The Falsehood Shop

The Falsehood Shop by Edgar Saltus

An unnamed narrator, a historian occupied with writing about the empresses of Byzance, is interrupted in his Paris apartment by the arrival of Kate Egon, who anxiously asks where Herbert is and then declares that he is dead. The narrator, who lies to her by claiming ignorance, knows this is not literally true but understands that so far as Kate is concerned Herbert might as well be dead to her. As she looks around his library at the bookcases, the windows onto the Champs Élysées, and a portrait of the narrator in his Heidelberg corps costume bearing the scar of a student duel across his face, her suspicion of concealment passes. The narrator explains, in retrospect, that Herbert Brook is his rich and good-looking cousin, toward whom Kate had once been drawn while the narrator himself, merely a scarred historian, had never dared approach her. Herbert had originally been in love with Kate's friend Jenny Price, but when Jenny threw him over, he turned to Kate out of pique. Learning of this in New York, the narrator removed himself to Paris, taking an apartment on the corner of the Champs Élysées and Boetia Street, where he threw himself into writing about historical princesses to forget Kate. In Paris he becomes acquainted with his neighbor, Madame de Trèfle, a fashionable prophetess who lives in an adjoining apartment furnished in cornflower and silver. During a sitting with her, she tells him of a city of pineapple cupolas where people wear painted gauze, then says that though he thinks that home is his home, it is only the home of his thoughts, and that in Paris he will soon see someone he has been looking for. The next day, on the Champs Élysées, he indeed encounters Kate, newly arrived in Paris with her mother and awaiting Herbert. He mentions Madame de Trèfle to Kate and her mother at tea, and Kate asks to be taken to the prophetess. Before this can happen, Herbert unexpectedly turns up in the narrator's rooms while he is dressing. Herbert reveals that Jenny Price was aboard his ship to Paris and that they have reconciled, and casually asks the narrator to explain the situation to Kate, since he cannot be engaged to two women. The narrator, disgusted at being asked to break the news, refuses, calling it a surgical operation Herbert wants performed on his behalf; Herbert retorts that the narrator is just the man for the job, then departs abruptly when the servant enters. Left alone, the narrator cancels his plans for the evening and broods over how to tell Kate the truth without wounding her, eventually conceiving the idea of a falsehood shop stocked with consoling lies, though he cannot invent any lie of his own suited to the case, since Herbert's wealth rules out a tale of financial ruin and his presence in Paris rules out a story of madness. He resolves to draw instead on the stock of falsehoods available next door, at Madame de Trèfle's. Before he can call on her, Kate arrives at his rooms, distressed, explaining that Herbert arrived the day before and has since vanished; she fears he has fallen victim to the dangers of Paris, mentioning Apaches, reckless chauffeurs, and bandits, and knowing he carries much money, and she urges the narrator to go with her to the police. Instead he proposes taking her to Madame de Trèfle. He leaves Kate waiting while he goes ahead to arrange the visit, aware that he has not prepared the prophetess for the deception he intends. In Madame de Trèfle's salon, the narrator asks her to receive Kate and tell her that Herbert is unavailable to her for some invented but plausible and repellent reason, such as illness, so that Kate will give him up for her own sake; he offers to raise her usual fee from fifty to a hundred francs. Madame de Trèfle refuses money for deception, declaring that truth should never be withheld from those worthy of it, but agrees to judge for herself whether Kate is fit to be told a comforting falsehood, and the narrator fetches Kate. Seated by the window, Kate is told by Madame de Trèfle, who appears to fall into a trance, that the man Kate thought herself interested in is not good enough for her and that she will instead marry a man of mark. At that moment Kate, looking out the window, sees Herbert below in a car with Jenny Price, holding her hand and gazing at her adoringly; traffic holds the car in view long enough for Kate to fully grasp the situation. Herbert and Jenny look up, see the watchers, flush, and are driven off as traffic clears. Madame de Trèfle, continuing her prophecy, declares that Kate will marry a marked man, a man with a scar, then rouses herself and asks for her fee. The narrator reflects that it took Kate many months to recognize that truth had been contained within that falsehood shop, but that eventually she did recognize it.

By Edgar Saltus · First published 1913 · Genre: Literary fiction, Romance, Satire · 3,388 words

First lines

The servant, opening the door, announced: "Miss Egon."

I had not quite expected that. A moment previous I had been a thousand years away, among the young empresses of Byzance, whose brilliant lives I was trying and, what is worse for them, was succeeding in etching in dull prose. But, as the girl entered, the dead vanished, exorcised by the living, and I sprang forward to greet her.

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The Falsehood Shop is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edgar Saltus, dated 1913 CE.

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satire · decadent · social-commentary · irony · deception · vanity · philosophical · Victorian-era · literary-fiction · cynicism · witty · hypocrisy

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