The next morning Marthe began by calling on her mother, to whom she explained the pious undertaking which she was contemplating. She became almost angry when the old lady smilingly shook her head, and she gave her to understand that she considered her lacking in charity.
\'It is one of Abbé Faujas\'s ideas, isn\'t it?\' Félicité suddenly inquired.
\'Yes,\' Marthe replied in surprise: \'we have talked a good deal about it together. But how did you know?\'
Madame Rougon shrugged her shoulders without vouchsafing[Pg 83] any definite reply. Then she continued with a show of animation:
\'Well, my dear, I think you are quite right. You ought to have some kind of occupation, and you have found a very good one. It has always distressed me very much to see you perpetually shut up in that lonely, death-like house of yours. But you mustn\'t count upon my assistance. I would rather not appear in the matter, for people would say that it was I who was really doing everything, and that we had come to an understanding together to try to force our ideas upon the town. I should prefer that you yourself should have all the credit of your charitable inspiration. I will help you with my advice, if you will let me, but with nothing more.\'
\'I was hoping that you would join the committee,\' said Marthe, who felt a little alarmed at the thought of finding herself alone in such an onerous undertaking.
\'No! no! my presence on it would only do harm, I can assure you. Make it well known, on the contrary, that I am not going to be on the committee, that I have been asked, and have refused, excusing myself on the ground that I am too much occupied. Let it be understood, even, that I have no faith in your scheme; and that, you will see, will influence the ladies at once. They will be delighted to take part in charitable work in which I have no share. Go and see Madame Rastoil, Madame de Condamin, Madame Delangre, and Madame Paloque. Be sure to see Madame Paloque; she will feel flattered, and will help you more than all the others. If you find any difficulty about anything, come here again and tell me.\'
She accompanied her daughter to the head of the stairs; then she stopped and looked her in the face, saying with her sharp smile:
\'I hope the dear Abbé keeps well.\'
\'Yes, he is quite well,\' replied Marthe. \'I am going to Saint-Saturnin\'s, where I am to meet the diocesan architect.\'
Marthe and the priest had considered that matters were still in too indefinite a stage for them to disturb the architect, and so they had planned just to meet him at Saint-Saturnin\'s, where he came every day to inspect a chapel that happened to be under repair at the time. It would seem like a chance meeting. When Marthe walked up the church, she caught sight of Abbé Faujas and Monsieur Lieutaud—the architect—talking together on some scaffolding, from which they[Pg 84] descended as soon as they saw her. One of the Abbé\'s shoulders was quite white with plaster, and he seemed to be taking a great interest in the operations.
At this hour of the afternoon, there were no worshippers or penitents in the church, and the nave and aisles were quite deserted, encumbered only by a litter of chairs, which two vergers were noisily setting in order. Workmen were calling to each other from the tops of ladders, and trowels were scraping against the walls. There was so little appearance of devotion about Saint-Saturnin\'s that Marthe had not even crossed herself on entering. She took a seat opposite to the chapel that was being repaired, between Abbé Faujas and Monsieur Lieutaud, just as she would have done if she had gone to consult the latter in his office.
The conversation lasted for a good half-hour. The architect showed much kindly interest in the scheme. But he advised them not to erect a special building for the Home of the Virgin, as the Abbé called the projected refuge. It would cost too much money, he thought; and it would be better to buy some building already in existence, and adapt it to suit the requirements of their scheme. He suggested a house in the Faubourg which, after being used as a boarding-school, had passed into the hands of a forage dealer, and was now for sale. A few thousand francs would enable one to entirely transform the place and restore it from its present ruinous condition; and he promised them all kinds of wonderful things: a handsome entrance, spacious rooms, and a court planted with trees. By degrees, Marthe and the priest raised their voices, and they discussed details beneath the echoing vaults of the nave, while Monsieur Lieutaud scratched the flag-stones with the tip of his stick to give them an idea of the fa?ade he suggested.
