Crowded Out! and Other Sketches Part 6

A moment after he flung her hands away and strode down the cliff, unfastened his boat and rowed away in the direction of the hotel as fast as he could. Rounding a sharp rock that hid what lay beyond it, he nearly succeeded in overturning another boat like his own, in which sat a gentleman of middle age, stout and pleasant and mild of countenance.

The bottom of the boat was full of fish. Amherst made an incoherent apology, to which the gentleman answered with a good-natured laugh, insisting that the fault was his own. He would have liked to enter into conversation with Amherst, but my friend was only anxious to escape from the place altogether and forget his recent adventure in the hurry of departure from the hotel. Three days after he embarked at Quebec for England, and never revisited Canada. But he never married and never forgot the woman whom he always a.s.serted he might have truly and pa.s.sionately loved. He was about twenty-eight when that happened and perfectly heart-whole. Why--I used to say to him, why did you not learn her name and that of her husband? Perhaps she is a widow now, perhaps you made as great an impression upon her mind and affections as she did upon yours.

But my friend Admiral Amherst, as the world knew him, was a strange, irrational creature in many ways, and none of these ideas would he ever entertain. That the comfortable gentleman in the boat was her husband he never doubted; more it was impossible to divine. But the cool northern isle, with its dark fringe of pines; its wonderful moss, its fragrant and dewy ferns, its graceful sumacs, just putting on their scarlet-lipped leaves, the morning stillness broken only by the faint unearthly cry of the melancholy loon, the spar-d.y.k.ed cliffs of limestone, and the fantastic couch, with its too lovely occupant, never faded from his memory and remained to the last as realities which indeed they have become likewise to me, through the intensity with which they were described to me.

The Story of Delle Josephine Boulanger

CHAPTER I.

Delle Josephine Boulanger, Miss Josephine Baker, Miss Josephine Baker, Delle Josephine Boulanger. What a difference it makes, the language!

What a transformation! I thought this to myself as I stood on the opposite side of the street looking at the sign. To be sure, it, was only printed in French and sad little letters they were that composed the name, but my mind quickly translated them into the more prosaic English as I stood and gazed. Delle Josephine was a milliner and I had been recommended to try and get a little room "_sous les toits_" that she sometimes had to let, during my stay in the dismal Canadian village with the grand and inappropriate name of _Bonheur du Roi_. Bonneroi, or Bonneroy, it was usually called. Such a dismal place it seemed to be; one long street of whitewashed or dirty wooden houses, two raw red brick "stores," and the inevitable Roman Catholic Church, Convent and offices, still and orderly and gray, with the quiet priests walking about and the occasional sound of the unmistakeable convent bell. I arrived on a sleety winter's day early in December. Everything was gray, or colorless or white; the people's faces were pinched and pale, the sky was a leaden gray in hue, and I thought as I stood opposite to my future abode under Delle Josephine's roof that the only bit of "local color" so far was to be found in her window. I could distinctly see from where I stood the most extraordinary _hat_ I had ever seen. I immediately crossed the road to examine it. It was a triumph in lobster-color. In shape like a very large Gainsborough, it was made of shirred scarlet satin with large bows of satin ribbon of the same intense color and adorned with a bird of paradise. I can see it now and can recall the images it suggested to my mind at the time. These were of cardinals and kings, of sealing-wax and wafers, of tropic noons and tangled marshes, of h.e.l.l and judgment and the conventional Zamiel. It looked fit to be worn by a Mrs. Zamiel, if there be such a person. I looked so long and earnestly that I evidently attracted the notice of the mistress of the shop, for I saw a hand push back the faded red curtain that veiled the interior and a queer little visage appeared regarding me with something I thought of distrust. Did I look as if I might break the gla.s.s and run off with the hat? Perhaps I did, so I entered the shop immediately and said in a reasoning tone,

"I am looking for rooms in the village, Mademoiselle, and hear you have one to let. Can I see it now, if not too much trouble?"

"You come from Morreall?"

This I learnt was meant for Montreal.

"Yes," I returned.

"You are by yourself, Monsieur, you are sure? No ladees, eh?"

"O dear! No" said I laughing. "I am making some studies--sketches--in this locality and am entirely alone. Do you find ladies a trouble?"

