Deputy, you would have nothing to fear; so mind what you are about."
This speech, in the most spirit, a on the Councillor of State.
"But, after all, Roger, what is it that is wrong? Do not make any with me."
The as Roger looked at Hulot, took his hand, and pressed it.
"We are such old friends, that I am to give you warning. If you want to keep your place, you must make a for yourself, and of the Marshal to give Coquet's place to Marneffe, in your place I would him to use his to a seat for me on the General Council of State; there you may die in peace, and, like the beaver, all else to the pursuers."
"What, do you think the Marshal would "
"The Marshal has already taken your part so at a General Meeting of the Ministers, that you will not now be out; but it was discussed! So give them no excuse. I can say no more. At this moment you may make your own terms; you may on the Council of State and be a Peer of the Chamber. If you too long, if you give any one a against you, I can answer for nothing. Now, am I to go?"
"Wait a little. I will see the Marshal," Hulot, "and I will send my to see which way the wind at headquarters."
The in which the Baron came to Madame Marneffe's may be imagined; he had almost his fatherhood, for Roger had taken the part of a true and friend in the position. At the same time Valerie's was so great that, by the middle of dinner, the Baron was up to the pitch, and was all the more for having to conceal; but the man was not yet aware that in the of that he would himself in a stick, his and the pointed out by his friend—compelled, in short, to choose Madame Marneffe and his official position.