\'It is settled, then,\' said Marthe, as she took leave of the architect. \'You will make a little estimate, won\'t you, so that we may know what we are about? And please keep our secret, will you?\'
Abbé Faujas wished to escort her as far as the door of the church. As they passed together before the high-altar, however, while she was still briskly talking to him, she was suddenly surprised to miss him from her side. She turned round and saw him bent almost double before the great cross, veiled with muslin. The sight of him, covered as he was with plaster, bent in this way before the cross, gave her a[Pg 85] singular feeling. She recollected where she was, glanced round her with an uneasy expression and trod as silently as she could. When they reached the door, the Abbé, who had become very grave and serious, silently reached out his finger, which he had dipped in the holy water, and she crossed herself in great disquietude of mind. Then the muffled doors softly fell back behind her with a sound like a sigh.
From the church Marthe repaired to Madame de Condamin\'s. She felt quite happy as she walked through the streets in the fresh air; the few visits that she had now to make seemed to her almost like pleasure-parties. Madame de Condamin welcomed her with an air of friendly surprise. That dear Madame Mouret came so seldom! When she learned the business on hand, she declared herself charmed with it, and was quite ready to further it in every possible way. She was wearing a lovely mauve dress, with knots of pearl-grey ribbon, in that pretty boudoir of hers where she played the part of an exiled Parisienne.
\'You did quite right to count upon me,\' she exclaimed as she pressed Marthe\'s hands. \'Who ought to help those poor girls if it isn\'t we whom people accuse of setting them a bad example by our luxury? It is frightful to think of those children being exposed to all those horrible dangers. It has made me feel quite ill. I am entirely at your service.\'
When Marthe told her that her mother could not join the committee she displayed still greater enthusiasm for the scheme.
\'It is a pity Madame Rougon has so many things to do,\' she said with a touch of irony; \'she would have been of great assistance to us. But it can\'t be helped. No one can do more than they are able. I have plenty of friends. I will go and see the Bishop; and move heaven and earth if it\'s necessary. I\'ll promise you that we shall succeed.\'
She would not listen to any of the particulars about the expenses. She was quite sure, she said, that whatever money was wanted would be found, and she meant the Home to be a credit to the committee, as handsome and as comfortable as possible. She added with a laugh that she quite lost her head when she began to dabble in figures; but she undertook to charge herself with the preliminary steps and the general furtherance of the scheme. Dear Madame Mouret, said she, was not accustomed to begging, and she would accompany[Pg 86] her on her visits and would even take several of them off her hands altogether. By the end of a quarter of an hour she had made the business entirely her own, and it was now she who gave instructions to Marthe. The latter was just about to take her leave when Monsieur de Condamin came into the room; so she lingered on, feeling very ill at ease, however, and not daring to say any more on the subject of her visit in the presence of a man who was rumoured to be compromised in that matter of the poor girls with whose shameful story the town was ringing.
But Madame de Condamin explained the great scheme to her husband, who listened with an appearance of perfect ease, and gave utterance to the most moral sentiments. He considered the scheme an extremely proper one.
\'It is an idea which could only have occurred to a mother,\' he said gravely, in a tone which made it impossible to tell whether he was serious or not. \'Plassans will be indebted to you, madame, for a purer morality.\'
\'But I must tell you that the idea is not my own! I have merely adopted it,\' replied Marthe, made uneasy by these praises. \'It was suggested to me by a person whom I esteem very highly.\'
\'Who was that?\' asked Madame de Condamin, with a show of curiosity.
\'Abbé Faujas.\'
Then Marthe, with great frankness, told them what a high opinion she had of the priest. She made no allusion to the unpleasant stories that had been circulated about him, but she represented him as a man worthy of the highest respect, whom she was very happy to receive in her home. Madame de Condamin nodded approvingly as she listened.
\'I always said so!\' she exclaimed. \'Abbé Faujas is a very distinguished priest. But there are such a lot of malicious people about! Now, however, that you receive him in your home, they don\'t venture to say anything more against him; all that calumnious talk has been cut short. The idea, you say, is his. We shall have to persuade him, then, to take a prominent part in putting it into execution. For the present we will keep the matter very quiet. I can assure you that I always liked and defended the Abbé.\'
\'I recollect talking with him, and I thought him a very good fellow,\' remarked the conservator of rivers and forests.
