NOELLE
Paris: 1944
10
During the past year Armand Gautier had ceased broaching the subject of marriage. In the
beginning he had felt himself in a superior position to Noelle. Now, however, the situation
was almost reversed. When they gave newspaper interviews, it was Noelle to whom the
questions were directed, and wherever they went together, Noelle was the attraction, he
was the afterthought.
Noelle was the perfect mistress. She continued to make Gautier comfortable, act as
his hostess and in effect make him one of the most envied men in France; but in truth he
never had a moment’s peace, for he knew that he did not possess Noelle, nor ever could,
that there would come a day when she would walk out of his life as capriciously as she
had wandered into it and when he remembered what had happened to him the one time
that Noelle had left him, Gautier felt sick to his stomach. Against every instinct of his
intellect, his experience and his knowledge of women he was wildly, madly in love with
Noelle. She was the single most important fact of his life. He would lie awake nights
devising elaborate surprises to make her happy and when they succeeded, he was
rewarded with a smile or a kiss or an unsolicited night of love-making. Whenever she
looked at another man, Gautier was filled with jealousy, but he knew better than to speak
of it to Noelle. Once after a party when she had spent the entire evening talking to a
renowned doctor, Gautier had been furious with her. Noelle had listened to his tirade and
then had answered quietly, “If my speaking to other men bothers you, Armand, I will
move my things out tonight.”
He had never brought up the subject again.
At the beginning of February, Noelle began her salon. It had started as a simple
Sunday brunch with a few of their friends from the theater, but as word about it got
around, it quickly expanded and began to include politicians, scientists, writers—anyone
whom the group thought might be interesting or amusing. Noelle was the mistress of the
salon and one of the chief attractions. Everyone found himself eager to talk to her, for
Noelle asked incisive questions and remembered the answers. She learned about politics
from politicians and about finance from bankers. A leading art expert taught her about art,
and she soon knew all the great French artists who were living in France. She learned
about wine from the chief vintner of Baron Rothschild and about architecture from
Corbusier. Noelle had the best tutors in the world and they in turn had a beautiful and
fascinating student. She had a quick probing mind and was an intelligent listener. Armand
Gautier had the feeling that he was watching a Princess consorting with her ministers, and
had he only been aware of it, it was the closest he would ever come to understanding