The Wandering Jew — Complete
arranged to my taste, where I shall live after my own fashion. I have
neither father nor mother, and I owe no account of my actions to any but
myself."
"Upon my word, mademoiselle," said the princess, shrugging her
shoulders, "you talk nonsense. You forget that society has inalienable
moral rights, which we are bound to enforce. And we shall not neglect
them, depend upon it."
"So madame, it is you, and M. d'Aigrigny, and M. Tripeaud, that
represent the morality of society! This appears to me very fine. Is it
because M. Tripeaud has considered (I must acknowledge it) my fortune as
his own? Is it because--"
"Now, really, madame," began Tripeaud.
"In good time, madame," said Adrienne to her aunt, without noticing the
baron, "as the occasion offers, I shall have to ask you for explanations
with regard to certain interests, which have hitherto, I think, been
concealed from me."
These words of Adrienne made D'Aigrigny and the princess start, and then
rapidly exchange a glance of uneasiness and anxiety. Adrienne did
not seem to perceive it, but thus continued: "To have done with your
demands, madame, here is my final resolve. I shall live where and how I
please. I think that, if I were a man, no one would impose on me, at my
age, the harsh and humiliating guardianship you have in view, for living
as I have lived till now--honestly, freely, and generously, in the sight
of all."
"This idea is absurd! is madness!" cried the princess. "To wish to
live thus alone, is to carry immorality and immodesty to their utmost
limits."
"If so, madame," said Adrienne, "what opinion must you entertain of so
many poor girls, orphans like myself, who live alone and free, as I
wish to live? They have not received, as I have, a refined education,
calculated to raise the soul, and purify the heart. They have not
wealth, as I have, to protect them from the evil temptations of misery;
and yet they live honestly and proudly in their distress."
"Vice and virtue do not exist for such tag-rag vermin!" cried Baron
Tripeaud, with an expression of anger and hideous disdain.
"Madame, you would turn away a lackey, that would venture to speak thus
before you," said Adrienne to her aunt, unable to conceal her disgust,
"and yet you oblige me to listen to such speeches!"
The Marquis d'Aigrigny touched M. Tripeaud with his knee under the
table, to remind him that he must not express himself in the princess's
parlors in the same manner as he would in the lobbies of the Exchange.
To repair the baron's coarseness, the abbe thus continued: "There is no
comparison, mademoiselle, between people of the class you name, and a
young lady of your rank."
"For a Catholic priest, M. l'Abbe, that distinction is not very
Christian," replied Adrienne.
"I know the purport of my words, madame," answered the abbe, dryly;
"besides the independent life that you wish to lead, in opposition to
all reason, may tend to very serious consequences for you. Your family
may one day wish to see you married--"
"I will spare my family that trouble, sir, if I marry at all, I will
choose for myself, which also appears to me reasonable enough. But, in
truth, I am very little tempted by that heavy chain, which selfishness
and brutality rivet for ever about our necks."
"It is indecent, madame," said the princess, "to speak so lightly of
such an institution."
"Before you, especially, madame, I beg pardon for having shocked your
highness! You fear that my independent planner of living will frighten
away all wooers; but that is another reason for persisting in my
independence, for I detest wooers. I only hope that they may have the
very worst opinion of me, and there is no better means of effecting that
object, than to appear to live as they live themselves. I rely upon my
whims, my follies, my sweet faults, to preserve me from the annoyance of
any matrimonial hunting."
"You will be quite satisfied on that head," resumed Madame de Saint
Dizier, "if unfortunately the report should gain credit, that you have
carried the forgetfulness of all duty and decency, to such a height, as
to return home at eight o'clock in the morning. So I am told is the case
but I cannot bring myself to believe such an enormity."
"You are wrong, madame, for it is quite true."
"So you confess it?" cried the princess.
"I confess all that I do, madame. I came home this morning at eight
o'clock."
"You hear Gentlemen?" ejaculated the princess.
"Oh!" said M. d'Aigrigny, in a bass voice.
"Ah!" said the baron, in a treble key.
"Oh!" muttered the doctor, with a deep sigh.
On hearing these lamentable exclamations, Adrienne seemed about to
speak, perhaps to justify herself; but her lip speedily assumed a
curl of contempt, which showed that she disdained to stoop to any
explanation.
"So it is true," said the princess. "Oh, wretched girl, you had
accustomed me to be astonished at nothing; but, nevertheless, I doubted
the possibility of such conduct. It required your impudent and audacious
reply to convince the of the fact."
"Madame, lying has always appeared to be more impudent than to speak the
truth."
"And where had you been, madame? and for what?"
"Madame," said Adrienne, interrupting her aunt, "I never speak
false--but neither do I speak more than I choose; and then again, it
were cowardice to defend myself from a revolting accusation. Let us say
no more about it: your importunities on this head will be altogether
vain. To resume: you wish to impose upon me a harsh and humiliating
restraint; I wish to quit the house I inhabit, to go and live where I
please, at my own fancy. Which of us two will yield, remains to be seen.
