Gerfaut, Complete

prepared for them by Madame Gobillot, it may not be out of place to ex

heir name finally being almost all that they had left. After making many sacrifices to give their son an education worthy of his birth, his parents did not live to enjoy the fruits of their efforts, and Gerfaut became an orphan at the time when he had just finished his law studies. He then abandoned t

made, he followed them up with indefatigable perseverance, and became a striking example of the irresistible power of intelligence united to will-power. Reputation, for him, lay in the unknown depths of an arid and rocky soil; he was obliged, in order to reach it, to dig a sort of artesian well. Gerfaut accepted this heroic labor; he worked day and night for several years, his forehead, metaphor

the theatre world they were money-makers; so the managers greeted him with due respect, while collaborators swarmed about him. The journals paid for his articles in their weight in gold; reviews snatched every line of his yet unfinished novels; his works were illustrated by Porret and Tony Johannot-t

y woman's slipper? Was the fair lady one of those caprices, so frequent and fleeting in an artist's th

y fellows, destined to make good officers, perfect merchants, and very satisfactory lawyers, but who, unfortunately, have been seized with a mania for notoriety. Ordinarily they think of it on account of somebody else's talent. This one is brother to a

study. Marillac also had thrown himself into the arena of literature; then, different fortunes having greeted the two friends' efforts, he had descended little by little from the role of a rival to that of an inferior. Marillac was an artist, talent accepted, from th

arillac, man of letters"; meanwhile, aside from his profound disdain for the bourgeois, whom he called vulgar, and for the French Academy, to which he had sworn never to belong, one could reproach him with nothing. His penchant for the picturesque in expression was not always, it is true, in the most exc

ht, when Catherine had conducted them after supper to th

oes it matter, since y

grog and fill my pipe; otherwise, I

ipe and make

o. You are wanted. Fear nothing, interesting maid; you are safe with us; b

ant, rushing into the kitchen with a frigh

impleton!" replied Mademoiselle Reine; "they pro

ir, took another chair to stretch his legs upon, replaced his cap with a handkerchief artistic

isten without moving an eyelid should your stor

the room with the air of an orator who

o be. In order that you may understand the importance of the adventure I am about relating to you, it will be necessary for me to

c, "if I had known that, I wou

attention to this pleasantry, "the rather bad atta

r trip to S

act

gely cross and whimsical at the time. Was it not just a

add of our play

that it only went as far as the second act,

the catastrophe upon my shoulders; that made tw

Gymnase. My ears ring with the hisses yet! I could see, from our box, a little villain in a dress coat, in one corner of the pit, who gave the signal with a whistle as large as a

hat shouts after you like a pack of hounds after a hare. In spite of my pretension of being the least susceptible regarding an author's vanity of all the writers in Paris, it is perfectly impossible to be indifferent to such a thing-a hiss is a hiss. However, vanity aside, there wa

uable service. She was a good girl, and, aside from her love for the theatre and a certain indolence that was not without charm, I did not find any fault in her and grew more attached to her every day. Sometimes after spending long hours with her, a fanc

d by making capital out of her love for the stage. As he was about to leave for Belgium, he persuaded her to go there and dethrone Mademoiselle Prevost. I have since learned that a Br

" added Marillac. "H

of melancholy into which I soon fell; but the malady manifested itself upon this occasion, for it had been lurk

hich would become impossible if all the faculties were used alike, and if life filtered away, so to speak. To avoid such destruction, and concentrate life upon one point, in order to increase the action, is the price of talent and individuality. Among athletes, t

ndistinct harmony. Then, if I happened to resist this lassitude of nature demanding repose, I felt the pressure of my will exhausting the sources at the very depths of my being. It seemed to me that I dug out my ideas from the bottom of a mine, instead of gathering them upon the surface of the brain. The more material organs came to the rescue

ortened my life. When I was thirty years old my face was wrinkled, my cheeks were pallid, and

ilure of my works. We can not dismiss the public as we can our secretary; meanwhile, I surrendered to a too severe justice in order to decline others' opinions. A horrible thought

was not my heart, but my vanity which had been rendered more irritable by recent disappointments. This, then, was the end of

