WRITING - LOVE & BETRAYAL

A STORY OF LOVE AND BETRAYAL BEFORE THE AGE OF TELEPHONES.

THE DOWRY

By

Guy de Maupassant

A NEW TRANSLATION

By

Doug F*****

No one was surprised when Master Lebrument married Mademoiselle Jeanne Cordier.  Master Lebrument had just purchased the Notary Public practice of Master Papillion; of course, it would cost a hefty sum; and Mlle Jeanne Cordier had three hundred thousand francs in bank notes and negotiable bonds.

Master Lebrument was a handsome young man, who had a certain style about him; perhaps the style of a notary, he had a provincial style, but just the same he had style, a very rare thing in the town of Boutigny-le-Rebours.

Mlle Cordier had poise and freshness: a little gauche in her grace and a little tired in her freshness, but all things considered, she was a lovely girl, desirable and worthy of a man's attention.

The wedding ceremony was the event of the year and turned the town up-side-down.

The newlyweds were greatly admired.   Instead of a honeymoon, they went to celebrate their conjugal bliss at home, and were to take a simple trip to Paris after they had settled in.

The couple was charming.   From the very beginning Master Lebrument knew how to bring remarkable ease, delicacy and skill to the relationship.  He had taken up the motto: "All things come to those who wait."  He knew how to be energetic and yet patient at the same time.  Success was rapid and complete.

After only four days Mme Lebrument adored her husband.  Unable to pull herself away from him, she had to have him near her all day, touching him, kissing him, playing with his hands, his beard, his nose.  She sat on his knees, and holding him by the ears said, "Open your mouth and close your eyes."  He opened it with confidence, half closed his eyes, and received a long and tender kiss that made him shiver to the base of his spine.  And as for him, he couldn't give her enough caresses, enough of his lips, enough of his hands, enough of his whole body to celebrate his wife from morning to night and from night until morning.

* * * * *

After the first week had gone by, he said to his young companion, "If you want to, we'll go to Paris next Tuesday.  We'll act like unmarried lovers, go to all the restaurants, cafe-concerts, we'll go everywhere!"

She jumped up with joy: "Oh yes! Yes, let's go as soon as we can!"

He said, "And not to forget anything, tell your father to get your dowry ready.  I'll take it with us so I can pay Monsieur Papillion on the same trip."

She said, "I'll tell him tomorrow morning."

And he took her in his arms to begin their tender games that she had so loved for the previous eight days.

The following Tuesday, his mother-in-law and father-in-law accompanied them as far as the train station for their trip to the capitol.

His father-in-law said, "It's really not a good idea to carry all that money around in your bill-fold."

The young man answered, "You haven't a thing to worry about Papa, I'm used to these things.  You understand that it often happens - being in the profession I'm in - that I carry a million with me.  And doing it like this, we'll avoid formalities and delays.  There's not a thing to worry about."

The conductor cried," All aboard for Paris!".

The couple hurried toward a compartment where they found two old ladies.

Lebrument whispered in his wife's ear, "That's tiresome.  I can't smoke."

Under her breath she replied, "It's tiresome for me too, but not because you can't light your cigar."

The train whistled and pulled out.  The trip took an hour, during which neither spoke because the old ladies would not fall asleep.

As Soon as they pulled into Saint-Lazare station, Master Lebrument said to his wife, "If you want to my dear, we'll go first to have lunch on the boulevard, then come back for our trunk later on."

She instantly agreed: "Oh yes, let's have lunch at a restaurant.  Is it far?"

"It's not close, but we'll take the omnibus."

Taken aback, she said, "Why not take a carriage?"

His tone was scolding, but he smiled.  "That's just how it is if you want to economize; a taxi at five sous per minute.  I suppose you don't want to deny yourself any luxury."

"You're right," she said, confused.  A big omnibus passed, its three horses at a trot.  Lebrument yelled, "Conductor.  Hey! Conductor."

The Heavy car stopped, and the young notary, pushing his wife, said very quickly, "You go inside.  I'm going to go up top and have a cigarette before our lunch.".

She didn't have time to respond; the conductor, who grabbed her arm to help her up the running board, pulled her too quickly into the car, and she fell into a row of seats, looking in a stupor through the back window at the feet of her husband who climbed up to the "imperial" deck.

She couldn't move sitting between a fat man who smoked his pipe and an old woman who smelled like her dog.

All the other omnibus riders were lined up in their seats and silent: a young grocery-delivery boy, a construction worker, and an infantry sergeant, a man wearing gold rimmed glasses with a silk hat on his head that had huge rims that were turned up like rain gutters, two grouchy women who wore an air of importance and who seemed to say by their attitude, "We may be on a bus, but busses are beneath our station in life;" two nuns, a girl in pig-tails and an undertaker, all had the air of a group in a cartoon, or like figures in a wax museum, they had the faces of human stereotypes, like a row of comic dolls that one throws balls at at a carnival.

