4

We were all waiting for the news that my grandmother would bring from the enemy, as if it were possible to hesitate among many possible assailants, and shortly after my grandfather would say:

He always said. – I recognize Visnsmoken 's voice.

Even though in fact when he recognized those same voices, those same people where he retracted that curved nose, it felt like he smelled rotten eggs, just that feeling of money.

This was all because none of them, even if they didn't like him, but felt obliged to maintain cordiality, seeing those green eyes, under the broad forehead surrounded by blond hair, almost red, combed Peterson.

All of this happened because we turned on as little light as possible in the garden so as not to attract the mosquitoes, and I would, surreptitiously, send for refreshments to be brought; my grandmother thought it very important, as it seemed kinder to her, even if refreshments were served as usual, and not exceptionally and only for visitors.

As for Mr. Visnsmoken, though much younger than my grandfather, was quite attached to him, who had been one of his father's best friends, an excellent but queer man, for whom a trifle was sometimes enough, it seems, to interrupt his affective impulses or change his mind. him the course of thought. Several times a year, I heard my grandfather tell the table always...

He was the worst of them, being taken by some thoughts, in which he was always about correcting the situation, in which it was about the attitude that Visnsmoken senior had on the occasion of the death of his wife, who he cared for day and night.

As for the Vinsmokens , in which he knew that scene, in which he had not seen him for a long time, when he joined his, in the Visnsmoken property that was in the vicinity of Conan Doyle County; and had managed to make him leave the burial chamber for a moment, all in tears, so that he would not be present at the closing of the coffin.

When they made their way in, his steps were steady as he passed through the park, where a little sun was shining.

Since he could suddenly say, as for the Visnsmoken, he started screaming, grabbing my grandfather's arm:

- Ah, my old friend, it's been a long time since I've seen you. - He said.

When they realized that it was a pure lie, but decorum did not allow it to be said.

- So, what happiness to walk together on such a beautiful day, in this cold week, a fireplace would be genuinely nice. - He said.

- Oh, cousin, do not say. - The other said.

- Don't you think all this is beautiful, these trees, as for the firewood I take from the fireplace, it is from reforestation, my fireplace is made of green wood. - He said.

- You know, my mansion, to spend some time? – He questioned him.

- You never congratulated me on my heated pool. - The other said.

Due to the fog that covered the city, since it was a place that was more than cold and whose fog covered the city.

- The journey must have been long. - He said.

- Yes, but what kind of sad fact is that? - He said.

- Yes, is everything feeling the breeze now? – Well, he said so.

- The blessed cold of winter. - He said.

Ah! there's still so much good in life there is still much to say, my dear Mildred used to say.

Although he had some memories, which were more than absurd, the feeling that he remembered something of his dead wife came back to him, and undoubtedly finding it extremely complicated to explain how he could have let himself be carried away by a movement of joy at such a moment.

Even if he wanted to conduct some gestures that were familiar to him every time a subjective question presented itself to his mind, in passing his hand over his forehead, wiping his eyes, and cleaning the glasses of his pince-nez.

- He could not, but nevertheless. – When he went to relieve himself, even to console himself for the death of his wife, but, in the two years he survived him, he said to my grandfather: “It's funny, I often think about my poor wife, but I can't think much at a time.”

- On those several times that occurred, when repeating this, but little at a time, like poor old Visnsmoken.

Creating then, their best and most comforting words, which they chose for him, as their favourite’s.

- Same as my grandfather, who he spoke about the most diverse things. That old Visnsmoken would certainly seem like a monster to me, if my grandfather, whom I considered the best judge and whose sentences made jurisprudence for me, often helping me to absolve faults that I felt inclined to condemn, had not exclaimed:

- But how is that possible? – He questioned him.

- I still believe in your goodness, in your ardent heart, in that simple beauty of your adventurous heart. - He said.

For many years, when Mr. Visnsmoken son came to visit us with

With that, he knew that that city, that of his former home, called Conan Doyle County, especially before his marriage, my great-aunt and my grandparents never suspected that he no longer lived in the society that his family frequented.

They were under a kind of strange moment of an uncomfortable and unknown situation, in which the name Visnsmoken was haloed in our house, they welcomed.

Even if he had his innocence, in fact they are not very honourable, in that men and their hosts who may have, under their roof, without knowing it, a celebrated bandit.

It was there that he met one of the most elegant members of the Jockey-Club, a favourite friend of the Count of Paris and the Prince of Wales, one of the most courted men of high society in the Saint-Germain district.

Our ignorance of the brilliant worldly life that Visnsmoken led evidently arose in part from the reserve and discretion of his temperament, but also from the fact that.

They would be their peers and high-class equals in the high society of their generation in which they were part of that select group of wealthy society in which they came from a traditional and wealthy family in which they had a set of ideals that would be of a more traditional tradition. than specify.

Around her when they all belonged to a certain more than traditional society and came from ancient ideas and ancient lives that were not considered as composed of ancient families and far from contemporary ideas, in which each one, their traditions came from birth.

Even if he thought he was placed in the position occupied by his parents, even if they would be where they came from traditions and ancient families and full of ancient customs, in which nothing could take them away to make them penetrate a superior caste, except by chance. of an exceptional career or an unexpected marriage.

As for your colleague, Mr. Visnsmoken Sr. had been a stockbroker; the “son of Visnsmoken ” would therefore have to belong all his life to a caste whose fortunes, as in a certain category of contributors, varied between such and such an income, where they knew what his father's relations had been, one knew, in that way, what theirs would be, what kind of people they would be, even in those strange conditions when frequenting my mansion.

Even if, through a contact, which none of this was by chance, I got to know others, they would be simple boyish relationships to which old friends of the family, as was the case with my parents, closed their eyes with benevolence, all the more so that he, even after he was an orphan, they still had frequent visitors, but it would be a bet that the people, unknown to us, he frequented.

Even if these still came from another country, where he wouldn't dare take off his hat in our presence when he found them. If one wanted to apply a living force, to Visnsmoken, a social coefficient of his own, among the other children of brokers in the same situation as their parents.

Even coming from the highest standards of the old families, in which the Visnsmoken came from, in very simple ways and always having the "mania" for antique objects and painting, he now lived in an old house where he gathered his collections and which my grandmother dreamed of visiting , but which was located on the quays of Orléans, a neighbourhoods in which my great-aunt found it infamous to live.

- Even if you know who you are and where you came from?

At that time, questioning everyone around him, he really asked this question, it came from curiosity and his own interest, regarding businesspeople and they came from aristocratic families, in which even if they came with objects and interested parties, they were obsolete, seeing that they had those and lots of crap.

– When your great aunt said she said.

Still, this was a fact that everyone knew, just as she did not attribute any competence to him and did not even have a high idea, from an intellectual point of view, of the man who in conversation avoided serious and strange subjects.

She showed no precision of any balance and any moment, not only when she gave us, going down to the smallest detail, cooking recipes, but even when my grandmother's sisters spoke about artistic themes, even if they were provoking them to give your opinion.

Completely overwhelmed by the admiration that a painting brings, Visnsmoken maintained an almost rude silence, but on the other hand, she opened up when she could provide some material information about the museum where the painting was located, and about the date on which it was painted.

She was not content with this habit, with trying to amuse us by telling, each time, a new story that had just occurred to her with people selected from among those we knew, with the pharmacist from Conan Doyle County, with our cook, our coachman.