Pierre and Jean by Guy de Maupassant (reading diary TXT) 📕

a low tone said to his mother: “Look, mother, she is close upon us!” And Mme. Roland uncovered her eyes, blinded with tears.

The Lorraine came on, still under the impetus of her swift exit from the harbour, in the brilliant, calm weather. Beausire, with his glass to his eye, called out:

“Look out! M. Pierre is at the stern, all alone, plainly to be seen! Look out!”

The ship was almost touching the Pearl now, as tall as a mountain and as swift as a train. Mme. Roland, distraught and desperate, held out her arms towards it; and she saw her son, her Pierre, with his officer’s cap on, throwing kisses to her with both hands.

But he was going away, flying, vanishing, a tiny speck already, no more than an imperceptible spot on the enormous vessel. She tried still to distinguish him, but she could not.

Jean took her hand.

“You saw?” he said.

“Yes, I saw. How good he is!”

And they turned to go home.

“Cristi! How fast she goes!” exclaimed Roland with enthusiastic conviction.

The steamer, in fact, was shrinking every second, as though she were melting away in the ocean. Mme. Roland, turning back to look at her, watched her disappearing on the horizon, on her way to an unknown land at the other side of the world.

In that vessel which nothing could stay, that vessel which she soon would see no more, was her son, her poor son. And she felt as though half her heart had gone with him; she felt, too, as if her life were ended; yes, and she felt as though she would never see the child again.

“Why are you crying?” asked her husband, “when you know he will be back again within a month.”

She stammered out: “I don’t know; I cry because I am hurt.”

When they had landed, Beausire at once took leave of them to go to breakfast with a friend. Then Jean led the way with Mme. Rosémilly, and Roland said to his wife:

“A very fine fellow, all the same, is our Jean.”

“Yes,” replied the mother.

And her mind being too much bewildered to think of what she was saying, she went on:

“I am very glad that he is to marry Mme. Rosémilly.”

The worthy man was astounded.

“Heh? What? He is to marry Mme. Rosémilly?”

“Yes, we meant to ask your opinion about it this very day.”

“Bless me! And has this engagement been long in the wind?”

“Oh, no, only a very few days. Jean wished to make sure that she would accept him before consulting you.”

Roland rubbed his hands.

“Very good. Very good. It is capital. I entirely approve.”

As they were about to turn off from the quay down the Boulevard François 1er, his wife once more looked back to cast a last look at the high seas, but she could see nothing now but a puff of gray smoke, so far away, so faint that it looked like a film of haze.

Colophon

Pierre and Jean
was published in 1888 by
Guy de Maupassant.
It was translated from French in 1902 by
Clara Bell.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Robin Whittleton,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2006 by
Dagny, John Bickers, and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
The Beach at Sainte-Adresse,
a painting completed in 1867 by
Claude Monet.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
October 11, 2020, 6:16 p.m.
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Uncopyright

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
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