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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1475-0.txt b/1475-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1564c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/1475-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,504 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1475 *** + +GAUDISSART II. + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Clara Bell and Others + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame la Princesse Cristina de Belgiojoso, nee Trivulzio. + + + + + +GAUDISSART II. + + +To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell. People generally +do not suspect how much of the stateliness of Paris is due to these +three aspects of the same problem. The brilliant display of shops as +rich as the salons of the noblesse before 1789; the splendors of cafes +which eclipse, and easily eclipse, the Versailles of our day; the +shop-window illusions, new every morning, nightly destroyed; the grace +and elegance of the young men that come in contact with fair customers; +the piquant faces and costumes of young damsels, who cannot fail to +attract the masculine customer; and (and this especially of late) +the length, the vast spaces, the Babylonish luxury of galleries where +shopkeepers acquire a monopoly of the trade in various articles by +bringing them all together,--all this is as nothing. Everything, so far, +has been done to appeal to a single sense, and that the most exacting +and jaded human faculty, a faculty developed ever since the days of the +Roman Empire, until, in our own times, thanks to the efforts of the most +fastidious civilization the world has yet seen, its demands are grown +limitless. That faculty resides in the "eyes of Paris." + +Those eyes require illuminations costing a hundred thousand francs, and +many-colored glass palaces a couple of miles long and sixty feet high; +they must have a fairyland at some fourteen theatres every night, and a +succession of panoramas and exhibitions of the triumphs of art; for them +a whole world of suffering and pain, and a universe of joy, must resolve +through the boulevards or stray through the streets of Paris; for them +encyclopaedias of carnival frippery and a score of illustrated books are +brought out every year, to say nothing of caricatures by the hundred, +and vignettes, lithographs, and prints by the thousand. To please those +eyes, fifteen thousand francs' worth of gas must blaze every night; and, +to conclude, for their delectation the great city yearly spends several +millions of francs in opening up views and planting trees. And even yet +this is as nothing--it is only the material side of the question; in +truth, a mere trifle compared with the expenditure of brain power on the +shifts, worthy of Moliere, invented by some sixty thousand assistants +and forty thousand damsels of the counter, who fasten upon the +customer's purse, much as myriads of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance +crust floating down the river. + +Gaudissart in the mart is at least the equal of his illustrious +namesake, now become the typical commercial traveler. Take him away from +his shop and his line of business, he is like a collapsed balloon; only +among his bales of merchandise do his faculties return, much as an actor +is sublime only upon the boards. A French shopman is better educated +than his fellows in other European countries; he can at need talk +asphalt, Bal Mabille, polkas, literature, illustrated books, railways, +politics, parliament, and revolution; transplant him, take away his +stage, his yardstick, his artificial graces; he is foolish beyond +belief; but on his own boards, on the tight-rope of the counter, as he +displays a shawl with a speech at his tongue's end, and his eye on his +customer, he puts the great Talleyrand into the shade; he is a match for +a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. Talleyrand in his own house would +have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the shop the parts would have been +reversed. + +An incident will illustrate the paradox. + +Two charming duchesses were chatting with the above-mentioned great +diplomatist. The ladies wished for a bracelet; they were waiting for the +arrival of a man from a great Parisian jeweler. A Gaudissart accordingly +appeared with three bracelets of marvelous workmanship. The great ladies +hesitated. Choice is a mental lightning flash; hesitate--there is no +more to be said, you are at fault. Inspiration in matters of taste will +not come twice. At last, after about ten minutes the Prince was called +in. He saw the two duchesses confronting doubt with its thousand facets, +unable to decide between the transcendent merits of two of the trinkets, +for the third had been set aside at once. Without leaving his book, +without a glance at the bracelets, the Prince looked at the jeweler's +assistant. + +"Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" asked he. + +The young man indicated one of the pair. + +"In that case, take the other, you will make two women happy," said the +subtlest of modern diplomatists, "and make your sweetheart happy too, in +my name." + +The two fair ladies smiled, and the young shopman took his departure, +delighted with the Prince's present and the implied compliment to his +taste. + +A woman alights from her splendid carriage before one of the expensive +shops where shawls are sold in the Rue Vivienne. She is not alone; women +almost always go in pairs on these expeditions; always make the round +of half a score of shops before they make up their minds, and laugh +together in the intervals over the little comedies played for their +benefit. Let us see which of the two acts most in character--the fair +customer or the seller, and which has the best of it in such miniature +vaudevilles? + +If you attempt to describe a sale, the central fact of Parisian trade, +you are in duty bound, if you attempt to give the gist of the matter, +to produce a type, and for this purpose a shawl or a chatelaine costing +some three thousand francs is a more exacting purchase than a length of +lawn or dress that costs three hundred. But know, oh foreign visitors +from the Old World and the New (if ever this study of the physiology +of the Invoice should be by you perused), that this selfsame comedy is +played in haberdashers' shops over a barege at two francs or a printed +muslin at four francs the yard. + +And you, princess, or simple citizen's wife, whichever you may be, how +should you distrust that good-looking, very young man, with those frank, +innocent eyes, and a cheek like a peach covered with down? He is dressed +almost as well as your--cousin, let us say. His tones are soft as the +woolen stuffs which he spreads before you. There are three or four more +of his like. One has dark eyes, a decided expression, and an imperial +manner of saying, "This is what you wish"; another, that blue-eyed +youth, diffident of manner and meek of speech, prompts the remark, "Poor +boy! he was not born for business"; a third, with light auburn hair, and +laughing tawny eyes, has all the lively humor, and activity, and gaiety +of the South; while the fourth, he of the tawny red hair and fan-shaped +beard, is rough as a communist, with his portentous cravat, his +sternness, his dignity, and curt speech. + +These varieties of shopmen, corresponding to the principal types of +feminine customers, are arms, as it were, directed by the head, a stout +personage with a full-blown countenance, a partially bald forehead, and +a chest measure befitting a Ministerialist deputy. Occasionally this +person wears the ribbon of the Legion of Honor in recognition of the +manner in which he supports the dignity of the French drapers' wand. +From the comfortable curves of his figure you can see that he has a wife +and family, a country house, and an account with the Bank of France. He +descends like a _deus ex machina_, whenever a tangled problem demands a +swift solution. The feminine purchasers are surrounded on all sides +with urbanity, youth, pleasant manners, smiles, and jests; the most +seeming-simple human products of civilization are here, all sorted in +shades to suit all tastes. + +Just one word as to the natural effects of architecture, optical +science, and house decoration; one short, decisive, terrible word, of +history made on the spot. The work which contains this instructive page +is sold at number 76 Rue de Richelieu, where above an elegant shop, all +white and gold and crimson velvet, there is an entresol into which +the light pours straight from the Rue de Menars, as into a painter's +studio--clean, clear, even daylight. What idler in the streets has not +beheld the Persian, that Asiatic potentate, ruffling it above the door +at the corner of the Rue de la Bourse and the Rue de Richelieu, with a +message to deliver _urbi et orbi_, "Here I reign more tranquilly than at +Lahore"? Perhaps but for this immortal analytical study, archaeologists +might begin to puzzle their heads about him five hundred years hence, +and set about writing quartos with plates (like M. Quatremere's work +on Olympian Jove) to prove that Napoleon was something of a Sofi in the +East before he became "Emperor of the French." Well, the wealthy shop +laid siege to the poor little entresol; and after a bombardment with +banknotes, entered and took possession. The Human Comedy gave way before +the comedy of cashmeres. The Persian sacrificed a diamond or two from +his crown to buy that so necessary daylight; for a ray of sunlight shows +the play of the colors, brings out the charms of a shawl, and doubles +its value; 'tis an irresistible light; literally, a golden ray. From +this fact you may judge how far Paris shops are arranged with a view to +effect. + +But to return to the young assistants, to the beribboned man of forty +whom the King of the French receives at his table, to the red-bearded +head of the department with his autocrat's air. Week by week these +meritus Gaudissarts are brought in contact with whims past counting; +they know every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of +woman. No one, be she lady or lorette, a young mother of a family, a +respectable tradesman's wife, a woman of easy virtue, a duchess or a +brazen-fronted ballet-dancer, an innocent young girl or a too innocent +foreigner, can appear in the shop, but she is watched from the moment +when she first lays her fingers upon the door-handle. Her measure is +taken at a glance by seven or eight men that stand, in the windows, +at the counter, by the door, in a corner, in the middle of the shop, +meditating, to all appearance, on the joys of a bacchanalian Sunday +holiday. As you look at them, you ask yourself involuntarily, "What can +they be thinking about?" Well, in the space of one second, a woman's +purse, wishes, intentions, and whims are ransacked more thoroughly +than a traveling carriage at a frontier in an hour and three-quarters. +Nothing is lost on these intelligent rogues. As they stand, solemn +as noble fathers on the stage, they take in all the details of a +fair customer's dress; an invisible speck of mud on a little shoe, an +antiquated hat-brim, soiled or ill-judged bonnet-strings, the fashion of +the dress, the age of a pair of gloves. They can tell whether the gown +was cut by the intelligent scissors of a Victorine IV.; they know a +modish gewgaw or a trinket from Froment-Meurice. Nothing, in short, +which can reveal a woman's quality, fortune, or character passes +unremarked. + +Tremble before them. Never was the Sanhedrim of Gaudissarts, with +their chief at their head, known to make a mistake. And, moreover, they +communicate their conclusions to one another with telegraphic speed, in +a glance, a smile, the movement of a muscle, a twitch of the lip. If you +watch them, you are reminded of the sudden outbreak of light along +the Champs-Elysees at dusk; one gas-jet does not succeed another more +swiftly than an idea flashes from one shopman's eyes to the next. + +At once, if the lady is English, the dark, mysterious, portentous +Gaudissart advances like a romantic character out of one of Byron's +poems. + +If she is a city madam, the oldest is put forward. He brings out a +hundred shawls in fifteen minutes; he turns her head with colors and +patterns; every shawl that he shows her is like a circle described by a +kite wheeling round a hapless rabbit, till at the end of half an hour, +when her head is swimming and she is utterly incapable of making a +decision for herself, the good lady, meeting with a flattering response +to all her ideas, refers the question to the assistant, who promptly +leaves her on the horns of a dilemma between two equally irresistible +shawls. + +"This, madame, is very becoming--apple-green, the color of the season; +still, fashions change; while as for this other black-and-white shawl +(an opportunity not to be missed), you will never see the end of it, and +it will go with any dress." + +This is the A B C of the trade. + +"You would not believe how much eloquence is wanted in that beastly +line," the head Gaudissart of this particular establishment remarked +quite lately to two acquaintances (Duronceret and Bixiou) who had come +trusting in his judgment to buy a shawl. "Look here; you are artists and +discreet, I can tell you about the governor's tricks, and of all the men +I ever saw, he is the cleverest. I do not mean as a manufacturer, there +M. Fritot is first; but as a salesman. He discovered the 'Selim shawl,' +_an absolutely unsalable_ article, yet we never bring it out but we +sell it. We keep always a shawl worth five or six hundred francs in a +cedar-wood box, perfectly plain outside, but lined with satin. It is +one of the shawls that Selim sent to the Emperor Napoleon. It is our +Imperial Guard; it is brought to the front whenever the day is almost +lost; _il se vend et ne meurt pas_--it sells its life dearly time after +time." + +As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and +appeared in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to +Britain and to all its products which make believe they are alive. The +apparition put you in mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it +walked along, jerkily by fits and starts, in an awkward fashion invented +in London, and cultivated in every family with patriotic care. + +"An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is +our Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels; we +catch them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we join +in the laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit. There +are sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to +their houses, and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an +Englishwoman!--you might as well attack the bronze statue of Louis +Quatorze! That sort of woman turns shopping into an occupation, an +amusement. She quizzes us, forsooth!" + +The romantic assistant came to the front. + +"Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something expensive +or----" + +"I will see." (_Je veraie_.) + +"How much would madame propose----" + +"I will see." + +The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand, +giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said +plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. + +"These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange--all at +ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and others +at three." + +The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with +gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same +scrutiny, and made no sign. + +"Have you any more?" (_Havaivod'hote_?) demanded she. + +"Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a shawl?" + +"Oh, quite decided" (_trei-deycidai_). + +The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out +solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay +attention to all this magnificence!" + +"These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn; +they have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore." + +"Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want." + +The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inward irritation, which +communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool as +a cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor. + +"What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a +pattern of birds nestling in pagodas. + +"Seven thousand francs." + +She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass, and +handed it back again. + +"No, I do not like it at all." (_Je n'ame pouinte_.) + +A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no +purpose. + +"This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the +master as he spoke. + +"Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of the +establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in which +pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The Englishwoman +took up her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from head to foot, +unwilling to understand that the man before her was eligible for +Parliament and dined at the Tuileries. + +"I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It is +not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was thinking +of giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805; it belonged +to the Empress Josephine." + +"Let me see it, monsieur." + +"Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my house." + +"I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady. + +This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of +going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all +the while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers, +sheltering her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses. + +"It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame." + +"Oh!" (_hau_!) + +"It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the +Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my +lady, and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for another +brought by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my predecessor; +but I have never seen the money back. Our ladies in France are not rich +enough; it is not as it is in England. The shawl is worth seven thousand +francs; and taking interest and compound interest altogether, it makes +up fourteen or fifteen thousand by now--" + +"How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman. + +"Here it is, madame." + +With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden _Grune Gewolbe_ +might have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square +cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and +plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl worth +about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow ground, +of which the startling color was only surpassed by the surprising +efforts of the Indian imagination. + +"Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it +is really handsome. Just my ideal" (_ideol_) "of a shawl; it is very +magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the +purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be +very fine. + +"It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took----" + +"A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she +arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the +glass. The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his hands, +smoothed it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt plays on +the pianoforte keys. + +"It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as +possible. + +Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The shawl +is sold," they thought. + +"Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared to +be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged. + +"Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (_une voteure_). + +All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as one +man, as if an electric shock had gone through them. + +"I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with unshaken +composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess Narzicof; +she left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame would like +to see it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not been in use +altogether for ten days; there is not its like in Paris." + +The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration. + +"I am quite willing." + +"If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can try +the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves. + +"How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his +employer offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the +jobbed brougham. + +By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter of +a novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional interest +attached to all contests, however trifling, between England and France. + +Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned. + +"Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take an +invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to take." + +"How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of +invoices. + +"Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be +conspicuous. As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she said, +'Keep your carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take the +shawl.' While M. Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking assistant) +was serving, I watched her carefully; she kept one eye on you all the +time to see what you thought of her; she was thinking more about you +than of the shawls. Englishwomen are peculiar in their _distaste_ (for +one cannot call it taste); they do not know what they want; they make up +their minds to be guided by circumstances at the time, and not by their +own choice. I saw the kind of woman at once, tired of her husband, tired +of her brats, regretfully virtuous, craving excitement, always posing as +a weeping willow...." + +These were his very words. + +Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is +a shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a +student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or +angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be +M. Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or +a member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the +Commercial Court. + +"M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the +slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another +cedar-wood box." + +"And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou +to choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "_now_ we will go through our old +stock to find another Selim shawl." + + +PARIS, November 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + 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 + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + + Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Jealousies of a Country Town + Beatrix + + Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Letters of Two Brides + + Victorine + Massimilla Doni + Lost Illusions + Letters of Two Brides + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gaudissart II, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1475 *** diff --git a/1475-h/1475-h.htm b/1475-h/1475-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c5d5c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/1475-h/1475-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,647 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Gaudissart II., by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1475 ***</div> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + GAUDISSART II. + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Clara Bell and Others + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + DEDICATION<br /><br /> To Madame la Princesse Cristina de Belgiojoso, nee + Trivulzio.<br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> GAUDISSART II. </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + GAUDISSART II. + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell. People generally do + not suspect how much of the stateliness of Paris is due to these three + aspects of the same problem. The brilliant display of shops as rich as the + salons of the noblesse before 1789; the splendors of cafes which eclipse, + and easily eclipse, the Versailles of our day; the shop-window illusions, + new every morning, nightly destroyed; the grace and elegance of the young + men that come in contact with fair customers; the piquant faces and + costumes of young damsels, who cannot fail to attract the masculine + customer; and (and this especially of late) the length, the vast spaces, + the Babylonish luxury of galleries where shopkeepers acquire a monopoly of + the trade in various articles by bringing them all together,—all + this is as nothing. Everything, so far, has been done to appeal to a + single sense, and that the most exacting and jaded human faculty, a + faculty developed ever since the days of the Roman Empire, until, in our + own times, thanks to the efforts of the most fastidious civilization the + world has yet seen, its demands are grown limitless. That faculty resides + in the "eyes of Paris." + </p> + <p> + Those eyes require illuminations costing a hundred thousand francs, and + many-colored glass palaces a couple of miles long and sixty feet high; + they must have a fairyland at some fourteen theatres every night, and a + succession of panoramas and exhibitions of the triumphs of art; for them a + whole world of suffering and pain, and a universe of joy, must resolve + through the boulevards or stray through the streets of Paris; for them + encyclopaedias of carnival frippery and a score of illustrated books are + brought out every year, to say nothing of caricatures by the hundred, and + vignettes, lithographs, and prints by the thousand. To please those eyes, + fifteen thousand francs' worth of gas must blaze every night; and, to + conclude, for their delectation the great city yearly spends several + millions of francs in opening up views and planting trees. And even yet + this is as nothing—it is only the material side of the question; in + truth, a mere trifle compared with the expenditure of brain power on the + shifts, worthy of Moliere, invented by some sixty thousand assistants and + forty thousand damsels of the counter, who fasten upon the customer's + purse, much as myriads of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance crust + floating down the river. + </p> + <p> + Gaudissart in the mart is at least the equal of his illustrious namesake, + now become the typical commercial traveler. Take him away from his shop + and his line of business, he is like a collapsed balloon; only among his + bales of merchandise do his faculties return, much as an actor is sublime + only upon the boards. A French shopman is better educated than his fellows + in other European countries; he can at need talk asphalt, Bal Mabille, + polkas, literature, illustrated books, railways, politics, parliament, and + revolution; transplant him, take away his stage, his yardstick, his + artificial graces; he is foolish beyond belief; but on his own boards, on + the tight-rope of the counter, as he displays a shawl with a speech at his + tongue's end, and his eye on his customer, he puts the great Talleyrand + into the shade; he is a match for a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. + Talleyrand in his own house would have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the + shop the parts would have been reversed. + </p> + <p> + An incident will illustrate the paradox. + </p> + <p> + Two charming duchesses were chatting with the above-mentioned great + diplomatist. The ladies wished for a bracelet; they were waiting for the + arrival of a man from a great Parisian jeweler. A Gaudissart accordingly + appeared with three bracelets of marvelous workmanship. The great ladies + hesitated. Choice is a mental lightning flash; hesitate—there is no + more to be said, you are at fault. Inspiration in matters of taste will + not come twice. At last, after about ten minutes the Prince was called in. + He saw the two duchesses confronting doubt with its thousand facets, + unable to decide between the transcendent merits of two of the trinkets, + for the third had been set aside at once. Without leaving his book, + without a glance at the bracelets, the Prince looked at the jeweler's + assistant. + </p> + <p> + "Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" asked he. + </p> + <p> + The young man indicated one of the pair. + </p> + <p> + "In that case, take the other, you will make two women happy," said the + subtlest of modern diplomatists, "and make your sweetheart happy too, in + my name." + </p> + <p> + The two fair ladies smiled, and the young shopman took his departure, + delighted with the Prince's present and the implied compliment to his + taste. + </p> + <p> + A woman alights from her splendid carriage before one of the expensive + shops where shawls are sold in the Rue Vivienne. She is not alone; women + almost always go in pairs on these expeditions; always make the round of + half a score of shops before they make up their minds, and laugh together + in the intervals over the little comedies played for their benefit. Let us + see which of the two acts most in character—the fair customer or the + seller, and which has the best of it in such miniature vaudevilles? + </p> + <p> + If you attempt to describe a sale, the central fact of Parisian trade, you + are in duty bound, if you attempt to give the gist of the matter, to + produce a type, and for this purpose a shawl or a chatelaine costing some + three thousand francs is a more exacting purchase than a length of lawn or + dress that costs three hundred. But know, oh foreign visitors from the Old + World and the New (if ever this study of the physiology of the Invoice + should be by you perused), that this selfsame comedy is played in + haberdashers' shops over a barege at two francs or a printed muslin at + four francs the yard. + </p> + <p> + And you, princess, or simple citizen's wife, whichever you may be, how + should you distrust that good-looking, very young man, with those frank, + innocent eyes, and a cheek like a peach covered with down? He is dressed + almost as well as your—cousin, let us say. His tones are soft as the + woolen stuffs which he spreads before you. There are three or four more of + his like. One has dark eyes, a decided expression, and an imperial manner + of saying, "This is what you wish"; another, that blue-eyed youth, + diffident of manner and meek of speech, prompts the remark, "Poor boy! he + was not born for business"; a third, with light auburn hair, and laughing + tawny eyes, has all the lively humor, and activity, and gaiety of the + South; while the fourth, he of the tawny red hair and fan-shaped beard, is + rough as a communist, with his portentous cravat, his sternness, his + dignity, and curt speech. + </p> + <p> + These varieties of shopmen, corresponding to the principal types of + feminine customers, are arms, as it were, directed by the head, a stout + personage with a full-blown countenance, a partially bald forehead, and a + chest measure befitting a Ministerialist deputy. Occasionally this person + wears the ribbon of the Legion of Honor in recognition of the manner in + which he supports the dignity of the French drapers' wand. From the + comfortable curves of his figure you can see that he has a wife and + family, a country house, and an account with the Bank of France. He + descends like a <i>deus ex machina</i>, whenever a tangled problem demands + a swift solution. The feminine purchasers are surrounded on all sides with + urbanity, youth, pleasant manners, smiles, and jests; the most + seeming-simple human products of civilization are here, all sorted in + shades to suit all tastes. + </p> + <p> + Just one word as to the natural effects of architecture, optical science, + and house decoration; one short, decisive, terrible word, of history made + on the spot. The work which contains this instructive page is sold at + number 76 Rue de Richelieu, where above an elegant shop, all white and + gold and crimson velvet, there is an entresol into which the light pours + straight from the Rue de Menars, as into a painter's studio—clean, + clear, even daylight. What idler in the streets has not beheld the + Persian, that Asiatic potentate, ruffling it above the door at the corner + of the Rue de la Bourse and the Rue de Richelieu, with a message to + deliver <i>urbi et orbi</i>, "Here I reign more tranquilly than at + Lahore"? Perhaps but for this immortal analytical study, archaeologists + might begin to puzzle their heads about him five hundred years hence, and + set about writing quartos with plates (like M. Quatremere's work on + Olympian Jove) to prove that Napoleon was something of a Sofi in the East + before he became "Emperor of the French." Well, the wealthy shop laid + siege to the poor little entresol; and after a bombardment with banknotes, + entered and took possession. The Human Comedy gave way before the comedy + of cashmeres. The Persian sacrificed a diamond or two from his crown to + buy that so necessary daylight; for a ray of sunlight shows the play of + the colors, brings out the charms of a shawl, and doubles its value; 'tis + an irresistible light; literally, a golden ray. From this fact you may + judge how far Paris shops are arranged with a view to effect. + </p> + <p> + But to return to the young assistants, to the beribboned man of forty whom + the King of the French receives at his table, to the red-bearded head of + the department with his autocrat's air. Week by week these meritus + Gaudissarts are brought in contact with whims past counting; they know + every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of woman. No one, be + she lady or lorette, a young mother of a family, a respectable tradesman's + wife, a woman of easy virtue, a duchess or a brazen-fronted ballet-dancer, + an innocent young girl or a too innocent foreigner, can appear in the + shop, but she is watched from the moment when she first lays her fingers + upon the door-handle. Her measure is taken at a glance by seven or eight + men that stand, in the windows, at the counter, by the door, in a corner, + in the middle of the shop, meditating, to all appearance, on the joys of a + bacchanalian Sunday holiday. As you look at them, you ask yourself + involuntarily, "What can they be thinking about?" Well, in the space of + one second, a woman's purse, wishes, intentions, and whims are ransacked + more thoroughly than a traveling carriage at a frontier in an hour and + three-quarters. Nothing is lost on these intelligent rogues. As they + stand, solemn as noble fathers on the stage, they take in all the details + of a fair customer's dress; an invisible speck of mud on a little shoe, an + antiquated hat-brim, soiled or ill-judged bonnet-strings, the fashion of + the dress, the age of a pair of gloves. They can tell whether the gown was + cut by the intelligent scissors of a Victorine IV.; they know a modish + gewgaw or a trinket from Froment-Meurice. Nothing, in short, which can + reveal a woman's quality, fortune, or character passes unremarked. + </p> + <p> + Tremble before them. Never was the Sanhedrim of Gaudissarts, with their + chief at their head, known to make a mistake. And, moreover, they + communicate their conclusions to one another with telegraphic speed, in a + glance, a smile, the movement of a muscle, a twitch of the lip. If you + watch them, you are reminded of the sudden outbreak of light along the + Champs-Elysees at dusk; one gas-jet does not succeed another more swiftly + than an idea flashes from one shopman's eyes to the next. + </p> + <p> + At once, if the lady is English, the dark, mysterious, portentous + Gaudissart advances like a romantic character out of one of Byron's poems. + </p> + <p> + If she is a city madam, the oldest is put forward. He brings out a hundred + shawls in fifteen minutes; he turns her head with colors and patterns; + every shawl that he shows her is like a circle described by a kite + wheeling round a hapless rabbit, till at the end of half an hour, when her + head is swimming and she is utterly incapable of making a decision for + herself, the good lady, meeting with a flattering response to all her + ideas, refers the question to the assistant, who promptly leaves her on + the horns of a dilemma between two equally irresistible shawls. + </p> + <p> + "This, madame, is very becoming—apple-green, the color of the + season; still, fashions change; while as for this other black-and-white + shawl (an opportunity not to be missed), you will never see the end of it, + and it will go with any dress." + </p> + <p> + This is the A B C of the trade. + </p> + <p> + "You would not believe how much eloquence is wanted in that beastly line," + the head Gaudissart of this particular establishment remarked quite lately + to two acquaintances (Duronceret and Bixiou) who had come trusting in his + judgment to buy a shawl. "Look here; you are artists and discreet, I can + tell you about the governor's tricks, and of all the men I ever saw, he is + the cleverest. I do not mean as a manufacturer, there M. Fritot is first; + but as a salesman. He discovered the 'Selim shawl,' <i>an absolutely + unsalable</i> article, yet we never bring it out but we sell it. We keep + always a shawl worth five or six hundred francs in a cedar-wood box, + perfectly plain outside, but lined with satin. It is one of the shawls + that Selim sent to the Emperor Napoleon. It is our Imperial Guard; it is + brought to the front whenever the day is almost lost; <i>il se vend et ne + meurt pas</i>—it sells its life dearly time after time." + </p> + <p> + As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and appeared + in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to Britain and to all + its products which make believe they are alive. The apparition put you in + mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it walked along, jerkily by + fits and starts, in an awkward fashion invented in London, and cultivated + in every family with patriotic care. + </p> + <p> + "An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is our + Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels; we catch + them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we join in the + laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit. There are + sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to their houses, + and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an Englishwoman!—you + might as well attack the bronze statue of Louis Quatorze! That sort of + woman turns shopping into an occupation, an amusement. She quizzes us, + forsooth!" + </p> + <p> + The romantic assistant came to the front. + </p> + <p> + "Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something expensive or——" + </p> + <p> + "I will see." (<i>Je veraie</i>.) + </p> + <p> + "How much would madame propose——" + </p> + <p> + "I will see." + </p> + <p> + The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand, + giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said + plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. + </p> + <p> + "These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange—all + at ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and + others at three." + </p> + <p> + The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with + gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same + scrutiny, and made no sign. + </p> + <p> + "Have you any more?" (<i>Havaivod'hote</i>?) demanded she. + </p> + <p> + "Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a shawl?" + </p> + <p> + "Oh, quite decided" (<i>trei-deycidai</i>). + </p> + <p> + The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out + solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay + attention to all this magnificence!" + </p> + <p> + "These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn; they + have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore." + </p> + <p> + "Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want." + </p> + <p> + The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inward irritation, which + communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool as a + cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor. + </p> + <p> + "What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a + pattern of birds nestling in pagodas. + </p> + <p> + "Seven thousand francs." + </p> + <p> + She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass, and + handed it back again. + </p> + <p> + "No, I do not like it at all." (<i>Je n'ame pouinte</i>.) + </p> + <p> + A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no + purpose. + </p> + <p> + "This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the master + as he spoke. + </p> + <p> + "Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of the + establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in which + pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The Englishwoman took up + her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from head to foot, unwilling to + understand that the man before her was eligible for Parliament and dined + at the Tuileries. + </p> + <p> + "I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It is + not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was thinking of + giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805; it belonged to + the Empress Josephine." + </p> + <p> + "Let me see it, monsieur." + </p> + <p> + "Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my house." + </p> + <p> + "I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady. + </p> + <p> + This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of + going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all the + while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers, sheltering + her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses. + </p> + <p> + "It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame." + </p> + <p> + "Oh!" (<i>hau</i>!) + </p> + <p> + "It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the + Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my lady, + and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for another brought + by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my predecessor; but I have + never seen the money back. Our ladies in France are not rich enough; it is + not as it is in England. The shawl is worth seven thousand francs; and + taking interest and compound interest altogether, it makes up fourteen or + fifteen thousand by now—" + </p> + <p> + "How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman. + </p> + <p> + "Here it is, madame." + </p> + <p> + With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden <i>Grune Gewolbe</i> + might have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square + cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and + plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl worth + about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow ground, + of which the startling color was only surpassed by the surprising efforts + of the Indian imagination. + </p> + <p> + "Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it is + really handsome. Just my ideal" (<i>ideol</i>) "of a shawl; it is very + magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the + purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be very + fine. + </p> + <p> + "It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took——" + </p> + <p> + "A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she + arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the glass. + The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his hands, smoothed + it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt plays on the + pianoforte keys. + </p> + <p> + "It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as + possible. + </p> + <p> + Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The shawl + is sold," they thought. + </p> + <p> + "Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared to + be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged. + </p> + <p> + "Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (<i>une voteure</i>). + </p> + <p> + All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as one + man, as if an electric shock had gone through them. + </p> + <p> + "I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with unshaken + composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess Narzicof; she + left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame would like to see + it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not been in use altogether + for ten days; there is not its like in Paris." + </p> + <p> + The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration. + </p> + <p> + "I am quite willing." + </p> + <p> + "If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can try + the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves. + </p> + <p> + "How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his employer + offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the jobbed + brougham. + </p> + <p> + By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter of a + novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional interest + attached to all contests, however trifling, between England and France. + </p> + <p> + Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned. + </p> + <p> + "Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take an + invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to take." + </p> + <p> + "How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of invoices. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be conspicuous. + As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she said, 'Keep your + carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take the shawl.' While M. + Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking assistant) was serving, I + watched her carefully; she kept one eye on you all the time to see what + you thought of her; she was thinking more about you than of the shawls. + Englishwomen are peculiar in their <i>distaste</i> (for one cannot call it + taste); they do not know what they want; they make up their minds to be + guided by circumstances at the time, and not by their own choice. I saw + the kind of woman at once, tired of her husband, tired of her brats, + regretfully virtuous, craving excitement, always posing as a weeping + willow...." + </p> + <p> + These were his very words. + </p> + <p> + Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is a + shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a + student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or + angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be M. + Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or a + member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the Commercial + Court. + </p> + <p> + "M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the + slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another + cedar-wood box." + </p> + <p> + "And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou to + choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "<i>now</i> we will go through our old + stock to find another Selim shawl." + </p> + <p> + PARIS, November 1844. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + 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 + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + + Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Jealousies of a Country Town + Beatrix + + Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Letters of Two Brides + + Victorine + Massimilla Doni + Lost Illusions + Letters of Two Brides +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1475 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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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: Gaudissart II + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and Others + +Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #1475] +Last Updated: April 3, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAUDISSART II *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + GAUDISSART II. + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Clara Bell and Others + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + DEDICATION<br /><br /> To Madame la Princesse Cristina de Belgiojoso, nee + Trivulzio.<br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> GAUDISSART II. </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + GAUDISSART II. + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell. People generally do + not suspect how much of the stateliness of Paris is due to these three + aspects of the same problem. The brilliant display of shops as rich as the + salons of the noblesse before 1789; the splendors of cafes which eclipse, + and easily eclipse, the Versailles of our day; the shop-window illusions, + new every morning, nightly destroyed; the grace and elegance of the young + men that come in contact with fair customers; the piquant faces and + costumes of young damsels, who cannot fail to attract the masculine + customer; and (and this especially of late) the length, the vast spaces, + the Babylonish luxury of galleries where shopkeepers acquire a monopoly of + the trade in various articles by bringing them all together,—all + this is as nothing. Everything, so far, has been done to appeal to a + single sense, and that the most exacting and jaded human faculty, a + faculty developed ever since the days of the Roman Empire, until, in our + own times, thanks to the efforts of the most fastidious civilization the + world has yet seen, its demands are grown limitless. That faculty resides + in the "eyes of Paris." + </p> + <p> + Those eyes require illuminations costing a hundred thousand francs, and + many-colored glass palaces a couple of miles long and sixty feet high; + they must have a fairyland at some fourteen theatres every night, and a + succession of panoramas and exhibitions of the triumphs of art; for them a + whole world of suffering and pain, and a universe of joy, must resolve + through the boulevards or stray through the streets of Paris; for them + encyclopaedias of carnival frippery and a score of illustrated books are + brought out every year, to say nothing of caricatures by the hundred, and + vignettes, lithographs, and prints by the thousand. To please those eyes, + fifteen thousand francs' worth of gas must blaze every night; and, to + conclude, for their delectation the great city yearly spends several + millions of francs in opening up views and planting trees. And even yet + this is as nothing—it is only the material side of the question; in + truth, a mere trifle compared with the expenditure of brain power on the + shifts, worthy of Moliere, invented by some sixty thousand assistants and + forty thousand damsels of the counter, who fasten upon the customer's + purse, much as myriads of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance crust + floating down the river. + </p> + <p> + Gaudissart in the mart is at least the equal of his illustrious namesake, + now become the typical commercial traveler. Take him away from his shop + and his line of business, he is like a collapsed balloon; only among his + bales of merchandise do his faculties return, much as an actor is sublime + only upon the boards. A French shopman is better educated than his fellows + in other European countries; he can at need talk asphalt, Bal Mabille, + polkas, literature, illustrated books, railways, politics, parliament, and + revolution; transplant him, take away his stage, his yardstick, his + artificial graces; he is foolish beyond belief; but on his own boards, on + the tight-rope of the counter, as he displays a shawl with a speech at his + tongue's end, and his eye on his customer, he puts the great Talleyrand + into the shade; he is a match for a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. + Talleyrand in his own house would have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the + shop the parts would have been reversed. + </p> + <p> + An incident will illustrate the paradox. + </p> + <p> + Two charming duchesses were chatting with the above-mentioned great + diplomatist. The ladies wished for a bracelet; they were waiting for the + arrival of a man from a great Parisian jeweler. A Gaudissart accordingly + appeared with three bracelets of marvelous workmanship. The great ladies + hesitated. Choice is a mental lightning flash; hesitate—there is no + more to be said, you are at fault. Inspiration in matters of taste will + not come twice. At last, after about ten minutes the Prince was called in. + He saw the two duchesses confronting doubt with its thousand facets, + unable to decide between the transcendent merits of two of the trinkets, + for the third had been set aside at once. Without leaving his book, + without a glance at the bracelets, the Prince looked at the jeweler's + assistant. + </p> + <p> + "Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" asked he. + </p> + <p> + The young man indicated one of the pair. + </p> + <p> + "In that case, take the other, you will make two women happy," said the + subtlest of modern diplomatists, "and make your sweetheart happy too, in + my name." + </p> + <p> + The two fair ladies smiled, and the young shopman took his departure, + delighted with the Prince's present and the implied compliment to his + taste. + </p> + <p> + A woman alights from her splendid carriage before one of the expensive + shops where shawls are sold in the Rue Vivienne. She is not alone; women + almost