The Lesser Bourgeoisie Part 66

CHAPTER XIV. A STORMY DAY

As an exact historian, we must go back and begin the day at six in the morning, when we can see Madame Thuillier going to the Madeleine to hear the ma.s.s that the Abbe Gondrin was in the habit of saying at that hour, and afterwards approaching the holy table,--a viatic.u.m which pious souls never fail to give themselves when it is in their minds to accomplish some great resolution.

About mid-day the abbe received a visit in his own home from Madame Thuillier and Celeste. The poor child wanted a little development of the words by which the priest had given security, the evening before, in Brigitte's salon, for the eternal welfare of Felix Ph.e.l.lion. It seemed strange to the mind of this girl-theologian that, without practising religion, a soul could be received into grace by the divine justice; for surely the anathema is clear: Out of the Church there is no salvation.

"My dear child," said the Abbe Gondrin, "learn to understand that saying which seems to you so inexplicable. It is more a saying of thanksgiving for those who have the happiness to live within the pale of our holy mother the Church than a malediction upon those who have the misfortune to live apart from her. G.o.d sees to the depths of all hearts; He knows His elect; and so great is the treasure of His goodness that to none is it given to limit its riches and its munificence. Who shall dare to say to G.o.d: Thou wilt be generous and munificent so far and no farther.

Jesus Christ forgave the woman in adultery, and on the cross He promised heaven to a thief, in order to prove to us that He deals with men, not according to human sentiments, but according to _his_ wisdom and _his_ mercy. He who thinks himself a Christian may be in the eyes of G.o.d an idolator; and another who is thought a pagan may, by his feelings and his actions be, without his own knowledge, a Christian. Our holy religion has this that is divine about it; all grandeur, all heroism are but the practice of its precepts. I was saying yesterday to Monsieur de la Peyrade that pure souls must be, in course of time, its inevitable conquest. It is all-important to give them their just credit; that is a confidence which returns great dividends; and, besides, charity commands it."

"Ah! my G.o.d!" cried Celeste, "to learn that too late! I, who could have chosen between Felix and Monsieur de la Peyrade, and did not dare to follow the ideas of my heart! Oh! Monsieur l'abbe, couldn't you speak to my mother? Your advice is always listened to."

"Impossible, my dear child," replied the vicar. "If I had the direction of Madame Colleville's conscience I might perhaps say a word, but we are so often accused of meddling imprudently in family matters! Be sure that my intervention here, without authority or right, would do you more harm than good. It is for you and for those who love you," he added, giving a look to Madame Thuillier, "to see if these arrangements, already so far advanced, could be changed in the direction of your wishes."

It was written that the poor child was to drink to the dregs the cup she had herself prepared by her intolerance. As the abbe finished speaking, his housekeeper came in to ask if he would receive Monsieur Felix Ph.e.l.lion. Thus, like the Charter of 1830, Madame de G.o.dollo's officious falsehood was turned into truth.

"Go this way," he said hastily, showing his two penitents out by a private corridor.

Life has such strange encounters that it does sometimes happen that the same form of proceeding must be used by courtesans and by the men of G.o.d.

"Monsieur l'abbe," said Felix to the young vicar as soon as they met, "I have heard of the kind manner in which you were so very good as to speak of me in Monsieur Thuillier's salon last night, and I should have hastened to express my grat.i.tude if another interest had not drawn me to you."

The Abbe Gondrin pa.s.sed hastily over the compliments, eager to know in what way he could be useful to his fellow-man.

"With an intention that I wish to think kindly," replied Felix, "you were spoken to yesterday about the state of my soul. Those who read it so fluently know more than I do about my inner being, for, during the last few days I have felt strange, inexplicable feelings within me.

Never have I doubted G.o.d, but, in contact with that infinitude where he has permitted my thought to follow the traces of his work I seem to have gathered a sense of him less vague, more immediate; and this has led me to ask myself whether an honest and upright life is the only homage which his omnipotence expects of me. Nevertheless, there are numberless objections rising in my mind against the wors.h.i.+p of which you are the minister; while sensible of the beauty of its external form in many of its precepts and practices, I find myself deterred by my reason. I shall have paid dearly, perhaps by the happiness of my whole life, for the slowness and want of vigor which I have shown in seeking the solution of my doubts. I have now decided to search to the bottom of them. No one so well as you, Monsieur l'abbe, can help me to solve them. I have come with confidence to lay them before you, to ask you to listen to me, to answer me, and to tell me by what studies I can pursue the search for light. It is a cruelly afflicted soul that appeals to you. Is not that a good ground for the seed of your word?"

