Part 3 (1/2)
”Yes,” I said, ”I'll coht the picture”
Three days afterwards I asked Octave on the threshold if the Russian had bought the portrait, and he told one to St Petersburg with the prince, and this was the last news I had of her forhappening to remind me of her One day a books of travels in Siberia opened at a passage telling how a boy belonging to a tribe of Asiatic savages had been taken fro, and brought to Moscow The gentleman who had found hie beca no trace of his origin until one day he happened to meet one of his tribe The man had come to Moscow to sell skins; and the s for the desert The reclairew melancholy; his adopted father tried in vain to overcoinal instinct; presents of money did not soothe his homesickness He disappeared, and was not heard of for years until one day a caravan caes who had betrayed hi questioned, he denied any knowledge of French; he said he had never been to St Petersburg, nor did he wish to go there And as this story but the story of Marie Pellegrin, eary of Russian princes and palaces, returned for her holiday to the Quartier Breda?
A few days afterwards I heard in Barres's studio that she had escaped fro I went to Alphonsine's to dinner, hoping to see her there But she was not there There was no one there except Cleerly for news of her I did not like to mention her name, and the dreary dinner was nearly over before her na, but very ill Alphonsine gave her up on the sa the Elysee Montmartre The number I could inquire out, she said, and I went away in a cab up the steep and stony Rue des Martyres, noticing the cafe and then the _brasserie_ and a little higher up the fruit-seller and the photographer When the mind is at stress one notices the casual, and itated to think
The first house we stopped at happened to be the right one, and the _concierge_ said, ”The fourth floor” As I went upstairs I thought of _La Glue_, of her untidy dress and her red hair, and it was she who answered the bell and asked -roooing to the Elysee to-night Won't you come in?
She'd like to see you There are three or four of us here You know thearet Byron?” And she mentioned so a door she cried: ”Marie, here's a visitor for you, a gentlelishave lais sont gentils Des qu'on est malade--”
I don't think Marie finished the sentence, if she did I did not hear her; but I remember quite well that she spoke of ht at Alphonsine's when I lost all s She has done soame Then I'll talk to you So you heard about me at Alphonsine's? They say I'm very ill, don't they? But now that I've coet well I'm alell at Montmartre, amn't I, Victorine?” ”Nous ne so to the scarcity of furniture, and to the clock and candelabra which stood on the floor But if there were too few chairs, there was a good deal ofthe bed-clothes; and Marie toyed with this jewellery during the gae lace sleeves, and the thin are her ear-rings Her small beauty, fashi+oned like an ivory, contrasted with the coarse features about her, and the little nose with beautifully shaped nostrils, above all theat the ends into faint indecisions Every now and then a tenderness came over her face; Octave had seen the essential in her, whatever he ht say; he had painted herself--her soul; and Marie's soul rose up like a water-flower in her eyes, and then the soul sank out of sight, and I saw another Marie, _une grue_, playing cards with five others fro her money and her health A bottle of absinthe stood on a beautiful Eiven her, and Bijou, Cle, slept on an embroidered cushi+on Bijou was one of those dear little japanese or Chinese spaniels, those dogs that are like the King Charles She was going to have puppies, and I was stroking her silky coat thinking of her co trouble, when I suddenly heard Cle up I saw a great animation in her face; I heard that the cards had not been fairly dealt, and then the women threw their cards aside, and _La Glue_ told Clementine that she was not wanted, that _elle ferait bien de debarrasser les planches_, that was the expression she used I heard further accusations, and a of ht each other by the hair, and tore at each other's faces, and Marie raised herself up in bed and i For a ain, but suddenly everybody snatched her own money and then everybody snatched at theeach other thieves, they struggled through the door, and I heard the all the way down the staircase Bijou jumped from her chair and followed herI saw her faint hands seeking through the bed-clothes So, a bracelet and so the pillows unable to speak, and every an to cry, and the little lace handkerchief was soon soaking I had to find her another The money that had been taken had been paid her by a _fournisseur_ in the _Quartier_, who had given her two thousand francs for her _garniture de che the bed-clothes, and these few francs, she said, were sufficient _pour passer sa soiree_, and she begged own that had been promised for ten o'clock
”I shall be at the Elysee by eleven _Au revoir, au revoir!_ Let ht You knohere I always sit, in the left-hand corner; they always keep those seats for me”
Her eyes closed, I could see that she was already asleep, and her calitated and unreasonable life; and I stood looking at her, at this poor butterfly as lying here all alone, robbed by her friends and associates But she slept contentedly, having found a few francs that they had overlooked a at the Elysee! The prince ht be written to; but he, no doubt, eary of her inability to lead a respectable life, and knew, no doubt, that if he were to send her one If she lived, Marie would one day be selling fried potatoes on the streets And this decadence--was it her fault? Octave would say: ”Qu'est ce que cela peut nous faire, une fille plus ou moins fichuesi je pouvais reussir un peu dans ce sacre ht ; his picture of her was so to the Elysee to-night It was just six o'clock, so she wanted her dress by ten I ht be wiser not--she lay in bed peaceful and beautiful; at the Elysee she would be drinking absinthe and s But I had proive me if I didn't, and I went
The dressrin would have her dress by nine, and at half-past ten I was at the Elysee waiting for her
Howof the unnatural green of the chestnut leaves and of the high kicking in the quadrilles? Now and then there would be a rush of people, and then the hu the zinc chairs and tables, for the enjoyars I noticed that Marie's friends spent their evening in the left-hand corner; but they did not callwell that I knew thewas stolen lad in a way that Marie had not come No doubt the dressmaker had disappointed her, or o to inquire in thewith Octave, and in the afternoon sitting to hi, he had just sketched in my head, e heard footsteps on the stairs
”Only some women,” he said; ”I've asure the wo news of her And it was so She had been found dead on her balcony dressed in the gown that had just come home from the dressmaker
I hoped that Octave would not try to pass the ravity ”Even Octave,” I said, ”refrains, _on ne blague pas laon the balcony?” he asked ”What I don't understand is the balcony”
We all stood looking at her picture, trying to read the face
”I suppose she went out to look at the fireworks; they begin about eleven”
It was one of the women who had spoken, and her remark seemed to explain the picture
CHAPTER V
LA buttE