"at one time she might have chosen between Mon-
sieur de la Peyrade and monsieur your son, that's
the way we force her inclination and she wouldn't
have Monsieur Felix, whose atheism is well
known."
"You're mistaken, mademoiselle; my son is not
an atheist, for Voltaire himself doubted if there
were any atheists, and no longer ago than yester-
day, in this very house, an ecclesiastic, as estimable
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 303
for his talent as for his virtues, eulogized Felix in
the warmest terms, and expressed a desire to make
his acquaintance."
"Parbleu! yes, to convert him," said Brigitte;
"but as to the question of the marriage, I am very
sorry to tell you that it will be like mustard after
dinner; Thuillier will never abandon his La Pey-
rade."
"Mademoiselle," said Phellion, rising, "I feel no
sort of humiliation on account of the useless step I
have taken ; I do not even ask you to keep it secret,
for I shall be the first to speak of it to all our
acquaintances and friends."
"Speak away, my good friend, to anyone you
choose," retorted Brigitte tartly. "Just because
your son has discovered a star, if he did really dis-
cover it and not the old fellow the government
has pensioned for it, why we must let him marry
one of the daughters of the King of the French,
must we?"
"Let's stop there," said Phellion;"! might reply
that, without crying down the Thuilliers, the Or-
leans family seems to me rather a lofty illustration.
But I don't care to introduce harsh words into our
conversation, and, begging you to receive the assur-
ance of my humble respects, I withdraw."
With that he stalked majestically forth, leaving
Brigitte smarting under the lash of his comparison,
discharged in extremis after the style of the Par-
thians, and in a towering rage, all the more poign-
ant because Madame Thuillier, the night before,
304 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
after all the guests had departed, had had the in-
credible audacity to say a word in Felix's favor.
It goes without saying that the serf was uncere-
moniously snubbed, and requested to mind her
own business. But this attempt at having a will
of her own on her sister-in-law's part had put the
old maid in a bad humor, and Phellion, by renew-
ing the same subject, could not fail to arouse her
ire. Josephine the cook and the male domestic
felt the effects of the scene we have described;
Brigitte found that in her absence everything had
been arranged all awry, and, putting her shoulder
to the wheel, she climbed up on a chair, at the
risk of breaking her neck, in order to reach the
highest shelves of the closet where her holiday
porcelain was carefully preserved under lock and
key.
This day, which began so badly for Brigitte, was
beyond question one of the most exciting and stormy
of this narrative.
In order to describe it with the pen of an accurate
historian, we must begin at six o'clock in the morn-
ing, when we shall find Madame Thuillier going to
the Madeleine to hear the mass Abbe Gondrin was
in the habit of saying at that hour, and thereafter
approaching the holy table, a sacrament of which
pious souls never fail to partake when they have to
carry out some great resolve.
At eight o'clock we shall see Minard the elder
calling upon the young vicar as he had received
permission to do the night before, and depositing
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 305
his paternal grief in the bosom of the adroit and
conciliatory casuist
Abbe Gondrin gently reproved him for having
established his son in one of those professions in
which sloth, arrayed in a title that creates an illu-
sion of a life of toil, may lead one on to all sorts of
follies; advocates without briefs and doctors with-
out patients, when they have not a sou, are the
nursery in which the spirit of revolution and dis-
order finds recruits; when they are rich, on the
contrary, they follow the example of the young
aristocracy, who, of all their lost privileges, having
retained only the right to the far niente, spend
almost all the leisure moments of their useless,
unoccupied existence on the training of race-horses
and actresses.
In this particular case, the violent measures to-
ward which the mayor of the eleventh arrondisse-
ment seemed to incline were veritable chimeras.
There is no longer a Saint-Lazare for the accommo-
dation of deranged youth, and Manon Lescauts are
no longer kidnapped to be sent to America. Abbe
Gondrin, therefore, was of the opinion that Minard
should try to arrange matters by a sacrifice: the
siren must be endowed and married off; the cause
of good morals would in that way be advanced in
two directions. The Abbe exhibited no eagerness
to undertake to bring about this solution of the
problem himself; he was too young for that sort of
diplomacy, where scandal finds it so easy to glide
in beside the thought of well-doing. As the girl had
20
306 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
a mother, Minard could see the woman and enter
into negotiations with her.
