successful in the wicked life she meant her to lead."
626 BALZAC'S WORKS
"Why doesn't the old man inarry her?"
"There was no necessity for it, you see," said the Ital-
ian. '*And though old Vyder is not a bad old fellow, I
fancy he is sharp enough to wish to remain the master, while
if he once got married why, the poor man is afraid of the
stone that hangs round every old man's neck."
"Could you send for the girl to come here?" said Ma-
dame Hulot. "I should see her quietly, and find out what
could be done
The stove-fitter's wife signed to her eldest girl, who ran
off. Ten minutes later she returned, leading by the hand
a child of fifteen and a half, a beauty of the Italian type.
Mademoiselle Judici inherited from her father that ivory
skin which, rather yellow by day, is by artificial light of
lily-whiteness; eyes of Oriental beauty, form, and bril-
liancy, close curling lashes like black feathers, hair of
ebony hue, and that native dignity of the Lombard race
which makes the foreigner, as he walks through Milan on
a Sunday, fancy that every porter's daughter is a princess.
Atala, told by the stove-fitter's daughter that she was
to meet the great lady of whom she had heard so much, had
hastily dressed in a black silk gown, a smart little cape, and
neat boots. A cap with a cherry-colored bow added to the
brilliant effect of her coloring. The child stood in an atti-
tude of artless curiosity, studying the Baroness out of the
corner of her eye, for her palsied trembling puzzled her
greatly.
Adeline sighed deeply as she saw this jewel of woman-
hood in the mire of prostitution, and determined to rescue
her to virtue. "What is your name, my dear'/"
"Atala, Madame."
"And can you read and write?"
COUSIN BETTY 527
"No, Madame; but that does not matter, as Monsieur
can."
"Did your parents ever take you to church? Have
you been to your first Communion ? Do you know your
Catechism?"
"Madame, papa wanted to make me do something of the
kind you speak of, but mamma would not have it ' '
"Your mother?" exclaimed the Baroness. "Is she bad
to you, then?"
"She was always beating me. I don't know why,
but I was always being quarrelled over by my father
and mother "
"Did you never hear of God ?" cried the Baroness.
The girl looked up wide-eyed.
"Oh, yes, papa and mamma often said 'Good God,' and
'In God's name/ and 'God's thunder,' " said she, with per-
fect simplicity.
"Then you never saw a church ? Did you never think
of going into one?"
"A church? Notre-Dame, the Pantheon? I have seen
them from a distance, when papa took me into town; but
that was not very often. There are no churches like those
in the Faubourg."
"Which Faubourg did you live in?"
"In the Faubourg."
"Yes, but which?"
"In the Rue de Charonne, Madame."
The inhabitants of the Faubourg Saint- Antoine never
call that notorious district other than tlie Faubourg. To
them it is the one and only Faubourg; and manufacturers
generally understand the words as meaning thv Faubourg
Saint- Antoine.
528 BALZAC'S WORKS
"Did no one ever tell you what was right or wrong?"
"Mamma used to beat me when I did not do what
pleased her."
"But did you not know that it was very wicked to run
away from your father and mother to go to live with an
old man?"
Atala Judici gazed at the Baroness with a haughty stare,
but made no reply.
"She is a perfect little savage," murmured Adeline.
"There are a great many like her in the Faubourg,
Madame," said the stove-fitter's wife.
"But she knows nothing not even what is wrong.
Good Heavens! Why do you not answer me?" said
Madame Hulot, putting out her hand to take Atala's.
Atala indignantly withdrew a step.
"You are an old fool!" said she. "Why, my father
and mother had had nothing to eat for a week. My mother
wanted me to do much worse than that, I think, for my
father thrashed her and called her a thief! However,
Monsieur Yyder paid all their debts, and gave them some
money oh, a bagful ! And he brought me away, and poor
papa was crying. But we had to part! Was it wicked?"
she asked.
"And are you very fond of Monsieur Vyder?"