always go in pairs on these expeditions; always make the round of + half a score of shops before they make up their minds, and laugh together + in the intervals over the little comedies played for their benefit. Let us + see which of the two acts most in character—the fair customer or the + seller, and which has the best of it in such miniature vaudevilles? + </p> + <p> + If you attempt to describe a sale, the central fact of Parisian trade, you + are in duty bound, if you attempt to give the gist of the matter, to + produce a type, and for this purpose a shawl or a chatelaine costing some + three thousand francs is a more exacting purchase than a length of lawn or + dress that costs three hundred. But know, oh foreign visitors from the Old + World and the New (if ever this study of the physiology of the Invoice + should be by you perused), that this selfsame comedy is played in + haberdashers' shops over a barege at two francs or a printed muslin at + four francs the yard. + </p> + <p> + And you, princess, or simple citizen's wife, whichever you may be, how + should you distrust that good-looking, very young man, with those frank, + innocent eyes, and a cheek like a peach covered with down? He is dressed + almost as well as your—cousin, let us say. His tones are soft as the + woolen stuffs which he spreads before you. There are three or four more of + his like. One has dark eyes, a decided expression, and an imperial manner + of saying, "This is what you wish"; another, that blue-eyed youth, + diffident of manner and meek of speech, prompts the remark, "Poor boy! he + was not born for business"; a third, with light auburn hair, and laughing + tawny eyes, has all the lively humor, and activity, and gaiety of the + South; while the fourth, he of the tawny red hair and fan-shaped beard, is + rough as a communist, with his portentous cravat, his sternness, his + dignity, and curt speech. + </p> + <p> + These varieties of shopmen, corresponding to the principal types of + feminine customers, are arms, as it were, directed by the head, a stout + personage with a full-blown countenance, a partially bald forehead, and a + chest measure befitting a Ministerialist deputy. Occasionally this person + wears the ribbon of the Legion of Honor in recognition of the manner in + which he supports the dignity of the French drapers' wand. From the + comfortable curves of his figure you can see that he has a wife and + family, a country house, and an account with the Bank of France. He + descends like a <i>deus ex machina</i>, whenever a tangled problem demands + a swift solution. The feminine purchasers are surrounded on all sides with + urbanity, youth, pleasant manners, smiles, and jests; the most + seeming-simple human products of civilization are here, all sorted in + shades to suit all tastes. + </p> + <p> + Just one word as to the natural effects of architecture, optical science, + and house decoration; one short, decisive, terrible word, of history made + on the spot. The work which contains this instructive page is sold at + number 76 Rue de Richelieu, where above an elegant shop, all white and + gold and crimson velvet, there is an entresol into which the light pours + straight from the Rue de Menars, as into a painter's studio—clean, + clear, even daylight. What idler in the streets has not beheld the + Persian, that Asiatic potentate, ruffling it above the door at the corner + of the Rue de la Bourse and the Rue de Richelieu, with a message to + deliver <i>urbi et orbi</i>, "Here I reign more tranquilly than at + Lahore"? Perhaps but for this immortal analytical study, archaeologists + might begin to puzzle their heads about him five hundred years hence, and + set about writing quartos with plates (like M. Quatremere's work on + Olympian Jove) to prove that Napoleon was something of a Sofi in the East + before he became "Emperor of the French." Well, the wealthy shop laid + siege to the poor little entresol; and after a bombardment with banknotes, + entered and took possession. The Human Comedy gave way before the comedy + of cashmeres. The Persian sacrificed a diamond or two from his crown to + buy that so necessary daylight; for a ray of sunlight shows the play of + the colors, brings out the charms of a shawl, and doubles its value; 'tis + an irresistible light; literally, a golden ray. From this fact you may + judge how far Paris shops are arranged with a view to effect. + </p> + <p> + But to return to the young assistants, to the beribboned man of forty whom + the King of the French receives at his table, to the red-bearded head of + the department with his autocrat's air. Week by week these meritus + Gaudissarts are brought in contact with whims past counting; they know + every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of woman. No one, be + she lady or lorette, a young mother of a family, a respectable tradesman's + wife, a woman of easy virtue, a duchess or a brazen-fronted ballet-dancer, + an innocent young girl or a too innocent foreigner, can appear in the + shop, but she is watched from the moment when she first lays her fingers + upon the door-handle. Her measure is taken at a glance by seven or eight + men that stand, in the windows, at the counter, by the door, in a corner, + in the middle of the shop, meditating, to all appearance, on the joys of a + bacchanalian Sunday holiday. As you look at them, you ask yourself + involuntarily, "What can they be thinking about?" Well, in the space of + one second, a woman's purse, wishes, intentions, and whims are ransacked + more thoroughly than a traveling carriage at a frontier in an hour and + three-quarters. Nothing is lost on these intelligent rogues. As they + stand, solemn as noble fathers on the stage, they take in all the details + of a fair customer's dress; an invisible speck of mud on a little shoe, an + antiquated hat-brim, soiled or ill-judged bonnet-strings, the fashion of + the dress, the age of a pair of gloves. They can tell whether the gown was + cut by the intelligent scissors of a Victorine IV.; they know a modish + gewgaw or a trinket from Froment-Meurice. Nothing, in short, which can + reveal a woman's quality, fortune, or character passes unremarked. + </p> + <p> + Tremble before them. Never was the Sanhedrim of Gaudissarts, with their + chief at their head, known to make a mistake. And, moreover, they + communicate their conclusions to one another with telegraphic speed, in a + glance, a smile, the movement of a muscle, a twitch of the lip. If you + watch them, you are reminded of the sudden outbreak of light along the + Champs-Elysees at dusk; one gas-jet does not succeed another more swiftly + than an idea flashes from one shopman's eyes to the next. + </p> + <p> + At once, if the lady is English, the dark, mysterious, portentous + Gaudissart advances like a romantic character out of one of Byron's poems. + </p> + <p> + If she is a city madam, the oldest is put forward. He brings out a hundred + shawls in fifteen minutes; he turns her head with colors and patterns; + every shawl that he shows her is like a circle described by a kite + wheeling round a hapless rabbit, till at the end of half an hour, when her + head is swimming and she is utterly incapable of making a decision for + herself, the good lady, meeting with a flattering response to all her + ideas, refers the question to the assistant, who promptly leaves her on + the horns of a dilemma between two equally irresistible shawls. + </p> + <p> + "This, madame, is very becoming—apple-green, the color of the + season; still, fashions change; while as for this other black-and-white + shawl (an opportunity not to be missed), you will never see the end of it, + and it will go with any dress." + </p> + <p> + This is the A B C of the trade. + </p> + <p> + "You would not believe how much eloquence is wanted in that beastly line," + the head Gaudissart of this particular establishment remarked quite lately + to two acquaintances (Duronceret and Bixiou) who had come trusting in his + judgment to buy a shawl. "Look here; you are artists and discreet, I can + tell you about the governor's tricks, and of all the men I ever saw, he is + the cleverest. I do not mean as a manufacturer, there M. Fritot is first; + but as a salesman. He discovered the 'Selim shawl,' <i>an absolutely + unsalable</i> article, yet we never bring it out but we sell it. We keep + always a shawl worth five or six hundred francs in a cedar-wood box, + perfectly plain outside, but lined with satin. It is one of the shawls + that Selim sent to the Emperor Napoleon. It is our Imperial Guard; it is + brought to the front whenever the day is almost lost; <i>il se vend et ne + meurt pas</i>—it sells its life dearly time after time." + </p> + <p> + As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and appeared + in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to Britain and to all + its products which make believe they are alive. The apparition put you in + mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it walked along, jerkily by + fits and starts, in an awkward fashion invented in London, and cultivated + in every family with patriotic care. + </p> + <p> + "An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is our + Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels; we catch + them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we join in the + laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit. There are + sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to their houses, + and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an Englishwoman!—you + might as well attack the bronze statue of Louis Quatorze! That sort of + woman turns shopping into an occupation, an amusement. She quizzes us, + forsooth!" + </p> + <p> + The romantic assistant came to the front. + </p> + <p> + "Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something expensive or——" + </p> + <p> + "I will see." (<i>Je veraie</i>.) + </p> + <p> + "How much would madame propose——" + </p> + <p> + "I will see." + </p> + <p> + The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand, + giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said + plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. + </p> + <p> + "These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange—all + at ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and + others at three." + </p> + <p> + The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with + gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same + scrutiny, and made no sign. + </p> + <p> + "Have you any more?" (<i>Havaivod'hote</i>?) demanded she. + </p> + <p> + "Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a shawl?" + </p> + <p> + "Oh, quite decided" (<i>trei-deycidai</i>). + </p> + <p> + The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out + solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay + attention to all this magnificence!" + </p> + <p> + "These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn; they + have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore." + </p> + <p> + "Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want." + </p> + <p> + The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inward irritation, which + communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool as a + cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor. + </p> + <p> + "What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a + pattern of birds nestling in pagodas. + </p> + <p> + "Seven thousand francs." + </p> + <p> + She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass, and + handed it back again. + </p> + <p> + "No, I do not like it at all." (<i>Je n'ame pouinte</i>.) + </p> + <p> + A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no + purpose. + </p> + <p> + "This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the master + as he spoke. + </p> + <p> + "Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of the + establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in which + pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The Englishwoman took up + her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from head to foot, unwilling to + understand that the man before her was eligible for Parliament and dined + at the Tuileries. + </p> + <p> + "I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It is + not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was thinking of + giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805; it belonged to + the Empress Josephine." + </p> + <p> + "Let me see it, monsieur." + </p> + <p> + "Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my house." + </p> + <p> + "I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady. + </p> + <p> + This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of + going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all the + while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers, sheltering + her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses. + </p> + <p> + "It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame." + </p> + <p> + "Oh!" (<i>hau</i>!) + </p> + <p> + "It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the + Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my lady, + and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for another brought + by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my predecessor; but I have + never seen the money back. Our ladies in France are not rich enough; it is + not as it is in England. The shawl is worth seven thousand francs; and + taking interest and compound interest altogether, it makes up fourteen or + fifteen thousand by now—" + </p> + <p> + "How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman. + </p> + <p> + "Here it is, madame." + </p> + <p> + With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden <i>Grune Gewolbe</i> + might have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square + cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and + plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl worth + about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow ground, + of which the startling color was only surpassed by the surprising efforts + of the Indian imagination. + </p> + <p> + "Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it is + really handsome. Just my ideal" (<i>ideol</i>) "of a shawl; it is very + magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the + purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be very + fine. + </p> + <p> + "It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took——" + </p> + <p> + "A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she + arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the glass. + The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his hands, smoothed + it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt plays on the + pianoforte keys. + </p> + <p> + "It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as + possible. + </p> + <p> + Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The shawl + is sold," they thought. + </p> + <p> + "Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared to + be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged. + </p> + <p> + "Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (<i>une voteure</i>). + </p> + <p> + All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as one + man, as if an electric shock had gone through them. + </p> + <p> + "I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with unshaken + composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess Narzicof; she + left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame would like to see + it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not been in use altogether + for ten days; there is not its like in Paris." + </p> + <p> + The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration. + </p> + <p> + "I am quite willing." + </p> + <p> + "If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can try + the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves. + </p> + <p> + "How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his employer + offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the jobbed + brougham. + </p> + <p> + By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter of a + novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional interest + attached to all contests, however trifling, between England and France. + </p> + <p> + Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned. + </p> + <p> + "Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take an + invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to take." + </p> + <p> + "How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of invoices. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be conspicuous. + As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she said, 'Keep your + carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take the shawl.' While M. + Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking assistant) was serving, I + watched her carefully; she kept one eye on you all the time to see what + you thought of her; she was thinking more about you than of the shawls. + Englishwomen are peculiar in their <i>distaste</i> (for one cannot call it + taste); they do not know what they want; they make up their minds to be + guided by circumstances at the time, and not by their own choice. I saw + the kind of woman at once, tired of her husband, tired of her brats, + regretfully virtuous, craving excitement, always posing as a weeping + willow...." + </p> + <p> + These were his very words. + </p> + <p> + Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is a + shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a + student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or + angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be M. + Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or a + member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the Commercial + Court. + </p> + <p> + "M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the + slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another + cedar-wood box." + </p> + <p> + "And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou to + choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "<i>now</i> we will go through our old + stock to find another Selim shawl." + </p> + <p> + PARIS, November 1844. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + 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 + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + + Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Jealousies of a Country Town + Beatrix + + Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Letters of Two Brides + + Victorine + Massimilla Doni + Lost Illusions + Letters of Two Brides +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gaudissart II, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAUDISSART II *** + +***** This file should be named 1475-h.htm or 1475-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/7/1475/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Gaudissart II + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and Others + +Release Date: September, 1998 [Etext #1475] +Posting Date: February 25, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAUDISSART II *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +GAUDISSART II. + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Clara Bell and Others + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame la Princesse Cristina de Belgiojoso, nee Trivulzio. + + + + + +GAUDISSART II. + + +To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell. People generally +do not suspect how much of the stateliness of Paris is due to these +three aspects of the same problem. The brilliant display of shops as +rich as the salons of the noblesse before 1789; the splendors of cafes +which eclipse, and easily eclipse, the Versailles of our day; the +shop-window illusions, new every morning, nightly destroyed; the grace +and elegance of the young men that come in contact with fair customers; +the piquant faces and costumes of young damsels, who cannot fail to +attract the masculine customer; and (and this especially of late) +the length, the vast spaces, the Babylonish luxury of galleries where +shopkeepers acquire a monopoly of the trade in various articles by +bringing them all together,--all this is as nothing. Everything, so far, +has been done to appeal to a single sense, and that the most exacting +and jaded human faculty, a faculty developed ever since the days of the +Roman Empire, until, in our own times, thanks to the efforts of the most +fastidious civilization the world has yet seen, its demands are grown +limitless. That faculty resides in the "eyes of Paris." + +Those eyes require illuminations costing a hundred thousand francs, and +many-colored glass palaces a couple of miles long and sixty feet high; +they must have a fairyland at some fourteen theatres every night, and a +succession of panoramas and exhibitions of the triumphs of art; for them +a whole world of suffering and pain, and a universe of joy, must resolve +through the boulevards or stray through the streets of Paris; for them +encyclopaedias of carnival frippery and a score of illustrated books are +brought out every year, to say nothing of caricatures by the hundred, +and vignettes, lithographs, and prints by the thousand. To please those +eyes, fifteen thousand francs' worth of gas must blaze every night; and, +to conclude, for their delectation the great city yearly spends several +millions of francs in opening up views and planting trees. And even yet +this is as nothing--it is only the material side of the question; in +truth, a mere trifle compared with the expenditure of brain power on the +shifts, worthy of Moliere, invented by some sixty thousand assistants +and forty thousand damsels of the counter, who fasten upon the +customer's purse, much as myriads of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance +crust floating down the river. + +Gaudissart in the mart is at least the equal of his illustrious +namesake, now become the typical commercial traveler. Take him away from +his shop and his line of business, he is like a collapsed balloon; only +among his bales of merchandise do his faculties return, much as an actor +is sublime only upon the boards. A French shopman is better educated +than his fellows in other European countries; he can at need talk +asphalt, Bal Mabille, polkas, literature, illustrated books, railways, +politics, parliament, and revolution; transplant him, take away his +stage, his yardstick, his artificial graces; he is foolish beyond +belief; but on his own boards, on the tight-rope of the counter, as he +displays a shawl with a speech at his tongue's end, and his eye on his +customer, he puts the great Talleyrand into the shade; he is a match for +a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. Talleyrand in his own house would +have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the shop the parts would have been +reversed. + +An incident will illustrate the paradox. + +Two charming duchesses were chatting with the above-mentioned great +diplomatist. The ladies wished for a bracelet; they were waiting for the +arrival of a man from a great Parisian jeweler. A Gaudissart accordingly +appeared with three bracelets of marvelous workmanship. The great ladies +hesitated. Choice is a mental lightning flash; hesitate--there is no +more to be said, you are at fault. Inspiration in matters of taste will +not come twice. At last, after about ten minutes the Prince was called +in. He saw the two duchesses confronting doubt with its thousand facets, +unable to decide between the transcendent merits of two of the trinkets, +for the third had been set aside at once. Without leaving his book, +without a glance at the bracelets, the Prince looked at the jeweler's +assistant. + +"Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" asked he. + +The young man indicated one of the pair. + +"In that case, take the other, you will make two women happy," said the +subtlest of modern diplomatists, "and make your sweetheart happy too, in +my name." + +The two fair ladies smiled, and the young shopman took his departure, +delighted with the Prince's present and the implied compliment to his +taste. + +A woman alights from her splendid carriage before one of the expensive +shops where shawls are sold in the Rue Vivienne. She is not alone; women +almost always go in pairs on these expeditions; always make the round +of half a score of shops before they make up their minds, and laugh +together in the intervals over the little comedies played for their +benefit. Let us see which of the two acts most in character--the fair +customer or the seller, and which has the best of it in such miniature +vaudevilles? + +If you attempt to describe a sale, the central fact of Parisian trade, +you are in duty bound, if you attempt to give the gist of the matter, +to produce a type, and for this purpose a shawl or a chatelaine costing +some three thousand francs is a more exacting purchase than a length of +lawn or dress that costs three hundred. But know, oh foreign visitors +from the Old World and the New (if ever this study of the physiology +of the Invoice should be by you perused), that this selfsame comedy is +played in haberdashers' shops over a barege at two francs or a printed +muslin at four francs the yard. + +And you, princess, or simple citizen's wife, whichever you may be, how +should you distrust that good-looking, very young man, with those frank, +innocent eyes, and a cheek like a peach covered with down? He is dressed +almost as well as your--cousin, let us say. His tones are soft as the +woolen stuffs which he spreads before you. There are three or four more +of his like. One has dark eyes, a decided expression, and an imperial +manner of saying, "This is what you wish"; another, that blue-eyed +youth, diffident of manner and meek of speech, prompts the remark, "Poor +boy! he was not born for business"; a third, with light auburn hair, and +laughing tawny eyes, has all the lively humor, and activity, and gaiety +of the South; while the fourth, he of the tawny red hair and fan-shaped +beard, is rough as a communist, with his portentous cravat, his +sternness, his dignity, and curt speech. + +These varieties of shopmen, corresponding to the principal types of +feminine customers, are arms, as it were, directed by the head, a stout +personage with a full-blown countenance, a partially bald forehead, and +a chest measure befitting a Ministerialist deputy. Occasionally this +person wears the ribbon of the Legion of Honor in recognition of the +manner in which he supports the dignity of the French drapers' wand. +From the comfortable curves of his figure you can see that he has a wife +and family, a country house, and an account with the Bank of France. He +descends like a _deus ex machina_, whenever a tangled problem demands a +swift solution. The feminine purchasers are surrounded on all sides +with urbanity, youth, pleasant manners, smiles, and jests; the most +seeming-simple human products of civilization are here, all sorted in +shades to suit all tastes. + +Just one word as to the natural effects of architecture, optical +science, and house decoration; one short, decisive, terrible word, of +history made on the spot. The work which contains this instructive page +is sold at number 76 Rue de Richelieu, where above an elegant shop, all +white and gold and crimson velvet, there is an entresol into which +the light pours straight from the Rue de Menars, as into a painter's +studio--clean, clear, even daylight. What idler in the streets has not +beheld the Persian, that Asiatic potentate, ruffling it above the door +at the corner of the Rue de la Bourse and the Rue de Richelieu, with a +message to deliver _urbi et orbi_, "Here I reign more tranquilly than at +Lahore"? Perhaps but for this immortal analytical study, archaeologists +might begin to puzzle their heads about him five hundred years hence, +and set about writing quartos with plates (like M. Quatremere's work +on Olympian Jove) to prove that Napoleon was something of a Sofi in the +East before he became "Emperor of the French." Well, the wealthy shop +laid siege to the poor little entresol; and after a bombardment with +banknotes, entered and took possession. The Human Comedy gave way before +the comedy of cashmeres. The Persian sacrificed a diamond or two from +his crown to buy that so necessary daylight; for a ray of sunlight shows +the play of the colors, brings out the charms of a shawl, and doubles +its value; 'tis an irresistible light; literally, a golden ray. From +this fact you may judge how far Paris shops are arranged with a view to +effect. + +But to return to the young assistants, to the beribboned man of forty +whom the King of the French receives at his table, to the red-bearded +head of the department with his autocrat's air. Week by week these +meritus Gaudissarts are brought in contact with whims past counting; +they know every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of +woman. No one, be she lady or lorette, a young mother of a family, a +respectable tradesman's wife, a woman of easy virtue, a duchess or a +brazen-fronted ballet-dancer, an innocent young girl or a too innocent +foreigner, can appear in the shop, but she is watched from the moment +when she first lays her fingers upon the door-handle. Her measure is +taken at a glance by seven or eight men that stand, in the windows, +at the counter, by the door, in a corner, in the middle of the shop, +meditating, to all appearance, on the joys of a bacchanalian Sunday +holiday. As you look at them, you ask yourself involuntarily, "What can +they be thinking about?" Well, in the space of one second, a woman's +purse, wishes, intentions, and whims are ransacked more thoroughly +than a traveling carriage at a frontier in an hour and three-quarters. +Nothing is lost on these intelligent rogues. As they stand, solemn +as noble fathers on the stage, they take in all the details of a +fair customer's dress; an invisible speck of mud on a little shoe, an +antiquated hat-brim, soiled or ill-judged bonnet-strings, the fashion of +the dress, the age of a pair of gloves. They can tell whether the gown +was cut by the intelligent scissors of a Victorine IV.; they know a +modish gewgaw or a trinket from Froment-Meurice. Nothing, in short, +which can reveal a woman's quality, fortune, or character passes +unremarked. + +Tremble before them. Never was the Sanhedrim of Gaudissarts, with +their chief at their head, known to make a mistake. And, moreover, they +communicate their conclusions to one another with telegraphic speed, in +a glance, a smile, the movement of a muscle, a twitch of the lip. If you +watch them, you are reminded of the sudden outbreak of light along +the Champs-Elysees at dusk; one gas-jet does not succeed another more +swiftly than an idea flashes from one shopman's eyes to the next. + +At once, if the lady is English, the dark, mysterious, portentous +Gaudissart advances like a romantic character out of one of Byron's +poems. + +If she is a city madam, the oldest is put forward. He brings out a +hundred shawls in fifteen minutes; he turns her head with colors and +patterns; every shawl that he shows her is like a circle described by a +kite wheeling round a hapless rabbit, till at the end of half an hour, +when her head is swimming and she is utterly incapable of making a +decision for herself, the good lady, meeting with a flattering response +to all her ideas, refers the question to the assistant, who promptly +leaves her on the horns of a dilemma between two equally irresistible +shawls. + +"This, madame, is very becoming--apple-green, the color of the season; +still, fashions change; while as for this other black-and-white shawl +(an opportunity not to be missed), you will never see the end of it, and +it will go with any dress." + +This is the A B C of the trade. + +"You would not believe how much eloquence is wanted in that beastly +line," the head Gaudissart of this particular establishment remarked +quite lately to two acquaintances (Duronceret and Bixiou) who had come +trusting in his judgment to buy a shawl. "Look here; you are artists and +discreet, I can tell you about the governor's tricks, and of all the men +I ever saw, he is the cleverest. I do not mean as a manufacturer, there +M. Fritot is first; but as a salesman. He discovered the 'Selim shawl,' +_an absolutely unsalable_ article, yet we never bring it out but we +sell it. We keep always a shawl worth five or six hundred francs in a +cedar-wood box, perfectly plain outside, but lined with satin. It is +one of the shawls that Selim sent to the Emperor Napoleon. It is our +Imperial Guard; it is brought to the front whenever the day is almost +lost; _il se vend et ne meurt pas_--it sells its life dearly time after +time." + +As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and +appeared in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to +Britain and to all its products which make believe they are alive. The +apparition put you in mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it +walked along, jerkily by fits and starts, in an awkward fashion invented +in London, and cultivated in every family with patriotic care. + +"An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is +our Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels; we +catch them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we join +in the laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit. There +are sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to +their houses, and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an +Englishwoman!