A LOVE CRIME. Paul Bourget

      PAUL BOURGET

      A LOVE CRIME

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      Inhaltsverzeichnis

       Titel

       DEDICATION.

       CHAPTER I

       CHAPTER II

       CHAPTER III

       CHAPTER IV

       CHAPTER V

       CHAPTER VI

       CHAPTER VII

       CHAPTER VIII

       CHAPTER IX

       CHAPTER X

       CHAPTER XI

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      DEDICATION.

      A LOVE CRIME

      PAUL BOURGET

      _Author of a "CRUEL ENIGMA._"

      LONDON

      _W. W. GIBBINGS, 18 BURY STREET W.C._

      1892.

      TO GASTON CRÉHANGE.

      Many days have elapsed, my dear friend, since our childhood, but they

      have passed away without effecting any alteration in the affectionate

      feelings we then entertained. In memory of an intimacy of heart and mind

      which has never known a cloud, it is very pleasant to me to write your

      name at the beginning of that one of my books which you preferred to all

      the rest. It is further the book in which I have stated with most

      sincerity what I think concerning some of the essential problems of the

      modern life of our day. May this complete sincerity, by which you, the

      truest and most loyal being I know, have doubtless been attracted, plead

      in favour of the work with readers who would otherwise be startled by a

      certain boldness of depicture and cruelty of analysis!

      For the rest, whatever may be the verdict of public opinion respecting

      "A Love Crime," as I have called this minute diagnostic of a certain

      distemper of the soul, it will always be possessed of one great merit in

      my eyes, for it will have pleased you, and have enabled me once more to

      subscribe myself, my dear Gaston, your ever faithful friend,

      CHAPTER I

      The little drawing-room was illuminated by the soft light of three

      lamps--tall lamps standing on Japanese vases and bearing globes upon

      which rested flexible shades of a pale blue tint. The door was hidden by

      a piece of tapestry; two walls were hung with another piece, which was

      covered with large figures. Both windows were draped with

      curtains--drawn just now--of deep red colour and heavy of fold.

      The apartment thus closed in had a homelike air, which was heightened by

      the profusion of small articles scattered over the furniture:

      photographs set in frames, lacquered boxes, old-fashioned cases, a few

      Saxon statuettes, books stitched in covers of antique stuff, such as

      were coming into fashion in the year 1883. The wreathing foliage of an

      evergreen plant showed in one corner. Close beside it, an open piano

      displayed its white keys. An English screen with coloured glass and a

      shelf on which tea-cups, books, or work might be laid, stood in folds on

      one side of the fire-place. The fire burned with a peaceful crackling

      noise which formed an accompaniment to the sound proceeding from the

      tea-pot as the latter received the caresses from the flame of its lamp

      on the low table designed for such service.

      The furniture of the somewhat crowded drawing-room presented that

      composite appearance which is characteristic of our time, together with

      the peculiarity that everything in it seemed to be almost too new. At a

      first glance, certain slight indications would have seemed to show that

      its Parisian aspect had been voluntarily aimed at. Objects were

      contrasted here and there; there were, for instance, little

      old-fashioned silver spoons; on the walls were two excellent copies of

      small religious pictures, to which memories of childhood were certainly

      linked, and which could have come only from an old country house. The

      photographs, also, witnessed, by the dress and demeanour of the

      relatives or friends represented, to altogether provincial

      relationships. The feeling of contrast would have become still more

      perceptible to one visiting the other rooms and finding everywhere

      evident tokens that the persons dwelling in them had lived but a very

      short time at Paris.

      This small-sized drawing-room belonged to a small-sized house situated

      at No. 3½, Rue de La Rochefoucauld. The lower part of this street,

      which descends in a very steep slope to the Rue Saint-Lazare, comprises

      several private houses of very varied build, and a few retired dwellings

      surrounded by gardens. The house containing the little drawing-room was

      built for an actress by a celebrated financier under the Empire, at a

      period when the Rue de