CHAPTER IV
IN FAMILY COUNCIL ASSEMBLED
I arose one September morning, my heart leaping with some remote joy. It was eight o’clock. I pressed my forehead against the windowpanes and gazed out, looking at I know not what. I had been roused with a start in the midst of some fine dream, and I had rushed toward the light in the hope of finding in the infinite space of the gray sky the luminous point that would explain my anxious and blissful expectation. Expectation of what? I could not have answered that question then, any more than I can now, after much reflection. I was on the eve of my fifteenth birthday and I was in a state of expectation as to the future of my life. That particular morning seemed to me to be the precursor of a new era. I was not mistaken, for on that September day my fate was settled for me.
Hypnotized by what was taking place in my mind, I remained with my forehead pressed against the windowpane, gazing, through the halo of vapor formed by my breath, at houses, palaces, carriages, jewels, and pearls passing along in front of me. Oh, what a number of pearls there were! There were princes and kings, too; yes, I could even see kings! Oh, how fast one’s imagination travels, and its enemy, reason, always allows it to roam on alone! In my fancy, I proudly rejected the princes, I rejected the kings, refused the pearls and the palaces, and declared that I was going to be a nun, for in the infinite gray sky I had caught a glimpse of the convent of Grandchamps, of my white bedroom, and of the small lamp that swung to and fro above the little Virgin all decorated with flowers. The king offered me a throne, but I preferred the throne of our Mother Superior, and I entertained a vague ambition to occupy it some far-off day in the distant future; the king was heartbroken, and dying of despair. Yes, mon Dieu! I preferred to the pearls that were offered me by princes the pearls of the rosary I was telling with my fingers, and no costume could compete in my mind with the black barège veil that fell like a soft shadow over the snowy white cambric that encircled the beloved faces of the nuns of Grandchamps.
I do not know how long I had been dreaming thus when I heard my mother’s voice asking our old servant, Marguerite, if I were awake. With one bound I was back in bed, and I buried my face under the sheet. Mamma half opened the door very gently and I pretended to wake up.
“How lazy you are to-day!” she said.
I kissed her and answered in a coaxing tone:
“It is Thursday and I have no music lesson.”
“And are you glad?” she asked.
“Oh, yes,” I replied promptly.
My mother frowned; she adored music, and I hated the piano. She was so fond of music, that although she was then about thirty, she took lessons herself in order to encourage me to practice. What horrible torture it was! I used, very wickedly, to do my utmost to set my mother and my music mistress at variance. They were both of them as shortsighted as possible. When my mother had practiced a new piece three or four days she knew it by heart, and played it fairly well, to the astonishment of Mlle. Clarisse, my insufferable old teacher, who held the music in her hand and read every note with her nose nearly touching the page. One day I heard with joy a quarrel beginning between mamma and this disagreeable Mlle. Clarisse.
“There, that’s a quaver!”
“No, there’s no quaver!”
“This is a flat!”
“No, you forget the sharp! How absurd you are, mademoiselle,” added my mother, perfectly furious.
A few minutes later my mother went to her room and Mlle. Clarisse departed, muttering as she left.
As for me, I was choking with laughter in my bedroom, for one of my cousins, who was a good musician, had helped me to add sharps, flats, and quavers, and we had done it with such care that even a trained eye would have had difficulty in discerning the fraud immediately. As Mile. Clarisse had been sent off, I had no lesson that day. Mamma gazed at me a long time with her mysterious eyes, the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen in my life, and then she said, speaking very slowly:
“After luncheon there is to be a family council.”
I felt myself turning pale.
“All right,” I answered, “what frock am I to put on, mamma?” I said this merely for the sake of saying something, and to keep myself from crying.
“Put your blue silk on, you look more staid in that.”
Just at this moment, my sister Jeanne opened the door boisterously and with a burst of laughter jumped on my bed and slipping under the sheets called out: “I’m there!”
Marguerite had followed her into the room, panting and scolding. The child had escaped from her just as she was about to bathe her and had announced that she was going into my bed. Jeanne’s mirth at this moment, which I felt was a very serious one for me, made me burst out crying and sobbing. My mother, not understanding the reason of this grief, shrugged her shoulders, told Marguerite to fetch Jeanne’s slippers, and taking the little bare feet in her hands, kissed them tenderly.
I sobbed more bitterly than ever. It was very evident that mamma loved my sister more than me, and this preference, which did not trouble me ordinarily, hurt me sorely now.
