The awakening

BY
HENRY BORDEAUX
Author of The Fear of Living
TRANSLATED BY
RUTH HELEN DAVIS
NEW YORK E-P-DUTTON & COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1914 BY P. DUTTON & COMPANY
TO MY DEAR AUNT VIRGINIA WITH THE AFFECTIONATE REGARD OF RUTH HELEN DAVIS
A suit for divorce or separation is begun, as everyone knows, by a petition to the presiding judge: the party seeking freedom or release from the conjugal tie briefly states his grievances, and requests the magistrate, according to law, to attempt a reconciliation, a useless proceeding in most cases, before the final break. In the provinces, the first step in the proceedings is generally heartily welcomed in the solicitors' offices. The clerks hastily leave their desks to get a look at the rough draft—which they will soon have to copy—with all the eagerness of youth to enjoy a scandal, the participants in which are known to them. It is a regular treat for them; but their unkindness is quite devoid of malice.
Thus, the Derize case at Grenoble brought into close conference in M. Tabourin's office, during the chief's absence, the four clerks—the learned Vitrolle, Dauras, Lestaque and the errand-boy Malaunay. They began the reading of a communication from the veteran barrister, M. Salvage with the formality commensurate with the importance of the persons concerned, and with a sense of the glory reflected upon the office by such a truly Parisian affair.
Another victim of man's selfishness! cried Vitrolle with an air of finality.
The head clerk was chivalrous, a feminist, and imbued with a local patriotism stimulated by the scholarly learning of an archivist. Had he not discovered from statistics—into what will statistics not inquire?—that the number of deceived husbands is less in Dauphiné than anywhere else, this being an opinion which an old author named Chateaumières de Grenaille had formulated as early as the 16th century, stating that it was almost a miracle to hear of a woman in Grenoble having a love-affair to the damage or prejudice of her reputation. Nothing less than this learned authority could have induced him to side against M. Derize, whose almost universal reputation as an historian would otherwise have had great weight with him.