Parisian Points of View | Page 8

"The first eight days don't count."
"I will continue, rest assured. I love you, besides. I love you, and do
you know why? It is because you are not a man of the past; you are
distinctly modern, very modern. Look at him, Aunt Louise. Isn't he
very nice, very well turned out, very modern, in fact--I repeat it--in his
little pearl-gray suit. He is devoted to his clothes. He consults for hours
and hours with his tailor, which delights me, for I intend to consult for
hours and hours with my dress-maker. And he will pay the bills without
a tremor, for he will be charmed to see me very stylish and very much
admired. Ah, we shall make the most brilliant and most giddy little
couple! He is modern, I shall be modern, we shall be modern! After
three, four, or five weeks (we do not know exactly) dedicated to pure
love, we shall take flight towards the country, where one has a good
time; and then we shall be talked about, Aunt Louise, we shall be
talked about. And now, where was I in my story? I am sure I do not
know at all."
"Nor I."
"Nor I."
"Ah, I know. Mme. de Courtalin had come to ask my hand for her
honorable son, and when mamma had spoken to me of that I had
exclaimed, 'Sooner the convent!' I do not know exactly what mamma
said to Mme. de Courtalin--at any rate, I was left alone for the time
being. There was a rush to the Grand Prix, and then a general
breaking-up. We went to spend a month at Aix-les-Bains for papa's
complaint, and then a fortnight here, Aunt Louise; and then, do you
remember, you received the confessions of my poor torn heart. Ah! I
must say you are the only young member of the family--you were the
only one who did not make a long face when I spoke of my love for

that rogue. Mamma, however, had preached to you, and you vaunted
the advantages of an alliance with Courtalin, but without conviction. I
felt that you were at bottom on my side against mamma, and it was so
easily explained--mamma could not understand me, whereas you! They
think we little girls know nothing, and we know everything. I knew that
mamma had made a worldly marriage, which had, however, turned out
very well; and you, Aunt Louise, had married for love. You must have
battled to get the husband you wished, and you had him, and you
resolutely conquered your happiness. Yes, I knew all that; I dared even
to allude to those things of the past, and those memories brought a
smile to your lips and tears to your eyes. And to-day again, Aunt
Louise, there it is, the smile, and there are the tears."
Marceline interrupted her talk, affectionately threw herself on her Aunt
Louise's neck, and kissed her with all her heart. She wiped away the
tears with kisses, and only the smile remained. Yes, Aunt Louise
remembered that she had had hard work to get as husband a certain
handsome officer of the Royal Guard, who was there present at the
scene, in an old decorated frame, standing up with his helmet on his
head in a martial attitude, leaning on the hilt of his cavalry sabre.
He, too, had been modern, that conqueror of the Trocadero, when he
entered Madrid in 1822 on the staff of the Duke of Angoulême. And
she, too, old Aunt Louise, had been modern, very modern, the day
when, from a window of the Palace of the Tuileries, during a military
parade, she had murmured this phrase in her mother's ear: "Mamma,
there is the one I love."
"Ah, how cowardly we are!" exclaimed Marceline, abruptly, changing
her tone. "Yes, how cowardly we are to love them--those, those
dreadful men, who know so little how to care for us. I say that for
Gontran. What was he doing while I was telling you my sorrows, Aunt
Louise? Quite calmly taking a trip around the world. But let him speak
now, let him speak, especially as I cannot any more. In all my life I
have never made so long a speech. Speak, sir; why were you going
round the world?"
"Because your mother, on the morning of the day before you departed
for Aix-les-Bains, had had a very long conversation with me."
"And she had said to you?"
"She had said to me, 'Put a stop to this; marry her or go away, and let

her not hear of you again till her marriage.' And as I had for some time
been debating whether to take a little trip to Japan, I started for Japan."
"He started for Japan! That goes without