A Woman's Life Page #32

"A Woman's Life" (French: "Une vie") by Guy de Maupassant tells the poignant story of Jeanne, a young noblewoman in the 19th century, as she navigates the complexities of love, marriage, and societal expectations. Spanning her life from a romanticized youth to a disillusioned adulthood, the novel explores themes of gender, class, and the harsh realities faced by women. Through Jeanne's experiences, Maupassant critiques the constraints imposed by society and highlights the emotional turmoil that often accompanies personal choices. The narrative is both a reflection on the individual's struggle for autonomy and a subtle commentary on the limitations placed on women of the era.

								

that girl!"

They were all taken too much by surprise to make any answer, and he went
on, too angry to speak distinctly: "I can't understand how you can be
such fools! But there I suppose you will keep on till we haven't a sou
left!"

The baron, recovering himself, a little, tried to check his son-in-law:

"Be quiet!" he exclaimed. "Don't you see that your wife is in the room?"

"I don't care if she is," answered Julien, stamping his foot. "Besides,
she ought to know about it. It is depriving her of her rightful
inheritance."

Jeanne had listened to her husband in amazement, utterly at a loss to
know what it was all about:

"Whatever is the matter?" she asked.

Then Julien turned to her, expecting her to side with him, as the loss
of the money would affect her also. He told her in a few words how her
parents were trying to arrange a marriage for Rosalie, and how the
maid's child was to have the farm at Barville, which was worth twenty
thousand francs at the very least. And he kept on repeating:

"Your parents must be mad, my dear, raving mad! Twenty thousand francs!
Twenty thousand francs! They can't be in their right senses! Twenty
thousand francs for a bastard!"

Jeanne listened to him quite calmly, astonished herself to find that she
felt neither anger nor sorrow at his meanness, but she was perfectly
indifferent now to everything which did not concern her child. The baron
was choking with anger, and at last he burst out, with a stamp of the
foot:

"Really, this is too much! Whose fault is it that this girl has to have
a dowry? You seem to forget who is her child's father; but, no doubt,
you would abandon her altogether if you had your way!"

Julien gazed at the baron for a few moments in silent surprise. Then he
went on more quietly:

"But fifteen hundred francs would have been ample to give her. All the
peasant-girls about here have children before they marry, so what does
it matter who they have them by? And then, setting aside the injustice
you will be doing Jeanne and me, you forget that if you give Rosalie a
farm worth twenty thousand francs everybody will see at once that there
must be a reason for such a gift. You should think a little of what is
due to our name and position."

He spoke in a calm, cool way as if he were sure of his logic and the
strength of his argument. The baron, disconcerted by this fresh view of
the matter, could find nothing to say in reply, and Julien, feeling his
advantage, added:

"But fortunately, nothing is settled. I know the man who is going to
marry her and he is an honest fellow with whom everything can yet be
satisfactorily arranged. I will see to the matter myself."

With that he went out of the room, wishing to avoid any further
discussion, and taking the silence with which his words were received to
mean acquiescence.

As soon as the door had closed after his son-in-law, the baron
exclaimed:

"Oh, this is more than I can stand!"

Jeanne, catching sight of her father's horrified expression, burst into
a clear laugh which rang out as it used to do whenever she had seen
something very funny:

"Papa, papa!" she cried. "Did you hear the tone in which he said 'twenty
thousand francs!'"

The baroness, whose smiles lay as near the surface as her tears,
quivered with laughter as she saw Jeanne's gayety, and thought of her
son-in-law's furious face, and his indignant exclamations and determined
attempt to prevent this money, which was not his, being given to the
girl he had seduced. Finally the baron caught the contagion and they all
three laughed till they ached as in the happy days of old. When they
were a little calmer, Jeanne said:

"It is very funny, but really I don't seem to mind in the least what he
says or does now. I look upon him quite as a stranger, and I can hardly
believe I am his wife. You see I am able to laugh at his--his want of
delicacy."

And the parents and child involuntarily kissed each other, with smiles
on their lips, though the tears were not very far from their eyes.

Two days after this scene, when Julien had gone out for a ride, a tall,
young fellow of about four or five-and-twenty, dressed in a brand-new
blue blouse, which hung in stiff folds, climbed stealthily over the
fence, as if he had been hiding there all the morning, crept along the
Couillards' ditch, and went round to the other side of the château where
Jeanne and her father and mother were sitting under the plane-tree. He
took off his cap and awkwardly bowed as he came towards them, and, when
he was within speaking distance, mumbled:

"Your servant, monsieur le baron, madame and company." Then, as no one
said anything to him he introduced himself as "Desiré Lecoq."

This name failing to explain his presence at the château, the baron
asked:

"What do you want?"

The peasant was very disconcerted when he found he had to state his
business. He hesitated, stammered, cast his eyes from the cap he held in
his hands to the château roof and back again, and at last began:

"M'sieu l'curé has said somethin' to me about this business--" then,
fearing to say too much and thus injure his own interests, he stopped
short.

"What business?" asked the baron. "I don't know what you mean."

"About your maid--what's her name--Rosalie," said the man in a low
voice.

Jeanne, guessing what he had come about, got up and went away with her
child in her arms.

"Sit down," said the baron, pointing to the chair his daughter had just
left.

The peasant took the seat with a "Thank you, kindly," and then waited as
if he had nothing whatever to say. After a few moments, during which no
one spoke, he thought he had better say something, so he looked up to
the blue sky and remarked:

"What fine weather for this time of year to be sure. It'll help on the
crops finely." And then he again relapsed into silence.

The baron began to get impatient.

"Then you are going to marry Rosalie?" he said in a dry tone, going
straight to the point.

At that all the crafty suspicious nature of the Normandy peasant was on
the alert.

"That depends," he answered quickly. "Perhaps I am and perhaps I ain't,
that depends."

All this beating about the bush irritated the baron.

"Can't you give a straightforward answer?" he exclaimed. "Have you come
to say you will marry the girl or not?"

The man looked at his feet as though he expected to find advice there:

"If it's as M'sieu l'curé says," he replied, "I'll have her; but if it's
as M'sieu Julien says, I won't."

"What did M. Julien tell you?"

"M'sieu Julien told me as how I should have fifteen hundred francs; but
M'sieu l'curé told me as how I should 'ave twenty thousand. I'll have
her for twenty thousand, but I won't for fifteen hundred."
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