The White House Part 52

Despite Monsieur Berlingue's prediction, the guests soon arrived; little wicker carriages and covered chaises brought divers persons of great distinction, for there were no cabs or omnibuses at Saint-Amand, and everybody could not afford a handsome turnout. However, there were a few chars-a-bancs and a few pretty cabriolets to be seen in that crowd of carriages; and the persons who alighted from them cast patronizing glances upon those who arrived in chaises; vanity is present at all festivities, but in the provinces above all it makes us poor weak mortals giddy.

The La Pincerie family arrived in a carriage half-way between a city and a country vehicle: it was a huge cabriolet, not unlike that generally called a _coucou_, the lower part being of wicker, and the top of oilcloth; it might in a crowd have pa.s.sed for the carriage of a merchant of Poissy; but Monsieur de la Pincerie declared that he would not exchange it for the most modern landau, because it descended to him from his ancestors; and from the leanness of the one horse which drew it, one might have been tempted to believe that the poor beast also had served the marquis's ancestors.

Monsieur de la Pincerie was a man of about sixty, almost six feet tall, and exceedingly thin; he wore a queue and his hair was powdered; his yellow, wrinkled face almost always wore an expression of arrogance and disdain; he rarely pa.s.sed two minutes without coughing and expectorating, but he did it all with a gravity which caused the people about him to believe that not everybody in the world could spit as he could.

A little man with squinting eyes, red hair, a blue nose, and red ears, was the second person to alight from the carriage; he had not put his foot to the ground before he began to smile and show teeth which would have put those of a horse to shame. This gentleman, with whom they had not as yet succeeded in doing anything, and for whom they were still trying to find a place, although he was nearly fifty-five, was the marquis's brother; he was called Mignon, a pet name which had been given to him when he was a child, and which it seemed to be his destiny to bear all his life. After smiling like a wild boar, while his brother expectorated upon one of the greased poles, Mignon stepped forward and offered his hand to a young lady, who leaped from the carriage, saying to her uncle:

"It isn't worth while, I prefer to get out alone."

This young lady, who alighted so gracefully, was the marquis's younger daughter, Mademoiselle Cornelie; she was twenty-seven years old, tall and well-built; her face was regular and rather distinguished, but her manner was imperious and her eyes, which she very rarely lowered, seemed intent upon commanding homage, and their expression indicated that she received it simply as a tribute due to her.

After Mademoiselle Cornelie came her sister, who was a widow, named Madame de Hautmont, or simply Eudoxie; she was perhaps five or six years older than Mademoiselle Cornelie; she was pretty, but she lessened her attractions by grimaces and a pretentious manner; her dress was always so extravagantly elaborate as to be ridiculous; she was saturated with perfumery, and she always carried a bouquet in one hand and a phial of salts in the other; the least thing made her faint and sick. She, far from alighting from the carriage alone, required three persons to a.s.sist her; but at the moment that her foot touched the ground, she spied Francois and the two scullions, whose weapons were pointed in her direction.

"Oh! mon Dieu! what is that?" cried Madame de Hautmont, throwing herself into her father's arms. "Are they going to fire at us? Why, this is abominable! I can't endure the sight of firearms!"

Robineau had walked forward to meet the La Pincerie family; he bowed respectfully to the father, shook hands with the uncle, smiled at the young lady, and rea.s.sured her sister, crying:

"Monsieur Ferulus, pray tell my people not to aim their guns at everybody! Do not be afraid, mesdames; it is a surprise, it's for the fete."

"What! do you mean to say that there will be guns fired at your fete, monsieur?"

"There will be all the firing that is possible, madame! But there will be no one shot; it is just for a joke, and to amuse you; that is all."

After escorting the La Pincerie family into the large salon, where Alfred and Edouard a.s.sisted him to do the honors, Robineau outdid himself in his endeavors to receive all his guests gracefully. There was the notary, who alighted with his wife from a dainty cabriolet; there was a wealthy paper manufacturer, who brought his wife, his three daughters, his two sons and his two nieces in his char-a-bancs; there were the Gerards, who alone filled both seats of their carriage, and who could not walk arm in arm, because their hips made it impossible; there was Monsieur le Chevalier de Tantignac, who could not say two words without bringing in a falsehood, and who arrived on foot, in silk short clothes, with spurs on his shoes and a hunting crop in his hand, to give the impression that he had come on horseback; lastly, there were the government officials, the leading merchants, the important personages of the district, who had one and all accepted Monsieur de la Roche-Noire's invitation, for opportunities for enjoyment being more rare in the provinces, one eagerly seizes all that offer.

The company a.s.sembled in the immense salon on the first floor; they eyed one another, they scrutinized one another from head to foot, they pa.s.sed the ladies' costumes in review, they made unkind remarks in undertones and complimentary ones aloud. Robineau went from one to another, played the gallant with the ladies, and smiled at everybody; but he addressed his homage most frequently to Mademoiselle Cornelie de la Pincerie, although ever since her entrance into the salon, Mademoiselle Cornelie had paid much more attention to Alfred than to the master of the house; while for her part Eudoxie cast languishing glances at Edouard.

On entering the salon, Monsieur le Marquis de la Pincerie had thrown himself into a big easy-chair in which he stretched himself out as if he proposed to go to sleep, extending his long legs in such a way that everybody was obliged to make a detour in order to pa.s.s him; the marquis at once began to cough and expectorate contemptuously in the midst of the salon, glancing at everybody as a sultan might glance at his slaves.

