Camille - Chapter 16

None

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Chapter sixteen of Camille. This isa LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are
in the public domain. For moreinformation or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox
dot org. Camille by Alexandre DumahFees, translated by Edmund Goss, Chapter

(00:25):
sixteen. I might have told youof the beginning of this liaison in a
few lines, but I wanted youto see every step by which we came.
I to agree to whatever Marguerite wished. Marguerite to be unable to live
apart from me. It was theday after the evening when she came to

(00:45):
see me that I sent her manonLescott. From that time, seeing that
I could not change my mistress's life, I changed my own. I wished
above all not to leave myself timeto think over the position I had acted,
for in spite of myself, itwas a great distress to me.
Thus my life generally so calm assumed, all at once an appearance of noise

(01:11):
and disorder. Never believe, howeverdisinterested, the love of a kept woman
may be that it will cost onenothing. Nothing is so expensive as their
caprices, flowers, boxes at thetheater, suppers days in the country,
which one can never refuse to one'smistress. As I have told you,

(01:32):
I had little money. My fatherwas and still is, Receiver General at
Sea. He has a great reputationthere for loyalty, thanks to which he
was able to find the security whichhe needed in order to attain this position.
It is worth forty thousand francs ayear, and during the ten years

(01:52):
that he has had it, hehas paid off the security and put aside
a dowry for my sister. Myfather is the most honorable man in the
world. When my mother died,she left six thousand francs a year,
which he divided between my sister andmyself on the very day when he received
his appointment. Then, when Iwas twenty one, he added to this

(02:15):
little income an annual allowance of fivethousand francs, assuring me that with eight
thousand francs a year, I mightlive very happily at Paris, if in
addition to this I would make aposition for myself either in law or medicine.
I came to Paris, studied law, was called to the bar,
and, like many other young men, put my diploma in my pocket and

(02:38):
let myself drift as one so easilydoes. In Paris, my expenses were
very moderate. Only I used upmy year's income in eight months and spent
the four summer months with my father, which practically gave me twelve thousand francs
a year, and in addition,the reputation of a good son for the

(03:00):
rest not a penny of debt.This then was my position. When I
made the acquaintance of Marguerite. Youcan well understand that, in spite of
myself, my expenses soon increased.Marguerite's nature was very capricious, and like
so many women, she never regardedas a serious expense those thousand and one

(03:22):
distractions which made up her life.So wishing to spend as much time with
me as possible, she would writeto me in the morning that she would
dine with me, not at home, but at some restaurant in Paris or
in the country. I would callfor her and we would dine and go
on to the theater, often havingsupper as well, and by the end

(03:44):
of the evening I had spent fouror five louis, which came to two
or three thousand francs a month,which reduced my year to three months and
a half. And made it necessaryfor me either to go into debt or
to leave Marguerite. I would haveconsented to anything except the latter. Forgive
me if I give you all thesedetails, but you will see that they

(04:05):
were the cause of what was tofollow. What I tell you is a
true and simple story, and Ileave to it all the naivete of its
details and all the simplicity of itsdevelopments. I realized then that as nothing
in the world would make me forgetmy mistress, it was needful for me
to find some way of meeting theexpenses into which she drew me. Then,

(04:30):
too, my love for her hadso disturbing an influence upon me that
every moment I spent away from Margueritewas like a year, and that I
felt the need of consuming these momentsin the fire of some sort of passion,
and living them so swiftly as notto know that I was living them.
I began by borrowing five or sixthousand francs on my little capital,

(04:54):
and with this I took to gambling. Since gambling houses were destroyed, gambling
goes on everywhere. Formerly, whenone went to Frascati, one had the
chance of making a fortune. Oneplayed against money, and if one lost,
there was always the consolation of sayingthat one might have gained. Whereas,
now, except in the clubs,where there is still a certain rigor

(05:15):
in regard to payments, one isalmost certain the moment one gains a considerable
sum not to receive it. Youwill readily understand why gambling is only likely
to be carried on by young peoplevery much in need of money, and
not possessing the fortune necessary for supportingthe life they lead. They gamble then,

(05:38):
and with this result or else theygain, And then those who lose
serve to pay for their horses andmistresses, which is very disagreeable. Debts
are contracted, acquaintances begun about agreen table, end by quarrels in which
life or honor comes to grief.And though one may be an honest man,
one finds oneself ruined by very honestmen, men whose only defect is

(06:01):
that they have not two hundred thousandfrancs a year. I need not tell
you of those who cheat at play, and how one hears one fine day
of their hasty disappearance and tardy condemnation. I flung myself into this rapid,
noisy and volcanic life, which hadformerly terrified me when I thought of it,

