Jack by Alphonse Daudet (best novels for students .TXT) 📕

and that she would have all the consideration and prestige of a married woman. This new role amused and interested her. She corrected Jack, turned the pages of her prayer-book, and shook out her rustling silk skirts in the most edifying fashion.
When it was time for the offertory, the tall Swiss, armed with a halberd, came for Jack, and bending low whispered in his mother's ear a question as to what little girl should be chosen to assist him; Charlotte hesitated, for "she knew so few persons in the church. Then the Swiss suggested Dr. Rivals' grandchild--a little girl on the opposite side sitting next an old lady in black. The two children walked slowly behind the majestic official, Cecile carrying a velvet bag much too large for her little fingers, and Jack bearing an enormous wax candle ornamented with floating ribbons and artificial flowers. They were both charming: he in his Scotch costume, and she simply dressed, with waves of soft brown hair parted on her childish brow, and her face illuminated by large gray eyes. The breath of fresh flowers mingled with the fumes of incense that hung in clouds throughout the church. Cecile presented her bag with a gentle, imploring smile. Jack was very grave. The little fluttering hand in its thread glove, which he held in his own, reminded him of a bird that he had once taken from its nest in the forest. Did he dream that the little girl would be his best friend, and that, later, all that was most precious in life for him would come from her?
"They would make a pretty pair," said an old woman, as the children passed her, and in a lower voice added, "Poor little soul, I hope she will be more fortunate than her mother!"
Their duties over, Jack returned to his place, still under the influence of the hand he had so lightly held. But additional pleasure was in store for him. As they left the church, Madame Rivals approached Madame D'Argenton and asked permission to take Jack home with her to breakfast. Charlotte colored high with gratification, straightened the boy's necktie, and, kissing him, whispered, "Be a good child!"
From this day forth, when Jack was not at home he was at the old doctor's, who lived in a house in no degree better than that of his neighbors, and only distinguished from them by the words Night-Bell on a brass plate above a small button at the side of the door. The walls were black with age. Here and there, however, an observant eye could see that some attempts had been made to rejuvenate the mansion; but everything of that nature had been interrupted on the day of their great sorrow, and the old people had never had the heart to go on with their improvements since; an unfinished summer-house seemed to say, with a discouraged air, "What is the use?" The garden was in a complete state of neglect. Grass grew over the walks, and weeds choked the fountain. The human beings in the house had much the same air. From Madame Rivals, who, eight years after her daughter's death, still wore the deepest of black, down to little Cecile, whose childish face had a precocious expression of sorrow, and the old servant who for a quarter of a century had shared the griefs and sorrows of the family,--all seemed to live in an atmosphere of eternal regret. The doctor, who kept up a certain intercourse with the outer world, was the only one who was ever cheerful.
To Madame Rivals, Cecile was at once a blessing and a sorrow, for the child was a perpetual reminder of the daughter she had lost. To the doctor, on the contrary, it seemed that the little girl had taken her mother's place, and sometimes, when he was with her alone, he would give way to a loud and merry laugh, which would be quickly silenced on meeting his wife's sad eyes, full of astonished reproach.
Little Cecile's life was by no means a gay one. She lived in the garden, or in a large room where a door, that was always closed, led to the apartment that had once been her mother's, and which was full of the souvenirs of that short life. Madame Rivals alone ever entered this room, but little Cecile often stood on the threshold, awed and silent. The child had never been sent to school, and this isolation was very bad for her; she needed the association of other children. "Let us ask little D'Argenton here," said her grandfather: "the boy is charming!"
"Yes; but who knows anything about these people? Whence do they come?" answered his wife. "Who knows them?"
"Everybody, my dear. The husband is very eccentric, certainly, but he is an artist, or a journalist rather, and they are privileged. The woman is not quite a lady, I admit, but she is well enough. I will answer for their respectability."
Madame Rivals shook her head. She had but slight confidence in her husband's insight into character, and sighed in an ostentatious way.
Old Rivals colored guiltily, but returned in a moment to his original idea.
"The child will be ill if she has not some change. Besides, what harm could possibly happen?"
The grandmother then consented, and Jack and Cecile became close companions. The old lady grew very fond of the little fellow. She saw that he was neglected at home, that the buttons were off his coat, and that he had no lesson-hours.
"Do you not go to school, my dear?"
"No, madame," was the answer; and then quickly added,--for a child's instinct is very delicate,--"Mamma teaches me."
"I cannot understand," said Madame Rivals to her husband, "how they can let this child grow up in this way, idling his time from morning till night."
"The child is not very clever," answered the doctor, anxious to excuse his friends.
"No, it is not that; it is that his stepfather does not like him."
