MACMILLAN  READERS

INTERMED I ATE LEVEL

EMILE ZOLA

Thérèse Raquin

Retold by Elizabeth  Walker

A Note  About the Author and France

in the Nineteenth Century

Emile  Zola  was born in  Paris  on  2nd  April 1840.  His  father, Francesco Zola,  was Italian and  his  mother, Francoise-Emilie Aubert, was  French. When  Emile was  three years  old,  the Zola   family moved to  Aix-en-Provence in  southeastern France. Emile’s  father died   four  years  later and   the   family became poor.

Emile  Zola  started school in the  year  that Louis  Philippe, the   King   of  France  (1830—1848), was  removed from   the throne and  the  period called the  Second Republic began. In

1852,  Zola went to the  College Bourbon in Aix-en-Provence.

While he  was  there, he  met  Paul  Cezanne, who  became his friend. Later,  Cezanne became a famous artist.

In  1858,  Emile Zola  moved to  Paris  to study  at the  Lycée Saint-Louis. His  mother wanted him   to  become a  lawyer. But  Zola  was not a good  student. He  failed  his  baccalauréat examination twice. Zola’s first job  was as a clerk’.  He  worked for  a company that moved goods   through France and  sent them overseas.

Between 1860  and   1862,  Zola  wrote poetry and  worked for the  publishing company, Hachette. While he  was working there he  wrote a book  about his  own  life called La Confession de Claude. After  this   he  had   to  leave   his  job.   The police read  the  book and  said  that it was unsuitable —  it described unpleasant and  private things. It was while  Zola  was working as  a journalist that he  met   Gabrielle-Alexandrine  Meley. Zola  married her in  1870.

Emile  Zola  wrote non-fiction books  and  articles as well  as fiction. He  was  interested in  politics and  people’s lives.  In some  of his articles, he spoke  against the  government and  its leaders.  In  his  novels, Zola  wrote about relationships. He

believed that novels should tell  the  truth about families, and about love   and   sex.  He  described how   people’s lives   can change when they meet and   love   the   wrong person. The people in Zola’s novels show  strong feelings — love,  jealousy2 anger,  hate and  joy. His  stories describe affairs and  murders, successes  and  failures. Zola  wrote about working people, poor families with only  a little education, and  women who  were paid  to have sex.  Many readers were  shocked by these stories When Zola   wrote L’Oeuvre (The  Masterpiece)  —   a  book about artists and  writers, his  friend Cezanne became angry and  their friendship ended. However, by the  beginning of the twentieth  century, Zola  was  recognized4 as  one  of  France s greatest writers.

Between 1871  and  1893  Zola  wrote twenty novels about the   history of  two   families. The stories were about the Rougons, who  were  tradespeopIe and  the   Macquarts, who were  smugglers6.  Zola  showed what happens  when simple

people become rich  and successful and then  they are destroyed by  their troubles. The Rougon-Macquart books were  extremely successful and  Zola earned a lot  of money.  He bought a house and  land  in Médan.

In  1888,  Zola  began an  affair  with Jeanne Rozerot and they  had a family of two  children.

During Zola’s life,  many changes were  taking place in the world.  While  he  was  studying in  the Lycée   Saint-Louis

Empei ir Napoleon the  Third became leader of France. Then in 1870,  the  country became a republic again. In  the   l880s, writers, scientists, politicians and  artists in  France were  all thinking about new   ideas. And  French art   and painting changed in  the  middle of  the  nineteenth century. Painters started to  use  a  softer and   brighter style  of  painting. The style   of  painting was  called Impressionism and   the   artists were  called Impressionists. These artists wanted to show  the things that happened in  the  lives  of ordinary people. They

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painted pictures of  the  waiters, dancers, and   the   men and women who  spent time  in  the  bars,  wine-shops and  cafés  of Paris.   They  showed families enjoying themselves  in  parks and  by rivers  at weekends.

In  1894,  a Frenchman called Alfred Dreyfus  was accused8

of the  crime of spying9  for  Germany —    an  enemy of France. Dreyfus was taken to  a court of law. There was a trial  and  he was  found guilty’0.  Dreyfus was  sent   to  prison.  Zola  didn’t believe that Dreyfus  was a spy.  In  1897,  he  wrote a letter to Le  Figaro  newspaper.  He   said   that  Dreyfus should have another trial. Later,   Dreyfus did  have another trial,   and  he was found not guilty.  But in  1898,  Zola himself went to prison for  a  year   and   he  had   to  pay  three  thousand  francs. He escaped’  to  England and  lived  in London for a year.

On  29th  September  1902, Emile Zola died. He   died because gas and  smoke  from  the  stove  in  his  bedroom came into  the  room  and  the  air became poisonous’2. Some people thought that Zola’s  death was  an  accident. Other  people believed that he  had  been murdered by an  enemy of Alfred Dreyfus.  Fifty  thousand people came to Zola’s funeral.

Thérèse Raquin was  published in  1867   when Zola  was twenty-seven years old.  At  the  time  that it was published, the novel shocked many people. It  is a  story   about  adultery’3, madness, ghosts and  revenge’4.   Some   of Zola’s  other books are:  L’Assommoir — The Drunkard (1871); Le Ventre  de Paris

—   The Belly  of  Paris   (1873); Le  Roman  Experimental —   An Experimental Novel (1880); Nana (1880); Pour Le Bonheur des Dames  —  For Women’s Delight (1883); Germinal (1885); La  Terre  —    Earth (1887); Le Rêve  —    The Dream (1888); La Bête Humaine — The Human Beast  (1890); L’Argent —   Money (1891); Le Débâcle  — The Downfall (1892).

7

Vernon

1

Vernon

The   Raquin  family lived in  the town of  Vernon,  in

Normandy15. Madame Raquin had  a small  drapers  shop16 in  the  town, where she  worked hard for  nearly twenty-five years.  Madame Raquin’s business was successful and  she  was able   to  save  money. Then  her husband died   and   Madame Raquin became a widow.  A few years  later,  she decided to sell her  business and  have an  easier life.

After she   had   sold  the business, Madame Raquin had quite a lot  of money. With some  of this  money, she  was able to  rent’7  a little house with a garden. The house stood on  a bank’8  of the  River Seine. The pretty garden went down to the  river and  the  house was surrounded by fields  and  trees.

Madame Raquin was  now  more   than fifty  years  old  and she   lived happily in  her quiet little  house with her son, Camille, and  her  niece, Thérèse. Camille Raquin was twenty years old and Thérèse was a few years younger.  Camille Raquin had  been ill  all  his  life.  He  was  small  and  thin, with a pale, blotchy19  face.

Camille’s mother had  spoilt20 her  son when he  was a child. She  had  worried about him and  she  had  done everything for him.  He had  had  many  illnesses and  she had  looked after him with great care.  She  still  treated21 him as if he  was a sickly22 child.

Camille had often been too   ill  to  go  to  school and  he had  not been well educated. His  empty mind was as weak23 as his  body.  Camille’s mother wanted her  son  to  stay  at  home with her  for ever.  But he  wanted to meet other people. When he  was eighteen, Camille had  got  a job  as a clerk in  a small office.  The boring work  pleased the  stupid young man.

Camille thought of nothing and  no  one  but  himself. His mother did  everything for him,   but  he  did  not love  her.  He was now  a selfish and  vain24 young man.  Camille was a man, but  his  body  was  as weak  as a child’s.  His  pale  face,  with its thin red  beard, always  had  a stupid, angry  expression25.   But Madame  Raquin’s feelings for  her  son  had   never changed.

She  had   loved the  sickly  child. Now she  loved the  selfish,

stupid,  young man,This love  made Camille angry  with his mother and  he  was  often rude   to  her.  Madame Raquin did not care.  Her  love  for her  son  was the  most  important thing in her  life.  She  would always  look  after  Camille.

Thérèse Raquin was  Madame  Raquin’s niece.  Thérèse’s father had  been a captain in the  French army.  He  had  spent many years  fighting in North Africa. In Algeria, he  had  met

and  married Thérèse’s mother, a beautiful Algerian woman.

Sixteen years  ago,  Madame Raquin had   been surprised when her  brother had  come to her  house in Vernon. He  was holding a two-year-old child in his  arms.

‘Here  is Thérèse, my little daughter,’ Captain Degans had said  to  his  sister.   ‘The  poor child’s   mother is dead, so  I’ve brought my Thérèse home to France, and  to you.  I must  soon return to  the  army  in Algeria. There is no  one  to  look  after

my daughter there. You are Thérése’s aunt and  I’m asking  you to  help me.  I’m  giving my  Thérèse to  you.  Please will  you look  after  her?’

Madame Raquin smiled. ‘I’ve always  wanted a daughter,’

she said.  ‘Leave  the  dear  little girl with me.  I shall  love  her  as

I  love   my  own child.  She can  take my  married name

Raquin. Your Thérèse and  my Camille will  grow up  together in a safe and  happy home.’

Thérèse grew  up strong and  healthy, but  her  aunt treated the  girl  like  her sickly   cousin. Madame Raquin kept both

children in warm  rooms. Sometimes she  made  Thérése take

Camille’s medicine.

—

9

Vernon

‘Thérèse,’ Madame Raquin often said to her niece, Camille is  ill  again. Sit quietly by  the fire  so  that Camille can sleep.’

Thérèse  had grown into  an unusual-looking  young

woman. She had thick black hair and large dark eyes.   Her face   was  pale and she   had a  long nose and pale thin  lips. Sometimes, eighteen-year-old  Thérèse  looked very plain. But  at  other times she  looked very beautiful.

Every evening, Camille came home from his  office to  eat the meal that his  mother had made for  him. Then the young man sat  looking at  books until it was  time to  sleep.

Thérèse never read books and Camille thought that she

was   stupid. The  two   young people almost never  spoke to each other.

Every evening, Thérèse would sit calmly and silently. The young woman wanted  to  run and dance, but she   did   not. Sometimes she   sewed26  some clothes.  Sometimes  she   did nothing. Sometimes Thérèse just sat  looking at  the flames of the fire.  François, Madame Raquin’s big  tabby27  cat, sat  and stared at  the fire  too.

Madame Raquin was  pleased with her quiet, family life. She was   happy and cheerful.  Every evening,  she   did   her sewing and made careful plans for  the family’s future.

‘I’m   so  pleased that  your father  brought  you to us,’

Madame Raquin said   to  Thérèse one evening.  ‘And I’ll  be very happy when you  and Camille marry. That is my  dearest wish, Thérèse. And I know that you  will  be  happy together. But  we’ll  wait until you  are  twenty-one, my  dear.’

Thérèse nodded28,  but she  said  nothing. She looked across the room at  Camille, but he  had fallen asleep.

On warm days  in the summer, Thérèse sometimes went down to  the river. She lay  in  the long grass  on  the river bank. She looked like  a cat who is waiting to  catch a mouse.

10

Vernon                                                                                                                                                                            The Passage du Pont-Neuf

Thérèse loved to  feel  the  heat of the  sun.  She   loved to watch the  water of the  river and  listen to  the  sound that it made.  Thérése felt  more  alive. But  she  kept all  these strong feelings to herself. No  one  ever  knew her  thoughts.

In the  Raquins’ little house by the  fast-flowing river,  every

day  was the  same.  Every  day was quiet and  peaceful.

Camille sometimes became angry  with his  mother. She was always  worried about his  health. Sometimes on  summer evenings, Camille would take Thérèse walking by the  river. He held her  hand and  pulled her  along  the  path. He  laughed at her  and  tried to make  her  angry.  Sometimes he pushed her off the  path.

One evening, Camille pushed his  cousin so hard that she fell to the  ground. Thérése jumped up as quickly as a cat.  Her eyes  were  bright with anger and  she  hit Camille hard with her fists29. The  sickly young man fell   to  the ground and looked up at  the  girl  in surprise. He  was very  frightened. He never tried to make  Thérèse angry  again.

Soon Thérèse was  twenty-one and   it was  time for  her to marry Camille. Madame Raquin spoke  kindly to  her  young niece when they were  alone.

‘You don’t remember your  father or your  mother, my dear,’ Madame Raquin said.  ‘Your father was a brave30 soldier  and  he fought and  died  for his  country. I never knew the  lady  who became his  wife.  But  she  must have been beautiful, like  you, Thérèse.

‘Your father and  mother only  had  a short time together,’ Madame Raquin went on.  ‘I hope that you  and  my son  will be married for many happy years!’

Thérèse stood up  and  kissed her  aunt. But  the   strange, quiet girl did  not say a word.

And so Camille and  Thérèse were  married. On the  night of her  wedding, Thérèse did  not go  to  her own   bedroom.

She  walked quietly into  her  cousin’s bedroom. That was the only  way that her life changed.

The next morning, Camille walked downstairs as calmly

as usual.  He  took no notice of his wife. Thérèse behaved32 as she  had   always   done. She   was  silent and  her  face  did  not show  her  thoughts or feelings.

2

The Passage du Pont-Neuf

A week  after  his  marriage, Camille told  his  mother about his  plans for the  future.

‘Until  now,  you have  planned my life for me,’ Camille said rudely.  ‘I’ve taken all the  medicines that you have given me and   I’ve  never compIained.  I’m  a  married man now,  but you  still  treat me  like  a child. I  want things to  be  different. There’s going  to be a change in all our  lives.  I’m going  to live in Paris.  You and  Thérèse are  coming with me!’

Madame Raquin was  very  surprised.  ‘My  dear   Camille, I’ve lived  in  Vernon all  my  life!’ she  said.  ‘I’ve worked hard and  made a good  home for  us here in  the  country34.  I don’t want to  live  in Paris.’

‘But I do,’ Camille replied. ‘That is what I want. We  will leave  Vernon at  the  end  of the  month.’

No  one  asked  Thérése what she  wanted.

Madame Raquin did  not sleep   well  that night. But  she thought carefully about her  son’s words.  She  wanted Camille to  be  happy. Then she  would be  happy too.  Soon Madame Raquin had  a plan of her  own.

‘This   is what we  will  do,’  she  said  cheerfully the   next morning at breakfast. ‘I’ll go to Paris  tomorrow. I’ll look  for a

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The rassage du Font Neuf                                                                                                   The Passage du Pont-Neuf

small  drapers shop  that we can  rent. Thérèse and  I can  work in the  shop.  It will keep  us busy. You can  work,  if you want  to, Camille, or you  can  just  enjoy yourself in Paris.’

‘I’ll get  a job,’  Camille said.  He  wanted to be a clerk  in a big,  important office.  He  wanted to talk  to other young  men.

Madame Raquin went to Paris  the  next day. A friend had told  her about a drapers shop  in  the  centre of the  city.  The shop  was in a little arcade15 called the  Passage  du Pont-NeuP6.

Paris  was big  and  noisy.  Madame Raquin was  frightened by the  busy  streets, the  big  shops and  the  crowds of people. At last  she  found the  Passage du  Pont-Neuf.

The little arcade was  narrow and   dark. And  the   little drapers shop was  dark too.   But  Madame Raquin felt  safe there and   the   business was  being sold  very  cheaply37.  The shop’s  rent was not  expensive and  the  rooms  above the  shop could be  rented cheaply too.  Madame Raquin decided that her little family could live very comfortably in the Passage du Pont-Neuf.

By the  time  that Madame Raquin got back  to Vernon, she was feeling very cheerful and  excited. She  was happy to have her  own  business again and  every  night she  talked about her plans.

‘Oh,  my dear  Thérèse, we’ll  all be so happy living in that little arcade,’ Madame Raquin said.  ‘It’s a quiet place, but  it’s in  the   centre of  Paris. There  are  three fine   rooms and   a kitchen  above the   shop.   The shop   itself  will  keep   us both

busy! We’ll arrange our goods in the very best way. And our name wil be painted on the front of the shop in red letters: Raquin-Drapers.

‘The arcade is always full of people,’ Madame Raquin went on.’ We’ll have lots of customers all day. We’ll never be bored!’

As Madame Raquin talked to her niece, she forgot that the shop was small and dark. As usual, Therese said nothing. She waited to see the place herself.

Not long after this conversation, the Raquin left their peaceful home in Vernon and went to live in Paris.

The Passage du Pont-Neuf was a dark, narrow arcade between two high black walls. The arcade was about two metres wide and thirty metres long. It was paved with damp, cracked stones and its glass roof was black with dirt. During the day, very little light came through the roof of the arcade. In the evening, the narrow passage was lit by three square lanterns. The lanterns gave a strange yellow light. When the wind blew, the lanterns made shadows that moved along the walls.

Narrow shops were built along the left wall of the arcade. These little shops were dark and damp. The shop windows were made of squares of dirty green glass. It was almost impossible to see the goods- cheap clothes, old books, toys and paper- that were inside the shops. On the right wall of the arcade there were narrow cupboards. Many kinds of different goods lay on the dirty brown shelves of these cupboards.

No one walked slowly through the Passage du Pont-Neuf. No one went there to enjoy shopping. Servants and tradespeople hurried through the passage. They always wanted to get somewhere else quickly. Their shoes made a loud noise on the stone paving.

When Therese went to the drapers shop for the first time, she felt sick and ill. The dark, damp place felt like an open grave. The girl stood and looked at everything in the narrow little shop. There was a counter on one side and a spiral staircase on the other. All round the walls, there were green boxes, and cupboards with glass doors.

Therese went slowly up the spiral staircase to the rooms above the shop. There was a sitting room, two bedrooms, and a very small kitchen. In the sitting room, there was

stove  and a  table, with four chairs standing round it,

Everything was old  and  dirty.

Thérèse  walked into  each room and   then sat  down in despair44. Her  body  was stiff45 with shock and  horror. She  felt cold  and  dead inside. She  wanted to  cry, but  she  could not. This awful   place —    this   narrow shop   and   these few  small rooms  — was her  new  home. She  was going  to live here  for the rest  of her  life!

Madame Raquin knew that she  had  made  a mistake. She knew that she  should not have rented the  shop.  But she  tried to speak  cheerfully to Camille and  Thérèse.

‘The arcade looks dark because the  sun   isn’t   shining today,’  she  said.  ‘And  the  shop’s  dirty  now,  but  we can  soon clean it.  Choose some  new  wallpaper46 for the  rooms  upstairs, Thérése. We  can  get new  curtains and  carpets too.  We’ll  put flowers  in every  room, my dear!’

‘Why  should we  do  that?’   Thérése said  sadly.  ‘We’ll  be comfortable as we are.  We  don’t have to change anything.’

‘The  place is all right,’ Camille said  to his  mother.  ‘We’ll only  be upstairs in  the  evenings. I’ll be  at  my office  all  day. You and  Thérèse will  be  busy  in  the  shop  all  day.  You won’t be bored.’

Camille  looked forward47  to  leaving the   Passage du  Pont Neuf every   morning. He  was  going   to  work   in  a warm  and comfortable office  every  day. Every  evening, he  would come home, eat  his  dinner and  go to bed  early.

Madame Raquin arranged all  the  furniture in  the  rooms above the  shop.  Then she  cleaned the  shop.   It was  a month before Camille got  a job.  But  while he  was looking for work, he  stayed away  from the  shop all  day.  He  did  not return home until the  evening. At last he found a job  as a clerk  with the   Orleans  Railway Company. He  was  going   to  earn one hundred francs a month. The young man was delighted.

Camille left  home at  eight  o’clock every morning.  He enjoyed the   long  walk  to  his  office,   along the   banks of the River Seine. He  enjoyed his  time away  from  the  shop, his mother and  Thérèse. Everything in  Paris  pleased the  stupid young  man. In  the  evenings, he  walked very  slowly  back  to the  Passage  du  Pont-Neuf.

