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

ve taken a lesson from her. Pierrette dared not complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains she now felt in her head. The origin of her cousin's pre

have him near her, and happy in knowing he was in Provins. What joy to have seen him! That single glimpse was like the look an exile c

the simplest of all schemes. At a certain hour of the night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string from her window. In the midst of the girl's own sufferings, she too was sustained by the hope of being able to communicate with Brigau

whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found his chance of slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the woman with the ease of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool was he in action, though the blood hummed in his ears and rushe

e two children went through, all unknown to themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a dozen ordinary loves. This moment in the market-place left in thei

al inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal circumstances that occasioned that inquiry, they wo

e with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here to

dear, Pierrett

that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to make the difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where she obtained p

unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I don't wish that, it would grieve you too much. They speak to me as we would not speak to a dog; they treat me like the worst of girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had pr

ave it-you will spoil your pretty fingers." Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. Still I don't think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave them. My cousin Rogro

do you suppose I cou

ey. Oh! how I think o

where we had our on

eel I am going from b

dreadful pains in my

me, and I have no app

ves and such things.

ey won't let me do a

. I have to hide to o

es which we call affl

the blessed thought

my window. Ah! Jacques

lover. If you wish to

ve you always, as I d

ithful

tte Lo

ve me alway

en crept softly away. When he reached the middle of the square she could see him indistinctly by the starlight; but he saw her quite clearly in the zone of light thrown by the candle. The two children stood thus for over an hour, Pierrette making him signs to go, he starting, she remaining, he coming back to his post, and Pierrette again signing that he must leave her. This was

ead of scolding her, set about watching her with the scrutiny of a magpie. "What reason is there for such happiness?" was a thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the colonel had not been in Sylvie's mind she would have said to Pierrette a

nner. "Didn't I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?" she crie

, cousin, I have

as gay as a lark. Perhaps yo

d and dropped her

; "and only fourteen ye

to come to

Pierrette, raising her sweet and

with a candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salo

te made

!" cried Sylvie,

in, Pierrette; she is very indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper the fault is certainly your

her last strength. She did not go to bed, and stood waiting for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly she opened the window; this time she used

owl. Happily my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the cry three times you will know I am the

elivered from your persecutors. If I do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am c

dear Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder my looking at you-for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you -Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me

es Br

ich the major's son sa

o Madame Lorr

and to show you the state of things I enclose a letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to have taken the money of yo

spect, your d

es Br

r's, Cabinet-maker,

as that the gran

rt was filled with that sensation which travellers in the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees round a well. In a few days her misery would end-Jacques

self, "he does not know the hol

into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man hurrying in the direction of the colonel's house, in front of which Brigaut happened to stop

she said, "

said Pierret

this time of night? Open the do

ntered the room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten

hat for?"

ng, co

g; you'll never get to heaven that

ylvie had suddenly determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to seize their letters and confound the two lovers

oves of Pierre

im or in Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed their understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that moment to search the child's room, with the method and penetration of a spy or a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached the apogee of human sentiments. If Pierrette had bee

ttle wretch will k

which would have touched to pity all selfishness less cruel than theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet's advice, did not come to the house during that week. The colonel, knowing himself suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage by showing any solicitude fo

looking at Mademoiselle Habert and the

our cousin is very i

arms," Sylvie said to him in a

to send for a doctor. This morning at church every one was sp

ng," said

to unfasten her cousin's gown. Sylvie went u

t, when Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with sup

ouched the corset and

, saying to

tell you it is all a pretence. You have

as grossly rude to the colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look at the lawyer which threatened him to the

er in my born days, wi

I can never forget. I am as strong a friend as I am an enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, and I will make your brother a receiver-general. Now swe

xclaime

ildren, and you told me yourself the risks you feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the Chamber and then take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief justice. If you want revenge on the colonel make your brother marry

errette," was Syl

said Vinet, "and capable of m

lculation!

you mean to remain unmarried and will leave your property to your nephews and nieces. Tha

em both right. She shall go to a shop, and get nothing

dogged obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he w

in the square, smoking a ci

e pulled me down, but stones e

lon

ou your deserts. In the first p

lon

otes and the ele

ust been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted of writing to Pie

and non

her to Bathilde and leave he

won't ha

ith a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don't be a fool; how can you and I afford to qua

fifty thousand francs before the elections; if not -look out for yourself! I don't like un

net, grasping the colone

*

them in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, opened her window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to w

" she thought. "Why, P

s she

paper against her blinds. She fastened the strings of her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs

shing to the window, from which she saw Jacque

of youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance

e, advancing upon the girl with

f. The two women, one dying, the other in the vigor of health, looked at each other fixedly. Pierrette's eyes darted on her executioner the look the famous Templar on the rack cast upon Philippe le Bel, who could not bear it and fled thunderstricken. Sylvie, a woman and a jealous woman, answered that magnetic look with malignant flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The clenched hand of the Breton girl resisted her cousin's efforts like a block of steel. Sylvie twisted Pierrette's arm

d Pierrette, "they

when I catch you with a lo

t the hand

ied Pierrette, t

heard at the front door. Exhaust

ter's room, and not finding her was frightened. Hearing the knocks he went down, unfaste

ers. Releasing the girl's wrist she sprang upon the corset like a tiger on its prey, and showe

tte, falling on her knees

ir and an aged parchment face,

ome too late," cried the poo

e, followed so violent a struggle. The tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, and

loth), accompanied by Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. She slowly went down the stairs, listened to

ie. "To-morrow we will

wo letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the greatest perple

*

he had consoled her loneliness with the thought that the sacrifice of herself was in the interests of her grandchild. She was blessed with one of those ever-young hearts which are upheld and invigorated by the idea

d the Lorrains a loss of twenty-four thousand francs, had gone to America with his children after his disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a ruined man. After eleven years of untold effort crowned by success he returned to Nantes to recover

ders of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear gran

hereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains seemed so irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the widow to pay off her husband's debts, to the amount of forty thousand francs more. When the Bourse of Nantes heard of t

enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first thought had been, as she signed the receipt: "Now I can

ly. His words so terrified the grandmother that she could not control her impatience and followed him to the square. When Pierrette screamed, the horror of that cry went to her heart as sharply as it did to Brigaut's. Together they would have roused the neighborhood if Rogron, in his terror, had not opened the door. The scream of the young girl at bay gave her grandmother the sudden strength of anger with which she carried her dear Pierrette in he

loody?" said the g

f strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, gradu

d picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend to come instantl

ggling meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn anger. She read, with a power of intuition given to the aged when near their grave, Pierrette's whole life, on which her mind had dwelt throughout her journey. She divined the illness of her darling, and knew that she was threatened

r!" she said at last

brick-laid floor, making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne

," she said to Briga

aut,

and gave him a despotic pus

stening as she spoke the strings that tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom in which

passing presently; he can certainly find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult Doctor Marten

had just taken place at the Rogrons'; but even so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror of it, nor the extent of the injury done. Martener gave the address of the cel

given these wounds

murdering her," said the grandmother. "My poor Pierrette was screaming

ery ill," he added, examining her with a light. "She must have suffered

in a letter, saying they had twelve thousand francs a year and would take care of her; had they

ll maladies to which young girls are liable. She

er was holding near her face, and by the horrible suffe

I am very ill," she sa

, my little friend

touching her head

ning Pierrette on her sufferings. "You must tell us all, my child, so that we may know ho

truggle between herself

tor from Paris; and we will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a consultation. The case seem

that Brigaut should live with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not imagining the events to which her admissions would give rise. The monstrosity of two beings without affection an

d as the sleeping draught soothed her body. The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead