Camille - Chapter 17

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Episode Transcript

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Chapter seventeen 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 dumintFees, translated by Edmund Goss, Chapter

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seventeen. Next day, Marguerite sentme away very early, saying that the
Duke was coming at an early hour, and promising to write to me the
moment he went, and to makean appointment for the evening. In the
course of the day I received thisnote. I am going to Baugaval with
the Duke. Be at Prudence's tonight. At eight, at the appointed hour,

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Marguerite came to me at Madame deVernoy's. Well. It is all
settled, she said, as sheentered. The house is taken, asked
Prudence, Yes, he agreed.At once. I did not know the
Duke, but I felt ashamed ofdeceiving him. But that is not all,
continued Marguerite. What else is there? I have been seeing about a

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place for armand to stay in thesame house, asked Prudence, laughing.
No. At Point du Jour,where we had dinner the Duke and I
while he was admiring the view.I asked Madame Arnauld, she is called
Madame Arnauld, isn't she if therewere any suitable rooms, and she showed

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me just the very thing, Ceylonante room and bedroom at sixty francs a
month. The whole place was furnishedin a way to divert a hypochondriac.
I took it. Was I right. I flung my arms around her neck
and kissed her. It will becharming, she continued. You have the

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key of the little door, andI have promised the Duke the key of
the front, which he will nottake, because he will come during the
day. When he comes, Ithink between ourselves that he is enchanted with
a caprice which will keep me outof Paris for a time, and so
silence the objections of his family.However, he has asked me how I,

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loving Paris as I do, couldmake up my mind to bury myself
in the country. I told himthat I was ill and that I wanted
rest. He seemed to have somedifficulty in believing me. The poor old
man is always on the watch.We must take every precaution, my dear
armand for he will have me watchedwhile I am there, and it isn't

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only the question of his taking ahouse for me, but he has my
debts to pay, and unluckily Ihave plenty. Does all that suit you,
yes, I answered, trying toquiet the scruples which this way of
living awoke in me from time totime. We went all over the house

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and we shall have everything perfect.The Duke is going to look after every
single thing. Ah, my dear, she added, kissing me. You're
in luck. It's a millionaire whomakes your bed for you. And when
shall you move into the house,inquired Prudence. As soon as possible,

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Will you take your horses and carriage. I shall take the whole house,
and you can look after my placewhile I am away. A week later,
Marguerite was settled in her country house, and I was installed at Point
du Jour. Then began an existencewhich I shall have some difficulty in describing
to you. At first, Margueritecould not break entirely with her former habits,

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and as the house was always unfetall the women whom she knew came
to see her. For a wholemonth. There was not a day when
Marguerite had not eight or ten peopleto meals Prudence on her side, brought
down all the people she knew,and did the honors of the house as
if the house belonged to her.The Duke's money paid for all that,

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as you may imagine. But fromtime to time Prudence came to me asking
for a note for a thousand francs, professedly on behalf of Marguerite. You
know, I had won some moneyat gambling. I therefore immediately handed over
to Prudence what she asked for Marguerite, and, fearing lest she should require
more than I possessed, I borrowedat Paris a sum equal to that which

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I had already borrowed and paid back. I was then once more in possession
of some ten thousand francs, withoutreckoning my allowance. However, Marguerite's pleasure
in seeing her friends was a littlemoderated when she saw the expense which that
pleasure entailed, and especially the necessityshe was sometimes in of asking me for

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money. The Duke, who hadtaken the house in order that Marguerite might
rest there, no longer visited it, fearing to find himself in the midst
of a large and merry company bywhom he did not wish to be seen.
This came about through his having arrivedto dine tete a tete with Marguerite,

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and having fallen upon a party offifteen who were still at lunch at
an hour when he was prepared tosit down to dinner. He had unsuspectingly
opened the dining room door, andhad been greeted by a burst of laughter,
and had had to retire precipitately beforethe impertinent mirth of the women who
assembled there. Marguerite rose from tableand joined the Duke in the next room,

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where she tried as far as possibleto induce him to forget the incident.
But the old man, wounded inhis dignity, bore her a grudge
for it, and could not forgiveher. He said to her, somewhat
cruelly, that he was tired ofpaying for the follies of a woman who
could not even have him treated withrespect under his own roof, and he

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went away in great indignation. Sincethat day he had never been heard of
in vain. Marguerite dismissed her guests, changed her way of life. The
Duke was not to be heard of. I was the gainer in so far
that my mistress now belonged to memore completely, and my dream was at

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length realized. Marguerite could not bewithout me. Not caring what the result
might be, she publicly proclaimed ourliaison, and I had come to live
entirely at her house. The servantsaddressed me officially as their master. Prudence
had strictly sermonized Marguerite in regard toher new manner of life, but she

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had replied that she loved me,that she could not live without me,
and that happen what might, shewould not sacrifice the pleasure of having me
constantly with her, adding that thosewho were not satisfied with this arrangement were
free to stay away. So muchI had heard one day when Prudence had
said to Marguerite that she had somethingvery important to tell her, and I