About noon Abbe Gondrin received a visit from
Madame Thuillier and Celeste. The poor child
longed to hear something further in the line of the
words whereby the priest's eloquent tongue had
guaranteed Felix Phel lion's salvation, in Brigitte's
salon on the preceding evening. It seemed very
strange to the young theologian that a man could
receive pardon from divine justice without having
ever been received into the bosom of the Church ;
for the anathema is explicit: "Without the pale of
the church, no salvation."
"My dear child," said Abbe Gondrin, "try to
reach a better understanding of that expression,
which seems inexorable ; it is rather a word of glori-
fication for those who have the happiness of dwell-
ing in the lap of our holy mother, the Church, than
a malediction upon those who are so unfortunate as
to be separated from her. God sees the bottom of
men's hearts, and distinguishes his elect; and so
vast is the treasure of his loving-kindness that to
no mortal has it been given to measure its richness
and munificence. Who then would dare to say to
God, the Infinite: 'Thou shalt be generous and
glorious thus far?' Jesus Christ pardoned the
adulterous woman, and on the Cross he promised
Heaven to the good thief, to prove to us that His
wisdom and His mercy shall govern, and not the
judgment pronounced by mankind. A man who
deems himself a Christian may be none the less
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 307
an idolater in God's sight; and another is pointed
at as a pagan, who is, by his sentiments and acts a
Christian, though he knows it not Our holy re-
ligion has this divine attribute, that every form of
nobleness of heart, of grandeur, of heroism, is but
the putting in practice of its precepts. As I said
yesterday to Monsieur de la Peyrade, pure hearts
are, sooner or later, inevitably won over to it; we
have but to give them credit, we invest our con-
fidence at a high rate of interest, and, moreover,
charity bids us do it"
"O my God!" cried Celeste, "to think that I
have learned this so late when I had the opportunity
to choose between Monsieur Felix Phellion and
Monsieur de la Peyrade and did not dare to follow
the dictates of my heart! Monsieur 1'Abbe, couldn't
you speak to my mother? your words are so highly
esteemed!"
"It's impossible, my child, "replied the vicar; "if
I had the direction of Madame Colleville's conscience
I might try perhaps, but we are so often accused of
improper interference in family matters! You may
be sure that my intervention, being without author-
ity or justification, would do more harm than good.
It is for you and those who love you, " he added with
a glance at Madame Thuil Her, "to see if the arrange-
ments, which seem far advanced to be sure, can not
be modified in a way to meet your wishes."
It was written that the poor child should drain to
the very dregs the cup that she had prepared for
herself by her intolerance: just as the abbe finished
308 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
his sentence his old servant came and asked him if
he could receive Monsieur Felix Phellion. Thus,
like the Charter of 1830, Madame de Godollo's offi-
cious falsehood was transformed into the truth.
"Go this way," said the vicar hastily, showing
his two penitents out through a private entrance.
Life has such strange vicissitudes that, at times,
the same expedient may be adopted by the man of
God as by the courtesan.
"Monsieur 1'Abbe," said Felix to the young vicar,
as soon as they stood face to face, "I have heard of
the kindly words in which you were good enough
to refer to me last night in Monsieur Thuillier's
salon, and I should have made haste to come and
express my gratitude for them, even if another
matter had not led me to consult you."
Abbe Gondrin passed rapidly over the exchange
of compliments, in order to learn in what way he
could be of service to him.
"With what I choose to believe was a charitable
purpose," replied the young student, "something
was said to you yesterday concerning the state of
my soul. They who can read so confidently what is
written there are better informed than I am as to
my spiritual condition; for, during the last few
days, I have felt the inspiration of unfamiliar, in-
explicable impulses. I have never doubted the ex-
istence of God, but from close contact with the
infinitude of space in which He has permitted my
mind to follow the track of one of His works, it
seems to me that I have acquired a less confused
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 309
and more personal notion of Him, and I have
wondered if an upright and honorable life is the
only homage His omnipotence is likely to expect
from me. Nevertheless, innumerable objections
spring up in my mind to the form of worship, whose
minister you are, and while I am fully sensible of
the beauty of its external forms, I find that my
reason revolts against many of its ordinances and
practices. I shall have paid dearly, perhaps with
the happiness of my whole life, for my lukewarm-
ness and delay in seeking to solve these doubts. I
have decided to probe them to the bottom. No one
is better able than you, Monsieur 1'Abbe, to solve
them for me. Therefore I come with confidence to
submit them to you, to entreat you to listen to me,
to answer my questions, and to tell me what books
I should read in order to continue my search for light
beyond the hours which you will deign to devote to
personal interviews with me. The heart that makes
this appeal to you is cruelly afflicted. Is it not
therefore well prepared to receive the seed of your
words?"
