Memoirs of a Physician (8 page)

” No, no ; you have your means for admitting people here, I have my means for leaving it. Go to the greenhouse, to Monsieur Beausire, who must be waiting impatiently for you, and remain with him ten minutes longer than you intended to do. I will grant you this recompense for your discretion.”

” Ten minutes, and why ten minutes ? ” asked Nicole, trembling.

51 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

” Because I require ten minutes to disappear. Go, Nicole, go ; and like Lot’s wife, whose story I told you at Taverney, when you gave me a rendezvous among the hay-stacks, do not turn round, else something worse will happen to you than to be changed into a statue of salt. Go, beautiful siren, go ; I have nothing else to say to yon.”

Nicole, subdued, alarmed, conquered, by the coolness and presence of mind shown by Gilbert, who held her future destiny in his hands, turned with drooping head toward the greenhouse, where Beausire was already uneasy at her prolonged absence.

Gilbert, on his side, observing the same precautions as before to avoid discovery, once more reached the wall, seized his rope, and, assisted by the vine and trellis-work, gained the first story in safety, and quickly ascended the stairs. As luck would have it, he met no one on his way up ; the neighbors were already in bed, and Therese was still at supper.

Gilbert was too much excited by his victory over Nicole to entertain the least fear of missing his footing in the leaden gutter. He felt as if he could have walked on the edge of a sharpened razor, had the razor been a league long. He regained his attic in safety therefore, closed the window, seized the note which no one had touched, and tore it in pieces. Then he stretched himself with a delicious feeling of languor upon his bed.

Half an hour afterward Therese kept her word, and came to the door to inquire how he was. Gilbert thanked her, in a voice interrupted by terrific yawns, as if he were dying of sleep. He was eager to be alone, quite alone, in darkness and sileDce, to collect his thoughts, and analyze the varied emotions of this ever-memorable day.

Soon, indeed, everything faded from his mind’s eye ; the baron, Philip, Nicole, Beausire, disappeared from view, to give place to the vision of Andre at her toilet, her arms raised above her head, and detaching pins from her long and flowing hair.

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 55

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BOTANISTS.

THE events which we have just related happened on Friday evening ; so that it was the second day after that the excursion which Rousseau looked forward to with so much pleasure was to take place.

Gilbert, indifferent to everything since he had heard that Andre was soon to depart for Trianon, had spent the entire day leaning on his window-sill. During this day the window of Andre’s room remained open, and once or twice the young girl had approached it as if to breathe the fresh air. She was pale and weak ; but it seemed to Gilbert as if he would wish for nothing more than that Andre should always inhabit that pavilion, that he should always have his attic, and that, once or twice every day, Andre should come to the window as he had seen her that day.

The long, looked-for Sunday at last arrived. Rousseau had already made his preparations the day before ; his shoes were carefully blackened, and his gray coat, at once light and warm, was taken from the chest, to the great annoyance of Therese, who thought a blouse or a linen frock quite good enough for such a purpose. But Rousseau had completed his toilet without replying. Not only his own clothes, but Gilbert’s also, had been passed in re-view with the greatest care, and the latter’s had even been augmented by a pair of irreproachable stockings and new shoes, which Rousseau had presented him with as an agreeable surprise.

The herbal was also put in the nicest trim. Rousseau had not forgotten his collection of mosses which was to play a part in the proceedings of the da’y. Impatient as a child, he hastened more than twenty times to the window to see if the carriage that was passing was not M. de Jussieu’s. At last he perceived a highly varnished char-56 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

lot, a pair of splendid horses with rich harness, and an immense powdered footman standing at his door. He ran instantly to There’se, exclaiming :

” Here it is ! here it is ! “

And crying to Gilbert :

” Quick, quick, the carriage is waiting.”

” Well,” said Therese, sharply, ” if you are so fond of riding in a coach, why did you not work in order to have one of yonr own, like Monsieur de Voltaire ? “

” Be quiet ! ” grumbled Kousseau.

” Daine ! you always say you have as much talent as he.”

” I do not say so, hark you ! ” cried Eousseau, in a rage ; ” I say I say nothing ! “

And all his joy fled, as it invariably did at the mention of that hated name. Luckily, M. de Jussieu entered.

