hqstl2

HOW QUASIMODO SAW THE LIGHT
by Sonja

Chapter 2
After that evening Yvette and Quasimodo met each other every day, either at Quasi's home or in the bell tower. However, they didn't spend time together in Notre Dame because it would have been completely immoral for them to fondle each other in the Cathedral. Every time there Quasi told Yvette about his childhood in the guardianship of Frollo, and the girl's love and sympathy toward him deepened all the time.
Sometimes they walked together on the streets, and the Parisians paid great attention to them. Those who fully accepted the bellringer were very friendly, but there were also people who mocked the lovers. Every time, Yvette bravely defended her beloved or even embraced him publicly to prove that no one needed to be afraid of him.
One day they talked about Esmeralda and Phoebus, and Yvette admitted: "Before I met you in our happy evening, I saw those two walking on the bridge, and then I was suddenly sure that it was Esmeralda whom you loved - and I was sad because I knew she didn't feel the same way."
The bellringer looked amazed and really embarrassed. Yvette thought that if he hadn't been so benevolent by nature he could have been offended. But then the young man took her in his arms and confessed: "You have found out my secret. It is true I was in love with Esme before I met you. However, when Phoebus was hurt and she brought him to the bell tower for me to take care of, I understood that they are lovers, and although I first was very disappointed, I never have been really jealous of Phoebus."
Yvette was startled. She had completely forgotten her parents' plans to marry her off!