Mamma went away quite out of patience with me. I fell asleep, in order to forget, and was roused by Marguerite who helped me to dress, as otherwise I should have been late for luncheon. The guests that day were Aunt Rosine, Mlle. De Brabender, my governess, a charming creature whom I have always regretted, my godfather, and the Duc de Morny, a great friend of my godfather and of my mother. The luncheon was a mournful meal for me, as I was thinking all the time about the family council. Mlle. De Brabender, in her gentle way, and with her affectionate words, insisted on my eating. My sister burst out laughing when she looked at me.
“Your eyes are as little as that,” she said, putting her small thumb on the tip of her forefinger, “and it serves you right, because you’ve been crying, and mamma doesn’t like anyone to cry—do you, mamma?”
“What have you been crying about?” asked the Duc de Morny.
I did not answer in spite of the friendly nudge Mlle. De Brabender gave me with her sharp elbow. The Duc de Morny always awed me a little. He was gentle and kind but he was a great quiz. I knew, too, that he occupied a high place at court, and that my family considered his friendship a great honor.
“Because I told her that after luncheon there was to be a family council on her behalf,” said my mother, speaking slowly. “At times it seems to me that she is quite idiotic. She quite disheartens me.”
“Come, come!” exclaimed my godfather, and Aunt Rosine said something in English to the Duc de Morny which made him smile shrewdly under his fine mustache. Mlle. De Brabender scolded me in a low voice, and her scoldings were like words from heaven. When at last luncheon was over, mamma told me, as she passed, to pour the coffee. Marguerite helped me to arrange the cups and I went into the drawing-room. Maître G——, the notary from Hâvre, whom I detested, was already there. He represented the family of my father, who had died at Pisa in a way which had never been explained, but which seemed mysterious. My childish hatred was instinctive and I learned later on that this man had been my father’s bitter enemy. He was very, very ugly, this notary; his whole face seemed to have moved up higher. It was as though he had been hanging by his hair for a long time, and his eyes, his mouth, his cheeks, and his nose had got into the habit of trying to reach the back of his head. He ought to have had a joyful expression, as so many of his features turned up, but instead of this his face was smooth and sinister-looking. He had red hair planted on his head like couch grass and on his nose he wore a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. Oh, the horrible man! What a torturing nightmare the very memory of him is, for he was the evil genius of my father, and his hatred now pursued me. My poor grandmother, since the death of my father, never went out, but spent her time mourning the loss of her beloved son who had died so young. She had absolute faith in this man, who, besides, was the executor of my father’s will. He had the control of the money that my dear father had left me. I was not to touch it until the day of my marriage, but my mother was to use the interest for my education.
My uncle Félix Faure was also there. Seated near the fireplace, buried in an armchair, M. Meydieu pulled out his watch in a querulous way. He was an old friend of the family, and he always called me “ma fille,” which annoyed me greatly, as did his familiarity. He considered me stupid, and when I handed him his coffee, he said in a jeering tone:
“And is it for you, ma fille, that so many honest people have been hindered in their work? We have plenty of other things to attend to, I can assure you, than to discuss the fate of a little brat like you. Ah, if it had been her sister, there would have been no difficulty!” and with his benumbed fingers he patted Jeanne’s head as she remained on the floor plaiting the fringe of the sofa upon which he was seated.
When the coffee was taken, the cups carried away, and my sister also, there was a short silence. The Duc de Morny rose to take his leave, but my mother begged him to stay. “You will be able to advise us,” she urged, and the duke took his seat again near my aunt with whom it seemed to me he was carrying on a slight flirtation.
Mamma had moved nearer to the window, her embroidery frame in front of her, and her beautiful, clear-cut profile showing to advantage against the light. She looked as though she had nothing to do with what was about to be discussed. The hideous notary was standing up by the chimney-piece, and my uncle had drawn me near to him. My godfather Régis seemed to be the exact counterpart of M. Meydieu. They both of them had the same bourgeois mind and were equally stubborn and obstinate. They were both devoted to whist and good wine, and they both agreed that I was thin enough for a scarecrow.
The door opened and a pale, dark-haired woman entered, a most poetical-looking and charming creature. It was Mme. Guérard, “the lady of the upstairs flat,” as Marguerite always called her. My mother had made friends with her in rather a patronizing way certainly, but Mme. Guérard was devoted to me and endured the little slights to which she was treated, very patiently, for my sake. She was tall and slender as a lath, very compliant and demure. She had come down without a hat; she was wearing an indoor gown of indienne with a design of little brown leaves.
