The Wandering Jew — Complete
fancied she had seen her, furtively enter by the little garden gate.
CHAPTER XXXIV. ADRIENNE AT HER TOILET.
About an hour had elapsed since Mrs. Grivois had seen or pretended to
have seen Adrienne de Cardoville re-enter in the morning the extension
of Saint-Dizier House.
It is for the purpose, not of excusing, but of rendering intelligible,
the following scenes, that it is deemed necessary to bring out into the
light some striking peculiarities in the truly original character of
Miss de Cardoville.
This originality consisted in an excessive independence of mind, joined
to a natural horror of whatsoever is repulsive or deformed, and to
an insatiable desire of being surrounded by everything attractive and
beautiful. The painter most delighted with coloring and beauty, the
sculptor most charmed by proportions of form, feel not more than
Adrienne did the noble enthusiasm which the view of perfect beauty
always excites in the chosen favorites of nature.
And it was not only the pleasures of sight which this young lady
loved to gratify: the harmonious modulations of song, the melody of
instruments, the cadences of poetry, afforded her infinite pleasures;
while a harsh voice or a discordant noise made her feel the same painful
impression, or one nearly as painful as that which she involuntarily
experienced from the sight of a hideous object. Passionately fond of
flowers, too, and of their sweet scents, there are some perfumes which
she enjoyed equally with the delights of music or those of plastic
beauty. It is necessary, alas, to acknowledge one enormity: Adrienne was
dainty in her food! She valued more than any one else the fresh pulp
of handsome fruit, the delicate savor of a golden pheasant, cooked to a
turn, and the odorous cluster of a generous vine.
But Adrienne enjoyed all these pleasures with an exquisite reserve. She
sought religiously to cultivate and refine the senses given her. She
would have deemed it black ingratitude to blunt those divine gifts by
excesses, or to debase them by unworthy selections of objects upon which
to exercise them; a fault from which, indeed, she was preserved by the
excessive and imperious delicacy of her taste.
The BEAUTIFUL and the UGLY occupied for her the places which GOOD and
EVIL holds for others.
Her devotion to grace, elegance, and physical beauty, had led her also
to the adoration of moral beauty; for if the expression of a low and bad
passion render uncomely the most beautiful countenances, those which
are in themselves the most ugly are ennobled, on the contrary, by the
expression of good feelings and generous sentiments.
In a word, Adrienne was the most complete, the most ideal
personification of SENSUALITY--not of vulgar, ignorant, non intelligent,
mistaken sensuousness which is always deceit ful and corrupted by habit
or by the necessity for gross and ill-regulated enjoyments, but that
exquisite sensuality which is to the senses what intelligence is to the
soul.
The independence of this young lady's character was extreme. Certain
humiliating subjections imposed upon her success by its social position,
above all things were revolting to her, and she had the hardihood
to resolve to withdraw herself from them. She was a woman, the most
womanish that it is possible to imagine--a woman in her timidity as well
as in her audacity--a woman in her hatred of the brutal despotism of
men, as well as in her intense disposition to self-devoting herself,
madly even and blindly, to him who should merit such a devotion from
her--a woman whose piquant wit was occasionally paradoxical--a superior
woman, in brief, who entertained a well-grounded disdain and contempt
for certain men either placed very high or greatly adulated, whom she
had from time to time met in the drawing-room of her aunt, the Princess
Saint-Dizier, when she resided with her.
These indispensable explanations being given, we usher, the reader into
the presence of Adrienne de Cardoville, who had just come out of the
bath.
It would require all the brilliant colorings of the Venetian school to
represent that charming scene, which would rather seem to have occurred
in the sixteenth century, in some palace of Florence or Bologna, than in
Paris, in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, in the month of February, 1832.
Adrienne's dressing-room was a kind of miniature temple seemingly one
erected and dedicated to the worship of beauty, in gratitude to the
Maker who has lavished so many charms upon woman, not to be neglected by
her, or to cover and conceal them with ashes, or to destroy them by
the contact of her person with sordid and harsh haircloth; but in order
that, with fervent gratitude for the divine gifts wherewith she is
endowed, she may enhance her charms with all the illusions of grace and
all the splendors of apparel, so as to glorify the divine work of her
own perfections in the eyes of all. Daylight was admitted into this
semicircular apartment, through one of those double windows, contrived
for the preservation of heat, so happily imported from Germany. The
walls of the pavilion being constructed of stone of great thickness, the
depth of the aperture for the windows was therefore very great. That of
Adrienne's dressing-room was closed on the outside by a sash containing
a single large pane of plate glass, and within, by another large plate
of ground glass. In the interval or space of about three feet left
between these two transparent enclosures, there was a case or box filled
with furze mould, whence sprung forth climbing plants, which, directed
round the ground glass, formed a rich garland of leaves and flowers. A
garnet damask tapestry, rich with harmoniously blended arabesques, in
the purest style, covered the walls and a thick carpet of similar color
was extended over the floor: and this sombre ground, presented by the
floor and walls, marvellously enhanced the effects of all the harmonious
ornaments and decorations of the chamber.