Of course, her mother had urged her to start sewing her trousseau, but she had been thinking only about Quasimodo all the time, because she was absolutely sure the bellringer was going to ask her to marry him.
Now she said, restlessly: "Quasi, I have to tell you something. My parents want me to marry another man who is much older than me and whom I have never met. I'm so happy with you that I had completely forgotten their plan! Now I don't know what we can do, but I assure you I never ever will love any other man!"
The bellringer was really amazed. "How is it possible that someone is forced to marry a total stranger?"
Yvette squeezed him. "So innocent you are! It is an ordinary custom - but, of course, I don't accept it any more."
"But what should we do?" deliberated Quasi irresolutely.
Later the same day, the lovers met the dancer and the captain on the Cathedral square, and told them how their relationship had changed. Esmeralda dazzled. "Congratulations, Quasi! You couldn't have chosen better! By the way, have you already asked Yvette to marry you?"
Now Yvette was embarrassed in turn, and Quasi was so surprised that he couldn't talk for a while. "No, I haven't," answered he at last, "in fact I haven't even thought about marriage because I never before have found it possible for myself."
Suddenly Yvette felt herself sad; she had remembered her parents' plan again. She took Esmeralda aside and explained to her the whole problem. The Gypsy girl was as amazed as Quasimodo, but after deliberating a moment she noted: "I think we should go to the Court of Miracles, despite of Clopin's warning, for Quasi to introduce you - that could encourage him also to tell your parents about your romance."
When Yvette mentioned Esmeralda's proposal to Quasimodo, he said impatiently: "Believe me, darling, it is a terrible place for your kind of young women!"
"But Quasi, you and Phoebus have visited there several times," marked the dancer, "and you can't seriously claim that I belong to rabble!" She laughed. "And I'm quite sure it will be a funny experience!" Yvette was enthusiastic. "Do you still have Esme's necklace left?"
"Yvette, I will never let you go!" assured Quasimodo, who guessed what she was thinking. "You are mine, and I won't bear to see you hanged!"
"Dear little Quasi, it's impossible for me to believe someone so nice as Clopin would hang women! Besides, Esmeralda did also introduce Phoebus to the vagabonds when they had fallen in love."
"Well...all right," agreed Quasimodo reluctantly, "but we must go together."
The four friends approached the old catacombs where the vagabonds were hiding. With the help of the necklace Esmeralda had given to Quasimodo, they easily found the certain grave. When they were stepping down the stairs the Gypsy girl whispered: "Now you must keep quiet!
I will go there first and tell the others we are having visitors."
"Promise that I may step alone in front of Clopin," whispered Yvette, squeezing the bellringer again.
"It's out of question!" he exclaimed. "You have to believe me: here we are trespassers, and Clopin, the leader of his community, treats us like enemies!"
"Everybody here knows you are one of them by birth," reminded Yvette, "and I am your girlfriend!"
"Hush, hush, I'm sure there are guards in here," warned the captain.
He was right: At the very moment they saw a group of vagabonds standing in the rear of the chamber, with torches in their hands. Some of them were dressed as skeletons, and Yvette also noticed they were not all Gypsies.
Suddenly, two of them approached the friends: a "skeleton" and a rather small man who was moving with the help of his hands. When seeing them Quasimodo put his arms round Yvette.
The disabled man asked aggressively: "Why are you trespassing here?" The Gypsy, in turn, grasped Yvette's arm, trying to detach her from the hold of the bellringer, whom he obviously didn't recognize.
"Let me go!" whispered Yvette to her beloved, giving her other hand to the Gypsy man. Worried and discontent as Quasimodo was, he was obliged to detach his hold, and the two vagabonds sped Yvette in front of Clopin, who stood further away, surrounded by his comrades.
As he recognized Yvette, Clopin grimaced at her with glint in his eyes. "Didn't I warn you, girlie? Look what's there!" He pointed at the gallows, smiling mischievously.
"Could you please listen to me, Clopin?" asked Yvette, trying to keep serious. "I came here for a certain reason - and I never can believe that you would REALLY hang anyone, at least not a woman!"
Clopin was glad to see this girl wasn't a coward. However, it was true that here he was the leader of his group and wanted to remain respected. Because of that he said, a bit less cheerfully: "You have made a big mistake, Yvette! Our rule has not changed, because we still have to continue hiding here!"
"Clopin, I have started an affair with a good friend of yours," Yvette tried to explain. "Besides, your persecutor is no longer alive."
"An affair? Hush, girlie, don't you remember I mustn't know about such things?" grimaced Clopin, "and HIS name is not to be mentioned here!"
Yvette was enthusiastic. She gave the Gypsy leader a dazzling smile and whispered: "It's Quasimodo!"
Clopin's behaviour changed in a moment. "Excellent, Yvette! He is really lucky to have someone like you!" He gave a signal to some of his comrades , who hurried to the captain and the bellringer and brought them rejoicing to him. When seeing the lovers together, the whole crowd of vagabonds cheered loudly, for everyone knew Quasimodo's upsetting life story, and they were very glad that he had found his happiness.
Now Esmeralda also joined the company. "Clopin always jests," laughed she, "Of course I knew he wouldn't find you a real intruder!"
In the evening, the visitors met also a group of vagabonds who used to spend the days on the streets of Paris. Now Yvette understood why the hideout was called the Court of Miracles; there were quite a lot of people who pretended to be sick, blind or deformed while spending time in the city, but were in fact completely healthy. Clopin explained, laughing, that the so-called honorable citizens thought they were seeing miracles whenever finding out about that kind of a transformation. In Yvette's opinion, such pretending was unbearable because there were also really disabled inhabitants in the Court.
"This is why I didn't want to show this place to you," marked Quasimodo.
"Never mind, in fact it's good to see that life is hard for many," Yvette replied.
Suddenly, Quasimodo was startled. "My goodness, it's already time for the Vespers! Come, Yvette, we must leave at once!"
Yvette was also very frightened, for she understood her behaviour had been shameful. A daughter of a good bourgeois family was never allowed to spend time at a place where all kinds of Gypsies and beggars lived. But she knew equally well that her heart belonged to Quasimodo, and it would have been quite a wasted effort to try staying away from him.
"Quasi," she said when they were returning to the Cathedral square, "you must come to my parents to ask for my hand, although they have chosen the other man...if you really want to marry me."
"If I want?" repeated the bellringer, embracing her. "How can you even ask something like that
from me, whom no one else has ever loved? But it's going to be hard to face such a proud bourgeois couple."

