 CHAPTER I. THE SHIP. CHAPTER I. THE CHALET. AT THE BEGINNING OF OCTOBER 1829 MONSERE SIMON BABILAS LATORNEI, NOTARY, WAS WALKING UP FROM HALVRETH TO INGOVILLE, ARM AND ARM WITH HIS SON AND ACCOMPANYED BY HIS WIFE, AT WHOSE SIDE THE HEAD CLICK OF THE LAWYERS' OFFICE, A LITTLE HUNCHBAT NAMED JOHN BOOTSKA, TOUGHT IT ALONG LIKE A PAGE. On these four personages, two of whom came the same way every evening, reached the elbow of the road where it turns back upon itself like those called in Italy, Comise. The notary looked about to see if anyone could overhear him, either from the terrace above or the path beneath, and when he spoke he lowered his voice as a further precaution. Exupere, he said to his son, he must try to carry out intelligently a little maneuver which I shall explain to you, but you are not to ask the meaning of it. And if you guess the meaning, I command you to toss it into that sticks which every lawyer and every man who expects to have a hand in government of his country is bound to keep within him for the secrets of others. After you have paid your respects and compliments to Madame and Monserle Mignon, to Monserre and Madame Dumé, and to Monserre Rubenheim, if he is at the chalet, and as soon as quiet is restored, Monserre Dumé will take you aside. You are then to look attentively at Monserle Modeste. Yes, I am willing to allow it, during the whole time he is speaking to you. My worthy friend will ask you to go out and take a walk. At the end of an hour, that is, about nine o'clock, you are to come back in a great hurry, try to puff as if you were out of breath, and whisper in Monserre Dumé's ear quite low, but so that Monserle Modeste is sure to overhear you these words. The young man has come. Exupérez was to start the next morning for Pérée to begin the study of law. This impending departure had induced LaTorne to propose him to his friend Dumé as an accomplice in the important conspiracy which these directions indicate. As Monserle Modeste suspected of having a lover, asked Boucher in a timid voice of Madame LaTorne. Hush, Boucher, she replied, taking her husband's arm. Madame LaTorne, the daughter of a clerk of the Supreme Court, feels that her birth authorizes her to claim issue from a parliamentary family. This conviction explains why the lady who is somewhat blotched as to complexion endeavors to assume in her own person the majesty of a court whose decrees are recorded in her father's pot hooks. She takes snuff, holds herself as stiff as a ramrod, poses for a person of consideration, and resembles nothing so much as a mummy brought momentarily to life by galvanism. She tries to give high-bred tones to her sharp voice and succeeds no better in doing that than in hiding her general lack of breeding. Her social usefulness seems, however, uncontestable when we glance at the flowerbed-deck cap she wears, at the false front fizzling around her forehead, at the gowns of her choice. For how could shopkeepers dispose of these products if there were no Madame LaTorne? All these absurdities of the worthy woman who was truly pious and charitable might have passed unnoticed if nature amusing herself as she often does by turning out these ludicrous creations had not endowed her with the height of a drum major and thus held up to view the comicalities of her provincial nature. She has never been out of Havre. She believes in the infallibility of Havre. She claims herself norman to the very tips of her fingers. She venerates her father and adores her husband. Little LaTorne was bold enough to marry this lady after she had attained the antimatrimonial age of 33. And what is more, he had a son by her. As he could have got the sixty thousand francs for her dot in several other ways, the public assigned this uncommon intrepidity to a desire to escape an invasion of the Minotaur against whom his personal qualifications would have insufficiently protected him had he rashly dared his fate by bringing home a young and pretty wife. The fact was, however, that the notary recognized the really fine qualities of Mamzelle Agnes, she was called Agnes, and reflected to himself that a woman's beauty is soon passed and gone to a husband. As to the insignificant youth on whom the clerk of the court bestowed in baptism his norman name of Exupere, Adam LaTorne is still so surprised at becoming his mother at the age of thirty-five years and seven months that she would still provide him if it were necessary with her breast and her milk, and high purply, which alone can fully express her impassioned maternity. How handsome he is, that son of mine, she says to her little friend Modeste, as they walk to church with the beautiful Exupere in front of them. He is like you, Modeste, mon mignon answers very much as she might have said, what horrid weather. This silhouette of Madame LaTorne is quite important as an accessory in as much as for three years she has been the chaperone of the young girl against whom the notary and his friend Dumé are now plotting to set up what we have called in the physiologie du mirage, a mousetrap. As for LaTorne, imagine a worthy little fellow as sly as the purest honor and uprightness would allow him to be, a man whom any stranger would take for a rascal at sight of its queer physiognomy, to which however the inhabitants of Havre were well accustomed. His eyesight, said to be weak, obliged the worthy man to wear green goggles for the protection of his eyes, which were constantly inflamed. The arch of each eyebrow, defined by a thin down of hair, surrounded the tortoise shell rim of the glasses and made a couple of circles as it were, slightly apart. If you have never observed on the human face the effect produced by these circumferences placed one within the other and separated by a hollow spacer line, you can hardly imagine how perplexing such a face will be to you, especially if pale, hollow-cheeked and terminating in a pointed chin like that of Mephistopheles, a type which painters give to cats. This double resemblance was observable in the face of Vavilas LaTorne. Above the atrocious green spectacles rose a bald crown, all the more crafty in expression because a wig, seemingly endowed with motion, let the white hairs show on all sides of it as it meandered crookedly across the forehead. An observer taking note of this excellent Norman clothed in black and mounted on his two legs like a beetle on a couple of pins and knowing him to be one of the most trustworthy of men would have sought without finding it for the reason of such physical misrepresentation. Jean Butzka, a natural son abandoned by his parents and taken care of by the clerk of the court and his daughter, and now through sheer hard work, head clerk to the notary, fed and lodged by his master who gave him a salary of nine hundred francs, almost a dwarf with no semblance of youth, Jean Butzka made modest his idol and would willingly have given his life for hers. The poor fellow whose eyes were hollowed beneath their heavy lids like the touch holes of a cannon, whose head overweighted his body with its shock of crisp hair and whose face was pockmarked, had lived under pitying eyes from the time he was seven years of age. Is not that enough to explain his whole being? Silent, self-contained, pious, exemplary in conduct, he went his way over that vast tract of country named on the map of the heart, love without hope, the sublime and arid steps of desire. Modest had christened this grotesque little being, her black dwarf. The nickname sent him to the pages of Walter Scott's novel and he one day said to Modest, will you accept a rose against the evil day from your mysterious dwarf? Modest instantly sent the soul of her Adora to its humble mud cabin with a terrible glance, such as young girls bestow on the men who cannot please them. Butzka's conception of himself was lowly, unlike the wife of his master he had never been out of Habra. Perhaps it will be well for the sake of those who have never seen that city to say a few words as to the present destination of the Le Tournay family, the head clerk being included in the latter term. Ingeville is to Habra what Montmartre is to Paris, a high hill at the foot of which the city lies, with this difference that the hill and the city are surrounded by sea and the sand, that Habra is helplessly circumscribed by enclosing fortifications and ensured that the mouth of the river, the harbor and the docks prevent a very different aspect from the fifty thousand houses of Paris. At the foot of Montmartre an ocean of slate roofs lies in motionless blue billows. At Ingeville the sea is like the same roof stirred by the wind. This eminence or line of hills which coasts the sin from Rhine to the seashore, leaving a margin of valley land more or less narrow between itself and the river, and containing in its cities its ravines, its veils, its meadows, veritable treasures of the picturesque became of enormous value in and about Ingeville. After the year eighteen sixteen, the period at which the prosperity of Habra began. This township have become since that time the Atteu, the Ville Vray, the Montmorency in short, the suburban residents of the merchants of Habra. Here they build their houses on terrace around its amphitheater of hills and breed the sea air laden with the fragrance of their splendid gardens. Here these bold speculators cast off the burden of their counting rooms and the atmosphere of their city houses which are built closely together without open spaces, often without courtyards, a vice of construction with the increasing population of Habra. The inflexible line of the fortifications and the enlargement of the docks is forced upon them. The result is worryness of heart in Habra, cheerfulness and joy at Ingeville. The law of social development has forced up the suburb of Gravel like a mushroom. It is today more extensive than Habra itself which lies at the foot of its slopes like a serpent. At the crest of the hill Ingeville has but one street and, as in all such situations, the houses which overlook the river have an immense advantage over those on the other side of the road whose view they obstruct and which present the effect of standing on tiptoe to look over the opposing roofs. However, there exist here, as elsewhere, certain servitudes. Some houses standing at the summit have a finer position or possess legal rights of view which compel their opposite neighbors to keep their buildings down to a required height. Moreover, the openings cut in the capricious rock by roads which follow its declensions and make the amphitheater habitable, give vistas through which some estates can see the city or the river or the sea. Instead of rising to an actual peak, the hill ends abruptly in a cliff. At the end of the street which follows the line of the summit ravines appear in which a few villages are clustered. St. Andressa and two or three other somethings. Together with several creeks which murmur and flow with the tides of the sea, these half-deserted slopes of Engoville form a striking contrast to the terraces of fine villas which overlook the valley of the sand. Is the wind on this side too strong for vegetation? Do the merchants shrink from the cost of terracing it? However this may be, the traveler approaching Havre on a steamer is surprised to find a barren coast and tangled gorges to the west of Engoville, like a beggar in rags beside a perfumed and sumptuously appareled rich man. In 1829 one of the last houses looking toward the sea and which in all probability stands about the center of the Engoville today was called, and perhaps is still called, the chalet. Originally it was a porter's lodge with a trim little garden in front of it. The owner of the villa to which it belonged, a mansion of part, gardens, aviaries, hot houses, and lawns, took a fancy to put the little dwelling more in keeping with the splendor of his own abode, and he reconstructed it on the model of an ornamental cottage. He divided this cottage from his own lawn, which was bordered and set with flowerbeds, and formed the terrace of his villa by a low wall along which he planted a concealing hedge. Behind the cottage, called in spite of all his efforts to prevent it, the chalet, were the orchards and kitchen gardens of the villa. The chalet, without cows or dairy, is separated from the roadway by a wooden fence whose palings are hidden under a luxuriant hedge. On the other side of the road, the opposite house, subject to a legal privilege, has similar hedge and palings, so as to leave an unobstructed view of Havre to the chalet. This little dwelling was the torment of the present proprietor of the villa, Montseur Vilkin, and here is why and the wherefore. The original creator of the villa, whose sumptuous details cry aloud, Behold our millions, extended his park far into the country for the purpose as he averred of getting his gardeners out of his pockets, and so, when the chalet was finished, none but a friend could be allowed to