A Daughter of Eve

“On the contrary, he has been in love with a woman in society for over a year – ”

“A woman in society, he!” cried Florine. “I don’t trouble myself about such nonsense as that.”

“Well, do you want me to make him come and tell you that he will not take you home from here to-night.”

“If you can make him tell me that,” said Florine, “I’ll take you home, and we’ll look for those letters, which I shall believe in when I see them, and not till then. He must have written them while I slept.”

“Stay here,” said Felix, “and watch.”

So saying, he took the arm of his wife and moved to a little distance. Presently, Nathan, who had been hunting up and down the foyer like a dog looking for its master, returned to the spot where the mask had addressed him. Seeing on his face an expression he could not conceal, Florine placed herself like a post in front of him, and said, imperiously: —

“I don’t wish you to leave me again; I have my reasons for this.”

The countess then, at the instigation of her husband, went up to Raoul and said in his ear, —

“Marie. Who is this woman? Leave her at once, and meet me at the foot of the grand staircase.”

In this difficult extremity Raoul dropped Florine’s arm, and though she caught his own and held it forcibly, she was obliged, after a moment, to let him go. Nathan disappeared into the crowd.

“What did I tell you?” said Felix in Florine’s astonished ears, offering her his arm.

“Come,” she said; “whoever you are, come. Have you a carriage here?”

For all answer, Vandenesse hurried Florine away, followed by his wife. A few moments later the three masks, driven rapidly by the Vandenesse coachman, reached Florine’s house. As soon as she had entered her own apartments the actress unmasked. Madame de Vandenesse could not restrain a quiver of surprise at Florine’s beauty as she stood there choking with anger, and superb in her wrath and jealousy.

“There is, somewhere in these rooms,” said Vandenesse, “a portfolio, the key of which you have never had; the letters are probably in it.”

“Well, well, for once in my life I am bewildered; you know something that I have been uneasy about for some days,” cried Florine, rushing into the study in search of the portfolio.

Vandenesse saw that his wife was turning pale beneath her mask. Florine’s apartment revealed more about the intimacy of the actress and Nathan than any ideal mistress would wish to know. The eye of a woman can take in the truth of such things in a second, and the countess saw vestiges of Nathan which proved to her the certainty of what Vandenesse had said. Florine returned with the portfolio.

“How am I to open it?” she said.

The actress rang the bell and sent into the kitchen for the cook’s knife. When it came she brandished it in the air, crying out in ironical tones: —

“With this they cut the necks of ‘poulets.’”

The words, which made the countess shiver, explained to her, even better than her husband had done the night before, the depths of the abyss into which she had so nearly fallen.

“What a fool I am!” said Florine; “his razor will do better.”

She fetched one of Nathan’s razors from his dressing-table, and slit the leather cover of the portfolio, through which Marie’s letters dropped. Florine snatched one up hap-hazard, and looked it over.

“Yes, she must be a well-bred woman. It looks to me as if there were no mistakes in spelling here.”

The count gathered up the letters hastily and gave them to his wife, who took them to a table as if to see that they were all there.

“Now,” said Vandenesse to Florine, “will you let me have those letters for these?” showing her five bank-bills of ten thousand francs each. “They’ll replace the sums you have paid for him.”

“Ah!” cried Florine, “didn’t I kill myself body and soul in the provinces to get him money, – I, who’d have cut my hand off to serve him? But that’s men! damn your soul for them and they’ll march over you rough-shod! He shall pay me for this!”

Madame de Vandenesse was disappearing with the letters.

“Hi! stop, stop, my fine mask!” cried Florine; “leave me one to confound him with.”

“Not possible,” said Vandenesse.

“Why not?”

“That mask is your ex-rival; but you needn’t fear her now.”

“Well, she might have had the grace to say thank you,” cried Florine.

“But you have the fifty thousand francs instead,” said Vandenesse, bowing to her.

It is extremely rare for young men, when driven to suicide, to attempt it a second time if the first fails. When it doesn’t cure life, it cures all desire for voluntary death. Raoul felt no disposition to try it again when he found himself in a more painful position than that from which he had just been rescued. He tried to see the countess and explain to her the nature of his love, which now shone more vividly in his soul than ever. But the first time they met in society, Madame de Vandenesse gave him that fixed and contemptuous look which at once and forever puts an impassable gulf between a man and a woman. In spite of his natural assurance, Nathan never dared, during the rest of the winter, either to speak to the countess or even approach her.

