La Carconte
La Carconte Caderousse’s wife, born Madeleine Radelle, is pale, meagre, and sickly-looking, hailing from the neighborhood of Arles. Though she once shared in the proverbial beauty of Arlesian women, that beauty has withered beneath the slow fever prevalent among dwellers by the Aiguemortes ponds and Camargue marshes. She spends most of her time in her second-floor chamber, shivering in her chair or stretched languid on her bed, while Caderousse keeps his daily watch at the door to avoid her ceaseless invectives against fate. To her complaints, he calmly responds, “Hush, La Carconte. It is God’s pleasure that things should be so.”
The Nickname
The Nickname The sobriquet “La Carconte” was bestowed upon Madeleine Radelle because she was born in a village so named, situated between Salon and Lambesc. Following the local custom of giving everyone a distinctive appellation, her husband replaced her sweet, euphonious name of Madeleine with this nickname, which his rude guttural speech could more easily pronounce.
Former Splendor
Former Splendor Despite his affected resignation, the innkeeper writhes under the double misery of losing customers and profits to the canal and enduring his wife’s constant murmurs. In his prosperous days, Caderousse and his wife were spectators at every festivity, he in a picturesque southern costume resembling both Catalan and Andalusian styles, and she in the charming Arlesian fashion borrowed from Greece and Arabia. Gradually, watch-chains, necklaces, parti-colored scarves, embroidered bodices, velvet vests, worked stockings, striped gaiters, and silver buckles all disappeared. Unable to appear in his pristine splendor, Caderousse has given up participation in such vanities, though envy fills him as he hears mirth and music from the joyous revellers reaching his miserable hostelry.
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