Abbe Gondrin declared that he would, notwith-
standing his insufficiency, joyfully undertake to
satisfy the scruples of the young advocate's con-
science, and after requesting him to give him a
place in his friendship, he urged him to read first
of all, Pascal's Pens'ees. Pascal's mind and the
young mathematician's seemed likely to develop a
natural affinity for each other in respect to geometry.
While the scene just described was taking place,
to which the elevation of the subjects under discus-
sion, and the moral and intellectual eminence of
the participants imparted a character of grandeur,
which, like all calm, unruffled aspects is easier to
understand than to reproduce, the Thuillier estab-
lishment was rent by bitter discord, that chronic
malady of bourgeois households, which are ren-
dered so subject to it by the characteristic pettiness
of the bourgeois mind and passions.
Standing on her chair, with her hair in disorder,
and her hands and face covered with dust, Brigitte,
with a duster in her hand, was wiping one of the
shelves of the closet in which she was replacing her
collection of platters, plates and saucers, when she
was accosted by Flavie.
"Brigitte," said she, "when you have finished,
you'd better come to our rooms, or else I'll send
Celeste to you; it seems to me as if she was in-
clined to play tricks on us."
"How so?" said Brigitte, without pausing in her
shelf-cleaning.
"Why, I think she and Madame Thuillier have
been to see Abbe Gondrin this morning, and lo and
behold! she has just attacked me about Felix
Phellion, whom she speaks of as a god; from that to
refusing La Peyrade is only a step, you see."
312 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Those cursed parsons!" said Brigitte; "they
have to poke their noses into everything! I didn't
want to invite him either; you were the one who
insisted on it."
"But it was the proper thing," said Flavie.
"I don't care a fig for your proprieties," retorted
the old maid. "A maker of phrases who always
says things at the wrong time. Send Celeste to
me; I'll arrange matters! "
At that moment the servant announced the chief
clerk from the notary's office at which the contract
was to be drawn up, Dupuis being in default
Without thought for the disorder of her apparel,
Brigitte ordered the embryo notary to be shown in,
but she did condescend so far as not to talk with
him from the top of the perch on which she was
roosting.
"Monsieur Thuillier came to the office this morn-
ing," said the chief clerk, "to explain to the master
the provisions of the contract which he has placed
in his hands to draw up; but before inserting the
stipulations, we are accustomed to receive from the
mouths of the donors themselves a direct statement
of their benevolent intentions. Thus, Monsieur
Thuillier informed us that he proposed to give the
future bride the reversion of the property which
he occupies; this is it, doubtless?"
"Yes," said Brigitte, "those are the conditions.
I give three thousand francs a year in the three per
cents outright; but the bride is to be married under
the dotal regime."
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 313
"That's right," said the clerk consulting his
notes: "Mademoiselle Brigitte Thuillier, three
thousand francs a year. Now, there's Madame
Celeste Thuillier, wife of Louis- Jer6me Thuillier,
who gives, also in three per cents, six thousand
francs a year outright and six thousand in trust"
"That's as straight as if the notary had been
there," said Brigitte; "but, as it's your custom, if
you choose to see my sister, they'll take you to
her."
And the old maid ordered the servant to escort
the clerk to Madame Thuillier's room.
In a moment he reappeared and announced that
there must be a misunderstanding, for Madame
Thuillier declared that she would make no sort of
stipulation in favor of the marriage.
"That's a pretty good one!" said Brigitte; "come
with me, monsieur." Like a hurricane she rushed
into Madame Thuillier's room. The poor woman
was pale and trembling.
"What's all this you told monsieur, that you
wouldn't give anything toward Celeste's dot?"
"Yes," said the serf, raising the standard of re-
volt, but in a very uncertain voice, "it is my inten-
tion to do nothing."
"But your intentions," said Brigitte, purple with
rage, "are quite new."
"They are my intentions," the rebel contented
herself with replying.
"At least you'll tell us the reason why?"
