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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Two Brothers, by Honore de Balzac
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Two Brothers
+
+Author: Honore de Balzac
+
+Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley
+
+Release Date: July, 1997  [Etext #1380]
+Posting Date: February 24, 2010
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWO BROTHERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO BROTHERS
+
+
+By Honore De Balzac
+
+
+
+Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
+
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+To Monsieur Charles Nodier, member of the French Academy, etc.
+
+Here, my dear Nodier, is a book filled with deeds that are screened from
+the action of the laws by the closed doors of domestic life; but as
+to which the finger of God, often called chance, supplies the place
+of human justice, and in which the moral is none the less striking and
+instructive because it is pointed by a scoffer.
+
+To my mind, such deeds contain great lessons for the Family and for
+Maternity. We shall some day realize, perhaps too late, the effects
+produced by the diminution of paternal authority. That authority, which
+formerly ceased only at the death of the father, was the sole human
+tribunal before which domestic crimes could be arraigned; kings
+themselves, on special occasions, took part in executing its judgments.
+However good and tender a mother may be, she cannot fulfil the function
+of the patriarchal royalty any more than a woman can take the place of
+a king upon the throne. Perhaps I have never drawn a picture that shows
+more plainly how essential to European society is the indissoluble
+marriage bond, how fatal the results of feminine weakness, how great the
+dangers arising from selfish interests when indulged without restraint.
+May a society which is based solely on the power of wealth shudder as it
+sees the impotence of the law in dealing with the workings of a system
+which deifies success, and pardons every means of attaining it. May
+it return to the Catholic religion, for the purification of its masses
+through the inspiration of religious feeling, and by means of an
+education other than that of a lay university.
+
+In the "Scenes from Military Life" so many fine natures, so many high
+and noble self-devotions will be set forth, that I may here be allowed
+to point out the depraving effect of the necessities of war upon certain
+minds who venture to act in domestic life as if upon the field of
+battle.
+
+You have cast a sagacious glance over the events of our own time; its
+philosophy shines, in more than one bitter reflection, through your
+elegant pages; you have appreciated, more clearly than other men,
+the havoc wrought in the mind of our country by the existence of four
+distinct political systems. I cannot, therefore, place this history
+under the protection of a more competent authority. Your name may,
+perhaps, defend my work against the criticisms that are certain to
+follow it,--for where is the patient who keeps silence when the surgeon
+lifts the dressing from his wound?
+
+To the pleasure of dedicating this Scene to you, is joined the pride I
+feel in thus making known your friendship for one who here subscribes
+himself
+
+                                        Your sincere admirer,
+
+                                        De Balzac
+                                        Paris, November, 1842.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TWO BROTHERS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+In 1792 the townspeople of Issoudun enjoyed the services of a physician
+named Rouget, whom they held to be a man of consummate malignity. Were
+we to believe certain bold tongues, he made his wife extremely unhappy,
+although she was the most beautiful woman of the neighborhood. Perhaps,
+indeed, she was rather silly. But the prying of friends, the slander of
+enemies, and the gossip of acquaintances, had never succeeded in laying
+bare the interior of that household. Doctor Rouget was a man of whom we
+say in common parlance, "He is not pleasant to deal with." Consequently,
+during his lifetime, his townsmen kept silence about him and treated him
+civilly. His wife, a demoiselle Descoings, feeble in health during her
+girlhood (which was said to be a reason why the doctor married her),
+gave birth to a son, and also to a daughter who arrived, unexpectedly,
+ten years after her brother, and whose birth took the husband, doctor
+though he were, by surprise. This late-comer was named Agathe.
+
+These little facts are so simple, so commonplace, that a writer seems
+scarcely justified in placing them in the fore-front of his history; yet
+if they are not known, a man of Doctor Rouget's stamp would be thought
+a monster, an unnatural father, when, in point of fact, he was only
+following out the evil tendencies which many people shelter under
+the terrible axiom that "men should have strength of character,"--a
+masculine phrase that has caused many a woman's misery.
+
+The Descoings, father-in-law and mother-in-law of the doctor, were
+commission merchants in the wool-trade, and did a double business by
+selling for the producers and buying for the manufacturers of the golden
+fleeces of Berry; thus pocketing a commission on both sides. In this way
+they grew rich and miserly--the outcome of many such lives. Descoings
+the son, younger brother of Madame Rouget, did not like Issoudun. He
+went to seek his fortune in Paris, where he set up as a grocer in the
+rue Saint-Honore. That step led to his ruin. But nothing could have
+hindered it: a grocer is drawn to his business by an attracting force
+quite equal to the repelling force which drives artists away from it.
+We do not sufficiently study the social potentialities which make up
+the various vocations of life. It would be interesting to know what
+determines one man to be a stationer rather than a baker; since, in our
+day, sons are not compelled to follow the calling of their fathers,
+as they were among the Egyptians. In this instance, love decided the
+vocation of Descoings. He said to himself, "I, too, will be a grocer!"
+and in the same breath he said (also to himself) some other things
+regarding his employer,--a beautiful creature, with whom he had fallen
+desperately in love. Without other help than patience and the trifling
+sum of money his father and mother sent him, he married the widow of his
+predecessor, Monsieur Bixiou.
+
+In 1792 Descoings was thought to be doing an excellent business. At that
+time, the old Descoings were still living. They had retired from the
+wool-trade, and were employing their capital in buying up the forfeited
+estates,--another golden fleece! Their son-in-law Doctor Rouget, who,
+about this time, felt pretty sure that he should soon have to mourn for
+the death of his wife, sent his daughter to Paris to the care of his
+brother-in-law, partly to let her see the capital, but still more to
+carry out an artful scheme of his own. Descoings had no children. Madame
+Descoings, twelve years older than her husband, was in good health,
+but as fat as a thrush after harvest; and the canny Rouget knew enough
+professionally to be certain that Monsieur and Madame Descoings,
+contrary to the moral of fairy tales, would live happy ever after
+without having any children. The pair might therefore become attached to
+Agathe.
+
+That young girl, the handsomest maiden in Issoudun, did not resemble
+either father or mother. Her birth had caused a lasting breach between
+Doctor Rouget and his intimate friend Monsieur Lousteau, a former
+sub-delegate who had lately removed from the town. When a family
+expatriates itself, the natives of a place as attractive as Issoudun
+have a right to inquire into the reasons of so surprising a step. It was
+said by certain sharp tongues that Doctor Rouget, a vindictive man, had
+been heard to exclaim that Monsieur Lousteau should die by his hand.
+Uttered by a physician, this declaration had the force of a cannon-ball.
+When the National Assembly suppressed the sub-delegates, Lousteau
+and his family left Issoudun, and never returned there. After their
+departure Madame Rouget spent most of her time with the sister of the
+late sub-delegate, Madame Hochon, who was the godmother of her daughter,
+and the only person to whom she confided her griefs. The little that the
+good town of Issoudun ever really knew of the beautiful Madame Rouget
+was told by Madame Hochon,--though not until after the doctor's death.
+
+The first words of Madame Rouget, when informed by her husband that
+he meant to send Agathe to Paris, were: "I shall never see my daughter
+again."
+
+"And she was right," said the worthy Madame Hochon.
+
+After this, the poor mother grew as yellow as a quince, and her
+appearance did not contradict the tongues of those who declared that
+Doctor Rouget was killing her by inches. The behavior of her booby of a
+son must have added to the misery of the poor woman so unjustly accused.
+Not restrained, possibly encouraged by his father, the young fellow, who
+was in every way stupid, paid her neither the attentions nor the respect
+which a son owes to a mother. Jean-Jacques Rouget was like his father,
+especially on the latter's worst side; and the doctor at his best was
+far from satisfactory, either morally or physically.
+
+The arrival of the charming Agathe Rouget did not bring happiness to her
+uncle Descoings; for in the same week (or rather, we should say decade,
+for the Republic had then been proclaimed) he was imprisoned on a
+hint from Robespierre given to Fouquier-Tinville. Descoings, who was
+imprudent enough to think the famine fictitious, had the additional
+folly, under the impression that opinions were free, to express that
+opinion to several of his male and female customers as he served them
+in the grocery. The citoyenne Duplay, wife of a cabinet-maker with whom
+Robespierre lodged, and who looked after the affairs of that eminent
+citizen, patronized, unfortunately, the Descoings establishment. She
+considered the opinions of the grocer insulting to Maximilian the First.
+Already displeased with the manners of Descoings, this illustrious
+"tricoteuse" of the Jacobin club regarded the beauty of his wife as a
+kind of aristocracy. She infused a venom of her own into the grocer's
+remarks when she repeated them to her good and gentle master, and
+the poor man was speedily arrested on the well-worn charge of
+"accaparation."
+
+No sooner was he put in prison, than his wife set to work to obtain his
+release. But the steps she took were so ill-judged that any one hearing
+her talk to the arbiters of his fate might have thought that she was in
+reality seeking to get rid of him. Madame Descoings knew Bridau, one
+of the secretaries of Roland, then minister of the interior,--the
+right-hand man of all the ministers who succeeded each other in
+that office. She put Bridau on the war-path to save her grocer. That
+incorruptible official--one of the virtuous dupes who are always
+admirably disinterested--was careful not to corrupt the men on whom
+the fate of the poor grocer depended; on the contrary, he endeavored to
+enlighten them. Enlighten people in those days! As well might he have
+begged them to bring back the Bourbons. The Girondist minister, who was
+then contending against Robespierre, said to his secretary, "Why do you
+meddle in the matter?" and all others to whom the worthy Bridau appealed
+made the same atrocious reply: "Why do you meddle?" Bridau then sagely
+advised Madame Descoings to keep quiet and await events. But instead of
+conciliating Robespierre's housekeeper, she fretted and fumed against
+that informer, and even complained to a member of the Convention,
+who, trembling for himself, replied hastily, "I will speak of it to
+Robespierre." The handsome petitioner put faith in this promise, which
+the other carefully forgot. A few loaves of sugar, or a bottle or two of
+good liqueur, given to the citoyenne Duplay would have saved Descoings.
+
+This little mishap proves that in revolutionary times it is quite
+as dangerous to employ honest men as scoundrels; we should rely on
+ourselves alone. Descoings perished; but he had the glory of going to
+the scaffold with Andre Chenier. There, no doubt, grocery and poetry
+embraced for the first time in the flesh; although they have, and ever
+have had, intimate secret relations. The death of Descoings produced far
+more sensation than that of Andre Chenier. It has taken thirty years to
+prove to France that she lost more by the death of Chenier than by that
+of Descoings.
+
+This act of Robespierre led to one good result: the terrified grocers
+let politics alone until 1830. Descoings's shop was not a hundred yards
+from Robespierre's lodging. His successor was scarcely more fortunate
+than himself. Cesar Birotteau, the celebrated perfumer of the "Queen
+of Roses," bought the premises; but, as if the scaffold had left some
+inexplicable contagion behind it, the inventor of the "Paste of Sultans"
+and the "Carminative Balm" came to his ruin in that very shop. The
+solution of the problem here suggested belongs to the realm of occult
+science.
+
+During the visits which Roland's secretary paid to the unfortunate
+Madame Descoings, he was struck with the cold, calm, innocent beauty
+of Agathe Rouget. While consoling the widow, who, however, was too
+inconsolable to carry on the business of her second deceased husband, he
+married the charming girl, with the consent of her father, who hastened
+to give his approval to the match. Doctor Rouget, delighted to hear that
+matters were going beyond his expectations,--for his wife, on the death
+of her brother, had become sole heiress of the Descoings,--rushed to
+Paris, not so much to be present at the wedding as to see that the
+marriage contract was drawn to suit him. The ardent and disinterested
+love of citizen Bridau gave carte blanche to the perfidious doctor, who
+made the most of his son-in-law's blindness, as the following history
+will show.
+
+Madame Rouget, or, to speak more correctly, the doctor, inherited all
+the property, landed and personal, of Monsieur and Madame Descoings the
+elder, who died within two years of each other; and soon after that,
+Rouget got the better, as we may say, of his wife, for she died at the
+beginning of the year 1799. So he had vineyards and he bought farms, he
+owned iron-works and he sold fleeces. His well-beloved son was stupidly
+incapable of doing anything; but the father destined him for the state
+in life of a land proprietor and allowed him to grow up in wealth and
+silliness, certain that the lad would know as much as the wisest if he
+simply let himself live and die. After 1799, the cipherers of Issoudun
+put, at the very least, thirty thousand francs' income to the doctor's
+credit. From the time of his wife's death he led a debauched life,
+though he regulated it, so to speak, and kept it within the closed doors
+of his own house. This man, endowed with "strength of character," died
+in 1805, and God only knows what the townspeople of Issoudun said about
+him then, and how many anecdotes they related of his horrible private
+life. Jean-Jacques Rouget, whom his father, recognizing his stupidity,
+had latterly treated with severity, remained a bachelor for certain
+reasons, the explanation of which will form an important part of this
+history. His celibacy was partly his father's fault, as we shall see
+later.
+
+Meantime, it is well to inquire into the results of the secret vengeance
+the doctor took on a daughter whom he did not recognize as his own, but
+who, you must understand at once, was legitimately his. Not a person in
+Issoudun had noticed one of those capricious facts that make the whole
+subject of generation a vast abyss in which science flounders. Agathe
+bore a strong likeness to the mother of Doctor Rouget. Just as gout
+is said to skip a generation and pass from grandfather to grandson,
+resemblances not uncommonly follow the same course.
+
+In like manner, the eldest of Agathe's children, who physically
+resembled his mother, had the moral qualities of his grandfather, Doctor
+Rouget. We will leave the solution of this problem to the twentieth
+century, with a fine collection of microscopic animalculae; our
+descendants may perhaps write as much nonsense as the scientific schools
+of the nineteenth century have uttered on this mysterious and perplexing
+question.
+
+Agathe Rouget attracted the admiration of everyone by a face destined,
+like that of Mary, the mother of our Lord, to continue ever virgin, even
+after marriage. Her portrait, still to be seen in the atelier of Bridau,
+shows a perfect oval and a clear whiteness of complexion, without the
+faintest tinge of color, in spite of her golden hair. More than one
+artist, looking at the pure brow, the discreet, composed mouth, the
+delicate nose, the small ears, the long lashes, and the dark-blue eyes
+filled with tenderness,--in short, at the whole countenance expressive
+of placidity,--has asked the great artist, "Is that a copy of a
+Raphael?" No man ever acted under a truer inspiration than the
+minister's secretary when he married this young girl. Agathe was an
+embodiment of the ideal housekeeper brought up in the provinces and
+never parted from her mother. Pious, though far from sanctimonious, she
+had no other education than that given to women by the Church. Judged,
+by ordinary standards, she was an accomplished wife, yet her ignorance
+of life paved the way for great misfortunes. The epitaph on the Roman
+matron, "She did needlework and kept the house," gives a faithful
+picture of her simple, pure, and tranquil existence.
+
+Under the Consulate, Bridau attached himself fanatically to Napoleon,
+who placed him at the head of a department in the ministry of the
+interior in 1804, a year before the death of Doctor Rouget. With a
+salary of twelve thousand francs and very handsome emoluments, Bridau
+was quite indifferent to the scandalous settlement of the property at
+Issoudun, by which Agathe was deprived of her rightful inheritance. Six
+months before Doctor Rouget's death he had sold one-half of his property
+to his son, to whom the other half was bequeathed as a gift, and also in
+accordance with his rights as heir. An advance of fifty thousand
+francs on her inheritance, made to Agathe at the time of her marriage,
+represented her share of the property of her father and mother.
+
+Bridau idolized the Emperor, and served him with the devotion of a
+Mohammedan for his prophet; striving to carry out the vast conceptions
+of the modern demi-god, who, finding the whole fabric of France
+destroyed, went to work to reconstruct everything. The new official
+never showed fatigue, never cried "Enough." Projects, reports, notes,
+studies, he accepted all, even the hardest labors, happy in the
+consciousness of aiding his Emperor. He loved him as a man, he adored
+him as a sovereign, and he would never allow the least criticism of his
+acts or his purposes.
+
+From 1804 to 1808, the Bridaus lived in a handsome suite of rooms on the
+Quai Voltaire, a few steps from the ministry of the interior and close
+to the Tuileries. A cook and footman were the only servants of the
+household during this period of Madame Bridau's grandeur. Agathe, early
+afoot, went to market with her cook. While the latter did the rooms, she
+prepared the breakfast. Bridau never went to the ministry before
+eleven o'clock. As long as their union lasted, his wife took the same
+unwearying pleasure in preparing for him an exquisite breakfast, the
+only meal he really enjoyed. At all seasons and in all weathers, Agathe
+watched her husband from the window as he walked toward his office, and
+never drew in her head until she had seen him turn the corner of the rue
+du Bac. Then she cleared the breakfast-table herself, gave an eye to the
+arrangement of the rooms, dressed for the day, played with her children
+and took them to walk, or received the visits of friends; all the
+while waiting in spirit for Bridau's return. If her husband brought him
+important business that had to be attended to, she would station herself
+close to the writing-table in his study, silent as a statue, knitting
+while he wrote, sitting up as late as he did, and going to bed only a
+few moments before him. Occasionally, the pair went to some theatre,
+occupying one of the ministerial boxes. On those days, they dined at
+a restaurant, and the gay scenes of that establishment never ceased to
+give Madame Bridau the same lively pleasure they afford to provincials
+who are new to Paris. Agathe, who was obliged to accept the formal
+dinners sometimes given to the head of a department in a ministry, paid
+due attention to the luxurious requirements of the then mode of dress,
+but she took off the rich apparel with delight when she returned home,
+and resumed the simple garb of a provincial. One day in the week,
+Thursday, Bridau received his friends, and he also gave a grand ball,
+annually, on Shrove Tuesday.
+
+These few words contain the whole history of their conjugal life, which
+had but three events; the births of two children, born three years
+apart, and the death of Bridau, who died in 1808, killed by overwork
+at the very moment when the Emperor was about to appoint him
+director-general, count, and councillor of state. At this period of
+his reign, Napoleon was particularly absorbed in the affairs of the
+interior; he overwhelmed Bridau with work, and finally wrecked the
+health of that dauntless bureaucrat. The Emperor, of whom Bridau had
+never asked a favor, made inquiries into his habits and fortune. Finding
+that this devoted servant literally had nothing but his situation,
+Napoleon recognized him as one of the incorruptible natures which raised
+the character of his government and gave moral weight to it, and he
+wished to surprise him by the gift of some distinguished reward. But the
+effort to complete a certain work, involving immense labor, before
+the departure of the Emperor for Spain caused the death of the devoted
+servant, who was seized with an inflammatory fever. When the Emperor,
+who remained in Paris for a few days after his return to prepare for the
+campaign of 1809, was told of Bridau's death he said: "There are men
+who can never be replaced." Struck by the spectacle of a devotion which
+could receive none of the brilliant recognitions that reward a soldier,
+the Emperor resolved to create an order to requite civil services, just
+as he had already created the Legion of honor to reward the military.
+The impression he received from the death of Bridau led him to plan
+the order of the Reunion. He had not time, however, to mature this
+aristocratic scheme, the recollection of which is now so completely
+effaced that many of my readers may ask what were its insignia: the
+order was worn with a blue ribbon. The Emperor called it the Reunion,
+under the idea of uniting the order of the Golden Fleece of Spain with
+the order of the Golden Fleece of Austria. "Providence," said a Prussian
+diplomatist, "took care to frustrate the profanation."
+
+After Bridau's death the Emperor inquired into the circumstances of his
+widow. Her two sons each received a scholarship in the Imperial Lyceum,
+and the Emperor paid the whole costs of their education from his
+privy purse. He gave Madame Bridau a pension of four thousand francs,
+intending, no doubt, to advance the fortune of her sons in future years.
+
+From the time of her marriage to the death of her husband, Agathe had
+held no communication with Issoudun. She lost her mother just as she was
+on the point of giving birth to her youngest son, and when her father,
+who, as she well knew, loved her little, died, the coronation of the
+Emperor was at hand, and that event gave Bridau so much additional work
+that she was unwilling to leave him. Her brother, Jean-Jacques Rouget,
+had not written to her since she left Issoudun. Though grieved by the
+tacit repudiation of her family, Agathe had come to think seldom of
+those who never thought of her. Once a year she received a letter from
+her godmother, Madame Hochon, to whom she replied with commonplaces,
+paying no heed to the advice which that pious and excellent woman gave
+to her, disguised in cautious words.
+
+Some time before the death of Doctor Rouget, Madame Hochon had written
+to her goddaughter warning her that she would get nothing from her
+father's estate unless she gave a power of attorney to Monsieur Hochon.
+Agathe was very reluctant to harass her brother. Whether it were that
+Bridau thought the spoliation of his wife in accordance with the laws
+and customs of Berry, or that, high-minded as he was, he shared the
+magnanimity of his wife, certain it is that he would not listen to
+Roguin, his notary, who advised him to take advantage of his ministerial
+position to contest the deeds by which the father had deprived the
+daughter of her legitimate inheritance. Husband and wife thus tacitly
+sanctioned what was done at Issoudun. Nevertheless, Roguin had forced
+Bridau to reflect upon the future interests of his wife which were thus
+compromised. He saw that if he died before her, Agathe would be left
+without property, and this led him to look into his own affairs. He
+found that between 1793 and 1805 his wife and he had been obliged to use
+nearly thirty thousand of the fifty thousand francs in cash which old
+Rouget had given to his daughter at the time of her marriage. He at once
+invested the remaining twenty thousand in the public funds, then quoted
+at forty, and from this source Agathe received about two thousand francs
+a year. As a widow, Madame Bridau could live suitably on an income of
+six thousand francs. With provincial good sense, she thought of changing
+her residence, dismissing the footman, and keeping no servant except a
+cook; but her intimate friend, Madame Descoings, who insisted on being
+considered her aunt, sold her own establishment and came to live with
+Agathe, turning the study of the late Bridau into her bedroom.
+
+The two widows clubbed their revenues, and so were in possession of a
+joint income of twelve thousand francs a year. This seems a very
+simple and natural proceeding. But nothing in life is more deserving of
+attention than the things that are called natural; we are on our guard
+against the unnatural and extraordinary. For this reason, you will find
+men of experience--lawyers, judges, doctors, and priests--attaching
+immense importance to simple matters; and they are often thought
+over-scrupulous. But the serpent amid flowers is one of the finest myths
+that antiquity has bequeathed for the guidance of our lives. How often
+we hear fools, trying to excuse themselves in their own eyes or in the
+eyes of others, exclaiming, "It was all so natural that any one would
+have been taken in."
+
+In 1809, Madame Descoings, who never told her age, was sixty-five. In
+her heyday she had been popularly called a beauty, and was now one
+of those rare women whom time respects. She owed to her excellent
+constitution the privilege of preserving her good looks, which, however,
+would not bear close examination. She was of medium height, plump, and
+fresh, with fine shoulders and a rather rosy complexion. Her blond hair,
+bordering on chestnut, showed, in spite of her husband's catastrophe,
+not a tinge of gray. She loved good cheer, and liked to concoct nice
+little made dishes; yet, fond as she was of eating, she also adored
+the theatre and cherished a vice which she wrapped in impenetrable
+mystery--she bought into lotteries. Can that be the abyss of which
+mythology warns us under the fable of the Danaides and their cask?
+Madame Descoings, like other women who are lucky enough to keep young
+for many years, spend rather too much upon her dress; but aside from
+these trifling defects she was the pleasantest of women to live with.
+Of every one's opinion, never opposing anybody, her kindly and
+communicative gayety gave pleasure to all. She had, moreover, a Parisian
+quality which charmed the retired clerks and elderly merchants of her
+circle,--she could take and give a jest. If she did not marry a third
+time it was no doubt the fault of the times. During the wars of the
+Empire, marrying men found rich and handsome girls too easily to trouble
+themselves about women of sixty.
+
+Madame Descoings, always anxious to cheer Madame Bridau, often took the
+latter to the theatre, or to drive; prepared excellent little dinners
+for her delectation, and even tried to marry her to her own son by her
+first husband, Bixiou. Alas! to do this, she was forced to reveal a
+terrible secret, carefully kept by her, by her late husband, and by
+her notary. The young and beautiful Madame Descoings, who passed for
+thirty-six years old, had a son who was thirty-five, named Bixiou,
+already a widower, a major in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry, who
+subsequently perished at Lutzen, leaving behind him an only son. Madame
+Descoings, who only saw her grandson secretly, gave out that he was the
+son of the first wife of her first husband. The revelation was partly
+a prudential act; for this grandson was being educated with Madame
+Bridau's sons at the Imperial Lyceum, where he had a half-scholarship.
+The lad, who was clever and shrewd at school, soon after made himself a
+great reputation as draughtsman and designer, and also as a wit.
+
+Agathe, who lived only for her children, declined to re-marry, as much
+from good sense as from fidelity to her husband. But it is easier for a
+woman to be a good wife than to be a good mother. A widow has two
+tasks before her, whose duties clash: she is a mother, and yet she must
+exercise parental authority. Few women are firm enough to understand and
+practise this double duty. Thus it happened that Agathe, notwithstanding
+her many virtues, was the innocent cause of great unhappiness. In the
+first place, through her lack of intelligence and the blind confidence
+to which such noble natures are prone, Agathe fell a victim to Madame
+Descoings, who brought a terrible misfortune on the family. That worthy
+soul was nursing up a combination of three numbers called a "trey" in a
+lottery, and lotteries give no credit to their customers. As manager of
+the joint household, she was able to pay up her stakes with the money
+intended for their current expenses, and she went deeper and deeper into
+debt, with the hope of ultimately enriching her grandson Bixiou, her
+dear Agathe, and the little Bridaus. When the debts amounted to ten
+thousand francs, she increased her stakes, trusting that her favorite
+trey, which had not turned up in nine years, would come at last, and
+fill to overflowing the abysmal deficit.
+
+From that moment the debt rolled up rapidly. When it reached twenty
+thousand francs, Madame Descoings lost her head, still failing to win
+the trey. She tried to mortgage her own property to pay her niece, but
+Roguin, who was her notary, showed her the impossibility of carrying out
+that honorable intention. The late Doctor Rouget had laid hold of the
+property of the brother-in-law after the grocer's execution, and had,
+as it were, disinherited Madame Descoings by securing to her a
+life-interest on the property of his own son, Jean-Jacques Rouget. No
+money-lender would think of advancing twenty thousand francs to a woman
+sixty-six years of age, on an annuity of about four thousand, at a
+period when ten per cent could easily be got for an investment. So one
+morning Madame Descoings fell at the feet of her niece, and with sobs
+confessed the state of things. Madame Bridau did not reproach her; she
+sent away the footman and cook, sold all but the bare necessities of her
+furniture, sold also three-fourths of her government funds, paid off the
+debts, and bade farewell to her _appartement_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+One of the worst corners in all Paris is undoubtedly that part of the
+rue Mazarin which lies between the rue Guenegard and its junction with
+the rue de Seine, behind the palace of the Institute. The high gray
+walls of the college and of the library which Cardinal Mazarin presented
+to the city of Paris, and which the French Academy was in after days to
+inhabit, cast chill shadows over this angle of the street, where the sun
+seldom shines, and the north wind blows. The poor ruined widow came to
+live on the third floor of a house standing at this damp, dark, cold
+corner. Opposite, rose the Institute buildings, in which were the
+dens of ferocious animals known to the bourgeoisie under the name of
+artists,--under that of tyro, or rapin, in the studios. Into these
+dens they enter rapins, but they may come forth prix de Rome. The
+transformation does not take place without extraordinary uproar and
+disturbance at the time of year when the examinations are going on, and
+the competitors are shut up in their cells. To win a prize, they were
+obliged, within a given time, to make, if a sculptor, a clay model; if a
+painter, a picture such as may be seen at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; if
+a musician, a cantata; if an architect, the plans for a public building.
+At the time when we are penning the words, this menagerie has already
+been removed from these cold and cheerless buildings, and taken to the
+elegant Palais des Beaux-Arts, which stands near by.
+
+From the windows of Madame Bridau's new abode, a glance could penetrate
+the depths of those melancholy barred cages. To the north, the view was
+shut in by the dome of the Institute; looking up the street, the only
+distraction to the eye was a file of hackney-coaches, which stood at
+the upper end of the rue Mazarin. After a while, the widow put boxes of
+earth in front of her windows, and cultivated those aerial gardens that
+police regulations forbid, though their vegetable products purify the
+atmosphere. The house, which backed up against another fronting on the
+rue de Seine, was necessarily shallow, and the staircase wound round
+upon itself. The third floor was the last. Three windows to three rooms,
+namely, a dining-room, a small salon, and a chamber on one side of the
+landing; on the other, a little kitchen, and two single rooms; above, an
+immense garret without partitions. Madame Bridau chose this lodging for
+three reasons: economy, for it cost only four hundred francs a year,
+so that she took a lease of it for nine years; proximity to her sons'
+school, the Imperial Lyceum being at a short distance; thirdly, because
+it was in the quarter to which she was used.
+
+The inside of the _appartement_ was in keeping with the general look of
+the house. The dining-room, hung with a yellow paper covered with little
+green flowers, and floored with tiles that were not glazed, contained
+nothing that was not strictly necessary,--namely, a table, two
+sideboards, and six chairs, brought from the other _appartement_. The
+salon was adorned with an Aubusson carpet given to Bridau when the
+ministry of the interior was refurnished. To the furniture of this
+room the widow added one of those commonplace mahogany sofas with the
+Egyptian heads that Jacob Desmalter manufactured by the gross in 1806,
+covering them with a silken green stuff bearing a design of white
+geometric circles. Above this piece of furniture hung a portrait
+of Bridau, done in pastel by the hand of an amateur, which at once
+attracted the eye. Though art might have something to say against it,
+no one could fail to recognize the firmness of the noble and obscure
+citizen upon that brow. The serenity of the eyes, gentle, yet proud,
+was well given; the sagacious mind, to which the prudent lips bore
+testimony, the frank smile, the atmosphere of the man of whom the
+Emperor had said, "Justum et tenacem," had all been caught, if not with
+talent, at least with fidelity. Studying that face, an observer could
+see that the man had done his duty. His countenance bore signs of
+the incorruptibility which we attribute to several men who served the
+Republic. On the opposite wall, over a card-table, flashed a picture
+of the Emperor in brilliant colors, done by Vernet; Napoleon was riding
+rapidly, attended by his escort.
+
+Agathe had bestowed upon herself two large birdcages; one filled with
+canaries, the other with Java sparrows. She had given herself up to this
+juvenile fancy since the loss of her husband, irreparable to her, as,
+in fact, it was to many others. By the end of three months, her widowed
+chamber had become what it was destined to remain until the appointed
+day when she left it forever,--a litter of confusion which words are
+powerless to describe. Cats were domiciled on the sofa. The canaries,
+occasionally let loose, left their commas on the furniture. The poor
+dear woman scattered little heaps of millet and bits of chickweed about
+the room, and put tidbits for the cats in broken saucers. Garments
+lay everywhere. The room breathed of the provinces and of constancy.
+Everything that once belonged to Bridau was scrupulously preserved.
+Even the implements in his desk received the care which the widow of a
+paladin might have bestowed upon her husband's armor. One slight detail
+here will serve to bring the tender devotion of this woman before the
+reader's mind. She had wrapped up a pen and sealed the package, on which
+she wrote these words, "Last pen used by my dear husband." The cup from
+which he drank his last draught was on the fireplace; caps and false
+hair were tossed, at a later period, over the glass globes which covered
+these precious relics. After Bridau's death not a trace of coquetry, not
+even a woman's ordinary care of her person, was left in the young widow
+of thirty-five. Parted from the only man she had ever known, esteemed,
+and loved, from one who had never caused her the slightest unhappiness,
+she was no longer conscious of her womanhood; all things were as nothing
+to her; she no longer even thought of her dress. Nothing was ever more
+simply done or more complete than this laying down of conjugal happiness
+and personal charm. Some human beings obtain through love the power
+of transferring their self--their I--to the being of another; and when
+death takes that other, no life of their own is possible for them.
+
+Agathe, who now lived only for her children, was infinitely sad at the
+thought of the privations this financial ruin would bring upon them.
+From the time of her removal to the rue Mazarin a shade of melancholy
+came upon her face, which made it very touching. She hoped a little in
+the Emperor; but the Emperor at that time could do no more than he was
+already doing; he was giving three hundred francs a year to each child
+from his privy purse, besides the scholarships.
+
+As for the brilliant Descoings, she occupied an _appartement_ on the
+second floor similar to that of her niece above her. She had made
+Madame Bridau an assignment of three thousand francs out of her annuity.
+Roguin, the notary, attended to this in Madame Bridau's interest; but it
+would take seven years of such slow repayment to make good the loss.
+The Descoings, thus reduced to an income of twelve hundred francs,
+lived with her niece in a small way. These excellent but timid creatures
+employed a woman-of-all-work for the morning hours only. Madame
+Descoings, who liked to cook, prepared the dinner. In the evenings a few
+old friends, persons employed at the ministry who owed their places to
+Bridau, came for a game of cards with the two widows. Madame Descoings
+still cherished her trey, which she declared was obstinate about turning
+up. She expected, by one grand stroke, to repay the enforced loan she
+had made upon her niece. She was fonder of the little Bridaus than she
+was of her grandson Bixiou,--partly from a sense of the wrong she had
+done them, partly because she felt the kindness of her niece, who, under
+her worst deprivations, never uttered a word of reproach. So Philippe
+and Joseph were cossetted, and the old gambler in the Imperial Lottery
+of France (like others who have a vice or a weakness to atone for)
+cooked them nice little dinners with plenty of sweets. Later on,
+Philippe and Joseph could extract from her pocket, with the utmost
+facility, small sums of money, which the younger used for pencils,
+paper, charcoal and prints, the elder to buy tennis-shoes, marbles,
+twine, and pocket-knives. Madame Descoings's passion forced her to be
+content with fifty francs a month for her domestic expenses, so as to
+gamble with the rest.
+
+On the other hand, Madame Bridau, motherly love, kept her expenses down
+to the same sum. By way of penance for her former over-confidence, she
+heroically cut off her own little enjoyments. As with other timid souls
+of limited intelligence, one shock to her feelings rousing her distrust
+led her to exaggerate a defect in her character until it assumed the
+consistency of a virtue. The Emperor, she said to herself, might forget
+them; he might die in battle; her pension, at any rate, ceased with her
+life. She shuddered at the risk her children ran of being left alone in
+the world without means. Quite incapable of understanding Roguin when he
+explained to her that in seven years Madame Descoings's assignment
+would replace the money she had sold out of the Funds, she persisted in
+trusting neither the notary nor her aunt, nor even the government; she
+believed in nothing but herself and the privations she was practising.
+By laying aside three thousand francs every year from her pension, she
+would have thirty thousand francs at the end of ten years; which would
+give fifteen hundred a year to her children. At thirty-six, she might
+expect to live twenty years longer; and if she kept to the same system
+of economy she might leave to each child enough for the bare necessaries
+of life.
+
+Thus the two widows passed from hollow opulence to voluntary
+poverty,--one under the pressure of a vice, the other through the
+promptings of the purest virtue. None of these petty details are useless
+in teaching the lesson which ought to be learned from this present
+history, drawn as it is from the most commonplace interests of life, but
+whose bearings are, it may be, only the more widespread. The view from
+the windows into the student dens; the tumult of the rapins below; the
+necessity of looking up at the sky to escape the miserable sights of the
+damp angle of the street; the presence of that portrait, full of soul
+and grandeur despite the workmanship of an amateur painter; the sight of
+the rich colors, now old and harmonious, in that calm and placid home;
+the preference of the mother for her eldest child; her opposition to
+the tastes of the younger; in short, the whole body of facts and
+circumstances which make the preamble of this history are perhaps the
+generating causes to which we owe Joseph Bridau, one of the greatest
+painters of the modern French school of art.
+
+Philippe, the elder of the two sons, was strikingly like his mother.
+Though a blond lad, with blue eyes, he had the daring look which is
+readily taken for intrepidity and courage. Old Claparon, who entered the
+ministry of the interior at the same time as Bridau, and was one of the
+faithful friends who played whist every night with the two widows, used
+to say of Philippe two or three times a month, giving him a tap on the
+cheek, "Here's a young rascal who'll stand to his guns!" The boy, thus
+stimulated, naturally and out of bravado, assumed a resolute manner.
+That turn once given to his character, he became very adroit at all
+bodily exercises; his fights at the Lyceum taught him the endurance and
+contempt for pain which lays the foundation of military valor. He also
+acquired, very naturally, a distaste for study; public education being
+unable to solve the difficult problem of developing "pari passu" the
+body and the mind.
+
+Agathe believed that the purely physical resemblance which Philippe bore
+to her carried with it a moral likeness; and she confidently expected
+him to show at a future day her own delicacy of feeling, heightened by
+the vigor of manhood. Philippe was fifteen years old when his mother
+moved into the melancholy _appartement_ in the rue Mazarin; and the
+winning ways of a lad of that age went far to confirm the maternal
+beliefs. Joseph, three years younger, was like his father, but only on
+the defective side. In the first place, his thick black hair was always
+in disorder, no matter what pains were taken with it; while Philippe's,
+notwithstanding his vivacity, was invariably neat. Then, by some
+mysterious fatality, Joseph could not keep his clothes clean; dress him
+in new clothes, and he immediately made them look like old ones. The
+elder, on the other hand, took care of his things out of mere vanity.
+Unconsciously, the mother acquired a habit of scolding Joseph and
+holding up his brother as an example to him. Agathe did not treat the
+two children alike; when she went to fetch them from school, the thought
+in her mind as to Joseph always was, "What sort of state shall I
+find him in?" These trifles drove her heart into the gulf of maternal
+preference.
+
+No one among the very ordinary persons who made the society of the two
+widows--neither old Du Bruel nor old Claparon, nor Desroches the father,
+nor even the Abbe Loraux, Agathe's confessor--noticed Joseph's faculty
+for observation. Absorbed in the line of his own tastes, the future
+colorist paid no attention to anything that concerned himself. During
+his childhood this disposition was so like torpor that his father grew
+uneasy about him. The remarkable size of the head and the width of the
+brow roused a fear that the child might be liable to water on the brain.
+His distressful face, whose originality was thought ugliness by those
+who had no eye for the moral value of a countenance, wore rather a
+sullen expression during his childhood. The features, which developed
+later in life, were pinched, and the close attention the child paid to
+what went on about him still further contracted them. Philippe flattered
+his mother's vanity, but Joseph won no compliments. Philippe sparkled
+with the clever sayings and lively answers that lead parents to believe
+their boys will turn out remarkable men; Joseph was taciturn, and a
+dreamer. The mother hoped great things of Philippe, and expected nothing
+of Joseph.
+
+Joseph's predilection for art was developed by a very commonplace
+incident. During the Easter holidays of 1812, as he was coming home from
+a walk in the Tuileries with his brother and Madame Descoings, he saw
+a pupil drawing a caricature of some professor on the wall of the
+Institute, and stopped short with admiration at the charcoal sketch,
+which was full of satire. The next day the child stood at the window
+watching the pupils as they entered the building by the door on the
+rue Mazarin; then he ran downstairs and slipped furtively into the
+long courtyard of the Institute, full of statues, busts, half-finished
+marbles, plasters, and baked clays; at all of which he gazed feverishly,
+for his instinct was awakened, and his vocation stirred within him. He
+entered a room on the ground-floor, the door of which was half open; and
+there he saw a dozen young men drawing from a statue, who at once began
+to make fun of him.
+
+"Hi! little one," cried the first to see him, taking the crumbs of his
+bread and scattering them at the child.
+
+"Whose child is he?"
+
+"Goodness, how ugly!"
+
+For a quarter of an hour Joseph stood still and bore the brunt of
+much teasing in the atelier of the great sculptor, Chaudet. But after
+laughing at him for a time, the pupils were struck with his persistency
+and with the expression of his face. They asked him what he wanted.
+Joseph answered that he wished to know how to draw; thereupon they all
+encouraged him. Won by such friendliness, the child told them he was
+Madame Bridau's son.
+
+"Oh! if you are Madame Bridau's son," they cried, from all parts of the
+room, "you will certainly be a great man. Long live the son of Madame
+Bridau! Is your mother pretty? If you are a sample of her, she must be
+stylish!"
+
+"Ha! you want to be an artist?" said the eldest pupil, coming up to
+Joseph, "but don't you know that that requires pluck; you'll have to
+bear all sorts of trials,--yes, trials,--enough to break your legs and
+arms and soul and body. All the fellows you see here have gone through
+regular ordeals. That one, for instance, he went seven days without
+eating! Let me see, now, if you can be an artist."
+
+He took one of the child's arms and stretched it straight up in the air;
+then he placed the other arm as if Joseph were in the act of delivering
+a blow with his fist.
+
+"Now that's what we call the telegraph trial," said the pupil. "If you
+can stand like that, without lowering or changing the position of your
+arms for a quarter of an hour, then you'll have proved yourself a plucky
+one."
+
+"Courage, little one, courage!" cried all the rest. "You must suffer if
+you want to be an artist."
+
+Joseph, with the good faith of his thirteen years, stood motionless for
+five minutes, all the pupils gazing solemnly at him.
+
+"There! you are moving," cried one.
+
+"Steady, steady, confound you!" cried another.
+
+"The Emperor Napoleon stood a whole month as you see him there," said a
+third, pointing to the fine statue by Chaudet, which was in the room.
+
+That statue, which represents the Emperor standing with the Imperial
+sceptre in his hand, was torn down in 1814 from the column it surmounted
+so well.
+
+At the end of ten minutes the sweat stood in drops on Joseph's forehead.
+At that moment a bald-headed little man, pale and sickly in appearance,
+entered the atelier, where respectful silence reigned at once.
+
+"What you are about, you urchins?" he exclaimed, as he looked at the
+youthful martyr.
+
+"That is a good little fellow, who is posing," said the tall pupil who
+had placed Joseph.
+
+"Are you not ashamed to torture a poor child in that way?" said Chaudet,
+lowering Joseph's arms. "How long have you been standing there?" he
+asked the boy, giving him a friendly little pat on the cheek.
+
+"A quarter of an hour."
+
+"What brought you here?"
+
+"I want to be an artist."
+
+"Where do you belong? where do you come from?"
+
+"From mamma's house."
+
+"Oh! mamma!" cried the pupils.
+
+"Silence at the easels!" cried Chaudet. "Who is your mamma?"
+
+"She is Madame Bridau. My papa, who is dead, was a friend of the
+Emperor; and if you will teach me to draw, the Emperor will pay all you
+ask for it."
+
+"His father was head of a department at the ministry of the Interior,"
+exclaimed Chaudet, struck by a recollection. "So you want to be an
+artist, at your age?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Well, come here just as much as you like; we'll amuse you. Give him a
+board, and paper, and chalks, and let him alone. You are to know, you
+young scamps, that his father did me a service. Here, Corde-a-puits,
+go and get some cakes and sugar-plums," he said to the pupil who had
+tortured Joseph, giving him some small change. "We'll see if you are to
+be artist by the way you gobble up the dainties," added the sculptor,
+chucking Joseph under the chin.
+
+Then he went round examining the pupils' works, followed by the child,
+who looked and listened, and tried to understand him. The sweets were
+brought, Chaudet, himself, the child, and the whole studio all had
+their teeth in them; and Joseph was petted quite as much as he had
+been teased. The whole scene, in which the rough play and real heart of
+artists were revealed, and which the boy instinctively understood, made
+a great impression on his mind. The apparition of the sculptor,--for
+whom the Emperor's protection opened a way to future glory, closed soon
+after by his premature death,--was like a vision to little Joseph. The
+child said nothing to his mother about this adventure, but he spent two
+hours every Sunday and every Thursday in Chaudet's atelier. From
+that time forth, Madame Descoings, who humored the fancies of the two
+cherubim, kept Joseph supplied with pencils and red chalks, prints and
+drawing-paper. At school, the future colorist sketched his masters,
+drew his comrades, charcoaled the dormitories, and showed surprising
+assiduity in the drawing-class. Lemire, the drawing-master, struck not
+only with the lad's inclination but also with his actual progress,
+came to tell Madame Bridau of her son's faculty. Agathe, like a
+true provincial, who knows as little of art as she knows much of
+housekeeping, was terrified. When Lemire left her, she burst into tears.
+
+"Ah!" she cried, when Madame Descoings went to ask what was the matter.
+"What is to become of me! Joseph, whom I meant to make a government
+clerk, whose career was all marked out for him at the ministry of the
+interior, where, protected by his father's memory, he might have risen
+to be chief of a division before he was twenty-five, he, my boy, he
+wants to be a painter,--a vagabond! I always knew that child would give
+me nothing but trouble."
+
+Madame Descoings confessed that for several months past she had
+encouraged Joseph's passion, aiding and abetting his Sunday and Thursday
+visits to the Institute. At the Salon, to which she had taken him, the
+little fellow had shown an interest in the pictures, which was, she
+declared, nothing short of miraculous.
+
+"If he understands painting at thirteen, my dear," she said, "your
+Joseph will be a man of genius."
+
+"Yes; and see what genius did for his father,--killed him with overwork
+at forty!"
+
+At the close of autumn, just as Joseph was entering his fourteenth year,
+Agathe, contrary to Madame Descoings's entreaties, went to see Chaudet,
+and requested that he would cease to debauch her son. She found the
+sculptor in a blue smock, modelling his last statue; he received the
+widow of the man who formerly had served him at a critical moment,
+rather roughly; but, already at death's door, he was struggling
+with passionate ardor to do in a few hours work he could hardly have
+accomplished in several months. As Madame Bridau entered, he had just
+found an effect long sought for, and was handling his tools and clay
+with spasmodic jerks and movements that seemed to the ignorant Agathe
+like those of a maniac. At any other time Chaudet would have laughed;
+but now, as he heard the mother bewailing the destiny he had opened to
+her child, abusing art, and insisting that Joseph should no longer be
+allowed to enter the atelier, he burst into a holy wrath.
+
+"I was under obligations to your deceased husband, I wished to help his
+son, to watch his first steps in the noblest of all careers," he cried.
+"Yes, madame, learn, if you do not know it, that a great artist is a
+king, and more than a king; he is happier, he is independent, he lives
+as he likes, he reigns in the world of fancy. Your son has a glorious
+future before him. Faculties like his are rare; they are only disclosed
+at his age in such beings as the Giottos, Raphaels, Titians, Rubens,
+Murillos,--for, in my opinion, he will make a better painter than
+sculptor. God of heaven! if I had such a son, I should be as happy as
+the Emperor is to have given himself the King of Rome. Well, you are
+mistress of your child's fate. Go your own way, madame; make him a fool,
+a miserable quill-driver, tie him to a desk, and you've murdered him!
+But I hope, in spite if all your efforts, that he will stay an artist. A
+true vocation is stronger than all the obstacles that can be opposed to
+it. Vocation! why the very word means a call; ay, the election of God
+himself! You will make your child unhappy, that's all." He flung the
+clay he no longer needed violently into a tub, and said to his model,
+"That will do for to-day."
+
+Agathe raised her eyes and saw, in a corner of the atelier where her
+glance had not before penetrated, a nude woman sitting on a stool, the
+sight of whom drove her away horrified.
+
+"You are not to have the little Bridau here any more," said Chaudet to
+his pupils, "it annoys his mother."
+
+"Eugh!" they all cried, as Agathe closed the door.
+
+No sooner did the students of sculpture and painting find out that
+Madame Bridau did not wish her son to be an artist, than their whole
+happiness centred on getting Joseph among them. In spite of a promise
+not to go to the Institute which his mother exacted from him, the
+child often slipped into Regnauld the painter's studio, where he was
+encouraged to daub canvas. When the widow complained that the bargain
+was not kept, Chaudet's pupils assured her that Regnauld was not
+Chaudet, and they hadn't the bringing up of her son, with other
+impertinences; and the atrocious young scamps composed a song with a
+hundred and thirty-seven couplets on Madame Bridau.
+
+On the evening of that sad day Agathe refused to play at cards, and sat
+on her sofa plunged in such grief that the tears stood in her handsome
+eyes.
+
+"What is the matter, Madame Bridau?" asked old Claparon.
+
+"She thinks her boy will have to beg his bread because he has got the
+bump of painting," said Madame Descoings; "but, for my part, I am not
+the least uneasy about the future of my step-son, little Bixiou, who has
+a passion for drawing. Men are born to get on."
+
+"You are right," said the hard and severe Desroches, who, in spite of
+his talents, had never himself got on in the position of assistant-head
+of a department. "Happily I have only one son; otherwise, with my
+eighteen hundred francs a year, and a wife who makes barely twelve
+hundred out of her stamped-paper office, I don't know what would become
+of me. I have just placed my boy as under-clerk to a lawyer; he gets
+twenty-five francs a month and his breakfast. I give him as much more,
+and he dines and sleeps at home. That's all he gets; he must manage for
+himself, but he'll make his way. I keep the fellow harder at work than
+if he were at school, and some day he will be a barrister. When I give
+him money to go to the theatre, he is as happy as a king and kisses me.
+Oh, I keep a tight hand on him, and he renders me an account of all he
+spends. You are too good to your children, Madame Bridau; if your son
+wants to go through hardships and privations, let him; they'll make a
+man of him."
+
+"As for my boy," said Du Bruel, a former chief of a division, who had
+just retired on a pension, "he is only sixteen; his mother dotes on him;
+but I shouldn't listen to his choosing a profession at his age,--a mere
+fancy, a notion that may pass off. In my opinion, boys should be guided
+and controlled."
+
+"Ah, monsieur! you are rich, you are a man, and you have but one son,"
+said Agathe.
+
+"Faith!" said Claparon, "children do tyrannize over us--over our hearts,
+I mean. Mine makes me furious; he has nearly ruined me, and now I won't
+have anything to do with him--it's a sort of independence. Well, he is
+the happier for it, and so am I. That fellow was partly the cause of
+his mother's death. He chose to be a commercial traveller; and the trade
+just suited him, for he was no sooner in the house than he wanted to
+be out of it; he couldn't keep in one place, and he wouldn't learn
+anything. All I ask of God is that I may die before he dishonors my
+name. Those who have no children lose many pleasures, but they escape
+great sufferings."
+
+"And these men are fathers!" thought Agathe, weeping anew.
+
+"What I am trying to show you, my dear Madame Bridau, is that you had
+better let your boy be a painter; if not, you will only waste your
+time."
+
+"If you were able to coerce him," said the sour Desroches, "I should
+advise you to oppose his tastes; but weak as I see you are, you had
+better let him daub if he likes."
+
+"Console yourself, Agathe," said Madame Descoings, "Joseph will turn out
+a great man."
+
+After this discussion, which was like all discussions, the widow's
+friends united in giving her one and the same advice; which advice did
+not in the least relieve her anxieties. They advised her to let Joseph
+follow his bent.
+
+"If he doesn't turn out a genius," said Du Bruel, who always tried to
+please Agathe, "you can then get him into some government office."
+
+When Madame Descoings accompanied the old clerks to the door she assured
+them, at the head of the stairs, that they were "Grecian sages."
+
+"Madame Bridau ought to be glad her son is willing to do anything," said
+Claparon.
+
+"Besides," said Desroches, "if God preserves the Emperor, Joseph will
+always be looked after. Why should she worry?"
+
+"She is timid about everything that concerns her children," answered
+Madame Descoings. "Well, my good girl," she said, returning to Agathe,
+"you see they are unanimous; why are you still crying?"
+
+"If it was Philippe, I should have no anxiety. But you don't know what
+goes on in that atelier; they have naked women!"
+
+"I hope they keep good fires," said Madame Descoings.
+
+A few days after this, the disasters of the retreat from Moscow became
+known. Napoleon returned to Paris to organize fresh troops, and to ask
+further sacrifices from the country. The poor mother was then plunged
+into very different anxieties. Philippe, who was tired of school, wanted
+to serve under the Emperor; he saw a review at the Tuileries,--the
+last Napoleon ever held,--and he became infatuated with the idea of a
+soldier's life. In those days military splendor, the show of uniforms,
+the authority of epaulets, offered irresistible seductions to a certain
+style of youth. Philippe thought he had the same vocation for the army
+that his brother Joseph showed for art. Without his mother's knowledge,
+he wrote a petition to the Emperor, which read as follows:--
+
+  Sire,--I am the son of your Bridau; eighteen years of age, five
+  feet six inches; I have good legs, a good constitution, and wish
+  to be one of your soldiers. I ask you to let me enter the army,
+  etc.
+
+Within twenty-four hours, the Emperor had sent Philippe to the Imperial
+Lyceum at Saint-Cyr, and six months later, in November, 1813, he
+appointed him sub-lieutenant in a regiment of cavalry. Philippe spent
+the greater part of that winter in cantonments, but as soon as he knew
+how to ride a horse he was dispatched to the front, and went eagerly.
+During the campaign in France he was made a lieutenant, after an affair
+at the outposts where his bravery had saved his colonel's life. The
+Emperor named him captain at the battle of La Fere-Champenoise, and took
+him on his staff. Inspired by such promotion, Philippe won the cross at
+Montereau. He witnessed Napoleon's farewell at Fontainebleau, raved at
+the sight, and refused to serve the Bourbons. When he returned to his
+mother, in July, 1814, he found her ruined.
+
+Joseph's scholarship was withdrawn after the holidays, and Madame
+Bridau, whose pension came from the Emperor's privy purse, vainly
+entreated that it might be inscribed on the rolls of the ministry of the
+interior. Joseph, more of a painter than ever, was delighted with the
+turn of events, and entreated his mother to let him go to Monsieur
+Regnauld, promising to earn his own living. He declared he was quite
+sufficiently advanced in the second class to get on without rhetoric.
+Philippe, a captain at nineteen and decorated, who had, moreover, served
+the Emperor as an aide-de-camp in two battles, flattered the mother's
+vanity immensely. Coarse, blustering, and without real merit beyond the
+vulgar bravery of a cavalry officer, he was to her mind a man of genius;
+whereas Joseph, puny and sickly, with unkempt hair and absent mind,
+seeking peace, loving quiet, and dreaming of an artist's glory, would
+only bring her, she thought, worries and anxieties.
+
+The winter of 1814-1815 was a lucky one for Joseph. Secretly encouraged
+by Madame Descoings and Bixiou, a pupil of Gros, he went to work in
+the celebrated atelier of that painter, whence a vast variety of
+talent issued in its day, and there he formed the closest intimacy with
+Schinner. The return from Elba came; Captain Bridau joined the Emperor
+at Lyons, accompanied him to the Tuileries, and was appointed to the
+command of a squadron in the dragoons of the Guard. After the battle of
+Waterloo--in which he was slightly wounded, and where he won the cross
+of an officer of the Legion of honor--he happened to be near Marshal
+Davoust at Saint-Denis, and was not with the army of the Loire. In
+consequence of this, and through Davoust's intercession, his cross and
+his rank were secured to him, but he was placed on half-pay.
+
+Joseph, anxious about his future, studied all through this period
+with an ardor which several times made him ill in the midst of these
+tumultuous events.
+
+"It is the smell of the paints," Agathe said to Madame Descoings. "He
+ought to give up a business so injurious to his health."
+
+However, all Agathe's anxieties were at this time for her son the
+lieutenant-colonel. When she saw him again in 1816, reduced from the
+salary of nine thousand francs (paid to a commander in the dragoons of
+the Imperial Guard) to a half-pay of three hundred francs a month, she
+fitted up her attic rooms for him, and spent her savings in doing so.
+Philippe was one of the faithful Bonapartes of the cafe Lemblin, that
+constitutional Boeotia; he acquired the habits, manners, style, and life
+of a half-pay officer; indeed, like any other young man of twenty-one,
+he exaggerated them, vowed in good earnest a mortal enmity to the
+Bourbons, never reported himself at the War department, and even refused
+opportunities which were offered to him for employment in the infantry
+with his rank of lieutenant-colonel. In his mother's eyes, Philippe
+seemed in all this to be displaying a noble character.
+
+"The father himself could have done no more," she said.
+
+Philippe's half-pay sufficed him; he cost nothing at home, whereas
+all Joseph's expenses were paid by the two widows. From that moment,
+Agathe's preference for Philippe was openly shown. Up to that time it
+had been secret; but the persecution of this faithful servant of the
+Emperor, the recollection of the wound received by her cherished son,
+his courage in adversity, which, voluntary though it were, seemed to
+her a glorious adversity, drew forth all Agathe's tenderness. The one
+sentence, "He is unfortunate," explained and justified everything.
+Joseph himself,--with the innate simplicity which superabounds in the
+artist-soul in its opening years, and who was, moreover, brought up to
+admire his big brother,--so far from being hurt by the preference of
+their mother, encouraged it by sharing her worship of the hero who
+had carried Napoleon's orders on two battlefields, and was wounded at
+Waterloo. How could he doubt the superiority of the grand brother,
+whom he had beheld in the green and gold uniform of the dragoons of the
+Guard, commanding his squadron on the Champ de Mars?
+
+Agathe, notwithstanding this preference, was an excellent mother. She
+loved Joseph, though not blindly; she simply was unable to understand
+him. Joseph adored his mother; Philippe let his mother adore him.
+Towards her, the dragoon softened his military brutality; but he never
+concealed the contempt he felt for Joseph,--expressing it, however, in
+a friendly way. When he looked at his brother, weak and sickly as he
+was at seventeen years of age, shrunken with determined toil, and
+over-weighted with his powerful head, he nicknamed him "Cub." Philippe's
+patronizing manners would have wounded any one less carelessly
+indifferent than the artist, who had, moreover, a firm belief in the
+goodness of heart which soldiers hid, he thought, beneath a brutal
+exterior. Joseph did not yet know, poor boy, that soldiers of genius are
+as gentle and courteous in manner as other superior men in any walk of
+life. All genius is alike, wherever found.
+
+"Poor boy!" said Philippe to his mother, "we mustn't plague him; let him
+do as he likes."
+
+To his mother's eyes the colonel's contempt was a mark of fraternal
+affection.
+
+"Philippe will always love and protect his brother," she thought to
+herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+In 1816, Joseph obtained his mother's permission to convert the garret
+which adjoined his attic room into an atelier, and Madame Descoings gave
+him a little money for the indispensable requirements of the painter's
+trade;--in the minds of the two widows, the art of painting was nothing
+but a trade. With the feeling and ardor of his vocation, the lad himself
+arranged his humble atelier. Madame Descoings persuaded the owner of the
+house to put a skylight in the roof. The garret was turned into a vast
+hall painted in chocolate-color by Joseph himself. On the walls he hung
+a few sketches. Agathe contributed, not without reluctance, an iron
+stove; so that her son might be able to work at home, without, however,
+abandoning the studio of Gros, nor that of Schinner.
+
+The constitutional party, supported chiefly by officers on half-pay
+and the Bonapartists, were at this time inciting "emeutes" around the
+Chamber of Deputies, on behalf of the Charter, though no one actually
+wanted it. Several conspiracies were brewing. Philippe, who dabbled
+in them, was arrested, and then released for want of proof; but the
+minister of war cut short his half-pay by putting him on the active
+list,--a step which might be called a form of discipline. France was no
+longer safe; Philippe was liable to fall into some trap laid for him by
+spies,--provocative agents, as they were called, being much talked of in
+those days.
+
+While Philippe played billiards in disaffected cafes, losing his time
+and acquiring the habit of wetting his whistle with "little glasses" of
+all sorts of liquors. Agathe lived in mortal terror for the safety of
+the great man of the family. The Grecian sages were too much accustomed
+to wend their nightly way up Madame Bridau's staircase, finding the two
+widows ready and waiting, and hearing from them all the news of their
+day, ever to break up the habit of coming to the green salon for their
+game of cards. The ministry of the interior, though purged of its former
+_employes_ in 1816, had retained Claparon, one of those cautious men,
+who whisper the news of the "Moniteur," adding invariably, "Don't quote
+me." Desroches, who had retired from active service some time after old
+Du Bruel, was still battling for his pension. The three friends, who
+were witnesses of Agathe's distress, advised her to send the colonel to
+travel in foreign countries.
+
+"They talk about conspiracies, and your son, with his disposition,
+will be certain to fall a victim in some of them; there is plenty of
+treachery in these days."
+
+"Philippe is cut from the wood the Emperor made into marshals," said
+Du Bruel, in a low voice, looking cautiously about him; "and he mustn't
+give up his profession. Let him serve in the East, in India--"
+
+"Think of his health," said Agathe.
+
+"Why doesn't he get some place, or business?" said old Desroches; "there
+are plenty of private offices to be had. I am going as head of a bureau
+in an insurance company, as soon as I have got my pension."
+
+"Philippe is a soldier; he would not like to be any thing else," said
+the warlike Agathe.
+
+"Then he ought to have the sense to ask for employment--"
+
+"And serve _these others_!" cried the widow. "Oh! I will never give him
+that advice."
+
+"You are wrong," said Du Bruel. "My son has just got an appointment
+through the Duc de Navarreins. The Bourbons are very good to those
+who are sincere in rallying to them. Your son could be appointed
+lieutenant-colonel to a regiment."
+
+"They only appoint nobles in the cavalry. Philippe would never rise to
+be a colonel," said Madame Descoings.
+
+Agathe, much alarmed, entreated Philippe to travel abroad, and put
+himself at the service of some foreign power who, she thought, would
+gladly welcome a staff officer of the Emperor.
+
+"Serve a foreign nation!" cried Philippe, with horror.
+
+Agathe kissed her son with enthusiasm.
+
+"His father all over!" she exclaimed.
+
+"He is right," said Joseph. "France is too proud of her heroes to let
+them be heroic elsewhere. Napoleon may return once more."
+
+However, to satisfy his mother, Philippe took up the dazzling idea of
+joining General Lallemand in the United States, and helping him to found
+what was called the Champ d'Asile, one of the most disastrous swindles
+that ever appeared under the name of national subscription. Agathe gave
+ten thousand francs to start her son, and she went to Havre to see him
+off. By the end of 1817, she had accustomed herself to live on the six
+hundred francs a year which remained to her from her property in the
+Funds; then, by a lucky chance, she made a good investment of the ten
+thousand francs she still kept of her savings, from which she obtained
+an interest of seven per cent. Joseph wished to emulate his mother's
+devotion. He dressed like a bailiff; wore the commonest shoes and blue
+stockings; denied himself gloves, and burned charcoal; he lived on bread
+and milk and Brie cheese. The poor lad got no sympathy, except from
+Madame Descoings, and from Bixiou, his student-friend and comrade, who
+was then making those admirable caricatures of his, and filling a small
+office in the ministry.
+
+"With what joy I welcomed the summer of 1818!" said Joseph Bridau
+in after-years, relating his troubles; "the sun saved me the cost of
+charcoal."
+
+As good a colorist by this time as Gros himself, Joseph now went to his
+master for consultation only. He was already meditating a tilt against
+classical traditions, and Grecian conventionalities, in short, against
+the leading-strings which held down an art to which Nature _as she is_
+belongs, in the omnipotence of her creations and her imagery. Joseph
+made ready for a struggle which, from the day when he first exhibited in
+the Salon, has never ceased. It was a terrible year. Roguin, the notary
+of Madame Descoings and Madame Bridau, absconded with the moneys held
+back for seven years from Madame Descoings's annuity, which by that
+time were producing two thousand francs a year. Three days after this
+disaster, a bill of exchange for a thousand francs, drawn by Philippe
+upon his mother, arrived from New York. The poor fellow, misled like
+so many others, had lost his all in the Champ d'Asile. A letter, which
+accompanied the bill, drove Agathe, Joseph, and the Descoings to
+tears, and told of debts contracted in New York, where his comrades in
+misfortunes had indorsed for him.
+
+"It was I who made him go!" cried the poor mother, eager to divert the
+blame from Philippe.
+
+"I advise you not to send him on many such journeys," said the old
+Descoings to her niece.
+
+Madame Descoings was heroic. She continued to give the three thousand
+francs a year to Madame Bridau, but she still paid the dues on her trey
+which had never turned up since the year 1799. About this time, she
+began to doubt the honesty of the government, and declared it was
+capable of keeping the three numbers in the urn, so as to excite the
+shareholders to put in enormous stakes. After a rapid survey of all
+their resources, it seemed to the two women impossible to raise the
+thousand francs without selling out the little that remained in the
+Funds. They talked of pawning their silver and part of the linen,
+and even the needless pieces of furniture. Joseph, alarmed at these
+suggestions, went to see Gerard and told him their circumstances. The
+great painter obtained an order from the household of the king for
+two copies of a portrait of Louis XVIII., at five hundred francs
+each. Though not naturally generous, Gros took his pupil to an
+artist-furnishing house and fitted him out with the necessary materials.
+But the thousand francs could not be had till the copies were delivered,
+so Joseph painted four panels in ten days, sold them to the dealers and
+brought his mother the thousand francs with which to meet the bill of
+exchange when it fell due. Eight days later, came a letter from the
+colonel, informing his mother that he was about to return to France
+on board a packet from New York, whose captain had trusted him for
+the passage-money. Philippe announced that he should need at least a
+thousand francs on his arrival at Havre.
+
+"Good," said Joseph to his mother, "I shall have finished my copies by
+that time, and you can carry him the money."
+
+"Dear Joseph!" cried Agathe in tears, kissing her son, "God will bless
+you. You do love him, then, poor persecuted fellow? He is indeed our
+glory and our hope for the future. So young, so brave, so unfortunate!
+everything is against him; we three must always stand by him."
+
+"You see now that painting is good for something," cried Joseph,
+overjoyed to have won his mother's permission to be a great artist.
+
+Madame Bridau rushed to meet her beloved son, Colonel Philippe, at
+Havre. Once there, she walked every day beyond the round tower built by
+Francois I., to look out for the American packet, enduring the keenest
+anxieties. Mothers alone know how such sufferings quicken maternal love.
+The vessel arrived on a fine morning in October, 1819, without delay,
+and having met with no mishap. The sight of a mother and the air of
+one's native land produces a certain affect on the coarsest nature,
+especially after the miseries of a sea-voyage. Philippe gave way to a
+rush of feeling, which made Agathe think to herself, "Ah! how he loves
+me!" Alas, the hero loved but one person in the world, and that person
+was Colonel Philippe. His misfortunes in Texas, his stay in New York,--a
+place where speculation and individualism are carried to the highest
+pitch, where the brutality of self-interest attains to cynicism, where
+man, essentially isolated, is compelled to push his way for himself and
+by himself, where politeness does not exist,--in fact, even the minor
+events of Philippe's journey had developed in him the worst traits of an
+old campaigner: he had grown brutal, selfish, rude; he drank and smoked
+to excess; physical hardships and poverty had depraved him. Moreover,
+he considered himself persecuted; and the effect of that idea is to
+make persons who are unintelligent persecutors and bigots themselves. To
+Philippe's conception of life, the universe began at his head and ended
+at his feet, and the sun shone for him alone. The things he had seen
+in New York, interpreted by his practical nature, carried away his last
+scruples on the score of morality. For such beings, there are but two
+ways of existence. Either they believe, or they do not believe; they
+have the virtues of honest men, or they give themselves up to the
+demands of necessity; in which case they proceed to turn their slightest
+interests and each passing impulse of their passions into necessities.
+
+Such a system of life carries a man a long way. It was only in
+appearance that Colonel Philippe retained the frankness, plain-dealing,
+and easy-going freedom of a soldier. This made him, in reality, very
+dangerous; he seemed as guileless as a child, but, thinking only of
+himself, he never did anything without reflecting what he had better
+do,--like a wily lawyer planning some trick "a la Maitre Gonin"; words
+cost him nothing, and he said as many as he could to get people to
+believe. If, unfortunately, some one refused to accept the explanations
+with which he justified the contradictions between his conduct and his
+professions, the colonel, who was a good shot and could defy the most
+adroit fencing-master, and possessed the coolness of one to whom life is
+indifferent, was quite ready to demand satisfaction for the first sharp
+word; and when a man shows himself prepared for violence there is little
+more to be said. His imposing stature had taken on a certain rotundity,
+his face was bronzed from exposure in Texas, he was still succinct in
+speech, and had acquired the decisive tone of a man obliged to make
+himself feared among the populations of a new world. Thus developed,
+plainly dressed, his body trained to endurance by his recent hardships,
+Philippe in the eyes of his mother was a hero; in point of fact, he had
+simply become what people (not to mince matters) call a blackguard.
