第28章

No doubt the assembled stomachs were impatient; for on the appearance of the register of mortgages--who had no defect except that of having married for her money an intolerable old woman, and of perpetrating endless puns, at which he was the first to laugh--the gentle murmur by which such late-comers are welcomed arose.While awaiting the official announcement of dinner, the company were sauntering on the terrace above the river, and gazing at the water-plants, the mosaic of the currents, and the various pretty details of the houses clustering across the river, their old wooden galleries, their mouldering window-frames, their little gardens where clothes were drying, the cabinet-maker's shop,--in short, the many details of a small community to which the vicinity of a river, a weeping willow, flowers, rose-bushes, added a certain grace, making the scene quite worthy of a landscape painter.

The chevalier studied all faces, for he knew that his firebrand had been very successfully introduced into the chief houses of the place.

But no one as yet referred openly to the great news of Suzanne and du Bousquier.Provincials possess in the highest degree the art of distilling gossip; the right moment for openly discussing this strange affair had not arrived; it was first necessary that all present should put themselves on record.So the whispers went round from ear to ear:--"You have heard?"

"Yes."

"Du Bousquier?"

"And that handsome Suzanne."

"Does Mademoiselle Cormon know of it?"

"No."

"Ha!"

This was the PIANO of the scandal; the RINFORZANDO would break forth as soon as the first course had been removed.Suddenly Monsieur de Valois's eyes lighted on Madame Granson, arrayed in her green hat with bunches of auriculas, and beaming with evident joy.Was it merely the joy of opening the concert? Though such a piece of news was like a gold mine to work in the monotonous lives of these personages, the observant and distrustful chevalier thought he recognized in the worthy woman a far more extended sentiment; namely, the joy caused by the triumph of self-interest.Instantly he turned to examine Athanase, and detected him in the significant silence of deep meditation.

Presently, a look cast by the young man on Mademoiselle Cormon carried to the soul of the chevalier a sudden gleam.That momentary flash of lightning enabled him to read the past.

"Ha! the devil!" he said to himself; "what a checkmate I'm exposed to!"Monsieur de Valois now approached Mademoiselle Cormon, and offered his arm.The old maid's feeling to the chevalier was that of respectful consideration; and certainly his name, together with the position he occupied among the aristocratic constellations of the department made him the most brilliant ornament of her salon.In her inmost mind Mademoiselle Cormon had wished for the last dozen years to become Madame de Valois.That name was like the branch of a tree, to which the ideas which SWARMED in her mind about rank, nobility, and the external qualities of a husband had fastened.But, though the Chevalier de Valois was the man chosen by her heart, and mind, and ambition, that elderly ruin, combed and curled like a little Saint-John in a procession, alarmed Mademoiselle Cormon.She saw the gentleman in him, but she could not see a husband.The indifference which the chevalier affected as to marriage, above all, the apparent purity of his morals in a house which abounded in grisettes, did singular harm in her mind to Monsieur de Valois against his expectations.The worthy man, who showed such judgment in the matter of his annuity, was at fault here.Without being herself aware of it, the thoughts of Mademoiselle Cormon on the too virtuous chevalier might be translated thus:--"What a pity that he isn't a trifle dissipated!"Observers of the human heart have remarked the leaning of pious women toward scamps; some have expressed surprise at this taste, considering it opposed to Christian virtue.But, in the first place, what nobler destiny can you offer to a virtuous woman than to purify, like charcoal, the muddy waters of vice? How is it some observers fail to see that these noble creatures, obliged by the sternness of their own principles never to infringe on conjugal fidelity, must naturally desire a husband of wider practical experience than their own? The scamps of social life are great men in love.Thus the poor woman groaned in spirit at finding her chosen vessel parted into two pieces.

God alone could solder together a Chevalier de Valois and a du Bousquier.

In order to explain the importance of the few words which the chevalier and Mademoiselle Cormon are about to say to each other, it is necessary to reveal two serious matters which agitated the town, and about which opinions were divided; besides, du Bousquier was mysteriously connected with them.