Trilby

Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) [Typographical errors have been corrected. A list follows the etext. With a few exceptions, the spelling of French words has not been normalized or corrected. (note of etext transcriber)] _SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION_ TRILBY A Novel _By_ GEORGE DU MAURIER AUTHOR OF "PETER IBBETSON" "THE MARTIAN" "SOCIAL PICTORIAL SATIRE" WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR [Illustration: "_Aux nouvelles que j'apporte, Vos beaux yeux vont pleurer!_"] NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL BOOK AND PUBLISHING COMPANY 1899 _This volume is issued for sale in paper covers only._ Copyright, 1894, 1899, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ [Illustration: "_IT WAS TRILBY!_" [See page 317]] _"Hélas! Je sais un chant d'amour, Triste et gai, tour à tour!"_ ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "IT WAS TRILBY!" _Frontispiece_ TAFFY, ALIAS TALBOT WYNNE 4 "THE LAIRD OF COCKPEN" 5 "THE THIRD HE WAS 'LITTLE BILLEE'" 7 "IT DID ONE GOOD TO LOOK AT HIM" 9 AMONG THE OLD MASTERS 13 "WISTFUL AND SWEET" 17 THE "ROSEMONDE" OF SCHUBERT 21 TRILBY'S LEFT FOOT 27 THE FLEXIBLE FLAGEOLET 31 THE BRIDGE OF ARTS 34 "THREE MUSKETEERS OF THE BRUSH" 39 TAFFY MAKES THE SALAD 43 "THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE" 47 TRILBY'S FOREBEARS 52 TAIL-PIECE 56 "AS BAD AS THEY MAKE 'EM" 59 "A VOICE HE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND" 63 "AND SO, NO MORE" 67 "'TWO ENGLANDERS IN ONE DAY'" 70 "'HIMMEL! THE ROOF OF YOUR MOUTH'" 73 "'ÇA FERA UNE FAMEUSE CRAPULE DE MOINS!'" 77 "'AV YOU SEEN MY FAHZER'S OLE SHOES?'" 81 TAFFY À L'ÉCHELLE! 85 "THE FOX AND THE CROW" 89 THE LATIN QUARTER 92 CUISINE BOURGEOISE EN BOHÈME 95 "THE SOFT EYES" 98 ILYSSUS 101 "'VOILÀ L'ESPAYCE DE HOM KER JER SWEE!'" 105 TIT FOR TAT 111 THE HAPPY LIFE 116 "'LET ME GO, TAFFY...'" 119 "'QU'EST CE QU'IL A DONC, CE LITREBILI?'" 121 REPENTANCE 125 CONFESSION 129 "ALL AS IT USED TO BE" 133 "TWIN GRAY STARS" 135 "AN INCUBUS" 137 THE CAPITALIST AND THE SWELL 141 "'I WILL NOT! I WILL NOT!'" 151 DODOR IN HIS GLORY 153 HÔTEL DE LA ROCHEMARTEL 155 CHRISTMAS EVE 161 "'ALLONS GLYCÈRE! ROUGIS MON VERRE....'" 163 SOUVENIR 168 "MY SISTER DEAR" 173 A DUCAL FRENCH FIGHTING-COCK 175 "'ANSWER ME, TRILBY!'" 179 A CARY_HAT_IDE 180 "'LES GLOUGLOUX DU VIN À QUAT' SOUS....'" 183 "'IS SHE A _LADY_, MR. WYNNE?'" 187 "'_FOND_ OF HIM? AREN'T _YOU_?'" 191 "SO LIKE LITTLE BILLEE" 195 "'I MUST TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS'" 199 "'TRILBY! WHERE IS SHE?'" 203 LA SOEUR DE LITREBILI 205 "HE FELL A-WEEPING, QUITE DESPERATELY" 207 "THE SWEET MELODIC PHRASE" 211 "SORROWFULLY, ARM IN ARM" 215 DEMORALIZATION 225 FRED WALKER 227 _PLATONIC LOVE_ 230 "DARLINGS, OLD OR YOUNG" 235 "THE MOON-DIAL" 237 THE CHAIRMAN 239 A HAPPY DINNER 245 "A-SMOKIN' THEIR POIPES AND CIGYARS" 247 "BONJOUR, SUZON!" 253 A HUMAN NIGHTINGALE 257 CUP-AND-BALL 263 SWEET ALICE 267 "MAY HEAVEN GO WITH HER!" 272 "'SO MUCH FOR ALICE, TRAY'" 277 "'YOU'RE A _THIEF_, SIR!'" 287 "AN ATMOSPHERE OF BANK-NOTES AND GOLD" 293 "A LITTLE PICTURE OF THE THAMES" 296 "'AH! THE BEAUTIFUL INTERMENT, MESSIEURS!'" 