"Fond of him?" said she. "I should think so! He
tells me beautiful stories, Madame, every evening; and he
has given me nice gowns, and linen, and a shawl. Why, I
am figged out like a princess, and I never wear sabots now.
And then, I have not known what it is to be hungry these
two months past. And I don't live on potatoes now. He
brings me bonbons and burned almonds, and chocolate
almonds. Aren't they good? I do anything he pleases
COUSIN BETTY 529
for a bag of chocolate. Then my old Daddy is very kind;
he takes such care of me, and is so nice; I know now what
my mother ought to have been. He is going to get an old
woman to help me, for he doesn't like me to dirty my hands
with Booking. For the last month, too, he has been making
a little money, and he gives me three francs every evening
that I put into a money-box. Only he will never let me
go out except to come here and he calls me his little kit-
ten! Mamma never called me anything but bad names
and thief, and vermin 1"
"Well, then, my child, why should not Daddy Vyder
be your husband?"
"But he is, Madame," said the girl, looking at Adeline
with calm pride, without a blush, her brow smooth, her
eyes steady. "He told me I was his little wife; but it
is a horrid bore to be a man's wife if it were not for the
burned almonds!"
"Good Heavens!" said the Baroness to herself, "what
monster can have had the heart to betray such perfect, such
holy innocence ? To restore this child to the ways of virtue
would surely atone for many sins. I knew what I was do-
ing," thought she, remembering the scene with Crevel.
"But she she knows nothing."
"Do you know Monsieur Samanon?" asked Atala, with
an insinuating look.
"No, my child; but why do you ask?"
"Really and truly?" said the artless girl.
"You have nothing to fear from this lady," said the
Italian woman. "She is an angel."
"It is because my good old boy is afraid of being caught
by Samanon. He is hiding, and I wish he could be free "
"Why?"
Yd. 10 (W)
530 BALZAC'S WORKS
"Oh! then he would take me to Bobino, perhaps to the
Ambigu. ' '
"What a delightful creature!" said the Baroness, kissing
the girl.
"Are you rich?" asked Atala, who was fingering the
Baroness's lace ruffles.
"Yes, and No," replied Madame Hulot. "I am rich for
dear little girls like you when they are willing to be taught
their duties as Christians by a priest, and to walk in the
right way."
"What way is that?" said Atala; "I walk on my two
feet."
"The way of virtue."
Atala looked at the Baroness with a crafty smile.
"Look at Madame," said the Baroness, pointing to the
stove-fitter's wife, "she has been quite happy because she
was received into the bosom of the Church. You married
like the beasts that perish."
"I?" said Atala. "Why, if you will give me as much
as Daddy Vyder gives me, I shall be quite happy unmarried
again. It is a grind. Do you know what it is to ?"
"But when once you are united to a man as you are,"
the Baroness put in, "virtue requires you to remain faithful
to him."
"Till he dies," said Atala, with a knowing flash. "I
shall not have to wait long. If you only knew how Daddy
Vyder coughs and blows. Poof, poof," and she imitated
the old man.
"Virtue and morality require that the Church, represent-
ing (rod, and the Mayor, representing the law, should con-
secrate your marriage," Madame Hulot went on. "Look
at Madame; she is legally married"
COUSIN BETTY 531
"Will it make it more amusing?" asked the girl.
"You will be happier," said the Baroness, "for no one
then could blame you. You would satisfy God ! 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 God to protect you if you trample
every law, human and divine, under foot?" said the Baron-
ess. "Don't you know that God 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 con-
ceive of. It is full of angels with white wings. You see
God 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 under-
standing 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
Yyder. 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
Yosges."
At the word Vosges the Baroness sat lost in revery. It
called up the vision of her native village. She was roused
532 BALZAC'S WORKS
from her melancholy meditation by the entrance of the
stove-fitter, who came to assure her of his prosperity.
"In a year's time, Madame, I can repay the money you
loaned us, for it is God'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 assistance 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 Passage du
Soleil." So the lady and the stove-fitter went out.
"This way, Madame," said the man, turning down the
Rue de la Pdpini^re.
