The Celibates Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers

expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young and proud, suffered so terribly at

d of her departure he offered her the money to pay her way to Paris in the diligence,-sixty francs, the total of his pour-boires as an apprentice, slowly

wing a complete and devoted protection on an object involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and Pierrette, sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, ha

diligence from Paris to Provins and to take good care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a dog after the coach looking at his dear Pierrette as long as he was able. In spite of her signs he ran over three miles, and when at last he was exhausted

e girl and to see that the charges were paid by the family, exactly as though she were a case of goods. Four days after her departure from Nantes, about nine o'clock of a Monday night, a kind old conductor of the Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the hand, and while the porters were

ght you a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upo

her brother were dumb wi

times, and whatever you please for myself and the conductor from Nantes; we've taken care of the little girl

ancs, twelve so

ng to dispute it

he bill?"

ook at t

said Sylvie, "You see there

ey, and gave the man forty

y comrade and me?"

the depths of the old velv

he little one for her own sake." He picked up his book and departed, saying t

rutal," said Sylvie, w

ittle girl, anyhow," said Ade

o live with him,

ttle one to sle

blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her hands being covered by red worsted mittens edged with white, bought for her by the conductor. Her dainty Breton cap (which had been washed in Paris, for the journey from Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo round her happy little face. This national cap, of the finest lawn, trimmed with stiffened lace pleated in flat folds, deserves description, it was so dainty and simple. The light coming through the texture and the lace produced a partial shadow, the sof

nything? I am your cousin Sylvie,

mething to eat?

leave Nantes?"

umb?" sai

cried Adele, who had opened the child's bundle

cousin,"

e kissed

cousin,"

e kissed

ney, poor little thing; she wan

blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut bureau without a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very common night-table without a door, and three chairs completed the furniture of the room. The walls, which sloped in front, were hung with a shabby paper, blue with black flow

able here, my little

!" said the child,

please," muttered the

r bed?" s

vie, "the sheet

but the coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucke

the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for all; except when Co

l enlivened the re

s to-morrow," said Sylvie; "

he had on, which weig

their part of the coun

it really isn't handsome enough fo

h; hold your tong

scratch her skin off; not a thing can she

they should buy for the new chemises, how many pairs of stockings, how many under-pet

d Rogron, who could remember the different prices,

ed francs!"

e hundred.

on once more, and found the cost would be full

e stroke!" said Sylvie to h

*

ns were the most incapable of merchants, but they were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of friends, like all who are incautious and free from calculation. Their little granddaughter had received no other education at Pen-Hoel than that of nature. Pierrette went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, or roaming the village and the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her comrade, exa

r grandparents to that asylum, she had known nothing but fond caresses and protection from every one. Accustomed to confide in so much love, the little darling missed in these rich relatives, so eagerly desired, the kindly looks and ways which all the world, even strangers and th

the beauties of the staircase. She stopped to examine all its details: the painted walls, the brasses, the various ornamentations, the window fixtures. Then she went down to the garden-door, but was unable to open it, and returned to her room to wait until Adele should be s

acket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn't go to sleep again. You must be ve

ess. A great girl like you ought to be clean. Weren't you clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there to buy thread it was pitiable to see the f

substitute factitious affections for natural ones; they love dogs, cats, canaries, servants, or their confessor. Rogron and Sylvie had come to the pass of loving immoderately their house and furniture, which had cost them so dear. Sylvie began by helping Adele in the mornings to dust and arrange the furniture, under pretence that she did not know how to keep it looking as good as new. This dusting was soon a desired occupation to her, and the furniture, instead of losing its value in her eyes, became ever more precious. To use things without hurting them or soiling them o

othes. During the first week her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette's too, by frocks to order and try on, chemis

aid Rogron. "Don't you know ho

ng but how to love, made

do in Brittany

ered, naively. "Ever

a they told me stories.

ron; "didn't yo

her eyes wide,

id Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain

kindly at Pierrette, whose delicate little m

ty speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and which her cousin had already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to impress those unde

pay through the nose!" cr

when the child was being measured. Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some question

demoiselle Borain, "am

t want to be making such a

best maker, a dress of blue reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk, -all this that she, Sylvie, might hold her own against the children of the women who had rejected her. The underclothes were quite in keeping with the visible articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the examining eyes of the various mothers. Pierrette's chemises were of

usin's success. Pierrette was constantly invited out, and Sylvie allowed her to go, always for the purpose of triumphing over "those ladies." Pierrette was much in demand for games or little parties and dinners with their own little girls. She had succeeded where the Rogrons had failed; and Mademoiselle Sylvie soon grew indignant that Pierrette was asked to other children's houses when those children never came to hers

; she does not raise it unless driven to extremities, or when the child is much in fault. But here, in this great matter of Pierrette's clothes, the cousins' money was the first consideration; their interests were to be thought of, not the child's. Children have the perceptions of the canine race for the sentiments of those who rule them; they know instinctively whether they are loved or only toler

old days to rule and to make inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great souls thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. Narrow

apes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette "my dear," or "little one." Then she abandoned the gentler terms for "Pierrette" only. Her reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and sister made rapid st

erself before she could repress the enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a favorite elsewhere. After a time she displayed it only in the homes of her little friends. By the end of the first month she had learned to be passive in her cousins'

aid to her at home. Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about her terrible cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps exactly like that of the frock, and she put in a new brea

the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, lasted three months. Sylvie's refusal to let her go to her little friends, backe

m the old maid; they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made themselves masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and modesty which the great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The colonel and the lawyer were spending the evening with Rogron

wyer. "We have long been warning Rogron of what would

g, why don't you have it at home; why not play your boston here, in your own house? Is it impossible to fill the places of those idiots, the Julliards and all the rest of them? Vinet and I know how to play boston, and we can easily find a fourth. Vinet might present his wife to you; she is charming,

as she smiled on the colonel, who bore the

e can't play boston ev

self? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. Besides, you'll have plent

would soon see how popular that would make you; you would have a society about you at once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an oppositi

t?" demand

y-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither party. With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on both sides and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer's spiteful tongue put venom into M

res of her poor household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have pleased Sylvie more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before them like one accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman's r

wed to go out except in company with her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little squirrel, was at the mercy of the incessant cry, "Don't touch that, child, let that alone!" She was perpetually being lectured on her carriage and behavior; if she stooped

s learned by degrees to repress all liveliness and