Original Short Stories, Volume 5 (of 13)

or me to choose Mademoiselle

ntimate friend, used to take me round there when I was a child. I continued the custom, and I

; they live in Paris as though they we

ris, they know nothing at all, they suspect nothing; they are so far, so far away! However, from time to time, they take a trip into i

Mademoiselle Chantal passes everything in review, taking notes on a pad. Then she puts down a lot of figures and goes through lengthy calculations and long discussions with Mademoiselle Pearl. At last they manage to agree, and they decide upon the quantity of each thing of which they will lay in a three months' pr

only return at dinner time, tired out, although still excited, and shaken up by t

lation, which cares little for honor, spends its days in dissipation, its nights in revelry, and which throws money out of the windows. From time to time

ll brought up, so much so that they pass by unperceived like two pretty dolls. Never would the idea come to me to pay the slightest attention or to p

the mummifying of his family in order to live as he pleased in stagnant quiescence. He reads a lot, loves to talk and is readily affected. Lack of con

in the neighborhood. They also exchange two or three

of August and on Twelfth Night. That is as much on

friends are invited, but on Twe

rmer year, I went to the Cha

eas always gave me the impression of being carved out square like building stones, was accustomed to exclaiming at the end of every political discussion: "All that is seed which does not promise much for the future!" Why have I always imagined that Madame Chantal's ideas are square? I don't know; but everything that she says takes that shape in my head: a big square, with

as the result of continued chance or a family convention, but he unfailingly found the bean in his piece of cake, and he would proclaim Madame Chantal to be queen. Therefore, I was greatly surprised to find someth

his hands and cried: "It's Gaston! It's Gast

, in situations which are a little foolish. I sat there looking at my plate, with this absurd little bit of pottery in my finge

ge roams continually in houses with grown-up girls, and takes every shape and disguise, and employs every subterfuge. A dread of compromising myself took hold of me as well as an extreme timidity before the obstinately correct and reserved attitude of the Misses Louise and Pauline. To choose one of them in prefe

first every one was surprised, then they doubtless appreciated my delicacy and discretion, f

ompletely lost control of herself; she was trembling and st

life I looked at Mademoiselle

ing them. One day, with no reason at all, because a ray of sunshine happens to strike the seat, you suddenly think: "Why, that chair is very curious"; an

nificant. She was treated in a friendly manner, better than a housekeeper, not so well as a relative. I suddenly observed several shades of distinction which I had never no

simple, natural gracefulness, veiled and hidden. Truly, what a strange creature! How was it I had never observed her before? She dressed her hair in a grotesque manner with little old maid curls, most absurd; but beneath this one could see a large, calm brow, cut by two dee

ession of which seemed to have gone out without being us

tty teeth! But one would have tho

were pouring out champagne. I held my glass up to the queen and, with a well-turned compliment, I drank to her health. I could see that she felt inclined to hide her head in her napkin. Then, as

in the street; when guests came to dinner he would take them to the billiard room and smoke while playing. That evening they had b

reak,

gh I was twenty-five, but he

d some others, but as the thought of Mademoiselle

antal, is Mademoiselle P

he stopped playin

Haven't you heard abo

N

r father ev

N

That certainly is funny! Wh

and then

iar it is that you should ask m

hy

und which overlooks a great stretch of prairie. We had a house there with a beautiful hanging garden supported by the old battlemented wall; so that the house was in the town on the streets, while the garden overlooked the plain. There was a door leading from the garden to

an end. When we went to the ramparts to look over the plain, this immense white, frozen country, which shone like varnish, would chill our very souls. One

le girls; I married the youngest. Of all that crowd, there are only three of us left: my wife, I, and my sister-in-law, who lives in Marseill

was in the parlor, awaiting dinner, and my oldest brother, Jacques, said: 'There has

through everybody. My father called the servant and told him to go outside and look. We waited in complete silence; we were thinking of the snow whic

n to ring again, three times in succession, three heavy, long strokes which vibrated to the tips of our fingers and which stopped our

hould have waited so long to come back. Do not go alon

d of his strength, and feared nothing in the world. My father

ook a cane and went

'Just wait and see,' he said; 'it will be some beggar or some traveller lost in the snow. After ringing once, seeing that

l; it's some practical joker! There is nothing but that damned dog howling away at about a hund

ed; we felt that all was not over, that something was

t threw themselves on him to prevent his going. My father, although very calm and a little helpless (he limped ever since he had broken his leg when thrown by a horse), declared, in turn, that he wished to find out what was the mat

arrying a lantern. My brothers, Jacques and Paul, followed, and I trailed on behind in spite

he snow was falling so thick that we could hardly see ten feet ahead of us. But the lantern threw a bright light around us. When we began to go down the winding stairway in the wall I really grew frightened. I felt as though some one were walking behind me, were going to grab me by the shoulders and carry me away, a

t before us, for we could not see it; we could only see a thick, endless veil of snow,

ain; I will teach him how I shoot. Th

who was kind-h

who is crying for hunger. The poor fellow is barking for he

sensation like a sharp, rapid pain as each flake melted. We were sinking in up to our knees in this soft, cold mass, and we had to lift our feet very high in order to

ird-looking; he was a big black shepherd's dog with long hair and a wolf's head, standing just with

is neither advancing nor retreating

n a firm voice: 'No,

ed: 'But he is not alone. Th

rted out again cautiously. When he saw us approaching the dog sat down. He did not look w

ort of toy carriage entirely wrapped up in three or four woolen blankets. We carefully took off these coverings, and as Baptiste approac

onished that we

ed his hand over the roof of the carriage and said: 'Poor little waif, you shall be one of us!' And h

r rang at my door on this night of Ep

the four corners of the heavens: 'We have found it!' Then, putting his hand on

s he crossed himself, for, notwithstanding h

had been untied,

we had a lot of trouble in getting the carriage up through the windi

othes we found ten thousand francs in gold, yes, my boy, ten thousand francs!-which papa saved for her dowry. Therefore, it was not a child of poor people, but, perhaps, the child of some nobleman and a little bourgeoise of the town-or again-we made a thousand s

ix weeks, Mademoiselle Pearl

elle Pearl. She was at first baptized 'Marie Simonne

ing, with this baby now awake and looking round her at these

for queen I took Mademoiselle Pearl, just as you did to-day. On t

the years flew by. She was so gentle and loving and minded so well that e

the Chantals, she was an adopted daughter, taken in, but, nevertheless, a stranger. Claire understood the situation with peculiar intelligence and with surprising instinct; she knew how to take the place which was allotted her, and to keep it with so much tact, gracefulness and gentleness that she often brought tears to my father's eyes. My mother herself was often moved by the passionate gratitude and timid