+
+Shocked at the destitution of her cherished son, Madame Bridau bought
+him a complete outfit of clothes at Havre. After listening to the tale
+of his woes, she had not the heart to stop his drinking and eating and
+amusing himself as a man just returned from the Champ d'Asile was
+likely to eat and drink and divert himself. It was certainly a fine
+conception,--that of conquering Texas with the remains of the imperial
+army. The failure was less in the idea than in the men who conceived
+it; for Texas is to-day a republic, with a future full of promise. This
+scheme of Liberalism under the Restoration distinctly proves that the
+interests of the party were purely selfish and not national, seeking
+power and nothing else. Neither men, nor occasion, nor cause,
+nor devotion were lacking; only the money and the support of the
+hypocritical party at home who dispensed enormous sums, but gave nothing
+when it came to recovering empire. Household managers like Agathe have
+a plain common-sense which enables them to perceive such political
+chicane: the poor woman saw the truth through the lines of her son's
+tale; for she had read, in the exile's interests, all the pompous
+editorials of the constitutional journals, and watched the management
+of the famous subscription, which produced barely one hundred and fifty
+thousand francs when it ought to have yielded five or six millions. The
+Liberal leaders soon found out that they were playing into the hands of
+Louis XVIII. by exporting the glorious remnants of our grand army, and
+they promptly abandoned to their fate the most devoted, the most ardent,
+the most enthusiastic of its heroes,--those, in short, who had gone in
+the advance. Agathe was never able, however, to make her son see that
+he was more duped than persecuted. With blind belief in her idol, she
+supposed herself ignorant, and deplored, as Philippe did, the evil times
+which had done him such wrong. Up to this time he was, to her mind,
+throughout his misfortunes, less faulty than victimized by his noble
+nature, his energy, the fall of the Emperor, the duplicity of the
+Liberals, and the rancor of the Bourbons against the Bonapartists.
+During the week at Havre, a week which was horribly costly, she dared
+not ask him to make terms with the royal government and apply to the
+minister of war. She had hard work to get him away from Havre, where
+living is very expensive, and to bring him back to Paris before her
+money gave out. Madame Descoings and Joseph, who were awaiting their
+arrival in the courtyard of the coach-office of the Messageries Royales,
+were struck with the change in Agathe's face.
+
+"Your mother has aged ten years in two months," whispered the Descoings
+to Joseph, as they all embraced, and the two trunks were being handed
+down.
+
+"How do you do, mere Descoings?" was the cool greeting the colonel
+bestowed on the old woman whom Joseph was in the habit of calling "maman
+Descoings."
+
+"I have no money to pay for a hackney-coach," said Agathe, in a sad
+voice.
+
+"I have," replied the young painter. "What a splendid color Philippe has
+turned!" he cried, looking at his brother.
+
+"Yes, I've browned like a pipe," said Philippe. "But as for you, you're
+not a bit changed, little man."
+
+Joseph, who was now twenty-one, and much thought of by the friends who
+had stood by him in his days of trial, felt his own strength and was
+aware of his talent; he represented the art of painting in a circle of
+young men whose lives were devoted to science, letters, politics, and
+philosophy. Consequently, he was wounded by his brother's contempt,
+which Philippe still further emphasized with a gesture, pulling his ears
+as if he were still a child. Agathe noticed the coolness which succeeded
+the first glow of tenderness on the part of Joseph and Madame Descoings;
+but she hastened to tell them of Philippe's sufferings in exile, and so
+lessened it. Madame Descoings, wishing to make a festival of the return
+of the prodigal, as she called him under her breath, had prepared one
+of her good dinners, to which old Claparon and the elder Desroches
+were invited. All the family friends were to come, and did come, in the
+evening. Joseph had invited Leon Giraud, d'Arthez, Michel Chrestien,
+Fulgence Ridal, and Horace Bianchon, his friends of the fraternity.
+Madame Descoings had promised Bixiou, her so-called step-son, that the
+young people should play at ecarte. Desroches the younger, who had now
+taken, under his father's stern rule, his degree at law, was also of
+the party. Du Bruel, Claparon, Desroches, and the Abbe Loraux carefully
+observed the returned exile, whose manners and coarse features, and
+voice roughened by the abuse of liquors, together with his vulgar glance
+and phraseology, alarmed them not a little. While Joseph was placing the
+card-tables, the more intimate of the family friends surrounded Agathe
+and asked,--
+
+"What do you intend to make of Philippe?"
+
+"I don't know," she answered, "but he is determined not to serve the
+Bourbons."
+
+"Then it will be very difficult for you to find him a place in France.
+If he won't re-enter the army, he can't be readily got into government
+employ," said old Du Bruel. "And you have only to listen to him to see
+he could never, like my son, make his fortune by writing plays."
+
+The motion of Agathe's eyes, with which alone she replied to this
+speech, showed how anxious Philippe's future made her; they all kept
+silence. The exile himself, Bixiou, and the younger Desroches were
+playing at ecarte, a game which was then the rage.
+
+"Maman Descoings, my brother has no money to play with," whispered
+Joseph in the good woman's ear.
+
+The devotee of the Royal Lottery fetched twenty francs and gave them to
+the artist, who slipped them secretly into his brother's hand. All the
+company were now assembled. There were two tables of boston; and the
+party grew lively. Philippe proved a bad player: after winning for
+awhile, he began to lose; and by eleven o'clock he owed fifty francs to
+young Desroches and to Bixiou. The racket and the disputes at the ecarte
+table resounded more than once in the ears of the more peaceful boston
+players, who were watching Philippe surreptitiously. The exile showed
+such signs of bad temper that in his final dispute with the younger
+Desroches, who was none too amiable himself, the elder Desroches joined
+in, and though his son was decidedly in the right, he declared he was
+in the wrong, and forbade him to play any more. Madame Descoings did the
+same with her grandson, who was beginning to let fly certain witticisms;
+and although Philippe, so far, had not understood him, there was always
+a chance that one of the barbed arrows might piece the colonel's thick
+skull and put the sharp jester in peril.
+
+"You must be tired," whispered Agathe in Philippe's ear; "come to bed."
+
+"Travel educates youth," said Bixiou, grinning, when Madame Bridau and
+the colonel had disappeared.
+
+Joseph, who got up at dawn and went to bed early, did not see the end of
+the party. The next morning Agathe and Madame Descoings, while preparing
+breakfast, could not help remarking that soires would be terribly
+expensive if Philippe were to go on playing that sort of game, as the
+Descoings phrased it. The worthy old woman, then seventy-six years of
+age, proposed to sell her furniture, give up her _appartement_ on the
+second floor (which the owner was only too glad to occupy), and take
+Agathe's parlor for her chamber, making the other room a sitting-room
+and dining-room for the family. In this way they could save seven
+hundred francs a year; which would enable them to give Philippe fifty
+francs a month until he could find something to do. Agathe accepted the
+sacrifice. When the colonel came down and his mother had asked how he
+liked his little bedroom, the two widows explained to him the situation
+of the family. Madame Descoings and Agathe possessed, by putting all
+their resources together, an income of five thousand three hundred
+francs, four thousand of which belonged to Madame Descoings and were
+merely a life annuity. The Descoings made an allowance of six hundred
+a year to Bixiou, whom she had acknowledged as her grandson during the
+last few months, also six hundred to Joseph; the rest of her income,
+together with that of Agathe, was spent for the household wants. All
+their savings were by this time eaten up.
+
+"Make yourselves easy," said the lieutenant-colonel. "I'll find a
+situation and put you to no expense; all I need for the present is board
+and lodging."
+
+Agathe kissed her son, and Madame Descoings slipped a hundred francs
+into his hand to pay for his losses of the night before. In ten days
+the furniture was sold, the _appartement_ given up, and the change in
+Agathe's domestic arrangements accomplished with a celerity seldom seen
+outside of Paris. During those ten days, Philippe regularly decamped
+after breakfast, came back for dinner, was off again for the evening,
+and only got home about midnight to go to bed. He contracted certain
+habits half mechanically, and they soon became rooted in him; he got his
+boots blacked on the Pont Neuf for the two sous it would have cost
+him to go by the Pont des Arts to the Palais-Royal, where he consumed
+regularly two glasses of brandy while reading the newspapers,--an
+occupation which employed him till midday; after that he sauntered along
+the rue Vivienne to the cafe Minerve, where the Liberals congregated,
+and where he played at billiards with a number of old comrades. While
+winning and losing, Philippe swallowed four or five more glasses of
+divers liquors, and smoked ten or a dozen cigars in going and coming,
+and idling along the streets. In the evening, after consuming a
+few pipes at the Hollandais smoking-rooms, he would go to some
+gambling-place towards ten o'clock at night. The waiter handed him a
+card and a pin; he always inquired of certain well-seasoned players
+about the chances of the red or the black, and staked ten francs when
+the lucky moment seemed to come; never playing more than three times,
+win or lose. If he won, which usually happened, he drank a tumbler
+of punch and went home to his garret; but by that time he talked of
+smashing the ultras and the Bourbon body-guard, and trolled out, as he
+mounted the staircase, "We watch to save the Empire!" His poor mother,
+hearing him, used to think "How gay Philippe is to-night!" and then she
+would creep up and kiss him, without complaining of the fetid odors of
+the punch, and the brandy, and the pipes.
+
+"You ought to be satisfied with me, my dear mother," he said, towards
+the end of January; "I lead the most regular of lives."
+
+The colonel had dined five times at a restaurant with some of his army
+comrades. These old soldiers were quite frank with each other on the
+state of their own affairs, all the while talking of certain hopes which
+they based on the building of a submarine vessel, expected to bring
+about the deliverance of the Emperor. Among these former comrades,
+Philippe particularly liked an old captain of the dragoons of the Guard,
+named Giroudeau, in whose company he had seen his first service. This
+friendship with the late dragoon led Philippe into completing what
+Rabelais called "the devil's equipage"; and he added to his drams, and
+his tobacco, and his play, a "fourth wheel."
+
+One evening at the beginning of February, Giroudeau took Philippe after
+dinner to the Gaite, occupying a free box sent to a theatrical journal
+belonging to his nephew Finot, in whose office Giroudeau was cashier
+and secretary. Both were dressed after the fashion of the Bonapartist
+officers who now belonged to the Constitutional Opposition; they wore
+ample overcoats with square collars, buttoned to the chin and coming
+down to their heels, and decorated with the rosette of the Legion of
+honor; and they carried malacca canes with loaded knobs, which they held
+by strings of braided leather. The late troopers had just (to use one of
+their own expressions) "made a bout of it," and were mutually unbosoming
+their hearts as they entered the box. Through the fumes of a certain
+number of bottles and various glasses of various liquors, Giroudeau
+pointed out to Philippe a plump and agile little ballet-girl whom he
+called Florentine, whose good graces and affection, together with the
+box, belonged to him as the representative of an all-powerful journal.
+
+"But," said Philippe, "I should like to know how far her good graces go
+for such an iron-gray old trooper as you."
+
+"Thank God," replied Giroudeau, "I've stuck to the traditions of our
+glorious uniform. I have never wasted a farthing upon a woman in my
+life."
+
+"What's that?" said Philippe, putting a finger on his left eye.
+
+"That is so," answered Giroudeau. "But, between ourselves, the newspaper
+counts for a good deal. To-morrow, in a couple of lines, we shall advise
+the managers to let Mademoiselle Florentine dance a particular step, and
+so forth. Faith, my dear boy, I'm uncommonly lucky!"
+
+"Well!" thought Philippe; "if this worthy Giroudeau, with a skull as
+polished as my knee, forty-eight years, a big stomach, a face like a
+ploughman, and a nose like a potato, can get a ballet-girl, I ought to
+be the lover of the first actress in Paris. Where does one find such
+luck?" he said aloud.
+
+"I'll show you Florentine's place to-night. My Dulcinea only earns
+fifty francs a month at the theatre," added Giroudeau, "but she is very
+prettily set up, thanks to an old silk dealer named Cardot, who gives
+her five hundred francs a month."
+
+"Well, but--?" exclaimed the jealous Philippe.
+
+"Bah!" said Giroudeau; "true love is blind."
+
+When the play was over Giroudeau took Philippe to Mademoiselle
+Florentine's _appartement_, which was close to the theatre, in the rue
+de Crussol.
+
+"We must behave ourselves," said Giroudeau. "Florentine's mother is
+here. You see, I haven't the means to pay for one, so the worthy woman
+is really her own mother. She used to be a concierge, but she's not
+without intelligence. Call her Madame; she makes a point of it."
+
+Florentine happened that night to have a friend with her,--a certain
+Marie Godeschal, beautiful as an angel, cold as a danseuse, and a
+pupil of Vestris, who foretold for her a great choregraphic destiny.
+Mademoiselle Godeschal, anxious to make her first appearance at the
+Panorama-Dramatique under the name of Mariette, based her hopes on the
+protection and influence of a first gentleman of the bedchamber, to whom
+Vestris had promised to introduce her. Vestris, still green himself at
+this period, did not think his pupil sufficiently trained to risk the
+introduction. The ambitious girl did, in the end, make her pseudonym of
+Mariette famous; and the motive of her ambition, it must be said, was
+praiseworthy. She had a brother, a clerk in Derville's law office. Left
+orphans and very poor, and devoted to each other, the brother and sister
+had seen life such as it is in Paris. The one wished to be a lawyer that
+he might support his sister, and he lived on ten sous a day; the other
+had coldly resolved to be a dancer, and to profit by her beauty as much
+as by her legs that she might buy a practice for her brother. Outside
+of their feeling for each other, and of their mutual life and interests,
+everything was to them, as it once was to the Romans and the Hebrews,
+barbaric, outlandish, and hostile. This generous affection, which
+nothing ever lessened, explained Mariette to those who knew her
+intimately.
+
+The brother and sister were living at this time on the eighth floor of a
+house in the Vieille rue du Temple. Mariette had begun her studies
+when she was ten years old; she was now just sixteen. Alas! for want of
+becoming clothes, her beauty, hidden under a coarse shawl, dressed
+in calico, and ill-kept, could only be guessed by those Parisians
+who devote themselves to hunting grisettes and the quest of beauty in
+misfortune, as she trotted past them with mincing step, mounted on iron
+pattens. Philippe fell in love with Mariette. To Mariette, Philippe was
+commander of the dragoons of the Guard, a staff-officer of the Emperor,
+a young man of twenty-seven, and above all, the means of proving herself
+superior to Florentine by the evident superiority of Philippe over
+Giroudeau. Florentine and Giroudeau, the one to promote his comrade's
+happiness, the other to get a protector for her friend, pushed Philippe
+and Mariette into a "mariage en detrempe,"--a Parisian term which is
+equivalent to "morganatic marriage," as applied to royal personages.
+Philippe when they left the house revealed his poverty to Giroudeau, but
+the old roue reassured him.
+
+"I'll speak to my nephew Finot," he said. "You see, Philippe, the reign
+of phrases and quill-drivers is upon us; we may as well submit. To-day,
+scribblers are paramount. Ink has ousted gunpowder, and talk takes the
+place of shot. After all, these little toads of editors are pretty good
+fellows, and very clever. Come and see me to-morrow at the newspaper
+office; by that time I shall have said a word for you to my nephew.
+Before long you'll have a place on some journal or other. Mariette,
+who is taking you at this moment (don't deceive yourself) because she
+literally has nothing, no engagement, no chance of appearing on the
+stage, and I have told her that you are going on a newspaper like
+myself,--Mariette will try to make you believe she is loving you for
+yourself; and you will believe her! Do as I do,--keep her as long as you
+can. I was so much in love with Florentine that I begged Finot to write
+her up and help her to a debut; but my nephew replied, 'You say she has
+talent; well, the day after her first appearance she will turn her back
+on you.' Oh, that's Finot all over! You'll find him a knowing one."
+
+The next day, about four o'clock, Philippe went to the rue de Sentier,
+where he found Giroudeau in the entresol,--caged like a wild beast in
+a sort of hen-coop with a sliding panel; in which was a little stove,
+a little table, two little chairs, and some little logs of wood. This
+establishment bore the magic words, SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE, painted on
+the door in black letters, and the word "Cashier," written by hand and
+fastened to the grating of the cage. Along the wall that lay opposite
+to the cage, was a bench, where, at this moment, a one-armed man was
+breakfasting, who was called Coloquinte by Giroudeau, doubtless from the
+Egyptian colors of his skin.
+
+"A pretty hole!" exclaimed Philippe, looking round the room. "In the
+name of thunder! what are you doing here, you who charged with poor
+Colonel Chabert at Eylau? You--a gallant officer!"
+
+"Well, yes! broum! broum!--a gallant officer keeping the accounts of a
+little newspaper," said Giroudeau, settling his black silk skull-cap.
+"Moreover, I'm the working editor of all that rubbish," he added,
+pointing to the newspaper itself.
+
+"And I, who went to Egypt, I'm obliged to stamp it," said the one-armed
+man.
+
+"Hold your tongue, Coloquinte," said Giroudeau. "You are in presence of
+a hero who carried the Emperor's orders at the battle of Montereau."
+
+Coloquinte saluted. "That's were I lost my missing arm!" he said.
+
+"Coloquinte, look after the den. I'm going up to see my nephew."
+
+The two soldiers mounted to the fourth floor, where, in an attic room
+at the end of a passage, they found a young man with a cold light eye,
+lying on a dirty sofa. The representative of the press did not stir,
+though he offered cigars to his uncle and his uncle's friend.
+
+"My good fellow," said Giroudeau in a soothing and humble tone, "this
+is the gallant cavalry officer of the Imperial Guard of whom I spoke to
+you."
+
+"Eh! well?" said Finot, eyeing Philippe, who, like Giroudeau, lost all
+his assurance before the diplomatist of the press.
+
+"My dear boy," said Giroudeau, trying to pose as an uncle, "the colonel
+has just returned from Texas."
+
+"Ah! you were taken in by that affair of the Champ d'Asile, were you?
+Seems to me you were rather young to turn into a Soldier-laborer."
+
+The bitterness of this jest will only be understood by those who
+remember the deluge of engravings, screens, clocks, bronzes, and
+plaster-casts produced by the idea of the Soldier-laborer, a splendid
+image of Napoleon and his heroes, which afterwards made its appearance
+on the stage in vaudevilles. That idea, however, obtained a national
+subscription; and we still find, in the depths of the provinces, old
+wall-papers which bear the effigy of the Soldier-laborer. If this young
+man had not been Giroudeau's nephew, Philippe would have boxed his ears.
+
+"Yes, I was taken in by it; I lost my time, and twelve thousand francs
+to boot," answered Philippe, trying to force a grin.
+
+"You are still fond of the Emperor?" asked Finot.
+
+"He is my god," answered Philippe Bridau.
+
+"You are a Liberal?"
+
+"I shall always belong to the Constitutional Opposition. Oh Foy!
+oh Manuel! oh Laffitte! what men they are! They'll rid us of these
+others,--these wretches, who came back to France at the heels of the
+enemy."
+
+"Well," said Finot coldly, "you ought to make something out of your
+misfortunes; for you are the victim of the Liberals, my good fellow.
+Stay a Liberal, if you really value your opinions, but threaten the
+party with the follies in Texas which you are ready to show up. You
+never got a farthing of the national subscription, did you? Well, then
+you hold a fine position: demand an account of that subscription. I'll
+tell you how you can do it. A new Opposition journal is just starting,
+under the auspices of the deputies of the Left; you shall be the
+cashier, with a salary of three thousand francs. A permanent place. All
+you want is some one to go security for you in twenty thousand francs;
+find that, and you shall be installed within a week. I'll advise
+the Liberals to silence you by giving you the place. Meantime, talk,
+threaten,--threaten loudly."
+
+Giroudeau let Philippe, who was profuse in his thanks, go down a few
+steps before him, and then he turned back to say to his nephew, "Well,
+you are a queer fellow! you keep me here on twelve hundred francs--"
+
+"That journal won't live a year," said Finot. "I've got something better
+for you."
+
+"Thunder!" cried Philippe to Giroudeau. "He's no fool, that nephew of
+yours. I never once thought of making something, as he calls it, out of
+my position."
+
+That night at the cafe Lemblin and the cafe Minerve Colonel Philippe
+fulminated against the Liberal party, which had raised subscriptions,
+sent heroes to Texas, talked hypocritically of Soldier-laborers, and
+left them to starve, after taking the money they had put into it, and
+keeping them in exile for two years.
+
+"I am going to demand an account of the moneys collected by the
+subscription for the Champ d'Asile," he said to one of the frequenters
+of the cafe, who repeated it to the journalists of the Left.
+
+Philippe did not go back to the rue Mazarin; he went to Mariette and
+told her of his forthcoming appointment on a newspaper with ten thousand
+subscribers, in which her choregraphic claims should be warmly advanced.
+
+Agathe and Madame Descoings waited up for Philippe in fear and
+trembling, for the Duc de Berry had just been assassinated. The colonel
+came home a few minutes after breakfast; and when his mother showed her
+uneasiness at his absence, he grew angry and asked if he were not of
+age.
+
+"In the name of thunder, what's all this! here have I brought you some
+good news, and you both look like tombstones. The Duc de Berry is dead,
+is he?--well, so much the better! that's one the less, at any rate.
+As for me, I am to be cashier of a newspaper, with a salary of three
+thousand francs, and there you are, out of all your anxieties on my
+account."
+
+"Is it possible?" cried Agathe.
+
+"Yes; provided you can go security for me in twenty thousand francs; you
+need only deposit your shares in the Funds, you will draw the interest
+all the same."
+
+The two widows, who for nearly two months had been desperately anxious
+to find out what Philippe was about, and how he could be provided for,
+were so overjoyed at this prospect that they gave no thought to their
+other catastrophes. That evening, the Grecian sages, old Du Bruel,
+Claparon, whose health was failing, and the inflexible Desroches were
+unanimous; they all advised Madame Bridau to go security for her son.
+The new journal, which fortunately was started before the assassination
+of the Duc de Berry, just escaped the blow which Monsieur Decazes then
+launched at the press. Madame Bridau's shares in the Funds, representing
+thirteen hundred francs' interest, were transferred as security for
+Philippe, who was then appointed cashier. That good son at once promised
+to pay one hundred francs every month to the two widows, for his board
+and lodging, and was declared by both to be the best of sons. Those who
+had thought ill of him now congratulated Agathe.
+
+"We were unjust to him," they said.
+
+Poor Joseph, not to be behind his brother in generosity, resolved to pay
+for his own support, and succeeded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Three months later, the colonel, who ate and drank enough for four men,
+finding fault with the food and compelling the poor widows, on the score
+of his payments, to spend much money on their table, had not yet paid
+down a single penny. His mother and Madame Descoings were unwilling, out
+of delicacy, to remind him of his promise. The year went by without one
+of those coins which Leon Gozlan so vigorously called "tigers with five
+claws" finding its way from Philippe's pocket to the household purse. It
+is true that the colonel quieted his conscience on this score by seldom
+dining at home.
+
+"Well, he is happy," said his mother; "he is easy in mind; he has a
+place."
+
+Through the influence of a feuilleton, edited by Vernou, a friend of
+Bixiou, Finot, and Giroudeau, Mariette made her appearance, not at the
+Panorama-Dramatique but at the Porte-Saint-Martin, where she triumphed
+beside the famous Begrand. Among the directors of the theatre was a rich
+and luxurious general officer, in love with an actress, for whose sake
+he had made himself an impresario. In Paris, we frequently meet with men
+so fascinated with actresses, singers, or ballet-dancers, that they are
+willing to become directors of a theatre out of love. This officer knew
+Philippe and Giroudeau. Mariette's first appearance, heralded already
+by Finot's journal and also by Philippe's, was promptly arranged by the
+three officers; for there seems to be solidarity among the passions in a
+matter of folly.
+
+The mischievous Bixiou was not long in revealing to his grandmother and
+the devoted Agathe that Philippe, the cashier, the hero of heroes,
+was in love with Mariette, the celebrated ballet-dancer at the
+Porte-Saint-Martin. The news was a thunder-clap to the two widows;
+Agathe's religious principles taught her to think that all women on
+the stage were brands in the burning; moreover, she thought, and so did
+Madame Descoings, that women of that kind dined off gold, drank pearls,
+and wasted fortunes.
+
+"Now do you suppose," said Joseph to his mother, "that my brother is
+such a fool as to spend his money on Mariette? Such women only ruin rich
+men."
+
+"They talk of engaging Mariette at the Opera," said Bixiou. "Don't
+be worried, Madame Bridau; the diplomatic body often comes to the
+Porte-Saint-Martin, and that handsome girl won't stay long with your
+son. I did hear that an ambassador was madly in love with her. By the
+bye, another piece of news! Old Claparon is dead, and his son, who has
+become a banker, has ordered the cheapest kind of funeral for him. That
+fellow has no education; they wouldn't behave like that in China."
+
+Philippe, prompted by mercenary motives, proposed to Mariette that she
+should marry him; but she, knowing herself on the eve of an engagement
+at the Grand Opera, refused the offer, either because she guessed the
+colonel's motive, or because she saw how important her independence
+would be to her future fortune. For the remainder of this year, Philippe
+never came more than twice a month to see his mother. Where was he?
+Either at his office, or the theatre, or with Mariette. No light
+whatever as to his conduct reached the household of the rue Mazarin.
+Giroudeau, Finot, Bixiou, Vernou, Lousteau, saw him leading a life of
+pleasure. Philippe shared the gay amusements of Tullia, a leading
+singer at the Opera, of Florentine, who took Mariette's place at the
+Porte-Saint-Martin, of Florine and Matifat, Coralie and Camusot.
+After four o'clock, when he left his office, until midnight, he amused
+himself; some party of pleasure had usually been arranged the night
+before,--a good dinner, a card-party, a supper by some one or other of
+the set. Philippe was in his element.
+
+This carnival, which lasted eighteen months, was not altogether without
+its troubles. The beautiful Mariette no sooner appeared at the Opera, in
+January, 1821, than she captured one of the most distinguished dukes of
+the court of Louis XVIII. Philippe tried to make head against the
+peer, and by the month of April he was compelled by his passion,
+notwithstanding some luck at cards, to dip into the funds of which he
+was cashier. By May he had taken eleven hundred francs. In that fatal
+month Mariette started for London, to see what could be done with
+the lords while the temporary opera house in the Hotel Choiseul, rue
+Lepelletier, was being prepared. The luckless Philippe had ended,
+as often happens, in loving Mariette notwithstanding her flagrant
+infidelities; she herself had never thought him anything but a
+dull-minded, brutal soldier, the first rung of a ladder on which she
+had never intended to remain long. So, foreseeing the time when Philippe
+would have spent all his money, she captured other journalistic support
+which released her from the necessity of depending on him; nevertheless,
+she did feel the peculiar gratitude that class of women acknowledge
+towards the first man who smooths their way, as it were, among the
+difficulties and horrors of a theatrical career.
+
+Forced to let his terrible mistress go to London without him, Philippe
+went into winter quarters, as he called it,--that is, he returned to
+his attic room in his mother's _appartement_. He made some gloomy
+reflections as he went to bed that night, and when he got up again. He
+was conscious within himself of the inability to live otherwise than as
+he had been living the last year. The luxury that surrounded Mariette,
+the dinners, the suppers, the evenings in the side-scenes, the animation
+of wits and journalists, the sort of racket that went on around him,
+the delights that tickled both his senses and his vanity,--such a life,
+found only in Paris, and offering daily the charm of some new thing, was
+now more than habit,--it had become to Philippe as much a necessity as
+his tobacco or his brandy. He saw plainly that he could not live without
+these continual enjoyments. The idea of suicide came into his head; not
+on account of the deficit which must soon be discovered in his accounts,
+but because he could no longer live with Mariette in the atmosphere
+of pleasure in which he had disported himself for over a year. Full
+of these gloomy thoughts, he entered for the first time his brother's
+painting-room, where he found the painter in a blue blouse, copying a
+picture for a dealer.
+
+"So that's how pictures are made," said Philippe, by way of opening the
+conversation.
+
+"No," said Joseph, "that is how they are copied."
+
+"How much do they pay you for that?"
+
+"Eh! never enough; two hundred and fifty francs. But I study the manner
+of the masters and learn a great deal; I found out the secrets of their
+method. There's one of my own pictures," he added, pointing with the end
+of his brush to a sketch with the colors still moist.
+
+"How much do you pocket in a year?"
+
+"Unfortunately, I am known only to painters. Schinner backs me; and
+he has got me some work at the Chateau de Presles, where I am going in
+October to do some arabesques, panels, and other decorations, for which
+the Comte de Serizy, no doubt, will pay well. With such trifles and with
+orders from the dealers, I may manage to earn eighteen hundred to two
+thousand francs a year over and above the working expenses. I shall send
+that picture to the next exhibition; if it hits the public taste, my
+fortune is made. My friends think well of it."
+
+"I don't know anything about such things," said Philippe, in a subdued
+voice which caused Joseph to turn and look at him.
+
+"What is the matter?" said the artist, seeing that his brother was very
+pale.
+
+"I should like to know how long it would take you to paint my portrait?"
+
+"If I worked steadily, and the weather were clear, I could finish it in
+three or four days."
+
+"That's too long; I have only one day to give you. My poor mother loves
+me so much that I wished to leave her my likeness. We will say no more
+about it."
+
+"Why! are you going away again?"
+
+"I am going never to return," replied Philippe with an air of forced
+gayety.
+
+"Look here, Philippe, what is the matter? If it is anything serious,
+I am a man and not a ninny. I am accustomed to hard struggles, and if
+discretion is needed, I have it."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"On my honor."
+
+"You will tell no one, no matter who?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"Well, I am going to blow my brains out."
+
+"You!--are you going to fight a duel?"
+
+"I am going to kill myself."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I have taken eleven hundred francs from the funds in my hands; I have
+got to send in my accounts to-morrow morning. Half my security is lost;
+our poor mother will be reduced to six hundred francs a year. That would
+be nothing! I could make a fortune for her later; but I am dishonored! I
+cannot live under dishonor--"
+
+"You will not be dishonored if it is paid back. To be sure, you will
+lose your place, and you will only have the five hundred francs a year
+from your cross; but you can live on five hundred francs."
+
+"Farewell!" said Philippe, running rapidly downstairs, and not waiting
+to hear another word.
+
+Joseph left his studio and went down to breakfast with his mother;
+but Philippe's confession had taken away his appetite. He took Madame
+Descoings aside and told her the terrible news. The old woman made a
+frightened exclamation, let fall the saucepan of milk she had in
+her hand, and flung herself into a chair. Agathe rushed in; from one
+exclamation to another the mother gathered the fatal truth.
+
+"He! to fail in honor! the son of Bridau to take the money that was
+trusted to him!"
+
+The widow trembled in every limb; her eyes dilated and then grew fixed;
+she sat down and burst into tears.
+
+"Where is he?" she cried amid the sobs. "Perhaps he has flung himself
+into the Seine."
+
+"You must not give up all hope," said Madame Descoings, "because a poor
+lad has met with a bad woman who has led him to do wrong. Dear me! we
+see that every day. Philippe has had such misfortunes! he has had so
+little chance to be happy and loved that we ought not to be surprised at
+his passion for that creature. All passions lead to excess. My own life
+is not without reproach of that kind, and yet I call myself an honest
+woman. A single fault is not vice; and after all, it is only those who
+do nothing that are never deceived."
+
+Agathe's despair overcame her so much that Joseph and the Descoings
+were obliged to lessen Philippe's wrong-doings by assuring her that such
+things happened in all families.
+
+"But he is twenty-eight years old," cried Agathe, "he is no longer a
+child."
+
+Terrible revelation of the inward thought of the poor woman on the
+conduct of her son.
+
+"Mother, I assure you he thought only of your sufferings and of the
+wrong he had done you," said Joseph.
+
+"Oh, my God! let him come back to me, let him live, and I will forgive
+all," cried the poor mother, to whose mind a horrible vision of Philippe
+dragged dead out of the river presented itself.
+
+Gloomy silence reigned for a short time. The day went by with cruel
+alternations of hope and fear; all three ran to the window at the least
+sound, and gave way to every sort of conjecture. While the family were
+thus grieving, Philippe was quietly getting matters in order at his
+office. He had the audacity to give in his accounts with a statement
+that, fearing some accident, he had retained eleven hundred francs at
+his own house for safe keeping. The scoundrel left the office at five
+o'clock, taking five hundred francs more from the desk, and coolly went
+to a gambling-house, which he had not entered since his connection with
+the paper, for he knew very well that a cashier must not be seen to
+frequent such a place. The fellow was not wanting in acumen. His past
+conduct proved that he derived more from his grandfather Rouget than
+from his virtuous sire, Bridau. Perhaps he might have made a good
+general; but in private life, he was one of those utter scoundrels who
+shelter their schemes and their evil actions behind a screen of strict
+legality, and the privacy of the family roof.
+
+At this conjuncture Philippe maintained his coolness. He won at first,
+and gained as much as six thousand francs; but he let himself be dazzled
+by the idea of getting out of his difficulties at one stroke. He left
+the trente-et-quarante, hearing that the black had come up sixteen times
+at the roulette table, and was about to put five thousand francs on the
+red, when the black came up for the seventeenth time. The colonel then
+put a thousand francs on the black and won. In spite of this remarkable
+piece of luck, his head grew weary; he felt it, though he continued to
+play. But that divining sense which leads a gambler, and which comes in
+flashes, was already failing him. Intermittent perceptions, so fatal to
+all gamblers, set in. Lucidity of mind, like the rays of the sun, can
+have no effect except by the continuity of a direct line; it can divine
+only on condition of not breaking that line; the curvettings of chance
+bemuddle it. Philippe lost all. After such a strain, the careless mind
+as well as the bravest weakens. When Philippe went home that night
+he was not thinking of suicide, for he had never really meant to kill
+himself; he no longer thought of his lost place, nor of the sacrificed
+security, nor of his mother, nor of Mariette, the cause of his ruin; he
+walked along mechanically. When he got home, his mother in tears, Madame
+Descoings, and Joseph, all fell on his neck and kissed him and brought
+him joyfully to a seat by the fire.
+
+"Bless me!" thought he, "the threat has worked."
+
+The brute at once assumed an air suitable to the occasion; all the more
+easily, because his ill-luck at cards had deeply depressed him. Seeing
+her atrocious Benjamin so pale and woe-begone, the poor mother knelt
+beside him, kissed his hands, pressed them to her heart, and gazed at
+him for a long time with eyes swimming in tears.
+
+"Philippe," she said, in a choking voice, "promise not to kill yourself,
+and all shall be forgotten."
+
+Philippe looked at his sorrowing brother and at Madame Descoings,
+whose eyes were full of tears, and thought to himself, "They are good
+creatures." Then he took his mother in his arms, raised her and put her
+on his knee, pressed her to his heart and whispered as he kissed her,
+"For the second time, you give me life."
+
+The Descoings managed to serve an excellent dinner, and to add two
+bottles of old wine with a little "liqueur des iles," a treasure left
+over from her former business.
+
+"Agathe," she said at dessert, "we must let him smoke his cigars," and
+she offered some to Philippe.
+
+These two poor creatures fancied that if they let the fellow take his
+ease, he would like his home and stay in it; both, therefore, tried to
+endure his tobacco-smoke, though each loathed it. That sacrifice was not
+so much as noticed by Philippe.
+
+On the morrow, Agathe looked ten years older. Her terrors calmed,
+reflection came back to her, and the poor woman had not closed an eye
+throughout that horrible night. She was now reduced to six hundred
+francs a year. Madame Descoings, like all fat women fond of good eating,
+was growing heavy; her step on the staircase sounded like the chopping
+of logs; she might die at any moment; with her life, four thousand
+francs would disappear. What folly to rely on that resource! What should
+she do? What would become of them? With her mind made up to become a
+sick-nurse rather than be supported by her children, Agathe did not
+think of herself. But Philippe? what would he do if reduced to live on
+the five hundred francs of an officer of the Legion of honor? During the
+past eleven years, Madame Descoings, by giving up three thousand
+francs a year, had paid her debt twice over, but she still continued to
+sacrifice her grandson's interests to those of the Bridau family.
+Though all Agathe's honorable and upright feelings were shocked by this
+terrible disaster, she said to herself: "Poor boy! is it his fault? He
+is faithful to his oath. I have done wrong not to marry him. If I had
+found him a wife, he would not have got entangled with this danseuse. He
+has such a vigorous constitution--"
+
+Madame Descoings had likewise reflected during the night as to the best
+way of saving the honor of the family. At daybreak, she got out of bed
+and went to her friend's room.
+
+"Neither you nor Philippe should manage this delicate matter," she
+urged. "Our two old friends Du Bruel and Claparon are dead, but we still
+have Desroches, who is very sagacious. I'll go and see him this morning.
+He can tell the newspaper people that Philippe trusted a friend and has
+been made a victim; that his weakness in such respects makes him unfit
+to be a cashier; what has now happened may happen again, and that
+Philippe prefers to resign. That will prevent his being turned off."
+
+Agathe, seeing that this business lie would save the honor of her son,
+at any rate in the eyes of strangers, kissed Madame Descoings, who went
+out early to make an end of the dreadful affair.
+
+Philippe, meanwhile, had slept the sleep of the just. "She is sly, that
+old woman," he remarked, when his mother explained to him why breakfast
+was late.
+
+Old Desroches, the last remaining friend of these two poor women, who,
+in spite of his harsh nature, never forgot that Bridau had obtained
+for him his place, fulfilled like an accomplished diplomat the delicate
+mission Madame Descoings had confided to him. He came to dine that
+evening with the family, and notified Agathe that she must go the
+next day to the Treasury, rue Vivienne, sign the transfer of the funds
+involved, and obtain a coupon for the six hundred francs a year which
+still remained to her. The old clerk did not leave the afflicted
+household that night without obliging Philippe to sign a petition to
+the minister of war, asking for his reinstatement in the active army.
+Desroches promised the two women to follow up the petition at the war
+office, and to profit by the triumph of a certain duke over Philippe in
+the matter of the danseuse, and so obtain that nobleman's influence.
+
+"Philippe will be lieutenant-colonel in the Duc de Maufrigneuse's
+regiment within three months," he declared, "and you will be rid of
+him."
+
+Desroches went away, smothered with blessings from the two poor widows
+and Joseph. As to the newspaper, it ceased to exist at the end of two
+months, just as Finot had predicted. Philippe's crime had, therefore,
+so far as the world knew, no consequences. But Agathe's motherhood had
+received a deadly wound. Her belief in her son once shaken, she lived
+in perpetual fear, mingled with some satisfactions, as she saw her worst
+apprehensions unrealized.
+
+When men like Philippe, who are endowed with physical courage, and yet
+are cowardly and ignoble in their moral being, see matters and things
+resuming their accustomed course about them after some catastrophe in
+which their honor and decency is well-nigh lost, such family kindness,
+or any show of friendliness towards them is a premium of encouragement.
+They count on impunity; their minds distorted, their passions gratified,
+only prompt them to study how it happened that they succeeded in getting
+round all social laws; the result is they become alarmingly adroit.
+
+A fortnight later, Philippe, once more a man of leisure, lazy and bored,
+renewed his fatal cafe life,--his drams, his long games of billiards
+embellished with punch, his nightly resort to the gambling-table,
+where he risked some trifling stake and won enough to pay for his
+dissipations. Apparently very economical, the better to deceive his
+mother and Madame Descoings, he wore a hat that was greasy, with the nap
+rubbed off at the edges, patched boots, a shabby overcoat, on which
+the red ribbon scarcely showed so discolored and dirty was it by long
+service at the buttonhole and by the spatterings of coffee and liquors.
+His buckskin gloves, of a greenish tinge, lasted him a long while; and
+he only gave up his satin neckcloth when it was ragged enough to look
+like wadding. Mariette was the sole object of the fellow's love, and her
+treachery had greatly hardened his heart. When he happened to win more
+than usual, or if he supped with his old comrade, Giroudeau, he followed
+some Venus of the slums, with brutal contempt for the whole sex.
+Otherwise regular in his habits, he breakfasted and dined at home and
+came in every night about one o'clock. Three months of this horrible
+life restored Agathe to some degree of confidence.
+
+As for Joseph, who was working at the splendid picture to which
+he afterwards owed his reputation, he lived in his atelier. On the
+prediction of her grandson Bixiou, Madame Descoings believed in Joseph's
+future glory, and she showed him every sort of motherly kindness; she
+took his breakfast to him, she did his errands, she blacked his boots.
+The painter was never seen till dinner-time, and his evenings were spent
+at the Cenacle among his friends. He read a great deal, and gave himself
+that deep and serious education which only comes through the mind
+itself, and which all men of talent strive after between the ages of
+twenty and thirty. Agathe, seeing very little of Joseph, and feeling
+no uneasiness about him, lived only for Philippe, who gave her the
+alternations of fears excited and terrors allayed, which seem the life,
+as it were, of sentiment, and to be as necessary to maternity as to
+love. Desroches, who came once a week to see the widow of his patron
+and friend, gave her hopes. The Duc de Maufrigneuse had asked to have
+Philippe in his regiment; the minister of war had ordered an inquiry;
+and as the name of Bridau did not appear on any police list, nor an any
+record at the Palais de Justice, Philippe would be reinstated in the
+army early in the coming year.
+
+To arrive at this result, Desroches set all the powers that he could
+influence in motion. At the prefecture of police he learned that
+Philippe spent his evenings in the gambling-house; and he thought it
+best to tell this fact privately to Madame Descoings, exhorting her keep
+an eye on the lieutenant-colonel, for one outbreak would imperil all; as
+it was, the minister of war was not likely to inquire whether Philippe
+gambled. Once restored to his rank under the flag of his country, he
+would perhaps abandon a vice only taken up from idleness. Agathe, who
+no longer received her friends in the evening, sat in the chimney-corner
+reading her prayers, while Madame Descoings consulted the cards,
+interpreted her dreams, and applied the rules of the "cabala" to her
+lottery ventures. This jovial fanatic never missed a single drawing; she
+still pursued her trey,--which never turned up. It was nearly twenty-one
+years old, just approaching its majority; on this ridiculous idea the
+old woman now pinned her faith. One of its three numbers had stayed at
+the bottom of all the wheels ever since the institution of the lottery.
+Accordingly, Madame Descoings laid heavy stakes on that particular
+number, as well as on all the combinations of the three numbers. The
+last mattress remaining to her bed was the place where she stored her
+savings; she unsewed the ticking, put in from time to time the bit of
+gold saved from her needs, wrapped carefully in wool, and then sewed the
+mattress up again. She intended, at the last drawing, to risk all her
+savings on the different combinations of her treasured trey.
+
+This passion, so universally condemned, has never been fairly studied.
+No one has understood this opium of poverty. The lottery, all-powerful
+fairy of the poor, bestowed the gift of magic hopes. The turn of the
+wheel which opens to the gambler a vista of gold and happiness, lasts
+no longer than a flash of lightning, but the lottery gave five days'
+existence to that magnificent flash. What social power can to-day, for
+the sum of five sous, give us five days' happiness and launch us ideally
+into all the joys of civilization? Tobacco, a craving far more immoral
+than play, destroys the body, attacks the mind, and stupefies a nation;
+while the lottery did nothing of the kind. This passion, moreover, was
+forced to keep within limits by the long periods that occurred
+between the drawings, and by the choice of wheels which each investor
+individually clung to. Madame Descoings never staked on any but the
+"wheel of Paris." Full of confidence that the trey cherished for
+twenty-one years was about to triumph, she now imposed upon herself
+enormous privations, that she might stake a large amount of savings upon
+the last drawing of the year. When she dreamed her cabalistic visions
+(for all dreams did not correspond with the numbers of the lottery), she
+went and told them to Joseph, who was the sole being who would listen,
+and not only not scold her, but give her the kindly words with which an
+artist knows how to soothe the follies of the mind. All great talents
+respect and understand a real passion; they explain it to themselves
+by finding the roots of it in their own hearts or minds. Joseph's ideas
+was, that his brother loved tobacco and liquors, Maman Descoings loved
+her trey, his mother loved God, Desroches the younger loved lawsuits,
+Desroches the elder loved angling,--in short, all the world, he said,
+loved something. He himself loved the "beau ideal" in all things; he
+loved the poetry of Lord Byron, the painting of Gericault, the music of
+Rossini, the novels of Walter Scott. "Every one to his taste, maman," he
+would say; "but your trey does hang fire terribly."
+
+"It will turn up, and you will be rich, and my little Bixiou as well."
+
+"Give it all to your grandson," cried Joseph; "at any rate, do what you
+like best with it."
+
+"Hey! when it turns up I shall have enough for everybody. In the first
+place, you shall have a fine atelier; you sha'n't deprive yourself of
+going to the opera so as to pay for your models and your colors. Do you
+know, my dear boy, you make me play a pretty shabby part in that picture
+of yours?"
+
+By way of economy, Joseph had made the Descoings pose for his
+magnificent painting of a young courtesan taken by an old woman to
+a Doge of Venice. This picture, one of the masterpieces of modern
+painting, was mistaken by Gros himself for a Titian, and it paved the
+way for the recognition which the younger artists gave to Joseph's
+talent in the Salon of 1823.
+
+"Those who know you know very well what you are," he answered gayly.
+"Why need you trouble yourself about those who don't know you?"
+
+For the last ten years Madame Descoings had taken on the ripe tints of a
+russet apple at Easter. Wrinkles had formed in her superabundant flesh,
+now grown pallid and flabby. Her eyes, full of life, were bright with
+thoughts that were still young and vivacious, and might be considered
+grasping; for there is always something of that spirit in a gambler.
+Her fat face bore traces of dissimulation and of the mental reservations
+hidden in the depths of her heart. Her vice necessitated secrecy. There
+were also indications of gluttony in the motion of her lips. And thus,
+although she was, as we have seen, an excellent and upright woman, the
+eye might be misled by her appearance. She was an admirable model
+for the old woman Joseph wished to paint. Coralie, a young actress of
+exquisite beauty who died in the flower of her youth, the mistress of
+Lucien de Rubempre, one of Joseph's friends, had given him the idea of
+the picture. This noble painting has been called a plagiarism of
+other pictures, while in fact it was a splendid arrangement of three
+portraits. Michel Chrestien, one of his companions at the Cenacle, lent
+his republican head for the senator, to which Joseph added a few mature
+tints, just as he exaggerated the expression of Madame Descoings's
+features. This fine picture, which was destined to make a great noise
+and bring the artist much hatred, jealousy, and admiration, was just
+sketched out; but, compelled as he was to work for a living, he laid
+it aside to make copies of the old masters for the dealers; thus he
+penetrated the secrets of their processes, and his brush is therefore
+one of the best trained of the modern school. The shrewd sense of an
+artist led him to conceal the profits he was beginning to lay by
+from his mother and Madame Descoings, aware that each had her road to
+ruin,--the one in Philippe, the other in the lottery. This astuteness is
+seldom wanting among painters; busy for days together in the solitude of
+their studios, engaged in work which, up to a certain point, leaves the
+mind free, they are in some respects like women,--their thoughts turn
+about the little events of life, and they contrive to get at their
+hidden meaning.
+
+Joseph had bought one of those magnificent chests or coffers of a past
+age, then ignored by fashion, with which he decorated a corner of his
+studio, where the light danced upon the bas-reliefs and gave full lustre
+to a masterpiece of the sixteenth century artisans. He saw the necessity
+for a hiding-place, and in this coffer he had begun to accumulate a
+little store of money. With an artist's carelessness, he was in the
+habit of putting the sum he allowed for his monthly expenses in a skull,
+which stood on one of the compartments of the coffer. Since his brother
+had returned to live at home, he found a constant discrepancy between
+the amount he spent and the sum in this receptacle. The hundred francs
+a month disappeared with incredible celerity. Finding nothing one day,
+when he had only spent forty or fifty francs, he remarked for the
+first time: "My money must have got wings." The next month he paid more
+attention to his accounts; but add as he might, like Robert Macaire,
+sixteen and five are twenty-three, he could make nothing of them. When,
+for the third time, he found a still more important discrepancy, he
+communicated the painful fact to Madame Descoings, who loved him, he
+knew, with that maternal, tender, confiding, credulous, enthusiastic
+love that he had never had from his own mother, good as she was,--a love
+as necessary to the early life of an artist as the care of the hen is
+to her unfledged chickens. To her alone could he confide his horrible
+suspicions. He was as sure of his friends as he was of himself; and the
+Descoings, he knew, would take nothing to put in her lottery. At
+the idea which then suggested itself the poor woman wrung her hands.
+Philippe alone could have committed this domestic theft.
+
+"Why didn't he ask me, if he wanted it?" cried Joseph, taking a dab
+of color on his palette and stirring it into the other colors without
+seeing what he did. "Is it likely I should refuse him?"
+
+"It is robbing a child!" cried the Descoings, her face expressing the
+deepest disgust.
+
+"No," replied Joseph, "he is my brother; my purse is his: but he ought
+to have asked me."
+
+"Put in a special sum, in silver, this morning, and don't take anything
+out," said Madame Descoings. "I shall know who goes into the studio; and
+if he is the only one, you will be certain it is he."
+
+The next day Joseph had proof of his brother's forced loans upon him.
+Philippe came to the studio when his brother was out and took the little
+sum he wanted. The artist trembled for his savings.
+
+"I'll catch him at it, the scamp!" he said, laughing, to Madame
+Descoings.
+
+"And you'll do right: we ought to break him of it. I, too, I have missed
+little sums out of my purse. Poor boy! he wants tobacco; he's accustomed
+to it."
+
+"Poor boy! poor boy!" cried the artist. "I'm rather of Fulgence and
+Bixiou's opinion: Philippe is a dead-weight on us. He runs his head into
+riots and has to be shipped to America, and that costs the mother twelve
+thousand francs; he can't find anything to do in the forests of the New
+World, and so he comes back again, and that costs twelve thousand more.
+Under pretence of having carried two words of Napoleon to a general,
+he thinks himself a great soldier and makes faces at the Bourbons;
+meantime, what does he do? amuse himself, travel about, see foreign
+countries! As for me, I'm not duped by his misfortunes; he doesn't look
+like a man who fails to get the best of things! Somebody finds him a
+good place, and there he is, leading the life of a Sardanapalus with
+a ballet-girl, and guzzling the funds of his journal; that costs the
+mother another twelve thousand francs! I don't care two straws for
+myself, but Philippe will bring that poor woman to beggary. He thinks
+I'm of no account because I was never in the dragoons of the Guard; but
+perhaps I shall be the one to support that poor dear mother in her old
+age, while he, if he goes on as he does, will end I don't know how.
+Bixiou often says to me, 'He is a downright rogue, that brother of
+yours.' Your grandson is right. Philippe will be up to some mischief
+that will compromise the honor of the family, and then we shall have to
+scrape up another ten or twelve thousand francs! He gambles every night;
+when he comes home, drunk as a templar, he drops on the staircase the
+pricked cards on which he marks the turns of the red and black. Old
+Desroches is trying to get him back into the army, and, on my word
+on honor, I believe he would hate to serve again. Would you ever have
+believed that a boy with such heavenly blue eyes and the look of Bayard
+could turn out such a scoundrel?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+In spite of the coolness and discretion with which Philippe played his
+trifling game every night, it happened every now and then that he was
+what gamblers call "cleaned out." Driven by the irresistible necessity
+of having his evening stake of ten francs, he plundered the household,
+and laid hands on his brother's money and on all that Madame Descoings
+or Agathe left about. Already the poor mother had had a dreadful vision
+in her first sleep: Philippe entered the room and took from the pockets
+of her gown all the money he could find. Agathe pretended to sleep, but
+she passed the rest of the night in tears. She saw the truth only too
+clearly. "One wrong act is not a vice," Madame Descoings had declared;
+but after so many repetitions, vice was unmistakable. Agathe could doubt
+no longer; her best-beloved son had neither delicacy nor honor.
+
+On the morrow of that frightful vision, before Philippe left the house
+after breakfast, she drew him into her chamber and begged him, in a
+tone of entreaty, to ask her for what money he needed. After that, the
+applications were so numerous that in two weeks Agathe was drained of
+all her savings. She was literally without a penny, and began to think
+of finding work. The means of earning money had been discussed in the
+evenings between herself and Madame Descoings, and she had already taken
+patterns of worsted work to fill in, from a shop called the "Pere
+de Famille,"--an employment which pays about twenty sous a day.
+Notwithstanding Agathe's silence on the subject, Madame Descoings had
+guessed the motive of this desire to earn money by women's-work. The
+change in her appearance was eloquent: her fresh face had withered, the
+skin clung to the temples and the cheek-bones, and the forehead showed
+deep lines; her eyes lost their clearness; an inward fire was evidently
+consuming her; she wept the greater part of the night. A chief cause
+of these outward ravages was the necessity of hiding her anguish, her
+sufferings, her apprehensions. She never went to sleep until Philippe
+came in; she listened for his step, she had learned the inflections of
+his voice, the variations of his walk, the very language of his cane
+as it touched the pavement. Nothing escaped her. She knew the degree of
+drunkenness he had reached, she trembled as she heard him stumble on the
+stairs; one night she picked up some pieces of gold at the spot where he
+had fallen. When he had drunk and won, his voice was gruff and his cane
+dragged; but when he had lost, his step had something sharp, short and
+angry about it; he hummed in a clear voice, and carried his cane in the
+air as if presenting arms. At breakfast, if he had won, his behavior was
+gay and even affectionate; he joked roughly, but still he joked, with
+Madame Descoings, with Joseph, and with his mother; gloomy, on the
+contrary, when he had lost, his brusque, rough speech, his hard glance,
+and his depression, frightened them. A life of debauch and the abuse of
+liquors debased, day by day, a countenance that was once so handsome.
+The veins of the face were swollen with blood, the features became
+coarse, the eyes lost their lashes and grew hard and dry. No longer
+careful of his person, Philippe exhaled the miasmas of a tavern and
+the smell of muddy boots, which, to an observer, stamped him with
+debauchery.
+
+"You ought," said Madame Descoings to Philippe during the last days of
+December, "you ought to get yourself new-clothed from head to foot."
+
+"And who is to pay for it?" he answered sharply. "My poor mother hasn't
+a sou; and I have five hundred francs a year. It would take my whole
+year's pension to pay for the clothes; besides I have mortgaged it for
+three years--"
+
+"What for?" asked Joseph.
+
+"A debt of honor. Giroudeau borrowed a thousand francs from Florentine
+to lend me. I am not gorgeous, that's a fact; but when one thinks that
+Napoleon is at Saint Helena, and has sold his plate for the means of
+living, his faithful soldiers can manage to walk on their bare feet," he
+said, showing his boots without heels, as he marched away.
+
+"He is not bad," said Agathe, "he has good feelings."
+
+"You can love the Emperor and yet dress yourself properly," said Joseph.
+"If he would take any care of himself and his clothes, he wouldn't look
+so like a vagabond."
+
+"Joseph! you ought to have some indulgence for your brother," cried
+Agathe. "You do the things you like, while he is certainly not in his
+right place."
+
+"What did he leave it for?" demanded Joseph. "What can it matter to him
+whether Louis the Eighteenth's bugs or Napoleon's cuckoos are on the
+flag, if it is the flag of his country? France is France! For my part,
+I'd paint for the devil. A soldier ought to fight, if he is a soldier,
+for the love of his art. If he had stayed quietly in the army, he would
+have been a general by this time."
+
+"You are unjust to him," said Agathe, "your father, who adored the
+Emperor, would have approved of his conduct. However, he has consented
+to re-enter the army. God knows the grief it has caused your brother to
+do a thing he considers treachery."
+
+Joseph rose to return to his studio, but his mother took his hand and
+said:--
+
+"Be good to your brother; he is so unfortunate."
+
+When the artist got back to his painting-room, followed by Madame
+Descoings, who begged him to humor his mother's feelings, and pointed
+out to him how changed she was, and what inward suffering the change
+revealed, they found Philippe there, to their great amazement.
+
+"Joseph, my boy," he said, in an off-hand way, "I want some money.
+Confound it! I owe thirty francs for cigars at my tobacconist's, and I
+dare not pass the cursed shop till I've paid it. I've promised to pay it
+a dozen times."
+
+"Well, I like your present way best," said Joseph; "take what you want
+out of the skull."
+
+"I took all there was last night, after dinner."
+
+"There was forty-five francs."
+
+"Yes, that's what I made it," replied Philippe. "I took them; is there
+any objection?"
+
+"No, my friend, no," said Joseph. "If you were rich, I should do the
+same by you; only, before taking what I wanted, I should ask you if it
+were convenient."
+
+"It is very humiliating to ask," remarked Philippe; "I would rather see
+you taking as I do, without a word; it shows more confidence. In the
+army, if a comrade dies, and has a good pair of boots, and you have a
+bad pair, you change, that's all."
+
+"Yes, but you don't take them while he is living."
+
+"Oh, what meanness!" said Philippe, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, so
+you haven't got any money?"
+
+"No," said Joseph, who was determined not to show his hiding-place.
+
+"In a few days we shall be rich," said Madame Descoings.
+
+"Yes, you; you think your trey is going to turn up on the 25th at the
+Paris drawing. You must have put in a fine stake if you think you can
+make us all rich."
+
+"A paid-up trey of two hundred francs will give three millions, without
+counting the couplets and the singles."
+
+"At fifteen thousand times the stake--yes, you are right; it is just two
+hundred you must pay up!" cried Philippe.
+
+Madame Descoings bit her lips; she knew she had spoken imprudently. In
+fact, Philippe was asking himself as he went downstairs:--
+
+"That old witch! where does she keep her money? It is as good as lost;
+I can make a better use of it. With four pools at fifty francs each, I
+could win two hundred thousand francs, and that's much surer than the
+turning up of a trey."
+
+He tried to think where the old woman was likely to have hid the money.
+On the days preceding festivals, Agathe went to church and stayed there
+a long time; no doubt she confessed and prepared for the communion. It
+was now the day before Christmas; Madame Descoings would certainly go
+out to buy some dainties for the "reveillon," the midnight meal; and
+she might also take occasion to pay up her stake. The lottery was drawn
+every five days in different localities, at Bordeaux, Lyons, Lille,
+Strasburg, and Paris. The Paris lottery was drawn on the twenty-fifth
+of each month, and the lists closed on the twenty-fourth, at midnight.
+Philippe studied all these points and set himself to watch. He came
+home at midday; the Descoings had gone out, and had taken the key of the
+_appartement_. But that was no difficulty. Philippe pretended to have
+forgotten something, and asked the concierge to go herself and get a
+locksmith, who lived close by, and who came at once and opened the door.
+The villain's first thought was the bed; he uncovered it, passed his
+hands over the mattress before he examined the bedstead, and at the
+lower end felt the pieces wrapped up in paper. He at once ripped the
+ticking, picked out twenty napoleons, and then, without taking time
+to sew up the mattress, re-made the bed neatly enough, so that Madame
+Descoings could suspect nothing.
+
+The gambler stole off with a light foot, resolving to play at three
+different times, three hours apart, and each time for only ten minutes.
+Thorough-going players, ever since 1786, the time at which public
+gaming-houses were established,--the true players whom the government
+dreaded, and who ate up, to use a gambling term, the money of the
+bank,--never played in any other way. But before attaining this measure
+of experience they lost fortunes. The whole science of gambling-houses
+and their gains rests upon three things: the impassibility of the bank;
+the even results called "drawn games," when half the money goes to
+the bank; and the notorious bad faith authorized by the government,
+in refusing to hold or pay the player's stakes except optionally. In
+a word, the gambling-house, which refuses the game of a rich and cool
+player, devours the fortune of the foolish and obstinate one, who is
+carried away by the rapid movement of the machinery of the game. The
+croupiers at "trente et quarante" move nearly as fast as the ball.
+
+Philippe had ended by acquiring the sang-froid of a commanding general,
+which enables him to keep his eye clear and his mind prompt in the midst
+of tumult. He had reached that statesmanship of gambling which in Paris,
+let us say in passing, is the livelihood of thousands who are strong
+enough to look every night into an abyss without getting a vertigo. With
+his four hundred francs, Philippe resolved to make his fortune that day.
+He put aside, in his boots, two hundred francs, and kept the other two
+hundred in his pocket. At three o'clock he went to the gambling-house
+(which is now turned into the theatre of the Palais-Royal), where the
+bank accepted the largest sums. He came out half an hour later with
+seven thousand francs in his pocket. Then he went to see Florentine,
+paid the five hundred francs which he owed to her, and proposed a supper
+at the Rocher de Cancale after the theatre. Returning to his game, along
+the rue de Sentier, he stopped at Giroudeau's newspaper-office to notify
+him of the gala. By six o'clock Philippe had won twenty-five thousand
+francs, and stopped playing at the end of ten minutes as he had promised
+himself to do. That night, by ten o'clock, he had won seventy-five
+thousand francs. After the supper, which was magnificent, Philippe, by
+that time drunk and confident, went back to his play at midnight. In
+defiance of the rule he had imposed upon himself, he played for an
+hour and doubled his fortune. The bankers, from whom, by his system of
+playing, he had extracted one hundred and fifty thousand francs, looked
+at him with curiosity.
+
+"Will he go away now, or will he stay?" they said to each other by a
+glance. "If he stays he is lost."
+
+Philippe thought he had struck a vein of luck, and stayed. Towards three
+in the morning, the hundred and fifty thousand francs had gone back to
+the bank. The colonel, who had imbibed a considerable quantity of grog
+while playing, left the place in a drunken state, which the cold of the
+outer air only increased. A waiter from the gambling-house followed him,
+picked him up, and took him to one of those horrible houses at the door
+of which, on a hanging lamp, are the words: "Lodgings for the night."
+The waiter paid for the ruined gambler, who was put to bed, where he
+remained till Christmas night. The managers of gambling-houses have some
+consideration for their customers, especially for high players. Philippe
+awoke about seven o'clock in the evening, his mouth parched, his face
+swollen, and he himself in the grip of a nervous fever. The strength
+of his constitution enabled him to get home on foot, where meanwhile
+he had, without willing it, brought mourning, desolation, poverty, and
+death.
+
+The evening before, when dinner was ready, Madame Descoings and Agathe
+expected Philippe. They waited dinner till seven o'clock. Agathe always
+went to bed at ten; but as, on this occasion, she wished to be present
+at the midnight mass, she went to lie down as soon as dinner was over.
+Madame Descoings and Joseph remained alone by the fire in the little
+salon, which served for all, and the old woman asked the painter to add
+up the amount of her great stake, her monstrous stake, on the famous
+trey, which she was to pay that evening at the Lottery office. She
+wished to put in for the doubles and singles as well, so as to seize all
+chances. After feasting on the poetry of her hopes, and pouring the two
+horns of plenty at the feet of her adopted son, and relating to him her
+dreams which demonstrated the certainty of success, she felt no other
+uneasiness than the difficulty of bearing such joy, and waiting from
+mid-night until ten o'clock of the morrow, when the winning numbers were
+declared. Joseph, who saw nothing of the four hundred francs necessary
+to pay up the stakes, asked about them. The old woman smiled, and led
+him into the former salon, which was now her bed-chamber.
+
+"You shall see," she said.
+
+Madame Descoings hastily unmade the bed, and searched for her scissors
+to rip the mattress; she put on her spectacles, looked at the ticking,
+saw the hole, and let fall the mattress. Hearing a sigh from the depths
+of the old woman's breast, as though she were strangled by a rush of
+blood to the heart, Joseph instinctively held out his arms to catch the
+poor creature, and placed her fainting in a chair, calling to his mother
+to come to them. Agathe rose, slipped on her dressing-gown,
+and ran in. By the light of a candle, she applied the ordinary
+remedies,--eau-de-cologne to the temples, cold water to the forehead, a
+burnt feather under the nose,--and presently her aunt revived.
+
+"They were there is morning; HE has taken them, the monster!" she said.
+
+"Taken what?" asked Joseph.
+
+"I had twenty louis in my mattress; my savings for two years; no one but
+Philippe could have taken them."
+
+"But when?" cried the poor mother, overwhelmed, "he has not been in
+since breakfast."
+
+"I wish I might be mistaken," said the old woman. "But this morning
+in Joseph's studio, when I spoke before Philippe of my stakes, I had a
+presentiment. I did wrong not to go down and take my little all and pay
+for my stakes at once. I meant to, and I don't know what prevented me.
+Oh, yes!--my God! I went out to buy him some cigars."
+
+"But," said Joseph, "you left the door locked. Besides, it is so
+infamous. I can't believe it. Philippe couldn't have watched you, cut
+open the mattress, done it deliberately,--no, no!"
+
+"I felt them this morning, when I made my bed after breakfast," repeated
+Madame Descoings.
+
+Agathe, horrified, went down stairs and asked if Philippe had come in
+during the day. The concierge related the tale of his return and the
+locksmith. The mother, heart-stricken, went back a changed woman. White
+as the linen of her chemise, she walked as we might fancy a spectre
+walks, slowly, noiselessly, moved by some superhuman power, and yet
+mechanically. She held a candle in her hand, whose light fell full upon
+her face and showed her eyes, fixed with horror. Unconsciously, her
+hands by a desperate movement had dishevelled the hair about her brow;
+and this made her so beautiful with anguish that Joseph stood rooted
+in awe at the apparition of that remorse, the vision of that statue of
+terror and despair.
+
+"My aunt," she said, "take my silver forks and spoons. I have enough
+to make up the sum; I took your money for Philippe's sake; I thought I
+could put it back before you missed it. Oh! I have suffered much."
+
+She sat down. Her dry, fixed eyes wandered a little.
+
+"It was he who did it," whispered the old woman to Joseph.
+
+"No, no," cried Agathe; "take my silver plate, sell it; it is useless to
+me; we can eat with yours."
+
+She went to her room, took the box which contained the plate, felt its
+light weight, opened it, and saw a pawnbroker's ticket. The poor mother
+uttered a dreadful cry. Joseph and the Descoings ran to her, saw the
+empty box, and her noble falsehood was of no avail. All three were
+silent, and avoided looking at each other; but the next moment, by an
+almost frantic gesture, Agathe laid her finger on her lips as if to
+entreat a secrecy no one desired to break. They returned to the salon,
+and sat beside the fire.
+
+"Ah! my children," cried Madame Descoings, "I am stabbed to the heart:
+my trey will turn up, I am certain of it. I am not thinking of myself,
+but of you two. Philippe is a monster," she continued, addressing her
+niece; "he does not love you after all that you have done for him. If
+you do not protect yourself against him he will bring you to beggary.
+Promise me to sell out your Funds and buy a life-annuity. Joseph has a
+good profession and he can live. If you will do this, dear Agathe, you
+will never be an expense to Joseph. Monsieur Desroches has just started
+his son as a notary; he would take your twelve thousand francs and pay
+you an annuity."
+
+Joseph seized his mother's candlestick, rushed up to his studio, and
+came down with three hundred francs.
+
+"Here, Madame Descoings!" he cried, giving her his little store, "it
+is no business of ours what you do with your money; we owe you what you
+have lost, and here it is, almost in full."
+
+"Take your poor little all?--the fruit of those privations that have
+made me so unhappy! are you mad, Joseph?" cried the old woman, visibly
+torn between her dogged faith in the coming trey, and the sacrilege of
+accepting such a sacrifice.
+
+"Oh! take it if you like," said Agathe, who was moved to tears by this
+action of her true son.
+
+Madame Descoings took Joseph by the head, and kissed him on the
+forehead:--
+
+"My child," she said, "don't tempt me. I might only lose it. The
+lottery, you see, is all folly."
+
+No more heroic words were ever uttered in the hidden dramas of domestic
+life. It was, indeed, affection triumphant over inveterate vice. At this
+instant, the clocks struck midnight.
+
+"It is too late now," said Madame Descoings.
+
+"Oh!" cried Joseph, "here are your cabalistic numbers."
+
+The artist sprang at the paper, and rushed headlong down the staircase
+to pay the stakes. When he was no longer present, Agathe and Madame
+Descoings burst into tears.
+
+"He has gone, the dear love," cried the old gambler; "but it shall all
+be his; he pays his own money."
+
+Unhappily, Joseph did not know the way to any of the lottery-offices,
+which in those days were as well known to most people as the cigarshops
+to a smoker in ours. The painter ran along, reading the street
+names upon the lamps. When he asked the passers-by to show him a
+lottery-office, he was told they were all closed, except the one under
+the portico of the Palais-Royal which was sometimes kept open a little
+later. He flew to the Palais-Royal: the office was shut.
+
+"Two minutes earlier, and you might have paid your stake," said one
+of the vendors of tickets, whose beat was under the portico, where he
+vociferated this singular cry: "Twelve hundred francs for forty sous,"
+and offered tickets all paid up.
+
+By the glimmer of the street lamp and the lights of the cafe de la
+Rotonde, Joseph examined these tickets to see if, by chance, any of them
+bore the Descoings's numbers. He found none, and returned home grieved
+at having done his best in vain for the old woman, to whom he related
+his ill-luck. Agathe and her aunt went together to the midnight mass at
+Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Joseph went to bed. The collation did not take
+place. Madame Descoings had lost her head; and in Agathe's heart was
+eternal mourning.
+
+The two rose late on Christmas morning. Ten o'clock had struck before
+Madame Descoings began to bestir herself about the breakfast, which
+was only ready at half-past eleven. At that hour, the oblong frames
+containing the winning numbers are hung over the doors of the
+lottery-offices. If Madame Descoings had paid her stake and held her
+ticket, she would have gone by half-past nine o'clock to learn her
+fate at a building close to the ministry of Finance, in the rue
+Neuve-des-Petits Champs, a situation now occupied by the Theatre
+Ventadour in the place of the same name. On the days when the drawings
+took place, an observer might watch with curiosity the crowd of old
+women, cooks, and old men assembled about the door of this building; a
+sight as remarkable as the cue of people about the Treasury on the days
+when the dividends are paid.
+
+"Well, here you are, rolling in wealth!" said old Desroches, coming into
+the room just as the Descoings was swallowing her last drop of coffee.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried poor Agathe.
+
+"Her trey has turned up," he said, producing the list of numbers written
+on a bit of paper, such as the officials of the lottery put by hundreds
+into little wooden bowls on their counters.
+
+Joseph read the list. Agathe read the list. The Descoings read nothing;
+she was struck down as by a thunderbolt. At the change in her face,
+at the cry she gave, old Desroches and Joseph carried her to her bed.
+Agathe went for a doctor. The poor woman was seized with apoplexy, and
+she only recovered consciousness at four in the afternoon; old Haudry,
+her doctor, then said that, in spite of this improvement, she ought to
+settle her worldly affairs and think of her salvation. She herself only
+uttered two words:--
+
+"Three millions!"
+
+Old Desroches, informed by Joseph, with due reservations, of the state
+of things, related many instances where lottery-players had seen a
+fortune escape them on the very day when, by some fatality, they had
+forgotten to pay their stakes; but he thoroughly understood that such a
+blow might be fatal when it came after twenty years' perseverance. About
+five o'clock, as a deep silence reigned in the little _appartement_, and
+the sick woman, watched by Joseph and his mother, the one sitting at
+the foot, the other at the head of her bed, was expecting her grandson
+Bixiou, whom Desroches had gone to fetch, the sound of Philippe's step
+and cane resounded on the staircase.
+
+"There he is! there he is!" cried the Descoings, sitting up in bed and
+suddenly able to use her paralyzed tongue.
+
+Agathe and Joseph were deeply impressed by this powerful effect of the
+horror which violently agitated the old woman. Their painful suspense
+was soon ended by the sight of Philippe's convulsed and purple face, his
+staggering walk, and the horrible state of his eyes, which were deeply
+sunken, dull, and yet haggard; he had a strong chill upon him, and his
+teeth chattered.
+
+"Starvation in Prussia!" he cried, looking about him. "Nothing to eat
+or drink?--and my throat on fire! Well, what's the matter? The devil is
+always meddling in our affairs. There's my old Descoings in bed, looking
+at me with her eyes as big as saucers."
+
+"Be silent, monsieur!" said Agathe, rising. "At least, respect the
+sorrows you have caused."
+
+"_Monsieur_, indeed!" he cried, looking at his mother. "My dear little
+mother, that won't do. Have you ceased to love your son?"
+
+"Are you worthy of love? Have you forgotten what you did yesterday?
+Go and find yourself another home; you cannot live with us any
+longer,--that is, after to-morrow," she added; "for in the state you are
+in now it is difficult--"
+
+"To turn me out,--is that it?" he interrupted. "Ha! are you going to
+play the melodrama of 'The Banished Son'? Well done! is that how you
+take things? You are all a pretty set! What harm have I done? I've
+cleaned out the old woman's mattress. What the devil is the good of
+money kept in wool? Do you call that a crime? Didn't she take twenty
+thousand francs from you? We are her creditors, and I've paid myself as
+much as I could get,--that's all."
+
+"My God! my God!" cried the dying woman, clasping her hands and praying.
+
+"Be silent!" exclaimed Joseph, springing at his brother and putting his
+hand before his mouth.
+
+"To the right about, march! brat of a painter!" retorted Philippe,
+laying his strong hand on Joseph's head, and twirling him round, as he
+flung him on a sofa. "Don't dare to touch the moustache of a commander
+of a squadron of the dragoons of the Guard!"
+
+"She has paid me back all that she owed me," cried Agathe, rising and
+turning an angry face to her son; "and besides, that is my affair. You
+have killed her. Go away, my son," she added, with a gesture that took
+all her remaining strength, "and never let me see you again. You are a
+monster."
+
+"I kill her?"
+
+"Her trey has turned up," cried Joseph, "and you stole the money for her
+stake."
+
+"Well, if she is dying of a lost trey, it isn't I who have killed her,"
+said the drunkard.
+
+"Go, go!" said Agathe. "You fill me with horror; you have every vice. My
+God! is this my son?"
+
+A hollow rattle sounded in Madame Descoings's throat, increasing
+Agathe's anger.
+
+"I love you still, my mother,--you who are the cause of all my
+misfortunes," said Philippe. "You turn me out of doors on Christmas-day.
+What did you do to grandpa Rouget, to your father, that he should drive
+you away and disinherit you? If you had not displeased him, we should
+all be rich now, and I should not be reduced to misery. What did you do
+to your father,--you who are a good woman? You see by your own self, I
+may be a good fellow and yet be turned out of house and home,--I, the
+glory of the family--"
+
+"The disgrace of it!" cried the Descoings.
+
+"You shall leave this room, or you shall kill me!" cried Joseph,
+springing on his brother with the fury of a lion.
+
+"My God! my God!" cried Agathe, trying to separate the brothers.
+
+At this moment Bixiou and Haudry the doctor entered. Joseph had just
+knocked his brother over and stretched him on the ground.
+
+"He is a regular wild beast," he cried. "Don't speak another word, or
+I'll--"
+
+"I'll pay you for this!" roared Philippe.
+
+"A family explanation," remarked Bixiou.
+
+"Lift him up," said the doctor, looking at him. "He is as ill as Madame
+Descoings; undress him and put him to bed; get off his boots."
+
+"That's easy to say," cried Bixiou, "but they must be cut off; his legs
+are swollen."
+
+Agathe took a pair of scissors. When she had cut down the boots, which
+in those days were worn outside the clinging trousers, ten pieces of
+gold rolled on the floor.
+
+"There it is,--her money," murmured Philippe. "Cursed fool that I was, I
+forgot it. I too have missed a fortune."
+
+He was seized with a horrible delirium of fever, and began to rave.
+Joseph, assisted by old Desroches, who had come back, and by Bixiou,
+carried him to his room. Doctor Haudry was obliged to write a line
+to the Hopital de la Charite and borrow a strait-waistcoat; for the
+delirium ran so high as to make him fear that Philippe might kill
+himself,--he was raving. At nine o'clock calm was restored. The Abbe
+Loraux and Desroches endeavored to comfort Agathe, who never ceased
+to weep at her aunt's bedside. She listened to them in silence, and
+obstinately shook her head; Joseph and the Descoings alone knew the
+extent and depth of her inward wound.
+
+"He will learn to do better, mother," said Joseph, when Desroches and
+Bixiou had left.
+
+"Oh!" cried the widow, "Philippe is right,--my father cursed me: I have
+no right to--Here, here is your money," she said to Madame Descoings,
+adding Joseph's three hundred francs to the two hundred found on
+Philippe. "Go and see if your brother does not need something," she said
+to Joseph.
+
+"Will you keep a promise made to a dying woman?" asked Madame Descoings,
+who felt that her mind was failing her.
+
+"Yes, aunt."
+
+"Then swear to me to give your property to young Desroches for a life
+annuity. My income ceases at my death; and from what you have just said,
+I know you will let that wretch wring the last farthing out of you."
+
+"I swear it, aunt."
+
+The old woman died on the 31st of December, five days after the terrible
+blow which old Desroches had so innocently given her. The five hundred
+francs--the only money in the household--were barely enough to pay for
+her funeral. She left a small amount of silver and some furniture, the
+value of which Madame Bixiou paid over to her grandson Bixiou. Reduced
+to eight hundred francs' annuity paid to her by young Desroches, who
+had bought a business without clients, and himself took the capital of
+twelve thousand francs, Agathe gave up her _appartement_ on the third
+floor, and sold all her superfluous furniture. When, at the end of a
+month, Philippe seemed to be convalescent, his mother coldly explained
+to him that the costs of his illness had taken all her ready money, that
+she should be obliged in future to work for her living, and she urged
+him, with the utmost kindness, to re-enter the army and support himself.
+
+"You might have spared me that sermon," said Philippe, looking at his
+mother with an eye that was cold from utter indifference. "I have seen
+all along that neither you nor my brother love me. I am alone in the
+world; I like it best!"
+
+"Make yourself worthy of our affection," answered the poor mother,
+struck to the very heart, "and we will give it back to you--"
+
+"Nonsense!" he cried, interrupting her.
+
+He took his old hat, rubbed white at the edges, stuck it over one ear,
+and went downstairs, whistling.
+
+"Philippe! where are you going without any money?" cried his mother, who
+could not repress her tears. "Here, take this--"
+
+She held out to him a hundred francs in gold, wrapped up in paper.
+Philippe came up the stairs he had just descended, and took the money.
+
+"Well; won't you kiss me?" she said, bursting into tears.
+
+He pressed his mother in his arms, but without the warmth of feeling
+which was all that could give value to the embrace.
+
+"Where shall you go?" asked Agathe.
+
+"To Florentine, Girodeau's mistress. Ah! they are real friends!" he
+answered brutally.
+
+He went away. Agathe turned back with trembling limbs, and failing
+eyes, and aching heart. She fell upon her knees, prayed God to take
+her unnatural child into His own keeping, and abdicated her woeful
+motherhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+By February, 1822, Madame Bridau had settled into the attic room
+recently occupied by Philippe, which was over the kitchen of her former
+_appartement_. The painter's studio and bedroom was opposite, on the
+other side of the staircase. When Joseph saw his mother thus reduced,
+he was determined to make her as comfortable as possible. After his
+brother's departure he assisted in the re-arrangement of the garret
+room, to which he gave an artist's touch. He added a rug; the bed,
+simple in character but exquisite in taste, had something monastic about
+it; the walls, hung with a cheap glazed cotton selected with taste, of
+a color which harmonized with the furniture and was newly covered, gave
+the room an air of elegance and nicety. In the hallway he added a double
+door, with a "portiere" to the inner one. The window was shaded by a
+blind which gave soft tones to the light. If the poor mother's life was
+reduced to the plainest circumstances that the life of any woman could
+have in Paris, Agathe was at least better off than all others in a like
+case, thanks to her son.
+
+To save his mother from the cruel cares of such reduced housekeeping,
+Joseph took her every day to dine at a table-d'hote in the rue de
+Beaune, frequented by well-bred women, deputies, and titled people,
+where each person's dinner cost ninety francs a month. Having nothing
+but the breakfast to provide, Agathe took up for her son the old habits
+she had formerly had with the father. But in spite of Joseph's pious
+lies, she discovered the fact that her dinner was costing him nearly
+a hundred francs a month. Alarmed at such enormous expense, and not
+imaging that her son could earn much money by painting naked women, she
+obtained, thanks to her confessor, the Abbe Loraux, a place worth seven
+hundred francs a year in a lottery-office belonging to the Comtesse
+de Bauvan, the widow of a Chouan leader. The lottery-offices of the
+government, the lot, as one might say, of privileged widows, ordinarily
+sufficed for the support of the family of each person who managed them.
+But after the Restoration the difficulty of rewarding, within the limits
+of constitutional government, all the services rendered to the cause,
+led to the custom of giving to reduced women of title not only one but
+two lottery-offices, worth, usually, from six to ten thousand a year. In
+such cases, the widow of a general or nobleman thus "protected" did not
+keep the lottery-office herself; she employed a paid manager. When these
+managers were young men they were obliged to employ an assistant;
+for, according to law, the offices had to be kept open till midnight;
+moreover, the reports required by the minister of finance involved
+considerable writing. The Comtesse de Bauvan, to whom the Abbe Loraux
+explained the circumstances of the widow Bridau, promised, in case
+her manager should leave, to give the place to Agathe; meantime she
+stipulated that the widow should be taken as assistant, and receive a
+salary of six hundred francs. Poor Agathe, who was obliged to be at the
+office by ten in the morning, had scarcely time to get her dinner.
+She returned to her work at seven in the evening, remaining there till
+midnight. Joseph never, for two years, failed to fetch his mother at
+night, and bring her back to the rue Mazarin; and often he went to take
+her to dinner; his friends frequently saw him leave the opera or some
+brilliant salon to be punctually at midnight at the office in the rue
+Vivienne.
+
+Agathe soon acquired the monotonous regularity of life which becomes
+a stay and a support to those who have endured the shock of violent
+sorrows. In the morning, after doing up her room, in which there were no
+longer cats and little birds, she prepared the breakfast at her own fire
+and carried it into the studio, where she ate it with her son. She then
+arranged Joseph's bedroom, put out the fire in her own chamber, and
+brought her sewing to the studio, where she sat by the little iron
+stove, leaving the room if a comrade or a model entered it. Though she
+understood nothing whatever of art, the silence of the studio suited
+her. In the matter of art she made not the slightest progress; she
+attempted no hypocrisy; she was utterly amazed at the importance they
+all attached to color, composition, drawing. When the Cenacle friends
+or some brother-painter, like Schinner, Pierre Grassou, Leon de Lora,--a
+very youthful "rapin" who was called at that time Mistigris,--discussed
+a picture, she would come back afterwards, examine it attentively, and
+discover nothing to justify their fine words and their hot disputes. She
+made her son's shirts, she mended his stockings, she even cleaned his
+palette, supplied him with rags to wipe his brushes, and kept things in
+order in the studio. Seeing how much thought his mother gave to these
+little details, Joseph heaped attentions upon her in return. If mother
+and son had no sympathies in the matter of art, they were at least bound
+together by signs of tenderness. The mother had a purpose. One morning
+as she was petting Joseph while he was sketching a large picture
+(finished in after years and never understood), she said, as it were,
+casually and aloud,--
+
+"My God! what is he doing?"
+
+"Doing? who?"
+
+"Philippe."
+
+"Oh, ah! he's sowing his wild oats; that fellow will make something of
+himself by and by."
+
+"But he has gone through the lesson of poverty; perhaps it was poverty
+which changed him to what he is. If he were prosperous he would be
+good--"
+
+"You think, my dear mother, that he suffered during that journey of his.
+You are mistaken; he kept carnival in New York just as he does here--"
+
+"But if he is suffering at this moment, near to us, would it not be
+horrible?"
+
+"Yes," replied Joseph. "For my part, I will gladly give him some money;
+but I don't want to see him; he killed our poor Descoings."
+
+"So," resumed Agathe, "you would not be willing to paint his portrait?"
+
+"For you, dear mother, I'd suffer martyrdom. I can make myself remember
+nothing except that he is my brother."
+
+"His portrait as a captain of dragoons on horseback?"
+
+"Yes, I've a copy of a fine horse by Gros and I haven't any use for it."
+
+"Well, then, go and see that friend of his and find out what has become
+of him."
+
+"I'll go!"
+
+Agathe rose; her scissors and work fell at her feet; she went and kissed
+Joseph's head, and dropped two tears on his hair.
+
+"He is your passion, that fellow," said the painter. "We all have our
+hopeless passions."
+
+That afternoon, about four o'clock, Joseph went to the rue du Sentier
+and found his brother, who had taken Giroudeau's place. The old dragoon
+had been promoted to be cashier of a weekly journal established by his
+nephew. Although Finot was still proprietor of the other newspaper,
+which he had divided into shares, holding all the shares himself, the
+proprietor and editor "de visu" was one of his friends, named Lousteau,
+the son of that very sub-delegate of Issoudun on whom the Bridaus'
+grandfather, Doctor Rouget, had vowed vengeance; consequently he was the
+nephew of Madame Hochon. To make himself agreeable to his uncle, Finot
+gave Philippe the place Giroudeau was quitting; cutting off, however,
+half the salary. Moreover, daily, at five o'clock, Giroudeau audited the
+accounts and carried away the receipts. Coloquinte, the old veteran,
+who was the office boy and did errands, also kept an eye on the slippery
+Philippe; who was, however, behaving properly. A salary of six hundred
+francs, and the five hundred of his cross sufficed him to live, all the
+more because, living in a warm office all day and at the theatre on a
+free pass every evening, he had only to provide himself with food and a
+place to sleep in. Coloquinte was departing with the stamped papers on
+his head, and Philippe was brushing his false sleeves of green linen,
+when Joseph entered.
+
+"Bless me, here's the cub!" cried Philippe. "Well, we'll go and dine
+together. You shall go to the opera; Florine and Florentine have got
+a box. I'm going with Giroudeau; you shall be of the party, and I'll
+introduce you to Nathan."
+
+He took his leaded cane, and moistened a cigar.
+
+"I can't accept your invitation; I am to take our mother to dine at a
+table d'hote."
+
+"Ah! how is she, the poor, dear woman?"
+
+"She is pretty well," answered the painter, "I have just repainted our
+father's portrait, and aunt Descoings's. I have also painted my own, and
+I should like to give our mother yours, in the uniform of the dragoons
+of the Imperial Guard."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"You will have to come and sit."
+
+"I'm obliged to be in this hen-coop from nine o'clock till five."
+
+"Two Sundays will be enough."
+
+"So be it, little man," said Napoleon's staff officer, lighting his
+cigar at the porter's lamp.
+
+When Joseph related Philippe's position to his mother, on their way to
+dinner in the rue de Beaune, he felt her arm tremble in his, and joy
+lighted up her worn face; the poor soul breathed like one relieved of
+a heavy weight. The next day, inspired by joy and gratitude, she paid
+Joseph a number of little attentions; she decorated his studio with
+flowers, and bought him two stands of plants. On the first Sunday when
+Philippe was to sit, Agathe arranged a charming breakfast in the studio.
+She laid it all out on the table; not forgetting a flask of brandy,
+which, however, was only half full. She herself stayed behind a screen,
+in which she made a little hole. The ex-dragoon sent his uniform the
+night before, and she had not refrained from kissing it. When Philippe
+was placed, in full dress, on one of those straw horses, all saddled,
+which Joseph had hired for the occasion, Agathe, fearing to betray her
+presence, mingled the soft sound of her tears with the conversation
+of the two brothers. Philippe posed for two hours before and two hours
+after breakfast. At three o'clock in the afternoon, he put on his
+ordinary clothes and, as he lighted a cigar, he proposed to his brother
+to go and dine together in the Palais-Royal, jingling gold in his pocket
+as he spoke.
+
+"No," said Joseph, "it frightens me to see gold about you."
+
+"Ah! you'll always have a bad opinion of me in this house," cried the
+colonel in a thundering voice. "Can't I save my money, too?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Agathe, coming out of her hiding-place, and kissing
+her son. "Let us go and dine with him, Joseph!"
+
+Joseph dared not scold his mother. He went and dressed himself; and
+Philippe took them to the Rocher de Cancale, where he gave them a
+splendid dinner, the bill for which amounted to a hundred francs.
+
+"The devil!" muttered Joseph uneasily; "with an income of eleven hundred
+francs you manage, like Ponchard in the 'Dame Blance,' to save enough to
+buy estates."
+
+"Bah, I'm on a run of luck," answered the dragoon, who had drunk
+enormously.
+
+Hearing this speech just as they were on the steps of the cafe, and
+before they got into the carriage to go to the theatre,--for Philippe
+was to take his mother to the Cirque-Olympique (the only theatre her
+confessor allowed her to visit),--Joseph pinched his mother's arm.
+She at once pretended to feel unwell, and refused to go the theatre;
+Philippe accordingly took them back to the rue Mazarin, where, as soon
+as she was alone with Joseph in her garret, Agathe fell into a gloomy
+silence.
+
+The following Sunday Philippe came again. This time his mother was
+visibly present at the sitting. She served the breakfast, and put
+several questions to the dragoon. She then learned that the nephew of
+old Madame Hochon, the friend of her mother, played a considerable part
+in literature. Philippe and his friend Giroudeau lived among a circle of
+journalists, actresses, and booksellers, where they were regarded in the
+light of cashiers. Philippe, who had been drinking kirsch before posing,
+was loquacious. He boasted that he was about to become a great man. But
+when Joseph asked a question as to his pecuniary resources he was dumb.
+It so happened that there was no newspaper on the following day, it
+being a fete, and to finish the picture Philippe proposed to sit again
+on the morrow. Joseph told him that the Salon was close at hand, and as
+he did not have the money to buy two frames for the pictures he wished
+to exhibit, he was forced to procure it by finishing a copy of a Rubens
+which had been ordered by Elie Magus, the picture-dealer. The original
+belonged to a wealthy Swiss banker, who had only lent it for ten days,
+and the next day was the last; the sitting must therefore be put off
+till the following Sunday.
+
+"Is that it?" asked Philippe, pointing to a picture by Rubens on an
+easel.
+
+"Yes," replied Joseph; "it is worth twenty thousand francs. That's what
+genius can do. It will take me all to-morrow to get the tones of the
+original and make the copy look so old it can't be distinguished from
+it."
+
+"Adieu, mother," said Philippe, kissing Agathe. "Next Sunday, then."
+
+The next day Elie Magus was to come for his copy. Joseph's friend,
+Pierre Grassou, who was working for the same dealer, wanted to see it
+when finished. To play him a trick, Joseph, when he heard his knock, put
+the copy, which was varnished with a special glaze of his own, in place
+of the original, and put the original on his easel. Pierre Grassou was
+completely taken in; and then amazed and delighted at Joseph's success.
+
+"Do you think it will deceive old Magus?" he said to Joseph.
+
+"We shall see," answered the latter.
+
+The dealer did not come as he had promised. It was getting late; Agathe
+dined that day with Madame Desroches, who had lately lost her husband,
+and Joseph proposed to Pierre Grassou to dine at his table d'hote. As he
+went out he left the key of his studio with the concierge.
+
+An hour later Philippe appeared and said to the concierge,--
+
+"I am to sit this evening; Joseph will be in soon, and I will wait for
+him in the studio."
+
+The woman gave him the key; Philippe went upstairs, took the copy,
+thinking it was the original, and went down again; returned the key
+to the concierge with the excuse that he had forgotten something, and
+hurried off to sell his Rubens for three thousand francs. He had taken
+the precaution to convey a message from his brother to Elie Magus,
+asking him not to call till the following day.
+
+That evening when Joseph returned, bringing his mother from Madame
+Desroches's, the concierge told him of Philippe's freak,--how he had
+called intending to wait, and gone away again immediately.
+
+"I am ruined--unless he has had the delicacy to take the copy," cried
+the painter, instantly suspecting the theft. He ran rapidly up the three
+flights and rushed into his studio. "God be praised!" he ejaculated. "He
+is, what he always has been, a vile scoundrel."
+
+Agathe, who had followed Joseph, did not understand what he was saying;
+but when her son explained what had happened, she stood still, with the
+tears in her eyes.
+
+"Have I but one son?" she said in a broken voice.
+
+"We have never yet degraded him to the eyes of strangers," said Joseph;
+"but we must now warn the concierge. In future we shall have to keep the
+keys ourselves. I'll finish his blackguard face from memory; there's not
+much to do to it."
+
+"Leave it as it is; it will pain me too much ever to look at it,"
+answered the mother, heart-stricken and stupefied at such wickedness.
+
+Philippe had been told how the money for this copy was to be expended;
+moreover he knew the abyss into which he would plunge his brother
+through the loss of the Rubens; but nothing restrained him. After this
+last crime Agathe never mentioned him; her face acquired an expression
+of cold and concentrated and bitter despair; one thought took possession
+of her mind.
+
+"Some day," she said to herself, "we shall hear of a Bridau in the
+police courts."
+
+Two months later, as Agathe was about to start for her office, an
+old officer, who announced himself as a friend of Philippe on urgent
+business, called on Madame Bridau, who happened to be in Joseph's
+studio.
+
+When Giroudeau gave his name, mother and son trembled, and none the less
+because the ex-dragoon had the face of a tough old sailor of the worst
+type. His fishy gray eyes, his piebald moustache, the remains of his
+shaggy hair fringing a skull that was the color of fresh butter,
+all gave an indescribably debauched and libidinous expression to his
+appearance. He wore an old iron-gray overcoat decorated with the red
+ribbon of an officer of the Legion of honor, which met with difficulty
+over a gastronomic stomach in keeping with a mouth that stretched from
+ear to ear, and a pair of powerful shoulders. The torso was supported
+by a spindling pair of legs, while the rubicund tints on the cheek-bones
+bore testimony to a rollicking life. The lower part of the cheeks, which
+were deeply wrinkled, overhung a coat-collar of velvet the worse for
+wear. Among other adornments, the ex-dragoon wore enormous gold rings in
+his ears.
+
+"What a 'noceur'!" thought Joseph, using a popular expression, meaning a
+"loose fish," which had lately passed into the ateliers.
+
+"Madame," said Finot's uncle and cashier, "your son is in so unfortunate
+a position that his friends find it absolutely necessary to ask you to
+share the somewhat heavy expense which he is to them. He can no
+longer do his work at the office; and Mademoiselle Florentine, of the
+Porte-Saint-Martin, has taken him to lodge with her, in a miserable
+attic in the rue de Vendome. Philippe is dying; and if you and his
+brother are not able to pay for the doctor and medicines, we shall be
+obliged, for the sake of curing him, to have him taken to the hospital
+of the Capuchins. For three hundred francs we would keep him where he
+is. But he must have a nurse; for at night, when Mademoiselle Florentine
+is at the theatre, he persists in going out, and takes things that are
+irritating and injurious to his malady and its treatment. As we are fond
+of him, this makes us really very unhappy. The poor fellow has pledged
+the pension of his cross for the next three years; he is temporarily
+displaced from his office, and he has literally nothing. He will kill
+himself, madame, unless we can put him into the private asylum of Doctor
+Dubois. It is a decent hospital, where they will take him for ten francs
+a day. Florentine and I will pay half, if you will pay the rest; it
+won't be for more than two months."
+
+"Monsieur, it is difficult for a mother not to be eternally grateful
+to you for your kindness to her son," replied Agathe; "but this son
+is banished from my heart, and as for money, I have none. Not to be a
+burden on my son whom you see here, who works day and night and
+deserves all the love his mother can give him, I am the assistant in a
+lottery-office--at my age!"
+
+"And you, young man," said the old dragoon to Joseph; "can't you do as
+much for your brother as a poor dancer at the Porte-Saint-Martin and an
+old soldier?"
+
+"Look here!" said Joseph, out of patience; "do you want me to tell you
+in artist language what I think of your visit? Well, you have come to
+swindle us on false pretences."
+
+"To-morrow your brother shall go to the hospital."
+
+"And he will do very well there," answered Joseph. "If I were in like
+case, I should go there too."
+
+Giroudeau withdrew, much disappointed, and also really mortified at
+being obliged to send to a hospital a man who had carried the Emperor's
+orders at the battle of Montereau. Three months later, at the end of
+July, as Agathe one morning was crossing the Pont Neuf to avoid paying a
+sou at the Pont des Arts, she saw, coming along by the shops of the Quai
+de l'Ecole, a man bearing all the signs of second-class poverty, who,
+she thought, resembled Philippe. In Paris, there are three distinct
+classes of poverty. First, the poverty of the man who preserves
+appearances, and to whom a future still belongs; this is the poverty
+of young men, artists, men of the world, momentarily unfortunate.
+The outward signs of their distress are not visible, except under the
+microscope of a close observer. These persons are the equestrian order
+of poverty; they continue to drive about in cabriolets. In the second
+order we find old men who have become indifferent to everything, and, in
+June, put the cross of the Legion of honor on alpaca overcoats; that is
+the poverty of small incomes,--of old clerks, who live at Sainte-Perine
+and care no longer about their outward man. Then comes, in the third
+place, poverty in rags, the poverty of the people, the poverty that
+is poetic; which Callot, Hogarth, Murillo, Charlet, Raffet, Gavarni,
+Meissonier, Art itself adores and cultivates, especially during the
+carnival. The man in whom poor Agathe thought she recognized her son was
+astride the last two classes of poverty. She saw the ragged neck-cloth,
+the scurfy hat, the broken and patched boots, the threadbare coat, whose
+buttons had shed their mould, leaving the empty shrivelled pod dangling
+in congruity with the torn pockets and the dirty collar. Scraps of flue
+were in the creases of the coat, which showed plainly the dust that
+filled it. The man drew from the pockets of his seam-rent iron-gray
+trousers a pair of hands as black as those of a mechanic. A knitted
+woollen waistcoat, discolored by use, showed below the sleeves of his
+coat, and above the trousers, and no doubt served instead of a shirt.
+Philippe wore a green silk shade with a wire edge over his eyes; his
+head, which was nearly bald, the tints of his skin, and his sunken face
+too plainly revealed that he was just leaving the terrible Hopital du
+Midi. His blue overcoat, whitened at the seams, was still decorated
+with the ribbon of his cross; and the passers-by looked at the
+hero, doubtless some victim of the government, with curiosity and
+commiseration; the rosette attracted notice, and the fiercest "ultra"
+was jealous for the honor of the Legion. In those days, however much the
+government endeavored to bring the Order into disrepute by bestowing
+its cross right and left, there were not fifty-three thousand persons
+decorated.
+
+Agathe trembled through her whole being. If it were impossible to love
+this son any longer, she could still suffer for him. Quivering with this
+last expression of motherhood, she wept as she saw the brilliant staff
+officer of the Emperor turn to enter tobacconist's and pause on the
+threshold; he had felt in his pocket and found nothing. Agathe left the
+bridge, crossed the quai rapidly, took out her purse, thrust it into
+Philippe's hand, and fled away as if she had committed a crime. After
+that, she ate nothing for two days; before her was the horrible vision
+of her son dying of hunger in the streets of Paris.
+
+"When he has spent all the money in my purse, who will give him any?"
+she thought. "Giroudeau did not deceive us; Philippe is just out of that
+hospital."
+
+She no longer saw the assassin of her poor aunt, the scourge of the
+family, the domestic thief, the gambler, the drunkard, the low liver of
+a bad life; she saw only the man recovering from illness, yet doomed to
+die of starvation, the smoker deprived of his tobacco. At forty-seven
+years of age she grew to look like a woman of seventy. Her eyes were
+dimmed with tears and prayers. Yet it was not the last grief this son
+was to bring upon her; her worst apprehensions were destined to be
+realized. A conspiracy of officers was discovered at the heart of the
+army, and articles from the "Moniteur" giving details of the arrests
+were hawked about the streets.
+
+In the depths of her cage in the lottery-office of the rue Vivienne,
+Agathe heard the name of Philippe Bridau. She fainted, and the manager,
+understanding her trouble and the necessity of taking certain steps,
+gave her leave of absence for two weeks.
+
+"Ah! my friend," she said to Joseph, as she went to bed that night, "it
+is our severity which drove him to it."
+
+"I'll go and see Desroches," answered Joseph.
+
+While the artist was confiding his brother's affairs to the younger
+Desroches,--who by this time had the reputation of being one of the
+keenest and most astute lawyers in Paris, and who, moreover, did sundry
+services for personages of distinction, among others for des Lupeaulx,
+then secretary of a ministry,--Giroudeau called upon the widow. This
+time, Agathe believed him.
+
+"Madame," he said, "if you can produce twelve thousand francs your son
+will be set at liberty for want of proof. It is necessary to buy the
+silence of two witnesses."
+
+"I will get the money," said the poor mother, without knowing how or
+where.
+
+Inspired by this danger, she wrote to her godmother, old Madame Hochon,
+begging her to ask Jean-Jacques Rouget to send her the twelve thousand
+francs and save his nephew Philippe. If Rouget refused, she entreated
+Madame Hochon to lend them to her, promising to return them in two
+years. By return of courier, she received the following letter:--
+
+  My dear girl: Though your brother has an income of not less than
+  forty thousand francs a year, without counting the sums he has
+  laid by for the last seventeen years, and which Monsieur Hochon
+  estimates at more than six hundred thousand francs, he will not
+  give one penny to nephews whom he has never seen. As for me, you
+  know I cannot dispose of a farthing while my husband lives. Hochon
+  is the greatest miser in Issoudun. I do not know what he does with
+  his money; he does not give twenty francs a year to his
+  grandchildren. As for borrowing the money, I should have to get
+  his signature, and he would refuse it. I have not even attempted
+  to speak to your brother, who lives with a concubine, to whom he
+  is a slave. It is pitiable to see how the poor man is treated in
+  his own home, when he might have a sister and nephews to take care
+  of him.
+
+  I have hinted to you several times that your presence at Issoudun
+  might save your brother, and rescue a fortune of forty, perhaps
+  sixty, thousand francs a year from the claws of that slut; but you
+  either do not answer me, or you seem never to understand my
+  meaning. So to-day I am obliged to write without epistolary
+  circumlocution. I feel for the misfortune which has overtaken you,
+  but, my dearest, I can do no more than pity you. And this is why:
+  Hochon, at eighty-five years of age, takes four meals a day, eats
+  a salad with hard-boiled eggs every night, and frisks about like a
+  rabbit. I shall have spent my whole life--for he will live to
+  write my epitaph--without ever having had twenty francs in my
+  purse. If you will come to Issoudun and counteract the influence
+  of that concubine over your brother, you must stay with me, for
+  there are reasons why Rouget cannot receive you in his own house;
+  but even then, I shall have hard work to get my husband to let me
+  have you here. However, you can safely come; I can make him mind
+  me as to that. I know a way to get what I want out of him; I have
+  only to speak of making my will. It seems such a horrid thing to
+  do that I do not often have recourse to it; but for you, dear
+  Agathe, I will do the impossible.
+
+  I hope your Philippe will get out of his trouble; and I beg you to
+  employ a good lawyer. In any case, come to Issoudun as soon as you
+  can. Remember that your imbecile of a brother at fifty-seven is an
+  older and weaker man than Monsieur Hochon. So it is a pressing
+  matter. People are talking already of a will that cuts off your
+  inheritance; but Monsieur Hochon says there is still time to get
+  it revoked.
+
+  Adieu, my little Agathe; may God help you! Believe in the love of
+  your godmother,
+
+  Maximilienne Hochon, nee Lousteau.
+
+  P.S. Has my nephew, Etienne, who writes in the newspapers and is
+  intimate, they tell me, with your son Philippe, been to pay his
+  respects to you? But come at once to Issoudun, and we will talk
+  over things.
+
+
+This letter made a great impression on Agathe, who showed it, of course,
+to Joseph, to whom she had been forced to mention Giroudeau's proposal.
+The artist, who grew wary when it concerned his brother, pointed out to
+her that she ought to tell everything to Desroches.
+
+Conscious of the wisdom of that advice, Agathe went with her son the
+next morning, at six o'clock, to find Desroches at his house in the rue
+de Bussy. The lawyer, as cold and stern as his late father, with a sharp
+voice, a rough skin, implacable eyes, and the visage of a fox as he
+licks his lips of the blood of chickens, bounded like a tiger when he
+heard of Giroudeau's visit and proposal.
+
+"And pray, mere Bridau," he cried, in his little cracked voice, "how
+long are you going to be duped by your cursed brigand of a son? Don't
+give him a farthing. Make yourself easy, I'll answer for Philippe. I
+should like to see him brought before the Court of Peers; it might
+save his future. You are afraid he will be condemned; but I say, may it
+please God his lawyer lets him be convicted. Go to Issoudun, secure the
+property for your children. If you don't succeed, if your brother
+has made a will in favor of that woman, and you can't make him
+revoke it,--well then, at least get all the evidence you can of undue
+influence, and I'll institute proceedings for you. But you are too
+honest a woman to know how to get at the bottom facts of such a matter.
+I'll go myself to Issoudun in the holidays,--if I can."
+
+That "go myself" made Joseph tremble in his skin. Desroches winked at
+him to let his mother go downstairs first, and then the lawyer detained
+the young man for a single moment.
+
+"Your brother is a great scoundrel; he is the cause of the discovery of
+this conspiracy,--intentionally or not, I can't say, for the rascal
+is so sly no one can find out the exact truth as to that. Fool or
+traitor,--take your choice. He will be put under the surveillance of the
+police, nothing more. You needn't be uneasy; no one knows this secret
+but myself. Go to Issoudun with your mother. You have good sense; try to
+save the property."
+
+"Come, my poor mother, Desroches is right," said Joseph, rejoining
+Agathe on the staircase. "I have sold my two pictures, let us start for
+Berry; you have two weeks' leave of absence."
+
+After writing to her godmother to announce their arrival, Agathe and
+Joseph started the next evening for their trip to Issoudun, leaving
+Philippe to his fate. The diligence rolled through the rue d'Enfer
+toward the Orleans highroad. When Agathe saw the Luxembourg, to which
+Philippe had been transferred, she could not refrain from saying,--
+
+"If it were not for the Allies he would never be there!"
+
+Many sons would have made an impatient gesture and smiled with pity; but
+the artist, who was alone with his mother in the coupe, caught her in
+his arms and pressed her to his heart, exclaiming:--
+
+"Oh, mother! you are a mother just as Raphael was a painter. And you
+will always be a fool of a mother!"
+
+Madame Bridau's mind, diverted before long from her griefs by the
+distractions of the journey, began to dwell on the purpose of it. She
+re-read the letter of Madame Hochon, which had so stirred up the lawyer
+Desroches. Struck with the words "concubine" and "slut," which the
+pen of a septuagenarian as pious as she was respectable had used to
+designate the woman now in process of getting hold of Jean-Jacques
+Rouget's property, struck also with the word "imbecile" applied to
+Rouget himself, she began to ask herself how, by her presence at
+Issoudun, she was to save the inheritance. Joseph, poor disinterested
+artist that he was, knew little enough about the Code, and his mother's
+last remark absorbed his mind.
+
+"Before our friend Desroches sent us off to protect our rights, he ought
+to have explained to us the means of doing so," he exclaimed.
+
+"So far as my poor head, which whirls at the thought of Philippe in
+prison,--without tobacco, perhaps, and about to appear before the Court
+of Peers!--leaves me any distinct memory," returned Agathe, "I think
+young Desroches said we were to get evidence of undue influence, in case
+my brother has made a will in favor of that--that--woman."
+
+"He is good at that, Desroches is," cried the painter. "Bah! if we can
+make nothing of it I'll get him to come himself."
+
+"Well, don't let us trouble our heads uselessly," said Agathe. "When we
+get to Issoudun my godmother will tell us what to do."
+
+This conversation, which took place just after Madame Bridau and Joseph
+changed coaches at Orleans and entered the Sologne, is sufficient proof
+of the incapacity of the painter and his mother to play the part the
+inexorable Desroches had assigned to them.
+
+In returning to Issoudun after thirty years' absence, Agathe was about
+to find such changes in its manners and customs that it is necessary to
+sketch, in a few words, a picture of that town. Without it, the reader
+would scarcely understand the heroism displayed by Madame Hochon in
+assisting her goddaughter, or the strange situation of Jean-Jacques
+Rouget. Though Doctor Rouget had taught his son to regard Agathe in the
+light of a stranger, it was certainly a somewhat extraordinary thing
+that for thirty years a brother should have given no signs of life to a
+sister. Such a silence was evidently caused by peculiar circumstances,
+and any other sister and nephew than Agathe and Joseph would long
+ago have inquired into them. There is, moreover, a certain connection
+between the condition of the city of Issoudun and the interests of the
+Bridau family, which can only be seen as the story goes on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Issoudun, be it said without offence to Paris, is one of the oldest
+cities in France. In spite of the historical assumption which makes the
+emperor Probus the Noah of the Gauls, Caesar speaks of the excellent
+wine of Champ-Fort ("de Campo Forti") still one of the best vintages of
+Issoudun. Rigord writes of this city in language which leaves no
+doubt as to its great population and its immense commerce. But these
+testimonies both assign a much lesser age to the city than its ancient
+antiquity demands. In fact, the excavations lately undertaken by a
+learned archaeologist of the place, Monsieur Armand Peremet, have
+brought to light, under the celebrated tower of Issoudun, a basilica
+of the fifth century, probably the only one in France. This church
+preserves, in its very materials, the sign-manual of an anterior
+civilization; for its stones came from a Roman temple which stood on the
+same site.
+
+Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary, like
+other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in "Dun"
+("dunum") bears in its very name the certificate of an autochthonous
+existence. The word "Dun," the appanage of all dignity consecrated by
+Druidical worship, proves a religious and military settlement of the
+Celts. Beneath the Dun of the Gauls must have lain the Roman temple
+to Isis. From that comes, according to Chaumon, the name of the
+city, Issous-Dun,--"Is" being the abbreviation of "Isis." Richard
+Coeur-de-lion undoubtedly built the famous tower (in which he coined
+money) above the basilica of the fifth century,--the third monument
+of the third religion of this ancient town. He used the church as a
+necessary foundation, or stay, for the raising of the rampart; and he
+preserved it by covering it with feudal fortifications as with a
+mantle. Issoudun was at that time the seat of the ephemeral power of the
+Routiers and the Cottereaux, adventurers and free-lancers, whom Henry
+II. sent against his son Richard, at the time of his rebellion as Comte
+de Poitou.
+
+The history of Aquitaine, which was not written by the Benedictines,
+will probably never be written, because there are no longer
+Benedictines: thus we are not able to light up these archaeological
+tenebrae in the history of our manners and customs on every occasion of
+their appearance. There is another testimony to the ancient importance
+of Issoudun in the conversion into a canal of the Tournemine, a little
+stream raised several feet above the level of the Theols which surrounds
+the town. This is undoubtedly the work of Roman genius. Moreover,
+the suburb which extends from the castle in a northerly direction is
+intersected by a street which for more than two thousand years has borne
+the name of the rue de Rome; and the inhabitants of this suburb, whose
+racial characteristics, blood, and physiognomy have a special stamp of
+their own, call themselves descendants of the Romans. They are nearly
+all vine-growers, and display a remarkable inflexibility of manners
+and customs, due, undoubtedly, to their origin,--perhaps also to their
+victory over the Cottereaux and the Routiers, whom they exterminated on
+the plain of Charost in the twelfth century.
+
+After the insurrection of 1830, France was too agitated to pay much
+attention to the rising of the vine-growers of Issoudun; a terrible
+affair, the facts of which have never been made public,--for good
+reasons. In the first place, the bourgeois of Issoudun refused to allow
+the military to enter the town. They followed the use and wont of the
+bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages and declared themselves responsible for
+their own city. The government was obliged to yield to a sturdy people
+backed up by seven or eight thousand vine-growers, who had burned all
+the archives, also the offices of "indirect taxation," and had dragged
+through the streets a customs officer, crying out at every street
+lantern, "Let us hang him here!" The poor man's life was saved by the
+national guard, who took him to prison on pretext of drawing up his
+indictment. The general in command only entered the town by virtue of a
+compromise made with the vine-growers; and it needed some courage to go
+among them. At the moment when he showed himself at the hotel-de-ville,
+a man from the faubourg de Rome slung a "volant" round his neck (the
+"volant" is a huge pruning-hook fastened to a pole, with which they trim
+trees) crying out, "No more clerks, or there's an end to compromise!"
+The fellow would have taken off that honored head, left untouched by
+sixteen years of war, had it not been for the hasty intervention of one
+of the leaders of the revolt, to whom a promise had been made that _the
+chambers should be asked to suppress the excisemen_.
+
+In the fourteenth century, Issoudun still had sixteen or seventeen
+thousand inhabitants, remains of a population double that number in the
+time of Rigord. Charles VII. possessed a mansion which still exists, and
+was known, as late as the eighteenth century, as the Maison du Roi. This
+town, then a centre of the woollen trade, supplied that commodity to
+the greater part of Europe, and manufactured on a large scale blankets,
+hats, and the excellent Chevreautin gloves. Under Louis XIV., Issoudun,
+the birthplace of Baron and Bourdaloue, was always cited as a city of
+elegance and good society, where the language was correctly spoken. The
+curate Poupard, in his History of Sancerre, mentions the inhabitants
+of Issoudun as remarkable among the other Berrichons for subtlety and
+natural wit. To-day, the wit and the splendor have alike disappeared.
+Issoudun, whose great extent of ground bears witness to its ancient
+importance, has now barely twelve thousand inhabitants, including
+the vine-dressers of four enormous suburbs,--those of Saint-Paterne,
+Vilatte, Rome, and Alouette, which are really small towns. The
+bourgeoisie, like that of Versailles, are spread over the length and
+breadth of the streets. Issoudun still holds the market for the fleeces
+of Berry; a commerce now threatened by improvements in the stock which
+are being introduced everywhere except in Berry.
+
+The vineyards of Issoudun produce a wine which is drunk throughout the
+two departments, and which, if manufactured as Burgundy and Gascony
+manufacture theirs, would be one of the best wines in France. Alas, "to
+do as our fathers did," with no innovations, is the law of the land.
+Accordingly, the vine-growers continue to leave the refuse of the grape
+in the juice during its fermentation, which makes the wine detestable,
+when it might be a source of ever-springing wealth, and an industry for
+the community. Thanks to the bitterness which the refuse infuses into
+the wine, and which, they say, lessens with age, a vintage will keep
+a century. This reason, given by the vine-grower in excuse for his
+obstinacy, is of sufficient importance to oenology to be made public
+here; Guillaume le Breton has also proclaimed it in some lines of his
+"Phillippide."
+
+The decline of Issoudun is explained by this spirit of sluggishness,
+sunken to actual torpor, which a single fact will illustrate. When the
+authorities were talking of a highroad between Paris and Toulouse, it
+was natural to think of taking it from Vierzon to Chateauroux by way of
+Issoudun. The distance was shorter than to make it, as the road now is,
+through Vatan, but the leading people of the neighborhood and the
+city council of Issoudun (whose discussion of the matter is said to be
+recorded), demanded that it should go by Vatan, on the ground that if
+the highroad went through their town, provisions would rise in price and
+they might be forced to pay thirty sous for a chicken. The only analogy
+to be found for this proceeding is in the wilder parts of Sardinia, a
+land once so rich and populous, now so deserted. When Charles Albert,
+with a praiseworthy intention of civilization, wished to unite Sassari,
+the second capital of the island, with Cagliari by a magnificent highway
+(the only one ever made in that wild waste by name Sardinia), the direct
+line lay through Bornova, a district inhabited by lawless people, all
+the more like our Arab tribes because they are descended from the Moors.
+Seeing that they were about to fall into the clutches of civilization,
+the savages of Bornova, without taking the trouble to discuss the
+matter, declared their opposition to the road. The government took
+no notice of it. The first engineer who came to survey it, got a ball
+through his head, and died on his level. No action was taken on this
+murder, but the road made a circuit which lengthened it by eight miles!
+
+The continual lowering of the price of wines drunk in the neighborhood,
+though it may satisfy the desire of the bourgeoisie of Issoudun for
+cheap provisions, is leading the way to the ruin of the vine-growers,
+who are more and more burdened with the costs of cultivation and the
+taxes; just as the ruin of the woollen trade is the result of the
+non-improvement in the breeding of sheep. Country-folk have the deepest
+horror of change; even that which is most conducive to their interests.
+In the country, a Parisian meets a laborer who eats an enormous quantity
+of bread, cheese, and vegetables; he proves to him that if he would
+substitute for that diet a certain portion of meat, he would be better
+fed, at less cost; that he could work more, and would not use up his
+capital of health and strength so quickly. The Berrichon sees the
+correctness of the calculation, but he answers, "Think of the gossip,
+monsieur." "Gossip, what do you mean?" "Well, yes, what would people say
+of me?" "He would be the talk of the neighborhood," said the owner of
+the property on which this scene took place; "they would think him as
+rich as a tradesman. He is afraid of public opinion, afraid of being
+pointed at, afraid of seeming ill or feeble. That's how we all are in
+this region." Many of the bourgeoisie utter this phrase with feelings of
+inward pride.
+
+While ignorance and custom are invincible in the country regions, where
+the peasants are left very much to themselves, the town of Issoudun
+itself has reached a state of complete social stagnation. Obliged to
+meet the decadence of fortunes by the practice of sordid economy, each
+family lives to itself. Moreover, society is permanently deprived
+of that distinction of classes which gives character to manners and
+customs. There is no opposition of social forces, such as that to which
+the cities of the Italian States in the Middle Ages owed their vitality.
+There are no longer any nobles in Issoudun. The Cottereaux, the
+Routiers, the Jacquerie, the religious wars and the Revolution did
+away with the nobility. The town is proud of that triumph. Issoudun has
+repeatedly refused to receive a garrison, always on the plea of cheap
+provisions. She has thus lost a means of intercourse with the age,
+and she has also lost the profits arising from the presence of troops.
+Before 1756, Issoudun was one of the most delightful of all the garrison
+towns. A judicial drama, which occupied for a time the attention of
+France, the feud of a lieutenant-general of the department with
+the Marquis de Chapt, whose son, an officer of dragoons, was put
+to death,--justly perhaps, yet traitorously, for some affair of
+gallantry,--deprived the town from that time forth of a garrison. The
+sojourn of the forty-fourth demi-brigade, imposed upon it during the
+civil war, was not of a nature to reconcile the inhabitants to the race
+of warriors.
+
+Bourges, whose population is yearly decreasing, is a victim of the same
+social malady. Vitality is leaving these communities. Undoubtedly, the
+government is to blame. The duty of an administration is to discover the
+wounds upon the body-politic, and remedy them by sending men of energy
+to the diseased regions, with power to change the state of things. Alas,
+so far from that, it approves and encourages this ominous and fatal
+tranquillity. Besides, it may be asked, how could the government send
+new administrators and able magistrates? Who, of such men, is willing
+to bury himself in the arrondissements, where the good to be done is
+without glory? If, by chance, some ambitious stranger settles there,
+he soon falls into the inertia of the region, and tunes himself to the
+dreadful key of provincial life. Issoudun would have benumbed Napoleon.
+
+As a result of this particular characteristic, the arrondissement of
+Issoudun was governed, in 1822, by men who all belonged to Berry. The
+administration of power became either a nullity or a farce,--except in
+certain cases, naturally very rare, which by their manifest importance
+compelled the authorities to act. The procureur du roi, Monsieur
+Mouilleron, was cousin to the entire community, and his substitute
+belonged to one of the families of the town. The judge of the court,
+before attaining that dignity, was made famous by one of those
+provincial sayings which put a cap and bells on a man's head for the
+rest of his life. As he ended his summing-up of all the facts of an
+indictment, he looked at the accused and said: "My poor Pierre! the
+thing is as plain as day; your head will be cut off. Let this be a
+lesson to you." The commissary of police, holding office since the
+Restoration, had relations throughout the arrondissement. Moreover, not
+only was the influence of religion null, but the curate himself was held
+in no esteem.
+
+It was this bourgeoisie, radical, ignorant, and loving to annoy others,
+which now related tales, more or less comic, about the relations of
+Jean-Jacques Rouget with his servant-woman. The children of these people
+went none the less to Sunday-school, and were as scrupulously prepared
+for their communion: the schools were kept up all the same; mass was
+said; the taxes were paid (the sole thing that Paris extracts of the
+provinces), and the mayor passed resolutions. But all these acts of
+social existence were done as mere routine, and thus the laxity of
+the local government suited admirably with the moral and intellectual
+condition of the governed. The events of the following history will
+show the effects of this state of things, which is not as unusual in the
+provinces as might be supposed. Many towns in France, more particularly
+in the South, are like Issoudun. The condition to which the ascendency
+of the bourgeoisie has reduced that local capital is one which will
+spread over all France, and even to Paris, if the bourgeois continues to
+rule the exterior and interior policy of our country.
+
+Now, one word of topography. Issoudun stretches north and south, along
+a hillside which rounds towards the highroad to Chateauroux. At the foot
+of the hill, a canal, now called the "Riviere forcee" whose waters are
+taken from the Theols, was constructed in former times, when the town
+was flourishing, for the use of manufactories or to flood the moats of
+the rampart. The "Riviere forcee" forms an artificial arm of a natural
+river, the Tournemine, which unites with several other streams beyond
+the suburb of Rome. These little threads of running water and the two
+rivers irrigate a tract of wide-spreading meadow-land, enclosed on all
+sides by little yellowish or white terraces dotted with black speckles;
+for such is the aspect of the vineyards of Issoudun during seven months
+of the year. The vine-growers cut the plants down yearly, leaving only
+an ugly stump, without support, sheltered by a barrel. The traveller
+arriving from Vierzon, Vatan, or Chateauroux, his eyes weary
+with monotonous plains, is agreeably surprised by the meadows of
+Issoudun,--the oasis of this part of Berry, which supplies the
+inhabitants with vegetables throughout a region of thirty miles in
+circumference. Below the suburb of Rome, lies a vast tract entirely
+covered with kitchen-gardens, and divided into two sections, which bear
+the name of upper and lower Baltan. A long avenue of poplars leads from
+the town across the meadows to an ancient convent named Frapesle, whose
+English gardens, quite unique in that arrondissement, have received
+the ambitious name of Tivoli. Loving couples whisper their vows in its
+alleys of a Sunday.
+
+Traces of the ancient grandeur of Issoudun of course reveal themselves
+to the eyes of a careful observer; and the most suggestive are the
+divisions of the town. The chateau, formerly almost a town itself with
+its walls and moats, is a distinct quarter which can only be entered,
+even at the present day, through its ancient gateways,--by means of
+three bridges thrown across the arms of the two rivers,--and has all
+the appearance of an ancient city. The ramparts show, in places, the
+formidable strata of their foundations, on which houses have now
+sprung up. Above the chateau, is the famous tower of Issoudun, once the
+citadel. The conqueror of the city, which lay around these two fortified
+points, had still to gain possession of the tower and the castle; and
+possession of the castle did not insure that of the tower, or citadel.
+
+The suburb of Saint-Paterne, which lies in the shape of a palette beyond
+the tower, encroaching on the meadow-lands, is so considerable that in
+the very earliest ages it must have been part of the city itself. This
+opinion derived, in 1822, a sort of certainty from the then existence of
+the charming church of Saint-Paterne, recently pulled down by the heir
+of the individual who bought it of the nation. This church, one of
+the finest specimens of the Romanesque that France possessed, actually
+perished without a single drawing being made of the portal, which was in
+perfect preservation. The only voice raised to save this monument of a
+past art found no echo, either in the town itself or in the department.
+Though the castle of Issoudun has the appearance of an old town, with
+its narrow streets and its ancient mansions, the city itself, properly
+so called, which was captured and burned at different epochs, notably
+during the Fronde, when it was laid in ashes, has a modern air.
+Streets that are spacious in comparison with those of other towns,
+and well-built houses form a striking contrast to the aspect of the
+citadel,--a contrast that has won for Issoudun, in certain geographies,
+the epithet of "pretty."
+
+In a town thus constituted, without the least activity, even business
+activity, without a taste for art, or for learned occupations, and where
+everybody stayed in the little round of his or her own home, it was
+likely to happen, and did happen under the Restoration in 1816 when
+the war was over, that many of the young men of the place had no career
+before them, and knew not where to turn for occupation until they could
+marry or inherit the property of their fathers. Bored in their own
+homes, these young fellows found little or no distraction elsewhere in
+the city; and as, in the language of that region, "youth must shed its
+cuticle" they sowed their wild oats at the expense of the town itself.
+It was difficult to carry on such operations in open day, lest the
+perpetrators should be recognized; for the cup of their misdemeanors
+once filled, they were liable to be arraigned at their next peccadillo
+before the police courts; and they therefore judiciously selected the
+night time for the performance of their mischievous pranks. Thus it was
+that among the traces of divers lost civilizations, a vestige of the
+spirit of drollery that characterized the manners of antiquity burst
+into a final flame.
+
+The young men amused themselves very much as Charles IX. amused himself
+with his courtiers, or Henry V. of England and his companions, or as in
+former times young men were wont to amuse themselves in the provinces.
+Having once banded together for purposes of mutual help, to defend each
+other and invent amusing tricks, there presently developed among them,
+through the clash of ideas, that spirit of malicious mischief which
+belongs to the period of youth and may even be observed among animals.
+The confederation, in itself, gave them the mimic delights of the
+mystery of an organized conspiracy. They called themselves the "Knights
+of Idleness." During the day these young scamps were youthful saints;
+they all pretended to extreme quietness; and, in fact, they habitually
+slept late after the nights on which they had been playing their
+malicious pranks. The "Knights" began with mere commonplace tricks,
+such as unhooking and changing signs, ringing bells, flinging casks left
+before one house into the cellar of the next with a crash, rousing the
+occupants of the house by a noise that seemed to their frightened ears
+like the explosion of a mine. In Issoudun, as in many country towns, the
+cellar is entered by an opening near the door of the house, covered with
+a wooden scuttle, secured by strong iron hinges and a padlock.
+
+In 1816, these modern Bad Boys had not altogether given up such tricks
+as these, perpetrated in the provinces by all young lads and gamins. But
+in 1817 the Order of Idleness acquired a Grand Master, and distinguished
+itself by mischief which, up to 1823, spread something like terror in
+Issoudun, or at least kept the artisans and the bourgeoisie perpetually
+uneasy.
+
+This leader was a certain Maxence Gilet, commonly called Max, whose
+antecedents, no less than his youth and his vigor, predestined him
+for such a part. Maxence Gilet was supposed by all Issoudun to be the
+natural son of the sub-delegate Lousteau, that brother of Madame Hochon
+whose gallantries had left memories behind them, and who, as we have
+seen, drew down upon himself the hatred of old Doctor Rouget about
+the time of Agathe's birth. But the friendship which bound the two men
+together before their quarrel was so close that, to use an expression of
+that region and that period, "they willingly walked the same road." Some
+people said that Maxence was as likely to be the son of the doctor as
+of the sub-delegate; but in fact he belonged to neither the one nor
+the other,--his father being a charming dragoon officer in garrison at
+Bourges. Nevertheless, as a result of their enmity, and very fortunately
+for the child, Rouget and Lousteau never ceased to claim his paternity.
+
+Max's mother, the wife of a poor sabot-maker in the Rome suburb, was
+possessed, for the perdition of her soul, of a surprising beauty, a
+Trasteverine beauty, the only property which she transmitted to her
+son. Madame Gilet, pregnant with Maxence in 1788, had long desired
+that blessing, which the town attributed to the gallantries of the
+two friends,--probably in the hope of setting them against each
+other. Gilet, an old drunkard with a triple throat, treated his wife's
+misconduct with a collusion that is not uncommon among the lower
+classes. To make sure of protectors for her son, Madame Gilet was
+careful not to enlighten his reputed fathers as to his parentage. In
+Paris, she would have turned out a millionaire; at Issoudun she lived
+sometimes at her ease, more often miserably, and, in the long run,
+despised. Madame Hochon, Lousteau's sister, paid sixty francs a year
+for the lad's schooling. This liberality, which Madame Hochon was
+quite unable to practise on her own account because of her husband's
+stinginess, was naturally attributed to her brother, then living at
+Sancerre.
+
+When Doctor Rouget, who certainly was not lucky in sons, observed Max's
+beauty, he paid the board of the "young rogue," as he called him, at the
+seminary, up to the year 1805. As Lousteau died in 1800, and the doctor
+apparently obeyed a feeling of vanity in paying the lad's board until
+1805, the question of the paternity was left forever undecided. Maxence
+Gilet, the butt of many jests, was soon forgotten,--and for this reason:
+In 1806, a year after Doctor Rouget's death, the lad, who seemed to
+have been created for a venturesome life, and was moreover gifted with
+remarkable vigor and agility, got into a series of scrapes which more
+or less threatened his safety. He plotted with the grandsons of Monsieur
+Hochon to worry the grocers of the city; he gathered fruit before the
+owners could pick it, and made nothing of scaling walls. He had no equal
+at bodily exercises, he played base to perfection, and could have outrun
+a hare. With a keen eye worthy of Leather-stocking, he loved hunting
+passionately. His time was passed in firing at a mark, instead of
+studying; and he spent the money extracted from the old doctor in buying
+powder and ball for a wretched pistol that old Gilet, the sabot-maker,
+had given him. During the autumn of 1806, Maxence, then seventeen,
+committed an involuntary murder, by frightening in the dusk a young
+woman who was pregnant, and who came upon him suddenly while stealing
+fruit in her garden. Threatened with the guillotine by Gilet, who
+doubtless wanted to get rid of him, Max fled to Bourges, met a regiment
+then on its way to Egypt, and enlisted. Nothing came of the death of the
+young woman.
+
+A young fellow of Max's character was sure to distinguish himself, and
+in the course of three campaigns he did distinguish himself so highly
+that he rose to be a captain, his lack of education helping him
+strenuously. In Portugal, in 1809, he was left for dead in an English
+battery, into which his company had penetrated without being able to
+hold it. Max, taken prisoner by the English, was sent to the Spanish
+hulks at the island of Cabrera, the most horrible of all stations for
+prisoners of war. His friends begged that he might receive the cross of
+the Legion of honor and the rank of major; but the Emperor was then in
+Austria, and he reserved his favors for those who did brilliant
+deeds under his own eye: he did not like officers or men who allowed
+themselves to be taken prisoner, and he was, moreover, much dissatisfied
+with events in Portugal. Max was held at Cabrera from 1810 to 1814.(1)
+During those years he became utterly demoralized, for the hulks were
+like galleys, minus crime and infamy. At the outset, to maintain his
+personal free will, and protect himself against the corruption which
+made that horrible prison unworthy of a civilized people, the handsome
+young captain killed in a duel (for duels were fought on those hulks
+in a space scarcely six feet square) seven bullies among his
+fellow-prisoners, thus ridding the island of their tyranny to the great
+joy of the other victims. After this, Max reigned supreme in his hulk,
+thanks to the wonderful ease and address with which he handled weapons,
+to his bodily strength, and also to his extreme cleverness.
+
+
+  (1) The cruelty of the Spaniards to the French prisoners at Cabrera
+  was very great. In the spring of 1811, H.M. brig "Minorca,"
+  Captain Wormeley, was sent by Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, then
+  commanding the Mediterranean fleet, to make a report of their
+  condition. As she neared the island, the wretched prisoners swam
+  out to meet her. They were reduced to skin and bone; many of them
+  were naked; and their miserable condition so moved the seamen of
+  the "Minorca" that they came aft to the quarter-deck, and asked
+  permission to subscribe three days' rations for the relief of the
+  sufferers. Captain Wormeley carried away some of the prisoners,
+  and his report to Sir Charles Cotton, being sent to the Admiralty,
+  was made the basis of a remonstrance on the part of the British
+  government with Spain on the subject of its cruelties. Sir Charles
+  Cotton despatched Captain Wormeley a second time to Cabrera with a
+  good many head of live cattle and a large supply of other
+  provisions.--Tr.
+
+
+But he, in turn, committed arbitrary acts; there were those who curried
+favor with him, and worked his will, and became his minions. In that
+school of misery, where bitter minds dreamed only of vengeance, where
+the sophistries hatched in such brains were laying up, inevitably, a
+store of evil thoughts, Max became utterly demoralized. He listened to
+the opinions of those who longed for fortune at any price, and did not
+shrink from the results of criminal actions, provided they were done
+without discovery. When peace was proclaimed, in April, 1814, he left
+the island, depraved though still innocent. On his return to Issoudun
+he found his father and mother dead. Like others who give way to their
+passions and make life, as they call it, short and sweet, the Gilets
+had died in the almshouse in the utmost poverty. Immediately after his
+return, the news of Napoleon's landing at Cannes spread through France;
+Max could do no better than go to Paris and ask for his rank as major
+and for his cross. The marshal who was at that time minister of war
+remembered the brave conduct of Captain Gilet in Portugal. He put him in
+the Guard as captain, which gave him the grade of major in the infantry;
+but he could not get him the cross. "The Emperor says that you will
+know how to win it at the first chance," said the marshal. In fact, the
+Emperor did put the brave captain on his list for decoration the evening
+after the fight at Fleurus, where Gilet distinguished himself.
+
+After the battle of Waterloo Max retreated to the Loire. At the time
+of the disbandment, Marshal Feltre refused to recognize Max's grade as
+major, or his claim to the cross. The soldier of Napoleon returned
+to Issoudun in a state of exasperation that may well be conceived;
+he declared that he would not serve without either rank or cross. The
+war-office considered these conditions presumptuous in a young man of
+twenty-five without a name, who might, if they were granted, become
+a colonel at thirty. Max accordingly sent in his resignation. The
+major--for among themselves Bonapartists recognized the grades obtained
+in 1815--thus lost the pittance called half-pay which was allowed to the
+officers of the army of the Loire. But all Issoudun was roused at the
+sight of the brave young fellow left with only twenty napoleons in his
+possession; and the mayor gave him a place in his office with a salary
+of six hundred francs. Max kept it a few months, then gave it up of his
+own accord, and was replaced by a captain named Carpentier, who, like
+himself, had remained faithful to Napoleon.
+
+By this time Gilet had become grand master of the Knights of Idleness,
+and was leading a life which lost him the good-will of the chief people
+of the town; who, however, did not openly make the fact known to him,
+for he was violent and much feared by all, even by the officers of the
+old army who, like himself, had refused to serve under the Bourbons,
+and had come home to plant their cabbages in Berry. The little affection
+felt for the Bourbons among the natives of Issoudun is not surprising
+when we recall the history which we have just given. In fact,
+considering its size and lack of importance, the little place contained
+more Bonapartists than any other town in France. These men became, as is
+well known, nearly all Liberals.
+
+In Issoudun and its neighborhood there were a dozen officers in Max's
+position. These men admired him and made him their leader,--with the
+exception, however, of Carpentier, his successor, and a certain Monsieur
+Mignonnet, ex-captain in the artillery of the Guard. Carpentier, a
+cavalry officer risen from the ranks, had married into one of the best
+families in the town,--the Borniche-Herau. Mignonnet, brought up at the
+Ecole Polytechnique, had served in a corps which held itself superior to
+all others. In the Imperial armies there were two shades of distinction
+among the soldiers themselves. A majority of them felt a contempt for
+the bourgeois, the "civilian," fully equal to the contempt of nobles for
+their serfs, or conquerors for the conquered. Such men did not always
+observe the laws of honor in their dealings with civilians; nor did they
+much blame those who rode rough-shod over the bourgeoisie. The others,
+and particularly the artillery, perhaps because of its republicanism,
+never adopted the doctrine of a military France and a civil France,
+the tendency of which was nothing less than to make two nations. So,
+although Major Potel and Captain Renard, two officers living in the Rome
+suburb, were friends to Maxence Gilet "through thick and thin," Major
+Mignonnet and Captain Carpentier took sides with the bourgeoisie, and
+thought his conduct unworthy of a man of honor.
+
+Major Mignonnet, a lean little man, full of dignity, busied himself with
+the problems which the steam-engine requires us to solve, and lived in
+a modest way, taking his social intercourse with Monsieur and Madame
+Carpentier. His gentle manners and ways, and his scientific occupations
+won him the respect of the whole town; and it was frequently said of
+him and of Captain Carpentier that they were "quite another thing" from
+Major Potel and Captain Renard, Maxence, and other frequenters of the
+cafe Militaire, who retained the soldierly manners and the defective
+morals of the Empire.
