Scenes from a Courtesan's Life [101]
with a narrow line of gold that coyly caught the light.
From this you may judge of the rest.
"You did well to bring me here," said Esther. "It will take me a week to get used to my home and not to look like a parvenu in it----"
"MY home! Den you shall accept it?" cried the Baron in glee.
"Why, of course, and a thousand times of course, stupid animal," said she, smiling.
"Animal vas enough----"
"Stupid is a term of endearment," said she, looking at him.
The poor man took Esther's hand and pressed it to his heart. He was animal enough to feel, but too stupid to find words.
"Feel how it beats--for ein little tender vort----"
And he conducted his goddess to her room.
"Oh, madame, I cannot stay here!" cried Eugenie. "It makes me long to go to bed."
"Well," said Esther, "I mean to please the magician who has worked all these wonders.--Listen, my fat elephant, after dinner we will go to the play together. I am starving to see a play."
It was just five years since Esther had been to a theatre. All Paris was rushing at that time to the Porte-Saint-Martin, to see one of those pieces to which the power of the actors lends a terrible expression of reality, Richard Darlington. Like all ingenuous natures, Esther loved to feel the thrills of fear as much as to yield to tears of pathos.
"Let us go to see Frederick Lemaitre," said she; "he is an actor I adore."
"It is a horrible piece," said Nucingen foreseeing the moment when he must show himself in public.
He sent his servant to secure one of the two stage-boxes on the grand tier.--And this is another strange feature of Paris. Whenever success, on feet of clay, fills a house, there is always a stage-box to be had ten minutes before the curtain rises. The managers keep it for themselves, unless it happens to be taken for a passion a la Nucingen. This box, like Chevet's dainties, is a tax levied on the whims of the Parisian Olympus.
It would be superfluous to describe the plate and china. Nucingen had provided three services of plate--common, medium, and best; and the best--plates, dishes, and all, was of chased silver gilt. The banker, to avoid overloading the table with gold and silver, had completed the array of each service with porcelain of exquisite fragility in the style of Dresden china, which had cost more than the plate. As to the linen--Saxony, England, Flanders, and France vied in the perfection of flowered damask.
At dinner it was the Baron's turn to be amazed on tasting Asie's cookery.
"I understant," said he, "vy you call her Asie; dis is Asiatic cooking."
"I begin to think he loves me," said Esther to Europe; "he has said something almost like a bon mot."
"I said many vorts," said he.
"Well! he is more like Turcaret than I had heard he was!" cried the girl, laughing at this reply, worthy of the many artless speeches for which the banker was famous.
The dishes were so highly spiced as to give the Baron an indigestion, on purpose that he might go home early; so this was all he got in the way of pleasure out of his first evening with Esther. At the theatre he was obliged to drink an immense number of glasses of eau sucree, leaving Esther alone between the acts.
By a coincidence so probable that it can scarcely be called chance, Tullia, Mariette, and Madame du Val-Noble were at the play that evening. Richard Darlington enjoyed a wild success--and a deserved success--such as is seen only in Paris. The men who saw this play all came to the conclusion that a lawful wife might be thrown out of window, and the wives loved to see themselves unjustly persecuted.
The women said to each other: "This is too much! we are driven to it-- but it often happens!"
Now a woman as beautiful as Esther, and dressed as Esther was, could not show off with impunity in a stage-box at the Porte-Saint-Martin. And so, during the second act, there was quite a commotion in the box where the two dancers were sitting, caused by the undoubted identity of the unknown fair one with La Torpille.
"Heyday! where has she dropped from?" said
From this you may judge of the rest.
"You did well to bring me here," said Esther. "It will take me a week to get used to my home and not to look like a parvenu in it----"
"MY home! Den you shall accept it?" cried the Baron in glee.
"Why, of course, and a thousand times of course, stupid animal," said she, smiling.
"Animal vas enough----"
"Stupid is a term of endearment," said she, looking at him.
The poor man took Esther's hand and pressed it to his heart. He was animal enough to feel, but too stupid to find words.
"Feel how it beats--for ein little tender vort----"
And he conducted his goddess to her room.
"Oh, madame, I cannot stay here!" cried Eugenie. "It makes me long to go to bed."
"Well," said Esther, "I mean to please the magician who has worked all these wonders.--Listen, my fat elephant, after dinner we will go to the play together. I am starving to see a play."
It was just five years since Esther had been to a theatre. All Paris was rushing at that time to the Porte-Saint-Martin, to see one of those pieces to which the power of the actors lends a terrible expression of reality, Richard Darlington. Like all ingenuous natures, Esther loved to feel the thrills of fear as much as to yield to tears of pathos.
"Let us go to see Frederick Lemaitre," said she; "he is an actor I adore."
"It is a horrible piece," said Nucingen foreseeing the moment when he must show himself in public.
He sent his servant to secure one of the two stage-boxes on the grand tier.--And this is another strange feature of Paris. Whenever success, on feet of clay, fills a house, there is always a stage-box to be had ten minutes before the curtain rises. The managers keep it for themselves, unless it happens to be taken for a passion a la Nucingen. This box, like Chevet's dainties, is a tax levied on the whims of the Parisian Olympus.
It would be superfluous to describe the plate and china. Nucingen had provided three services of plate--common, medium, and best; and the best--plates, dishes, and all, was of chased silver gilt. The banker, to avoid overloading the table with gold and silver, had completed the array of each service with porcelain of exquisite fragility in the style of Dresden china, which had cost more than the plate. As to the linen--Saxony, England, Flanders, and France vied in the perfection of flowered damask.
At dinner it was the Baron's turn to be amazed on tasting Asie's cookery.
"I understant," said he, "vy you call her Asie; dis is Asiatic cooking."
"I begin to think he loves me," said Esther to Europe; "he has said something almost like a bon mot."
"I said many vorts," said he.
"Well! he is more like Turcaret than I had heard he was!" cried the girl, laughing at this reply, worthy of the many artless speeches for which the banker was famous.
The dishes were so highly spiced as to give the Baron an indigestion, on purpose that he might go home early; so this was all he got in the way of pleasure out of his first evening with Esther. At the theatre he was obliged to drink an immense number of glasses of eau sucree, leaving Esther alone between the acts.
By a coincidence so probable that it can scarcely be called chance, Tullia, Mariette, and Madame du Val-Noble were at the play that evening. Richard Darlington enjoyed a wild success--and a deserved success--such as is seen only in Paris. The men who saw this play all came to the conclusion that a lawful wife might be thrown out of window, and the wives loved to see themselves unjustly persecuted.
The women said to each other: "This is too much! we are driven to it-- but it often happens!"
Now a woman as beautiful as Esther, and dressed as Esther was, could not show off with impunity in a stage-box at the Porte-Saint-Martin. And so, during the second act, there was quite a commotion in the box where the two dancers were sitting, caused by the undoubted identity of the unknown fair one with La Torpille.
"Heyday! where has she dropped from?" said