Madame Geoffrin

“ Every one was openly criticised and honestly applauded according to his merit. The barren fecundity of Parny could find admirers as well as the noble poetry of Delille. There was scarcely, indeed, a distinction of coterie, so nicely were the elements of this society blended. The only dissidence which existed was between Madame Geoffrin and the Abbé Morellet, in consequence of the preference of Jean Jacques Rousseau for the house of the latter. Madame Geoffrin had sought by every means in her power to conciliate112 the good-will and favour of Jean Jacques, but she was too fond of patronage. ”

“ In her last illness her daughter, Thérèse, marquise de la Ferté Imbault, excluded her mother’s old friends so that she might die as a good Christian, a proceeding wittily described by the old lady: “My daughter is like Godfrey de Bouillon, she wished to defend my tomb from the infidels.” Mme Geoffrin died in Paris on the 6th of October 1777. ”

“ Mme. Geoffrin was too practical and had too much good common sense to be vain. The majority of men were influenced by and favored her, and, which seemed strange, she had few enemies among her own sex. Mme. Necker said: "The old age of Mme. Geoffrin is like that of old trees, whose age we know by the space they cover and the quantity of roots they spread. She has seen all the illustrious men of the century; she has discovered, with sagacity, their peculiarities and their defects. She judges them by their conduct, never by their talents." ”

“ GEOFFRIN, MARIE THÉRÈSE RODET (1699–1777) , a Frenchwoman who played an interesting part in French literary and artistic life, was born in Paris in 1699. She married, on the 19th of July 1713, Pierre François Geoffrin, a rich manufacturer and lieutenant-colonel of the National Guard, who died in 1750. It was not till Mme Geoffrin was nearly fifty years of age that we begin to hear of her as a power in Parisian society. She had learned much from Mme de Tencin, and about 1748 began to gather round her a literary and artistic circle. ”

“ A devoted Parisian, Mme Geoffrin rarely left the city, so that her journey to Poland in 1766 to visit the king, Stanislas Poniatowski, whom she had known in his early days in Paris, was a great event in her life. Her experiences induced a sensible gratitude that she had been born “Française” and “particulière.” ”

“ Geoffroy and Cuvier knew no jealousy then. In after years it was otherwise.
Geoffroy had a position—he shared it with his friend; he had books and collections—they were open to his rival; he had a lodging in the museum—it was shared between them. Daubenton, older and more worldly wise, warned Geoffroy against this zeal in fostering a formidable rival; and one day placed before him a copy of Lafontaine open at the fable of The Bitch and her Neighbour. But Geoffroy was not to be daunted, and probably felt himself strong enough to hold his own. ”

“ Geoffroy, meantime, had collected himself and now drew a ring from his finger.
"Do you know it?" he said to Garcinde. "With this little ring my father betrothed himself to my mother, and as in his case it betokened the firmest constancy--a constancy that was sealed by death--I now give it to thee, my passionately loved bride, and swear in presence of the Holy Trinity, and before our true friend, I will never be the husband of any other woman than Garcinde of Malaspina."
"And I will never be the wife of any other man than my Geoffroy," said the bride. ”

“ May pressed Geoffrey's hand with gentle sympathy.
"You have my real regrets," she said. "What a horrible thing it is to think that you are all powerless to help it. Good-bye."
Geoffrey found Ralph at the entrance to the castle gate. There was a queer smile on his face, a smile of amused expectation.
"You found her charming?" he asked.
"And clever," said Geoffrey. "I guessed your plot, uncle. She is very clever."
"The cleverest woman in the world, the most wicked, the most unscrupulous. Of course she asked you to dinner, and, of course, you will go. Nobody is to know of it, mind." ”

“ This she acquires by a thousand little arts and offices of friendship, and by a freedom and severity which seem to be her sole end for drawing a concourse to her. She has little taste and less knowledge, but protects artisans and authors, and courts a few people to have the credit of serving her dependents. In short, she is an epitome of empire, subsisting by rewards and punishments."
Later, when he was less disinterested, perhaps, he writes to another friend: "Mme. du Deffand hates the philosophers, so you must give them up to her. She and Mme. Geoffrin are no friends ”

