Justine

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3The charitable priest clapped an inquisitive eye upon Justine,and made her answer, saying that the parish was heavily loaded;that it could not easily take new charges unto its bosom, but thatif Justine wished to serve him, if she were prepared for hard toil,there would always be a crust of bread in his kitchen for her. Andas he uttered those words, the gods' interpreter chuck'ed her underthe chin; the kiss he gave her bespoke rather too much worldlinessfor a man of the church, and Justine, who had understood only toowell, thrust him away. "Monsieur," said she, "I ask neither alms ofyou nor a position as your scullion; it was all too recently I tookleave of an estate loftier than that which might make those twofavors desirable; I am not yet reduced to imploring them; I amsoliciting advice whereof my youth and my misfortunes put me inneed, and you would have me purchase it at an excessively inflatedprice." Ashamed thus to have been unmasked, the pastor promptlydrove the little creature away, and the unhappy Justine, twicerejected on the first day of her condemnation to isolation, nowenters a house above whose door she spies a shingle; she rents asmall chamber on the fourth floor, pays in advance for it, and,once established, gives herself over to lamentations all the morebitter because she is sensitive and because her little pride hasjust been compromised cruelly.

We will allow ourselves to leave her in this state for a shortwhile in order to return to Juliette and to relate how, from thevery ordinary condition in which she sets forth, no betterfurnished with resources than her sister, she nevertheless attains,over a period of fifteen years, the position of a titled woman,with an income of thirty thousand pounds, very handsome jewels, twoor three houses in the city, as many in the country and, at thepresent moment, the heart, the fortune and the confidence ofMonsieur de Corville, Councillor to the State, an important manmuch esteemed and about to have a minister's post. Her rise wasnot, there can be no question of it, unattended by difficulties:'tis by way of the most shameful, most onerous apprenticeship thatthese ladies attain their objectives; and 'tis in all likelihood aveteran of unnumbered campaigns one may find today abed with aPrince: perhaps she yet carries the humiliating marks of thebrutality of the libertines into whose hands her youth andinexperience flung her long ago.

Upon leaving the convent, Juliette went to find a woman whosename she had once heard mentioned by a youthful friend; pervertedwas what she desired to be and this woman was to p*****t her; shearrived at her house with a small parcel under her arm, clad in ablue dressing gown nicely disarrayed, her hair stragglingcarelessly about, and showing the prettiest face in the world, ifit is true that for certain eyes indecency may have its charms; shetold her story to this woman and begged her to afford her thesanctuary she had provided her former friend. "How old are you?"Madame Duvergier demanded. "I will be fifteen in a few days,Madame," Juliette replied. "And never hath mortal . . ." the matroncontinued. "No, Madame, I swear it," answered Juliette. "But, youknow, in those convents," said the old dame, "sometimes aconfessor, a nun, a companion... I must have conclusive evidence.""You have but to look for it," Juliette replied with a blush. And,having put on her spectacles, and having scrupulously examinedthings here and there, the duenna declared to the girl: "Why,you've only to remain here, pay strict attention to what I say,give proof of unending complaisance and submissiveness to mypractices, you need but be clean, economical, and frank with me, beprudent with your comrades and fraudulent when dealing with men,and before ten years' time I shall have you fit to occupy the bestsecond-story apartment: you'll have a commode, pierglass mirrorsbefore you and a maid behind, and the art you will have acquiredfrom me will give you what you need to procure yourself therest."

These suggestions having left her lips, Duvergier lays hands onJuliette's little parcel; she asks her whether she does not havesome money, and Juliette having too candidly admitted she had ahundred crowns, the dear mother confiscates them, giving her newboarding guest the assurance her little fortune will be chanced atthe lottery for her, but that a girl must not have money. "It is,"says she, "a means to doing evil, and in a period as corrupt asours, a wise and well-born girl should carefully avoid all whichmight lure her into any snares. It is for your own good I speak, mylittle one," adds the duenna, "and you ought to be grateful forwhat I am doing." The sermon delivered, the newcomer is introducedto her colleagues; she is assigned a room in the house, and on thenext day her maidenhead is put on sale.

