Dimanche and Other Stories by Irene Nemirovsky & Bridget Patterson

Author:Irene Nemirovsky & Bridget Patterson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780307476364
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2010-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Mademoiselle, I didn’t write yesterday because I was very tired, but mainly because I am reaching a very painful time for Mademoiselle. I fear I may distress her by talking about it, yet I must, so that Mademoiselle can understand properly what happened. I ask for Forgiveness with all my heart if I hurt her.

It must have been just twelve years ago this autumn. It started with an affair with Baroness Debeers. I saw in Le Figaro this summer that she lost a twenty-year-old son in a flying accident. I read the Society and Domestic Situations columns in Le Figaro so as not to lose track of people I knew when I was young. It’s nice, in some ways, to follow people through life; but how short it is, Mademoiselle Monique! It’s frightening to read about a young girl one knew as a kitchen maid looking for a position as a pastry cook, along with her daughter as chambermaid. Life goes past in the twinkling of an eye. Although you never think about it when you’re young, and so much the better!

As for the Baroness, it’s unbelievable she’s lost a son who was already twenty years old. I can see her still! Now there was a woman who knew how to dress! I can remember one evening at home, the Baroness had come to dinner. I was helping the butler to serve cocktails, and I could see her clearly. People were talking about Monsieur and the Baroness, saying they’d been together since the previous spring. It had never lasted that long with Monsieur. So I had a good look at them. My goodness, that woman was beautiful! She was wearing a red dress that covered her modestly at the front, but showed her bare back. She had just returned from Biarritz and her skin was golden. The effect created by having a dress cut high at the front and décolleté at the back has since become quite common, but then it was the first time anyone had seen it in Society and, Mademoiselle Monique, the eyes of those Gentlemen … I feel as though I can see them still. Men are animals, it has to be said.

Nobody believed that it would be serious for either of them. In High Society—and I’ve seen a great deal of it, Mademoiselle!—love affairs were more for public display than showing real feelings. A bit of fun, some pretty dresses and fine underwear, a few pinpricks to one’s pride and a bit of jealousy here and there, then good-bye and on to another one. But it must really have been love for Monsieur and his lady friend. After all, love comes like a thief, grabs us by the heart, and we don’t even know its name. For Monsieur, who’d had so many women, it seemed as though it was the first time. Always cheerful and mocking, he had become all pale and sad. As for her, she devoured him with her eyes. We were starting to tell each other we could feel a divorce on the way.

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