A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert. - HTML preview

CHAPTER I

Eight mahogany chairs stood in a row against the white wainscoting. An old piano, standing beneath a barometer, FOR HALF A CENTURY the housewives of Pont-l’Eveque had was covered with a pyramid of old books and boxes. On envied Madame Aubain her servant Felicite.

either side of the yellow marble mantelpiece, in Louis XV.

For a hundred francs a year, she cooked and did the house-style, stood a tapestry armchair. The clock represented a work, washed, ironed, mended, harnessed the horse, fat-temple of Vesta; and the whole room smelled musty, as it tened the poultry, made the butter and remained faithful to was on a lower level than the garden.

her mistress — although the latter was by no means an On the first floor was Madame’s bed-chamber, a large agreeable person.

room papered in a flowered design and containing the por-Madame Aubain had married a comely youth without 3

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert trait of Monsieur dressed in the costume of a dandy. It bread weighing twelve pounds which was baked especially communicated with a smaller room, in which there were two for her and lasted three weeks.

little cribs, without any mattresses. Next, came the parlour Summer and winter she wore a dimity kerchief fastened (always closed), filled with furniture covered with sheets. Then in the back with a pin, a cap which concealed her hair, a red a hall, which led to the study, where books and papers were skirt, grey stockings, and an apron with a bib like those piled on the shelves of a book-case that enclosed three quar-worn by hospital nurses.

ters of the big black desk. Two panels were entirely hidden Her face was thin and her voice shrill. When she was under pen-and-ink sketches, Gouache landscapes and Audran twenty-five, she looked forty. After she had passed fifty, engravings, relics of better times and vanished luxury. On nobody could tell her age; erect and silent always, she re-the second floor, a garret-window lighted Felicite’s room, sembled a wooden figure working automatically.

which looked out upon the meadows.

She arose at daybreak, in order to attend mass, and she CHAPTER II

worked without interruption until night; then, when dinner was over, the dishes cleared away and the door securely LIKE EVERY OTHER WOMAN, she had had an affair of the heart.

locked, she would bury the log under the ashes and fall Her father, who was a mason, was killed by falling from a asleep in front of the hearth with a rosary in her hand.

scaffolding. Then her mother died and her sisters went their Nobody could bargain with greater obstinacy, and as for different ways; a farmer took her in, and while she was quite cleanliness, the luster on her brass sauce-pans was the envy small, let her keep cows in the fields. She was clad in miser-and despair of other servants. She was most economical, able rags, beaten for the slightest offence and finally dis-and when she ate she would gather up crumbs with the tip missed for a theft of thirty sous which she did not commit.

of her finger, so that nothing should be wasted of the loaf of She took service on another farm where she tended the poul-4

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert try; and as she was well thought of by her master, her fel-She did not know what to reply and wished to run away.

low-workers soon grew jealous.

Presently he began to speak of the harvest and of the no-One evening in August (she was then eighteen years old), tables of the village; his father had left Colleville and bought they persuaded her to accompany them to the fair at the farm of Les Ecots, so that now they would be neighbours.

Colleville. She was immediately dazzled by the noise, the

“Ah!” she exclaimed. He then added that his parents were lights in the trees, the brightness of the dresses, the laces looking around for a wife for him, but that he, himself, was and gold crosses, and the crowd of people all hopping at the not so anxious and preferred to wait for a girl who suited same time. She was standing modestly at a distance, when him. She hung her head. He then asked her whether she presently a young man of well-to-do appearance, who had had ever thought of marrying. She replied, smilingly, that it been leaning on the pole of a wagon and smoking his pipe, was wrong of him to make fun of her. “Oh! no, I am in approached her, and asked her for a dance. He treated her earnest,” he said, and put his left arm around her waist while to cider and cake, bought her a silk shawl, and then, think-they sauntered along. The air was soft, the stars were bright, ing she had guessed his purpose, offered to see her home.

and the huge load of hay oscillated in front of them, drawn When they came to the end of a field he threw her down by four horses whose ponderous hoofs raised clouds of dust.

brutally. But she grew frightened and screamed, and he Without a word from their driver they turned to the right.

walked off.

