Arthur Sherburne Hardy

“ Monsieur Nicolas was safe.
Poor Antoine! It was so much easier to be a man in spirit than in strength.
Although wanting in affection, Mademoiselle Pélagie was not without a conscience. Under its goadings she sat far into the night by Antoine's bedside, holding his feverish hand in hers. From time to time she looked up at the wooden soldier. Had pleadings softened the peddler's heart, or had the little rascal stolen it from some dark corner where it reposed while its owner was finishing a glass of wine? At all events, there on the shelf were both images—for two francs! ”

“ The wooden soldier took so long a breath at this point that Antoine feared he was about to resume his shako and musket.
"Love like ours, my child, proceeds rapidly. It is impossible to resist it. Having once possessed myself of Aurélie's hand, I wished to possess myself of everything that was hers; and in the darkness of those summer nights we sat clasped in each other's embrace, forgetting that there was any other world but ours, or any other heaven than that of our lips and the pressure of our arms. ”

“ The wooden soldier had risen to his feet and was walking to and fro before the image of the Virgin.
"Ah, my dear mother," he exclaimed, "what sinister foreboding possessed your soul at that moment! Antoine," he continued, stopping just above the bed at the end of the shelf, "when no cloud obscures the sky, when your heart is bursting with happiness, and evil seems incredible, have a care! Fortune is about to play you a trick." ”

“ That is why I am content to stand so many years on this shelf beside this image—not because I have any particular affection for the Virgin, but because I am reminded of many things which no longer exist except in memory."
"But do you not love the Virgin?" interrupted Antoine.
"I am a practical man," replied the wooden soldier; "therefore I concern myself only with what is to be seen." ”

“ I have heard my mother say so often."
"That is possible," said Nicolas, shifting one leg over the other and pressing the tobacco down into the bowl of his pipe. "I will not deny that of which I know nothing. On that point you must consult Mademoiselle Pélagie. I have noticed that women are more versed in such matters, and very probably she has some experience. Without experience it is impossible to affirm or even to invent anything worth listening to."
"It must be Aunt Pélagie has no experience," replied Antoine, after a moment of reflection, "for she never tells me any stories." ”

“ Thus it happened that the wooden soldier took the vacant place between the Satyr of Praxiteles and the Cupid of Lysippus, marched down the winding street, and, after a glass of wine at the Sign of the White Fawn, disappeared with the miniature of Aurélie on the road through the meadows.
Never before had Antoine so studied the clock as on that morning at school. On his way thither he heard the drum of the town-crier in the great square and saw the army of Couthon defiling through the streets of Lyons. ”

“ Antoine made no answer, but he shivered under the bedclothes.
"You will not be surprised when I tell you that Aurélie had had other suitors. Rivals are not generally included among those things to which love is blind. But they did not trouble me. Absorbed in my own happiness and the certainty of Aurélie, the rest of the world was as if it did not exist. As I have told you, I was born in 1774. At the time of which I speak I was nineteen years of age. When you have mastered the science of numbers," said the wooden soldier, counting his fingers, "you will find it was therefore the year 1793. ”

“ She made no mention of the wooden soldier, and Madame Berger, the mother of so large a family that the temporary disappearance of one of its members was not a matter for great concern, comforted her somewhat.
Meanwhile a little bedraggled figure was stumbling homeward along the uneven pavement. Stained with mud, his blue blouse discolored by the rain, Antoine was scarcely recognizable. So furious was the wind that only by pushing with all his strength could he close the door behind him. ”

“ It is certain that without that experience you will remain in ignorance of many things, like Mademoiselle Pélagie. However, should you do so, have a care. It is a serious business."
"I will recollect what you say," replied Antoine submissively.
"When that malady attacks you, you will know it. Yet it is the easiest thing in the world to fall in love. It seems only yesterday," pursued the wooden soldier, laying down his pipe, "that I was walking down Rue de Petit Savoyard. ”

“ In that year every man's hand was turned against his neighbor in the name of fraternity, and tyrants preached the equality of man. It is fortunate for you that you live in days of peace and tranquillity. When you are older you will study that uprising of a nation and lament all those follies which stained the purity of its ambition and divided with the sublimest deeds the energy which so astonished the world. Our city of Lyons had revolted against the sanguinary policy of the Jacobins, but had at last been forced to open its gates to the armies of the Convention. ”