Juana

lities without which no French soldier can be married, he was passionately in lo

d good taste, her very nature tending toward the sphere of the higher social classes? As for esteeming him, she rejected the very thought precisely because he had married her. This repulsion was natural. Woman is a saintly and noble creature, but almost always misunderstood, and nearly always misjudged because she is misunderstood. If Juana had loved Diard she would have esteemed him. Love creates in a wife a new woman; the w

remade m

t recall the energetic diction of the father of our modern theatre. Yet the po

art's legality, which women apply instinctively to all their feelings, even the least reflective. Juana became profoundly sad as she saw the nature and the extent of the life before her. Often she turned her eyes, brimming with tears proudly repressed

e open door of her little room, which the old couple ha

will die

we do? I cannot now boast of her beauty and her cha

t vice," said the old wom

e her to this m

t consulting the poor chi

what she w

hat hands our p

shall seek a quarre

only lead to o

caused her ruin. To fall from the height of Greatness to Monsieur Diard! She wept. At times she went nearly mad. She floated for a while between vice and religion. Vice was a speedy solution, religion a lifetime of suffering. The medit

de her child and prayed and watched as she wo

it," she sa

ion. Juana resigned herself; and without restriction. She determined to obey her mother's prayer, and cross the des

arana, so keen to know the signs of love, had recognized in that man the accents of passion and the brusque nature, the generous impulses, tha

ined to represent woman's misery in its utmost expression, namely, sorrow undyingly active; the description of which would need such minute observations that to persons eager for dramatic emotions they would seem insipid. This analysis, in which every wife would find some one of her own sufferings, would require a volume to express them all; a fruitless, hopeless volume by its very nature, the merit of which would consist in faintest tints and delicate shadings which critics would declare to be effeminate and diffuse. Besides,

wounded, yet forgiving always; a wife pure as a flawless diamond,-she who had the beauty and the glow of the diamond, and

r meet him during the time they remained in Spain. Next, he petitioned for his own removal, and succeeded in entering the Imperial Guard. He desired at any price to obtain a title, honors, and consideration in keeping with his present wealth. With this idea in his mind, he behaved courageously in

e for Madame Diard a noble title. His passion for that seductive creature enabled him to divine her most secret wishes. Juana expressed nothing, but he understood her. He was not loved as a lover dreams of being loved; he knew this, and he strove to make himself respected, loved, and cherished. He foresaw a coming happiness, poor man, in the patience and gentleness shown on all occasions by his wife; but that patience, that gentleness, were only the outward signs of the resignation which had made her his wife. Resignation, religion, were they love? Often

hion, all of whom admired Juana. Those who put themselves before the eyes of the public in Paris must either conquer Paris or be subject to it. Diard's character was not sufficiently strong, compact, or persistent to command society at that epoch, because it was an epoch when all men were endeavoring to rise. Social classifications ready-made are perhaps a great boon even for the people. Napoleon has co

him great troubles. Perhaps there is useful instruction to be derived from the

Tarragona all the pictures he had brought from there. But the public, determined to see things in the worst light, only said, "That Diard is shrewd; he has sold his pictures." Worthy people continued to think that those which remained in the Diard salons were not honorably acquired. Some jealous women asked how it was that a Diard (!) had been able to marry so rich and beautiful a young girl. Henc

young or old, noble of yesterday or noble from the fourth century, all that sneers at a parvenu, all that fears to commit itself, all that wants to demolish power and worships power if it resists,-all those ears hear, all those tongues say, all those minds know, in a single evening, where the new-comer who aspires to honor among them was born and brought up, and what that interloper has done, or has not done, in the course of his life. There may be no court of assizes for the upper classes of society; but at any rate they have the most cruel of public prosecutors, an intangible moral being, both judge and executioner, who accuses and brands. Do not hope to hid

hances for elevation. We sometimes meet with invalid women, feeble beings apparently, who, without rising from sofas or leaving their chambers, have ruled society, moved a thousand springs, and placed their husbands where their ambition or their vanity prompted. But Juana, whos

