[Miss Harriet appeared in Le Gaulois,
July 9, 1883, under the title of Miss Hastings.
The story was later revised, enlarged; and partly
reconstructed. This is what De Maupassant wrote
to Editor Havard March 15, 1884, in an unedited
letter, in regard to the title of the story that
was to give its name to the volume:
“I do not believe that Hastings
is a bad name, inasmuch as it is
known all over the world, and recalls
the greatest facts in English
history. Besides, Hastings
is as much a name as Duval is with us.
“The name Cherbuliez selected,
Miss Revel, is no more like an
English name than like a Turkish
name. But here is another name as
English as Hastings, and more euphonious;
it is Miss Harriet.
I will ask you therefore to substitute
Harriet for Hastings.”
It was in regard to this very tittle
that De Maupassant had a disagreement with Audran
and Boucheron director of the Bouffes Parisiens
in October, 1890 They had given this title to an operetta
about to be played at the Bouffes. It ended
however, by their ceding to De Maupassant, and
the title of the operetta was changed to Miss Helyett.]
The former soldier, Mederic Rompel, familiarly called
Mederic by the country folks, left the post office
of Roily-le-Tors at the usual hour. After passing
through the village with his long stride, he cut across
the meadows of Villaume and reached the bank of the
Brindille, following the path along the water’s
edge to the village of Carvelin, where he commenced
to deliver his letters. He walked quickly, following
the course of the narrow river, which frothed, murmured
and boiled in its grassy bed beneath an arch of willows.
Mederic went on without stopping, with only this thought
in his mind: “My first letter is for the
Poivron family, then I have one for Monsieur Renardet;
so I must cross the wood.”
His blue blouse, fastened round his waist by a black
leather belt, moved in a quick, regular fashion above
the green hedge of willow trees, and his stout stick
of holly kept time with his steady tread.
He crossed the Brindille on a bridge consisting of
a tree trunk, with a handrail of rope, fastened at
either end to a stake driven into the ground.
The wood, which belonged to Monsieur Renardet, the
mayor of Carvelin and the largest landowner in the
district, consisted of huge old trees, straight as
pillars and extending for about half a league along
the left bank of the stream which served as a boundary
to this immense dome of foliage. Alongside the
water large shrubs had grown up in the sunlight, but
under the trees one found nothing but moss, thick,
soft and yielding, from which arose, in the still
air, an odor of dampness and of dead wood.
Mederic slackened his pace, took off his black cap
adorned with red lace and wiped his forehead, for
it was by this time hot in the meadows, though it
was not yet eight o’clock in the morning.
