Paulette

“ Paulette appears to me as one of my happiest recollections.
It was the evening of a public holiday. Our principal buildings were illuminated with festoons of fire, a thousand flags waved in the night winds, and the fireworks had just shot forth their spouts of flame into the midst of the Champ de Mars. Suddenly, one of those unaccountable alarms which strike a multitude with panic fell upon the dense crowd: they cry out, they rush on headlong; the weaker ones fall, and the frightened crowd tramples them down in its convulsive struggles. ”

“ Life again appeared worth living. Lucie sat by Victor’s side on the length of board which served as a seat. Paulette, perched on a similar board, was surrounded by baskets and bundles. She held firmly to her green cotton umbrella from which she had not parted in all this time. Sometimes she used it as a staff, sometimes it was laid across her shoulders on the top of a pack she carried, again it found a place on the top of a basket, but wherever it was Paulette evidently did not mean to lose sight of it. ”

“ Victor stooped down to examine it. “There is only one little place where it is very wet,” he said, “and I can carry you over that, Lucie.”
“You will do nothing of the kind,” declared Paulette, bristling up. “If mademoiselle cannot walk without getting her feet wet I will carry her.”
“And a pretty spectacle it would be,” protested Victor, “if any one were to come along, to behold a soldier permitting a woman to do such a thing. Are we men permitted to show no chivalry?”
“Zut!” exclaimed Paulette, snapping her fingers. “That for your chivalry; it is all because you wish to have your own way.” ”

“ Paulette brought a basket and they lifted Pom Pom and his bed into it. Jean carried it out to the doctor’s gig. As the doctor drove off Jean stood at salute and Michel, not to be outdone, followed his example. The daylight was fading. The rosy flush of apple blossoms became brighter because of the rose of sunset sky. As the doctor drove out of sight Lucie gave a quick sob and buried her face on Paulette’s shoulder. “Is there never to be anything but unhappiness in the world?” ”

“ Meanwhile are we to sit and suck our paws like bears?”
“You know a great deal, don’t you, Paulette?” said Lucie much impressed.
“I have ears. I know what I hear,” returned Paulette. “Moreover,” she went on, “who am I that I should not work? I have always worked, even as a little child. I should be lost, desolated, without work. Am I to sit up like a lady and fold my hands at my time of life? No, no, the sooner I get to work the better.” ”

“ Lucie promised. But this Paulette would not allow, though Mousse was not to be permitted to go hungry, as a contribution from each one was given him.
“I doubt if he stays, after all,” said Paulette. And he did not at first, though by degrees he spent more and more time with his old friends, accepting Pom Pom with much better grace than in the days of his frisky youth. Possibly it was a case of “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
In course of time Paulette and Odette had a garden to work in. ”

“ Jerome impatiently waved her away, an indignity so astounding that Madame Paulette could scarcely trust her eyes. Janet, fearing she had been indiscreet, hastened to add:
"Of course, Cornelia—Madame Paulette—doesn't allow it in Paris. She requires us to be perfectly proper here."
"She would!" said Mrs. Jerome significantly, her back still turned to Cornelia. "But what good does it do you? Nine-tenths of the people in Paris are perfectly proper; but they don't look it. The other tenth are perfectly improper; but they, as often as not, don't look it either."
The manikins received another inning. ”

“ It was one day when Paulette had gone off to her work that Lucie was busy with her knitting, looking off between whiles at the bright clouds floating over the tops of buildings and lending a radiance to a spire here, a window there, when somehow the whole view made her think of an evening with her mother just before the sad breaking up came. “Always look up, dear daughter, and find a bit of sky,” her mother had said. “One’s soul is seldom absolutely shut in. Between branches and roofs one can generally find a shining piece of sky.” ”

“ Without awaiting a reply, she calmly released Marie and the other manikins from service and sent them out of the room. This done, she took a chair opposite the desk where Cornelia sat staring at her in speechless indignation.
Cornelia cherished a sort of mental chromo of herself as the active ruler of the Paulette community, a ruler at once imperious, genial, and adored. In point of fact, her insatiable appetite for attention, reinforced by a sharp tongue, spread an atmosphere of dread and anxiety around her. ”

“ The chimney-doctor is gone. Now my fear lest they should come is changed into impatience at their not coming. At last I hear children's voices; here they are: they push open the door and rush in—but they all stop in astonishment.
At the sight of the lamp, the stove, and the visitor, who stands there like a magician in the midst of these wonders, they draw back almost frightened. Paulette is the first to comprehend it, and the arrival of the grandmother, who is more slowly mounting the stairs, finishes the explanation. ”

“ Paulette who had been so brave under ill news was now completely overcome. She threw herself into Jean’s arms and wept on his shoulder as if her tears would never cease.
Jean held her awkwardly and looked over at Odette standing with a vivid light in her eyes and a mysterious smile upon her lips. “But, mamon,” protested Jean, “what is this? Why this hysterical manner? Has anything happened?”
[254] “Anything? Ciel! he calls it anything, nothing to have been reported missing. He thinks me an insensate who did not mourn over him as one lost, dead, prisoner.” ”

“ Paulette? I do dislike to see you coming home so worn out. You walk all the way and it is not well for you to stay in that heated place and then come out into the cold.”
“It is better that I walk,” protested Paulette, “for I am less liable to take cold doing so. As for my not working, my little child, that is not to be thought of. Better that we have more comforts than merely eke out a subsistence. However, I can look out for something better and who knows what chance may bring?”
“It seems as if there were no evil without some good,” remarked Lucie reflectively. “I miss Pom Pom so very much ”

“ She is too young to suffer more than she must, and that is enough. It goes to my heart to see her here in Paris when I remember how gay and happy she was in that other place.”
“It is the will of the bon Dieu, and we must be patient. It is wonderful, monsieur, how patient she has been, and how eager she is to help. If you will believe it she can cook a meal as well as any woman. Even I say it, and the potage she can make need not be despised by any one. She has grown in more ways than in inches.”
[145] “I have done that myself, Paulette,” said Victor gravely. ”

“ I shall have to open the door to whoever it is, Paulette.”
“I will speak to Mathilde about that. She will interrogate and if it is a proper person there can be no objection. She has the face of a fish and the manner of an ill-tempered goat, but she is not so bad. The heart is there, though one must not expect always to find it.”
[181] “She was very, very kind and interested about Pom Pom, and how she laughed when I told her of his following Victor. ‘When one of them wants to be a poilu there is no keeping them,’ she said. I think she is very fond of animals, more than of people.” ”

“ A pair of rabbits, too, was offered as well as a couple of pigeons. Add to this menagerie Pom Pom, and the confusion of sounds may be imagined, though to the rabbits [275] one cannot impute much of a racket. From none of these things would Paulette be parted. How she managed to dispose of them so that they would not interfere with one another is a puzzle, but manage she did. Lucie, of course, carried Pom Pom. Such acquisitions as Paulette would yield up to her Odette took in charge. Whatever was impossible of being transported by hand was sent on. ”

“ And then the night for the song is arrived. It has rained all day, and they have walked together in the rain—the singer, and the men who loved her, both—to the little café-concert where she would appear.
They tremble in the room, among the crowd, Pitou and Tricotrin; they are agitated. There are others who sing—it says nothing to them. In the room, in the Future, there is only Paulette!
It is very hot in the café-concert, and there is too much noise. At last they ask her: "Is she nervous?" She shakes her head: "Mais non!" She smiles to them. ”

“ The little dog was great company for Lucie, and since there was no Mousse to claim Paulette’s attention, she too bestowed her favor upon Pom Pom. Probably he enjoyed, as much as the other two, the almost daily visit to the park near by when both Lucie and Paulette would take their knitting and sit under the trees with numbers [116] of others all knitting, knitting for the soldiers. The streets were very quiet these days. One saw few young men unless it be a wounded man in uniform, perhaps minus a leg or arm, or maybe blinded and guided by some other. ”

“ He sniffed at the crack of the door, then began to whine excitedly, running first to Lucie and then to Paulette, imploring in his language to be let out.
“What in the world is the matter with the little beast?” said Paulette.
“Shall I let him out?”
“No; it is a stray cat which has come in, no doubt. He does not like stray cats; he is [137] clever, however, and recognizes friends. He never disturbs that big cat of Mathilde.”
“He certainly is making a great fuss,” remarked Lucie as Pom Pom became more and more frantic. “Ah, there is a knock at the door; it is a person and not a cat. ”

“ I have Paulette who loves me and would work her fingers off for me, but Odette has lost her father and mother. She has no one at all but a cross old great-aunt who wishes her off her hands. You understand then, miss, I mean Miss Lowndes, that it is not very happy for Odette, though since we have become friends it is better. ”

“ Paulette flung out her hands contemptuously. “It is a den of confusion, not so bad now, perhaps since there are fewer vehicles, but I do not find myself at home, and I would rather work in the fields than in a vile laundry.”
“Is that what you are doing?” Victor asked in surprise.
“One must do what one can. I do not care to beg nor to live upon charity. It is necessary to have clothing as well as food. This moment that child needs shoes, or will soon.”
“Does your father know of this?” Victor asked Lucie. ”

“ They are not here yet. It is merely as a precaution that the government removes itself. Now I go. Do not leave the place nor let any one in the door.” And picking up her baskets she went out.
Lucie often went with Paulette to the little market and was never at a loss for entertainment there, whether it was listening to the arguments carried on between seller and buyer, in watching the people or in giving an ear to the gossip of Paulette and some other peasant-born woman. Pom Pom always went along, too, and generally managed to pick up some bit of meat, a luxury to him as well as to most. ”

“ Paulette lifted her eyebrows and gave her expressive shrug of the shoulders. “Your opportunities must be very few, monsieur, if the height of your enjoyment is in the society of an old peasant woman and a little girl.”
“Would you have me spend all my time in making new acquaintances? Is anything better than old friends? But you have not told me, Lucie, which you prefer, the walk through the Bois or the return trip on the river.”
Lucie looked down dubiously at her shoes now much the worse for wear. “If my shoes will stand it I should prefer the walk, but the soles have become very thin. ”

“ The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming! The doctor has brought this good news.” She ran from room to room with her announcement, and after coming upon Mons. Le Brun at the back of the house, she sent him to join the doctor while she scurried down to Paulette whose spring work in the fields had begun.
She found her in violent altercation with old [268] Jules, for these two seldom missed a chance for argument, out of which, it must be confessed, Paulette usually emerged with flying colors. “Such news! Such news!” cried Lucie as she came within hearing. “The Americans are with us. ”

“ Upon leaving, madame had asked Paulette to have an eye to matters domestic, not trusting entirely to the judgment of the two young maids.
The first report of Victor informed them that he was hanging between life and death, barely holding his own, yet this much was more than had been anticipated and every one was more hopeful. Pom Pom, too, had come through his ordeal satisfactorily, and while the doctor could not, yet, give much encouragement he did not discourage.
For some reason Odette placed the two in the same balance. “If one recovers the other will,” she declared to Lucie. ”

“ A LONELY NIGHT FOOTSORE, weary, hour after hour Lucie dragged herself along. The little bundle, which at first seemed not too great a weight, at last became intolerably heavy. One by one Paulette disposed of her bundles. Mons. Du Bois staggered under the valises, but refused to give them up. Poor little Pom Pom faithfully followed his mistress. At times he would lie down quite exhausted but always he caught up with his friends. ”