Madame Raquin and  Thérèse sat  behind the  counter of the  dark little shop,  day after  day. Madame Raquin often fell asleep and the  tabby cat,   François, slept on   the   counter beside her.   Thérèse sat  quietly, without  moving. Her   pale face  became paler and  paler.  She  never complained.

Cheap clothes, women’s  hats  and  stockings4s  were  for sale in  the  little drapers shop.   There were  piles  of green wool. There were   knitting-needles,  boxes of  buttons and   cheap ribbons50. Madame Raquin tried to arrange all of the  goods  in an  interesting way,  but  business was  bad.   There were   not many  customers and  the  shop  did  not make  much money.

Thérèse smiled sadly when she  served5’ the  poor  girls who

were  their  customers. Madame Raquin talked to  everyone cheerfully. The  customers always   wanted Madame Raquin to serve  them.

Days passed  and  every  day was the  same.  And for Thérèse Raquin, every  morning was the  start  of another boring day in the   Passage du  Pont-Neuf.  The  cheap goods in  the  shop became damp and  dirty.  Thérèse saw the  dark,  sad days going on  and   on   to  the   end   of  her life.   Every evening,  she  sat silently upstairs in the  sitting-room. At  ten  o’clock, Madame Raquin went downstairs to  lock  the  door of the  shop.  When she  came up  the  stairs  again, she  kissed  her  son  and  his  wife,

and  went happily into  her  bedroom. François, the  cat,  went

bn  to sit on  his  chair in  the  kitchen. Then the  family went to bed.

Thérèse  followed Camille  into  their  bedroom. Every evening, she walked across  the  room  and  opened the  window.

17

The  Passage du Pont-Neuf

She  stood there for a minute,  looking out  at  the  high, black wall.  Then she  closed the  shutters52  and  turned towards her

husband and  their cold  bed.

One day  in  the   week  was  different from  the   others.  Every Thursday evening,  the Raquins had visitors. Thursday evening was  the most important  time of  the   week. The Raquins and their visitors played dominoes,  talked and drank tea. The visitors left   late in  the evening and the Raquins did  not go to  bed  until eleven o’clock.

Their visitors were  always  the  same  people. The first  was Old   Michaud. He  had   known Madame Raquin  in  Vernon and  he  had  been the   Police Commissioner54 there.  He  was now  retired55  and   living in  Paris.   One wet  day,  soon   after they  had  moved to Paris,  Michaud had  met  Madame Raquin outside her  shop. He  was  soon visiting the   Raquin  family every  Thursday.

After a few weeks,  Michaud brought his  son  Olivier, who worked in the  police department, to the  drapers shop.  Olivier was a tall,  thin young man,  about thirty years  old.  Suzanne, Olivier’s pale  little wife,  came with him.

Grivet was a friend of Camille. He worked for the  Orleans Railway Company with Camille. Grivet was  an  important man in  the  railway’s office and  Camille  respected56 him. Camille hoped that, one  day, he  would get  Grivet’s job.

Every  Thursday evening was the  same.  At seven o’clock,

Madame Raquin went into  the  sitting-room and  lit the  fire in the   stove. Then  she  put   a  big  lamp   in  the   middle of  the table. Beside   the   lamp,   Camille put   the   box  of  dominoes. Chairs were  moved from  along the  walls  and  put  round the table. Then Madame Raquin prepared the  cups  and  saucers

for tea.

At eight o’clock exactly, Old   Michaud and  Grivet met outside the  little shop  and  went inside. Then everyone went

19

The  Passage du Pont-Neuf                                                                                                                                                                                   A New Visitor

up the  spiral  staircase to the  sitting-room, sat down round the table, and   waited for  Olivier Michaud and   his  wife.  They always  arrived late.

When all  the   guests  were   in  the  sitting-room,  Madame

Raquin gave   everyone some   tea.   Then Camille took the dominoes out   of  the   box,   put   them on  the   table, and   the game  began.

The oniy   sound came   from   the   dominoes as  they   were

moved about on  the   table. At the  end  of  every game,   the players talked about it  for  a few  minutes. Then  there was silence as the  next game  began.

Thursday evenings were  terrible for  Thérèse. She  hated

their visitors and  she hated playing dominoes. Thérèse was so unhappy that she  played the  game  badly.  This made Camille angry  with her.

Thérèse would often pick up  François, the  big  tabby cat,

and  hold him  in her  arms.  Sometimes Thérése said  that she had   a headache57  and  could not play.  Then she  would sit, half-asleep58, with  her  elbow on  the table and   her hand against her  face.

Thérèse stared at  the   people round the   table and   their

ugly faces  made her  half-mad. She  could see them clearly in the  yellow light of the   lamp.   Old  Michaud’s face  was  pale, with red  blotches on  it.   He  was  a very  old  man, and  in  the light of the   lamp, he  looked half-dead. Grivet’s stupid face was narrow and  he had  round eyes and  thin lips.  Olivier had a small  head on  his  long,  stiff  body.  Suzanne’s face,  with its small  eyes  and  pale  lips,  was soft  and  white.

‘None  of these people seem  alive,’  thought Thérèse. ‘They are  like  ghosts.’

Thérèse found it  difficult to breathe in the  quiet room  and this  terrified her.  She  sometimes had  a feeling that they  were all buried together, deep  under the  ground.

There was  a little bell  on  the  door   of  the   shop.   It  rang

every  time  that a customer entered. Every  Thursday evening, Thérése hoped that a customer would come into   the  shop. She  listened for the  sound of the  shop-bell. When she  heard it,  she  would run  downstairs and  stay  in  the  shop  for as long as possible. The damp air  of the  shop  cooled the  heat of her face  and  hands. She  would   sit  down behind the  counter in her  usual  place, and  forget everything.

Camille was  angry  when his  wife  left  the   sitting-room. After a time, he  would  go to  the  top  of the  stairs  and  shout down to Thérèse.

‘What are  you  doing down there?’ he  would say.  ‘The customer went a long  time  ago.  Come up at once!  Grivet has just  won  another game  and  we need you up here!’

Then Thérèse would  get up slowly  and  return to her  place at the  table in the  sitting-room. She  would  pick  up the  tabby cat  and  hold him   in  her  arms.   At eleven o’clock, the  four visitors would leave the  Passage du   Pont-Neuf. Then Madame Raquin would lock  the  door  of the  shop  and  walk slowly  back up the  stairs.

3

A New  Visitor

Qne Thursday evening, Camille returned from  his  office with a tall  young man who  had  a black beard and  thick

black  hair.

As  usual,   Madame Raquin and  Thérèse were   sitting  in the  shop.

‘Well,  Mother,’ Camille said.  ‘Do you  recognize this  fine young  man?  You used  to give  him bread and  butter when we lived  in Vernon!’

Madame Raquin looked at  the  man  and  shook her head.

A New Visitor                                                                                                                                                                                       A New Visitor

‘No,  Camille. I don’t know this  gentleman,’ she  said. Thérèse stared at the  visitor too.

‘Well,   it’s a long  time since you  saw  him,’   Camille  said

with a laugh. ‘It was twenty years  ago. This is little Laurent, the   son  of  Old   Laurent, the   farmer. Laurent  used  to  go  to school with me  in  Vernon. He  came to  our  house nearly every  day!’

‘I’m sorry  that I  didn’t recognize you!’  Madame Raquin said to the  visitor and  she smiled.  ‘I’m very pleased to see you, Laurent.  Welcome to  our   home.  I   can’t call you   “little Laurent” now.  You are  too  tall!  Sit  down and  tell  me  where you met  Camille.’

‘1   work   at  the   Orleans Railway Station,  here in  Paris,’ Laurent replied with a smile.  He  sat down and  looked around him  happily.

‘We  both  work for  the same company —    the Orleans Railway Company  —  but   I  didn’t see  Laurent until  today,’ said  Camille. ‘The  office  is very  big  and  many people work there.

‘Laurent’s father sent  him away  to  a school to  study  law,’ Camille went on.  ‘But Laurent didn’t want to be a lawyer.  So then he  studied art  and  painted pictures instead. Now  he’s got  a job  at  the  railway company. Laurent is doing very  well there. He  earns one  thousand five  hundred francs a month!’ Camille turned to  Laurent. ‘You must  have dinner with

us,’ he  said.

‘I’d be delighted to dine with you,’ Laurent replied. Madame Raquin went upstairs to  cook the   dinner and

Laurent sat  in the  shop  with Camille and  Thérèse.

Thérèse  stared at  Laurent  without  speaking. Camille’s friend was  tall  and  very  powerful. His  body  looked firm  and strong. He  did  not look  like  her  weak,  pale  husband. Thérèse looked down at  Laurent’s big  hands, then up  to  his  short, broad neck. She  looked at  the  young man’s  round, healthy

face.  She  looked at  his  red  smiling lips  and  his  thick black hair.  Laurent was  the  first  real  man59 that Thérèse had  ever seen.  Her  body  shook with excitement.

‘You  must remember Thérèse,  my  wife,’  Camille  said.

‘She’s my little cousin. She  used  to play  with us in Vernon!’

‘I recognized her  immediately,’ Laurent said,  looking into

Thérèse’s eyes.

Thérèse felt  that Laurent could see  into her  heart.  She smiled, stood up quickly and  went upstairs to help her  aunt.

At dinner, Camille asked  his  friend about his  life in Paris.

‘Well,  at  the  beginning, I told  my father that I wanted to study law,’   Laurent  said with a  smile.  ‘He   paid me  an allowance60 of  one   hundred  francs a  month. But   I  soon stopped studying law and  I began to paint instead. I had  met a friend who  was  an  artist. I  had  been to  school with this artist, who  now  had   a studio in  Paris.   I  was  much happier when I was  painting. But  then my  father found out  that I wasn’t studying law. He refused6l to give me any  more  money.’ Madame Raquin went into the   kitchen to  prepare  tea.

Camille and  Thérèse stared at Laurent in surprise.

‘So did  you  get  work  as an  artist?’  Camille asked.

Laurent  laughed. ‘No.  I’m  afraid that I  didn’t,’ he  said.

‘But I enjoyed myself  for a time.  I stayed  all day in my friend’s studio.  There were  always  lots of beautiful models62 there. My favourite model was  a woman with long  red  hair and  a fine

body.’

Camille’s eyes  and  mouth were  now  wide  open. ‘Did  the model take  some  of her  clothes off?’ he  asked.

‘Yes, she  did,’  Laurent said.  He  looked at  Thérèse as he spoke.  Her  face  had  become extremely pale.

‘But  my  life  as an  artist wasn’t successful,’ Laurent went on.  ‘I couldn’t earn enough money by painting. So I got  a job in  the  railway office   as  a clerk.  It’s  easy  work   and   I make enough money to  buy  food.  I’m glad  that i’m  not a farmer,

A New  Visitor

like  my father! I haven’t seen the  old  man for years.’

Laurent was  lazy63  and  selfish. He  liked  to  eat  good  food, do very  little work  and  make love6 to women. Then he  was completely happy. He  tried not to  smile  as he  looked at  the surprised faces  of Camille and  Thérèse.

Thérèse’s  eyes were like two black  holes  in her pale face. Her mouth was open and she sat completely still.  She  was listening to every  word  that Laurent said.

‘I’ve got  an  idea!’  Laurent said  to  Camille suddenly. ‘I’ll paint your   portrait65.  I’ll  come here for  two   hours every evening. The painting will  be finished in a week.’

Camille was delighted. ‘You can  have  dinner with us every evening, Laurent!’ he  said.  ‘I’ll curl66 my  hair and  wear  my best  coat for  the  portrait.’

It was  now  eight o’clock and  the  Thursday visitors soon arrived to  play   dominoes. Camille  introduced  Laurent to Grivet and  the  Michauds and  then they  all  sat  down round the  table. Laurent was careful. He  behaved well.  He  laughed and  told  stories. He  was soon  everyone’s friend.

The shop-bell rang  once, but Thérèse did  not leave her chair.  She   sat  with the   others,  playing and   talking, until eleven o’clock.

Thérèse did   not  look at  Laurent again, but she   felt uncomfortable and  afraid. Laurent took no  notice of her.

From  that day,  Laurent visited the  Raquins every evening. The Raquins’ sitting-room  was  warm   and  he  always   dined with them.

The young man was  delighted. It was  good  luck  that he had  met  Camille again.  Laurent lived  in a very  small  attic at the  top  of an  old  house. The room was cold  and  he  had  very little money for food.  He  usually  spent the  evenings sitting in a cheap café,  smoking a cigar  and  drinking one  glass of coffee

with brandy67.

24

A New Visitor                                                                                                                                                                              A New  Visitor

Now Laurent had  a new  home and  a comfortable place  to sit  every evening.  He   ate   dinner with the Raquins and enjoyed their company until ten   o’clock. Then  he  walked slowly  home to his  little attic.

One evening, Laurent brought his  easel  and  paints to  the Passage  du  Pont-Neuf. He  prepared his  canvas69 and  started

to  work  on  his  portrait of Camille. Laurent had  decided to paint the  picture in Camille and  Thérèse’s bedroom

‘Good strong light comes through the  window there,’ he said.  ‘The  sitting-room is too  dark.’

Laurent was  a very  bad  artist. He  could not draw  well.  It took him three days  to  draw  Camille’s head. Then,  on  the fourth day, Laurent began to put  paint on  the  portrait. He  put spots  and  short lines  of paint all  over  the  canvas. Laurent’s painting was worse  than his drawing. The paints that he  put on  the  canvas soon  all became a dirty  green colour.

The Raquins had   never seen an  artist  working before. They thought that Laurent was very clever.  Camille was very pleased with the  portrait and  he  did  not know how  bad  it was.

Thérèse  stayed close to  Laurent all   the  time.  Every evening, she  went into the  bedroom and  watched the  young man working. She   sat   very   still and   did   not say  a  word. Laurent noticed all this  and  now  he began to think about his future.

‘Thérèse is a young woman who  needs a lover,’  Laurent said  to  himself on  his  way home one  evening. ‘Her  husband doesn’t please her.  She’s  a passionate woman —  she  has  very strong feelings. Her  eyes  show  this.  And she’s bored in  that shop.  She  likes  me.  One day, she’ll  find  a lover.  Perhaps that lover should be me.  I’ll kiss her and  see what happens.’

Laurent walked on  and  then he  thought again.

‘Thérèse Raquin is not beautiful and  I don’t love  her,’  he

said   to  himself.  ‘But  she   might be  an  interesting  lover However, I must be careful. The Passage  du Pont-Neuf is an awful  place to  live.  But  I enjoy going  there in  the  evenings. The sitting-room  is warm and comfortable  and   Madame

Raquin is a good  cook.   I don’t want to  lose  all  that. I  must think carefully before  I do anything.’

Finally,  Laurent made  a decision he would  try  to seduce Therese.

‘I’ll wait  until we’re  alone,’ he  said  to  himself, ‘and  then I’ll kiss her.  She  won’t tell  her  husband. But  if Camille finds out,  I can  knock him  down and  leave!’

Several  evenings  passed, but   Laurent  could not  kiss

Thérèse. He  was never alone with her.

At last   the   portrait was  finished and   Laurent and   the

Raquin family looked at  it  together. The picture was  very bad,  but  the  Raquins did  not understand that. Laurent had

made  the  painting of Camille’s face  look  very  strange. The

face  was  covered in  green and  brown paint and  the  mouth was twisted71.  It looked like  the  face  of a drowned  man.

But  stupid Camille was delighted. ‘You’ve made  me  look

very  unusual,’  the   vain young man said  to  Laurent.  ‘Now

I’m going   to  buy  two  bottles of champagne and  we  can  all have  a drink together!’

He  ran  downstairs and  out  of  the   shop.   A  few  minutes later,  the  shop-bell rang  and  Madame Raquin went to serve  a customer in  the  shop.

Thérèse stayed in the  bedroom, looking at the  portrait of

Camille. Laurent  was  collecting his  brushes and paints. Seconds passed. Suddenly,  the   young man turned  round.

Thérêse was standing very  close  behind him.

Thérèse  and Laurent  looked at  each other for  a  few moments. Their faces  were  only  inches apart. Then Laurent pulled Thérèse  towards him.   He  put   his  hand in  her   hair

and  pulled her  head back  as he  kissed  her  hard on  the  lips.

26                                                                                                 27

Love

At first,  she  fought him.  She  tried  to push him  away  and hit him.  Then suddenly she  stopped fighting him and  fell  to the  floor.  Neither of  them said  a word.  Their  love-making

was silent and  brutal73. And it  changed their lives  for ever.

4

Love

From the  evening that the  painting was finished, Laurent and  Thérèse made  love  whenever they were  alone. They

felt  as if they  had  been lovers  for years.  Thérèse made  careful plans.  She  could not leave  the  house, so Laurent came  to the Passage  du  Pont-Neuf.

‘We can  meet here, in  my bedroom,’ Thérèse said  calmly.

Then she  pointed at a door across  the  corridor. ‘Behind that door,  there are  some  stone stairs.  They lead  down to  a little alley74 which goes  into  the  arcade. I’ll leave   that door  open for you.’

‘When shall  I come?’  Laurent asked.  He  was surprised by

Thérèse’s behaviour.  She   was  calm and  careful.  She   knew exactly what to do.

‘You must leave your   office   in  the   afternoon,’ Thérèse said   to  her lover.   ‘Madame Raquin  will  be  serving in  the shop   and  Camille will  be  at  work.   Be  careful when you  go into the  alley.  No  one  must  see you.  Come tomorrow.’

The next day,  Laurent told   his  manager at  the   railway office  that he  had  to  leave work  for two  hours. He  walked to the  Passage  du Pont-Neuf and  went towards the  drapers shop. When no  one  was looking, Laurent walked quickly into  the alley  behind the  shop.  He  ran  up the  stone stairs.

The door opened and the   light of  a  lamp shone onto

Thérèse, who  was standing at  the  top  of the  stairs.   She  was

Love                                                                                                                                Love

wearing only  her  white petticoats75. Her  thick black hair  was tied  behind her  head.

As Laurent stepped inside, she  shut  the  door and  put  her

arms  around him.  She  smelt of violets76.

Laurent was amazed.  He  had  never seen  Thérèse like  this before.  She  was strong and  beautiful. Her  eyes shone with the madness of love  and  her  body  shone in the  light.

From   their first  kiss,  Thérèse had   shown Laurent how

passionate she  was. No  one  had  taught her  how  to be a lover, but  she  understood how  to  love  a man.

Thérèse was a married woman, but  her  husband was weak

and  cold.  Camille had  no  desire77 for his  wife.  Now,  with her strong and  passionate lover,  Thérèse’s mind and  body  were awake  for the  first  time.

Laurent had never known a woman  like  Thérése.  She

almost frightened  him. When  Laurent left   Thérèse that afternoon, he  walked like  a drunken78  man.

Laurent decided that he  would not visit  Thérèse again.  It

was too  dangerous. Then he  thought of her  holding out  her arms  to him  and  welcoming him  to her  bed.  He  knew that he could not  keep away   from her. From that  day,  Thérèse became part of Laurent’s life.

Thérése was completely happy and  she  had  no  fear.  She  told Laurent all her  thoughts. She  told  him  everything that had ever  happened to her.

‘I’ve  been unhappy all  my  life,’  Thérése said  one  day.  ‘I

was  a strong and  healthy child. But  I  was  treated like  that weak,  sickly  Camille. My aunt made  me drink his  medicine.

I slept in the  same  room as him.

‘Madame Raquin has  been kind to me,’ Thérèse went on.

‘She looked after  me, when my father could  not.  But  I wanted fresh  air, not hot rooms.  I wanted to run  and  dance and  shout. But  I had  to sit quietly all day, because of Camille. I liked  the

little  house by the  river  at Vernon. I liked  the  river  too.  It was strong  and  powerful, like you.