he precautions she would have to take, would they meet the necessity? Suddenly she divined society as, once before, she had divined life, and she saw nothing around her but the immense extent of an irreparable disaster. She had, moreover, the additional grief of tardily recognizing her husband's peculiar form of incapacity; he was a man unfitted for any purpose that required

es of vizier. The myrmidons of the great man scoffed at Diard's pretensions to a prefecture, whereupon he lowered his demand to a sub-prefecture. There was, of course, a ridiculous discrepancy between this latter demand and the magnitude of his fortune. To frequent the imperial salons and live with insolent luxury, and then to abandon that millionaire life and bury himself as sub-prefect at Issoudun or Savenay was certainly holding himself below his position. Juana, too late aware of our laws and h

e used great tact-we might say velvet softness if the term were admissible-to disguise from her h

a harp, was all heart to his former friends. He succored the shabby and spattered man as readily as the needy of rank; in short, he accepted everybody, and gave his hand in his gilded salons to many a poor devil. Observing this on one occasion, a general of the empire, a variety of the human species of which no type will presently remain, refused his hand to Diard, and called him, insolently, "my good fellow" when he met him. The few persons of really good s

uffering than this struggle in which Diard received insults he did not feel and Juana felt those she did not receive. A moment came, an awful moment, when she gained a clear and lucid perception of society, and felt in one instant all the sorrows which

luence to make Diard resign his various pretensions and to show him, as a haven, the peaceful and consoling life of home. Evils came from society-why not banish it? In his home Diard found peace and respect; he reigned there. She felt herself strong to accept the trying task of making him happy,-he

incessantly, like the wheels mentioned in Holy Writ. Perhaps he felt the need of flying from himself. Without wearying of Juana, without blaming Juana, his passion for her, rendered tranquil by time, allowed his natural character to assert itself. Henceforth his days of gloom were more frequent, and he often gave way to southern exciteme

, embarrassed at first, then annoyed, ended by feeling that such high virtue was a yoke upon him. The goodness of his wife gave him no violent emotions, and violent emotions were what he wanted. What myriads of scenes are played in the depths of his souls, beneath the cold exterior of lives that are, apparently, commonplace! Among these dramas, lasting each but a short

e years Francisque had been the object of Juana's most tender and watchful care. The mother was constantly occupied with that child; to him her prettiest caresses; to him the toys, but to him, especially, the penetrating mother-looks. Juana had watched him from his cradle; she had studied his cries, his motions; she endeavored to discer

nce of her motherhood, which gave to the Marana's life its stamp of untaught poesy, was to Juana an acknowledged life, an open consolation at all hours. Her mother had been virtuous as other women are criminal,-in secret; she had stolen a fancied happiness, she had never really tasted it. But Juana, unhappy in her virtue as her mother was unhappy in her vice, could enjoy at all moments the ineffable delights which her mother had so craved and c

gh excitable sensibility, Juana would doubtless have loved him in the end. Unfortunately, he was a type of those southern natures which are keen in perceptions they cannot follow out; capable of great things over-night, and incapable the next morning; often the victim of their own virtues, and often lucky through their worst passions; admirable men in some respects, when their good qualities are kept to a steady

dinner, told his wife that the officer was dead. He had killed himself to avoid the dishonor of a trial and the shame of death upon the scaffold. Juana did not

the other day that the king c

thing but life," said

dored him, but her ardent love was a secret between herself, her child, and God. Juan instinctively enjoyed the seeming indifference of his mother in presence of his father and brother, for she pressed him to her heart when alone. Francisque was Diard, and Juana's incessant care and watchfulness betrayed her desire to correct in the son the vi

acter requires c

he repli

about

one in which the words were u

orn perfect

reflected. Presently, as his wi

our children bette

w that,"

not know until now whic

er given me a moment's uneas

you greater joys," he s

unted them,

iard. "Will you dare to say that J

aid, with dignity, "do y

orlds for your sake. You know all that I have struggled to do in life

es to live in solitude, far from the

that you are nev

cast, for the rest of their lives

his mind in play. Unfortunately, he won much money, and continued playing. Little by little, he r

order to do so he separated himself from his wife, giving her the large apartments and lodging himself

