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diff --git a/old/20041209-1641.txt b/old/20041209-1641.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1538840 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20041209-1641.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20352 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lesser Bourgeoisie, 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: The Lesser Bourgeoisie + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: December 9, 2004 [EBook #1641] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LESSER BOURGEOISIE *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, Dagny, and Bonnie Sala + + + + + + THE LESSER BOURGEOISIE + (The Middle Classes) + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + Translated By + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Constance-Victoire. + + Here, madame, is one of those books which come into the mind, + whence no one knows, giving pleasure to the author before he can + foresee what reception the public, our great present judge, will + accord to it. Feeling almost certain of your sympathy in my + pleasure, I dedicate the book to you. Ought it not to belong to + you as the tithe formerly belonged to the Church in memory of God, + who makes all things bud and fruit in the fields and in the + intellect? + + A few lumps of clay, left by Moliere at the feet of his colossal + statue of Tartuffe, have here been kneaded by a hand more daring + than able; but, at whatever distance I may be from the greatest of + comic writers, I shall still be glad to have used these crumbs in + showing the modern Hypocrite in action. The chief encouragement + that I have had in this difficult undertaking was in finding it + apart from all religious questions,--questions which ought to be + kept out of it for the sake of one so pious as yourself; and also + because of what a great writer has lately called our present + "indifference in matters of religion." + + May the double signification of your names be for my book a + prophecy! Deign to find here the respectful gratitude of him who + ventures to call himself the most devoted of your servants. + + + De Balzac. + + + + + THE LESSER BOURGEOISIE + (The Middle Classes) + + + + + PART I + + THE LESSER BOURGEOIS OF PARIS + + + + CHAPTER I + + DEPARTING PARIS + +The tourniquet Saint-Jean, the narrow passage entered through a +turnstile, a description of which was said to be so wearisome in the +study entitled "A Double Life" (Scenes from Private Life), that naive +relic of old Paris, has at the present moment no existence except in +our said typography. The building of the Hotel-de-Ville, such as we +now see it, swept away a whole section of the city. + +In 1830, passers along the street could still see the turnstile +painted on the sign of a wine-merchant, but even that house, its last +asylum, has been demolished. Alas! old Paris is disappearing with +frightful rapidity. Here and there, in the course of this history of +Parisian life, will be found preserved, sometimes the type of the +dwellings of the middle ages, like that described in "Fame and Sorrow" +(Scenes from Private Life), one or two specimens of which exist to the +present day; sometimes a house like that of Judge Popinot, rue du +Fouarre, a specimen of the former bourgeoisie; here, the remains of +Fulbert's house; there, the old dock of the Seine as it was under +Charles IX. Why should not the historian of French society, a new Old +Mortality, endeavor to save these curious expressions of the past, as +Walter Scott's old man rubbed up the tombstones? Certainly, for the +last ten years the outcries of literature in this direction have not +been superfluous; art is beginning to disguise beneath its floriated +ornaments those ignoble facades of what are called in Paris "houses of +product," which one of our poets has jocosely compared to chests of +drawers. + +Let us remark here, that the creation of the municipal commission "del +ornamento" which superintends at Milan the architecture of street +facades, and to which every house owner is compelled to subject his +plan, dates from the seventeenth century. Consequently, we see in that +charming capital the effects of this public spirit on the part of +nobles and burghers, while we admire their buildings so full of +character and originality. Hideous, unrestrained speculation which, +year after year, changes the uniform level of storeys, compresses a +whole apartment into the space of what used to be a salon, and wages +war upon gardens, will infallibly react on Parisian manners and +morals. We shall soon be forced to live more without than within. Our +sacred private life, the freedom and liberty of home, where will they +be?--reserved for those who can muster fifty thousand francs a year! +In fact, few millionaires now allow themselves the luxury of a house +to themselves, guarded by a courtyard on a street and protected from +public curiosity by a shady garden at the back. + +By levelling fortunes, that section of the Code which regulates +testamentary bequests, has produced these huge stone phalansteries, in +which thirty families are often lodged, returning a rental of a +hundred thousand francs a year. Fifty years hence we shall be able to +count on our fingers the few remaining houses which resemble that +occupied, at the moment our narrative begins, by the Thuillier family, +--a really curious house which deserves the honor of an exact +description, if only to compare the life of the bourgeoisie of former +times with that of to-day. + +The situation and the aspect of this house, the frame of our present +Scene of manners and morals, has, moreover, a flavor, a perfume of the +lesser bourgeoisie, which may attract or repel attention according to +the taste of each reader. + +In the first place, the Thuillier house did not belong to either +Monsieur or Madame Thuillier, but to Mademoiselle Thuillier, the +sister of Monsieur Thuillier. + +This house, bought during the first six months which followed the +revolution of July by Mademoiselle Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte Thuillier, +a spinster of full age, stands about the middle of the rue +Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, to the right as you enter by the rue d'Enfer, +so that the main building occupied by Monsieur Thuillier faces south. + +The progressive movement which is carrying the Parisian population to +the heights along the right bank of the Seine had long injured the +sale of property in what is called the "Latin quarter," when reasons, +which will be given when we come to treat of the character and habits +of Monsieur Thuillier, determined his sister to the purchase of real +estate. She obtained this property for the small sum of forty-six +thousand francs; certain extras amounted to six thousand more; in all, +the price paid was fifty-two thousand francs. A description of the +property given in the style of an advertisement, and the results +obtained by Monsieur Thuillier's exertions, will explain by what means +so many fortunes increased enormously after July, 1830, while so many +others sank. + +Toward the street the house presents a facade of rough stone covered +with plaster, cracked by weather and lined by the mason's instrument +into a semblance of blocks of cut stone. This frontage is so common +in Paris and so ugly that the city ought to offer premiums to +house-owners who would build their facades of cut-stone blocks. +Seven windows lighted the gray front of this house which was raised +three storeys, ending in a mansard roof covered with slate. The +porte-cochere, heavy and solid, showed by its workmanship and style +that the front building on the street had been erected in the days of +the Empire, to utilize a part of the courtyard of the vast old mansion, +built at an epoch when the quarter d'Enfer enjoyed a certain vogue. + +On one side was the porter's lodge; on the other the staircase of the +front building. Two wings, built against the adjoining houses, had +formerly served as stables, coach-house, kitchen and offices to the +rear dwelling; but since 1830, they had been converted into warerooms. +The one on the right was let to a certain M. Metivier, jr., wholesale +dealer in paper; that on the left to a bookseller named Barbet. The +offices of each were above the warerooms; the bookseller occupying the +first storey, and the paper-dealer the second storey of the house on +the street. Metivier, jr., who was more of a commission merchant in +paper than a regular dealer, and Barbet, much more of a money lender +and discounter than a bookseller, kept these vast warerooms for the +purpose of storing,--one, his stacks of paper, bought of needy +manufacturers, the other, editions of books given as security for +loans. + +The shark of bookselling and the pike of paper-dealing lived on the +best of terms, and their mutual operations, exempt from the turmoil of +retail business, brought so few carriages into that tranquil courtyard +that the concierge was obliged to pull up the grass between the paving +stones. Messrs. Barbet and Metivier paid a few rare visits to their +landlords, and the punctuality with which they paid their rent classed +them as good tenants; in fact, they were looked upon as very honest +men by the Thuillier circle. + +As for the third floor on the street, it was made into two apartments; +one of which was occupied by M. Dutocq, clerk of the justice of peace, +a retired government employee, and a frequenter of the Thuillier +salon; the other by the hero of this Scene, about whom we must content +ourselves at the present moment by fixing the amount of his rent, +--namely, seven hundred francs a year,--and the location he had chosen +in the heart of this well-filled building, exactly three years before +the curtain rises on the present domestic drama. + +The clerk, a bachelor of fifty, occupied the larger of the two +apartments on the third floor. He kept a cook, and the rent of the +rooms was a thousand francs a year. Within two years of the time of +her purchase, Mademoiselle Thuillier was receiving seven thousand two +hundred francs in rentals, for a house which the late proprietor had +supplied with outside blinds, renovated within, and adorned with +mirrors, without being able to sell or let it. Moreover, the +Thuilliers themselves, nobly lodged, as we shall see, enjoyed also a +fine garden,--one of the finest in that quarter,--the trees of which +shaded the lonely little street named the rue Neuve-Saint-Catherine. + +Standing between the courtyard and the garden, the main building, +which they inhabited, seems to have been the caprice of some enriched +bourgeois in the reign of Louis XIV.; the dwelling, perhaps, of a +president of the parliament, or that of a tranquil savant. Its noble +free-stone blocks, damaged by time, have a certain air of +Louis-the-Fourteenth grandeur; the courses of the facade define the +storeys; panels of red brick recall the appearance of the stables at +Versailles; the windows have masks carved as ornaments in the centre +of their arches and below their sills. The door, of small panels in +the upper half and plain below, through which, when open, the garden +can be seen, is of that honest, unassuming style which was often +employed in former days for the porter's lodges of the royal chateaux. + +This building, with five windows to each course, rises two storeys +above the ground-floor, and is particularly noticeable for a roof of +four sides ending in a weather-vane, and broken here and there by +tall, handsome chimneys, and oval windows. Perhaps this structure is +the remains of some great mansion; but after examining all the +existing old maps of Paris, we find nothing which bears out this +conjecture. Moreover, the title-deeds of property under Louis XIV. was +Petitot, the celebrated painter in miniature, who obtained it +originally from President Lecamus. We may therefore believe that +Lecamus lived in this building while he was erecting his more famous +mansion in the rue de Thorigny. + +So Art and the legal robe have passed this way in turn. How many +instigations of needs and pleasures have led to the interior +arrangement of the dwelling! To right, as we enter a square hall +forming a closed vestibule, rises a stone staircase with two windows +looking on the garden. Beneath the staircase opens a door to the +cellar. From this vestibule we enter the dining-room, lighted from the +courtyard, and the dining-room communicates at its side with the +kitchen, which forms a continuation of the wing in which are the +warerooms of Metivier and Barbet. Behind the staircase extends, on the +garden side, a fine study or office with two large windows. The first +and second floor form two complete apartments, and the servants' +quarters are shown by the oval windows in the four-sided roof. + +A large porcelain stove heats the square vestibule, the two glass +doors of which, placed opposite to each other, light it. This room, +paved in black and white marble, is especially noticeable for a +ceiling of beams formerly painted and gilt, but which had since +received, probably under the Empire, a coat of plain white paint. The +three doors of the study, salon and dining-room, surmounted by oval +panels, are awaiting a restoration that is more than needed. The +wood-work is heavy, but the ornamentation is not without merit. The +salon, panelled throughout, recalls the great century by its tall +mantelpiece of Languedoc marble, its ceiling decorated at the corners, +and by the style of its windows, which still retain their little panes. +The dining-room, communicating with the salon by a double door, is +floored with stone; the wood-work is oak, unpainted, and an atrocious +modern wall-paper has been substituted for the tapestries of the olden +time. The ceiling is of chestnut; and the study, modernized by +Thuillier, adds its quota to these discordances. + +The white and gold mouldings of the salon are so effaced that nothing +remains of the gilding but reddish lines, while the white enamelling +is yellow, cracked, and peeling off. Never did the Latin saying "Otium +cum dignitate" have a greater commentary to the mind of a poet than in +this noble building. The iron-work of the staircase baluster is worthy +of the artist and the magistrate; but to find other traces of their +taste to-day in this majestic relic, the eyes of an artistic observer +are needed. + +The Thuilliers and their predecessors have frequently degraded this +jewel of the upper bourgeoisie by the habits and inventions of the +lesser bourgeoisie. Look at those walnut chairs covered with +horse-hair, that mahogany table with its oilcloth cover, that +sideboard, also of mahogany, that carpet, bought at a bargain, beneath +the table, those metal lamps, that wretched paper with its red border, +those execrable engravings, and the calico curtains with red fringes, +in a dining-room, where the friends of Petitot once feasted! Do you +notice the effect produced in the salon by those portraits of Monsieur +and Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier by Pierre Grassou, the artist +par excellence of the modern bourgeoisie. Have you remarked the +card-tables and the consoles of the Empire, the tea-table supported by +a lyre, and that species of sofa, of gnarled mahogany, covered in +painted velvet of a chocolate tone? On the chimney-piece, with the +clock (representing the Bellona of the Empire), are candelabra with +fluted columns. Curtains of woollen damask, with under-curtains of +embroidered muslin held back by stamped brass holders, drape the +windows. On the floor a cheap carpet. The handsome vestibule has +wooden benches, covered with velvet, and the panelled walls with their +fine carvings are mostly hidden by wardrobes, brought there from time +to time from the bedrooms occupied by the Thuilliers. Fear, that +hideous divinity, has caused the family to add sheet-iron doors on the +garden side and on the courtyard side, which are folded back against +the walls in the daytime, and are closed at night. + +It is easy to explain the deplorable profanation practised on this +monument of the private life of the bourgeoisie of the seventeenth +century, by the private life of the bourgeoisie of the nineteenth. At +the beginning of the Consulate, let us say, some master-mason having +bought the ancient building, took the idea of turning to account the +ground which lay between it and the street. He probably pulled down +the fine porte-cochere or entrance gate, flanked by little lodges +which guarded the charming "sejour" (to use a word of the olden time), +and proceeded, with the industry of a Parisian proprietor, to impress +his withering mark on the elegance of the old building. What a curious +study might be made of the successive title-deeds of property in +Paris! A private lunatic asylum performs its functions in the rue des +Batailles in the former dwelling of the Chevalier Pierre Bayard du +Terrail, once without fear and without reproach; a street has now been +built by the present bourgeois administration through the site of the +hotel Necker. Old Paris is departing, following its kings who +abandoned it. For one masterpiece of architecture saved from +destruction by a Polish princess (the hotel Lambert, Ile Saint-Louis, +bought and occupied by the Princess Czartoriska) how many little +palaces have fallen, like this dwelling of Petitot, into the hands of +such as Thuillier. + +Here follows the causes which made Mademoiselle Thuillier the owner of +the house. + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE HISTORY OF A TYRANNY + +At the fall of the Villele ministry, Monsieur Louis-Jerome Thuillier, +who had then seen twenty-six years' service as a clerk in the ministry +of finance, became sub-director of a department thereof; but scarcely +had he enjoyed the subaltern authority of a position formerly his +lowest hope, when the events of July, 1830, forced him to resign it. +He calculated, shrewdly enough, that his pension would be honorably +and readily given by the new-comers, glad to have another office at +their disposal. He was right; for a pension of seventeen hundred +francs was paid to him immediately. + +When the prudent sub-director first talked of resigning, his sister, +who was far more the companion of his life than his wife, trembled for +his future. + +"What will become of Thuillier?" was a question which Madame and +Mademoiselle Thuillier put to each other with mutual terror in their +little lodging on a third floor of the rue d'Argenteuil. + +"Securing his pension will occupy him for a time," Mademoiselle +Thuillier said one day; "but I am thinking of investing my savings in +a way that will cut out work for him. Yes; it will be something like +administrating the finances to manage a piece of property." + +"Oh, sister! you will save his life," cried Madame Thuillier. + +"I have always looked for a crisis of this kind in Jerome's life," +replied the old maid, with a protecting air. + +Mademoiselle Thuillier had too often heard her brother remark: "Such a +one is dead; he only survived his retirement two years"; she had too +often heard Colleville, her brother's intimate friend, a government +employee like himself, say, jesting on this climacteric of +bureaucrats, "We shall all come to it, ourselves," not to appreciate +the danger her brother was running. The change from activity to +leisure is, in truth, the critical period for government employees of +all kinds. + +Those of them who know not how to substitute, or perhaps cannot +substitute other occupations for the work to which they have been +accustomed, change in a singular manner; some die outright; others +take to fishing, the vacancy of that amusement resembling that of +their late employment under government; others, who are smarter men, +dabble in stocks, lose their savings, and are thankful to obtain a +place in some enterprise that is likely to succeed, after a first +disaster and liquidation, in the hands of an abler management. The +late clerk then rubs his hands, now empty, and says to himself, "I +always did foresee the success of the business." But nearly all these +retired bureaucrats have to fight against their former habits. + +"Some," Colleville used to say, "are victims to a sort of 'spleen' +peculiar to the government clerk; they die of a checked circulation; a +red-tapeworm is in their vitals. That little Poiret couldn't see the +well-known white carton without changing color at the beloved sight; +he used to turn from green to yellow." + +Mademoiselle Thuillier was considered the moving spirit of her +brother's household; she was not without decision and force of +character, as the following history will show. This superiority over +those who immediately surrounded her enabled her to judge her brother, +although she adored him. After witnessing the failure of the hopes she +had set upon her idol, she had too much real maternity in her feeling +for him to let herself be mistaken as to his social value. + +Thuillier and his sister were children of the head porter at the +ministry of finance. Jerome had escaped, thanks to his +near-sightedness, all drafts and conscriptions. The father's ambition +was to make his son a government clerk. At the beginning of this +century the army presented too many posts not to leave various +vacancies in the government offices. A deficiency of minor officials +enabled old Pere Thuillier to hoist his son upon the lowest step of the +bureaucratic hierarchy. The old man died in 1814, leaving Jerome on +the point of becoming sub-director, but with no other fortune than +that prospect. The worthy Thuillier and his wife (who died in 1810) +had retired from active service in 1806, with a pension as their only +means of support; having spent what property they had in giving Jerome +the education required in these days, and in supporting both him and +his sister. + +The influence of the Restoration on the bureaucracy is well known. +From the forty and one suppressed departments a crowd of honorable +employees returned to Paris with nothing to do, and clamorous for +places inferior to those they had lately occupied. To these acquired +rights were added those of exiled families ruined by the Revolution. +Pressed between the two floods, Jerome thought himself lucky not to +have been dismissed under some frivolous pretext. He trembled until +the day when, becoming by mere chance sub-director, he saw himself +secure of a retiring pension. This cursory view of matters will serve +to explain Monsieur Thuillier's very limited scope and knowledge. He +had learned the Latin, mathematics, history, and geography that are +taught in schools, but he never got beyond what is called the second +class; his father having preferred to take advantage of a sudden +opportunity to place him at the ministry. So, while the young +Thuillier was making his first records on the Grand-Livre, he ought to +have been studying his rhetoric and philosophy. + +While grinding the ministerial machine, he had no leisure to cultivate +letters, still less the arts; but he acquired a routine knowledge of +his business, and when he had an opportunity to rise, under the +Empire, to the sphere of superior employees, he assumed a superficial +air of competence which concealed the son of a porter, though none of +it rubbed into his mind. His ignorance, however, taught him to keep +silence, and silence served him well. He accustomed himself to +practise, under the imperial regime, a passive obedience which pleased +his superiors; and it was to this quality that he owed at a later +period his promotion to the rank of sub-director. His routine habits +then became great experience; his manners and his silence concealed +his lack of education, and his absolute nullity was a recommendation, +for a cipher was needed. The government was afraid of displeasing both +parties in the Chamber by selecting a man from either side; it +therefore got out of the difficulty by resorting to the rule of +seniority. That is how Thuillier became sub-director. Mademoiselle +Thuillier, knowing that her brother abhorred reading, and could +substitute no business for the bustle of a public office, had wisely +resolved to plunge him into the cares of property, into the culture of +a garden, in short, into all the infinitely petty concerns and +neighborhood intrigues which make up the life of the bourgeoisie. + +The transplanting of the Thuillier household from the rue d'Argenteuil +to the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, the business of making the +purchase, of finding a suitable porter, and then of obtaining tenants +occupied Thuillier from 1831 to 1832. When the phenomenon of the +change was accomplished, and the sister saw that Jerome had borne it +fairly well, she found him other cares and occupations (about which we +shall hear later), all based upon the character of the man himself, as +to which it will now be useful to give information. + +Though the son of a ministerial porter, Thuillier was what is called a +fine man, slender in figure, above middle height, and possessing a +face that was rather agreeable if wearing his spectacles, but +frightful without them; which is frequently the case with near-sighted +persons; for the habit of looking through glasses has covered the +pupils of his eyes with a sort of film. + +Between the ages of eighteen and thirty, young Thuillier had much +success among women, in a sphere which began with the lesser bourgeois +and ended in that of the heads of departments. Under the Empire, war +left Parisian society rather denuded of men of energy, who were mostly +on the battlefield; and perhaps, as a great physician has suggested, +this may account for the flabbiness of the generation which occupies +the middle of the nineteenth century. + +Thuillier, forced to make himself noticeable by other charms than +those of mind, learned to dance and to waltz in a way to be cited; he +was called "that handsome Thuillier"; he played billiards to +perfection; he knew how to cut out likenesses in black paper, and his +friend Colleville coached him so well that he was able to sing all the +ballads of the day. These various small accomplishments resulted in +that appearance of success which deceives youth and befogs it about +the future. Mademoiselle Thuillier, from 1806 to 1814, believed in her +brother as Mademoiselle d'Orleans believed in Louis-Philippe. She was +proud of Jerome; she expected to see him the director-general of his +department of the ministry, thanks to his successes in certain salons, +where, undoubtedly, he would never have been admitted but for the +circumstances which made society under the Empire a medley. + +But the successes of "that handsome Thuillier" were usually of short +duration; women did not care to keep his devotion any more than he +desired to make his devotion eternal. He was really an unwilling Don +Juan; the career of a "beau" wearied him to the point of aging him; +his face, covered with lines like that of an old coquette, looked a +dozen years older than the registers made him. There remained to him +of all his successes in gallantry, a habit of looking at himself in +mirrors, of buttoning his coat to define his waist, and of posing in +various dancing attitudes; all of which prolonged, beyond the period +of enjoying his advantages, the sort of lease that he held on his +cognomen, "that handsome Thuillier." + +The truth of 1806 has, however, become a fable, in 1826. He retains a +few vestiges of the former costume of the beaux of the Empire, which +are not unbecoming to the dignity of a former sub-director. He still +wears the white cravat with innumerable folds, wherein his chin is +buried, and the coquettish bow, formerly tied by the hands of beauty, +the two ends of which threaten danger to the passers to right and +left. He follows the fashions of former days, adapting them to his +present needs; he tips his hat on the back of his head, and wears +shoes and thread stockings in summer; his long-tailed coats remind one +of the well-known "surtouts" of the Empire; he has not yet abandoned +his frilled shirts and his white waistcoats; he still plays with his +Empire switch, and holds himself so erect that his back bends in. No +one, seeing Thuillier promenading on the boulevards, would take him +for the son of a man who cooked the breakfasts of the clerks at a +ministry and wore the livery of Louis XVI.; he resembles an imperial +diplomatist or a sub-prefect. Now, not only did Mademoiselle Thuillier +very innocently work upon her brother's weak spot by encouraging in +him an excessive care of his person, which, in her, was simply a +continuation of her worship, but she also provided him with family +joys, by transplanting to their midst a household which had hitherto +been quasi-collateral to them. + +It was that of Monsieur Colleville, an intimate friend of Thuillier. +But before we proceed to describe Pylades let us finish with Orestes, +and explain why Thuillier--that handsome Thuillier--was left without a +family of his own--for the family, be it said, is non-existent without +children. Herein appears one of those deep mysteries which lie buried +in the arena of private life, a few shreds of which rise to the +surface at moments when the pain of a concealed situation grows +poignant. This concerns the life of Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier; +so far, we have seen only the life (and we may call it the public +life) of Jerome Thuillier. + +Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte Thuillier, four years older than her brother, +had been utterly sacrificed to him; it was easier to give a career to +one than a "dot" to the other. Misfortune to some natures is a pharos, +which illumines to their eyes the dark low corners of social +existence. Superior to her brother both in mind and energy, Brigitte +had one of those natures which, under the hammer of persecution, +gather themselves together, become compact and powerfully resistant, +not to say inflexible. Jealous of her independence, she kept aloof +from the life of the household; choosing to make herself the sole +arbiter of her own fate. At fourteen years of age, she went to live +alone in a garret, not far from the ministry of finance, which was +then in the rue Vivienne, and also not far from the Bank of France, +then, and now, in the rue de la Vrilliere. There she bravely gave +herself up to a form of industry little known and the perquisite of a +few persons, which she obtained, thanks to the patrons of her father. +It consisted in making bags to hold coin for the Bank, the Treasury, +and the great financial houses. At the end of three years she employed +two workwomen. By investing her savings on the Grand-Livre, she found +herself, in 1814, the mistress of three thousand six hundred francs a +year, earned in fifteen years. As she spent little, and dined with her +father as long as he lived, and, as government securities were very +low during the last convulsions of the Empire, this result, which +seems at first sight exaggerated, explains itself. + +On the death of their father, Brigitte and Jerome, the former being +twenty-seven, the latter twenty-three, united their existence. Brother +and sister were bound together by an extreme affection. If Jerome, +then at the height of his success, was pinched for money, his sister, +clothed in serge, and her fingers roughened by the coarse thread with +which she sewed her bags, would give him a few louis. In Brigitte's +eyes Jerome was the handsomest and most charming man in the whole +French Empire. To keep house for this cherished brother, to be +initiated into the secrets of Lindor and Don Juan, to be his +handmaiden, his spaniel, was Brigitte's dream. She immolated herself +lovingly to an idol whose selfishness, always great, was enormously +increased by her self-sacrifice. She sold her business to her +fore-woman for fifteen thousand francs and came to live with Thuillier +in the rue d'Argenteuil, where she made herself the mother, protectress, +and servant of this spoiled child of women. Brigitte, with the natural +caution of a girl who owed everything to her own discretion and her +own labor, concealed the amount of her savings from Jerome,--fearing, +no doubt, the extravagance of a man of gallantry. She merely paid a +quota of six hundred francs a year to the expenses of the household, +and this, with her brother's eighteen hundred, enabled her to make +both ends meet at the end of the year. + +From the first days of their coming together, Thuillier listened to +his sister as to an oracle; he consulted her in his trifling affairs, +kept none of his secrets from her, and thus made her taste the fruit +of despotism which was, in truth, the one little sin of her nature. +But the sister had sacrificed everything to the brother; she had +staked her all upon his heart; she lived by him only. Brigitte's +ascendancy over Jerome was singularly proved by the marriage which she +procured for him about the year 1814. + +Seeing the tendency to enforced reduction which the new-comers to +power under the Restoration were beginning to bring about in the +government offices, and particularly since the return of the old +society which sought to ride over the bourgeoisie, Brigitte +understood, far better than her brother could explain it to her, the +social crisis which presently extinguished their common hopes. No more +successes for that handsome Thuillier in the salons of the nobles who +now succeeded the plebeians of the Empire! + +Thuillier was not enough of a person to take up a politic opinion and +choose a party; he felt, as his sister did for him, the necessity of +profiting by the remains of his youth to make a settlement. In such a +situation, a sister as jealous of her power as Brigitte naturally +would, and ought, to marry her brother, to suit herself as well as to +suit him; for she alone could make him really happy, Madame Thuillier +being only an indispensable accessory to the obtaining of two or three +children. If Brigitte did not have an intellect quite the equal of her +will, at least she had the instinct of her despotism; without, it is +true, education, she marched straight before her, with the headstrong +determination of a nature accustomed to succeed. She had the genius of +housekeeping, a faculty for economy, a thorough understanding of how +to live, and a love for work. She saw plainly that she could never +succeed in marrying Jerome into a sphere above their own, where +parents might inquire into their domestic life and feel uneasy at +finding a mistress already reigning in the home. She therefore sought +in a lower grade for persons to dazzle, and found, almost beside her, +a suitable match. + +The oldest usher at the Bank, a man named Lemprun, had an only +daughter, called Celeste. Mademoiselle Celeste Lemprun would inherit +the fortune of her mother, the only daughter of a rich farmer. This +fortune consisted of some acres of land in the environs of Paris, +which the old father still worked; besides this, she would have the +property of Lemprun himself, a man who had left the firms of Thelusson +and of Keller to enter the service of the Bank of France. Lemprun, now +the head of that service, enjoyed the respect and consideration of the +governors and auditors. + +The Bank council, on hearing of the probable marriage of Celeste to an +honorable employee at the ministry of finance, promised a wedding +present of six thousand francs. This gift, added to twelve thousand +given by Pere Lemprun, and twelve thousand more from the maternal +grandfather, Sieur Galard, market-gardener at Auteuil, brought up the +dowry to thirty thousand francs. Old Galard and Monsieur and Madame +Lemprun were delighted with the marriage. Lemprun himself knew +Mademoiselle Thuillier, and considered her one of the worthiest and +most conscientious women in Paris. Brigitte then, for the first time, +allowed her investments on the Grand-Livre to shine forth, assuring +Lemprun that she should never marry; consequently, neither he nor his +wife, persons devoted to the main chance, would ever allow themselves +to find fault with Brigitte. Above all, they were greatly struck by +the splendid prospects of the handsome Thuillier, and the marriage +took place, as the conventional saying is, to the general +satisfaction. + +The governor of the Bank and the secretary were the bride's witnesses; +Monsieur de la Billardiere, director of Thuillier's department, and +Monsieur Rabourdin, head of the office, being those of the groom. Six +days after the marriage old Lemprun was the victim of a daring robbery +which made a great noise in the newspapers of the day, though it was +quickly forgotten during the events of 1815. The guilty parties having +escaped detection, Lemprun wished to make up the loss; but the Bank +agreed to carry the deficit to its profit and loss account; +nevertheless, the poor old man actually died of the grief this affair +had caused him. He regarded it as an attack upon his aged honor. + +Madame Lemprun then resigned all her property to her daughter, Madame +Thuillier, and went to live with her father at Auteuil until he died +from an accident in 1817. Alarmed at the prospect of having to manage +or lease the market-garden and the farm of her father, Madame Lemprun +entreated Brigitte, whose honesty and capacity astonished her, to wind +up old Galard's affairs, and to settle the property in such a way that +her daughter should take possession of everything, securing to her +mother fifteen hundred francs a year and the house at Auteuil. The +landed property of the old farmer was sold in lots, and brought in +thirty thousand francs. Lemprun's estate had given as much more, so +that Madame Thuillier's fortune, including her "dot," amounted in 1818 +to ninety thousand francs. Joining the revenue of this property to +that of the brother and sister, the Thuillier household had an income, +in 1818, amounting to eleven thousand francs, managed by Brigitte +alone on her sole responsibility. It is necessary to begin by stating +this financial position, not only to prevent objections but to rid the +drama of difficulties. + +Brigitte began, from the first, by allowing her brother five hundred +francs a month, and by sailing the household boat at the rate of five +thousand francs a year. She granted to her sister-in-law fifty francs +a month, explaining to her carefully that she herself was satisfied +with forty. To strengthen her despotism by the power of money, +Brigitte laid by the surplus of her own funds. She made, so it was +said in business offices, usurious loans by means of her brother, who +appeared as a money-lender. If, between the years 1813 and 1830, +Brigitte had capitalized sixty thousand francs, that sum can be +explained by the rise in the Funds, and there is no need to have +recourse to accusations more or less well founded, which have nothing +to do with our present history. + +From the first days of the marriage, Brigitte subdued the unfortunate +Madame Thuillier with a touch of the spur and a jerk of the bit, both +of which she made her feel severely. A further display of tyranny was +useless; the victim resigned herself at once. Celeste, thoroughly +understood by Brigitte, a girl without mind or education, accustomed +to a sedentary life and a tranquil atmosphere, was extremely gentle by +nature; she was pious in the fullest acceptation of the word; she +would willingly have expiated by the hardest punishments the +involuntary wrong of giving pain to her neighbor. She was utterly +ignorant of life; accustomed to be waited on by her mother, who did +the whole service of the house, for Celeste was unable to make much +exertion, owing to a lymphatic constitution which the least toil +wearied. She was truly a daughter of the people of Paris, where +children, seldom handsome, and of no vigor, the product of poverty and +toil, of homes without fresh air, without freedom of action, without +any of the conveniences of life, meet us at every turn. + +At the time of the marriage, Celeste was seen to be a little woman, +fair and faded almost to sickliness, fat, slow, and silly in the +countenance. Her forehead, much too large and too prominent, suggested +water on the brain, and beneath that waxen cupola her face, noticeably +too small and ending in a point like the nose of a mouse, made some +people fear she would become, sooner or later, imbecile. Her eyes, +which were light blue, and her lips, always fixed in a smile, did not +contradict that idea. On the solemn occasion of her marriage she had +the manner, air, and attitude of a person condemned to death, whose +only desire is that it might all be over speedily. + +"She is rather round," said Colleville to Thuillier. + +Brigitte was just the knife to cut into such a nature, to which her +own formed the strongest contrast. Mademoiselle Thuillier was +remarkable for her regular and correct beauty, but a beauty injured by +toil which, from her very childhood, had bent her down to painful, +thankless tasks, and by the secret privations she imposed upon herself +in order to amass her little property. Her complexion, early +discolored, had something the tint of steel. Her brown eyes were +framed in brown; on the upper lip was a brown floss like a sort of +smoke. Her lips were thin, and her imperious forehead was surmounted +by hair once black, now turning to chinchilla. She held herself as +straight as the fairest beauty; but all things else about her showed +the hardiness of her life, the deadening of her natural fire, the cost +of what she was! + +To Brigitte, Celeste was simply a fortune to lay hold of, a future +mother to rule, one more subject in her empire. She soon reproached +her for being _weak_, a constant word in her vocabulary, and the jealous +old maid, who would strongly have resented any signs of activity in +her sister-in-law, now took a savage pleasure in prodding the languid +inertness of the feeble creature. Celeste, ashamed to see her +sister-in-law displaying such energy in household work, endeavored to +help her, and fell ill in consequence. Instantly, Brigitte was devoted +to her, nursed her like a beloved sister, and would say, in presence of +Thuillier: "You haven't any strength, my child; you must never do +anything again." She showed up Celeste's incapacity by that display of +sympathy with which strength, seeming to pity weakness, finds means to +boast of its own powers. + +But, as all despotic natures liking to exercise their strength are +full of tenderness for physical sufferings, Brigitte took such real +care of her sister-in-law as to satisfy Celeste's mother when she came +to see her daughter. After Madame Thuillier recovered, however, she +called her, in Celeste's hearing, "a helpless creature, good for +nothing!" which sent the poor thing crying to her room. When Thuillier +found her there, drying her eyes, he excused her sister, saying:-- + +"She is an excellent woman, but rather hasty; she loves you in her own +way; she behaves just so with me." + +Celeste, remembering the maternal care of her sister-in-law during her +illness, forgave the wound. Brigitte always treated her brother as the +king of the family; she exalted him to Celeste, and made him out an +autocrat, a Ladislas, an infallible pope. Madame Thuillier having lost +her father and grandfather, and being well-nigh deserted by her +mother, who came to see her on Thursdays only (she herself spending +Sundays at Auteuil in summer), had no one left to love except her +husband, and she did love him,--in the first place, because he was her +husband, and secondly, because he still remained to her "that handsome +Thuillier." Besides, he sometimes treated her like a wife, and all +these reasons together made her adore him. He seemed to her all the +more perfect because he often took up her defence and scolded his +sister, not from any real interest in his wife, but for pure +selfishness, and in order to have peace in the household during the +very few moments that he stayed there. + +In fact, that handsome Thuillier was never at home except at dinner, +after which meal he went out, returning very late at night. He went to +balls and other social festivities by himself, precisely as if he were +still a bachelor. Thus the two women were always alone together. +Celeste insensibly fell into a passive attitude, and became what +Brigitte wanted her,--a helot. The Queen Elizabeth of the household +then passed from despotism to a sort of pity for the poor victim who +was always sacrificed. She ended by softening her haughty ways, her +cutting speech, her contemptuous tones, as soon as she was certain +that her sister-in-law was completely under the yoke. When she saw the +wounds it made on the neck of her victim, she took care of her as a +thing of her own, and Celeste entered upon happier days. Comparing the +end with the beginning, she even felt a sort of love for her torturer. +To gain some power of self-defence, to become something less a cipher +in the household, supported, unknown to herself, by her own means, the +poor helot had but a single chance, and that chance never came to her. + +Celeste had no child. This barrenness, which, from month to month, +brought floods of tears from her eyes, was long the cause of +Brigitte's scorn; she reproached the poor woman bitterly for being fit +for nothing, not even to bear children. The old maid, who had longed +to love her brother's child as if it were her own, was unable, for +years, to reconcile herself to this irremediable sterility. + +At the time when our history begins, namely, in 1840, Celeste, then +forty-six years old, had ceased to weep; she now had the certainty of +never being a mother. And here is a strange thing. After twenty-five +years of this life, in which victory had ended by first dulling and +then breaking its own knife, Brigitte loved Celeste as much as Celeste +loved Brigitte. Time, ease, and the perpetual rubbing of domestic +life, had worn off the angles and smoothed the asperities; Celeste's +resignation and lamb-like gentleness had brought, at last, a serene +and peaceful autumn. The two women were still further united by the +one sentiment that lay within them, namely, their adoration for the +lucky and selfish Thuillier. + +Moreover, these two women, both childless, had each, like all women +who have vainly desired children, fallen in love with a child. This +fictitious motherhood, equal in strength to a real motherhood, needs +an explanation which will carry us to the very heart of our drama, and +will show the reason of the new occupation which Mademoiselle +Thuillier provided for her brother. + + + + CHAPTER III + + COLLEVILLE + +Thuillier had entered the ministry of finance as supernumerary at the +same time as Colleville, who has been mentioned already as his +intimate friend. In opposition to the well-regulated, gloomy household +of Thuillier, social nature had provided that of Colleville; and if it +is impossible not to remark that this fortuitous contrast was scarcely +moral, we must add that, before deciding that point, it would be well +to wait for the end of this drama, unfortunately too true, for which +the present historian is not responsible. + +Colleville was the only son of a talented musician, formerly first +violin at the Opera under Francoeur and Rebel, who related, at least +six times a month during his lifetime, anecdotes concerning the +representations of the "Village Seer"; and mimicked Jean-Jacques +Rousseau, taking him off to perfection. Colleville and Thuillier were +inseparable friends; they had no secrets from each other, and their +friendship, begun at fifteen years of age, had never known a cloud up +to the year 1839. The former was one of those employees who are +called, in the government offices, pluralists. These clerks are +remarkable for their industry. Colleville, a good musician, owed to +the name and influence of his father a situation as first clarionet at +the Opera-Comique, and so long as he was a bachelor, Colleville, who +was rather richer than Thuillier, shared his means with his friend. +But, unlike Thuillier, Colleville married for love a Mademoiselle +Flavie, the natural daughter of a celebrated danseuse at the Opera; +her reputed father being a certain du Bourguier, one of the richest +contractors of the day. In style and origin, Flavie was apparently +destined for a melancholy career, when Colleville, often sent to her +mother's apartments, fell in love with her and married her. Prince +Galathionne, who at that time was "protecting" the danseuse, then +approaching the end of her brilliant career, gave Flavie a "dot" of +twenty thousand francs, to which her mother added a magnificent +trousseau. Other friends and opera-comrades sent jewels and +silver-ware, so that the Colleville household was far richer in +superfluities than in capital. Flavie, brought up in opulence, began +her married life in a charming apartment, furnished by her mother's +upholsterer, where the young wife, who was full of taste for art and +for artists, and possessed a certain elegance, ruled, a queen. + +Madame Colleville was pretty and piquant, clever, gay, and graceful; +to express her in one sentence,--a charming creature. Her mother, the +danseuse, now forty-three years old, retired from the stage and went +to live in the country,--thus depriving her daughter of the resources +derived from her wasteful extravagance. Madame Colleville kept a very +agreeable but extremely free and easy household. From 1816 to 1826 she +had five children. Colleville, a musician in the evening, kept the +books of a merchant from seven to nine in the morning, and by ten +o'clock he was at his ministry. Thus, by blowing into a bit of wood by +night, and writing double-entry accounts in the early morning, he +managed to eke out his earnings to seven or eight thousand francs a +year. + +Madame Colleville played the part of a "comme il faut" woman; she +received on Wednesdays, gave a concert once a month and a dinner every +fortnight. She never saw Colleville except at dinner and at night, +when he returned about twelve o'clock, at which hour she was +frequently not at home herself. She went to the theatres, where boxes +were sometimes given to her; and she would send word to Colleville to +come and fetch her from such or such a house, where she was supping +and dancing. At her own house, guests found excellent cheer, and her +society, though rather mixed, was very amusing; she received and +welcomed actresses, artists, men of letters, and a few rich men. +Madame Colleville's elegance was on a par with that of Tullia, the +leading prima-donna, with whom she was intimate; but though the +Collevilles encroached on their capital and were often in difficulty +by the end of the month, Flavie was never in debt. + +Colleville was very happy; he still loved his wife, and he made +himself her best friend. Always received by her with affectionate +smiles and sympathetic pleasure, he yielded readily to the +irresistible grace of her manners. The vehement activity with which he +pursued his three avocations was a part of his natural character and +temperament. He was a fine stout man, ruddy, jovial, extravagant, and +full of ideas. In ten years there was never a quarrel in his +household. Among business men he was looked upon, in common with all +artists, as a scatter-brained fellow; and superficial persons thought +that the constant hurry of this hard worker was only the restless +coming and going of a busybody. + +Colleville had the sense to seem stupid; he boasted of his family +happiness, and gave himself unheard-of trouble in making anagrams, in +order at times to seem absorbed in that passion. The government clerks +of his division at the ministry, the office directors, and even the +heads of divisions came to his concerts; now and then he quietly +bestowed upon them opera tickets, when he needed some extra indulgence +on account of his frequent absence. Rehearsals took half the time that +he ought to have been at his desk; but the musical knowledge his +father had bequeathed to him was sufficiently genuine and +well-grounded to excuse him from all but final rehearsals. Thanks to +Madame Colleville's intimacies, both the theatre and the ministry lent +themselves kindly to the needs of this industrious pluralist, who, +moreover, was bringing up, with great care, a youth, warmly +recommended to him by his wife, a future great musician, who sometimes +took his place in the orchestra with a promise of eventually +succeeding him. In fact, about the year 1827 this young man became the +first clarionet when Colleville resigned his position. + +The usual comment on Flavie was, "That little slip of a coquette, +Madame Colleville." The eldest of the Colleville children, born in +1816, was the living image of Colleville himself. In 1818, Madame +Colleville held the cavalry in high estimation, above even art; and +she distinguished more particularly a sub-lieutenant in the dragoons +of Saint-Chamans, the young and rich Charles de Gondreville, who +afterwards died in the Spanish campaign. By that time Flavie had had a +second son, whom she henceforth dedicated to a military career. In +1820 she considered banking the nursing mother of trade, the supporter +of Nations, and she made the great Keller, that famous banker and +orator, her idol. She then had another son, whom she named Francois, +resolving to make him a merchant,--feeling sure that Keller's +influence would never fail him. About the close of the year 1820, +Thuillier, the intimate friend of Monsieur and Madame Colleville, felt +the need of pouring his sorrows into the bosom of this excellent +woman, and to her he related his conjugal miseries. For six years he +had longed to have children, but God did not bless him; although that +poor Madame Thuillier had made novenas, and had even gone, uselessly, +to Notra-Dame de Liesse! He depicted Celeste in various lights, which +brought the words "Poor Thuillier!" from Flavie's lips. She herself +was rather sad, having at the moment no dominant opinion. She poured +her own griefs into Thuillier's bosom. The great Keller, that hero of +the Left, was, in reality, extremely petty; she had learned to know +the other side of public fame, the follies of banking, the emptiness +of eloquence! The orator only spoke for show; to her he had behaved +extremely ill. Thuillier was indignant. "None but stupid fellows know +how to love," he said; "take me!" That handsome Thuillier was +henceforth supposed to be paying court to Madame Colleville, and was +rated as one of her "attentives,"--a word in vogue during the Empire. + +"Ha! you are after my wife," said Colleville, laughing. "Take care; +she'll leave you in the lurch, like all the rest." + +A rather clever speech, by which Colleville saved his marital dignity. +From 1820 to 1821, Thuillier, in virtue of his title as friend of the +family, helped Colleville, who had formerly helped him; so much so, +that in eighteen months he had lent nearly ten thousand francs to the +Colleville establishment, with no intention of ever claiming them. In +the spring of 1821, Madame Colleville gave birth to a charming little +girl, to whom Monsieur and Madame Thuillier were godfather and +godmother. The child was baptized Celeste-Louise-Caroline-Brigitte; +Mademoiselle Thuillier wishing that her name should be given among +others to the little angel. The name of Caroline was a graceful +attention paid to Colleville. Old mother Lemprun assumed the care of +putting the baby to nurse under her own eyes at Auteuil, where Celeste +and her sister-in-law Brigitte, paid it regularly a semi-weekly visit. + +As soon as Madame Colleville recovered she said to Thuillier, frankly, +in a very serious tone:-- + +"My dear friend, if we are all to remain good friends, you must be our +friend only. Colleville is attached to you; well, that's enough for +you in this household." + +"Explain to me," said the handsome Thuillier to Tullia after this +remark, "why women are never attached to me. I am not the Apollo +Belvidere, but for all that I'm not a Vulcan; I am passably +good-looking, I have sense, I am faithful--" + +"Do you want me to tell you the truth?" replied Tullia. + +"Yes," said Thuillier. + +"Well, though we can, sometimes, love a stupid fellow, we never love a +silly one." + +Those words killed Thuillier; he never got over them; henceforth he +was a prey to melancholy and accused all women of caprice. + +The secretary-general of the ministry, des Lupeaulx, whose influence +Madame Colleville thought greater than it was, and of whom she said, +later, "That was one of my mistakes," became for a time the great man +of the Colleville salon; but as Flavie found he had no power to +promote Colleville into the upper division, she had the good sense to +resent des Lupeaulx's attentions to Madame Rabourdin (whom she called +a minx), to whose house she had never been invited, and who had twice +had the impertinence not to come to the Colleville concerts. + +Madame Colleville was deeply affected by the death of young +Gondreville; she felt, she said, the finger of God. In 1824 she turned +over a new leaf, talked of economy, stopped her receptions, busied +herself with her children, determined to become a good mother of a +family; no favorite friend was seen at her house. She went to church, +reformed her dress, wore gray, and talked Catholicism, mysticism, and +so forth. All this produced, in 1825, another little son, whom she +named Theodore. Soon after, in 1826, Colleville was appointed +sub-director of the Clergeot division, and later, in 1828, collector +of taxes in a Paris arrondissement. He also received the cross of the +Legion of honor, to enable him to put his daughter at the royal school +of Saint-Denis. The half-scholarship obtained by Keller for the eldest +boy, Charles, was transferred to the second in 1830, when Charles +entered the school of Saint-Louis on a full scholarship. The third +son, taken under the protection of Madame la Dauphine, was provided +with a three-quarter scholarship in the Henri IV. school. + +In 1830 Colleville, who had the good fortune not to lose a child, was +obliged, owing to his well-known attachment to the fallen royal +family, to send in his resignation; but he was clever enough to make a +bargain for it,--obtaining in exchange a pension of two thousand four +hundred francs, based on his period of service, and ten thousand +francs indemnity paid by his successor; he also received the rank of +officer of the Legion of honor. Nevertheless, he found himself in +rather a cramped condition when Mademoiselle Thuillier, in 1832, +advised him to come and live near them; pointing out to him the +possibility of obtaining some position in the mayor's office, which, +in fact, he did obtain a few weeks later, at a salary of three +thousand francs. Thus Thuillier and Colleville were destined to end +their days together. In 1833 Madame Colleville, then thirty-five years +old, settled herself in the rue d'Enfer, at the corner of the rue des +Deux-Eglises with Celeste and little Theodore, the other boys being at +their several schools. Colleville was equidistant between the mayor's +office and the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer. Thus the household, after +a brilliant, gay, headlong, reformed, and calmed existence, subsided +finally into bourgeois obscurity with five thousand four hundred +francs a year for its sole dependence. + +Celeste was by this time twelve years of age, and she promised to be +pretty. She needed masters, and her education ought to cost not less +than two thousand francs a year. The mother felt the necessity of +keeping her under the eye of her godfather and godmother. She +therefore very willingly adopted the proposal of Mademoiselle +Thuillier, who, without committing herself to any engagement, allowed +Madame Colleville to understand that the fortunes of her brother, his +wife, and herself would go, ultimately, to the little Celeste. The +child had been left at Auteuil until she was seven years of age, +adored by the good old Madame Lemprun, who died in 1829, leaving +twenty thousand francs, and a house which was sold for the enormous +sum of twenty-eight thousand. The lively little girl had seen very +little of her mother, but very much of Mademoiselle and Madame +Thuillier when she first returned to the paternal mansion in 1829; but +in 1833 she fell under the dominion of Flavie, who was then, as we +have said, endeavoring to do her duty, which, like other women +instigated by remorse, she exaggerated. Without being an unkind +mother, Flavie was very stern with her daughter. She remembered her +own bringing-up, and swore within herself to make Celeste a virtuous +woman. She took her to mass, and had her prepared for her first +communion by a rector who has since become a bishop. Celeste was all +the more readily pious, because her godmother, Madame Thuillier, was a +saint, and the child adored her; she felt that the poor neglected +woman loved her better than her own mother. + +From 1833 to 1840 she received a brilliant education according to the +ideas of the bourgeoisie. The best music-masters made her a fair +musician; she could paint a water-color properly; she danced extremely +well; and she had studied the French language, history, geography, +English, Italian,--in short, all that constitutes the education of a +well-brought-up young lady. Of medium height, rather plump, +unfortunately near-sighted, she was neither plain nor pretty; not +without delicacy or even brilliancy of complexion, it is true, but +totally devoid of all distinction of manner. She had a great fund of +reserved sensibility, and her godfather and godmother, Mademoiselle +Thuillier and Colleville, were unanimous on one point,--the great +resource of mothers--namely, that Celeste was capable of attachment. +One of her beauties was a magnificent head of very fine blond hair; +but her hands and feet showed her bourgeois origin. + +Celeste endeared herself by precious qualities; she was kind, simple, +without gall of any kind; she loved her father and mother, and would +willingly sacrifice herself for their sake. Brought up to the deepest +admiration for her godfather by Brigitte (who taught her to say "Aunt +Brigitte"), and by Madame Thuillier and her own mother, Celeste +imbibed the highest idea of the ex-beau of the Empire. The house in +the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer produced upon her very much the effect +of the Chateau des Tuileries on a courtier of the new dynasty. + +Thuillier had not escaped the action of the administrative rolling-pin +which thins the mind as it spreads it out. Exhausted by irksome toil, +as much as by his life of gallantry, the ex-sub-director had well-nigh +lost all his faculties by the time he came to live in the rue +Saint-Dominique. But his weary face, on which there still reigned an +air of imperial haughtiness, mingled with a certain contentment, the +conceit of an upper official, made a deep impression upon Celeste. She +alone adored that haggard face. The girl, moreover, felt herself to be +the happiness of the Thuillier household. + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE CIRCLE OF MONSIEUR AND MADAME THUILLIER + +The Collevilles and their children became, naturally, the nucleus of +the circle which Mademoiselle Thuillier had the ambition to group +around her brother. A former clerk in the Billardiere division of the +ministry, named Phellion, had lived for the last thirty years in their +present quarter. He was promptly greeted by Colleville and Thuillier +at the first review. Phellion proved to be one of the most respected +men in the arrondissement. He had one daughter, now married to a +school-teacher in the rue Saint-Hyacinthe, a Monsieur Barniol. +Phellion's eldest son was a professor of mathematics in a royal +college; he gave lectures and private lessons, being devoted, so his +father was wont to say, to pure mathematics. A second son was in the +government School of Engineering. Phellion had a pension of nine +hundred francs, and he possessed a little property of nine thousand +and a few odd hundred francs; the fruit of his economy and that of his +wife during thirty years of toil and privation. He was, moreover, the +owner of a little house and garden where he lived in the "impasse" des +Feuillantines,--in thirty years he had never used the old-fashioned +word "cul-de-sac"! + +Dutocq, the clerk of the justice of peace, was also a former employee +at the ministry of finance. Sacrificed, in former days, to one of +those necessities which are always met with in representative +government, he had accepted the position of scapegoat, receiving, +privately, a round sum of money and the opportunity to buy his present +post of clerk in the arrondissement. This man, not very honorable, and +known to be a spy in the government offices, was never welcomed as he +thought he ought to be by the Thuilliers; but the coldness of his +landlords only made him the more persistent in going to see them. He +was a bachelor and had various vices; he therefore concealed his life +carefully, knowing well how to maintain his position by flattering his +superiors. The justice of peace was much attached to Dutocq. This man, +base as he was, managed, in the end, to make himself tolerated by the +Thuilliers, chiefly by coarse and cringing adulation. He knew the +facts of Thuillier's whole life, his relations with Colleville, and, +above all, with Madame Colleville. One and all they feared his tongue, +and the Thuilliers, without admitting him to any intimacy, endured his +visits. + +The family which became the flower of the Thuillier salon was that of +a former ministerial clerk, once an object of pity in the government +offices, who, driven by poverty, left the public service, in 1827, to +fling himself into a business enterprise, having, as he thought, an +idea. Minard (that was his name) foresaw a fortune in one of those +wicked conceptions which reflect such discredit on French commerce, +but which, in the year 1827, had not yet been exposed and blasted by +publicity. Minard bought tea and mixed it with tea-leaves already +used; also he adulterated the elements of chocolate in a manner which +enabled him to sell the chocolate itself very cheaply. This trade in +colonial products, begun in the quartier Saint-Marcel, made a merchant +of Minard. He started a factory, and through these early connections +he was able to reach the sources of raw material. He then did +honorably, and on a large scale, a business begun in the first +instance dishonorably. He became a distiller, worked upon untold +quantities of products, and, by the year 1835, was considered the +richest merchant in the region of the Place Maubert. By that time he +had bought a handsome house in the rue des Macons-Sorbonne; he had +been assistant mayor, and in 1839 became mayor of his arrondissement +and judge in the Court of Commerce. He kept a carriage, had a +country-place near Lagny; his wife wore diamonds at the court balls, +and he prided himself on the rosette of an officer of the Legion of +honor in his buttonhole. + +Minard and his wife were exceedingly benevolent. Perhaps he wished to +return in retail to the poor the sums he had mulcted from the public +by the wholesale. Phellion, Colleville, and Thuillier met their old +comrade, Minard, at election, and an intimacy followed; all the closer +with the Thuilliers and Collevilles because Madame Minard seemed +enchanted to make an acquaintance for her daughter in Celeste +Colleville. It was at a grand ball given by the Minards that Celeste +made her first appearance in society (being at that time sixteen and a +half years old), dressed as her Christian named demanded, which seemed +to be prophetic of her coming life. Delighted to be friendly with +Mademoiselle Minard, her elder by four years, she persuaded her father +and godfather to cultivate the Minard establishment, with its gilded +salons and great opulence, where many political celebrities of the +"juste milieu" were wont to congregate, such as Monsieur Popinot, who +became, after a time, minister of commerce; Cochin, since made Baron +Cochin, a former employee at the ministry of finance, who, having a +large interest in the drug business, was now the oracle of the Lombard +and Bourdonnais quarters, conjointly with Monsieur Anselme Popinot. +Minard's eldest son, a lawyer, aiming to succeed those barristers who +were turned down from the Palais for political reasons in 1830, was +the genius of the household, and his mother, even more than his +father, aspired to marry him well. Zelie Minard, formerly a +flower-maker, felt an ardent passion for the upper social spheres, and +desired to enter them through the marriages of her son and daughter; +whereas Minard, wiser than she, and imbued with the vigor of the +middle classes, which the revolution of July had infiltrated into the +fibres of government, thought only of wealth and fortune. + +He frequented the Thuillier salon to gain information as to Celeste's +probable inheritance. He knew, like Dutocq and Phellion, the reports +occasioned by Thuillier's former intimacy with Flavie, and he saw at a +glance the idolatry of the Thuilliers for their godchild. Dutocq, to +gain admittance to Minard's house, fawned upon him grossly. When +Minard, the Rothschild of the arrondissement, appeared at the +Thuilliers', he compared him cleverly to Napoleon, finding him stout, +fat, and blooming, having left him at the ministry thin, pale, and +puny. + +"You looked, in the division Billardiere," he said, "like Napoleon +before the 18th Brumaire, and I behold you now the Napoleon of the +Empire." + +Notwithstanding which flattery, Minard received Dutocq very coldly and +did not invite him to his house; consequently, he made a mortal enemy +of the former clerk. + +Monsieur and Madame Phellion, worthy as they were, could not keep +themselves from making calculations and cherishing hopes; they thought +that Celeste would be the very wife for their son the professor; +therefore, to have, as it were, a watcher in the Thuillier salon, they +introduced their son-in-law, Monsieur Barniol, a man much respected in +the faubourg Saint-Jacques, and also an old employee at the mayor's +office, an intimate friend of theirs, named Laudigeois. Thus the +Phellions formed a phalanx of seven persons; the Collevilles were not +less numerous; so that on Sundays it often appeared that thirty +persons were assembled in the Thuillier salon. Thuillier renewed +acquaintance with the Saillards, Baudoyers, and Falleixs,--all persons +of respectability in the quarter of the Palais-Royal, whom they often +invited to dinner. + +Madame Colleville was, as a woman, the most distinguished member of +this society, just as Minard junior and Professor Phellion were +superior among the men. All the others, without ideas or education, +and issuing from the lower ranks, presented the types and the +absurdities of the lesser bourgeoisie. Though all success, especially +if won from distant sources, seems to presuppose some genuine merit, +Minard was really an inflated balloon. Expressing himself in empty +phrases, mistaking sycophancy for politeness, and wordiness for wit, +he uttered his commonplaces with a brisk assurance that passed for +eloquence. Certain words which said nothing but answered all things, +--progress, steam, bitumen, National guard, order, democratic element, +spirit of association, legality, movement, resistance,--seemed, as +each political phase developed, to have been actually made for Minard, +whose talk was a paraphrase on the ideas of his newspaper. Julien +Minard, the young lawyer, suffered from his father as much as his +father suffered from his wife. Zelie had grown pretentious with +wealth, without, at the same time, learning to speak French. She was +now very fat, and gave the idea, in her rich surroundings, of a cook +married to her master. + +Phellion, that type and model of the petty bourgeois, exhibited as +many virtues as he did absurdities. Accustomed to subordination during +his bureaucratic life, he respected all social superiority. He was +therefore silent before Minard. During the critical period of +retirement from office, he had held his own admirably, for the +following reason. Never until now had that worthy and excellent man +been able to indulge his own tastes. He loved the city of Paris; he +was interested in its embellishment, in the laying out of its streets; +he was capable of standing for hours to watch the demolition of +houses. He might now have been observed, stolidly planted on his legs, +his nose in the air, watching for the fall of a stone which some mason +was loosening at the top of a wall, and never moving till the stone +fell; when it had fallen he went away as happy as an academician at +the fall of a romantic drama. Veritable supernumeraries of the social +comedy, Phellion, Laudigeois, and their kind, fulfilled the functions +of the antique chorus. They wept when weeping was in order, laughed +when they should laugh, and sang in parts the public joys and sorrows; +they triumphed in their corner with the triumphs of Algiers, of +Constantine, of Lisbon, of Sainte-Jean d'Ulloa; they deplored the +death of Napoleon and the fatal catastrophes of the Saint-Merri and +the rue Transnonnain, grieving over celebrated men who were utterly +unknown to them. Phellion alone presents a double side: he divides +himself conscientiously between the reasons of the opposition and +those of the government. When fighting went on in the streets, +Phellion had the courage to declare himself before his neighbors; he +went to the Place Saint-Michel, the place where his battalion +assembled; he felt for the government and did his duty. Before and +during the riot, he supported the dynasty, the product of July; but, +as soon as the political trials began, he stood by the accused. This +innocent "weather-cockism" prevails in his political opinions; he +produces, in reply to all arguments, the "colossus of the North." +England is, to his thinking, as to that of the old "Constitutionnel," +a crone with two faces,--Machiavellian Albion, and the model nation: +Machiavellian, when the interests of France and of Napoleon are +concerned; the model nation when the faults of the government are in +question. He admits, with his chosen paper, the democratic element, +but refuses in conversation all compact with the republican spirit. +The republican spirit to him means 1793, rioting, the Terror, and +agrarian law. The democratic element is the development of the lesser +bourgeoisie, the reign of Phellions. + +The worthy old man is always dignified; dignity serves to explain his +life. He has brought up his children with dignity; he has kept himself +a father in their eyes; he insists on being honored in his home, just +as he himself honors power and his superiors. He has never made debts. +As a juryman his conscience obliges him to sweat blood and water in +the effort to follow the debates of a trial; he never laughs, not even +if the judge, and audience, and all the officials laugh. Eminently +useful, he gives his services, his time, everything--except his money. +Felix Phellion, his son, the professor, is his idol; he thinks him +capable of attaining to the Academy of Sciences. Thuillier, between +the audacious nullity of Minard, and the solid silliness of Phellion, +was a neutral substance, but connected with both through his dismal +experience. He managed to conceal the emptiness of his brain by +commonplace talk, just as he covered the yellow skin of his bald pate +with thready locks of his gray hair, brought from the back of his head +with infinite art by the comb of his hairdresser. + +"In any other career," he was wont to say, speaking of the government +employ, "I should have made a very different fortune." + +He had seen the _right_, which is possible in theory and impossible in +practice,--results proving contrary to premises,--and he related the +intrigues and the injustices of the Rabourdin affair. + +"After that, one can believe all, and believe nothing," he would say. +"Ah! it is a queer thing, government! I'm very glad not to have a son, +and never to see him in the career of a place-hunter." + +Colleville, ever gay, rotund, and good-humored, a sayer of +"quodlibets," a maker of anagrams, always busy, represented the +capable and bantering bourgeois, with faculty without success, +obstinate toil without result; he was also the embodiment of jovial +resignation, mind without object, art with usefulness, for, excellent +musician that he was, he never played now except for his daughter. + +The Thuillier salon was in some sort a provincial salon, lighted, +however, by continual flashes from the Parisian conflagration; its +mediocrity and its platitudes followed the current of the times. The +popular saying and thing (for in Paris the thing and its saying are +like the horse and its rider) ricochetted, so to speak, to this +company. Monsieur Minard was always impatiently expected, for he was +certain to know the truth of important circumstances. The women of the +Thuillier salon held by the Jesuits; the men defended the University; +and, as a general thing, the women listened. A man of intelligence +(could he have borne the dulness of these evenings) would have +laughed, as he would at a comedy of Moliere, on hearing, amid endless +discussion, such remarks as the following:-- + +"How could the Revolution of 1789 have been avoided? The loans of +Louis XIV. prepared the way for it. Louis XV., an egotist, a man of +narrow mind (didn't he say, 'If I were lieutenant of police I would +suppress cabriolets'?), that dissolute king--you remember his Parc aux +Cerfs?--did much to open the abyss of revolution. Monsieur de Necker, +an evil-minded Genovese, set the thing a-going. Foreigners have always +tried to injure France. The maximum did great harm to the Revolution. +Legally Louis XVI. should never have been condemned; a jury would have +acquitted him. Why did Charles X. fall? Napoleon was a great man, and +the facts that prove his genius are anecdotal: he took five pinches of +snuff a minute out of a pocket lined with leather made in his +waistcoat. He looked into all his tradesmen's accounts; he went to +Saint-Denis to judge for himself the prices of things. Talma was his +friend; Talma taught him his gestures; nevertheless, he always refused +to give Talma the Legion of honor! The emperor mounted guard for a +sentinel who went to sleep, to save him from being shot. Those were +the things that made his soldiers adore him. Louis XVIII., who +certainly had some sense, was very unjust in calling him Monsieur de +Buonaparte. The defect of the present government is in letting itself +be led instead of leading. It holds itself too low. It is afraid of +men of energy. It ought to have torn up all the treaties of 1815 and +demanded the Rhine. They keep the same men too long in the ministry"; +etc., etc. + +"Come, you've exerted your minds long enough," said Mademoiselle +Thuillier, interrupting one of these luminous talks; "the altar is +dressed; begin your little game." + +If these anterior facts and all these generalities were not placed +here as the frame of the present Scene, to give an idea of the spirit +of this society, the following drama would certainly have suffered +greatly. Moreover, this sketch is historically faithful; it shows a +social stratum of importance in any portrayal of manners and morals, +especially when we reflect that the political system of the Younger +branch rests almost wholly upon it. + +The winter of the year 1839 was, it may be said, the period when the +Thuillier salon was in its greatest glory. The Minards came nearly +every Sunday, and began their evening by spending an hour there, if +they had other engagements elsewhere. Often Minard would leave his +wife at the Thuilliers and take his son and daughter to other houses. +This assiduity on the part of the Minards was brought about by a +somewhat tardy meeting between Messieurs Metivier, Barbet, and Minard +on an evening when the two former, being tenants of Mademoiselle +Thuillier, remained rather longer than usual in discussing business +with her. From Barbet, Minard learned that the old maid had money +transactions with himself and Metivier to the amount of sixty thousand +francs, besides having a large deposit in the Bank. + +"Has she an account at the Bank?" asked Minard. + +"I believe so," replied Barbet. "I give her at least eighty thousand +francs there." + +Being on intimate terms with a governor of the Bank, Minard +ascertained that Mademoiselle Thuillier had, in point of fact, an +account of over two hundred thousand francs, the result of her +quarterly deposits for many years. Besides this, she owned the house +they lived in, which was not mortgaged, and was worth at least one +hundred thousand francs, if not more. + +"Why should Mademoiselle Thuillier work in this way?" said Minard to +Metivier. "She'd be a good match for you," he added. + +"I? oh, no," replied Metivier. "I shall do better by marrying a +cousin; my uncle Metivier has given me the succession to his business; +he has a hundred thousand francs a year and only two daughters." + +However secretive Mademoiselle Thuillier might be,--and she said +nothing of her investments to any one, not even to her brother, +although a large amount of Madame Thuillier's fortune went to swell +the amount of her own savings,--it was difficult to prevent some ray +of light from gliding under the bushel which covered her treasure. + +Dutocq, who frequented Barbet, with whom he had some resemblance in +character and countenance, had appraised, even more correctly than +Minard, the Thuillier finances. He knew that their savings amounted, +in 1838, to one hundred and fifty thousand francs, and he followed +their progress secretly, calculating profits by the help of that +all-wise money-lender, Barbet. + +"Celeste will have from my brother and myself two hundred thousand +francs in ready money," the old maid had said to Barbet in confidence, +"and Madame Thuillier wishes to secure to her by the marriage contract +the ultimate possession of her own fortune. As for me, my will is +made. My brother will have everything during his lifetime, and Celeste +will be my heiress with that reservation. Monsieur Cardot, the notary, +is my executor." + +Mademoiselle Thuillier now instigated her brother to renew his former +relations with the Saillards, Baudoyers, and others, who held a +position similar to that of the Thuilliers in the quartier +Saint-Antoine, of which Monsieur Saillard was mayor. Cardot, the notary, +had produced his aspirant for Celeste's hand in the person of Monsieur +Godeschal, attorney and successor to Derville; an able man, thirty-six +years of age, who had paid one hundred thousand francs for his +practice, which the two hundred thousand of the "dot" would doubly +clear off. Minard, however, got rid of Godeschal by informing +Mademoiselle Thuillier that Celeste's sister-in-law would be the +famous Mariette of the Opera. + +"She came from the stage," said Colleville, alluding to his wife, "and +there's no need she should return to it." + +"Besides, Monsieur Godeschal is too old for Celeste," remarked +Brigitte. + +"And ought we not," added Madame Thuillier, timidly, "to let her marry +according to her own taste, so as to be happy?" + +The poor woman had detected in Felix Phellion a true love for Celeste; +the love that a woman crushed by Brigitte and wounded by her husband's +indifference (for Thuillier cared less for his wife than he did for a +servant) had dreamed that love might be,--bold in heart, timid +externally, sure of itself, reserved, hidden from others, but +expanding toward heaven. At twenty-three years of age, Felix Phellion +was a gentle, pure-minded young man, like all true scholars who +cultivate knowledge for knowledge's sake. He had been sacredly brought +up by his father, who, viewing all things seriously, had given him +none but good examples accompanied by trivial maxims. He was a young +man of medium height, with light chestnut hair, gray eyes, and a skin +full of freckles; gifted with a charming voice, a tranquil manner; +making few gestures; thoughtful, saying little, and that little +sensible; contradicting no one, and quite incapable of a sordid +thought or a selfish calculation. + +"That," thought Madame Thuillier, "is what I should have liked my +husband to be." + +One evening, in the month of February, 1840, the Thuillier salon +contained the various personages whose silhouettes we have just traced +out, together with some others. It was nearly the end of the month. +Barbet and Metivier having business with mademoiselle Brigitte, were +playing whist with Minard and Phellion. at another table were Julien +the advocate (a nickname given by Colleville to young Minard), Madame +Colleville, Monsieur Barniol, and Madame Phellion. "Bouillotte," at +five sous a stake, occupied Madame Minard, who knew no other game, +Colleville, old Monsieur Saillard, and Bandoze, his son-in-law. The +substitutes were Laudigeois and Dutocq. Mesdames Falleix, Baudoyer, +Barniol, and Mademoiselle Minard were playing boston, and Celeste was +sitting beside Prudence Minard. Young Phellion was listening to Madame +Thuillier and looking at Celeste. + +At a corner of the fireplace sat enthroned on a sofa the Queen +Elizabeth of the family, as simply dressed as she had been for the +last thirty years; for no prosperity could have made her change her +habits. She wore on her chinchilla hair a black gauze cap, adorned +with the geranium called Charles X.; her gown, of plum-colored stuff, +made with a yoke, cost fifteen francs, her embroidered collarette was +worth six, and it ill disguised the deep wrinkle produced by the two +muscles which fastened the head to the vertebral column. The actor, +Monvel, playing Augustus Caesar in his old age, did not present a +harder and sterner profile than that of this female autocrat, knitting +socks for her brother. Before the fireplace stood Thuillier in an +attitude, ready to go forward and meet the arriving guests; near him +was a young man whose entrance had produced a great effect, when the +porter (who on Sundays wore his best clothes and waited on the +company) announced Monsieur Olivier Vinet. + +A private communication made by Cardot to the celebrated +"procureur-general," father of this young man, was the cause of his +visit. Olivier Vinet had just been promoted from the court of +Arcis-sur-Aube to that of the Seine, where he now held the post of +substitute "procureur-de-roi." Cardot had already invited Thuillier +and the elder Vinet, who was likely to become minister of justice, +with his son, to dine with him. The notary estimated the fortunes +which would eventually fall to Celeste at seven hundred thousand +francs. Vinet junior appeared charmed to obtain the right to visit +the Thuilliers on Sundays. Great dowries make men commit great and +unbecoming follies without reserve or decency in these days. + +Ten minutes later another young man, who had been talking with +Thuillier before the arrival of Olivier Vinet, raised his voice +eagerly, in a political discussion, and forced the young magistrate to +follow his example in the vivacious argument which now ensued. The +matter related to the vote by which the Chamber of Deputies had just +overthrown the ministry of the 12th of May, refusing the allowance +demanded for the Duc de Nemours. + +"Assuredly," said the young man, "I am far from belonging to the +dynastic party; I am very far from approving of the rise of the +bourgeoisie to power. The bourgeoisie ought not, any more than the +aristocracy of other days, to assume to be the whole nation. But the +French bourgeoisie has now taken upon itself to create a new dynasty, +a royalty of its own, and behold how it treats it! When the people +allowed Napoleon to rise to power, it created with him a splendid and +monumental state of things; it was proud of his grandeur; and it nobly +gave its blood and sweat in building up the edifice of the Empire. +Between the magnificence of the aristocratic throne and those of the +imperial purple, between the great of the earth and the People, the +bourgeoisie is proving itself petty; it degrades power to its own +level instead of rising up to it. The saving of candle-ends it has so +long practised behind its counters, it now seeks to impose on its +princes. What may perhaps have been virtue in its shops is a blunder +and a crime higher up. I myself have wanted many things for the +people, but I never should have begun by lopping off ten millions of +francs from the new civil list. In becoming, as it were, nearly the +whole of France, the bourgeoisie owed to us the prosperity of the +people, splendor without ostentation, grandeur without privilege." + +The father of Olivier Vinet was just now sulking with the government. +The robe of Keeper of the Seals, which had been his dream, was slow in +coming to him. The young substitute did not, therefore, know exactly +how to answer this speech; he thought it wise to enlarge on one of its +side issues. + +"You are right, monsieur," said Olivier Vinet. "But, before +manifesting itself magnificently, the bourgeoisie has other duties to +fulfil towards France. The luxury you speak of should come after duty. +That which seems to you so blameable is the necessity of the moment. +The Chamber is far from having its full share in public affairs; the +ministers are less for France than they are for the crown, and +parliament has determined that the administration shall have, as in +England, a strength and power of its own, and not a mere borrowed +power. The day on which the administration can act for itself, and +represent the Chamber as the Chamber represents the country, +parliament will be found very liberal toward the crown. The whole +question is there. I state it without expressing my own opinion, for +the duties of my post demand, in politics, a certain fealty to the +crown." + +"Setting aside the political question," replied the young man, whose +voice and accent were those of a native of Provence, "it is certainly +true that the bourgeoisie has ill understood its mission. We can see, +any day, the great law officers, attorney-generals, peers of France in +omnibuses, judges who live on their salaries, prefects without +fortunes, ministers in debt! Whereas the bourgeoisie, who have seized +upon those offices, ought to dignify them, as in the olden time when +aristocracy dignified them, and not occupy such posts solely for the +purpose of making their fortune, as scandalous disclosures have +proved." + +"Who is this young man?" thought Olivier Vinet. "Is he a relative? +Cardot ought to have come with me on this first visit." + +"Who is that little monsieur?" asked Minard of Barbet. "I have seen +him here several times." + +"He is a tenant," replied Metivier, shuffling the cards. + +"A lawyer," added Barbet, in a low voice, "who occupies a small +apartment on the third floor front. Oh! _He_ doesn't amount to much; he +has nothing." + +"What is the name of that young man?" said Olivier Vinet to Thuillier. + +"Theodose de la Peyrade; he is a barrister," replied Thuillier, in a +whisper. + +At that moment the women present, as well as the men, looked at the +two young fellows, and Madame Minard remarked to Colleville:-- + +"He is rather good-looking, that stranger." + +"I have made his anagram," replied Colleville, "and his name, +Charles-Marie-Theodose de la Peyrade, prophecies: 'Eh! monsieur +payera, de la dot, des oies et le char.' Therefore, my dear Mamma +Minard, be sure you don't give him your daughter." + +"They say that young man is better-looking than my son," said Madame +Phellion to Madame Colleville. "What do you think about it?" + +"Oh! in the matter of physical beauty a woman might hesitate before +choosing," replied Madame Colleville. + +At that moment it occurred to young Vinet as he looked round the +salon, so full of the lesser bourgeoisie, that it might be a shrewd +thing to magnify that particular class; and he thereupon enlarged upon +the meaning of the young Provencal barrister, declaring that men so +honored by the confidence of the government should imitate royalty and +encourage a magnificence surpassing that of the former court. It was +folly, he said, to lay by the emoluments of an office. Besides, could +it be done, in Paris especially, where costs of living had trebled, +--the apartment of a magistrate, for instance, costing three thousand +francs a year? + +"My father," he said in conclusion, "allows me three thousand francs a +year, and that, with my salary, barely allows me to maintain my rank." + +When the young substitute rode boldly into this bog-hole, the +Provencal, who had slyly enticed him there, exchanged, without being +observed, a wink with Dutocq, who was just then waiting for the place +of a player at bouillotte. + +"There is such a demand for offices," remarked the latter, "that they +talk of creating two justices of the peace to each arrondissement in +order to make a dozen new clerkships. As if they could interfere with +our rights and our salaries, which already require an exhorbitant +tax!" + +"I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing you at the Palais," said +Vinet to Monsieur de la Peyrade. + +"I am advocate for the poor, and I plead only before the justice of +peace," replied la Peyrade. + +Mademoiselle Thuillier, as she listened to young Vinet's theory of the +necessity of spending an income, assumed a distant air and manner, the +significance of which was well understood by Dutocq and the young +Provencal. Vinet left the house in company with Minard and Julien the +advocate, so that the battle-field before the fire-place was abandoned +to la Peyrade and Dutocq. + +"The upper bourgeoisie," said Dutocq to Thuillier, "will behave, in +future, exactly like the old aristocracy. The nobility wanted girls +with money to manure their lands, and the parvenus of to-day want the +same to feather their nests." + +"That's exactly what Monsieur Thuillier was saying to me this +morning," remarked la Peyrade, boldly. + +"Vinet's father," said Dutocq, "married a Demoiselle de Chargeboeuf +and has caught the opinions of the nobility; he wants a fortune at any +price; his wife spends money regally." + +"Oh!" said Thuillier, in whom the jealousy between the two classes of +the bourgeoisie was fully roused, "take offices away from those +fellows and they'd fall back where they came." + +Mademoiselle was knitting with such precipitous haste that she seemed +to be propelled by a steam-engine. + +"Take my place, Monsieur Dutocq," said Madame Minard, rising. "My feet +are cold," she added, going to the fire, where the golden ornaments of +her turban made fireworks in the light of the Saint-Aurora wax-candles +that were struggling vainly to light the vast salon. + +"He is very small fry, that young substitute," said Madame Minard, +glancing at Mademoiselle Thuillier. + +"Small fry!" cried la Peyrade. "Ah, madame! how witty!" + +"But madame has so long accustomed us to that sort of thing," said the +handsome Thuillier. + +Madame Colleville was examining la Peyrade and comparing him with +young Phellion, who was just then talking to Celeste, neither of them +paying any heed to what was going on around them. This is, certainly, +the right moment to depict the singular personage who was destined to +play a signal part in the Thuillier household, and who fully deserves +the appellation of a great artist. + + + + CHAPTER V + + A PRINCIPAL PERSONAGE + +There exists in Provence, especially about Avignon, a race of men with +blond or chestnut hair, fair skin, and eyes that are almost tender, +their pupils calm, feeble, or languishing, rather than keen, ardent, +or profound, as they usually are in the eyes of Southerners. Let us +remark, in passing, that among Corsicans, a race subject to fits of +anger and dangerous irascibility, we often meet with fair skins and +physical natures of the same apparent tranquillity. These pale men, +rather stout, with somewhat dim and hazy eyes either green or blue, +are the worst species of humanity in Provence; and +Charles-Marie-Theodose de la Peyrade presents a fine type of that race, +the constitution of which deserves careful examination on the part of +medical science and philosophical physiology. There rises, at times, +within such men, a species of bile,--a bitter gall, which flies to +their head and makes them capable of ferocious actions, done, +apparently, in cold blood. Being the result of an inward intoxication, +this sort of dumb violence seems to be irreconcilable with their +quasi-lymphatic outward man, and the tranquillity of their benignant +glance. + +Born in the neighborhood of Avignon, the young Provencal whose name we +have just mentioned was of middle height, well-proportioned, and +rather stout; the tone of his skin had no brilliancy; it was neither +livid nor dead-white, nor colored, but gelatinous,--that word can +alone give a true idea of the flabby, hueless envelope, beneath which +were concealed nerves that were less vigorous than capable of enormous +resistance at certain given moments. His eyes, of a pale cold blue, +expressed in their ordinary condition a species of deceptive sadness, +which must have had great charms for women. The forehead, finely cut, +was not without dignity, and it harmonized well with the soft, light +chestnut hair curling naturally, but slightly, at its tips. The nose, +precisely like that of a hunting dog, flat and furrowed at the tip, +inquisitive, intelligent, searching, always on the scent, instead of +expressing good-humor, was ironical and mocking; but this particular +aspect of his nature never showed itself openly; the young man must +have ceased to watch himself, he must have flown into fury before the +power came to him to flash out the sarcasm and the wit which +embittered, tenfold, his infernal humor. The mouth, the curving lines +and pomegranate-colored lips of which were very pleasing, seemed the +admirable instrument of an organ that was almost sweet in its middle +tones, where its owner usually kept it, but which, in its higher key, +vibrated on the ear like the sound of a gong. This falsetto was the +voice of his nerves and his anger. His face, kept expressionless by an +inward command, was oval in form. His manners, in harmony with the +sacerdotal calmness of the face, were reserved and conventional; but +he had supple, pliant ways which, though they never descended to +wheedling, were not lacking in seduction; although as soon as his back +was turned their charm seemed inexplicable. Charm, when it takes its +rise in the heart, leaves deep and lasting traces; that which is +merely a product of art, or of eloquence, has only a passing power; it +produces its immediate effect, and that is all. But how many +philosophers are there in life who are able to distinguish the +difference? Almost always the trick is played (to use a popular +expression) before the ordinary run of men have perceived its methods. + +Everything about this young man of twenty-seven was in harmony with +his character; he obeyed his vocation by cultivating philanthropy, +--the only expression which explains the philanthropist. Theodose +loved the People, for he limited his love for humanity. Like the +horticulturist who devotes himself to roses, or dahlias, or +heart's-ease, or geraniums, and pays no attention to the plants his +fancy has not selected, so this young La Rochefoucault-Liancourt gave +himself to the workingmen, the proletariat and the paupers of the +faubourgs Saint-Jacques and Saint-Marceau. The strong man, the man of +genius at bay, the worthy poor of the bourgeois class, he cut them off +from the bosom of his charity. The heart of all persons with a mania +is like those boxes with compartments, in which sugarplums are kept in +sorts: "suum cuique tribuere" is their motto; they measure to each duty +its dose. There are some philanthropists who pity nothing but the man +condemned to death. Vanity is certainly the basis of philanthropy; but +in the case of this Provencal it was calculation, a predetermined +course, a "liberal" and democratic hypocrisy, played with a perfection +that no other actor will ever attain. + +Theodose did not attack the rich; he contented himself with not +understanding them; he endured them; every one, in his opinion, ought +to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He had been, he said, a fervent +disciple of Saint-Simon, but that mistake must be attributed to his +youth: modern society could have no other basis than heredity. An +ardent Catholic, like all men from the Comtat, he went to the earliest +morning masses, and thus concealed his piety. Like other +philanthropists, he practised a sordid economy, and gave to the poor +his time, his legal advice, his eloquence, and such money as he +extracted for them from the rich. His clothes, always of black cloth, +were worn until the seams became white. Nature had done a great deal +for Theodose in not giving him that fine manly Southern beauty which +creates in others an imaginary expectation, to which it is more than +difficult for a man to respond. As it was, he could be what suited him +at the moment,--an agreeable man or a very ordinary one. Never, since +his admission to the Thuilliers', had he ventured, till this evening, +to raise his voice and speak as dogmatically as he had risked doing to +Olivier Vinet; but perhaps Theodose de la Peyrade was not sorry to +seize the opportunity to come out from the shade in which he had +hitherto kept himself. Besides, it was necessary to get rid of the +young substitute, just as the Minards had previously ruined the hopes +of Monsieur Godeschal. Like all superior men (for he certainly had +some superiority), Vinet had never lowered himself to the point where +the threads of these bourgeois spider-webs became visible to him, and +he had therefore plunged, like a fly, headforemost, into the almost +invisible trap to which Theodose inveigled him. + +To complete this portrait of the poor man's lawyer we must here relate +the circumstances of his first arrival at the Thuilliers'. + +Theodose came to lodge in Mademoiselle Thuillier's house toward the +close of the year 1837. He had taken his degree about five years +earlier, and had kept the proper number of terms to become a +barrister. Circumstances, however, about which he said nothing, had +interfered to prevent his being called to the bar; he was, therefore, +still a licentiate. But soon after he was installed in the little +apartment on the third floor, with the furniture rigorously required +by all members of his noble profession,--for the guild of barristers +admits no brother unless he has a suitable study, a legal library, and +can thus, as it were, verify his claims,--Theodose de la Peyrade began +to practise as a barrister before the Royal Court of Paris. + +The whole of the year 1838 was employed in making this change in his +condition, and he led a most regular life. He studied at home in the +mornings till dinner-time, going sometimes to the Palais for important +cases. Having become very intimate with Dutocq (so Dutocq said), he +did certain services to the poor of the faubourg Saint-Jacques who +were brought to his notice by that official. He pleaded their cases +before the court, after bringing them to the notice of the attorneys, +who, according to the statutes of their order, are obliged to take +turns in doing business for the poor. As Theodose was careful to plead +only safe cases, he won them all. Those persons whom he thus obliged +expressed their gratitude and their admiration, in spite of the young +lawyer's admonitions, among their own class, and to the porters of +private houses, through whom many anecdotes rose to the ears of the +proprietors. Delighted to have in their house a tenant so worthy and +so charitable, the Thuilliers wished to attract him to their salon, +and they questioned Dutocq about him. The mayor's clerk replied as the +envious reply; while doing justice to the young man he dwelt on his +remarkable avarice, which might, however, be the effect of poverty. + +"I have had other information about him. He belongs to the Peyrades, +an old family of the 'comtat' of Avignon; he came here toward the end +of 1829, to inquire about an uncle whose fortune was said to be +considerable; he discovered the address of the old man only three days +before his death; and the furniture of the deceased merely sufficed to +bury him and pay his debts. A friend of this useless uncle gave a +couple of hundred louis to the poor fortune-hunter, advising him to +finish his legal studies and enter the judiciary career. Those two +hundred louis supported him for three years in Paris, where he lived +like an anchorite. But being unable to discover his unknown friend and +benefactor, the poor student was in abject distress in 1833. He worked +then, like so many other licentiates, in politics and literature, by +which he kept himself for a time above want--for he had nothing to +expect from his family. His father, the youngest brother of the dead +uncle, has eleven other children, who live on a small estate called +Les Canquoelles. He finally obtained a place on a ministerial +newspaper, the manager of which was the famous Cerizet, so celebrated +for the persecutions he met with, under the Restoration, on account of +his attachment to the liberals,--a man whom the new Left will never +forgive for having made his paper ministerial. As the government of +these days does very little to protect even its most devoted servants +(witness the Gisquet affair), the republicans have ended by ruining +Cerizet. I tell you this to explain how it is that Cerizet is now a +copying clerk in my office. Well, in the days when he flourished as +managing editor of a paper directed by the Perier ministry against the +incendiary journals, the 'Tribune' and others, Cerizet, who is a +worthy fellow after all, though he is too fond of women, pleasure, and +good living, was very useful to Theodose, who edited the political +department of the paper; and if it hadn't been for the death of +Casimir Perier that young man would certainly have received an +appointment as substitute judge in Paris. As it was, he dropped back +in 1834-35, in spite of his talent; for his connection with a +ministerial journal of course did him harm. 'If it had not been for my +religious principles,' he said to me, 'I should have thrown myself +into the Seine.' However, it seems that the friend of his uncle must +have heard of his distress, for again he sent him a sum of money; +enough to complete his terms for the bar; but, strange to say, he has +never known the name or the address of this mysterious benefactor. +After all, perhaps, under such circumstances, his economy is +excusable, and he must have great strength of mind to refuse what the +poor devils whose cases he wins by his devotion offer him. He is +indignant at the way other lawyers speculate on the possibility or +impossibility of poor creatures, unjustly sued, paying for the costs +of their defence. Oh! he'll succeed in the end. I shouldn't be +surprised to see that fellow in some very brilliant position; he has +tenacity, honesty, and courage. He studies, he delves." + +Notwithstanding the favor with which he was greeted, la Peyrade went +discreetly to the Thuilliers'. When reproached for this reserve he +went oftener, and ended by appearing every Sunday; he was invited to +all dinner-parties, and became at last so familiar in the house that +whenever he came to see Thuillier about four o'clock he was always +requested to take "pot-luck" without ceremony. Mademoiselle Thuillier +used to say:-- + +"Then we know that he will get a good dinner, poor fellow!" + +A social phenomenon which has certainly been observed, but never, as +yet, formulated, or, if you like it better, published, though it fully +deserves to be recorded, is the return of habits, mind, and manners to +primitive conditions in certain persons who, between youth and old +age, have raised themselves above their first estate. Thus Thuillier +had become, once more, morally speaking, the son of a concierge. He +now made use of many of his father's jokes, and a little of the slime +of early days was beginning to appear on the surface of his declining +life. About five or six times a month, when the soup was rich and good +he would deposit his spoon in his empty plate and say, as if the +proposition were entirely novel:-- + +"That's better than a kick on the shin-bone!" + +On hearing that witticism for the first time Theodose, to whom it was +really new, laughed so heartily that the handsome Thuillier was +tickled in his vanity as he had never been before. After that, +Theodose greeted the same speech with a knowing little smile. This +slight detail will explain how it was that on the morning of the day +when Theodose had his passage at arms with Vinet he had said to +Thuillier, as they were walking in the garden to see the effect of a +frost:-- + +"You have much more wit than you give yourself credit for." + +To which he received this answer:-- + +"In any other career, my dear Theodose, I should have made my way +nobly; but the fall of the Emperor broke my neck." + +"There is still time," said the young lawyer. "In the first place, +what did that mountebank, Colleville, ever do to get the cross?" + +There la Peyrade laid his finger on a sore wound which Thuillier hid +from every eye so carefully that even his sister did not know of it; +but the young man, interested in studying these bourgeois, had divined +the secret envy that gnawed at the heart of the ex-official. + +"If you, experienced as you are, will do the honor to follow my +advice," added the philanthropist, "and, above all, not mention our +compact to any one, I will undertake to have you decorated with the +Legion of honor, to the applause of the whole quarter." + +"Oh! if we succeed in that," cried Thuillier, "you don't know what I +would do for you." + +This explains why Thuillier carried his head high when Theodose had +the audacity that evening to put opinions into his mouth. + +In art--and perhaps Moliere had placed hypocrisy in the rank of art by +classing Tartuffe forever among comedians--there exists a point of +perfection to which genius alone attains; mere talent falls below it. +There is so little difference between a work of genius and a work of +talent, that only men of genius can appreciate the distance that +separates Raffaelle from Correggio, Titian from Rubens. More than +that; common minds are easily deceived on this point. The sign of +genius is a certain appearance of facility. In fact, its work must +appear, at first sight, ordinary, so natural is it, even on the +highest subjects. Many peasant-women hold their children as the famous +Madonna in the Dresden gallery holds hers. Well, the height of art in +a man of la Peyrade's force was to oblige others to say of him later: +"Everybody would have been taken in by him." + +Now, in the salon Thuillier, he noted a dawning opposition; he +perceived in Colleville the somewhat clear-sighted and criticising +nature of an artist who has missed his vocation. The barrister felt +himself displeasing to Colleville, who (as the result of circumstances +not necessary to here report) considered himself justified in +believing in the science of anagrams. None of this anagrams had ever +failed. The clerks in the government office had laughed at him when, +demanding an anagram on the name of the poor helpless +Auguste-Jean-Francois Minard, he had produced, "J'amassai une si +grande fortune"; and the event had justified him after the lapse of +ten years! Theodose, on several occasions, had made advances to the +jovial secretary of the mayor's office, and had felt himself rebuffed +by a coldness which was not natural in so sociable a man. When the +game of bouillotte came to an end, Colleville seized the moment to +draw Thuillier into the recess of a window and say to him:-- + +"You are letting that lawyer get too much foothold in your house; he +kept the ball in his own hands all the evening." + +"Thank you, my friend; forewarned is forearmed," replied Thuillier, +inwardly scoffing at Colleville. + +Theodose, who was talking at the moment to Madame Colleville, had his +eye on the two men, and, with the same prescience by which women know +when and how they are spoken of, he perceived that Colleville was +trying to injure him in the mind of the weak and silly Thuillier. +"Madame," he said in Flavie's ear, "if any one here is capable of +appreciating you it is certainly I. You seem to me a pearl dropped +into the mire. You say you are forty-two, but a woman is no older than +she looks, and many women of thirty would be thankful to have your +figure and that noble countenance, where love has passed without ever +filling the void in your heart. You have given yourself to God, I +know, and I have too much religion myself to regret it, but I also +know that you have done so because no human being has proved worthy of +you. You have been loved, but you have never been adored--I have +divined that. There is your husband, who has not known how to please +you in a position in keeping with your deserts. He dislikes me, as if +he thought I loved you; and he prevents me from telling you of a way +that I think I have found to place you in the sphere for which you +were destined. No, madame," he continued, rising, "the Abbe Gondrin +will not preach this year through Lent at our humble Saint-Jacques du +Haut-Pas; the preacher will be Monsieur d'Estival, a compatriot of +mine, and you will hear in him one of the most impressive speakers +that I have ever known,--a priest whose outward appearance is not +agreeable, but, oh! what a soul!" + +"Then my desire will be gratified," said poor Madame Thuillier. "I +have never yet been able to understand a famous preacher." + +A smile flickered on the lips of Mademoiselle Thuillier and several +others who heard the remark. + +"They devote themselves too much to theological demonstration," said +Theodose. "I have long thought so myself--but I never talk religion; +if it had not been for Madame _de_ Colleville, I--" + +"Are there demonstrations in theology?" asked the professor of +mathematics, naively, plunging headlong into the conversation. + +"I think, monsieur," replied Theodose, looking straight at Felix +Phellion, "that you cannot be serious in asking me such a question." + +"Felix," said old Phellion, coming heavily to the rescue of his son, +and catching a distressed look on the pale face of Madame Thuillier, +--"Felix separates religion into two categories; he considers it from +the human point of view and the divine point of view,--tradition and +reason." + +"That is heresy, monsieur," replied Theodose. "Religion is one; it +requires, above all things, faith." + +Old Phellion, nonplussed by that remark, nodded to his wife:-- + +"It is getting late, my dear," and he pointed to the clock. + +"Oh, Monsieur Felix," said Celeste in a whisper to the candid +mathematician, "Couldn't you be, like Pascal and Bossuet, learned and +pious both?" + +The Phellions, on departing, carried the Collevilles with them. Soon +no one remained in the salon but Dutocq, Theodose, and the Thuilliers. + +The flattery administered by Theodose to Flavie seems at the first +sight coarsely commonplace, but we must here remark, in the interests +of this history, that the barrister was keeping himself as close as +possible to these vulgar minds; he was navigating their waters; he +spoke their language. His painter was Pierre Grassou, and not Joseph +Bridau; his book was "Paul and Virginia." The greatest living poet for +him was Casimire de la Vigne; to his eyes the mission of art was, +above all things, utility. Parmentier, the discoverer of the potato, +was greater to him that thirty Raffaelles; the man in the blue cloak +seemed to him a sister of charity. These were Thuillier's expressions, +and Theodose remembered them all--on occasion. + +"That young Felix Phellion," he now remarked, "is precisely the +academical man of our day; the product of knowledge which sends God to +the rear. Heavens, what are we coming to? Religion alone can save +France; nothing but the fear of hell will preserve us from domestic +robbery, which is going on at all hours in the bosom of families, and +eating into the surest fortunes. All of you have a secret warfare in +your homes." + +After this shrewd tirade, which made a great impression upon Brigitte, +he retired, followed by Dutocq, after wishing good evening to the +three Thuilliers. + +"That young man has great capacity," said Thuillier, sententiously. + +"Yes, that he has," replied Brigitte, extinguishing the lamps. + +"He has religion," said Madame Thuillier, as she left the room. + +"Monsieur," Phellion was saying to Colleville as they came abreast of +the Ecole de Mines, looking about him to see that no one was near, "it +is usually my custom to submit my insight to that of others, but it is +impossible for me not to think that that young lawyer plays the master +at our friend Thuillier's." + +"My own opinion," said Colleville, who was walking with Phellion +behind his wife, Madame Phellion, and Celeste, "is that he's a Jesuit; +and I don't like Jesuits; the best of them are no good. To my mind a +Jesuit means knavery, and knavery for knavery's sake; they deceive for +the pleasure of deceiving, and, as the saying is, to keep their hand +in. That's my opinion, and I don't mince it." + +"I understand you, monsieur," said Phellion, who was arm-in-arm with +Colleville. + +"No, Monsieur Phellion," remarked Flavie in a shrill voice, "you don't +understand Colleville; but I know what he means, and I think he had +better stop saying it. Such subjects are not to be talked of in the +street, at eleven o'clock at night, and before a young lady." + +"You are right, wife," said Colleville. + +When they reached the rue des Deux-Eglises, which Phellion was to +take, they all stopped to say good-night, and Felix Phellion, who was +bring up the rear, said to Colleville:-- + +"Monsieur, your son Francois could enter the Ecole Polytechnique if he +were well-coached; I propose to you to fit him to pass the +examinations this year." + +"That's an offer not to be refused! Thank you, my friend," said +Colleville. "We'll see about it." + +"Good!" said Phellion to his son, as they walked on. + +"Not a bad stroke!" said the mother. + +"What do you mean by that?" asked Felix. + +"You are very cleverly paying court to Celeste's parents." + +"May I never find the solution of my problem if I even thought of it!" +cried the young professor. "I discovered, when talking with the little +Collevilles, that Francois has a strong turn for mathematics, and I +thought I ought to enlighten his father." + +"Good, my son!" repeated Phellion. "I wouldn't have you otherwise. My +prayers are granted! I have a son whose honor, probity, and private +and civic virtues are all that I could wish." + +Madame Colleville, as soon as Celeste had gone to bed, said to her +husband:-- + +"Colleville, don't utter those blunt opinions about people without +knowing something about them. When you talk of Jesuits I know you mean +priests; and I wish you would do me the kindness to keep your opinions +on religion to yourself when you are in company with your daughter. We +may sacrifice our own souls, but not the souls of our children. You +don't want Celeste to be a creature without religion? And remember, my +dear, that we are at the mercy of others; we have four children to +provide for; and how do you know that, some day or other, you may not +need the services of this one or that one? Therefore don't make +enemies. You haven't any now, for you are a good-natured fellow; and, +thanks to that quality, which amounts in you to a charm, we have got +along pretty well in life, so far." + +"That's enough!" said Colleville, flinging his coat on a chair and +pulling off his cravat. "I'm wrong, and you are right, my beautiful +Flavie." + +"And on the next occasion, my dear old sheep," said the sly creature, +tapping her husband's cheek, "you must try to be polite to that young +lawyer; he is a schemer and we had better have him on our side. He is +playing comedy--well! play comedy with him; be his dupe apparently; if +he proves to have talent, if he has a future before him, make a friend +of him. Do you think I want to see you forever in the mayor's office?" + +"Come, wife Colleville," said the former clarionet, tapping his knee +to indicate the place he wished his wife to take. "Let us warm our +toes and talk.--When I look at you I am more than ever convinced that +the youth of women is in their figure." + +"And in their heart." + +"Well, both," assented Colleville; "waist slender, heart solid--" + +"No, you old stupid, deep." + +"What is good about you is that you have kept your fairness without +growing fat. But the fact is, you have such tiny bones. Flavie, it is +a fact that if I had life to live over again I shouldn't wish for any +other wife than you." + +"You know very well I have always preferred you to _others_. How +unlucky that monseigneur is dead! Do you know what I covet for you?" + +"No; what?" + +"Some office at the Hotel de Ville,--an office worth twelve thousand +francs a year; cashier, or something of that kind; either there, or at +Poissy, in the municipal department; or else as manufacturer of +musical instruments--" + +"Any one of them would suit me." + +"Well, then! if that queer barrister has power, and he certainly has +plenty of intrigue, let us manage him. I'll sound him; leave me to do +the thing--and, above all, don't thwart his game at the Thuilliers'." + +Theodose had laid a finger on a sore sport in Flavie Colleville's +heart; and this requires an explanation, which may, perhaps, have the +value of a synthetic glance at women's life. + +At forty years of age a woman, above all, if she has tasted the +poisoned apple of passion, undergoes a solemn shock; she sees two +deaths before her: that of the body and that of the heart. Dividing +women into two great categories which respond to the common ideas, and +calling them either virtuous or guilty, it is allowable to say that +after that fatal period they both suffer pangs of terrible intensity. +If virtuous, and disappointed in the deepest hopes of their nature +--whether they have had the courage to submit, whether they have +buried their revolt in their hearts or at the foot of the altar--they +never admit to themselves that all is over for them without horror. +That thought has such strange and diabolical depths that in it lies +the reason of some of those apostasies which have, at times, amazed +the world and horrified it. If guilty, women of that age fall into one +of several delirious conditions which often turn, alas! to madness, or +end in suicide, or terminate in some with passion greater than the +situation itself. + +The following is the "dilemmatic" meaning of this crisis. Either they +have known happiness, known it in a virtuous life, and are unable to +breathe in any air but that surcharged with incense, or act in any but +a balmy atmosphere of flattery and worship,--if so, how is it possible +to renounce it?--or, by a phenomenon less rare than singular, they +have found only wearying pleasures while seeking for the happiness +that escaped them--sustained in that eager chase by the irritating +satisfactions of vanity, clinging to the game like a gambler to his +double or quits; for to them these last days of beauty are their last +stake against despair. + +"You have been loved, but never adored." + +That speech of Theodose, accompanied by a look which read, not into +her heart, but into her life, was the key-note to her enigma, and +Flavie felt herself divined. + +The lawyer had merely repeated ideas which literature has rendered +trivial; but what matter where the whip comes from, or how it is made, +if it touches the sensitive spot of a horse's hide? The emotion was in +Flavie, not in the speech, just as the noise is not in the avalanche, +though it produces it. + +A young officer, two fops, a banker, a clumsy youth, and Colleville, +were poor attempts at happiness. Once in her life Madame Colleville +had dreamed of it, but never attained it. Death had hastened to put an +end to the only passion in which she had found a charm. For the last +two years she had listened to the voice of religion, which told her +that neither the Church, nor its votaries, should talk of love or +happiness, but of duty and resignation; that the only happiness lay in +the satisfaction of fulfilling painful and costly duties, the rewards +for which were not in this world. All the same, however, she was +conscious of another clamoring voice; but, inasmuch as her religion +was only a mask which it suited her to wear, and not a conversion, she +did not lay it aside, thinking it a resource. Believing also that +piety, false or true, was a becoming manner in which to meet her +future, she continued in the Church, as though it were the cross-roads +of a forest, where, seated on a bench, she read the sign-posts, and +waited for some lucky chance; feeling all the while that night was +coming on. + +Thus it happened that her interest was keenly excited when Theodose +put her secret condition of mind into words, seeming to promise her +the realization of her castle in the air, already built and overthrown +some six or eight times. + +From the beginning of the winter she had noticed that Theodose was +examining and studying her, though cautiously and secretly. More than +once, she had put on her gray moire silk with its black lace, and her +headdress of Mechlin with a few flowers, in order to appear to her +best advantage; and men know very well when a toilet has been made to +please them. The old beau of the Empire, that handsome Thuillier, +overwhelmed her with compliments, assuring her she was queen of the +salon, but la Peyrade said infinitely more to the purpose by a look. + +Flavie had expected, Sunday after Sunday, a declaration, saying to +herself at times:-- + +"He knows I am ruined and haven't a sou. Perhaps he is really pious." + +Theodose did nothing rashly; like a wise musician, he had marked the +place in his symphony where he intended to tap his drum. When he saw +Colleville attempting to warn Thuillier against him, he fired his +broadside, cleverly prepared during the three or four months in which +he had been studying Flavie; he now succeeded with her as he had, +earlier in the day, succeeded with Thuillier. + +While getting into bed, Theodose said to himself:-- + +"The wife is on my side; the husband can't endure me; they are now +quarrelling; and I shall get the better of it, for she does what she +likes with that man." + +The lawyer was mistaken in one thing: there was no dispute whatever, +and Colleville was sleeping peacefully beside his dear little Flavie, +while she was saying to herself:-- + +"Certainly Theodose must be a superior man." + +Many men, like la Peyrade, derive their superiority from the audacity, +or the difficulty, of an enterprise; the strength they display +increases their muscular power, and they spend it freely. Then when +success is won, or defeat is met, the public is astonished to find how +small, exhausted, and puny those men really are. After casting into +the minds of the two persons on whom Celeste's fate chiefly depended, +an interest and curiosity that were almost feverish, Theodose +pretended to be a very busy man; for five or six days he was out of +the house from morning till night, in order not to meet Flavie until +the time when her interest should increase to the point of +overstepping conventionality, and also in order to force the handsome +Thuillier to come and fetch him. + +The following Sunday he felt certain he should find Madame Colleville +at church; he was not mistaken, for they came out, each of them, at +the same moment, and met at the corner of the rue des Deux-Eglises. +Theodose offered his arm, which Flavie accepted, leaving her daughter +to walk in front with her brother Anatole. This youngest child, then +about twelve years old, being destined for the seminary, was now at +the Barniol institute, where he obtained an elementary education; +Barniol, the son-in-law of the Phellions, was naturally making the +tuition fees light, with a view to the hoped-for alliance between +Felix and Celeste. + +"Have you done me the honor and favor of thinking over what I said to +you so badly the other day?" asked the lawyer, in a caressing tone, +pressing the lady's arm to his heart with a movement both soft and +strong; for he seemed to wish to restrain himself and appear +respectful, in spite of his evident eagerness. "Do not misunderstand +my intentions," he continued, after receiving from Madame Colleville +one of those looks which women trained to the management of passion +know how to give,--a look that, by mere expression, can convey both +severe rebuke and secret community of sentiment. "I love you as we +love a noble nature struggling against misfortune; Christian charity +enfolds both the strong and the weak; its treasure belongs to both. +Refined, graceful, elegant as you are, made to be an ornament of the +highest society, what man could see you without feeling an immense +compassion in his heart--buried here among these odious bourgeois, who +know nothing of you, not even the aristocratic value of a single one +of your attitudes, or those enchanting inflections of your voice! Ah! +if I were only rich! if I had power! your husband, who is certainly a +good fellow, should be made receiver-general, and you yourself could +get him elected deputy. But, alas! poor ambitious man, my first duty +is to silence my ambition. Knowing myself at the bottom of the bag +like the last number in a family lottery, I can only offer you my arm +and not my heart. I hope all from a good marriage, and, believe me, I +shall make my wife not only happy, but I shall make her one of the +first in the land, receiving from her the means of success. It is so +fine a day, will you not take a turn in the Luxembourg?" he added, as +they reached the rue d'Enfer at the corner of Colleville's house, +opposite to which was a passage leading to the gardens by the stairway +of a little building, the last remains of the famous convent of the +Chartreux. + +The soft yielding of the arm within his own, indicated a tacit consent +to this proposal, and as Flavie deserved the honor of a sort of +enthusiasm, he drew her vehemently along, exclaiming:-- + +"Come! we may never have so good a moment--But see!" he added, "there +is your husband at the window looking at us; let us walk slowly." + +"You have nothing to fear from Monsieur Colleville," said Flavie, +smiling; "he leaves me mistress of my own actions." + +"Ah! here, indeed, is the woman I have dreamed of," cried the +Provencal, with that ecstasy that inflames the soul only, and in tones +that issue only from Southern lips. "Pardon me, madame," he said, +recovering himself, and returning from an upper sphere to the exiled +angel whom he looked at piously,--"pardon me, I abandon what I was +saying; but how can a man help feeling for the sorrows he has known +himself when he sees them the lot of a being to whom life should bring +only joy and happiness? Your sufferings are mine; I am no more in my +right place than you are in yours; the same misfortune has made us +brother and sister. Ah! dear Flavie, the first day it was granted to +me to see you--the last Sunday in September, 1838--you were very +beautiful; I shall often recall you to memory in that pretty little +gown of mousseline-de-laine of the color of some Scottish tartan! That +day I said to myself: 'Why is that woman so often at the Thuilliers'; +above all, why did she ever have intimate relations with Thuillier +himself?--'" + +"Monsieur!" said Flavie, alarmed at the singular course la Peyrade was +giving to the conversation. + +"Eh! I know all," he cried, accompanying the words with a shrug of his +shoulders. "I explain it all to my own mind, and I do not respect you +less. You now have to gather the fruits of your sin, and I will help +you. Celeste will be very rich, and in that lies your own future. You +can have only one son-in-law; chose him wisely. An ambitious man might +become a minister, but you would humble your daughter and make her +miserable; and if such a man lost his place and fortune he could never +recover it. Yes, I love you," he continued. "I love you with an +unlimited affection; you are far above the mass of petty +considerations in which silly women entangle themselves. Let us +understand each other." + +Flavie was bewildered; she was, however, awake to the extreme +frankness of such language, and she said to herself, "He is not a +secret manoeuvrer, certainly." Moreover, she admitted to her own mind +that no one had ever so deeply stirred and excited her as this young +man. + +"Monsieur," she said, "I do not know who could have put into your mind +so great an error as to my life, nor by what right you--" + +"Ah! pardon me, madame," interrupted the Provencal with a coolness +that smacked of contempt. "I must have dreamed it. I said to myself, +'She is all that!' But I see I was judging from the outside. I know +now why you are living and will always live on a fourth floor in the +rue d'Enfer." + +And he pointed his speech with an energetic gesture toward the +Colleville windows, which could be seen through the passage from the +alley of the Luxembourg, where they were walking alone, in that +immense tract trodden by so many and various young ambitions. + +"I have been frank, and I expected reciprocity," resumed Theodose. "I +myself have had days without food, madame; I have managed to live, +pursue my studies, obtain my degree, with two thousand francs for my +sole dependence; and I entered Paris through the Barriere d'Italie, +with five hundred francs in my pocket, firmly resolved, like one of my +compatriots, to become, some day, one of the foremost men of our +country. The man who has often picked his food from baskets of scraps +where the restaurateurs put their refuse, which are emptied at six +o'clock every morning--that man is not likely to recoil before any +means,--avowable, of course. Well, do you think me the friend of the +people?" he said, smiling. "One has to have a speaking-trumpet to +reach the ear of Fame; she doesn't listen if you speak with your lips; +and without fame of what use is talent? The poor man's advocate means +to be some day the advocate of the rich. Is that plain speaking? Don't +I open my inmost being to you? Then open your heart to me. Say to me, +'Let us be friends,' and the day will come when we shall both be +happy." + +"Good heavens! why did I ever come here? Why did I ever take your +arm?" cried Flavie. + +"Because it is in your destiny," he replied. "Ah! my dear, beloved +Flavie," he added, again pressing her arm upon his heart, "did you +expect to hear the vulgarities of love from me? We are brother and +sister; that is all." + +And he led her towards the passage to return to the rue d'Enfer. + +Flavie felt a sort of terror in the depths of the contentment which +all women find in violent emotions; and she took that terror for the +sort of fear which a new passion always excites; but for all that, she +felt she was fascinated, and she walked along in absolute silence. + +"What are you thinking of?" asked Theodose, when they reached the +middle of the passage. + +"Of what you have just said to me," she answered. + +"At our age," he said, "it is best to suppress preliminaries; we are +not children; we both belong to a sphere in which we should understand +each other. Remember this," he added, as they reached the rue d'Enfer. +--"I am wholly yours." + +So saying, he bowed low to her. + +"The iron's in the fire now!" he thought to himself as he watched his +giddy prey on her way home. + + + + CHAPTER VI + + A KEYNOTE + +When Theodose reached home he found, waiting for him on the landing, a +personage who is, as it were, the submarine current of this history; +he will be found within it like some buried church on which has risen +the facade of a palace. The sight of this man, who, after vainly +ringing at la Peyrade's door, was now trying that of Dutocq, made the +Provencal barrister tremble--but secretly, within himself, not +betraying externally his inward emotion. This man was Cerizet, whom +Dutocq had mentioned to Thuillier as his copying-clerk. + +Cerizet was only thirty-eight years old, but he looked a man of fifty, +so aged had he become from causes which age all men. His hairless head +had a yellow skull, ill-covered by a rusty, discolored wig; the mask +of his face, pale, flabby, and unnaturally rough, seemed the more +horrible because the nose was eaten away, though not sufficiently to +admit of its being replaced by a false one. From the spring of this +nose at the forehead, down to the nostrils, it remained as nature had +made it; but disease, after gnawing away the sides near the +extremities, had left two holes of fantastic shape, which vitiated +pronunciation and hampered speech. The eyes, originally handsome, but +weakened by misery of all kinds and by sleepless nights, were red +around the edges, and deeply sunken; the glance of those eyes, when +the soul sent into them an expression of malignancy, would have +frightened both judges and criminals, or any others whom nothing +usually affrights. + +The mouth, toothless except for a few black fangs, was threatening; +the saliva made a foam within it, which did not, however, pass the +pale thin lips. Cerizet, a short man, less spare than shrunken, +endeavored to remedy the defects of his person by his clothes, and +although his garments were not those of opulence, he kept them in a +condition of neatness which may even have increased his forlorn +appearance. Everything about him seemed dubious; his age, his nose, +his glance inspired doubt. It was impossible to know if he were +thirty-eight or sixty; if his faded blue trousers, which fitted him +well, were of a coming or a past fashion. His boots, worn at the +heels, but scrupulously blacked, resoled for the third time, and very +choice, originally, may have trodden in their day a ministerial +carpet. The frock coat, soaked by many a down-pour, with its +brandebourgs, the frogs of which were indiscreet enough to show their +skeletons, testified by its cut to departed elegance. The satin +stock-cravat fortunately concealed the shirt, but the tongue of the +buckle behind the neck had frayed the satin, which was re-satined, +that is, re-polished, by a species of oil distilled from the wig. In +the days of its youth the waistcoat was not, of course, without +freshness, but it was one of those waistcoats, bought for four francs, +which come from the hooks of the ready-made clothing dealer. All these +things were carefully brushed, and so was the shiny and misshapen hat. +They harmonized with each other, even to the black gloves which covered +the hands of this subaltern Mephistopheles, whose whole anterior life +may be summed up in a single phrase:-- + +He was an artist in evil, with whom, from the first, evil had +succeeded; a man misled by these early successes to continue the +plotting of infamous deeds within the lines of strict legality. +Becoming the head of a printing-office by betraying his master [see +"Lost Illusions"], he had afterwards been condemned to imprisonment as +editor of a liberal newspaper. In the provinces, under the +Restoration, he became the bete noire of the government, and was +called "that unfortunate Cerizet" by some, as people spoke of "the +unfortunate Chauvet" and "the heroic Mercier." He owed to this +reputation of persecuted patriotism a place as sub-prefect in 1830. +Six months later he was dismissed; but he insisted that he was judged +without being heard; and he made so much talk about it that, under the +ministry of Casimir Perier, he became the editor of an anti-republican +newspaper in the pay of the government. He left that position to go +into business, one phase of which was the most nefarious stock-company +that ever fell into the hands of the correctional police. Cerizet +proudly accepted the severe sentence he received; declaring it to be a +revengeful plot on the part of the republicans, who, he said, would +never forgive him for the hard blows he had dealt them in his journal. +He spent the time of his imprisonment in a hospital. The government by +this time were ashamed of a man whose almost infamous habits and +shameful business transactions, carried on in company with a former +banker, named Claparon, led him at last into well-deserved public +contempt. + +Cerizet, thus fallen, step by step, to the lowest rung of the social +ladder, had recourse to pity in order to obtain the place of copying +clerk in Dutocq's office. In the depths of his wretchedness the man +still dreamed of revenge, and, as he had nothing to lose, he employed +all means to that end. Dutocq and himself were bound together in +depravity. Cerizet was to Dutocq what the hound is the huntsman. +Knowing himself the necessities of poverty and wretchedness, he set up +that business of gutter usury called, in popular parlance, "the loan +by the little week." He began this at first by help of Dutocq, who +shared the profits; but, at the present moment this man of many legal +crimes, now the banker of fishwives, the money-lender of +costermongers, was the gnawing rodent of the whole faubourg. + +"Well," said Cerizet as Dutocq opened his door, "Theodose has just +come in; let us go to his room." + +The advocate of the poor was fain to allow the two men to pass before +him. + +All three crossed a little room, the tiled floor of which, covered +with a coating of red encaustic, shone in the light; thence into a +little salon with crimson curtains and mahogany furniture, covered +with red Utrecht velvet; the wall opposite the window being occupied +by book-shelves containing a legal library. The chimney-piece was +covered with vulgar ornaments, a clock with four columns in mahogany, +and candelabra under glass shades. The study, where the three men +seated themselves before a soft-coal fire, was the study of a lawyer +just beginning to practise. The furniture consisted of a desk, an +armchair, little curtains of green silk at the windows, a green +carpet, shelves for lawyer's boxes, and a couch, above which hung an +ivory Christ on a velvet background. The bedroom, kitchen, and rest of +the apartment looked out upon the courtyard. + +"Well," said Cerizet, "how are things going? Are we getting on?" + +"Yes," replied Theodose. + +"You must admit," cried Dutocq, "that my idea was a famous one, in +laying hold of that imbecile of a Thuillier?" + +"Yes, but I'm not behindhand either," exclaimed Cerizet. "I have come +now to show you a way to put the thumbscrews on the old maid and make +her spin like a teetotum. We mustn't deceive ourselves; Mademoiselle +Thuillier is the head and front of everything in this affair; if we +get her on our side the town is won. Let us say little, but that +little to the point, as becomes strong men with each other. Claparon, +you know, is a fool; he'll be all his life what he always was,--a +cat's-paw. Just now he is lending his name to a notary in Paris, who +is concerned with a lot of contractors, and they are all--notary and +masons--on the point of ruin. Claparon is going headlong into it. He +never yet was bankrupt; but there's a first time for everything. He is +hidden now in my hovel in the rue des Poules, where no one will ever +find him. He is desperate, and he hasn't a penny. Now, among the five +or six houses built by these contractors, which have to be sold, +there's a jewel of a house, built of freestone, in the neighborhood of +the Madeleine,--a frontage laced like a melon, with beautiful +carvings,--but not being finished, it will have to be sold for what it +will bring; certainly not more than a hundred thousand francs. By +spending twenty-five thousand francs upon it it could be let, +undoubtedly, for ten thousand. Make Mademoiselle Thuillier the +proprietor of that house and you'll win her love; she'll believe that +you can put such chances in her way every year. There are two ways of +getting hold of vain people: flatter their vanity, _or_ threaten them; +and there are also two ways of managing misers: fill their purse, or +else attack it. Now, this stroke of business, while it does good to +Mademoiselle Thuillier, does good to us as well, and it would be a +pity not to profit by the chance." + +"But why does the notary let it slip through his fingers?" asked +Dutocq. + +"The notary, my dear fellow! Why, he's the very one who saves us. +Forced to sell his practice, and utterly ruined besides, he reserved +for himself this crumb of the cake. Believing in the honesty of that +idiot Claparon, he has asked him to find a dummy purchaser. We'll let +him suppose that Mademoiselle Thuillier is a worthy soul who allows +Claparon to use her name; they'll both be fooled, Claparon and the +notary too. I owe this little trick to my friend Claparon, who left me +to bear the whole weight of the trouble about his stock-company, in +which we were tricked by Conture, and I hope you may never be in that +man's skin!" he added, infernal hatred flashing from his worn and +withered eyes. "Now, I've said my say, gentlemen," he continued, +sending out his voice through his nasal holes, and taking a dramatic +attitude; for once, at a moment of extreme penury, he had gone upon +the stage. + +As he finished making his proposition some one rang at the outer door, +and la Peyrade rose to go and open it. As soon as his back was turned, +Cerizet said, hastily, to Dutocq:-- + +"Are you sure of him? I see a sort of air about him--And I'm a good +judge of treachery." + +"He is so completely in our power," said Dutocq, "that I don't trouble +myself to watch; but, between ourselves, I didn't think him as strong +as he proves to be. The fact is, we thought we were putting a barb +between the legs of a man who didn't know how to ride, and the rogue +is an old jockey!" + +"Let him take care," growled Cerizet. "I can blow him down like a +house of cards any day. As for you, papa Dutocq, you are able to see +him at work all the time; watch him carefully. Besides, I'll feel his +pulse by getting Claparon to propose to him to get rid of us; that +will help us to judge him." + +"Pretty good, that!" said Dutocq. "You are daring, anyhow." + +"I've got my hand in, that's all," replied Cerizet. + +These words were exchanged in a low voice during the time that it took +Theodose to go to the outer door and return. Cerizet was looking at +the books when the lawyer re-entered the room. + +"It is Thuillier," said Theodose. "I thought he'd come; he is in the +salon. He mustn't see Cerizet's frock-coat; those frogs would frighten +him." + +"Pooh! you receive the poor in your office, don't you? That's in your +role. Do you want any money?" added Cerizet, pulling a hundred francs +out of his trousers' pocket. "There it is; it won't look amiss." + +And he laid the pile on the chimney-piece. + +"And now," said Dutocq, "we had better get out through the bedroom." + +"Well, good-bye," said Theodose, opening a hidden door which +communicated from the study to the bedroom. "Come in, Monsieur +Thuillier," he called out to the beau of the Empire. + +When he saw him safely in the study he went to let out his two +associates through the bedroom and kitchen into the courtyard. + +"In six months," said Cerizet, "you'll have married Celeste and got +your foot into the stirrup. You are lucky, you are, not to have sat, +like me, in the prisoners' dock. I've been there twice: once in 1825, +for 'subversive articles' which I never wrote, and the second time for +receiving the profits of a joint-stock company which had slipped +through my fingers! Come, let's warm this thing up! Sac-a-papier! +Dutocq and I are sorely in need of that twenty-five thousand francs. +Good courage, old fellow!" he added, holding out his hand to Theodose, +and making the grasp a test of faithfulness. + +The Provencal gave Cerizet his right hand, pressing the other's hand +warmly:-- + +"My good fellow," he said, "be very sure that in whatever position I +may find myself I shall never forget that from which you have drawn me +by putting me in the saddle here. I'm simply your bait; but you are +giving me the best part of the catch, and I should be more infamous +than a galley-slave who turns policeman if I didn't play fair." + +As soon as the door was closed, Cerizet peeped through the key-hole, +trying to catch sight of la Peyrade's face. But the Provencal had +turned back to meet Thuillier, and his distrustful associate could not +detect the expression of his countenance. + +That expression was neither disgust nor annoyance, it was simply joy, +appearing on a face that now seemed freed. Theodose saw the means of +success approaching him, and he flattered himself that the day would +come when he might get rid of his ignoble associates, to whom he owed +everything. Poverty has unfathomable depths, especially in Paris, +slimy bottoms, from which, when a drowned man rises to the surface of +the water, he brings with him filth and impurity clinging to his +clothes, or to his person. Cerizet, the once opulent friend and +protector of Theodose, was the muddy mire still clinging to the +Provencal, and the former manager of the joint-stock company saw very +plainly that his tool wanted to brush himself on entering a sphere +where decent clothing was a necessity. + +"Well, my dear Theodose," began Thuillier, "we have hoped to see you +every day this week, and every evening we find our hopes deceived. As +this is our Sunday for a dinner, my sister and my wife have sent me +here to beg you to come to us." + +"I have been so busy," said Theodose, "that I have not had two minutes +to give to any one, not even to you, whom I count among my friends, +and with whom I have wished to talk about--" + +"What? have you really been thinking seriously over what you said to +me?" cried Thuillier, interrupting him. + +"If you had not come here now for a full understanding, I shouldn't +respect you as I do," replied la Peyrade, smiling. "You have been a +sub-director, and therefore you must have the remains of ambition +--which is deucedly legitimate in your case! Come, now, between +ourselves, when one sees a Minard, that gilded pot, displaying himself +at the Tuileries, and complimenting the king, and a Popinot about to +become a minister of State, and then look at you! a man trained to +administrative work, a man with thirty years' experience, who has seen +six governments, left to plant balsams in a little garden! Heavens and +earth!--I am frank, my dear Thuillier, and I'll say, honestly, that I +want to advance you, because you'll draw me after you. Well, here's my +plan. We are soon to elect a member of the council-general from this +arrondissement; and that member must be you. And," he added, dwelling +on the word, "it _will_ be you! After that, you will certainly be deputy +from the arrondissement when the Chamber is re-elected, which must +surely be before long. The votes that elect you to the municipal +council will stand by you in the election for deputy, trust me for +that." + +"But how will you manage all this?" cried Thuillier, fascinated. + +"You shall know in good time; but you must let me conduct this long +and difficult affair; if you commit the slightest indiscretion as to +what is said, or planned, or agreed between us, I shall have to drop +the whole matter, and good-bye to you!" + +"Oh! you can rely on the absolute dumbness of a former sub-director; +I've had secrets to keep." + +"That's all very well; but these are secrets to keep from your wife +and sister, and from Monsieur and Madame Colleville." + +"Not a muscle of my face shall reveal them," said Thuillier, assuming +a stolid air. + +"Very good," continued Theodose. "I shall test you. In order to make +yourself eligible, you must pay taxes on a certain amount of property, +and you are not paying them." + +"I beg your pardon; I'm all right for the municipal council at any +rate; I pay two francs ninety-six centimes." + +"Yes, but the tax on property necessary for election to the chamber is +five hundred francs, and there is no time to lose in acquiring that +property, because you must prove possession for one year." + +"The devil!" cried Thuillier; "between now and a year hence to be +taxed five hundred francs on property which--" + +"Between now and the end of July, at the latest, you must pay that +tax. Well, I feel enough interest in you to tell you the secret of an +affair by which you might make from thirty to forty thousand francs a +year, by employing a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand at +most. I know that in your family it is your sister who does your +business; I am far from thinking that a mistake; she has, they tell +me, excellent judgment; and you must let me begin by obtaining her +good-will and friendship, and proposing this investment to her. And +this is why: If Mademoiselle Thuillier is not induced to put faith in +my plan, we shall certainly have difficulty with her. Besides, it +won't do for YOU to propose to her that she should put the investment +of her money in your name. The idea had better come from me. As to my +means of getting you elected to the municipal council, they are these: +Phellion controls one quarter of the arrondissement; he and Laudigeois +have lived in it these thirty years, and they are listened to like +oracles. I have a friend who controls another quarter; and the rector +of Saint-Jacques, who is not without influence, thanks to his virtues, +disposes of certain votes. Dutocq, in his close relation to the +people, and also the justice of peace, will help me, above all, as I'm +not acting for myself; and Colleville, as secretary of the mayor's +office, can certainly manage to obtain another fourth of the votes." + +"You are right!" cried Thuillier. "I'm elected!" + +"Do you think so?" said la Peyrade, in a voice of the deepest sarcasm. +"Very good! then go and ask your friend Colleville to help you, and +see what he'll say. No triumph in election cases is ever brought about +by the candidate himself, but by his friends. He should never ask +anything himself for himself; he must be invited to accept, and appear +to be without ambition." + +"La Peyrade!" cried Thuillier, rising, and taking the hand of the +young lawyer, "you are a very capable man." + +"Not as capable as you, but I have my merits," said the Provencal, +smiling. + +"If we succeed how shall I ever repay you?" asked Thuillier, naively. + +"Ah! that, indeed! I am afraid you will think me impertinent, but +remember, there is a true feeling in my heart which offers some excuse +for me; in fact, it has given me the spirit to undertake this affair. +I love--and I take you for my confidant." + +"But who is it?" said Thuillier. + +"Your dear little Celeste," replied la Peyrade. "My love for her +will be a pledge to you of my devotion. What would I not do for a +_father-in-law_! This is pure selfishness; I shall be working for +myself." + +"Hush!" cried Thuillier. + +"Eh, my friend!" said la Peyrade, catching Thuillier round the body; +"if I hadn't Flavie on my side, and if I didn't know _all_ should I +venture to be talking to you thus? But please say nothing to Flavie +about this; wait till she speaks to you. Listen to me; I'm of the +metal that makes ministers; I do not seek to obtain Celeste until I +deserve her. You shall not be asked to give her to me until the day +when your election as a deputy of Paris is assured. In order to be +deputy of Paris, we must get the better of Minard; and in order to +crush Minard you must keep in your own hands all your means of +influence; for that reason use Celeste as a hope; we'll play them off, +these people, against each other and fool them all--Madame Colleville +and you and I will be persons of importance one of these days. Don't +think me mercenary. I want Celeste without a 'dot,' with nothing more +than her future expectations. To live in your family with you, to keep +my wife in your midst, that is my desire. You see now that I have no +hidden thoughts. As for you, my dear friend, six months after your +election to the municipal council, you will have the cross of the +Legion of honor, and when you are deputy you will be made an officer +of it. As for your speeches in the Chamber--well! we'll write them +together. Perhaps it would be desirable for you to write a book,--a +serious book on matters half moral and philanthropic, half political; +such, for instance, as charitable institutions considered from the +highest stand-point; or reforms in the pawning system, the abuses of +which are really frightful. Let us fasten some slight distinction to +your name; it will help you,--especially in the arrondissement. Now, I +say again, trust me, believe in me; do not think of taking me into +your family until you have the ribbon in your buttonhole on the morrow +of the day when you take your seat in the Chamber. I'll do more than +that, however; I'll put you in the way of making forty thousand francs +a year." + +"For any one of those three things you shall have our Celeste," said +Thuillier. + +"Ah! what a pearl she is!" exclaimed la Peyrade, raising his eyes to +heaven. "I have the weakness to pray to God for her every day. She is +charming; she is exactly like you--oh! nonsense; surely you needn't +caution me! Dutocq told me all. Well, I'll be with you to-night. I +must go to the Phellions' now, and begin to work our plan. You don't +need me to caution you not to let it be known that you are thinking of +me for Celeste; if you do, you'll cut off my arms and legs. Therefore, +silence! even to Flavie. Wait till she speaks to you herself. Phellion +shall to-night broach the matter of proposing you as candidate for the +council." + +"To-night?" said Thuillier. + +"Yes, to-night," replied la Peyrade, "unless I don't find him at home +now." + +Thuillier departed, saying to himself:-- + +"That's a very superior man; we shall always understand each other. +Faith! it might be hard to do better for Celeste. They will live with +us, as in our own family, and that's a good deal! Yes, he's a fine +fellow, a sound man." + +To minds of Thuillier's calibre, a secondary consideration often +assumes the importance of a principal reason. Theodose had behaved to +him with charming bonhomie. + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE WORTHY PHELLIONS + +The house to which Theodose de la Peyrade now bent his steps had been +the "hoc erat in votis" of Monsieur Phellion for twenty years; it was +the house of the Phellions, just as much as Cerizet's frogged coat was +the necessary complement of his personality. + +This dwelling was stuck against the side of a large house, but only to +the depth of one room (about twenty feet or so), and terminated at +each end in a sort of pavilion with one window. Its chief charm was a +garden, one hundred and eighty feet square, longer than the facade of +the house by the width of a courtyard which opened on the street, and +a little clump of lindens. Beyond the second pavilion, the courtyard +had, between itself and the street, an iron railing, in the centre of +which was a little gate opening in the middle. + +This building, of rouge stone covered with stucco, and two storeys in +height, had received a coat of yellow-wash; the blinds were painted +green, and so were the shutters on the lower storey. The kitchen +occupied the ground-floor of the pavilion on the courtyard, and the +cook, a stout, strong girl, protected by two enormous dogs, performed +the functions of portress. The facade, composed of five windows, and +the two pavilions, which projected nine feet, were in the style +Phellion. Above the door the master of the house had inserted a tablet +of white marble, on which, in letters of gold, were read the words, +"Aurea mediocritas." Above the sun-dial, affixed to one panel of the +facade, he had also caused to be inscribed this sapient maxim: "Umbra +mea vita, sic!" + +The former window-sills had recently been superceded by sills of red +Languedoc marble, found in a marble shop. At the bottom of the garden +could be seen a colored statue, intended to lead casual observers to +imagine that a nurse was carrying a child. The ground-floor of the +house contained only the salon and the dining-room, separated from +each other by the well of the staircase and the landing, which formed +a sort of antechamber. At the end of the salon, in the other pavilion, +was a little study occupied by Phellion. + +On the first upper floor were the rooms of the father and mother and +that of the young professor. Above were the chambers of the children +and the servants; for Phellion, on consideration of his own age and +that of his wife, had set up a male domestic, aged fifteen, his son +having by that time entered upon his duties of tuition. To right, on +entering the courtyard, were little offices where wood was stored, and +where the former proprietor had lodged a porter. The Phellions were no +doubt awaiting the marriage of their son to allow themselves that +additional luxury. + +This property, on which the Phellions had long had their eye, cost +them eighteen thousand francs in 1831. The house was separated from +the courtyard by a balustrade with a base of freestone and a coping of +tiles; this little wall, which was breast-high, was lined with a hedge +of Bengal roses, in the middle of which opened a wooden gate opposite +and leading to the large gates on the street. Those who know the +cul-de-sac of the Feuillantines, will understand that the Phellion +house, standing at right angles to the street, had a southern exposure, +and was protected on the north by the immense wall of the adjoining +house, against which the smaller structure was built. The cupola of the +Pantheon and that of the Val-de-Grace looked from there like two +giants, and so diminished the sky space that, walking in the garden, +one felt cramped and oppressed. No place could be more silent than +this blind street. + +Such was the retreat of the great unknown citizen who was now tasting +the sweets of repose, after discharging his duty to the nation in the +ministry of finance, from which he had retired as registration clerk +after a service of thirty-six years. In 1832 he had led his battalion +of the National Guard to the attack on Saint-Merri, but his neighbors +had previously seen tears in his eyes at the thought of being obliged +to fire on misguided Frenchmen. The affair was already decided by the +time his legion crossed the pont Notre-Dame at a quick step, after +debouching by the flower-market. This noble hesitation won him the +respect of his whole quarter, but he lost the decoration of the Legion +of honor; his colonel told him in a loud voice that, under arms, there +was no such thing as deliberation,--a saying of Louis-Philippe to the +National Guard of Metz. Nevertheless, the bourgeois virtues of +Phellion, and the great respect in which he was held in his own +quarter had kept him major of the battalion for eight years. He was +now nearly sixty, and seeing the moment coming when he must lay off +the sword and stock, he hoped that the king would deign to reward his +services by granting him at last the Legion of honor. + +Truth compels us to say, in spite of the stain this pettiness will put +upon so fine a character, that Commander Phellion rose upon the tips +of his toes at the receptions in the Tuileries, and did all that he +could to put himself forward, even eyeing the citizen-king perpetually +when he dined at his table. In short, he intrigued in a dumb sort of +way; but had never yet obtained a look in return from the king of his +choice. The worthy man had more than once thought, but was not yet +decided, to beg Monsieur Minard to assist him in obtaining his secret +desire. + +Phellion, a man of passive obedience, was stoical in the matter of +duty, and iron in all that touched his conscience. To complete this +picture by a sketch of his person, we must add that at fifty-nine +years of age Phellion had "thickened," to use a term of the bourgeois +vocabulary. His face, of one monotonous tone and pitted with the +small-pox, had grown to resemble a full moon; so that his lips, +formerly large, now seemed of ordinary size. His eyes, much weakened, +and protected by glasses, no longer showed the innocence of their +light-blue orbs, which in former days had often excited a smile; his +white hair now gave gravity to much that twelve years earlier had +looked like silliness, and lent itself to ridicule. Time, which does +such damage to faces with refined and delicate features, only improves +those which, in their youth, have been course and massive. This was +the case with Phellion. He occupied the leisure of his old age in +making an abridgment of the History of France; for Phellion was the +author of several works adopted by the University. + +When la Peyrade presented himself, the family were all together. +Madame Barniol was just telling her mother about one of her babies, +which was slightly indisposed. They were dressed in their Sunday +clothes, and were sitting before the fireplace of the wainscoted salon +on chairs bought at a bargain; and they all felt an emotion when +Genevieve, the cook and portress, announced the personage of whom they +were just then speaking in connection with Celeste, whom, we must here +state, Felix Phellion loved, to the extent of going to mass to behold +her. The learned mathematician had made that effort in the morning, +and the family were joking him about it in a pleasant way, hoping in +their hearts that Celeste and her parents might understand the +treasure that was thus offered to them. + +"Alas! the Thuilliers seem to me infatuated with a very dangerous +man," said Madame Phellion. "He took Madame Colleville by the arm this +morning after church, and they went together to the Luxembourg." + +"There is something about that lawyer," remarked Felix Phellion, "that +strikes me as sinister. He might be found to have committed some crime +and I shouldn't be surprised." + +"That's going too far," said old Phellion. "He is cousin-germain to +Tartuffe, that immortal figure cast in bronze by our honest Moliere; +for Moliere, my children, had honesty and patriotism for the basis of +his genius." + +It was at that instant that Genevieve came in to say, "There's a +Monsieur de la Peyrade out there, who wants to see monsieur." + +"To see me!" exclaimed Phellion. "Ask him to come in," he added, with +that solemnity in little things which gave him even now a touch of +absurdity, though it always impressed his family, which accepted him +as king. + +Phellion, his two sons, and his wife and daughter, rose and received +the circular bow made by the lawyer. + +"To what do we owe the honor of your visit, monsieur?" asked Phellion, +stiffly. + +"To your importance in this arrondissement, my dear Monsieur Phellion, +and to public interests," replied Theodose. + +"Then let us go into my study," said Phellion. + +"No, no, my friend," said the rigid Madame Phellion, a small woman, +flat as a flounder, who retained upon her features the grim severity +with which she taught music in boarding-schools for young ladies; "we +will leave you." + +An upright Erard piano, placed between the two windows and opposite to +the fireplace, showed the constant occupation of a proficient. + +"Am I so unfortunate as to put you to flight?" said Theodose, smiling +in a kindly way at the mother and daughter. "You have a delightful +retreat here," he continued. "You only lack a pretty daughter-in-law +to pass the rest of your days in this 'aurea mediocritas,' the wish of +the Latin poet, surrounded by family joys. Your antecedents, my dear +Monsieur Phellion, ought surely to win you such rewards, for I am told +that you are not only a patriot but a good citizen." + +"Monsieur," said Phellion, embarrassed, "monsieur, I have only done my +duty." At the word "daughter-in-law," uttered by Theodose, Madame +Barniol, who resembled her mother as much as one drop of water is like +another, looked at Madame Phellion and at Felix as if she would say, +"Were we mistaken?" + +The desire to talk this incident over carried all four personages into +the garden, for, in March, 1840, the weather was spring-like, at least +in Paris. + +"Commander," said Theodose, as soon as he was alone with Phellion, who +was always flattered by that title, "I have come to speak to you about +the election--" + +"Yes, true; we are about to nominate a municipal councillor," said +Phellion, interrupting him. + +"And it is apropos of that candidacy that I have come to disturb your +Sunday joys; but perhaps in so doing we shall not go beyond the limits +of the family circle." + +It would be impossible for Phellion to be more Phellion than Theodose +was Phellion at that moment. + +"I shall not let you say another word," replied the commander, +profiting by the pause made by Theodose, who watched for the effect of +his speech. "My choice is made." + +"We have had the same idea!" exclaimed Theodose; "men of the same +character agree as well as men of the same mind." + +"In this case I do not believe in that phenomenon," replied Phellion. +"This arrondissement had for its representative in the municipal +council the most virtuous of men, as he was the noblest of +magistrates. I allude to the late Monsieur Popinot, the deceased judge +of the Royal courts. When the question of replacing him came up, his +nephew, the heir to his benevolence, did not reside in this quarter. +He has since, however, purchased, and now occupies, the house where +his uncle lived in the rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve; he is the +physician of the Ecole Polytechnique and that of our hospitals; he +does honor to this quarter; for these reasons, and to pay homage in +the person of the nephew to the memory of the uncle, we have decided +to nominate Doctor Horace Bianchon, member of the Academy of Sciences, +as you are aware, and one of the most distinguished young men in the +illustrious faculty of Paris. A man is not great in our eyes solely +because he is celebrated; to my mind the late Councillor Popinot was +almost another Saint Vincent de Paul." + +"But a doctor is not an administrator," replied Theodose; "and, +besides, I have come to ask your vote for a man to whom your dearest +interests require that you should sacrifice a predilection, which, +after all, is quite unimportant to the public welfare." + +"Monsieur!" cried Phellion, rising and striking an attitude like that +of Lafon in "Le Glorieux," "Do you despise me sufficiently to suppose +that my personal interests could ever influence my political +conscience? When a matter concerns the public welfare, I am a citizen +--nothing more, and nothing less." + +Theodose smiled to himself at the thought of the battle which was now +to take place between the father and the citizen. + +"Do not bind yourself to your present ideas, I entreat you," he said, +"for this matter concerns the happiness of your dear Felix." + +"What do you mean by those words?" asked Phellion, stopping short in +the middle of the salon and posing, with his hand thrust through the +bosom of his waistcoat from right to left, in the well-known attitude +of Odilon Barrot. + +"I have come in behalf of our mutual friend, the worthy and excellent +Monsieur Thuillier, whose influence on the destiny of that beautiful +Celeste Colleville must be well known to you. If, as I think, your +son, whose merits are incontestable, and of whom both families may +well be proud, if, I say, he is courting Celeste with a view to a +marriage in which all expediencies may be combined, you cannot do more +to promote that end than to obtain Thuillier's eternal gratitude by +proposing your worthy friend to the suffrages of your fellow-citizens. +As for me, though I have lately come into the quarter, I can, thanks +to the influence I enjoy through certain legal benefits done to the +poor, materially advance his interests. I might, perhaps, have put +myself forward for this position; but serving the poor brings in but +little money; and, besides, the modesty of my life is out of keeping +with such distinctions. I have devoted myself, monsieur, to the +service of the weak, like the late Councillor Popinot,--a sublime man, +as you justly remarked. If I had not already chosen a career which is +in some sort monastic, and precludes all idea of marriage and public +office, my taste, my second vocation, would lead me to the service of +God, to the Church. I do not trumpet what I do, like the +philanthropists; I do not write about it; I simply act; I am pledged +to Christian charity. The ambition of our friend Thuillier becoming +known to me, I have wished to contribute to the happiness of two young +people who seem to me made for each other, by suggesting to you the +means of winning the rather cold heart of Monsieur Thuillier." + +Phellion was bewildered by this tirade, admirably delivered; he was +dazzled, attracted; but he remained Phellion; he walked up to the +lawyer and held out his hand, which la Peyrade took. + +"Monsieur," said the commander, with emotion, "I have misjudged you. +What you have done me the honor to confide to me will die _there_," +laying his hand on his heart. "You are one of the men of whom we have +too few,--men who console us for many evils inherent in our social +state. Righteousness is seen so seldom that our too feeble natures +distrust appearances. You have in me a friend, if you will allow me +the honor of assuming that title. But you must learn to know me, +monsieur. I should lose my own esteem if I nominated Thuillier. No, my +son shall never own his happiness to an evil action on his father's +part. I shall not change my candidate because my son's interests +demand it. That is civic virtue, monsieur." + +La Peyrade pulled out his handkerchief and rubbed it in his eye so +that it drew a tear, as he said, holding out his hand to Phellion, and +turning aside his head:-- + +"Ah! monsieur, how sublime a struggle between public and private duty! +Had I come here only to see this sight, my visit would not have been +wasted. You cannot do otherwise! In your place, I should do the same. +You are that noblest thing that God has made--a righteous man! a +citizen of the Jean-Jacques type! With many such citizens, oh France! +my country! what mightest thou become! It is I, monsieur, who solicit, +humbly, the honor to be your friend." + +"What can be happening?" said Madame Phellion, watching the scene +through the window. "Do see your father and that horrid man embracing +each other." + +Phellion and la Peyrade now came out and joined the family in the +garden. + +"My dear Felix," said the old man, pointing to la Peyrade, who was +bowing to Madame Phellion, "be very grateful to that admirable young +man; he will prove most useful to you." + +The lawyer walked for about five minutes with Madame Barniol and +Madame Phellion beneath the leafless lindens, and gave them (in +consequence of the embarrassing circumstances created by Phellion's +political obstinacy) a piece of advice, the effects of which were to +bear fruit that evening, while its first result was to make both +ladies admire his talents, his frankness, and his inappreciable good +qualities. When the lawyer departed the whole family conducted him to +the street gate, and all eyes followed him until he had turned the +corner of the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques. Madame Phellion then took +the arm of her husband to return to the salon, saying:-- + +"Hey! my friend! what does this mean? You, such a good father, how can +you, from excessive delicacy, stand in the way of such a fine marriage +for our Felix?" + +"My dear," replied Phellion, "the great men of antiquity, Brutus and +others, were never fathers when called upon to be citizens. The +bourgeoisie has, even more than the aristocracy whose place it has +been called upon to take, the obligations of the highest virtues. +Monsieur de Saint-Hilaire did not think of his lost arm in presence of +the dead Turenne. We must give proof of our worthiness; let us give it +at every state of the social hierarchy. Shall I instruct my family in +the highest civic principles only to ignore them myself at the moment +for applying them? No, my dear; weep, if you must, to-day, but +to-morrow you will respect me," he added, seeing tears in the eyes of +his starched better half. + +These noble words were said on the sill of the door, above which was +written, "Aurea mediocritas." + +"I ought to have put, 'et digna,'" added Phellion, pointing to the +tablet, "but those two words would imply self-praise." + +"Father," said Marie-Theodore Phellion, the future engineer of "ponts +et chaussees," when the family were once more seated in the salon, "it +seems to me that there is nothing dishonorable in changing one's +determination about a choice which is of no real consequence to public +welfare." + +"No consequence, my son!" cried Phellion. "Between ourselves I will +say, and Felix shares my opinion, Monsieur Thuillier is absolutely +without capacity; he knows nothing. Monsieur Horace Bianchon is an +able man; he will obtain a thousand things for our arrondissement, and +Thuillier will obtain none! Remember this, my son; to change a good +determination for a bad one from motives of self-interest is one of +those infamous actions which escape the control of men but are +punished by God. I am, or I think I am, void of all blame before my +conscience, and I owe it to you, my children, to leave my memory +unstained among you. Nothing, therefore, can make me change my +determination." + +"Oh, my good father!" cried the little Barniol woman, flinging herself +on a cushion at Phellion's knees, "don't ride your high horse! There +are many fools and idiots in the municipal council, and France gets +along all the same. That old Thuillier will adopt the opinions of +those about him. Do reflect that Celeste will probably have five +hundred thousand francs." + +"She might have millions," said Phellion, "and I might see them there +at my feet before I would propose Thuillier, when I owe to the memory +of the best of men to nominate, if possible, Horace Bianchon, his +nephew. From the heaven above us Popinot is contemplating and +applauding me!" cried Phellion, with exaltation. "It is by such +considerations as you suggest that France is being lowered, and the +bourgeoisie are bringing themselves into contempt." + +"My father is right," said Felix, coming out of a deep reverie. "He +deserves our respect and love; as he has throughout the whole course +of his modest and honored life. I would not owe my happiness either to +remorse in his noble soul, or to a low political bargain. I love +Celeste as I love my own family; but, above all that, I place my +father's honor, and since this question is a matter of conscience with +him it must not be spoken of again." + +Phellion, with his eyes full of tears, went up to his eldest son and +took him in his arms, saying, "My son! my son!" in a choking voice. + +"All that is nonsense," whispered Madame Phellion in Madame Barniol's +ear. "Come and dress me; I shall make an end of this; I know your +father; he has put his foot down now. To carry out the plan that pious +young man, Theodose, suggested, I want your help; hold yourself ready +to give it, my daughter." + +At this moment, Genevieve came in and gave a letter to Monsieur +Phellion. + +"An invitation for dinner to-day, for Madame Phellion and Felix and +myself, at the Thuilliers'," he said. + +The magnificent and surprising idea of Thuillier's municipal +advancement, put forth by the "advocate of the poor" was not less +upsetting in the Thuillier household than it was in the Phellion +salon. Jerome Thuillier, without actually confiding anything to his +sister, for he made it a point of honor to obey his Mephistopheles, +had rushed to her in great excitement to say:-- + +"My dearest girl" (he always touched her heart with those caressing +words), "we shall have some big-wigs at dinner to-day. I'm going to +ask the Minards; therefore take pains about your dinner. I have +written to Monsieur and Madame Phellion; it is rather late; but +there's no need of ceremony with them. As for the Minards, I must +throw a little dust in their eyes; I have a particular need of them." + +"Four Minards, three Phellions, four Collevilles, and ourselves; that +makes thirteen--" + +"La Peyrade, fourteen; and it is worth while to invite Dutocq; he may +be useful to us. I'll go up and see him." + +"What are you scheming?" cried his sister. "Fifteen to dinner! There's +forty francs, at the very least, waltzing off." + +"You won't regret them, my dearest. I want you to be particularly +agreeable to our young friend, la Peyrade. There's a friend, indeed! +you'll soon have proofs of that! If you love me, cosset him well." + +So saying, he departed, leaving Brigitte bewildered. + +"Proofs, indeed! yes, I'll look out for proofs," she said. "I'm not to +be caught with fine words, not I! He is an amiable fellow; but before +I take him into my heart I shall study him a little closer." + +After inviting Dutocq, Thuillier, having bedizened himself, went to +the hotel Minard, rue des Macons-Sorbonne, to capture the stout Zelie, +and gloss over the shortness of the invitation. + +Minard had purchased one of those large and sumptuous habitations +which the old religious orders built about the Sorbonne, and as +Thuillier mounted the broad stone steps with an iron balustrade, that +proved how arts of the second class flourished under Louis XIII., he +envied both the mansion and its occupant,--the mayor. + +This vast building, standing between a courtyard and garden, is +noticeable as a specimen of the style, both noble and elegant, of the +reign of Louis XIII., coming singularly, as it did, between the bad +taste of the expiring renaissance and the heavy grandeur of Louis +XIV., at its dawn. This transition period is shown in many public +buildings. The massive scroll-work of several facades--that of the +Sorbonne, for instance,--and columns rectified according to the rules +of Grecian art, were beginning to appear in this architecture. + +A grocer, a lucky adulterator, now took the place of the former +ecclesiastical governor of an institution called in former times +L'Economat; an establishment connected with the general agency of the +old French clergy, and founded by the long-sighted genius of +Richelieu. Thuillier's name opened for him the doors of the salon, +where sat enthroned in velvet and gold, amid the most magnificent +"Chineseries," the poor woman who weighed with all her avoirdupois on +the hearts and minds of princes and princesses at the "popular balls" +of the palace. + +"Isn't she a good subject for 'La Caricature'?" said a so-called lady +of the bedchamber to a duchess, who could hardly help laughing at the +aspect of Zelie, glittering with diamonds, red as a poppy, squeezed +into a gold brocade, and rolling along like the casts of her former +shop. + +"Will you pardon me, fair lady," began Thuillier, twisting his body, +and pausing in pose number two of his imperial repertory, "for having +allowed this invitation to remain in my desk, thinking, all the while, +that it was sent? It is for to-day, but perhaps I am too late?" + +Zelie examined her husband's face as he approached them to receive +Thuillier; then she said:-- + +"We intended to drive into the country and dine at some chance +restaurant; but we'll give up that idea and all the more readily +because, in my opinion, it is getting devilishly vulgar to drive out +of Paris on Sundays." + +"We will have a little dance to the piano for the young people, if +enough come, as I hope they will. I have sent a line to Phellion, +whose wife is intimate with Madame Pron, the successor--" + +"Successor_ess_," interrupted Madame Minard. + +"No," said Thuillier, "it ought to be success'ress; just as we say +may'ress, dropping the O, you know." + +"Is it full dress?" asked Madame Minard. + +"Heavens! no," replied Thuillier; "you would get me finely scolded by +my sister. No, it is only a family party. Under the Empire, madame, we +all devoted ourselves to dancing. At that great epoch of our national +life they thought as much of a fine dancer as they did of a good +soldier. Nowadays the country is so matter-of-fact." + +"Well, we won't talk politics," said the mayor, smiling. "The King is +grand; he is very able. I have a deep admiration for my own time, and +for the institutions which we have given to ourselves. The King, you +may be sure, knows very well what he is doing by the development of +industries. He is struggling hand to hand against England; and we are +doing him more harm during this fruitful peace than all the wars of +the Empire would have done." + +"What a deputy Minard would make!" cried Zelie, naively. "He practises +speechifying at home. You'll help us to get him elected, won't you, +Thuillier?" + +"We won't talk politics now," replied Thuillier. "Come at five." + +"Will that little Vinet be there?" asked Minard; "he comes, no doubt, +for Celeste." + +"Then he may go into mourning," replied Thuillier. "Brigitte won't +hear of him." + +Zelie and Minard exchanged a smile of satisfaction. + +"To think that we must hob-nob with such common people, all for the +sake of our son!" cried Zelie, when Thuillier was safely down the +staircase, to which the mayor had accompanied him. + +"Ha! he thinks to be deputy!" thought Thuillier, as he walked away. +"These grocers! nothing satisfies them. Heavens! what would Napoleon +say if he could see the government in the hands of such people! I'm a +trained administrator, at any rate. What a competitor, to be sure! I +wonder what la Peyrade will say?" + +The ambitious ex-beau now went to invite the whole Laudigeois family +for the evening, after which he went to the Collevilles', to make sure +that Celeste should wear a becoming gown. He found Flavie rather +pensive. She hesitated about coming, but Thuillier overcame her +indecision. + +"My old and ever young friend," he said, taking her round the waist, +for she was alone in her little salon, "I won't have any secret from +you. A great affair is in the wind for me. I can't tell you more than +that, but I can ask you to be particularly charming to a certain young +man--" + +"Who is it?" + +"La Peyrade." + +"Why, Charles?" + +"He holds my future in his hands. Besides, he's a man of genius. I +know what that is. He's got this sort of thing,"--and Thuillier made +the gesture of a dentist pulling out a back tooth. "We must bind him +to us, Flavie. But, above all, don't let him see his power. As for me, +I shall just give and take with him." + +"Do you want me to be coquettish?" + +"Not too much so, my angel," replied Thuillier, with a foppish air. + +And he departed, not observing the stupor which overcame Flavie. + +"That young man is a power," she said to herself. "Well, we shall +see!" + +For these reasons she dressed her hair with marabouts, put on her +prettiest gown of gray and pink, which allowed her fine shoulders to +be seen beneath a pelerine of black lace, and took care to keep +Celeste in a little silk frock made with a yoke and a large plaited +collarette, telling her to dress her hair plainly, a la Berthe. + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + AD MAJOREM THEODOSIS GLORIAM + +At half-past four o'clock Theodose was at his post. He had put on his +vacant, half-servile manner and soft voice, and he drew Thuillier at +once into the garden. + +"My friend," he said, "I don't doubt your triumph, but I feel the +necessity of again warning you to be absolutely silent. If you are +questioned about anything, especially about Celeste, make evasive +answers which will keep your questioners in suspense. You must have +learned how to do that in a government office." + +"I understand!" said Thuillier. "But what certainty have you?" + +"You'll see what a fine dessert I have prepared for you. But please be +modest. There come the Minards; let me pipe to them. Bring them out +here, and then disappear yourself." + +After the first salutations, la Peyrade was careful to keep close to +the mayor, and presently at an opportune moment he drew him aside to +say:-- + +"Monsieur le maire, a man of your political importance doesn't come to +bore himself in a house of this kind without an object. I don't want +to fathom your motives--which, indeed, I have no right to do--and my +part in this world is certainly not to mingle with earthly powers; but +please pardon my apparent presumption, and deign to listen to a piece +of advice which I shall venture to give you. If I do you a service +to-day you are in a position to return it to me to-morrow; therefore, +in case I should be so fortunate as to do you a good turn, I am really +only obeying the law of self-interest. Our friend Thuillier is in +despair at being a nobody; he has taken it into his head that he wants +to become a personage in this arrondissement--" + +"Ah! ah!" exclaimed Minard. + +"Oh! nothing very exalted; he wants to be elected to the municipal +council. Now, I know that Phellion, seeing the influence such a +service would have on his family interests, intends to propose your +poor friend as candidate. Well, perhaps you might think it wise, in +your own interests, to be beforehand with him. Thuillier's nomination +could only be favorable for you--I mean agreeable; and he'll fill his +place in the council very well; there are some there who are not as +strong as he. Besides, owing to his place to your support, he will see +with your eyes; he already looks to you as one of the lights of the +town." + +"My dear fellow, I thank you very much," replied Minard. "You are +doing me a service I cannot sufficiently acknowledge, and which proves +to me--" + +"That I don't like those Phellions," said la Peyrade, taking advantage +of a slight hesitation on the part of the mayor, who feared to express +an idea in which the lawyer might see contempt. "I hate people who +make capital out of their honesty and coin money from fine +sentiments." + +"You know them well," said Minard; "they are sycophants. That man's +whole life for the last ten years is explained by this bit of red +ribbon," added the mayor, pointing to his own buttonhole. + +"Take care!" said the lawyer, "his son is in love with Celeste, and +he's fairly in the heart of the family." + +"Yes, but my son has twelve thousand a year in his own right." + +"Oh!" said Theodose, with a start, "Mademoiselle Brigitte was saying +the other day that she wanted at least as much as that in Celeste's +suitor. Moreover, six months hence you'll probably hear that Thuillier +has a property worth forty thousand francs a year." + +"The devil! well, I thought as much. Yes, certainly, he shall be made +a member of the municipal council." + +"In any case, don't say anything about me to him," said the advocate +of the poor, who now hastened away to speak to Madame Phellion. "Well, +my fair lady," he said, when he reached her, "have you succeeded?" + +"I waited till four o'clock, and then that worthy and excellent man +would not let me finish what I had to say. He is much to busy to +accept such an office, and he sent a letter which Monsieur Phellion +has read, saying that he, Doctor Bianchon, thanked him for his good +intentions, and assured him that his own candidate was Monsieur +Thuillier. He said that he should use all his influence in his favor, +and begged my husband to do the same." + +"And what did your excellent husband say?" + +"'I have done my duty,' he said. 