The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 2 (of 8) eBook
Guy de Maupassant
I had found out, however, that her virtue was only
apparent, especially since she had changed employers;
that she was fond of going to the public balls, and
that she divided her favors between a man who came
from her part of the country, and who was a sergeant
in a dragoon regiment, and a footman, and that she
spent all her money on horse races and on dress.
I felt sure that I should be able to make her talk
and get the truth out of her, either by money or cunning,
and so I asked her to meet me early one morning in
a quiet square.
She listened to me first of all in astonishment, without
replying yes or no, as if she did not understand what
I was aiming at, or with what object I was asking
her all these questions about her former mistress;
but when I offered her a few hundred francs to loosen
her tongue, as I was impatient to get the matter over
and pretended to know that she had managed interviews
for Elaine with her lovers, that they were known and
being followed, that she was in the habit of frequenting
quiet bachelors’ quarters, from which she returned
late, the sly little wench frowned angrily, shrugged
her shoulders and exclaimed:
“What pigs some men are to have such ideas,
and cause such an excellent person as Mademoiselle
Elaine any unhappiness. Look here, you disgust
me with your banknotes and your dirty stories, and
I don’t choose to say what you ought to wear
on your head!”
She turned her back on me and hurried off, and her
insolence, that indignant reply which she had given
me, rejoiced me to the depths of my heart, like soothing
balm that lulls the pain.
I should have liked to have called her back, and told
her that it was all a joke, that I was devotedly in
love with my wife, that I was always on the watch
to hear her praised, but she was already out of sight,
and I felt that I was ridiculous and mean, that I
had lowered myself by what I had done, and I swore
that I would profit by such a humiliating lesson,
and for the future show myself to Elaine as the trusting
and ardent husband that she deserved, and I thought
myself cured, altogether cured....
And yet, I was again the prey to the same bad thoughts,
to the same doubts, and persuaded that that girl had
lied to me just like all other women lie when they
are on the defensive, that she made fun of me, that
perhaps some one had foreseen this scene and
had told her what to say and made sure of her silence,
just as her complicity had been gained. Thus
I shall always knock up against some barrier, and struggle
in this wretched darkness, and this mire from which
I cannot extricate myself!
PART XII
Nobody knew anything. Neither the Superior of
the Convent where she had been brought up until she
was sixteen, nor the servants who had waited on her,
nor the governesses who had finished her education,
could remember that Elaine had been difficult to check
or teach, or that she had had any other ideas than
those of her age. She had certainly shown no
precocious coquetry and disquieting instincts; she
had had no equivocal cousinly relationships, when
if the bridle is left on their neck at all, and one
of them has learned at school what love is, the two
big children yield to the fatal law of sex, and begin
the inevitable eclogue of Daphne and Chole over again.
