Justine

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5"Oh, Monsieur, in the light of such principles the miserablemust therefore perish!" "Does it matter? We have more subjects inFrance than are needed; given the mechanism's elastic capacitiesfor production, the State can easily afford to be burdened by fewerpeople." "But do you suppose children respect their fathers whenthey are thus despised by them ?" "And what to a father is the loveof the children who are a nuisance to him ?" "Would it then havebeen better had they been strangled in the cradle ?" "Certainly,such is the practice in numerous countries; it was the custom ofthe Greeks, it is the custom in China: there, the offspring of thepoor are exposed, or are put to death.

What is the good of letting those creatures live who, no longerable to count upon their parents' aid either because they arewithout parents or because they are not wanted or recognized bythem, henceforth are useful for nothing and simply weigh upon theState: that much surplus commodity, you see, and the market isglutted already; bastards, orphans, malformed infants should becondemned to death immediately they are pupped: the first and thesecond because, no longer having anyone who wishes or who is ableto take care of them, they are mere dregs which one day can havenothing but an undesirable effect upon the society theycontaminate; the others because they cannot be of any usefulness toit; the one and the other of these categories are to society whatare excrescences to the flesh, battening upon the healthy members'sap, degrading them, enfeebling them; or, if you prefer, they arelike those vegetable parasites which, attaching themselves to soundplants, cause them to deteriorate by sucking up their nutritivejuices. It's a shocking outrage, these alms destined to feed scum,these most luxuriously appointed houses they have the madness toconstruct quite as if the human species were so rare, so preciousone had to preserve it down to its last vile portion! But enough ofpolitics whereof, my child, you are not likely to understandanything; why lament your fate? for it is in your power, and yoursonly, to remedy it."

"Great Heavens! at the price of what!" "At the price of anillusion, of something that has none but the value wherewith yourpride invests it.

Well," continued this barbarian, getting to his feet and openingthe door, "that is all I can do for you; consent to it, or deliverme from your presence; I have no fondness for beggars...." My tearsflowed fast, I was unable to check them; would you believe it,Madame? they irritated rather than melted this man. He shut thedoor and, seizing my dress at the shoulder, he said most brutallyhe was going to force from me what I would not accord himvoluntarily. At this cruel moment my misery endowed me withcourage; I freed myself from his grasp and rushed toward the door:"Odious man," said I as I fled from him, "may the Heaven you haveso grievously offended some day punish your execrable heartlessnessas it merits to be. You are worthy neither of the riches you haveput to such vile use, nor of the very air you breathe in a worldyou defile with your barbarities."

I lost no time telling my hostess of the reception given me bythe person to whom she had sent me; but what was my astonishment tohave this wretch belabor me with reproaches rather than share mysorrow. "You idiotic chit!" said she in a great rage, "do youimagine men are such great dupes as to dole out alms to littlegirls such as you without requiring something for their money?Monsieur Dubourg's behavior was far too gentle; in his place Ishould not have allowed you to leave without having hadsatisfaction from you. But since you do not care to profit from theaid I offer you, make your own arrangements as you please; you oweme money: pay it tomorrow; otherwise, it's to jail." "Madame, havepity!" "Yes, yes, pity; one need only have pity and one starves todeath." "But what would you have me do ?"

"You must go back to Dubourg; you must appease him; you mustbring home money to me; I will visit him, I will give him notice;if I am able, I'll repair the damage your stupidity has caused; Iwill convey your apologies, but keep it in mind, you had betterimprove your conduct." Ashamed, desperate, knowing not which way toturn, seeing myself savagely repulsed by everyone, I told MadameDesroches (that was my landlady's name) that I had decided to dowhatever had to be done to satisfy her. She went to the financier'shouse and upon her return advised me that she had found him in avery irritable mood, that it had not been without an effort she hadmanaged to incline him in my favor, that by dint of supplicationsshe had at least persuaded him to see me again the followingmorning, but that I would have to keep a strict watch over mybehavior, because, were I to take it into my head to disobey himagain, he himself would see to it I was imprisoned forever. Allatremble, I arrived; Dubourg was alone and in a state yet moreindecent than on the previous day. Brutality, libertinage, all thecharacteristics of the debauchee glittered in his cunningglances.