“ Geoffrey repeated, in a startled tone.
“Very. There has been a most villainous plot connected with this affair.”
From Mr. Huntress’ manner, Geoffrey saw that something of a very grave nature had occurred.
“What is it?” he demanded. “Tell me at once; I can bear anything better than suspense.
“Geoff, there was a wedding!”
“Uncle August!”
“But no one save ourselves and our good doctor, as yet, suspects that there was anything wrong about it.”
“Are you crazy? What do you mean?” cried the young man, breathlessly. “A wedding? That could not be. ”

“ There! you have given yourself to me, darling, and there is a good life, I trust, before us; so let us dwell on that, and forget all minor evils. Together we can defy trouble!"
"Yes, that is a thought to dry all tears," she says, very sweetly, checking her sobs and raising her face, on which is dawning an adorable smile. Then, sighing heavily,—a sigh of utter exhaustion,—"You have done me good," she says. "I shall sleep now; and you my dearest, will be safe. Good-night until to-morrow!"
"How many hours there are in the night that we never count!" says Geoffrey, impatiently. "Good-night, Mona! ”

“ Geoffrin and of Mile, de Lespinasse, and he soon became intimate with d'Alembert and Turgot. His reception was no less cordial at court, where the children of the Dauphin met him, prepared with polite little speeches about his works. ”

“ Still Mr. Huntress noticed his paleness and the unusual gravity of his manner, and wondered at it, for he had seemed remarkably cheerful, even gay, the previous evening at Mrs. Loring’s.
“The boy is working too hard,” he said to himself, anxiously: “he has too much ambition for his strength,” and he resolved to caution him anew before he left.
As they arose from the table Geoffrey looked at his watch.
“Uncle August,” he said, a hot flush mantling his cheek, “I have an hour just before I need to go. Can I see you alone for a little while on a matter of business?” ”

“ I love her as a man loves the woman whom he wishes to make his wife,” said Geoffrey, with a very pale face, for the die was cast now, and he waited the result with fear and trembling.
“Humph! and this is your confession?”
“Yes, sir; I hope you will not regard me as a viper that turns and stings the hand that nourishes it,” the young man pleaded, with emotion.
August Huntress did not reply for a moment. ”

“ How silent you are, old fellow!"
"Eh?" says Geoffrey, rousing himself and smiling genially. "A mistake? Oh, no. She never makes mistakes. I was thinking of something else. But she really ought to be in now, you know; she will catch her death of cold."
The utter want of suspicion in his tone drives Lady Rodney to open action. To do her justice, dislike to Mona has so warped her judgment that she almost believes in the evil she seeks to disseminate about her.
"You are wilfully blind," she says, flushing hotly, and smoothing with nervous fingers an imaginary wrinkle from her gown. ”

“ There had been a crowd waiting outside the Théâtre de la République since eleven o'clock in the morning.
Here, with the reader's permission, we will introduce Geoffroy's account. Geoffroy was a worthless, shallow, unconscientious critic, who had won his reputation at the time of the Terror, and who handed on his pen to a wretch of his own kidney, to whom justice had several times been dealt by the police courts;-a way of dealing with things which seems to me to be a great improvement on the times of our forefathers. We cannot possibly have degenerated in everything! ”

“ And next, we understood, that there was indeed between Le Grand Geoffroy and ourselves war that none could stay with prayer or supplication to men or to God. For whereas he knew we had sent to the duke, the sternest sweeper from land or sea of robber and marauder, to deliver us—so we knew, as we thought of Ralf, that life and life's joy would have for us neither sweetness nor endurance, if he went free, who had been to our brother without mercy and without pity. And, lastly, it was clear that Geoffroy's Moors were yet more deadly than we thought, and more numerous. ”

“ What will poor Miss Rose say! To be sure, there is nothing boys won't do; their equals for perverseness don't walk the earth. Though I ought not to speak against them, while there's Master William and Master Edward to contradict me. They are boys, to be sure; but as for that Geoffrey!' And here she shook her head in silence, as if Geoffrey's delinquencies were beyond the power of words to express. ”

