happened?’
Marat glowered. ‘I became the People’s Friend.’
‘But you could still dress normally, couldn’t you? For instance, you mention Deputy Robespierre as a patriot, and he is always wonderfully turned-out.’
‘There is perhaps a strain of frivolity in M. Robespierre,’ Marat said drily. ‘For myself, I have no time for the luxuries, I think of the Revolution for twenty-four hours of the day. If you wish to prosper, you will do the same. Now,’ he said, ‘I am going to walk outside, through the cordon, and through Lafayette’s troops. I am going to smile, which I admit you do not often see, and affecting a jaunty air I am going to swing this elegant walking-cane with which M. Danton has so thoughtfully provided me. It’s like a story-book, isn’t it? And then I am off to England, just until the fuss dies down. Which will be a relief to you all, I know.’
GABRIELLE: When there was a knock at the door I didn’t know what to do. But it was only little Louise from upstairs. ‘I went out, Mme Danton.’
‘Oh, Louise, you shouldn’t have done that.’
‘I’m not frightened. Besides – it’s all over. The troops are dispersing. Lafayette has lost his nerve. And I’ll tell you a secret, Mme Danton, that M. Desmoulins told me to tell you. Marat isn’t even in there any more. He got out an hour ago, disguised as a human being.’
A few minutes later Georges came home. That night we threw a party.
Next day my husband went to take his seat at City Hall. There was another row. Some people tried to stop him and said he had no right to be a member of the Commune because he had no respect for law and order. They said that in his own district he was acting like a king. They said a lot of terrible things about Georges at that time – that he was taking money from the English to stir up the Revolution and that he was taking money from the Court not to make the Revolution any worse. One day Deputy Robespierre came, and they talked about who was slandering Georges. Deputy Robespierre said he shouldn’t feel he was alone. He brought a letter from his brother Augustin, from Arras, which he gave to Georges to read. It seemed that people in Arras were saying Robespierre was a godless man who wanted to kill the King – which absolutely can’t be true, because I’ve never met a more mild-mannered human being. I felt sorry for him; they had even printed in what Georges calls ‘the royalist rags’ some stupid claim that he was descended from Damiens, the man who tried to kill the old King. They deliberately spell his name wrong, to insult him. When he was elected for a term as president of the Jacobin Club, Lafayette walked out in protest.
After Antoine was born, Georges’s mother came up from the country for a few days to see the baby. Georges’s stepfather would have come with her but he couldn’t spare any time from inventing spinning machines – at least, that was the story, but I should think the poor man was glad to be on his own for a few days. It was terrible. I hate to say it, but Mme Recordain is the most disagreeable woman I have ever met.
The first thing she said was, ‘Paris is filthy, how can you bring a child up here? No wonder you lost your first. You’d better send this one to Arcis when he’s weaned.’
I thought, yes, what a good idea, let him be gored by bulls and scarred for life.
Then she looked around and said, ‘This wallpaper must have cost a pretty penny.’
At the first meal she complained about the vegetables, and asked how much I paid our cook. ‘Far too much,’ she said. ‘Anyway, where does all the money come from?’ I explained to her how hard Georges worked, but she just snorted, and said that she had an idea of how much lawyers earned at his age and it wasn’t enough to keep a house like a palace and a wife in the lap of luxury.
That’s where she thinks I am.
When I took her shopping, she thought the prices were a personal insult. She had to admit we got good meat, but she said Legendre was common, and that she didn’t bring up Georges with all the care she’d lavished on him to see him associate with someone who ran a butcher’s shop. She amazed me – it isn’t as if Legendre stands there wrapping up bleeding parcels of beef these days. You never see him in an apron. He puts on a black coat like a lawyer and sits beside Georges at City Hall.
Madame Recordain would say, in the mornings: ‘Of course, I don’t require to go anywhere.’ But if we didn’t, she would say in the evening, ‘It’s a long way to come and sit and see four walls.’
I thought I’d take her to visit Louise Robert – seeing as Madame is such a snob, and Louise is so well-born. Louise couldn’t have been more charming. She didn’t say a single word about the republic, or Lafayette, or Mayor Bailly. Instead she showed Madame all her stock and explained to her where all the spices came from and how they were grown and prepared and what they were for, and offered to make her up a parcel of nice things to take home. But after ten minutes Her Ladyship was looking like thunder, and I had to make my excuses to Louise and follow her out. In the street she said, ‘It’s a disgrace for a woman to marry beneath her. It shows low appetites. And it wouldn’t surprise me if I found out they weren’t married at all.’
Georges said, ‘Look, because my mother comes, does it mean I can’t see my friends? Invite some people to supper. Somebody she’ll like. How about the Gélys? And little Louise?’
I knew this was a sacrifice on his part, because he’s not over-fond of Mme Gély; in fact, the strain was showing in his face already. And I had to say, ‘Well, no, they’ve already met. Your mother thinks Mme Gély is mincing and ridiculous and mutton dressed as lamb. And Louise is precocious and needs a stick taking to her.’
‘Oh dear,’ Georges said: which was quite mild for him, don’t you think? ‘We must know somebody nice. Don’t we?’
I sent a note to Annette Duplessis, saying, please please could Lucile come to supper? Georges’s mother would be there, it would be perfectly proper, she’d never be alone with etc. So Lucile was allowed to come; she wore a white dress with blue ribbons, and she behaved like an angel, asking Madame all sorts of intelligent questions about life in Champagne. Camille was so polite – as, indeed, he almost always is, except in his newspaper – I had hidden the back-numbers, of course. I asked Fabre too, because he’s so good at keeping a conversation going – and he tried really hard with Madame. But she kept snubbing him, and in the end he gave up and started to look at her through his lorgnette, which I had given him strict instructions not to do.
Madame walked out as we were having coffee, and I found her in our bedroom running her finger under the windowsill, looking for dust. I said to her very politely, ‘Is there anything the matter?’ and she said in the most sour tone you can imagine, ‘There’ll be plenty the matter with you if you don’t watch that girl with your husband.’
For a minute I didn’t even know what she meant.
‘And I can tell you something else,’ she said. ‘You’d better watch that boy with your husband as well. So they’re going to be married, are they? They’ll suit each other.’
Once we got admission tickets for the public gallery at the Riding-School, but the debate was very dull. Georges says that any time now they will be discussing taking over the church’s lands for the nation, and that if she’d been present for that debate she’d have caused a commotion and got us thrown out. As it was, she called them villains and ingrates, and said no good would come of it. M. Robespierre saw us and came over for a few minutes, and was very kind. He pointed out the important people, including Mirabeau. Madame said, ‘That man will go straight to hell when he dies.’
M. Robespierre looked at me sideways and smiled and said to Madame, ‘You’re a young lady after my own heart.’ This set her up for the day.
All summer the consequences of that business of Dr Marat seemed to be hanging over us. We knew there was a warrant for Georges’s arrest, drawn up and ready, gathering dust in a drawer at City Hall. And I’d think, every morning, what if today is the day they decide to take it out and blow the dust off? We had plans – if he was arrested, I was to pack a bag and