He kissed her again and she went home. The following week, One evening, on the road leading to Beaumont, she came Theodore obtained meetings.

upon a wagon loaded with hay, and when she overtook it, They met in yards, behind walls or under isolated trees.

she recognised Theodore. He greeted her calmly, and asked She was not ignorant, as girls of well-to-do families are —

her to forget what had happened between them, as it “was for the animals had instructed her; — but her reason and all the fault of the drink.”

her instinct of honour kept her from falling. Her resistance 5

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert exasperated Theodore’s love and so in order to satisfy it (or dered around desolately until sunrise. Then she went back perchance ingenuously), he offered to marry her. She would to the farm, declared her intention of leaving, and at the not believe him at first, so he made solemn promises. But, end of the month, after she had received her wages, she in a short time he mentioned a difficulty; the previous year, packed all her belongings in a handkerchief and started his parents had purchased a substitute for him; but any day for Pont-l’Eveque.

he might be drafted and the prospect of serving in the army In front of the inn, she met a woman wearing widow’s alarmed him greatly. To Felicite his cowardice appeared a weeds, and upon questioning her, learned that she was look-proof of his love for her, and her devotion to him grew ing for a cook. The girl did not know very much, but ap-stronger. When she met him, he would torture her with his peared so willing and so modest in her requirements, that fears and his entreaties. At last, he announced that he was Madame Aubain finally said:

going to the prefect himself for information, and would let

“Very well, I will give you a trial.” her know everything on the following Sunday, between And half an hour later Felicite was installed in her house.

eleven o’clock and midnight.

At first she lived in a constant anxiety that was caused by When the time grew near, she ran to meet her lover.

“the style of the household” and the memory of “Monsieur,” But instead of Theodore, one of his friends was at the that hovered over everything. Paul and Virginia, the one meeting-place.

aged seven, and the other barely four, seemed made of some He informed her that she would never see her sweetheart precious material; she carried them pig-a-back, and was again; for, in order to escape the conscription, he had mar-greatly mortified when Madame Aubain forbade her to kiss ried a rich old woman, Madame Lehoussais, of Toucques.

them every other minute.

The poor girl’s sorrow was frightful. She threw herself But in spite of all this, she was happy. The comfort of her on the ground, she cried and called on the Lord, and wan-new surroundings had obliterated her sadness.

6

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert Every Thursday, friends of Madame Aubain dropped in ruined and lived at Falaise on the remainder of his estates.

for a game of cards, and it was Felicite’s duty to prepare the He always came at dinner-time and brought an ugly poodle table and heat the foot-warmers. They arrived at exactly with him, whose paws soiled their furniture. In spite of his eight o’clock and departed before eleven.

efforts to appear a man of breeding (he even went so far as Every Monday morning, the dealer in second-hand goods, to raise his hat every time he said “My deceased father”), who lived under the alley-way, spread out his wares on the his habits got the better of him, and he would fill his glass a sidewalk. Then the city would be filled with a buzzing of little too often and relate broad stories. Felicite would show voices in which the neighing of horses, the bleating of lambs, him out very politely and say: “You have had enough for the grunting of pigs, could be distinguished, mingled with this time, Monsieur de Gremanville! Hoping to see you the sharp sound of wheels on the cobble-stones. About twelve again!” and would close the door.

o’clock, when the market was in full swing, there appeared She opened it gladly for Monsieur Bourais, a retired law-at the front door a tall, middle- aged peasant, with a hooked yer. His bald head and white cravat, the ruffling of his shirt, nose and a cap on the back of his head; it was Robelin, the his flowing brown coat, the manner in which he took snuff, farmer of Geffosses. Shortly afterwards came Liebard, the his whole person, in fact, produced in her the kind of awe farmer of Toucques, short, rotund and ruddy, wearing a which we feel when we see extraordinary persons. As he grey jacket and spurred boots.

managed Madame’s estates, he spent hours with her in Both men brought their landlady either chickens or cheese.

