Gobseck | Page 9

house, and looked into a dark courtyard
where the sunlight never shines. The porter's lodge was grimy, the
window looked like the sleeve of some shabby wadded gown-- greasy,
dirty, and full of holes.
" ' "Mlle. Fanny Malvaut?"
" ' "She has gone out; but if you have come about a bill, the money is
waiting for you."
" ' "I will look in again," said I.
" 'As soon as I knew that the porter had the money for me, I wanted to
know what the girl was like; I pictured her as pretty. The rest of the
morning I spent in looking at the prints in the shop windows along the
boulevard; then, just as it struck twelve, I went through the Countess'
ante-chamber.
" ' "Madame has just this minute rung for me," said the maid; "I don't
think she can see you yet."
" ' "I will wait," said I, and sat down in an easy-chair.
" 'Venetian shutters were opened, and presently the maid came hurrying
back.
" ' "Come in, sir."
" 'From the sweet tone of the girl's voice, I knew that the mistress could

not be ready to pay. What a handsome woman it was that I saw in
another moment! She had flung an Indian shawl hastily over her bare
shoulders, covering herself with it completely, while it revealed the
bare outlines of the form beneath. She wore a loose gown trimmed with
snowy ruffles, which told plainly that her laundress' bills amounted to
something like two thousand francs in the course of a year. Her dark
curls escaped from beneath a bright Indian handkerchief, knotted
carelessly about her head after the fashion of Creole women. The bed
lay in disorder that told of broken slumber. A painter would have paid
money to stay a while to see the scene that I saw. Under the luxurious
hanging draperies, the pillow, crushed into the depths of an eider- down
quilt, its lace border standing out in contrast against the background of
blue silk, bore a vague impress that kindled the imagination. A pair of
satin slippers gleamed from the great bear-skin rug spread by the
carved mahogany lions at the bed-foot, where she had flung them off in
her weariness after the ball. A crumpled gown hung over a chair, the
sleeves touching the floor; stockings which a breath would have blown
away were twisted about the leg of an easy-chair; while ribbon garters
straggled over a settee. A fan of price, half unfolded, glittered on the
chimney-piece. Drawers stood open; flowers, diamonds, gloves, a
bouquet, a girdle, were littered about. The room was full of vague
sweet perfume. And--beneath all the luxury and disorder, beauty and
incongruity, I saw Misery crouching in wait for her or for her adorer,
Misery rearing its head, for the Countess had begun to feel the edge of
those fangs. Her tired face was an epitome of the room strewn with
relics of past festival. The scattered gewgaws, pitiable this morning,
when gathered together and coherent, had turned heads the night
before.
" 'What efforts to drink of the Tantalus cup of bliss I could read in these
traces of love stricken by the thunderbolt remorse--in this visible
presentment of a life of luxury, extravagance, and riot. There were faint
red marks on her young face, signs of the fineness of the skin; but her
features were coarsened, as it were, and the circles about her eyes were
unwontedly dark. Nature nevertheless was so vigorous in her, that these
traces of past folly did not spoil her beauty. Her eyes glittered. She
looked like some Herodias of da Vinci's (I have dealt in pictures), so

magnificently full of life and energy was she; there was nothing starved
nor stinted in feature or outline; she awakened desire; it seemed to me
that there was some passion in her yet stronger than love. I was taken
with her. It was a long while since my heart had throbbed; so I was paid
then and there-- for I would give a thousand francs for a sensation that
should bring me back memories of youth.
" ' "Monsieur," she said, finding a chair for me, "will you be so good as
to wait?"
" ' "Until this time to-morrow, madame," I said, folding up the bill
again. "I cannot legally protest this bill any sooner." And within myself
I said--"Pay the price of your luxury, pay for your name, pay for your
ease, pay for the monopoly which you enjoy! The rich have invented
judges and courts of law to secure their goods, and the guillotine--that
candle in which so many lie in silk, under silken coverlets, there is
remorse, and grinding of teeth beneath a smile, and those fantastical
lions'