'I have not been false to my +conscience, and now I am all for Thuillier.'" + +"Well, then, the thing is settled," said la Peyrade. "Ignore my visit, +and take all the credit of the idea to yourselves." + +Then he went to Madame Colleville, composing himself in the attitude +and manner of the deepest respect. + +"Madame," he said, "have the goodness to send out to me here that +kindly papa Colleville. A surprise is to be given to Monsieur +Thuillier, and I want Monsieur Colleville to be in the secret." + +While la Peyrade played the part of man of the world with Colleville, +and allowed himself various witty sarcasms when explaining to him +Thuillier's candidacy, telling him he ought to support it, if only to +exhibit his incapacity, Flavie was listening in the salon to the +following conversation, which bewildered her for the moment and made +her ears ring. + +"I should like to know what Monsieur Colleville and Monsieur de la +Peyrade can be saying to each other to make them laugh like that," +said Madame Thuillier, foolishly, looking out of the window. + +"A lot of improper things, as men always do when they talk together," +replied Mademoiselle Thuillier, who often attacked men with the sort +of instinct natural to old maids. + +"No, they are incapable of that," said Phellion, gravely. "Monsieur de +la Peyrade is one of the most virtuous young men I have ever met. +People know what I think of Felix; well, I put the two on the same +line; indeed, I wish my son had a little more of Monsieur de la +Peyrade's beautiful piety." + +"You are right; he is a man of great merit, who is sure to succeed," +said Minard. "As for me, my suffrages--for I really ought not to say +protection--are his." + +"He pays more for oil than for bread," said Dutocq. "I know that." + +"His mother, if he has the happiness to still possess her, must be +proud of him," remarked Madame Thuillier, sententiously. + +"He is a real treasure for us," said Thuillier. "If you only knew how +modest he is! He doesn't do himself justice." + +"I can answer for one thing," added Dutocq; "no young man ever +maintained a nobler attitude in poverty; he triumphed over it; but he +suffered--it is easy to see that." + +"Poor young man!" cried Zelie. "Such things make my heart ache!" + +"Any one could safely trust both secrets and fortune to him," said +Thuillier; "and in these days that is the finest thing that can be +said of a man." + +"It is Colleville who is making him laugh," cried Dutocq. + +Just then Colleville and la Peyrade returned from the garden the very +best friends in the world. + +"Messieurs," said Brigitte, "the soup and the King must never be kept +waiting; give your hand to the ladies." + +Five minutes after this little pleasantry (issuing from the lodge of +her father the porter) Brigitte had the satisfaction of seeing her +table surrounded by the principal personages of this drama; the rest, +with the one exception of the odious Cerizet, arrived later. + +The portrait of the former maker of canvas money-bags would be +incomplete if we omitted to give a description of one of her best +dinners. The physiognomy of the bourgeois cook of 1840 is, moreover, +one of those details essentially necessary to a history of manners and +customs, and clever housewives may find some lessons in it. A woman +doesn't make empty bags for twenty years without looking out for the +means to fill a few of them. Now Brigitte had one peculiar +characteristic. She united the economy to which she owed her fortune +with a full understanding of necessary expenses. Her relative +prodigality, when it concerned her brother or Celeste, was the +antipodes of avarice. In fact, she often bemoaned herself that she +couldn't be miserly. At her last dinner she had related how, after +struggling ten minute and enduring martyrdom, she had ended by giving +ten francs to a poor workwoman whom she knew, positively, had been +without food for two days. + +"Nature," she said naively, "is stronger than reason." + +The soup was a rather pale bouillon; for, even on an occasion like +this, the cook had been enjoined to make a great deal of bouillon out +of the beef supplied. Then, as the said beef was to feed the family on +the next day and the day after that, the less juice it expended in the +bouillon, the more substantial were the subsequent dinners. The beef, +little cooked, was always taken away at the following speech from +Brigitte, uttered as soon as Thuillier put his knife into it:-- + +"I think it is rather tough; send it away, Thuillier, nobody will eat +it; we have other things." + +The soup was, in fact, flanked by four viands mounted on old hot-water +chafing-dishes, with the plating worn off. At this particular dinner +(afterwards called that of the candidacy) the first course consisted +of a pair of ducks with olives, opposite to which was a large pie with +forcemeat balls, while a dish of eels "a la tartare" corresponded in +like manner with a fricandeau on chicory. The second course had for +its central dish a most dignified goose stuffed with chestnuts, a +salad of vegetables garnished with rounds of beetroot opposite to +custards in cups, while lower down a dish of turnips "au sucre" faced +a timbale of macaroni. This gala dinner of the concierge type cost, at +the utmost, twenty francs, and the remains of the feast provided the +household for a couple of days; nevertheless, Brigitte would say:-- + +"Pest! when one has to have company how the money goes! It is +fearful!" + +The table was lighted by two hideous candlesticks of plated silver +with four branches each, in which shone eight of those thrifty +wax-candles that go by the name of Aurora. The linen was dazzling +in whiteness, and the silver, with beaded edges, was the fruit, +evidently, of some purchase made during the Revolution by Thuillier's +father. Thus the fare and the service were in keeping with the house, +the dining-room, and the Thuilliers themselves, who could never, under +any circumstances, get themselves above this style of living. The +Minards, Collevilles, and la Peyrade exchanged now and then a smile +which betrayed their mutually satirical but repressed thoughts. La +Peyrade, seated beside Flavie, whispered in her ear:-- + +"You must admit that they ought to be taught how to live. But those +Minards are no better in their way. What cupidity! they've come here +solely after Celeste. Your daughter will be lost to you if you let +them have her. These parvenus have all the vices of the great lords of +other days without their elegance. Minard's son, who has twelve +thousand francs a year of his own, could very well find a wife +elsewhere, instead of pushing his speculating rake in here. What fun +it would be to play upon those people as one would on a bass-viol or a +clarionet!" + +While the dishes of the second course were being removed, Minard, +afraid that Phellion would precede him, said to Thuillier with a grave +air:-- + +"My dear Thuillier, in accepting your dinner, I did so for the purpose +of making an important communication, which does you so much honor +that all here present ought to be made participants in it." + +Thuillier turned pale. + +"Have you obtained the cross for me?" he cried, on receiving a glance +from Theodose, and wishing to prove that he was not without craft. + +"You will doubtless receive it ere long," replied the mayor. "But the +matter now relates to something better than that. The cross is a favor +due to the good opinion of a minister, whereas the present question +concerns an election due to the consent of your fellow citizens. In a +word, a sufficiently large number of electors in your arrondissement +have cast their eyes upon you, and wish to honor you with their +confidence by making you the representative of this arrondissement in +the municipal council of Paris; which, as everybody knows, is the +Council-general of the Seine." + +"Bravo!" cried Dutocq. + +Phellion rose. + +"Monsieur le maire has forestalled me," he said in an agitated voice, +"but it is so flattering for our friend to be the object of eagerness +on the part of all good citizens, and to obtain the public vote of +high and low, that I cannot complain of being obliged to come second +only; therefore, all honor to the initiatory authority!" (Here he +bowed respectfully to Minard.) "Yes, Monsieur Thuillier, many electors +think of giving you their votes in that portion of the arrondissement +where I keep my humble penates; and you have the special advantage of +being suggested to their minds by a distinguished man." (Sensation.) +"By a man in whose person we desired to honor one of the most virtuous +inhabitants of the arrondissement, who for twenty years, I may say, +was the father of it. I allude to the late Monsieur Popinot, +counsellor, during his lifetime, to the Royal court, and our delegate +in the municipal council of Paris. But his nephew, of whom I speak, +Doctor Bianchon, one of our glories, has, in view of his absorbing +duties, declined the responsibility with which we sought to invest +him. While thanking us for our compliment he has--take note of +this--indicated for our suffrages the candidate of Monsieur le maire +as being, in his opinion, capable, owing to the position he formerly +occupied, of exercising the magisterial functions of the aedileship." + +And Phellion sat down amid approving murmurs. + +"Thuillier, you can count on me, your old friend," said Colleville. + +At this moment the guests were sincerely touched by the sight +presented of old Mademoiselle Brigitte and Madame Thuillier. Brigitte, +pale as though she were fainting, was letting the slow tears run, +unheeded, down her cheeks, tears of deepest joy; while Madame +Thuillier sat, as if struck by lightning, with her eyes fixed. +Suddenly the old maid darted into the kitchen, crying out to Josephine +the cook:-- + +"Come into the cellar my girl, we must get out the wine behind the +wood!" + +"My friends," said Thuillier, in a shaking voice, "this is the finest +moment of my life, finer than even the day of my election, should I +consent to allow myself to be presented to the suffrages of my +fellow-citizens" ("You must! you must!"); "for I feel myself much worn +down by thirty years of public service, and, as you may well believe, +a man of honor has need to consult his strength and his capacities +before he takes upon himself the functions of the aedileship." + +"I expected nothing less of you, Monsieur Thuillier," cried Phellion. +"Pardon me; this is the first time in my life that I have ever +interrupted a superior; but there are circumstances--" + +"Accept! accept!" cried Zelie. "Bless my soul! what we want are men +like you to govern us." + +"Resign yourself, my chief!" cried Dutocq, and, "Long live the future +municipal councillor! but we haven't anything to drink--" + +"Well, the thing is settled," said Minard; "you are to be our +candidate." + +"You think too much of me," replied Thuillier. + +"Come, come!" cried Colleville. "A man who has done thirty years in +the galleys of the ministry of finance is a treasure to the town." + +"You are much too modest," said the younger Minard; "your capacity is +well known to us; it remains a tradition at the ministry of finance." + +"As you all insist--" began Thuillier. + +"The King will be pleased with our choice; I can assure you of that," +said Minard, pompously. + +"Gentlemen," said la Peyrade, "will you permit a recent dweller in the +faubourg Saint-Jacques to make one little remark, which is not without +importance?" + +The consciousness that everybody had of the sterling merits of the +advocate of the poor produced the deepest silence. + +"The influence of Monsieur le maire of an adjoining arrondissement, +which is immense in ours where he has left such excellent memories; +that of Monsieur Phellion, the oracle--yes, let the truth be spoken," +he exclaimed, noticing a gesture made by Phellion--"the _oracle_ of his +battalion; the influence, no less powerful, which Monsieur Colleville +owes to the frank heartiness of his manner, and to his urbanity; that +of Monsieur Dutocq, the clerk of the justice court, which will not be +less efficacious, I am sure; and the poor efforts which I can offer in +my humble sphere of activity,--are pledges of success, but they are +not success itself. To obtain a rapid triumph we should pledge +ourselves, now and here, to keep the deepest secrecy on the +manifestation of sentiments which has just taken place. Otherwise, we +should excite, without knowing or willing it, envy and all the other +secondary passions, which would create for us later various obstacles +to overcome. The political meaning of the new social organization, its +very basis, its token, and the guarantee for its continuance, are in a +certain sharing of the governing power with the middle classes, +classes who are the true strength of modern societies, the centre of +morality, of all good sentiments and intelligent work. But we cannot +conceal from ourselves that the principle of election, extended now to +almost every function, has brought the interests of ambition, and the +passion for being _something_, excuse the word, into social depths where +they ought never to have penetrated. Some see good in this; others see +evil; it is not my place to judge between them in presence of minds +before whose eminence I bow. I content myself by simply suggesting +this question in order to show the dangers which the banner of our +friend must meet. See for yourselves! the decease of our late +honorable representative in the municipal council dates back scarcely +one week, and already the arrondissement is being canvassed by +inferior ambitions. Such men put themselves forward to be seen at any +price. The writ of convocation will, probably, not take effect for a +month to come. Between now and then, imagine the intrigues! I entreat +you not to expose our friend Thuillier to the blows of his +competitors; let us not deliver him over to public discussion, that +modern harpy which is but the trumpet of envy and calumny, the pretext +seized by malevolence to belittle all that is great, soil all that is +immaculate and dishonor whatever is sacred. Let us, rather, do as the +Third Party is now doing in the Chamber,--keep silence and vote!" + +"He speaks well," said Phellion to his neighbor Dutocq. + +"And how strong the statement is!" + +Envy had turned Minard and his son green and yellow. + +"That is well said and very true," remarked Minard. + +"Unanimously adopted!" cried Colleville. "Messieurs, we are men of +honor; it suffices to understand each other on this point." + +"Whoso desires the end accepts the means," said Phellion, +emphatically. + +At this moment, Mademoiselle Thuillier reappeared, followed by her two +servants; the key of the cellar was hanging from her belt, and three +bottles of champagne, three of hermitage, and one bottle of malaga +were placed upon the table. She herself was carrying, with almost +respectful care, a smaller bottle, like a fairy Carabosse, which she +placed before her. In the midst of the hilarity caused by this +abundance of excellent things--a fruit of gratitude, which the poor +spinster in the delirium of her joy poured out with a profusion which +put to shame the sparing hospitality of her usual fortnightly dinners +--numerous dessert dishes made their appearance: mounds of almonds, +raisins, figs, and nuts (popularly known as the "four beggars"), +pyramids of oranges, confections, crystallized fruits, brought from +the hidden depths of her cupboards, which would never have figured on +the table-cloth had it not been for the "candidacy." + +"Celeste, they will bring you a bottle of brandy which my father +obtained in 1802; make an orange-salad!" cried Brigitte to her +sister-in-law. "Monsieur Phellion, open the champagne; that bottle is +for you three. Monsieur Dutocq, take this one. Monsieur Colleville, +you know how to pop corks!" + +The two maids distributed champagne glasses, also claret glasses, and +wine glasses. Josephine also brought three more bottles of Bordeaux. + +"The year of the comet!" cried Thuillier, laughing, "Messieurs, you +have turned my sister's head." + +"And this evening you shall have punch and cakes," she said. "I +have sent to the chemists for some tea. Heavens! if I had only +known the affair concerned an election," she cried, looking at +her sister-in-law, "I'd have served the turkey." + +A general laugh welcomed this speech. + +"We have a goose!" said Minard junior. + +"The carts are unloading!" cried Madame Thuillier, as "marrons glaces" +and "meringues" were placed upon the table. + +Mademoiselle Thuillier's face was blazing. She was really superb to +behold. Never did sisterly love assume such a frenzied expression. + +"To those who know her, it is really touching," remarked Madame +Colleville. + +The glasses were filled. The guests all looked at one another, +evidently expecting a toast, whereupon la Peyrade said:-- + +"Messieurs, let us drink to something sublime." + +Everybody looked curious. + +"To Mademoiselle Brigitte!" + +They all rose, clinked glasses, and cried with one voice, +"Mademoiselle Brigitte!" so much enthusiasm did the exhibition of a +true feeling excite. + +"Messieurs," said Phellion, reading from a paper written in pencil, +"To work and its splendors, in the person of our former comrade, now +become one of the mayors of Paris,--to Monsieur Minard and his wife!" + +After five minutes' general conversation Thuillier rose and said:-- + +"Messieurs, To the King and the royal family! I add nothing; the toast +says all." + +"To the election of my brother!" said Mademoiselle Thuillier a moment +later. + +"Now I'll make you laugh," whispered la Peyrade in Flavie's ear. + +And he rose. + +"To Woman!" he said; "that enchanting sex to whom we owe our +happiness,--not to speak of our mothers, our sisters, and our wives!" + +This toast excited general hilarity, and Colleville, already somewhat +gay, exclaimed:-- + +"Rascal! you have stolen my speech!" + +The mayor then rose; profound silence reigned. + +"Messieurs, our institutions! from which come the strength and +grandeur of dynastic France!" + +The bottles disappeared amid a chorus of admiration as to the +marvellous goodness and delicacy of their contents. + +Celeste Colleville here said timidly:-- + +"Mamma, will you permit me to give a toast?" + +The good girl had noticed the dull, bewildered look of her godmother, +neglected and forgotten,--she, the mistress of that house, wearing +almost the expression of a dog that is doubtful which master to obey, +looking from the face of her terrible sister-in-law to that of +Thuillier, consulting each countenance, and oblivious of herself; but +joy on the face of that poor helot, accustomed to be nothing, to +repress her ideas, her feelings, had the effect of a pale wintry sun +behind a mist; it barely lighted her faded, flabby flesh. The gauze +cap trimmed with dingy flowers, the hair ill-dressed, the gloomy brown +gown, with no ornament but a thick gold chain--all, combined with the +expression of her countenance, stimulated the affection of the young +Celeste, who--alone in the world--knew the value of that woman +condemned to silence but aware of all about her, suffering from all +yet consoling herself in God and in the girl who now was watching her. + +"Yes, let the dear child give us her little toast," said la Peyrade to +Madame Colleville. + +"Go on, my daughter," cried Colleville; "here's the hermitage still to +be drunk--and it's hoary with age," he added. + +"To my kind godmother!" said the girl, lowering her glass respectfully +before Madame Thuillier, and holding it towards her. + +The poor woman, startled, looked through a veil of tears first at her +husband, and then at Brigitte; but her position in the family was so +well known, and the homage paid by innocence to weakness had something +so beautiful about it, that the emotion was general; the men all rose +and bowed to Madame Thuillier. + +"Ah! Celeste, I would I had a kingdom to lay at your feet," murmured +Felix Phellion. + +The worthy Phellion wiped away a tear. Dutocq himself was moved. + +"Oh! the charming child!" cried Mademoiselle Thuillier, rising, and +going round to kiss her sister-in-law. + +"My turn now!" said Colleville, posing like an athlete. "Now listen: +To friendship! Empty your glasses; refill your glasses. Good! To the +fine arts,--the flower of social life! Empty your glasses; refill your +glasses. To another such festival on the day after election!" + +"What is that little bottle you have there?" said Dutocq to +Mademoiselle Thuillier. + +"That," she said, "is one of my three bottles of Madame Amphoux' +liqueur; the second is for the day of Celeste's marriage; the third +for the day on which her first child is baptized." + +"My sister is losing her head," remarked Thuillier to Colleville. + +The dinner ended with a toast, offered by Thuillier, but suggested to +him by Theodose at the moment when the malaga sparkled in the little +glasses like so many rubies. + +"Colleville, messieurs, has drunk to _friendship_. I now drink, in +this most generous wine, To my friends!" + +An hurrah, full of heartiness, greeted that fine sentiment, but Dutocq +remarked aside to Theodose:-- + +"It is a shame to pour such wine down the throats of such people." + +"Ah! if we could only make such wine as that!" cried Zelie, making her +glass ring by the way in which she sucked down the Spanish liquid. +"What fortunes we could get!" + +Zelie had now reached her highest point of incandescence, and was +really alarming. + +"Yes," replied Minard, "but ours is made." + +"Don't you think, sister," said Brigitte to Madame Thuillier, "that we +had better take coffee in the salon?" + +Madame Thuillier obediently assumed the air of mistress of the house, +and rose. + +"Ah! you are a great wizard," said Flavie Colleville, accepting la +Peyrade's arm to return to the salon. + +"And yet I care only to bewitch you," he answered. "I think you more +enchanting than ever this evening." + +"Thuillier," she said, to evade the subject, "Thuillier made to think +himself a political character! oh! oh!" + +"But, my dear Flavie, half the absurdities of life are the result of +such conspiracies; and men are not alone in these deceptions. In how +many families one sees the husband, children, and friends persuading a +silly mother that she is a woman of sense, or an old woman of fifty +that she is young and beautiful. Hence, inconceivable contrarieties +for those who go about the world with their eyes shut. One man owes +his ill-savored conceit to the flattery of a mistress; another owes +his versifying vanity to those who are paid to call him a great poet. +Every family has its great man; and the result is, as we see it in the +Chamber, general obscurity of the lights of France. Well, men of real +mind are laughing to themselves about it, that's all. You are the mind +and the beauty of this little circle of the petty bourgeoisie; it is +this superiority which led me in the first instance to worship you. I +have since longed to drag you out of it; for I love you sincerely +--more in friendship than in love; though a great deal of love is +gliding into it," he added, pressing her to his heart under cover of +the recess of a window to which he had taken her. + +"Madame Phellion will play the piano," cried Colleville. "We must all +dance to-night--bottles and Brigitte's francs and all the little +girls! I'll go and fetch my clarionet." + +He gave his empty coffee-cup to his wife, smiling to see her so +friendly with la Peyrade. + +"What have you said and done to my husband?" asked Flavie, when +Colleville had left them. + +"Must I tell you all our secrets?" + +"Ah! you don't love me," she replied, looking at him with the +coquettish slyness of a woman who is not quite decided in her mind. + +"Well, since you tell me yours," he said, letting himself go to the +lively impulse of Provencal gaiety, always so charming and apparently +so natural, "I will not conceal from you an anxiety in my heart." + +He took her back to the same window and said, smiling:-- + +"Colleville, poor man, has seen in me the artist repressed by all +these bourgeois; silent before them because I feel misjudged, +misunderstood, and repelled by them. He has felt the heat of the +sacred fire that consumes me. Yes I am," he continued, in a tone of +conviction, "an artist in words after the manner of Berryer; I could +make juries weep, by weeping myself, for I'm as nervous as a woman. +Your husband, who detests the bourgeoisie, began to tease me about +them. At first we laughed; then, in becoming serious, he found out +that I was as strong as he. I told him of the plan concocted to make +_something_ of Thuillier, and I showed him all the good he could get +himself out of a political puppet. 'If it were only,' I said to him, +'to make yourself Monsieur _de_ Colleville, and to put your +charming wife where I should like to see her, as the wife of a +receiver-general, or deputy. To make yourself all that you and she +ought to be, you have only to go and live a few years in the Upper or +Lower Alps, in some hole of a town where everybody will like you, and +your wife will seduce everybody; and this,' I added, 'you cannot fail +to obtain, especially if you give your dear Celeste to some man who can +influence the Chamber.' Good reasons, stated in jest, have the merit of +penetrating deeper into some minds than if they were given soberly. So +Colleville and I became the best friends in the world. Didn't you hear +him say to me at table, 'Rascal! you have stolen my speech'? To-night +we shall be theeing and thouing each other. I intend to have a choice +little supper-party soon, where artists, tied to the proprieties at +home, always compromise themselves. I'll invite him, and that will +make us as solidly good friends as he is with Thuillier. There, my +dear adorned one, is what a profound sentiment gives a man the courage +to produce. Colleville must adopt me; so that I may visit your house +by his invitation. But what couldn't you make me do? lick lepers, +swallow live toads, seduce Brigitte--yes, if you say so, I'll impale +my own heart on that great picket-rail to please you." + +"You frightened me this morning," she said. + +"But this evening you are reassured. Yes," he added, "no harm will +ever happen to you through me." + +"You are, I must acknowledge, a most extraordinary man." + +"Why, no! the smallest as well as the greatest of my efforts are +merely the reflections of the flame which you have kindled. I intend +to be your son-in-law that we may never part. My wife, heavens! what +could she be to me but a machine for child-bearing? whereas the +divinity, the sublime being will be--you," he whispered in her ear. + +"You are Satan!" she said, in a sort of terror. + +"No, I am something of a poet, like all the men of my region. Come, be +my Josephine! I'll go and see you to-morrow. I have the most ardent +desire to see where you live and how you live, the furniture you use, +the color of your stuffs, the arrangement of all things about you. I +long to see the pearl in its shell." + +He slipped away cleverly after these words, without waiting for an +answer. + +Flavie, to whom in all her life love had never taken the language of +romance, sat still, but happy, her heart palpitating, and saying to +herself that it was very difficult to escape such influence. For the +first time Theodose had appeared in a pair of new trousers, with gray +silk stockings and pumps, a waistcoat of black silk, and a cravat of +black satin on the knot of which shone a plain gold pin selected with +taste. He wore also a new coat in the last fashion, and yellow gloves, +relieved by white shirt-cuffs; he was the only man who had manners, or +deportment in that salon, which was now filling up for the evening. + +Madame Pron, nee Barniol, arrived with two school-girls, aged +seventeen, confided to her maternal care by families residing in +Martinique. Monsieur Pron, professor of rhetoric in a college presided +over by priests, belonged to the Phellion class; but, instead of +expanding on the surface in phrases and demonstrations, and posing as +an example, he was dry and sententious. Monsieur and Madame Pron, the +flowers of the Phellion salon, received every Monday. Though a +professor, the little man danced. He enjoyed great influence in the +quarter enclosed by the boulevard du Mont-Parnasse, the Luxembourg, +and the rue de Sevres. Therefore, as soon as Phellion saw his friend, +he took him by the arm into a corner to inform him of the Thuillier +candidacy. After ten minutes' consultation they both went to find +Thuillier, and the recess of a window, opposite to that where Flavie +still sat absorbed in her reflections, no doubt, heard a "trio" +worthy, in its way, of that of the Swiss in "Guillaume Tell." + +"Do you see," said Theodose, returning to Flavie, "the pure and honest +Phellion intriguing over there? Give a personal reason to a virtuous +man and he'll paddle in the slimiest puddle; he is hooking that little +Pron, and Pron is taking it all in, solely to get your little Celeste +for Felix Phellion. Separate them, and in ten minutes they'll get +together again, and that young Minard will be growling round them like +an angry bulldog." + +Felix, still under the strong emotion imparted to him by Celeste's +generous action and the cry that came from the girl's heart, though no +one but Madame Thuillier still thought of it, became inspired by one +of those ingenuous artfulnesses which are the honest charlatanism of +true love; but he was not to the manner born of it, and mathematics, +moreover, made him somewhat absent-minded. He stationed himself near +Madame Thuillier, imagining that Madame Thuillier would attract +Celeste to her side. This astute calculation succeeded all the better +because young Minard, who saw in Celeste nothing more than a "dot," +had no such sudden inspiration, and was drinking his coffee and +talking politics with Laudigeois, Monsieur Barniol, and Dutocq by +order of his father, who was thinking and planning for the general +election of the legislature in 1842. + +"Who wouldn't love Celeste?" said Felix to Madame Thuillier. + +"Little darling, no one in the world loves me as she does," replied +the poor slave, with difficulty restraining her tears. + +"Ah! madame, we both love you," said the candid professor, sincerely. + +"What are you saying to each other?" asked Celeste, coming up. + +"My child," said the pious woman, drawing her god-daughter down to her +and kissing her on the forehead. "He said that you both loved me." + +"Do not be angry with my presumption, mademoiselle. Let me do all I +can to prove it," murmured Felix. "Ah! I cannot help it, I was made +this way; injustice revolts me to the soul! Yes, the Saviour of men +was right to promise the future to the meek heart, to the slain lamb! +A man who did not love you, Celeste, must have adored you after that +sublime impulse of yours at table. Ah, yes! innocence alone can +console the martyr. You are a kind young girl; you will be one of +those wives who make the glory and the happiness of a family. Happy be +he whom you will choose!" + +"Godmamma, with what eyes do you think Monsieur Felix sees me?" + +"He appreciates you, my little angel; I shall pray to God for both of +you." + +"If you knew how happy I am that my father can do a service to +Monsieur Thuillier, and how I wish I could be useful to your +brother--" + +"In short," said Celeste, laughing, "you love us all." + +"Well, yes," replied Felix. + +True love wraps itself in the mysteries of reserve, even in its +expression; it proves itself by itself; it does not feel the +necessity, as a false love does, of lighting a conflagration. By an +observer (if such a being could have glided into the Thuillier salon) +a book might have been made in comparing the two scenes of +love-making, and in watching the enormous preparations of Theodose +and the simplicity of Felix: one was nature, the other was society, +--the true and the false embodied. Noticing her daughter glowing with +happiness, exhaling her soul through the pores of her face, and +beautiful with the beauty of a young girl gathering the first roses +of an indirect declaration, Flavie had an impulse of jealousy in her +heart. She came across to Celeste and said in her ear:-- + +"You are not behaving well, my daughter; everybody is observing you; +you are compromising yourself by talking so long to Monsieur Felix +without knowing whether we approve of it." + +"But, mamma, my godmother is here." + +"Ah! pardon me, dear friend," said Madame Colleville; "I did not +notice you." + +"You do as others do," said the poor nonentity. + +That reply stung Madame Colleville, who regarded it as a barbed arrow. +She cast a haughty glance at Felix and said to Celeste, "Sit there, my +daughter," seating herself at the same time beside Madame Thuillier +and pointing to a chair on the other side of her. + +"I will work myself to death," said Felix to Madame Thuillier. "I'll +be a member of the Academy of Sciences; I'll make some great +discovery, and win her hand by force of fame." + +"Ah!" thought the poor woman to herself, "I ought to have had a +gentle, peaceful, learned man like that. I might have slowly developed +in a life of quietness. It was not thy will, O God! but, I pray thee, +unite and bless these children; they are made for one another." + +And she sat there, pensive, listening to the racket made by her +sister-in-law--a ten-horse power at work--who now, lending a hand to +her two servants, cleared the table, taking everything out of the +dining-room to accommodate the dancers, vociferating, like the captain +of a frigate on his quarter-deck when taking his ship into action: +"Have you plenty of raspberry syrup?" "Run out and buy some more +orgeat!" "There's not enough glasses. Where's the 'eau rougie'? Take +those six bottles of 'vin ordinaire' and make more. Mind that +Coffinet, the porter, doesn't get any." "Caroline, my girl, you are to +wait at the sideboard; you'll have tongue and ham to slice in case +they dance till morning. But mind, no waste! Keep an eye on +everything. Pass me the broom; put more oil in those lamps; don't make +blunders. Arrange the remains of the dessert so as to make a show on +the sideboard; ask my sister to come and help us. I'm sure I don't +know what she's thinking about, that dawdle! Heavens, how slow she is! +Here, take away these chairs, they'll want all the room they can get." + +The salon was full of Barniols, Collevilles, Phellions, Laudigeois, +and many others whom the announcement of a dance at the Thuilliers', +spread about in the Luxembourg between two and four in the afternoon, +the hour at which the bourgeoisie takes its walk, had drawn thither. + +"Are you ready, Brigitte?" said Colleville, bolting into the +dining-room; "it is nine o'clock, and they are packed as close as +herrings in the salon. Cardot, his wife and son and daughter and +future son-in-law have just come, accompanied by that young Vinet; +the whole faubourg Saint Antoine is debouching. Can't we move the +piano in here?" + +Then he gave the signal, by tuning his clarionet, the joyous sounds of +which were greeted with huzzas from the salon. + +It is useless to describe a ball of this kind. The toilets, faces, and +conversations were all in keeping with one fact which will surely +suffice even the dullest imagination; they passed round, on tarnished +and discolored trays, common tumblers filled with wine, "eau rougie," +and "eau sucree." The trays on which were glasses of orgeat and +glasses of syrup and water appeared only at long intervals. There were +five card-tables and twenty-five players, and eighteen dancers of both +sexes. At one o'clock in the morning, all present--Madame Thuillier, +Mademoiselle Brigitte, Madame Phellion, even Phellion himself--were +dragged into the vivacities of a country-dance, vulgarly called "La +Boulangere," in which Dutocq figured with a veil over his head, after +the manner of the Kabyl. The servants who were waiting to escort their +masters home, and those of the household, were audience to this +performance; and after the interminable dance had lasted one whole +hour it was proposed to carry Brigitte in triumph when she gave the +announcement that supper was served. This circumstance made her see +the necessity of hiding a dozen bottles of old burgundy. In short, the +company had amused themselves so well, the matrons as well as the +young girls, that Thuillier found occasion to say:-- + +"Well, well, this morning we little thought we should have such a fete +to-night." + +"There's never more pleasure," said the notary Cardot, "than in just +such improvised balls. Don't talk to me of parties where everybody +stands on ceremony." + +This opinion, we may remark, is a standing axiom among the +bourgeoisie. + +"Well, for my part," said Madame Minard, "I prefer the dignified old +ways." + +"We didn't mean that for you, madame; your salon is the chosen haunt +of pleasure," said Dutocq. + +When "La Boulangere" came to an end, Theodose pulled Dutocq from the +sideboard where he was preparing to eat a slice of tongue, and said to +him:-- + +"Let us go; we must be at Cerizet's very early in the morning; we +ought both of us to think over that affair; it is not so easy to +manage as Cerizet seems to imagine." + +"Why not?" asked Dutocq, bringing his slice of tongue to eat in the +salon. + +"Don't you know the law?" + +"I know enough of it to be aware of the dangers of the affair. If that +notary wants the house and we filch it from him, there are means by +which he can recover it; he can put himself into the skin of a +registered creditor. By the present legal system relating to +mortgages, when a house is sold at the request of creditors, if the +price obtained for it at auction is not enough to pay all debts, the +owners have the right to bid it in and hold it for a higher sum; now +the notary, seeing himself caught, may back out of the sale in that +way." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "it needs attention." + +"Very good," replied Dutocq, "we'll go and see Cerizet." + +These words, "go and see Cerizet," were overheard by Minard, who was +following the two associates; but they offered no meaning to his mind. +The two men were so outside of his own course and projects that he +heard them without listening to them. + +"This has been one of the finest days in our lives," said Brigitte to +her brother, when she found herself alone with him in the deserted +salon, at half-past two in the morning. "What a distinction! to be +thus selected by your fellow-citizens!" + +"Don't be mistaken about it, Brigitte; we owe it all, my child, to one +man." + +"What man?" + +"To our friend, la Peyrade." + + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE BANKER OF THE POOR + +It was not on the next day, Monday, but on the following day, Tuesday, +that Dutocq and Theodose went to see Cerizet, the former having called +la Peyrade's attention to the fact that Cerizet always absented +himself on Sundays and Mondays, taking advantage of the total absence +of clients on those days, which are devoted by the populace to +debauch. The house toward which they directed their steps is one of +the striking features in the faubourg Saint-Jacques, and it is quite +as important to study it here as it was to study those of Phellion and +Thuillier. It is not known (true, no commission has yet been appointed +to examine this phenomenon), no one knows why certain quarters become +degraded and vulgarized, morally as well as materially; why, for +instance, the ancient residence of the court and the church, the +Luxembourg and the Latin quarter, have become what they are to-day, in +spite of the presence of the finest palaces in the world, in spite of +the bold cupola of Sainte-Genevieve, that of Mansard on the +Val-de-Grace, and the charms of the Jardin des Plantes. One asks one's +self why the elegance of life has left that region; why the Vauquer +houses, the Phellion and the Thuillier houses now swarm with tenants +and boarders, on the site of so many noble and religious buildings, and +why such mud and dirty trades and poverty should have fastened on a +hilly piece of ground, instead of spreading out upon the flat land +beyond the confines of the ancient city. + +The angel whose beneficence once hovered above this quarter being +dead, usury, on the lowest scale, rushed in and took his place. To the +old judge, Popinot, succeeded Cerizet; and strange to say,--a fact +which it is well to study,--the effect produced, socially speaking, +was much the same. Popinot loaned money without interest, and was +willing to lose; Cerizet lost nothing, and compelled the poor to work +hard and stay virtuous. The poor adored Popinot, but they did not hate +Cerizet. Here, in this region, revolves the lowest wheel of Parisian +financiering. At the top, Nucingen & Co., the Kellers, du Tillet, and +the Mongenods; a little lower down, the Palmas, Gigonnets, and +Gobsecks; lower still, the Samonons, Chaboisseaus, and Barbets; and +lastly (after the pawn-shops) comes this king of usury, who spreads +his nets at the corners of the streets to entangle all miseries and +miss none,--Cerizet, "money lender by the little week." + +The frogged frock-coat will have prepared you for the den in which +this convicted stock-broker carried on his present business. + +The house was humid with saltpetre; the walls, sweating moisture, were +enamelled all over with large slabs of mould. Standing at the corner +of the rue des Postes and rue des Poules, it presented first a +ground-floor, occupied partly by a shop for the sale of the commonest +kind of wine, painted a coarse bright red, decorated with curtains of +red calico, furnished with a leaden counter, and guarded by formidable +iron bars. Above the gate of an odious alley hung a frightful lantern, +on which were the words "Night lodgings here." The outer walls were +covered with iron crossbars, showing, apparently, the insecurity of +the building, which was owned by the wine-merchant, who also inhabited +the entresol. The widow Poiret (nee Michonneau) kept furnished +lodgings on the first, second, and third floors, consisting of single +rooms for workmen and for the poorest class of students. + +Cerizet occupied one room on the ground-floor and another in the +entresol, to which he mounted by an interior staircase; this entresol +looked out upon a horrible paved court, from which arose mephitic +odors. Cerizet paid forty francs a month to the widow Poiret for his +breakfast and dinner; he thus conciliated her by becoming her boarder; +he also made himself acceptable to the wine-merchant by procuring him +an immense sale of wine and liquors among his clients--profits +realized before sunrise; the wine-shop beginning operations about +three in the morning in summer, and five in winter. + +The hour of the great Market, which so many of his clients, male and +female, attended, was the determining cause of Cerizet's early hours. +The Sieur Cadenet, the wine-merchant, in view of the custom which he +owed to the usurer, had let him the two rooms for the low price of +eighty francs a year, and had given him a lease for twelve years, +which Cerizet alone had a right to break, without paying indemnity, at +three months' notice. Cadenet always carried in a bottle of excellent +wine for the dinner of this useful tenant; and when Cerizet was short +of money he had only to say to his friend, "Cadenet, lend me a few +hundred francs,"--loans which he faithfully repaid. + +Cadenet, it was said, had proof of the widow Poiret having deposited +in Cerizet's hands some two thousand francs for investment, which may +explain the progress of the latter's affairs since the day when he +first took up his abode in the quarter, supplied with a last note of a +thousand francs and Dutocq's protection. Cadenet, prompted by a +cupidity which success increased, had proposed, early in the year, to +put twenty thousand francs into the hands of his friend Cerizet. But +Cerizet had positively declined them, on the ground that he ran risks +of a nature to become a possible cause of dispute with associates. + +"I could only," he said to Cadenet, "take them at six per cent +interest, and you can do better than that in your own business. We +will go into partnership later, if you like, in some serious +enterprise, some good opportunity which may require, say, fifty +thousand francs. When you have got that sum to invest, let me know, +and we'll talk about it." + +Cerizet had only suggested the affair of the house to Theodose after +making sure that among the three, Madame Poiret, Cadenet, and himself, +it was impossible to raise the full sum of one hundred thousand +francs. + +The "lender by the little week" was thus in perfect safety in his den, +where he could even, if necessity came, appeal to the law. On certain +mornings there might be seen as many as sixty or eighty persons, men +as often as women, either in the wine-shop, or the alley, or sitting +on the staircase, for the distrustful Cerizet would only admit six +persons at a time into his office. The first comers were first served, +and each had to go by his number, which the wine-merchant, or his +shop-boy, affixed to the hats of the man and the backs of the women. +Sometimes the clients would sell to each other (as hackney-coachmen do +on the cabstands), head numbers for tail numbers. On certain days, +when the market business was pressing, a head number was often sold +for a glass of brandy and a sou. The numbers, as they issued from +Cerizet's office, called up the succeeding numbers; and if any +disputes arose Cadenet put a stop to the fray at once my remarking:-- + +"If you get the police here you won't gain anything; _he_'ll shut up +shop." + +HE was Cerizet's name. When, in the course of the day, some hapless +woman, without an atom of food in her room, and seeing her children +pale with hunger, would come to borrow ten or twenty sous, she would +say to the wine-merchant anxiously:-- + +"Is _he_ there?" + +Cadenet, a short, stout man, dressed in blue, with outer sleeves of +black stuff and a wine-merchant's apron, and always wearing a cap, +seemed an angel to these mothers when he replied to them:-- + +"_He_ told me that you were an honest woman and I might give you forty +sous. You know what you must do about it--" + +And, strange to say, _he_ was blessed by these poor people, even as they +had lately blessed Popinot. + +But Cerizet was cursed on Sunday mornings when accounts were settled; +and they cursed him even more on Saturdays, when it was necessary to +work in order to repay the sum borrowed with interest. But, after all, +he was Providence, he was God from Tuesday to Friday of every week. + +The room which he made his office, formerly the kitchen of the next +floor, was bare; the beams of the ceiling had been whitewashed, but +still bore marks of smoke. The walls, along which he had put benches, +and the stone floor, retained and gave out dampness. The fireplace, +where the crane remained, was partly filled by an iron stove in which +Cerizet burned sea-coal when the weather was severe. A platform about +half a foot high and eight feet square extended from the edge of the +fireplace; on it was fastened a common table and an armchair with a +round cushion covered with green leather. Behind him, Cerizet had +sheathed the walls with planks; also protecting himself with a little +wooden screen, painted white, from the draught between the window and +door; but this screen, made of two leaves, was so placed that the +warmth from the stove reached him. The window had enormous inside +shutters of cast-iron, held, when closed, by a bar. The door commanded +respect by an armor of the same character. + +At the farther end of this room, in a corner, was a spiral-staircase, +coming, evidently, from some pulled-down shop, and bought in the rue +Chapon by Cadenet, who had fitted it through the ceiling into the room +in the entresol occupied by Cerizet. In order to prevent all +communication with the upper floors, Cerizet had exacted that the door +of that room which opened on the common landing should be walled up. +The place had thus become a fortress. The bedroom above had a cheap +carpet bought for twenty francs, an iron bedstead, a bureau, three +chairs, and an iron safe, made by a good workman, which Cerizet had +bought at a bargain. He shaved before a glass on the chimney-piece; he +owned two pairs of cotton sheets and six cotton shirts; the rest of +his visible wardrobe was of the same character. Cadenet had once seen +Cerizet dressed like a dandy of the period; he must, therefore, have +kept hidden, in some drawer of his bureau, a complete disguise with +which he could go to the opera, see the world, and not be recognized, +for, had it not been that Cadenet heard his voice, he would certainly +have asked him who he was. + +What pleased the clients of this man most was his joviality and his +repartees; he talked their language. Cadenet, his two shop-men, and +Cerizet, living in the midst of dreadful misery, behaved with the +calmness of undertakers in presence of afflicted heirs, of old +sergeants of the Guard among heaps of dead. They no more shuddered on +hearing cries of hunger and despair than surgeons shudder at the cries +of their patients in hospital; they said, as the soldiers and the +dressers said, the perfunctory words, "Have patience! a little +courage! What's the good of grieving? Suppose you kill yourself, what +then? One gets accustomed to everything; be reasonable!" + +Though Cerizet took the precaution to hide the money necessary for his +morning operations in the hollow seat of the chair in which he sat, +taking out no more than a hundred francs at a time, which he put in +the pockets of his trousers, never dipping into the funds of the chair +except between the entrance of two batches of clients (keeping his +door locked and not opening it till all was safely stowed in his +pockets), he had really nothing to fear from the various despairs +which found their way from all sides to this rendezvous of misery. +Certainly, there are many different ways of being honest and virtuous; +and the "Monograph of Virtue" has no other basis than this social +axiom.[*] A man is false to his conscience; he fails, apparently, in +delicacy; he forfeits that bloom of honor which, though lost, does +not, as yet, mean general disrepute; at last, however, he fails +decidedly in honor; if he falls into the hands of the correctional +police, he is not, as yet, guilty of crime before the court of +assizes; but after he is branded with infamy by the verdict of a jury +he may still be honored at the galleys for the species of honor and +integrity practised by criminals among themselves, which consists in +not betraying each other, in sharing booty loyally, and in running all +dangers. Well, this last form of honor--which is perhaps a +calculation, a necessity, the practice of which offers certain +opportunities for grandeur to the guilty man and the possibility of a +return to good--reigned absolutely between Cerizet and his clients. +Never did Cerizet make an error, nor his poor people either; neither +side ever denied what was due, either capital or interests. Many a +time Cerizet, who was born among the people, corrected from one week +to another some accidental error, to the benefit of a poor man who had +never discovered it. He was called a Jew, but an honest one, and his +word in that city of sorrows was sacred. A woman died, causing a loss +to him of thirty francs: + +[*] A book on which the author has been at work since 1833, the year + in which it was first announced.--Author's note. + +"See my profits! there they go!" he said to his assemblage, "and you +howl upon me! You know I'll never trouble the brats; in fact, Cadenet +has already taken them bread and heel-taps." + +After that it was said of him in both faubourgs:-- + +"He is not a bad fellow!" + +The "loan by the little week," as interpreted by Cerizet, is not, +considering all things, so cruel a thing as the pawn-shop. Cerizet +loaned ten francs Tuesday on condition of receiving twelve francs +Sunday morning. In five weeks he doubled his capital; but he had to +make many compromises. His kindness consisted in accepting, from time +to time, eleven francs and fifty centimes; sometimes the whole +interest was still owing. When he gave fifty francs for sixty to a +fruit-stall man, or a hundred francs for one hundred and twenty to a +seller of peat-fuel, he ran great risks. + +On reaching the rue des Poules through the rue des Postes, Theodose +and Dutocq saw a great assemblage of men and women, and by the light +which the wine-merchant's little oil-lamps cast upon these groups, +they were horrified at beholding that mass of red, seamed, haggard +faces; solemn with suffering, withered, distorted, swollen with wine, +pallid from liquor; some threatening, others resigned, some sarcastic +or jeering, others besotted; all rising from the midst of those +terrible rags, which no designer can surpass in his most extravagant +caricatures. + +"I shall be recognized," said Theodose, pulling Dutocq away; "we have +done a foolish thing to come here at this hour and take him in the +midst of his business." + +"All the more that Claparon may be sleeping in his lair, the interior +of which we know nothing about. Yes, there are dangers for you, but +none for me; I shall be thought to have business with my +copying-clerk, and I'll go and tell him to come and dine with us; this +is court day, so we can't have him to breakfast. I'll tell him to meet +us at the 'Chaumiere' in one of the garden dining-rooms." + +"Bad; anybody could listen to us there without being seen," said la +Peyrade. "I prefer the 'Petit Rocher de Cancale'; we can go into a +private room and speak low." + +"But suppose you are seen with Cerizet?" + +"Well, then, let's go to the 'Cheval Rouge,' quai de la Tournelle." + +"That's best; seven o'clock; nobody will be there then." + +Dutocq advanced alone into the midst of that congress of beggars, and +he heard his own name repeated from mouth to mouth, for he could +hardly fail to encounter among them some jail-bird familiar with the +judge's office, just as Theodose was certain to have met a client. + +In these quarters the justice-of-peace is the supreme authority; all +legal contests stop short at his office, especially since the law was +passed giving to those judges sovereign power in all cases of +litigation involving not over one hundred and forty francs. A way was +made for the judge's clerk, who was not less feared than the judge +himself. He saw women seated on the staircase; a horrible display of +pallor and suffering of many kinds. Dutocq was almost asphyxiated when +he opened the door of the room in which already sixty persons had left +their odors. + +"Your number? your number?" cried several voices. + +"Hold your jaw!" cried a gruff voice from the street, "that's the pen +of the judge." + +Profound silence followed. Dutocq found his copying clerk clothed in a +jacket of yellow leather like that of the gloves of the gendarmerie, +beneath which he wore an ignoble waistcoat of knitted wool. The reader +must imagine the man's diseased head issuing from this species of +scabbard and covered with a miserable Madras handkerchief, which, +leaving to view the forehead and neck, gave to that head, by the gleam +of a tallow candle of twelve to the pound, its naturally hideous and +threatening character. + +"It can't be done that way, papa Lantimeche," Cerizet was saying to a +tall old man, seeming to be about seventy years of age, who was +standing before him with a red woollen cap in his hand, exhibiting a +bald head, and a breast covered with white hairs visible through his +miserable linen jacket. "Tell me exactly what you want to undertake. +One hundred francs, even on condition of getting back one hundred and +twenty, can't be let loose that way, like a dog in a church--" + +The five other applicants, among whom were two women, both with +infants, one knitting, the other suckling her child, burst out +laughing. + +When Cerizet saw Dutocq, he rose respectfully and went rather hastily +to meet him, adding to his client:-- + +"Take time to reflect; for, don't you see? it makes me doubtful to +have such a sum as that, one hundred francs! asked for by an old +journeyman locksmith!" + +"But I tell you it concerns an invention," cried the old workman. + +"An invention and one hundred francs!" said Dutocq. "You don't know +the laws; you must take out a patent, and that costs two thousand +francs, and you want influence." + +"All that is true," said Cerizet, who, however, reckoned a good deal +on such chances. "Come to-morrow morning, papa Lantimeche, at six +o'clock, and we'll talk it over; you can't talk inventions in public." + +Cerizet then turned to Dutocq whose first words were:-- + +"If the thing turns out well, half profits!" + +"Why did you get up at this time in the morning to come here and say +that to me?" demanded the distrustful Cerizet, already displeased with +the mention of "half profits." "You could have seen me as usual at the +office." + +And he looked askance at Dutocq; the latter, while telling him his +errand and speaking of Claparon and the necessity of pushing forward +in the Theodose affair, seemed confused. + +"All the same you could have seen me this morning at the office," +repeated Cerizet, conducting his visitor to the door. + +"There's a man," thought he, as he returned to his seat, "who seems to +me to have breathed on his lantern so that I may not see clear. Well, +well, I'll give up that place of copying clerk. Ha! your turn, little +mother!" he cried; "you invent children! That's amusing enough, though +the trick is well known." + +It is all the more useless to relate the conversation which took place +between the three confederates at the "Cheval Rouge," because the +arrangements there concluded were the basis of certain confidences +made, as we shall see, by Theodose to Mademoiselle Thuillier; but it +is necessary to remark that the cleverness displayed by la Peyrade +seemed almost alarming to Cerizet and Dutocq. After this conference, +the banker of the poor, finding himself in company with such powerful +players, had it in mind to make sure of his own stake at the first +chance. To win the game at any price over the heads of the ablest +gamblers, by cheating if necessary, is the inspiration of a special +sort of vanity peculiar to friends of the green cloth. Hence came the +terrible blow which la Peyrade was about to receive. + +He knew his two associates well; and therefore, in spite of the +perpetual activity of his intellectual forces, in spite of the +perpetual watchfulness his personality of ten faces required, nothing +fatigued him as much as the part he had to play with his two +accomplices. Dutocq was a great knave, and Cerizet had once been a +comic actor; they were both experts in humbug. A motionless face like +Talleyrand's would have made then break at once with the Provencal, +who was now in their clutches; it was necessary, therefore, that he +should make a show of ease and confidence and of playing above board +--the very height of art in such affairs. To delude the pit is an +every-day triumph, but to deceive Mademoiselle Mars, Frederic +Lemaitre, Potier, Talma, Monrose, is the acme of art. + +This conference at the "Cheval Rouge" had therefore the result of +giving to la Peyrade, who was fully as sagacious as Cerizet, a secret +fear, which, during the latter period of this daring game, so fired +his blood and heated his brain that there came moments when he fell +into the morbid condition of the gambler, who follows with his eye the +roll of the ball on which he has staked his last penny. The senses +then have a lucidity in their action and the mind takes a range, which +human knowledge has no means of measuring. + + + + CHAPTER X + + HOW BRIGITTE WAS WON + +The day after this conference at the "Cheval Rouge," la Peyrade went +to dine with the Thuilliers, and on the commonplace pretext of a visit +to pay, Thuillier carried off his wife, leaving Theodose alone with +Brigitte. Neither Thuillier, nor his sister, nor Theodose, were the +dupes of this comedy; but the old beau of the Empire considered the +manoeuvre a piece of diplomacy. + +"Young man, do not take advantage of my sister's innocence; respect +it," said Thuillier solemnly, as he departed. + +"Mademoiselle," said Theodose, drawing his chair closer to the sofa +where Brigitte sat knitting, "have you thought of inducing the +business men of the arrondissement to support Thuillier's interests?" + +"How can I?" she asked. + +"Why! you are in close relations with Barbet and Metivier." + +"Ah! you are right! Faith! you are no blunderer!" she said after a +pause. + +"When we love our friends, we serve them," he replied, sententiously. + +To capture Brigitte would be like carrying the redoubt of the Moskowa, +the culminating strategic point. But it was necessary to possess that +old maid as the devil was supposed in the middle ages to possess men, +and in a way to make any awakening impossible for her. For the last +three days la Peyrade had been measuring himself for the task; he had +carefully reconnoitred the ground to see all difficulty. Flattery, +that almost infallible means in able hands, would certainly miscarry +with a woman who for years had known she had no beauty. But a man of +strong will finds nothing impregnable; the Lamarques could never have +failed to take Capri. Therefore, nothing must be omitted from the +memorable scene which was now to take place; all things about it had +their own importance,--inflections of the voice, pauses, glances, +lowered eyes. + +"But," rejoined Brigitte, "you have already proved to us your +affection." + +"Your brother has told you--?" + +"No, he merely told me that you had something to tell me." + +"Yes, mademoiselle, I have; for you are the man of the family. In +reflecting on this matter, I find many dangers for myself, such as a +man only risks for his nearest and dearest. It involves a fortune; +thirty to forty thousand francs a year, and not the slightest +speculation--a piece of landed property. The hope of helping Thuillier +to win such a fortune enticed me from the first. 'It fascinates me,' I +said to him--for, unless a man is an absolute fool, he can't help +asking himself: 'Why should he care to do us all this good?' So I told +him frankly that in working for his interests, I flattered myself I +was working for my own, as I'll explain to you later. If he wishes to +be deputy, two things are absolutely necessary: to comply with the law +as to property, and to win for his name some sort of public celebrity. +If I myself push my devotion to the point of helping him to write a +book on public financiering--or anything else, no matter what--which +would give him that celebrity, I ought also to think of the other +matter, his property--it would be absurd to expect you to give him +this house--" + +"For my brother? Why, I'd put it in his name to-morrow," cried +Brigitte. "You don't know me." + +"I don't know you thoroughly," said la Peyrade, "but I do know things +about you which now make me regret that I did not tell you the whole +affair from its origin; I mean from the moment when I conceived the +plan to which Thuillier will owe his nomination. He will be hunted +down by envy and jealousy, and the task of upholding him will be a +hard one; we must, however, get the better of his rivals and take the +wind out of their sails." + +"But this affair," said Brigitte, "what are the difficulties?" + +"Mademoiselle, the difficulties lie within my own conscience. +Assuredly, I could not serve you in this matter without first +consulting my confessor. From a worldly point of view--oh! the affair +is perfectly legal, and I am--you'll understand me?--a barrister +inscribed on the panel, that is, member of a bar controlled by the +strictest rules. I am therefore incapable of proposing an enterprise +which might give occasion for blame. In the first place, I myself +don't make a penny by it." + +Brigitte was on thorns; her face was flaming; she broke her wool, +mended it, broke it again, and did not know which way to look. + +"One can't get," she said, "in these days, forty thousand francs a +year from landed property unless it is worth one million eight hundred +thousand." + +"Well, I will undertake that you shall see a piece of property and +estimate yourself its probable revenue, which I can make Thuillier the +owner of for fifty thousand francs down." + +"Oh! if you can make us obtain that!" cried Brigitte, worked up to the +highest excitement by the spur of her natural cupidity. "Go on, my +dear Monsieur Theodose, and--" + +She stopped short. + +"Well, mademoiselle?" + +"You will, perhaps, have done yourself a service." + +"Ah! if Thuillier has told you my secret, I must leave this house." + +Brigitte looked up. + +"Did he tell you that I love Celeste?" + +"No, on my word of honor!" cried Brigitte, "but I myself was just +about to speak of her." + +"And offer her to me? Oh! may God forgive us! I can only win her of +herself, her parents, by a free choice--No, no, all I ask of you is +your good-will, your protection. Promise me, as Thuillier has, in +return for my services your influence, your friendship; tell me that +you will treat me as a son. If you will do that, I will abide by your +decision in this matter; I can trust it; I need not speak to my +confessor. For the last two years, ever since I have seen much of this +family, to whom I would fain give my powers and devote my utmost +energy--for, I shall succeed! surely I shall!--I have observed that +your integrity, your honor is that of the olden time, your judgment +righteous and inflexible. Also, you have a knowledge of business; and +these qualities combined are precious helps to a man. With a +mother-in-law, as I may say, of your powers, I should find my home life +relieved of a crowd of cares and details as to property, which hinder +a man's advance in a political career if he is forced to attend to +them. I admired you deeply on Sunday evening. Ah! you were fine! How +you did manage matters! In ten minutes that dining-room was cleared! +And, without going outside of your own apartment, you had everything +at hand for the refreshments, for the supper! 'There,' I said to +myself, as I watched you, 'is a true "maitresse-femme"--a masterly +woman!'" + +Brigitte's nostrils dilated; she breathed in the words of the young +lawyer. He gave her a side-long glance to enjoy his triumph; he had +touched the right chord in her breast. + +At this moment he was standing, but he now resumed his seat beside +her, and said:-- + +"Now here is our affair, dear aunt--for you will be a sort of aunt--" + +"Hush! you naughty fellow!" said Brigitte, "and go on." + +"I'll tell you the matter roughly--and remark, if you please, that I +compromise myself in telling it to you; for these secrets are +entrusted to me as a lawyer. Therefore understand that you and I are +both committing a crime, so to speak, of leze-confidence! A notary of +Paris was in partnership with an architect; they bought land and built +upon it; at the present moment, property has come down with a rush; +they find themselves embarrassed--but all that doesn't concern us. +Among the houses built by this illegal partnership--for notaries, you +know, are sworn to have nothing to do with enterprises--is a very good +one which, not being finished, must be sold at a great sacrifice; so +great that they now ask only one hundred thousand francs for it, +although the cost of the land and the building was at least four +hundred thousand. As the whole interior is still unfinished, the value +of what is still to do is easily appraised; it will probably not be +more than fifty thousand francs. Now, owing to its excellent position, +this house, when finished, will certainly bring in a rental, over and +above the taxes, of forty thousand francs a year. It is built of +freestone, the corners and copings of cut granite; the facade is +covered with handsome carvings, on which they spent more than twenty +thousand francs; the windows are plate glass with a new style of +fastening called 'cremona.'" + +"Well, where is the difficulty?" + +"Just here: the notary wants to reserve to himself this bit of the +cake he is forced to surrender; he is, under the name of a friend, the +creditor who requests the sale of the property by the assignee of the +bankruptcy. The case has not been brought into court; for legal +proceedings cost so much money. The sale is to be made by voluntary +agreement. Now, this notary has applied to one of my clients to lend +him his name for this purchase. My client, a poor devil, says to me: +'There's a fortune to made out of that house by fooling the notary.'" + +"And they do that sort of thing in business!" said Brigitte, quickly. + +"If that were the only difficulty," continued Theodose, "it would be, +as a friend of mine said to his pupil, who was complaining of the +length of time it took to produce masterpieces in painting: 'My dear +young fellow, if it were not so, our valets would be painting +pictures.' But, mademoiselle, if we now get the better of this notary, +who certainly deserves it, for he has compromised a number of private +fortunes, yet, as he is a very shrewd man (though a notary), it might +perhaps be very difficult to do it a second time, and here's the rub: +When a piece of landed property is bought at a forced sale, if those +who have lent money on that property see that is likely to be sold so +low as not to cover the sum loaned upon it, they have the right, until +the expiration of a certain time, to bid it in; that is, to offer more +and keep the property in their own hands. If this trickster can't be +hoodwinked as to the sale being a bona fide one until the time when +his right to buy it expires, some other scheme must be resorted to. +Now, is this business strictly legal? Am I justified in doing it for +the benefit of a family I seek to enter? That is the question I have +been revolving in my mind for the last three days." + +Brigitte, we must acknowledge, hesitated, and Theodose then brought +forward his last card:-- + +"Take the night to think of it," he said, "to-morrow we will talk it +over." + +"My young friend," said Brigitte, looking at the lawyer with an almost +loving air, "the first thing to be done is to see the house. Where is +it?" + +"Near the Madeleine. That will be the heart of Paris in ten years. All +that property has been desirable since 1819; the banker Du Tillet's +fortune was derived from property about there. The famous failure of +Maitre Roquin, which carried terror to all Paris, and did such harm to +the confidence given to the notariat, was also caused by it; they went +into heavy speculations on that land too soon; they should have waited +until now." + +"I remember about that," said Brigitte. + +"The house might be finished by the end of the year," continued +Theodose, "and the rentals could begin next spring." + +"Could we go there to-morrow?" + +"Dear aunt, I am at your orders." + +"Ah ca!" she cried, "don't call me that before people. As to this +affair," she continued, "I can't have any opinion until I have seen +the house." + +"It has six storeys; nine windows on the front; a fine courtyard, four +shops, and it stands on a corner. Ah! that notary knows what he is +about in wishing to hold on to such pieces of property! But let +political events interfere, and down go the Funds! If I were you, I +should sell out all that you and Madame Thuillier have on the Grand +Livre and buy this fine piece of real estate for Thuillier, and I'd +recover the fortune of that poor, pious creature by savings from its +proceeds. Can the Funds go higher than they are to-day? One hundred +and twenty-two! it is fabulous; I should make haste to sell." + +Brigitte licked her lips; she perceived the means of keeping her own +property intact, and of enriching her brother by this use of Madame +Thuillier's fortune. + +"My brother is right," she said to Theodose; "you certainly are a rare +man; you'll get on in the world." + +"And he'll walk before me," responded Theodose with a naivete that +touched the old maid. + +"You will live in the family," she said. + +"There may be obstacles to that," he remarked. "Madame Thuillier is +very queer at times; she doesn't like me." + +"Ha! I'll settle that," cried Brigitte. "Do you attend to that affair +and carry it through if it is feasible, and leave your interests in my +hands." + +"Thuillier, member of the municipal council, owner of an estate with a +rental of forty thousand francs a year, with the cross of the Legion +of honor and the author of a political work, grave, serious, +important, will be deputy at the forthcoming general election. But, +between ourselves, little aunt, one couldn't devote one's self so +utterly except for a father-in-law." + +"You are right." + +"Though I have no fortune I shall have doubled yours; and if this +affair goes through discreetly, others will turn up." + +"Until I have seen the house," said Mademoiselle Thuillier again, "I +can decide on nothing." + +"Well then, send for a carriage to-morrow and let us go there. I will +get a ticket early in the morning to view the premises." + +"To-morrow, then, about mid-day," responded Brigitte, holding out her +hand to Theodose that he might shake it, but instead of that he laid +upon it the most respectful and the most tender kiss that Brigitte had +ever in her life received. + +"Adieu, my child," she said, as he reached the door. + +She rang the bell hurriedly and when the servant came:-- + +"Josephine," she cried, "go at once to Madame Colleville, and ask her +to come over and speak to me." + +Fifteen minutes later Flavie entered the salon, where Brigitte was +walking up and down, in a state of extreme agitation. + +"My dear," she cried on seeing Flavie, "you can do me a great service, +which concerns our dear Celeste. You know Tullia, don't you?--a +danseuse at the opera; my brother was always dinning her into my ears +at one time." + +"Yes, I know her; but she is no longer a danseuse; she is Madame la +Comtesse du Bruel. Her husband is peer of France!" + +"Does she still like you?" + +"We never see each other now." + +"Well, I know that Chaffaroux, the rich contractor, is her uncle," +said Brigitte. "He is old and wealthy. Go and see your former friend, +and get her to give you a line of introduction to him, saying he would +do her an eminent favor if he would give a piece of friendly advice to +the bearer of the note, and then you and I will take it to him +to-morrow about one o'clock. But tell Tullia she must request her +uncle to keep secret about it. Go, my dear. Celeste, our dear child, +will be a millionaire! I can't say more; but she'll have, from me, a +husband who will put her on a pinnacle." + +"Do you want me to tell you the first letters of his name?" + +"Yes." + +"T. P.,--Theodose de la Peyrade. You are right. That's a man who may, +if supported by a woman like you, become a minister." + +"It is God himself who has placed him in our house!" cried the old +maid. + +At this moment Monsieur and Madame Thuillier returned home. + +Five days later, in the month of April, the ordinance which convoked +the electors to appoint a member of the municipal council on the 20th +of the same month was inserted in the "Moniteur," and placarded about +Paris. For several weeks the ministry, called that of March 1st, had +been in power. Brigitte was in a charming humor. She had been +convinced of the truth of all la Peyrade's assertions. The house, +visited from garret to cellar by old Chaffaroux, was admitted by him +to be an admirable construction; poor Grindot, the architect, who was +interested with the notary and Claparon in the affair, thought the old +man was employed in the interests of the contractor; the old fellow +himself thought he was acting in the interests of his niece, and he +gave it as his opinion that thirty thousand francs would finish the +house. Thus, in the course of one week la Peyrade became Brigitte's +god; and she proved to him by the most naively nefarious arguments +that fortune should be seized when it offered itself. + +"Well, if there _is_ any sin in the business," she said to him in the +middle of the garden, "you can confess it." + +"The devil!" cried Thuillier, "a man owes himself to his relatives, +and you are one of us now." + +"Then I decide to do it," replied la Peyrade, in a voice of emotion; +"but on conditions that I must now distinctly state. I will not, in +marrying Celeste, be accused of greed and mercenary motives. If you +lay remorse upon me, at least you must consent that I shall remain as +I am for the present. Do not settle upon Celeste, my old Thuillier, +the future possession of the property I am about to obtain for you--" + +"You are right." + +"Don't rob yourself; and let my dear little aunt here act in the same +way in relation to the marriage contract. Put the remainder of the +capital in Madame Thuillier's name, on the Grand Livre, and she can do +what she likes with it. We shall all live together as one family, and +I'll undertake to make my own fortune, now that I am free from anxiety +about the future." + +"That suits me," said Thuillier; "that's the talk of an honest man." + +"Let me kiss you on the forehead, my son," said the old maid; "but, +inasmuch as Celeste cannot be allowed to go without a 'dot,' we shall +give her sixty thousand francs." + +"For her dress," said la Peyrade. + +"We are all three persons of honor," cried Thuillier. "It is now +settled, isn't it? You are to manage the purchase of the house; we are +to write together, you and I, my political work; and you'll bestir +yourself to get me the decoration?" + +"You will have that as soon as you are made a municipal councillor on +the 1st of May. Only, my good friend, I must beg you, and you, too, +dear aunt, to keep the most profound secrecy about me in this affair; +and do not listen to the calumnies which all the men I am about to +trick will spread about me. I shall become, you'll see, a vagabond, a +swindler, a dangerous man, a Jesuit, an ambitious fortune-hunter. Can +you hear those accusations against me with composure?" + +"Fear nothing," replied Brigitte. + + + + CHAPTER XI + + THE REIGN OF THEODOSE + +From that day forth Thuillier became a dear, good friend. "My dear, +good friend," was the name given to him by Theodose, with voice +inflections of varieties of tenderness which astonished Flavie. But +"little aunt," a name that flattered Brigitte deeply, was only given +in family secrecy, and occasionally before Flavie. The activity of +Theodose and Dutocq, Cerizet, Barbet, Metivier, Minard, Phellion, +Colleville, and others of the Thuillier circle was extreme. Great and +small, they all put their hands to the work. Cadenet procured thirty +votes in his section. On the 30th of April Thuillier was proclaimed +member of the Council-general of the department of the Seine by an +imposing majority; in fact, he only needed sixty more votes to make +his election unanimous. May 1st Thuillier joined the municipal body +and went to the Tuileries to congratulate the King on his fete-day, +and returned home radiant. He had gone where Minard went! + +Ten days later a yellow poster announced the sale of the house, after +due publication; the price named being seventy-five thousand francs; +the final purchase to take place about the last of July. On this point +Cerizet and Claparon had an agreement by which Cerizet pledged the sum +of fifteen thousand francs (in words only, be it understood) to +Claparon in case the latter could deceive the notary and keep him +quiet until the time expired during which he might withdraw the +property by bidding it in. Mademoiselle Thuillier, notified by +Theodose, agreed entirely to this secret clause, understanding +perfectly the necessity of paying the culprits guilty of the +treachery. The money was to pass through la Peyrade's hands. Claparon +met his accomplice, the notary, on the Place de l'Observatoire by +midnight. This young man, the successor of Leopold Hannequin, was one +of those who run after fortune instead of following it leisurely. He +now saw another future before him, and he managed his present affairs +in order to be free to take hold of it. In this midnight interview, he +offered Claparon ten thousand francs to secure himself in this dirty +business,--a sum which was only to be paid on receipt, through +Claparon, of a counter-deed from the nominal purchaser of the +property. The notary was aware that that sum was all-important to +Claparon to extricate him from present difficulties, and he felt +secure of him. + +"Who but you, in all Paris, would give me such a fee for such an +affair?" Claparon said to him, with a false show of naivete. "You can +sleep in peace; my ostensible purchaser is one of those men of honor +who are too stupid to have ideas of your kind; he is a retired +government employee; give him the money to make the purchase and he'll +sign the counter-deed at once." + +When the notary had made Claparon clearly understand that he could not +get more than the ten thousand francs from him, Cerizet offered the +latter twelve thousand down, and asked Theodose for fifteen thousand, +intending to keep the balance for himself. All these scenes between +the four men were seasoned with the finest speeches about feelings, +integrity, and the honor that men owed to one another in doing +business. While these submarine performances were going on, apparently +in the interests of Thuillier, to whom Theodose related them with the +deepest manifestations of disgust at being implicated therein, the +pair were meditating the great political work which "my dear good +friend" was to publish. Thus the new municipal councillor naturally +acquired a conviction that he could never do or be anything without +the help of this man of genius; whose mind so amazed him, and whose +ability was now so important to him, that every day he became more and +more convinced of the necessity of marrying him to Celeste, and of +taking the young couple to live with him. In fact, after May the 1st, +Theodose had already dined four times a week with "my dear, good +friend." + +This was the period when Theodose reigned without a dissenting voice +in the bosom of that household, and all the friends of the family +approved of him--for the following reason: The Phellions, hearing his +praises sung by Brigitte and Thuillier, feared to displease the two +powers and chorussed their words, even when such perpetual laudation +seemed to them exaggerated. The same may be said of the Minards. +Moreover la Peyrade's behavior, as "friend of the family" was perfect. +He disarmed distrust by the manner in which he effaced himself; he was +there like a new piece of furniture; and he contrived to make both the +Phellions and Minards believe that Brigitte and Thuillier had weighed +him, and found him too light in the scales to be anything more in the +family than a young man whose services were useful to them. + +"He may think," said Thuillier one day to Minard, "that my sister will +put him in her will; he doesn't know her." + +This speech, inspired by Theodose himself, calmed the uneasiness of +Minard "pere." + +"He is devoted to us," said Brigitte to Madame Phellion; "but he +certainly owes us a great deal of gratitude. We have given him his +lodging rent-free, and he dines with us almost every day." + +This speech of the old maid, also instigated by Theodose, went from +ear to ear among the families who frequented the Thuillier salon, and +dissipated all fears. The young man called attention to the remarks of +Thuillier and his sister with the servility of a parasite; when he +played whist he justified the blunders of his dear, good friend, and +he kept upon his countenance a smile, fixed and benign, like that of +Madame Thuillier, ready to bestow upon all the bourgeois sillinesses +of the brother and sister. + +He obtained, what he wanted above all, the contempt of his true +antagonists; and he used it as a cloak to hide his real power. For +four consecutive months his face wore a torpid expression, like that +of a snake as it gulps and digests its prey. But at times he would +rush into the garden with Colleville or Flavie, to laugh and lay off +his mask, and rest himself; or get fresh strength by giving way before +his future mother-in-law to fits of nervous passion which either +terrified or deeply touched her. + +"Don't you pity me?" he cried to her the evening before the +preparatory sale of the house, when Thuillier was to make the purchase +at seventy-five thousand francs. "Think of a man like me, forced to +creep like a cat, to choke down every pointed word, to swallow my own +gall, and submit to your rebuffs!" + +"My friend! my child!" Flavie replied, undecided in mind how to take +him. + +These words are a thermometer which will show the temperature at which +this clever manipulator maintained his intrigue with Flavie. He kept +her floating between her heart and her moral sense, between religious +sentiments and this mysterious passion. + +During this time Felix Phellion was giving, with a devotion and +constancy worthy of all praise, regular lessons to young Colleville. +He spent much of his time upon these lessons, feeling that he was thus +working for his future family. To acknowledge this service, he was +invited, by advice of Theodose to Flavie, to dine at the Collevilles' +every Thursday, where la Peyrade always met him. Flavie was usually +making either a purse or slippers or a cigar-case for the happy young +man, who would say, deprecatingly:-- + +"I am only too well rewarded, madame, by the happiness I feel in being +useful to you." + +"We are not rich, monsieur," replied Colleville, "but, God bless me! +we are not ungrateful." + +Old Phellion would rub his hands as he listened to his son's account +of these evenings, beholding his dear and noble Felix already wedded +to Celeste. + +But Celeste, the more she loved Felix, the more grave and serious she +became with him; partly because her mother sharply lectured her, +saying to her one evening:-- + +"Don't give any hope whatever to that young Phellion. Neither your +father nor I can arrange your marriage. You have expectations to be +consulted. It is much less important to please a professor without a +penny than to make sure of the affection and good-will of Mademoiselle +Brigitte and your godfather. If you don't want to kill your mother +--yes, my dear, kill her--you must obey me in this affair blindly; and +remember that what we want to secure, above all, is your good." + +As the date of the final sale was set for the last of July, Theodose +advised Brigitte by the end of June to arrange her affairs in time to +be ready for the payment. Accordingly, she now sold out her own and +her sister-in-law's property in the Funds. The catastrophe of the +treaty of the four powers, an insult to France, is now an established +historical fact; but it is necessary to remind the reader that from +July to the last of August the French funds, alarmed by the prospect +of war, a fear which Monsieur Thiers did much to promote, fell twenty +francs, and the Three-per-cents went down to sixty. That was not all: +this financial fiasco had a most unfortunate influence on the value of +real estate in Paris; and all those who had such property then for +sale suffered loss. These events made Theodose a prophet in the eyes +of Brigitte and Thuillier, to whom the house was now about to be +definitely sold for seventy-five thousand francs. The notary, involved +in the political disaster, and whose practice was already sold, +concealed himself for a time in the country; but he took with him the +ten thousand francs for Claparon. Advised by Theodose, Thuillier made +a contract with Grindot, who supposed he was really working for the +notary in finishing the house; and as, during this period of financial +depression, suspended work left many workmen with their arms folded, +the architect was able to finish off the building in a splendid manner +at a low cost. Theodose insisted that the agreement should be in +writing. + +This purchase increased Thuillier's importance ten-fold. As for the +notary, he had temporarily lost his head in presence of political +events which came upon him like a waterspout out of cloudless skies. +Theodose, certain now of his supremacy, holding Thuillier fast by his +past services and by the literary work in which they were both +engaged, admired by Brigitte for his modesty and discretion,--for +never had he made the slightest allusion to his own poverty or uttered +one word about money,--Theodose began to assume an air that was rather +less servile than it had been. Brigitte and Thuillier said to him one +day:-- + +"Nothing can deprive you of our esteem; you are here in this house as +if in your own home; the opinion of Minard and Phellion, which you +seem to fear, has no more value for us than a stanza of Victor Hugo. +Therefore, let them talk! Carry your head high!" + +"But we shall still need them for Thuillier's election to the +Chamber," said Theodose. "Follow my advice; you have found it good so +far, haven't you? When the house is actually yours, you will have got +it for almost nothing; for you can now buy into the Three-per-cents at +sixty in Madame Thuillier's name, and thus replace nearly the whole of +her fortune. Wait only for the expiration of the time allowed to the +nominal creditor to buy it in, and have the fifteen thousand francs +ready for our scoundrels." + +Brigitte did not wait; she took her whole capital with the exception +of a sum of one hundred and twenty thousand francs, and bought into +the Three-per-cents in Madame Thuillier's name to the amount of twelve +thousand francs a year, and in her own for ten thousand a year, +resolving in her own mind to choose no other kind of investment in +future. She saw her brother secure of forty thousand francs a year +besides his pension, twelve thousand a year for Madame Thuillier and +eighteen thousand a year for herself, besides the house they lived in, +the rental of which she valued at eight thousand. + +"We are worth quite as much as the Minards," she remarked. + +"Don't chant victory before you win it," said Theodose. "The right of +redemption doesn't expire for another week. I have attended to your +affairs, but mine have gone terribly to pieces." + +"My dear child, you have friends," cried Brigitte; "if you should +happen to want five hundred francs or so, you will always find them +here." + +Theodose exchanged a smile with Thuillier, who hastened to carry him +off, saying:-- + +"Excuse my poor sister; she sees the world through a small hole. But +if you should want twenty-five thousand francs I'll lend them to you +--out of my first rents," he added. + +"Thuillier," exclaimed Theodose, "the rope is round my neck. Ever +since I have been a barrister I have had notes of hand running. But +say nothing about it," added Theodose, frightened himself at having +let out the secret of his situation. "I'm in the claws of scoundrels, +but I hope to crush them yet." + +In telling this secret Theodose, though alarmed as he did so, had a +two-fold purpose: first, to test Thuillier; and next, to avert the +consequences of a fatal blow which might be dealt to him any day in a +secret and sinister struggle he had long foreseen. Two words will +explain his horrible position. + + + + CHAPTER XII + + DEVILS AGAINST DEVILS + +During the extreme poverty of la Peyrade's first years in Paris, none +but Cerizet had ever gone to see him in the wretched garret where, in +severely cold weather, he stayed in bed for want of clothes. Only one +shirt remained to him. For three days he lived on one loaf of bread, +cutting it into measured morsels, and asking himself, "What am I to +do?" At this moment it was that his former partner came to him, having +just left prison, pardoned. The projects which the two men then formed +before a fire of laths, one wrapped in his landlady's counterpane, the +other in his infamy, it is useless to relate. The next day Cerizet, +who had talked with Dutocq in the course of the morning, returned, +bringing trousers, waistcoat, coat, hat, and boots, bought in the +Temple, and he carried off Theodose to dine with himself and Dutocq. +The hungry Provencal ate at Pinson's, rue de l'Ancienne Comedie, half +of a dinner costing forty-seven francs. At dessert, after Theodose had +drunk freely, Cerizet said to him:-- + +"Will you sign me bills of exchange for fifty thousand francs in your +capacity as a barrister?" + +"You couldn't get five thousand on them." + +"That's not your affair, but ours; I mean monsieur's here, who is +giving us this dinner, and mine, in a matter where you risk nothing, +but in which you'll get your title as barrister, a fine practice, and +the hand in marriage of a girl about the age of an old dog, and rich +by twenty or thirty thousand francs a year. Neither Dutocq nor I can +marry her; but we'll equip you, give you the look of a decent man, +feed and lodge you, and set you up generally. Consequently, we want +security. I don't say that on my own account, for I know you, but for +monsieur here, whose proxy I am. We'll equip you as a pirate, hey! to +do the white-slave trade! If we can't capture that 'dot,' we'll try +other plans. Between ourselves, none of us need be particular what we +touch--that's plain enough. We'll give you careful instructions; for +the matter is certain to take time, and there'll probably be some +bother about it. Here, see, I have brought stamped paper." + +"Waiter, pens and ink!" cried Theodose. + +"Ha! I like fellows of that kind!" exclaimed Dutocq. + +"Sign: 'Theodose de la Peyrade,' and after your name put 'Barrister, +rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer,' under the words 'Accepted for ten +thousand.' We'll date the notes and sue you,--all secretly, of course, +but in order to have a hold upon you; the owners of a privateer ought +to have security when the brig and the captain are at sea." + +The day after this interview the bailiff of the justice-of-peace did +Cerizet the service of suing la Peyrade secretly. He went to see the +barrister that evening, and the whole affair was done without any +publicity. The Court of commerce has a hundred such cases in the +course of one term. The strict regulations of the council of +barristers of the bar of Paris are well known. This body, and also the +council of attorneys, exercise severe discipline over their members. A +barrister liable to go to Clichy would be disbarred. Consequently, +Cerizet, under Dutocq's advice, had taken against their puppet +measures which were certain to secure to each of them twenty-five +thousand francs out of Celeste's "dot." In signing the notes, Theodose +saw but one thing,--his means of living secured; but as time had gone +on, and the horizon grew clearer, and he mounted, step by step, to a +better position on the social ladder, he began to dream of getting rid +of his associates. And now, on obtaining twenty-five thousand francs +from Thuillier, he hoped to treat on the basis of fifty per cent for +the return of his fatal notes by Cerizet. + +Unfortunately, this sort of infamous speculation is not an exceptional +fact; it takes place in Paris under various forms too little disguised +for the historian of manners and morals to pass them over unnoticed in +a complete and accurate picture of society in the nineteenth century. +Dutocq, an arrant scoundrel, still owed fifteen thousand francs on his +practice, and lived in hopes of something turning up to keep his head, +as the saying is, above water until the close of 1840. Up to the +present time none of the three confederates had flinched or groaned. +Each felt his strength and knew his danger. Equals they were in +distrust, in watchfulness; equals, too, in apparent confidence; and +equally stolid in silence and look when mutual suspicions rose to the +surface of face or speech. For the last two months the position of +Theodose was acquiring the strength of a detached fort. But Cerizet +and Dutocq held it undermined by a mass of powder, with the match ever +lighted; but the wind might extinguish the match or the devil might +flood the mine. + +The moment when wild beasts seize their food is always the most +critical, and that moment had now arrived for these three hungry +tigers. Cerizet would sometimes say to Theodose, with that +revolutionary glance which twice in this century sovereigns have had +to meet:-- + +"I have made you king, and here am I still nothing! for it is nothing +not to be all." + +A reaction of envy was rushing its avalanche through Cerizet. Dutocq +was at the mercy of his copying clerk. Theodose would gladly have +burned his copartners could he have burned their papers in the same +conflagration. All three studied each other too carefully, in order to +conceal their own thoughts, not to be in turn divined. Theodose lived +a life of three hells as he thought of what lay below the cards, then +of his own game, and then of his future. His speech to Thuillier was a +cry of despair; he threw his lead into the waters of the old bourgeois +and found there nothing more than twenty-five thousand francs. + +"And," he said to himself as he went to his own room, "possibly +nothing at all a month hence." + +He new felt the deepest hatred to the Thuilliers. But Thuillier +himself he held by a harpoon stuck into the depths of the man's +vanity; namely, by the projected work, entitled "Taxation and the +Sinking Fund," for which he intended to rearrange the ideas of the +Saint-Simonian "Globe," giving them a systematic form, and coloring +them with his fervid Southern diction. Thuillier's bureaucratic +knowledge of the subject would be of use to him here. Theodose +therefore clung to this rope, resolving to do battle, on so poor a +base of operations, with the vanity of a fool, which, according to +individual character, is either granite or sand. On reflection, +Theodose was inclined to be content with the prospect. + +On the evening before the right of redemption expired, Claparon and +Cerizet proceeded to manipulate the notary in the following manner. +Cerizet, to whom Claparon had revealed the password and the notary's +retreat, went out to this hiding-place to say to the latter:-- + +"One of my friends, Claparon, whom you know, has asked me to come and +see you; he will expect you to-morrow, in the evening, you know where. +He has the paper you expect from him, which he will exchange with you +for the ten thousand agreed upon; but I must be present, for five +thousand of that sum belong to me; and I warn you, my dear monsieur, +that the name in the counter-deed is in blank." + +"I shall be there," replied the ex-notary. + +The poor devil waited the whole night in agonies of mind that can well +be imagined, for safety or inevitable ruin were in the balance. At +sunrise he saw approaching him, instead of Claparon, a bailiff of the +Court of commerce, who produced a judgment against him in regular +form, and informed him that he must go with him to Clichy. + +Cerizet had made an arrangement with one of the creditors of the +luckless notary, pledging himself to deliver up the debtor on payment +to himself of half the debt. Out of the ten thousand francs promised +to Claparon, the victim of this trap was obliged, in order to obtain +his liberty, to pay six thousand down, the amount of his debt. + +On receiving his share of this extortion Cerizet said to himself: +"There's three thousand to make Cerizet clear out." + +Cerizet then returned to the notary and said: "Claparon is a +scoundrel, monsieur; he has received fifteen thousand francs from the +proposed purchaser of your house, who will now, of course, become the +owner. Threaten to reveal his hiding-place to his creditors, and to +have him sued for fraudulent bankruptcy, and he'll give you half." + +In his wrath the notary wrote a fulminating letter to Claparon. +Claparon, alarmed, feared an arrest, and Cerizet offered to get him a +passport. + +"You have played me many a trick, Claparon," he said, "but listen to +me now, and you can judge of my kindness. I possess, as my whole +means, three thousand francs; I'll give them to you; start for +America, and make your fortune there, as I'm trying to make mine +here." + +That evening Claparon, carefully disguised by Cerizet, left for Havre +by the diligence. Cerizet remained master of the fifteen thousand +francs to be paid to Claparon, and he awaited Theodose with the +payment thereof tranquilly. + +"The limit for bidding-in is passed," thought Theodose, as he went to +find Dutocq and ask him to bring Cerizet to his office. "Suppose I +were now to make an effort to get rid of my leech?" + +"You can't settle this affair anywhere but at Cerizet's, because +Claparon must be present, and he is hiding there," said Dutocq. + +Accordingly, Theodose went, between seven and eight o'clock, to the +den of the "banker of the poor," whom Dutocq had notified of his +coming. Cerizet received him in the horrible kitchen where miseries +and sorrows were chopped and cooked, as we have seen already. The pair +then walked up and down, precisely like two animals in a cage, while +mutually playing the following scene:-- + +"Have you brought the fifteen thousand francs?" + +"No, but I have them at home." + +"Why not have them in your pocket?" asked Cerizet, sharply. + +"I'll tell you," replied Theodose, who, as he walked from the rue +Saint-Dominique to the Estrapade, had decided on his course of action. + +The Provencal, writhing upon the gridiron on which his partners held +him, became suddenly possessed with a good idea, which flashed from +the body of the live coal under him. Peril has gleams of light. He +resolved to rely on the power of frankness, which affects all men, +even swindlers. Every one is grateful to an adversary who bares +himself to the waist in a duel. + +"Well!" said Cerizet, "now the humbug begins." + +The words seemed to come wholly through the hole in his nose with +horrible intonations. + +"You have put me in a magnificent position, and I shall never forget +the service you have done me, my friend," began Theodose, with +emotion. + +"Oh, that's how you take it, is it?" said Cerizet. + +"Listen to me; you don't understand my intentions." + +"Yes, I do!" replied the lender by "the little week." + +"No, you don't." + +"You intend not to give up those fifteen thousand francs." + +Theodose shrugged his shoulders and looked fixedly at Cerizet, who, +struck by the two motions, kept silence. + +"Would you live in my position, knowing yourself within range of a +cannon loaded with grape-shot, without feeling a strong desire to get +out of it? Now listen to me carefully. You are doing a dangerous +business, and you would be glad enough to have some solid protection +in the very heart of the magistracy of Paris. If I can continue my +present course, I shall be substitute attorney-general, possibly +attorney-general, in three years. I offer you to-day the offices of a +devoted friendship, which will serve you hereafter most assuredly, if +only to replace you in a honorable position. Here are my conditions--" + +"Conditions!" exclaimed Cerizet. + +"In ten minutes I will bring you twenty-five thousand francs if you +return to me all the notes which you have against me." + +"But Dutocq? and Claparon?" said Cerizet. + +"Leave them in the lurch!" replied Theodose, with his lips at +Cerizet's ear. + +"That's a pretty thing to say!" cried Cerizet. "And so you have +invented this little game of hocus-pocus because you hold in your +fingers fifteen thousand francs that don't belong to you!" + +"But I've added ten thousand francs to them. Besides, you and I know +each other." + +"If you are able to get ten thousand francs out of your bourgeois you +can surely get fifteen," said Cerizet. "For thirty thousand I'm your +man. Frankness for frankness, you know." + +"You ask the impossible," replied Theodose. "At this very moment, if +you had to do with Claparon instead of with me, your fifteen thousand +would be lost, for Thuillier is to-day the owner of that house." + +"I'll speak to Claparon," said Cerizet, pretending to go and consult +him, and mounting the stairs to the bedroom, from which Claparon had +only just departed on his road to Havre. + +The two adversaries had been speaking, we should here remark, in a +manner not to be overheard; and every time that Theodose raised his +voice Cerizet would make a gesture, intimating that Claparon, from +above, might be listening. The five minutes during which Theodose +heard what seemed to be the murmuring of two voices were torture to +him, for he had staked his very life upon the issue. Cerizet at last +came down, with a smile upon his lips, his eyes sparkling with +infernal mischief, his whole frame quivering in his joy, a Lucifer of +gaiety! + +"I know nothing, so it seems!" he cried, shaking his shoulders, "but +Claparon knows a great deal; he has worked with the big-wig bankers, +and when I told what you wanted he began to laugh, and said, 'I +thought as much!' You will have to bring me the twenty-five thousand +you offer me to-morrow morning, my lad; and as much more before you +can recover your notes." + +"Why?" asked Theodose, feeling his spinal column liquidizing as if the +discharge of some inward electric fluid had melted it. + +"The house is ours." + +"How?" + +"Claparon has bit it in under the name of one of his creditors, a +little toad named Sauvaignou. Desroches, the lawyer, has taken the +case, and you'll get a notice to-morrow. This affair will oblige +Claparon, Dutocq, and me to raise funds. What would become of me +without Claparon! So I forgive him--yes, I forgave him, and though you +may not believe it, my dear friend, I actually kissed him! Change your +terms." + +The last three words were horrible to hear, especially when +illustrated by the face of the speaker, who amused himself by playing +a scene from the "Legataire," all the while studying attentively the +Provencal's character. + +"Oh, Cerizet!" cried Theodose; "I, who wished to do you so much good!" + +"Don't you see, my dear fellow," returned Cerizet, "that between you +and me there ought to be _this_,--" and he struck his heart,--"of which +you have none. As soon as you thought you had a lever on us, you have +tried to knock us over. I saved you from the horrors of starvation and +vermin! You'll die like the idiot you are. We put you on the high-road +to fortune; we gave you a fine social skin and a position in which you +could grasp the future--and look what you do! _Now_ I know you! and from +this time forth, we shall go armed." + +"Then it is war between us!" exclaimed Theodose. + +"You fired first," returned Cerizet. + +"If you pull me down, farewell to your hopes and plans; if you don't +pull me down, you have in me an enemy." + +"That's just what I said yesterday to Dutocq; but, how can we help it? +We are forced to choose between two alternatives--we must go according +to circumstances. I'm a good-natured fellow myself," he added, after a +pause; "bring me your twenty-five thousand francs to-morrow morning +and Thuillier shall keep the house. We'll continue to help you at both +ends, but you'll have to pay up, my boy. After what has just happened +that's pretty kind, isn't it?" + +And Cerizet patted Theodose on the shoulder, with a cynicism that +seemed to brand him more than the iron of the galleys. + +"Well, give me till to-morrow at mid-day," replied the Provencal, "for +there'll be, as you said, some manipulation to do." + +"I'll try to keep Claparon quiet; he's in such a hurry, that man!" + +"To-morrow then," said Theodose, in the tone of a man who decides his +course. + +"Good-night, friend," said Cerizet, in his nasal tone, which degraded +the finest word in the language. "There's one who has got a mouthful +to suck!" thought Cerizet, as he watched Theodose going down the +street with the step of a dazed man. + +When la Peyrade reached the rue des Postes he went with rapid strides +to Madame Colleville's house, exciting himself as he walked along, and +talking aloud. The fire of his roused passions and the sort of inward +conflagration of which many Parisians are conscious (for such +situations abound in Paris) brought him finally to a pitch of frenzy +and eloquence which found expression, as he turned into the rue des +Deux-Eglises, in the words:-- + +"I will kill him!" + +"There's a fellow who is not content!" said a passing workman, and the +jesting words calmed the incandescent madness to which Theodose was a +prey. + +As he left Cerizet's the idea came to him to go to Flavie and tell her +all. Southern natures are born thus--strong until certain passions +arise, and then collapsed. He entered Flavie's room; she was alone, +and when she saw Theodose she fancied her last hour had come. + +"What is the matter?" she cried. + +"I--I--" he said. "Do you love me, Flavie?" + +"Oh! how can you doubt it?" + +"Do you love me absolutely?--if I were criminal, even?" + +"Has he murdered some one?" she thought, replying to his question by a +nod. + +Theodose, thankful to seize even this branch of willow, drew a chair +beside Flavie's sofa, and there gave way to sobs that might have +touched the oldest judge, while torrents of tears began to flow from +his eyes. + +Flavie rose and left the room to say to her maid: "I am not at home to +any one." Then she closed all doors and returned to Theodose, moved to +the utmost pitch of maternal solicitude. She found him stretched out, +his head thrown back, and weeping. He had taken out his handkerchief, +and when Flavie tried to move it from his face it was heavy with +tears. + +"But what is the matter?" she asked; "what ails you?" + +Nature, more impressive than art, served Theodose well; no longer was +he playing a part; he was himself; this nervous crisis and these tears +were the winding up of his preceding scenes of acted comedy. + +"You are a child," she said, in a gentle voice, stroking his hair +softly. + +"I have but you, you only, in all the world!" he replied, kissing her +hands with a sort of passion; "and if you are true to me, if you are +mine, as the body belongs to the soul and the soul to the body, +then--" he added, recovering himself with infinite grace, "_Then_ I +can have courage." + +He rose, and walked about the room. + +"Yes, I will struggle; I will recover my strength, like Antaeus, from +a fall; I will strangle with my own hands the serpents that entwine +me, that kiss with serpent kisses, that slaver my cheeks, that suck my +blood, my honor! Oh, misery! oh, poverty! Oh, how great are they who +can stand erect and carry high their heads! I had better have let +myself die of hunger, there, on my wretched pallet, three and a half +years ago! A coffin is a softer bed to lie in than the life I lead! It +is eighteen months that I have _fed on bourgeois_! and now, at the +moment of attaining an honest, fortunate life, a magnificent future, +at the moment when I was about to sit down to the social banquet, the +executioner strikes me on the shoulder! Yes, the monster! he struck me +there, on my shoulder, and said to me: 'Pay thy dues to the devil, or +die!' And shall I not crush them? Shall I not force my arm down their +throats to their very entrails? Yes, yes, I will, I will! See, Flavie, +my eyes are dry now. Ha, ha! now I laugh; I feel my strength come back +to me; power is mine! Oh! say that you love me; say it again! At this +moment it sounds like the word 'Pardon' to the man condemned to +death!" + +"You are terrible, my friend!" cried Flavie. "Oh! you are killing me." + +She understood nothing of all this, but she fell upon the sofa, +exhausted by the spectacle. Theodose flung himself at her feet. + +"Forgive me! forgive me!" he said. + +"But what is the matter? what is it?" she asked again. + +"They are trying to destroy me. Oh! promise to give me Celeste, and +you shall see what a glorious life I will make you share. If you +hesitate--very good; that is saying you will be wholly mine, and I +will have you!" + +He made so rapid a movement that Flavie, terrified, rose and moved +away. + +"Oh! my saint!" he cried, "at thy feet I fall--a miracle! God is for +me, surely! A flash of light has come to me--an idea--suddenly! Oh, +thanks, my good angel, my grand Saint-Theodose! thou hast saved me!" + +Flavie could not help admiring that chameleon being; one knee on the +floor, his hands crossed on his breast, and his eyes raised to heaven +in religious ecstasy, he recited a prayer; he was a fervent Catholic; +he reverently crossed himself. It was fine; like the vision of +Saint-Jerome. + +"Adieu!" he said, with a melancholy look and a moving tone of voice. + +"Oh!" cried Flavie, "leave me this handkerchief." + +Theodose rushed away like one possessed, sprang into the street, and +darted towards the Thuilliers', but turned, saw Flavie at her window, +and made her a little sign of triumph. + +"What a man!" she thought to herself. + +"Dear, good friend," he said to Thuillier, in a calm and gentle, +almost caressing voice, "we have fallen into the hands of atrocious +scoundrels. But I mean to read them a lesson." + +"What has happened?" asked Brigitte. + +"They want twenty-five thousand francs, and, in order to get the +better of us, the notary, or his accomplices, have determined to bid +in the property. Thuillier, put five thousand francs in your pocket +and come with me; I will secure that house to you. I am making myself +implacable enemies!" he cried; "they are seeking to destroy me +morally. But all I ask is that you will disregard their infamous +calumnies and feel no change of heart to me. After all, what is it? If +I succeed, you will only have paid one hundred and twenty-five +thousand francs for the house instead of one hundred and twenty." + +"Provided the same thing doesn't happen again," said Brigitte, +uneasily, her eyes dilating under the effect of a violent suspicion. + +"Preferred creditors have alone the right to bid in property, and as, +in this case, there is but one, and he has used that right, we are +safe. The amount of his claim is really only two thousand francs, but +there are lawyers, attorneys, and so forth, to pay in such matters, +and we shall have to drop a note of a thousand francs to make the +creditor happy." + +"Go, Thuillier," said Brigitte, "get your hat and gloves, and take the +money--from you know where." + +"As I paid those fifteen thousand francs without success, I don't wish +to have any more money pass through my hands. Thuillier must pay it +himself," said Theodose, when he found himself alone with Brigitte. +"You have, however, gained twenty thousand on the contract I enabled +you to make with Grindot, who thought he was serving the notary, and +you own a piece of property which in five years will be worth nearly a +million. It is what is called a 'boulevard corner.'" + +Brigitte listened uneasily, precisely like a cat which hears a mouse +within the wall. She looked Theodose straight in the eye, and, in +spite of the truth of his remarks, doubts possessed her. + +"What troubles you, little aunt?" + +"Oh! I shall be in mortal terror until that property is securely +ours." + +"You would be willing to give twenty thousand francs, wouldn't you," +said Theodose, "to make sure that Thuillier was what we call, in law, +'owner not dispossessable' of that property? Well, then, remember that +I have saved you twice that amount." + +"Where are we going?" asked Thuillier, returning. + +"To Maitre Godeschal! We must employ him as our attorney." + +"But we refused him for Celeste." + +"Well, that's one reason for going to him," replied Theodose. "I have +taken his measure; he's a man of honor, and he'll think it a fine +thing to do you a service." + +Godeschal, now Derville's successor, had formerly been, for more than +two years, head-clerk with Desroches. Theodose, to whom that +circumstance was known, seemed to hear the name flung into his ear in +the midst of his despair by an inward voice, and he foresaw a +possibility of wrenching from the hands of Claparon the weapon with +which Cerizet had threatened him. He must, however, in the first +instance, gain an entrance to Desroches, and get some light on the +actual situation of his enemies. Godeschal, by reason of the intimacy +still existing between the former clerk and his old master, could be +his go-between. When the attorneys of Paris have ties like those which +bound Godeschal and Desroches together, they live in true fraternity, +and the result is a facility in arranging any matters which are, as +one may say, arrangeable. They obtain from one another, on the ground +of reciprocity, all possible concessions by the application of the +proverb, "Pass me the rhubarb, and I'll pass you the senna," which is +put in practice in all professions, between ministers, soldiers, +judges, business men; wherever, in short, enmity has not raised +barriers too strong and high between the parties. + +"I gain a pretty good fee out of this compromise," is a reason that +needs no expression in words: it is visible in the gesture, the tone, +the glance; and as attorneys and solicitors meet constantly on this +ground, the matter, whatever it is, is arranged. The counterpoise of +this fraternal system is found in what we may call professional +conscience. The public must believe the physician who says, giving +medical testimony, "This body contains arsenic"; nothing is supposed +to exceed the integrity of the legislator, the independence of the +cabinet minister. In like manner, the attorney of Paris says to his +brother lawyer, good-humoredly, "You can't obtain that; my client is +furious," and the other answers, "Very good; I must do without it." + +Now, la Peyrade, a shrewd man, had worn his legal gown about the +Palais long enough to know how these judicial morals might be made to +serve his purpose. + +"Sit in the carriage," he said to Thuillier, when they reached the rue +Vivienne, where Godeschal was now master of the practice he had +formerly served as clerk. "You needn't show yourself until he +undertakes the affair." + +It was eleven o'clock at night; la Peyrade was not mistaken in +supposing that he should find a newly fledged master of a practice in +his office at that hour. + +"To what do I owe this visit, monsieur?" said Godeschal, coming +forward to meet the barrister. + +Foreigners, provincials, and persons in high society may not be aware +that barristers are to attorneys what generals are to marshals. There +exists a line of demarcation, strictly maintained, between the order +of barristers and the guild of attorneys and solicitors in Paris. +However venerable an attorney may be, however capable and strong in +his profession, he must go to the barrister. The attorney is the +administrator, who maps out the plan of the campaign, collects the +munitions of war, and puts the force in motion; the barrister gives +battle. It is not known why the law gives a man two men to defend him +any more than it is known why an author is forced to have both printer +and publisher. The rules of the bar forbid its members to do any act +belonging to the guild of attorneys. It is very rare that a barrister +puts his foot in an attorney's office; the two classes meet in the +law-courts. In society, there is no barrier between them, and some +barristers, those in la Peyrade's situation particularly, demean +themselves by calling occasionally on attorneys, though even these +cases are rare, and are usually excused by some special urgency. + +"I have come on important business," replied la Peyrade; "it concerns, +especially, a question of delicacy which you and I ought to solve +together. Thuillier is below, in a carriage, and I have come up to see +you, not as a barrister, but as his friend. You are in a position to +do him an immense service; and I have told him that you have too noble +a soul (as a worthy successor of our great Derville must have) not to +put your utmost capacity at his orders. Here's the affair." + +After explaining, wholly to his own advantage, the swindling trick +which must, he said, be met with caution and ability, the barrister +developed his plan of campaign. + +"You ought, my dear maitre, to go this very evening to Desroches, +explain the whole plot and persuade him to send to-morrow for his +client, this Sauvaignou. We'll confess the fellow between us, and if +he wants a note for a thousand francs over and above the amount of his +claim, we'll let him have it; not counting the five hundred for you +and as much more for Desroches, provided Thuillier receives the +relinquishment of his claim by ten o'clock to-morrow morning. What +does this Sauvaignou want? Nothing but money. Well, a haggler like +that won't resist the attraction of an extra thousand francs, +especially if he is only the instrument of a cupidity behind him. It +is no matter to us how he fights it out with those who prompt him. +Now, then, do you think you can get the Thuillier family out of this?" + +"I'll go and see Desroches at once," said Godeschal. + +"Not before Thuillier gives you a power of attorney and five hundred +francs. The money should be on the table in a case like this." + +After the interview with Thuillier was over, la Peyrade took Godeschal +in the carriage to the rue du Bethizy, where Desroches lived, +explaining that it was on their way back to the rue Saint-Dominique +d'Enfer. When they stopped at Desroches's door la Peyrade made an +appointment with Godeschal to meet him there the next morning at seven +o'clock. + +La Peyrade's whole future and fortune lay in the outcome of this +conference. It is therefore not astonishing that he disregarded the +customs of the bar and went to Desroches's office, to study Sauvaignou +and take part in the struggle, in spite of the danger he ran in thus +placing himself visibly before the eyes of one of the most dreaded +attorneys in Paris. + +As he entered the office and made his salutations, he took note of +Sauvaignou. The man was, as the name had already told him, from +Marseilles,--the foreman of a master-carpenter, entrusted with the +giving out of sub-contracts. The profits of this work consisted of +what he could make between the price he paid for the work and that +paid to him by the master-carpenter; this agreement being exclusive of +material, his contract being only for labor. The master-carpenter had +failed. Sauvaignou had thereupon appealed to the court of commerce for +recognition as creditor with a lien on the property. He was a stocky +little man, dressed in a gray linen blouse, with a cap on his head, +and was seated in an armchair. Three banknotes, of a thousand francs +each, lying visibly before him on Desroches's desk, informed la +Peyrade that the negotiation had already taken place, and that the +lawyers were worsted. Godeschal's eyes told the rest, and the glance +which Desroches cast at the "poor man's advocate" was like the blow of +a pick-axe into the earth of a grave. Stimulated by his danger, the +Provencal became magnificent. He coolly took up the bank-notes and +folded them, as if to put them in his pocket, saying to Desroches:-- + +"Thuillier has changed his mind." + +"Very good; then we are all agreed," said the terrible attorney. + +"Yes; your client must now hand over to us the fifty thousand francs +we have spent on finishing the house, according to the contract +between Thuillier and Grindot. I did not tell you that yesterday," he +added, turning to Godeschal. + +"Do you hear that?" said Desroches to Sauvaignou. "That's a case I +shall not touch without proper guarantees." + +"But, messieurs," said Sauvaignou, "I can't negotiate this matter +until I have seen the worthy man who paid me five hundred francs on +account for having signed him that bit of a proxy." + +"Are you from Marseilles?" said la Peyrade, in patois. + +"Oh! if he tackles him with patois the fellow is beaten," said +Godeschal to Desroches in a low tone. + +"Yes, monsieur," replied the Marseillais. + +"Well, you poor devil," continued Theodose, "don't you see that they +want to ruin you? Shall I tell you what you ought to do? Pocket these +three thousand francs, and when your worthy man comes after you, take +your rule and hit him a rap over the knuckles; tell him he's a rascal +who wants you to do his dirty work, and instead of that you revoke +your proxy and will pay him his five hundred francs in the week with +three Thursdays. Then be off with you to Marseilles with these three +thousand francs and your savings in your pocket. If anything happens +to you there, let me know through these gentlemen, and I'll get you +out of the scrape; for, don't you see? I'm not only a Provencal, but +I'm also one of the leading lawyers in Paris, and the friend of the +poor." + +When the workman found a compatriot sanctioning in a tone of authority +the reasons by which he could betray Cerizet, he capitulated, asking, +however, for three thousand five hundred francs. That demand having +been granted he remarked:-- + +"It is none too much for a rap over the knuckles; he might put me in +prison for assault." + +"Well, you needn't strike unless he insults you," replied la Peyrade, +"and that's self-defence." + +When Desroches had assured him that la Peyrade was really a barrister +in good standing, Sauvaignou signed the relinquishment, which +contained a receipt for the amount, principal and interest, of his +claim, made in duplicate between himself and Thuillier, and witnessed +by the two attorneys; so that the paper was a final settlement of the +whole matter. + +"We'll leave the remaining fifteen hundred between you," whispered la +Peyrade to Desroches and Godeschal, "on condition that you give me the +relinquishment, which I will have Thuillier accept and sign before his +notary, Cardot. Poor man! he never closed his eyes all night!" + +"Very well," replied Desroches. "You may congratulate yourself," he +added, making Sauvaignou sign the paper, "that you've earned that +money pretty easily." + +"It is really mine, isn't it, monsieur?" said the Marseillais, already +uneasy. + +"Yes, and legally, too," replied Desroches, "only you must let your +man know this morning that you have revoked your proxy under date of +yesterday. Go out through my clerk's office, here, this way." + +Desroches told his head-clerk what the man was to do, and he sent a +pupil-clerk with him to see that a sheriff's officer carried the +notice to Cerizet before ten o'clock. + +"I thank you, Desroches," said la Peyrade, pressing the attorney's +hand; "you think of everything; I shall never forget this service." + +"Don't deposit the deed with Cardot till after twelve o'clock," +returned Desroches. + +"Hay! comrade," cried the barrister, in Provencal, following +Sauvaignou into the next room, "take your Margot to walk about +Belleville, and be sure you don't go home." + +"I hear," said Sauvaignou. "I'm off to-morrow; adieu!" + +"Adieu," returned la Peyrade, with a Provencal cry. + +"There is something behind all this," said Desroches in an undertone +to Godeschal, as la Peyrade followed Sauvaignou into the clerk's +office. + +"The Thuilliers get a splendid piece of property for next to nothing," +replied Godeschal; "that's all." + +"La Peyrade and Cerizet look to me like two divers who are fighting +under water," replied Desroches. "What am I to say to Cerizet, who put +the matter into my hands?" he added, as the barrister returned to +them. + +"Tell him that Sauvaignou forced your hand," replied la Peyrade. + +"And you fear nothing?" said Desroches, in a sudden manner. + +"I? oh no! I want to give Cerizet a lesson." + +"To-morrow, I shall know the truth," said Desroches, in a low tone, to +Godeschal; "no one chatters like a beaten man." + +La Peyrade departed, carrying with him the deed of relinquishment. At +eleven o'clock he was in the courtroom of the justice-of-peace, +perfectly calm, and firm. When he saw Cerizet come in, pale with rage, +his eyes full of venom, he said in his ear:-- + +"My dear friend, I'm a pretty good fellow myself, and I hold that +twenty-five thousand francs in good bank-bills at your disposal, +whenever you will return to me those notes of mine which you hold." + +Cerizet looked at the advocate of the poor, without being able to say +one word in reply; he was green; the bile had struck in. + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE PERVERSITY OF DOVES + +"I am a non-dispossessable property-owner!" cried Thuillier, coming +home after visiting his notary. "No human power can get that house +away from me. Cardot says so." + +The bourgeoisie think much more of what their notary tells them than +of what their attorney says. The notary is nearer to them than any +other ministerial officer. The Parisian bourgeois never pays a visit +to his attorney without a sense of fear; whereas he mounts the stairs +with ever-renewed pleasure to see his notary; he admires that +official's virtue and his sound good sense. + +"Cardot, who is looking for an apartment for one of his clients, wants +to know about our second floor," continued Thuillier. "If I choose +he'll introduce to me on Sunday a tenant who is ready to sign a lease +for eighteen years at forty thousand francs and taxes! What do you say +to that, Brigitte?" + +"Better wait," she replied. "Ah! that dear Theodose, what a fright he +gave me!" + +"Hey! my dearest girl, I must tell you that when Cardot asked who put +me in the way of this affair he said I owed him a present of at least +ten thousand francs. The fact is, I owe it all to him." + +"But he is the son of the house," responded Brigitte. + +"Poor lad! I'll do him the justice to say that he asks for nothing." + +"Well, dear, good friend," said la Peyrade, coming in about three +o'clock, "here you are, richissime!" + +"And through you, Theodose." + +"And you, little aunt, have you come to life again? Ah! you were not +half as frightened as I was. I put your interests before my own; I +haven't breathed freely till this morning at eleven o'clock; and yet I +am sure now of having two mortal enemies at my heels in the two men I +have tricked for your sake. As I walked home, just now, I asked myself +what could be your influence over me to make me commit such a crime, +and whether the happiness of belonging to your family and becoming +your son could ever efface the stain I have put upon my conscience." + +"Bah! you can confess it," said Thuillier, the free-thinker. + +"And now," said Theodose to Brigitte, "you can pay, in all security, +the cost of the house,--eighty thousand francs, and thirty thousand to +Grindot; in all, with what you have paid in costs, one hundred and +twenty thousand; and this last twenty thousand added make one hundred +and forty thousand. If you let the house outright to a single tenant +ask him for the last year's rent in advance, and reserve for my wife +and me the whole of the first floor above the entresol. Make those +conditions and you'll still get your forty thousand francs a year. If +you should want to leave this quarter so as to be nearer the Chamber, +you can always take up your abode with us on that vast first floor, +which has stables and coach-house belonging to it; in fact, everything +that is needful for a splendid life. And now, Thuillier, I am going to +get the cross of the Legion of honor for you." + +Hearing this last promise, Brigitte cried out in her enthusiasm:-- + +"Faith! my dear boy, you've done our business so well that I'll leave +you to manage that of letting the house." + +"Don't abdicate, dear aunt," replied Theodose. "God keep me from ever +taking a step without you! You are the good genius of this family; I +think only of the day when Thuillier will take his seat in the +Chamber. If you let the house you will come into possession of your +forty thousand francs for the last year of the lease in two months +from now; and that will not prevent Thuillier from drawing his +quarterly ten thousand of the rental." + +After casting this hope into the mind of the old maid, who was +jubilant, Theodose drew Thuillier into the garden and said to him, +without beating round the bush:-- + +"Dear, good friend, find means to get ten thousand francs from your +sister, and be sure not to let her suspect that you pay them to me; +tell her that sum is required in the government office to facilitate +your appointment as chevalier of the Legion of honor; tell her, too, +that you know the persons among whom that sum should be distributed." + +"That's a good idea," said Thuillier; "besides, I'll pay it back to +her when I get my rents." + +"Have the money ready this evening, dear friend. Now I am going out on +business about your cross; to-morrow we shall know something +definitely about it." + +"What a man you are!" cried Thuillier. + +"The ministry of the 1st of March is going to fall, and we must get it +out of them beforehand," said Theodose, shrewdly. + +He now hurried to Madame Colleville, crying out as he entered her +room:-- + +"I've conquered! We shall have a piece of landed property for Celeste +worth a million, a life-interest in which will be given to her by her +marriage-contract; but keep the secret, or your daughter will be +hunted down by peers of France. Besides, this settlement will only be +made in my favor. Now dress yourself, and let us go and call on Madame +du Bruel; she can get the cross for Thuillier. While you are getting +under arms I'll do a little courting to Celeste; you and I can talk as +we drive along." + +La Peyrade had seen, as he passed the door of the salon, Celeste and +Felix Phellion in close conversation. Flavie had such confidence in +her daughter that she did not fear to leave them together. Now that +the great success of the morning was secured, Theodose felt the +necessity of beginning his courtship of Celeste. It was high time, he +thought, to bring about a quarrel between the lovers. He did not, +therefore, hesitate to apply his ear to the door of the salon before +entering it, in order to discover what letters of the alphabet of love +they were spelling; he was even invited to commit this domestic +treachery by sounds from within, which seemed to say that they were +disputing. Love, according to one of our poets, is a privilege which +two persons mutually take advantage of to cause each other, +reciprocally, a great deal of sorrow about nothing at all. + +When Celeste knew that Felix was elected by her heart to be the +companion of her life, she felt a desire, not so much to study him as +to unite herself closely with him by that communion of souls which is +the basis of all affections, and leads, in youthful minds, to +involuntary examination. The dispute to which Theodose was now to +listen took its rise in a disagreement which had sprung up within the +last few days between the mathematician and Celeste. The young girl's +piety was real; she belonged to the flock of the truly faithful, and +to her, Catholicism, tempered by that mysticism which attracts young +souls, was an inward poem, a life within her life. From this point +young girls are apt to develop into either extremely high-minded women +or saints. But, during this beautiful period of their youth they have +in their heart, in their ideas, a sort of absolutism: before their +eyes is the image of perfection, and all must be celestial, angelic, +or divine to satisfy them. Outside of their ideal, nothing of good can +exist; all is stained and soiled. This idea causes the rejection of +many a diamond with a flaw by girls who, as women, fall in love with +paste. + +Now, Celeste had seen in Felix, not irreligion, but indifference to +matters of religion. Like most geometricians, chemists, +mathematicians, and great naturalists, he had subjected religion to +reason; he recognized a problem in it as insoluble as the squaring of +the circle. Deist "in petto," he lived in the religion of most +Frenchmen, not attaching more importance to it than he did to the new +laws promulgated in July. It was necessary to have a God in heaven, +just as they set up a bust of the king at the mayor's office. Felix +Phellion, a worthy son of his father, had never drawn the slightest +veil over his opinions or his conscience; he allowed Celeste to read +into them with the candor and the inattention of a student of +problems. The young girl, on her side, professed a horror for atheism, +and her conscience assured her that a deist was cousin-germain to an +atheist. + +"Have you thought, Felix, of doing what you promised me?" asked +Celeste, as soon as Madame Colleville had left them alone. + +"No, my dear Celeste," replied Felix. + +"Oh! to have broken his word!" she cried, softly. + +"But to have kept it would have been a profanation," said Felix. "I +love you so deeply, with a tenderness so little proof against your +wishes, that I promised a thing contrary to my conscience. Conscience, +Celeste, is our treasure, our strength, our mainstay. How can you ask +me to go into a church and kneel at the feet of a priest, in whom I +can see only a man? You would despise me if I obeyed you." + +"And so, my dear Felix, you refuse to go to church," said Celeste, +casting a tearful glance at the man she loved. "If I were your wife +you would let me go alone? You do not love me as I love you! for, +alas! I have a feeling in my heart for an atheist contrary to that +which God commands." + +"An atheist!" cried Felix. "Oh, no! Listen to me, Celeste. There is +certainly a God; I believe in that; but I have higher ideas of Him +than those of your priests; I do not wish to bring Him down to my +level; I want to rise to Him. I listen to the voice He has put within +me,--a voice which honest men call conscience, and I strive not to +darken that divine ray as it comes to me. For instance, I will never +harm others; I will do nothing against the commandments of universal +morality, which was that of Confucius, Moses, Pythagoras, Socrates, as +well as of Jesus Christ. I will stand in the presence of God; my +actions shall be my prayers; I will never be false in word or deed; +never will I do a base or shameful thing. Those are the precepts I +have learned from my virtuous father, and which I desire to bequeath +to my children. All the good that I can do I shall try to accomplish, +even if I have to suffer for it. What can you ask more of a man than +that?" + +This profession of the Phellion faith caused Celeste to sadly shake +her head. + +"Read attentively," she replied, "'The Imitation of Jesus Christ.' +Strive to convert yourself to the holy Catholic, apostolic, and Roman +Church, and you will see how empty your words are. Hear me, Felix; +marriage is not, the Church says, the affair of a day, the mere +satisfaction of our own desires; it is made for eternity. What! shall +we be united day and night, shall we form one flesh, one word, and yet +have two languages, two faiths in our heart, and a cause of perpetual +dissension? Would you condemn me to weep tears over the state of your +soul,--tears that I must ever conceal from you? Could I address myself +in peace to God when I see his arm stretched out in wrath against you? +Must my children inherit the blood of a deist and his convictions? Oh! +God, what misery for a wife! No, no, these ideas are intolerable. +Felix! be of my faith, for I cannot share yours. Do not put a gulf +between us. If you loved me, you would already have read 'The +Imitation of Jesus Christ.'" + +The Phellion class, sons of the "Constitutionnel," dislike the +priestly mind. Felix had the imprudence to reply to this sort of +prayer from the depths of an ardent heart:-- + +"You are repeating, Celeste, the lessons your confessor teaches you; +nothing, believe me, is more fatal to happiness than the interference +of priests in a home." + +"Oh!" cried Celeste, wounded to the quick, for love alone inspired +her, "you do not love! The voice of my heart is not in unison with +yours! You have not understood me, because you have not listened to +me; but I forgive you, for you know not what you say." + +She wrapped herself in solemn silence, and Felix went to the window +and drummed upon the panes,--music familiar to those who have indulged +in poignant reflections. Felix was, in fact, presenting the following +delicate and curious questions to the Phellion conscience. + +"Celeste is a rich heiress, and, in yielding against the voice of +natural religion, to her ideas, I should have in view the making of +what is certainly an advantageous marriage,--an infamous act. I ought +not, as father of a family, to allow the priesthood to have an +influence in my home. If I yield to-day, I do a weak act, which will +be followed by many others equally pernicious to the authority of a +husband and father. All this is unworthy of a philosopher." + +Then he returned to his beloved. + +"Celeste, I entreat you on my knees," he said, "not to mingle that +which the law, in its wisdom, has separated. We live in two worlds, +--society and heaven. Each has its own way of salvation; but as to +society, is it not obeying God to obey the laws? Christ said: 'Render +unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.' Caesar is the body politic. Dear, +let us forget our little quarrel." + +"Little quarrel!" cried the young enthusiast; "I want you to have my +whole heart as I want to have the whole of yours; and you make it into +two parts! Is not that an evil? You forget that marriage is a +sacrament." + +"Your priesthood have turned your head," exclaimed the mathematician, +impatiently. + +"Monsieur Phellion," said Celeste, interrupting him hastily, "enough +of this!" + +It was at this point of the quarrel that Theodose considered it +judicious to enter the room. He found Celeste pale, and the young +professor as anxious as a lover should be who has just irritated his +mistress. + +"I heard the word 'enough'; then something is too much?" he said, +inquiringly, looking in turn from Celeste to Felix. + +"We were talking religion," replied Felix, "and I was saying to +mademoiselle how dangerous ecclesiastical influence is in the bosom of +families." + +"That was not the point, monsieur," said Celeste, sharply; "it was to +know if husband and wife could be of one heart when the one is an +atheist and the other Catholic." + +"Can there be such a thing as atheists?" cried Theodose, with all the +signs of extreme wonderment. "Could a true Catholic marry a +Protestant? There is no safety possible for a married pair unless they +have perfect conformity in the matter of religious opinions. I, who +come from the Comtat, of a family which counts a pope among its +ancestors--for our arms are: gules, a key argent, with supporters, a +monk holding a church, and a pilgrim with a staff, or, and the motto, +'I open, I shut'--I am, of course, intensely dogmatic on such points. +But in these days, thanks to our modern system of education, it does +not seem to me strange that religion should be called into question. I +myself would never marry a Protestant, had she millions, even if I +loved her distractedly. Faith is a thing that cannot be tampered with. +'Una fides, unus Dominus,' that is my device in life." + +"You hear that!" cried Celeste, triumphantly, looking at Felix +Phellion. + +"I am not openly devout," continued la Peyrade. "I go to mass at six +every morning, that I may not be observed; I fast on Fridays; I am, in +short, a son of the Church, and I would not undertake any serious +enterprise without prayer, after the ancient fashion of our ancestors; +but no one is able to notice my religion. A singular thing happened to +our family during the Revolution of 1789, which attached us more +closely than ever to our holy mother the Church. A poor young lady of +the elder branch of the Peyrades, who owned the little estate of la +Peyrade,--for we ourselves are Peyrades of Canquoelle, but the two +branches inherit from one another,--well, this young lady married, six +years before the Revolution, a barrister who, after the fashion of the +times, was Voltairean, that is to say, an unbeliever, or, if you +choose, a deist. He took up all the revolutionary ideas, and practised +the charming rites that you know of in the worship of the goddess +Reason. He came into our part of the country imbued with the ideas of +the Convention, and fanatical about them. His wife was very handsome; +he compelled her to play the part of Liberty; and the poor unfortunate +creature went mad. She died insane! Well, as things are going now it +looks as if we might have another 1793." + +This history, invented on the spot, made such an impression on +Celeste's fresh and youthful imagination that she rose, bowed to the +young men and hastened to her chamber. + +"Ah! monsieur, why did you tell her that?" cried Felix, struck to the +heart by the cold look the young girl, affecting profound +indifference, cast upon him. She fancied herself transformed into a +goddess of Reason. + +"Why not? What were you talking about?" asked Theodose. + +"About my indifference to religion." + +"The great sore of this century," replied Theodose, gravely. + +"I am ready," said Madame Colleville, appearing in a toilet of much +taste. "But what is the matter with my poor daughter? She is crying!" + +"Crying? madame," exclaimed Felix; "please tell her that I will study +'The Imitation of Christ' at once." + +Felix left the house with Theodose and Flavie, whose arm the barrister +pressed to let her know he would explain in the carriage the apparent +dementia of the young professor. + +An hour later, Madame Colleville and Celeste, Colleville and Theodose +were entering the Thuilliers' apartment to dine there. Theodose and +Flavie took Thuillier into the garden, where the former said to him:-- + +"Dear, good friend! you will have the cross within a week. Our +charming friend here will tell you about our visit to the Comtesse du +Bruel." + +And Theodose left Thuillier, having caught sight of Desroches in the +act of being brought by Mademoiselle Thuillier into the garden; he +went, driven by a terrible and glacial presentiment, to meet him. + +"My good friend," said Desroches in his ear, "I have come to see if +you can procure at once twenty-five thousand francs plus two thousand +six hundred and eighty for costs." + +"Are you acting for Cerizet?" asked the barrister. + +"Cerizet has put all the papers into the hands of Louchard, and you +know what you have to expect if arrested. Is Cerizet wrong in thinking +you have twenty-five thousand francs in your desk? He says you offered +them to him and he thinks it only natural not to leave them in your +hands." + +"Thank you for taking the step, my good friend," replied Theodose. "I +have been expecting this attack." + +"Between ourselves," replied Desroches, "you have made an utter fool +of him, and he is furious. The scamp will stop at nothing to get his +revenge upon you--for he'll lose everything if he forces you to fling +your barrister's gown, as they say, to the nettles and go to prison." + +"I?" said Theodose. "I'm going to pay him. But even so, there will +still be five notes of mine in his hands, for five thousand francs +each; what does he mean to do with them?" + +"Oh! after the affair of this morning, I can't tell you; my client is +a crafty, mangy cur, and he is sure to have his little plans." + +"Look here, Desroches," said Theodose, taking the hard, unyielding +attorney round the waist, "those papers are in your hands, are not +they?" + +"Will you pay them?" + +"Yes, in three hours." + +"Very good, then. Be at my office at nine o'clock; I'll receive the +money and give you your notes; _but_, at half-past nine o'clock, they +will be in the sheriff's hands." + +"To-night, then, at nine o'clock," said Theodose. + +"Nine o'clock," repeated Desroches, whose glance had taken in the +whole family, then assembled in the garden. + +Celeste, with red eyes, was talking to her godmother; Colleville and +Brigitte, Flavie and Thuillier were on the steps of the broad portico +leading to the entrance-hall. Desroches remarked to Theodose, who +followed him to the door:-- + +"You can pay off those notes." + +At a single glance the shrewd attorney had comprehended the whole +scheme of the barrister. + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + ONE OF CERIZET'S FEMALE CLIENTS + +The next morning, at daybreak, Theodose went to the office of the +banker of the poor, to see the effect produced upon his enemy by the +punctual payment of the night before, and to make another effort to +get rid of his hornet. + +He found Cerizet standing up, in conference with a woman, and he +received an imperative sign to keep at a distance and not to interrupt +the interview. The barrister was therefore reduced to conjectures as +to the importance of this woman, an importance revealed by the eager +look on the face of the lender "by the little week." Theodose had a +presentiment, though a very vague one, that the upshot of this +conference would have some influence on Cerizet's own arrangements, +for he suddenly beheld on that crafty countenance the change produced +by a dawning hope. + +"But, my dear mamma Cardinal--" + +"Yes, my good monsieur--" + +"What is it you want--?" + +"It must be decided--" + +These beginnings, or these ends of sentences were the only gleams of +light that the animated conversation, carried on in the lowest tones +with lip to ear and ear to lip, conveyed to the motionless witness, +whose attention was fixed on Madame Cardinal. + +Madame Cardinal was one of Cerizet's earliest clients; she peddled +fish. If Parisians know these creations peculiar to their soil, +foreigners have no suspicion of their existence; and Mere Cardinal +--technologically speaking, of course, deserved all the interest she +excited in Theodose. So many women of her species may be met with in +the streets that the passers-by give them no more attention than they +give to the three thousand pictures of the Salon. But as she stood in +Cerizet's office the Cardinal had all the value of an isolated +masterpiece; she was a complete and perfect type of her species. + +The woman was mounted on muddy sabots; but her feet, carefully wrapped +in gaiters, were still further protected by stout and thick-ribbed +stockings. Her cotton gown, adorned with a glounce of mud, bore the +imprint of the strap which supported the fish-basket. Her principal +garment was a shawl of what was called "rabbit's-hair cashmere," the +two ends of which were knotted behind, above her bustle--for we must +needs employ a fashionable word to express the effect produced by the +transversal pressure of the basket upon her petticoats, which +projected below it, in shape like a cabbage. A printed cotton +neckerchief, of the coarsest description, gave to view a red neck, +ribbed and lined like the surface of a pond where people have skated. +Her head was covered in a yellow silk foulard, twined in a manner that +was rather picturesque. Short and stout, and ruddy of skin, Mere +Cardinal probably drank her little drop of brandy in the morning. She +had once been handsome. The Halle had formerly reproached her, in the +boldness of its figurative speech, for doing "a double day's-work in +the twenty-four." Her voice, in order to reduce