inhabit it. Montseur Mignon, the next owner of the property, was very much attached to his cashier-demain, and the following history will prove that the attachment was mutual. To him, therefore, he offered the little dwelling. De Maie, a stickler for legal methods, insisted on signing a lease for three hundred francs for twelve years, and Montseur Mignon willingly agreed, remarking, My dear De Maie, remember you have now bound yourself to live with me for twelve years. In consequence of certain events, which will presently be related, the estates of Montseur Mignon, formerly this richest merchant in Havre, were sold to the Vulcan, one of his business competitors. In his joy at getting possession of the celebrated Via Mignon, the latter forgot to demand the cancelling of the lease. De Maie, anxious not to hinder the sale, would have signed anything Vulcan required, but the sale once made, he held to his lease like a vengeance, and there he remained in Vulcan's pocket, as it were. At the heart of Vulcan's family life, observing Vulcan, irritating Vulcan, ensured the gadfly of all the Vulcans. Every morning, when he looked out of his window, Vulcan felt a violent shock of annoyance, as his eye lighted on the little gem of a building, the chalet, which had cost sixty thousand francs, and sparkled like a ruby in the sun. That comparison is very nearly exact. The architect has constructed the cottage a brilliant red brick pointed with white. The window frames are painted of a lively green. The woodwork is brown, verging on yellow. The roof overhangs by several feet. A pretty gallery with open work ballast rates amounts the lower floor and projects at the center of the facade into a veranda with glass slides. The ground floor has a charming salon and a dining room separated from each other by the landing of a staircase built of wood designed and decorated with elegant simplicity. The kitchen is behind the dining room, and the corresponding room back of the salon, formerly study, is now the bedroom of Montchure and Madame Domain. On the upper floor the architect has managed to get two large bedrooms, each with a dressing room to which the veranda serves as a salon. And above this floor, under the eaves, which are tipped together like a couple of cards, are two servants rooms with Monsard roofs each lighted by a circular window and tolerably spacious. Ville Kin has been petty enough to build a high wall on the side toward the orchard and kitchen garden, and in consequence of this piece of spite the few square feet which the lease secured to the chalet resembled a Parisian garden. The outbuildings painted in keeping with the cottage stood with their backs to the wall of the adjoining property. The interior of this charming dwelling harmonized with its exterior. The salon, floored entirely with ironwood, was painted in a style that suggested the beauties of Chinese lacquer. On black panels edged with gold, birds of every color, foliage of impossible greens, and fantastic oriental designs glowed and shimmered. The dining room was entirely sheathed in northern woods carved and cut in openwork like the beautiful Russian chalets. The little ante chamber formed by the landing and the well of the staircase was painted in old oak to represent a Gothic ornament. The bedrooms hung with chints were charming in their costly simplicity. The study where the cashier and his wife now slept was paneled top to bottom on the walls and ceiling like the cabin of a steamboat. These luxuries of his predecessor excited Bill Keane's wrath. He would feign have lodged his daughter and her husband in the cottage. This desire, well known to Demi, will presently serve to illustrate the Breton obscenity of the latter. The entrance to the chalet is by a little trellist iron door, the uprights of which ending in lance heads show for a few inches above the fence and its hedge. The little garden about as wide as the more pretentious lawn was just now filled with flowers, roses, and dahlias of the choices kind. Many rare products of the hothouses for another vulcanard grievance, the elegant little hot house, a very whim of a hot house, a hot house representing dignity and style belong to the chalet and separated, or if you prefer, united it to the villa, Bill Keane. Demi consoled himself for the toils of business and taking care of his hot house whose exotic treasures were one of Modest's joys. The billiard room of the villa, Bill Keane, a species of gallery, formerly communicated through an immense aviary with this hot house. But after the building of the wall which deprived him of a view into the orchards, Demi bricked up the door of communication. Wall for wall, he said. In 1827, Bill Keane offered Demi a salary of six thousand francs and ten thousand more as indemnity if he would give up the lease. The cashier refused, though he had but three thousand francs from Gobenheim, a former clerk of his master. Demi was a Breton transclanted by fate into Normandy. Imagine, therefore, the hatred conceived for the tenants of the chalet by the Norman Wilkein, a man worth three millions. What criminal les me on on the part of the cashier to hold up to the eyes of such a man the impotence of his wealth. Wilkein, whose desperation in the matter made him the talk of Havera, had just proposed to give Demi a pretty house of his own and had again been refused. Havera itself began to grow uneasy at the man's obstinacy, and a good many persons explained it by the phrase, Demi is a Breton. As for the cashier, he thought Madame and Mamzel Mignon would be illoged elsewhere. His two idols now inhabited a temple worthy of them. The sumptuous little cottage gave them a home where these dethroned royalties could keep the semblance of majesty about them, a species of dignity usually denied to those who have seen better days. Perhaps, as the story goes on, the reader will not regret having learned in advance a few particulars as to the home and the habitual companions of Madame Mignon, for, at her age, people and things have as much influence upon the future life as a person's own character. Indeed, character often receives ineffasible impressions from its surroundings. And of Section 1 of Modest Mignon by Henri de Balzac recorded by Don Jenkins Rancho San Diego, California shaggybark.blogspot.com Chapter 2 of Modest Mignon This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Modest Mignon by Henri de Balzac translated by Catherine Prescott Wormley, Chapter 2 A Portrait from Life From the manner with which the latter now entered the chalet, a stranger would readily have guessed that they came there every evening. Ah, you are here already, said the notary, perceiving the young banker Gobenheim, a connection of Gobenheim killer, the head of the great banking house in Paris. This young man with a livid face, a blonde of the type with black eyes, whose immovable glance has an indescribable fascination, sober in speech as in conduct. Dressed in black, lean as a consumptive, but nevertheless vigorously framed, visited the family of his former master and the house of his cashier less from affection than from self-interest. Here they played wist at two sues a point. A dress coat was not required. He accepted no refreshment, except Ursus Cray, and consequently had no civilities to return. This apparent devotion to the Minion family allowed her to be supposed that Gobenheim had a heart. It also released him from the necessity of going into the society of Avre and incurring useless expenses, thus upsetting the orderly economy of his domestic life. This disciple of the golden calf went to bed at half past 10 o'clock and got up at five in the morning. Moreover, being perfectly sure of Latternell's and Butcher's discretion, he could talk over difficult business matters, obtain the advice of the notary gratis, and get an inkling of the real truth of the gossip of the street. This stolid gold glutton, the epithetist Butchas, belonged by nature to the class of substances which chemistry terms absorbance. Ever since the catastrophe of the house of Minion, where the killers had placed him to learn the principles of maritime commerce, no one at the chalet had ever asked him to do the smallest thing, no matter what. His reply was well-to-known. The young fellow looked at Modest precisely as he would have looked at a cheap lithograph. He is one of the pistons of the big engine called commerce, said Port Butcher, whose clever mind made itself felt occasionally by such little saying stimmedly jerked out. The four Latternells bowed with the most respectful deference to an old lady dressed in black velvet who did not rise from the armchair in which she was seated for the reason that both eyes were covered with the yellow film produced by Cataract. Madame Minion may be sketched in one sentence. Her august countenance of the mother of a family attracted instant notice as that of one whose irreproachable life defies the assaults of destiny, which nevertheless makes her the target of its arrows and a member of the unnumbered tribe of Naiobes. Her blonde wig, carefully curled and well arranged upon her head, became the cold white face which resembled that of some burgo master's wife painted by Haas or Miravell. The extreme neatness of her dress, the velvet boots, the lace collar, the shawl, evenly folded and put on, all bore testimony to the solicitous care which Modeste bestowed upon her mother. When silence was, as the note we had predicted, restored in the pretty salon, Modeste sitting beside her mother for whom she was embroidering a kerchief became for an instant the center of observation. This curiosity, barely veiled by the commonplace salutations and inquiries of the visitors, would have revealed even to an indifferent person the existence of the domestic plot to which Modeste was expected to follow victim, but Goebenheim, more than indifferent, noticed nothing and proceeded to light the candles on the car table. The behavior of Dumé made the whole scene terrifying to Boucher, to the laturnell, and above all to Madame Dumé who knew her husband to be capable of firing a pistol at Modeste's lover as coolly as though he were a mad dog. After dinner that day the cashier had gone to walk followed by two magnificent Pyrenee hounds whom he suspected of betraying him and therefore left in charge of a farmer, a former tenant of Monsieur Mignon. On his return, just before the arrival of the laturnell, he had taken his pistols from his bed's head and placed them on the chimney piece concealing this action from Modeste. The young girl took no notice whatever of these preparations, singular as they were. Though short, thick-set, pockmarked and speaking always in a low voice as if listening to himself, this Breton, a former lieutenant in the guard, showed the evidence of such resolution such sang frois on his face that throughout life, even in the army, no one had ever ventured to trifle with him. His little eyes of a calm blue were like bits of steel. His ways, the look on his face, his speech, his carriage were all in keeping with the short name of Dumé. His physical strength, well-known to everyone, put him above all danger of attack. He was able to kill a man with a blow of his fist and had performed that feat at Bautzen where he found himself unarmed face-to-face with a Saxon at the rear of his company. At the present moment, the usually firm yet gentle expression of the man's face had risen to a sort of tragic sublimity. His lips were pale as the rest of his face, indicating a tumult within him mastered by his Breton will, a slight sweat which everyone noticed and guessed to be cold, moistened by his brow. The notary knew but too well that these signs might result in a drama before the criminal courts. In fact, the cashier was playing a part in connection with Modeste Mignon which involved to his mind sentiments of honor and loyalty of far greater importance than mere social laws and his present conduct proceeded from one of those compacts which, in case disaster came of it, could be judged only in a higher court than one of earth. The majority of dramas lie really in the ideas which we make to ourselves about things. Events which seem to us dramatic are nothing more than subjects which our souls convert into tragedy or comedy according to the bent of our characters. Madame Letoinelle and Madame Dumé who were appointed to watch Modeste had a certain assumed stiffness of demeanor and a quiver in their voices which the suspected party did not notice so absorbed was she in her embroidery. Modeste laid each thread of cotton with a precision that would have made an ordinary workman desperate. Her face expressed the pleasure she took in the smooth petals of the flower she was working. The dwarf seated between her mistress in Gopenheim restrained his emotion trying to find means to approach Modeste and whisper a word of warning in her ear. By taking a position in front of Madame Mignon the Madame Letoinelle with the