Volume I Part 38 (1/2)
”One morning, Monsieur Luminot, formerly a wholesale dealer in wines, who is very well-to-do, and has a fine house and a good deal of land in this region--Monsieur Luminot, I say, took it into his head to make this Monsieur Paul's acquaintance.
”I must tell you, mesdames, that Monsieur Luminot is a lively old fellow, a _bon vivant_ and wag, who often gives dinners and entertains handsomely. He is highly esteemed all about here.
”He said to himself: 'The master of the Tower probably divined that Madame Droguet had hidden in a clump of bushes in order to pop out in front of him, and he didn't like it. I can understand that; men don't like to have traps laid for them, or to be watched for and spied upon.
I'll go about it in an entirely different way; I'll go straight to this gentleman and tell him that I have come as a neighbor, to call on him, and I will invite him to dinner. He will say at all events: ”Here's a man who acts honestly, and doesn't lie in wait for me in the bushes.”--I feel sure that he will welcome me more courteously than he did Madame Droguet.'
”And one fine day, after his breakfast, Monsieur Luminot bent his steps toward the Tower. He rang the bell at the main gate which was always kept locked, saying to himself that if Mere Lucas should answer the bell, he would ask her to take him to her master. But it was not the old peasant who opened the gate, it was the master of the house himself; he stared at Monsieur Luminot with an air of amazement, and said in his hoa.r.s.e voice, not even allowing him to enter his premises:
”'What do you want, monsieur?'
”Our quondam wine merchant, who is not easily abashed, began to laugh as he replied:
”'Pardieu! it is you I want, neighbor, for I am sure that you are the master of the house. I am Luminot, a land-owner at Ch.e.l.les, a _bon vivant_, always staunch at the table, always ready to let my friends taste my wine, which is not bad, I flatter myself. You don't go to see anybody, you keep yourself shut up here like a bear in his den; that's not the way to enjoy yourself! and I have come to ask you to dine with me to-morrow.'
”'I thank you, monsieur,' replied the man with the dog, 'but, as I entertain no one here, I do not go to other people's houses.'--And with that he shut the gate in his face.
”Then it became Monsieur Luminot's turn to feel angry; he came home shouting as loudly as Madame Droguet had:
”'Who in the devil is this fellow that's bought the Tower? The man's worse than a savage! I undertake to be polite to him, to invite him to dinner, and he shuts the door in my face without letting me cross the threshold, without even asking me to sit down and take something! I could have forgiven him for declining my invitation, but he might at least have given me a taste of his wine! Decidedly he's a devilish mean kind of a neighbor.'
”This, mesdames, is the way that people learned to know this eccentric personage; it only remains for me to tell you of my personal experience.
”A year had pa.s.sed since these incidents, and people were beginning to talk a little less about the proprietor of the Tower--for we become accustomed to everything, and by dint of discussing any one person there comes a time when we have nothing more to say--when, as I was returning one day from Gournay, where I had been to see a patient, I met Mere Lucas, the old woman who composed the whole of Monsieur Paul's establishment. I was pa.s.sing her without stopping, but she accosted me, saying:
”'Oh! I am glad I met you, Monsieur le Docteur Antoine Beaub.i.+.c.hon; it's as if Providence sent you on purpose, for I was just thinking that I'd have to go to your house.'
”'Do you want to consult me, Mere Lucas?' said I; 'are you sick? what's the matter with you?'
”'No, monsieur le docteur, I'm not sick; to be sure I'm not very strong, but the cracked pots last longer than the new ones sometimes, you know.
It isn't for myself that I was going to see you, but for my master, Monsieur Paul; he's sick, hasn't left his bed for two whole weeks, and he must be feeling very bad, for he's a man that don't take any care of himself, and I had hard work to get him to drink some herb tea.'
”'Ah! the owner of the Tower is sick, is he? Did he tell you to summon a doctor?'
”'No, indeed he didn't! on the contrary, every time I say to him: ”You ought to have a doctor, monsieur, and if you say so I'll go and call the doctor at Ch.e.l.les, Monsieur Beaub.i.+.c.hon, who's very learned and very skilful,” he says: ”Let me alone, Mere Lucas! I don't need a doctor, I won't have one; if I have got to die, I can die without doctors, and if it is the will of heaven that I live, they won't be the ones to cure me; nature will come to my a.s.sistance.”'
”'Well,' I said to the old peasant, 'as this gentleman doesn't want a doctor, why were you coming to fetch me?'
”'Why, monsieur, as if we ought to listen to sick folks, especially when they're so peculiar as my master! He don't get any better since he said that; on the contrary, he is much weaker since yesterday, and he seems to be suffering more. So it's my duty to take care of him in spite of him; and as it's your business to cure people, monsieur le docteur, you can't refuse to prescribe for my master.'
”I reflected for some time; I am certainly not so inquisitive as Madame Droguet, and I am not the man to crouch in the bushes for five days in succession watching for a man I don't know. And yet I was not sorry to obtain a nearer view of that strange man who avoided everybody, and to be able to judge for myself whether Madame Droguet and neighbor Luminot had not been a little severe on him. To make a long story short, as the old servant still begged me to go with her to the Tower, I said to myself: 'I may as well go; the man is sick; I am asked to go to see a sick man, and it's my duty to go; that's my profession.'
”So I started off with Mere Lucas. On the way, I ventured to ask a few questions about the proprietor.
”The old peasant's constant refrain was:
”'Oh! he's a very nice man! an excellent man!'
”As the woman is deaf, I concluded that she didn't hear my questions and that she naturally answered at random.
”We reached the Tower in due time, and I entered the house, which, although well furnished--richly furnished indeed--seemed to me wretchedly kept. I pa.s.sed through several rooms and at last reached a door which the peasant motioned to me to open, saying: