Mathilde de La Mole

“ Mathilde had never had a lover, and though passing through a stage of life which affords some tender illusions even to the coldest souls, she fell a prey to the most bitter reflections.
"He has an immense dominion over me since his reign is one of terror, and he is capable, if I provoke him, of punishing me with an awful penalty." This idea alone was enough to induce mademoiselle de la Mole to insult him. Courage was the primary quality in her character. ”

“ At midnight, when she took her mother's candle to accompany her to her room, madame de la Mole stopped on the staircase to enter into an exhaustive eulogy of Julien. Mathilde ended by losing her temper. She could not get to sleep. She felt calmed by this thought: "the very things which I despise in a man may none the less constitute a great merit in the eyes of the maréchale." ”

“ Julien constantly looked at her. "I must keep a siege-journal," he said to himself as he went back to the hotel, "otherwise I shall forget my attacks." He wrote two or three pages on this boring theme, and in this way achieved the admirable result of scarcely thinking at all about mademoiselle de la Mole.
Mathilde had almost forgotten him during his journey. "He is simply a commonplace person after all," she thought, "his name will always recall to me the greatest mistake in my life. ”

“ It is true that it is to be feared that it will also be the last.”
At this moment, Julien was playing on Mathilde’s character with all the self-possession of a clever pianist, whose fingers are on the instrument.... “It is true,” he added, “that I lack the advantage of a distinguished birth, but Mathilde’s great soul has lifted her lover up to her own level. Do you think that Boniface de la Mole would have cut a better figure before his judges?” ”

“ For a brief space after a storm of summer rain the world is a place of glowing color, of flowing, harmonious lines. So it was now with Old Mole, and he discovered the charm of things. His habitual life went on undisturbed, and he could find pleasure even in that. His love for Matilda reduced him to a sort of passiveness, so that he asked nothing of [Pg 278] her, gave her of himself only so much as she demanded, and was content to watch her, to be with her, to feel that he was in no way impeding her progress. ”

“ Old Mole hated the young man, for he was common and loose in manner and in no way worthy of the enchanted Matilda or of the marvelous organism, the theater, in which she seemed to live so easily and freely. ”

“ It was Matilda’s ambition to go to every theater in London. She found it possible to enjoy everything, and therefore he was not bored.
Sheer physical exhaustion brought their pleasure-seeking to an end, and they set about finding a habitation. On their arrival Old Mole had written to his brother, but had had no reply. At last a scrubby clerk arrived with a note:
“So glad you have come to your senses. ”

“ Copas, who got her own back with the loud sneer in Mr. Mole’s presence:
“There’s not many married women would wear tights and not many husbands would let ’em.”
Old Mole gasped, and looked forward with dread to the first performance of the pantomime. He was spared the indignity of tights, for the fifty women in the chorus were divided into “girls” and “boys,” in accordance with their size, and Matilda was a “girl.” She took her work very seriously, put far more energy into it than she had ever done into “Iphigenia” or “Josephine.” ”

“ Is bonny as the moon above the heather.
Matilda sang the song all through and made Old Mole and Panoukian troll the chorus. There were a freshness and warmth about her that were almost startling, full of mischief and sparkling fun. She [Pg 267] teased both the men and mysteriously promised them a great reward if they could guess a riddle. ”

“ Without genius the national drama was heavy and lumpish, stolidly clinging to unquestioned and untested values, looking for no higher rewards in life than riches and public esteem.
It was astonishing to Old Mole that he could be so deeply interested in these things. He had expected to be absorbed in his sorrow and the problem of handling it. Then he found that he was testing the two theaters, the Butcherish and the “intellectual,” by the passion that had flamed into his heart through his love for Matilda at the moment when it had been outraged. ”

“ If you had, you would be persuaded by now that it is a masterpiece. That is how Harbottles are made: they attribute their flukes to their skill and insist on being given credit for them.”
“I often wonder,” said Old Mole, “what the man who wrote it thinks about it. He must surely know by now.”
“He must be dead.” Matilda swept him out of consideration with her needle. “I don’t believe any man would have let it go on so long and not come forward.” ”

