Volume I Part 68 (2/2)
”It's on the square; a charming, delightful promenade; you would think that you were on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, barring the size.”
”We haven't seen it yet.”
”I venture to think that the society here will please you also. We have a little nucleus[L] of agreeable and clever people--not large, but large enough; you shall be one of us, you shall be our almond--Ha! ha!--but not bitter.--Ha! ha! ha!--joker that I am; I am the life of the whole neighborhood.--We generally meet at Madame Droguet's--a good house, well kept up; they live very well indeed; we play cards, and sometimes dance; Droguet is mad over dancing. I myself used to be rather a fine dancer once. I could do my little _entrechat_--in the good old way, I a.s.sure you! But I've put on a good deal of flesh, so that I am not so light of foot as I was. However, I can still hold my own in a quadrille! You ladies should be fond of dancing?”
”Not I, monsieur; but Agathe is very fond of it.”
”In that case, madame, you will play cards with Madame Droguet. Do you know bezique?”
”No, monsieur.”
”Why, you surprise me! that refined, intellectual game, which has caused a revolution in Paris!”
”I do not care for cards, monsieur.”
”Then you can talk with Madame Jarnouillard, a woman of much intellect--although it doesn't appear. We also have Madame Remplume, her husband and her daughter--very _comme il faut_ people! Mademoiselle is very good-looking, although slightly humpbacked; but when she is facing you, it is less apparent; still it has kept her from being married; men don't take to the _hump_! Ha! ha!”
After a moment or two, Monsieur Luminot, discomfited to find that he was laughing all by himself and that his jests did not make the ladies gasp with merriment, rose to go, saying:
”Pardon me, ladies, for disturbing you in your household duties; I do not desire to intrude. I leave you, hoping that you will permit me to cultivate your delectable acquaintance.”
”Whenever it is agreeable to you, monsieur,” said Honorine, rising to show her visitor to the door.
”Those women are very good-looking,” he said to himself as he went away, ”but they don't seem to be very cheerful.”
”Mon Dieu! what a foolish man!” cried Agathe, when Monsieur Luminot had gone. ”If that's a fair specimen of the society of the place, we shall do well to deprive ourselves of it.”
”My dear girl, we must not be too severe; everything is relative. It may be that this gentleman is very agreeable in the circle that he frequents; we are not yet accustomed to his language, but perhaps we shall end by laughing at it with the rest.”
”Let us hope that we shall never reach that point.”
”However, I am fully persuaded that he did not consider us agreeable, because we failed to laugh at what he said.”
Not five minutes after the former dealer in wines had taken his leave, Poucette announced that Monsieur Jarnouillard desired to know if he could see the ladies.
”This is our day for callers,” said Honorine; ”let us see Monsieur Jarnouillard; he is married, and he comes first, which surprises me; he must be anxious to know us.--Show the gentleman in.”
The newcomer was a man of some fifty years, very thin, very ugly, and very slovenly in his dress, although it was plain that he had tried to make himself clean for his visit to his neighbors. He wore a cravat that was almost white, and a s.h.i.+rt collar almost black; a long _redingote_, which fell to his heels, and might at need be used as a dressing-gown; shoes half blacked; and a broad-brimmed straw hat like those worn by women who work in the fields.
Monsieur Jarnouillard had a long, pointed nose, a square, protruding chin, prominent cheek-bones, tawny, furtive eyes, thin, compressed lips and an earth-colored complexion, like one who deems any sort of ablution superfluous.
All this formed an ensemble which did not prepossess one in his favor.
He bowed almost to the floor as he entered the room, as if he were executing a Turkish salaam. But even while he saluted the two young women before him, his eyes found time to make the circuit of the room in which they received him, to scrutinize each article of furniture, and perhaps to estimate its value.
”Mesdames, pray permit me to pay my respects,” said Monsieur Jarnouillard in a clear, metallic voice, p.r.o.nouncing every syllable distinctly. ”Jarnouillard, land-owner and annuitant; it is several years since I retired from business and came to this place to live, with my wife. She will come to pay her respects to you; she did not come with me to-day because we have a stew for dinner and she had to stay at home to watch it; we have no servant, my wife does everything; it amuses her and distracts her thoughts. I have asked her several times: 'Do you want a maid? if so, take one.'--But she replies: 'Indeed I will not! to have everything stolen!'--It is true that servants are a vile lot; one is very lucky when one can do without them.”
”Since it suits yourself and your wife, monsieur, you are very sensible to adopt that course; one should always follow one's own tastes, and not worry about what people may say.”
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