The Fortunes of Fifi
Summary
Beneath the grease-paint hush of a half-empty boulevard theatre, Fifi—an Pierrot whose chalky grin masks a heart that beats in primary colors—flings fistfuls of powdered ginger at a listless troupe, trying to ignite a spark that never catches. One pair of eyes in the stalls belongs to Cartouche, scarred cuirassier turned bit-player, whose shattered collarbone once bore an emperor’s braid; he sees in her anarchic pantomime the last flare of a France he no longer recognizes. Smuggling her into the gilded bureaucracy of the Imperial, he becomes impresario, benefactor, sentinel, slipping francs that might have been bread money into her palm, only to watch her exchange them for a clockwork terrier she names Toto—a tin-heart companion that ticks louder than his own war-muffled pulse. A lottery ticket, torn from a sidewalk kiosk like a secular relic, lands her in a typhoon of gold; Cartouche, fearing the corrosion of sudden wealth, apprentices her to the bourgeois cosmos of Louis Bourcet, attorney-at-law, where chandeliers weigh more than muskets and a dowry is measured in silence. Fifi, sensing the noose of propriety tightening, buries banknotes under floorboards, then parades them as though they were autumn leaves, commissioning gilded swan-centerpieces that sing off-key and a pianola that refuses to play anything but the Marseillaise. Louis calculates her eccentricities into annuities and proposes, mistaking extravagance for inexhaustible fortune; Fifi, startled by her own reflection in the betrothal mirror, chooses ruin as rebellion, showering veterans’ charities with the last of her loot until the Bourcet drawing-room expels her like a foreign body. Back in the proscenium dust she demands a salary commensurate with her notoriety, brandishing the General’s commendation like a saber, finally cornering Cartouche into admitting that the only fortune worth keeping is the one that fits inside another ribcage.
Synopsis
Fifi is seen as Pierrot in a French play that is a failure despite her effort to put ginger into the rest of the cast. Among the few in the last audience was Cartouche, a veteran, who had become an actor when his wounds no longer allowed him to follow Napoleon. Through Cartouche's efforts Fifi is employed at the Imperial theater in Parts. He takes her to his lodging, determined to protect her. Fifi fails to understand how much Cartouche is doing for her, and when he gives her money to buy clothes she purchases a toy dog sailed Toto. The veteran buys a lottery ticket and gives it to Fifi. The ticket bears the winning number and Fifi finds herself in possession of a fortune. Cartouche decides Fifi must be educated. He applies to his old general, who suggests that Fifi be sent to the home of Louis Bourcet, an attorney who lives alone with his mother. Instead of putting her money in the bank Fifi hides it and startles the Bourcet family by her extravagance. They decide she has even more money than they thought and Louis begins to see in the wealthy Fifi a very acceptable wife. He makes love to the girl, and she accepts his proffer. Then she sets about to make him break the engagement by squandering her money, realizing she is in love with Cartouche. Accordingly she buys the most impossible things, scandalizing the Bourcet family into a complete renunciation by giving the remainder of her wealth to a charitable benefit for old soldiers. Ejected from the house by the angry Mme. Bourcet, Fifi returns to the Imperial, where she demands more money for her services because she has been publicly thanked by the General for her donation to charity. She tells Cartouche she loves him, but the old soldier refuses. to permit her to "throw herself away" upon him until Fifi gets an inspiration of her own.