M. Meydieu muttered something, I did not catch what. The abominable notary made a very curt bow to Mme. Guérard. The Duc de Morny was very gracious, for the newcomer was so pretty. My godfather merely bent his head, as Mme. Guérard was nothing to him. Aunt Rosine glanced at her from head to foot. Mlle. De Brabender shook hands cordially with her, for Mme. Guérard was fond of me. My uncle, Félix Faure, gave her a chair, and asked her to sit down, and then inquired in a kindly way about her husband, a savant, with whom my uncle collaborated sometimes for his book, “The Life of St. Louis.”
Mamma had merely glanced across the room without raising her head, for Mme. Guérard did not prefer my sister to me.
“Well, as we have come here on account of this child,” said my godfather, “we must begin and discuss what is to be done with her.”
I began to tremble and drew closer to Mlle. De Brabender, and to “ma petite dame,” as I had always called Mme. Guérard from my infancy. They each took my hand by way of encouraging me.
“Yes,” continued M. Meydieu, with a laugh, “it appears you want to be a nun.”
“Ah, indeed?” said the Duc de Morny to Aunt Rosine.
“Sh....” she retorted with a laugh. Mamma sighed and held her wools up close to her eyes to match them.
“You have to be rich, though, to enter a convent,” grunted the Hâvre notary, “and you have not a sou.”
I leaned toward Mlle. De Brabender, and whispered: “I have the money that papa left.”
The horrid man overheard.
“Your father left some money to get you married,” he said.
“Well, then, I’ll marry the Bon Dieu,” I answered, and my voice was quite resolute now. I turned very red, and for the second time in my life I felt a desire and a strong inclination to fight for myself. I had no more fear, as everyone had gone too far and provoked me too much. I slipped away from my two kind friends, and advanced toward the other group.
“I will be a nun, I will!” I exclaimed. “I know that papa left me some money so that I should be married, and I know that the nuns marry the Saviour. Mamma says she does not care; it is all the same to her, so that it won’t be vexing her at all, and they love me better at the convent than you do here!”
“My dear child,” said my uncle, drawing me toward him, “your religious vocation appears to me to be more a wish to love.”
“And to be loved,” murmured Mme. Guérard, in a very low voice.
Everyone glanced at mamma, who shrugged her shoulders slightly. It seemed to me as though the glance they all gave her was a reproachful one, and I felt a pang of remorse at once. I went across to her, and throwing my arms round her neck said:
“You don’t mind my being a nun, do you? It won’t make you unhappy, will it?”
Mamma stroked my hair, of which she was very proud.
“Yes, it would make me unhappy. You know very well that after your sister, I love you better than anyone else in the world.”
She said this very slowly in a gentle voice. It was like the sound of a little waterfall as it flows down, babbling and clear, from the mountain, dragging with it the gravel, and gradually increasing in volume, with the thawed snow, until it sweeps along rocks and trees in its course. This was the effect my mother’s clear, drawling voice had upon me at that moment. I rushed back impulsively to the others, who were all speechless at this unexpected and spontaneous burst of confidence. I went from one to the other, explaining my decision, and giving reasons which were certainly no reasons at all. I did my utmost to get someone to support me in the matter. Finally the Duc de Morny was bored, and rose to go.
“Do you know what you ought to do with this child?” he said. “You ought to send her to the Conservatoire.” He then patted my cheek, kissed my aunt’s hand, and bowed to all the others. As he bent over my mother’s hand, I heard him say to her: “You would have made a bad diplomatist, but take my advice, and send her to the Conservatoire.”
He then took his departure and I gazed at everyone in perfect anguish.
The Conservatoire! What was it? What did it mean?
I went up to my governess, Mlle. De Brabender. Her lips were firmly pressed together, and she looked shocked, just as she did sometimes when my godfather told some story that she did not approve of, at table. My uncle, Félix Faure, was looking at the floor in an absent-minded way; the notary had a spiteful look in his eyes, my aunt was holding forth in a very excited manner, and M. Meydieu kept shaking his head and muttering: “Perhaps ... yes.... Who knows?... Hum ... hum...!” Mme. Guérard was very pale and sad, and she looked at me with infinite tenderness.