diabolical intelligence of consensual duty had isolated Modeste. Madame Mignon whose blindness always made her silent was even paler than usual showing plainly that she was aware of the test to which her daughter was about to be subjected. Perhaps at the last moment she revolted from the stratagem necessary as it might seem to her. Hence her silence she was weeping inwardly. Exupère at the spring of the trap was wholly ignorant of the peace in which she was to play a part. Gopenheim by reason of his character remained in a state of indifference equal to that displayed by Modeste to a spectator who understood the situation this contrast between the ignorance of some and the palpitating interest of others would have seemed quite poetic. Nowadays romance writers arrange such effects and it is quite within their province to do so for nature in all ages takes the liberty to be stronger than they are. In this instance as you will see nature social nature which is a second nature within nature amused herself by making truth more interesting than fiction. Just as mountain torrents describe curves which are beyond the skill of painters to convey and accomplish giant deeds in displacing or smoothing stones which are the wonder of architects and sculptors. It was eight o'clock at that season twilight was still shedding its last gleams. There was not a cloud in the sky the balmy air caressed the earth the flowers gave forth their fragrance the steps of pedestrians turning homework sounded along the gravelly road the sea shone like a mirror and there was so little wind that the wax candles upon the car table sent up a steady flame although the windows were wide open. This salon, this evening this dwelling was a frame for the portrait of the young girl whom these persons were now studying with the profound attention of a painter in presence of the Margarita Donny one of the glories of the Petey Palace. Modest, blossom enclosed like that of Catulus was she worth all these precautions? You have seen the cage behold the bird just 20 years of age slender and delicate as the sirens which English designers invent for their books of beauty Modest was, like her mother before her the captivating embodiment of a grace too little understood in France where we choose to call it sentimentality but which among German women is the poetry of the heart coming to the surface of the being and spending itself in affections if the owner is silly in divine charms of manner if she is spiritual and intelligent Remarkable for her pale golden hair Modest belonged to the type of woman called perhaps in memory of Eve the celestial blonde whose satiny skin is like a silk paper applied to the flesh shuddering at the winter of a cold look expanding in the sunshine of a loving glance teaching the hand to be jealous of the eye Beneath her hair which was soft and feathery and worn in many curls the brow which might have been traced by a compass so pure was its modeling shown forth discreet calm to placidity and yet luminous with thought when and where could another be found so transparently clear or more exquisitely smooth it seemed like a pearl to have its orient the eyes of a blue verging on gray and limpid as the eyes of a child had all the mischief all the innocence of childhood and they harmonized well with the arc of the eyebrows faintly indicated by lines like those made with a brush on Chinese faces the scander of the soul was still further evidenced around the eyes in their corners and about the temples by pearly tints threaded with blue the special privilege of these delicate complexions the face whose oval Raphael so often gave to his Madonna's was remarkable for the sober and virginal tone of the cheeks soft as a Bengal rose upon which the long lashes of the diaphanous eyelids cast shadows that were mingled with light the throat bending as she worked to delicate perhaps and of milky whiteness recalled those vanishing lines that Leonardo loved a few little blemishes here and there like the patches of the 18th century proved that Modeste was indeed a child of earth and not a creation dreamed of in Italy by the angelic school her lips delicate yet full were slightly mocking and somewhat sensuous the waist which was supple and yet not fragile had no tears for maternity like those of girls who seek beauty by the fatal pressure of a corset steel and dimity and lacings defined but did not create the serpentine lines of the elegant figure graceful as that of a young poplar swaying in the wind a pearl gray dress with crimson trimmings made with a long waist modestly outlined the bust and covered the shoulders still rather thin with a shimmy set which left nothing to view but the first curves of the throat where it joined the shoulders from the aspect of the young girl's face at once ethereal and intelligent where the delicacy of a Greek nose with its rosy nostrils and firm modeling marked something positive and defined where the poetry enthroned upon an almost mystic brow seemed belied at times by the pleasure-loving expression of the mouth where candor claimed the depths profound and varied of the eye and disputed them with the spirit of irony that was trained and educated from all these signs an observer would have felt that this young girl with the keen alert ear that waked at every sound with a nostril open to catch the fragrance of the celestial flower of the ideal was destined to be the battleground of a struggle between the poesies of the dawn and the labors of the day between fancy and reality the spirit and the life modest was a pure young girl inquisitive after knowledge understanding her destiny and filled with chastity the virgin of spain rather than the Madonna of Raphael she raised her head when she heard you may say to exupére come here young man seeing them together in the corner of the salon she's opposed they were talking of some commission in Paris then she looked at the friends who surrounded her as if surprised by their silence and exclaimed in her natural manner why are you not playing with a glance at the green table which the opposing madame motournel called the altar yes let us play said you may having sent off exupére sit there butcha said madame motournel separating the head clerk from the group around madame mignon and her daughter by the whole width of the table and you come over here said you may to his wife making her sit close to him madame you may a little american about 36 years of age wipe her eyes furtively she adored modest and feared a catastrophe you are not very lively this evening remarked modest we are playing said gobenheim sorting his cards no matter how interesting the situation may appear it can be made still more so by explaining you may's position towards modest if the brevity of this explanation makes it seem rather dry the reader must pardon his dryness in view of our desire to get through with these preliminaries as speedily as possible and the necessity of relating the main circumstances which govern all dramas end of chapter two section three of modeste mignon by honray de balzac translated by katharine prescott warmly this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to find out how you can volunteer please visit libra vox.org read by don jenkins rancho san diego california shaggybark.blogspot.com section three of modeste mignon by honray de balzac translated by katharine prescott warmly chapter three preliminaries john françois bernard domay born at vanes started as a soldier for the army of italy in 1799 his father president of the revolutionary tribunal of that town had displayed so much energy in his office that the place had become too hot to hold the son of the parent a pedophugging lawyer perished on the scaffold after the ninth thermidor on the death of his mother who died of the grief this catastrophe occasion john sold all he possessed and rushed to italy at the age of 22 at the very moment when our armies were beginning to yield on the way he met a young man in the department of var who for reasons analogous to his own was in search of glory believing a battlefield less perilous than his own provance charo mignon the last scion of an ancient family which gave its name to a street in paris and to a mansion built by cardinal mignon had a shrewd and calculating father who's one idea was to save his feudal estate of labasti in the compta from the claws of the revolution like ultimate folk of that day the comp de la bastille now citizen mignon found it more wholesome to cut off other people's heads than to let his own be cut off the sham terrorist disappeared after the ninth thermidor and was then inscribed on the list of emigres the estate of la bastille was sold the towers and bastions of the old castle were pulled down and citizen mignon was soon after discovered at orlion and put to death with his wife and all his children except charo whom he had sent to find a refuge for the family in the upper alps horror struck at the news charo waited for better times in a valley of mont genevra and there he remained until 1799 subsisting on a few louis which his father had put into his hand at starting finally when 23 years of age and without other fortune than his fine presence in that southern beauty which when it reaches perfection may be called sublime of which antonu the favorite of adrian is the type charo resolved to wager his provincel audacity taking it like many other youth for a vocation on the red cloth of war on his way to the base of the army at niece he met the baton the pair became intimate partly from the contrasts and their characters they drank from the same cup at the wayside torrents broke the same biscuit and were both made sergeants of the peace which followed the battle of merengue when the war recommends charo mignon was promoted into the cavalry and lost sight of his comrade in 1812 the last of the mignon de la bastille was an officer of the legion of honor and major of a regiment of cavalry taken prisoner by the russians he was sent like so many others to cyberia he made the journey in company with another prisoner a poor lieutenant in whom he recognized his old friend john dumae brave neglected undecorated unhappy like a million of other will and appollates rank and file that canvas of men on which napoleon painted the picture of the empire while in cyberia the lieutenant colonel to kill time taught writing an arithmetic to the britain whose early education had seemed a useless waste of time to Paris scabula charo found in the old comrade of his marching days one of those rare hearts into which a man can pour his griefs while telling his joys the young provenceau had met the fate which attends all handsome bachelors in 1804 at frankfort on the main he was adored by batina wallenrod only daughter of a banker and he married her with all the more enthusiasm because she was rich and a noted beauty while he was only a lieutenant with no prospects but the extremely problematical future of a soldier of fortune of that day old wallenrod the decayed german baron there was always a baron in a german bank delighted to know that the handsome lieutenant was the sole representative of the mignon de la bastille approved the love of the blonde batina whose beauty and artist at that time there really was one in frankfort had lately painted as an ideal head of germany wallenrod invested enough money in the french funds to give his daughter 30 000 francs a year and settled it on his anticipated grandsons naming them counts of la bastille wallenrod this dot made only a small hole in his cash box the value of money being then very low but the empire pursuing a policy often attempted by other debtors rarely paid its dividends and charles was rather alarmed at this investment having less faith than his father-in-law in the imperial eagle the phenomenon of belief or admiration which is a femoral belief is not so easily maintained when in close quarters with the idol the mechanic distressed the machine which the traveler admires and the officers of the army might be called the stokers of the napoleonic engine if indeed they were not its fuel however the barren wallenrod to stahl barton steele promised to come if necessary to the help of the household charles love batina wallenrod as much as she loved him and that is saying a good deal but when a proven sawl has moved to enthusiasm all his feelings and attachments are genuine and natural and how could he fail to adore that blonde beauty escaping as it were from the canvas of durere gifted with an angelic nature and endowed with frankfort wealth the pair had four children of whom only two daughters survived at the time when he poured his griefs into the britain's heart demae loved these little ones without having seen them solely through the sympathy so well described by charlette which makes a soldier the father of every child the eldest named batina caroline was born in 1805 the other marie modeste in 1808 the unfortunate lieutenant colonel long without