The alley runs, in fact, from the bottom of this street
through to the Rue du Rocher. Half-way down this pas-
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
COUSIN BETTY 533
the prying eyes of the passer-by, the words: "ficBiviAN
PUBLIC"; and on the door the announcement:
BUSINESS TRANSACTED.
Petitions Drawn Up, Accounts Audited, Etc.,
With Secrecy and Despatch.
The shop was like one of the little offices where travel-
lers by omnibus await 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 eves
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.
"What is your business, Madame?" said Hulot, with
a flourish.
She rose, seized Hulot by the arm, and said in a voice
hoarse with emotion: "At last I have found you!"
"Adeline!" exclaimed the Baron in bewilderment, and
he locked the shop door. "Joseph, go out the back way/'
he added to the stove-fitter.
"My dear!" she said, forgetting everything in her exces-
sive joy, "you can come home to us all; we are rich. Your
son draws a hundred and sixty thousand francs a yearl
534 BALZAC'S WORKS
Your pension is released; there are fifteen thousand francs
of arrears you can get on showing that you are alive. V^a-
le'rie is dead, and left you three hundred thousand francs.
Your name is quite forgotten by this time; you may
reappear in the world, and you will find a fortune awaiting
you at your son's house. Come; our happiness will be
complete. For nearly three years have I been seeking
you, and I felt so sure of finding you that a room is ready
waiting for you. Oh! come away from this, come away
from the dreadful state I see you in!"
"I am very willing," said the bewildered Baron, "but
can I take the girl?"
"Hector, give her up! Do that much for your Adeline,
who has never before asked you to make the smallest sacri-
fice. I promise you I will give the child a marriage portion;
I will see that she marries well, and has some education.
Let it be said of one of the women who have given you
happiness that she too is happy; and do not relapse into
vice, into the mire."
"So it was you," said the Baron, with a smile, "who
wanted to see me married? Wait a few minutes," he
added; "I will go upstairs and dress; I have some decent
clothes in a trunk."
Adeline, left alone, and looking round the squalid shop,
melted into tears. "He has been living here, and we roll-
ing in wealth!" said she to herself. "Poor man, he has
indeed been punished he who was elegance itself."
The stove-fitter returned to make his bow to his bene-
factress, and she desired him to fetch a coach. When he
came back, she begged him to give little Atala Judici a
home, and to take her away at once.
"And tell her that if she will place herself under the
COUSIN BETTY 535
guidance of Monsieur the Cure of the Madeleine, on the
day when she attends her first Communion I will give her
thirty thousand francs and find her a good husband, some
worthy young man."
"My eldest son, then, Madame! He is two-and-twenty,
and he worships the child."
The Baron now came down; there were tears in his eyes.
"You are forcing me to desert the only creature who has
ever begun to love me at all as you do!" said he in a whis-
per to his wife. "She is crying bitterly, and I cannot
abandon her so "
"Be quite easy. Hector. She will find a home with
honest people, and I will answer for her conduct."
"Well, then, I can go with you," said the Baron, es-
corting his wife to the cab.
Hector, the Baron d'Ervy once more, had put on a blue
coat and trousers, a white waistcoat, a black stock, and
gloves. When the Baroness had taken her seat in the
vehicle, Atala slipped in like an eel.
"Oh, Madame," she said, "let me go with you. I will
be so good, so obedient; I will do whatever you wish;
but do not part me from my Daddy Vyder. my kind Daddy
who gives me such nice things. I shall be beaten "
"Come, come, Atala," said the Baron, "this lady is my
wife we must part ' '
"She! As old as that! and shaking like a leaf!" said
the child. "Look at her head!" and she laughingly
mimicked the Baroness's palsy.
The stove-fitter, who had run after the girl, came to the
carriage door. "Take her away!" said Adeline. The man
put his arms round Atala and fairly carried her off.
"Thanks for such a sacrifice, my dearest," said Adeline,
536 BALZAC'S WORKS
taking the Baron's hand and clutching it with delirious
joy. "How much you are altered! you must have suffered
so much! What a surprise for Hortense and for your son!"
