Volume II Part 6 (2/2)
When her ave her a letter fro to undertake a long journey, and in a postscript he added that his laould provide her with any suht require for all her expenses
III
It was at the Opera, between two of the acts in _Robert the Devil_ In the stalls, theup, with their hats on, their waistcoats cut very low so as to show a large aold and precious stones of their studs glistened, and were looking at the boxes full of ladies in low dresses, covered with dia like flowers in that illuminated hothouse, where the beauty of the faces and the whiteness of their shoulders seemed to bloom in order to be looked at, in the midst of the music and of human voices
Two friends, with their backs to the orchestra were scanning those rows of elegance, that exhibition of real or false charms, of jewels, of luxury and of pretensions which showed itself off all round the Grand-Theatre, and one of theer de Salnis, said to his companion, Bernard Grandin: ”Just look how beautiful Countess de Mascaret still is”
Then the older, in turn, looked through his opera glasses at a tall lady in a box opposite, who appeared to be still very young, and whose striking beauty seemed to appeal to the eyes in every corner of the house Her pale coave her the appearance of a statue, while a slistened on her black hair like a milky way
When he had looked at her for some time, Bernard Grandin replied with a jocular accent of sincere conviction: ”You may well call her beautiful”
”How old do you think she is?” ”Wait a moment I can tell you exactly, for I have known her since she was a child, and I saw her irl She isshe is
thirtythirty-six” ”Impossible!” ”I am sure of it” ”She looks twenty-five” ”She has had seven children” ”It is incredible” ”And what is ood o to the house, which is a very quiet and pleasant one, occasionally, and she realizes the phenomenon of the fae! And have there never been any reports about her?” ”Never” ”But what about her husband? He is peculiar, is he not?”
”Yes, and no Very likely there has been a little drama between them, one of those little domestic dramas which one suspects, which one never finds out exactly, but which one guesses pretty nearly” ”What is it?”
”I do not know anything about it Mascaret leads a very fast life now, after having been a ood spouse, he had a shocking temper and was crabbed and easily took offense, but since he has been leading his present, rackety life, he has becouess that he has soed very much”
Thereupon the two friends talked philosophically for some minutes about the secret, unknowable troubles, which differences of character or perhaps physical antipathies, which were not perceived at first, give rise to in fa at Madalasses, said: ”It is almost incredible that that woman has had seven children!” ”Yes, in eleven years; after which, when she was thirty, she put a stop to her period of production in order to enter into the brilliant period of representation, which does not see to an end” ”Poor women!” ”Why do you pity them?”
”Why? Ah! nancy, for such a woman! What a hell! All her youth, all her beauty, every hope of success, every poetical ideal of a bright life, sacrificed to that abominable law of reproduction which turns the normal woman into a mere machine for reproduction” ”What would you have? It is only nature!”
”Yes, but I say that nature is our eneainst nature, for she is continually bringing us back to an ani onto this earth that is clean, pretty, elegant, or accessory to our ideal, but the hurace, beauty, unknown char it, by ad it as artists, and by explaining it as learned race and beauty, some unknown charm and mystery in the various phenos, full of the germs of disease, and who, after a few years of bestial enjoyliness and all the want of power of human decrepitude He only seems to have made them in order that they may reproduce their species in a dirty manner, and then die like ephemeral insects I said, _reproduce their species in a dirty manner_, and I adhere to that expression What is there, as a nant than that filthy and ridiculous act of the reproduction of living beings, against which all delicate minds always have revolted, and alill revolt? Since all the organs which have been invented by this economical and malicious Creator serve two purposes, why did he not choose others that were not dirty and sullied, in order to entrust them with that sacred mission, which is the noblest and the most exalted of all human functions? The mouth, which nourishes the body by ht Our flesh revives itself by means of itself, and at the same tiives the vital air to the lungs, imparts all the perfumes of the world to the brain: the smell of flowers, of woods, of trees, of the sea The ear, which enables us to communicate with our fellow men, has also allowed us to invent music, to create dreams, happiness, the infinite and even physical pleasure, by ht say that the cynical and cunning Creator wished to prohibithis commerce omen Nevertheless, man has found love, which is not a bad reply to that sly Deity, and he has ornaets the contact she is obliged to sub us who are powerless to deceive themselves, have invented vice and refined debauchery, which is another way of laughing at God, and of paying hoe, to beauty
”But the normal man makes children; just a beast that is coupled with another by law
”Look at that woman! Is it not abominable to think that such a jewel, such a pearl, born to be beautiful, admired, feted and adored, has spent eleven years of her life in providing heirs for the Count de Mascaret?”
Bernard Grandin replied with a laugh: ”There is a great deal of truth in all that, but very few people would understand you”
Salnis got more and more animated ”Do you kno I picture God an, unknown to us, who scatters le fish would deposit its spawn in the sea He creates, because it is His function as God to do so, but He does not knohat He is doing, and is stupidly prolific in His work, and is ignorant of the coer accident, which was totally unforeseen and condemned to disappear with this earth, and to recommence perhaps here or elsewhere, the sainnings We owe it to this slight accident which has happened to His intellect, that we are very uncomfortable in this world, which was not made for us, which had not been prepared to receive us, to lodge and feed us or to satisfy reflecting beings, and e it to Hiainst what are still called the designs of Providence, e are really refined and civilized beings”
Grandin, as listening to hi outbursts of his fancy, asked hiht is the spontaneous product of blind, divine parturition?”
”Naturally? A fortuitous function of the nerve-centers of our brain, like some unforeseen chemical action which is due to new mixtures, and which also resemble a product of electricity, caused by friction, or the unexpected proximity of some substance, which lastly resemble the phenomena caused by the infinite and fruitful fer matter
”But, my dear fellow, the truth of this ht, ordained by an omniscient Creator, had been intended to be what it has beconation, so exacting, inquiring, agitated, tors whichare, have been this unpleasant little dwelling place for poor fools, this salad plot, this rocky wooded and spherical kitchen garden where your improvident Providence had destined us to live naked, in caves or under trees, nourished on the flesh of slaughtered anietables nourished by the sun and the rain?
”But it is sufficient to reflect for a moment, in order to understand that this world was not ht, which is developed by a norant and confused as it is, and as it will always res, eternal and wretched exiles on earth
”Look at this earth, as God has given it to those who inhabit it Is it not visibly and solely made, planted and covered with forests, for the sake of ani, and they have nothing to do but to eat, or go hunting and eat each other, according to their instincts, for God never foresaw gentleness and peaceable manners; He only foresaw the death of creatures which were bent on destroying and devouring each other Are not the quail, the pigeon and the partridge the natural prey of the hawk? the sheep, the stag and the ox that of the great flesh-eating animals, rather than meat that has been fattened to be served up to us with truffles, which have been unearthed by pigs, for our special benefit?
”As to ourselves, the more civilized, intellectual and refined we are, the ht to conquer and subdue that animal instinct, which represents the will of God in us And so, in order to ate our lot as brutes, we have discovered andwith houses, then exquisite food, sauces, sweetmeats, pastry, drink, stuffs, clothes, ornaes, railways, and innu and poetry