Now for another matter: this mansion belongs to me! As I am about to
leave it, I am indifferent whether you continue to live here or not;
but the ground floor is uninhabited. It contains, besides the
reception-rooms, two complete sets of apartments; I have let them for
some time."
"Indeed!" said the princess, looking at D'Aigrigny with intense
surprise. "And to whom," she added ironically, "have you disposed of
them?"
"To three members of my family."
"What does all this mean?" said Mme. de Saint-Dizier, more and more
astonished.
"It means, madame, that I wish to offer a generous hospitality to a
young Indian prince, my kinsman on my mother's side. He will arrive in
two or three days, and I wish to have the rooms ready to receive him."
"You hear, gentlemen?" said D'Aigrigny to the doctor and Tripeaud, with
an affectation of profound stupor.
"It surpasses all one could imagine!" exclaimed the baron.
"Alas!" observed the doctor, benignantly, "the impulse is generous in
itself--but the mad little head crops out?"
"Excellent!" said the princes. "I cannot prevent you madame, from
announcing the most extravagant designs but it is presumable that you
will not stop short in so fair a path. Is that all?"
"Not quite, your highness. I learned this morning, that two of my female
relations, also on my mother's side--poor children of fifteen--orphan
daughters of Marshal Simon arrived yesterday from a long journey, and
are now with the wife of the brave soldier who brought them to France
from the depths of Siberia."
At these words from Adrienne, D'Aigrigny and the princess could not help
starting suddenly, and staring at each other with affright, so far were
they from expecting that Mdlle. de Cardoville was informed of the coming
of Marshal Simon's daughters. This discovery was like a thunder-clap to
them.
"You are no doubt astonished at seeing me so well informed," said
Adrienne; "fortunately, before I have done, I hope to astonish you still
more. But to return to these daughters of Marshal Simon: your highness
will understand, that it is impossible for me to leave them in charge of
the good people who have afforded them a temporary asylum. Though this
family is honest, and hard-working, it is not the place for them. I
shall go and fetch them hither, and lodge them in apartments on the
ground-floor, along with the soldier's wife, who will do very well to
take care of them."
Upon these words, D'Aigrigny and the baron looked at each other, and the
baron exclaimed: "Decidedly, she's out of her head."
Without a word to Tripeaud, Adrienne continued: "Marshal Simon cannot
fail to arrive at Paris shortly. Your highness perceives how pleasant it
will he, to be able to present his daughters to him, and prove that they
have been treated as they deserve. To-morrow morning I shall send for
milliners and mantua makers, so that they may want for nothing. I desire
their surprised father, on his return, to find them every way beautiful.
They are pretty, I am told, as angels--but I will endeavor to make
little Cupids of them."
"At last, madame, you must have finished?" said the princess, in a
sardonic and deeply irritated tone, whilst D'Aigrigny, calm and cold in
appearance, could hardly dissemble his mental anguish.
"Try again!" continued the princess, addressing Adrienne. "Are there no
more relations that you wish to add to this interesting family-group?
Really a queen could not act with more magnificence."
"Right! I wish to give my family a royal reception--such as is due to
the son of a king, and the daughters of the Duke de Ligny. It is well to
unite other luxuries of life with the luxury of the hospitable heart."
"The maxim is assuredly generous," said the princess, becoming more and
more agitated; "it is only a pity that you do not possess the mines of
El Dorado to make it practicable."
"It was on the subject of a mine, said to be a rich one, that I also
wished to speak to your highness. Could I find a better opportunity?
Though my fortune is already considerable, it is nothing to what may
come to our family at any moment. You will perhaps excuse, therefore,
what you are pleased to call my royal prodigalities."
D'Aigrigny's dilemma became momentarily more and more thorny. The affair
of the medals was so important, that he had concealed it even from
Dr. Baleinier, though he had called in his services to forward immense
interests. Neither had Tripeaud been informed of it, for the princess
believed that she had destroyed every vestige of those papers of
Adrienne's father, which might have put him on the scent of this
discovery. The abbe, therefore was not only greatly alarmed that Mdlle.
de Cardoville might be informed of this secret, but he trembled lest she
should divulge it.
The princess, sharing the alarms of D'Aigrigny, interrupted her niece by
exclaiming: "Madame, there are certain family affairs which ought to be
kept secret, and, without exactly understanding to what you allude, I
must request you to change the subject."
"What, madame! are we not here a family party? Is that not sufficiently
evident by the somewhat ungracious things that have been here said?"
"No matter, madame! when affairs of interest are concerned, which
are more or less disputable, it is perfectly useless to speak of them
without the documents laid before every one."
"And of what have we been speaking this hour, madame, if not of
affairs of interest? I really do not understand your surprise and
embarrassment."
"I am neither surprised nor embarrassed, madame; but for the last two
hours, you have obliged me to listen to so many new and extravagant
things, that a little amaze is very permissible."
"I beg your highness's pardon, but you are very much embarrassed," said
Adrienne, looking fixedly at her aunt, "and M. d'Aigrigny also--which
confirms certain suspicions that I have not had the time to clear up.
Have I then guessed rightly?" she added, after a pause. "We will see--"
"Madame, I command you to be silent," cried the princess, no longer
mistress of herself.