Complete Works of Gustave Flaubert

by Gustave Flaubert

  LETOURNEUX: This may certainly be called a lucky day; first I find the son of an old friend; then I intend to relieve some unfortunate persons, — and I shall owe that pleasure to you, Kloekher.

  KLOEKHER: What?

  LETOURNEUX: Yes, of course; haven't I come here to thank you for the twenty-five thousand francs you gave me for the poor of my parish?

  KLOEKHER: Oh, indeed!

  LETOURNEUX: That's the way with him; he likes to hide his charities. What a man! [Contemplates Paul] It is a pleasure to meet again, is it not? I hope you will tell me all about your travels. In running about the world you must have seen many strange characters and queer manners; and, as your observations are without doubt those of a serious mind, perceiving the moral of everything, I wish to ask you this: which do you believe to be the more common, trickery or ingratitude, rascality or stupidity?

  PAUL: Why, really — these questions require deliberation.

  LETOURNEUX: And you, Kloekher, — what is your opinion?

  KLOEKHER: I do not understand you.

  LETOURNEUX [approaches Kloekher and looks steadily in his face]: Ah, you do not understand. Are you quite sure? We will talk about that again. I wish to say now that I forgot to tell you that I desire to have immediately, in order to open a model farm, the one hundred and seventy-two shares of Mediterranean that I sold you the day before yesterday.

  KLOEKHER: Is this one of your little jokes?

  LETOURNEUX: Not at all, my dear fellow; no more so than is the little story I am about to relate. [To Paul] Do you know Cochin China?

  PAUL: A little.

  LETOURNEUX: Very well. Once, in that country — this occurred five years ago — lived two friends, a good Chinaman and a bad Chinaman. Now, the good Chinaman was so innocent that he trusted the bad one —

  KLOEKHER [angrily]: I don't care about hearing your story!

  LETOURNEUX: It is a true tale, however, and,I — can furnish the proofs! [Silence]

  KLOEKHER [astonished]: Proofs?

  LETOURNEUX [takes Kloekher by the elbow and speaks in his ear]: They are all in my hands — without exception. Do you understand?

  KLOEKHER [aside]: Well, well, we can arrange all that. Keep quiet! [Turns to Paul and breaks into a hearty laugh] Ha! ha! Letourneux, the joke worked all right. He really believed I had no place for him! Ha! ha! Just imagine! I gave him a yarn about some private service that I required of him — a funny idea that I proposed — and he believed it! Ha! ha! He is a good fellow!

  PAUL: I don't understand.

  KLOEKHER: What I said was only to try you, dear boy! [Laughs; then seriously] I wished to learn, by that means, your real nature. Now I am satisfied with you, young man. Everything is all right. You have so much delicacy — such fine principles!

  LETOURNEUX: And that means everything — to have good principles. It is the foundation of a good character. As soon as we know a man has sound principles, we trust him. I will guarantee Paul's principles to you, Monsieur.

  KLOEKHER: The son of our best friend, — I should think so indeed! [Enter Madame Kloekher in ball costume] My wife! You must allow me to present you. Permit me! [Approaches Mme. Kloekher and speaks to her aside, quickly] Listen! This is something that affects the fate of both of us! That man there can ruin me, if he chooses. Be gracious to him; be wary — it is absolutely necessary. [Aloud] Madame Kloekher, Monsieur Paul de Damvilliers.

  MME. KLOEKHER: Oh, I have known you by name a very long time, Monsieur.

  PAUL [aside]: How beautiful she is!

  MME. KLOEKHER: My husband and I have so often talked together of your poor father.

  LETOURNEUX: Yes, we have all spoken of him.

  PAUL [aside]: What eyes!

  KLOEKHER: Poor boy! to come back after five years' absence and find his home gone! But I mean that mine shall take the place of it. Do not be troubled! Make use of me as a friend. Treat me with confidence.

  PAUL: Oh, thank you, Monsieur! But as I fear I cannot altogether control my emotion, pray allow me to retire. [About to go] KLOEKHER: NO, no! stay here! You are one of us now. Besides, you have only just arrived. Go on talking to Madame. Come, Letourneux, we'll take a turn through the large drawing-room; I wish to speak to you about one or two important matters. (Exit Kloekher and Letourneux.