‘My mother was Algerian,’ she  continued. ‘I’m sure  that she  was a passionate woman. I am passionate too.  You know that now.  But  the   Raquins turned  me  into a silent, stupid thing.  Sometimes  I  was  mad   with anger.   I  often thought about  throwing myself  into  the  river.  I thought about running away from  Vernon. But I did nothing. The  Raquins’ kindness almost destroyed me.  But  then we  came  to  this  dark, damp hole.  We  came to  this  awful  shop.  My mind was dead.’

Thérèse was so excited, that she  had  begun to shout.

‘Don’t  make  so much noise!’  Laurent whispered. ‘Madame

Raquin will  hear you!’

Thérèse laughed, but  she  stopped talking for  a moment and  walked about the  room. Then  she  went up  to  Laurent and  held  his  strong hands in her  two  small  hands.

‘Why  did  I marry  Camille?’ she  said.  ‘He has  never been a real husband to me.  He has  never loved  me like  you do.  I was afraid of you at first.  I could  not show  my feelings.  I waited for you  to  do  something. But  now  I have you —  and  I  love  you! My  heart is  alive. My  mind is  alive. I’m alive!  Madame Raquin can  come up  to this  room. I don’t  care!’

Laurent was not very happy about his visits  to the  Passage du  Pont-Neuf. But  he  returned every afternoon, week  after week.  He had  to see Thérèse and  make  love  to her.  He  could not  stay  away.

Then, one  day  Madame Raquin came  up to  the  bedroom when Laurent was there.

Thérèse had   been upstairs for  three hours and  her  aunt was worried about her.  Laurent heard the  old  lady coming up the  spiral   staircase. He  jumped off  the   bed  and   started to pick  up his  clothes.

Thérèse laughed. She  pushed him   and  his  clothes onto the  end  of the  bed.

Love                                                                                                                                                                                                   Love

Then she  threw the  bedclothes79  and  her  petticoats on  top of him.

‘Stay  there and  don’t move,’ she  said.

Thérèse got  back onto the  bed,  just  as the  door  opened. She  covered her  body  with the  bedclothes and  pretended8° to

be  asleep.

‘Thérèse, my dear,  are you  ill?’ Madame Raquin asked  her

niece kindly.

Thérèse  opened her eyes  slowly and turned  her   head

towards her  aunt.

‘I  have a  terrible headache,’ she  said   in  a  quiet voice.

‘Please  leave me.  I want to sleep.’

Madame Raquin left  the room without saying another word.  The lovers  laughed and  kissed  each other.

‘You see, we’ve nothing to fear,’ Thérèse said.  ‘No one  can

see what is happening between us. They cannot see how  we love  each other!’

On another afternoon, François the  cat  was with them. He  sat  in the  middle of the  bedroom and  watched the  lovers

with his  bright green eyes.

‘Look  at  Francois,’ Thérèse  said.  ‘Do  you  think that he understands? Does  he  know that we are  lovers?  Perhaps he’ll tell  Camille everything this  evening!’

‘Cats  can’t  speak,’  Laurent said  quickly. He  did  not like cats  and  he  was a little afraid of François.

‘How can  you be sure?’ Thérèse said with a laugh.  ‘Think of

all the  stories  that François could  tell  about us! He watches us with  his big green  eyes. He has seen  us make  love many  times.’

Laurent looked at  the  cat  and  felt  afraid.

‘Look,  this   is what Francois will  do,’  Thérèse said.  She stood up and  held up her  hands. She  made  the  noise  of a cat.

‘He’ll  stand on  his  back legs and  point at us with his  feet like  this,’  Thérèse said.  ‘Then he’ll  say, “Laurent and  Thérèse

were  kissing each other in the  bedroom this  afternoon. They thought that I did  not understand, but  I did.  Put  them into prison at once!”

Thérèse  laughed again and   moved her  body   like  a cat.

Francois stared at her with his   green eyes   and Laurent thought that the  cat  was smiling.

Laurent got  up quickly, opened the  door,  and  put  the  cat into  the  corridor. He  was afraid of the  animal and  sometimes a little afraid of Thérèse too.  He  did  not understand her.

Laurent thought that his  life was perfect. Every  afternoon, he made  love  with Thérèse in  the  bedroom above the  drapers shop. Every evening,  he   left   work with his  good friend Camille, and  walked back  to  the  Passage  du Pont-Neuf.

Madame Raquin always  greeted Laurent cheerfully. She

treated him as  her own   son  and   gave  him a  good   dinner every  day.

In  the  evenings, Laurent talked to  Thérèse politely, but she never smiled at him  when they all sat together.

Laurent was  now   the   wife’s  lover,   the   husband’s friend

and  the   mother’s spoilt child.  He  had   everything that he wanted and  he  was part  of the  family too.  He  did  not think

about the  future

he  was enjoying himself too  much.

Thérèse was  nervous about her  affair  with Laurent.  But she was used  to hiding her  feelings. She  had  been hiding her feelings for  most  of her  life.  She  knew that she  and  Laurent were  doing wrong. But  she  enjoyed deceiving8’ Camille and his  mother. When Laurent was  in  the  house, Thérèse’s face became plain and  cold.   She  spoke   to  her  lover rudely.   But when Laurent was not in the  house, Thérèse could show  her happiness. She  sometimes sang  and  she  often laughed.

Thérèse bought flowers   and  put   them in  her   bedroom.

She  put  new  wallpaper on  the  walls.  She  asked  her  aunt for new  carpets and  new  curtains. She  wanted fine  new  furniture.

32                                                                                               33

Love

She  did  all  these things to please Laurent.

‘Camille and  Laurent are good  friends,’ thought Madame

Raquin. ‘I feel  as if I have two  sons,  not one.’

Thérèse’s face  was calm and  still.  But her  mind was full of thoughts of her  lover and  their afternoons of love-making. The young  woman laughed to herself.  She  was happy that she was deceiving her  husband and  her  aunt.

When Camille and   Madame Raquin went downstairs, Thérèse jumped up from  her  chair and  kissed  her  lover  on his lips. When she heard the  Raquins coming back  to the  sitting- room, she  sat  down again. Her  face  became completely still and  calm once again.

On  Thursday evenings, Thérèse talked to  the  visitors and played dominoes cheerfully. Laurent behaved  well  too  and the  others all enjoyed his  company.

As  the  visitors got  ready to  leave, Thérèse and  Laurent whispered together. They made  plans  for their next meeting. Sometimes they  were  alone for a few seconds and  she  kissed him.

This life  of  passion and   calm lasted for  eight months. Thérèse was  never bored. She  no  longer felt  cold  and  dead inside. And Laurent was happy and  well-fed.

5

Saint-Quen

One afternoon,  Laurent’s manager spoke to  the   young

man angrily.

‘You’ve  been spending too   much  time away   from the office,’  the  manager said.  ‘We  pay  clerks  to  work,  not to  go

out every  afternoon. You must  stay  in the  office  all day. If you leave  your  desk  again, you’ll  lose  your  job.’

Laurent was going  to  see  Thérèse that afternoon, but  he did not want to lose his job.  He  needed the  money.   He  knew

that his   father  would not  give him an  allowance  now. Laurent did  not move from  his  desk  all day.

In  the  evening, he  went quickly to  the  Passage du  Pont Neuf.  Thérése looked at  him  angrily, but  he  was not able  to

speak  to  her  alone for some  time. When Laurent was alone with  Thérèse for a few minutes, he  spoke  to her  quietly.

‘We can’t  meet again!’ Laurent whispered. ‘My manager won’t  let  me  leave  the  office.’

Then  Camille came back into  the   room and   Laurent could not say anything more.

Therese did  not  sleep  that night. She  lay in the  bed beside

Camille and  tried to  think of a plan. On  Thursday, she  told

Laurent when she  wanted to see him,  but  he  did  not come.

Two  weeks   passed. Thérèse  had only   one   thought in  her mind  —  she  wanted to be alone with Laurent again.

Laurent was like  a wild  animal in a cage.  He  was half-mad because he could not hold Thérèse. Laurent loved  her  and  he ccould not live without her.  He  had  never felt  like  this  before.  His desire for Thérèse was very  strong. He  needed her  in  the

S ame waythat he  needed food  and  drink. He  could not go to

The Passage du  Pont-Neuf in  the evenings now.   He  was

Saint-Ouen                                                                                                                                                                                      Saint-Ouen

frightened that he  would show his  feelings. He  thought that Camille and his  mother would find out about his  affair with Thérèse.

Then Thérèse wrote to  Laurent. She told him to  stay  at

home the next evening. She would come to  his  room at  eight o’clock.

The next  afternoon, Laurent spoke to  Camille as  they

were  leaving the  office  of the  Orleans Railway Company.

‘I’m sorry,  my friend,’ he  said.  ‘But  I’m very  tired. I think that I’ll go home. I will  not dine with you  tonight.’

Thérèse told  Madame Raquin that she  had  to go out.

‘A lady  bought several things this  morning but  she  didn’t pay for all of them,’  Thérèse said.  ‘I know where the  customer lives,  so I’m going  to her  house. I’ll get  the  money.  I’ll be out for about two  hours, I think.’

Madame Raquin did not like  losing  money.  ‘Very well,  my

dear,’ she  said  to Thérèse. ‘But be careful. You don’t  go out  in the  evenings very  often.’

Therèse put  on her  coat,  hat  and  gloves  and  went towards the  house where Laurent lived.  She  walked quickly, pushing people out  of her  way. Thérése’s face  and  hands were  very hot and  she  walked like  a drunken woman.

Thérèse ran   up  the   stairs of  the   house where Laurent lived. When she  reached the  sixth floor,  she  was  breathing very fast.  Laurent was standing there, waiting for her.  Thérèse ran  into the  attic and  her  wide  skirts  almost filled  the  little room. She  took off her  hat and  fell  onto the bed.

The little attic had   a  skylight82   in  the roof.   The  cold evening air  came in  through the   window and   cooled the room  and  the  two  lovers. They stayed together until the  bell of  a church clock rang ten times. Thérèse wished that  she had  not heard it.  She  got  up slowly,  found her  hat and  put  it on.  Then she  sat  down on  the  bed  again. Laurent knelt on

the  floor  in front of her.

‘1   must go,’  Thérèse said.   ‘Goodbye.’  But  she  did  not move.

‘Don’t  just   say  goodbye.  Tell  me  when you  are  coming back,’  said  Laurent.

Thérèse looked into her  lover’s  eyes.  ‘I don’t think that I

can  come back,’  she  said.

‘So we must say goodbye for ever?’  Laurent asked  quietly.

‘I  don’t want to  say goodbye,’ Thérèse replied. Then she repeated, ‘I must  go.’

Laurent thought about Camille, but  he  did  not want to say his  name.

‘I  don’t dislike him,   but  he  is a problem,’ Laurent  said.

‘Why  can’t he  go away? Can’t you  send  him  on  a journey?’

‘A journey?’ Thérèse said  sadly.  ‘Camille will  never leave the  Passage  du Pont-Neuf. He  will never leave  home until he goes  on  his  last  journey —    the   journey that no  one   comes back  from.  You know  what I  mean. But he’ll  live  longer than all of us. Sickly people always  live  the  longest.’

‘I want to spend the  whole night with you,’  said  Laurent.

‘I want to  sleep  with you  every night. I want to  be with you

forever. I want to be your  husband.’

Thérèse kissed  Laurent and  then she  began to cry.

‘Help  me  to  be strong!’ Thérèse cried. ‘Say that you  love me and  that one  day we’ll be together. Please  tell  me that you need  me!’

‘1  do need you.  Come back  tomorrow,’ Laurent said.

‘That is not possible,’  Thérèse replied. ‘But perhaps I’ll tell Camille everything and  then I’ll  leave  him.   I’ll come back here  and  live  with you.  I  don’t care  what people say  about me.  I want you  to be happy.’

Laurent began to  think more  clearly.   Thérèse could not live  with him in  his  little attic. It was too  small.  And if she left  the  Passage du  Pont-Neuf, he   could never visit the

Raquins again.

36                                                                                              37

Saint-Quen                                                                                                                                                                                           Saint-Quen

Laurent spoke  slowly.  ‘If your  husband was dead,  we could

be happy together.’

‘If

...

if he  was dead,’  Thérèse repeated. She  looked down

at her  lover.  Her  eyes  looked very  dark  in her  pale  face.

‘Sometimes, people die  suddenly,’  she  said.   ‘But  there might be  a problem for the  family  later.’

‘I’m not stupid,’ Laurent said  quickly. ‘I want to live  with

you and  love  you  in peace. Perhaps your  husband could have an accident. People  have accidents every  day. But we must  be

careful. I’ll think of a plan.’

They both stood up  and Thérèse  walked to  the door.

Laurent put  his  arms  around her.

‘You are  mine, aren’t you?’ he  said.  ‘You belong to  me?’

‘Yes, I belong to you.  Do what you  like  with me,’ Thérèse

replied.

They  stood there silently for  a moment. Their love  for each other was  wild   and   dangerous. Then  Thérèse pulled herself away  from  Laurent’s arms  and  ran  down the  stairs.

Laurent lay down on  the  bed  again. The bedclothes were

warm  and  smelt of violets. He  lay on his  back and  looked up through the skylight at  the  square of dark blue  sky. He  did not  sleep that  night.  Before Thérèse’s visit, he  had not thought of  killing Camille. Now,   because of  his  desire  for Thérèse, he  could only think  of  killing her husband. He thought about what could go wrong. He  thought about what would happen to Thérèse and  himself. He  thought about his

father.

‘Perhaps my father will live for another ten  years,’ Laurent

said   to  himself. ‘And when he   dies,   I  might not get  his money.  I can’t go  on  living in  this   room, working in  the office,  and  living on  cheap food  for ever.  But  if Camille  was dead,  I could marry  Thérèse. Madame Raquin would  call  me

her son  and  I’d get  her  money. And I  might get  my father’s money too,  when he  is dead.’

Laurent wanted Thérèse.  He  did   not want to  share83

Thérèse with her  husband, Camille. If Camille disappeared, Laurent could become Therese’s husband. Camille must be killed. But  no  one  must  know who  had  killed him.

‘I must  kill  him.  I must  kill  him,’  Laurent said  to  himself again  and  again, until he  fell  asleep.

Thérése got   home  at  eleven o’clock. She could not remember getting back to  the   Passage du  Pont-N euf.  She felt  cold and   very   ill.  Madame Raquin and   Camille  were worried about her,  but  Thérèse would  not answer any of their questions.

Thérése’s body  shook with cold   and  fear  when she  got into  bed  with Camille. He  fell  asleep at  once and  lay there with  his  mouth open. Thérèse hated him.   Camille was  her husband and  she  wished that he  was dead.

Three weeks  passed.  Once again, Laurent started visiting the shop  every  evening. Madame Raquin welcomed him  as usual, but  she  said  that he  looked tired. Thérèse did  not speak  to Laurent. She  made  herself look  as ugly and  stupid as Camille. Madame Raquin was worried by the  girl’s silence.

‘Take  no  notice of  Thérèse’s cold behaviour,’  the   old

woman said   to  Laurent one day.   ‘Sometimes,  she   is  not friendly, but  she  has  a warm  heart.’

The lovers did  not make plans to meet each other. Their faces were  calm, but  their hearts were  full  of anger and  fear. They could not speak  to each other about their true  feelings

— feelings of murder and  desire.

Sometimes, when they were  alone, Laurent and  Thérèse held  each other’s hands for  a moment. They held hands so tightly,  that they  hurt each other. But  they  did nothing more. They were  waiting.

One Thursday evening, Old  Michaud, the  retired police commissioner, began to  talk  about unsolved crimes84.

38                                                                                                39

Saint-Ouen                                                                                                                                                                                              Saint-Quen

‘I  could tell  you  about some   terrible crimes —    including

—

murder that are still  unsolved,’ the  old  man said

‘Do you mean that there are killers  walking in the  streets?’ Grivet  cried. ‘Are  there murderers who  have never been caught?’

‘They have not been caught, because no  one  knows that they are  murderers,’ Olivier said.  ‘We  try  to  find  them, but the  police can’t  catch everyone. There are  some  murderers who  will  never be caught. Their crimes will  never be solved. These murderers are  too  clever.’

Laurent and  Thérèse listened to  this   conversation, but they did  not say  anything.  They looked at  each other and Thérèse shook with fear.

Sometimes, on  Sundays, when the  weather was fine,  Camille made Thérèse walk  with him along the  wide  streets of Paris. The stupid young man liked people to  look  at  his  beautiful wife.  But  Thérèse hated going out  with her husband.

Madame Raquin was  always  worried when Thérèse and Camille left  the   Passage du  Pont-Neuf. She   would follow them slowly  to  the  end  of the  arcade and  then call  out,  ‘Be careful! There is a lot  of traffic85 in Paris  these days.  So many people have accidents. Look  where you  are  going!’

Then the  old  woman would walk  very  slowly  back to  the

shop and she   would worry until  Camille  and Thérèse returned.

Laurent began to  go with Thérèse and  Camille on  these Sunday walks.   Sometimes, the  three of them left  Paris  and found a café  on  the  banks of the  Seine. They would have a meal  and  walk  by the  water.

Thérèse loved  to walk  by the  River  Seine. She  loved  to sit

on  the   grass  and  put  her  hand in  the   water. She   loved to breathe the  warm,  sweet  air.

One Sunday in the  autumn,  Camille,  Thérèse  and

Laurent left  the  arcade at eleven o’clock.  On  this  day, the  sky

was  blue and the sun   was  warm. Laurent,  Camille and

Thérèse were  going  on  a longer visit.   They rode   in  a cab86 across   Paris   and   then  they walked to  Saint-Ouen. When they  reached this  small  town to  the  north of Paris,  Camille and  Thérèse walked along the  warm, dusty  road  beside the River Seine. Camille had  one  hand on  his  wife’s arm.  In his other hand, he  held a parasol87 over  Thérèse’s head. Laurent walked  behind them. Sometimes he  looked down at the  road. Sometimes he  looked at his  lover.

The  three young people walked along one  bank of  the river.  Then they went over a little bridge to  a small   island and  looked for a comfortable place  to sit down.  They found a quiet place, where grass  was  growing under tall  trees.   Red leaves had fallen from   the  trees. The  leaves made a  dry, crunching noise as the  young people walked over them. The island  was  quiet and  peaceful. The cool  green water of the river  flowed round and  past  the  island.

Camille sat down on  the  soft grass. Thérèse dropped down onto the  ground and  her  wide  skirts  spread round her  in a big

circle.  Laurent lay on his stomach and  looked at Thérèse. He

could  just  see one  of her  legs beneath her  wide  skirts.  Her  leg was  slim  and   beautiful, with its  white stocking and   black

shoe.

three of  them —    Laurent, Camille and Thérèse

—

stayed   on   the   island for  three  hours. They waited for  the cool  of the  evening.

At first  Camille told  the  others silly stories, but  at last,  he fell asleep. He  lay on  the  ground, with his  hat over his  eyes and  his  mouth wide  open.

Laurent moved closer to Thérèse. He  kissed  her  shoe  and then her leg.  Thérèse smelt of  violets and desire burned through Laurent’s body  like  fire.  He  wanted to hold his  lover in his arms,  but  he  could not. Camille might wake  up.

41

Saint-Ouen

Laurent thought that Thérèse was  asleep. He  stood  up, went over  to  a tree  and  leant against it.   Then he  saw  that Thérèse was  not  asleep, her black eyes  were   wide open. Laurent stared down at her,  but  she  did  not look  at him.

Laurent  looked at  Camille. The silly,  weak   young man

looked ugly  and  stupid and  Laurent hated him.  He  lifted his foot above  Camille’s face  and  Thérèse gave  a cry. Laurent put his  foot  back on  the  ground. It  would   be  stupid to  murder Camille like  that.  Laurent walked down to  the  fast-flowing river  and  stared at the  water. Then suddenly, he  had a plan.