301 "PAUVRE TRILBY". 303 "'JE PRONG!'" 307 "'OON PAIR DE GONG BLONG'" 311 GECKO 315 "AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE" 319 "OUVRE-MOI TA PORTE POUR L'AMOUR DE DIEU!" 322 "MALBROUCK S'EN VA-T'EN GUERRE" 325 "AUX NOUVELLES QUE J'APPORTE, VOS BEAUX YEUX VONT PLEURER!". 329 UN IMPROMPTU DE CHOPIN 331 "AND THE REMEMBRANCE OF THEM--HAND IN HAND" 338 "'I BELIEVE YOU, MY BOY!'" 341 "MAMAN DUCHESSE" 351 THE CUT DIRECT 354 "PETIT ENFANT, J'AIMAIS D'UN AMOUR TENDRE...." 358 "'VITE! VITE! UN COMMISSAIRE DE POLICE!'" 363 "I SUPPOSE YOU DO ALL THIS KIND OF THING FOR MERE AMUSEMENT, MR. WYNNE?" 367 THE FIRST VIOLIN LOSES HIS TEMPER 373 "HAST THOU FOUND ME, O MINE ENEMY?" 375 "'OH, DON'T YOU REMEMBER SWEET ALICE, BEN BOLT?'" 377 "THE LAST THEY SAW OF SVENGALI" 383 "'THREE NICE CLEAN ENGLISHMEN'" 386 "POENA PEDE CLAUDO" 389 "THE OLD STUDIO" 391 "'ET MAINTENANT DORS, MA MIGNONNE!'" 395 "TAFFY WAS ALLOWED TO SEE GECKO" 400 A FAIR BLANCHISSEUSE DE FIN 403 A THRONE IN BOHEMIA 407 "'OH, MY POOR GIRL! MY POOR GIRL!'" 410 "'AH, POOR MAMMA! SHE WAS EVER SO MUCH PRETTIER THAN THAT!'" 416 "'TO SING LIKE THAT IS _TO PRAY_!'" 422 "'THE REMEMBRANCE OF THAT PALM SUNDAY!'" 425 FOR GECKO 431 "OUT OF THE MYSTERIOUS EAST" 432 "'SVENGALI!... SVENGALI!... SVENGALI!...'" 437 "TOUT VIENT À POINT, POUR QUI SAIT ATTENDRE!" 439 "I, PETE COELESTES...." 441 "PETITS BONHEURS DE CONTREBANDE" 447 ENTER GECKO 451 "'WE TOOK HER VOICE NOTE BY NOTE'" 455 THE NIGHTINGALE'S FIRST SONG 459 "'ICH HABE _GELIEBT UND GELEBET_!'" 461 TAIL-PIECE 464 TRILBY Part First "Mimi Pinson est une blonde, Une blonde que l'on connaît; Elle n'a qu'une robe au monde, Landérirette! et qu'un bonnet!" It was a fine, sunny, showery day in April. The big studio window was open at the top, and let in a pleasant breeze from the northwest. Things were beginning to look shipshape at last. The big piano, a semi-grand by Broadwood, had arrived from England by "the Little Quickness" (_la Petite Vitesse_, as the goods trains are called in France), and lay, freshly tuned, alongside the eastern wall; on the wall opposite was a panoply of foils, masks, and boxing-gloves. A trapeze, a knotted rope, and two parallel cords, supporting each a ring, depended from a huge beam in the ceiling. The walls were of the usual dull red, relieved by plaster casts of arms and legs and hands and feet; and Dante's mask, and Michael Angelo's altorilievo of Leda and the swan, and a centaur and Lapith from the Elgin marbles--on none of these had the dust as yet had time to settle. There were also studies in oil from the nude; copies of Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Rubens, Tintoret, Leonardo da Vinci--none of the school of Botticelli, Mantegna, and Co.