  SCENE IV.

  MME. KLOEKHER: There is no need of my repeating the intentions of my husband, Monsieur, but you will permit me to say that I share his feelings too much not to desire to be friendly to you, and even — pardon the word! — useful to you, if I can.

  PAUL: Oh, Madame, you embarrass me!

  MME. KLOEKHER: It would give us great pleasure to be able to make you forget your griefs, or at least to soften the memory of them.

  PAUL: YOU have done that already, Madame, by your unexpected kindness.

  MME. KLOEKHER: YOU must have suffered cruelly, Monsieur.

  PAUL: Alas, yes!

  MME. KLOEKHER: Why did you not come to us sooner?

  PAUL: Ah, Madame, my excuse, though sincere, is a very bad one, but —

  MME. KLOEKHER: But what?

  PAUL: Pardon me! I dared not!

  MME. KLOEKHER: Foolish boy! But there! you are to make up for all that — I insist upon it. We receive our friends every Thursday at seven o'clock, don't forget! I will introduce you to some of my friends, clever women who will please you. I hope you will often drop into my box at the opera for a little chat. And if you find time hangs heavy on your hands in the afternoons, I shall be glad to offer you a seat in my carriage, and we can take a turn through the Bois and around the lake. It is a dreadful bore to be compelled to go alone every day around that same old lake. But where else can one go? Since you draw, it would be charming if you would bring me your sketches of travel, and I will show you my own drawings, only I must first beg your indulgence before you examine my poor little water-colours. And we shall read together and have nice long talks, and be the best of friends. That is, I hope we shall!

  PAUL: Oh, thank you, Madame! You are as kind as an angel. This is the first sympathy I have found since my misfortune came upon me. What have I done to merit such goodness? To whom do I owe it?

  MME. KLOEKHER: TO the memory of your father, to the wish of my husband, to your position, and — a little — to yourself! [Extends her hand; Paul seizes and kisses it; she withdraws it quickly] Monsieur!

  PAUL: Pardon me! I was too bold, I know. My impulsive gratitude seemed an impertinence to you, I fear.

  MME. KLOEKHER: We will not speak of it again. Let us go to the ball-room. Come! PAUL: Before you have pardoned me? For heaven's sake, Madame, don't be vexed with me! Excuse my fault! One must have a little indulgence for a man who had been abandoned by all his former friends, who is weary of deceptions, embittered by unhappiness. MME. KLOEKHER [softly]: Unhappiness! Ah, there is one more bond of sympathy between us! [Paul shows surprise] Yes, alas! I have my own sufferings, and perhaps they are as deep as your own.

  PAUL: You! How can that be? MME. KLOEKHER: Ah, Monsieur de Damvilliers, surely a man of your birth does not share the idea of the common people that one must be contented and have nothing more to ask of heaven simply because one is rich! No, no! you do not think that.

  PAUL: Explain to me —

  MME. KLOEKHER: I will later — my friend!

  (The side scenes and back drop enclosing the boudoir slide out of sight, showing the full depth and breadth of the stage, arranged as a ball-room)

  MME. KLOEKHER: Your arm, if you please.

  PAUL [aside]: Her friend! She called me her friend!

  (On each side of the stage are columns reaching to the flies, and ornamented with gilded caryatides; between the columns stand jardinières filled with flowers, leaving a space also for candelabra to stand between the columns. Three arches at the back reveal another apartment, where a buffet stands, covered with glass and silver)

  SCENE V.

  (Paul, Mme. Kloekher, Onésime Dubois, Macaret, Bouvignard, Alfred de Cisy, Doctor Colombel, Ladies
and Gentlemen, Servants, etc. Mme. Kloekher walks up stage leaning on Paul's arm; several guests approach them)

  GUESTS [.salutes Mme. Kloekher]: What a delightful reception! Charming! Superb, indeed!

  A LADY [to another lady]: Who is.that young man? He is very pleasing.

  SECOND LADY: I should not regard him as very pleasing, if I were the Vicomte Alfred de Cisy!

  ONE OF KLOEKHER'S CLERKS [to a fellow-employé]: Just look at her mincing along! What grimaces! But there's no danger that we poor clerks shall be honoured by even a glance.