y disposed of for the household benefit, giving her instead a monthly stipend. The conversation they had on this subject was the last of their married intercourse. The silence that fell between them was a true divorce; Juana comprehended that from henceforth sh

e to the dregs, turn to gambling for its feverish joys, admired Diard at their clubs,-seldom in their own houses,-and they all gambled with him. He became the fashion. Two or three times during the winter he gave a fete as a matter of social pride in return for the civilities he received. At such times Juana once more caught a glimpse of the world of balls, festivities, luxury, and lights; but for her it was a sort of tax imposed upon the comfort of her solitude. She, the queen

their fortunes,-thievery which, if done in the streets by the light of an oil lamp, would see a poor devil to the galleys, but, under gilded ceilings and by the light of candelabra, is sanctioned. Diard brought up, monopolized, and sold sugars; he sold offices; he had the glory of inventing the "man of straw" for lucrative posts which it was necessary to keep in his own hands for a short time; he bought votes, receiving, on one occasion, so much per cent on the purchase of fifteen parliamentary votes which all passed on one division from the benches of the Left to the benches of the Right. Such actions are no longer crimes or thefts,-they are called governing, developing industry, becoming a financial power. Diard was placed by public

s; consequently, she suffered no longer from her blemished life. Her children were to her what they are to many mothers for a long period of time,-a sort of renewal of their own existence. Diard was now an accidental circumstance, not a participator in her life, and since he had ceased to be the father and the head of the family, Juana felt bound to him by no tie other than that imposed by conventiona

e unknown but inevitable evil in the shadow of which she lived became more and more keen and terrible. Therefore, during the rare moments when Diard and Juana met she would cast upon his hollow face, wan from nights of gambling and furrowed by emotions, a piercing look, the penetration of which made Diard shudder. At such times the assume

t of prestige with which opulence had invested him would vanish. Not a hand would be offered, not a purse would be open to him. Unless some favorable event occurred he would fall into a slough of contempt, deeper perhaps than he deserved, precisely because he had mounted

g her to take a maid. His tone was curt and imperious; he seemed to have recovered some energy. This sudden journey, the cause of which escaped her penetration, alarmed Juana secretly. Her husband made it gaily. Obliged to occupy the same carriage, he showed himself day by day more attenti

. When her husband told her that he was going to the watering-places and that she would stay at Bordeaux, Juana offered no difficulty, and at once formed a plan to teach the children Spanish and Italian, and to make them read the two masterpieces of the two languages. She was glad to lead a retired life, simply and naturally economical. To spare herself the troubles of material life, she arranged with a "traiteur" the day after Diard's departure to send in their meals. Her maid then sufficed f

fiore appeared at the same baths. The marquis was at this time celebrated for his wealth, his handsome face, his fortunate marriage with an Englishwoman, and more especially for his love of play. Diard, his former companion, encountered him, and desired to add his spoils to those of others. A

ng a tour of the salon, "I owe you a hundred thousand franc

himself by some one of the endless caprices of play. Montefiore had already mentioned his intention of visiting Bordeaux. Had he paid his debt on the spot, Diard would have been

together to Bordeaux. In all conscience, I am rich enough

o hundred thousand more on his word. He was gay as a man who swam in gold. Eleven o'clock sounded; the night was superb. Montefiore may have felt, like Diard, a desi

Diard?" said

claimed t

glass of water. While it was being brought, he walked up and down the room, and was able, without being noticed, to

e, in the courtyard, "for I want to

him the exa

as long as I am with you I have nothing to fear; but if I came home al

u much w

s. But they would make a pretty fortune for a beggar an

t his side. Then, no sooner were they fairly in the avenue, then Diard, with the agility of a tiger, tripped up the marquis with a kick behind the knees, and putting a foot on his neck stabbed him again and again to the heart till the blade of the knife broke in it. Then he searched Montefiore's pockets, took his wallet,

run towards the avenue, the high walls of which appeared to echo back the cries, directing them to the very spot where the crime was committed. The sound of their coming steps seemed to beat on Diard's brain. But not losing his head as yet, the murderer left the avenue and came boldly into the street,