+
+At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun, Max was excluded
+from the society of the place. He showed, moreover, proper self-respect
+in never presenting himself at the club, and in never complaining of the
+severe reprobation that was shown him; although he was the handsomest,
+the most elegant, and the best dressed man in the place, spent a great
+deal of money, and kept a horse,--a thing as amazing at Issoudun as
+the horse of Lord Byron at Venice. We are now to see how it was that
+Maxence, poor and without apparent means, was able to become the dandy
+of the town. The shameful conduct which earned him the contempt of all
+scrupulous or religious persons was connected with the interests which
+brought Agathe and Joseph to Issoudun.
+
+Judging by the audacity of his bearing, and the expression of his face,
+Max cared little for public opinion; he expected, no doubt, to take
+his revenge some day, and to lord it over those who now condemned
+him. Moreover, if the bourgeoisie of Issoudun thought ill of him, the
+admiration he excited among the common people counterbalanced their
+opinion; his courage, his dashing appearance, his decision of character,
+could not fail to please the masses, to whom his degradations were, for
+the most part, unknown, and indeed the bourgeoisie themselves scarcely
+suspected its extent. Max played a role at Issoudun which was something
+like that of the blacksmith in the "Fair Maid of Perth"; he was the
+champion of Bonapartism and the Opposition; they counted upon him as
+the burghers of Perth counted upon Smith on great occasions. A single
+incident will put this hero and victim of the Hundred-Days into clear
+relief.
+
+In 1819, a battalion commanded by royalist officers, young men just
+out of the Maison Rouge, passed through Issoudun on its way to go
+into garrison at Bourges. Not knowing what to do with themselves in so
+constitutional a place as Issoudun, these young gentlemen went to while
+away the time at the cafe Militaire. In every provincial town there is a
+military cafe. That of Issoudun, built on the place d'Armes at an angle
+of the rampart, and kept by the widow of an officer, was naturally the
+rendezvous of the Bonapartists, chiefly officers on half-pay, and others
+who shared Max's opinions, to whom the politics of the town allowed free
+expression of their idolatry for the Emperor. Every year, dating from
+1816, a banquet was given in Issoudun to commemorate the anniversary
+of his coronation. The three royalists who first entered asked for the
+newspapers, among others, for the "Quotidienne" and the "Drapeau Blanc."
+The politics of Issoudun, especially those of the cafe Militaire, did
+not allow of such royalist journals. The establishment had none but the
+"Commerce,"--a name which the "Constitutionel" was compelled to adopt
+for several years after it was suppressed by the government. But as, in
+its first issue under the new name, the leading article began with these
+words, "Commerce is essentially constitutional," people continued to
+call it the "Constitutionel," the subscribers all understanding the sly
+play of words which begged them to pay no attention to the label, as the
+wine would be the same.
+
+The fat landlady replied from her seat at the desk that she did not take
+those papers. "What papers do you take then?" asked one of the officers,
+a captain. The waiter, a little fellow in a blue cloth jacket, with an
+apron of coarse linen tied over it, brought the "Commerce."
+
+"Is that your paper? Have you no other?"
+
+"No," said the waiter, "that's the only one."
+
+The captain tore it up, flung the pieces on the floor, and spat upon
+them, calling out,--
+
+"Bring dominos!"
+
+In ten minutes the news of the insult offered to the Constitution
+Opposition and the Liberal party, in the supersacred person of its
+revered journal, which attacked priests with courage and the wit we
+all remember, spread throughout the town and into the houses like light
+itself; it was told and repeated from place to place. One phrase was on
+everybody's lips,--
+
+"Let us tell Max!"
+
+Max soon heard of it. The royalist officers were still at their game of
+dominos when that hero entered the cafe, accompanied by Major Potel and
+Captain Renard, and followed by at least thirty young men, curious to
+see the end of the affair, most of whom remained outside in the street.
+The room was soon full.
+
+"Waiter, _my_ newspaper," said Max, in a quiet voice.
+
+Then a little comedy was played. The fat hostess, with a timid and
+conciliatory air, said, "Captain, I have lent it!"
+
+"Send for it," cried one of Max's friends.
+
+"Can't you do without it?" said the waiter; "we have not got it."
+
+The young royalists were laughing and casting sidelong glances at the
+new-comers.
+
+"They have torn it up!" cried a youth of the town, looking at the feet
+of the young royalist captain.
+
+"Who has dared to destroy that paper?" demanded Max, in a thundering
+voice, his eyes flashing as he rose with his arms crossed.
+
+"And we spat upon it," replied the three young officers, also rising,
+and looking at Max.
+
+"You have insulted the whole town!" said Max, turning livid.
+
+"Well, what of that?" asked the youngest officer.
+
+With a dexterity, quickness, and audacity which the young men did not
+foresee, Max slapped the face of the officer nearest to him, saying,--
+
+"Do you understand French?"
+
+They fought near by, in the allee de Frapesle, three against three; for
+Potel and Renard would not allow Max to deal with the officers alone.
+Max killed his man. Major Potel wounded his so severely, that the
+unfortunate young man, the son of a good family, died in the hospital
+the next day. As for the third, he got off with a sword cut, after
+wounding his adversary, Captain Renard. The battalion left for Bourges
+that night. This affair, which was noised throughout Berry, set Max up
+definitely as a hero.
+
+The Knights of Idleness, who were all young, the eldest not more than
+twenty-five years old, admired Maxence. Some among them, far from
+sharing the prudery and strict notions of their families concerning his
+conduct, envied his present position and thought him fortunate. Under
+such a leader, the Order did great things. After the month of May, 1817,
+never a week passed that the town was not thrown into an uproar by
+some new piece of mischief. Max, as a matter of honor, imposed certain
+conditions upon the Knights. Statutes were drawn up. These young demons
+grew as vigilant as the pupils of Amoros,--bold as hawks, agile at all
+exercises, clever and strong as criminals. They trained themselves in
+climbing roofs, scaling houses, jumping and walking noiselessly, mixing
+mortar, and walling up doors. They collected an arsenal of ropes,
+ladders, tools, and disguises. After a time the Knights of Idleness
+attained to the beau-ideal of malicious mischief, not only as to the
+accomplishment but, still more, in the invention of their pranks.
+They came at last to possess the genius for evil that Panurge so much
+delighted in; which provokes laughter, and covers its victims with such
+ridicule that they dare not complain. Naturally, these sons of good
+families of Issoudun possessed and obtained information in their
+households, which gave them the ways and means for the perpetration of
+their outrages.
+
+Sometimes the young devils incarnate lay in ambush along the Grand'rue
+or the Basse rue, two streets which are, as it were, the arteries of the
+town, into which many little side streets open. Crouching, with their
+heads to the wind, in the angles of the wall and at the corners of the
+streets, at the hour when all the households were hushed in their first
+sleep, they called to each other in tones of terror from ambush to
+ambush along the whole length of the town: "What's the matter?" "What is
+it?" till the repeated cries woke up the citizens, who appeared in
+their shirts and cotton night-caps, with lights in their hands,
+asking questions of one another, holding the strangest colloquies, and
+exhibiting the queerest faces.
+
+A certain poor bookbinder, who was very old, believed in hobgoblins.
+Like most provincial artisans, he worked in a small basement shop. The
+Knights, disguised as devils, invaded the place in the middle of the
+night, put him into his own cutting-press, and left him shrieking to
+himself like the souls in hell. The poor man roused the neighbors, to
+whom he related the apparitions of Lucifer; and as they had no means of
+undeceiving him, he was driven nearly insane.
+
+In the middle of a severe winter, the Knights took down the chimney of
+the collector of taxes, and built it up again in one night apparently as
+it was before, without making the slightest noise, or leaving the least
+trace of their work. But they so arranged the inside of the chimney as
+to send all the smoke into the house. The collector suffered for two
+months before he found out why his chimney, which had always drawn so
+well, and of which he had often boasted, played him such tricks; he was
+then obliged to build a new one.
+
+At another time, they put three trusses of hay dusted with brimstone,
+and a quantity of oiled paper down the chimney of a pious old woman who
+was a friend of Madame Hochon. In the morning, when she came to light
+her fire, the poor creature, who was very gentle and kindly, imagined
+she had started a volcano. The fire-engines came, the whole population
+rushed to her assistance. Several Knights were among the firemen, and
+they deluged the old woman's house, till they had frightened her with a
+flood, as much as they had terrified her with the fire. She was made ill
+with fear.
+
+When they wished to make some one spend the night under arms and in
+mortal terror, they wrote an anonymous letter telling him that he was
+about to be robbed; then they stole softly, one by one, round the walls
+of his house, or under his windows, whistling as if to call each other.
+
+One of their famous performances, which long amused the town, where in
+fact it is still related, was to write a letter to all the heirs of a
+miserly old lady who was likely to leave a large property, announcing
+her death, and requesting them to be promptly on hand when the seals
+were affixed. Eighty persons arrived from Vatan, Saint-Florent, Vierzon
+and the neighboring country, all in deep mourning,--widows with sons,
+children with their fathers, some in carrioles, some in wicker gigs,
+others in dilapidated carts. Imagine the scene between the old woman's
+servants and the first arrivals! and the consultations among the
+notaries! It created a sort of riot in Issoudun.
+
+At last, one day the sub-prefect woke up to a sense that this state of
+things was all the more intolerable because it seemed impossible to find
+out who was at the bottom of it. Suspicion fell on several young men;
+but as the National Guard was a mere name in Issoudun, and there was no
+garrison, and the lieutenant of police had only eight gendarmes under
+him, so that there were no patrols, it was impossible to get any proof
+against them. The sub-prefect was immediately posted in the "order of
+the night," and considered thenceforth fair game. This functionary made
+a practice of breakfasting on two fresh eggs. He kept chickens in his
+yard, and added to his mania for eating fresh eggs that of boiling them
+himself. Neither his wife nor his servant, in fact no one, according
+to him, knew how to boil an egg properly; he did it watch in hand, and
+boasted that he carried off the palm of egg-boiling from all the world.
+For two years he had boiled his eggs with a success which earned him
+many witticisms. But now, every night for a whole month, the eggs
+were taken from his hen-house, and hard-boiled eggs substituted.
+The sub-prefect was at his wits' end, and lost his reputation as the
+"sous-prefet a l'oeuf." Finally he was forced to breakfast on other
+things. Yet he never suspected the Knights of Idleness, whose trick
+had been cautiously played. After this, Max managed to grease the
+sub-prefect's stoves every night with an oil which sent forth so fetid a
+smell that it was impossible for any one to stay in the house. Even that
+was not enough; his wife, going to mass one morning, found her shawl
+glued together on the inside with some tenacious substance, so that she
+was obliged to go without it. The sub-prefect finally asked for another
+appointment. The cowardly submissiveness of this officer had much to do
+with firmly establishing the weird and comic authority of the Knights of
+Idleness.
+
+Beyond the rue des Minimes and the place Misere, a section of a quarter
+was at that time enclosed between an arm of the "Riviere forcee" on the
+lower side and the ramparts on the other, beginning at the place d'Armes
+and going as far as the pottery market. This irregular square is filled
+with poor-looking houses crowded one against the other, and divided here
+and there by streets so narrow that two persons cannot walk abreast.
+This section of the town, a sort of cour des Miracles, was occupied
+by poor people or persons working at trades that were little
+remunerative,--a population living in hovels, and buildings called
+picturesquely by the familiar term of "blind houses." From the
+earliest ages this has no doubt been an accursed quarter, the haunt
+of evil-doers; in fact one thoroughfare is named "the street of the
+Executioner." For more than five centuries it has been customary for
+the executioner to have a red door at the entrance of his house. The
+assistant of the executioner of Chateauroux still lives there,--if we
+are to believe public rumor, for the townspeople never see him: the
+vine-dressers alone maintain an intercourse with this mysterious
+being, who inherits from his predecessors the gift of curing wounds and
+fractures. In the days when Issoudun assumed the airs of a capital
+city the women of the town made this section of it the scene of their
+wanderings. Here came the second-hand sellers of things that look as
+if they never could find a purchaser, old-clothes dealers whose wares
+infected the air; in short, it was the rendezvous of that apocryphal
+population which is to be found in nearly all such portions of a city,
+where two or three Jews have gained an ascendency.
+
+At the corner of one of these gloomy streets in the livelier half of
+the quarter, there existed from 1815 to 1823, and perhaps later, a
+public-house kept by a woman commonly called Mere Cognette. The house
+itself was tolerably well built, in courses of white stone, with the
+intermediary spaces filled in with ashlar and cement, one storey high
+with an attic above. Over the door was an enormous branch of pine,
+looking as though it were cast in Florentine bronze. As if this symbol
+were not explanatory enough, the eye was arrested by the blue of a
+poster which was pasted over the doorway, and on which appeared, above
+the words "Good Beer of Mars," the picture of a soldier pouring out, in
+the direction of a very decolletee woman, a jet of foam which spurted
+in an arched line from the pitcher to the glass which she was holding
+towards him; the whole of a color to make Delacroix swoon.
+
+The ground-floor was occupied by an immense hall serving both as kitchen
+and dining-room, from the beams of which hung, suspended by huge nails,
+the provisions needed for the custom of such a house. Behind this hall a
+winding staircase led to the upper storey; at the foot of the staircase
+a door led into a low, long room lighted from one of those little
+provincial courts, so narrow, dark, and sunken between tall houses, as
+to seem like the flue of a chimney. Hidden by a shed, and concealed from
+all eyes by walls, this low room was the place where the Bad Boys of
+Issoudun held their plenary court. Ostensibly, Pere Cognet boarded and
+lodged the country-people on market-days; secretly, he was landlord to
+the Knights of Idleness. This man, who was formerly a groom in a rich
+household, had ended by marrying La Cognette, a cook in a good family.
+The suburb of Rome still continues, like Italy and Poland, to follow the
+Latin custom of putting a feminine termination to the husband's name and
+giving it to the wife.
+
+By uniting their savings Pere Cognet and his spouse had managed to buy
+their present house. La Cognette, a woman of forty, tall and plump, with
+the nose of a Roxelane, a swarthy skin, jet-black hair, brown eyes that
+were round and lively, and a general air of mirth and intelligence, was
+selected by Maxence Gilet, on account of her character and her talent
+for cookery, as the Leonarde of the Order. Pere Cognet might be about
+fifty-six years old; he was thick-set, very much under his wife's rule,
+and, according to a witticism which she was fond of repeating, he only
+saw things with a good eye--for he was blind of the other. In the course
+of seven years, that is, from 1816 to 1823, neither wife nor husband
+had betrayed what went on nightly at their house, or who they were that
+shared in the plot; they felt the liveliest regard for the Knights;
+their devotion was absolute. But this may seem less creditable if we
+remember that self-interest was the security of their affection and
+their silence. No matter at what hour of the night the Knights dropped
+in upon the tavern, the moment they knocked in a certain way Pere
+Cognet, recognizing the signal, got up, lit the fire and the candles,
+opened the door, and went to the cellar for a particular wine that was
+laid in expressly for the Order; while La Cognette cooked an excellent
+supper, eaten either before or after the expeditions, which were usually
+planned the previous evening or in the course of the preceding day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+While Joseph and Madame Bridau were journeying from Orleans to Issoudun,
+the Knights of Idleness perpetrated one of their best tricks. An old
+Spaniard, a former prisoner of war, who after the peace had remained in
+the neighborhood, where he did a small business in grain, came early one
+morning to market, leaving his empty cart at the foot of the tower of
+Issoudun. Maxence, who arrived at a rendezvous of the Knights, appointed
+on that occasion at the foot of the tower, was soon assailed with the
+whispered question, "What are we to do to-night?"
+
+"Here's Pere Fario's cart," he answered. "I nearly cracked my shins over
+it. Let us get it up on the embankment of the tower in the first place,
+and we'll make up our minds afterwards."
+
+When Richard Coeur-de-Lion built the tower of Issoudun he raised it, as
+we have said, on the ruins of the basilica, which itself stood above the
+Roman temple and the Celtic Dun. These ruins, each of which represents
+a period of several centuries, form a mound big with the monuments of
+three distinct ages. The tower is, therefore, the apex of a cone, from
+which the descent is equally steep on all sides, and which is only
+approached by a series of steps. To give in a few words an idea of the
+height of this tower, we may compare it to the obelisk of Luxor on its
+pedestal. The pedestal of the tower of Issoudun, which hid within its
+breast such archaeological treasures, was eighty feet high on the side
+towards the town. In an hour the cart was taken off its wheels and
+hoisted, piece by piece, to the top of the embankment at the foot of the
+tower itself,--a work that was somewhat like that of the soldiers who
+carried the artillery over the pass of the Grand Saint-Bernard. The cart
+was then remounted on its wheels, and the Knights, by this time hungry
+and thirsty, returned to Mere Cognette's, where they were soon seated
+round the table in the low room, laughing at the grimaces Fario would
+make when he came after his barrow in the morning.
+
+The Knights, naturally, did not play such capers every night. The genius
+of Sganarelle, Mascarille, and Scapin combined would not have sufficed
+to invent three hundred and sixty-five pieces of mischief a year. In
+the first place, circumstances were not always propitious: sometimes the
+moon shone clear, or the last prank had greatly irritated their betters;
+then one or another of their number refused to share in some proposed
+outrage because a relation was involved. But if the scamps were not at
+Mere Cognette's every night, they always met during the day, enjoying
+together the legitimate pleasures of hunting, or the autumn vintages and
+the winter skating. Among this assemblage of twenty youths, all of them
+at war with the social somnolence of the place, there are some who were
+more closely allied than others to Max, and who made him their idol. A
+character like his often fascinates other youths. The two grandsons of
+Madame Hochon--Francois Hochon and Baruch Borniche--were his henchmen.
+These young fellows, accepting the general opinion of the left-handed
+parentage of Lousteau, looked upon Max as their cousin. Max, moreover,
+was liberal in lending them money for their pleasures, which their
+grandfather Hochon refused; he took them hunting, let them see life, and
+exercised a much greater influence over them than their own family.
+They were both orphans, and were kept, although each had attained his
+majority, under the guardianship of Monsieur Hochon, for reasons which
+will be explained when Monsieur Hochon himself comes upon the scene.
+
+At this particular moment Francois and Baruch (we will call them by
+their Christian names for the sake of clearness) were sitting, one on
+each side of Max, at the middle of a table that was rather ill lighted
+by the fuliginous gleams of four tallow candles of eight to the pound. A
+dozen to fifteen bottles of various wines had just been drunk, for only
+eleven of the Knights were present. Baruch--whose name indicates pretty
+clearly that Calvinism still kept some hold on Issoudun--said to Max, as
+the wine was beginning to unloose all tongues,--
+
+"You are threatened in your stronghold."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Max.
+
+"Why, my grandmother has had a letter from Madame Bridau, who is her
+goddaughter, saying that she and her son are coming here. My grandmother
+has been getting two rooms ready for them."
+
+"What's that to me?" said Max, taking up his glass and swallowing the
+contents at a gulp with a comic gesture.
+
+Max was then thirty-four years old. A candle standing near him threw
+a gleam upon his soldierly face, lit up his brow, and brought out
+admirably his clear skin, his ardent eyes, his black and slightly
+curling hair, which had the brilliancy of jet. The hair grew vigorously
+upward from the forehead and temples, sharply defining those five
+black tongues which our ancestors used to call the "five points."
+Notwithstanding this abrupt contrast of black and white, Max's face was
+very sweet, owing its charm to an outline like that which Raphael gave
+to the faces of his Madonnas, and to a well-cut mouth whose lips smiled
+graciously, giving an expression of countenance which Max had made
+distinctively his own. The rich coloring which blooms on a Berrichon
+cheek added still further to his look of kindly good-humor. When he
+laughed heartily, he showed thirty-two teeth worthy of the mouth of a
+pretty woman. In height about five feet six inches, the young man was
+admirably well-proportioned,--neither too stout nor yet too thin. His
+hands, carefully kept, were white and rather handsome; but his feet
+recalled the suburb and the foot-soldier of the Empire. Max would
+certainly have made a good general of division; he had shoulders that
+were worth a fortune to a marshal of France, and a breast broad enough
+to wear all the orders of Europe. Every movement betrayed intelligence;
+born with grace and charm, like nearly all the children of love, the
+noble blood of his real father came out in him.
+
+"Don't you know, Max," cried the son of a former surgeon-major named
+Goddet--now the best doctor in the town--from the other end of the
+table, "that Madame Hochon's goddaughter is the sister of Rouget? If she
+is coming here with her son, no doubt she means to make sure of getting
+the property when he dies, and then--good-by to your harvest!"
+
+Max frowned. Then, with a look which ran from one face to another all
+round the table, he watched the effect of this announcement on the minds
+of those present, and again replied,--
+
+"What's that to me?"
+
+"But," said Francois, "I should think that if old Rouget revoked his
+will,--in case he has made one in favor of the Rabouilleuse--"
+
+Here Max cut short his henchman's speech. "I've stopped the mouths of
+people who have dared to meddle with you, my dear Francois," he said;
+"and this is the way you pay your debts? You use a contemptuous nickname
+in speaking of a woman to whom I am known to be attached."
+
+Max had never before said as much as this about his relations with the
+person to whom Francois had just applied a name under which she was
+known at Issoudun. The late prisoner at Cabrera--the major of the
+grenadiers of the Guard--knew enough of what honor was to judge rightly
+as to the causes of the disesteem in which society held him. He had
+therefore never allowed any one, no matter who, to speak to him on
+the subject of Mademoiselle Flore Brazier, the servant-mistress of
+Jean-Jacques Rouget, so energetically termed a "slut" by the respectable
+Madame Hochon. Everybody knew it was too ticklish a subject with Max,
+ever to speak of it unless he began it; and hitherto he had never begun
+it. To risk his anger or irritate him was altogether too dangerous; so
+that even his best friends had never joked him about the Rabouilleuse.
+When they talked of his liaison with the girl before Major Potel and
+Captain Renard, with whom he lived on intimate terms, Potel would
+reply,--
+
+"If he is the natural brother of Jean-Jacques Rouget where else would
+you have him live?"
+
+"Besides, after all," added Captain Renard, "the girl is a worthless
+piece, and if Max does live with her where's the harm?"
+
+After this merited snub, Francois could not at once catch up the thread
+of his ideas; but he was still less able to do so when Max said to him,
+gently,--
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Faith, no!" cried Francois.
+
+"You needn't get angry, Max," said young Goddet; "didn't we agree to
+talk freely to each other at Mere Cognette's? Shouldn't we all be mortal
+enemies if we remembered outside what is said, or thought, or done here?
+All the town calls Flore Brazier the Rabouilleuse; and if Francois did
+happen to let the nickname slip out, is that a crime against the Order
+of Idleness?"
+
+"No," said Max, "but against our personal friendship. However, I thought
+better of it; I recollected we were in session, and that was why I said,
+'Go on.'"
+
+A deep silence followed. The pause became so embarrassing for the whole
+company that Max broke it by exclaiming:--
+
+"I'll go on for him," (sensation) "--for all of you," (amazement) "--and
+tell you what you are thinking" (profound sensation). "You think
+that Flore, the Rabouilleuse, La Brazier, the housekeeper of Pere
+Rouget,--for they call him so, that old bachelor, who can never have any
+children!--you think, I say, that that woman supplies all my wants
+ever since I came back to Issoudun. If I am able to throw three
+hundred francs a month to the dogs, and treat you to suppers,--as I do
+to-night,--and lend money to all of you, you think I get the gold out
+of Mademoiselle Flore Brazier's purse? Well, yes" (profound sensation).
+"Yes, ten thousand times yes! Yes, Mademoiselle Brazier is aiming
+straight for the old man's property."
+
+"She gets it from father to son," observed Goddet, in his corner.
+
+"You think," continued Max, smiling at Goddet's speech, "that I intend
+to marry Flore when Pere Rouget dies, and so this sister and her son, of
+whom I hear to-night for the first time, will endanger my future?"
+
+"That's just it," cried Francois.
+
+"That is what every one thinks who is sitting round this table," said
+Baruch.
+
+"Well, don't be uneasy, friends," answered Max. "Forewarned is
+forearmed! Now then, I address the Knights of Idleness. If, to get rid
+of these Parisians I need the help of the Order, will you lend me a
+hand? Oh! within the limits we have marked out for our fooleries," he
+added hastily, perceiving a general hesitation. "Do you suppose I want
+to kill them,--poison them? Thank God I'm not an idiot. Besides, if the
+Bridaus succeed, and Flore has nothing but what she stands in, I should
+be satisfied; do you understand that? I love her enough to prefer her to
+Mademoiselle Fichet,--if Mademoiselle Fichet would have me."
+
+Mademoiselle Fichet was the richest heiress in Issoudun, and the hand
+of the daughter counted for much in the reported passion of the younger
+Goddet for the mother. Frankness of speech is a pearl of such price that
+all the Knights rose to their feet as one man.
+
+"You are a fine fellow, Max!"
+
+"Well said, Max; we'll stand by you!"
+
+"A fig for the Bridaus!"
+
+"We'll bridle them!"
+
+"After all, it is only three swains to a shepherdess."
+
+"The deuce! Pere Lousteau loved Madame Rouget; isn't it better to love a
+housekeeper who is not yoked?"
+
+"If the defunct Rouget was Max's father, the affair is in the family."
+
+"Liberty of opinion now-a-days!"
+
+"Hurrah for Max!"
+
+"Down with all hypocrites!"
+
+"Here's a health to the beautiful Flore!"
+
+Such were the eleven responses, acclamations, and toasts shouted forth
+by the Knights of Idleness, and characteristic, we may remark, of their
+excessively relaxed morality. It is now easy to see what interest Max
+had in becoming their grand master. By leading the young men of the best
+families in their follies and amusements, and by doing them services,
+he meant to create a support for himself when the day for recovering his
+position came. He rose gracefully and waved his glass of claret, while
+all the others waited eagerly for the coming allocution.
+
+"As a mark of the ill-will I bear you, I wish you all a mistress who is
+equal to the beautiful Flore! As to this irruption of relations, I
+don't feel any present uneasiness; and as to the future, we'll see what
+comes--"
+
+"Don't let us forget Fario's cart!"
+
+"Hang it! that's safe enough!" said Goddet.
+
+"Oh! I'll engage to settle that business," cried Max. "Be in the
+market-place early, all of you, and let me know when the old fellow goes
+for his cart."
+
+It was striking half-past three in the morning as the Knights slipped
+out in silence to go to their homes; gliding close to the walls of the
+houses without making the least noise, shod as they were in list shoes.
+Max slowly returned to the place Saint-Jean, situated in the upper
+part of the town, between the port Saint-Jean and the port Vilatte, the
+quarter of the rich bourgeoisie. Maxence Gilet had concealed his fears,
+but the news had struck home. His experience on the hulks at Cabrera
+had taught him a dissimulation as deep and thorough as his corruption.
+First, and above all else, the forty thousand francs a year from landed
+property which old Rouget owned was, let it be clearly understood, the
+constituent element of Max's passion for Flore Brazier. By his present
+bearing it is easy to see how much confidence the woman had given him in
+the financial future she expected to obtain through the infatuation
+of the old bachelor. Nevertheless, the news of the arrival of the
+legitimate heirs was of a nature to shake Max's faith in Flore's
+influence. Rouget's savings, accumulating during the last seventeen
+years, still stood in his own name; and even if the will, which Flore
+declared had long been made in her favor, were revoked, these savings
+at least might be secured by putting them in the name of Mademoiselle
+Brazier.
+
+"That fool of a girl never told me, in all these seven years, a word
+about the sister and nephews!" cried Max, turning from the rue de la
+Marmouse into the rue l'Avenier. "Seven hundred and fifty thousand
+francs placed with different notaries at Bourges, and Vierzon, and
+Chateauroux, can't be turned into money and put into the Funds in a
+week, without everybody knowing it in this gossiping place! The most
+important thing is to get rid of these relations; as soon as they are
+driven away we ought to make haste to secure the property. I must think
+it over."
+
+Max was tired. By the help of a pass-key, he let himself into Pere
+Rouget's house, and went to bed without making any noise, saying to
+himself,--
+
+"To-morrow, my thoughts will be clear."
+
+It is now necessary to relate where the sultana of the place Saint-Jean
+picked up the nickname of "Rabouilleuse," and how she came to be the
+quasi-mistress of Jean-Jacques Rouget's home.
+
+As old Doctor Rouget, the father of Jean-Jacques and Madame Bridau,
+advanced in years, he began to perceive the nonentity of his son; he
+then treated him harshly, trying to break him into a routine that might
+serve in place of intelligence. He thus, though unconsciously, prepared
+him to submit to the yoke of the first tyranny that threw its halter
+over his head.
+
+Coming home one day from his professional round, the malignant and
+vicious old man came across a bewitching little girl at the edge of some
+fields that lay along the avenue de Tivoli. Hearing the horse, the child
+sprang up from the bottom of one of the many brooks which are to be
+seen from the heights of Issoudun, threading the meadows like ribbons
+of silver on a green robe. Naiad-like, she rose suddenly on the doctor's
+vision, showing the loveliest virgin head that painters ever dreamed of.
+Old Rouget, who knew the whole country-side, did not know this miracle
+of beauty. The child, who was half naked, wore a forlorn little
+petticoat of coarse woollen stuff, woven in alternate strips of brown
+and white, full of holes and very ragged. A sheet of rough writing
+paper, tied on by a shred of osier, served her for a hat. Beneath this
+paper--covered with pot-hooks and round O's, from which it derived the
+name of "schoolpaper"--the loveliest mass of blonde hair that ever a
+daughter of Eve could have desired, was twisted up, and held in place
+by a species of comb made to comb out the tails of horses. Her pretty
+tanned bosom, and her neck, scarcely covered by a ragged fichu which
+was once a Madres handkerchief, showed edges of the white skin below the
+exposed and sun-burned parts. One end of her petticoat was drawn between
+the legs and fastened with a huge pin in front, giving that garment the
+look of a pair of bathing drawers. The feet and the legs, which could be
+seen through the clear water in which she stood, attracted the eye by a
+delicacy which was worthy of a sculptor of the middle ages. The charming
+limbs exposed to the sun had a ruddy tone that was not without beauty
+of its own. The neck and bosom were worthy of being wrapped in silks and
+cashmeres; and the nymph had blue eyes fringed with long lashes, whose
+glance might have made a painter or a poet fall upon his knees. The
+doctor, enough of an anatomist to trace the exquisite figure, recognized
+the loss it would be to art if the lines of such a model were destroyed
+by the hard toil of the fields.
+
+"Where do you come from, little girl? I have never seen you before,"
+said the old doctor, then sixty-two years of age. This scene took place
+in the month of September, 1799.
+
+"I belong in Vatan," she answered.
+
+Hearing Rouget's voice, an ill-looking man, standing at some distance
+in the deeper waters of the brook, raised his head. "What are you
+about, Flore?" he said, "While you are talking instead of catching, the
+creatures will get away."
+
+"Why have you come here from Vatan?" continued the doctor, paying no
+heed to the interruption.
+
+"I am catching crabs for my uncle Brazier here."
+
+"Rabouiller" is a Berrichon word which admirably describes the thing it
+is intended to express; namely, the action of troubling the water of a
+brook, making it boil and bubble with a branch whose end-shoots spread
+out like a racket. The crabs, frightened by this operation, which they
+do not understand, come hastily to the surface, and in their flurry rush
+into the net the fisher has laid for them at a little distance. Flore
+Brazier held her "rabouilloir" in her hand with the natural grace of
+childlike innocence.
+
+"Has your uncle got permission to hunt crabs?"
+
+"Hey! are not we all under a Republic that is one and indivisible?"
+cried the uncle from his station.
+
+"We are under a Directory," said the doctor, "and I know of no law which
+allows a man to come from Vatan and fish in the territory of Issoudun";
+then he said to Flore, "Have you got a mother, little one!"
+
+"No, monsieur; and my father is in the asylum at Bourges. He went mad
+from a sun-stroke he got in the fields."
+
+"How much do you earn?"
+
+"Five sous a day while the season lasts; I catch 'em as far as the
+Braisne. In harvest time, I glean; in winter, I spin."
+
+"You are about twelve years old?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Do you want to come with me? You shall be well fed and well dressed,
+and have some pretty shoes."
+
+"No, my niece will stay with me; I am responsible to God and man for
+her," said Uncle Brazier who had come up to them. "I am her guardian,
+d'ye see?"
+
+The doctor kept his countenance and checked a smile which might have
+escaped most people at the aspect of the man. The guardian wore a
+peasant's hat, rotted by sun and rain, eaten like the leaves of a
+cabbage that has harbored several caterpillars, and mended, here and
+there, with white thread. Beneath the hat was a dark and sunken face,
+in which the mouth, nose, and eyes, seemed four black spots. His forlorn
+jacket was a bit of patchwork, and his trousers were of crash towelling.
+
+"I am Doctor Rouget," said that individual; "and as you are the guardian
+of the child, bring her to my house, in the place Saint-Jean. It will
+not be a bad day's work for you; nor for her, either."
+
+Without waiting for an answer, and sure that Uncle Brazier would soon
+appear with his pretty "rabouilleuse," Doctor Rouget set spurs to his
+horse and returned to Issoudun. He had hardly sat down to dinner, before
+his cook announced the arrival of the citoyen and citoyenne Brazier.
+
+"Sit down," said the doctor to the uncle and niece.
+
+Flore and her guardian, still barefooted, looked round the doctor's
+dining-room with wondering eyes; never having seen its like before.
+
+The house, which Rouget inherited from the Descoings estate, stands in
+the middle of the place Saint-Jean, a so-called square, very long and
+very narrow, planted with a few sickly lindens. The houses in this part
+of town are better built than elsewhere, and that of the Descoings's was
+one of the finest. It stands opposite to the house of Monsieur Hochon,
+and has three windows in front on the first storey, and a porte-cochere
+on the ground-floor which gives entrance to a courtyard, beyond which
+lies the garden. Under the archway of the porte-cochere is the door of
+a large hall lighted by two windows on the street. The kitchen is behind
+this hall, part of the space being used for a staircase which leads to
+the upper floor and to the attic above that. Beyond the kitchen is a
+wood-shed and wash-house, a stable for two horses and a coach-house,
+over which are some little lofts for the storage of oats, hay, and
+straw, where, at that time, the doctor's servant slept.
+
+The hall which the little peasant and her uncle admired with such wonder
+is decorated with wooden carvings of the time of Louis XV., painted
+gray, and a handsome marble chimney-piece, over which Flore beheld
+herself in a large mirror without any upper division and with a carved
+and gilded frame. On the panelled walls of the room, from space to
+space, hung several pictures, the spoil of various religious houses,
+such as the abbeys of Deols, Issoudun, Saint-Gildas, La Pree,
+Chezal-Beniot, Saint-Sulpice, and the convents of Bourges and Issoudun,
+which the liberality of our kings had enriched with the precious
+gifts of the glorious works called forth by the Renaissance. Among the
+pictures obtained by the Descoings and inherited by Rouget, was a Holy
+Family by Albano, a Saint-Jerome of Demenichino, a Head of Christ by
+Gian Bellini, a Virgin of Leonardo, a Bearing of the Cross by Titian,
+which formerly belonged to the Marquis de Belabre (the one who sustained
+a siege and had his head cut off under Louis XIII.); a Lazarus of Paul
+Veronese, a Marriage of the Virgin by the priest Genois, two church
+paintings by Rubens, and a replica of a picture by Perugino, done either
+by Perugino himself or by Raphael; and finally, two Correggios and one
+Andrea del Sarto.
+
+The Descoings had culled these treasures from three hundred church
+pictures, without knowing their value, and selecting them only for their
+good preservation. Many were not only in magnificent frames, but some
+were still under glass. Perhaps it was the beauty of the frames and the
+value of the glass that led the Descoings to retain the pictures. The
+furniture of the room was not wanting in the sort of luxury we prize in
+these days, though at that time it had no value in Issoudun. The clock,
+standing on the mantle-shelf between two superb silver candlesticks with
+six branches, had an ecclesiastical splendor which revealed the hand of
+Boulle. The armchairs of carved oak, covered with tapestry-work due to
+the devoted industry of women of high rank, would be treasured in these
+days, for each was surmounted with a crown and coat-of-arms. Between the
+windows stood a rich console, brought from some castle, on whose marble
+slab stood an immense China jar, in which the doctor kept his tobacco.
+But neither Rouget, nor his son, nor the cook, took the slightest care
+of all these treasures. They spat upon a hearth of exquisite delicacy,
+whose gilded mouldings were now green with verdigris. A handsome
+chandelier, partly of semi-transparent porcelain, was peppered, like the
+ceiling from which it hung, with black speckles, bearing witness to the
+immunity enjoyed by the flies. The Descoings had draped the windows with
+brocatelle curtains torn from the bed of some monastic prior. To the
+left of the entrance-door, stood a chest or coffer, worth many thousand
+francs, which the doctor now used for a sideboard.
+
+"Here, Fanchette," cried Rouget to his cook, "bring two glasses; and
+give us some of the old wine."
+
+Fanchette, a big Berrichon countrywoman, who was considered a better
+cook than even La Cognette, ran in to receive the order with a celerity
+which said much for the doctor's despotism, and something also for her
+own curiosity.
+
+"What is an acre of vineyard worth in your parts?" asked the doctor,
+pouring out a glass of wine for Brazier.
+
+"Three hundred francs in silver."
+
+"Well, then! leave your niece here as my servant; she shall have three
+hundred francs in wages, and, as you are her guardian, you can take
+them."
+
+"Every year?" exclaimed Brazier, with his eyes as wide as saucers.
+
+"I leave that to your conscience," said the doctor. "She is an orphan;
+up to eighteen, she has no right to what she earns."
+
+"Twelve to eighteen--that's six acres of vineyard!" said the uncle. "Ay,
+she's a pretty one, gentle as a lamb, well made and active, and obedient
+as a kitten. She were the light o' my poor brother's eyes--"
+
+"I will pay a year in advance," observed the doctor.
+
+"Bless me! say two years, and I'll leave her with you, for she'll be
+better off with you than with us; my wife beats her, she can't abide
+her. There's none but I to stand up for her, and the little saint of a
+creature is as innocent as a new-born babe."
+
+When he heard the last part of this speech, the doctor, struck by the
+word "innocent," made a sign to the uncle and took him out into the
+courtyard and from thence to the garden; leaving the Rabouilleuse at the
+table with Fanchette and Jean-Jacques, who immediately questioned her,
+and to whom she naively related her meeting with the doctor.
+
+"There now, my little darling, good-by," said Uncle Brazier, coming
+back and kissing Flore on the forehead; "you can well say I've made your
+happiness by leaving you with this kind and worthy father of the poor;
+you must obey him as you would me. Be a good girl, and behave nicely,
+and do everything he tells you."
+
+"Get the room over mine ready," said the doctor to Fanchette. "Little
+Flore--I am sure she is worthy of the name--will sleep there in future.
+To-morrow, we'll send for a shoemaker and a dressmaker. Put another
+plate on the table; she shall keep us company."
+
+That evening, all Issoudun could talk of nothing else than the sudden
+appearance of the little "rabouilleuse" in Doctor Rouget's house. In
+that region of satire the nickname stuck to Mademoiselle Brazier before,
+during, and after the period of her good fortune.
+
+The doctor no doubt intended to do with Flore Brazier, in a small way,
+what Louis XV. did in a large one with Mademoiselle de Romans; but he
+was too late about it; Louis XV. was still young, whereas the doctor was
+in the flower of old age. From twelve to fourteen, the charming little
+Rabouilleuse lived a life of unmixed happiness. Always well-dressed, and
+often much better tricked out than the richest girls in Issoudun, she
+sported a gold watch and jewels, given by the doctor to encourage her
+studies, and she had a master who taught her to read, write, and cipher.
+But the almost animal life of the true peasant had instilled into Flore
+such deep repugnance to the bitter cup of knowledge, that the doctor
+stopped her education at that point. His intentions with regard to the
+child, whom he cleansed and clothed, and taught, and formed with a care
+which was all the more remarkable because he was thought to be utterly
+devoid of tenderness, were interpreted in a variety of ways by the
+cackling society of the town, whose gossip often gave rise to fatal
+blunders, like those relating to the birth of Agathe and that of Max. It
+is not easy for the community of a country town to disentangle the truth
+from the mass of conjecture and contradictory reports to which a single
+fact gives rise. The provinces insist--as in former days the politicians
+of the little Provence at the Tuileries insisted--on full explanations,
+and they usually end by knowing everything. But each person clings to
+the version of the event which he, or she, likes best; proclaims it,
+argues it, and considers it the only true one. In spite of the strong
+light cast upon people's lives by the constant spying of a little
+town, truth is thus often obscured; and to be recognized, it needs the
+impartiality which historians or superior minds acquire by looking at
+the subject from a higher point of view.
+
+"What do you suppose that old gorilla wants at his age with a little
+girl only fifteen years old?" society was still saying two years after
+the arrival of the Rabouilleuse.
+
+"Ah! that's true," they answered, "his days of merry-making are long
+past."
+
+"My dear fellow, the doctor is disgusted at the stupidity of his son,
+and he persists in hating his daughter Agathe; it may be that he has
+been living a decent life for the last two years, intending to marry
+little Flore; suppose she were to give him a fine, active, strapping
+boy, full of life like Max?" said one of the wise heads of the town.
+
+"Bah! don't talk nonsense! After such a life as Rouget and Lousteau led
+from 1770 to 1787, is it likely that either of them would have children
+at sixty-five years of age? The old villain has read the Scriptures, if
+only as a doctor, and he is doing as David did in his old age; that's
+all."
+
+"They say that Brazier, when he is drunk, boasts in Vatan that he
+cheated him," cried one of those who always believed the worst of
+people.
+
+"Good heavens! neighbor; what won't they say at Issoudun?"
+
+From 1800 to 1805, that is, for five years, the doctor enjoyed all the
+pleasures of educating Flore without the annoyances which the ambitions
+and pretensions of Mademoiselle de Romans inflicted, it is said, on
+Louis le Bien-Aime. The little Rabouilleuse was so satisfied when she
+compared the life she led at the doctor's with that she would have led
+at her uncle Brazier's, that she yielded no doubt to the exactions of
+her master as if she had been an Eastern slave. With due deference to
+the makers of idylls and to philanthropists, the inhabitants of the
+provinces have very little idea of certain virtues; and their scruples
+are of a kind that is roused by self-interest, and not by any sentiment
+of the right or the becoming. Raised from infancy with no prospect
+before them but poverty and ceaseless labor, they are led to consider
+anything that saves them from the hell of hunger and eternal toil as
+permissible, particularly if it is not contrary to any law. Exceptions
+to this rule are rare. Virtue, socially speaking, is the companion of a
+comfortable life, and comes only with education.
+
+Thus the Rabouilleuse was an object of envy to all the young
+peasant-girls within a circuit of ten miles, although her conduct, from
+a religious point of view, was supremely reprehensible. Flore, born in
+1787, grew up in the midst of the saturnalias of 1793 and 1798, whose
+lurid gleams penetrated these country regions, then deprived of priests
+and faith and altars and religious ceremonies; where marriage was
+nothing more than legal coupling, and revolutionary maxims left a deep
+impression. This was markedly the case at Issoudun, a land where, as we
+have seen, revolt of all kinds is traditional. In 1802, Catholic worship
+was scarcely re-established. The Emperor found it a difficult matter
+to obtain priests. In 1806, many parishes all over France were still
+widowed; so slowly were the clergy, decimated by the scaffold, gathered
+together again after their violent dispersion.
+
+In 1802, therefore, nothing was likely to reproach Flore Brazier, unless
+it might be her conscience; and conscience was sure to be weaker than
+self-interest in the ward of Uncle Brazier. If, as everybody chose to
+suppose, the cynical doctor was compelled by his age to respect a child
+of fifteen, the Rabouilleuse was none the less considered very "wide
+awake," a term much used in that region. Still, some persons thought
+she could claim a certificate of innocence from the cessation of the
+doctor's cares and attentions in the last two years of his life, during
+which time he showed her something more than coldness.
+
+Old Rouget had killed too many people not to know when his own end was
+nigh; and his notary, finding him on his death-bed, draped as it
+were, in the mantle of encyclopaedic philosophy, pressed him to make a
+provision in favor of the young girl, then seventeen years old.
+
+"So I do," he said, cynically; "my death sets her at liberty."
+
+This speech paints the nature of the old man. Covering his evil doings
+with witty sayings, he obtained indulgence for them, in a land where
+wit is always applauded,--especially when addressed to obvious
+self-interest. In those words the notary read the concentrated hatred
+of a man whose calculations had been balked by Nature herself, and who
+revenged himself upon the innocent object of an impotent love. This
+opinion was confirmed to some extent by the obstinate resolution of the
+doctor to leave nothing to the Rabouilleuse, saying with a bitter smile,
+when the notary again urged the subject upon him,--
+
+"Her beauty will make her rich enough!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Jean-Jacques Rouget did not mourn his father, though Flore Brazier did.
+The old doctor had made his son extremely unhappy, especially since
+he came of age, which happened in 1791; but he had given the little
+peasant-girl the material pleasures which are the ideal of happiness to
+country-folk. When Fanchette asked Flore, after the funeral, "Well, what
+is to become of you, now that monsieur is dead?" Jean-Jacques's eyes
+lighted up, and for the first time in his life his dull face grew
+animated, showed feeling, and seemed to brighten under the rays of a
+thought.
+
+"Leave the room," he said to Fanchette, who was clearing the table.
+
+At seventeen, Flore retained that delicacy of feature and form, that
+distinction of beauty which attracted the doctor, and which women of the
+world know how to preserve, though it fades among the peasant-girls
+like the flowers of the field. Nevertheless, the tendency to embonpoint,
+which handsome countrywomen develop when they no longer live a life
+of toil and hardship in the fields and in the sunshine, was already
+noticeable about her. Her bust had developed. The plump white shoulders
+were modelled on rich lines that harmoniously blended with those of the
+throat, already showing a few folds of flesh. But the outline of the
+face was still faultless, and the chin delicate.
+
+"Flore," said Jean-Jacques, in a trembling voice, "you feel at home in
+this house?"
+
+"Yes, Monsieur Jean."
+
+As the heir was about to make his declaration, he felt his tongue
+stiffen at the recollection of the dead man, just put away in his grave,
+and a doubt seized him as to what lengths his father's benevolence might
+have gone. Flore, who was quite unable even to suspect his simplicity
+of mind, looked at her future master and waited for a time, expecting
+Jean-Jacques to go on with what he was saying; but she finally left
+him without knowing what to think of such obstinate silence. Whatever
+teaching the Rabouilleuse may have received from the doctor, it was many
+a long day before she finally understood the character of Jean-Jacques,
+whose history we now present in a few words.
+
+At the death of his father, Jacques, then thirty-seven, was as timid and
+submissive to paternal discipline as a child of twelve years old. That
+timidity ought to explain his childhood, youth, and after-life to those
+who are reluctant to admit the existence of such characters, or such
+facts as this history relates,--though proofs of them are, alas, common
+everywhere, even among princes; for Sophie Dawes was taken by the last
+of the Condes under worse circumstances than the Rabouilleuse. There are
+two species of timidity,--the timidity of the mind, and the timidity
+of the nerves; a physical timidity, and a moral timidity. The one is
+independent of the other. The body may fear and tremble, while the mind
+is calm and courageous, or vice versa. This is the key to many moral
+eccentricities. When the two are united in one man, that man will be a
+cipher all his life; such double-sided timidity makes him what we call
+"an imbecile." Often fine suppressed qualities are hidden within that
+imbecile. To this double infirmity we may, perhaps, owe the lives of
+certain monks who lived in ecstasy; for this unfortunate moral and
+physical disposition is produced quite as much by the perfection of the
+soul and of the organs, as by defects which are still unstudied.
+
+The timidity of Jean-Jacques came from a certain torpor of his
+faculties, which a great teacher or a great surgeon, like Despleins,
+would have roused. In him, as in the cretins, the sense of love
+had inherited a strength and vigor which were lacking to his mental
+qualities, though he had mind enough to guide him in ordinary affairs.
+The violence of passion, stripped of the ideal in which most young men
+expend it, only increased his timidity. He had never brought himself to
+court, as the saying is, any woman in Issoudun. Certainly no young girl
+or matron would make advances to a young man of mean stature, awkward
+and shame-faced in attitude; whose vulgar face, with its flattened
+features and pallid skin, making him look old before his time, was
+rendered still more hideous by a pair of large and prominent light-green
+eyes. The presence of a woman stultified the poor fellow, who was driven
+by passion on the one hand as violently as the lack of ideas, resulting
+from his education, held him back on the other. Paralyzed between these
+opposing forces, he had not a word to say, and feared to be spoken to,
+so much did he dread the obligation of replying. Desire, which usually
+sets free the tongue, only petrified his powers of speech. Thus it
+happened that Jean-Jacques Rouget was solitary and sought solitude
+because there alone he was at his ease.
+
+The doctor had seen, too late for remedy, the havoc wrought in his son's
+life by a temperament and a character of this kind. He would have been
+glad to get him married; but to do that, he must deliver him over to
+an influence that was certain to become tyrannical, and the doctor
+hesitated. Was it not practically giving the whole management of the
+property into the hands of a stranger, some unknown girl? The doctor
+knew how difficult it was to gain true indications of the moral
+character of a woman from any study of a young girl. So, while he
+continued to search for a daughter-in-law whose sentiments and education
+offered some guarantees for the future, he endeavored to push his
+son into the ways of avarice; meaning to give the poor fool a sort of
+instinct that might eventually take the place of intelligence.
+
+He trained him, in the first place, to mechanical habits of life; and
+instilled into him fixed ideas as to the investment of his revenues: and
+he spared him the chief difficulties of the management of a fortune,
+by leaving his estates all in good order, and leased for long periods.
+Nevertheless, a fact which was destined to be of paramount importance in
+the life of the poor creature escaped the notice of the wily old doctor.
+Timidity is a good deal like dissimulation, and is equally secretive.
+Jean-Jacques was passionately in love with the Rabouilleuse. Nothing, of
+course, could be more natural. Flore was the only woman who lived in the
+bachelor's presence, the only one he could see at his ease; and at all
+hours he secretly contemplated her and watched her. To him, she was the
+light of his paternal home; she gave him, unknown to herself, the only
+pleasures that brightened his youth. Far from being jealous of his
+father, he rejoiced in the education the old man was giving to Flore:
+would it not make her all he wanted, a woman easy to win, and to whom,
+therefore, he need pay no court? The passion, observe, which is able
+to reflect, gives even to ninnies, fools, and imbeciles a species of
+intelligence, especially in youth. In the lowest human creature we find
+an animal instinct whose persistency resembles thought.
+
+The next day, Flore, who had been reflecting on her master's silence,
+waited in expectation of some momentous communication; but although he
+kept near her, and looked at her on the sly with passionate glances,
+Jean-Jacques still found nothing to say. At last, when the dessert was
+on the table, he recommenced the scene of the night before.
+
+"You like your life here?" he said to Flore.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur Jean."
+
+"Well, stay here then."
+
+"Thank you, Monsieur Jean."
+
+This strange situation lasted three weeks. One night, when no sound
+broke the stillness of the house, Flore, who chanced to wake up,
+heard the regular breathing of human lungs outside her door, and was
+frightened to discover Jean-Jacques, crouched like a dog on the landing.
+
+"He loves me," she thought; "but he will get the rheumatism if he keeps
+up that sort of thing."
+
+The next day Flore looked at her master with a certain expression. This
+mute almost instinctive love had touched her; she no longer thought
+the poor ninny so ugly, though his forehead was crowned with pimples
+resembling ulcers, the signs of a vitiated blood.
+
+"You don't want to go back and live in the fields, do you?" said
+Jean-Jacques when they were alone.
+
+"Why do you ask me that?" she said, looking at him.
+
+"To know--" replied Rouget, turning the color of a boiled lobster.
+
+"Do you wish to send me back?" she asked.
+
+"No, mademoiselle."
+
+"Well, what is it you want to know? You have some reason--"
+
+"Yes, I want to know--"
+
+"What?" said Flore.
+
+"You won't tell me?" exclaimed Rouget.
+
+"Yes I will, on my honor--"
+
+"Ah! that's it," returned Rouget, with a frightened air. "Are you an
+honest girl?"
+
+"I'll take my oath--"
+
+"Are you, truly?"
+
+"Don't you hear me tell you so?"
+
+"Come; are you the same as you were when your uncle brought you here
+barefooted?"
+
+"A fine question, faith!" cried Flore, blushing.
+
+The heir lowered his head and did not raise it again. Flore, amazed at
+such an encouraging sign from a man who had been overcome by a fear of
+that nature, left the room.
+
+Three days later, at the same hour (for both seemed to regard the
+dessert as a field of battle), Flore spoke first, and said to her
+master,--
+
+"Have you anything against me?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle," he answered, "No--" (a pause) "On the contrary."
+
+"You seemed annoyed the other day to hear I was an honest girl."
+
+"No, I only wished to know--" (a pause) "But you would not tell me--"
+
+"On my word!" she said, "I will tell you the whole truth."
+
+"The whole truth about--my father?" he asked in a strangled voice.
+
+"Your father," she said, looking full into her master's eye, "was a
+worthy man--he liked a joke--What of that?--there was nothing in it.
+But, poor dear man, it wasn't the will that was wanting. The truth is,
+he had some spite against you, I don't know what, and he meant--oh! he
+meant you harm. Sometimes he made me laugh; but there! what of that?"
+
+"Well, Flore," said the heir, taking her hand, "as my father was nothing
+to you--"
+
+"What did you suppose he was to me?" she cried, as if offended by some
+unworthy suspicion.
+
+"Well, but just listen--"
+
+"He was my benefactor, that was all. Ah! he would have liked to make me
+his wife, but--"
+
+"But," said Rouget, taking the hand which Flore had snatched away from
+him, "if he was nothing to you you can stay here with me, can't you?"
+
+"If you wish it," she said, dropping her eyes.
+
+"No, no! if you wish it, you!" exclaimed Rouget. "Yes, you shall
+be--mistress here. All that is here shall be yours; you shall take care
+of my property, it is almost yours now--for I love you; I have always
+loved you since the day you came and stood there--there!--with bare
+feet."
+
+Flore made no answer. When the silence became embarrassing, Jean-Jacques
+had recourse to a terrible argument.
+
+"Come," he said, with visible warmth, "wouldn't it be better than
+returning to the fields?"
+
+"As you will, Monsieur Jean," she answered.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of her "as you will," Jean-Jacques got no
+further. Men of his nature want certainty. The effort that they make in
+avowing their love is so great, and costs them so much, that they feel
+unable to go on with it. This accounts for their attachment to the first
+woman who accepts them. We can only guess at circumstances by results.
+Ten months after the death of his father, Jean-Jacques changed
+completely; his leaden face cleared, and his whole countenance breathed
+happiness. Flore exacted that he should take minute care of his person,
+and her own vanity was gratified in seeing him well-dressed; she always
+stood on the sill of the door, and watched him starting for a walk,
+until she could see him no longer. The whole town noticed these changes,
+which had made a new man of the bachelor.
+
+"Have you heard the news?" people said to each other in Issoudun.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Jean-Jacques inherits everything from his father, even the
+Rabouilleuse."
+
+"Don't you suppose the old doctor was wicked enough to provide a ruler
+for his son?"
+
+"Rouget has got a treasure, that's certain," said everybody.
+
+"She's a sly one! She is very handsome, and she will make him marry
+her."
+
+"What luck that girl has had, to be sure!"
+
+"The luck that only comes to pretty girls."
+
+"Ah, bah! do you believe that? look at my uncle Borniche-Herau. You have
+heard of Mademoiselle Ganivet? she was as ugly as seven capital sins,
+but for all that, she got three thousand francs a year out of him."
+
+"Yes, but that was in 1778."
+
+"Still, Rouget is making a mistake. His father left him a good forty
+thousand francs' income, and he ought to marry Mademoiselle Herau."
+
+"The doctor tried to arrange it, but she would not consent; Jean-Jacques
+is so stupid--"
+
+"Stupid! why women are very happy with that style of man."
+
+"Is your wife happy?"
+
+Such was the sort of tattle that ran through Issoudun. If people,
+following the use and wont of the provinces, began by laughing at this
+quasi-marriage, they ended by praising Flore for devoting herself to
+the poor fellow. We now see how it was that Flore Brazier obtained the
+management of the Rouget household,--from father to son, as young Goddet
+had said. It is desirable to sketch the history of that management for
+the edification of old bachelors.
+
+Fanchette, the cook, was the only person in Issoudun who thought it
+wrong that Flore Brazier should be queen over Jean-Jacques Rouget and
+his home. She protested against the immorality of the connection, and
+took a tone of injured virtue; the fact being that she was humiliated
+by having, at her age, a crab-girl for a mistress,--a child who had been
+brought barefoot into the house. Fanchette owned three hundred francs
+a year in the Funds, for the doctor made her invest her savings in that
+way, and he had left her as much more in an annuity; she could therefore
+live at her ease without the necessity of working, and she quitted the
+house nine months after the funeral of her old master, April 15, 1806.
+That date may indicate, to a perspicacious observer, the epoch at which
+Flore Brazier ceased to be an honest girl.
+
+The Rabouilleuse, clever enough to foresee Fanchette's probable
+defection,--there is nothing like the exercise of power for teaching
+policy,--was already resolved to do without a servant. For six months
+she had studied, without seeming to do so, the culinary operations that
+made Fanchette a cordon-bleu worthy of cooking for a doctor. In the
+matter of choice living, doctors are on a par with bishops. The doctor
+had brought Fanchette's talents to perfection. In the provinces the lack
+of occupation and the monotony of existence turn all activity of mind
+towards the kitchen. People do not dine as luxuriously in the country
+as they do in Paris, but they dine better; the dishes are meditated upon
+and studied. In rural regions we often find some Careme in petticoats,
+some unrecognized genius able to serve a simple dish of haricot-beans
+worthy of the nod with which Rossini welcomed a perfectly-rendered
+measure.
+
+When studying for his degree in Paris, the doctor had followed a
+course of chemistry under Rouelle, and had gathered some ideas which he
+afterwards put to use in the chemistry of cooking. His memory is famous
+in Issoudun for certain improvements little known outside of Berry. It
+was he who discovered that an omelette is far more delicate when the
+whites and the yolks are not beaten together with the violence which
+cooks usually put into the operation. He considered that the whites
+should be beaten to a froth and the yolks gently added by degrees;
+moreover a frying-pan should never be used, but a "cagnard" of porcelain
+or earthenware. The "cagnard" is a species of thick dish standing on
+four feet, so that when it is placed on the stove the air circulates
+underneath and prevents the fire from cracking it. In Touraine the
+"cagnard" is called a "cauquemarre." Rabelais, I think, speaks of a
+"cauquemarre" for cooking cockatrice eggs, thus proving the antiquity of
+the utensil. The doctor had also found a way to prevent the tartness
+of browned butter; but his secret, which unluckily he kept to his own
+kitchen, has been lost.
+
+Flore, a born fryer and roaster, two qualities that can never be
+acquired by observation nor yet by labor, soon surpassed Fanchette. In
+making herself a cordon-bleu she was thinking of Jean-Jacques's comfort;
+though she was, it must be owned, tolerably dainty. Incapable, like all
+persons without education, of doing anything with her brains, she spent
+her activity upon household matters. She rubbed up the furniture till
+it shone, and kept everything about the house in a state of cleanliness
+worthy of Holland. She managed the avalanches of soiled linen and the
+floods of water that go by the name of "the wash," which was done,
+according to provincial usage, three times a year. She kept a
+housewifely eye to the linen, and mended it carefully. Then, desirous
+of learning little by little the secret of the family property, she
+acquired the very limited business knowledge which Rouget possessed,
+and increased it by conversations with the notary of the late doctor,
+Monsieur Heron. Thus instructed, she gave excellent advice to her
+little Jean-Jacques. Sure of being always mistress, she was as eager and
+solicitous about the old bachelor's interests as if they had been her
+own. She was not obliged to guard against the exactions of her uncle,
+for two months before the doctor's death Brazier died of a fall as he
+was leaving a wine-shop, where, since his rise in fortune, he spent most
+of his time. Flore had also lost her father; thus she served her master
+with all the affection which an orphan, thankful to make herself a home
+and a settlement in life, would naturally feel.
+
+This period of his life was paradise to poor Jean-Jacques, who now
+acquired the gentle habits of an animal, trained into a sort of monastic
+regularity. He slept late. Flore, who was up at daybreak attending to
+her housekeeping, woke him so that he should find his breakfast ready as
+soon as he had finished dressing. After breakfast, about eleven o'clock,
+Jean-Jacques went to walk; talked with the people he met, and came home
+at three in the afternoon to read the papers,--those of the department,
+and a journal from Paris which he received three days after publication,
+well greased by the thirty hands through which it came, browned by the
+snuffy noses that had pored over it, and soiled by the various tables
+on which it had lain. The old bachelor thus got through the day until
+it was time for dinner; over that meal he spent as much time as it was
+possible to give to it. Flore told him the news of the town, repeating
+the cackle that was current, which she had carefully picked up. Towards
+eight o'clock the lights were put out. Going to bed early is a saving
+of fire and candles very commonly practised in the provinces, which
+contributes no doubt to the empty-mindedness of the inhabitants. Too
+much sleep dulls and weakens the brain.
+
+Such was the life of these two persons during a period of nine years,
+the great events of which were a few journeys to Bourges, Vierzon,
+Chateauroux, or somewhat further, if the notaries of those towns and
+Monsieur Heron had no investments ready for acceptance. Rouget lent his
+money at five per cent on a first mortgage, with release of the wife's
+rights in case the owner was married. He never lent more than a third of
+the value of the property, and required notes payable to his order for
+an additional interest of two and a half per cent spread over the whole
+duration of the loan. Such were the rules his father had told him to
+follow. Usury, that clog upon the ambition of the peasantry, is the
+destroyer of country regions. This levy of seven and a half per cent
+seemed, therefore, so reasonable to the borrowers that Jean-Jacques
+Rouget had his choice of investments; and the notaries of the different
+towns, who got a fine commission for themselves from clients for whom
+they obtained money on such good terms, gave due notice to the old
+bachelor.
+
+During these nine years Flore obtained in the long run, insensibly and
+without aiming for it, an absolute control over her master. From the
+first, she treated him very familiarly; then, without failing him in
+proper respect, she so far surpassed him in superiority of mind and
+force of character that he became in fact the servant of his servant.
+Elderly child that he was, he met this mastery half-way by letting Flore
+take such care of him that she treated him more as a mother would a
+son; and he himself ended by clinging to her with the feeling of a child
+dependent on a mother's protection. But there were other ties between
+them not less tightly knotted. In the first place, Flore kept the
+house and managed all its business. Jean-Jacques left everything to the
+crab-girl so completely that life without her would have seemed to him
+not only difficult, but impossible. In every way, this woman had become
+the one need of his existence; she indulged all his fancies, for she
+knew them well. He loved to see her bright face always smiling at
+him,--the only face that had ever smiled upon him, the only one to which
+he could look for a smile. This happiness, a purely material happiness,
+expressed in the homely words which come readiest to the tongue in a
+Berrichon household, and visible on the fine countenance of the young
+woman, was like a reflection of his own inward content. The state into
+which Jean-Jacques was thrown when Flore's brightness was clouded over
+by some passing annoyance revealed to the girl her power over him, and,
+to make sure of it, she sometimes liked to use it. Using such power
+means, with women of her class, abusing it. The Rabouilleuse, no doubt,
+made her master play some of those scenes buried in the mysteries of
+private life, of which Otway gives a specimen in the tragedy of "Venice
+Preserved," where the scene between the senator and Aquilina is the
+realization of the magnificently horrible. Flore felt so secure of her
+power that, unfortunately for her, and for the bachelor himself, it did
+not occur to her to make him marry her.
+
+Towards the close of 1815, Flore, who was then twenty-seven, had reached
+the perfect development of her beauty. Plump and fresh, and white as
+a Norman countrywoman, she was the ideal of what our ancestors used to
+call "a buxom housewife." Her beauty, always that of a handsome
+barmaid, though higher in type and better kept, gave her a likeness
+to Mademoiselle George in her palmy days, setting aside the latter's
+imperial dignity. Flore had the dazzling white round arms, the ample
+modelling, the satiny textures of the skin, the alluring though less
+rigidly correct outlines of the great actress. Her expression was one
+of sweetness and tenderness; but her glance commanded less respect than
+that of the noblest Agrippina that ever trod the French stage since the
+days of Racine: on the contrary, it evoked a vulgar joy. In 1816 the
+Rabouilleuse saw Maxence Gilet, and fell in love with him at first
+sight. Her heart was cleft by the mythological arrow,--admirable
+description of an effect of nature which the Greeks, unable to conceive
+the chivalric, ideal, and melancholy love begotten of Christianity,
+could represent in no other way. Flore was too handsome to be disdained,
+and Max accepted his conquest.
+
+Thus, at twenty-eight years of age, the Rabouilleuse felt for the first
+time a true love, an idolatrous love, the love which includes all ways
+of loving,--that of Gulnare and that of Medora. As soon as the penniless
+officer found out the respective situations of Flore and Jean-Jacques
+Rouget, he saw something more desirable than an "amourette" in an
+intimacy with the Rabouilleuse. He asked nothing better for his future
+prosperity than to take up his abode at the Rouget's, recognizing
+perfectly the feeble nature of the old bachelor. Flore's passion
+necessarily affected the life and household affairs of her master. For
+a month the old man, now grown excessively timid, saw the laughing and
+kindly face of his mistress change to something terrible and gloomy
+and sullen. He was made to endure flashes of angry temper purposely
+displayed, precisely like a married man whose wife is meditating an
+infidelity. When, after some cruel rebuff, he nerved himself to ask
+Flore the reason of the change, her eyes were so full of hatred, and
+her voice so aggressive and contemptuous, that the poor creature quailed
+under them.
+
+"Good heavens!" she cried; "you have neither heart nor soul! Here's
+sixteen years that I have spent my youth in this house, and I have only
+just found out that you have got a stone there (striking her breast).
+For two months you have seen before your eyes that brave captain, a
+victim of the Bourbons, who was cut out for a general, and is down in
+the depths of poverty, hunted into a hole of a place where there's no
+way to make a penny of money! He's forced to sit on a stool all day in
+the mayor's office to earn--what? Six hundred miserable francs,--a
+fine thing, indeed! And here are you, with six hundred and fifty-nine
+thousand well invested, and sixty thousand francs' income,--thanks
+to me, who never spend more than three thousand a year, everything
+included, even my own clothes, yes, everything!--and you never think of
+offering him a home here, though there's the second floor empty!
+You'd rather the rats and mice ran riot in it than put a human being
+there,--and he a lad your father always allowed to be his own son! Do
+you want to know what you are? I'll tell you,--a fratricide! And I know
+why, too. You see I take an interest in him, and that provokes you.
+Stupid as you seem, you have got more spite in you than the spitefullest
+of men. Well, yes! I do take an interest in him, and a keen one--"
+
+"But, Flore--"
+
+"'_But, Flore_', indeed! What's that got to do with it? You may go and
+find another Flore (if you can!), for I hope this glass of wine may
+poison me if I don't get away from your dungeon of a house. I haven't,
+God be thanked! cost you one penny during the twelve years I've been
+with you, and you have had the pleasure of my company into the bargain.
+I could have earned my own living anywhere with the work that I've
+done here,--washing, ironing, looking after the linen, going to market,
+cooking, taking care of your interests before everything, slaving myself
+to death from morning till night,--and this is my reward!"
+
+"But, Flore--"
+
+"Oh, yes, '_Flore_'! find another Flore, if you can, at your time of
+life, fifty-one years old, and getting feeble,--for the way your health
+is failing is frightful, I know that! and besides, you are none too
+amusing--"
+
+"But, Flore--"
+
+"Let me alone!"
