Frederique Volume II Part 13

"Madame Chamouillet's address, if you please?"

"Rue Madame, No. 4, near the Luxembourg."

I took leave of the hunchbacked aunt, who looked after me with a cunning leer. I returned to my cab, and said to the driver:

"Rue Madame, near the Luxembourg."

"I say, monsieur, if you've got many more trips like this to make, my horse will leave us on the road."

"No; whatever happens, this is the last but one."

We reached Rue Madame with difficulty; the horse was at his last gasp. I unearthed Aunt Chamouillet. I was told to go up to the second floor, where I found a woman was.h.i.+ng on the landing; and just as I was climbing the last stairs, that woman, who, I presume, had not heard me coming, turned and emptied a large pail of soapsuds on the staircase. I was drenched to the waist.

I swore like a pirate, whereupon the woman calmly observed:

"Why are the gutters all stopped up? It don't do any good to complain, they don't clean 'em out; and I must empty my water somewhere."

"But you might at least look before you empty it."

"Did you get any of it?"

"Parbleu! I am drenched!"

"That'll dry, and it don't spot."

"Madame Chamouillet, if you please?"

"That's me. Have you got something you want washed?"

"No, madame; I am sufficiently washed now! I would like to speak with Mademoiselle Rosette, your niece."

Madame Chamouillet had returned to her was.h.i.+ng; she paid much more attention to her linen than to what I said to her.

"I come, madame, on the part of Madame Berlingot, on Rue----"

"All right, monsieur, all right!--How can anyone soil linen like that!

Look, monsieur, I leave it to you!"

And she took from her tub a s.h.i.+rt, which she started to spread out for my inspection. I evaded that demonstration; but, as she put the s.h.i.+rt back in the tub, she threw a wet stocking in my face. I tried to take it calmly; I wiped my face and continued:

"Will you kindly tell me where Mademoiselle Rosette is?"

"Where Rosette is? How do you suppose I know? Oh, yes! on my word! As if anyone ever knows where she is!"

"What, madame! isn't she here?"

"No, monsieur.--It breaks my back to scrub this!"

"But where shall I go to find her?"

"Try at her aunts'."

"I have already seen six of them, counting you, madame. I have called on Mesdames Falourdin, Riflot, Piquette, Dumarteau, Lumignon, and yourself.

Who is the one that's left for me to see?"

"Madame Cavalos, Rue de la Lune, No. 19. But I won't answer----"

As she spoke, Madame Chamouillet let a piece of soap slip out of her hands, and my waistcoat had the benefit of it. I had had enough; I fled from the laundress; I seemed to be pursued by soapsuds.

"Rue de la Lune, No. 19," I said to my cabman. Luckily, that took us back into my own neighborhood, and I was sure that this last quest could not be fruitless: Rosette must be there. That was the last of the aunts, and she had told me positively that when she was not with one of them I would find her with another. What a pity that I had not been sent to Rue de la Lune at the outset!

I reached the end of my journeyings. I was directed to Madame Cavalos's lodging on the entresol. I found a very stout, thickset, little old woman, who greeted me with an affable bow and waited for me to speak.

"Madame Cavalos?"

"Bonjour, monsieur! very well, I thank you."

"I wanted to speak to your niece, Mademoiselle Rosette."

"Yes, monsieur, I don't change much; that's what everybody tells me."

"I come from Madame Berlingot."

"You thought I didn't live so low? I used to be higher up, but I've moved down."

What did that mean? Madame Cavalos seemed to be stone deaf. I stepped nearer to her, and shouted at the top of my lungs:

"I want to see Mademoiselle Rosette, your niece!"

"You say you have come about my lease?"

That was most trying. The woman was a fool. I gave up speaking and made a lot of strange gestures, trying to arouse her curiosity at least.

Motioning to me to wait, she left the room, and returned with an ear trumpet, which she held to her ear, saying:

"I ain't deaf; but some days I can't hear so well as others."

Poor old woman! she ought never to have laid aside her trumpet. I repeated my question, and that time she replied:

"My niece Rosette? Why, she ain't here, monsieur."

"What, madame! not here? Why, where on earth can I find her, then?"

"Oh! that's easily done, monsieur. She must be with her Aunt Falourdin, Faubourg Saint-Denis, corner of Rue Chabrol."

At that, I gave up all hope of finding my grisette; I had no desire to begin the circuit of the aunts anew; I had had quite enough of them. I bade my cabman take me home. It was five o'clock, and we had been on the road since noon! Ah! Mademoiselle Rosette! Mademoiselle Rosette! you had shown me aunts of all colors! What a day! Jason was certainly more fortunate than I: after many perils, he obtained the Golden Fleece; I had faced seven aunts, and had not obtained Rosette!