Fromont and Risler -- Volume 1

abodes, to poor families confined in their too small apartments. They go there t

her would say to her: "There there! you bother me, go and p

iling, guarded on the staircase side by a wrought-iron rail, lighted by a large window which looked out upon roofs, courtyards, a

ked it much better than her own home. Their rooms were dis

devising bourgeois of when there are so many in Paris. His wife, whom he had dazzled at first, had soon detected his utter insignificance, a

neighbors, as did Madame Chebe's cashmere, which had been rescued from every wreck, her wedding laces and two diamond studs, very tiny and very modest, which Sidonie sometimes begged her mother to show her, as they la

e out their slender income. But he sought it only in what he called standing

d a horse and tilbury of his own, the little man had had one day a serious fall. That

e five minutes before he woul

ident that happened

is little bald pate "The same th

books, in truffles, in clocks, and in many other things beside. Unluckily, he tired of everything, never considered his position sufficiently exalted for a former business man wi

describe all the absurd fancies, all the idiotic eccentricities with which a bourgeois without occupation can succeed in filling the emptiness of his life? M. Chebe imposed upon

otic face at the window while she was energetically mending the family linen, would rid herself of him by giving him an errand t

wait for the omnibus, and pass half the day in procuring two cakes, wort

re the fifteenth of August, gazing at the black lamps and their frames, and the scaffoldings. Nor did his wife complain. At all events, she no longer had that chronic grumbler prowling around her ch

g else, that absolute want, although a near neighbor of such impecuniosity as theirs, never succeeded in making its way into those three rooms

nob gleamed in bourgeois fashion upon the

by four nails, according to the custom in vog

SIGNER OF

square of leather, with t

LE BIRDS AND INS

other and daughter, the latter almost a child, each as weary and as pale as the other, worked at on

le insects from South America that have the brilliant coloring of jewels an

rd restored to an appearance of life and grace. The mother prepared the work under her daughter's direction; for Desiree, though she was still a mere girl, was endowed with exquisite taste, with a fairy-like power of invention, and no one could, insert two pearl eyes in those tiny heads or spread their lifeless wings so deftly as she. Happy or unhappy, Desiree always worked with the same energy. From dawn until well into the night the table was covered with work. At the last ray of daylight, when the factory bells were ringing in all the neighboring yards, Madame Delobelle lighted the lamp, and after a more than frugal repa

ggle, as he said! And this is

decin des Enfants', declaimed in a sonorous voice that blended with the thousand- and-one noises of the great Parisian bee-hive. Then, after breakfast, the actor would sally forth for the day; would go to "do

greatest elements of success, a bait for the manager-the famous, intelligent

can imagine how many birds and insects it required to fit out a blade o

not, strictly speaking, for his benefit, but for the benefit of that m

d was less depressing. The Chebes felt that their petty annuitant existence was fastened upon them forever, with no pros

light or air, but where a great boulevard might some day be laid out. And then, too, Madame Chebe no longer be

audevillists, dramatists, and the famous what's-his-name, author of several great dramas. Engagements did not always follow. So that, without once appearing

opped

in great warehouses, at the 'Phares de la Bastille' or the 'Colosse de Rhodes.' All that was necessary was to have good manners. Delob

abandon the stage!"

t the inclination to laugh when one saw his wife and his daughter swallowing particles of arsenic day and night, and he

obelle has no right t

e des Francs-Bourgeois, with the predilection of the Parisian for everything and everybody connected with the theatre, saluted him respectfully. He was always so well dressed! And then he was so kind, so obliging! When you think that every Saturd

ng, such native dignity, that the young woman whose duty it was to make up the Delobelle account was s

he way, the actor did n

n were f

e. Then, with scrupulous fidelity-and very grateful they were to him-he would carry the rest of the money home, sometimes with a bouquet for his wife or a little present for De

