Original Short Stories – Volume 07. Guy de Maupassant

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СКАЧАТЬ in the doorway. Having greeted him, I asked if he would give me shelter for the night. He held out his hand and said, smiling:

      “Come in, monsieur, consider yourself at home.”

      He led me into a room, and put a man servant at my disposal with the perfect ease and familiar graciousness of a man-of-the-world. Then he left me saying:

      “We will dine as soon as you are ready to come downstairs.”

      We took dinner, sitting opposite each other, on a terrace facing the sea. I began to talk about this rich, distant, unknown land. He smiled, as he replied carelessly:

      “Yes, this country is beautiful. But no country satisfies one when they are far from the one they love.”

      “You regret France?”

      “I regret Paris.”

      “Why do you not go back?”

      “Oh, I will return there.”

      And gradually we began to talk of French society, of the boulevards, and things Parisian. He asked me questions that showed he knew all about these things, mentioned names, all the familiar names in vaudeville known on the sidewalks.

      “Whom does one see at Tortoni’s now?

      “Always the same crowd, except those who died.” I looked at him attentively, haunted by a vague recollection. I certainly had seen that head somewhere. But where? And when? He seemed tired, although he was vigorous; and sad, although he was determined. His long, fair beard fell on his chest. He was somewhat bald and had heavy eyebrows and a thick mustache.

      The sun was sinking into the sea, turning the vapor from the earth into a fiery mist. The orange blossoms exhaled their powerful, delicious fragrance. He seemed to see nothing besides me, and gazing steadfastly he appeared to discover in the depths of my mind the far-away, beloved and well-known image of the wide, shady pavement leading from the Madeleine to the Rue Drouot.

      “Do you know Boutrelle?”

      “Yes, indeed.”

      “Has he changed much?”

      “Yes, his hair is quite white.”

      “And La Ridamie?”

      “The same as ever.”

      “And the women? Tell me about the women. Let’s see. Do you know Suzanne Verner?”

      “Yes, very much. But that is over.”

      “Ah! And Sophie Astier?”

      “Dead.”

      “Poor girl. Did you – did you know – ”

      But he ceased abruptly: And then, in a changed voice, his face suddenly turning pale, he continued:

      “No, it is best that I should not speak of that any more, it breaks my heart.”

      Then, as if to change the current of his thoughts he rose.

      “Would you like to go in?” he said.

      “Yes, I think so.”

      And he preceded me into the house. The downstairs rooms were enormous, bare and mournful, and had a deserted look. Plates and glasses were scattered on the tables, left there by the dark-skinned servants who wandered incessantly about this spacious dwelling.

      Two rifles were banging from two nails, on the wall; and in the corners of the rooms were spades, fishing poles, dried palm leaves, every imaginable thing set down at random when people came home in the evening and ready to hand when they went out at any time, or went to work.

      My host smiled as he said:

      “This is the dwelling, or rather the kennel, of an exile, but my own room is cleaner. Let us go there.”

      As I entered I thought I was in a second-hand store, it was so full of things of all descriptions, strange things of various kinds that one felt must be souvenirs. On the walls were two pretty paintings by well-known artists, draperies, weapons, swords and pistols, and exactly in the middle, on the principal panel, a square of white satin in a gold frame.

      Somewhat surprised, I approached to look at it, and perceived a hairpin fastened in the centre of the glossy satin. My host placed his hand on my shoulder.

      “That,” said he, “is the only thing that I look at here, and the only thing that I have seen for ten years. M. Prudhomme said: ‘This sword is the most memorable day of my life.’ I can say: ‘This hairpin is all my life.’”

      I sought for some commonplace remark, and ended by saying:

      “You have suffered on account of some woman?”

      He replied abruptly:

      “Say, rather, that I am suffering like a wretch.”

      “But come out on my balcony. A name rose to my lips just now which I dared not utter; for if you had said ‘Dead’ as you did of Sophie Astier, I should have fired a bullet into my brain, this very day.”

      We had gone out on the wide balcony from whence we could see two gulfs, one to the right and the other to the left, enclosed by high gray mountains. It was just twilight and the reflection of the sunset still lingered in the sky.

      He continued:

      “Is Jeanne de Limours still alive?”

      His eyes were fastened on mine and were full of a trembling anxiety. I smiled.

      “Parbleu – she is prettier than ever.”

      “Do you know her?”

      “Yes.”

      He hesitated and then said:

      “Very well?”

      “No.”

      He took my hand.

      “Tell me about her,” he said.

      “Why, I have nothing to tell. She is one of the most charming women, or, rather, girls, and the most admired in Paris. She leads a delightful existence and lives like a princess, that is all.”

      “I love her,” he murmured in a tone in which he might have said “I am going to die.” Then suddenly he continued:

      “Ah! For three years we lived in a state of terror and delight. I almost killed her five or six times. She tried to pierce my eyes with that hairpin that you saw just now. Look, do you see that little white spot beneath my left eye? We loved each other. How can I explain that infatuation? You would not understand it.”

      “There must be a simple form of love, the result of the mutual impulse of two hearts and two souls. But there is also assuredly an atrocious form, that tortures one cruelly, the result of the occult blending of two unlike personalities who detest each other at the same time that they adore one another.”

      “In three years this woman had ruined me. I had four million francs which she squandered in her calm manner, quietly, eat them up with СКАЧАТЬ