Part 1 (1/2)

Frederic and Bernerette.

by Alfred de Musset.

CHAPTER I.

TOWARD the close of the Restoration, a young man from Besancon, Frederic Hombert by name, came to Paris to study law. His family was not rich and made him only a modest allowance. But as he was very careful, a little was sufficient. He roomed in the Latin quarter so as to be near his work. His tastes and inclinations were so sedentary that he hardly ever visited the promenades, the squares and the monuments, which, in Paris, are the chief objects of curiosity to the stranger.

The society of some young men with whom he was thrown in contact at the Law School and a few houses whose doors had been opened to him by letters of introduction, were his only distractions. He kept up a regular correspondence with his parents and sent them word of his success in examinations as he pa.s.sed them. After having worked a.s.siduously for three years, at length, the time arrived for him to become an advocate. He had only to write his thesis, and had already fixed the time for his return to Besancon, when an unexpected event for a time disturbed his plans.

He lived in the Rue de la Harpe, on the third floor, and on his window sill were some flowers which he looked after carefully. While watering them one morning, at a window opposite him, he noticed a young girl who bagan to laugh. She watched him so gaily and openly that he could not help nodding his head. She graciously returned his salutation, and from this moment they became accustomed to wish each other ”good morning” every day from one side of the street to the other. One day, when Frederic had risen earlier than usual, after having saluted his neighbor, he took a sheet of paper which he folded in the form of a letter and showed it to the girl, as if to ask if he could write to her. But she shook her head as a sign of refusal and disappeared as though offended.

The next day he chanced to meet her in the street. The young lady was returning home, accompanied by a young man whom Frederic did not know and whom he could not remember ever having seen among the students. From the appearance and dress of his neighbor, in spite of the fact that she had on a hat, he judged her to be what is known in Paris as a grisette. Her cavalier, of about his own age, was no doubt a brother or a lover, and in all probability the latter. Whichever it was, Frederic resolved to think no more of the matter. Winter having set in, he removed his flowers from the place they occupied in the window. But, in spite of himself, he could not help looking out from time to time. He brought the desk, at which he worked, nearer to the window and arranged the curtains so that he could see without being himself perceived.

His neighbor no longer appeared in the morning. She was sometimes to be seen shutting the blinds at five o'clock in the evening after having lighted the lamp. Frederic made bold enough to send her a kiss one day. He was surprised to see her return it as gaily as she had before returned his first salute. He again took up the piece of paper which had remained folded on his table and, explaining by signs as well as he could, asked her to write to him or to receive a note from him. But the reply was not more favorable than the first time. The grisette again shook her head and the same thing happened for eight days. Kisses came readily enough, but as for letters, he had to give them up.

At the end of a week, Frederic, vexed at these repeated refusals, tore up the paper before his neighbor's eyes. At first she laughed, remained for some time undecided, and then drew from the pocket of her ap.r.o.n a letter which she showed to the student. You may well understand that he did not shake his head. Unable to speak, he wrote in big letters on a large sheet of drawing-paper these three words: ”I adore you.” Then he placed the sheet on a chair and arranged a lighted candle on each side. The lovely grisette, with the aid of a lorgnette, was thus enabled to read her lover's first declaration. She answered with a smile and motioned to Frederic to go down and get the note she had shown him.

It was dark and a heavy mist was rising. The young man hurriedly descended, crossed the street, and entered his neighbor's house. The door was open and the young lady was at the foot of the stairs. Frederic, throwing his arms round her, was quicker to kiss her than to speak. She ran away trembling.

”What have you written to me?” he asked. ”When and how can I see you again?”

She stopped, retraced her steps, and slipping her note into Frederic's hand replied: ”Here, take it, and do not pa.s.s your nights away from home.”

The fact is, the student, in spite of his wisdom, had for some time, been spending his nights away from his lodgings and the grisette had noticed this.

