Precieuses Ridicules, the fearful hunger for amuse-
ment, mentioned by Madame Phellion in her con-
versation with Minard, needed to be satisfied.
Thanks to the efforts of Madame de Godollo, the
great manageress, who cleverly made the most of
Colleville's former connections in the musical
world, an artist or two varied the monotony of bouil-
lotte and boston. These two old-fashioned, unfash-
ionable games soon surrendered the field to whist,
which was, according to the Hungarian, the only
legitimate resource of honest folk for killing time.
56 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
Like Louis XVI., who began by personally insti-
tuting the reforms by which his throne was finally
overthrown, Brigitte at first encouraged all this in-
ternal revolution, and the necessity of suitably
maintaining her position in the neighborhood in
which she had decided to take up her abode had
made her submit with docility to all suggestions in
the direction of comfort and elegance. But, on the
day when the scene was enacted at which we are
now to assist, an incident, apparently of trivial im-
portance, had revealed to her all the peril of the path
she was treading.
The majority of the new guests brought to the
house by Thuillier were not aware of the supreme
power wielded by his sister; and so, upon their
arrival, they would ask Thuillier to present them
to Madame and naturally Thuillier was disinclined
to tell them that his wife was a do-nothing queen,
groaning under the iron hand of a Richelieu from
whom all authority emanated. So it was that the
new-comers were not introduced to Brigitte until
they had first paid their respects to the rightful sov-
ereign, and the preternatural stiffness which impa-
tience at her deposition imparted to her reception
gave them but little encouragement afterward to put
themselves out to any great extent to do her honor.
"If I don't look out," said Queen Elizabeth to
herself, with the deep-seated instinct of domination
which was the most ardent of her passions, "I shall
be nobody here."
As she brooded over that idea, it occurred to her
that the project of a joint household with La Pey-
rade, transformed into Celeste's husband, could not
fail to complicate the situation which was beginning
to arouse her anxiety. Thereupon, her mind took a
sudden turn, and Felix Phellion, an estimable young
man, too much engrossed with his mathematics ever
to become a dangerous rival to her sovereignty,
(57)
$8 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
appeared to her as a much more suitable match than
the enterprising advocate; and so she was the first
to express concern at the absence of Felix, when
the elder Phellions made their appearance. Not-
withstanding the step taken by Madame de Godollo,
that stern lover had carried out the suggestion of
the last line of Millevoye's famous elegy:
"And her lover came not"
As may readily be imagined, Brigitte was not
alone in remarking the stiff-necked persistence with
which the young man appeared to avoid her recep-
tion-days; Madame Thuillier, with innocent frank-
ness, and Celeste, with feigned reserve, also
expressed their disappointment. Madame de God-
olio, who, although she had a very remarkable
voice, had hitherto required much urging before
she would consent to sing, voluntarily requested
Madame Phellion to accompany her on the piano,
when she saw how little heed Felix had apparently
paid to her representations, and said to her between
two measures of a romanza :
"Well, what about your son ?"
"He is coming," Madame Phellion replied; "his
father took him to task roundly, but there's a con-
junction of some planets or other to-night; it is a
great occasion for messieurs of the Observatory,
and he couldn't miss it "
"It is inconceivable how a man can be so stupid !"
said the countess; "we hadn't enough theology in
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 59
the business, it seems, so we must needs bring in
astronomy!"
Her impatience imparted unusual animation to her
singing, and she finished her romanza amid what
the English call thunders of applause.
La Peyrade, who was exceedingly suspicious of
her, was not one of the last to approach and con-
gratulate her when she resumed her seat ; but she
received his compliments with a coolness which
amounted to discourtesy, so that their mutual hos-
tility became the more bitter.
He went for consolation to Madame Colleville.
Flavie still had too much pretension to beauty not
to be the enemy of a woman whose physical attrac-
tions were of a sort to turn aside the homage of the
other sex from herself.
"Are you like the rest in thinking that that
woman sings well ?" she asked the advocate in a
contemptuous tone.
"I went and told her so, at all events," replied
La Peyrade, because one isn't safe with Brigitte,
except under her wing. But just look at Celeste;
she doesn't take her eyes off the door, and you can
see her disappointment in her face every time a
tray comes in, although it is long past the time for
callers to be announced."
