THE STORY-TELLER.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 16, 18 July 1903, Page 9

THE STORY-TELLER.

A Mouse for Sale. There was not in all Aubusson a ciciner, neater house than that of Mile. Lisbeth Mauduit It was this same gospel of cleanliness, in fact, that forced the good lady to place upon her front door the sign : "This House for Sale." Bent with age, she had no longer the strength to sweep, dust, scour, and polish, as she had formerly done, all the nooks and corners of so spacious a dwelling, and as she could not endure to live in a house in which the iinullest plank in a floor did not shine like a mirror, she pieferrad to disembarrass herself oi a property she could no longer keep vp. In truth, the noor old demoiselle had begun to break in a very disquieting fashion, particularly since tho day she had tacked upon her door the fatal card. They said and believed that the sorrow caused her by so painful a resolution had broken her definitely, and brought her to the verge of the tomb. » It was M Joseph Pknehon, a man of means and a member of the City Council, who bought her house. The conditions she imposed appeared to him so advantageous that he accepted them at once, and without debate. She would sell him her house and grounds, she said, for thirty thousand francs, payable m fifteen, yeara, ir anuuul payments each of two thousand jranos, without counting the interest ; the sale to be final only after the last payment had been niado and placed in her hands by himself, or by some other one of the signers of the contract. In addition, a "paper of consent" to the contract, "as drawn," must be made and signed, no& only *>y ali the direct heirs, but )iy all their descendants and ancestors i'lving at that time. On failure of himself, or of any one of the other signers of the contract, to make' these payments or cany out these provisions, the house would revert at oncb to Mile. Mauduit. On the other hand, if she died before the fifteen yeara was up, even if this happened only j a week after the sale was effected, the house was Planchon's, without his disbursing a centime more. Only she, Mile. Mauduit, reserved for her own use, till the day of her death, the two rooms on the first floor facing to the south. "Briefly," she said, "a sale m the- form of an insurance. If these conditions suit monsieur ' The poor lady was unable to complete her sentence ; a violent fit of coughing strangled and cut short her words. After which she swooned and remained so long inert that Planchon began to tremble, fearing that she was really gone, and •that this great -bargain had slipped through his fingers. Presently, however, she opened her eyes, and feebly demanded: "Well, monsieur, what do you say?" "I accept ! I accept J" ho cried, in a glow of enthusiasm in singular contrast to his habitual caution. "Good! Then I will send for my notary and have the agreement drawn." In due time'the acte of acquisition was ready and signed by all concerned — Planchon pere and Mother Planchon ; Caroline, their daughter-in-law, the wife of Planchon, jun., surnanied Mme. Joseph ; and'madame, the widow of Letellier, sister of Planchon, sen. Mile. Lisbeth was, on the day of signing, too weak to leave her room, and the notary was obliged to transport himself and his papers to the house of the seller. The effort of making her signature was even too much for her ; she fainted again, and remained unconscious fully half an •hour. Mortally disquieted, the purchasers worked and worried over her till they brought her to consciousness, and she was able to make her signature with a trembling hand. Then, and then only, they breathed freely ; the house was theirs and ready to be occupied. The rooms were spacious, and of a very convenient arrangement, had it not been for the limit formed by the two beautiful chambers facing south reserved by Mile. Lisbeth. The installation was, as usual, laborious. Caroline would have liked very much herself to enjoy the sunshine, bnfc found herself relegated to the second floor. It would have been so good, too, for old Mme. Ancelin, Joseph's mother-in-law. The" only possible thing however, under the conditions, was to 6ettle the Ancelins on the first floor, in readiness to move into the rooms to the south when Mile. Lisbelh had gone to the other world, which, alas! in her condition, she could not long delay doing. . M. and Mme. Planchon chose then, nofc without a sigh, a small, somewhat gloomy room in the rear, facing north, leaving the other front room to Mmc Letellier. Joseph, of course, shared Caro. line's quarters on the second floor. • Meanwhile, Mile. Lisbeth had continu ed co weak since the day of the sale that the purchasers grew more and more commiserative. They wert goud-hearted souls, and, seeing her so near the tomb, by a sort of tacit accord, they resolved to sweeten her last moments as much as they could. To this end, they surrounded her with a thousand little cares and attentions. For instance, on the day of a pot au feu, Mme. Joseph brought her bowls of good strong broth to comfort her. Iffjthe pot au feu changed to chicken, it was Caroline that saved her a tender wing, and saw that she got it. As for Mme. Ancelin, who was a finished cordon bleu, she never" made a custard or soufflee without distributing