His wife silenced him with a gesture. She occasionally[Pg 87] treated him in a very cavalier style. Truth to tell, Monsieur de Condamin alone bore the shame attaching to the equivocal marriage which he was charged with having made; the young woman, whom he had brought from no one knew where, had got herself forgiven and liked by the whole town, thanks to her pleasant ways and taking looks, to which provincial folks are more susceptible than might be imagined.
Monsieur de Condamin understood that he was in the way in this virtuous consultation.
\'I will leave you to your good designs,\' he said with a slight touch of irony. \'I am going to smoke a cigar. Octavie, don\'t forget to be dressed in good time. We are going to the Sub-Prefecture this evening, you know.\'
When he had left the room, the two women resumed their conversation for a few moments longer, returning to what they had previously been saying, expressing pity for the poor girls who yielded to temptation, and manifesting much anxiety to shelter them from danger. Madame de Condamin inveighed eloquently against vice.
\'Well, then!\' she said, as she pressed Marthe\'s hand for the last time, \'it is all settled, and I shall be entirely at your service as soon as you call for my help. If you go to see Madame Rastoil and Madame Delangre, tell them that I will undertake to do everything, and that all we want from them is their names. My idea is a good one, don\'t you think? We won\'t depart a hair\'s breadth from it. Give my compliments to Abbé Faujas.\'
Marthe at once proceeded to call upon Madame Delangre, and then upon Madame Rastoil. She found them very polite, but less enthusiastic than Madame de Condamin. They discussed the pecuniary side of the scheme. A large sum of money would be required, they said; the charity of the public would certainly never provide it, and there was a great risk of the whole business coming to a ridiculous termination. Marthe tried to reassure them, and plied them with figures. Then they asked her what ladies had consented to join the committee. The mention of Madame de Condamin\'s name left them silent, but when they learned that Madame Rougon had excused herself from joining, they became more amiable.
Madame Delangre had received Marthe in her husband\'s private room. She was a pale little woman whose dissoluteness had remained a matter of legend in Plassans.
\'Indeed,\' she ended by saying, \'there is nothing I should[Pg 88] like to see better. It would be a school of virtue for the youth of the working-classes, and it would be the means of saving many weak souls. I cannot refuse my assistance, for I feel that I could be of much use to you through my husband, who as mayor of the town is brought into continual contact with all the influential people. But I must ask you to allow me till to-morrow before I give a definite reply. Our position requires us to exercise circumspection, and I should like to consult Monsieur Delangre.\'
In Madame Rastoil Marthe encountered a woman who was equally listless but more prudish, and who sought for irreproachable words when referring to the unfortunate girls who had fallen. She was a sleek, plump person, and Marthe found her embroidering a very gorgeous alb, between her two daughters, whom she sent away at her visitor\'s first words.
\'I am much obliged to you for having thought of me,\' she said; \'but really I am very much occupied. I am already on several committees and I don\'t know whether I should have the time. I have had some such idea as your own myself, but my scheme was a larger one and, perhaps, more complete and comprehensive. For a whole month I have been intending to talk to the Bishop about it, but I have never been able to find the time. Well! we will unite our efforts, and I will tell you my own views, for I think you are making a mistake in some points. Since it seems necessary, I will surrender still more of my time. But it was only yesterday that my husband said to me: "Really, you never attend to your own affairs; you are always looking after other people\'s."\'
Marthe glanced at her curiously, thinking of her old entanglement with Monsieur Delangre, which folks still chuckled over in the cafés of the Cours Sauvaire. The wives of the mayor and the presiding judge had received the mention of Abbé Faujas\'s name very suspiciously, the latter especially so. Marthe was a little vexed at this distrust of a person for whom she vouched; so she made a point of dwelling upon the Abbé\'s good qualities, and eventually forced the two women to acknowledge the merit of this priest, who lived a life of retirement and supported his mother.
On leaving Madame ............