--you might as well attack the bronze statue of Louis +Quatorze! That sort of woman turns shopping into an occupation, an +amusement. She quizzes us, forsooth!" + +The romantic assistant came to the front. + +"Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something expensive +or----" + +"I will see." (_Je veraie_.) + +"How much would madame propose----" + +"I will see." + +The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand, +giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said +plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. + +"These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange--all at +ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and others +at three." + +The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with +gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same +scrutiny, and made no sign. + +"Have you any more?" (_Havaivod'hote_?) demanded she. + +"Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a shawl?" + +"Oh, quite decided" (_trei-deycidai_). + +The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out +solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay +attention to all this magnificence!" + +"These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn; +they have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore." + +"Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want." + +The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inward irritation, which +communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool as +a cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor. + +"What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a +pattern of birds nestling in pagodas. + +"Seven thousand francs." + +She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass, and +handed it back again. + +"No, I do not like it at all." (_Je n'ame pouinte_.) + +A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no +purpose. + +"This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the +master as he spoke. + +"Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of the +establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in which +pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The Englishwoman +took up her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from head to foot, +unwilling to understand that the man before her was eligible for +Parliament and dined at the Tuileries. + +"I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It is +not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was thinking +of giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805; it belonged +to the Empress Josephine." + +"Let me see it, monsieur." + +"Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my house." + +"I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady. + +This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of +going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all +the while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers, +sheltering her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses. + +"It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame." + +"Oh!" (_hau_!) + +"It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the +Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my +lady, and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for another +brought by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my predecessor; +but I have never seen the money back. Our ladies in France are not rich +enough; it is not as it is in England. The shawl is worth seven thousand +francs; and taking interest and compound interest altogether, it makes +up fourteen or fifteen thousand by now--" + +"How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman. + +"Here it is, madame." + +With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden _Grune Gewolbe_ +might have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square +cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and +plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl worth +about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow ground, +of which the startling color was only surpassed by the surprising +efforts of the Indian imagination. + +"Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it +is really handsome. Just my ideal" (_ideol_) "of a shawl; it is very +magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the +purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be +very fine. + +"It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took----" + +"A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she +arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the +glass. The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his hands, +smoothed it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt plays on +the pianoforte keys. + +"It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as +possible. + +Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The shawl +is sold," they thought. + +"Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared to +be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged. + +"Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (_une voteure_). + +All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as one +man, as if an electric shock had gone through them. + +"I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with unshaken +composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess Narzicof; +she left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame would like +to see it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not been in use +altogether for ten days; there is not its like in Paris." + +The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration. + +"I am quite willing." + +"If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can try +the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves. + +"How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his +employer offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the +jobbed brougham. + +By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter of +a novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional interest +attached to all contests, however trifling, between England and France. + +Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned. + +"Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take an +invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to take." + +"How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of +invoices. + +"Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be +conspicuous. As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she said, +'Keep your carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take the +shawl.' While M. Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking assistant) +was serving, I watched her carefully; she kept one eye on you all the +time to see what you thought of her; she was thinking more about you +than of the shawls. Englishwomen are peculiar in their _distaste_ (for +one cannot call it taste); they do not know what they want; they make up +their minds to be guided by circumstances at the time, and not by their +own choice. I saw the kind of woman at once, tired of her husband, tired +of her brats, regretfully virtuous, craving excitement, always posing as +a weeping willow...." + +These were his very words. + +Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is +a shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a +student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or +angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be +M. Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or +a member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the +Commercial Court. + +"M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the +slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another +cedar-wood box." + +"And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou +to choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "_now_ we will go through our old +stock to find another Selim shawl." + + +PARIS, November 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + 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 + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + + Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Jealousies of a Country Town + Beatrix + + Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Letters of Two Brides + + Victorine + Massimilla Doni + Lost Illusions + Letters of Two Brides + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gaudissart II, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAUDISSART II *** + +***** This file should be named 1475.txt or 1475.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/7/1475/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/1475.zip b/old/1475.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..688c79f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1475.zip diff --git a/old/old/20041018-1475.txt b/old/old/20041018-1475.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..60b299f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/20041018-1475.txt @@ -0,0 +1,899 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gaudissart II, 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.net + + +Title: Gaudissart II + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #1475] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAUDISSART II *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny, and John Bickers + + + + + + GAUDISSART II. + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + Translated by + Clara Bell and others + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame la Princesse Cristina de Belgiojoso, nee Trivulzio. + + + + + GAUDISSART II. + + + +To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell. People generally +do not suspect how much of the stateliness of Paris is due to these +three aspects of the same problem. The brilliant display of shops as +rich as the salons of the noblesse before 1789; the splendors of cafes +which eclipse, and easily eclipse, the Versailles of our day; the +shop-window illusions, new every morning, nightly destroyed; the grace +and elegance of the young men that come in contact with fair +customers; the piquant faces and costumes of young damsels, who cannot +fail to attract the masculine customer; and (and this especially of +late) the length, the vast spaces, the Babylonish luxury of galleries +where shopkeepers acquire a monopoly of the trade in various articles +by bringing them all together,--all this is as nothing. Everything, so +far, has been done to appeal to a single sense, and that the most +exacting and jaded human faculty, a faculty developed ever since the +days of the Roman Empire, until, in our own times, thanks to the +efforts of the most fastidious civilization the world has yet seen, +its demands are grown limitless. That faculty resides in the "eyes of +Paris." + +Those eyes require illuminations costing a hundred thousand francs, +and many-colored glass palaces a couple of miles long and sixty feet +high; they must have a fairyland at some fourteen theatres every +night, and a succession of panoramas and exhibitions of the triumphs +of art; for them a whole world of suffering and pain, and a universe +of joy, must resolve through the boulevards or stray through the +streets of Paris; for them encyclopaedias of carnival frippery and a +score of illustrated books are brought out every year, to say nothing +of caricatures by the hundred, and vignettes, lithographs, and prints +by the thousand. To please those eyes, fifteen thousand francs' worth +of gas must blaze every night; and, to conclude, for their delectation +the great city yearly spends several millions of francs in opening up +views and planting trees. And even yet this is as nothing--it is only +the material side of the question; in truth, a mere trifle compared +with the expenditure of brain power on the shifts, worthy of Moliere, +invented by some sixty thousand assistants and forty thousand damsels +of the counter, who fasten upon the customer's purse, much as myriads +of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance crust floating down the river. + +Gaudissart in the mart is at least the equal of his illustrious +namesake, now become the typical commercial traveler. Take him away +from his shop and his line of business, he is like a collapsed +balloon; only among his bales of merchandise do his faculties return, +much as an actor is sublime only upon the boards. A French shopman is +better educated than his fellows in other European countries; he can +at need talk asphalt, Bal Mabille, polkas, literature, illustrated +books, railways, politics, parliament, and revolution; transplant him, +take away his stage, his yardstick, his artificial graces; he is +foolish beyond belief; but on his own boards, on the tight-rope of the +counter, as he displays a shawl with a speech at his tongue's end, and +his eye on his customer, he puts the great Talleyrand into the shade; +he is a match for a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. Talleyrand in his +own house would have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the shop the parts +would have been reversed. + +An incident will illustrate the paradox. + +Two charming duchesses were chatting with the above-mentioned great +diplomatist. The ladies wished for a bracelet; they were waiting for +the arrival of a man from a great Parisian jeweler. A Gaudissart +accordingly appeared with three bracelets of marvelous workmanship. +The great ladies hesitated. Choice is a mental lightning flash; +hesitate--there is no more to be said, you are at fault. Inspiration +in matters of taste will not come twice. At last, after about ten +minutes the Prince was called in. He saw the two duchesses confronting +doubt with its thousand facets, unable to decide between the +transcendent merits of two of the trinkets, for the third had been set +aside at once. Without leaving his book, without a glance at the +bracelets, the Prince looked at the jeweler's assistant. + +"Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" asked he. + +The young man indicated one of the pair. + +"In that case, take the other, you will make two women happy," said +the subtlest of modern diplomatists, "and make your sweetheart happy +too, in my name." + +The two fair ladies smiled, and the young shopman took his departure, +delighted with the Prince's present and the implied compliment to his +taste. + +A woman alights from her splendid carriage before one of the expensive +shops where shawls are sold in the Rue Vivienne. She is not alone; +women almost always go in pairs on these expeditions; always make the +round of half a score of shops before they make up their minds, and +laugh together in the intervals over the little comedies played for +their benefit. Let us see which of the two acts most in character--the +fair customer or the seller, and which has the best of it in such +miniature vaudevilles? + +If you attempt to describe a sale, the central fact of Parisian trade, +you are in duty bound, if you attempt to give the gist of the matter, +to produce a type, and for this purpose a shawl or a chatelaine +costing some three thousand francs is a more exacting purchase than a +length of lawn or dress that costs three hundred. But know, oh foreign +visitors from the Old World and the New (if ever this study of the +physiology of the Invoice should be by you perused), that this +selfsame comedy is played in haberdashers' shops over a barege at two +francs or a printed muslin at four francs the yard. + +And you, princess, or simple citizen's wife, whichever you may be, how +should you distrust that good-looking, very young man, with those +frank, innocent eyes, and a cheek like a peach covered with down? He +is dressed almost as well as your--cousin, let us say. His tones are +soft as the woolen stuffs which he spreads before you. There are three +or four more of his like. One has dark eyes, a decided expression, and +an imperial manner of saying, "This is what you wish"; another, that +blue-eyed youth, diffident of manner and meek of speech, prompts the +remark, "Poor boy! he was not born for business"; a third, with light +auburn hair, and laughing tawny eyes, has all the lively humor, and +activity, and gaiety of the South; while the fourth, he of the tawny +red hair and fan-shaped beard, is rough as a communist, with his +portentous cravat, his sternness, his dignity, and curt speech. + +These varieties of shopmen, corresponding to the principal types of +feminine customers, are arms, as it were, directed by the head, a +stout personage with a full-blown countenance, a partially bald +forehead, and a chest measure befitting a Ministerialist deputy. +Occasionally this person wears the ribbon of the Legion of Honor in +recognition of the manner in which he supports the dignity of the +French drapers' wand. From the comfortable curves of his figure you +can see that he has a wife and family, a country house, and an account +with the Bank of France. He descends like a _deus ex machina_, whenever +a tangled problem demands a swift solution. The feminine purchasers +are surrounded on all sides with urbanity, youth, pleasant manners, +smiles, and jests; the most seeming-simple human products of +civilization are here, all sorted in shades to suit all tastes. + +Just one word as to the natural effects of architecture, optical +science, and house decoration; one short, decisive, terrible word, of +history made on the spot. The work which contains this instructive +page is sold at number 76 Rue de Richelieu, where above an elegant +shop, all white and gold and crimson velvet, there is an entresol into +which the light pours straight from the Rue de Menars, as into a +painter's studio--clean, clear, even daylight. What idler in the +streets has not beheld the Persian, that Asiatic potentate, ruffling +it above the door at the corner of the Rue de la Bourse and the Rue de +Richelieu, with a message to deliver _urbi et orbi_, "Here I reign more +tranquilly than at Lahore"? Perhaps but for this immortal analytical +study, archaeologists might begin to puzzle their heads about him five +hundred years hence, and set about writing quartos with plates (like +M. Quatremere's work on Olympian Jove) to prove that Napoleon was +something of a Sofi in the East before he became "Emperor of the +French." Well, the wealthy shop laid siege to the poor little +entresol; and after a bombardment with banknotes, entered and took +possession. The Human Comedy gave way before the comedy of cashmeres. +The Persian sacrificed a diamond or two from his crown to buy that so +necessary daylight; for a ray of sunlight shows the play of the +colors, brings out the charms of a shawl, and doubles its value; 'tis +an irresistible light; literally, a golden ray. From this fact you may +judge how far Paris shops are arranged with a view to effect. + +But to return to the young assistants, to the beribboned man of forty +whom the King of the French receives at his table, to the red-bearded +head of the department with his autocrat's air. Week by week these +meritus Gaudissarts are brought in contact with whims past counting; +they know every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of woman. +No one, be she lady or lorette, a young mother of a family, a +respectable tradesman's wife, a woman of easy virtue, a duchess or a +brazen-fronted ballet-dancer, an innocent young girl or a too innocent +foreigner, can appear in the shop, but she is watched from the moment +when she first lays her fingers upon the door-handle. Her measure is +taken at a glance by seven or eight men that stand, in the windows, at +the counter, by the door, in a corner, in the middle of the shop, +meditating, to all appearance, on the joys of a bacchanalian Sunday +holiday. As you look at them, you ask yourself involuntarily, "What +can they be thinking about?" Well, in the space of one second, a +woman's purse, wishes, intentions, and whims are ransacked more +thoroughly than a traveling carriage at a frontier in an hour and +three-quarters. Nothing is lost on these intelligent rogues. As they +stand, solemn