"The marriage doesn't suit me."
$14 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Ah! since when, pray?"
"It is useless for monsieur to be present at our
explanation, "observed Madame Thuillier; "itisn't
to be written in the contract"
"You may well be ashamed," said Brigitte, "for
the light in which you exhibit yourself ain't at all
flattering. Monsieur," she continued, addressing
the clerk, "it's easier to cut something out of the
contract than add to it, ain't it?"
The clerk nodded.
"Put in what you were told; if madame persists
we'll simply strike out and initial the canceled
words."
The clerk bowed and went out
"Look here! are you losing your mind?" de-
manded Brigitte, when the sisters-in-law stood face
to face; "what's this crochet you've got into your
head?"
"It isn't a crochet, but a deliberate purpose."
"Which you went and bought of your Abbe Gon-
drin: do you dare tell me that you didn't just come
from there with Celeste?"
Celeste and I did see our confessor this morning,
but I didn't open my mouth to him as to what I
intended to do."
"So the idea of this hullabaloo originated in your
own hollow little brain, did it?"
"Yes; as I told you yesterday I think Celeste
might make a much more suitable marriage, and I
don't propose to rob myself in favor of a marriage I
don't approve of."
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 315
"A marriage you don't approve of! Oho! so we
must consult madame!"
"I know perfectly well that I never amounted to
anything in the house. So far as I myself am con-
cerned, it's a long while since I had any mind of
my own ; but when it comes to the happiness of a
child I look upon as my own "
"Parbleu!" cried Brigitte, "you never knew
enough to have one; for it's certain that Thuil-
lier "
"Sister," interposed Madame Thuillier with dig-
nity, "I have been to communion this morning, and
there are some things I can't listen to to-day."
"That's our pious hypocrite all over!" cried
Brigitte. "Eating the good Lord" taking the Holy
Sacrament "and bringing trouble into families!
And you think you'll be let off in any such way
as this? Thuillier will be home very soon; he'll
give you a dressing down "
In thus appealing to the husband's authority in
aid of her own, Brigitte was guilty of a weakness
due to her surprise at this sharp and unforeseen
attack upon the dominion she had exerted from time
immemorial. The calm voice, which became more
resolute from moment to moment, unhorsed her
altogether; she had no resource left but insult
"A lazy lout!" she cried f "a good-for-nothing,
who can't even pick up her own handkerchief; and
she wants to be mistress of the house!"
"I care so little about being mistress here, that I
allowed myself to be silenced last night after I had
316 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
ventured to say only two words; but I am mistress
of my own money, and as I think Celeste will be
very unhappy some day, I propose to keep it to dis-
pose of as I choose."
"Pretty dog!" sneered Brigitte; "her money!"
"Why yes, the money I got from my father and
mother, and that I brought to Monsieur Thuillier
as my marriage-portion."
"And who invested this money of yours, so's to
make it bring in twelve thousand francs a year?"
"I never asked you for an account of any sort,"
retorted Madame Thuillier mildly; "if it had been
lost in such use as you chose to make of it, you'd
never have heard a word of complaint from me; but
it has increased, so it's no more than fair that I
should get the benefit of it Any way I'm not keep-
ing it for myself."
"Perhaps so; for if you take this line it isn't at
all sure that we shall continue to pass through the
same door."
"You think Monsieur Thuillier would turn me
out! He would have to give reasons for it, and,
thank God! I've been a wife he's never had any
cause to blame."
"Viper! hypocrite! heartless!" cried Brigitte, at
the end of her arguments.
"Sister," said Madame Thuillier, "you are in
my house "
"Get out, dummy!" cried the old maid in the
conclusive stages of wrath, "I tell you, if I didn't
hold myself back! "
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 317
And she made a gesture which was at once an
insult and a threat
Madame Thuillier rose to leave the room.
"No, you sha'n't go out," cried Brigitte, forcing
her back into her seat; "you shall stay shut up
here till Thuillier's decided what to do!"
When Brigitte, with face aflame, reappeared in the
room where she had left Madame Colleville, she
found there her brother, whose speedy return she
announced. Thuillier was radiant.
"My dear," he said to the shrew, not heeding her
excitement, "everything is going on splendidly;
the conspiracy of silence has come to an end; two
papers, the National and a Carlist sheet, reproduced
one of our articles this morning, and there's a feeble
attack on us in one of the ministerial organs."