The next morning Yvette's parents stepped into her room, and her mother said determinedly: "Now we want to know how you are spending your time. You are the only heiress of an esteemed family, you are already 20, and the most important of all is that you will be engaged soon - but you only fail to sew your trousseau and search for unsuitable companions! Where have you been, for Heaven's sake?"
Yvette realized she had to tell the truth - in any case, her beloved would arrive soon to ask for her hand - but she could never let her parents start harassing the Gypsies. Fortunately, the Court of Miracles could be found only with the help of Esmeralda's necklace, and it was clear that Quasimodo would never give it up. After a moment's consideration she answered as honestly as always: "Dear mother and father, unfortunately I have to refuse to accept the marriage I am offered. You need to know I am in love with another man, and in all these days I have been meeting him. He knows his responsibility and is going to come here to propose to me."
It took quite a while until her parents were able to talk. "This is incredible!" exclaimed her father finally. "We have been quite sure that you are an honorable girl! Now tell us immediately who your other suitor is!"
Yvette flushed and said quietly, in embarrassment: "You have seen him. He is the bellringer of Notre Dame."
"Good Lord!" her parents exclaimed with one voice, "That hunchback! Are you out of your senses, Yvette?" And her mother continued: "That man doesn't have a family or any sort of property, and he is ugly, too!"
"No, he isn't," assured her daughter, although she knew it wasn't proper to pick a quarrel. "Whatever you say, I love Quasimodo. You don't even know him! In fact I am absolutely sure that our friends will help us to get each other if you abuse Quasimodo when he comes here!"
"You are quite insolent, Yvette!" exclaimed her mother, "We know what's best to our family. Besides, if you married that man, your children might become hump-backed, and that is out of question!"
"I don't care what my future children's backs are like," said Yvette determinedly. "It is true I don't know how Quasi's father looked, but maybe his descendants won't have any deformities. In any case, he is so softening and warm-hearted and I feel such deep sympathy toward him that it's absolutely impossible for me to marry a man I don't know at all!"
Her parents deliberated for a while. "All right, we agree to meet the hunchback," her father said at last, "but most likely we won't change our minds."
"In any case, Yvette," the mother added, "the man we have chosen for you is also going to come here after two weeks so that you can be engaged. Now I expect you to start making preparations for meeting him."

About a week later Quasimodo arrived to meet the parents of his beloved. Fortunately, Yvette herself opened the door to him.
"Quasimodo," she said after embracing the bellringer, "I'm sure this will be difficult for you, because I have the other suitor and my parents want me to marry a man who has property. But I swear you shall have me, whatever they say."
Quasimodo was frightened. But Yvette encouraged him, and they went together to talk to her parents.
The bellringer introduced himself very politely. "Your daughter and I love each other, and now I'm here to ask for her hand. We have met for many times during this autumn, and I have always been treating her very respectfully." He added the last words because Phoebus had advised him.
"Is that true, Yvette?" asked the bourgeois man, looking hard into his daughter's eyes.
"Yes, father," answered Yvette. She understood how extremely important it was to prove that she was still untouched.
The bourgeois couple wanted to know how Quasimodo could provide for his family. The young man told honestly that he had a home, but only very little property. "I have always been clever with my hands, so I can support us by making wooden objects and doing other handwork."
Yvette smiled abatedly for this excellent solution. But her father said: "We are a wealthy family, and Yvette is our only heir. That's why we would like her to marry someone who is able to offer her a good status. Besides, we don't find it proper at all that our daughter meets vagabonds of modest origin."
"And her husband needs to know about trading," the mother added.
"I am sure Yvette could familiarize me with that," noted Quasimodo, although he was a bit restless. Yvette nodded.
"In any case," her mother continued, "we don't wish for you to be poor or to bear hump-backed children, and that's why we are not going to give you to this man."
Quasimodo was startled and turned pale. He had never thought he could have children, but when now hearing the bourgeois woman's words he became really restless: What if the little ones really looked like himself? Suddenly he remembered Frollo's teachings: "Out there they will hate and scorn and jeer..." No, that wasn't what he hoped for his own children.
Yvette had guessed what he was thinking about, and she got very angry with her parents.
"I am really disappointed in you," said she. "All my life you have taught me to be friendly toward the disdained, but now you talk like this to a person who has almost always been mistreated and kept imprisoned in a church tower for only one reason: because of his back. Even his name means 'half-formed'. But I assure you I have promised to remain faithful to him."
"Yvette, you will be engaged with another," exclaimed her mother, stupefied.
"So you don't want to accept my request?" asked the disappointed bellringer.
"No, we don't," replied the bourgeois man determinedly, "we have chosen a suitable husband
for her."
Humiliated, Quasimodo left the house. However, when he opened the door his sweetheart looked at him as if she would have liked to say: "I will never leave you."