We should state here, by the way, that since the
reign of Madame de Godollo began, trays were
passed about in the salon on reception-days, heavily
laden with ices, little cakes and syrups from Tan-
rade, the most fashionable dealer.
60 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Leave me in peace!" said Flavie; "I know what
the little idiot has in her mind, and your marriage
will be arranged only too easily."
"But am I doing it for myself?" said La Peyrade ;
"isn't it rather a necessity that I submit to in order
to make the future safe for us all ? Come, come !
here you are with tears in your eyes. I'll leave
you, for you're not reasonable; what the devil! as
that Prudhomme of a Phellion says, he who seeks
an end must use the means thereto!"
He walked toward a group composed of Celeste,
Madame Thuillier, Madame de Godollo, Colleville
and Phellion.
Madame Colleville followed him, transformed
into a ferocious mother by the jealous feeling she
had just expressed.
"Celeste," said she, "why don't you sing?
Several of these gentlemen would like to hear you."
"Oh! mamma," said Celeste, "to sing after rna-
dame with my poor little piping voice! I have a
little cold, too, you know."
"That is to say, you choose to be affected and
disobliging as you always are; every one sings as
best she can, and every voice has its merits."
"My dear," said Colleville, who, having just
lost twenty francs at cards, derived from his ill-
humor sufficient courage to express an opinion
opposed to his wife's; "every one sings as best she
can is a bourgeois axiom ; you sing with your voice
when you have one, and you don't sing after listen-
ing to an operatic voice like Madame la Comtesse's ;
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 6l
I expressly exempt Celeste from warbling one of
her lackadaisical little songs."
"It is well worth while," said Flavie, leaving the
group, "to pay so much for masters to teach her to
be good for nothing!"
"So Felix isn't living on earth any longer," said
Colleville to Phellion, resuming the conversation
that Madame Colleville's invasion had interrupted;
"he's passing his life among the stars, is he?"
"My dear friend and former colleague," said
Phellion, "I am, as you are, very much annoyed
with my son for thus neglecting his family's oldest
friends; and, although the contemplation of those
immense luminous bodies suspended in space by the
Creator's hand, presents, in my opinion, more
attraction than you, enthusiast that you are, seem
to believe, I think that Felix if he should not come
this evening, as he promised me, would outrage
propriety; and I should not mince matters with him,
I promise you."
"Science is a fine thing," said La Peyrade, "but
unfortunately it makes bears and maniacs."
"To say nothing of its destroying all ideas of
religion," said Celeste.
"There you are wrong, my child," said the coun-
tess. "Pascal, who was himself a shining example
of the falseness of your point of view, said, if I am
not mistaken, that 'a little science leads us away
from religion, but that a larger knowledge of it
brings us back.' "
"And yet, madame," said Celeste, "everybody
62 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
agrees that Monsieur Felix is a great scholar; when
he was coaching my brother, nothing could be so
clear and easy to understand as his explanations, so
Francois said ; you see whether that makes him any
more religious."
"I tell you, my dear little girl, that Monsieur
Felix isn't irreligious, and that nothing would be
easier than to bring him round with a little gentle-
ness and patience."
"Bring a scientific man to conform to the ordi-
nances of religion!" exclaimed La Peyrade; "that
seems to me a difficult task, madame ; those gentle-
men place the object of their investigations above
everything else. Go and tell a geometrician or a
geologist, that the Church, for example, imperiously
demands that the Sabbath Day be kept holy by lay-
ing aside every sort of work; it will simply make
him shrug his shoulders, although God did not
disdain to rest"
"It is true, too," said Celeste naively, "that by
not coming this evening Monsieur Felix not only
errs against the laws of courtesy, but commits a
sin."
"But tell me, my love," said Madame de Godollo,
"do you think God finds it much more agreeable to
see us gathered here to sing operatic airs, eat ices
and say evil things of one another, as is too fre-
quently done in salons, than to see a scholar in an
observatory engrossed in probing the marvelous
secrets of creation?"
"There is time for everything," said Celeste,
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 63
"and as Monsieur de la Peyrade said, God himself
didn't disdain to rest"
"But, my dear girl," said Madame de Godollo,
"God had plenty of time; he is everlasting."