When two lovers agree, obstacles count for little. The note handed to Frederic enjoined the greatest precaution, spoke of hidden danger, and asked where they could meet each other. It could not be, she said, in the young man's room. So they must find a room somewhere in the neighborhood. The Latin quarter is full of them. The first meeting was arranged, when Frederic received the following letter: ”You say you adore me, but you do not say if you think me pretty. You have scarcely seen me and, to be able to love me, you must see me better. I am going out with my servant. You go out too and meet me in the road. You will approach me, as an acquaintance, say a few words and, during this time, look at me well. If you do not think me pretty, tell me so, and I shall not be angry. It is quite simple, and, besides, I am not so bad.

”A thousand kisses.

”BERNERETTE.”.

Frederic obeyed the orders of his mistress, and I need only say the result was satisfactory. Yet Bernerette, by a refinement of coquetry, instead of loading herself with all her finery for this meeting, appeared in negligee, her hair done up under her hat. The student saluted her respectfully, told her that he thought her more beautiful than ever, and then went home delighted with his new conquest. But she appeared still more beautiful the following day, when she came to the rendezvous, and here he saw that she could dispense with all finery and was equally as charming in the simplest costume.

CHAPTER II.

FREDERIC and Bernerette had given way to their love almost before they had exchanged a single word and, from the very start, began to thee and thou each other. Wrapt in each other's arms they sat near the fireplace, where a small fire was burning. Here Bernerette, leaning on her lover's knees her checks aglow with pleasure, told him who she was. She had played in comedy in the provinces.

Her real name was Louise Durand and Bernerette was but an a.s.sumed one. She had been living for two years with a young man whom she no longer loved. At all costs, she wished to get rid of him and change her mode of life, either by returning to the stage if she found some one to protect her, or by learning a trade. Apart from this, she said nothing about her family or the past. She simply announced her determination to break the bonds that held her and which were insupportable. Frederic did not wish to deceive her and told her exactly his position. Not being rich, and acquainted with few people, he could help her but little.

”As I can not support you,” he added, ”I did not wish, under any pretext, to cause a rupture. But, as I could not endure the thought of sharing you with another, I shall leave you, much to my regret, and cherish in my heart the memory of a happy day.”

At this unexpected declaration, Bernerette burst into tears. ”Why go?” said she.

”If I break with my lover, it is not you who will have been the cause, since I have made up my mind for some time. If I go and serve my apprentices.h.i.+p in a laundry, will you no longer love me? It is a pity you are not rich, but what of it? We will do the best we can.”

Frederic was about to reply, but a kiss checked him.

”Let us think no more about it, nor mention it,” said Bernerette. ”When you want me, signal to me from your window and do not bother about the rest, which in any case does not concern you.”

During about six weeks, Frederic hardly worked at all. His theme lay on his table, hardly commenced, and, he added a line, from time to time. He knew that if a desire for enjoyment came to him, he had but to open the window. Bernerette was always ready and when he asked her how she managed to have so much liberty, she always answered that it was no business of his. He had a few savings in his drawer which he rapidly spent. At the end of two weeks, he was obliged to have recourse to a friend to enable him to take his mistress out to supper.

When this friend, who was named Gerard, learned of Frederic's new mode of life he said to him: ”Be careful, you are in love. Your grisette has nothing and you have not much more. In your position, I would be shy of an actress from the provinces. These pa.s.sions lead to more than one would think.”

Frederic laughingly replied that it was not a question of pa.s.sion, but of a pa.s.sing love. He told Gerard how he had come to know Bernerette, thanks to the window. ”She is a girl who thinks of nothing but laughter,” said he to his friend. ”There is nothing less dangerous than she, and nothing less serious than our liaison.”

Gerard yielded to this reasoning, but still urged Frederic to work. The latter a.s.sured him that his theme would soon be finished, and to prove it, in fact, he worked hard for a few hours; but, that very evening, Bernerette was awaiting him. They went together to La Chaumiere and work was neglected.