Monsieur’s study; he was in constant fear of being compro-Felicite would invariably thwart their ruses and they held mised, had a great regard for the magistracy and some preher in great respect.

tensions to learning.

At various times, Madame Aubain received a visit from In order to facilitate the children’s studies, he presented the Marquis de Gremanville, one of her uncles, who was them with an engraved geography which represented vari-7

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert ous scenes of the world; cannibals with feather head-dresses, till they resounded like drums. Virginia would feed the rab-a gorilla kidnapping a young girl, Arabs in the desert, a bits and run to pick the wild flowers in the fields, and her whale being harpooned, etc.

flying legs would disclose her little embroidered pantalettes.

Paul explained the pictures to Felicite. And, in fact, this One autumn evening, they struck out for home through was her only literary education.

the meadows. The new moon illumined part of the sky and The children’s studies were under the direction of a poor a mist hovered like a veil over the sinuosities of the river.

devil employed at the town-hall, who sharpened his pocket-Oxen, lying in the pastures, gazed mildly at the passing per-knife on his boots and was famous for his penmanship.

sons. In the third field, however, several of them got up and When the weather was fine, they went to Geffosses. The surrounded them. “Don’t be afraid,” cried Felicite; and house was built in the centre of the sloping yard; and the murmuring a sort of lament she passed her hand over the sea looked like a grey spot in the distance. Felicite would back of the nearest ox; he turned away and the others fol-take slices of cold meat from the lunch basket and they lowed. But when they came to the next pasture, they heard would sit down and eat in a room next to the dairy. This frightful bellowing.

room was all that remained of a cottage that had been torn It was a bull which was hidden from them by the fog. He down. The dilapidated wall-paper trembled in the drafts.

advanced towards the two women, and Madame Aubain Madame Aubain, overwhelmed by recollections, would hang prepared to flee for her life. “No, no! not so fast,” warned her head, while the children were afraid to open their Felicite. Still they hurried on, for they could hear the noisy mouths. Then, “Why don’t you go and play?” their mother breathing of the bull behind them. His hoofs pounded the would say; and they would scamper off.

grass like hammers, and presently he began to gallop! Felicite Paul would go to the old barn, catch birds, throw stones turned around and threw patches of grass in his eyes. He into the pond, or pound the trunks of the trees with a stick hung his head, shook his horns and bellowed with fury.

8

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert Madame Aubain and the children, huddled at the end of The baggage was sent the day before on Liebard’s cart.

the field, were trying to jump over the ditch. Felicite con-On the following morning, he brought around two horses, tinued to back before the bull, blinding him with dirt, while one of which had a woman’s saddle with a velveteen back to she shouted to them to make haste.

it, while on the crupper of the other was a rolled shawl that Madame Aubain finally slid into the ditch, after shoving was to be used for a seat. Madame Aubain mounted the first Virginia and then Paul into it, and though she stumbled second horse, behind Liebard. Felicite took charge of the several times she managed, by dint of courage, to climb the little girl, and Paul rode M. Lechaptois’ donkey, which had other side of it.

been lent for the occasion on the condition that they should The bull had driven Felicite up against a fence; the foam be careful of it.

from his muzzle flew in her face and in another minute he The road was so bad that it took two hours to cover the would have disembowelled her. She had just time to slip eight miles. The two horses sank knee-deep into the mud between two bars and the huge animal, thwarted, paused.

and stumbled into ditches; sometimes they had to jump For years, this occurrence was a topic of conversation in over them. In certain places, Liebard’s mare stopped abruptly.