"Oh, perhaps not always. But there was one Mees I had. I did not like her, and so I said--we will have no more Mees, but again and always Messieurs." She was frank enough but not unpleasant in her manner. A little bit of a woman, thin and shrivelled, with one shoulder slightly higher than the other, black beads for eyes, and the ugliest mouthful of teeth that I had ever seen on any one. Had it not been that her expression was honest and good natured and her manner bright and intelligent, I should have recoiled before the yellow tusks of eye-teeth, and the blackened stumps and shrunken gums revealed to me every time she spoke. She wore a print dress made neatly enough which was very clean, and a black c.r.a.pe ruff round her sallow neck. The shop was small but clean and at the back I saw, a kind of little sitting room. Into this I went while she ran up-stairs to prepare the room for my inspection. The carpet was the usual horribly ingenious affair of red squares inside green octagons, and green squares inside red octagons, varied by lengthwise stripes of bright purple. The walls were plain white, covered with many prints in vivid colors of the Crucifixion, the Annunciation and the Holy Family; also three pictures of three wonderful white kittens which adorn so many nurseries and kitchens. There were no ornaments, but there was a large looking gla.s.s framed in walnut, and over it a dismal wreath of roses and their leaves done in human gray hair. The gla.s.s was opposite the door and I saw Delle Josephine descending to meet me just as I was turning away from this suggestive "in memoriam." A crooked little stairway brought me to a small landing, and three more steps to my room. I may call it that, for I took it on the spot It was large enough for my wants and seemed clean and when the paper blinds, yellow, with a black landscape on them, were raised, rather cheerful. We were opposite the chief "_epicerie_," the only _"marchandise seches_" and a blacksmith, whose jolly red fire I could sometimes catch a glimpse of.

Now, this is a really a true story of French Canadian life, or rather let me say, a true story of one of my own French Canadian experiences, and so I must confess that once installed in my little room _chez_ Delle Josephine Boulanger, nothing whatever of any interest took place until I had been there quite a week. I lived most regularly and monotonously; rising at eight I partook of coffee made by my landlady, accompanied by tinned fruit for which I formed a great taste. Then I went out, getting my mid-day meal where I could, eggs and bacon at a farmhouse, or tough steak at the hotel, and sometimes not getting anything at all until I returned ravenously hungry to my lodging. On these occasions the little Frenchwoman showed herself equal to the extent of cooking a chicken or liver and bacon very creditably and then I would write and read in my own room till eleven. I must not forget to say that I never failed to look at the wonderful scarlet hat in the window every time I went out or came in. Purchasers for it would be rare I thought; I half formed the idea of buying it myself when I went away as a "Souvenir."

One day I came home very tired. After walking about, vainly waiting for a terrific snowstorm to pa.s.s over that I might go on with my work--the frozen fall of Montmorenci, framed in the dark pines and somber rocks that made such a back ground for its glittering thread of ice, I gave it up, chilled in every limb, and began to consider whether I was not a fool for pains. Although I started quite early in the afternoon on my homeward walk, the snow, piled in great ma.s.ses everywhere along the route, impeded my progress to such an extent that it was nearly seven o'clock and pitch-dark when I got into the village. Bonneroy was very quiet. Shutters were up to every shop, n.o.body was out except a dog or two and the snow kept falling, falling, still in as persistent a fashion as if it had not been doing the same thing for six hours already. I found the shop shut up and the door locked. I looked everywhere for a bell or knocker of some description. There was neither, so I began to thump as hard as I could with my feet against the door. In a minute or two I heard Delle Josephine coming. Perhaps I had alarmed the poor soul.

She did look troubled on opening the door and admitted me hurriedly, even suspiciously, I thought. The door of the little sitting-room was closed, so fancying that perhaps she had a visitor I refrained from much talking and asking her to cook me some eggs presently and bring them up, I went to my room.

