Doctor Pascal

ooden shutters, came only a few scattered sunbeams which, in the midst of the obscurity, made a soft brightness that bathed surrounding objects in a diffused and te

st century, displayed within its capacious depths an extraordinary collection of papers and manuscripts of all sorts, piled up in confusion and filling every shelf to overflowing. For more than thirty years the doctor had thrown into it every p

ht, appeared, with his snow-white hair and beard, strong and vigorous; although he was near sixty, his color was so fresh, his features were so finely cut, his eye

ill copy this note. Ramond would never be

de the young girl, who stood working at a high

master," s

with its short, fair hair, was clearly distinguishable; an exquisite and serious profile, the straight forehead contracted in a frown of attention, the eyes of an azure blue, the nose delicately molded, the chin firm. Her bent neck, especially, of a milky whiteness, looked adorably youthful under the

ll arrange the press a little. Not

repeated, without raisi

ide. The vast apartment, a dozen meters long and six wide, had, in addition to the press, only two bookcases, filled with books. Antique chairs of various kinds stood around in disorder, while for sole adornment, along the walls, hung with an old salon Empire paper of a rose pattern, were nailed pastels of flowe

, as a diversion from his work, had opened a newspaper-Le Temps-wh

Epoque, the prosperous republican journal which h

for he laughed frankly, at once pleased an

could not have been finer. Life is a strange

ad read the article, he cut it out and pasted it on a sheet of paper, on which he made some marginal notes in his large, irregular handwriting. Then he went back to t

ments on stamped paper, articles cut out of newspapers, arranged in envelopes of strong blue paper, each of which bore on the outside a name written in large characters.

Saccard," he added to it the new document, and then replaced the whole under its corresponding alphabetical letter. A moment later he had forgotte

ss, Clotilde, don't touch the p

she responded, for th

ith the gaiety that

is for

w it,

his researches to keep his manuscripts in some degree of order; and he gladly employed her as his secretary; he made her copy his notes when some confrere and fr

ompletely absorbed in her wo

your lips?" he said. "Are you so taken up with t

ing some curious experiments on a collection of hollyhocks; he had obtained a whole series of new colorings by artificial fecundations. She made these sorts of copies with extraordinary minuteness, a

ed her to look over her shoulder

are off in the clouds again! Will you d

w with the delight she took in her work, her slender finger

mas

ed him, in order to avoid using the words godfather or uncle, which she thought silly, there was, for the first

fancies in the midst of the most precise of reproductions. She satisfied it at once, falling always into this extraordinary efflorescence of such spirit and fancy that it never repeated itself; creating roses, with bleeding hearts, weeping tears of sulphur, lilies like crystal urns, flowers without an

the wall, on which there was already a row of strangely c

awing back a step, the bett

g about it; it

ough she had passed her sixtieth year, she, too, still retained a youthful air as she went about, silent and active, in her eternal black gown and w

which the hair was escaping, and drawing from her pocket a needle and a skein of worsted, she set to work to me

tween both his hands the mutinous head of Clotilde, "sew me fast, t

and looked at her master with

monsieur

have stuffed this good little round, clear, strong headpiece

changed a glance

o any one. And when people have not the same idea

ged seven, after his wife's death and at the moment when he was about to marry again, it was she who brought up the child, taking it to church, and communicating to it a little of the devout flame with which she had always burned; while the doctor, who had a broad mind, left them to their joy of believing, for he did not feel that he had the right to interdict to any one the happiness of faith; he contented himself later on with watching over the young girl's ed

and down the room. Then, like a man

retty head. Your good God had no need of you; I should have kept yo

citement, her clear eyes fixed

you did not shut yourself up in your eyes of flesh

to her assistance

re, should accompany us to church. Assuredly, God will save you. But at the

e at his feet, with the tenderness of women won over by his gaiety and his goodness. Already he opened h

d do better to go and work. And a

. The prohibition to enter it was formal. It was here that he gave himself up to special preparations, of whic

, "there he is, at his devil's

awing with mathematical precision, she found the exact tone of the violet peta

ing it; I have known him now for thirty years, and in all that time he has never so much as spoken an unkind word to any one. A real heart of gold, who would take the bit from his own mouth. And

peak so long at one time on the subj

, it is a promise.