and hie thee hence to tell th

e was quite lucrative, the Delobelles often found themselves in straitene

r was at hand, always ready

nd fair, strong and ruddy, brought into the dismal, hard-working house glimpses of the country and of health. The elder was a draughtsman at th

ames Chebe and Delobelle, advice and information which were an indispensable aid to that ingenuous, timid, somewhat heavy youth, embarrassed

it was a great satisfaction to the two exiles to find in those poor househol

rent-day, and to make his appearance at the Chebes' in the guise of the rich uncle, always laden with surprises

uld go with Messieurs Chebe and Delobelle to a brewery on the Rue Blondel, wher

two friends, listening to their talk, and taking part only by a loud laugh or a shake of the

iority of the man who does nothing over the man who works; and M. Chebe, less generous than Delobelle, did not hesitate to make him feel it. He was very lofty with him, was M. Chebe! In his opinion, a man who worked, as Risler did, ten hours a day, w

s chest, and he would add, looking at Risler with the air of a physician

l loftier tone. The cedar does not see a rose at i

him with stories of actresses, would give him lessons in deportment and the addresses of outfitters, unable to understand why a man who earned so much money should always be dressed like an usher at a prim

e same floor, little Chebe, with her goin

down, she would try to make herself a headdress of the remains, to fix that brilliant shaft of color among the ripples of her silky hair. It made Desiree and her mother smile to see her stand on tiptoe in front of the old tarnished mirror, with affected little shrugs a

donie enters, farewell to study! Everything must be put aside to receive that lovely creature with the humming-bird in

rl of eight, humoring her caprices, adoring her as he yielded to her, so that later, when

re it was that she found her greatest source of entertainment, a horizon always open, a sort of vision of the

e factory, the tops of the plane-trees in the garden, the many-windowed

ent was to her mind the

and goodness and cleverness, had aroused that childish curiosity; and such portions as she could see of the dwelling-houses, the carved wooden blinds, the circular front steps, with th

's little lamp lighted late in the evening, and the long Sunday afternoon, the closed workshops, the smokeless chimney, the profound silence

ows," she would say to

the print-shop, the gilding-shop, the designing- room where he worked, the engine-room, above which towered that enormous chimney blackening all the neighboring walls wit

that paradise of which she had h

plied by a curt refusal. Even in those days, the Fromonts, whose name was always on Rider's lips, irritated and humiliated him by their wealth. Moreover, it was to be a fancy ball, and M. Chebe-who di

memorable

k stripes, stood before the mirror, erect and motionless, in the glittering splendor of her costume. She was charming. The waist, with bands of velvet laced over the white stomacher, the lovely, long tresses of chestnut ha

out laying aside her needle; she, too, was excited, poor child! by the intoxication of that festivity to which she was not invited. The great man arrived. He made Sidonie rehearse two or three stately curtseys which he

e old actor enthusiastically, unable to understand

e upon her. She forgot nothing, neither the costumes that made an eddying whirl about her, nor the childish laughter, nor all the tiny steps that glided over the polished floors. For a moment, as she sat on the edge of a great red-silk couc

ed. Claire Fromont, a miniature Cauchoise dressed in lace, presented her to her cousin G

y friend. She is coming to play wi

mpulsiveness of a happy

th all h

was melting, in the dark hall, in the silent room where her mother awaited her

" queried Madame Chebe in a low tone, unfastenin

fell asleep standing, beginning a lovely dream which wa

nd the dovecot with its threads of gold. She came to know all the corners and hiding-places in the great factory, and took part in many glorious g

conscious of softer impulses, she was happy and felt that she was embellished by her surroundings; but when she returned to her parent

Fromont treated

chateau, at Savigny-sur-Orge. Thanks to the munificence of Risler, who was very proud of his little one's success, she was always presentable and well dresse

ly upon this growing intimacy. The true reason was that he himself ne

ad when she returns from that house, and that

red that one should make the most of the present for fear of the future, should seize happiness as it

pened that M. C