The Celibates Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers

ined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to explain how the lad came

legs began to tremble under him; hot flushes ran down his back. He had seen the shadow of Pierrette, but not Pierrette herself! The lad climbed to the Upper town till he found a spot from which he could see the square and the house where Pierrette lived. He gazed at it mournfully, lost in many thoughts, as

lectually brilliant, universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and buried herself in a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. Such was the perfect love that suddenly developed itself in the heart of the Breton workman. Pierrette and he had often protected each other; with what bliss had he given her the money for her journey; he had almost killed himself by running after the diligence when she left him. Pierrette had known nothing of all that; but for him the recollection had warmed and comforted the cold, hard life he had led for the last three years. For Pierrette's sake he had struggled

ork done in the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five francs a day. On this he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; he

-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given to junketing and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men like Brigaut when they find them. To end Brigaut's history on this point, we will say here that by the

e sometimes in the market with her cousin, and shuddered to see the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On Sundays he went to church to look for her, dressed in her best clothes. There, for the first time, he became aware that Pierrette was Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him and made him a hasty sign to keep out of sight. To him, there was a world of thing

o know the reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was beginning to appear in the organ which is always the last to show the signs of failing life, namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause of the sufferings which gave her that look as though death were near and she might drop at any moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, the two gestures-not denying their friendship but imploring caution -al

e chief personages who frequented the Rogron salon. These hidden matters, carefully concealed by all concerned, were destined to fall in their results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such mysterious things, which we ought perhaps to call the putrescence of the human heart, lie at the base of the greatest revolutions, political, social or domestic; but in telling of them it is desirable to explain that their subtle significance c

their centre. But just at this time the Martignac ministry came into power,-a Liberal victory which overthrew the Villele administration. The Vinet party now carried their heads high in Provins. Vinet himself became a personage. The Liberals prophesied his advancement; he would certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As for the colonel, he would be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as Madame Garceland, the wife of the present mayor, now reigned! Sylvie could not hold out against that hope; she determined to consult a doctor, though the pro

n over forty?" asked

o has had children

woman, like Mademoisell

"Successful childbirth is then one of those miracl

asked C

ned that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and bones did

nmarried woman ought no

e doctor. "But then, of course, it is not mar

ried woman would make a great mistake in marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed Mademoisel

love the colone

oped," rep

lle Habert, Jesuitically, aware tha

ch, which sees in marriage only the propagation of humanity, and rebukes second marriages and all passions but those with a social purpose. Sylvie's perplexities were great. These internal struggles gave extraordin

Vinet approached his dear friend Sylvie

troubles yo

on walked home with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was

" thought he. "But you'

to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his pinched lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence exercised by Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by

o Bathilde; Jerome had already succumbed inwardly to her charms, and Vinet knew that the first time the pair were alone together the marriage would be settled. Rogron had reached the point of keeping his eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he fear to look at Bathilde. Vinet had now possessed himself of Sylvie

e court had risen, Vin

together, according

erals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor of the "Courrier" and the head of the party; the colonel, the working manager, was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The Tiphaines declared that the three men were always p

r shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your c

e Jesuit's manoeuvre an

cried the colonel; "and s

e. To turn a woman who loves you into a friend and confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river under fire of the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, you must study the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same wisdom you have displayed hitherto, and which has won us o

father's old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet relating to Sylvie's fear

quently she watched him with all her eyes, all her mind; and by giving herself up to hopes that were sometimes flourishing, sometimes blighted, she had brought the matter to such enormous proportions that she saw all things in a mental mirage. To use a common but excellent expression, by dint of looking intently she saw nothing. Alternately she repelled, admitted, and conquered the supposition of this rivalry. She compared herself with Pierrette; she was forty-two years old, with gray hair; Pierrette was delicately fair, with eyes soft enough to warm a withered heart. She had heard it said that men of fifty were apt to love young girls of just that kind. Before the colonel had come regularly to the house Sylvie had heard in the Tiphaines' salon strange stories of his life and morals. Old maids pres

