Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  If we violently oppose this salutary process, we produce an acute evil, in which the imagination acts upon the heart; and as the latter from its nature is limited, while the former is infinite, it is impossible to calculate the violence of the impressions to which a man may yield himself.

  When Marie-Gaston returned to the house at Ville d’Avray, after two years’ absence, he fancied that only a tender if melancholy memory awaited him; but not a step could he make without recalling his lost joys and the agony of losing them. The flowers that his wife had loved, the lawns, the trees just budding into greenness under the warm breath of May, — they were here before his eyes; but she who had created this beauteous nature was lying cold in the earth. Amid all the charms and elegances gathered to adorn this nest of their love, there was nothing for the man who rashly returned to that dangerous atmosphere but sounds of lamentation, the moans of a renewed and now ever-living grief. Alarmed himself at the vertigo of sorrow which seized him, Marie-Gaston shrank, as Sallenauve had said, from taking the last step in his ordeal; he had calmly discussed with his friend the details of the mausoleum he wished to raise above the mortal remains of his beloved Louise, but he had not yet brought himself to visit her grave in the village cemetery where he had laid them. There was everything, therefore, to fear from a grief which time had not only not assuaged, but, on the contrary, had increased by duration, until it was sharper and more intolerable than before.

  The gates were opened by Philippe, the old servant, who had been constituted by Madame Gaston majordomo of the establishment.

  “How is your master?” asked Sallenauve.

  “He has gone away, monsieur,” replied Philippe.

  “Gone away!”

  “Yes, monsieur; with that English gentleman whom monsieur left here with him.”

  “But without a word to me! Do you know where they have gone?”

  “After dinner, which went off very well, monsieur suddenly gave orders to pack his travelling-trunk; he did part of it himself. During that time the Englishman, who said he would go into the park and smoke, asked me privately where he could go to write a letter without monsieur seeing him. I took him to my room; but I did not dare question him about this journey, for I never saw any one with such forbidding and uncommunicative manners. By the time the letter was written monsieur was ready, and without giving me any explanation they both got into the Englishman’s carriage, and I heard one of them say to the coachman, ‘Paris.’”

  “What became of the letter?” asked Sallenauve.

  “It is there in my room, where the Englishman gave it me secretly. It is addressed to monsieur.”

  “Fetch it at once, my dear man,” cried Sallenauve.

  After reading the letter, his face seemed to Philippe convulsed.

  “Tell them not to unharness,” he said; and he read the letter through a second time.

  When the old servant returned after executing the order, Sallenauve asked him at what hour they had started.

  “About nine,” answered Philippe.

  “Three hours in advance!” muttered the deputy, looking at his watch, and returning to the carriage which had brought him. As he was getting into it, the old majordomo forced himself to say, —

  “Monsieur found no bad news in that letter, did he?”

  “No; but your master may be absent for some time; keep the house in good order.” Then he said to the coachman, “Paris!”

  The next day, quite early in the morning, Monsieur de l’Estorade was in his study, employed in a rather singular manner. It will be remembered that on the day when Sallenauve, then Dorlange the sculptor, had sent him the bust of Madame de l’Estorade, he had not found a place where, as he thought, the little masterpiece had a proper light. From the moment that Rastignac hinted to him that his intercourse with the sculptor, now deputy, might injure him at court, he had agreed with his son Armand that the artist had given to Madame de l’Estorade the air of a grisette; but now that Sallenauve, by his resistance to ministerial blandishments, had taken an openly hostile attitude to the government, that bust seemed to the peer of France no longer worthy of exhibition, and the worthy man was now engaged in finding some dark corner where, without recourse to the absurdity of actually hiding it, it would be out of range to the eyes of visitors, whose questions as to its maker he should no longer be forced to answer. He was therefore perched on the highest step of his library ladder, holding in his hands the gift of the sculptor, and preparing to relegate it to the top of a bookcase, where it was destined to keep company with an owl and a cormorant shot by Armand during the recent holidays and stuffed by paternal pride, when the door of the study opened and Lucas announced, —

  “Monsieur Philippe.”

  The age of the old majordomo and the confidential post he occupied in Marie-Gaston’s establishment seemed to the factotum of the house of l’Estorade to authorize the designation of “monsieur,” — a civility expectant of return, be it understood.

  Descending from his eminence, the peer of France asked Philippe what brought him, and whether anything had happened at Ville d’Avray. The old servant related the singular departure of his master, and the no less singular departure of Sallenauve without a word of explanation; then he added, —

  “This morning, while putting monsieur’s room in order, a letter addressed to Madame le comtesse fell out of a book. As the letter was sealed and all ready to be sent, I supposed that monsieur, in the hurry of departure, had forgotten to tell me to put it in the post. I thought therefore I had better bring it here myself. Perhaps Madame la comtesse will find in it some explanation of this sudden journey, about which I have dreamed all night.”

  Monsieur de l’Estorade took the letter.

  “Three black seals!” he said.