her a share ; and even Mme. Letellier, notoriously parsimoniqus, invariably apportioned her a bowl or a jar of all the sweetmeats, preserves, and jellies with which she filled all the cupboards. And all these good people rejoiced greatly to see that, thanks to so much 'care and attention, they really were prolonging the old lady's life. Every morning they enquired how she felt, and, if she had passed a bad night, a gloom enveloped the entire- household. "Poor old lady!" murmured Planchon, pityingly; "one of these mornings we'll get up to find her gone!" And all the brows grew overcast, and the air damp with tears. All night long, too, the same anxiety continued. If Mile. Lisbeth coughed more than usual,' the whole house lay awake listening; if she did not cough at all, then Joseph, urged by Caroline, must jump up from his bed and go to her door to see if she were still breathing. "She is better, really better, Joseph," said his wife, after one of these anxious nocturnal trips; 'Svhat a mercy it was for her when she put her hand on us !" Next morning, too, Caroline had another happy surprise. As she walked in the garden, she saw Mile. Lisbeth, also, descending fresher, seemingly, than usual, fend much less bent. That evening she forgot to save her the wing of the chick:j en. Indeed, all the memories failed co •'; at this point, that,' little by little, % [ '- bouillons, the soufflees, preserves, and "• compotes separated themselves entirely •' from the road to the two south cham- [ bers. Their habitant, nevertheless, did * -' t not relapse ; on the contrrry, ' she hn- '" proved, looked better, walked better, and ' ; straightened up more and more. A year after the sale, rhe was co longer bent or feeble, but spry and rosy as a winter pippin. "Parbleu !" said Caroline, "nor is it astonishing, with those rooms to the south ! As for me, in my horrid north rooms, I am simply perishing!" No one nov asked news of her health, but Mile. Lisbeth seemed to take pleasure in giving it (spontaneously. "See !" she cr-'d. "how well I walk] If this

only continues, ifc will be a miracle! That which More upon me ho was the care of my hoiu,y. Now I have neither fatigue nor worry, and you care for it marvellously !" That evening, Caroline, sitting in silence, apparently immersed in thought, turned .suddenly to Planchon. "Do you know, father-in-law, that it is she, that poqr soul yonder, who is going to outlast you? She will live out, sure as the world, the fifteen years-, and you will have, paid thirty thou&and francs for a house that you could not sell again for twenty thousand! Thirty thousand francs, did I say? Forty -two thousand, I should have said, including the interest !" The good man grew pale. Had he really overreached himself thus? He growled, in response, something that sounded like, "One should never trust to appearances." The dinner finished gloomily, in a discouraged taciturnity. At dawn next morning, Planchon wakened suddenly to tho sound of dismal groanings,. He sprang to tho floor and to the dooi', crying to his wife: "Quick, Angelique ! Quick ! It is her death-rat-tle !" But before she could follow him, he was back again, wringing his hands and crying aloud : "My sister ! My sister ! Oh, my sister!" It was Mme. Letellier, and really her death-agony — a stroke of some kind. By noon &he was dead. Mile. Lisbeth offered her services, and as they dared not refuse her, it was she that brought and held the bowl of holy water. But ill tlxe family regarded her coinings and goings with a sort of dull rancour, of unacknowledged anger. The day of the funeral, Planchon said to his wife : "If only my sister had had a room to the south, I am sure &he -would never have failed so rapidly. Death ought to have taken a .more useless being, who has no one left to Jove her." From that day on ifc was open war. They hated her, this Mile. Lisbeth, this forgotten of Death, who had stolen from Mme. Letellier her last rays of sunlight. The ' most implacable of all was young Mme. Joseph, who expressed herself "on the subject of this "thief of years" with all the force and ardour of youth, persistently designating her as "the recalcitrant skeleton" and the "soleleather ghost." Three years after Mme. Letellier's death, Mile. Lisbeth was stronger than ever. • "Behold," one night said Planchon, who had been moodily communing with and computing to lumself, "six thousand four hundred fram .s have I already paid to her! Yes, i<>- thousand four hundred francs !" "And all • for the privilege of freezing in the north," his wife snapped, viciously. 