itself to the diapason +of ordinary conversation, was obliged to stifle its sound as other +voices do in a sick-room; but at such times it came thick and muffled, +from a throat accustomed to send to the farthest recesses of the +highest garret the names of the fish in their season. Her nose, a la +Roxelane, her well-cut lips, her blue eyes, and all that formerly made +up her beauty, was now buried in folds of vigorous flesh which told of +the habits and occupations of an outdoor life. The stomach and bosom +were distinguished for an amplitude worthy of Rubens. + +"Do you want to make me lie in the straw?" she said to Cerizet. "What +do I care for the Toupilliers? Ain't I a Toupillier myself? What do +you want to do with them, those Toupilliers?" + +This savage outburst was hastily repressed by Cerizet, who uttered a +prolonged "Hush-sh!" such as all conspirators obey. + +"Well, go and find out all you can about it, and come back to me," +said Cerizet, pushing the woman toward the door, and whispering, as he +did so, a few words in her ear. + +"Well, my dear friend," said Theodose to Cerizet, "you have got your +money?" + +"Yes," returned Cerizet "we have measured our claws, they are the same +length, the same strength, and the same sharpness. What next?" + +"Am I to tell Dutocq that you received, last night, twenty-five +thousand francs?" + +"Oh! my dear friend, not a word, if you love me!" cried Cerizet. + +"Listen," said Theodose. "I must know, once for all, what you want. I +am positively determined not to remain twenty-four hours longer on the +gridiron where you have got me. Cheat Dutocq if you will; I am utterly +indifferent to that; but I intend that you and I shall come to an +understanding. It is a fortune that I have paid you, twenty-five +thousand francs, and you must have earned ten thousand more in your +business; it is enough to make you an honest man. Cerizet, if you will +leave me in peace, if you won't prevent my marriage with Mademoiselle +Colleville, I shall certainly be king's attorney-general, or something +of that kind in Paris. You can't do better than make sure of an +influence in that sphere." + +"Here are my conditions; and they won't allow of discussion; you can +take them or leave them. You will obtain for me the lease of +Thuillier's new house for eighteen years, and I'll hand you back one +of your five notes cancelled, and you shall not find me any longer in +your way. But you will have to settle with Dutocq for the remaining +four notes. You got the better of _me_, and I know Dutocq hasn't the +force to stand against you." + +"I'll agree to that, provided you'll pay a rent of forty-eight +thousand francs for the house, the last year in advance, and begin the +lease in October." + +"Yes; but I shall not give for the last year's rent more than +forty-three thousand francs; your note will pay the remainder. I have +seen the house, and examined it. It suits me very well." + +"One last condition," said Theodose; "you'll help me against Dutocq?" + +"No," said Cerizet, "you'll cook him brown yourself; he doesn't need +any basting from me; he'll give out his gravy fast enough. But you +ought to be reasonable. The poor fellow can't pay off the last fifteen +thousand francs due on his practice, and you should reflect that +fifteen thousand francs would certainly buy back your notes." + +"Well; give me two weeks to get your lease--" + +"No, not a day later than Monday next! Tuesday your notes will be in +Louchard's hands; unless you pay them Monday, or Thuillier signs the +lease." + +"Well, Monday, so be it!" said Theodose; "are we friends?" + +"We shall be Monday," responded Cerizet. + +"Well, then, Monday you'll pay for my dinner," said Theodose, +laughing. + +"Yes, at the Rocher de Cancale, if I have the lease. Dutocq shall be +there--we'll all be there--ah! it is long since I've had a good +laugh." + +Theodose and Cerizet shook hands, saying, reciprocally:-- + +"We'll meet soon." + +Cerizet had not calmed down so suddenly without reasons. In the first +place, as Desroches once said, "Bile does not facilitate business," +and the usurer had too well seen the justice of that remark not to +coolly resolve to get something out of his position, and to squeeze +the jugular vein of the crafty Provencal until he strangled him. + +"It is a fair revenge," Desroches said to him; "mind you extract its +quintessence. You hold that fellow." + +For ten years past Cerizet had seen men growing rich by practising the +trade of principal tenant. The principal tenant is, in Paris, to the +owners of houses what farmers are to country landlords. All Paris has +seen one of its great tailors, building at his own cost, on the famous +site of Frascati, one of the most sumptuous of houses, and paying, as +principal tenant, fifty thousand francs a year for the ground rent of +the house, which, at the end of nineteen years' lease, was to become +the property of the owner of the land. In spite of the costs of +construction, which were something like seven hundred thousand francs, +the profits of those nineteen years proved, in the end, very large. + +Cerizet, always on the watch for business, had examined the chances +for gain offered by the situation of the house which Thuillier had +_stolen_,--as he said to Desroches,--and he had seen the possibility of +letting it for sixty thousand at the end of six years. There were four +shops, two on each side, for it stood on a boulevard corner. Cerizet +expected, therefore, to get clear ten thousand a year for a dozen +years, allowing for eventualities and sundries attendant on renewal of +leases. He therefore proposed to himself to sell his money-lending +business to the widow Poiret and Cadenet for ten thousand francs; he +already possessed thirty thousand; and the two together would enable +him to pay the last year's rent in advance, which house-owners in +Paris usually demand as a guarantee from a principal tenant on a long +lease. Cerizet had spent a happy night; he fell asleep in a glorious +dream; he saw himself in a fair way to do an honest business, and to +become a bourgeois like Thuillier, like Minard, and so many others. + +But he had a waking of which he did not dream. He found Fortune +standing before him, and emptying her gilded horns of plenty at his +feet in the person of Madame Cardinal. He had always had a liking for +the woman, and had promised her for a year past the necessary sum to +buy a donkey and a little cart, so that she could carry on her +business on a large scale, and go from Paris to the suburbs. Madame +Cardinal, widow of a porter in the corn-market, had an only daughter, +whose beauty Cerizet had heard of from some of the mother's cronies. +Olympe Cardinal was about thirteen years of age at the time, 1837, +when Cerizet began his system of loans in the quarter; and with a view +to an infamous libertinism, he had paid great attention to the mother, +whom he rescued from utter misery, hoping to make Olympe his mistress. +But suddenly, in 1838, the girl left her mother, and "made her life," +to use an expression by which the lower classes in Paris describe the +abuse of the most precious gifts of nature and youth. + +To look for a girl in Paris is to look for a smelt in the Seine; +nothing but chance can throw her into the net. The chance came. Mere +Cardinal, who to entertain a neighbor had taken her to the Bobino +theatre, recognized in the leading lady her own daughter, whom the +first comedian had held under his control for three years. The mother, +gratified at first at beholding her daughter in a fine gown of gold +brocade, her hair dressed like that of a duchess, and wearing +open-worked stockings, satin shoes, and receiving the plaudits of the +audience, ended by screaming out from her seat in the gallery:-- + +"You shall soon hear of me, murderer of your own mother! I'll know +whether miserable strolling-players have the right to come and debauch +young girls of sixteen!" + +She waited at the stage-door to capture her daughter, but the first +comedian and the leading lady had no doubt jumped across the +footlights and left the theatre with the audience, instead of issuing +by the stage-door, where Madame Cardinal and her crony, Mere +Mahoudeau, made an infernal rumpus, which two municipal guards were +called upon to pacify. Those august personages, before whom the two +women lowered the diapason of their voices, called the mother's +attention to the fact that the girl was of legitimate theatrical age, +and that instead of screaming at the door after the director, she +could summon him before the justice-of-peace, or the police-court, +whichever she pleased. + +The next day Madame Cardinal intended to consult Cerizet, in view of +the fact that he was a clerk in the office of the justice-of-peace; +but, before reaching his lair in the rue des Poules, she was met by +the porter of a house in which an uncle of hers, a certain Toupillier, +was living, who told her that the old man hadn't probably two days to +live, being then in the last extremity. + +"Well, how do you expect me to help it?" replied the widow Cardinal. + +"We count on you, my dear Madame Cardinal; we know you won't forget +the good advice we'll give you. Here's the thing. Lately, your poor +uncle, not being able to stir round, has trusted me to go and collect +the rents of his house, rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, and the arrears of +his dividends at the Treasury, which come to eighteen hundred francs." + +By this time the widow Cardinal's eyes were becoming fixed instead of +wandering. + +"Yes, my dear," continued Perrache, a hump-backed little concierge; +"and, seeing that you are the only person who ever thinks about him, +and that you come and see him sometimes, and bring him fish, perhaps +he may make a bequest in your favor. My wife, who has been nursing him +for the last few days since he has been so ill, spoke to him of you, +but he wouldn't have you told about his illness. But now, don't you +see, it is high time you should show yourself there. It is pretty nigh +two months since he has been able to attend to business." + +"You may well think, you old thief," replied Madame Cardinal, hurrying +at top speed toward the rue Honore-Chevalier, where her uncle lived in +a wretched garret, "that the hair would grow on my hand before I could +ever imagine that. What! my uncle Toupillier rich! the old pauper of +the church of Saint-Sulpice!" + +"Ah!" returned the porter, "but he fed well. He went to bed every +night with his best friend, a big bottle of Roussillon. My wife has +tasted it, though he told us it was common stuff. The wine-merchant in +the rue des Canettes supplies it to him." + +"Don't say a word about all this," said the widow, when she parted +from the man who had given her the information. "I'll take care and +remember you--if anything comes of it." + +Toupillier, former drum-major in the French Guards, had been for the +two years preceding 1789 in the service of the Church as beadle of +Saint-Sulpice. The Revolution deprived him of that post, and he then +dropped down into a state of abject misery. He was even obliged to +take to the profession of model, for he _enjoyed_, as they say, a fine +physique. When public worship was restored, he took up his beadle's +staff once more; but in 1816 he was dismissed, as much on account of +his immorality as for his political opinions. Nevertheless, he was +allowed to stay about the door of the church and distribute the holy +water. Later, an unfortunate affair, which we shall presently mention, +made him lose even that position; but, still finding means to keep to +the sanctuary, he obtained permission to be allowed as a pauper in the +porch. At this period of life, being then seventy-two years of age, he +made himself ninety-six, and began the profession of centenarian. + +In all Paris it was impossible to find another such beard and head of +hair as Toupillier's. As he walked he appeared bent double; he held a +stick in his shaking hand,--a hand that was covered with lichen, like +a granite rock, and with the other he held out the classic hat with a +broad brim, filthy and battered, into which, however, there fell +abundant alms. His legs were swathed in rags and bandages, and his +feet shuffled along in miserable overshoes of woven mat-weed, inside +of which he had fastened excellent cork soles. He washed his face with +certain compounds, which gave it an appearance of forms of illness, +and he played the senility of a centenarian to the life. He reckoned +himself a hundred years old in 1830, at which time his actual age was +eighty; he was the head of the paupers of Saint-Sulpice, the master of +the place, and all those who came to beg under the arcades of the +church, safe from the persecutions of the police and beneath the +protection of the beadle and the giver of holy water, were forced to +pay him a sort of tithe. + +When a new heir, a bridegroom, or some godfather left the church, +saying, "Here, this is for all of you; don't torment any of my party," +Toupillier, appointed by the beadle to receive these alms, pocketed +three-fourths, and distributed only the remaining quarter among his +henchmen, whose tribute amounted to a sou a day. Money and wine were +his last two passions; but he regulated the latter and gave himself up +to the former, with neglecting his personal comfort. He drank at night +only, after his dinner, and for twenty years he slept in the arms of +drunkenness, his last mistress. + +In the early morning he was at his post with all his faculties. From +then until his dinner, which he took at Pere Lathuile's (made famous +by Charlet), he gnawed crusts of bread by way of nourishment; and he +gnawed them artistically, with an air of resignation which earned him +abundant alms. The beadle and the giver of holy water, with whom he +may have had some private understanding, would say of him:-- + +"He is one of the worthy poor of the church; he used to know the +rector Languet, who built Saint-Sulpice; he was for twenty years +beadle of the church before the Revolution, and he is now over a +hundred years old." + +This little biography, well known to all the pious attendants of the +church, was, of course, the best of his advertisements, and no hat was +so well lined as his. He bought his house in 1826, and began to invest +his money in the Funds in 1830. From the value of the two investments +he must have made something like six thousand francs a year, and +probably turned them over by usury, after Cerizet's own fashion; for +the sum he paid for the house was forty thousand francs, while his +investment in 1830 was forty-eight thousand more. His niece, deceived +by the old man as much as he deceived the functionaries and the pious +souls of the church, believed him the most miserable of paupers, and +when she had any fish that were spoiling she sometimes took them to +the aged beggar. + +Consequently, she now felt it her right to get what she could in +return for her pity and her liberality to an uncle who was likely to +have a crowd of collateral heirs; she herself being the third and last +Toupillier daughter. She had four brothers, and her father, a porter +with a hand-cart, had told her, in her childhood, of three aunts and +four uncles, who all led an existence of the baser sort. + +After inspecting the sick man, she went, at full speed, to consult +Cerizet, telling him, in the first place, how she had found her +daughter, and then the reasons and indications which made her think +that her uncle Toupillier was hoarding a pile of gold in his mattress. +Mere Cardinal did not feel herself strong enough to seize upon the +property, legally or illegally, and she therefore came to confide in +Cerizet and get his advice. + +So, then, the banker of the poor, like other scavengers, had, at last, +found diamonds in the slime in which he had paddled for the last four +years, being always on the watch for some such chance,--a chance, they +say, occasionally met with in the purlieus, which give birth to +heiresses in sabots. This was the secret of his unexpected gentleness +to la Peyrade, the man whose ruin he had vowed. It is easy to imagine +the anxiety with which he awaited the return of Madame Cardinal, to +whom this wily schemer of nefarious plots had given means to verify +her suspicions as to the existence of the hoarded treasure, promising +her complete success if she would trust him to obtain for her so rich +a harvest. He was not the man to shrink from a crime, above all, when +he saw that others could commit it, while he obtained the benefits. + +"Well, monsieur," cried the fishwife, entering Cerizet's den with a +face as much inflamed by cupidity as by the haste of her movements, +"my uncle sleeps on more than a hundred thousand francs in gold, and I +am certain that those Perraches, by dint of nursing him, have smelt +the rat." + +"Shared among forty heirs that won't be much to each," said Cerizet. +"Listen to me, Mere Cardinal: I'll marry your daughter; give her your +uncle's gold, and I'll guarantee to you a life-interest in the house +and the dividends from the money in the Funds." + +"We sha'n't run any risk?" + +"None, whatever." + +"Agreed, then," said the widow Cardinal, holding out her hand to her +future son-in-law. "Six thousand francs a year; hey! what a fine life +I'll have." + +"With a son-in-law like me!" added Cerizet. + +"I shall be a bourgeoisie of Paris!" + +"Now," resumed Cerizet, after a pause, "I must study the ground. Don't +leave your uncle alone a minute; tell the Perraches that you expect a +doctor. I'll be the doctor, and when I get there you must seem not to +know me." + +"Aren't you sly, you old rogue," said Madame Cardinal, with a punch on +Cerizet's stomach by way of farewell. + +An hour later, Cerizet, dressed in black, disguised by a rusty wig and +an artificially painted physiognomy, arrived at the house in the rue +Honore-Chevalier in the regulation cabriolet. He asked the porter to +tell him how to find the lodging of an old beggar named Toupillier. + +"Is monsieur the doctor whom Madame Cardinal expects?" asked Perrache. + +Cerizet had no doubt reflected on the gravity of the affair he was +undertaking, for he avoided giving an answer to that question. + +"Is this the way?" he said, turning at random to one side of the +courtyard. + +"No, monsieur," replied Perrache, who then took him to the back stairs +of the house, which led up to the wretched attic occupied by the +pauper. + +Nothing remained for the inquisitive porter to do but to question the +driver of the cabriolet; to which employment we will leave him, while +we pursue our own inquiries elsewhere. + + + + CHAPTER XV + + THE DIFFICULTIES THAT CROP UP IN THE EASIEST OF THEFTS + +The house in which Toupillier lived is one of those which have lost +half their depth, owing to the straightening of the line of the +street, the rue Honore-Chevalier being one of the narrowest in the +Saint-Sulpice quarter. The owner, forbidden by the law to repair it, +or to add new storeys, was compelled to let the wretched building in +the condition in which he bought it. It consisted of a first storey +above the ground-floor, surmounted by garrets, with two small wings +running back on either side. The courtyard thus formed ended in a +garden planted with trees, which was always rented to the occupant of +the first floor. This garden, separated by an iron railing from the +courtyard, would have allowed a rich owner to sell the front buildings +to the city, and to build a new house upon the courtyard; but the +whole of the first floor was let on an eighteen years' lease to a +mysterious personage, about whom neither the official policing of the +concierge nor the curiosity of the other tenants could find anything +to censure. + +This tenant, now seventy years of age, had built, in 1829, an outer +stairway, leading from the right wing of the first floor to the +garden, so that he could get there without going through the +courtyard. Half the ground-floor was occupied by a book-stitcher, who +for the last ten years had used the stable and coach-house for +workshops. A book-binder occupied the other half. The binder and the +stitcher lived, each of them, in half the garret rooms over the front +building on the street. The garrets above the rear wings were +occupied, the one on the right by the mysterious tenant, the one on +the left by Toupillier, who paid a hundred francs a year for it, and +reached it by a dark staircase, lighted by small round windows. The +porte-cochere was made in the circular form indispensable in a street +so narrow that two carriages cannot pass in it. + +Cerizet laid hold of the rope which served as a baluster, to climb the +species of ladder leading to the room where the so-called beggar was +dying,--a room in which the odious spectacle of pretended pauperism +was being played. In Paris, everything that is done for a purpose is +thoroughly done. Would-be paupers are as clever at mounting their +disguise as shopkeepers in preparing their show-windows, or sham rich +men in obtaining credit. + +The floor had never been swept; the bricks had disappeared beneath +layers of dirt, dust, dried mud, and any and every thing thrown down +by Toupillier. A miserable stove of cast-iron, the pipe of which +entered a crumbling chimney, was the most apparent piece of furniture +in this hovel. In an alcove stood a bed, with tester and valence of +green serge, which the moths had transformed into lace. The window, +almost useless, had a heavy coating of grease upon its panes, which +dispensed with the necessity of curtains. The whitewashed walls +presented to the eye fuliginous tones, due to the wood and peat burned +by the pauper in his stove. On the fireplace were a broken +water-pitcher, two bottles, and a cracked plate. A worm-eaten chest of +drawers contained his linen and decent clothes. The rest of the +furniture consisted of a night-table of the commonest description, +another table, worth about forty sous, and two kitchen chairs with the +straw seats almost gone. The extremely picturesque costume of the +centenarian pauper was hanging from a nail, and below it, on the +floor, were the shapeless mat-weed coverings that served him for +shoes, the whole forming, with his amorphous old hat and knotty stick, +a sort of panoply of misery. + +As he entered, Cerizet gave a rapid glance at the old man, whose head +lay on a pillow brown with grease and without a pillow-case; his +angular profile, like those which engravers of the last century were +fond of making out of rocks in the landscapes they engraved, was +strongly defined in black against the green serge hangings of the +tester. Toupillier, a man nearly six feet tall, was looking fixedly at +some object at the foot of his bed; he did not move on hearing the +groaning of the heavy door, which, being armed with iron bolts and a +strong lock, closed his domicile securely. + +"Is he conscious?" said Cerizet, before whom Madame Cardinal started +back, not having recognized him till he spoke. + +"Pretty nearly," she replied. + +"Come out on the staircase, so that he doesn't hear us," whispered +Cerizet. "This is how we'll manage it," he continued, in the ear of +his future mother-in-law. "He is weak, but he isn't so very low; we +have fully a week before us. I'll send you a doctor who'll suit us, +--you understand? and later in the evening I'll bring you six +poppy-heads. In the state he's in, you see, a decoction of poppy-heads +will send him into a sound sleep. I'll send you a cot-bed on pretence of +your sleeping in the room with him. We'll move him from one bed to the +other, and when we've found the money there won't be any difficulty in +carrying it off. But we ought to know who the people are who live in +this old barrack. If Perrache suspects, as you think, about the money, +he might give an alarm, and so many tenants, so many spies, you +know--" + +"Oh! as for that," said Madame Cardinal, "I've found out already that +Monsieur du Portail, the old man who occupies the first floor, has +charge of an insane woman; I heard their Dutch servant-woman, Katte, +calling her Lydie this morning. The only other servant is an old valet +named Bruneau; he does everything, except cook." + +"But the binder and the stitcher down below," returned Cerizet, "they +begin work very early in the morning--Well, anyhow, we must study the +matter," he added, in the tone of a man whose plans are not yet +decided. "I'll go to the mayor's office of your arrondissement, and +get Olympe's register of birth, and put up the banns. The marriage +must take place a week from Saturday." + +"How he goes it, the rascal!" cried the admiring Madame Cardinal, +pushing her formidable son-in-law by the shoulder. + +As he went downstairs Cerizet was surprised to see, through one of the +small round windows, an old man, evidently du Portail, walking in the +garden with a very important member of the government, Comte Martial +de la Roche-Hugon. He stopped in the courtyard when he reached it, as +if to examine the old house, built in the reign of Louis XIV., the +yellow walls of which, though of freestone, were bent like the elderly +beggar they contained. Then he looked at the workshops, and counted +the workmen. The house was otherwise as silent as a cloister. Being +observed himself, Cerizet departed, thinking over in his mind the +various difficulties that might arise in extracting the sum hidden +beneath the dying man. + +"Carry off all that gold at night?" he said to himself; "why, those +porters will be on the watch, and twenty persons might see us! It is +hard work to carry even twenty-five thousand francs of gold on one's +person." + +Societies have two goals of perfection; the first is a state of +civilization in which morality equally infused and pervasive does not +admit even the idea of crime; the Jesuits reached that point, formerly +presented by the primitive Church. The second is the state of another +civilization in which the supervision of citizens over one another +makes crime impossible. The end which modern society has placed before +itself is the latter; namely, that in which a crime presents such +difficulties that a man must abandon all reasoning in order to commit +it. In fact, iniquities which the law cannot reach are not left +actually unpunished, for social judgment is even more severe than that +of courts. If a man like Minoret, the post-master at Nemours [see +"Ursule Mirouet"] suppresses a will and no one witnesses the act, the +crime is traced home to him by the watchfulness of virtue as surely as +a robbery is followed up by the detective police. No wrong-doing +passes actually unperceived; and wherever a lesion in rectitude takes +place the scar remains. Things can be no more made to disappear than +men; so carefully, in Paris especially, are articles and objects +ticketed and numbered, houses watched, streets observed, places spied +upon. To live at ease, crime must have a sanction like that of the +Bourse; like that conceded by Cerizet's clients; who never complained +of his usury, and, indeed, would have been troubled in mind if their +flayer were not in his den of a Tuesday. + +"Well, my dear monsieur," said Madame Perrache, the porter's wife, as +he passed her lodge, "how do you find him, that friend of God, that +poor man?" + +"I am not the doctor," replied Cerizet, who now decidedly declined +that role. "I am Madame Cardinal's business man. I have just advised +her to have a cot-bed put up, so as to nurse her uncle night and day; +though, perhaps, she will have to get a regular nurse." + +"I can help her," said Madame Perrache. "I nurse women in childbed." + +"Well, we'll see about it," said Cerizet; "I'll arrange all that. Who +is the tenant on your first floor?" + +"Monsieur du Portail. He has lodged here these thirty years. He is a +man with a good income, monsieur; highly respectable, and elderly. You +know people who invest in the Funds live on their incomes. He used to +be in business. But it is more than eleven years now since he has been +trying to restore the reason of a daughter of one of his friends, +Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade. She has the best advice, I can tell +you; the very first doctors in Paris; only this morning they had a +consultation. But so far nothing has cured her; and they have to watch +her pretty close; for sometimes she gets up and walks at night--" + +"Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade!" exclaimed Cerizet; "are you sure +of the name?" + +"I've heard Madame Katte, her nurse, who also does the cooking, call +her so a thousand times, monsieur; though, generally, neither Monsieur +Bruneau, the valet, nor Madame Katte say much. It's like talking to +the wall to try and get any information out of them. We have been +porters here these twenty years and we've never found out anything +about Monsieur du Portail yet. More than that, monsieur, he owns the +little house alongside; you see the double door from here. Well, he +can go out that way and receive his company too, and we know nothing +about it. Our owner doesn't know anything more than we do; when people +ring at that door, Monsieur Bruneau goes and opens it." + +"Then you didn't see the gentleman who is talking with him in the +garden go by this way?" + +"Bless me! no, that I didn't!" + +"Ah!" thought Cerizet as he got into the cabriolet, "she must be the +daughter of that uncle of Theodose. I wonder if du Portail can be the +secret benefactor who sent money from time to time to that rascal? +Suppose I send an anonymous letter to the old fellow, warning him of +the danger the barrister runs from those notes for twenty-five +thousand francs?" + +An hour later the cot-bed had arrived for Madame Cardinal, to whom the +inquisitive portress offered her services to bring her something to +eat. + +"Do you want to see the rector?" Madame Cardinal inquired of her +uncle. + +She had noticed that the arrival of the bed seemed to draw him from +his somnolence. + +"I want wine!" replied the pauper. + +"How do you feel now, Pere Toupillier?" asked Madame Perrache, in a +coaxing voice. + +"I tell you I want wine," repeated the old man, with an energetic +insistence scarcely to be expected of his feebleness. + +"We must first find out if it is good for you, uncle," said Madame +Cardinal, soothingly. "Wait till the doctor comes." + +"Doctor! I won't have a doctor!" cried Toupillier; "and you, what are +you doing here? I don't want anybody." + +"My good uncle, I came to know if you'd like something tasty. I've got +some nice fresh soles--hey! a bit of fried sole, with a squeeze of +lemon on it?" + +"Your fish, indeed!" cried Toupillier; "all rotten! That last you +brought me, more than six weeks ago, it is there in the cupboard; you +can take it away with you." + +"Heavens! how ungrateful sick men are!" whispered the widow Cardinal +to Perrache. + +Nevertheless, to exhibit solicitude, she arranged the pillow under the +patient's head, saying:-- + +"There! uncle, don't you feel better like that?" + +"Let me alone!" shouted Toupillier, angrily; "I want no one here; I +want wine; leave me in peace." + +"Don't get angry, little uncle; we'll fetch you some wine." + +"Number six wine, rue des Canettes," cried the pauper. + +"Yes, I know," replied Madame Cardinal; "but let me count out my +coppers. I want to get something better for you than that kind of +wine; for, don't you see, an uncle, he's a kind of father, and one +shouldn't mind what one does for him." + +So saying, she sat down, with her legs apart, on one of the +dilapidated chairs, and poured into her apron the contents of her +pockets, namely: a knife, her snuff-box, two pawn-tickets, some crusts +of bread, and a handful of copper, from which she extracted a few +silver bits. + +This exhibition, intended to prove her generous and eager devotion, +had no result. Toupillier seemed not to notice it. Exhausted by the +feverish energy with which he had demanded his favorite remedy, he +made an effort to change his position, and, with his back turned to +his two nurses, he again muttered: "Wine! wine!" after which nothing +more was heard of him but a stentorous breathing, that plainly showed +the state of his lungs, which were beginning to congest. + +"I suppose I must go and fetch his wine!" said the Cardinal, restoring +to her pockets, with some ill-humor, the cargo she had just pulled out +of them. + +"If you don't want to go--" began Madame Perrache, always ready to +offer her services. + +The fishwife hesitated for a moment; then, reflecting that something +might be got out of a conversation with the wine-merchant, and sure, +moreover, that as long as Toupillier lay on his gold she could safely +leave him alone with the portress, she said:-- + +"Thank you, Madame Perrache, but I'd better make acquaintance with his +trades-folk." + +Then, having spied behind the night-table a dirty bottle which might +hold about two quarts,-- + +"Did he say the rue des Canelles?" she inquired of the portress. + +"Corner of the rue Guisarde," replied Madame Perrache. "Monsieur +Legrelu, a tall, fine man with big whiskers and no hair." Then, +lowering her voice, she added: "His number-six wine, you know, is +Roussillon, and the best, too. However, the wine-merchant knows; it is +enough if you tell him you have come from his customer, the pauper of +Saint-Sulpice." + +"No need to tell me anything twice," said the Cardinal, opening the +door and making, as they say, a false exit. "Ah ca!" she said, coming +back; "what does he burn in his stove, supposing I want to heat some +remedy for him?" + +"Goodness!" said the portress, "he doesn't make much provision for +winter, and here we are in the middle of summer!" + +"And not a saucepan! not a pot, even! Gracious! what a way to live. +I'll have to fetch him some provisions; I hope nobody will see the +things I bring back; I'd be ashamed they should--" + +"I'll lend you a hand-bag," said the portress, always ready and +officious. + +"No, I'll buy a basket," replied the fishwife, more anxious about what +she expected to carry away than what she was about to bring home to +the pauper. "There must be some Auvergnat in the neighborhood who +sells wood," she added. + +"Corner of the rue Ferou; you'll find one there. A fine establishment, +with logs of wood painted in a kind of an arcade all round the shop +--so like, you'd think they were going to speak to you." + +Before going finally off, Madame Cardinal went through a piece of very +deep hypocrisy. We have seen how she hesitated about leaving the +portress alone with the sick man:-- + +"Madame Perrache," she said to her, "you won't leave him, the poor +darling, will you, till I get back?" + +It may have been noticed that Cerizet had not decided on any definite +course of action in the new affair he was now undertaking. The part of +doctor, which for a moment he thought of assuming, frightened him, and +he gave himself out, as we have seen, to Madame Perrache as the +business agent of his accomplice. Once alone, he began to see that his +original idea complicated with a doctor, a nurse, and a notary, +presented the most serious difficulties. A regular will drawn in favor +of Madame Cardinal was not a thing to be improvised in a moment. It +would take some time to acclimatize the idea in the surly and +suspicious mind of the old pauper, and death, which was close at hand, +might play them a trick at any moment, and balk the most careful +preparations. + +It was true that unless a will were made the income of eight thousand +francs on the Grand Livre and the house in the rue Notre-Dame de +Nazareth would go to the heirs-at-law, and Madame Cardinal would get +only her share of the property; but the abandonment of this visible +portion of the inheritance was the surest means of laying hands on the +invisible part of it. Besides, if the latter were secured, what +hindered their returning to the idea of a will? + +Resolving, therefore, to confine the _operation_ to the simplest terms +at first, Cerizet summed them up in the manoeuvre of the poppy-heads, +already mentioned, and he was making his way back to Toupillier's +abode, armed with that single weapon of war, intending to give Madame +Cardinal further instructions, when he met her, bearing on her arm the +basket she had just bought; and in that basket was the sick man's +panacea. + +"Upon my word!" cried the usurer, "is this the way you keep your +watch?" + +"I had to go out and buy him wine," replied the Cardinal; "he is +howling like a soul in hell that he wants to be at peace, and to be +let alone, and get his wine! It is his one idea that Roussillon is +good for his disease. Well, when he has drunk it, I dare say he will +be quieter." + +"You are right," said Cerizet, sententiously; "never contradict a sick +man. But this wine, you know, ought to be improved; by infusing these" +(and lifting one of the covers of the basket he slipped in the +poppies) "you'll procure the poor man a good, long sleep,--five or six +hours at least. This evening I'll come and see you, and nothing, I +think, need prevent us from examining a little closer those matters of +inheritance." + +"I see," said Madame Cardinal, winking. + +"To-night, then," said Cerizet, not wishing to prolong the +conversation. + +He had a strong sense of the difficulty and danger of the affair, and +was very reluctant to be seen in the street conversing with his +accomplice. + +Returning to her uncle's garret, Madame Cardinal found him still in a +state of semi-torpor; she relieved Madame Perrache, and bade her +good-bye, going to the door to receive a supply of wood, all sawed, +which she had ordered from the Auvergnat in the rue Ferou. + +Into an earthen pot, which she had bought of the right size to fit +upon the hole in the stoves of the poor where they put their +soup-kettles, she now threw the poppies, pouring over them two-thirds +of the wine she had brought back with her. Then she lighted a fire +beneath the pot, intending to obtain the decoction agreed upon as +quickly as possible. The crackling of the wood and the heat, which +soon spread about the room, brought Toupillier out of his stupor. +Seeing the stove lighted he called out:-- + +"Who is making a fire here? Do you want to burn the house down?" + +"Why, uncle," said the Cardinal, "it is wood I bought with my own +money, to warm your wine. The doctor doesn't want you to drink it +cold." + +"Where is it, that wine?" demanded Toupillier, calming down a little +at the thought that the fire was not burning at his expense. + +"It must come to a boil," said his nurse; "the doctor insisted upon +that. Still, if you'll be good I'll give you half a glass of it cold, +just to wet your whistle. I'll take that upon myself, but don't you +tell the doctor." + +"Doctor! I won't have a doctor; they are all scoundrels, invented to +kill people," cried Toupillier, whom the idea of drink had revived. +"Come, give me the wine!" he said, in the tone of a man whose patience +had come to an end. + +Convinced that though this compliance would do no harm it could do no +good, Madame Cardinal poured out half a glass, and while she gave it +with one hand to the sick man, with the other she raised him to a +sitting posture that he might drink it. + +With his fleshless, eager fingers Toupillier clutched the glass, +emptied it at a gulp, and exclaimed:-- + +"Ah! that's a fine drop, that is! though you've watered it." + +"You mustn't say that, uncle; I went and bought it myself of Pere +Legrelu, and I've given it you quite pure. But you let me simmer the +rest; the doctor said I might then give you all you wanted." + +Toupillier resigned himself with a shrug of the shoulders. At the end +of fifteen minutes, the infusion being in condition to serve, Madame +Cardinal brought him, without further appeal, a full cup of it. + +The avidity with which the old pauper drank it down prevented him from +noticing at first that the wine was drugged; but as he swallowed the +last drops he tasted the sickly and nauseating flavor, and flinging +the cup on the bed he cried out that some one was trying to poison +him. + +"Poison! nonsense!" said the fishwife, pouring into her own mouth a +few drops of that which remained in the bottle, declaring to the old +man that if the wine did not seem to him the same as usual, it was +because his mouth had a "bad taste to it." + +Before the end of the dispute, which lasted some time, the narcotic +began to take effect, and at the end of an hour the sick man was sound +asleep. + +While idly waiting for Cerizet, an idea took possession of the +Cardinal's mind. She thought that in view of their comings and goings +with the treasure, it would be well if the vigilance of the Perrache +husband and wife could be dulled in some manner. Consequently, after +carefully flinging the refuse poppy-heads into the privy, she called +to the portress:-- + +"Madame Perrache, come up and taste his wine. Wouldn't you have +thought to hear him talk he was ready to drink a cask of it? Well, a +cupful satisfied him." + +"Your health!" said the portress, touching glasses with the Cardinal, +who was careful to have hers filled with the unboiled wine. Less +accomplished as a gourmet than the old beggar, Madame Perrache +perceived nothing in the insidious liquid (cold by the time she drank +it) to make her suspect its narcotic character; on the contrary, she +declared it was "velvet," and wished that her husband were there to +have a share in the treat. After a rather long gossip, the two women +separated. Then, with the cooked meat she had provided for herself, +and the remains of the Roussillon, Madame Cardinal made a repast which +she finished off with a siesta. Without mentioning the emotions of the +day, the influence of one of the most heady wines of the country would +have sufficed to explain the soundness of her sleep; when she woke +darkness was coming on. + +Her first care was to give a glance at her patient; his sleep was +restless, and he was dreaming aloud. + +"Diamonds," he said; "those diamonds? At my death, but not before." + +"Gracious!" thought Madame Cardinal, "that was the one thing lacking, +--diamonds! that he should have diamonds!" + +Then, as Toupillier seemed to be in the grasp of a violent nightmare, +she leaned over him so as not to lose a word of his speech, hoping to +gather from it some important revelation. At this moment a slight rap +given to the door, from which the careful nurse had removed the key, +announced the arrival of Cerizet. + +"Well?" he said, on entering. + +"He has taken the drug. He's been sound asleep these two hours; just +now, in dreaming, he was talking of diamonds." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "it wouldn't be surprising if we found some. +These paupers when they set out to be rich, like to pile up +everything." + +"Ah ca!" cried the Cardinal, suddenly, "what made you go and tell Mere +Perrache that you were my man of business, and that you weren't a +doctor? I thought we agreed this morning that you were coming as a +doctor?" + +Cerizet did not choose to admit that the usurpation of that title had +seemed to him dangerous; he feared to discourage his accomplice. + +"I saw that the woman was going to propose a consultation," he +replied, "and I got out of it that way." + +"Goodness!" exclaimed Madame Cardinal, "they say fine minds come +together; that was my dodge, too. Calling you my man of business +seemed to give that old pilferer a few ideas. Did they see you come +in, those porters?" + +"I thought, as I went by," replied Cerizet, "that the woman was asleep +in her chair." + +"And well she might be," said the Cardinal, significantly. + +"What, really?" said Cerizet. + +"Parbleu!" replied the fishwife; "what's enough for one is enough for +two; the rest of the stuff went that way." + +"As for the husband, he was there," said Cerizet; "for he gave me a +gracious sign of recognition, which I could have done without." + +"Wait till it is quite dark, and we'll play him a comedy that shall +fool him finely." + +Accordingly, ten minutes later, the fishwife, with a vim that +delighted the usurer, organized for the innocent porter the comedy of +a _monsieur_ who would not, out of politeness, let her accompany him to +the door; she herself with equal politeness insisting. Appearing to +conduct the sham physician into the street gate she pretended that the +wind had blown out of her lamp, and under pretext of relighting it she +put out that of Perrache. All this racket, accompanied by exclamations +and a bewildering loquacity, was so briskly carried out that the +porter, if summoned before the police-court, would not have hesitated +to swear that the doctor, whose arrival he had witnessed, left the +house between nine and ten o'clock. + +When the two accomplices were thus in tranquil possession of the field +of operations Madame Cardinal hung up her rabbit's-hair shawl before +the window to exclude all possible indiscretion on the part of a +neighbor. In the Luxembourg quarter life quiets down early. By ten +o'clock all the sounds in the house as well as those out of doors were +stilled, and Cerizet declared that the moment had come to go to work; +by beginning at once they were certain that the sleeper would remain +under the influence of the drug; besides, if the booty were found at +once, Madame Cardinal could, under pretence of a sudden attack on her +patient, which required her to fetch a remedy from the apothecary, get +the porter to open the street gate for her without suspicion. As all +porters pull the gate-cord from their beds, Cerizet would be able to +get away at the same time without notice. + +Powerful in advice, Cerizet was a very incapable hand in action; and, +without the robust assistance of Mere Cardinal he could never have +lifted what might almost be called the corpse of the former +drum-major. Completely insensible, Toupillier was now an inert mass, +a dead-weight, which could, fortunately, be handled without much +precaution, and the athletic Madame Cardinal, gathering strength from +her cupidity, contrived, notwithstanding Cerizet's insufficient +assistance, to effect the transfer of her uncle from one bed to the +other. + +On rummaging the bed from which the body was moved, nothing was found, +and Madame Cardinal, pressed by Cerizet to explain why she had +confidently asserted that her uncle "was lying on one hundred thousand +francs in gold," was forced to admit that a talk with Madame Perrache, +and her own fervid imagination were the sole grounds of her certainty. +Cerizet was furious; having for one whole day dallied with the idea +and hope of fortune, having, moreover, entered upon a dangerous and +compromising course of action, only to find himself, at the supreme +moment, face to face with--nothing! The disappointment was so bitter +that if he had not been afraid of the muscular strength of his future +mother-in-law, he would have rushed upon her with some frantic +intention. + +His anger, however, spent itself in words. Harshly abused, Madame +Cardinal contented herself by remarking that all hope was not lost, +and then, with a faith that ought to have moved mountains, she set to +work to empty the straw from the mattress she had already vainly +explored in all directions. But Cerizet would not allow that extreme +measure; he remarked that after the autopsy of a straw mattress such +detritus would remain upon the floor as must infallibly give rise to +suspicion. But the Cardinal, who thought this caution ridiculous, was +determined to, at least, take apart the flock bedstead. The passion of +the search gave extraordinary vigilance to her senses, and as she +raised the wooden side-frame she heard the fall of some tiny object on +the floor. Seizing the light she began to search in the mound of filth +of all kinds that was under the bed, and finally laid her hand on a +bit of polished steel about half an inch long, the use of which was to +her inexplicable. + +"That's a key!" cried Cerizet, who was standing beside her with some +indifference, but whose imagination now set off at a gallop. + +"Ha! ha! you see I was right," cried the Cardinal. "But what can it +open?" she added, on reflection; "nothing bigger than a doll's house." + +"No," said Cerizet, "it is a modern invention, and very strong locks +can be opened with that little instrument." + +With a rapid glance he took in all the pieces of furniture in the +room; went to the bureau and pulled out the drawers; looked in the +stove, in the table; but nowhere did he find a lock to which the +little key could be adapted. + +Suddenly the Cardinal had a flash of illumination. + +"See here!" she said. "I remarked that the old thief, as he lay on his +bed, never took his eyes off the wall just opposite to him." + +"A cupboard hidden in the wall!" cried Cerizet, seizing the light +eagerly; "it is not impossible!" + +Examining attentively the door of the alcove, which was opposite the +bed's head, he could see nothing there but a vast accumulation of dust +and spiders' webs. He next employed the sense of touch, and began to +rap and sound the wall in all directions. At the spot to which +Toupillier's constant gaze was directed he thought he perceived in a +very narrow space a slight sonority, and he presently perceived that +he was rapping on wood. He then rubbed the spot vigorously with his +handkerchief, and beneath the thick layer of dust and dirt which he +thus removed he found a piece of oak plank carefully inserted in the +wall. On one side of this plank was a small round hole; it was that of +the lock which the key fitted! + +While Cerizet was turning the key, which worked with great difficulty, +Madame Cardinal, holding the light, was pale and breathless; but, oh! +cruel deception! the cupboard, at last unlocked and open, showed only +an empty space, into which the light in her hand fell uselessly. + +Allowing this bacchante to give vent to her despair by saluting her +much-beloved uncle with the harshest epithets, Cerizet quietly +inserted his arm into the cupboard, and after feeling it over at the +back, he cried out, "An iron safe!" adding, impatiently, "Give me more +light, Madame Cardinal." + +Then, as the light did not penetrate to the depths of the cupboard, he +snatched the candle from the bottle, where, in default of a +candlestick, the Cardinal had stuck it, and, taking it in his hand, +moved it carefully over all parts of the iron safe, the existence of +which was now a certainty. + +"There is no visible lock," he said. "There must be a secret opening." + +"Isn't he sly, that old villain!" exclaimed Madame Cardinal, while +Cerizet's bony fingers felt the side of the safe over minutely. + +"Ha!" he exclaimed, after groping for ten minutes, "I have it!" + +During this time Madame Cardinal's life seemed actually suspended. + +Under the pressure which Cerizet now applied, the iron side rose +quickly into the thickness of the wall above, and in the midst of a +mass of gold thrown pell-mell into a large excavation that was now +exposed to view, lay a case of red morocco, which, from its size and +appearance, gave promise of magnificent booty. + +"I take the diamonds for myself," said Cerizet, when he had opened the +case and seen the splendid jewels it contained; "you won't know how to +get rid of them. I'll leave you the gold for your share. As for the +house and the money in the Funds, they are not worth the trouble it +would be to get the old fellow to make a will." + +"Not so fast, my little man!" replied the Cardinal, who thought this +decision rather summary; "we will first count the money--" + +"Hush!" exclaimed Cerizet, apparently listening to a sound. + +"What is it?" asked the Cardinal. + +"Don't you hear some one moving below?" + +"No, I hear nothing." + +Cerizet, making her a sign to be silent, listened attentively. + +"I hear a step on the stairs," he said, a moment later. + +Then he hastily replaced the morocco case, and made desperate but +unavailing efforts to lower the panel. + +"Yes!" cried Madame Cardinal, terrified; "some one is really coming." +Then, fastening to a hope of safety, she added, "I dare say it is that +insane girl; they say she walks at night." + +At any rate, the insane girl (if it were she) had a key to the room, +for a moment later, this key was inserted in the lock. With a rapid +glance Madame Cardinal measured the distance to the door; should she +have time to push the bolt? No; certain that it was then too late, so +she blew out the candle to give herself at least some chances in the +darkness. + +Useless effort! the intruder who now appeared had brought a candle +with him. + +When Madame Cerizet saw that she had to do with a small, old man of +puny appearance, she flung herself before him with flaming eyes, like +a lioness from whom the hunter is seeking to take her cubs. + +"Be calm, my good woman," said the little man, in a jeering tone; "the +police are sent for; they will be here in a moment." + +At the word "police" the Cardinal's legs gave way. + +"But, monsieur," she said, "why the police? we are not robbers." + +"No matter for that; if I were in your place I shouldn't wait for +them," said the little old man; "they make unfortunate mistakes +sometimes." + +"Can I clear out?" asked the woman, incredulously. + +"Yes, if you empty your pockets of anything which has, _by accident_, +got into them." + +"Oh! my good monsieur, I haven't a thing in my hands or my pockets; I +wasn't here to harm any one,--only to nurse my poor dear uncle; you +can search me." + +"Come, be off with you! that will do," said the old man. + +Madame Cardinal did not oblige him to repeat the order, and she +rapidly disappeared down the staircase. + +Cerizet made as though he would take the same road. + +"You, monsieur, are quite another thing," said the little old man. +"You and I must talk together; but if you are tractable, the affair +between us can be settled amicably." + +Whether it was that the narcotic had ceased to operate, or that the +noise going on about Toupillier put an end to his sleep, he now opened +his eyes and cast around him the glance of a man who endeavors to +remember where he is; then, seeing his precious cupboard open, he +found in the emotion that sight produced the strength to cry out two +or three times, "Help! help! robbers!" in a voice that was loud enough +to rouse the house. + +"No, Toupillier," said the little old man; "you have not been robbed; +I came here in time to prevent it; nothing has been taken." + +"Why don't you arrest that villain?" shouted the old pauper, pointing +to Cerizet. + +"Monsieur is not a thief," replied the old man. "On the contrary, he +came up with me to lend assistance." Then, turning to Cerizet, he +added, in a low voice: "I think, my good friend, that we had better +postpone the interview I desire to have with you until to-morrow. Come +at ten o'clock to the adjoining house, and ask for Monsieur du +Portail. After what has passed this evening, there will, I ought to +warn you, be some danger to you in not accepting this conference. I +shall find you elsewhere, infallibly; for I have the honor to know who +you are; you are the man whom the Opposition journals were accustomed +to call 'the courageous Cerizet.'" + +In spite of the profound sarcasm of this remark, Cerizet, perceiving +that he was not to be treated more rigorously than Madame Cardinal, +felt so pleased with this conclusion that he promised, very readily, +to keep the appointment, and then slipped away with all the haste he +could. + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + DU PORTAIL + +The next day Cerizet did not fail to appear at the rendezvous given to +him. Examined, at first, through the wicket of the door, he was +admitted, after giving his name, into the house, and was ushered +immediately to the study of Monsieur du Portail, whom he found at his +desk. + +Without rising, and merely making a sign to his guest to take a chair, +the little old man continued the letter he was then writing. After +sealing it with wax, with a care and precision that denoted a nature +extremely fastidious and particular, or else a man accustomed to +discharge diplomatic functions, du Portail rang for Bruneau, his +valet, and said, as he gave him the letter:-- + +"For the justice-of-peace of the arrondissement." + +Then he carefully wiped the steel pen he had just used, restored to +their places, symmetrically, all the displaced articles on his desk, +and it was only when these little arrangements were completed that he +turned to Cerizet, and said:-- + +"You know, of course, that we lost that poor Monsieur Toupillier last +night?" + +"No, really?" said Cerizet, putting on the most sympathetic air he +could manage. "This is my first knowledge of it." + +"But you probably expected it. When one gives a dying man an immense +bowl of hot wine, which has also been narcotized,--for the Perrache +woman slept all night in a sort of lethargy after drinking a small +glass of it,--it is evident that the catastrophe has been hastened." + +"I am ignorant, monsieur," said Cerizet, with dignity, "of what Madame +Cardinal may have given to her uncle. I have no doubt committed a +great piece of thoughtlessness in assisting this woman to obtain an +inheritance to which she assured me she had legal rights; but as to +attempting the life of that old pauper, I am quite incapable of such a +thing; nothing of the kind ever entered my mind." + +"You wrote me this letter, I think," said du Portail, abruptly, taking +from beneath a bohemian glass bowl a paper which he offered to +Cerizet. + +"A letter?" replied Cerizet, with the hesitation of a man who doesn't +know whether to lie or speak the truth. + +"I am quite sure of what I say," continued du Portail. "I have a mania +for autographs, and I possess one of yours, obtained at the period +when the Opposition exalted you to the glorious rank of martyr. I have +compared the two writings, and I find that you certainly wrote me, +yesterday, the letter which you hold in your hand, informing me of the +money embarrassments of young la Peyrade at the present moment." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "knowing that you had given a home to +Mademoiselle de la Peyrade, who is probably cousin of Theodose, I +thought I recognized in you the mysterious protector from whom, on +more than one occasion, my friend has received the most generous +assistance. Now, as I have a sincere affection for that poor fellow, +it was in his interests that I permitted myself--" + +"You did quite right," interrupted du Portail. "I am delighted to have +fallen in with a friend of la Peyrade. I ought not to conceal from you +that it was this particular fact which protected you last night. But +tell me, what is this about notes for twenty-five thousand francs? Is +our friend so badly off in his affairs? Is he leading a dissipated +life?" + +"On the contrary," replied Cerizet, "he's a puritan. Given to the +deepest piety, he did not choose to take, as a barrister, any other +cases but those of the poor. He is now on the point of making a rich +marriage." + +"Ah! is he going to be married? and to whom?" + +"To a Demoiselle Colleville, daughter of the secretary of the mayor of +the 12th arrondissement. In herself, the girl has no fortune, but a +certain Monsieur Thuillier, her godfather, member of the +Council-general of the Seine, has promised her a suitable 'dot.'" + +"Who has handled this affair?" + +"La Peyrade has been devoted to the Thuillier family, into which he +was introduced by Monsieur Dutocq, clerk of the justice-of-peace of +their arrondissement." + +"But you wrote me that these notes were signed in favor of Monsieur +Dutocq. The affair is a bit of matrimonial brokerage, in short?" + +"Well, something of that kind," replied Cerizet. "You know, monsieur, +that in Paris such transactions are very common. Even the clergy won't +disdain to have a finger in them." + +"Is the marriage a settled thing?" + +"Yes, and within the last few days especially." + +"Well, my good sir, I rely on you to put an end to it. I have other +views for Theodose,--another marriage to propose to him." + +"Excuse me!" said Cerizet, "to break up this marriage would make it +impossible for him to pay his notes; and I have the honor to call your +attention to the fact that these particular bills of exchange are +serious matters. Monsieur Dutocq is in the office of the +justice-of-peace; in other words, he couldn't be easily defeated in +such a matter." + +"The debt to Monsieur Dutocq you shall buy off yourself," replied du +Portail. "Make arrangements with him to that effect. Should Theodose +prove reluctant to carry out my plans, those notes may become a useful +weapon in our hands. You will take upon yourself to sue him for them, +and you shall have no money responsibility in the matter. I will pay +you the amount of the notes for Dutocq, and your costs in suing +Theodose." + +"You are square in business, monsieur," said Cerizet. "There's some +pleasure in being your agent. Now, if you think the right moment has +come, I should be glad if you would give me some better light on the +mission you are doing me the honor to place in my hands." + +"You spoke just now," replied du Portail, "of the cousin of Theodose, +Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade. This young woman, who is not in her +first youth, for she is nearly thirty, is the natural daughter of the +celebrated Mademoiselle Beaumesnil of the Theatre Francais and +Peyrade, the commissary-general of police under the Empire, and the +uncle of our friend. Until his death, which occurred suddenly, leaving +his daughter, whom he loved tenderly, without means of support, I was +bound to that excellent man with the warmest friendship." + +Glad to show that he had some knowledge of du Portail's interior life, +Cerizet hastened to remark:-- + +"And you have secretly fulfilled the duties of that friendship, +monsieur; for, in taking into your home that interesting orphan you +assumed a difficult guardianship. Mademoiselle de la Peyrade's state +of health requires, I am told, a care not only affectionate, but +persevering." + +"Yes," replied du Portail, "the poor girl, after the death of her +father, was so cruelly tried that her mind has been somewhat affected; +but a fortunate change has lately occurred in her condition, and only +yesterday I called in consultation Doctor Bianchon and the two +physicians-in-charge of Bicetre and the Salpetriere. These gentlemen +unanimously declare that marriage and the birth of a first child would +undoubtedly restore her to perfect health. You can readily understand +that the remedy is too easy and agreeable not to be attempted." + +"Then," said Cerizet, "it is to Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade, his +cousin, that you wish to marry Theodose." + +"You have said it," returned du Portail, "and you must not think that +our young friend, if he accepts the marriage, will be called upon to +show a gratuitous devotion. Lydie is very agreeable in person; she has +talents, a charming disposition, and she can bring to bear, in her +husband's interest, a strong influence in public life. She has, +moreover, a pretty fortune, consisting of what her mother left her, +and of my entire property, which, having no heirs myself, I intend to +secure to her in the marriage contract. Besides all this, she has this +very night acquired a not inconsiderable legacy." + +"What!" exclaimed Cerizet, "do you mean that old Toupillier--" + +"By a will in his own handwriting, which I have here, that old pauper +constitutes her his sole legatee. You see, therefore, that I showed +some kindness in not proceeding against you and Madame Cardinal for +your little attempt last night; it was simply our property that you +were trying to pillage." + +"Heavens!" cried Cerizet, "I won't pretend to excuse Madame Cardinal's +misconduct; and yet, as one of the legal heirs, dispossessed by a +stranger, she had, it seems to me, some right to the indulgence which +you certainly showed to her." + +"In that you are mistaken," said du Portail; "the apparent liberality +of the old beggar to Mademoiselle de la Peyrade happens to be only a +restitution." + +"A restitution!" exclaimed Cerizet, in a tone of curiosity. + +"A restitution," repeated du Portail, "and nothing is easier than to +prove it. Do you remember the robbery of some diamonds from one of our +dramatic celebrities about ten years ago?" + +"Yes," replied Cerizet. "I was manager of one of my newspapers at the +time, and I used to write the 'Paris items.' But stay, I remember, the +actress who lost them was Mademoiselle Beaumesnil." + +"Precisely; the mother of Mademoiselle de la Peyrade." + +"Consequently, this miserable old Toupillier--no, I remember that the +thief was convicted; his name was Charles Crochard. It was said, under +the rose, that he was the natural son of a great personage, the Comte +de Granville, attorney-general under the Restoration." [See "A Double +Life."] + +"Well," said du Portail, "this is how it happened. The robbery was +committed in a house in the rue de Tournon, occupied by Mademoiselle +Beaumesnil. Charles Crochard, who was a handsome fellow, was said to +have the run of it--" + +"Yes, yes," cried Cerizet, "I remember Mademoiselle Beaumesnil's +embarrassment when she gave her testimony--and also the total +extinction of voice that attacked her when the judge asked her age." + +"The robbery," continued du Portail, "was audaciously committed in the +daytime; and no sooner did Charles Crochard get possession of the +casket than he went to the church of Saint-Sulpice, where he had an +appointment with an accomplice, who, being supplied with a passport, +was to start immediately with the diamonds for foreign parts. It so +chanced that on entering the church, instead of meeting the man he +expected, who was a trifle late, Charles Crochard came face to face +with a celebrated agent of the detective force, who was well known to +him, inasmuch as the young rascal was not at his first scrimmage with +the police. The absence of his accomplice, this encounter with the +detective, and, lastly, a rapid movement made by the latter, by the +merest chance, toward the door, induced the robber to fancy he was +being watched. Losing his head under this idea, he wanted, at any +cost, to put the casket out of his possession, knowing that if +arrested, as he expected, at the door of the church, it would be a +damning proof against him. Catching sight at that moment of +Toupillier, who was then the giver of holy water, 'My man,' said he, +making sure that no one overheard their colloquy, 'will you take care +of this little package for me? It is a box of lace. I am going near by +to a countess who is slow to pay her bill; and if I have the lace with +me she'll want to see it, for it is a new style, and she'll ask me to +leave it with her on credit, instead of paying the bill; therefore I +don't want to take it. But,' he added, 'be sure not to touch the paper +that wraps the box, for there's nothing harder than to do up a package +in the same folds--'" + +"The booby!" cried Cerizet, naively; "why, that very caution would +make the man want to open it." + +"You are an able casuist," said du Portail. "Well, an hour later, +Charles Crochard, finding that nothing happened to him, returned to +the church to obtain his deposit, but Toupillier was no longer there. +You can imagine the anxiety with which Charles Crochard attended early +mass the next day, and approached the giver of holy water, who was +there, sure enough, attending to his functions. But night, they say, +brings counsel; the worthy beggar audaciously declared that he had +received no package, and did not know what his interlocutor meant." + +"And there was no possibility of arguing with him, for that would be +exposure," remarked Cerizet, who was not far from sympathizing in a +trick so boldly played. + +"No doubt," resumed du Portail; "the robbery was already noised about, +and Toupillier, who was a very able fellow, had calculated that +Charles Crochard would not dare to publicly accuse him, for that would +reveal the theft. In fact, on his trial Charles Crochard never said a +word of his mishap, and during the six years he spent at the galleys +(he was condemned to ten, but four were remitted) he did not open his +lips to a single soul about the treachery of which he had been a +victim." + +"That was pretty plucky," said Cerizet; the tale excited him, and he +showed openly that he saw the matter as an artist and a connoisseur. + +"In that interval," continued du Portail, "Madame Beaumesnil died, +leaving her daughter a few fragments of a once great fortune, and the +diamonds which the will expressly stated Lydie was to receive 'in case +they were recovered.'" + +"Ha! ha!" exclaimed Cerizet, "bad for Toupillier, because, having to +do with a man of your calibre--" + +"Charles Crochard's first object on being liberated was vengeance on +Toupillier, and his first step was to denounce him to the police as +receiver of the stolen property. Taken in hand by the law, Toupillier +defended himself with such singular good-humor, being able to show +that no proof whatever existed against him, that the examining judge +let him off. He lost his place, however, as giver of holy water, +obtaining, with great difficulty, permission to beg at the door of the +church. For my part, I was certain of his guilt; and I managed to have +the closest watch kept upon him; though I relied far more upon myself. +Being a man of means and leisure, I stuck, as you may say, to the skin +of my thief, and did, in order to unmask him, one of the cleverest +things of my career. He was living at that time in the rue du +Coeur-Volant. I succeeded in becoming the tenant of the room adjoining +his; and one night, through a gimlet hole I had drilled in the partition, +I saw my man take the case of diamonds from a very cleverly contrived +hiding-place. He sat for an hour gazing at them and fondling them; he +made them sparkle in the light, he pressed them passionately to his +lips. The man actually loved those diamonds for themselves, and had +never thought of turning them to money." + +"I understand," said Cerizet,--"a mania like that of Cardillac, the +jeweller, which has now been dramatized." + +"That is just it," returned du Portail; "the poor wretch was in love +with that casket; so that when, shortly after, I entered his room and +told him I knew all, he proposed to me to leave him the life use of +what he called the consolation of his old age, pledging himself to +make Mademoiselle de la Peyrade his sole heir, revealing to me at the +same time the existence of a hoard of gold (to which he was adding +every day), and also the possession of a house and an investment in +the Funds." + +"If he made that proposal in good faith," said Cerizet, "it was a +desirable one. The interest of the capital sunk in the diamonds was +more than returned by that from the other property." + +"You now see, my dear sir," said du Portail, "that I was not mistaken +in trusting him. All my precautions were well taken; I exacted that he +should occupy a room in the house I lived in, where I could keep a +close eye upon him. I assisted him in making that hiding-place, the +secret of which you discovered so cleverly; but what you did not find +out was that in touching the spring that opened the iron safe you rang +a bell in my apartment, which warned me of any attempt that was made +to remove our treasure." + +"Poor Madame Cardinal!" cried Cerizet, good-humoredly, "how far she +was from suspecting it!" + +"Now here's the situation," resumed du Portail. "On account of the +interest I feel in the nephew of my old friend, and also, on account +of the relationship, this marriage seems to me extremely desirable; in +short, I unite Theodose to his cousin and her 'dot.' As it is possible +that, considering the mental state of his future wife, Theodose may +object to sharing my views, I have not thought it wise to make this +proposal directly to himself. You have suddenly turned up upon my +path; I know already that you are clever and wily, and that knowledge +induces me to put this little matrimonial negotiation into your hands. +Now, I think, you understand the matter thoroughly; speak to him of a +fine girl, with one little drawback, but, on the other hand, a +comfortable fortune. Do not name her to him; and come here and let me +know how the proposal has been taken." + +"Your confidence delights me as much as it honors me," replied +Cerizet, "and I will justify it the best I can." + +"We must not expect too much," said du Portail. "Refusal will be the +first impulse of a man who has an affair on hand elsewhere; but we +need not consider ourselves beaten. I shall not easily give up a plan +which I know to be just, even if I push my zeal so far as to put la +Peyrade under lock and key in Clichy. I am resolved not to take no for +his answer to a proposal of which, in the end, he cannot fail to see +the propriety. Therefore, in any case, buy up those notes from +Monsieur Dutocq." + +"At par?" asked Cerizet. + +"Yes, at par, if you cannot do better; we are not going to haggle over +a few thousand francs; only, when this transaction is arranged, +Monsieur Dutocq must pledge us either his assistance, or, at the very +least, his neutrality. After what you have said of the other marriage, +it is unnecessary for me to warn you that there is not a moment to +lose in putting our irons into the fire." + +"Two days hence I have an appointment with la Peyrade," said Cerizet. +"We have a little matter of business of our own to settle. Don't you +think it would be best to wait till then, when I can introduce the +proposal incidentally? In case of resistance, I think that arrangement +would best conduce to OUR dignity." + +"So be it," said du Portail; "it isn't much of a delay. Remember, +monsieur, that if you succeed you have, in place of a man able to +bring you to a stern account for your _imprudent assistance_ to Madame +Cardinal, a greatly obliged person, who will be ready at all times to +serve you, and whose influence is greater than is generally supposed." + +After these friendly words, the pair separated with a thoroughly good +understanding, and well satisfied with each other. + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + IN WHICH THE LAMB DEVOURS THE WOLF + +The evening before the day already agreed upon, Theodose received from +Cerizet the following note:-- + +"To-morrow, lease or no lease, Rocher de Cancale, half-past six +o'clock." + +As for Dutocq, Cerizet saw him every day, for he was still his copying +clerk; he therefore gave him his invitation by word of mouth; but the +attentive reader must remark a difference in the hour named: +"Quarter-past-six, Rocher de Cancale," said Cerizet. It was evident, +therefore, that he wanted that fifteen minutes with Dutocq before the +arrival of la Peyrade. + +These minutes the usurer proposed to employ in jockeying Dutocq in the +purchase of the notes; he fancied that if the proposition to buy them +were suddenly put before him without the slightest preparation it +might be more readily received. By not leaving the seller time to +bethink himself, perhaps he might lead him to loosen his grasp, and +the notes once bought below par, he could consider at his leisure +whether to pocket the difference or curry favor with du Portail for +the discount he had obtained. Let us say, moreover, that apart from +self-interest, Cerizet would still have endeavored to scrape a little +profit out of his friend; 'twas an instinct and a need of his nature. +He had as great a horror for straight courses as the lovers of English +gardens show in the lines of their paths. + +Dutocq, having still a portion of the cost of his practice to pay off, +was forced to live very sparingly, so that a dinner at the Rocher de +Cancale was something of an event in the economy of his straitened +existence. He arrived, therefore, with that punctuality which +testifies to an interest in the occasion, and precisely at a quarter +past six he entered the private room of the restaurant where Cerizet +awaited him. + +"It is queer," he said; "here we are returned to precisely the +situation in which we began our business relationship with la Peyrade, +--except, to be sure, that this present place of meeting of the three +emperors is more comfortable; I prefer the Tilsit of the rue +Montgorgeuil to the Tilsit of the Cheval Rouge." + +"Faith!" said Cerizet, "I don't know that the results justify the +change, for, to be frank, where are the profits to _us_ in the scheme +of our triumvirate?" + +"But," said Dutocq, "it was a bargain with a long time limit. It can't +be said that la Peyrade has lost much time in getting installed +--forgive the pun--at the Thuilleries. The scamp has made his way +pretty fast, you must own that." + +"Not so fast but what his marriage," said Cerizet, "is at the present +moment a very doubtful thing." + +"Doubtful!" cried Dutocq; "why doubtful?" + +"Well, I am commissioned to propose to him another wife, and I'm not +sure that any choice is left to him." + +"What the devil are you about, my dear fellow, lending your hand in +this way to another marriage when you know we have a mortgage on the +first?" + +"One isn't always master of circumstances, my friend; I saw at once +when the new affair was laid before me that the one we had settled on +must infallibly go by the board. Consequently, I've tried to work it +round in our interests, yours and mine." + +"Ah ca! do you mean they are pulling caps for this Theodose? Who is +the new match? Has she money?" + +"The 'dot' is pretty good; quite as much as Mademoiselle +Colleville's." + +"Then I wouldn't give a fig for it. La Peyrade has signed those notes +and he will pay them." + +"Will he pay them? that's the question. You are not a business man, +neither is Theodose; it may come into his head to dispute the validity +of those notes. What security have we that if the facts about their +origin should come out, and the Thuillier marriage shouldn't come off, +the court of commerce mightn't annul them as 'obligations without +cause.' For my part, I should laugh at such a decision; I can stand +it; and, moreover, my precautions are taken; but you, as clerk to a +justice-of-peace, don't you see that such an affair would give the +chancellor a bone to pick with you?" + +"But, my good fellow," said Dutocq, with the ill-humor of a man who +sees himself face to face with an argument he can't refute, "you seem +to have a mania for stirring up matters and meddling with--" + +"I tell you again," said Cerizet, "this came to me; I didn't seek it; +but I saw at once that there was no use struggling against the +influence that is opposing us; so I chose the course of saving +ourselves by a sacrifice." + +"A sacrifice! what sort of sacrifice?" + +"Parbleu! I've sold my share of those notes, leaving those who bought +them to fight it out with Master barrister." + +"Who is the purchaser?" + +"Who do you suppose would step into my shoes unless it were the +persons who have an interest in this other marriage, and who want to +hold a power over Theodose, and control him by force if necessary." + +"Then my share of the notes is equally important to them?" + +"No doubt; but I couldn't speak for you until I had consulted you." + +"What do they offer?" + +"Hang it! my dear fellow, the same that I accepted. Knowing better +than you the danger of their competition I sold out to them on very +bad terms." + +"Well, but what are they, those terms?" + +"I gave up my shares for fifteen thousand francs." + +"Come, come!" said Dutocq, shrugging his shoulders, "what you are +after is to recover a loss (if you made it) by a commission on my +share--and perhaps, after all, the whole thing is only a plot between +you and la Peyrade--" + +"At any rate, my good friend, you don't mince your words; an infamous +thought comes into your head and you state it with charming frankness. +Luckily you shall presently hear me make the proposal to Theodose, and +you are clever enough to know by his manner if there has been any +connivance between us." + +"So be it!" said Dutocq. "I withdraw the insinuation; but I must say +your employers are pirates; I call their proposal throttling people. I +have not, like you, something to fall back upon." + +"Well, you poor fellow, this is how I reasoned: I said to myself, That +good Dutocq is terribly pressed for the last payment on his practice; +this will give him enough to pay it off at one stroke; events have +proved that there are great uncertainties about our +Theodose-and-Thuillier scheme; here's money down, live money, and +therefore it won't be so bad a bargain after all." + +"It is a loss of two-fifths!" + +"Come," said Cerizet, "you were talking just now of commissions. I see +a means of getting one for you if you'll engage to batter down this +Colleville marriage. If you will cry it down as you have lately cried +it up I shouldn't despair of getting you a round twenty thousand out +of the affair." + +"Then you think that this new proposal will not be agreeable to la +Peyrade,--that he'll reject it? Is it some heiress on whom he has +already taken a mortgage?" + +"All that I can tell you is that these people expect some difficulty +in bringing the matter to a conclusion." + +"Well, I don't desire better than to follow your lead and do what is +disagreeable to la Peyrade; but five thousand francs--think of it!--it +is too much to lose." + +At this moment the door opened, and a waiter ushered in the expected +guest. + +"You can serve dinner," said Cerizet to the waiter; "we are all here." + +It was plain that Theodose was beginning to take wing toward higher +social spheres; elegance was becoming a constant thought in his mind. +He appeared in a dress suit and varnished shoes, whereas his two +associates received him in frock-coats and muddy boots. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I think I am a little late, but that devil of a +Thuillier is the most intolerable of human beings about a pamphlet I +am concocting for him. I was unlucky enough to agree to correct the +proofs with him, and over every paragraph there's a fight. 'What I +can't understand,' he says, 'the public can't, either. I'm not a man +of letters, but I'm a practical man'; and that's the way we battle it, +page after page. I thought the sitting this afternoon would never +end." + +"How unreasonable you are, my dear fellow," said Dutocq; "when a man +wants to succeed he must have the courage to make sacrifices. Once +married, you can lift your head." + +"Ah, yes!" said la Peyrade with a sigh, "I'll lift it; for since the +day you made me eat this bread of anguish I've become terribly sick of +it." + +"Cerizet," said Dutocq, "has a plan that will feed you more +succulently." + +Nothing more was said at the moment, for justice had to be done to the +excellent fare ordered by Cerizet in honor of his coming lease. As +usually happens at dinners where affairs are likely to be discussed, +each man, with his mind full of them, took pains not to approach those +topics, fearing to compromise his advantages by seeming eager; the +conversation, therefore, continued for a long time on general +subjects, and it was not until the dessert was served that Cerizet +brought himself to ask la Peyrade what had been settled about the +terms of his lease. + +"Nothing, my friend," replied Theodose. + +"What! nothing? I certainly allowed you time enough to decide the +matter." + +"Well, as to that, something is decided. There will not be any +principal tenant at all; Mademoiselle Brigitte is going to let the +house herself." + +"That's a singular thing," said Cerizet, stiffly. "After your +agreement with me, I certainly did not expect such a result as this." + +"How can I help it, my dear fellow? I agreed with you, barring +amendments on the other side; I wasn't able to give another turn to +the affair. In her natural character as a managing woman and a sample +of perpetual motion, Brigitte has reflected that she might as well +manage that house herself and put into her own pocket the profits you +proposed to make. I said all I could about the cares and annoyances +which she would certainly saddle upon herself. 'Oh! nonsense!' she +said; 'they'll stir my blood and do my health good!'" + +"It is pitiable!" said Cerizet. "That poor old maid will never know +which end to take hold of; she doesn't imagine what it is to have an +empty house, and which must be filled with tenants from garret to +cellar." + +"I plied her with all those arguments," replied la Peyrade; "but I +couldn't move her resolution. Don't you see, my dear democrats, you +stirred up the revolution of '89; you thought to make a fine +speculation in dethroning the noble by the bourgeois, and the end of +it is you are shoved out yourselves. This looks like paradox; but +you've found out now that the peasant and clodhopper isn't malleable; +he can't be forced down and kept under like the noble. The +aristocracy, on behalf of its dignity, would not condescend to common +cares, and was therefore dependent on a crowd of plebeian servitors to +whom it had to trust for three-fourths of the actions of its own life. +That was the reign of stewards and bailiffs, wily fellows, into whose +hands the interests of the great families passed, and who fed and grew +fat on the parings of the great fortunes they managed. But now-a-days, +utilitarian theories, as they call them, have come to the fore,--'We +are never so well served as by ourselves,' 'There's no shame in +attending to one's own business,' and many other bourgeois maxims +which have suppressed the role of intermediaries. Why shouldn't +Mademoiselle Brigitte Thuillier manage her own house when dukes and +peers go in person to the Bourse, where such men sign their own leases +and read the deeds before they sign them, and go themselves to the +notary, whom, in former days, they considered a servant." + +During this time Cerizet had time to recover from the blow he had just +received squarely in the face, and to think of the transition he had +to make from one set of interests to the other, of which he was now +the agent. + +"What you are declaiming there is all very clever," he said, +carelessly, "but the thing that proves to me our defeat is the fact +that you are not on the terms with Mademoiselle Thuillier you would +have us believe you are. She is slipping through your fingers; and I +don't think that marriage is anything like as certain as Dutocq and I +have been fancying it was." + +"Well, no doubt," said la Peyrade, "there are still some touches to be +given to our sketch, but I believe it is well under way." + +"And I think, on the contrary, that you have lost ground; and the +reason is simple: you have done those people an immense service; and +that's a thing never forgiven." + +"Well, we shall see," said la Peyrade. "I have more than one hold upon +them." + +"No, you are mistaken. You thought you did a brilliant thing in +putting them on a pinnacle, but the fact is you emancipated them; +they'll keep you now at heel. The human heart, particularly the +bourgeois heart, is made that way. If I were in your place I shouldn't +feel so sure of being on solid ground, and if something else turned up +that offered me a good chance--" + +"What! just because I couldn't get you the lease of that house do you +want to knock everything to pieces?" + +"No," said Cerizet, "I am not looking at the matter in the light of my +own interests; I don't doubt that as a trustworthy friend you have +done every imaginable thing to promote them; but I think the manner in +which you have been shoved aside a very disturbing symptom. It even +decides me to tell you something I did not intend to speak of; +because, in my opinion, when persons start a course they ought to keep +on steadily, looking neither forward nor back, and not allowing +themselves to be diverted to other aspirations." + +"Ah ca!" cried la Peyrade, "what does all this verbiage mean? Have you +anything to propose to me? What's the price of it?" + +"My dear Theodose," said Cerizet, paying no attention to the +impertinence, "you yourself can judge of the value of discovering a +young girl, well brought-up, adorned with beauty and talents and a +'dot' equal to that of Celeste, which she has in her own right, _plus_ +fifty thousand francs' worth of diamonds (as Mademoiselle Georges says +on her posters in the provinces), and, moreover,--a fact which ought +to strike the mind of an ambitious man,--a strong political influence, +which she can use for a husband." + +"And this treasure you hold in your hand?" said la Peyrade, in a tone +of incredulity. + +"Better still, I am authorized to offer it to you; in fact, I might +say that I am charged to do so." + +"My friend, you are poking fun at me; unless, indeed, this phoenix has +some hideous or prohibitory defect." + +"Well, I'll admit," said Cerizet, "that there is a slight objection, +not on the score of family, for, to tell the truth, the young woman +has none--" + +"Ah!" said la Peyrade, "a natural child--Well, what next?" + +"Next, she is not so very young,--something like twenty-nine or so; +but there's nothing easier than to turn an elderly girl into a young +widow if you have imagination." + +"Is that all the venom in it?" + +"Yes, all that is irreparable." + +"What do you mean by that? Is it a case of rhinoplasty?" + +Addressed to Cerizet the word had an aggressive air, which, in fact, +was noticeable since the beginning of the dinner in the whole manner +and conversation of the barrister. But it did not suit the purpose of +the negotiator to resent it. + +"No," he replied, "our nose is as well made as our foot and our waist; +but we may, perhaps, have a slight touch of hysteria." + +"Oh! very good," said la Peyrade; "and as from hysteria to insanity +there is but a step--" + +"Well, yes," interrupted Cerizet, hastily, "sorrows have affected our +brain slightly; but the doctors are unanimous in their diagnosis; they +all say that after the birth of the first child not a trace will +remain of this little trouble." + +"I am willing to admit that doctors are infallible," replied la +Peyrade; "but, in spite of your discouragement, you must allow me, my +friend, to persist in my suit to Mademoiselle Colleville. Perhaps it +is ridiculous to confess it, but the truth is I am gradually falling +in love with that little girl. It isn't that her beauty is +resplendent, or that the glitter of her 'dot' has dazzled me, but I +find in that child a great fund of sound sense joined to simplicity; +and, what to mind is of greater consequence, her sincere and solid +piety attracts me; I think a husband ought to be very happy with her." + +"Yes," said Cerizet, who, having been on the stage, may very well have +known his Moliere, "this marriage will crown your wishes with all +good; it will be filled with sweetness and with pleasures." + +The allusion to Tartuffe was keenly felt by la Peyrade, who took it up +and said, hotly:-- + +"The contact with innocence will disinfect me of the vile atmosphere +in which I have lived too long." + +"And you will pay your notes of hand," added Cerizet, "which I advise +you to do with the least possible delay; for Dutocq here was saying to +me just now that he would like to see the color of your money." + +"I? not at all," interposed Dutocq. "I think, on the contrary, that +our friend has a right to the delay." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "I agree with Cerizet. I hold that the less a +debt is due, and therefore the more insecure and open to contention it +is, the sooner one ought to free one's self by paying it." + +"But, my dear la Peyrade," said Dutocq, "why take this bitter tone?" + +Pulling from his pocket a portfolio, la Peyrade said:-- + +"Have you those notes with you, Dutocq?" + +"Faith! no, my dear fellow," replied Dutocq, "I don't carry them about +with me; besides, they are in Cerizet's hands." + +"Well," said the barrister, rising, "whenever you come to my house +I'll pay you on the nail, as Cerizet can tell you." + +"What! are you going to leave us without your coffee?" said Cerizet, +amazed to the last degree. + +"Yes; I have an arbitration case at eight o'clock. Besides, we have +said all we had to say. You haven't your lease, but you've got your +twenty five thousand francs in full, and those of Dutocq are ready for +him whenever he chooses to come to my office. I see nothing now to +prevent me from going where my private business calls me, and I +therefore very cordially bid you good-bye." + +"Ah ca! Dutocq," cried Cerizet, as la Peyrade disappeared, "this means +a rupture." + +"Prepared with the utmost care," added Dutocq. "Did you notice the air +with which he pulled out that pocket-book?" + +"But where the devil," said the usurer, "could he have got the money?" + +"Probably," replied Dutocq, sarcastically, "where he got that with +which he paid you in full for those notes you sold at a sacrifice." + +"My dear Dutocq," said Cerizet, "I'll explain to you the circumstances +under which that insolent fellow freed himself, and you'll see if he +didn't rob me of fifteen thousand francs." + +"Possibly, but you, my worthy clerk, were trying to get ten thousand +away from me." + +"No, no; I was positively ordered to buy up your claim; and you ought +to remember that my offer had risen to twenty thousand when Theodose +came in." + +"Well," said Dutocq, "when we leave here we'll go to your house, where +you will give me those notes; for, you'll understand that to-morrow +morning, at the earliest decent hour, I shall go to la Peyrade's +office; I don't mean to let his paying humor cool." + +"And right you are; for I can tell you now that before long there'll +be a fine upset in his life." + +"Then the thing is really serious--this tale of a crazy woman you want +him to marry? I must say that in his place, with these money-matters +evidently on the rise, I should have backed out of your proposals just +as he did. Ninas and Ophelias are all very well on the stage, but in a +home--" + +"In a home, when they bring a 'dot,' we can be their guardian," +replied Cerizet, sententiously. "In point of fact, we get a fortune +and not a wife." + +"Well," said Dutocq, "that's one way to look at it." + +"If you are willing," said Cerizet, "let us go and take our coffee +somewhere else. This dinner has turned out so foolishly that I want to +get out of this room, where there's no air." He rang for the waiter. +"Garcon!" he said, "the bill." + +"Monsieur, it is paid." + +"Paid! by whom?" + +"By the gentleman who just went out." + +"But this is outrageous," cried Cerizet. "I ordered the dinner, and +you allow some one else to pay for it!" + +"It wasn't I, monsieur," said the waiter; "the gentleman went and paid +the 'dame du comptoir'; she must have thought it was arranged between +you. Besides, it is not so uncommon for gentlemen to have friendly +disputes about paying." + +"That's enough," said Cerizet, dismissing the waiter. + +"Won't these gentlemen take their coffee?--it is paid for," said the +man before he left the room. + +"A good reason for not taking it," replied Cerizet, angrily. "It is +really inconceivable that in a house of this kind such an egregious +blunder should be committed. What do you think of such insolence?" he +added, when the waiter had left the room. + +"Bah!" exclaimed Dutocq, taking his hat, "it is a schoolboy +proceeding; he wanted to show he had money; it is easy to see he never +had any before." + +"No, no! that's not it," said Cerizet; "he meant to mark the rupture. +'I will not owe you even a dinner,' is what he says to me." + +"But, after all," said Dutocq, "this banquet was given to celebrate +your enthronement as principal tenant of the grand house. Well, he has +failed to get you the lease, and I can understand that his conscience +was uneasy at letting you pay for a dinner which, like those notes of +mine, were an 'obligation without cause.'" + +Cerizet made no reply to this malicious observation. They had reached +the counter where reigned the dame who had permitted the improper +payment, and, for the sake of his dignity, the usurer thought it +proper to make a fuss. After which the two men departed, and the +copying-clerk took his employer to a low coffee-house in the Passage +du Saumon. There Cerizet recovered his good-humor; he was like a fish +out of water suddenly returned to his native element; for he had +reached that state of degradation when he felt ill at ease in places +frequented by good society; and it was with a sort of sensuous +pleasure that he felt himself back in the vulgar place where they were +noisily playing pool for the benefit of a "former conqueror of the +Bastille." + +In this establishment Cerizet enjoyed the fame of being a skilful +billiard-player, and he was now entreated to take part in a game +already begun. In technical language, he "bought his ball"; that is, +one of the players sold him his turn and his chances. Dutocq profited +by this arrangement to slip away, on pretence of inquiring for a sick +friend. + +Presently, in his shirt-sleeves, with a pipe between his lips, Cerizet +made one of those masterly strokes which bring down the house with +frantic applause. As he waited a moment, looking about him +triumphantly, his eye lighted on a terrible kill-joy. Standing among +the spectators with his chin on his cane, du Portail was steadily +watching him. + +A tinge of red showed itself in Cerizet's cheeks. He hesitated to bow +or to recognize the old gentleman, a most unlikely person to meet in +such a place. Not knowing how to take the unpleasant encounter, he +went on playing; but his hand betrayed his uneasiness, and presently +an unlucky stroke threw him out of the game. While he was putting on +his coat in a tolerably ill-humor, du Portail passed, almost brushing +him, on his way to the door. + +"Rue Montmartre, at the farther end of the Passage," said the old man, +in a low tone. + +When they met, Cerizet had the bad taste to try to explain the +disreputable position in which he had just been detected. + +"But," said du Portail, "in order to see you there, I had to be there +myself." + +"True," returned Cerizet. "I was rather surprised to see a quiet +inhabitant of the Saint-Sulpice quarter in such a place." + +"It merely proves to you," said the little old man, in a tone which +cut short all explanation, and all curiosity, "that I am in the habit +of going pretty nearly everywhere, and that my star leads me into the +path of those persons whom I wish to meet. I was thinking of you at +the very moment you came in. Well, what have you done?" + +"Nothing good," replied Cerizet. "After playing me a devilish trick +which deprived me of a magnificent bit of business, our man rejected +your overture with scorn. There is no hope whatever in that claim of +Dutocq's; for la Peyrade is chock-full of money; he wanted to pay the +notes just now, and to-morrow morning he will certainly do so." + +"Does he regard his marriage to this Demoiselle Colleville as a +settled thing?" + +"He not only considers it settled, but he is trying now to make people +believe it is a love-match. He rattled off a perfect tirade to +convince me that he is really in love." + +"Very well," said du Portail, wishing, perhaps, to show that he could, +on occasion, use the slang of a low billiard-room, "'stop the charge'" +(meaning: Do nothing more); "I will undertake to bring monsieur to +reason. But come and see me to-morrow, and tell me all about the +family he intends to enter. You have failed in this affair; but don't +mind that; I shall have others for you." + +So saying, he signed to the driver of an empty citadine, which was +passing, got into it, and, with a nod to Cerizet, told the man to +drive to the rue Honore-Chevalier. + +As Cerizet walked down the rue Montmartre to regain the Estrapade +quarter, he puzzled his brains to divine who that little old man with +the curt speech, the imperious manner, and a tone that seemed to cast +upon all those with whom he spoke a boarding-grapnel, could be; a man, +too, who came from such a distance to spend his evening in a place +where, judging by his clothes alone, he had no business to be. + +Cerizet had reached the Market without finding any solution to that +problem, when he was roughly shaken out of it by a heavy blow in the +back. Turning hastily, he found himself in presence of Madame +Cardinal, an encounter with whom, at a spot where she came every +morning to get fish to peddle, was certainly not surprising. + +Since that evening in Toupillier's garret, the worthy woman, in spite +of the clemency so promptly shown to her, had judged it imprudent to +make other than very short apparitions in her own domicile, and for +the last two days she had been drowning among the liquor-dealers +(called "retailers of comfort") the pangs of her defeat. With flaming +face and thickened voice she now addressed her late accomplice:-- + +"Well, papa," she said, "what happened after I left you with that +little old fellow?" + +"I made him understand in a very few words," replied the banker of the +poor, "that it was all a mistake as to me. In this affair, my dear +Madame Cardinal, you behaved with a really unpardonable heedlessness. +How came you to ask my assistance in obtaining your inheritance from +your uncle, when with proper inquiry you might have known there was a +natural daughter, in whose favor he had long declared he should make a +will? That little old man, who interrupted you in your foolish attempt +to anticipate your legacy, was no other than the guardian of the +daughter to whom everything is left." + +"Ha! guardian, indeed! a fine thing, guardian!" cried the Cardinal. +"To talk of a woman of my age, just because I wanted to see if my +uncle owned anything at all, to talk to _me_ of the police! It's +hateful! it's _disgusting_!" + +"Come, come!" said Cerizet, "you needn't complain; you got off +cheaply." + +"Well, and you, who broke the locks and said you were going to take +the diamonds, under color of marrying my daughter! Just as if she +would have you,--a legitimate daughter like her! 'Never, mother,' said +she; 'never will I give my heart to a man with such a nose.'" + +"So you've found her, have you?" said Cerizet. + +"Not until last night. She has left her blackguard of a player, and +she is now, I flatter myself, in a fine position, eating money; has +her citadine by the month, and is much respected by a barrister who +would marry her at once, but he has got to wait till his parents die, +for the father happens to be mayor, and the government wouldn't like +it." + +"What mayor?" + +"11th arrondissement,--Minard, powerfully rich, used to do a business +in cocoa." + +"Ah! very good! very good! I know all about him. You say Olympe is +living with his son?" + +"Well, not to say living together, for that would make talk, though he +only sees her with good motives. He lives at home with his father, but +he has bought their furniture, and has put it, and my daughter, too, +into a lodging in the Chausee d'Antin; stylish quarter, isn't it?" + +"It seems to me pretty well arranged," said Cerizet; "and as Heaven, +it appears, didn't destine us for each other--" + +"No, yes, well, that's how it was; and I think that girl is going to +give me great satisfaction; and there's something I want to consult +you about." + +"What?" demanded Cerizet. + +"Well, my daughter being in luck, I don't think I ought to continue to +cry fish in the streets; and now that my uncle has disinherited me, I +have, it seems to me, a right to an 'elementary allowance.'" + +"You are dreaming, my poor woman; your daughter is a minor; it is you +who ought to be feeding her; the law doesn't require her to give you +aliment." + +"Then do you mean," said Madame Cardinal, "that those who have nothing +are to give to those who have much? A fine thing such a law as that! +It's as bad as guardians who, for nothing at all, talk about calling +the police. Yes! I'd like to see 'em calling the police to me! Let 'em +guillotine me! It won't prevent my saying that the rich are swindlers; +yes, swindlers! and the people ought to make another revolution to get +their rights; and _then_, my lad, you, and my daughter, and barrister +Minard, and that little old guardian, you'll all come down under it--" + +Perceiving that his ex-mother-in-law was reaching stage of exaltation +that was not unalarming, Cerizet hastened to get away, her epithets +pursuing him for more than a hundred feet; but he comforted himself by +thinking that he would make her pay for them the next time she came to +his back to ask for a "convenience." + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + SET A SAINT TO CATCH A SAINT + +As he approached his own abode, Cerizet, who was nothing so little as +courageous, felt an emotion of fear. He perceived a form ambushed near +the door, which, as he came nearer, detached itself as if to meet him. +Happily, it was only Dutocq. He came for his notes. Cerizet returned +them in some ill-humor, complaining of the distrust implied in a visit +at such an hour. Dutocq paid no attention to this sensitiveness, and +the next morning, very early, he presented himself at la Peyrade's. + +La Peyrade paid, as he had promised, on the nail, and to a few +sentinel remarks uttered by Dutocq as soon as the money was in his +pocket, he answered with marked coldness. His whole external +appearance and behavior was that of a slave who has burst his chain +and has promised himself not to make a gospel use of his liberty. + +As he conducted his visitor to the door, the latter came face to face +with a woman in servant's dress, who was just about to ring the bell. +This woman was, apparently, known to Dutocq, for he said to her:-- + +"Ha ha! little woman; so we feel the necessity of consulting a +barrister? You are right; at the family council very serious matters +were brought up against you." + +"Thank God, I fear no one. I can walk with my head up," said the +person thus addressed. + +"So much the better for you," replied the clerk of the +justice-of-peace; "but you will probably be summoned before the judge +who examines the affair. At any rate, you are in good hands here; and +my friend la Peyrade will advise you for the best." + +"Monsieur is mistaken," said the woman; "it is not for what he thinks +that I have come to consult a lawyer." + +"Well, be careful what you say and do, my dear woman, for I warn you +you are going to be finely picked to pieces. The relations are furious +against you, and you can't get the idea out of their heads that you +have got a great deal of money." + +While speaking thus, Dutocq kept his eye on Theodose, who bore the +look uneasily, and requested his client to enter. + +Here follows a scene which had taken place the previous afternoon +between this woman and la Peyrade. + +La Peyrade, we may remember, was in the habit of going to early mass +at his parish church. For some little time he had felt himself the +object of a singular attention which he could not explain on the part +of the woman whom we have just seen entering his office, who daily +attended the church at, as Dorine says, his "special hour." Could it +be for love? That explanation was scarcely compatible with the +maturity and the saintly, beatific air of this person, who, beneath a +plain cap, called "a la Janseniste," by which fervent female souls of +that sect were recognized, affected, like a nun, to hide her hair. On +the other hand, the rest of her clothing was of a neatness that was +almost dainty, and the gold cross at her throat, suspended by a black +velvet ribbon, excluded the idea of humble and hesitating mendicity. + +The morning of the day on which the dinner at the Rocher de Cancale +was to take place, la Peyrade, weary of a performance which had ended +by preoccupying his mind, went up to the woman and asked her +pointblank if she had any request to make of him. + +"Monsieur," she answered, in a tone of solemnity, "is, I think, the +celebrated Monsieur de la Peyrade, the advocate of the poor?" + +"I am la Peyrade; and I have had, it is true, an opportunity to render +services to the indigent persons of this quarter." + +"Would it, then, be asking too much of monsieur's goodness that he +should suffer me to consult him?" + +"This place," replied la Peyrade, "is not well chosen for such +consultation. What you have to say to me seems important, to judge by +the length of time you have been hesitating to speak to me. I live +near here, rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, and if you will take the +trouble to come to my office--" + +"It will not annoy monsieur?" + +"Not in the least; my business is to hear clients." + +"At what hour--lest I disturb monsieur--?" + +"When you choose; I shall be at home all the morning." + +"Then I will hear another mass, at which I can take the communion. I +did not dare to do so at this mass, for the thought of speaking to +monsieur so distracted my mind. I will be at monsieur's house by eight +o'clock, when I have ended my meditation, if that hour does not +inconvenience him." + +"No; but there is no necessity for all this ceremony," replied la +Peyrade, with some impatience. + +Perhaps a little professional jealousy inspired his ill-humor, for it +was evident that he had to do with an antagonist who was capable of +giving him points. + +At the hour appointed, not a minute before nor a minute after, the +pious woman rang the bell, and the barrister having, not without some +difficulty, induced her to sit down, he requested her to state her +case. She was then seized with that delaying little cough with which +we obtain a respite when brought face to face with a difficult +subject. At last, however, she compelled herself to approach the +object of her visit. + +"It is to ask monsieur," she said, "if he would be so very good as to +inform me whether it is true that a charitable gentleman, now +deceased, has bequeathed a fund to reward domestic servants who are +faithful to their masters." + +"Yes," replied la Peyrade; "that is to say, Monsieur de Montyon +founded 'prizes for virtue,' which are frequently given to zealous and +exemplary domestic servants. But ordinary good conduct is not +sufficient; there must be some act or acts of great devotion, and +truly Christian self-abnegation." + +"Religion enjoins humility upon us," replied the pious woman, "and +therefore I dare not praise myself; but inasmuch as for the last +twenty years I have lived in the service of an old man of the dullest +description, a savant, who has wasted his substance on inventions, so +that I myself have had to feed and clothe him, persons have thought +that I am not altogether undeserving of that prize." + +"It is certainly under such conditions that the Academy selects its +candidates," said la Peyrade. "What is your master's name?" + +"Pere Picot; he is never called otherwise in our quarter; sometimes he +goes out into the streets as if dressed for the carnival, and all the +little children crowd about him, calling out: 'How d'ye do, Pere +Picot! Good-morning, Pere Picot!' But that's how it is; he takes no +care of his dignity; he goes about full of his own ideas; and though I +kill myself trying to give him appetizing food, if you ask him what he +has had for his dinner he can't tell you. Yet he's a man full of +ability, and he has taught good pupils. Perhaps monsieur knows young +Phellion, a professor in the College of Saint-Louis; he was one of his +scholars, and he comes to see him very often." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, "your master is a mathematician?" + +"Yes, monsieur; mathematics have been his bane; they have flung him +into a set of ideas which don't seem to have any common-sense in them +ever since he has been employed at the Observatory, near here." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "you must bring testimony proving your long +devotion to this old man, and I will then draw up a memorial to the +Academy and take the necessary steps to present it." + +"How good monsieur is!" said the pious woman, clasping her hands; "and +if he would also let me tell him of a little difficulty--" + +"What is it?" + +"They tell me, monsieur, that to get this prize persons must be really +very poor." + +"Not exactly; still, the Academy does endeavor to choose whose who are +in straitened circumstances, and who have made sacrifices too heavy +for their means." + +"Sacrifices! I think I may indeed say I have made sacrifices, for the +little property I inherited from my parents has all been spent in +keeping the old man, and for fifteen years I have had no wages, which, +at three hundred francs a year and compound interest, amount now to a +pretty little sum; as monsieur, I am sure, will agree." + +At the words "compound interest," which evidenced a certain amount of +financial culture, la Peyrade looked at this Antigone with increased +attention. + +"In short," he said, "your difficulty is--" + +"Monsieur will not think it strange," replied the saintly person, "that +a very rich uncle dying in England, who had never done anything for +his family in his lifetime, should have left me twenty-five thousand +francs." + +"Certainly," said the barrister, "there's nothing in that but what is +perfectly natural and proper." + +"But, monsieur, I have been told that the possession of this money +will prevent the judges from considering my claims to the prize." + +"Possibly; because seeing you in possession of a little competence, +the sacrifices which you apparently intend to continue in favor of +your master will be less meritorious." + +"I shall never abandon him, poor, dear man, in spite of his faults, +though I know that this poor little legacy which Heaven has given me +is in the greatest danger from him." + +"How so?" asked la Peyrade, with some curiosity. + +"Eh! monsieur, let him only get wind of that money, and he'd snap it +up at a mouthful; it would all go into his inventions of perpetual +motion and other machines of various kinds which have already ruined +him, and me, too." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, "your desire is that this legacy should +remain completely unknown, not only to your master but to the judges +of the Academy?" + +"How clever monsieur is, and how well he understands things!" she +replied, smiling. + +"And also," continued the barrister, "you don't want to keep that +money openly in your possession?" + +"For fear my master should find it out and get it away from me? +Exactly. Besides, as monsieur will understand, I shouldn't be sorry, +in order to supply the poor dear man with extra comforts, that the sum +should bear interest." + +"And the highest possible interest," said the barrister. + +"Oh! as for that, monsieur, five or six per cent." + +"Very good; then it is not only about the memorial to the Academy for +the prize of virtue, but also about an investment of your legacy that +you have so long been desirous of consulting me?" + +"Monsieur is so kind, so charitable, so encouraging!" + +"The memorial, after I have made a few inquiries, will be easy enough; +but an investment, offering good security, the secret of which you +desire to keep, is much less readily obtained." + +"Ah! if I dared to--" said the pious woman, humbly. + +"What?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Monsieur understands me?" + +"I? not the least in the world." + +"And yet I prayed earnestly just now that monsieur might be willing to +keep this money for me. I should feel such confidence if it were in +his hands; I know he would return it to me, and never speak of it." + +La Peyrade gathered, at this instant, the fruit of his comedy of legal +devotion to the necessitous classes. The choir of porters chanting his +praises to the skies could alone have inspired this servant-woman with +the boundless confidence of which he found himself the object. His +thoughts reverted instantly to Dutocq and his notes, and he was not +far from thinking that this woman had been sent to him by Providence. +But the more he was inclined to profit by this chance to win his +independence, the more he felt the necessity of seeming to yield only +to her importunity; consequently his objections were many. + +Moreover, he had no great belief in the character of his client, and +did not care, as the common saying is, to uncover Saint Peter to cover +Saint Paul; in other words, to substitute for a creditor who, after +all, was his accomplice, a woman who might at any time become exacting +and insist in repayment in some public manner that would injure his +reputation. He decided, therefore, to play the game with a high hand. + +"My good woman," he said, "I am not in want of money, and I am not +rich enough to pay interest on twenty-five thousand francs for which I +have no use. All that I can do for you is to place that sum, in my +name, with the notary Dupuis. He is a religious man; you can see him +every Sunday in the warden's pew in our church. Notaries, you know, +never give receipts, therefore I could not give you one myself; I can +only promise to leave among my papers, in case of death, a memorandum +which will secure the restitution of the money into your hands. The +affair, you see, is one of blind confidence, and I am very unwilling +to make it. If I do so, it is only to oblige a person whose piety and +the charitable use she intends to make of the proceeds of her little +fortune entitle her to my good-will." + +"If monsieur thinks that the matter cannot be otherwise arranged--" + +"This appears to me the only possible way," said la Peyrade. "I shall +hope to get you six per cent interest, and you may rely that it will +be paid with the utmost regularity. But remember, six months, or even +a year, may elapse before the notary will be in a position to repay +this money, because notaries invest such trust funds chiefly in +mortgages which require a certain time to mature. Now, when you have +obtained the prize for virtue, which, according to all appearance, I +can readily do for you, there will be no reason to hide your little +property any longer,--a reason which I fully understand; but you will +not be able to withdraw it from the notary's hands immediately; and in +case of any difficulty arising, I should be forced to explain the +situation, the manner in which you have concealed your prosperity from +your master, to whom you have been supposed to be wholly devoted. +This, as you will see, would put you in the position of falsely +professing virtue, and would do great harm to your reputation for +piety." + +"Oh! monsieur," said the saintly woman, "can it be that any one would +think me a person who did not speak the truth?" + +"Bless you! my good creature, in business it is necessary to foresee +everything. Money embroils the best friends, and leads to actions they +never foresaw. Therefore reflect; you can come and see me again in a +few days. It is possible that between now and then you will find some +better investment; and I myself, who am doing at this moment a thing I +don't altogether like, may have found other difficulties which I do +not now expect." + +This threat, adroitly thrown out as an afterthought, was intended to +immediately clinch the matter. + +"I have reflected carefully," said the pious woman, "and I feel sure +that in the hands of so religious a man as monsieur I run no risks." + +Taking from her bosom a little pocket-book, she pulled out twenty-five +bank notes. The rapid manner in which she counted them was a +revelation to la Peyrade. The woman was evidently accustomed to handle +money, and a singular idea darted through his mind. + +"Can it be that she is making me a receiver of stolen property? No," +he said aloud, "in order to draw up the memorial for the Academy, I +must, as I told you, make a few inquiries; and that will give me +occasion to call upon you. At what hour can I see you alone?" + +"At four o'clock, when monsieur goes to take his walk in the +Luxembourg." + +"And where do you live?" + +"Rue du Val-de-Grace, No. 9." + +"Very good; at four o'clock; and if, as I doubt not, the result of my +inquiry is favorable, I will take your money then. Otherwise, if there +are not good grounds for your application for the prize of virtue +there will be no reason why you should make a mystery of your legacy. +You could then invest it in some more normal manner than that I have +suggested to you." + +"Oh! how cautious monsieur is!" she said, with evident disappointment, +having thought the affair settled. "This money, God be thanked! I have +not stolen, and monsieur can make what inquiries he likes about me in +the quarter." + +"It is quite indispensable that I should do so," said la Peyrade, +dryly, for he did not at all like, under this mask of simplicity, the +quick intelligence that penetrated his thoughts. "Without being a +thief, a woman may very well not be a Sister of Charity; there's a +wide margin between the two extremes." + +"As monsieur chooses," she replied; "he is doing me so great a service +that I ought to let him take all precautions." + +Then, with a piously humble bow, she went away, taking her money with +her. + +"The devil!" thought la Peyrade; "that woman is stronger than I; she +swallows insults with gratitude and without the sign of a grimace! I +have never yet been able to master myself like that." + +He began now to fear that he had been too timid, and to think that his +would-be creditor might change her mind before he could pay her the +visit he had promised. But the harm was done, and, although consumed +with anxiety lest he had lost a rare chance, he would have cut off a +leg sooner than yield to his impulse to go to her one minute before +the hour he had fixed. The information he obtained about her in the +quarter was rather contradictory. Some said his client was a saint; +otherwise declared her to be a sly creature; but, on the whole, +nothing was said against her morality that deterred la Peyrade from +taking the piece of luck she had offered him. + +When he met her at four o'clock he found her in the same mind. + +With the money in his pocket he went to dine with Cerizet and Dutocq +at the Rocher de Cancale; and it is to the various emotions he had +passed through during the day that we must attribute the sharp and +ill-considered manner in which he conducted his rupture with his two +associates. This behavior was neither that of his natural disposition +nor of his acquired temperament; but the money that was burning in his +pockets had slightly intoxicated him; its very touch had conveyed to +him an excitement and an impatience for emancipation of which he was +not wholly master. He flung Cerizet over in the matter of the lease +without so much as consulting Brigitte; and yet, he had not had the +full courage of his duplicity; for he had laid to the charge of the +old woman a refusal which was merely the act of his own will, prompted +by bitter recollections of his fruitless struggles with the man who +had so long oppressed him. + +In short, during the whole day, la Peyrade had not shown himself the +able and infallible man that we have hitherto seen him. Once before, +when he carried the fifteen thousand francs entrusted to him by +Thuillier, he had been led by Cerizet into an insurrectionary +proceeding which necessitated the affair of Sauvaignou. Perhaps, on +the whole, it is more difficult to be strong under good than under +evil fortune. The Farnese Hercules, calm and in still repose, +expresses more energetically the plenitude of muscular power than a +violent and agitated Hercules represented in the over-excited energy +of his labors. + + + + + PART II + + THE PARVENUS + + + + CHAPTER I + + PHELLION, UNDER A NEW ASPECT + +Between the first and second parts of this history an immense event +had taken place in the life of Phellion. + +There is no one who has not heard of the misfortunes of the Odeon, +that fatal theatre which, for years, ruined all its directors. Right +or wrong, the quarter in which this dramatic impossibility stands is +convinced that its prosperity depends upon it; so that more than once +the mayor and other authorities of the arrondissement have, with a +courage that honors them, taken part in the most desperate efforts to +galvanize the corpse. + +Now to meddle with theatrical matters is one of the eternally +perennial ambitions of the lesser bourgeoisie. Always, therefore, the +successive saviours of the Odeon feel themselves magnificently +rewarded if they are given ever so small a share in the administration +of that enterprise. It was at some crisis in its affairs that Minard, +in his capacity as mayor of the 11th arrondissement, had been called +to the chairmanship of the committee for reading plays, with the power +to join unto himself as assistants a certain number of the notables of +the Latin quarter,--the selection being left to him. + +We shall soon know exactly how near was the realization of la +Peyrade's projects for the possession of Celeste's "dot"; let us +merely say now that these projects in approaching maturity had +inevitably become noised abroad; and as this condition of things +pointed, of course, to the exclusion of Minard junior and also of +Felix the professor, the prejudice hitherto manifested by Minard pere +against old Phellion was transformed into an unequivocal disposition +towards friendly cordiality; there is nothing that binds and soothes +like the feeling of a checkmate shared in common. Judged without the +evil eye of paternal rivalry, Phellion became to Minard a Roman of +incorruptible integrity and a man whose little treatises had been +adopted by the University,--in other words, a man of sound and tested +intellect. + +So that when it became the duty of the mayor to select the members of +the dramatic custom-house, of which he was now the head, he +immediately thought of Phellion. As for the great citizen, he felt, on +the day when a post was offered to him in that august tribunal, that a +crown of gold had been placed upon his brow. + +It will be well understood that it was not lightly, nor without having +deeply meditated, that a man of Phellion's solemnity had accepted the +high and sacred mission which was offered to him. He said within +himself that he was called upon to exercise the functions of a +magistracy, a priestly office. + +"To judge of men," he replied to Minard, who was much surprised at his +hesitation, "is an alarming task, but to judge of minds!--who can +believe himself equal to such a mission?" + +Once more the family--that rock on which the firmest resolutions split +--had threatened to infringe on the domain of his conscience. The +thought of boxes and tickets of which the future member of the +committee could dispose in favor of his own kin had excited in the +household so eager a ferment that his freedom of decision seemed for a +moment in danger. But, happily, Brutus was able to decide himself in +the same direction along which a positive uprising of the whole +Phellionian tribe intended to push him. From the observations of +Barniol, his son-in-law, and also by his own personal inspiration, he +became persuaded that by his vote, always given to works of +irreproachable morality, and by his firm determination to bar the way +to all plays that mothers of families could not take their daughters +to witness, he was called upon to render the most signal services to +morals and public order. Phellion, to use his own expression, had +therefore become a member of the areopagus presided over by Minard, +and--still speaking as he spoke--he was issuing from the exercise of +his functions, which were both delicate and interesting, when the +conversation we are about to report took place. A knowledge of this +conversation is necessary to an understanding of the ulterior events +of this history, and it will also serve to put into relief the envious +insight which is one of the most marked traits of the bourgeois +character. + +The session of the committee had been extremely stormy. On the subject +of a tragedy entitled, "The Death of Hercules," the classic party and +the romantic party, whom the mayor had carefully balanced in the +composition of his committee, had nearly approached the point of +tearing each other's hair out. Twice Phellion had risen to speak, and +his hearers were astonished at the quantity of metaphors the speech of +a major of the National Guard could contain when his literary +convictions were imperilled. As the result of a vote, victory remained +with the opinions of which Phellion was the eloquent organ. It was +while descending the stairway of the theatre with Minard that he +remarked:-- + +"We have done a good work this day. 'The Death of Hercules' reminded +me of 'The Death of Hector,' by the late Luce de Lancival; the work we +have just accepted sparkles with sublime verses." + +"Yes," said Minard, "the versification has taste; there are some +really fine lines in it, and I admit to you that I think this sort of +literature rather above the anagrams of Master Colleville." + +"Oh!" replied Minard, "Colleville's anagrams are mere witticisms, +which have nothing in common with the sterner accents of Melpomene." + +"And yet," said Minard, "I can assure you he attaches the greatest +importance to that rubbish, and apropos to his anagrams, as, indeed, +about many other things, he is not a little puffed up. Since their +emigration to the Madeleine quarter it seems to me that not only the +Sieur Colleville, but his wife and daughter, and the Thuilliers and +the whole coterie have assumed an air of importance which is rather +difficult to justify." + +"No wonder!" said Phellion; "one must have a pretty strong head to +stand the fumes of opulence. Our friends have become so very rich by +the purchase of that property where they have gone to live that we +ought to forgive them for a little intoxication; and I must say the +dinner they gave us yesterday for a house-warming was really as well +arranged as it was succulent." + +"I myself," said Minard, "have given a few remarkable dinners to which +men in high government positions have not disdained to come, yet I am +not puffed up with pride on that account; such as my friends have +always known me, that I have remained." + +"You, Monsieur le maire, have long been habituated to the splendid +existence you have made for yourself by your high commercial talents; +our friends, on the contrary, so lately embarked on the smiling ship +of Fortune, have not yet found, as the vulgar saying is, their +sea-legs." + +And then to cut short a conversation in which Phellion began to think +the mayor rather "caustic," he made as if he intended to take leave of +him. In order to reach their respective homes they did not always take +the same way. + +"Are you going through the Luxembourg?" asked Minard, not allowing +Phellion to give him the slip. + +"I shall cross it, but I have an appointment to meet Madame Phellion +and the little Barniols at the end of the grand alley." + +"Then," said Minard, "I'll go with you and have the pleasure of making +my bow to Madame Phellion; and I shall get the fresh air at the same +time, for, in spite of hearing fine things, one's head gets tired at +the business we have just been about." + +Minard had felt that Phellion gave rather reluctant assent to his +sharp remarks about the new establishment of the Thuilliers, and he +did not attempt to renew the subject; but when he had Madame Phellion +for a listener, he was very sure that his spite would find an echo. + +"Well, fair lady," he began, "what did you think of yesterday's +dinner?" + +"It was very fine," replied Madame Phellion; "as I tasted that soup 'a +la bisque' I knew that some caterer, like Chevet, had supplanted the +cook. But the whole affair was dull; it hadn't the gaiety of our old +meetings in the Latin quarter. And then, didn't it strike you, as it +did me, that Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier no longer seemed +mistresses of their own house? I really felt as if I were the guest of +Madame--what _is_ her name? I never can remember it." + +"Torna, Comtesse de Godollo," said Phellion, intervening. "The name is +euphonious enough to remember." + +"Euphonious if you like, my dear; but to me it never seems a name at +all." + +"It is a Magyar, or to speak more commonly, a Hungarian name. Our own +name, if we wanted to discuss it, might be said to be a loan from the +Greek language." + +"Very likely; at any rate we have the advantage of being known, not +only in our own quarter, but throughout the tuition world, where we +have earned an honorable position; while this Hungarian countess, who +makes, as they say, the good and the bad weather in the Thuilliers' +home, where does she come from, I'd like to know? How did such a fine +lady,--for she has good manners and a very distinguished air, no one +denies her that,--how came she to fall in love with Brigitte; who, +between ourselves, keeps a sickening odor of the porter's lodge about +her. For my part, I think this devoted friend is an intriguing +creature, who scents money, and is scheming for some future gain." + +"Ah ca!" said Minard, "then you don't know the original cause of the +intimacy between Madame la Comtesse de Godollo and the Thuilliers?" + +"She is a tenant in their house; she occupies the entresol beneath +their apartment." + +"True, but there's something more than that in it. Zelie, my wife, +heard it from Josephine, who wanted, lately, to enter our service; the +matter came to nothing, for Francoise, our woman, who thought of +marrying, changed her mind. You must know, fair lady, that it was +solely Madame de Godollo who brought about the emigration of the +Thuilliers, whose upholsterer, as one might say, she is." + +"What! their upholsterer?" cried Phellion,--"that distinguished woman, +of whom one may truly say, 'Incessu patuit dea'; which in French we +very inadequately render by the expression, 'bearing of a queen'?" + +"Excuse me," said Minard. "I did not mean that Madame de Godollo is +actually in the furniture business; but, at the time when Mademoiselle +Thuillier decided, by la Peyrade's advice, to manage the new house +herself, that little fellow, who hasn't all the ascendancy over her +mind he thinks he has, couldn't persuade her to move the family into +the splendid apartment where they received us yesterday. Mademoiselle +Brigitte objected that she should have to change her habits, and that +her friends and relations wouldn't follow her to such a distant +quarter--" + +"It is quite certain," interrupted Madame Phellion, "that to make up +one's mind to hire a carriage every Sunday, one wants a prospect of +greater pleasure than can be found in that salon. When one thinks +that, except on the day of the famous dance of the candidacy, they +never once opened the piano in the rue Saint-Dominique!" + +"It would have been, I am sure, most agreeable to the company to have +a talent like yours put in requisition," remarked Minard; "but those +are not ideas that could ever come into the mind of that good +Brigitte. She'd have seen two more candles to light. Five-franc pieces +are her music. So, when la Peyrade and Thuillier insisted that she +should move into the apartment in the Place de la Madeleine, she +thought of nothing but the extra costs entailed by the removal. She +judged, rightly enough, that beneath those gilded ceilings her old +'penates' might have a singular effect." + +"See how all things link together," remarked Phellion, "and how, from +the summits of society, luxury infiltrates itself, sooner or later, +through the lower classes, leading to the ruin of empires." + +"You are broaching there, my dear commander," said Minard, "one of the +most knotty questions of political economy. Many good minds think, on +the contrary, that luxury is absolutely demanded in the interests of +commerce, which is certainly the life of States. In any case, this +view, which isn't yours, appears to have been that of Madame de +Godollo, for, they tell me, her apartment is very coquettishly +furnished; and to coax Mademoiselle Brigitte into the same path of +elegance she made a proposal to her as follows: 'A friend of mine,' +she said, 'a Russian princess for whom one of the first upholsterers +has just made splendid furniture, is suddenly recalled to Russia by +the czar, a gentleman with whom no one dares to trifle. The poor woman +is therefore obliged to turn everything she owns here into money as +fast as possible; and I feel sure she would sell this furniture for +ready money at a quarter of the price it cost her. All of it is nearly +new, and some things have never been used at all.'" + +"So," cried Madame Phellion, "all that magnificence displayed before +our eyes last night was a magnificent economical bargain?" + +"Just so," replied Minard; "and the thing that decided Mademoiselle +Brigitte to take that splendid chance was not so much the desire to +renew her shabby furniture as the idea of doing an excellent stroke of +business. In that old maid there's always something of Madame la +Ressource in Moliere's 'Miser.'" + +"I think, Monsieur le maire, that you are mistaken," said Phellion. +"Madame la Ressource is a character in 'Turcaret,' a very immoral play +by the late Le Sage." + +"Do you think so?" said Minard. "Well, very likely. But what is +certain is that, though the barrister ingratiated himself with +Brigitte in helping her to buy the house, it was by this clever +jockeying about the furniture that the foreign countess got upon the +footing with Brigitte that you now see. You may have remarked, +perhaps, that a struggle is going on between those two influences; +which we may designate as the house, and its furniture." + +"Yes, certainly," said Madame Phellion, with a beaming expression that +bore witness to the interest she took in the conversation, "it did +seem to me that the great lady allowed herself to contradict the +barrister, and did it, too, with a certain sharpness." + +"Very marked sharpness," resumed Minard, "and that intriguing fellow +perceives it. It strikes me that the lady's hostility makes him +uneasy. The Thuilliers he got cheaply; for, between ourselves you +know, there's not much in Thuillier himself; but he feels now that he +has met a tough adversary, and he is looking anxiously for a weak spot +on which to attack her." + +"Well, that's justice," said Madame Phellion. "For some time past that +man, who used to make himself so small and humble, has been taking +airs of authority in the house which are quite intolerable; he behaves +openly as the son-in-law; and you know very well, in that affair of +Thuillier's election he jockeyed us all, and made us the +stepping-stone for his matrimonial ambition." + +"Yes; but I can assure you," said Minard, "that at the present time +his influence is waning. In the first place, he won't find every day +for his dear, good friend, as he calls him, a fine property worth a +million to be bought for a bit of bread." + +"Then they did get that house very cheap?" said Madame Phellion, +interrogatively. + +"They got it for nothing, as the result of a dirty intrigue which the +lawyer Desroches related to me the other day. If it ever became known +to the council of the bar, that little barrister would be badly +compromised. The next thing is the coming election to the Chamber. +Eating gives appetite, as they say, and our good Thuillier is hungry; +but he begins to perceive that Monsieur de la Peyrade, when it becomes +a question of getting him that mouthful, hasn't his former opportunity +to make dupes of us. That is why the family is turning more and more +to Madame de Godollo, who seems to have some very high acquaintances +in the political world. Besides all this, in fact, without dwelling on +the election business, which is still a distant matter, this Hungarian +countess is becoming, every day, more and more a necessity to +Brigitte; for it must be owned that without the help of the great +lady, the poor soul would look in the midst of her gilded salon like a +ragged gown in a bride's trousseau." + +"Oh, Monsieur le maire, you are cruel," said Madame Phellion, +affecting compunction. + +"No, but say," returned Minard, "with your hand on your conscience, +whether Brigitte, whether Madame Thuillier could preside in such a +salon? No, it is the Hungarian countess who does it all. She furnished +the rooms; she selected the male domestic, whose excellent training +and intelligence you must have observed; it was she who arranged the +menu of that dinner; in short, she is the providence of the parvenu +colony, which, without her intervention, would have made the whole +quarter laugh at it. And--now this is a very noticeable thing--instead +of being a parasite like la Peyrade, this Hungarian lady, who seems to +have a fortune of her own, proves to be not only disinterested, but +generous. The two gowns that you saw Brigitte and Madame Thuillier +wear last night were a present from her, and it was because she came +herself to superintend the toilet of our two 'amphitryonesses' that +you were so surprised last night not to find them rigged in their +usual dowdy fashion." + +"But what can be the motive," asked Madame Phellion, "of this maternal +and devoted guardianship?" + +"My dear wife," said Phellion, solemnly, "the motives of human actions +are not always, thank God! selfishness and the consideration of vile +interests. There are hearts in this world that find pleasure in doing +good for its own sake. This lady may have seen in our good friends a +set of people about to enter blindly into a sphere they knew nothing +about, and having encouraged their first steps by the purchase of this +furniture, she may, like a nurse attached to her nursling, find +pleasure in giving them the milk of her social knowledge and her +counsels." + +"He seems to keep aloof from our strictures, the dear husband!" cried +Minard; "but just see how he goes beyond them!" + +"I!" said Phellion; "it is neither my intention nor my habit to do +so." + +"All the same it would be difficult to say more neatly that the +Thuilliers are geese, and that Madame de Godollo is bringing them up +by hand." + +"I do not accept for these friends of ours," said Phellion, "a +characterization so derogatory to their repute. I meant to say that +they were lacking, perhaps, in that form of experience, and that this +noble lady has placed at their service her knowledge of the world and +its usages. I protest against any interpretation of my language which +goes beyond my thought thus limited." + +"Well, anyhow, you will agree, my dear commander, that in the idea of +giving Celeste to this la Peyrade, there is something more than want +of experience; there is, it must be said, blundering folly and +immorality; for really the goings on of that barrister with Madame +Colleville--" + +"Monsieur le maire," interrupted Phellion, with redoubled solemnity, +"Solon, the law-giver, decreed no punishment for parricide, declaring +it to be an impossible crime. I think the same thing may be said of +the offence to which you seem to make allusion. Madame Colleville +granting favors to Monsieur de la Peyrade, and all the while intending +to give him her daughter? No, monsieur, no! that passes imagination. +Questioned on this subject, like Marie Antoinette, by a human +tribunal, Madame Colleville would answer with the queen, 'I appeal to +all mothers.'" + +"Nevertheless, my friend," said Madame Phellion, "allow me to remind +you that Madame Colleville is excessively light-minded, and has given, +as we al know, pretty good proofs of it." + +"Enough, my dear," said Phellion. "The dinner hour summons us; I think +that, little by little, we have allowed this conversation to drift +toward the miry slough of backbiting." + +"You are full of illusions, my dear commander," said Minard, taking +Phellion by the hand and shaking it; "but they are honorable +illusions, and I envy them. Madame, I have the honor--" added the +mayor, with a respectful bow to Madame Phellion. + +And each party took its way. + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE PROVENCAL'S PRESENT POSITION + +The information acquired by the mayor of the 11th arrondissement was +by no means incorrect. In the Thuillier salon, since the emigration to +the Madeleine quarter, might be seen daily, between the tart Brigitte +and the plaintive Madame Thuillier, the graceful and attractive figure +of a woman who conveyed to this salon an appearance of the most +unexpected elegance. It was quite true that through the good offices +of this lady, who had become her tenant in the new house, Brigitte had +made a speculation in furniture not less advantageous in its way, but +more avowable, than the very shady purchase of the house itself. For +six thousand francs in ready money she had obtained furniture lately +from workshops representing a value of at least thirty thousand. + +It was still further true that in consequence of a service which went +deep into her heart, Brigitte was showing to the beautiful foreign +countess the respectful deference which the bourgeoisie, in spite of +its sulky jealousy, is much less indisposed to give to titles of +nobility and high positions in the social hierarchy than people think. +As this Hungarian countess was a woman of great tact and accomplished +training, in taking the direction which she had thought it wise to +assume over the affairs of her proteges, she had been careful to guard +her influence from all appearance of meddlesome and imperious +dictation. On the contrary, she flattered Brigitte's claim to be a +model housekeeper; in her own household expenses she affected to ask +the spinster's advice; so that by reserving to herself the department +of luxurious expenses, she had more the air of giving information than +of exercising supervision. + +La Peyrade could not disguise from himself that a change was taking +place. His influence was evidently waning before that of this +stranger; but the antagonism of the countess was not confined to a +simple struggle for influence. She made no secret of being opposed to +his suit for Celeste; she gave her unequivocal approval to the love of +Felix Phellion, the professor. Minard, by whom this fact was not +unobserved, took very good care, in the midst of his other +information, not to mention it to those whom it most concerned. + +La Peyrade was all the more anxious at being thus undermined by a +hostility the cause of which was inexplicable to him, because he knew +he had himself to blame for bringing this disquieting adversary into +the very heart of his citadel. His first mistake was in yielding to +the barren pleasure of disappointing Cerizet in the lease of the +house. If Brigitte by his advice and urging had not taken the +administration of the property into her own hands there was every +probability that she would never have made the acquaintance of Madame +de Godollo. Another imprudence had been to urge the Thuilliers to +leave their old home in the Latin quarter. + +At this period, when his power and credit had reached their apogee, +Theodose considered his marriage a settled thing; and he now felt an +almost childish haste to spring into the sphere of elegance which +seemed henceforth to be his future. He had therefore furthered the +inducements of the countess, feeling that he thus sent the Thuilliers +before him to make his bed in the splendid apartment he intended to +share with them. By thus removing them from their old home he saw +another advantage,--that of withdrawing Celeste from daily intercourse +with a rival who seemed to him dangerous. Deprived of the advantage of +propinquity, Felix would be forced to make his visits farther apart; +and therefore there would be greater facilities to ruin him in the +girl's heart, where he was installed on condition of giving religious +satisfaction,--a requirement to which he showed himself refractory. + +But in all these plans and schemes various drawbacks confronted him. +To enlarge the horizon of the Thuilliers was for la Peyrade to run the +chance of creating competition for the confidence and admiration of +which he had been till then the exclusive object. In the sort of +provincial life they had hitherto lived, Brigitte and his dear, good +friend placed him, for want of comparison, at a height from which the +juxtaposition of other superiorities and elegances must bring him +down. So, then, apart from the blows covertly dealt him by Madame de +Godollo, the idea of the transpontine emigration had proved to be, on +the whole, a bad one. + +The Collevilles had followed their friends the Thuilliers, to the new +house near the Madeleine, where an entresol at the back had been +conceded to them at a price conformable to their budget. But +Colleville declared it lacked light and air, and being obliged to +go daily from the boulevard of the Madeleine to the faubourg +Saint-Jacques, where his office was, he fumed against the arrangement +of which he was the victim, and felt at times that la Peyrade was a +tyrant. Madame Colleville, on the other hand, had flung herself into +an alarming orgy of bonnets, mantles, and new gowns, requiring the +presentation of a mass of bills, which led not infrequently to scenes +in the household which were more or less stormy. As for Celeste, she +had undoubtedly fewer opportunities to see young Phellion, but she had +also fewer chances to rush into religious controversy; and absence, +which is dangerous to none but inferior attachments, made her think +more tenderly and less theologically of the man of her dreams. + +But all these false calculations of Theodose were as nothing in the +balance with another cause for his diminishing influence which was now +to weigh heavily on his situation. + +He had assured Thuillier that, after a short delay and the payment of +ten thousand francs, to which his dear, good friend submitted with +tolerable grace, the cross of the Legion of honor would arrive to +realize the secret desire of all his life. Two months had now passed +without a sign of that glorious rattle; and the former sub-director, +who would have felt such joy in parading his red ribbon on the +boulevard of the Madeleine, of which he was now one of the most +assiduous promenaders, had nothing to adorn his buttonhole but the +flowers of the earth, the privilege of everybody,--of which he was far +less proud than Beranger. + +La Peyrade had, to be sure, mentioned an unforeseen and inexplicable +difficulty by which all the efforts of the Comtesse du Bruel had been +paralyzed; but Thuillier did not take comfort in the explanation; and +on certain days, when the disappointment became acute, he was very +near saying with Chicaneau in Les Plaideurs, "Return my money." + +However, no outbreak happened, for la Peyrade held him in leash by the +famous pamphlet on "Taxation and the Sliding-Scale"; the conclusion of +which had been suspended during the excitement of the moving; for +during that agitating period Thuillier had been unable to give proper +care to the correction of proofs, about which, we may remember, he had +reserved the right of punctilious examination. La Peyrade had now +reached a point when he was forced to see that, in order to restore +his influence, which was daily evaporating, he must strike some grand +blow; and it was precisely this nagging and vexatious fancy about the +proofs that the barrister decided to take as the starting-point of a +scheme, both deep and adventurous, which came into his mind. + +One day, when the pair were engaged on the sheets of the pamphlet, a +discussion arose upon the word "nepotism," which Thuillier wished to +eliminate from one of la Peyrade's sentences, declaring that never had +he met with it anywhere; it was pure neologism--which, to the literary +notions of the bourgeoisie, is equivalent to the idea of 1793 and the +Terror. + +Generally la Peyrade took the ridiculous remarks of his dear, good +friend pretty patiently; but on this occasion he made himself +exceedingly excited, and signified to Thuillier that he might +terminate himself a work to which he applied such luminous and +intelligent criticism; after which remark he departed and was not seen +again for several days. + +At first Thuillier supposed this outbreak to be a mere passing effect +of ill-humor; but when la Peyrade's absence grew prolonged he felt the +necessity of taking some conciliatory step, and accordingly he went to +see the barrister, intending to make honorable amends and so put an +end to his sulkiness. Wishing, however, to give this advance an air +which allowed an honest issue to his own self-love, he entered la +Peyrade's room with an easy manner, and said, cheerfully:-- + +"Well, my dear fellow, it turns out that we were both right: +'nepotism' means the authority that the nephews of popes take in +public affairs. I have searched the dictionary and it gives no other +explanation; but, from what Phellion tells me, I find that in the +political vocabulary the meaning of the word has been extended to +cover the influence which corrupt ministers permit certain persons to +exercise illegally. I think, therefore, that we may retain the +expression, though it is certainly not taken in that sense by Napoleon +Landais." + +La Peyrade, who, in receiving his visitor, had affected to be +extremely busy in sorting his papers, contented himself by shrugging +his shoulders and saying nothing. + +"Well," said Thuillier, "have you got the last proofs? We ought to be +getting on." + +"If you have sent nothing to the printing-office," replied la Peyrade, +"of course there are no proofs. I myself haven't touched the +manuscript." + +"But, my dear Theodose," said Thuillier, "it isn't possible that for +such a trifle you are affronted. I don't pretend to be a writer, only +as my name is on the book I have, I think, the right to my opinion +about a word." + +"But 'Mossie' Phellion," replied Theodose, "is a writer; and inasmuch +as you have consulted him, I don't see why you can't engage him to +finish the work in which, for my part, I have resolved not to +co-operate any longer." + +"Heavens! what temper!" cried Thuillier; "here you are furious just +because I seemed to question a word and then consulted some one. You +know very well that I have read passages to Phellion, Colleville, +Minard, and Barniol as if the work were mine, in order to see the +effect it would produce upon the public; but that's no reason why I +should be willing to give my name to the things they are capable of +writing. Do you wish me to give you a proof of the confidence I have +in you? Madame la Comtesse de Godollo, to whom I read a few pages last +night, told me that the pamphlet was likely to get me into trouble +with the authorities; but I wouldn't allow what she said to have any +influence upon me." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "I think that the oracle of the family sees +the matter clearly; and I've no desire to bring your head to the +scaffold." + +"All that is nonsense," said Thuillier. "Have you, or have you not, an +intention to leave me in the lurch?" + +"Literary questions make more quarrels among friends than political +questions," replied Theodose. "I wish to put an end to these +discussions between us." + +"But, my dear Theodose, never have I assumed to be a literary man. I +think I have sound common-sense, and I say out my ideas; you can't be +angry at that; and if you play me this trick, and refuse to +collaborate any longer, it is because you have some other grudge +against me that I know nothing about." + +"I don't see why you call it a trick. There's nothing easier for you +than not to write a pamphlet; you'll simply be Jerome Thuillier, as +before." + +"And yet it was you yourself who declared that this publication would +help my election; besides, I repeat, I have read passages to all our +friends, I have announced the matter in the municipal council, and if +the work were not to appear I should be dishonored; people would be +sure to say the government had bought me up." + +"You have only to say that you are the friend of Phellion, the +incorruptible; that will clear you. You might even give Celeste to his +booby of a son; that alliance would certainly protect you from all +suspicion." + +"Theodose," said Thuillier, "there is something in your mind that you +don't tell me. It is not natural that for a simple quarrel about a +word you should wish to lose a friend like me." + +"Well, yes, there is," replied la Peyrade, with the air of a man who +makes up his mind to speak out. "I don't like ingratitude." + +"Nor I either; I don't like it," said Thuillier, hotly; "and if you +accuse me of so base an action, I summon you to explain yourself. We +must get out of these hints and innuendoes. What do you complain of? +What have you against a man whom only a few days ago you called your +friend?" + +"Nothing and everything," replied la Peyrade. "You and your sister are +much too clever to break openly with a man who, at the risk of his +reputation, has put a million in your hands. But I am not so simple +that I don't know how to detect changes. There are people about you +who have set themselves, in an underhand way, to destroy me; and +Brigitte has only one thought, and that is, how to find a decent way +of not keeping her promises. Men like me don't wait till their claims +are openly protested, and I certainly do not intend to impose myself +on any family; still, I was far, I acknowledge, from expecting such +treatment." + +"Come, come," said Thuillier, kindly, seeing in the barrister's eye +the glint of a tear of which he was completely the dupe, "I don't know +what Brigitte may have been doing to you, but one thing is very +certain: I have never ceased to be your most devoted friend." + +"No," said la Peyrade, "since that mishap about the cross I am only +good, as the saying is, to throw to the dogs. How could I have +struggled against secret influences? Possibly it is that pamphlet, +about which you have talked a great deal too much, that has hindered +your appointment. The ministers are so stupid! They would rather wait +and have their hand forced by the fame of the publication than do the +thing with a good grace as the reward of your services. But these are +political mysteries which would never enter your sister's mind." + +"The devil!" cried Thuillier. "I think I've got a pretty observing +eye, and yet I can't see the slightest change in Brigitte toward you." + +"Oh, yes!" said la Peyrade, "your eyesight is so good that you have +never seen perpetually beside her that Madame de Godollo, whom she now +thinks she can't live without." + +"Ha, ha!" said Thuillier, slyly, "so it is a little jealousy, is it, +in our mind?" + +"Jealousy!" retorted la Peyrade. "I don't know if that's the right +word, but certainly your sister--whose mind is nothing above the +ordinary, and to whom I am surprised that a man of your intellectual +superiority allows a supremacy in your household which she uses and +abuses--" + +"How can I help it, my dear fellow," interrupted Thuillier, sucking in +the compliment; "she is so absolutely devoted to me." + +"I admit the weakness, but, I repeat, your sister doesn't fit into +your groove. Well, I say that when a man of the value which you are +good enough to recognize in me, does her the honor to consult her and +devote himself to her as I have done, it can hardly be agreeable to +him to find himself supplanted by a woman who comes from nobody knows +where--and all because of a few trumpery chairs and tables she has +helped her to buy!" + +"With women, as you know very well," replied Thuillier, "household +affairs have the first place." + +"And Brigitte, who wants a finger in everything, also assumes to carry +matters with a high hand in affairs of the heart. As you are so +extraordinarily clear-sighted you ought to have seen that in +Brigitte's mind nothing is less certain than my marriage with +Mademoiselle Colleville; and yet my love has been solemnly authorized +by you." + +"Good gracious!" cried Thuillier, "I'd like to see any one attempt to +meddle with my arrangements!" + +"Well, without speaking of Brigitte, I can tell you of another +person," said Theodose, "who is doing that very thing; and that person +is Mademoiselle Celeste herself. In spite of their quarrels about +religion, her mind is none the less full of that little Phellion." + +"But why don't you tell Flavie to put a stop to it?" + +"No one knows Flavie, my dear Thuillier, better than you. She is a +woman rather than a mother. I have found it necessary to do a little +bit of courting to her myself, and, you understand, while she is +willing for this marriage she doesn't desire it very much." + +"Well," said Thuillier, "I'll undertake to speak to Celeste myself. It +shall never be said that a slip of a girl lays down the law to me." + +"That's exactly what I don't want you to do," cried la Peyrade. "Don't +meddle in all this. Outside of your relations to your sister you have +an iron will, and I will never have it said that you exerted your +authority to put Celeste in my arms; on the contrary, I desire that +the child may have complete control over her own heart. The only thing +I request is that she shall decide positively between Felix Phellion +and myself; because I do not choose to remain any longer in this +doubtful position. It is true we agreed that the marriage should only +take place after you became a deputy; but I feel now that it is +impossible to allow the greatest event of my life to remain at the +mercy of doubtful circumstances. And, besides, such an arrangement, +though at first agreed upon, seems to me now to have a flavor of a +bargain which is unbecoming to both of us. I think I had better make +you a confidence, to which I am led by the unpleasant state of things +now between us. Dutocq may have told you, before you left the +apartment in the rue Saint-Dominique, that an heiress had been offered +to me whose immediate fortune is larger than that which Mademoiselle +Colleville will eventually inherit. I refused, because I have had the +folly to let my heart be won, and because an alliance with a family as +honorable as yours seemed to me more desirable; but, after all, it is +as well to let Brigitte know that if Celeste refuses me, I am not +absolutely turned out into the cold." + +"I can easily believe that," said Thuillier; "but as for putting the +whole decision into the hands of that little girl, especially if she +has, as you tell me, a fancy for Felix--" + +"I can't help it," said the barrister. "I must, at any price, get out +of this position; it is no longer tenable. You talk about your +pamphlet; I am not in a fit condition to finish it. You, who have been +a man of gallantry, you must know the dominion that women, fatal +creatures! exercise over our whole being." + +"Bah!" said Thuillier, conceitedly, "they cared for me, but I did not +often care for them; I took them, and left them, you know." + +"Yes, but I, with my Southern nature, love passionately; and Celeste +has other attractions besides fortune. Brought up in your household, +under your own eye, you have made her adorable. Only, I must say, you +have shown great weakness in letting that young fellow, who does not +suit her in any respect, get such hold upon her fancy." + +"You are quite right; but the thing began in a childish friendship; +she and Felix played together. You came much later; and it is a proof +of the great esteem in which we hold you, that when you made your +offer we renounced our earlier projects." + +"_You_ did, yes," said la Peyrade, "and with some literary manias +--which, after all, are frequently full of sense and wit--you have a +heart of gold; with you friendship is a sure thing, and you know what +you mean. But Brigitte is another matter; you'll see, when you propose +to her to hasten the marriage, what a resistance she will make." + +"I don't agree with you. I think that Brigitte has always wanted you +and still wants you for son-in-law--if I may so express myself. But +whether she does or not, I beg you to believe that in all important +matters I know how to have my will obeyed. Only, let us come now to a +distinct understanding of what you wish; then we can start with the +right foot foremost, and you'll see that all will go well." + +"I wish," replied la Peyrade, "to put the last touches to your +pamphlet; for, above all things, I think of you." + +"Certainly," said Thuillier, "we ought not to sink in port." + +"Well, in consequence of the feeling that I am oppressed, stultified +by the prospect of a marriage still so doubtful, I am certain that not +a page of manuscript could be got out of me in any form, until the +question is settled." + +"Very good," said Thuillier; "then how do you present that question?" + +"Naturally, if Celeste's decision be against me, I should wish an +immediate solution. If I am condemned to make a marriage of +convenience I ought to lose no time in taking the opportunity I +mentioned to you." + +"So be it; but what time do you intend to allow us?" + +"I should think that in fifteen days a girl might be able to make up +her mind." + +"Undoubtedly," replied Thuillier; "but it is very repugnant to me to +let Celeste decide without appeal." + +"For my part, I will take that risk; in any case, I shall be rid of +uncertainty; and that is really my first object. Between ourselves, I +am not risking as much as you think. It will take more than fifteen +days for a son of Phellion, in other words, obstinacy incarnate in +silliness, to have done with philosophical hesitations; and it is very +certain that Celeste will not accept him for a husband unless he gives +her some proofs of conversion." + +"That's probable. But suppose Celeste tries to dawdle; suppose she +refuses to accept the alternative?" + +"That's your affair," said the Provencal. "I don't know how you regard +the family in Paris; I only know that in my part of the country it is +an unheard-of thing that a girl should have such liberty. If you, your +sister (supposing she plays fair in the matter), and the father and +mother can't succeed in making a girl whom you dower agree to so +simple a thing as to make a perfectly free choice between two suitors, +then good-bye to you! You'll have to write upon your gate-post that +Celeste is queen and sovereign of the house." + +"Well, we haven't got to that point yet," said Thuillier, with a +capable air. + +"As for you, my old fellow," resumed la Peyrade, "I must postpone our +business until after Celeste's decision. Be that in my favor or not, I +will then go to work, and in three days the pamphlet can be finished." + +"Now," said Thuillier, "I know what you have had on your mind. I'll +talk about it with Brigitte." + +"That's a sad conclusion," said la Peyrade; "but, unhappily, so it +is." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I would rather, as you can easily imagine, hear you say of yourself +that the thing shall be done; but old habits can't be broken up." + +"Ah ca! do you think I'm a man without any will, any initiative of my +own?" + +"No! but I'd like to be hidden in a corner and hear how you will open +the subject with your sister." + +"Parbleu! I shall open it frankly. I WILL, very firmly said, shall +meet every one of her objections." + +"Ah, my poor fellow!" said la Peyrade, clapping him on the shoulder, +"from Chrysale down how often have we seen brave warriors lowering +their penants before the wills of women accustomed to master them!" + +"We'll see about _that_," replied Thuillier, making a theatrical exit. + +The eager desire to publish his pamphlet, and the clever doubt thrown +upon the strength of his will had made him furious,--an actual tiger; +and he went away resolved, in case of opposition, to reduce his +household, as the saying is, by fire and sword. + +When he reached home Thuillier instantly laid the question before +Brigitte. She, with her crude good sense and egotism, pointed out to +him that by thus hastening the period formerly agreed upon for the +marriage, they committed the blunder of disarming themselves; they +could not be sure that when the election took place la Peyrade would +put the same zeal into preparing for it. "It might be," said the old +maid, "just as it has been about the cross." + +"There's this difference," said Thuillier; "the cross doesn't depend +directly upon la Peyrade, whereas the influence he exerts in the 12th +arrondissement he can employ as he will." + +"And suppose he willed, after we have feathered his nest," said +Brigitte, "to work his influence for his own election? He is very +ambitious, you know." + +This danger did not fail to strike the mind of the future legislator, +who thought, however, that he might feel some security in the honor +and morality of la Peyrade. + +"A man's honor can't be very delicate," returned Brigitte, "when he +tries to get out of a bargain; and this fashion of dangling a bit of +sugar before us about getting your pamphlet finished, doesn't please +me at all. Can't you get Phellion to help you, and do without +Theodose? Or, I dare say, Madame de Godollo, who knows everybody in +politics, could find you a journalist--they say there are plenty of +them out at elbows; a couple of hundred francs would do the thing." + +"But the secret would get into the papers," said Thuillier. "No, I +must absolutely have Theodose; he knows that, and he makes these +conditions. After all, we did promise him Celeste, and it is only +fulfilling the promise a year earlier--what am I saying?