On Horseback
The poor people lived miserably on the husband’s salary. Since their marriage two children had been born, and their previous lack of means had developed into that frightened, timid, shamefaced poverty peculiar to families of good position who try to keep up appearances in spite of everything.
Hector de Gribelin had been brought up in the country, in the paternal manor, by an old Abbé who acted as his tutor. They were not rich, but pulled the devil by the tail and kept up their position. When he was twenty he had gone into the ministry of marine, as a clerk at fifteen hundred francs a year. He had landed there like all those who have not been prepared in early years for the harsh struggle for life, those who see this world through a haze, knowing neither how to get on nor how to meet difficulties, people in whom no special aptitudes or talents have been developed from childhood, no keen energy for the struggle; in whose hands neither a weapon nor a tool has been placed. His first three years at the office were horrible.
He had renewed acquaintance with some friends of his family, old people, behind the times and poor like himself, who lived in select streets, the depressing streets of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and he had made a circle of friends.
Unfamiliar with modern life, humble but proud, these needy aristocrats lived on the top floors of sleepy old houses. From top to bottom these houses were inhabited by titled tenants, but money was as scarce on the second as on the top floor. Their eternal prejudices, preoccupation with their rank, the dread of descending in the scale, haunted these erstwhile brilliant families, ruined by the inaction of their men folk. It was in these circles that Hector de Gribelin met and married a titled but penniless young girl like himself. Two children had been born to them in four years and for the past four years the household, harassed by poverty, had known no other distractions than a walk on Sunday to the Champs-Élysées, and a few evenings at the theatre, one or two each winter, thanks to free tickets received from a friend.
But, as spring approached, his chief entrusted him with some extra work and he received the extra compensation of three hundred francs. Coming home that night he said to his wife:
“My dear Henriette, we ought to do something with this money; a little outing in the country for the children, for instance.”
They had a lengthy discussion, and finally decided on a family picnic.
“We have had so very few outings,” said Hector, “that we may as well do things right. We will hire a break for you and the little ones, and I will hire a horse; it will do me good.”
They talked of nothing else all week. Each night, when he came home from his office he would dance his elder son up and down on his knee and say:
“This is the way papa will ride next Sunday.” And the boy would ride chairs all day screaming:
“This is papa on horseback.” Even the servant looked at the master in wonder, as she thought of his riding beside the carriage on horseback, and at every meal she heard him tell of his feats in horsemanship when he was home. Oh, he had been well trained. Once he felt a horse between his legs, he was afraid of nothing, absolutely nothing.
He would say to his wife, rubbing his hands: “If they could give me a frisky animal I would like it all the better. You will see how I ride, and, if you like, we can come back by the Champs-Élysées when everybody is coming home. We shall cut quite a figure, and I should not be sorry to meet someone from the office; there is nothing like it to inspire respect.”
On the appointed day the carriage and the horse arrived together at the door, and Hector came down immediately, to look the horse over. He had had straps sewn to his trousers, and was playing with a riding-whip purchased the day before. He raised and felt, one after the other, the animals four legs, felt its neck, its ribs, its hocks, tested its back with his hands, opened its mouth, and told its age, and as the family was coming out at that moment, he discoursed on horses in general and that one in particular, which he declared to be an excellent animal.
When everyone was comfortably placed in the carriage, Hector examined the saddle, and mounting with a spring, dropped on the horse with such force that he immediately set up a dance which almost threw his rider. Hector became flustered and tried to calm him, saying: “Come, old fellow, be quiet.” And when they both had calmed down a little he asked:
“Is everybody ready?”
Everybody said they were and the party proceeded. All eyes were turned on Hector, who affected the English seat and leaped up and down on his saddle in an exaggerated manner. He often looked as if he were going to fall forward on the horse’s mane, but he kept his eyes fixed ahead of him, contracting his brow and looking very pale. His wife and the servant each held one of the boys on their lap and every minute they would say:
“Look at papa!” And the boys,