What could be this Conservatoire? The word uttered so carelessly seemed to have entirely disturbed the equanimity of all present. Each one of them seemed to me to have a different impression about it, but none looked pleased. Suddenly in the midst of the general embarrassment my godfather exclaimed brutally:
“She is too thin to make an actress.”
“I won’t be an actress!” I exclaimed.
“You don’t know what an actress is,” said my aunt.
“Oh, yes, I do. Rachel is an actress!”
“You know Rachel?” asked mamma, getting up.
“Oh, yes, she came to the convent once, to see little Adèle Sarony. She went all over the convent and into the garden, and she had to sit down because she could not get her breath. They fetched her something to bring her round, and she was so pale, oh, so pale! I was very sorry for her and Sister Appoline told me that what she did was killing her, for she was an actress, and so I won’t be an actress, I won’t.”
I had said all this in a breath, with my cheeks on fire and my voice hard.
I remembered all that Sister Appoline had told me, and Mother Ste. Sophie, too. I remembered, also, that when Rachel had gone out of the garden, looking very pale, and holding a lady’s arm for support, a little girl had put her tongue out at her. I did not want people to put out their tongues at me when I was grown up.
Conservatoire! That word alarmed me. The duke had wanted me to be an actress and he had now gone away so that I could not talk things over with him. He went away smiling and tranquil, after caressing me in the usual friendly way. He had gone—caring little about the scraggy child whose future had been discussed.
“Send her to the Conservatoire!”
That sentence uttered so carelessly had come like a bomb into my life. I, the dreamy child, who that morning was ready to repulse princes and kings; I, whose trembling fingers had that morning told over chaplets of dreams, who only a few hours ago had felt my heart beating with emotion hitherto unknown to me; I, who had got up expecting some great event to take place, was to see everything disappear, thanks to that phrase as heavy as lead and as deadly as a bullet: “Send her to the Conservatoire!”
And I divined that this phrase was to be the signpost of my life. All those people had gathered together at the turning of the crossroads. “Send her to the Conservatoire!” I wanted to be a nun and this was considered absurd, idiotic, unreasonable. “Send her to the Conservatoire” had opened out a field for discussion, the horizon of the future. My uncle, Félix Faure, and Mlle. Brabender were the only ones against this idea. They tried in vain to make my mother understand that with the hundred thousand francs that my father had left me I might marry. But my mother had replied that I had declared I had a horror of marriage, and that I should wait until I was of age to go into a convent.
“Under these conditions,” she said, “Sarah will never have her father’s money.”
“No, certainly not,” put in the notary.
“Then,” continued my mother, “she would enter the convent as a servant and I will not have that! My money is an annuity, so that I cannot leave anything to my children. I, therefore, want them to have a career of their own.” My mother was now exhausted with so much talking and lay back in an armchair. I got very much excited and my mother asked me to go away.
Mlle. Brabender and Mme. Guérard were arguing in a low voice, and I thought of the aristocratic man who had just left us. I was very angry with him, for this idea of the Conservatoire was his.
Mlle. Brabender tried to console me. Mme. Guérard said that this career had its advantages. Mlle. Brabender considered that the convent would have a great fascination for so dreamy a nature as mine. The latter was very religious and a great churchgoer; “ma petite dame,” was a pagan in the purest acceptation of that word, and yet the two women got on very well together, thanks to their affectionate devotion to me.
Mme. Guérard adored the proud rebelliousness of my nature, my pretty face, and the slenderness of my figure; Mlle. De Brabender was touched by my delicate health. She endeavored to comfort me when I was jealous for not being loved as much as my sister, but what she liked best about me was my voice. She always declared that my voice was modulated for prayers and my delight in the convent appeared to her quite natural. She loved me with a gentle, pious affection, and Mme. Guérard loved me with bursts of paganism. These two women, whose memory is still dear to me, shared me between them and made the best of my good qualities and my faults. I certainly owe to both of them this study of myself and the vision I have of myself.
The day was destined to end in the strangest of fashions. Mme. Guérard had gone back to her apartment upstairs and I was lying on a little straw armchair which was the most ornamental piece of furniture in my room. I felt very drowsy and was holding Mlle. De Brabender’s hand in mine, when the door opened and my aunt entered, followed by my mother. I can see them now, my aunt in her dress of puce silk trimmed with fur, her brown velvet hat tied under her chin with long, wide strings, and mamma, who had taken off her dress and put on a white woolen dressing gown. She always detested keeping on her dress in the house, and I understood by her change of costume that everyone else had gone, and that my aunt was ready to leave. I got up from my armchair, but mamma made me sit down again.
