Claude's Confession and Other Early Novels of Émile Zola. Эмиль Золя

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ calmed down, their sentences became longer, their voices softer; soon there was nothing but a murmur. Daniel at last heard the slight noise of a kiss.

      He wished to remain no longer. He went back to the antechamber, where he found Louis, who said to him in a dignified way, without a smile on his face:

      “I do not think monsieur will receive you to-day.”

      Daniel had already opened the door.

      “Is Mademoiselle Jeanne at home?” asked he.

      Louis was so astonished at this question that he very nearly lost his imperturbable calm.

      “On, no! she is with her aunt, Madame Tellier.”

      And when Daniel asked him that lady’s address he gave it him. She was residing in the rue d’Amsterdam.

      Monsieur de Rionne felt that he could not possibly keep his daughter near him. Besides, he was not sorry to be rid of a witness of his movements, who might have been in his way later. So he left her to take her chance with his sister, without troubling himself about her future.

      “She will be better off with you,” he said to Madame Tellier; “a woman is necessary in the education of a girl. If I had had a boy I would have looked after him myself.” But he was lying; what he fervently wished for was full freedom to do as he pleased.

      Daniel went away, repeating to himself the address just given him. He was dying of fatigue and hunger, but he would not rest a moment, and hurried on to the rue d’Amsterdam.

      The shower had cleared the air, a bright sun was shining, and the pavements were dry again. The young man rubbed the mud off his boots and the bottom of his trousers, and wiped away the marks of rain on his hat.

      Madame Tellier lived at one of those big new houses, with wide, plain fronts, ornamented with sculpture. The high, narrow carriage-entrance opened on to a courtyard, where there was just room for a bed of flowers.

      Daniel boldly advanced up the carriage entrance. But as he was passing through he was very nearly crushed by a landau, which suddenly came out with a clattering noise, and he only just had time to take refuge on the narrow path.

      In the landau he noticed a lady of between twenty-five and thirty, who looked at him with contemptuous indifference. She was wonderfully dressed in a rich and elaborate costume. She resembled Julia, or at least tried to resemble her in her fascinating look and the way she was bedecked.

      Daniel went up to a parlour-maid who lingered on the doorsteps, watching the carriage driving away, and asked for Madame Tellier.

      “She has just gone out,” answered the girl; “you saw her pass in her carriage.”

      Daniel stood confused. So, thought he, that extraordinarily-dressed lady is Jeanne’s new mother; and at this thought he experienced a sickening sensation of fear.

      At sixteen Monsieur de Rionne’s sister had been a very ambitious and decided young person, desirous of extracting every possible enjoyment out of existence. She had set the question of marriage before her like an arithmetical problem, and she had evolved that problem with all the precision of a mathematician. With a clear brain she saw distinctly where her own interests lay. The world of morality was non-existent for her, and her heart grasped it in no way. Very narrow when it was a question of passion or sentiment, she showed herself very clever the moment she had to do with the disposal of her person and fortune.

      She had early grown to detest the nobility, the class in which she was born. She used to say that among such people the men simply devour everything, and the women very soon have no more than a miserable twenty dresses to put on. She looked down on her brother’s establishment with a pitying condescension, and she thought what a fool poor Blanche had been in marrying a man who kept all the pleasures of life for himself. She had boldly married a tradesman, knowing full well that such a man would toil for her, and that she would be the only one to dip into his purse. And she did dip her hand deeply into it, knowing that it was practically inexhaustible. Her calculation turned out exact at all points. Monsieur Tellier kept his parvenu habits; he increased the common store without diminishing it himself. His wife, the days when she was in good humour, was quite convinced that she was the de Rionne of the family.

      She had one anxiety, however. The tradesman was gradually turning into the politician, and spoke of going into Parliament. At heart she would have preferred that he should keep on quietly as he was.

      She had become the queen of fashion, but the title cost her dear. She had a delightful notoriety for extravagance; she took up anything outré, and immediately transformed it into supreme elegance.

      She nourished a terrible hatred against Julia and her kind, for she was frequently obliged to copy them; but she discovered a way when copying them of exaggerating their style — of going beyond them, and appearing to set them the fashion, instead of their doing so for her. She had thus reached the stage of madness with respect to dress, and all the fashionable women in Paris vied with her in folly.

      One day at the races she had been insulted by a man who mistook her for a loose woman. She pretended to be furious, wept, made herself known and demanded an apology. But at heart she was delighted.

      Daniel, as she passed, had a rapid intuition of all this, and stood before the servant, not daring to ask her any questions.

      But she was a good sort of girl, and seeing her smile, he asked:

      “I beg your pardon, but is Mademoiselle de Rionne at home?”

      “Oh, no!” answered she. “She was always at madame’s heels, and madame is far too nervous to endure a child perpetually round her.”

      “And where is she now?”

      “She was taken to a convent a week ago.” Daniel stood thunderstruck. Hesitatingly he added:

      “Will she stay long in the convent? When will she come back?”

      “Oh! but how do I know?” answered the servant girl, who was beginning to be irritated. “I really believe madame intends leaving her there quite twelve years.”

      CHAPTER VI

      Table of Contents

      TWELVE years passed away. During that long space of time there was no special event in Daniel’s life. Day succeeded day calmly and evenly, and memories of former times were awakened in him; years seemed like months.

      He lived within himself, isolating himself, happy in the constant thought which guided him in the world. Jeanne was ever before him in all his actions, in all his thoughts. This species of monomania placed him in a region of peace far from the shame and misery of the world. He was held up at every step by the vision of that fair girl, whom he saw always as quite little, with the sweet smile of an angel.

      And this curious kind of ecstasy gave him a solemn look as of the priest passing through the streets with God in his heart. When he was suddenly appealed to, his thoughts always seemed to come down from above, while he was struggling to adapt them to earthly things.

      He was no longer the gawky youth, with a wild look, who did not know what to do with his arms and legs; he had developed into a gentle-looking man, СКАЧАТЬ