Christmas Eve
“Christmas Eve! Oh! no, I shall never celebrate that again!” Stout Henri Templier said that in a furious voice, as if someone had proposed some crime to him, while the others laughed and said:
“What are you flying into a rage about?”
“Because a Christmas-Eve supper played me the dirtiest trick in the world, and ever since I have felt an insurmountable horror for that night of imbecile gaiety.”
“Tell us what it is?”
“You want to know what it was? Very well, then, listen.
“You remember how cold it was two years ago at Christmas; cold enough to kill poor people in the streets. The Seine was freezing; the pavements froze one’s feet through the soles of one’s boots, and everybody seemed nearly dead.
“I had a big piece of work on, and so I refused every invitation to supper, as I preferred to spend the night at my writing table. I dined alone and then began to work. But about ten o’clock I grew restless at the thought of the gay life all over Paris, at the noise in the streets which reached me in spite of everything, at my neighbours’ preparations for supper, which I heard through the walls. I hardly knew any longer what I was doing; I was writing nonsense, and at last I came to the conclusion that I had better give up all hope of producing any good work that night.
“I walked up and down my room; I sat down and got up again. I was certainly under the mysterious influence of the enjoyment outside, and I resigned myself to it. So I rang for my servant, and said to her:
“ ‘Angela, go and get a good supper for two; some oysters, a cold partridge, some crayfish, ham and some cakes. Put out two bottles of champagne, lay the table and go to bed.’
“She obeyed in some surprise, and when all was ready, I put on my overcoat and went out. A great question was to be solved: ‘With whom was I going to celebrate Christmas Eve?’ My female friends had all been invited elsewhere, and if I had wished to have one, I ought to have seen about it beforehand, so I thought that I would do a good action at the same time, and I said to myself:
“ ‘Paris is full of poor and beautiful girls who will have nothing on their table tonight, and who are on the lookout for some generous fellow. I will act the part of Providence to one of them this evening; and I will find one if I have to go into every pleasure resort, and have to question them and hunt for one till I find one to my choice.’ And I started off on my search.
“I certainly found many poor girls, who were on the lookout for some adventure, but they were ugly enough to give any man a fit of indigestion, or thin enough to freeze as they stood, if they had stopped, and you all know that I have a weakness for plump women. The more flesh they have, the better I like them, and a female colossus would drive me out of my senses with pleasure.
“Suddenly, opposite the Théâtre des Variétés, I saw a face to my liking. A good head, and then two protuberances, a very beautiful bosom, and below that, a surprising stomach, the stomach of a fat goose. I trembled with pleasure, and said:
“ ‘By Jove! What a fine girl!’
“It only remained for me to see her face. A woman’s face is the dessert, while the rest is … the joint.
“I hastened on, and overtook her, and turned round suddenly under a gas lamp. She was charming, quite young, dark, with large, black eyes, and I immediately made my proposal, which she accepted without any hesitation, and a quarter of an hour later, we were sitting at supper in my lodgings. ‘Oh! how comfortable it is here,’ she said as she came in, and she looked about her with evident satisfaction at having found a supper and a bed, on that bitter night. She was superb; so beautiful that she astonished me, and so stout that she fairly captivated me.
“She took off her cloak and hat, sat down and began to eat; but she seemed in low spirits, and sometimes her pale face twitched as if she were suffering from some hidden sorrow.
“ ‘Have you anything troubling you?’ I asked her.
“ ‘Bah! Don’t let us think of troubles!’
“And she began to drink. She emptied her champagne glass at a draught, filled it again, and emptied it again, without stopping, and soon a little colour came into her cheeks, and she began to laugh.
“I adored her already, kissed her continually, and discovered that she was neither stupid, nor common, nor coarse as ordinary streetwalkers are. I asked her for
