Paul de Kock

“ I realize fully now that I did some things which lacked common-sense, and I shall not make such a fool of myself again!"
"Oh! you are cured of your love for Fanny?" cried Adolphine, with an expression of delight which she could not restrain.
"No, dear Adolphine, no, that is not what I meant!" replied Gustave, sadly; "do what I will, I haven't yet been able to drive that love from my heart. But I meant simply that that unhappy passion will not lead me into doing any more such absurd, unreasonable things as I once did. I have become a man; if I suffer, I can at least conceal my suffering. ”

“ No; there are some people who were born to love alone, never to meet a heart that understands them."
"Why do you say that to me, Gustave?"
"Well, what does it matter, after all? a man cannot change his destiny. Adieu, Adolphine!"
"Are you going away, Gustave? Where are you going?"
"Oh! I don't know, but I feel that I must leave Paris again. I cannot be here when she marries the count. I am a fool, I know it perfectly well; your sister deserves no regret; but one does not lose all one's illusions without suffering. ”

“ As for Fanny, she was absolutely unembarrassed; she smiled sweetly on Gustave, greeted him as if she had seen him the day before, and said, pointing to a seat by her side:
"So here you are at last, monsieur le voyageur! Mon Dieu! you seem to be imitating the Wandering Jew nowadays; you travel all the time, you are never at rest. Do you know, monsieur, that your friends are not reconciled to your long absences, and you surely will put an end to your peregrinations—unless you have a fancy to discover a new world?" ”

“ But Cherami, far from complaining of that liberty, passed his arm through his new acquaintance's, saying:
"Ah! that young man is Auguste Monléard, is he? Wait! wait! Monléard; I knew a Monléard, twenty years ago, but this can't be the same man. Is he the groom?"
"Yes; it is for him that she has forgotten me, thrown me aside."
"She is wrong. That young man is good-looking, but you are younger; and then, too, that fellow looks to me as if he had had a devilishly intimate acquaintance with the joys of life!—I don't impute it to him as a crime—but he'll soon have to wear a wig." ”

“ It's a fine thing; and a woman could not love you too well to recompense a passion as true and pure as yours!"
"Now, that we are alone, tell me, dear Adolphine, do you think that Fanny will receive me kindly? Do you think that my constancy will touch her? that her heart will be moved by it? Ambition and the wish to cut a figure in the world caused her to prefer Monsieur Monléard to me. I can readily forgive her, young as she was, for listening to vanity rather than love—for I fancy that she never had much love for her husband." ”

“ I say to myself that all women try to please, and that they cannot love all the men they have fascinated. I say to myself that this Monsieur Auguste Monléard offered her a brilliant fortune, and all the pleasures, all the enjoyment, all the luxury, in which, to a young woman, the happiness of life consists.—I say all this to myself, and I understand perfectly how she could have refused the poor clerk's hand to accept that of the man who was wealthy and distinguished. ”

“ She barely rested her hand upon it, and, light as a feather, she was already on the ground, where she seemed busily occupied in looking to see if her dress had been rumpled in the carriage.
"There she is! it is she! it is Fanny!" murmured the young man, leaning heavily on Cherami.
"She doesn't look to me at all as if she'd been crying," was the reply.
"Mon Dieu! can it be that she will not look in this direction?"
"What's the use? She would see that you are pale and distressed, with the look of a disinterred corpse; that's no way to appear before a woman, to make her regret you." ”

“ I was about to leave the house, fully resolved not to survive Fanny's treachery, when suddenly I felt a caressing hand on my arm, while a sweet voice said to me in an imploring tone: 'Be a man, Gustave, be brave; resolve to endure this misfortune, which seems to break your heart to-day. Time will allay your suffering—you will love another woman, who will love you in return, who will understand your heart; and later you will be happy—much happier, perhaps, than she, who thinks of nothing but money! But, I entreat you, promise me that you will live!'
"It was Adolphine who spoke to me thus. ”

“ Monsieur Batonnin thought it advisable to intervene.
"It always saddens one to say good-bye to one's friends," he murmured. "Life is so short! When we part, we are never sure of meeting again."
"What do you say, monsieur?" cried Adolphine, with a pathetic glance at Gustave.
"I had no purpose to grieve you, mademoiselle, believe me," Batonnin made haste to reply; "on the contrary, I came to solicit the honor of dancing the first contra-dance with you; for you surely have not forgotten that madame your sister gives a ball this evening?" ”

“ I thought you were Monsieur de Raincy."
"And she absolutely refuses to give her hand to him," said Fanny, with a laugh, "although he offers his name in exchange for it. Don't you think, Gustave, that she makes a great mistake in refusing that young man?"
"Why so, if she doesn't love him?"
"As if people married for love!"
Realizing that she had said something which might distress Gustave, the young woman hastily added:
"When a woman has never been married, she ought to be reasonable; with a widow, it's different; she can afford to obey the dictates of her heart." ”

“ While Cherami was forming these excellent resolutions, Gustave betook himself, without loss of time, to Monsieur Gerbault's house.
Adolphine was alone, trying, by dint of practising diligently on the piano, to forget for a moment the secret pain which was gnawing at her heart. Fanny's sister had changed perceptibly in the last few months; a genuine passion does not leave one unscathed; at nineteen years of age, such a passion occupies one's every moment, obtrudes itself upon one's every thought. ”

