The Marriage Contract | Page 9

Evangelista's, partly to occupy his
vacant hours, which were harder for him to employ than for most men.
There alone he breathed the atmosphere of grandeur and luxury to
which he was accustomed.
At forty years of age, Madame Evangelista was beautiful, with the
beauty of those glorious summer sunsets which crown a cloudless day.
Her spotless reputation had given an endless topic of conversation to
the Bordeaux cliques; the curiosity of the women was all the more
lively because the widow gave signs of the temperament which makes a
Spanish woman and a Creole particularly noted. She had black eyes
and hair, the feet and form of a Spanish woman,--that swaying form the
movements of which have a name in Spain. Her face, still beautiful,
was particularly seductive for its Creole complexion, the vividness of
which can be described only by comparing it to muslin overlying
crimson, so equally is the whiteness suffused with color. Her figure,
which was full and rounded, attracted the eye by a grace which united
nonchalance with vivacity, strength with ease. She attracted and she
imposed, she seduced, but promised nothing. She was tall, which gave
her at times the air and carriage of a queen. Men were taken by her
conversation like birds in a snare; for she had by nature that genius

which necessity bestows on schemes; she advanced from concession to
concession, strengthening herself with what she gained to ask for more,
knowing well how to retreat with rapid steps when concessions were
demanded in return. Though ignorant of facts, she had known the
courts of Spain and Naples, the celebrated men of the two Americas,
many illustrious families of England and the continent, all of which
gave her so extensive an education superficially that it seemed
immense. She received her society with the grace and dignity which are
never learned, but which come to certain naturally fine spirits like a
second nature; assimilating choice things wherever they are met. If her
reputation for virtue was unexplained, it gave at any rate much
authority to her actions, her conversation, and her character.
Mother and daughter had a true friendship for each other, beyond the
filial and maternal sentiment. They suited one another, and their
perpetual contact had never produced the slightest jar. Consequently
many persons explained Madame Evangelista's actions by maternal
love. But although Natalie consoled her mother's persistent widowhood,
she may not have been the only motive for it. Madame Evangelista had
been, it was said, in love with a man who recovered his titles and
property under the Restoration. This man, desirous of marrying her in
1814 had discreetly severed the connection in 1816. Madame
Evangelista, to all appearance the best-hearted woman in the world, had,
in the depths of her nature, a fearful quality, explainable only by
Catherine de Medici's device: "Odiate e aspettate"--"Hate and wait."
Accustomed to rule, having always been obeyed, she was like other
royalties, amiable, gentle, easy and pleasant in ordinary life, but terrible,
implacable, if the pride of the woman, the Spaniard, and the Casa-Reale
was touched. She never forgave. This woman believed in the power of
her hatred; she made an evil fate of it and bade it hover above her
enemy. This fatal power she employed against the man who had jilted
her. Events which seemed to prove the influence of her "jettatura"--the
casting of an evil eye--confirmed her superstitious faith in herself.
Though a minister and peer of France, this man began to ruin himself,
and soon came to total ruin. His property, his personal and public honor
were doomed to perish. At this crisis Madame Evangelista in her
brilliant equipage passed her faithless lover walking on foot in the

Champes Elysees, and crushed him with a look which flamed with
triumph. This misadventure, which occupied her mind for two years,
was the original cause of her not remarrying. Later, her pride had
drawn comparisons between the suitors who presented themselves and
the husband who had loved her so sincerely and so well.
She had thus reached, through mistaken calculations and disappointed
hopes, that period of life when women have no other part to take in life
than that of mother; a part which involves the sacrifice of themselves to
their children, the placing of their interests outside of self upon another
household,--the last refuge of human affections.
Madame Evangelista divined Paul's nature intuitively, and hid her own
from his perception. Paul was the very man she desired for a son-in-law,
for the responsible editor of her future power. He belonged, through his
mother, to the family of Maulincour, and the old Baronne de
Maulincour, the friend of the Vidame de Pamiers, was then living in the
centre of the faubourg Saint-Germain. The grandson of the baroness,
Auguste de Maulincour, held a