‘I can murder Camille and   never be  caught,’ Laurent thought. ‘Then I’ll be able  to  enjoy the  rest  of my  life with Thérèse. My plan is perfect!’

Laurent woke  his sleeping friend and  told  him  to stand up. Thérèse stood up  too   and   shook the   red   leaves from   her dress.

‘Let’s go  and  get  something to  eat.  I’m hungry,’ Laurent

said.

They left  the   island and  walked along little  roads   that were  full  of  happy, laughing people. The  sun  was  not  so bright now and the  air  was  getting  cooler. Camille  and Laurent walked together  and  Thérèse  walked more slowly behind them. She  was sure  that Laurent had  a plan and  she felt very  frightened. Thérèse’s legs shook and  she  felt  weak.

‘Come on!’   Camille shouted to  Thérèse. ‘I’m  hungry. Aren’t you?’

‘Yes,’ Thérèse replied, but  she  was not  hungry. She  was too frightened.

They soon found a cheap little café  on  the   river bank. The  lower   floor   of  the   café  was  full  of  customers,  so  they went upstairs to  a terrace88.

The Accident

6                                            Don’t  worry.  I’ll do everything.’

Thérèse’s face  became very  pale.  She  could not move.

Therese

The Accident

Laurent and Camille sat  on   the  terrace and

‘Thérèse is frightened,’ Camille said with a laugh.  ‘Look at her,  Laurent! Will she  get  in  the  boat or not?’

Camille’s words   made Thérèse  angry.   She   jumped into

looked down at  the  many people below them. Waiters were  running about, serving customers with food  and  wine. Girls wearing brightly-coloured  dresses were   dancing and shouting. There were  some  students who  were  watching the girls  and  laughing at  them.

The sun was setting now  and  the  sky was as red  as fire.  Far away,  the  hills  above the  city  were  blue.

Laurent started to call  for a waiter, but then he  stopped.

‘Why  don’t we go for  a boat-trip89 on  the  river?’  Laurent said  suddenly to  Camille. ‘Then we  can  come back and  eat here later.’

‘Thérèse is hungry now,’  Camille said.

‘I can  wait,’  his  wife  replied quietly.

The  three friends walked down the  steps  of  the   terrace and  spoke to  a waiter. They ordered their meal and  told  him that they would  return in an  hour.

The owner of the  café  hired out9° boats. Laurent chose a very  narrow  rowing-boat9’ and   the   café-owner untied the rope  that held it  to the  river bank.

Camille and  Thérèse looked at the  boat.

‘Is this  boat big enough for all of us?’ Camille said.  ‘We’ll have to sit  very  still,  or one  of us will  fall  in!’

‘Are  you frightened?’ Laurent asked, laughing.

‘No,  of course not,’  Camille replied.

But  Camille could not swim  and  he  was  afraid of water. He got  into  the  little  boat very  carefully and  sat at the  far end of it.   Laurent turned towards Thérèse. As  she  stood on  the bank beside the  boat, he  whispered to her.

‘Don’t be  afraid.  I’m  going to  push   him   into the   river.

the  boat and  sat  at  the  opposite end  to Camille. Laurent sat down  in the  middle of the  boat and  picked up the  oars.  As he pulled the   oars,   the   boat moved away  from   the   bank and towards some  small  islands. Soon the  boat was in the  middle of the  River Seine.

The sun  was very  low now  and  the  sky was getting dark. The  black shadows of the  trees  fell  across  the  water.   It  was

colder  too.  Laurent stopped rowing and  the  fast-flowing river moved the  boat along. Laurent, Camille and  Thérèse sat  in silence as the  sky and  the  river became darker.

Camille was  lying  on  his  back.  He  put  his  hand into the fast-flowing water of  the   Seine.  ‘That’s cold!’ he  said.   ‘I

wouldn’t like  to fall  in there!’

Laurent did  not answer. He  was  sitting completely still, with   his  big  hands on  his  knees. Thérèse  sat  at  the   other end  of the  boat. Her  body  was stiff  with fear.

Now  their boat was moving into a narrow space  between two  of  the   small   islands. There  were  no  other boats   here. Laurent stood up  and  moved to  the   end  of  the  boat where

Camille was sitting. He  put  his  hands on  Camille’s waist.

‘What are  you  doing?’  the  young man said,  laughing. ‘Be careful, Laurent! I shall  fall  into the  water!’

Then Camille saw the  cold,  cruel  expression on  Laurent’s face  and  he  was  terrified. Laurent put  one  hand around the weak  young man’s  throat. Camille shouted out.

‘Help  me!  Thérèse!’

Thérèse sat  very  still.  She  held onto the  sides  of the  boat with  both of her  hands. She  wanted to shut  her  eyes,  but  she could  not. The little boat moved from  side  to side.

44                                                                                                45

The Accident

‘Thérèse!’ Camille cried out  again.

Thérèse could not watch what was  happening. She  felt shocked and  ill.  She  fell  down into the  bottom of the  boat and  began to cry.

Camille held the  sides  of  the   boat tightly, but   Laurent

pulled  his  hands away. Then he  picked up Camille and  held the  weak  young man  like  a child. As  Laurent bent his  head forward, Camille  bit  him   on  his  neck. With a cry  of  pain, Laurent threw Camille into  the  water.  Camille screamed two or three times, as his  head came   up  out  of the  water. Then there  was silence.

Laurent  moved quickly. He  took hold of  Thérèse  and

pushed the  narrow rowing-boat over.  As the  boat rolled over, Laurent and  Thérèse fell  into the  cold  water.

‘Help!  Help!’ Laurent shouted loudly.

Laurent was  strong and  a good  swimmer. He  was  in  no danger.  He  easily  held Thérèse in his  arms  as he  swam  to the the river  bank. Some  men  in another boat  heard his cries  and they rowed  towards Laurent and  Thérèse as fast as they  could.

Laurent  and Thérése  were soon safely on the  bank. Thérèse had fainted92  but   Laurent jumped into the   water again.   He  began to  look  for  Camille. He  looked under the rowing-boat and  around it. But  he  was careful to  look  in the wrong  places. Laurent came  back  to  the  river bank alone.

‘It  was  my  fault93!’  Laurent cried. ‘My  friend Camille moved in  the   boat too  much. Then he  stood up!  I should have   stopped him. He  didn’t understand  the   danger. The boat  turned over.  As Camille fell  into  the  water,  he called out to me.  “Help my Thérèse!” he  shouted.’

‘Yes, we saw  it all!’ some  of the  young men said.

This  was not true.  The  young  men  had  not  seen  anything, but  they  wanted to  feel  important. They helped Laurent  to turn his  rowing-boat over  again so  that it lay  safely  in  the Water once more.

‘Help me!  Thérèse!’                                                                                                                47

The Accident                                                                                                                                                                                     The Accident

‘The  poor  woman has fainted,’ said one  of the  young  men, looking at Thérèse. ‘Someone must look  after her.’

The young men tied  the  narrow rowing-boat to their own

boat and  pulled Laurent and  Thérèse back  to  the  café.  Very soon, everyone  in  Saint-Ouen  knew about the accident. They knew that Laurent’s friend —  Thérèse’s husband —  had fallen into the  river and  disappeared.

The young men described the  accident exactly as Laurent

had  told   them the   story.  Everyone thought that the  young men had seen the accident  and so  everyone believed Laurent’s story.  The owner of the  café  and  his wife were  kind people. They gave  Laurent some  dry  clothes. Thérèse could not stop  crying and  shaking and  they put  her into a bed.

Laurent left  Thérèse in  Saint-Ouen and   went back to Paris  alone. He  wanted to  tell  Madame Raquin the  terrible news   himself. He  did  not want Thérèse to  tell   Camille’s mother. He  wanted Thérèse to become calm  and  think more clearly.

‘Thérèse will  say too  much,’ he  thought. ‘She  might make

a mistake and  tell  Madame Raquin the  truth.’

Laurent went back  into  Paris  on  an omnibus94.  As he rode back into the  city,  he  thought of the  story  that he  was going to  tell  Madame Raquin. He  was  a little worried, but he  was happy too.  Laurent was  sure  that  people would believe his story.  It had  been a perfect murder. No  one  would ever  know the  truth.

Laurent got  off the  omnibus when it reached Paris.  Then he took a  cab  to  Old   Michaud’s house. Laurent  had decided that he  did  not want to  tell  Madame Raquin about Camille’s death himself. It  would  be safer  to have Michaud with him.

It was now  nine o’clock in the  evening and  Michaud wa having dinner with Olivier and  Suzanne. Laurent told  them

his  terrible story.  He  pretended to be shocked and  unhappy.

He  wept  as he  walked up  and  down the  Michauds’ dining- room.

‘I’ve come to you  for help,’  Laurent said  with tears  in  his

eyes.  ‘You are  the  Raquins’ closest friends. Those two  poor women! Thérèse  is suffering95 already. Madame Raquin will suffer  too,   when she  hears the   terrible news   of  her  son’s death. I don’t know what Madame Raquin will  do.  Please come  with me,  so that we can  tell  her  together.’

Olivier stared at  Laurent but   he  said  nothing. Laurent suddenly felt  a little afraid  of the  police official. But  Olivier believed Laurent’s story.

‘Oh,  poor Camille!’ Old  Michaud cried. ‘What a terrible accident!  How  will  Madame Raquin  live  without her son? She  loved Camille so much!

‘You came to  us,’  the   old  man went on.   ‘That was  the right  thing to do. We  are Madame’s friends.  We’ll go with you at once.’

They went together to  the  Passage  du  Pont-Neuf. When they  arrived at  the  arcade, Old  Michaud stopped Laurent.

‘Wait here,’  the  old  man  said.  ‘If Madame Raquin sees you without Camille and  Thérèse, she’ll   know that something terrible has  happened. Wait here for us.’

Laurent waited for half  an hour. He  walked up and  down the  damp,  narrow street outside the  drapers shop.  Suddenly, he felt very hungry. He  went into  a bakers  shop,  bought some cakes  and  ate  them quickly.

In  the   little  drapers shop, Madame Raquin listened  to Old  Michaud tell  the  story  of her  son’s death. She  screamed and  wept.   The mother thought only of  her  poor son  who had  drowned in  the  fast-moving water of  the  River Seine. She  had  saved  his  life  so  many times when he  had  been  a child.  And now  he  had  died  without her.  He had  drowned in cold  dirty  water. As  she  thought about it,   Madame Raquin wanted to die  too.

48                                                                                                                                    49

The Accident                                                                                                                                                                                       The Accident

Old Michaud  and   Olivier left   Suzanne with  the  old woman and  went to find  Laurent. Then the  three men took a cab  back  to Saint-Ouen. The journey was terrible for all of them and  no  one  spoke.

In  the  café  by the  river  bank, Thérèse could not get  out  of bed.  Her  body  was shaking and  her  skin  was burning hot.  She had  a fever.  Thérèse was terrified that she  might confess96 to the  murder. So she  had  made  herself ill. Her  mouth and  eyes were  tightly shut and  her  body  was  curled in  the  bed  like  a baby.

In  her  mind, Thérése could see  her  lover,   Laurent. She could see him  murdering her  husband, Camille. It was like  a terrible  dream. She   saw  the   murder happening  again and again.  She  thought that she could  see Camille rising  up out  of the  dirty water and  coming towards her.

Old  Michaud tried to  talk  to Thérèse, but  she  turned her face  away  and  began to weep  again.

‘Let her  sleep,  sir,’ the  café  owner said.  ‘She  needs to rest.’ In the  café,  a police officer  was asking  questions about the accident. When Olivier told the officer that  he  was  an

important police official, no  one  asked  any  more questions.

Several people said   that  they had seen the accident happen.  But they  were only  repeating  Laurent’s  lies. Everyone believed Laurent’s story.  He  was  not going to  be accused of any  crime. He  had nothing to  fear  now,  and  he knew this.

‘We can’t leave poor Thérèse here,’ Laurent said  to  the

Michauds. ‘We  must take her back to  Paris  with  us.’ Laurent went upstairs to talk  to Thérèse. He  repeated her

name several times. When Thérèse heard her lover’s  voice,

she  gave  a cry  and  opened her  eyes.  She  looked terribly  ill, but  she  sat  up and  looked at Laurent.

The  café-owner’s wife  helped Thérèse to  get  dressed.

Then Thérèse walked slowly  downstairs and  Olivier helped her  into  the  cab.

On the  way  home, no  one  spoke. It  was  dark inside the cab  and  Laurent  held Thérèse’s hand  tightly. Thérèse  was

very frightened and  she sat very still.  But she did not  take  her hand away.  When the   cab  stopped, Laurent whispered to Thérése.

‘Be strong, Thérèse,’ he  said.  ‘Remember. We  have a long time  to wait.’

‘Oh,  I’ll remember,’ she  replied quietly.

Laurent went with her  to the  shop  and  left her  there with Olivier. Madame Raquin was in her  bedroom where Suzanne had  been looking after  her.  Suzanne came   down the   stairs and took Thérèse up to her  own  bedroom. The young widow fell onto her  bed  and  lay still.

It was now  after  midnight. Laurent walked back  through the  empty streets to  the  house where he  lived.   Everything had  gone  well  and  he  felt  pleased with himself. Camille was dead  and  no  one  thought that he  had  been murdered.

‘Everything is perfect,’ Laurent said  to himself. ‘I’ve killed Camille but  no  one  knows  that I’m his murderer. Now  I must wait   for  a  few  months and live   alone. Then I can marry

Thérèse and  we can  begin our  new  life  together.’

Laurent felt  very  tired as he  walked up  the  stairs.   When he reached his  little attic room, he  lay down on  his  bed  and fell asleep  at once. The murderer slept well  that night.

7

The Morgue

The  next day, Laurent woke  up feeling very cheerful. Only one   thing was  troubling him. The place on  his  neck where Camille’s teeth  had   broken the   skin   was  sore.   The bite-mark was red  and  it was very  painful. Laurent  washed off the  blood and  turned up  the   collar of his  shirt to  hide the mark.  Then he  put  on  his  suit  and  necktie and  went to  his office  as usual.  He  told  everyone in  the  railway office  about Camille’s death  and  how   it  had happened. The story   was

reported in all  the  Paris  newspapers. Laurent was a hero.

Laurent was  only  worried about one   thing.  Camille’s body had  not been found and  so a death  certificate97 could not be signed.  If the  body  of a dead  person was found,  it was taken to the  Paris  Morgue. The  corpse was  kept in  this  cold,   damp building for several days.  People went to the  morgue to see if the  dead   body  of  a friend or  relation had   been found in  a street or  the  River Seine. The morgue was a horrible place, but   Laurent now   went there  every day.  He  was  sure  that Camille’s body  would soon be found in the  river.

The dead   bodies lay on  huge  blocks of stone, with cold water running over  them. There was a wall  of glass between the  corpses and  the  people who  came  to look  at  them.

Every  day, Laurent moved slowly  along the  glass wall.  He looked carefully at all the  bodies of the  people who  had  been found in  the  river,  but  he  could not see Camille.

Laurent began to have bad  dreams because of his  visits  to the  morgue. He  went there every day for more than a week, and  every  night he  had  dreams. Then, on  the  tenth day, he saw Camille’s body  there. It was lying  on one  of the  cold,  wet blocks of stone

When he  saw Camille’s body,  a terrible pain went through Laurent’s heart. The drowned man’s  eyes  were  open and  he seemed to be looking at his  murderer.

For  more than five  minutes, Laurent stared at  his  dead friend. Camille had been in  the  water for some  time and  his corpse was a horrible sight.  His  face  was still  smooth, but  his skin  was brown and  green. Camille’s body  had many terrible green and  black wounds on  it.  His  head was  twisted to  one side  and  his  black lips seemed to be smiling.

Laurent turned away  and  left  the  morgue quickly. He  felt sick.

‘I  made   Camille like  this,’  Laurent said  to  himself.  ‘I’ve

never seen  a more  horrible sight. I  thank God that I  won’t have to see his  corpse again!’

Laurent went to Old  Michaud, and  told  the  retired Police Commissioner what he  had  seen. No   one thought that Camille had been murdered. They did  not believe  that  a crime had  been committed. They believed that Camille had died in  a  terrible  accident.  So  the officials at  the  Paris Morgue wrote and  signed a death certificate and  Camille’s body  was buried.

Laurent thought that he  could stop  worrying. Now he

could forget about the  murder! He  decided to enjoy himself. He  began to  look  forward to  the  future.

After the  death of Camille, the  drapers shop  in  the  Passage du  Pont-Neuf was  closed for  three days.  Madame Raquin and  Thérèse stayed in their beds  for  two  days.  They did  not speak   and   they did  not see  each other. Suzanne Michaud looked after  the  two  women. But  she  could do  very  little to help them.

Camille’s death  had  been terrible for  Madame Raquin. For  twenty-four years,  she  had looked after   her  sickly   son.

Because of  her   care,   Camille had   not died  when he  was  a

child. Then,  in  a few  minutes, the  young man had been taken away  from  his  mother. Sometimes the  old  woman sat up in her  bed  and  stared at the  walls  of her  room.  She  did not speak  and  her  face  looked like  a pale  corpse. At other times, she screamed and  wept. Sometimes she  called out  Camille’s name as she  slept.

Thérèse lay  in  her bed,   stiff and silent.  Her face   was always turned towards the  wall  and  she pulled the  bedclothes over  her  eyes.  She  did  not speak  and  she  did  not weep.  On the  third day, Thérèse suddenly sat up in her  bed.  After a few seconds, she  threw off the  bedclothes and  got  out  of the  bed.

At  first her  legs were  weak  and  she  could  not stand. Then

she  slowly  walked towards a mirror98 which was  on  the  wall and  looked at  her  face.  Her  pale   skin  was  blotchy and  she looked much older.

Thérèse pulled her  hair away  from  her  face  and   tied   it behind her head. Then  she   dressed quickly and went  to Madame Raquin’s bedroom. The old  woman turned her  head and   looked at  her niece. Then she  held out   her arms   to Thérèse and  kissed  her.

‘My poor child! My poor  Camille!’ she  said.

Madame Raquin began to weep  loudly.  Thérèse knelt on the  floor and  hid  her  face  in her  aunt’s  bedclothes. She  stayed completely still  for  a few  minutes. Thérèse had   been very

afraid of her  first meeting with the  old woman, but  all seemed

to be going  well.  She  stood up and  spoke  to Madame Raquin for the  first  time.

‘My dear aunt, you  must  try  to  get  up,’ Thérése said  in  a quiet voice. ‘Everyone is very  worried about you.  You’ll feel better if you   go  into the shop again.’ At this moment, Suzanne Michaud came  into the  bedroom.

‘Suzanne and  I  are  here to  help you,’  said  Thérèse. ‘You have  your  other friends too.  Let  me get you something to eat flow.’

54                                                                                                   55

The Morgue                                                                                                                       The Morgue

Madame Raquin stared at  Thérèse and   then she  began weeping again. When  she  spoke,  the   old  woman sounded like  a child.

‘Thank you,  thank you,’  she  said  to Suzanne. ‘Thank you

for  looking after me.  And you,   my  dear Thérèse!  You’re unhappy too.  I’ve lost  my son,  but  you’ve  lost  your  husband! We   must always   stay  together now.  We  must always   help

each other.’

That  evening, Madame Raquin got  out  of bed.  Her  legs felt  very  weak.  She  had  to use  a stick  to help her  to walk.

The next day,  she  told  Thérèse to open the  shop.

‘I’ll go mad  if I stay  in bed  another day,’ Madame Raquin said  in a weak  voice.  ‘We’ll sit together in the  shop  again,  my

dear  Thérèse. We  must  try  to  live.’