tidings of these cherished darlings was sent at the piece of 1814 across russia and prussia on foot accompanied by the lieutenant no difference of the pilots could count between the two friends who reached frankfort just as napoleon was disembarking at can charl found his wife in frankfort in mourning for her father who had always idolized her and tried to keep a smile upon her lips even by his dying bed old walon rod was unable to survive the disasters of the empire at 70 years of age he speculated in cottons relying on the genius of napoleon without comprehending that genius is quite as often beyond as at the bottom of current events the old man had purchased nearly as many bales of cotton as the emperor had lost men during his magnificent campaign in france i tie in godin said the father to the daughter a father of the goryotype striving to quiet a grief which distressed him i own no man anything and he died still trying to speak to his daughter in the language that she loved thankful to have saved his wife and daughters from the general wreck charl mignon returned to paris where the emperor made him lieutenant colonel in the curisers of the guard and commander of the legion of honor the colonel dreamed of being count in general after the first victory alas that hope was quenched in the blood of waterloo the colonel slightly wounded retired to the law and left tour before the disbandment of the army in the spring of 1816 charl sold his wife's property out of the funds to the amount of nearly 400 000 francs intending to seek his fortune in america and abandon his own country where persecution was beginning to lay a heavy hand on the soldiers of napoleon he went to havrah accompanied by demai whose life he had saved waterloo by taking him on the cupper of his saddle in the hurly burly of the retreat demai shared the opinions and the anxieties of his colonel the poor fellow idolized the two little girls and followed charl like a spaniel the latter confident that the habit of obedience the discipline of subordination and the honesty and affection of the lieutenant would make him a useful as well as a faithful retainer proposed to take him with him in a civil capacity demai was only too happy to be adopted into the family to which he resolved the cling like the mistletoe to an oak while waiting for an opportunity to embark at the same time making a choice of ship and reflecting on the chances offered by the various ports for which they sailed the colonel heard much talk about the brilliant future which the piece seemed to promise to havrah as he listened to these conversations among the merchants he foresaw the means of fortune and without loss of time he said about making himself the owner of landed property a banker and a shipping merchant he bought land and houses in the town and dispatched a vessel to new york freighted with silks purchased in leon at reduced prices he sent demai on the ship as his agent and when the latter returned after making a double profit by the sale of the silks and the purchase of cottons at a low valuation he found the colonel installed with his family in the handsomest house in the rue royale and studying the principles of banking with the prodigious activity and intelligence of a native of provance this double operation of dumais was worth a fortune to the house of mignon the colonel purchased the villa at ingoville and rewarded his agent with the gift of a modest little house in the rue royale the poor toiler had brought back from new york together with his cottons a pretty little wife attracted it would seem by his friend's nature miss groomer was worth about four thousand dollars twenty thousand francs which some dumai placed with his colonel to whom he now became an alter ego in short time he learned to keep his patron's books a science which to use his own expression pertains to the sergeant majors of commerce the simple hearted soldier whom fortune had forgotten for twenty years thought himself the happiest man in the world as the owner of the little house which his master's liberality had furnished with twelve thousand francs a year for money in the funds and a salary of three thousand six hundred never in his dreams had intended dumai hoped for a situation so good as this but greater still was the satisfaction he derived from the knowledge that his lucky enterprise had been the pivot of good fortune to the richest commercial house in havre madam dumai a rather pretty little american had the misfortune to lose all her children at their birth and her last confinement was so disastrous as to deprive her of the hope of any other she therefore attached herself to the two little mignons whom dumai himself loved or would have loved even better than his own children had they lived madam dumai whose parents were farmers accustomed to a life of economy was quite satisfied to receive only two thousand four hundred francs of her own and her household expenses so that every year dumai laid by two thousand and some extra hundreds with the house of mignon when the early accounts were made up the colonel always added something to this little store by way of acknowledging the cashier's services until in 1824 the latter had a credit of fifty eight thousand francs it was then that charle mignon com de la bastille a title he never used crowned his cashier with the final happiness of residing at the chalet where at the time when the story begins madame mignon and their daughter were living in obscurity the deplorable state of madame mignon's help was caused in part by the catastrophe to which the absence of her husband was due grief had taken three years to break down the docile german woman but it was a grief that gnawed at her heart like a worm at the core of a sound fruit it is easy to reckon up its obvious causes two children dying in infancy had a double grave and a soul that could never forget the exile of her husband whose cyberia was to such a woman a daily death the failure of the rich house of walenrod and the death of her father leaving his coffers empty was to batina then uncertain about the fate of her husband a terrible blow the joy of charles return came near killing the tender german flower after that the fall of the empire and the proposed ex-patriation acted on her feelings like a renewed attack of the same fever at last however after ten years of continual prosperity the comforts of her house which was the finest in havre the dinners balls and fates of a prosperous merchant the splendors of the via mignon the unbounded respect and consideration enjoyed by her husband his absolute affection giving her an unrivaled love and return for her single-minded love for him all these things brought the woman back to life at the moment when her doubts and fears at last left her when she could look forward to the bright evening of her stormy life a hidden catastrophe buried in the heart of the family and of which we shall presently make mention came as the precursor of renewed trials in january 1826 on the day when havre had unanimously chosen charles mignon as his deputy three letters arriving from new york paris and london fell with the destruction of a hammer upon the crystal palace of this prosperity in an instant ruin like a vulture swooped down upon their happiness just as the cold fell in 1812 upon the grand army in russia one night suffice charles mignon to decide upon his course and he spent it in settling his accounts with dumai all he owned not accepting his furniture would just suffice to pay his creditors alvarez shall never see me doing nothing said the colonel to the lieutenant dumai i take your 60 000 francs at six percent three my colonel at nothing then cried mignon peremptorily you shall have your share in the profits of what i now undertake the modest which is no longer mine sails tomorrow and i sail on her i commit you to my wife and daughter i shall not write no news must be taken as good news dumai always subordinate asked no questions of his colonel i think he said to latrine with annoying little glance that my colonel has a plan laid out the following day at dawn he accompanied his master on board the modest bound for constantinople there on the poop of the vessel the britain said to the proven sal what are your last commands my colonel that no man shall enter the chalet cried the father with strong emotion dumai guard my last child as though you were a bulldog death to the man who seduces another daughter fear nothing not even the scaffold i will be with you my colonel go in peace i understand you you shall find mam zelle mignon on your return such as you now give her to me or i shall be dead you know me and you know your pierney's hounds no man shall reach your daughter forgive me for troubling you with words the two soldiers clasped arms like men who had learned to understand each other in the solitudes of ciberia on the same day the havra courier published the following terrible simple energetic and honorable notice the house of charle mignon suspends payment but the undersigned assignees of the estate undertake to pay all liabilities on and after this date holders of notes may obtain the usual discount the sale of the land of the states will fully cover all current indebtedness this notice is issued for the honor of the house and to prevent any disturbance in the money market of this town monture charles mignon sailed this morning in the modeste for asia minor leaving full powers with the undersigned to sell his whole property both landed and personal dumai assignee of the bank accounts latrine notary assignee of the city and villa property goblin heim assignee of the commercial property latrine owed his prosperity to the kindness of wongshir mignon who lent him 100 000 francs in 1817 to buy the finest law practice in havra the poor man who had no pecuniary means was nearly 40 years of age and saw no prospect of being other than head clerk for the rest of his days he was the only man in havra whose devotion could be compared with demise as for goblin heim he profited by the liquidation to get part of mongshir mignon's business which lifted his own little bank into prominence while unanimous regrets for the disaster were expressed in counting rooms on the wharves and in private houses were praises of a man so irreproachable honorable and beneficent filled every mouth latrine and dumai silent and active his aunt soul bland turned property into money paid the debts and settled up everything vile king showed a good deal of generosity in purchasing the villa the townhouse a farm and latrine made the most of his liberality by getting a good price out of him society wished to show civilities to madame and mamsel mignon but they had already obeyed the father's last wishes and taken refuge in the chalet where they went on the very morning of his departure the exact hour of which had been concealed from them not to be shaken in his resolution by his grief at parting the brave man said farewell to his wife and daughter while they slept 300 visiting cards were left at the house a fortnight later just as charl had predicted complete forgetfulness settled down upon the chalet and proved to these women the wisdom and dignity of his command dumai sent agents to represent his master in new york paris and london followed up the assignments of the three banking houses whose failure had caused the ruin of the havrahouse thus realizing 500 000 francs between 1826 and 1828 an eighth of charles whole fortune then according to the latter's direction given on the night of his departure he sent that sum to new york through the house of mongonad at the credit of mont sure charles mignon all this was done with military obedience except in a matter of withholding 30 000 francs for the personal expenses of madame and mamser mignon as the colonel had ordered him to do but which dumai did not do the britain sold his own little house for 20 000 francs which some he gave to madame mignon believing that the more capital he sent to his colonel the sooner the latter would return he might perish for the want of 30 000 francs dumai remarked to the tourney who bought the little house at its full value where an apartment was always kept ready for the inhabitants of the chalet end of section three section four of modeste mignon by anre debalsak translated by kathryn prescott warmly this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to find out how you can volunteer please visit libra vox dot org section four of modeste mignon by anre debalsak read by don w jenkins chapter four a simple story such was the result to the celebrated house of mignon at havrah of the crisis of 18 25 26 which convulsed many of the principal business centers in europe and caused the ruin of several peresian bankers among them as those who remember that crisis will recall the president of the chamber of commerce we can now understand how this great disaster coming suddenly at the close of ten years of domestic happiness might