--a few +months, a few weeks, possibly; for the king may dissolve the Chamber +before any one expects it." + +"But suppose Celeste won't have him?" objected Brigitte. + +"Celeste! Celeste, indeed!" ejaculated Thuillier; "she _must_ have +whomsoever we choose. We ought to have thought of that when we made +the engagement with la Peyrade; our word is passed now, you know. +Besides, if the child is allowed to choose between la Peyrade and +Phellion--" + +"So you really think," said the sceptical old maid, "that if Celeste +decides for Phellion you can still count on la Peyrade's devotion?" + +"What else can I do? Those are his conditions. Besides, the fellow has +calculated the whole thing; he knows very well that Felix will never +bring himself in two weeks to please Celeste by going to confession, +and unless he does, that little monkey will never accept him for a +husband. La Peyrade's game is very clever." + +"Too clever," said Brigitte. "Well, settle the matter as you choose; I +shall not meddle; all this manoeuvring is not to my taste." + +Thuillier went to see Madame Colleville, and intimated to her that she +must inform Celeste of the designs upon her. + +Celeste had never been officially authorized to indulge her sentiment +for Felix Phellion. Flavie, on the contrary, had once expressly +forbidden her to encourage the hopes of the young professor; but as, +on the part of Madame Thuillier, her godmother and her confidant, she +knew she was sustained in her inclination, she had let herself gently +follow it without thinking very seriously of the obstacles her choice +might encounter. When, therefore, she was ordered to choose at once +between Felix and la Peyrade, the simple-hearted girl was at first +only struck by the advantages of one half of the alternative, and she +fancied she did herself a great service by agreeing to an arrangement +which made her the mistress of her own choice and allowed her to +bestow it as her heart desired. + +But la Peyrade was not mistaken in his calculation when he reckoned +that the religious intolerance of the young girl on one side, and the +philosophical inflexibility of Phellion's son on the other, would +create an invincible obstacle to their coming together. + + + + CHAPTER III + + GOOD BLOOD CANNOT LIE + +The evening of the day on which Flavie had communicated to Celeste the +sovereign orders of Thuillier, the Phellions called to spend the +evening with Brigitte, and a very sharp engagement took place between +the two young people. Mademoiselle Colleville did not need to be told +by her mother that it would be extremely unbecoming if she allowed +Felix to know of the conditional approval that was granted to their +sentiments. Celeste had too much delicacy, and too much real religious +feeling to wish to obtain the conversion of the man she loved on any +other ground than that of his conviction. Their evening was therefore +passed in theological debate; but love is so strange a Proteus, and +takes so many and such various forms, that though it appeared on this +occasion in a black gown and a mob cap, it was not at all as +ungraceful and displeasing as might have been imagined. But Phellion +junior was in this encounter, the solemnity of which he little knew, +unlucky and blundering to the last degree. Not only did he concede +nothing, but he took a tone of airy and ironical discussion, and ended +by putting poor Celeste so beside herself that she finally declared an +open rupture and forbade him to appear in her presence again. + +It was just the case for a lover more experienced than the young +savant to reappear the very next day, for young hearts are never so +near to understanding each other as when they have just declared the +necessity of eternal separation. But this law is not one of +logarithms, and Felix Phellion, being incapable of guessing it, +thought himself positively and finally banished; so much so, that +during the fifteen days granted to the poor girl to deliberate (as +says the Code in the matter of beneficiary bequests), although he was +expected day by day, and from minute to minute by Celeste, who gave no +more thought to la Peyrade than if he had nothing to do with the +question, the deplorably stupid youth did not have the most distant +idea of breaking his ban. + +Luckily for this hopeless lover, a beneficent fairy was watching over +him, and the evening before the day on which the young girl was to +make her decision the following affair took place. + +It was Sunday, the day on which the Thuilliers still kept up their +weekly receptions. + +Madame Phellion, convinced that the housekeeping leakage, vulgarly +called "the basket dance," was the ruin of the best-regulated +households, was in the habit of going in person to her tradespeople. +From time immemorial in the Phellion establishment, Sunday was the day +of the "pot-au-feu," and the wife of the great citizen, in that +intentionally dowdy costume in which good housekeepers bundle +themselves when they go to market, was prosaically returning from a +visit to the butcher, followed by her cook and the basket, in which +lay a magnificent cut of the loin of beef. Twice had she rung her own +doorbell, and terrible was the storm gathering on the head of the +foot-boy, who by his slowness in opening the door was putting his +mistress in a situation less tolerable than that of Louis XIV., who +had only _almost_ waited. In her feverish impatience Madame Phellion had +just given the bell a third and ferocious reverberation, when, judge +of her confusion, a little coupe drew up with much clatter at the door +of her house, and a lady descended, whom she recognized, at this +untimely hour, as the elegant Comtesse Torna de Godollo! + +Turning a purplish scarlet, the unfortunate bourgeoise lost her head, +and, floundering in excuses, she was about to complicate the position +by some signal piece of awkwardness, when, happily for her, Phellion, +attracted by the noise of the bell, and attired in a dressing-gown and +Greek cap, came out of his study to inquire what was the matter. After +a speech, the pompous charm of which did much to compensate for his +dishabille, the great citizen, with the serenity that never abandoned +him, offered his hand very gallantly to the lady, and having installed +her in the salon, said:-- + +"May I, without indiscretion, ask Madame la comtesse what has procured +for us the unhoped-for advantage of this visit?" + +"I have come," said the lady, "to talk with Madame Phellion on a +matter which must deeply interest her. I have no other way of meeting +her without witnesses; and therefore, though I am hardly known to +Madame Phellion, I have taken the liberty to call upon her here." + +"Madame, your visit is a great honor to this poor dwelling. But where +is Madame Phellion?" added the worthy man, impatiently, going towards +the door. + +"No, I beg of you, don't disturb her," said the countess; "I have +heedlessly come at a moment when she is busy with household cares. +Brigitte has been my educator in such matters, and I know the respect +we ought to pay to good housekeepers. Besides, I have the pleasure of +your presence, which I scarcely expected." + +Before Phellion could reply to these obliging words, Madame Phellion +appeared. A cap with ribbons had taken the place of the market bonnet, +and a large shawl covered the other insufficiencies of the morning +toilet. When his wife arrived, the great citizen made as though he +would discreetly retire. + +"Monsieur Phellion," said the countess, "you are not one too many in +the conference I desire with madame; on the contrary, your excellent +judgment will be most useful in throwing light upon a matter as +interesting to you as to your wife. I allude to the marriage of your +son." + +"The marriage of my son!" cried Madame Phellion, with a look of +astonishment; "but I am not aware that anything of the kind is at +present in prospect." + +"The marriage of Monsieur Felix with Mademoiselle Celeste is, I think, +one of your strongest desires--" + +"But we have never," said Phellion, "taken any overt steps for that +object." + +"I know that only too well," replied the countess; "on the contrary, +every one in your family seems to study how to defeat my efforts in +that direction. However, one thing is clear in spite of the reserve, +and, you must allow me to say so, the clumsiness in which the affair +has been managed, and that is that the young people love each other, +and they will both be unhappy if they do not marry. Now, to prevent +this catastrophe is the object with which I have come here this +morning." + +"We cannot, madame, be otherwise than deeply sensible of the interest +you are so good as to show in the happiness of our son," said +Phellion; "but, in truth, this interest--" + +"Is something so inexplicable," interrupted the countess, "that you +feel a distrust of it?" + +"Oh! madame!" said Phellion, bowing with an air of respectful dissent. + +"But," continued the lady, "the explanation of my proceeding is very +simple. I have studied Celeste, and in that dear and artless child I +find a moral weight and value which would make me grieve to see her +sacrificed." + +"You are right, madame," said Madame Phellion. "Celeste is, indeed, an +angel of sweetness." + +"As for monsieur Felix, I venture to interest myself because, in the +first place, he is the son of so virtuous a father--" + +"Oh, madame! I entreat--" said Phellion, bowing again. + +"--and he also attracts me by the awkwardness of true love, which +appears in all his actions and all his words. We mature women find an +inexpressible charm in seeing the tender passion under a form which +threatens us with no deceptions and no misunderstandings." + +"My son is certainly not brilliant," said Madame Phellion, with a +faint tone of sharpness; "he is not a fashionable young man." + +"But he has the qualities that are most essential," replied the +countess, "and a merit which ignores itself,--a thing of the utmost +consequence in all intellectual superiority--" + +"Really, madame," said Phellion, "you force us to hear things that--" + +"That are not beyond the truth," interrupted the countess. "Another +reason which leads me to take a deep interest in the happiness of +these young people is that I am not so desirous for that of Monsieur +Theodose de la Peyrade, who is false and grasping. On the ruin of +their hopes that man is counting to carry out his swindling purposes." + +"It is quite certain," said Phellion, "that there are dark depths in +Monsieur de la Peyrade where light does not penetrate." + +"And as I myself had the misfortune to marry a man of his description, +the thought of the wretchedness to which Celeste would be condemned by +so fatal a connection, impels me, in the hope of saving her, to the +charitable effort which now, I trust, has ceased to surprise you." + +"Madame," said Phellion, "we do not need the conclusive explanations +by which you illumine your conduct; but as to the faults on our part, +which have thwarted your generous efforts, I must declare that in +order to avoid committing them in future, it seems to me not a little +desirable that you should plainly indicate them." + +"How long is it," asked the countess, "since any of your family have +paid a visit to the Thuilliers'?" + +"If my memory serves me," said Phellion, "I think we were all there +the Sunday after the dinner for the house-warming." + +"Fifteen whole days of absence!" exclaimed the countess; "and you +think that nothing of importance could happen in fifteen days?" + +"No, indeed! did not three glorious days in July, 1830, cast down a +perjured dynasty and found the noble order of things under which we +now live?" + +"You see it yourself!" said the countess. "Now, tell me, during that +evening, fifteen days ago, did nothing serious take place between your +son and Celeste?" + +"Something did occur," replied Phellion,--"a very disagreeable +conversation on the subject of my son's religious opinions; it must be +owned that our good Celeste, who in all other respects has a charming +nature, is a trifle fanatic in the matter of piety." + +"I agree to that," said the countess; "but she was brought up by the +mother whom you know; she was never shown the face of true piety; she +saw only the mimicry of it. Repentant Magdalens of the Madame +Colleville species always assume an air of wishing to retire to a +desert with their death's-head and crossed bones. They think they +can't get salvation at a cheaper rate. But after all, what did Celeste +ask of Monsieur Felix? Merely that he would read 'The Imitation of +Christ.'" + +"He has read it, madame," said Phellion, "and he thinks it a book +extremely well written; but his convictions--and that is a misfortune +--have not been affected by the perusal." + +"And do you think he shows much cleverness in not assuring his +mistress of some little change in his inflexible convictions?" + +"My son, madame, has never received from me the slightest lesson in +cleverness; loyalty, uprightness, those are the principles I have +endeavored to inculcate in him." + +"It seems to me, monsieur, that there is no want of loyalty when, in +dealing with a troubled mind, we endeavor to avoid wounding it. But +let us agree that Monsieur Felix owed it to himself to be that iron +door against which poor Celeste's applications beat in vain; was that +a reason for keeping away from her and sulking in his tent for fifteen +whole days? Above all, ought he to have capped these sulks by a +proceeding which I can't forgive, and which--only just made known to +us--has struck the girl's heart with despair, and also with a feeling +of extreme irritation?" + +"My son capable of any such act! it is quite impossible, madame!" +cried Phellion. "I know nothing of this proceeding; but I do not +hesitate to affirm that you have been ill-informed." + +"And yet, nothing is more certain. Young Colleville, who came home +to-day for his half-holiday, has just told us that Monsieur Felix, who +had previously gone with the utmost punctuality to hear him recite has +ceased entirely to have anything to do with him. Unless your son is +ill, I do not hesitate to say that this neglect is the greatest of +blunders, in the situation in which he now stands with the sister he +ought not to have chosen this moment to put an end to these lessons." + +The Phellions looked at each other as if consulting how to reply. + +"My son," said Madame Phellion, "is not exactly ill; but since you +mention a fact which is, I acknowledge, very strange and quite out of +keeping with his nature and habits, I think it right to tell you that +from the day when Celeste seemed to signify that all was at an end +between them, a very extraordinary change has come over Felix, which +is causing Monsieur Phellion and myself the deepest anxiety." + +"Yes, madame," said Phellion, "the young man is certainly not in his +normal condition." + +"But what is the matter with him?" asked the countess, anxiously. + +"The night of that scene with Celeste," replied Phellion, "after his +return home, he wept a flood of hot tears on his mother's bosom, and +gave us to understand that the happiness of his whole life was at an +end." + +"And yet," said Madame de Godollo, "nothing very serious happened; but +lovers always make the worst of things." + +"No doubt," said Madame Phellion; "but since that night Felix has not +made the slightest allusion to his misfortune, and the next day he +went back to his work with a sort of frenzy. Does that seem natural to +you?" + +"It is capable of explanation; work is said to be a great consoler." + +"That is most true," said Phellion; "but in Felix's whole personality +there is something excited, and yet repressed, which is difficult to +describe. You speak to him, and he hardly seems to hear you; he sits +down to table and forgets to eat, or takes his food with an +absent-mindedness which the medical faculty consider most injurious to +the process of digestion; his duties, his regular occupations, we have +to remind him of--him, so extremely regular, so punctual! The other +day, when he was at the Observatory, where he now spends all his +evenings, only coming home in the small hours, I took it upon myself +to enter his room and examine his papers. I was terrified, madame, at +finding a paper covered with algebraic calculations which, by their +vast extent appeared to me to go beyond the limits of the human +intellect." + +"Perhaps," said the countess, "he is on the road to some great +discovery." + +"Or to madness," said Madame Phellion, in a low voice, and with a +heavy sigh. + +"That is not probable," said Madame de Godollo; "with an organization +so calm and a mind so well balanced, he runs but little danger of that +misfortune. I know myself of another danger that threatens him +to-morrow, and unless we can take some steps this evening to avert it, +Celeste is positively lost to him." + +"How so?" said the husband and wife together. + +"Perhaps you are not aware," replied the countess, "that Thuillier and +his sister have made certain promises to Monsieur de la Peyrade about +Celeste?" + +"We suspected as much," replied Madame Phellion. + +"The fulfilment of these pledges was postponed to a rather distant +period, and subordinated to certain conditions. Monsieur de la +Peyrade, after enabling them to buy the house near the Madeleine, +pledged himself not only to obtain the cross for Monsieur Thuillier, +but to write in his name a political pamphlet, and assist him in his +election to the Chamber of Deputies. It sounds like the romances of +chivalry, in which the hero, before obtaining the hand of the +princess, is compelled to exterminate a dragon." + +"Madame is very witty," said Madame Phellion, looking at her husband, +who made her a sign not to interrupt. + +"I have no time now," said the countess; "in fact it would be useless +to tell you the manoeuvres by which Monsieur de la Peyrade has +contrived to hasten the period of this marriage; but it concerns you +to know that, thanks to his duplicity, Celeste is being forced to +choose between him and Monsieur Felix; fifteen days were given her in +which to make her choice; the time expires to-morrow, and, thanks to +the unfortunate state of feeling into which your son's attitude has +thrown her, there is very serious danger of seeing her sacrifice to +her wounded feelings the better sentiments of her love and her +instincts." + +"But what can be done to prevent it?" asked Phellion. + +"Fight, monsieur; come this evening in force to the Thuilliers'; +induce Monsieur Felix to accompany you; lecture him until he promises +to be a little more flexible in his philosophical opinions. Paris, +said Henri IV., is surely worth a mass. But let him avoid all such +questions; he can certainly find in his heart the words and tones to +move a woman who loves him; it requires so little to satisfy her! I +shall be there myself, and I will help him to my utmost ability; +perhaps, under the inspiration of the moment, I may think of some way +to do effectually. One thing is very certain: we have to fight a great +battle to-night, and if we do not ALL do our duty valorously, la +Peyrade may win it." + +"My son is not here, madame," said Phellion, "and I regret it, for +perhaps your generous devotion and urgent words would succeed in +shaking off his torpor; but, at any rate, I will lay before him the +gravity of the situation, and, beyond all doubt, he will accompany us +to-night to the Thuilliers'." + +"It is needless to say," added the countess, rising, "that we must +carefully avoid the very slightest appearance of collusion; we must +not converse together; in fact, unless it can be done in some casual +way, it would be better not to speak." + +"I beg you to rely, madame, upon my prudence," replied Phellion, "and +kindly accept the assurance--" + +"Of your most distinguished sentiments," interrupted the countess, +laughing. + +"No, madame," replied Phellion, gravely, "I reserve that formula for +the conclusion of my letters; I beg you to accept the assurance of my +warmest and most unalterable gratitude." + +"We will talk of that when we are out of danger," said Madame de +Godollo, moving towards the door; "and if Madame Phellion, the +tenderest and most virtuous of mothers, will grant me a little place +in her esteem, I shall count myself more than repaid for my trouble." + +Madame Phellion plunged headlong into a responsive compliment; and the +countess, in her carriage, was at some distance from the house before +Phellion had ceased to offer her his most respectful salutations. + +As the Latin-quarter element in Brigitte's salon became more rare and +less assiduous, a livelier Paris began to infiltrate it. Among his +colleagues in the municipal council and among the upper employees of +the prefecture of the Seine, the new councillor had made several very +important recruits. The mayor, and the deputy mayors of the +arrondissement, on whom, after his removal to the Madeleine quarter, +Thuillier had called, hastened to return the civility; and the same +thing happened with the superior officers of the first legion. The +house itself had produced a contingent; and several of the new tenants +contributed, by their presence, to change the aspect of the dominical +meetings. Among the number we must mention Rabourdin [see +"Bureaucracy"], the former head of Thuillier's office at the ministry +of finance. Having had the misfortune to lose his wife, whose salon, +at an earlier period, checkmated that of Madame Colleville, Rabourdin +occupied as a bachelor the third floor, above the apartment let to +Cardot, the notary. As the result of an odious slight to his just +claims, Rabourdin had voluntarily resigned his public functions. At +this time, when he again met Thuillier, he was director of one of +those numerous projected railways, the construction of which is always +delayed by either parliamentary rivalry or parliamentary indecision. +Let us say, in passing, that the meeting with this able administrator, +now become an important personage in the financial world, was an +occasion to the worthy and honest Phellion to display once more his +noble character. At the time of the resignation to which Rabourdin had +felt himself driven, Phellion alone, of all the clerks in the office, +had stood by him in his misfortunes. Being now in a position to bestow +a great number of places, Rabourdin, on meeting once more his faithful +subordinate, hastened to offer him a position both easy and lucrative. + +"Mossieu," said Phellion, "your benevolence touches me and honors me, +but my frankness owes you an avowal, which I beg you not to take in +ill part: I do not believe in 'railways,' as the English call them." + +"That's an opinion to which you have every right," said Rabourdin, +smiling; "but, meanwhile, until the contrary is proved, we pay the +employees in our office well, and I should be glad to have you with me +in that capacity. I know by experience that you are a man on whom I +can count." + +"Mossieu," returned the great citizen, "I did my duty at that time, +and nothing more. As for the offer you have been so good as to make to +me, I cannot accept it; satisfied with my humble fortunes, I feel +neither the need nor the desire to re-enter an administrative career; +and, in common with the Latin poet, I may say, 'Claudite jam rivos, +pueri, sat prata biberunt.'" + +Thus elevated in the character of its habitues, the salon Thuillier +still needed a new element of life. Thanks to the help of Madame de +Godollo, a born organizer, who successfully put to profit the former +connection of Colleville with the musical world, a few artists came to +make diversion from bouillotte and boston. Old-fashioned and +venerable, those two games were forced to beat a retreat before whist, +the only manner, said the Hungarian countess, in which respectable +people can kill time. + +Like Louis XVI., who began by putting his own hand to reforms which +subsequently engulfed his throne, Brigitte had encouraged, at first, +this domestic revolution; the need of sustaining her position suitably +in the new quarter to which she had emigrated had made her docile to +all suggestions of comfort and elegance. But the day on which occurred +the scene we are about to witness, an apparently trivial detail had +revealed to her the danger of the declivity on which she stood. The +greater number of the new guests, recently imported by Thuillier, knew +nothing of his sister's supremacy in his home. On arrival, therefore, +they all asked Thuillier to present them to _Madame_, and, naturally, +Thuillier could not say to them that his wife was a figure-head who +groaned under the iron hand of a Richelieu, to whom the whole +household bent the knee. It was therefore not until the first homage +rendered to the sovereign "de jure" was paid, that the new-comers were +led up to Brigitte, and by reason of the stiffness which displeasure +at this misplacement of power gave to her greeting they were scarcely +encouraged to pay her any further attentions. Quick to perceive this +species of overthrow, Queen Elizabeth said to herself, with that +profound instinct of domination which was her ruling passion:-- + +"If I don't take care I shall soon be nobody in this house." + +Burrowing into that idea, she came to think that if the project of +making a common household with la Peyrade, then Celeste's husband, +were carried out, the situation which was beginning to alarm her would +become even worse. From that moment, and by sudden intuition, Felix +Phellion, that good young man, with his head too full of mathematics +ever to become a formidable rival to her sovereignty, seemed to her a +far better match than the enterprising lawyer, and she was the first, +on seeing the Phellion father and mother arrive without the son, to +express regret at his absence. Brigitte, however, was not the only one +to feel the injury that the luckless professor was doing to his +prospects in thus keeping away from her reception. Madame Thuillier, +with simple candor, and Celeste with feigned reserve, both made +manifest their displeasure. As for Madame de Godollo, who, in spite of +a very remarkable voice, usually required much pressing before she +would sing (the piano having been opened since her reign began), she +now went up to Madame Phellion and asked her to accompany her, and +between two verses of a song she said in her ear:-- + +"Why isn't your son here?" + +"He is coming," said Madame Phellion. "His father talked to him very +decidedly; but to-night there happens to be a conjunction of I don't +know what planets; it is a great night at the Observatory, and he did +not feel willing to dispense with--" + +"It is inconceivable that a man should be so foolish!" exclaimed +Madame de Godollo; "wasn't theology bad enough, that he must needs +bring in astronomy too?" + +And her vexation gave to her voice so vibrating a tone that her song +ended in the midst of what the English call a thunder of applause. La +Peyrade, who feared her extremely, was not one of the last, when she +returned to her place, to approach her, and express his admiration; +but she received his compliments with a coldness so near to incivility +that their mutual hostility was greatly increased. La Peyrade turned +away to console himself with Madame Colleville, who had still too many +pretensions to beauty not to be the enemy of a woman made to intercept +all homage. + +"So you also, you think that woman sings well?" she said, +contemptuously, to Theodose. + +"At any rate, I have been to tell her so," replied la Peyrade, +"because without her, in regard to Brigitte, there's no security. But +do just look at your Celeste; her eyes never leave that door, and +every time a tray is brought in, though it is an hour at least since +the last guest came, her face expresses disappointment." + +We must remark, in passing, that since the reign of Madame de Godollo +trays were passed round on the Sunday reception days, and that without +scrimping; on the contrary, they were laden with ices, cakes, and +syrups, from Taurade's, then the best confectioner. + +"Don't harass me!" cried Flavie. "I know very well what that foolish +girl has in her mind; and your marriage will take place only too +soon." + +"But you know it is not for myself I make it," said la Peyrade; "it is +a necessity for the future of all of us. Come, come, there are tears +in your eyes! I shall leave you; you are not reasonable. The devil! as +that Prudhomme of a Phellion says, 'Whoso wants the end wants the +means.'" + +And he went toward the group composed of Celeste, Madame Thuillier, +Madame de Godollo, Colleville, and Phellion. Madame Colleville +followed him; and, under the influence of the feeling of jealousy she +had just shown, she became a savage mother. + +"Celeste," she said, "why don't you sing? These gentlemen wish to hear +you." + +"Oh, mamma!" cried the girl, "how can I sing after Madame de Godollo, +with my poor thread of a voice? Besides, you know I have a cold." + +"That is to say that, as usual, you make yourself pretentious and +disagreeable; people sing as they can sing; all voices have their own +merits." + +"My dear," said Colleville, who, having just lost twenty francs at the +card-tables, found courage in his ill-humor to oppose his wife, "that +saying, 'People sing as they can sing' is a bourgeois maxim. People +sing with a voice, if they have one; but they don't sing after hearing +such a magnificent opera voice as that of Madame la comtesse. For my +part, I readily excuse Celeste for not warbling to us one of her +sentimental little ditties." + +"Then it is well worth while," said Flavie, leaving the group, "to +spend so much money on expensive masters who are good for nothing." + +"So," said Colleville, resuming the conversation which the invasion of +Flavie had interrupted, "Felix no longer inhabits this earth; he lives +among the stars?" + +"My dear and former colleague," said Phellion, "I am, as you are, +annoyed with my son for neglecting, as he does, the oldest friends of +his family; and though the contemplation of those great luminous +bodies suspended in space by the hand of the Creator presents, in my +opinion, higher interest than it appears to have to your more eager +brain, I think that Felix, by not coming here to-night, as he promised +me he would, shows a want of propriety, about which, I can assure you +I shall speak my mind." + +"Science," said la Peyrade, "is a fine thing, but it has, +unfortunately, the attribute of making bears and monomaniacs." + +"Not to mention," said Celeste, "that it destroys all religious +sentiments." + +"You are mistaken there, my dear child," said Madame de Godollo. +"Pascal, who was himself a great example of the falseness of your +point of view, says, if I am not mistaken, that a little science draws +us from religion, but a great deal draws us back to it." + +"And yet, madame," said Celeste, "every one admits that Monsieur Felix +is really very learned; when he helped my brother with his studies +nothing could be, so Francois told me, clearer or more comprehensible +than his explanations; and you see, yourself, he is not the more +religious for that." + +"I tell you, my dear child, that Monsieur Felix is not irreligious, +and with a little gentleness and patience nothing would be easier than +to bring him back." + +"Bring back a savant to the duties of religion!" exclaimed la Peyrade. +"Really, madame, that seems to me very difficult. These gentlemen put +the object of their studies before everything else. Tell a +geometrician or a geologist, for example, that the Church demands, +imperatively, the sanctification of the Sabbath by the suspension of +all species of work, and they will shrug their shoulders, though God +Himself did not disdain to rest from His labors." + +"So that in not coming here this evening," said Celeste, naively, +"Monsieur Felix commits not only a fault against good manners, but a +sin." + +"But, my dearest," said Madame de Godollo, "do you think that our +meeting here this evening to sing ballads and eat ices and say evil of +our neighbor--which is the customary habit of salons--is more pleasing +to God than to see a man of science in his observatory busied in +studying the magnificent secrets of His creation?" + +"There's a time for all things," said Celeste; "and, as Monsieur de la +Peyrade says, God Himself did not disdain to rest." + +"But, my love," said Madame de Godollo, "God has time to do so; He is +eternal." + +"That," said la Peyrade, "is one of the wittiest impieties ever +uttered; those are the reasons that the world's people put forth. They +interpret and explain away the commands of God, even those that are +most explicit and imperative; they take them, leave them, or choose +among them; the free-thinker subjects them to his lordly revision, and +from free-thinking the distance is short to free actions." + +During this harangue of the barrister Madame de Godollo had looked at +the clock; it then said half-past eleven. The salon began to empty. +Only one card-table was still going on, Minard, Thuillier, and two of +the new acquaintances being the players. Phellion had just quitted the +group with which he had so far been sitting, to join his wife, who was +talking with Brigitte in a corner; by the vehemence of his pantomimic +action it was easy to see that he was filled with some virtuous +indignation. Everything seemed to show that all hope of seeing the +arrival of the tardy lover was decidedly over. + +"Monsieur," said the countess to la Peyrade, "do you consider the +gentlemen attached to Saint-Jacques du Haut Pas in the rue des Postes +good Catholics?" + +"Undoubtedly," replied the barrister, "religion has no more loyal +supporters." + +"This morning," continued the countess, "I had the happiness to be +received by Pere Anselme. He is thought the model of all Christian +virtues, and yet the good father is a very learned mathematician." + +"I have not said, madame, that the two qualities were absolutely +incompatible." + +"But you did say that a true Christian could not attend to any species +of work on Sunday. If so, Pere Anselme must be an unbeliever; for when +I was admitted to his room I found him standing before a blackboard +with a bit of chalk in his hand, busy with a problem which was, no +doubt, knotty, for the board was three-parts covered with algebraic +signs; and I must add that he did not seem to care for the scandal +this ought to cause, for he had with him an individual whom I am not +allowed to name, a younger man of science, of great promise, who was +sharing his profane occupation." + +Celeste and Madame Thuillier looked at each other, and both saw a +gleam of hope in the other's eyes. + +"Why can't you tell us the name of that young man of science?" Madame +Thuillier ventured to say, for she never put any diplomacy into the +expression of her thoughts. + +"Because he has not, like Pere Anselme, the saintliness which would +absolve him in the eyes of monsieur here for this flagrant violation +of the Sabbath. Besides," added Madame de Godollo, in a significant +manner, "he asked me not to mention that I had met him there." + +"Then you know a good many scientific young men?" said Celeste, +interrogatively; "this one and Monsieur Felix--that makes two." + +"My dear love," said the countess, "you are an inquisitive little +girl, and you will not make me say what I do not choose to say, +especially after a confidence that Pere Anselme made to me; for if I +did, your imagination would at once set off at a gallop." + +The gallop had already started, and every word the countess said only +added to the anxious eagerness of the young girl. + +"As for me," said la Peyrade, sarcastically, "I shouldn't be at all +surprised if Pere Anselme's young collaborator was that very Felix +Phellion. Voltaire always kept very close relations with the Jesuits +who brought him up; but he never talked religion with them." + +"Well, my young savant does talk of it to his venerable brother in +science; he submits his doubts to him; in fact, that was the beginning +of their scientific intimacy." + +"And does Pere Anselme," asked Celeste, "hope to convert him?" + +"He is sure of it," replied the countess. "His young collaborator, +apart from a religious education which he certainly never had, has +been brought up to the highest principles; he knows, moreover, that +his conversion to religion would make the happiness of a charming girl +whom he loves, and who loves him. Now, my dear, you will not get +another word out of me, and you may think what you like." + +"Oh! godmother!" whispered Celeste, yielding to the freshness of her +feelings, "suppose it were he!" + +And the tears filled her eyes as she pressed Madame Thuillier's hand. + +At this moment the servant threw open the door of the salon, and, +singular complication! announced Monsieur Felix Phellion. + +The young professor entered the room, bathed in perspiration, his +cravat in disorder, and himself out of breath. + +"A pretty hour," said Phellion, sternly, "to present yourself." + +"Father," said Felix, moving to the side of the room where Madame +Thuillier and Celeste were seated, "I could not leave before the end +of the phenomenon; and then I couldn't find a carriage, and I have run +the whole way." + +"Your ears ought to have burned as you came," said la Peyrade, "for +you have been for the last half-hour in the minds of these ladies, and +a great problem has been started about you." + +Felix did not answer. He saw Brigitte entering the salon from the +dining-room where she had gone to tell the man-servant not to bring in +more trays, and he hurried to greet her. + +After listening to a few reproaches for the rarity of his visits and +receiving forgiveness in a very cordial "Better late than never," he +turned towards his pole, and was much astonished to hear himself +addressed by Madame de Godollo as follows:-- + +"Monsieur," she said, "I hope you will pardon the indiscretion I have, +in the heat of conversation, committed about you. I have told these +ladies where I met you this morning." + +"Met me?" said Felix; "if I had the honor to meet you, madame, I did +not see you." + +An almost imperceptible smile flickered on la Peyrade's lips. + +"You saw me well enough to ask me to keep silence as to where I had +met you; but, at any rate, I did not go beyond a simple statement; I +said you saw Pere Anselme sometimes, and had certain scientific +relations with him; also that you defended your religious doubts to +him as you do to Celeste." + +"Pere Anselme!" said Felix, stupidly. + +"Yes, Pere Anselme," said la Peyrade, "a great mathematician who does +not despair of converting you. Mademoiselle Celeste wept for joy." + +Felix looked around him with a bewildered air. Madame de Godollo fixed +upon him a pair of eyes the language of which a poodle could have +understood. + +"I wish," he said finally, "I could have given that joy to +Mademoiselle Celeste, but I think, madame, you are mistaken." + +"Ah! monsieur, then I must be more precise," said the countess, "and +if your modesty still induces you to hide a step that can only honor +you, you can contradict me; I will bear the mortification of having +divulged a secret which, I acknowledge, you trusted implicitly to my +discretion." + +Madame Thuillier and Celeste were truly a whole drama to behold; never +were doubt and eager expectation more plainly depicted on the human +face. Measuring her words deliberately, Madame de Godollo thus +continued:-- + +"I said to these ladies, because I know how deep an interest they take +in your salvation, and because you are accused of boldly defying the +commandments of God by working on Sundays, that I had met you this +morning at the house of Pere Anselme, a mathematician like yourself, +with whom you were busy in solving a problem; I said that your +scientific intercourse with that saintly and enlightened man had led +to other explanations between you; that you had submitted to him your +religious doubts, and he did not despair of removing them. In the +confirmation you can give of my words there is nothing, I am sure, to +wound your self-esteem. The matter was simply a surprise you intended +for Celeste, and I have had the stupidity to divulge it. But when she +hears you admit the truth of my words you will have given her such +happiness that I shall hope to be forgiven." + +"Come, monsieur," said la Peyrade, "there's nothing absurd or +mortifying in having sought for light; you, so honorable and so truly +an enemy to falsehood, you cannot deny what madame affirms with such +decision." + +"Well," said Felix, after a moment's hesitation, "will you, +Mademoiselle Celeste, allow me to say a few words to you in private, +without witnesses?" + +Celeste rose, after receiving an approving sign from Madame Thuillier. +Felix took her hand and led her to the recess of the nearest window. + +"Celeste," he said, "I entreat you: wait! See," he added, pointing to +the constellation of Ursa Minor, "beyond those visible stars a future +lies before us; I will place you there. As for Pere Anselme, I cannot +admit what has been said, for it is not true. It is an invented tale. +But be patient with me; you shall soon know all." + +"He is mad!" said the young girl, in tones of despair, as she resumed +her place beside Madame Thuillier. + +Felix confirmed this judgment by rushing frantically from the salon, +without perceiving the emotion in which his father and his mother +started after him. After this sudden departure, which stupefied +everybody, la Peyrade approached Madame de Godollo very respectfully, +and said to her:-- + +"You must admit, madame, that it is difficult to drag a man from the +water when he persists in being drowned." + +"I had no idea until this moment of such utter simplicity," replied +the countess; "it is too silly. I pass over to the enemy; and with +that enemy I am ready and desirous to have, whenever he pleases, a +frank and honest explanation." + + + + CHAPTER IV + + HUNGARY VERSUS PROVENCE + +The next day Theodose felt himself possessed by two curiosities: How +would Celeste behave as to the option she had accepted? and this +Comtesse Torna de Godollo, what did she mean by what she had said; and +what did she want with him? + +The first of these questions seemed, undoubtedly, to have the right of +way, and yet, by some secret instinct, la Peyrade felt more keenly +drawn toward the conclusion of the second problem. He decided, +therefore, to take his first step in that direction, fully +understanding that he could not too carefully arm himself for the +interview to which the countess had invited him. + +The morning had been rainy, and this great calculator was, of course, +not ignorant how much a spot of mud, tarnishing the brilliancy of +varnished boots, could lower a man in the opinion of some. He +therefore sent his porter for a cabriolet, and about three o'clock in +the afternoon he drove from the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer toward the +elegant latitudes of the Madeleine. It may well be believed that +certain cares had been bestowed upon his toilet, which ought to +present a happy medium between the negligent ease of a morning costume +and the ceremonious character of an evening suit. Condemned by his +profession to a white cravat, which he rarely laid aside, and not +venturing to present himself in anything but a dress-coat, he felt +himself being drawn, of necessity, to one of the extremes he desired +to avoid. However by buttoning up his coat and wearing tan instead of +straw-colored gloves, he managed to _unsolemnize_ himself, and to +avoid that provincial air which a man in full dress walking the streets +of Paris while the sun is above the horizon never fails to convey. + +The wary diplomatist was careful not to drive to the house where he +was going. He was unwilling to be seen from the countess' entresol +issuing from a hired cab, and from the first floor he feared to be +discovered stopping short on his way up at the lower floor,--a +proceeding which could not fail to give rise to countless conjectures. + +He therefore ordered the driver to pull up at the corner of the rue +Royale, whence, along a pavement that was now nearly dry, he picked +his way on tiptoe to the house. It so chanced that he was not seen by +either the porter or his wife; the former being beadle of the church +of the Madeleine, was absent at a service, and the wife had just gone +up to show a vacant apartment to a lodger. Theodose was therefore able +to glide unobserved to the door of the sanctuary he desired to +penetrate. A soft touch of his hand to the silken bell-rope caused a +sound which echoed from the interior of the apartment. A few seconds +elapsed, and then another and more imperious bell of less volume +seemed to him a notification to the maid that her delay in opening the +door was displeasing to her mistress. A moment later, a waiting-woman, +of middle age, and too well trained to dress like a "soubrette" of +comedy, opened the door to him. + +The lawyer gave his name, and the woman ushered him into a +dining-room, severely luxurious, where she asked him to wait. A moment +later, however, she returned, and admitted him into the most +coquettish and splendid salon it was possible to insert beneath the +low ceilings of an entresol. The divinity of the place was seated +before a writing-table covered with a Venetian cloth, in which gold +glittered in little spots among the dazzling colors of the tapestry. + +"Will you allow me, monsieur, to finish a letter of some importance?" +she said. + +The barrister bowed in sign of assent. The handsome Hungarian then +concluded a note on blue English paper, which she placed in an +envelope; after sealing it carefully, she rang the bell. The maid +appeared immediately and lighted a little spirit lamp; above the lamp +was suspended a sort of tiny crucible, in which was a drop of +sealing-wax; as soon as this had melted, the maid poured it on the +envelope, presenting to her mistress a seal with armorial bearings. +This the countess imprinted on the wax with her own beautiful hands, +and then said:-- + +"Take the letter at once to that address." + +The woman made a movement to take the letter, but, either from haste +or inadvertence, the paper fell from her hand close to la Peyrade's +feet. He stooped hastily to pick it up, and read the direction +involuntarily. It bore the words, "His Excellency the Minister of +Foreign Affairs"; the significant words, "For him only," written +higher up, seemed to give this missive a character of intimacy. + +"Pardon, monsieur," said the countess, receiving the paper, which he +had the good taste to return to her own hands in order to show his +eagerness to serve her. "Be so good, mademoiselle, as to carry that in +a way not to lose it," she added in a dry tone to the unlucky maid. +The countess then left her writing-table and took her seat on a sofa +covered with pearl-gray satin. + +During these proceedings la Peyrade had the satisfaction of making an +inventory of all the choice things by which he was surrounded. +Paintings by good masters detached themselves from walls of even tone; +on a pier-table stood a very tall Japanese vase; before the windows +the jardinieres were filled with lilium rubrum, showing its handsome +reversely curling petals surmounted by white and red camellias and a +dwarf magnolia from China, with flowers of sulphur white with scarlet +edges. In a corner was a stand of arms, of curious shapes and rich +construction, explained, perhaps, by the lady's Hungarian nationality +--always that of the hussar. A few bronzes and statuettes of exquisite +selection, chairs rolling softly on Persian carpets, and a perfect +anarchy of stuffs of all kinds completed the arrangement of this +salon, which the lawyer had once before visited with Brigitte and +Thuillier before the countess moved into it. It was so transformed +that it seemed to him unrecognizable. With a little more knowledge of +the world la Peyrade would have been less surprised at the marvellous +care given by the countess to the decoration of the room. A woman's +salon is her kingdom, and her absolute domain; there, in the fullest +sense of the word, she reigns, she governs; there she offers battle, +and nearly always comes off victorious. + +Coquettishly lying back in a corner of the sofa, her head carelessly +supported by an arm the form and whiteness of which could be seen +nearly to the elbow through the wide, open sleeve of a black velvet +dressing-gown, her Cinderella foot in its dainty slipper of Russia +leather resting on a cushion of orange satin, the handsome Hungarian +had the look of a portrait by Laurence or Winterhalter, plus the +naivete of the pose. + +"Monsieur," she said, with the slightly foreign accent which lent an +added charm to her words, "I cannot help thinking it rather droll that +a man of your mind and rare penetration should have thought you had an +enemy in me." + +"But, Madame la comtesse," replied la Peyrade, allowing her to read in +his eyes an astonishment mingled with distrust, "all the appearances, +you must admit, were of that nature. A suitor interposes to break off +a marriage which has been offered to me with every inducement; this +rival does me the service of showing himself so miraculously stupid +and awkward that I could easily have set him aside, when suddenly a +most unlooked-for and able auxiliary devotes herself to protecting him +on the very ground where he shows himself most vulnerable." + +"You must admit," said the countess, laughing, "that the protege +showed himself a most intelligent man, and that he seconded my efforts +valiantly." + +"His clumsiness could not have been, I think, very unexpected to you," +replied la Peyrade; "therefore the protection you have deigned to give +him is the more cruel to me." + +"What a misfortune it would be," said the countess, with charmingly +affected satire, "if your marriage with Mademoiselle Celeste were +prevented! Do you really care so much, monsieur, for that little +school-girl?" + +In that last word, especially the intonation with which it was +uttered, there was more than contempt, there was hatred. This +expression did not escape an observer of la Peyrade's strength, but +not being a man to advance very far on a single remark he merely +replied:-- + +"Madame, the vulgar expression, to 'settle down,' explains this +situation, in which a man, after many struggles and being at an end of +his efforts and his illusions, makes a compromise with the future. +When this compromise takes the form of a young girl with, I admit, +more virtue than beauty, but one who brings to a husband the fortune +which is indispensable to the comfort of married life, what is there +so astonishing in the fact that his heart yields to gratitude and that +he welcomes the prospect of a placid happiness?" + +"I have always thought," replied the countess, "that the power of a +man's intellect ought to be the measure of his ambition; and I +imagined that one so wise as to make himself, at first, the poor man's +lawyer, would have in his heart less humble and less pastoral +aspirations." + +"Ah! madame," returned la Peyrade, "the iron hand of necessity compels +us to strange resignations. The question of daily bread is one of +those before which all things bend the knee. Apollo was forced to 'get +a living,' as the shepherd of Admetus." + +"The sheepfold of Admetus," said Madame de Godollo, "was at least a +royal fold; I don't think Apollo would have resigned himself to be the +shepherd of a--bourgeois." + +The hesitation that preceded that last word seemed to convey in place +of it a proper name; and la Peyrade understood that Madame de Godollo, +out of pure clemency, had suppressed that of Thuillier, had turned her +remark upon the species and not the individual. + +"I agree, madame, that your distinction is a just one," he replied, +"but in this case Apollo has no choice." + +"I don't like persons who charge too much," said the countess, "but +still less do I like those who sell their merchandise below the market +price; I always suspect such persons of trying to dupe me by some +clever and complicated trick. You know very well, monsieur, your own +value, and your hypocritical humility displeases me immensely. It +proves to me that my kindly overtures have not produced even a +beginning of confidence between us." + +"I assure you, madame, that up to the present time life has never +justified the belief in any dazzling superiority in me." + +"Well, really," said the Hungarian, "perhaps I ought to believe in the +humility of a man who is willing to accept the pitiable finale of his +life which I threw myself into the breach to prevent." + +"Just as I, perhaps," said la Peyrade, with a touch of sarcasm, "ought +to believe in the reality of a kindness which, in order to save me, +has handled me so roughly." + +The countess cast a reproachful look upon her visitor; her fingers +crumpled the ribbons of her gown; she lowered her eyes, and gave a +sigh, so nearly imperceptible, so slight, that it might have passed +for an accident in the most regular breathing. + +"You are rancorous," she said, "and you judge people by one aspect +only. After all," she added, as if on reflection, "you are perhaps +right in reminding me that I have taken the longest way round by +meddling, rather ridiculously, in interests that do not concern me. Go +on, my dear monsieur, in the path of this glorious marriage which +offers you so many combined inducements; only, let me hope that you +may not repent a course with which I shall no longer interfere." + +The Provencal had not been spoilt by an experience of "bonnes +fortunes." The poverty against which he had struggled so long never +leads to affairs of gallantry, and since he had thrown off its harsh +restraint, his mind being wholly given up to the anxious work of +creating his future, the things of the heart had entered but slightly +into his life; unless we must except the comedy he had played on +Flavie. We can therefore imagine the perplexity of this novice in the +matter of adventures when he saw himself placed between the danger of +losing what seemed to be a delightful opportunity, and the fear of +finding a serpent amid the beautiful flowers that were offered to his +grasp. Too marked a reserve, too lukewarm an eagerness, might wound +the self-love of that beautiful foreigner, and quench the spring from +which he seemed invited to draw. On the other hand, suppose that +appearance of interest were only a snare? Suppose this kindness +(ill-explained, as it seemed to him), of which he was so suddenly the +object, had no other purpose than to entice him into a step which +might be used to compromise him with the Thuilliers? What a blow to +his reputation for shrewdness, and what a role to play!--that of the +dog letting go the meat for the shadow! + +We know that la Peyrade was trained in the school of Tartuffe, and the +frankness with which that great master declares to Elmire that without +receiving a few of the favors to which he aspired he could not trust +in her tender advances, seemed to the barrister a suitable method to +apply to the present case, adding, however, a trifle more softness to +the form. + +"Madame la comtesse," he said, "you have turned me into a man who is +much to be pitied. I was cheerfully advancing to this marriage, and +you take all faith in it away from me. Suppose I break it off, what +use can I--with that great capacity you see in me--make of the liberty +I thus recover?" + +"La Bruyere, if I am not mistaken, said that nothing freshens the +blood so much as to avoid committing a folly." + +"That may be; but it is, you must admit, a negative benefit; and I am +of an age and in a position to desire more serious results. The +interest that you deign to show to me cannot, I think, stop short at +the idea of merely putting an end to my present prospects. I love +Mademoiselle Colleville with a love, it is true, which has nothing +imperative about it; but I certainly love her, her hand is promised to +me, and before renouncing it--" + +"So," said the countess, hastily, "in a given case you would not be +averse to a rupture? And," she added, in a more decided tone, "there +would be some chance of making you see that in taking your first +opportunity you cut yourself off from a better future, in which a more +suitable marriage may present itself?" + +"But, at least, madame, I must be enabled to foresee it definitely." + +This persistence in demanding pledges seemed to irritate the countess. + +"Faith," she said, "is only a virtue when it believes without seeing. +You doubt yourself, and that is another form of stupidity. I am not +happy, it seems, in my selection of those I desire to benefit." + +"But, madame, it cannot be indiscreet to ask to know in some remote +way at least, what future your kind good-will has imagined for me." + +"It is very indiscreet," replied the countess, coldly, "and it shows +plainly that you offer me only a conditional confidence. Let us say no +more. You are certainly far advanced with Mademoiselle Colleville; she +suits you, you say, in many ways; therefore marry her. I say again, +you will no longer find me in your way." + +"But does Mademoiselle Colleville really suit me?" resumed la Peyrade; +"that is the very point on which you have lately raised my doubts. Do +you not think there is something cruel in casting me first in one +direction and then in the other without affording me any ground to go +upon?" + +"Ah!" said the countess, in a tone of impatience, "you want my opinion +on the premises! Well, monsieur, there is one very conclusive fact to +which I can bring proof: Celeste does not love you." + +"So I have thought," said la Peyrade, humbly. "I felt that I was +making a marriage of mere convenience." + +"And she cannot love you, because," continued Madame de Godollo, with +animation, "she cannot comprehend you. Her proper husband is that +blond little man, insipid as herself; from the union of those two +natures without life or heat will result in that lukewarm existence +which, in the opinion of the world where she was born and where she +has lived, is the ne plus ultra of conjugal felicity. Try to make that +little simpleton understand that when she had a chance to unite +herself with true talent she ought to have felt highly honored! But, +above all, try to make her miserable, odious family and surroundings +understand it! Enriched bourgeois, parvenus! there's the roof beneath +which you think to rest from your cruel labor and your many trials! +And do you believe that you will not be made to feel, twenty times a +day, that your share in the partnership is distressingly light in the +scale against their money? On one side, the Iliad, the Cid, Der +Freyschutz, and the frescos of the Vatican; on the other, three +hundred thousand francs in good, ringing coin! Tell me which side they +will trust and admire! The artist, the man of imagination who falls +into the bourgeois atmosphere--shall I tell you to what I compare him? +To Daniel cast into the lion's den, less the miracle of Holy Writ." + +This invective against the bourgeoisie was uttered in a tone of heated +conviction which could scarcely fail to be communicated. + +"Ah! madame," cried la Peyrade, "how eloquently you say things which +again and again have entered my troubled and anxious mind! But I have +felt myself lashed to that most cruel fate, the necessity of gaining a +position--" + +"Necessity! position!" interrupted the countess, again raising the +temperature of her speech,--"words void of meaning! which have not +even sound to able men, though they drive back fools as though they +were formidable barriers. Necessity! does that exist for noble +natures, for those who know how to will? A Gascon minister uttered a +saying which ought to be engraved on the doors of all careers: 'All +things come to him who knows how to wait.' Are you ignorant that +marriage, to men of a high stamp, is either a chain which binds them +to the lowest vulgarities of existence, or a wing on which to rise to +the highest summits of the social world? The wife you need, monsieur, +--and she would not be long wanting to your career if you had not, +with such incredible haste, accepted the first 'dot' that was offered +you,--the wife you should have chosen is a woman capable of +understanding you, able to divine your intellect; one who could be to +you a fellow-worker, an intellectual confidant, and not a mere +embodiment of the 'pot-au-feu'; a woman capable of being now your +secretary, but soon the wife of a deputy, a minister, an ambassador; +one, in short, who could offer you her heart as a mainspring, her +salon for a stage, her connections for a ladder, and who, in return +for all she would give you of ardor and strength, asks only to shine +beside your throne in the rays of the glory she predicts for you!" + +Intoxicated, as it were, with the flow of her own words, the countess +was really magnificent; her eyes sparkled, her nostrils dilated; the +prospect her vivid eloquence thus unrolled she seemed to see, and +touch with her quivering fingers. For a moment, la Peyrade was dazzled +by this sunrise which suddenly burst upon his life. + +However, as he was a man most eminently prudent, who had made it his +rule of life never to lend except on sound and solvent security, he +was still impelled to weigh the situation. + +"Madame la comtesse," he said, "you reproached me just now for +speaking like a bourgeois, and I, in return, am afraid that you are +talking like a goddess. I admire you, I listen to you, but I am not +convinced. Such devotions, such sublime abnegations may be met with in +heaven, but in this low world who can hope to be the object of them?" + +"You are mistaken, monsieur," replied the countess, with solemnity; +"such devotions are rare, but they are neither impossible nor +incredible; only, it is necessary to have the heart to find them, and, +above all, the hand to take them when they are offered to you." + +So saying, the countess rose majestically. + +La Peyrade saw that he had ended by displeasing her, and he felt that +she dismissed him. He rose himself, bowed respectfully, and asked to +be received again. + +"Monsieur," said Madame de Godollo, "we Hungarians, primitive people +and almost savages that we are, have a saying that when our door is +open both sides of it are opened wide; when we close it it is +double-locked and bolted." + +That dignified and ambiguous speech was accompanied by a slight +inclination of the head. Bewildered, confounded by this behavior, to +him so new, which bore but little resemblance to that of Flavie, +Brigitte, and Madame Minard, la Peyrade left the house, asking himself +again and again whether he had played his game properly. + + + + CHAPTER V + + SHOWING HOW NEAR THE TARPEIAN ROCK IS TO THE CAPITOL + +On leaving Madame de Godollo, la Peyrade felt the necessity of +gathering himself together. Beneath the conversation he had just +maintained with this strange woman, what could he see,--a trap, or a +rich and distinguished marriage offered to him. Under such a doubt as +this, to press Celeste for an immediate answer was neither clever nor +prudent; it was simply to bind himself, and close the door to the +changes, still very ill-defined, which seemed offered to him. The +result of the consultation which Theodose held with himself as he +walked along the boulevard was that he ought, for the moment, to think +only of gaining time. Consequently, instead of going to the +Thuilliers' to learn Celeste's decision, he went home, and wrote the +following little note to Thuillier:-- + + My dear Thuillier,--You will certainly not think it extraordinary + that I should not present myself at your house to-day,--partly + because I fear the sentence which will be pronounced upon me, and + partly because I do not wish to seem an impatient and unmannerly + creditor. A few days, more or less, will matter little under such + circumstances, and yet Mademoiselle Colleville may find them + desirable for the absolute freedom of her choice. I shall, + therefore, not go to see you until you write for me. + + I am now more calm, and I have added a few more pages to our + manuscript; it will take but little time to hand in the whole to + the printer. + + Ever yours, + Theodose de la Peyrade. + + +Two hours later a servant, dressed in what was evidently the first +step towards a livery, which the Thuilliers did not as yet venture to +risk, the "male domestic," whom Minard had mentioned to the Phellions, +arrived at la Peyrade's lodgings with the following note:-- + + Come to-night, without fail. We will talk over the whole affair + with Brigitte. + +Your most affectionately devoted +Jerome Thuillier. + + +"Good!" said la Peyrade; "evidently there is some hindrance on the +other side; I shall have time to turn myself round." + +That evening, when the servant announced him in the Thuillier salon, +the Comtesse de Godollo, who was sitting with Brigitte, hastened to +rise and leave the room. As she passed la Peyrade she made him a very +ceremonious bow. There was nothing conclusive to be deduced from this +abrupt departure, which might signify anything, either much or +nothing. + +After talking of the weather and so forth for a time, as persons do +who have met to discuss a delicate subject about which they are not +sure of coming to an understanding, the matter was opened by Brigitte, +who had sent her brother to take a walk on the boulevard, telling him +to leave her to manage the affair. + +"My dear boy," she said to Theodose, "it was very nice of you not to +come here to-day like a _grasp-all_, to put your pistol at our throats, +for we were not, as it happened, quite ready to answer you. I think," +she added, "that our little Celeste needs a trifle more time." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, quickly, "she has not decided in favor of +Monsieur Felix Phellion?" + +"Joker!" replied the old maid, "you know very well you settled that +business last night; but you also know, of course, that her own +inclinations incline her that way." + +"Short of being blind, I must have seen that," replied la Peyrade. + +"It is not an obstacle to my projects," continued Mademoiselle +Thuillier; "but it serves to explain why I ask for Celeste a little +more time; and also why I have wished all along to postpone the +marriage to a later date. I wanted to give you time to insinuate +yourself into the heart of my dear little girl--but you and Thuillier +upset my plans." + +"Nothing, I think, has been done without your sanction," said la +Peyrade, "and if, during these fifteen days, I have not talked with +you on the subject, it was out of pure delicacy. Thuillier told me +that everything was agreed upon with you." + +"On the contrary, Thuillier knows very well that I refused to mix +myself up on your new arrangements. If you had not made yourself so +scarce lately, I might have been the first to tell you that I did not +approve of them. However, I can truly say I did nothing to hinder +their success." + +"But that was too little," said la Peyrade; "your active help was +absolutely necessary." + +"Possibly; but I, who know women better than you, being one of them, +--I felt very sure that if Celeste was told to choose between two +suitors she would consider that a permission to think at her ease of +the one she liked best. I myself had always left her in the vague as +to Felix, knowing as I did the proper moment to settle her mind about +him." + +"So," said la Peyrade, "you mean that she refuses me." + +"It is much worse than that," returned Brigitte; "she accepts you, and +is willing to pledge her word; but it is so easy to see she regards +herself as a victim, that if I were in your place I should feel +neither flattered nor secure in such a position." + +In any other condition of mind la Peyrade would probably have answered +that he accepted the sacrifice, and would make it his business to win +the heart which at first was reluctantly given; but delay now suited +him, and he replied to Brigitte with a question:-- + +"Then what do you advise? What course had I better take?" + +"Finish Thuillier's pamphlet, in the first place, or he'll go crazy; +and leave me to work the other affair in your interests," replied +Brigitte. + +"But am I in friendly hands? For, to tell you the truth, little aunt, +I have not been able to conceal from myself that you have, for some +time past, changed very much to me." + +"Changed to you! What change do you see in me, addled-pate that you +are?" + +"Oh! nothing very tangible," said la Peyrade; "but ever since that +Countess Torna has had a footing in your house--" + +"My poor boy, the countess has done me many services, and I am very +grateful to her; but is that any reason why I should be false to you, +who have done us still greater services?" + +"But you must admit," said la Peyrade, craftily, "that she has told +you a great deal of harm of me." + +"Naturally she has; these fine ladies are all that way; they expect +the whole world to adore them, and she sees that you are thinking only +of Celeste; but all she has said to me against you runs off my mind +like water from varnished cloth." + +"So, then, little aunt, I may continue to count on you?" persisted la +Peyrade. + +"Yes; provided you are not tormenting, and will let me manage this +affair." + +"Tell me how you are going to do it?" asked la Peyrade, with an air of +great good-humor. + +"In the first place, I shall signify to Felix that he is not to set +foot in this house again." + +"Is that possible?" said the barrister; "I mean can it be done +civilly?" + +"Very possible; I shall make Phellion himself tell him. He's a man who +is always astride of principles, and he'll be the first to see that if +his son will not do what is necessary to obtain Celeste's hand he +ought to deprive us of his presence." + +"What next?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Next, I shall signify to Celeste that she was left at liberty to +choose one husband or the other, and as she did not choose Felix she +must make up her mind to take you, a pious fellow, such as she wants. +You needn't be uneasy; I'll sing your praises, especially your +generosity in not profiting by the arrangement she agreed to make +to-day. But all that will take a week at least, and if Thuillier's +pamphlet isn't out before then, I don't know but what we shall have to +put him in a lunatic asylum." + +"The pamphlet can be out in two days. But is it very certain, little +aunt, that we are playing above-board? Mountains, as they say, never +meet, but men do; and certainly, when the time comes to promote the +election, I can do Thuillier either good or bad service. Do you know, +the other day I was terribly frightened. I had a letter from him in my +pocket, in which he spoke of the pamphlet as being written by me. I +fancied for a moment that I had dropped it in the Luxembourg. If I +had, what a scandal it would have caused in the quarter." + +"Who would dare to play tricks with such a wily one as you?" said +Brigitte, fully comprehending the comminatory nature of la Peyrade's +last words, interpolated into the conversation without rhyme or +reason. "But really," she added, "why should you complain of us? It is +you who are behindhand in your promises. That cross which was to have +been granted within a week, and that pamphlet, which ought to have +appeared a long time ago--" + +"The pamphlet and the cross will both appear in good time; the one +will bring the other," said la Peyrade, rising. "Tell Thuillier to +come and see me to-morrow evening, and I think we can then correct the +last sheet. But, above all, don't listen to the spitefulness of Madame +de Godollo; I have an idea that in order to make herself completely +mistress of this house she wants to alienate all your old friends, and +also that she is casting her net for Thuillier." + +"Well, in point of fact," said the old maid, whom the parting shot of +the infernal barrister had touched on the ever-sensitive point of her +authority, "I must look into that matter you speak of there; she is +rather coquettish, that little woman." + +La Peyrade gained a second benefit out of that speech so adroitly +flung out; he saw by Brigitte's answer to it that the countess had not +mentioned to her the visit he had paid her during the day. This +reticence might have a serious meaning. + +Four days later, the printer, the stitcher, the paper glazier having +fulfilled their offices, Thuillier had the inexpressible happiness of +beginning on the boulevards a promenade, which he continued through +the Passages, and even to the Palais-Royal, pausing before all the +book-shops where he saw, shining in black letters on a yellow poster, +the famous title:-- + + TAXATION AND THE SLIDING-SCALE + by J. Thuillier, + Member of the Council-General of the Seine. + +Having reached the point of persuading himself that the care he had +bestowed upon the correction of proofs made the merit of the work his +own, his paternal heart, like that of Maitre Corbeau, could not +contain itself for joy. We ought to add that he held in very low +esteem those booksellers who did not announce the sale of the new +work, destined to become, as he believed, a European event. Without +actually deciding the manner in which he would punish their +indifference, he nevertheless made a list of these rebellious persons, +and wished them as much evil as if they had offered him a personal +affront. + +The next day he spent a delightful morning in writing a certain number +of letters, sending the publication to friends, and putting into paper +covers some fifty copies, to which the sacramental phrase, "From the +author," imparted to his eyes an inestimable value. + +But the third day of the sale brought a slight diminution of his +happiness. He had chosen for his editor a young man, doing business at +a breakneck pace, who had lately established himself in the Passage +des Panoramas, where he was paying a ruinous rent. He was the nephew +of Barbet the publisher, whom Brigitte had had as a tenant in the rue +Saint-Dominique d'Enfer. This Barbet junior was a youth who flinched +at nothing; and when he was presented to Thuillier by his uncle, he +pledged himself, provided he was not shackled in his advertising, to +sell off the first edition and print a second within a week. + +Now, Thuillier had spent about fifteen hundred francs himself on costs +of publication, such, for instance, as copies sent in great profusion +to the newspapers; but at the close of the third day _seven_ copies only +had been sold, and three of those on credit. It might be believed that +in revealing to the horror-stricken Thuillier this paltry result the +young publisher would have lost at least something of his assurance. +On the contrary, this Guzman of the book-trade hastened to say:-- + +"I am delighted at what has happened. If we had sold a hundred copies +it would trouble me far more than the fifteen hundred now on our +hands; that's what I call hanging fire; whereas this insignificant +sale only proves that the edition will go off like a rocket." + +"But when?" asked Thuillier, who thought this view paradoxical. + +"Parbleu!" said Barbet, "when we get notices in the newspapers. +Newspaper notices are only useful to arouse attention. 'Dear me!' says +the public, 'there's a publication that must be interesting.' The +title is good,--'Taxation and the Sliding-Scale,'--but I find that the +more piquant a title is, the more buyers distrust it, they have been +taken in so often; they wait for the notices. On the other hand, for +books that are destined to have only a limited sale, a hundred +ready-made purchasers will come in at once, but after that, good-bye +to them; we don't place another copy." + +"Then you don't think," said Thuillier, "that the sale is hopeless?" + +"On the contrary, I think it is on the best track. When the 'Debats,' +the 'Constitutionnel,' the 'Siecle,' and the 'Presse' have reviewed +it, especially if the 'Debats' mauls it (they are ministerial, you +know), it won't be a week before the whole edition is snapped up." + +"You say that easily enough," replied Thuillier; "but how are we to +get hold of those gentlemen of the press?" + +"Ah! I'll take care of that," said Barbet. "I am on the best of terms +with the managing editors; they say the devil is in me, and that I +remind them of Ladvocat in his best days." + +"But then, my dear fellow, you ought to have seen to this earlier." + +"Ah! excuse me, papa Thuillier; there's only one way of seeing to the +journalists; but as you grumbled about the fifteen hundred francs for +the advertisements, I did not venture to propose to you another extra +expense." + +"What expense?" asked Thuillier, anxiously. + +"When you were nominated to the municipal council, where was the plan +mooted?" asked the publisher. + +"Parbleu! in my own house," replied Thuillier. + +"Yes, of course, in your own house, but at a dinner, followed by a +ball, and the ball itself crowned by a supper. Well, my dear master, +there are no two ways to do this business; Boileau says:-- + + "'All is done through the palate, and not through the mind; + And it is by our dinners we govern mankind.'" + +"Then you think I ought to give a dinner to those journalists?" + +"Yes; but not at your own house; for these journalists, you see, if +women are present, get stupid; they have to behave themselves. And, +besides, it isn't dinner they want, but a breakfast--that suits them +best. In the evening these gentlemen have to go to first +representations, and make up their papers, not to speak of their own +little private doings; whereas in the mornings they have nothing to +think about. As for me, it is always breakfasts that I give." + +"But that costs money, breakfasts like that," said Thuillier; +"journalists are gourmands." + +"Bah! twenty francs a head, without wine. Say you have ten of them; +three hundred francs will see you handsomely through the whole thing. +In fact, as a matter of economy, breakfasts are preferable; for a +dinner you wouldn't get off under five hundred francs." + +"How you talk, young man!" said Thuillier. + +"Oh, hang it! everybody knows it costs dear to get elected to the +Chamber; and all this favors your nomination." + +"But how can I invite those gentlemen? Must I go and see them myself?" + +"Certainly not; send them your pamphlet and appoint them to meet you +at Philippe's or Vefour's--they'll understand perfectly." + +"Ten guests," said Thuillier, beginning to enter into the idea. "I did +not know there were so many leading journals." + +"There are not," said the publisher; "but we must have the little dogs +as well, for they bark loudest. This breakfast is certain to make a +noise, and if you don't ask them they'll think you pick and choose, +and everyone excluded will be your enemy." + +"Then you think it is enough merely to send the invitations?" + +"Yes; I'll make the list, and you can write the notes and send them to +me. I'll see that they are delivered; some of them I shall take in +person." + +"If I were sure," said Thuillier, undecidedly, "that this expense +would have the desired effect--" + +"_If I were sure_,--that's a queer thing to say," said Barbet. "My dear +master, this is money placed on mortgage; for it, I will guarantee the +sale of fifteen hundred copies,--say at forty sous apiece; allowing +the discounts, that makes three thousand francs. You see that your +costs and extra costs are covered, and more than covered." + +"Well," said Thuillier, turning to go, "I'll talk to la Peyrade about +it." + +"As you please, my dear master; but decide soon, for nothing gets +mouldy so fast as a book; write hot, serve hot, and buy hot,--that's +the rule for authors, publishers, and public; all is bosh outside of +it, and no good to touch." + +When la Peyrade was consulted, he did not think in his heart that the +remedy was heroic, but he had now come to feel the bitterest animosity +against Thuillier, so that he was well pleased to see this new tax +levied on his self-important inexperience and pompous silliness. + +As for Thuillier, the mania for posing as a publicist and getting +himself talked about so possessed him that although he moaned over +this fresh bleeding of his purse, he had decided on the sacrifice +before he even spoke to la Peyrade. The reserved and conditional +approval of the latter was, therefore, more than enough to settle his +determination, and the same evening he returned to Barbet junior and +asked for the list of guests whom he ought to invite. + +Barbet gaily produced his little catalogue. Instead of the ten guests +originally mentioned, there proved to be fifteen, not counting himself +or la Peyrade, whom Thuillier wanted to second him in this encounter +with a set of men among whom he himself felt he should be a little out +of place. Casting his eyes over the list, he exclaimed, vehemently:-- + +"Heavens! my dear fellow, here are names of papers nobody ever heard +of. Where's the 'Moralisateur,' the 'Lanterne de Diogene,' the +'Pelican,' the 'Echo de la Bievre'?" + +"You'd better be careful how you scorn the 'Echo de la Bievre,'" said +Barbet; "why, that's the paper of the 12th arrondissement, from which +you expect to be elected; its patrons are those big tanners of the +Mouffetard quarter!" + +"Well, let that go--but the 'Pelican'?" + +"The 'Pelican'? that's a paper you'll find in every dentist's +waiting-room; dentists are the first _puffists_ in the world! How +many teeth do you suppose are daily pulled in Paris?" + +"Come, come, nonsense," said Thuillier, who proceeded to mark out +certain names, reducing the whole number present to fourteen. + +"If one falls off we shall be thirteen," remarked Barbet. + +"Pooh!" said Thuillier, the free-thinker, "do you suppose I give in to +that superstition?" + +The list being finally closed and settled at fourteen, Thuillier +seated himself at the publisher's desk and wrote the invitations, +naming, in view of the urgency of the purpose, the next day but one +for the meeting, Barbet having assured him that no journalist would +object to the shortness of the invitation. The meeting was appointed +at Vefour's, the restaurant par excellence of the bourgeoisie and all +provincials. + +Barbet arrived on the day named before Thuillier, who appeared in a +cravat which alone was enough to create a stir in the satirical circle +in which he was about to produce himself. The publisher, on his own +authority, had changed various articles on the bill of fare as +selected by his patron, more especially directing that the champagne, +ordered in true bourgeois fashion to be served with the dessert, +should be placed on the table at the beginning of breakfast, with +several dishes of shrimps, a necessity which had not occurred to the +amphitryon. + +Thuillier, who gave a lip-approval to these amendments, was followed +by la Peyrade; and then came a long delay in the arrival of the +guests. Breakfast was ordered at eleven o'clock; at a quarter to +twelve not a journalist had appeared. Barbet, who was never at a loss, +made the consoling remark that breakfasts at restaurants were like +funerals, where, as every one knew, eleven o'clock meant mid-day. + +Sure enough, shortly before that hour, two gentlemen, with pointed +beards, exhaling a strong odor of tobacco, made their appearance. +Thuillier thanked them effusively for the "honor" they had done him; +after which came another long period of waiting, of which we shall not +relate the tortures. At one o'clock the assembled contingent comprised +five of the invited guests, Barbet and la Peyrade not included. It is +scarcely necessary to say that none of the self-respecting journalists +of the better papers had taken any notice of the absurd invitation. + +Breakfast now had to be served to this reduced number. A few polite +phrases that reached Thuillier's ears about the "immense" interest of +his publication, failed to blind him to the bitterness of his +discomfiture; and without the gaiety of the publisher, who had taken +in hand the reins his patron, gloomy as Hippolytus on the road to +Mycenae, let fall, nothing could have surpassed the glum and glacial +coldness of the meeting. + +After the oysters were removed, the champagne and chablis which had +washed them down had begun, nevertheless, to raise the thermometer, +when, rushing into the room where the banquet was taking place, a +young man in a cap conveyed to Thuillier a most unexpected and +crushing blow. + +"Master," said the new-comer to Barbet (he was a clerk in the +bookseller's shop), "we are done for! The police have made a raid upon +us; a commissary and two men have come to seize monsieur's pamphlet. +Here's a paper they have given me for you." + +"Look at that," said Barbet, handing the document to la Peyrade, his +customary assurance beginning to forsake him. + +"A summons to appear at once before the court of assizes," said la +Peyrade, after reading a few lines of the sheriff's scrawl. + +Thuillier had turned as pale as death. + +"Didn't you fulfil all the necessary formalities?" he said to Barbet, +in a choking voice. + +"This is not a matter of formalities," said la Peyrade, "it is a +seizure for what is called press misdemeanor, exciting contempt and +hatred of the government; you probably have the same sort of +compliment awaiting you at home, my poor Thuillier." + +"Then it is treachery!" cried Thuillier, losing his head completely. + +"Hang it, my dear fellow! you know very well what you put in your +pamphlet; for my part, I don't see anything worth whipping a cat for." + +"There's some misunderstanding," said Barbet, recovering courage; "it +will all be explained, and the result will be a fine cause of +complaint--won't it, messieurs?" + +"Waiter, pens and ink!" cried one of the journalists thus appealed to. + +"Nonsense! you'll have time to write your article later," said another +of the brotherhood; "what has a bombshell to do with this 'filet +saute'?" + +That, of course, was a parody on the famous speech of Charles XII., +King of Sweden, when a shot interrupted him while dictating to a +secretary. + +"Messieurs," said Thuillier, rising, "I am sure you will excuse me for +leaving you. If, as Monsieur Barbet thinks, there is some +misunderstanding, it ought to be explained at once; I must therefore, +with your permission, go to the police court. La Peyrade," he added in +a significant tone, "you will not refuse, I presume, to accompany me. +And you, my dear publisher, you would do well to come too." + +"No, faith!" said Barbet, "when I breakfast, I breakfast; if the +police have committed a blunder, so much the worse for them." + +"But suppose the matter is serious?" cried Thuillier, in great +agitation. + +"Well, I should say, what is perfectly true, that I had never read a +line of your pamphlet. One thing is very annoying; those damned juries +hate beards, and I must cut off mine if I'm compelled to appear in +court." + +"Come, my dear amphitryon, sit down again," said the editor of the +"Echo de la Bievre," "we'll stand by you; I've already written an +article in my head which will stir up all the tanners in Paris; and, +let me tell you, that honorable corporation is a power." + +"No, monsieur," replied Thuillier, "no; a man like me cannot rest an +hour under such an accusation as this. Continue your breakfast without +us; I hope soon to see you again. La Peyrade, are you coming?" + +"He's charming, isn't he?" said Barbet, when Thuillier and his counsel +had left the room. "To ask me to leave a breakfast after the oysters, +and go and talk with the police! Come, messieurs, close up the ranks," +he added, gaily. + +"Tiens!" said one of the hungry journalists, who had cast his eyes +into the garden of the Palais-Royal, on which the dining-room of the +restaurant opened, "there's Barbanchu going by; suppose I call him +in?" + +"Yes, certainly," said Barbet junior, "have him up." + +"Barbanchu! Barbanchu!" called out the journalist. + +Barbanchu, his hat being over his eyes, was some time in discovering +the cloud above him whence the voice proceeded. + +"Here, up here!" called the voice, which seemed to Barbanchu celestial +when he saw himself hailed by a man with a glass of champagne in his +hand. Then, as he seemed to hesitate, the party above called out in +chorus:-- + +"Come up! come up! _There's fat to be had_!" + +When Thuillier left the office of the public prosecutor he could no +longer have any illusions. The case against him was serious, and the +stern manner in which he had been received made him see that when the +trial came up he would be treated without mercy. Then, as always +happens among accomplices after the non-success of an affair they have +done in common, he turned upon la Peyrade in the sharpest manner: La +Peyrade had paid no attention to what he wrote; he had given full +swing to his stupid Saint-Simonian ideas; _he_ didn't care for the +consequences; it was not _he_ who would have to pay the fine and go to +prison! Then, when la Peyrade answered that the matter did not look to +him serious, and he expected to get a verdict of acquittal without +difficulty, Thuillier burst forth upon him, vehemently:-- + +"Parbleu! the thing is plain enough; monsieur sees nothing in it? +Well, I shall not put my honor and my fortune into the hands of a +little upstart like yourself; I shall take some great lawyer if the +case comes to trial. I've had enough of your collaboration by this +time." + +Under the injustice of these remarks la Peyrade felt his anger rising. +However, he saw himself disarmed, and not wishing to come to an open +rupture, he parted from Thuillier, saying that he forgave a man +excited by fear, and would go to see him later in the afternoon, when +he would probably be calmer; they could then decide on what steps they +had better take. + +Accordingly, about four o'clock, the Provencal arrived at the house in +the Place de la Madeleine. Thuillier's irritation was quieted, but +frightful consternation had taken its place. If the executioner were +coming in half an hour to lead him to the scaffold he could not have +been more utterly unstrung and woe-begone. When la Peyrade entered +Madame Thuillier was trying to make him take an infusion of +linden-leaves. The poor woman had come out of her usual apathy, and +proved herself, beside the present Sabinus, another Eponina. + +As for Brigitte, who presently appeared, bearing a foot-bath, she had +no mercy or restraint towards Theodose; her sharp and bitter +reproaches, which were out of all proportion to the fault, even +supposing him to have committed one would have driven a man of the +most placid temperament beside himself. La Peyrade felt that all was +lost to him in the Thuillier household, where they now seemed to seize +with joy the occasion to break their word to him and to give free rein +to revolting ingratitude. On an ironical allusion by Brigitte to the +manner in which he decorated his friends, la Peyrade rose and took +leave, without any effort being made to retain him. + +After walking about the streets for awhile, la Peyrade, in the midst +of his indignation, turned to thoughts of Madame de Godollo, whose +image, to tell the truth, had been much in his mind since their former +interview. + + + + CHAPTER VI + + 'TWAS THUS THEY BADE ADIEU + +Not only once when the countess met the barrister at the Thuilliers +had she left the room; but the same performance took place at each of +their encounters; and la Peyrade had convinced himself, without +knowing exactly why, that in each case, this affectation of avoiding +him, signified something that was not indifference. To have paid her +another visit immediately would certainly have been very unskilful; +but now a sufficient time had elapsed to prove him to be a man who was +master of himself. Accordingly, he returned upon his steps to the +Boulevard de la Madeleine, and without asking the porter if the +countess was at home, he passed the lodge as if returning to the +Thuilliers', and rang the bell of the entresol. + +The maid who opened the door asked him, as before, to wait until she +notified her mistress; but, on this occasion, instead of showing him +into the dining-room, she ushered him into a little room arranged as a +library. + +He waited long, and knew not what to think of the delay. Still, he +reassured himself with the thought that if she meant to dismiss him he +would not have been asked to wait at all. Finally the maid reappeared, +but even then it was not to introduce him. + +"Madame la comtesse," said the woman, "was engaged on a matter of +business, but she begged monsieur be so kind as to wait, and to amuse +himself with the books in the library, because she might be detained +longer than she expected." + +The excuse, both in form and substance, was certainly not +discouraging, and la Peyrade looked about him to fulfil the behest to +amuse himself. Without opening any of the carved rosewood bookcases, +which enclosed a collection of the most elegantly bound volumes he had +ever laid his eyes upon, he saw on an oblong table with claw feet a +pell-mell of books sufficient for the amusement of a man whose +attention was keenly alive elsewhere. + +But, as he opened one after another of the various volumes, he began +to fancy that a feast of Tantalus had been provided for him: one book +was English, another German, a third Russian; there was even one in +cabalistic letters that seemed Turkish. Was this a polyglottic joke +the countess had arranged for him? + +One volume, however, claimed particular attention. The binding, unlike +those of the other books, was less rich than dainty. Lying by itself +at a corner of the table, it was open, with the back turned up, the +edges of the leaves resting on the green table-cloth in the shape of a +tent. La Peyrade took it up, being careful not to lose the page which +it seemed to have been some one's intention to mark. It proved to be a +volume of the illustrated edition of Monsieur Scribe's works. The +engraving which presented itself on the open page to la Peyrade's +eyes, was entitled "The Hatred of a Woman"; the principal personage of +which is a young widow, desperately pursuing a poor young man who +cannot help himself. There is hatred all round. Through her devilries +she almost makes him lose his reputation, and does make him miss a +rich marriage; but the end is that she gives him more than she took +away from him, and makes a husband of the man who was thought her +victim. + +If chance had put this volume apart from the rest, and had left it +open at the precise page where la Peyrade found it marked, it must be +owned that, after what had passed between himself and the countess, +chance can sometimes seem clever and adroit. As he stood there, +thinking over the significance which this more or less accidental +combination might have, la Peyrade read through a number of scenes to +see whether in the details as well as the general whole they applied +to the present situation. While thus employed, the sound of an opening +door was heard, and he recognized the silvery and slightly drawling +voice of the countess, who was evidently accompanying some visitor to +the door. + +"Then I may promise the ambassadress," said a man's voice, "that you +will honor her ball with your presence?" + +"Yes, commander, if my headache, which is just beginning to get a +little better, is kind enough to go away." + +"Au revoir, then, fairest lady," said the gentleman. After which the +doors were closed, and silence reigned once more. + +The title of commander reassured la Peyrade somewhat, for it was not +the rank of a young dandy. He was nevertheless curious to know who +this personage was with whom the countess had been shut up so long. +Hearing no one approach the room he was in, he went to the window and +opened the curtain cautiously, prepared to let it drop back at the +slightest noise, and to make a quick right-about-face to avoid being +caught, "flagrante delicto," in curiosity. An elegant coupe, standing +at a little distance, was now driven up to the house, a footman in +showy livery hastened to open the door, and a little old man, with a +light and jaunty movement, though it was evident he was one of those +relics of the past who have not yet abandoned powder, stepped quickly +into the carriage, which was then driven rapidly away. La Peyrade had +time to observe on his breast a perfect string of decorations. This, +combined with the powdered hair, was certain evidence of a diplomatic +individual. + +La Peyrade had picked up his book once more, when a bell from the +inner room sounded, quickly followed by the appearance of the maid, +who invited him to follow her. The Provencal took care _not_ to +replace the volume where he found it, and an instant later he +entered the presence of the countess. + +A pained expression was visible on the handsome face of the foreign +countess, who, however, lost nothing of her charm in the languor that +seemed to overcome her. On the sofa beside her was a manuscript +written on gilt-edged paper, in that large and opulent handwriting +which indicates an official communication from some ministerial office +or chancery. She held in her hand a crystal bottle with a gold +stopper, from which she frequently inhaled the contents, and a strong +odor of English vinegar pervaded the salon. + +"I fear you are ill, madame," said la Peyrade, with interest. + +"Oh! it is nothing," replied the countess; "only a headache, to which +I am very subject. But you, monsieur, what has become of you? I was +beginning to lose all hope of ever seeing you again. Have you come to +announce to me some great news? The period of your marriage with +Mademoiselle Colleville is probably so near that I think you can speak +of it." + +This opening disconcerted la Peyrade. + +"But, madame," he answered, in a tone that was almost tart, "you, it +seems to me, must know too well everything that goes on in the +Thuillier household not to be aware that the event you speak of is not +approaching, and, I may add, not probable." + +"No, I assure you, I know nothing; I have strictly forbidden myself +from taking any further interest in an affair which I felt I had +meddled with very foolishly. Mademoiselle Brigitte and I talk of +everything except Celeste's marriage." + +"And it is no doubt the desire to allow me perfect freedom in the +matter that induces you to take flight whenever I have the honor to +meet you in the Thuillier salon?" + +"Yes," said the countess, "that ought to be the reason that makes me +leave the room; else, why should I be so distant?" + +"Ah! madame, there are other reasons that might make a woman avoid a +man's presence. For instance, if he has displeased her; if the advice, +given to him with rare wisdom and kindness, was not received with +proper eagerness and gratitude." + +"Oh, my dear monsieur," she replied, "I have no such ardor in +proselytizing that I am angry with those who are not docile to my +advice. I am, like others, very apt to make mistakes." + +"On the contrary, madame, in the matter of my marriage your judgment +was perfectly correct." + +"How so?" said the countess, eagerly. "Has the seizure of the +pamphlet, coming directly after the failure to obtain the cross, led +to a rupture?" + +"No," said la Peyrade, "my influence in the Thuillier household rests +on a solid basis; the services I have rendered Mademoiselle Brigitte +and her brother outweigh these checks, which, after all, are not +irreparable." + +"Do you really think so?" said the countess. + +"Certainly," replied la Peyrade; "when the Comtesse du Bruel takes it +into her head to seriously obtain that bit of red ribbon, she can do +so, in spite of all obstacles that are put in her way." + +The countess received this assertion with a smile, and shook her head. + +"But, madame, only a day or two ago Madame du Bruel told Madame +Colleville that the unexpected opposition she had met with piqued her, +and that she meant to go in person to the minister." + +"But you forget that since then this seizure has been made by the +police; it is not usual to decorate a man who is summoned before the +court of assizes. You seem not to notice that the seizure argues a +strong ill-will against Monsieur Thuillier, and, I may add, against +yourself, monsieur, for you are known to be the culprit. You have not, +I think, taken all this into account. The authorities appear to have +acted not wholly from legal causes." + +La Peyrade looked at the countess. + +"I must own," he said, after that rapid glance, "that I have tried in +vain to find any passage in that pamphlet which could be made a legal +pretext for the seizure." + +"In my opinion," said the countess, "the king's servants must have a +vivid imagination to persuade themselves they were dealing with a +seditious publication. But that only proves the strength of the +underground power which is thwarting all your good intentions in favor +of Monsieur Thuillier." + +"Madame," said la Peyrade, "do you know our secret enemies?" + +"Perhaps I do," replied the countess, with another smile. + +"May I dare to utter a suspicion, madame?" said la Peyrade, with some +agitation. + +"Yes, say what you think," replied Madame de Godollo. "I shall not +blame you if you guess right." + +"Well, madame, our enemies, Thuillier's and mine, are--a woman." + +"Supposing that is so," said the countess; "do you know how many lines +Richelieu required from a man's hand in order to hang him?" + +"Four," replied la Peyrade. + +"You can imagine, then, that a pamphlet of two hundred pages might +afford a--slightly intriguing woman sufficient ground for +persecution." + +"I see it all, madame, I understand it!" cried la Peyrade, with +animation. "I believe that woman to be one of the elite of her sex, +with as much mind and malice as Richelieu! Adorable magician! it is +she who has set in motion the police and the gendarmes; but, more than +that, it is she who withholds that cross the ministers were about to +give." + +"If that be so," said the countess, "why struggle against her?" + +"Ah! I struggle no longer," said la Peyrade. Then, with an assumed air +of contrition, he added, "You must, indeed, _hate_ me, madame." + +"Not quite as much as you may think," replied the countess; "but, +after all, suppose that I do hate you?" + +"Ah! madame," cried la Peyrade, ardently, "I should then be the +happiest of unhappy men; for that hatred would seem to me sweeter and +more precious than your indifference. But you do not hate me; why +should you feel to me that most blessed feminine sentiment which +Scribe has depicted with such delicacy and wit?" + +Madame de Godollo did not answer immediately. She lowered her eyelids, +and the deeper breathing of her bosom gave to her voice when she did +speak a tremulous tone:-- + +"The hatred of a woman!" she said. "Is a man of your stoicism able to +perceive it?" + +"Ah! yes, madame," replied la Peyrade, "I do indeed perceive it, but +not to revolt against it; on the contrary, I bless the harshness that +deigns to hurt me. Now that I know my beautiful and avowed enemy, I +shall not despair of touching her heart; for never again will I follow +any road but the one that she points out to me, never will I march +under any banner but hers. I shall wait--for her inspiration, to +think; for her will, to will; for her commands, to act. In all things +I will be her auxiliary,--more than that, her slave; and if she still +repulses me with that dainty foot, that snowy hand, I will bear it +resignedly, asking, in return for such obedience one only favor,--that +of kissing the foot that spurns me, of bathing with tears the hand +that threatens me." + +During this long cry of the excited heart, which the joy of triumph +wrung from a nature so nervous and impressionable as that of the +Provencal, he had slidden from his chair, and now knelt with one knee +on the ground beside the countess, in the conventional attitude of the +stage, which is, however, much more common in real life than people +suppose. + +"Rise, monsieur," said the countess, "and be so good as to answer me." +Then, giving him a questioning look from beneath her beautiful +frowning brows, she continued: "Have you well-weighed the outcome of +the words you have just uttered? Have you measured the full extent of +your pledge, and its depth? With your hand on your heart and on your +conscience, are you a man to fulfil those words? Or are you one of the +falsely humble and perfidious men who throw themselves at our feet +only to make us lose the balance of our will and our reason?" + +"I!" exclaimed la Peyrade; "never can I react against the fascination +you have wielded over me from the moment of our first interview! Ah! +madame, the more I have resisted, the more I have struggled, the more +you ought to trust in my sincerity and its tardy expression. What I +have said, I think; that which I think aloud to-day I have thought in +my soul since the hour when I first had the honor of admittance to +you; and the many days I have passed in struggling against this +allurement have ended in giving me a firm and deliberate will, which +understands itself, and is not cast down by your severity." + +"Severity?" said the countess; "possibly. But you ought to think of +the kindness too. Question yourself carefully. We foreign women do not +understand the careless ease with which a Frenchwoman enters upon a +solemn engagement. To us, our _yes_ is sacred; our word is a bond. We do +and we will nothing by halves. The arms of my family bear a motto +which seems significant under the present circumstances,--'All or +Nothing'; that is saying much, and yet, perhaps, not enough." + +"That is how I understand my pledge," replied la Peyrade; "and on +leaving this room my first step will be to break with that ignoble +past which for an instant I seemed to hold in the balance against the +intoxicating future you do not forbid me to expect." + +"No," said the countess, "do it calmly and advisedly; I do not like +rash conduct; you will not please me by taking open steps. These +Thuilliers are not really bad at heart; they humiliated you without +knowing that they did so; their world is not yours. Is that their +fault? Loosen the tie between you, but do not violently break it. And, +above all, reflect. Your conversion to my beliefs is of recent date. +What man is certain of what his heart will say to him to-morrow?" + +"Madame," said la Peyrade, "I am that man. We men of Southern blood do +not love as you say a Frenchwoman loves." + +"But," said the countess, with a charming smile, "I thought it was +hatred we were talking of." + +"Ah, madame," cried the barrister, "explained and understood as it has +been, that word is still a thing that hurts me. Tell me rather, not +that you love me, but that the words you deigned to say to me at our +first interview were indeed the expression of your thoughts." + +"My friend," said the countess, dwelling on the word; "one of your +moralists has said: 'There are persons who say, _that is_ or _that is +not_.' Do me the favor to count me among such persons." + +So saying, she held out her hand to her suitor with a charming gesture +of modesty and grace. La Peyrade, quite beside himself, darted upon +that beautiful hand and devoured it with kisses. + +"Enough, child!" said the countess, gently freeing her imprisoned +fingers; "adieu now, soon to meet again! Adieu! My headache, I think, +has disappeared." + +La Peyrade picked up his hat, and seemed about to rush from the +apartment; but at the door he turned and cast upon the handsome +creature a look of tenderness. The countess made him, with her head, a +graceful gesture of adieu; then, seeing that la Peyrade was inclined +to return to her, she raised her forefinger as a warning to control +himself and go. + +La Peyrade turned and left the apartment. + + + + CHAPTER VII + + HOW TO SHUT THE DOOR IN PEOPLE'S FACES + +On the staircase la Peyrade stopped to exhale, if we may so express +it, the happiness of which his heart was full. The words of the +countess, the ingenious preparation she had made to put him on the +track of her sentiments, seemed to him the guarantee of her sincerity, +and he left her full of faith. + +Possessed by that intoxication of happy persons which shows itself in +their gestures, their looks, their very gait, and sometimes in actions +not authorized by their common-sense, after pausing a moment, as we +have said, on the staircase, he ran up a few steps till he could see +the door of the Thuilliers' apartment. + +"At last!" he cried, "fame, fortune, happiness have come to me; but, +above all, I can now give myself the joy of vengeance. After Dutocq +and Cerizet, I will crush _you_, vile bourgeois brood!" + +So saying, he shook his fist at the innocent door. Then he turned and +ran out; the popular saying that the earth could not hold him, was +true at that moment of his being. + +The next day, for he could not restrain any longer the tempest that +was swelling within him, la Peyrade went to see Thuillier in the +bitterest and most hostile of moods. What was therefore his amazement +when, before he had time to put himself on guard and stop the +demonstration of union and oblivion, Thuillier flung himself into his +arms. + +"My friend," cried the municipal councillor, as he loosened his clasp, +"my political fortune is made; this morning all the newspapers, +without exception, have spoken of the seizure of my pamphlet; and you +ought to see how the opposition sheets have mauled the government." + +"Simple enough," said la Peyrade, not moved by this enthusiasm; "you +are a topic for them, that's all. But this does not alter the +situation; the prosecution will be only the more determined to have +you condemned." + +"Well, then," said Thuillier, proudly raising his head, "I will go to +prison, like Beranger, like Lamennais, like Armand Carrel." + +"My good fellow, persecution is charming at a distance; but when you +hear the big bolts run upon you, you may be sure you won't like it as +well." + +"But," objected Thuillier, "prisoners condemned for political offences +are always allowed to do their time in hospital if they like. Besides, +I'm not yet convicted. You said yourself you expected to get me +acquitted." + +"Yes, but since then I have heard things which make that result very +doubtful; the same hand that withheld your cross has seized your +pamphlet; you are being murdered with premeditation." + +"If you know who that dangerous enemy is," said Thuillier, "you can't +refuse to point him out to me." + +"I don't know him," replied la Peyrade; "I only suspect him. This is +what you get by playing too shrewd a game." + +"Playing a shrewd game!" said Thuillier, with the curiosity of a man +who is perfectly aware that he has nothing of that kind on his +conscience. + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "you made a sort of decoy of Celeste to +attract young bloods to your salon. All the world has not the +forbearance of Monsieur Godeschal, who forgave his rejection and +generously managed that affair about the house." + +"Explain yourself better," said Thuillier, "for I don't see what you +mean." + +"Nothing is easier to understand. Without counting me, how many +suitors have you had for Mademoiselle Colleville? Godeschal, Minard +junior, Phellion junior, Olivier Vinet, the substitute judge,--all men +who have been sent about their business, as I am." + +"Olivier Vinet, the substitute judge!" cried Thuillier, struck with a +flash of light. "Of course; the blow must have come from him. His +father, they say, has a long arm. But it can't be truly said that we +sent him about his business,--to use your expression, which strikes me +as indecorous,--for he never came to the house but once, and made no +offer; neither did Minard junior or Phellion junior, for that matter. +Godeschal is the only one who risked a direct proposal, and he was +refused at once, before he dipped his beak in the water." + +"It is always so!" said la Peyrade, still looking for a ground of +quarrel. "Straightforward and outspoken persons are always those that +sly men boast of fooling." + +"Ah ca! what's all this?" said Thuillier; "what are you insinuating? +Didn't you settle everything with Brigitte the other day? You take a +pretty time to come and talk to me about your love-affairs, when the +sword of justice is hanging over my head." + +"Oh!" said la Peyrade, ironically; "so now you are going to make the +most of your interesting position of accused person! I knew very well +how it would be; I was certain that as soon as your pamphlet appeared +the old cry of not getting what you expected out of me would come up." + +"Parbleu! your pamphlet!" cried Thuillier. "I think you are a fine +fellow to boast of that when, on the contrary, it has caused the most +deplorable complications." + +"Deplorable? how so? you have just said your political fortune was +made." + +"Well, truly, my dear Theodose," said Thuillier, with feeling, "I +should never have thought that you would choose the hour of adversity +to come and put your pistol at our throats and make me the object of +your sneers and innuendoes." + +"Well done!" said la Peyrade; "now it is the hour of adversity! A +minute ago you were flinging yourself into my arms as a man to whom +some signal piece of luck had happened. You ought really to choose +decidedly between being a man who needs pity and a glorious victor." + +"It is all very well to be witty," returned Thuillier; "but you can't +controvert what I say. I am logical, if I am not brilliant. It is very +natural that I should console myself by seeing that public opinion +decides in my favor, and by reading in its organs the most honorable +assurances of sympathy; but do you suppose I wouldn't rather that +things had taken their natural course? Besides, when I see myself the +object of unworthy vengeance on the part of persons as influential as +the Vinets, how can I help measuring the extent of the dangers to +which I am exposed?" + +"Well," said la Peyrade, with pitiless persistency, "I see that you +prefer to play the part of Jeremiah." + +"Yes," said Thuillier, in a solemn tone. "Jeremiah laments over a +friendship I did think true and devoted, but which I find has only +sarcasms to give me when I looked for services." + +"What services?" asked la Peyrade. "Did you not tell me positively, no +later than yesterday, that you would not accept my help under any form +whatever? I offered to plead your case, and you answered that you +would take a better lawyer." + +"Yes; in the first shock of surprise at such an unexpected blow, I did +say that foolish thing; but, on reflection, who can explain as well as +you can the intention of the words you wrote with your own pen? +Yesterday I was almost out of my mind; but you, with your wounded +self-love, which can't forgive a momentary impatience, you are very +caustic and cruel." + +"So," said la Peyrade, "you formally request me to defend you before +the jury?" + +"Yes, my dear fellow; and I don't know any other hands in which I +could better place my case. I should have to pay a monstrous sum to +some great legal luminary, and he wouldn't defend me as ably as you." + +"Well, I refuse. Roles have changed, as you see, diametrically. +Yesterday, I thought, as you do, that I was the man to defend you. +To-day, I see that you had better take the legal luminary, because, +with Vinet's antagonism against you the affair is taking such +proportions that whoever defends it assumes a fearful responsibility." + +"I understand," said Thuillier, sarcastically. "Monsieur has his eye +on the magistracy, and he doesn't want to quarrel with a man who is +already talked of for Keeper of the Seals. It is prudent, but I don't +know that it is going to help on your marriage." + +"You mean," said la Peyrade, seizing the ball in its bound, "that to +get you out of the claws of that jury is a thirteenth labor of +Hercules, imposed upon me to earn the hand of Mademoiselle Colleville? +I expected that demands would multiply in proportion to the proofs of +my devotion. But that is the very thing that has worn me out, and I +have come here to-day to put an end to this slave labor by giving back +to you your pledges. You may dispose of Celeste's hand; for my part, I +am no longer a suitor for it." + +The unexpectedness and squareness of this declaration left Thuillier +without words or voice, all the more because at this moment entered +Brigitte. The temper of the old maid had also greatly moderated since +the previous evening, and her greeting was full of the most amicable +familiarity. + +"Ah! so here you are, you good old barrister," she said. + +"Mademoiselle, your servant," he replied, gravely. + +"Well," she continued, paying no attention to the stiffness of his +manner, "the government has got itself into a pretty mess by seizing +your pamphlet. You ought to see how the morning papers lash it! Here," +she added, giving Thuillier a small sheet printed on sugar-paper, in +coarse type, and almost illegible,--"here's another, you didn't read; +the porter has just brought it up. It is a paper from our old quarter, +'L'Echo de la Bievre.' I don't know, gentlemen, if you'll be of my +opinion, but I think nothing could be better written. It is droll, +though, how inattentive these journalists are! most of them write your +name without the H; I think you ought to complain of it." + +Thuillier took the paper, and read the article inspired to the +reviewer of the tanner's organ by stomach gratitude. Never in her life +had Brigitte paid the slightest attention to a newspaper, except to +know if it was the right size for the packages she wrapped up in it; +but now, suddenly, converted to a worship of the press by the ardor of +her sisterly love, she stood behind Thuillier and re-read, over his +shoulder, the more striking passages of the page she thought so +eloquent, pointing her finger to them. + +"Yes," said Thuillier, folding up the paper, "that's warm, and very +flattering to me. But here's another matter! Monsieur has come to tell +me that he refuses to plead for me, and renounces all claim to +Celeste's hand." + +"That is to say," said Brigitte, "he renounces her if, after having +pleaded, the marriage does not take place 'subito.' Well, poor fellow, +I think that's a reasonable demand. When he has done that for us there +ought to be no further delay; and whether Mademoiselle Celeste likes +it or not, she must accept him, because, you know, there's an end to +all things." + +"Do you hear that, my good fellow?" said la Peyrade, seizing upon +Brigitte's speech. "When I have pleaded, the marriage is to take +place. Your sister is frankness itself; she, at least, doesn't +practise diplomacy." + +"Diplomacy!" echoed Brigitte. "I'd like to see myself creeping +underground in matters. I say things as I think them. The workman has +worked, and he ought to have his pay." + +"Do be silent," cried Thuillier, stamping his foot; "you don't say a +word that doesn't turn the knife in the wound." + +"The knife in the wound?" said Brigitte, inquiringly. "Ah ca! are you +two quarrelling?" + +"I told you," said Thuillier, "that la Peyrade had returned our +promises; and the reason he gives is that we are asking him another +service for Celeste's hand. He thinks he has done us enough without +it." + +"He has done us some services, no doubt," said Brigitte; "but it seems +to me that we have not been ungrateful to him. Besides, it was he who +made the blunder, and I think it rather odd he should now wish to +leave us in the lurch." + +"Your reasoning, mademoiselle," said la Peyrade, "might have some +appearance of justice if I were the only barrister in Paris; but as +the streets are black with them, and as, only yesterday, Thuillier +himself spoke of engaging some more important lawyer than myself, I +have not the slightest scruple in refusing to defend him. Now, as to +the marriage, in order that it may not be made the object of another +brutal and forcible demand upon me, I here renounce it in the most +formal manner, and nothing now prevents Mademoiselle Colleville from +accepting Monsieur Felix Phellion and all his advantages." + +"As you please, my dear monsieur," said Brigitte, "if that's your last +word. We shall not be at a loss to find a husband for Celeste,--Felix +Phellion or another. But you must permit me to tell you that the +reason you give is not the true one. We can't go faster than the +fiddles. If the marriage were settled to-day, there are the banns to +publish; you have sense enough to know that Monsieur le maire can't +marry you before the formalities are complied with, and before then +Thuillier's case will have been tried." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "and if I lose the case it will be I who have +sent him to prison,--just as yesterday it was I who brought about the +seizure." + +"As for that, it seems to me that if you had written nothing the +police would have found nothing to bite." + +"My dear Brigitte," said Thuillier, seeing la Peyrade shrug his +shoulders, "your argument is vicious in the sense that the writing was +not incriminating on any side. It is not la Peyrade's fault if persons +of high station have organized a persecution against me. You remember +that little substitute, Monsieur Olivier Vinet, whom Cardot brought to +one of our receptions. It seems that he and his father are furious +that we didn't want him for Celeste, and they've sworn my +destruction." + +"Well, why did we refuse him," said Brigitte, "if it wasn't for the +fine eyes of monsieur here? For, after all, a substitute in Paris is a +very suitable match." + +"No doubt," said la Peyrade, nonchalantly. "Only, he did not happen to +bring you a million." + +"Ah!" cried Brigitte, firing up. "If you are going to talk any more +about that house you helped us to buy, I shall tell you plainly that +if you had had the money to trick the notary you never would have come +after us. You needn't think I have been altogether your dupe. You +spoke just now of a bargain, but you proposed that bargain yourself. +'Give me Celeste and I'll get you that house,'--that's what you said +to us in so many words. Besides which, we had to pay large sums on +which we never counted." + +"Come, come, Brigitte," said Thuillier, "you are making a great deal +out of nothing." + +"Nothing! nothing!" exclaimed Brigitte. "Did we, or did we not, have +to pay much more than we expected?" + +"My dear Thuillier," said la Peyrade, "I think, with you, that the +matter is now settled, and it can only be embittered by discussing it +further. My course was decided on before I came here; all that I have +now heard can only confirm it. I shall not be the husband of Celeste, +but you and I can remain good friends." + +He rose to leave the room. + +"One moment, monsieur," said Brigitte, barring his way; "there is one +matter which I do not consider settled; and now that we are no longer +to have interests in common, I should not be sorry if you would be so +good as to tell me what has become of a sum of ten thousand francs +which Thuillier gave you to bribe those rascally government offices in +order to get the cross we have never got." + +"Brigitte!" cried Thuillier, in anguish, "you have a devil of a +tongue! You ought to be silent about that; I told it to you in a +moment of ill-temper, and you promised me faithfully never to open +your lips about it to any one, no matter who." + +"So I did; but," replied the implacable Brigitte, "we are parting. +When people part they settle up; they pay their debts. Ten thousand +francs! For my part, I thought the cross itself dear at that; but for +a cross that has melted away, monsieur himself will allow the price is +too high." + +"Come, la Peyrade, my friend, don't listen to her," said Thuillier, +going up to the barrister, who was pale with anger. "The affection she +has for me blinds her; I know very well what government offices are, +and I shouldn't be surprised if you had had to pay out money of your +own." + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, "I am, unfortunately, not in a position +to return to you, instantly, that money, an accounting for which is so +insolently demanded. Grant me a short delay; and have the goodness to +accept my note, which I am ready to sign, if that will give you +patience." + +"To the devil with your note!" cried Thuillier; "you owe me nothing; +on the contrary, it is we who owe you; for Cardot told me I ought to +give you at least ten thousand francs for enabling us to buy this +magnificent property." + +"Cardot! Cardot!" said Brigitte; "he is very generous with other +people's money. We were giving monsieur Celeste, and that's a good +deal more than ten thousand francs." + +La Peyrade was too great a comedian not to turn the humiliation he had +just endured into a scene finale. With tears in his voice, which +presently fell from his eyes, he turned to Brigitte. + +"Mademoiselle," he said, "when I had the honor to be received by you I +was poor; you long saw me suffering and ill at ease, knowing, alas! +too well, the indignities that poverty must bear. From the day that I +was able to give you a fortune which I never thought of for myself I +have felt, it is true, more assurance; and your own kindness +encouraged me to rise out of my timidity and depression. To-day, when +I, by frank and loyal conduct, release you from anxiety,--for, if you +chose to be honest, you would acknowledge that you have been thinking +of another husband for Celeste,--we might still remain friends, even +though I renounce a marriage which my delicacy forbids me to pursue. +But you have not chosen to restrain yourself with the limits of social +politeness, of which you have a model beside you in Madame de Godollo, +who, I am persuaded, although she is not at all friendly to me, would +never have approved of your odious behavior. Thank Heaven! I have in +my heart some religious sentiment at least; the Gospel is not to me a +mere dead-letter, and--understand me well, mademoiselle--_I forgive +you_. It is not to Thuillier, who would refuse them, but to you that I +shall, before long, pay the ten thousand francs which you insinuate I +have applied to my own purposes. If, by the time they are returned to +you, you feel regret for your unjust suspicions, and are unwilling to +accept the money, I request that you will turn it over to the bureau +of Benevolence to the poor--" + +"To the bureau of Benevolence!" cried Brigitte, interrupting him. "No, +I thank you! the idea of all that money being distributed among a +crowd of do-nothings and devotes, who'll spend it in junketing! I've +been poor too, my lad; I made bags for the money of others long before +I had any money of my own; I have some now, and I take care of it. So, +whenever you will, I am ready to receive that ten thousand francs and +keep it. If you didn't know how to do what you undertook to do, and +spent that money in trying to put salt on a sparrow's tail, so much +the worse for you." + +Seeing that he had missed his effect, and had made not the slightest +impression on Brigitte's granite, la Peyrade cast a disdainful look +upon her and left the room majestically. As he did so he noticed a +movement made by Thuillier to follow him, and also the imperious +gesture of Brigitte, always queen and mistress, which nailed her +brother to his chair. + + + + CHAPTER VIII + +At the moment when la Peyrade was preparing to lay at the feet of the +countess the liberty he had recovered in so brutal a manner, he +received a perfumed note, which made his heart beat, for on the seal +was that momentous "All or Nothing" which she had given him as the +rule of the relation now to be inaugurated between them. The contents +of the note were as follows:-- + + Dear Monsieur,--I have heard of the step you have taken; thank + you! But I must now prepare to take my own. I cannot, as you may + well think, continue to live in this house, and among these people + who are so little of our own class and with whom we have nothing + in common. To arrange this transaction, and to avoid explanations + of the fact that the entresol welcomes the voluntary exile from + the first-floor, I need to-day and to-morrow to myself. Do not + therefore come to see me until the day after. By that time I shall + have executed Brigitte, as they say at the Bourse, and have much + to tell you. + + Tua tota, + Torna de Godollo. + + +That "Wholly thine" in Latin seemed charming to la Peyrade, who was +not, however, astonished, for Latin is a second national language to +the Hungarians. The two days' waiting to which he was thus condemned +only fanned the flame of the ardent passion which possessed him, and +on the third day when reached the house by the Madeleine his love had +risen to a degree of incandescence of which only a few days earlier he +would scarcely have supposed himself capable. + +This time the porter's wife perceived him; but he was now quite +indifferent as to whether or not the object of his visit should be +known. The ice was broken, his happiness was soon to be official, and +he was more disposed to cry it aloud in the streets than to make a +mystery of it. + +Running lightly up the stairs, he prepared to ring the bell, when, on +putting out his hand to reach the silken bell-cord he perceived that +the bell-cord had disappeared. La Peyrade's first thought was that one +of those serious illnesses which make all noises intolerable to a +patient would explain its absence; but with the thought came other +observations that weakened it, and which, moreover, were not in +themselves comforting. + +From the vestibule to the countess's door a stair carpet, held at each +step by a brass rod, made a soft ascent to the feet of visitors; this, +too, had been removed. A screen-door covered with green velvet and +studded with brass nails had hitherto protected the entrance to the +apartment; of that no sign, except the injury to the wall done by the +workmen in taking it away. For a moment the barrister thought, in his +agitation, that he must have mistaken the floor, but, casting his eye +over the baluster he saw that he had not passed the entresol. Madame +de Godollo must, therefore, be in the act of moving away. + +He then resigned himself to make known his presence at the great +lady's door as he would have done at that of a grisette. He rapped +with his knuckles, but a hollow sonority revealing the void, +"intonuere cavernae," echoed beyond the door which he vainly appealed +to with his fist. He also perceived from beneath that door a ray of +vivid light, the sure sign of an uninhabited apartment where curtains +and carpets and furniture no longer dim the light or deaden sound. +Compelled to believe in a total removal, la Peyrade now supposed that +in the rupture with Brigitte, mentioned as probable by Madame de +Godollo, some brutal insolence of the old maid had necessitated this +abrupt departure. But why had he not been told of it? And what an +idea, to expose him to this ridiculous meeting with what the common +people call, in their picturesque language, "the wooden face"! + +Before leaving the door finally, and as if some doubt still remained +in his mind, la Peyrade made a last and most thundering assault upon +it. + +"Who's knocking like that, as if they'd bring the house down?" said +the porter, attracted by the noise to the foot of the staircase. + +"Doesn't Madame de Godollo still live here?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Of course she doesn't live here now; she has moved away. If monsieur +had told me he was going to her apartment I would have spared him the +trouble of battering down the door." + +"I knew that she was going to leave the apartment," said la Peyrade, +not wishing to seem ignorant of the project of departure, "but I had +no idea she was going so soon." + +"I suppose it was something sudden," said the porter, "for she went +off early this morning with post-horses." + +"Post-horses!" echoed la Peyrade, stupefied. "Then she has left +Paris?" + +"That's to be supposed," said the porter; "people don't usually take +post-horses and a postilion to change from one quarter of Paris to +another." + +"And she did not tell you where she was going?" + +"Ah! monsieur, what an idea! Do people account to us porters for what +they do?" + +"No, but her letters--those that come after her departure?" + +"Her letters? I am ordered to deliver them to Monsieur le commandeur, +the little old gentlemen who came to see her so often; monsieur must +have met him." + +"Yes, yes, certainly," said la Peyrade, keeping his presence of mind +in the midst of the successive shocks which came upon him,--"the +powered little man who was here every day." + +"I couldn't say every day; but he came often. Well, I am told to give +the countess's letters to him." + +"And for other persons of her acquaintance," said la Peyrade, +carelessly, "did she leave no message?" + +"None, monsieur." + +"Very well," said la Peyrade, "good-morning." And he turned to go out. + +"But I think," said the porter, "that Mademoiselle Thuillier knows +more about it than I do. Won't monsieur go up? She is at home; and so +is Monsieur Thuillier." + +"No, never mind," said la Peyrade, "I only came to tell Madame de +Godollo about a commission she asked me to execute; I haven't time to +stop now." + +"Well, as I told you, she left with post-horses this morning. Two +hours earlier monsieur might still have found her; but now, with +post-horses, she must by this time have gone a good distance." + +La Peyrade departed, with a sense of despair in his heart. Added to +the anxiety caused by this hasty departure, jealousy entered his soul, +and in this agonizing moment of disappointment the most distressing +explanations crowded on his mind. + +Then, after further reflection, he said to himself:-- + +"These clever diplomatic women are often sent on secret missions which +require the most absolute silence, and extreme rapidity of movement." + +But here a sudden revulsion of thought overcame him:-- + +"Suppose she were one of those intriguing adventurers whom foreign +governments employ as agents? Suppose the tale, more or less probable, +of that Russian princess forced to sell her furniture to Brigitte were +also that of this Hungarian countess? And yet," he continued, as his +brain made a third evolution in this frightful anarchy of ideas and +feelings, "her education, her manners, her language, all bespoke a +woman of the best position. Besides, if she were only a bird of +passage, why have given herself so much trouble to win me over?" + +La Peyrade might have continued to plead thus for and against for a +long time had he not been suddenly grasped round the shoulders by a +strong arm and addressed in a well-known voice. + +"Take care! my dear barrister; a frightful danger threatens you; you +are running right into it." + +La Peyrade, thus arrested, looked round and found himself in the arms +of Phellion. + +The scene took place in front of a house which was being pulled down +at the corner of the rues Duphot and Saint-Honore. Posted on the +pavement of the other side of the street, Phellion, whose taste for +watching the process of building our readers may remember, had been +witnessing for the last fifteen minutes the drama of a wall about to +fall beneath the united efforts of a squadron of workmen. Watch in +hand, the great citizen was estimating the length of the resistance +which that mass of freestone would present to the destructive labor of +which it was the object. Precisely at the crucial moment of the +impending catastrophe la Peyrade, lost in the tumult of his thoughts, +was entering, heedless of the shouts addressed to him on all sides, +the radius within which the stones would fall. Seen by Phellion (who, +it must be said, would have done the same for a total stranger) la +Peyrade undoubtedly owed his life to him; for, at the moment when he +was violently flung back by the vigorous grasp of the worthy citizen, +the wall fell with the noise of a cannon-shot, and the stones rolled +in clouds of dust almost to his very feet. + +"Are you blind and deaf?" said the workman whose business it was to +warn the passers, in a tone of amenity it is easy to imagine. + +"Thank you, my dear friend," said la Peyrade, recalled to earth. "I +should certainly have been crushed like an idiot if it hadn't been for +you." + +And he pressed Phellion's hand. + +"My reward," replied the latter, "lies in the satisfaction of knowing +that you are saved from an imminent peril. And I may say that that +satisfaction is mingled, for me, with a certain pride; for I was not +mistaken by a single second in the calculation which enabled me to +foresee the exact moment when that formidable mass would be displaced +from its centre of gravity. But what were you thinking of, my dear +monsieur? Probably of the plea you are about to make in the Thuillier +affair. The public prints have informed me of the danger of +prosecution by the authorities which hangs above the head of our +estimable friend. You have a noble cause to defend, monsieur. +Habituated as I am, through my labors as a member of the reading +committee of the Odeon, to judge of works of intellect, and with my +hand upon my conscience, I declare that after reading the incriminated +passages, I can find nothing in the tone of that pamphlet which +justifies the severe measures of which it is the object. Between +ourselves," added the great citizen, lowering his voice, "I think the +government has shown itself petty." + +"So I think," said la Peyrade, "but I am not employed for the defence. +I have advised Thuillier to engage some noted lawyer." + +"It may be good advice," said Phellion; "at any rate, it speaks well +for your modesty. Poor man! I went to him at once when the blow fell, +but I did not see him; I saw only Brigitte, who was having a +discussion with Madame de Godollo. There is a woman with strong +political views; it seems she predicted that the seizure would be +made." + +"Did you know that the countess had left Paris?" said la Peyrade, +rushing at the chance of speaking on the subject of his present +monomania. + +"Ah! left Paris, has she?" said Phellion. "Well, monsieur, I must tell +you that, although there was not much sympathy between us, I regard +her departure as a misfortune. She will leave a serious void in the +salon of our friends. I say this, because it is my belief, and I am +not in the habit of disguising my convictions." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "she is certainly a very distinguished woman, +with whom in spite of her prejudice against me, I think I should have +come to an understanding. But this morning, without leaving any word +as to where she was going, she started suddenly with post-horses." + +"Post-horses!" said Phellion. "I don't know whether you will agree +with me, monsieur, but I think that travelling by post is a most +agreeable method of conveyance. Certainly Louis XI., to whom we owe +the institution, had a fortunate inspiration in the matter; although, +on the other hand, his sanguinary and despotic government was not, to +my humble thinking, entirely devoid of reproach. Once only in my life +have I used that method of locomotion, and I can truly say I found it +far superior, in spite of its inferior relative rapidity, to the +headlong course of what in England are called _railways_; where speed +is attained only at the price of safety." + +La Peyrade paid but little attention to Phellion's phraseology. "Where +can she have gone?"--round that idea he dug and delved in every +direction, an occupation that would have made him indifferent to a far +more interesting topic. However, once started, like the locomotive he +objected to, the great citizen went on:-- + +"I made that journey at the period of Madame Phellion's last +confinement. She was in Perche, with her mother, when I learned that +serious complications were feared from the milk-fever. Overcome with +terror at the danger which threatened my wife, I went instantly to the +post-office to obtain a seat in the mail-coach, but all were taken; I +found they had been engaged for more than a week. Upon that, I came to +a decision; I went to the rue Pigalle, and, for a very large sum in +gold a post-chaise and three horses were placed at my disposal, when +unfortunately the formality of a passport, with which I had neglected +to supply myself, and without which, in virtue of the decrees of the +consulate of 17 Nivose, year VII., the post agents were not permitted +to deliver horses to travellers--" + +The last few words were like a flash of light to la Peyrade, and +without waiting for the end of the postal odyssey of the great +citizen, he darted away in the direction of the rue Pigalle, before +Phellion, in the middle of his sentence, perceived his departure. + +Reaching the Royal postal establishment, la Peyrade was puzzled as to +whom to address himself in order to obtain the information he wanted. +He began by explaining to the porter that he had a letter to send to a +lady of his acquaintance that morning by post, neglecting, very +thoughtlessly, to send him her address, and that he thought he might +discover it by means of the passport which she must have presented in +order to obtain horses. + +"Was it a lady accompanied by a maid whom I took up on the boulevard +de la Madeleine?" asked a postilion sitting in the corner of the room +where la Peyrade was making his preliminary inquiry. + +"Exactly," said la Peyrade, going eagerly up to the providential +being, and slipping a five-franc piece into his hand. + +"Ah! well, she's a queer traveller!" said the man, "she told me to +take her to the Bois de Boulogne, and there she made me drive round +and round for an hour. After that, we came back to the Barriere de +l'Etoile, where she gave me a good 'pourboire' and got into a hackney +coach, telling me to take the travelling carriage back to the man who +lets such carriages in the Cour des Coches, Faubourg Saint-Honore." + +"Give me the name of that man?" said la Peyrade, eagerly. + +"Simonin," replied the postilion. + +Furnished with that information la Peyrade resumed his course, and +fifteen minutes later he was questioning the livery-stable keeper; but +that individual knew only that a lady residing on the Boulevard de la +Madeleine had hired, without horses, a travelling-carriage for half a +day; that he had sent out the said carriage at nine that morning, and +it was brought back at twelve by a postilion of the Royal Post house. + +"Never mind," thought la Peyrade, "I am certain now she has not left +Paris, and is not avoiding me. Most probably, she wants to break +utterly with the Thuilliers, and so has invented this journey. Fool +that I am! no doubt there's a letter waiting for me at home, +explaining the whole thing." + +Worn out with emotion and fatigue, and in order to verify as quickly +as possible this new supposition, la Peyrade flung himself into a +street cab, and in less than a quarter of an hour, having promised the +driver a good pourboire, he was deposited at the house in the rue +Saint-Dominique d'Enfer. There he was compelled to endure still longer +the tortures of waiting. Since Brigitte's departure, the duty of the +porter, Coffinet, had been very negligently performed, and when la +Peyrade rushed to the lodge to inquire for his letter, which he +thought he saw in the case that belonged to him, the porter and his +wife were both absent and their door was locked. The wife was doing +some household work in the building, and Coffinet himself, taking +advantage of that circumstance, had allowed a friend to entice him +into a neighboring wine-shop, where, between two glasses, he was +supporting, against a republican who was talking disrespectfully +against it, the cause of the owners of property. + +It was twenty minutes before the worthy porter, remembering the +"property" entrusted to his charge, decided to return to his post. It +is easy to imagine the reproaches with which la Peyrade overwhelmed +him. He excused himself by saying that he had gone to do a commission +for Mademoiselle, and that he couldn't be at the door and where his +masters chose to send him at the same time. At last, however, he gave +the lawyer a letter bearing the Paris postmark. + +With his heart rather than his eyes la Peyrade recognized the +handwriting, and, turning over the missive, the arms and motto +confirmed the hope that he had reached the end of the cruellest +emotion he had ever in his life experienced. To read that letter +before that odious porter seemed to him a profanation. With a +refinement of feeling which all lovers will understand, he gave +himself the pleasure of pausing before his happiness; he would not +even unseal that blissful note until the moment when, with closed +doors and no interruptions to distract him, he could enjoy at his ease +the delicious sensation of which his heart had a foretaste. + +Rushing up the staircase two steps at a time, the now joyous lover +committed the childish absurdity of locking himself in; then, having +settled himself at his ease before his desk, and having broken the +seal with religious care, he was forced to press his hand on his +heart, which seemed to burst from his bosom, before he could summon +calmness to read the following letter:-- + + Dear Monsieur,--I disappear forever, because my play is played + out. I thank you for having made it both attractive and easy. By + setting against you the Thuilliers and Collevilles (who are fully + informed of your sentiments towards them), and by relating in a + manner most mortifying to their bourgeois self-love the true + reason of your sudden and pitiless rupture with them, I am proud + and happy to believe that I have done you a signal service. The + girl does not love you, and you love nothing but the eyes of her + "dot"; I have therefore saved you both from a species of hell. + But, in exchange for the bride you have so curtly rejected, + another charming girl is proposed to you; she is richer and more + beautiful than Mademoiselle Colleville, and--to speak of myself + --more at liberty than + + Your unworthy servant, + Torna "Comtesse de Godollo." + + P.S. For further information apply, without delay, to Monsieur du + Portail, householder, rue Honore-Chevalier, near the rue de la + Cassette, quartier Saint-Sulpice, by whom you are expected. + + +When he had read this letter the advocate of the poor took his head in +his hands; he saw nothing, heard nothing, thought nothing; he was +annihilated. + +Several days were necessary to la Peyrade before he could even begin +to recover from the crushing blow which had struck him down. The shock +was terrible. Coming out of that golden dream which had shown him a +perspective of the future in so smiling an aspect, he found himself +fooled under conditions most cruel to his self-love, and to his +pretensions to depth and cleverness; irrevocably parted from the +Thuilliers; saddled with a hopeless debt of twenty-five thousand +francs to Madame Lambert, together with another of ten thousand to +Brigitte, which his dignity required him to pay with the least delay +possible; and, worst of all,--to complete his humiliation and his +sense of failure,--he felt that he was not cured of the passionate +emotion he had felt for this woman, the author of his great disaster, +and the instrument of his ruin. + +Either this Delilah was a very great lady, sufficiently high in +station to allow herself such compromising caprices,--but even so, she +would scarcely have cared to play the role of a coquette in a +vaudeville where he himself played the part of ninny,--_or_ she was some +noted adventuress who was in the pay of this du Portail and the agent +of his singular matrimonial designs. Evil life or evil heart, these +were the only two verdicts to be pronounced on this dangerous siren, +and in either case, it would seem, she was not very deserving of the +regrets of her victim; nevertheless, he was conscious of feeling them. +We must put ourselves in the place of this son of Provence, this +region of hot blood and ardent heads, who, for the first time in his +life finding himself face to face with jewelled love in laces, +believed he was to drink that passion from a wrought-gold cup. Just as +our minds on waking keep the impression of a vivid dream and continue +in love with what we know was but a shadow, la Peyrade had need of all +his mental energy to drive away the memory of that treacherous +countess. We might go further and say that he never ceased to long for +her, though he was careful to drape with an honest pretext the intense +desire that he had to find her. That desire he called curiosity, ardor +for revenge; and here follow the ingenious deductions which he drew +for himself:-- + +"Cerizet talked to me about a rich heiress; the countess, in her +letter, intimates that the whole intrigue she wound about me was to +lead to a rich marriage; rich marriages flung at a man's head are not +so plentiful that two such chances should come to me within a few +weeks; therefore the match offered by Cerizet and that proposed by the +countess must be the crazy girl they are so frantic to make me marry; +therefore Cerizet, being in the plot, must know the countess; +therefore, through him I shall get upon her traces. In any case, I am +sure of information about this extraordinary choice that has fallen +upon me; evidently, these people, whoever they are, who can pull the +wires of such puppets to reach their ends must be persons of +considerable position; therefore, I'll go and see Cerizet." + +And he went to see Cerizet. + +Since the dinner at the Rocher de Cancale, the pair had not met. Once +or twice la Peyrade had asked Dutocq at the Thuilliers' (where the +latter seldom went now, on account of the distance to their new abode) +what had become of his copying clerk. + +"He never speaks of you," Dutocq had answered. + +Hence it might be inferred that resentment, the "manet alta mente +repostum" was still living in the breast of the vindictive usurer. La +Peyrade, however, was not stopped by that consideration. After all, he +was not going to ask for anything; he went under the pretext of +renewing an affair in which Cerizet had taken part, and Cerizet never +took part in anything unless he had a personal interest in it. The +chances were, therefore, that he would be received with affectionate +eagerness rather than unpleasant acerbity. Moreover, he decided to go +and see the copying clerk at Dutocq's office; it would look, he +thought, less like a visit than if he went to his den in the rue des +Poules. It was nearly two o'clock when la Peyrade made his entrance +into the precincts of the justice-of-peace of the 12th arrondissement. +He crossed the first room, in which were a crowd of persons whom civil +suits of one kind or another summoned before the magistrate. Without +pausing in that waiting-room, la Peyrade pushed on to the office +adjoining that of Dutocq. There he found Cerizet at a shabby desk of +blackened wood, at which another clerk, then absent, occupied the +opposite seat. + +Seeing his visitor, Cerizet cast a savage look at him and said, +without rising, or suspending the copy of the judgment he was then +engrossing:-- + +"You here, Sieur la Peyrade? You have been doing fine things for your +friend Thuillier!" + +"How are you?" asked la Peyrade, in a tone both resolute and friendly. + +"I?" replied Cerizet. "As you see, still rowing my galley; and, to +follow out the nautical metaphor, allow me to ask what wind has blown +you hither; is it, perchance, the wind of adversity?" + +La Peyrade, without replying, took a chair beside his questioner, +after which he said in a grave tone:-- + +"My dear fellow, we have something to say to each other." + +"I suppose," said Cerizet, spitefully, "the Thuilliers have grown cold +since the seizure of the pamphlet." + +"The Thuilliers are ungrateful people; I have broken with them," +replied la Peyrade. + +"Rupture or dismissal," said Cerizet, "their door is shut against you; +and from what Dutocq tells me, I judge that Brigitte is handling you +without gloves. You see, my friend, what it is to try and manage +affairs alone; complications come, and there's no one to smooth the +angles. If you had got me that lease, I should have had a footing at +the Thuilliers', Dutocq would not have abandoned you, and together we +could have brought you gently into port." + +"But suppose I don't want to re-enter that port?" said la Peyrade, +with some sharpness. "I tell you I've had enough of those Thuilliers, +and I broke with them myself; I warned them to get out of my sun; and +if Dutocq told you anything else you may tell him from me that he +lies. Is that clear enough? It seems to me I've made it plain." + +"Well, exactly, my good fellow, if you are so savage against your +Thuilliers you ought to have put me among them, and then you'd have +seen me avenge you." + +"There you are right," said la Peyrade; "I wish I could have set you +at their legs--but as for that matter of the lease I tell you again, I +was not master of it." + +"Of course," said Cerizet, "it was your conscience which obliged you +to tell Brigitte that the twelve thousand francs a year I expected to +make out of it were better in her pocket than in mine." + +"It seems that Dutocq continues the honorable profession of spy which +he formerly practised at the ministry of finance," said la Peyrade, +"and, like others who do that dirty business, he makes his reports +more witty than truthful--" + +"Take care!" said Cerizet; "you are talking of my patron in his own +lair." + +"Look here!" said la Peyrade. "I have come to talk to you on serious +matters. Will you do me the favor to drop the Thuilliers and all their +belongings, and give me your attention?" + +"Say on, my friend," said Cerizet, laying down his pen, which had +never ceased to run, up to this moment, "I am listening." + +"You talked to me some time ago," said la Peyrade, "about marrying a +girl who was rich, fully of age, and slightly hysterical, as you were +pleased to put it euphemistically." + +"Well done!" cried Cerizet. "I expected this; but you've been some +time coming to it." + +"In offering me this heiress, what did you have in your mind?" asked +la Peyrade. + +"Parbleu! to help you to a splendid stroke of business. You had only +to stoop and take it. I was formally charged to propose it to you; +and, as there wasn't any brokerage, I should have relied wholly on +your generosity." + +"But you are not the only person who was commissioned to make me that +offer. A woman had the same order." + +"A woman!" cried Cerizet in a perfectly natural tone of surprise. "Not +that I know of." + +"Yes, a foreigner, young and pretty, whom you must have met in the +family of the bride, to whom she seems to be ardently devoted." + +"Never," said Cerizet, "never has there been the slightest question of +a woman in this negotiation. I have every reason to believe that I am +exclusively charged with it." + +"What!" said la Peyrade, fixing upon Cerizet a scrutinizing eye, "did +you never hear of the Comtesse Torna de Godollo?" + +"Never, in all my life; this is the first time I ever heard that +name." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, "it must really have been another match; for +that woman, after many singular preliminaries, too long to explain to +you, made me a formal offer of the hand of a young woman much richer +than Mademoiselle Colleville--" + +"And hysterical?" asked Cerizet. + +"No, she did not embellish the proposal with that accessory; but +there's another detail which may put you on the track of her. Madame +de Godollo exhorted me, if I wished to push the matter, to go and see +a certain Monsieur du Portail--" + +"Rue Honore-Chevalier?" exclaimed Cerizet, quickly. + +"Precisely." + +"Then it is the same marriage which is offered to you through two +different mediums. It is strange I was not informed of this +collaboration!" + +"In short," said la Peyrade, "you not only didn't have wind of the +countess's intervention, but you don't know her, and you can't give me +any information about her--is that so?" + +"At present I can't," replied Cerizet, "but I'll find out about her; +for the whole proceeding is rather cavalier towards me; but this +employment of two agents only shows you how desirable you are to the +family." + +At this moment the door of the room was opened cautiously, a woman's +head appeared, and a voice, which was instantly recognized by la +Peyrade, said, addressing the copying-clerk:-- + +"Ah! excuse me! I see monsieur is busy. Could I say a word to monsieur +when he is alone?" + +Cerizet, who had an eye as nimble as a hand, instantly noticed a +certain fact. La Peyrade, who was so placed as to be plainly seen by +the new-comer, no sooner heard that drawling, honeyed voice, than he +turned his head in a manner to conceal his features. Instead therefore +of being roughly sent away, as usually happened to petitioners who +addressed the most surly of official clerks, the modest visitor heard +herself greeted in a very surprising manner. + +"Come in, come in, Madame Lambert," said Cerizet; "you won't be kept +waiting long; come in." + +The visitor advanced, and then came face to face with la Peyrade. + +"Ah! monsieur!" cried his creditor, whom the reader has no doubt +recognized, "how fortunate I am to meet monsieur! I have been several +times to his office to ask if he had had time to attend to my little +affair." + +"I have had many engagements which have kept me away from my office +lately; but I attended to that matter; everything has been done right, +and is now in the hands of the secretary." + +"Oh! how good monsieur is! I pray God to bless him," said the pious +woman, clasping her hands. + +"Bless me! do you have business with Madame Lambert?" said Cerizet; +"you never told me that. Are you Pere Picot's counsel?" + +"No, unfortunately," said Madame Lambert, "my master won't take any +counsel; he is so self-willed, so obstinate! But, my good monsieur, +what I came to ask is whether the family council is to meet." + +"Of course," said Cerizet, "and not later than to-morrow." + +"But monsieur, I hear those gentlemen of the Royal court said the +family had no rights--" + +"Yes, that's so," said the clerk; "the lower court and the Royal court +have both, on the petition of the relatives, rejected their demand for +a commission." + +"I should hope so!" said the woman; "to think of making him out a +lunatic! him so full of wisdom and learning!" + +"But the relations don't mean to give up; they are going to try the +matter again under a new form, and ask for the appointment of a +judicial counsel. That's what the family council meets for to-morrow; +and I think, this time, my dear Madame Lambert, your old Picot will +find himself restrained. There are serious allegations, I can tell +you. It was all very well to take the eggs, but to pluck the hen was +another thing." + +"Is it possible that monsieur can suppose--" began the devote, +clasping her hands under her chin. + +"I suppose nothing," said Cerizet; "I am not the judge of this affair. +But the relations declare that you have pocketed considerable sums, +and made investments about which they demand inquiry." + +"Oh! heavens!" said the woman, casting up her eyes; "they can inquire; +I am poor; I have not a deed, nor a note, nor a share; not the +slightest security of any kind in my possession." + +"I dare say not," said Cerizet, glancing at la Peyrade out of the +corner of his eye; "but there are always friends to take care of such +things. However, that is none of my business; every one must settle +his own affairs in his own way. Now, then, say what you have to say, +distinctly." + +"I came, monsieur," she replied, "to implore you, monsieur, to implore +Monsieur the judge's clerk, to speak in our favor to Monsieur the +justice-of-peace. Monsieur the vicar of Saint-Jacques is also to speak +to him. That poor Monsieur Picot!" she went on, weeping, "they'll kill +him if they continue to worry him in this way." + +"I sha'n't conceal from you," said Cerizet, "that the justice-of-peace +is very ill-disposed to your cause. You must have seen that the other +day, when he refused to receive you. As for Monsieur Dutocq and +myself, our assistance won't help you much; and besides, my good +woman, you are too close-mouthed." + +"Monsieur asked me if I had laid by a few little savings; and I +couldn't tell him that I had, be--because they have gone to keep the +h--house of that poor Monsieur Pi--i--cot; and now they accuse me of +r--robbing him!" + +Madame Lambert sobbed. + +"My opinion is," said Cerizet, "that you are making yourself out much +poorer than you are; and if friend Peyrade here, who seems to be more +in your confidence, hadn't his tongue tied by the rules of his +profession--" + +"I!" said la Peyrade, hastily, "I don't know anything of madame's +affairs. She asked me to draw up a petition on a matter in which there +was nothing judicial or financial." + +"Ah! that's it, is it?" said Cerizet. "Madame had doubtless gone to +see you about this petition the day Dutocq met her at your office, the +morning after our dinner at the Rocher de Cancale--when you were such +a Roman, you know." + +Then, without seeming to attach any importance to the reminiscence, he +added:-- + +"Well, my good Madame Lambert, I'll ask my patron to speak to the +justice-of-peace, and, if I get a chance, I'll speak to him myself; +but, I repeat it, he is very much prejudiced against you." + +Madame Lambert retired with many curtseys and protestations of +gratitude. When she was fairly gone la Peyrade remarked:-- + +"You don't seem to believe that that woman came to me about a +petition; and yet nothing was ever truer. She is thought a saint in +the street she lives in, and that old man they accuse her of robbing +is actually kept alive by her devotion, so I'm told. Consequently, the +neighbors have put it into the good woman's head to apply for the +Montyon prize; and it was for the purpose of putting her claims in +legal shape that she applied to me." + +"Dear! dear! the Montyon prize!" cried Cerizet; "well, that's an idea! +My good fellow, we ought to have cultivated it before,--I, especially, +as banker of the poor, and you, their advocate. As for this client of +yours, it is lucky for her Monsieur Picot's relatives are not members +of the French academy; it is in the correctional police-court, sixth +chamber, where they mean to give her the reward of virtue. However, to +come back to what we were talking about. I tell you that after all +your tergiversations you had better settle down peaceably; and I +advise you, as your countess did, to go and see du Portail." + +"Who and what is he?" asked la Peyrade. + +"He is a little old man," replied Cerizet, "as shrewd as a weasel. He +gives me the idea of having dealings with the devil. Go and see him! +Sight, as they say, costs nothing." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "perhaps I will; but, first of all, I want you +to find out for me about this Comtesse de Godollo." + +"What do you care about her? She is nothing but a supernumerary, that +countess." + +"I have my reasons," said la Peyrade; "you can certainly get some +information about her in three days; I'll come and see you then." + +"My good fellow," said Cerizet, "you seem to me to be amusing yourself +with things that don't pay; you haven't fallen in love with that +go-between, have you?" + +"Plague take him!" thought la Peyrade; "he spies everything; there's +no hiding anything from him! No," he said, aloud, "I am not in love; +on the contrary, I am very cautious. I must admit that this marriage +with a crazy girl doesn't attract me, and before I go a step into it I +want to know where I put my feet. These crooked proceedings are not +reassuring, and as so many influences are being brought to bear, I +choose to control one by another. Therefore don't play sly, but give +me all the information you get into your pouch about Madame la +Comtesse Torna de Godollo. I warn you I know enough to test the +veracity of your report; and if I see you are trying to overreach me +I'll break off short with your du Portail." + +"Trying to overreach you, monseigneur!" replied Cerizet, in the tone +and manner of Frederic Lemaitre. "Who would dare attempt it?" + +As he pronounced those words in a slightly mocking tone, Dutocq +appeared, accompanied by his little clerk. + +"Bless me!" he exclaimed, seeing la Peyrade and Cerizet together; +"here's the trinity reconstituted! but the object of the alliance, the +'casus foederis,' has floated off. What have you done to that good +Brigitte, la Peyrade? She is after your blood." + +"What about Thuillier?" asked la Peyrade. + +Moliere was reversed; here was Tartuffe inquiring for Orgon. + +"Thuillier began by not being very hostile to you; but it now seems +that the seizure business has taken a good turn, and having less need +of you he is getting drawn into his sister's waters; and if the +tendency continues, I haven't a doubt that he'll soon come to think +you deserving of hanging." + +"Well, I'm out of it all," said la Peyrade, "and if anybody ever +catches me in such a mess again!--Well, adieu, my friends," he added. +"And you, Cerizet, as to what we were speaking about, activity, +safety, and discretion!" + +When la Peyrade reached the courtyard of the municipal building, he +was accosted by Madame Lambert, who was lying in wait for him. + +"Monsieur wouldn't believe, I am sure," she said, in a deprecating +tone, "the villainous things that Monsieur Cerizet said about me; +monsieur knows it was the little property I received from my uncle in +England that I placed in his hands." + +"Yes, yes," said la Peyrade, "but you must understand that with all +these rumors set about by your master's relatives the prize of virtue +is desperately endangered." + +"If it is God's will that I am not to have it--" + +"You ought also to understand how important it is for your interests +to keep secret the other service which I did for you. At the first +appearance of any indiscretion on your part that money, as I told you, +will be peremptorily returned to you." + +"Oh! monsieur may be easy about that." + +"Very well; then good-bye to you, my dear," said la Peyrade, in a +friendly tone. + +As he turned to leave her, a nasal voice was heard from a window on +the staircase. + +"Madame Lambert!" cried Cerizet, who, suspecting the colloquy, had +gone to the staircase window to make sure of it. "Madame Lambert! +Monsieur Dutocq has returned; you may come up and see him, if you +like." + +Impossible for la Peyrade to prevent the conference, although he knew +the secret of that twenty-five thousand francs ran the greatest +danger. + +"Certainly," he said to himself as he walked away, "I'm in a run of +ill-luck; and I don't know where it will end." + +In Brigitte's nature there was such an all-devouring instinct of +domination, that it was without regret, and, we may even say, with a +sort of secret joy that she saw the disappearance of Madame de +Godollo. That woman, she felt, had a crushing superiority over her; +and this, while it had given a higher order to the Thuillier +establishment, made her ill at ease. When therefore the separation +took place, which was done, let us here say, on good terms, and under +fair and honorable pretexts, Mademoiselle Thuillier breathed more +freely. She felt like those kings long swayed by imperious and +necessary ministers, who celebrate within their hearts the day when +death delivers them from a master whose services and rival influence +they impatiently endured. + +Thuillier was not far from having the same sentiment about la Peyrade. +But Madame de Godollo was only the elegance, whereas la Peyrade was +the utility of the house they had now simultaneously abandoned; and +after the lapse of a few days, a terrible need of Theodose made itself +felt in the literary and political existence of his dear, good friend. +The municipal councillor found himself suddenly appointed to draft an +important report. He was unable to decline the task, saddled as he was +with the reputation, derived from his pamphlet, of being a man of +letters and an able writer; therefore, in presence of the perilous +honor conferred upon him by his colleagues of the general Council, he +sat down terrified by his solitude and his insufficiency. + +In vain did he lock himself into his study, gorge himself with black +coffee, mend innumerable pens, and write a score of times at the head +of his paper (which he was careful to cut of the exact dimensions as +that used by la Peyrade) the solemn words: "Report to the Members of +the Municipal Council of the City of Paris," followed, on a line by +itself, by a magnificent _Messieurs_--nothing came of it! He was fain +to issue furious from his study, complaining of the horrible household +racket which "cut the thread of his ideas"; though really no greater +noise than the closing of a door or the opening of a closet or the +moving of a chair had made itself heard. All this, however, did not +help the advancement of the work, which remained, as before--simply +begun. + +Most fortunately, it happened that Rabourdin, wanting to make some +change in his apartment, came, as was proper, to submit his plan to +the owner of the house. Thuillier granted cordially the request that +was made to him, and then discoursed to his tenant about the report +with which he was charged,--being desirous, he said, to obtain his +ideas on the subject. + +Rabourdin, to whom no administrative question was foreign, very +readily threw upon the subject a number of very clear and lucid ideas. +He was one of those men to whom the quality of the intellect to which +they address themselves is more or less indifferent; a fool, or a man +of talent who will listen to them, serves equally well to think aloud +to, and they are, as a stimulant, about the same thing. After +Rabourdin had said his say, he observed that Thuillier had not +understood him; but he had listened to himself with pleasure, and he +was, moreover, grateful for the attention, obtuse as it was, of his +hearer, and also for the kindliness of the landlord in receiving his +request. + +"I must have among my papers," he said as he went away, "something on +this subject; I will look it up and send it to you." + +Accordingly, that same evening Thuillier received a voluminous +manuscript; and he spent the entire night in delving into that +precious repository of ideas, from which he extracted enough to make a +really remarkable report, clumsily as the pillage was managed. When +read before the council it obtained a very great success, and +Thuillier returned home radiant and much elated by the congratulations +he had received. From that moment--a moment that was marked in his +life, for even to advanced old age he still talked of the "report he +had had the honor of making to the Council-general of the Seine"--la +Peyrade went down considerably in his estimation; he felt then that he +could do very well without the barrister, and this thought of +emancipation was strengthened by another happiness which came to him +at almost the same time. + +A parliamentary crisis was imminent,--a fact that caused the ministry +to think about depriving its adversaries of a theme of opposition +which always has great influence on public opinion. It resolved +therefore to relax its rigor, which of late had been much increased +against the press. Being included in this species of hypocritical +amnesty, Thuillier received one morning a letter from the barrister +whom he had chosen in place of la Peyrade. This letter announced that +the Council of State had dismissed the complaint, and ordered the +release of the pamphlet. + +Then Dutocq's prediction was realized. That weight the less within his +bosom, Thuillier took a swing toward insolence; he chorused Brigitte, +and came at last to speak of la Peyrade as a sort of adventurer whom +he had fed and clothed, a tricky fellow who had _extracted_ much money +from him, and had finally behaved with such ingratitude that he was +thankful not to count him any longer among his friends. Orgon, in +short, was in full revolt, and like Dorine, he was ready to cry out: +"A beggar! who, when he came, had neither shoes nor coat worth a brass +farthing." + +Cerizet, to whom these indignities were reported by Dutocq, would +gladly have served them up hot to la Peyrade; but the interview in +which the copying clerk was to furnish information about Madame de +Godollo did not take place at the time fixed. La Peyrade made his own +discoveries in this wise: + +Pursued by the thought of the beautiful Hungarian, and awaiting, or +rather not awaiting the result of Cerizet's inquiry, he scoured Paris +in every direction, and might have been seen, like the idlest of +loungers, in the most frequented places, his heart telling him that +sooner or later he must meet the object of his ardent search. + +One evening--it was towards the middle of October--the autumn, as +frequently happens in Paris, was magnificent, and along the +boulevards, where the Provencal was airing his love and his +melancholy, the out-door life and gaiety were as animated as in +summer. On the boulevard des Italiens, formerly known as the boulevard +de Gand, as he lounged past the long line of chairs before the Cafe de +Paris, where, mingled with a few women of the Chaussee d'Antin +accompanied by their husbands and children, may be seen toward evening +a cordon of nocturnal beauties waiting only a gloved hand to gather +them, la Peyrade's heart received a cruel shock. From afar, he thought +he saw his adored countess. + +She was alone, in a dazzling toilet scarcely authorized by the place +and her isolation; before her, mounted on a chair, trembled a tiny +lap-dog, which she stroked from time to time with her beautiful hands. +After convincing himself that he was not mistaken, la Peyrade was +about to dart upon that celestial vision, when he was forestalled by a +dandy of the most triumphant type. Without throwing aside his cigar, +without even touching his hat, this handsome young man began to +converse with the barrister's ideal; but when she saw la Peyrade +making towards her the siren must have felt afraid, for she rose +quickly, and taking the arm of the man who was talking to her, she +said aloud:-- + +"Is your carriage here, Emile? Mabille closes to-night, and I should +like to go there." + +The name of that disreputable place thus thrown in the face of the +unhappy barrister, was a charity, for it saved him from a foolish +action, that of addressing, on the arm of the man who had suddenly +made himself her cavalier, the unworthy creature of whom he was +thinking a few seconds earlier with so much tenderness. + +"She is not worth insulting," he said to himself. + +But, as lovers are beings who will not allow their foothold to be +taken from them easily, the Provencal was neither convinced nor +resigned as yet. Not far from the place which his countess had left, +sat another woman, also alone; but this one was ripe with years, with +feathers on her head, and beneath the folds of a cashmere shawl she +concealed the plaintive remains of tarnished elegance and long past +luxury. There was nothing imposing about this sight, nor did it +command respect, but the contrary. La Peyrade went up to the woman +without ceremony and addressed her. + +"Madame," he said, "do you know that woman who has just gone away on +the arm of a gentleman?" + +"Certainly, monsieur; I know nearly all the women who come here." + +"And her name is?