“ Mole. Some folk ain’t particular. I am. And Mr. Copas is very careful about what happens in his theater. If it can’t be legitimate it can’t be and there’s nothing more to be said. . . . Now, Mr. Mole, what are you going to do?”
“My good woman! I haven’t the least idea what you are talking about. I have enjoyed my stay with you. I have found it very instructive and profitable and I propose to——”
“It’s Matilda, Mr. Mole. What’s done is done. We’re not saying anything about that. Some says it’s a curse and some says it’s the only thing worth living for. ”

“ Sometimes they explained their references to Old Mole, and then it was always “We”—Panoukian said: “We,” Matilda: “Arthur and I” . . . and beneath all their talk there seemed to be a game, but a game in all seriousness, of fitting their personalities together. Every now and then, when they were filled with a bubbling consciousness of their wealth, they would throw a scrap to Old Mole out of sheer lavishness and babyish generosity. ”

“ If there be degradation in violence, it affects the kicker as well as the kicked. Old Mole found himself very near understanding Panoukian. Clearly he had come to the chambers on an impulse. Matilda had desired a dog, he had seen the very dog, and come racing with it. Encountering Old Mole for the first time since the eruption in their affairs, he had carried the scene through with an admirable candor. ”

“ A mole appearing in the midst of the privy member, denotes a man honest and virtuous yet subject to reproach undeserved, and to a woman an impotent hononr, though nevertheless subject to the malice and calumny of evil tongues. ”

“ Lamblin. Mathilde, Mathilde, dear! To-morrow?
Madame Cogé [returning] . Do you want me to tell you something else? When a man is married and wants to have a mistress, he would do much better and act more uprightly to leave his wife!
Lamblin [simply] . Why?
Madame Cogé. Why?—Good evening! [She goes out.]
Lamblin. Mathilde, Mathilde! Did I make her angry? Oh, she'll forget it all in a quarter of an hour. My, what a headache! [Catching sight of Marthe, who enters from the right.] Marthe! She looks furious! She saw Mathilde go out! What luck!
Marthe [furiously] . Who was that who just left? ”

“ In the Philinte de Molière, which also bears the title of La Suite du Misanthrope, and in which FABRE D'EGLANTINE has presented the contrast between an egotist and a man who sacrifices his interest to that of his fellow-creatures, MOLÉ vents all the indignation of virtue with a warmth, a truth, and even a nobleness which at this day belong only to himself. In short, he performs this part, in which the word love is not once mentioned, with a perfection that he maintains from the first line to the last. ”

“ Matilda and Old Mole walked slowly out toward the setting sun and in front of them for miles stretched the regiments of pollarded willows like mournful distorted human beings condemned forever to stand and watch over the still waters.
“Life,” said Old Mole, “is full of astonishments. ”

“ Joining a group of acquaintances, Victor fastidiously placed Mathilde's chair in a position sheltered from inconvenient sunlight, in proper proximity to the music, and where no dust could tarnish the hem of her floating immaculate robe. In these commonplace "petits soins," common enough in the life of any woman of society, Mathilde recognized a spirit of sincere devotion and protecting affection, which gave her, at the same time, a thrill of joy, and an undefined sense of apprehension and lingering regret. ”

“ A molo on the right side, about tho middle of tho forehead, declares a man to abound in benefits by friendship of great men; will be loaded with command, esteemed and honoured; the paler tho colour tho greater the honour; if red, he is loved by tho clergy; if black, let him bewaro resentment of great men; if warty it increaseth good fortune. A woman having this shall be fortunate in all her actions; but if black beware of hor tongue.
A mole on the left side of the forehead, near the hair, predicts misery, and abundance of tribulations to a man by means of his own misconduct ”

“ It must not be supposed, however, that eating and sleeping make up the whole life-history of the Mole. Very early in the year a time comes when he feels strange emotions stirring within him, and then he goes off gallantly, in his velvet coat, in search of a partner in his lonely encampment. ”