When  the shop opened again, it  seemed darker and damper than  before. The  windows were   dirty and   all  the

goods  looked dirty  too.

Every  morning, Madame Raquin walked slowly  down the

spiral  staircase. Then Thérèse helped the  old  woman to her seat  behind the   counter. Madame Raquin and  Thérèse  sat there all  day.  They did  not move. People walked past   the shop   and saw  Thérèse’s calm, pale   face   as  she   sat  at  the

counter.  Everyone felt  sorry  for  the   young widow and  her old  aunt, Madame Raquin.

Every  two  or three days,  Laurent visited the  drapers shop  in the  Passage  du  Pont-Neuf. He  came  in  the  evenings and  sat in  the  shop  with Madame Raquin for half an  hour.  The old

lady welcomed him.  Laurent had  been brave at the  river.  He had  tried to help her  son  and  he  had  saved  her niece. During his  visits, Laurent did  not look at Thérèse or speak to her.

Laurent was  in  the  shop   at  eight o’clock one  Thursday

evening when the  Thursday visitors arrived. They had  not

met  together since Camille’s death.

Madame Raquin was surprised to see her  friends, but  she lit  the   lamp   in  the   sitting-room and   began to  make tea. Everyone sat  round the   table. But  when Grivet  took the dominoes out  of their box,  the  old  lady  began to cry.

‘My dear  lady, you mustn’t cry,’ Old  Michaud said.  ‘You’ll become ill and  you’ll  upset your  friends too.’

But Madame Raquin shook  her head and  went  on weeping. Old  Michaud spoke  again.

‘Madame,’ he  said.   ‘We’ve  come here to  help you.  We want   to  help you  to  forget this   terrible time. Let’s  play  a game  of dominoes!’

Madame Raquin decided that the old man was right. She continued crying, but she began to play dominoes with her friends.

Laurent and Therese watched and listened but they said
nothing. Laurent wanted everything to  continue as  it had before  Camille’s death. He  wanted to meet the  same  friends at  the   shop.  He  wanted  to  play   dominoes with them on Thursday evenings. It made  him  feel safe. When other people were  in the  room, he  was able  to  look  at Thérèse again.

Thérèse was  dressed in  black clothes. The young widow looked very   beautiful.  Sometimes she  looked calmly into Laurent’s eyes.  Laurent was happy. Thérèse still  belonged to him.

Fifteen months  passed. As  the   days  went by,  Laurent  and Thérèse began to feel  safe.  Soon, Laurent was coming to the shop  every  evening after  he  finished work.  But  some  things

had  changed. Laurent now  arrived at  about half past  nine

after  dinner. He  stayed until Madame Raquin locked the shop.  On Thursday evenings, Laurent went to  the   sitting room  before  Madame Raquin’s other guests  arrived and  he  lit the  fire  in  the   stove.  He  looked after   the   old  woman and did little things to help her.

—

56                                                                                                                                     57

The Morgue                                                                                                                                                                                                      The Morgue

Thérèse  watched Laurent carefully. The  young woman was more  cheerful now.  But  sometimes her  pale  face  had  an expression of pain and  terror.

Madame Raquin was  not  thinking  clearly. The  lovers could have done what they liked and  she  would not have known. But  the  lovers  never tried to be  alone together and they never kissed. The murder of  Camille had  killed their desire  for each other. They no  longer wanted to  make love. When they were  together, they did  not know what to  do or say.

Thérèse and  Laurent  tried to  understand  their feelings but  they could not talk  about them. The lovers  thought that they were  being careful and  that their desire  for each other would return. And now  that Camille was dead, Laurent and Thérèse could get  married. They believed that  when they were  married, they would have peace.

At night, alone in  her   bed,   Thérèse was  happy. Weak, stupid Camille  was  no   longer there  to  make her  angry. Thérèse felt  like  a little girl  again. She  felt  safe  in  the  big bedroom. Sometimes she  opened the  window and  stared at the  high black wall  and   the   narrow strip   of  sky  above it. Sometimes she  had bad  dreams. Only at these times did  she think of Laurent. Thérèse did  not desire  her  lover.  She  only wanted Laurent in  her   bed   to  keep her   safe.   She   wanted Laurent because she  did  not want to be  lonely. And she  did not want anyone to think that she  had  killed Camille.

During the  day,  Thérèse was  much happier. She  became interested in  the  people around her  and  she  talked more.

One  day, Thérèse noticed a young  man  who  lived  near  the Passage du  Pont-Neuf.  He  was  completely  different  from Laurent in every  way. The young  man  was tall  and  slim,  with fair hair and  blue  eyes.  For a week,  Thérèse was in  love  with this  young man. But  she  never spoke to  him and  when he went away,  she  forgot about him.

58

Thérèse began to read  books.  She  read  romances and  she fell in love  with the  heroes of these love  stories.  She  began to think about other people and   how   they felt.   But  Thérèse

could  not understand her  own  feelings. She  became nervous

,                   and  worried about everything.

Laurent’s feelings changed  too.

&    ‘Did I really  kill  a man?’  he  said  to himself. ‘What a fool  I

was! I must  have been drunk or  mad.  I committed a terrible

crime. I did  it  for a woman and  now  I don’t  care  about her  at all!

‘Well,  I was clever, and  I was  lucky  too.  No  one  thought that I  killed Camille Raquin. But  I  will  never do  anything

like  that again.’

Laurent became fat and  lazy and  he had  no  desire  to make love  with Thérèse. He  wanted to  get  married because it would   make his  life  more comfortable, When  he  came   to live  in  the   Passage   du  Pont-Neuf, he  would have  a  bigger

home, more  money and  good  meals every  day.

Then one   day,  Laurent met   his  old  friend who   was  an artist  and  he  began to spend a lot of time  in the  artist’s  studio.

When Laurent went to  the  studio, he  saw that his  friend

was  painting a  picture of  a pretty young woman. Laurent liked  the  artist’s  model, so he  took her  home with him.  The

girl became his  lover and  stayed with him.

Laurent did  not love  the  model, but  that did  not worry him.  He  enjoyed making love  with her  and  that pleased him He never told  Thérèse about the  girl.

Then things changed again.

Thérèse no  longer wore  black clothes.  She  began to  wear pretty, brightly-coloured dresses  again.

One evening, Laurent noticed that Thérèse was  looking Younger and  more  beautiful. He  also noticed that she  laughed a  lot  and   seemed very   nervous.  Sometimes she   was  very

59

The Morgue

happy and  sometimes she  was very  sad.  Laurent did  not like to see Thérèse behave in this  way. He  did  not trust99 her  and he  began to feel  afraid.

Laurent began to think about marriage again. Sometimes

he  thought that he  would not  marry Thérèse.  He  thought that he  would stay  away  from  her and  live  with the  pretty young model.

‘But  if I  don’t marry   Thérèse,’ Laurent thought,  ‘then 1

killed her  husband for  nothing!  I’m  a fool  if I  don’t marry

Thérèse now.   She   might go  to  the   police and   tell   them

everything. I can’t let  her  do  that.’

Then the  model left  Laurent. She  moved out  of his  room and  once again, Laurent was  alone at  night. After a week, Laurent went back to  the   drapers shop   in  the   Passage du Pont-Neuf.  He   spent more time there  and   his   desire for

Thérèse returned.  She   looked at  him   with desire too.   All

their feelings for each other were  strong again.

One evening, Laurent spoke  to Thérèse as he  was leaving

the  shop.

‘I want you,’  he  said.  ‘1  want to make  love  to you.  Shall I

come  to your  room tonight?’

Thérèse  looked terrified. ‘No,  let’s  wait,’   she  said.   ‘We must  be careful.’

‘I’ve waited long  enough,’ Laurent replied. ‘1 want you,’ he

said  again.

Thérèse stared at him.  Her  dark  eyes shone brightly in hei pale  face.  Then her  cheeks became red.

‘As  soon as  we  are  married, I’ll  be  yours   for  ever,’  shc replied.

60

8

The Return  of Camille

Laurent felt  very  worried as  he  left  the   little shop   in  the arcade. His  desire  for  Thérèse had  returned, but  he  was

also  very  afraid of returning to  his  attic room. And for  the first  time, he  was afraid  of being alone. He  went into  a wine- shop  and  drank several glasses  of wine.   He  was  angry  with Thérèse.

‘I wouldn’t be afraid  if I’d stayed  with  her,’ he  thought. He turned towards a waiter. ‘Bring  me another glass of wine!’  he shouted.

Laurent stayed  in the  wine-shop for many hours.  Then he bought some  matches°° and  walked home to his  attic.

He  had   left  a candle on  a table on  the  first  floor  of the building. He  had to  go  along a  dark corridor, and   up  the stairs  to  the  first  floor  to  find  his  candle. He  was  terrified of the  dark  corridor. He  believed that someone was  waiting to kill  him  there.

Laurent struck a match and  the  flame  gave  a weak  yellow light.   Suddenly, the   corridor became full  of  dark shadows. Laurent walked quickly up  the   stairs   to  the   first  floor  and found his  candle. He  lit  it and  walked slowly  up to  the  sixth floor,  holding the  candle in front of him.

When he  reached his  attic room,   Laurent shut  the  door behind him.   Then he  closed the  skylight and  looked under the  bed.  The shadows in  the  room looked like  people who were waiting to kill him.  At last,  he  lay on  the  bed  and  began to  think about Thérèse. He  had  to  make  a decision. Should he  marry Thérèse,  or  not? He   wanted to  sleep, but his thoughts and  fears  kept him  awake.

As  he  thought  about Thérèse, Laurent’s desire for  her returned. He  dreamt that he  went back  to the  drapers shop  in

The  Return  of Camille                                                                                                                                                                                         The Return  of Camille

the  Passage du  Pont-Neuf.  In  his  dream, he  ran   along the dark streets and  into  the  arcade. He  went through the  alley and  up  the  stairs  to Thérèse’s bedroom. Thérèse opened the bedroom door  and  stood there, waiting for him.

Laurent could see everything so clearly in his dream, that he sat in his bed and cry out . ‘I must go!’ he shouted. ‘Therese is waiting for me!’.

He  jumped out  of his  bed.  The floor  under his feet was very  cold.   Suddenly, Laurent felt  afraid again. He was too frightened to leave  his  little room in the  middle of the night. So he  got  back  into the  bed  and  pulled the  bedclothes over his head. This quick movement made the bite-mark on his neck burn with pain. He  touched the sore place and it reminded him of Camille. Laurent began to shake

Perhaps Camille was in the  room now!  Perhaps he  was

the  bed!

Laurent sat  up  and  lit  the   candle. Long,   dark shadows moved on  the  walls.

‘What a fool  I am,’  he  said  to  himself. ‘1  shouldn’t have stayed so  long   in  the   wine-shop.  I  drank too much wine.

That’s why  I have been dreaming. I’ll drink some  water and try  to sleep  again.’

So Laurent drank some  water, blew  out  the candle-flame,

and  lay down on  the  bed  again. He  felt  calm  now  and  he  was

sure  that he  would sleep.  His  body  felt  heavy and  tired, but his  mind was still  busy.

Once more, he  dreamt that he  was  on  his  way  to arcade in  the  Passage du  Pont-N euf.  He  ran  along the  little

alley  beside the  shop  and  up  the  stairs. He knocked on the door and   it  opened immediately. But,   oh,   horror! It was

Camille who  opened the  door!  The corpse of his  dead

Friend stood in  the bedroom. Its  skin   was  green and

Brown and covered in  terrible wounds. Camille’s body  looked the  same

as when Laurent had seen  it in  the  morgue!

The dead  Camille held out  his  arms  to his murderer and  a laugh came from  his  twisted mouth. Laurent could see  the dead   man’s   black tongue behind his  white teeth.  Laurent woke  up  with a loud  cry  of fear.  His  bedclothes were  damp from  the  cold  sweat  which covered his body.

‘I must  sleep,’  Laurent said  to himself. ‘It will  be morning

Soon.’

But  every time that Laurent fell  asleep, he  had  the  same

terrible dream. Again and   again, the  young man woke   up and  found cold  sweat covering his  skin.

At last he  decided to get out  of bed  and  get dressed. It was

sunrise. Light was coming through the  square skylight above the  bed.

‘I can’t  sleep  because of Thérèse,’ he said to himself. ‘If she

had  let  me  stay  with her,  I  wouldn’t have had this  terrible dream.’

After he  had washed his  face  and  got  dressed, Laurent

felt  a little better.

‘I’m not a coward,’ he  thought. ‘I was  strong and  brave

when I  killed Camille. I wasn’t afraid of him when he  was

alive. 1  m  not afraid of  him now that  he  s dead. When

Thérése and  I are married, I’ll hold her  in my arms  and  forget

all about Camille.’

Laurent stood in front of a mirror and  looked at  the  bite-

mark on  his  neck. Camille’s teeth had made  the mark more than a year  ago.  But  the  sore  place was  still  red  and  it  felt

very  painful. Laurent turned up  his  shirt collar to  hide the

mark.

ll ask Thérèse to kiss my neck,’  he  said.  ‘Then the  mark

will  disappear.’

Laurent felt  very  tired in  the  office  all  that day.  He  fell

asleep many times.

<Poor Thérèse is very  tired,’  Madame Raquin told  Laurent that evening. ‘She  did not sleep  well  last  night. She  had  bad

The Return  of Camille

dreams and  cried  out  while she  was sleeping. When the  poor girl woke  up  this  morning, she  felt  ill.’

While Madame Raquin was  talking, Thérèse came   Into the  sitting-room. She  looked at Laurent and  he  looked at her The ghost of Camille had  visited Thérèse too.  Her  desire

for Laurent had  returned. But  in her  dreams,  she had  seen  the terrible corpse of her  husband.

Laurent and  Thérèse had  drowned Camille. His dead  body

would  hold the  lovers  together for ever.  They would  never be able  to  escape from  his  ghost. They had  to  marry as soon  as possible.  Only then would  the  ghost  of Camille leave  them in peace.

The months passed.   The lovers   made   a plan.  They  would not  talk  about marriage themselves. Laurent would  continue to  come   to  the   Raquins’ shop   each evening.  He  would   be kind   and   polite to  Thérèse and   her   aunt. He  would help them as  much as  possible. Soon Madame Raquin  would believe that  Thérèse should marry her husband’s friend Laurent.  If  the   old  woman suggested the   marriage, there would  be no  problem.

As  soon as Laurent and  Thérèse were  married, the  ghost of  Camille  would leave them alone. That  is  what  they believed.  But  they did  not want to  marry  immediately.   If they   did,   their friends might think  about the   relationship between Laurent and  Thérèse. And then their friends might ask questions about Camille’s death.

Every   night, the   lovers slept  in  their own   beds.   Every night, Camille’s ghost came  and  they were  unable to sleep

Thérèse kept a lighted candle in  her  room.   But  the  pale yellow   flame   did  not stop   the   shadow of  Camille’s  corpse from  visiting her.

Laurent was  afraid  to go home and  he  sometimes walked

through the  streets all night. Whenever he  slept, he  dreamt

65

The Return  of Camille                                                                                                                      The Return  of Camille

that he  was holding Thérèse in his arms.  But  then his  dream changed and  he  saw that he  was holding Camille’s corpse.

Laurent and   Thérèse  became  more  terrified  every day. But  their desire for each other was like  a burning fever.

Thérèse wanted to marry  Laurent because she  was afraid. And she  needed Laurent and  his  kisses.  Laurent wanted to marry  Thérèse because he  wanted an  easy, comfortable  life. He  wanted to  eat,   drink, sleep   and   make  love  to  Thérèse whenever he  wished.

He  also  wanted  money. He  had   not seen his  father  for

years.  He would  never get any  money from him.  But Madame Raquin had about forty  thousand  francs. If he  married her niece, Laurent would not have to work.  For all these reasons, he  had  murdered Camille.

After several months,  the   lovers’ plan began  to  work.

Thérèse behaved like  a sad,  young widow.  She  moved slowly and   she  took no   interest in  anything. She   said  very  little and  she  often wept.

‘Perhaps Thérèse  is  ill.  Perhaps she’s  dying!’ Madame

Raquin thought. She  became very  worried. The old  woman had no  other  relatives.  Madame Raquin feared that  she would be  alone if Thérèse died.

One Thursday evening,  Madame Raquin  told Old

Michaud her fears.

‘My dear  friend, don’t  you know why Thérèse is behaving like  this?’  he  said,  laughing. ‘Your niece is unhappy because she  has  been alone every night  for  nearly two  years.   She needs a husband!’

Madame Raquin  could not  believe  these words. Did

Thérèse want another husband now  that her  dear Camille had  died?

‘Make  her marry  as soon as possible,’ Old  Michaud said.

Please believe me.  I know that I’m right.’

Michaud’s words  made  Madame Raquin cry. She  cried  for

her  dead son  and  she  cried  for herself. She  could not believe that people were  forgetting Camille already.

But  Thérèse’s unhappiness  was  making the   old  woman unhappy. Madame Raquin  liked   people to  be  cheerful and friendly. She  wanted her  niece to be happy again.  But she did not  want a stranger in her  family.

Laurent came to  the   shop   nearly every   day.  He  helped Madame Raquin as much as possible. Then he  would sit for many  hours and  talk  to her  in a soft,  kind voice.

Laurent also   told   the old  woman that he  was  worried

about Thérèse.

‘Dear  Thérèse is very  ill,’ he  said  sadly.  ‘I’m afraid that we will   lose   her soon. What  will   happen to  us  then? Poor Thérèse loved Camille very  much. We  all  loved him!   Your

niece has  been slowly  dying  for the  past  two  years.  Thérèse is

getting weaker every  day.’

Laurent almost believed his  own  words.  Madame Raquin began to  cry.  At last,   the   poor mother began to  think  of

Laurent as her  son  and  she  soon  loved him  as her  own  child

On the next Thursday evening, Old Michaud noticed Laurent talking kindly to  Thérése.  Michaud whispered to his  old  friend.

‘Look,  my  dear Madame,’ he  said.  ‘Here   is the  husband

•                       that your  niece should marry.   Laurent should be  Thérèse s husband. You must tell  them this.  We’ll  help you!’

Thérèse marry Laurent? Madame Raquin had never

thought of  this.   But  she  understood  immediately. It  was  a good  idea!  The three of them would be a perfect family.

All through the evening, Madame Raquin smiled at Laurent and  her  niece. The murderers knew that their plan was working well.

When they left  the  drapers shop  that night, Old  Michaud

spoke  to  Laurent. He  told  him  his  idea  about the  marriage

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The Return  of Camille                                                                                                                                                                                          The  Return  of Camille

Laurent pretended to be very  surprised.

‘But  Thérèse is the   widow of  my  dear   friend, Camille.

Thérèse is like  a sister  to me,’ Laurent said  in a quiet voice.  ‘1

couldn’t marry her.’

‘But   you   would take the  place of  your dear friend,’

Michaud said.  ‘Thérèse needs a husband. And you  are  the only man that  Madame Raquin likes   and trusts. She   will accept you.  The marriage would please her  very  much.

‘Thérèse was a good  wife  to  Camille,’ Michaud went on.

She  will  be a good  wife  to  you.  You must  marry her.  We  all think that this  should happen.’

Laurent pretended to  think for a moment.

‘You’re  much older than me  and  I  trust you,’  he  said.  ‘If the  marriage will  make Madame Raquin happy, then  yes,  I agree  to it. I’ll marry  Thérèse Raquin.’

At the   same   time, Madame Raquin  was  talking to  her

niece.

‘I’ve been a widow  for many years,’  the  old  woman said.  ‘I

know that it’s terrible to lose  a husband, Thérèse. I loved  my

husband, and  you  loved Camille. I know that. His  death was terrible and  we  will  never forget it.   But  you  are  unhappy, my dear.  Don’t you  ever  think of marrying again?’