well have been the death of batina mignon again separated from her husband an ignorant of his fate to her as adventurous and perilous as the exile to cyberia but the grief which was dragging her to the grave was far other than these visible sorrows the caustic that was slowly eating into her heart lay beneath a stone in the little graveyard of ingoville in which was inscribed patina caroline mignon died aged 22 pray for her this inscription is to the young girl whom it covered what many another epitaph has been for the dead lying beneath them a table of contents to a hidden book here is the book in its dreadful brevity and it will explain the oath extracted and taken when the colonel and the lieutenant bade each other farewell a young man of charming appearance named charles distorne came to havrah for the commonplace purpose of being near the sea and there he saw batina mignon a soy descent fashionable parisian is never without introductions and he was invited at the instance of a friend to the mignon's to a fate given at ingoville he fell in love with patina and with her fortune and in three months he had done the work of seduction and enticed her away the father of a family of daughters should no more allow a young man whom he does not know to enter his home than he should leave books and papers lying about which he has not read a young girl's innocence is like milk which a small matter turns sour a clap of thunder an evil odor a hot day a mere breath when charles mignon read his daughter's letter of farewell he instantly dispatched madame de mai to paris the family gave out that a journey to another climate had suddenly been advised for caroline by their physician and the physician himself sustained the excuse though unable to prevent some gossip in the society of havrah such a vigorous young girl with the complexion of a spaniard and that black hair she is consumptive yes they say she committed imprudence ah ah cried a vilkeen i am told she came back bathed in perspiration after riding on horseback and drank iced water at least that is what dr trissonard says by the time madame de mai returned to havrah the catastrophe of the failure had taken place and society paid no further attention to the absence of batina or the return of the cashier's wife at the beginning of 1827 the newspapers rang with the trial of charles de stronnais who was found guilty of cheating at cards the young corsair escaped into foreign parts without taking thought of mademoiselle mignon who was of little value to him since the failure of the bank batina heard of his infamous desertion and of her father's ruin almost at the same time she returned home struck by death and wasted away in a short time at the chalet her death at least protected her reputation the illness that mon sir mignon alleged to be the cause of her absence and the doctor's order which sent her to niece were now generally believed up to the last moment the mother hoped to save her daughter's life batina was her darling and modeste was the father's there was something touching in the two preferences batina was the image of charles just as modeste was the reproduction of her mother both parents continued their love for each other in their children batina a daughter of provence inherited from her father the beautiful hair black as a raven's wing which distinguishes the women of the south the brown eye almond shaped and brilliant as a star the olive tint the velvet skin as of some golden fruit the arched instep and the spanish waist from which the short basque skirt fell crisply both mother and father were proud of the charming contrast between the sisters a devil and an angel they said to each other laughing thinking it prophetic after weeping for a month in the solitude of her chamber where she admitted no one the mother came forth at last with injured eyes before losing her sight altogether she persisted against the wishes of her friends in visiting her daughter's grave on which she riveted her gaze and contemplation that image remained vivid in the darkness which now fell upon her just as the red spectrum of an object shines in our eyes when we close them in full daylight this terrible and double misfortune made demae not less devoted but more anxious about modeste now the only daughter of the father who was unaware of his loss madam demae idolizing modeste like other women deprived of their children cast her motherliness about the girl yet without disregarding the commands of her husband who distrusted female intimacies these commands were brief if any man of any age or any rank demae said speaks to modeste ogles her makes love to her he is a dead man i'll blow his brains out and give myself to the authorities my death may save her if you don't wish to see my head cut off do you take my place in watching her when i'm obliged to go out for the last three years demae had examined his pistols every night he seemed to have put half the burden of his oath upon the peranian hounds two animals of uncommon suggestivity one slept inside the chalet the other was stationed in a kennel which he never left and where he never barked but terrible would have been the moment had the pair made their teeth meet in some unknown adventurer we can now imagine the sort of life led by mother and daughter at the chalet mon sir and madame le ternet often accompanied by gobenheim came to call and played wist with demae nearly every evening the conversation turned it on the gossip of havre and the petty events of provincial life the little company separated between nine and ten o'clock modeste put her mother to bed and together they said their prayers kept up each other's courage and talked of the dear absent one the husband and father after kissing her mother for good night the girl went to her own room about ten o'clock the next morning she prepared her mother for the day with the same care the same prayers the same prattle to her praise be it said that from the day when the terrible infirmity depraved her mother of a sense modeste had been like a servant to her displaying at all times the same solicitude never worrying of the duty never thinking it monotonous such constant devotion combined with the tenderness rare among young girls was thoroughly appreciated by those who witnessed it to the latrine family and to mon sir and madame demae modeste was in soul the pearl of price on sunny days between breakfast and dinner madame mignon and madame demae took a little walk toward the sea modeste accompanied them for two arms were needed to support the blind mother about a month before the scene to which this explanation is a parentheses madame mignon had taken counsel with her friends madame latrine the notary and demae while madame demae carried modeste in another direction for a longer walk listen to what i have to say said the blind woman my daughter is in love i feel it i see it a singular change has taken place within her and i do not see how it is that none of you have perceived it in the name of all that's honorable cried the lieutenant don't interrupt me demae the last two months modeste has taken as much care of her personal appearance as if she expected to meet a lover she has grown extremely fastidious about her shoes she wants to set off her pretty feet she scolds madame gobet the shoemaker it is the same thing with her milliner some days my poor darling is absorbed and thought evidently expectant as if waiting for someone her voice has curt tones when she answers a question as though she were interrupted in the current of her thoughts and secret expectations then if this awaited lover has come good heavens sit down demae said the blind woman well then modeste is gay oh she is not gay in your sight you cannot catch these gradations they are too delicate for eyes that see only the outside of her nature her gaiety is betrayed to me by the tones of her voice by certain accents which i alone can catch and understand modeste then instead of sitting still and thoughtful gives vent to a wild inward activity by impulsive movements in short she is happy there is a grace a charm in the very ideas she utters all my friends i know happiness as well as i know sorrow i know it's siden's by the kiss my modeste gives me i can guess what is passing within her i know whether she has received what she was looking for or whether she is uneasy or expectant there are many gradations in a kiss even that of an innocent young girl a modeste is innocence itself but hers is the innocence of knowledge not of ignorance i may be blind but my tenderness is all-seeing and i charge you to watch over my daughter demae now actually ferocious the notary and the character of a man bound to ferret out of mystery madame latrine the deceived chaperone and madame demae alarmed for her husband's safety became at once a set of spies and modeste from this day forth was never left alone for an instant demae passed nights under her window wrapped in his cloak like a jealous spanyard but with all his military sagacity he was unable to detect the least suspicious sign unless she loved the nightingales in the villa park or some fairy prince modeste could have seen no one and had never given nor received a signal madame demae who never went to bed till she knew modeste was asleep watched the road from the upper windows of the chalet with a vigilance equal to her husband's under these eight argus eyes the blameless child whose very motion was studied and analyzed came out of the ordeal so fully acquitted of all criminal conversation that the four friends declared to each other privately that madame mignon was foolishly overanxious madame latrine who always took modeste to church and brought her back again was commissioned to tell the mother that she was mistaken about her daughter modeste she says is a young girl of very exalted ideas she works herself into enthusiasm for the poetry of one writer or the prose of another you have only to judge by the impression made upon her by that scaffold symphony the last hours of a convict the saying was butchkas who supplied wit to his benefactress with a lavish hand she seemed to me all but crazy with admiration for that monster ugo i'm sure i don't know where such people victor ugo la martine byron being such people to the madame latrine's of the bourgeoisie get their ideas modeste kept talking to me of childe herald and as i did not wish to get the worst of the argument i was silly enough to try to read the thing perhaps it was the fault of the translator but it actually turned my stomach i was dazed i couldn't possibly finish it why the man talks about comparisons that howl rocks that faint and waves of war however he is only a traveling englishman and we must expect absurdities though his are really inexcusable he takes you to spain and sets you in the clouds above the alps and makes the torrents talk and the stars and he says there are too many virgins did you ever hear the like then after napoleon's campaigns the lines are full of sonorous brass and flaming cannonballs rolling along from page to page modeste tells me that all the bathos is put in by the translator and that i ought to read the book in english but i certainly shan't learn english to read lord byron when i didn't learn it to teach exupere i much prefer the novels of decry dominio to all these english romances i'm too good a norman to fall in love with foreign things above all when they come from england madame mignon notwithstanding her melancholy could not help smiling at the idea of madame lotanay reading childe herald the stern scion of a parliamentary house accepted the smile as an approval of her doctrine and therefore my dear madame mignon she went on you have taken modeste fancies which are nothing but the results of her reading for a love affair remember she is just 20 girls fall in love with themselves at that age they dress to see themselves well dressed i remember i used to make my little sister now dead put on a man's hat and pretend we were monseur and madame you see you had a very happy youth in frankfurt but let us be just modeste is living here without the slightest amusement although to be sure her every wish is attendant to she still knows she is shut up and watched and the life she leads would give her no pleasure at all if it were not for the amusement she gets out of her books come don't worry yourself she loves nobody but you you ought to be very glad that she goes into these enthousiasms for the corsairs of byron and the heroes of walter scott and your own germans eggmont gutter verter schiller and all the other is well madame what do you say to that ask them i respectfully do alarmed madame mignon silence modeste is not only inclined to love but she loves some man answered the mother obstinately madame my life is at stake and you must allow me not for my sake but for my wife my colonel for all of us to probe this matter to the bottom and find out whether it is the mother or the watchdog who is deceived it