Chapter Five

NO MORE WASTED DREAMS

A new day dawned.

At the end of his school day, Enjolras led to the Cafe Musain, excited to see Angélique. Although, he forgot to tell her at what time their tea was supposed to be. But, somehow, he knew that she would come and they would meet each other. Enjolras did not believe in Fate; but life has proved to him that some events cannot be mere coincidence. For instance, if, in that day, he didn't go to Cafe Musain earlier than usual, he would never met Angélique and wouldn't become in touch with the existence of the Women's Rights movement in Paris. Enjolras thought how strange life can be, how unpredictable events can lead to something grander than him.

Once he arrived at Cafe Musain, Angélique was no near to be found. Yet, he took a seat and the young redhead waitress went towards him. It was Christelle, very well-known for being a grisette, although Louison gave her job as a garçonete* at the Cafe.

"Isn't it a little early for you to be here, Monsieur?" she asked with a smile and bend over to show her cleavage to him. "What gives us the honor of your visit?"

"I come for tea with a fellow comrade." he answered in a serious tone, without looking at her breasts.

"Would you like anything else?" Christelle asked, with lust "Before the tea? I have some sweets I would like you to prove… If you know what I mean, sweet, beautiful, Enjolras."

Enjolras pierced her with a furious glance.

"I know exactly what you mean and I demand you to get out of my sight." he declared with anger "I'm not interested in your sweets."

"All of us are starting to think you have interest in another kind of sweets!" Christelle said.

"I couldn't care less about what all of you, grisettes, think of me." Enjolras rolled his eyes "You can go, now. I will call you when she arrives."

"She!?" Christelle laughed out loud while walking away.

Enjolras remain quiet, waiting for Angélique to arrive. He started feeling anxious and was afraid that she might have been in the Cafe Musain but left, because he did not showed up. He waited for one hour and started to think she would not come. But, when he was losing all of his hopes on her arrival; there she was, wearing a dark-red gown covered by a long and heavy black overcoat, her dark hair was caught inside a dark hat with red flowers: it was the first time Enjolras saw her wearing a hat. His eyes turned bright and she smiled at him.

"Good afternoon." Angélique greeted.

"Hello." Enjolras smiled with tenderness.

Angélique sat in the chair in front of him.

"You've invited me and here I am."

"I was afraid that you might have left…" Enjolras confessed "Well, I did not tell you at which hour was our tea… So I was afraid that you could have been here before…"

"Ironically, you were the one who's been waiting!" Angélique laughed. "I apologize for my late arrival."

"I don't mind waiting for you…"

Angélique looked at him and saw the tenderness in his eyes. Christelle, the waitress, walked towards them. The grisette stood closer to Enjolras, observing Angélique.

"We want two teas, Christelle." Enjolras said without taking his eyes of Angélique.

"Anything else?" the grisette asked with rudeness "Does the mademoiselle wants some biscuits?"

"No, thank you." Angélique smiled.

"I'm sure you have the best biscuit already!" Christelle grinned with disdain.

Angélique did not understand what she was referring to.

"Do not bother us with your insolence, Christelle." Enjolras stared at her with bitterness. "Get out!"

Christelle turned her back on the couple and walked towards the counter.

"Enjolras…" Angélique disapproved his answer "You didn't need to be so bitter with her."

"You don't know her." Enjolras explained "She's not like you…"

"I'm equal to every other woman, Enjolras." she declared "I'm not granter, I'm not less. If you believe in Equality, you should know that. No woman is inferior to another, not mattering what occupation she may have."

"I apologize for my behavior." Enjolras said "It was rude of me."

Christelle arrived with the teas and left them on the table, without saying a word.

"But, please, let's not talk about politics." Angélique asked "Talk me about yourself… Did you born here, in Paris?"

"I'm not fond of talking about my past…"

"Why not?" Angélique raised her eyebrow "Is there anything you feel ashamed of?"

