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<h2> CHAPTER XX </h2>
<p>In the morning, Laurent and Therese, awoke in their respective rooms, with
the same feeling of profound joy in their hearts: both said to themselves
that their last night of terror had passed. They would no longer have to
sleep alone, and they would mutually defend themselves against the drowned
man.</p>
<p>Therese looked around her, giving a strange smile as she measured her
great bed with her eyes. She rose and began to slowly dress herself, in
anticipation of the arrival of Suzanne, who was to come and assist her
with her bridal toilet.</p>
<p>Laurent, on awakening, sat up in bed, and remained in that position for a
few minutes, bidding farewell to his garret, which struck him as vile. At
last he was to quit this kennel and have a wife. It was in the month of
December and he shivered. He sprang on the tile floor, saying to himself
that he would be warm at night.</p>
<p>A week previously, Madame Raquin, knowing how short he was of money, had
slipped a purse into his hand containing 500 francs, which represented all
her savings. The young man had accepted this present without difficulty,
and had rigged himself out from tip to toe. Moreover, the money of the old
mercer permitted him to make Therese the customary presents.</p>
<p>The black trousers, dress coat, white waistcoat, shirt and cambric tie,
hung spread out on a couple of chairs. Laurent washed, perfumed himself
with a bottle of eau de Cologne, and then proceeded to carefully attire
himself. He wished to look handsome. As he fastened his collar, a collar
which was high and stiff, he experienced keen pain in the neck. The button
escaped from his fingers. He lost patience. The starched linen seemed to
cut into his flesh. Wishing to see what was the matter, he raised his
chin, and perceived the bite Camille had given him looking quite red. The
collar had slightly galled the scar.</p>
<p>Laurent pressed his lips together, and turned pale; the sight of this mark
seaming his neck, frightened and irritated him at this moment. He crumpled
up the collar, and selected another which he put on with every precaution,
and then finished dressing himself. As he went downstairs his new clothes
made him look rigid. With his neck imprisoned in the inflexible linen, he
dared not turn his head. At every movement he made, a pleat pinched the
wound that the teeth of the drowned man had made in his flesh, and it was
under the irritation of these sharp pricks, that he got into the carriage,
and went to fetch Therese to conduct her to the town-hall and church.</p>
<p>On the way, he picked up a clerk employed at the Orleans Railway Company,
and old Michaud, who were to act as witnesses. When they reached the shop,
everyone was ready: Grivet and Olivier, the witnesses of Therese, were
there, along with Suzanne, who looked at the bride as little girls look at
dolls they have just dressed up. Although Madame Raquin was no longer able
to walk, she desired to accompany the couple everywhere, so she was
hoisted into a conveyance and the party set out.</p>
<p>Everything passed off in a satisfactory manner at the town-hall and
church. The calm and modest attitude of the bride and bridegroom was
remarked and approved. They pronounced the sacramental "yes" with an
emotion that moved Grivet himself. They were as if in a dream. Whether
seated, or quietly kneeling side by side, they were rent by raging
thoughts that flashed through their minds in spite of themselves, and they
avoided looking at one another. When they seated themselves in their
carriage, they seemed to be greater strangers than before.</p>
<p>It had been decided that the wedding feast should be a family affair at a
little restaurant on the heights of Belleville. The Michauds and Grivet
alone were invited. Until six in the evening, the wedding party drove
along the boulevards, and then repaired to the cheap eating-house where a
table was spread with seven covers in a small private room painted yellow,
and reeking of dust and wine.</p>
<p>The repast was not accompanied by much gaiety. The newly married pair were
grave and thoughtful. Since the morning, they had been experiencing
strange sensations, which they did not seek to fathom. From the
commencement, they had felt bewildered at the rapidity with which the
formalities and ceremony were performed, that had just bound them together
for ever.</p>
<p>Then, the long drive on the boulevards had soothed them and made them
drowsy. It appeared to them that this drive lasted months. Nevertheless,
they allowed themselves to be taken through the monotonous streets without
displaying impatience, looking at the shops and people with sparkless
eyes, overcome by a numbness that made them feel stupid, and which they
endeavoured to shake off by bursting into fits of laughter. When they