is you who are deceived to my ah if i could but see my daughter cried the poor woman but whom is it possible for her to love us the notary i'll answer for my exupere it can't be gobenheim said do my for since the colonel's departure he has not spent nine hours a week in this house besides he doesn't even notice modeste that five frank piece of a man his uncle gobenheim keller is all the time writing him get rich enough to marry a keller with that idea in his mind you may be sure he doesn't know which sex modeste belongs to no other men ever come here for of course i don't count butchka poor little fellow i love him is your demise madame said the cashier to madam lotterne butchka knows very well that a mere glance at modeste would cost him a britone ducking not a soul has any communication with this house madame lotterne who takes modeste to church ever since your misfortune madame has carefully watched her on the way and all through the service and has seen nothing suspicious in short if i must confess the truth i have myself raked all the paths about the house every evening for the last month and found no trace of footsteps in the morning rakes are neither costly nor difficult to handle remark the daughter of germany but the dogs cried to my lovers have filters even for dogs answered madame mignon if you are right my honor is lost i may as well blow my brains out exclaimed demae why so demae said the blind woman ah madame i could never meet my colonel's eye if he did not find his daughter now his only daughter as pure and virtuous as she was when he said to me on the vessel let no fear of the scaffold hinder you demae if the honor of my modeste is at stake ah i recognize you both said madame mignon and a voice of strong emotion i'll wager my salvation that modeste is as pure as she was in her cradle exclaimed madame demae well i shall make certain of it replied her husband if madame la conteste shall allow me to employ certain means for old troopers understand strategy i will allow you to do anything that shall enlighten us provided it does no injury to my last child what are you going to do jaune asked madame demae how can you discover a young girl's secret if she means to hide it oh baby all cried the lieutenant i shall need every one of you if this rapid sketch were clearly developed it would give a whole picture of manners and customs in which many a family could recognize the events of their own history but it must suffice as it is to explain the importance of the few details here to foregiven about persons and things in the memorable evening when the old soldier had made ready his plot against the young girl and tending to wrench from the recesses of her heart the secret of a love and a lover seen only by a blind mother end of section four section five of modeste mignon by onre de balzac translated by catherine prescott wormlead this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to find out how you can volunteer please visit libervox.org section five of modeste mignon by onre de balzac read by don w genkins chapter five the problem still unsolved an hour went by in solemn stillness broken only by the cabalistic phrases of the wist players spades trump cut how are the honors two to four whose deal phrases which represent in these days the higher emotions of the european aristocracy modeste continued to work without seeming to be surprised at her mother's silence madame mignon's handkerchief slipped from her lap to the floor butchka precipitated himself upon it picked it up and as he returned it whispered in modeste's ear take care modeste raised a pair of wondering eyes whose puzzled glance filled the poor cripple with joy unspeakable she is not in love he whispered to himself rubbing his hands till the skin was nearly peeled off at this moment exuperate tore through the garden and the house plunged into the salon like an avalanche and said to demy in an audible whisper the young man is here demy sprang for his pistols and rushed out good god suppose he kills him cried madame demy bursting into tears what is the matter asked modeste looking innocently at her friends and not betraying the slightest fear it's all about a young man who is hanging around the house cried madame latrone well said modeste why should demy kill him sancta simplicita ejaculated butchka looking at his master as proudly as alexandra is made to contemplate babelon in labrune's great picture where are you going modeste asked the mother as her daughter rose to leave the room to get ready for your bedtime mama answered modeste in a voice as pure as the tones of instrument you haven't paid your expenses said the dwarf to demy when he returned modeste is as pure as the virgin on our altar cried madame latrone good god such excitement's where me out said demy and yet i'm a strong man may i lose that twenty five sue if i have the slightest idea what you are about remark gobenheim you seem to me to be crazy and yet it is all about a treasure said butchka standing on tiptoe to whisper in gobenheim's ear demy i'm sorry to say that i am still almost certain of what i told you persisted madame yong the burden of proof is now on you madame said demy calmly it is for you to prove that we are mistaken discovering that the matter in question was only modeste's honor gobenheim took his hat made his bow and walked off carrying his tensu with him there being evidently no hope of another rubber exupere and you too butchka may leave us said madame latrone go back to havda you will get there in time for the last piece at the theater i'll pay for your tickets when the four friends were alone with madame yong madame latrone after looking at demy who being a britain understood the mother's obstinacy and at her husband who is fingering the cards felt herself authorized to speak up madame yong come now tell us what decisive thing has struck your mind oh my good friend if you were a musician you would have heard as i have the language of love that modeste speaks the piano of the demoiselles mignon was among the few articles of furniture which had been moved from the townhouse to the chalet modeste often conjured away her troubles by practicing without a master born a musician she played to enliven her mother she sang by nature and loved the german errs which her mother taught her from these lessons and these attempts at self-instruction came a phenomenon not uncommon to nature with a musical vocation modeste composed as far as a person ignorant of the laws of harmony can be said to compose tender little lyric melodies melody is to music what imagery and sentiment are to poetry a flower that blossoms spontaneously consequently nations have made melodies before harmony botany comes later than the flower in like manner modeste who knew nothing of the painter's art except what she had seen her sister do in the way of watercolor would have stood subdued and fascinated before the pictures of rafael tishan rubens murillo rembrandt albert durer and hobain in other words before the great ideals of many lands lately for at least a month modeste had warbled the songs of nightingales and musical rhapsodies whose poetry and meaning had roused the attention of her mother already surprised by her sudden eagerness for composition and her fancy for putting errs into certain verses if your suspicions have no other foundations at latone to madame mignon i pity your susceptibilities when a britain girl sings said demiglimely the lover is not far off i will let you hear modeste when she is improvising said the mother and you shall judge for yourselves poor girl said madame demi if she only knew our anxiety she would be deeply distressed and she would tell us the truth especially if she thought it would save demi my friends i will question my daughter tomorrow said madame mignon perhaps i shall obtain more by tenderness than you have discovered by trickery was the comedy of the filet magardie being played here as it is everywhere and forever under the noses of these faithful spies these honest bartholos these perinian hounds without they're being able to ferret out the tecton or even surmise the lover the love affair or the smoke of the fire at any rate it was certainly not the result of a struggle between the jailers and the prisoner between the despotism of a dungeon and the liberty of a victim it was simply the never-ending repetition of the first scene played by men when the curtain of the creation rose it was eve in paradise and now which of the two the mother or the watchdog had the right of it none of the persons who were about medest could understand that maiden heart for the soul and the face we have described were in harmony the girl had transported her existence into another world as much denied and disbelieved in these days of ours as the new world of christopher columbus in the 16th century happily she kept her own counsel or they would have thought her crazy but first we must explain the influence of the past upon her nature two events had formed the soul and developed the mind of this young girl monserre and madame mignon warned by the fate that overtook patina had resolved just before the failure to marry medest they chose the son of a rich banker formerly of humberg but established in havra since 1815 a man moreover who was under obligations to them the young man whose name was françois al-thor the dandy of havra blessed with a certain vulgar beauty in which the middle class's delight well-made well-flashed and with a fine complexion abandoned his betrothed so hastily in the day of her father's failure that neither modeste nor her mother nor either of the demise had seen him since latone ventured a question on the subject to jacob al-thor the father but he only shrugged his shoulders and replied i really don't know what you mean the answer told to modeste to give her some experience of life was a lesson which she learned all the more readily because latone and demae made many and long comments on the cowardly desertion the daughters of charo mignon like spoiled children had all their wishes gratified they rode on horseback kept their own horses and grooms and otherwise enjoyed a perilous liberty seeing herself possessed of an official lover modeste had allowed francisque to kiss her hand and take her by the waist to mount her she accepted his flowers and all the little proofs of tenderness with which it is proper to surround the lady of our choice she even worked him a purse believing in such ties strong indeed to noble souls but cobwebs for the goblin himes the view keens and the altars sometime during the spring which followed the removal of madame mignon and her daughter to the chalet francisque al-thor came to dine with the view keens happening to see modeste over the wall at the foot of the lawn he turned away his head six weeks later he married the eldest ma'am zeal mckeen in this way modeste young beautiful and of high berth learned the lesson that for three whole months of her engagement she had been nothing more than mademoiselle mignon her poverty well known to all became a sentinel defending the approaches to the chalet fully as well as the prudence of the latinese or the vigilance of dumine the talk of the town ran for a time on mademoiselle mignon's position only to insult her poor girl what will become of her an old maid of course what a fate to have had the world at her feet to have had the chance to marry francisque al-thor and now nobody willing to take her after a life of luxury to come down to such poverty and these insults were not uttered in secret or left to modeste's imagination she heard them spoken more than once by the young men and the young women of havra as they walked to ingoville and knowing that madame mignon and her daughter lived at the chalet talked of them as they passed the house friends of the vioquines expressed surprise that the mother and daughter were willing to live on among the scenes of their former splendor from her open window behind the closed blinds modeste sometimes heard such insolence as this i am sure i can't think how they can live there someone would say as he pays the villalon perhaps to assist vioquine in getting rid of his tenant what do you suppose they live on they haven't any means of earning money i am told the old woman has gone blind as madame mignon still pretty dear me how dashing she used to be well she hasn't any horses now most young girls on hearing these spiteful and silly speeches born of an envy that now rushed peevish and grivelling to avenge the past would have felt the blood mount to their foreheads others would have wept some would have undergone spasms of anger but modeste smiled as we smile at the theater while watching the actors her pride could not descend so low as the level of such speeches the other event was more serious than these mercenary meannesses patina caroline died in the arms of her younger sister who had nursed her with the devotion of girlhood and the curiosity of an untainted