Clochette (Maupassant)
Short summary
French countryside, presumably mid-19th century. An elderly seamstress, Mother Clochette, visited the narrator's home weekly to mend linen.
She charmed the narrator, who was then a curious and emotional child, with intriguing village stories. One afternoon, the narrator found her collapsed dead in the linen-room.
While grieving privately, the narrator overheard a doctor recount Mother Clochette's tragic past: at seventeen and very beautiful, she'd secretly met a young assistant-teacher in a hay-loft at night, was nearly discovered by his superior, and jumped from a high window to save his reputation, severely injuring her leg. The doctor concealed the truth, calling it an accident, and she silently carried her secret all her life.
Reflecting emotionally, the doctor proclaimed:
That is all! And I say that this woman was a heroine and belonged to the race of those who accomplish the grandest deeds of history. That was her only love affair, and she died a virgin. She was a martyr, a noble soul, a sublimely devoted woman!
The narrator listened with sorrowful admiration as Mother Clochette's body was carried away.
Detailed Summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Memories of Mother Clochette
The story began with the narrator reflecting on a persistent memory from childhood that had remained vivid despite the passage of many years. This memory concerned Mother Bellflower, also known as Clochette, an old seamstress who visited the narrator's family home every Thursday to mend linen when the narrator was ten or twelve years old.
How strange those old recollections are which haunt us, without our being able to get rid of them. This one is so very old that I cannot understand how it has clung so vividly and tenaciously to my memory.
The narrator's family lived in a country house with several farms attached to it, near a village that surrounded a red brick church. Mother Clochette was a tall, thin woman with an unusual appearance, most notably a beard growing in improbable tufts across her face and extraordinarily thick, gray eyebrows that resembled misplaced mustaches.
The Old Seamstress's Storytelling
Mother Clochette had a distinctive limp, moving like a ship at anchor, swaying dramatically with each step. The narrator adored her and would visit her in the linen room as soon as they woke up. She would make the child sit on her foot-warmer to prevent catching cold in the large, chilly room under the roof.
She told me these simple adventures in such a manner, that in my mind they assumed the proportions of never-to-be-forgotten dramas, of grand and mysterious poems; and the ingenious stories invented by the poets...
While mending linen with her crooked fingers, Mother Clochette would tell the narrator stories about village life. She recounted tales of a cow found staring at Prosper Malet's windmill, a hen's egg discovered in the church belfry, and Jean-Jean Pila's dog traveling ten leagues to retrieve his master's stolen breeches. These simple stories captivated the child's imagination more than the fairy tales told by the narrator's mother in the evenings.
A Shocking Discovery
One Tuesday, after spending the morning listening to Mother Clochette's stories, the narrator went to pick hazelnuts with the manservant in the woods behind the farm. Later, wanting to visit Mother Clochette again, the narrator returned to the linen room.
Upon opening the door, the narrator discovered Mother Clochette lying on the ground beside her chair, face down with arms outstretched. She still held her needle in one hand and one of the narrator's shirts in the other. Her longer leg in a blue stocking extended under her chair, and her spectacles had rolled away against the wall.
I cannot describe the profound, poignant, terrible emotion which stirred my childish heart. I went slowly down into the drawing-room and hid myself in a dark corner, in the depths of an immense old armchair, where I knelt down and wept.
Terrified, the narrator ran away screaming. Soon after, they were informed that Mother Clochette had died. Overwhelmed with emotion, the child hid in a dark corner of an armchair in the drawing room and wept.
The Doctor's Secret Knowledge
As night fell, someone entered the drawing room with a lamp. The narrator, still hidden in the armchair, overheard a conversation between their parents and the doctor who had been summoned. The doctor began explaining the circumstances of Mother Clochette's accident, which had occurred many years earlier on the day of his arrival in the village.
The doctor revealed that Clochette had been a pretty seventeen-year-old girl when he first met her. He had kept her story secret all these years, but now that she was dead, he felt free to share it.
A Young Woman's Sacrifice
According to the doctor, a handsome young assistant teacher had come to the village years ago. Though all the girls pursued him, he was cautious because he feared his superior, the schoolmaster Old Grabu. The young teacher had taken an interest in pretty Hortense, who later became known as Clochette.
Hortense had agreed to meet the assistant teacher, Sigisbert, in the hay-loft behind the school at night. During their meeting, Old Grabu unexpectedly appeared and asked Sigisbert what he was doing there. Sigisbert claimed he was resting among the hay bundles. When Grabu heard whispering, he suspected someone else was present and locked the door to fetch a light.
Panicking, Sigisbert urged Hortense to hide, fearing for his career. When they heard the key turning in the lock again, Hortense, in an act of self-sacrifice, opened the window overlooking the street and jumped out, telling Sigisbert to come find her later.
She did not complain, and merely said, with admirable resignation: 'I am punished, well punished!' I sent for assistance and for the work-girl's relatives and told them a made-up story of a runaway carriage...
Old Grabu found no one, and a quarter hour later, Sigisbert came to the doctor and related what had happened. The doctor went with him to find Hortense, who had fallen from the second story and broken her right leg in three places, with bones protruding through the flesh. Despite her suffering, she showed remarkable resignation, saying only that she was being punished.
The doctor fabricated a story about a runaway carriage knocking her down outside his door. Everyone believed this tale, and the local police spent a month unsuccessfully searching for the culprit. The doctor concluded his story by declaring that Hortense was a heroine who had only one love affair in her life and died a virgin, a noble soul of sublime devotion.
The Aftermath and Reflection
After hearing the doctor's story, the narrator's mother cried, and the father said something inaudible. The parents then left the room, leaving the child sobbing in the armchair.
As the narrator remained hidden, they heard strange noises of heavy footsteps and something knocking against the staircase. These were the sounds of Mother Clochette's body being carried away, a final, poignant conclusion to the seamstress's tragic life story.
They were carrying away Clochette's body... I remained on my knees in the armchair and sobbed, whilst I heard a strange noise of heavy footsteps and something knocking against the side of the staircase.