ers. Pierrette's skin was moist with her labor when she returned to the kitchen to put it in order, and light the stove that she might carry up hot water to her two cousins (a luxury she never had for herself) and the means of lighting fires in their rooms. After this she laid the table for breakfast and lit the stove in the dining-room. For all these various fires she had to fetch wood and kindling from the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for a damp and chilly atmosphere. Such sudden transitions, made with the quickness of youth, often to escape a harsh word or obey an order, aggravated the condition of her health. She did not know she was ill, and yet she suffered. She began to have strange cravings; she liked raw vegetables and sa

the same offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the bread, and the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some

ppeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her false front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, her slippers wer

ick young lady!" said Sy

s it, c

you crept out the same way, though you kn

o

this morning, as if

!" exclaime

vie, mimicking her; "a

a lover

ed answering

e, that a man did not come under you

rette the wariness of slave

now what y

ur dog?" said

d 'cousin,'" repli

ndow?-which will give you an illness; and serve you right

cou

ter think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain this affair to y

errette narrowly. The girl colored; but the color, instead of rising evenly, came out in patches on her cheekbones, in burning and significant spots. A mother, seeing that symptom of illness, would have changed her tone at once; she would have taken the child on her lap and questioned her; in fact, she would long ago have tenderly understood the signs of Pierrette's pure and perfect innocence; she would have seen her weakness and known that the disturbance of the digestive

he is guilty!"

e was thus interpr

ve some talk together. Come," she said, in a rather softer tone, "shut t

ch led across the lawn to the edge of the rock terrace,-a picturesque little quay, covered with iris and aquatic p

hild; you are nearly fifteen, and it is not a

eyes with angelic sweetness to the cold,

and decency to the girl's mind. Instead of seeing in that question the

s a man who loves us a

that happens in Brittany we

n you do no wrong, my dear. The wrong is in hiding th

think so,

love any

N

rta

e cer

me, Pie

looked a

you this mornin

lowered

dow, you opened it, a

t to look out and

; you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your relations;

n despondency, submission, the si

hatred and envy force upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found censure and injustice. Pierret

serpent that I have warmed in my bosom, you

rrette, with a painful revulsion of her heart at the sudde

t to lie is a

, co

e old maid, with a solemn gesture towards the sky

swear," sa

peasant, you

like a frightened fawn

d her in a d

ringing," s

le adder has wound herself round the colonel. She has heard us say he was a baron. To be

otice her brother coming down the path and bemoa

I thought you were looking at the fish

said S

out his own dreams. "Don't you think my skin is

ut himself and his health. At this moment Pierrette came down the garden steps and called to them from a distance that breakfast was ready. At sight of her

the little angel, not aware of the i

ood. But such mere teasing was not enough; she wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was angry with herself for not finding one. She scarcely answered her brother's silly remarks, yet she looked at him only; her eyes avoided Pierrette. Pierrette was deeply conscious of all this. She brought the milk mixe

e matter?"

not surprised; no one can do two things at once. She wasn't thinking of the milk! a blackbird might have flown through the kitc

side of her plate the coffee-grou

hat is coffee,"

d Sylvie, looking at Pierrette and blasting h

omenon of the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was the more marked in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercise

nued Sylvie; "you deserve to be sent from the t

wo?" cried Rogron, "you are a

. "I leave her to make up her mind before speaking to you

the window to avoid her cousi

elle has a sharp ear; she can hear and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her from below.

done wrong?"

egin so young!" scream

way, and she should lose him! All the many thoughts, the deep and rapid thoughts of a slave came to her, and she resolved to keep absolute silence about a circumstance in which her conscience told her there was nothing wrong. But the cruel, bitter words she had been made to hear and the wounding suspicion so shocked her that as she reached the kitchen she was tak

is ill," s

, in a loud voice that Pierrette might hear. "S

earth; she went to bed weeping and pray