Good. Was this a billet-doux? A thing I had heard of, but hitherto had
not had the honour of seeing or handling. Was it this sort of
commodity I held between my finger and thumb at this moment?
Scarcely: I did not dream it for a moment. Suitor or admirer my very
thoughts had not conceived. All the teachers had dreams of some lover;
one (but she was naturally of a credulous turn) believed in a future
husband. All the pupils above fourteen knew of some prospective
bridegroom; two or three were already affianced by their parents, and
had been so from childhood: but into the realm of feelings and hopes
which such prospects open, my speculations, far less my presumptions,
had never once had warrant to intrude. If the other teachers went into
town, or took a walk on the boulevards, or only attended mass, they
were very certain (according to the accounts brought back) to meet
with some individual of the "opposite sex," whose rapt, earnest gaze
assured them of their power to strike and to attract. I can't say that
my experience tallied with theirs, in this respect. I went to church
and I took walks, and am very well convinced that nobody minded me.
There was not a girl or woman in the Rue Fossette who could not, and
did not testify to having received an admiring beam from our young
doctor's blue eyes at one time or other. I am obliged, however
humbling it may sound, to except myself: as far as I was concerned,
those blue eyes were guiltless, and calm as the sky, to whose tint
theirs seemed akin. So it came to pass that I heard the others talk,
wondered often at their gaiety, security, and self-satisfaction, but
did not trouble myself to look up and gaze along the path they seemed
so certain of treading. This then was no billet-doux; and it was in
settled conviction to the contrary that I quietly opened it. Thus it
ran--I translate:--
|