Adeline talked as lovers talk who meet after a long ab-
sence, of a hundred things at once.
In ten minutes the Baron and his wife reached the Rue
Louis-le-Grand, and there Adeline found this note:
"MADAME LABAROKNE Monsieur le Baron Hulotd'Ervy
lived for one month in the Rue de Charonne under the name
of Thorec, an anagram of Hector. He now is in the Passage
du Soleil by the name of Yyder. He says he is an Alsatian,
and does writing, and he lives with a girl named Atala Ju-
dici. Be very cautious, Madame, for search is on foot; the
Baron is wanted, on what score I know not.
"The actress has kept her word, and remains, as ever,
Madame le Baronne, your humble servant, J. M."
The Baron's return was hailed with such joy as recon-
ciled him to domestic life. He forgot little Atala Judici,
for excesses of profligacy had reduced him to the volatility
of feeling that is characteristic of childhood. But the hap-
piness of the family was dashed by the change that had
come over him. He had been still hale when he had gone
away from his home; he had come back almost a hundred,
broken, bent, and his expression even debased.
A splendid dinner, improvised by Celestine, reminded
the old man of the singer's banquets; he was dazzled by
the splendor of his home.
"A feast in honor of the return of the prodigal father?"
said he in a murmur to Adeline.
"Hush!" said she, "all is forgotten."
"And Lisbeth?" he asked, not seeing the old maid.
"I am sorry to say she is in bed," replied Hortense.
COUSIN BETTY 537
"She can never get up, and we shall have the grief of
losing her ere long. She hopes to see you after dinner."
At daybreak next morning Victorin Hulot was informed
by the porter's wife that soldiers of the municipal guard
were posted all round the premises; the police demanded
Baron Hulot. The bailiff, who had followed the woman,
laid a summons in due form before the lawyer, and asked
him whether he meant to pay his father's debts. The claim
was for ten thousand francs at the suit of a usurer named
Samanon, who had probably loaned the Baron two or three
thousand at most. Victorin desired the bailiff to dismiss his
men, and paid.
"But is it the last?" he anxiously wondered.
Lisbeth, miserable already at seeing the family so pros-
perous, could not survive this happy event. She grew so
rapidly worse that Bianchon gave her but a week to live,
conquered at last in the long struggle in which she had
scored so many victories.
She kept the secret of her hatred even through a pain-
ful death from pulmonary consumption. And, indeed, she
had the supreme satisfaction of seeing Adeline, Hortense,
Hulot, Victorin, Steinbock, Celestine, and their children
standing in tears round her bed and mourning for her as
the angel of the family.
Baron Hulot, enjoying a course of solid food such as he
had not known for nearly three years, recovered flesh and
strength, and was almost himself again. This improve-
ment was such a joy to Adeline that her nervous trembling
perceptibly diminished.
"She will be happy after all," said Lisbeth to herself on
the day before she died, as she saw the veneration with
which the Baron regarded his wife, of whose sufferings he
538 BALZAC'S WORKS
had heard from Hortense and Victorin. And vindictiveness
hastened Cousin Betty's end. The family followed her,
weeping, to the grave.
The Baron and Baroness, having reached the age which
looks for perfect rest, gave up the handsome rooms on the
first floor to the Count and Countess Stein bock, and took
those above. The Baron by his son's exertions found an
official position in the management of a railroad, in 1845,
with a salary of six thousand francs, which, added to the
six thousand of his pension and the money left to him by
Madame Crevel, secured him an income of twenty-four
thousand francs. Hortense having enjoyed her independent
income during the three years of separation from Wenceslas,
Victorin now invested the two hundred thousand francs he
had in trust, in his sister's name, and he allowed her twelve
thousand francs.
Wenceslas, as the husband of a rich woman, was not
unfaithful, but he was an idler; he could not make up his
mind to begin any work, however trifling. Once more he
became the artist in partibus; he was popular in society,
and consulted by amateurs; in short, he became a critic,
like all the feeble folk who, fall below their promise.