“ Both men rose. Old Mole reached the door first. With graceful generosity Panoukian bowed, yielded his claim, kissed Matilda’s hand, and took them to the door. Old Mole went first. Halfway down the stairs Matilda turned:
“Oh! Arthur,” she said, “the puppy’s a perfect darling.”
As coarse men take to drink, or philandering, or tobacco, to relieve the strain of existence, so Old Mole took to work. His “Out of Bounds” (Liebermann, pp. 453, 7s. 6d. net) is a long book, but it was written, revised, corrected in proof and published within six months. ”

“ Mole, and you’ve got to marry her or pay up handsome.”
Marry! His first thought was in terms of the novelette, but those terms would not embrace Mrs. Copas or her present attitude. His first glimpse of the physical fact was through the chinks of his sentimental fiction, and he was angry and hurt and disgusted. Then, the fiction never having been rounded off, he was able to escape from it— (rare luck in this world of deceit) —and he shook himself free of its dust and tinsel, and, responding to the urgency of the occasion, saw or half-saw the circumstances from Matilda’s point of view. ”

“ She avoided Molly's eyes as she spoke. "She is so completely out of the common that she must have had quite an uncommon life. I should not be a bit surprised if she were one of those brave girls who have known poverty, and have risen above it. I should call her, if I were asked, one of nature's ladies. After all, nature does make noble, queen-like sort of women now and then, whatever their position in life. Is that not true, Molly Lavender?"
"Yes, it is perfectly true," answered Molly, wondering at Matilda's discernment. "There is no one in the school I respect like Kate." ”

“ It was sufficient for him to employ well the gifts lavished on him by nature. Though now verging on seventy, no one expresses love with more eloquence (for sounds too have theirs) , or with more charm and fire than MOLÉ. In the fourth act of the Misanthrope, he ravishes and subdues the audience, when, after having overwhelmed Célimène with reproaches, he paints to her the love with which he is inflamed. But this sentiment is not the only one in the expression of which MOLÉ is pre-eminently successful. ”

“ Mole, when he has afterwards been restored to the bosom of Mrs. Mole and his family, confides to his equally intelligent helpmate that, in his opinion, "Master has guv the party to get husbands for the young ladies"—an opinion which, though perhaps not founded on fact so far as it related to the party which was the subject of Mr. Mole's remark, would doubtless be applicable to many similar parties given under somewhat similar circumstances.
It is not improbable that the intelligent Mr. ”

“ CECIL walked toward the door; Molly was following, when Matilda pulled her back.
"You shan't leave me," she said, flinging her arms round Molly's knees. "I won't be left alone in this awful, terrible black storm. You know how wicked I am, Molly, and that I am not fit to die. You can't—you shan't leave me! God will never forgive you if you do."
Molly hesitated for a minute; the thought of her vow in the cathedral came back to her. She longed to fly out after Cecil, but after all, she could do nothing in the fearful gale, and Matilda—wretched Matilda—really needed her presence. ”

“ Soon afterwards, however, Mathilde went to Germany and Switzerland, and I lost sight of her for some years; and then came her long stay in Manchester with Madox Brown's family. In her later life I often met her again, but she was then known and admired by so large a circle of friends that our subsequent meetings as women can tell nothing new. It is in her early girlhood and young womanhood that she stands out, a vivid memory to me for all time. ”

“ A Mole under the hollow of the right eye, by the inward part of the nose, denotes another on the middle of the body, above the members, signifying a man to be hasty, proud, and furious; and a woman to be self-conceited, vain-glorious, and of a very weak and shallow understanding, though a great pretender to knowledge in every respect. ”

“ Mole found himself reduced to triteness. The only comment that presented itself to his mind was that the human heart was a mystery beyond knowing, but that did not allow him to controvert the actor’s dictum that no one wanted to know about the countries and customs of the world, and he wondered whether the kinematograph did, in fact, convey a more accurate impression of the wonders of the world than Hakluyt or Sir John Mandeville, who did, at any rate, present the results of their travels and inventions with that pride in both truth and lying which begets style. ”