--" + +"Madame Komorn." + +"Is she as impregnable as the fortress of that name?" + +Our readers will doubtless remember that at the time of the +insurrection in Hungary our ears were battered by the press and by +novelists about the famous citadel of Komorn; and la Peyrade knew that +by assuming a tone of indifference or flippancy he was more likely to +succeed with his inquiries. + +"Has monsieur any idea of making her acquaintance?" + +"I don't know," replied la Peyrade, "but she is a woman who makes +people think of her." + +"And a very dangerous woman, monsieur," added his companion; "a +fearful spendthrift, but with no inclination to return generously what +is done for her. I can speak knowingly of that; when she first arrived +here from Berlin, six months ago, she was very warmly recommended to +me." + +"Ah!" exclaimed la Peyrade. + +"Yes, at that time I had in the environs of Ville d'Avray a very +beautiful place, with park and coverts and a stream for fishing; but +as I was alone I found it dull, and several of these ladies and +gentlemen said to me, 'Madame Louchard, why don't you organize parties +in the style of picnics?'" + +"Madame Louchard!" repeated la Peyrade, "are you any relation to +Monsieur Louchard of the commercial police?" + +"His wife, monsieur, but legally separated from him. A horrid man who +wants me to go back to him; but I, though I'm ready to forgive most +things, I can't forgive a want of respect; just imagine that he dared +to raise his hand against me!" + +"Well," said la Peyrade, trying to bring her back to the matter in +hand; "you organized those picnics, and Madame de Godo--I mean Madame +Komorn--" + +"Was one of my first lodgers. It was there she made acquaintance with +an Italian, a handsome man, and rich, a political refugee, but one of +the lofty kind. You understand it didn't suit my purposes to have +intrigues going on in my house; still the man was so lovable, and so +unhappy because he couldn't make Madame Komorn like him, that at last +I took an interest in this particular love affair; which produced a +pot of money for madame, for she managed to get immense sums out of +that Italian. Well, would you believe that when--being just then in +great need--I asked her to assist me with a trifling little sum, she +refused me point-blank, and left my house, taking her lover with her, +who, poor man, can't be thankful for the acquaintance now." + +"Why not? What happened to him?" asked la Peyrade. + +"It happened to him that this serpent knows every language in Europe; +she is witty and clever to the tips of her fingers, but more +manoeuvring than either; so, being, as it appears, in close relations +to the police, she gave the government a lot of papers the Italian +left about carelessly, on which they expelled him from France." + +"Well, after his departure, Madame Komorn--" + +"Since then, she has had a good many adventures and upset several +fortunes, and I thought she had left Paris. For the last two months +she was nowhere to be seen, but three days ago she reappeared, more +brilliant than ever. My advice to monsieur is not to trust himself in +that direction; and yet, monsieur looks to me a Southerner, and +Southerners have passions; perhaps what I have told him will only +serve to spur them up. However, being warned, there's not so much +danger, and she is a most fascinating creature--oh! very fascinating. +She used to love me very much, though we parted such ill-friends; and +just now, seeing me here, she came over and asked my address, and said +she should come and see me." + +"Well, madame, I'll think about it," said la Peyrade, rising and +bowing to her. + +The bow was returned with extreme coldness; his abrupt departure did +not show him to be a man of _serious_ intentions. + +It might be supposed from the lively manner in which la Peyrade made +these inquiries that his cure though sudden was complete; but this +surface of indifference and cool self-possession was only the +stillness of the atmosphere that precedes a storm. On leaving Madame +Louchard, la Peyrade flung himself into a street-cab and there gave +way to a passion of tears like that Madame Colleville had witnessed on +the day he believed that Cerizet had got the better of him in the sale +of the house. + +What was his position now? The investment of the Thuilliers, prepared +with so much care, all useless; Flavie well avenged for the odious +comedy he had played with her; his affairs in a worse state than they +were when Cerizet and Dutocq had sent him, like a devouring wolf, into +the sheepfold from which he had allowed the stupid sheep to drive him; +his heart full of revengeful projects against the woman who had so +easily got the better of what he thought his cleverness; and the +memory, still vivid, of the seductions to which he had succumbed, +--such were the thoughts and emotions of his sleepless night, +sleepless except for moments shaken by agitated dreams. + +The next day la Peyrade could think no more; he was a prey to fever, +the violence of which became sufficiently alarming for the physician +who attended him to take all precautions against the symptoms now +appearing of brain fever: bleeding, cupping, leeches, and ice to his +head; these were the agreeable finale to his dream of love. We must +hasten to add, however, that this violent crisis in the physical led +to a perfect cure of the mental being. The barrister came out of his +illness with no other sentiment than cold contempt for the treacherous +Hungarian, a sentiment which did not even rise to a desire for +vengeance. + + + + CHAPTER IX + + GIVE AND TAKE + +Once more afoot, and reckoning with his future, on which he had lost +so much ground, la Peyrade asked himself if he had not better try to +renew his relations with the Thuilliers, or whether he should be +compelled to fall back on the rich crazy woman who had bullion where +others have brains. But everything that reminded him of his disastrous +campaign was repulsive to him; besides, what safety was there in +dealing with this du Portail, a man who could use such instruments for +his means of action? + +Great commotions of the soul are like those storms which purify the +atmosphere; they induce reflection, they counsel good and strong +resolutions. La Peyrade, as the result of the cruel disappointment he +had just endured, examined his own soul. He asked himself what sort of +existence was this, of base and ignoble intrigue, which he had led for +the past year? Was there for him no better, no nobler use to make of +the faculties he felt within him? The bar was open to him as to +others; that was a broad, straight path which could lead him to all +the satisfaction of legitimate ambition. Like Figaro, who displayed +more science and calculation in merely getting a living than statesmen +had shown in governing Spain for a hundred years, he, la Peyrade, in +order to install and maintain himself in the Thuillier household and +marry the daughter of a clarionet and a smirched coquette, had spent +more mind, more art, and--it should also be said, because in a corrupt +society it is an element that must be reckoned--more dishonesty than +was needed to advance him in some fine career. + +"Enough of such connections as Dutocq and Cerizet," he said to +himself; "enough of the nauseating atmosphere of the Minards and +Phellions and Collevilles and Barniols and all the rest of them. I'll +shake off this province 'intra muros,' a thousand times more absurd +and petty than the true provinces; they at least, side by side with +their pettiness, have habits and customs that are characteristic, a +'sui generis' dignity; they are frankly what they are, the antipodes +of Parisian life; this other is but a parody of it. I will fling +myself upon Paris." + +In consequence of these reflections, la Peyrade went to see two or +three barristers who had offered to introduce him at the Palais in +secondary cases. He accepted those that presented themselves at once, +and three weeks after his rupture with the Thuilliers he was no longer +the "advocate of the poor," but a barrister pleading before the Royal +court. + +He had already pleaded several cases successfully when he received, +one morning, a letter which greatly disturbed him. The president of +the order of barristers requested him to come to his office at the +Palais in the course of the day, as he had something of importance to +say to him. La Peyrade instantly thought of the transaction relating +to the purchase of the house on the boulevard de la Madeleine; it must +have come, he thought, to the ears of the Council of Discipline; if so +he was accountable to that tribunal and he knew its severity. + +Now this du Portail, whom he had never yet been to see, in spite of +his conditional promise to Cerizet, was likely to have heard the whole +story of that transaction from Cerizet himself. Evidently all means +were thought good by that man, judging by the use he had made of the +Hungarian woman. In his savage determination to bring about the +marriage with the crazy girl, had this virulent old man denounced him? +On seeing him courageously and with some appearance of success +entering a career in which he might find fame and independence, had +his persecutor taken a step to make that career impossible? Certainly +there was enough likelihood in this suggestion to make the barrister +wait in cruel anxiety for the hour when he might learn the true nature +of the alarming summons. + +While breakfasting rather meagrely, his mind full of these painful +conjectures, Madame Coffinet, who had the honor to take charge of his +housekeeping, came up to ask if he would see Monsieur Etienne +Lousteau. [See "The Great Man of the Provinces in Paris."] + +Etienne Lousteau! la Peyrade had an idea that he had heard the name +before. + +"Show him into my office," he said to the portress. + +A moment later he met his visitor, whose face did not seem utterly +unknown to him. + +"Monsieur," said this new-comer, "I had the honor of breakfasting with +you not long ago at Vefour's; I was invited to that meeting, +afterwards rather disturbed, by Monsieur Thuillier." + +"Ah, very good!" said the barrister, offering a chair; "you are +attached to the staff of a newspaper?" + +"Editor-in-chief of the 'Echo de la Bievre,' and it is on the subject +of that paper that I have now called to see you. You know what has +happened?" + +"No," said la Peyrade. + +"Is it possible you are not aware that the ministry met with terrible +defeat last night? But instead of resigning, as every one expected, +they have dissolved the Chamber and appeal to the people." + +"I knew nothing of all that," said la Peyrade. "I have not read the +morning papers." + +"So," continued Lousteau, "all parliamentary ambitions will take the +field, and, if I am well informed, Monsieur Thuillier, already member +of the Council-general, intends to present himself as candidate for +election in the 12th arrondissement." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "that is likely to be his intention." + +"Well, monsieur, I desire to place at his disposition an instrument +the value of which I am confident you will not underestimate. The +'Echo de la Bievre,' a specialist paper, can have a decisive influence +on the election in that quarter." + +"And you would be disposed," asked la Peyrade, "to make that paper +support Monsieur Thuillier's candidacy?" + +"Better than that," replied Lousteau. "I have come to propose to +Monsieur Thuillier that he purchase the paper itself. Once the +proprietor of it he can use it as he pleases." + +"But in the first place," said la Peyrade, "what is the present +condition of the enterprise? In its character as a specialist journal +--as you called it just now--it is a sheet I have seldom met with; in +fact, it would be entirely unknown to me were it not for the +remarkable article you were so good as to devote to Thuillier's +defence at the time his pamphlet was seized." + +Etienne Lousteau bowed his thanks, and then said: + +"The position of the paper is excellent; we can give it to you on easy +terms, for we were intending shortly to stop the publication." + +"That is strange for a prosperous journal." + +"On the contrary, it happens to be quite natural. The founders, who +were all representatives of the great leather interest, started this +paper for a special object. That object has been attained. The 'Echo +de la Bievre' has therefore become an effect without a cause. In such +a case, stockholders who don't like the tail end of matters, and are +not eager after small profits, very naturally prefer to sell out." + +"But," asked la Peyrade, "does the paper pay its costs?" + +"That," replied Lousteau, "is a point we did not consider; we were not +very anxious to have subscribers; the mainspring of the whole affair +was direct and immediate action on the ministry of commerce to obtain +a higher duty on the introduction of foreign leathers. You understand +that outside of the tannery circle, this interest was not very +exciting to the general reader." + +"I should have thought, however," persisted la Peyrade, "that a +newspaper, however circumscribed its action, would be a lever which +depended for its force on the number of its subscribers." + +"Not for journals which aim for a single definite thing," replied +Lousteau, dogmatically. "In that case, subscribers are, on the +contrary, an embarrassment, for you have to please and amuse them, and +in so doing, the real object has to be neglected. A newspaper which +has a definite and circumscribed object ought to be like the stroke of +that pendulum which, striking steadily on one spot, fires at a given +hour the cannon of the Palais-Royal." + +"At any rate," said la Peyrade, "what price do you put upon a +publication which has no subscribers, does not pay its expenses, and +has until now been devoted to a purpose totally different from that +you propose for it?" + +"Before answering," returned Lousteau, "I shall ask you another +question. Have you any intention of buying it?" + +"That's according to circumstances," replied la Peyrade. "Of course I +must see Thuillier; but I may here remark to you that he knows +absolutely nothing about newspaper business. With his rather bourgeois +ideas, the ownership of a newspaper will seem to him a ruinous +speculation. Therefore, if, in addition to an idea that will scare +him, you suggest an alarming price, it is useless for me to speak to +him. I am certain he would never go into the affair." + +"No," replied Lousteau. "I have told you we should be reasonable; +these gentlemen have left the whole matter in my hands. Only, I beg to +remark that we have had propositions from other parties, and in giving +Monsieur Thuillier this option, we intended to pay him a particular +courtesy. When can I have your answer?" + +"To-morrow, I think; shall I have the honor of seeing you at your own +house, or at the office of the journal?" + +"No," said Lousteau, "to-morrow I will come here, at the same hour, if +that is convenient to you." + +"Perfectly," replied la Peyrade, bowing out his visitor, whom he was +inclined to think more consequential than able. + +By the manner in which the barrister had received the proposition to +become an intermediary to Thuillier, the reader must have seen that a +rapid revolution had taken place in his ideas. Even if he had not +received that extremely disquieting letter from the president of the +order of barristers, the new situation in which Thuillier would be +placed if elected to the Chamber gave him enough to think about. +Evidently his dear good friend would have to come back to him, and +Thuillier's eagerness for election would deliver him over, bound hand +and foot. Was it not the right moment to attempt to renew his marriage +with Celeste? Far from being an obstacle to the good resolutions +inspired by his amorous disappointment and his incipient brain fever, +such a finale would ensure their continuance and success. Moreover, if +he received, as he feared, one of those censures which would ruin his +dawning prospects at the bar, it was with the Thuilliers, the +accomplices and beneficiaries of the cause of his fall, that his +instinct led him to claim an asylum. + +With these thoughts stirring in his mind la Peyrade obeyed the summons +and went to see the president of the order of barristers. + +He was not mistaken; a very circumstantial statement of his whole +proceeding in the matter of the house had been laid before his +brethren of the bar; and the highest dignitary of the order, after +stating that an anonymous denunciation ought always to be received +with great distrust, told him that he was ready to receive and welcome +an explanation. La Peyrade dared not entrench himself in absolute +denial; the hand from which he believed the blow had come seemed to +him too resolute and too able not to hold the proofs as well. But, +while admitting the facts in general, he endeavored to give them an +acceptable coloring. In this, he saw that he had failed, when the +president said to him:-- + +"After the vacation which is now beginning I shall report to the +Council of the order the charges made against you, and the statements +by which you have defended yourself. The Council alone has the right +to decide on a matter of such importance." + +Thus dismissed, la Peyrade felt that his whole future at the bar was +imperilled; but at least he had a respite, and in case of condemnation +a new project on which to rest his head. Accordingly, he put on his +gown, which he had never worn till now, and went to the fifth +court-room, where he was employed upon a case. + +As he left the court-room, carrying one of those bundles of legal +papers held together by a strip of cotton which, being too voluminous +to hold under the arm, are carried by the hand and the forearm pressed +against the chest, la Peyrade began to pace about the Salle des Pas +perdus with that harassed look of business which denotes a lawyer +overwhelmed with work. Whether he had really excited himself in +pleading, or whether he was pretending to be exhausted to prove that +his gown was not a dignity for show, as it was with many of his legal +brethren, but an armor buckled on for the fight, it is certain that, +handkerchief in hand, he was mopping his forehead as he walked, when, +in the distance, he spied Thuillier, who had evidently just caught +sight of him, and was beginning on his side to manoeuvre. + +La Peyrade was not surprised by the encounter. On leaving home he had +told Madame Coffinet he was going to the Palais, and should be there +till three o'clock, and she might send to him any persons who called +on business. Not wishing to let Thuillier accost him too easily, he +turned abruptly, as if some thought had changed his purpose, and went +and seated himself on one of the benches which surround the walls of +that great antechamber of Justice. There he undid his bundle, took out +a paper, and buried himself in it with the air of a man who had not +had time to examine in his study a case he was about to plead. It is +not necessary to say that while doing this the Provencal was watching +the manoeuvres of Thuillier out of the corner of his eye. Thuillier, +believing that la Peyrade was really occupied in some serious +business, hesitated to approach him. + +However, after sundry backings and fillings the municipal councillor +made up his mind, and sailing straight before the wind he headed for +the spot he had been reconnoitring for the last ten minutes. + +"Bless me, Theodose!" he cried as soon as he had got within hailing +distance. "Do you come to the Palais now?" + +"It seems to me," replied Theodose, "that barristers at the Palais are +like Turks at Constantinople, where a friend of mine affirmed you +could see a good many. It is YOU whom it is rather surprising to see +here." + +"Not at all," said Thuillier, carelessly. "I've come about that cursed +pamphlet. Is there ever any end to your legal bothers? I was summoned +here this morning, but I don't regret it, as it gives me the happy +chance of meeting you." + +"I, too," said la Peyrade, tying up his bundle. "I am very glad to see +you, but I must leave you now; I have an appointment, and I suppose +you want to do your business at once." + +"I have done it," said Thuillier. + +"Did you speak to Olivier Vinet, that mortal enemy of yours? he sits +in that court," asked la Peyrade. + +"No," said Thuillier, naming another official. + +"Well, that's queer!" said the barrister; "that fellow must have the +gift of ubiquity; he has been all the morning in the fifth court-room, +and has just this minute given a judgment on a case I pleaded." + +Thuillier colored, and got out of his hobble as best he could. "Oh, +hang it!" he said; "those men in gowns are all alike, I don't know one +from another." + +La Peyrade shrugged his shoulders and said aloud, but as if to +himself: "Always the same; crafty, crooked, never straightforward." + +"Whom are you talking about?" asked Thuillier, rather nonplussed. + +"Why, of you, my dear fellow, who take me for an imbecile, as if I and +the whole world didn't know that your pamphlet business came to an end +two weeks ago. Why, then, summon you to court?" + +"Well, I was sent for," said Thuillier, with embarrassment; "something +about registry fees,--it is all Greek to me, I can't comprehend their +scrawls." + +"And they chose," said la Peyrade, "precisely the very day when the +Moniteur, announcing the dissolution of the Chamber, made you think +about being a candidate for the 12th arrondissement." + +"Why not?" asked Thuillier, "what has my candidacy to do with the fees +I owe to the court?" + +"I'll tell you," said la Peyrade, dryly. "The court is a thing +essentially amiable and complaisant. 'Tiens!' it said to itself, +'here's this good Monsieur Thuillier going to be a candidate for the +Chamber; how hampered he'll be by his attitude to his ex-friend +Monsieur de la Peyrade, with whom he wishes now he hadn't quarrelled. +I'll summon him for fees he doesn't owe; that will bring him to the +Palais where la Peyrade comes daily; and in that way he can meet him +by chance, and so avoid taking a step which would hurt his self-love." + +"Well, there you are mistaken!" cried Thuillier, breaking the ice. "I +used so little craft, as you call it, that I've just come from your +house, there! and your portress told me where to find you." + +"Well done!" said la Peyrade, "I like this frankness; I can get on +with men who play above-board. Well, what do you want of me? Have you +come to talk about your election? I have already begun to work for +it." + +"No, really?" said Thuillier, "how?" + +"Here," replied la Peyrade, feeling under his gown for his pocket and +bringing out a paper, "here's what I scribbled just now in the +court-room while the lawyer on the other side rambled on like an +expert." + +"What is it about?" asked Thuillier. + +"Read and you'll see." + +The paper read as follows:-- + + Estimate for a newspaper, small size, at thirty francs a year. + + Calculating the editions at 5,000 the costs are:-- + Paper, 5 reams at 12 francs . . . . . . . . . . 1,860 francs. + Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,400 " + Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 " + One administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 " + One clerk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 " + One editor (also cashier) . . . . . . . . . . . 200 " + One despatcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 " + Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 " + One office boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 " + Office expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 " + Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 " + License and postage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,500 " + Reporting and stenographic news . . . . . . . . 1,800 " + --------- + Total monthly, 15,110 " + " yearly, 181,320 " + +"Do you want to set up a paper?" asked Thuillier, in dread. + +"I?" asked la Peyrade, "I want nothing at all; you are the one to be +asked if you want to be a deputy." + +"Undoubtedly I do; because, when you urged me to become a municipal +councillor, you put the idea into my head. But reflect, my dear +Theodose, one hundred and eighty one thousand three hundred and twenty +francs to put out! Have I a fortune large enough to meet such a +demand?" + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "you could very well support that expense, for +considering the end you want to obtain there is nothing exorbitant in +it. In England they make much greater sacrifices to get a seat in +Parliament; but in any case, I beg you to observe that the costs are +very high on that estimate, and some could be cut off altogether. For +instance, you would not want an administrator. You, yourself, an old +accountant, and I, an old journalist, can very well manage the affair +between us. Also rent, we needn't count that; you have your old +apartment in the rue Saint-Dominique which is not yet leased; that +will make a fine newspaper office." + +"All that costs off two thousand four hundred francs a year," said +Thuillier. + +"Well, that's something; but your error consists in calculating on the +yearly cost. When do the elections take place?" + +"In two months," said Thuillier. + +"Very good; two months will cost you thirty thousand francs, even +supposing the paper had no subscribers." + +"True," said Thuillier, "the expense is certainly less than I thought +at first. But does a newspaper really seem to you essential?" + +"So essential that without that power in our hands, I won't have +anything to do with the election. You don't seem to see, my poor +fellow, that in going to live in the other quarter you have lost, +electorally speaking, an immense amount of ground. You are no longer +the man of the place, and your election could be balked by the cry of +what the English call 'absenteeism.' This makes your game very hard to +play." + +"I admit that," said Thuillier; "but there are so many things wanted +besides money,--a name for one thing, a manager, editorial staff, and +so forth." + +"A name, we have one made to hand; editors, they are you and I and a +few young fellows who grow on every bush in Paris. As for the manager, +I have a man in view." + +"What name is it?" asked Thuillier. + +"L'Echo de la Bievre." + +"But there is already a paper of that name." + +"Precisely, and that's why I give my approval to the affair. Do you +think I should be fool enough to advise you to start an entirely new +paper? 'Echo de la Bievre!' that title is a treasure to a man who +wants support for his candidacy in the 12th arrondissement. Say the +word only, and I put that treasure into your hands." + +"How?" asked Thuillier, with curiosity. + +"Parbleu! by buying it; it can be had for a song." + +"There now, you see," said Thuillier in a discouraged tone; "you never +counted in the cost of purchase." + +"How you dwell on nothings!" said la Peyrade, hunching his shoulders; +"we have other and more important difficulties to solve." + +"Other difficulties?" echoed Thuillier. + +"Parbleu!" exclaimed la Peyrade; "do you suppose that after all that +has taken place between us I should boldly harness myself to your +election without knowing exactly what benefit I am to get for it?" + +"But," said Thuillier, rather astonished, "I thought that friendship +was a good exchange for such services." + +"Yes; but when the exchange consists in one side giving all and the +other side nothing, friendship gets tired of that sort of sharing, and +asks for something a little better balanced." + +"But, my dear Theodose, what have I to offer you that you have not +already rejected?" + +"I rejected it, because it was offered without heartiness, and +seasoned with Mademoiselle Brigitte's vinegar; every self-respecting +man would have acted as I did. Give and keep don't pass, as the old +legal saying is; but that is precisely what you persist in doing." + +"I!--I think you took offence very unreasonably; but the engagement +might be renewed." + +"So be it," replied la Peyrade; "but I will not put myself at the +mercy of either the success of the election or Mademoiselle Celeste's +caprices. I claim the right to something positive and certain. Give +and take; short accounts make good friends." + +"I perfectly agree with you," said Thuillier, "and I have always +treated you with too much good faith to fear any of these precautions +you now want to take. But what guarantees do you want?" + +"I want that the husband of Celeste should manage your election, and +not Theodose de la Peyrade." + +"By hurrying things as much as possible, so Brigitte said, it would +still take fifteen days; and just think, with the elections only eight +weeks off, to lose two of them doing nothing!" + +"Day after to-morrow," replied la Peyrade, "the banns can be published +for the first time at the mayor's office, in the intervals of +publication some things could be done, for though the publishing of +the banns is not a step from which there is no retreat, it is at least +a public pledge and a long step taken; after that we can get your +notary to draw the contract at once. Moreover, if you decide on buying +this newspaper, I shouldn't be afraid that you would go back on me, +for you don't want a useless horse in your stable, and without me I am +certain you can't manage him." + +"But, my dear fellow," said Thuillier, going back to his objections, +"suppose that affair proves too onerous?" + +"There's no need to say that you are the sole judge of the conditions +of the purchase. I don't wish any more than you do to buy a pig in a +poke. If to-morrow you authorize me, I won't say to buy, but to let +these people know that you may possibly make the purchase, I'll confer +with one of them on your behalf, and you may be certain that I'll +stand up for your interests as if they were my own." + +"Very good, my dear fellow," said Thuillier, "go ahead!" + +"And as soon as the paper is purchased we are to fix the day for +signing the contract?" + +"Yes," replied Thuillier; "but will you bind yourself to use your +utmost influence on the election?" + +"As if it were my own," replied la Peyrade, "which, by the bye, is not +altogether an hypothesis. I have already received suggestions about my +own candidacy, and if I were vindictive--" + +"Certainly," said Thuillier, with humility, "you would make a better +deputy than I; but you are not of the required age, I think." + +"There's a better reason than that," said la Peyrade; "you are my +friend; I find you again what you once were, and I shall keep the +pledges I have given you. As for the election, I prefer that people +say of me, 'He makes deputies, but will be none himself.' Now I must +leave you and keep my appointment. To-morrow in my own rooms, come and +see me; I shall have something to announce." + +Whoso has ever been a newspaper man will ever be one; that horoscope +is as sure and certain as that of drunkards. Whoever has tasted that +feverishly busy and relatively lazy and independent life; whoever has +exercised that sovereignty which criticises intellect, art, talent, +fame, virtue, absurdity, and even truth; whoever has occupied that +tribune erected by his own hands, fulfilled the functions of that +magistracy to which he is self-appointed,--in short, whosoever has +been, for however brief a span, that proxy of public opinion, looks +upon himself when remanded to private life as an exile, and the moment +a chance is offered to him puts out an eager hand to snatch back his +crown. + +For this reason when Etienne Lousteau went to la Peyrade, a former +journalist, with an offer of the weapon entitled the "Echo de la +Bievre," all the latter's instincts as a newspaper man were aroused, +in spite of the very inferior quality of the blade. The paper had +failed; la Peyrade believed he could revive it. The subscribers, on +the vendor's own showing, were few and far between, but he would +exercise upon them a "compelle intrare" both powerful and +irresistible. In the circumstances under which the affair was +presented to him it might surely be considered provincial. Threatened +with the loss of his position at the bar, he was thus acquiring, as we +said before, a new position and that of a "detached fort"; compelled, +as he might be, to defend himself, he could from that vantage-ground +take the offensive and oblige his enemies to reckon with him. + +On the Thuillier side, the newspaper would undoubtedly make him a +personage of considerable importance; he would have more power on the +election; and by involving their capital in an enterprise which, +without him, they would feel a gulf and a snare, he bound them to him +by self-interests so firmly that there was nothing to fear from their +caprice or ingratitude. + +This horizon, rapidly taken in during Etienne Lousteau's visit, had +fairly dazzled the Provencal, and we have seen the peremptory manner +in which Thuillier was forced into accepting with some enthusiasm the +discovery of this philosopher's-stone. + +The cost of the purchase was ridiculously insignificant. A bank-note +for five hundred francs, for which Etienne Lousteau never clearly +accounted to the share-holders, put Thuillier in possession of the +name, property, furniture, and good-will of the newspaper, which he +and la Peyrade at once busied themselves in reorganizing. + + + + CHAPTER X + + IN WHICH CERIZET PRACTISES THE HEALING ART AND + THE ART OF POISONING ON THE SAME DAY + +While this regeneration was going on, Cerizet went one morning to see +du Portail, with whom la Peyrade was now more than ever determined to +hold no communication. + +"Well," said the little old man to the poor man's banker, "what effect +did the news we gave to the president of the bar produce on our man? +Did the affair get wind at the Palais?" + +"Phew!" said Cerizet, whose intercourse, no doubt pretty frequent, +with du Portail had put him on a footing of some familiarity with the +old man, "there's no question of that now. The eel has wriggled out of +our hands; neither softness nor violence has any effect upon that +devil of a man. He has quarrelled with the bar, and is in better odor +than ever with Thuillier. 'Necessity,' says Figaro, 'obliterates +distance.' Thuillier needs him to push his candidacy in the quartier +Saint-Jacques, so they kissed and made up." + +"And no doubt," said du Portail, without much appearance of feeling, +"the marriage is fixed for an early day?" + +"Yes," replied Cerizet, "but there's another piece of work on hand. +That crazy fellow has persuaded Thuillier to buy a newspaper, and +he'll make him sink forty thousand francs in it. Thuillier, once +involved, will want to get his money back, and in my opinion they are +bound together for the rest of their days." + +"What paper is it?" + +"Oh, a cabbage-leaf that calls itself the 'Echo de la Bievre'!" replied +Cerizet with great scorn; "a paper which an old hack of a journalist +on his last legs managed to set up in the Mouffetard quarter by the +help of a lot of tanners--that, you know, is the industry of the +quarter. From a political and literary point of view the affair is +nothing at all, but Thuillier has been made to think it a masterly +stroke." + +"Well, for local service to the election the instrument isn't so bad," +remarked du Portail. "La Peyrade has talent, activity, and much +resource of mind; he may make something out of that 'Echo.' Under what +political banner will Thuillier present himself?" + +"Thuillier," replied the beggars' banker, "is an oyster; he hasn't any +opinions. Until the publication of his pamphlet he was, like all those +bourgeois, a rabid conservative; but since the seizure he has gone +over to the Opposition. His first stage will probably be the +Left-centre; but if the election wind should blow from another quarter, +he'll go straight before it to the extreme left. Self-interest, for +those bourgeois, that's the measure of their convictions." + +"Dear, dear!" said du Portail, "this new combination of la Peyrade's +may assume the importance of a political danger from the point of view +of my opinions, which are extremely conservative and governmental." +Then, after a moment's reflection, he added, "I think you did +newspaper work once upon a time; I remember 'the courageous Cerizet.'" + +"Yes," replied the usurer, "I even managed one with la Peyrade,--an +evening paper; and a pretty piece of work we did, for which we were +finely recompensed." + +"Well," said du Portail, "why don't you do it again,--journalism, I +mean,--with la Peyrade." + +Cerizet looked at du Portail in amazement. + +"Ah ca!" he cried, "are you the devil, monsieur? Can nothing ever be +hidden from you?" + +"Yes," said du Portail, "I know a good many things. But what has been +settled between you and la Peyrade?" + +"Well, remembering my experience in the business, and not knowing whom +else to get, he offered to make me manager of the paper." + +"I did not know that," said du Portail, "but it was quite probable. +Did you accept?" + +"Conditionally; I asked time for reflection. I wanted to know what you +thought of the offer." + +"Parbleu! I think that out of an evil that can't be remedied we should +get, as the proverb says, wing or foot. I had rather see you inside +than outside of that enterprise." + +"Very good; but in order to get into it there's a difficulty. La +Peyrade knows I have debts, and he won't help me with the +thirty-three-thousand francs' security which must be paid down in my +name. I haven't got them, and if I had, I wouldn't show them and +expose myself to the insults of creditors." + +"You must have a good deal left of that twenty-five thousand francs la +Peyrade paid you not more than two months ago," remarked du Portail. + +"Only two thousand two hundred francs and fifty centimes," replied +Cerizet. "I was adding it up last night; the rest has all gone to pay +off pressing debts." + +"But if you have paid your debts you haven't any creditors." + +"Yes, those I've paid, but those I haven't paid I still owe." + +"Do you mean to tell me that your liabilities were more than +twenty-five thousand francs?" said du Portail, in a tone of +incredulity. + +"Does a man go into bankruptcy for less?" replied Cerizet, as though +he were enunciating a maxim. + +"Well, I see I am expected to pay that sum myself," said du Portail, +crossly; "but the question is whether the utility of your presence in +this enterprise is worth to me the interest on one hundred and +thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three francs, +thirty-three centimes." + +"Hang it!" said Cerizet, "if I were once installed near Thuillier, I +shouldn't despair of soon putting him and la Peyrade at loggerheads. +In the management of a newspaper there are lots of inevitable +disagreements, and by always taking the side of the fool against the +clever man, I can increase the conceit of one and wound the conceit of +the other until life together becomes impossible. Besides, you spoke +just now of political danger; now the manager of a newspaper, as you +ought to know, when he has the intellect to be something better than a +man of straw, can quietly give his sheet a push in the direction +wanted. + +"There's a good deal of truth in that," said du Portail, "but defeat +to la Peyrade, that's what I am thinking about." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "I think I have another nice little insidious +means of demolishing him with Thuillier." + +"Say what it is, then!" exclaimed du Portail, impatiently; "you go +round and round the pot as if I were a man it would do you some good +to finesse with." + +"You remember," said Cerizet, coming out with it, "that some time ago +Dutocq and I were much puzzled to know how la Peyrade was, all of a +sudden, able to make that payment of twenty-five thousand francs?" + +"Ha!" said the old man quickly, "have you discovered the origin of +that very improbable sum in our friend's hands; and is that origin +shady?" + +"You shall judge," said Cerizet. + +And he related in all its details the affair of Madame Lambert, +--adding, however, that on questioning the woman closely at the office +of the justice-of-peace, after the meeting with la Peyrade, he had +been unable to extract from her any confession, although by her whole +bearing she had amply confirmed the suspicions of Dutocq and himself. + +"Madame Lambert, rue du Val-de-Grace, No. 9; at the house of Monsieur +Picot, professor of mathematics," said du Portail, as he made a note +of the information. "Very good," he added; "come back and see me +to-morrow, my dear Monsieur Cerizet." + +"But please remark," said the usurer, "that I must give an answer to +la Peyrade in the course of to-day. He is in a great hurry to start +the business." + +"Very well; you must accept, asking a delay of twenty-four hours to +obtain your security. If, after making certain inquiries I see it is +more to my interests not to meddle in the affair, you can get out of +it by merely breaking your word; you can't be sent to the court of +assizes for that." + +Independently of a sort of inexplicable fascination which du Portail +exercised over his agent, he never lost an opportunity to remind him +of the very questionable point of departure of their intercourse. + +The next day Cerizet returned. + +"You guessed right," said du Portail. "That woman Lambert, being +obliged to conceal the existence of her booty, and wanting to draw +interest on her stolen property, must have taken it into her head to +consult la Peyrade; his devout exterior may have recommended him to +her. She probably gave him that money without taking a receipt. In +what kind of money was Dutocq paid?" + +"In nineteen thousand-franc notes, and twelve of five-hundred francs." + +"That's precisely it," said du Portail. "There can't be the slightest +doubt left. Now, what use do you expect to make of this information +bearing upon Thuillier." + +"I expect to put it into his head that la Peyrade, to whom he is going +to give his goddaughter and heiress, is over head and ears in debt; +that he makes enormous secret loans; and that in order to get out of +his difficulties he means to gnaw the newspaper to the bone; and I +shall insinuate that the position of a man so much in debt must be +known to the public before long, and become a fatal blow to the +candidate whose right hand he is." + +"That's not bad," said du Portail; "but there's another and even more +conclusive use to be made of the discovery." + +"Tell me, master; I'm listening," said Cerizet. + +"Thuillier has not yet been able, has he, to explain to himself the +reason of the seizure of the pamphlet?" + +"Yes, he has," replied Cerizet. "La Peyrade was telling me only +yesterday, by way of explaining Thuillier's idiotic simplicity, that +he had believed a most ridiculous bit of humbug. The 'honest +bourgeois' is persuaded that the seizure was instigated by Monsieur +Olivier Vinet, substitute to the procureur-general. The young man +aspired for a moment to the hand of Mademoiselle Colleville, and the +worthy Thuillier has been made to imagine that the seizure of his +pamphlet was a revenge for the refusal." + +"Good!" said du Portail; "to-morrow, as a preparation for the other +version of which you are to be the organ, Thuillier shall receive from +Monsieur Vinet a very sharp and decided denial of the abuse of power +he foolishly gave ear to." + +"Will he?" said Cerizet, with curiosity. + +"But another explanation must take its place," continued du Portail; +"you must assure Thuillier that he is the victim of police +machinations. That is all the police is good for, you know, +--machinations." + +"I know that very well; I've made that affirmation scores of times +when I was working for the republican newspapers and--" + +"When you were 'the courageous Cerizet,'" interrupted du Portail. +"Well, the present machination, here it is. The government was much +displeased at seeing Thuillier elected without its influence to the +Council-general of the Seine; it was angry with an independent and +patriotic citizen who showed by his candidacy that he could do without +it; and it learned, moreover, that this excellent citizen was +preparing a pamphlet on the subject, always a delicate one, of the +finances, as to which this dangerous adversary had great experience. +So, what did this essentially corrupt government do? It suborned a man +in whom, as it learned, Thuillier placed confidence, and for a sum of +twenty-five thousand francs (a mere trifle to the police), this +treacherous friend agreed to insert into the pamphlet three or four +phrases which exposed it to seizure and caused its author to be +summoned before the court of assizes. Now the way to make the +explanation clinch the doubt in Thuillier's mind is to let him know +that the next day la Peyrade, who, as Thuillier knew, hadn't a sou, +paid Dutocq precisely that very sum of twenty-five thousand francs." + +"The devil!" cried Cerizet, "it isn't a bad trick. Fellows of the +Thuillier species will believe anything against the police." + +"We shall see, then," continued du Portail, "whether Thuillier will +want to keep such a collaborator beside him, and above all, whether he +will be so eager to give him his goddaughter." + +"You are a strong man, monsieur," said Cerizet, again expressing his +approbation; "but I must own that I feel some scruples at the part +assigned me. La Peyrade came and offered me the management of the +paper, and, you see, I should be working to evict him." + +"And that lease he knocked you out of in spite of his promises, have +you forgotten that?" asked the little old man. "Besides, are we not +aiming for his happiness, though the obstinate fellow persists in +thwarting our benevolent intentions?" + +"It is true," said Cerizet, "that the result will absolve me. Yes, +I'll go resolutely along the ingenious path you've traced out for me. +But there's one thing more: I can't fling my revelation at Thuillier's +head at the very first; I must have time to prepare the way for it, +but that security will have to be paid in immediately." + +"Listen to me, Monsieur Cerizet," said du Portail, in a tone of +authority; "if the marriage of la Peyrade to my ward takes place it is +my intention to reward your services, and the sum of thirty thousand +francs will be your perquisite. Now, thirty thousand from one side and +twenty-five thousand from the other makes precisely fifty-five +thousand francs that the matrimonial vicissitudes of your friend la +Peyrade will have put into your pocket. But, as country people do at +the shows of a fair, I shall not pay till I come out. If you take that +money out of your own hoard I shall feel no anxiety; you will know how +to keep it from the clutches of your creditors. If, on the contrary, +my money is at stake, you will have neither the same eagerness nor the +same intelligence in keeping it out of danger. Therefore arrange your +affairs so that you can pay down your own thirty-three thousand; in +case of success, that sum will bring you in pretty nearly a hundred +per cent. That's my last word, and I shall not listen to any +objections." + +Cerizet had no time to make any, for at that moment the door of du +Portail's study opened abruptly, and a fair, slender woman, whose face +expressed angelic sweetness, entered the room eagerly. On her arm, +wrapped in handsome long clothes, lay what seemed to be the form of an +infant. + +"There!" she said, "that naughty Katte insisted that the doctor was +not here. I knew perfectly well that I had seen him enter. Well, +doctor," she continued, addressing Cerizet, "I am not satisfied with +the condition of my little one, not satisfied at all; she is very +pallid, and has grown so thin. I think she must be teething." + +Du Portail made Cerizet a sign to accept the role so abruptly thrust +upon him. + +"Yes, evidently," he said, "it is the teeth; children always turn pale +at that crisis; but there's nothing in that, my dear lady, that need +make you anxious." + +"Do you really think so, doctor," said the poor crazed girl, whom our +readers have recognized as du Portail's ward, Lydie de la Peyrade; +"but see her dear little arms, how thin they are getting." + +Then taking out the pins that fastened the swathings, she exhibited to +Cerizet a bundle of linen which to her poor distracted mind +represented a baby. + +"Why, no, no," said Cerizet, "she is a trifle thin, it is true, but +the flesh is firm and her color excellent." + +"Poor darling!" said Lydie, kissing her dream lovingly. "I do think +she is better since morning. What had I better give her, doctor? Broth +disgusts her, and she won't take soup." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "try panada. Does she like sweet things?" + +"Oh, yes!" cried the poor girl, her face brightening, "she adores +them. Would chocolate be good for her?" + +"Certainly," replied Cerizet, "but without vanilla; vanilla is very +heating." + +"Then I'll get what they call health-chocolate," said Lydie, with all +the intonations of a mother, listening to the doctor as to a god who +reassured her. "Uncle," she added, "please ring for Bruneau, and tell +him to go to Marquis at once and get some pounds of that chocolate." + +"Bruneau has just gone out," said her guardian; "but there's no hurry, +he shall go in the course of the day." + +"There, she is going to sleep," said Cerizet, anxious to put an end to +the scene, which, in spite of his hardened nature, he felt to be +painful. + +"True," said the girl, replacing the bandages and rising; "I'll put +her to bed. Adieu, doctor; it is very kind of you to come sometimes +without being sent for. If you knew how anxious we poor mothers are, +and how, with a word or two, you can do us such good. Ah, there she is +crying!" + +"She is so sleepy," said Cerizet; "she'll be much better in her +cradle." + +"Yes, and I'll play her that sonata of Beethoven that dear papa was so +fond of; it is wonderful how calming it is. Adieu, doctor," she said +again, pausing on the threshold of the door. "Adieu, kind doctor!" And +she sent him a kiss. + +Cerizet was quite overcome. + +"You see," said du Portail, "that she is an angel,--never the least +ill-humor, never a sharp word; sad sometimes, but always caused by a +feeling of motherly solicitude. That is what first gave the doctors +the idea that if reality could take the place of her constant +hallucination she might recover her reason. Well, this is the girl +that fool of a Peyrade refuses, with the accompaniment of a +magnificent 'dot.' But he must come to it, or I'll forswear my name. +Listen," he added as the sound of a piano came to them; "hear! what +talent! Thousands of sane women can't compare with her; they are not +as reasonable as she is, except on the surface." + +When Beethoven's sonata, played from the soul with a perfection of +shades and tones that filled her hardened hearer with admiration, had +ceased to sound, Cerizet said:-- + +"I agree with you, monsieur; la Peyrade refuses an angel, a treasure, +a pearl, and if I were in his place--But we shall bring him round to +your purpose. Now I shall serve you not only with zeal, but with +enthusiasm, I may say fanaticism." + +As Cerizet was concluding this oath of fidelity at the door of the +study, he heard a woman's voice which was not that of Lydie. + +"Is he in his study, the dear commander?" said that voice, with a +slightly foreign accent. + +"Yes, madame, but please come into the salon. Monsieur is not alone; I +will tell him you are here." + +This was the voice of Katte, the old Dutch maid. + +"Stop, go this way," said du Portail quickly to Cerizet. + +And he opened a hidden door which led through a dark corridor directly +to the staircase, whence Cerizet betook himself to the office of the +"Echo de la Bievre," where a heated discussion was going on. + +The article by which the new editors of every newspaper lay before the +public their "profession of faith," as the technical saying is, always +produces a laborious and difficult parturition. In this particular +case it was necessary, if not openly to declare Thuillier's candidacy, +to at least make it felt and foreseen. The terms of the manifesto, +after la Peyrade had made a rough draft of it, were discussed at great +length. This discussion took place in Cerizet's presence, who, acting +on du Portail's advice, accepted the management, but postponed the +payment of the security till the next day, through the latitude +allowed in all administrations for the accomplishment of that +formality. + +Cleverly egged on by this master-knave, who, from the start, made +himself Thuillier's flatterer, the discussion became stormy, and +presently bitter; but as, by the deed of partnership the deciding word +was left to la Peyrade in all matters concerning the editorship, he +finally closed it by sending the manifesto, precisely as he had +written it, to the printing office. + +Thuillier was incensed at what he called an abuse of power, and +finding himself alone with Cerizet later in the day, he hastened to +pour his griefs and resentments into the bosom of his faithful +manager, thus affording the latter a ready-made and natural +opportunity to insinuate the calumnious revelation agreed upon with du +Portail. Leaving the knife in the wound, Cerizet went out to make +certain arrangements to obtain the money necessary for his bond. + +Tortured by the terrible revelation, Thuillier could not keep it to +himself; he felt the need of confiding it, and of talking over the +course he would be compelled to take by this infernal discovery. +Sending for a carriage he drove home, and half an hour later he had +told the whole story to his Egeria. + +Brigitte had from the first very vehemently declared against all the +determinations made by Thuillier during the last few days. For no +purpose whatever, not even for the sake of her brother's election, +would she agree to a renewal of the relation to la Peyrade. In the +first place, she had treated him badly, and that was a strong reason +for disliking him; then, in case that adventurer, as she now called +him, married Celeste, the fear of her authority being lessened gave +her a species of second-sight; she had ended by having an intuitive +sense of the dark profundities of the man's nature, and now declared +that under no circumstances and for no possible price would she make +one household with him. + +"Ruin yourself if you choose," she said, "you are the master of that, +and you can do as you like; a fool and his money are soon parted." + +When, therefore, she listened to her brother's confidences it was not +with reproaches, but, on the contrary, with a crow of triumph, +celebrating the probable return of her power, that she welcomed them. + +"So much the better!" she cried; "it is well to know at last that the +man is a spy. I always thought so, the canting bigot! Turn him out of +doors without an explanation. WE don't want him to work that +newspaper. This Monsieur Cerizet seems, from what you tell me, the +right sort of man, and we can get another manager. Besides, when +Madame de Godollo went away she promised to write to me; and she can +easily put us in the way of finding some one. Poor, dear Celeste! what +a fate we were going to give her!" + +"How you run on!" said Thuillier. "La Peyrade, my dear, is so far only +accused. He must be heard in his defence. And besides, there's a deed +that binds us." + +"Ah, very good!" said Brigitte; "I see how it will be; you'll let that +man twist you round his finger again. A deed with a spy! As if there +could be deeds with such fellows." + +"Come, come, be calm, my good Brigitte," returned Thuillier. "We +mustn't do anything hastily. Certainly, if la Peyrade cannot furnish a +justification, clear, categorical, and convincing, I shall decide to +break with him, and I'll prove to you that I am no milksop. But +Cerizet himself is not certain; these are mere inductions, and I only +came to consult you as to whether I ought, or ought not, to demand an +explanation outright." + +"Not a doubt about it," replied Brigitte. "You ought to demand an +explanation and go to the bottom of this thing; if you don't, I cast +you off as my brother." + +"That suffices," said Thuillier, leaving the room with solemnity; "you +shall see that we will come to an understanding." + + + + CHAPTER XI + + EXPLANATIONS AND WHAT CAME OF THEM + +On his return to the office after his conference with Brigitte, +Thuillier found la Peyrade at his post as editor-in-chief, and in a +position of much embarrassment, caused by the high hand he had +reserved for himself as the sole selector of articles and +contributors. At this moment, Phellion, instigated by his family, and +deeply conscious of his position on the reading-committee of the +Odeon, had come to offer his services as dramatic critic. + +"My dear monsieur," he said, continuing his remarks to la Peyrade, +after inquiring of Thuillier about his health, "I was a great student +of the theatre in my youth; the stage and its scenic effects continue +to have for me peculiar attractions; and the white hairs which crown +my brow to-day seem to me no obstacle to my allowing your interesting +publication to profit by the fruit of my studies and my experience. As +member of the reading-committee of the Odeon theatre, I am conversant +with the modern drama, and--if I may be quite sure of your discretion +--I will even confide to you that among my papers it would not be +impossible for me to find a certain tragedy entitled 'Sapor,' which in +my young days won me some fame when read in salons." + +"Ah!" said la Peyrade, endeavoring to gild the refusal he should be +forced to give, "why not try to have it put upon the stage? We might +be able to help you in that direction." + +"Certainly," said Thuillier, "the director of any theatre to whom we +should recommend--" + +"No," replied Phellion. "In the first place, as member of the +reading-committee of the Odeon, having to sit in judgment upon others, +it would not become me to descend into the arena myself. I am an old +athlete, whose business it is to judge of blows he can no longer give. +In this sense, criticism is altogether within my sphere, and all the +more because I have certain views on the proper method of composing +dramatic feuilletons which I think novel. The 'castigat ridendo mores' +ought to be, according to my humble lights, the great law, I may say +the only law of the stage. I should therefore show myself pitiless for +those works, bred of imagination, in which morality has no part, and +to which mothers of families--" + +"Excuse me," said la Peyrade, "for interrupting you; but before +allowing you to take the trouble to develop your poetical ideas, I +ought to tell you that we have already made arrangements for our +dramatic criticism." + +"Ah! that's another thing," said Phellion; "an honest man must keep +his word." + +"Yes," said Thuillier, "we have our dramatic critic, little thinking +that you would offer us your valuable assistance." + +"Well," said Phellion, suddenly becoming crafty,--for there is +something in the newspaper atmosphere, impossible to say what, which +flies to the head, the bourgeois head especially,--"since you are good +enough to consider my pen capable of doing you some service, perhaps a +series of detached thoughts on different subjects, to which I should +venture to give the name of 'Diversities,' might be of a nature to +interest your readers." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, with a maliciousness that was quite lost upon +Phellion, "thoughts, especially in the style of la Rochefoucauld or la +Bruyere, might do. What do you think yourself, Thuillier?" + +He reserved to himself the right to leave the responsibility of +refusals, as far as he could, to the proprietor of the paper. + +"But I imagine that thoughts, especially if detached, cannot be very +consecutive," said Thuillier. + +"Evidently not," replied Phellion; "detached thoughts imply the idea +of a very great number of subjects on which the author lets his pen +stray without the pretension of presenting a whole." + +"You will of course sign them?" said la Peyrade. + +"Oh, no!" replied Phellion, alarmed. "I could not put myself on +exhibition in that way." + +"Your modesty, which by the bye I understand and approve, settles the +matter," said la Peyrade. "Thoughts are a subject altogether +individual, which imperatively require to be personified by a name. +You must be conscious of this yourself. 'Divers Thoughts by Monsieur +Three-Stars' says nothing to the public." + +Seeing that Phellion was about to make objections, Thuillier, who was +in a hurry to begin his fight with la Peyrade, cut the matter short +rather sharply. + +"My dear Phellion," he said, "I beg your pardon for not being able to +enjoy the pleasure of your conversation any longer, but we have to +talk, la Peyrade and I, over a matter of much importance, and in +newspaper offices this devilish time runs away so fast. If you are +willing, we will postpone the question to another day. Madame Phellion +is well, I trust?" + +"Perfectly well," said the great citizen, rising, and not appearing to +resent his dismissal. "When does your first number appear?" he added; +"it is eagerly awaited in the arrondissement." + +"To-morrow I think our confession of faith will make its appearance," +replied Thuillier, accompanying him to the door. "You will receive a +copy, my dear friend. We shall meet again soon, I hope. Come and see +us, and bring that manuscript; la Peyrade's point of view may be a +little arbitrary." + +With this balm shed upon his wound, Phellion departed, and Thuillier +rang the bell for the porter. + +"Could you recognize the gentlemen who has just gone out the next time +you see him?" asked Thuillier. + +"Oh, yes, m'sieu, his round ball of a head is too funny to forget; +besides, it is Monsieur Phellion; haven't I opened the door to him +hundreds of times?" + +"Well, whenever he comes again neither I nor Monsieur de la Peyrade +will be here. Remember that's a positive rule. Now leave us." + +"The devil!" cried la Peyrade, when the two partners were alone, "how +you manage bores. But take care; among the number there may be +electors. You did right to tell Phellion you would send him a copy of +the paper; he has a certain importance in the quarter." + +"Well," said Thuillier, "we can't allow our time to be taken up by all +the dull-heads who come and offer their services. But now you and I +have to talk, and talk very seriously. Be seated and listen." + +"Do you know, my dear fellow," said la Peyrade, laughing, "that +journalism is making you into something very solemn? 'Be seated, +Cinna,'--Caesar Augustus couldn't have said it otherwise." + +"Cinnas, unfortunately, are more plentiful than people think," replied +Thuillier. + +He was still under the goad of the promise he had made to Brigitte, +and he meant to fulfil it with cutting sarcasm. The top continued the +whirling motion imparted to it by the old maid's lash. + +La Peyrade took a seat at the round table. As he was puzzled to know +what was coming, he endeavored to seem unconcerned, and picking up the +large scissors used for the loans which all papers make from the +columns of their brethren of the press, he began to snip up a sheet of +paper, on which, in Thuillier's handwriting, was an attempt at a +leading article, never completed. + +Though la Peyrade was seated and expectant, Thuillier did not begin +immediately; he rose and went toward the door which stood ajar, with +the intention of closing it. But suddenly it was flung wide open, and +Coffinet appeared. + +"Will monsieur," said Coffinet to la Peyrade, "receive two ladies? +They are very well-dressed, and the young one ain't to be despised." + +"Shall I let them in?" said la Peyrade to Thuillier. + +"Yes, since they are here," growled Thuillier; "but get rid of them as +soon as possible." + +Coffinet's judgment on the toilet of the two visitors needs revision. +A woman is well-dressed, not when she wears rich clothes, but when her +clothes present a certain harmony of shapes and colors which form an +appropriate and graceful envelope to her person. Now a bonnet with a +flaring brim, surmounted by nodding plumes, an immense French cashmere +shawl, worn with the awkward inexperience of a young bride, a plaid +silk gown with enormous checks and a triple tier of flounces with far +too many chains and trinkets (though to be just, the boots and gloves +were irreproachable), constituted the apparel of the younger of these +ladies. As for the other, who seemed to be in the tow of her dressy +companion, she was short, squat, and high-colored, and wore a bonnet, +shawl, and gown which a practised eye would at once have recognized as +second hand. Mothers of actresses are always clothed by this very +economical process. Their garments, condemned to the service of two +generations, reverse the order of things, and go from descendants to +ancestors. + +Advancing two chairs, la Peyrade inquired, "To whom have I the honor +of speaking?" + +"Monsieur," said the younger visitor, "I am a dramatic artist, and as +I am about to make my first appearance in this quarter, I allow myself +to hope that a journal of this locality will favor me." + +"At what theatre?" asked la Peyrade. + +"The Folies, where I am engaged for the Dejazets." + +"The Folies?" echoed la Peyrade, in a tone that demanded an +explanation. + +"Folies-Dramatiques," interposed the agreeable Madame Cardinal, whom +the reader has doubtless recognized. + +"When do you appear?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Next week, monsieur,--a fairy piece in which I play five parts." + +"You'll encourage her, monsieur, won't you?" said Madame Cardinal, in +a coaxing voice; "she's so young, and I can certify she works day and +night." + +"Mother!" said Olympe, with authority, "the public will judge me; all +I want is that monsieur will kindly promise to notice my debut." + +"Very good, mademoiselle," said la Peyrade in a tone of dismissal, +beginning to edge the pair to the door. + +Olympe Cardinal went first, leaving her mother to hurry after her as +best she could. + +"At home to no one!" cried Thuillier to the office-boy as he closed +the door and slipped the bolt. "Now," he said, addressing la Peyrade, +"we will talk. My dear fellow," he went on, starting with irony, for +he remembered to have heard that nothing was more confusing to an +adversary, "I have heard something that will give you pleasure. I know +now why MY pamphlet was seized." + +So saying, he looked fixedly at la Peyrade. + +"Parbleu!" said the latter in a natural tone of voice, "it was seized +because they chose to seize it. They wanted to find, and they found, +because they always find the things they want, what the king's +adherents call 'subversive doctrine.'" + +"No, you are wrong," said Thuillier; "the seizure was planned, +concocted, and agreed upon before publication." + +"Between whom?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Between those who wanted to kill the pamphlet, and the wretches who +were paid to betray it." + +"Well, in any case, those who paid," said la Peyrade, "got mighty +little for their money; for, persecuted though it was, I don't see +that your pamphlet made much of a stir." + +"Those who sold may have done better?" said Thuillier with redoubled +irony. + +"Those who sold," returned la Peyrade, "were the cleverer of the two." + +"Ah, I know," said Thuillier, "that you think a great deal of +cleverness; but allow me to tell you that the police, whose hand I see +in all this, doesn't usually throw its money away." + +And again he looked fixedly at la Peyrade. + +"So," said the barrister, without winking, "you have discovered that +the police had plotted in advance the smothering of your pamphlet?" + +"Yes, my dear fellow; and what is more, I know the actual sum paid to +the person who agreed to carry out this honorable plot." + +"The person," said la Peyrade, thinking a moment,--"perhaps I know the +person; but as for the money, I don't know a word about that." + +"Well, I can tell you the amount. It was twenty-five--thousand +--francs," said Thuillier, dwelling on each word; "that was the sum +paid to Judas." + +"Oh! excuse me, my dear fellow, but twenty-five thousand francs is a +good deal of money. I don't deny that you have become an important +man; but you are not such a bugbear to the government as to lead it to +make such sacrifices. Twenty-five thousand francs is as much as would +ever be given for the suppression of one of those annoying pamphlets +about the Civil list. But our financial lucubrations didn't annoy in +that way; and such a sum borrowed from the secret-service money for +the mere pleasure of plaguing you, seems to me rather fabulous." + +"Apparently," said Thuillier, acrimoniously, "this honest go-between +had some interest in exaggerating my value. One thing is very sure; +this monsieur had a debt of twenty-five thousand francs which harassed +him much; and a short time before the seizure this same monsieur, who +had no means of his own, paid off that debt; and unless you can tell +me where else he got the money, the inference I think is not difficult +to draw." + +It was la Peyrade's turn to look fixedly at Thuillier. + +"Monsieur Thuillier," he said, raising his voice, "let us get out of +enigmas and generalities; will you do me the favor to name that +person?" + +"Well, no," replied Thuillier, striking his hand upon the table, "I +shall not name him, because of the sentiments of esteem and affection +which formerly united us; but you have understood me, Monsieur la +Peyrade." + +"I ought to have known," said the Provencal, in a voice changed by +emotion, "that in bringing a serpent to this place I should soon be +soiled by his venom. Poor fool! do you not see that you have made +yourself the echo of Cerizet's calumny?" + +"Cerizet has nothing to do with it; on the contrary, he has told me +the highest good of you. How was it, not having a penny the night +before,--and I had reason to know it,--that you were able to pay +Dutocq the round sum of twenty-five thousand francs the next day?" + +La Peyrade reflected for a moment. + +"No," he said, "it was not Dutocq who told you that. He is not a man +to wrestle with an enemy of my strength without a strong interest in +it. It was Cerizet; he's the infamous calumniator, from whose hands I +wrenched the lease of your house near the Madeleine,--Cerizet, whom in +kindness, I went to seek on his dunghill that I might give him the +chance of honorable employment; that is the wretch, to whom a benefit +is only an encouragement to treachery. Tiens! if I were to tell you +what that man is I should turn you sick with disgust; in the sphere of +infamy he has discovered worlds." + +This time Thuillier made an able reply. + +"I don't know anything about Cerizet except through you," he said; +"you introduced him to me as a manager, offering every guarantee; but, +allowing him to be blacker than the devil, and supposing that this +communication comes from him, I don't see, my friend, that all that +makes YOU any the whiter." + +"No doubt I was to blame," said la Peyrade, "for putting such a man +into relations with you; but we wanted some one who understood +journalism, and that value he really had for us. But who can ever +sound the depths of souls like his? I thought him reformed. A manager, +I said to myself, is only a machine; he can do no harm. I expected to +find him a man of straw; well, I was mistaken, he will never be +anything but a man of mud." + +"All that is very fine," said Thuillier, "but those twenty-five +thousand francs found so conveniently in your possession, where did +you get them? That is the point you are forgetting to explain." + +"But to reason about it," said la Peyrade; "a man of my character in +the pay of the police and yet so poor that I could not pay the ten +thousand francs your harpy of a sister demanded with an insolence +which you yourself witnessed--" + +"But," said Thuillier, "if the origin of this money is honest, as I +sincerely desire it may be, what hinders you from telling me how you +got it?" + +"I cannot," said la Peyrade; "the history of that money is a secret +entrusted to me professionally." + +"Come, come, you told me yourself that the statutes of your order +forbid all barristers from doing business of any kind." + +"Let us suppose," said la Peyrade, "that I have done something not +absolutely regular; it would be strange indeed after what I risked, as +you know, for you, if you should have the face to reproach me with +it." + +"My poor friend, you are trying to shake off the hounds; but you can't +make me lose the scent. You wish to keep your secret; then keep it. I +am master of my own confidence and my own esteem; by paying you the +forfeit stipulated in our deed I take the newspaper into my own +hands." + +"Do you mean that you dismiss me?" cried la Peyrade. "The money that +you have put into the affair, all your chances of election, sacrificed +to the calumnies of such a being as Cerizet!" + +"In the first place," said Thuillier, "another editor-in-chief can be +found; it is a true saying that no man is indispensable. As for +election to the Chamber I would rather never receive it than owe it to +the help of one who--" + +"Go on," said la Peyrade, seeing that Thuillier hesitated, "or rather, +no, be silent, for you will presently blush for your suspicions and +ask my pardon humbly." + +By this time la Peyrade saw that without a confession to which he must +compel himself, the influence and the future he had just recovered +would be cut from under his feet. Resuming his speech he said, +solemnly:-- + +"You will remember, my friend, that you were pitiless, and, by +subjecting me to a species of moral torture, you have forced me to +reveal to you a secret that is not mine." + +"Go on," said Thuillier, "I take the whole responsibility upon myself. +Make me see the truth clearly in this darkness, and if I have done +wrong I will be the first to say so." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "those twenty-five thousand francs are the +savings of a servant-woman who came to me and asked me to take them +and to pay her interest." + +"A servant with twenty-five thousand francs of savings! Nonsense; she +must serve in monstrously rich households." + +"On the contrary, she is the one servant of an infirm old savant; and +it was on account of the discrepancy which strikes your mind that she +wanted to put her money in my hands as a sort of trustee." + +"Bless me! my friend," said Thuillier, flippantly, "you said we were +in want of a romance-feuilletonist; but really, after this, I sha'n't +be uneasy. Here's imagination for you!" + +"What?" said la Peyrade, angrily, "you don't believe me?" + +"No, I do not believe you. Twenty-five thousand francs savings in the +service of an old savant! that is about as believable as the officer +of La Dame Blanche buying a chateau with his pay." + +"But if I prove to you the truth of my words; if I let you put your +finger upon it?" + +"In that case, like Saint Thomas, I shall lower my flag before the +evidence. Meanwhile you must permit me, my noble friend, to wait until +you offer me that proof." + +Thuillier felt really superb. + +"I'd give a hundred francs," he said to himself, "if Brigitte could +have been here and heard me impeach him." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "suppose that without leaving this office, +and by means of a note which you shall read, I bring into your +presence the person from whom I received the money; if she confirms +what I say will you believe me?" + +This proposal and the assurance with which it was made rather +staggered Thuillier. + +"I shall know what to do when the time comes," he replied, changing +his tone. "But this must be done at once, now, here." + +"I said, without leaving this office. I should think that was clear +enough." + +"And who will carry the note you write?" asked Thuillier, believing +that by thus examining every detail he was giving proofs of amazing +perspicacity. + +"Carry the note! why, your own porter of course," replied la Peyrade; +"you can send him yourself." + +"Then write it," said Thuillier, determined to push him to the wall. + +La Peyrade took a sheet of paper with the new heading and wrote as +follows, reading the note aloud:-- + + Madame Lambert is requested to call at once, on urgent business, + at the office of the "Echo de la Bievre," rue Saint-Dominique + d'Enfer. The bearer of this note will conduct her. She is awaited + impatiently by her devoted servant, + + Theodose de la Peyrade. + + +"There, will that suit you?" said the barrister, passing the paper to +Thuillier. + +"Perfectly," replied Thuillier, taking the precaution to fold the +letter himself and seal it. "Put the address," he added. + +Then he rang the bell for the porter. + +"You will carry this letter to its address," he said to the man, "and +bring back with you the person named. But will she be there?" he +asked, on reflection. + +"It is more than probable," replied la Peyrade; "in any case, neither +you nor I will leave this room until she comes. This matter must be +cleared up." + +"Then go!" said Thuillier to the porter, in a theatrical tone. + +When they were alone, la Peyrade took up a newspaper and appeared to +be absorbed in its perusal. + +Thuillier, beginning to get uneasy as to the upshot of the affair, +regretted that he had not done something the idea of which had come to +him just too late. + +"Yes, I ought," he said to himself, "to have torn up that letter, and +not driven him to prove his words." + +Wishing to do something that might look like retaining la Peyrade in +the position of which he had threatened to deprive him, he remarked +presently:-- + +"By the bye, I have just come from the printing-office; the new type +has arrived, and I think we might make our first appearance +to-morrow." + +La Peyrade did not answer; but he got up and took his paper nearer to +the window. + +"He is sulky," thought Thuillier, "and if he is innocent, he may well +be. But, after all, why did he ever bring a man like that Cerizet +here?" + +Then to hide his embarrassment and the preoccupation of his mind, he +sat down before the editor's table, took a sheet of the head-lined +paper and made himself write a letter. + +Presently la Peyrade returned to the table and sitting down, took +another sheet and with the feverish rapidity of a man stirred by some +emotion he drove his pen over the paper. + +From the corner of his eye, Thuillier tried hard to see what la +Peyrade was writing, and noticing that his sentences were separated by +numbers placed between brackets, he said:-- + +"Tiens! are you drawing up a parliamentary law?" + +"Yes," replied la Peyrade, "the law of the vanquished." + +Soon after this, the porter opened the door and introduced Madame +Lambert, whom he had found at home, and who arrived looking rather +frightened. + +"You are Madame Lambert?" asked Thuillier, magisterially. + +"Yes, monsieur," said the woman, in an anxious voice. + +After requesting her to be seated and noticing that the porter was +still there as if awaiting further orders he said to the man:-- + +"That will do; you may go; and don't let any one disturb us." + +The gravity and the lordly tone assumed by Thuillier only increased +Madame Lambert's uneasiness. She came expecting to see only la +Peyrade, and she found herself received by an unknown man with a +haughty manner, while the barrister, who had merely bowed to her, said +not a word; moreover, the scene took place in a newspaper office, and +it is a well-known fact that to pious persons especially all that +relates to the press is infernal and diabolical. + +"Well," said Thuillier to the barrister, "it seems to me that nothing +hinders you from explaining to madame why you have sent for her." + +In order to leave no loophole for suspicion in Thuillier's mind la +Peyrade knew that he must put his question bluntly and without the +slightest preparation; he therefore said to her "ex abrupto":-- + +"We wish to ask you, madame, if it is not true that about two and a +half months ago you placed in my hands, subject to interest, the sum, +in round numbers, of twenty-five thousand francs." + +Though she felt the eyes of Thuillier and those of la Peyrade upon +her, Madame Lambert, under the shock of this question fired at her +point-blank, could not restrain a start. + +"Heavens!" she exclaimed, "twenty-five thousand francs! and where +should I get such a sum as that?" + +La Peyrade gave no sign on his face of the vexation he might be +supposed to feel. As for Thuillier, who now looked at him with +sorrowful commiseration, he merely said:-- + +"You see, my friend!" + +"So," resumed la Peyrade, "you are very certain that you did not place +in my hands the sum of twenty-five thousand francs; you declare this, +you affirm it?" + +"Why, monsieur! did you ever hear of such a sum as that in the pocket +of a poor woman like me? The little that I had, as everybody knows, +has gone to eke out the housekeeping of that poor dear gentleman whose +servant I have been for more than twenty years." + +"This," said Thuillier, pompously, "seems to me categorical." + +La Peyrade still did not show the slightest sign of annoyance; on the +contrary, he seemed to be playing into Thuillier's hand. + +"You hear, my dear Thuillier," he said, "and if necessary I shall call +for your testimony, that madame here declares that she did not possess +twenty-five thousand francs and could not therefore have placed them +in my hands. Now, as the notary Dupuis, in whose hands I fancied I had +placed them, left Paris this morning for Brussels carrying with him +the money of all his clients, I have no account with madame, by her +own showing, and the absconding of the notary--" + +"Has the notary Dupuis absconded?" screamed Madame Lambert, driven by +this dreadful news entirely out of her usual tones of dulcet sweetness +and Christian resignation. "Ah, the villain! it was only this morning +that he was taking the sacrament at Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas." + +"To pray for a safe journey, probably," said la Peyrade. + +"Monsieur talks lightly enough," continued Madame Lambert, "though +that brigand has carried off my savings. But I gave them to monsieur, +and monsieur is answerable to me for them; he is the only one I know +in this transaction." + +"Hey?" said la Peyrade to Thuillier, pointing to Madame Lambert, whose +whole demeanor had something of the mother-wolf suddenly bereft of her +cubs; "is that nature? tell me! Do you think now that madame and I are +playing a comedy for your benefit?" + +"I am thunderstruck at Cerizet's audacity," said Thuillier. "I am +overwhelmed with my own stupidity; there is nothing for me to do but +to submit myself entirely to your discretion." + +"Madame," said la Peyrade, gaily, "excuse me for thus frightening you; +the notary Dupuis is still a very saintly man, and quite incapable of +doing an injury to his clients. As for monsieur here, it was necessary +that I should prove to him that you had really placed that money in my +hands; he is, however, another myself, and your secret, though known +to him, is as safe as it is with me." + +"Oh, very good, monsieur!" said Madame Lambert. "I suppose these +gentlemen have no further need of me?" + +"No, my dear madame, and I beg you to pardon me for the little terror +I was compelled to occasion you." + +Madame Lambert turned to leave the room with all the appearance of +respectful humility, but when she reached the door, she retraced her +steps, and coming close to la Peyrade said, in her smoothest tones:-- + +"When does monsieur expect to be able to refund me that money?" + +"But I told you," said la Peyrade, stiffly, "that notaries never +return on demand the money placed in their hands." + +"Does monsieur think that if I went to see Monsieur Dupuis himself and +asked him--" + +"I think," said la Peyrade, interrupting her, "that you would do a +most ridiculous thing. He received the money from me in my own name, +as you requested, and he knows only me in the matter." + +"Then monsieur will be so kind, will he not, as to get back that money +for me as soon as possible? I am sure I would not wish to press +monsieur, but in two or three months from now I may want it; I have +heard of a little property it would suit me to buy." + +"Very good, Madame Lambert," said la Peyrade, with well-concealed +irritation, "it shall be done as you wish; and in less time, perhaps, +than you have stated I shall hope to return your money to you." + +"That won't inconvenience monsieur, I trust," said the woman; "he told +me that at the first indiscretion I committed--" + +"Yes, yes, that is all understood," said la Peyrade, interrupting her. + +"Then I have the honor to be the very humble servant of these +gentlemen," said Madame Lambert, now departing definitively. + +"You see, my friend, the trouble you have got me into," said la +Peyrade to Thuillier as soon as they were alone, "and to what I am +exposed by my kindness in satisfying your diseased mind. That debt was +dormant; it was in a chronic state; and you have waked it up and made +it acute. The woman brought me the money and insisted on my keeping +it, at a good rate of interest. I refused at first; then I agreed to +place it in Dupuis's hands, explaining to her that it couldn't be +withdrawn at once; but subsequently, when Dutocq pressed me, I +decided, after all, to keep it myself." + +"I am dreadfully sorry, dear friend, for my silly credulity. But don't +be uneasy about the exactions of that woman; we will manage to arrange +all that, even if I have to make you an advance upon Celeste's 'dot.'" + +"My excellent friend," said la Peyrade, "it is absolutely necessary +that we should talk over our private arrangements; to tell you the +truth, I have no fancy for being hauled up every morning and +questioned as to my conduct. Just now, while waiting for that woman, I +drew up a little agreement, which you and I will discuss and sign, if +you please, before the first number of the paper is issued." + +"But," said Thuillier, "our deed of partnership seems to me to +settle--" + +"--that by a paltry forfeit of five thousand francs, as stated in +Article 14," interrupted Theodose, "you can put me, when you choose, +out of doors. No, I thank you! After my experience to-day, I want some +better security than that." + +At this moment Cerizet with a lively and all-conquering air, entered +the room. + +"My masters!" he exclaimed, "I've brought the money; and we can now +sign the bond." + +Then, remarking that his news was received with extreme coldness, he +added:-- + +"Well? what is it?" + +"It is this," replied Thuillier: "I refuse to be associated with +double-face men and calumniators. We have no need of you or your +money; and I request you not to honor these precincts any longer with +your presence." + +"Dear! dear! dear!" said Cerizet; "so papa Thuillier has let the wool +be pulled over his eyes again!" + +"Leave the room!" said Thuillier; "you have nothing more to do here." + +"Hey, my boy!" said Cerizet, turning to la Peyrade, "so you've twisted +the old bourgeois round your finger again? Well, well, no matter! I +think you are making a mistake not to go and see du Portail, and I +shall tell him--" + +"Leave this house!" cried Thuillier, in a threatening tone. + +"Please remember, my dear monsieur, that I never asked you to employ +me; I was well enough off before you sent for me, and I shall be +after. But I'll give you a piece of advice: don't pay the twenty-five +thousand francs out of your own pocket, for that's hanging to your +nose." + +So saying, Cerizet put his thirty-three thousand francs in banknotes +back into his wallet, took his hat from the table, carefully smoothed +the nap with his forearm and departed. + +Thuillier had been led by Cerizet into what proved to be a most +disastrous campaign. Now become the humble servant of la Peyrade, he +was forced to accept his conditions, which were as follows: five +hundred francs a month for la Peyrade's services in general; his +editorship of the paper to be paid at the rate of fifty francs a +column,--which was simply enormous, considering the small size of the +sheet; a binding pledge to continue the publication of the paper for +six months, under pain of the forfeiture of fifteen thousand francs; +an absolute omnipotence in the duties of editor-in-chief,--that is to +say, the sovereign right of inserting, controlling, and rejecting all +articles without being called to explain the reasons of his actions, +--such were the stipulations of a treaty in duplicate made openly, "in +good faith," between the contracting parties. _But_, in virtue of +another and secret agreement, Thuillier gave security for the payment +of the twenty-five thousand francs for which la Peyrade was +accountable to Madame Lambert, binding the said Sieur de la Peyrade, +in case the payment were required before his marriage with Celeste +Colleville could take place, to acknowledge the receipt of said sum +advanced upon the dowry. + +Matters being thus arranged and accepted by the candidate, who saw no +chance of election if he lost la Peyrade, Thuillier was seized with a +happy thought. He went to the Cirque-Olympique, where he remembered to +have seen in the ticket-office a former employee in his office at the +ministry of Finance,--a man named Fleury; to whom he proposed the post +of manager. Fleury, being an old soldier, a good shot, and a skilful +fencer, would certainly make himself an object of respect in a +newspaper office. The working-staff of the paper being thus +reconstituted, with the exception of a few co-editors or reporters to +be added later, but whom la Peyrade, thanks to the facility of his +pen, was able for the present to do without, the first number of the +new paper was launched upon the world. + +Thuillier now recommenced the explorations about Paris which we +saw him make on the publication of his pamphlet. Entering all +reading-rooms and cafes, he asked for the "Echo de la Bievre," and +when informed, alas, very frequently, that the paper was unknown in +this or that establishment, "It is incredible!" he would exclaim, +"that a house which respects itself does not take such a widely +known paper." + +On that, he departed disdainfully, not observing that in many places, +where this ancient trick of commercial travellers was well understood, +they were laughing behind his back. + +The evening of the day when the inauguration number containing the +"profession of faith" appeared, Brigitte's salon, although the day was +not Sunday, was filled with visitors. Reconciled to la Peyrade, whom +her brother had brought home to dinner, the old maid went so far as to +tell him that, without flattery, she thought his leading article was a +famous HIT. For that matter, all the guests as they arrived, reported +that the public seemed enchanted with the first number of the new +journal. + +The public! everybody knows what that is. To every man who launches a +bit of writing into the world, the public consists of five or six +intimates who cannot, without offending the author, avoid knowing +something more or less of his lucubrations. + +"As for me!" cried Colleville, "I can truthfully declare that it is +the first political article I ever read that didn't send me to sleep." + +"It is certain," said Phellion, "that the leading article seems to me +to be stamped with vigor joined to an atticism which we may seek in +vain in the columns of the other public prints." + +"Yes," said Dutocq, "the matter is very well presented; and besides, +there's a turn of phrase, a clever diction, that doesn't belong to +everybody. However, we must wait and see how it keeps on. I fancy that +to-morrow the 'Echo de la Bievre' will be strongly attacked by the +other papers." + +"Parbleu!" cried Thuillier, "that's what we are hoping for; and if the +government would only do us the favor to seize us--" + +"No, thank you," said Fleury, whom Thuillier had also brought home to +dinner, "I don't want to enter upon those functions at first." + +"Seized!" said Dutocq, "oh, you won't be seized; but I think the +ministerial journals will fire a broadside at you." + +The next day Thuillier was at the office as early as eight o'clock, in +order to be the first to receive that formidable salvo. After looking +through every morning paper he was forced to admit that there was no +more mention of the "Echo de la Bievre" than if it didn't exist. When +la Peyrade arrived he found his unhappy friend in a state of +consternation. + +"Does that surprise you?" said the Provencal, tranquilly. "I let you +enjoy yesterday your hopes of a hot engagement with the press; but I +knew myself that in all probability there wouldn't be the slightest +mention of us in to-day's papers. Against every paper which makes its +debut with some distinction, there's always a two weeks', sometimes a +two months' conspiracy of silence." + +"Conspiracy of silence!" echoed Thuillier, with admiration. + +He did not know what it meant, but the words had a grandeur and a +_something_ that appealed to his imagination. After la Peyrade had +explained to him that by "conspiracy of silence" was meant the +agreement of existing journals to make no mention of new-comers lest +such notice should serve to advertise them, Thuillier's mind was +hardly better satisfied than it had been by the pompous flow of the +words. The bourgeois is born so; words are coins which he takes and +passes without question. For a word, he will excite himself or calm +down, insult or applaud. With a word, he can be brought to make a +revolution and overturn a government of his own choice. + +The paper, however, was only a means; the object was Thuillier's +election. This was insinuated rather than stated in the first numbers. +But one morning, in the columns of the "Echo," appeared a letter from +several electors thanking their delegate to the municipal council for +the firm and frankly liberal attitude in which he had taken on all +questions of local interests. "This firmness," said the letter, "had +brought down upon him the persecution of the government, which, towed +at the heels of foreigners, had sacrificed Poland and sold itself to +England. The arrondissement needed a man of such tried convictions to +represent it in the Chamber,--a man holding high and firm the banner +of dynastic opposition, a man who would be, by the mere signification +of his name, a stern lesson given to the authorities." + +Enforced by an able commentary from la Peyrade, this letter was signed +by Barbet and Metivier and all Brigitte's tradesmen (whom, in view of +the election she had continued to employ since her emigration); also +by the family doctor and apothecary, and by Thuillier's builder, and +Barniol, Phellion's son-in-law, who professed to hold rather +"advanced" political opinions. As for Phellion himself, he thought the +wording of the letter not altogether circumspect, and--always without +fear as without reproach--however much he might expect that this +refusal would injure his son in his dearest interests, he bravely +refrained from signing it. + +This trial kite had the happiest effect. The ten or a dozen names thus +put forward were considered to express the will of the electors and +were called "the voice of the quarter." Thus Thuillier's candidacy +made from the start such rapid progress that Minard hesitated to put +his own claims in opposition. + +Delighted now with the course of events, Brigitte was the first to say +that the time had come to attend to the marriage, and Thuillier was +all the more ready to agree because, from day to day, he feared he +might be called upon to pay the twenty-five thousand francs to Madame +Lambert for which he had pledged himself. A thorough explanation now +took place between la Peyrade and the old maid. She told him honestly +of the fear she felt as to the maintenance of her sovereign authority +when a _son-in-law_ of his mind and character was established in the +household. + +"If we," she ended by saying, "are to oppose each other for the rest +of our days, it would be much better, from the beginning, to make two +households; we shouldn't be the less friends for that." + +La Peyrade replied that nothing under the sun would induce him to +consent to such a plan; on the contrary, he regarded as amongst his +happiest prospects for the future the security he should feel about +the wise management of the material affairs of the home in such hands +as hers. He should have enough to do in the management of outside +interests, and he could not comprehend, for his part, how she could +suppose he had ever had the thought of interfering in matters that +were absolutely out of his province. In short, he reassured her so +completely that she urged him to take immediate steps for the +publication of the banns and the signature of the marriage contract, +--declaring that she reserved to herself all the preparations relating +to Celeste, whose acceptance of this sudden conclusion she pledged +herself to secure. + +"My dear child," she said to Celeste the next morning, "I think you +have given up all idea of being Felix Phellion's wife. In the first +place, he is more of an atheist than ever, and, besides, you must have +noticed yourself that his mind is quite shaky. You have seen at Madame +Minard's that Madame Marmus, who married a savant, officer of the +Legion of honor, and member of the Institute. There's not a more +unhappy woman; her husband has taken her to live behind the +Luxembourg, in the rue Duguay-Trouin, a street that is neither paved +nor lighted. When he goes out, he doesn't know where he is going; he +gets to the Champ de Mars when he wants to go to the Faubourg +Poissoniere; he isn't even capable of giving his address to the driver +of a street cab; and he is so absent-minded he couldn't tell if it +were before dinner or after. You can imagine what sort of time a woman +must have with a man whose nose is always at a telescope snuffing +stars." + +"But Felix," said Celeste, "is not as absent-minded as that." + +"Of course not, because he is younger; but with years his +absent-mindedness and his atheism will both increase. We have therefore +decided that he is not the husband you want, and we all, your mother, +father, Thuillier and myself, have determined that you shall take la +Peyrade, a man of the world, who will make his way, and one who has +done us great services in the past, and who will, moreover, make your +godfather deputy. We are disposed to give you, in consideration of +him, a much larger 'dot' than we should give to any other husband. So, +my dear, it is settled; the banns are to be published immediately, and +this day week we sign the contract. There's to be a great dinner for +the family and intimates, and after that a reception, at which the +contract will be signed and your trousseau and corbeille exhibited. As +I take all that into my own hands I'll answer for it that everything +shall be of the best kind; especially if you are not babyish, and give +in pleasantly to our ideas." + +"But, aunt Brigitte," began Celeste, timidly. + +"There's no 'but,' in the matter," said the old maid, imperiously; "it +is all arranged, and will be carried out, unless, mademoiselle, you +pretend to have more wisdom than your elders." + +"I will do as you choose, aunt," replied Celeste, feeling as if a +thunder-cloud had burst upon her head, and knowing but too well that +she had no power to struggle against the iron will which had just +pronounced her doom. + +She went at once to pour her sorrows into Madame Thuillier's soul; but +when she heard her godmother advising patience and resignation the +poor child felt that from that feeble quarter she could get no help +for even the slightest effort of resistance, and that her sacrifice +was virtually accomplished. + +Precipitating herself with a sort of frenzy into the new element of +activity thus introduced into her life, Brigitte took the field in the +making of the trousseau and the purchase of the corbeille. Like many +misers, who on great occasions come out of their habits and their +nature, the old maid now thought nothing too good for her purpose; and +she flung her money about so lavishly that until the day appointed for +the signing of the contract, the jeweller, dressmaker, milliner, +lingere, etc. (all chosen from the best establishments in Paris), +seemed to occupy the house. + +"It is like a procession," said Josephine, the cook, admiringly, to +Francoise, the Minards' maid; "the bell never stops ringing from +morning till night." + + + + CHAPTER XII + + A STAR + +The dinner on the great occasion was ordered from Chabot and Potel, +and not from Chevet, by which act Brigitte intended to prove her +initiative and her emancipation from the late Madame de Godollo. The +invited guests were as follows: three Collevilles, including the +bride, la Peyrade the groom, Dutocq and Fleury, whom he had asked to +be his witnesses, the extremely limited number of his relatives +leaving him no choice, Minard and Rabourdin, chosen as witnesses for +Celeste, Madame and Mademoiselle Minard and Minard junior, two of +Thuillier's colleagues in the Council-general; the notary Dupuis, +charged with the duty of drawing up the contract, and lastly, the Abbe +Gondrin, director of the consciences of Madame Thuillier and Celeste, +who was to give the nuptial blessing. + +The latter was the former vicar of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas, whose +great refinement of manner and gift of preaching had induced the +archbishop to remove him from the humble parish where his career had +begun to the aristocratic church of the Madeleine. Since Madame +Thuillier and Celeste had again become his parishioners, the young +abbe visited them occasionally, and Thuillier, who had gone to him to +explain, after his own fashion, the suitableness of the choice made +for Celeste in the person of la Peyrade (taking pains as he did so to +cast reflections on the religious opinions of Felix Phellion), had +easily led him to contribute by his persuasive words to the +resignation of the victim. + +When the time came to sit down to table three guests were missing, +--two Minards, father and son, and the notary Dupuis. The latter had +written a note to Thuillier in the morning, excusing himself from the +dinner, but saying that at nine o'clock precisely he would bring the +contract and place himself at the orders of Mademoiselle Thuillier. As +for Julien Minard, his mother excused him as being confined to his +room with a sore-throat. The absence of Minard senior remained +unexplained, but Madame Minard insisted that they should sit down to +table without him; which was done, Brigitte ordering that the soup be +kept hot for him, because in the bourgeois code of manners and customs +a dinner without soup is no dinner at all. + +The repast was far from gay, and though the fare was better, the +vivacity and the warmth of the conversation was far, indeed, from that +of the famous improvised banquet at the time of the election to the +Council-general. The gaps occasioned by the absence of three guests +may have been one reason; then Flavie was glum; she had had an +interview with la Peyrade in the afternoon which ended in tears; +Celeste, even if she had been content with the choice imposed on her, +would scarcely, as a matter of propriety, have seemed joyful; in fact, +she made no effort to brighten a sad face, and dared not look at her +godmother, whose own countenance gave the impression, if we may so +express it, of the long bleating of a sheep. The poor girl seeing this +feared to exchange a look with her lest she might drive her to tears. +Thuillier now felt himself, on all sides, of such importance that he +was pompous and consequential; while Brigitte, uneasy out of her own +world, where she could lord it over every one without competition, +seemed constrained and embarrassed. + +Colleville tried by a few jovialities to raise the temperature of the +assemblage; but the coarse salt of his witticisms had an effect, in +the atmosphere in which he produced them, of a loud laugh in a +sick-chamber; and a mute intimation from his wife, Thuillier, and la +Peyrade to _behave himself_ put a stopper on his liveliness and +turbulent expansion. It was somewhat remarkable that the gravest +member of the party, aided by Rabourdin, was the person who finally +warmed up the atmosphere. The Abbe Gondrin, a man of a most refined +and cultivated mind, had, like every pure and well-ordered soul, a +fund of gentle gaiety which he was well able to communicate, and +liveliness was beginning to dawn upon the party when Minard entered +the room. + +After making his excuses on the ground of important duties, the mayor +of the eleventh arrondissement, who was in the habit of taking the +lead in the conversation wherever he went, said, having swallowed a +few hasty mouthfuls:-- + +"Messieurs and mesdames, have you heard the great news?" + +"No, what is it?" cried several voices at once. + +"The Academy of Sciences received, to-day, at its afternoon session, +the announcement of a vast discovery: the heavens possess a new star!" + +"Tiens!" said Colleville; "that will help to replace the one that +Beranger thought was lost when he grieved (to that air of 'Octavie') +over Chateaubriand's departure: 'Chateaubriand, why fly thy land?'" + +This quotation, which he sang, exasperated Flavie, and if the custom +had been for wives to sit next to their husbands, the former clarionet +of the Opera-Comique would not have escaped with a mere "Colleville!" +imperiously calling him to order. + +"The point which gives this great astronomical event a special +interest on this occasion," continued Minard, "is that the author of +the discovery is a denizen of the twelfth arrondissement, which many +of you still inhabit, or have inhabited. But other points are striking +in this great scientific fact. The Academy, on the reading of the +communication which announced it, was so convinced of the existence of +this star that a deputation was appointed to visit the domicile of the +modern Galileo and compliment him in the name of the whole body. And +yet this star is not visible to either the eye or the telescope! It is +only by the power of calculation and induction that its existence and +the place it occupies in the heavens have been proved in the most +irrefutable manner: 'There _must_ be _there_ a hitherto unknown star; I +cannot see it, but I am sure of it,'--that is what this man of science +said to the Academy, whom he instantly convinced by his deductions. +And do you know, messieurs, who is this Christopher Columbus of a new +celestial world? An old man, two-thirds blind, who has scarcely eyes +enough to walk in the street." + +"Wonderful! Marvellous! Admirable!" came from all sides. + +"What is the name of this learned man?" asked several voices. + +"Monsieur Picot, or, if you prefer it, pere Picot, for that is how +they call him in the rue du Val-de-Grace, where he lives. He is simply +an old professor of mathematics, who has turned out several very fine +pupils,--by the bye, Felix Phellion, whom we all know, studied under +him, and it was he who read, on behalf of his blind old master, the +communication to the Academy this afternoon." + +Hearing that name, and remembering the promise Felix had made her to +lift her to the skies, which, as he said it, she had fancied a sign of +madness, Celeste looked at Madame Thuillier, whose face had taken a +sudden glow of animation, and seemed to say to her, "Courage, my +child! all is not lost." + +"My dear Theodose," said Thuillier, "Felix is coming here to-night; +you must take him aside and get him to give you a copy of that +communication; it would be a fine stroke of fortune for the 'Echo' to +be the first to publish it." + +"Yes," said Minard, assuming the answer, "that would do good service +to the public, for the affair is going to make a great noise. The +committee, not finding Monsieur Picot at home, went straight to the +Minister of Public Instruction; and the minister flew to the Tuileries +and saw the King; and the 'Messager' came out this evening--strange to +say, so early that I could read it in my carriage as I drove along +--with an announcement that Monsieur Picot is named Chevalier of the +Legion of honor, with a pension of eighteen hundred francs from the +fund devoted to the encouragement of science and letters." + +"Well," said Thuillier, "there's one cross at least well bestowed." + +"But eighteen hundred francs for the pension seems to me rather +paltry," said Dutocq. + +"So it does," said Thuillier, "and all the more because that money +comes from the tax-payers; and, when one sees the taxes, as we do, +frittered away on court favorites--" + +"Eighteen hundred francs a year," interrupted Minard, "is certainly +something, especially for savants, a class of people who are +accustomed to live on very little." + +"I think I have heard," said la Peyrade, "that this very Monsieur +Picot leads a strange life, and that his family, who at first wanted +to shut him up as a lunatic, are now trying to have guardians +appointed over him. They say he allows a servant-woman who keeps his +house to rob him of all he has. Parbleu! Thuillier, you know her; it +is that woman who came to the office the other day about some money in +Dupuis's hands." + +"Yes, yes, true," said Thuillier, significantly; "you are right, I do +know her." + +"It is queer," said Brigitte, seeing a chance to enforce the argument +she had used to Celeste, "that all these learned men are good for +nothing outside of their science; in their homes they have to be +treated like children." + +"That proves," said the Abbe Gondrin, "the great absorption which +their studies give to their minds, and, at the same time, a simplicity +of nature which is very touching." + +"When they are not as obstinate as mules," said Brigitte, hastily. +"For myself, monsieur l'abbe, I must say that if I had had any idea of +marriage, a savant wouldn't have suited me at all. What do they do, +these savants, anyhow? Useless things most of the time. You are all +admiring one who has discovered a star; but as long as we are in this +world what good is that to us? For all the use we make of stars it +seems to me we have got enough of them as it is." + +"Bravo, Brigitte!" said Colleville, getting loose again; "you are +right, my girl, and I think, as you do, that the man who discovers a +new dish deserves better of humanity." + +"Colleville," said Flavie, "I must say that your style of behavior is +in the worst taste." + +"My dear lady," said the Abbe Gondrin, addressing Brigitte, "you might +be right if we were formed of matter only; and if, bound to our body, +there were not a soul with instincts and appetites that must be +satisfied. Well, I think that this sense of the infinite which is +within us, and which we all try to satisfy each in our own way, is +marvellously well helped by the labors of astronomy, that reveal to us +from time to time new worlds which the hand of the Creator has put +into space. The infinite in you has taken another course; this passion +for the comfort of those about you, this warm, devoted, ardent +affection which you feel for your brother, are equally the +manifestation of aspirations which have nothing material about them, +and which, in seeking their end and object, never think of asking, +'What good does that do? what is the use of this?' Besides, I must +assure you that the stars are not as useless as you seem to think. +Without them how would navigators cross the sea? They would be puzzled +to get you the vanilla with which you have flavored the delicious +cream I am now eating. So, as Monsieur Colleville has perceived, there +is more affinity than you think between a dish and a star; no one +should be despised,--neither an astronomer nor a good housekeeper--" + +The abbe was here interrupted by the noise of a lively altercation in +the antechamber. + +"I tell you that I will go in," said a loud voice. + +"No, monsieur, you shall not go in," said another voice, that of the +man-servant. "The company are at table, I tell you, and nobody has the +right to force himself in." + +Thuillier turned pale; ever since the seizure of his pamphlet, he +fancied all sudden arrivals meant the coming of the police. + +Among the various social rules imparted to Brigitte by Madame de +Godollo, the one that most needed repeating was the injunction never, +as mistress of the house, to rise from the table until she gave the +signal for retiring. But present circumstances appeared to warrant the +infraction of the rule. + +"I'll go and see what it is," she said to Thuillier, whose anxiety she +noticed at once. "What _is_ the matter?" she said to the servant as +soon as she reached the scene of action. + +"Here's a gentleman who wants to come in, and says that no one is ever +dining at eight o'clock at night." + +"But who are you, monsieur?" said Brigitte, addressing an old man very +oddly dressed, whose eyes were protected by a green shade. + +"Madame, I am neither a beggar nor a vagabond," replied the old man, +in stentorian tones; "my name is Picot, professor of mathematics." + +"Rue du Val-de-Grace?" asked Brigitte. + +"Yes, madame,--No. 9, next to the print-shop." + +"Come in, monsieur, come in; we shall be only too happy to receive +you," cried Thuillier, who, on hearing the name, had hurried out to +meet the savant. + +"Hein! you scamp," said the learned man, turning upon the man-servant, +who had retired, seeing that the matter was being settled amicably, "I +told you I should get in." + +Pere Picot was a tall old man, with an angular, stern face, who, +despite the corrective of a blond wig with heavy curls, and that of +the pacific green shade we have already mentioned, expressed on his +large features, upon which the fury of study had produced a surface of +leaden pallor, a snappish and quarrelsome disposition. Of this he had +already given proof before entering the dining-room, where every one +now rose to receive him. + +His costume consisted of a huge frock-coat, something between a +paletot and a dressing-gown, between which an immense waistcoat of +iron-gray cloth, fastened from the throat to the pit of the stomach +with two rows of buttons, hussar fashion, formed a sort of buckler. +The trousers, though October was nearing its close, were made of black +lasting, and gave testimony to long service by the projection of a +darn on the otherwise polished surface covering the knees, the polish +being produced by the rubbing of the hands upon those parts. But, in +broad daylight, the feature of the old savant's appearance which +struck the eye most vividly was a pair of Patagonian feet, imprisoned +in slippers of beaver cloth, the which, moulded upon the mountainous +elevations of gigantic bunions, made the spectator think, +involuntarily, of the back of a dromedary or an advanced case of +elephantiasis. + +Once installed in a chair which was hastily brought for him, and the +company having returned to their places at table, the old man suddenly +burst out in thundering tones, amid the silence created by +curiosity:-- + +"Where is he,--that rogue, that scamp? Let him show himself; let him +dare to speak to me!" + +"Who is it that offends you, my dear monsieur?" said Thuillier, in +conciliating accents, in which there was a slight tone of patronage. + +"A scamp whom I couldn't find in his own home, and they told me he was +here, in this house. I'm in the apartment, I think, of Monsieur +Thuillier of the Council-general, place de la Madeleine, first story +above the entresol?" + +"Precisely," said Thuillier; "and allow me to add, monsieur, that you +are surrounded with the respect and sympathy of all." + +"And you will doubtless permit me to add," said Minard, "that the +mayor of the arrondissement adjoining that which you inhabit +congratulates himself on being here in presence of Monsieur Picot, +--_the_ Monsieur Picot, no doubt, who has just immortalized his name by +the discovery of a star!" + +"Yes, monsieur," replied the professor, elevating to a still higher +pitch the stentorian diapason of his voice, "I am Picot (Nepomucene), +but I have not discovered a star; I don't concern myself with any such +fiddle-faddle; besides, my eyes are very weak; and that insolent young +fellow I have come here to find is making me ridiculous with such +talk. I don't see him here; he is hiding himself, I know; he dares not +look me in the face." + +"Who is this person who annoys you?" asked several voices at once. + +"An unnatural pupil of mine," replied the old mathematician; "a scamp, +but full of ideas; his name is Felix Phellion." + +The name was received, as may well be imagined, with amazement. +Finding the situation amusing, Colleville and la Peyrade went off into +fits of laughter. + +"You laugh, fools!" cried the irate old man, rising. "Yes, come and +laugh within reach of my arm." + +So saying, he brandished a thick stick with a white china handle, +which he used to guide himself, thereby nearly knocking over a +candelabrum on the dinner-table upon Madame Minard's head. + +"You are mistaken, monsieur," cried Brigitte, springing forward and +seizing his arm. "Monsieur Felix is not here. He will probably come +later to a reception we are about to give; but at present he has not +arrived." + +"They don't begin early, your receptions," said the old man; "it is +past eight o'clock. Well, as Monsieur Felix is coming later, you must +allow me to wait for him. I believe you were eating your dinners; +don't let me disturb you." + +And he went back peaceably to his chair. + +"As you permit it, monsieur," said Brigitte, "we will continue, or, I +should say, finish dinner, for we are now at the dessert. May I offer +you anything,--a glass of champagne and a biscuit?" + +"I am very willing, madame," replied the intruder. "No one ever +refuses champagne, and I am always ready to eat between my meals; but +you dine very late." + +A place was made for him at table between Colleville and Mademoiselle +Minard, and the former made it his business to fill the glass of his +new neighbor, before whom was placed a dish of small cakes. + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade in a cajoling tone, "you saw how surprised +we were to hear you complain of Monsieur Felix Phellion,--so amiable, +so inoffensive a young man. What has he done to you, that you should +feel so angry with him?" + +With his mouth full of cakes, which he was engulfing in quantities +that made Brigitte uneasy, the professor made a sign that he would +soon answer; then, having mistaken his glass and swallowed the +contents of Colleville's, he replied:-- + +"You ask what that insolent young man had done to me? A rascally +thing; and not the first, either. He knows that I cannot abide stars, +having very good reason to hate them, as you shall hear: In 1807, +being attached to the Bureau of Longitudes, I was part of the +scientific expedition sent to Spain, under the direction of my friend +and colleague, Jean-Baptiste Biot, to determine the arc of the +terrestrial meridian from Barcelona to the Balearic isles. I was just +in the act of observing a star (perhaps the very one my rascally pupil +has discovered), when suddenly, war having broken out between France +and Spain, the peasants, seeing me perched with a telescope on Monte +Galazzo, took it into their heads that I was making signals to the +enemy. A mob of savages broke my instruments, and talked of stringing +me up. They were just going to do it, when the captain of a vessel +took me prisoner and thrust me into the citadel of Belver, where I +spent three years in the harshest captivity. Since them, as you may +well believe, I loathe the whole celestial system; though I was, +without knowing it, the first to observe the famous comet of 1811; but +I should have taken care not to say a word about it if it had not been +for Monsieur Flauguergues, who announced it. Like all my pupils, +Phellion knows my aversion to stars, and he knew very well the worst +trick he could play me would be to saddle one on my back; and that +deputation that came to play the farce of congratulating me was mighty +lucky not to find me at home, for if they had, I can assure those +gentlemen of the Academy, they would have had a hot reception." + +Everybody present thought the old mathematician's monomania quite +delightful, except la Peyrade, who now, in perceiving Felix Phellion's +part in the affair, regretted deeply having caused the explanation. + +"And yet, Monsieur Picot," said Minard, "if Felix Phellion is only +guilty of attributing his discovery to you, it seems to me that his +indiscreet behavior has resulted in a certain compensation to you: the +cross of the Legion of honor, a pension, and the glory attached to +your name are not to be despised." + +"The cross and the pension I take," said the old man, emptying his +glass, which, to Brigitte's terror, he set down upon the table with a +force that threatened to smash it. "The government has owed them to me +these twenty years; not for the discovery of stars,--things that I +have always despised,--but for my famous 'Treatise on Differential +Logarithms' (Kepler thought proper to call them monologarithms), which +is a sequel to the tables of Napier; also for my 'Postulatum' of +Euclid, of which I was the first to discover the solution; but above +all, for my 'Theory of Perpetual Motion,'--four volumes in quarto with +plates; Paris, 1825. You see, therefore, monsieur, that to give me +glory is bringing water to the Seine. I had so little need of Monsieur +Felix Phellion to make me a position in the scientific world that I +turned him out of my house long ago." + +"Then it isn't the first star," said Colleville, flippantly, "that he +dared to put upon you?" + +"He did worse than that," roared the old man; "he ruined my +reputation, he tarnished my name. My 'Theory of Perpetual Motion,' the +printing of which cost me every penny I owned, though it ought to have +been printed gratis at the Royal Printing-office, was calculated to +make my fortune and render me immortal. Well, that miserable Felix +prevented it. From time to time, pretending to bring messages from my +editor, he would say, the young sycophant, 'Papa Picot, your book is +selling finely; here's five hundred francs--two hundred francs--and +once it was two thousand--which your publisher charged me to give +you.' This thing went on for years, and my publisher, who had the +baseness to enter into the plot, would say to me, when I went to the +shop: 'Yes, yes, it doesn't do badly, it _bubbles_, that book; we shall +soon be at the end of this edition.' I, who didn't suggest anything, I +pocketed my money, and thought to myself: 'My book is liked, little by +little its ideas are making their way; I may now expect, from day to +day, that some great capitalist will come to me and propose to apply +my system--'" + +"--of 'Absorption of Liquids'?" asked Colleville, who had been +steadily filling the old fellow's glass. + +"No, monsieur, my 'Theory of Perpetual Motion,' 4 vols. in quarto with +plates. But no! days, weeks went by and nobody came; so, thinking that +my publisher did not put all the energy he should into the matter, I +tried to sell the second edition to another man. It was that, +monsieur, that enabled me to discover the whole plot, on which, as I +said before, I turned that serpent out of my house. In six years only +nine copies had been sold! Kept quiet in false security I had done +nothing for the propagation of my book, which had been left to take +care of itself; and thus it was that I, victim of black and wicked +jealousy, was shamefully despoiled of the value of my labors." + +"But," said Minard, making himself the mouthpiece of the thoughts of +the company, "may we not see in that act a manner as ingenious as it +was delicate to--" + +"To give me alms! is that what you mean?" interrupted the old man, +with a roar that made Mademoiselle Minard jump in her chair; "to +humiliate me, dishonor me--me, his old professor! Am I in need of +charity? Has Picot (Nepomucene), to whom his wife brought a dowry of +one hundred thousand francs, ever stretched out his palm to any one? +But in these days nothing is respected. Old fellows, as they call us, +our religion and our good faith is taken advantage of so that these +youths may say to the public: 'Old drivellers, don't you see now they +are good for nothing? It needs _us_, the young generation, _us_, the +moderns, _us_, Young France, to bring them up on a bottle.' Young +greenhorn! let me see _you_ try to feed _me_! Old drivellers know more in +their little finger than you in your whole brain, and you'll never be +worth us, paltry little intriguer that you are! However, I know my day +of vengeance will come; that young Phellion can't help ending badly; +what he did to-day, reading a statement to the Academy, under my name, +was forgery, forgery! and the law will send him to the galleys for +that." + +"True," said Colleville, "forgery of a public star." + +Brigitte, who quaked for her glasses, and whose nerves were +exacerbated by the monstrous consumption of cakes and wine, now gave +the signal to return to the salon. Besides, she had heard the +door-bell ring several times, announcing the arrival of guests for +the evening. The question then was how to transplant the professor, +and Colleville politely offered him his arm. + +"No, monsieur," he said, "you must allow me to stay where I am. I am +not dressed for a party, and besides, a strong light hurts my eyes. +Moreover, I don't choose to give myself as a spectacle; it will be +best that my interview with Felix Phellion should take place between +'four-eyes,' as they say." + +"Well, let him alone, then," said Brigitte to Colleville. + +No one insisted,--the old man having, unconsciously, pretty nigh +discrowned himself in the opinion of the company. But before leaving, +the careful housewife removed everything that was at all fragile from +his reach; then, by way of a slight attention, she said:-- + +"Shall I send you some coffee?" + +"I'll take it, madame," responded pere Picot, "and some cognac with +it." + +"Oh! parbleu! he takes everything," said Brigitte to the male +domestic, and she told the latter to keep an eye on the old madman. + +When Brigitte returned to the salon she found that the Abbe Gondrin +had become the centre of a great circle formed by nearly the whole +company, and as she approached, she heard him say:-- + +"I thank Heaven for bestowing upon me such a pleasure. I have never +felt an emotion like that aroused by the scene we have just witnessed; +even the rather burlesque form of this confidence, which was certainly +very artless, for it was quite involuntary, only adds to the honor of +the surprising generosity it revealed. Placed as I am by my ministry +in the way of knowing of many charities, and often either the witness +or intermediary of good actions, I think I never in my life have met +with a more touching or a more ingenious devotion. To keep the left +hand ignorant of what the right hand does is a great step in +Christianity; but to go so far as to rob one's self of one's own fame +to benefit another under such conditions is the gospel applied in its +highest precepts; it is being more than a Sister of Charity; it is +doing the work of an apostle of beneficence. How I should like to know +that noble young man, and shake him by the hand." + +With her arm slipped through that of her godmother, Celeste was +standing very near the priest, her ears intent upon his words, her arm +pressing tighter and tighter that of Madame Thuillier, as the abbe +analyzed the generous action of Felix Phellion, until at last she +whispered under her breath:-- + +"You hear, godmother, you hear!" + +To destroy the inevitable effect which this hearty praise would surely +have on Celeste, Thuillier hastened to say:-- + +"Unfortunately, Monsieur l'abbe, the young man of whom you speak so +warmly is not altogether unknown to you. I have had occasion to tell +you about him, and to regret that it was not possible to follow out +certain plans which we once entertained for him; I allude to the very +compromising independence he affects in his religious opinions." + +"Ah! is that the young man?" said the abbe; "you surprise me much; I +must say such an idea would never have crossed my mind." + +"You will see him presently, Monsieur l'abbe," said la Peyrade, +joining in the conversation, "and if you question him on certain +grounds you will have no difficulty in discovering the ravages that a +love of science can commit in the most gifted souls." + +"I am afraid I shall not see him," said the abbe, "as my black gown +would be out of place in the midst of the more earthly gaiety that +will soon fill this salon. But I know, Monsieur de la Peyrade, that +you are a man of sincerely pious convictions, and as, without any +doubt, you feel as much interest in the young man's welfare as I do +myself, I shall say to you in parting: Do not be uneasy about him; +sooner or later, such choice souls come back to us, and if the return +of these prodigals should be long delayed I should not fear, on seeing +them go to God, that His infinite mercy would fail them." + +So saying, the abbe looked about to find his hat, and proceeded to +slip quietly away. + +Suddenly a fearful uproar was heard. Rushing into the dining-room, +whence came a sound of furniture overturned and glasses breaking, +Brigitte found Colleville occupied in adjusting his cravat and looking +himself over to be sure that his coat, cruelly pulled awry, bore no +signs of being actually torn. + +"What is the matter?" cried Brigitte. + +"It is that old idiot," replied Colleville, "who is in a fury. I came +to take my coffee with him, just to keep him company, and he took a +joke amiss, and collared me, and knocked over two chairs and a tray of +glasses because Josephine didn't get out of his way in time." + +"It is all because you've been teasing him," said Brigitte, crossly; +"why couldn't you stay in the salon instead of coming here to play +your jokes, as you call them? You think you are still in the orchestra +of the Opera-Comique." + +This sharp rebuke delivered, Brigitte, like the resolute woman that +she was, saw that she absolutely must get rid of the ferocious old man +who threatened her household with flames and blood. Accordingly, she +approached pere Picot, who was tranquilly engaged in burning brandy in +his saucer. + +"Monsieur," she said, at the top of her lungs, as if she were speaking +to a deaf person (evidently thinking that a blind one ought to be +treated in the same manner), "I have come to tell you something that +may annoy you. Monsieur and Madame Phellion have just arrived, and +they inform me that their son, Monsieur Felix, is not coming. He has a +cold and a sore-throat." + +"Then he got it this afternoon reading that lecture," cried the +professor, joyfully. "That's justice!--Madame, where do you get your +brandy?" + +"Why, at my grocer's," replied Brigitte, taken aback by the question. + +"Well, madame, I ought to tell you that in a house where one can drink +such excellent champagne, which reminds me of that we used to quaff at +the table of Monsieur de Fontanes, grand-master of the University, it +is shameful to keep such brandy. I tell you, with the frankness I put +into everything, that it is good only to wash your horses' feet, and +if I had not the resource of burning it--" + +"He is the devil in person," thought Brigitte; "not a word of excuse +about all that glass, but he must needs fall foul of my brandy too! +--Monsieur," she resumed, in the same raised diapason, "as Monsieur +Felix is not coming, don't you think your family will be uneasy at +your absence?" + +"Family? I haven't any, madame, owing to the fact that they want to +make me out a lunatic. But I have a housekeeper, Madame Lambert, and I +dare say she will be surprised not to see me home by this time. I +think I had better go now; if I stay later, the scene might be more +violent. But I must own that in this strange quarter I am not sure if +I can find my way." + +"Then take a carriage." + +"Carriage here, carriage there, indeed! my spiteful relations wouldn't +lose the chance of calling me a spendthrift." + +"I have an important message to send into your quarter," said +Brigitte, seeing she must resolve to make the sacrifice, "and I have +just told my porter to take a cab and attend to it. If you would like +to take advantage of that convenience--" + +"I accept it, madame," said the old professor, rising; "and, if it +comes to the worst, I hope you will testify before the judge that I +was niggardly about a cab." + +"Henri," said Brigitte to the man-servant, "take monsieur down to the +porter and tell him to do the errand I told him about just now, and to +take monsieur to his own door, and be very careful of him." + +"Careful of him!" echoed the old man. "Do you take me for a trunk, +madame, or a bit of cracked china?" + +Seeing that she had got her man fairly to the door, Brigitte allowed +herself to turn upon him. + +"What I say, monsieur, is for your good. You must allow me to observe +that you have not an agreeable nature." + +"Careful of him! careful of him!" repeated the old man. "Don't you +know, madame, that by the use of such words you may get people put +into lunatic asylums? However, I will not reply rudely to the polite +hospitality I have received,--all the more because, I think, I have +put Monsieur Felix, who missed me intentionally, in his right place." + +"Go, go, go, you old brute!" cried Brigitte, slamming the door behind +him. + +Before returning to the salon she was obliged to drink a whole +glassful of water, the restraint she had been forced to put upon +herself in order to get rid of this troublesome guest having, to use +her own expression, "put her all about." + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE MAN WHO THINKS THE STAR TOO BRIGHT + +The next morning Minard paid a visit to Phellion in his study. The +great citizen and his son Felix were at that moment engaged in a +conversation which seemed to have some unusual interest for them. + +"My dear Felix," cried the mayor of the eleventh arrondissement, +offering his hand warmly to the young professor, "it is you who bring +me here this morning; I have come to offer you my congratulations." + +"What has occurred?" asked Phellion. "Have the Thuilliers--" + +"It has nothing to do with the Thuilliers," interrupted the mayor. +"But," he added, looking hard at Felix, "can that sly fellow have +concealed the thing even from you?" + +"I do not think," said Phellion, "that ever, in his life, has my son +concealed a thing from me." + +"Then you know about the sublime astronomical discovery which he +communicated to the Academy of Sciences yesterday?" + +"Your kindness for me, Monsieur le maire," said Felix, hastily, "has +led you astray; I was only the reader of the communication." + +"Oh! let me alone!" said Minard; "reader, indeed! I know all about +it." + +"But see," said Felix, offering Minard the "Constitutionnel," "here's +the paper; not only does it announce that Monsieur Picot is the maker +of the discovery, but it mentions the rewards which, without losing a +moment, the government has bestowed upon him." + +"Felix is right," said Phellion; "that journal is to be trusted. On +this occasion I think the government has acted very properly." + +"But, my dear commander, I repeat to you that the truth of the affair +has got wind, and your son is shown to be a most admirable fellow. To +put his own discovery to the credit of his old professor so as to +obtain for him the recognition and favor of the authorities--upon my +word, in all antiquity I don't know a finer trait!" + +"Felix!" said Phellion, beginning to show some emotion, "these immense +labors to which you have devoted so much time of late, these continual +visits to the Observatory--" + +"But, father," interrupted Felix, "Monsieur Minard has been +misinformed." + +"Misinformed!" cried Minard, "when I know the whole affair from +Monsieur Picot himself!" + +At this argument, stated in a way to leave no possible doubt, the +truth began to dawn upon Phellion. + +"Felix, my son!" he said, rising to embrace him. + +But he was obliged to sit down again; his legs refused to bear his +weight; he turned pale; and that nature, ordinarily so impassible, +seemed about to give way under the shock of this happiness. + +"My God!" said Felix, terrified, "he is ill; ring the bell, I entreat +you, Monsieur Minard." + +And he ran to the old man, loosened his cravat and unfastened the +collar of his shirt, striking him in the palms of his hands. But the +sudden faintness was but momentary; almost immediately himself again, +Phellion gathered his son to his heart, and holding him long in his +embrace, he said, in a voice broken by the tears that came to put an +end to this shock of joy:-- + +"Felix, my noble son! so great in heart, so great in mind!" + +The bell had been rung by Minard with magisterial force, and with such +an accent that the whole household was alarmed, and came running in. + +"It is nothing, it is nothing," said Phellion to the servants, sending +them away. But almost at the same moment, seeing his wife, who now +entered the room, he resumed his habitual solemnity. + +"Madame Phellion," he said, pointing to Felix, "how many years is it +since you brought that young man into the world?" + +Madame Phellion, bewildered by the question, hesitated a moment, and +then said:-- + +"Twenty-five years next January." + +"Have you not thought, until now, that God had amply granted your +maternal desires by making this child of your womb an honest man, a +pious son, and by gifting him for mathematics, that Science of +sciences, with an aptitude sufficiently remarkable?" + +"I have," said Madame Phellion, understanding less and less what her +husband was coming to. + +"Well," continued Phellion, "you owe to God an additional +thanksgiving, for He has granted that you be the mother of a man of +genius; his toil, which lately we rebuked, and which made us fear for +the reason of our child, was the way--the rough and jagged way--by +which men come to fame." + +"Ah ca!" cried Madame Phellion, "can't you stop coming yourself to an +explanation of what you mean, and get there?" + +"Your son," said Minard, cautious this time in measuring the joy he +was about to bestow, fearing another fainting-fit of happiness, "has +just made a very important scientific discovery." + +"Is it true?" said Madame Phellion, going up to Felix, and taking him +by both hands as she looked at him lovingly. + +"When I say important," continued Minard, "I am only sparing your +maternal emotions; it is, in truth, a sublime, a dazzling discovery. +He is only twenty-five years old, but his name, from henceforth, is +immortal." + +"And this is the man," said Madame Phellion, half beside herself, and +kissing Felix with effusion, "to whom that la Peyrade is preferred!" + +"No, not preferred, madame," said Minard, "for the Thuilliers are not +the dupes of that adventurer. But he has made himself necessary to +them. Thuillier fancies that without la Peyrade he could not be +elected; the election is still doubtful, and they are sacrificing +everything to it." + +"But isn't it odious," cried Madame Phellion, "to consider such +interests before the happiness of their child!" + +"Ah!" said Minard, "but Celeste is not their child, only their adopted +daughter." + +"Brigitte's, if you like," said Madame Phellion; "but as for +Thuillier--" + +"My good wife," said Phellion, "no censoriousness. The good God has +just sent us a great consolation; and, indeed, though certainly far +advanced, this marriage, about which I regret to say Felix does not +behave with all the philosophy I could desire, may still not take +place." + +Seeing that Felix shook his head with a look of incredulity, Minard +hastened to say:-- + +"Yes, yes, the commander is quite right. Last night there was a hitch +about signing the contract, and it was not signed. You were not there, +by the bye, and your absence was much remarked upon." + +"We were invited," said Phellion, "and up to the last moment we +hesitated whether to go or not. But, as you will readily see, our +position was a false one; besides, Felix--and I see now it must have +been in consequence of his lecture at the Academy--was completely worn +out with fatigue and emotion. To present ourselves without him would +have seemed very singular; therefore we decided that it would be +wisest and best to absent ourselves." + +The presence of the man whom he had just declared immortal did not +deter Minard, when the occasion was thus made for him, from plunging +eagerly into one of the most precious joys of bourgeois existence, +namely, the retailing of gossip. + +"Just imagine!" he began; "last night at the Thuilliers' the most +extraordinary things took place, one after another." + +First he related the curious episode of pere Picot. Then he told of +the hearty approbation given to Felix's conduct by the Abbe Gondrin, +and the desire the young preacher had expressed to meet him. + +"I'll go and see him," said Felix; "do you know where he lives?" + +"Rue de la Madeleine, No. 8," replied Minard. "But the great event of +the evening was the spectacle of that fine company assembled to listen +to the marriage-contract, and waiting in expectation a whole hour for +the notary, who--never came!" + +"Then the contract is not signed?" said Felix, eagerly. + +"Not even read, my friend. Suddenly some one came in and told Brigitte +that the notary had started for Brussels." + +"Ah! no doubt," said Phellion, naively; "some very important +business." + +"Most important," replied Minard; "a little bankruptcy of five hundred +thousand francs which the gentleman leaves behind him." + +"But who is this public officer," demanded Phellion, "so recreant, in +this scandalous manner, to the sacred duties of his calling?" + +"Parbleu! your neighbor in the rue Saint-Jacques, the notary Dupuis." + +"What!" said Madame Phellion, "that pious man? Why, he is churchwarden +of the parish!" + +"Eh! madame, those are the very ones," said Minard, "to run off--there +are many precedents for that." + +"But," said Phellion, "such news cast suddenly among the company must +have fallen like a thunderbolt." + +"Especially," said Minard, "as it was brought in the most unexpected +and singular manner." + +"Tell us all about it," said Madame Phellion, with animation. + +"Well, it seems," continued Minard, "that this canting swindler had +charge of the savings of a number of servants, and that Monsieur de la +Peyrade--because, you see, they are all of a clique, these pious +people--was in the habit of recruiting clients for him in that walk of +life--" + +"I always said so!" interrupted Madame Phellion. "I knew that +Provencal was no good at all." + +"It seems," continued the mayor, "that he had placed in Dupuis's hands +all the savings of an old housekeeper, pious herself, amounting to a +pretty little sum. Faith! I think myself it was worth some trouble. +How much do you suppose it was? Twenty-five thousand francs, if you +please! This housekeeper, whose name is Madame Lambert--" + +"Madame Lambert!" cried Felix; "why, that's Monsieur Picot's +housekeeper; close cap, pale, thin face, speaks always with her eyes +lowered, shows no hair?" + +"That's she," said Minard,--"a regular hypocrite!" + +"Twenty-five thousand francs of savings!" said Felix. "I don't wonder +that poor pere Picot is always out of money." + +"And that someone had to meddle with the sale of his book," said +Minard, slyly. "However that may be, you can imagine that the woman +was in a fine state of mind on hearing of the flight of the notary. +Off she went to la Peyrade's lodgings; there she was told he was +dining at the Thuilliers'; to the Thuilliers' she came, after running +about the streets--for they didn't give her quite the right address +--till ten o'clock; but she got there while the company were still +sitting round waiting for the notary, and gaping at each other, no one +knowing what to say and do, for neither Brigitte nor Thuillier have +faculty enough to get out of such a scrape with credit; and we all +missed the voice of Madame de Godollo and the talent of Madame +Phellion." + +"Oh! you are too polite, Monsieur le maire," said Madame Phellion, +bridling. + +"Well, as I said," continued Minard, "at ten o'clock Madame Lambert +reached the antechamber of Monsieur the general-councillor, and there +she asked, in great excitement, to see la Peyrade." + +"That was natural," said Phellion; "he being the intermediary of the +investment, this woman had a right to question him." + +"You should just have seen that Tartuffe!" continued Minard. "He had +no sooner gone out than he returned, bringing the news. As everybody +was longing to get away, there followed a general helter-skelter. And +then what does our man do? He goes back to Madame Lambert, who was +crying that she was ruined! she was lost!--which might very well be +true, but it might also be only a scene arranged between them in +presence of the company, whom the woman's outcries detained in the +antechamber. 'Don't be anxious, my good woman,' said la Peyrade; 'the +investment was made at your request, consequently, I owe you nothing; +BUT it is enough that the money passed through my hands to make my +conscience tell me I am responsible. If the notary's assets are not +enough to pay you I will do so.'" + +"Yes," said Phellion, "that was my idea as you told it; the +intermediary is or ought to be responsible. I should not have +hesitated to do as Monsieur de la Peyrade did, and I do not think that +after such conduct as that he ought to be taxed with Jesuitism." + +"Yes, you would have done so," said Minard, "and so should I, but we +shouldn't have done it with a brass band; we should have paid our +money quietly, like gentlemen. But this electoral manager, how is he +going to pay it? Out of the 'dot'?" + +At this moment the little page entered the room and gave a letter to +Felix Phellion. It came from pere Picot, and was written at his +dictation by Madame Lambert, for which reason we will not reproduce +the orthography. The writing of Madame Lambert was of those that can +never be forgotten when once seen. Recognizing it instantly, Felix +hastened to say:-- + +"A letter from the professor"; then, before breaking the seal, he +added, "Will you permit me, Monsieur le maire." + +"He'll rate you finely," said Minard, laughing. "I never saw anything +so comical as his wrath last night." + +Felix, as he read the letter, smiled to himself. When he had finished +it, he passed it to his father, saying:-- + +"Read it aloud if you like." + +Whereupon, with his solemn voice and manner, Phellion read as +follows:-- + + My dear Felix,--I have just received your note; it came in the + nick of time, for I was, as they say, in a fury with you. You tell + me that you were guilty of that abuse of confidence (about which I + intended to write you a piece of my mind) in order to give a + knock-down blow to my relations by proving that a man capable of + making such complicated calculations as your discovery required + was not a man to put in a lunatic asylum or drag before a + judiciary council. That argument pleases me, and it makes such a + good answer to the infamous proceedings of my relations that I + praise you for having had the idea. But you sold it to me, that + argument, pretty dear when you put me in company with a star, for + you know very well _that_ propinquity wouldn't please me at all. It + is not at my age, and after solving the great problem of perpetual + motion, that a man could take up with such rubbish as that,--good + only for boys and greenhorns like you; and that is what I have + taken the liberty this morning to go and tell the minister of + public instruction, by whom I must say I was received with the + most perfect urbanity. I asked him to see whether, as he had made + a mistake and sent them to the wrong address, he could not take + back his cross and his pension,--though to be sure, as I told him, + I deserved them for other things. + + "The government," he replied, "is not in the habit of making + mistakes; what it does is always properly done, and it never + annuls an ordinance signed by the hand of his Majesty. Your great + labors have deserved the two favors the King has granted you; it + is a long-standing debt, which I am happy to pay off in his name." + + "But Felix?" I said; "because after all for a young man it is not + such a bad discovery." + + "Monsieur Felix Phellion," replied the minister, "will receive in + the course of the day his appointment to the rank of Chevalier of + the Legion of honor; I will have it signed this morning by the + king. Moreover, there is a vacant place at the Academy of + Sciences, and if you are not a candidate for it--" + + "I, in the Academy!" I interrupted, with the frankness of speech + you know I always use; "I execrate academies; they are stiflers, + extinguishers, assemblages of sloths, idlers, shops with big signs + and nothing to sell inside--" + + "Well, then," said the minister, smiling, "I think that at the + next election Monsieur Felix Phellion will have every chance, and + among those chances I count the influence of the government which + is secured to him." + + There, my poor boy, is all that I have been able to do to reward + your good intentions and to prove to you that I am no longer + angry. I think the relations are going to pull a long face. Come + and talk about it to-day at four o'clock,--for I don't dine after + bedtime, as I saw some people doing last night in a house where I + had occasion to mention your talents in a manner that was very + advantageous to you. Madame Lambert, who does better with a + saucepan than with pen and ink, shall distinguish herself, though + it is Friday, and she never lets me off a fast day. But she has + promised us a fish dinner worthy of an archbishop, with a fine + half-bottle of champagne (doubled if need be) to wash it down. + + Your old professor and friend, + Picot (Nepomucene), + Chevalier of the Legion of honor. + + P.S.--Do you think you could obtain from your respectable mother a + little flask of that old and excellent cognac you once gave me? + Not a drop remains, and yesterday I was forced to drink some stuff + only fit to bathe horses' feet, as I did not hesitate to say to + the beautiful Hebe who served it to me. + + +"Of course he shall have some," said Madame Phellion; "not a flask, +but a gallon." + +"And I," said Minard, "who pique myself on mine, which didn't come +from Brigitte's grocer either, I'll send him several bottles; but +don't tell him who sent them, Monsieur le chevalier, for you never can +tell how that singular being will take things." + +"Wife," said Phellion, suddenly, "get me my black coat and a white +cravat." + +"Where are you going?" asked Madame Phellion. "To the minister, to +thank him?" + +"Bring me, I say, those articles of habiliment. I have an important +visit to make; and Monsieur le maire will, I know, excuse me." + +"I myself must be off," said Minard. "I, too, have important business, +though it isn't about a star." + +Questioned in vain by Felix and his wife, Phellion completed his +attire with a pair of white gloves, sent for a carriage, and, at the +end of half an hour, entered the presence of Brigitte, whom he found +presiding over the careful putting away of the china, glass, and +silver which had performed their several functions the night before. +Leaving these housekeeping details, she received her visitor. + +"Well, papa Phellion," she said, when they were both seated in the +salon, "you broke your word yesterday; you were luckier than the rest. +Do you know what a trick that notary played us?" + +"I know all," said Phellion; "and it is the check thus unexpectedly +given to the execution of your plans that I shall take for the text of +an important conversation which I desire to have with you. Sometimes +Providence would seem to take pleasure in counteracting our best-laid +schemes; sometimes, also, by means of the obstacles it raises in our +path, it seems to intend to indicate that we are bearing too far to +the right or to the left, and should pause to reflect upon our way." + +"Providence!" said Brigitte the strong-minded,--"Providence has +something else to do than to look after us." + +"That is one opinion," said Phellion; "but I myself am accustomed to +see its decrees in the little as well as the great things of life; and +certainly, if it had allowed the fulfilment of your engagements with +Monsieur de la Peyrade to be even partially begun yesterday, you would +not have seen me here to-day." + +"Then," said Brigitte, "do you think that by default of a notary the +marriage will not take place? They do say that for want of a monk the +abbey won't come to a standstill." + +"Dear lady," said the great citizen, "you will do me the justice to +feel that neither I, nor my wife, have ever attempted to influence +your decision; we have allowed our young people to love each other +without much consideration as to where that attachment would lead--" + +"It led to upsetting their minds," said Brigitte; "that's what love +is, and that's why I deprived myself of it." + +"What you say is, indeed, true of my unfortunate son," resumed +Phellion; "for, notwithstanding the noble distractions he has +endeavored to give to his sorrow, he is to-day so miserably overcome +by it that this morning, in spite of the glorious success he has just +obtained, he was speaking to me of undertaking a voyage of +circumnavigation around the globe,--a rash enterprise which would +detain him from his native land at least three years, if, indeed, he +escaped the dangers of so prolonged a journey." + +"Well," said Brigitte, "it isn't a bad idea; he'll return consoled, +having discovered three or four more new stars." + +"His present discovery suffices," said Phellion, with double his +ordinary gravity, "and it is under the auspices of that triumph, which +has placed his name at so great a height in the scientific world, that +I have the assurance to say to you, point-blank: Mademoiselle, I have +come to ask you, on behalf of my son, who loves as he is beloved, for +the hand in marriage of Mademoiselle Celeste Colleville." + +"But, my dear man," replied Brigitte, "it is too late; remember that +we are _diametrically_ engaged to la Peyrade." + +"It is never, they say, too late to do well, and yesterday it would +have been in my judgment too early. My son, having to offer an +equivalent for a fortune, could not say to you until to-day: 'Though +Celeste, by your generosity has a "dot" which mine is far from +equalling, yet I have the honor to be a member of the Royal order of +the Legion of honor, and shortly, according to appearance, I shall be +a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, one of the five branches of +the Institute.'" + +"Certainly," said Brigitte; "Felix is getting to be a very pretty +match, but we have passed our word to la Peyrade; the banns are +published at the mayor's office, and unless something extraordinary +happens the contract will be signed. La Peyrade is very busy about +Thuillier's election, which he has now got into good shape; we have +capital engaged with him in the affair of this newspaper; and it would +be impossible to go back on our promise, even if we wished to do so." + +"So," said Phellion, "in one of the rare occasions of life when reason +and inclination blend together, you think you must be guided solely by +the question of material interests. Celeste, as we know, has no +inclination for Monsieur de la Peyrade. Brought up with Felix--" + +"Brought up with Felix!" interrupted Brigitte. "She was given a period +of time to choose between Monsieur de la Peyrade and your son,--that's +how we coerce her, if you please,--and she would not take Monsieur +Felix, whose atheism is too well known." + +"You are mistaken, mademoiselle, my son is not an atheist; for +Voltaire himself doubted if there could be atheists; and no later than +yesterday, in this house, an ecclesiastic, as admirable for his +talents as for his virtues, after making a magnificent eulogy of my +son, expressed the desire to know him." + +"Parbleu! yes, to convert him," said Brigitte. "But as for this +marriage, I am sorry to tell you that the mustard is made too late for +the dinner; Thuillier will never renounce his la Peyrade." + +"Mademoiselle," said Phellion, rising, "I feel no humiliation for the +useless step I have this day taken; I do not even ask you to keep it +secret, for I shall myself mention it to our friends and +acquaintances." + +"Tell it to whom you like, my good man," replied Brigitte, +acrimoniously. "Because your son has discovered a star,--if, indeed, +he did discover it, and not that old fool the government decorated--do +you expect him to marry a daughter of the King of the French?" + +"Enough," said Phellion, "we will say no more. I might answer that, +without depreciating the Thuilliers, the Orleans family seems to me +more distinguished; but I do not like to introduce acerbity into the +conversation, and therefore, begging you to receive the assurance of +my humble respects, I retire." + +So saying, he made his exit majestically, and left Brigitte with the +arrow of his comparison, discharged after the manner of the Parthian +"in extremis," sticking in her mind, and she herself in a temper all +the more savage because already, the evening before, Madame Thuillier, +after the guests were gone, had the incredible audacity to say +something in favor of Felix. Needless to relate that the poor helot +was roughly put down and told to mind her own business. But this +attempt at a will of her own in her sister-in-law had already put the +old maid in a vile humor, and Phellion, coming to reopen the subject, +exasperated her. Josephine, the cook, and the "male domestic," +received the after-clap of the scene which had just taken place. +Brigitte found that in her absence everything had been done wrong, and +putting her own hand to the work, she hoisted herself on a chair, at +the risk of her neck, to reach the upper shelves of the closet, where +her choicest china, for gala days, was carefully kept under lock and +key. + +This day, which for Brigitte began so ill, was, beyond all gainsaying, +one of the stormiest and most portentous of this narrative. + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + A STORMY DAY + +As an exact historian, we must go back and begin the day at six in the +morning, when we can see Madame Thuillier going to the Madeleine to +hear the mass that the Abbe Gondrin was in the habit of saying at that +hour, and afterwards approaching the holy table,--a viaticum which +pious souls never fail to give themselves when it is in their minds to +accomplish some great resolution. + +About mid-day the abbe received a visit in his own home from Madame +Thuillier and Celeste. The poor child wanted a little development of +the words by which the priest had given security, the evening before, +in Brigitte's salon, for the eternal welfare of Felix Phellion. It +seemed strange to the mind of this girl-theologian that, without +practising religion, a soul could be received into grace by the divine +justice; for surely the anathema is clear: Out of the Church there is +no salvation. + +"My dear child," said the Abbe Gondrin, "learn to understand that +saying which seems to you so inexplicable. It is more a saying of +thanksgiving for those who have the happiness to live within the pale +of our holy mother the Church than a malediction upon those who have +the misfortune to live apart from her. God sees to the depths of all +hearts; He knows His elect; and so great is the treasure of His +goodness that to none is it given to limit its riches and its +munificence. Who shall dare to say to God: Thou wilt be generous and +munificent so far and no farther. Jesus Christ forgave the woman in +adultery, and on the cross He promised heaven to a thief, in order to +prove to us that He deals with men, not according to human sentiments, +but according to _his_ wisdom and _his_ mercy. He who thinks himself a +Christian may be in the eyes of God an idolator; and another who is +thought a pagan may, by his feelings and his actions be, without his +own knowledge, a Christian. Our holy religion has this that is divine +about it; all grandeur, all heroism are but the practice of its +precepts. I was saying yesterday to Monsieur de la Peyrade that pure +souls must be, in course of time, its inevitable conquest. It is +all-important to give them their just credit; that is a confidence +which returns great dividends; and, besides, charity commands it." + +"Ah! my God!" cried Celeste, "to learn that too late! I, who could +have chosen between Felix and Monsieur de la Peyrade, and did not dare +to follow the ideas of my heart! Oh! Monsieur l'abbe, couldn't you +speak to my mother? Your advice is always listened to." + +"Impossible, my dear child," replied the vicar. "If I had the +direction of Madame Colleville's conscience I might perhaps say a +word, but we are so often accused of meddling imprudently in family +matters! Be sure that my intervention here, without authority or +right, would do you more harm than good. It is for you and for those +who love you," he added, giving a look to Madame Thuillier, "to see if +these arrangements, already so far advanced, could be changed in the +direction of your wishes." + +It was written that the poor child was to drink to the dregs the cup +she had herself prepared by her intolerance. As the abbe finished +speaking, his housekeeper came in to ask if he would receive Monsieur +Felix Phellion. Thus, like the Charter of 1830, Madame de Godollo's +officious falsehood was turned into truth. + +"Go this way," he said hastily, showing his two penitents out by a +private corridor. + +Life has such strange encounters that it does sometimes happen that +the same form of proceeding must be used by courtesans and by the men +of God. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," said Felix to the young vicar as soon as they met, +"I have heard of the kind manner in which you were so very good as to +speak of me in Monsieur Thuillier's salon last night, and I should +have hastened to express my gratitude if another interest had not +drawn me to you." + +The Abbe Gondrin passed hastily over the compliments, eager to know in +what way he could be useful to his fellow-man. + +"With an intention that I wish to think kindly," replied Felix, "you +were spoken to yesterday about the state of my soul. Those who read it +so fluently know more than I do about my inner being, for, during the +last few days I have felt strange, inexplicable feelings within me. +Never have I doubted God, but, in contact with that infinitude where +he has permitted my thought to follow the traces of his work I seem to +have gathered a sense of him less vague, more immediate; and this has +led me to ask myself whether an honest and upright life is the only +homage which his omnipotence expects of me. Nevertheless, there are +numberless objections rising in my mind against the worship of which +you are the minister; while sensible of the beauty of its external +form in many of its precepts and practices, I find myself deterred by +my reason. I shall have paid dearly, perhaps by the happiness of my +whole life, for the slowness and want of vigor which I have shown in +seeking the solution of my doubts. I have now decided to search to the +bottom of them. No one so well as you, Monsieur l'abbe, can help me to +solve them. I have come with confidence to lay them before you, to ask +you to listen to me, to answer me, and to tell me by what studies I +can pursue the search for light. It is a cruelly afflicted soul that +appeals to you. Is not that a good ground for the seed of your word?" + +The Abbe Gondrin eagerly protested the joy with which, notwithstanding +his own insufficiency, he would undertake to reply to the scruples of +conscience in the young savant. After asking him for a place in his +friendship, and telling him to come at certain hours for conversation, +he asked him to read, as a first step, the "Thoughts" of Pascal. A +natural affinity, on the side of science, would, he believed, be +established between the spirit of Pascal and that of the young +mathematician. + +While this scene was passing, a scene to which the greatness of the +interests in question and the moral and intellectual elevation of the +personages concerned in it gave a character of grandeur which, like +all reposeful, tranquil aspects, is easier far to comprehend than to +reproduce, another scene, of sharp and bitter discord, that chronic +malady of bourgeois households, where the pettiness of minds and +passions gives open way to it, was taking place in the Thuillier home. + +Mounted upon her chair, her hair in disorder and her face and fingers +dirty, Brigitte, duster in hand, was cleaning the shelves of the +closet, where she was replacing her library of plates, dishes, and +sauce-boats, when Flavie came in and accosted her. + +"Brigitte," she said, "when you have finished what you are about you +had better come down to our apartment, or else I'll send Celeste to +you; she seems to me to be inclined to make trouble." + +"In what way?" asked Brigitte, continuing to dust. + +"I think she and Madame Thuillier went to see the Abbe Gondrin this +morning, and she has been attacking me about Felix Phellion, and talks +of him as if he were a god; from that to refusing to marry la Peyrade +is but a step." + +"Those cursed skull-caps!" said Brigitte; "they meddle in everything! +I didn't want to invite him, but you would insist." + +"Yes," said Flavie, "it was proper." + +"Proper! I despise proprieties!" cried the old maid. "He's a maker of +speeches; he said nothing last night that wasn't objectionable. Send +Celeste to me; I'll settle her." + +At this instant a servant announced to Brigitte the arrival of a clerk +from the office of the new notary chosen, in default of Dupuis, to +draw up the contract. Without considering her disorderly appearance, +Brigitte ordered him to be shown in, but she made him the +condescension of descending from her perch instead of talking from the +height of it. + +"Monsieur Thuillier," said the clerk, "came to our office this morning +to explain to the master the clauses of the contract he has been so +good as to entrust to us. But before writing down the stipulations, we +are in the habit of obtaining from the lips of each donor a direct +expression of his or her intentions. In accordance with this rule, +Monsieur Thuillier told us that he gives to the bride the reversion, +at his death, of the house he inhabits, which I presume to be this +one?" + +"Yes," said Brigitte, "that is the understanding. As for me, I give +three hundred thousand francs a year in the Three-per-cents, capital +and interest; but the bride is married under the dotal system." + +"That is so," said the clerk, consulting his notes. "Mademoiselle +Brigitte, three thousand francs a year. Now, there is Madame Celeste +Thuillier, wife of Louis-Jerome Thuillier, who gives six thousand in +the Three-per-cents, capital and interest, and six thousand more at +her death." + +"All that is just as if the notary had written it down," said +Brigitte; "but if it is your custom you can see my sister-in-law; they +will show you the way." + +So saying, the old maid ordered the "male domestic" to take the clerk +to Madame Thuillier. + +A moment later the clerk returned, saying there was certainly some +misunderstanding, and that Madame Thuillier declared she had no +intention of making any agreement in favor of the marriage. + +"That's a pretty thing!" cried Brigitte. "Come with me, monsieur." + +Then, like a hurricane, she rushed into Madame Thuillier's chamber; +the latter was pale and trembling. + +"What's this you have told monsieur?