--a firm whose merits had not as yet been revealed to the many. Along the walls, at a great height, ran a broad shelf, on which were other casts in plaster, terra-cotta, imitation bronze; a little Theseus, a little Venus of Milo, a little discobolus; a little flayed man threatening high heaven (an act that seemed almost pardonable under the circumstances!); a lion and a boar by Barye; an anatomical figure of a horse with only one leg left and no ears; a horse's head from the pediment of the Parthenon, earless also; and the bust of Clytie, with her beautiful low brow, her sweet wan gaze, and the ineffable forward shrug of her dear shoulders that makes her bosom a nest, a rest, a pillow, a refuge--to be loved and desired forever by generation after generation of the sons of men. Near the stove hung a gridiron, a frying-pan, a toasting-fork, and a pair of bellows. In an adjoining glazed corner cupboard were plates and glasses, black-handled knives, pewter spoons, and three-pronged steel forks; a salad-bowl, vinegar cruets, an oil-flask, two mustard-pots (English and French), and such like things--all scrupulously clean. On the floor, which had been stained and waxed at considerable cost, lay two chetah-skins and a large Persian praying-rug. One-half of it, however (under the trapeze and at the farthest end from the window, beyond the model throne), was covered with coarse matting, that one might fence or box without slipping down and splitting one's self in two, or fall without breaking any bones. Two other windows of the usual French size and pattern, with shutters to them and heavy curtains of baize, opened east and west, to let in dawn or sunset, as the case might be, or haply keep them out. And there were alcoves, recesses, irregularities, odd little nooks and corners, to be filled up as time wore on with endless personal knick-knacks, bibelots, private properties and acquisitions--things that make a place genial, homelike, and good to remember, and sweet to muse upon (with fond regret) in after-years. And an immense divan spread itself in width and length and delightful thickness just beneath the big north window, the business window--a divan so immense that three well-fed, well-contented Englishmen could all lie lazily smoking their pipes on it at once without being in each other's way, and very often did! At present one of these Englishmen--a Yorkshireman, by-the-way, called Taffy (and also the Man of Blood, because he was supposed to be distantly related to a baronet)--was more energetically engaged. Bare-armed, and in his shirt and trousers, he was twirling a pair of Indian clubs round his head. His face was flushed, and he was perspiring freely and looked fierce. He was a very big young man, fair, with kind but choleric blue eyes, and the muscles of his brawny arm were strong as iron bands. For three years he had borne her Majesty's commission, and had been through the Crimean campaign without a scratch. He would have been one of the famous six hundred in the famous charge at Balaklava but for a sprained ankle (caught playing leapfrog in the trenches), which kept him in hospital on that momentous day. So that he lost his chance of glory or the grave, and this humiliating misadventure had sickened him of soldiering for life, and he never quite got over it. Then, feeling within himself an irresistible vocation for art, he had sold out; and here he was in Paris, hard at work, as we see. [Illustration: TAFFY, ALIAS TALBOT WYNNE] He was good-looking, with straight features; but I regret to say that, besides his heavy plunger's mustache, he