“ Does he act as if he still loved me? Oh! tell me everything he said, little sister; don't forget a single thing. It is very important; I must know what to expect."
Adolphine made an effort, and replied in a voice trembling with emotion:
"Yes, Monsieur Gustave told me that he still loved you, that he had never ceased to think of you."
"Oh! how sweet of him! There's constancy for you! And they say that men can't be faithful!—The poor fellows: how they are slandered! Dear Gustave! then he's well pleased that I am a widow, I suppose?" ”

“ Why should Monsieur Gustave fight for her, I should like to know, when she keeps making sport of him? A man doesn't fight, except for a person he loves; and I am very sure, for my part, that Monsieur Gustave never gives your sister a thought now."
"You think not, Madeleine?"
This question was asked with an eagerness which would have betrayed Adolphine's secret, if her maid had not already guessed it.
"But Fanny isn't married!" murmured Adolphine sadly, a moment later.
"Well, mamzelle, for my part, I am glad of it! She'd have kicked up altogether too much dust if she had been a countess." ”

“ Fanny will never be mine. Adieu, my friend! it's almost train time. Au revoir!"
Gustave hurried away, and left Cherami standing there bewildered by his sudden departure. He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then tapped his leg with his switch and said:
"Morbleu! my friend Gustave unhappy! the woman he loves snatched away from him a second time! and I am to endure it! I, his Pylades, to whom he loans money without taking account of it!—No, par la sambleu! I will not endure it. Ah! my little widow! you play fast and loose with a fine fellow like that! ”

“ You think so, Adolphine, because you haven't your sister's tastes; but all women aren't like you. Fanny loves society; she's a bit of a coquette, perhaps—that's a very pardonable fault. Thank heaven! I am so placed now that I can gratify the tastes of the woman whom I marry. I earn ten thousand francs a year; she will not be able to have horses in her stable and carriages in her carriage-house, but she will not be obliged to walk when she doesn't want to.—You don't answer me, Adolphine—do you think Fanny will consent to be my wife? ”

“ Having satisfied himself that he was not mistaken, Cherami stuffed the note into his cigar-case, muttering:
"A thousand francs! he gave me a thousand francs, and said: 'When that's gone, let me know!' Sacrebleu! this unexpected wealth bewilders me. That young man's behavior touches me; it makes me blush for my own. Come, Arthur, my good friend, do you propose to continue your dissipation, your foolish courses? And because you have fallen in with a whole-souled fellow who gave you money without counting it, are you going to work, as usual, to waste that money as you wasted your fortune? ”

“ Gustave soon completed his preparations for departure; he had but a few hours to remain in Paris, when he met Cherami.
"Where are we going so fast?" cried Beau Arthur, taking Gustave's hand. "What has happened? Our countenance is not so cheerful and happy as it was the last time? Can it be that anything has happened to interrupt the course of our loves?"
"My friend," replied Gustave, with a sigh, "there has been a great change, indeed, in my affairs since we last met. There is to be no marriage; the love affair is at an end. Fanny has betrayed me again. ”

“ A woman who shares her favors—who pretends to feel for one man the love which she really feels for another—oh! I should soon cease to love such a woman!"
Cherami shook his head, as he muttered:
"You are young, my dear Gustave; you are very young! You don't know the world as I do. You say that you still adore your Fanny, and that you wouldn't have her deceive her husband for you?" ”

“ I am an unlucky mortal, for my sadness constantly casts a shadow on the happiness of other people. But I am sure that you will forgive me, in memory of our former friendship.—Monsieur Gerbault, will you allow me to shake hands with you?"
The melancholy and at the same time dignified manner in which Gustave spoke banished the last trace of sternness from Monsieur Gerbault's face; he took the young man's hand and pressed it warmly, saying to him:
"Come, come, my friend, drive away the gloomy thoughts that assail you. At your age, the future is boundless. ”

“ It's foolish of me, I know that well enough; for nothing ever happens to my aunt, who lives here alone with her servant; but what can I do? one can't control those things. When my husband's in bed beside me, that gives me courage, and I can sleep a little. But without him—why, I can't close my eyes. If we only had a man in the house; but nothing but women and children! What would become of us if we should be attacked?"
"What's the meaning of this attempt to entrap me?" thought Cherami, stroking his whiskers; "I can see myself passing the night here, to eat more rabbit to-morrow morning! ”

“ Monsieur de la Bérinière, with his rumpled silk nightcap on his head, and his eyes still half-closed, was curled up in bed, covered to his nose by the bedclothes; and in that position he was entirely destitute of charms. So that Cherami, after eying him for a few seconds, said to himself:
"What! it was this old baked apple who was given the preference over my good-looking young friend Gustave! Damnation! women care even more for money than we men do! for our reason for wanting it is to get wives with it, while they take it to throw us over." ”

“ I don't like arguers."
"Such is life!" mused Cherami, resorting to the kirsch once more; "when you're with a woman who pleases you, when you're playing an exciting game of cards, time doesn't walk; it flies: hora vita simul! At other times, it crawls like a tortoise; and yet, the time is sure to come when we find that it has moved altogether too fast! That simply proves that men are never satisfied with the present. ”