  MME. KLOEKHER [admires the frock of a young lady]: Oh, ravishing! Who is your modiste, my dear? [To another lady] What, are you not dancing? [To an elderly gentleman] Good evening, General! [To Dr. Colombel.] It is very kind of you, Doctor Colombel, to leave your patients to come to us.

  COLOMBEL: If my patients could only see our charming hostess, they would soon recover their health at the sight of so much grace and freshness! [A servant speaks to Mme. Kloekher]

  MME. KLOEKHER: I will go directly. [Alfred de Cisy, who has been trying for some minutes to get to Mme. Kloekher, now approaches her, just as she reaches R. I. E. She smiles at Paul] I thank you, Monsieur. I will return immediately.

  [Exit R.

  ALFRED [aside]: I've done a fine thing in introducing him here! I must act with prudence and shrewdness. [Exit after Mme. Kloekher]

  SCENE VI.

  ONESIME [approaches Paul and shakes both his hands cordially]: What a pleasure it is to see you! I hope we shall meet often. Where are you staying? I don't intend to lose sight of you.

  PAUL: Thank you, old comrade. And how about that great picture? I hope you are still enthusiastic over it, and that you still cherish your high ideals, as well as your dislike of the bourgeois in art.

  ONESIME: Oh, of course! But just at present I am painting small pictures, domestic subjects — there is a better market for them. Pray accept my congratulations. I am so glad to see you now on the road to prosperity. [Guests gather around Paul]

  MACARET: My dear Monsieur de Damvilliers, I was quite sure I should meet you here, otherwise I should —

  COLOMBEL [interrupts]: Thanks to the inconceivable stupidity of my valet, your two visiting-cards were thrown away, and only last night I —

  BOUVIGNARD [interrupts]: I don't know how it was, but every day, just as I had made up my mind to go to see you, a crowd of visitors would come and prevent me from leaving the house; one wanted one thing; another demanded something else. I am simply harassed to death, and pulled this way and that by everybody. MACARET: Well, we all look to you for everything, you know, Monsieur. [Aside] He has the ear of the minister! COLOMBEL: You must name what day you will come to dine with me regularly once a week. BOUVIGNARD: And don't fail to tell me, my dear fellow, in what way 1 can be useful to you. [Guests clap Paul heartily on the shoulders] PAUL: Ah, my friends, you quite overcome me! [Aside] How kind-hearted they are, and how unjustly mankind has been calumniated.

  SCENE VII.

  (Enter Letourneux; crosses to Onésime, who stands near Paul)

  LETOURNEUX: I am not pleased with you, Onésime.

  ONESIME: Indeed! And why?

  LETOURNEUX [hesitates]: Well — between intimate friends one need not mince matters. Every one here, except Paul, knows of your approaching marriage. It was I that arranged the matter for you, and presented you to an excellent family, pious, highly esteemed and wealthy; and here you run the risk of raising a scandal by allowing yourself to be seen in full daylight, with a decidedly shady young person on your arm!

  ONESIME: I?

  LETOURNEUX: Yes, you! I saw you myself, although you assured me that you had done with the young woman.

  ONESIME: Wait a moment, Monsieur Letourneux. When you saw me with that little girl, I was making arrangements to send her away on a journey.

  COLOMBEL: Oh, tell us about it! I like a good spicy story! [The men surround Onésime and Letourneux]

  ONESIME: Well, you see, I had a letter sent to her from Marseilles — which is her home — urging her to go there immediately to attend to some important business. She has gone, and that gives me time to be married, besides making me quite easy in my mind, because Clémence has very little money, and in order to return here — [All laugh, with expressions of approval]

  LETOURNEUX: Good! Now that's what I call a highly moral action, and at the same time very clever.

  PAUL: What! Is this Clémence your old flame, the girl you took from her family when she was very young, — the one who, as you told me once, worked for you, after a fashion?

  ONESIME: Yes, it is she. But — other times, other women! [To Letourneux] Where did you see me with her?

  LETOURNEUX: In the Luxembourg, as I was passing through it on my way to help a very interesting family: three sons out of work, and their father and mother almost in the last stage of starvation. You ought to do something for them, Doctor.

  COLOMBEL: Really? I ought to go and visit them perhaps?

