The Flower Girl of The Chateau d'Eau Volume I Part 44

"Come, follow me; I will show you the shortest way, and we shall soon be at the house."

The general movement that took place among the spectators put an end to the combat which was in progress on the stage. Monsieur Glumeau ordered his gardener to go home to bed, and he suggested to the actors that they should follow the example of the audience and return to the house. The young druggist declared that the shower would not last, and that they might finish the play; but no one listened to him, they all ran toward the gate leading from the wood. Madame Boutillon said to Chambourdin:

"Help me down."

"Drop," replied the advocate.

The little brunette followed his injunctions so closely that for some moments Chambourdin was unable to extricate his head, which was covered by the lady's skirts. But when his head reappeared, he had such a triumphant expression that one would have thought that his hair had grown. Like everybody else, in a moment he disappeared with Madame Boutillon, and the little wood which a few minutes before rang with shouts of laughter and the merry quips of a numerous company, would have been entirely deserted, had not two persons remained without stirring in the places that they occupied, apparently regardless of the storm and not thinking of following the departing crowd.

Monsieur Malberg, who up to that time had avoided society and had not accepted any invitations from his neighbors, had departed from his usual habit in going to Monsieur Glumeau's; but it will be remembered that he was very anxious to meet Monsieur de Roncherolle, of whose return to Paris he had been informed. The search made by Georget had led to no result, and Monsieur Malberg had said to himself:

"If I want to find him, to meet him anywhere, I shall not succeed by staying at home and avoiding society. Roncherolle used to love dissipation and conviviality, so that I must seek him in society."

The result of these reflections was his acceptance of his neighbor Glumeau's invitation. However, as he still found it difficult to lay aside his habits, we have seen that, instead of mingling with the guests, Monsieur Malberg had held himself a little aloof; but from his position he could easily scrutinize the whole company, especially the men, almost all of whom were standing behind the ladies; and he had satisfied himself that the man whom he sought was not there.

Thereupon, his eyes had wandered in the direction of the ladies; he could see only the backs of those who occupied the front rows of seats, and Madame de Grangeville was one of them; so that he was looking, without paying any particular attention to them, at the ladies of the company, who, however, were very handsomely dressed, when one of them, Madame de Grangeville, turned her head and looked in his direction.

Monsieur Malberg was struck by that glance; a thousand memories awoke in his mind; but the lady turned her head away almost immediately, and he could not see her features. Impelled by curiosity, however, to know that person, a single glance from whom had so disturbed him, he had quietly left his place and had drawn nearer to the stage, without, however, mingling with the audience, until he was so placed that, without being seen, he could at his leisure examine the lady who was seated beside Madame Glumeau.

On scrutinizing the baroness closely, Monsieur Malberg had thought at first that he had made a mistake; nineteen years had caused so many changes! And all of us have a singular habit: if we are many years without seeing a woman, when we think of that woman, we always imagine her as she was when we saw her last. Instead of saying to ourselves: "Time must have marched with her; her beauty and charm and freshness must have undergone deplorable changes;" we always imagine that she is as we left her, because her image, her figure, her bearing charmed us so, and because the heart and the memory shrink from attributing age to the objects whose souvenir they cherish.

And so, while gazing attentively at Madame de Grangeville, Monsieur Malberg said to himself:

"No, I am mistaken, it isn't she, it cannot be the woman whose grace, whose fresh complexion and slender figure and light step everyone admired; and yet, those are her features; despite the deep wrinkles at the corners of her mouth, that is the lower part of her face; her eyes are black-ringed and swollen, but the expression is still the same, and it is that expression which has awakened all my memories. Her face is thinner, her hair has changed its color; there are wrinkles on her brow; and yet I cannot doubt it; it is she! yes, surely she! And, in truth, over nineteen years have pa.s.sed since I saw her; but I had not thought that she could grow old!"

Monsieur Malberg could not remove his eyes from the baroness after that; he abandoned himself the more freely to that mute contemplation, because no one could observe it.

When the first drops of rain set the whole company in motion, Monsieur Malberg did not stir from his place; he still continued his observation, curious to see what the lady upon whom he kept his eyes fixed would do.

She had remained as if glued to her chair; she had heard Madame Glumeau urge the guests to follow her, but she had paid no heed; having no fear whatever of the storm which everybody else seemed to dread, she remained in the woods, exposed to the rain; and when the whole company had fled toward the house, she was still there, not daring to turn her head in the direction in which she had seen her husband; for in Monsieur Malberg she had instantly recognized the Comte de Brevanne, whom she had married long before.

The part of the wood in which they were was still lighted by the lamps on the stage and by the lanterns placed at intervals in the enclosure reserved for the audience. But the rain had extinguished some of the lights, the wind swung the lanterns to and fro so that the light that remained was as uncertain as the weather, which, however, had not become so bad as they had feared; the rain, which had fallen at first with considerable violence, had already diminished, and the wind, which had aroused such terror, seemed also to have abated.

"Why does she stay there alone? Why didn't she follow all those people?

What is the reason that she remains exposed to the rain? She is in a ball dress. Can she have seen me? No, I was standing aloof; and if she had seen me, she would not have recognized me; time has pa.s.sed for both of us alike, and I had to examine her a long time to be certain that it was she."