During the next days, the servants of the family made preparations for the visit of Yvette's other suitor. The girl was carefully watched over, and she didn't have a possibility to go anywhere alone. But the next time when the whole family participated the Mass in Notre Dame, she said to her parents: "It's quite necessary for me to speak to the archdeacon!"
The parents were pleased, for they thought she was going to confess.
"Your Eminence," started Yvette after leaving alone with the priest, "I have to ask for your advice. My parents have arranged a marriage for me, but I am already in love with another man. I know it is wrong to defy my parents, but my beloved has never before had anyone to love, and I only want to give him what he needs." And she told the whole story without forgetting Quasimodo's loveless and separated life. "You know him: you saved his life and have raised him by your part. Of course you understand we must get each other."
The archdeacon was content that Yvette's love was so deep. "My child, are you sure his feelings are similar to yours?" he asked.
"I know he loves me more than anything," answered Yvette, "and I'm absolutely sure he doesn't feel shameful passion because he is also very grateful to me."
The archdeacon truly knew Quasimodo and had always found him warm-hearted, benevolent and devout. "Certainly you are right," he noted, "and if it's true he loves you as deeply as you say, I will try to help you. Yet we must pay attention to your other suitor who is going to be deceived - although I agree with you that it is not right to force anyone to get married against her will."
Yvette said: "Thank you ever so much, Your Eminence!" Then she left the Cathedral. On the square she saw Clopin's caravan and Quasimodo standing by the side of it. She didn't care to go to him this time, but suddenly she heard the bellringer call for Esmeralda. Now she noticed that the Gypsy girl was dancing for a large group of admirers. But when she heard Quasimodo's voice she finished her performance and hurried to the two men. Yvette got extremely curious when the youngsters walked aside to talk together. However, she found it best to go home this time.
Esmeralda explained to the bellringer that it was usual for Gypsy lovers to elope when they wanted to get married. "That's an excellent solution for us!" Quasimodo was enthusiastic.
"Well, you must take Yvette to the Court of Miracles, for it's the only place where no one can find her," smiled the dancer.
"It's a bit annoying that we have to come in the middle of the night," marked Quasi, "but that's the only possibility."
The same day he discussed with the archdeacon, and the priest became conviced that his love was sincere. However, the young man didn't tell him his new plan.
A little later Quasi climbed to the window of Yvette's room and whispered to her: "Be prepared for leaving tonight!"
"Go away! It would be terrible if you were seen," whispered Yvette restlessly. "What do you
mean by 'leaving'?"
"Elopement," replied Quasi, "Esmeralda has advised me. I will take you to the Gypsies."
"That's wonderful!" Yvette exclaimed.
Late that evening Yvette collected some of her clothes and the most important of her personal belongings, not forgetting her still unfinished trousseau. Very carefully, she slinked away from her room, and when she was sure nobody saw her she left the whole house. Fortunately, Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Phoebus were already waiting for her, and all four started to sneak toward the graveyard as quietly as they could.
Immediately when the lovers were noticed, the Gypsy children rushed to them; namely, Quasimodo was their absolute favourite. The youngsters and the non-Gypsy vagabonds were also glad to see them. "I eloped," told Yvette proudly, "may I stay here for some time?"
The Gypsies cheered. "Well done! Of course you are welcome here." Yvette brought her belongings to Esmeralda's dwelling, and it was also where she decided to sleep, for Quasimodo didn't, of course, like her to spend nights alone at a place like that.

Copyright Sonja

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