"Thank Desroches," he said harshly, "for it is as a favor to herI intend to show you an instant's kindness; you must surely beaware how little you deserve it after your performance yesterday.Undress yourself and if you once again manifest the leastresistance to my desires, two men, waiting for you in the nextroom, will conduct you to a place whence you will never emergealive." "Oh Monsieur," say I, weeping, clutching the wicked man'sknees, "unbend, I beseech you; be so generous as to relieve mewithout requiring what would be so costly I should rather offer youmy life than submit to it.... Yes, I prefer to die a thousand timesover than violate the principles I received in my childhood....Monsieur, Monsieur, constrain me not, I entreat you; can youconceive of gleaning happiness in the depths of tears and disgust?Dare you suspect pleasure where you see naught but loathing? Nosooner shall you have consummated your crime than my despair willoverwhelm you with remorse...." But the infamies to which Dubourgabandoned himself prevented me from continuing; that I was able tohave believed myself capable of touching a man who was alreadyfinding, in the very spectacle of my suffering, one further vehiclefor his horrible passions! Would you believe it, Madame? becominginflamed by the shrill accents of my pleadings, savoring theminhumanly, the wretch disposed himself for his criminal attempts!He gets up, and exhibiting himself to me in a state over whichreason is seldom triumphant, and wherein the opposition of theobject which causes reason's downfall is but an additional ailmentto delirium, he seizes me brutally, impetuously snatches away theveils which still conceal what he burns to enjoy; he caressesme.... Oh! what a picture, Great God I What unheard-of mingling ofharshness... and lewdness! It seemed that the Supreme Being wished,in that first of my encounters, to imprint forever in me all thehorror I was to have for a kind of crime whence there was to beborn the torrent of evils that have beset me since. But must Icomplain of them?

No, needless to say; to his excesses I owe my salvation; hadthere been less debauchery in him, I were a ruined girl; Dubourg'sflames were extinguished in the fury of his enterprises, Heavenintervened in my behalf against the monster before he could committhe offenses he was readying for, and the loss of his powers,before the sacrifice could occur, preserved me from being itsvictim. The consequence was Dubourg became nothing if not moreinsolent; he laid upon me the blame for his weakness' mistakes,wanted to repair them with new outrages and yet more mortifyinginvectives; there was nothing he did not say to me, nothing he didnot attempt, nothing his perfidious imagination, his adamantinecharacter and the depravation of his manners did not lead him toundertake. My clumsiness made him impatient: I was far from wishingto participate in the thing, to lend myself to it was as much as Icould do, my remorse remained lively. However, it was all fornaught, submitting to him, I ceased to inflame him; in vain hepassed successively from tenderness to rigor... from groveling totyranny... from an air of decency to the profligate's excesses, invain, I say, there was nothing for it, we were both exhausted, andhappily he was unable to recover what he needed to deliver moredangerous assaults. He gave it up, made me promise to come the nextday, and to be sure of me he refused absolutely to give me anythingabove the sum I owed Desroches.

Greatly humiliated by the adventure and firmly resolved,whatever might happen to me, not to expose myself a third time, Ireturned to where I was lodging. I announced my intentions toDesroches, paid her, and heaped maledictions upon the criminalcapable of so cruelly exploiting my misery. But my imprecations,far from drawing the wrath of God down upon him, only added to hisgood fortune; and a week later I learned this signal libertine hadjust obtained a general trusteeship from the Government, whichwould augment his revenues by more than five hundred thousandpounds per annum. I was absorbed in the reflections such unexpectedinconsistencies of fate inevitably give rise to, when a momentaryray of hope seemed to shine in my eyes. Desroches came to tell meone day that she had finally located a house into which I could bereceived with pleasure provided my comportment remained of thebest. "Great Heaven, Madame," I cried, transported, throwing myselfinto her arms, "that condition is the one I would stipulate myselfÄ you may imagine how happy I am to accept it." The man I wasto serve was a famous Parisian usurer who had become rich, not onlyby lending money upon collateral, but even by stealing from thepublic every time he thought he could do so in safety. He lived inthe rue Quincampoix, had a third-story flat, and shared it with acreature of fifty years he called his wife and who was at least aswicked as he. "Therese," this miser said to me (such was the name Ihad taken in order to hide my own), "Therese, the primary virtue inthis house is probity; if ever you make off with the tenth part ofa penny, I'll have you hanged, my child, d'ye see. The modest easemy wife and I enjoy is the fruit of our immense labors, and of ourperfect sobriety.... Do you eat much, little one?" "A few ounces ofbread each day, Monsieur," I replied, "water, and a little soupwhen I am lucky enough to get it."

"Soup! Bleeding Christ! Soup! Behold, deary," said the usurer tohis dame, "behold and tremble at the progress of luxury: it'slooking for circumstances, it's been dying of hunger for a year,and now it wants to eat soup; we scarcely have it once a week, onSunday, we who work like galley slaves: you'll have three ounces ofbread a day, my daughter, plus half a bottle of river water, plusone of my wife's old dresses every eighteen months, plus threecrowns' wages at the end of each year, if we are content with yourservices, if your economy responds to our own and if, finally, youmake the house prosper through orderliness and arrangement. Yourduties are mediocre, they're done in jig time; 'tis but a questionof washing and cleaning this six-room apartment thrice a week, ofmaking our beds, answering the door, powdering my wig, dressing mywife's hair, looking after the dog and the parakeet, lending a handin the kitchen, washing the utensils, helping my wife whenever sheprepares us a bite to eat, and daily devoting four or five hours tothe washing, to mending stockings, hats, and other littlehouse-hold odds and ends; you observe, Therese, 'tis nothing atall, you will have ample free time to yourself, we will permit youto employ it to your own interest, provided, my child, you aregood, discreet and, above all, thrifty, that's of the essence."