A Landlady Out Of Central Casting

As noted previously, the proprietor Madame de Boyve loved matchmaking and spent a lot of effort trying to set Lister up with Mr. Franks. But initially, Lester interpreted de Boyve’s attentiveness to her as more personal. Lister recorded that she “seems to have taken a fancy to me” and Lister responded with “something of flattery of manner she is not used to from ladies.” Franks departed with nothing to show for de Boyve’s efforts, after which de Boyve turned toward trying to drive a wedge between Lister and Barlow.

Lister and de Boyve seem to have crossed signals regularly. On one occasion, de Boyve “took [Lister] around the waist” prompting Lister to kiss her noisily. And Lister perceived some of de Boyve’s interactions with Barlow as flirting. De Boyve had certainly become aware of Lister’s interest in women, but whether from sexual jealousy or moral disapproval, de Boyve entered into a campaign to convince Lister that Barlow was of questionable morals – recounting Barlow’s past interactions with men that she considered to have been sexually questionable, such as entertaining a man alone in her room. When Barlow had a chance to rebut this, she pointed out that “alone” included the presence of her maid.

But de Boyve’s gossip initially unsettled Lister and generated a number of critical observations on Barlow in the journal. In addition to the male visitor, there was a third-party allegation the Barlow had a one night stand with a man not resident in the house.

Someone hypocritically, Lister noted that Barlow’s response to her own advances could be considered support for the allegations of sexual impropriety with men. There is a discussion of how subtle differences in how Lister referenced de Boyve in her journal corresponded to different contexts for the interaction. Evidently another charge that de Boyve laid against Barlow was that Lister and Barlow spoke English rather than French together, and that this had been a pattern with the men who were friendly with Barlow – that they stopped speaking French.

Lister eventually settled on taking Barlow’s side, deciding that de Boyve was lying about the improprieties. Part of this shift was due to learning about the allegations that de Boyve’s housekeeper had a sideline providing and procuring sexual services for the male guests. This not only cast doubt on de Boyve’s morals for allowing it, but also made continued residence untenable for anyone who didn’t want to be associated with that immorality. The journal recounts an extended period when all these allegations – mostly shared privately between individuals – drove the residents to take sides. Lister wavered sometimes, on one occasion helping to try to trick Barlow into revealing the “truth” of her past behavior. De Boyve tried to use reports of Barlow’s initial doubts about Lister’s gender as a wedge, but in the end Lister concluded – as Barlow did – that further residence at Place Vendôme was untenable. (Orr provides an extended blow-by-blow account of the household conflict that I haven’t attempted to render in detail.)

The quarrel came to a public crisis at the end of November. December journal entries show a fixed interest in the relationship with Barlow, as they determined to move out and get their own place together.

Reflecting 19th-century attitudes toward reputation, Lister seems less concerned with establishing the objective truth of claims about various people’s behavior as she is with determining who had the better “character.” Hypocrisy again enters as Lister condemns de Boyve’s “worldliness” and inappropriate knowledge of sexual matters. A respectable gentlewoman would not know about the things she accused Barlow of or, if she did know about them, would not allow Barlow to continue living there if she believed the accusations to be true. That de Boyve allowed someone she believed to be immoral to continue living in her house was evidence of de Boyve’s bad character, not of Barlow’s character. This also worked in the opposite direction: for Barlow to leave the house in the face of the accusations might hurt her reputation, but to stay would definitely hurt it.

It was settled that Lister and the Barlows would move out. But that decision made de Boyve aware of how the event would reflect on her reputation and she exerted some effort to reattach Lister to her side. Other lodgers were dragged into the negotiations, having different stories and perhaps with access to different versions of the facts. De Boyve even claimed that all the negative things she said had been intended as joking.

At the beginning of January, the move was accomplished (after Lister dithering a bit whether she would actually move or only visit Barlow regularly). Curiously – or perhaps simply in line with the social manners of the day – de Boyve made a social call at the new residence on Quai Voltaire, as did many of the Place Vendôme residents. Lister was cool to her but did return the visit, though they did not return to full sociability.

This section concludes with a summary of the main themes of the analysis regarding social practices and dynamics.