For him those two hours spent in the theatre seemed to be a dream.The spell that held him had begun to work when he went behind the scenes;and,in spite of its horrors,the atmosphere of the place,its sensuality and dissolute morals had affected the poet's still untainted nature.A sort of malaria that infects the soul seems to lurk among those dark,filthy passages filled with machinery,and lit with smoky,greasy lamps.The solemnity and reality of life disappear,the most sacred things are matter for a jest,the most impossible things seem to be true.Lucien felt as if he had taken some narcotic,and Coralie had completed the work.He plunged into this joyous intoxication.
The lights in the great chandelier were extinguished;there was no one left in the house except the boxkeepers,busy taking away footstools and shutting doors,the noises echoing strangely through the empty theatre.The footlights,blown out as one candle,sent up a fetid reek of smoke.The curtain rose again,a lantern was lowered from the ceiling,and firemen and stage carpenters departed on their rounds.
The fairy scenes of the stage,the rows of fair faces in the boxes,the dazzling lights,the magical illusion of new scenery and costume had all disappeared,and dismal darkness,emptiness,and cold reigned in their stead.It was hideous.Lucien sat on in bewilderment.
"Well!are you coming,my boy?"Lousteau's voice called from the stage."Jump down."Lucien sprang over.He scarcely recognized Florine and Coralie in their ordinary quilted paletots and cloaks,with their faces hidden by hats and thick black veils.Two butterflies returned to the chrysalis stage could not be more completely transformed.
"Will you honor me by giving me your arm?"Coralie asked tremulously.
"With pleasure,"said Lucien.He could feel the beating of her heart throbbing against his like some snared bird as she nestled closely to his side,with something of the delight of a cat that rubs herself against her master with eager silken caresses.
"So we are supping together!"she said.
The party of four found two cabs waiting for them at the door in the Rue des Fosses-du-Temple.Coralie drew Lucien to one of the two,in which Camusot and his father-in-law old Cardot were seated already.
She offered du Bruel a fifth place,and the manager drove off with Florine,Matifat,and Lousteau.
"These hackney cabs are abominable things,"said Coralie.
"Why don't you have a carriage?"returned du Bruel.
"WHY?"she asked pettishly."I do not like to tell you before M.
Cardot's face;for he trained his son-in-law,no doubt.Would you believe it,little and old as he is,M.Cardot only gives Florine five hundred francs a month,just about enough to pay for her rent and her grub and her clothes.The old Marquis de Rochegude offered me a brougham two months ago,and he has six hundred thousand francs a year,but I am an artist and not a common hussy.""You shall have a carriage the day after to-morrow,miss,"said Camusot benignly;"you never asked me for one.""As if one ASKED for such a thing as that?What!you love a woman and let her paddle about in the mud at the risk of breaking her legs?
Nobody but a knight of the yardstick likes to see a draggled skirt hem."As she uttered the sharp words that cut Camusot to the quick,she groped for Lucien's knee,and pressed it against her own,and clasped her fingers upon his hand.She was silent.All her power to feel seemed to be concentrated upon the ineffable joy of a moment which brings compensation for the whole wretched past of a life such as these poor creatures lead,and develops within their souls a poetry of which other women,happily ignorant of these violent revulsions,know nothing.
"You played like Mlle.Mars herself towards the end,"said du Bruel.
"Yes,"said Camusot,"something put her out at the beginning;but from the middle of the second act to the very end,she was enough to drive you wild with admiration.Half of the success of your play was due to her.""And half of her success is due to me,"said du Bruel.
"This is all much ado about nothing,"said Coralie in an unfamiliar voice.And,seizing an opportunity in the darkness,she carried Lucien's hand to her lips and kissed it and drenched it with tears.
Lucien felt thrilled through and through by that touch,for in the humility of the courtesan's love there is a magnificence which might set an example to angels.
"Are you writing the dramatic criticism,monsieur?"said du Bruel,addressing Lucien;"you can write a charming paragraph about our dear Coralie.""Oh!do us that little service!"pleaded Camusot,down on his knees,metaphorically speaking,before the critic."You will always find me ready to do you a good turn at any time.""Do leave him his independence,"Coralie exclaimed angrily;"he will write what he pleases.Papa Camusot,buy carriages for me instead of praises.""You shall have them on very easy terms,"Lucien answered politely."Ihave never written for newspapers before,so I am not accustomed to their ways,my maiden pen is at your disposal----""That is funny,"said du Bruel.
"Here we are in the Rue de Bondy,"said Cardot.Coralie's sally had quite crushed the little old man.
"If you are giving me the first fruits of your pen,the first love that has sprung up in my heart shall be yours,"whispered Coralie in the brief instant that they remained alone together in the cab;then she went up to Florine's bedroom to change her dress for a toilette previously sent.