Such were the reflections of the man whom we now know to be the Comte de Brevanne, but whom we shall call Malberg more than once, because we have become accustomed to it.

The count, however, was mistaken in thinking that his wife had not recognized him; in the first place, ladies have a glance which carries much farther than ours; and then time, which had wrought such changes in her, seemed to have treated her husband with respect; in fact, as he had very strongly-marked features, and a face which had always been serious, even grave, he had seemed older than he really was when he might still have been ranked with young men; and so time had aged him less, and except for his hair, which had turned gray, and for some few deep wrinkles on his forehead, he had changed very little. So that Madame de Grangeville had recognized her husband in the person whom Madame Glumeau had pointed out as Monsieur Malberg; a single glance had sufficed to make her certain of the truth. Then she had sat a long while without turning her head; she hoped that her husband did not see her, and yet she was burning with the longing to know if he had seen her. As a woman is not in the habit of resisting curiosity, she turned her head once more in the direction where the count was; it was then that their eyes met; in despair because she had shown herself, and having no doubt that her husband had recognized her, Madame de Grangeville wished that she were a hundred leagues away; and yet, when she sat trembling in her chair and the other guests had left the wood, she was so perturbed that she had not strength to walk, and she was utterly at a loss what course to pursue.

Several minutes pa.s.sed after all the others had gone. Nothing could be heard in the woods except the patter of the raindrops on the leaves.

Madame de Grangeville gathered her shawl about her shoulders as if she were cold; she dared not turn her head to see if she were alone, and yet she said to herself:

"He must have gone away with the others; it isn't probable that he has remained here. Why should he? If he recognized me, as I think, he must have been all the more eager to go. Oh, yes! I am very sure that he has not gone to Monsieur Glumeau's house. What a fool I am to tremble like this! but I can't help it; I had so little expectation of this meeting, after so many years! It is strange! he has hardly changed at all; he still has the same serious look; he is still--Ah!"

As she spoke thus to herself, she slowly turned her head, to make sure that there was no one behind her, and she saw her husband standing motionless against a tree, with his eyes still fixed upon her.

Thereupon she felt her blood run cold, she was almost terrified. And yet there was nothing terrifying in the Comte de Brevanne's eyes; they expressed amazement rather than anger; but she upon whom they were fixed instantly turned her own away, feeling that she had not courage to endure their gaze.

"He is there, still there! he doesn't take his eyes from me!" said Madame de Grangeville to herself; not daring to move or to turn her head. "Mon Dieu! what can be his purpose? It seemed to me that he was glaring savagely at me!"

"She doesn't dare to move; no doubt I frighten her!" said the count to himself; "I will go away. I can understand that my presence is not likely to produce a pleasant impression upon her. I must go; she is not the one whom I sought here.--Great heaven! how she has changed!"

The count was preparing to go away, and had already taken several steps, when he heard a dull sound, resembling a prolonged groan, apparently very near the stage.

"Mon Dieu! what is that?" cried Madame de Grangeville.

The count stopped to listen; the same groan made itself heard again, even more distinctly.

Madame de Grangeville, terror-stricken, uttered a shriek, left her chair, and no longer fearing to look at her husband, turned her eyes in all directions, exclaiming:

"Mon Dieu! in pity's name, will no one come to help me?"

But her eyes sought in vain the Comte de Brevanne; he had disappeared under the trees, uncertain as to what he ought to do, but desirous to learn the cause of the strange noise he had heard.

At that moment, voices arose in the distance and came rapidly nearer.

Little Astianax, jovial Chambourdin, young Miaulard and Beau Saint-Arthur were coming in search of the baroness; for when all the guests had a.s.sembled in the salon, that lady's absence had been noticed; and as Madame Glumeau declared that she had been in the woods, her failure to return caused apprehension that some accident had happened to her, and that the little pond had done further execution.

The four gentlemen entered the wood, shouting with all their strength:

"Madame de Grangeville!"

"Madame la baronne!--Are you here?--Has anything happened to you?"

"Answer, please!"

"This way, messieurs, this way; yes, I am here!" the lady made haste to reply, overjoyed by the arrival of the young men. "Come, come, messieurs! come! mon Dieu! how opportunely you arrive!"

"But, madame, how does it happen that you remained alone in the wood?

You did not follow the crowd, the torrent----"

"No, messieurs, I didn't follow the other ladies at first, because I had lost my--my handkerchief; it is quite a fine one and I stopped to look for it."

"Oh! if we had known that, madame, we would have saved you the trouble.

Did you find it?"

"Yes, I have it; but then, as I was about to leave this spot, I had a fright, I heard a noise that terrified me so that I was too weak to walk when you arrived."

"The deuce! what can it have been?"

"It isn't probable that there are robbers in our wood," said little Astianax.

"It would be strange, at least, that they should have selected the day when it was full of people to come here," said Chambourdin.

"Unless," said Miaulard, "they are robbers who are very fond of a play, and who were unable to resist the desire to see the fine performance going on here!"

"_Fichtre!_ if _I_ had acted!" muttered young Saint-Arthur.

"You are pleased to jest, messieurs, but I believe that I still hear the noise which frightened me just now.--Yes, there it is; listen."

The young men ceased to speak and did in fact hear the prolonged groan.