The Abbe Gondrin eagerly protested the joy with which, notwithstanding his own insufficiency, he would undertake to reply to the scruples of conscience in the young savant. After asking him for a place in his friends.h.i.+p, and telling him to come at certain hours for conversation, he asked him to read, as a first step, the "Thoughts" of Pascal.

A natural affinity, on the side of science, would, he believed, be established between the spirit of Pascal and that of the young mathematician.

While this scene was pa.s.sing, a scene to which the greatness of the interests in question and the moral and intellectual elevation of the personages concerned in it gave a character of grandeur which, like all reposeful, tranquil aspects, is easier far to comprehend than to reproduce, another scene, of sharp and bitter discord, that chronic malady of bourgeois households, where the pettiness of minds and pa.s.sions gives open way to it, was taking place in the Thuillier home.

Mounted upon her chair, her hair in disorder and her face and fingers dirty, Brigitte, duster in hand, was cleaning the shelves of the closet, where she was replacing her library of plates, dishes, and sauce-boats, when Flavie came in and accosted her.

"Brigitte," she said, "when you have finished what you are about you had better come down to our apartment, or else I'll send Celeste to you; she seems to me to be inclined to make trouble."

"In what way?" asked Brigitte, continuing to dust.

"I think she and Madame Thuillier went to see the Abbe Gondrin this morning, and she has been attacking me about Felix Ph.e.l.lion, and talks of him as if he were a G.o.d; from that to refusing to marry la Peyrade is but a step."

"Those cursed skull-caps!" said Brigitte; "they meddle in everything! I didn't want to invite him, but you would insist."

"Yes," said Flavie, "it was proper."

"Proper! I despise proprieties!" cried the old maid. "He's a maker of speeches; he said nothing last night that wasn't objectionable. Send Celeste to me; I'll settle her."

At this instant a servant announced to Brigitte the arrival of a clerk from the office of the new notary chosen, in default of Dupuis, to draw up the contract. Without considering her disorderly appearance, Brigitte ordered him to be shown in, but she made him the condescension of descending from her perch instead of talking from the height of it.

"Monsieur Thuillier," said the clerk, "came to our office this morning to explain to the master the clauses of the contract he has been so good as to entrust to us. But before writing down the stipulations, we are in the habit of obtaining from the lips of each donor a direct expression of his or her intentions. In accordance with this rule, Monsieur Thuillier told us that he gives to the bride the reversion, at his death, of the house he inhabits, which I presume to be this one?"

"Yes," said Brigitte, "that is the understanding. As for me, I give three hundred thousand francs a year in the Three-per-cents, capital and interest; but the bride is married under the dotal system."

"That is so," said the clerk, consulting his notes. "Mademoiselle Brigitte, three thousand francs a year. Now, there is Madame Celeste Thuillier, wife of Louis-Jerome Thuillier, who gives six thousand in the Three-per-cents, capital and interest, and six thousand more at her death."

"All that is just as if the notary had written it down," said Brigitte; "but if it is your custom you can see my sister-in-law; they will show you the way."

So saying, the old maid ordered the "male domestic" to take the clerk to Madame Thuillier.

A moment later the clerk returned, saying there was certainly some misunderstanding, and that Madame Thuillier declared she had no intention of making any agreement in favor of the marriage.

"That's a pretty thing!" cried Brigitte. "Come with me, monsieur."

Then, like a hurricane, she rushed into Madame Thuillier's chamber; the latter was pale and trembling.

"What's this you have told monsieur?--that you give nothing to Celeste's 'dot'?"

"Yes," said the slave, declaring insurrection, although in a shaking voice; "my intention is to do nothing."

"Your intention," said Brigitte, scarlet with anger, "is something new."

"That is my intention," was all the rebel replied.

"At least you will give your reasons?"

"The marriage does not please me."

"Ha! and since when?"

"It is not necessary that monsieur should listen to our discussion,"

said Madame Thuillier; "it will not appear in the contract."

"No wonder you are ashamed of it," said Brigitte; "the appearance you are making is not very flattering to you--Monsieur," she continued, addressing the clerk, "it is easier, is it not, to mark out pa.s.sages in a contract than to add them?"

The clerk made an affirmative sign.

"Then put in what you were told to write; later, if madame persists, the clause can be stricken out."

The clerk bowed and left the room.

When the two sisters-in-law were alone together, Brigitte began.

"Ah ca!" she cried, "have you lost your head? What is this crotchet you've taken into it?"

"It is not a crotchet; it is a fixed idea."

"Which you got from the Abbe Gondrin; you dare not deny that you went to see him with Celeste."

"It is true that Celeste and I saw our director this morning, but I did not open my lips to him about what I intended to do."