4nd as she started to ascend to her room, furious at having to remount to her glacier, she raised her foot and angrily kicked open the door before her. Like an echo of this rabid coup de pied, a dull crash sounded from the foot of the stairs. It was Joseph, junior, who found himself ill for the third time' in a month. They ran to lift him, and' while the syncope lasted only a short time, he was forced to keep his bed next day from sheer exhaustion. He did not regain his strength, either. Consumption, which had threatened him for a long time, declared itself unmistakably, and he declined from day to day. In seeing her husband* perishing thus before her eyes,' Caroline had revolts that she made no effort to conceal. The sight of the old maid, now so gay and springy, made her cry out, angrily : "God is not just ! No, God is not just !" When, the morning after Joseph's death, Mile. Lisbeth entered the mortuary chamber, bearing, as usual,- the bowl of holy water, Mme. Planchen rose up convulsively, crying hoarsely -. Leave us, leave us to ourselves, mademoiselle!" And M. Ancelin, throwing the door wide, added, almost savagely : "Yes, yes, go ! It is not the moment, mademoiselle !" Poor bewildered Mile. Lisbeth obeyed, and showed herself no more until the hour of the funeral. The poor mother, crushed by the too -hard blow, failed hourly. '"If only she could have sunlight!" raged Planchon,. constantly, turning.despairing glances toward the two south chambers. His raging, however, did not prevent the passing away of his poor wife, precisely on the day for the payment of the fifty annuity. Mile. Lisbeth did not bring the holy water this time, but the morning of the interment they found at the grave a crown bearing the phrase, "God reunites those who love each other." Two years now passed without notable incident. Mile. Lisbeth did not grow older ; Planchon, on the contrary, wore out more and more. The Ancelins, too, seemed to languish, and their daughter Caroline to visibly fall away. The hatred of the four su-rvivors of the family had, by this tinie, a free rein ; for nothing ' at all— a scrap of paper, a raised window j — Mme. Joseph would cry out in the corridor : "It is, I know it is, that plague of an old maid there! " And Mile. Lisbeth, drawn by the noise, would appear at her door and ask from the threshold,, in her thin, old voice : "Did youi call me, dear child?". "No, it was the cholera she called " Planchon, hearing the colloquy, would hiss between his teeth. The cholera did not come, but an infectious grippe did, which carried off the same- night both M. and Mme. Ancelin, Again at the cemetery, the morning after the obsequies, they found a crown bearing the. words, "God recalls his elect." • Whep Planchon found himself alone at home with his daughter-in-law they uttered a roar in which sorrow had less part than anger. A day or two later it was necessarj to put in order the empty rooms of the departed Ancelins, the father-in-law going along to assist tho daughter. Mile. Lisbeth, a short while before this, had gone to the lawn for. a, little exercise. They heard her returning, murmuring to herself, "My ! My ! How warm it is ! lam all in a perspiration !" Instantly the thought occurred; to them of airing the whole house, and they threw open all the windows. "Take care, dear child," said the old demoiselle, as she passed by Mme. Joseph, "a draught is a very dangerous thing !" Which Mme. Joseph discovered for herself that evening, when seized with acute pleurisy. They saved her 'for the moment, but without restoring her to health. She dragged out a miserable existence for two years more, and then died suddenly, crying out with her last breafh : "I know that she has already ordered the crown !" The crown laid upon the grave this time bore but a single word, "Hope." Planchon, seeing it, was seized with a convnlsive trembling. This trembling lasted five years, five years that ho spent in the gloomy north rooms, envying the sunny south chambers, and delivering himself to paroxysms of daily rage that served only to aggravate his ataxia. Each year, as the time for the payment of the anniu'ty came around, he had terrible seizures from which he «merged more and more- attenuated, stricJen, and nearer to the grave. By the opening of the fourteenth year he could no longer leave his chair. It was Mile. Lisbeth who now came to his room for the money due her, principal and interest — Mile. Lisbeth, trim, tidy, and with a lively eye. This last seizure left Planchon wholly paralysed from the hips down. Then it was fe) *■ she came

to him every morning, bringing him broths, and creams, and littlo delicacies He devoured her m it'll his eye.,, his face, his whole air betraying a sullen terror, the inexplicable, mad terror of the frightened child. She talked to him just the same, kindly words of cheer and comfort in her tender old voice, exhorting him to p.itieuce and courage. At the end of the year, on the day for the payment of the fourteenth instalment, she entered the room alert, rejuvenated. "It is still mine," said she, "and I have come for my annuity, two thousand and two hundred francs, is'it'not? This payment to-day makes it, if I figure aright, thirty-nine thousand nine hundred francs, including the interest. One more two thousand two hundred francs, and the house is yours." Planchon regarded her fixedly, but remained motionless. She touched him. Plonchon waa dead ! Mile. Lisbeth allowed none but her own hands to clothe him for the grave ; she even went in pS-rson to the church for the holy water, and it was she who, with a sprig of box-tree from the garden, sprinkled the first drops on the pale brow of the lifeless clay. The last crown that she laid upon the 1 tomb bore the simple word, "Reunited." The next day, on the door of her house, which was her own again, there balanced anew to the rhythm of the whispering wind a card announcing : THIS HOUSE FOR SALE. — Translated from the French of Barbier by E. C. Waggener, in the Argonaut.