  LETOURNEUX: YOU are rich enough to allow yourself such a luxury, surely.

  COLOMBEL: And you, the millionaire — what are you doing for them?

  LETOURNEUX: I? Why, I do a few things. I console them and moralise to them — no more than that — and wherever I go I try to interest people in them, even Monsieur Macaret. [Turns to Macaret] You, Monsieur, are one of our great captains of industry, you might employ the sons; three more workmen would not matter to you.

  MACARET: Impossible! I have no work to give them. You do not expect me to ruin myself, I suppose. [Colombel smiles, Letourneux joins his hands with a sanctimonious expression; Paul makes a gesture of indignation]

  BOUVIGNARD [laughs bitterly]: Ha! ha! He is quite right. All the talk, all the assistance, and all the Utopian ideas in the world, do no good. The social machinery runs itself, and those that fall under the wheels — all the worse for them! We cannot help it, so let us resign ourselves. The only really serious thing in the world, the only thing that appeals to the higher intelligence, is the study of the fine arts.

  ONESIME: YOU are right, Monsieur Bouvignard.

  BOUVIGNARD: AS for me, my favourite diversion is the study of faience.

  COLOMBEL: A charming taste! And the ladies —

  BOUVIGNARD: Oh! we understand one another! My special fad is for old Nevers; and in order to obtain an authentic specimen of it I spare neither time, pains, nor money.

  ONESIME [aside]: He would do much better if he would set aside a dot for his daughter!

  BOUVIGNARD: Ah, yes, I economise; I deny myself; I bleed myself! And the anxieties I have! Just think! a slight awkwardness might reduce my whole collection to a thousand pieces. And it is unique, I assure you. It represents my whole fortune, and in order that it may remain intact, I have left it in my will to my native city.

  PAUL [aside, stands a little apart]: What a sad sort of world is this!

  SCENE VIII.

  (Enter Kloekher)

  KLOEKHER [to Letourneux]: Will you come along? Come, you serious ones! the green table is waiting for you. Who wishes to play whist? [All move up stage and exit R. and L., leaving Paul alone. As soon as the stage is clear of Guests, the King of the Gnomes appears between two of the caryatides; he is dressed like a Bourgeois, as in the wine-shop in Tableau II. With meaning gestures, he points out to Paul the beauty of the surroundings and the splendour of the ball. Mme. Kloekher passes slowly across the stage from R. to L., under the arches at the rear. The Gnome points at her and claps his hands together silently, with the gesture of one applauding; then slowly goes up stage. Mme. Kloekher disappears] PAUL [follows Gnome a few steps up stage]: Why, that is the mysterious being of the wine-shop I [Stares at him. Queen of the Fairies, in full fairy costume, glides upon the stage from L., and fixes her eyes upon the Gnome] And there is the other! [Queen and King vanish] Am I mad? My former illusion has returned; it is very strange. No doubt it is the result of — of trouble, and — and the enchantment that lovely woman has thrown around me. Ah, what
eyes! What a smile! Is she only playing with me? Just now I felt her hand tremble upon my arm; her glance seemed to caress me; I could see that her heart throbbed! She — she loves me! [The lights in the candelabra near him suddenly go out] What is that? Is it midnight? Oh, no, nothing of the sort. [Paces to and fro] And it is I whom she distinguishes among all these men, illustrious, rich, and handsome! I am stronger than all of them; I dominate them; I am almost the king of the world, when only yesterday I was lost, struggling against fate. Ah, what happiness! How sweet these flowers are! [Bends over a jardiniere; the flowers fade and droop] What! Dead? [Two more candelabra are suddenly extinguished] The darkness increases! [Instead of the tinkle of the bell that has been audible without, marking the measure oj a quadrille, a sound like a passing-bell is heard] . That sound — a funeral knell! I am alarmed! [Peers into the shadows and looks off up stage] But the lamps are burning and the dance is going on. That was only the bell that marks the quadrille. What is the matter with me? Ah, she is coming back! Yes, there she is. I must not appear to be different from any other guest at the ball; I must affect to listen indifferently to her charming voice murmuring in my ear. Everything belonging to her seems to me to radiate happiness; it is as if her spirit floated near me. Where is she? I long to see her again — to speak to her! [Paces to and fro]