"That," interposed La Peyrade, "is one of the
most charming and clever impieties imaginable, and
worldly people quiet their consciences with such
arguments. They construe and interpret God's
commandments, even when they are most imperative
and explicit; they take them up and put them aside,
and draw fine distinctions; the free thinker submits
them to his omniscient revision, and everyone
knows whether it is a far cry from free thinking to
free acting!"
During this harangue Madame de Godollo kept
her eyes on the clock ; it marked half-past eleven.
The salon gradually emptied. A single game of
cards was still in progress, participated in by Thuil-
lier, the elder Minard and two of the new acquaint-
ances of the house. Phellion had left the group
with which he had been standing, to join his wife
who was talking with Brigitte, and his energetic
pantomime betrayed his feeling of profound indig-
nation. Everything seemed to indicate that all
hope of seeing the loiterer appear was finally aban-
doned.
"Monsieur," said the countess to La Peyrade,
"do you do the gentlemen on Rue des Postes the
honor of considering them good Catholics?"
"Most assuredly," said the advocate, "and our
religion has no stauncher upholders."
64 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Very good; this morning," the countess con-
tinued, "I had the felicity to be received by Pere
Anselme. While he is a model of all the Christian
virtues, the good father is also esteemed a very
learned mathematician."
"I did not say, madame, that the two qualities
were irreconcilable."
"But you said that a good Christian couldn't
attend to any sort of work -on Sunday, so Pere
Anselme must be a great sinner; when I was
admitted to his room I found him standing in front
of a blackboard with a piece of chalk in his hand,
and trying to solve what must have been a very
difficult problem, for the board was three-quarters
covered with algebraic symbols. I may add that he
didn't seem particularly disturbed about the scandal
of the thing, for a person whom I cannot name, but
who is a young scholar of great promise, was
engaged in that profane occupation with him."
Celeste and Madame Thuillier exchanged glances,
and each saw something like a gleam of hope in the
other's eyes.
"Why can't you name this young scholar?"
finally asked Madame Thuillier, who never was
more skilful than that in concealing her thoughts.
"Because he has not, as Pere Anselme has, the
sanctity of his position to procure him absolution
for such a flagrant desecration of the Sabbath ; and
then, too," added Madame de Godollo significantly,
"he begged me not to say that I had met him in that
place."
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 65
"Do you know many young scientists?" inquired
Celeste; "for this one and Monsieur Phellion made
two."
"My dear love," said the countess, "you're an
inquisitive little thing, but you can't make me tell
what I don't choose to tell, especially after what
Pe r e Anselme confided to me, for your imagination
would at once be off at a gallop."
It was almost on the gallop now, and every word
the countess spoke added to the girl's anxiety.
"For my part," said La Peyrade, ironically, "I
shouldn't be at all surprised if Pere Anselme's col-
laborator should prove to have been Monsieur Felix
Phellion in person; Voltaire continued on excellent
terms with the Jesuits, who educated him ; but he
didn't talk religion with them."
"Well, this young scientific friend of mine talks
religion with his true brother in science, he refers
his doubts to him, indeed that was the starting-
point of their scientific association. "
"And doesn't Pere Anselme hope to convert
him?" asked Celeste.
"He is sure of doing so," the countess replied:
"his young collaborator, aside from the religious
training which he lacks, has been brought up
in the most exemplary way; he knows, too, that
his return to the fold would mean the happiness
of a charming girl, whom he loves and who
loves him. Now, my dear child, you can't make
me say any more, and you can believe what you
please."
5
66 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Oh! godmother!" cried Celeste, yielding to her
innocent impulse, "suppose it was he!"
And she threw herself, weeping, into Madame
Thuillier's arms.
At this juncture matters became more complicated
than ever, when the servant opened the door of the
salon and announced Monsieur Felix Phellion.
The young professor entered the room in a reek-
ing perspiration, gasping for breath, and with his
cravat awry.
"A pretty time to make your appearance!" said
Phellion sternly.
"I couldn't leave before the end of the phenome-
non, father," said Felix walking toward that part of
the room where Madame Thuillier and Celeste were
sitting together. "I didn't find a carriage so I ran
all the way."
"Your ears must have burned on the way," said
La Peyrade with a knowing look, "for you were a
subject of discussion a moment ago among these
ladies, who had set about solving a difficult problem
concerning you."
