The Complete Works: Short Stories, Novels, Plays, Poetry, Memoirs and more. Guy de MaupassantЧитать онлайн книгу.
on arguing in a loud voice. Whose fault was it, after all? That of the Marquis alone, who had called in that pack-ass Bonnefille without giving any notice of the fact to him, though he had, thanks to his Paris physician, been informed as to the relative value of the three charlatans at Enval! And then what business had the Marquis to consult a doctor, behind the back of the husband, the husband who was the only judge, the only person responsible for his wife’s health? In short, it was the same thing day after day with everything! People did nothing but stupid things around him, nothing but stupid things! He repeated it incessantly; but he was only crying in the desert, nobody understood, nobody put faith in his experience, until it was too late.
And he said, “My physician,”
“My experience,” with the authoritative tone of a man who has possession of unique things. In his mouth the possessive pronouns had the sonorous ring of metals. And when he pronounced the words “My wife,” one felt very clearly that the Marquis had no longer any rights with regard to his daughter since Andermatt had married her, to marry and to buy having the same meaning in the latter’s mind.
Gontran came in, at the most lively stage of the discussion, and seated himself in an armchair with a smile of gaiety on his lips. He said nothing, but listened, exceedingly amused. When the banker stopped talking, having fairly exhausted his breath, his brother-in-law raised his hand, exclaiming:
“I request permission to speak. Here are both of you without physicians, isn’t that so? Well, I propose my candidate, Doctor Honorat, the only one who has formed an exact and unshaken opinion on the water of Enval. He makes people drink it, but he would not drink it himself for all the world. Do you wish me to go and look for him? I will take the negotiations on myself.”
It was the only thing to do, and they begged of Gontran to send for him immediately. The Marquis, filled with anxiety at the idea of a change of regimen and of nursing wanted to know immediately the opinion of this new physician; and Andermatt desired no less eagerly to consult him on Christiane’s behalf.
She heard their voices through the door without listening to their words or understanding what they were talking about. As soon as her husband had left her, she had risen from the bed, as if from a dangerous spot, and hurriedly dressed herself, without the assistance of the chambermaid, shaken by all these occurrences.
The world appeared to her to have changed around her, her former life seemed to have vanished since last night, and people themselves looked quite different.
The voice of Andermatt was raised once more: “Hallo, my dear Bretigny, how are you getting on?”
He no longer used the word “Monsieur.” Another voice could be heard saying in reply: “Why, quite well, my dear Andermatt. You only arrived, I suppose, this morning?”
Christiane, who was in the act of raising her hair over her temples, stopped with a choking sensation, her arms in the air. Through the partition, she fancied she could see them grasping one another’s hands. She sat down, no longer able to hold herself erect; and her hair, rolling down, fell over her shoulders.
It was Paul who was speaking now, and she shivered from head to foot at every word that came from his mouth. Each word, whose meaning she did not seize, fell and sounded on her heart like a hammer striking a bell.
Suddenly, she articulated in almost a loud tone: “But I love him! — I love him!” as though she were affirming something new and surprising, which saved her, which consoled her, which proclaimed her innocence before the tribunal of her conscience. A sudden energy made her rise up; in one second, her resolution was taken. And she proceeded to rearrange her hair, murmuring: “I have a lover, that is all. I have a lover.” Then, in order to fortify herself still more, in order to get rid of all mental distress, she determined there and then, with a burning faith, to love him to distraction, to give up to him her life, her happiness, to sacrifice everything for him, in accordance with the moral exaltation of hearts conquered but still scrupulous, that believe themselves to be purified by devotedness and sincerity.
And, from behind the wall which separated them, she threw out kisses to him. It was over; she abandoned herself to him, without reserve, as she might have offered herself to a god. The child already coquettish and artful, but still timid, still trembling, had suddenly died within her; and the woman was born, ready for passion, the woman resolute, tenacious, announced only up to this time by the energy hidden in her blue eye, which gave an air of courage and almost of bravado to her dainty white face.
She heard the door opening, and did not turn round, divining that it was her husband, without seeing him, as though a new sense, almost an instinct, had just been generated in her also.
He asked: “Will you be soon ready? We are all going presently to the paralytic’s bath, to see if he is really getting better.”
She replied calmly: “Yes, my dear Will, in five minutes.”
But Gontran, returning to the drawingroom, was calling back Andermatt.
“Just imagine,” said he; “I met that idiot Honorat in the park, and he, too, refuses to attend you for fear of the others. He talks of professional etiquette, deference, usages. One would imagine that he creates the impression of — in short, he is a fool, like his two brother-physicians. Certainly, I thought he was less of an ape than that.”
The Marquis remained overwhelmed. The idea of taking the waters without a physician, of bathing for five minutes longer than necessary, of drinking one glass less than he ought, tortured him with apprehension, for he believed all the doses, the hours, and the phases of the treatment, to be regulated by a law of nature, which had made provision for invalids in causing the flow of those mineral springs, all whose mysterious secrets the doctors knew, like priests inspired and learned.
He exclaimed: “So then we must die here — we may perish like dogs, without any of these gentlemen putting himself about!”
And rage took possession of him, the rage egotistical and unreasoning of a man whose health is endangered.
“Have they any right to do this, since they pay for a license like grocers, these blackguards? We ought to have the power of forcing them to attend people, as trains can be forced to take all passengers. I am going to write to the newspapers to draw attention to the matter.”
He walked about, in a state of excitement; and he went on, turning toward his son:
“Listen! It will be necessary to send for one to Royat or Clermont. We can’t remain in this state.” Gontran replied, laughing: “But those of Clermont and of Royat are not well acquainted with the liquid of Enval, which has not the same special action as their water on the digestive system and on the circulatory apparatus. And then, be sure, they won’t come any more than the others in order to avoid the appearance of taking the bread out of their brother-doctors’ mouths.”
The Marquis, quite scared, faltered: “But what, then, is to become of us?”
Andermatt snatched up his hat, saying: “Let me settle it, and I’ll answer for it that we’ll have the entire three of them this evening — you understand clearly, the — entire — three — at our knees. Let us go now and see the paralytic.”
He cried: “Are you ready, Christiane?”
She appeared at the door, very pale, with a look of determination. Having embraced her father and her brother, she turned toward Paul, and extended her hand toward him. He took it, with downcast eyes, quivering with emotion. As the Marquis, Andermatt, and Gontran had gone on before, chatting, and without minding them, she said, in a firm voice, fixing on the young man a tender and decided glance: “I belong to you, body and soul. Do with me henceforth what you please.” Then she walked on, without giving him an opportunity of replying.
As they drew near the Oriols’ spring, they perceived, like an enormous mushroom, the hat of Père Clovis, who was sleeping beneath the rays of the sun, in the warm water at the bottom of the hole. He now spent the entire morning there, having got accustomed to this boiling water which made him, he said, more lively than a yearling.
Andermatt