Part 2 (2/2)
”Really, mamma,” said Cleopatra, the oldest of the daughters, to Madame Devaux, ”we won't take Monsieur Dufresne to a ball again; just see how he acts! he doesn't dance! he looks like a bear!”
”That is true, my child! If he would only come and sit down by us and talk and pretend to be polite!”
”Oh, yes! why, he doesn't pay the slightest attention to us! I should like to know what he is doing in that corner, near Madame Germeuil!”
”He certainly is not agreeable, and I shall not take him to Monsieur Verdure's the day after to-morrow, where there is to be music, and perhaps a collation. I will take little G.o.dard; he is rather stupid, but at all events he will dance as long as anybody wants him to.”
”Yes, and he is always on hand to give us something to drink.”
”By the way, Cleopatra, who will go home with us to-night?”
”Why, I don't know. Two of our gentlemen have gone away already; one had a headache, and the other wanted to go to bed early because he had an appointment for to-morrow morning. But we must have someone.”
”Never fear, I will hide Monsieur Dufresne's hat, and he won't go away without us, I promise you; that would be too much,--to be taken to a party by ladies, and let them go home alone!”
”You know very well, mamma, that it wouldn't be the first time that such a thing had happened to us.”
”Never mind, Cleopatra, it won't be so to-night, and Monsieur Dufresne will pay for the cab.”
While the ladies were conversing, Dufresne continued his observations.
He had noticed that Madame Germeuil was on very intimate terms with a young widow named Madame Dolban; thereafter this Madame Dolban became the object of Dufresne's attentions, and he easily succeeded in making her acquaintance; for the widow was not at all pretty, and the homage of an attractive man was certain to seem all the more flattering to her because she rarely received anything of the sort.
When Dufresne wished to go, he fell into the trap which Madame Devaux had set for him: he did not find his hat until the moment when the mother and her three daughters were ready to go. It was impossible for him to avoid the duty. Moreover, Madame Dolban had refused his escort; but she had given him permission to call and pay her his respects, and that was all that he wanted. So the young man performed with sufficient good grace the service which was expected of him; he packed the Devaux family into a cab, seated himself on the front seat between Cleopatra and Cesarine, and they started for Rue des Martyrs.
On the way, Dufresne was compelled to undergo a constant fire of epigrams discharged by the three girls against men who are not attentive, who do not do as other men do, who have wretched taste, who speak to ugly women and neglect pretty ones; and a thousand other sarcasms inspired by the irritation which it had caused them to see him devote himself to Madame Dolban.
Dufresne listened to all this very calmly, or, to speak more accurately, I believe that he did not listen to it at all; but he cared very little what the people thought who were chattering by his side, and his mind was too much preoccupied to heed the prattling of the three young women.
At last they reached the Rue des Martyrs. Dufresne left the Devaux family at their door; he received with a bow the curtsy of the mother, the cold salutation of Cleopatra, the curt good-evening of Cesarine and the stifled sigh of Cornelie.
IV
PROJECTS OF BLISS
Adeline woke in Edouard's arms; the young wife felt like an entirely different person by her husband's side; one night of love is enough to establish a pleasing confidence, a loving intimacy, and to banish that feeling of awe, of timidity which naught but sensual enjoyment can dispel.
What delightful plans for the future, what a charming existence of unbroken happiness one devises, when, in the arms of the object of one's affection, one abandons oneself without reserve to all the illusions which embellish the imagination of two young lovers.
Adeline, sweet, sensitive, and loving, was certain that she would always be happy so long as her Edouard loved her, and that her Edouard would always love her; she had no doubt of it, nor had he. It is not when a man has experienced for the first time all the joys of love in the arms of his wife, that he thinks upon the possibility of changing. Then he is sincere, he really feels all that he says, and doubtless he would keep all his promises, if the same joys could always cause the same pleasures.
It seems, in those moments of expansiveness which follow the manifestations of love, that the husband and wife were really born for each other. They have the same tastes, the same thoughts, the same desires; what one does, the other approves; the husband was just about to propose what the young wife has planned, they mutually divine each other's thoughts, and it seems to them perfectly natural that they should have but one mind and but one will. Blessed concord! you would bestow the most perfect happiness, if you might only last forever!
”And so, my dear love,” said Edouard, kissing his wife's pretty little hands, ”we will pa.s.s the winter in Paris, and four months of warm weather in the country.”
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