Short Stories, vol 10 | Page 7

good rustic meal, simple and abundant,
long and tranquil. And while we were dining I noticed the special kind
of friendly familiarity which had struck me from the start between the
baron and the peasant.

Outside, the beeches continued sighing in the night wind, and our two
dogs, shut up in a shed, were whining and howling in an uncanny
fashion. The fire was dying out in the big fireplace. The maid-servant
had gone to bed. Maitre Lebrument said in his turn:
"If you don't mind, M'sieu le Baron, I'm going to bed. I am not used to
staying up late."
The baron extended his hand toward him and said: "Go, my friend," in
so cordial a tone that I said, as soon as the man had disappeared:
"He is devoted to you, this farmer?"
"Better than that, my dear fellow! It is a drama, an old drama, simple
and very sad, that attaches him to me. Here is the story:
"You know that my father was colonel in a cavalry regiment. His
orderly was this young fellow, now an old man, the son of a farmer.
When my father retired from the army he took this former soldier, then
about forty; as his servant. I was at that time about thirty. We were
living in our old chateau of Valrenne, near Caudebec-en-Caux.
"At this period my mother's chambermaid was one of the prettiest girls
you could see, fair-haired, slender and sprightly in manner, a genuine
soubrette of the old type that no longer exists. To-day these creatures
spring up into hussies before their time. Paris, with the aid of the
railways, attracts them, calls them, takes hold of them, as soon as they
are budding into womanhood, these little sluts who in old times
remained simple maid-servants. Every man passing by, as recruiting
sergeants did formerly, looking for recruits, with conscripts, entices and
ruins them-- these foolish lassies--and we have now only the scum of
the female sex for servant maids, all that is dull, nasty, common and
ill-formed, too ugly, even for gallantry.
"Well, this girl was charming, and I often gave her a kiss in dark
corners; nothing more, I swear to you! She was virtuous, besides; and I
had some respect for my mother's house, which is more than can be
said of the blackguards of the present day.
"Now, it happened that my man-servant, the ex-soldier, the old farmer
you have just seen, fell madly in love with this girl, perfectly daft. The
first thing we noticed was that he forgot everything, he paid no
attention to anything.
"My father said incessantly:
"'See here, Jean, what's the matter with you? Are you ill?'

"He replied:
"'No, no, M'sieu le Baron. There's nothing the matter with me.'
"He grew thin; he broke glasses and let plates fall when waiting on the
table. We thought he must have been attacked by some nervous
affection, and sent for the doctor, who thought he could detect
symptoms of spinal disease. Then my father, full of anxiety about his
faithful man-servant, decided to place him in a private hospital. When
the poor fellow heard of my father's intentions he made a clean breast
of it.
"'M'sieu le Baron'
"'Well, my boy?'
"'You see, the thing I want is not physic.'
"'Ha! what is it, then?'
"'It's marriage!'
"My father turned round and stared at him in astonishment.
"'What's that you say, eh?'
"'It's marriage."
"'Marriage! So, then, you jackass, you're to love.'
"'That's how it is, M'sieu le Baron.'
"And my father began to laugh so immoderately that my mother called
out through the wall of the next room:
"'What in the world is the matter with you, Gontran?'
"He replied:
"'Come here, Catherine.'
"And when she came in he told her, with tears in his eyes from sheer
laughter, that his idiot of a servant-man was lovesick.
"But my mother, instead of laughing, was deeply affected.
"'Who is it that you have fallen in love with, my poor fellow?' she
asked.
"He answered without hesitation:
"'With Louise, Madame le Baronne.'
"My mother said with the utmost gravity: 'We must try to arrange this
matter the best way we can.'
"So Louise was sent for and questioned by my mother; and she said in
reply that she knew all about Jean's liking for her, that in fact Jean had
spoken to her about it several times, but that she did not want him. She
refused to say why.

"And two months elapsed during which my father and mother never
ceased to urge this girl to marry Jean. As she declared she was not in
love with any other man, she could not give any serious reason for her
refusal. My father at last overcame her resistance by means of a big
present of