or Labanchie

here' said he, as he s

ut my hand to him, 'I believe

fter making careful examination, 'but your

unendurable. Without believing in medicine very much, I had conf

rest. It is rest for your brain that you now need. Go into the country, confine yourself to a regular and healthy diet: vegetables, white meat, milk in the morning, a very little wine, but, above all things, no coffee. Take moderate exercise, hun

and nails grow like Nebuchadnezzar. Six months! You do not know how I detest the cou

aid he, smiling. 'Hahneman

have homo

se. So far as you are concerned, you are a little used up and 'blase', as we all are in this Babylon of ours; have recourse, then, as a remedy, to

g Jew's five sous, that there is nothing to do but to put your hand in your pocket and take them out at your

ke Geneva. For a long time I had wanted to go to Switzerland, and it seemed as if I could not have chosen a better time. I hoped tha

at, so exclusive and hardening, that it ends by making

gious minds powerfully. Mine was neither the one nor the other. My habits of analysis and observation make me find more attraction in a characteristic face than in a magnificent lan

gether. We travelled thus through the Oberland and the best part of Valais; we were often rolled up in our travell

ont-Blanc, and one night

suddenly interrupted Marillac, as

d they were

ose something with an idiot in

as to spare me just now these efforts of imagination, and list

artist, as he puffed out

o go to the 'Mer de Glace' he turned his head toward the wall; so, leaving my phlegmati

e in the distance, and this extreme lessening in size made one comprehend, better than anything else, the immense proportions of the landscape. As for myself, I was alone: I had not even taken

which led to the Mer de Glace, aiding myself wi

n, seemed at times to recede, while the ridges of the perpendicular rocks stood out more plainly. At times, the noise of a falling avalanche was repeated, echo after echo. A troupe of German students below me were responding to the voice of the glaciers by a chorus from Oberon. Following the turns in the road, I could see through the fir-trees, or, rat

drons; these flowers looked like tufts of oleanders through the dark foliage of the fir-trees, and produced a charming effect. I left the path in order to reach t

paralyzed me. All aid was impossible on account of the narrowness of the road, and this stranger's life depended upon her coolness and the intelligence of her beast. Finally the animal seemed to regain its courage and began to walk away, lowering its head as if it could still hear the terr

ressed; a black silk gown fitted her slender form to perfection; her straw hat was fastened to the saddle, and her long chestnut hair floated in disorder over her pale

h a shudder. Her glance rested upon me, and then

er face was replaced immediatel

imed, in a fresh, young voice. 'A

ithout replying; as she hesit

s, Madame, I shall not belie

rhododendron, a rather large, handsome fellow, dressed in a pretentious style, slipped from his mule and climbed the somewhat steep precipice in quest of the f

'offer your flowers to these ladies.' Then, with a slight inclination o

rrel with him on account of this discourteous manifestation. When the cavalcade was at some distance, I went in search of my stick, which I found under a tree on the edge of

e. As for myself, I must admit the frivolous, or, rather mundane, bent of my tastes; the truly admirable spectacle presented to my eyes interested

d me from the first. The singular circumstances of this first interview, doubtless, had something to do with the impression. I felt glad to see that she had kept my bouqu

the ice, bounding over the crevasses with the aid of her stick. I was admiring her lightness and thoughtlessness, but with an uneasy feeling, when I saw her suddenly stop. I instinctively ran toward her. An enormous crevasse of great depth lay at her feet, blue at its edges and dark in its depths. She stood motionless before this frightful

to support her and turned her face toward the north; the cold air striking her revived her, and she soon opened her beautiful brown eyes. I do not know what s

or a dance; she took it, but I did not feel elated at this, for I could feel her knees waver at every step. The smallest crevasse, which she had crossed before with such agility, now inspired her with a horror which I could divine by the trembling of her arm within mine. I was obliged to make numerous detours in order to avoid them, and thus prolon

Madame; will it be the sam

itely to her and returned to the pavilion, while she related her advent

g traveller, and I was not disappointed. I soon saw the corpulent Monsieur de Mauleon busily writing his name upon the register in characters worthy of Monsieur Prudhomme; the other members of the little party follow

lemence de