y might have notice when any one entered the house, too vast for the three persons who inhabited it. The servant appeared surprised, and grumbled a few wor

Mme. Fe

er of old. Dressed elegantly now in black silk, she might still be taken, seen from behind, thanks to the slenderness of her figure, for some coquette, or some ambitious wo

ed Clotilde, going to meet her. "Wh

her on the forehea

sun is my

, she crossed the room, and turned t

gloomy to live in the dark in this wa

rched plain could be seen, stretching away in the distance, as if asleep or dead in the overpowering, furnace-like heat, while to the right

ettes, and I wished to know if Charles were here, to take him w

he apartment. Besides, she did not insist, speaking immediately afterward of her son Pascal,

s cookery! Don't disturb him,

isturb her master, and there was silence again, while Clotilde wiped her fingers, stained with crayon,

the only surviving power of a vanished world. No one was unaware that the Rougons, in 1851, had saved Plassans from anarchy, by causing the coup d'etat of the 2d of December to triumph there, and that, a few years later, they had won it again from the legitimist and republican candidates, to give it to a Bonapartist deputy. Up to the time of the war, the Empire had continued all-powerful in the town, so popular that it had obtained there at the plebiscite an overwhelming majority. But since

y. And besides, she was very rich. Then, too, she had shown herself dignified in her fall, never uttering a regret or a complaint, parading, with her eighty years, so long a succession of fierce appetites, of abominable maneuvers, of inordinate gratifications, that she became august through them. Her only happiness, now, was to enjoy in peace her large fortune and her past royalty, and

e persistent noise of the pestle, which did not cease.

himself the greatest harm with his new drug. I was told, t

her!" cried t

was now

des! Why, go question them, in the faubourg! They will te

protested, Clotilde, wounded

nations! Master has so great a heart that

gry, Felicite, comprehending that she had

medy-nothing could be better! and I will even admit that he will be able to cure everybody, as he hopes. Only, why affect these mysterious ways; why not speak of the matter openly; why, above all, try it only on the rabble

lowering her voice, to display

her himself handled many a million, and had a part in many a one of the great works which have made Paris a new city. Not to speak at all of your brother, Maxime, so rich, so distinguished, nor of your cousin, Octave Mouret,

g to protest, she closed her mouth,

that count for, compared to what I have dreamed of for him? Yes, all the best practice of the town, a large fortune, the decoration-honors, in short, and a position worthy of the family. My word! I used to say to him wh

denly perceiving on the floor the copy of the Temps, which the doctor had thrown there, after cutting out the article, to add it to the Saccard papers, and the light from the open

pointed editor of the Ep

ranquilly, "master told me

rs of considerable importance, launched into journalism, having his share again of all the good things going. And the recollection came to her of the quarrels of other days between him and his brother Eugene Rougon, whom he had so often compromised, and whom, by an ironical turn of events, he was perhaps going to protect, now that the former minister of the Empire was only a simple deputy, resigned to the single role of standing by his fallen master with the obstinacy with which his mother stood by her family. She still obeyed doci

s won. And I forgot to tell you, I have written again to your brother, to persuade him to come and

me had had when seventeen by a servant, and who now, at the age of fifteen, weak of intellect,

she wished to touch upon. When she saw that the young girl, occupied in arranging the papers on her desk, was no longer listening

he article out of

e smile

irths, deaths, the smallest event in life, everything goes in there. And the geneal

gon flamed. She looked f

them, thos

never spoken to me of them; and h

id not be

under your hands, you

lm rectitude, Clotilde a

o anything, it is because he has

and whom he would listen to, perhaps, you ought to entreat him to burn all that, for if he should chanc

of collecting these documents at the beginning of his great studies on heredity; how he had found himself led to take his own family as an example, struck by the typical cases which he saw in it, and which helped to support laws discovered by him. Was it not a perfectly natural field of observation, close at hand and with which h

