Germinie Lacerteux

the silence shed from the sky, the city barrier and the idyllic rural scene, the odor of manure and the fresh smell of green wheat, the great human Fair and Nature! Germinie enjoyed it, however; and, urging Jupillon to go farther, walking on the very edge of the road, she would constantly step in among the grain to enjoy the fresh, cool sensation of the stalks against her stockings. When they returned she always wanted to go upon the slope once more. The sun had by that time disappeared and the sky was gray below, pink in the centre and blue above. The horizon grew dark; from green the trees became a dark brown and melted into the sky; the zinc roofs of the wineshops looked as if the moon were shining upon them, fires began to appear in the darkness, the crowd became gray, and the white linen took on a bluish tinge. Little by little everything would fade away, be blotted out, lose its form and color in a dying remnant of colorless daylight, and through the increasing darkness the voices of a class whose life begins at night, and the voice of the wine beginning to sing, would arise, mingled with the din of the rattles. Upon the slope the tops of the tall grass waved to and fro in the gentle breeze. Germinie would make up her mind to go. She would wend her way homeward, filled with the influence of the falling night, abandoning herself to the uncertain vision of things half-seen, passing the dark houses, and finding that everything along her road had turned paler, as it were⁠—wearied by the long walk over rough roads, and content to be weary and slow and half-fainting, and with a feeling of peace at her heart.

At the first lighted lanterns on Rue du Château, she would fall from her dream to the pavement.

XIII

Madame Jupillon’s face always wore a pleased expression when Germinie appeared; when she kissed her she was very effusive, when she spoke to her her voice was caressing, when she looked at her her glance was most amiable. The huge creature’s kind heart seemed, when with her, to abandon itself to the emotion, the affection, the trustfulness of a sort of maternal tenderness. She took Germinie into her confidence as to her business, as to her woman’s secrets, as to the most private affairs of her life. She seemed to open her heart to her as to a person of her own blood, whom she desired to make familiar with matters of interest to the family. When she spoke of the future, she always referred to Germinie as one from whom she was never to be separated, and who formed a part of the household. Often she allowed certain discreet, mysterious smiles to escape her, smiles which made it appear that she saw all that was going on and was not angry. Sometimes, too, when her son was sitting by Germinie’s side, she would let her eyes, moist with a mother’s tears, rest upon them, and would embrace them with a glance that seemed to unite her two children and call down a blessing on their heads.

Without speaking, without ever uttering a word that could be construed as an engagement, without divulging her thoughts or binding herself in any way, and all the time repeating that her son was still very young to think of being married, she encouraged Germinie’s hopes and illusions by her whole bearing, her airs of secret indulgence and of complicity, so far as her heart was concerned; by those meaning silences when she seemed to open to her a mother-in-law’s arms. And displaying all her talents in the way of hypocrisy, drawing upon her hidden mines of sentiment, her good-natured shrewdness, and the consummate, intricate cunning that fat people possess, the corpulent matron succeeded in vanquishing Germinie’s last resistance by dint of this tacit assurance and promise of marriage; and she finally allowed the young man’s ardor to extort from her what she believed that she was giving in advance to the husband.

XIV

As Germinie was going down the servant’s staircase one day, she heard Adèle’s voice calling her over the banister and telling her to bring her two sous’ worth of butter and ten of absinthe.

“Oh! you can sit down a minute, you know you can,” said Adèle, when she brought her the absinthe and the butter. “I never see you now, you’ll never come in. Come! you have plenty of time to be with your old woman. For my part, I couldn’t live with an Antichrist’s face like hers! So stay. This is the house without work today. There isn’t a sou⁠—madame’s abed. Whenever there’s no money, she goes to bed, does madame; she stays in bed all day, reading novels. Have some of this?”⁠—And she offered her her glass of absinthe.⁠—“No? oh! no, you don’t drink. You’re very foolish. It’s a funny thing not to drink. Say, it would be very nice of you to write me a little line for my dearie. Hard work, you know. I have told you about it. See, here’s madame’s pen⁠—and her paper⁠—it smells good. Are you ready? He’s a good fellow, my dear, and no mistake! He’s in the butcher line as I told you. Ah! my word! I mustn’t rub him the wrong way! When he’s had a glass of blood after killing his beasts, he’s like a madman⁠—and if you’re obstinate with him⁠—Dame! why then he thumps you! But what would you have? He does that to make him strong. If you could see him thump himself on the breast⁠—blows that would kill an ox, and say: ‘That’s a wall, that is!’ Ah! he’s a gentleman, I tell you! Are you thinking about the letter, eh? Make it one of the fetching kind. Say nice things to him, you know⁠—and a little sad⁠—he adores that. At the