Under the window, opposite to the south, was placed Adrienne's dressing
case, a real masterpiece of the skill of the goldsmith. Upon a large
tablet of lapis-lazuli, there were scattered boxes of jewels, their
lids precisely enamelled; several scent boxes of rock crystal, and other
implements and utensils of the toilet, some formed of shells, some of
mother-of-pearl, and others of ivory, covered with ornaments of gold in
extraordinary taste. Two large figures, modelled in silver with antique
purity; supported an oval swing mirror, which had for its rim, in place
of a frame curiously carved, a fresh garland of natural flowers, renewed
every day like a nosegay for a ball.
Two enormous Japanese vases, of purple and gold, three feet each in
diameter, were placed upon the carpet on each side of the toilet, and,
filled with camellias, ibiscures, and cape jasmine, in full flower
formed a sort of grove, diversified with the most brilliant colors. At
the farther end of the apartment, opposite the casement, was to be seen,
surrounded by another mass of flowers, a reduction in white marble of
the enchanting group of Daphnis and Chloe, the more chaste ideal of
graceful modesty and youthful beauty.
Two golden lamps burned perfumes upon the same pedestal which supported
those two charming figures. A coffer of frosted silver, set off with
small figures in jewelry and precious stones, and supported on four
feet of gilt bronze, contained various necessaries for the toilette;
two frosted Psyches, decorated with diamond ear-rings; some excellent
drawings from Raphael and Titian, painted by Adrienne herself,
consisting of portraits of both men and women of exquisite beauty;
several consoles of oriental jasper, supporting ewers and basins of
silver and of silver gilt, richly chased and filled with scented waters;
a voluptuously rich divan, some seats, and an illuminated gilt fable,
completed the furniture of this chamber, the atmosphere of which was
impregnated with the sweetest perfumes.
Adrienne, whom her attendants had just helped from the bath, was seated
before her toilette, her three women surrounding her. By a caprice, or
rather by a necessary and logical impulse of her soul, filled as it
was with the love of beauty and of harmony in all things, Adrienne had
wished the young women who served her to be very pretty, and be dressed
with attention and with a charming originality. We have already seen
Georgette, a piquante blonde, attired in her attractive costume of an
intriguing lady's maid of Marivaux; and her two companions were quite
equal to her both in gracefulness and gentility.
One of them, named Florine, a tall, delicately slender, and elegant
girl, with the air and form of Diana Huntress, was of a pale brown
complexion. Her thick black hair was turned up behind, where it was
fastened with a long golden pin. Like the two other girls, her arms were
uncovered to facilitate the performance of her duties about and upon the
person of her charming mistress. She wore a dress of that gay green so
familiar to the Venetian painters. Her petticoat was very ample. Her
slender waist curved in from under the plaits of a tucker of white
cambric, plaited in five minute folds, and fastened by five gold
buttons. The third of Adrienne's women had a face so fresh and
ingenuous, a waist so delicate, so pleasing, and so finished, that her
mistress had given her the name of Hebe. Her dress of a delicate rose
color, and Grecian cut, displayed her charming neck, and her beautiful
arms up to the very shoulders. The physiognomy of these three young
women was laughter loving and happy. On their features there was no
expression of that bitter sullenness, willing and hated obedience, or
offensive familiarity, or base and degraded deference, which are the
ordinary results of a state of servitude. In the zealous eagerness of
the cares and attentions which they lavished upon Adrienne, there seemed
to be at least as much of affection as of deference and respect. They
appeared to derive an ardent pleasure from the services which they
rendered to their lovely mistress. One would have thought that they
attached to the dressing and embellishment of her person all the merits
and the enjoyment arising from the execution of a work of art, in the
accomplishing of which, fruitful of delights, they were stimulated by
the passions of love, of pride, and of joy.
The sun beamed brightly upon the toilet-case, placed in front of the
window. Adrienne was seated on a chair, its back elevated a little
more than usual. She was enveloped in a long morning-gown of blue silk,
embroidered with a leaf of the same color, which was fitted close to her
waist, as exquisitely slender and delicate as that of a child of twelve
years, by a girdle with floating tags. Her neck, delicately slender
and flexible as a bird's, was uncovered, as were also her shoulders and
arms, and all were of incomparable beauty. Despite the vulgarity of
the comparison, the purest ivory alone can give an idea of the dazzling
whiteness of her polished satin skin, of a texture so fresh and so firm,
that some drops of water, collected and still remaining about the
roots of her hair from the bath, rolled in serpentine lines over her
shoulders, like pearls, or beads, of crystal, over white marble.
And what gave enhanced lustre to this wondrous carnation, known but to
auburn-headed beauties, was the deep purple of her, humid lips,--the
roseate transparency of her small ears, of her dilated nostrils, and
her nails, as bright and glossy, as if they had been varnished. In every
spot, indeed, where her pure arterial blood, full of animation and
heat, could make its way to the skin and shine through the surface, it
proclaimed her high health and the vivid life and joyous buoyancy of her