a pale winter sun piercing the mists of the seine, illuminated the dogs painted by oudry on the doors of the dining room.
madame martin had at her right garain the deputy, formerly chancellor, also president of the council, and at her left senator loyer. at count martin-belleme’s right was monsieur berthier-d’eyzelles. it was an intimate and serious business gathering. in conformity with montessuy’s prediction, the cabinet had fallen four days before. called to the elysee the same morning, garain had accepted the task of forming a cabinet. he was preparing, while taking breakfast, the combination which was to be submitted in the evening to the president. and, while they were discussing names, therese was reviewing within herself the images of her intimate life.
she had returned to paris with count martin at the opening of the parliamentary session, and since that moment had led an enchanted life.
jacques loved her; he loved her with a delicious mingling of passion and tenderness, of learned experience and curious ingenuity. he was nervous, irritable, anxious. but the uncertainty of his humor made his gayety more charming. that artistic gayety, bursting out suddenly like a flame, caressed love without offending it. and the playful wit of her lover made therese marvel. she never could have imagined the infallible taste which he exercised naturally in joyful caprice and in familiar fantasy. at first he had displayed only the monotony of passionate ardor. that alone had captured her. but since then she had discovered in him a gay mind, well stored and diverse, as well as the gift of agreeable flattery.
“to assemble a homogeneous ministry,” exclaimed garain, “is easily said. yet one must be guided by the tendencies of the various factions of the chamber.”
he was uneasy. he saw himself surrounded by as many snares as those which he had laid. even his collaborators became hostile to him.
count martin wished the new ministry to satisfy the aspirations of the new men.
“your list is formed of personalities essentially different in origin and in tendency,” he said. “yet the most important fact in the political history of recent years is the possibility, i should say the necessity, to introduce unity of views in the government of the republic. these are ideas which you, my dear garin, have expressed with rare eloquence.”
m. berthier-d’eyzelles kept silence.
senator loyer rolled crumbs with his fingers. he had been formerly a frequenter of beer-halls, and while moulding crumbs or cutting corks he found ideas. he raised his red face. and, looking at garain with wrinkled eyes wherein red fire sparkled, he said:
“i said it, and nobody would believe it. the annihilation of the monarchical right was for the chiefs of the republican party an irreparable misfortune. we governed formerly against it. the real support of a government is the opposition. the empire governed against the orleanists and against us; macmahon governed against the republicans. more fortunate, we governed against the right. the right — what a magnificent opposition it was! it threatened, was candid, powerless, great, honest, unpopular! we should have nursed it. we did not know how to do that. and then, of course, everything wears out. yet it is always necessary to govern against something. there are to-day only socialists to give us the support which the right lent us fifteen years ago with so constant a generosity. but they are too weak. we should reenforce them, make of them a political party. to do this at the present hour is the first duty of a state minister.”
garain, who was not cynical, made no answer.
“garain, do you not yet know,” asked count martin, “whether with the premiership you are to take the seals or the interior?”
garain replied that his decision would depend on the choice which some one else would make. the presence of that personage in the cabinet was necessary, and he hesitated between two portfolios. garain sacrificed his personal convenience to superior interests.
senator loyer made a wry face. he wanted the seals. it was a long-cherished desire. a teacher of law under the empire, he gave, in cafes, lessons that were appreciated. he had the sense of chicanery. having begun his political fortune with articles skilfully written in order to attract to himself prosecution, suits, and several weeks of imprisonment, he had considered the press as a weapon of opposition which every good government should break. since september 4, 1870, he had had the ambition to become keeper of the seals, so that everybody might see how the old bohemian who formerly explained the code while dining on sauerkraut, would appear as supreme chief of the magistracy.
idiots by the dozen had climbed over his back. now having become aged in the ordinary honors of the senate, unpolished, married to a brewery girl, poor, lazy, disillusioned, his old jacobin spirit and his sincere contempt for the people surviving his ambition, made of him a good man for the government. this time, as a part of the garain combination, he imagined he held the department of justice. and his protector, who would not give it to him, was an unfortunate rival. he laughed, while moulding a dog from a piece of bread.
m. berthier-d’eyzelles, calm and grave, caressed his handsome white beard.
“do you not think, monsieur garain, that it would be well to give a place in the cabinet to the men who have followed from the beginning the political principles toward which we are directing ourselves to-day?”
“they lost themselves in doing it,” replied garam, impatiently. “the politician never should be in advance of circumstances. it is an error to be in the right too soon. thinkers are not men of business. and then — let us talk frankly — if you want a ministry of the left centre variety, say so: i will retire. but i warn you that neither the chamber nor the country will sustain you.”
“it is evident,” said count martin, “that we must be sure of a majority.”