Pont-l’Eveque. But Felicite took no credit to herself, and He waited patiently till she started again, and talked of the probably never knew that she had been heroic.

people whose estates bordered the road, adding his own Virginia occupied her thoughts solely, for the shock she had moral reflections to the outline of their histories. Thus, when sustained gave her a nervous affection, and the physician, M.

they were passing through Toucques, and came to some Poupart, prescribed the salt-water bathing at Trouville. In those windows draped with nasturtiums, he shrugged his shoul-days, Trouville was not greatly patronised. Madame Aubain ders and said: “There’s a woman, Madame Lehoussais, who, gathered information, consulted Bourais, and made prepara-instead of taking a young man —” Felicite could not catch tions as if they were going on an extended trip.

what followed; the horses began to trot, the donkey to gal-9

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert lop, and they turned into a lane; then a gate swung open, blown down, but they had started to grow in the middle two farm-hands appeared and they all dismounted at the and all were laden with quantities of apples. The thatched very threshold of the farm-house.

roofs, which were of unequal thickness, looked like brown Mother Liebard, when she caught sight of her mistress, velvet and could resist the fiercest gales. But the wagon-was lavish with joyful demonstrations. She got up a lunch shed was fast crumbling to ruins. Madame Aubain said that which comprised a leg of mutton, tripe, sausages, a chicken she would attend to it, and then gave orders to have the fricassee, sweet cider, a fruit tart and some preserved prunes; horses saddled.

then to all this the good woman added polite remarks about It took another thirty minutes to reach Trouville. The Madame, who appeared to be in better health, Mademoi-little caravan dismounted in order to pass Les Ecores, a cliff selle, who had grown to be “superb,” and Paul, who had that overhangs the bay, and a few minutes later, at the end become singularly sturdy; she spoke also of their deceased of the dock, they entered the yard of the Golden Lamb, an grandparents, whom the Liebards had known, for they had inn kept by Mother David.

been in the service of the family for several generations.

During the first few days, Virginia felt stronger, owing to Like its owners, the farm had an ancient appearance. The the change of air and the action of the sea-baths. She took beams of the ceiling were mouldy, the walls black with smoke them in her little chemise, as she had no bathing suit, and and the windows grey with dust. The oak sideboard was afterwards her nurse dressed her in the cabin of a customs filled with all sorts of utensils, plates, pitchers, tin bowls, officer, which was used for that purpose by other bathers.

wolf-traps. The children laughed when they saw a huge sy-In the afternoon, they would take the donkey and go to ringe. There was not a tree in the yard that did not have the Roches-Noires, near Hennequeville. The path led at first mushrooms growing around its foot, or a bunch of mistle-through undulating grounds, and thence to a plateau, where toe hanging in its branches. Several of the trees had been pastures and tilled fields alternated. At the edge of the road, 10

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert mingling with the brambles, grew holly bushes, and here below, grew larger and larger as they advanced, and, with and there stood large dead trees whose branches traced zig-all its houses of unequal height, seemed to spread out be-zags upon the blue sky.

fore them in a sort of giddy confusion.

Ordinarily, they rested in a field facing the ocean, with When the heat was too oppressive, they remained in Deauville on their left, and Havre on their right. The sea their rooms. The dazzling sunlight cast bars of light be-glittered brightly in the sun and was as smooth as a mirror, tween the shutters. Not a sound in the village, not a soul and so calm that they could scarcely distinguish its mur-on the sidewalk. This silence intensified the tranquility of mur; sparrows chirped joyfully and the immense canopy of everything. In the distance, the hammers of some calkers heaven spread over it all. Madame Aubain brought out her pounded the hull of a ship, and the sultry breeze brought sewing, and Virginia amused herself by braiding reeds; them an odour of tar.

Felicite wove lavender blossoms, while Paul was bored and The principal diversion consisted in watching the return wished to go home.

of the fishing-smacks. As soon as they passed the beacons, Sometimes they crossed the Toucques in a boat, and started they began to ply to windward. The sails were lowered to to hunt for sea-shells. The outgoing tide exposed star-fish one third of the masts, and with their fore-sails swelled up and sea-urchins, and the children tried to catch the flakes like balloons they glided over the waves and anchored in of foam which the wind blew away. The sleepy waves lap-the middle of the harbour. Then they crept up alongside of ping the sand unfurled themselves along the shore that ex-the dock and the sailors threw the quivering fish over the tended as far as the eye could see, but where land began, it side of the boat; a line of carts was waiting for them, and was limited by the downs which separated it from the women with white caps sprang forward to receive the bas-

