Read Online Pianist in the Dark by Michèle Halberstadt - Free Book Online Page A

classes. But succeeding where his illustrious colleagues had failed, on someone they had been unable to treat—this was unacceptable. By taking up interest in her, he had overreached himself. He was accepted as an original, an eccentric, a patron of the arts doubling as a man of science who afforded himself the luxury of exploring the fringes of medicine. But not as a scientist revolutionizing his era.
    It became apparent that his peers were refusing to associate with him. The Court doctors snubbed him. Even the Baron von Stoerck, his mentor and supporter, avoided crossing paths with him and spoke of him to colleagues with references to his “imagination.” Fewer people came to his parties. They invited him less to their own. He was no longer in the uppermost stratum of high society.
    He decided to restore his reputation. He was seen, with Madame Mesmer at his side, at every concert, every opera. In his home he welcomed illustrious musicians, singers, and dancers. He held sumptuous banquets. Mademoiselle von Paradis was no longer anywhere to be seen. She was kept out of the Mesmers’ social picture. Her poor health, after all, placed such festivities off-limits to her.
    Mesmer beat her at her own game.
    He spent less time with her during the day. At night he visited her less often. He was still enamored of her youth, fascinated by her innocent yet lucid state of mind. He was still convinced that he could wrench her from her shadows, but with his own future now at stake, he was less sure that he wanted devote all his energy to her recovery.
    “I am no longer your favorite patient,” sighed Maria Theresia when they were alone together in her room.
    Mesmer protested her use of irony.
    “You govern my thoughts and my future lies in your hands.”
    “This is what I deplore! Why must I offer proof of my recovery when it is still incomplete? I would be better off in the pavilion with your anonymous patients. At least no one comes to monitor their health!”
    “I informed your father of the reason for your relapse. I also told him that you have started making progress again but that it is too soon to plan a concert.”
    “The Empress has to see the progress I’ve made so that you can take credit for it and I can be spared further torment. If I ask her for an audience, she cannot refuse, can she?”
    She was sitting at her writing desk. Mesmer turned his back to her, too moved to confront her.
    She stood up and came beside him at the window, putting her arm in his, staring at the sky.
    “I don’t see any light, not even the moon. Does it mean there is bad weather coming tomorrow ... or have we fallen from grace? Is our lucky star no longer shining on us?”
    Mesmer was on the verge of tears. He took her hands, held her against him.
    “I wanted to protect you, but I cannot keep any secrets from you. We’re going to have to fight. A rumor has spread through Vienna that is sullying your reputation as well as mine. People are saying that we are lovers and that your so-called progress is the effect of ‘amorous suggestion,’ that is, some power I purportedly have over you. In other words, in my presence you can see things that you wouldn’t be able to see alone. Something along the lines of the sorcerer and his willing victim. They say our work is a hoax.”
    She let him pull her closer.
    “So our love is no more than a premeditated power play on your behalf? An attempt to manipulate me? That in addition to being blind, I am stupid and impressionable? You are well-versed in the rules of high society—tell me how to fight against an enemy who has no face.”
    “Your father hinted that if you went home, it would put an end to the gossip.”
    She clutched onto him, begging him, abandoning all restraint.
    “I don’t want to. I can’t. I can no longer live without you. My father rules over his house with an iron hand. He terrorizes everyone. He loves me, but he keeps me under his thumb, in a way you would never do, even