Ridiculous as it may seem, this woman, who by her own fortune and her various inheritances brought Pere Grandet more than three hundred thousand francs, had always felt so profoundly humiliated by her dependence and the slavery in which she lived, against which the gentleness of her spirit prevented her from revolting, that she had never asked for one penny or made a single remark on the deeds which Maitre Cruchot brought for her signature. This foolish secret pride, this nobility of soul perpetually misunderstood and wounded by Grandet, ruled the whole conduct of the wife.
Madame Grandet was attired habitually in a gown of greenish levantine silk, endeavoring to make it last nearly a year; with it she wore a large kerchief of white cotton cloth, a bonnet made of plaited straws sewn together, and almost always a black-silk apron. As she seldom left the house she wore out very few shoes. She never asked anything for herself. Grandet, seized with occasional remorse when he remembered how long a time had elapsed since he gave her the last six francs, always stipulated for the "wife's pin-money" when he sold his yearly vintage. The four or five louis presented by the Belgian or the Dutchman who purchased the wine were the chief visible signs of Madame Grandet's annual revenues. But after she had received the five louis, her husband would often say to her, as though their purse were held in common: "Can you lend me a few sous?" and the poor woman, glad to be able to do something for a man whom her confessor held up to her as her lord and master, returned him in the course of the winter several crowns out of the "pin-money." When Grandet drew from his pocket the five-franc piece which he allowed monthly for the minor expenses,--thread, needles, and toilet,--of his daughter, he never failed to say as he buttoned his breeches' pocket: "And you, mother, do you want anything?""My friend," Madame Grandet would answer, moved by a sense of maternal dignity, "we will see about that later."Wasted dignity! Grandet thought himself very generous to his wife.
Philosophers who meet the like of Nanon, of Madame Grandet, of Eugenie, have surely a right to say that irony is at the bottom of the ways of Providence.
After the dinner at which for the first time allusion had been made to Eugenie's marriage, Nanon went to fetch a bottle of black-currant ratafia from Monsieur Grandet's bed-chamber, and nearly fell as she came down the stairs.
"You great stupid!" said her master; "are you going to tumble about like other people, hey?""Monsieur, it was that step on your staircase which has given way.""She is right," said Madame Grandet; "it ought to have been mended long ago. Yesterday Eugenie nearly twisted her ankle.""Here," said Grandet to Nanon, seeing that she looked quite pale, "as it is Eugenie's birthday, and you came near falling, take a little glass of ratafia to set you right.""Faith! I've earned it," said Nanon; "most people would have broken the bottle; but I'd sooner have broken my elbow holding it up high.""Poor Nanon!" said Grandet, filling a glass.
"Did you hurt yourself?" asked Eugenie, looking kindly at her.
"No, I didn't fall; I threw myself back on my haunches.""Well! as it is Eugenie's birthday," said Grandet, "I'll have the step mended. You people don't know how to set your foot in the corner where the wood is still firm."Grandet took the candle, leaving his wife, daughter, and servant without any other light than that from the hearth, where the flames were lively, and went into the bakehouse to fetch planks, nails, and tools.
"Can I help you?" cried Nanon, hearing him hammer on the stairs.
"No, no! I'm an old hand at it," answered the former cooper.
At the moment when Grandet was mending his worm-eaten staircase and whistling with all his might, in remembrance of the days of his youth, the three Cruchots knocked at the door.
"Is it you, Monsieur Cruchot?" asked Nanon, peeping through the little grating.
"Yes," answered the president.
Nanon opened the door, and the light from the hearth, reflected on the ceiling, enabled the three Cruchots to find their way into the room.
"Ha! you've come a-greeting," said Nanon, smelling the flowers.
"Excuse me, messieurs," cried Grandet, recognizing their voices; "I'll be with you in a moment. I'm not proud; I am patching up a step on my staircase.""Go on, go on, Monsieur Grandet; a man's house is his castle," said the president sententiously.
Madame and Mademoiselle Grandet rose. The president, profiting by the darkness, said to Eugenie:
"Will you permit me, mademoiselle, to wish you, on this the day of your birth, a series of happy years and the continuance of the health which you now enjoy?"He offered her a huge bouquet of choice flowers which were rare in Saumur; then, taking the heiress by the elbows, he kissed her on each side of her neck with a complacency that made her blush. The president, who looked like a rusty iron nail, felt that his courtship was progressing.
"Don't stand on ceremony," said Grandet, entering. "How well you do things on fete-days, Monsieur le president!""When it concerns mademoiselle," said the abbe, armed with his own bouquet, "every day is a fete-day for my nephew."The abbe kissed Eugenie's hand. As for Maitre Cruchot, he boldly kissed her on both cheeks, remarking: "How we sprout up, to be sure!
Every year is twelve months."
