North by Louis-Ferdinand Céline Read Free Book Online

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                                                Si vous croyez que je vais vous dire!
                                                    Qui jose aimer!
    Madame von Dopf s favorite aria . . . out of date perhaps, but pleasant . . . especially in those period drawing rooms with their brocade, velvet; scrollwork, pompons, standing lamps, enormous lampshades . . .
    Si vous croyez . . .
    and now Ameryl ° . . . son of the British minister . . . Constantini's a big bruiser, Amery's more the willowy type . . . a gentleman, a dandy . . . oh, but not affected! . . . guess it's all right; if they're singing . . . Let's go in . . . he's accompanying himself . . .
                              Mademoiselle from Armentières, parlez-vous?
                              Mademoiselle from Armentières!
    deep voice . . . must be a bass . . .

                             Mademoiselle from Armentières . . .
                             hasn't been kissed for forty years! 

    Mademoiselle from Armentières doesn't nonplus Madame von Dopf . . . she dives right in . . . wow, those chords! . . . on the other piano! . . . shakes the families out of their stupor . . . the families come in . . . on the chorus . . . in French! . . . in English! . . . to show you that brotherhood was in the air . . .
    But way back I see somebody motioning to me . . . from the vestibule . . . that somebody is Schulze . . . Oh, I won't tell him anything . . . people always talk too much . . . I go over . . . he leads me away . . . a corridor . . . another . . . to the exact opposite wing of the hotel . . . the "correspondence rooms'''. . . where nobody ever goes . . . then another room marked "privat" . . . he sits down . . . me too . . . up to him to begin . . .
    "Doctor, all this is drawing to an end! I assume that you know. . ."
    "Nothing at all Monsieur le Ministre! . . . I haven't heard . . . or seen a thing!"
    "Well spoken, Doctor! Perhaps not! Perhaps not! . . . then I must tell you that every single room in this hotel must be vacated tonight! . . . this very night! . . . empty tomorrow morning: let's say by noon! . . . Order of the Ministry! . . . and not a single one of these people must stay in Baden-Baden . . . have you many patients? . . . bed patients, I mean? . . ."
    "Two . . . perhaps . . ."
    They'll go to the hospital . . . Madame von Dopf will be going too . . ."
    "To the hospital?"
    "Wherever she pleases! . . . or the insane asylum . . . she's mad, you know . . . they'll come and get her tonight . . . don't tell her . . ."
    "Count on me, Monsieur Schulze . . ."
    "And you, Doctor, my instructions . . . you've been assigned to Berlin, the Rekihsarztkammer . . . Professor Harras will look after you there . . . you'll catch a train tomorrow, at daybreak, a troop train . . . I'll take you to the station . . . myself . . . don't say a word . . . to anybody! . . ."
    "Oh, rely on me, Monsieur Schulze! I can take my wife, I hope? . . . and my cat? . . . and Le Vigan?"
    "Certainly! Certainly! But don't see anybody else, understand? . . . and don't say good-bye to anyone . . . I'll have your three meals sent to your room this evening . . . and a basket lunch for the trip . . . and be ready tomorrow at the crack of dawn! . . . say five o'clock!"
    "Certainly, Monsieur le Ministre!"
    Those people over there in the other wing don't suspect what's in store for them . . . they're still singing . . . we can hear them . . . plenty . . . they're listening to another singer . . . a German this time . . . a really fine voice . . .
    Vater! . . . O Vater!
    Schumann . . . I never saw any of those Baden-Baden refugees again . . . I heard not so long ago that Amery had been hanged in London . . . London's made for it in a way . . . and harmoniums . . . and the ax too . . . with a hymn in between . . .

Ever since we left our rue Girardon . . . without music I