Part 76 (1/2)
”You will be happier,” said the Baroness, ”for no one could then blame you. You would satisfy G.o.d! Ask her if she was married without the sacrament of marriage!”
Atala looked at the Italian.
”How is she any better than I am?” she asked. ”I am prettier than she is.”
”Yes, but I am an honest woman,” said the wife, ”and you may be called by a bad name.”
”How can you expect G.o.d to protect you if you trample every law, human and divine, under foot?” said the Baroness. ”Don't you know that G.o.d has Paradise in store for those who obey the injunctions of His Church?”
”What is there in Paradise? Are there playhouses?”
”Paradise!” said Adeline, ”is every joy you can conceive of. It is full of angels with white wings. You see G.o.d in all His glory, you share His power, you are happy for every minute of eternity!”
Atala listened to the lady as she might have listened to music; but Adeline, seeing that she was incapable of understanding her, thought she had better take another line of action and speak to the old man.
”Go home, then, my child, and I will go to see Monsieur Vyder. Is he a Frenchman?”
”He is an Alsatian, madame. But he will be quite rich soon. If you would pay what he owes to that vile Samanon, he would give you back your money, for in a few months he will be getting six thousand francs a year, he says, and we are to go to live in the country a long way off, in the Vosges.”
At the word _Vosges_ the Baroness sat lost in reverie. It called up the vision of her native village. She was roused from her melancholy meditation by the entrance of the stove-fitter, who came to a.s.sure her of his prosperity.
”In a year's time, madame, I can repay the money you lent us, for it is G.o.d's money, the money of the poor and wretched. If ever I make a fortune, come to me for what you want, and I will render through you the help to others which you first brought us.”
”Just now,” said Madame Hulot, ”I do not need your money, but I ask your a.s.sistance in a good work. I have just seen that little Judici, who is living with an old man, and I mean to see them regularly and legally married.”
”Ah! old Vyder; he is a very worthy old fellow, with plenty of good sense. The poor old man has already made friends in the neighborhood, though he has been here but two months. He keeps my accounts for me. He is, I believe, a brave Colonel who served the Emperor well. And how he adores Napoleon!--He has some orders, but he never wears them. He is waiting till he is straight again, for he is in debt, poor old boy! In fact, I believe he is hiding, threatened by the law--”
”Tell him that I will pay his debts if he will marry the child.”
”Oh, that will soon be settled.--Suppose you were to see him, madame; it is not two steps away, in the Pa.s.sage du Soleil.”
So the lady and the stove-fitter went out.
”This way, madame,” said the man, turning down the Rue de la Pepiniere.
The alley runs, in fact, from the bottom of this street through to the Rue du Rocher. Halfway down this pa.s.sage, recently opened through, where the shops let at a very low rent, the Baroness saw on a window, screened up to a height with a green, gauze curtain, which excluded the prying eyes of the pa.s.ser-by, the words:
”ECRIVAIN PUBLIC”; and on the door the announcement:
BUSINESS TRANSACTED.
_Pet.i.tions Drawn Up, Accounts Audited, Etc._
_With Secrecy and Dispatch._
The shop was like one of those little offices where travelers by omnibus wait the vehicles to take them on to their destination. A private staircase led up, no doubt, to the living-rooms on the entresol which were let with the shop. Madame Hulot saw a dirty writing-table of some light wood, some letter-boxes, and a wretched second-hand chair. A cap with a peak and a greasy green shade for the eyes suggested either precautions for disguise, or weak eyes, which was not unlikely in an old man.
”He is upstairs,” said the stove-fitter. ”I will go up and tell him to come down.”
Adeline lowered her veil and took a seat. A heavy step made the narrow stairs creak, and Adeline could not restrain a piercing cry when she saw her husband, Baron Hulot, in a gray knitted jersey, old gray flannel trousers, and slippers.