Paul de Kock

“ Ah! how lucky you are to have your mother, Georget, and to be able to work for her! If I only knew mine, I would take such pleasure in giving her the fruit of my work, in kissing her and coddling her and taking every care of her! Oh, yes! I would have loved my mother dearly! but I never had one, or rather she is dead; or else—she deserted me!”
“There, now it is you who are sad! don’t think about all that any more, mamzelle; they say that children without parents, and without a name, are the ones who always make their fortune.” ”

“ It seems to me that one has nothing more to wish for when one is a flower girl!”
“Well, my child, sit down here, by my side. I am alone, I have no children, and no one depending on me; I am beginning not to be so smart as I used to be; if you choose to stay with me and always be as good—as—as you were when you took the two little girls to walk, why, I will keep you, I will give you part of my profits; in fact, I will make a flower girl of you; does that suit you?”
“Does it suit me,—to be a flower girl! ”

“ Yes, Violette, I love you. I must pluck up courage to tell you, if you refuse to believe it; I love you to the point of—but I mustn’t tell you that.”
“What is it? Come, Georget, finish. You say nothing? Poor boy! you imagine that you love me; but in a month, in less than that perhaps, you will have something else in your mind. You are a child, do you know! A boy should never talk of love until he’s twenty-one.” ”

“ Courtesy is a thing so rare among street peddlers, and even elsewhere! There are so many people who think that they acquire the air of being somebody by affecting an insolent tone and a contemptuous glance! Poor fools! If they did not arouse laughter, they would arouse compassion.
But was this flower girl, who expressed herself in better language than others of her trade, the child of rich people stricken by misfortune? Was it to support destitute and infirm parents that that pretty girl had decided to take up a business for which she was not born? ”

“ I don’t ask any questions.”
“But I don’t want you to think of me as a bad son, as a fellow who prefers the life of a vagabond in Paris to his mother’s happiness, monsieur. No; I would rather tell you everything. I am in love, monsieur; yes, madly in love with a young flower girl at the Château d’Eau, on the boulevard yonder. Violette is so pretty, and a respectable, virtuous girl, who doesn’t listen to anybody!” ”

“ Do you want a bouquet? Here’s a very pretty one,—as monsieur doesn’t take it.”
“Yes—that is to say, you must make me one; but I’ll explain what you must put in it: I want some heliotrope—that’s the flower of witty people; then some myrtle—that means interest, affection; and a tulip in the centre—that means an honest heart, decent behavior.”
“What, my dear Astianax, does the tulip mean all that?” said Jéricourt, laughingly; “I should never have suspected it. The devil! you are very learned about flowers. Go on—what else do you want?” ”

“ To Georget’s mind, the best way to find an excuse for his wrongdoing was to go to her who was the cause of his committing it; so that was what he did not fail to do; and as he looked at the fascinating flower girl, he said to himself:
“As if it would have been possible for me to live without seeing her! Oh, no! I should have died of grief, and that would have made my mother more unhappy than all the rest! So I did well not to accept Monsieur Malberg’s offer.”
Thus it is that man always finds a way to compromise with his conscience and to put himself on pleasant terms with it. ”

“ But one’s love for one’s mother, monsieur! that ought not to grow any less in our hearts; but it is less unreasonable than the other. Ah! if you knew Violette, monsieur, you would understand that I cannot cease to love her. She is so pretty! She has her stand on the boulevard, near the Château d’Eau; would you like me to tell her to bring you a bouquet? ”

“ Still there are many who possess all Violette’s advantages, but whom we pass without being charmed by them; the reason is, that it is not always sufficient to be beautiful in order to attract; a woman must also have in herself that indefinable something which fascinates, which surprises, which allures, which gives expression to the face and charm to the voice. That something is a gift of nature, which coquetry tries in vain to supply, and the flower girl had that gift. ”

“ Since Monsieur Malberg had gone to live at Nogent-sur-Marne, Georget, having no errands to do for him, had plenty of time to see the pretty flower girl and to talk to her; when she scolded him because he did not work, the messenger would reply with a sigh:
“Bless me! mamzelle, it isn’t my fault if no work comes to me! I certainly don’t refuse any, and although I am very happy with you, I often regret that I don’t earn more money during the day—not for myself, for I always have more than I need, but for my mother, whom I would like to make more comfortable.” ”

“ I have no need of bouquets, and I take your word for all that you say of this girl.”
“Then, monsieur, with your permission, I will go right away and tell my mother what you are kind enough to offer her.”
“Go, Georget, and come back and tell me her answer.”
“Happy age,” said Monsieur Malberg to himself as he watched the young messenger walk away; “happy age, when one does not doubt constancy in love, when one believes in the sincerity of friendship! I, too, believed in those things, but I was most cruelly undeceived! He sacrifices everything to his love for a woman! Poor boy! ”