He was pomatumed, powdered, fresh as the spring. His dress consisted of a splendid coat of ribbed Indian satin, of a light gray color, a vest of pale lilac silk, white silk stockings of extraordinary fineness, and bright gold buckles.

On entering Rousseau’s apartment he filled the room with a delightful perfume, which Therese inhaled without concealing her admiration.

” How handsome you are ! ” said Eousseau, looking askance at Therese, and comparing his modest dress and clumsy equipment with the elegant toilet of M. de Jussieu.

” Oh, I am afraid of the heat,” said the elegant botanist.

” But the wood is damp ! If we botanize in the marshes, your silken stockings “

” Oh, we can choose the driest places.”

” And the aquatic mosses ? Must we give them up for to-day?”

” Do not be uneasy about that, my dear colleague.”

” One would think you were going to a ball, or to pay your respects to ladies.”

” Why should we not honor Dame Nature with a pair of silk stockings ? ” replied M. de Jussieu, rather embar

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 57

rassed ; “does she not deserve that we should dress ourselves for her ? “

Kousseau said no more from the moment that M. de Jussieu invoked nature, lie agreed with him, that it was impossible to honor her too highly.

As for Gilbert, notwithstanding his stoicism, he gazed at M. de Jussieu with envious eyes. Since he had observed so many young exquisites enhance their natural advantages with dress, he had seen the utility, in a frivo-lous point of view, of elegance, and whispered to himself that this silk, this lace, this linen, would add a charm to his youth ; and that if Andre saw him dressed like M. Jussieu instead of as he was, she would then deign to look at him.

The carriage rolled off at the utmost speed of two fine Danish horses, and an hour after their departure the botanists alighted at Bougival, and turned to the left by the chestnut walk.

This walk, which at present is so surpassingly beautiful, was then at least quite as much so ; for the portion of the rising ground which our explorers had to traverse, already planted by Louis XIV., had been the object of constant care since the king had taken a fancy to Marly.

The chestnut trees with their ruddy bark, their gigantic branches, and their fantastic forms sometimes presenting in their knotty circumvolutions the appearance of a huge boa twining itself round the trunk sometimes that of a bull prostrate upon the butcher’s block and vomiting a stream of black and clotted blood the moss-covered apple trees and the colossal walnuts, whose foliage was already assuming the dark-blue shade of summer the solitude, the picturesque simplicity and grandeur of the landscape, which, with its old shadowy trees, stood out in bold relief against the clear blue sky ; all this, clothed with that simple and touching charm which nature ever lends to her productions, plunged Rousseau in a state of ecstasy impossible to be described.

Gilbert was calm, but moody ; his whole being was absorbed in this one thought :

58 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

” Andre leaves the garden pavilion and goes to Trianon.”

Upon the summit of the little hill, which the three botanists were climbing on foot, was seen the square tower of Luciennes.

The sight of this building from which he had fled, changed the current of Gilbert’s thoughts, and recalled rather unpleasant recollections, unmingled, however, with fear. From his position in the rear of the party he saw two protectors before him ; and, feeling himself in safety, he gazed at Luciennes as a shipwrecked sailor from the shore looks upon the sand-bank upon which his vessel has struck.

Rousseau, spade in hand, began to fix his looks on the ground, M. de Jussieu did the same, but with this difference, that the former was searching for plants, while the latter was only endeavoring to keep his stockings from the damp.

” What a splendid Lepopodium ! ” exclaimed Rousseau.

” Charming,” replied M. de Jnssien ; ” but let us pass on, if you have no objection. “

” Ah ! the Lysimachia Fenella ! it is ready for culling look ! “

“Pluck it, then, if it gives you pleasure.”

” Oh ! just as you please. But are we not botanizing, then?”

” Yes, yes ; but I think we shall find better upon that height yonder.”

“As you please let us go, then.”

” What hour is it ? ” asked M. de Jussieu ; ” in my hurry I forgot my watch.”

Rousseau pulled a very large silver watch from his pocket.

” Nine o’clock,” said he.

” Have you any objection that we should rest a little ?” continued M. de Jussieu.

