Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Part 33

She hastily turned the long mirror so that the poor girl should see herself. Her eyes still had a light as of the soul flying heavenward.

The Jewess' complexion was brilliant. Sparkling with tears unshed in the fervor of prayer, her eyelashes were like leaves after a summer shower, for the last time they shone with the sunshine of pure love. Her lips seemed to preserve an expression as of her last appeal to the angels, whose palm of martyrdom she had no doubt borrowed while placing in their hands her past unspotted life. And she had the majesty which Mary Stuart must have shown at the moment when she bid adieu to her crown, to earth, and to love.

"I wish Lucien could have seen me thus!" she said with a smothered sigh.

"Now," she added, in a strident tone, "now for a fling!"

Europe stood dumb at hearing the words, as though she had heard an angel blaspheme.

"Well, why need you stare at me to see if I have cloves in my mouth instead of teeth? I am nothing henceforth but a vile, foul creature, a thief--and I expect milord. So get me a hot bath, and put my dress out.

It is twelve o'clock; the Baron will look in, no doubt, when the Bourse closes; I shall tell him I was waiting for him, and Asie is to prepare us dinner, first-chop, mind you; I mean to turn the man's brain.--Come, hurry, hurry, my girl; we are going to have some fun--that is to say, we must go to work."

She sat down at the table and wrote the following note:--

"MY FRIEND,--If the cook you have sent me had not already been in my service, I might have thought that your purpose was to let me know how often you had fainted yesterday on receiving my three notes. (What can I say? I was very nervous that day; I was thinking over the memories of my miserable existence.) But I know how sincere Asie is. Still, I cannot repent of having caused you so much pain, since it has availed to prove to me how much you love me. This is how we are made, we luckless and despised creatures; true affection touches us far more deeply than finding ourselves the objects of lavish liberality. For my part, I have always rather dreaded being a peg on which you would hang your vanities. It annoyed me to be nothing else to you. Yes, in spite of all your protestations, I fancied you regarded me merely as a woman paid for.

"Well, you will now find me a good girl, but on condition of your always obeying me a little.

"If this letter can in any way take the place of the doctor's prescription, prove it by coming to see me after the Bourse closes. You will find me in full fig, dressed in your gifts, for I am for life your pleasure-machine,

"ESTHER."

At the Bourse the Baron de Nucingen was so gay, so cheerful, seemed so easy-going, and allowed himself so many jests, that du Tillet and the Kellers, who were on 'change, could not help asking him the reason of his high spirits.

"I am belofed. Ve shall soon gife dat house-varming," he told du Tillet.

"And how much does it cost you?" asked Francois Keller rudely--it was said that he had spent twenty-five thousand francs a year on Madame Colleville.

"Dat voman is an anchel! She never has ask' me for one sou."

"They never do," replied du Tillet. "And it is to avoid asking that they have always aunts or mothers."

Between the Bourse and the Rue Taitbout seven times did the Baron say to his servant:

"You go so slow--vip de horse!"

He ran lightly upstairs, and for the first time he saw his mistress in all the beauty of such women, who have no other occupation than the care of their person and their dress. Just out of her bath the flower was quite fresh, and perfumed so as to inspire desire in Robert d'Arbrissel.

Esther was in a charming toilette. A dress of black corded silk trimmed with rose-colored gimp opened over a petticoat of gray satin, the costume subsequently worn by Amigo, the handsome singer, in _I Puritani_. A Honiton lace kerchief fell or floated over her shoulders.

The sleeves of her gown were strapped round with cording to divide the puffs, which for some little time fashion has subst.i.tuted for the large sleeves which had grown too monstrous. Esther had fastened a Mechlin lace cap on her magnificent hair with a pin, _a la folle_, as it is called, ready to fall, but not really falling, giving her an appearance of being tumbled and in disorder, though the white parting showed plainly on her little head between the waves of her hair.

"Is it not a shame to see madame so lovely in a shabby drawing-room like this?" said Europe to the Baron, as she admitted him.

"Vel, den, come to the Rue Saint-Georches," said the Baron, coming to a full stop like a dog marking a partridge. "The veather is splendit, ve shall drife to the Champs Elysees, and Montame Saint-Estefe and Eugenie shall carry dere all your clo'es an' your linen, an' ve shall dine in de Rue Saint-Georches."

"I will do whatever you please," said Esther, "if only you will be so kind as to call my cook Asie, and Eugenie Europe. I have given those names to all the women who have served me ever since the first two. I do not love change----"

"Asie, Europe!" echoed the Baron, laughing. "How ver' droll you are.--You hafe infentions.--I should hafe eaten many dinners before I should hafe call' a cook Asie."