These cold days I had to keep a fire in the small open "Franklin" stove going almost constantly. She had not forgotten to supply it with coals during my absence, and lighting my two lamps I was soon fairly comfortable. How it did snow! Lifting the blind I could actually look down on an ever-increasing drift below my window and dimly wonder if I should get out at all on the morrow. If not, I proposed to return to Montreal at once. I should gain nothing by being confined in the house at Bonneroy. Delle Josephine appeared with eggs and tea--green tea, alas for that village shortcoming--there was no black tea to be found in it, and I looked narrowly at her as she set it down, wondering if anything was amiss with her. But she seemed all right again and I conjectured that I had simply interrupted a _tete-a-tete_ with some visitor in the sitting-room at the time of my return. When I had finished my tea I sat back and watched my fire. Those little open "Franklin" stoves are almost equal to a fireplace; they show a great deal of fire and you can fancy your flame on an English hearth very easily--if you have any imagination. As I sat there, it suddenly came home to me what a curious life this was for me; living quite alone over a tiny village shop in _Le Bos Canada_, with a queer little spinster like Delle Josephine. Snowed up, with her too! To-morrow I would certainly have to go and shovel that snow away from the front door and take down the shutters and discover again to the world the contents of the one window, particularly that frightful hat! I would--here I started it must be confessed almost out of my seat, as turning my head suddenly I saw on a chair behind the door the identical hat I was thinking about! I sat up and looked at it. It must have been there all the time I was eating my tea. I still sat and looked. I felt vaguely uncomfortable for a moment, then my common sense a.s.serted itself and told me that Delle Josephine must have been altering it or something of that kind and had forgotten to take it away. I wondered if she sat in my room when I was away. I had rather she did not. Just as I was about to rise and look at it more closely, a tap came at my door. I rose and admitted Delle Josephine. She took the tea-things away in her usual placid manner, but came back the next moment as if she had forgotten something, clearly the hat. With a slight deprecatory laugh she removed it and went hurriedly down the stair. Whatever had she been doing with it, I thought, and settled with a sigh of satisfaction once more to my work, now that the nightmare in red, a kind of mute scarlet "Raven," was gone from my room. How very quiet it was. Not a single sleigh pa.s.sed, no sounds came from the houses opposite or from next door, the whole world seemed smothered in the soft thick pillows of snow quietly gathering upon it. After a while, however, I could distinctly hear the sound of voices downstairs. Delle Josephine had a visitor, undoubtedly. Was it a man or a woman? Not a large company I gathered; it seemed like one person besides herself. I opened my door, it sounded so comfortably in my lonely bachelor ear to catch in that strange little house anything so cheerful as the murmur of voices. My curiosity once aroused, did not stop here. I went outside the door, not exactly to listen, but as one does sometimes in a lazy yet inquisitive mood, when anything is going on at all unusual. This was an unusual occurrence. If Delle Josephine had visitors often, I was not aware of it. Never before had I noticed the slightest sound proceed from her sitting-room after dusk. So I waited a bit listening. Yes there was talking going on, but in French. As I did not understand her _patois_ very clearly, I thought there would be no harm in overhearing, and further I thought I should like to have a peep at her and her companion.

I could see that the door was partly open. Taking off my slippers, I ran softly down and found it wide enough open to admit of my seeing the entire room and occupants in the looking-gla.s.s, that being opposite.

It was quite dark in the little hall and I should be un.o.bserved. So I crept--most rudely I am willing to say--into the furthest shadow of this hall and looked straight before me.

I saw none but Delle Josephine herself. But she was a sight for the G.o.ds. Seated on a kind of ottoman, directly in front of the looking-gla.s.s, she was holding an animated conversation with _herself_, wearing a large white antimaca.s.sar--one of those crocheted things all in wheels--pinned under her chin and falling away at the back like a cloak, and upon her head--the wonderful scarlet hat! I was amazed, startled, dismayed. To see that shrivelled little old woman so travestying her hideous charms, smiling at and bowing to herself, her yellow skin forming a frightful contrast to the intense red of her immense hat and her bright black eyes, was a pitiful and unique spectacle. I had intended but to take a peep at the supposed visitor and then go back to my room, but the present sight was one which fascinated me to such an extent that I could only look and wonder. She spoke softly to herself in French, appearing to be carrying on a conversation with her image in the gla.s.s. The feathers of the bird of paradise swept her shoulder--the one that was higher than the other--and mingled with the wheels of the white antimaca.s.sar. I looked as long as I dared and then, fearing from her movements that the strange scene would soon be over I went softly up again to my room. But I thought about it all evening, all night in fact.

The natural inquiry was--was the poor girl a maniac? Even if only a harmless one, it would be well to know. As I sat down again by my fire I considered the matter in every light. It was a queer prospect. Outside the snow still fell. Inside, the fire languished and the time wore on till at half-past ten I really was compelled to call on my landlady for more coal. I could hear the muttered French still going on, but I did not know where the coal was and could not fetch it myself. I must break in upon her rhapsodizing.

