The Flower Girl of The Chateau d'Eau Volume I Part 33

"Here is the paper, madame," said Lizida, eyeing her mistress's cap, which she coveted; "I inquired about the Mouzaias; hasn't madame some Mouzaia stocks?"

"Yes, I have twenty shares; my last hope is in that."

"What are the Mouzaias, madame? a sugar factory?"

"Alas! no, it isn't sugar. I believe it's a copper mine in Algeria; I don't know exactly, but it doesn't make any difference; a friend of mine doubled her money six months ago by buying shares in it; and I hope to double mine; but thus far I haven't had any luck.--Do you think my cap is becoming, Lizida?"

"Mon Dieu, madame, it's strange--but if you want my opinion----"

"To be sure, when I ask for it."

"Well! madame, who is always so pretty--I don't know how it is, but with that cap madame has a stern, serious look."

"Say at once that it makes me older, for that is what you don't dare to say."

"Oh! it isn't that; madame can't look old; that is impossible; but madame has a less animated, less coquettish air--that's it, less coquettish."

Madame de Grangeville s.n.a.t.c.hed off her cap and threw it on a chair, crying:

"You are quite right, Lizida; this cap certainly does make me a frightful object."

"Oh! frightful! As if madame could be frightful when--when she is so pretty!"

"Hush, child; take the cap; I give it to you, it's yours, do what you choose with it."

"Madame is too good; but I wouldn't want madame to think----"

"I tell you to take that cap, I never want to hear of it again. Go and get me the little blue one that I wore before I bought that one."

Mademoiselle Lizida ran from the room to fetch the cap which her mistress asked for, and handed it to her; then she made haste to take to her own room the cap for which the baroness had paid thirty-five francs and which she had worn but three times, saying to herself:

"I knew very well that I should get it! Oh! it is a perfect beauty! It makes me look like an angel, and I will wear it on Sunday to go to the Chateau des Fleurs to dance.--How lovely it is!"

Then she returned to her mistress, who had put on the blue cap, and cried:

"Oh! how lovely madame is in that! madame is only twenty-five years old,--not a day more. Ah! if I was a man, how madly in love I should be with madame!"

"Hush, you mad girl! It's a fact that this cap is very becoming to me."

"Madame, you must have another one just like it made at once."

"Yes, that is what I intend to do, when I am in funds.--Let me look at the newspaper, the quotations; I don't understand them very well."

"Madame, I was told that the Mouzaias had gone up."

"Really? Oh! if only that were true! for I bought twenty shares at par, and they have fallen to forty-eight francs. Let me see,--a rise of fifty centimes! That is magnificent!"

"Then madame has not made anything?"

"If I should sell now, I shouldn't get back a thousand francs of the two thousand that I invested; I should lose more than half!"

"Then you mustn't sell, madame!"

"I mustn't sell, but I must have money. I have promised to go to Nogent, to visit those Glumeaus, who are to have a family party, with theatricals."

"The Glumeaus! Who on earth are they? Retired grocers?"

"No, they are--Faith, I don't know what they used to do, nor do I care.

If I had to inquire about such things as that, should I ever go into society? But they are excellent people; one enjoys oneself at their house; it is just like being at home. The company is a little mixed there perhaps, but isn't it so everywhere? I met at Monsieur Glumeau's a person whom I used to know, before I was married."

"Ah! it must have been a long while ago then!"

Mademoiselle Lizida had no sooner made this remark than she saw that she had put her foot in it; she made haste to add:

"When I said a long time, I said something very foolish; I spoke without thinking, for after all, I have no idea whether madame was married long ago, any more than I know how long madame has been a widow. Sometimes one is widowed right away. A husband doesn't always last a year."

"Oh! my poor Lizida, there are many other things that you don't know, and that would surprise you greatly if I should tell you them!"

Mademoiselle Lizida, who was inquisitive like all lady's maids, seeing that her mistress was in one of those moods when one longs to disclose one's secrets, to confide the most private mysteries which a woman always tires of keeping to herself, employed at first her usual tactics to make herself agreeable to her mistress.

"Mon Dieu! how very becoming that little blue cap is to madame! It gives her such a charming air! But then, madame always has that."

"Oh! there are days when one looks better than on others; everybody is like that; to-day certainly seems to be one of my good days."

"It would seem then that madame was married very young?"

"Yes, very young; I was seventeen years old, not more."

"What a sweet little bride madame must have been!"

"Yes, everybody admired me!"

"And madame's husband, the Baron de Grangeville, was he young? Was he a fine-looking man?"

"Why yes, my husband was a fine man, very good-looking, with a somewhat serious expression.--Would you believe, my dear child, that I was mad over that man?"

"Pray, madame, why not? There are wives who adore their husbands; it isn't very common, but such things are seen."

"Yes, I adored him--the first year after our marriage."

"Ah! only the first year?"

"Men are agreeable for such a short time!"

"Oh! how true that is!--And madame's husband became like the others, no doubt, surly, moody, fault-finding. There are some men who refuse their wives everything, even a cashmere shawl; and everybody knows that a woman who goes into good society cannot do without a cashmere shawl! The idea of such a thing! what would she look like?"

"My husband found no fault with my taste for dress; besides, I had my own money; I brought him twelve thousand francs a year when I married him."