Nisida | Page 8

that no one
found any fault with it, and it had only attracted notice when everyone
was benefiting by it, like those fine trees whose growth is only
observed when we profit by their shade. If any dispute arose in the

island, the two opponents preferred to abide by the judgment of the
fisherman instead of going before the court; he was fortunate enough or
clever enough to send away both parties satisfied. He knew what
remedies to prescribe better than any physician, for it seldom happened
that he or his had not felt the same ailments, and his knowledge,
founded on personal experience, produced the most excellent results.
Moreover, he had no interest, as ordinary doctors have, in prolonging
illnesses. For many years past the only formality recognised as a
guarantee for the inviolability of a contract had been the intervention of
the fisherman. Each party shook hands with Solomon, and the thing
was done. They would rather have thrown themselves into Vesuvius at
the moment of its most violent eruption than have broken so solemn an
agreement. At the period when our story opens, it was impossible to
find any person in the island who had not felt the effects of the
fisherman's generosity, and that without needing to confess to him any
necessities. As it was the custom for the little populace of Nisida to
spend its leisure hours before Solomon's cottage, the old man, while he
walked slowly among the different groups, humming his favourite song,
discovered moral and physical weaknesses as he passed; and the same
evening he or his daughter would certainly be seen coming
mysteriously to bestow a benefit upon every sufferer, to lay a balm
upon every wound. In short, he united in his person all those
occupations whose business is to help mankind. Lawyers, doctors, and
the notary, all the vultures of civilisation, had beaten a retreat before
the patriarchal benevolence of the fisherman. Even the priest had
capitulated.
On the morrow of the Feast of the Assumption, Solomon was sitting, as
his habit was, on a stone bench in front of his house, his legs crossed
and his arms carelessly stretched out. At the first glance you would
have taken him for sixty at the outside, though he was really over
eighty. He had all his teeth, which were as white as pearls, and showed
them proudly. His brow, calm and restful beneath its crown of
abundant white hair, was as firm and polished as marble; not a wrinkle
ruffled the corner of his eye, and the gem-like lustre of his blue orbs
revealed a freshness of soul and an eternal youth such as fable grants to
the sea-gods. He displayed his bare arms and muscular neck with an old
man's vanity. Never had a gloomy idea, an evil prepossession, or a keen

remorse, arisen to disturb his long and peaceful life. He had never seen
a tear flow near him without hurrying to wipe it; poor though he was,
he had succeeded in pouring out benefits that all the kings of the earth
could not have bought with their gold; ignorant though he was, he had
spoken to his fellows the only language that they could understand, the
language of the heart. One single drop of bitterness had mingled with
his inexhaustible stream of happiness; one grief only had clouded his
sunny life--the death of his wife--and moreover he had forgotten that.
All the affections of his soul were turned upon Nisida, whose birth had
caused her mother's death; he loved her with that immoderate love that
old people have for the youngest of their children. At the present
moment he was gazing upon her with an air of profound rapture, and
watching her come and go, as she now joined the groups of children
and scolded them for games too dangerous or too noisy; now seated
herself on the grass beside their mothers and took part with grave and
thoughtful interest in their talk. Nisida was more beautiful thus than she
had been the day before; with the vaporous cloud of perfume that had
folded her round from head to foot had disappeared all that mystic
poetry which put a sort of constraint upon her admirers and obliged
them to lower their glances. She had become a daughter of Eve again
without losing anything of her charm. Simply dressed, as she usually
was on work-days, she was distinguishable among her companions
only by her amazing beauty and by the dazzling whiteness of her skin.
Her beautiful black hair was twisted in plaits around the little dagger of
chased silver, that has lately been imported into Paris by that right of
conquest which the pretty women of Paris have over the fashions of all
countries, like the English over the sea.