La Chaumiere is the Tivoli of the Latin quarter and the rendezvous of the students and grisettes. It follows, that it is a place for good company and a resort of pleasure. Drinking and dancing are indulged in: a frank gaiety, somewhat noisy, animates the a.s.sembly. The Elegantes are there in their round bonnets and the Fas.h.i.+onables in velvet waistcoats. One smokes, touches gla.s.ses in sign of friends.h.i.+p and makes love openly. If the police should forbid the entrance to this garden of those on their rolls, it would perhaps be here only that the old life of the students of Paris might continue, that life so free and happy, the memories of which fade day by day.

Frederic, as a provincial, was not one to grumble at those he met there; and Bernerette, who only wished to enjoy herself, would not have noticed anything.

One must have a certain knowledge of the world to be able to tell where to amuse one's self. Our happy couple did not reason over their pleasures. When they had danced all the evening, they went home tired and content. Frederic was such a novice that his first youthful follies appeared to him happiness itself. When Bernerette, leaning on his arm, walked with him down the Boulevard Neuf, he could imagine nothing sweeter than to live like this day by day. They wondered how it would all end, but neither could answer the question clearly. The rent of the furnished room near the Luxembourg was paid for two months: this was important. Sometimes, on arriving, Bernerette would have under her arm a cake wrapped up in paper and Frederic a bottle of good wine. They would then have a regular feast: the young girl at dessert would sing verses from the vaudevilles in which she had appeared. If she forgot the words, the student improvised verses in honor of his friend, and when he could not find the rhyme, a kiss sufficed. And in this way, they pa.s.sed the night together, without a thought of time.

”You no longer do anything,” Gerard would say, ”and your pa.s.sing fancy will last longer than a genuine pa.s.sion. Take care: you are spending money and you neglect the means of making any more.”

”Rea.s.sure yourself,” answered Frederic, ”my theme is progressing and Bernerette is about to apprentice herself to a laundry. Let me enjoy a moment of happiness in peace, and do not worry about the future.”

But the time for printing the thesis was rapidly drawing near. It was finished in haste but was no worse on that account. Frederic was admitted to the bar and sent to Besancon several copies of his dissertation, together with his diploma.

His father answered the happy news by sending him a sum of money much more than sufficient for his return home. Paternal joy, in this way and without knowing it, came to the a.s.sistance of love. Frederic was able to repay his friend the money he had borrowed and to convince him of the uselessness of his remonstrances. He wished to make Bernerette a present, but she refused.

”Take me out to supper,” said she to him; ”all I want from you is yourself.”

With a character gay as that of this young girl, when she experienced the least trouble, it was easy to perceive. Frederic found her sad one day and asked her the reason. After some hesitation, she drew a letter from her pocket. ”It is an anonymous letter,” said she. ”The young man who lives with me received it yesterday and gave it to me saying that he took no notice of accusations that were unsigned. Who has written this? I do not know. The spelling is as bad as the style, but it is no less dangerous for me. I am denounced as a lost woman and the very day and hour of our last meeting is mentioned. It must be some one in the house, a porter or a chambermaid. I do not know what to do nor how to escape the danger that threatens me.”

”What danger?” demanded Frederic.

”I believe,” said Bernerette, laughing, ”that it is no less than a question of my life. I have to deal with a man of violent temper, and if he knew I deceived him, he would be quite capable of killing me.”

In vain, Frederic read the letter a second time and examined it in a hundred different ways; he could not recognize the writing. He went home very much alarmed and resolved not to see Bernerette for a few days, but he soon received a note from her.

”He knows all,” she wrote. ”I do not know who has told him, but think it must be the porter. He is coming to see you and wants to fight with you. I am unable to say anything else- I am more nearly dead than alive.”

Frederic spent the entire day in his room. He awaited his rival's visit or at least some provocation. He was surprised to receive neither the one nor the other. The next day, and during the week, the same silence. At length, he learned that M. de N--, Bernerette's lover, had come to an understanding with her, after which, she had left the house and sought safety with her mother.

Alone, and in despair over the loss of a mistress he had loved to distraction, the young man had gone out one morning and had not been heard from again. At the end of four days, not seeing him return, the door of his apartment had been forced. He had left a letter on the table announcing his fatal design. It was a week later that the remains of this unfortunate man were discovered in the forest of Meudon.

CHAPTER III.