"I'm an only child of rich parents." Enjolras answered "It's a paradox taking into consideration what I'm fighting for."

"I believe it isn't." Angélique said "If only all the rich boys and girls fought for poor people's rights!"

Enjolras smiled, flattered.

"How come the Law never did discover the Friends of the ABC?"

"We masquerade as an aid society for educating children." Enjolras answered "That's why we decided to call it "ABC" but it's a play word, because it does not refers to the alphabet but to the abaissés**. Meaning the "Low People" that we wish to rise up."

"How clever!" Angélique praised. "I think I shall steal your idea of playing with words!"

"And what about you?" Enjolras asked "Did you born here in Paris?"

"No." Angélique answered "I was born in Marseille, the capital of the region of Provence, in the southeastern. The People of Marseille have always been very enthusiastic about the French Revolution and with the Republican ideals."

"Yes, I know." Enjolras confirmed "Five hundred volunteers marched to Paris, in 1792, to defend the revolutionary government. While they were entering the streets of Paris they sung…"

"Allons enfants de la Patrie. Le jour de gloire est arrivé! Contre nous de la tyrannie. L'étendard sanglant est levé!***" Angélique sang quietly for none else to listen "It is called La Marseillaise****."

Enjolras smiled, feeling proud of her knowledge.

"My father used to sing this hymn to me when I was a child." she continued. "He believed in the French Revolution so much that his ideals end up killing him. When the new King took over the throne, he couldn't bear it… The Republic France he had always dreamed of was dead and he wanted to die with it."

The young man looked at her with pity on his eyes and felt the wish to embraced her, but he did not; he remain quiet, listening, for it was the only thing he could do.

"You remember me of my father." she said with a bright smile "He was a great man. When you speak about your ideals… I always think of him."

"Why did you left Marseille?" Enjolras tried to keep her away from thinking about her father's death.

"I came to Paris with the dream of being a painter." Angélique smiled sadly "But not even here, on the capital, women can be artists. I have visited some painters and I tried to convince them to teach me their techniques… Even though, none of them agreed, because I'm a woman. They said it was fine for me to draw and do watercolors but pursuing a professional career as an artist was unthinkable because it would divert me from my future role as wife and mother! How ridiculous… We, women, can't even receive training at the École des Beaux-Arts*****!"

Enjolras tried to keep her away from thinking about sad things and the cure was worse than the disease! This was a reality he was not familiar with and he thought about all the women who where deprived from following their dreams. This woman was awake on him feelings he thought he never had and gave him notions he had never searched for. Enjolras remembered of all the young women who tried to conquer him and to seduce him, and that he denied for he never cared about romance, that he always considered as a foolish thing… Did those young girls had their dreams shattered too?

"We, women, have the right to choose our own path." Angélique said, waking him from his meditation "I shall never allow a man to decide my future."

Enjolras remained silent.

"What's wrong?" Angélique asked, observing the empty gaze in his eyes.

"Nothing… I was just thinking…"

"What about?" she asked, gently, grabbing his hand "Tell me..."

"I was thinking about women…" Enjolras answered "Like everyone knows, I'm not interest in romance; the only welfares in my mind are the People and the revolution… Although, without being cocky, I've always had lots of women interested in me… And I've denied all of them. And I was wondering if they, too, had their dreams shattered…"

"I believe those women could have been great if the social order gave them the opportunity to be." Angélique dropping his hand, uncaringly "Do you imagine how could the world be if everyone, men and women, were equal?"

"Of course I do!" Enjolras grabbed her hands with fervor "That's what we are fighting for! For a new dawn… A new world reborn... Where the People will feel no more hunger, no more early death…"

"No more wasted dreams…"

"Every man will be a King and every woman will be a Queen!" Enjolras said "For they will rule their own lives and their Fatherland… And to that I hold, for that I live."

"For that I devoted my own life…" Angélique confessed "To accomplish what my father and the men before him did not… For that I refused a regular life of a bourgeois woman."

