The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 2 (of 8) eBook

It was the same at dinner, and then she had to play dominoes with him, after which he sent her to bed, saying that he should come upstairs soon.  And she went to her room, a garret under the roof, and after saying her prayers, she undressed and got into bed, but very soon she sprung up in a fright, for a furious shout had shaken the house.  “Adelaide!” She opened her door, and replied from her attic:  “Here I am, master.”  “Where are you?” “In bed, of course, master.”  Then he roared out:  “Will you come downstairs, in heaven’s name?  I do not like to sleep alone, and by G——­ and if you object, you can just go at once.”

Then in her terror, she replied from upstairs:  “I will come, master,” as she looked for her candle, and he heard her small clogs pattering down the stairs, and when she had got to the bottom steps, he seized her by the arm, and as soon as she had left her light wooden shoes by the side of her master’s heavy boots, he pushed her into his room, growling out:  “Quicker than that, confound it!”

And she repeated continually, without knowing what she was saying:  “Here I am, here I am, master.”

* * * * *

Six months later, when she went to see her parents one Sunday, her father looked at her curiously, and then said:  “Are you not in the family way?” She remained thunderstruck, and looked at her waist, and then said:  “No, I do not think so.”

Then he asked her, for he wanted to know everything:  “Just tell me, didn’t you mix your clogs together, one night?” “Yes, I mixed them the first night, and then every other night.”  “Well, then you are full, you great tub!”

On hearing that, she began to sob, and stammered:  “How could I know?  How was I to know?” Old Malandain looked at her knowingly, and appeared very pleased, and then he asked:  “What did you not know?” And amid tears she replied:  “How was I to know that children were made in that way?” And when her mother came back, the man said, without any anger:  “There, she is in the family way, now.”

But the woman was furious, her woman’s instinct revolted, and she called her daughter, who was in tears, every name she could think of, “a trollop” and “a strumpet.”  Then, however, the old man made her hold her tongue, and as he took up his cap to go and talk the matter over with Master Cesaire Omont, he remarked:  “She is actually more stupid than I thought she was; she did not even know what he was doing, the fool!”

On the next Sunday, after the sermon, the old Cure published the banns between Monsieur Onufre-Cesaire Omont and Celeste-Adelaide Malandain.

A NORMANDY JOKE

The procession came in sight in the hollow road which was shaded by tall trees which grew on the slopes of the farms.  The newly married couple came first, then the relations, then the invited guests, and lastly the poor of the neighborhood, while the village urchins, who hovered about the narrow road like flies, ran in and out of the ranks, or climbed onto the tree to see it better.