(06:21):
and which had become for me thenecessary compliment of my love for Marguerite.
What else could I have done thenights that I did not spend in
the Rue d'Antin, if I hadspent them alone in my own room,
I could not have slept. Jealousywould have kept me awake and inflamed my
blood and my thoughts. While gamblinggave a new turn to the fever which

(06:44):
would otherwise have preyed upon my heart, and fixed it upon a passion which
laid hold on me in spite ofmyself, until the hour struck when I
might go to my mistress. Then, and by this I knew the violence
of my love. I left thetable without a moment's hesitation, whether I
was winning or losing, pitying thosewhom I left behind, because they would

(07:06):
not, like me, find theirreal happiness in leaving it. For the
most of them, gambling was anecessity for me. It was a remedy
free of Marguerite. I should havebeen free of gambling. Thus, in
the midst of all that I preserveda considerable amount of self possession, I

(07:27):
lost only what I was able topay, and gained only what I should
have been able to lose. Forthe rest, chance was on my side.
I made no debts, and Ispent three times as much money as
when I did not gamble. Itwas impossible to resist an existence which gave
me an easy means of satisfying thethousand caprices of Marguerite. As for her,

(07:50):
she continued to love me as muchor even more than ever. As
I told you, I began bybeing allowed to stay only from midnight to
six o'clock. Then I was askedsometimes to a box in the theater.
Then she sometimes came to dine withme. One morning I did not go
till eight, and there came aday when I did not go till twelve.

(08:13):
But sooner than the moral metamorphosis,a physical metamorphosis came about in Marguerite.
I had taken her cure in hand, and the poor girl, seeing
my aim, obeyed me in orderto prove her gratitude. I had succeeded,
without effort or trouble, in almostisolating her from her former habits.

(08:33):
My doctor, whom I had madeher meet, had told me that only
rest and calm could preserve her health, so that in place of supper and
sleepless nights, I succeeded in substitutinga hygienic regime and regular sleep. In
spite of herself. Marguerite got accustomedto this new existence, whose salutary effects

(08:54):
she already realized. She began tospend some of her evenings at home,
or if the weather was fine,she wrapped herself in a shawl, put
on a veil, and we wenton foot like two children in the dim
alleys of the Champs Elysees. Shewould come and tired, take a light
supper, and go to bed aftera little music or reading, which she

(09:16):
had never been used to do.The cough, which every time I heard
it seemed to go through my chest, had almost completely disappeared. At the
end of six weeks, the countwas entirely given up, and only the
Duke obliged me to conceal my liaisonwith Marguerite, and even he was sent
away when I was there, underthe pretext that she was asleep and had

(09:39):
given orders that she was not tobe awakened. The habit or the need
of seeing me, which Marguerite hadnow contracted, had this good result that
it forced me to leave the gamingtable just at the moment when an adroit
gambler would have left it. Settlingone thing against another, I found myself
in possession of some ten thousand francs, which seemed to me to be an

(10:01):
inexhaustible capital. The time of theyear when I was accustomed to join my
father and sister had now arrived,and I did not go. Both of
them wrote to me frequently begging meto come to these letters, I replied
as best I could, always repeatingthat I was quite well and that I

(10:22):
was not in need of money,two things which I thought would console my
father for my delay in paying himmy annual visit. Just then, one
fine day in summer, Marguerite wasawakened by the sunlight pouring into her room,
and, jumping out of bed,asked me if I would take her
into the country for the whole day. We sent for Prudence, and all

(10:43):
three set off. After Marguerite hadgiven Nanine orders to tell the Duke that
she had taken advantage of the fineday to go into the country with Madame
de Vernoy. Besides the presence ofMadame de Vernoy being needful on account of
the old Duke. Prudence was oneof those women who seemed made on purpose
for days in the country. Withher unchanging, good humor and her eternal

(11:07):
appetite. She never left a dullmoment to those whom she was with,
and was perfectly happy in ordering eggs, cherries, milk, stewed rabbit,
and all the rest of the traditionallunch in the country. We had now
only to decide where we should go. It was once more Prudence who settled
the difficulty. Do you want togo to the real country? She asked,

(11:31):
yes, well, let us goto Baugeval at the Point de Jour
at Widow Arnauld's armand order an opencarriage. An hour and a half later
we were at Widow Arnauld's. Perhapsyou know the Inn, which is a
hotel on week days and a teagarden on Sundays. There is a magnificent

(11:52):
view from the garden, which isat the height of an ordinary first floor.
On the left, the aqueduct ofMarley closes in the horizon. On
the right, one looks across hillafter hill. The river, almost without
current at that spot, unrolls itselflike a large white watered ribbon between the
plain of the gabillions, and theisland of Kroisi, lulled eternally by the