Felix made no reply; he saw Brigitte coming from
the dining-room, where she had been to tell the ser-
vant to pass no more refreshments ; and he ran to
salute her.
After listening to a few words of reproof as to his
infrequent visits, and receiving his pardon with a
very amiable, better late than never, he turned back
toward his magnet, and was greatly surprised when
Madame de Godollo addressed him;
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 67
"Monsieur," said she, "you must forgive me for
an indiscretion which in the excitement of the dis-
cussion I was led to commit: I told these ladies,
notwithstanding your express prohibition, where
I met you this morning."
"Where I had the honor to meet you," said Felix;
"why, madame, in that case I did not see you."
An imperceptible smile played about La Peyrade's
lips.
"You saw me so plainly that you spoke to me,
and requested me to preserve the most absolute
secrecy. However, I didn't compromise you by
stretching the truth; I said that you sometimes saw
Pere Anselme, and that, thus far, your relations
with him had been strictly scientific, but that you
defended your scepticism against his arguments as
well as against Celeste's."
"Pere Anselme," said Phellion stupidly.
"Why, yes, of course," said La Peyrade; "a
great mathematician who doesn't despair of convert-
ing you; Mademoiselle Celeste wept for joy."
Felix stared vacantly from one to another. Ma-
dame de Godollo glared at him with an expression in
her eyes a poodle would have understood.
"I would have liked," he said at last, "to do a
thing so agreeable to Mademoiselle Celeste, but I
think you are mistaken, madame."
"Listen to me, monsieur; I propose to state the
whole truth, and if your false shame impels you to
the desperate expedient of concealing a proceeding
in which there is nothing you might not admit,
68 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
since it has made those who love you happy, why
contradict me ; I shall lay myself open to the charge
of fickleness by divulging a secret which you, I
agree, most urgently enjoined me to keep."
Madame Thuillier and Celeste were in themselves
as good as a play ; never were doubt and suspense
so eloquently expressed upon the human counte-
nance.
"I told these ladies," continued Madame de God-
olio, " carefully weighing every word, "because I
knew how interested they are in your spiritual wel-
fare, and because you have been accused of auda-
cious disobedience to God's commandments by
working on Sunday, that I met you this morning at
the establishment on Rue des Postes, in Pere An-
selme's room, he being a scholar like yourself, and
that you were at work with him solving a problem ;
I said that your scientific relations with that holy
and enlightened man had led you to talk upon other
subjects; that you had submitted your religious
doubts to him and that he did not despair of clearing
them up for you. There can be nothing in your
confirmation of what I have said to lower your self-
esteem; it is simply a surprise you were preparing
for Celeste, and I was awkward enough to let it out;
but when she hears you say that I told the truth,
you will make her happy enough to pay you for not
haggling over the word she's waiting for."
"Come, monsieur!" said La Peyrade, "there's
never anything absurd in seeking for light; you,
who are so straightforward and so opposed to
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 69
falsehood, cannot deny what madame maintains so
stoutly."
"Mademoiselle Celeste," said Felix, after a
moment's hesitation, "will you allow me to say
just two words to you, alone?"
Celeste rose as Madame Thuillier nodded her
assent Felix took her hand and led her to a win-
dow within two yards of where they were sitting.
"Celeste," said he, "I beg of you, wait a little
longer. Look," he added, pointing to the constella-
tion of the Chariot, "beyond yon visible stars there
is a whole future for us. As to Pere Anselme, I can
not admit what you have heard, because it isn't
true. It's pure fiction; but be patient, and you
will learn some things! "
Celeste left his side, and he remained gazing at
the sky.
"He is mad!" exclaimed the girl in a despairing
tone as she returned to her seat beside Madame
Thuillier. And Felix confirmed her prognosis by
rushing from the salon, heedless of the emotion of
Phellion and his mother as they started in pursuit
While everybody was recovering from the stupe-
fying effect of this exit, La Peyrade respectfully
drew near Madame de Godollo, and said to her :
"Confess, madame, that it is very hard to pull a
man out of the water when he is determined to
drown."
"I had no idea," replied the countess, "that any-
body could be so simple ; he is altogether too great a
blockhead. 1 go over to the enemy, and whenever
70 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
the enemy pleases I am ready to have a frank and
loyal understanding with him in my apartments."