imagination in the silence of long nights the sisters exchanged many a confidence with what dramatic interest was poor patina invested in the eyes of the innocent modeste patina knew love through sorrow only and she was dying of it among young girls every man scoundrel though he be is still a lover passion is the one thing absolutely real in the things of life and it insists on its supremacy charles destiny gambler criminal and debauchee remained in the memory of the sisters the elegant peresian of the fates of havra he admired of the women kind patina believed she had carried him off from the coquettish madame bilkin and to modeste he was her sister's happy lover such adoration in young girls is stronger than all social condemnations to patina's thinking justice had been deceived if not how could it have sentenced a man who loved her for six months loved her to distraction in the hidden retreat to which she had taken her that he might we may add be at liberty to go his own way thus the dying girl inoculated her sister with love together they talked of the great drama which imagination enhances and patina carried with her to the grave her sister's ignorance leaving her if not informed at least thirsting for information nevertheless remorse had set its fangs too sharply in patina's heart not to force her to warn her sister in the midst of her own confession she had preached duty and pleasant obedience to modeste on the evening of her deaths she implored her to remember the tears that soaked her pillow and not to imitate a conduct which even suffering could not expiate patina accused herself of bringing a curse upon the family and died in despair of being unable to obtain her father's pardon notwithstanding the consolations which the ministers of religion touched by her repentance freely gave her she cried in heart-rending tones with her latest breath oh father father never give your heart without your hand she said to modeste an hour before she died and above all accept no attentions from any man without telling everything to papa and mama these words so earnest in their practical meaning uttered in the hour of death had more effect upon modeste than if patina had exactly the solemn oath the dying girl far seeing as a prophet drew from beneath her pillow a ring which she had sent by her faithful maid francois crochet to be engraved in havre with these words think of patina 1827 and placed it on her sister's finger begging her to keep it there until she married thus there had been between these two young girls a strange commingling of bitter remorse and the artless visions of a fleeting springtime too early blighted by the keen north wind of desertion yet all their tears regrets and memories were always subordinate to their horror of evil nevertheless this drama of a poor seduced sister returning to die under a roof of elegant poverty the failure of her father the baseness of her betrothed the blindness of her mother caused by grief had touched the surface only of modeste's life by which alone the demise in the latarnese judged her for no devotion of friends can take the place of a mother's eye the monotonous life in the dainty little chalet surrounded by the choice flowers which do my cultivated the family customs as regular as clockwork the provincial decorum the games at which while the mother knitted and the daughter sowed the silence broken only by the roar of the sea in the equinoctial storms all this monastic tranquility did in fact hide an inner and tumultuous life the life of ideas the life of the spiritual being we sometimes wonder how it is possible for young girls to do wrong but such as do so have no blind mother to send her plummet line of intuition to the depths of the subterranean fancies of a virgin heart the demise slept when modeste opened her window as it were to watch for the passing of a man the man of her dreams the expected night who was to mount her behind him and right away under the fire of demise pistols during the depression caused by her sister's death modeste flung herself into the practice of reading until her mind became sodden in it born to the use of two languages she could speak and read german quite as well as french she had also together with her sister learned english from madame dumai being very little overlooked in the matter of reading by the people about her who had no literary knowledge modeste fed her soul on the modern masterpieces of three literatures english french and german lord byron gutta schiller walther scott bugle la martine crab more the great works of the 17th and 18th centuries history drama and fiction from astrea to manon nascow from montaigne's essays to diro from the fablieu to the novelle eluiz in short the thought of three lands crowded with confused images that girlish head august in its cold guilelessness its native chastity but from which there sprang full-armed brilliance sincere and strong an overwhelming admiration for genius to modeste the new book was an event a masterpiece that would have horrified madame latourne made her happy equally unhappy if the great work did not play havoc with her heart a lyric instinct bubbled in that girlish soul so full of the beautiful illusions of its youth but of this radiant existence not a gleam reached the surface of daily life it escaped the can of dumai and his wife and the latourne's the ears of the blind mother alone caught the crackling of its flame the profound disdain which modeste now conceived for ordinary men gave to her face a look of pride an inexpressible untamed shyness which tempered her teutonic simplicity and accorded well with a peculiarity of her head the hair growing in a point above the forehead seemed the continuation of a slight line which thought had already furrowed between the eyebrows and made the expression of untameability perhaps a shade too strong the voice of this charming child whom her father delighting in her wit was want to call his little proverb of Solomon had acquired a precious flexibility of organ through the practice of three languages this advantage was still further enhanced by a natural bell-like tone both sweet and fresh which touched the heart as delightfully as it did the ear if the mother could no longer see the signs of a noble destiny upon her daughter's brow she could study the transitions of her soul's development in the accents of that voice attuned to love end of section five read by don w jenkins rancho san diego california shaggy bark dot blog spot dot com section six of modeste mignon by honray de balzac translated by catherine prescott warmly this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to find out how you can volunteer please visit libra vox dot org section six of modeste mignon by honray de balzac recorded by don w jenkins chapter six a maiden's first romance to this period of modeste's eager rage for reading succeeded the exercise of a strange faculty given to vigorous imaginations the power namely of making herself an actor in a dream existence of representing to her own mind the things desired with so vivid a conception that they seemed actually to attain reality in short to enjoy by thought to live out her years within her mind to marry to grow old to attend her own funeral like charles the fifth to play within herself the comedy of life and if need be that of death modeste was indeed playing but all alone the comedy of love she fancied herself adored to the summit of her wishes in many an imagined phase of social life sometimes as the heroine of a dark romance she loved the executioner or the wretch who ended her days upon the scaffold or like her sister some Parisian youth without a penny whose struggles were all beneath a garret roof sometimes she was ninon scorning men amid continual fates or some applauded actress or gay adventurous exhausting in her own behalf the luck of guild law or the triumphs of pasta malibran or florene then wary of the horrors and excitement she returned to actual life she married a notary she ate the plain brown bread of honest everyday life she saw herself a madame lotterney she accepted a painful existence she bore all the trials of a struggle with fortune after that she went back to the romances she was loved for her beauty a son of a peer of france an eccentric artistic young man divined her heart recognized the star which the genius of a distal had planted on her brow her father returned possessing millions with his permission she put her various lovers to certain tests always carefully guarding her own independence she owned a magnificent estate and castle servants forces carriages the choices of everything that luxury could bestow and kept her suitors uncertain until she was forty years old at which age she made her choice this edition of the arabian knights in a single copy lasted nearly a year and taught madest the sense of satiety through thought she held her life too often in her hand she said to herself philosophically and with too real a bitterness too seriously and too often well what is it after all not to have plunged to her waist in the deep disgust which all men of genius feel when they try to complete by intense toil the work to which they have devoted themselves her youth and her rich nature alone kept madest at this period of her life from seeking to enter a cloister but this sense of satiety cast her saturated as she still was with catholic spirituality into the love of good the infinite of heaven she conceived of charity service to others as the true occupation of life but she cowered in the gloomy dreariness of finding in it no food for the fancy that lay crouching in her heart like an insect at the bottom of a calyx meanwhile she sat tranquilly sewing garments for the children of the poor and listening abstractedly to the grumblings of moncier let her name and do my held the thirteenth card or drew out his last trump her religious faith drove modest for a time into a singular track of thought she imagined that if she became sinless speaking ecclesiastically she would attain to such a condition of sanctity that god would hear her and accomplish her desires faith she thought can move mountains christ has said so the savior led his apostle upon the waters of the lake of tiberius and i all i ask of god is a husband to love me that is easier than walking upon the sea she fasted through the next length and did not commit a single sin then she said to herself that on a certain day coming out of church she would meet a handsome young man who was worthy of her whom her mother would accept and who would fall madly in love with her when the day came on which she had as it were some and god to send her an angel she was persistently followed by a rather disgusting beggar moreover it rained heavily and not a single young man was in the streets on another occasion she went to walk on the jetty to see the english travelers land but each english man had an english woman nearly as handsome as modeste herself who saw no one at all resembling a wandering child herald here's overcame her as she sat down like marias on the ruins of her imagination but on the day when she subpoenaed god for the third time she firmly believed that the elect of her dreams was within the church hiding perhaps out of delicacy behind one of the pillars round all of which she dragged madame letharna on a tour of inspection after this failure she deposed the deity from omnipotence many were her conversations with the imaginary lover for whom she invented questions and answers bestowing upon him a great deal of wit and intelligence the high ambitions of her heart hidden within these romances were the real explanation of the prudent conduct which the good people who watched over modeste so much admired they might have brought her any number of young altars of bilkeins but she would never have stooped to such clowns she wanted purely and simply a man of genius talent she cared little for just as a lawyer is of no account to a girl who aims for an ambassador her only desire for wealth was to cast it at the feet of her idol indeed the golden background of these visions was far less than the treasury of her own heart filled with womanly delicacy or its dominant desire was to make some tasso some milton a genre so amirat christopher columbus happy commonplace miseries did not seriously touch this youthful soul who longed to extinguish the fires of the martyrs ignored and rejected in their own day sometimes she imagined the bombs of gilead soothing melodies which might have allayed the savage misanthropy of reso or she fancied herself a wife of lord byron guessing intuitively his contempt for the real she made herself as fantastic as the poetry of manfred and provided for his skepticism by making him a catholic modeste attributed more liais melancholy to the women of the 17th century why is there not some one woman she asked herself loving beautiful and rich ready to stand beside each man of genius and be his slave like lara the