Thus each household, though living as one family, had
its own fortune. The Baroness, taught by bitter ex-
perience, left the management of matters to her son, and
the Baron was thus reduced to his salary, in the hope that
the smallness of his income would prevent his relapsing into
mischief. And by some singular good fortune, on which
neither the mother nor the son had reckoned, Hulot seemed
to have forsworn the fair sex. His subdued behavior, as-
cribed to the course of nature, so completely reassured the
family, that they enjoyed to the full his recovered amia-
bility and delightful qualities. He was unfailingly attentive
to his wife and children, escorted them to the play, re-
appeared in society, and did the honors of his son's house
with exquisite grace. In short, this reclaimed prodigal was
the joy of his family. He was a most agreeable old man,
COUSIN BETTY 539
a rain, but full of wit, having retained no more of his vice
than made it an added social grace.
Of course, everybody was quite satisfied and easy. The
young people and the Baroness lauded the model father
to the skies, forgetting the death of the two uncles. Life
cannot go on without much forgetting!
Madame Victorin, who managed this enormous house-
hold with great skill, due, no doubt, to Lisbeth's training,
had found it necessary to have a man-cook. This again ne-
cessitated a kitchen-maid. Kitchen-maids are in these days
ambitious creatures, eager to detect the chefs secrets, and to
become cooks as soon as they have learned to stir a sauce.
At the beginning of 1845 Celestine engaged as kitchen-
maid a sturdy Normandy peasant come from Isigny short-
waisted, with strong red arms, a common face, as dull as
an "occasional piece'' at the play, and hardly to be per-
suaded out of wearing the classical linen cap peculiar to the
women of Lower Normandy. This girl, as buxom as a wet-
nurse, looked as if she would burst the blue cotton check in
which she clothed her person. Her florid face might have
been hewn out of stone, so hard were its tawny outlines.
Of course no attention was paid to the advent in the
house of this girl, whose name was Agathe an ordinary,
wide-awake specimen, such as is daily imported from the
provinces. Agathe had no attractions for the cook, her
tongue was too rough, for she had served in a suburban
inn, waiting on carters; and instead of making a conquest
of her chief and winning from him the secrets of the high
art of the kitchen, she was the object of his great contempt.
Tiie chefs attentions were, in fact, devoted to Louise, the
Countess Steinbock's maid. The country girl, thinking
herself ill-used, complained bitterly that she was always
sent out of the way on some pretext when the chef was
finishing a dish or putting the crowning touch to a sauce.
"I am out of luck." said she, "and I shall go to another
place." And yet she stayed, though she had twice given
notice to quit.
540 BALZAC'S WORKS
One night, Adeline, roused by some unusual noise, did
not see Hector in the bed he occupied near hers ; for they
slept side by side in two beds, as beseemed an old couple.
She lay awake an hour, but he did not return. Seized with
a panic, fancying some tragic end had overtaken him an
apoplectic attack, perhaps she went upstairs to the floor
occupied by the servants, and there was attracted to the
room where Agathe slept, partly by seeing a light below
the door, and partly by the murmur of voices. She stood
still in dismay on recognizing the voice of her husband,
who, a victim to Agathe's charms, to vanquish this strap-
ping wench's not disinterested resistance, went to the length
of saying: "My wife has not long to live, and if you like
you may be a Baroness."
Adeline gave a cry, dropped her candlestick, and fled.
Three days later the Baroness, who had received the last
sacraments, was dying, surrounded by her weeping family.
Just before she died, she took her husband's hand and
pressed it, murmuring in his ear: "My dear, I had noth-
ing left to give up to you but my life. In a minute or
two you will be free, and can make another Baronne Hulot."
And, rare sight, tears oozed from her dead eyes.
This desperateness of vice had vanquished the patience
of the angel, who, on the brink of eternity, gave utterance
to the only reproach she had ever spoken in her life.
The Baron left Paris three days after his wife's funeral.