  “The color doesn’t surprise me,” replied Philippe; “for since Madame’s death monsieur has not laid off his mourning; but I do think three seals are rather strange.”

  “Very well,” said Monsieur de l’Estorade; “I will give the letter to my wife.”

  “If there should be anything in it to ease my mind about monsieur, would Monsieur le comte be so kind as to let me know?” said Philippe.

  “You can rely on that, my good fellow. Au revoir.”

  “I beg Monsieur le comte’s pardon for offering an opinion,” said the majordomo, not accepting the leave just given him to depart; “but in case the letter contained some bad news, doesn’t Monsieur le comte think that it would be best for him to know of it, in order to prepare Madame la comtesse for the shock?”

  “What! Do you suppose — ” said Monsieur de l’Estorade, not finishing his idea.

  “I don’t know; but monsieur has been very gloomy the last few days.”

  “To break the seal of a letter not addressed to us is always a serious thing to do,” remarked the peer of France. “This bears my wife’s address, but — in point of fact — it was never sent to her; in short, it is most embarrassing.”

  “But if by reading it some misfortune might be averted?”

  “Yes, yes; that is just what keeps me in doubt.”

  Here Madame de l’Estorade cut the matter short by entering the room. Lucas had told her of the unexpected arrival of Philippe.

  “Is anything the matter?” she asked with anxious curiosity.

  The apprehensions Sallenauve had expressed the night before as to Marie-Gaston’s condition returned to her mind. As soon as Philippe had repeated the explanations he had already given to her husband, she broke the seals of the letter.

  Whatever may have been the contents of that disquieting epistle, nothing was reflected on Madame de l’Estorade’s face.

  “You say that your master left Ville d’Avray in company with an English gentleman,” she said to Philippe. “Did he seem to go unwillingly, as if yielding to violence?”

  “No, far from that, madame; he seemed to be rather cheerful.”

  “Well, there is nothing that need make us uneasy. This letter was written some day
s ago, and, in spite of its three black seals, it has no reference to anything that has happened since.”

  Philippe bowed and went away. As soon as husband and wife were alone together, Monsieur de l’Estorade said, stretching out his hand for the letter, —

  “What did he write about?”

  “No, don’t read it,” said the countess, not giving him the letter.

  “Why not?”

  “It would pain you. It is enough for me to have had the shock; I could scarcely control myself before that old servant.”

  “Does it refer to suicide?”

  Madame de l’Estorade nodded her head in affirmation.

  “A real, immediate intention?”

  “The letter is dated yesterday morning; and apparently, if it had not been for the providential arrival of that Englishman, the poor fellow would have taken advantage of Monsieur de Sallenauve’s absence last night to kill himself.”

  “The Englishman must have suspected his intention, and carried him off to divert him from it. If that is so, he won’t let him out of his sight.”

  “And we may also count on Monsieur Sallenauve, who has probably joined them by this time.”

  “Then I don’t see that there is anything so terrible in the letter”; and again he offered to take it.

  “No,” said Madame de l’Estorade, drawing back, “if I ask you not to read it. Why give yourself painful emotions? The letter not only expresses the intention of suicide, but it shows that our poor friend is completely out of his mind.”

  At this instant piercing screams from Rene, her youngest child, put Madame de l’Estorade into one of those material agitations which she less than any other woman was able to control.

  “My God!” she cried, as she rushed from the study, “what has happened?”

  Less ready to be alarmed, Monsieur de l’Estorade contented himself by going to the door and asking a servant what was the matter.

  “Oh, nothing, Monsieur le comte,” replied the man. “Monsieur Rene in shutting a drawer pinched his finger; that is all.”

  The peer of France thought it unnecessary to convey himself to the scene of action; he knew, by experience in like cases, that he must let his wife’s exaggerated maternal solicitude have free course, on pain of being sharply snubbed himself. As he returned to his desk, he noticed lying on the ground the famous letter, which Madame de l’Estorade had evidently dropped in her hasty flight. Opportunity and a certain fatality which appears to preside over the conduct of all human affairs, impelled Monsieur de l’Estorade, who thought little of the shock his wife had dreaded for him, to satisfy his curiosity by reading the letter.

  Marie-Gaston wrote as follows: —

  Madame, — This letter will seem to you less amusing than those I

  addressed to you from Arcis-sur-Aube. But I trust you will not be

  alarmed by the decision which I now announce. I am going to rejoin

  my wife, from whom I have been too long separated; and this

  evening, shortly after midnight, I shall be with her, never to

  part again.

  You have, no doubt, said to yourselves — you and Sallenauve — that I

  was acting strangely in not visiting her grave; that is a remark

  that two of my servants made the other day, not being aware that I

  overheard them. I should certainly be a great fool to go and look

  at a stone in the cemetery which can make me no response, when

  every night, at twelve o’clock, I hear a little rap on the door of

  my room, and our dear Louise comes in, not changed at all, except,

  as I think, more plump and beautiful. She has had great trouble in

  obtaining permission from Marie, queen of angels, to withdraw me

  from earth. But last night she brought me formal leave, sealed

  with green wax; and she also gave me a tiny vial of hydrocyanic

  acid. A single drop of that acid puts us to sleep, and on waking

  up we find ourselves on the other side.