But he opened his heart to Blondet; to him he talked of his Laura and his Beatrice, apropos of Madame de Vandenesse. He even made a paraphrase of the following beautiful passage from the pen of Theophile Gautier, one of the most remarkable poets of our day: —

“‘Ideala, flower of heaven’s own blue, with heart of gold, whose fibrous roots, softer, a thousandfold, than fairy tresses, strike to our souls and drink their purest essence; flower most sweet and bitter! thou canst not be torn away without the heart’s blood flowing, without thy bruised stems sweating with scarlet tears. Ah! cursed flower, why didst thou grow within my soul?’”

“My dear fellow,” said Blondet, “you are raving. I’ll grant it was a pretty flower, but it wasn’t a bit ideal, and instead of singing like a blind man before an empty niche, you had much better wash your hands and make submission to the powers. You are too much of an artist ever to be a good politician; you have been fooled by men of not one-half your value. Think about being fooled again – but elsewhere.”

“Marie cannot prevent my loving her,” said Nathan; “she shall be my Beatrice.”

“Beatrice, my good Raoul, was a little girl twelve years of age when Dante last saw her; otherwise, she would not have been Beatrice. To make a divinity, it won’t do to see her one day wrapped in a mantle, and the next with a low dress, and the third on the boulevard, cheapening toys for her last baby. When a man has Florine, who is in turn duchess, bourgeoise, Negress, marquise, colonel, Swiss peasant, virgin of the sun in Peru (only way she can play the part), I don’t see why he should go rambling after fashionable women.”

Du Tillet, to use a Bourse term, executed Nathan, who, for lack of money, gave up his place on the newspaper; and the celebrated man received but five votes in the electoral college where the banker was elected.

When, after a long and happy journey in Italy, the Comtesse de Vandenesse returned to Paris late in the following winter, all her husband’s predictions about Nathan were justified. He had taken Blondet’s advice and negotiated with the government, which employed his pen. His personal affairs were in such disorder that one day, on the Champs-Elysees, Marie saw her former adorer on foot, in shabby clothes, giving his arm to Florine. When a man becomes indifferent to the heart of a woman who has once loved him, he often seems to her very ugly, even horrible, especially when he resembles Nathan. Madame de Vandenesse had a sense of personal humiliation in the thought that she had once cared for him. If she had not already been cured of all extra-conjugal passion, the contrast then presented by the count to this man, grown less and less worthy of public favor, would have sufficed her.

To-day the ambitious Nathan, rich in ink and poor in will, has ended by capitulating entirely, and has settled down into a sinecure, like any other commonplace man. After lending his pen to all disorganizing efforts, he now lives in peace under the protecting shade of a ministerial organ. The cross of the Legion of honor, formerly the fruitful text of his satire, adorns his button-hole. “Peace at any price,” ridicule of which was the stock-in-trade of his revolutionary editorship, is now the topic of his laudatory articles. Heredity, attacked by him in Saint-Simonian phrases, he now defends with solid arguments. This illogical conduct has its origin and its explanation in the change of front performed by many men besides Raoul during our recent political evolutions.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy

Bidault (known as Gigonnet)

The Government Clerks

Gobseck

The Vendetta

Cesar Birotteau

The Firm of Nucingen

Blondet, Emile

Jealousies of a Country Town

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Modeste Mignon

Another Study of Woman

The Secrets of a Princess

The Firm of Nucingen

The Peasantry

Blondet, Virginie

Jealousies of a Country Town

The Secrets of a Princess

The Peasantry

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Another Study of Woman

The Member for Arcis

Bruel, Jean Francois du

A Bachelor’s Establishment

The Government Clerks

A Start in Life

A Prince of Bohemia

The Middle Classes

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Camps, Madame Octave de

Madame Firmiani

The Government Clerks

A Woman of Thirty

The Member for Arcis

Dudley, Lord

The Lily of the Valley

The Thirteen

A Man of Business

Another Study of Woman

Dudley, Lady Arabella

The Lily of the Valley

The Ball at Sceaux

The Magic Skin

The Secrets of a Princess

Letters of Two Brides

Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d’