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had listened at the door of theroom into which they had shut themselves.
Not long after, Prudence returned again, I was at the other end of
the garden when she arrived, andshe did not see me. I had
no doubt from the way in whichMarguerite came to meet her that another similar
conversation was going to take place,and I was anxious to hear what it
was about. The two women shutthemselves into a boudoir, and I put

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myself within hearing well, said Marguerite, Well, I have seen the Duke.
What did he say? That hewould gladly forgive you in regard to
the scene which took place, butthat he has learned that you are publicly
living with Monsieur Armand Duval, andthat he will never forgive that. Let

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Marguerite leave the young man, hesaid to me, And as in the
past, I will give her allthat she requires, if not let her
ask nothing more from me. Andyou replied that I would report his decision
to you, and I promised himthat I would bring you into a more
reasonable frame of mind. Only think, my dear child, of the position

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that you are losing, and thatArmand can never give you. He loves
you with all his soul, buthe has no fortune capable of supplying your
needs, and he will be boundto leave you one day when it will
be too late, and when theDuke will refuse to do any more for
you. Would you like me tospeak to Armand Marguerite seemed to be thinking,

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for she answered nothing. My heartbeat violently while I waited for her
reply. No, she answered,I will not leave armand and I will
not conceal the fact that I amliving with him. It is folly,
no doubt, but I love him. What would you have me do?
And then, now that he hasgot accustomed to be always with me,

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he would suffer too cruelly if hehad to leave me so much as an
hour a day. Besides, Ihave not such a long time to live
that I need make myself miserable inorder to please an old man whose very
sight makes me feel old. Lethim keep his money. I will do
without it. But what will youdo? I don't in the least know.

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Prudence was, no doubt going tomake some reply. But I entered
suddenly and flung myself at Marguerite's feet, covering her hands with tears in my
joy at being thus loved. Mylife is yours, Marguerite. You need
this man no longer? Am Inot here? Shall I ever leave you?
And can I ever repay you forthe happiness that you give me?

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No more barriers, my Marguerite.We love what matters all the rest.
Oh, yes, I love you, my Armand she murmured, putting her
two arms around my neck. Ilove you as I never thought I should
ever love. We will be happy, we will live quietly, and I
will say good bye forever to thelife for which I now blush. You

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won't ever reproach me for the past. Tell me. Tears choked my voice.
I could only reply by clasping Margueriteto my heart. Well, said
she, turning to Prudence and speakingin a broken voice. You can report
this scene to the Duke, andyou can add that we have no longer

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need of him. From that dayforth, the Duke was never referred to.
Marguerite was no longer the same womanthat I had known. She avoided
everything that might recall to me thelife which she had been leading when I
first met her. Never did wifeor sister surround husband or brother with such

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loving care as she had for me. Her nature was morbidly open to all
impressions and accessible to all sentiments.She had broken equally with her friends and
with her ways, with her wordsand with her extravagances. Any One who
had seen us leaving the house togo on the river in the charming little
boat which I had bought would neverhave believed that the woman dressed in white

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wearing a straw hat, and carryingon her arm a little silk police to
protect against the damp of the river. Was that Marguerite Gautier, who only
four months ago had been the talkof the town for the luxury and scandal
of her existence. Alas we madehaste to be happy, as if we
knew that we were not to behappy long For two months we had not

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even been to Paris. No onecame to see us except Prudence and Julie
du Prat, of whom I havespoken to you, and of whom Marguerite
was afterward to give the touching narrativethat I have there. I passed whole
days at the feet of my mistress. We opened the windows upon the garden,
and as we watched the summer ripeningin its flowers and under the shadow

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of its trees, we breathed togetherthat true life which neither Marguerite nor I
had ever known before. Her delightin the smallest things was like that of
a cho There were days when sheran in the garden like a child of
ten, after a butterfly or adragonfly. This courtesan, who had cost

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more money in beauquets than would havekept a whole family in comfort, would
sometimes sit on the grass for anhour, examining the simple flower whose name
she bore. It was at thistime that she read Manon Lescott over and
over again. I found her severaltimes making notes in the book, and

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she always declared that when a womanloves, she cannot do as Manon did.
The Duke wrote to her two orthree times. She recognized the writing
and gave me the letters without readingthem. Sometimes the terms of these letters
brought tears to my eyes. Hehad imagined that by closing his purse to

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Marguerite, he would bring her backto him. But when he had perceived
the uselessness of these means, hecould hold out no longer, and wrote
and asked that he might see heragain as before, no matter on what
conditions. I read these urgent andrepeated letters and tore them in pieces,

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without telling Marguerite what they contained,and without advising her to see the old
man again. Though I was halfinclined to so much, did I pity
him. But I was afraid lestif I so advised her, she should
think that I wished the Duke notmerely to come and see her again,
but to take over the expenses ofthe house. I feared above all that

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she might think me capable of shirkingthe responsibilities of every consequence to which her
love for me might lead her.It thus came about that the Duke,
receiving no reply, ceased to write, and that Marguerite and I continued to
live together without giving a thought tothe future. End of Chapter seventeen.