“Swamp,” a large meadow shaped like a hippodrome. When kets and embrace their men—folk.

they went home that way, Trouville, on the slope of a hill One day, one of them spoke to Felicite, who, after a little 11

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert while, returned to the house gleefully. She had found one Madame Aubain resigned herself to the separation from of her sisters, and presently Nastasie Barette, wife of Leroux, her son because it was unavoidable. Virginia brooded less made her appearance, holding an infant in her arms, an-and less over it. Felicite regretted the noise he made, but other child by the hand, while on her left was a little cabin-soon a new occupation diverted her mind; beginning from boy with his hands in his pockets and his cap on his ear.

Christmas, she accompanied the little girl to her catechism At the end of fifteen minutes, Madame Aubain bade her lesson every day.

go.

They always hung around the kitchen, or approached CHAPTER III

Felicite when she and the children were out walking. The husband, however, did not show himself.

AFTER SHE HAD MADE A CURTSEY at the threshold, she would Felicite developed a great fondness for them; she bought walk up the aisle between the double lines of chairs, open them a stove, some shirts and a blanket; it was evident that Madame Aubain’s pew, sit down and look around.

they exploited her. Her foolishness annoyed Madame Girls and boys, the former on the right, the latter on the Aubain, who, moreover did not like the nephew’s familiar-left-hand side of the church, filled the stalls of the choir; ity, for he called her son “thou”;— and, as Virginia began to the priest stood beside the reading-desk; on one stained cough and the season was over, she decided to return to window of the side-aisle the Holy Ghost hovered over the Pont-l’Eveque.

Virgin; on another one, Mary knelt before the Child Jesus, Monsieur Bourais assisted her in the choice of a college. The one and behind the alter, a wooden group represented Saint at Caen was considered the best. So Paul was sent away and bravely Michael felling the dragon.

said good-bye to them all, for he was glad to go to live in a house The priest first read a condensed lesson of sacred history.

where he would have boy companions.

Felicite evoked Paradise, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the 12

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert blazing cities, the dying nations, the shattered idols; and they were leaving the church and their wooden shoes clat-out of this she developed a great respect for the Almighty tered on the stone pavement.

and a great fear of His wrath. Then, when she had lis-In this way, she learned her catechism, her religious edu-tened to the Passion, she wept. Why had they crucified cation having been neglected in her youth; and thenceforth Him who loved little children, nourished the people, made she imitated all Virginia’s religious practices, fasted when the blind see, and who, out of humility, had wished to be she did, and went to confession with her. At the Corpus-born among the poor, in a stable? The sowings, the har-Christi Day they both decorated an altar.

vests, the wine-presses, all those familiar things which the She worried in advance over Virginia’s first communion.

Scriptures mention, formed a part of her life; the word of She fussed about the shoes, the rosary, the book and the God sanctified them; and she loved the lambs with in-gloves. With what nervousness she helped the mother dress creased tenderness for the sake of the Lamb, and the doves the child!

because of the Holy Ghost.

During the entire ceremony, she felt anguished. Mon-She found it hard, however, to think of the latter as a sieur Bourais hid part of the choir from view, but directly person, for was it not a bird, a flame, and sometimes only a in front of her, the flock of maidens, wearing white wreaths breath? Perhaps it is its light that at night hovers over swamps, over their lowered veils, formed a snow-white field, and she its breath that propels the clouds, its voice that renders recognised her darling by the slenderness of her neck and church-bells harmonious. And Felicite worshipped devoutly, her devout attitude. The bell tinkled. All the heads bent while enjoying the coolness and the stillness of the church.

and there was a silence. Then, at the peals of the organ the As for the dogma, she could not understand it and did singers and the worshippers struck up the Agnes Dei; the not even try. The priest discoursed, the children recited, boys’ procession began; behind them came the girls. With and she went to sleep, only to awaken with a start when clasped hands, they advanced step by step to the lighted 13