” Oh ! what a wretched walker you are,” said Rousseau. “You see what it is to botanize in fine shoes and silk stockings.”

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 59

” Perhaps I am hungry.”

” Well, then, let us breakfast ; the village is about a quarter of a league from this.”

“Oh, uo ; we need not go so far.”

” How so ? Have you our breakfast in your carriage ?”

” Look yonder into that thicket ! ” said M. de Jussieu, pointing with his hand toward the part of the horizon he indicated.

Rousseau stood upon tiptoe, and shaded his eyes with his hand.

” I can see nothing,” said he.

” What ! Do you not see that little rustic roof ? “

” No.”

” Surmounted by a weather-cock, and the walls thatched with red and white straw a sort of rustic cottage, in short ? “

” Yes, I think I see it now ; a little building seemingly erected.”

” A kiosk, that is it ? “

” Well ? “

” Well ! we shall find there the little luncheon I promised

you.”

” Very good,” said Rousseau. ” Are you hungry, Gilbert?”’

Gilbert, who had not paid any attention to this debate, and was employed in mechanically knocking off the heads of the wild flowers, replied :

” Whatever you please, sir.”

” Come, then, if yon please,” said M. de Jussieu, “besides, nothing need prevent our gathering simples on the way.”

“Oh,” said Rousseau, “your nephew is a more ardent naturalist than you. I spent a day with him botanizing in the woods of Montmorency along with a select party. He finds well, he gathers well, he explains well.”

” Oh, he is young ; he has his name to make yet.”

” Has he not yours already made ? Oh ! comrade, comrade, you botanize like an amateur.”

” Come, do not be angry, my dear philosopher. Hold !

60 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

here is the beautiful Plantago Monanthos. Did you find anything like that at your Montmorency ? “

” No, indeed ‘ said Rousseau, quite delighted ; “I have often searched for it in vain. Upon the faith of a naturalist, it is magnificent.”

” Oh, the beautiful pavilion ! ” said Gilbert, who had passed from the rear-guard of the party into the van.

” Gilbert is hungry,” replied AI. de Jussieu.

” Oh, sir, I beg your pardon ; I can wait patiently until you are ready. “

” Let us continue our task a little longer,” said Rousseau, ” inasmuch as botanizing after a meal is bad for digestion ; and besides the eye is then heavy and the back stiff. But what is this pavilion called ? “

“The mouse-trap,” answered M. de Jussieu, remembering the name invented by M. de Sartines.

” What a singular name ! “

” Oh ! the country, you know, is the place for indulging all sorts of caprices.”

” To whom do those beautiful grounds belong ? “

” I do not exactly know.”

” You must know the proprietor, however, since you are going to breakfast there,” said Rousseau, pricking up his ears with a slight shade of suspicion.

” Not at all or, rather, I know every one here, including the gamekeepers, who have often seen me in their in-closures, and who always touch their hats, and sometimes offer me a hare or a string of woodcocks as a present from their masters. The people on this and the neighboring estates let me do here just as if I were on my own grounds. I do not know exactly whether this summer-house belongs to the Madame de Mirepoix or Madame d’Egmont, or in short, I do not know to whom it belongs. But the most important point, my dear philosopher, I am sure you will agree with me, is, that we shall find there bread, fruit, and pastry.”

The good-natured tone in which M. de Jussieu spoke dispelled the cloud of suspicion which had already begun to darken Rousseau’s brow. The philosopher wiped his feet

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 61

on the grass, rubbed the mold off his hands, and, preceded by M. de Jussieu, entered the mossy walk which wound gracefully beneath ^he chestnut-trees leading up to the hermitage.

Gilbert, who had again taken up his position in the rear, closed the march, dreaming of Andre, and of the means of seeing her when she should be at Trianon.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PHILOSOPHERS IN THE TRAP.

ON the summit of the hill, which the three botanists were ascending with some difficulty, stood one of those little rustic retreats, with gnarled and knotty pillars, pointed gables and windows festooned with ivy and clem-atis, which are the genuine offspring of English architecture, or, to speak more correctly, of English gardening, which imitates nature, or rather invents a species of nature for itself, thus giving a certain air of originality to its creations. - ‘