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Updated: August 27, 2024
The old lady sat down in her armchair; deep silence reigned, and they looked at one another. "Well, yes," said the major at last, punctuating his words with an angry motion of his chin, "he has been and done it; that hound Burle has been and done it!" Not a muscle of Mme Burle's face moved, but she became livid, and her figure stiffened. Then the major continued: "I had my doubts.
He alleged that he had no money, whereupon she burst into tears and began to coax him. But her blandishments were apparently ineffectual, for Burle's husky voice could be heard repeating, "Impossible! Impossible!" And finally the widow withdrew in a towering passion.
They moved on in silence side by side, the major being so abstracted that he even forgot to swear. However, as they again crossed the Place du Palais, at the sight of the Cafe de Paris, which was still lit up, he dropped his hand on Burle's shoulder and said, "If you ever re-enter that hole I " "No fear!" answered the captain without letting his friend finish his sentence.
"Never mind," he added as he reached the threshold. "I'll begin by stirring him up. I shall move heaven and earth! What! Burle, Colonel Burle's son, condemned for theft! That cannot be! I would sooner burn down the town. Now, thunder and lightning, don't worry; it is far more annoying for me than for you."
This idea froze the major, who left off cursing, picturing Mme Burle erect and despairing, and at the same time he felt his heart swell with personal grief and shame. "Well," he muttered, "I must first of all look into the rogue's business; I will act afterward." As he walked over to Burle's office he caught sight of a skirt vanishing through the doorway.
And if he was so lame he richly deserved it too; by rights, in fact, his leg ought to be much worse. At last he crept downstairs and rang at the bell of Mme Burle's flat. Five minutes elapsed, and then the old lady appeared. "I beg your pardon for keeping you waiting," she said; "I thought that dormouse Rose was still about. I must go and shake her." But the major detained her.
Whenever the officers, and even the privates, met some monstrous-looking creature, some giantess puffed out with fat, whether she were in velvet or in rags, they would invariably exclaim, "There goes one to Petticoat Burle's taste!" Thus Melanie, with her opulent presence, quite conquered him. He was lost quite wrecked. In less than a fortnight he had fallen to vacuous imbecility.
It was Major Laguitte, a brave old soldier who had served under Colonel Burle during Mme Burle's palmy days. He had started in life as a drummer boy and, thanks to his courage rather than his intellect, had attained to the command of a battalion, when a painful infirmity the contraction of the muscles of one of his thighs, due to a wound obliged him to accept the post of major.
At last he understood that this was an execution. Laguitte, squarely poised on his infirm legs and seemingly turned to stone, stood waiting. The two men looked at each other fixedly. In Burle's blurred eyes there arose a supplication a prayer for pardon. He knew why he was going to die, and like a child he promised not to transgress again.
One of these voices was Burle's, so he fancied, and out of curiosity he ascended another flight of stairs. Then at the end of a passage on the left he saw a ray of light coming from a door which stood ajar. As the creaking of his boots resounded, this door was sharply closed, and he found himself in the dark. "Some cook going to bed!" he muttered angrily. "I'm a fool."
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