(12:16):
trembling of its high poplars and themurmur of its willows. Beyond distinct in
the sunlight rise little white houses withred roofs, and manufactories, which at
that distance put an admirable finish tothe landscape. Beyond that Paris in the
mist. As Prudence had told us, it was the real country, and

(12:41):
I must add it was a reallunch. It is not only out of
gratitude for the happiness I owe it, but Baugival, in spite of its
horrible name, is one of theprettiest places that it is possible to imagine.
I have traveled a good deal andseen much grander things, but none
more arming than this little village.Gaily seated at the foot of the hill

(13:03):
which protects it. Madame Arnold askedus if we would take a boat,
and Marguerite and Prudence accepted joyously.People have always associated the country with love,
and they have done well. Nothingaffords so fine a frame for the
woman whom one loves, as theblue sky, the odors, the flowers,

(13:24):
the breeze, the shining solitude offields or woods. However much one
loves a woman, whatever confidence onemay have in her, whatever certainty her
past may offer us as to herfuture, one is always more or less
jealous. If you have been inlove, you must have felt the need
of isolating from this world the beingin whom you would live wholly. It

(13:48):
seems as if, however indifferent shemay be to her surroundings, the woman
whom one loves loses something of herperfume and of her unity at the contact
of men and things. As forme, I experienced that, more than
most mine was not an ordinary love. I was as much in love as

(14:09):
an ordinary creature could be. Butwith Marguerite Gattier. That is to say
that at Paris, at every stepI might elbow the man who had already
been her lover, or who wasabout to. While in the country,
surrounded by people whom we had neverseen, and who had no concern with
us, alone with nature, inthe spring time of the year that annual

(14:31):
pardon, and shut off from thenoise of the city, I could hide
my love and love without shame orfear. The courtesan disappeared. Little by
little. I had by me ayoung and beautiful woman whom I loved,
and who loved me, and whowas called Marguerite. The past had no
more reality, and the future nomore clouds. The sun shone upon my

(14:56):
mistress, as it might have shoneupon the pure bride. We walked together
in those charming spots which seemed tohave been made on purpose, to recall
the verses of Lamartine, or tosing the melodies of Scudot. Marguerite was
dressed in white. She leaned onmy arm, saying over to me again
under the starry sky the words shehad said to me the day before,

(15:20):
And far off the world went onits way without darkening with its shadow the
radiant picture of our youth and love. That was the dream that the hot
sun brought to me that day throughthe leaves of the trees. As lying
on the grass of the island onwhich we had landed, I let my
thought wander free from the human lynxthat had bound it, gathering to itself

(15:45):
every hope that came in its way. Add to this that from the place
where I was, I could seeon the shore a charming little house of
two stories with a semi circular railing. Through the railing in front of the
house green lawn smooth as velvet,and behind the house a little wood full
of mysterious retreats, where the mossmust efface each morning, the pathway that

(16:08):
had been made the day before.Climbing flowers clung about the doorway of this
uninhabited house, mounting as high asthe first story. I looked at the
house so long that I began bythinking of it as mine. So perfectly
did it embody the dream that Iwas dreaming. I saw Marguerite and myself

(16:29):
there by day in the little woodthat covered the hillside. In the evening,
seated on the grass, and Iasked myself if earthly creatures had ever
been so happy as we should be. What a pretty house? Marguerite said
to me, as she followed thedirection of my gaze, and perhaps my
thought. Where, asked Prudence Yonder, and Marguerite pointed to the house in

(16:53):
question. Ah Delicious replied, Prudence, do you like it very much?
Well, tell the Duke to takeit for you. He would do so.
I am sure I'll see about itif you like. Marguerite looked at
me as if to ask what Ithought. My dream vanished at the last

(17:15):
words of Prudence and brought me backto reality so brutally that I was still
stunned with the fall. Yes,yes, an excellent idea, I stammered,
not knowing what I was saying.Well, I will arrange that,
said Marguerite, freeing my hand andinterpreting my words according to her own desire.

(17:37):
Let us go and see if itis to let. The house was
empty and to let for two thousandfrancs. Would you be happy here?
She said to me, Am Isure of coming here? And for whom
else should I bury myself here?If not for you, well, then
Marguerite, let me take it myself. You are mad. Not only is

(18:02):
it unnecessary, but it would bedangerous. You know perfectly well that I
have no right to accept it savefrom one man. Let me alone,
big baby, and say nothing.That means, said Prudence, that when
I have two days free, Iwill come and spend them with you.
We left the house and started onour return to Paris. Talking over the

(18:25):
new plan. I held Marguerite inmy arms, and as I got down
from the carriage, I had alreadybegun to look upon her arrangement with less
critical eyes. End of Chapter sixteen