Uncle Mignon, on the contrary, had taken a seat modestly behind his niece Cornelie and was arranging the upper part of her sleeves, which had become a little rumpled in the carriage. The other guests stood about in groups or watched the preparations for the fete from the windows. Monsieur Berlingue strolled about the salon, scrutinizing everybody with a sly expression, listening to what was said, and trying to guess what was not said. The Chevalier de Tantignac, who was the last to enter the salon, contrived to catch his spurs in a lady's dress, so that he might secure for himself the pleasure of exclaiming:

"How careless I am! I forgot to take off my spurs. Oh! I beg you to excuse me, madame, but I am so accustomed to being in the saddle."

"What have you done with your steed, pray?" said Monsieur Berlingue; "I didn't see him when you came into the courtyard."

"I dismounted a few yards from the gate to avoid accidents, because my horse has a horrible trick of rearing; then I did as I always do, I struck him twice across the flank, and he at once trotted back alone to his stable. He is trained to do that, he is a pupil of Franconi.--But I must make haste to relieve myself of this equestrian apparatus!"

"Please pull my belt up a little, uncle. That's right; now put a pin in there.--These carriages disarrange one's dress terribly."

As she said this, Mademoiselle Cornelie glanced at Alfred, and seemed to demand the compliment which what she had just said invited; but it did not occur to Alfred to bestow it upon her. In his stead, Robineau picked up the gauntlet, crying:

"The carriage might do its worst, it could not prevent you from being charming!"

Mademoiselle Cornelie, after smiling at Robineau, looked after Alfred who had gone to speak to some other ladies.

"It is certain," said Madame de Hautmont, playing with her bouquet, "that someone ought to invent a different method of transportation from these carriages. A lady cannot alight from one of them without being jarred from head to foot. Uncle Mignon, give me a stool to put my feet on."

Uncle Mignon dropped his niece Cornelie's sleeves to find a stool for his niece Eudoxie, while Monsieur de la Pincerie exclaimed angrily:

"It seems to me, mesdames, that my chariot is hung perfectly, and that there is no ground for complaint."

"Oho! he calls his _coucou_ a chariot!" whispered Monsieur Berlingue in the paper manufacturer's ear; while Monsieur Gerard exclaimed:

"Well, well, mesdames, I see that you will soon be carried in palanquins, as in Asia."

"But one must be very comfortable in them," said Eudoxie, glancing at Edouard.

"I favor palanquins, too," said Madame Gerard.

"If she should ever get into one," said Berlingue in an undertone, "I doubt whether she could find men strong enough to carry her."

"As a general rule," said a lady who had not yet spoken, "those men in the East are great inventors."

"Fie! madame, fie!" said another lady, "they are monsters! they have more than one wife at a time."

"What is that you are saying about the men of the East?" cried the Chevalier de Tantignac, returning to the salon; "I know something about them; I spent a long time in Turkey; my doctor ordered me there. I had such a superabundance of health that my doctor said to me: 'Go to Turkey, my friend, and buy yourself a harem at once; if you don't, you are a dead man!'"

The ladies put their fans in front of their faces in order to laugh at the chevalier, who had not at all the appearance of a Turk, when Monsieur Ferulus entered the salon to ask Robineau if it were time to begin the fete. At sight of Ferulus, Madame de Hautmont uttered a shriek, and clung to Edouard, saying:

"Mon Dieu! what on earth is that?"

"That is the manager of the fete, madame," said Edouard.

"But he made my eyes smart terribly! I thought that either the sun or the moon had entered the room. Pray, what has the man got on?"

"It is his b.u.t.tons, which are so brilliant."

"Ah! you must agree that when a man wears such b.u.t.tons, he ought at least to give people some warning."

"It certainly is difficult to look at that gentleman without squinting,"

said Monsieur Berlingue.

Monsieur Ferulus darted out of the room again like an arrow, and soon musket shots announced the beginning of the fete. The noise of the fusillade almost made Eudoxie ill; but she took pains to fall into the arms of Edouard, who was beginning to be bored by her fainting spells, but who could not, however, avoid offering her his arm. Everybody ran out upon the balcony, and to the windows, whence they could see the sports which were to take place in the courtyard. Uncle Mignon alone remained behind, for it was necessary to find two pins for his niece Cornelie, and to fetch a gla.s.s of water to restore his other niece to consciousness. The peasants from the neighborhood, who had received permission to attend the fete, were drawn up on two sides of the courtyard. The servants were under the balcony; even Mademoiselle Cheval had left her kitchen to enjoy the sports, and especially to find out what was to be done with the greased poles, which aroused her curiosity.--Meanwhile the orchestra, which was supposed to play, did not begin, because the blind man, who was terribly afraid of the musket shots, had crawled under the bench during the discharge, and persisted in refusing to come out, although Ferulus exhausted himself in arguing to prove that he was in no danger.

The company waited for the performance to begin. Robineau leaned over the balcony and shouted to Ferulus:

"Why don't you begin? We are waiting."

And Monsieur Ferulus, who was on the point of coming to blows with the first violin, shouted back:

"You know very well that it begins with foot races in the garden. Go and walk there with the ladies, monseigneur."

But the ladies were tired by their ride and did not care to walk.

Moreover, they were impatient to witness the sports. Francois ran to a.s.sist Ferulus to pull the blind man out from under the bench. At last the music struck up, and six tall Auvergnats, nude from the head to the waist, appeared in the arena arranged in the middle of the courtyard.

The ladies started in surprise at sight of the singular costume of the combatants; Madame de Hautmont had another slight attack of faintness; but Monsieur Ferulus, who had ascended the stoop, cried:

"Gymnastic sports after the pattern of those of Greece and Rome."

"Mesdames," said Robineau, "it is after the pattern of the ancients; consequently there is nothing to offend your delicacy."