Enjolras never felt so far away from her as now. Equally, he has never felt so far away from himself.

"My parents are rich, too." she confessed "My mother now lives with my grandfather, who's an Art trader, in Marseille. Surprisingly, he supports my decision of becoming an artist, for his love for the Arts. Therefore, he sends me a good among of money every month. The building in which I live belongs to my grandfather; he lived here in Paris when he was studying in the University. Although, I use almost all the money he sends me for the campaigns."

"Good God in heaven… we truly are alike!" Enjolras said with tenderness.

"In time, we will achieve all of our dreams of Liberty and Equality." Angélique said with hope. "And then, you will be a King and I will be a Queen…"

"What a match made in heaven!" Enjolras joked.

"You don't smile often enough…" Angélique observed, looking down to the table "You grow more beautiful when you smile."

"I don't smile." Enjolras said with seriousness.

"I think you do." Angélique looked at him "Although, not often enough, I must say…"

"My fellows would disagree with you."

"Then why do you smile in my presence but not near them?"

Enjolras took a deep breathe and looked away.

"Near them I like to keep a serious posture because I'm the leader."

"You did not answer to my question." Angélique observed, turning his face to hers "Why do I make you smile?"

Enjolras looked into her eyes and froze; for there was no way to escape from her question.

"Don't do this to me." he begged.

"Don't do what, exactly?" Angélique asked.

"Forcing me to tell you what's in my mind…"

"I'm not forcing you into anything, Enjolras." she declared. "For we are alike… We hide our feelings and pretend that we have no emotions."

Angélique rose from the chair and search for something in her little purse.

"Here, to pay for our tea."

Angélique dropped two coins on the table, while Enjolras looked at her, without understanding.

"A woman can pay for her expenditures." Angélique smiled.

"Are you leaving?" Enjolras didn't understand.

"I have political matters to do." she answered "I'll be here at the Friends of the ABC reunion, tonight. I look forward to listen to your plans about children's education."

Enjolras grinned at her. She reattributed his grin, turned her back on him and left the Café Musain, without looking back.

"What kind of woman are you, Angélique?" Enjolras thought to himself, with his eyes frozen in the door from which she left.

"Fellow comrade, hum?" Christelle laughed with suspicious.

"She is a fellow comrade." Enjolras answered "She's the Women's Rights movement leader. Not all women are like you…"

"Only God knows what that bourgeois girl has that no other women around here has!" Christelle said with scorn.

Enjolras ignored her comment and gave her the money that Angélique left on the table.

"Here, to pay for the teas."

The young man turned his back on Christelle and went towards the back room, with the purpose of starting the preparations for the Friends of the ABC meeting.

Translation (French – English) and Historical Facts:

* Garçonete – meaning "waitress".

**Abaissés – Lowly, Abased. Into this context, means "Low People".

*** "Allons enfants de la Patrie. Le jour de gloire est arrivé! Contre nous de la tyrannie. L'étendard sanglant est levé!"– meaning "Children of the Fatherland, let's go. The day of glory has arrived! Tyranny is against us. The bloody banner is raised!"

**** "La Marseillaise" – meaning "The Song of Marseille"; originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" (in English: "War Song for the Army of the Rhine") was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. In 1795, this hymn was adopted by the French National Convention as the Republic's anthem. The name of the song is due to first being sung on the streets of Paris by volunteers from Marseille. Nowadays, La Marseillaise is the national anthem of France.

*****"École des Beaux-Arts" – meaning "School of Fine Arts". In this context, it's a reference to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (National University of Fine Arts), in Paris, that only in 1897 started accepting female students.

Hope you enjoyed it and it will be continued.

Let me know your opinion and if I've made some grammatical mistakes, please, let me know.

I've done some changes in the preview chapters and correct some grammatical mistakes, add translations for the French words and historical facts, for better understanding of the story line, if you want to take a look. (The definition for "grisette" is at chapter one)

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