"It is our business to be droll," said Esther. "Come, now, may not a poor girl be fed by Asia and dressed by Europe when you live on the whole world? It is a myth, I say; some women would devour the earth, I only ask for half.--You see?"

"Vat a voman is Montame Saint-Estefe!" said the Baron to himself as he admired Esther's changed demeanor.

"Europe, my girl, I want my bonnet," said Esther. "I must have a black silk bonnet lined with pink and trimmed with lace."

"Madame Thomas has not sent it home.--Come, Monsieur le Baron; quick, off you go! Begin your functions as a man-of-all-work--that is to say, of all pleasure! Happiness is burdensome. You have your carriage here, go to Madame Thomas," said Europe to the Baron. "Make your servant ask for the bonnet for Madame van Bogseck.--And, above all," she added in his ear, "bring her the most beautiful bouquet to be had in Paris. It is winter, so try to get tropical flowers."

The Baron went downstairs and told his servants to go to "Montame Thomas."

The coachman drove to a famous pastrycook's.

"She is a milliner, you d.a.m.n' idiot, and not a cake-shop!" cried the Baron, who rushed off to Madame Prevot's in the Palais-Royal, where he had a bouquet made up for the price of ten louis, while his man went to the great modiste.

A superficial observer, walking about Paris, wonders who the fools can be that buy the fabulous flowers that grace the ill.u.s.trious bouquetiere's shop window, and the choice products displayed by Chevet of European fame--the only purveyor who can vie with the _Rocher de Cancale_ in a real and delicious _Revue des deux Mondes_.

Well, every day in Paris a hundred or more pa.s.sions a la Nucingen come into being, and find expression in offering such rarities as queens dare not purchase, presented, kneeling, to baggages who, to use Asie's word, like to cut a dash. But for these little details, a decent citizen would be puzzled to conceive how a fortune melts in the hands of these women, whose social function, in Fourier's scheme, is perhaps to rectify the disasters caused by avarice and cupidity. Such squandering is, no doubt, to the social body what a p.r.i.c.k of the lancet is to a plethoric subject.

In two months Nucingen had shed broadcast on trade more than two hundred thousand francs.

By the time the old lover returned, darkness was falling; the bouquet was no longer of any use. The hour for driving in the Champs-Elysees in winter is between two and four. However, the carriage was of use to convey Esther from the Rue Taitbout to the Rue Saint-Georges, where she took possession of the "little palace." Never before had Esther been the object of such worship or such lavishness, and it amazed her; but, like all royal ingrates, she took care to express no surprise.

When you go into St. Peter's at Rome, to enable you to appreciate the extent and height of this queen of cathedrals, you are shown the little finger of a statue which looks of a natural size, and which measures I know not how much. Descriptions have been so severely criticised, necessary as they are to a history of manners, that I must here follow the example of the Roman Cicerone. As they entered the dining-room, the Baron could not resist asking Esther to feel the stuff of which the window curtains were made, draped with magnificent fulness, lined with white watered silk, and bordered with a gimp fit to trim a Portuguese princess' bodice. The material was silk brought from Canton, on which Chinese patience had painted Oriental birds with a perfection only to be seen in mediaeval illuminations, or in the Missal of Charles V., the pride of the Imperial library at Vienna.

"It hafe cost two tousand franc' an ell for a milord who brought it from Intia----"

"It is very nice, charming," said Esther. "How I shall enjoy drinking champagne here; the froth will not get dirty here on a bare floor."

"Oh! madame!" cried Europe, "only look at the carpet!"

"Dis carpet hafe been made for de Duc de Torlonia, a frient of mine, who fount it too dear, so I took it for you who are my qveen," said Nucingen.

By chance this carpet, by one of our cleverest designers, matched with the whimsicalities of the Chinese curtains. The walls, painted by Schinner and Leon de Lora, represented voluptuous scenes, in carved ebony frames, purchased for their weight in gold from Dusommerard, and forming panels with a narrow line of gold that coyly caught the light.

From this you may judge of the rest.

"You did well to bring me here," said Esther. "It will take me a week to get used to my home and not to look like a parvenu in it----"

"_My_ home! Den you shall accept it?" cried the Baron in glee.

"Why, of course, and a thousand times of course, stupid animal," said she, smiling.

"Animal vas enough----"

"Stupid is a term of endearment," said she, looking at him.

The poor man took Esther's hand and pressed it to his heart. He was animal enough to feel, but too stupid to find words.

"Feel how it beats--for ein little tender vort----"

And he conducted his G.o.ddess to her room.