as noble fathers on the stage, they take in all the +details of a fair customer's dress; an invisible speck of mud on +a little shoe, an antiquated hat-brim, soiled or ill-judged +bonnet-strings, the fashion of the dress, the age of a pair of gloves. +They can tell whether the gown was cut by the intelligent scissors +of a Victorine IV.; they know a modish gewgaw or a trinket from +Froment-Meurice. Nothing, in short, which can reveal a woman's +quality, fortune, or character passes unremarked. + +Tremble before them. Never was the Sanhedrim of Gaudissarts, with +their chief at their head, known to make a mistake. And, moreover, +they communicate their conclusions to one another with telegraphic +speed, in a glance, a smile, the movement of a muscle, a twitch of the +lip. If you watch them, you are reminded of the sudden outbreak of +light along the Champs-Elysees at dusk; one gas-jet does not succeed +another more swiftly than an idea flashes from one shopman's eyes to +the next. + +At once, if the lady is English, the dark, mysterious, portentous +Gaudissart advances like a romantic character out of one of Byron's +poems. + +If she is a city madam, the oldest is put forward. He brings out a +hundred shawls in fifteen minutes; he turns her head with colors and +patterns; every shawl that he shows her is like a circle described by +a kite wheeling round a hapless rabbit, till at the end of half an +hour, when her head is swimming and she is utterly incapable of making +a decision for herself, the good lady, meeting with a flattering +response to all her ideas, refers the question to the assistant, who +promptly leaves her on the horns of a dilemma between two equally +irresistible shawls. + +"This, madame, is very becoming--apple-green, the color of the season; +still, fashions change; while as for this other black-and-white shawl +(an opportunity not to be missed), you will never see the end of it, +and it will go with any dress." + +This is the A B C of the trade. + +"You would not believe how much eloquence is wanted in that beastly +line," the head Gaudissart of this particular establishment remarked +quite lately to two acquaintances (Duronceret and Bixiou) who had come +trusting in his judgment to buy a shawl. "Look here; you are artists +and discreet, I can tell you about the governor's tricks, and of all +the men I ever saw, he is the cleverest. I do not mean as a +manufacturer, there M. Fritot is first; but as a salesman. He +discovered the 'Selim shawl,' _an absolutely unsalable_ article, yet we +never bring it out but we sell it. We keep always a shawl worth five +or six hundred francs in a cedar-wood box, perfectly plain outside, +but lined with satin. It is one of the shawls that Selim sent to the +Emperor Napoleon. It is our Imperial Guard; it is brought to the front +whenever the day is almost lost; _il se vend et ne meurt pas_--it sells +its life dearly time after time." + +As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and +appeared in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to Britain +and to all its products which make believe they are alive. The +apparition put you in mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it +walked along, jerkily by fits and starts, in an awkward fashion +invented in London, and cultivated in every family with patriotic +care. + +"An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is +our Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels; +we catch them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we +join in the laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit. +There are sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to +their houses, and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an +Englishwoman!--you might as well attack the bronze statue of Louis +Quatorze! That sort of woman turns shopping into an occupation, an +amusement. She quizzes us, forsooth!" + +The romantic assistant came to the front. + +"Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something +expensive or----" + +"I will see." (_Je veraie_.) + +"How much would madame propose----" + +"I will see." + +The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand, +giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said +plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. + +"These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange--all +at ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and +others at three." + +The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with +gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same +scrutiny, and made no sign. + +"Have you any more?" (_Havaivod'hote_?) demanded she. + +"Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a +shawl?" + +"Oh, quite decided" (_trei-deycidai_). + +The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out +solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay +attention to all this magnificence!" + +"These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn; +they have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore." + +"Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want." + +The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inward irritation, which +communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool +as a cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor. + +"What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a +pattern of birds nestling in pagodas. + +"Seven thousand francs." + +She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass, +and handed it back again. + +"No, I do not like it at all." (_Je n'ame pouinte_.) + +A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no +purpose. + +"This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the +master as he spoke. + +"Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of +the establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in +which pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The +Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from +head to foot, unwilling to understand that the man before her was +eligible for Parliament and dined at the Tuileries. + +"I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It +is not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was +thinking of giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805; +it belonged to the Empress Josephine." + +"Let me see it, monsieur." + +"Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my +house." + +"I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady. + +This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of +going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all the +while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers, +sheltering her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses. + +"It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame." + +"Oh!" (_hau_!) + +"It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the +Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my +lady, and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for +another brought by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my +predecessor; but I have never seen the money back. Our ladies in +France are not rich enough; it is not as it is in England. The shawl +is worth seven thousand francs; and taking interest and compound +interest altogether, it makes up fourteen or fifteen thousand by +now--" + +"How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman. + +"Here it is, madame." + +With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden _Grune Gewolbe_ might +have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square +cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and +plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl +worth about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow +ground, of which the startling color was only surpassed by the +surprising efforts of the Indian imagination. + +"Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it is +really handsome. Just my ideal" (_ideol_) "of a shawl; it is very +magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the +purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be +very fine. + +"It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took----" + +"A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she +arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the +glass. The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his +hands, smoothed it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt +plays on the pianoforte keys. + +"It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as +possible. + +Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The +shawl is sold," they thought. + +"Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared +to be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged. + +"Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (_une voteure_). + +All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as +one man, as if an electric shock had gone through them. + +"I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with +unshaken composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess +Narzicof; she left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame +would like to see it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not +been in use altogether for ten days; there is not its like in Paris." + +The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration. + +"I am quite willing." + +"If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can +try the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves. + +"How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his +employer offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the +jobbed brougham. + +By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter +of a novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional +interest attached to all contests, however trifling, between England +and France. + +Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned. + +"Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take +an invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to +take." + +"How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of +invoices. + +"Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be +conspicuous. As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she +said, 'Keep your carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take +the shawl.' While M. Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking +assistant) was serving, I watched her carefully; she kept one eye on +you all the time to see what you thought of her; she was thinking more +about you than of the shawls. Englishwomen are peculiar in their +_distaste_ (for one cannot call it taste); they do not know what they +want; they make up their minds to be guided by circumstances at the +time, and not by their own choice. I saw the kind of woman at once, +tired of her husband, tired of her brats, regretfully virtuous, +craving excitement, always posing as a weeping willow. . . ." + +These were his very words. + +Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is +a shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a +student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or +angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be +M. Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or +a member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the +Commercial Court. + +"M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the +slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another +cedar-wood box." + +"And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou +to choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "_now_ we will go through our old +stock to find another Selim shawl." + + + +PARIS, November 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + 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 + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + +Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Jealousies of a Country Town + Beatrix + +Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Letters of Two Brides + +Victorine + Massimilla Doni + Lost Illusions + Letters of Two Brides + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gaudissart II, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAUDISSART II *** + +***** This file should be named 1475.txt or 1475.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/4/7/1475/ + +Produced by Dagny, and John Bickers + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz + + + + + +GAUDISSART II. + +by HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + +Translated By +Clara Bell and others + + + +DEDICATION + +To Madame la Princesse Cristina de Belgiojoso, nee Trivulzio. + + + + +GAUDISSART II. + + + + +To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell. People generally +do not suspect how much of the stateliness of Paris is due to these +three aspects of the same problem. The brilliant display of shops as +rich as the salons of the noblesse before 1789; the splendors of cafes +which eclipse, and easily eclipse, the Versailles of our day; the +shop-window illusions, new every morning, nightly destroyed; the grace +and elegance of the young men that come in contact with fair +customers; the piquant faces and costumes of young damsels, who cannot +fail to attract the masculine customer; and (and this especially of +late) the length, the vast spaces, the Babylonish luxury of galleries +where shopkeepers acquire a monopoly of the trade in various articles +by bringing them all together,--all this is as nothing. Everything, so +far, has been done to appeal to a single sense, and that the most +exacting and jaded human faculty, a faculty developed ever since the +days of the Roman Empire, until, in our own times, thanks to the +efforts of the most fastidious civilization the world has yet seen, +its demands are grown limitless. That faculty resides in the "eyes of +Paris." + +Those eyes require illuminations costing a hundred thousand francs, +and many-colored glass palaces a couple of miles long and sixty feet +high; they must have a fairyland at some fourteen theatres every +night, and a succession of panoramas and exhibitions of the triumphs +of art; for them a whole world of suffering and pain, and a universe +of joy, must resolve through the boulevards or stray through the +streets of Paris; for them encyclopaedias of carnival frippery and a +score of illustrated books are brought out every year, to say nothing +of caricatures by the hundred, and vignettes, lithographs, and prints +by the thousand. To please those eyes, fifteen thousand francs' worth +of gas must blaze every night; and, to conclude, for their delectation +the great city yearly spends several millions of francs in opening up +views and planting trees. And even yet this is as nothing--it is only +the material side of the question; in truth, a mere trifle compared +with the expenditure of brain power on the shifts, worthy of Moliere, +invented by some sixty thousand assistants and forty thousand damsels +of the counter, who fasten upon the customer's purse, much as myriads +of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance crust floating down the river. + +Gaudissart in the mart is at least the equal of his illustrious +namesake, now become the typical commercial traveler. Take him away +from his shop and his line of business, he is like a collapsed +balloon; only among his bales of merchandise do his faculties return, +much as an actor is sublime only upon the boards. A French shopman is +better educated than his fellows in other European countries; he can +at need talk asphalt, Bal Mabille, polkas, literature, illustrated +books, railways, politics, parliament, and revolution; transplant him, +take away his stage, his yardstick, his artificial graces; he is +foolish beyond belief; but on his own boards, on the tight-rope of the +counter, as he displays a shawl with a speech at his tongue's end, and +his eye on his customer, he puts the great Talleyrand into the shade; +he is a match for a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. Talleyrand in his +own house would have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the shop the parts +would have been reversed. + +An incident will illustrate the paradox. + +Two charming duchesses were chatting with the above-mentioned great +diplomatist. The ladies wished for a bracelet; they were waiting for +the arrival of a man from a great Parisian jeweler. A Gaudissart +accordingly appeared with three bracelets of marvelous workmanship. +The great ladies hesitated. Choice is a mental lightning flash; +hesitate--there is no more to be said, you are at fault. Inspiration +in matters of taste will not come twice. At last, after about ten +minutes the Prince was called in. He saw the two duchesses confronting +doubt with its thousand facets, unable to decide between the +transcendent merits of two of the trinkets, for the third had been set +aside at once. Without leaving his book, without a glance at the +bracelets, the Prince looked at the jeweler's assistant. + +"Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" asked he. + +The young man indicated one of the pair. + +"In that case, take the other, you will make two women happy," said +the subtlest of modern diplomatists, "and make your sweetheart happy +too, in my name." + +The two fair ladies smiled, and the young shopman took his departure, +delighted with the Prince's present and the implied compliment to his +taste. + +A woman alights from her splendid carriage before one of the expensive +shops where shawls are sold in the Rue Vivienne. She is not alone; +women almost always go in pairs on these expeditions; always make the +round of half a score of shops before they make up their minds, and +laugh together in the intervals over the little comedies played for +their benefit. Let us see which of the two acts most in character--the +fair customer or the seller, and