entered the restaurant, they were weighed down by oppressive fatigue,
while increasing stupor continued to settle on them.</p>
<p>Placed at table opposite one another, they smiled with an air of
constraint, and then fell into the same heavy reverie as before, eating,
answering questions, moving their limbs like machines. Amidst the idle
lassitude of their minds, the same string of flying thoughts returned
ceaselessly. They were married, and yet unconscious of their new
condition, which caused them profound astonishment. They imagined an abyss
still separated them, and at moments asked themselves how they could get
over this unfathomable depth. They fancied they were living previous to
the murder, when a material obstacle stood between them.</p>
<p>Then they abruptly remembered they would occupy the same apartment that
night, in a few hours, and they gazed at one another in astonishment,
unable to comprehend why they should be permitted to do so. They did not
feel they were united, but, on the contrary, were dreaming that they had
just been violently separated, and one cast far from the other.</p>
<p>The silly chuckling of the guests beside them, who wished to hear them
talk familiarly, so as to dispel all restraint, made them stammer and
colour. They could never make up their minds to treat one another as
sweethearts in the presence of company.</p>
<p>Waiting had extinguished the flame that had formerly fired them. All the
past had disappeared. They had forgotten their violent passion, they
forgot even their joy of the morning, that profound joy they had
experienced at the thought that they would no more be afraid. They were
simply wearied and bewildered at all that was taking place. The events of
the day turned round and round in their heads, appearing incomprehensible
and monstrous. They sat there mute and smiling, expecting nothing, hoping
for nothing. Mingled with their dejection of spirits, was a restless
anxiety that proved vaguely painful.</p>
<p>At every movement Laurent made with his neck, he felt a sharp burn
devouring his flesh; his collar cut and pinched the bite of Camille. While
the mayor read out to him the law bearing on marriage, while the priest
spoke to him of the Almighty, at every minute of this long day, he had
felt the teeth of the drowned man entering his skin. At times, he imagined
a streak of blood was running down his chest, and would bespatter his
white waistcoat with crimson.</p>
<p>Madame Raquin was inwardly grateful to the newly married couple for their
gravity. Noisy joy would have wounded the poor mother. In her mind, her
son was there, invisible, handing Therese over to Laurent.</p>
<p>Grivet had other ideas. He considered the wedding party sad, and wanted to
enliven it, notwithstanding the looks of Michaud and Olivier which riveted
him to his chair each time he wished to get up and say something silly.
Nevertheless, he managed to rise once and propose a toast.</p>
<p>"I drink to the offspring of monsieur and madame," quoth he in a sprightly
tone.</p>
<p>It was necessary to touch glasses. Therese and Laurent had turned
extremely pale on hearing this sentence. They had never dreamed that they
might have children. The thought flashed through them like an icy shiver.
They nervously joined glasses with the others, examining one another,
surprised and alarmed to find themselves there, face to face.</p>
<p>The party rose from table early. The guests wished to accompany the newly
married pair to the nuptial chamber. It was barely half-past nine when
they all returned to the shop in the arcade. The dealer in imitation
jewelry was still there in her cupboard, before the box lined with blue
velvet. She raised her head inquisitively, gazing at the young husband and
wife with a smile. The latter caught her eyes, and was terrified. It
struck her that perhaps this old woman was aware of their former meetings,
by having noticed Laurent slipping into the little corridor.</p>
<p>When they all arrived on the upper floor, Therese withdrew almost
immediately, with Madame Raquin and Suzanne, the men remaining in the
dining-room, while the bride performed her toilet for the night. Laurent,
nerveless and depressed, did not experience the least impatience, but
listened complacently to the coarse jokes of old Michaud and Grivet, who
indulged themselves to their hearts' content, now that the ladies were no
longer present. When Suzanne and Madame Raquin quitted the nuptial
apartment, and the old mercer in an unsteady voice told the young man that
his wife awaited him, he started. For an instant he remained bewildered.
Then he feverishly grasped the hands extended to him, and entered the
room, clinging to the door like a man under the influence of drink.</p>
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