Memoirs of a Physician (29 page)

And she did her utmost to bring a tear to her beautiful eyes.

There was enough of heart and feeling in this reproach to excite Andre’s compassion.

” My child,” said she, ” I have attended here already, and I cannot permit myself unnecessarily to increase the household of the dauphiness by another mouth.”

” Oh ! as if this mouth was so large ! ” said Nicole, with a charming smile.

” No matter, Nicole, your presence here is impossible.”

” On account of this resemblance ? ” said the young girl. ” Then you have not looked at my face, mademoiselle ? “

” In fact, you seem changed.”

” I think so ! A fine gentleman, he who got the promotion for Monsieur Philip, came to us yesterday, and as he saw the baron quite melancholy at your being here without a waiting-maid, he told him that nothing was easier than to change me from fair to dark. He brought me with him, dressed me as you see, and here I am.”

Andre smiled.

” You must love me very much,” said she, ” since you are determined at all risks to shut yourself up in Trianon, where I am almost a prisoner.”

Nicole cast a rapid but intelligent glance round the room.

” The chamber is not very gay,” said she ; ” but you are not always in it ? “

” I ? Of course not,” replied Andre ! ” but you? “

“Well, I!”

” You, who will never enter the saloons of madame the dauphiness ; you, who will have neither the resources of the theater, nor the walk, nor the evening circle, but will al-ways remain here, you will die of weariness.”

” Oh ! ” said Nicole, ” there is always some little window or other, one can surely see some little glimpse of the gay world without, were it only through the chinks of the door.

216 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

If a person can see they can also be seen that is all I require; so do not be uneasy on my account.”

” I repeat, Nicole, that I cannot receive you without express orders from my father.”

” Is that your settled determination ? “

” It is.” ‘

Nicole drew the Baron Taverne}^s letter from her bosom.

” There,” said she, ” since my entreaties and my devotion to you have had no effect, let us see if the order contained in this will have more power.”

Andre read the letter, which was in the following terms :

” I am aware, and indeed it is already remarked, my dear Andre, that you do not occupy the position at Trianon which your rank imperatively requires. You ought to have two femmes de chambre and a valet, as I ought to have clearly twenty thousand pounds per annum; but as I am satisfied with one thousand pounds, imitate my example, and content yourself with Nicole, who in her own person is worth all the servants you ought to have.

” Nicole is quick, intelligent, and devoted to you, and will readily adopt the tone and manners of her new locality. Your chief care, indeed, will be not to stimulate her, but to repress her anxiety. Keep her, then; and do not imagine that I am making any sacrifice in depriving my-self of her services. In case you should think so, remember that his majesty, who had the goodness to think of us, remarked on seeing you (this was confided to me by a good friend), that you required a little more attention to your toilet and general appearance. Think of this; it is of great importance.

” YOUR AFFECTIONATE FATHER.”

This letter threw Andre into a state of grief and perplexity. She was then to be haunted, even in her new prosperity, by the remembrance of that poverty which she alone did not feel to be a fault, while all around seemed to consider it as a crime.

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 217

Her first impulse was to break her pen indignantly, to tear the letter she had commenced, and to reply to her father’s epistle by some lofty tirade expressive of philosophical self-denial, which Philip would have approved of with all his heart. But she imagined she saw the baron’s satirical smile on reading this chef-d’oeuvre, and her resolution vanished. She merely replied to the baron’s order, therefore, by a paragraph annexed to the news of Trianon which she had already written to him according to his request.

” My father,” she added, ” Nicole has this moment arrived, and I receive her since you wish it; but what you have written on this subject has vexed me. Shall I be less ridiculous with this village girl as waiting-maid, than when I was alone amid this wealthy court? Nicole will be unhappy at seeing me humbled; she will be discontented ; for servants feel proud or humbled in proportion to the wealth or poverty of their masters. As to his majesty’s remark, my father, permit me to tell you that the king has too much good sense to be displeased at my in-capacity to play the grand lady, and, besides, his majesty has too much heart to have remarked or criticized my poverty without transforming it into a wealth to which your name and services would have had a legitimate claim in the eyes of all.”

