Part 12 (1/2)

VIII

WE MUST NOT JUDGE BY APPEARANCES

Let us leave Edouard and his wife for awhile, and return to Brother Jacques, with whom we must become better acquainted.

After his abrupt departure from the garden, Jacques had struck across the fields, and had walked for a long while without paying any heed to the road he was following; his only object was to get away from his brother, whose manners and language had wounded him to the heart. From time to time Jacques muttered a few words; he raised his eyes, stamped violently on the ground and seemed intensely excited. Having arrived in a lovely valley, shaded by ancient walnut trees, Jacques felt the need of rest; he looked about him as if to make sure that no one was following him; everything was calm and peaceful. The peasants working in the fields were the only living things that enlivened the landscape.

Jacques lay down at the foot of a tree, and reviewed in his memory the conversation which he had just had with Edouard.

”Because I look as if I were unfortunate, he treats me with contempt!

Because I wear moustaches, he dares not introduce me to his wife! He offers me money, and does not ask me to live with him! Is that the way a man should treat his brother? Why that contemptuous air? Have I dishonored my father's name? If my manners are rough, my speech is frank and my conscience clear. I may be poor and unfortunate, but never, no, never, will I commit an action for which I would need to blush. I have done foolish things,--youthful escapades, it is true; but I have no shameful offences to reproach myself with, and this that I have here, on my breast, should guarantee me against all reproach, by commanding me never to deserve it.”

Thereupon Jacques opened his coat and gazed proudly at the cross of the Legion of Honor, pinned to an old military jacket which he wore underneath. That reward of his valor was his sole consolation; and yet Jacques had concealed the decoration, because he had been for several days past forced to seek hospitality from peasants, who were not always hospitable, and Jacques did not wish to show his cross at the risk of humiliation. He was right; a man who wears a symbol of merit should not be an object of compa.s.sion to other people.

Jacques had his eyes fixed upon his decoration; he was thinking of the day when his colonel had pinned it on his breast; he remembered the battles in which he had taken part, his mind returned to the battlefield, and he saw himself surrounded by his comrades, and marching eagerly against the enemy; the memory of those glorious days revived his depressed spirit, and he forgot his sorrows and his brother's coldness.

At that moment, a young man, dressed very much like Jacques, but whose bright and animated face denoted neither depression nor poverty, came down a hill leading into the valley, whistling a military march, and marking time with a switch on the gooseberry bushes and lilacs which lined the road.

On arriving in the valley, the traveller stopped and looked about in all directions.

”What the deuce! not an inn! not a poor little wine-shop even! I wonder if I have gone astray? I don't see any sign of a village, and I'm as thirsty as one possessed. But no matter! Forward!”

And he began to sing:

”I saw Jeanneton And her pretty little foot I even saw her----”

”Ah! there's someone at last. I say, my friend!”

The traveller's words were addressed to Jacques, who raised his eyes and recognized his faithful comrade; he ran toward him, exclaiming:

”Ah! it is you, is it, my dear Sans-Souci?”

”Why, it's comrade Jacques! Pardieu! I couldn't have better luck; wait till I lie down beside you in the shade of your walnut; I would rather be in the shade of a cask of burgundy; but however, one must accommodate oneself to everything.”

”Still the same, Sans-Souci! still cheerful, and fond of good living!”

”Oh! as for that, I shan't change; cheerfulness is the wealth of poor devils like us. You know that I used to sing when we were going into battle! They--let me see--what do they call that?”

”Disbanded.”

”Yes, that's it,--they disbanded us; and instead of being soldiers, here we are civilians again! Well, we must make the best of it; besides, we have always behaved well, and if there is any need to defend the country again some day, why then, forward march!”

”Yes, but how are we to live meanwhile?”

”Like other people, by working.”