“I went my way, filled with amazement, asking myself what this all meant, to what race of beings belonged this huntress of the tombs?  Was she just a common girl, one who went to seek among the tombs for men who were in sorrow, haunted by the recollection of some woman, a wife or a sweetheart, and still troubled by the memory of vanished caresses?  Was she unique?  Are there many such?  Is it a profession?  Do they parade the cemetery as they parade the street?  Or else was she only impressed with the admirable, profoundly philosophical idea of exploiting love recollections, which are revived in these funereal places?

“And I would have liked to know whose widow she was on that special day.”

MADEMOISELLE PEARL

I

What a strange idea it was for me to choose Mademoiselle Pearl for queen that evening!

Every year I celebrate Twelfth Night with my old friend Chantal.  My father, who was his most intimate friend, used to take me round there when I was a child.  I continued the custom, and I doubtless shall continue it as long as I live and as long as there is a Chantal in this world.

The Chantals lead a peculiar existence; they live in Paris as though they were in Grasse, Evetot, or Pont-a-Mousson.

They have a house with a little garden near the observatory.  They live there as though they were in the country.  Of Paris, the real Paris, they know nothing at all, they suspect nothing; they are so far, so far away!  However, from time to time, they take a trip into it.  Mademoiselle Chantal goes to lay in her provisions, as it is called in the family.  This is how they go to purchase their provisions: 

Mademoiselle Pearl, who has the keys to the kitchen closet (for the linen closets are administered by the mistress herself), Mademoiselle Pearl gives warning that the supply of sugar is low, that the preserves are giving out, that there is not much left in the bottom of the coffee bag.  Thus warned against famine, Mademoiselle Chantal passes everything in review, taking notes on a pad.  Then she puts down a lot of figures and goes through lengthy calculations and long discussions with Mademoiselle Pearl.  At last they manage to agree, and they decide upon the quantity of each thing of which they will lay in a three months’ provision; sugar, rice, prunes, coffee, preserves, cans of peas, beans, lobster, salt or smoked fish, etc., etc.  After which the day for the purchasing is determined on and they go in a cab with a railing round the top and drive to a large grocery store on the other side of the river in the new sections of the town.

Madame Chantal and Mademoiselle Pearl make this trip together, mysteriously, and only return at dinner time, tired out, although still excited, and shaken up by the cab, the roof of which is covered with bundles and bags, like an express wagon.