which has the best of it in such +miniature vaudevilles? + +If you attempt to describe a sale, the central fact of Parisian trade, +you are in duty bound, if you attempt to give the gist of the matter, +to produce a type, and for this purpose a shawl or a chatelaine +costing some three thousand francs is a more exacting purchase than a +length of lawn or dress that costs three hundred. But know, oh foreign +visitors from the Old World and the New (if ever this study of the +physiology of the Invoice should be by you perused), that this +selfsame comedy is played in haberdashers' shops over a barege at two +francs or a printed muslin at four francs the yard. + +And you, princess, or simple citizen's wife, whichever you may be, how +should you distrust that good-looking, very young man, with those +frank, innocent eyes, and a cheek like a peach covered with down? He +is dressed almost as well as your--cousin, let us say. His tones are +soft as the woolen stuffs which he spreads before you. There are three +or four more of his like. One has dark eyes, a decided expression, and +an imperial manner of saying, "This is what you wish"; another, that +blue-eyed youth, diffident of manner and meek of speech, prompts the +remark, "Poor boy! he was not born for business"; a third, with light +auburn hair, and laughing tawny eyes, has all the lively humor, and +activity, and gaiety of the South; while the fourth, he of the tawny +red hair and fan-shaped beard, is rough as a communist, with his +portentous cravat, his sternness, his dignity, and curt speech. + +These varieties of shopmen, corresponding to the principal types of +feminine customers, are arms, as it were, directed by the head, a +stout personage with a full-blown countenance, a partially bald +forehead, and a chest measure befitting a Ministerialist deputy. +Occasionally this person wears the ribbon of the Legion of Honor in +recognition of the manner in which he supports the dignity of the +French drapers' wand. From the comfortable curves of his figure you +can see that he has a wife and family, a country house, and an account +with the Bank of France. He descends like a deux ex machina, whenever +a tangled problem demands a swift solution. The feminine purchasers +are surrounded on all sides with urbanity, youth, pleasant manners, +smiles, and jests; the most seeming-simple human products of +civilization are here, all sorted in shades to suit all tastes. + +Just one word as to the natural effects of architecture, optical +science, and house decoration; one short, decisive, terrible word, of +history made on the spot. The work which contains this instructive +page is sold at number 76 Rue de Richelieu, where above an elegant +shop, all white and gold and crimson velvet, there is an entresol into +which the light pours straight from the Rue de Menars, as into a +painter's studio--clean, clear, even daylight. What idler in the +streets has not beheld the Persian, that Asiatic potentate, ruffling +it above the door at the corner of the Rue de la Bourse and the Rue de +Richelieu, with a message to deliver urbi et orbi, "Here I reign more +tranquilly than at Lahore"? Perhaps but for this immortal analytical +study, archaeologists might begin to puzzle their heads about him five +hundred years hence, and set about writing quartos with plates (like +M. Quatremere's work on Olympian Jove) to prove that Napoleon was +something of a Sofi in the East before he became "Emperor of the +French." Well, the wealthy shop laid siege to the poor little +entresol; and after a bombardment with banknotes, entered and took +possession. The Human Comedy gave way before the comedy of cashmeres. +The Persian sacrificed a diamond or two from his crown to buy that so +necessary daylight; for a ray of sunlight shows the play of the +colors, brings out the charms of a shawl, and doubles its value; 'tis +an irresistible light; literally, a golden ray. From this fact you may +judge how far Paris shops are arranged with a view to effect. + +But to return to the young assistants, to the beribboned man of forty +whom the King of the French receives at his table, to the red-bearded +head of the department with his autocrat's air. Week by week these +meritus Gaudissarts are brought in contact with whims past counting; +they know every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of woman. +No one, be she lady or lorette, a young mother of a family, a +respectable tradesman's wife, a woman of easy virtue, a duchess or a +brazen-fronted ballet-dancer, an innocent young girl or a too innocent +foreigner, can appear in the shop, but she is watched from the moment +when she first lays her fingers upon the door-handle. Her measure is +taken at a glance by seven or eight men that stand, in the windows, at +the counter, by the door, in a corner, in the middle of the shop, +meditating, to all appearance, on the joys of a bacchanalian Sunday +holiday. As you look at them, you ask yourself involuntarily, "What +can they be thinking about?" Well, in the space of one second, a +woman's purse, wishes, intentions, and whims are ransacked more +thoroughly than a traveling carriage at a frontier in an hour and +three-quarters. Nothing is lost on these intelligent rogues. As they +stand, solemn as noble fathers on the stage, they take in all the +details of a fair customer's dress; an invisible speck of mud on a +little shoe, an antiquated hat-brim, soiled or ill-judged bonnet- +strings, the fashion of the dress, the age of a pair of gloves. They +can tell whether the gown was cut by the intelligent scissors of a +Victorine IV.; they know a modish gewgaw or a trinket from Froment- +Meurice. Nothing, in short, which can reveal a woman's quality, +fortune, or character passes unremarked. + +Tremble before them. Never was the Sanhedrim of Gaudissarts, with +their chief at their head, known to make a mistake. And, moreover, +they communicate their conclusions to one another with telegraphic +speed, in a glance, a smile, the movement of a muscle, a twitch of the +lip. If you watch them, you are reminded of the sudden outbreak of +light along the Champs-Elysees at dusk; one gas-jet does not succeed +another more swiftly than an idea flashes from one shopman's eyes to +the next. + +At once, if the lady is English, the dark, mysterious, portentous +Gaudissart advances like a romantic character out of one of Byron's +poems. + +If she is a city madam, the oldest is put forward. He brings out a +hundred shawls in fifteen minutes; he turns her head with colors and +patterns; every shawl that he shows her is like a circle described by +a kite wheeling round a hapless rabbit, till at the end of half an +hour, when her head is swimming and she is utterly incapable of making +a decision for herself, the good lady, meeting with a flattering +response to all her ideas, refers the question to the assistant, who +promptly leaves her on the horns of a dilemma between two equally +irresistible shawls. + +"This, madame, is very becoming--apple-green, the color of the season; +still, fashions change; while as for this other black-and-white shawl +(an opportunity not to be missed), you will never see the end of it, +and it will go with any dress." + +This is the A B C of the trade. + +"You would not believe how much eloquence is wanted in that beastly +line," the head Gaudissart of this particular establishment remarked +quite lately to two acquaintances (Duronceret and Bixiou) who had come +trusting in his judgment to buy a shawl. "Look here; you are artists +and discreet, I can tell you about the governor's tricks, and of all +the men I ever saw, he is the cleverest. I do not mean as a +manufacturer, there M. Fritot is first; but as a salesman. He +discovered the 'Selim shawl,' AN ABSOLUTELY UNSALABLE article, yet we +never bring it out but we sell it. We keep always a shawl worth five +or six hundred francs in a cedar-wood box, perfectly plain outside, +but lined with satin. It is one of the shawls that Selim sent to the +Emperor Napoleon. It is our Imperial Guard; it is brought to the front +whenever the day is almost lost; il se vend et ne meurt pas--it sells +its life dearly time after time." + +As he spoke, an Englishwoman stepped from her jobbed carriage and +appeared in all the glory of that phlegmatic humor peculiar to Britain +and to all its products which make believe they are alive. The +apparition put you in mind of the Commandant's statue in Don Juan, it +walked along, jerkily by fits and starts, in an awkward fashion +invented in London, and cultivated in every family with patriotic +care. + +"An Englishwoman!" he continued for Bixiou's ear. "An Englishwoman is +our Waterloo. There are women who slip through our fingers like eels; +we catch them on the staircase. There are lorettes who chaff us, we +join in the laugh, we have a hold on them because we give credit. +There are sphinx-like foreign ladies; we take a quantity of shawls to +their houses, and arrive at an understanding by flattery; but an +Englishwoman!--you might as well attack the bronze statue of Louis +Quatorze! That sort of woman turns shopping into an occupation, an +amusement. She quizzes us, forsooth!" + +The romantic assistant came to the front. + +"Does madame wish for real Indian shawls or French, something +expensive or----" + +"I will see." (Je veraie.) + +"How much would madame propose----" + +"I will see." + +The shopman went in quest of shawls to spread upon the mantle-stand, +giving his colleagues a significant glance. "What a bore!" he said +plainly, with an almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. + +"These are our best quality in Indian red, blue, and pale orange--all +at ten thousand francs. Here are shawls at five thousand francs, and +others at three." + +The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and looked round the room with +gloomy indifference; then she submitted the three stands to the same +scrutiny, and made no sign. + +"Have you any more?" (Havaivod'hote?) demanded she. + +"Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not quite decided to take a +shawl?" + +"Oh, quite decided" (trei-deycidai). + +The young man went in search of cheaper wares. These he spread out +solemnly as if they were things of price, saying by his manner, "Pay +attention to all this magnificence!" + +"These are much more expensive," said he. "They have never been worn; +they have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore." + +"Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want." + +The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inward irritation, which +communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool +as a cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor. + +"What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a +pattern of birds nestling in pagodas. + +"Seven thousand francs." + +She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass, +and handed it back again. + +"No, I do not like it at all." (Je n'ame pouinte.) + +A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no +purpose. + +"This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the +master as he spoke. + +"Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of +the establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in +which pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The +Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from +head to foot, unwilling to understand that the man before her was +eligible for Parliament and dined at the Tuileries. + +"I have only one shawl left," he continued, "but I never show it. It +is not to everybody's taste; it is quite out of the common. I was +thinking of giving it to my wife. We have had it in stock since 1805; +it belonged to the Empress Josephine." + +"Let me see it, monsieur." + +"Go for it," said the master, turning to a shopman. "It is at my +house." + +"I should be very much pleased to see it," said the English lady. + +This was a triumph. The splenetic dame was apparently on the point of +going. She made as though she saw nothing but the shawls; but all the +while she furtively watched the shopmen and the two customers, +sheltering her eyes behind the rims of her eyeglasses. + +"It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, madame." + +"Oh!" (hau!) + +"It is one of seven shawls which Selim sent, before his fall, to the +Emperor Napoleon. The Empress Josephine, a Creole, as you know, my +lady, and very capricious in her tastes, exchanged this one for +another brought by the Turkish ambassador, and purchased by my +predecessor; but I have never seen the money back. Our ladies in +France are not rich enough; it is not as it is in England. The shawl +is worth seven thousand francs; and taking interest and compound +interest altogether, it makes up fourteen or fifteen thousand by +now--" + +"How does it make up?" asked the Englishwoman. + +"Here it is, madame." + +With precautions, which a custodian of the Dresden Grune Gewolbe might +have admired, he took out an infinitesimal key and opened a square +cedar-wood box. The Englishwoman was much impressed with its shape and +plainness. From that box, lined with black satin, he drew a shawl +worth about fifteen hundred francs, a black pattern on a golden-yellow +ground, of which the startling color was only surpassed by the +surprising efforts of the Indian imagination. + +"Splendid," said the lady, in a mixture of French and English, "it is +really handsome. Just my ideal" (ideol) "of a shawl; it is very +magnificent." The rest was lost in a madonna's pose assumed for the +purpose of displaying a pair of frigid eyes which she believed to be +very fine. + +"It was a great favorite with the Emperor Napoleon; he took----" + +"A great favorite," repeated she with her English accent. Then she +arranged the shawl about her shoulders and looked at herself in the +glass. The proprietor took it to the light, gathered it up in his +hands, smoothed it out, showed the gloss on it, played on it as Liszt +plays on the pianoforte keys. + +"It is very fine; beautiful, sweet!" said the lady, as composedly as +possible. + +Duronceret, Bixiou, and the shopmen exchanged amused glances. "The +shawl is sold," they thought. + +"Well, madame?" inquired the proprietor, as the Englishwoman appeared +to be absorbed in meditations infinitely prolonged. + +"Decidedly," said she; "I would rather have a carriage" (une voteure). + +All the assistants, listening with silent rapt attention, started as +one man, as if an electric shock had gone through them. + +"I have a very handsome one, madame," said the proprietor with +unshaken composure; "it belonged to a Russian princess, the Princess +Narzicof; she left it with me in payment for goods received. If madame +would like to see it, she would be astonished. It is new; it has not +been in use altogether for ten days; there is not its like in Paris." + +The shopmen's amazement was suppressed by profound admiration. + +"I am quite willing." + +"If madame will keep the shawl," suggested the proprietor, "she can +try the effect in the carriage." And he went for his hat and gloves. + +"How will this end?" asked the head assistant, as he watched his +employer offer an arm to the English lady and go down with her to the +jobbed brougham. + +By this time the thing had come to be as exciting as the last chapter +of a novel for Duronceret and Bixiou, even without the additional +interest attached to all contests, however trifling, between England +and France. + +Twenty minutes later the proprietor returned. + +"Go to the Hotel Lawson (here is the card, 'Mrs. Noswell'), and take +an invoice that I will give you. There are six thousand francs to +take." + +"How did you do it?" asked Duronceret, bowing before the king of +invoices. + +"Oh, I saw what she was, an eccentric woman that loves to be +conspicuous. As soon as she saw that every one stared at her, she +said, 'Keep your carriage, monsieur, my mind is made up; I will take +the shawl.' While M. Bigorneau (indicating the romantic-looking +assistant) was serving, I watched her carefully; she kept one eye on +you all the time to see what you thought of her; she was thinking more +about you than of the shawls. Englishwomen are peculiar in their +DISTASTE (for one cannot call it taste); they do not know what they +want; they make up their minds to be guided by circumstances at the +time, and not by their own choice. I saw the kind of woman at once, +tired of her husband, tired of her brats, regretfully virtuous, +craving excitement, always posing as a weeping willow. . . ." + +These were his very words. + +Which proves that in all other countries of the world a shopkeeper is +a shopkeeper; while in France, and in Paris more particularly, he is a +student from a College Royal, a well-read man with a taste for art, or +angling, or the theatre, and consumed, it may be, with a desire to be +M. Cunin-Gridaine's successor, or a colonel of the National Guard, or +a member of the General Council of the Seine, or a referee in the +Commercial Court. + +"M. Adolphe," said the mistress of the establishment, addressing the +slight fair-haired assistant, "go to the joiner and order another +cedar-wood box." + +"And now," remarked the shopman who had assisted Duronceret and Bixiou +to choose a shawl for Mme. Schontz, "NOW we will go through our old +stock to find another Selim shawl." + + + +PARIS, November 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + 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 + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + +Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Jealousies of a Country Town + Beatrix + +Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Letters of Two Brides + +Victorine + Massimilla Doni + Lost Illusions + Letters of Two Brides + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Gaudissart II, by Honore de Balzac + diff --git a/old/old/2gdsr10.zip b/old/old/2gdsr10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5e260f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/2gdsr10.zip |