Chapter 45 four monsieur madeleine in mourning

At the beginning of 1821, the newspapers everywhere published the news of the death of the Bishop of Digne, "Monsieur Bienvenu", M. de Myrière.He was ordained at the advanced age of eighty-two. Here we add a point omitted by newspapers in various places.The Bishop of Digne had been blind for several years before his death, but he took pleasure in being blind because he had his sister by his side. Let us say by the way, that to be blind and to be loved is a strangely sweet happiness in a world where nothing is perfect.By your side, there is always a woman, girl, sister, lovely person who is dependent on you for life, knowing that you are absolutely indispensable to her, and she is also indispensable to yourself, and you can always be there for her and you. You can infer her feelings based on the length of time you get along, and you can say to yourself: "Since she spends all her time on me, it is enough to show that I have her whole heart"; you can't see her face, but you can To understand her thoughts; to experience a person's faithfulness in a life isolated from the world; to feel the swaying of her dress, like the sound of a bird's wings; to hear her come and go, to speak, to sing, and to think that she This kind of footsteps, these words, the center of this song; from time to time, I express my happiness, feeling that the more I am incomplete, the stronger I am; in that darkness, and because of that darkness, I have become the planet to which this angel belongs; There are few pleasures that can compare to this.The highest happiness in life is to feel that you are loved; someone loves you for who you are, and what is more, someone who does not ask what you are like but still loves you with all his heart, that feeling is shared by the blind.In that pain, to be served is to be caressed.What else is he missing?Nothing is missing.There is no blindness when there is love.And what a love!A love that is entirely composed of noble qualities.Where there is peace, there is no blindness.One heart gropes for another, and gets it.Besides, the heart that has been found and confirmed is the heart of a woman.A hand is holding you, it is her hand; a mouth is brushing your forehead, it is her mouth; close to you, you hear a breathing sound, that sound is also she.To have her all, from her faith to her sympathy, never parted from her, aided by that feeble power, leaning on that indomitable reed, touching the god with her own hands, and holding her in her arms, God of flesh and blood, what a blessing!This heart, this mysterious fairy flower, opened so mysteriously.Even at the price of seeing the light again, we are not willing to sacrifice the shadow of this flower.The angel's spirit is by my side, always by my side; and if she goes away, she goes away in order to come back again; she disappears as in a dream, and reappears as in reality; we feel a warmth approaching us Beside, this is where she comes.We have indescribable silence, joy and admiration, and we ourselves are the light in the dark.There are thousands of meticulous cares, and many small things have great meaning in the emptiness.That indelible female voice can both lull you to sleep and replace for you the lost universe.You have been caressed by the soul.You can't see anything, but you feel her love.This is heaven in the dark.

Bishop Bienvenu crossed from this heaven to that heaven. The news of his death was reproduced in the local newspapers of Montreuil-sur-Mer.The next day, M. Madeleine was dressed in all black, with black gauze on his hat. People in the city noticed his mourning clothes and talked about it.This seems to give a hint of M. Madeleine's background.It was concluded that he had something to do with the eminent bishop.Those in the drawing-room said that "he wears mourning for the Bishop of Digne," which greatly enhanced M. Madeleine's status, and he immediately acquired a certain importance in the noble society of Montreuil-sur-Mer.A small Saint-Germain commune in that place wanted to abolish the former discrimination against M. Madeleine, who was probably related to the bishop.From then on the older women curtseyed more to him, and the younger women smiled more at him, and M. Madeleine saw his own superiority in these respects.One evening, an old lady in that little society, who thought she was old enough to have the right to meddle in business, asked him without presumptuousness: "Mr. Mayor must be the late Digne." The bishop's cousin?"

He said, "No, ma'am." "But didn't you wear mourning for him?" said the old widow again. He replied, "That's because I was a servant in his house when I was a child." There is one more thing that everyone knows.Every time a homeless boy with a chimney passed through the city, the mayor always sent someone to call him, ask his name, and give him money.As soon as word of it got around among the chimney-runners, many chimney-runners walked through that place.