‘Camille was  my  husband. No   one   can ever take his

place,’ Thérèse said  quietly.

‘1   think that you’re   wrong, my  dear,’   Madame Raquin said.  She  was crying now  and  so was Thérèse.

‘Laurent is already part of  this   family,’   the   old  woman

went on.  ‘He  has  been kind to  both of us.  We  could all  be happy together.’

‘I  want to  please you,  dear aunt,’ Thérèse  said.   ‘I  love

Laurent as a brother. But  I’ll try  to accept him  as a husband,

if that will  make  you happy.’

She  kissed  Madame Raquin and  held the  old  woman in her  arms.  The two  women wept together.

The next morning, Michaud spoke   to  Madame Raquin outside the   shop. They agreed that  Thérése and   Laurent

should get  married.

Old   Michaud was  in  the  shop   when  Laurent  arrived at five  o’clock.

‘Thérèse has  agreed,’ he  whispered to  Laurent. ‘She  will marry  you.’

Thérèse looked up and  stared at Laurent and  he  looked at her.  Then Old  Michaud went over  to  Madame Raquin and

put  his  hand on  her  shoulder.

‘Dear  Madame,’ he  said.  ‘These  two young  people want to make  you  happy.’

Madame Raquin could not speak  for several minutes. She held Thérèse’s hand and  placed it  in Laurent’s hand.

‘1  want you  to get  married,’ she  said.  ‘I want you,  my  dear

niece, Thérèse, to marry dear  Laurent. Then Laurent can  be my true  son.’

The guilty lovers’  bodies shook as their hands touched.

‘Thérèse,  would you   like   to  make your aunt  happy7

Laurent asked.

‘Yes,’ Thérèse replied.

Laurent turned to  Madame Raquin. ‘When Camille fell into  the  water, he  cried, “Help my Thérèse!”  Laurent said

‘He wanted me  to look  after  her.  I’m sure  of that, Madame. I

will  marry Thérèse. I  think that is the  right thing to do.’ Thérèse could not listen to  these words  and  she  turned

away.  But  Madame Raquin was weeping with happiness.

‘Yes,  yes.   Make Thérèse  happy, my  dear,’   she   said   to

Laurent. ‘My son  thanks you  from  his  grave!’

‘Kiss  each other,’ Old Michaud said   to  Laurent and

Thérèse.

Laurent  kissed Thérèse  and   her   pale   face   became  red

This was  the  first  time   that anyone had  seen   them kissing each  other.

68                                                                                                                                                 69

The  Wedding Night                                                                                                                    The  Wedding Night

By the  following Thursday, all  their friends knew about the  marriage between Laurent and  Thérèse.

‘The  marriage was my  idea,’  Old  Michaud said.  ‘Laurent and  Thérèse will  be happy when they are husband and  wife!’ Suzanne Michaud kissed  Thérèse, and  Grivet made a few stupid jokes.  Laurent and  Thérèse were  polite to each other, but  they  did  not show  their true  feelings. They carefully hid

their desire.

Laurent wrote to  his  father. He  hoped that Old  Laurent would  be pleased and  that he  would  send  his  best  wishes.  But the  old  man  said  that he  did  not care  about his  son.  He  also said that Laurent would  never get his money.  When Madame Raquin heard this,  she  did  a very  stupid thing. She  gave  all her  money —  forty  thousand francs —  to her  niece. She  knew that Thérèse and  Laurent would always  look  after  her.  The preparations for the  wedding started at once.

9

The Wedding Night

The day  of  the   wedding had   come at  last.   Laurent  and Theresewoke   up  in  their own  rooms. They were  both very  happy.  Their last  night of fear  was over.

It was December and  very  cold.  Laurent was pleased that he  was leaving his  small,  cold  attic for ever.

‘I will  be warmer tonight,’ he  said  to himself, smiling. Madame Raquin had  given him  five  hundred francs and

he  had  spent most  of the  money on  new  clothes. Now,  the young man washed and  dressed carefully. As  he  was putting on  his  shirt, he  felt  a sharp pain in  his  neck. The old  bite-

mark made by  Camille’s teeth  looked red  and   sore.   Every

time  that he  moved, Laurent felt  a sharp pain.

When he  was  ready,  Laurent got  into a cab  and  went to the  town hail’°’.  At the  town hall,  the  official asked  Laurent and Thérèse  if  they wanted  to  marry each other. After Thérèse and  Laurent had  both agreed, the  official spoke  the rest  of  the  words  of the   marriage  ceremony’°2, and  the  two young  people signed a paper.  Laurent and  Thérèse were  calm and  quiet. They felt  as  if they were  in  a dream. They were married! They could forget about the  past.

At six  o’clock, Laurent,  Thérèse  and   Madame Raquin met  their friends in  a café  outside Paris.  The new  husband and  wife could not believe what was happening. That night they   would sleep   together in  the   same   bed,   and   everyone would   be  happy. Thérèse  and   Laurent believed that their future would be comfortable and  happy.  They were  too  tired to  think  clearly. Madame Raquin was  very  happy. And she also  believed that she  would have a  safe  and   comfortable future.

By half past  nine, everyone returned to  the  little drapers shop. Thérèse went into her bedroom with Suzanne and Madame Raquin.  Laurent  stayed in  the   sitting-room with the  men.  He  listened to Grivet’s jokes  and  said  nothing.

At last,  Suzanne and  Madame Raquin came   out  of  the

bedroom.

‘Your  wife   is  waiting for  you,’   the   old  woman said   to

Laurent.

Laurent stood up  and  shook his  friends’ hands. Then he

walked into the  bedroom like  a drunken man.

Laurent shut  the  bedroom door  behind him  and  looked across the  room at Thérèse.

A  bright fire  was  burning in  the  fireplace and  a lighted

lamp  stood on  a little table. All  the  bedclothes on  the  bed

were smooth and  white. There were big vases  full of roses and the  sweet smell   of  the  red  flowers filled   the  bedroom. The

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The Wedding Night                                                                                                                The Wedding Night

room  was a place for love  —  a place of calm  and  peace.

Thérèse was  sitting on  a small  chair on  the  right of the fireplace and  she  was staring at  the  flames. She  did  not look at Laurent when he came  into  the  room.  Her  white petticoats looked very  bright in the  light from  the  fire.

Laurent  took off  his   coat and waistcoat.  He   walked

towards Thérèse and  kissed  her  on  the  shoulder. As  his  lips touched  her  skin, Thérèse’s body   shook.  She   turned  and looked at Laurent with fear  and  disgust103.

Laurent sat  in  a  chair on  the   left  side  of  the   fireplace. Both lovers  sat completely still  for five  minutes.

It  was  almost two  years  since Thérèse and  Laurent had first  been alone in this  room. They had  not made love  since Thérèse’s visit  to Laurent’s little attic. They had  waited until this  night —   their wedding night. Now they  could hold each other and  kiss each other. But  they did  not.  Their desire  had turned to  horror and  disgust. They  had   killed a  man and waited a long  time  for  this  moment. There was  nothing to stop  them loving each other, except their own  feelings.

‘Thérèse,’ Laurent  said,  very  quietly,  ‘do  you  remember those  afternoons when we were  in this  room?  I wanted to stay with you  and   fall  asleep in  your   arms.   And tonight that dream is coming true.’

Thérèse looked up at Laurent. This man  was her  husband now.  But  did  she  know him?  In  the  fire-light,  Laurent’s face looked red.  It looked as if it was covered with blood. Thérèse turned  away.

‘All  our  plans have succeeded, Thérèse,’ Laurent went

on.  ‘This   is the   beginning of our  life  together. Camille has gone  for ever.’

Laurent made a terrible mistake when he  said  Camille’s name.  Immediately,  the   lovers felt   that  the ghost of  the drowned man  had  come   into the   room.   They felt  that the

corpse was sitting between them.

The bedroom was  warm   and  smelled sweetly.   But  there was also  the  cold  damp smell  of death. They could not forget what they had  done.

Thérèse looked at  her  new  husband with fear  and  hate Laurent realized that he had  made  a mistake and  he  began to talk  about other things —  the  roses,  the  fire,  anything that he could see.  Thérèse tried to  answer him. They were   both afraid  of their thoughts. They were  both afraid of silence.

They could think  of  nothing and  no  one   but   Camille

Whatever they said  aloud, the  guilty lovers   could not stop thinking about his  death. Finally, they  stopped talking. But the  voices in their heads would not be silent.

‘We  killed Camille  and  his corpse is here between  us.  It will

never go away.’

‘Did  —  did  you  see  him in  the   morgue?’ Thérèse  asked quietly.

‘Yes,’ Laurent replied.

‘Was his  body  badly  injured?’ Thérèse  asked.

Laurent remembered the   terrible body   of  the   drowned man,  but  he  did  not  answer.  He  stood up and  walked towards the   bed.   Then he  walked back and   held out   his  arms   to Thérèse.

‘Kiss me!’  he  said.

Thérèse stood up  too.   She   leant  against the   wall.   She tried to  move her  head away  as Laurent came  towards her.

‘Kiss me.  Kiss me,’ he  repeated.

Then Thérèse saw  the  mark on  Laurent’s neck.  ‘What s that?’  she  asked.

‘It’s —   it’s where Camille bit  me,’  Laurent said  quickly

‘Kiss me,  Thérèse. Kiss me  there! Take  away  the  pain.’

‘Oh,  no,  no!’  Thérèse cried. ‘Not  there. There’s blood on

it!’

She  fell  back   down onto her chair. Laurent bent down and  held her head in  his  big  hands. He  made her  press  her

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The Wedding Night

—

They  could  think of nothing  and no one but Camille.

lips  against the   mark on  his  neck. Thérèse  did  not  move until Laurent let her  go. Then she wiped  her  hand across  her mouth and  spat104 into  the  fire.

Laurent turned away.  He  walked around  the   room  for almost an  hour.   Thérèse sat  in  the   chair without  moving They both knew the  truth. When they had  killed Camille they had  killed their desire for each other too.

The  flames of  the   fire  were   weaker now   and   the   room

had  become darker. As  Laurent turned, he  thought that he saw something in the  corner of the  room.  Camille was there He  was  standing in  the  dark shadow between  the  fireplace and  a cupboard! His  face  was green and  twisted.

‘Look  there!’ Laurent cried, pointing  at  the  shadows  in

the  corner of the  room. ‘Look!  It’s Camille!’

‘It’s his  portrait —    the  picture that you  painted of him

Thérèse replied very quietly. ‘My aunt forgot to take  it  to her room.’

‘His portrait?’ Laurent repeated.

The portrait  looked exactly like   the   face   of  Camille s corpse in the  morgue.

‘Take  it off the  wall!  Take  it away!’  Laurent whispered

‘No,  I  can’t,’  Thérèse replied. ‘I can’t  touch it.  You must do it.’

But  neither of them were  able  to touch the  picture. They

were  too  frightened.

Laurent started walking around the   room again. Again and  again, he  looked at the  portrait oi Camille. Laurent was going  mad  with terror and  despair.

Then Laurent heard a  scratching noise105. He  thought that the  sound was coming from  the  portrait and  he  turned round quickly. Then he  realized where the  sound was coming from.   Something was  scratching at  the   door which led  to the  stairs.  The drowned man  was trying to get  into  the  room

The sound became louder and  then there was a cry —   the

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The Wedding Night

cry of a cat!  Madame Raquin’s cat,  François, had  been asleep in  the   bedroom all  this   time. Now he  was  awake and   he wanted to  get   out. Laurent  moved towards the cat and François jumped onto a chair. The cat  lifted his  back and stood there. He  looked at Laurent with his  big  green eyes.

Laurent did  not like  cats  and  he  hated Francois.

‘Don’t  hurt him!  Thérèse cried.

A terrible idea  had  come  into Laurent’s mind.

‘The  ghost of Camille has  entered the  cat,’  he  thought. ‘I

must  kill  Francois.’

Laurent remembered how,  more  than a year  ago,  Thérèse had  made  noises like  the  cat.  Did  Francois really know the truth about them?

Laurent wanted to  throw the  cat  out  of the  window. But he  was too  afraid to  touch the  angry  animal with the  bright green eyes.

The cat  watched Laurent move  across  the  room.  Laurent

opened the  door  and  the  cat  ran  out,  crying loudly.

Thérèse watched as Laurent walked between the  bed  and the  window. They did not want to get  into  the  bed  together. They did  not want to  touch each other. And that  is how they spent the  first  night of their marriage.

Daylight came, bright and  cold.  Laurent felt  calmer now. He  took the  portrait of Camille off  the  wall  and  turned it round. Laurent no  longer felt  afraid of the  picture.

Thérèse went to  the  bed  and  pulled back the  bedclothes.

Her  aunt must  not know the  truth. She  must  not know that they had  not slept in  the  bed.

‘I hope that we  are  going to  get  some   sleep tonight,’ Laurent said  angrily. ‘We’ve  been behaving like  frightened children. That can’t  happen again.  It’s all your fault.  Try to be more  cheerful tonight, do you  understand?’

‘I’ll try,’ Thérèse said  quietly.

Laurent laughed, but  he  did  not know why.

10

The Ghost

Laurent  and Thérèse’s wedding night  was  bad, but the nights that followed it  were  worse.  They now  both knew

the  truth. They would  never escape from  Camille. Their fear turned to  anger,   and  everything that they said  or  did  made

the  anger worse.

Before their  marriage, Thérèse had been nervous and

excited. Laurent had  been calm and  cheerful. He  had  eaten drunk and  slept like  an  animal. Nothing had  worried him Now  he  had  become as nervous and  frightened as Thérèse He  could not sleep.  Terrible pictures of Camille were  always in  Laurent’s mind. He  was  not sorry  that he  had  killed his

friend. But  he  was afraid of what was happening to  himself

In  the   daytime, he  promised to  be  strong. But  at  night when he  was locked in the  house with Thérèse, Camille was

there too.  Laurent saw frightening shadows in the  corners of

every  room. His  thoughts were  making his  body  weak.   His desire  for Thérèse and  his  fears  were  making him mad.

Thérèse felt  half-mad too.  When she  was a child, she  had

hidden her   thoughts and  feelings. After meeting Laurent she  shoved the  feelings that were  in her  heart. Now she  felt

guilty ibout  Camille’s death.  She  wanted to  tell   everyone what had  happened on  the  river.

Laurent became afraid that Thérèse would tell  Madame

Raquin everything. His  fear  made him  angry  with Thérèse

When they were  alone, he  began to  shout at  her and  beat her.  He  hit her  again and  again.

The guilty lovers  could  not lie in the  bed.  They sat by the fire or walked around the  room. Sometimes they  slept in the

chairs. But  they were  terrified of lying  together in the  bed.  In the  mornings, their bodies were  stiff  and  cold.   Their  faces

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The  Ghost                                                                                                                                                                                                               The Ghost

were pale  and  blotchy. They both thought that they  could  see the  terrible corpse of Camille. The drowned man  was always between them.

A week  passed  in this  way. Laurent and  Thérèse fell asleep

during the   day  and   they were   awake all  night.  The guilty lovers  both pretended that this  life  and  their behaviour was normal. But  they were  mad.

One evening, they  were  so tired  that  they  lay down on the

bed.  The next night, they  got  under the  bedclothes, but  they did  not touch each other. Thérèse lay down on  one  side  of the  bed,  near the  wall.  Then Laurent lay down on  the  other side  of the  bed.  There was a wide  space  between them. This space   was  for  Camille. They believed that his  corpse  lay between them, They could feel  the  damp body.  They were terrified of touching it.

Sometimes Laurent thought  of  holding Thérèse in  his

arms  but   the   drowned man   stopped him.   Laurent thought that Camille was jealous of him.

One night, Laurent tried to kiss Thérèse. But  she  turned

away  from  him  and  her  body  shook with fear.

‘Why   are  you  shaking?’ he  shouted.  ‘Are  you  afraid of Camille? Yes, you  are,  aren’t you?  You’re  afraid that he  will come  and  pull  you  out  of this  bed!  I’ll take  you  to  his  grave one  night. You can  see his  corpse for yourself. Then you will know that  he  can’t   harm you.   Come!  Kiss  me!  That  will make  you  forget him!’

They kissed,  but  Thérèse’s lips were  as cold  as ice.  Laurent started to shake  with cold  too.  Laurent could  not kill  Camille for a second time. Camille was a ghost. Laurent realized that Thérèse was not a widow.  She  was still  married —  married to a drowned man.   Camille had  destroyed them.  They would never make love  again. As  they moved apart, they  began to cry.

After Laurent and  Thérèse were  married, the  domino games continued on Thursday evenings. The Michauds and  Grivet came   to  the  shop   in  the  arcade as usual.   Old  Michaud and Grivet had   been afraid that  the  domino games   would   end after   Camille’s death.  They were   delighted  when they all met  at  the  drapers shop  as before.

Thérèse hated the  visitors,  but Laurent told  her  to be polite

to  them. Old  Michaud had  been a Police   Commissioner in Paris  and  Olivier still  worked for  the  police. The Michauds were  important friends.

Laurent and  Thérèse’s days  and  nights had  now  changed completely. At night,  they were   terrified.  But  when  day came, they pretended that they were  happily married.

Every  morning, Laurent got  up and  dressed quickly. After he  had  eaten his  breakfast, he  was ready  for the  day.

‘Goodbye. I’ll see you  this  evening,’ he  said  cheerfully to Thérèse and  Madame Raquin. And he  went to  his  office  at the  Orleans Railway Company.

Spring had   come and   Laurent  walked by  the   river.   He enjoyed looking at  the trees and   the   water.  He   enjoyed breathing the  cool,  clean air.  He  stayed in his  office  all day but  he  did  very  little work.

In  the  evenings, as he  walked back  to  the  shop,  his  fears returned. Terror was waiting for him  in the  arcade.

After Laurent left  every   morning, Thérèse felt  cheerful too.  She  cleaned the  house and  the  shop  and  kept busy  all day.  Then  Thérèse would cook lunch for  Madame Raquin and  herself.

In  the   afternoons,  Thérèse  would sit  down behind the counter. The terrors of the  night seemed very  far  away.  She looked out  of  the  shop   window,  into   the  arcade. Then  she dreamt that she  was buried in  a cold  grave  with many other people. But  she  was  alive  and  they  were  dead.   This strange

idea  did  not frighten her.  She  felt  calm  and  safe.  Sometimes

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The Ghost                                                                                                                                      The  Ghost

Suzanne Michaud came  to see Thérèse. Later,  Thérèse would cook Laurent’s dinner. Then  the   fears  of  the   night  would return.

The  evenings were  very quiet. Laurent and  Thérèse stayed in the  sitting-room until it was very  late.  They did  not speak to  each other, but  they listened to  Madame Raquin telling them stories of  her life  in  Vernon. She   told Thérèse and Laurent her plans for their future too.

Madame Raquin sat  in  the  light of the  lamp. The young people sat  in  the   shadows, looking  at  the  old  woman.  But they never  looked at  each other.  The sound of  the  old woman’s voice almost stopped their fears.

On Thursday evenings, Laurent and   Thérèse did   not

think about the terrors of  the   night  because their  friends were  in  the  house. Thérèse would sometimes talk and  laugh and  Laurent would tell  jokes.

But  soon the  guilty lovers had something different  to worry   about. Madame Raquin  had   been ill  for  some   time. She  could not move about easily  and  sometimes she  could not speak  clearly.

Laurent and  Thérèse were  worried. They were  not sorry for the  poor  old  woman, but  they were  sorry  for themselves. The terrors of  the night now   began at  six  o’clock, when Laurent came home.