+
+She went out, slamming the door with a violence that echoed through the
+house, and seemed to shake it to its foundations. Jean-Jacques softly
+opened the door and went, still more softly, into the kitchen where she
+was muttering to herself.
+
+"But, Flore," said the poor sheep, "this is the first time I have heard
+of this wish of yours; how do you know whether I will agree to it or
+not?"
+
+"In the first place," she said, "there ought to be a man in the house.
+Everybody knows you have ten, fifteen, twenty thousand francs here; if
+they came to rob you we should both be murdered. For my part, I don't
+care to wake up some fine morning chopped in quarters, as happened to
+that poor servant-girl who was silly enough to defend her master. Well!
+if the robbers knew there was a man in the house as brave as Caesar
+and who wasn't born yesterday,--for Max could swallow three burglars as
+quick as a flash,--well, then I should sleep easy. People may tell you a
+lot of stuff,--that I love him, that I adore him,--and some say this and
+some say that! Do you know what you ought to say? You ought to answer
+that you know it; that your father told you on his deathbed to take care
+of his poor Max. That will stop people's tongues; for every stone in
+Issoudun can tell you he paid Max's schooling--and so! Here's nine years
+that I have eaten your bread--"
+
+"Flore,--Flore!"
+
+"--and many a one in this town has paid court to me, I can tell you!
+Gold chains here, and watches there,--what don't they offer me? 'My
+little Flore,' they say, 'why won't you leave that old fool of a
+Rouget,'--for that's what they call you. 'I leave him!' I always answer,
+'a poor innocent like that? I think I see myself! what would become of
+him? No, no, where the kid is tethered, let her browse--'"
+
+"Yes, Flore; I've none but you in this world, and you make me happy.
+If it will give you pleasure, my dear, well, we will have Maxence Gilet
+here; he can eat with us--"
+
+"Heavens! I should hope so!"
+
+"There, there! don't get angry--"
+
+"Enough for one is enough for two," she answered laughing. "I'll tell
+you what you can do, my lamb, if you really mean to be kind; you must go
+and walk up and down near the Mayor's office at four o'clock, and manage
+to meet Monsieur Gilet and invite him to dinner. If he makes excuses,
+tell him it will give me pleasure; he is too polite to refuse. And after
+dinner, at dessert, if he tells you about his misfortunes, and the hulks
+and so forth--for you can easily get him to talk about all that--then
+you can make him the offer to come and live here. If he makes any
+objection, never mind, I shall know how to settle it."
+
+Walking slowly along the boulevard Baron, the old celibate reflected,
+as much as he had the mind to reflect, over this incident. If he were
+to part from Flore (the mere thought confused him) where could he find
+another woman? Should he marry? At his age he should be married for his
+money, and a legitimate wife would use him far more cruelly than Flore.
+Besides, the thought of being deprived of her tenderness, even if it
+were a mere pretence, caused him horrible anguish. He was therefore as
+polite to Captain Gilet as he knew how to be. The invitation was given,
+as Flore had requested, before witnesses, to guard the hero's honor from
+all suspicion.
+
+A reconciliation took place between Flore and her master; but from that
+day forth Jean-Jacques noticed many a trifle that betokened a total
+change in his mistress's affections. For two or three weeks Flore
+Brazier complained to the tradespeople in the markets, and to the women
+with whom she gossiped, about Monsieur Rouget's tyranny,--how he had
+taken it into his head to invite his self-styled natural brother to live
+with him. No one, however, was taken in by this comedy; and Flore was
+looked upon as a wonderfully clever and artful creature. Old Rouget
+really found himself very comfortable after Max became the master of
+his house; for he thus gained a companion who paid him many attentions,
+without, however, showing any servility. Gilet talked, discussed
+politics, and sometimes went to walk with Rouget. After Max was fairly
+installed, Flore did not choose to do the cooking; she said it spoiled
+her hands. At the request of the grand master of the Order of the
+Knights of Idleness, Mere Cognette produced one of her relatives, an
+old maid whose master, a curate, had lately died without leaving her
+anything,--an excellent cook, withal,--who declared she would devote
+herself for life or death to Max and Flore. In the name of the two
+powers, Mere Cognette promised her an annuity of three hundred francs a
+year at the end of ten years, if she served them loyally, honestly,
+and discreetly. The Vedie, as she was called, was noticeable for a face
+deeply pitted by the small-pox, and correspondingly ugly.
+
+After the new cook had entered upon her duties, the Rabouilleuse took
+the title of Madame Brazier. She wore corsets; she had silk, or
+handsome woollen and cotton dresses, according to the season, expensive
+neckerchiefs, embroidered caps and collars, lace ruffles at her throat,
+boots instead of shoes, and, altogether, adopted a richness and elegance
+of apparel which renewed the youthfulness of her appearance. She was
+like a rough diamond, that needed cutting and mounting by a jeweller to
+bring out its full value. Her desire was to do honor to Max. At the end
+of the first year, in 1817, she brought a horse, styled English, from
+Bourges, for the poor cavalry captain, who was weary of going afoot. Max
+had picked up in the purlieus of Issoudun an old lancer of the Imperial
+Guard, a Pole named Kouski, now very poor, who asked nothing better than
+to quarter himself in Monsieur Rouget's house as the captain's servant.
+Max was Kouski's idol, especially after the duel with the three
+royalists. So, from 1817, the household of the old bachelor was made up
+of five persons, three of whom were masters, and the expenses advanced
+to about eight thousand francs a year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun to save--as Maitre
+Desroches expressed it--an inheritance that was seriously threatened,
+Jean-Jacques Rouget had reached by degrees a condition that was
+semi-vegetative. In the first place, after Max's instalment, Flore put
+the table on an episcopal footing. Rouget, thrown in the way of good
+living, ate more and still more, enticed by the Vedie's excellent
+dishes. He grew no fatter, however, in spite of this abundant and
+luxurious nourishment. From day to day he weakened like a worn-out
+man,--fatigued, perhaps, with the effort of digestion,--and his eyes had
+dark circles around them. Still, when his friends and neighbors met him
+in his walks and questioned him about his health, he always answered
+that he was never better in his life. As he had always been thought
+extremely deficient in mind, people did not notice the constant lowering
+of his faculties. His love for Flore was the one thing that kept
+him alive; in fact, he existed only for her, and his weakness in her
+presence was unbounded; he obeyed the creature's mere look, and watched
+her movements as a dog watches every gesture of his master. In short, as
+Madame Hochon remarked, at fifty-seven years of age he seemed older than
+Monsieur Hochon, an octogenarian.
+
+Every one will suppose, and with reason, that Max's _appartement_ was
+worthy of so charming a fellow. In fact, in the course of six years our
+captain had by degrees perfected the comfort of his abode and adorned
+every detail of it, as much for his own pleasure as for Flore's. But it
+was, after all, only the comfort and luxury of Issoudun,--colored tiles,
+rather elegant wallpapers, mahogany furniture, mirrors in gilt frames,
+muslin curtains with red borders, a bed with a canopy, and draperies
+arranged as the provincial upholsterers arrange them for a rich bride;
+which in the eyes of Issoudun seemed the height of luxury, but are so
+common in vulgar fashion-plates that even the petty shopkeepers in Paris
+have discarded them at their weddings. One very unusual thing appeared,
+which caused much talk in Issoudun, namely, a rush-matting on the
+stairs, no doubt to muffle the sound of feet. In fact, though Max was
+in the habit of coming in at daybreak, he never woke any one, and
+Rouget was far from suspecting that his guest was an accomplice in the
+nocturnal performances of the Knights of Idleness.
+
+About eight o'clock the next morning, Flore, wearing a dressing-gown
+of some pretty cotton stuff with narrow pink stripes, a lace cap on her
+head, and her feet in furred slippers, softly opened the door of Max's
+chamber; seeing that he slept, she remained standing beside the bed.
+
+"He came in so late!" she said to herself. "It was half-past three. He
+must have a good constitution to stand such amusements. Isn't he strong,
+the dear love! I wonder what they did last night."
+
+"Oh, there you are, my little Flore!" said Max, waking like a
+soldier trained by the necessities of war to have his wits and his
+self-possession about him the instant that he waked, however suddenly it
+might happen.
+
+"You are sleepy; I'll go away."
+
+"No, stay; there's something serious going on."
+
+"Were you up to some mischief last night?"
+
+"Ah, bah! It concerns you and me and that old fool. You never told me
+he had a family! Well, his family are coming,--coming here,--no doubt to
+turn us out, neck and crop."
+
+"Ah! I'll shake him well," said Flore.
+
+"Mademoiselle Brazier," said Max gravely, "things are too serious for
+giddiness. Send me my coffee; I'll take it in bed, where I'll think over
+what we had better do. Come back at nine o'clock, and we'll talk about
+it. Meanwhile, behave as if you had heard nothing."
+
+Frightened at the news, Flore left Max and went to make his coffee; but
+a quarter of an hour later, Baruch burst into Max's bedroom, crying out
+to the grand master,--
+
+"Fario is hunting for his barrow!"
+
+In five minutes Max was dressed and in the street, and though he
+sauntered along with apparent indifference, he soon reached the foot of
+the tower embankment, where he found quite a collection of people.
+
+"What is it?" asked Max, making his way through the crowd and reaching
+the Spaniard.
+
+Fario was a withered little man, as ugly as though he were a
+blue-blooded grandee. His fiery eyes, placed very close to his nose
+and piercing as a gimlet, would have won him the name of a sorcerer in
+Naples. He seemed gentle because he was calm, quiet, and slow in his
+movements; and for this reason people commonly called him "goodman
+Fario." But his skin--the color of gingerbread--and his softness of
+manner only hid from stupid eyes, and disclosed to observing ones, the
+half-Moorish nature of a peasant of Granada, which nothing had as yet
+roused from its phlegmatic indolence.
+
+"Are you sure," Max said to him, after listening to his grievance,
+"that you brought your cart to this place? for, thank God, there are no
+thieves in Issoudun."
+
+"I left it just there--"
+
+"If the horse was harnessed to it, hasn't he drawn it somewhere."
+
+"Here's the horse," said Fario, pointing to the animal, which stood
+harnessed thirty feet away.
+
+Max went gravely up to the place where the horse stood, because from
+there the bottom of the tower at the top of the embankment could be
+seen,--the crowd being at the foot of the mound. Everybody followed Max,
+and that was what the scoundrel wanted.
+
+"Has anybody thoughtlessly put a cart in his pocket?" cried Francois.
+
+"Turn out your pockets, all of you!" said Baruch.
+
+Shouts of laughter resounded on all sides. Fario swore. Oaths, with a
+Spaniard, denote the highest pitch of anger.
+
+"Was your cart light?" asked Max.
+
+"Light!" cried Fario. "If those who laugh at me had it on their feet,
+their corns would never hurt them again."
+
+"Well, it must be devilishly light," answered Max, "for look there!"
+pointing to the foot of the tower; "it has flown up the embankment."
+
+At these words all eyes were lifted to the spot, and for a moment there
+was a perfect uproar in the market-place. Each man pointed at the barrow
+bewitched, and all their tongues wagged.
+
+"The devil makes common cause with the inn-keepers," said Goddet to the
+astonished Spaniard. "He means to teach you not to leave your cart about
+in the streets, but to put it in the tavern stables."
+
+At this speech the crowd hooted, for Fario was thought to be a miser.
+
+"Come, my good fellow," said Max, "don't lose heart. We'll go up to the
+tower and see how your barrow got there. Thunder and cannon! we'll lend
+you a hand! Come along, Baruch."
+
+"As for you," he whispered to Francois, "get the people to stand back,
+and make sure there is nobody at the foot of the embankment when you see
+us at the top."
+
+Fario, Max, Baruch, and three other knights climbed to the foot of the
+tower. During the rather perilous ascent Max and Fario noticed that no
+damage to the embankment, nor even trace of the passage of the barrow,
+could be seen. Fario began to imagine witchcraft, and lost his head.
+When they reached the top and examined into the matter, it really seemed
+a thing impossible that the cart had got there.
+
+"How shall I ever get it down?" said the Spaniard, whose little eyes
+began for the first time to show fear; while his swarthy yellow face,
+which seemed as it if could never change color, whitened.
+
+"How?" said Max. "Why, that's not difficult."
+
+And taking advantage of the Spaniard's stupefaction, he raised the
+barrow by the shafts with his robust arms and prepared to fling it
+down, calling in thundering tones as it left his grasp, "Look out there,
+below!"
+
+No accident happened, for the crowd, persuaded by Francois and eaten up
+with curiosity, had retired to a distance from which they could see more
+clearly what went on at the top of the embankment. The cart was dashed
+to an infinite number of pieces in a very picturesque manner.
+
+"There! you have got it down," said Baruch.
+
+"Ah, brigands! ah, scoundrels!" cried Fario; "perhaps it was you who
+brought it up here!"
+
+Max, Baruch, and their three comrades began to laugh at the Spaniard's
+rage.
+
+"I wanted to do you a service," said Max coolly, "and in handling the
+damned thing I came very near flinging myself after it; and this is how
+you thank me, is it? What country do you come from?"
+
+"I come from a country where they never forgive," replied Fario,
+trembling with rage. "My cart will be the cab in which you shall drive
+to the devil!--unless," he said, suddenly becoming as meek as a lamb,
+"you will give me a new one."
+
+"We will talk about that," said Max, beginning to descend.
+
+When they reached the bottom and met the first hilarious group, Max took
+Fario by the button of his jacket and said to him,--
+
+"Yes, my good Fario, I'll give you a magnificent cart, if you will give
+me two hundred and fifty francs; but I won't warrant it to go, like this
+one, up a tower."
+
+At this last jest Fario became as cool as though he were making a
+bargain.
+
+"Damn it!" he said, "give me the wherewithal to replace my barrow, and
+it will be the best use you ever made of old Rouget's money."
+
+Max turned livid; he raised his formidable fist to strike Fario; but
+Baruch, who knew that the blow would descend on others besides the
+Spaniard, plucked the latter away like a feather and whispered to Max,--
+
+"Don't commit such a folly!"
+
+The grand master, thus called to order, began to laugh and said to
+Fario,--
+
+"If I, by accident, broke your barrow, and you in return try to slander
+me, we are quits."
+
+"Not yet," muttered Fario. "But I am glad to know what my barrow was
+worth."
+
+"Ah, Max, you've found your match!" said a spectator of the scene, who
+did not belong to the Order of Idleness.
+
+"Adieu, Monsieur Gilet. I haven't thanked you yet for lending me a
+hand," cried the Spaniard, as he kicked the sides of his horse and
+disappeared amid loud hurrahs.
+
+"We will keep the tires of the wheels for you," shouted a wheelwright,
+who had come to inspect the damage done to the cart.
+
+One of the shafts was sticking upright in the ground, as straight as a
+tree. Max stood by, pale and thoughtful, and deeply annoyed by Fario's
+speech. For five days after this, nothing was talked of in Issoudun but
+the tale of the Spaniard's barrow; it was even fated to travel abroad,
+as Goddet remarked,--for it went the round of Berry, where the speeches
+of Fario and Max were repeated, and at the end of a week the affair,
+greatly to the Spaniard's satisfaction, was still the talk of the three
+departments and the subject of endless gossip. In consequence of the
+vindictive Spaniard's terrible speech, Max and the Rabouilleuse became
+the object of certain comments which were merely whispered in
+Issoudun, though they were spoken aloud in Bourges, Vatan, Vierzon, and
+Chateauroux. Maxence Gilet knew enough of that region of the country to
+guess how envenomed such comments would become.
+
+"We can't stop their tongues," he said at last. "Ah! I did a foolish
+thing!"
+
+"Max!" said Francois, taking his arm. "They are coming to-night."
+
+"They! Who!"
+
+"The Bridaus. My grandmother has just had a letter from her
+goddaughter."
+
+"Listen, my boy," said Max in a low voice. "I have been thinking
+deeply of this matter. Neither Flore nor I ought to seem opposed to the
+Bridaus. If these heirs are to be got rid of, it is for you Hochons
+to drive them out of Issoudun. Find out what sort of people they are.
+To-morrow at Mere Cognette's, after I've taken their measure, we can
+decide what is to be done, and how we can set your grandfather against
+them."
+
+"The Spaniard found the flaw in Max's armor," said Baruch to his cousin
+Francois, as they turned into Monsieur Hochon's house and watched their
+comrade entering his own door.
+
+While Max was thus employed, Flore, in spite of her friend's advice, was
+unable to restrain her wrath; and without knowing whether she would
+help or hinder Max's plans, she burst forth upon the poor bachelor. When
+Jean-Jacques incurred the anger of his mistress, the little attentions
+and vulgar fondlings which were all his joy were suddenly suppressed.
+Flore sent her master, as the children say, into disgrace. No more
+tender glances, no more of the caressing little words in various tones
+with which she decked her conversation,--"my kitten," "my old darling,"
+"my bibi," "my rat," etc. A "you," cold and sharp and ironically
+respectful, cut like the blade of a knife through the heart of the
+miserable old bachelor. The "you" was a declaration of war. Instead
+of helping the poor man with his toilet, handing him what he wanted,
+forestalling his wishes, looking at him with the sort of admiration
+which all women know how to express, and which, in some cases, the
+coarser it is the better it pleases,--saying, for instance, "You look as
+fresh as a rose!" or, "What health you have!" "How handsome you are,
+my old Jean!"--in short, instead of entertaining him with the lively
+chatter and broad jokes in which he delighted, Flore left him to dress
+alone. If he called her, she answered from the foot of the staircase,
+"I can't do everything at once; how can I look after your breakfast and
+wait upon you up there? Are not you big enough to dress your own self?"
+
+"Oh, dear! what have I done to displease her?" the old man asked himself
+that morning, as he got one of these rebuffs after calling for his
+shaving-water.
+
+"Vedie, take up the hot water," cried Flore.
+
+"Vedie!" exclaimed the poor man, stupefied with fear of the anger that
+was crushing him. "Vedie, what is the matter with Madame this morning?"
+
+Flore Brazier required her master and Vedie and Kouski and Max to call
+her Madame.
+
+"She seems to have heard something about you which isn't to your
+credit," answered Vedie, assuming an air of deep concern. "You are doing
+wrong, monsieur. I'm only a poor servant-woman, and you may say I have
+no right to poke my nose into your affairs; but I do say you may search
+through all the women in the world, like that king in holy Scripture,
+and you won't find the equal of Madame. You ought to kiss the ground she
+steps on. Goodness! if you make her unhappy, you'll only spoil your own
+life. There she is, poor thing, with her eyes full of tears."
+
+Vedie left the poor man utterly cast down; he dropped into an armchair
+and gazed into vacancy like the melancholy imbecile that he was, and
+forgot to shave. These alternations of tenderness and severity worked
+upon this feeble creature whose only life was through his amorous fibre,
+the same morbid effect which great changes from tropical heat to arctic
+cold produce upon the human body. It was a moral pleurisy, which wore
+him out like a physical disease. Flore alone could thus affect him; for
+to her, and to her alone, he was as good as he was foolish.
+
+"Well, haven't you shaved yet?" she said, appearing at his door.
+
+Her sudden presence made the old man start violently; and from being
+pale and cast down he grew red for an instant, without, however, daring
+to complain of her treatment.
+
+"Your breakfast is waiting," she added. "You can come down as you are,
+in dressing-gown and slippers; for you'll breakfast alone, I can tell
+you."
+
+Without waiting for an answer, she disappeared. To make him breakfast
+alone was the punishment he dreaded most; he loved to talk to her as
+he ate his meals. When he got to the foot of the staircase he was taken
+with a fit of coughing; for emotion excited his catarrh.
+
+"Cough away!" said Flore in the kitchen, without caring whether he heard
+her or not. "Confound the old wretch! he is able enough to get over
+it without bothering others. If he coughs up his soul, it will only be
+after--"
+
+Such were the amenities the Rabouilleuse addressed to Rouget when she
+was angry. The poor man sat down in deep distress at a corner of the
+table in the middle of the room, and looked at his old furniture and the
+old pictures with a disconsolate air.
+
+"You might at least have put on a cravat," said Flore. "Do you think it
+is pleasant for people to see such a neck as yours, which is redder and
+more wrinkled than a turkey's?"
+
+"But what have I done?" he asked, lifting his big light-green eyes, full
+of tears, to his tormentor, and trying to face her hard countenance.
+
+"What have you done?" she exclaimed. "As if you didn't know? Oh, what a
+hypocrite! Your sister Agathe--who is as much your sister as I am sister
+of the tower of Issoudun, if one's to believe your father, and who has
+no claim at all upon you--is coming here from Paris with her son, a
+miserable two-penny painter, to see you."
+
+"My sister and my nephews coming to Issoudun!" he said, bewildered.
+
+"Oh, yes! play the surprised, do; try to make me believe you didn't
+send for them! sewing your lies with white bread, indeed! Don't fash
+yourself; we won't trouble your Parisians--before they set their feet in
+this house, we shall have shaken the dust of it off ours. Max and I will
+be gone, never to return. As for your will, I'll tear it in quarters
+under your nose, and to your very beard--do you hear? Leave your
+property to your family, if you don't think we are your family; and then
+see if you'll be loved for yourself by a lot of people who have not seen
+you for thirty years,--who in fact have never seen you! Is it that sort
+of sister who can take my place? A pinchbeck saint!"
+
+"If that's all, my little Flore," said the old man, "I won't receive
+my sister, or my nephews. I swear to you this is the first word I
+have heard of their coming. It is all got up by that Madame Hochon--a
+sanctimonious old--"
+
+Max, who had overheard old Rouget's words, entered suddenly, and said in
+a masterful tone,--
+
+"What's all this?"
+
+"My good Max," said the old man, glad to get the protection of the
+soldier who, by agreement with Flore, always took his side in a dispute,
+"I swear by all that is most sacred, that I now hear this news for the
+first time. I have never written to my sister; my father made me promise
+not to leave her any of my property; to leave it to the Church sooner
+than to her. Well, I won't receive my sister Agathe to this house, or
+her sons--"
+
+"Your father was wrong, my dear Jean-Jacques, and Madame Brazier is
+still more wrong," answered Max. "Your father no doubt had his reasons,
+but he is dead, and his hatred should die with him. Your sister is your
+sister, and your nephews are your nephews. You owe it to yourself to
+welcome them, and you owe it to us as well. What would people say in
+Issoudun? Thunder! I've got enough upon my shoulders as it is, without
+hearing people say that we shut you up and don't allow you a will of
+your own, or that we influence you against your relations and are trying
+to get hold of your property. The devil take me if I don't pull up
+stakes and be off, if that sort of calumny is to be flung at me! the
+other is bad enough! Let's eat our breakfast."
+
+Flore, who was now as mild as a weasel, helped Vedie to set the table.
+Old Rouget, full of admiration for Max, took him by both hands and led
+him into the recess of a window, saying in a low voice:--
+
+"Ah! Max, if I had a son, I couldn't love him better than I love you.
+Flore is right: you two are my real family. You are a man of honor, Max,
+and what you have just said is true."
+
+"You ought to receive and entertain your sister and her son, but not
+change the arrangements you have made about your property," said Max.
+"In that way you will do what is right in the eyes of the world, and yet
+keep your promise to your father."
+
+"Well! my dear loves!" cried Flore, gayly, "the salmi is getting
+cold. Come, my old rat, here's a wing for you," she said, smiling on
+Jean-Jacques.
+
+At the words, the long-drawn face of the poor creature lost its
+cadaverous tints, the smile of a Theriaki flickered on his pendent lips;
+but he was seized with another fit of coughing; for the joy of being
+taken back to favor excited as violent an emotion as the punishment
+itself. Flore rose, pulled a little cashmere shawl from her own
+shoulders, and tied it round the old man's throat, exclaiming: "How
+silly to put yourself in such a way about nothing. There, you old goose,
+that will do you good; it has been next my heart--"
+
+"What a good creature!" said Rouget to Max, while Flore went to fetch a
+black velvet cap to cover the nearly bald head of the old bachelor.
+
+"As good as she is beautiful"; answered Max, "but she is quick-tempered,
+like all people who carry their hearts in their hands."
+
+The baldness of this sketch may displease some, who will think the
+flashes of Flore's character belong to the sort of realism which a
+painter ought to leave in shadow. Well! this scene, played again and
+again with shocking variations, is, in its coarse way and its horrible
+veracity, the type of such scenes played by women on whatever rung of
+the social ladder they are perched, when any interest, no matter what,
+draws them from their own line of obedience and induces them to grasp
+at power. In their eyes, as in those of politicians, all means to an end
+are justifiable. Between Flore Brazier and a duchess, between a
+duchess and the richest bourgeoise, between a bourgeoise and the most
+luxuriously kept mistress, there are no differences except those of the
+education they have received, and the surroundings in which they live.
+The pouting of a fine lady is the same thing as the violence of a
+Rabouilleuse. At all levels, bitter sayings, ironical jests, cold
+contempt, hypocritical complaints, false quarrels, win as much success
+as the low outbursts of this Madame Everard of Issoudun.
+
+Max began to relate, with much humor, the tale of Fario and his barrow,
+which made the old man laugh. Vedie and Kouski, who came to listen,
+exploded in the kitchen, and as to Flore, she laughed convulsively.
+After breakfast, while Jean-Jacques read the newspapers (for they
+subscribed to the "Constitutionel" and the "Pandore"), Max carried Flore
+to his own quarters.
+
+"Are you quite sure he has not made any other will since the one in
+which he left the property to you?"
+
+"He hasn't anything to write with," she answered.
+
+"He might have dictated it to some notary," said Max; "we must look out
+for that. Therefore it is well to be cordial to the Bridaus, and at the
+same time endeavor to turn those mortgages into money. The notaries will
+be only too glad to make the transfers; it is grist to their mill. The
+Funds are going up; we shall conquer Spain, and deliver Ferdinand VII.
+and the Cortez, and then they will be above par. You and I could make a
+good thing out of it by putting the old fellow's seven hundred and fifty
+thousand francs into the Funds at eighty-nine. Only you must try to get
+it done in your name; it will be so much secured anyhow."
+
+"A capital idea!" said Flore.
+
+"And as there will be an income of fifty thousand francs from eight
+hundred and ninety thousand, we must make him borrow one hundred and
+forty thousand francs for two years, to be paid back in two instalments.
+In two years, we shall get one hundred thousand francs _in_ Paris, and
+ninety thousand here, and risk nothing."
+
+"If it were not for you, my handsome Max, what would become of me now?"
+she said.
+
+"Oh! to-morrow night at Mere Cognette's, after I have seen the
+Parisians, I shall find a way to make the Hochons themselves get rid of
+them."
+
+"Ah! what a head you've got, my angel! You are a love of a man."
+
+The place Saint-Jean is at the centre of a long street called at
+the upper end the rue Grand Narette, and at the lower the rue Petite
+Narette. The word "Narette" is used in Berry to express the same lay
+of the land as the Genoese word "salita" indicates,--that is to say, a
+steep street. The Grand Narette rises rapidly from the place Saint-Jean
+to the port Vilatte. The house of old Monsieur Hochon is exactly
+opposite that of Jean-Jacques Rouget. From the windows of the room where
+Madame Hochon usually sat, it was easy to see what went on at the Rouget
+household, and vice versa, when the curtains were drawn back or the
+doors were left open. The Hochon house was like the Rouget house, and
+the two were doubtless built by the same architect. Monsieur Hochon,
+formerly tax-collector at Selles in Berry, born, however, at Issoudun,
+had returned to his native place and married the sister of the
+sub-delegate, the gay Lousteau, exchanging his office at Selles for
+another of the same kind at Issoudun. Having retired before 1787, he
+escaped the dangers of the Revolution, to whose principles, however, he
+firmly adhered, like all other "honest men" who howl with the winners.
+Monsieur Hochon came honestly by the reputation of miser, but it would
+be mere repetition to sketch him here. A single specimen of the avarice
+which made him famous will suffice to make you see Monsieur Hochon as he
+was.
+
+At the wedding of his daughter, now dead, who married a Borniche, it was
+necessary to give a dinner to the Borniche family. The bridegroom,
+who was heir to a large fortune, had suffered great mortification from
+having mismanaged his property, and still more because his father and
+mother refused to help him out. The old people, who were living at the
+time of the marriage, were delighted to see Monsieur Hochon step in as
+guardian,--for the purpose, of course, of making his daughter's dowry
+secure. On the day of the dinner, which was given to celebrate the
+signing of the marriage contract, the chief relations of the two
+families were assembled in the salon, the Hochons on one side, the
+Borniches on the other,--all in their best clothes. While the contract
+was being solemnly read aloud by young Heron, the notary, the cook came
+into the room and asked Monsieur Hochon for some twine to truss up the
+turkey,--an essential feature of the repast. The old man dove into the
+pocket of his surtout, pulled out an end of string which had evidently
+already served to tie up a parcel, and gave it to her; but before she
+could leave the room he called out, "Gritte, mind you give it back to
+me!" (Gritte is the abbreviation used in Berry for Marguerite.)
+
+From year to year old Hochon grew more petty in his meanness, and more
+penurious; and at this time he was eighty-five years old. He belonged to
+the class of men who stop short in the street, in the middle of a lively
+dialogue, and stoop to pick up a pin, remarking, as they stick it in
+the sleeve of their coat, "There's the wife's stipend." He complained
+bitterly of the poor quality of the cloth manufactured now-a-days, and
+called attention to the fact that his coat had lasted only ten years.
+Tall, gaunt, thin, and sallow; saying little, reading little, and doing
+nothing to fatigue himself; as observant of forms as an oriental,--he
+enforced in his own house a discipline of strict abstemiousness,
+weighing and measuring out the food and drink of the family, which,
+indeed, was rather numerous, and consisted of his wife, nee Lousteau,
+his grandson Borniche with a sister Adolphine, the heirs of old
+Borniche, and lastly, his other grandson, Francois Hochon.
+
+Hochon's eldest son was taken by the draft of 1813, which drew in the
+sons of well-to-do families who had escaped the regular conscription,
+and were now formed into a corps styled the "guards of honor." This
+heir-presumptive, who was killed at Hanau, had married early in life a
+rich woman, intending thereby to escape all conscriptions; but after he
+was enrolled, he wasted his substance, under a presentiment of his end.
+His wife, who followed the army at a distance, died at Strasburg
+in 1814, leaving debts which her father-in-law Hochon refused to
+pay,--answering the creditors with an axiom of ancient law, "Women are
+minors."
+
+The house, though large, was scantily furnished; on the second floor,
+however, there were two rooms suitable for Madame Bridau and Joseph. Old
+Hochon now repented that he had kept them furnished with two beds,
+each bed accompanied by an old armchair of natural wood covered with
+needlework, and a walnut table, on which figured a water-pitcher of the
+wide-mouthed kind called "gueulard," standing in a basin with a blue
+border. The old man kept his winter store of apples and pears, medlars
+and quinces on heaps of straw in these rooms, where the rats and mice
+ran riot, so that they exhaled a mingled odor of fruit and vermin.
+Madame Hochon now directed that everything should be cleaned; the
+wall-paper, which had peeled off in places, was fastened up again with
+wafers; and she decorated the windows with little curtains which she
+pieced together from old hoards of her own. Her husband having refused
+to let her buy a strip of drugget, she laid down her own bedside carpet
+for her little Agathe,--"Poor little thing!" as she called the mother,
+who was now over forty-seven years old. Madame Hochon borrowed two
+night-tables from a neighbor, and boldly hired two chests of drawers
+with brass handles from a dealer in second-hand furniture who lived next
+to Mere Cognette. She herself had preserved two pairs of candlesticks,
+carved in choice woods by her own father, who had the "turning" mania.
+From 1770 to 1780 it was the fashion among rich people to learn a trade,
+and Monsieur Lousteau, the father, was a turner, just as Louis XVI. was
+a locksmith. These candlesticks were ornamented with circlets made of
+the roots of rose, peach, and apricot trees. Madame Hochon actually
+risked the use of her precious relics! These preparations and this
+sacrifice increased old Hochon's anxiety; up to this time he had not
+believed in the arrival of the Bridaus.
+
+The morning of the day that was celebrated by the trick on Fario, Madame
+Hochon said to her husband after breakfast:--
+
+"I hope, Hochon, that you will receive my goddaughter, Madame Bridau,
+properly." Then, after making sure that her grandchildren were out of
+hearing, she added: "I am mistress of my own property; don't oblige me
+to make up to Agathe in my will for any incivility on your part."
+
+"Do you think, madame," answered Hochon, in a mild voice, "that, at my
+age, I don't know the forms of decent civility?"
+
+"You know very well what I mean, you crafty old thing! Be friendly to
+our guests, and remember that I love Agathe."
+
+"And you love Maxence Gilet also, who is getting the property away from
+your dear Agathe! Ah! you've warmed a viper in your bosom there; but
+after all, the Rouget money is bound to go to a Lousteau."
+
+After making this allusion to the supposed parentage and both Max and
+Agathe, Hochon turned to leave the room; but old Madame Hochon, a woman
+still erect and spare, wearing a round cap with ribbon knots and her
+hair powdered, a taffet petticoat of changeable colors like a pigeon's
+breast, tight sleeves, and her feet in high-heeled slippers, deposited
+her snuff-box on a little table, and said:--
+
+"Really, Monsieur Hochon, how can a man of your sense repeat absurdities
+which, unhappily, cost my poor friend her peace of mind, and Agathe the
+property which she ought to have had from her father. Max Gilet is not
+the son of my brother, whom I often advised to save the money he
+paid for him. You know as well as I do that Madame Rouget was virtue
+itself--"
+
+"And the daughter takes after her; for she strikes me as uncommonly
+stupid. After losing all her fortune, she brings her sons up so well
+that here is one in prison and likely to be brought up on a criminal
+indictment before the Court of Peers for a conspiracy worthy of Berton.
+As for the other, he is worse off; he's a painter. If your proteges are
+to stay here till they have extricated that fool of a Rouget from the
+claws of Gilet and the Rabouilleuse, we shall eat a good deal more than
+half a measure of salt with them."
+
+"That's enough, Monsieur Hochon; you had better wish they may not have
+two strings to their bow."
+
+Monsieur Hochon took his hat, and his cane with an ivory knob, and went
+away petrified by that terrible speech; for he had no idea that his wife
+could show such resolution. Madame Hochon took her prayer-book to read
+the service, for her advanced age prevented her from going daily to
+church; it was only with difficulty that she got there on Sundays and
+holidays. Since receiving her goddaughter's letter she had added a
+petition to her usual prayers, supplicating God to open the eyes of
+Jean-Jacques Rouget, and to bless Agathe and prosper the expedition
+into which she herself had drawn her. Concealing the fact from her
+grandchildren, whom she accused of being "parpaillots," she had asked
+the curate to say a mass for Agathe's success during a neuvaine which
+was being held by her granddaughter, Adolphine Borniche, who thus made
+her prayers in church by proxy.
+
+Adolphine, then eighteen,--who for the last seven years had sewed at
+the side of her grandmother in that cold household of monotonous and
+methodical customs,--had undertaken her neuvaine all the more willingly
+because she hoped to inspire some feeling in Joseph Bridau, in whom
+she took the deepest interest because of the monstrosities which her
+grandfather attributed in her hearing to the young Parisian.
+
+All the old people and sensible people of the town, and the fathers
+of families approved of Madame Hochon's conduct in receiving her
+goddaughter; and their good wishes for the latter's success were in
+proportion to the secret contempt with which the conduct of Maxence
+Gilet had long inspired them. Thus the news of the arrival of Rouget's
+sister and nephew raised two parties in Issoudun,--that of the higher
+and older bourgeoisie, who contented themselves with offering good
+wishes and in watching events without assisting them, and that of the
+Knights of Idleness and the partisans of Max, who, unfortunately, were
+capable of committing many high-handed outrages against the Parisians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Agathe and Joseph arrived at the coach-office of the Messageries-Royales
+in the place Misere at three o'clock. Though tired with the journey,
+Madame Bridau felt her youth revive at sight of her native land, where
+at every step she came upon memories and impressions of her girlish
+days. In the then condition of public opinion in Issoudun, the arrival
+of the Parisians was known all over the town in ten minutes. Madame
+Hochon came out upon her doorstep to welcome her godchild, and kissed
+her as though she were really a daughter. After seventy-two years of
+a barren and monotonous existence, exhibiting in their retrospect the
+graves of her three children, all unhappy in their lives, and all dead,
+she had come to feel a sort of fictitious motherhood for the young girl
+whom she had, as she expressed it, carried in her pouch for sixteen
+years. Through the gloom of provincial life the old woman had cherished
+this early friendship, this girlish memory, as closely as if Agathe
+had remained near her, and she had also taken the deepest interest in
+Bridau. Agathe was led in triumph to the salon where Monsieur Hochon was
+stationed, chilling as a tepid oven.
+
+"Here is Monsieur Hochon; how does he seem to you?" asked his wife.
+
+"Precisely the same as when I last saw him," said the Parisian woman.
+
+"Ah! it is easy to see you come from Paris; you are so complimentary,"
+remarked the old man.
+
+The presentations took place: first, young Baruch Borniche, a tall youth
+of twenty-two; then Francois Hochon, twenty-four; and lastly little
+Adolphine, who blushed and did not know what to do with her arms; she
+was anxious not to seem to be looking at Joseph Bridau, who in his turn
+was narrowly observed, though from different points of view, by the two
+young men and by old Hochon. The miser was saying to himself, "He is
+just out of the hospital; he will be as hungry as a convalescent." The
+young men were saying, "What a head! what a brigand! we shall have our
+hands full!"
+
+"This is my son, the painter; my good Joseph," said Agathe at last,
+presenting the artist.
+
+There was an effort in the accent that she put upon the word "good,"
+which revealed the mother's heart, whose thoughts were really in the
+prison of the Luxembourg.
+
+"He looks ill," said Madame Hochon; "he is not at all like you."
+
+"No, madame," said Joseph, with the brusque candor of an artist; "I am
+like my father, and very ugly at that."
+
+Madame Hochon pressed Agathe's hand which she was holding, and glanced
+at her as much as to say, "Ah! my child; I understand now why you prefer
+your good-for-nothing Philippe."
+
+"I never saw your father, my dear boy," she said aloud; "it is enough
+to make me love you that you are your mother's son. Besides, you have
+talent, so the late Madame Descoings used to write to me; she was the
+only one of late years who told me much about you."
+
+"Talent!" exclaimed the artist, "not as yet; but with time and patience
+I may win fame and fortune."
+
+"By painting?" said Monsieur Hochon ironically.
+
+"Come, Adolphine," said Madame Hochon, "go and see about dinner."
+
+"Mother," said Joseph, "I will attend to the trunks which they are
+bringing in."
+
+"Hochon," said the grandmother to Francois, "show the rooms to Monsieur
+Bridau."
+
+As the dinner was to be served at four o'clock and it was now only half
+past three, Baruch rushed into the town to tell the news of the Bridau
+arrival, describe Agathe's dress, and more particularly to picture
+Joseph, whose haggard, unhealthy, and determined face was not unlike the
+ideal of a brigand. That evening Joseph was the topic of conversation in
+all the households of Issoudun.
+
+"That sister of Rouget must have seen a monkey before her son was born,"
+said one; "he is the image of a baboon."
+
+"He has the face of a brigand and the eyes of a basilisk."
+
+"All artists are like that."
+
+"They are as wicked as the red ass, and as spiteful as monkeys."
+
+"It is part of their business."
+
+"I have just seen Monsieur Beaussier, and he says he would not like to
+meet him in a dark wood; he saw him in the diligence."
+
+"He has got hollows over the eyes like a horse, and he laughs like a
+maniac."
+
+"The fellow looks as though he were capable of anything; perhaps it's
+his fault that his brother, a fine handsome man they tell me, has gone
+to the bad. Poor Madame Bridau doesn't seem as if she were very happy
+with him."
+
+"Suppose we take advantage of his being here, and have our portraits
+painted?"
+
+The result of all these observations, scattered through the town was,
+naturally, to excite curiosity. All those who had the right to visit the
+Hochons resolved to call that very night and examine the Parisians. The
+arrival of these two persons in the stagnant town was like the falling
+of a beam into a community of frogs.
+
+After stowing his mother's things and his own into the two attic
+chambers, which he examined as he did so, Joseph took note of the silent
+house, where the walls, the stair-case, the wood-work, were devoid of
+decoration and humid with frost, and where there was literally nothing
+beyond the merest necessaries. He felt the brusque transition from his
+poetic Paris to the dumb and arid province; and when, coming downstairs,
+he chanced to see Monsieur Hochon cutting slices of bread for each
+person, he understood, for the first time in his life, Moliere's
+Harpagon.
+
+"We should have done better to go to an inn," he said to himself.
+
+The aspect of the dinner confirmed his apprehensions. After a soup whose
+watery clearness showed that quantity was more considered than quality,
+the bouilli was served, ceremoniously garnished with parsley; the
+vegetables, in a dish by themselves, being counted into the items of the
+repast. The bouilli held the place of honor in the middle of the table,
+accompanied with three other dishes: hard-boiled eggs on sorrel opposite
+to the vegetables; then a salad dressed with nut-oil to face little cups
+of custard, whose flavoring of burnt oats did service as vanilla, which
+it resembles much as coffee made of chiccory resembles mocha. Butter and
+radishes, in two plates, were at each end of the table; pickled
+gherkins and horse-radish completed the spread, which won Madam Hochon's
+approbation. The good old woman gave a contented little nod when she saw
+that her husband had done things properly, for the first day at least.
+The old man answered with a glance and a shrug of his shoulders, which
+it was easy to translate into--
+
+"See the extravagances you force me to commit!"
+
+As soon as Monsieur Hochon had, as it were, slivered the bouilli into
+slices, about as thick as the sole of a dancing-shoe, that dish was
+replaced by another, containing three pigeons. The wine was of the
+country, vintage 1811. On a hint from her grandmother, Adolphine had
+decorated each end of the table with a bunch of flowers.
+
+"At Rome as the Romans do," thought the artist, looking at the table,
+and beginning to eat,--like a man who had breakfasted at Vierzon, at six
+o'clock in the morning, on an execrable cup of coffee. When Joseph had
+eaten up all his bread and asked for more, Monsieur Hochon rose, slowly
+searched in the pocket of his surtout for a key, unlocked a cupboard
+behind him, broke off a section of a twelve-pound loaf, carefully cut a
+round of it, then divided the round in two, laid the pieces on a plate,
+and passed the plate across the table to the young painter, with the
+silence and coolness of an old soldier who says to himself on the eve of
+battle, "Well, I can meet death." Joseph took the half-slice, and fully
+understood that he was not to ask for any more. No member of the
+family was the least surprised at this extraordinary performance. The
+conversation went on. Agathe learned that the house in which she was
+born, her father's house before he inherited that of the old Descoings,
+had been bought by the Borniches; she expressed a wish to see it once
+more.
+
+"No doubt," said her godmother, "the Borniches will be here this
+evening; we shall have half the town--who want to examine you," she
+added, turning to Joseph, "and they will all invite you to their
+houses."
+
+Gritte, who in spite of her sixty years, was the only servant of the
+house, brought in for dessert the famous ripe cheese of Touraine and
+Berry, made of goat's milk, whose mouldy discolorations so distinctly
+reproduce the pattern of the vine-leaves on which it is served, that
+Touraine ought to have invented the art of engraving. On either side of
+these little cheeses Gritte, with a company air, placed nuts and some
+time-honored biscuits.
+
+"Well, Gritte, the fruit?" said Madame Hochon.
+
+"But, madame, there is none rotten," answered Gritte.
+
+Joseph went off into roars of laughter, as though he were among his
+comrades in the atelier; for he suddenly perceived that the parsimony of
+eating only the fruits which were beginning to rot had degenerated into
+a settled habit.
+
+"Bah! we can eat them all the same," he exclaimed, with the heedless
+gayety of a man who will have his say.
+
+"Monsieur Hochon, pray get some," said the old lady.
+
+Monsieur Hochon, much incensed at the artist's speech, fetched some
+peaches, pears, and Saint Catherine plums.
+
+"Adolphine, go and gather some grapes," said Madame Hochon to her
+granddaughter.
+
+Joseph looked at the two young men as much as to say: "Is it to such
+high living as this that you owe your healthy faces?"
+
+Baruch understood the keen glance and smiled; for he and his cousin
+Hochon were behaving with much discretion. The home-life was of less
+importance to youths who supped three times the week at Mere Cognette's.
+Moreover, just before dinner, Baruch had received notice that the grand
+master convoked the whole Order at midnight for a magnificent supper, in
+the course of which a great enterprise would be arranged. The feast of
+welcome given by old Hochon to his guests explains how necessary were
+the nocturnal repasts at the Cognette's to two young fellows blessed
+with good appetites, who, we may add, never missed any of them.
+
+"We will take the liqueur in the salon," said Madame Hochon, rising and
+motioning to Joseph to give her his arm. As they went out before the
+others, she whispered to the painter:--
+
+"Eh! my poor boy; this dinner won't give you an indigestion; but I had
+hard work to get it for you. It is always Lent here; you will get enough
+just to keep life in you, and no more. So you must bear it patiently."
+
+The kind-heartedness of the old woman, who thus drew her own
+predicament, pleased the artist.
+
+"I have lived fifty years with that man, without ever hearing
+half-a-dozen gold pieces chink in my purse," she went on. "Oh! if I did
+not hope that you might save your property, I would never have brought
+you and your mother into my prison."
+
+"But how can you survive it?" cried Joseph naively, with the gayety
+which a French artist never loses.
+
+"Ah, you may well ask!" she said. "I pray."
+
+Joseph quivered as he heard the words, which raised the old woman so
+much in his estimation that he stepped back a little way to look into
+her face; it was radiant with so tender a serenity that he said to
+her,--
+
+"Let me paint your portrait."
+
+"No, no," she answered, "I am too weary of life to wish to remain here
+on canvas."
+
+Gayly uttering the sad words, she opened a closet, and brought out a
+flask containing ratafia, a domestic manufacture of her own, the receipt
+for which she obtained from the far-famed nuns to whom is also due
+the celebrated cake of Issoudun,--one of the great creations of French
+confectionery; which no chef, cook, pastry-cook, or confectioner
+has ever been able to reproduce. Monsieur de Riviere, ambassador at
+Constantinople, ordered enormous quantities every year for the Seraglio.
+
+Adolphine held a lacquer tray on which were a number of little old
+glasses with engraved sides and gilt edges; and as her mother filled
+each of them, she carried it to the company.
+
+"It seems as though my father's turn were coming round!" exclaimed
+Agathe, to whom this immutable provincial custom recalled the scenes of
+her youth.
+
+"Hochon will go to his club presently to read the papers, and we shall
+have a little time to ourselves," said the old lady in a low voice.
+
+In fact, ten minutes later, the three women and Joseph were alone in the
+salon, where the floor was never waxed, only swept, and the worsted-work
+designs in oaken frames with grooved mouldings, and all the other plain
+and rather dismal furniture seemed to Madame Bridau to be in exactly the
+same state as when she had left Issoudun. Monarchy, Revolution, Empire,
+and Restoration, which respected little, had certainly respected this
+room where their glories and their disasters had left not the slightest
+trace.
+
+"Ah! my godmother, in comparison with your life, mine has been cruelly
+tried," exclaimed Madame Bridau, surprised to find even a canary which
+she had known when alive, stuffed, and standing on the mantleshelf
+between the old clock, the old brass brackets, and the silver
+candlesticks.
+
+"My child," said the old lady, "trials are in the heart. The greater
+and more necessary the resignation, the harder the struggle with our
+own selves. But don't speak of me, let us talk of your affairs. You are
+directly in front of the enemy," she added, pointing to the windows of
+the Rouget house.
+
+"They are sitting down to dinner," said Adolphine.
+
+The young girl, destined for a cloister, was constantly looking out of
+the window, in hopes of getting some light upon the enormities imputed
+to Maxence Gilet, the Rabouilleuse, and Jean-Jacques, of which a few
+words reached her ears whenever she was sent out of the room that others
+might talk about them. The old lady now told her granddaughter to leave
+her alone with Madame Bridau and Joseph until the arrival of visitors.
+
+"For," she said, turning to the Parisians, "I know my Issoudun by heart;
+we shall have ten or twelve batches of inquisitive folk here to-night."
+
+In fact Madame Hochon had hardly related the events and the details
+concerning the astounding influence obtained by Maxence Gilet and the
+Rabouilleuse over Jean-Jacques Rouget (without, of course, following the
+synthetical method with which they have been presented here), adding the
+many comments, descriptions, and hypotheses with which the good and evil
+tongues of the town embroidered them, before Adolphine announced
+the approach of the Borniche, Beaussier, Lousteau-Prangin, Fichet,
+Goddet-Herau families; in all, fourteen persons looming in the distance.
+
+"You now see, my dear child," said the old lady, concluding her tale,
+"that it will not be an easy matter to get this property out of the jaws
+of the wolf--"
+
+"It seems to me so difficult--with a scoundrel such as you represent
+him, and a daring woman like that crab-girl--as to be actually
+impossible," remarked Joseph. "We should have to stay a year in Issoudun
+to counteract their influence and overthrow their dominion over
+my uncle. Money isn't worth such a struggle,--not to speak of the
+meannesses to which we should have to condescend. My mother has only two
+weeks' leave of absence; her place is a permanent one, and she must not
+risk it. As for me, in the month of October I have an important work,
+which Schinner has just obtained for me from a peer of France; so you
+see, madame, my future fortune is in my brushes."
+
+This speech was received by Madame Hochon with much amazement. Though
+relatively superior to the town she lived in, the old lady did not
+believe in painting. She glanced at her goddaughter, and again pressed
+her hand.
+
+"This Maxence is the second volume of Philippe," whispered Joseph in
+his mother's ear, "--only cleverer and better behaved. Well, madame," he
+said, aloud, "we won't trouble Monsieur Hochon by staying very long."
+
+"Ah! you are young; you know nothing of the world," said the old lady.
+"A couple of weeks, if you are judicious, may produce great results;
+listen to my advice, and act accordingly."
+
+"Oh! willingly," said Joseph, "I know I have a perfectly amazing
+incapacity for domestic statesmanship: for example, I am sure I don't
+know what Desroches himself would tell us to do if my uncle declines to
+see us."
+
+Mesdames Borniche, Goddet-Herau, Beaussier, Lousteau-Prangin and Fichet,
+decorated with their husbands, here entered the room.
+
+When the fourteen persons were seated, and the usual compliments were
+over, Madame Hochon presented her goddaughter Agathe and Joseph. Joseph
+sat in his armchair all the evening, engaged in slyly studying the
+sixty faces which, from five o'clock until half past nine, posed for
+him gratis, as he afterwards told his mother. Such behavior before the
+aristocracy of Issoudun did not tend to change the opinion of the
+little town concerning him: every one went home ruffled by his sarcastic
+glances, uneasy under his smiles, and even frightened at his face,
+which seemed sinister to a class of people unable to recognize the
+singularities of genius.
+
+After ten o'clock, when the household was in bed, Madame Hochon kept her
+goddaughter in her chamber until midnight. Secure from interruption,
+the two women told each other the sorrows of their lives, and exchanged
+their sufferings. As Agathe listened to the last echoes of a soul that
+had missed its destiny, and felt the sufferings of a heart, essentially
+generous and charitable, whose charity and generosity could never be
+exercised, she realized the immensity of the desert in which the powers
+of this noble, unrecognized soul had been wasted, and knew that she
+herself, with the little joys and interests of her city life relieving
+the bitter trials sent from God, was not the most unhappy of the two.
+
+"You who are so pious," she said, "explain to me my shortcomings; tell
+me what it is that God is punishing in me."
+
+"He is preparing us, my child," answered the old woman, "for the
+striking of the last hour."
+
+At midnight the Knights of Idleness were collecting, one by one like
+shadows, under the trees of the boulevard Baron, and speaking together
+in whispers.
+
+"What are we going to do?" was the first question of each as he arrived.
+
+"I think," said Francois, "that Max means merely to give us a supper."
+
+"No; matters are very serious for him, and for the Rabouilleuse: no
+doubt, he has concocted some scheme against the Parisians."
+
+"It would be a good joke to drive them away."
+
+"My grandfather," said Baruch, "is terribly alarmed at having two extra
+mouths to feed, and he'd seize on any pretext--"
+
+"Well, comrades!" cried Max softly, now appearing on the scene, "why are
+you star-gazing? the planets don't distil kirschwasser. Come, let us go
+to Mere Cognette's!"
+
+"To Mere Cognette's! To Mere Cognette's!" they all cried.
+
+The cry, uttered as with one voice, produced a clamor which rang through
+the town like the hurrah of troops rushing to an assault; total silence
+followed. The next day, more than one inhabitant must have said to his
+neighbor: "Did you hear those frightful cries last night, about one
+o'clock? I thought there was surely a fire somewhere."
+
+A supper worthy of La Cognette brightened the faces of the twenty-two
+guests; for the whole Order was present. At two in the morning, as they
+were beginning to "siroter" (a word in the vocabulary of the Knights
+which admirably expresses the act of sipping and tasting the wine in
+small quantities), Max rose to speak:--
+
+"My dear fellows! the honor of your grand master was grossly attacked
+this morning, after our memorable joke with Fario's cart,--attacked by
+a vile peddler, and what is more, a Spaniard (oh, Cabrera!); and I have
+resolved to make the scoundrel feel the weight of my vengeance; always,
+of course, within the limits we have laid down for our fun. After
+reflecting about it all day, I have found a trick which is worth putting
+into execution,--a famous trick, that will drive him crazy. While
+avenging the insult offered to the Order in my person, we shall be
+feeding the sacred animals of the Egyptians,--little beasts which are,
+after all, the creatures of God, and which man unjustly persecutes.
+Thus we see that good is the child of evil, and evil is the offspring of
+good; such is the paramount law of the universe! I now order you all,
+on pain of displeasing your very humble grand master, to procure
+clandestinely, each one of you, twenty rats, male or female as heaven
+pleases. Collect your contingent within three days. If you can get more,
+the surplus will be welcome. Keep the interesting rodents without food;
+for it is essential that the delightful little beasts be ravenous with
+hunger. Please observe that I will accept both house-mice and field-mice
+as rats. If we multiply twenty-two by twenty, we shall have four
+hundred; four hundred accomplices let loose in the old church of the
+Capuchins, where Fario has stored all his grain, will consume a not
+insignificant quantity! But be lively about it! There's no time to lose.
+Fario is to deliver most of the grain to his customers in a week or so;
+and I am determined that that Spaniard shall find a terrible deficit.
+Gentlemen, I have not the merit of this invention," continued Max,
+observing the signs of general admiration. "Render to Caesar that
+which is Caesar's, and to God that which is God's. My scheme is only a
+reproduction of Samson's foxes, as related in the Bible. But Samson
+was an incendiary, and therefore no philanthropist; while we, like the
+Brahmins, are the protectors of a persecuted race. Mademoiselle Flore
+Brazier has already set all her mouse-traps, and Kouski, my right-arm,
+is hunting field-mice. I have spoken."
+
+"I know," said Goddet, "where to find an animal that's worth forty rats,
+himself alone."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"A squirrel."
+
+"I offer a little monkey," said one of the younger members, "he'll make
+himself drunk on wheat."
+
+"Bad, very bad!" exclaimed Max, "it would show who put the beasts
+there."
+
+"But we might each catch a pigeon some night," said young Beaussier,
+"taking them from different farms; if we put them through a hole in the
+roof, they'll attract thousands of others."
+
+"So, then, for the next week, Fario's storehouse is the order of the
+night," cried Max, smiling at Beaussier. "Recollect; people get up early
+in Saint-Paterne. Mind, too, that none of you go there without turning
+the soles of your list shoes backward. Knight Beaussier, the inventor
+of pigeons, is made director. As for me, I shall take care to leave my
+imprint on the sacks of wheat. Gentlemen, you are, all of you, appointed
+to the commissariat of the Army of Rats. If you find a watchman
+sleeping in the church, you must manage to make him drunk,--and do it
+cleverly,--so as to get him far away from the scene of the Rodents'
+Orgy."
+
+"You don't say anything about the Parisians?" questioned Goddet.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Max, "I want time to study them. Meantime, I offer
+my best shotgun--the one the Emperor gave me, a treasure from the
+manufactory at Versailles--to whoever finds a way to play the Bridaus
+a trick which shall get them into difficulties with Madame and Monsieur
+Hochon, so that those worthy old people shall send them off, or they
+shall be forced to go of their own accord,--without, understand me,
+injuring the venerable ancestors of my two friends here present, Baruch
+and Francois."
+
+"All right! I'll think of it," said Goddet, who coveted the gun.
+
+"If the inventor of the trick doesn't care for the gun, he shall have my
+horse," added Max.
+
+After this night twenty brains were tortured to lay a plot against
+Agathe and her son, on the basis of Max's programme. But the devil
+alone, or chance, could really help them to success; for the conditions
+given made the thing well-nigh impossible.
+
+The next morning Agathe and Joseph came downstairs just before the
+second breakfast, which took place at ten o'clock. In Monsieur Hochon's
+household the name of first breakfast was given to a cup of milk and
+slice of bread and butter which was taken in bed, or when rising. While
+waiting for Madame Hochon, who notwithstanding her age went minutely
+through the ceremonies with which the duchesses of Louis XV.'s time
+performed their toilette, Joseph noticed Jean-Jacques Rouget planted
+squarely on his feet at the door of his house across the street. He
+naturally pointed him out to his mother, who was unable to recognize her
+brother, so little did he look like what he was when she left him.
+
+"That is your brother," said Adolphine, who entered, giving an arm to
+her grandmother.
+
+"What an idiot he looks like!" exclaimed Joseph.
+
+Agathe clasped her hands, and raised her eyes to heaven.
+
+"What a state they have driven him to! Good God! can that be a man only
+fifty-seven years old?"
+
+She looked attentively at her brother, and saw Flore Brazier standing
+directly behind him, with her hair dressed, a pair of snowy shoulders
+and a dazzling bosom showing through a gauze neckerchief, which was
+trimmed with lace; she was wearing a dress with a tight-fitting
+waist, made of grenadine (a silk material then much in fashion), with
+leg-of-mutton sleeves so-called, fastened at the wrists by handsome
+bracelets. A gold chain rippled over the crab-girl's bosom as she leaned
+forward to give Jean-Jacques his black silk cap lest he should take
+cold. The scene was evidently studied.
+
+"Hey!" cried Joseph, "there's a fine woman, and a rare one! She is made,
+as they say, to paint. What flesh-tints! Oh, the lovely tones!
+what surface! what curves! Ah, those shoulders! She's a magnificent
+caryatide. What a model she would have been for one of Titians'
+Venuses!"
+
+Adolphine and Madame Hochon thought he was talking Greek; but Agathe
+signed to them behind his back, as if to say that she was accustomed to
+such jargon.
+
+"So you think a creature who is depriving you of your property
+handsome?" said Madame Hochon.
+
+"That doesn't prevent her from being a splendid model!--just plump
+enough not to spoil the hips and the general contour--"
+
+"My son, you are not in your studio," said Agathe. "Adolphine is here."
+
+"Ah, true! I did wrong. But you must remember that ever since leaving
+Paris I have seen nothing but ugly women--"
+
+"My dear godmother," said Agathe hastily, "how shall I be able to meet
+my brother, if that creature is always with him?"
+
+"Bah!" said Joseph. "I'll go and see him myself. I don't think him
+such an idiot, now I find he has the sense to rejoice his eyes with a
+Titian's Venus."
+
+"If he were not an idiot," said Monsieur Hochon, who had come in, "he
+would have married long ago and had children; and then you would have no
+chance at the property. It is an ill wind that blows no good."
+
+"Your son's idea is very good," said Madame Hochon; "he ought to pay the
+first visit. He can make his uncle understand that if you call there he
+must be alone."
+
+"That will affront Mademoiselle Brazier," said old Hochon. "No, no,
+madame; swallow the pill. If you can't get the whole property, secure a
+small legacy."
+
+The Hochons were not clever enough to match Max. In the middle of
+breakfast Kouski brought over a letter from Monsieur Rouget, addressed
+to his sister, Madame Bridau. Madame Hochon made her husband read it
+aloud, as follows:--
+
+  My dear Sister,--I learn from strangers of your arrival in
+  Issoudun. I can guess the reason which made you prefer the house
+  of Monsieur and Madame Hochon to mine; but if you will come to see
+  me you shall be received as you ought to be. I should certainly
+  pay you the first visit if my health did not compel me just now to
+  keep the house; for which I offer my affectionate regrets. I shall
+  be delighted to see my nephew, whom I invite to dine with me
+  to-morrow,--young men are less sensitive than women about the
+  company. It will give me pleasure if Messrs. Baruch Borniche and
+  Francois Hochon will accompany him.
+
+  Your affectionate brother,
+
+  J.-J. Rouget.
+
+
+"Say that we are at breakfast, but that Madame Bridau will send an
+answer presently, and the invitations are all accepted," said Monsieur
+Hochon to the servant.
+
+The old man laid a finger on his lips, to require silence from
+everybody. When the street-door was shut, Monsieur Hochon, little
+suspecting the intimacy between his grandsons and Max, threw one of his
+slyest looks at his wife and Agathe, remarking,--
+
+"He is just as capable of writing that note as I am of giving away
+twenty-five louis; it is the soldier who is corresponding with us!"
+
+"What does that portend?" asked Madame Hochon. "Well, never mind; we
+will answer him. As for you, monsieur," she added, turning to Joseph,
+"you must dine there; but if--"
+
+The old lady was stopped short by a look from her husband. Knowing how
+warm a friendship she felt for Agathe, old Hochon was in dread lest she
+should leave some legacy to her goddaughter in case the latter lost the
+Rouget property. Though fifteen years older than his wife, the miser
+hoped to inherit her fortune, and to become eventually the sole master
+of their whole property. That hope was a fixed idea with him. Madame
+Hochon knew that the best means of obtaining a few concessions from
+her husband was to threaten him with her will. Monsieur Hochon now took
+sides with his guests. An enormous fortune was at stake; with a sense
+of social justice, he wished it to go to the natural heirs, instead of
+being pillaged by unworthy outsiders. Moreover, the sooner the matter
+was decided, the sooner he should get rid of his guests. Now that the
+struggle between the interlopers and the heirs, hitherto existing only
+in his wife's mind, had become an actual fact, Monsieur Hochon's keen
+intelligence, lulled to sleep by the monotony of provincial life, was
+fully roused. Madame Hochon had been agreeably surprised that morning
+to perceive, from a few affectionate words which the old man had said to
+her about Agathe, that so able and subtle an auxiliary was on the Bridau
+side.
+
+Towards midday the brains of Monsieur and Madame Hochon, of Agathe, and
+Joseph (the latter much amazed at the scrupulous care of the old
+people in the choice of words), were delivered of the following answer,
+concocted solely for the benefit of Max and Flore:--
+
+  My dear Brother,--If I have stayed away from Issoudun, and kept up
+  no intercourse with any one, not even with you, the fault lies not
+  merely with the strange and false ideas my father conceived about
+  me, but with the joys and sorrows of my life in Paris; for if God
+  made me a happy wife, he has also deeply afflicted me as a mother.
+  You are aware that my son, your nephew Philippe, lies under
+  accusation of a capital offence in consequence of his devotion to
+  the Emperor. Therefore you can hardly be surprised if a widow,
+  compelled to take a humble situation in a lottery-office for a
+  living, should come to seek consolation from those among whom she
+  was born.
+
+  The profession adopted by the son who accompanies me is one that
+  requires great talent, many sacrifices, and prolonged studies
+  before any results can be obtained. Glory for an artist precedes
+  fortune; is not that to say that Joseph, though he may bring honor
+  to the family, will still be poor? Your sister, my dear
+  Jean-Jacques, would have borne in silence the penalties of paternal
+  injustice, but you will pardon a mother for reminding you that you
+  have two nephews; one of whom carried the Emperor's orders at the
+  battle of Montereau and served in the Guard at Waterloo, and is
+  now in prison for his devotion to Napoleon; the other, from his
+  thirteenth year, has been impelled by natural gifts to enter a
+  difficult though glorious career.
+
+  I thank you for your letter, my dear brother, with heart-felt
+  warmth, for my own sake, and also for Joseph's, who will certainly
+  accept your invitation. Illness excuses everything, my dear
+  Jean-Jacques, and I shall therefore go to see you in your own house.
+  A sister is always at home with a brother, no matter what may be the
+  life he has adopted.
+
+  I embrace you tenderly.
+
+  Agathe Rouget
+
+
+"There's the matter started. Now, when you see him," said Monsieur
+Hochon to Agathe, "you must speak plainly to him about his nephews."
+
+The letter was carried over by Gritte, who returned ten minutes later
+to render an account to her masters of all that she had seen and heard,
+according to a settled provincial custom.
+
+"Since yesterday Madame has had the whole house cleaned up, which she
+left--"
+
+"Whom do you mean by Madame?" asked old Hochon.
+
+"That's what they call the Rabouilleuse over there," answered Gritte.
+"She left the salon and all Monsieur Rouget's part of the house in a
+pitiable state; but since yesterday the rooms have been made to look
+like what they were before Monsieur Maxence went to live there. You can
+see your face on the floors. La Vedie told me that Kouski went off on
+horseback at five o'clock this morning, and came back at nine, bringing
+provisions. It is going to be a grand dinner!--a dinner fit for the
+archbishop of Bourges! There's a fine bustle in the kitchen, and
+they are as busy as bees. The old man says, 'I want to do honor to my
+nephew,' and he pokes his nose into everything. It appears _the Rougets_
+are highly flattered by the letter. Madame came and told me so. Oh! she
+had on such a dress! I never saw anything so handsome in my life. Two
+diamonds in her ears!--two diamonds that cost, Vedie told me, three
+thousand francs apiece; and such lace! rings on her fingers, and
+bracelets! you'd think she was a shrine; and a silk dress as fine as an
+altar-cloth. So then she said to me, 'Monsieur is delighted to find
+his sister so amiable, and I hope she will permit us to pay her all the
+attention she deserves. We shall count on her good opinion after the
+welcome we mean to give her son. Monsieur is very impatient to see his
+nephew.' Madame had little black satin slippers; and her stockings! my!
+they were marvels,--flowers in silk and openwork, just like lace, and
+you could see her rosy little feet through them. Oh! she's in high
+feather, and she had a lovely little apron in front of her which, Vedie
+says, cost more than two years of our wages put together."
+
+"Well done! We shall have to dress up," said the artist laughing.
+
+"What do you think of all this, Monsieur Hochon?" said the old lady when
+Gritte had departed.
+
+Madame Hochon made Agathe observe her husband, who was sitting with
+his head in his hands, his elbows on the arms of his chair, plunged in
+thought.
+
+"You have to do with a Maitre Bonin!" said the old man at last. "With
+your ideas, young man," he added, looking at Joseph, "you haven't force
+enough to struggle with a practised scoundrel like Maxence Gilet. No
+matter what I say to you, you will commit some folly. But, at any rate,
+tell me everything you see, and hear, and do to-night. Go, and God be
+with you! Try to get alone with your uncle. If, in spite of all your
+genius, you can't manage it, that in itself will throw some light
+upon their scheme. But if you do get a moment alone with him, out
+of ear-shot, damn it, you must pull the wool from his eyes as to the
+situation those two have put him in, and plead your mother's cause."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+At four o'clock, Joseph crossed the open space which separated the
+Rouget house from the Hochon house,--a sort of avenue of weakly lindens,
+two hundred feet long and of the same width as the rue Grande Narette.
+When the nephew arrived, Kouski, in polished boots, black cloth
+trousers, white waistcoat, and black coat, announced him. The table was
+set in the large hall, and Joseph, who easily distinguished his uncle,
+went up to him, kissed him, and bowed to Flore and Max.
+
+"We have not seen each other since I came into the world, my dear
+uncle," said the painter gayly; "but better late than never."
+
+"You are very welcome, my friend," said the old man, looking at his
+nephew in a dull way.
+
+"Madame," Joseph said to Flore with an artist's vivacity, "this morning
+I was envying my uncle the pleasure he enjoys in being able to admire
+you every day."