had entered the avenue as soon as they saw Montefi

ds were thrust forth right and left, while from every door came shouts and gleams of light. Diard kept on, going straight before him, through the lights and the noise; and his legs were so actively agile that he soon left the tumult behind him, though without being able to escape some eyes which took in the extent of his

s perfectly silent, and he thought he had foiled his pursuers, though a distant murmur of the tumult came to his ears like the roaring of the sea. He dipped some water from a brook and drank it. Then, observing a pile of stones on the road, he

spent with her children, beat upon his brain with the force of a hammer. The maid opened the door, which Diard hastily closed behind him with a kick. For a moment he breathed freely; then, noticing that he was bathed in perspiration, he sent the servant back to Juana and stayed in the darkness of the passage, where he wipe

and get to the wharves. He did not think these ideas, he saw them written in fiery letters on the darkness. Once at the wharves he could hide all day, return at night for his treasure, then conce

ght a light t

ise in the street, shouts, cries? Go and

ion of the words from the text. They all three stopped and looked at Diard, who stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets; overcome, perhaps, by finding h

e something t

ing from the livid paleness of her husband that t

I want to speak to

anced at

and go to bed," said Juana;

ence, with the incurious obed

y, and I regret it now. Listen to me; since I relieved you of the care of our inco

the costs of the children's education. I don't say that to reproach you, my friend

"Thunder of heaven! every instant

well I have n

u to be had here!" cri

out in that wa

plied, "I have

her children's room and cl

thing," she said. "With

ore," he

igh, "the only man you

But I can't lose time-Money, money! for God's sake, mon

m!" she cr

. Juana, now that everything is quiet you must go down to that heap of stones-you kno

at you stole?

ou any money to give me? I tell you I

ho

ple, the

room, but retur

el, "that is Dona Lagounia's cross. There are four rubies

cried, with a sudden thought.

There she saw, in the moonlight, a file of soldiers posting themselves in deepest silenc

u must escape through the garden.

s whom sentinels were holding back at the end of the streets up which curiosity had drawn them. Diard had, in truth, been seen to enter his house by persons at their windows, and on their information and that of the frightened ma

, "you cannot escape.

activity of a captive bird striking against the p

lp me! give me, for pi

a, "I will; and

e always my

it. Juana heard the entrance of the soldiers into the courtyard, where they laid down the body of the murdered man to confront the

u," she said, putting the

ana, do you think-Juana! is it s

, aimed it at Diard, holding him, in spite of his cries, by the thr

lowed by an examining judge, a doctor, a sheriff, and a posse of gendarme

ou want?"

he prosecutor, pointing to the d

mons

covered with b

see why?" re

lume of Cervantes; she was pale, with a nervous agitation w

said the prosecuto

examining judge and

should, whatever crime his passions may have led him to commit. His act renders negatory that of justice. But however we may desire to s

y dress?" she asked, l

st bring it back to us.

octor, understanding the suspicions of the prosecutor. "Messieurs,

nder so many contradictory actions, it is impossible that the exercise of their dreadful functions should not, in the long run, dry up at their source the generous emotions they are constrained to repress. If the sensibilities of the surgeon who probes into the mysteries of the human body end by growing callous, what becomes of those of the judge who is incessantly compelled to se

d's accomplice? Ought we to take her in

d, with a careless sh

oundrels. The maid evidently knew nothing of

ted his report to the sheriff. Suddenly he

e-" he

ved her bloody gown

d, stooping to her ear, "

sieur," s

and continued his di

t appears evident that the said Diard kille

" he said to the sh

eplied t

the room, gave him one glance, repressing with difficulty the t

er here, and a Spaniard. I am ignorant of the laws, and I know no one in Bor

. "Madame, what has become of the money

ething to me vaguely about a heap of sto

he

he st

ch other. Juana made a noble ges

ous action? I! The pile of stones must be close to the wall of my

im the examining judge, and togeth

erself being called in the street. Her dying mother was being carried to a hospital, and through the curtains of her litter she had seen her daughter. Juana made the bearers enter a porte

eace; I have suff