“with my list, we have a majority,” said garain. “it is the minority which sustained the ministry against us. gentlemen, i appeal to your devotion.”
and the laborious distribution of the portfolios began again. count martin received, in the first place, the public works, which he refused, for lack of competency, and afterward the foreign affairs, which he accepted without objection.
but m. berthier-d’eyzelles, to whom garain offered commerce and agriculture, reserved his decision.
loyer got the colonies. he seemed very busy trying to make his bread dog stand on the cloth. yet he was looking out of the corners of his little wrinkled eyelids at the countess martin and thinking that she was desirable. he vaguely thought of the pleasure of meeting her again.
leaving garain to his combination, he was preoccupied by his fair hostess, trying to divine her tastes and her habits, asking her whether she went to the theatre, and if she ever went at night to the coffee-house with her husband. and therese was beginning to think he was more interesting than the others, with his apparent ignorance of her world and his superb cynicism.
gamin arose. he had to see several persons before submitting his list to the president of the republic. count martin offered his carriage, but garain had one.
“do you not think,” asked count martin, “that the president might object to some names?”
“the president,” replied garain, “will be inspired by the necessities of the situation.”
he had already gone out of the door when he struck his forehead with his hand.
“we have forgotten the ministry of war.”
“we shall easily find somebody for it among the generals,” said count martin.
“ah,” exclaimed garain, “you believe the choice of a minister of war is easy. it is clear you have not, like me, been a member of three cabinets and president of the council. in my cabinets, and during my presidency the greatest difficulties came from the ministry of war. generals are all alike. you know the one i chose for the cabinet that i formed. when we took him, he knew nothing of affairs. he hardly knew there were two chambers. we had to explain to him all the wheels of parliamentary machinery; we had to teach him that there were an army committee, finance committee, subcommittees, presidents of committees, a budget. he asked that all this information be written for him on a piece of paper. his ignorance of men and of things amazed and alarmed us. in a fortnight he knew the most subtle tricks of the trade; he knew personally all the senators and all the deputies, and was intriguing with them against us. if it had not been for president grevy’s help, he would have overthrown us. and he was a very ordinary general, a general like any other. oh, no; do not think that the portfolio of war may be given hastily, without reflection.”
and garain still shivered at the thought of his former colleague.
therese rose. senator loyer offered his arm to her, with the graceful attitude that he had learned forty years before at bullier’s dancing-hall. she left the politicians in the drawing-room, and hastened to meet dechartre.
a rosy mist covered the seine, the stone quays, and the gilded trees. the red sun threw into the cloudy sky the last glories of the year. therese, as she went out, relished the sharpness of the air and the dying splendor of the day. since her return to paris, happy, she found pleasure every morning in the changes of the weather. it seemed to her, in her generous selfishness, that it was for her the wind blew in the trees, or the fine, gray rain wet the horizon of the avenues; for her, so that she might say, as she entered the little house of the ternes, “it is windy; it is raining; the weather is pleasant;” mingling thus the ocean of things in the intimacy of her love. and every day was beautiful for her, since each one brought her to the arms of her beloved.
while on her way that day to the little house of the ternes she thought of her unexpected happiness, so full and so secure. she walked in the last glory of the sun already touched by winter, and said to herself:
“he loves me; i believe he loves me entirely. to love is easier and more natural for him than for other men. they have in life ideas they think superior to love — faith, habits, interests. they believe in god, or in duties, or in themselves. he believes in me only. i am his god, his duty, and his life.”
then she thought:
“it is true, too, that he needs nobody, not even me. his thoughts alone are a magnificent world in which he could easily live by himself. but i can not live without him. what would become of me if i did not have him?”
she was not alarmed by the violent passion that he had for her. she recalled that she had said to him one day: “your love for me is only sensual. i do not complain of it; it is perhaps the only true love.” and he had replied: “it is also the only grand and strong love. it has its measure and its weapons. it is full of meaning and of images. it is violent and mysterious. it attaches itself to the flesh and to the soul of the flesh. the rest is only illusion and untruth.” she was almost tranquil in her joy. suspicions and anxieties had fled like the mists of a summer storm. the worst weather of their love had come when they had been separated from each other. one should never leave the one whom one loves.
at the corner of the avenue marceau and of the rue galilee, she divined rather than recognized a shadow that had passed by her, a forgotten form. she thought, she wished to think, she was mistaken. the one whom she thought she had seen existed no longer, never had existed. it was a spectre seen in the limbo of another world, in the darkness of a half light. and she continued to walk, retaining of this ill-defined meeting an impression of coldness, of vague embarrassment, and of pain in the heart.
as she proceeded along the avenue she saw coming toward her newspaper carriers holding the evening sheets announcing the new cabinet. she traversed the square; her steps followed the happy impatience of her desire. she had visions of jacques waiting for her at the foot of the stairway, among the marble figures; taking her in his arms and carrying her, trembling from kisses, to that room full of shadows and of delights, where the sweetness of life made her forget life.
but in the solitude of the avenue macmahon, the shadow which she had seen at the corner of the rue galilee came near her with a directness that was unmistakable.
she recognized robert le menil, who, having followed her from the quay, was stopping her at the most quiet and secure place.
his air, his attitude, expressed the simplicity of motive which had formerly pleased therese. his face, naturally harsh, darkened by sunburn, somewhat hollowed, but calm, expressed profound suffering.
