The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-03-01
MONSIEUR GIGON.
BY MINNIE ROBINSON.
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SKETCH.

French and Spanish. We met as teacher
and pupil one spring in New Orleans. I
saw his advertisement for pupils in the
morning paper and wrote to him for
terms. He answered in person.
The doorbell Of my pension sent a
shrill peal across the courtyard. I did
not know what a trembling, pale old
hand pulled it. Then the gingerbread
colored face Of the creole maid appeared
at my door, and l was told, Oar be er
gin'elmin ter see mam'selle."
A slender, white haired, white mus
tached little old gentleman rose from the
corner Of a sofa as entered the low par
lor and introduced himself as Monsieur
Gigon, professeur.
He wore dress suit, which, though not
exactly shabby, seemed of somewhat an
Gent cut and as If it had been brought
out of some place where it had been neat
" folded away for long time. 1t had
very long, sloping coattails, Of which he
was extremely careful when he reseated
himself.
sat down opposite him, and the flood
of afternoon sunshine pouring through
the window behind him showed me a
thin, Ratchet shaped face almost the color
of leather, with a dapper goatee and long
mustachios, lately trimmed, and large
eyes Of so pale gray that they were al
most the hue of glass.
His lower jaw trembled continually,
and his long, bloodless fingers shook, too,
as he kept folding them one over the
other.
He began to talk of the lessons wish
ed to take, and in spite Of the strong
restraint that he was putting upon him
self, could not help noticing that once
or twice his eyes fairly darkened with
eagerness-said that he could give them
at my pension or in my classroom the
days and hours that would be most con-
venient to me.
"You have a classroom said.
"Oh, yes" he replied withsa pompous
sweep Of the hand, quite at your service,
mademoiselle."
"And you have no other pupils on
Wednesdays and Fridays, at II o'clock?'
He paused a moment and pulled his
goatee reflectively. mop he announced
at last in decided tone.
'"Then, ! shall come on those days to
your classroom, for the parlor here is SO
often occupied that it would not be con-
venient to take my lessons at the house."
Every good, mademoiselle," he replied
briskly, rising and making me profound
bow. ION Wednesday, then, and au plai-
sir de vous voir." 1t was not the sum
shine that so suddenly frightened his
eyes and quickened his gestures, think.
He bowed himself out of the room
and down the stairs with SO much anima-
ton that l had vague sense Of having
assisted at some kind of transformation
of personality.
On Wednesday I presented myself at
the classroom I remembered Monsieur
Gigon's having put it ''at my service"
with so ceremonious a tone and gesture
when entered. 1t was merely 10 by
II garnet, dimly lighted by one small
window and door and furnished with a
wooden table without cover and two or
three shelves of uninteresting looking
books. There were dust and dirt every
where, as if the landlady never remem-
bered it in her rounds. do not think she
did, nor him, either, save on rent days.
Monsieur Gigon appeared presently,
shorn of the splendor of his dress coat
and wearing in its stead an odd species
of morning jacket that reminded me more
than anything else Of those short, flow
ing sacks which French creole ladies in
reduced circumstances wear in the fore
noon when they are making their
''menage."
After a preface Of elaborate apologies
he begged my permission to put on lit
tie round black cap which he was carry
ing in his hand and which he said helped
his neuralgia.
The cap donned, we sat down to our
lesson. The classic had chosen to read
was the "Iphigenie" of Racine, and there
seemed a certain correspondence to my
surroundings and to the professor in the
edition. had bought it at an ancient
smelling secondhand bookshop on Rue
Royale, and it had faded brown cloth
cover with mildew spots here and there,
and the title in faded ink on a slip Of pa
per, pasted to one side.
On reading the title Of the mildewy lit
tie book my teacher frightened visibly
and remarked with enthusiasm, "Ah, the
Greeks, they were a brave people," a
speech which he made always with the
same warmth at the commencement of
each succeeding lesson. If have yet an
undue amount Of admiration for the an
clients to the prejudice of the moderns. it
may be attributed to Monsieur Gigon's
persevering incubation.
He was a very painstaking, patient in
structor, blowing through the same phrase
with me half a dozen times, to be sure
that had caught the exact sense of it,
and encouraging me often when he felt
that had at last mastered it by exclaim-
ing with uplifted pale eyes, La Fon-
taine, Racine and Beranger, they were
the perfect writer's"
II my lessons were finished within the
hour, we sometimes had short talks about
Mexico, where Monsieur Gigon had
learned Spanish. He spoke of that coun-
try with quite the experienced air of a
great traveller, though it seems that it was
the solitary voyage he had made in his
life besides the passage from Bordeaux
to America. He loved to recall the blue
Mexican sky, the warmth Of the sun
there, the prodigality Of fruits and vege-
tables and the beautiful women. "But
there are beautiful women everywhere"
he would conclude. This was a little
piece of general gallantry that he always
aired whenever he had specialized as to
the physical perfection Of the women Of
any country, whether they were Greek,
which ! inferred, lonely bachelor as he
was, that my professor, true to his ma
ton, was a universalist in his admiration
"a Iue 1oiL SCAs
One morning when I entered the class
room, on whose shelves among the dusty
books began often to see small red walls
now, I found Monsieur Gigon before the
table, apparently jotting down hero
glyphics in a small notebook and with a
pile Of new looking class books before
him.
els he an Egyptian scholar, tooF' I
asked myself as l laid my copy of "1phi-
genie" upon the table.
He looked up in some confusion, then
rose, dotted his cap and said: "Mademoi-
selle finds me at my studies this morning.
am learning stenography."
Something harder than French" I in
quired.
"Oh, not 80 very difficult. I have been
not always so easy to get French and
Spanish scholars, and it does not pay
very well, then. Now, this stenography
pays very well, they tell me, and many
people are learning it these days. 1t is
the thing to learn, you know. Now, In a
few more weeks, when 1 shall know it
better, perhaps shall be able to form a
class and teach it."
He did not look at me as he thus laid
bare this perilous ambition of his, but
Strengthened himself proudly in his chair
and began to search for the second scene
of the third act in "Iphigenie." Monsieur
Gigon might be given to the weakness Of
the repetition of his sentiments on mat
tiers In general, but this was the first time
In our acquaintance that he had ever al
lowed me to catch a glimpse of his real
circumstances. This had happened by
inadvertence now, for l had come in
some minutes before my hour. Otherwise
his books would have been on the shelf