"to the fire, to the fire with all tho

, seeing the turn the conversation was ta

are not in the way, since yo

a hissi

iumph, hurled against us in former days! Think a little of that, my child. Against all o

now they are horr

concerted f

rates me-what must not be-is that they should say afterward that we are all mad. And, then, regarding your grand-uncle Macquart, too, deplorable rumors have been spread. Macquart had his faults in past days, I do not seek to defend him. But to-day, is he not living very reputably on his little property at the Tulettes, two steps away from our unhappy mother, over whom he watches like a good son? And listen! one last example. Your brother, Maxime, committed a great fault when he had by a servant t

ttentively. She had grown very serious; her arms hung by her sides, her eyes w

ience, gr

inst all that is most sacred in the world! When they shall have demolished everything they w

, in a grieved voice, her narrow devoutness wound

m, on my word of honor! No, you do not love him, you two who have the happiness of believing, since you do nothing to bring him back to the right path. Ah!

glance, as if to take it by assault, to sack it, to destroy it, in spite of the withe

science, he could

ought, her gaze lost in vacancy. Then she sai

that is what makes us quarrel: for I cannot, like him, put the mystery aside. I am troubled by it, so muc

ecome lower and now dropp

oment past had worn a somber exp

u, if he were to tell me to throw myself down from the terrace, I would shut my eyes and throw myself, because I know that he is always right. But for his salvation!

licite approvingly. "You, at least, lov

nknown world, besides, which must be taken into account. But her grandmother, who was so old, this servant, who was so devoted, shook her in her uneasy affection for her uncle. Did they not love him better, in a more enlightened and more upright fashion, they who desired him to be without a stain, freed from his manias as a scientist, pure enough to be among the elect

he would not persist in his notion of heaping up all those

girl, and began to instruct her, lowering their voices as if they were engaged in a conspiracy, whence was to result a miraculous benefit, a divine joy with which the whole h

I do?" asked Clotilde

hm. And the victorious Felicite, who was about to speak, turned her head uneasily, and l

here the key o

gesture, that expressed all her repug

hing. Only as we are alone and as Pascal never reappears before dinner, we might assure ours

tionless, unwilling, st

n; no doubt there are none of those ba

ke the key from the drawer, and

ther, the paper

te, as if riveted to the spot by emotion, regarded the papers. At last, there they were, those terrible documents, the nightmare that had poisoned he

tten," she said. "Help

grandmother!

she was able to touch the envelopes of strong blue paper with the tips of her fingers; and her fingers traveled over them, contracting nervously, scratchin

topped, and Martine sa

e; here h

ne had fallen, and he stood stupefied at what he saw-his mother on the chair, her arm still in the air, while Martine had withdrawn to one side, and Clotilde,

hat the opportunity was lost, she descended from the chair, without m

ve been talking for nearly two hours, and I must run away at once. They will be expecti

ruel, and which he had always feared. He knew her, he was willing to pardon her everything, in his broad tolerance as a scientist, who made allowance for heredity, environment, and circumstances. And,

e had turned his eyes away from Martine, and fixed them on the young girl, who did no

!" he sai

ble will of her individuality, of her selfhood. She was beautiful and provoking, with her tall, slender figure, robed in its black blouse; and he

ve given a part of my heart and of my brain! Ah, yes! I should have kept you entirel

tine, who had approached him, in order t

up by so great a passion that his handsome face, crowned by his white hair, framed by his white bea

repeated in a t

y, if I believe you to be in peril, should I not try to save you? You are greatl

before defied

little girl; yo

d you know no more a

ing, of the uselessness of the discussion which he did not wish to enter upon. Thrusting her aside rudely, he crossed ove

d the course of the Viorne, beyond which rose the hills of Sainte-Marthe, red fields planted with olive trees, supported on terraces by walls of uncemented stones and crowned by somber pine woods-broad amphitheaters, bare and desolate, corroded by the heats of summer, of the color of old baked brick, which this fringe of dark verdure, standing out against the background of the sky, bordered above. To the left opened the gorges of the Seille, great yellow stones that had broken away from t

e arrogant, indeed, to imagine that one can tak

ssing. Then he took up the fragment of marble, and replaced it on the shelf, and when he h

above all, try not to bewilder your brain about what

th united in the same desire for conquest. After years of secret attempts, it was at last open war; the savant saw his household turn against his opinions, and menace them w

ghtful idea prese

of you love

ss, on this tranquil close of a beautiful day. All his gaiety, all his kind

"you are doing this for my happiness, are you n