The Parrot

by Guy de Maupassant

Everybody in Fecamp knew Mother Patin's story. She had certainly beenunfortunate with her husband, for in his lifetime he used to beat her,just as wheat is threshed in the barn.He was master of a fishing bark and had married her, formerly, becauseshe was pretty, although poor.Patin was a good sailor, but brutal. He used to frequent Father Auban'sinn, where he would usually drink four or five glasses of brandy, onlucky days eight or ten glasses and even more, according to his mood.The brandy was served to the customers by Father Auban's daughter, apleasing brunette, who attracted people to the house only by her prettyface, for nothing had ever been gossiped about her.Patin, when he entered the inn, would be satisfied to look at her and tocompliment her politely and respectfully. After he had had his firstglass of brandy he would already find her much nicer; at the second hewould wink; at the third he would say. "If you were only willing,Mam'zelle Desiree----" without ever finishing his sentence; at the fourthhe would try to hold her back by her skirt in order to kiss her; and whenhe went as high as ten it was Father Auban who brought him the remainingdrinks.The old innkeeper, who knew all the tricks of the trade, made Desireewalk about between the tables in order to increase the consumption ofdrinks; and Desiree, who was a worthy daughter of Father Auban, flittedaround among the benches and joked with them, her lips smiling and hereyes sparkling.Patin got so well accustomed to Desiree's face that he thought of it evenwhile at sea, when throwing out his nets, in storms or in calms, onmoonlit or dark evenings. He thought of her while holding the tiller inthe stern of his boat, while his four companions were slumbering withtheir heads on their arms. He always saw her, smiling, pouring out theyellow brandy with a peculiar shoulder movement and then exclaiming asshe turned away: "There, now; are you satisfied?"He saw her so much in his mind's eye that he was overcome by anirresistible desire to marry her, and, not being able to hold out anylonger, he asked for her hand.He was rich, owned his own vessel, his nets and a little house at thefoot of the hill on the Retenue, whereas Father Auban had nothing. Themarriage was therefore eagerly agreed upon and the wedding took place assoon as possible, as both parties were desirous for the affair to beconcluded as early as convenient.Three days after the wedding Patin could no longer understand how he hadever imagined Desiree to be different from other women. What a fool hehad been to encumber himself with a penniless creature, who hadundoubtedly inveigled him with some drug which she had put in his brandy!He would curse all day lung, break his pipe with his teeth and maul hiscrew. After he had sworn by every known term at everything that came hisway he would rid himself of his remaining anger on the fish and lobsters,which he pulled from the nets and threw into the baskets amid oaths andfoul language. When he returned home he would find his wife, FatherAuban's daughter, within reach of his mouth and hand, and it was not longbefore he treated her like the lowest creature in the world. As shelistened calmly, accustomed to paternal violence, he grew exasperated ather quiet, and one evening he beat her. Then life at his home becameunbearable.For ten years the principal topic of conversation on the Retenue wasabout the beatings that Patin gave his wife and his manner of cursing ather for the least thing. He could, indeed, curse with a richness ofvocabulary in a roundness of tone unequalled by any other man in Fecamp.As soon as his ship was sighted at the entrance of the harbor, returningfrom the fishing expedition, every one awaited the first volley he wouldhurl from the bridge as soon as he perceived his wife's white cap.Standing at the stern he would steer, his eye fixed on the bows and onthe sail, and, notwithstanding the difficulty of the narrow passage andthe height of the turbulent waves, he would search among the watchingwomen and try to recognize his wife, Father Auban's daughter, the wretch!Then, as soon as he saw her, notwithstanding the noise of the wind andwaves, he would let loose upon her with such power and volubility thatevery one would laugh, although they pitied her greatly. When he arrivedat the dock he would relieve his mind, while unloading the fish, in suchan expressive manner that he attracted around him all the loafers of theneighborhood. The words left his mouth sometimes like shots from acannon, short and terrible, sometimes like peals of thunder, which rolland rumble for five minutes, such a hurricane of oaths that he seemed tohave in his lungs one of the storms of the Eternal Father.When he left his ship and found himself face to face with her, surroundedby all the gossips of the neighborhood, he would bring up a new cargo ofinsults and bring her back to their dwelling, she in front, he behind,she weeping, he yelling at her.At last, when alone with her behind closed doors, he would thrash her onthe slightest pretext. The least thing was sufficient to make him raisehis hand, and when he had once begun he did not stop, but he would throwinto her face the true motive for his anger. At each blow he would roar:"There, you beggar! There, you wretch! There, you pauper! What abright thing I did when I rinsed my mouth with your rascal of a father'sapology for brandy.The poor woman lived in continual fear, in a ceaseless trembling of bodyand soul, in everlasting expectation of outrageous thrashings.This lasted ten years. She was so timorous that she would grow palewhenever she spoke to any one, and she thought of nothing but the blowswith which she was threatened; and she became thinner, more yellow anddrier than a smoked fish.IIOne night, when her husband was at sea, she was suddenly awakened by thewild roaring of the wind!She sat up in her bed, trembling, but, as she hear nothing more, she laydown again; almost immediately there was a roar in the chimney whichshook the entire house; it seemed to cross