THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ÉMILE ZOLA. Эмиль Золя

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      Monsieur Tellier then took it into his head to sit down again in his armchair. He definitely accepted Daniel’s services, and plunged into political questions of the most intricate kind. The poor young man was beginning his apprenticeship as an obedient piece of furniture.

      In the midst of a long diatribe the orator was most disagreeably interrupted by peals of laughter which issued from a neighbouring room.

      “Uncle, uncle!” cried a young voice, and the door immediately opened.

      A tall young girl came in boisterously, and running to Monsieur Tellier she showed him two birds shut up in a gilt cage that she was holding in her hand.

      “Oh, do look, uncle!” said she; “do look how pretty they are, with their red breasts, their yellow wings, and their black aigrettes! Some one has just made me a present of them.” And she laughed, with her head thrown back in order to see the little captives better, her movements displaying the most charming grace.

      Tall girl as she was, she had still the manner of a child. She seemed to fill the gloomy study with light and air; her white skirt shed a soft clear brilliancy around her; her face shone like a vermilion star. She flitted about with the cage in her hand, taking possession of the whole room, leaving behind her the fresh perfume of youth and beauty. Then she drew herself up, became serious and proud-looking, with her broad forehead and deep eyes in haughty and ignorant maidenhood.

      It was little Jeanne — his little Jeanne! Daniel had risen trembling, gazing at his dear daughter with a kind of respectful terror. He had never dreamt that she could have grown up. He had always pictured her just as he had left her, and he expected when he saw her again he would have to stoop down to kiss her on the forehead.

      And now here she was — tall, beautiful, and proud-looking. She seemed to him very much the same as those other women that laughed at him. Not for anything in the world would he have gone up and kissed her. At the thought that she would soon see him he felt quite faint.

      Surely a stranger had been substituted for his little girl. He wanted a child, not a young lady, for never could he address this grand and beautiful person, who laughed so gaily, and seemed so proud. In the first moment of surprise he scarcely understood what he was doing there; he had forgotten what the dead woman had said to him. He took refuge in a corner, standing bolt upright and not knowing what to do with his hands. But notwithstanding his nervousness, he could not keep his eyes off the young girl; he was considering how like she was to her mother and he felt a delicious warmth creeping into his heart.

      Jeanne, who was attending to her uncle’s remonstrances, did not even see him. Monsieur Tellier, vexed at being interrupted, looked at her severely, half inclined to be angry. These outbursts of the young girl were not pleasing to him, as they disturbed him in his reflections.

      “Good Heavens!” said he, “you come in like a whirlwind; you are no longer at school now. Try and be a little more considerate.”

      Jeanne, much hurt, became serious, and a scarcely perceptible smile of disdain was noticeable on her rosy lips; she looked as though she were suppressing a feeling of rebellion. Her clear vision had certainly penetrated all her uncle’s folly, and her eyes, twinkling with malicious fun, alone protested against the seriousness he wanted to impose upon her.

      “All the more considerate,” pompously added Monsieur Tellier, “that I have company at the present moment.”

      Jeanne turned round to see where the company was, and perceived Daniel in his corner. She looked at him with curiosity for a second or two, then she pouted a little with disappointment. She had never got nearer loving anything but the images of the saints at her convent and the lanky youth, with plain features, who stood awkwardly there, by no means recalled to her those saints, with their clear-cut profiles and silky looking beards.

      Daniel had lowered his eyes when she turned to look at him. He was blushing and he felt unhappy. Never would he have thought that this meeting, so ardently longed for during many years, would be so painful to him. He remembered the emotion which agitated him when he came to the rue d’Amsterdam; he had a vision of himself in the street, delirious with excitement and dreaming of taking Jeanne in his arms and carrying her off. Now he was there, trembling before the young girl, with not a word to say for himself.

      A hidden force, however, seemed to be driving him towards Jeanne. After the first few moments of timidity he was tempted to kneel at her feet. It was not Monsieur Tellier’s presence which restrained him, for he had quite forgotten where he was; but the crushing sense of the true state of affairs rivetted him to the spot. He perceived clearly that Jeanne did not recognise him. He had caught sight of the young girl’s pout, and a deep shame filled his heart with bitterness. She did not love him — she never would — and by that he meant that he could never be as a father to her and she could never be as a daughter to him.

      Whilst he thus meditated Jeanne advanced, took up the cage, and tripped away, without answering a single word to her uncle’s remonstrances. When she had left the room Monsieur Tellier said:

      “My young friend, I broke off at the theoretical question of association. Put two workmen together...

      And so he rambled on for a whole hour. Daniel kept nodding his head as a sign of approval, without listening. He was surreptitiously looking towards the door by which Jeanne had disappeared.

      CHAPTER VIII

      THE next day Daniel was settled at Monsieur Tellier’s. He was to occupy a rather big room on the fourth storey, in which the windows looked out on the courtyard. He had to work in the mornings from eight o’clock to mid-day in the study. His work consisted in writing a few letters, and listening to the interminable orations of the deputy, who seemed to be trying the effect of his speeches on his secretary. Then in the afternoon Daniel spent his time in arranging the mass of papers which Monsieur Tellier invariably left about. In the evening he was free.

      Daniel had expressed a desire to eat in his own room, and the first few days the servants of the establishment did not even know of his presence there. He proceeded straight to the study very quietly. Then he shut himself up, and was seen and heard no more.

      One night, however, he went out to see George. His friend found him careworn and anxious-looking. He did not say a word of the life he was now leading. He talked feverishly of the past. George understood that he was seeking consolation in its memories. He proposed to him, not without hesitation, to come back and lodge with him, and take up their common task again. But Daniel refused, almost angrily.

      During those sad first days at Monsieur Tellier’s he had only had one idea — to fathom Jeanne’s heart, and find out what they had done with his dear little daughter to make her change so. She was restored to him very different from what he left her, and he asked himself who this grand young lady with the disdainful smile could be.

      He turned himself into a sort of private detective. He spied on Jeanne’s actions, taking note of her slightest movements, her slightest word. He was angry that he could not obtain a greater acquaintance with her. All he saw of her was just when she was passing through a room; all he heard of her was just a laugh when she was saying a few hurried words. He dared not approach her more closely. She seemed to him unapproachable, surrounded by a blinding halo. When she was before him in the dazzling brightness of her beauty and youth he felt overpowered as if by the presence of a divinity.

      Every afternoon towards four o’clock, when it was fine, he took up his place at the window.”

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