Within four months the merchandise is sold successively to aboutone hundred buyers; some are content with the rose, others morefastidious or more depraved (for the question has not yet beendecided) wish to bring to full flower the bud that growsadjacently. After each bout, Duvergier makes a few tailor'sreadjustments and for four months it is always the pristine fruitsthe rascal puts on the block. Finally, at the end of this harassingnovitiate, Juliette obtains a lay sister's patents; from thismoment onward, she is a recognized girl of the house; thereaftershe is to share in its profits and losses. Another apprenticeship;if in the first school, aside from a few extravagances, Julietteserved Nature, she altogether ignores Nature's laws in the second,where a complete shambles is made of what she once had of moralbehavior; the triumph she obtains in vice totally degrades hersoul; she feels that, having been born for crime, she must at leastcommit it grandly and give over languishing in a subaltern's role,which, although entailing the same misconduct, although abasing herequally, brings her a slighter, a much slighter profit.

She is found agreeable by an elderly gentleman, much debauched,who at first has her come merely to attend to the affairs of themoment; she has the skill to cause herself magnificently to bekept; it is not long before she is appearing at the theater, atpromenades, amongst the elite, the very cordon bleu of theCytherean order; she is beheld, mentioned, desired, and the clevercreature knows so well how to manage her affairs that in less thanfour years she ruins six men, the poorest of whom had an annuity ofone hundred thousand crowns. Nothing more is needed to make herreputation; the blindness of fashionable people is such that themore one of these creatures has demonstrated her dishonesty, themore eager they are to get upon her list; it seems that the degreeof her degradation and her corruption becomes the measure of thesentiments they dare display for her. Juliette had just attainedher twentieth year when a certain Comte de Lorsange, a gentlemanout of Anjou, about forty years of age, became so captivated by herhe resolved to bestow his name upon her; he awarded her an incomeof twelve thousand pounds and assured her of the rest of hisfortune were he to be the first to die; he gave her, as well, ahouse, servants, lackeys, and the sort of mundane considerationwhich, in the space of two or three years, succeeded in causing herbeginnings to be forgot. It was at this point the fell Juliette,oblivious of all the fine feelings that had been hers by birthrightand good education, warped by bad counsel and dangerous books,spurred by the desire to enjoy herself, but alone, and to have aname but not a single chain, bent her attentions to the culpableidea of abridging her husband's days. The odious project onceconceived, she consolidated her scheme during those dangerousmoments when the physical aspect is fired by ethical error,instants when one refuses oneself much less, for then nothing isopposed to the irregularity of vows or to the impetuosity ofdesires, and the voluptuousness one experiences is sharp and livelyonly by reason of the number of the restraints whence one burstsfree, or their sanctity. The dream dissipated, were one to recoverone's common-sense mood the thing would be of but mediocre import,'tis the story of mental wrong-doing; everyone knows very well itoffends no one; but, alas! one sometimes carries the thing a littlefarther.

What, one ventures to wonder, what would not be the idea'srealization, if its mere abstract shape has just exalted, has justso profoundly moved one? The accursed reverie is vivified, and itsexistence is a crime. Fortunately for herself, Madame de Lorsangeexecuted it in such secrecy that she was sheltered from all pursuitand with her husband she buried all traces of the frightful deedwhich precipitated him into the tomb. Once again become free, and acountess, Madame de Lorsange returned to her former habits; but,believing herself to have some figure in the world, she putsomewhat less of the indecent in her deportment. 'Twas no longer akept girl, 'twas a rich widow who gave pretty suppers at which theCourt and the City were only too happy to be included; in a word,we have here a correct woman who, all the same, would to bed fortwo hundred louis, and who gave herself for five hundred amonth.