the heavens like a pack offurious animals snorting and roaring.Then she arose and rushed to the harbor. Other women were arriving fromall sides, carrying lanterns. The men also were gathering, and all werewatching the foaming crests of the breaking wave.The storm lasted fifteen hours. Eleven sailors never returned; Patin wasamong them.In the neighborhood of Dieppe the wreck of his bark, the Jeune-Amelie,was found. The bodies of his sailors were found near Saint-Valery, buthis body was never recovered. As his vessel seemed to have been cut intwo, his wife expected and feared his return for a long time, for ifthere had been a collision he alone might have been picked up and carriedafar off.Little by little she grew accustomed to the thought that she was rid ofhim, although she would start every time that a neighbor, a beggar or apeddler would enter suddenly.One afternoon, about four years after the disappearance of her husband,while she was walking along the Rue aux Juifs, she stopped before thehouse of an old sea captain who had recently died and whose furniture wasfor sale. Just at that moment a parrot was at auction. He had greenfeathers and a blue head and was watching everybody with a displeasedlook. "Three francs!" cried the auctioneer. "A bird that can talk likea lawyer, three francs!"A friend of the Patin woman nudged her and said:"You ought to buy that, you who are rich. It would be good company foryou. That bird is worth more than thirty francs. Anyhow, you can alwayssell it for twenty or twenty-five!"Patin's widow added fifty centimes, and the bird was given her in alittle cage, which she carried away. She took it home, and, as she wasopening the wire door in order to give it something to drink, he bit herfinger and drew blood."Oh, how naughty he is!" she said.Nevertheless she gave it some hemp-seed and corn and watched it pruningits feathers as it glanced warily at its new home and its new mistress.On the following morning, just as day was breaking, the Patin womandistinctly heard a loud, deep, roaring voice calling: "Are you going toget up, carrion?"Her fear was so great that she hid her head under the sheets, for whenPatin was with her as soon as he would open his eyes he would shout thosewell-known words into her ears.Trembling, rolled into a ball, her back prepared for the thrashing whichshe already expected, her face buried in the pillows, she murmured: "GoodLord! he is here! Good Lord! he is here! Good Lord! he has comeback!"Minutes passed; no noise disturbed the quiet room. Then, trembling, shestuck her head out of the bed, sure that he was there, watching, ready tobeat her. Except for a ray of sun shining through the window, she sawnothing, and she said to her self: "He must be hidden."She waited a long time and then, gaining courage, she said to herself: "Imust have dreamed it, seeing there is nobody here."A little reassured, she closed. her eyes, when from quite near a furiousvoice, the thunderous voice of the drowned man, could be heard crying:"Say! when in the name of all that's holy are you going to get up, youb----?"She jumped out of bed, moved by obedience, by the passive obedience of awoman accustomed to blows and who still remembers and always willremember that voice! She said: "Here I am, Patin; what do you want?"Put Patin did not answer. Then, at a complete loss, she looked aroundher, then in the chimney and under the bed and finally sank into a chair,wild with anxiety, convinced that Patin's soul alone was there, near her,and that he had returned in order to torture her.Suddenly she remembered the loft, in order to reach which one had to takea ladder. Surely he must have hidden there in order to surprise her. Hemust have been held by savages on some distant shore, unable to escapeuntil now, and he had returned, worse that ever. There was no doubtingthe quality of that voice. She raised her head and asked: "Are you upthere, Patin?"Patin did not answer. Then, with a terrible fear which made her hearttremble, she climbed the ladder, opened the skylight, looked, sawnothing, entered, looked about and found nothing. Sitting on some straw,she began to cry, but while she was weeping, overcome by a poignant andsupernatural terror, she heard Patin talking in the room below.He seemed less angry and he was saying: "Nasty weather! Fierce wind!Nasty weather! I haven't eaten, damn it!"She cried through the ceiling: "Here I am, Patin; I am getting your mealready. Don't get angry."She ran down again. There was no one in the room. She felt herselfgrowing weak, as if death were touching her, and she tried to run and gethelp from the neighbors, when a voice near her cried out: "I haven't hadmy breakfast, by G--!"And the parrot in his cage watched her with his round, knowing, wickedeye. She, too, looked at him wildly, murmuring: "Ah! so it's you!"He shook his head and continued: "Just you wait! I'll teach you how toloaf."What happened within her? She felt, she understood that it was he, thedead man, who had come back, who had disguised himself in the feathers ofthis bird in order to continue to torment her; that he would curse, asformerly, all day long, and bite her, and swear at her, in order toattract the neighbors and make them laugh. Then she rushed for the cageand seized the bird, which scratched and tore her flesh with its clawsand beak. But she held it with all her strength between her hands. Shethrew it on the ground and rolled over it with the frenzy of onepossessed. She crushed it and finally made of it nothing but a littlegreen, flabby lump which no longer moved or spoke. Then she wrapped itin a cloth, as in a shroud, and she went out in her nightgown, barefoot;she crossed the dock, against which the choppy waves of the sea werebeating, and she shook the cloth and let drop this little, dead thing,which looked like so much grass. Then she returned, threw herself on herknees before the empty cage, and, overcome by what she had done, kneeledand prayed for forgiveness, as if she had committed some heinous crime.

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