THE MAN OF AFFAIRStoned lady, the female artist or writer; the best educated, without
excepting the most illustrious, have always seemed to me poor in
genius... But the working woman, simple, gracious, naive,
devoted to work and to her duties, such, in short, as I believe I
have seen exemplified in you, gains my homage and my inclina
tion...
‘I would like a wife with your figure, your face, your hair, your
expression, your voice, your modest and intelligent air; with these
advantages, the only ones I have had the chance to appreciate in
you, it seems to me that such a wife would infallibly be industrious,
gentle, devoted to her husband as you are to your parents, severe
with herself, and indulgent with everybody else. Above all, I
would like her to have a calling at which, in case of need, she
would be ready to work without regret and without murmuring.
‘What I would have to offer such a wife would be the love o f a
man: for me, Mademoiselle, that word alone says all.’
This letter, in a sudden fit o f caution, he signed with the name of
‘E. Gauthier,’ posing as one of his employers because he feared
his own notoriety might scare Mile Piegard before he had been
able to establish a satisfactory initial relationship. The bad im
pression that might have been created had Euphrasie or her
family discovered the deception before he chose to reveal himself
evidently did not occur to him.
His approach seems to have been received with understandable
reserve. For days he was kept waiting; then Euphrasie sent him a
message that one o f her brothers would reply on her behalf. The
reply did not come, and at last Proudhon could no longer bear
his suspense. On the 26th February he wrote, inviting the brother
to dine with him. ‘This,’ he remarked, ‘would bind nobody more
than is agreeable, and might illuminate the question much better
than six months o f reciprocal enquiry, while I would know
whether or not I should cease to concern myself with you.’
This brusque ultimatum evidently convinced the P;egards of
the seriousness o f Proudhon’s intentions, and by the following
month he was accepted as Euphrasie’s suitor; the fact was cele
brated by the revelation that the eccentric E. Gauthier was none
other than the man o f paradox, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The
Piegards do not appear to have been greatly shocked by the dis
covery. Euphrasie’s father was a staunch royalist who had suffered
in the cause o f the Comte de Chambord, the Legitimist king over