This was AndreVs reply, and it must be confessed that her ingenuous innocence, her noble pride, had an easy triumph over the cunning and corruption of her tempters.

Andre said no more respecting Nicole. She agreed to her remaining, so. that the latter, joyous and animated, she well knew why, prepared on the spot a little bed in the cabinet on the right of the antechamber, and made herself as small, as aerial, and as exquisite as possible, in order not to inconvenience her mistress by her presence in this modest retreat. One would have thought she wished to imitate the rose leaf which the Persian sages let fall upon a vase filled with water to show that something could* be added without spilling the contents.

10 DUMAS VOL. VII.

218 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

Andre set out for Trianon about one o’clock. She had never been more quickly or more gracefully attired. Nicole had surpassed herself; politeness, attention, and zeal nothing had been wanting in her services.

When Mile, de Taverney was gone, Nicole felt herself mistress of the domicile, and instituted a thorough examination of it. Everything was scrutinized, from the letters to the smallest knick-knack on the toilet-table, from the mantelpiece to the most secret corners of the closets. Then she looked out of the windows to take a survey of the neighborhood.

Below her was a large courtyard, in which several hostlers were dressing and currying the splendid horses of the dauphiness. Hostlers? pshaw! Nicole turned away her head.

On ?he right was a row of windows on the same story as those of Andre’s apartment. Several heads appeared at these windows, apparently those of chambermaids and floor-scrubbers. Nicole disdainfully proceeded in her examination.

On the opposite side, in a large apartment, some music-teachers were drilling a class of choristers and instru-mentalists for the mass of St. Louis. Without ceasing her dusting operations. Nicole commenced to sing after her own fashion, thus distracting the attention of the masters, and causing the choristers to sing false.

But this pastime could not long satisfy Mile. Nicole’s ambition. When the masters and the singers had quarreled, and been mystified sufficiently, the little waiting-maid proceeded to the inspection of the higher story. All the windows were closed, and moreover they were only attics, so Nicole continued her dusting. But a moment afterward, one of these attic windows was opened without her being able to discover by what mechanism, for no one appeared. Some person, however, must have opened this window; this some person must have seen Nicole and yet not have remained to look at her, thereby proving himself a most impertinent some person. At least such was Nicole’s opinion. But she, who examined everything so conscientiously, could not avoid examining the features of

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 219

this impertinent; and she therefore returned every moment from her different avocations to the window to give a glance at this attic that is, at this open eye from which the eyeball was so obstinately absent. Once she imagined that the person fled as she approached ; but this was incredible, and she did not believe it.

On another occasion she was almost certain of the fact, having seen the back of the fugitive, surprised, no doubt, by a prompter return than he had anticipated. Then Nicole had recourse to stratagem. She concealed herself behind the curtain, leaving the window wide open to drown all suspicion.

She waited a long time, but at last a head of black hair made its appearance; then came two timid hands, which supported, buttress-like, a body bending over cautiously; and finally, a face showed itself distinctly at the window. Nicole almost fell, and grasped the curtain so tightly, in her surprise, that it shook from top to bottom.

It was M. Gilbert’s face, which was looking at her from this lofty attic. But the moment Gilbert saw the curtain move, he comprehended the trick, and appeared no more. To mend the matter, the attic window was closed.

No doubt Gilbert had seen Nicole; he had been astonished, and had wished to convince himself of the presence of his enemy; and when he found himself discovered instead, he had fled in agitation and in anger. At least Nicole interpreted the scene thus, and she was right, for this was the exact state of the case.

In fact, Gilbert would rather have seen his satanic majesty in person than Nicole. The arrival of this spy caused him a thousand terrors. He felt an old leaven of jealousy against her, for she knew his secret of the garden in the Rue Coq Heron.