“Rest yourself thoroughly,” she said, “for we are going to take you to the theater this evening, to the Français.” I felt sure that this was just a bait and I would not show any sign of pleasure, although in my heart I was delighted at the idea of going to the Français. The only theater I knew anything of was the Robert Houdin, to which I was taken sometimes with my sister, and I fancy that it was for her benefit we went as I was really too old to care for that kind of performance.
“Will you come with us?” mamma said, turning to Mlle. De Brabender.
“Willingly, madame,” replied this dear creature. “I will go home and change my dress.”
My aunt laughed at my sullen looks.
“Little fraud,” she said, as she went away, “you are hiding your delight. Ah, well, you will see some actresses to-night!”
“Is Rachel going to act?” I asked.
“Oh, no, she is ill.”
My aunt kissed me and went away, saying she would see me again later on, and my mother followed her out of the room. Mlle. De Brabender then hurriedly prepared to leave me. She had to go home to dress and to tell them that she would not be in until quite late, for, in her convent, special permission had to be obtained when one wished to be out later than ten at night. When I was alone I swung myself backward and forward in my armchair which, by the way, was anything but a rocking-chair. I began to think, and for the first time in my life my critical comprehension came to my aid. And so all these serious people had been inconvenienced, the notary fetched from Hâvre, my uncle dragged away from working at his book, the old bachelor, M. Meydieu, disturbed in his habits and customs, my godfather kept away from the Stock Exchange, and that aristocratic and skeptical Duc de Morny cramped up for two hours in the midst of our bourgeois surroundings, and all to end in this decision: “She shall be taken to the theater!” I do not know what part my uncle had taken in this burlesque plan, but I doubt whether it was to his taste. All the same, I was glad to go to the theater; it made me feel more important. That morning on waking up I was quite a child, and now events had taken place which had transformed me into a young girl. I had been discussed by everyone, and I had expressed my wishes, without any result, certainly, but all the same I had expressed them, and now it was deemed necessary to humor and indulge me in order to win me over. They could not force me into agreeing to what they wanted me to do; my consent was necessary, and I felt so joyful and so proud about it that I was quite touched and almost ready to yield. However, I said to myself that it would be better to hold my own and let them ask me again.
After dinner we all squeezed into a cab—mamma, my godfather, Mlle. De Brabender, and I. My godfather made me a present of some white gloves.
On mounting the steps at the Théâtre Français I trod on a lady’s dress. She turned round and called me a “stupid child.” I moved back hastily and came into collision with a very stout old gentleman who gave me a rough push forward.
When once we were all installed in a box facing the stage, mamma and I in the first row with Mlle. De Brabender behind me, I felt more reassured. I was close against the partition of the box, and I could feel Mlle. De Brabender’s sharp knees through the velvet of my chair. This gave me confidence, and I leaned against the back of the chair, purposely to feel the support of those two knees.
When the curtain slowly rose, I thought I should have fainted. It was as though the curtain of my future life were being raised. Those columns—“Britannicus” was being played—were to be my palaces, the friezes above were to be my skies, and those boards were to bend under my frail weight. I heard nothing of “Britannicus,” for I was far, far away, at Grandchamps in my dormitory there.
“Well, what do you think of it?” asked my godfather, when the curtain fell. I did not answer and he laid his hand on my head and turned my face round toward him. I was crying, big tears rolling slowly down my cheeks, those tears that come without any sobs and without any hope of ever ceasing.
My godfather shrugged his shoulders, and getting up, left the box, banging the door after him. Mamma, losing all patience with me, proceeded to review the house through her opera glass, Mlle. De Brabender passed me her handkerchief; my own had fallen down and I had not the courage to pick it up.
The curtain had been raised for the second piece, “Amphytrion,” and I made an effort to listen, for the sake of pleasing my governess, who was so gentle and conciliating. I can only remember one thing, and that is that Alcinène seemed to me to be so unhappy that I burst into loud sobs, and that the whole house, very much amused, looked at our box. My mother, deeply annoyed, took me out, and Mlle. De Brabender went with us. My godfather was furious, and muttered: “She ought to be shut up in a convent and left there! Good Heavens, what a little idiot the child is!”
This was the début of my artistic life!