The jolts of the omnibus made their heads bob and shake, making the lose skin of their cheeks quiver; and, the grind of the wheels deadening their minds, they seemed like idiots in a trance.

The young bride sat inert: "Why didn't he sit here with me?" she said to herself.  A vague sadness overcame her.  He really should have sat down here with me.  Really.  And waited to smoke.

The nuns made a sign to stop.  They left one after the other, giving off a dull scent of old cotton dresses.

The omnibus started up again, made another stop.  And a cook entered, red, out of breath.  She sat and put a sack of groceries between her knees.  A strong odor of dish-water spread through the car.

"It's farther than I thought it would be," thought Jeanne.

The undertaker left and was replaced by a coach driver who smelled of the stable.  The girl with pig tales was replaced by a commissioner whose feet gave off the scent of his heavy walking.

The young notary's wife felt queezy, ready to cry without knowing why.

People got off.  People got on.  The omnibus moved along interminable streets, stopped at stations, got back underway.

"It's so far," said Jeanne to herself.  "Maybe he's distracted, maybe he fell asleep! He's been so tired for the last few days," Little by little, all the passengers got off.  Then there she was, all alone.  All alone.

The conductor cried, "Vaugirard!"

Because she didn't move, he cried again, "Vaugirard!"

She stared at him and realized he was addressing her, because she had no more neighbors.  For the third time the man called, "Vaugirard..."

She said, "Where are we?"

In a surly voice he said, "We're at Vaugirard, by Christ, I've said it twenty times."

"Is it far from the boulevard?" "Which boulevard?" "Why the Boulevard des Italiens."  "We passed that a long time ago!" "Oh, could you let my husband know?" "Your husband? Where?" "Why up on the imperial deck."  "On the imperial! It's been cleared out for ages."

She held up her hand in terror.  "What? How is it possible? He got on with me.  Look again, he must be up there!"

The conductor became rude; "Come on now, little lady, one man lost, ten more found.  Get over it, what's done is done.  You'll find another one in the streets."

Tears rose to her eyes and she insisted, "Sir, you're wrong, I assure you're wrong.  He had a big portfolio under his arm."

you The conductor laughed.  "A big portfolio? Ah yes, he got off at the Church of the Madeline.  But just the same, he dumped you!"

She got off and looked, in spite of herself, at the top of the omnibus.  It was completely empty.

Then she started openly crying, and without thinking who might be listening or who might be watching her, she said, "What will become of me?"

The clerk from the station office came up to her: "What's the problem?".

In a mocking tone the conductor replied, "This woman's husband left her on the bus."

The clerk said, "OK, No big deal, carry on."  Then he turned on his heals and walked away.

She started to walk after him, too frightened, too terrified, to understand what had happened to her.  Where was she to go!" What should she do?And him, what had happened to him? How could he make such an enormous mistake, or be that forgetful, or do something so scornful or be so distracted?

She had two francs in her purse.  Who could she tell? Then, all of a sudden she remembered her cousin Barral who was a sous-chef at the ministry of the merchant marine.

She had just enough to pay her way there in a carriage.  And she met him just as he came home from his office.  He also carried, like Lebrument, a big portfolio under his arm.

She jumped from the taxi.  "Henry!" she cried.  He stopped, stupefied.

"Jeanne? Here....  All alone...? What are you doing, where did you come from?"

Eyes full of tears, she stammered, "My husband got lost, just a little while ago."

"Lost? Lost how?" - "On the omnibus."  "On the omnibus? Oh...!" And she cried as she told him the story.

He listened.  Reflected.  Then he asked, "This morning, did he seem to have a clear head?".

"Yes."  "I see.  Did he have a lot of money on him?" "Yes, he was carrying my dowry.".  "Your dowry....  The whole thing?" "The whole thing...  to pay for his practice, here today."

"Well, my dear cousin, your husband, by now, is no doubt on his way to Belgium."

She still didn't understand.  She stammered, "My husband,..  you say...?"

"I say, he swiped your...  your capital...  and that's about the size of it."

She stood, gasping, murmuring, "Well, that's...  that's...  what a terrible...!"

Then, undone by her emotion, she fell on the vest of her cousin and sobbed.

As people were stopping to stare, he pulled her gently along under the entrance to his house, supporting her by her waist, took her up the stairs where his maid opened the door.

He said, "Sophie, run to the restaurant and bring back lunch for two.  I won't be going back to the ministry this afternoon.”

THE END

Circa 1882