Jack's best friends were in the doctor's house. Cecile adored him. They played together in the garden if the weather was fair, in the pharmacy if it was stormy. Madame Rivals was always there, and as there was no apothecary's store in Etiolles, put up simple prescriptions herself. She had done this for so many years, that she had attained considerable experience, and was often consulted in her husband's absence. The children found vast amusement in deciphering the labels on the bottles, and pasting on new ones. Jack did this with all a boy's awkwardness, while little Cecile used her hands as gravely and deftly as a woman grown.
The old physician delighted in taking the children with him when he went about the country to visit his patients. The carriage was large, the children small, so that the three were stowed in very comfortably, and merrily jogged over the rough roads. Wherever they went they were warmly welcomed, and while the doctor climbed the narrow stairs, the children roamed at will through the farm-yard and fields.
Illness among these peasant homes assumes a very singular aspect. It is never allowed to interfere with the routine and labors of daily life. The animals must be fed and housed for the night, and driven out to pasture in the morning, whether the farmer be well or ill. If ill, the wife has no time to nurse him, or even to be anxious. After a hard day's toil she throws herself on her pallet and sleeps soundly until dawn, while her good man tosses feverishly at her side, longing for morning. Every one worshipped the doctor, who they affirmed would have been very rich, had he not been so generous.
His professional visits over, the old man and the children started for home. The Seine, misty and dark with the approach of evening, had yet occasional bars of golden light crossing its surface. Slender trees, with their foliage heavily massed at the top, like palms, and the low white houses along the brink, gave a vague suggestion of an Eastern scene. "It is like Nazareth," said little Cecile; and the two children told each other stories while the carriage rolled slowly homeward.
Doctor Rivals soon discovered that Jack was by no means wanting in intelligence, and determined, with his natural kindness of heart, to himself supply the great deficiencies in education by giving him an hour's instruction daily. Those of my readers who are in the habit of enjoying a siesta after dinner, will appreciate the sacrifice made by the old man, when I add that it was this precise time that he now freely gave to the little boy, who, in his turn, gratefully applied himself with his whole heart to his lessons. Cecile was almost always present, and was as pleased as Jack himself when her grandfather, examining the copy-book, said, "Well done!" To his mother, Jack said nothing of his labors; he determined to prove to her at some future day that the diagnosis of the poet had been incorrect. This concealment was rendered very easy, as the mother grew hourly more and more indifferent to her child, and more completely absorbed in D'Argenton. The boy's comings and goings were almost unnoticed. His seat at the table was often vacant, but no one asked where he had been. New guests filled the board, for D'Argenton kept open house; yet the poet was by no means generous in his hospitality, and when Charlotte would say to him, timidly, "I am out of money, my friend," he would reply by a wry face and the word, "Already?" But vanity was stronger than avarice, and the pleasure of patronizing his old friends, the Bohemians, with whom he had formerly lived, carried the day. They all knew that he had a pleasant home, that the air was good and the table better; consequently, one would say to another, "Who wants to go to Etiolles to-night?" They came in droves.
Poor Charlotte was in despair. "Madame Archambauld, are there eggs?--is there any game? Company has come, and what shall we give them?"
"Anything will suit, madame, I fancy, for they look half starved," said the old woman, astonished at the unkempt, unshorn, and hungry aspect of her master's friends.
D'Argenton delighted in showing them over the house; and then they dispersed to the fields, to the river-side, and into the forest, as happy and frolicsome as old horses turned out to grass. In the fresh country, in the full sunlight, those rusty coats and worn faces seemed more rusty and more worn than when seen in Paris; but they were happy, and D'Argenton radiant. No one ventured to dispute his eternal "I think," and "I know." Was he not the master of the house, and had he not the key of the wine cellar?
Charlotte, too, was well pleased. It was to her inconsequent nature and Bohemian instincts a renewal of the excitement of her old life. She was flattered and admired, and, while remaining true to her poet, was pleased to show him that she had not lost her power of charming.
Months passed on. The little house was enveloped in the melancholy mists of autumn; then winter snows whitened the roof, followed by the fierce winds of March; and finally a new spring, with its lilacs and violets, gladdened the hearts of the inmates of the cottage. Nothing was changed there. D'Argenton, perhaps, had two or three new symptoms, dignified by Doctor Hirsch with singular names. Charlotte was as totally without salient characteristics, as pretty and sentimental, as she had always been. Jack had grown and developed amazingly, and having studied industriously, knew quite as much as other boys of his age.
"Send him to school now," said Doctor Rivals to his mother, "and I answer for his making a figure."
"Ah, doctor, how good you are!" cried Charlotte, a little ashamed, and