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert altar, knelt at the first step, received one by one the Host, instructions, and smuggled six jars of jam, a dozen pears and returned to their seats in the same order. When Virginia’s and a bunch of violets under the seat.

turn came, Felicite leaned forward to watch her, and through At the last minute, Virginia had a fit of sobbing; she em-that imagination which springs from true affection, she at braced her mother again and again, while the latter kissed once became the child, whose face and dress became hers, her on the forehead, and said: “Now, be brave, be brave!” whose heart beat in her bosom, and when Virginia opened The step was pulled up and the fiacre rumbled off.

her mouth and closed her lids, she did likewise and came Then Madame Aubain had a fainting spell, and that evening very near fainting.

all her friends, including the two Lormeaus, Madame The following day, she presented herself early at the church Lechaptois, the ladies Rochefeuille, Messieurs de Houppeville so as to receive communion from the cure. She took it with and Bourais, called on her and tendered their sympathy.

the proper feeling, but did not experience the same delight At first the separation proved very painful to her. But her as on the previous day.

daughter wrote her three times a week and the other days Madame Aubain wished to make an accomplished girl of she, herself, wrote to Virginia. Then she walked in the gar-her daughter; and as Guyot could not teach English or music, den, read a little, and in this way managed to fill out the she decided to send her to the Ursulines at Honfleur.

emptiness of the hours.

The child made no objection, but Felicite sighed and Each morning, out of habit, Felicite entered Virginia’s thought Madame was heartless. Then, she thought that room and gazed at the walls. She missed combing her hair, perhaps her mistress was right, as these things were beyond lacing her shoes, tucking her in her bed, and the bright face her sphere. Finally, one day, an old fiacre stopped in front and little hand when they used to go out for a walk. In of the door and a nun stepped out. Felicite put Virginia’s order to occupy herself she tried to make lace. But her luggage on top of the carriage, gave the coachman some clumsy fingers broke the threads; she had no heart for any-14

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert thing, lost her sleep and “wasted away,” as she put it.

to produce a sort of embarrassment in their relations.

In order to have some distraction, she asked leave to re-Victor went successively to Morlaix, to Dunkirk, and to ceive the visits of her nephew Victor.

Brighton; whenever he returned from a trip he would bring He would come on Sunday, after church, with ruddy her a present. The first time it was a box of shells; the sec-cheeks and bared chest, bringing with him the scent of the ond, a coffee-cup; the third, a big doll of ginger-bread. He country. She would set the table and they would sit down was growing handsome, had a good figure, a tiny mous-opposite each other, and eat their dinner; she ate as little as tache, kind eyes, and a little leather cap that sat jauntily on possible, herself, to avoid any extra expense, but would stuff the back of his head. He amused his aunt by telling her him so with food that he would finally go to sleep. At the stories mingled with nautical expressions.

first stroke of vespers, she would wake him up, brush his One Monday, the 14th of July, 1819 (she never forgot the trousers, tie his cravat and walk to church with him, lean-date), Victor announced that he had been engaged on a mer-ing on his arm with maternal pride.

chant-vessel and that in two days he would take the steamer His parents always told him to get something out of her, at Honfleur and join his sailer, which was going to start from either a package of brown sugar, or soap, or brandy, and Havre very soon. Perhaps he might be away two years.

sometimes even money. He brought her his clothes to mend, The prospect of his departure filled Felicite with despair, and she accepted the task gladly, because it meant another and in order to bid him farewell, on Wednesday night, after visit from him.

Madame’s dinner, she put on her pattens and trudged the In August, his father took him on a coasting-vessel.

four miles that separated Pont-l’Eveque from Honfleur.

It was vacation time and the arrival of the children con-When she reached the Calvary, instead of turning to the right, she soled Felicite. But Paul was capricious, and Virginia was turned to the left and lost herself in coal-yards; she had to retrace growing too old to be thee-and-thou’d, a fact which seemed her steps; some people she spoke to advised her to hasten. She walked 15

A Simple Soul — Gustave Flaubert helplessly around the harbour filled with vessels, and knocked against for a long w