“ Geoffrey is quite dumb, and stands gazing at her surprised at the amazing change a stuff, a color, can make in so short a time. Beautiful she always is in his sight, but he wonders that until now it never occurred to him what a sensation she is likely to create in the London world. When at last he does give way to speech, driven to break his curious silence by something in her face, he says nothing of the gown, but only this.
"Oh, Mona, will you always love me as you do now?" ”

“ Geoffroi's position was (for him) extremely dangerous. A bold climber might have extricated himself; but for a lame man to reach safety across the sea-scourged rocks was almost impossible. Could he hold on long enough and the sea rose no higher, he might be saved: but there would yet be an hour before the turn of the tide, and already the waves were racing over the ledge on which he stood. Antoine sprang over the intervening rocks, scrambling and wading through the water, as if not seeing what he did, till he set foot on the ledge, and stood face to face with his enemy. ”

“ She had been annoyed by her husband's clumsy assumption of Geoffrey's guilt, and she had found no better way to display her annoyance than by that pretense of delicacy.
"One always thinks that one is going to find it easier to be better in a few years' time; but, when the few years roll by, there is always a new trap for one's self-confidence," Mary reflected.
She made up her mind to be patient with Geoffrey, and went down to dinner with the intention of persuading Jemmie to be as patient as she hoped to be herself. But her good intentions were frustrated by Geoffrey's failure to appear. ”

“ She drew her skirts coldly away from contact with him.
"Morton," she said, "perhaps it is as well that you have spoken. I can tell you my mind now plainly. If you wish to remain my friend, you will never breathe a word of this again. To you Geoffrey may seem dead; to me he is alive. I am a woman, you know, and I am hard to convince. Facts count for little with me against consciousness. I feel that Geoffrey is alive; I refuse to believe him dead. He may never come back to me, but I shall wait for him—and hope."
"What hope can you have?" ”

“ Geoffrey rose instantly from the table upon which he had been seated.
He saw a tall woman who might have been anything between thirty and fifty years of age, a woman of great beauty. It was the hard, commanding style of beauty that men call regal. She might have been a queen, but for the faint suggestion of the adventuress about her. To Geoffrey's bow she made the slightest possible haughty recognition.
"I'm going out, Mrs. Jessop," she said. "I shall be back to luncheon. If a telegram should happen to come for me, I shall be along the cliffs between here and Beauhaven." ”

“ They showed me into his room; he was sitting over the fire, a miserable, shrunken little figure, wasted to a shadow. Ah, how my heart ached to see him. Geoffrey, I knelt by his side; I spoke to him as tenderly as I could to one of my own children; and then he turned a white corpse-like face upon me, and spoke words which God grant I may some day forget. I do not believe that human lips have ever framed such hideous curses. How I got down to the carriage, I do not know. You are not angry with me, Geoffrey? ”

“ Whereupon Mona, rising from her chair with a sigh of relief, follows Geoffrey out of the room and upstairs.
"Well?" says Sir Nicholas, as a deadly silence continues for some time after their departure, "what do you think of her?"
"She is painfully deficient; positively without brains," says Lady Rodney, with conviction. "What was the answer she made me when I asked about the carriage? Something utterly outside the mark."
"She is not brainless; she was only frightened. It certainly was an ordeal coming to a house for the first time to be, in effect, stared at. And she is very young." ”

“ I believe that man is my father!” Geoffrey replied, with quivering lips.
“Oh, Geoff!”
“I do, dear; and I fear, too, that there is some miserable secret connected with my early life.”
“Do not think that,” the beautiful girl pleaded; “I will not believe it without the strongest proof; and even if it should be so, the fact cannot harm you.”
“Gladys,” Geoffrey said, in a stern, repressed tone, while his face was dreadful to look upon in its ghastliness, “if there is sin connected with my life—if I find that my birthright is one of shame—I can never ask you to share it.” ”

“ Anything simple, darling,"—seeing she looks a little distressed at the idea: "you sing that sort of thing best."
"I hardly think our dance is ended yet, Mrs. Rodney," says the Australian, defiantly, coming leisurely forward, his eyes bent somewhat insolently upon Geoffrey.
"You will come, Mona, to oblige the duchess," says Geoffrey, in exactly as even a tone as if the other had never spoken. Not that he cares in the very least about the duchess; but he is determined to conquer here, and is also desirous that all the world should appreciate and admire the woman he loves. ”