They looked after the   old  woman well.   Everyone told

Laurent  and Thérèse  that  they were good and kind  to

Madame Raquin. But  she  became weaker every day.

After four  months, Laurent made a decision. He  wanted to change his  life.  He  had  married Thérèse and  stayed with her because he  wanted the  Raquins’ money. But  now  he  had  an idea  to make his  life more  enjoyable.

‘I’ve something to tell  you,’ he  said  to the  two  women one

evening. ‘I’ve told  my manager that I’m leaving the  office.  I

don’t want to  work  as  a clerk any  more.   I’m  going   to  start painting again. I’ve always  wanted to  be an  artist.’

Thérèse looked unhappy. She  knew that Laurent wanted money and  she  did  not want to give  it to him.

‘How  much money will  you  earn?’  Thérèse  asked. ‘The

shop  doesn’t make  much money, you know.’

Laurent looked at his  wife.  She  understood him at once

‘Well,’   she  began, ‘I might be  able   to  give  you  a  little money each month...’

‘Of  course, Laurent  must have some   money,’ Madame Raquin said  kindly.  ‘He  could be  a  great artist. He  needs your  help, Thérèse.’

‘I’ll have to  rent a studio,’ Laurent  said  quickly.  ‘Just  a small  one  at  first.  Then I must  buy  new  paints and  brushes One hundred francs a month would be enough.’

Laurent rented a studio the  next day. Two weeks  later,  he

left  his job  at  the  Orleans Railway Company.

The studio was small,   but  Laurent could be  alone there He did  not start painting immediately. He  did  nothing. One day, Thérèse visited him  in the  studio, but  he pretended to be out.  In  the  evening, he  told  her  that he  had spent the  day at the  Louvre museum.

After a few  weeks,   Laurent bought paints and  canvases and  started to  work.   He  could not pay  for  a  model, so  he drew  and  painted pictures from  his  imagination°6.

Laurent  usually painted  in   the  mornings.  In   the afternoons, he  walked  around Paris.  On  one  of these walks he met  an old friend. The man was a successful artist and  he was making a lot  of money.

‘Why,  it’s you,  Laurent!’ the  painter cried in  a surprised voice. ‘I didn’t recognize you.  You’ve become thin and  pale.

‘I got  married,’ Laurent said.  ‘And   I’ve started painting

again.’

‘Well,   your  marriage must be  very  successful,’ the  artist

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The  Ghost

said, with  a  laugh.  ‘You  look very well and you   are   better dressed too! Let  me  see  what you  are  painting.’

‘Come to  my  studio now,’  Laurent said.  ‘I’m starting a big

picture.’

The artist was  very surprised  by  Laurent’s work. ‘These drawings of  faces are  very good,’ he  said   to  Laurent. ‘Your work is much better now.’

The artist looked at  the painting again.

‘There is something strange about the  faces,’  he  said.  ‘The faces are   of  men and women, but they all   look the  same. Change some of  them. Then they will  be  good.’

When his  friend had left, Laurent looked at  the painting

carefully.  His   face   became pale and he   suddenly  felt very cold.

The faces  were  all  the same —   they all  looked like  Camille! Laurent picked up  a new canvas and drew another  face.

Again, it was  Camille’s face  who looked back at  him.

With a cry  of terror, Laurent picked up  a knife. He  began to  cut the pictures into many pieces. He  could never be  an artist. He  would never paint again.

Laurent looked down at  his  hand. Whatever he tried to do,  every painting  would look like  Camille. Camille would always be  with him in  his  studio.

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Madame  Rauin

11

Madame  Raquin

Madame Raquin had  been ill for some  time.  Then she had a  stroke’°7.  She  stopped speaking in  the   middle of  a sentence and   she  never said  another word   again. She  also became paralysed — she  could not move any  part of her  body,

except her  eyes.

Laurent and  Thérèse were  shocked and  upset.  But  they

were  sorry  for themselves, not for the  poor  old  woman. From that day,  their lives  became worse.  Madame Raquin’s happy conversation had given them peace. Now  she  was silent and they  lived with the  ghost of death all  the  time.

The light of  the   lamp   fell  on  Madame Raquin’s round pale face. Thérèse  and Laurent  sat   in  the  shadows and watched the   old  woman. When  Madame Raquin shut her eyes,  they woke  her  up.  The old  woman’s eyes  seemed to  be the  only  living things in the  room.

Thérèse looked after  her  aunt carefully and  gently.  She  fed her  and  dressed her.  She   tried to  understand what the  old woman needed. Every  morning, Laurent carried the  silent old woman into the  sitting-room and  she  sat  there all day. Then Laurent went to his studio  and  Thérèse sat in the  shop.  In the evenings, they all  sat together in  the  sitting-room.

The Thursday evenings went on   as  usual.  Madame Raquin’s friends talked to her.  They pretended that nothing had   happened. They pretended that she  was  talking with them.

Madame Raquin could  not move  and  she could not speak.

But  she  was  happy because her  children were  looking after her.   Her   eyes  were   bright with joy.  The  only person who understood the   old  woman was  Thérèse. She   watched her aunt’s  eyes  carefully and  tried to help her.

Madame Raquin  lived   like  this   for  several weeks. She thought that nothing worse   could happen to  her.   But  she was  wrong. Laurent and Thérèse became careless. They began to  talk   about Camille so  that the   old  woman could hear their conversation.

‘Is he  there in  the  shadows?’ Laurent  asked  Thérèse one

evening. ‘Is that why  you  are  shaking? Drowned men  do not return from  their graves, do  they?’

‘You know that they do,  you  murderer!’ Thérèse replied

‘You killed him.  It is because of you  that he  comes here.’

‘And   did  you  help Camille when I  pushed him in  the water?’  Laurent asked  his wife.  ‘No!  If I’m a murderer, then so are you.  We  both wanted him  dead.’

‘We were  fools!’ Thérèse said.  ‘Our  lives  were  better when Camille was  alive.   We  made love  every   day  and  he  didn’t know.   We  were  happy then.  We  killed our  own  happiness when we killed stupid Camille.’

Madame Raquin was horrified. The  poor  old woman knew the  truth at  last,  but  it was  too  late.  She  could do  nothing. She  tried to speak, but  she  could not.  She  tried to  move her hands, but  she  could not.  Tears  ran  down her  face,

Thérèse and  Laurent saw what they  had  done.

‘We  must put  her  into her  bed,’  Thérèse said.  ‘Take  her out  of this  room.’

Laurent picked up the  old  woman. Her  bright eyes stared at him.

‘Look   at  me  if you  want to,’  Laurent said,   ‘Camille  is dead.  There is nothing that you  can  do about it now.’

But  Thérèse was not so sure.  Thursday came  and  she  was very  worried.

‘My  aunt might find  a  way  to  tell  her  friends,’ Thérèse told  Laurent. ‘There’s  a terrible look  in her  eyes.  I’m sure  that she  will  find  a way  to tell  them our  secret.’

‘How?’  replied Laurent. ‘She  can’t   move and   she  can’t

84                                                                                                                                                 85

Madame  Raquin

speak.  What can she do? Nothing! Her  friends are stupid. We must  behave normally. We  are  quite safe.’

So  that Thursday evening was  the  same  as all  the  other Thursdays. Suzanne, Olivier,  Old   Michaud and   Grivet  sat round the table with them and   began to  play   dominoes. Madame Raquin sat  in her  chair. She  did  not move  and  she did  not speak.  But  she  had  a plan.

Madame Raquin slowly  moved her  right hand from  her knee. Slowly,  very  slowly,  her  hand moved up  and  onto the table. The hand lay there, soft  and  white.

‘Look  at  that!’ Old  Michaud said.  ‘Madame Raquiri can move  her  fingers! Perhaps she’s trying to  tell  us something.’ The two  murderers looked at  the  hand that was going  to

tell everyone the truth.  One of  the fingers on   Madame

Raquin’s right hand moved on  the  table.

‘She  is trying to write some  words,’  Grivet said.  ‘Yes, she has  written your   name, Thérèse.’ He  started to  read the words.  ‘Thérèse  and  ... Go  on,  dear  Madame, go on.’

Olivier continued  reading the message.  ‘Thérèse and

Laurent ... Thérèse  and  Laurent are  ...

‘  he  said.   ‘What are they?  Your dear children?’

The two  murderers were  now  mad  with fear. They almost completed the  sentence themselves.

Madame Raquin’s hand  moved once more and then became still.

‘I know what our  poor  friend wanted to say,’ Grivet said. Madame Raquin wanted to  tell  us about her  children.  She wanted to say: Thérèse  and Laurent are taking good care of me.’ The others all  agreed and  they started another game  of

dominoes.

Madame Raquin was   in  despair. Her friends had not understood her!  Her  son’s murderers would never be caught and  punished’°8 now.

86

Madame Raquin                                                                                                                                                                                            Madame Raquin

Two  more months passed. Thérèse and  Laurent hated each other and  they hated their marriage. There was  no  escape. Their marriage was their punishment and  they would never be happy again.  Every  night, Laurent and  Thérèse quarrelled. The guilty lovers  made  each other angry  about nothing. The quarrels started with cruel words   and   often  ended  with  a beating. Laurent hit Thérèse until he  could not lift his  fists.

Madame Raquin watched and  listened. And so she  learnt

everything about Laurent and  Thérèse’s adultery. She  learnt about her  son’s death. Every  evening, the  old  woman heard something new  and  the  tears  ran  down her  face.

Sometimes Thérèse asked  Laurent to  stop  talking about the  murder in front of her  aunt.

‘Let her  cry! Who cares  about her?’ he  shouted. ‘She can’t do anything and  we’ve  got  her  money.  We  don’t have to feel sorry  for her!’

And then the  quarrel would begin all  over again. They did  not take   Madame Raquin to  her  own  room. She  heard every  terrible word.

One evening at dinner, Laurent decided that the  water in a jug was not cold  enough.

‘I can’t drink warm  water. It makes  me feel  sick,’  he  said.

‘I couldn’t get  any  ice,’ Thérèse replied. ‘The  water tastes all right.’

‘No,  it  doesn’t, it  tastes like  river  water,’  Laurent told  her angrily.

‘River  water!’  Thérèse screamed. ‘How can  you  talk  about river  water? You  drowned Camille in the  river!’

‘You  made me  do  it!’  Laurent shouted. ‘You  sat  and

watched as I pushed him  under the  water.  You are as guilty  as I  am.  You knew what I  was going to  do.  I  told  you  my plan. Then you  got   in  the   boat. You  didn’t try  to  stop   me,  did you?’

‘I  was  too   shocked,’ Thérèse  replied.  ‘I couldn’t think

clearly. You  murdered Camille, not me.’

‘You helped me to commit the  crime!   You are guilty too Laurent shouted. ‘You asked  me  to  come to  your  husbands bed.  Then you  came   to  my  room to  make   love.  You hated Camille and  you  wanted him  dead.  You made  me kill  him.

‘The  power  of your  love  made  me mad  and  weak,’  Thérèse replied. ‘I wasn’t  strong enough to fight  you. You’ve destroyed my life!’

Laurent lifted  his  hand. He  was going  to hit her.

‘That’s  right, hit me!’ Thérèse screamed. ‘Murder me  too

Then I’ll be dead,  like  Camille!’

And so  they  went on.  They would shout and  scream at each other  until they could no  longer speak. And  all  the time, Madame Raquin  was  watching them destroy each other.

Thérèse was on  the  edge  of complete madness. She  could

not control her  thoughts, her  feelings, or what she  did.  The unhappy young woman talked to Madame Raquin for many hours.  She   told   her   everything that she  thought and  felt She  fell  onto her  knees in  front of her  aunt and  begged her forgiveness109.

‘You were  always  good  to me and  I deceived you!’ Thérèse cried. ‘You can  see my pain. Please forgive me!’

Thérèse kissed  her  aunt and  the  young woman’s tears  fell on  the  old  woman’s stiff,  pale  face.

‘Yes! You have forgiven me,’  Thérèse cried. ‘I knew that you  would forgive me!’

But   Madame Raquin  could not  forgive Thérèse.  She wanted revenge. She  wanted the  murderers to  be punished That was all that the  poor  woman thought about.

When Laurent came  home, he pulled Thérèse to her  feet

‘Get  up!’  he  said  to  her.  ‘You are  doing this  to  make  me angry.  Cry  if you  want to.  But  you  aren’t sorry  for anything

‘I am  sorry,’  Thérèse  cried. ‘I’m  as  guilty as  you.   I  am

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Madame  Raquzn

guilty of adultery. I am guilty of murder.’

‘Well,  that’s  true,’  Laurent said.  ‘But leave  the  old woman alone. You can  see that she  hates you.’

‘You’re wrong. She  is good  and  so was Camille,’ Thérèse

said.  ‘I loved Camille and  he  loved me.’

‘If you  loved your  husband, why  did  you  want a  lover?’ Laurent shouted.

‘I  loved  Camille,’ Thérèse replied. ‘I loved  him  as if he was

my brother. Camille and  his  mother were  always  kind to me. We  were  all happy until we met  you  here. I loved him and  I hate you.’

‘Be quiet!’ Laurent shouted.

‘No,  I won’t be silent!’ Thérèse screamed. Tears  ran  down her  face.  ‘You’re a murderer!’

Laurent knocked Thérèse down and  held  her  on  the  floor. He  lifted his  hand.

‘Hit  me!  Murder me  too!’  she  cried. ‘You’re  not a man, you’re  an  animal!’

As  Laurent hit his  wife,  Madame Raquin watched  and

she  was happy.

After this,  Thérèse began to  speak   about Camille every day.  She  spoke about him in  every  conversation. When he thought about Camille, Laurent became mad  and  Thérèse knew  this.  She  would  repeat Camille’s name until Laurent hit her,  Then she  knew that she  had  won.

12

Punishment

Madame Raquin’s  life  was  terrible.  She   wanted to  die. She  decided that she  would  stop  eating. She  refused all food.  She  wanted to  kill  herself. Thérèse tried to  make  her aunt eat  some  food,  but  the  old  woman would not open her mouth.

‘Leave  her  alone,’ Laurent shouted at his  wife.  ‘If the  old woman wants to die,  let  her die.’

When she  heard these words,   Madame Raquin  made   a decision. She  did  not want to  die  now.  She  did  not want to make  the  murderers’ ives  easier.  She  decided to  live.

Madame Raquin wanted revenge. And she  believed that she  would not have long  to wait.  The murderers would soon be  punished.  Laurent and  Thérèse were   slowly   destroying each other.

Thérèse and  Laurent wanted to  escape from  each other

They wanted to  run   away,  but   they could not.   If they ran away,  their friends would think again about Camille’s death They would remember that Laurent had  been Camille’s best friend. They would think  about how  and  why  Laurent and Thérèse got  married. Then  they  would think that Laurent and  Thérèse were  guilty of a crime. The murderers would  be caught, brought back to  Paris,  and  executed”°.

One day, Thérèse asked  Suzanne Michaud to come  and  serve in  the   shop   with her.   Suzanne was  delighted and   the   two women sat  behind the counter, talking all  day.  Madame Raquin and  François sat  upstairs.

The drapers shop   had   very  few  customers now.  All  the

goods   were   old  and   dirty.   Thérèse did  not care   about her

90                                                                                                                                                      91

Punishment                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Punishment

customers or  the  business at all.  Sometimes she  went out  in the  afternoon and  left Suzanne to look  after  the  shop.  When Thérèse returned  to  the  Passage du   Pont-Neuf in   the evening, she  looked very  tired.

Laurent had   nothing to  do  and  he  was  very  bored.  He

could not paint, because every  face  that he  painted looked like  Camille. Sometimes Laurent walked along by the  River Seine. Sometimes he  slept  all day in his studio. The mark  left by Camille’s teeth on  Laurent’s neck was  still  painful. The bite-mark had  not disappeared. Laurent saw it  every  day and remembered how  he  had  murdered Camille.

Laurent hated his  wife  and   he  hated  Madame Raquin. And his  hatred of  Madame  Raquin’s tabby cat,   François, became stronger and  stronger.

The cat sat   on   Madame Raquin’s knees  all   day.   He

watched Laurent with his  big  green eyes.  Laurent began to think that François knew all  about the  murder of Camille.

One evening,  Laurent decided to  kill   the  animal. He picked up  the cat   and   opened the   sitting-room  window. Immediately, Madame Raquin understood what Laurent was going  to do.  Two  tears  ran  down her  pale  face.

François fought Laurent  and  tried to  bite   him.   But  the

poor  cat  could not get away. Laurent threw the  animal out  of the   window. Francois’s head hit  the   high black wall   and, with one  terrible cry, he  died.

Poor  Madame Raquin had cried when her  son  died,  And

now  she  cried when she  saw François die.

Laurent soon   had other things to  worry  him. Thérèse had became very  quiet. She  no  longer tried to  please her  aunt. Thérèse  also stopped quarrelling  with her husband. Sometimes she  did  not speak  to him at all.

Then Thérèse started to  go out  of the  house four  or five

times   a week.   Laurent did  not trust his  wife.  He  was  afraid

that she  would go the  police and  tell  them about the  murder of Camille. He  thought that she  would confess to the  crime Laurent decided to  follow Thérèse  and   find   out   what  she was doing.

Early  one   morning, Laurent sat  down outside a wine-shop near the   Passage du  Pont-Neuf and   waited. After half an hour,   Thérèse came   out  of  the   arcade. She   was  dressed in brightly-coloured clothes and  her  black hair hung about her shoulders. She  lifted her dress  as she  walked and  everyone could see her  white stockings and  black shoes.  She  smiled at all the  men as she  walked along.

Laurent followed his wife carefully. She  was walking more quickly now.  A police officer passed her  and  Thérèse smiled at  him.   Laurent was  terrified. Thérèse was  going to  tell  the police officer everything!  But  she  walked on  until she  came to  a  little café.   The  tables outside the   café  were   crowded with students and  young women. Thérèse sat down at one  of the   tables and  greeted all  the  young people. The men and women were  drinking wine, smoking cigars  and  kissing each other.

Thérèse spoke  to  a waiter and  ordered a drink. Then she started to  talk  to  a fair-haired young man.   When they had finished their drinks, Thérèse and  the  young man got  up and walked away.  Thérése was holding the  young man’s  arm.

Laurent followed them  and   saw  them go  into a  cheap

hotel. A few minutes later,  Thérèse and  the  young man were standing together by an  open window. The fair-haired man put  his  arms  round Thérése and  kissed  her.

‘Thérèse is making love  to  strangers and  they are  paying her,’ Laurent said  to himself. ‘I don’t  care.  I’ll ask Thérèse for a few thousand francs when she  gets  home this  evening.’

That night, Thérèse came  home late.  Laurent did  not say

that he  had  seen  her  at  the  café  with the  young man.

92                                                                                                                                                       93

Therese looked tired and she smelt of cigar smoke and wine. She ate nothing at dinner.

‘I want you to give me some money’, Laurent said. ‘ Five thousand francs will be enough.’

Therese refused.’ No. You’ll soon want more,’ she replied. ‘We’re speding too much money. You’ve got no job. The shop isn’t making any money now. I give you an allowance of one hundred francs a month and I pay for all your food. That’s more than enough.’

‘I want five thousand francs,’ Laurent said again.

‘We’ve bought everything for you for four years!’ Therese shouted.’ There’s a word for a man who women pay for!’

‘You’ve learnt that word from your new friends,’ Laurent said. But he did not say more. He did not tell Therese that he had seen her with her new friends.

Therese looked at her husband with anger in her dark, shining eyes. ‘At least my new friends are not murderers,’ she said quietly.

Laurent’s face became very pale. ‘I don’t want to quarrel any more,’ he said. ‘Give me the money.’

‘No.’