+
+"Isn't she beautiful?" said the old man, whose dim eyes began to shine.
+
+"Beautiful enough to be the model of a great painter."
+
+"Nephew," said Rouget, whose elbow Flore was nudging, "this is Monsieur
+Maxence Gilet; a man who served the Emperor, like your brother, in the
+Imperial Guard."
+
+Joseph rose, and bowed.
+
+"Your brother was in the dragoons, I believe," said Maxence. "I was only
+a dust-trotter."
+
+"On foot or on horseback," said Flore, "you both of you risked your
+skins."
+
+Joseph took note of Max quite as much as Max took note of Joseph. Max,
+who got his clothes from Paris, was dressed as the young dandies of that
+day dressed themselves. A pair of light-blue cloth trousers, made with
+very full plaits, covered his feet so that only the toes and the spurs
+of his boots were seen. His waist was pinched in by a white waistcoat
+with chased gold buttons, which was laced behind to serve as a belt.
+The waistcoat, buttoned to the throat, showed off his broad chest, and
+a black satin stock obliged him to hold his head high, in soldierly
+fashion. A handsome gold chain hung from a waistcoat pocket, in which
+the outline of a flat watch was barely seen. He was twisting a watch-key
+of the kind called a "criquet," which Breguet had lately invented.
+
+"The fellow is fine-looking," thought Joseph, admiring with a painter's
+eye the eager face, the air of strength, and the intellectual gray eyes
+which Max had inherited from his father, the noble. "My uncle must be
+a fearful bore, and that handsome girl takes her compensations. It is a
+triangular household; I see that."
+
+At this instant, Baruch and Francois entered.
+
+"Have you been to see the tower of Issoudun?" Flore asked Joseph. "No?
+then if you would like to take a little walk before dinner, which will
+not be served for an hour, we will show you the great curiosity of the
+town."
+
+"Gladly," said the artist, quite incapable of seeing the slightest
+impropriety in so doing.
+
+While Flore went to put on her bonnet, gloves, and cashmere shawl,
+Joseph suddenly jumped up, as if an enchanter had touched him with his
+wand, to look at the pictures.
+
+"Ah! you have pictures, indeed, uncle!" he said, examining the one that
+had caught his eye.
+
+"Yes," answered the old man. "They came to us from the Descoings, who
+bought them during the Revolution, when the convents and churches in
+Berry were dismantled."
+
+Joseph was not listening; he was lost in admiration of the pictures.
+
+"Magnificent!" he cried. "Oh! what painting! that fellow didn't spoil
+his canvas. Dear, dear! better and better, as it is at Nicolet's--"
+
+"There are seven or eight very large ones up in the garret, which were
+kept on account of the frames," said Gilet.
+
+"Let me see them!" cried the artist; and Max took him upstairs.
+
+Joseph came down wildly enthusiastic. Max whispered a word to the
+Rabouilleuse, who took the old man into the embrasure of a window, where
+Joseph heard her say in a low voice, but still so that he could hear the
+words:--
+
+"Your nephew is a painter; you don't care for those pictures; be kind,
+and give them to him."
+
+"It seems," said Jean-Jacques, leaning on Flore's arm to reach the place
+were Joseph was standing in ecstasy before an Albano, "--it seems that
+you are a painter--"
+
+"Only a 'rapin,'" said Joseph.
+
+"What may that be?" asked Flore.
+
+"A beginner," replied Joseph.
+
+"Well," continued Jean-Jacques, "if these pictures can be of any use to
+you in your business, I give them to you,--but without the frames. Oh!
+the frames are gilt, and besides, they are very funny; I will put--"
+
+"Well done, uncle!" cried Joseph, enchanted; "I'll make you copies of
+the same dimensions, which you can put into the frames."
+
+"But that will take your time, and you will want canvas and colors,"
+said Flore. "You will have to spend money. Come, Pere Rouget, offer your
+nephew a hundred francs for each copy; here are twenty-seven pictures,
+and I think there are eleven very big ones in the garret which ought to
+cost double,--call the whole four thousand francs. Oh, yes," she went
+on, turning to Joseph, "your uncle can well afford to pay you four
+thousand francs for making the copies, since he keeps the frames--but
+bless me! you'll want frames; and they say frames cost more than
+pictures; there's more gold on them. Answer, monsieur," she continued,
+shaking the old man's arm. "Hein? it isn't dear; your nephew will take
+four thousand francs for new pictures in the place of the old ones.
+It is," she whispered in his ear, "a very good way to give him four
+thousand francs; he doesn't look to me very flush--"
+
+"Well, nephew, I will pay you four thousand francs for the copies--"
+
+"No, no!" said the honest Joseph; "four thousand francs and the
+pictures, that's too much; the pictures, don't you see, are valuable--"
+
+"Accept, simpleton!" said Flore; "he is your uncle, you know."
+
+"Very good, I accept," said Joseph, bewildered by the luck that had
+befallen him; for he had recognized a Perugino.
+
+The result was that the artist beamed with satisfaction as he went
+out of the house with the Rabouilleuse on his arm, all of which helped
+Maxence's plans immensely. Neither Flore, nor Rouget, nor Max, nor
+indeed any one in Issoudun knew the value of the pictures, and the
+crafty Max thought he had bought Flore's triumph for a song, as she
+paraded triumphantly before the eyes of the astonished town, leaning on
+the arm of her master's nephew, and evidently on the best of terms with
+him. People flocked to their doors to see the crab-girl's triumph
+over the family. This astounding event made the sensation on which Max
+counted; so that when they all returned at five o'clock, nothing was
+talked of in every household but the cordial understanding between Max
+and Flore and the nephew of old Rouget. The incident of the pictures
+and the four thousand francs circulated already. The dinner, at which
+Lousteau, one of the court judges, and the Mayor of Issoudun were
+present, was splendid. It was one of those provincial dinners lasting
+five hours. The most exquisite wines enlivened the conversation. By
+nine o'clock, at dessert, the painter, seated opposite to his uncle, and
+between Flore and Max, had fraternized with the soldier, and thought
+him the best fellow on earth. Joseph returned home at eleven o'clock
+somewhat tipsy. As to old Rouget, Kouski had carried him to his bed
+dead-drunk; he had eaten as though he were an actor from foreign parts,
+and had soaked up the wine like the sands of the desert.
+
+"Well," said Max when he was alone with Flore, "isn't this better than
+making faces at them? The Bridaus are well received, they get small
+presents, and are smothered with attentions, and the end of it is they
+will sing our praises; they will go away satisfied and leave us in
+peace. To-morrow morning you and I and Kouski will take down all those
+pictures and send them over to the painter, so that he shall see them
+when he wakes up. We will put the frames in the garret, and cover the
+walls with one of those varnished papers which represent scenes from
+Telemachus, such as I have seen at Monsieur Mouilleron's."
+
+"Oh, that will be much prettier!" said Flore.
+
+On the morrow, Joseph did not wake up till midday. From his bed he saw
+the pictures, which had been brought in while he was asleep, leaning
+one against another on the opposite wall. While he examined them anew,
+recognizing each masterpiece, studying the manner of each painter, and
+searching for the signature, his mother had gone to see and thank her
+brother, urged thereto by old Hochon, who, having heard of the follies
+the painter had committed the night before, almost despaired of the
+Bridau cause.
+
+"Your adversaries have the cunning of foxes," he said to Agathe. "In
+all my days I never saw a man carry things with such a high hand as
+that soldier; they say war educates young men! Joseph has let himself
+be fooled. They have shut his mouth with wine, and those miserable
+pictures, and four thousand francs! Your artist hasn't cost Maxence
+much!"
+
+The long-headed old man instructed Madame Bridau carefully as to
+the line of conduct she ought to pursue,--advising her to enter into
+Maxence's ideas and cajole Flore, so as to set up a sort of intimacy
+with her, and thus obtain a few moments' interview with Jean-Jacques
+alone. Madame Bridau was very warmly received by her brother, to whom
+Flore had taught his lesson. The old man was in bed, quite ill from the
+excesses of the night before. As Agathe, under the circumstances, could
+scarcely begin at once to speak of family matters, Max thought it proper
+and magnanimous to leave the brother and sister alone together. The
+calculation was a good one. Poor Agathe found her brother so ill that
+she would not deprive him of Madame Brazier's care.
+
+"Besides," she said to the old bachelor, "I wish to know a person to
+whom I am grateful for the happiness of my brother."
+
+These words gave evident pleasure to the old man, who rang for Madame
+Flore. Flore, as we may well believe, was not far off. The female
+antagonists bowed to each other. The Rabouilleuse showed the most
+servile attentions and the utmost tenderness to her master; fancied his
+head was too low, beat up the pillows, and took care of him like a bride
+of yesterday. The poor creature received it with a rush of feeling.
+
+"We owe you much gratitude, mademoiselle," said Agathe, "for the proofs
+of attachment you have so long given to my brother, and for the way in
+which you watch over his happiness."
+
+"That is true, my dear Agathe," said the old man; "she has taught me
+what happiness is; she is a woman of excellent qualities."
+
+"And therefore, my dear brother, you ought to have recompensed
+Mademoiselle by making her your wife. Yes! I am too sincere in my
+religion not to wish to see you obey the precepts of the church. You
+would each be more tranquil in mind if you were not at variance with
+morality and the laws. I have come here, dear brother, to ask for
+help in my affliction; but do not suppose that we wish to make
+any remonstrance as to the manner in which you may dispose of your
+property--"
+
+"Madame," said Flore, "we know how unjust your father was to you.
+Monsieur, here, can tell you," she went on, looking fixedly at her
+victim, "that the only quarrels we have ever had were about you. I have
+always told him that he owes you part of the fortune he received from
+his father, and your father, my benefactor,--for he was my benefactor,"
+she added in a tearful voice; "I shall ever remember him! But your
+brother, madame, has listened to reason--"
+
+"Yes," said the old man, "when I make my will you shall not be
+forgotten."
+
+"Don't talk of these things, my dear brother; you do not yet know my
+nature."
+
+After such a beginning, it is easy to imagine how the visit went on.
+Rouget invited his sister to dinner on the next day but one.
+
+We may here mention that during these three days the Knights of
+Idleness captured an immense quantity of rats and mice, which were kept
+half-famished until they were let loose in the grain one fine night, to
+the number of four hundred and thirty-six, of which some were breeding
+mothers. Not content with providing Fario's store-house with these
+boarders, the Knights made holes in the roof of the old church and
+put in a dozen pigeons, taken from as many different farms. These
+four-footed and feathered creatures held high revels,--all the more
+securely because the watchman was enticed away by a fellow who kept him
+drunk from morning till night, so that he took no care of his master's
+property.
+
+Madame Bridau believed, contrary to the opinion of old Hochon, that her
+brother had as yet made no will; she intended asking him what were his
+intentions respecting Mademoiselle Brazier, as soon as she could take a
+walk with him alone,--a hope which Flore and Maxence were always holding
+out to her, and, of course, always disappointing.
+
+Meantime the Knights were searching for a way to put the Parisians to
+flight, and finding none that were not impracticable follies.
+
+At the end of a week--half the time the Parisians were to stay in
+Issoudun--the Bridaus were no farther advanced in their object than when
+they came.
+
+"Your lawyer does not understand the provinces," said old Hochon to
+Madame Bridau. "What you have come to do can't be done in two weeks, nor
+in two years; you ought never to leave your brother, but live here
+and try to give him some ideas of religion. You cannot countermine the
+fortifications of Flore and Maxence without getting a priest to sap
+them. That is my advice, and it is high time to set about it."
+
+"You certainly have very singular ideas about the clergy," said Madame
+Hochon to her husband.
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed the old man, "that's just like you pious women."
+
+"God would never bless an enterprise undertaken in a sacrilegious
+spirit," said Madame Bridau. "Use religion for such a purpose! Why, we
+should be more criminal than Flore."
+
+This conversation took place at breakfast,--Francois and Baruch
+listening with all their ears.
+
+"Sacrilege!" exclaimed old Hochon. "If some good abbe, keen as I have
+known many of them to be, knew what a dilemma you are in, he would not
+think it sacrilege to bring your brother's lost soul back to God, and
+call him to repentance for his sins, by forcing him to send away the
+woman who causes the scandal (with a proper provision, of course), and
+showing him how to set his conscience at rest by giving a few thousand
+francs a year to the seminary of the archbishop and leaving his property
+to the rightful heirs."
+
+The passive obedience which the old miser had always exacted from
+his children, and now from his grandchildren (who were under his
+guardianship and for whom he was amassing a small fortune, doing for
+them, he said, just as he would for himself), prevented Baruch and
+Francois from showing signs of surprise or disapproval; but they
+exchanged significant glances expressing how dangerous and fatal such a
+scheme would be to Max's interest.
+
+"The fact is, madame," said Baruch, "that if you want to secure your
+brother's property, the only sure and true way will be to stay in
+Issoudun for the necessary length of time--"
+
+"Mother," said Joseph hastily, "you had better write to Desroches about
+all this. As for me, I ask nothing more than what my uncle has already
+given me."
+
+After fully recognizing the great value of his thirty-nine pictures,
+Joseph had carefully unnailed the canvases and fastened paper over them,
+gumming it at the edges with ordinary glue; he then laid them one above
+another in an enormous wooden box, which he sent to Desroches by the
+carrier's waggon, proposing to write him a letter about it by post. The
+precious freight had been sent off the night before.
+
+"You are satisfied with a pretty poor bargain," said Monsieur Hochon.
+
+"I can easily get a hundred and fifty thousand francs for those
+pictures," replied Joseph.
+
+"Painter's nonsense!" exclaimed old Hochon, giving Joseph a peculiar
+look.
+
+"Mother," said Joseph, "I am going to write to Desroches and explain
+to him the state of things here. If he advises you to remain, you had
+better do so. As for your situation, we can always find you another like
+it."
+
+"My dear Joseph," said Madame Hochon, following him as he left the
+table, "I don't know anything about your uncle's pictures, but they
+ought to be good, judging by the places from which they came. If they
+are worth only forty thousand francs,--a thousand francs apiece,--tell
+no one. Though my grandsons are discreet and well-behaved, they might,
+without intending harm, speak of this windfall; it would be known all
+over Issoudun; and it is very important that our adversaries should not
+suspect it. You behave like a child!"
+
+In fact, before evening many persons in Issoudun, including Max, were
+informed of this estimate, which had the immediate effect of causing a
+search for all the old paintings which no one had ever cared for, and
+the appearance of many execrable daubs. Max repented having driven the
+old man into giving away the pictures, and the rage he felt against the
+heirs after hearing from Baruch old Hochon's ecclesiastical scheme, was
+increased by what he termed his own stupidity. The influence of religion
+upon such a feeble creature as Rouget was the one thing to fear. The
+news brought by his two comrades decided Maxence Gilet to turn all
+Rouget's investments into money, and to borrow upon his landed property,
+so as to buy into the Funds as soon as possible; but he considered it
+even more important to get rid of the Parisians at once. The genius of
+the Mascarilles and Scapins out together would hardly have solved the
+latter problem easily.
+
+Flore, acting by Max's advice, pretended that Monsieur was too feeble
+to take walks, and that he ought, at his age, to have a carriage. This
+pretext grew out of the necessity of not exciting inquiry when they went
+to Bourges, Vierzon, Chateauroux, Vatan, and all the other places where
+the project of withdrawing investments obliged Max and Flore to betake
+themselves with Rouget. At the close of the week, all Issoudun
+was amazed to learn that the old man had gone to Bourges to buy a
+carriage,--a step which the Knights of Idleness regarded as favorable
+to the Rabouilleuse. Flore and Max selected a hideous "berlingot," with
+cracked leather curtains and windows without glass, aged twenty-two
+years and nine campaigns, sold on the decease of a colonel, the friend
+of grand-marshal Bertrand, who, during the absence of that faithful
+companion of the Emperor, was left in charge of the affairs of Berry.
+This "berlingot," painted bright green, was somewhat like a caleche,
+though shafts had taken the place of a pole, so that it could be driven
+with one horse. It belonged to a class of carriages brought into vogue
+by diminished fortunes, which at that time bore the candid name of
+"demi-fortune"; at its first introduction it was called a "seringue."
+The cloth lining of this demi-fortune, sold under the name of caleche,
+was moth-eaten; its gimps looked like the chevrons of an old Invalide;
+its rusty joints squeaked,--but it only cost four hundred and fifty
+francs; and Max bought a good stout mare, trained to harness, from an
+officer of a regiment then stationed at Bourges. He had the carriage
+repainted a dark brown, and bought a tolerable harness at a bargain. The
+whole town of Issoudun was shaken to its centre in expectation of Pere
+Rouget's equipage; and on the occasion of its first appearance, every
+household was on its door-step and curious faces were at all the
+windows.
+
+The second time the old bachelor went out he drove to Bourges, where, to
+escape the trouble of attending personally to the business, or, if you
+prefer it, being ordered to do so by Flore, he went before a notary and
+signed a power of attorney in favor of Maxence Gilet, enabling him to
+make all the transfers enumerated in the document. Flore reserved to
+herself the business of making Monsieur sell out the investments in
+Issoudun and its immediate neighborhood. The principal notary in Bourges
+was requested by Rouget to get him a loan of one hundred and forty
+thousand francs on his landed estate. Nothing was known at Issoudun
+of these proceedings, which were secretly and cleverly carried out.
+Maxence, who was a good rider, went with his own horse to Bourges and
+back between five in the morning and five in the afternoon. Flore never
+left the old bachelor. Rouget consented without objection to the action
+Flore dictated to him; but he insisted that the investment in the Funds,
+producing fifty thousand francs a year, should stand in Flore's name as
+holding a life-interest only, and in his as owner of the principal. The
+tenacity the old man displayed in the domestic disputes which this idea
+created caused Max a good deal of anxiety; he thought he could see the
+result of reflections inspired by the sight of the natural heirs.
+
+Amid all these movements, which Max concealed from the knowledge of
+everyone, he forgot the Spaniard and his granary. Fario came back
+to Issoudun to deliver his corn, after various trips and business
+manoeuvres undertaken to raise the price of cereals. The morning after
+his arrival he noticed that the roof the church of the Capuchins was
+black with pigeons. He cursed himself for having neglected to examine
+its condition, and hurried over to look into his storehouse, where he
+found half his grain devoured. Thousands of mice-marks and rat-marks
+scattered about showed a second cause of ruin. The church was a
+Noah's-ark. But anger turned the Spaniard white as a bit of cambric
+when, trying to estimate the extent of the destruction and his
+consequence losses, he noticed that the grain at the bottom of the heap,
+near the floor, was sprouting from the effects of water, which Max had
+managed to introduce by means of tin tubes into the very centre of the
+pile of wheat. The pigeons and the rats could be explained by animal
+instinct; but the hand of man was plainly visible in this last sign of
+malignity.
+
+Fario sat down on the steps of a chapel altar, holding his head between
+his hands. After half an hour of Spanish reflections, he spied the
+squirrel, which Goddet could not refrain from giving him as a guest,
+playing with its tail upon a cross-beam, on the middle of which rested
+one of the uprights that supported the roof. The Spaniard rose and
+turned to his watchman with a face that was as calm and cold as an
+Arab's. He made no complaint, but went home, hired laborers to gather
+into sacks what remained of the sound grain, and to spread in the sun
+all that was moist, so as to save as much as possible; then, after
+estimating that his losses amounted to about three fifths, he attended
+to filling his orders. But his previous manipulations of the market
+had raised the price of cereals, and he lost on the three fifths he was
+obliged to buy to fill his orders; so that his losses amounted really
+to more than half. The Spaniard, who had no enemies, at once attributed
+this revenge to Gilet. He was convinced that Maxence and some others
+were the authors of all the nocturnal mischief, and had in all
+probability carried his cart up the embankment of the tower, and now
+intended to amuse themselves by ruining him. It was a matter to him
+of over three thousand francs,--very nearly the whole capital he had
+scraped together since the peace. Driven by the desire for vengeance,
+the man now displayed the cunning and stealthy persistence of a
+detective to whom a large reward is offered. Hiding at night in
+different parts of Issoudun, he soon acquired proof of the proceedings
+of the Knights of Idleness; he saw them all, counted them, watched their
+rendezvous, and knew of their suppers at Mere Cognette's; after that he
+lay in wait to witness one of their deeds, and thus became well informed
+as to their nocturnal habits.
+
+In spite of Max's journeys and pre-occupations, he had no intention of
+neglecting his nightly employments,--first, because he did not wish
+his comrades to suspect the secret of his operations with Pere Rouget's
+property; and secondly, to keep the Knights well in hand. They were
+therefore convened for the preparation of a prank which might deserve
+to be talked of for years to come. Poisoned meat was to be thrown on a
+given night to every watch-dog in the town and in the environs. Fario
+overheard them congratulating each other, as they came out from a supper
+at the Cognettes', on the probable success of the performance, and
+laughing over the general mourning that would follow this novel massacre
+of the innocents,--revelling, moreover, in the apprehensions it would
+excite as to the sinister object of depriving all the households of
+their guardian watch-dogs.
+
+"It will make people forget Fario's cart," said Goddet.
+
+Fario did not need that speech to confirm his suspicions; besides, his
+mind was already made up.
+
+After three weeks' stay in Issoudun, Agathe was convinced, and so was
+Madame Hochon, of the truth of the old miser's observation, that it
+would take years to destroy the influence which Max and the
+Rabouilleuse had acquired over her brother. She had made no progress in
+Jean-Jacques's confidence, and she was never left alone with him. On
+the other hand, Mademoiselle Brazier triumphed openly over the heirs by
+taking Agathe to drive in the caleche, sitting beside her on the back
+seat, while Monsieur Rouget and his nephew occupied the front. Mother
+and son impatiently awaited an answer to the confidential letter they
+had written to Desroches. The day before the night on which the dogs
+were to be poisoned, Joseph, who was nearly bored to death in Issoudun,
+received two letters: the first from the great painter Schinner,--whose
+age allowed him a closer intimacy than Joseph could have with Gros,
+their master,--and the second from Desroches.
+
+Here is the first, postmarked Beaumont-sur-Oise:--
+
+  My dear Joseph,--I have just finished the principal
+  panel-paintings at the chateau de Presles for the Comte de Serizy.
+  I have left all the mouldings and the decorative painting; and I
+  have recommended you so strongly to the count, and also to Gridot
+  the architect, that you have nothing to do but pick up your
+  brushes and come at once. Prices are arranged to please you. I am
+  off to Italy with my wife; so you can have Mistigris to help you
+  along. The young scamp has talent, and I put him at your disposal.
+  He is twittering like a sparrow at the very idea of amusing
+  himself at the chateau de Presles.
+
+  Adieu, my dear Joseph; if I am still absent, and should send
+  nothing to next year's Salon, you must take my place. Yes, dear
+  Jojo, I know your picture is a masterpiece, but a masterpiece
+  which will rouse a hue and cry about romanticism; you are doomed
+  to lead the life of a devil in holy water. Adieu.
+
+  Thy friend,
+
+  Schinner
+
+
+Here follows the letter of Desroches:--
+
+  My dear Joseph,--Your Monsieur Hochon strikes me as an old man
+  full of common-sense, and you give me a high idea of his methods;
+  he is perfectly right. My advice, since you ask it, is that your
+  mother should remain at Issoudun with Madame Hochon, paying a
+  small board,--say four hundred francs a year,--to reimburse her
+  hosts for what she eats. Madame Bridau ought, in my opinion, to
+  follow Monsieur Hochon's advice in everything; for your excellent
+  mother will have many scruples in dealing with persons who have no
+  scruple at all, and whose behavior to her is a master-stroke of
+  policy. That Maxence, you are right enough, is dangerous. He is
+  another Philippe, but of a different calibre. The scoundrel makes
+  his vices serve his fortunes, and gets his amusement gratis;
+  whereas your brother's follies are never useful to him. All that
+  you say alarms me, but I could do no good by going to Issoudun.
+  Monsieur Hochon, acting behind your mother, will be more useful to
+  you than I. As for you, you had better come back here; you are
+  good for nothing in a matter which requires continual attention,
+  careful observation, servile civilities, discretion in speech, and
+  a dissimulation of manner and gesture which is wholly against the
+  grain of artists.
+
+  If they have told you no will has been made, you may be quite sure
+  they have possessed one for a long time. But wills can be revoked,
+  and as long as your fool of an uncle lives he is no doubt
+  susceptible of being worked upon by remorse and religion. Your
+  inheritance will be the result of a combat between the Church and
+  the Rabouilleuse. There will inevitably come a time when that
+  woman will lose her grip on the old man, and religion will be
+  all-powerful. So long as your uncle makes no gift of the property
+  during his lifetime, and does not change the nature of his estate,
+  all may come right whenever religion gets the upper hand. For this
+  reason, you must beg Monsieur Hochon to keep an eye, as well as he
+  can, on the condition of your uncle's property. It is necessary to
+  know if the real estate is mortgaged, and if so, where and in
+  whose name the proceeds are invested. It is so easy to terrify an
+  old man with fears about his life, in case you find him despoiling
+  his own property for the sake of these interlopers, that almost
+  any heir with a little adroitness could stop the spoliation at its
+  outset. But how should your mother, with her ignorance of the
+  world, her disinterestedness, and her religious ideas, know how to
+  manage such an affair? However, I am not able to throw any light
+  on the matter. All that you have done so far has probably given
+  the alarm, and your adversaries may already have secured
+  themselves--
+
+"That is what I call an opinion in good shape," exclaimed Monsieur
+Hochon, proud of being himself appreciated by a Parisian lawyer.
+
+"Oh! Desroches is a famous fellow," answered Joseph.
+
+"It would be well to read that letter to the two women," said the old
+man.
+
+"There it is," said Joseph, giving it to him; "as to me, I want to be
+off to-morrow; and I am now going to say good-by to my uncle."
+
+"Ah!" said Monsieur Hochon, "I see that Monsieur Desroches tells you in
+a postscript to burn the letter."
+
+"You can burn it after showing it to my mother," said the painter.
+
+Joseph dressed, crossed the little square, and called on his uncle, who
+was just finishing breakfast. Max and Flore were at table.
+
+"Don't disturb yourself, my dear uncle; I have only come to say
+good-by."
+
+"You are going?" said Max, exchanging glances with Flore.
+
+"Yes; I have some work to do at the chateau of Monsieur de Serizy, and
+I am all the more glad of it because his arm is long enough to do a
+service to my poor brother in the Chamber of Peers."
+
+"Well, well, go and work"; said old Rouget, with a silly air. Joseph
+thought him extraordinarily changed within a few days. "Men must work--I
+am sorry you are going."
+
+"Oh! my mother will be here some time longer," remarked Joseph.
+
+Max made a movement with his lips which the Rabouilleuse observed, and
+which signified: "They are going to try the plan Baruch warned me of."
+
+"I am very glad I came," said Joseph, "for I have had the pleasure of
+making your acquaintance and you have enriched my studio--"
+
+"Yes," said Flore, "instead of enlightening your uncle on the value
+of his pictures, which is now estimated at over one hundred thousand
+francs, you have packed them off in a hurry to Paris. Poor dear man! he
+is no better than a baby! We have just been told of a little treasure at
+Bourges,--what did they call it? a Poussin,--which was in the choir of
+the cathedral before the Revolution and is now worth, all by itself,
+thirty thousand francs."
+
+"That was not right of you, my nephew," said Jean-Jacques, at a sign
+from Max, which Joseph could not see.
+
+"Come now, frankly," said the soldier, laughing, "on your honor, what
+should you say those pictures were worth? You've made an easy haul out
+of your uncle! and right enough, too,--uncles are made to be pillaged.
+Nature deprived me of uncles, but damn it, if I'd had any I should have
+shown them no mercy."
+
+"Did you know, monsieur," said Flore to Rouget, "what _your_ pictures
+were worth? How much did you say, Monsieur Joseph?"
+
+"Well," answered the painter, who had grown as red as a beetroot,--"the
+pictures are certainly worth something."
+
+"They say you estimated them to Monsieur Hochon at one hundred and fifty
+thousand francs," said Flore; "is that true?"
+
+"Yes," said the painter, with childlike honesty.
+
+"And did you intend," said Flore to the old man, "to give a hundred and
+fifty thousand francs to your nephew?"
+
+"Never, never!" cried Jean-Jacques, on whom Flore had fixed her eye.
+
+"There is one way to settle all this," said the painter, "and that is to
+return them to you, uncle."
+
+"No, no, keep them," said the old man.
+
+"I shall send them back to you," said Joseph, wounded by the offensive
+silence of Max and Flore. "There is something in my brushes which will
+make my fortune, without owing anything to any one, even an uncle. My
+respects to you, mademoiselle; good-day, monsieur--"
+
+And Joseph crossed the square in a state of irritation which artists
+can imagine. The entire Hochon family were in the salon. When they saw
+Joseph gesticulating and talking to himself, they asked him what was the
+matter. The painter, who was as open as the day, related before Baruch
+and Francois the scene that had just taken place; and which, two hours
+later, thanks to the two young men, was the talk of the whole
+town, embroidered with various circumstances that were more or less
+ridiculous. Some persons insisted that the painter was maltreated by
+Max; others that he had misbehaved to Flore, and that Max had turned him
+out of doors.
+
+"What a child your son is!" said Hochon to Madame Bridau; "the booby is
+the dupe of a scene which they have been keeping back for the last day
+of his visit. Max and the Rabouilleuse have known the value of those
+pictures for the last two weeks,--ever since he had the folly to tell
+it before my grandsons, who never rested till they had blurted it out
+to all the world. Your artist had better have taken himself off without
+taking leave."
+
+"My son has done right to return the pictures if they are really so
+valuable," said Agathe.
+
+"If they are worth, as he says, two hundred thousand francs," said old
+Hochon, "it was folly to put himself in the way of being obliged to
+return them. You might have had that, at least, out of the property;
+whereas, as things are going now, you won't get anything. And this scene
+with Joseph is almost a reason why your brother should refuse to see you
+again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Between midnight and one o'clock, the Knights of Idleness began their
+gratuitous distribution of comestibles to the dogs of the town. This
+memorable expedition was not over till three in the morning, the hour at
+which these reprobates went to sup at Cognette's. At half-past four, in
+the early dawn, they crept home. Just as Max turned the corner of
+the rue l'Avenier into the Grande rue, Fario, who stood ambushed in a
+recess, struck a knife at his heart, drew out the blade, and escaped
+by the moat towards Vilatte, wiping the blade of his knife on his
+handkerchief. The Spaniard washed the handkerchief in the Riviere
+forcee, and returned quietly to his lodgings at Saint-Paterne, where
+he got in by a window he had left open, and went to bed: later, he was
+awakened by his new watchman, who found him fast asleep.
+
+As he fell, Max uttered a fearful cry which no one could mistake.
+Lousteau-Prangin, son of a judge, a distant relation to the family of
+the sub-delegate, and young Goddet, who lived at the lower end of the
+Grande rue, ran at full speed up the street, calling to each other,--
+
+"They are killing Max! Help! help!"
+
+But not a dog barked; and all the town, accustomed to the false alarms
+of these nightly prowlers, stayed quietly in their beds. When his
+two comrades reached him, Max had fainted. It was necessary to rouse
+Monsieur Goddet, the surgeon. Max had recognized Fario; but when he came
+to his senses, with several persons about him, and felt that his wound
+was not mortal, it suddenly occurred to him to make capital out of the
+attack, and he said, in a faint voice,--
+
+"I think I recognized that cursed painter!"
+
+Thereupon Lousteau-Prangin ran off to his father, the judge. Max was
+carried home by Cognette, young Goddet, and two other persons. Mere
+Cognette and Monsieur Goddet walked beside the stretcher. Those who
+carried the wounded man naturally looked across at Monsieur Hochon's
+door while waiting for Kouski to let them in, and saw Monsieur Hochon's
+servant sweeping the steps. At the old miser's, as everywhere else in
+the provinces, the household was early astir. The few words uttered by
+Max had roused the suspicions of Monsieur Goddet, and he called to the
+woman,--
+
+"Gritte, is Monsieur Joseph Bridau in bed?"
+
+"Bless me!" she said, "he went out at half-past four. I don't know what
+ailed him; he walked up and down his room all night."
+
+This simple answer drew forth such exclamations of horror that the
+woman came over, curious to know what they were carrying to old Rouget's
+house.
+
+"A precious fellow he is, that painter of yours!" they said to her.
+And the procession entered the house, leaving Gritte open-mouthed
+with amazement at the sight of Max in his bloody shirt, stretched
+half-fainting on a mattress.
+
+Artists will readily guess what ailed Joseph, and kept him restless all
+night. He imagined the tale the bourgeoisie of Issoudun would tell of
+him. They would say he had fleeced his uncle; that he was everything but
+what he had tried to be,--a loyal fellow and an honest artist! Ah!
+he would have given his great picture to have flown like a swallow to
+Paris, and thrown his uncle's paintings at Max's nose. To be the one
+robbed, and to be thought the robber!--what irony! So at the earliest
+dawn, he had started for the poplar avenue which led to Tivoli, to give
+free course to his agitation.
+
+While the innocent fellow was vowing, by way of consolation, never
+to return to Issoudun, Max was preparing a horrible outrage for
+his sensitive spirit. When Monsieur Goddet had probed the wound and
+discovered that the knife, turned aside by a little pocket-book, had
+happily spared Max's life (though making a serious wound), he did as all
+doctors, and particularly country surgeons, do; he paved the way for his
+own credit by "not answering for the patient's life"; and then, after
+dressing the soldier's wound, and stating the verdict of science to the
+Rabouilleuse, Jean-Jacques Rouget, Kouski, and the Vedie, he left the
+house. The Rabouilleuse came in tears to her dear Max, while Kouski and
+the Vedie told the assembled crowd that the captain was in a fair way
+to die. The news brought nearly two hundred persons in groups about the
+place Saint-Jean and the two Narettes.
+
+"I sha'n't be a month in bed; and I know who struck the blow," whispered
+Max to Flore. "But we'll profit by it to get rid of the Parisians.
+I have said I thought I recognized the painter; so pretend that I am
+expected to die, and try to have Joseph Bridau arrested. Let him taste
+a prison for a couple of days, and I know well enough the mother will be
+off in a jiffy for Paris when she gets him out. And then we needn't fear
+the priests they talk of setting on the old fool."
+
+When Flore Brazier came downstairs, she found the assembled crowd quite
+prepared to take the impression she meant to give them. She went out
+with tears in her eyes, and related, sobbing, how the painter, "who had
+just the face for that sort of thing," had been angry with Max the night
+before about some pictures he had "wormed out" of Pere Rouget.
+
+"That brigand--for you've only got to look at him to see what he
+is--thinks that if Max were dead, his uncle would leave him his fortune;
+as if," she cried, "a brother were not more to him than a nephew! Max is
+Doctor Rouget's son. The old one told me so before he died!"
+
+"Ah! he meant to do the deed just before he left Issoudun; he chose
+his time, for he was going away to-day," said one of the Knights of
+Idleness.
+
+"Max hasn't an enemy in Issoudun," said another.
+
+"Besides, Max recognized the painter," said the Rabouilleuse.
+
+"Where's that cursed Parisian? Let us find him!" they all cried.
+
+"Find him?" was the answer, "why, he left Monsieur Hochon's at
+daybreak."
+
+A Knight of Idleness ran off at once to Monsieur Mouilleron. The crowd
+increased; and the tumult became threatening. Excited groups filled up
+the whole of the Grande-Narette. Others stationed themselves before the
+church of Saint-Jean. An assemblage gathered at the porte Vilatte, which
+is at the farther end of the Petite-Narette. Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin
+and Monsieur Mouilleron, the commissary of police, the lieutenant of
+gendarmes, and two of his men, had some difficulty in reaching the place
+Saint-Jean through two hedges of people, whose cries and exclamations
+could and did prejudice them against the Parisian; who was, it is
+needless to say, unjustly accused, although, it is true, circumstances
+told against him.
+
+After a conference between Max and the magistrates, Monsieur Mouilleron
+sent the commissary of police and a sergeant with one gendarme to
+examine what, in the language of the ministry of the interior, is
+called "the theatre of the crime." Then Messieurs Mouilleron and
+Lousteau-Prangin, accompanied by the lieutenant of gendarmes crossed
+over to the Hochon house, which was now guarded by two gendarmes in the
+garden and two at the front door. The crowd was still increasing. The
+whole town was surging in the Grande rue.
+
+Gritte had rushed terrified to her master, crying out: "Monsieur, we
+shall be pillaged! the town is in revolt; Monsieur Maxence Gilet has
+been assassinated; he is dying! and they say it is Monsieur Joseph who
+has done it!"
+
+Monsieur Hochon dressed quickly, and came downstairs; but seeing the
+angry populace, he hastily retreated within the house, and bolted the
+door. On questioning Gritte, he learned that his guest had left the
+house at daybreak, after walking the floor all night in great agitation,
+and had not yet come in. Much alarmed, he went to find Madame Hochon,
+who was already awakened by the noise, and to whom he told the frightful
+news which, true or false, was causing almost a riot in Issoudun.
+
+"He is innocent, of course," said Madame Hochon.
+
+"Before his innocence can be proved, the crowd may get in here and
+pillage us," said Monsieur Hochon, livid with fear, for he had gold in
+his cellar.
+
+"Where is Agathe?"
+
+"Sound asleep."
+
+"Ah! so much the better," said Madame Hochon. "I wish she may sleep on
+till the matter is cleared up. Such a shock might kill the poor child."
+
+But Agathe woke up and came down half-dressed; for the evasive answers
+of Gritte, whom she questioned, had disturbed both her head and heart.
+She found Madame Hochon, looking very pale, with her eyes full of tears,
+at one of the windows of the salon beside her husband.
+
+"Courage, my child. God sends us our afflictions," said the old lady.
+"Joseph is accused--"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of a bad action which he could never have committed," answered Madame
+Hochon.
+
+Hearing the words, and seeing the lieutenant of gendarmes, who at this
+moment entered the room accompanied by the two gentlemen, Agathe fainted
+away.
+
+"There now!" said Monsieur Hochon to his wife and Gritte, "carry off
+Madame Bridau; women are only in the way at these times. Take her to her
+room and stay there, both of you. Sit down, gentlemen," continued the
+old man. "The mistake to which we owe your visit will soon, I hope, be
+cleared up."
+
+"Even if it should be a mistake," said Monsieur Mouilleron, "the
+excitement of the crowd is so great, and their minds are so exasperated,
+that I fear for the safety of the accused. I should like to get him
+arrested, and that might satisfy these people."
+
+"Who would ever have believed that Monsieur Maxence Gilet had inspired
+so much affection in this town?" asked Lousteau-Prangin.
+
+"One of my men says there's a crowd of twelve hundred more just coming
+in from the faubourg de Rome," said the lieutenant of gendarmes, "and
+they are threatening death to the assassin."
+
+"Where is your guest?" said Monsieur Mouilleron to Monsieur Hochon.
+
+"He has gone to walk in the country, I believe."
+
+"Call Gritte," said the judge gravely. "I was in hopes he had not left
+the house. You are aware that the crime was committed not far from here,
+at daybreak."
+
+While Monsieur Hochon went to find Gritte, the three functionaries
+looked at each other significantly.
+
+"I never liked that painter's face," said the lieutenant to Monsieur
+Mouilleron.
+
+"My good woman," said the judge to Gritte, when she appeared, "they say
+you saw Monsieur Joseph Bridau leave the house this morning?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur," she answered, trembling like a leaf.
+
+"At what hour?"
+
+"Just as I was getting up: he walked about his room all night, and was
+dressed when I came downstairs."
+
+"Was it daylight?"
+
+"Barely."
+
+"Did he seem excited?"
+
+"Yes, he was all of a twitter."
+
+"Send one of your men for my clerk," said Lousteau-Prangin to the
+lieutenant, "and tell him to bring warrants with him--"
+
+"Good God! don't be in such a hurry," cried Monsieur Hochon. "The
+young man's agitation may have been caused by something besides the
+premeditation of this crime. He meant to return to Paris to-day, to
+attend to a matter in which Gilet and Mademoiselle Brazier had doubted
+his honor."
+
+"Yes, the affair of the pictures," said Monsieur Mouilleron. "Those
+pictures caused a very hot quarrel between them yesterday, and it is a
+word and a blow with artists, they tell me."
+
+"Who is there in Issoudun who had any object in killing Gilet?" said
+Lousteau. "No one,--neither a jealous husband nor anybody else; for the
+fellow has never harmed a soul."
+
+"But what was Monsieur Gilet doing in the streets at four in the
+morning?" remarked Monsieur Hochon.
+
+"Now, Monsieur Hochon, you must allow us to manage this affair in our
+own way," answered Mouilleron; "you don't know all: Gilet recognized
+your painter."
+
+At this instant a clamor was heard from the other end of the town,
+growing louder and louder, like the roll of thunder, as it followed the
+course of the Grande-Narette.
+
+"Here he is! here he is!--he's arrested!"
+
+These words rose distinctly on the ear above the hoarse roar of the
+populace. Poor Joseph, returning quietly past the mill at Landrole
+intending to get home in time for breakfast, was spied by the various
+groups of people, as soon as he reached the place Misere. Happily for
+him, a couple of gendarmes arrived on a run in time to snatch him from
+the inhabitants of the faubourg de Rome, who had already pinioned him by
+the arms and were threatening him with death.
+
+"Give way! give way!" cried the gendarmes, calling to some of their
+comrades to help them, and putting themselves one before and the other
+behind Bridau.
+
+"You see, monsieur," said the one who held the painter, "it concerns
+our skin as well as yours at this moment. Innocent or guilty, we must
+protect you against the tumult raised by the murder of Captain Gilet.
+And the crowd is not satisfied with suspecting you; they declare, hard
+as iron, that you are the murderer. Monsieur Gilet is adored by all the
+people, who--look at them!--want to take justice into their own
+hands. Ah! didn't we see them, in 1830, dusting the jackets of the
+tax-gatherers? whose life isn't a bed of roses, anyway!"
+
+Joseph Bridau grew pale as death, and collected all his strength to walk
+onward.
+
+"After all," he said, "I am innocent. Go on!"
+
+Poor artist! he was forced to bear his cross. Amid the hooting and
+insults and threats from the mob, he made the dreadful transit from the
+place Misere to the place Saint-Jean. The gendarmes were obliged to draw
+their sabres on the furious mob, which pelted them with stones. One of
+the officers was wounded, and Joseph received several of the missiles on
+his legs, and shoulders, and hat.
+
+"Here we are!" said one of the gendarmes, as they entered Monsieur
+Hochon's hall, "and not without difficulty, lieutenant."
+
+"We must now manage to disperse the crowd; and I see but one way,
+gentlemen," said the lieutenant to the magistrates. "We must take
+Monsieur Bridau to the Palais accompanied by all of you; I and my
+gendarmes will make a circle round you. One can't answer for anything in
+presence of a furious crowd of six thousand--"
+
+"You are right," said Monsieur Hochon, who was trembling all the while
+for his gold.
+
+"If that's your only way to protect innocence in Issoudun," said Joseph,
+"I congratulate you. I came near being stoned--"
+
+"Do you wish your friend's house to be taken by assault and pillaged?"
+asked the lieutenant. "Could we beat back with our sabres a crowd
+of people who are pushed from behind by an angry populace that knows
+nothing of the forms of justice?"
+
+"That will do, gentlemen, let us go; we can come to explanations later,"
+said Joseph, who had recovered his self-possession.
+
+"Give way, friends!" said the lieutenant to the crowd; "_He_ is
+arrested, and we are taking him to the Palais."
+
+"Respect the law, friends!" said Monsieur Mouilleron.
+
+"Wouldn't you prefer to see him guillotined?" said one of the gendarmes
+to an angry group.
+
+"Yes, yes, they shall guillotine him!" shouted one madman.
+
+"They are going to guillotine him!" cried the women.
+
+By the time they reached the end of the Grande-Narette the crowd were
+shouting: "They are taking him to the guillotine!" "They found the knife
+upon him!" "That's what Parisians are!" "He carries crime on his face!"
+
+Though all Joseph's blood had flown to his head, he walked the distance
+from the place Saint-Jean to the Palais with remarkable calmness and
+self-possession. Nevertheless, he was very glad to find himself in the
+private office of Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin.
+
+"I need hardly tell you, gentlemen, that I am innocent," said Joseph,
+addressing Monsieur Mouilleron, Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin, and the
+clerk. "I can only beg you to assist me in proving my innocence. I know
+nothing of this affair."
+
+When the judge had stated all the suspicious facts which were against
+him, ending with Max's declaration, Joseph was astounded.
+
+"But," said he, "it was past five o'clock when I left the house. I went
+up the Grande rue, and at half-past five I was standing looking up at
+the facade of the parish church of Saint-Cyr. I talked there with the
+sexton, who came to ring the angelus, and asked him for information
+about the building, which seems to me fantastic and incomplete. Then
+I passed through the vegetable-market, where some women had already
+assembled. From there, crossing the place Misere, I went as far as the
+mill of Landrole by the Pont aux Anes, where I watched the ducks for
+five or six minutes, and the miller's men must have noticed me. I saw
+the women going to wash; they are probably still there. They made a
+little fun of me, and declared that I was not handsome; I told them it
+was not all gold that glittered. From there, I followed the long avenue
+to Tivoli, where I talked with the gardener. Pray have these facts
+verified; and do not even arrest me, for I give you my word of honor
+that I will stay quietly in this office till you are convinced of my
+innocence."
+
+These sensible words, said without the least hesitation, and with the
+ease of a man who is perfectly sure of his facts, made some impression
+on the magistrates.
+
+"Yes, we must find all these persons and summon them," said Monsieur
+Mouilleron; "but it is more than the affair of a day. Make up your mind,
+therefore, in your own interests, to be imprisoned in the Palais."
+
+"Provided I can write to my mother, so as to reassure her, poor
+woman--oh! you can read the letter," he added.
+
+This request was too just not to be granted, and Joseph wrote the
+following letter:--
+
+  "Do not be uneasy, dear mother; the mistake of which I am a victim
+  can easily be rectified; I have already given them the means of
+  doing so. To-morrow, or perhaps this evening, I shall be at
+  liberty. I kiss you, and beg you to say to Monsieur and Madame
+  Hochon how grieved I am at this affair; in which, however, I have
+  had no hand,--it is the result of some chance which, as yet, I do
+  not understand."
+
+When the note reached Madame Bridau, she was suffering from a nervous
+attack, and the potions which Monsieur Goddet was trying to make her
+swallow were powerless to soothe her. The reading of the letter acted
+like balm; after a few quiverings, Agathe subsided into the depression
+which always follows such attacks. Later, when Monsieur Goddet returned
+to his patient he found her regretting that she had ever quitted Paris.
+
+"Well," said Madame Hochon to Monsieur Goddet, "how is Monsieur Gilet?"
+
+"His wound, though serious, is not mortal," replied the doctor. "With
+a month's nursing he will be all right. I left him writing to Monsieur
+Mouilleron to request him to set your son at liberty, madame," he added,
+turning to Agathe. "Oh! Max is a fine fellow. I told him what a state
+you were in, and he then remembered a circumstance which goes to prove
+that the assassin was not your son; the man wore list shoes, whereas it
+is certain that Monsieur Joseph left the house in his boots--"
+
+"Ah! God forgive him the harm he has done me--"
+
+The fact was, a man had left a note for Max, after dark, written in
+type-letters, which ran as follows:--
+
+  "Captain Gilet ought not to let an innocent man suffer. He who
+  struck the blow promises not to strike again if Monsieur Gilet
+  will have Monsieur Joseph Bridau set at liberty, without naming
+  the man who did it."
+
+After reading this letter and burning it, Max wrote to Monsieur
+Mouilleron stating the circumstance of the list shoes, as reported by
+Monsieur Goddet, begging him to set Joseph at liberty, and to come and
+see him that he might explain the matter more at length.
+
+By the time this letter was received, Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin had
+verified, by the testimony of the bell-ringer, the market-women and
+washerwomen, and the miller's men, the truth of Joseph's explanation.
+Max's letter made his innocence only the more certain, and Monsieur
+Mouilleron himself escorted him back to the Hochons'. Joseph was
+greeted with such overflowing tenderness by his mother that the poor
+misunderstood son gave thanks to ill-luck--like the husband to the
+thief, in La Fontaine's fable--for a mishap which brought him such
+proofs of affection.
+
+"Oh," said Monsieur Mouilleron, with a self-satisfied air, "I knew at
+once by the way you looked at the angry crowd that you were innocent;
+but whatever I may have thought, any one who knows Issoudun must also
+know that the only way to protect you was to make the arrest as we did.
+Ah! you carried your head high."
+
+"I was thinking of something else," said the artist simply. "An officer
+in the army told me that he was once stopped in Dalmatia under similar
+circumstances by an excited populace, in the early morning as he was
+returning from a walk. This recollection came into my mind, and I looked
+at all those heads with the idea of painting a revolt of the year 1793.
+Besides, I kept saying to myself: Blackguard that I am! I have only
+got my deserts for coming here to look after an inheritance, instead of
+painting in my studio."
+
+"If you will allow me to offer you a piece of advice," said the
+procureur du roi, "you will take a carriage to-night, which the
+postmaster will lend you, and return to Paris by the diligence from
+Bourges."
+
+"That is my advice also," said Monsieur Hochon, who was burning with a
+desire for the departure of his guests.
+
+"My most earnest wish is to get away from Issoudun, though I leave my
+only friend here," said Agathe, kissing Madame Hochon's hand. "When
+shall I see you again?"
+
+"Ah! my dear, never until we meet above. We have suffered enough here
+below," she added in a low voice, "for God to take pity upon us."
+
+Shortly after, while Monsieur Mouilleron had gone across the way to talk
+with Max, Gritte greatly astonished Monsieur and Madame Hochon, Agathe,
+Joseph, and Adolphine by announcing the visit of Monsieur Rouget.
+Jean-Jacques came to bid his sister good-by, and to offer her his
+caleche for the drive to Bourges.
+
+"Ah! your pictures have been a great evil to us," said Agathe.
+
+"Keep them, my sister," said the old man, who did not even now believe
+in their value.
+
+"Neighbor," remarked Monsieur Hochon, "our best friends, our surest
+defenders, are our own relations; above all, when they are such as your
+sister Agathe, and your nephew Joseph."
+
+"Perhaps so," said old Rouget in his dull way.
+
+"We ought all to think of ending our days in a Christian manner," said
+Madame Hochon.
+
+"Ah! Jean-Jacques," said Agathe, "what a day this has been!"
+
+"Will you accept my carriage?" asked Rouget.
+
+"No, brother," answered Madame Bridau, "I thank you, and wish you health
+and comfort."
+
+Rouget let his sister and nephew kiss him, and then he went away without
+manifesting any feeling himself. Baruch, at a hint from his grandfather,
+had been to see the postmaster. At eleven o'clock that night, the two
+Parisians, ensconced in a wicker cabriolet drawn by one horse and ridden
+by a postilion, quitted Issoudun. Adolphine and Madame Hochon parted
+from them with tears in their eyes; they alone regretted Joseph and
+Agathe.
+
+"They are gone!" said Francois Hochon, going, with the Rabouilleuse,
+into Max's bedroom.
+
+"Well done! the trick succeeded," answered Max, who was now tired and
+feverish.
+
+"But what did you say to old Mouilleron?" asked Francois.
+
+"I told him that I had given my assassin some cause to waylay me; that
+he was a dangerous man and likely, if I followed up the affair, to
+kill me like a dog before he could be captured. Consequently, I begged
+Mouilleron and Prangin to make the most active search ostensibly, but
+really to let the assassin go in peace, unless they wished to see me a
+dead man."
+
+"I do hope, Max," said Flore, "that you will be quiet at night for some
+time to come."
+
+"At any rate, we are delivered from the Parisians!" cried Max. "The
+fellow who stabbed me had no idea what a service he was doing us."
+
+The next day, the departure of the Parisians was celebrated as a victory
+of the provinces over Paris by every one in Issoudun, except the more
+sober and staid inhabitants, who shared the opinions of Monsieur and
+Madame Hochon. A few of Max's friends spoke very harshly of the Bridaus.
+
+"Do those Parisians fancy we are all idiots," cried one, "and think they
+have only got to hold their hats and catch legacies?"
+
+"They came to fleece, but they have got shorn themselves," said another;
+"the nephew is not to the uncle's taste."
+
+"And, if you please, they actually consulted a lawyer in Paris--"
+
+"Ah! had they really a plan?"
+
+"Why, of course,--a plan to get possession of old Rouget. But the
+Parisians were not clever enough; that lawyer can't crow over us
+Berrichons!"
+
+"How abominable!"
+
+"That's Paris for you!"
+
+"The Rabouilleuse knew they came to attack her, and she defended
+herself."
+
+"She did gloriously right!"
+
+To the townspeople at large the Bridaus were Parisians and foreigners;
+they preferred Max and Flore.
+
+We can imagine the satisfaction with which, after this campaign, Joseph
+and Agathe re-entered their little lodging in the rue Mazarin. On the
+journey, the artist recovered his spirits, which had, not unnaturally,
+been put to flight by his arrest and twenty-four hours' confinement; but
+he could not cheer up his mother. The Court of Peers was about to begin
+the trial of the military conspirators, and that was sufficient to keep
+Agathe from recovering her peace of mind. Philippe's conduct, in
+spite of the clever defender whom Desroches recommended to him, roused
+suspicions that were unfavorable to his character. In view of this,
+Joseph, as soon as he had put Desroches in possession of all that was
+going on at Issoudun, started with Mistigris for the chateau of the
+Comte de Serizy, to escape hearing about the trial of the conspirators,
+which lasted for twenty days.
+
+It is useless to record facts that may be found in contemporaneous
+histories. Whether it were that he played a part previously agreed upon,
+or that he was really an informer, Philippe was condemned to five years'
+surveillance by the police department, and ordered to leave Paris
+the same day for Autun, the town which the director-general of police
+selected as the place of his exile for five years. This punishment
+resembled the detention of prisoners on parole who have a town for a
+prison. Learning that the Comte de Serizy, one of the peers appointed by
+the Chamber on the court-martial, was employing Joseph to decorate
+his chateau at Presles, Desroches begged the minister to grant him an
+audience, and found Monsieur de Serizy most amiably disposed toward
+Joseph, with whom he had happened to make personal acquaintance.
+Desroches explained the financial condition of the two brothers,
+recalling the services of the father, and the neglect shown to them
+under the Restoration.
+
+"Such injustice, monseigneur," said the lawyer, "is a lasting cause of
+irritation and discontent. You knew the father; give the sons a chance,
+at least, of making a fortune--"
+
+And he drew a succinct picture of the situation of the family affairs
+at Issoudun, begging the all-powerful vice-president of the Council of
+State to take steps to induce the director-general of police to change
+Philippe's place of residence from Autun to Issoudun. He also spoke of
+Philippe's extreme poverty, and asked a dole of sixty francs a month,
+which the minister of war ought, he said, for mere shame's sake, to
+grant to a former lieutenant-colonel.
+
+"I will obtain all you ask of me, for I think it just," replied the
+count.
+
+Three days later, Desroches, furnished with the necessary authority,
+fetched Philippe from the prison of the Court of Peers, and took him to
+his own house, rue de Bethizy. Once there, the young barrister read the
+miserable vagabond one of those unanswerable lectures in which lawyers
+rate things at their actual value; using plain terms to qualify the
+conduct, and to analyze and reduce to their simplest meaning the
+sentiments and ideas of clients toward whom they feel enough interest to
+speak plainly. After humbling the Emperor's staff-officer by reproaching
+him with his reckless dissipations, his mother's misfortunes, and the
+death of Madame Descoings, he went on to tell him the state of things
+at Issoudun, explaining it according to his lights, and probing both the
+scheme and the character of Maxence Gilet and the Rabouilleuse to their
+depths. Philippe, who was gifted with a keen comprehension in such
+directions, listened with much more interest to this part of Desroches's
+lecture than to what had gone before.
+
+"Under these circumstances," continued the lawyer, "you can repair the
+injury you have done to your estimable family,--so far at least as it is
+reparable; for you cannot restore life to the poor mother you have all
+but killed. But you alone can--"
+
+"What can I do?" asked Philippe.
+
+"I have obtained a change of residence for you from Autun to
+Issoudun.--"
+
+Philippe's sunken face, which had grown almost sinister in expression
+and was furrowed with sufferings and privation, instantly lighted up
+with a flash of joy.
+
+"And, as I was saying, you alone can recover the inheritance of old
+Rouget's property; half of which may by this time be in the jaws of the
+wolf named Gilet," replied Desroches. "You now know all the particulars,
+and it is for you to act accordingly. I suggest no plan; I have no
+ideas at all as to that; besides, everything will depend on local
+circumstances. You have to deal with a strong force; that fellow is very
+astute. The way he attempted to get back the pictures your uncle had
+given to Joseph, the audacity with which he laid a crime on your poor
+brother's shoulders, all go to prove that the adversary is capable of
+everything. Therefore, be prudent; and try to behave properly out of
+policy, if you can't do so out of decency. Without telling Joseph, whose
+artist's pride would be up in arms, I have sent the pictures to Monsieur
+Hochon, telling him to give them up to no one but you. By the way,
+Maxence Gilet is a brave man."
+
+"So much the better," said Philippe; "I count on his courage for
+success; a coward would leave Issoudun."
+
+"Well,--think of your mother who has been so devoted to you, and of your
+brother, whom you made your milch cow."
+
+"Ah! did he tell you that nonsense?" cried Philippe.
+
+"Am I not the friend of the family, and don't I know much more about you
+than they do?" asked Desroches.
+
+"What do you know?" said Philippe.
+
+"That you betrayed your comrades."
+
+"I!" exclaimed Philippe. "I! a staff-officer of the Emperor! Absurd!
+Why, we fooled the Chamber of Peers, the lawyers, the government, and
+the whole of the damned concern. The king's people were completely
+hood-winked."
+
+"That's all very well, if it was so," answered the lawyer. "But, don't
+you see, the Bourbons can't be overthrown; all Europe is backing them;
+and you ought to try to make your peace with the war department,--you
+could do that readily enough if you were rich. To get rich, you and your
+brother, you must lay hold of your uncle. If you will take the trouble
+to manage an affair which needs great cleverness, patience, and caution,
+you have enough work before you to occupy your five years."
+
+"No, no," cried Philippe, "I must take the bull by the horns at once.
+This Maxence may alter the investment of the property and put it in that
+woman's name; and then all would be lost."
+
+"Monsieur Hochon is a good adviser, and sees clearly; consult him. You
+have your orders from the police; I have taken your place in the Orleans
+diligence for half-past seven o'clock this evening. I suppose your trunk
+is ready; so, now come and dine."
+
+"I own nothing but what I have got on my back," said Philippe, opening
+his horrible blue overcoat; "but I only need three things, which you
+must tell Giroudeau, the uncle of Finot, to send me,--my sabre, my
+sword, and my pistols."
+
+"You need more than that," said the lawyer, shuddering as he looked at
+his client. "You will receive a quarterly stipend which will clothe you
+decently."
+
+"Bless me! are you here, Godeschal?" cried Philippe, recognizing in
+Desroches's head-clerk, as they passed out, the brother of Mariette.
+
+"Yes, I have been with Monsieur Desroches for the last two months."
+
+"And he will stay with me, I hope, till he gets a business of his own,"
+said Desroches.
+
+"How is Mariette?" asked Philippe, moved at his recollections.
+
+"She is getting ready for the opening of the new theatre."
+
+"It would cost her little trouble to get my sentence remitted," said
+Philippe. "However, as she chooses!"
+
+After a meagre dinner, given by Desroches who boarded his head-clerk,
+the two lawyers put the political convict in the diligence, and wished
+him good luck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+On the second of November, All-Souls' day, Philippe Bridau appeared
+before the commissary of police at Issoudun, to have the date of his
+arrival recorded on his papers; and by that functionary's advice he went
+to lodge in the rue l'Avenier. The news of the arrival of an officer,
+banished on account of the late military conspiracy, spread rapidly
+through the town, and caused all the more excitement when it was known
+that this officer was a brother of the painter who had been falsely
+accused. Maxence Gilet, by this time entirely recovered from his wound,
+had completed the difficult operation of turning all Pere Rouget's
+mortgages into money, and putting the proceeds in one sum, on the
+"grand-livre." The loan of one hundred and forty thousand francs
+obtained by the old man on his landed property had caused a great
+sensation,--for everything is known in the provinces. Monsieur Hochon,
+in the Bridau interest, was much put about by this disaster, and
+questioned old Monsieur Heron, the notary at Bourges, as to the object
+of it.
+
+"The heirs of old Rouget, if old Rouget changes his mind, ought to make
+me a votive offering," cried Monsieur Heron. "If it had not been for me,
+the old fellow would have allowed the fifty thousand francs' income to
+stand in the name of Maxence Gilet. I told Mademoiselle Brazier that
+she ought to look to the will only, and not run the risk of a suit
+for spoliation, seeing what numerous proofs these transfers in every
+direction would give against them. To gain time, I advised Maxence and
+his mistress to keep quiet, and let this sudden change in the usual
+business habits of the old man be forgotten."
+
+"Protect the Bridaus, for they have nothing," said Monsieur Hochon, who
+in addition to all other reasons, could not forgive Gilet the terrors he
+had endured when fearing the pillage of his house.
+
+Maxence Gilet and Flore Brazier, now secure against all attack, were
+very merry over the arrival of another of old Rouget's nephews. They
+knew they were able, at the first signal of danger, to make the old man
+sign a power of attorney under which the money in the Funds could
+be transferred either to Max or Flore. If the will leaving Flore the
+principal, should be revoked, an income of fifty thousand francs was a
+very tolerable crumb of comfort,--more particularly after squeezing from
+the real estate that mortgage of a hundred and forty thousand.
+
+The day after his arrival, Philippe called upon his uncle about ten
+o'clock in the morning, anxious to present himself in his dilapidated
+clothing. When the convalescent of the Hopital du Midi, the prisoner of
+the Luxembourg, entered the room, Flore Brazier felt a shiver pass
+over her at the repulsive sight. Gilet himself was conscious of that
+particular disturbance both of mind and body, by which Nature sometimes
+warns us of a latent enmity, or a coming danger. If there was something
+indescribably sinister in Philippe's countenance, due to his recent
+misfortunes, the effect was heightened by his clothes. His forlorn blue
+great-coat was buttoned in military fashion to the throat, for painful
+reasons; and yet it showed much that it pretended to conceal. The bottom
+edges of the trousers, ragged like those of an almshouse beggar, were
+the sign of abject poverty. The boots left wet splashes on the floor,
+as the mud oozed from fissures in the soles. The gray hat, which the
+colonel held in his hand, was horribly greasy round the rim. The malacca
+cane, from which the polish had long disappeared, must have stood in all
+the corners of all the cafes in Paris, and poked its worn-out end into
+many a corruption. Above the velvet collar, rubbed and worn till the
+frame showed through it, rose a head like that which Frederick Lemaitre
+makes up for the last act in "The Life of a Gambler,"--where the
+exhaustion of a man still in the prime of life is betrayed by the
+metallic, brassy skin, discolored as if with verdigris. Such tints are
+seen on the faces of debauched gamblers who spend their nights in play:
+the eyes are sunken in a dusky circle, the lids are reddened rather than
+red, the brow is menacing from the wreck and ruin it reveals. Philippe's
+cheeks, which were sunken and wrinkled, showed signs of the illness from
+which he had scarcely recovered. His head was bald, except for a fringe
+of hair at the back which ended at the ears. The pure blue of his
+brilliant eyes had acquired the cold tones of polished steel.
+
+"Good-morning, uncle," he said, in a hoarse voice. "I am your
+nephew, Philippe Bridau,--a specimen of how the Bourbons treat a
+lieutenant-colonel, an old soldier of the old army, one who carried the
+Emperor's orders at the battle of Montereau. If my coat were to open, I
+should be put to shame in presence of Mademoiselle. Well, it is the
+rule of the game! We hoped to begin it again; we tried it, and we have
+failed! I am to reside in your city by the order of the police, with a
+full pay of sixty francs a month. So the inhabitants needn't fear that
+I shall raise the price of provisions! I see you are in good and lovely
+company."
+
+"Ah! you are my nephew," said Jean-Jacques.
+
+"Invite monsieur le colonel to breakfast with us," said Flore.
+
+"No, I thank you, madame," answered Philippe, "I have breakfasted.
+Besides, I would cut off my hand sooner than ask a bit of bread or
+a farthing from my uncle, after the treatment my mother and brother
+received in this town. It did not seem proper, however, that I should
+settle here, in Issoudun, without paying my respects to him from time
+to time. You can do what you like," he added, offering the old man his
+hand, into which Rouget put his own, which Philippe shook, "--whatever
+you like. I shall have nothing to say against it; provided the honor of
+the Bridaus is untouched."
+
+Gilet could look at the lieutenant-colonel as much as he pleased, for
+Philippe pointedly avoided casting his eyes in his direction. Max,
+though the blood boiled in his veins, was too well aware of the
+importance of behaving with political prudence--which occasionally
+resembles cowardice--to take fire like a young man; he remained,
+therefore, perfectly calm and cold.
+
+"It wouldn't be right, monsieur," said Flore, "to live on sixty francs
+a month under the nose of an uncle who has forty thousand francs a year,
+and who has already behaved so kindly to Captain Gilet, his natural
+relation, here present--"
+
+"Yes, Philippe," cried the old man, "you must see that!"
+
+On Flore's presentation, Philippe made a half-timid bow to Max.
+
+"Uncle, I have some pictures to return to you; they are now at Monsieur
+Hochon's. Will you be kind enough to come over some day and identify
+them."
+
+Saying these last words in a curt tone, lieutenant-colonel Philippe
+Bridau departed. The tone of his visit made, if possible, a deeper
+impression on Flore's mind, and also on that of Max, than the shock
+they had felt at the first sight of that horrible campaigner. As soon as
+Philippe had slammed the door, with the violence of a disinherited heir,
+Max and Flore hid behind the window-curtains to watch him as he crossed
+the road, to the Hochons'.
+
+"What a vagabond!" exclaimed Flore, questioning Max with a glance of her
+eye.
+
+"Yes; unfortunately there were men like him in the armies of the
+Emperor; I sent seven to the shades at Cabrera," answered Gilet.
+
+"I do hope, Max, that you won't pick a quarrel with that fellow," said
+Mademoiselle Brazier.
+
+"He smelt so of tobacco," complained the old man.
+
+"He was smelling after your money-bags," said Flore, in a peremptory
+tone. "My advice is that you don't let him into the house again."
+
+"I'd prefer not to," replied Rouget.
+
+"Monsieur," said Gritte, entering the room where the Hochon family were
+all assembled after breakfast, "here is the Monsieur Bridau you were
+talking about."
+
+Philippe made his entrance politely, in the midst of a dead silence
+caused by general curiosity. Madame Hochon shuddered from head to foot
+as she beheld the author of all Agathe's woes and the murderer of good
+old Madame Descoings. Adolphine also felt a shock of fear. Baruch
+and Francois looked at each other in surprise. Old Hochon kept his
+self-possession, and offered a seat to the son of Madame Bridau.
+
+"I have come, monsieur," said Philippe, "to introduce myself to you; I
+am forced to consider how I can manage to live here, for five years, on
+sixty francs a month."
+
+"It can be done," said the octogenarian.
+
+Philippe talked about things in general, with perfect propriety. He
+mentioned the journalist Lousteau, nephew of the old lady, as a "rara
+avis," and won her good graces from the moment she heard him say that
+the name of Lousteau would become celebrated. He did not hesitate to
+admit his faults of conduct. To a friendly admonition which Madame
+Hochon addressed to him in a low voice, he replied that he had reflected
+deeply while in prison, and could promise that in future he would live
+another life.