‘Gilbert had fled in agitation, but not in agitation alone, but also in anger, and biting his nails with rage.

” Of what use now is my foolish discovery of which I was so proud?” said he to himself, “Even if Nicole had a lover in Paris, the evil is done, and she will not be sent away from this on that account ; but if she tells what I aid in the Eue Coq Heron, I shall be dismissed from

220 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

Trianon. It is not I who govern Nicole it is she who governs me. Oh, fury ! “

And Gilbert’s inordinate self-love, serving as a stimu-lant to his hatred, made his blood boil with frightful violence. It seemed to him that Nicole in entering that apartment had chased from it, with a diabolical smile, all the happy dreams which Gilbert from his garret had wafted thither every night along with his vows, his ardent love, and his flowers. Had Gilbert been too much occupied to think of Nicole before, or had he banished the subject from his thoughts on account of the terro” with which it inspired him? We cannot determine; but this we do know, at least, that Nicole’s appearance was a most disagreeable surprise for him.

He saw plainly that, sooner or later, war would be declared between them; but as Gilbert was prudent and politic, he did not wish the war to commence until he felt himself strong enough to make it energetic and effective. With this intention he determined to counterfeit death until chance should present him with a favorable opportunity of reviving, or until Nicole, from weakness or necessity, should venture on some step which would deprive her of her present vantage ground. Therefore, all eye, all ear, where Andre was concerned, but at the same time ceaselessly vigilant, he continued to make himself acquainted with the state of affairs in the first apartment of the corridor, without Nicole’s ever having once met him in the gardens.

Unluckily for Nicole, she was not irreproachable, and even had she been so for the present, there was always one stumbling-block in the past over which she could be made to fall.

At the end of a week’s ceaseless watching, morning, noon, and night, Gilbert at last saw through the bars of his window a plume which he fancied he recognized. The plume was a source of constant agitation to Nicole, for it belonged to M. Beausire, who, following the rest of the court, had emigrated from Paris to Trianon.

For a long time Nicole was cruel ; for a long time she left M. Beausire to shiver in the cold, and melt in the

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 221

sun, and her prudence drove Gilbert to despair; but one fine morning, when M. Beausire had, doubtless, overleaped the barrier of mimic eloquence, and found an opportunity of bringing persuasive words to his aid, Mcole profited by Andre’s absence to descend to the courtyard and join M. Beausire, who was assisting his friend, the superintendent of the stables, to train a little Shetland pony.

From the court they passed into the garden, and from thence into the shady avenue which leads to Versailles. Gilbert followed the amorous couple with the ferocious joy of a tiger who scents his prey. He counted their steps, their sighs, learned by heart all he heard of their conversation, and it may be presumed that the result pleased him, for the next day, freed from all embarrassment, he displayed himself openly at his attic window, humming a song and looking quite at ease, and so far from fearing to be seen by Nicole, that, on the contrary, he seemed to brave her look.

Nicole was mending an embroidered silken mitten belonging to her mistress; she heard the song, raised her head, and saw Gilbert. The first evidence she gave of his presence was a contemptuous pouting, which bordered on the bitter, and breathed of hostility at a league’s distance. But Gilbert sustained this look with such a singular smile, and there was such provoking intelligence in his air and in his manner of singing, that Nicole looked down and blushed.

” She understands me ‘ thought Gilbert ; ” that is all I wished.” On subsequent occasions Gilbert continued the same behavior, and it was now Nicole’s turn to tremble. She went so far as to long for an interview with him, in order to free her heart from the load with which the satirical looks of the young gardener had burdened it.

Gilbert saw that she sought him. He could not misunderstand the short dry coughs which sounded near the window whenever Nicole knew him to be in his attic, nor the goings and comings of the young .girl in the corridor when she supposed he might be ascending or descending the stairs. For a short time he was very proud of this triumph, which he attributed entirely to his strength of

222 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

character and wise precautions. Xicole watched him so well that once she spied him as he mounted to his attic. She called him, but he did not reply.