homme à l'oreille cassée. English Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  UNPACKING BY CANDLE-LIGHT.

  About ten o'clock in the evening, Mlle. Virginie Sambucco said it wastime to think of going home: the ladies lived with monastic regularity.Leon protested; but Clementine obeyed, though not without pouting alittle. Already the parlor door was open, and the old lady had taken herhood in the hall, when the engineer, suddenly struck with an idea,exclaimed:

  "You surely won't go without helping me to open my trunks! I demand itof you as a favor, my good Mademoiselle Sambucco!"

  The respectable lady paused: custom urged her to go; kindness inclinedher to stay; an atom of curiosity swayed the balance.

  "I'm so glad!" cried Clementine, replacing her aunt's hood on the rack.

  Mme. Renault did not yet know where they had put Leon's baggage. Gothoncame to say that everything had been thrown pell-mell into thesorcerer's den, to remain there until Monsieur should point out what hewanted taken to his own room. The whole company, armed with lamps andcandles, betook themselves to a vast room on the ground floor, wherefurnaces, retorts, philosophical instruments, boxes, trunks, clothesbags, hat boxes and the famous steam-engine, formed a confused andentertaining spectacle. The light played about this interior, as itappears to in certain pictures of the Dutch school. It glanced upon thegreat yellow cylinders of the electric machine, struck upon the longglass bottles, rebounded from two silver reflectors, and rested, inpassing, upon a magnificent Fortin barometer. The Renaults and theirfriends, grouped in the midst of the boxes--some sitting, some standing,one holding a lamp, another a candle--detracted nothing from thepicturesqueness of the scene.

  Leon, with a bunch of little keys, opened the boxes one after another.Clementine was seated opposite him on a great oblong box, and watchedhim with all her eyes, more from affection than curiosity. They began bysetting to one side two enormous square boxes which contained nothingbut mineralogical specimens. After this they passed in review the richesof all kinds which the engineer had crowded among his linen andclothing.

  A pleasant odor of Russia leather, tea from the caravans, Levanttobacco, and attar of roses soon permeated the laboratory. Leon broughtforth a little at a time, as is the custom of all rich travellers who,on leaving home, left a family and good stock of friends behind. Heexhibited, in turn, fabrics of the Asiatic looms, narghiles of embossedsilver from Persia, boxes of tea, sherbets flavored with rose, preciousextracts, golden webs from Tarjok, antique armor, a service of frostedsilver of Toula make, jewelry mounted in the Russian style, Caucasianbracelets, necklaces of milky amber, and a leather sack full ofturquoises such as they sell at the fair of Nijni Novgorod. Each objectpassed from hand to hand amid questions, explanations, and interjectionsof all kinds. All the friends present received the gifts intended forthem. There was a concert of polite refusals, friendly urgings, and'thank-yous' in all sorts of voices. It is unnecessary to say that muchthe greater share fell to the lot of Clementine; but she did not wait tobe urged to accept them, for, in the existing state of affairs, allthese pretty things would be but as a part of the wedding gifts--notgoing out of the family.

  Leon had brought his father an exceedingly handsome dressing gown of acloth embroidered with gold, some antiquarian books found in Moscow, apretty picture by Greuze, which had been stuck out of the way, by theluckiest of accidents, in a mean shop at Gastinitvor; two magnificentspecimens of rock-crystal, and a cane that had belonged to Humboldt."You see," said he to M. Renault, on handing him this historic staff,"that the postscript of your last letter did not fall overboard." Theold professor received the present with visible emotion.

  "I will never use it," said he to his son. "The Napoleon of science hasheld it in his hand: what would one think if an old sergeant like meshould permit himself to carry it in his walks in the woods? And thecollections? Were you not able to buy anything from them? Did they sellvery high?"

  "They were not sold," answered Leon. "All were placed in the NationalMuseum at Berlin. But in my eagerness to satisfy you, I made a thief ofmyself in a strange way. The very day of my arrival, I told your wish toa guide who was showing me the place. He told me that a friend of his, alittle Jew broker by the name of Ritter, wanted to sell a very fineanatomical specimen that had belonged to the estate. I ran to the Jew's,examined the mummy, for such it was, and, without any haggling, paid theprice he asked. But the next day, a friend of Humboldt, Professor Hirtz,told me the history of this shred of a man, which had been lying aroundthe shop for more than ten years, and never belonged to Humboldt at all.Where the deuce has Gothon stowed it? Ah! Mlle. Clementine is sitting onit."

  Clementine attempted to rise, but Leon made her keep seated.

  "We have plenty of time," said he, "to take a look at the old baggage;meanwhile you can well imagine that it is not a very cheerful sight.This is the history that good old Hirtz told me; he promised to sendme, in addition, a copy of a very curious memoir on the same subject.Don't go yet, my dear Mademoiselle Sambucco; I have a little militaryand scientific romance for you. We will look at the mummy as soon as Ihave acquainted you with his misfortunes."

  "Aha!" cried M. Audret, the architect of the chateau, "it's the romanceof the mummy, is it, that you're going to tell us? Too late my poorLeon! Theophile Gautier has gotten ahead of you, in the supplement tothe _Moniteur_, and all the world knows your Egyptian history."

  "My history," said Leon, "is no more Egyptian than Manon Lescault. Ourexcellent doctor Martout, here, ought to know the name of professor JohnMeiser, of Dantzic; he lived at the beginning of this century, and Ithink that his last work appeared in 1824 or 1825."

  "In 1823," replied M. Martout. "Meiser is one of the scientific men whohave done Germany most honor. In the midst of terrible wars whichdrenched his country in blood, he followed up the researches ofLeeuwenkoeck, Baker, Needham, Fontana, and Spallanzani, on therevivification of animals. Our profession honors in him, one of thefathers of modern biology."

  "Heavens! What ugly big words!" cried Mlle. Sambucco. "Is it decent tokeep people till this time of night, to make them listen to Dutch."

  "Don't listen to the big words, dear little auntey. Save yourself forthe romance, since there is one."

  "A terrible one!" said Leon. "Mlle. Clementine is seated over a humanvictim, sacrificed to science by professor Meiser."

  Clementine instantly got up. Her fiance handed her a chair, and seatedhimself in the place she had just left. The listeners, fearing thatLeon's romance might be in several volumes, took their places aroundhim, some on boxes, some on chairs.