“i must speak to you.”
she slackened her pace. he walked by her side.
“i have tried to forget you. after what had happened it was natural, was it not? i have done all i could. it was better to forget you, surely; but i could not. so i bought a boat, and i have been travelling for six months. you know, perhaps?”
she made a sign that she knew.
he continued:
“the rosebud, a beautiful yacht. there were six men in the crew. i manoeuvred with them. it was a pastime.”
he paused. she was walking slowly, saddened, and, above all, annoyed. it seemed to her an absurd and painful thing, beyond all expression, to have to listen to such words from a stranger.
he continued:
“what i suffered on that boat i should be ashamed to tell you.”
she felt he spoke the truth.
“oh, i forgive you — i have reflected alone a great deal. i passed many nights and days on the divan of the deckhouse, turning always the same ideas in my mind. for six months i have thought more than i ever did in my life. do not laugh. there is nothing like suffering to enlarge the mind. i understand that if i have lost you the fault is mine. i should have known how to keep you. and i said to myself: ‘i did not know. oh; if i could only begin again!’ by dint of thinking and of suffering, i understand. i know now that i did not sufficiently share your tastes and your ideas. you are a superior woman. i did not notice it before, because it was not for that that i loved you. without suspecting it, i irritated you.”
she shook her head. he insisted.
“yes, yes, i often wounded your feelings. i did not consider your delicacy. there were misunderstandings between us. the reason was, we have not the same temperament. and then, i did not know how to amuse you. i did not know how to give you the amusement you need. i did not procure for you the pleasures that a woman as intelligent as you requires.”
so simple and so true was he in his regrets and in his pain, she found him worthy of sympathy. she said to him, softly:
“my friend, i never had reason to complain of you.”
he continued:
“all i have said to you is true. i understood this when i was alone in my boat. i have spent hours on it to which i would not condemn my worst enemy. often i felt like throwing myself into the water. i did not do it. was it because i have religious principles or family sentiments, or because i have no courage? i do not know. the reason is, perhaps, that from a distance you held me to life. i was attracted by you, since i am here. for two days i have been watching you. i did not wish to reappear at your house. i should not have found you alone; i should not have been able to talk to you. and then you would have been forced to receive me. i thought it better to speak to you in the street. the idea came to me on the boat. i said to myself: ‘in the street she will listen to me only if she wishes, as she wished four years ago in the park of joinville, you know, under the statues, near the crown.’”
he continued, with a sigh:
“yes, as at joinville, since all is to be begun again. for two days i have been watching you. yesterday it was raining; you went out in a carriage. i might have followed you and learned where you were going if i wished to do it. i did not do it. i do not wish to do what would displease you.”
she extended her hand to him.
“i thank you. i knew i should not regret the trust i have placed in you.”
alarmed, impatient, fearing what more he might say, she tried to escape him.
“farewell! you have all life before you. you should be happy. appreciate it, and do not torment yourself about things that are not worth the trouble.”
he stopped her with a look. his face had changed to the violent and resolute expression which she knew.
“i have told you i must speak to you. listen to me for a minute.”
she was thinking of jacques, who was waiting for her. an occasional passer-by looked at her and went on his way. she stopped under the black branches of a tree, and waited with pity and fright in her soul.
he said:
“i forgive you and forget everything. take me back. i will promise never to say a word of the past.”
she shuddered, and made a movement of surprise and distaste so natural that he stopped. then, after a moment of reflection:
“my proposition to you is not an ordinary one, i know it well. but i have reflected. i have thought of everything. it is the only possible thing. think of it, therese, and do not reply at once.”
“it would be wrong to deceive you. i can not, i will not do what you say; and you know the reason why.”
a cab was passing slowly near them. she made a sign to the coachman to stop. le menil kept her a moment longer.
“i knew you would say this to me, and that is the reason why i say to you, do not reply at once.”
her fingers on the handle of the door, she turned on him the glance of her gray eyes.
it was a painful moment for him. he recalled the time when he saw those charming gray eyes gleam under half-closed lids. he smothered a sob, and murmured:
“listen; i can not live without you. i love you. it is now that i love you. formerly i did not know.”
and while she gave to the coachman, haphazard, the address of a tailor, le menil went away.
the meeting gave her much uneasiness and anxiety. since she was forced to meet him again, she would have preferred to see him violent and brutal, as he had been at florence. at the corner of the avenue she said to the coachman:
“to the ternes.”