The Commission in Lunacy

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Letters of Two Brides

Another Study of Woman

The Gondreville Mystery

The Secrets of a Princess

Beatrix

Galathionne, Prince and Princess (both not in each story)

The Secrets of a Princess

The Middle Classes

Father Goriot

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Beatrix

Grandlieu, Duchesse Ferdinand de

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Beatrix

Grandlieu, Vicomtesse Juste de

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Gobseck

Granville, Vicomte de

The Gondreville Mystery

A Second Home

Farewell (Adieu)

Cesar Birotteau

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Cousin Pons

Granville, Comtesse Angelique de

A Second Home

The Thirteen

Granville, Vicomte de

A Second Home

The Country Parson

La Roche-Hugon, Martial de

Domestic Peace

The Peasantry

The Member for Arcis

The Middle Classes

Cousin Betty

Listomere, Marquise de

The Lily of the Valley

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Daughter of Eve

Lousteau, Etienne

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Beatrix

The Muse of the Department

Cousin Betty

A Prince of Bohemia

A Man of Business

The Middle Classes

The Unconscious Humorists

Manerville, Comtesse Paul de

A Marriage Settlement

The Lily of the Valley

Marsay, Henri de

The Thirteen

The Unconscious Humorists

Another Study of Woman

The Lily of the Valley

Father Goriot

Jealousies of a Country Town

Ursule Mirouet

A Marriage Settlement

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Letters of Two Brides

The Ball at Sceaux

Modeste Mignon

The Secrets of a Princess

The Gondreville Mystery

Massol

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Magic Skin

Cousin Betty

The Unconscious Humorists

Nathan, Raoul

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Secrets of a Princess

Letters of Two Brides

The Seamy Side of History

The Muse of the Department

A Prince of Bohemia

A Man of Business

The Unconscious Humorists

Nathan, Madame Raoul (Florine)

The Muse of the Department

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Government Clerks

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Ursule Mirouet

Eugenie Grandet

The Imaginary Mistress

A Prince of Bohemia

The Unconscious Humorists

Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de

Father Goriot

The Thirteen

Eugenie Grandet

Cesar Birotteau

Melmoth Reconciled

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

The Commission in Lunacy

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Modeste Mignon

The Firm of Nucingen

Another Study of Woman

The Member for Arcis

Rastignac, Eugene de

Father Goriot

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Ball at Sceaux

The Commission in Lunacy

A Study of Woman

Another Study of Woman

The Magic Skin

The Secrets of a Princess

The Gondreville Mystery

The Firm of Nucingen

Cousin Betty

The Member for Arcis

The Unconscious Humorists

Rastignac, Monseigneur Gabriel de

Father Goriot

The Country Parson

Rochefide, Marquise de

Beatrix

The Secrets of a Princess

Sarrasine

A Prince of Bohemia

Roguin, Madame

Cesar Birotteau

At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Pierrette

A Second Home

Saint-Hereen, Comtesse Moina de

A Woman of Thirty

The Member for Arcis

Schmucke, Wilhelm

Ursule Mirouet

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Cousin Pons

Souchet, Francois

The Purse

The Imaginary Mistress

Therese

Father Goriot

Tillet, Ferdinand du

Cesar Birotteau

The Firm of Nucingen

The Middle Classes

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Pierrette

Melmoth Reconciled

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

The Secrets of a Princess

The Member for Arcis

Cousin Betty

The Unconscious Humorists

Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des

Beatrix

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Another Study of Woman

Honorine

Beatrix

The Muse of the Department

Vandenesse, Marquis Charles de

A Woman of Thirty

A Start in Life

Vandenesse, Marquise Charles de

Cesar Birotteau

The Ball at Sceaux

Ursule Mirouet

A Daughter of Eve

Vandenesse, Comte Felix de

The Lily of the Valley

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Cesar Birotteau

Letters of Two Brides

A Start in Life

The Marriage Settlement

The Secrets of a Princess

Another Study of Woman

The Gondreville Mystery

Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de

A Second Home

The Muse of the Department

Vernou, Felicien

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Cousin Betty

Vignon, Claude

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Honorine

Beatrix

Cousin Betty

The Unconscious Humorists