--that you give nothing to +Celeste's 'dot'?" + +"Yes," said the slave, declaring insurrection, although in a shaking +voice; "my intention is to do nothing." + +"Your intention," said Brigitte, scarlet with anger, "is something +new." + +"That is my intention," was all the rebel replied. + +"At least you will give your reasons?" + +"The marriage does not please me." + +"Ha! and since when?" + +"It is not necessary that monsieur should listen to our discussion," +said Madame Thuillier; "it will not appear in the contract." + +"No wonder you are ashamed of it," said Brigitte; "the appearance you +are making is not very flattering to you--Monsieur," she continued, +addressing the clerk, "it is easier, is it not, to mark out passages +in a contract than to add them?" + +The clerk made an affirmative sign. + +"Then put in what you were told to write; later, if madame persists, +the clause can be stricken out." + +The clerk bowed and left the room. + +When the two sisters-in-law were alone together, Brigitte began. + +"Ah ca!" she cried, "have you lost your head? What is this crotchet +you've taken into it?" + +"It is not a crotchet; it is a fixed idea." + +"Which you got from the Abbe Gondrin; you dare not deny that you went +to see him with Celeste." + +"It is true that Celeste and I saw our director this morning, but I +did not open my lips to him about what I intended to do." + +"So, then, it is in your own empty head that this notion sprouted?" + +"Yes. As I told you yesterday, I think Celeste can be more suitably +married, and my intention is not to rob myself for a marriage of which +I disapprove." + +"_You_ disapprove! Upon my word! are we all to take madame's advice?" + +"I know well," replied Madame Thuillier, "that I count for nothing in +this house. So far as I am concerned, I have long accepted my +position; but, when the matter concerns the happiness of a child I +regard as my own--" + +"Parbleu!" cried Brigitte, "you never knew how to have one; for, +certainly, Thuillier--" + +"Sister," said Madame Thuillier, with dignity, "I took the sacrament +this morning, and there are some things I cannot listen to." + +"There's a canting hypocrite for you!" cried Brigitte; "playing the +saint, and bringing trouble into families! And you think to succeed, +do you? Wait till Thuillier comes home, and he'll shake this out of +you." + +By calling in the marital authority in support of her own, Brigitte +showed weakness before the unexpected resistance thus made to her +inveterate tyranny. Madame Thuillier's calm words, which became every +moment more resolute, baffled her completely, and she found no +resource but insolence. + +"A drone!" she cried; "a helpless good-for-nothing! who can't even +pick up her own handkerchief! that thing wants to be mistress of this +house!" + +"I wish so little to be its mistress," said Madame Thuillier, "that +last night I allowed you to silence me after the first words I said in +behalf of Celeste. But I am mistress of my own property, and as I +believe that Celeste will be wretched in this marriage, I keep it to +use as may seem best to me." + +"Your property, indeed!" said Brigitte, with a sneer. + +"Yes, that which I received from my father and my mother, and which I +brought as my 'dot' to Monsieur Thuillier." + +"And pray who invested it, this property, and made it give you twelve +thousand francs a year?" + +"I have never asked you for any account of it," said Madame Thuillier, +gently. "If it had been lost in the uses you made of it, you would +never have heard a single word from me; but it has prospered, and it +is just that I should have the benefit. It is not for myself that I +reserve it." + +"Perhaps not; if this is the course you take, it is not at all sure +that you and I will go out of the same door long." + +"Do you mean that Monsieur Thuillier will send me away? He must have +reasons for doing that, and, thank God! I have been a wife above +reproach." + +"Viper! hypocrite! heartless creature!" cried Brigitte, coming to an +end of her arguments. + +"Sister," said Madame Thuillier, "you are in my apartment--" + +"Am I, you imbecile?" cried the old maid, in a paroxysm of anger. "If +I didn't restrain myself--" + +And she made a gesture both insulting and threatening. + +Madame Thuillier rose to leave the room. + +"No! you shall not go out," cried Brigitte, pushing her down into her +chair; "and till Thuillier comes home and decides what he will do with +you you'll stay locked up here." + +Just as Brigitte, her face on fire, returned to the room where she had +left Madame Colleville, her brother came in. He was radiant. + +"My dear," he said to the Megaera, not observing her fury, "everything +is going on finely; the conspiracy of silence is broken; two papers, +the 'National' and a Carlist journal, have copied articles from us, +and there's a little attack in a ministerial paper." + +"Well, all is not going on finely here," said Brigitte, "and if it +continues, I shall leave the barrack." + +"Whom are you angry with now?" asked Thuillier. + +"With your insolent wife, who has made me a scene; I am trembling all +over." + +"Celeste make you a scene!" said Thuillier; "then it is the very first +time in her life." + +"There's a beginning to everything, and if you don't bring her to +order--" + +"But what was it about--this scene?" + +"About madame's not choosing that la Peyrade should marry her +goddaughter; and out of spite, to prevent the marriage, she refused to +give anything in the contract." + +"Come, be calm," said Thuillier, not disturbed himself, the admission +of the "Echo" into the polemic making another Pangloss of him. "I'll +settle all that." + +"You, Flavie," said Brigitte, when Thuillier had departed to his wife, +"you will do me the pleasure to go down to your own apartment, and +tell Mademoiselle Celeste that I don't choose to see her now, because +if she made me any irritating answer I might box her ears. You'll tell +her that I don't like conspiracies; that she was left at liberty to +choose Monsieur Phellion junior if she wanted him, and she did not +want him; that the matter is now all arranged, and that if she does +not wish to see her 'dot' reduced to what you are able to give her, +which isn't as much as a bank-messenger could carry in his waistcoat +pocket--" + +"But, my dear Brigitte," interrupted Flavie, turning upon her at this +impertinence, "you may dispense with reminding us in this harsh way of +our poverty; for, after all, we have never asked you for anything, and +we pay our rent punctually; and as for the 'dot,' Monsieur Felix +Phellion is quite ready to take Celeste with no more than a +bank-messenger could carry in his _bag_." + +And she emphasized the last word by her way of pronouncing it. + +"Ha! so you too are going to meddle in this, are you?" cried Brigitte. +"Very good; go and fetch him, your Felix. I know, my little woman, +that this marriage has never suited you; it IS disagreeable to be +nothing more than a mother to your son-in-law." + +Flavie had recovered the coolness she had lost for an instant, and +without replying to this speech she merely shrugged her shoulders. + +At this moment Thuillier returned; his air of beatitude had deserted +him. + +"My dear Brigitte," he said to his sister, "you have a most excellent +heart, but at times you are so violent--" + +"Ho!" said the old maid, "am I to be arraigned on this side too?" + +"I certainly do not blame you for the cause of the trouble, and I have +just rebuked Celeste for her assumption; but there are proper forms +that must be kept." + +"Forms! what are you talking about? What forms have I neglected?" + +"But, my dear friend, to raise your hand against your sister!" + +"I, raise my hand against that imbecile? What nonsense you talk!" + +"And besides," continued Thuillier, "a woman of Celeste's age can't be +kept in prison." + +"Your wife!--have I put her in prison?" + +"You can't deny it, for I found the door of her room double-locked." + +"Parbleu! all this because in my anger at the infamous things she was +spitting at me I may have turned the key of the door without intending +it." + +"Come, come," said Thuillier, "these are not proper actions for people +of our class." + +"Oh! so it is I who am to blame, is it? Well, my lad, some day you'll +remember this, and we shall see how your household will get along when +I have stopped taking care of it." + +"You'll always take care of it," said Thuillier. "Housekeeping is your +very life; you will be the first to get over this affair." + +"We'll see about that," said Brigitte; "after twenty years of +devotion, to be treated like the lowest of the low!" + +And rushing to the door, which she slammed after her with violence, +she went away. + +Thuillier was not disturbed by this exit. + +"Were you there, Flavie," he asked, "when the scene took place?" + +"No, it happened in Celeste's room. What did she do to her?" + +"What I said,--raised her hand to her and locked her in like a child. +Celeste may certainly be rather dull-minded, but there are limits that +must not be passed." + +"She is not always pleasant, that good Brigitte," said Flavie; "she +and I have just had a little set-to." + +"Oh, well," said Thuillier, "it will all pass off. I want to tell you, +my dear Flavie, what fine success we have had this morning. The +'National' quotes two whole paragraphs of an article in which there +were several sentences of mine." + +Thuillier was again interrupted in the tale of his great political and +literary success,--this time by the entrance of Josephine the cook. + +"Can monsieur tell me where to find the key of the great trunk?" she +said. + +"What do you want with it?" asked Thuillier. + +"Mademoiselle told me to take it to her room." + +"What for?" + +"Mademoiselle must be going to make a journey. She is getting her +linen out of the drawers, and her gowns are on the bed." + +"Another piece of nonsense!" said Thuillier. "Flavie, go and see what +she has in her head." + +"Not I," said Madame Colleville; "go yourself. In her present state of +exasperation she might beat me." + +"And my stupid wife, who must needs raise a fuss about the contract!" +cried Thuillier. "She really must have said something pretty sharp to +turn Brigitte off her hinges like this." + +"Monsieur has not told me where to find the key," persisted Josephine. + +"I don't know anything about it," said Thuillier, crossly; "go and +look for it, or else tell her it is lost." + +"Oh, yes!" said Josephine, "it is likely I'd dare to go and tell her +that." + +Just then the outer door-bell rang. + +"No doubt that's la Peyrade," said Thuillier, in a tone of +satisfaction. + +The Provencal appeared a moment later. + +"Faith, my dear friend," cried Thuillier, "it is high time you came; +the house is in revolution, all about you, and it needs your silvery +tongue to bring it back to peace and quietness." + +Then he related to his assistant editor the circumstances of the civil +war which had broken out. + +La Peyrade turned to Madame Colleville. + +"I think," he said, "that under the circumstances in which we now +stand there is no impropriety in my asking for an interview of a few +moments with Mademoiselle Colleville." + +In this the Provencal showed his usual shrewd ability; he saw that in +the mission of pacification thus given to him Celeste Colleville was +the key of the situation. + +"I will send for her, and we will leave you alone together," said +Flavie. + +"My dear Thuillier," said la Peyrade, "you must, without any violence, +let Mademoiselle Celeste know that her consent must be given without +further delay; make her think that this was the purpose for which you +have sent for her; then leave us; I will do the rest." + +The man-servant was sent down to the entresol with orders to tell +Celeste that her godfather wished to speak to her. As soon as she +appeared, Thuillier said, to carry out the programme which had been +dictated to him:-- + +"My dear, your mother has told us things that astonish us. Can it be +true that with your contract almost signed, you have not yet decided +to accept the marriage we have arranged for you?" + +"Godfather," said Celeste, rather surprised at this abrupt summons, "I +think I did not say that to mamma." + +"Did you not just now," said Flavie, "praise Monsieur Felix Phellion +to me in the most extravagant manner?" + +"I spoke of Monsieur Phellion as all the world is speaking of him." + +"Come, come," said Thuillier, with authority, "let us have no +equivocation; do you refuse, yes or no, to marry Monsieur de la +Peyrade?" + +"Dear, good friend," said la Peyrade, intervening, "your way of +putting the question is rather too abrupt, and, in my presence, +especially, it seems to me out of place. In my position as the most +interested person, will you allow me to have an interview with +mademoiselle, which, indeed, has now become necessary? This favor I am +sure will not be refused by Madame Colleville. Under present +circumstances, there can surely be nothing in my request to alarm her +maternal prudence." + +"I would certainly yield to it," said Flavie, "if I did not fear that +these discussions might seem to open a question which is irrevocably +decided." + +"But, my dear madame, I have the strongest desire that Mademoiselle +Celeste shall remain, until the very last moment, the mistress of her +own choice. I beg you, therefore, to grant my request." + +"So be it!" said Madame Colleville; "you think yourself very clever, +but if you let that girl twist you round her finger, so much the worse +for you. Come, Thuillier, since we are 'de trop' here." + +As soon as the pair were alone together, la Peyrade drew up a chair +for Celeste, and took one himself, saying:-- + +"You will, I venture to believe, do me the justice to say that until +to-day I have never annoyed you with the expression of my sentiments. +I was aware of the inclinations of your heart, and also of the +warnings of your conscience. I hoped, after a time, to make myself +acceptable as a refuge from those two currents of feeling; but, at the +point which we have now reached, I think it is not either indiscreet +or impatient to ask you to let me know plainly what course you have +decided upon." + +"Monsieur," replied Celeste, "as you speak to me so kindly and +frankly, I will tell you, what indeed you know already, that, brought +up as I was with Monsieur Felix Phellion, knowing him far longer than +I have known you, the idea of marrying alarmed me less in regard to +him than it would in regard to others." + +"At one time, I believe," remarked la Peyrade, "you were permitted to +choose him if you wished." + +"Yes, but at that time difficulties grew up between us on religious +ideas." + +"And to-day those difficulties have disappeared?" + +"Nearly," replied Celeste. "I am accustomed to submit to the judgment +of those who are wiser than myself, monsieur, and you heard yesterday +the manner in which the Abbe Gondrin spoke of Monsieur Phellion." + +"God forbid," said la Peyrade, "that I should seek to invalidate the +judgment of so excellent a man; but I venture to say to you, +mademoiselle, that there are great differences among the clergy; some +are thought too stern, some far too indulgent; moreover, the Abbe +Gondrin is more of a preacher than a casuist." + +"But, Monsieur Felix," said Celeste, eagerly, "seems to wish to fulfil +Monsieur l'abbe's hopes of him, for I know that he went to see him +this morning." + +"Ah!" said la Peyrade, with a touch of irony, "so he really decided to +go to Pere Anselme! But, admitting that on the religious side Monsieur +Phellion may now become all that you expect of him, have you +reflected, mademoiselle, on the great event which has just taken place +in his life?" + +"Undoubtedly; and that is not a reason to think less of him." + +"No, but it is a reason why he should think more of himself. For the +modesty which was once the chief charm of his nature, he is likely to +substitute great assumption, and you must remember, mademoiselle, that +he who has discovered one world will want to discover two; you will +have the whole firmament for rival; in short, could you ever be happy +with a man so entirely devoted to science?" + +"You plead your cause with such adroitness," said Celeste, smiling, +"that I think you might be as a lawyer more disquieting than an +astronomer." + +"Mademoiselle," said la Peyrade, "let us speak seriously; there is +another and far more serious aspect to the situation. Do you know +that, at this moment, in this house, and without, I am sure, desiring +it, you are the cause of most distressing and regrettable scenes?" + +"I, monsieur!" said Celeste, in a tone of surprise that was mingled +with fear. + +"Yes, concerning your godmother. Through the extreme affection that +she has for you she seems to have become another woman; for the first +time in her life she has shown a mind of her own. With an energy of +will which comes at times to those who have never expended any, she +declares that she will not make her proposed liberal gift to you in +the contract; and I need not tell you who is the person aimed at in +this unexpected refusal." + +"But, monsieur, I entreat you to believe that I knew nothing of this +idea of my godmother." + +"I know that," said la Peyrade, "and the matter itself would be of +small importance if Mademoiselle Brigitte had not taken this attitude +of your godmother, whom she has always found supple to her will, as a +personal insult to herself. Very painful explanations, approaching at +last to violence, have taken place. Thuillier, placed between the +hammer and the anvil, has been unable to stop the affair; on the +contrary, he has, without intending it, made matters worse, till they +have now arrived at such a point that Mademoiselle Brigitte is packing +her trunks to leave the house." + +"Monsieur! what are you telling me?" cried Celeste, horrified. + +"The truth; and the servants will confirm it to you--for I feel that +my revelations are scarcely believable." + +"But it is impossible! impossible!" said the poor child, whose +agitation increased with every word of the adroit Provencal. "I cannot +be the cause of such dreadful harm." + +"That is, you did not intend to be, for the harm is done; and I pray +Heaven it may not be irremediable." + +"But what am I to do, good God!" cried Celeste, wringing her hands. + +"I should answer, without hesitation, sacrifice yourself, +mademoiselle, if it were not that I should then be forced to play the +painful part of victimizer." + +"Monsieur," said Celeste, "you interpret ill the resistance that I +have made, though, in fact, I have scarcely expressed it. I have +certainly had a preference, but I have never considered myself in the +light of a victim; and whatever it is necessary to do to restore peace +in this house to which I have brought trouble, I shall do it without +repugnance, and even willingly." + +"That would be for me," said la Peyrade, humbly, "more than I could +dare ask for myself; but, for the result which we both seek, I must +tell you frankly that something more is needed. Madame Thuillier has +not changed her nature to instantly change back again on the mere +assurance by others of your compliance. It is necessary that she +should hear from your own lips that you accede to my suit, and that +you do so with eagerness,--assumed, indeed, but sufficiently well +assumed to induce her to believe in it." + +"So be it," said Celeste. "I shall know how to seem smiling and happy. +My godmother, monsieur, has been a mother to me; and for such a +mother, what is there that I would not endure?" + +The position was such, and Celeste betrayed so artlessly the depth +and, at the same time, the absolute determination of her sacrifice, +that with any heart at all la Peyrade would have loathed the part he +was playing; but Celeste, to him, was a means of ascent, and provided +the ladder can hold you and hoist you, who would ever ask if it cared +to or not? It was therefore decided that Celeste should go to her +godmother and convince her of the mistake she had made in supposing an +objection to la Peyrade which Celeste had never intended to make. +Madame Thuillier's opposition overcome, all was once more easy. La +Peyrade took upon himself the duty of making peace between the two +sisters-in-law, and we can well imagine that he was not at a loss for +fine phrases with which to assure the artless girl of the devotion and +love which would take from her all regret for the moral compulsion she +had now undergone. + +When Celeste went to her godmother she found her by no means as +difficult to convince as she had expected. To go to the point of +rebellion which Madame Thuillier had actually reached, the poor woman, +who was acting against her instincts and against her nature, had +needed a tension of will that, in her, was almost superhuman. No +sooner had she received the false confidences of her goddaughter than +the reaction set in; the strength failed her to continue in the path +she had taken. She was therefore easily the dupe of the comedy which +Celeste's tender heart was made to play for la Peyrade's benefit. + +The tempest calmed on this side, the barrister found no difficulty in +making Brigitte understand that in quelling the rebellion against her +authority she had gone a little farther than was proper. This +authority being no longer in danger, Brigitte ceased to be incensed +with the sister-in-law she had been on the point of beating, and the +quarrel was settled with a few kind words and a kiss, poor Celeste +paying the costs of war. + +After dinner, which was only a family meal, the notary, to whose +office they were to go on the following day to sign the contract (it +being impossible to give a second edition of the abortive party), made +his appearance. He came, he said, to submit the contract to the +parties interested before engrossing it. This attention was not +surprising in a man who was just entering into business relations with +so important a person as the municipal councillor, whom it was his +interest to firmly secure for a client. + +La Peyrade was far too shrewd to make any objections to the terms of +the contract, which was now read. A few changes requested by Brigitte, +which gave the new notary a high idea of the old maid's business +capacity, showed la Peyrade plainly that more precautions were being +taken against him than were altogether becoming; but he was anxious +not to raise difficulties, and he knew that the meshes of a contract +are never so close that a determined and clever man cannot get through +them. The appointment was then made for the signing of the contract +the next day, at two o'clock, in the notary's office, the family only +being present. + +During the rest of the evening, taking advantage of Celeste's pledge +to seem smiling and happy, la Peyrade played, as it were, upon the +poor child, forced her, by a specious exhibition of gratitude and +love, to respond to him on a key that was far, indeed, from the true +state of a heart now wholly filled by Felix. Flavie, seeing the manner +in which la Peyrade put forth his seductions, was reminded of the +pains he had formerly taken to fascinate herself. "The monster!" she +said, beneath her breath. But she was forced to bear the torture with +a good grace; la Peyrade was evidently approved by all, and in the +course of the evening a circumstance came to light, showing a past +service done by him to the house of Thuillier, which brought his +influence and his credit to the highest point. + +Minard was announced. + +"My dear friends," he said, "I have come to make a little revelation +which will greatly surprise you, and will, I think, prove a lesson to +all of us when a question arises as to receiving foreigners in our +homes." + +"What is it?" cried Brigitte, with curiosity. + +"That Hungarian woman you were so delighted with, that Madame Torna, +Comtesse de Godollo--" + +"Well?" exclaimed the old maid. + +"Well," continued Minard, "she was no better than she should be; you +were petting in your house for two months the most impudent of kept +women." + +"Who told you that tale?" asked Brigitte, not willing to admit that +she had fallen into such a snare. + +"Oh, it isn't a tale," said the mayor, eagerly. "I know the thing +myself, 'de visu.'" + +"Dear me! do you frequent such women?" said Brigitte, resuming the +offensive. "That's a pretty thing! what would Zelie say if she knew +it?" + +"In the discharge of my duties," said Minard, stiffly, provoked at +this reception of his news, "I have seen _your friend_, Madame de +Godollo, in company with others of her class." + +"How do you know it was she if you only saw her?" demanded Brigitte. + +The wily Provencal was not the man to lose an occasion that fell to +him ready-made. + +"Monsieur le maire is not mistaken," he said, with decision. + +"Tiens! so you know her, too," said Brigitte; "and you let us consort +with such vermin?" + +"No," said la Peyrade, "on the contrary. Without scandal, without +saying a word to any one, I removed her from your house. You remember +how suddenly the woman left it? It was I who compelled her to do so; +having discovered what she was, I gave her two days to leave the +premises; threatening her, in case she hesitated, to tell you all." + +"My dear Theodose," said Thuillier, pressing his hand, "you acted with +as much prudence as decision. This is one more obligation that we owe +to you." + +"You see, mademoiselle," said la Peyrade, addressing Celeste, "the +strange protectress whom a friend of yours selected." + +"Thank God," said Madame Thuillier. "Felix Phellion is above such vile +things." + +"Ah ca! papa Minard, we'll keep quiet about all this; silence is the +word. Will you take a cup of tea?" + +"Willingly," replied Minard. + +"Celeste," said the old maid, "ring for Henri, and tell him to put the +large kettle on the fire." + +Though the visit to the notary was not to be made till two in the +afternoon, Brigitte began early in the morning of the next day what +Thuillier called her _rampage_, a popular term which expresses that +turbulent, nagging, irritating activity which La Fontaine has +described so well in his fable of "The Old Woman and her Servants." +Brigitte declared that if you didn't take time by the forelock no one +would be ready. She prevented Thuillier from going to his office, +insisting that if he once got off she never should see him again; she +plagued Josephine, the cook, about hurrying the breakfast, and in +spite of what had happened the day before she scarcely restrained +herself from nagging at Madame Thuillier, who did not enter, as she +thought she should have done, into her favorite maxim, "Better be +early than late." + +Presently down she went to the Collevilles' to make the same +disturbance; and there she put her veto on the costume, far too +elegant, which Flavie meditated wearing, and told Celeste the hat and +gown she wished her to appear in. As for Colleville, who could not, he +declared, stay away all the morning from his official duties, she +compelled him to put on his dress-suit before he went out, made him +set his watch by hers, and warned him that if he was late no one would +wait for him. + +The amusing part of it was that Brigitte herself, after driving every +one at the point of the bayonet, came very near being late herself. +Under pretext of aiding others, independently of minding her own +business, which, for worlds, she would never have spared herself, she +had put her fingers and eyes into so many things that they ended by +overwhelming her. However, she ascribed the delay in which she was +almost caught to the hairdresser, whom she had sent for to make, on +this extraordinary occasion, what she called her "part." That artist +having, unadvisedly, dressed her hair in the fashion, he was +compelled, after she had looked at herself in the glass, to do his +work over again, and conform to the usual style of his client, which +consisted chiefly in never being "done" at all, a method that gave her +head a general air of what is vulgarly called "a cross cat." + +About half-past one o'clock la Peyrade, Thuillier, Colleville, Madame +Thuillier, and Celeste were assembled in the salon. Flavie joined them +soon after, fastening her bracelets as she came along to avoid a +rebuff, and having the satisfaction of knowing that she was ready +before Brigitte. As for the latter, already furious at finding herself +late, she had another cause for exasperation. The event of the day +seemed to require a corset, a refinement which she usually discarded. +The unfortunate maid, whose duty it was to lace her and to discover +the exact point to which she was willing to be drawn in, alone knew +the terrors and storms of a corset day. + +"I'd rather," said the girl, "lace the obelisk; I know it would lend +itself to being laced better than she does; and, anyhow, it couldn't +be bad-tongued." + +While the party in the salon were amusing themselves, under their +breaths, at the "flagrante delicto" of unpunctuality in which Queen +Elizabeth was caught, the porter entered, and gave to Thuillier a +sealed package, addressed to "Monsieur Thuillier, director of the +'Echo de la Bievre.' _In haste_." + +Thuillier opened the envelope, and found within a copy of a +ministerial journal which had hitherto shown itself discourteous to +the new paper by refusing the _exchange_ which all periodicals usually +make very willingly with one another. + +Puzzled by the fact of this missive being sent to his own house and +not to the office of the "Echo," Thuillier hastily opened the sheet, +and read, with what emotion the reader may conceive, the following +article, commended to his notice by a circle in red ink:-- + + An obscure organ was about to expire in its native shade when an + ambitious person of recent date bethought himself of galvanizing + it. His object was to make it a foothold by which to climb from + municipal functions to the coveted position of deputy. Happily + this object, having come to the surface, will end in failure. + Electors will certainly not be inveigled by so wily a manner of + advancing self-interests; and when the proper time arrives, if + ridicule has not already done justice on this absurd candidacy, we + shall ourselves prove to the pretender that to aspire to the + distinguished honor of representing the nation something more is + required than the money to buy a paper and pay an underling to put + into good French the horrible diction of his articles and + pamphlets. We confine ourselves to-day to this limited notice, but + our readers may be sure that we shall keep them informed about + this electoral comedy, if indeed the parties concerned have the + melancholy courage to go on with it. + +Thuillier read twice over this sudden declaration of war, which was +far from leaving him calm and impassible; then, taking la Peyrade +aside, he said to him:-- + +"Read that; it is serious." + +"Well?" said la Peyrade, after reading the article. + +"Well? how well?" exclaimed Thuillier. + +"I mean, what do you find so serious in that?" + +"What do I find so serious?" repeated Thuillier. "I don't think +anything could be more insulting to me." + +"You can't doubt," said la Peyrade, "that the virtuous Cerizet is at +the bottom of it; he has thrown this firecracker between your legs by +way of revenge." + +"Cerizet, or anybody else who wrote that diatribe is an insolent +fellow," cried Thuillier, getting angry, "and the matter shall not +rest there." + +"For my part," said la Peyrade, "I advise you to make no reply. You +are not named; though, of course, the attack is aimed at you. But you +ought to let our adversary commit himself farther; when the right +moment comes, we'll rap him over the knuckles." + +"No!" said Thuillier, "I won't stay quiet one minute under such an +insult." + +"The devil!" said the barrister; "what a sensitive epidermis! Do +reflect, my dear fellow, that you have made yourself a candidate and a +journalist, and therefore you really must harden yourself better than +that." + +"My good friend, it is a principle of mine not to let anybody step on +my toes. Besides, they say themselves they are going on with this +thing. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to cut short such +impertinence." + +"But do consider," said la Peyrade. "Certainly in journalism, as in +candidacy, a hot temper has its uses; a man makes himself respected, +and stops attacks--" + +"Just so," said Thuillier, "'principiis obsta.' Not to-day, because we +haven't the time, but to-morrow I shall carry that paper into court." + +"Into court!" echoed la Peyrade; "you surely wouldn't go to law in +such a matter as this? In the first place, there is nothing to proceed +upon; you are not named nor the paper either, and, besides, it is a +pitiable business, going to law; you'll look like a boy who has been +fighting, and got the worst of it, and runs to complain to his mamma. +Now if you had said that you meant to make Fleury intervene in the +matter, I could understand that--though the affair is rather personal +to you, and it might be difficult to make it seem--" + +"Ah ca!" said Thuillier, "do you suppose I am going to commit myself +with a Cerizet or any other newspaper bully? I pique myself, my dear +fellow, on possessing civic courage, which does not give in to +prejudices, and which, instead of taking justice into its own hands, +has recourse to the means of defence that are provided by law. +Besides, with the legal authority the Court of Cassation now has over +duelling, I have no desire to put myself in the way of being +expatriated, or spending two or three years in prison." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "we'll talk it over later; here's your +sister, and she would think everything lost if this little matter +reached her ears." + +When Brigitte appeared Colleville shouted "Full!" and proceeded to +sing the chorus of "La Parisienne." + +"Heavens! Colleville, how vulgar you are!" cried the tardy one, +hastening to cast a stone in the other's garden to avoid the throwing +of one into hers. "Well, are you all ready?" she added, arranging her +mantle before a mirror. "What o'clock is it? it won't do to get there +before the time, like provincials." + +"Ten minutes to two," said Colleville; "I go by the Tuileries." + +"Well, then we are just right," said Brigitte; "it will take about +that time to get to the rue Caumartin. Josephine," she cried, going to +the door of the salon, "we'll dine at six, therefore be sure you put +the turkey to roast at the right time, and mind you don't burn it, as +you did the other day. Bless me! who's that?" and with a hasty motion +she shut the door, which she had been holding open. "What a nuisance! +I hope Henri will have the sense to tell him we are out." + +Not at all; Henri came in to say that an old gentleman, with a very +genteel air, had asked to be received on urgent business. + +"Why didn't you say we were all out?" + +"That's what I should have done if mademoiselle had not opened the +door of the salon so that the gentleman could see the whole family +assembled." + +"Oh, yes!" said Brigitte, "you are never in the wrong, are you?" + +"What am I to say to him?" asked the man. + +"Say," replied Thuillier, "that I am very sorry not to be able to +receive him, but I am expected at a notary's office about a marriage +contract; but that if he could return two hours hence--" + +"I have told him all that," said Henri, "and he answered that that +contract was precisely what he had come about, and that his business +concerned you more than himself." + +"You had better go and see him, Thuillier, and get rid of him in +double-quick," said Brigitte; "that's shorter than talking to Henri, +who is always an orator." + +If la Peyrade had been consulted he might not have joined in that +advice, for he had had more than one specimen of the spokes some +occult influence was putting into the wheels of his marriage, and the +present visit seemed to him ominous. + +"Show him into my study," said Thuillier, following his sister's +advice; and, opening the door which led from the salon to the study, +he went to receive his importunate visitor. + +Brigitte immediately applied her eye to the keyhole. + +"Goodness!" she exclaimed, "there's my imbecile of a Thuillier +offering him a chair! and away in a corner, too, where I can't hear a +word they say!" + +La Peyrade was walking about the room with an inward agitation covered +by an appearance of great indifference. He even went up to the three +women, and made a few lover-like speeches to Celeste, who received +them with a smiling, happy air in keeping with the role she was +playing. As for Colleville, he was killing the time by composing an +anagram on the six words of "le journal 'l'Echo de la Bievre,'" for +which he had found the following version, little reassuring (as far as +it went) for the prospects of that newspaper: "O d'Echo, jarni! la +bevue reell"--but as the final "e" was lacking to complete the last +word, the work was not altogether as satisfactory as it should have +been. + +"He's taking snuff!" said Brigitte, her eye still glued to the +keyhole; "his gold snuff-box beats Minard's--though, perhaps, it is +only silver-gilt," she added, reflectively. "He's doing the talking, +and Thuillier is sitting there listening to him like a buzzard. I +shall go in and tell them they can't keep ladies waiting that way." + +But just as she put her hand on the lock she heard Thuillier's visitor +raise his voice, and that made her look through the keyhole again. + +"He is standing up; he's going," she said with satisfaction. + +But a moment later she saw she had made a mistake; the little old man +had only left his chair to walk up and down the room and continue the +conversation with greater freedom. + +"My gracious! I shall certainly go in," she said, "and tell Thuillier +we are going without him, and he can follow us." + +So saying, the old maid gave two little sharp and very imperious raps +on the door, after which she resolutely entered the study. + +La Peyrade, goaded by anxiety, had the bad taste to look through the +keyhole himself at what was happening. Instantly he thought he +recognized the small old man he had seen under the name of "the +commander" on that memorable morning when he had waited for Madame de +Godollo. Then he saw Thuillier addressing his sister with impatience +and with gestures of authority altogether out of his usual habits of +deference and submission. + +"It seems," said Brigitte, re-entering the salon, "that Thuillier +finds some great interest in that creature's talk, for he ordered me +bluntly to leave them, though the little old fellow did say, rather +civilly, that they would soon be through. But Jerome added: '_Mind_, +you are to wait for me.' Really, since he has taken to making +newspapers I don't know him; he has set up an air as if he were +leading the world with his wand." + +"I am very much afraid he is being entangled by some adventurer," said +la Peyrade. "I am pretty sure I saw that old man at Madame de +Godollo's the day I went to warn her off the premises; he must be of +the same stripe." + +"Why didn't you tell me?" cried Brigitte. "I'd have asked him for news +of the countess, and let him see we knew what we knew of his +Hungarian." + +Just then the sound of moving chairs was heard, and Brigitte darted +back to the keyhole. + +"Yes," she said, "he is really going, and Thuillier is bowing him out +respectfully!" + +As Thuillier did not immediately return, Colleville had time to go to +the window and exclaim at seeing the little old gentleman driving away +in an elegant coupe, of which the reader has already heard. + +"The deuce!" cried Colleville; "what an ornate livery! If he is an +adventurer he is a number one." + +At last Thuillier re-entered the room, his face full of care, his +manner extremely grave. + +"My dear la Peyrade," he said, "you did not tell us that another +proposal of marriage had been seriously considered by you." + +"Yes, I did; I told you that a very rich heiress had been offered to +me, but that my inclinations were here, and that I had not given any +encouragement to the affair; consequently, of course, there was no +serious engagement." + +"Well, I think you do wrong to treat that proposal so lightly." + +"What! do you mean to say, in presence of these ladies, that you blame +me for remaining faithful to my first desires and our old engagement?" + +"My friend, the conversation that I have just had has been a most +instructive one to me; and when you know what I know, with other +details personal to yourself, which will be confided to you, I think +that you will enter into my ideas. One thing is certain; we shall not +go to the notary to-day; and as for you, the best thing that you can +do is to go, without delay, to Monsieur du Portail." + +"That name again! it pursues me like a remorse," exclaimed la Peyrade. + +"Yes; go at once; he is awaiting you. It is an indispensable +preliminary before we can go any farther. When you have seen that +excellent man and heard what he has to say to you--well, _then_ if you +persist in claiming Celeste's hand, we might perhaps carry out our +plans. Until then we shall take no steps in the matter." + +"But, my poor Thuillier," said Brigitte, "you have let yourself be +gammoned by a rascal; that man belongs to the Godollo set." + +"Madame de Godollo," replied Thuillier, "is not at all what you +suppose her to be, and the best thing this house can do is never to +say one word about her, either good or evil. As for la Peyrade, as +this is not the first time he has been requested to go and see +Monsieur du Portail, I am surprised that he hesitates to do so." + +"Ah ca!" said Brigitte, "that little old man has completely befooled +you." + +"I tell you that that little old man is all that he appears to be. He +wears seven crosses, he drives in a splendid equipage, and he has told +me things that have overwhelmed me with astonishment." + +"Well, perhaps he's a fortune-teller like Madame Fontaine, who managed +once upon a time to upset me when Madame Minard and I, just to amuse +ourselves, went to consult her." + +"Well, if he is not a sorcerer he certainly has a very long arm," said +Thuillier, "and I think a man would suffer for it if he didn't respect +his advice. As for you, Brigitte, he saw you only for a minute, but he +told me your whole character; he said you were a masterful woman, born +to command." + +"The fact is," said Brigitte, licking her chops at this compliment, +like a cat drinking cream, "he has a very well-bred air, that little +old fellow. You take my advice, my dear," she said, turning to la +Peyrade; "if such a very big-wig as that wants you to do so, go and +see this du Portail, whoever he is. That, it seems to me, won't bind +you to anything." + +"You are right, Brigitte," said Colleville; "as for me, I'd follow up +all the Portails, or Port_ers_, or Port_ents_ for the matter of that, if +they asked me to." + +The scene was beginning to resemble that in the "Barber of Seville," +where everybody tells Basil to go to bed, for he certainly has a +fever. La Peyrade, thus prodded, picked up his hat in some ill-humor, +and went where his destiny called him,--"quo sua fata vocabant." + + + + CHAPTER XV + + AT DU PORTAIL'S + +On reaching the rue Honore-Chevalier la Peyrade felt a doubt; the +dilapidated appearance of the house to which he was summoned made him +think he had mistaken the number. It seemed to him that a person of +Monsieur du Portail's evident importance could not inhabit such a +place. It was therefore with some hesitation that he accosted Sieur +Perrache, the porter. But no sooner had he entered the antechamber of +the apartment pointed out to him than the excellent deportment of +Bruneau, the old valet, and the extremely comfortable appearance of +the furniture and other appointments made him see that he was probably +in the right place. Introduced at once, as soon as he had given his +name, into the study of the master of the house, his surprise was +great when he found himself in presence of the commander, so called, +the friend of Madame de Godollo, and the little old man he had seen +half an hour earlier with Thuillier. + +"At last!" said du Portail, rising, and offering la Peyrade a chair, +"at last we meet, my refractory friend; it has taken a good deal to +bring you here." + +"May I know, monsieur," said la Peyrade, haughtily, not taking the +chair which was offered to him, "what interest you have in meddling +with my affairs? I do not know you, and I may add that the place where +I once saw you did not create an unconquerable desire in me to make +your acquaintance." + +"Where have you seen me?" asked du Portail. + +"In the apartment of a strumpet who called herself Madame de Godollo." + +"Where monsieur, consequently, went himself," said the little old man, +"and for a purpose much less disinterested than mine." + +"I have not come here," said la Peyrade, "to bandy words with any one. +I have the right, monsieur, to a full explanation as to the meaning of +your proceedings towards me. I therefore request you not to delay them +by a facetiousness to which, I assure you, I am not in the humor to +listen." + +"Then, my dear fellow," said du Portail, "sit down, for I am not in +the humor to twist my neck by talking up at you." + +The words were reasonable, and they were said in a tone that showed +the old gentleman was not likely to be frightened by grand airs. La +Peyrade therefore deferred to the wishes of his host, but he took care +to do so with the worst grace possible. + +"Monsieur Cerizet," said du Portail, "a man of excellent standing in +the world, and who has the honor to be one of your friends--" + +"I have nothing to do with that man now," said la Peyrade, sharply, +understanding the malicious meaning of the old man's speech. + +"Well, the time has been," said du Portail, "when you saw him, at +least, occasionally: for instance, when you paid for his dinner at the +Rocher de Cancale. As I was saying, I charged the virtuous Monsieur +Cerizet to sound you as to a marriage--" + +"Which I refused," interrupted la Peyrade, "and which I now refuse +again, more vehemently than ever." + +"That's the question," said the old man. "I think, on the contrary, +that you will accept it; and it is to talk over this affair with you +that I have so long desired a meeting." + +"But this crazy girl that you are flinging at my head," said la +Peyrade, "what is she to you? She can't be your daughter, or you would +put more decency into your hunt for a husband." + +"This young girl," replied du Portail, "is the daughter of one of my +friends who died about ten years ago; at his death I took her to live +with me, and have given her all the care her sad condition needed. Her +fortune, which I have greatly increased, added to my own, which I +intend to leave to her, will make her a very rich heiress. I know that +you are no enemy to handsome 'dots,' for you have sought them in +various places,--Thuillier's house, for instance, or, to use your own +expression, that of a strumpet whom you scarcely knew. I have +therefore supposed you would accept at my hands a very rich young +woman, especially as her infirmity is declared by the best physicians +to be curable; whereas you can never cure Monsieur and Mademoiselle +Thuillier, the one of being a fool, the other of being a fury, any +more than you could cure Madame Komorn of being a woman of very medium +virtue and extremely giddy." + +"It may suit me," replied la Peyrade, "to marry the daughter of a fool +and a fury if I choose her, or I might become the husband of a clever +coquette, if passion seized me, but the Queen of Sheba herself, if +imposed upon me, neither you, monsieur, nor the ablest and most +powerful man living could force me to accept." + +"Precisely; therefore it is to your own good sense and intelligence +that I now address myself; but we have to come face to face with +people in order to speak to them, you know. Now, then, let us look +into your present situation, and don't get angry if, like a surgeon +who wants to cure his patient, I lay my hand mercilessly on wounds +which have long tormented and harassed you. The first point to state +is that the Celeste Colleville affair is at an end for you." + +"Why so?" demanded la Peyrade. + +"Because I have just seen Thuillier and terrified him with the history +of the misfortunes he has incurred, and those he will incur if he +persists in the idea of giving you his goddaughter in marriage. He +knows now that it was I who paralyzed Madame du Bruel's kind offices +in the matter of the cross; that I had his pamphlet seized; that I +sent that Hungarian woman into his house to handle you all, as she +did; and that my hand is opening fire in the ministerial journals, +which will only increase from bad to worse,--not to speak of other +machinations which will be directed against his candidacy. Therefore +you see, my good friend, that not only have you no longer the credit +in Thuillier's eyes of being his great helper to that election, but +that you actually block the way to his ambition. That is enough to +prove to you that the side by which you have imposed yourself on that +family--who have never sincerely liked or desired you--is now +completely battered down and dismantled." + +"But to have done all that which you claim with such pretension, who +are you?" demanded la Peyrade. + +"I shall not say that you are very inquisitive, for I intend to answer +your question later; but for the present let us continue, if you +please, the autopsy of your existence, dead to-day, but which I +propose to resuscitate gloriously. You are twenty-eight years old, and +you have begun a career in which I shall not allow you to make another +step. A few days hence the Council of the order of barristers will +assemble and will censure, more or less severely, your conduct in the +matter of the property you placed with such candor in Thuillier's +hands. Do not deceive yourself; censure from that quarter (and I +mention only your least danger) is as fatal to a barrister as being +actually disbarred." + +"And it is to your kind offices, no doubt," said la Peyrade, "that I +shall owe that precious result?" + +"Yes, I may boast of it," replied du Portail, "for, in order to tow +you into port it has been necessary to strip you of your rigging; +unless that were done, you would always have tried to navigate under +your own sails the bourgeois shoals that you are now among." + +Seeing that he, undoubtedly, had to do with a strong hand, la Peyrade +thought best to modify his tone; and so, with a more circumspect air, +he said:-- + +"You will allow me, monsieur, to reserve my acknowledgments until I +receive some fuller explanation." + +"Here you are, then," continued du Portail, "at twenty-eight years of +age, without a penny, virtually without a profession; with antecedents +that are very--middling; with associates like Monsieur Dutocq and the +courageous Cerizet; owing to Mademoiselle Thuillier ten thousand +francs, and to Madame Lambert twenty-five thousand, which you are no +doubt extremely desirous to return to her; and finally, this marriage, +your last hope, your sheet-anchor, has just become an utter +impossibility. Between ourselves, if I have something reasonable to +propose to you, do you not think that you had much better place +yourself at my disposal?" + +"I have time enough to prove that your opinion is mistaken," returned +la Peyrade; "and I shall not form any resolutions so long as the +designs you choose to have upon me are not more fully explained." + +"You were spoken to, at my instigation, about a marriage," resumed du +Portail. "This marriage, as I think, is closely connected with a past +existence from which a certain hereditary or family duty has devolved +upon you. Do you know what that uncle of yours, to whom you applied in +1829, was doing in Paris? In your family he was thought to be a +millionaire; and, dying suddenly, you remember, before you got to him, +he did not leave enough for his burial; a pauper's grave was all that +remained to him." + +"Did you know him?" asked la Peyrade. + +"He was my oldest and dearest friend," replied du Portail. + +"If that is so," said la Peyrade, hastily, "a sum of two thousand +francs, which I received on my arrival in Paris from some unknown +source--" + +"Came from me," replied du Portail. "Unfortunately, engaged at the +time in a rush of important affairs, which you shall hear of later, I +could not immediately follow up the benevolent interest I felt in you +for your uncle's sake; this explains why I left you in the straw of a +garret, where you came, like a medlar, to that maturity of ruin which +brought you under the hand of a Dutocq and a Cerizet." + +"I am none the less grateful to you, monsieur," said la Peyrade; "and +if I had known you were that generous protector, whom I was never able +to discover, I should have been the first to seek occasion to meet you +and to thank you." + +"A truce to compliments," said du Portail; "and, to come at once to +the serious side of our present conference, what should you say if I +told you that this uncle, whose protection and assistance you came to +Paris to obtain, was an agent of that occult power which has always +been the theme of feeble ridicule and the object of silly prejudice?" + +"I do not seize your meaning," said la Peyrade, with uneasy curiosity; +"may I ask you to be more precise?" + +"For example, I will suppose," continued du Portail, "that your uncle, +if still living, were to say to you to-day: 'You are seeking fortune +and influence, my good nephew; you want to rise above the crowd and to +play your part in all the great events of your time; you want +employment for a keen, active mind, full of resources, and slightly +inclined to intrigue; in short, you long to exert in some upper and +elegant sphere that force of will and subtlety which at present you +are wasting in the silly and useless manipulation of the most barren +and tough-skinned animal on earth, to wit: a bourgeois. Well, then, +lower your head, my fine nephew; enter with me through the little door +which I will open to you; it gives admittance to a great house, often +maligned, but better far than its reputation. That threshold once +crossed, you can rise to the height of your natural genius, whatever +its spark may be. Statesmen, kings even, will admit you to their most +secret thoughts; you will be their occult collaborator, and none of +the joys which money and the highest powers can bestow upon a man will +be lacking to you." + +"But, monsieur," objected la Peyrade, "without venturing to understand +you, I must remark that my uncle died so poor, you tell me, that +public charity buried him." + +"Your uncle," replied du Portail, "was a man of rare talent, but he +had a certain weak side in his nature which compromised his career. He +was eager for pleasure, a spendthrift, thoughtless for the future; he +wanted also to taste those joys that are meant for the common run of +men, but which for great, exceptional vocations are the worst of +snares and impediments: I mean the joys of family. He had a daughter +whom he madly loved, and it was through her that his terrible enemies +opened a breach in his life, and prepared the horrible catastrophe +that ended it." + +"Is that an encouragement to enter this shady path, where, you say, he +might have asked me to follow him?" + +"But if I myself," said du Portail, "should offer to guide you in it, +what then?" + +"You, monsieur!" said la Peyrade, in stupefaction. + +"Yes, I--I who was your uncle's pupil at first, and later his +protector and providence; I, whose influence the last half-century has +daily increased; I, who am wealthy; I, to whom all governments, as +they fall one on top of the others like houses of cards, come to ask +for safety and for the power to rebuild their future; I, who am the +manager of a great theatre of puppets (where I have Columbines in the +style of Madame de Godollo); I, who to-morrow, if it were necessary to +the success of one of my vaudevilles or one of my dramas, might +present myself to your eyes as the wearer of the grand cordon of the +Legion of honor, of the Order of the Black Eagle, or that of the +Golden Fleece. Do you wish to know why neither you nor I will die a +violent death like your uncle, and also why, more fortunate than +contemporaneous kings, I can transmit my sceptre to the successor whom +I myself may choose? Because, like you, my young friend, in spite of +your Southern appearance, I was cold, profoundly calculating, never +tempted to lose my time on trifles at the outskirts; because heat, +when I was led by force of circumstances to employ it, never went +below the surface. It is more than probable that you have heard of me; +well, for you I will open a window in my cloud; look at me, observe me +well; have I a cloven hoof, or a tail at the end of my spine? On the +contrary, am I not a model of the most inoffensive of householders in +the Saint-Sulpice quarter? In that quarter, where I have enjoyed, I +may say it, universal esteem for the last twenty-five years, I am +called du Portail; but to you, if you will allow me, I shall now name +myself _Corentin_." + +"Corentin!" cried la Peyrade, with terrified astonishment. + +"Yes, monsieur; and you see that in telling you that secret I lay my +hand upon you, and enlist you. Corentin! 'the greatest man of the +police in modern times,' as the author of an article in the +'Biographies of Living Men' has said of me--as to whom I ought in +justice to remark that he doesn't know a thing about my life." + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, "I can assure you that I shall keep that +secret; but the place which you offer me near you--in your employ--" + +"That frightens you, or, at least, it makes you uneasy," said +Corentin, quickly. "Before you have even considered the thing the word +scares you, does it? The police! _Police_! you are afraid to encounter +the terrible prejudice that brands it on the brow." + +"Certainly," said la Peyrade, "it is a necessary institution; but I do +not think that it is always calumniated. If the business of those who +manage it is honorable why do they conceal themselves so carefully?" + +"Because all that threatens society, which it is the mission of the +police to repress," replied Corentin, "is plotted and prepared in +hiding. Do thieves and conspirators put upon their hats, 'I am +Guillot, the shepherd of this flock'? And when we are after them must +we ring a bell to let them know we are coming?" + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, "when a sentiment is universal it ceases +to be a prejudice, it becomes an opinion; and this opinion ought to be +a law to every man who desires to keep his own esteem and that of +others." + +"And when you robbed that notary to enrich the Thuilliers for your own +advantage," said Corentin, "did you keep your own esteem and that of +the Council of barristers? And who knows, monsieur, if in your life +there are not still blacker actions than that? I am a more honorable +man than you, because, outside of my functions, I have not one +doubtful act upon my conscience; and when the opportunity for _good_ has +been presented to me I have done it--always and everywhere. Do you +think that the guardianship of that poor insane girl in my home has +been all roses? But she was the daughter of my old friend, your uncle, +and when, feeling the years creep on me, I propose to you, between +sacks of money, to fit yourself to take my place--" + +"What!" cried la Peyrade, "is that girl my uncle's daughter?" + +"Yes; the girl I wish you to marry is the daughter of your uncle +Peyrade,--for he democratized his name,--or, if you like it better, +she was the daughter of Pere Canquoelle, a name he took from the +little estate on which your father lived and starved with eleven +children. You see, in spite of the secrecy your uncle always kept +about his family, that I know all about it. Do you suppose that before +selecting you as your cousin's husband I had not obtained every +possible information about you? And what I have learned need not make +you quite so supercilious to the police. Besides, as the vulgar saying +is, the best of your nose is made of it. Your uncle belonged to the +police, and, thanks to that, he became the confidant, I might almost +say the friend, of Louis XVIII., who took the greatest pleasure in his +companionship. And you, by nature and by mind, also by the foolish +position into which you have got yourself, in short, by your whole +being, have gravitated steadily to the conclusion I propose to you, +namely, that of succeeding me,--of succeeding Corentin. That is the +question between us, Monsieur. Do you really believe now that I have +not a grasp or a 'seizin,' as you call it, upon you, and that you can +manage to escape me for any foolish considerations of bourgeois +vanity?" + +La Peyrade could not have been at heart so violently opposed to this +proposal as he seemed, for the vigorous language of the great master +of the police and the species of appropriation which he made of his +person brought a smile to the young man's lips. + +Corentin had risen, and was walking up and down the room, speaking, +apparently, to himself. + +"The police!" he cried; "one may say of it, as Basile said of calumny +to Batholo, 'The police, monsieur! you don't know what you despise!' +And, after all," he continued, after a pause, "who are they who +despise it? Imbeciles, who don't know any better than to insult their +protectors. Suppress the police, and you destroy civilization. Do the +police ask for the respect of such people? No, they want to inspire +them with one sentiment only: fear, that great lever with which to +govern mankind,--an impure race whose odious instincts God, hell, the +executioner, and the gendarmes can scarcely restrain!" + +Stopping short before la Peyrade, and looking at him with a disdainful +smile, he continued:-- + +"So you are one of those ninnies who see in the police nothing more +than a horde of spies and informers? Have you never suspected the +statesmen, the diplomats, the Richelieus it produces? Mercury, +monsieur,--Mercury, the cleverest of the gods of paganism,--what was +he but the police incarnate? It is true that he was also the god of +thieves. We are better than he, for we don't allow that junction of +forces." + +"And yet," said la Peyrade, "Vautrin, or, I should say, Jacques +Collin, the famous chief of the detective police--" + +"Yes, yes! but that's in the lower ranks," replied Corentin, resuming +his walk; "there's always a muddy place somewhere. Still, don't be +mistaken even in that. Vautrin is a man of genius, but his passions, +like those of your uncle, dragged him down. But go up higher (for +there lies the whole question, namely, the rung of the ladder on which +a man has wits enough to perch). Take the prefect, for instance, that +honored minister, flattered and respected, is he a spy? Well, I, +monsieur, am the prefect of the secret police of diplomacy--of the +highest statesmanship. And you hesitate to mount that throne!--to seem +small and do great things; to live in a cave comfortably arranged like +this, and command the light; to have at your orders an invisible army, +always ready, always devoted, always submissive; to know the _other +side_ of everything; to be duped by no intrigue because you hold the +threads of all within your fingers; to see through all partitions; to +penetrate all secrets, search all hearts, all consciences,--these are +the things you fear! And yet you were not afraid to go and wallow in a +Thuillier bog; you, a thoroughbred, allowed yourself to be harnessed +to a hackney-coach, to the ignoble business of electing that parvenu +bourgeois." + +"A man does what he can," said la Peyrade. + +"Here's a very remarkable thing," pursued Corentin, replying to his +own thought; "the French language, more just than public opinion, has +given us our right place, for it has made the word police the synonym +of civilization and the antipodes of savage life, when it said and +wrote: 'l'Etat police,' from the Greek words state and city. So, I can +assure you, we care little for the prejudice that tries to brand us; +none know men as we do; and to know them brings contempt for their +contempt as well as for their esteem." + +"There is certainly much truth in what you say with such warmth," said +la Peyrade, finally. + +"Much truth!" exclaimed Corentin, going back to his chair, "say, +rather, that it is all true, and nothing but the truth; yet it is not +the whole truth. But enough for to-day, monsieur. To succeed me in my +functions, and to marry your cousin with a 'dot' that will not be less +than five hundred thousand francs, that is my offer. I do not ask you +for an answer now. I should have no confidence in a determination not +seriously reflected upon. To-morrow, I shall be at home all the +morning. I trust that my conviction may then have formed yours." + +Dismissing his visitor with a curt little bow, he added: "I do not bid +you adieu, but au revoir, Monsieur de la Peyrade." + +Whereupon Corentin went to a side-table, where he found all that he +needed to prepare a glass of "eau sucree," which he had certainly +earned, and, without looking at la Peyrade, who left the room rather +stunned, he seemed to have no other interest on his mind than that +prosaic preparation. + +Was it, indeed, necessary that the morning after this meeting with +Corentin a visit from Madame Lambert, now become an exacting and +importunate creditor, should come to bear its weight on la Peyrade's +determination? As the great chief had pointed out to him the night +before, was there not in his nature, in his mind, in his aspirations, +in the mistakes and imprudences of his past life, a sort of +irresistible incline which drew him down toward the strange solution +of existence thus suddenly offered to him? + +Fatality, if we may so call it, was lavish of the inducements to which +he was destined to succumb. This day was the 31st of October; the +vacation of the Palais was just over. The 2nd of November was the day +on which the courts reopened, and as Madame Lambert left his room he +received a summons to appear on that day before the Council of his +order. + +To Madame Lambert, who pressed him sharply to repay her, under +pretence that she was about to leave Monsieur Picot and return to her +native place, he replied: "Come here the day after to-morrow, at the +same hour, and your money will be ready for you." + +To the summons to give account of his actions to his peers he replied +that he did not recognize the right of the Council to question him on +the facts of his private life. That was an answer of one sort, +certainly. Inevitably it would result in his being stricken from the +roll of the barristers of the Royal courts; but, at least, it had an +air of dignity and protestation which saved, in a measure, his +self-love. + +Finally, he wrote a letter to Thuillier, in which he said that his +visit to du Portail had resulted in his being obliged to accept +another marriage. He therefore returned to Thuillier his promise, and +took back his own. All this was curtly said, without the slightest +expression of regret for the marriage he renounced. In a postscript he +added: "We shall be obliged to discuss my position on the newspaper," +--indicating that it might enter into his plans not to retain it. + +He was careful to make a copy of this letter, and an hour later, when, +in Corentin's study, he was questioned as to the result of his night's +reflections, he gave that great general, for all answer, the +matrimonial resignation he had just despatched. + +"That will do," said Corentin. "But as for your position on the +newspaper, you may perhaps have to keep it for a time. The candidacy +of that fool interferes with the plans of the government, and we must +manage in some way to trip up the heels of the municipal councillor. +In your position as editor-in-chief you may find a chance to do it, +and I think your conscience won't kick at the mission." + +"No, indeed!" said la Peyrade, "the thought of the humiliations to +which I have been so long subjected will make it a precious joy to +lash that bourgeois brood." + +"Take care!" said Corentin; "you are young, and you must watch against +those revengeful emotions. In our austere profession we love nothing +and we hate nothing. Men are to us mere pawns of wood or ivory, +according to their quality--with which we play our game. We are like +the blade that cuts what is given it to cut, but, careful only to be +delicately sharpened, wishes neither harm nor good to any one. Now let +us speak of your cousin, to whom, I suppose, you have some curiosity +to be presented." + +La Peyrade was not obliged to pretend to eagerness, that which he felt +was genuine. + +"Lydie de la Peyrade," said Corentin, "is nearly thirty, but her +innocence, joined to a gentle form of insanity, has kept her apart +from all those passions, ideas, and impressions which use up life, and +has, if I may say so, embalmed her in a sort of eternal youth. You +would not think her more than twenty. She is fair and slender; her +face, which is very delicate, is especially remarkable for an +expression of angelic sweetness. Deprived of her full reason by a +terrible catastrophe, her monomania has something touching about it. +She always carries in her arms or keeps beside her a bundle of linen +which she nurses and cares for as though it were a sick child; and, +excepting Bruneau and myself, whom she recognizes, she thinks all +other men are doctors, whom she consults about the child, and to whom +she listens as oracles. A crisis which lately happened in her malady +has convinced Horace Bianchon, that prince of science, that if the +reality could be substituted for this long delusion of motherhood, her +reason would assert itself. It is surely a worthy task to bring back +light to a soul in which it is scarcely veiled; and the existing bond +of relationship has seemed to me to point you out as specially +designated to effect this cure, the success of which Bianchon and two +other eminent doctors who have consulted with him declare to be beyond +a doubt. Now, I will take you to Lydie's presence; remember to play +the part of doctor; for the only thing that makes her lose her +customary serenity is not to enter into her notion of medical +consultation." + +After crossing several rooms Corentin was on the point of taking la +Peyrade into that usually occupied by Lydie when employed in cradling +or dandling her imaginary child, when suddenly they were stopped by +the sound of two or three chords struck by the hand of a master on a +piano of the finest sonority. + +"What is that?" asked la Peyrade. + +"That is Lydie," replied Corentin, with what might be called an +expression of paternal pride; "she is an admirable musician, and +though she no longer writes down, as in the days when her mind was +clear, her delightful melodies, she often improvises them in a way +that moves me to the soul--the soul of Corentin!" added the old man, +smiling. "Is not that the finest praise I can bestow upon her? But +suppose we sit down here and listen to her. If we go in, the concert +will cease and the medical consultation begin." + +La Peyrade was amazed as he listened to an improvisation in which the +rare union of inspiration and science opened to his impressionable +nature a source of emotions as deep as they were unexpected. Corentin +watched the surprise which from moment to moment the Provencal +expressed by admiring exclamations. + +"Hein! how she plays!" said the old man. "Liszt himself hasn't a +firmer touch." + +To a very quick "scherzo" the performer now added the first notes of +an "adagio." + +"She is going to sing," said Corentin, recognizing the air. + +"Does she sing too?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Like Pasta, like Malibran; but hush, listen to her!" + +After a few opening bars in "arpeggio" a vibrant voice resounded, the +tones of which appeared to stir the Provencal to the depths of his +being. + +"How the music moves you!" said Corentin; "you were undoubtedly made +for each other." + +"My God! the same air! the same voice!" + +"Have you already met Lydie somewhere?" asked the great master of the +police. + +"I don't know--I think not," answered la Peyrade, in a stammering +voice; "in any case, it was long ago--But that air--that voice--I +think--" + +"Let us go in," said Corentin. + +Opening the door abruptly, he entered, pulling the young man after +him. + +Sitting with her back to the door, and prevented by the sound of the +piano from hearing what happened behind her, Lydie did not notice +their entrance. + +"Now have you any remembrance of her?" said Corentin. + +La Peyrade advanced a step, and no sooner had he caught a glimpse of +the girl's profile than he threw up his hands above his head, striking +them together. + +"It is she!" he cried. + +Hearing his cry, Lydie turned round, and fixing her attention on +Corentin, she said:-- + +"How naughty and troublesome you are to come and disturb me; you know +very well I don't like to be listened to. Ah! but--" she added, +catching sight of la Peyrade's black coat, "you have brought the +doctor; that is very kind of you; I was just going to ask you to send +for him. The baby has done nothing but cry since morning; I was +singing to put her to sleep, but nothing can do that." + +And she ran to fetch what she called her child from a corner of the +room, where with two chairs laid on their backs and the cushions of +the sofa, she had constructed a sort of cradle. + +As she went towards la Peyrade, carrying her precious bundle with one +hand, with the other she was arranging the imaginary cap of her +"little darling," having no eyes except for the sad creation of her +disordered brain. Step by step, as she advanced, la Peyrade, pale, +trembling, and with staring eyes, retreated backwards, until he struck +against a seat, into which, losing his equilibrium, he fell. + +A man of Corentin's power and experience, and who, moreover, knew to +its slightest detail the horrible drama in which Lydie had lost her +reason, had already, of course, taken in the situation, but it suited +his purpose and his ideas to allow the clear light of evidence to +pierce this darkness. + +"Look, doctor," said Lydie, unfastening the bundle, and putting the +pins in her mouth as she did so, "don't you see that she is growing +thinner every day?" + +La Peyrade could not answer; he kept his handkerchief over his face, +and his breath came so fast from his chest that he was totally unable +to utter a word. + +Then, with one of those gestures of feverish impatience, to which her +mental state predisposed her, she exclaimed, hastily:-- + +"But look at her doctor, look!" taking his arm violently and forcing +him to show his features. "My God!" she cried, when she had looked him +in the face. + +Letting fall the linen bundle in her arms, she threw herself hastily +backwards, and her eyes grew haggard. Passing her white hands rapidly +over her forehead and through her hair, tossing it into disorder, she +seemed to be making an effort to obtain from her memory some dormant +recollection. Then, like a frightened mare, which comes to smell an +object that has given it a momentary terror, she approached la Peyrade +slowly, stooping to look into his face, which he kept lowered, while, +in the midst of a silence inexpressible, she examined him steadily for +several seconds. Suddenly a terrible cry escaped her breast; she ran +for refuge into the arms of Corentin, and pressing herself against him +with all her force, she exclaimed:-- + +"Save me! save me! It is he! the wretch! It is he who did it!" + +And, with her finger pointed at la Peyrade, she seemed to nail the +miserable object of her terror to his place. + +After this explosion, she muttered a few disconnected words, and her +eyes closed; Corentin felt the relaxing of all the muscles by which +she had held him as in a vice the moment before, and he took her in +his arms and laid her on the sofa, insensible. + +"Do not stay here, monsieur," said Corentin. "Go into my study; I will +come to you presently." + +A few minutes later, after giving Lydie into the care of Katte and +Bruneau, and despatching Perrache for Doctor Bianchon, Corentin +rejoined la Peyrade. + +"You see now, monsieur," he said with solemnity, "that in pursuing +with a sort of passion the idea of this marriage, I was following, in +a sense, the ways of God." + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, with compunction, "I will confess to +you--" + +"Useless," said Corentin; "you can tell me nothing that I do not know; +I, on the contrary, have much to tell you. Old Peyrade, your uncle, in +the hope of earning a POT for this daughter whom he idolized, entered +into a dangerous private enterprise, the nature of which I need not +explain. In it he made enemies; enemies who stopped at nothing, +--murder, poison, rape. To paralyze your uncle's action by attacking +him in his dearest spot, Lydie was, not abducted, but enticed from her +home and taken to a house apparently respectable, where for ten days +she was kept concealed. She was not much alarmed by this detention, +being told that it was done at her father's wish, and she spent her +time with her music--you remember, monsieur, how she sang?" + +"Oh!" exclaimed la Peyrade, covering his face with his hands. + +"I told you yesterday that you might perhaps have more upon your +conscience than the Thuillier house. But you were young; you had just +come from your province, with that brutality, that frenzy of Southern +blood in your veins which flings itself upon such an occasion. +Besides, your relationship became known to those who were preparing +the ruin of this new Clarissa Harlowe, and I am willing to believe +than an abler and better man than you might not have escaped the +entanglement into which you fell. Happily, Providence has granted that +there is nothing absolutely irreparable in this horrible history. The +same poison, according to the use that is made of it, may give either +death or health." + +"But, monsieur," said la Peyrade, "shall I not always be to her an +object of horror?" + +"The doctor, monsieur," said Katte, opening the door. + +"How is Mademoiselle Lydie?" asked la Peyrade, eagerly. + +"Very calm," replied Katte. "Just now, when we put her to bed,--though +she did not want to go, saying she felt well,--I took her the bundle +of linen, but she told me to take it away, and asked what I meant her +to do with it." + +"You see," said Corentin, grasping the Provencal's hand, "you are the +lance of Achilles." + +And he left the room with Katte to receive Doctor Bianchon. + +Left alone, Theodose was a prey to thoughts which may perhaps be +imagined. After a while the door opened, and Bruneau, the old valet, +ushered in Cerizet. Seeing la Peyrade, the latter exclaimed:-- + +"Ha! ha! I knew it! I knew you would end by seeing du Portail. And the +marriage,--how does that come on?" + +"What are you doing here?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Something that concerns you; or rather, something that we must do +together. Du Portail, who is too busy to attend to business just now, +has sent me in here to see you, and consult as to the best means of +putting a spoke in Thuillier's election; it seems that the government +is determined to prevent his winning it. Have you any ideas about it?" + +"No," replied la Peyrade; "and I don't feel in the mood just now to be +imaginative." + +"Well, here's the situation," said Cerizet. "The government has +another candidate, which it doesn't yet produce, because the +ministerial negotiations with him have been rather difficult. During +this time Thuillier's chances have been making headway. Minard, on +whom they counted to create a diversion, sits, the stupid fool, in his +corner; the seizure of that pamphlet has given your blockhead of a +protege a certain perfume of popularity. In short, the ministry are +afraid he'll be elected, and nothing could be more disagreeable to +them. Pompous imbeciles, like Thuillier, are horribly embarrassing in +the Opposition; they are pitchers without handles; you can't take hold +of them anywhere." + +"Monsieur Cerizet," said la Peyrade, beginning to assume a protecting +tone, and wishing to discover his late associate's place in Corentin's +confidence, "you seem to know a good deal about the secret intentions +of the government; have you found your way to a certain desk in the +rue de Grenelle?" + +"No. All that I tell you," said Cerizet, "I get from du Portail." + +"Ah ca!" said la Peyrade, lowering his voice, "who _is_ du Portail? You +seem to have known him for some time. A man of your force ought to +have discovered the real character of a man who seems to me to be +rather mysterious." + +"My friend," replied Cerizet, "du Portail is a pretty strong man. He's +an old slyboots, who has had some post, I fancy, in the administration +of the national domain, or something of that kind, under government; +in which, I think, he must have been employed in the departments +suppressed under the Empire." + +"Yes?" said la Peyrade. + +"That's where I think he made his money," continued Cerizet; "and +being a shrewd old fellow, and having a natural daughter to marry, he +has concocted this philanthropic tale of her being the daughter of an +old friend named Peyrade; and your name being the same may have given +him the idea of fastening upon you--for, after all, he has to marry +her to somebody." + +"Yes, that's all very well; but his close relations with the +government, and the interest he takes in elections, how do you explain +all that?" + +"Naturally enough," replied Cerizet. "Du Portail is a man who loves +money, and likes to handle it; he has done Rastignac, that great +manipulator of elections, who is, I think, his compatriot, several +signal services as an amateur; Rastignac, in return, gives him +information, obtained through Nucingen, which enables him to gamble at +the Bourse." + +"Did he himself tell you all this?" asked la Peyrade. + +"What do you take me for?" returned Cerizet. "With that worthy old +fellow, from whom I have already wormed a promise of thirty thousand +francs, I play the ninny; I flatten myself to nothing. But I've made +Bruneau talk, that old valet of his. You can safely ally yourself to +his family, my dear fellow; du Portail is powerfully rich; he'll get +you made sub-prefect somewhere; and thence to a prefecture and a +fortune is but one step." + +"Thanks for the information," said la Peyrade; "at least, I shall know +on which foot to hop. But you yourself, how came you to know him?" + +"Oh! that's quite a history; by my help he was able to get back a lot +of diamonds which had been stolen from him." + +At this moment Corentin entered the room. + +"All is well," he said to la Peyrade. "There are signs of returning +reason. Bianchon, to whom I have told all, wishes to confer with you; +therefore, my dear Monsieur Cerizet, we will postpone until this +evening, if you are willing, our little study over the Thuillier +election." + +"Well, so here you have him, at last!" said Cerizet, slapping la +Peyrade's shoulder. + +"Yes," said Corentin, "and you know what I promised; you may rely on +that." + +Cerizet departed joyful. + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + CHECKMATE TO THUILLIER + +The day after that evening, when Corentin, la Peyrade, and Cerizet +were to have had their consultation in reference to the attack on +Thuillier's candidacy, the latter was discussing with his sister +Brigitte the letter in which Theodose declined the hand of Celeste, +and his mind seemed particularly to dwell on the postscript where it +was intimated that la Peyrade might not continue the editor of the +"Echo de la Bievre." At this moment Henri, the "male domestic," +entered the room to ask if his master would receive Monsieur Cerizet. + +Thuillier's first impulse was to deny himself to that unwelcome +visitor. Then, thinking better of it, he reflected that if la Peyrade +suddenly left him in the lurch, Cerizet might possibly prove a +precious resource. Consequently, he ordered Henri to show him in. His +manner, however, was extremely cold, and in some sort expectant. As +for Cerizet, he presented himself without the slightest embarrassment +and with the air of a man who had calculated all the consequences of +the step he was taking. + +"Well, my dear monsieur," he began, "I suppose by this time you have +been posted as to the Sieur la Peyrade." + +"What may you mean by that?" said Thuillier, stiffly. + +"Well, the man," replied Cerizet, "who, after intriguing to marry your +goddaughter, breaks off the marriage abruptly--as he will, before +long, break that lion's-share contract he made you sign about his +editorship--can't be, I should suppose, the object of the same blind +confidence you formerly reposed in him." + +"Ah!" said Thuillier, hastily, "then do you know anything about la +Peyrade's intention of leaving the newspaper?" + +"No," said the other; "on the terms I now am with him, you can readily +believe we don't see each other; still less should I receive his +confidences. But I draw the induction from the well-known character of +the person, and you may be sure that when he finds it for his interest +to leave you, he'll throw you away like an old coat--I've passed that +way, and I speak from experience." + +"Then you must have had some difficulties with him before you joined +my paper?" said Thuillier, interrogatively. + +"Parbleu!" replied Cerizet; "the affair of this house which he helped +you to buy was mine; I started that hare. He was to put me in relation +with you, and make me the principal tenant of the house. But the +unfortunate affair of that bidding-in gave him a chance to knock me +out of everything and get all the profits for himself." + +"Profits!" exclaimed Thuillier. "I don't see that he got anything out +of that transaction, except the marriage which he now refuses--" + +"But," interrupted Cerizet, "there's the ten thousand francs he got +out of you on pretence of the cross which you never received, and the +twenty-five thousand he owes to Madame Lambert, for which you went +security, and which you will soon have to pay like a good fellow." + +"What's this I hear?" cried Brigitte, up in arms; "twenty-five +thousand francs for which you have given security?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle," interposed Cerizet; "behind that sum which this +woman had lent him there was a mystery, and if I had not laid my hand +on the true explanation, there would certainly have been a very dirty +ending to it. La Peyrade was clever enough not only to whitewash +himself in Monsieur Thuillier's eyes, but to get him to secure the +debt." + +"But," said Thuillier, "how do you know that I did give security for +that debt, if you have not seen him since then?" + +"I know it from the woman herself, who tells the whole story now she +is certain of being paid." + +"Well," said Brigitte to her brother, "a pretty business you are +engaged in!" + +"Mademoiselle," said Cerizet, "I only meant to warn Monsieur Thuillier +a little. I think myself that you are sure to be paid. Without knowing +the exact particulars of this new marriage, I am certain the family +would never allow him to owe you to such mortifying debts; if +necessary, I should be very glad to intervene." + +"Monsieur," said Thuillier, stiffly, "thanking you for your officious +intervention, permit me to say that it surprises me a little, for the +manner in which we parted would not have allowed me to hope it." + +"Ah ca!" said Cerizet; "you don't think I was angry with you for that, +do you? I pitied you, that was all. I saw you under the spell, and I +said to myself: 'Leave him to learn la Peyrade by experience.' I knew +very well that the day of justice would dawn for me, and before long, +too. La Peyrade is a man who doesn't make you wait for his +questionable proceedings." + +"Allow me to say," remarked Thuillier, "that I do not consider the +rupture of the marriage we had proposed a questionable proceeding. The +matter was arranged, I may say, by mutual consent." + +"And the trick he is going to play you by leaving the paper in the +lurch, and the debt he has saddled you with, what are they?" + +"Monsieur Cerizet," continued Thuillier, still holding himself on the +reserve, "as I have said more than once to la Peyrade, no man is +indispensable; and if the editorship of my paper becomes vacant, I +feel confident that I shall at once meet with persons very eager to +offer me their services." + +"Is it for me you say that?" asked Cerizet. "Well, you haven't hit the +nail; if you did me the honor to want my services it would be +impossible for me to grant them. I have long been disgusted with +journalism. I let la Peyrade, I hardly know why, persuade me to make +this campaign with you; it didn't turn out happily, and I have vowed +to myself to have no more to do with newspapers. It was about another +matter altogether than I came to speak to you." + +"Ah!" said Thuillier. + +"Yes," continued Cerizet, "remembering the business-like manner in +which you managed the affair of this house in which you do me the +honor to receive me, I thought I could not do better than to call your +attention to a matter of the same kind which I have just now in hand. +But I shall not do as la Peyrade did,--make a bargain for the hand of +your goddaughter, and profess great friendship and devotion to you +personally. This is purely business, and I expect to make my profit +out of it. Now, as I still desire to become the principal tenant of +this house,--the letting of which must be a care and a disappointment +to mademoiselle, for I saw as I came along that the shops were still +unrented,--I think that this lease to me, if you will make it, might +be reckoned in to my share of the profits. You see, monsieur, that the +object of my visit has nothing to do with the newspaper." + +"What is this new affair?" said Brigitte; "that's the first thing to +know." + +"It relates to a farm in Beauce, which has just been sold for a song, +and it is placed in my hands to resell, at an advance, but a small +one; you could really buy it, as the saying is, for a bit of bread." + +And Cerizet went on to explain the whole mechanism of the affair, +which we need not relate here, as no one but Brigitte would take any +interest in it. The statement was clear and precise, and it took close +hold on the old maid's mind. Even Thuillier himself, in spite of his +inward distrust, was obliged to own that the affair had all the +appearance of a good speculation. + +"Only," said Brigitte, "we must first see the farm ourselves." + +This, the reader will remember, was her answer to la Peyrade when he +first proposed the purchase of the house at the Madeleine. + +"Nothing is easier than that," said Cerizet. "I myself want to see it, +and I have been intending to make a little excursion there. If you +like, I'll be at your door this afternoon with a post-chaise, and +to-morrow morning, very early, we can examine the farm, breakfast at +some inn near by, and be back in time for dinner." + +"A post-chaise!" said Brigitte, "that's very lordly; why not take the +diligence?" + +"Diligences are so uncertain," replied Cerizet; "you never know at +what time they will get to a place. But you need not think about the +expense, for I should otherwise go alone, and I am only too happy to +offer you two seats in my carriage." + +To misers, small gains are often determining causes in great matters; +after a little resistance "pro forma," Brigitte ended by accepting the +proposal, and three hours later the trio were on the road to Chartres, +Cerizet having advised Thuillier not to let la Peyrade know of his +absence, lest he might take some unfair advantage of it. + +The next day, by five o'clock, the party had returned, and the brother +and sister, who kept their opinions to themselves in presence of +Cerizet, were both agreed that the purchase was a good one. They had +found the soil of the best quality, the buildings in perfect repair, +the cattle looked sound and healthy; in short, this idea of becoming +the mistress of rural property seemed to Brigitte the final +consecration of opulence. + +"Minard," she remarked, "has only a town-house and invested capital, +whereas we shall have all that and a country-place besides; one can't +be really rich without it." + +Thuillier was not sufficiently under the charm of that dream--the +realization of which was, in any case, quite distant--to forget, even +for a moment, the "Echo de la Bievre" and his candidacy. No sooner had +he reached home than he asked for the morning's paper. + +"It has not come," said the "male domestic." + +"That's a fine distribution, when even the owner of the paper is not +served!" cried Thuillier, discontentedly. + +Although it was nearly dinner-time, and after his journey he would +much rather have taken a bath than rush to the rue Saint-Dominique, +Thuillier ordered a cab and drove at once to the office of the "Echo." + +There a fresh disappointment met him. The paper "was made," as they +say, and all the employees had departed, even la Peyrade. As for +Coffinet, who was not to be found at his post of office-boy, nor yet +at his other post of porter, he had gone "of an errand," his wife +said, taking the key of the closet in which the remaining copies of +the paper were locked up. Impossible, therefore, to procure the number +which the unfortunate proprietor had come so far to fetch. + +To describe Thuillier's indignation would be impossible. He marched up +and down the room, talking aloud to himself, as people do in moments +of excitement. + +"I'll turn them all out!" he cried. And we are forced to omit the rest +of the furious objurgation. + +As he ended his anathema a rap was heard on the door. + +"Come in!" said Thuillier, in a tone that depicted his wrath and his +frantic impatience. + +The door opened, and Minard rushed precipitately into his arms. + +"My good, my excellent friend!" cried the mayor of the eleventh +arrondissement, concluding his embrace with a hearty shake of the +hand. + +"Why! what is it?" said Thuillier, unable to comprehend the warmth of +this demonstration. + +"Ah! my dear friend," continued Minard, "such an admirable proceeding! +really chivalrous! most disinterested! The effect, I assure you, is +quite stupendous in the arrondissement." + +"But what, I say?" cried Thuillier, impatiently. + +"The article, the whole action," continued Minard, "so noble, so +elevated!" + +"But what article? what action?" said the proprietor of the "Echo," +getting quite beside himself. + +"The article of this morning," said Minard. + +"The article of this morning?" + +"Ah ca! did you write it when you were asleep; or, like Monsieur +Jourdain doing prose, do you do heroism without knowing it?" + +"I! I haven't written any article!" cried Thuillier. "I have been away +from Paris for a day, and I don't even know what is in this morning's +paper; and the office-boy is not here to give me a copy." + +"I have one," said Minard, pulling the much desired paper from his +pocket. "If the article is not years you have certainly inspired it; +in any case, the deed is done." + +Thuillier hurriedly unfolded the sheet Minard had given him, and +devoured rather than read the following article:-- + + Long enough has the proprietor of this regenerated journal + submitted without complaint and without reply to the cowardly + insinuations with which a venal press insults all citizens who, + strong in their convictions, refuse to pass beneath the Caudine + Forks of power. Long enough has a man, who has already given + proofs of devotion and abnegation in the important functions of + the aedility of Paris, allowed these sheets to call him ambitious + and self-seeking. Monsieur Jerome Thuillier, strong in his + dignity, has suffered such coarse attacks to pass him with + contempt. Encouraged by this disdainful silence, the stipendiaries + of the press have dared to write that this journal, a work of + conviction and of the most disinterested patriotism, was but the + stepping-stone of a man, the speculation of a seeker for election. + Monsieur Jerome Thuillier has held himself impassible before these + shameful imputations because justice and truth are patient, and he + bided his time to scotch the reptile. That time has come. + +"That deuce of a Peyrade!" said Thuillier, stopping short; "how he +does touch it off!" + +"It is magnificent!" cried Minard. + +Reading aloud, Thuillier continued:-- + + Every one, friends and enemies alike, can bear witness that + Monsieur Jerome Thuillier has done nothing to seek a candidacy + which was offered to him spontaneously. + +"That's evident," said Thuillier, interrupting himself. Then he +resumed:-- + + But, since his sentiments are so odiously misrepresented, and his + intentions so falsely travestied, Monsieur Jerome Thuillier owes + it to himself, and above all to the great national party of which + he is the humblest soldier, to give an example which shall + confound the vile sycophants of power. + +"It is fine, the way la Peyrade poses me!" said Thuillier, pausing +once more in his reading. "I see now why he didn't send me the paper; +he wanted to enjoy my surprise--'confound the vile sycophants of +power!' how fine that is!" + +After which reflection, he continued:-- + + Monsieur Thuillier was so far from founding this journal of + dynastic opposition to support and promote his election that, at + the very moment when the prospects of that election seem most + favorable to himself and most disastrous to his rivals, he here + declares publicly, and in the most formal, absolute, and + irrevocable manner that he _renounces his candidacy_. + +"What?" cried Thuillier, thinking he had read wrong, or had +misunderstood what he read. + +"Go on! go on!" said the mayor of the eleventh. + +Then, as Thuillier, with a bewildered air, seemed not disposed to +continue his reading, Minard took the paper from his hands and read +the rest of the article himself, beginning where the other had left +off:-- + + Renounces his candidacy; and he strongly urges the electors to + transfer to Monsieur Minard, mayor of the eleventh arrondissement + and his friend and colleague in his municipal functions, all the + votes with which they seemed about to honor him. + +"But this is infamous!" cried Thuillier, recovering his speech; "you +have bought that Jesuit la Peyrade." + +"So," said Minard, stupefied by Thuillier's attitude, "the article was +not agreed upon between you?" + +"The wretch has profited by my absence to slip it into the paper; I +understand now why he prevented a copy from reaching me to-day." + +"My dear friend," said Minard, "what you tell me will seem incredible +to the public." + +"I tell you it is treachery; it is an abominable trap. Renounce my +candidacy!--why should I?" + +"You understand, my dear friend," said Minard, "that I am truly sorry +if your confidence has been abused, but I have just issued my circular +manifesto; the die is cast, and luck to the lucky now." + +"Leave me," said Thuillier; "it is a comedy for which you have paid." + +"Monsieur Thuillier," said Minard, in a threatening voice, "I advise +you not to repeat those words, unless you are ready to give me +satisfaction for them." + +Happily for Thuillier, who, we may remember, had made his profession +of faith as to civic courage some time before, he was relieved from +answering by Coffinet, who now opened the door of the editorial +sanctum, and announced:-- + +"Messieurs the electors of the twelfth arrondissement." + +The arrondissement was represented on this occasion by five persons. +An apothecary, chairman of the deputation, proceeded to address +Thuillier in the following terms:-- + +"We have come, monsieur, after taking cognizance of an article +inserted this morning in the 'Echo de la Bievre,' to inquire of you +what may be precisely the origin and bearing of that article; thinking +it incredible that, having solicited our suffrages, you should, on the +eve of this election, and from a most mistaken puritanism, have cast +disorder and disunion into our ranks, and probably have caused the +triumph of the ministerial candidate. A candidate does not belong to +himself; he belongs to the electors who have promised to honor him +with their votes. But," continued the orator, casting his eye at +Minard, "the presence in these precincts of the candidate whom you +have gone out of your way to recommend to us, indicates that between +you and him there is connivance; and I have no need to ask who is +being here deceived." + +"No, messieurs, no," said Thuillier; "I have not renounced my +candidacy. That article was written and printed without my knowledge +or consent. To-morrow you will see the denial of it in the same paper, +and you will also learn that the infamous person who has betrayed my +confidence is no longer the editor of this journal." + +"Then," said the orator of the deputation, "in spite of your +declaration to the contrary, you do continue to be the candidate of +the Opposition?" + +"Yes, messieurs, until death; and I beg you to use your utmost +influence in the quarter to neutralize the effect of this deliberate +falsehood until I am able to officially present the most formal +disavowal." + +"Hear! hear!" said the electors. + +"And, as for the presence of Monsieur Minard, my competitor, in these +precincts, I have not invited it; and at the moment when you entered +this room, I was engaged in a very sharp and decided explanation with +him." + +"Hear! hear!" said the electors again. + +Then, after cordially shaking the hand of the apothecary, Thuillier +conducted the deputation to the outer door of the apartment; after +which, returning to the editorial sanctum, he said:-- + +"My dear Minard, I withdraw the words which wounded you; but you can +see now what justification I had for my indignation." + +Here Coffinet again opened the door and announced:-- + +"Messieurs the electors of the eleventh arrondissement." + +The arrondissement was represented this time by seven persons. A +linen-draper, chairman of the delegation, addressed Thuillier in the +following speech:-- + +"Monsieur, it is with sincere admiration that we have learned this +morning from the columns of your paper, the great civic act by which +you have touched all hearts. You have shown, in thus retiring, a most +unusual disinterestedness, and the esteem of your fellow-citizens--" + +"Excuse me," said Thuillier, interrupting him, "I cannot allow you to +continue; the article about which you are so good as to congratulate +me, was inserted by mistake." + +"What!" said the linen-draper; "then do you not retire? Can you +suppose that in opposition to the candidacy of Monsieur Minard (whose +presence in these precincts seems to me rather singular) you have the +slightest chance of success?" + +"Monsieur," said Thuillier, "have the goodness to request the electors +of your arrondissement to await the issue of to-morrow's paper, in +which I shall furnish categorical explanations of the most distinct +character. The article to-day is the result of a misunderstanding." + +"It will be a sad pity, monsieur," said the linen-draper, "if you lose +this occasion to place yourself in the eyes of your fellow-citizens +beside the Washingtons and other great men of antiquity." + +"I say again, _to-morrow_, messieurs," said Thuillier. "I am none the +less sensible to the honor you do me, and I trust that when you know +the whole truth, I shall not suffer in your esteem." + +"A pretty queer mess this seems to be," said the voice of an elector. + +"Yes," said another; "it looks as if they meant to bamboozle us." + +"Messieurs, messieurs!" cried the chairman, putting a stop to the +outbreak; "to-morrow--we will wait until to-morrow for the promised +explanations." + +Whereupon, the deputation retired. + +It is not likely that Thuillier would have accompanied them beyond the +door of the sanctum, but in any case he was prevented by the sudden +entrance of la Peyrade. + +"I have just come from your house, my dear fellow," said the +Provencal; "they told me I should find you here." + +"You have come, doubtless, for the purpose of explaining to me the +strange article you allowed yourself to insert in my name." + +"Precisely," said la Peyrade. "The remarkable man whom you know, and +whose powerful influence you have already felt, confided to me +yesterday, in your interests, the plans of the government, and I saw +at once that your defeat was inevitable. I wished therefore to secure +to you an honorable and dignified retreat. There was no time to lose; +you were absent from Paris, and therefore--" + +"Very good, monsieur," said Thuillier; "but you will take notice that +from the present moment you are no longer the editor of this paper." + +"That is what I came to tell you." + +"Perhaps you also came to settle the little account we have together." + +"Messieurs," said Minard, "I see that this is a business interview; I +shall therefore take leave of you." + +As soon as Minard had left the room, la Peyrade pulled out his +pocket-book. + +"Here are ten thousand francs," he said, "which I will beg you to +remit to Mademoiselle Brigitte; and here, also, is the bond by which +you secured the payment of twenty-five thousand francs to Madame +Lambert; that sum I have now paid in full, and here is the receipt." + +"Very good, monsieur," said Thuillier. + +La Peyrade bowed and went away. + +"Serpent!" said Thuillier as he watched him go. + +"Cerizet said the right thing," thought la Peyrade,--"a pompous +imbecile!" + +The blow struck at Thuillier's candidacy was mortal, but Minard did +not profit by it. While the pair were contending for votes, a +government man, an aide-de-camp to the king, arrived with his hands +full of tobacco licenses and other electoral small change, and, like +the third thief, he slipped between the two who were thumping each +other, and carried off the booty. + +It is needless to say that Brigitte did not get her farm in Beauce. +That was only a mirage, by help of which Thuillier was enticed out of +Paris long enough for la Peyrade to deal his blow,--a service rendered +to the government on the one hand, but also a precious vengeance for +the many humiliations he had undergone. + +Thuillier had certainly some suspicions as to the complicity of +Cerizet, but that worthy managed to justify himself; and by +manoeuvring the sale of the "Echo de la Bievre," now become a +nightmare to the luckless owner, he ended by appearing as white as +snow. + +The paper was secretly bought up by Corentin, and the late opposition +sheet became a "canard" sold on Sundays in the wine-shops and +concocted in the dens of the police. + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + IN THE EXERCISE OF HIS FUNCTIONS + +About two months after the scene in which la Peyrade had been +convinced that through a crime of his past life his future was +irrevocably settled, he (being now married to his victim, who was +beginning to have lucid intervals, though the full return of her +reason would not take place until the occasion indicated by the +doctors) was sitting one morning with the head of the police in the +latter's office. Taking part in the work of the department, the young +man was serving an apprenticeship under that great master in the +difficult and delicate functions to which he was henceforth riveted. +But Corentin found that his pupil did not bring to this initiation all +the ardor and amiability that he desired. It was plain that in la +Peyrade's soul there was a sense of forfeiture and degradation; time +would get the better of that impression, but the callus was not yet +formed. + +Opening a number of sealed envelopes enclosing the reports of his +various agents, Corentin glanced over these documents, seldom as +useful as the public suppose, casting them one after another +contemptuously into a basket, whence they issued in a mass for a +burning. But to one of them the great man evidently gave some +particular attention; as he read it a smile flickered on his lips, and +when he had finished, instead of adding it to the pile in the basket, +he gave it to la Peyrade. + +"Here," he said, "here's something that concerns you; it shows that in +our profession, which just now seems to you unpleasantly serious, we +do occasionally meet with comedies. Read it aloud; it will cheer me +up." + +Before la Peyrade began to read, Corentin added:-- + +"I ought to tell you that the report is from a man called Henri, whom +Madame Komorn introduced as man-servant at the Thuilliers'; you +probably remember him." + +"So!" said la Peyrade, "servants placed in families! is that one of +your methods?" + +"Sometimes," replied Corentin; "in order to know all, we must use all +means. But a great many lies are told about us on that subject. It is +not true that the police, making a system of it, has, at certain +periods, by a general enrolment of lacqueys and lady's-maids, +established a vast network in private families. Nothing is fixed and +absolute in our manner of proceeding; we act in accordance with the +time and circumstances. I wanted an ear and an influence in the +Thuillier household; accordingly, I let loose the Godollo upon it, and +she, in turn, partly to assist herself, installed there one of our +men, an intelligent fellow, as you will see for yourself. But for all +that, if, at another time, a servant came and offered to sell me the +secrets of his master, I should have him arrested, and let a warning +reach the ears of the family to distrust the other servants. Now go +on, and read that report." + + Monsieur the Director of the Secret Police, + +read la Peyrade aloud,-- + + I did not stay long with the little baron; he is a man wholly + occupied in frivolous pleasures; and there was nothing to be + gathered there that was worthy of a report to you. I have found + another place, where I have already witnessed several thing which + fit into the mission that Madame de Godollo gave me, and + therefore, thinking them likely to interest you, I hasten to bring + them to your knowledge. The household in which I am now employed + is that of an old savant, named Monsieur Picot, who lives on a + first floor, Place de la Madeleine, in the house and apartment + formerly occupied by my late masters, the Thuilliers-- + +"What!" cried la Peyrade, interrupting his reading, "Pere Picot, that +ruined old lunatic, occupying such an apartment as that?" + +"Go on, go on!" said Corentin; "life is full of many strange things. +You'll find the explanation farther along; for our correspondent--it +is the defect of those fellows to waste themselves on details--is only +too fond of dotting his i's." + +La Peyrade read on:-- + + The Thuilliers left this apartment some weeks ago to return to + their Latin quarter. Mademoiselle Brigitte never really liked our + sphere; her total want of education made her ill at ease. Just + because I speak correctly, she was always calling me 'the orator,' + and she could not endure Monsieur Pascal, her porter, because, + being beadle in the church of the Madeleine, he had manners; she + even found something to say against the dealers in the great + market behind the church, where, of course, she bought her + provisions; she complained that they gave themselves _capable_ + airs, merely because they are not so coarse-tongued as those of + the Halle, and only laughed at her when she tried to beat them + down. She has leased the whole house to a certain Monsieur Cerizet + (a very ugly man, with a nose all eaten away) for an annual rent of + fifty-five thousand francs. This tenant seems to know what he is + about. He has lately married an actress at one of the minor + theatres, Mademoiselle Olympe Cardinal, and he was just about to + occupy himself the first-floor apartment, where he proposed to + establish his present business, namely, insurance for the "dots" + of children, when Monsieur Picot, arriving from England with his + wife, a very rich Englishwoman, saw the apartment and offered such + a good price that Monsieur Cerizet felt constrained to take it. + That was the time when, by the help of M. Pascal, the porter, with + whom I have been careful to maintain good relations, I entered the + household of Monsieur Picot. + +"Monsieur Picot married to a rich Englishwoman!" exclaimed la Peyrade, +interrupting himself again; "but it is incomprehensible." + +"Go on, I tell you," said Corentin; "you'll comprehend it presently." + + The fortune of my new master, + +continued la Peyrade, + + is quite a history; and I speak of it to Monsieur le directeur + because another person in whom Madame de Godollo was interested + has his marriage closely mixed up in it. That other person is + Monsieur Felix Phellion, the inventor of a star, who, in despair + at not being able to marry that demoiselle whom they wanted to + give to the Sieur la Peyrade whom Madame de Godollo made such a + fool of-- + +"Scoundrel!" said the Provencal, in a parenthesis. "Is that how he +speaks of me? He doesn't know who I am." + +Corentin laughed heartily and exhorted his pupil to read on. + + --who, in despair at not being able to marry that demoiselle . . . + went to England in order to embark for a journey round the world + --a lover's notion! Learning of this departure, Monsieur Picot, + his former professor, who took great interest in his pupil, went + after him to prevent that nonsense, which turned out not to be + difficult. The English are naturally very jealous of discoveries, + and when they saw Monsieur Phellion coming to embark at the heels + of their own savants they asked him for his permit from the + Admiralty; which, not having been provided, he could not produce; + so then they laughed in his face and would not let him embark at + all, fearing that he should prove more learned than they. + +"He is a fine hand at the 'entente cordiale,' your Monsieur Henri," +said la Peyrade, gaily. + +"Yes," replied Corentin; "you will be struck, in the reports of nearly +all our agents, with this general and perpetual inclination to +calumniate. But what's to be done? For the trade of spies we can't +have angels." + + Left upon the shore, Telemachus and his mentor-- + +"You see our men are lettered," commented Corentin. + + --Telemachus and his mentor thought best to return to France, and + were about to do so when Monsieur Picot received a letter such as + none but an Englishwoman could write. It told him that the writer + had read his "Theory of Perpetual Motion," and had also heard of + his magnificent discovery of a star; that she regarded him as a + genius only second to Newton, and that if the hand of her who + addressed him, joined to eighty thousand pounds sterling--that is, + two millions--of "dot," was agreeable to him it was at his + disposal. The first thought of the good man was to make his pupil + marry her, but finding that impossible, he told her, before + accepting on his own account, that he was old and three-quarters + blind, and had never discovered a star, and did not own a penny. + The Englishwoman replied that Milton was not young either, and was + altogether blind; that Monsieur Picot seemed to her to have + nothing worse than a cataract, for she knew all about it, being + the daughter of a great oculist, and she would have him operated + upon; that as for the star, she did not care so very much about + that; it was the author of the "Theory of Perpetual Motion" who + was the man of her dreams, and to whom she again offered her hand + with eighty thousand pounds sterling (two millions) of "dot." + Monsieur Picot replied that if his sight were restored and she + would consent to live in Paris, for he hated England, he would let + himself be married. The operation was performed and was + successful, and, at the end of three weeks the newly married pair + arrived in the capital. These details I obtained from the lady's + maid, with whom I am on the warmest terms. + +"Oh! the puppy!" said Corentin, laughing. + + The above is therefore hearsay, but what remains to be told to + Monsieur le directeur are facts of which I can speak "de visu," + and to which I am, consequently, in a position to certify. As + soon as Monsieur and Madame Picot had installed themselves, which + was done in the most sumptuous and comfortable manner, my master + gave me a number of invitations to dinner to carry to the + Thuillier family, the Colleville family, the Minard family, the + Abbe Gondrin, vicar of the Madeleine, and nearly all the guests + who were present at another dinner a few months earlier, when he + had an encounter with Mademoiselle Thuillier, and behaved, I must + say, in a rather singular manner. All the persons who received + these invitations were so astonished to learn that the old man + Picot had married a rich wife and was living in the Thuilliers' + old apartment that most of them came to inquire of Monsieur + Pascal, the porter, to see if they were hoaxed. The information + they obtained being honest and honorable, the whole society + arrived punctually on time; but Monsieur Picot did not appear. + The guests were received by Madame Picot, who does not speak + French and could only say, "My husband is coming soon"; after + which, not being able to make further conversation, the company + were dull and ill at ease. At last Monsieur Picot arrived, and all + present were stupefied on seeing, instead of an old blind man, + shabbily dressed, a handsome young elderly man, bearing his years + jauntily, like Monsieur Ferville of the Gymnase, who said with a + lively air: + + "I beg your pardon, mesdames, for not being here at the moment of + your arrival; but I was at the Academy of Sciences, awaiting the + result of an election,--that of Monsieur Felix Phellion, who has + been elected unanimously less three votes." + + This news seemed to have a great effect upon the company. So then + Monsieur Picot resumed:-- + + "I must also, mesdames, ask your pardon for the rather improper + manner in which I behaved a short time ago in the house where we + are now assembled. My excuse must be my late infirmity, the + annoyances of a family lawsuit, and of an old housekeeper who + robbed me and tormented me in a thousand ways, from whom I am + happily delivered. To-day you see me another man, rejuvenated and + rich with the blessings bestowed upon me by the amiable woman who + has given me her hand; and I should be in the happiest frame of + mind to receive you if the recollection of my young friend, whose + eminence as a man of science has just been consecrated by the + Academy, did not cast upon my mind a veil of sadness. All here + present," continued Monsieur Picot, raising his voice, which is + rather loud, "are guilty towards him: I, for ingratitude when he + gave me the glory of his discovery and the reward of his immortal + labors; that young lady, whom I see over there with tears in her + eyes, for having foolishly accused him of atheism; that other + lady, with the stern face, for having harshly replied to the + proposals of his noble father, whose white hairs she ought rather + to have honored; Monsieur Thuillier, for having sacrificed him to + ambition; Monsieur Colleville, for not performing his part of + father and choosing for his daughter the worthiest and most + honorable man; Monsieur Minard, for having tried to foist his son + into his place. There are but two persons in the room at this + moment who have done him full justice,--Madame Thuillier and + Monsieur l'Abbe Gondrin. Well, I shall now ask that man of God + whether we can help doubting the divine justice when this generous + young man, the victim of all of us, is, at the present hour, at + the mercy of waves and tempests, to which for three long years he + is consigned." + + "Providence is very powerful, monsieur," replied the Abbe Gondrin. + "God will protect Monsieur Felix Phellion wherever he may be, and + I have the firmest hope that three years hence he will be among + his friends once more." + + "But three years!" said Monsieur Picot. "Will it still be time? + Will Mademoiselle Colleville have waited for him?" + + "Yes, I swear it!" cried the young girl, carried away by an + impulse she could not control. + + Then she sat down again, quite ashamed, and burst into tears. + + "And you, Mademoiselle Thuillier, and you, Madame Colleville, will + you permit this young lady to reserve herself for one who is + worthy of her?" + + "Yes! Yes!" cried everybody; for Monsieur Picot's voice, which is + very full and sonorous, seemed to have tears in it and affected + everybody. + + "Then it is time," he said, "to forgive Providence." + + And rushing suddenly to the door, where my ear was glued to the + keyhole, he very nearly caught me. + + "Announce," he said to me, in a very loud tone of voice, "Monsieur + Felix Phellion and his family." + + And thereupon the door of a side room opened, and five or six + persons came out, who were led by Monsieur Picot into the salon. + + At the sight of her _lover_, Mademoiselle Colleville was taken ill, + but the faint lasted only a minute; seeing Monsieur Felix at her + feet she threw herself into Madame Thuillier's arms, crying out:-- + + "Godmother! you always told me to hope." + + Mademoiselle Thuillier, who, in spite of her harsh nature and want + of education, I have always myself thought a remarkable woman, now + had a fine impulse. As the company were about to go into the + dining-room,-- + + "One moment!" she said. + + Then going up to Monsieur Phellion, senior, she said to him: + + "Monsieur and old friend! I ask you for the hand of Monsieur Felix + Phellion for our adopted daughter, Mademoiselle Colleville." + + "Bravo! bravo!" they call cried in chorus. + + "My God!" said Monsieur Phellion, with tears in his eyes; "what + have I done to deserve such happiness?" + + "You have been an honest man and a Christian without knowing it," + replied the Abbe Gondrin. + +Here la Peyrade flung down the manuscript. + +"You did not finish it," said Corentin, taking back the paper. +"However, there's not much more. Monsieur Henri confesses to me that +the scene had _moved him_; he also says that, knowing the interest I +had formerly taken in the marriage, he thought he ought to inform me +of its conclusion; ending with a slightly veiled suggestion of a fee. +No, stay," resumed Corentin, "here is a detail of some importance:--" + + The English woman seems to have made it known during dinner that, + having no heirs, her fortune, after the lives of herself and her + husband, will go to Felix. That will make him powerfully rich one + of these days. + +La Peyrade had risen and was striding about the room with rapid steps. + +"Well," said Corentin, "what is the matter with you?" + +"Nothing." + +"That is not true," said the great detective. "I think you envy the +happiness of that young man. My dear fellow, permit me to tell you +that if such a conclusion were to your taste, you should have acted as +he has done. When I sent you two thousand francs on which to study +law, I did not intend you to succeed me; I expected you to row your +galley laboriously, to have the needful courage for obscure and +painful toil; your day would infallibly have come. But you chose to +violate fortune--" + +"Monsieur!" + +"I mean hasten it, reap it before it ripened. You flung yourself into +journalism; then into business, questionable business; you made +acquaintance with Messieurs Dutocq and Cerizet. Frankly, I think you +fortunate to have entered the port which harbors you to-day. In any +case, you are not sufficiently simple of heart to have really valued +the joys reserved for Felix Phellion. These bourgeois--" + +"These bourgeois," said la Peyrade, quickly,--"I know them now. They +have great absurdities, great vices even, but they have virtues, or, +at the least, estimable qualities; in them lies the vital force of our +corrupt society." + +"_Your_ society!" said Corentin, smiling; "you speak as if you were +still in the ranks. You have another sphere, my dear fellow; and you +must learn to be more content with your lot. Governments pass, +societies perish or dwindle; but we--_we_ dominate all things; the +police is eternal." + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + Note.--This volume ("Les Petits Bourgeois") was not published + until 1854, more than three years after Balzac's death; although + he says of it in March, 1844: "I must tell you that my work + entitled 'Les Petits Bourgeois,' owing to difficulties of + execution, requires still a month's labor, although the book is + entirely written." And again, in October, 1846, he says: "It is to + such scruples" (care in perfecting his work) "that delays which + have injured several of my works are due; for instance, 'Les + Paysans,' which has long been nearly finished, and 'Les Petits + Bourgeois,' which has been in type at the printing office for the + last eighteen months." + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Barbet + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Man of Business + The Seamy Side of History + The Middle Classes + +Baudoyer, Isidore + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Beaumesnil, Mademoiselle + The Middle Classes + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Second Home + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Bousquier, Du (or Du Croisier or Du Bourguier) + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Middle Classes + +Brisetout, Heloise + Cousin Betty + Cousin Pons + The Middle Classes + +Bruel, Jean Francois du + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + A Prince of Bohemia + The Middle Classes + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + +Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Prince of Bohemia + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Middle Classes + +Bruno + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Cardot (Parisian notary) + The Muse of the Department + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Cerizet + Lost Illusions + A Man of Business + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Chaffaroux + Cesar Birotteau + A Prince of Bohemia + The Middle Classes + +Claparon, Charles + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + Melmoth Reconciled + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Cochin, Emile-Louis-Lucien-Emmanuel + Cesar Birotteau + The Government Clerks + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + +Colleville + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Colleville, Flavie Minoret, Madame + The Government Clerks + Cousin Betty + The Middle Classes + +Corentin + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Couture + Beatrix + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + +Crochard, Charles + A Second Home + The Middle Classes + +Desroches (son) + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + A Start in Life + A Woman of Thirty + The Commission in Lunacy + The Government Clerks + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Dutocq + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Fleury + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Galathionne, Prince and Princess (both not in each story) + The Secrets of a Princess + The Middle Classes + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + +Godard, Joseph + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie + Colonel Chabert + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Start in Life + The Commission in Lunacy + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Grassou, Pierre + Pierre Grassou + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Betty + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Grindot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + +Katt + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + +La Peyrade, Charles-Marie-Theodose de + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +La Peyrade, Madame de + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +La Roche-Hugon, Martial de + Domestic Peace + The Peasantry + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + +Laudigeois + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Metivier + Lost Illusions + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Metivier (nephew) + The Seamy Side of History + The Middle Classes + +Minard, Auguste-Jean-Francois + The Government Clerks + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + +Minard, Madame + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Phellion + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Poiret, the elder + The Government Clerks + Father Goriot + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Poiret, Madame (nee Christine-Michelle Michonneau) + Father Goriot + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Popinot, Jean-Jules + Cesar Birotteau + Honorine + The Commission in Lunacy + The Seamy Side of History + The Middle Classes + +Rabourdin, Xavier + The Government Clerks + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + +Saillard + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Thuillier + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Thuillier, Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Thuillier, Louis-Jerome + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Pierrette + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Vinet + Pierrette + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Vinet, Olivier + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Pons + The Middle Classes + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Lesser Bourgeoisie, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LESSER BOURGEOISIE *** + +***** This file should be named 1641.txt or 1641.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/6/4/1641/ + +Produced by John Bickers, Dagny, and Bonnie Sala + +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 John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz +Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and Bonnie Sala + + + + + +THE LESSER BOURGEOISIE +(The Middle Classes) + +by HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + +Translated By +Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + +DEDICATION + + To Constance-Victoire. + + Here, madame, is one of those books which come into the mind, + whence no one knows, giving pleasure to the author before he can + foresee what reception the public, our great present judge, will + accord to it. Feeling almost certain of your sympathy in my + pleasure, I dedicate the book to you. Ought it not to belong to + you as the tithe formerly belonged to the Church in memory of God, + who makes all things bud and fruit in the fields and in the + intellect? + + A few lumps of clay, left by Moliere at the feet of his colossal + statue of Tartuffe, have here been kneaded by a hand more daring + than able; but, at whatever distance I may be from the greatest of + comic writers, I shall still be glad to have used these crumbs in + showing the modern Hypocrite in action. The chief encouragement + that I have had in this difficult undertaking was in finding it + apart from all religious questions,--questions which ought to be + kept out of it for the sake of one so pious as yourself; and also + because of what a great writer has lately called our present + "indifference in matters of religion." + + May the double signification of your names be for my book a + prophecy! Deign to find here the respectful gratitude of him who + ventures to call himself the most devoted of your servants. + + +De Balzac. + + + + +THE LESSER BOURGEOISIE +(The Middle Classes) + + + + +PART I + +THE LESSER BOURGEOIS OF PARIS + + + +CHAPTER I + +DEPARTING PARIS + +The tourniquet Saint-Jean, the narrow passage entered through a +turnstile, a description of which was said to be so wearisome in the +study entitled "A Double Life" (Scenes from Private Life), that naive +relic of old Paris, has at the present moment no existence except in +our said typography. The building of the Hotel-de-Ville, such as we +now see it, swept away a whole section of the city. + +In 1830, passers along the street could still see the turnstile +painted on the sign of a wine-merchant, but even that house, its last +asylum, has been demolished. Alas! old Paris is disappearing with +frightful rapidity. Here and there, in the course of this history of +Parisian life, will be found preserved, sometimes the type of the +dwellings of the middle ages, like that described in "Fame and Sorrow" +(Scenes from Private Life), one or two specimens of which exist to the +present day; sometimes a house like that of Judge Popinot, rue du +Fouarre, a specimen of the former bourgeoisie; here, the remains of +Fulbert's house; there, the old dock of the Seine as it was under +Charles IX. Why should not the historian of French society, a new Old +Mortality, endeavor to save these curious expressions of the past, as +Walter Scott's old man rubbed up the tombstones? Certainly, for the +last ten years the outcries of literature in this direction have not +been superfluous; art is beginning to disguise beneath its floriated +ornaments those ignoble facades of what are called in Paris "houses of +product," which one of our poets has jocosely compared to chests of +drawers. + +Let us remark here, that the creation of the municipal commission "del +ornamento" which superintends at Milan the architecture of street +facades, and to which every house owner is compelled to subject his +plan, dates from the seventeenth century. Consequently, we see in that +charming capital the effects of this public spirit on the part of +nobles and burghers, while we admire their buildings so full of +character and originality. Hideous, unrestrained speculation which, +year after year, changes the uniform level of storeys, compresses a +whole apartment into the space of what used to be a salon, and wages +war upon gardens, will infallibly react on Parisian manners and +morals. We shall soon be forced to live more without than within. Our +sacred private life, the freedom and liberty of home, where will they +be?--reserved for those who can muster fifty thousand francs a year! +In fact, few millionaires now allow themselves the luxury of a house +to themselves, guarded by a courtyard on a street and protected from +public curiosity by a shady garden at the back. + +By levelling fortunes, that section of the Code which regulates +testamentary bequests, has produced these huge stone phalansteries, in +which thirty families are often lodged, returning a rental of a +hundred thousand francs a year. Fifty years hence we shall be able to +count on our fingers the few remaining houses which resemble that +occupied, at the moment our narrative begins, by the Thuillier family, +--a really curious house which deserves the honor of an exact +description, if only to compare the life of the bourgeoisie of former +times with that of to-day. + +The situation and the aspect of this house, the frame of our present +Scene of manners and morals, has, moreover, a flavor, a perfume of the +lesser bourgeoisie, which may attract or repel attention according to +the taste of each reader. + +In the first place, the Thuillier house did not belong to either +Monsieur or Madame Thuillier, but to Mademoiselle Thuillier, the +sister of Monsieur Thuillier. + +This house, bought during the first six months which followed the +revolution of July by Mademoiselle Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte Thuillier, a +spinster of full age, stands about the middle of the rue Saint- +Dominique d'Enfer, to the right as you enter by the rue d'Enfer, so +that the main building occupied by Monsieur Thuillier faces south. + +The progressive movement which is carrying the Parisian population to +the heights along the right bank of the Seine had long injured the +sale of property in what is called the "Latin quarter," when reasons, +which will be given when we come to treat of the character and habits +of Monsieur Thuillier, determined his sister to the purchase of real +estate. She obtained this property for the small sum of forty-six +thousand francs; certain extras amounted to six thousand more; in all, +the price paid was fifty-two thousand francs. A description of the +property given in the style of an advertisement, and the results +obtained by Monsieur Thuillier's exertions, will explain by what means +so many fortunes increased enormously after July, 1830, while so many +others sank. + +Toward the street the house presents a facade of rough stone covered +with plaster, cracked by weather and lined by the mason's instrument +into a semblance of blocks of cut stone. This frontage is so common in +Paris and so ugly that the city ought to offer premiums to house- +owners who would build their facades of cut-stone blocks. Seven +windows lighted the gray front of this house which was raised three +storeys, ending in a mansard roof covered with slate. The porte- +cochere, heavy and solid, showed by its workmanship and style that the +front building on the street had been erected in the days of the +Empire, to utilize a part of the courtyard of the vast old mansion, +built at an epoch when the quarter d'Enfer enjoyed a certain vogue. + +On one side was the porter's lodge; on the other the staircase of the +front building. Two wings, built against the adjoining houses, had +formerly served as stables, coach-house, kitchen and offices to the +rear dwelling; but since 1830, they had been converted into warerooms. +The one on the right was let to a certain M. Metivier, jr., wholesale +dealer in paper; that on the left to a bookseller named Barbet. The +offices of each were above the warerooms; the bookseller occupying the +first storey, and the paper-dealer the second storey of the house on +the street. Metivier, jr., who was more of a commission merchant in +paper than a regular dealer, and Barbet, much more of a money lender +and discounter than a bookseller, kept these vast warerooms for the +purpose of storing,--one, his stacks of paper, bought of needy +manufacturers, the other, editions of books given as security for +loans. + +The shark of bookselling and the pike of paper-dealing lived on the +best of terms, and their mutual operations, exempt from the turmoil of +retail business, brought so few carriages into that tranquil courtyard +that the concierge was obliged to pull up the grass between the paving +stones. Messrs. Barbet and Metivier paid a few rare visits to their +landlords, and the punctuality with which they paid their rent classed +them as good tenants; in fact, they were looked upon as very honest +men by the Thuillier circle. + +As for the third floor on the street, it was made into two apartments; +one of which was occupied by M. Dutocq, clerk of the justice of peace, +a retired government employee, and a frequenter of the Thuillier +salon; the other by the hero of this Scene, about whom we must content +ourselves at the present moment by fixing the amount of his rent,-- +namely, seven hundred francs a year,--and the location he had chosen +in the heart of this well-filled building, exactly three years before +the curtain rises on the present domestic drama. + +The clerk, a bachelor of fifty, occupied the larger of the two +apartments on the third floor. He kept a cook, and the rent of the +rooms was a thousand francs a year. Within two years of the time of +her purchase, Mademoiselle Thuillier was receiving seven thousand two +hundred francs in rentals, for a house which the late proprietor had +supplied with outside blinds, renovated within, and adorned with +mirrors, without being able to sell or let it. Moreover, the +Thuilliers themselves, nobly lodged, as we shall see, enjoyed also a +fine garden,--one of the finest in that quarter,--the trees of which +shaded the lonely little street named the rue Neuve-Saint-Catherine. + +Standing between the courtyard and the garden, the main building, +which they inhabited, seems to have been the caprice of some enriched +bourgeois in the reign of Louis XIV.; the dwelling, perhaps, of a +president of the parliament, or that of a tranquil savant. Its noble +free-stone blocks, damaged by time, have a certain air of Louis-the- +Fourteenth grandeur; the courses of the facade define the storeys; +panels of red brick recall the appearance of the stables at +Versailles; the windows have masks carved as ornaments in the centre +of their arches and below their sills. The door, of small panels in +the upper half and plain below, through which, when open, the garden +can be seen, is of that honest, unassuming style which was often +employed in former days for the porter's lodges of the royal chateaux. + +This building, with five windows to each course, rises two storeys +above the ground-floor, and is particularly noticeable for a roof of +four sides ending in a weather-vane, and broken here and there by +tall, handsome chimneys, and oval windows. Perhaps this structure is +the remains of some great mansion; but after examining all the +existing old maps of Paris, we find nothing which bears out this +conjecture. Moreover, the title-deeds of property under Louis XIV. was +Petitot, the celebrated painter in miniature, who obtained it +originally from President Lecamus. We may therefore believe that +Lecamus lived in this building while he was erecting his more famous +mansion in the rue de Thorigny. + +So Art and the legal robe have passed this way in turn. How many +instigations of needs and pleasures have led to the interior +arrangement of the dwelling! To right, as we enter a square hall +forming a closed vestibule, rises a stone staircase with two windows +looking on the garden. Beneath the staircase opens a door to the +cellar. From this vestibule we enter the dining-room, lighted from the +courtyard, and the dining-room communicates at its side with the +kitchen, which forms a continuation of the wing in which are the +warerooms of Metivier and Barbet. Behind the staircase extends, on the +garden side, a fine study or office with two large windows. The first +and second floor form two complete apartments, and the servants' +quarters are shown by the oval windows in the four-sided roof. + +A large porcelain stove heats the square vestibule, the two glass +doors of which, placed opposite to each other, light it. This room, +paved in black and white marble, is especially noticeable for a +ceiling of beams formerly painted and gilt, but which had since +received, probably under the Empire, a coat of plain white paint. The +three doors of the study, salon and dining-room, surmounted by oval +panels, are awaiting a restoration that is more than needed. The wood- +work is heavy, but the ornamentation is not without merit. The salon, +panelled throughout, recalls the great century by its tall mantelpiece +of Languedoc marble, its ceiling decorated at the corners, and by the +style of its windows, which still retain their little panes. The +dining-room, communicating with the salon by a double door, is floored +with stone; the wood-work is oak, unpainted, and an atrocious modern +wall-paper has been substituted for the tapestries of the olden time. +The ceiling is of chestnut; and the study, modernized by Thuillier, +adds its quota to these discordances. + +The white and gold mouldings of the salon are so effaced that nothing +remains of the gilding but reddish lines, while the white enamelling +is yellow, cracked, and peeling off. Never did the Latin saying "Otium +cum dignitate" have a greater commentary to the mind of a poet than in +this noble building. The iron-work of the staircase baluster is worthy +of the artist and the magistrate; but to find other traces of their +taste to-day in this majestic relic, the eyes of an artistic observer +are needed. + +The Thuilliers and their predecessors have frequently degraded this +jewel of the upper bourgeoisie by the habits and inventions of the +lesser bourgeoisie. Look at those walnut chairs covered with horse- +hair, that mahogany table with its oilcloth cover, that sideboard, +also of mahogany, that carpet, bought at a bargain, beneath the table, +those metal lamps, that wretched paper with its red border, those +execrable engravings, and the calico curtains with red fringes, in a +dining-room, where the friends of Petitot once feasted! Do you notice +the effect produced in the salon by those portraits of Monsieur and +Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier by Pierre Grassou, the artist par +excellence of the modern bourgeoisie. Have you remarked the card- +tables and the consoles of the Empire, the tea-table supported by a +lyre, and that species of sofa, of gnarled mahogany, covered in +painted velvet of a chocolate tone? On the chimney-piece, with the +clock (representing the Bellona of the Empire), are candelabra with +fluted columns. Curtains of woollen damask, with under-curtains of +embroidered muslin held back by stamped brass holders, drape the +windows. On the floor a cheap carpet. The handsome vestibule has +wooden benches, covered with velvet, and the panelled walls with their +fine carvings are mostly hidden by wardrobes, brought there from time +to time from the bedrooms occupied by the Thuilliers. Fear, that +hideous divinity, has caused the family to add sheet-iron doors on the +garden side and on the courtyard side, which are folded back against +the walls in the daytime, and are closed at night. + +It is easy to explain the deplorable profanation practised on this +monument of the private life of the bourgeoisie of the seventeenth +century, by the private life of the bourgeoisie of the nineteenth. At +the beginning of the Consulate, let us say, some master-mason having +bought the ancient building, took the idea of turning to account the +ground which lay between it and the street. He probably pulled down +the fine porte-cochere or entrance gate, flanked by little lodges +which guarded the charming "sejour" (to use a word of the olden time), +and proceeded, with the industry of a Parisian proprietor, to impress +his withering mark on the elegance of the old building. What a curious +study might be made of the successive title-deeds of property in +Paris! A private lunatic asylum performs its functions in the rue des +Batailles in the former dwelling of the Chevalier Pierre Bayard du +Terrail, once without fear and without reproach; a street has now been +built by the present bourgeois administration through the site of the +hotel Necker. Old Paris is departing, following its kings who +abandoned it. For one masterpiece of architecture saved from +destruction by a Polish princess (the hotel Lambert, Ile Saint-Louis, +bought and occupied by the Princess Czartoriska) how many little +palaces have fallen, like this dwelling of Petitot, into the hands of +such as Thuillier. + +Here follows the causes which made Mademoiselle Thuillier the owner of +the house. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE HISTORY OF A TYRANNY + +At the fall of the Villele ministry, Monsieur Louis-Jerome Thuillier, +who had then seen twenty-six years' service as a clerk in the ministry +of finance, became sub-director of a department thereof; but scarcely +had he enjoyed the subaltern authority of a position formerly his +lowest hope, when the events of July, 1830, forced him to resign it. +He calculated, shrewdly enough, that his pension would be honorably +and readily given by the new-comers, glad to have another office at +their disposal. He was right; for a pension of seventeen hundred +francs was paid to him immediately. + +When the prudent sub-director first talked of resigning, his sister, +who was far more the companion of his life than his wife, trembled for +his future. + +"What will become of Thuillier?" was a question which Madame and +Mademoiselle Thuillier put to each other with mutual terror in their +little lodging on a third floor of the rue d'Argenteuil. + +"Securing his pension will occupy him for a time," Mademoiselle +Thuillier said one day; "but I am thinking of investing my savings in +a way that will cut out work for him. Yes; it will be something like +administrating the finances to manage a piece of property." + +"Oh, sister! you will save his life," cried Madame Thuillier. + +"I have always looked for a crisis of this kind in Jerome's life," +replied the old maid, with a protecting air. + +Mademoiselle Thuillier had too often heard her brother remark: "Such a +one is dead; he only survived his retirement two years"; she had too +often heard Colleville, her brother's intimate friend, a government +employee like himself, say, jesting on this climacteric of +bureaucrats, "We shall all come to it, ourselves," not to appreciate +the danger her brother was running. The change from activity to +leisure is, in truth, the critical period for government employees of +all kinds. + +Those of them who know not how to substitute, or perhaps cannot +substitute other occupations for the work to which they have been +accustomed, change in a singular manner; some die outright; others +take to fishing, the vacancy of that amusement resembling that of +their late employment under government; others, who are smarter men, +dabble in stocks, lose their savings, and are thankful to obtain a +place in some enterprise that is likely to succeed, after a first +disaster and liquidation, in the hands of an abler management. The +late clerk then rubs his hands, now empty, and says to himself, "I +always did foresee the success of the business." But nearly all these +retired bureaucrats have to fight against their former habits. + +"Some," Colleville used to say, "are victims to a sort of 'spleen' +peculiar to the government clerk; they die of a checked circulation; a +red-tapeworm is in their vitals. That little Poiret couldn't see the +well-known white carton without changing color at the beloved sight; +he used to turn from green to yellow." + +Mademoiselle Thuillier was considered the moving spirit of her +brother's household; she was not without decision and force of +character, as the following history will show. This superiority over +those who immediately surrounded her enabled her to judge her brother, +although she adored him. After witnessing the failure of the hopes she +had set upon her idol, she had too much real maternity in her feeling +for him to let herself be mistaken as to his social value. + +Thuillier and his sister were children of the head porter at the +ministry of finance. Jerome had escaped, thanks to his near- +sightedness, all drafts and conscriptions. The father's ambition was +to make his son a government clerk. At the beginning of this century +the army presented too many posts not to leave various vacancies in +the government offices. A deficiency of minor officials enabled old +Pere Thuillier to hoist his son upon the lowest step of the +bureaucratic hierarchy. The old man died in 1814, leaving Jerome on +the point of becoming sub-director, but with no other fortune than +that prospect. The worthy Thuillier and his wife (who died in 1810) +had retired from active service in 1806, with a pension as their only +means of support; having spent what property they had in giving Jerome +the education required in these days, and in supporting both him and +his sister. + +The influence of the Restoration on the bureaucracy is well known. +From the forty and one suppressed departments a crowd of honorable +employees returned to Paris with nothing to do, and clamorous for +places inferior to those they had lately occupied. To these acquired +rights were added those of exiled families ruined by the Revolution. +Pressed between the two floods, Jerome thought himself lucky not to +have been dismissed under some frivolous pretext. He trembled until +the day when, becoming by mere chance sub-director, he saw himself +secure of a retiring pension. This cursory view of matters will serve +to explain Monsieur Thuillier's very limited scope and knowledge. He +had learned the Latin, mathematics, history, and geography that are +taught in schools, but he never got beyond what is called the second +class; his father having preferred to take advantage of a sudden +opportunity to place him at the ministry. So, while the young +Thuillier was making his first records on the Grand-Livre, he ought to +have been studying his rhetoric and philosophy. + +While grinding the ministerial machine, he had no leisure to cultivate +letters, still less the arts; but he acquired a routine knowledge of +his business, and when he had an opportunity to rise, under the +Empire, to the sphere of superior employees, he assumed a superficial +air of competence which concealed the son of a porter, though none of +it rubbed into his mind. His ignorance, however, taught him to keep +silence, and silence served him well. He accustomed himself to +practise, under the imperial regime, a passive obedience which pleased +his superiors; and it was to this quality that he owed at a later +period his promotion to the rank of sub-director. His routine habits +then became great experience; his manners and his silence concealed +his lack of education, and his absolute nullity was a recommendation, +for a cipher was needed. The government was afraid of displeasing both +parties in the Chamber by selecting a man from either side; it +therefore got out of the difficulty by resorting to the rule of +seniority. That is how Thuillier became sub-director. Mademoiselle +Thuillier, knowing that her brother abhorred reading, and could +substitute no business for the bustle of a public office, had wisely +resolved to plunge him into the cares of property, into the culture of +a garden, in short, into all the infinitely petty concerns and +neighborhood intrigues which make up the life of the bourgeoisie. + +The transplanting of the Thuillier household from the rue d'Argenteuil +to the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, the business of making the +purchase, of finding a suitable porter, and then of obtaining tenants +occupied Thuillier from 1831 to 1832. When the phenomenon of the +change was accomplished, and the sister saw that Jerome had borne it +fairly well, she found him other cares and occupations (about which we +shall hear later), all based upon the character of the man himself, as +to which it will now be useful to give information. + +Though the son of a ministerial porter, Thuillier was what is called a +fine man, slender in figure, above middle height, and possessing a +face that was rather agreeable if wearing his spectacles, but +frightful without them; which is frequently the case with near-sighted +persons; for the habit of looking through glasses has covered the +pupils of his eyes with a sort of film. + +Between the ages of eighteen and thirty, young Thuillier had much +success among women, in a sphere which began with the lesser bourgeois +and ended in that of the heads of departments. Under the Empire, war +left Parisian society rather denuded of men of energy, who were mostly +on the battlefield; and perhaps, as a great physician has suggested, +this may account for the flabbiness of the generation which occupies +the middle of the nineteenth century. + +Thuillier, forced to make himself noticeable by other charms than +those of mind, learned to dance and to waltz in a way to be cited; he +was called "that handsome Thuillier"; he played billiards to +perfection; he knew how to cut out likenesses in black paper, and his +friend Colleville coached him so well that he was able to sing all the +ballads of the day. These various small accomplishments resulted in +that appearance of success which deceives youth and befogs it about +the future. Mademoiselle Thuillier, from 1806 to 1814, believed in her +brother as Mademoiselle d'Orleans believed in Louis-Philippe. She was +proud of Jerome; she expected to see him the director-general of his +department of the ministry, thanks to his successes in certain salons, +where, undoubtedly, he would never have been admitted but for the +circumstances which made society under the Empire a medley. + +But the successes of "that handsome Thuillier" were usually of short +duration; women did not care to keep his devotion any more than he +desired to make his devotion eternal. He was really an unwilling Don +Juan; the career of a "beau" wearied him to the point of aging him; +his face, covered with lines like that of an old coquette, looked a +dozen years older than the registers made him. There remained to him +of all his successes in gallantry, a habit of looking at himself in +mirrors, of buttoning his coat to define his waist, and of posing in +various dancing attitudes; all of which prolonged, beyond the period +of enjoying his advantages, the sort of lease that he held on his +cognomen, "that handsome Thuillier." + +The truth of 1806 has, however, become a fable, in 1826. He retains a +few vestiges of the former costume of the beaux of the Empire, which +are not unbecoming to the dignity of a former sub-director. He still +wears the white cravat with innumerable folds, wherein his chin is +buried, and the coquettish bow, formerly tied by the hands of beauty, +the two ends of which threaten danger to the passers to right and +left. He follows the fashions of former days, adapting them to his +present needs; he tips his hat on the back of his head, and wears +shoes and thread stockings in summer; his long-tailed coats remind one +of the well-known "surtouts" of the Empire; he has not yet abandoned +his frilled shirts and his white waistcoats; he still plays with his +Empire switch, and holds himself so erect that his back bends in. No +one, seeing Thuillier promenading on the boulevards, would take him +for the son of a man who cooked the breakfasts of the clerks at a +ministry and wore the livery of Louis XVI.; he resembles an imperial +diplomatist or a sub-prefect. Now, not only did Mademoiselle Thuillier +very innocently work upon her brother's weak spot by encouraging in +him an excessive care of his person, which, in her, was simply a +continuation of her worship, but she also provided him with family +joys, by transplanting to their midst a household which had hitherto +been quasi-collateral to them. + +It was that of Monsieur Colleville, an intimate friend of Thuillier. +But before we proceed to describe Pylades let us finish with Orestes, +and explain why Thuillier--that handsome Thuillier--was left without a +family of his own--for the family, be it said, is non-existent without +children. Herein appears one of those deep mysteries which lie buried +in the arena of private life, a few shreds of which rise to the +surface at moments when the pain of a concealed situation grows +poignant. This concerns the life of Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier; +so far, we have seen only the life (and we may call it the public +life) of Jerome Thuillier. + +Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte Thuillier, four years older than her brother, +had been utterly sacrificed to him; it was easier to give a career to +one than a "dot" to the other. Misfortune to some natures is a pharos, +which illumines to their eyes the dark low corners of social +existence. Superior to her brother both in mind and energy, Brigitte +had one of those natures which, under the hammer of persecution, +gather themselves together, become compact and powerfully resistant, +not to say inflexible. Jealous of her independence, she kept aloof +from the life of the household; choosing to make herself the sole +arbiter of her own fate. At fourteen years of age, she went to live +alone in a garret, not far from the ministry of finance, which was +then in the rue Vivienne, and also not far from the Bank of France, +then, and now, in the rue de la Vrilliere. There she bravely gave +herself up to a form of industry little known and the perquisite of a +few persons, which she obtained, thanks to the patrons of her father. +It consisted in making bags to hold coin for the Bank, the Treasury, +and the great financial houses. At the end of three years she employed +two workwomen. By investing her savings on the Grand-Livre, she found +herself, in 1814, the mistress of three thousand six hundred francs a +year, earned in fifteen years. As she spent little, and dined with her +father as long as he lived, and, as government securities were very +low during the last convulsions of the Empire, this result, which +seems at first sight exaggerated, explains itself. + +On the death of their father, Brigitte and Jerome, the former being +twenty-seven, the latter twenty-three, united their existence. Brother +and sister were bound together by an extreme affection. If Jerome, +then at the height of his success, was pinched for money, his sister, +clothed in serge, and her fingers roughened by the coarse thread with +which she sewed her bags, would give him a few louis. In Brigitte's +eyes Jerome was the handsomest and most charming man in the whole +French Empire. To keep house for this cherished brother, to be +initiated into the secrets of Lindor and Don Juan, to be his +handmaiden, his spaniel, was Brigitte's dream. She immolated herself +lovingly to an idol whose selfishness, always great, was enormously +increased by her self-sacrifice. She sold her business to her fore- +woman for fifteen thousand francs and came to live with Thuillier in +the rue d'Argenteuil, where she made herself the mother, protectress, +and servant of this spoiled child of women. Brigitte, with the natural +caution of a girl who owed everything to her own discretion and her +own labor, concealed the amount of her savings from Jerome,--fearing, +no doubt, the extravagance of a man of gallantry. She merely paid a +quota of six hundred francs a year to the expenses of the household, +and this, with her brother's eighteen hundred, enabled her to make +both ends meet at the end of the year. + +From the first days of their coming together, Thuillier listened to +his sister as to an oracle; he consulted her in his trifling affairs, +kept none of his secrets from her, and thus made her taste the fruit +of despotism which was, in truth, the one little sin of her nature. +But the sister had sacrificed everything to the brother; she had +staked her all upon his heart; she lived by him only. Brigitte's +ascendancy over Jerome was singularly proved by the marriage which she +procured for him about the year 1814. + +Seeing the tendency to enforced reduction which the new-comers to +power under the Restoration were beginning to bring about in the +government offices, and particularly since the return of the old +society which sought to ride over the bourgeoisie, Brigitte +understood, far better than her brother could explain it to her, the +social crisis which presently extinguished their common hopes. No more +successes for that handsome Thuillier in the salons of the nobles who +now succeeded the plebeians of the Empire! + +Thuillier was not enough of a person to take up a politic opinion and +choose a party; he felt, as his sister did for him, the necessity of +profiting by the remains of his youth to make a settlement. In such a +situation, a sister as jealous of her power as Brigitte naturally +would, and ought, to marry her brother, to suit herself as well as to +suit him; for she alone could make him really happy, Madame Thuillier +being only an indispensable accessory to the obtaining of two or three +children. If Brigitte did not have an intellect quite the equal of her +will, at least she had the instinct of her despotism; without, it is +true, education, she marched straight before her, with the headstrong +determination of a nature accustomed to succeed. She had the genius of +housekeeping, a faculty for economy, a thorough understanding of how +to live, and a love for work. She saw plainly that she could never +succeed in marrying Jerome into a sphere above their own, where +parents might inquire into their domestic life and feel uneasy at +finding a mistress already reigning in the home. She therefore sought +in a lower grade for persons to dazzle, and found, almost beside her, +a suitable match. + +The oldest usher at the Bank, a man named Lemprun, had an only +daughter, called Celeste. Mademoiselle Celeste Lemprun would inherit +the fortune of her mother, the only daughter of a rich farmer. This +fortune consisted of some acres of land in the environs of Paris, +which the old father still worked; besides this, she would have the +property of Lemprun himself, a man who had left the firms of Thelusson +and of Keller to enter the service of the Bank of France. Lemprun, now +the head of that service, enjoyed the respect and consideration of the +governors and auditors. + +The Bank council, on hearing of the probable marriage of Celeste to an +honorable employee at the ministry of finance, promised a wedding +present of six thousand francs. This gift, added to twelve thousand +given by Pere Lemprun, and twelve thousand more from the maternal +grandfather, Sieur Galard, market-gardener at Auteuil, brought up the +dowry to thirty thousand francs. Old Galard and Monsieur and Madame +Lemprun were delighted with the marriage. Lemprun himself knew +Mademoiselle Thuillier, and considered her one of the worthiest and +most conscientious women in Paris. Brigitte then, for the first time, +allowed her investments on the Grand-Livre to shine forth, assuring +Lemprun that she should never marry; consequently, neither he nor his +wife, persons devoted to the main chance, would ever allow themselves +to find fault with Brigitte. Above all, they were greatly struck by +the splendid prospects of the handsome Thuillier, and the marriage +took place, as the conventional saying is, to the general +satisfaction. + +The governor of the Bank and the secretary were the bride's witnesses; +Monsieur de la Billardiere, director of Thuillier's department, and +Monsieur Rabourdin, head of the office, being those of the groom. Six +days after the marriage old Lemprun was the victim of a daring robbery +which made a great noise in the newspapers of the day, though it was +quickly forgotten during the events of 1815. The guilty parties having +escaped detection, Lemprun wished to make up the loss; but the Bank +agreed to carry the deficit to its profit and loss account; +nevertheless, the poor old man actually died of the grief this affair +had caused him. He regarded it as an attack upon his aged honor. + +Madame Lemprun then resigned all her property to her daughter, Madame +Thuillier, and went to live with her father at Auteuil until he died +from an accident in 1817. Alarmed at the prospect of having to manage +or lease the market-garden and the farm of her father, Madame Lemprun +entreated Brigitte, whose honesty and capacity astonished her, to wind +up old Galard's affairs, and to settle the property in such a way that +her daughter should take possession of everything, securing to her +mother fifteen hundred francs a year and the house at Auteuil. The +landed property of the old farmer was sold in lots, and brought in +thirty thousand francs. Lemprun's estate had given as much more, so +that Madame Thuillier's fortune, including her "dot," amounted in 1818 +to ninety thousand francs. Joining the revenue of this property to +that of the brother and sister, the Thuillier household had an income, +in 1818, amounting to eleven thousand francs, managed by Brigitte +alone on her sole responsibility. It is necessary to begin by stating +this financial position, not only to prevent objections but to rid the +drama of difficulties. + +Brigitte began, from the first, by allowing her brother five hundred +francs a month, and by sailing the household boat at the rate of five +thousand francs a year. She granted to her sister-in-law fifty francs +a month, explaining to her carefully that she herself was satisfied +with forty. To strengthen her despotism by the power of money, +Brigitte laid by the surplus of her own funds. She made, so it was +said in business offices, usurious loans by means of her brother, who +appeared as a money-lender. If, between the years 1813 and 1830, +Brigitte had capitalized sixty thousand francs, that sum can be +explained by the rise in the Funds, and there is no need to have +recourse to accusations more or less well founded, which have nothing +to do with our present history. + +From the first days of the marriage, Brigitte subdued the unfortunate +Madame Thuillier with a touch of the spur and a jerk of the bit, both +of which she made her feel severely. A further display of tyranny was +useless; the victim resigned herself at once. Celeste, thoroughly +understood by Brigitte, a girl without mind or education, accustomed +to a sedentary life and a tranquil atmosphere, was extremely gentle by +nature; she was pious in the fullest acceptation of the word; she +would willingly have expiated by the hardest punishments the +involuntary wrong of giving pain to her neighbor. She was utterly +ignorant of life; accustomed to be waited on by her mother, who did +the whole service of the house, for Celeste was unable to make much +exertion, owing to a lymphatic constitution which the least toil +wearied. She was truly a daughter of the people of Paris, where +children, seldom handsome, and of no vigor, the product of poverty and +toil, of homes without fresh air, without freedom of action, without +any of the conveniences of life, meet us at every turn. + +At the time of the marriage, Celeste was seen to be a little woman, +fair and faded almost to sickliness, fat, slow, and silly in the +countenance. Her forehead, much too large and too prominent, suggested +water on the brain, and beneath that waxen cupola her face, noticeably +too small and ending in a point like the nose of a mouse, made some +people fear she would become, sooner or later, imbecile. Her eyes, +which were light blue, and her lips, always fixed in a smile, did not +contradict that idea. On the solemn occasion of her marriage she had +the manner, air, and attitude of a person condemned to death, whose +only desire is that it might all be over speedily. + +"She is rather round," said Colleville to Thuillier. + +Brigitte was just the knife to cut into such a nature, to which her +own formed the strongest contrast. Mademoiselle Thuillier was +remarkable for her regular and correct beauty, but a beauty injured by +toil which, from her very childhood, had bent her down to painful, +thankless tasks, and by the secret privations she imposed upon herself +in order to amass her little property. Her complexion, early +discolored, had something the tint of steel. Her brown eyes were +framed in brown; on the upper lip was a brown floss like a sort of +smoke. Her lips were thin, and her imperious forehead was surmounted +by hair once black, now turning to chinchilla. She held herself as +straight as the fairest beauty; but all things else about her showed +the hardiness of her life, the deadening of her natural fire, the cost +of what she was! + +To Brigitte, Celeste was simply a fortune to lay hold of, a future +mother to rule, one more subject in her empire. She soon reproached +her for being WEAK, a constant word in her vocabulary, and the jealous +old maid, who would strongly have resented any signs of activity in +her sister-in-law, now took a savage pleasure in prodding the languid +inertness of the feeble creature. Celeste, ashamed to see her sister- +in-law displaying such energy in household work, endeavored to help +her, and fell ill in consequence. Instantly, Brigitte was devoted to +her, nursed her like a beloved sister, and would say, in presence of +Thuillier: "You haven't any strength, my child; you must never do +anything again." She showed up Celeste's incapacity by that display of +sympathy with which strength, seeming to pity weakness, finds means to +boast of its own powers. + +But, as all despotic natures liking to exercise their strength are +full of tenderness for physical sufferings, Brigitte took such real +care of her sister-in-law as to satisfy Celeste's mother when she came +to see her daughter. After Madame Thuillier recovered, however, she +called her, in Celeste's hearing, "a helpless creature, good for +nothing!" which sent the poor thing crying to her room. When Thuillier +found her there, drying her eyes, he excused her sister, saying:-- + +"She is an excellent woman, but rather hasty; she loves you in her own +way; she behaves just so with me." + +Celeste, remembering the maternal care of her sister-in-law during her +illness, forgave the wound. Brigitte always treated her brother as the +king of the family; she exalted him to Celeste, and made him out an +autocrat, a Ladislas, an infallible pope. Madame Thuillier having lost +her father and grandfather, and being well-nigh deserted by her +mother, who came to see her on Thursdays only (she herself spending +Sundays at Auteuil in summer), had no one left to love except her +husband, and she did love him,--in the first place, because he was her +husband, and secondly, because he still remained to her "that handsome +Thuillier." Besides, he sometimes treated her like a wife, and all +these reasons together made her adore him. He seemed to her all the +more perfect because he often took up her defence and scolded his +sister, not from any real interest in his wife, but for pure +selfishness, and in order to have peace in the household during the +very few moments that he stayed there. + +In fact, that handsome Thuillier was never at home except at dinner, +after which meal he went out, returning very late at night. He went to +balls and other social festivities by himself, precisely as if he were +still a bachelor. Thus the two women were always alone together. +Celeste insensibly fell into a passive attitude, and became what +Brigitte wanted her,--a helot. The Queen Elizabeth of the household +then passed from despotism to a sort of pity for the poor victim who +was always sacrificed. She ended by softening her haughty ways, her +cutting speech, her contemptuous tones, as soon as she was certain +that her sister-in-law was completely under the yoke. When she saw the +wounds it made on the neck of her victim, she took care of her as a +thing of her own, and Celeste entered upon happier days. Comparing the +end with the beginning, she even felt a sort of love for her torturer. +To gain some power of self-defence, to become something less a cipher +in the household, supported, unknown to herself, by her own means, the +poor helot had but a single chance, and that chance never came to her. + +Celeste had no child. This barrenness, which, from month to month, +brought floods of tears from her eyes, was long the cause of +Brigitte's scorn; she reproached the poor woman bitterly for being fit +for nothing, not even to bear children. The old maid, who had longed +to love her brother's child as if it were her own, was unable, for +years, to reconcile herself to this irremediable sterility. + +At the time when our history begins, namely, in 1840, Celeste, then +forty-six years old, had ceased to weep; she now had the certainty of +never being a mother. And here is a strange thing. After twenty-five +years of this life, in which victory had ended by first dulling and +then breaking its own knife, Brigitte loved Celeste as much as Celeste +loved Brigitte. Time, ease, and the perpetual rubbing of domestic +life, had worn off the angles and smoothed the asperities; Celeste's +resignation and lamb-like gentleness had brought, at last, a serene +and peaceful autumn. The two women were still further united by the +one sentiment that lay within them, namely, their adoration for the +lucky and selfish Thuillier. + +Moreover, these two women, both childless, had each, like all women +who have vainly desired children, fallen in love with a child. This +fictitious motherhood, equal in strength to a real motherhood, needs +an explanation which will carry us to the very heart of our drama, and +will show the reason of the new occupation which Mademoiselle +Thuillier provided for her brother. + + + +CHAPTER III + +COLLEVILLE + +Thuillier had entered the ministry of finance as supernumerary at the +same time as Colleville, who has been mentioned already as his +intimate friend. In opposition to the well-regulated, gloomy household +of Thuillier, social nature had provided that of Colleville; and if it +is impossible not to remark that this fortuitous contrast was scarcely +moral, we must add that, before deciding that point, it would be well +to wait for the end of this drama, unfortunately too true, for which +the present historian is not responsible. + +Colleville was the only son of a talented musician, formerly first +violin at the Opera under Francoeur and Rebel, who related, at least +six times a month during his lifetime, anecdotes concerning the +representations of the "Village Seer"; and mimicked Jean-Jacques +Rousseau, taking him off to perfection. Colleville and Thuillier were +inseparable friends; they had no secrets from each other, and their +friendship, begun at fifteen years of age, had never known a cloud up +to the year 1839. The former was one of those employees who are +called, in the government offices, pluralists. These clerks are +remarkable for their industry. Colleville, a good musician, owed to +the name and influence of his father a situation as first clarionet at +the Opera-Comique, and so long as he was a bachelor, Colleville, who +was rather richer than Thuillier, shared his means with his friend. +But, unlike Thuillier, Colleville married for love a Mademoiselle +Flavie, the natural daughter of a celebrated danseuse at the Opera; +her reputed father being a certain du Bourguier, one of the richest +contractors of the day. In style and origin, Flavie was apparently +destined for a melancholy career, when Colleville, often sent to her +mother's apartments, fell in love with her and married her. Prince +Galathionne, who at that time was "protecting" the danseuse, then +approaching the end of her brilliant career, gave Flavie a "dot" of +twenty thousand francs, to which her mother added a magnificent +trousseau. Other friends and opera-comrades sent jewels and +silver-ware, so that the Colleville household was far richer in +superfluities than in capital. Flavie, brought up in opulence, began +her married life in a charming apartment, furnished by her mother's +upholsterer, where the young wife, who was full of taste for art and +for artists, and possessed a certain elegance, ruled, a queen. + +Madame Colleville was pretty and piquant, clever, gay, and graceful; +to express her in one sentence,--a charming creature. Her mother, the +danseuse, now forty-three years old, retired from the stage and went +to live in the country,--thus depriving her daughter of the resources +derived from her wasteful extravagance. Madame Colleville kept a very +agreeable but extremely free and easy household. From 1816 to 1826 she +had five children. Colleville, a musician in the evening, kept the +books of a merchant from seven to nine in the morning, and by ten +o'clock he was at his ministry. Thus, by blowing into a bit of wood by +night, and writing double-entry accounts in the early morning, he +managed to eke out his earnings to seven or eight thousand francs a +year. + +Madame Colleville played the part of a "comme il faut" woman; she +received on Wednesdays, gave a concert once a month and a dinner every +fortnight. She never saw Colleville except at dinner and at night, +when he returned about twelve o'clock, at which hour she was +frequently not at home herself. She went to the theatres, where boxes +were sometimes given to her; and she would send word to Colleville to +come and fetch her from such or such a house, where she was supping +and dancing. At her own house, guests found excellent cheer, and her +society, though rather mixed, was very amusing; she received and +welcomed actresses, artists, men of letters, and a few rich men. +Madame Colleville's elegance was on a par with that of Tullia, the +leading prima-donna, with whom she was intimate; but though the +Collevilles encroached on their capital and were often in difficulty +by the end of the month, Flavie was never in debt. + +Colleville was very happy; he still loved his wife, and he made +himself her best friend. Always received by her with affectionate +smiles and sympathetic pleasure, he yielded readily to the +irresistible grace of her manners. The vehement activity with which he +pursued his three avocations was a part of his natural character and +temperament. He was a fine stout man, ruddy, jovial, extravagant, and +full of ideas. In ten years there was never a quarrel in his +household. Among business men he was looked upon, in common with all +artists, as a scatter-brained fellow; and superficial persons thought +that the constant hurry of this hard worker was only the restless +coming and going of a busybody. + +Colleville had the sense to seem stupid; he boasted of his family +happiness, and gave himself unheard-of trouble in making anagrams, in +order at times to seem absorbed in that passion. The government clerks +of his division at the ministry, the office directors, and even the +heads of divisions came to his concerts; now and then he quietly +bestowed upon them opera tickets, when he needed some extra indulgence +on account of his frequent absence. Rehearsals took half the time that +he ought to have been at his desk; but the musical knowledge his +father had bequeathed to him was sufficiently genuine and well- +grounded to excuse him from all but final rehearsals. Thanks to Madame +Colleville's intimacies, both the theatre and the ministry lent +themselves kindly to the needs of this industrious pluralist, who, +moreover, was bringing up, with great care, a youth, warmly +recommended to him by his wife, a future great musician, who sometimes +took his place in the orchestra with a promise of eventually +succeeding him. In fact, about the year 1827 this young man became the +first clarionet when Colleville resigned his position. + +The usual comment on Flavie was, "That little slip of a coquette, +Madame Colleville." The eldest of the Colleville children, born in +1816, was the living image of Colleville himself. In 1818, Madame +Colleville held the cavalry in high estimation, above even art; and +she distinguished more particularly a sub-lieutenant in the dragoons +of Saint-Chamans, the young and rich Charles de Gondreville, who +afterwards died in the Spanish campaign. By that time Flavie had had a +second son, whom she henceforth dedicated to a military career. In +1820 she considered banking the nursing mother of trade, the supporter +of Nations, and she made the great Keller, that famous banker and +orator, her idol. She then had another son, whom she named Francois, +resolving to make him a merchant,--feeling sure that Keller's +influence would never fail him. About the close of the year 1820, +Thuillier, the intimate friend of Monsieur and Madame Colleville, felt +the need of pouring his sorrows into the bosom of this excellent +woman, and to her he related his conjugal miseries. For six years he +had longed to have children, but God did not bless him; although that +poor Madame Thuillier had made novenas, and had even gone, uselessly, +to Notra-Dame de Liesse! He depicted Celeste in various lights, which +brought the words "Poor Thuillier!" from Flavie's lips. She herself +was rather sad, having at the moment no dominant opinion. She poured +her own griefs into Thuillier's bosom. The great Keller, that hero of +the Left, was, in reality, extremely petty; she had learned to know +the other side of public fame, the follies of banking, the emptiness +of eloquence! The orator only spoke for show; to her he had behaved +extremely ill. Thuillier was indignant. "None but stupid fellows know +how to love," he said; "take me!" That handsome Thuillier was +henceforth supposed to be paying court to Madame Colleville, and was +rated as one of her "attentives,"--a word in vogue during the Empire. + +"Ha! you are after my wife," said Colleville, laughing. "Take care; +she'll leave you in the lurch, like all the rest." + +A rather clever speech, by which Colleville saved his marital dignity. +From 1820 to 1821, Thuillier, in virtue of his title as friend of the +family, helped Colleville, who had formerly helped him; so much so, +that in eighteen months he had lent nearly ten thousand francs to the +Colleville establishment, with no intention of ever claiming them. In +the spring of 1821, Madame Colleville gave birth to a charming little +girl, to whom Monsieur and Madame Thuillier were godfather and +godmother. The child was baptized Celeste-Louise-Caroline-Brigitte; +Mademoiselle Thuillier wishing that her name should be given among +others to the little angel. The name of Caroline was a graceful +attention paid to Colleville. Old mother Lemprun assumed the care of +putting the baby to nurse under her own eyes at Auteuil, where Celeste +and her sister-in-law Brigitte, paid it regularly a semi-weekly visit. + +As soon as Madame Colleville recovered she said to Thuillier, frankly, +in a very serious tone:-- + +"My dear friend, if we are all to remain good friends, you must be our +friend only. Colleville is attached to you; well, that's enough for +you in this household." + +"Explain to me," said the handsome Thuillier to Tullia after this +remark, "why women are never attached to me. I am not the Apollo +Belvidere, but for all that I'm not a Vulcan; I am passably good- +looking, I have sense, I am faithful--" + +"Do you want me to tell you the truth?" replied Tullia. + +"Yes," said Thuillier. + +"Well, though we can, sometimes, love a stupid fellow, we never love a +silly one." + +Those words killed Thuillier; he never got over them; henceforth he +was a prey to melancholy and accused all women of caprice. + +The secretary-general of the ministry, des Lupeaulx, whose influence +Madame Colleville thought greater than it was, and of whom she said, +later, "That was one of my mistakes," became for a time the great man +of the Colleville salon; but as Flavie found he had no power to +promote Colleville into the upper division, she had the good sense to +resent des Lupeaulx's attentions to Madame Rabourdin (whom she called +a minx), to whose house she had never been invited, and who had twice +had the impertinence not to come to the Colleville concerts. + +Madame Colleville was deeply affected by the death of young +Gondreville; she felt, she said, the finger of God. In 1824 she turned +over a new leaf, talked of economy, stopped her receptions, busied +herself with her children, determined to become a good mother of a +family; no favorite friend was seen at her house. She went to church, +reformed her dress, wore gray, and talked Catholicism, mysticism, and +so forth. All this produced, in 1825, another little son, whom she +named Theodore. Soon after, in 1826, Colleville was appointed sub- +director of the Clergeot division, and later, in 1828, collector of +taxes in a Paris arrondissement. He also received the cross of the +Legion of honor, to enable him to put his daughter at the royal school +of Saint-Denis. The half-scholarship obtained by Keller for the eldest +boy, Charles, was transferred to the second in 1830, when Charles +entered the school of Saint-Louis on a full scholarship. The third +son, taken under the protection of Madame la Dauphine, was provided +with a three-quarter scholarship in the Henri IV. school. + +In 1830 Colleville, who had the good fortune not to lose a child, was +obliged, owing to his well-known attachment to the fallen royal +family, to send in his resignation; but he was clever enough to make a +bargain for it,--obtaining in exchange a pension of two thousand four +hundred francs, based on his period of service, and ten thousand +francs indemnity paid by his successor; he also received the rank of +officer of the Legion of honor. Nevertheless, he found himself in +rather a cramped condition when Mademoiselle Thuillier, in 1832, +advised him to come and live near them; pointing out to him the +possibility of obtaining some position in the mayor's office, which, +in fact, he did obtain a few weeks later, at a salary of three +thousand francs. Thus Thuillier and Colleville were destined to end +their days together. In 1833 Madame Colleville, then thirty-five years +old, settled herself in the rue d'Enfer, at the corner of the rue des +Deux-Eglises with Celeste and little Theodore, the other boys being at +their several schools. Colleville was equidistant between the mayor's +office and the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer. Thus the household, after +a brilliant, gay, headlong, reformed, and calmed existence, subsided +finally into bourgeois obscurity with five thousand four hundred +francs a year for its sole dependence. + +Celeste was by this time twelve years of age, and she promised to be +pretty. She needed masters, and her education ought to cost not less +than two thousand francs a year. The mother felt the necessity of +keeping her under the eye of her godfather and godmother. She +therefore very willingly adopted the proposal of Mademoiselle +Thuillier, who, without committing herself to any engagement, allowed +Madame Colleville to understand that the fortunes of her brother, his +wife, and herself would go, ultimately, to the little Celeste. The +child had been left at Auteuil until she was seven years of age, +adored by the good old Madame Lemprun, who died in 1829, leaving +twenty thousand francs, and a house which was sold for the enormous +sum of twenty-eight thousand. The lively little girl had seen very +little of her mother, but very much of Mademoiselle and Madame +Thuillier when she first returned to the paternal mansion in 1829; but +in 1833 she fell under the dominion of Flavie, who was then, as we +have said, endeavoring to do her duty, which, like other women +instigated by remorse, she exaggerated. Without being an unkind +mother, Flavie was very stern with her daughter. She remembered her +own bringing-up, and swore within herself to make Celeste a virtuous +woman. She took her to mass, and had her prepared for her first +communion by a rector who has since become a bishop. Celeste was all +the more readily pious, because her godmother, Madame Thuillier, was a +saint, and the child adored her; she felt that the poor neglected +woman loved her better than her own mother. + +From 1833 to 1840 she received a brilliant education according to the +ideas of the bourgeoisie. The best music-masters made her a fair +musician; she could paint a water-color properly; she danced extremely +well; and she had studied the French language, history, geography, +English, Italian,--in short, all that constitutes the education of a +well-brought-up young lady. Of medium height, rather plump, +unfortunately near-sighted, she was neither plain nor pretty; not +without delicacy or even brilliancy of complexion, it is true, but +totally devoid of all distinction of manner. She had a great fund of +reserved sensibility, and her godfather and godmother, Mademoiselle +Thuillier and Colleville, were unanimous on one point,--the great +resource of mothers--namely, that Celeste was capable of attachment. +One of her beauties was a magnificent head of very fine blond hair; +but her hands and feet showed her bourgeois origin. + +Celeste endeared herself by precious qualities; she was kind, simple, +without gall of any kind; she loved her father and mother, and would +willingly sacrifice herself for their sake. Brought up to the deepest +admiration for her godfather by Brigitte (who taught her to say "Aunt +Brigitte"), and by Madame Thuillier and her own mother, Celeste +imbibed the highest idea of the ex-beau of the Empire. The house in +the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer produced upon her very much the effect +of the Chateau des Tuileries on a courtier of the new dynasty. + +Thuillier had not escaped the action of the administrative rolling-pin +which thins the mind as it spreads it out. Exhausted by irksome toil, +as much as by his life of gallantry, the ex-sub-director had well-nigh +lost all his faculties by the time he came to live in the rue Saint- +Dominique. But his weary face, on which there still reigned an air of +imperial haughtiness, mingled with a certain contentment, the conceit +of an upper official, made a deep impression upon Celeste. She alone +adored that haggard face. The girl, moreover, felt herself to be the +happiness of the Thuillier household. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CIRCLE OF MONSIEUR AND MADAME THUILLIER + +The Collevilles and their children became, naturally, the nucleus of +the circle which Mademoiselle Thuillier had the ambition to group +around her brother. A former clerk in the Billardiere division of the +ministry, named Phellion, had lived for the last thirty years in their +present quarter. He was promptly greeted by Colleville and Thuillier +at the first review. Phellion proved to be one of the most respected +men in the arrondissement. He had one daughter, now married to a +school-teacher in the rue Saint-Hyacinthe, a Monsieur Barniol. +Phellion's eldest son was a professor of mathematics in a royal +college; he gave lectures and private lessons, being devoted, so his +father was wont to say, to pure mathematics. A second son was in the +government School of Engineering. Phellion had a pension of nine +hundred francs, and he possessed a little property of nine thousand +and a few odd hundred francs; the fruit of his economy and that of his +wife during thirty years of toil and privation. He was, moreover, the +owner of a little house and garden where he lived in the "impasse" des +Feuillantines,--in thirty years he had never used the old-fashioned +word "cul-de-sac"! + +Dutocq, the clerk of the justice of peace, was also a former employee +at the ministry of finance. Sacrificed, in former days, to one of +those necessities which are always met with in representative +government, he had accepted the position of scapegoat, receiving, +privately, a round sum of money and the opportunity to buy his present +post of clerk in the arrondissement. This man, not very honorable, and +known to be a spy in the government offices, was never welcomed as he +thought he ought to be by the Thuilliers; but the coldness of his +landlords only made him the more persistent in going to see them. He +was a bachelor and had various vices; he therefore concealed his life +carefully, knowing well how to maintain his position by flattering his +superiors. The justice of peace was much attached to Dutocq. This man, +base as he was, managed, in the end, to make himself tolerated by the +Thuilliers, chiefly by coarse and cringing adulation. He knew the +facts of Thuillier's whole life, his relations with Colleville, and, +above all, with Madame Colleville. One and all they feared his tongue, +and the Thuilliers, without admitting him to any intimacy, endured his +visits. + +The family which became the flower of the Thuillier salon was that of +a former ministerial clerk, once an object of pity in the government +offices, who, driven by poverty, left the public service, in 1827, to +fling himself into a business enterprise, having, as he thought, an +idea. Minard (that was his name) foresaw a fortune in one of those +wicked conceptions which reflect such discredit on French commerce, +but which, in the year 1827, had not yet been exposed and blasted by +publicity. Minard bought tea and mixed it with tea-leaves already +used; also he adulterated the elements of chocolate in a manner which +enabled him to sell the chocolate itself very cheaply. This trade in +colonial products, begun in the quartier Saint-Marcel, made a merchant +of Minard. He started a factory, and through these early connections +he was able to reach the sources of raw material. He then did +honorably, and on a large scale, a business begun in the first +instance dishonorably. He became a distiller, worked upon untold +quantities of products, and, by the year 1835, was considered the +richest merchant in the region of the Place Maubert. By that time he +had bought a handsome house in the rue des Macons-Sorbonne; he had +been assistant mayor, and in 1839 became mayor of his arrondissement +and judge in the Court of Commerce. He kept a carriage, had a country- +place near Lagny; his wife wore diamonds at the court balls, and he +prided himself on the rosette of an officer of the Legion of honor in +his buttonhole. + +Minard and his wife were exceedingly benevolent. Perhaps he wished to +return in retail to the poor the sums he had mulcted from the public +by the wholesale. Phellion, Colleville, and Thuillier met their old +comrade, Minard, at election, and an intimacy followed; all the closer +with the Thuilliers and Collevilles because Madame Minard seemed +enchanted to make an acquaintance for her daughter in Celeste +Colleville. It was at a grand ball given by the Minards that Celeste +made her first appearance in society (being at that time sixteen and a +half years old), dressed as her Christian named demanded, which seemed +to be prophetic of her coming life. Delighted to be friendly with +Mademoiselle Minard, her elder by four years, she persuaded her father +and godfather to cultivate the Minard establishment, with its gilded +salons and great opulence, where many political celebrities of the +"juste milieu" were wont to congregate, such as Monsieur Popinot, who +became, after a time, minister of commerce; Cochin, since made Baron +Cochin, a former employee at the ministry of finance, who, having a +large interest in the drug business, was now the oracle of the Lombard +and Bourdonnais quarters, conjointly with Monsieur Anselme Popinot. +Minard's eldest son, a lawyer, aiming to succeed those barristers who +were turned down from the Palais for political reasons in 1830, was +the genius of the household, and his mother, even more than his +father, aspired to marry him well. Zelie Minard, formerly a flower- +maker, felt an ardent passion for the upper social spheres, and +desired to enter them through the marriages of her son and daughter; +whereas Minard, wiser than she, and imbued with the vigor of the +middle classes, which the revolution of July had infiltrated into the +fibres of government, thought only of wealth and fortune. + +He frequented the Thuillier salon to gain information as to Celeste's +probable inheritance. He knew, like Dutocq and Phellion, the reports +occasioned by Thuillier's former intimacy with Flavie, and he saw at a +glance the idolatry of the Thuilliers for their godchild. Dutocq, to +gain admittance to Minard's house, fawned upon him grossly. When +Minard, the Rothschild of the arrondissement, appeared at the +Thuilliers', he compared him cleverly to Napoleon, finding him stout, +fat, and blooming, having left him at the ministry thin, pale, and +puny. + +"You looked, in the division Billardiere," he said, "like Napoleon +before the 18th Brumaire, and I behold you now the Napoleon of the +Empire." + +Notwithstanding which flattery, Minard received Dutocq very coldly and +did not invite him to his house; consequently, he made a mortal enemy +of the former clerk. + +Monsieur and Madame Phellion, worthy as they were, could not keep +themselves from making calculations and cherishing hopes; they thought +that Celeste would be the very wife for their son the professor; +therefore, to have, as it were, a watcher in the Thuillier salon, they +introduced their son-in-law, Monsieur Barniol, a man much respected in +the faubourg Saint-Jacques, and also an old employee at the mayor's +office, an intimate friend of theirs, named Laudigeois. Thus the +Phellions formed a phalanx of seven persons; the Collevilles were not +less numerous; so that on Sundays it often appeared that thirty +persons were assembled in the Thuillier salon. Thuillier renewed +acquaintance with the Saillards, Baudoyers, and Falleixs,--all persons +of respectability in the quarter of the Palais-Royal, whom they often +invited to dinner. + +Madame Colleville was, as a woman, the most distinguished member of +this society, just as Minard junior and Professor Phellion were +superior among the men. All the others, without ideas or education, +and issuing from the lower ranks, presented the types and the +absurdities of the lesser bourgeoisie. Though all success, especially +if won from distant sources, seems to presuppose some genuine merit, +Minard was really an inflated balloon. Expressing himself in empty +phrases, mistaking sycophancy for politeness, and wordiness for wit, +he uttered his commonplaces with a brisk assurance that passed for +eloquence. Certain words which said nothing but answered all things,-- +progress, steam, bitumen, National guard, order, democratic element, +spirit of association, legality, movement, resistance,--seemed, as +each political phase developed, to have been actually made for Minard, +whose talk was a paraphrase on the ideas of his newspaper. Julien +Minard, the young lawyer, suffered from his father as much as his +father suffered from his wife. Zelie had grown pretentious with +wealth, without, at the same time, learning to speak French. She was +now very fat, and gave the idea, in her rich surroundings, of a cook +married to her master. + +Phellion, that type and model of the petty bourgeois, exhibited as +many virtues as he did absurdities. Accustomed to subordination during +his bureaucratic life, he respected all social superiority. He was +therefore silent before Minard. During the critical period of +retirement from office, he had held his own admirably, for the +following reason. Never until now had that worthy and excellent man +been able to indulge his own tastes. He loved the city of Paris; he +was interested in its embellishment, in the laying out of its streets; +he was capable of standing for hours to watch the demolition of +houses. He might now have been observed, stolidly planted on his legs, +his nose in the air, watching for the fall of a stone which some mason +was loosening at the top of a wall, and never moving till the stone +fell; when it had fallen he went away as happy as an academician at +the fall of a romantic drama. Veritable supernumeraries of the social +comedy, Phellion, Laudigeois, and their kind, fulfilled the functions +of the antique chorus. They wept when weeping was in order, laughed +when they should laugh, and sang in parts the public joys and sorrows; +they triumphed in their corner with the triumphs of Algiers, of +Constantine, of Lisbon, of Sainte-Jean d'Ulloa; they deplored the +death of Napoleon and the fatal catastrophes of the Saint-Merri and +the rue Transnonnain, grieving over celebrated men who were utterly +unknown to them. Phellion alone presents a double side: he divides +himself conscientiously between the reasons of the opposition and +those of the government. When fighting went on in the streets, +Phellion had the courage to declare himself before his neighbors; he +went to the Place Saint-Michel, the place where his battalion +assembled; he felt for the government and did his duty. Before and +during the riot, he supported the dynasty, the product of July; but, +as soon as the political trials began, he stood by the accused. This +innocent "weather-cockism" prevails in his political opinions; he +produces, in reply to all arguments, the "colossus of the North." +England is, to his thinking, as to that of the old "Constitutionnel," +a crone with two faces,--Machiavellian Albion, and the model nation: +Machiavellian, when the interests of France and of Napoleon are +concerned; the model nation when the faults of the government are in +question. He admits, with his chosen paper, the democratic element, +but refuses in conversation all compact with the republican spirit. +The republican spirit to him means 1793, rioting, the Terror, and +agrarian law. The democratic element is the development of the lesser +bourgeoisie, the reign of Phellions. + +The worthy old man is always dignified; dignity serves to explain his +life. He has brought up his children with dignity; he has kept himself +a father in their eyes; he insists on being honored in his home, just +as he himself honors power and his superiors. He has never made debts. +As a juryman his conscience obliges him to sweat blood and water in +the effort to follow the debates of a trial; he never laughs, not even +if the judge, and audience, and all the officials laugh. Eminently +useful, he gives his services, his time, everything--except his money. +Felix Phellion, his son, the professor, is his idol; he thinks him +capable of attaining to the Academy of Sciences. Thuillier, between +the audacious nullity of Minard, and the solid silliness of Phellion, +was a neutral substance, but connected with both through his dismal +experience. He managed to conceal the emptiness of his brain by +commonplace talk, just as he covered the yellow skin of his bald pate +with thready locks of his gray hair, brought from the back of his head +with infinite art by the comb of his hairdresser. + +"In any other career," he was wont to say, speaking of the government +employ, "I should have made a very different fortune." + +He had seen the RIGHT, which is possible in theory and impossible in +practice,--results proving contrary to premises,--and he related the +intrigues and the injustices of the Rabourdin affair. + +"After that, one can believe all, and believe nothing," he would say. +"Ah! it is a queer thing, government! I'm very glad not to have a son, +and never to see him in the career of a place-hunter." + +Colleville, ever gay, rotund, and good-humored, a sayer of +"quodlibets," a maker of anagrams, always busy, represented the +capable and bantering bourgeois, with faculty without success, +obstinate toil without result; he was also the embodiment of jovial +resignation, mind without object, art with usefulness, for, excellent +musician that he was, he never played now except for his daughter. + +The Thuillier salon was in some sort a provincial salon, lighted, +however, by continual flashes from the Parisian conflagration; its +mediocrity and its platitudes followed the current of the times. The +popular saying and thing (for in Paris the thing and its saying are +like the horse and its rider) ricochetted, so to speak, to this +company. Monsieur Minard was always impatiently expected, for he was +certain to know the truth of important circumstances. The women of the +Thuillier salon held by the Jesuits; the men defended the University; +and, as a general thing, the women listened. A man of intelligence +(could he have borne the dulness of these evenings) would have +laughed, as he would at a comedy of Moliere, on hearing, amid endless +discussion, such remarks as the following:-- + +"How could the Revolution of 1789 have been avoided? The loans of +Louis XIV. prepared the way for it. Louis XV., an egotist, a man of +narrow mind (didn't he say, 'If I were lieutenant of police I would +suppress cabriolets'?), that dissolute king--you remember his Parc aux +Cerfs?--did much to open the abyss of revolution. Monsieur de Necker, +an evil-minded Genovese, set the thing a-going. Foreigners have always +tried to injure France. The maximum did great harm to the Revolution. +Legally Louis XVI. should never have been condemned; a jury would have +acquitted him. Why did Charles X. fall? Napoleon was a great man, and +the facts that prove his genius are anecdotal: he took five pinches of +snuff a minute out of a pocket lined with leather made in his +waistcoat. He looked into all his tradesmen's accounts; he went to +Saint-Denis to judge for himself the prices of things. Talma was his +friend; Talma taught him his gestures; nevertheless, he always refused +to give Talma the Legion of honor! The emperor mounted guard for a +sentinel who went to sleep, to save him from being shot. Those were +the things that made his soldiers adore him. Louis XVIII., who +certainly had some sense, was very unjust in calling him Monsieur de +Buonaparte. The defect of the present government is in letting itself +be led instead of leading. It holds itself too low. It is afraid of +men of energy. It ought to have torn up all the treaties of 1815 and +demanded the Rhine. They keep the same men too long in the ministry"; +etc., etc. + +"Come, you've exerted your minds long enough," said Mademoiselle +Thuillier, interrupting one of these luminous talks; "the altar is +dressed; begin your little game." + +If these anterior facts and all these generalities were not placed +here as the frame of the present Scene, to give an idea of the spirit +of this society, the following drama would certainly have suffered +greatly. Moreover, this sketch is historically faithful; it shows a +social stratum of importance in any portrayal of manners and morals, +especially when we reflect that the political system of the Younger +branch rests almost wholly upon it. + +The winter of the year 1839 was, it may be said, the period when the +Thuillier salon was in its greatest glory. The Minards came nearly +every Sunday, and began their evening by spending an hour there, if +they had other engagements elsewhere. Often Minard would leave his +wife at the Thuilliers and take his son and daughter to other houses. +This assiduity on the part of the Minards was brought about by a +somewhat tardy meeting between Messieurs Metivier, Barbet, and Minard +on an evening when the two former, being tenants of Mademoiselle +Thuillier, remained rather longer than usual in discussing business +with her. From Barbet, Minard learned that the old maid had money +transactions with himself and Metivier to the amount of sixty thousand +francs, besides having a large deposit in the Bank. + +"Has she an account at the Bank?" asked Minard. + +"I believe so," replied Barbet. "I give her at least eighty thousand +francs there." + +Being on intimate terms with a governor of the Bank, Minard +ascertained that Mademoiselle Thuillier had, in point of fact, an +account of over two hundred thousand francs, the result of her +quarterly deposits for many years. Besides this, she owned the house +they lived in, which was not mortgaged, and was worth at least one +hundred thousand francs, if not more. + +"Why should Mademoiselle Thuillier work in this way?" said Minard to +Metivier. "She'd be a good match for you," he added. + +"I? oh, no," replied Metivier. "I shall do better by marrying a +cousin; my uncle Metivier has given me the succession to his business; +he has a hundred thousand francs a year and only two daughters." + +However secretive Mademoiselle Thuillier might be,--and she said +nothing of her investments to any one, not even to her brother, +although a large amount of Madame Thuillier's fortune went to swell +the amount of her own savings,--it was difficult to prevent some ray +of light from gliding under the bushel which covered her treasure. + +Dutocq, who frequented Barbet, with whom he had some resemblance in +character and countenance, had appraised, even more correctly than +Minard, the Thuillier finances. He knew that their savings amounted, +in 1838, to one hundred and fifty thousand francs, and he followed +their progress secretly, calculating profits by the help of that all- +wise money-lender, Barbet. + +"Celeste will have from my brother and myself two hundred thousand +francs in ready money," the old maid had said to Barbet in confidence, +"and Madame Thuillier wishes to secure to her by the marriage contract +the ultimate possession of her own fortune. As for me, my will is +made. My brother will have everything during his lifetime, and Celeste +will be my heiress with that reservation. Monsieur Cardot, the notary, +is my executor." + +Mademoiselle Thuillier now instigated her brother to renew his former +relations with the Saillards, Baudoyers, and others, who held a +position similar to that of the Thuilliers in the quartier Saint- +Antoine, of which Monsieur Saillard was mayor. Cardot, the notary, had +produced his aspirant for Celeste's hand in the person of Monsieur +Godeschal, attorney and successor to Derville; an able man, thirty-six +years of age, who had paid one hundred thousand francs for his +practice, which the two hundred thousand of the "dot" would doubly +clear off. Minard, however, got rid of Godeschal by informing +Mademoiselle Thuillier that Celeste's sister-in-law would be the +famous Mariette of the Opera. + +"She came from the stage," said Colleville, alluding to his wife, "and +there's no need she should return to it." + +"Besides, Monsieur Godeschal is too old for Celeste," remarked +Brigitte. + +"And ought we not," added Madame Thuillier, timidly, "to let her marry +according to her own taste, so as to be happy?" + +The poor woman had detected in Felix Phellion a true love for Celeste; +the love that a woman crushed by Brigitte and wounded by her husband's +indifference (for Thuillier cared less for his wife than he did for a +servant) had dreamed that love might be,--bold in heart, timid +externally, sure of itself, reserved, hidden from others, but +expanding toward heaven. At twenty-three years of age, Felix Phellion +was a gentle, pure-minded young man, like all true scholars who +cultivate knowledge for knowledge's sake. He had been sacredly brought +up by his father, who, viewing all things seriously, had given him +none but good examples accompanied by trivial maxims. He was a young +man of medium height, with light chestnut hair, gray eyes, and a skin +full of freckles; gifted with a charming voice, a tranquil manner; +making few gestures; thoughtful, saying little, and that little +sensible; contradicting no one, and quite incapable of a sordid +thought or a selfish calculation. + +"That," thought Madame Thuillier, "is what I should have liked my +husband to be." + +One evening, in the month of February, 1840, the Thuillier salon +contained the various personages whose silhouettes we have just traced +out, together with some others. It was nearly the end of the month. +Barbet and Metivier having business with mademoiselle Brigitte, were +playing whist with Minard and Phellion. at another table were Julien +the advocate (a nickname given by Colleville to young Minard), Madame +Colleville, Monsieur Barniol, and Madame Phellion. "Bouillotte," at +five sous a stake, occupied Madame Minard, who knew no other game, +Colleville, old Monsieur Saillard, and Bandoze, his son-in-law. The +substitutes were Laudigeois and Dutocq. Mesdames Falleix, Baudoyer, +Barniol, and Mademoiselle Minard were playing boston, and Celeste was +sitting beside Prudence Minard. Young Phellion was listening to Madame +Thuillier and looking at Celeste. + +At a corner of the fireplace sat enthroned on a sofa the Queen +Elizabeth of the family, as simply dressed as she had been for the +last thirty years; for no prosperity could have made her change her +habits. She wore on her chinchilla hair a black gauze cap, adorned +with the geranium called Charles X.; her gown, of plum-colored stuff, +made with a yoke, cost fifteen francs, her embroidered collarette was +worth six, and it ill disguised the deep wrinkle produced by the two +muscles which fastened the head to the vertebral column. The actor, +Monvel, playing Augustus Caesar in his old age, did not present a +harder and sterner profile than that of this female autocrat, knitting +socks for her brother. Before the fireplace stood Thuillier in an +attitude, ready to go forward and meet the arriving guests; near him +was a young man whose entrance had produced a great effect, when the +porter (who on Sundays wore his best clothes and waited on the +company) announced Monsieur Olivier Vinet. + +A private communication made by Cardot to the celebrated "procureur- +general," father of this young man, was the cause of his visit. +Olivier Vinet had just been promoted from the court of Arcis-sur-Aube +to that of the Seine, where he now held the post of substitute +"procureur-de-roi." Cardot had already invited Thuillier and the elder +Vinet, who was likely to become minister of justice, with his son, to +dine with him. The notary estimated the fortunes which would +eventually fall to Celeste at seven hundred thousand francs. Vinet +junior appeared charmed to obtain the right to visit the Thuilliers on +Sundays. Great dowries make men commit great and unbecoming follies +without reserve or decency in these days. + +Ten minutes later another young man, who had been talking with +Thuillier before the arrival of Olivier Vinet, raised his voice +eagerly, in a political discussion, and forced the young magistrate to +follow his example in the vivacious argument which now ensued. The +matter related to the vote by which the Chamber of Deputies had just +overthrown the ministry of the 12th of May, refusing the allowance +demanded for the Duc de Nemours. + +"Assuredly," said the young man, "I am far from belonging to the +dynastic party; I am very far from approving of the rise of the +bourgeoisie to power. The bourgeoisie ought not, any more than the +aristocracy of other days, to assume to be the whole nation. But the +French bourgeoisie has now taken upon itself to create a new dynasty, +a royalty of its own, and behold how it treats it! When the people +allowed Napoleon to rise to power, it created with him a splendid and +monumental state of things; it was proud of his grandeur; and it nobly +gave its blood and sweat in building up the edifice of the Empire. +Between the magnificence of the aristocratic throne and those of the +imperial purple, between the great of the earth and the People, the +bourgeoisie is proving itself petty; it degrades power to its own +level instead of rising up to it. The saving of candle-ends it has so +long practised behind its counters, it now seeks to impose on its +princes. What may perhaps have been virtue in its shops is a blunder +and a crime higher up. I myself have wanted many things for the +people, but I never should have begun by lopping off ten millions of +francs from the new civil list. In becoming, as it were, nearly the +whole of France, the bourgeoisie owed to us the prosperity of the +people, splendor without ostentation, grandeur without privilege." + +The father of Olivier Vinet was just now sulking with the government. +The robe of Keeper of the Seals, which had been his dream, was slow in +coming to him. The young substitute did not, therefore, know exactly +how to answer this speech; he thought it wise to enlarge on one of its +side issues. + +"You are right, monsieur," said Olivier Vinet. "But, before +manifesting itself magnificently, the bourgeoisie has other duties to +fulfil towards France. The luxury you speak of should come after duty. +That which seems to you so blameable is the necessity of the moment. +The Chamber is far from having its full share in public affairs; the +ministers are less for France than they are for the crown, and +parliament has determined that the administration shall have, as in +England, a strength and power of its own, and not a mere borrowed +power. The day on which the administration can act for itself, and +represent the Chamber as the Chamber represents the country, +parliament will be found very liberal toward the crown. The whole +question is there. I state it without expressing my own opinion, for +the duties of my post demand, in politics, a certain fealty to the +crown." + +"Setting aside the political question," replied the young man, whose +voice and accent were those of a native of Provence, "it is certainly +true that the bourgeoisie has ill understood its mission. We can see, +any day, the great law officers, attorney-generals, peers of France in +omnibuses, judges who live on their salaries, prefects without +fortunes, ministers in debt! Whereas the bourgeoisie, who have seized +upon those offices, ought to dignify them, as in the olden time when +aristocracy dignified them, and not occupy such posts solely for the +purpose of making their fortune, as scandalous disclosures have +proved." + +"Who is this young man?" thought Olivier Vinet. "Is he a relative? +Cardot ought to have come with me on this first visit." + +"Who is that little monsieur?" asked Minard of Barbet. "I have seen +him here several times." + +"He is a tenant," replied Metivier, shuffling the cards. + +"A lawyer," added Barbet, in a low voice, "who occupies a small +apartment on the third floor front. Oh! HE doesn't amount to much; he +has nothing." + +"What is the name of that young man?" said Olivier Vinet to Thuillier. + +"Theodose de la Peyrade; he is a barrister," replied Thuillier, in a +whisper. + +At that moment the women present, as well as the men, looked at the +two young fellows, and Madame Minard remarked to Colleville:-- + +"He is rather good-looking, that stranger." + +"I have made his anagram," replied Colleville, "and his name, Charles- +Marie-Theodose de la Peyrade, prophecies: 'Eh! monsieur payera, de la +dot, des oies et le char.' Therefore, my dear Mamma Minard, be sure +you don't give him your daughter." + +"They say that young man is better-looking than my son," said Madame +Phellion to Madame Colleville. "What do you think about it?" + +"Oh! in the matter of physical beauty a woman might hesitate before +choosing," replied Madame Colleville. + +At that moment it occurred to young Vinet as he looked round the +salon, so full of the lesser bourgeoisie, that it might be a shrewd +thing to magnify that particular class; and he thereupon enlarged upon +the meaning of the young Provencal barrister, declaring that men so +honored by the confidence of the government should imitate royalty and +encourage a magnificence surpassing that of the former court. It was +folly, he said, to lay by the emoluments of an office. Besides, could +it be done, in Paris especially, where costs of living had trebled,-- +the apartment of a magistrate, for instance, costing three thousand +francs a year? + +"My father," he said in conclusion, "allows me three thousand francs a +year, and that, with my salary, barely allows me to maintain my rank." + +When the young substitute rode boldly into this bog-hole, the +Provencal, who had slyly enticed him there, exchanged, without being +observed, a wink with Dutocq, who was just then waiting for the place +of a player at bouillotte. + +"There is such a demand for offices," remarked the latter, "that they +talk of creating two justices of the peace to each arrondissement in +order to make a dozen new clerkships. As if they could interfere with +our rights and our salaries, which already require an exhorbitant +tax!" + +"I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing you at the Palais," said +Vinet to Monsieur de la Peyrade. + +"I am advocate for the poor, and I plead only before the justice of +peace," replied la Peyrade. + +Mademoiselle Thuillier, as she listened to young Vinet's theory of the +necessity of spending an income, assumed a distant air and manner, the +significance of which was well understood by Dutocq and the young +Provencal. Vinet left the house in company with Minard and Julien the +advocate, so that the battle-field before the fire-place was abandoned +to la Peyrade and Dutocq. + +"The upper bourgeoisie," said Dutocq to Thuillier, "will behave, in +future, exactly like the old aristocracy. The nobility wanted girls +with money to manure their lands, and the parvenus of to-day want the +same to feather their nests." + +"That's exactly what Monsieur Thuillier was saying to me this +morning," remarked la Peyrade, boldly. + +"Vinet's father," said Dutocq, "married a Demoiselle de Chargeboeuf +and has caught the opinions of the nobility; he wants a fortune at any +price; his wife spends money regally." + +"Oh!" said Thuillier, in whom the jealousy between the two classes of +the bourgeoisie was fully roused, "take offices away from those +fellows and they'd fall back where they came." + +Mademoiselle was knitting with such precipitous haste that she seemed +to be propelled by a steam-engine. + +"Take my place, Monsieur Dutocq," said Madame Minard, rising. "My feet +are cold," she added, going to the fire, where the golden ornaments of +her turban made fireworks in the light of the Saint-Aurora wax-candles +that were struggling vainly to light the vast salon. + +"He is very small fry, that young substitute," said Madame Minard, +glancing at Mademoiselle Thuillier. + +"Small fry!" cried la Peyrade. "Ah, madame! how witty!" + +"But madame has so long accustomed us to that sort of thing," said the +handsome Thuillier. + +Madame Colleville was examining la Peyrade and comparing him with +young Phellion, who was just then talking to Celeste, neither of them +paying any heed to what was going on around them. This is, certainly, +the right moment to depict the singular personage who was destined to +play a signal part in the Thuillier household, and who fully deserves +the appellation of a great artist. + + + +CHAPTER V + +A PRINCIPAL PERSONAGE + +There exists in Provence, especially about Avignon, a race of men with +blond or chestnut hair, fair skin, and eyes that are almost tender, +their pupils calm, feeble, or languishing, rather than keen, ardent, +or profound, as they usually are in the eyes of Southerners. Let us +remark, in passing, that among Corsicans, a race subject to fits of +anger and dangerous irascibility, we often meet with fair skins and +physical natures of the same apparent tranquillity. These pale men, +rather stout, with somewhat dim and hazy eyes either green or blue, +are the worst species of humanity in Provence; and Charles-Marie- +Theodose de la Peyrade presents a fine type of that race, the +constitution of which deserves careful examination on the part of +medical science and philosophical physiology. There rises, at times, +within such men, a species of bile,--a bitter gall, which flies to +their head and makes them capable of ferocious actions, done, +apparently, in cold blood. Being the result of an inward intoxication, +this sort of dumb violence seems to be irreconcilable with their +quasi-lymphatic outward man, and the tranquillity of their benignant +glance. + +Born in the neighborhood of Avignon, the young Provencal whose name we +have just mentioned was of middle height, well-proportioned, and +rather stout; the tone of his skin had no brilliancy; it was neither +livid nor dead-white, nor colored, but gelatinous,--that word can +alone give a true idea of the flabby, hueless envelope, beneath which +were concealed nerves that were less vigorous than capable of enormous +resistance at certain given moments. His eyes, of a pale cold blue, +expressed in their ordinary condition a species of deceptive sadness, +which must have had great charms for women. The forehead, finely cut, +was not without dignity, and it harmonized well with the soft, light +chestnut hair curling naturally, but slightly, at its tips. The nose, +precisely like that of a hunting dog, flat and furrowed at the tip, +inquisitive, intelligent, searching, always on the scent, instead of +expressing good-humor, was ironical and mocking; but this particular +aspect of his nature never showed itself openly; the young man must +have ceased to watch himself, he must have flown into fury before the +power came to him to flash out the sarcasm and the wit which +embittered, tenfold, his infernal humor. The mouth, the curving lines +and pomegranate-colored lips of which were very pleasing, seemed the +admirable instrument of an organ that was almost sweet in its middle +tones, where its owner usually kept it, but which, in its higher key, +vibrated on the ear like the sound of a gong. This falsetto was the +voice of his nerves and his anger. His face, kept expressionless by an +inward command, was oval in form. His manners, in harmony with the +sacerdotal calmness of the face, were reserved and conventional; but +he had supple, pliant ways which, though they never descended to +wheedling, were not lacking in seduction; although as soon as his back +was turned their charm seemed inexplicable. Charm, when it takes its +rise in the heart, leaves deep and lasting traces; that which is +merely a product of art, or of eloquence, has only a passing power; it +produces its immediate effect, and that is all. But how many +philosophers are there in life who are able to distinguish the +difference? Almost always the trick is played (to use a popular +expression) before the ordinary run of men have perceived its methods. + +Everything about this young man of twenty-seven was in harmony with +his character; he obeyed his vocation by cultivating philanthropy,-- +the only expression which explains the philanthropist. Theodose loved +the People, for he limited his love for humanity. Like the +horticulturist who devotes himself to roses, or dahlias, or heart's- +ease, or geraniums, and pays no attention to the plants his fancy has +not selected, so this young La Rochefoucault-Liancourt gave himself to +the workingmen, the proletariat and the paupers of the faubourgs +Saint-Jacques and Saint-Marceau. The strong man, the man of genius at +bay, the worthy poor of the bourgeois class, he cut them off from the +bosom of his charity. The heart of all persons with a mania is like +those boxes with compartments, in which sugarplums are kept in sorts: +"suum cuique tribuere" is their motto; they measure to each duty its +dose. There are some philanthropists who pity nothing but the man +condemned to death. Vanity is certainly the basis of philanthropy; but +in the case of this Provencal it was calculation, a predetermined +course, a "liberal" and democratic hypocrisy, played with a perfection +that no other actor will ever attain. + +Theodose did not attack the rich; he contented himself with not +understanding them; he endured them; every one, in his opinion, ought +to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He had been, he said, a fervent +disciple of Saint-Simon, but that mistake must be attributed to his +youth: modern society could have no other basis than heredity. An +ardent Catholic, like all men from the Comtat, he went to the earliest +morning masses, and thus concealed his piety. Like other +philanthropists, he practised a sordid economy, and gave to the poor +his time, his legal advice, his eloquence, and such money as he +extracted for them from the rich. His clothes, always of black cloth, +were worn until the seams became white. Nature had done a great deal +for Theodose in not giving him that fine manly Southern beauty which +creates in others an imaginary expectation, to which it is more than +difficult for a man to respond. As it was, he could be what suited him +at the moment,--an agreeable man or a very ordinary one. Never, since +his admission to the Thuilliers', had he ventured, till this evening, +to raise his voice and speak as dogmatically as he had risked doing to +Olivier Vinet; but perhaps Theodose de la Peyrade was not sorry to +seize the opportunity to come out from the shade in which he had +hitherto kept himself. Besides, it was necessary to get rid of the +young substitute, just as the Minards had previously ruined the hopes +of Monsieur Godeschal. Like all superior men (for he certainly had +some superiority), Vinet had never lowered himself to the point where +the threads of these bourgeois spider-webs became visible to him, and +he had therefore plunged, like a fly, headforemost, into the almost +invisible trap to which Theodose inveigled him. + +To complete this portrait of the poor man's lawyer we must here relate +the circumstances of his first arrival at the Thuilliers'. + +Theodose came to lodge in Mademoiselle Thuillier's house toward the +close of the year 1837. He had taken his degree about five years +earlier, and had kept the proper number of terms to become a +barrister. Circumstances, however, about which he said nothing, had +interfered to prevent his being called to the bar; he was, therefore, +still a licentiate. But soon after he was installed in the little +apartment on the third floor, with the furniture rigorously required +by all members of his noble profession,--for the guild of barristers +admits no brother unless he has a suitable study, a legal library, and +can thus, as it were, verify his claims,--Theodose de la Peyrade began +to practise as a barrister before the Royal Court of Paris. + +The whole of the year 1838 was employed in making this change in his +condition, and he led a most regular life. He studied at home in the +mornings till dinner-time, going sometimes to the Palais for important +cases. Having become very intimate with Dutocq (so Dutocq said), he +did certain services to the poor of the faubourg Saint-Jacques who +were brought to his notice by that official. He pleaded their cases +before the court, after bringing them to the notice of the attorneys, +who, according to the statutes of their order, are obliged to take +turns in doing business for the poor. As Theodose was careful to plead +only safe cases, he won them all. Those persons whom he thus obliged +expressed their gratitude and their admiration, in spite of the young +lawyer's admonitions, among their own class, and to the porters of +private houses, through whom many anecdotes rose to the ears of the +proprietors. Delighted to have in their house a tenant so worthy and +so charitable, the Thuilliers wished to attract him to their salon, +and they questioned Dutocq about him. The mayor's clerk replied as the +envious reply; while doing justice to the young man he dwelt on his +remarkable avarice, which might, however, be the effect of poverty. + +"I have had other information about him. He belongs to the Peyrades, +an old family of the 'comtat' of Avignon; he came here toward the end +of 1829, to inquire about an uncle whose fortune was said to be +considerable; he discovered the address of the old man only three days +before his death; and the furniture of the deceased merely sufficed to +bury him and pay his debts. A friend of this useless uncle gave a +couple of hundred louis to the poor fortune-hunter, advising him to +finish his legal studies and enter the judiciary career. Those two +hundred louis supported him for three years in Paris, where he lived +like an anchorite. But being unable to discover his unknown friend and +benefactor, the poor student was in abject distress in 1833. He worked +then, like so many other licentiates, in politics and literature, by +which he kept himself for a time above want--for he had nothing to +expect from his family. His father, the youngest brother of the dead +uncle, has eleven other children, who live on a small estate called +Les Canquoelles. He finally obtained a place on a ministerial +newspaper, the manager of which was the famous Cerizet, so celebrated +for the persecutions he met with, under the Restoration, on account of +his attachment to the liberals,--a man whom the new Left will never +forgive for having made his paper ministerial. As the government of +these days does very little to protect even its most devoted servants +(witness the Gisquet affair), the republicans have ended by ruining +Cerizet. I tell you this to explain how it is that Cerizet is now a +copying clerk in my office. Well, in the days when he flourished as +managing editor of a paper directed by the Perier ministry against the +incendiary journals, the 'Tribune' and others, Cerizet, who is a +worthy fellow after all, though he is too fond of women, pleasure, and +good living, was very useful to Theodose, who edited the political +department of the paper; and if it hadn't been for the death of +Casimir Perier that young man would certainly have received an +appointment as substitute judge in Paris. As it was, he dropped back +in 1834-35, in spite of his talent; for his connection with a +ministerial journal of course did him harm. 'If it had not been for my +religious principles,' he said to me, 'I should have thrown myself +into the Seine.' However, it seems that the friend of his uncle must +have heard of his distress, for again he sent him a sum of money; +enough to complete his terms for the bar; but, strange to say, he has +never known the name or the address of this mysterious benefactor. +After all, perhaps, under such circumstances, his economy is +excusable, and he must have great strength of mind to refuse what the +poor devils whose cases he wins by his devotion offer him. He is +indignant at the way other lawyers speculate on the possibility or +impossibility of poor creatures, unjustly sued, paying for the costs +of their defence. Oh! he'll succeed in the end. I shouldn't be +surprised to see that fellow in some very brilliant position; he has +tenacity, honesty, and courage. He studies, he delves." + +Notwithstanding the favor with which he was greeted, la Peyrade went +discreetly to the Thuilliers'. When reproached for this reserve he +went oftener, and ended by appearing every Sunday; he was invited to +all dinner-parties, and became at last so familiar in the house that +whenever he came to see Thuillier about four o'clock he was always +requested to take "pot-luck" without ceremony. Mademoiselle Thuillier +used to say:-- + +"Then we know that he will get a good dinner, poor fellow!" + +A social phenomenon which has certainly been observed, but never, as +yet, formulated, or, if you like it better, published, though it fully +deserves to be recorded, is the return of habits, mind, and manners to +primitive conditions in certain persons who, between youth and old +age, have raised themselves above their first estate. Thus Thuillier +had become, once more, morally speaking, the son of a concierge. He +now made use of many of his father's jokes, and a little of the slime +of early days was beginning to appear on the surface of his declining +life. About five or six times a month, when the soup was rich and good +he would deposit his spoon in his empty plate and say, as if the +proposition were entirely novel:-- + +"That's better than a kick on the shin-bone!" + +On hearing that witticism for the first time Theodose, to whom it was +really new, laughed so heartily that the handsome Thuillier was +tickled in his vanity as he had never been before. After that, +Theodose greeted the same speech with a knowing little smile. This +slight detail will explain how it was that on the morning of the day +when Theodose had his passage at arms with Vinet he had said to +Thuillier, as they were walking in the garden to see the effect of a +frost:-- + +"You have much more wit than you give yourself credit for." + +To which he received this answer:-- + +"In any other career, my dear Theodose, I should have made my way +nobly; but the fall of the Emperor broke my neck." + +"There is still time," said the young lawyer. "In the first place, +what did that mountebank, Colleville, ever do to get the cross?" + +There la Peyrade laid his finger on a sore wound which Thuillier hid +from every eye so carefully that even his sister did not know of it; +but the young man, interested in studying these bourgeois, had divined +the secret envy that gnawed at the heart of the ex-official. + +"If you, experienced as you are, will do the honor to follow my +advice," added the philanthropist, "and, above all, not mention our +compact to any one, I will undertake to have you decorated with the +Legion of honor, to the applause of the whole quarter." + +"Oh! if we succeed in that," cried Thuillier, "you don't know what I +would do for you." + +This explains why Thuillier carried his head high when Theodose had +the audacity that evening to put opinions into his mouth. + +In art--and perhaps Moliere had placed hypocrisy in the rank of art by +classing Tartuffe forever among comedians--there exists a point of +perfection to which genius alone attains; mere talent falls below it. +There is so little difference between a work of genius and a work of +talent, that only men of genius can appreciate the distance that +separates Raffaelle from Correggio, Titian from Rubens. More than +that; common minds are easily deceived on this point. The sign of +genius is a certain appearance of facility. In fact, its work must +appear, at first sight, ordinary, so natural is it, even on the +highest subjects. Many peasant-women hold their children as the famous +Madonna in the Dresden gallery holds hers. Well, the height of art in +a man of la Peyrade's force was to oblige others to say of him later: +"Everybody would have been taken in by him." + +Now, in the salon Thuillier, he noted a dawning opposition; he +perceived in Colleville the somewhat clear-sighted and criticising +nature of an artist who has missed his vocation. The barrister felt +himself displeasing to Colleville, who (as the result of circumstances +not necessary to here report) considered himself justified in +believing in the science of anagrams. None of this anagrams had ever +failed. The clerks in the government office had laughed at him when, +demanding an anagram on the name of the poor helpless Auguste-Jean- +Francois Minard, he had produced, "J'amassai une si grande fortune"; +and the event had justified him after the lapse of ten years! +Theodose, on several occasions, had made advances to the jovial +secretary of the mayor's office, and had felt himself rebuffed by a +coldness which was not natural in so sociable a man. When the game of +bouillotte came to an end, Colleville seized the moment to draw +Thuillier into the recess of a window and say to him:-- + +"You are letting that lawyer get too much foothold in your house; he +kept the ball in his own hands all the evening." + +"Thank you, my friend; forewarned is forearmed," replied Thuillier, +inwardly scoffing at Colleville. + +Theodose, who was talking at the moment to Madame Colleville, had his +eye on the two men, and, with the same prescience by which women know +when and how they are spoken of, he perceived that Colleville was +trying to injure him in the mind of the weak and silly Thuillier. +"Madame," he said in Flavie's ear, "if any one here is capable of +appreciating you it is certainly I. You seem to me a pearl dropped +into the mire. You say you are forty-two, but a woman is no older than +she looks, and many women of thirty would be thankful to have your +figure and that noble countenance, where love has passed without ever +filling the void in your heart. You have given yourself to God, I +know, and I have too much religion myself to regret it, but I also +know that you have done so because no human being has proved worthy of +you. You have been loved, but you have never been adored--I have +divined that. There is your husband, who has not known how to please +you in a position in keeping with your deserts. He dislikes me, as if +he thought I loved you; and he prevents me from telling you of a way +that I think I have found to place you in the sphere for which you +were destined. No, madame," he continued, rising, "the Abbe Gondrin +will not preach this year through Lent at our humble Saint-Jacques du +Haut-Pas; the preacher will be Monsieur d'Estival, a compatriot of +mine, and you will hear in him one of the most impressive speakers +that I have ever known,--a priest whose outward appearance is not +agreeable, but, oh! what a soul!" + +"Then my desire will be gratified," said poor Madame Thuillier. "I +have never yet been able to understand a famous preacher." + +A smile flickered on the lips of Mademoiselle Thuillier and several +others who heard the remark. + +"They devote themselves too much to theological demonstration," said +Theodose. "I have long thought so myself--but I never talk religion; +if it had not been for Madame DE Colleville, I--" + +"Are there demonstrations in theology?" asked the professor of +mathematics, naively, plunging headlong into the conversation. + +"I think, monsieur," replied Theodose, looking straight at Felix +Phellion, "that you cannot be serious in asking me such a question." + +"Felix," said old Phellion, coming heavily to the rescue of his son, +and catching a distressed look on the pale face of Madame Thuillier,-- +"Felix separates religion into two categories; he considers it from +the human point of view and the divine point of view,--tradition and +reason." + +"That is heresy, monsieur," replied Theodose. "Religion is one; it +requires, above all things, faith." + +Old Phellion, nonplussed by that remark, nodded to his wife:-- + +"It is getting late, my dear," and he pointed to the clock. + +"Oh, Monsieur Felix," said Celeste in a whisper to the candid +mathematician, "Couldn't you be, like Pascal and Bossuet, learned and +pious both?" + +The Phellions, on departing, carried the Collevilles with them. Soon +no one remained in the salon but Dutocq, Theodose, and the Thuilliers. + +The flattery administered by Theodose to Flavie seems at the first +sight coarsely commonplace, but we must here remark, in the interests +of this history, that the barrister was keeping himself as close as +possible to these vulgar minds; he was navigating their waters; he +spoke their language. His painter was Pierre Grassou, and not Joseph +Bridau; his book was "Paul and Virginia." The greatest living poet for +him was Casimire de la Vigne; to his eyes the mission of art was, +above all things, utility. Parmentier, the discoverer of the potato, +was greater to him that thirty Raffaelles; the man in the blue cloak +seemed to him a sister of charity. These were Thuillier's expressions, +and Theodose remembered them all--on occasion. + +"That young Felix Phellion," he now remarked, "is precisely the +academical man of our day; the product of knowledge which sends God to +the rear. Heavens, what are we coming to? Religion alone can save +France; nothing but the fear of hell will preserve us from domestic +robbery, which is going on at all hours in the bosom of families, and +eating into the surest fortunes. All of you have a secret warfare in +your homes." + +After this shrewd tirade, which made a great impression upon Brigitte, +he retired, followed by Dutocq, after wishing good evening to the +three Thuilliers. + +"That young man has great capacity," said Thuillier, sententiously. + +"Yes, that he has," replied Brigitte, extinguishing the lamps. + +"He has religion," said Madame Thuillier, as she left the room. + +"Monsieur," Phellion was saying to Colleville as they came abreast of +the Ecole de Mines, looking about him to see that no one was near, "it +is usually my custom to submit my insight to that of others, but it is +impossible for me not to think that that young lawyer plays the master +at our friend Thuillier's." + +"My own opinion," said Colleville, who was walking with Phellion +behind his wife, Madame Phellion, and Celeste, "is that he's a Jesuit; +and I don't like Jesuits; the best of them are no good. To my mind a +Jesuit means knavery, and knavery for knavery's sake; they deceive for +the pleasure of deceiving, and, as the saying is, to keep their hand +in. That's my opinion, and I don't mince it." + +"I understand you, monsieur," said Phellion, who was arm-in-arm with +Colleville. + +"No, Monsieur Phellion," remarked Flavie in a shrill voice, "you don't +understand Colleville; but I know what he means, and I think he had +better stop saying it. Such subjects are not to be talked of in the +street, at eleven o'clock at night, and before a young lady." + +"You are right, wife," said Colleville. + +When they reached the rue des Deux-Eglises, which Phellion was to +take, they all stopped to say good-night, and Felix Phellion, who was +bring up the rear, said to Colleville:-- + +"Monsieur, your son Francois could enter the Ecole Polytechnique if he +were well-coached; I propose to you to fit him to pass the +examinations this year." + +"That's an offer not to be refused! Thank you, my friend," said +Colleville. "We'll see about it." + +"Good!" said Phellion to his son, as they walked on. + +"Not a bad stroke!" said the mother. + +"What do you mean by that?" asked Felix. + +"You are very cleverly paying court to Celeste's parents." + +"May I never find the solution of my problem if I even thought of it!" +cried the young professor. "I discovered, when talking with the little +Collevilles, that Francois has a strong turn for mathematics, and I +thought I ought to enlighten his father." + +"Good, my son!" repeated Phellion. "I wouldn't have you otherwise. My +prayers are granted! I have a son whose honor, probity, and private +and civic virtues are all that I could wish." + +Madame Colleville, as soon as Celeste had gone to bed, said to her +husband:-- + +"Colleville, don't utter those blunt opinions about people without +knowing something about them. When you talk of Jesuits I know you mean +priests; and I wish you would do me the kindness to keep your opinions +on religion to yourself when you are in company with your daughter. We +may sacrifice our own souls, but not the souls of our children. You +don't want Celeste to be a creature without religion? And remember, my +dear, that we are at the mercy of others; we have four children to +provide for; and how do you know that, some day or other, you may not +need the services of this one or that one? Therefore don't make +enemies. You haven't any now, for you are a good-natured fellow; and, +thanks to that quality, which amounts in you to a charm, we have got +along pretty well in life, so far." + +"That's enough!" said Colleville, flinging his coat on a chair and +pulling off his cravat. "I'm wrong, and you are right, my beautiful +Flavie." + +"And on the next occasion, my dear old sheep," said the sly creature, +tapping her husband's cheek, "you must try to be polite to that young +lawyer; he is a schemer and we had better have him on our side. He is +playing comedy--well! play comedy with him; be his dupe apparently; if +he proves to have talent, if he has a future before him, make a friend +of him. Do you think I want to see you forever in the mayor's office?" + +"Come, wife Colleville," said the former clarionet, tapping his knee +to indicate the place he wished his wife to take. "Let us warm our +toes and talk.--When I look at you I am more than ever convinced that +the youth of women is in their figure." + +"And in their heart." + +"Well, both," assented Colleville; "waist slender, heart solid--" + +"No, you old stupid, deep." + +"What is good about you is that you have kept your fairness without +growing fat. But the fact is, you have such tiny bones. Flavie, it is +a fact that if I had life to live over again I shouldn't wish for any +other wife than you." + +"You know very well I have always preferred you to OTHERS. How unlucky +that monseigneur is dead! Do you know what I covet for you?" + +"No; what?" + +"Some office at the Hotel de Ville,--an office worth twelve thousand +francs a year; cashier, or something of that kind; either there, or at +Poissy, in the municipal department; or else as manufacturer of +musical instruments--" + +"Any one of them would suit me." + +"Well, then! if that queer barrister has power, and he certainly has +plenty of intrigue, let us manage him. I'll sound him; leave me to do +the thing--and, above all, don't thwart his game at the Thuilliers'." + +Theodose had laid a finger on a sore sport in Flavie Colleville's +heart; and this requires an explanation, which may, perhaps, have the +value of a synthetic glance at women's life. + +At forty years of age a woman, above all, if she has tasted the +poisoned apple of passion, undergoes a solemn shock; she sees two +deaths before her: that of the body and that of the heart. Dividing +women into two great categories which respond to the common ideas, and +calling them either virtuous or guilty, it is allowable to say that +after that fatal period they both suffer pangs of terrible intensity. +If virtuous, and disappointed in the deepest hopes of their nature-- +whether they have had the courage to submit, whether they have buried +their revolt in their hearts or at the foot of the altar--they never +admit to themselves that all is over for them without horror. That +thought has such strange and diabolical depths that in it lies the +reason of some of those apostasies which have, at times, amazed the +world and horrified it. If guilty, women of that age fall into one of +several delirious conditions which often turn, alas! to madness, or +end in suicide, or terminate in some with passion greater than the +situation itself. + +The following is the "dilemmatic" meaning of this crisis. Either they +have known happiness, known it in a virtuous life, and are unable to +breathe in any air but that surcharged with incense, or act in any but +a balmy atmosphere of flattery and worship,--if so, how is it possible +to renounce it?--or, by a phenomenon less rare than singular, they +have found only wearying pleasures while seeking for the happiness +that escaped them--sustained in that eager chase by the irritating +satisfactions of vanity, clinging to the game like a gambler to his +double or quits; for to them these last days of beauty are their last +stake against despair. + +"You have been loved, but never adored." + +That speech of Theodose, accompanied by a look which read, not into +her heart, but into her life, was the key-note to her enigma, and +Flavie felt herself divined. + +The lawyer had merely repeated ideas which literature has rendered +trivial; but what matter where the whip comes from, or how it is made, +if it touches the sensitive spot of a horse's hide? The emotion was in +Flavie, not in the speech, just as the noise is not in the avalanche, +though it produces it. + +A young officer, two fops, a banker, a clumsy youth, and Colleville, +were poor attempts at happiness. Once in her life Madame Colleville +had dreamed of it, but never attained it. Death had hastened to put an +end to the only passion in which she had found a charm. For the last +two years she had listened to the voice of religion, which told her +that neither the Church, nor its votaries, should talk of love or +happiness, but of duty and resignation; that the only happiness lay in +the satisfaction of fulfilling painful and costly duties, the rewards +for which were not in this world. All the same, however, she was +conscious of another clamoring voice; but, inasmuch as her religion +was only a mask which it suited her to wear, and not a conversion, she +did not lay it aside, thinking it a resource. Believing also that +piety, false or true, was a becoming manner in which to meet her +future, she continued in the Church, as though it were the cross-roads +of a forest, where, seated on a bench, she read the sign-posts, and +waited for some lucky chance; feeling all the while that night was +coming on. + +Thus it happened that her interest was keenly excited when Theodose +put her secret condition of mind into words, seeming to promise her +the realization of her castle in the air, already built and overthrown +some six or eight times. + +From the beginning of the winter she had noticed that Theodose was +examining and studying her, though cautiously and secretly. More than +once, she had put on her gray moire silk with its black lace, and her +headdress of Mechlin with a few flowers, in order to appear to her +best advantage; and men know very well when a toilet has been made to +please them. The old beau of the Empire, that handsome Thuillier, +overwhelmed her with compliments, assuring her she was queen of the +salon, but la Peyrade said infinitely more to the purpose by a look. + +Flavie had expected, Sunday after Sunday, a declaration, saying to +herself at times:-- + +"He knows I am ruined and haven't a sou. Perhaps he is really pious." + +Theodose did nothing rashly; like a wise musician, he had marked the +place in his symphony where he intended to tap his drum. When he saw +Colleville attempting to warn Thuillier against him, he fired his +broadside, cleverly prepared during the three or four months in which +he had been studying Flavie; he now succeeded with her as he had, +earlier in the day, succeeded with Thuillier. + +While getting into bed, Theodose said to himself:-- + +"The wife is on my side; the husband can't endure me; they are now +quarrelling; and I shall get the better of it, for she does what she +likes with that man." + +The lawyer was mistaken in one thing: there was no dispute whatever, +and Colleville was sleeping peacefully beside his dear little Flavie, +while she was saying to herself:-- + +"Certainly Theodose must be a superior man." + +Many men, like la Peyrade, derive their superiority from the audacity, +or the difficulty, of an enterprise; the strength they display +increases their muscular power, and they spend it freely. Then when +success is won, or defeat is met, the public is astonished to find how +small, exhausted, and puny those men really are. After casting into +the minds of the two persons on whom Celeste's fate chiefly depended, +an interest and curiosity that were almost feverish, Theodose +pretended to be a very busy man; for five or six days he was out of +the house from morning till night, in order not to meet Flavie until +the time when her interest should increase to the point of +overstepping conventionality, and also in order to force the handsome +Thuillier to come and fetch him. + +The following Sunday he felt certain he should find Madame Colleville +at church; he was not mistaken, for they came out, each of them, at +the same moment, and met at the corner of the rue des Deux-Eglises. +Theodose offered his arm, which Flavie accepted, leaving her daughter +to walk in front with her brother Anatole. This youngest child, then +about twelve years old, being destined for the seminary, was now at +the Barniol institute, where he obtained an elementary education; +Barniol, the son-in-law of the Phellions, was naturally making the +tuition fees light, with a view to the hoped-for alliance between +Felix and Celeste. + +"Have you done me the honor and favor of thinking over what I said to +you so badly the other day?" asked the lawyer, in a caressing tone, +pressing the lady's arm to his heart with a movement both soft and +strong; for he seemed to wish to restrain himself and appear +respectful, in spite of his evident eagerness. "Do not misunderstand +my intentions," he continued, after receiving from Madame Colleville +one of those looks which women trained to the management of passion +know how to give,--a look that, by mere expression, can convey both +severe rebuke and secret community of sentiment. "I love you as we +love a noble nature struggling against misfortune; Christian charity +enfolds both the strong and the weak; its treasure belongs to both. +Refined, graceful, elegant as you are, made to be an ornament of the +highest society, what man could see you without feeling an immense +compassion in his heart--buried here among these odious bourgeois, who +know nothing of you, not even the aristocratic value of a single one +of your attitudes, or those enchanting inflections of your voice! Ah! +if I were only rich! if I had power! your husband, who is certainly a +good fellow, should be made receiver-general, and you yourself could +get him elected deputy. But, alas! poor ambitious man, my first duty +is to silence my ambition. Knowing myself at the bottom of the bag +like the last number in a family lottery, I can only offer you my arm +and not my heart. I hope all from a good marriage, and, believe me, I +shall make my wife not only happy, but I shall make her one of the +first in the land, receiving from her the means of success. It is so +fine a day, will you not take a turn in the Luxembourg?" he added, as +they reached the rue d'Enfer at the corner of Colleville's house, +opposite to which was a passage leading to the gardens by the stairway +of a little building, the last remains of the famous convent of the +Chartreux. + +The soft yielding of the arm within his own, indicated a tacit consent +to this proposal, and as Flavie deserved the honor of a sort of +enthusiasm, he drew her vehemently along, exclaiming:-- + +"Come! we may never have so good a moment--But see!" he added, "there +is your husband at the window looking at us; let us walk slowly." + +"You have nothing to fear from Monsieur Colleville," said Flavie, +smiling; "he leaves me mistress of my own actions." + +"Ah! here, indeed, is the woman I have dreamed of," cried the +Provencal, with that ecstasy that inflames the soul only, and in tones +that issue only from Southern lips. "Pardon me, madame," he said, +recovering himself, and returning from an upper sphere to the exiled +angel whom he looked at piously,--"pardon me, I abandon what I was +saying; but how can a man help feeling for the sorrows he has known +himself when he sees them the lot of a being to whom life should bring +only joy and happiness? Your sufferings are mine; I am no more in my +right place than you are in yours; the same misfortune has made us +brother and sister. Ah! dear Flavie, the first day it was granted to +me to see you--the last Sunday in September, 1838--you were very +beautiful; I shall often recall you to memory in that pretty little +gown of mousseline-de-laine of the color of some Scottish tartan! That +day I said to myself: 'Why is that woman so often at the Thuilliers'; +above all, why did she ever have intimate relations with Thuillier +himself?--'" + +"Monsieur!" said Flavie, alarmed at the singular course la Peyrade was +giving to the conversation. + +"Eh! I know all," he cried, accompanying the words with a shrug of his +shoulders. "I explain it all to my own mind, and I do not respect you +less. You now have to gather the fruits of your sin, and I will help +you. Celeste will be very rich, and in that lies your own future. You +can have only one son-in-law; chose him wisely. An ambitious man might +become a minister, but you would humble your daughter and make her +miserable; and if such a man lost his place and fortune he could never +recover it. Yes, I love you," he continued. "I love you with an +unlimited affection; you are far above the mass of petty +considerations in which silly women entangle themselves. Let us +understand each other." + +Flavie was bewildered; she was, however, awake to the extreme +frankness of such language, and she said to herself, "He is not a +secret manoeuvrer, certainly." Moreover, she admitted to her own mind +that no one had ever so deeply stirred and excited her as this young +man. + +"Monsieur," she said, "I do not know who could have put into your mind +so great an error as to my life, nor by what right you--" + +"Ah! pardon me, madame," interrupted the Provencal with a coolness +that smacked of contempt. "I must have dreamed it. I said to myself, +'She is all that!' But I see I was judging from the outside. I know +now why you are living and will always live on a fourth floor in the +rue d'Enfer." + +And he pointed his speech with an energetic gesture toward the +Colleville windows, which could be seen through the passage from the +alley of the Luxembourg, where they were walking alone, in that +immense tract trodden by so many and various young ambitions. + +"I have been frank, and I expected reciprocity," resumed Theodose. "I +myself have had days without food, madame; I have managed to live, +pursue my studies, obtain my degree, with two thousand francs for my +sole dependence; and I entered Paris through the Barriere d'Italie, +with five hundred francs in my pocket, firmly resolved, like one of my +compatriots, to become, some day, one of the foremost men of our +country. The man who has often picked his food from baskets of scraps +where the restaurateurs put their refuse, which are emptied at six +o'clock every morning--that man is not likely to recoil before any +means,--avowable, of course. Well, do you think me the friend of the +people?" he said, smiling. "One has to have a speaking-trumpet to +reach the ear of Fame; she doesn't listen if you speak with your lips; +and without fame of what use is talent? The poor man's advocate means +to be some day the advocate of the rich. Is that plain speaking? Don't +I open my inmost being to you? Then open your heart to me. Say to me, +'Let us be friends,' and the day will come when we shall both be +happy." + +"Good heavens! why did I ever come here? Why did I ever take your +arm?" cried Flavie. + +"Because it is in your destiny," he replied. "Ah! my dear, beloved +Flavie," he added, again pressing her arm upon his heart, "did you +expect to hear the vulgarities of love from me? We are brother and +sister; that is all." + +And he led her towards the passage to return to the rue d'Enfer. + +Flavie felt a sort of terror in the depths of the contentment which +all women find in violent emotions; and she took that terror for the +sort of fear which a new passion always excites; but for all that, she +felt she was fascinated, and she walked along in absolute silence. + +"What are you thinking of?" asked Theodose, when they reached the +middle of the passage. + +"Of what you have just said to me," she answered. + +"At our age," he said, "it is best to suppress preliminaries; we are +not children; we both belong to a sphere in which we should understand +each other. Remember this," he added, as they reached the rue d'Enfer. +--"I am wholly yours." + +So saying, he bowed low to her. + +"The iron's in the fire now!" he thought to himself as he watched his +giddy prey on her way home. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A KEYNOTE + +When Theodose reached home he found, waiting for him on the landing, a +personage who is, as it were, the submarine current of this history; +he will be found within it like some buried church on which has risen +the facade of a palace. The sight of this man, who, after vainly +ringing at la Peyrade's door, was now trying that of Dutocq, made the +Provencal barrister tremble--but secretly, within himself, not +betraying externally his inward emotion. This man was Cerizet, whom +Dutocq had mentioned to Thuillier as his copying-clerk. + +Cerizet was only thirty-eight years old, but he looked a man of fifty, +so aged had he become from causes which age all men. His hairless head +had a yellow skull, ill-covered by a rusty, discolored wig; the mask +of his face, pale, flabby, and unnaturally rough, seemed the more +horrible because the nose was eaten away, though not sufficiently to +admit of its being replaced by a false one. From the spring of this +nose at the forehead, down to the nostrils, it remained as nature had +made it; but disease, after gnawing away the sides near the +extremities, had left two holes of fantastic shape, which vitiated +pronunciation and hampered speech. The eyes, originally handsome, but +weakened by misery of all kinds and by sleepless nights, were red +around the edges, and deeply sunken; the glance of those eyes, when +the soul sent into them an expression of malignancy, would have +frightened both judges and criminals, or any others whom nothing +usually affrights. + +The mouth, toothless except for a few black fangs, was threatening; +the saliva made a foam within it, which did not, however, pass the +pale thin lips. Cerizet, a short man, less spare than shrunken, +endeavored to remedy the defects of his person by his clothes, and +although his garments were not those of opulence, he kept them in a +condition of neatness which may even have increased his forlorn +appearance. Everything about him seemed dubious; his age, his nose, +his glance inspired doubt. It was impossible to know if he were +thirty-eight or sixty; if his faded blue trousers, which fitted him +well, were of a coming or a past fashion. His boots, worn at the +heels, but scrupulously blacked, resoled for the third time, and very +choice, originally, may have trodden in their day a ministerial +carpet. The frock coat, soaked by many a down-pour, with its +brandebourgs, the frogs of which were indiscreet enough to show their +skeletons, testified by its cut to departed elegance. The satin stock- +cravat fortunately concealed the shirt, but the tongue of the buckle +behind the neck had frayed the satin, which was re-satined, that is, +re-polished, by a species of oil distilled from the wig. In the days +of its youth the waistcoat was not, of course, without freshness, but +it was one of those waistcoats, bought for four francs, which come +from the hooks of the ready-made clothing dealer. All these things +were carefully brushed, and so was the shiny and misshapen hat. They +harmonized with each other, even to the black gloves which covered the +hands of this subaltern Mephistopheles, whose whole anterior life may +be summed up in a single phrase:-- + +He was an artist in evil, with whom, from the first, evil had +succeeded; a man misled by these early successes to continue the +plotting of infamous deeds within the lines of strict legality. +Becoming the head of a printing-office by betraying his master [see +"Lost Illusions"], he had afterwards been condemned to imprisonment as +editor of a liberal newspaper. In the provinces, under the +Restoration, he became the bete noire of the government, and was +called "that unfortunate Cerizet" by some, as people spoke of "the +unfortunate Chauvet" and "the heroic Mercier." He owed to this +reputation of persecuted patriotism a place as sub-prefect in 1830. +Six months later he was dismissed; but he insisted that he was judged +without being heard; and he made so much talk about it that, under the +ministry of Casimir Perier, he became the editor of an anti-republican +newspaper in the pay of the government. He left that position to go +into business, one phase of which was the most nefarious stock-company +that ever fell into the hands of the correctional police. Cerizet +proudly accepted the severe sentence he received; declaring it to be a +revengeful plot on the part of the republicans, who, he said, would +never forgive him for the hard blows he had dealt them in his journal. +He spent the time of his imprisonment in a hospital. The government by +this time were ashamed of a man whose almost infamous habits and +shameful business transactions, carried on in company with a former +banker, named Claparon, led him at last into well-deserved public +contempt. + +Cerizet, thus fallen, step by step, to the lowest rung of the social +ladder, had recourse to pity in order to obtain the place of copying +clerk in Dutocq's office. In the depths of his wretchedness the man +still dreamed of revenge, and, as he had nothing to lose, he employed +all means to that end. Dutocq and himself were bound together in +depravity. Cerizet was to Dutocq what the hound is the huntsman. +Knowing himself the necessities of poverty and wretchedness, he set up +that business of gutter usury called, in popular parlance, "the loan +by the little week." He began this at first by help of Dutocq, who +shared the profits; but, at the present moment this man of many legal +crimes, now the banker of fishwives, the money-lender of +costermongers, was the gnawing rodent of the whole faubourg. + +"Well," said Cerizet as Dutocq opened his door, "Theodose has just +come in; let us go to his room." + +The advocate of the poor was fain to allow the two men to pass before +him. + +All three crossed a little room, the tiled floor of which, covered +with a coating of red encaustic, shone in the light; thence into a +little salon with crimson curtains and mahogany furniture, covered +with red Utrecht velvet; the wall opposite the window being occupied +by book-shelves containing a legal library. The chimney-piece was +covered with vulgar ornaments, a clock with four columns in mahogany, +and candelabra under glass shades. The study, where the three men +seated themselves before a soft-coal fire, was the study of a lawyer +just beginning to practise. The furniture consisted of a desk, an +armchair, little curtains of green silk at the windows, a green +carpet, shelves for lawyer's boxes, and a couch, above which hung an +ivory Christ on a velvet background. The bedroom, kitchen, and rest of +the apartment looked out upon the courtyard. + +"Well," said Cerizet, "how are things going? Are we getting on?" + +"Yes," replied Theodose. + +"You must admit," cried Dutocq, "that my idea was a famous one, in +laying hold of that imbecile of a Thuillier?" + +"Yes, but I'm not behindhand either," exclaimed Cerizet. "I have come +now to show you a way to put the thumbscrews on the old maid and make +her spin like a teetotum. We mustn't deceive ourselves; Mademoiselle +Thuillier is the head and front of everything in this affair; if we +get her on our side the town is won. Let us say little, but that +little to the point, as becomes strong men with each other. Claparon, +you know, is a fool; he'll be all his life what he always was,--a +cat's-paw. Just now he is lending his name to a notary in Paris, who +is concerned with a lot of contractors, and they are all--notary and +masons--on the point of ruin. Claparon is going headlong into it. He +never yet was bankrupt; but there's a first time for everything. He is +hidden now in my hovel in the rue des Poules, where no one will ever +find him. He is desperate, and he hasn't a penny. Now, among the five +or six houses built by these contractors, which have to be sold, +there's a jewel of a house, built of freestone, in the neighborhood of +the Madeleine,--a frontage laced like a melon, with beautiful +carvings,--but not being finished, it will have to be sold for what it +will bring; certainly not more than a hundred thousand francs. By +spending twenty-five thousand francs upon it it could be let, +undoubtedly, for ten thousand. Make Mademoiselle Thuillier the +proprietor of that house and you'll win her love; she'll believe that +you can put such chances in her way every year. There are two ways of +getting hold of vain people: flatter their vanity, OR threaten them; +and there are also two ways of managing misers: fill their purse, or +else attack it. Now, this stroke of business, while it does good to +Mademoiselle Thuillier, does good to us as well, and it would be a +pity not to profit by the chance." + +"But why does the notary let it slip through his fingers?" asked +Dutocq. + +"The notary, my dear fellow! Why, he's the very one who saves us. +Forced to sell his practice, and utterly ruined besides, he reserved +for himself this crumb of the cake. Believing in the honesty of that +idiot Claparon, he has asked him to find a dummy purchaser. We'll let +him suppose that Mademoiselle Thuillier is a worthy soul who allows +Claparon to use her name; they'll both be fooled, Claparon and the +notary too. I owe this little trick to my friend Claparon, who left me +to bear the whole weight of the trouble about his stock-company, in +which we were tricked by Conture, and I hope you may never be in that +man's skin!" he added, infernal hatred flashing from his worn and +withered eyes. "Now, I've said my say, gentlemen," he continued, +sending out his voice through his nasal holes, and taking a dramatic +attitude; for once, at a moment of extreme penury, he had gone upon +the stage. + +As he finished making his proposition some one rang at the outer door, +and la Peyrade rose to go and open it. As soon as his back was turned, +Cerizet said, hastily, to Dutocq:-- + +"Are you sure of him? I see a sort of air about him--And I'm a good +judge of treachery." + +"He is so completely in our power," said Dutocq, "that I don't trouble +myself to watch; but, between ourselves, I didn't think him as strong +as he proves to be. The fact is, we thought we were putting a barb +between the legs of a man who didn't know how to ride, and the rogue +is an old jockey!" + +"Let him take care," growled Cerizet. "I can blow him down like a +house of cards any day. As for you, papa Dutocq, you are able to see +him at work all the time; watch him carefully. Besides, I'll feel his +pulse by getting Claparon to propose to him to get rid of us; that +will help us to judge him." + +"Pretty good, that!" said Dutocq. "You are daring, anyhow." + +"I've got my hand in, that's all," replied Cerizet. + +These words were exchanged in a low voice during the time that it took +Theodose to go to the outer door and return. Cerizet was looking at +the books when the lawyer re-entered the room. + +"It is Thuillier," said Theodose. "I thought he'd come; he is in the +salon. He mustn't see Cerizet's frock-coat; those frogs would frighten +him." + +"Pooh! you receive the poor in your office, don't you? That's in your +role. Do you want any money?" added Cerizet, pulling a hundred francs +out of his trousers' pocket. "There it is; it won't look amiss." + +And he laid the pile on the chimney-piece. + +"And now," said Dutocq, "we had better get out through the bedroom." + +"Well, good-bye," said Theodose, opening a hidden door which +communicated from the study to the bedroom. "Come in, Monsieur +Thuillier," he called out to the beau of the Empire. + +When he saw him safely in the study he went to let out his two +associates through the bedroom and kitchen into the courtyard. + +"In six months," said Cerizet, "you'll have married Celeste and got +your foot into the stirrup. You are lucky, you are, not to have sat, +like me, in the prisoners' dock. I've been there twice: once in 1825, +for 'subversive articles' which I never wrote, and the second time for +receiving the profits of a joint-stock company which had slipped +through my fingers! Come, let's warm this thing up! Sac-a-papier! +Dutocq and I are sorely in need of that twenty-five thousand francs. +Good courage, old fellow!" he added, holding out his hand to Theodose, +and making the grasp a test of faithfulness. + +The Provencal gave Cerizet his right hand, pressing the other's hand +warmly:-- + +"My good fellow," he said, "be very sure that in whatever position I +may find myself I shall never forget that from which you have drawn me +by putting me in the saddle here. I'm simply your bait; but you are +giving me the best part of the catch, and I should be more infamous +than a galley-slave who turns policeman if I didn't play fair." + +As soon as the door was closed, Cerizet peeped through the key-hole, +trying to catch sight of la Peyrade's face. But the Provencal had +turned back to meet Thuillier, and his distrustful associate could not +detect the expression of his countenance. + +That expression was neither disgust nor annoyance, it was simply joy, +appearing on a face that now seemed freed. Theodose saw the means of +success approaching him, and he flattered himself that the day would +come when he might get rid of his ignoble associates, to whom he owed +everything. Poverty has unfathomable depths, especially in Paris, +slimy bottoms, from which, when a drowned man rises to the surface of +the water, he brings with him filth and impurity clinging to his +clothes, or to his person. Cerizet, the once opulent friend and +protector of Theodose, was the muddy mire still clinging to the +Provencal, and the former manager of the joint-stock company saw very +plainly that his tool wanted to brush himself on entering a sphere +where decent clothing was a necessity. + +"Well, my dear Theodose," began Thuillier, "we have hoped to see you +every day this week, and every evening we find our hopes deceived. As +this is our Sunday for a dinner, my sister and my wife have sent me +here to beg you to come to us." + +"I have been so busy," said Theodose, "that I have not had two minutes +to give to any one, not even to you, whom I count among my friends, +and with whom I have wished to talk about--" + +"What? have you really been thinking seriously over what you said to +me?" cried Thuillier, interrupting him. + +"If you had not come here now for a full understanding, I shouldn't +respect you as I do," replied la Peyrade, smiling. "You have been a +sub-director, and therefore you must have the remains of ambition-- +which is deucedly legitimate in your case! Come, now, between +ourselves, when one sees a Minard, that gilded pot, displaying himself +at the Tuileries, and complimenting the king, and a Popinot about to +become a minister of State, and then look at you! a man trained to +administrative work, a man with thirty years' experience, who has seen +six governments, left to plant balsams in a little garden! Heavens and +earth!--I am frank, my dear Thuillier, and I'll say, honestly, that I +want to advance you, because you'll draw me after you. Well, here's my +plan. We are soon to elect a member of the council-general from this +arrondissement; and that member must be you. And," he added, dwelling +on the word, "it WILL be you! After that, you will certainly be deputy +from the arrondissement when the Chamber is re-elected, which must +surely be before long. The votes that elect you to the municipal +council will stand by you in the election for deputy, trust me for +that." + +"But how will you manage all this?" cried Thuillier, fascinated. + +"You shall know in good time; but you must let me conduct this long +and difficult affair; if you commit the slightest indiscretion as to +what is said, or planned, or agreed between us, I shall have to drop +the whole matter, and good-bye to you!" + +"Oh! you can rely on the absolute dumbness of a former sub-director; +I've had secrets to keep." + +"That's all very well; but these are secrets to keep from your wife +and sister, and from Monsieur and Madame Colleville." + +"Not a muscle of my face shall reveal them," said Thuillier, assuming +a stolid air. + +"Very good," continued Theodose. "I shall test you. In order to make +yourself eligible, you must pay taxes on a certain amount of property, +and you are not paying them." + +"I beg your pardon; I'm all right for the municipal council at any +rate; I pay two francs ninety-six centimes." + +"Yes, but the tax on property necessary for election to the chamber is +five hundred francs, and there is no time to lose in acquiring that +property, because you must prove possession for one year." + +"The devil!" cried Thuillier; "between now and a year hence to be +taxed five hundred francs on property which--" + +"Between now and the end of July, at the latest, you must pay that +tax. Well, I feel enough interest in you to tell you the secret of an +affair by which you might make from thirty to forty thousand francs a +year, by employing a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand at +most. I know that in your family it is your sister who does your +business; I am far from thinking that a mistake; she has, they tell +me, excellent judgment; and you must let me begin by obtaining her +good-will and friendship, and proposing this investment to her. And +this is why: If Mademoiselle Thuillier is not induced to put faith in +my plan, we shall certainly have difficulty with her. Besides, it +won't do for YOU to propose to her that she should put the investment +of her money in your name. The idea had better come from me. As to my +means of getting you elected to the municipal council, they are these: +Phellion controls one quarter of the arrondissement; he and Laudigeois +have lived in it these thirty years, and they are listened to like +oracles. I have a friend who controls another quarter; and the rector +of Saint-Jacques, who is not without influence, thanks to his virtues, +disposes of certain votes. Dutocq, in his close relation to the +people, and also the justice of peace, will help me, above all, as I'm +not acting for myself; and Colleville, as secretary of the mayor's +office, can certainly manage to obtain another fourth of the votes." + +"You are right!" cried Thuillier. "I'm elected!" + +"Do you think so?" said la Peyrade, in a voice of the deepest sarcasm. +"Very good! then go and ask your friend Colleville to help you, and +see what he'll say. No triumph in election cases is ever brought about +by the candidate himself, but by his friends. He should never ask +anything himself for himself; he must be invited to accept, and appear +to be without ambition." + +"La Peyrade!" cried Thuillier, rising, and taking the hand of the +young lawyer, "you are a very capable man." + +"Not as capable as you, but I have my merits," said the Provencal, +smiling. + +"If we succeed how shall I ever repay you?" asked Thuillier, naively. + +"Ah! that, indeed! I am afraid you will think me impertinent, but +remember, there is a true feeling in my heart which offers some excuse +for me; in fact, it has given me the spirit to undertake this affair. +I love--and I take you for my confidant." + +"But who is it?" said Thuillier. + +"Your dear little Celeste," replied la Peyrade. "My love for her will +be a pledge to you of my devotion. What would I not do for a FATHER- +IN-LAW! This is pure selfishness; I shall be working for myself." + +"Hush!" cried Thuillier. + +"Eh, my friend!" said la Peyrade, catching Thuillier round the body; +"if I hadn't Flavie on my side, and if I didn't know ALL, should I +venture to be talking to you thus? But please say nothing to Flavie +about this; wait till she speaks to you. Listen to me; I'm of the +metal that makes ministers; I do not seek to obtain Celeste until I +deserve her. You shall not be asked to give her to me until the day +when your election as a deputy of Paris is assured. In order to be +deputy of Paris, we must get the better of Minard; and in order to +crush Minard you must keep in your own hands all your means of +influence; for that reason use Celeste as a hope; we'll play them off, +these people, against each other and fool them all--Madame Colleville +and you and I will be persons of importance one of these days. Don't +think me mercenary. I want Celeste without a "dot," with nothing more +than her future expectations. To live in your family with you, to keep +my wife in your midst, that is my desire. You see now that I have no +hidden thoughts. As for you, my dear friend, six months after your +election to the municipal council, you will have the cross of the +Legion of honor, and when you are deputy you will be made an officer +of it. As for your speeches in the Chamber--well! we'll write them +together. Perhaps it would be desirable for you to write a book,--a +serious book on matters half moral and philanthropic, half political; +such, for instance, as charitable institutions considered from the +highest stand-point; or reforms in the pawning system, the abuses of +which are really frightful. Let us fasten some slight distinction to +your name; it will help you,--especially in the arrondissement. Now, I +say again, trust me, believe in me; do not think of taking me into +your family until you have the ribbon in your buttonhole on the morrow +of the day when you take your seat in the Chamber. I'll do more than +that, however; I'll put you in the way of making forty thousand francs +a year." + +"For any one of those three things you shall have our Celeste," said +Thuillier. + +"Ah! what a pearl she is!" exclaimed la Peyrade, raising his eyes to +heaven. "I have the weakness to pray to God for her every day. She is +charming; she is exactly like you--oh! nonsense; surely you needn't +caution me! Dutocq told me all. Well, I'll be with you to-night. I +must go to the Phellions' now, and begin to work our plan. You don't +need me to caution you not to let it be known that you are thinking of +me for Celeste; if you do, you'll cut off my arms and legs. Therefore, +silence! even to Flavie. Wait till she speaks to you herself. Phellion +shall to-night broach the matter of proposing you as candidate for the +council." + +"To-night?" said Thuillier. + +"Yes, to-night," replied la Peyrade, "unless I don't find him at home +now." + +Thuillier departed, saying to himself:-- + +"That's a very superior man; we shall always understand each other. +Faith! it might be hard to do better for Celeste. They will live with +us, as in our own family, and that's a good deal! Yes, he's a fine +fellow, a sound man." + +To minds of Thuillier's calibre, a secondary consideration often +assumes the importance of a principal reason. Theodose had behaved to +him with charming bonhomie. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WORTHY PHELLIONS + +The house to which Theodose de la Peyrade now bent his steps had been +the "hoc erat in votis" of Monsieur Phellion for twenty years; it was +the house of the Phellions, just as much as Cerizet's frogged coat was +the necessary complement of his personality. + +This dwelling was stuck against the side of a large house, but only to +the depth of one room (about twenty feet or so), and terminated at +each end in a sort of pavilion with one window. Its chief charm was a +garden, one hundred and eighty feet square, longer than the facade of +the house by the width of a courtyard which opened on the street, and +a little clump of lindens. Beyond the second pavilion, the courtyard +had, between itself and the street, an iron railing, in the centre of +which was a little gate opening in the middle. + +This building, of rouge stone covered with stucco, and two storeys in +height, had received a coat of yellow-wash; the blinds were painted +green, and so were the shutters on the lower storey. The kitchen +occupied the ground-floor of the pavilion on the courtyard, and the +cook, a stout, strong girl, protected by two enormous dogs, performed +the functions of portress. The facade, composed of five windows, and +the two pavilions, which projected nine feet, were in the style +Phellion. Above the door the master of the house had inserted a tablet +of white marble, on which, in letters of gold, were read the words, +"Aurea mediocritas." Above the sun-dial, affixed to one panel of the +facade, he had also caused to be inscribed this sapient maxim: "Umbra +mea vita, sic!" + +The former window-sills had recently been superceded by sills of red +Languedoc marble, found in a marble shop. At the bottom of the garden +could be seen a colored statue, intended to lead casual observers to +imagine that a nurse was carrying a child. The ground-floor of the +house contained only the salon and the dining-room, separated from +each other by the well of the staircase and the landing, which formed +a sort of antechamber. At the end of the salon, in the other pavilion, +was a little study occupied by Phellion. + +On the first upper floor were the rooms of the father and mother and +that of the young professor. Above were the chambers of the children +and the servants; for Phellion, on consideration of his own age and +that of his wife, had set up a male domestic, aged fifteen, his son +having by that time entered upon his duties of tuition. To right, on +entering the courtyard, were little offices where wood was stored, and +where the former proprietor had lodged a porter. The Phellions were no +doubt awaiting the marriage of their son to allow themselves that +additional luxury. + +This property, on which the Phellions had long had their eye, cost +them eighteen thousand francs in 1831. The house was separated from +the courtyard by a balustrade with a base of freestone and a coping of +tiles; this little wall, which was breast-high, was lined with a hedge +of Bengal roses, in the middle of which opened a wooden gate opposite +and leading to the large gates on the street. Those who know the cul- +de-sac of the Feuillantines, will understand that the Phellion house, +standing at right angles to the street, had a southern exposure, and +was protected on the north by the immense wall of the adjoining house, +against which the smaller structure was built. The cupola of the +Pantheon and that of the Val-de-Grace looked from there like two +giants, and so diminished the sky space that, walking in the garden, +one felt cramped and oppressed. No place could be more silent than +this blind street. + +Such was the retreat of the great unknown citizen who was now tasting +the sweets of repose, after discharging his duty to the nation in the +ministry of finance, from which he had retired as registration clerk +after a service of thirty-six years. In 1832 he had led his battalion +of the National Guard to the attack on Saint-Merri, but his neighbors +had previously seen tears in his eyes at the thought of being obliged +to fire on misguided Frenchmen. The affair was already decided by the +time his legion crossed the pont Notre-Dame at a quick step, after +debouching by the flower-market. This noble hesitation won him the +respect of his whole quarter, but he lost the decoration of the Legion +of honor; his colonel told him in a loud voice that, under arms, there +was no such thing as deliberation,--a saying of Louis-Philippe to the +National Guard of Metz. Nevertheless, the bourgeois virtues of +Phellion, and the great respect in which he was held in his own +quarter had kept him major of the battalion for eight years. He was +now nearly sixty, and seeing the moment coming when he must lay off +the sword and stock, he hoped that the king would deign to reward his +services by granting him at last the Legion of honor. + +Truth compels us to say, in spite of the stain this pettiness will put +upon so fine a character, that Commander Phellion rose upon the tips +of his toes at the receptions in the Tuileries, and did all that he +could to put himself forward, even eyeing the citizen-king perpetually +when he dined at his table. In short, he intrigued in a dumb sort of +way; but had never yet obtained a look in return from the king of his +choice. The worthy man had more than once thought, but was not yet +decided, to beg Monsieur Minard to assist him in obtaining his secret +desire. + +Phellion, a man of passive obedience, was stoical in the matter of +duty, and iron in all that touched his conscience. To complete this +picture by a sketch of his person, we must add that at fifty-nine +years of age Phellion had "thickened," to use a term of the bourgeois +vocabulary. His face, of one monotonous tone and pitted with the +small-pox, had grown to resemble a full moon; so that his lips, +formerly large, now seemed of ordinary size. His eyes, much weakened, +and protected by glasses, no longer showed the innocence of their +light-blue orbs, which in former days had often excited a smile; his +white hair now gave gravity to much that twelve years earlier had +looked like silliness, and lent itself to ridicule. Time, which does +such damage to faces with refined and delicate features, only improves +those which, in their youth, have been course and massive. This was +the case with Phellion. He occupied the leisure of his old age in +making an abridgment of the History of France; for Phellion was the +author of several works adopted by the University. + +When la Peyrade presented himself, the family were all together. +Madame Barniol was just telling her mother about one of her babies, +which was slightly indisposed. They were dressed in their Sunday +clothes, and were sitting before the fireplace of the wainscoted salon +on chairs bought at a bargain; and they all felt an emotion when +Genevieve, the cook and portress, announced the personage of whom they +were just then speaking in connection with Celeste, whom, we must here +state, Felix Phellion loved, to the extent of going to mass to behold +her. The learned mathematician had made that effort in the morning, +and the family were joking him about it in a pleasant way, hoping in +their hearts that Celeste and her parents might understand the +treasure that was thus offered to them. + +"Alas! the Thuilliers seem to me infatuated with a very dangerous +man," said Madame Phellion. "He took Madame Colleville by the arm this +morning after church, and they went together to the Luxembourg." + +"There is something about that lawyer," remarked Felix Phellion, "that +strikes me as sinister. He might be found to have committed some crime +and I shouldn't be surprised." + +"That's going too far," said old Phellion. "He is cousin-germain to +Tartuffe, that immortal figure cast in bronze by our honest Moliere; +for Moliere, my children, had honesty and patriotism for the basis of +his genius." + +It was at that instant that Genevieve came in to say, "There's a +Monsieur de la Peyrade out there, who wants to see monsieur." + +"To see me!" exclaimed Phellion. "Ask him to come in," he added, with +that solemnity in little things which gave him even now a touch of +absurdity, though it always impressed his family, which accepted him +as king. + +Phellion, his two sons, and his wife and daughter, rose and received +the circular bow made by the lawyer. + +"To what do we owe the honor of your visit, monsieur?" asked Phellion, +stiffly. + +"To your importance in this arrondissement, my dear Monsieur Phellion, +and to public interests," replied Theodose. + +"Then let us go into my study," said Phellion. + +"No, no, my friend," said the rigid Madame Phellion, a small woman, +flat as a flounder, who retained upon her features the grim severity +with which she taught music in boarding-schools for young ladies; "we +will leave you." + +An upright Erard piano, placed between the two windows and opposite to +the fireplace, showed the constant occupation of a proficient. + +"Am I so unfortunate as to put you to flight?" said Theodose, smiling +in a kindly way at the mother and daughter. "You have a delightful +retreat here," he continued. "You only lack a pretty daughter-in-law +to pass the rest of your days in this 'aurea mediocritas,' the wish of +the Latin poet, surrounded by family joys. Your antecedents, my dear +Monsieur Phellion, ought surely to win you such rewards, for I am told +that you are not only a patriot but a good citizen." + +"Monsieur," said Phellion, embarrassed, "monsieur, I have only done my +duty." At the word "daughter-in-law," uttered by Theodose, Madame +Barniol, who resembled her mother as much as one drop of water is like +another, looked at Madame Phellion and at Felix as if she would say, +"Were we mistaken?" + +The desire to talk this incident over carried all four personages into +the garden, for, in March, 1840, the weather was spring-like, at least +in Paris. + +"Commander," said Theodose, as soon as he was alone with Phellion, who +was always flattered by that title, "I have come to speak to you about +the election--" + +"Yes, true; we are about to nominate a municipal councillor," said +Phellion, interrupting him. + +"And it is apropos of that candidacy that I have come to disturb your +Sunday joys; but perhaps in so doing we shall not go beyond the limits +of the family circle." + +It would be impossible for Phellion to be more Phellion than Theodose +was Phellion at that moment. + +"I shall not let you say another word," replied the commander, +profiting by the pause made by Theodose, who watched for the effect of +his speech. "My choice is made." + +"We have had the same idea!" exclaimed Theodose; "men of the same +character agree as well as men of the same mind." + +"In this case I do not believe in that phenomenon," replied Phellion. +"This arrondissement had for its representative in the municipal +council the most virtuous of men, as he was the noblest of +magistrates. I allude to the late Monsieur Popinot, the deceased judge +of the Royal courts. When the question of replacing him came up, his +nephew, the heir to his benevolence, did not reside in this quarter. +He has since, however, purchased, and now occupies, the house where +his uncle lived in the rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve; he is the +physician of the Ecole Polytechnique and that of our hospitals; he +does honor to this quarter; for these reasons, and to pay homage in +the person of the nephew to the memory of the uncle, we have decided +to nominate Doctor Horace Bianchon, member of the Academy of Sciences, +as you are aware, and one of the most distinguished young men in the +illustrious faculty of Paris. A man is not great in our eyes solely +because he is celebrated; to my mind the late Councillor Popinot was +almost another Saint Vincent de Paul." + +"But a doctor is not an administrator," replied Theodose; "and, +besides, I have come to ask your vote for a man to whom your dearest +interests require that you should sacrifice a predilection, which, +after all, is quite unimportant to the public welfare." + +"Monsieur!" cried Phellion, rising and striking an attitude like that +of Lafon in "Le Glorieux," "Do you despise me sufficiently to suppose +that my personal interests could ever influence my political +conscience? When a matter concerns the public welfare, I am a citizen +--nothing more, and nothing less." + +Theodose smiled to himself at the thought of the battle which was now +to take place between the father and the citizen. + +"Do not bind yourself to your present ideas, I entreat you," he said, +"for this matter concerns the happiness of your dear Felix." + +"What do you mean by those words?" asked Phellion, stopping short in +the middle of the salon and posing, with his hand thrust through the +bosom of his waistcoat from right to left, in the well-known attitude +of Odilon Barrot. + +"I have come in behalf of our mutual friend, the worthy and excellent +Monsieur Thuillier, whose influence on the destiny of that beautiful +Celeste Colleville must be well known to you. If, as I think, your +son, whose merits are incontestable, and of whom both families may +well be proud, if, I say, he is courting Celeste with a view to a +marriage in which all expediencies may be combined, you cannot do more +to promote that end than to obtain Thuillier's eternal gratitude by +proposing your worthy friend to the suffrages of your fellow-citizens. +As for me, though I have lately come into the quarter, I can, thanks +to the influence I enjoy through certain legal benefits done to the +poor, materially advance his interests. I might, perhaps, have put +myself forward for this position; but serving the poor brings in but +little money; and, besides, the modesty of my life is out of keeping +with such distinctions. I have devoted myself, monsieur, to the +service of the weak, like the late Councillor Popinot,--a sublime man, +as you justly remarked. If I had not already chosen a career which is +in some sort monastic, and precludes all idea of marriage and public +office, my taste, my second vocation, would lead me to the service of +God, to the Church. I do not trumpet what I do, like the +philanthropists; I do not write about it; I simply act; I am pledged +to Christian charity. The ambition of our friend Thuillier becoming +known to me, I have wished to contribute to the happiness of two young +people who seem to me made for each other, by suggesting to you the +means of winning the rather cold heart of Monsieur Thuillier." + +Phellion was bewildered by this tirade, admirably delivered; he was +dazzled, attracted; but he remained Phellion; he walked up to the +lawyer and held out his hand, which la Peyrade took. + +"Monsieur," said the commander, with emotion, "I have misjudged you. +What you have done me the honor to confide to me will die THERE," +laying his hand on his heart. "You are one of the men of whom we have +too few,--men who console us for many evils inherent in our social +state. Righteousness is seen so seldom that our too feeble natures +distrust appearances. You have in me a friend, if you will allow me +the honor of assuming that title. But you must learn to know me, +monsieur. I should lose my own esteem if I nominated Thuillier. No, my +son shall never own his happiness to an evil action on his father's +part. I shall not change my candidate because my son's interests +demand it. That is civic virtue, monsieur." + +La Peyrade pulled out his handkerchief and rubbed it in his eye so +that it drew a tear, as he said, holding out his hand to Phellion, and +turning aside his head:-- + +"Ah! monsieur, how sublime a struggle between public and private duty! +Had I come here only to see this sight, my visit would not have been +wasted. You cannot do otherwise! In your place, I should do the same. +You are that noblest thing that God has made--a righteous man! a +citizen of the Jean-Jacques type! With many such citizens, oh France! +my country! what mightest thou become! It is I, monsieur, who solicit, +humbly, the honor to be your friend." + +"What can be happening?" said Madame Phellion, watching the scene +through the window. "Do see your father and that horrid man embracing +each other." + +Phellion and la Peyrade now came out and joined the family in the +garden. + +"My dear Felix," said the old man, pointing to la Peyrade, who was +bowing to Madame Phellion, "be very grateful to that admirable young +man; he will prove most useful to you." + +The lawyer walked for about five minutes with Madame Barniol and +Madame Phellion beneath the leafless lindens, and gave them (in +consequence of the embarrassing circumstances created by Phellion's +political obstinacy) a piece of advice, the effects of which were to +bear fruit that evening, while its first result was to make both +ladies admire his talents, his frankness, and his inappreciable good +qualities. When the lawyer departed the whole family conducted him to +the street gate, and all eyes followed him until he had turned the +corner of the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques. Madame Phellion then took +the arm of her husband to return to the salon, saying:-- + +"Hey! my friend! what does this mean? You, such a good father, how can +you, from excessive delicacy, stand in the way of such a fine marriage +for our Felix?" + +"My dear," replied Phellion, "the great men of antiquity, Brutus and +others, were never fathers when called upon to be citizens. The +bourgeoisie has, even more than the aristocracy whose place it has +been called upon to take, the obligations of the highest virtues. +Monsieur de Saint-Hilaire did not think of his lost arm in presence of +the dead Turenne. We must give proof of our worthiness; let us give it +at every state of the social hierarchy. Shall I instruct my family in +the highest civic principles only to ignore them myself at the moment +for applying them? No, my dear; weep, if you must, to-day, but +to-morrow you will respect me," he added, seeing tears in the eyes of +his starched better half. + +These noble words were said on the sill of the door, above which was +written, "Aurea mediocritas." + +"I ought to have put, 'et digna,'" added Phellion, pointing to the +tablet, "but those two words would imply self-praise." + +"Father," said Marie-Theodore Phellion, the future engineer of "ponts +et chaussees," when the family were once more seated in the salon, "it +seems to me that there is nothing dishonorable in changing one's +determination about a choice which is of no real consequence to public +welfare." + +"No consequence, my son!" cried Phellion. "Between ourselves I will +say, and Felix shares my opinion, Monsieur Thuillier is absolutely +without capacity; he knows nothing. Monsieur Horace Bianchon is an +able man; he will obtain a thousand things for our arrondissement, and +Thuillier will obtain none! Remember this, my son; to change a good +determination for a bad one from motives of self-interest is one of +those infamous actions which escape the control of men but are +punished by God. I am, or I think I am, void of all blame before my +conscience, and I owe it to you, my children, to leave my memory +unstained among you. Nothing, therefore, can make me change my +determination." + +"Oh, my good father!" cried the little Barniol woman, flinging herself +on a cushion at Phellion's knees, "don't ride your high horse! There +are many fools and idiots in the municipal council, and France gets +along all the same. That old Thuillier will adopt the opinions of +those about him. Do reflect that Celeste will probably have five +hundred thousand francs." + +"She might have millions," said Phellion, "and I might see them there +at my feet before I would propose Thuillier, when I owe to the memory +of the best of men to nominate, if possible, Horace Bianchon, his +nephew. From the heaven above us Popinot is contemplating and +applauding me!" cried Phellion, with exaltation. "It is by such +considerations as you suggest that France is being lowered, and the +bourgeoisie are bringing themselves into contempt." + +"My father is right," said Felix, coming out of a deep reverie. "He +deserves our respect and love; as he has throughout the whole course +of his modest and honored life. I would not owe my happiness either to +remorse in his noble soul, or to a low political bargain. I love +Celeste as I love my own family; but, above all that, I place my +father's honor, and since this question is a matter of conscience with +him it must not be spoken of again." + +Phellion, with his eyes full of tears, went up to his eldest son and +took him in his arms, saying, "My son! my son!" in a choking voice. + +"All that is nonsense," whispered Madame Phellion in Madame Barniol's +ear. "Come and dress me; I shall make an end of this; I know your +father; he has put his foot down now. To carry out the plan that pious +young man, Theodose, suggested, I want your help; hold yourself ready +to give it, my daughter." + +At this moment, Genevieve came in and gave a letter to Monsieur +Phellion. + +"An invitation for dinner to-day, for Madame Phellion and Felix and +myself, at the Thuilliers'," he said. + +The magnificent and surprising idea of Thuillier's municipal +advancement, put forth by the "advocate of the poor" was not less +upsetting in the Thuillier household than it was in the Phellion +salon. Jerome Thuillier, without actually confiding anything to his +sister, for he made it a point of honor to obey his Mephistopheles, +had rushed to her in great excitement to say:-- + +"My dearest girl" (he always touched her heart with those caressing +words), "we shall have some big-wigs at dinner to-day. I'm going to +ask the Minards; therefore take pains about your dinner. I have +written to Monsieur and Madame Phellion; it is rather late; but +there's no need of ceremony with them. As for the Minards, I must +throw a little dust in their eyes; I have a particular need of them." + +"Four Minards, three Phellions, four Collevilles, and ourselves; that +makes thirteen--" + +"La Peyrade, fourteen; and it is worth while to invite Dutocq; he may +be useful to us. I'll go up and see him." + +"What are you scheming?" cried his sister. "Fifteen to dinner! There's +forty francs, at the very least, waltzing off." + +"You won't regret them, my dearest. I want you to be particularly +agreeable to our young friend, la Peyrade. There's a friend, indeed! +you'll soon have proofs of that! If you love me, cosset him well." + +So saying, he departed, leaving Brigitte bewildered. + +"Proofs, indeed! yes, I'll look out for proofs," she said. "I'm not to +be caught with fine words, not I! He is an amiable fellow; but before +I take him into my heart I shall study him a little closer." + +After inviting Dutocq, Thuillier, having bedizened himself, went to +the hotel Minard, rue des Macons-Sorbonne, to capture the stout Zelie, +and gloss over the shortness of the invitation. + +Minard had purchased one of those large and sumptuous habitations +which the old religious orders built about the Sorbonne, and as +Thuillier mounted the broad stone steps with an iron balustrade, that +proved how arts of the second class flourished under Louis XIII., he +envied both the mansion and its occupant,--the mayor. + +This vast building, standing between a courtyard and garden, is +noticeable as a specimen of the style, both noble and elegant, of the +reign of Louis XIII., coming singularly, as it did, between the bad +taste of the expiring renaissance and the heavy grandeur of Louis +XIV., at its dawn. This transition period is shown in many public +buildings. The massive scroll-work of several facades--that of the +Sorbonne, for instance,--and columns rectified according to the rules +of Grecian art, were beginning to appear in this architecture. + +A grocer, a lucky adulterator, now took the place of the former +ecclesiastical governor of an institution called in former times +L'Economat; an establishment connected with the general agency of the +old French clergy, and founded by the long-sighted genius of +Richelieu. Thuillier's name opened for him the doors of the salon, +where sat enthroned in velvet and gold, amid the most magnificent +"Chineseries," the poor woman who weighed with all her avoirdupois on +the hearts and minds of princes and princesses at the "popular balls" +of the palace. + +"Isn't she a good subject for 'La Caricature'?" said a so-called lady +of the bedchamber to a duchess, who could hardly help laughing at the +aspect of Zelie, glittering with diamonds, red as a poppy, squeezed +into a gold brocade, and rolling along like the casts of her former +shop. + +"Will you pardon me, fair lady," began Thuillier, twisting his body, +and pausing in pose number two of his imperial repertory, "for having +allowed this invitation to remain in my desk, thinking, all the while, +that it was sent? It is for to-day, but perhaps I am too late?" + +Zelie examined her husband's face as he approached them to receive +Thuillier; then she said:-- + +"We intended to drive into the country and dine at some chance +restaurant; but we'll give up that idea and all the more readily +because, in my opinion, it is getting devilishly vulgar to drive out +of Paris on Sundays." + +"We will have a little dance to the piano for the young people, if +enough come, as I hope they will. I have sent a line to Phellion, +whose wife is intimate with Madame Pron, the successor--" + +"SuccessorESS," interrupted Madame Minard. + +"No," said Thuillier, "it ought to be success'ress; just as we say +may'ress, dropping the O, you know." + +"Is it full dress?" asked Madame Minard. + +"Heavens! no," replied Thuillier; "you would get me finely scolded by +my sister. No, it is only a family party. Under the Empire, madame, we +all devoted ourselves to dancing. At that great epoch of our national +life they thought as much of a fine dancer as they did of a good +soldier. Nowadays the country is so matter-of-fact." + +"Well, we won't talk politics," said the mayor, smiling. "The King is +grand; he is very able. I have a deep admiration for my own time, and +for the institutions which we have given to ourselves. The King, you +may be sure, knows very well what he is doing by the development of +industries. He is struggling hand to hand against England; and we are +doing him more harm during this fruitful peace than all the wars of +the Empire would have done." + +"What a deputy Minard would make!" cried Zelie, naively. "He practises +speechifying at home. You'll help us to get him elected, won't you, +Thuillier?" + +"We won't talk politics now," replied Thuillier. "Come at five." + +"Will that little Vinet be there?" asked Minard; "he comes, no doubt, +for Celeste." + +"Then he may go into mourning," replied Thuillier. "Brigitte won't +hear of him." + +Zelie and Minard exchanged a smile of satisfaction. + +"To think that we must hob-nob with such common people, all for the +sake of our son!" cried Zelie, when Thuillier was safely down the +staircase, to which the mayor had accompanied him. + +"Ha! he thinks to be deputy!" thought Thuillier, as he walked away. +"These grocers! nothing satisfies them. Heavens! what would Napoleon +say if he could see the government in the hands of such people! I'm a +trained administrator, at any rate. What a competitor, to be sure! I +wonder what la Peyrade will say?" + +The ambitious ex-beau now went to invite the whole Laudigeois family +for the evening, after which he went to the Collevilles', to make sure +that Celeste should wear a becoming gown. He found Flavie rather +pensive. She hesitated about coming, but Thuillier overcame her +indecision. + +"My old and ever young friend," he said, taking her round the waist, +for she was alone in her little salon, "I won't have any secret from +you. A great affair is in the wind for me. I can't tell you more than +that, but I can ask you to be particularly charming to a certain young +man--" + +"Who is it?" + +"La Peyrade." + +"Why, Charles?" + +"He holds my future in his hands. Besides, he's a man of genius. I +know what that is. He's got this sort of thing,"--and Thuillier made +the gesture of a dentist pulling out a back tooth. "We must bind him +to us, Flavie. But, above all, don't let him see his power. As for me, +I shall just give and take with him." + +"Do you want me to be coquettish?" + +"Not too much so, my angel," replied Thuillier, with a foppish air. + +And he departed, not observing the stupor which overcame Flavie. + +"That young man is a power," she said to herself. "Well, we shall +see!" + +For these reasons she dressed her hair with marabouts, put on her +prettiest gown of gray and pink, which allowed her fine shoulders to +be seen beneath a pelerine of black lace, and took care to keep +Celeste in a little silk frock made with a yoke and a large plaited +collarette, telling her to dress her hair plainly, a la Berthe. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AD MAJOREM THEODOSIS GLORIAM + +At half-past four o'clock Theodose was at his post. He had put on his +vacant, half-servile manner and soft voice, and he drew Thuillier at +once into the garden. + +"My friend," he said, "I don't doubt your triumph, but I feel the +necessity of again warning you to be absolutely silent. If you are +questioned about anything, especially about Celeste, make evasive +answers which will keep your questioners in suspense. You must have +learned how to do that in a government office." + +"I understand!" said Thuillier. "But what certainty have you?" + +"You'll see what a fine dessert I have prepared for you. But please be +modest. There come the Minards; let me pipe to them. Bring them out +here, and then disappear yourself." + +After the first salutations, la Peyrade was careful to keep close to +the mayor, and presently at an opportune moment he drew him aside to +say:-- + +"Monsieur le maire, a man of your political importance doesn't come to +bore himself in a house of this kind without an object. I don't want +to fathom your motives--which, indeed, I have no right to do--and my +part in this world is certainly not to mingle with earthly powers; but +please pardon my apparent presumption, and deign to listen to a piece +of advice which I shall venture to give you. If I do you a service +to-day you are in a position to return it to me to-morrow; therefore, +in case I should be so fortunate as to do you a good turn, I am really +only obeying the law of self-interest. Our friend Thuillier is in +despair at being a nobody; he has taken it into his head that he wants +to become a personage in this arrondissement--" + +"Ah! ah!" exclaimed Minard. + +"Oh! nothing very exalted; he wants to be elected to the municipal +council. Now, I know that Phellion, seeing the influence such a +service would have on his family interests, intends to propose your +poor friend as candidate. Well, perhaps you might think it wise, in +your own interests, to be beforehand with him. Thuillier's nomination +could only be favorable for you--I mean agreeable; and he'll fill his +place in the council very well; there are some there who are not as +strong as he. Besides, owing to his place to your support, he will see +with your eyes; he already looks to you as one of the lights of the +town." + +"My dear fellow, I thank you very much," replied Minard. "You are +doing me a service I cannot sufficiently acknowledge, and which proves +to me--" + +"That I don't like those Phellions," said la Peyrade, taking advantage +of a slight hesitation on the part of the mayor, who feared to express +an idea in which the lawyer might see contempt. "I hate people who +make capital out of their honesty and coin money from fine +sentiments." + +"You know them well," said Minard; "they are sycophants. That man's +whole life for the last ten years is explained by this bit of red +ribbon," added the mayor, pointing to his own buttonhole. + +"Take care!" said the lawyer, "his son is in love with Celeste, and +he's fairly in the heart of the family." + +"Yes, but my son has twelve thousand a year in his own right." + +"Oh!" said Theodose, with a start, "Mademoiselle Brigitte was saying +the other day that she wanted at least as much as that in Celeste's +suitor. Moreover, six months hence you'll probably hear that Thuillier +has a property worth forty thousand francs a year." + +"The devil! well, I thought as much. Yes, certainly, he shall be made +a member of the municipal council." + +"In any case, don't say anything about me to him," said the advocate +of the poor, who now hastened away to speak to Madame Phellion. "Well, +my fair lady," he said, when he reached her, "have you succeeded?" + +"I waited till four o'clock, and then that worthy and excellent man +would not let me finish what I had to say. He is much to busy to +accept such an office, and he sent a letter which Monsieur Phellion +has read, saying that he, Doctor Bianchon, thanked him for his good +intentions, and assured him that his own candidate was Monsieur +Thuillier. He said that he should use all his influence in his favor, +and begged my husband to do the same." + +"And what did your excellent husband say?" + +"'I have done my duty,' he said. 'I have not been false to my +conscience, and now I am all for Thuillier.'" + +"Well, then, the thing is settled," said la Peyrade. "Ignore my visit, +and take all the credit of the idea to yourselves." + +Then he went to Madame Colleville, composing himself in the attitude +and manner of the deepest respect. + +"Madame," he said, "have the goodness to send out to me here that +kindly papa Colleville. A surprise is to be given to Monsieur +Thuillier, and I want Monsieur Colleville to be in the secret." + +While la Peyrade played the part of man of the world with Colleville, +and allowed himself various witty sarcasms when explaining to him +Thuillier's candidacy, telling him he ought to support it, if only to +exhibit his incapacity, Flavie was listening in the salon to the +following conversation, which bewildered her for the moment and made +her ears ring. + +"I should like to know what Monsieur Colleville and Monsieur de la +Peyrade can be saying to each other to make them laugh like that," +said Madame Thuillier, foolishly, looking out of the window. + +"A lot of improper things, as men always do when they talk together," +replied Mademoiselle Thuillier, who often attacked men with the sort +of instinct natural to old maids. + +"No, they are incapable of that," said Phellion, gravely. "Monsieur de +la Peyrade is one of the most virtuous young men I have ever met. +People know what I think of Felix; well, I put the two on the same +line; indeed, I wish my son had a little more of Monsieur de la +Peyrade's beautiful piety." + +"You are right; he is a man of great merit, who is sure to succeed," +said Minard. "As for me, my suffrages--for I really ought not to say +protection--are his." + +"He pays more for oil than for bread," said Dutocq. "I know that." + +"His mother, if he has the happiness to still possess her, must be +proud of him," remarked Madame Thuillier, sententiously. + +"He is a real treasure for us," said Thuillier. "If you only knew how +modest he is! He doesn't do himself justice." + +"I can answer for one thing," added Dutocq; "no young man ever +maintained a nobler attitude in poverty; he triumphed over it; but he +suffered--it is easy to see that." + +"Poor young man!" cried Zelie. "Such things make my heart ache!" + +"Any one could safely trust both secrets and fortune to him," said +Thuillier; "and in these days that is the finest thing that can be +said of a man." + +"It is Colleville who is making him laugh," cried Dutocq. + +Just then Colleville and la Peyrade returned from the garden the very +best friends in the world. + +"Messieurs," said Brigitte, "the soup and the King must never be kept +waiting; give your hand to the ladies." + +Five minutes after this little pleasantry (issuing from the lodge of +her father the porter) Brigitte had the satisfaction of seeing her +table surrounded by the principal personages of this drama; the rest, +with the one exception of the odious Cerizet, arrived later. + +The portrait of the former maker of canvas money-bags would be +incomplete if we omitted to give a description of one of her best +dinners. The physiognomy of the bourgeois cook of 1840 is, moreover, +one of those details essentially necessary to a history of manners and +customs, and clever housewives may find some lessons in it. A woman +doesn't make empty bags for twenty years without looking out for the +means to fill a few of them. Now Brigitte had one peculiar +characteristic. She united the economy to which she owed her fortune +with a full understanding of necessary expenses. Her relative +prodigality, when it concerned her brother or Celeste, was the +antipodes of avarice. In fact, she often bemoaned herself that she +couldn't be miserly. At her last dinner she had related how, after +struggling ten minute and enduring martyrdom, she had ended by giving +ten francs to a poor workwoman whom she knew, positively, had been +without food for two days. + +"Nature," she said naively, "is stronger than reason." + +The soup was a rather pale bouillon; for, even on an occasion like +this, the cook had been enjoined to make a great deal of bouillon out +of the beef supplied. Then, as the said beef was to feed the family on +the next day and the day after that, the less juice it expended in the +bouillon, the more substantial were the subsequent dinners. The beef, +little cooked, was always taken away at the following speech from +Brigitte, uttered as soon as Thuillier put his knife into it:-- + +"I think it is rather tough; send it away, Thuillier, nobody will eat +it; we have other things." + +The soup was, in fact, flanked by four viands mounted on old hot-water +chafing-dishes, with the plating worn off. At this particular dinner +(afterwards called that of the candidacy) the first course consisted +of a pair of ducks with olives, opposite to which was a large pie with +forcemeat balls, while a dish of eels "a la tartare" corresponded in +like manner with a fricandeau on chicory. The second course had for +its central dish a most dignified goose stuffed with chestnuts, a +salad of vegetables garnished with rounds of beetroot opposite to +custards in cups, while lower down a dish of turnips "au sucre" faced +a timbale of macaroni. This gala dinner of the concierge type cost, at +the utmost, twenty francs, and the remains of the feast provided the +household for a couple of days; nevertheless, Brigitte would say:-- + +"Pest! when one has to have company how the money goes! It is +fearful!" + +The table was lighted by two hideous candlesticks of plated silver +with four branches each, in which shone eight of those thrifty wax- +candles that go by the name of Aurora. The linen was dazzling in +whiteness, and the silver, with beaded edges, was the fruit, +evidently, of some purchase made during the Revolution by Thuillier's +father. Thus the fare and the service were in keeping with the house, +the dining-room, and the Thuilliers themselves, who could never, under +any circumstances, get themselves above this style of living. The +Minards, Collevilles, and la Peyrade exchanged now and then a smile +which betrayed their mutually satirical but repressed thoughts. La +Peyrade, seated beside Flavie, whispered in her ear:-- + +"You must admit that they ought to be taught how to live. But those +Minards are no better in their way. What cupidity! they've come here +solely after Celeste. Your daughter will be lost to you if you let +them have her. These parvenus have all the vices of the great lords of +other days without their elegance. Minard's son, who has twelve +thousand francs a year of his own, could very well find a wife +elsewhere, instead of pushing his speculating rake in here. What fun +it would be to play upon those people as one would on a bass-viol or a +clarionet!" + +While the dishes of the second course were being removed, Minard, +afraid that Phellion would precede him, said to Thuillier with a grave +air:-- + +"My dear Thuillier, in accepting your dinner, I did so for the purpose +of making an important communication, which does you so much honor +that all here present ought to be made participants in it." + +Thuillier turned pale. + +"Have you obtained the cross for me?" he cried, on receiving a glance +from Theodose, and wishing to prove that he was not without craft. + +"You will doubtless receive it ere long," replied the mayor. "But the +matter now relates to something better than that. The cross is a favor +due to the good opinion of a minister, whereas the present question +concerns an election due to the consent of your fellow citizens. In a +word, a sufficiently large number of electors in your arrondissement +have cast their eyes upon you, and wish to honor you with their +confidence by making you the representative of this arrondissement in +the municipal council of Paris; which, as everybody knows, is the +Council-general of the Seine." + +"Bravo!" cried Dutocq. + +Phellion rose. + +"Monsieur le maire has forestalled me," he said in an agitated voice, +"but it is so flattering for our friend to be the object of eagerness +on the part of all good citizens, and to obtain the public vote of +high and low, that I cannot complain of being obliged to come second +only; therefore, all honor to the initiatory authority!" (Here he +bowed respectfully to Minard.) "Yes, Monsieur Thuillier, many electors +think of giving you their votes in that portion of the arrondissement +where I keep my humble penates; and you have the special advantage of +being suggested to their minds by a distinguished man." (Sensation.) +"By a man in whose person we desired to honor one of the most virtuous +inhabitants of the arrondissement, who for twenty years, I may say, +was the father of it. I allude to the late Monsieur Popinot, +counsellor, during his lifetime, to the Royal court, and our delegate +in the municipal council of Paris. But his nephew, of whom I speak, +Doctor Bianchon, one of our glories, has, in view of his absorbing +duties, declined the responsibility with which we sought to invest +him. While thanking us for our compliment he has--take note of +this--indicated for our suffrages the candidate of Monsieur le maire +as being, in his opinion, capable, owing to the position he formerly +occupied, of exercising the magisterial functions of the aedileship." + +And Phellion sat down amid approving murmurs. + +"Thuillier, you can count on me, your old friend," said Colleville. + +At this moment the guests were sincerely touched by the sight +presented of old Mademoiselle Brigitte and Madame Thuillier. Brigitte, +pale as though she were fainting, was letting the slow tears run, +unheeded, down her cheeks, tears of deepest joy; while Madame +Thuillier sat, as if struck by lightning, with her eyes fixed. +Suddenly the old maid darted into the kitchen, crying out to Josephine +the cook:-- + +"Come into the cellar my girl, we must get out the wine behind the +wood!" + +"My friends," said Thuillier, in a shaking voice, "this is the finest +moment of my life, finer than even the day of my election, should I +consent to allow myself to be presented to the suffrages of my fellow- +citizens" ("You must! you must!"); "for I feel myself much worn down +by thirty years of public service, and, as you may well believe, a man +of honor has need to consult his strength and his capacities before he +takes upon himself the functions of the aedileship." + +"I expected nothing less of you, Monsieur Thuillier," cried Phellion. +"Pardon me; this is the first time in my life that I have ever +interrupted a superior; but there are circumstances--" + +"Accept! accept!" cried Zelie. "Bless my soul! what we want are men +like you to govern us." + +"Resign yourself, my chief!" cried Dutocq, and, "Long live the future +municipal councillor! but we haven't anything to drink--" + +"Well, the thing is settled," said Minard; "you are to be our +candidate." + +"You think too much of me," replied Thuillier. + +"Come, come!" cried Colleville. "A man who has done thirty years in +the galleys of the ministry of finance is a treasure to the town." + +"You are much too modest," said the younger Minard; "your capacity is +well known to us; it remains a tradition at the ministry of finance." + +"As you all insist--" began Thuillier. + +"The King will be pleased with our choice; I can assure you of that," +said Minard, pompously. + +"Gentlemen," said la Peyrade, "will you permit a recent dweller in the +faubourg Saint-Jacques to make one little remark, which is not without +importance?" + +The consciousness that everybody had of the sterling merits of the +advocate of the poor produced the deepest silence. + +"The influence of Monsieur le maire of an adjoining arrondissement, +which is immense in ours where he has left such excellent memories; +that of Monsieur Phellion, the oracle--yes, let the truth be spoken," +he exclaimed, noticing a gesture made by Phellion--"the ORACLE of his +battalion; the influence, no less powerful, which Monsieur Colleville +owes to the frank heartiness of his manner, and to his urbanity; that +of Monsieur Dutocq, the clerk of the justice court, which will not be +less efficacious, I am sure; and the poor efforts which I can offer in +my humble sphere of activity,--are pledges of success, but they are +not success itself. To obtain a rapid triumph we should pledge +ourselves, now and here, to keep the deepest secrecy on the +manifestation of sentiments which has just taken place. Otherwise, we +should excite, without knowing or willing it, envy and all the other +secondary passions, which would create for us later various obstacles +to overcome. The political meaning of the new social organization, its +very basis, its token, and the guarantee for its continuance, are in a +certain sharing of the governing power with the middle classes, +classes who are the true strength of modern societies, the centre of +morality, of all good sentiments and intelligent work. But we cannot +conceal from ourselves that the principle of election, extended now to +almost every function, has brought the interests of ambition, and the +passion for being SOMETHING, excuse the word, into social depths where +they ought never to have penetrated. Some see good in this; others see +evil; it is not my place to judge between them in presence of minds +before whose eminence I bow. I content myself by simply suggesting +this question in order to show the dangers which the banner of our +friend must meet. See for yourselves! the decease of our late +honorable representative in the municipal council dates back scarcely +one week, and already the arrondissement is being canvassed by +inferior ambitions. Such men put themselves forward to be seen at any +price. The writ of convocation will, probably, not take effect for a +month to come. Between now and then, imagine the intrigues! I entreat +you not to expose our friend Thuillier to the blows of his +competitors; let us not deliver him over to public discussion, that +modern harpy which is but the trumpet of envy and calumny, the pretext +seized by malevolence to belittle all that is great, soil all that is +immaculate and dishonor whatever is sacred. Let us, rather, do as the +Third Party is now doing in the Chamber,--keep silence and vote!" + +"He speaks well," said Phellion to his neighbor Dutocq. + +"And how strong the statement is!" + +Envy had turned Minard and his son green and yellow. + +"That is well said and very true," remarked Minard. + +"Unanimously adopted!" cried Colleville. "Messieurs, we are men of +honor; it suffices to understand each other on this point." + +"Whoso desires the end accepts the means," said Phellion, +emphatically. + +At this moment, Mademoiselle Thuillier reappeared, followed by her two +servants; the key of the cellar was hanging from her belt, and three +bottles of champagne, three of hermitage, and one bottle of malaga +were placed upon the table. She herself was carrying, with almost +respectful care, a smaller bottle, like a fairy Carabosse, which she +placed before her. In the midst of the hilarity caused by this +abundance of excellent things--a fruit of gratitude, which the poor +spinster in the delirium of her joy poured out with a profusion which +put to shame the sparing hospitality of her usual fortnightly dinners +--numerous dessert dishes made their appearance: mounds of almonds, +raisins, figs, and nuts (popularly known as the "four beggars"), +pyramids of oranges, confections, crystallized fruits, brought from +the hidden depths of her cupboards, which would never have figured on +the table-cloth had it not been for the "candidacy." + +"Celeste, they will bring you a bottle of brandy which my father +obtained in 1802; make an orange-salad!" cried Brigitte to her sister- +in-law. "Monsieur Phellion, open the champagne; that bottle is for you +three. Monsieur Dutocq, take this one. Monsieur Colleville, you know +how to pop corks!" + +The two maids distributed champagne glasses, also claret glasses, and +wine glasses. Josephine also brought three more bottles of Bordeaux. + +"The year of the comet!" cried Thuillier, laughing, "Messieurs, you +have turned my sister's head." + +"And this evening you shall have punch and cakes," she said. "I have +sent to the chemists for some tea. Heavens! if I had only known the +affair concerned an election," she cried, looking at her sister-in- +law, "I'd have served the turkey." + +A general laugh welcomed this speech. + +"We have a goose!" said Minard junior. + +"The carts are unloading!" cried Madame Thuillier, as "marrons glaces" +and "meringues" were placed upon the table. + +Mademoiselle Thuillier's face was blazing. She was really superb to +behold. Never did sisterly love assume such a frenzied expression. + +"To those who know her, it is really touching," remarked Madame +Colleville. + +The glasses were filled. The guests all looked at one another, +evidently expecting a toast, whereupon la Peyrade said:-- + +"Messieurs, let us drink to something sublime." + +Everybody looked curious. + +"To Mademoiselle Brigitte!" + +They all rose, clinked glasses, and cried with one voice, +"Mademoiselle Brigitte!" so much enthusiasm did the exhibition of a +true feeling excite. + +"Messieurs," said Phellion, reading from a paper written in pencil, +"To work and its splendors, in the person of our former comrade, now +become one of the mayors of Paris,--to Monsieur Minard and his wife!" + +After five minutes' general conversation Thuillier rose and said:-- + +"Messieurs, To the King and the royal family! I add nothing; the toast +says all." + +"To the election of my brother!" said Mademoiselle Thuillier a moment +later. + +"Now I'll make you laugh," whispered la Peyrade in Flavie's ear. + +And he rose. + +"To Woman!" he said; "that enchanting sex to whom we owe our +happiness,--not to speak of our mothers, our sisters, and our wives!" + +This toast excited general hilarity, and Colleville, already somewhat +gay, exclaimed:-- + +"Rascal! you have stolen my speech!" + +The mayor then rose; profound silence reigned. + +"Messieurs, our institutions! from which come the strength and +grandeur of dynastic France!" + +The bottles disappeared amid a chorus of admiration as to the +marvellous goodness and delicacy of their contents. + +Celeste Colleville here said timidly:-- + +"Mamma, will you permit me to give a toast?" + +The good girl had noticed the dull, bewildered look of her godmother, +neglected and forgotten,--she, the mistress of that house, wearing +almost the expression of a dog that is doubtful which master to obey, +looking from the face of her terrible sister-in-law to that of +Thuillier, consulting each countenance, and oblivious of herself; but +joy on the face of that poor helot, accustomed to be nothing, to +repress her ideas, her feelings, had the effect of a pale wintry sun +behind a mist; it barely lighted her faded, flabby flesh. The gauze +cap trimmed with dingy flowers, the hair ill-dressed, the gloomy brown +gown, with no ornament but a thick gold chain--all, combined with the +expression of her countenance, stimulated the affection of the young +Celeste, who--alone in the world--knew the value of that woman +condemned to silence but aware of all about her, suffering from all +yet consoling herself in God and in the girl who now was watching her. + +"Yes, let the dear child give us her little toast," said la Peyrade to +Madame Colleville. + +"Go on, my daughter," cried Colleville; "here's the hermitage still to +be drunk--and it's hoary with age," he added. + +"To my kind godmother!" said the girl, lowering her glass respectfully +before Madame Thuillier, and holding it towards her. + +The poor woman, startled, looked through a veil of tears first at her +husband, and then at Brigitte; but her position in the family was so +well known, and the homage paid by innocence to weakness had something +so beautiful about it, that the emotion was general; the men all rose +and bowed to Madame Thuillier. + +"Ah! Celeste, I would I had a kingdom to lay at your feet," murmured +Felix Phellion. + +The worthy Phellion wiped away a tear. Dutocq himself was moved. + +"Oh! the charming child!" cried Mademoiselle Thuillier, rising, and +going round to kiss her sister-in-law. + +"My turn now!" said Colleville, posing like an athlete. "Now listen: +To friendship! Empty your glasses; refill your glasses. Good! To the +fine arts,--the flower of social life! Empty your glasses; refill your +glasses. To another such festival on the day after election!" + +"What is that little bottle you have there?" said Dutocq to +Mademoiselle Thuillier. + +"That," she said, "is one of my three bottles of Madame Amphoux' +liqueur; the second is for the day of Celeste's marriage; the third +for the day on which her first child is baptized." + +"My sister is losing her head," remarked Thuillier to Colleville. + +The dinner ended with a toast, offered by Thuillier, but suggested to +him by Theodose at the moment when the malaga sparkled in the little +glasses like so many rubies. + +"Colleville, messieurs, has drunk to FRIENDSHIP. I now drink, in this +most generous wine, To my friends!" + +An hurrah, full of heartiness, greeted that fine sentiment, but Dutocq +remarked aside to Theodose:-- + +"It is a shame to pour such wine down the throats of such people." + +"Ah! if we could only make such wine as that!" cried Zelie, making her +glass ring by the way in which she sucked down the Spanish liquid. +"What fortunes we could get!" + +Zelie had now reached her highest point of incandescence, and was +really alarming. + +"Yes," replied Minard, "but ours is made." + +"Don't you think, sister," said Brigitte to Madame Thuillier, "that we +had better take coffee in the salon?" + +Madame Thuillier obediently assumed the air of mistress of the house, +and rose. + +"Ah! you are a great wizard," said Flavie Colleville, accepting la +Peyrade's arm to return to the salon. + +"And yet I care only to bewitch you," he answered. "I think you more +enchanting than ever this evening." + +"Thuillier," she said, to evade the subject, "Thuillier made to think +himself a political character! oh! oh!" + +"But, my dear Flavie, half the absurdities of life are the result of +such conspiracies; and men are not alone in these deceptions. In how +many families one sees the husband, children, and friends persuading a +silly mother that she is a woman of sense, or an old woman of fifty +that she is young and beautiful. Hence, inconceivable contrarieties +for those who go about the world with their eyes shut. One man owes +his ill-savored conceit to the flattery of a mistress; another owes +his versifying vanity to those who are paid to call him a great poet. +Every family has its great man; and the result is, as we see it in the +Chamber, general obscurity of the lights of France. Well, men of real +mind are laughing to themselves about it, that's all. You are the mind +and the beauty of this little circle of the petty bourgeoisie; it is +this superiority which led me in the first instance to worship you. I +have since longed to drag you out of it; for I love you sincerely-- +more in friendship than in love; though a great deal of love is +gliding into it," he added, pressing her to his heart under cover of +the recess of a window to which he had taken her. + +"Madame Phellion will play the piano," cried Colleville. "We must all +dance to-night--bottles and Brigitte's francs and all the little +girls! I'll go and fetch my clarionet." + +He gave his empty coffee-cup to his wife, smiling to see her so +friendly with la Peyrade. + +"What have you said and done to my husband?" asked Flavie, when +Colleville had left them. + +"Must I tell you all our secrets?" + +"Ah! you don't love me," she replied, looking at him with the +coquettish slyness of a woman who is not quite decided in her mind. + +"Well, since you tell me yours," he said, letting himself go to the +lively impulse of Provencal gaiety, always so charming and apparently +so natural, "I will not conceal from you an anxiety in my heart." + +He took her back to the same window and said, smiling:-- + +"Colleville, poor man, has seen in me the artist repressed by all +these bourgeois; silent before them because I feel misjudged, +misunderstood, and repelled by them. He has felt the heat of the +sacred fire that consumes me. Yes I am," he continued, in a tone of +conviction, "an artist in words after the manner of Berryer; I could +make juries weep, by weeping myself, for I'm as nervous as a woman. +Your husband, who detests the bourgeoisie, began to tease me about +them. At first we laughed; then, in becoming serious, he found out +that I was as strong as he. I told him of the plan concocted to make +SOMETHING of Thuillier, and I showed him all the good he could get +himself out of a political puppet. 