  Louise desired me to give you a message from her. I am to tell you

  that Monsieur de l’Estorade has a disease of the liver and will

  not live long, and that after his death you are to marry

  Sallenauve, because, on the other side, husbands and wives who

  really love each other are reunited; and she thinks we shall all

  four — she and I and you and Sallenauve — be much happier together

  than if we had your present husband, who is very dull, and whom

  you married reluctantly.

  My message given, nothing remains for me, madame, but to wish you

  all the patience you need to continue for your allotted time in

  this low world, and to subscribe myself

  Your very affectionately devoted

  Marie-Gaston.

  If, after reading this letter, it had occurred to Monsieur de l’Estorade to look at himself in the glass, he would have seen, in the sudden convulsion and discoloration of his face, the outward and visible signs of the terrible blow which his unfortunate curiosity had brought down upon him. His heart, his mind, his self-respect staggered under one and the same shock; the madness evident in the sort of prediction made about him only added to his sense of its horror. Presently convincing himself, like a mussulman, that madmen have the gift of second sight, he believed he was a lost man, and instantly a stabbing pain began on his liver side, while in the direction of Sallenauve, his predicted successor, an awful hatred succeeded to his mild good-will. But at the same time, conscious of the total want of reason and even of the absurdity of the impression which had suddenly surged into his mind, he was afraid lest its existence should be suspected, and he looked about him to see in what way he could conceal from his wife his fatal indiscretion, the consequences of which must forever weigh upon his life. It was certain, he thought, that if she found the paper in his study she would deduce therefrom the fact that he had read it. Rising from his desk, he softly opened the door leading from the study to the salon, crossed the latter room on tiptoe, and dropped the letter at the farther end of it, as Madame de l’Estorade might suppose she had herself done in her hasty departure. Then returning to his study, he scattered his papers over his desk, like a school-boy up to mischief, who wants to mislead his master by a show of application, intending to appear absorbed in his accounts when his wife returned. Useless to add that he listened with keen anxiety lest some other person than she should come into the salon; in which case he determined to rush out and prevent other eyes from reading the dreadful secrets contained in that paper.

  Presently, however, the voice of Madame de l’Estorade, speaking to some one at the door of the salon, reassured him as to the success of his trick, and a moment later she entered the study accompanied by Monsieur Octave de Camps. Going forward to receive his visitor, he was able to see through the half-opened door the place where he had thrown the letter. Not only had it disappeared, but he detected a movement which assured him that Madame de l’Estorade had tucked it away in that part of her gown where Louis XIV. did not dare to search for the secrets of Mademoiselle d’Hautefort.

  “I have come, my dear friend,” said Monsieur de Camps, “to get you to go with me to Rastignac’s, as agreed on last night.”

  “Very good,” said the peer, putting away his papers with a feverish haste that plainly indicated he was not in his usual state of mind.

  “Don’t you feel well?” asked Madame de l’Estorade, who knew her husband by heart too well not to be struck by the singular stupefaction of his manner, while at the same time, looking in his face, she saw the signs of internal convulsion.

  “True,” said Monsieur de Camps, “you certainly do not look so well as usual. If you prefer it, we will put off this visit.”

  “No, not at all,” replied Monsieur de l’Estorade. “I have tired myself with this work, and I need the air. But what was the matter with Rene?” he inquired of
his wife, whose attention he felt was unpleasantly fixed upon him. “What made him cry like that?”

  “Oh, a mere nothing!” she replied, not relaxing her attention.

  “Well, my dear fellow,” said the peer, trying to take an easy tone, “just let me change my coat and I’ll be with you.”

  When the countess was alone with Monsieur de Camps, she said, rather anxiously, —

  “Don’t you think Monsieur de l’Estorade seems very much upset?”

  “Yes; as I said just now, he does not look like himself. But the explanation he gave seems sufficient. This office life is bad for the health. I have never been as well as since I am actively engaged about my iron-works.”

  “Yes, certainly,” said Madame de l’Estorade, with a heavy sigh; “he ought to have a more active life. It seems plain that there is something amiss with his liver.”

  “What! because he is so yellow? He has been so ever since I have known him.”

  “Oh, monsieur, I can’t be mistaken! There is something seriously the matter with him; and if you would kindly do me a service — ”

  “Madame, I am always at your orders.”

  “When Monsieur de l’Estorade returns, speak of the injury to Rene’s finger, and tell me that little wounds like that sometimes have serious consequences if not attended to at once, and that will give me an excuse to send for Doctor Bianchon.”

  “Certainly,” replied Monsieur de Camps; “but I really don’t think a physician is necessary. Still, if it reassures you — ”