No Regrets - Carolyn Burke [7]
Brothels like Edith’s new home were called maisons de tolérance, their activities “tolerated” by the officials who regulated them and sometimes returned when off-duty. Its services were advertised by the lantern and the larger-than-normal street number that graced the façade of this three-story residence on the road to Rouen. The building’s layout ensured visitors’ privacy while also providing separate quarters for Maman Tine, Victor Gassion, and Edith. Clients came through the front door into a vestibule that led to the salon, where each night a player piano cranked out popular songs, and those who wanted to relax sipped absinthe or smoked their pipes.
Visits to les filles took place discreetly, in the small bedrooms on the second and third floors. Everyone behaved as if, apart from their nightly duties, “the girls” were boarders at a strange sort of finishing school, with Maman Tine as their headmistress. Taking up work as a fille soumise, or registered prostitute, subjected one to a high degree of discipline. It also meant taking a new name, usually from a list repeated from one maison to another—literary and operatic pseudonyms like Violette, Manon, and Carmen, or youthful-sounding diminutives ending in “-ette” (Yvette, Odette, Blondinette) that nourished clients’ fantasies about the girls’ willing “submission.”
The inmates of such houses rose late, devoted what remained of the morning to their grooming, and spent the afternoon playing cards, gossiping, and smoking. A child would have been a welcome diversion, particularly for the women whose own children had been taken from them. One can imagine Edith’s surrogate mothers fussing over her, especially once they realized that she could barely see. “I got used to walking with my hands out in front to protect myself,” she said. “My fingers and hands were sensitive; I recognized fabrics by touching them, people’s skin the same way. I would say, ‘That’s Carmen, that’s Rose.’ … I lived in a world of sounds.”
One wonders how Edith interpreted what she heard at night or what she made of her new friends’ working clothes, their scanty chemises and silk stockings. Although her eyelids opened only partway, she no doubt witnessed scenes in the salon, where the residents sat demurely until a client chose one of them and took her upstairs. “I always thought that if a man held out his hand to a woman, she had to accept and go with him,” Piaf said years later.
On Tuesday, the residents’ day off, they put on their most modest garb and, with Edith in tow, walked single-file behind Maman Tine to visit the coiffeur, the pharmacist, and other shops. This display of decorum did not change the townspeople’s opinions of those they called les filles perdues (the lost girls), but it helped maintain a sense of order—just as the discipline at the brothel mirrored bourgeois home life. Residents were given registration numbers, as if they were in the army; they had to submit to sermons by the curé and visits by the doctor, who checked their health in compliance with state regulations.
Some time after Edith’s arrival, the same doctor examined the child’s eyes—whose color, a translucent blue, held tints of mauve and violet. He diagnosed her condition as acute keratitis, an inflammation of the cornea caused by the herpes virus or by bacteria. In our time, keratitis is treated with antiviral drops or antibiotics. Before these drugs were available, most patients recovered but some cases resulted in permanent damage, even blindness. Ointments were prescribed for Edith’s symptoms—blurred vision, pain, and sensitivity to light. She was to rest, eat well, and cover her eyes with bandages.
After this approach failed to effect a cure, the women of the house took matters into their own hands. One day