Short Stories, vol 6 | Page 4

THE
HAND A TRESS OF HAIR ON THE RIVER THE CRIPPLE A
STROLL ALEXANDRE THE LOG JULIE ROMAINE THE
RONDOLI SISTERS

THAT COSTLY RIDE
The household lived frugally on the meager income derived from the
husband's insignificant appointments. Two children had been born of
the marriage, and the earlier condition of the strictest economy had
become one of quiet, concealed, shamefaced misery, the poverty of a
noble family--which in spite of misfortune never forgets its rank.
Hector de Gribelin had been educated in the provinces, under the
paternal roof, by an aged priest. His people were not rich, but they
managed to live and to keep up appearances.
At twenty years of age they tried to find him a position, and he entered
the Ministry of Marine as a clerk at sixty pounds a year. He foundered
on the rock of life like all those who have not been early prepared for
its rude struggles, who look at life through a mist, who do not know
how to protect themselves, whose special aptitudes and faculties have
not been developed from childhood, whose early training has not
developed the rough energy needed for the battle of life or furnished
them with tool or weapon.
His first three years of office work were a martyrdom.
He had, however, renewed the acquaintance of a few friends of his
family --elderly people, far behind the times, and poor like himself,
who lived in aristocratic streets, the gloomy thoroughfares of the
Faubourg Saint- Germain; and he had created a social circle for
himself.
Strangers to modern life, humble yet proud, these needy aristocrats
lived in the upper stories of sleepy, old-world houses. From top to
bottom of their dwellings the tenants were titled, but money seemed
just as scarce on the ground floor as in the attics.
Their eternal prejudices, absorption in their rank, anxiety lest they
should lose caste, filled the minds and thoughts of these families once
so brilliant, now ruined by the idleness of the men of the family. Hector
de Gribelin met in this circle a young girl as well born and as poor as
himself and married her.
They had two children in four years.
For four years more the husband and wife, harassed by poverty, knew
no other distraction than the Sunday walk in the Champs-Elysees and a
few evenings at the theatre (amounting in all to one or two in the course
of the winter) which they owed to free passes presented by some

comrade or other.
But in the spring of the following year some overtime work was
entrusted to Hector de Gribelin by his chief, for which he received the
large sum of three hundred francs.
The day he brought the money home he said to his wife:
"My dear Henrietta, we must indulge in some sort of festivity--say an
outing for the children."
And after a long discussion it was decided that they should go and
lunch one day in the country.
"Well," cried Hector, "once will not break us, so we'll hire a wagonette
for you, the children and the maid. And I'll have a saddle horse; the
exercise will do me good."
The whole week long they talked of nothing but the projected
excursion.
Every evening, on his return from the office, Hector caught up his elder
son, put him astride his leg, and, making him bounce up and down as
hard as he could, said:
"That's how daddy will gallop next Sunday."
And the youngster amused himself all day long by bestriding chairs,
dragging them round the room and shouting:
"This is daddy on horseback!"
The servant herself gazed at her master with awestruck eyes as she
thought of him riding alongside the carriage, and at meal-times she
listened with all her ears while he spoke of riding and recounted the
exploits of his youth, when he lived at home with his father. Oh, he had
learned in a good school, and once he felt his steed between his legs he
feared nothing--nothing whatever!
Rubbing his hands, he repeated gaily to his wife:
"If only they would give me a restive animal I should be all the better
pleased. You'll see how well I can ride; and if you like we'll come back
by the Champs-Elysees just as all the people are returning from the
Bois. As we shall make a good appearance, I shouldn't at all object to
meeting some one from the ministry. That is all that is necessary to
insure the respect of one's chiefs."
On the day appointed the carriage and the riding horse arrived at the
same moment before the door. Hector went down immediately to
examine his mount. He had had straps sewn to his trousers and

flourished in his hand a whip he had bought the evening before.