mysterious page she had as the reader perceived fully understood il pianto which the english poet chanted by the mouth of his bulmar modeste greatly admired the behavior of the young english woman who offered herself to crebelon the son who married her the story of stern and elizabeth draper was her life and her happiness for several months she made herself ideally the heroine of a like romance and many a time she rehearsed in imagination the sublime role of iliza the sensibility so charmingly expressed in that delightful correspondence filled her eyes with tears which it is said were lacking in those of the wittiest of english writers modeste existed for some time on a comprehension not only of the works but of the characters of her favorite authors goldsmith the author of oberman charles no die maturin the poorest and most suffering among them were her deities she guessed their trials initiated herself into a destitution where the thoughts of the genius brooded and poured upon it the treasures of her heart she fancied herself the giver of material comfort to these great men martyrs to their own faculty this noble compassion this intuition of the struggles of toilers this worship of genius are among the choices perceptions that flutter through the souls of women they are in the first place a secret between the woman and god for they are hidden in them there is nothing striking nothing that gratifies the vanity that powerful auxiliary to all action among the french out of this third period of the development of her ideas there came to modeste a passionate desire to penetrate to the heart of one of these abnormal beings to understand the working of the thoughts and the hidden griefs of genius to know not only what it wanted but what it was at the period when this story begins these vagaries of fancy these excursions of her soul into the void these feelers put forth into the darkness of the future the impatience of an ungiven love to find its goal the nobility of all her thoughts of life the decision of her mind to suffer in a sphere of higher things rather than flounder in the marshes of provincial life like her mother the pledge she had made to herself never to fail in conduct but to respect her father's heart and bring it happiness all this world of feeling and sentiment had lately come to a climax and taken shape modeste wished to be the friend and companion of a poet an artist a man in some way superior to the crowd of men but she intended to choose him not to give him her heart her life her infinite tenderness freed from the trammels of passion until she had carefully and deeply studied him she began this pretty romance by simply enjoying it profound tranquility settled down upon her soul her cheeks took on a soft color and she became the beautiful and noble image of germany such as we have lately seen her the glory of the chalet the pride of madame lieutenant and the demise modeste was living a double existence she performed with humble loving care all the minute duties of the holy life of the chalet using them as a reign to guide the poetry of her ideal life like the carthusian monks who labor methodically and material things to leave their souls the freer to develop in prayer all great minds have bound themselves to some form of mechanical toil to obtain greater mastery of thought spinosa ground glasses for spectacles bale counted the tiles on the roof montescue garden the body being thus subdued the soul could spread its wings in all security madame mignon reading her daughter's soul was therefore right modeste loved she loved with that rare platonic love so little understood the first illusion of a young girl the most delicate of all sentiments a very dainty of the heart she drank deep drafts from the chalice of the unknown the vague the visionary she admired the blue plumage of the bird that sings afar in the paradise of young girls which no hand can touch no gun can cover as it fits across the site she loved those magic colors like sparkling jewels dazzling to the eye which youth can see and never sees again when reality the hideous hag appears with witnesses accompanied by the mayor to live the very poetry of love and not see the lover ah what sweet intoxication what visionary rapture a chimera with flowing mane and outspread wings the following is the plural and even silly event which cited the future life of this young girl modeste happened to see in a bookseller's window a lithographic portrait of one of her favorites cannelly's we all know what lies such pictures tell being as they are the result of a shameless speculation which seizes upon the personality of celebrated individuals as if their faces were public property in this instance cannelly's sketched in a bironic pose was offering to public admiration his dark locks floating in the breeze a bare throat a mean fathomable brow which every bar dot possess victor ugo's forehead will make more persons shave their heads than the number of incipient marshals ever killed by the glory of napoleon this portrait of cannelly's poetic through mercantile necessity caught modeste's eye the day on which it caught her eye one of artes's best books happened to be published we are compelled to admit though it may be to modeste injury that she hesitated long between the illustrious poet and the illustrious prose writer which of these celebrated men was free that was the question modeste began by securing the cooperation of françois crochet a maid taken from havra and brought back again by poor batina whom madame mignon and madame dumai now employed by the day and who lived in havra modeste took her to her own room and assured her that she would never cause her parents any grief never passed the bounds of a young girl's propriety and that as to françois herself she would be well provided for after the return of mon sermon on on condition that she would do a certain service and keep it an inviolable secret what was it why a nothing perfectly innocent all that modeste wanted of her accomplice was to put certain letters into the post at havra and bring some back which could be directed to herself françois crochet the treaty concluded modeste wrote a polite note to dariat publisher of the poems of cannelly's asking in the interest of that great poet for some particulars about him among others if he were married she requested the publisher to address his answer to mademoiselle françois post restant havra dariat incapable of taking the epistle seriously wrote a reply in the presence of four or five journalists who happened to be in his office at the time each of whom added his particular stroke of wit to the production maemzelle cannelly's baron of constant c melchior member of the french academy born in 1800 at cannelly's or court is a five feet four inches in height of good standing vaccinated spotless birth has given a substitute to the conscription enjoys perfect help owns a small patrimonial estate in the correse and wishes to marry but the lady must be rich he bereth propel ghouls an axe or sable three a scallops argent surmounted by a baron's coronette supporters two larches vert motto or et fair no allusion to opyr or oriferous the original conaless who went to the holy land with the first crusade is cited in the chronicles of avernus as being armed with an axe on account of the family indigence which to this day weighs heavily on the race this noble burn famous for discomforting a vast number of infidels died without or or fur as naked as a worm near Jerusalem on the plains of ascalon ambulance is not being then invented the chateau of cannelly's the domain yields a few chestnuts consisted of two dismantled towers united by a piece of wall covered by a fine ivy and is taxed at twenty two francs the undersigned publisher calls attention to the fact that he pays ten thousand francs for every volume of poetry written by monster de cannellis who does not give his shells or his nuts either for nothing the chanticler of the correse lives in the rue de paradis questionnaire number twenty nine which is a highly suitable location for a poet of the angelic school letters must be postpaid noble dames of the fowlburg saint germain are said to take the path to paradise and protect its god the king charles the tenth thinks so highly of this great poet as to believe him capable of governing the country he has lately made him officer of the lesion of honor and what pays him better president of the court of claims at the foreign office these functions do not hinder this great genius from drawing an annuity out of the fund for the encouragement of the arts and bell letter the last edition of the works of cannellis printed on vellum royal octavo from the press of didot with illustrations by bixiu josep redau schinner some of you etc is in five volumes price nine francs postpaid this letter felt like a cobblestone on a tulip a poet secretary of claims getting a stipend in a public office drawing an annuity seeking a decoration adored by the women of the fowlburg saint germain was that the muddy minstrel lingering along the quays sad dreamy worn of toil and re-entering his garret fraught with poetry however modeste perceived the irony of the envious bookseller who dared to say i invented cannellis i made nathan besides she reread her hero's poems versus extremely seductive insincere and hypocritical which require a word of analysis were it only to explain her infatuation cannellis may be distinguished from la martine chief of the angelic school by a wheedling tone like that of a sick nurse a treacherous sweetness and a delightful correctness of diction if the chief with his strident cry is an eagle cannellis rose and white is a flamingo and him women find the friend they seek their interpreter a being who understands them who explains them to themselves and a safe confidant the wide margins given by dido to the last edition were crowded with modeste's tensile sentiments expressing her sympathy with this tender and dreamy spirit cannellis does not possess the gift of life he cannot breathe existence into his creations but he knows how to calm vague sufferings like those which has sailed modeste he speaks to young girls in their own language he can allay the anguish of a bleeding wound and lull the moans even the sobs of woe his gift lies not in stirring words nor in the remedy of strong emotions he contents himself with saying in harmonious tones which compel belief i suffer with you i understand you come with me let us week together beside the brook beneath the willows and they follow him they listen to his empty and sonorous poetry like infants to a nurse's lullaby cannellis like no die enchants the reader by an artlessness which is genuine in the prose writer an artificial in the poet by his tact his smile the shedding of his rose leaves in short by his infantile philosophy he imitates so well the language of our early youth that he leads us back to the prairie land of our illusions we can be pitiless to the eagles requiring from them the quality of the diamond incorruptible perfection but as for cannellis we take him for what he is and let the rest go he seems a good fellow the affectations of the angelic school have answered his purpose and succeeded just as a woman succeeds when she plays the anjanoo cleverly and simulates surprise youth innocence betrayed in short the wounded angel modeste recovering her first impression renewed her confidence in that soul in that countenance as ravishing as the face of bernardine de sampierre she paid no further attention to the publisher and so about the beginning of the month of august she wrote the following letter to this dorot of the sacristy who still ranks as a star of the modern pleiades to monsure de cannellis many a time one sir i have wished to write to you and why surely you guess why to tell you how much i admire your genius yes i feel the need of expressing to you the admiration of a poor country girl lonely in her little corner whose only happiness is to read your thoughts i have read renais and i come to you sadness leads to reverie how many other women are sending you the homage of their secret thoughts what chance have i forenoticed among so many this paper filled with my soul can it be more to you than the perfumed letters which already beset you i come to you with less grace than others for i wish to remain unknown and yet to receive your entire confidence as though you had long known me answer my letter and be friendly with me i cannot promise to make myself known to you though i do not positively say i will not someday do so what shall i add read between the lines of this letter monsure the great effort which i am making permit me to offer you my hand that of a friend ah a true friend your servant oh besta m ps if you do me the favor to answer this letter address your reply if you please to memzal f coche post list on havra end of section six read by don w jinkins rancho san diego california shaggy bart dot blogspot dot com