Laurent jumped up and Therese thought that he was going to hit her. ‘You’re making me mad!’ he shouted. ‘I shall go to the police and tell them everything.’

Therese stood up too.’Very well,’ she said.’Let’s go to the police together.’

‘Yes.We’ll go together,’ Laurent replied.

But when they got downstairs they both stopped. They were too afraid to go any further. Therese was the first to speak.

‘You can have the money,’ she said. ‘I don’t care.’

She left the room and came back a few minutes later with five thousand francs.

Laurent now had money and he began to enjoy himself.

He went out with women. He got drunk in wine-shops and sometimes he stayed out all night. But nothing made him feel happy. Laurent did not care for food and kisses any more. And when he returned home to Therese and Madame Raquin, he felt afraid again. After a few weeks, he decided not to spend any more money.

Then Therese stopped going out and meeting men. Nothing made her happy now. She stayed in the house, wore dirty clothes and did not wash herself.

The two murderers were together in the house all day. They began to quarrel again. They both said that they would go to the police and confess. They watched each other with fear in their eyes. Therese began to wish that Laurent was dead. And Laurent began to wish that Therese was dead. Only a second murder can save them.

Laurent decided to kill Therese because he hated and feared. Therese decided to kill her husband for the same reasons. Their plans were exactly the same. First, murder, then escape with Therese’s money. Therese had hidden the money, but Laurent knew where it was.

Laurent bought some prussic acid- a powerful poison. Therese took a sharp knife from the kitchen and hid it in the pocket of her dress.

Thursday evening arrived and the domino players walked cheerfully up the stairs to the room over the drapers shop. They had been meeting together every Thursday for four years. They had never thought that anything was wrong in the Raquins’ house. And they did not think that anything was wrong on this day. They were sure that the Raquins were all happy.

Therese and Suzanne talked together, as usual. Grivet told his silly jokes, as usual. Laurent laughed loudly at all of Grivet’s stories, as usual.

Madame Raquin waited and watched. Soon the murderers

Punishment

would  be punished for their crime. She  hoped that she  would                                                                                                                                          4

live  long  enough to see them punished.

That evening, the  friends stayed much later than usual.  It

was  half past  eleven when they finished their last  game  of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4

dominoes. Grivet and  the  Michauds got  ready to  leave.                                                                                                                                                                                                  4

‘This  is such  a happy place. We  never want to  go home,’ Old  Michaud said  and  he  smiled at Madame Raquin.

‘I’ll be  here tomorrow at nine o’clock,’   Suzanne said  to

Thérèse.

‘No,’ Thérèse said quickly. ‘I’ll be out  tomorrow morning. Come in  the afternoon.’

Thérèse and  Laurent went downstairs with their visitors                                                                                                                                                                                                                 4 and  locked the  door  of the  shop.   Their hands were  shaking

and  they  did  not look  at each other. Then they  went upstairs and  sat  down at  the   table. They did  not look   at  Madame Raquin.

Suddenly Laurent said,  ‘Well,  are  we going to bed?’

‘Yes, we’re  going   to  bed,’  Thérèse replied. She  stood up and  picked up the  water jug.  ‘I’ll prepare a drink for us before you  take  aunt to her  bed.’

‘No.  I’ll make a drink tonight,’ Laurent said  quickly. He

turned away  from  his  wife  and  filled  a glass with water from the  jug.  He  poured the  poison into the  glass  and  then put  in some  sugar.

As  Laurent turned away  from her,  Thérèse pulled the knife out  of her pocket.

They both turned  towards each other  at the same moment. Thérèse looked at  the  glass  and  then  Laurent saw

the knife in his   wife’s   hand.  Madame Raquin sat   and watched.

Suddenly, Thérèse and  Laurent began to cry. They stood completely still,  looking at each other for the  last  time.  Then Thérèse took the  glass,  drank half of the  poisoned water and gave  the  glass  back  to  Laurent. He  drank too.

96

As they fell down to the floor together, Therese’s mouth touched the mark on Laurent’s neck. Laurent and Therese lay on the sitting room floor all night. The light from the lamp shone down on their twisted bodies. For almost twelve hours Madame Raquin stared at the corpses of the murderers . She could not move and she could not cry out . But she had a look of terrible joy in her eyes. She was happy. Her son’s murderers had their punishment at last.

100                                                                                                                                                      101

1       clerk (page 4)

Glossary

If the judge and the court decide that the person did not break the

law,  the  person is found not  guilty.  The innocent person can then

a person who looks  after documents in  an  office.

2    jealousy  (page 5)

a  feeling of  sadness and anger because someone has   something that you  want. When someone has  something that you  want, or does  something that you  want to do,  you  feel jealous.

3       affairs (page 5)  sexual relationships.

leave the court.

11 escaped —  to escape  (page 6)

12  quickly leave a place where  there is danger.

poisonous  (page 6)

poison  is a substance that can make a person very  ill, or it might kill them. Some plants, animals, chemicals  and gases are poisonous

—

4    recognized

to recognize  (page 5)

If a poison enters a person’s body they could become ill,  or  even

people read Zola’s  work  and  they believed that he  was  one  of the very  best  French writers. The common meaning of recognize  is: to know a person and remember where you  have seen them before.

5        tradespeople  (page 5)

people who buy  and  sell  goods.

6    smugglers  (page 5)

people who  break a law  when they take  particular things out  of a country, or  bring things into a country.

die.  As  a fire  or a stove in a room burns, poisonous gases go into the

air. If all the windows and the doors of the room are shut, the room fills with poisonous gases.  These gases  will  kill  a person who stays  in  that closed room.

13  adultery  (page 6)

if a man and  woman have a sexual relationship and  one  of them is

14 married, they are  committing adultery.

revenge (page 6)

—

7    destroyed

to be destroyed (page 5)

do  something to  someone because they have hurt you,  or someone

when something terrible happens and  people’s lives  are  never the same  again, they are destroyed.  Someone’s happiness  can be destroyed

if another person is cruel to  them, or  takes everything away  from them.

8    accused —  to accuse  (page 6)

say that someone has  done something wrong, or broken a law.

9    crime of spying  (page 6)

a crime  is when you do something which breaks a law.  For  example, stealing and  murder are  crimes. When a person steals something or

murders someone, they are  committing the crime  of theft or murder. People who give  the   enemies of  their country information about

their  own country are  spies. They  are  committing the crime  of spying.

10  found guilty —   to find  someone guilty  (page 6)

when someone breaks a  law  the   police take them  to  a  court of law.  The judge and the  court decide if the  person has  broken the

law  and  committed that crime.

If the  judge and  the  court decide that the  person did  break the  law, the  person is found guilty.  He or she might have to pay some money or go to  prison.

who you  know. When you  do something to  a person who  has  hurt

15  you,  you  are  taking revenge.

Normandy (page 8)

a northern region of France.

16 drapers shop (page 8)

a  shop where cloth  and   things  made of  cloth are  sold.   Drapers

shops might also  sell  things like  buttons, ribbons etc.  (See  Glossary

No.  50.)

17  rent —  to rent  (page 8)

pay to live in someone’s apartment or their house. The amount of

18 money that you  agree  to pay  every  week,   month or year,  is the  rent

bank (page 8)

the raised area along one edge of a river.

19  blotchy  (page 8)

having many marks on  it.

20 spoilt —  to spoil (page 8)

change someone or  something in  a bad  way.  Madame Raquin has always done everything for Camille. She has  never made him help her.  Spoilt  people believe that they can have whatever they want whenever they want it. Spoilt people will  not listen to  advice

21  treated —  to treat someone  (page 8)

look after someone in  a special way,  perhaps because you  believe that they are  sick  or unhappy.

22  sickly  (page 8)

unhealthy. Someone who  has  a lot  of illnesses is sickly.

23  weak  (page 8)

not strong. A  person can have a  weak   mind or  a  weak body. Someone with a  weak  body feels  ill  and cannot  walk easily. Someone who does  not know what is right or  wrong, and  cannot make a decision, has  a weak  mind.

24  selfish and vain (page 9)

a selfish person only  thinks of what they feel  or want. Someone who is vain  thinks that they are  good  looking and  important.

25  expression  (page 9)

the  way  that a person’s face  shows their  feelings. Their  expression shows  that they are  happy, sad,  angry, in love, worried, etc.

26  sewed —  to sew  (page  10)

join pieces of cloth together with a long thin thread.

27  tabby  (page 10)

a Cat that has  stripes of grey,  brown or  black fur  on  its body.

28 nodded —  to nod  (page  10)

move your head  up   and down  to  show that  you   agree with someone’s words.

29  fists  (page 12)

when you  close your  fingers onto your  hands, your  hands become

fists.  People use  their fists  to  hit each other during a fight.

30   brave  (page  12)

a  brave   person is  strong and does   not show fear   when  they do something which is painful or dangerous.

31   took  no notice of —  to take no notice  (page  13)

when you  look at  someone, or  you  know that someone is near to you,  you  notice  them.  If you  know that someone is near to  you,  but you  do  not look at  them, you  take  no notice  of them.

32  behaved —  to behave  (page 13)

the   way  that you  do  or  say  things. A  person’s  behaviour can   be good  or  bad.

33   complained —  to complain (page  13)

say  that you  think something is wrong and  that you  are  unhappy about it.  When a person goes  to  a second person and says  that  a third person has  done something wrong, the  first  person is making a complaint about the  third person.

34   country  (page 13)

the  land outside towns, where there are farms,  trees,  mountains and lakes  is  called the   countryside. This  word is  often  shortened  to country.

35  arcade  (page 14)

an  area  or  a street v’hich has  shops on  either side  and  is covered with a roof.

36   Passage du  Pont-Neuf (page 14)

a passage  is a small, narrow street which goes  between two  larger streets. Pont  means bridge. Neuf means nine.

The  Passage  du Pont-Neuf = a narrow street near the  ninth bridge which crosses the  River Seine.

37   cheaply  (page 14)

the  organization did  not cost  much money to  buy.

38  paved —  to pave  (page  15)

ground that  is covered in  large   flat  pieces of  stone is paved.   The pieces of stone are  called paving.

39   cracked  (page 15)

having lines which show that the  stones are  broken.

40   lanterns  (page 15)

glass  containers with lights inside them. At the  time of this story electricity was  not common. Homes and  streets were  lit  by flames of burning gas or oil.

41  grave  (page 15)

when someone dies,  their body  is put  into a hole in  the  ground and it is covered with earth. The body  is buried in  this grave.  An open grave  has  not been covered with earth.

42  counter  (page 15)

a long flat  surface where customers buy  their goods  in a shop.

43   spiral  staircase  (page 15)

stairs that curve around a large  central post as they go up.

44   in despair —  to be in despair  (page  16)

be  extremely unhappy.

45  stiff (page 16)

Thérèse holds her body straight and  does  not move.

46  wallpaper  (page 16)

a thick paper that is stuck onto the  walls  inside a house. Wallpaper

might be coloured and  it sometimes has  patterns or pictures on  it

47   looked forward —   to look forward to (page  16)

think happily about something that will  happen in  the  future

105

I

48  stockings  (page 17)

thin coverings that women wear on  their legs.

49  wool  (page  17)

a soft  thick thread that is made from  the  hair of sheep.

50   knitting-needles, boxes  of buttons and  cheap ribbons  (page 17) knitting-needles are pairs  of metal or wooden pins  that are  used  with a wool  thread to  make soft  warm clothes.  Buttons are  small round

objects that fasten clothes. Buttons are pushed through holes  in the cloth to  join the  edges  of clothes together. Narrow strips of cloth

which are  used  to  fasten things together, or  decorate clothes are called ribbons.

60  allowance  (page 23)

an  amount of  money that a person receives from   someone eac week, month or year.

61   refused— to refuse  (page 23)

say that you  viill  not do  something that someone has  asked you  t do.

62  models  (page 23)

men or  women who sit  or  stand in  an  artist’s studio so  that th artist can  paint pictures of them.

63   Lazy (page 24)

a lazy person will  not do  anything that is difficult or  tiring.

51  served— to serve  (page  17)

64  make love  —

to make  love  (page 24)

sell  things to people who  come into a shop, cafe  or restaurant.

52  shutters  (page 19)

wooden covers that can  be put  over windows at night or during bad weather.

53  dominoes —  to play dominoes (page  19)

dominoes are  small,  flat  pieces of wood that have different numbers of  spots on   them. They are  used   to  play a game  called  dominoes. Players try  to place each of their dominoes next to  another person’s domino which has  the  same number of spots on  it.

when someone says  and does  things which show that they are  i love  with another person, they are  making love to that person. Here, this  phrase has   a stronger meaning. It  means: to  have  se with someone.

The word lover  can be  used in  two   ways.   Someone  who love

another person very  much is a lover.  The word lover is also  used  fo a person who  has  a sexual relationship with someone.

—

65  portrait  (page 24)

a painting which shows a person’s face.

54  Police Commissioner  (page 19)

66  curl

to curl  (page 24)

an  important police officer who is in charge of a large  department

of police.

55  retired —  to retire  (page  19)

stop  working because you  are  ill or too  old.

56  respected —  to respect  (page  19)

be very  polite to someone because you  think that they are  clever or

bend pieces of hair into curved shapes. At this  time, both women and men curled  their hair.

67   brandy (page 26)

a strong alcoholic drink made from  fruit such as grapes or  apples

68  easel and  paints  (page 26)

an  easel is a frame which holds the  picture while the  artist paints o

important.

57   headache  (page 20)

draws  it.  Paints  are  coloured powders which are  mixed with oil   An artist uses  paints when he  or she  paints a picture.

a pain in  your  head.

69  prepared his  canvas —

to prepare the canvas (page 26)

58   half-asleep  (page 20)

half  is used  as a prefix to  a word  when something happens but  it is not complete. Thérèse is  not completely asleep and she   is  not completely awake. She  is half-asleep.

a piece of cloth is attached to  a wooden frame. Then the  cloth i covered with a  special thin  liquid. When  the canvas is  dry,   i becomes hard and  flat.  The canvas has  been prepared. The artist can

then start painting their picture onto the canvas.

Other words which can take the  prefix half- are  ‘mad’  (half-mad),

70  try  to seduce

—  to try  to seduce  (page 27)

and ‘dead’  (half-dead).

59  real man (page 23)

Camille is an  unattractive,  weak man and he  never makes love  to

do  or say things which will  make someone have sex.

—

71  twisted  (page 27)

bent into an  unusual shape.

Thérèse. For  the  first  time, Thérèse sees  an  attractive, strong man

72  drowned

to drown (page 27)

who likes  women. She is excited when she  sees  Laurent.

a person who  sinks  under water and dies,  has  drowned.

A  person can  kill  someone by drowning them —  pushing them under the  water until they die.

73  brutal  (page 28)

very  violent.

74  alley (page 28)

a narrow street between or  behind a building.

75  petticoats  (page 29)

skirts which were   made of  white cloth  that  women wore under their long dresses. At this  time, women wore  many petticoats under their dresses. They made the skirts of their dresses very  wide.

76  violets  (page 29)

small blue flowers with a strong sweet smell.

77  desire (page 29)

if you  have a desire  for  someone, you  want to  make love   to  them. Camille never wants to  make love  to  his  wife.  He  has  no desire for her.

78  drunken  (page 29)

a drunken person is someone who has  drunk so much alcohol that they cannot  speak clearly or  walk easily. Laurent’s  feelings  for Thérèse are  so strong that he  walks like  a drunken man.

79  bedclothes  (page 32)

the sheets, blankets  and covers on   a  bed   which keep a  person warm.

80  pretended —  to pretend (page 32)

speak and behave  in  a  way  so  people believe that  something is true, when it is not.

81  deceiving —  to deceive  (page 33)

trick someone or make them look foolish.

82  skylight (page 36)

a square window in  a roof.

83  share —  to share  (page 39)

use  or have something at  the  same  time as someone else.  You  can share a room,  or a bed. If you  share someone’s  life, you  are  with them during difficult times and  good times.

84  unsolved crimes (page 39)

if the  police cannot find  out  how  a crime happened and  who  did  it,

the  crime  is unsolved.

85  traffic (page 40)

all  the  people and  vehicles that travel in  the  streets of a village,  a town or a city.

86  cab  (page 41)

a vehicle  pulled  by a horse.  Cabs  could  carry  two passengers   In

modern usage, cab means a taxi.

87  parasol (page4l)

a light umbrella which women carried in  the  summer to  keep the sun  off their faces.

88   terrace  (page 43)

an  area  outside the  café  where customers can  sit  to eat  their meals The terrace of this  café  is built above the  ground. People can sit  at tables on  the  terrace and can look  down onto the river.

89   boat-trip  (page 44)

a journey on  a boat.

90   hired out  —  to hire out  (page 44)

take money from a person who wants to  use  something that you own.

91  rowing-boat (page 44)

a boat which is pulled through the  water —  rowed —  with pairs  of oars

—  long pieces of wood which are  attached to  the  sides  of the  boat

92  fainted —  to faint (page 47)

suddenly fall  to  the  ground and  be  unable to  see or hear for a short time. People faint because they are  ill or  they have had  a shock

93   It  was my  fault! (page 47)

when you  do  something  which makes a  problem or  trouble  for another person, it  is your  fault that this has  happened.

Laurent is being very  clever here. He  quickly says  that he  should have looked after Camille  more carefully. He  pretends to  be  very upset by what has  happened. So all  the  people on  the  river believe his  words. They never think that he  has  killed Camille.

94  omni’ius  (page 48)

an  (  d word  for  ‘bus’. Omnibuses did  not have engines. They were pulled by two  or four  horses.

95  suffering —  to suffer  (page 49)

feel  great pain in  your  body,  or feel  great sadness in  your  mind.

96  confess —  to confess  (page 50)

tell people that you  have done something wrong or  broken a law

97  death certificate (page 52)

an  official paper which gives   the  name of a dead person and says when and how they died.

Death certificates had  to  be  written  and signed by  an  important person such as a doctor or city  official.

98  mirror (page 55)

a special piece of glass  in which you  can see yourself, or something which is behind you.

99  not  trust —  to not  trust  someone (page 60)

believe that someone will  say or do  something to  hurt you.

100 matches  (page 61)

small wooden sticks that  make a  flame when they  are   rubbed against something which is rough.

101  town hail  (page 71)

the   most important  building in  a  town. An official at  the   town hail can  say the  special words  and  prepare the  official document for a marriage between a man and a woman.

102 marriage ceremony  (page 71)

special words  that a priest or an  official speaks  when two  people get married.

103  disgust  (page 72)

the feeling that  you  have when you   see,   hear, touch or  smell something that is unpleasant.

104  spat —  to spit  (page 75)

send clear liquid out  of your  mouth.

105 scratching noise (page 75)

the  sound made by an  animal when it  pulls  the  sharp claws on  its feet  across wood or stone.

106 from his  imagination  (page 81)

Laurent paints pictures of the  things and  people that he  sees  in his mind.

107 stroke (page 84)

if a person’s blood cannot reach their brain for a few  minutes, they suddenly become ill.  The  illness is called a stroke.  Someone who has  had a stroke might never speak or  move easily again.

108 punished —  to punish (page 86)

when someone does   something  wrong and   you  make them  feel sorry,  you  are  punishing them.

A  punishment is  the   way  in  which someone is punished  because they have done something wrong. The person might be beaten, or they  might be sent to prison. They might have to pay  an  amount of money, or they might be sent away  from  their home.

109  begged her  forgiveness —  to beg her forgiveness (page 89)

if someone has  made you  angry or upset, and  then you  decide that you  will  no  longer be  angry with them, you  forgive  them.

When someone wants something very  much and asks  for  it again and  again, they are  begging.

110  executed —  to be executed (page 91)

be killed because you  have broken an  important law.  At this time murderers were  executed.

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