“ Besides, Madame Dufournelle’s coquetry is evident to everybody. Her husband sees nothing in all that! Poor fellow! so long as he has somebody to play billiards with him, he doesn’t care about anything else.”
“He isn’t jealous, madame, and he is very wise; that proves that he has some intelligence.”
“Ah! you think that, do you? I have known husbands of much intelligence who were as jealous as tigers! Say rather that that fat Dufournelle is not in love with his wife. Indeed, he’s too fat to be amorous.”
“Mon Dieu! what spiteful creatures women are! ”

“ Little Astianax walked for some distance among the booths and shrubs, for it was flower market day on Boulevard Saint-Martin; then he approached Violette with an indifferent air and began to look at her flowers. The girl, recognizing the little man with the squint, acted as if she did not see him and kept on making a bouquet.
“All these flowers are lovely! they are all as fresh as you are!” said Astianax at last, vexed because the flower girl paid no attention to him. ”

“ You are coming to dine with us, Jéricourt, are you not?”
“Impossible.”
“Bah! why impossible?”
“Because I dine with this lovely girl, with the flower girl.—Isn’t it true, Violette, that you will dine with me to-day?”
“Monsieur, I thought that I answered you the other day in such a way that you would not give me any more such invitations.”
“My dear love, you are too fascinating to remain virtuous long; why shouldn’t you give me the preference? I will give you your own apartment, pretty furniture, pretty dresses; the theatre every evening; that’s the life that awaits you!” ”

“ Violette reached the age of fifteen, sixteen, and became so pretty and her figure assumed such graceful proportions that people began to notice the young flower girl, and Mère Gazon’s business constantly increased. Then came the lady-killers, the oglers, the gallants, who tried to make love to Violette, but she did not listen to them, or at all events paid no heed to what they said. Moreover, Mère Gazon was there and said to those who paid her companion compliments:
“For heaven’s sake, let the child alone! You see well enough that you bother her with your fine words, without head or tail! ”

“ I don’t propose that they shall make me play a supernumerary, or Monsieur Camuzard’s sweetheart—it’s so agreeable when he speaks to you; he would kill a fly on the wing! And it’s of no use to try to get away from it, for he has a mania for talking into your face.”
“What do you expect, my dear love? everybody hasn’t a perfumed breath.”
“No, indeed! I should think not! in fact, it’s a sad thing to see how rapidly mankind is degenerating! But there are people who seem to take pleasure in poisoning one. ”

“ Jéricourt and little Astianax were greatly surprised when they saw the newcomer take the bouquet from the girl’s hands, saying:
“How much for this bouquet?”
“Three francs, monsieur.”
“Three francs! Pardieu! that’s nothing at all; bouquets seem to be cheap in this quarter. I’ll take it. Here, my pretty flower girl, pay yourself.”
And he handed Violette a five-franc piece; whereupon little Astianax stood on tiptoe and cried:
“But I bargained for that bouquet before you did, monsieur, and I am going to buy it. You can’t purchase it, not you.” ”

“ Those who were to take part in the play were to arrive early, for it was felt that there should be another rehearsal, because there are innumerable things, innumerable details of the mise-en-scène, which one does not notice until the moment of the performance; it is then a little late to rehearse them, but the zeal of the actors makes up for the lack of time.
Monsieur Glumeau had risen as light as a feather, he was not conscious of the slightest ailment, and he continued to dance through his rôles; frequently confusing that of the tyrant Sacripandos with that of Pincette in the farce. ”

“ On scrutinizing the baroness closely, Monsieur Malberg had thought at first that he had made a mistake; nineteen years had caused so many changes! And all of us have a singular habit: if we are many years without seeing a woman, when we think of that woman, we always imagine her as she was when we saw her last. ”

“ I have promised to go to Nogent, to visit those Glumeaus, who are to have a family party, with theatricals.”
“The Glumeaus! Who on earth are they? Retired grocers?”
“No, they are—Faith, I don’t know what they used to do, nor do I care. If I had to inquire about such things as that, should I ever go into society? But they are excellent people; one enjoys oneself at their house; it is just like being at home. The company is a little mixed there perhaps, but isn’t it so everywhere? I met at Monsieur Glumeau’s a person whom I used to know, before I was married.” ”

“ About eleven o’clock Madame de Grangeville vanished from the salon, after looking about in vain for Monsieur de Merval. But he had departed some time before, and the elegant baroness, who had counted upon a gentleman to escort her home, entered her cab all alone, frowning and muttering:
“Ah! men aren’t so agreeable as they used to be!” ”