+
+On a hint from Philippe, Monsieur Hochon went out with him when he took
+his leave. When the miser and the soldier reached the boulevard Baron,
+a place where no one could overhear them, the colonel turned to the old
+man,--
+
+"Monsieur," he said, "if you will be guided by me, we will never speak
+together of matters and things, or people either, unless we are walking
+in the open country, or in places where we cannot be heard. Maitre
+Desroches has fully explained to me the influence of the gossip of a
+little town. Therefore I don't wish you to be suspected of advising me;
+though Desroches has told me to ask for your advice, and I beg you not
+to be chary of giving it. We have a powerful enemy in our front, and it
+won't do to neglect any precaution which may help to defeat him. In the
+first place, therefore, excuse me if I do not call upon you again.
+A little coldness between us will clear you of all suspicion of
+influencing my conduct. When I want to consult you, I will pass
+along the square at half-past nine, just as you are coming out after
+breakfast. If you see me carry my cane on my shoulder, that will mean
+that we must meet--accidentally--in some open space which you will point
+out to me."
+
+"I see you are a prudent man, bent on success," said old Hochon.
+
+"I shall succeed, monsieur. First of all, give me the names of the
+officers of the old army now living in Issoudun, who have not taken
+sides with Maxence Gilet; I wish to make their acquaintance."
+
+"Well, there's a captain of the artillery of the Guard, Monsieur
+Mignonnet, a man about forty years of age, who was brought up at the
+Ecole Polytechnique, and lives in a quiet way. He is a very honorable
+man, and openly disapproves of Max, whose conduct he considers unworthy
+of a true soldier."
+
+"Good!" remarked the lieutenant-colonel.
+
+"There are not many soldiers here of that stripe," resumed Monsieur
+Hochon; "the only other that I know is an old cavalry captain."
+
+"That is my arm," said Philippe. "Was he in the Guard?"
+
+"Yes," replied Monsieur Hochon. "Carpentier was, in 1810, sergeant-major
+in the dragoons; then he rose to be sub-lieutenant in the line, and
+subsequently captain of cavalry."
+
+"Giroudeau may know him," thought Philippe.
+
+"This Monsieur Carpentier took the place in the mayor's office which
+Gilet threw up; he is a friend of Monsieur Mignonnet."
+
+"How can I earn my living here?"
+
+"They are going, I think, to establish a mutual insurance agency in
+Issoudun, for the department of the Cher; you might get a place in it,
+but the pay won't be more than fifty francs a month at the outside."
+
+"That will be enough."
+
+At the end of a week Philippe had a new suit of clothes,--coat,
+waistcoat, and trousers,--of good blue Elbeuf cloth, bought on credit,
+to be paid for at so much a month; also new boots, buckskin gloves, and
+a hat. Giroudeau sent him some linen, with his weapons and a letter for
+Carpentier, who had formerly served under Giroudeau. The letter secured
+him Carpentier's good-will, and the latter presented him to his friend
+Mignonnet as a man of great merit and the highest character. Philippe
+won the admiration of these worthy officers by confiding to them a few
+facts about the late conspiracy, which was, as everybody knows, the
+last attempt of the old army against the Bourbons; for the affair of the
+sergeants at La Rochelle belongs to another order of ideas.
+
+Warned by the fate of the conspiracy of the 19th of August, 1820, and
+of those of Berton and Caron, the soldiers of the old army resigned
+themselves, after their failure in 1822, to await events. This last
+conspiracy, which grew out of that of the 19th of August, was really
+a continuation of the latter, carried on by a better element. Like its
+predecessor, it was absolutely unknown to the royal government. Betrayed
+once more, the conspirators had the wit to reduce their vast enterprise
+to the puny proportions of a barrack plot. This conspiracy, in which
+several regiments of cavalry, infantry, and artillery were concerned,
+had its centre in the north of France. The strong places along the
+frontier were to be captured at a blow. If success had followed, the
+treaties of 1815 would have been broken by a federation with Belgium,
+which, by a military compact made among the soldiers, was to withdraw
+from the Holy Alliance. Two thrones would have been plunged in a moment
+into the vortex of this sudden cyclone. Instead of this formidable
+scheme--concerted by strong minds and supported by personages of high
+rank--being carried out, one small part of it, and that only, was
+discovered and brought before the Court of Peers. Philippe Bridau
+consented to screen the leaders, who retired the moment the plot was
+discovered (either by treachery or accident), and from their seats in
+both Chambers lent their co-operation to the inquiry only to work for
+the ultimate success of their purpose at the heart of the government.
+
+To recount this scheme, which, since 1830, the Liberals have openly
+confessed in all its ramifications, would trench upon the domain of
+history and involve too long a digression. This glimpse of it is enough
+to show the double part which Philippe Bridau undertook to play. The
+former staff-officer of the Emperor was to lead a movement in Paris
+solely for the purpose of masking the real conspiracy and occupying the
+mind of the government at its centre, while the great struggle should
+burst forth at the north. When the latter miscarried before discovery,
+Philippe was ordered to break all links connecting the two plots, and to
+allow the secrets of the secondary plot only to become known. For
+this purpose, his abject misery, to which his state of health and his
+clothing bore witness, was amply sufficient to undervalue the character
+of the conspiracy and reduce its proportions in the eyes of the
+authorities. The role was well suited to the precarious position of
+the unprincipled gambler. Feeling himself astride of both parties, the
+crafty Philippe played the saint to the royal government, all the while
+retaining the good opinion of the men in high places who were of
+the other party,--determined to cast in his lot at a later day with
+whichever side he might then find most to his advantage.
+
+These revelations as to the vast bearings of the real conspiracy made
+Philippe a man of great distinction in the eyes of Carpentier and
+Mignonnet, to whom his self-devotion seemed a state-craft worthy of the
+palmy days of the Convention. In a short time the tricky Bonapartist
+was seen to be on friendly terms with the two officers, and the
+consideration they enjoyed in the town was, of course, shared by him.
+He soon obtained, through their recommendation, the situation in the
+insurance office that old Hochon had suggested, which required only
+three hours of his day. Mignonnet and Carpentier put him up at their
+club, where his good manners and bearing, in keeping with the high
+opinion which the two officers expressed about him, won him a respect
+often given to external appearances that are only deceitful.
+
+Philippe, whose conduct was carefully considered and planned, had
+indeed made many reflections while in prison as to the inconveniences
+of leading a debauched life. He did not need Desroches's lecture to
+understand the necessity of conciliating the people at Issoudun by
+decent, sober, and respectable conduct. Delighted to attract Max's
+ridicule by behaving with the propriety of a Mignonnet, he went further,
+and endeavored to lull Gilet's suspicions by deceiving him as to his
+real character. He was bent on being taken for a fool by appearing
+generous and disinterested; all the while drawing a net around his
+adversary, and keeping his eye on his uncle's property. His mother and
+brother, on the contrary, who were really disinterested, generous,
+and lofty, had been accused of greed because they had acted with
+straightforward simplicity. Philippe's covetousness was fully roused by
+Monsieur Hochon, who gave him all the details of his uncle's property.
+In the first secret conversation which he held with the octogenarian,
+they agreed that Philippe must not awaken Max's suspicions; for the game
+would be lost if Flore and Max were to carry off their victim, though no
+further than Bourges.
+
+Once a week the colonel dined with Mignonnet; another day with
+Carpentier; and every Thursday with Monsieur Hochon. At the end of three
+weeks he received other invitations for the remaining days, so that he
+had little more than his breakfast to provide. He never spoke of
+his uncle, nor of the Rabouilleuse, nor of Gilet, unless it were in
+connection with his mother and his brother's stay in Issoudun. The three
+officers--the only soldiers in the town who were decorated, and among
+whom Philippe had the advantage of the rosette, which in the eyes of
+all provincials gave him a marked superiority--took a habit of walking
+together every day before dinner, keeping, as the saying is, to
+themselves. This reserve and tranquillity of demeanor had an
+excellent effect on Issoudun. All Max's adherents thought Philippe a
+"sabreur,"--an expression applied by soldiers to the commonest sort of
+courage in their superior officers, while denying that they possess the
+requisite qualities of a commander.
+
+"He is a very honorable man," said Goddet the surgeon, to Max.
+
+"Bah!" replied Gilet, "his behavior before the Court of Peers proves him
+to have been either a dupe or a spy; he is, as you say, ninny enough to
+have been duped by the great players."
+
+After obtaining his situation, Philippe, who was well informed as to
+the gossip of the town, wished to conceal certain circumstances of his
+present life as much as possible from the knowledge of the inhabitants;
+he therefore went to live in a house at the farther end of the faubourg
+Saint-Paterne, to which was attached a large garden. Here he was able
+in the utmost secrecy to fence with Carpentier, who had been a
+fencing-master in the infantry before entering the cavalry. Philippe
+soon recovered his early dexterity, and learned other and new secrets
+from Carpentier, which convinced him that he need not fear the prowess
+of any adversary. This done, he began openly to practise with pistols,
+with Mignonnet and Carpentier, declaring it was for amusement, but
+really intending to make Max believe that, in case of a duel, he should
+rely on that weapon. Whenever Philippe met Gilet he waited for him to
+bow first, and answered the salutation by touching the brim of his hat
+cavalierly, as an officer acknowledges the salute of a private. Maxence
+Gilet gave no sign of impatience or displeasure; he never uttered a
+single word about Bridau at the Cognettes' where he still gave suppers;
+although, since Fario's attack, the pranks of the Order of Idleness were
+temporarily suspended.
+
+After a while, however, the contempt shown by Lieutenant-colonel Bridau
+for the former cavalry captain, Gilet, was a settled fact, which certain
+Knights of Idleness, who were less bound to Max than Francois, Baruch,
+and three or four others, discussed among themselves. They were much
+surprised to see the violent and fiery Max behave with such discretion.
+No one in Issoudun, not even Potel or Renard, dared broach so delicate
+a subject with him. Potel, somewhat disturbed by this open
+misunderstanding between two heroes of the Imperial Guard, suggested
+that Max might be laying a net for the colonel; he asserted that some
+new scheme might be looked for from the man who had got rid of the
+mother and one brother by making use of Fario's attack upon him, the
+particulars of which were now no longer a mystery. Monsieur Hochon had
+taken care to reveal the truth of Max's atrocious accusation to the best
+people of the town. Thus it happened that in talking over the situation
+of the lieutenant-colonel in relation to Max, and in trying to guess
+what might spring from their antagonism, the whole town regarded the two
+men, from the start, as adversaries.
+
+Philippe, who had carefully investigated all the circumstances of his
+brother's arrest and the antecedents of Gilet and the Rabouilleuse, was
+finally brought into rather close relations with Fario, who lived near
+him. After studying the Spaniard, Philippe thought he might trust a man
+of that quality. The two found their hatred so firm a bond of union,
+that Fario put himself at Philippe's disposal, and related all that
+he knew about the Knights of Idleness. Philippe promised, in case he
+succeeded in obtaining over his uncle the power now exercised by Gilet,
+to indemnify Fario for his losses; this bait made the Spaniard his
+henchman. Maxence was now face to face with a dangerous foe; he had, as
+they say in those parts, some one to handle. Roused by much gossip and
+various rumors, the town of Issoudun expected a mortal combat between
+the two men, who, we must remark, mutually despised each other.
+
+One morning, toward the end of November, Philippe met Monsieur Hochon
+about twelve o'clock, in the long avenue of Frapesle, and said to him:--
+
+"I have discovered that your grandsons Baruch and Francois are the
+intimate friends of Maxence Gilet. The rascals are mixed up in all the
+pranks that are played about this town at night. It was through them
+that Maxence knew what was said in your house when my mother and brother
+were staying there."
+
+"How did you get proof of such a monstrous thing?"
+
+"I overheard their conversation one night as they were leaving a
+drinking-shop. Your grandsons both owe Max more than three thousand
+francs. The scoundrel told the lads to try and find out our intentions;
+he reminded them that you had once thought of getting round my uncle
+by priestcraft, and declared that nobody but you could guide me; for he
+thinks, fortunately, that I am nothing more than a 'sabreur.'"
+
+"My grandsons! is it possible?"
+
+"Watch them," said Philippe. "You will see them coming home along the
+place Saint-Jean, at two or three o'clock in the morning, as tipsy as
+champagne-corks, and in company with Gilet--"
+
+"That's why the scamps keep so sober at home!" cried Monsieur Hochon.
+
+"Fario has told me all about their nocturnal proceedings," resumed
+Philippe; "without him, I should never have suspected them. My uncle is
+held down under an absolute thraldom, if I may judge by certain things
+which the Spaniard has heard Max say to your boys. I suspect Max and
+the Rabouilleuse of a scheme to make sure of the fifty thousand francs'
+income from the Funds, and then, after pulling that feather from their
+pigeon's wing, to run away, I don't know where, and get married. It is
+high time to know what is going on under my uncle's roof, but I don't
+see how to set about it."
+
+"I will think of it," said the old man.
+
+They separated, for several persons were now approaching.
+
+Never, at any time in his life, did Jean-Jacques suffer as he had done
+since the first visit of his nephew Philippe. Flore was terrified by the
+presentiment of some evil that threatened Max. Weary of her master, and
+fearing that he might live to be very old, since he was able to bear
+up under their criminal practices, she formed the very simple plan of
+leaving Issoudun and being married to Maxence in Paris, after obtaining
+from Jean-Jacques the transfer of the income in the Funds. The old
+bachelor, guided, not by any justice to his family, nor by personal
+avarice, but solely by his passion, steadily refused to make the
+transfer, on the ground that Flore was to be his sole heir. The unhappy
+creature knew to what extent Flore loved Max, and he believed he would
+be abandoned the moment she was made rich enough to marry. When Flore,
+after employing the tenderest cajoleries, was unable to succeed, she
+tried rigor; she no longer spoke to her master; Vedie was sent to wait
+upon him, and found him in the morning with his eyes swollen and red
+with weeping. For a week or more, poor Rouget had breakfasted alone, and
+Heaven knows on what food!
+
+The day after Philippe's conversation with Monsieur Hochon, he
+determined to pay a second visit to his uncle, whom he found much
+changed. Flore stayed beside the old man, speaking tenderly and looking
+at him with much affection; she played the comedy so well that Philippe
+guessed some immediate danger, merely from the solicitude thus displayed
+in his presence. Gilet, whose policy it was to avoid all collision with
+Philippe, did not appear. After watching his uncle and Flore for a time
+with a discerning eye, the colonel judged that the time had come to
+strike his grand blow.
+
+"Adieu, my dear uncle," he said, rising as if to leave the house.
+
+"Oh! don't go yet," cried the old man, who was comforted by Flore's
+false tenderness. "Dine with us, Philippe."
+
+"Yes, if you will come and take a walk with me."
+
+"Monsieur is very feeble," interposed Mademoiselle Brazier; "just now he
+was unwilling even to go out in the carriage," she added, turning upon
+the old man the fixed look with which keepers quell a maniac.
+
+Philippe took Flore by the arm, compelling her to look at him, and
+looking at her in return as fixedly as she had just looked at her
+victim.
+
+"Tell me, mademoiselle," he said, "is it a fact that my uncle is not
+free to take a walk with me?"
+
+"Why, yes he is, monsieur," replied Flore, who was unable to make any
+other answer.
+
+"Very well. Come, uncle. Mademoiselle, give him his hat and cane."
+
+"But--he never goes out without me. Do you, monsieur?"
+
+"Yes, Philippe, yes; I always want her--"
+
+"It would be better to take the carriage," said Flore.
+
+"Yes, let us take the carriage," cried the old man, in his anxiety to
+make his two tyrants agree.
+
+"Uncle, you will come with me, alone, and on foot, or I shall never
+return here; I shall know that the town of Issoudun tells the truth,
+when it declares you are under the dominion of Mademoiselle Flore
+Brazier. That my uncle should love you, is all very well," he resumed,
+holding Flore with a fixed eye; "that you should not love my uncle is
+also on the cards; but when it comes to your making him unhappy--halt!
+If people want to get hold of an inheritance, they must earn it. Are you
+coming, uncle?"
+
+Philippe saw the eyes of the poor imbecile roving from himself to Flore,
+in painful hesitation.
+
+"Ha! that's how it is, is it?" resumed the lieutenant-colonel. "Well,
+adieu, uncle. Mademoiselle, I kiss your hands."
+
+He turned quickly when he reached the door, and caught Flore in the act
+of making a menacing gesture at his uncle.
+
+"Uncle," he said, "if you wish to go with me, I will meet you at your
+door in ten minutes: I am now going to see Monsieur Hochon. If you and
+I do not take that walk, I shall take upon myself to make some others
+walk."
+
+So saying, he went away, and crossed the place Saint-Jean to the
+Hochons.
+
+Every one can imagine the scenes which the revelations made by Philippe
+to Monsieur Hochon had brought about within that family. At nine
+o'clock, old Monsieur Heron, the notary, presented himself with a bundle
+of papers, and found a fire in the hall which the old miser, contrary
+to all his habits, had ordered to be lighted. Madame Hochon, already
+dressed at this unusual hour, was sitting in her armchair at the
+corner of the fireplace. The two grandsons, warned the night before by
+Adolphine that a storm was gathering about their heads, had been ordered
+to stay in the house. Summoned now by Gritte, they were alarmed at the
+formal preparations of their grandparents, whose coldness and anger they
+had been made to feel in the air for the last twenty-four hours.
+
+"Don't rise for them," said their grandfather to Monsieur Heron; "you
+see before you two miscreants, unworthy of pardon."
+
+"Oh, grandpapa!" said Francois.
+
+"Be silent!" said the old man sternly. "I know of your nocturnal life
+and your intimacy with Monsieur Maxence Gilet. But you will meet him no
+more at Mere Cognette's at one in the morning; for you will not leave
+this house, either of you, until you go to your respective destinations.
+Ha! it was you who ruined Fario, was it? you, who have narrowly escaped
+the police-courts--Hold your tongue!" he said, seeing that Baruch was
+about to speak. "You both owe money to Monsieur Maxence Gilet; who,
+for six years, has paid for your debauchery. Listen, both of you, to my
+guardianship accounts; after that, I shall have more to say. You will
+see, after these papers are read, whether you can still trifle with
+me,--still trifle with family laws by betraying the secrets of this
+house, and reporting to a Monsieur Maxence Gilet what is said and what
+is done here. For three thousand francs, you became spies; for ten
+thousand, you would, no doubt, become assassins. You did almost kill
+Madame Bridau; for Monsieur Gilet knew very well it was Fario who
+stabbed him when he threw the crime upon my guest, Monsieur Joseph
+Bridau. If that jail-bird did so wicked an act, it was because you told
+him what Madame Bridau meant to do. You, my grandsons, the spies of
+such a man! You, house-breakers and marauders! Don't you know that
+your worthy leader killed a poor young woman, in 1806? I will not have
+assassins and thieves in my family. Pack your things; you shall go hang
+elsewhere!"
+
+The two young men turned white and stiff as plaster casts.
+
+"Read on, Monsieur Heron," said Hochon.
+
+The old notary read the guardianship accounts; from which it appeared
+that the net fortune of the two Borniche children amounted to seventy
+thousand francs, a sum derived from the dowry of their mother: but
+Monsieur Hochon had lent his daughter various large sums, and was
+now, as creditor, the owner of a part of the property of his Borniche
+grandchildren. The portion coming to Baruch amounted to only twenty
+thousand francs.
+
+"Now you are rich," said the old man, "take your money, and go. I remain
+master of my own property and that of Madame Hochon, who in this matter
+shares all my intentions, and I shall give it to whom I choose; namely,
+our dear Adolphine. Yes, we can marry her if we please to the son of a
+peer of France, for she will be an heiress."
+
+"A noble fortune!" said Monsieur Heron.
+
+"Monsieur Maxence Gilet will make up this loss to you," said Madame
+Hochon.
+
+"Let my hard-saved money go to a scapegrace like you? no, indeed!" cried
+Monsieur Hochon.
+
+"Forgive me!" stammered Baruch.
+
+"'Forgive, and I won't do it again,'" sneered the old man, imitating a
+child's voice. "If I were to forgive you, and let you out of this house,
+you would go and tell Monsieur Maxence what has happened, and warn him
+to be on his guard. No, no, my little men. I shall keep my eye on you,
+and I have means of knowing what you do. As you behave, so shall I
+behave to you. It will be by a long course of good conduct, not that of
+a day or a month, but of years, that I shall judge you. I am strong
+on my legs, my eyes are good, my health is sound; I hope to live long
+enough to see what road you take. Your first move will be to Paris,
+where you will study banking under Messieurs Mongenod and Sons. Ill-luck
+to you if you don't walk straight; you will be watched. Your property is
+in the hand of Messieurs Mongenod; here is a cheque for the amount.
+Now then, release me as guardian, and sign the accounts, and also this
+receipt," he added, taking the papers from Monsieur Heron and handing
+them to Baruch.
+
+"As for you, Francois Hochon, you owe me money instead of having any
+to receive," said the old man, looking at his other grandson. "Monsieur
+Heron, read his account; it is all clear--perfectly clear."
+
+The reading was done in the midst of perfect stillness.
+
+"You will have six hundred francs a year, and with that you will go
+to Poitiers and study law," said the grandfather, when the notary had
+finished. "I had a fine life in prospect for you; but now, you must earn
+your living as a lawyer. Ah! my young rascals, you have deceived me for
+six years; you now know it has taken me but one hour to get even with
+you: I have seven-leagued boots."
+
+Just as old Monsieur Heron was preparing to leave with the signed
+papers, Gritte announced Colonel Bridau. Madame Hochon left the room,
+taking her grandsons with her, that she might, as old Hochon said,
+confess them privately and find out what effect this scene had produced
+upon them.
+
+Philippe and the old man stood in the embrasure of a window and spoke in
+low tones.
+
+"I have been reflecting on the state of your affairs over there," said
+Monsieur Hochon pointing to the Rouget house. "I have just had a talk
+with Monsieur Heron. The security for the fifty thousand francs a
+year from the property in the Funds cannot be sold unless by the owner
+himself or some one with a power of attorney from him. Now, since
+your arrival here, your uncle has not signed any such power before
+any notary; and, as he has not left Issoudun, he can't have signed one
+elsewhere. If he attempts to give a power of attorney here, we shall
+know it instantly; if he goes away to give one, we shall also know it,
+for it will have to be registered, and that excellent Heron has means of
+finding it out. Therefore, if Rouget leaves Issoudun, have him followed,
+learn where he goes, and we will find a way to discover what he does."
+
+"The power of attorney has not been given," said Philippe; "they are
+trying to get it; but--they--will--not--suc--ceed--" added the vagabond,
+whose eye just then caught sight of his uncle on the steps of the
+opposite house: he pointed him out to Monsieur Hochon, and related
+succinctly the particulars, at once so petty and so important, of his
+visit.
+
+"Maxence is afraid of me, but he can't evade me. Mignonnet says that all
+the officers of the old army who are in Issoudun give a yearly banquet
+on the anniversary of the Emperor's coronation; so Maxence Gilet and I
+are sure to meet in a few days."
+
+"If he gets a power of attorney by the morning of the first of
+December," said Hochon, "he might take the mail-post for Paris, and give
+up the banquet."
+
+"Very good. The first thing is, then, to get possession of my uncle;
+I've an eye that cows a fool," said Philippe, giving Monsieur Hochon an
+atrocious glance that made the old man tremble.
+
+"If they let him walk with you, Maxence must believe he has found some
+means to win the game," remarked the old miser.
+
+"Oh! Fario is on the watch," said Philippe, "and he is not alone. That
+Spaniard has discovered one of my old soldiers in the neighborhood of
+Vatan, a man I once did some service to. Without any one's suspecting
+it, Benjamin Bourdet is under Fario's orders, who has lent him a horse
+to get about with."
+
+"If you kill that monster who has corrupted my grandsons, I shall say
+you have done a good deed."
+
+"Thanks to me, the town of Issoudun now knows what Monsieur Maxence
+Gilet has been doing at night for the last six years," replied Philippe;
+"and the cackle, as you call it here, is now started on him. Morally his
+day is over."
+
+The moment Philippe left his uncle's house Flore went to Max's room to
+tell him every particular of the nephew's bold visit.
+
+"What's to be done?" she asked.
+
+"Before trying the last means,--which will be to fight that big
+reprobate," replied Maxence, "--we must play double or quits, and try
+our grand stroke. Let the old idiot go with his nephew."
+
+"But that big brute won't mince matters," remonstrated Flore; "he'll
+call things by their right names."
+
+"Listen to me," said Maxence in a harsh voice. "Do you think I've
+not kept my ears open, and reflected about how we stand? Send to Pere
+Cognette for a horse and a char-a-banc, and say we want them instantly:
+they must be here in five minutes. Pack all your belongings, take Vedie,
+and go to Vatan. Settle yourself there as if you mean to stay; carry off
+the twenty thousand francs in gold which the old fellow has got in his
+drawer. If I bring him to you in Vatan, you are to refuse to come back
+here unless he signs the power of attorney. As soon as we get it I'll
+slip off to Paris, while you're returning to Issoudun. When Jean-Jacques
+gets back from his walk and finds you gone, he'll go beside himself, and
+want to follow you. Well! when he does, I'll give him a talking to."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+While the foregoing plot was progressing, Philippe was walking arm in
+arm with his uncle along the boulevard Baron.
+
+"The two great tacticians are coming to close quarters at last," thought
+Monsieur Hochon as he watched the colonel marching off with his uncle;
+"I am curious to see the end of the game, and what becomes of the stake
+of ninety thousand francs a year."
+
+"My dear uncle," said Philippe, whose phraseology had a flavor of his
+affinities in Paris, "you love this girl, and you are devilishly right.
+She is damnably handsome! Instead of billing and cooing she makes you
+trot like a valet; well, that's all simple enough; but she wants to see
+you six feet underground, so that she may marry Max, whom she adores."
+
+"I know that, Philippe, but I love her all the same."
+
+"Well, I have sworn by the soul of my mother, who is your own sister,"
+continued Philippe, "to make your Rabouilleuse as supple as my glove,
+and the same as she was before that scoundrel, who is unworthy to have
+served in the Imperial Guard, ever came to quarter himself in your
+house."
+
+"Ah! if you could do that!--" said the old man.
+
+"It is very easy," answered Philippe, cutting his uncle short. "I'll
+kill Max as I would a dog; but--on one condition," added the old
+campaigner.
+
+"What is that?" said Rouget, looking at his nephew in a stupid way.
+
+"Don't sign that power of attorney which they want of you before the
+third of December; put them off till then. Your torturers only want it
+to enable them to sell the fifty thousand a year you have in the Funds,
+so that they may run off to Paris and pay for their wedding festivities
+out of your millions."
+
+"I am afraid so," replied Rouget.
+
+"Well, whatever they may say or do to you, put off giving that power of
+attorney until next week."
+
+"Yes; but when Flore talks to me she stirs my very soul, till I don't
+know what I do. I give you my word, when she looks at me in a certain
+way, her blue eyes seem like paradise, and I am no longer master of
+myself,--especially when for some days she had been harsh to me."
+
+"Well, whether she is sweet or sour, don't do more than promise to sign
+the paper, and let me know the night before you are going to do it. That
+will answer. Maxence shall not be your proxy unless he first kills
+me. If I kill him, you must agree to take me in his place, and I'll
+undertake to break in that handsome girl and keep her at your beck
+and call. Yes, Flore shall love you, and if she doesn't satisfy
+you--thunder! I'll thrash her."
+
+"Oh! I never could allow that. A blow struck at Flore would break my
+heart."
+
+"But it is the only way to govern women and horses. A man makes himself
+feared, or loved, or respected. Now that is what I wanted to whisper in
+your ear--Good-morning, gentlemen," he said to Mignonnet and Carpentier,
+who came up at the moment; "I am taking my uncle for a walk, as you
+see, and trying to improve him; for we are in an age when children are
+obliged to educate their grandparents."
+
+They all bowed to each other.
+
+"You behold in my dear uncle the effects of an unhappy passion. Those
+two want to strip him of his fortune and leave him in the lurch--you
+know to whom I refer? He sees the plot; but he hasn't the courage to
+give up his SUGAR-PLUM for a few days so as to baffle it."
+
+Philippe briefly explained his uncle's position.
+
+"Gentlemen," he remarked, in conclusion, "you see there are no two ways
+of saving him: either Colonel Bridau must kill Captain Gilet, or Captain
+Gilet must kill Colonel Bridau. We celebrate the Emperor's coronation
+on the day after to-morrow; I rely upon you to arrange the seats at the
+banquet so that I shall sit opposite to Gilet. You will do me the honor,
+I hope, of being my seconds."
+
+"We will appoint you to preside, and sit ourselves on either side
+of you. Max, as vice-president, will of course sit opposite," said
+Mignonnet.
+
+"Oh! the scoundrel will have Potel and Renard with him," said
+Carpentier. "In spite of all that Issoudun now knows and says of his
+midnight maraudings, those two worthy officers, who have already been
+his seconds, remain faithful to him."
+
+"You see how it all maps out, uncle," said Philippe. "Therefore, sign
+no paper before the third of December; the next day you shall be free,
+happy, and beloved by Flore, without having to coax for it."
+
+"You don't know him, Philippe," said the terrified old man. "Maxence has
+killed nine men in duels."
+
+"Yes; but ninety thousand francs a year didn't depend on it," answered
+Philippe.
+
+"A bad conscience shakes the hand," remarked Mignonnet sententiously.
+
+"In a few days from now," resumed Philippe, "you and the Rabouilleuse
+will be living together as sweet as honey,--that is, after she gets
+through mourning. At first she'll twist like a worm, and yelp, and weep;
+but never mind, let the water run!"
+
+The two soldiers approved of Philippe's arguments, and tried to hearten
+up old Rouget, with whom they walked about for nearly two hours. At last
+Philippe took his uncle home, saying as they parted:--
+
+"Don't take any steps without me. I know women. I have paid for one, who
+cost me far more than Flore can ever cost you. But she taught me how to
+behave to the fair sex for the rest of my days. Women are bad children;
+they are inferior animals to men; we must make them fear us; the worst
+condition in the world is to be governed by such brutes."
+
+It was about half-past two in the afternoon when the old man got home.
+Kouski opened the door in tears,--that is, by Max's orders, he gave
+signs of weeping.
+
+"Oh! Monsieur, Madame has gone away, and taken Vedie with her!"
+
+"Gone--a--way!" said the old man in a strangled voice.
+
+The blow was so violent that Rouget sat down on the stairs, unable to
+stand. A moment after, he rose, looked about the hall, into the kitchen,
+went up to his own room, searched all the chambers, and returned to the
+salon, where he threw himself into a chair, and burst into tears.
+
+"Where is she?" he sobbed. "Oh! where is she? where is Max?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Kouski. "The captain went out without telling
+me."
+
+Gilet thought it politic to be seen sauntering about the town. By
+leaving the old man alone with his despair, he knew he should make him
+feel his desertion the more keenly, and reduce him to docility. To keep
+Philippe from assisting his uncle at this crisis, he had given Kouski
+strict orders not to open the door to any one. Flore away, the miserable
+old man grew frantic, and the situation of things approached a crisis.
+During his walk through the town, Maxence Gilet was avoided by many
+persons who a day or two earlier would have hastened to shake hands with
+him. A general reaction had set in against him. The deeds of the Knights
+of Idleness were ringing on every tongue. The tale of Joseph Bridau's
+arrest, now cleared up, disgraced Max in the eyes of all; and his life
+and conduct received in one day their just award. Gilet met Captain
+Potel, who was looking for him, and seemed almost beside himself.
+
+"What's the matter with you, Potel?"
+
+"My dear fellow, the Imperial Guard is being black-guarded all over the
+town! These civilians are crying you down! and it goes to the bottom of
+my heart."
+
+"What are they complaining of?" asked Max.
+
+"Of what you do at night."
+
+"As if we couldn't amuse ourselves a little!"
+
+"But that isn't all," said Potel.
+
+Potel belonged to the same class as the officer who replied to the
+burgomasters: "Eh! your town will be paid for, if we do burn it!" So he
+was very little troubled about the deeds of the Order of Idleness.
+
+"What more?" inquired Gilet.
+
+"The Guard is against the Guard. It is that that breaks my heart. Bridau
+has set all these bourgeois on you. The Guard against the Guard! no, it
+ought not to be! You can't back down, Max; you must meet Bridau. I had a
+great mind to pick a quarrel with the low scoundrel myself and send him
+to the shades; I wish I had, and then the bourgeois wouldn't have seen
+the spectacle of the Guard against the Guard. In war times, I don't
+say anything against it. Two heroes of the Guard may quarrel, and
+fight,--but at least there are no civilians to look on and sneer. No, I
+say that big villain never served in the Guard. A guardsman would never
+behave as he does to another guardsman, under the very eyes of the
+bourgeois; impossible! Ah! it's all wrong; the Guard is disgraced--and
+here, at Issoudun! where it was once so honored."
+
+"Come, Potel, don't worry yourself," answered Max; "even if you do not
+see me at the banquet--"
+
+"What! do you mean that you won't be there the day after to-morrow?"
+cried Potel, interrupting his friend. "Do you wish to be called a
+coward? and have it said you are running away from Bridau? No, no! The
+unmounted grenadiers of the Guard can not draw back before the dragoons
+of the Guard. Arrange your business in some other way and be there!"
+
+"One more to send to the shades!" said Max. "Well, I think I can manage
+my business so as to get there--For," he thought to himself, "that power
+of attorney ought not to be in my name; as old Heron says, it would look
+too much like theft."
+
+This lion, tangled in the meshes Philippe Bridau was weaving for him,
+muttered between his teeth as he went along; he avoided the looks of
+those he met and returned home by the boulevard Vilatte, still talking
+to himself.
+
+"I will have that money before I fight," he said. "If I die, it shall
+not go to Philippe. I must put it in Flore's name. She will follow my
+instructions, and go straight to Paris. Once there, she can marry, if
+she chooses, the son of some marshal of France who has been sent to the
+right-about. I'll have that power of attorney made in Baruch's name, and
+he'll transfer the property by my order."
+
+Max, to do him justice, was never more cool and calm in appearance
+than when his blood and his ideas were boiling. No man ever united in
+a higher degree the qualities which make a great general. If his career
+had not been cut short by his captivity at Cabrera, the Emperor would
+certainly have found him one of those men who are necessary to the
+success of vast enterprises. When he entered the room where the hapless
+victim of all these comic and tragic scenes was still weeping, Max asked
+the meaning of such distress; seemed surprised, pretended that he knew
+nothing, and heard, with well-acted amazement, of Flore's departure.
+He questioned Kouski, to obtain some light on the object of this
+inexplicable journey.
+
+"Madame said like this," Kouski replied, "--that I was to tell monsieur
+she had taken twenty thousand francs in gold from his drawer, thinking
+that monsieur wouldn't refuse her that amount as wages for the last
+twenty-two years."
+
+"Wages?" exclaimed Rouget.
+
+"Yes," replied Kouski. "Ah! I shall never come back," she said to
+Vedie as she drove away. "Poor Vedie, who is so attached to monsieur,
+remonstrated with madame. 'No, no,' she answered, 'he has no affection
+for me; he lets his nephew treat me like the lowest of the low'; and she
+wept--oh! bitterly."
+
+"Eh! what do I care for Philippe?" cried the old man, whom Max was
+watching. "Where is Flore? how can we find out where she is?"
+
+"Philippe, whose advice you follow, will help you," said Max coldly.
+
+"Philippe?" said the old man, "what has he to do with the poor child?
+There is no one but you, my good Max, who can find Flore. She will
+follow you--you could bring her back to me--"
+
+"I don't wish to oppose Monsieur Bridau," observed Max.
+
+"As for that," cried Rouget, "if that hinders you, he told me he meant
+to kill you."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Gilet, laughing, "we will see about it!"
+
+"My friend," said the old man, "find Flore, and I will do all she wants
+of me."
+
+"Some one must have seen her as she passed through the town," said
+Maxence to Kouski. "Serve dinner; put everything on the table, and then
+go and make inquiries from place to place. Let us know, by dessert,
+which road Mademoiselle Brazier has taken."
+
+This order quieted for a time the poor creature, who was moaning like
+a child that has lost its nurse. At this moment Rouget, who hated Max,
+thought his tormentor an angel. A passion like that of this miserable
+old man for Flore is astonishingly like the emotions of childhood. At
+six o'clock, the Pole, who had merely taken a walk, returned to announce
+that Flore had driven towards Vatan.
+
+"Madame is going back to her own people, that's plain," said Kouski.
+
+"Would you like to go to Vatan to-night?" said Max. "The road is
+bad, but Kouski knows how to drive, and you'll make your peace better
+to-night than to-morrow morning."
+
+"Let us go!" cried Rouget.
+
+"Put the horse in quietly," said Max to Kouski; "manage, if you can,
+that the town shall not know of this nonsense, for Monsieur Rouget's
+sake. Saddle my horse," he added in a whisper. "I will ride on ahead of
+you."
+
+Monsieur Hochon had already notified Philippe of Flore's departure; and
+the colonel rose from Monsieur Mignonnet's dinner-table to rush to the
+place Saint-Jean; for he at once guessed the meaning of this clever
+strategy. When Philippe presented himself at his uncle's house, Kouski
+answered through a window that Monsieur Rouget was unable to see any
+one.
+
+"Fario," said Philippe to the Spaniard, who was stationed in the
+Grande-Narette, "go and tell Benjamin to mount his horse; it is
+all-important that I shall know what Gilet does with my uncle."
+
+"They are now putting the horse into the caleche," said Fario, who had
+been watching the Rouget stable.
+
+"If they go towards Vatan," answered Philippe, "get me another horse,
+and come yourself with Benjamin to Monsieur Mignonnet's."
+
+"What do you mean to do?" asked Monsieur Hochon, who had come out of his
+own house when he saw Philippe and Fario standing together.
+
+"The genius of a general, my dear Monsieur Hochon," said Philippe,
+"consists not only in carefully observing the enemy's movements, but
+also in guessing his intentions from those movements, and in modifying
+his own plan whenever the enemy interferes with it by some unexpected
+action. Now, if my uncle and Max drive out together, they are going
+to Vatan; Maxence will have promised to reconcile him with Flore, who
+'fugit ad salices,'--the manoeuvre is General Virgil's. If that's the
+line they take, I don't yet know what I shall do; I shall have some
+hours to think it over, for my uncle can't sign a power of attorney at
+ten o'clock at night; the notaries will all be in bed. If, as I
+rather fancy, Max goes on in advance of my uncle to teach Flore her
+lesson,--which seems necessary and probable,--the rogue is lost! you
+will see the sort of revenge we old soldiers take in a game of this
+kind. Now, as I need a helper for this last stroke, I must go back to
+Mignonnet's and make an arrangement with my friend Carpentier."
+
+Shaking hands with Monsieur Hochon, Philippe went off down the
+Petite-Narette to Mignonnet's house. Ten minutes later, Monsieur Hochon
+saw Max ride off at a quick trot; and the old miser's curiosity was
+so powerfully excited that he remained standing at his window, eagerly
+expecting to hear the wheels of the old demi-fortune, which was not long
+in coming. Jean-Jacques's impatience made him follow Max within twenty
+minutes. Kouski, no doubt under orders from his master, walked the horse
+through the town.
+
+"If they get to Paris, all is lost," thought Monsieur Hochon.
+
+At this moment, a lad from the faubourg de Rome came to the Hochon house
+with a letter for Baruch. The two grandsons, much subdued by the events
+of the morning, had kept their rooms of their own accord during the day.
+Thinking over their prospects, they saw plainly that they had better be
+cautious with their grandparents. Baruch knew very well the influence
+which his grandfather Hochon exerted over his grandfather and
+grandmother Borniche: Monsieur Hochon would not hesitate to get their
+property for Adolphine if his conduct were such as to make them pin
+their hopes on the grand marriage with which his grandfather had
+threatened him that morning. Being richer than Francois, Baruch had the
+most to lose; he therefore counselled an absolute surrender, with no
+other condition than the payment of their debt to Max. As for Francois,
+his future was entirely in the hands of his grandfather; he had no
+expectations except from him, and by the guardianship account, he was
+now his debtor. The two young men accordingly gave solemn promises
+of amendment, prompted by their imperilled interests, and by the hope
+Madame Hochon held out, that the debt to Max should be paid.
+
+"You have done very wrong," she said to them; "repair it by future good
+conduct, and Monsieur Hochon will forget it."
+
+So, when Francois had read the letter which had been brought for Baruch,
+over the latter's shoulder, he whispered in his ear, "Ask grandpapa's
+advice."
+
+"Read this," said Baruch, taking the letter to old Hochon.
+
+"Read it to me yourself; I haven't my spectacles."
+
+  My dear Friend,--I hope you will not hesitate, under the serious
+  circumstances in which I find myself, to do me the service of
+  receiving a power of attorney from Monsieur Rouget. Be at Vatan
+  to-morrow morning at nine o'clock. I shall probably send you to
+  Paris, but don't be uneasy; I will furnish you with money for the
+  journey, and join you there immediately. I am almost sure I shall
+  be obliged to leave Issoudun, December third.
+
+  Adieu. I count on your friendship; rely on that of your friend,
+
+  Maxence
+
+
+"God be praised!" exclaimed Monsieur Hochon; "the property of that old
+idiot is saved from the claws of the devil."
+
+"It will be if you say so," said Madame Hochon; "and I thank God,--who
+has no doubt heard my prayers. The prosperity of the wicked is always
+fleeting."
+
+"You must go to Vatan, and accept the power of attorney from Monsieur
+Rouget," said the old man to Baruch. "Their object is to get fifty
+thousand francs a year transferred to Mademoiselle Brazier. They will
+send you to Paris, and you must seem to go; but you are to stop at
+Orleans, and wait there till you hear from me. Let no one--not a
+soul--know where you lodge; go to the first inn you come to in the
+faubourg Bannier, no matter if it is only a post-house--"
+
+"Look here!" cried Francois, who had rushed to the window at the sudden
+noise of wheels in the Grande-Narette. "Here's something new!--Pere
+Rouget and Colonel Bridau coming back together in the caleche, Benjamin
+and Captain Carpentier following on horseback!"
+
+"I'll go over," cried Monsieur Hochon, whose curiosity carried the day
+over every other feeling.
+
+Monsieur Hochon found old Rouget in his bedroom, writing the following
+letter at his nephew's dictation:
+
+  Mademoiselle,--If you do not start to return here the moment you
+  receive this letter, your conduct will show such ingratitude for
+  all my goodness that I shall revoke the will I have made in your
+  favor, and give my property to my nephew Philippe. You will
+  understand that Monsieur Gilet can no longer be my guest after
+  staying with you at Vatan. I send this letter by Captain
+  Carpentier, who will put it into your own hands. I hope you will
+  listen to his advice; he will speak to you with authority from me.
+  Your affectionate
+
+  J.-J. Rouget.
+
+
+"Captain Carpentier and I MET my uncle, who was so foolish as to follow
+Mademoiselle Brazier and Monsieur Gilet to Vatan," said Philippe, with
+sarcastic emphasis, to Monsieur Hochon. "I have made my uncle see that
+he was running his head into a noose; for that girl will abandon him the
+moment she gets him to sign a power of attorney, by which they mean to
+obtain the income of his money in the Funds. That letter will bring
+her back under his roof, the handsome runaway! this very night, or I'm
+mistaken. I promise to make her as pliable as a bit of whalebone for the
+rest of her days, if my uncle allows me to take Maxence Gilet's place;
+which, in my opinion, he ought never to have had in the first place. Am
+I not right?--and yet here's my uncle bemoaning himself!"
+
+"Neighbor," said Monsieur Hochon, "you have taken the best means to get
+peace in your household. Destroy your will, and Flore will be once more
+what she used to be in the early days."
+
+"No, she will never forgive me for what I have made her suffer,"
+whimpered the old man; "she will no longer love me."
+
+"She shall love you, and closely too; I'll take care of that," said
+Philippe.
+
+"Come, open your eyes!" exclaimed Monsieur Hochon. "They mean to rob you
+and abandon you."
+
+"Oh! I was sure of it!" cried the poor imbecile.
+
+"See, here is a letter Maxence has written to my grandson Borniche,"
+said old Hochon. "Read it."
+
+"What infamy!" exclaimed Carpentier, as he listened to the letter, which
+Rouget read aloud, weeping.
+
+"Is that plain enough, uncle?" demanded Philippe. "Hold that hussy by
+her interests and she'll adore you as you deserve."
+
+"She loves Maxence too well; she will leave me," cried the frightened
+old man.
+
+"But, uncle, Maxence or I,--one or the other of us--won't leave our
+footsteps in the dust of Issoudun three days hence."
+
+"Well then go, Monsieur Carpentier," said Rouget; "if you promise me to
+bring her back, go! You are a good man; say to her in my name all you
+think you ought to say."
+
+"Captain Carpentier will whisper in her ear that I have sent to Paris
+for a woman whose youth and beauty are captivating; that will bring the
+jade back in a hurry!"
+
+The captain departed, driving himself in the old caleche; Benjamin
+accompanied him on horseback, for Kouski was nowhere to be found. Though
+threatened by the officers with arrest and the loss of his situation,
+the Pole had gone to Vatan on a hired horse, to warn Max and Flore of
+the adversary's move. After fulfilling his mission, Carpentier, who did
+not wish to drive back with Flore, was to change places with Benjamin,
+and take the latter's horse.
+
+When Philippe was told of Kouski's flight he said to Benjamin, "You will
+take the Pole's place, from this time on. It is all mapping out, papa
+Hochon!" cried the lieutenant-colonel. "That banquet will be jovial!"
+
+"You will come and live here, of course," said the old miser.
+
+"I have told Fario to send me all my things," answered Philippe. "I
+shall sleep in the room adjoining Gilet's apartment,--if my uncle
+consents."
+
+"What will come of all this?" cried the terrified old man.
+
+"Mademoiselle Flore Brazier is coming, gentle as a paschal lamb,"
+replied Monsieur Hochon.
+
+"God grant it!" exclaimed Rouget, wiping his eyes.
+
+"It is now seven o'clock," said Philippe; "the sovereign of your heart
+will be here at half-past eleven: you'll never see Gilet again, and you
+will be as happy ever after as a pope.--If you want me to succeed," he
+whispered to Monsieur Hochon, "stay here till the hussy comes; you can
+help me in keeping the old man up to his resolution; and, together,
+we'll make that crab-girl see on which side her bread is buttered."
+
+Monsieur Hochon felt the reasonableness of the request and stayed:
+but they had their hands full, for old Rouget gave way to childish
+lamentations, which were only quieted by Philippe's repeating over and
+over a dozen times:--
+
+"Uncle, you will see that I am right when Flore returns to you as tender
+as ever. You shall be petted; you will save your property: be guided by
+my advice, and you'll live in paradise for the rest of your days."
+
+When, about half-past eleven, wheels were heard in the Grande-Narette,
+the question was, whether the carriage were returning full or empty.
+Rouget's face wore an expression of agony, which changed to the
+prostration of excessive joy when he saw the two women, as the carriage
+turned to enter the courtyard.
+
+"Kouski," said Philippe, giving a hand to Flore to help her down. "You
+are no longer in Monsieur Rouget's service. You will not sleep here
+to-night; get your things together, and go. Benjamin takes your place."
+
+"Are you the master here?" said Flore sarcastically.
+
+"With your permission," replied Philippe, squeezing her hand as if in a
+vice. "Come! we must have an understanding, you and I"; and he led the
+bewildered woman out into the place Saint-Jean.
+
+"My fine lady," began the old campaigner, stretching out his right hand,
+"three days hence, Maxence Gilet will be sent to the shades by that arm,
+or his will have taken me off guard. If I die, you will be the mistress
+of my poor imbecile uncle; 'bene sit.' If I remain on my pins, you'll
+have to walk straight, and keep him supplied with first-class happiness.
+If you don't, I know girls in Paris who are, with all due respect, much
+prettier than you; for they are only seventeen years old: they would
+make my uncle excessively happy, and they are in my interests. Begin
+your attentions this very evening; if the old man is not as gay as a
+lark to-morrow morning, I have only a word to say to you; it is this,
+pay attention to it,--there is but one way to kill a man without the
+interference of the law, and that is to fight a duel with him; but I
+know three ways to get rid of a woman: mind that, my beauty!"
+
+During this address, Flore shook like a person with the ague.
+
+"Kill Max--?" she said, gazing at Philippe in the moonlight.
+
+"Come, here's my uncle."
+
+Old Rouget, turning a deaf ear to Monsieur Hochon's remonstrances, now
+came out into the street, and took Flore by the hand, as a miser might
+have grasped his treasure; he drew her back to the house and into his
+own room and shut the door.
+
+"This is Saint-Lambert's day, and he who deserts his place, loses it,"
+remarked Benjamin to the Pole.
+
+"My master will shut your mouth for you," answered Kouski, departing to
+join Max who established himself at the hotel de la Poste.
+
+On the morrow, between nine and eleven o'clock, all the women talked
+to each other from door to door throughout the town. The story of the
+wonderful change in the Rouget household spread everywhere. The upshot
+of the conversations was the same on all sides,--
+
+"What will happen at the banquet between Max and Colonel Bridau?"
+
+Philippe said but few words to the Vedie,--"Six hundred francs' annuity,
+or dismissal." They were enough, however, to keep her neutral, for a
+time, between the two great powers, Philippe and Flore.
+
+Knowing Max's life to be in danger, Flore became more affectionate
+to Rouget than in the first days of their alliance. Alas! in love, a
+self-interested devotion is sometimes more agreeable than a truthful
+one; and that is why many men pay so much for clever deceivers. The
+Rabouilleuse did not appear till the next morning, when she came down to
+breakfast with Rouget on her arm. Tears filled her eyes as she beheld,
+sitting in Max's place, the terrible adversary, with his sombre blue
+eyes, and the cold, sinister expression on his face.
+
+"What is the matter, mademoiselle?" he said, after wishing his uncle
+good-morning.
+
+"She can't endure the idea of your fighting Maxence," said old Rouget.
+
+"I have not the slightest desire to kill Gilet," answered Philippe. "He
+need only take himself off from Issoudun and go to America on a venture.
+I should be the first to advise you to give him an outfit, and to wish
+him a safe voyage. He would soon make a fortune there, and that is far
+more honorable than turning Issoudun topsy-turvy at night, and playing
+the devil in your household."
+
+"Well, that's fair enough," said Rouget, glancing at Flore.
+
+"A-mer-i-ca!" she ejaculated, sobbing.
+
+"It is better to kick his legs about in a free country than have them
+rot in a pine box in France. However, perhaps you think he is a good
+shot, and can kill me; it's on the cards," observed the colonel.
+
+"Will you let me speak to him?" said Flore, imploring Philippe in a
+humble and submissive tone.
+
+"Certainly; he can come here and pack up his things. I will stay with
+my uncle during that time; for I shall not leave the old man again,"
+replied Philippe.
+
+"Vedie," cried Flore, "run to the hotel, and tell Monsieur Gilet that I
+beg him--"
+
+"--to come and get his belongings," said Philippe, interrupting Flore's
+message.
+
+"Yes, yes, Vedie; that will be a good pretext to see me; I must speak to
+him."
+
+Terror controlled her hatred; and the shock which her whole being
+experienced when she first encountered this strong and pitiless nature
+was now so overwhelming that she bowed before Philippe just as Rouget
+had been in the habit of bending before her. She anxiously awaited
+Vedie's return. The woman brought a formal refusal from Max, who
+requested Mademoiselle Brazier to send his things to the hotel de la
+Poste.
+
+"Will you allow me to take them to him?" she said to Jean-Jacques
+Rouget.
+
+"Yes, but will you come back?" said the old man.
+
+"If Mademoiselle is not back by midday, you will give me a power of
+attorney to attend to your property," said Philippe, looking at Flore.
+"Take Vedie with you, to save appearances, mademoiselle. In future you
+are to think of my uncle's honor."
+
+Flore could get nothing out of Max. Desperate at having allowed himself,
+before the eyes of the whole town, to be routed out of his shameless
+position, Gilet was too proud to run away from Philippe. The
+Rabouilleuse combated this objection, and proposed that they should fly
+together to America; but Max, who did not want Flore without her money,
+and yet did not wish the girl to see the bottom of his heart, insisted
+on his intention of killing Philippe.
+
+"We have committed a monstrous folly," he said. "We ought all three to
+have gone to Paris and spent the winter there; but how could one guess,
+from the mere sight of that fellow's big carcass, that things would turn
+out as they have? The turn of events is enough to make one giddy! I took
+the colonel for one of those fire-eaters who haven't two ideas in their
+head; that was the blunder I made. As I didn't have the sense to double
+like a hare in the beginning, I'll not be such a coward as to back down
+before him. He has lowered me in the estimation of this town, and I
+cannot get back what I have lost unless I kill him."
+
+"Go to America with forty thousand francs. I'll find a way to get rid of
+that scoundrel, and join you. It would be much wiser."
+
+"What would people say of me?" he exclaimed. "No; I have buried nine
+already. The fellow doesn't seem as if he knew much; he went from school
+to the army, and there he was always fighting till 1815; then he went
+to America, and I doubt if the brute ever set foot in a fencing-alley;
+while I have no match with the sabre. The sabre is his arm; I shall seem
+very generous in offering it to him,--for I mean, if possible, to let
+him insult me,--and I can easily run him through. Unquestionably, it is
+my wisest course. Don't be uneasy; we shall be masters of the field in a
+couple of days."
+
+That it was that a stupid point of honor had more influence over Max
+than sound policy. When Flore got home she shut herself up to cry at
+ease. During the whole of that day gossip ran wild in Issoudun, and the
+duel between Philippe and Maxence was considered inevitable.
+
+"Ah! Monsieur Hochon," said Mignonnet, who, accompanied by Carpentier,
+met the old man on the boulevard Baron, "we are very uneasy; for Gilet
+is clever with all weapons."
+
+"Never mind," said the old provincial diplomatist; "Philippe has managed
+this thing well from the beginning. I should never have thought that
+big, easy-going fellow would have succeeded as he has. The two have
+rolled together like a couple of thunder-clouds."
+
+"Oh!" said Carpentier, "Philippe is a remarkable man. His conduct before
+the Court of Peers was a masterpiece of diplomacy."
+
+"Well, Captain Renard," said one of the townsfolk to Max's friend. "They
+say wolves don't devour each other, but it seems that Max is going
+to set his teeth in Colonel Bridau. That's pretty serious among you
+gentlemen of the Old Guard."
+
+"You make fun of it, do you? Because the poor fellow amused himself a
+little at night, you are all against him," said Potel. "But Gilet is a
+man who couldn't stay in a hole like Issoudun without finding something
+to do."
+
+"Well, gentlemen," remarked another, "Max and the colonel must play out
+their game. Bridau had to avenge his brother. Don't you remember Max's
+treachery to the poor lad?"
+
+"Bah! nothing but an artist," said Renard.
+
+"But the real question is about the old man's property," said a third.
+"They say Monsieur Gilet was laying hands on fifty thousand francs a
+year, when the colonel turned him out of his uncle's house."
+
+"Gilet rob a man! Come, don't say that to any one but me, Monsieur
+Canivet," cried Potel. "If you do, I'll make you swallow your
+tongue,--and without any sauce."
+
+Every household in town offered prayers for the honorable Colonel
+Bridau.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Towards four o'clock the following day, the officers of the old army
+who were at Issoudun or its environs, were sauntering about the place
+du Marche, in front of an eating-house kept by a man named Lacroix, and
+waiting the arrival of Colonel Philippe Bridau. The banquet in honor
+of the coronation was to take place with military punctuality at five
+o'clock. Various groups of persons were talking of Max's discomfiture,
+and his dismissal from old Rouget's house; for not only were the
+officers to dine at Lacroix's, but the common soldiers had determined
+on a meeting at a neighboring wine-shop. Among the officers, Potel and
+Renard were the only ones who attempted to defend Max.
+
+"Is it any of our business what takes place among the old man's heirs?"
+said Renard.
+
+"Max is weak with women," remarked the cynical Potel.
+
+"There'll be sabres unsheathed before long," said an old sub-lieutenant,
+who cultivated a kitchen-garden in the upper Baltan. "If Monsieur
+Maxence Gilet committed the folly of going to live under old Rouget's
+roof, he would be a coward if he allowed himself to be turned off like a
+valet without asking why."
+
+"Of course," said Mignonnet dryly. "A folly that doesn't succeed becomes
+a crime."
+
+At this moment Max joined the old soldiers of Napoleon, and was received
+in significant silence. Potel and Renard each took an arm of their
+friend, and walked about with him, conversing. Presently Philippe was
+seen approaching in full dress; he trailed his cane after him with an
+imperturbable air which contrasted with the forced attention Max was
+paying to the remarks of his two supporters. Bridau's hand was grasped
+by Mignonnet, Carpentier, and several others. This welcome, so different
+from that accorded to Max, dispelled the last feeling of cowardice, or,
+if you prefer it, wisdom, which Flore's entreaties, and above all, her
+tendernesses, had awakened in the latter's mind.
+
+"We shall fight," he said to Renard, "and to the death. Therefore don't
+talk to me any more; let me play my part well."
+
+After these words, spoken in a feverish tone, the three Bonapartists
+returned to the group of officers and mixed among them. Max bowed first
+to Bridau, who returned his bow, and the two exchanged a frigid glance.
+
+"Come, gentlemen, let us take our seats," said Potel.
+
+"And drink to the health of the Little Corporal, who is now in the
+paradise of heroes," cried Renard.
+
+The company poured into the long, low dining-hall of the restaurant
+Lacroix, the windows of which opened on the market-place. Each guest
+took his seat at the table, where, in compliance with Philippe's
+request, the two adversaries were placed directly opposite to each
+other. Some young men of the town, among them several Knights of
+Idleness, anxious to know what might happen at the banquet, were
+walking about the street and discussing the critical position into
+which Philippe had contrived to force Max. They all deplored the crisis,
+though each considered the duel to be inevitable.
+
+Everything went off well until the dessert, though the two antagonists
+displayed, in spite of the apparent joviality of the dinner, a certain
+vigilance that resembled disquietude. While waiting for the quarrel
+that both were planning, Philippe showed admirable coolness, and Max a
+distracting gayety; but to an observer, each was playing a part.
+
+When the desert was served Philippe rose and said: "Fill your glasses,
+my friends! I ask permission to propose the first toast."
+
+"He said _my friends_, don't fill your glass," whispered Renard to Max.
+
+Max poured out some wine.
+
+"To the Grand Army!" cried Philippe, with genuine enthusiasm.
+
+"To the Grand Army!" was repeated with acclamation by every voice.
+
+At this moment eleven private soldiers, among whom were Benjamin and
+Kouski, appeared at the door of the room and repeated the toast,--
+
+"To the Grand Army!"
+
+"Come in, my sons; we are going to drink His health."
+
+The old soldiers came in and stood behind the officers.
+
+"You see He is not dead!" said Kouski to an old sergeant, who had
+perhaps been grieving that the Emperor's agony was over.
+
+"I claim the second toast," said Mignonnet, as he rose. "Let us drink to
+those who attempted to restore his son!"
+
+Every one present, except Maxence Gilet, bowed to Philippe Bridau, and
+stretched their glasses towards him.
+
+"One word," said Max, rising.
+
+"It is Max! it is Max!" cried voices outside; and then a deep silence
+reigned in the room and in the street, for Gilet's known character made
+every one expect a taunt.
+
+"May we _all_ meet again at this time next year," said Max, bowing
+ironically to Philippe.
+
+"It's coming!" whispered Kouski to his neighbor.
+
+"The Paris police would never allow a banquet of this kind," said Potel
+to Philippe.
+
+"Why the devil to you mention the police to Colonel Bridau?" said
+Maxence insolently.
+
+"Captain Potel--_he_--meant no insult," said Philippe, smiling coldly.
+The stillness was so profound that the buzzing of a fly could have been
+heard if there had been one.
+
+"The police were sufficiently afraid of me," resumed Philippe, "to send
+me to Issoudun,--a place where I have had the pleasure of meeting old
+comrades, but where, it must be owned, there is a dearth of amusement.
+For a man who doesn't despise folly, I'm rather restricted. However, it
+is certainly economical, for I am not one of those to whom feather-beds
+give incomes; Mariette of the Grand Opera cost me fabulous sums."
+
+"Is that remark meant for me, my dear colonel?" asked Max, sending a
+glance at Philippe which was like a current of electricity.
+
+"Take it as you please," answered Bridau.
+
+"Colonel, my two friends here, Renard and Potel, will call to-morrow
+on--"
+
+"--on Mignonnet and Carpentier," answered Philippe, cutting short Max's
+sentence, and motioning towards his two neighbors.
+
+"Now," said Max, "let us go on with the toasts."
+
+The two adversaries had not raised their voices above the tone of
+ordinary conversation; there was nothing solemn in the affair except the
+dead silence in which it took place.
+
+"Look here, you others!" cried Philippe, addressing the soldiers who
+stood behind the officers; "remember that our affairs don't concern the
+bourgeoisie--not a word, therefore, on what goes on here. It is for the
+Old Guard only."
+
+"They'll obey orders, colonel," said Renard. "I'll answer for them."
+
+"Long live His little one! May he reign over France!" cried Potel.
+
+"Death to Englishmen!" cried Carpentier.
+
+That toast was received with prodigious applause.
+
+"Shame on Hudson Lowe," said Captain Renard.
+
+The dessert passed off well; the libations were plentiful. The
+antagonists and their four seconds made it a point of honor that a duel,
+involving so large a fortune, and the reputation of two men noted for
+their courage, should not appear the result of an ordinary squabble. No
+two gentlemen could have behaved better than Philippe and Max; in this
+respect the anxious waiting of the young men and townspeople grouped
+about the market-place was balked. All the guests, like true soldiers,
+kept silence as to the episode which took place at dessert. At ten
+o'clock that night the two adversaries were informed that the sabre
+was the weapon agreed upon by the seconds; the place chosen for the
+rendezvous was behind the chancel of the church of the Capuchins at
+eight o'clock the next morning. Goddet, who was at the banquet in his
+quality of former army surgeon, was requested to be present at the
+meeting. The seconds agreed that, no matter what might happen, the
+combat should last only ten minutes.
+
+At eleven o'clock that night, to Colonel Bridau's amazement, Monsieur
+Hochon appeared at his rooms just as he was going to bed, escorting
+Madame Hochon.
+
+"We know what has happened," said the old lady, with her eyes full of
+tears, "and I have come to entreat you not to leave the house to-morrow
+morning without saying your prayers. Lift your soul to God!"
+
+"Yes, madame," said Philippe, to whom old Hochon made a sign from behind
+his wife's back.
+
+"That is not all," said Agathe's godmother. "I stand in the place of
+your poor mother, and I divest myself, for you, of a thing which I hold
+most precious,--here," she went on, holding towards Philippe a tooth,
+fastened upon a piece of black velvet embroidered in gold, to which she
+had sewn a pair of green strings. Having shown it to him, she replaced
+it in a little bag. "It is a relic of Sainte Solange, the patron saint
+of Berry," she said, "I saved it during the Revolution; wear it on your
+breast to-morrow."
+
+"Will it protect me from a sabre-thrust?" asked Philippe.
+
+"Yes," replied the old lady.
+
+"Then I have no right to wear that accoutrement any more than if it were
+a cuirass," cried Agathe's son.
+
+"What does he mean?" said Madame Hochon.
+
+"He says it is not playing fair," answered Hochon.
+
+"Then we will say no more about it," said the old lady, "I shall pray
+for you."
+
+"Well, madame, prayer--and a good point--can do no harm," said Philippe,
+making a thrust as if to pierce Monsieur Hochon's heart.
+
+The old lady kissed the colonel on his forehead. As she left the house,
+she gave thirty francs--all the money she possessed--to Benjamin,
+requesting him to sew the relic into the pocket of his master's
+trousers. Benjamin did so,--not that he believed in the virtue of the
+tooth, for he said his master had a much better talisman than that
+against Gilet, but because his conscience constrained him to fulfil a
+commission for which he had been so liberally paid. Madame Hochon went
+home full of confidence in Saint Solange.
+
+At eight o'clock the next morning, December third, the weather being
+cloudy, Max, accompanied by his seconds and the Pole, arrived on the
+little meadow which then surrounded the apse of the church of the
+Capuchins. There he found Philippe and his seconds, with Benjamin,
+waiting for him. Potel and Mignonnet paced off twenty-four feet; at each
+extremity, the two attendants drew a line on the earth with a spade:
+the combatants were not allowed to retreat beyond that line, on pain of
+being thought cowardly. Each was to stand at his own line, and advance
+as he pleased when the seconds gave the word.
+
+"Do we take off our coats?" said Philippe to his adversary coldly.
+
+"Of course," answered Maxence, with the assumption of a bully.
+
+They did so; the rosy tints of their skin appearing through the cambric
+of their shirts. Each, armed with a cavalry sabre selected of equal
+weight, about three pounds, and equal length, three feet, placed himself
+at his own line, the point of his weapon on the ground, awaiting the
+signal. Both were so calm that, in spite of the cold, their muscles
+quivered no more than if they had been made of iron. Goddet, the four
+seconds, and the two soldiers felt an involuntary admiration.
+
+"They are a proud pair!"
+
+The exclamation came from Potel.
+
+Just as the signal was given, Max caught sight of Fario's sinister face
+looking at them through the hole which the Knights of Idleness had made
+for the pigeons in the roof of the church. Those eyes, which sent forth
+streams of fire, hatred, and revenge, dazzled Max for a moment. The
+colonel went straight to his adversary, and put himself on guard in a
+way that gained him an advantage. Experts in the art of killing,
+know that, of two antagonists, the ablest takes the "inside of the
+pavement,"--to use an expression which gives the reader a tangible
+idea of the effect of a good guard. That pose, which is in some degree
+observant, marks so plainly a duellist of the first rank that a feeling
+of inferiority came into Max's soul, and produced the same disarray of
+powers which demoralizes a gambler when, in presence of a master or a
+lucky hand, he loses his self-possession and plays less well than usual.
+
+"Ah! the lascar!" thought Max, "he's an expert; I'm lost!"
+
+He attempted a "moulinet," and twirled his sabre with the dexterity of
+a single-stick. He wanted to bewilder Philippe, and strike his weapon so
+as to disarm him; but at the first encounter he felt that the colonel's
+wrist was iron, with the flexibility of a steel spring. Maxence was then
+forced, unfortunate fellow, to think of another move, while Philippe,
+whose eyes were darting gleams that were sharper than the flash of
+their blades, parried every attack with the coolness of a fencing-master
+wearing his plastron in an armory.
+
+Between two men of the calibre of these combatants, there occurs a
+phenomenon very like that which takes place among the lower classes,
+during the terrible tussle called "the savante," which is fought with
+the feet, as the name implies. Victory depends on a false movement, on
+some error of the calculation, rapid as lightning, which must be made
+and followed almost instinctively. During a period of time as short to
+the spectators as it seems long to the combatants, the contest lies in
+observation, so keen as to absorb the powers of mind and body, and yet
+concealed by preparatory feints whose slowness and apparent prudence
+seem to show that the antagonists are not intending to fight. This
+moment, which is followed by a rapid and decisive struggle, is terrible
+to a connoisseur. At a bad parry from Max the colonel sent the sabre
+spinning from his hand.
+
+"Pick it up," he said, pausing; "I am not the man to kill a disarmed
+enemy."
+
+There was something atrocious in the grandeur of these words; they
+seemed to show such consciousness of superiority that the onlookers took
+them for a shrewd calculation. In fact, when Max replaced himself in
+position, he had lost his coolness, and was once more confronted with
+his adversary's raised guard which defended the colonel's whole person
+while it menaced his. He resolved to redeem his shameful defeat by a
+bold stroke. He no longer guarded himself, but took his sabre in both
+hands and rushed furiously on his antagonist, resolved to kill him, if
+he had to lose his own life. Philippe received a sabre-cut which slashed
+open his forehead and a part of his face, but he cleft Max's head
+obliquely by the terrible sweep of a "moulinet," made to break the force
+of the annihilating stroke Max aimed at him. These two savage blows
+ended the combat, at the ninth minute. Fario came down to gloat over the
+sight of his enemy in the convulsions of death; for the muscles of a man
+of Maxence Gilet's vigor quiver horribly. Philippe was carried back to
+his uncle's house.