"Delle Boulanger!" I called from my open door. "Delle Boulanger!"

The talking stopped. In a few moments Delle Josephine appeared, calm and smiling, _minus_ the hat and the antimaca.s.sar. "Coming, _monsieur_"

"I shall want some more coal," said I, "It is getting colder, I think, every minute!"

"_Mais oui, monsieur; il fait fret, il fait bien fret ce soir_, and de snow--oh! It is _comme_--de old winter years ago, dat I remember, _monsieur_, but not you. _Eh! bien_, the coal!"

I discovered nothing morbid about her manner; she was amiable and respectful as usual, if a little more garrulous. The French will talk at all times about anything, but our conversation always came to a sudden stop the moment one of us relapsed into the mother tongue. As long as a sort of common maccaronic was kept to we managed to understand one another. After I made up my fire I sat up till long past twelve. I heard no more talking downstairs but I could fancy her still arrayed in those festive yet ghastly things, seated opposite her own reflection, intent as a mummy and not unlike one restored in modern costume. Pulling the blind aside before going to bed, I could see with awe the arching snowdrifts outside my window. If it went on snowing, I should not be able to open it on the morrow.

CHAPTER II

My prediction was verified in the morning. The snow had ceased falling, but lay piled up against the lower half of my window. On the level there appeared to be about three feet, while the drifts showed from six to twenty feet I had never seen anything like it, and was for sometime lost in admiration. Across the road the children of the _epider_ and the good man himself were already busy trying to shovel some of it away from the door. It seemed at first sight a hopeless task and I, looking down at Delle Josephine's door, wondered how on earth we were ever to get out of it when not a particle of it was to be seen. Not all that day did I get out of the house, and but for the absorbing interest I suddenly found centred in Delle Josephine I would have chafed terribly at being so shut up. Trains, were blockaded of course, it was the great fall of '81, and interrupted travel for half of a week. All that day I waited so to speak for the evening. Snow-boys there were many; customers none. The little Frenchwoman brought me some dinner at one o'clock, pork, tinned tomatoes, and a cup of coffee. About five o'clock I strolled down into the shop, it was lighted very meagrely with three oil lamps. Delle Josephine was seated on a high chair behind the one counter at work on some ribbon--white ribbon. She was quilling it, and looked up with some astonishment as I walked up to her.

"Do you object to a visitor Miss Josephine?" said I with the most amiable manner I could muster. Poor soul! I should have thought she would have welcomed one.

"_Mais non Monsieur_ but I speak so little English."

"And I so little French. But we can manage to understand each other a little, I think. What do you say to the weather? When shall I be able to go out?"

Delle Josephine laughed. She went on quilling the ribbon that looked so white against her yellow hands.

"O _Monsieur_ could go out dis day if he like, but de snow ver bad, very thick."

"Do you ever go out, Miss Josephine?"

"_Non Monsieur_. I have not been out for what you call a valk--it will be five years that I have not been."

"But you go to church, I suppose?"

"_Mais oui Monsieur_, but that is so near. And the good _Pere Le Jeune_--he come to see me. He is all the frien Delle Josephine has, ah!

_oui Monsieur_."

"Ah! Bonneroi isn't much of a place, is it? Have you ever been to Quebec or Montreal?"

"Ah! _Quebec--oui_, I live there once, many years ago. I was taken when I was ver young by _Madame de la Corne de la Colombiere pour une bonne; vous comprenez_?"

"Oh! _bonne_, yes, we use that word too. It means a nursemaid, eh! Were there children in the family?"

Delle Josephine dropped her ribbon and threw up her hands.

"_Mon Dieu! les enfants! Mais oui, Monsieur_, they were nine children!

There was _Maamselle Louise_ and _Maamselle Angelique_ with the tempaire of the _diable_ himself _oui Monsieur_, and Francois and Rene and _l'pet.i.te Catherine_, and the rest I forget _Monsieur_. And dey live in a fine _chateau_, with horse and carridge and everything as it would be if they were in their own France. _Monsieur_ has been in France?"

Only in Paris, I told her; a spasmodic run across the Channel--Paris in eight hours. Two days there then return--

"That does not give one much idea of France."

"_Nou, non, Monsieur_. But there is no countree like France dey say dat familee--and that is true, eh, _Monsieur_?"