"Well, everything ain't going on splendidly here,
and if this goes on I'll vamoose the ranch!" retorted
Brigitte.
"What's the matter now?" demanded Thuillier.
"Why your saucy hussy of a wife has just been
making a scene; I'm all of a tremble still."
"Celeste, make a scene!" exclaimed Thuillier;
"it would be the first time in her life."
"There's got to be a first time for everything, and
if you don't straighten things out "
"But what was the scene about?"
"Why madame don't choose to have La Peyrade
marry her goddaughter, and out of spite at not being
able to prevent the marriage she declares she won't
promise to give anything in the contract"
318 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Well, well! don't get excited," said Thuillier,
unmoved, his training in polemics on the cho
was making a second Pangloss of him "I'll fix all
that"
"Flavie," said Brigitte, as Thuillier started for
his wife's room, "will you do me the favor to go
down to your apartment and say to Mademoiselle
Celeste that I don't want to see her at this moment,
because I'm quite capable of slapping her if she
should answer me contrarily; tell her I ain't fond
of conspiracies, that we left her free to choose
young Monsieur Phellion, that she didn't want him,
that everything was arranged with that understand-
ing, and that, if she don't want to find herself cut
down to such dowry as you can give her, which a bank
clerk could easily carry in his waistcoat pocket "
"Look here, my dear Brigitte," said Flavie,
bristling up at this impertinent sally, "you might
do without reminding us so cruelly of our poverty;
for, after all, we never asked anything of you and
we pay our rent promptly; and, without going so
far, Monsieur Felix Phellion would be glad to take
Celeste with the dowry a bank clerk could carry in
his bag."
And she underlined this last word by the em-
phasis with which she pronounced it
"Ah! you must have your finger in the pie, too!"
cried Brigitte; "oh! well, go and get your Felix! I
know, little mother, that the match never suited
you any too well ; it's unpleasant for you to be only
the mother-in-law of your son-in-law."
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 319
Flavie had recovered the self-possession which
had left her for an instant, and she simply shrugged
her shoulders, without replying to the insinuation.
At this juncture Thuillier reappeared; his beatific
air had vanished.
"My dear Brigitte," said he to his sister, "you
have the kindest heart, but at times you're rather
violent!"
"Bless my soul!" cried the old maid; "I've got
to defend myself from this direction too."
"Certainly I don't blame you so far as the gen-
eral question is concerned, and I've just given
Celeste a good scolding; but there are certain forms
you must learn to observe."
"What's all this you're giving me, with your
forms? where are the forms I didn't observe?"
"Oh! my dear, to raise your hand against your
sister!"
"I, I raise my hand against that goose? Well,
that's a good one!"
"And then," continued Thuillier, "women of
Celeste's age aren't to be put in prison."
"You say I put your wife in prison?"
"You can't say you didn't, for I found her chamber
door double-locked."
"Parbku! because in my rage at the shameless
things she belched out at me I turned the key with-
out meaning to."
"Come! come!" said Thuillier, "that's noway
for people in our station to act"
"So I'm in the wrong now, am I? Well, my boy,
320 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
you'll have reason to remember this day, and we'll
see how your establishment will get along when I
wash my hands of it."
"You won't wash your hands of it," said Thuil-
lier; "housekeeping's your life, and you'd be the
first one to suffer."
"We'll see about that," said Brigitte. "After
twenty years of devotion, to be treated like the
lowest of the low!"
With that the old maid rushed to the door and
left the room, slamming the door violently behind
her.
Thuillier showed no emotion at her exit
"Were you there, Flavie," he asked, "when this
row took place?"
"No, it was in Celeste's room. So she was a
little rough with her, was she?"
"As I said: threatened to strike her, and shut her
up like a little girl It doesn't make any difference
if Celeste is a little sleepy, there are limits that
ought not to be passed."
"Dear Brigitte isn't always comfortable to live
with," said Flavie; "she and I had a little skirmish
too just now."
"Oh well," said Thuillier, "this will all blow
over. As I was saying, my dear Flavie, we had a
great triumph this morning: the National copies in
full two paragraphs of an article, in which there are
several sentences of my own."
Again Thuillier was interrupted in the recital of
his political and literary good fortune.
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 321
"Can monsieur tell me where the key of the large
trunk is?" said Josephine the cook at the door.