+
+Thus perished a man destined to do great deeds had he lived his life
+amid environments which were suited to him; a man treated by Nature as
+a favorite child, for she gave him courage, self-possession, and the
+political sagacity of a Cesar Borgia. But education had not bestowed
+upon him that nobility of conduct and ideas without which nothing great
+is possible in any walk of life. He was not regretted, because of the
+perfidy with which his adversary, who was a worse man than he, had
+contrived to bring him into disrepute. His death put an end to the
+exploits of the Order of Idleness, to the great satisfaction of the town
+of Issoudun. Philippe therefore had nothing to fear in consequence
+of the duel, which seemed almost the result of divine vengeance: its
+circumstances were related throughout that whole region of country, with
+unanimous praise for the bravery of the two combatants.
+
+"But they had better both have been killed," remarked Monsieur
+Mouilleron; "it would have been a good riddance for the Government."
+
+The situation of Flore Brazier would have been very embarrassing were
+it not for the condition into which she was thrown by Max's death. A
+brain-fever set in, combined with a dangerous inflammation resulting
+from her escapade to Vatan. If she had had her usual health, she might
+have fled the house where, in the room above her, Max's room, and in
+Max's bed, lay and suffered Max's murderer. She hovered between life
+and death for three months, attended by Monsieur Goddet, who was also
+attending Philippe.
+
+As soon as Philippe was able to hold a pen, he wrote the following
+letters:--
+
+  To Monsieur Desroches:
+
+  I have already killed the most venomous of the two reptiles; not
+  however without getting my own head split open by a sabre; but the
+  rascal struck with a dying hand. The other viper is here, and I
+  must come to an understanding with her, for my uncle clings to her
+  like the apple of his eye. I have been half afraid the girl, who
+  is devilishly handsome, might run away, and then my uncle would
+  have followed her; but an illness which seized her suddenly has
+  kept her in bed. If God desired to protect me, he would call her
+  soul to himself, now, while she is repenting of her sins.
+  Meantime, on my side I have, thanks to that old trump, Hochon, the
+  doctor of Issoudun, one named Goddet, a worthy soul who conceives
+  that the property of uncles ought to go to nephews rather than to
+  sluts.
+
+  Monsieur Hochon has some influence on a certain papa Fichet, who
+  is rich, and whose daughter Goddet wants as a wife for his son: so
+  the thousand francs they have promised him if he mends up my pate
+  is not the chief cause of his devotion. Moreover, this Goddet, who
+  was formerly head-surgeon to the 3rd regiment of the line, has
+  been privately advised by my staunch friends, Mignonnet and
+  Carpentier; so he is now playing the hypocrite with his other
+  patient. He says to Mademoiselle Brazier, as he feels her pulse,
+  "You see, my child, that there's a God after all. You have been
+  the cause of a great misfortune, and you must now repair it. The
+  finger of God is in all this (it is inconceivable what they don't
+  say the finger of God is in!). Religion is religion: submit,
+  resign yourself, and that will quiet you better than my drugs.
+  Above all, resolve to stay here and take care of your master:
+  forget and forgive,--that's Christianity."
+
+  Goddet has promised to keep the Rabouilleuse three months in her
+  bed. By degrees the girl will get accustomed to living under the
+  same roof with me. I have bought over the cook. That abominable
+  old woman tells her mistress Max would have led her a hard life;
+  and declares she overheard him say that if, after the old man's
+  death, he was obliged to marry Flore, he didn't mean to have his
+  prospects ruined by it, and he should find a way to get rid of
+  her.
+
+  Thus, all goes well, so far. My uncle, by old Hochon's advice, has
+  destroyed his will.
+
+To Monsieur Giroudeau, care of Mademoiselle Florentine. Rue de Vendome,
+Marais:
+
+  My dear old Fellow,--Find out if the little rat Cesarine has any
+  engagement, and if not, try to arrange that she can come to
+  Issoudun in case I send for her; if I do, she must come at once.
+  It is a matter this time of decent behavior; no theatre morals.
+  She must present herself as the daughter of a brave soldier,
+  killed on the battle-field. Therefore, mind,--sober manners,
+  schoolgirl's clothes, virtue of the best quality; that's the
+  watchword. If I need Cesarine, and if she answers my purpose, I
+  will give her fifty thousand francs on my uncle's death. If
+  Cesarine has other engagements, explain what I want to Florentine;
+  and between you, find me some ballet-girl capable of playing the
+  part.
+
+  I have had my skull cracked in a duel with the fellow who was
+  filching my inheritance, and is now feeding the worms. I'll tell
+  you all about it some day. Ah! old fellow, the good times are
+  coming back for you and me; we'll amuse ourselves once more, or we
+  are not the pair we really are. If you can send me five hundred
+  more cartridges I'll bite them.
+
+  Adieu, my old fire-eater. Light your pipe with this letter. Mind,
+  the daughter of the officer is to come from Chateauroux, and must
+  seem to be in need of assistance. I hope however that I shall not
+  be driven to such dangerous expedients. Remember me to Mariette
+  and all our friends.
+
+Agathe, informed by Madame Hochon of what had happened, rushed to
+Issoudun, and was received by her brother, who gave her Philippe's
+former room. The poor mother's tenderness for the worthless son revived
+in all its maternal strength; a few happy days were hers at last, as she
+listened to the praises which the whole town bestowed upon her hero.
+
+"After all, my child," said Madame Hochon on the day of her arrival,
+"youth must have its fling. The dissipations of a soldier under the
+Empire must, of course, be greater than those of young men who are
+looked after by their fathers. Oh! if you only knew what went on here at
+night under that wretched Max! Thanks to your son, Issoudun now breathes
+and sleeps in peace. Philippe has come to his senses rather late; he
+told us frankly that those three months in the Luxembourg sobered him.
+Monsieur Hochon is delighted with his conduct here; every one thinks
+highly of it. If he can be kept away from the temptations of Paris, he
+will end by being a comfort to you."
+
+Hearing these consolatory words Agathe's eyes filled with tears.
+
+Philippe played the saint to his mother, for he had need of her. That
+wily politician did not wish to have recourse to Cesarine unless he
+continued to be an object of horror to Mademoiselle Brazier. He saw that
+Flore had been thoroughly broken to harness by Max; he knew she was an
+essential part of his uncle's life, and he greatly preferred to use her
+rather than send for the ballet-girl, who might take it into her head
+to marry the old man. Fouche advised Louis XVIII. to sleep in Napoleon's
+sheets instead of granting the charter; and Philippe would have liked
+to remain in Gilet's sheets; but he was reluctant to risk the good
+reputation he had made for himself in Berry. To take Max's place with
+the Rabouilleuse would be as odious on his part as on hers. He could,
+without discredit and by the laws of nepotism, live in his uncle's
+house and at his uncle's expense; but he could not have Flore unless her
+character were whitewashed. Hampered by this difficulty, and stimulated
+by the hope of finally getting hold of the property, the idea came into
+his head of making his uncle marry the Rabouilleuse. With this in
+view he requested his mother to go and see the girl and treat her in a
+sisterly manner.
+
+"I must confess, my dear mother," he said, in a canting tone, looking at
+Monsieur and Madame Hochon who accompanied her, "that my uncle's way
+of life is not becoming; he could, however, make Mademoiselle Brazier
+respected by the community if he chose. Wouldn't it be far better for
+her to be Madame Rouget than the servant-mistress of an old bachelor?
+She had better obtain a definite right to his property by a marriage
+contract then threaten a whole family with disinheritance. If you, or
+Monsieur Hochon, or some good priest would speak of the matter to
+both parties, you might put a stop to the scandal which offends decent
+people. Mademoiselle Brazier would be only too happy if you were to
+welcome her as a sister, and I as an aunt."
+
+On the morrow Agathe and Madame Hochon appeared at Flore's bedside,
+and repeated to the sick girl and to Rouget, the excellent sentiments
+expressed by Philippe. Throughout Issoudun the colonel was talked of
+as a man of noble character, especially because of his conduct towards
+Flore. For a month, the Rabouilleuse heard Goddet, her doctor,
+the individual who has paramount influence over a sick person, the
+respectable Madame Hochon, moved by religious principle, and Agathe, so
+gentle and pious, all representing to her the advantages of a marriage
+with Rouget. And when, attracted by the idea of becoming Madame Rouget,
+a dignified and virtuous bourgeoisie, she grew eager to recover, so that
+the marriage might speedily be celebrated, it was not difficult to make
+her understand that she would not be allowed to enter the family of the
+Rougets if she intended to turn Philippe from its doors.
+
+"Besides," remarked the doctor, "you really owe him this good fortune.
+Max would never have allowed you to marry old Rouget. And," he added
+in her ear, "if you have children, you can revenge Max, for that will
+disinherit the Bridaus."
+
+Two months after the fatal duel in February, 1823, the sick woman,
+urged by those about her, and implored by Rouget, consented to receive
+Philippe, the sight of whose scars made her weep, but whose softened and
+affectionate manner calmed her. By Philippe's wish they were left alone
+together.
+
+"My dear child," said the soldier. "It is I, who, from the start, have
+advised your marriage with my uncle; if you consent, it will take place
+as soon as you are quite recovered."
+
+"So they tell me," she replied.
+
+"Circumstances have compelled me to give you pain, it is natural
+therefore that I should wish to do you all the good I can. Wealth,
+respect, and a family position are worth more than what you have lost.
+You wouldn't have been that fellow's wife long after my uncle's death,
+for I happen to know, through friends of his, that he intended to
+get rid of you. Come, my dear, let us understand each other, and live
+happily. You shall be my aunt, and nothing more than my aunt. You will
+take care that my uncle does not forget me in his will; on my side, you
+shall see how well I will have you treated in the marriage contract.
+Keep calm, think it over, and we will talk of it later. All sensible
+people, indeed the whole town, urge you to put an end to your illegal
+position; no one will blame you for receiving me. It is well understood
+in the world that interests go before feelings. By the day of your
+marriage you will be handsomer than ever. The pallor of illness has
+given you an air of distinction, and on my honor, if my uncle did not
+love you so madly, you should be the wife of Colonel Bridau."
+
+Philippe left the room, having dropped this hint into Flore's mind to
+waken a vague idea of vengeance which might please the girl, who did,
+in fact, feel a sort of happiness as she saw this dreadful being at her
+feet. In this scene Philippe repeated, in miniature, that of Richard
+III. with the queen he had widowed. The meaning of it is that personal
+calculation, hidden under sentiment, has a powerful influence on the
+heart, and is able to dissipate even genuine grief. This is how, in
+individual life, Nature does that which in works of genius is thought to
+be consummate art: she works by self-interest,--the genius of money.
+
+At the beginning of April, 1823, the hall of Jean-Jacques Rouget's house
+was the scene of a splendid dinner, given to celebrate the signing of
+the marriage contract between Mademoiselle Flore Brazier and the old
+bachelor. The guests were Monsieur Heron, the four witnesses, Messieurs
+Mignonnet, Carpentier, Hochon, and Goddet, the mayor and the curate,
+Agathe Bridau, Madame Hochon, and her friend Madame Borniche, the two
+old ladies who laid down the law to the society of Issoudun. The
+bride was much impressed by this concession, obtained by Philippe, and
+intended by the two ladies as a mark of protection to a repentant woman.
+Flore was in dazzling beauty. The curate, who for the last fortnight
+had been instructing the ignorant crab-girl, was to allow her, on the
+following day, to make her first communion. The marriage was the text
+of the following pious article in the "Journal du Cher," published at
+Bourges, and in the "Journal de l'Indre," published at Chateauroux:
+
+  Issoudun.--The revival of religion is progressing in Berry.
+  Friends of the Church and all respectable persons in this town
+  were yesterday witnesses of a marriage ceremony by which a leading
+  man of property put an end to a scandalous connection, which began
+  at the time when the authority of religion was overthrown in this
+  region. This event, due to the enlightened zeal of the clergy of
+  Issoudun will, we trust, have imitators, and put a stop to
+  marriages, so-called, which have never been solemnized, and were
+  only contracted during the disastrous epoch of revolutionary rule.
+
+  One remarkable feature of the event to which we allude, is the
+  fact that it was brought about at the entreaty of a colonel
+  belonging to the old army, sent to our town by a sentence of the
+  Court of Peers, who may, in consequence, lose the inheritance of
+  his uncle's property. Such disinterestedness is so rare in these
+  days that it deserves public mention.
+
+By the marriage contract Rouget secured to Flore a dower of one hundred
+thousand francs, and a life annuity of thirty thousand more.
+
+After the wedding, which was sumptuous, Agathe returned to Paris the
+happiest of mothers, and told Joseph and Desroches what she called the
+good news.
+
+"Your son Philippe is too wily a man not to keep his paw on that
+inheritance," said the lawyer, when he had heard Madame Bridau to
+the end. "You and your poor Joseph will never get one penny of your
+brother's property."
+
+"You, and Joseph too, will always be unjust to that poor boy," said
+the mother. "His conduct before the Court of Peers was worthy of a
+statesman; he succeeded in saving many heads. Philippe's errors came
+from his great faculties being unemployed. He now sees how faults of
+conduct injure the prospects of a man who has his way to make. He is
+ambitious; that I am sure of; and I am not the only one to predict
+his future. Monsieur Hochon firmly believes that Philippe has a noble
+destiny before him."
+
+"Oh! if he chooses to apply his perverted powers to making his fortune,
+I have no doubt he will succeed: he is capable of everything; and such
+fellows go fast and far," said Desroches.
+
+"Why do you suppose that he will not succeed by honest means?" demanded
+Madame Bridau.
+
+"You will see!" exclaimed Desroches. "Fortunate or unfortunate,
+Philippe will remain the man of the rue Mazarin, the murderer of Madame
+Descoings, the domestic thief. But don't worry yourself; he will manage
+to appear honest to the world."
+
+After breakfast, on the morning succeeding the marriage, Philippe
+took Madame Rouget by the arm when his uncle rose from table and
+went upstairs to dress,--for the pair had come down, the one in her
+morning-robe, and the other in his dressing-gown.
+
+"My dear aunt," said the colonel, leading her into the recess of a
+window, "you now belong to the family. Thanks to me, the law has tied
+the knot. Now, no nonsense. I intend that you and I should play above
+board. I know the tricks you will try against me; and I shall watch you
+like a duenna. You will never go out of this house except on my arm; and
+you will never leave me. As to what passes within the house, damn
+it, you'll find me like a spider in the middle of his web. Here is
+something," he continued, showing the bewildered woman a letter, "which
+will prove to you that I could, while you were lying ill upstairs,
+unable to move hand or foot, have turned you out of doors without a
+penny. Read it."
+
+He gave her the letter.
+
+  My dear Fellow,--Florentine, who has just made her debut at the
+  new Opera House in a "pas de trois" with Mariette and Tullia, is
+  thinking steadily about your affair, and so is Florine,--who has
+  finally given up Lousteau and taken Nathan. That shrewd pair have
+  found you a most delicious little creature,--only seventeen,
+  beautiful as an English woman, demure as a "lady," up to all
+  mischief, sly as Desroches, faithful as Godeschal. Mariette is
+  forming her, so as to give you a fair chance. No woman could hold
+  her own against this little angel, who is a devil under her skin;
+  she can play any part you please; get complete possession of your
+  uncle, or drive him crazy with love. She has that celestial look
+  poor Coralie used to have; she can weep,--the tones of her voice
+  will draw a thousand-franc note from a granite heart; and the
+  young mischief soaks up champagne better than any of us. It is a
+  precious discovery; she is under obligations to Mariette, and
+  wants to pay them off. After squandering the fortunes of two
+  Englishmen, a Russian, and an Italian prince, Mademoiselle Esther
+  is now in poverty; give her ten thousand francs, that will satisfy
+  her. She has just remarked, laughing, that she has never yet
+  fricasseed a bourgeois, and it will get her hand in. Esther is
+  well known to Finot, Bixiou, and des Lupeaulx, in fact to all our
+  set. Ah! if there were any real fortunes left in France, she would
+  be the greatest courtesan of modern times.
+
+  All the editorial staff, Nathan, Finot, Bixiou, etc., are now
+  joking the aforesaid Esther in a magnificent _appartement_ just
+  arranged for Florine by old Lord Dudley (the real father of de
+  Marsay); the lively actress captured him by the dress of her new
+  role. Tullia is with the Duc de Rhetore, Mariette is still with
+  the Duc de Maufrigneuse; between them, they will get your sentence
+  remitted in time for the King's fete. Bury your uncle under the
+  roses before the Saint-Louis, bring away the property, and spend a
+  little of it with Esther and your old friends, who sign this
+  epistle in a body, to remind you of them.
+
+  Nathan, Florine, Bixiou, Finot, Mariette,
+
+  Florentine, Giroudeau, Tullia
+
+
+The letter shook in the trembling hands of Madame Rouget, and betrayed
+the terror of her mind and body. The aunt dared not look at the nephew,
+who fixed his eyes upon her with terrible meaning.
+
+"I trust you," he said, "as you see; but I expect some return. I have
+made you my aunt intending to marry you some day. You are worth more to
+me than Esther in managing my uncle. In a year from now, we must be in
+Paris; the only place where beauty really lives. You will amuse yourself
+much better there than here; it is a perpetual carnival. I shall return
+to the army, and become a general, and you will be a great lady. There's
+our future; now work for it. But I must have a pledge to bind this
+agreement. You are to give me, within a month from now, a power
+of attorney from my uncle, which you must obtain under pretence of
+relieving him of the fatigues of business. Also, a month later, I must
+have a special power of attorney to transfer the income in the Funds.
+When that stands in my name, you and I have an equal interest in
+marrying each other. There it all is, my beautiful aunt, as plain as
+day. Between you and me there must be no ambiguity. I can marry my aunt
+at the end of a year's widowhood; but I could not marry a disgraced
+girl."
+
+He left the room without waiting for an answer. When Vedie came in,
+fifteen minutes later, to clear the table, she found her mistress pale
+and moist with perspiration, in spite of the season. Flore felt like
+a woman who had fallen to the bottom of a precipice; the future loomed
+black before her; and on its blackness, in the far distance, were shapes
+of monstrous things, indistinctly perceptible, and terrifying. She felt
+the damp chill of vaults, instinctive fear of the man crushed her;
+and yet a voice cried in her ear that she deserved to have him for her
+master. She was helpless against her fate. Flore Brazier had had a room
+of her own in Rouget's house; but Madame Rouget belonged to her husband,
+and was now deprived of the free-will of a servant-mistress. In the
+horrible situation in which she now found herself, the hope of having a
+child came into her mind; but she soon recognized its impossibility. The
+marriage was to Jean-Jacques what the second marriage of Louis XII. was
+to that king. The incessant watchfulness of a man like Philippe, who had
+nothing to do and never quitted his post of observation, made any form
+of vengeance impossible. Benjamin was his innocent and devoted spy.
+The Vedie trembled before him. Flore felt herself deserted and utterly
+helpless. She began to fear death. Without knowing how Philippe might
+manage to kill her, she felt certain that whenever he suspected her of
+pregnancy her doom would be sealed. The sound of that voice, the veiled
+glitter of that gambler's eye, the slightest movement of the soldier,
+who treated her with a brutality that was still polite, made her
+shudder. As to the power of attorney demanded by the ferocious colonel,
+who in the eyes of all Issoudun was a hero, he had it as soon as he
+wanted it; for Flore fell under the man's dominion as France had fallen
+under that of Napoleon.
+
+Like a butterfly whose feet are caught in the incandescent wax of a
+taper, Rouget rapidly dissipated his remaining strength. In presence
+of that decay, the nephew remained as cold and impassible as the
+diplomatists of 1814 during the convulsions of imperial France.
+
+Philippe, who did not believe in Napoleon II., now wrote the following
+letter to the minister of war, which Mariette made the Duc de
+Maufrigneuse convey to that functionary:--
+
+  Monseigneur,--Napoleon is no more. I desired to remain faithful to
+  him according to my oath; now I am free to offer my services to
+  His Majesty. If your Excellency deigns to explain my conduct to
+  His Majesty, the King will see that it is in keeping with the laws
+  of honor, if not with those of his government. The King, who
+  thought it proper that his aide-de-camp, General Rapp, should
+  mourn his former master, will no doubt feel indulgently for me.
+  Napoleon was my benefactor.
+
+  I therefore entreat your Excellency to take into consideration the
+  request I make for employment in my proper rank; and I beg to
+  assure you of my entire submission. The King will find in me a
+  faithful subject.
+
+  Deign to accept the assurance of respect with which I have the
+  honor to be,
+  Your Excellency's very submissive and
+
+  Very humble servant,
+
+  Philippe Bridau
+
+  Formerly chief of squadron in the dragoons of the Guard; officer
+  of the Legion of honor; now under police surveillance at Issoudun.
+
+
+To this letter was joined a request for permission to go to Paris on
+urgent family business; and Monsieur Mouilleron annexed letters from the
+mayor, the sub-prefect, and the commissary of police at Issoudun, all
+bestowing many praises on Philippe's conduct, and dwelling upon the
+newspaper article relating to his uncle's marriage.
+
+Two weeks later, Philippe received the desired permission, and a letter,
+in which the minister of war informed him that, by order of the King, he
+was, as a preliminary favor, reinstated lieutenant-colonel in the royal
+army.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Lieutenant-Colonel Bridau returned to Paris, taking with him his aunt
+and the helpless Rouget, whom he escorted, three days after their
+arrival, to the Treasury, where Jean-Jacques signed the transfer of the
+income, which henceforth became Philippe's. The exhausted old man and
+the Rabouilleuse were now plunged by their nephew into the excessive
+dissipations of the dangerous and restless society of actresses,
+journalists, artists, and the equivocal women among whom Philippe had
+already wasted his youth; where old Rouget found excitements that
+soon after killed him. Instigated by Giroudeau, Lolotte, one of the
+handsomest of the Opera ballet-girls, was the amiable assassin of
+the old man. Rouget died after a splendid supper at Florentine's, and
+Lolotte threw the blame of his death upon a slice of pate de foie gras;
+as the Strasburg masterpiece could make no defence, it was considered
+settled that the old man died of indigestion.
+
+Madame Rouget was in her element in the midst of this excessively
+decollete society; but Philippe gave her in charge of Mariette, and that
+monitress did not allow the widow--whose mourning was diversified with a
+few amusements--to commit any actual follies.
+
+In October, 1823, Philippe returned to Issoudun, furnished with a power
+of attorney from his aunt, to liquidate the estate of his uncle; a
+business that was soon over, for he returned to Paris in March, 1824,
+with sixteen hundred thousand francs,--the net proceeds of old Rouget's
+property, not counting the precious pictures, which had never left
+Monsieur Hochon's hands. Philippe put the whole property into the hands
+of Mongenod and Sons, where young Baruch Borniche was employed, and
+on whose solvency and business probity old Hochon had given him
+satisfactory assurances. This house took his sixteen hundred thousand
+francs at six per cent per annum, on condition of three months' notice
+in case of the withdrawal of the money.
+
+One fine day, Philippe went to see his mother, and invited her to
+be present at his marriage, which was witnessed by Giroudeau, Finot,
+Nathan, and Bixiou. By the terms of the marriage contract, the widow
+Rouget, whose portion of her late husband's property amounted to a
+million of francs, secured to her future husband her whole fortune in
+case she died without children. No invitations to the wedding were
+sent out, nor any "billets de faire part"; Philippe had his designs. He
+lodged his wife in an _appartement_ in the rue Saint-Georges, which he
+bought ready-furnished from Lolotte. Madame Bridau the younger thought
+it delightful, and her husband rarely set foot in it. Without her
+knowledge, Philippe purchased in the rue de Clichy, at a time when no
+one suspected the value which property in that quarter would one day
+acquire, a magnificent hotel for two hundred and fifty thousand francs;
+of which he paid one hundred and fifty thousand down, taking two years
+to pay the remainder. He spent large sums in altering the interior
+and furnishing it; in fact, he put his income for two years into this
+outlay. The pictures, now restored, and estimated at three hundred
+thousand francs, appeared in such surroundings in all their beauty.
+
+The accession of Charles X. had brought into still greater court favor
+the family of the Duc de Chaulieu, whose eldest son, the Duc de Rhetore,
+was in the habit of seeing Philippe at Tullia's. Under Charles X., the
+elder branch of the Bourbons, believing itself permanently seated on
+the throne, followed the advice previously given by Marshal
+Gouvion-Saint-Cyr to encourage the adherence of the soldiers of the
+Empire. Philippe, who had no doubt made invaluable revelations as to the
+conspiracies of 1820 and 1822, was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the
+regiment of the Duc de Maufrigneuse. That fascinating nobleman thought
+himself bound to protect the man from whom he had taken Mariette. The
+corps-de-ballet went for something, therefore, in the appointment.
+Moreover, it was decided in the private councils of Charles X., to
+give a faint tinge of liberalism to the surroundings of Monseigneur the
+Dauphin. Philippe, now a sort of equerry to the Duc de Maufrigneuse, was
+presented not only to the Dauphin, but also to the Dauphine, who was not
+averse to brusque and soldierly characters who had become noted for a
+past fidelity. Philippe thoroughly understood the part the Dauphin had
+to play; and he turned the first exhibition of that spurious liberalism
+to his own profit, by getting himself appointed aide-de-camp to a
+marshal who stood well at court.
+
+In January, 1827, Philippe, who was now promoted to the Royal Guard
+as lieutenant-colonel in a regiment then commanded by the Duc de
+Maufrigneuse, solicited the honor of being ennobled. Under the
+Restoration, nobility became a sort of perquisite to the "roturiers"
+who served in the Guard. Colonel Bridau had lately bought the estate of
+Brambourg, and he now asked to be allowed to entail it under the title
+of count. This favor was accorded through the influence of his many
+intimacies in the highest rank of society, where he now appeared in
+all the luxury of horses, carriages, and liveries; in short, with the
+surroundings of a great lord. As soon as he saw himself gazetted in the
+Almanack under the title of Comte de Brambourg, he began to frequent the
+house of a lieutenant-general of artillery, the Comte de Soulanges.
+
+Insatiable in his wants, and backed by the mistresses of influential
+men, Philippe now solicited the honor of being one of the Dauphin's
+aides-de-camp. He had the audacity to say to the Dauphin that "an old
+soldier, wounded on many a battle-field and who knew real warfare,
+might, on occasion, be serviceable to Monseigneur." Philippe, who could
+take the tone of all varieties of sycophancy, became in the regions of
+the highest social life exactly what the position required him to be;
+just as at Issoudun, he had copied the respectability of Mignonnet.
+He had, moreover, a fine establishment and gave fetes and dinners;
+admitting none of his old friends to his house if he thought their
+position in life likely to compromise his future. He was pitiless to the
+companions of his former debauches, and curtly refused Bixiou when
+that lively satirist asked him to say a word in favor of Giroudeau, who
+wanted to re-enter the army after the desertion of Florentine.
+
+"The man has neither manners nor morals," said Philippe.
+
+"Ha! did he say that of me?" cried Giroudeau, "of me, who helped him to
+get rid of his uncle!"
+
+"We'll pay him off yet," said Bixiou.
+
+Philippe intended to marry Mademoiselle Amelie de Soulanges, and become
+a general, in command of a regiment of the Royal Guard. He asked so many
+favors that, to keep him quiet, they made him a Commander of the Legion
+of honor, and also Commander of the order of Saint Louis. One rainy
+evening, as Agathe and Joseph were returning home along the muddy
+streets, they met Philippe in full uniform, bedizened with orders,
+leaning back in a corner of a handsome coupe lined with yellow silk,
+whose armorial bearings were surmounted with a count's coronet. He was
+on his way to a fete at the Elysee-Bourbon; the wheels splashed his
+mother and brother as he waved them a patronizing greeting.
+
+"He's going it, that fellow!" said Joseph to his mother. "Nevertheless,
+he might send us something better than mud in our faces."
+
+"He has such a fine position, in such high society, that we ought not to
+blame him for forgetting us," said Madame Bridau. "When a man rises to
+so great a height, he has many obligations to repay, many sacrifices to
+make; it is natural he should not come to see us, though he may think of
+us all the same."
+
+"My dear fellow," said the Duc de Maufrigneuse one evening, to the new
+Comte de Brambourg, "I am sure that your addresses will be favorably
+received; but in order to marry Amelie de Soulanges, you must be free to
+do so. What have you done with your wife?"
+
+"My wife?" said Philippe, with a gesture, look, and accent which
+Frederick Lemaitre was inspired to use in one of his most terrible
+parts. "Alas! I have the melancholy certainty of losing her. She has not
+a week to live. My dear duke, you don't know what it is to marry beneath
+you. A woman who was a cook, and has the tastes of a cook! who dishonors
+me--ah! I am much to be pitied. I have had the honor to explain my
+position to Madame la Dauphine. At the time of the marriage, it was a
+question of saving to the family a million of francs which my uncle had
+left by will to that person. Happily, my wife took to drinking; at her
+death, I come into possession of that million, which is now in the hands
+of Mongenod and Sons. I have thirty thousand francs a year in the five
+per cents, and my landed property, which is entailed, brings me in forty
+thousand more. If, as I am led to suppose, Monsieur de Soulanges gets
+a marshal's baton, I am on the high-road with my title of Comte de
+Brambourg, to becoming general and peer of France. That will be the
+proper end of an aide-de-camp of the Dauphin."
+
+After the Salon of 1823, one of the leading painters of the day, a most
+excellent man, obtained the management of a lottery-office near the
+Markets, for the mother of Joseph Bridau. Agathe was fortunately able,
+soon after, to exchange it on equal terms with the incumbent of another
+office, situated in the rue de Seine, in a house where Joseph was able
+to have his atelier. The widow now hired an agent herself, and was no
+longer an expense to her son. And yet, as late as 1828, though she
+was the directress of an excellent office which she owed entirely to
+Joseph's fame, Madame Bridau still had no belief in that fame, which
+was hotly contested, as all true glory ever will be. The great painter,
+struggling with his genius, had enormous wants; he did not earn
+enough to pay for the luxuries which his relations to society, and
+his distinguished position in the young School of Art demanded. Though
+powerfully sustained by his friends of the Cenacle and by Mademoiselle
+des Touches, he did not please the Bourgeois. That being, from whom
+comes the money of these days, never unties its purse-strings for genius
+that is called in question; unfortunately, Joseph had the classics and
+the Institute, and the critics who cry up those two powers, against him.
+The brave artist, though backed by Gros and Gerard, by whose influence
+he was decorated after the Salon of 1827, obtained few orders. If the
+ministry of the interior and the King's household were with difficulty
+induced to buy some of his greatest pictures, the shopkeepers and the
+rich foreigners noticed them still less. Moreover, Joseph gave way
+rather too much, as we must all acknowledge, to imaginative fancies, and
+that produced a certain inequality in his work which his enemies made
+use of to deny his talent.
+
+"High art is at a low ebb," said his friend Pierre Grassou, who made
+daubs to suit the taste of the bourgeoisie, in whose _appartements_ fine
+paintings were at a discount.
+
+"You ought to have a whole cathedral to decorate; that's what you
+want," declared Schinner; "then you would silence criticism with a
+master-stroke."
+
+Such speeches, which alarmed the good Agathe, only corroborated the
+judgment she had long since formed upon Philippe and Joseph. Facts
+sustained that judgment in the mind of a woman who had never ceased to
+be a provincial. Philippe, her favorite child, was he not the great man
+of the family at last? in his early errors she saw only the ebullitions
+of youth. Joseph, to the merit of whose productions she was insensible,
+for she saw them too long in process of gestation to admire them when
+finished, seemed to her no more advanced in 1828 than he was in 1816.
+Poor Joseph owed money, and was bowed down by the burden of debt; he had
+chosen, she felt, a worthless career that made him no return. She could
+not conceive why they had given him the cross of the Legion of honor.
+Philippe, on the other hand, rich enough to cease gambling, a guest at
+the fetes of _Madame_, the brilliant colonel who at all reviews and in
+all processions appeared before her eyes in splendid uniforms, with his
+two crosses on his breast, realized all her maternal dreams. One such
+day of public ceremony effaced from Agathe's mind the horrible sight
+of Philippe's misery on the Quai de l'Ecole; on that day he passed his
+mother at the self-same spot, in attendance on the Dauphin, with plumes
+in his shako, and his pelisse gorgeous with gold and fur. Agathe, who to
+her artist son was now a sort of devoted gray sister, felt herself the
+mother of none but the dashing aide-de-camp to his Royal Highness, the
+Dauphin of France. Proud of Philippe, she felt he made the ease and
+happiness of her life,--forgetting that the lottery-office, by which she
+was enabled to live at all, came through Joseph.
+
+One day Agathe noticed that her poor artist was more worried than usual
+by the bill of his color-man, and she determined, though cursing his
+profession in her heart, to free him from his debts. The poor woman kept
+the house with the proceeds of her office, and took care never to ask
+Joseph for a farthing. Consequently she had no money of her own; but she
+relied on Philippe's good heart and well-filled purse. For three years
+she had waited in expectation of his coming to see her; she now imagined
+that if she made an appeal to him he would bring some enormous sum;
+and her thoughts dwelt on the happiness she should feel in giving it to
+Joseph, whose judgment of his brother, like that of Madame Descoings,
+was so unfair.
+
+Saying nothing to Joseph, she wrote the following letter to Philippe:--
+
+  To Monsieur le comte de Brambourg:
+
+  My dear Philippe,--You have not given the least little word of
+  remembrance to your mother for five years. That is not right. You
+  should remember the past, if only for the sake of your excellent
+  brother. Joseph is now in need of money, and you are floating in
+  wealth; he works, while you are flying from fete to fete. You now
+  possess, all to yourself, the property of my brother. Little
+  Borniche tells me you cannot have less than two hundred thousand
+  francs a year. Well, then, come and see Joseph. During your visit,
+  slip into the skull a few thousand-franc notes. Philippe, you owe
+  them to us; nevertheless, your brother will feel grateful to you,
+  not to speak of the happiness you will give
+
+  Your mother,
+
+  Agathe Bridau, nee Rouget
+
+
+Two days later the concierge brought to the atelier, where poor Agathe
+was breakfasting with Joseph, the following terrible letter:--
+
+  My dear Mother,--A man does not marry a Mademoiselle Amelie de
+  Soulanges without the purse of Fortunatus, if under the name of
+  Comte de Brambourg he hides that of
+
+  Your son,
+
+  Philippe Bridau
+
+
+As Agathe fell half-fainting on the sofa, the letter dropped to the
+floor. The slight noise made by the paper, and the smothered but
+dreadful exclamation which escaped Agathe startled Joseph, who had
+forgotten his mother for a moment and was vehemently rubbing in a
+sketch; he leaned his head round the edge of his canvas to see what had
+happened. The sight of his mother stretched out on the floor made him
+drop palette and brushes, and rush to lift what seemed a lifeless body.
+He took Agathe in his arms and carried her to her own bed, and sent the
+servant for his friend Horace Bianchon. As soon as he could question his
+mother she told him of her letter to Philippe, and of the answer she
+had received from him. The artist went to his atelier and picked up the
+letter, whose concise brutality had broken the tender heart of the poor
+mother, and shattered the edifice of trust her maternal preference had
+erected. When Joseph returned to her bedside he had the good feeling
+to be silent. He did not speak of his brother in the three weeks during
+which--we will not say the illness, but--the death agony of the poor
+woman lasted. Bianchon, who came every day and watched his patient with
+the devotion of a true friend, told Joseph the truth on the first day of
+her seizure.
+
+"At her age," he said, "and under the circumstances which have happened
+to her, all we can hope to do is to make her death as little painful as
+possible."
+
+She herself felt so surely called of God that she asked the next day for
+the religious help of old Abbe Loraux, who had been her confessor for
+more than twenty-two years. As soon as she was alone with him, and had
+poured her griefs into his heart, she said--as she had said to Madame
+Hochon, and had repeated to herself again and again throughout her
+life:--
+
+"What have I done to displease God? Have I not loved Him with all my
+soul? Have I wandered from the path of grace? What is my sin? Can I be
+guilty of wrong when I know not what it is? Have I the time to repair
+it?"
+
+"No," said the old man, in a gentle voice. "Alas! your life seems
+to have been pure and your soul spotless; but the eye of God, poor
+afflicted creature, is keener than that of his ministers. I see the
+truth too late; for you have misled even me."
+
+Hearing these words from lips that had never spoken other than peaceful
+and pleasant words to her, Agathe rose suddenly in her bed and opened
+her eyes wide, with terror and distress.
+
+"Tell me! tell me!" she cried.
+
+"Be comforted," said the priest. "Your punishment is a proof that you
+will receive pardon. God chastens his elect. Woe to those whose misdeeds
+meet with fortunate success; they will be kneaded again in humanity
+until they in their turn are sorely punished for simple errors, and are
+brought to the maturity of celestial fruits. Your life, my daughter,
+has been one long error. You have fallen into the pit which you dug for
+yourself; we fail ever on the side we have ourselves weakened. You gave
+your heart to an unnatural son, in whom you made your glory, and you
+have misunderstood the child who is your true glory. You have been so
+deeply unjust that you never even saw the striking contrast between the
+brothers. You owe the comfort of your life to Joseph, while your other
+son has pillaged you repeatedly. The poor son, who loves you with no
+return of equal tenderness, gives you all the comfort that your life
+has had; the rich son, who never thinks of you, despises you and desires
+your death--"
+
+"Oh! no," she cried.
+
+"Yes," resumed the priest, "your humble position stands in the way of
+his proud hopes. Mother, these are your sins! Woman, your sorrows and
+your anguish foretell that you shall know the peace of God. Your son
+Joseph is so noble that his tenderness has never been lessened by the
+injustice your maternal preferences have done him. Love him now; give
+him all your heart during your remaining days; pray for him, as I shall
+pray for you."
+
+The eyes of the mother, opened by so firm a hand, took in with one
+retrospective glance the whole course of her life. Illumined by this
+flash of light, she saw her involuntary wrong-doing and burst into
+tears. The old priest was so deeply moved at the repentance of a being
+who had sinned solely through ignorance, that he left the room hastily
+lest she should see his pity.
+
+Joseph returned to his mother's room about two hours after her confessor
+had left her. He had been to a friend to borrow the necessary money to
+pay his most pressing debts, and he came in on tiptoe, thinking that his
+mother was asleep. He sat down in an armchair without her seeing him;
+but he sprang up with a cold chill running through him as he heard her
+say, in a voice broken with sobs,--
+
+"Will he forgive me?"
+
+"What is it, mother?" he exclaimed, shocked at the stricken face of the
+poor woman, and thinking the words must mean the delirium that precedes
+death.
+
+"Ah, Joseph! can you pardon me, my child?" she cried.
+
+"For what?" he said.
+
+"I have never loved you as you deserved to be loved."
+
+"Oh, what an accusation!" he cried. "Not loved me? For seven years have
+we not lived alone together? All these seven years have you not taken
+care of me and done everything for me? Do I not see you every day,--hear
+your voice? Are you not the gentle and indulgent companion of my
+miserable life? You don't understand painting?--Ah! but that's a gift
+not always given. I was saying to Grassou only yesterday: 'What comforts
+me in the midst of my trials is that I have such a good mother. She is
+all that an artist's wife should be; she sees to everything; she takes
+care of my material wants without ever troubling or worrying me.'"
+
+"No, Joseph, no; you have loved me, but I have not returned you love for
+love. Ah! would that I could live a little longer--Give me your hand."
+
+Agathe took her son's hand, kissed it, held it on her heart, and
+looked in his face a long time,--letting him see the azure of her eyes
+resplendent with a tenderness she had hitherto bestowed on Philippe
+only. The painter, well fitted to judge of expression, was so struck by
+the change, and saw so plainly how the heart of his mother had opened to
+him, that he took her in his arms, and held her for some moments to his
+heart, crying out like one beside himself,--"My mother! oh, my mother!"
+
+"Ah! I feel that I am forgiven!" she said. "God will confirm the child's
+pardon of its mother."
+
+"You must be calm: don't torment yourself; hear me. I feel myself loved
+enough in this one moment for all the past," he said, as he laid her
+back upon the pillows.
+
+During the two weeks' struggle between life and death, there glowed
+such love in every look and gesture and impulse of the soul of the pious
+creature, that each effusion of her feelings seemed like the expression
+of a lifetime. The mother thought only of her son; she herself counted
+for nothing; sustained by love, she was unaware of her sufferings.
+D'Arthez, Michel Chrestien, Fulgence Ridal, Pierre Grassou, and Bianchon
+often kept Joseph company, and she heard them talking art in a low voice
+in a corner of her room.
+
+"Oh, how I wish I knew what color is!" she exclaimed one evening as she
+heard them discussing one of Joseph's pictures.
+
+Joseph, on his side, was sublimely devoted to his mother. He never left
+her chamber; answered tenderness by tenderness, cherishing her upon his
+heart. The spectacle was never afterwards forgotten by his friends; and
+they themselves, a band of brothers in talent and nobility of nature,
+were to Joseph and his mother all that they should have been,--friends
+who prayed, and truly wept; not saying prayers and shedding tears, but
+one with their friend in thought and action. Joseph, inspired as much
+by feeling as by genius, divined in the occasional expression of his
+mother's face a desire that was deep hidden in her heart, and he said
+one day to d'Arthez,--
+
+"She has loved that brigand Philippe too well not to want to see him
+before she dies."
+
+Joseph begged Bixiou, who frequented the Bohemian regions where Philippe
+was still occasionally to be found, to persuade that shameless son to
+play, if only out of pity, a little comedy of tenderness which might
+wrap the mother's heart in a winding-sheet of illusive happiness.
+Bixiou, in his capacity as an observing and misanthropical scoffer,
+desired nothing better than to undertake such a mission. When he had
+made known Madame Bridau's condition to the Comte de Brambourg, who
+received him in a bedroom hung with yellow damask, the colonel laughed.
+
+"What the devil do you want me to do there?" he cried. "The only service
+the poor woman can render me is to die as soon as she can; she would be
+rather a sorry figure at my marriage with Mademoiselle de Soulanges.
+The less my family is seen, the better my position. You can easily
+understand that I should like to bury the name of Bridau under all the
+monuments in Pere-Lachaise. My brother irritates me by bringing the name
+into publicity. You are too knowing not to see the situation as I do.
+Look at it as if it were your own: if you were a deputy, with a tongue
+like yours, you would be as much feared as Chauvelin; you would be made
+Comte Bixiou, and director of the Beaux-Arts. Once there, how should you
+like it if your grandmother Descoings were to turn up? Would you want
+that worthy woman, who looked like a Madame Saint-Leon, to be hanging on
+to you? Would you give her an arm in the Tuileries, and present her to
+the noble family you were trying to enter? Damn it, you'd wish her six
+feet under ground, in a leaden night-gown. Come, breakfast with me, and
+let us talk of something else. I am a parvenu, my dear fellow, and I
+know it. I don't choose that my swaddling-clothes shall be seen. My son
+will be more fortunate than I; he will be a great lord. The scamp will
+wish me dead; I expect it,--or he won't be my son."
+
+He rang the bell, and ordered the servant to serve breakfast.
+
+"The fashionable world wouldn't see you in your mother's bedroom," said
+Bixiou. "What would it cost you to seem to love that poor woman for a
+few hours?"
+
+"Whew!" cried Philippe, winking. "So you come from them, do you? I'm an
+old camel, who knows all about genuflections. My mother makes the excuse
+of her last illness to get something out of me for Joseph. No, thank
+you!"
+
+When Bixiou related this scene to Joseph, the poor painter was chilled
+to the very soul.
+
+"Does Philippe know I am ill?" asked Agathe in a piteous tone, the day
+after Bixiou had rendered an account of his fruitless errand.
+
+Joseph left the room, suffocating with emotion. The Abbe Loraux, who was
+sitting by the bedside of his penitent, took her hand and pressed it,
+and then he answered, "Alas! my child, you have never had but one son."
+
+The words, which Agathe understood but too well, conveyed a shock which
+was the beginning of the end. She died twenty hours later.
+
+In the delirium which preceded death, the words, "Whom does Philippe
+take after?" escaped her.
+
+Joseph followed his mother to the grave alone. Philippe had gone, on
+business it was said, to Orleans; in reality, he was driven from Paris
+by the following letter, which Joseph wrote to him a moment after their
+mother had breathed her last sigh:--
+
+  Monster! my poor mother has died of the shock your letter caused
+  her. Wear mourning, but pretend illness; I will not suffer her
+  assassin to stand at my side before her coffin.
+
+  Joseph B.
+
+
+The painter, who no longer had the heart to paint, though his bitter
+grief sorely needed the mechanical distraction which labor is wont to
+give, was surrounded by friends who agreed with one another never to
+leave him entirely alone. Thus it happened that Bixiou, who loved Joseph
+as much as a satirist can love any one, was sitting in the atelier with
+a group of other friends about two weeks after Agathe's funeral. The
+servant entered with a letter, brought by an old woman, she said, who
+was waiting below for the answer.
+
+  Monsieur,--To you, whom I scarcely dare to call my brother, I am
+  forced to address myself, if only on account of the name I bear.--
+
+Joseph turned the page and read the signature. The name "Comtesse Flore
+de Brambourg" made him shudder. He foresaw some new atrocity on the part
+of his brother.
+
+"That brigand," he cried, "is the devil's own. And he calls himself a
+man of honor! And he wears a lot of crosses on his breast! And he struts
+about at court instead of being bastinadoed! And the scoundrel is called
+Monsieur le Comte!"
+
+"There are many like him," said Bixiou.
+
+"After all," said Joseph, "the Rabouilleuse deserves her fate, whatever
+it is. She is not worth pitying; she'd have had my neck wrung like a
+chicken's without so much as saying, 'He's innocent.'"
+
+Joseph flung away the letter, but Bixiou caught it in the air, and read
+it aloud, as follows:--
+
+  Is it decent that the Comtesse Bridau de Brambourg should die in a
+  hospital, no matter what may have been her faults? If such is to
+  be my fate, if such is your determination and that of monsieur le
+  comte, so be it; but if so, will you, who are the friend of Doctor
+  Bianchon, ask him for a permit to let me enter a hospital?
+
+  The person who carries this letter has been eleven consecutive
+  days to the hotel de Brambourg, rue de Clichy, without getting any
+  help from my husband. The poverty in which I now am prevents my
+  employing a lawyer to make a legal demand for what is due to me,
+  that I may die with decency. Nothing can save me, I know that. In
+  case you are unwilling to see your unhappy sister-in-law, send me,
+  at least, the money to end my days. Your brother desires my death;
+  he has always desired it. He warned me that he knew three ways of
+  killing a woman, but I had not the sense to foresee the one he has
+  employed.
+
+  In case you will consent to relieve me, and judge for yourself the
+  misery in which I now am, I live in the rue du Houssay, at the
+  corner of the rue Chantereine, on the fifth floor. If I cannot pay
+  my rent to-morrow I shall be put out--and then, where can I go?
+  May I call myself,
+
+  Your sister-in-law,
+
+  Comtesse Flore de Brambourg.
+
+
+"What a pit of infamy!" cried Joseph; "there is something under it all."
+
+"Let us send for the woman who brought the letter; we may get the
+preface of the story," said Bixiou.
+
+The woman presently appeared, looking, as Bixiou observed, like
+perambulating rags. She was, in fact, a mass of old gowns, one on top of
+another, fringed with mud on account of the weather, the whole mounted
+on two thick legs with heavy feet which were ill-covered by ragged
+stockings and shoes from whose cracks the water oozed upon the floor.
+Above the mound of rags rose a head like those that Charlet has given
+to his scavenger-women, caparisoned with a filthy bandanna handkerchief
+slit in the folds.
+
+"What is your name?" said Joseph, while Bixiou sketched her, leaning on
+an umbrella belonging to the year II. of the Republic.
+
+"Madame Gruget, at your service. I've seen better days, my young
+gentleman," she said to Bixiou, whose laugh affronted her. "If my poor
+girl hadn't had the ill-luck to love some one too much, you wouldn't
+see me what I am. She drowned herself in the river, my poor Ida,--saving
+your presence! I've had the folly to nurse up a quaterne, and that's
+why, at seventy-seven years of age, I'm obliged to take care of sick
+folks for ten sous a day, and go--"
+
+"--without clothes?" said Bixiou. "My grandmother nursed up a trey, but
+she dressed herself properly."
+
+"Out of my ten sous I have to pay for a lodging--"
+
+"What's the matter with the lady you are nursing?"
+
+"In the first place, she hasn't got any money; and then she has a
+disease that scares the doctors. She owes me for sixty days' nursing;
+that's why I keep on nursing her. The husband, who is a count,--she is
+really a countess,--will no doubt pay me when she is dead; and so I've
+lent her all I had. And now I haven't anything; all I did have has gone
+to the pawn-brokers. She owes me forty-seven francs and twelve sous,
+beside thirty francs for the nursing. She wants to kill herself with
+charcoal. I tell her it ain't right; and, indeed, I've had to get the
+concierge to look after her while I'm gone, or she's likely to jump out
+of the window."
+
+"But what's the matter with her?" said Joseph.
+
+"Ah! monsieur, the doctor from the Sisters' hospital came; but as to
+the disease," said Madame Gruget, assuming a modest air, "he told me she
+must go to the hospital. The case is hopeless."
+
+"Let us go and see her," said Bixiou.
+
+"Here," said Joseph to the woman, "take these ten francs."
+
+Plunging his hand into the skull and taking out all his remaining
+money, the painter called a coach from the rue Mazarin and went to find
+Bianchon, who was fortunately at home. Meantime Bixiou went off at full
+speed to the rue de Bussy, after Desroches. The four friends reached
+Flore's retreat in the rue du Houssay an hour later.
+
+"That Mephistopheles on horseback, named Philippe Bridau," said Bixiou,
+as they mounted the staircase, "has sailed his boat cleverly to get rid
+of his wife. You know our old friend Lousteau? well, Philippe paid him a
+thousand francs a month to keep Madame Bridau in the society of Florine,
+Mariette, Tullia, and the Val-Noble. When Philippe saw his crab-girl so
+used to pleasure and dress that she couldn't do without them, he stopped
+paying the money, and left her to get it as she could--it is easy to
+know how. By the end of eighteen months, the brute had forced his wife,
+stage by stage, lower and lower; till at last, by the help of a young
+officer, he gave her a taste for drinking. As he went up in the world,
+his wife went down; and the countess is now in the mud. The girl, bred
+in the country, has a strong constitution. I don't know what means
+Philippe has lately taken to get rid of her. I am anxious to study this
+precious little drama, for I am determined to avenge Joseph here. Alas,
+friends," he added, in a tone which left his three companions in doubt
+whether he was jesting or speaking seriously, "give a man over to a vice
+and you'll get rid of him. Didn't Hugo say: 'She loved a ball, and died
+of it'? So it is. My grandmother loved the lottery. Old Rouget loved
+a loose life, and Lolotte killed him. Madame Bridau, poor woman, loved
+Philippe, and perished of it. Vice! vice! my dear friends, do you want
+to know what vice is? It is the Bonneau of death."
+
+"Then you'll die of a joke," said Desroches, laughing.
+
+Above the fourth floor, the young men were forced to climb one of the
+steep, straight stairways that are almost ladders, by which the attics
+of Parisian houses are often reached. Though Joseph, who remembered
+Flore in all her beauty, expected to see some frightful change, he was
+not prepared for the hideous spectacle which now smote his artist's eye.
+In a room with bare, unpapered walls, under the sharp pitch of an attic
+roof, on a cot whose scanty mattress was filled, perhaps, with refuse
+cotton, a woman lay, green as a body that has been drowned two days,
+thin as a consumptive an hour before death. This putrid skeleton had a
+miserable checked handkerchief bound about her head, which had lost its
+hair. The circle round the hollow eyes was red, and the eyelids were
+like the pellicle of an egg. Nothing remained of the body, once so
+captivating, but an ignoble, bony structure. As Flore caught sight of
+the visitors, she drew across her breast a bit of muslin which might
+have been a fragment of a window-curtain, for it was edged with rust as
+from a rod. The young men saw two chairs, a broken bureau on which was
+a tallow-candle stuck into a potato, a few dishes on the floor, and an
+earthen fire-pot in a corner of the chimney, in which there was no fire;
+this was all the furniture of the room. Bixiou noticed the remaining
+sheets of writing-paper, brought from some neighboring grocery for the
+letter which the two women had doubtless concocted together. The word
+"disgusting" is a positive to which no superlative exists, and we must
+therefore use it to convey the impression caused by this sight. When the
+dying woman saw Joseph approaching her, two great tears rolled down her
+cheeks.
+
+"She can still weep!" whispered Bixiou. "A strange sight,--tears from
+dominos! It is like the miracle of Moses."
+
+"How burnt up!" cried Joseph.
+
+"In the fires of repentance," said Flore. "I cannot get a priest; I have
+nothing, not even a crucifix, to help me see God. Ah, monsieur!" she
+cried, raising her arms, that were like two pieces of carved wood, "I
+am a guilty woman; but God never punished any one as he has punished me!
+Philippe killed Max, who advised me to do dreadful things, and now he
+has killed me. God uses him as a scourge!"
+
+"Leave me alone with her," said Bianchon, "and let me find out if the
+disease is curable."
+
+"If you cure her, Philippe Bridau will die of rage," said Desroches. "I
+am going to draw up a statement of the condition in which we have found
+his wife. He has not brought her before the courts as an adulteress, and
+therefore her rights as a wife are intact: he shall have the shame of a
+suit. But first, we must remove the Comtesse de Brambourg to the private
+hospital of Doctor Dubois, in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. She
+will be well cared for there. Then I will summon the count for the
+restoration of the conjugal home."
+
+"Bravo, Desroches!" cried Bixiou. "What a pleasure to do so much good
+that will make some people feel so badly!"
+
+Ten minutes later, Bianchon came down and joined them.
+
+"I am going straight to Despleins," he said. "He can save the woman by
+an operation. Ah! he will take good care of the case, for her abuse
+of liquor has developed a magnificent disease which was thought to be
+lost."
+
+"Wag of a mangler! Isn't there but one disease in life?" cried Bixiou.
+
+But Bianchon was already out of sight, so great was his haste to tell
+Despleins the wonderful news. Two hours later, Joseph's miserable
+sister-in-law was removed to the decent hospital established by Doctor
+Dubois, which was afterward bought of him by the city of Paris. Three
+weeks later, the "Hospital Gazette" published an account of one of
+the boldest operations of modern surgery, on a case designated by the
+initials "F. B." The patient died,--more from the exhaustion produced by
+misery and starvation than from the effects of the treatment.
+
+No sooner did this occur, than the Comte de Brambourg went, in deep
+mourning, to call on the Comte de Soulanges, and inform him of the sad
+loss he had just sustained. Soon after, it was whispered about in the
+fashionable world that the Comte de Soulanges would shortly marry his
+daughter to a parvenu of great merit, who was about to be appointed
+brigadier-general and receive command of a regiment of the Royal Guard.
+De Marsay told this news to Eugene de Rastignac, as they were supping
+together at the Rocher de Cancale, where Bixiou happened to be.
+
+"It shall not take place!" said the witty artist to himself.
+
+Among the many old friends whom Philippe now refused to recognize, there
+were some, like Giroudeau, who were unable to revenge themselves; but
+it happened that he had wounded Bixiou, who, thanks to his brilliant
+qualities, was everywhere received, and who never forgave an insult. One
+day at the Rocher de Cancale, before a number of well-bred persons
+who were supping there, Philippe had replied to Bixiou, who spoke of
+visiting him at the hotel de Brambourg: "You can come and see me when
+you are made a minister."
+
+"Am I to turn Protestant before I can visit you?" said Bixiou,
+pretending to misunderstand the speech; but he said to himself, "You may
+be Goliath, but I have got my sling, and plenty of stones."
+
+The next day he went to an actor, who was one of his friends, and
+metamorphosed himself, by the all-powerful aid of dress, into a
+secularized priest with green spectacles; then he took a carriage and
+drove to the hotel de Soulanges. Received by the count, on sending in
+a message that he wanted to speak with him on a matter of serious
+importance, he related in a feigned voice the whole story of the dead
+countess, the secret particulars of whose horrible death had been
+confided to him by Bianchon; the history of Agathe's death; the history
+of old Rouget's death, of which the Comte de Brambourg had openly
+boasted; the history of Madame Descoings's death; the history of the
+theft from the newspaper; and the history of Philippe's private morals
+during his early days.
+
+"Monsieur le comte, don't give him your daughter until you have made
+every inquiry; interrogate his former comrades,--Bixiou, Giroudeau, and
+others."
+
+Three months later, the Comte de Brambourg gave a supper to du Tillet,
+Nucingen, Eugene de Rastignac, Maxime de Trailles, and Henri de Marsay.
+The amphitryon accepted with much nonchalance the half-consolatory
+condolences they made to him as to his rupture with the house of
+Soulanges.
+
+"You can do better," said Maxime de Trailles.
+
+"How much money must a man have to marry a demoiselle de Grandlieu?"
+asked Philippe of de Marsay.
+
+"You? They wouldn't give you the ugliest of the six for less than ten
+millions," answered de Marsay insolently.
+
+"Bah!" said Rastignac. "With an income of two hundred thousand francs
+you can have Mademoiselle de Langeais, the daughter of the marquis; she
+is thirty years old, and ugly, and she hasn't a sou; that ought to suit
+you."
+
+"I shall have ten millions two years from now," said Philippe Bridau.
+
+"It is now the 16th of January, 1829," cried du Tillet, laughing. "I
+have been hard at work for ten years and I have not made as much as that
+yet."
+
+"We'll take counsel of each other," said Bridau; "you shall see how well
+I understand finance."
+
+"How much do you really own?" asked Nucingen.
+
+"Three millions, excluding my house and my estate, which I shall not
+sell; in fact, I cannot, for the property is now entailed and goes with
+the title."
+
+Nucingen and du Tillet looked at each other; after that sly glance du
+Tillet said to Philippe, "My dear count, I shall be delighted to do
+business with you."
+
+De Marsay intercepted the look du Tillet had exchanged with Nucingen,
+and which meant, "We will have those millions." The two bank magnates
+were at the centre of political affairs, and could, at a given time,
+manipulate matters at the Bourse, so as to play a sure game against
+Philippe, when the probabilities might all seem for him and yet be
+secretly against him.
+
+The occasion came. In July, 1830, du Tillet and Nucingen had helped the
+Comte de Brambourg to make fifteen hundred thousand francs; he could
+therefore feel no distrust of those who had given him such good advice.
+Philippe, who owed his rise to the Restoration, was misled by his
+profound contempt for "civilians"; he believed in the triumph of the
+Ordonnances, and was bent on playing for a rise; du Tillet and Nucingen,
+who were sure of a revolution, played against him for a fall. The crafty
+pair confirmed the judgment of the Comte de Brambourg and seemed
+to share his convictions; they encouraged his hopes of doubling his
+millions, and apparently took steps to help him. Philippe fought like
+a man who had four millions depending on the issue of the struggle. His
+devotion was so noticeable, that he received orders to go to Saint-Cloud
+with the Duc de Maufrigneuse and attend a council. This mark of favor
+probably saved Philippe's life; for when the order came, on the 25th of
+July, he was intending to make a charge and sweep the boulevards, when
+he would undoubtedly have been shot down by his friend Giroudeau, who
+commanded a division of the assailants.
+
+A month later, nothing was left of Colonel Bridau's immense fortune but
+his house and furniture, his estates, and the pictures which had come
+from Issoudun. He committed the still further folly, as he said himself,
+of believing in the restoration of the elder branch, to which he
+remained faithful until 1834. The not imcomprehensible jealousy Philippe
+felt on seeing Giroudeau a colonel drove him to re-enter the service.
+Unluckily for himself, he obtained, in 1835, the command of a regiment
+in Algiers, where he remained three years in a post of danger,
+always hoping for the epaulets of a general. But some malignant
+influence--that, in fact, of General Giroudeau,--continually balked him.
+Grown hard and brutal, Philippe exceeded the ordinary severity of the
+service, and was hated, in spite of his bravery a la Murat.
+
+At the beginning of the fatal year 1839, while making a sudden dash
+upon the Arabs during a retreat before superior forces, he flung himself
+against the enemy, followed by only a single company, and fell in,
+unfortunately, with the main body of the enemy. The battle was bloody
+and terrible, man to man, and only a few horsemen escaped alive. Seeing
+that their colonel was surrounded, these men, who were at some distance,
+were unwilling to perish uselessly in attempting to rescue him. They
+heard his cry: "Your colonel! to me! a colonel of the Empire!" but
+they rejoined the regiment. Philippe met with a horrible death, for the
+Arabs, after hacking him to pieces with their scimitars, cut off his
+head.
+
+Joseph, who was married about this time, through the good offices of the
+Comte de Serizy, to the daughter of a millionaire farmer, inherited his
+brother's house in Paris and the estate of Brambourg, in consequence of
+the entail, which Philippe, had he foreseen this result, would certainly
+have broken. The chief pleasure the painter derived from his inheritance
+was in the fine collection of paintings from Issoudun. He now possesses
+an income of sixty thousand francs, and his father-in-law, the farmer,
+continues to pile up the five-franc pieces. Though Joseph Bridau paints
+magnificent pictures, and renders important services to artists, he is
+not yet a member of the Institute. As the result of a clause in the deed
+of entail, he is now Comte de Brambourg, a fact which often makes him
+roar with laughter among his friends in the atelier.
+
+
+
+
+ADDENDUM
+
+The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
+
+Note: The Two Brothers is also known as A Bachelor's Establishment and
+The Black Sheep. In other Addendum appearances it is referred to as A
+Bachelor's Establishment.
+
+     Bianchon, Horace
+       Father Goriot
+       The Atheist's Mass
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       The Commission in Lunacy
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       The Secrets of a Princess
+       The Government Clerks
+       Pierrette
+       A Study of Woman
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       Honorine
+       The Seamy Side of History
+       The Magic Skin
+       A Second Home
+       A Prince of Bohemia
+       Letters of Two Brides
+       The Muse of the Department
+       The Imaginary Mistress
+       The Middle Classes
+       Cousin Betty
+       The Country Parson
+     In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following:
+       Another Study of Woman
+       La Grande Breteche
+
+     Birotteau, Cesar
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
+
+     Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
+       The Purse
+       The Government Clerks
+       Modeste Mignon
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       The Firm of Nucingen
+       The Muse of the Department
+       Cousin Betty
+       The Member for Arcis
+       Beatrix
+       A Man of Business
+       Gaudissart II.
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+       Cousin Pons
+
+     Brambourg, Comte de (Title of Philippe Bridau, later Joseph)
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Bridau, Philippe
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+
+     Bridau, Joseph
+       The Purse
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       A Start in Life
+       Modeste Mignon
+       Another Study of Woman
+       Pierre Grassou
+       Letters of Two Brides
+       Cousin Betty
+       The Member for Arcis
+
+     Bruel, Jean Francois du
+       The Government Clerks
+       A Start in Life
+       A Prince of Bohemia
+       The Middle Classes
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       A Daughter of Eve
+
+     Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du
+       A Prince of Bohemia
+       A Distinguished  Provincial at Paris
+       Letters of Two Brides
+       The Middle Classes
+
+     Cabirolle, Madame
+       A Start in Life
+
+     Cabirolle, Agathe-Florentine
+       A Start in Life
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+
+     Camusot
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Cousin Pons
+       The Muse of the Department
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
+
+     Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin
+       A Start in Life
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
+       Cesar Birotteau
+
+     Chaulieu, Henri, Duc de
+       Letters of Two Brides
+       Modest Mignon
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       The Thirteen
+
+     Chrestien, Michel
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       The Secrets of a Princess
+
+     Claparon, Charles
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       Melmoth Reconciled
+       The Firm of Nucingen
+       A Man of Business
+       The Middle Classes
+
+     Coloquinte
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+
+     Coralie, Mademoiselle
+       A Start in Life
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+
+     Desplein
+       The Atheist's Mass
+       Cousin Pons
+       Lost Illusions
+       The Thirteen
+       The Government Clerks
+       Pierrette
+       The Seamy Side of History
+       Modest Mignon
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       Honorine
+
+     Desroches (son)
+       Colonel Chabert
+       A Start in Life
+       A Woman of Thirty
+       The Commission in Lunacy
+       The Government Clerks
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       The Firm of Nucingen
+       A Man of Business
+       The Middle Classes
+
+     Finot, Andoche
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       The Government Clerks
+       A Start in Life
+       Gaudissart the Great
+       The Firm of Nucingen
+
+     Gaillard, Madame Theodore
+       Jealousies of a Country Town
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       Beatrix
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Gerard, Francois-Pascal-Simon, Baron
+       Beatrix
+
+     Giraud, Leon
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       The Secrets of a Princess
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Giroudeau
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       A Start in Life
+
+     Gobseck, Esther Van
+       Gobseck
+       The Firm of Nucingen
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+
+     Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie
+       Colonel Chabert
+       A Start in Life
+       The Commission in Lunacy
+       The Middle Classes
+       Cousin Pons
+
+     Godeschal, Marie
+       A Start in Life
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       Cousin Pons
+
+     Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de
+       The Gondreville Mystery
+       The Thirteen
+       Modeste Mignon
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+
+     Grandlieu, Mademoiselle de
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+
+     Grassou, Pierre
+       Pierre Grassou
+       Cousin Betty
+       The Middle Classes
+       Cousin Pons
+
+     Gruget, Madame Etienne
+       The Thirteen
+       The Government Clerks
+
+     Haudry (doctor)
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       The Thirteen
+       The Seamy Side of History
+       Cousin Pons
+
+     Lora, Leon de
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+       A Start in Life
+       Pierre Grassou
+       Honorine
+       Cousin Betty
+       Beatrix
+
+     Loraux, Abbe
+       A Start in Life
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       Honorine
+
+     Lousteau, Etienne
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       A Daughter of Eve
+       Beatrix
+       The Muse of the Department
+       Cousin Betty
+       A Prince of Bohemia
+       A Man of Business
+       The Middle Classes
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des
+       The Muse of the Department
+       Eugenie Grandet
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       The Government Clerks
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       Ursule Mirouet
+
+     Magus, Elie
+       The Vendetta
+       A Marriage Settlement
+       Pierre Grassou
+       Cousin Pons
+
+     Matifat (wealthy druggist)
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       The Firm of Nucingen
+       Cousin Pons
+
+     Maufrigneuse, Duc de
+       The Secrets of a Princess
+       A Start in Life
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+
+     Nathan, Madame Raoul
+       The Muse of the Department
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       The Government Clerks
+       Ursule Mirouet
+       Eugenie Grandet
+       The Imaginary Mistress
+       A Prince of Bohemia
+       A Daughter of Eve
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Navarreins, Duc de
+       Colonel Chabert
+       The Muse of the Department
+       The Thirteen
+       Jealousies of a Country Town
+       The Peasantry
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       The Country Parson
+       The Magic Skin
+       The Gondreville Mystery
+       The Secrets of a Princess
+       Cousin Betty
+
+     Rhetore, Duc Alphonse de
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       Letters of Two Brides
+       Albert Savarus
+       The Member for Arcis
+
+     Ridal, Fulgence
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Roguin
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       Eugenie Grandet
+       Pierrette
+       The Vendetta
+
+     Rouget, Jean-Jacques
+       The Muse of the Department
+
+     Schinner, Hippolyte
+       The Purse
+       Pierre Grassou
+       A Start in Life
+       Albert Savarus
+       The Government Clerks
+       Modeste Mignon
+       The Imaginary Mistress
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Serizy, Comte Hugret de
+       A Start in Life
+       Honorine
+       Modeste Mignon
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+
+     Tillet, Ferdinand du
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       The Firm of Nucingen
+       The Middle Classes
+       Pierrette
+       Melmoth Reconciled
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       The Secrets of a Princess
+       A Daughter of Eve
+       The Member for Arcis
+       Cousin Betty
+       The Unconscious Humorists
+
+     Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des
+       Beatrix
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Another Study of Woman
+       A Daughter of Eve
+       Honorine
+       Beatrix
+       The Muse of the Department
+
+     Vernou, Felicien
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
+       A Daughter of Eve
+       Cousin Betty
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Two Brothers, by Honore de Balzac
+
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