The next morning Theodose was possessed with
curiosity upon two points: How would Celeste
extricate herself from the option she accepted?
What had this Comtesse Torna de Godollo to say to
him, and what did she want of him?
The former of the two subjects of interest seemed
to him incontestably entitled to precedence; and
yet a secret instinct inclined La Peyrade more
strongly toward attempting a solution of the second
problem. But, when making up his mind to follow
that inclination first, he realized that he could not
look to his weapons too carefully in preparation for
the meeting to which he had been invited.
It had rained in the early morning, and the pro-
found schemer was fully aware of the discredit into
which a man might fall on account of a splash of
mud marring the polish of a boot. He therefore
sent his concierge out for a cab, and about three
o'clock left Rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer for the
more fashionable latitude of theQuartier de la Mad-
eleine.
Of course considerable care had been bestowed
upon his costume, which was intended to be a happy
medium between the undress suitable for morning
wear, and the ceremonious after-dinner costume.
Indissolubly attached, by virtue of his profession, to
the white cravat which he never laid aside except
upon very rare occasions, and not daring to make
his appearance in anything but a dress-coat, he felt
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 7!
that he was inclining toward one of the extremes,
which it seemed to him that he ought to avoid. But
with his coat buttoned, and the straw-colored glove
replaced by one of a lighter shade, he looked less
solemn, and avoided the provincial solicitor aspect
of a drawing-room toilet paraded through the streets
before the sun has sunk below the horizon.
The shrewd diplomatist knew too much to be
driven to the door of the house which was his desti-
nation. He preferred not to be seen from the entre-
sol alighting from a hired carriage, and he was
unwilling to be seen from the first-floor paying a
visit on the floor below; such a proceeding on his
part would inevitably be followed by endless com-
ments.
He was careful, therefore, to alight at the corner of
Rue Royale, and reached the house without mishap,
the sidewalks being nearly dry by walking on
tiptoe. When he arrived at the door he had the
good luck not to be seen by the concierges; the hus-
band, a beadle at the Madeleine, was absent attend-
ing to his duties, and the wife was showing a
vacant suite to a possible tenant; and so, unseen
by anyone, Theodose glided to the door of the sanc-
tuary he proposed to enter.
A slight touch of the hand to a silken cord, adorned
with tassels, caused a bell to ring inside. A few
seconds elapsed, and then he heard a more decided
peal upon another bell of smaller calibre, which
sounded to him like a warning to the maid-servant,
who was too slow about answering the bell to suit
72 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
her mistress. A moment later, a lady's maid of
mature years and too sensible to affect the costume
of the soubrettes of the stage, confronted him.
The advocate declined to give his name, and the
maid requested him to wait in a dining-room, fur-
nished luxuriously but not gaudily. Almost imme-
diately she returned and ushered him into the
daintiest and most beautiful salon that it is possible
to imagine under the squat ceiling of an entresol.
The divinity of the place was seated by a table
covered with a cloth of Venetian design, wherein
the changing hues of gold were mingled with the
brilliant colors of small-stitch tapestry. As the
advocate entered she bowed without rising, and said,
as the maid pushed forward a chair for him :
"Will you allow me to finish an important letter,
monsieur?"
The advocate bowed in token of assent; the fair
stranger thereupon took from a desk inlaid with tor-
toise-shell, of the Boulle type, a sheet of sky-blue
English paper and placed it in an envelope; having
written the address, she rose and rang.
The maid instantly appeared, lighted a spirit-
lamp set into a small, beautifully carved desk; above
the lamp was arranged a sort of melting-pot in
silver-gilt, wherein a stick of perfumed sealing-wax
was waiting; as soon as the heat of the flame had
melted the wax, the maid turned it out on the en-
velope and handed the seal with her crest cut upon
it, to her mistress. She made the impression with
her fair hands, and said :
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 73
"Send this without delay to its address."
The maid came forward to take the letter, but,
whether because she was careless or in too great
haste, the paper fell at La Peyrade's feet, and as he
stooped quickly to pick it up he instinctively read
the superscription. It read: His Excellency, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs. And higher up, in one
corner, the significant word: Personal, which im-
parted a distinctly private character to the missive.
"Pardon, monsieur," said the countess, taking
the letter from the advocate, for he had the good