'If it were only,' I said to him, +'to make yourself Monsieur DE Colleville, and to put your charming +wife where I should like to see her, as the wife of a receiver- +general, or deputy. To make yourself all that you and she ought to be, +you have only to go and live a few years in the Upper or Lower Alps, +in some hole of a town where everybody will like you, and your wife +will seduce everybody; and this,' I added, 'you cannot fail to obtain, +especially if you give your dear Celeste to some man who can influence +the Chamber.' Good reasons, stated in jest, have the merit of +penetrating deeper into some minds than if they were given soberly. So +Colleville and I became the best friends in the world. Didn't you hear +him say to me at table, 'Rascal! you have stolen my speech'? To-night +we shall be theeing and thouing each other. I intend to have a choice +little supper-party soon, where artists, tied to the proprieties at +home, always compromise themselves. I'll invite him, and that will +make us as solidly good friends as he is with Thuillier. There, my +dear adorned one, is what a profound sentiment gives a man the courage +to produce. Colleville must adopt me; so that I may visit your house +by his invitation. But what couldn't you make me do? lick lepers, +swallow live toads, seduce Brigitte--yes, if you say so, I'll impale +my own heart on that great picket-rail to please you." + +"You frightened me this morning," she said. + +"But this evening you are reassured. Yes," he added, "no harm will +ever happen to you through me." + +"You are, I must acknowledge, a most extraordinary man." + +"Why, no! the smallest as well as the greatest of my efforts are +merely the reflections of the flame which you have kindled. I intend +to be your son-in-law that we may never part. My wife, heavens! what +could she be to me but a machine for child-bearing? whereas the +divinity, the sublime being will be--you," he whispered in her ear. + +"You are Satan!" she said, in a sort of terror. + +"No, I am something of a poet, like all the men of my region. Come, be +my Josephine! I'll go and see you to-morrow. I have the most ardent +desire to see where you live and how you live, the furniture you use, +the color of your stuffs, the arrangement of all things about you. I +long to see the pearl in its shell." + +He slipped away cleverly after these words, without waiting for an +answer. + +Flavie, to whom in all her life love had never taken the language of +romance, sat still, but happy, her heart palpitating, and saying to +herself that it was very difficult to escape such influence. For the +first time Theodose had appeared in a pair of new trousers, with gray +silk stockings and pumps, a waistcoat of black silk, and a cravat of +black satin on the knot of which shone a plain gold pin selected with +taste. He wore also a new coat in the last fashion, and yellow gloves, +relieved by white shirt-cuffs; he was the only man who had manners, or +deportment in that salon, which was now filling up for the evening. + +Madame Pron, nee Barniol, arrived with two school-girls, aged +seventeen, confided to her maternal care by families residing in +Martinique. Monsieur Pron, professor of rhetoric in a college presided +over by priests, belonged to the Phellion class; but, instead of +expanding on the surface in phrases and demonstrations, and posing as +an example, he was dry and sententious. Monsieur and Madame Pron, the +flowers of the Phellion salon, received every Monday. Though a +professor, the little man danced. He enjoyed great influence in the +quarter enclosed by the boulevard du Mont-Parnasse, the Luxembourg, +and the rue de Sevres. Therefore, as soon as Phellion saw his friend, +he took him by the arm into a corner to inform him of the Thuillier +candidacy. After ten minutes' consultation they both went to find +Thuillier, and the recess of a window, opposite to that where Flavie +still sat absorbed in her reflections, no doubt, heard a "trio" +worthy, in its way, of that of the Swiss in "Guillaume Tell." + +"Do you see," said Theodose, returning to Flavie, "the pure and honest +Phellion intriguing over there? Give a personal reason to a virtuous +man and he'll paddle in the slimiest puddle; he is hooking that little +Pron, and Pron is taking it all in, solely to get your little Celeste +for Felix Phellion. Separate them, and in ten minutes they'll get +together again, and that young Minard will be growling round them like +an angry bulldog." + +Felix, still under the strong emotion imparted to him by Celeste's +generous action and the cry that came from the girl's heart, though no +one but Madame Thuillier still thought of it, became inspired by one +of those ingenuous artfulnesses which are the honest charlatanism of +true love; but he was not to the manner born of it, and mathematics, +moreover, made him somewhat absent-minded. He stationed himself near +Madame Thuillier, imagining that Madame Thuillier would attract +Celeste to her side. This astute calculation succeeded all the better +because young Minard, who saw in Celeste nothing more than a "dot," +had no such sudden inspiration, and was drinking his coffee and +talking politics with Laudigeois, Monsieur Barniol, and Dutocq by +order of his father, who was thinking and planning for the general +election of the legislature in 1842. + +"Who wouldn't love Celeste?" said Felix to Madame Thuillier. + +"Little darling, no one in the world loves me as she does," replied +the poor slave, with difficulty restraining her tears. + +"Ah! madame, we both love you," said the candid professor, sincerely. + +"What are you saying to each other?" asked Celeste, coming up. + +"My child," said the pious woman, drawing her god-daughter down to her +and kissing her on the forehead. "He said that you both loved me." + +"Do not be angry with my presumption, mademoiselle. Let me do all I +can to prove it," murmured Felix. "Ah! I cannot help it, I was made +this way; injustice revolts me to the soul! Yes, the Saviour of men +was right to promise the future to the meek heart, to the slain lamb! +A man who did not love you, Celeste, must have adored you after that +sublime impulse of yours at table. Ah, yes! innocence alone can +console the martyr. You are a kind young girl; you will be one of +those wives who make the glory and the happiness of a family. Happy be +he whom you will choose!" + +"Godmamma, with what eyes do you think Monsieur Felix sees me?" + +"He appreciates you, my little angel; I shall pray to God for both of +you." + +"If you knew how happy I am that my father can do a service to +Monsieur Thuillier, and how I wish I could be useful to your +brother--" + +"In short," said Celeste, laughing, "you love us all." + +"Well, yes," replied Felix. + +True love wraps itself in the mysteries of reserve, even in its +expression; it proves itself by itself; it does not feel the +necessity, as a false love does, of lighting a conflagration. By an +observer (if such a being could have glided into the Thuillier salon) +a book might have been made in comparing the two scenes of love- +making, and in watching the enormous preparations of Theodose and the +simplicity of Felix: one was nature, the other was society,--the true +and the false embodied. Noticing her daughter glowing with happiness, +exhaling her soul through the pores of her face, and beautiful with +the beauty of a young girl gathering the first roses of an indirect +declaration, Flavie had an impulse of jealousy in her heart. She came +across to Celeste and said in her ear:-- + +"You are not behaving well, my daughter; everybody is observing you; +you are compromising yourself by talking so long to Monsieur Felix +without knowing whether we approve of it." + +"But, mamma, my godmother is here." + +"Ah! pardon me, dear friend," said Madame Colleville; "I did not +notice you." + +"You do as others do," said the poor nonentity. + +That reply stung Madame Colleville, who regarded it as a barbed arrow. +She cast a haughty glance at Felix and said to Celeste, "Sit there, my +daughter," seating herself at the same time beside Madame Thuillier +and pointing to a chair on the other side of her. + +"I will work myself to death," said Felix to Madame Thuillier. "I'll +be a member of the Academy of Sciences; I'll make some great +discovery, and win her hand by force of fame." + +"Ah!" thought the poor woman to herself, "I ought to have had a +gentle, peaceful, learned man like that. I might have slowly developed +in a life of quietness. It was not thy will, O God! but, I pray thee, +unite and bless these children; they are made for one another." + +And she sat there, pensive, listening to the racket made by her +sister-in-law--a ten-horse power at work--who now, lending a hand to +her two servants, cleared the table, taking everything out of the +dining-room to accommodate the dancers, vociferating, like the captain +of a frigate on his quarter-deck when taking his ship into action: +"Have you plenty of raspberry syrup?" "Run out and buy some more +orgeat!" "There's not enough glasses. Where's the 'eau rougie'? Take +those six bottles of 'vin ordinaire' and make more. Mind that +Coffinet, the porter, doesn't get any." "Caroline, my girl, you are to +wait at the sideboard; you'll have tongue and ham to slice in case +they dance till morning. But mind, no waste! Keep an eye on +everything. Pass me the broom; put more oil in those lamps; don't make +blunders. Arrange the remains of the dessert so as to make a show on +the sideboard; ask my sister to come and help us. I'm sure I don't +know what she's thinking about, that dawdle! Heavens, how slow she is! +Here, take away these chairs, they'll want all the room they can get." + +The salon was full of Barniols, Collevilles, Phellions, Laudigeois, +and many others whom the announcement of a dance at the Thuilliers', +spread about in the Luxembourg between two and four in the afternoon, +the hour at which the bourgeoisie takes its walk, had drawn thither. + +"Are you ready, Brigitte?" said Colleville, bolting into the dining- +room; "it is nine o'clock, and they are packed as close as herrings in +the salon. Cardot, his wife and son and daughter and future son-in-law +have just come, accompanied by that young Vinet; the whole faubourg +Saint Antoine is debouching. Can't we move the piano in here?" + +Then he gave the signal, by tuning his clarionet, the joyous sounds of +which were greeted with huzzas from the salon. + +It is useless to describe a ball of this kind. The toilets, faces, and +conversations were all in keeping with one fact which will surely +suffice even the dullest imagination; they passed round, on tarnished +and discolored trays, common tumblers filled with wine, "eau rougie," +and "eau sucree." The trays on which were glasses of orgeat and +glasses of syrup and water appeared only at long intervals. There were +five card-tables and twenty-five players, and eighteen dancers of both +sexes. At one o'clock in the morning, all present--Madame Thuillier, +Mademoiselle Brigitte, Madame Phellion, even Phellion himself--were +dragged into the vivacities of a country-dance, vulgarly called "La +Boulangere," in which Dutocq figured with a veil over his head, after +the manner of the Kabyl. The servants who were waiting to escort their +masters home, and those of the household, were audience to this +performance; and after the interminable dance had lasted one whole +hour it was proposed to carry Brigitte in triumph when she gave the +announcement that supper was served. This circumstance made her see +the necessity of hiding a dozen bottles of old burgundy. In short, the +company had amused themselves so well, the matrons as well as the +young girls, that Thuillier found occasion to say:-- + +"Well, well, this morning we little thought we should have such a fete +to-night." + +"There's never more pleasure," said the notary Cardot, "than in just +such improvised balls. Don't talk to me of parties where everybody +stands on ceremony." + +This opinion, we may remark, is a standing axiom among the +bourgeoisie. + +"Well, for my part," said Madame Minard, "I prefer the dignified old +ways." + +"We didn't mean that for you, madame; your salon is the chosen haunt +of pleasure," said Dutocq. + +When "La Boulangere" came to an end, Theodose pulled Dutocq from the +sideboard where he was preparing to eat a slice of tongue, and said to +him:-- + +"Let us go; we must be at Cerizet's very early in the morning; we +ought both of us to think over that affair; it is not so easy to +manage as Cerizet seems to imagine." + +"Why not?" asked Dutocq, bringing his slice of tongue to eat in the +salon. + +"Don't you know the law?" + +"I know enough of it to be aware of the dangers of the affair. If that +notary wants the house and we filch it from him, there are means by +which he can recover it; he can put himself into the skin of a +registered creditor. By the present legal system relating to +mortgages, when a house is sold at the request of creditors, if the +price obtained for it at auction is not enough to pay all debts, the +owners have the right to bid it in and hold it for a higher sum; now +the notary, seeing himself caught, may back out of the sale in that +way." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "it needs attention." + +"Very good," replied Dutocq, "we'll go and see Cerizet." + +These words, "go and see Cerizet," were overheard by Minard, who was +following the two associates; but they offered no meaning to his mind. +The two men were so outside of his own course and projects that he +heard them without listening to them. + +"This has been one of the finest days in our lives," said Brigitte to +her brother, when she found herself alone with him in the deserted +salon, at half-past two in the morning. "What a distinction! to be +thus selected by your fellow-citizens!" + +"Don't be mistaken about it, Brigitte; we owe it all, my child, to one +man." + +"What man?" + +"To our friend, la Peyrade." + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BANKER OF THE POOR + +It was not on the next day, Monday, but on the following day, Tuesday, +that Dutocq and Theodose went to see Cerizet, the former having called +la Peyrade's attention to the fact that Cerizet always absented +himself on Sundays and Mondays, taking advantage of the total absence +of clients on those days, which are devoted by the populace to +debauch. The house toward which they directed their steps is one of +the striking features in the faubourg Saint-Jacques, and it is quite +as important to study it here as it was to study those of Phellion and +Thuillier. It is not known (true, no commission has yet been appointed +to examine this phenomenon), no one knows why certain quarters become +degraded and vulgarized, morally as well as materially; why, for +instance, the ancient residence of the court and the church, the +Luxembourg and the Latin quarter, have become what they are to-day, in +spite of the presence of the finest palaces in the world, in spite of +the bold cupola of Sainte-Genevieve, that of Mansard on the Val-de- +Grace, and the charms of the Jardin des Plantes. One asks one's self +why the elegance of life has left that region; why the Vauquer houses, +the Phellion and the Thuillier houses now swarm with tenants and +boarders, on the site of so many noble and religious buildings, and +why such mud and dirty trades and poverty should have fastened on a +hilly piece of ground, instead of spreading out upon the flat land +beyond the confines of the ancient city. + +The angel whose beneficence once hovered above this quarter being +dead, usury, on the lowest scale, rushed in and took his place. To the +old judge, Popinot, succeeded Cerizet; and strange to say,--a fact +which it is well to study,--the effect produced, socially speaking, +was much the same. Popinot loaned money without interest, and was +willing to lose; Cerizet lost nothing, and compelled the poor to work +hard and stay virtuous. The poor adored Popinot, but they did not hate +Cerizet. Here, in this region, revolves the lowest wheel of Parisian +financiering. At the top, Nucingen & Co., the Kellers, du Tillet, and +the Mongenods; a little lower down, the Palmas, Gigonnets, and +Gobsecks; lower still, the Samonons, Chaboisseaus, and Barbets; and +lastly (after the pawn-shops) comes this king of usury, who spreads +his nets at the corners of the streets to entangle all miseries and +miss none,--Cerizet, "money lender by the little week." + +The frogged frock-coat will have prepared you for the den in which +this convicted stock-broker carried on his present business. + +The house was humid with saltpetre; the walls, sweating moisture, were +enamelled all over with large slabs of mould. Standing at the corner +of the rue des Postes and rue des Poules, it presented first a ground- +floor, occupied partly by a shop for the sale of the commonest kind of +wine, painted a coarse bright red, decorated with curtains of red +calico, furnished with a leaden counter, and guarded by formidable +iron bars. Above the gate of an odious alley hung a frightful lantern, +on which were the words "Night lodgings here." The outer walls were +covered with iron crossbars, showing, apparently, the insecurity of +the building, which was owned by the wine-merchant, who also inhabited +the entresol. The widow Poiret (nee Michonneau) kept furnished +lodgings on the first, second, and third floors, consisting of single +rooms for workmen and for the poorest class of students. + +Cerizet occupied one room on the ground-floor and another in the +entresol, to which he mounted by an interior staircase; this entresol +looked out upon a horrible paved court, from which arose mephitic +odors. Cerizet paid forty francs a month to the widow Poiret for his +breakfast and dinner; he thus conciliated her by becoming her boarder; +he also made himself acceptable to the wine-merchant by procuring him +an immense sale of wine and liquors among his clients--profits +realized before sunrise; the wine-shop beginning operations about +three in the morning in summer, and five in winter. + +The hour of the great Market, which so many of his clients, male and +female, attended, was the determining cause of Cerizet's early hours. +The Sieur Cadenet, the wine-merchant, in view of the custom which he +owed to the usurer, had let him the two rooms for the low price of +eighty francs a year, and had given him a lease for twelve years, +which Cerizet alone had a right to break, without paying indemnity, at +three months' notice. Cadenet always carried in a bottle of excellent +wine for the dinner of this useful tenant; and when Cerizet was short +of money he had only to say to his friend, "Cadenet, lend me a few +hundred francs,"--loans which he faithfully repaid. + +Cadenet, it was said, had proof of the widow Poiret having deposited +in Cerizet's hands some two thousand francs for investment, which may +explain the progress of the latter's affairs since the day when he +first took up his abode in the quarter, supplied with a last note of a +thousand francs and Dutocq's protection. Cadenet, prompted by a +cupidity which success increased, had proposed, early in the year, to +put twenty thousand francs into the hands of his friend Cerizet. But +Cerizet had positively declined them, on the ground that he ran risks +of a nature to become a possible cause of dispute with associates. + +"I could only," he said to Cadenet, "take them at six per cent +interest, and you can do better than that in your own business. We +will go into partnership later, if you like, in some serious +enterprise, some good opportunity which may require, say, fifty +thousand francs. When you have got that sum to invest, let me know, +and we'll talk about it." + +Cerizet had only suggested the affair of the house to Theodose after +making sure that among the three, Madame Poiret, Cadenet, and himself, +it was impossible to raise the full sum of one hundred thousand +francs. + +The "lender by the little week" was thus in perfect safety in his den, +where he could even, if necessity came, appeal to the law. On certain +mornings there might be seen as many as sixty or eighty persons, men +as often as women, either in the wine-shop, or the alley, or sitting +on the staircase, for the distrustful Cerizet would only admit six +persons at a time into his office. The first comers were first served, +and each had to go by his number, which the wine-merchant, or his +shop-boy, affixed to the hats of the man and the backs of the women. +Sometimes the clients would sell to each other (as hackney-coachmen do +on the cabstands), head numbers for tail numbers. On certain days, +when the market business was pressing, a head number was often sold +for a glass of brandy and a sou. The numbers, as they issued from +Cerizet's office, called up the succeeding numbers; and if any +disputes arose Cadenet put a stop to the fray at once my remarking:-- + +"If you get the police here you won't gain anything; HE'll shut up +shop." + +HE was Cerizet's name. When, in the course of the day, some hapless +woman, without an atom of food in her room, and seeing her children +pale with hunger, would come to borrow ten or twenty sous, she would +say to the wine-merchant anxiously:-- + +"Is HE there?" + +Cadenet, a short, stout man, dressed in blue, with outer sleeves of +black stuff and a wine-merchant's apron, and always wearing a cap, +seemed an angel to these mothers when he replied to them:-- + +"HE told me that you were an honest woman and I might give you forty +sous. You know what you must do about it--" + +And, strange to say, HE was blessed by these poor people, even as they +had lately blessed Popinot. + +But Cerizet was cursed on Sunday mornings when accounts were settled; +and they cursed him even more on Saturdays, when it was necessary to +work in order to repay the sum borrowed with interest. But, after all, +he was Providence, he was God from Tuesday to Friday of every week. + +The room which he made his office, formerly the kitchen of the next +floor, was bare; the beams of the ceiling had been whitewashed, but +still bore marks of smoke. The walls, along which he had put benches, +and the stone floor, retained and gave out dampness. The fireplace, +where the crane remained, was partly filled by an iron stove in which +Cerizet burned sea-coal when the weather was severe. A platform about +half a foot high and eight feet square extended from the edge of the +fireplace; on it was fastened a common table and an armchair with a +round cushion covered with green leather. Behind him, Cerizet had +sheathed the walls with planks; also protecting himself with a little +wooden screen, painted white, from the draught between the window and +door; but this screen, made of two leaves, was so placed that the +warmth from the stove reached him. The window had enormous inside +shutters of cast-iron, held, when closed, by a bar. The door commanded +respect by an armor of the same character. + +At the farther end of this room, in a corner, was a spiral-staircase, +coming, evidently, from some pulled-down shop, and bought in the rue +Chapon by Cadenet, who had fitted it through the ceiling into the room +in the entresol occupied by Cerizet. In order to prevent all +communication with the upper floors, Cerizet had exacted that the door +of that room which opened on the common landing should be walled up. +The place had thus become a fortress. The bedroom above had a cheap +carpet bought for twenty francs, an iron bedstead, a bureau, three +chairs, and an iron safe, made by a good workman, which Cerizet had +bought at a bargain. He shaved before a glass on the chimney-piece; he +owned two pairs of cotton sheets and six cotton shirts; the rest of +his visible wardrobe was of the same character. Cadenet had once seen +Cerizet dressed like a dandy of the period; he must, therefore, have +kept hidden, in some drawer of his bureau, a complete disguise with +which he could go to the opera, see the world, and not be recognized, +for, had it not been that Cadenet heard his voice, he would certainly +have asked him who he was. + +What pleased the clients of this man most was his joviality and his +repartees; he talked their language. Cadenet, his two shop-men, and +Cerizet, living in the midst of dreadful misery, behaved with the +calmness of undertakers in presence of afflicted heirs, of old +sergeants of the Guard among heaps of dead. They no more shuddered on +hearing cries of hunger and despair than surgeons shudder at the cries +of their patients in hospital; they said, as the soldiers and the +dressers said, the perfunctory words, "Have patience! a little +courage! What's the good of grieving? Suppose you kill yourself, what +then? One gets accustomed to everything; be reasonable!" + +Though Cerizet took the precaution to hide the money necessary for his +morning operations in the hollow seat of the chair in which he sat, +taking out no more than a hundred francs at a time, which he put in +the pockets of his trousers, never dipping into the funds of the chair +except between the entrance of two batches of clients (keeping his +door locked and not opening it till all was safely stowed in his +pockets), he had really nothing to fear from the various despairs +which found their way from all sides to this rendezvous of misery. +Certainly, there are many different ways of being honest and virtuous; +and the "Monograph of Virtue" has no other basis than this social +axiom.[*] A man is false to his conscience; he fails, apparently, in +delicacy; he forfeits that bloom of honor which, though lost, does +not, as yet, mean general disrepute; at last, however, he fails +decidedly in honor; if he falls into the hands of the correctional +police, he is not, as yet, guilty of crime before the court of +assizes; but after he is branded with infamy by the verdict of a jury +he may still be honored at the galleys for the species of honor and +integrity practised by criminals among themselves, which consists in +not betraying each other, in sharing booty loyally, and in running all +dangers. Well, this last form of honor--which is perhaps a +calculation, a necessity, the practice of which offers certain +opportunities for grandeur to the guilty man and the possibility of a +return to good--reigned absolutely between Cerizet and his clients. +Never did Cerizet make an error, nor his poor people either; neither +side ever denied what was due, either capital or interests. Many a +time Cerizet, who was born among the people, corrected from one week +to another some accidental error, to the benefit of a poor man who had +never discovered it. He was called a Jew, but an honest one, and his +word in that city of sorrows was sacred. A woman died, causing a loss +to him of thirty francs: + +[*] A book on which the author has been at work since 1833, the year + in which it was first announced.--Author's note. + +"See my profits! there they go!" he said to his assemblage, "and you +howl upon me! You know I'll never trouble the brats; in fact, Cadenet +has already taken them bread and heel-taps." + +After that it was said of him in both faubourgs:-- + +"He is not a bad fellow!" + +The "loan by the little week," as interpreted by Cerizet, is not, +considering all things, so cruel a thing as the pawn-shop. Cerizet +loaned ten francs Tuesday on condition of receiving twelve francs +Sunday morning. In five weeks he doubled his capital; but he had to +make many compromises. His kindness consisted in accepting, from time +to time, eleven francs and fifty centimes; sometimes the whole +interest was still owing. When he gave fifty francs for sixty to a +fruit-stall man, or a hundred francs for one hundred and twenty to a +seller of peat-fuel, he ran great risks. + +On reaching the rue des Poules through the rue des Postes, Theodose +and Dutocq saw a great assemblage of men and women, and by the light +which the wine-merchant's little oil-lamps cast upon these groups, +they were horrified at beholding that mass of red, seamed, haggard +faces; solemn with suffering, withered, distorted, swollen with wine, +pallid from liquor; some threatening, others resigned, some sarcastic +or jeering, others besotted; all rising from the midst of those +terrible rags, which no designer can surpass in his most extravagant +caricatures. + +"I shall be recognized," said Theodose, pulling Dutocq away; "we have +done a foolish thing to come here at this hour and take him in the +midst of his business." + +"All the more that Claparon may be sleeping in his lair, the interior +of which we know nothing about. Yes, there are dangers for you, but +none for me; I shall be thought to have business with my copying- +clerk, and I'll go and tell him to come and dine with us; this is +court day, so we can't have him to breakfast. I'll tell him to meet us +at the 'Chaumiere' in one of the garden dining-rooms." + +"Bad; anybody could listen to us there without being seen," said la +Peyrade. "I prefer the 'Petit Rocher de Cancale'; we can go into a +private room and speak low." + +"But suppose you are seen with Cerizet?" + +"Well, then, let's go to the 'Cheval Rouge,' quai de la Tournelle." + +"That's best; seven o'clock; nobody will be there then." + +Dutocq advanced alone into the midst of that congress of beggars, and +he heard his own name repeated from mouth to mouth, for he could +hardly fail to encounter among them some jail-bird familiar with the +judge's office, just as Theodose was certain to have met a client. + +In these quarters the justice-of-peace is the supreme authority; all +legal contests stop short at his office, especially since the law was +passed giving to those judges sovereign power in all cases of +litigation involving not over one hundred and forty francs. A way was +made for the judge's clerk, who was not less feared than the judge +himself. He saw women seated on the staircase; a horrible display of +pallor and suffering of many kinds. Dutocq was almost asphyxiated when +he opened the door of the room in which already sixty persons had left +their odors. + +"Your number? your number?" cried several voices. + +"Hold your jaw!" cried a gruff voice from the street, "that's the pen +of the judge." + +Profound silence followed. Dutocq found his copying clerk clothed in a +jacket of yellow leather like that of the gloves of the gendarmerie, +beneath which he wore an ignoble waistcoat of knitted wool. The reader +must imagine the man's diseased head issuing from this species of +scabbard and covered with a miserable Madras handkerchief, which, +leaving to view the forehead and neck, gave to that head, by the gleam +of a tallow candle of twelve to the pound, its naturally hideous and +threatening character. + +"It can't be done that way, papa Lantimeche," Cerizet was saying to a +tall old man, seeming to be about seventy years of age, who was +standing before him with a red woollen cap in his hand, exhibiting a +bald head, and a breast covered with white hairs visible through his +miserable linen jacket. "Tell me exactly what you want to undertake. +One hundred francs, even on condition of getting back one hundred and +twenty, can't be let loose that way, like a dog in a church--" + +The five other applicants, among whom were two women, both with +infants, one knitting, the other suckling her child, burst out +laughing. + +When Cerizet saw Dutocq, he rose respectfully and went rather hastily +to meet him, adding to his client:-- + +"Take time to reflect; for, don't you see? it makes me doubtful to +have such a sum as that, one hundred francs! asked for by an old +journeyman locksmith!" + +"But I tell you it concerns an invention," cried the old workman. + +"An invention and one hundred francs!" said Dutocq. "You don't know +the laws; you must take out a patent, and that costs two thousand +francs, and you want influence." + +"All that is true," said Cerizet, who, however, reckoned a good deal +on such chances. "Come to-morrow morning, papa Lantimeche, at six +o'clock, and we'll talk it over; you can't talk inventions in public." + +Cerizet then turned to Dutocq whose first words were:-- + +"If the thing turns out well, half profits!" + +"Why did you get up at this time in the morning to come here and say +that to me?" demanded the distrustful Cerizet, already displeased with +the mention of "half profits." "You could have seen me as usual at the +office." + +And he looked askance at Dutocq; the latter, while telling him his +errand and speaking of Claparon and the necessity of pushing forward +in the Theodose affair, seemed confused. + +"All the same you could have seen me this morning at the office," +repeated Cerizet, conducting his visitor to the door. + +"There's a man," thought he, as he returned to his seat, "who seems to +me to have breathed on his lantern so that I may not see clear. Well, +well, I'll give up that place of copying clerk. Ha! your turn, little +mother!" he cried; "you invent children! That's amusing enough, though +the trick is well known." + +It is all the more useless to relate the conversation which took place +between the three confederates at the "Cheval Rouge," because the +arrangements there concluded were the basis of certain confidences +made, as we shall see, by Theodose to Mademoiselle Thuillier; but it +is necessary to remark that the cleverness displayed by la Peyrade +seemed almost alarming to Cerizet and Dutocq. After this conference, +the banker of the poor, finding himself in company with such powerful +players, had it in mind to make sure of his own stake at the first +chance. To win the game at any price over the heads of the ablest +gamblers, by cheating if necessary, is the inspiration of a special +sort of vanity peculiar to friends of the green cloth. Hence came the +terrible blow which la Peyrade was about to receive. + +He knew his two associates well; and therefore, in spite of the +perpetual activity of his intellectual forces, in spite of the +perpetual watchfulness his personality of ten faces required, nothing +fatigued him as much as the part he had to play with his two +accomplices. Dutocq was a great knave, and Cerizet had once been a +comic actor; they were both experts in humbug. A motionless face like +Talleyrand's would have made then break at once with the Provencal, +who was now in their clutches; it was necessary, therefore, that he +should make a show of ease and confidence and of playing above board-- +the very height of art in such affairs. To delude the pit is an every- +day triumph, but to deceive Mademoiselle Mars, Frederic Lemaitre, +Potier, Talma, Monrose, is the acme of art. + +This conference at the "Cheval Rouge" had therefore the result of +giving to la Peyrade, who was fully as sagacious as Cerizet, a secret +fear, which, during the latter period of this daring game, so fired +his blood and heated his brain that there came moments when he fell +into the morbid condition of the gambler, who follows with his eye the +roll of the ball on which he has staked his last penny. The senses +then have a lucidity in their action and the mind takes a range, which +human knowledge has no means of measuring. + + + +CHAPTER X + +HOW BRIGITTE WAS WON + +The day after this conference at the "Cheval Rouge," la Peyrade went +to dine with the Thuilliers, and on the commonplace pretext of a visit +to pay, Thuillier carried off his wife, leaving Theodose alone with +Brigitte. Neither Thuillier, nor his sister, nor Theodose, were the +dupes of this comedy; but the old beau of the Empire considered the +manoeuvre a piece of diplomacy. + +"Young man, do not take advantage of my sister's innocence; respect +it," said Thuillier solemnly, as he departed. + +"Mademoiselle," said Theodose, drawing his chair closer to the sofa +where Brigitte sat knitting, "have you thought of inducing the +business men of the arrondissement to support Thuillier's interests?" + +"How can I?" she asked. + +"Why! you are in close relations with Barbet and Metivier." + +"Ah! you are right! Faith! you are no blunderer!" she said after a +pause. + +"When we love our friends, we serve them," he replied, sententiously. + +To capture Brigitte would be like carrying the redoubt of the Moskowa, +the culminating strategic point. But it was necessary to possess that +old maid as the devil was supposed in the middle ages to possess men, +and in a way to make any awakening impossible for her. For the last +three days la Peyrade had been measuring himself for the task; he had +carefully reconnoitred the ground to see all difficulty. Flattery, +that almost infallible means in able hands, would certainly miscarry +with a woman who for years had known she had no beauty. But a man of +strong will finds nothing impregnable; the Lamarques could never have +failed to take Capri. Therefore, nothing must be omitted from the +memorable scene which was now to take place; all things about it had +their own importance,--inflections of the voice, pauses, glances, +lowered eyes. + +"But," rejoined Brigitte, "you have already proved to us your +affection." + +"Your brother has told you--?" + +"No, he merely told me that you had something to tell me." + +"Yes, mademoiselle, I have; for you are the man of the family. In +reflecting on this matter, I find many dangers for myself, such as a +man only risks for his nearest and dearest. It involves a fortune; +thirty to forty thousand francs a year, and not the slightest +speculation--a piece of landed property. The hope of helping Thuillier +to win such a fortune enticed me from the first. 'It fascinates me,' I +said to him--for, unless a man is an absolute fool, he can't help +asking himself: 'Why should he care to do us all this good?' So I told +him frankly that in working for his interests, I flattered myself I +was working for my own, as I'll explain to you later. If he wishes to +be deputy, two things are absolutely necessary: to comply with the law +as to property, and to win for his name some sort of public celebrity. +If I myself push my devotion to the point of helping him to write a +book on public financiering--or anything else, no matter what--which +would give him that celebrity, I ought also to think of the other +matter, his property--it would be absurd to expect you to give him +this house--" + +"For my brother? Why, I'd put it in his name to-morrow," cried +Brigitte. "You don't know me." + +"I don't know you thoroughly," said la Peyrade, "but I do know things +about you which now make me regret that I did not tell you the whole +affair from its origin; I mean from the moment when I conceived the +plan to which Thuillier will owe his nomination. He will be hunted +down by envy and jealousy, and the task of upholding him will be a +hard one; we must, however, get the better of his rivals and take the +wind out of their sails." + +"But this affair," said Brigitte, "what are the difficulties?" + +"Mademoiselle, the difficulties lie within my own conscience. +Assuredly, I could not serve you in this matter without first +consulting my confessor. From a worldly point of view--oh! the affair +is perfectly legal, and I am--you'll understand me?--a barrister +inscribed on the panel, that is, member of a bar controlled by the +strictest rules. I am therefore incapable of proposing an enterprise +which might give occasion for blame. In the first place, I myself +don't make a penny by it." + +Brigitte was on thorns; her face was flaming; she broke her wool, +mended it, broke it again, and did not know which way to look. + +"One can't get," she said, "in these days, forty thousand francs a +year from landed property unless it is worth one million eight hundred +thousand." + +"Well, I will undertake that you shall see a piece of property and +estimate yourself its probable revenue, which I can make Thuillier the +owner of for fifty thousand francs down." + +"Oh! if you can make us obtain that!" cried Brigitte, worked up to the +highest excitement by the spur of her natural cupidity. "Go on, my +dear Monsieur Theodose, and--" + +She stopped short. + +"Well, mademoiselle?" + +"You will, perhaps, have done yourself a service." + +"Ah! if Thuillier has told you my secret, I must leave this house." + +Brigitte looked up. + +"Did he tell you that I love Celeste?" + +"No, on my word of honor!" cried Brigitte, "but I myself was just +about to speak of her." + +"And offer her to me? Oh! may God forgive us! I can only win her of +herself, her parents, by a free choice--No, no, all I ask of you is +your good-will, your protection. Promise me, as Thuillier has, in +return for my services your influence, your friendship; tell me that +you will treat me as a son. If you will do that, I will abide by your +decision in this matter; I can trust it; I need not speak to my +confessor. For the last two years, ever since I have seen much of this +family, to whom I would fain give my powers and devote my utmost +energy--for, I shall succeed! surely I shall!--I have observed that +your integrity, your honor is that of the olden time, your judgment +righteous and inflexible. Also, you have a knowledge of business; and +these qualities combined are precious helps to a man. With a mother- +in-law, as I may say, of your powers, I should find my home life +relieved of a crowd of cares and details as to property, which hinder +a man's advance in a political career if he is forced to attend to +them. I admired you deeply on Sunday evening. Ah! you were fine! How +you did manage matters! In ten minutes that dining-room was cleared! +And, without going outside of your own apartment, you had everything +at hand for the refreshments, for the supper! 'There,' I said to +myself, as I watched you, 'is a true "maitresse-femme"--a masterly +woman!'" + +Brigitte's nostrils dilated; she breathed in the words of the young +lawyer. He gave her a side-long glance to enjoy his triumph; he had +touched the right chord in her breast. + +At this moment he was standing, but he now resumed his seat beside +her, and said:-- + +"Now here is our affair, dear aunt--for you will be a sort of aunt--" + +"Hush! you naughty fellow!" said Brigitte, "and go on." + +"I'll tell you the matter roughly--and remark, if you please, that I +compromise myself in telling it to you; for these secrets are +entrusted to me as a lawyer. Therefore understand that you and I are +both committing a crime, so to speak, of leze-confidence! A notary of +Paris was in partnership with an architect; they bought land and built +upon it; at the present moment, property has come down with a rush; +they find themselves embarrassed--but all that doesn't concern us. +Among the houses built by this illegal partnership--for notaries, you +know, are sworn to have nothing to do with enterprises--is a very good +one which, not being finished, must be sold at a great sacrifice; so +great that they now ask only one hundred thousand francs for it, +although the cost of the land and the building was at least four +hundred thousand. As the whole interior is still unfinished, the value +of what is still to do is easily appraised; it will probably not be +more than fifty thousand francs. Now, owing to its excellent position, +this house, when finished, will certainly bring in a rental, over and +above the taxes, of forty thousand francs a year. It is built of +freestone, the corners and copings of cut granite; the facade is +covered with handsome carvings, on which they spent more than twenty +thousand francs; the windows are plate glass with a new style of +fastening called 'cremona.'" + +"Well, where is the difficulty?" + +"Just here: the notary wants to reserve to himself this bit of the +cake he is forced to surrender; he is, under the name of a friend, the +creditor who requests the sale of the property by the assignee of the +bankruptcy. The case has not been brought into court; for legal +proceedings cost so much money. The sale is to be made by voluntary +agreement. Now, this notary has applied to one of my clients to lend +him his name for this purchase. My client, a poor devil, says to me: +'There's a fortune to made out of that house by fooling the notary.'" + +"And they do that sort of thing in business!" said Brigitte, quickly. + +"If that were the only difficulty," continued Theodose, "it would be, +as a friend of mine said to his pupil, who was complaining of the +length of time it took to produce masterpieces in painting: 'My dear +young fellow, if it were not so, our valets would be painting +pictures.' But, mademoiselle, if we now get the better of this notary, +who certainly deserves it, for he has compromised a number of private +fortunes, yet, as he is a very shrewd man (though a notary), it might +perhaps be very difficult to do it a second time, and here's the rub: +When a piece of landed property is bought at a forced sale, if those +who have lent money on that property see that is likely to be sold so +low as not to cover the sum loaned upon it, they have the right, until +the expiration of a certain time, to bid it in; that is, to offer more +and keep the property in their own hands. If this trickster can't be +hoodwinked as to the sale being a bona fide one until the time when +his right to buy it expires, some other scheme must be resorted to. +Now, is this business strictly legal? Am I justified in doing it for +the benefit of a family I seek to enter? That is the question I have +been revolving in my mind for the last three days." + +Brigitte, we must acknowledge, hesitated, and Theodose then brought +forward his last card:-- + +"Take the night to think of it," he said, "to-morrow we will talk it +over." + +"My young friend," said Brigitte, looking at the lawyer with an almost +loving air, "the first thing to be done is to see the house. Where is +it?" + +"Near the Madeleine. That will be the heart of Paris in ten years. All +that property has been desirable since 1819; the banker Du Tillet's +fortune was derived from property about there. The famous failure of +Maitre Roquin, which carried terror to all Paris, and did such harm to +the confidence given to the notariat, was also caused by it; they went +into heavy speculations on that land too soon; they should have waited +until now." + +"I remember about that," said Brigitte. + +"The house might be finished by the end of the year," continued +Theodose, "and the rentals could begin next spring." + +"Could we go there to-morrow?" + +"Dear aunt, I am at your orders." + +"Ah ca!" she cried, "don't call me that before people. As to this +affair," she continued, "I can't have any opinion until I have seen +the house." + +"It has six storeys; nine windows on the front; a fine courtyard, four +shops, and it stands on a corner. Ah! that notary knows what he is +about in wishing to hold on to such pieces of property! But let +political events interfere, and down go the Funds! If I were you, I +should sell out all that you and Madame Thuillier have on the Grand +Livre and buy this fine piece of real estate for Thuillier, and I'd +recover the fortune of that poor, pious creature by savings from its +proceeds. Can the Funds go higher than they are to-day? One hundred +and twenty-two! it is fabulous; I should make haste to sell." + +Brigitte licked her lips; she perceived the means of keeping her own +property intact, and of enriching her brother by this use of Madame +Thuillier's fortune. + +"My brother is right," she said to Theodose; "you certainly are a rare +man; you'll get on in the world." + +"And he'll walk before me," responded Theodose with a naivete that +touched the old maid. + +"You will live in the family," she said. + +"There may be obstacles to that," he remarked. "Madame Thuillier is +very queer at times; she doesn't like me." + +"Ha! I'll settle that," cried Brigitte. "Do you attend to that affair +and carry it through if it is feasible, and leave your interests in my +hands." + +"Thuillier, member of the municipal council, owner of an estate with a +rental of forty thousand francs a year, with the cross of the Legion +of honor and the author of a political work, grave, serious, +important, will be deputy at the forthcoming general election. But, +between ourselves, little aunt, one couldn't devote one's self so +utterly except for a father-in-law." + +"You are right." + +"Though I have no fortune I shall have doubled yours; and if this +affair goes through discreetly, others will turn up." + +"Until I have seen the house," said Mademoiselle Thuillier again, "I +can decide on nothing." + +"Well then, send for a carriage to-morrow and let us go there. I will +get a ticket early in the morning to view the premises." + +"To-morrow, then, about mid-day," responded Brigitte, holding out her +hand to Theodose that he might shake it, but instead of that he laid +upon it the most respectful and the most tender kiss that Brigitte had +ever in her life received. + +"Adieu, my child," she said, as he reached the door. + +She rang the bell hurriedly and when the servant came:-- + +"Josephine," she cried, "go at once to Madame Colleville, and ask her +to come over and speak to me." + +Fifteen minutes later Flavie entered the salon, where Brigitte was +walking up and down, in a state of extreme agitation. + +"My dear," she cried on seeing Flavie, "you can do me a great service, +which concerns our dear Celeste. You know Tullia, don't you?--a +danseuse at the opera; my brother was always dinning her into my ears +at one time." + +"Yes, I know her; but she is no longer a danseuse; she is Madame la +Comtesse du Bruel. Her husband is peer of France!" + +"Does she still like you?" + +"We never see each other now." + +"Well, I know that Chaffaroux, the rich contractor, is her uncle," +said Brigitte. "He is old and wealthy. Go and see your former friend, +and get her to give you a line of introduction to him, saying he would +do her an eminent favor if he would give a piece of friendly advice to +the bearer of the note, and then you and I will take it to him +to-morrow about one o'clock. But tell Tullia she must request her +uncle to keep secret about it. Go, my dear. Celeste, our dear child, +will be a millionaire! I can't say more; but she'll have, from me, a +husband who will put her on a pinnacle." + +"Do you want me to tell you the first letters of his name?" + +"Yes." + +"T. P.,--Theodose de la Peyrade. You are right. That's a man who may, +if supported by a woman like you, become a minister." + +"It is God himself who has placed him in our house!" cried the old +maid. + +At this moment Monsieur and Madame Thuillier returned home. + +Five days later, in the month of April, the ordinance which convoked +the electors to appoint a member of the municipal council on the 20th +of the same month was inserted in the "Moniteur," and placarded about +Paris. For several weeks the ministry, called that of March 1st, had +been in power. Brigitte was in a charming humor. She had been +convinced of the truth of all la Peyrade's assertions. The house, +visited from garret to cellar by old Chaffaroux, was admitted by him +to be an admirable construction; poor Grindot, the architect, who was +interested with the notary and Claparon in the affair, thought the old +man was employed in the interests of the contractor; the old fellow +himself thought he was acting in the interests of his niece, and he +gave it as his opinion that thirty thousand francs would finish the +house. Thus, in the course of one week la Peyrade became Brigitte's +god; and she proved to him by the most naively nefarious arguments +that fortune should be seized when it offered itself. + +"Well, if there IS any sin in the business," she said to him in the +middle of the garden, "you can confess it." + +"The devil!" cried Thuillier, "a man owes himself to his relatives, +and you are one of us now." + +"Then I decide to do it," replied la Peyrade, in a voice of emotion; +"but on conditions that I must now distinctly state. I will not, in +marrying Celeste, be accused of greed and mercenary motives. If you +lay remorse upon me, at least you must consent that I shall remain as +I am for the present. Do not settle upon Celeste, my old Thuillier, +the future possession of the property I am about to obtain for you--" + +"You are right." + +"Don't rob yourself; and let my dear little aunt here act in the same +way in relation to the marriage contract. Put the remainder of the +capital in Madame Thuillier's name, on the Grand Livre, and she can do +what she likes with it. We shall all live together as one family, and +I'll undertake to make my own fortune, now that I am free from anxiety +about the future." + +"That suits me," said Thuillier; "that's the talk of an honest man." + +"Let me kiss you on the forehead, my son," said the old maid; "but, +inasmuch as Celeste cannot be allowed to go without a 'dot,' we shall +give her sixty thousand francs." + +"For her dress," said la Peyrade. + +"We are all three persons of honor," cried Thuillier. "It is now +settled, isn't it? You are to manage the purchase of the house; we are +to write together, you and I, my political work; and you'll bestir +yourself to get me the decoration?" + +"You will have that as soon as you are made a municipal councillor on +the 1st of May. Only, my good friend, I must beg you, and you, too, +dear aunt, to keep the most profound secrecy about me in this affair; +and do not listen to the calumnies which all the men I am about to +trick will spread about me. I shall become, you'll see, a vagabond, a +swindler, a dangerous man, a Jesuit, an ambitious fortune-hunter. Can +you hear those accusations against me with composure?" + +"Fear nothing," replied Brigitte. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE REIGN OF THEODOSE + +From that day forth Thuillier became a dear, good friend. "My dear, +good friend," was the name given to him by Theodose, with voice +inflections of varieties of tenderness which astonished Flavie. But +"little aunt," a name that flattered Brigitte deeply, was only given +in family secrecy, and occasionally before Flavie. The activity of +Theodose and Dutocq, Cerizet, Barbet, Metivier, Minard, Phellion, +Colleville, and others of the Thuillier circle was extreme. Great and +small, they all put their hands to the work. Cadenet procured thirty +votes in his section. On the 30th of April Thuillier was proclaimed +member of the Council-general of the department of the Seine by an +imposing majority; in fact, he only needed sixty more votes to make +his election unanimous. May 1st Thuillier joined the municipal body +and went to the Tuileries to congratulate the King on his fete-day, +and returned home radiant. He had gone where Minard went! + +Ten days later a yellow poster announced the sale of the house, after +due publication; the price named being seventy-five thousand francs; +the final purchase to take place about the last of July. On this point +Cerizet and Claparon had an agreement by which Cerizet pledged the sum +of fifteen thousand francs (in words only, be it understood) to +Claparon in case the latter could deceive the notary and keep him +quiet until the time expired during which he might withdraw the +property by bidding it in. Mademoiselle Thuillier, notified by +Theodose, agreed entirely to this secret clause, understanding +perfectly the necessity of paying the culprits guilty of the +treachery. The money was to pass through la Peyrade's hands. Claparon +met his accomplice, the notary, on the Place de l'Observatoire by +midnight. This young man, the successor of Leopold Hannequin, was one +of those who run after fortune instead of following it leisurely. He +now saw another future before him, and he managed his present affairs +in order to be free to take hold of it. In this midnight interview, he +offered Claparon ten thousand francs to secure himself in this dirty +business,--a sum which was only to be paid on receipt, through +Claparon, of a counter-deed from the nominal purchaser of the +property. The notary was aware that that sum was all-important to +Claparon to extricate him from present difficulties, and he felt +secure of him. + +"Who but you, in all Paris, would give me such a fee for such an +affair?" Claparon said to him, with a false show of naivete. "You can +sleep in peace; my ostensible purchaser is one of those men of honor +who are too stupid to have ideas of your kind; he is a retired +government employee; give him the money to make the purchase and he'll +sign the counter-deed at once." + +When the notary had made Claparon clearly understand that he could not +get more than the ten thousand francs from him, Cerizet offered the +latter twelve thousand down, and asked Theodose for fifteen thousand, +intending to keep the balance for himself. All these scenes between +the four men were seasoned with the finest speeches about feelings, +integrity, and the honor that men owed to one another in doing +business. While these submarine performances were going on, apparently +in the interests of Thuillier, to whom Theodose related them with the +deepest manifestations of disgust at being implicated therein, the +pair were meditating the great political work which "my dear good +friend" was to publish. Thus the new municipal councillor naturally +acquired a conviction that he could never do or be anything without +the help of this man of genius; whose mind so amazed him, and whose +ability was now so important to him, that every day he became more and +more convinced of the necessity of marrying him to Celeste, and of +taking the young couple to live with him. In fact, after May the 1st, +Theodose had already dined four times a week with "my dear, good +friend." + +This was the period when Theodose reigned without a dissenting voice +in the bosom of that household, and all the friends of the family +approved of him--for the following reason: The Phellions, hearing his +praises sung by Brigitte and Thuillier, feared to displease the two +powers and chorussed their words, even when such perpetual laudation +seemed to them exaggerated. The same may be said of the Minards. +Moreover la Peyrade's behavior, as "friend of the family" was perfect. +He disarmed distrust by the manner in which he effaced himself; he was +there like a new piece of furniture; and he contrived to make both the +Phellions and Minards believe that Brigitte and Thuillier had weighed +him, and found him too light in the scales to be anything more in the +family than a young man whose services were useful to them. + +"He may think," said Thuillier one day to Minard, "that my sister will +put him in her will; he doesn't know her." + +This speech, inspired by Theodose himself, calmed the uneasiness of +Minard "pere." + +"He is devoted to us," said Brigitte to Madame Phellion; "but he +certainly owes us a great deal of gratitude. We have given him his +lodging rent-free, and he dines with us almost every day." + +This speech of the old maid, also instigated by Theodose, went from +ear to ear among the families who frequented the Thuillier salon, and +dissipated all fears. The young man called attention to the remarks of +Thuillier and his sister with the servility of a parasite; when he +played whist he justified the blunders of his dear, good friend, and +he kept upon his countenance a smile, fixed and benign, like that of +Madame Thuillier, ready to bestow upon all the bourgeois sillinesses +of the brother and sister. + +He obtained, what he wanted above all, the contempt of his true +antagonists; and he used it as a cloak to hide his real power. For +four consecutive months his face wore a torpid expression, like that +of a snake as it gulps and digests its prey. But at times he would +rush into the garden with Colleville or Flavie, to laugh and lay off +his mask, and rest himself; or get fresh strength by giving way before +his future mother-in-law to fits of nervous passion which either +terrified or deeply touched her. + +"Don't you pity me?" he cried to her the evening before the +preparatory sale of the house, when Thuillier was to make the purchase +at seventy-five thousand francs. "Think of a man like me, forced to +creep like a cat, to choke down every pointed word, to swallow my own +gall, and submit to your rebuffs!" + +"My friend! my child!" Flavie replied, undecided in mind how to take +him. + +These words are a thermometer which will show the temperature at which +this clever manipulator maintained his intrigue with Flavie. He kept +her floating between her heart and her moral sense, between religious +sentiments and this mysterious passion. + +During this time Felix Phellion was giving, with a devotion and +constancy worthy of all praise, regular lessons to young Colleville. +He spent much of his time upon these lessons, feeling that he was thus +working for his future family. To acknowledge this service, he was +invited, by advice of Theodose to Flavie, to dine at the Collevilles' +every Thursday, where la Peyrade always met him. Flavie was usually +making either a purse or slippers or a cigar-case for the happy young +man, who would say, deprecatingly:-- + +"I am only too well rewarded, madame, by the happiness I feel in being +useful to you." + +"We are not rich, monsieur," replied Colleville, "but, God bless me! +we are not ungrateful." + +Old Phellion would rub his hands as he listened to his son's account +of these evenings, beholding his dear and noble Felix already wedded +to Celeste. + +But Celeste, the more she loved Felix, the more grave and serious she +became with him; partly because her mother sharply lectured her, +saying to her one evening:-- + +"Don't give any hope whatever to that young Phellion. Neither your +father nor I can arrange your marriage. You have expectations to be +consulted. It is much less important to please a professor without a +penny than to make sure of the affection and good-will of Mademoiselle +Brigitte and your godfather. If you don't want to kill your mother-- +yes, my dear, kill her--you must obey me in this affair blindly; and +remember that what we want to secure, above all, is your good." + +As the date of the final sale was set for the last of July, Theodose +advised Brigitte by the end of June to arrange her affairs in time to +be ready for the payment. Accordingly, she now sold out her own and +her sister-in-law's property in the Funds. The catastrophe of the +treaty of the four powers, an insult to France, is now an established +historical fact; but it is necessary to remind the reader that from +July to the last of August the French funds, alarmed by the prospect +of war, a fear which Monsieur Thiers did much to promote, fell twenty +francs, and the Three-per-cents went down to sixty. That was not all: +this financial fiasco had a most unfortunate influence on the value of +real estate in Paris; and all those who had such property then for +sale suffered loss. These events made Theodose a prophet in the eyes +of Brigitte and Thuillier, to whom the house was now about to be +definitely sold for seventy-five thousand francs. The notary, involved +in the political disaster, and whose practice was already sold, +concealed himself for a time in the country; but he took with him the +ten thousand francs for Claparon. Advised by Theodose, Thuillier made +a contract with Grindot, who supposed he was really working for the +notary in finishing the house; and as, during this period of financial +depression, suspended work left many workmen with their arms folded, +the architect was able to finish off the building in a splendid manner +at a low cost. Theodose insisted that the agreement should be in +writing. + +This purchase increased Thuillier's importance ten-fold. As for the +notary, he had temporarily lost his head in presence of political +events which came upon him like a waterspout out of cloudless skies. +Theodose, certain now of his supremacy, holding Thuillier fast by his +past services and by the literary work in which they were both +engaged, admired by Brigitte for his modesty and discretion,--for +never had he made the slightest allusion to his own poverty or uttered +one word about money,--Theodose began to assume an air that was rather +less servile than it had been. Brigitte and Thuillier said to him one +day:-- + +"Nothing can deprive you of our esteem; you are here in this house as +if in your own home; the opinion of Minard and Phellion, which you +seem to fear, has no more value for us than a stanza of Victor Hugo. +Therefore, let them talk! Carry your head high!" + +"But we shall still need them for Thuillier's election to the +Chamber," said Theodose. "Follow my advice; you have found it good so +far, haven't you? When the house is actually yours, you will have got +it for almost nothing; for you can now buy into the Three-per-cents at +sixty in Madame Thuillier's name, and thus replace nearly the whole of +her fortune. Wait only for the expiration of the time allowed to the +nominal creditor to buy it in, and have the fifteen thousand francs +ready for our scoundrels." + +Brigitte did not wait; she took her whole capital with the exception +of a sum of one hundred and twenty thousand francs, and bought into +the Three-per-cents in Madame Thuillier's name to the amount of twelve +thousand francs a year, and in her own for ten thousand a year, +resolving in her own mind to choose no other kind of investment in +future. She saw her brother secure of forty thousand francs a year +besides his pension, twelve thousand a year for Madame Thuillier and +eighteen thousand a year for herself, besides the house they lived in, +the rental of which she valued at eight thousand. + +"We are worth quite as much as the Minards," she remarked. + +"Don't chant victory before you win it," said Theodose. "The right of +redemption doesn't expire for another week. I have attended to your +affairs, but mine have gone terribly to pieces." + +"My dear child, you have friends," cried Brigitte; "if you should +happen to want five hundred francs or so, you will always find them +here." + +Theodose exchanged a smile with Thuillier, who hastened to carry him +off, saying:-- + +"Excuse my poor sister; she sees the world through a small hole. But +if you should want twenty-five thousand francs I'll lend them to you-- +out of my first rents," he added. + +"Thuillier," exclaimed Theodose, "the rope is round my neck. Ever +since I have been a barrister I have had notes of hand running. But +say nothing about it," added Theodose, frightened himself at having +let out the secret of his situation. "I'm in the claws of scoundrels, +but I hope to crush them yet." + +In telling this secret Theodose, though alarmed as he did so, had a +two-fold purpose: first, to test Thuillier; and next, to avert the +consequences of a fatal blow which might be dealt to him any day in a +secret and sinister struggle he had long foreseen. Two words will +explain his horrible position. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +DEVILS AGAINST DEVILS + +During the extreme poverty of la Peyrade's first years in Paris, none +but Cerizet had ever gone to see him in the wretched garret where, in +severely cold weather, he stayed in bed for want of clothes. Only one +shirt remained to him. For three days he lived on one loaf of bread, +cutting it into measured morsels, and asking himself, "What am I to +do?" At this moment it was that his former partner came to him, having +just left prison, pardoned. The projects which the two men then formed +before a fire of laths, one wrapped in his landlady's counterpane, the +other in his infamy, it is useless to relate. The next day Cerizet, +who had talked with Dutocq in the course of the morning, returned, +bringing trousers, waistcoat, coat, hat, and boots, bought in the +Temple, and he carried off Theodose to dine with himself and Dutocq. +The hungry Provencal ate at Pinson's, rue de l'Ancienne Comedie, half +of a dinner costing forty-seven francs. At dessert, after Theodose had +drunk freely, Cerizet said to him:-- + +"Will you sign me bills of exchange for fifty thousand francs in your +capacity as a barrister?" + +"You couldn't get five thousand on them." + +"That's not your affair, but ours; I mean monsieur's here, who is +giving us this dinner, and mine, in a matter where you risk nothing, +but in which you'll get your title as barrister, a fine practice, and +the hand in marriage of a girl about the age of an old dog, and rich +by twenty or thirty thousand francs a year. Neither Dutocq nor I can +marry her; but we'll equip you, give you the look of a decent man, +feed and lodge you, and set you up generally. Consequently, we want +security. I don't say that on my own account, for I know you, but for +monsieur here, whose proxy I am. We'll equip you as a pirate, hey! to +do the white-slave trade! If we can't capture that 'dot,' we'll try +other plans. Between ourselves, none of us need be particular what we +touch--that's plain enough. We'll give you careful instructions; for +the matter is certain to take time, and there'll probably be some +bother about it. Here, see, I have brought stamped paper." + +"Waiter, pens and ink!" cried Theodose. + +"Ha! I like fellows of that kind!" exclaimed Dutocq. + +"Sign: 'Theodose de la Peyrade,' and after your name put 'Barrister, +rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer,' under the words 'Accepted for ten +thousand.' We'll date the notes and sue you,--all secretly, of course, +but in order to have a hold upon you; the owners of a privateer ought +to have security when the brig and the captain are at sea." + +The day after this interview the bailiff of the justice-of-peace did +Cerizet the service of suing la Peyrade secretly. He went to see the +barrister that evening, and the whole affair was done without any +publicity. The Court of commerce has a hundred such cases in the +course of one term. The strict regulations of the council of +barristers of the bar of Paris are well known. This body, and also the +council of attorneys, exercise severe discipline over their members. A +barrister liable to go to Clichy would be disbarred. Consequently, +Cerizet, under Dutocq's advice, had taken against their puppet +measures which were certain to secure to each of them twenty-five +thousand francs out of Celeste's "dot." In signing the notes, Theodose +saw but one thing,--his means of living secured; but as time had gone +on, and the horizon grew clearer, and he mounted, step by step, to a +better position on the social ladder, he began to dream of getting rid +of his associates. And now, on obtaining twenty-five thousand francs +from Thuillier, he hoped to treat on the basis of fifty per cent for +the return of his fatal notes by Cerizet. + +Unfortunately, this sort of infamous speculation is not an exceptional +fact; it takes place in Paris under various forms too little disguised +for the historian of manners and morals to pass them over unnoticed in +a complete and accurate picture of society in the nineteenth century. +Dutocq, an arrant scoundrel, still owed fifteen thousand francs on his +practice, and lived in hopes of something turning up to keep his head, +as the saying is, above water until the close of 1840. Up to the +present time none of the three confederates had flinched or groaned. +Each felt his strength and knew his danger. Equals they were in +distrust, in watchfulness; equals, too, in apparent confidence; and +equally stolid in silence and look when mutual suspicions rose to the +surface of face or speech. For the last two months the position of +Theodose was acquiring the strength of a detached fort. But Cerizet +and Dutocq held it undermined by a mass of powder, with the match ever +lighted; but the wind might extinguish the match or the devil might +flood the mine. + +The moment when wild beasts seize their food is always the most +critical, and that moment had now arrived for these three hungry +tigers. Cerizet would sometimes say to Theodose, with that +revolutionary glance which twice in this century sovereigns have had +to meet:-- + +"I have made you king, and here am I still nothing! for it is nothing +not to be all." + +A reaction of envy was rushing its avalanche through Cerizet. Dutocq +was at the mercy of his copying clerk. Theodose would gladly have +burned his copartners could he have burned their papers in the same +conflagration. All three studied each other too carefully, in order to +conceal their own thoughts, not to be in turn divined. Theodose lived +a life of three hells as he thought of what lay below the cards, then +of his own game, and then of his future. His speech to Thuillier was a +cry of despair; he threw his lead into the waters of the old bourgeois +and found there nothing more than twenty-five thousand francs. + +"And," he said to himself as he went to his own room, "possibly +nothing at all a month hence." + +He new felt the deepest hatred to the Thuilliers. But Thuillier +himself he held by a harpoon stuck into the depths of the man's +vanity; namely, by the projected work, entitled "Taxation and the +Sinking Fund," for which he intended to rearrange the ideas of the +Saint-Simonian "Globe," giving them a systematic form, and coloring +them with his fervid Southern diction. Thuillier's bureaucratic +knowledge of the subject would be of use to him here. Theodose +therefore clung to this rope, resolving to do battle, on so poor a +base of operations, with the vanity of a fool, which, according to +individual character, is either granite or sand. On reflection, +Theodose was inclined to be content with the prospect. + +On the evening before the right of redemption expired, Claparon and +Cerizet proceeded to manipulate the notary in the following manner. +Cerizet, to whom Claparon had revealed the password and the notary's +retreat, went out to this hiding-place to say to the latter:-- + +"One of my friends, Claparon, whom you know, has asked me to come and +see you; he will expect you to-morrow, in the evening, you know where. +He has the paper you expect from him, which he will exchange with you +for the ten thousand agreed upon; but I must be present, for five +thousand of that sum belong to me; and I warn you, my dear monsieur, +that the name in the counter-deed is in blank." + +"I shall be there," replied the ex-notary. + +The poor devil waited the whole night in agonies of mind that can well +be imagined, for safety or inevitable ruin were in the balance. At +sunrise he saw approaching him, instead of Claparon, a bailiff of the +Court of commerce, who produced a judgment against him in regular +form, and informed him that he must go with him to Clichy. + +Cerizet had made an arrangement with one of the creditors of the +luckless notary, pledging himself to deliver up the debtor on payment +to himself of half the debt. Out of the ten thousand francs promised +to Claparon, the victim of this trap was obliged, in order to obtain +his liberty, to pay six thousand down, the amount of his debt. + +On receiving his share of this extortion Cerizet said to himself: +"There's three thousand to make Cerizet clear out." + +Cerizet then returned to the notary and said: "Claparon is a +scoundrel, monsieur; he has received fifteen thousand francs from the +proposed purchaser of your house, who will now, of course, become the +owner. Threaten to reveal his hiding-place to his creditors, and to +have him sued for fraudulent bankruptcy, and he'll give you half." + +In his wrath the notary wrote a fulminating letter to Claparon. +Claparon, alarmed, feared an arrest, and Cerizet offered to get him a +passport. + +"You have played me many a trick, Claparon," he said, "but listen to +me now, and you can judge of my kindness. I possess, as my whole +means, three thousand francs; I'll give them to you; start for +America, and make your fortune there, as I'm trying to make mine +here." + +That evening Claparon, carefully disguised by Cerizet, left for Havre +by the diligence. Cerizet remained master of the fifteen thousand +francs to be paid to Claparon, and he awaited Theodose with the +payment thereof tranquilly. + +"The limit for bidding-in is passed," thought Theodose, as he went to +find Dutocq and ask him to bring Cerizet to his office. "Suppose I +were now to make an effort to get rid of my leech?" + +"You can't settle this affair anywhere but at Cerizet's, because +Claparon must be present, and he is hiding there," said Dutocq. + +Accordingly, Theodose went, between seven and eight o'clock, to the +den of the "banker of the poor," whom Dutocq had notified of his +coming. Cerizet received him in the horrible kitchen where miseries +and sorrows were chopped and cooked, as we have seen already. The pair +then walked up and down, precisely like two animals in a cage, while +mutually playing the following scene:-- + +"Have you brought the fifteen thousand francs?" + +"No, but I have them at home." + +"Why not have them in your pocket?" asked Cerizet, sharply. + +"I'll tell you," replied Theodose, who, as he walked from the rue +Saint-Dominique to the Estrapade, had decided on his course of action. + +The Provencal, writhing upon the gridiron on which his partners held +him, became suddenly possessed with a good idea, which flashed from +the body of the live coal under him. Peril has gleams of light. He +resolved to rely on the power of frankness, which affects all men, +even swindlers. Every one is grateful to an adversary who bares +himself to the waist in a duel. + +"Well!" said Cerizet, "now the humbug begins." + +The words seemed to come wholly through the hole in his nose with +horrible intonations. + +"You have put me in a magnificent position, and I shall never forget +the service you have done me, my friend," began Theodose, with +emotion. + +"Oh, that's how you take it, is it?" said Cerizet. + +"Listen to me; you don't understand my intentions." + +"Yes, I do!" replied the lender by "the little week." + +"No, you don't." + +"You intend not to give up those fifteen thousand francs." + +Theodose shrugged his shoulders and looked fixedly at Cerizet, who, +struck by the two motions, kept silence. + +"Would you live in my position, knowing yourself within range of a +cannon loaded with grape-shot, without feeling a strong desire to get +out of it? Now listen to me carefully. You are doing a dangerous +business, and you would be glad enough to have some solid protection +in the very heart of the magistracy of Paris. If I can continue my +present course, I shall be substitute attorney-general, possibly +attorney-general, in three years. I offer you to-day the offices of a +devoted friendship, which will serve you hereafter most assuredly, if +only to replace you in a honorable position. Here are my conditions--" + +"Conditions!" exclaimed Cerizet. + +"In ten minutes I will bring you twenty-five thousand francs if you +return to me all the notes which you have against me." + +"But Dutocq? and Claparon?" said Cerizet. + +"Leave them in the lurch!" replied Theodose, with his lips at +Cerizet's ear. + +"That's a pretty thing to say!" cried Cerizet. "And so you have +invented this little game of hocus-pocus because you hold in your +fingers fifteen thousand francs that don't belong to you!" + +"But I've added ten thousand francs to them. Besides, you and I know +each other." + +"If you are able to get ten thousand francs out of your bourgeois you +can surely get fifteen," said Cerizet. "For thirty thousand I'm your +man. Frankness for frankness, you know." + +"You ask the impossible," replied Theodose. "At this very moment, if +you had to do with Claparon instead of with me, your fifteen thousand +would be lost, for Thuillier is to-day the owner of that house." + +"I'll speak to Claparon," said Cerizet, pretending to go and consult +him, and mounting the stairs to the bedroom, from which Claparon had +only just departed on his road to Havre. + +The two adversaries had been speaking, we should here remark, in a +manner not to be overheard; and every time that Theodose raised his +voice Cerizet would make a gesture, intimating that Claparon, from +above, might be listening. The five minutes during which Theodose +heard what seemed to be the murmuring of two voices were torture to +him, for he had staked his very life upon the issue. Cerizet at last +came down, with a smile upon his lips, his eyes sparkling with +infernal mischief, his whole frame quivering in his joy, a Lucifer of +gaiety! + +"I know nothing, so it seems!" he cried, shaking his shoulders, "but +Claparon knows a great deal; he has worked with the big-wig bankers, +and when I told what you wanted he began to laugh, and said, 'I +thought as much!' You will have to bring me the twenty-five thousand +you offer me to-morrow morning, my lad; and as much more before you +can recover your notes." + +"Why?" asked Theodose, feeling his spinal column liquidizing as if the +discharge of some inward electric fluid had melted it. + +"The house is ours." + +"How?" + +"Claparon has bit it in under the name of one of his creditors, a +little toad named Sauvaignou. Desroches, the lawyer, has taken the +case, and you'll get a notice to-morrow. This affair will oblige +Claparon, Dutocq, and me to raise funds. What would become of me +without Claparon! So I forgive him--yes, I forgave him, and though you +may not believe it, my dear friend, I actually kissed him! Change your +terms." + +The last three words were horrible to hear, especially when +illustrated by the face of the speaker, who amused himself by playing +a scene from the "Legataire," all the while studying attentively the +Provencal's character. + +"Oh, Cerizet!" cried Theodose; "I, who wished to do you so much good!" + +"Don't you see, my dear fellow," returned Cerizet, "that between you +and me there ought to be THIS,--" and he struck his heart,--"of which +you have none. As soon as you thought you had a lever on us, you have +tried to knock us over. I saved you from the horrors of starvation and +vermin! You'll die like the idiot you are. We put you on the high-road +to fortune; we gave you a fine social skin and a position in which you +could grasp the future--and look what you do! NOW I know you! and from +this time forth, we shall go armed." + +"Then it is war between us!" exclaimed Theodose. + +"You fired first," returned Cerizet. + +"If you pull me down, farewell to your hopes and plans; if you don't +pull me down, you have in me an enemy." + +"That's just what I said yesterday to Dutocq; but, how can we help it? +We are forced to choose between two alternatives--we must go according +to circumstances. I'm a good-natured fellow myself," he added, after a +pause; "bring me your twenty-five thousand francs to-morrow morning +and Thuillier shall keep the house. We'll continue to help you at both +ends, but you'll have to pay up, my boy. After what has just happened +that's pretty kind, isn't it?" + +And Cerizet patted Theodose on the shoulder, with a cynicism that +seemed to brand him more than the iron of the galleys. + +"Well, give me till to-morrow at mid-day," replied the Provencal, "for +there'll be, as you said, some manipulation to do." + +"I'll try to keep Claparon quiet; he's in such a hurry, that man!" + +"To-morrow then," said Theodose, in the tone of a man who decides his +course. + +"Good-night, friend," said Cerizet, in his nasal tone, which degraded +the finest word in the language. "There's one who has got a mouthful +to suck!" thought Cerizet, as he watched Theodose going down the +street with the step of a dazed man. + +When la Peyrade reached the rue des Postes he went with rapid strides +to Madame Colleville's house, exciting himself as he walked along, and +talking aloud. The fire of his roused passions and the sort of inward +conflagration of which many Parisians are conscious (for such +situations abound in Paris) brought him finally to a pitch of frenzy +and eloquence which found expression, as he turned into the rue des +Deux-Eglises, in the words:-- + +"I will kill him!" + +"There's a fellow who is not content!" said a passing workman, and the +jesting words calmed the incandescent madness to which Theodose was a +prey. + +As he left Cerizet's the idea came to him to go to Flavie and tell her +all. Southern natures are born thus--strong until certain passions +arise, and then collapsed. He entered Flavie's room; she was alone, +and when she saw Theodose she fancied her last hour had come. + +"What is the matter?" she cried. + +"I--I--" he said. "Do you love me, Flavie?" + +"Oh! how can you doubt it?" + +"Do you love me absolutely?--if I were criminal, even?" + +"Has he murdered some one?" she thought, replying to his question by a +nod. + +Theodose, thankful to seize even this branch of willow, drew a chair +beside Flavie's sofa, and there gave way to sobs that might have +touched the oldest judge, while torrents of tears began to flow from +his eyes. + +Flavie rose and left the room to say to her maid: "I am not at home to +any one." Then she closed all doors and returned to Theodose, moved to +the utmost pitch of maternal solicitude. She found him stretched out, +his head thrown back, and weeping. He had taken out his handkerchief, +and when Flavie tried to move it from his face it was heavy with +tears. + +"But what is the matter?" she asked; "what ails you?" + +Nature, more impressive than art, served Theodose well; no longer was +he playing a part; he was himself; this nervous crisis and these tears +were the winding up of his preceding scenes of acted comedy. + +"You are a child," she said, in a gentle voice, stroking his hair +softly. + +"I have but you, you only, in all the world!" he replied, kissing her +hands with a sort of passion; "and if you are true to me, if you are +mine, as the body belongs to the soul and the soul to the body, +then--" he added, recovering himself with infinite grace, "THEN I can +have courage." + +He rose, and walked about the room. + +"Yes, I will struggle; I will recover my strength, like Antaeus, from +a fall; I will strangle with my own hands the serpents that entwine +me, that kiss with serpent kisses, that slaver my cheeks, that suck my +blood, my honor! Oh, misery! oh, poverty! Oh, how great are they who +can stand erect and carry high their heads! I had better have let +myself die of hunger, there, on my wretched pallet, three and a half +years ago! A coffin is a softer bed to lie in than the life I lead! It +is eighteen months that I have FED ON BOURGEOIS! and now, at the +moment of attaining an honest, fortunate life, a magnificent future, +at the moment when I was about to sit down to the social banquet, the +executioner strikes me on the shoulder! Yes, the monster! he struck me +there, on my shoulder, and said to me: 'Pay thy dues to the devil, or +die!' And shall I not crush them? Shall I not force my arm down their +throats to their very entrails? Yes, yes, I will, I will! See, Flavie, +my eyes are dry now. Ha, ha! now I laugh; I feel my strength come back +to me; power is mine! Oh! say that you love me; say it again! At this +moment it sounds like the word 'Pardon' to the man condemned to +death!" + +"You are terrible, my friend!" cried Flavie. "Oh! you are killing me." + +She understood nothing of all this, but she fell upon the sofa, +exhausted by the spectacle. Theodose flung himself at her feet. + +"Forgive me! forgive me!" he said. + +"But what is the matter? what is it?" she asked again. + +"They are trying to destroy me. Oh! promise to give me Celeste, and +you shall see what a glorious life I will make you share. If you +hesitate--very good; that is saying you will be wholly mine, and I +will have you!" + +He made so rapid a movement that Flavie, terrified, rose and moved +away. + +"Oh! my saint!" he cried, "at thy feet I fall--a miracle! God is for +me, surely! A flash of light has come to me--an idea--suddenly! Oh, +thanks, my good angel, my grand Saint-Theodose! thou hast saved me!" + +Flavie could not help admiring that chameleon being; one knee on the +floor, his hands crossed on his breast, and his eyes raised to heaven +in religious ecstasy, he recited a prayer; he was a fervent Catholic; +he reverently crossed himself. It was fine; like the vision of Saint- +Jerome. + +"Adieu!" he said, with a melancholy look and a moving tone of voice. + +"Oh!" cried Flavie, "leave me this handkerchief." + +Theodose rushed away like one possessed, sprang into the street, and +darted towards the Thuilliers', but turned, saw Flavie at her window, +and made her a little sign of triumph. + +"What a man!" she thought to herself. + +"Dear, good friend," he said to Thuillier, in a calm and gentle, +almost caressing voice, "we have fallen into the hands of atrocious +scoundrels. But I mean to read them a lesson." + +"What has happened?" asked Brigitte. + +"They want twenty-five thousand francs, and, in order to get the +better of us, the notary, or his accomplices, have determined to bid +in the property. Thuillier, put five thousand francs in your pocket +and come with me; I will secure that house to you. I am making myself +implacable enemies!" he cried; "they are seeking to destroy me +morally. But all I ask is that you will disregard their infamous +calumnies and feel no change of heart to me. After all, what is it? If +I succeed, you will only have paid one hundred and twenty-five +thousand francs for the house instead of one hundred and twenty." + +"Provided the same thing doesn't happen again," said Brigitte, +uneasily, her eyes dilating under the effect of a violent suspicion. + +"Preferred creditors have alone the right to bid in property, and as, +in this case, there is but one, and he has used that right, we are +safe. The amount of his claim is really only two thousand francs, but +there are lawyers, attorneys, and so forth, to pay in such matters, +and we shall have to drop a note of a thousand francs to make the +creditor happy." + +"Go, Thuillier," said Brigitte, "get your hat and gloves, and take the +money--from you know where." + +"As I paid those fifteen thousand francs without success, I don't wish +to have any more money pass through my hands. Thuillier must pay it +himself," said Theodose, when he found himself alone with Brigitte. +"You have, however, gained twenty thousand on the contract I enabled +you to make with Grindot, who thought he was serving the notary, and +you own a piece of property which in five years will be worth nearly a +million. It is what is called a 'boulevard corner.'" + +Brigitte listened uneasily, precisely like a cat which hears a mouse +within the wall. She looked Theodose straight in the eye, and, in +spite of the truth of his remarks, doubts possessed her. + +"What troubles you, little aunt?" + +"Oh! I shall be in mortal terror until that property is securely +ours." + +"You would be willing to give twenty thousand francs, wouldn't you," +said Theodose, "to make sure that Thuillier was what we call, in law, +'owner not dispossessable' of that property? Well, then, remember that +I have saved you twice that amount." + +"Where are we going?" asked Thuillier, returning. + +"To Maitre Godeschal! We must employ him as our attorney." + +"But we refused him for Celeste." + +"Well, that's one reason for going to him," replied Theodose. "I have +taken his measure; he's a man of honor, and he'll think it a fine +thing to do you a service." + +Godeschal, now Derville's successor, had formerly been, for more than +two years, head-clerk with Desroches. Theodose, to whom that +circumstance was known, seemed to hear the name flung into his ear in +the midst of his despair by an inward voice, and he foresaw a +possibility of wrenching from the hands of Claparon the weapon with +which Cerizet had threatened him. He must, however, in the first +instance, gain an entrance to Desroches, and get some light on the +actual situation of his enemies. Godeschal, by reason of the intimacy +still existing between the former clerk and his old master, could be +his go-between. When the attorneys of Paris have ties like those which +bound Godeschal and Desroches together, they live in true fraternity, +and the result is a facility in arranging any matters which are, as +one may say, arrangeable. They obtain from one another, on the ground +of reciprocity, all possible concessions by the application of the +proverb, "Pass me the rhubarb, and I'll pass you the senna," which is +put in practice in all professions, between ministers, soldiers, +judges, business men; wherever, in short, enmity has not raised +barriers too strong and high between the parties. + +"I gain a pretty good fee out of this compromise," is a reason that +needs no expression in words: it is visible in the gesture, the tone, +the glance; and as attorneys and solicitors meet constantly on this +ground, the matter, whatever it is, is arranged. The counterpoise of +this fraternal system is found in what we may call professional +conscience. The public must believe the physician who says, giving +medical testimony, "This body contains arsenic"; nothing is supposed +to exceed the integrity of the legislator, the independence of the +cabinet minister. In like manner, the attorney of Paris says to his +brother lawyer, good-humoredly, "You can't obtain that; my client is +furious," and the other answers, "Very good; I must do without it." + +Now, la Peyrade, a shrewd man, had worn his legal gown about the +Palais long enough to know how these judicial morals might be made to +serve his purpose. + +"Sit in the carriage," he said to Thuillier, when they reached the rue +Vivienne, where Godeschal was now master of the practice he had +formerly served as clerk. "You needn't show yourself until he +undertakes the affair." + +It was eleven o'clock at night; la Peyrade was not mistaken in +supposing that he should find a newly fledged master of a practice in +his office at that hour. + +"To what do I owe this visit, monsieur?" said Godeschal, coming +forward to meet the barrister. + +Foreigners, provincials, and persons in high society may not be aware +that barristers are to attorneys what generals are to marshals. There +exists a line of demarcation, strictly maintained, between the order +of barristers and the guild of attorneys and solicitors in Paris. +However venerable an attorney may be, however capable and strong in +his profession, he must go to the barrister. The attorney is the +administrator, who maps out the plan of the campaign, collects the +munitions of war, and puts the force in motion; the barrister gives +battle. It is not known why the law gives a man two men to defend him +any more than it is known why an author is forced to have both printer +and publisher. The rules of the bar forbid its members to do any act +belonging to the guild of attorneys. It is very rare that a barrister +puts his foot in an attorney's office; the two classes meet in the +law-courts. In society, there is no barrier between them, and some +barristers, those in la Peyrade's situation particularly, demean +themselves by calling occasionally on attorneys, though even these +cases are rare, and are usually excused by some special urgency. + +"I have come on important business," replied la Peyrade; "it concerns, +especially, a question of delicacy which you and I ought to solve +together. Thuillier is below, in a carriage, and I have come up to see +you, not as a barrister, but as his friend. You are in a position to +do him an immense service; and I have told him that you have too noble +a soul (as a worthy successor of our great Derville must have) not to +put your utmost capacity at his orders. Here's the affair." + +After explaining, wholly to his own advantage, the swindling trick +which must, he said, be met with caution and ability, the barrister +developed his plan of campaign. + +"You ought, my dear maitre, to go this very evening to Desroches, +explain the whole plot and persuade him to send to-morrow for his +client, this Sauvaignou. We'll confess the fellow between us, and if +he wants a note for a thousand francs over and above the amount of his +claim, we'll let him have it; not counting the five hundred for you +and as much more for Desroches, provided Thuillier receives the +relinquishment of his claim by ten o'clock to-morrow morning. What +does this Sauvaignou want? Nothing but money. Well, a haggler like +that won't resist the attraction of an extra thousand francs, +especially if he is only the instrument of a cupidity behind him. It +is no matter to us how he fights it out with those who prompt him. +Now, then, do you think you can get the Thuillier family out of this?" + +"I'll go and see Desroches at once," said Godeschal. + +"Not before Thuillier gives you a power of attorney and five hundred +francs. The money should be on the table in a case like this." + +After the interview with Thuillier was over, la Peyrade took Godeschal +in the carriage to the rue du Bethizy, where Desroches lived, +explaining that it was on their way back to the rue Saint-Dominique +d'Enfer. When they stopped at Desroches's door la Peyrade made an +appointment with Godeschal to meet him there the next morning at seven +o'clock. + +La Peyrade's whole future and fortune lay in the outcome of this +conference. It is therefore not astonishing that he disregarded the +customs of the bar and went to Desroches's office, to study Sauvaignou +and take part in the struggle, in spite of the danger he ran in thus +placing himself visibly before the eyes of one of the most dreaded +attorneys in Paris. + +As he entered the office and made his salutations, he took note of +Sauvaignou. The man was, as the name had already told him, from +Marseilles,--the foreman of a master-carpenter, entrusted with the +giving out of sub-contracts. The profits of this work consisted of +what he could make between the price he paid for the work and that +paid to him by the master-carpenter; this agreement being exclusive of +material, his contract being only for labor. The master-carpenter had +failed. Sauvaignou had thereupon appealed to the court of commerce for +recognition as creditor with a lien on the property. He was a stocky +little man, dressed in a gray linen blouse, with a cap on his head, +and was seated in an armchair. Three banknotes, of a thousand francs +each, lying visibly before him on Desroches's desk, informed la +Peyrade that the negotiation had already taken place, and that the +lawyers were worsted. Godeschal's eyes told the rest, and the glance +which Desroches cast at the "poor man's advocate" was like the blow of +a pick-axe into the earth of a grave. Stimulated by his danger, the +Provencal became magnificent. He coolly took up the bank-notes and +folded them, as if to put them in his pocket, saying to Desroches:-- + +"Thuillier has changed his mind." + +"Very good; then we are all agreed," said the terrible attorney. + +"Yes; your client must now hand over to us the fifty thousand francs +we have spent on finishing the house, according to the contract +between Thuillier and Grindot. I did not tell you that yesterday," he +added, turning to Godeschal. + +"Do you hear that?" said Desroches to Sauvaignou. "That's a case I +shall not touch without proper guarantees." + +"But, messieurs," said Sauvaignou, "I can't negotiate this matter +until I have seen the worthy man who paid me five hundred francs on +account for having signed him that bit of a proxy." + +"Are you from Marseilles?" said la Peyrade, in patois. + +"Oh! if he tackles him with patois the fellow is beaten," said +Godeschal to Desroches in a low tone. + +"Yes, monsieur," replied the Marseillais. + +"Well, you poor devil," continued Theodose, "don't you see that they +want to ruin you? Shall I tell you what you ought to do? Pocket these +three thousand francs, and when your worthy man comes after you, take +your rule and hit him a rap over the knuckles; tell him he's a rascal +who wants you to do his dirty work, and instead of that you revoke +your proxy and will pay him his five hundred francs in the week with +three Thursdays. Then be off with you to Marseilles with these three +thousand francs and your savings in your pocket. If anything happens +to you there, let me know through these gentlemen, and I'll get you +out of the scrape; for, don't you see? I'm not only a Provencal, but +I'm also one of the leading lawyers in Paris, and the friend of the +poor." + +When the workman found a compatriot sanctioning in a tone of authority +the reasons by which he could betray Cerizet, he capitulated, asking, +however, for three thousand five hundred francs. That demand having +been granted he remarked:-- + +"It is none too much for a rap over the knuckles; he might put me in +prison for assault." + +"Well, you needn't strike unless he insults you," replied la Peyrade, +"and that's self-defence." + +When Desroches had assured him that la Peyrade was really a barrister +in good standing, Sauvaignou signed the relinquishment, which +contained a receipt for the amount, principal and interest, of his +claim, made in duplicate between himself and Thuillier, and witnessed +by the two attorneys; so that the paper was a final settlement of the +whole matter. + +"We'll leave the remaining fifteen hundred between you," whispered la +Peyrade to Desroches and Godeschal, "on condition that you give me the +relinquishment, which I will have Thuillier accept and sign before his +notary, Cardot. Poor man! he never closed his eyes all night!" + +"Very well," replied Desroches. "You may congratulate yourself," he +added, making Sauvaignou sign the paper, "that you've earned that +money pretty easily." + +"It is really mine, isn't it, monsieur?" said the Marseillais, already +uneasy. + +"Yes, and legally, too," replied Desroches, "only you must let your +man know this morning that you have revoked your proxy under date of +yesterday. Go out through my clerk's office, here, this way." + +Desroches told his head-clerk what the man was to do, and he sent a +pupil-clerk with him to see that a sheriff's officer carried the +notice to Cerizet before ten o'clock. + +"I thank you, Desroches," said la Peyrade, pressing the attorney's +hand; "you think of everything; I shall never forget this service." + +"Don't deposit the deed with Cardot till after twelve o'clock," +returned Desroches. + +"Hay! comrade," cried the barrister, in Provencal, following +Sauvaignou into the next room, "take your Margot to walk about +Belleville, and be sure you don't go home." + +"I hear," said Sauvaignou. "I'm off to-morrow; adieu!" + +"Adieu," returned la Peyrade, with a Provencal cry. + +"There is something behind all this," said Desroches in an undertone +to Godeschal, as la Peyrade followed Sauvaignou into the clerk's +office. + +"The Thuilliers get a splendid piece of property for next to nothing," +replied Godeschal; "that's all." + +"La Peyrade and Cerizet look to me like two divers who are fighting +under water," replied Desroches. "What am I to say to Cerizet, who put +the matter into my hands?" he added, as the barrister returned to +them. + +"Tell him that Sauvaignou forced your hand," replied la Peyrade. + +"And you fear nothing?" said Desroches, in a sudden manner. + +"I? oh no! I want to give Cerizet a lesson." + +"To-morrow, I shall know the truth," said Desroches, in a low tone, to +Godeschal; "no one chatters like a beaten man." + +La Peyrade departed, carrying with him the deed of relinquishment. At +eleven o'clock he was in the courtroom of the justice-of-peace, +perfectly calm, and firm. When he saw Cerizet come in, pale with rage, +his eyes full of venom, he said in his ear:-- + +"My dear friend, I'm a pretty good fellow myself, and I hold that +twenty-five thousand francs in good bank-bills at your disposal, +whenever you will return to me those notes of mine which you hold." + +Cerizet looked at the advocate of the poor, without being able to say +one word in reply; he was green; the bile had struck in. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE PERVERSITY OF DOVES + +"I am a non-dispossessable property-owner!" cried Thuillier, coming +home after visiting his notary. "No human power can get that house +away from me. Cardot says so." + +The bourgeoisie think much more of what their notary tells them than +of what their attorney says. The notary is nearer to them than any +other ministerial officer. The Parisian bourgeois never pays a visit +to his attorney without a sense of fear; whereas he mounts the stairs +with ever-renewed pleasure to see his notary; he admires that +official's virtue and his sound good sense. + +"Cardot, who is looking for an apartment for one of his clients, wants +to know about our second floor," continued Thuillier. "If I choose +he'll introduce to me on Sunday a tenant who is ready to sign a lease +for eighteen years at forty thousand francs and taxes! What do you say +to that, Brigitte?" + +"Better wait," she replied. "Ah! that dear Theodose, what a fright he +gave me!" + +"Hey! my dearest girl, I must tell you that when Cardot asked who put +me in the way of this affair he said I owed him a present of at least +ten thousand francs. The fact is, I owe it all to him." + +"But he is the son of the house," responded Brigitte. + +"Poor lad! I'll do him the justice to say that he asks for nothing." + +"Well, dear, good friend," said la Peyrade, coming in about three +o'clock, "here you are, richissime!" + +"And through you, Theodose." + +"And you, little aunt, have you come to life again? Ah! you were not +half as frightened as I was. I put your interests before my own; I +haven't breathed freely till this morning at eleven o'clock; and yet I +am sure now of having two mortal enemies at my heels in the two men I +have tricked for your sake. As I walked home, just now, I asked myself +what could be your influence over me to make me commit such a crime, +and whether the happiness of belonging to your family and becoming +your son could ever efface the stain I have put upon my conscience." + +"Bah! you can confess it," said Thuillier, the free-thinker. + +"And now," said Theodose to Brigitte, "you can pay, in all security, +the cost of the house,--eighty thousand francs, and thirty thousand to +Grindot; in all, with what you have paid in costs, one hundred and +twenty thousand; and this last twenty thousand added make one hundred +and forty thousand. If you let the house outright to a single tenant +ask him for the last year's rent in advance, and reserve for my wife +and me the whole of the first floor above the entresol. Make those +conditions and you'll still get your forty thousand francs a year. If +you should want to leave this quarter so as to be nearer the Chamber, +you can always take up your abode with us on that vast first floor, +which has stables and coach-house belonging to it; in fact, everything +that is needful for a splendid life. And now, Thuillier, I am going to +get the cross of the Legion of honor for you." + +Hearing this last promise, Brigitte cried out in her enthusiasm:-- + +"Faith! my dear boy, you've done our business so well that I'll leave +you to manage that of letting the house." + +"Don't abdicate, dear aunt," replied Theodose. "God keep me from ever +taking a step without you! You are the good genius of this family; I +think only of the day when Thuillier will take his seat in the +Chamber. If you let the house you will come into possession of your +forty thousand francs for the last year of the lease in two months +from now; and that will not prevent Thuillier from drawing his +quarterly ten thousand of the rental." + +After casting this hope into the mind of the old maid, who was +jubilant, Theodose drew Thuillier into the garden and said to him, +without beating round the bush:-- + +"Dear, good friend, find means to get ten thousand francs from your +sister, and be sure not to let her suspect that you pay them to me; +tell her that sum is required in the government office to facilitate +your appointment as chevalier of the Legion of honor; tell her, too, +that you know the persons among whom that sum should be distributed." + +"That's a good idea," said Thuillier; "besides, I'll pay it back to +her when I get my rents." + +"Have the money ready this evening, dear friend. Now I am going out on +business about your cross; to-morrow we shall know something +definitely about it." + +"What a man you are!" cried Thuillier. + +"The ministry of the 1st of March is going to fall, and we must get it +out of them beforehand," said Theodose, shrewdly. + +He now hurried to Madame Colleville, crying out as he entered her +room:-- + +"I've conquered! We shall have a piece of landed property for Celeste +worth a million, a life-interest in which will be given to her by her +marriage-contract; but keep the secret, or your daughter will be +hunted down by peers of France. Besides, this settlement will only be +made in my favor. Now dress yourself, and let us go and call on Madame +du Bruel; she can get the cross for Thuillier. While you are getting +under arms I'll do a little courting to Celeste; you and I can talk as +we drive along." + +La Peyrade had seen, as he passed the door of the salon, Celeste and +Felix Phellion in close conversation. Flavie had such confidence in +her daughter that she did not fear to leave them together. Now that +the great success of the morning was secured, Theodose felt the +necessity of beginning his courtship of Celeste. It was high time, he +thought, to bring about a quarrel between the lovers. He did not, +therefore, hesitate to apply his ear to the door of the salon before +entering it, in order to discover what letters of the alphabet of love +they were spelling; he was even invited to commit this domestic +treachery by sounds from within, which seemed to say that they were +disputing. Love, according to one of our poets, is a privilege which +two persons mutually take advantage of to cause each other, +reciprocally, a great deal of sorrow about nothing at all. + +When Celeste knew that Felix was elected by her heart to be the +companion of her life, she felt a desire, not so much to study him as +to unite herself closely with him by that communion of souls which is +the basis of all affections, and leads, in youthful minds, to +involuntary examination. The dispute to which Theodose was now to +listen took its rise in a disagreement which had sprung up within the +last few days between the mathematician and Celeste. The young girl's +piety was real; she belonged to the flock of the truly faithful, and +to her, Catholicism, tempered by that mysticism which attracts young +souls, was an inward poem, a life within her life. From this point +young girls are apt to develop into either extremely high-minded women +or saints. But, during this beautiful period of their youth they have +in their heart, in their ideas, a sort of absolutism: before their +eyes is the image of perfection, and all must be celestial, angelic, +or divine to satisfy them. Outside of their ideal, nothing of good can +exist; all is stained and soiled. This idea causes the rejection of +many a diamond with a flaw by girls who, as women, fall in love with +paste. + +Now, Celeste had seen in Felix, not irreligion, but indifference to +matters of religion. Like most geometricians, chemists, +mathematicians, and great naturalists, he had subjected religion to +reason; he recognized a problem in it as insoluble as the squaring of +the circle. Deist "in petto," he lived in the religion of most +Frenchmen, not attaching more importance to it than he did to the new +laws promulgated in July. It was necessary to have a God in heaven, +just as they set up a bust of the king at the mayor's office. Felix +Phellion, a worthy son of his father, had never drawn the slightest +veil over his opinions or his conscience; he allowed Celeste to read +into them with the candor and the inattention of a student of +problems. The young girl, on her side, professed a horror for atheism, +and her conscience assured her that a deist was cousin-germain to an +atheist. + +"Have you thought, Felix, of doing what you promised me?" asked +Celeste, as soon as Madame Colleville had left them alone. + +"No, my dear Celeste," replied Felix. + +"Oh! to have broken his word!" she cried, softly. + +"But to have kept it would have been a profanation," said Felix. "I +love you so deeply, with a tenderness so little proof against your +wishes, that I promised a thing contrary to my conscience. Conscience, +Celeste, is our treasure, our strength, our mainstay. How can you ask +me to go into a church and kneel at the feet of a priest, in whom I +can see only a man? You would despise me if I obeyed you." + +"And so, my dear Felix, you refuse to go to church," said Celeste, +casting a tearful glance at the man she loved. "If I were your wife +you would let me go alone? You do not love me as I love you! for, +alas! I have a feeling in my heart for an atheist contrary to that +which God commands." + +"An atheist!" cried Felix. "Oh, no! Listen to me, Celeste. There is +certainly a God; I believe in that; but I have higher ideas of Him +than those of your priests; I do not wish to bring Him down to my +level; I want to rise to Him. I listen to the voice He has put within +me,--a voice which honest men call conscience, and I strive not to +darken that divine ray as it comes to me. For instance, I will never +harm others; I will do nothing against the commandments of universal +morality, which was that of Confucius, Moses, Pythagoras, Socrates, as +well as of Jesus Christ. I will stand in the presence of God; my +actions shall be my prayers; I will never be false in word or deed; +never will I do a base or shameful thing. Those are the precepts I +have learned from my virtuous father, and which I desire to bequeath +to my children. All the good that I can do I shall try to accomplish, +even if I have to suffer for it. What can you ask more of a man than +that?" + +This profession of the Phellion faith caused Celeste to sadly shake +her head. + +"Read attentively," she replied, "'The Imitation of Jesus Christ.' +Strive to convert yourself to the holy Catholic, apostolic, and Roman +Church, and you will see how empty your words are. Hear me, Felix; +marriage is not, the Church says, the affair of a day, the mere +satisfaction of our own desires; it is made for eternity. What! shall +we be united day and night, shall we form one flesh, one word, and yet +have two languages, two faiths in our heart, and a cause of perpetual +dissension? Would you condemn me to weep tears over the state of your +soul,--tears that I must ever conceal from you? Could I address myself +in peace to God when I see his arm stretched out in wrath against you? +Must my children inherit the blood of a deist and his convictions? Oh! +God, what misery for a wife! No, no, these ideas are intolerable. +Felix! be of my faith, for I cannot share yours. Do not put a gulf +between us. If you loved me, you would already have read 'The +Imitation of Jesus Christ.'" + +The Phellion class, sons of the "Constitutionnel," dislike the +priestly mind. Felix had the imprudence to reply to this sort of +prayer from the depths of an ardent heart:-- + +"You are repeating, Celeste, the lessons your confessor teaches you; +nothing, believe me, is more fatal to happiness than the interference +of priests in a home." + +"Oh!" cried Celeste, wounded to the quick, for love alone inspired +her, "you do not love! The voice of my heart is not in unison with +yours! You have not understood me, because you have not listened to +me; but I forgive you, for you know not what you say." + +She wrapped herself in solemn silence, and Felix went to the window +and drummed upon the panes,--music familiar to those who have indulged +in poignant reflections. Felix was, in fact, presenting the following +delicate and curious questions to the Phellion conscience. + +"Celeste is a rich heiress, and, in yielding against the voice of +natural religion, to her ideas, I should have in view the making of +what is certainly an advantageous marriage,--an infamous act. I ought +not, as father of a family, to allow the priesthood to have an +influence in my home. If I yield to-day, I do a weak act, which will +be followed by many others equally pernicious to the authority of a +husband and father. All this is unworthy of a philosopher." + +Then he returned to his beloved. + +"Celeste, I entreat you on my knees," he said, "not to mingle that +which the law, in its wisdom, has separated. We live in two worlds,-- +society and heaven. Each has its own way of salvation; but as to +society, is it not obeying God to obey the laws? Christ said: 'Render +unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.' Caesar is the body politic. Dear, +let us forget our little quarrel." + +"Little quarrel!" cried the young enthusiast; "I want you to have my +whole heart as I want to have the whole of yours; and you make it into +two parts! Is not that an evil? You forget that marriage is a +sacrament." + +"Your priesthood have turned your head," exclaimed the mathematician, +impatiently. + +"Monsieur Phellion," said Celeste, interrupting him hastily, "enough +of this!" + +It was at this point of the quarrel that Theodose considered it +judicious to enter the room. He found Celeste pale, and the young +professor as anxious as a lover should be who has just irritated his +mistress. + +"I heard the word 'enough'; then something is too much?" he said, +inquiringly, looking in turn from Celeste to Felix. + +"We were talking religion," replied Felix, "and I was saying to +mademoiselle how dangerous ecclesiastical influence is in the bosom of +families." + +"That was not the point, monsieur," said Celeste, sharply; "it was to +know if husband and wife could be of one heart when the one is an +atheist and the other Catholic." + +"Can there be such a thing as atheists?" cried Theodose, with all the +signs of extreme wonderment. "Could a true Catholic marry a +Protestant? There is no safety possible for a married pair unless they +have perfect conformity in the matter of religious opinions. I, who +come from the Comtat, of a family which counts a pope among its +ancestors--for our arms are: gules, a key argent, with supporters, a +monk holding a church, and a pilgrim with a staff, or, and the motto, +'I open, I shut'--I am, of course, intensely dogmatic on such points. +But in these days, thanks to our modern system of education, it does +not seem to me strange that religion should be called into question. I +myself would never marry a Protestant, had she millions, even if I +loved her distractedly. Faith is a thing that cannot be tampered with. +'Una fides, unus Dominus,' that is my device in life." + +"You hear that!" cried Celeste, triumphantly, looking at Felix +Phellion. + +"I am not openly devout," continued la Peyrade. "I go to mass at six +every morning, that I may not be observed; I fast on Fridays; I am, in +short, a son of the Church, and I would not undertake any serious +enterprise without prayer, after the ancient fashion of our ancestors; +but no one is able to notice my religion. A singular thing happened to +our family during the Revolution of 1789, which attached us more +closely than ever to our holy mother the Church. A poor young lady of +the elder branch of the Peyrades, who owned the little estate of la +Peyrade,--for we ourselves are Peyrades of Canquoelle, but the two +branches inherit from one another,--well, this young lady married, six +years before the Revolution, a barrister who, after the fashion of the +times, was Voltairean, that is to say, an unbeliever, or, if you +choose, a deist. He took up all the revolutionary ideas, and practised +the charming rites that you know of in the worship of the goddess +Reason. He came into our part of the country imbued with the ideas of +the Convention, and fanatical about them. His wife was very handsome; +he compelled her to play the part of Liberty; and the poor unfortunate +creature went mad. She died insane! Well, as things are going now it +looks as if we might have another 1793." + +This history, invented on the spot, made such an impression on +Celeste's fresh and youthful imagination that she rose, bowed to the +young men and hastened to her chamber. + +"Ah! monsieur, why did you tell her that?" cried Felix, struck to the +heart by the cold look the young girl, affecting profound +indifference, cast upon him. She fancied herself transformed into a +goddess of Reason. + +"Why not? What were you talking about?" asked Theodose. + +"About my indifference to religion." + +"The great sore of this century," replied Theodose, gravely. + +"I am ready," said Madame Colleville, appearing in a toilet of much +taste. "But what is the matter with my poor daughter? She is crying!" + +"Crying? madame," exclaimed Felix; "please tell her that I will study +'The Imitation of Christ' at once." + +Felix left the house with Theodose and Flavie, whose arm the barrister +pressed to let her know he would explain in the carriage the apparent +dementia of the young professor. + +An hour later, Madame Colleville and Celeste, Colleville and Theodose +were entering the Thuilliers' apartment to dine there. Theodose and +Flavie took Thuillier into the garden, where the former said to him:-- + +"Dear, good friend! you will have the cross within a week. Our +charming friend here will tell you about our visit to the Comtesse du +Bruel." + +And Theodose left Thuillier, having caught sight of Desroches in the +act of being brought by Mademoiselle Thuillier into the garden; he +went, driven by a terrible and glacial presentiment, to meet him. + +"My good friend," said Desroches in his ear, "I have come to see if +you can procure at once twenty-five thousand francs plus two thousand +six hundred and eighty for costs." + +"Are you acting for Cerizet?" asked the barrister. + +"Cerizet has put all the papers into the hands of Louchard, and you +know what you have to expect if arrested. Is Cerizet wrong in thinking +you have twenty-five thousand francs in your desk? He says you offered +them to him and he thinks it only natural not to leave them in your +hands." + +"Thank you for taking the step, my good friend," replied Theodose. "I +have been expecting this attack." + +"Between ourselves," replied Desroches, "you have made an utter fool +of him, and he is furious. The scamp will stop at nothing to get his +revenge upon you--for he'll lose everything if he forces you to fling +your barrister's gown, as they say, to the nettles and go to prison." + +"I?" said Theodose. "I'm going to pay him. But even so, there will +still be five notes of mine in his hands, for five thousand francs +each; what does he mean to do with them?" + +"Oh! after the affair of this morning, I can't tell you; my client is +a crafty, mangy cur, and he is sure to have his little plans." + +"Look here, Desroches," said Theodose, taking the hard, unyielding +attorney round the waist, "those papers are in your hands, are not +they?" + +"Will you pay them?" + +"Yes, in three hours." + +"Very good, then. Be at my office at nine o'clock; I'll receive the +money and give you your notes; BUT, at half-past nine o'clock, they +will be in the sheriff's hands." + +"To-night, then, at nine o'clock," said Theodose. + +"Nine o'clock," repeated Desroches, whose glance had taken in the +whole family, then assembled in the garden. + +Celeste, with red eyes, was talking to her godmother; Colleville and +Brigitte, Flavie and Thuillier were on the steps of the broad portico +leading to the entrance-hall. Desroches remarked to Theodose, who +followed him to the door:-- + +"You can pay off those notes." + +At a single glance the shrewd attorney had comprehended the whole +scheme of the barrister. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ONE OF CERIZET'S FEMALE CLIENTS + +The next morning, at daybreak, Theodose went to the office of the +banker of the poor, to see the effect produced upon his enemy by the +punctual payment of the night before, and to make another effort to +get rid of his hornet. + +He found Cerizet standing up, in conference with a woman, and he +received an imperative sign to keep at a distance and not to interrupt +the interview. The barrister was therefore reduced to conjectures as +to the importance of this woman, an importance revealed by the eager +look on the face of the lender "by the little week." Theodose had a +presentiment, though a very vague one, that the upshot of this +conference would have some influence on Cerizet's own arrangements, +for he suddenly beheld on that crafty countenance the change produced +by a dawning hope. + +"But, my dear mamma Cardinal--" + +"Yes, my good monsieur--" + +"What is it you want--?" + +"It must be decided--" + +These beginnings, or these ends of sentences were the only gleams of +light that the animated conversation, carried on in the lowest tones +with lip to ear and ear to lip, conveyed to the motionless witness, +whose attention was fixed on Madame Cardinal. + +Madame Cardinal was one of Cerizet's earliest clients; she peddled +fish. If Parisians know these creations peculiar to their soil, +foreigners have no suspicion of their existence; and Mere Cardinal-- +technologically speaking, of course, deserved all the interest she +excited in Theodose. So many women of her species may be met with in +the streets that the passers-by give them no more attention than they +give to the three thousand pictures of the Salon. But as she stood in +Cerizet's office the Cardinal had all the value of an isolated +masterpiece; she was a complete and perfect type of her species. + +The woman was mounted on muddy sabots; but her feet, carefully wrapped +in gaiters, were still further protected by stout and thick-ribbed +stockings. Her cotton gown, adorned with a glounce of mud, bore the +imprint of the strap which supported the fish-basket. Her principal +garment was a shawl of what was called "rabbit's-hair cashmere," the +two ends of which were knotted behind, above her bustle--for we must +needs employ a fashionable word to express the effect produced by the +transversal pressure of the basket upon her petticoats, which +projected below it, in shape like a cabbage. A printed cotton +neckerchief, of the coarsest description, gave to view a red neck, +ribbed and lined like the surface of a pond where people have skated. +Her head was covered in a yellow silk foulard, twined in a manner that +was rather picturesque. Short and stout, and ruddy of skin, Mere +Cardinal probably drank her little drop of brandy in the morning. She +had once been handsome. The Halle had formerly reproached her, in the +boldness of its figurative speech, for doing "a double day's-work in +the twenty-four." Her voice, in order to reduce itself to the diapason +of ordinary conversation, was obliged to stifle its sound as other +voices do in a sick-room; but at such times it came thick and muffled, +from a throat accustomed to send to the farthest recesses of the +highest garret the names of the fish in their season. Her nose, a la +Roxelane, her well-cut lips, her blue eyes, and all that formerly made +up her beauty, was now buried in folds of vigorous flesh which told of +the habits and occupations of an outdoor life. The stomach and bosom +were distinguished for an amplitude worthy of Rubens. + +"Do you want to make me lie in the straw?" she said to Cerizet. "What +do I care for the Toupilliers? Ain't I a Toupillier myself? What do +you want to do with them, those Toupilliers?" + +This savage outburst was hastily repressed by Cerizet, who uttered a +prolonged "Hush-sh!" such as all conspirators obey. + +"Well, go and find out all you can about it, and come back to me," +said Cerizet, pushing the woman toward the door, and whispering, as he +did so, a few words in her ear. + +"Well, my dear friend," said Theodose to Cerizet, "you have got your +money?" + +"Yes," returned Cerizet "we have measured our claws, they are the same +length, the same strength, and the same sharpness. What next?" + +"Am I to tell Dutocq that you received, last night, twenty-five +thousand francs?" + +"Oh! my dear friend, not a word, if you love me!" cried Cerizet. + +"Listen," said Theodose. "I must know, once for all, what you want. I +am positively determined not to remain twenty-four hours longer on the +gridiron where you have got me. Cheat Dutocq if you will; I am utterly +indifferent to that; but I intend that you and I shall come to an +understanding. It is a fortune that I have paid you, twenty-five +thousand francs, and you must have earned ten thousand more in your +business; it is enough to make you an honest man. Cerizet, if you will +leave me in peace, if you won't prevent my marriage with Mademoiselle +Colleville, I shall certainly be king's attorney-general, or something +of that kind in Paris. You can't do better than make sure of an +influence in that sphere." + +"Here are my conditions; and they won't allow of discussion; you can +take them or leave them. You will obtain for me the lease of +Thuillier's new house for eighteen years, and I'll hand you back one +of your five notes cancelled, and you shall not find me any longer in +your way. But you will have to settle with Dutocq for the remaining +four notes. You got the better of ME, and I know Dutocq hasn't the +force to stand against you." + +"I'll agree to that, provided you'll pay a rent of forty-eight +thousand francs for the house, the last year in advance, and begin the +lease in October." + +"Yes; but I shall not give for the last year's rent more than forty- +three thousand francs; your note will pay the remainder. I have seen +the house, and examined it. It suits me very well." + +"One last condition," said Theodose; "you'll help me against Dutocq?" + +"No," said Cerizet, "you'll cook him brown yourself; he doesn't need +any basting from me; he'll give out his gravy fast enough. But you +ought to be reasonable. The poor fellow can't pay off the last fifteen +thousand francs due on his practice, and you should reflect that +fifteen thousand francs would certainly buy back your notes." + +"Well; give me two weeks to get your lease--" + +"No, not a day later than Monday next! Tuesday your notes will be in +Louchard's hands; unless you pay them Monday, or Thuillier signs the +lease." + +"Well, Monday, so be it!" said Theodose; "are we friends?" + +"We shall be Monday," responded Cerizet. + +"Well, then, Monday you'll pay for my dinner," said Theodose, +laughing. + +"Yes, at the Rocher de Cancale, if I have the lease. Dutocq shall be +there--we'll all be there--ah! it is long since I've had a good +laugh." + +Theodose and Cerizet shook hands, saying, reciprocally:-- + +"We'll meet soon." + +Cerizet had not calmed down so suddenly without reasons. In the first +place, as Desroches once said, "Bile does not facilitate business," +and the usurer had too well seen the justice of that remark not to +coolly resolve to get something out of his position, and to squeeze +the jugular vein of the crafty Provencal until he strangled him. + +"It is a fair revenge," Desroches said to him; "mind you extract its +quintessence. You hold that fellow." + +For ten years past Cerizet had seen men growing rich by practising the +trade of principal tenant. The principal tenant is, in Paris, to the +owners of houses what farmers are to country landlords. All Paris has +seen one of its great tailors, building at his own cost, on the famous +site of Frascati, one of the most sumptuous of houses, and paying, as +principal tenant, fifty thousand francs a year for the ground rent of +the house, which, at the end of nineteen years' lease, was to become +the property of the owner of the land. In spite of the costs of +construction, which were something like seven hundred thousand francs, +the profits of those nineteen years proved, in the end, very large. + +Cerizet, always on the watch for business, had examined the chances +for gain offered by the situation of the house which Thuillier had +STOLEN,--as he said to Desroches,--and he had seen the possibility of +letting it for sixty thousand at the end of six years. There were four +shops, two on each side, for it stood on a boulevard corner. Cerizet +expected, therefore, to get clear ten thousand a year for a dozen +years, allowing for eventualities and sundries attendant on renewal of +leases. He therefore proposed to himself to sell his money-lending +business to the widow Poiret and Cadenet for ten thousand francs; he +already possessed thirty thousand; and the two together would enable +him to pay the last year's rent in advance, which house-owners in +Paris usually demand as a guarantee from a principal tenant on a long +lease. Cerizet had spent a happy night; he fell asleep in a glorious +dream; he saw himself in a fair way to do an honest business, and to +become a bourgeois like Thuillier, like Minard, and so many others. + +But he had a waking of which he did not dream. He found Fortune +standing before him, and emptying her gilded horns of plenty at his +feet in the person of Madame Cardinal. He had always had a liking for +the woman, and had promised her for a year past the necessary sum to +buy a donkey and a little cart, so that she could carry on her +business on a large scale, and go from Paris to the suburbs. Madame +Cardinal, widow of a porter in the corn-market, had an only daughter, +whose beauty Cerizet had heard of from some of the mother's cronies. +Olympe Cardinal was about thirteen years of age at the time, 1837, +when Cerizet began his system of loans in the quarter; and with a view +to an infamous libertinism, he had paid great attention to the mother, +whom he rescued from utter misery, hoping to make Olympe his mistress. +But suddenly, in 1838, the girl left her mother, and "made her life," +to use an expression by which the lower classes in Paris describe the +abuse of the most precious gifts of nature and youth. + +To look for a girl in Paris is to look for a smelt in the Seine; +nothing but chance can throw her into the net. The chance came. Mere +Cardinal, who to entertain a neighbor had taken her to the Bobino +theatre, recognized in the leading lady her own daughter, whom the +first comedian had held under his control for three years. The mother, +gratified at first at beholding her daughter in a fine gown of gold +brocade, her hair dressed like that of a duchess, and wearing open- +worked stockings, satin shoes, and receiving the plaudits of the +audience, ended by screaming out from her seat in the gallery:-- + +"You shall soon hear of me, murderer of your own mother! I'll know +whether miserable strolling-players have the right to come and debauch +young girls of sixteen!" + +She waited at the stage-door to capture her daughter, but the first +comedian and the leading lady had no doubt jumped across the +footlights and left the theatre with the audience, instead of issuing +by the stage-door, where Madame Cardinal and her crony, Mere +Mahoudeau, made an infernal rumpus, which two municipal guards were +called upon to pacify. Those august personages, before whom the two +women lowered the diapason of their voices, called the mother's +attention to the fact that the girl was of legitimate theatrical age, +and that instead of screaming at the door after the director, she +could summon him before the justice-of-peace, or the police-court, +whichever she pleased. + +The next day Madame Cardinal intended to consult Cerizet, in view of +the fact that he was a clerk in the office of the justice-of-peace; +but, before reaching his lair in the rue des Poules, she was met by +the porter of a house in which an uncle of hers, a certain Toupillier, +was living, who told her that the old man hadn't probably two days to +live, being then in the last extremity. + +"Well, how do you expect me to help it?" replied the widow Cardinal. + +"We count on you, my dear Madame Cardinal; we know you won't forget +the good advice we'll give you. Here's the thing. Lately, your poor +uncle, not being able to stir round, has trusted me to go and collect +the rents of his house, rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, and the arrears of +his dividends at the Treasury, which come to eighteen hundred francs." + +By this time the widow Cardinal's eyes were becoming fixed instead of +wandering. + +"Yes, my dear," continued Perrache, a hump-backed little concierge; +"and, seeing that you are the only person who ever thinks about him, +and that you come and see him sometimes, and bring him fish, perhaps +he may make a bequest in your favor. My wife, who has been nursing him +for the last few days since he has been so ill, spoke to him of you, +but he wouldn't have you told about his illness. But now, don't you +see, it is high time you should show yourself there. It is pretty nigh +two months since he has been able to attend to business." + +"You may well think, you old thief," replied Madame Cardinal, hurrying +at top speed toward the rue Honore-Chevalier, where her uncle lived in +a wretched garret, "that the hair would grow on my hand before I could +ever imagine that. What! my uncle Toupillier rich! the old pauper of +the church of Saint-Sulpice!" + +"Ah!" returned the porter, "but he fed well. He went to bed every +night with his best friend, a big bottle of Roussillon. My wife has +tasted it, though he told us it was common stuff. The wine-merchant in +the rue des Canettes supplies it to him." + +"Don't say a word about all this," said the widow, when she parted +from the man who had given her the information. "I'll take care and +remember you--if anything comes of it." + +Toupillier, former drum-major in the French Guards, had been for the +two years preceding 1789 in the service of the Church as beadle of +Saint-Sulpice. The Revolution deprived him of that post, and he then +dropped down into a state of abject misery. He was even obliged to +take to the profession of model, for he ENJOYED, as they say, a fine +physique. When public worship was restored, he took up his beadle's +staff once more; but in 1816 he was dismissed, as much on account of +his immorality as for his political opinions. Nevertheless, he was +allowed to stay about the door of the church and distribute the holy +water. Later, an unfortunate affair, which we shall presently mention, +made him lose even that position; but, still finding means to keep to +the sanctuary, he obtained permission to be allowed as a pauper in the +porch. At this period of life, being then seventy-two years of age, he +made himself ninety-six, and began the profession of centenarian. + +In all Paris it was impossible to find another such beard and head of +hair as Toupillier's. As he walked he appeared bent double; he held a +stick in his shaking hand,--a hand that was covered with lichen, like +a granite rock, and with the other he held out the classic hat with a +broad brim, filthy and battered, into which, however, there fell +abundant alms. His legs were swathed in rags and bandages, and his +feet shuffled along in miserable overshoes of woven mat-weed, inside +of which he had fastened excellent cork soles. He washed his face with +certain compounds, which gave it an appearance of forms of illness, +and he played the senility of a centenarian to the life. He reckoned +himself a hundred years old in 1830, at which time his actual age was +eighty; he was the head of the paupers of Saint-Sulpice, the master of +the place, and all those who came to beg under the arcades of the +church, safe from the persecutions of the police and beneath the +protection of the beadle and the giver of holy water, were forced to +pay him a sort of tithe. + +When a new heir, a bridegroom, or some godfather left the church, +saying, "Here, this is for all of you; don't torment any of my party," +Toupillier, appointed by the beadle to receive these alms, pocketed +three-fourths, and distributed only the remaining quarter among his +henchmen, whose tribute amounted to a sou a day. Money and wine were +his last two passions; but he regulated the latter and gave himself up +to the former, with neglecting his personal comfort. He drank at night +only, after his dinner, and for twenty years he slept in the arms of +drunkenness, his last mistress. + +In the early morning he was at his post with all his faculties. From +then until his dinner, which he took at Pere Lathuile's (made famous +by Charlet), he gnawed crusts of bread by way of nourishment; and he +gnawed them artistically, with an air of resignation which earned him +abundant alms. The beadle and the giver of holy water, with whom he +may have had some private understanding, would say of him:-- + +"He is one of the worthy poor of the church; he used to know the +rector Languet, who built Saint-Sulpice; he was for twenty years +beadle of the church before the Revolution, and he is now over a +hundred years old." + +This little biography, well known to all the pious attendants of the +church, was, of course, the best of his advertisements, and no hat was +so well lined as his. He bought his house in 1826, and began to invest +his money in the Funds in 1830. From the value of the two investments +he must have made something like six thousand francs a year, and +probably turned them over by usury, after Cerizet's own fashion; for +the sum he paid for the house was forty thousand francs, while his +investment in 1830 was forty-eight thousand more. His niece, deceived +by the old man as much as he deceived the functionaries and the pious +souls of the church, believed him the most miserable of paupers, and +when she had any fish that were spoiling she sometimes took them to +the aged beggar. + +Consequently, she now felt it her right to get what she could in +return for her pity and her liberality to an uncle who was likely to +have a crowd of collateral heirs; she herself being the third and last +Toupillier daughter. She had four brothers, and her father, a porter +with a hand-cart, had told her, in her childhood, of three aunts and +four uncles, who all led an existence of the baser sort. + +After inspecting the sick man, she went, at full speed, to consult +Cerizet, telling him, in the first place, how she had found her +daughter, and then the reasons and indications which made her think +that her uncle Toupillier was hoarding a pile of gold in his mattress. +Mere Cardinal did not feel herself strong enough to seize upon the +property, legally or illegally, and she therefore came to confide in +Cerizet and get his advice. + +So, then, the banker of the poor, like other scavengers, had, at last, +found diamonds in the slime in which he had paddled for the last four +years, being always on the watch for some such chance,--a chance, they +say, occasionally met with in the purlieus, which give birth to +heiresses in sabots. This was the secret of his unexpected gentleness +to la Peyrade, the man whose ruin he had vowed. It is easy to imagine +the anxiety with which he awaited the return of Madame Cardinal, to +whom this wily schemer of nefarious plots had given means to verify +her suspicions as to the existence of the hoarded treasure, promising +her complete success if she would trust him to obtain for her so rich +a harvest. He was not the man to shrink from a crime, above all, when +he saw that others could commit it, while he obtained the benefits. + +"Well, monsieur," cried the fishwife, entering Cerizet's den with a +face as much inflamed by cupidity as by the haste of her movements, +"my uncle sleeps on more than a hundred thousand francs in gold, and I +am certain that those Perraches, by dint of nursing him, have smelt +the rat." + +"Shared among forty heirs that won't be much to each," said Cerizet. +"Listen to me, Mere Cardinal: I'll marry your daughter; give her your +uncle's gold, and I'll guarantee to you a life-interest in the house +and the dividends from the money in the Funds." + +"We sha'n't run any risk?" + +"None, whatever." + +"Agreed, then," said the widow Cardinal, holding out her hand to her +future son-in-law. "Six thousand francs a year; hey! what a fine life +I'll have." + +"With a son-in-law like me!" added Cerizet. + +"I shall be a bourgeoisie of Paris!" + +"Now," resumed Cerizet, after a pause, "I must study the ground. Don't +leave your uncle alone a minute; tell the Perraches that you expect a +doctor. I'll be the doctor, and when I get there you must seem not to +know me." + +"Aren't you sly, you old rogue," said Madame Cardinal, with a punch on +Cerizet's stomach by way of farewell. + +An hour later, Cerizet, dressed in black, disguised by a rusty wig and +an artificially painted physiognomy, arrived at the house in the rue +Honore-Chevalier in the regulation cabriolet. He asked the porter to +tell him how to find the lodging of an old beggar named Toupillier. + +"Is monsieur the doctor whom Madame Cardinal expects?" asked Perrache. + +Cerizet had no doubt reflected on the gravity of the affair he was +undertaking, for he avoided giving an answer to that question. + +"Is this the way?" he said, turning at random to one side of the +courtyard. + +"No, monsieur," replied Perrache, who then took him to the back stairs +of the house, which led up to the wretched attic occupied by the +pauper. + +Nothing remained for the inquisitive porter to do but to question the +driver of the cabriolet; to which employment we will leave him, while +we pursue our own inquiries elsewhere. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE DIFFICULTIES THAT CROP UP IN THE EASIEST OF THEFTS + +The house in which Toupillier lived is one of those which have lost +half their depth, owing to the straightening of the line of the +street, the rue Honore-Chevalier being one of the narrowest in the +Saint-Sulpice quarter. The owner, forbidden by the law to repair it, +or to add new storeys, was compelled to let the wretched building in +the condition in which he bought it. It consisted of a first storey +above the ground-floor, surmounted by garrets, with two small wings +running back on either side. The courtyard thus formed ended in a +garden planted with trees, which was always rented to the occupant of +the first floor. This garden, separated by an iron railing from the +courtyard, would have allowed a rich owner to sell the front buildings +to the city, and to build a new house upon the courtyard; but the +whole of the first floor was let on an eighteen years' lease to a +mysterious personage, about whom neither the official policing of the +concierge nor the curiosity of the other tenants could find anything +to censure. + +This tenant, now seventy years of age, had built, in 1829, an outer +stairway, leading from the right wing of the first floor to the +garden, so that he could get there without going through the +courtyard. Half the ground-floor was occupied by a book-stitcher, who +for the last ten years had used the stable and coach-house for +workshops. A book-binder occupied the other half. The binder and the +stitcher lived, each of them, in half the garret rooms over the front +building on the street. The garrets above the rear wings were +occupied, the one on the right by the mysterious tenant, the one on +the left by Toupillier, who paid a hundred francs a year for it, and +reached it by a dark staircase, lighted by small round windows. The +porte-cochere was made in the circular form indispensable in a street +so narrow that two carriages cannot pass in it. + +Cerizet laid hold of the rope which served as a baluster, to climb the +species of ladder leading to the room where the so-called beggar was +dying,--a room in which the odious spectacle of pretended pauperism +was being played. In Paris, everything that is done for a purpose is +thoroughly done. Would-be paupers are as clever at mounting their +disguise as shopkeepers in preparing their show-windows, or sham rich +men in obtaining credit. + +The floor had never been swept; the bricks had disappeared beneath +layers of dirt, dust, dried mud, and any and every thing thrown down +by Toupillier. A miserable stove of cast-iron, the pipe of which +entered a crumbling chimney, was the most apparent piece of furniture +in this hovel. In an alcove stood a bed, with tester and valence of +green serge, which the moths had transformed into lace. The window, +almost useless, had a heavy coating of grease upon its panes, which +dispensed with the necessity of curtains. The whitewashed walls +presented to the eye fuliginous tones, due to the wood and peat burned +by the pauper in his stove. On the fireplace were a broken water- +pitcher, two bottles, and a cracked plate. A worm-eaten chest of +drawers contained his linen and decent clothes. The rest of the +furniture consisted of a night-table of the commonest description, +another table, worth about forty sous, and two kitchen chairs with the +straw seats almost gone. The extremely picturesque costume of the +centenarian pauper was hanging from a nail, and below it, on the +floor, were the shapeless mat-weed coverings that served him for +shoes, the whole forming, with his amorphous old hat and knotty stick, +a sort of panoply of misery. + +As he entered, Cerizet gave a rapid glance at the old man, whose head +lay on a pillow brown with grease and without a pillow-case; his +angular profile, like those which engravers of the last century were +fond of making out of rocks in the landscapes they engraved, was +strongly defined in black against the green serge hangings of the +tester. Toupillier, a man nearly six feet tall, was looking fixedly at +some object at the foot of his bed; he did not move on hearing the +groaning of the heavy door, which, being armed with iron bolts and a +strong lock, closed his domicile securely. + +"Is he conscious?" said Cerizet, before whom Madame Cardinal started +back, not having recognized him till he spoke. + +"Pretty nearly," she replied. + +"Come out on the staircase, so that he doesn't hear us," whispered +Cerizet. "This is how we'll manage it," he continued, in the ear of +his future mother-in-law. "He is weak, but he isn't so very low; we +have fully a week before us. I'll send you a doctor who'll suit us,-- +you understand? and later in the evening I'll bring you six poppy- +heads. In the state he's in, you see, a decoction of poppy-heads will +send him into a sound sleep. I'll send you a cot-bed on pretence of +your sleeping in the room with him. We'll move him from one bed to the +other, and when we've found the money there won't be any difficulty in +carrying it off. But we ought to know who the people are who live in +this old barrack. If Perrache suspects, as you think, about the money, +he might give an alarm, and so many tenants, so many spies, you +know--" + +"Oh! as for that," said Madame Cardinal, "I've found out already that +Monsieur du Portail, the old man who occupies the first floor, has +charge of an insane woman; I heard their Dutch servant-woman, Katte, +calling her Lydie this morning. The only other servant is an old valet +named Bruneau; he does everything, except cook." + +"But the binder and the stitcher down below," returned Cerizet, "they +begin work very early in the morning--Well, anyhow, we must study the +matter," he added, in the tone of a man whose plans are not yet +decided. "I'll go to the mayor's office of your arrondissement, and +get Olympe's register of birth, and put up the banns. The marriage +must take place a week from Saturday." + +"How he goes it, the rascal!" cried the admiring Madame Cardinal, +pushing her formidable son-in-law by the shoulder. + +As he went downstairs Cerizet was surprised to see, through one of the +small round windows, an old man, evidently du Portail, walking in the +garden with a very important member of the government, Comte Martial +de la Roche-Hugon. He stopped in the courtyard when he reached it, as +if to examine the old house, built in the reign of Louis XIV., the +yellow walls of which, though of freestone, were bent like the elderly +beggar they contained. Then he looked at the workshops, and counted +the workmen. The house was otherwise as silent as a cloister. Being +observed himself, Cerizet departed, thinking over in his mind the +various difficulties that might arise in extracting the sum hidden +beneath the dying man. + +"Carry off all that gold at night?" he said to himself; "why, those +porters will be on the watch, and twenty persons might see us! It is +hard work to carry even twenty-five thousand francs of gold on one's +person." + +Societies have two goals of perfection; the first is a state of +civilization in which morality equally infused and pervasive does not +admit even the idea of crime; the Jesuits reached that point, formerly +presented by the primitive Church. The second is the state of another +civilization in which the supervision of citizens over one another +makes crime impossible. The end which modern society has placed before +itself is the latter; namely, that in which a crime presents such +difficulties that a man must abandon all reasoning in order to commit +it. In fact, iniquities which the law cannot reach are not left +actually unpunished, for social judgment is even more severe than that +of courts. If a man like Minoret, the post-master at Nemours [see +"Ursule Mirouet"] suppresses a will and no one witnesses the act, the +crime is traced home to him by the watchfulness of virtue as surely as +a robbery is followed up by the detective police. No wrong-doing +passes actually unperceived; and wherever a lesion in rectitude takes +place the scar remains. Things can be no more made to disappear than +men; so carefully, in Paris especially, are articles and objects +ticketed and numbered, houses watched, streets observed, places spied +upon. To live at ease, crime must have a sanction like that of the +Bourse; like that conceded by Cerizet's clients; who never complained +of his usury, and, indeed, would have been troubled in mind if their +flayer were not in his den of a Tuesday. + +"Well, my dear monsieur," said Madame Perrache, the porter's wife, as +he passed her lodge, "how do you find him, that friend of God, that +poor man?" + +"I am not the doctor," replied Cerizet, who now decidedly declined +that role. "I am Madame Cardinal's business man. I have just advised +her to have a cot-bed put up, so as to nurse her uncle night and day; +though, perhaps, she will have to get a regular nurse." + +"I can help her," said Madame Perrache. "I nurse women in childbed." + +"Well, we'll see about it," said Cerizet; "I'll arrange all that. Who +is the tenant on your first floor?" + +"Monsieur du Portail. He has lodged here these thirty years. He is a +man with a good income, monsieur; highly respectable, and elderly. You +know people who invest in the Funds live on their incomes. He used to +be in business. But it is more than eleven years now since he has been +trying to restore the reason of a daughter of one of his friends, +Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade. She has the best advice, I can tell +you; the very first doctors in Paris; only this morning they had a +consultation. But so far nothing has cured her; and they have to watch +her pretty close; for sometimes she gets up and walks at night--" + +"Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade!" exclaimed Cerizet; "are you sure +of the name?" + +"I've heard Madame Katte, her nurse, who also does the cooking, call +her so a thousand times, monsieur; though, generally, neither Monsieur +Bruneau, the valet, nor Madame Katte say much. It's like talking to +the wall to try and get any information out of them. We have been +porters here these twenty years and we've never found out anything +about Monsieur du Portail yet. More than that, monsieur, he owns the +little house alongside; you see the double door from here. Well, he +can go out that way and receive his company too, and we know nothing +about it. Our owner doesn't know anything more than we do; when people +ring at that door, Monsieur Bruneau goes and opens it." + +"Then you didn't see the gentleman who is talking with him in the +garden go by this way?" + +"Bless me! no, that I didn't!" + +"Ah!" thought Cerizet as he got into the cabriolet, "she must be the +daughter of that uncle of Theodose. I wonder if du Portail can be the +secret benefactor who sent money from time to time to that rascal? +Suppose I send an anonymous letter to the old fellow, warning him of +the danger the barrister runs from those notes for twenty-five +thousand francs?" + +An hour later the cot-bed had arrived for Madame Cardinal, to whom the +inquisitive portress offered her services to bring her something to +eat. + +"Do you want to see the rector?" Madame Cardinal inquired of her +uncle. + +She had noticed that the arrival of the bed seemed to draw him from +his somnolence. + +"I want wine!" replied the pauper. + +"How do you feel now, Pere Toupillier?" asked Madame Perrache, in a +coaxing voice. + +"I tell you I want wine," repeated the old man, with an energetic +insistence scarcely to be expected of his feebleness. + +"We must first find out if it is good for you, uncle," said Madame +Cardinal, soothingly. "Wait till the doctor comes." + +"Doctor! I won't have a doctor!" cried Toupillier; "and you, what are +you doing here? I don't want anybody." + +"My good uncle, I came to know if you'd like something tasty. I've got +some nice fresh soles--hey! a bit of fried sole, with a squeeze of +lemon on it?" + +"Your fish, indeed!" cried Toupillier; "all rotten! That last you +brought me, more than six weeks ago, it is there in the cupboard; you +can take it away with you." + +"Heavens! how ungrateful sick men are!" whispered the widow Cardinal +to Perrache. + +Nevertheless, to exhibit solicitude, she arranged the pillow under the +patient's head, saying:-- + +"There! uncle, don't you feel better like that?" + +"Let me alone!" shouted Toupillier, angrily; "I want no one here; I +want wine; leave me in peace." + +"Don't get angry, little uncle; we'll fetch you some wine." + +"Number six wine, rue des Canettes," cried the pauper. + +"Yes, I know," replied Madame Cardinal; "but let me count out my +coppers. I want to get something better for you than that kind of +wine; for, don't you see, an uncle, he's a kind of father, and one +shouldn't mind what one does for him." + +So saying, she sat down, with her legs apart, on one of the +dilapidated chairs, and poured into her apron the contents of her +pockets, namely: a knife, her snuff-box, two pawn-tickets, some crusts +of bread, and a handful of copper, from which she extracted a few +silver bits. + +This exhibition, intended to prove her generous and eager devotion, +had no result. Toupillier seemed not to notice it. Exhausted by the +feverish energy with which he had demanded his favorite remedy, he +made an effort to change his position, and, with his back turned to +his two nurses, he again muttered: "Wine! wine!" after which nothing +more was heard of him but a stentorous breathing, that plainly showed +the state of his lungs, which were beginning to congest. + +"I suppose I must go and fetch his wine!" said the Cardinal, restoring +to her pockets, with some ill-humor, the cargo she had just pulled out +of them. + +"If you don't want to go--" began Madame Perrache, always ready to +offer her services. + +The fishwife hesitated for a moment; then, reflecting that something +might be got out of a conversation with the wine-merchant, and sure, +moreover, that as long as Toupillier lay on his gold she could safely +leave him alone with the portress, she said:-- + +"Thank you, Madame Perrache, but I'd better make acquaintance with his +trades-folk." + +Then, having spied behind the night-table a dirty bottle which might +hold about two quarts,-- + +"Did he say the rue des Canelles?" she inquired of the portress. + +"Corner of the rue Guisarde," replied Madame Perrache. "Monsieur +Legrelu, a tall, fine man with big whiskers and no hair." Then, +lowering her voice, she added: "His number-six wine, you know, is +Roussillon, and the best, too. However, the wine-merchant knows; it is +enough if you tell him you have come from his customer, the pauper of +Saint-Sulpice." + +"No need to tell me anything twice," said the Cardinal, opening the +door and making, as they say, a false exit. "Ah ca!" she said, coming +back; "what does he burn in his stove, supposing I want to heat some +remedy for him?" + +"Goodness!" said the portress, "he doesn't make much provision for +winter, and here we are in the middle of summer!" + +"And not a saucepan! not a pot, even! Gracious! what a way to live. +I'll have to fetch him some provisions; I hope nobody will see the +things I bring back; I'd be ashamed they should--" + +"I'll lend you a hand-bag," said the portress, always ready and +officious. + +"No, I'll buy a basket," replied the fishwife, more anxious about what +she expected to carry away than what she was about to bring home to +the pauper. "There must be some Auvergnat in the neighborhood who +sells wood," she added. + +"Corner of the rue Ferou; you'll find one there. A fine establishment, +with logs of wood painted in a kind of an arcade all round the shop-- +so like, you'd think they were going to speak to you." + +Before going finally off, Madame Cardinal went through a piece of very +deep hypocrisy. We have seen how she hesitated about leaving the +portress alone with the sick man:-- + +"Madame Perrache," she said to her, "you won't leave him, the poor +darling, will you, till I get back?" + +It may have been noticed that Cerizet had not decided on any definite +course of action in the new affair he was now undertaking. The part of +doctor, which for a moment he thought of assuming, frightened him, and +he gave himself out, as we have seen, to Madame Perrache as the +business agent of his accomplice. Once alone, he began to see that his +original idea complicated with a doctor, a nurse, and a notary, +presented the most serious difficulties. A regular will drawn in favor +of Madame Cardinal was not a thing to be improvised in a moment. It +would take some time to acclimatize the idea in the surly and +suspicious mind of the old pauper, and death, which was close at hand, +might play them a trick at any moment, and balk the most careful +preparations. + +It was true that unless a will were made the income of eight thousand +francs on the Grand Livre and the house in the rue Notre-Dame de +Nazareth would go to the heirs-at-law, and Madame Cardinal would get +only her share of the property; but the abandonment of this visible +portion of the inheritance was the surest means of laying hands on the +invisible part of it. Besides, if the latter were secured, what +hindered their returning to the idea of a will? + +Resolving, therefore, to confine the OPERATION to the simplest terms +at first, Cerizet summed them up in the manoeuvre of the poppy-heads, +already mentioned, and he was making his way back to Toupillier's +abode, armed with that single weapon of war, intending to give Madame +Cardinal further instructions, when he met her, bearing on her arm the +basket she had just bought; and in that basket was the sick man's +panacea. + +"Upon my word!" cried the usurer, "is this the way you keep your +watch?" + +"I had to go out and buy him wine," replied the Cardinal; "he is +howling like a soul in hell that he wants to be at peace, and to be +let alone, and get his wine! It is his one idea that Roussillon is +good for his disease. Well, when he has drunk it, I dare say he will +be quieter." + +"You are right," said Cerizet, sententiously; "never contradict a sick +man. But this wine, you know, ought to be improved; by infusing these" +(and lifting one of the covers of the basket he slipped in the +poppies) "you'll procure the poor man a good, long sleep,--five or six +hours at least. This evening I'll come and see you, and nothing, I +think, need prevent us from examining a little closer those matters of +inheritance." + +"I see," said Madame Cardinal, winking. + +"To-night, then," said Cerizet, not wishing to prolong the +conversation. + +He had a strong sense of the difficulty and danger of the affair, and +was very reluctant to be seen in the street conversing with his +accomplice. + +Returning to her uncle's garret, Madame Cardinal found him still in a +state of semi-torpor; she relieved Madame Perrache, and bade her good- +bye, going to the door to receive a supply of wood, all sawed, which +she had ordered from the Auvergnat in the rue Ferou. + +Into an earthen pot, which she had bought of the right size to fit +upon the hole in the stoves of the poor where they put their soup- +kettles, she now threw the poppies, pouring over them two-thirds of +the wine she had brought back with her. Then she lighted a fire +beneath the pot, intending to obtain the decoction agreed upon as +quickly as possible. The crackling of the wood and the heat, which +soon spread about the room, brought Toupillier out of his stupor. +Seeing the stove lighted he called out:-- + +"Who is making a fire here? Do you want to burn the house down?" + +"Why, uncle," said the Cardinal, "it is wood I bought with my own +money, to warm your wine. The doctor doesn't want you to drink it +cold." + +"Where is it, that wine?" demanded Toupillier, calming down a little +at the thought that the fire was not burning at his expense. + +"It must come to a boil," said his nurse; "the doctor insisted upon +that. Still, if you'll be good I'll give you half a glass of it cold, +just to wet your whistle. I'll take that upon myself, but don't you +tell the doctor." + +"Doctor! I won't have a doctor; they are all scoundrels, invented to +kill people," cried Toupillier, whom the idea of drink had revived. +"Come, give me the wine!" he said, in the tone of a man whose patience +had come to an end. + +Convinced that though this compliance would do no harm it could do no +good, Madame Cardinal poured out half a glass, and while she gave it +with one hand to the sick man, with the other she raised him to a +sitting posture that he might drink it. + +With his fleshless, eager fingers Toupillier clutched the glass, +emptied it at a gulp, and exclaimed:-- + +"Ah! that's a fine drop, that is! though you've watered it." + +"You mustn't say that, uncle; I went and bought it myself of Pere +Legrelu, and I've given it you quite pure. But you let me simmer the +rest; the doctor said I might then give you all you wanted." + +Toupillier resigned himself with a shrug of the shoulders. At the end +of fifteen minutes, the infusion being in condition to serve, Madame +Cardinal brought him, without further appeal, a full cup of it. + +The avidity with which the old pauper drank it down prevented him from +noticing at first that the wine was drugged; but as he swallowed the +last drops he tasted the sickly and nauseating flavor, and flinging +the cup on the bed he cried out that some one was trying to poison +him. + +"Poison! nonsense!" said the fishwife, pouring into her own mouth a +few drops of that which remained in the bottle, declaring to the old +man that if the wine did not seem to him the same as usual, it was +because his mouth had a "bad taste to it." + +Before the end of the dispute, which lasted some time, the narcotic +began to take effect, and at the end of an hour the sick man was sound +asleep. + +While idly waiting for Cerizet, an idea took possession of the +Cardinal's mind. She thought that in view of their comings and goings +with the treasure, it would be well if the vigilance of the Perrache +husband and wife could be dulled in some manner. Consequently, after +carefully flinging the refuse poppy-heads into the privy, she called +to the portress:-- + +"Madame Perrache, come up and taste his wine. Wouldn't you have +thought to hear him talk he was ready to drink a cask of it? Well, a +cupful satisfied him." + +"Your health!" said the portress, touching glasses with the Cardinal, +who was careful to have hers filled with the unboiled wine. Less +accomplished as a gourmet than the old beggar, Madame Perrache +perceived nothing in the insidious liquid (cold by the time she drank +it) to make her suspect its narcotic character; on the contrary, she +declared it was "velvet," and wished that her husband were there to +have a share in the treat. After a rather long gossip, the two women +separated. Then, with the cooked meat she had provided for herself, +and the remains of the Roussillon, Madame Cardinal made a repast which +she finished off with a siesta. Without mentioning the emotions of the +day, the influence of one of the most heady wines of the country would +have sufficed to explain the soundness of her sleep; when she woke +darkness was coming on. + +Her first care was to give a glance at her patient; his sleep was +restless, and he was dreaming aloud. + +"Diamonds," he said; "those diamonds? At my death, but not before." + +"Gracious!" thought Madame Cardinal, "that was the one thing lacking, +--diamonds! that he should have diamonds!" + +Then, as Toupillier seemed to be in the grasp of a violent nightmare, +she leaned over him so as not to lose a word of his speech, hoping to +gather from it some important revelation. At this moment a slight rap +given to the door, from which the careful nurse had removed the key, +announced the arrival of Cerizet. + +"Well?" he said, on entering. + +"He has taken the drug. He's been sound asleep these two hours; just +now, in dreaming, he was talking of diamonds." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "it wouldn't be surprising if we found some. +These paupers when they set out to be rich, like to pile up +everything." + +"Ah ca!" cried the Cardinal, suddenly, "what made you go and tell Mere +Perrache that you were my man of business, and that you weren't a +doctor? I thought we agreed this morning that you were coming as a +doctor?" + +Cerizet did not choose to admit that the usurpation of that title had +seemed to him dangerous; he feared to discourage his accomplice. + +"I saw that the woman was going to propose a consultation," he +replied, "and I got out of it that way." + +"Goodness!" exclaimed Madame Cardinal, "they say fine minds come +together; that was my dodge, too. Calling you my man of business +seemed to give that old pilferer a few ideas. Did they see you come +in, those porters?" + +"I thought, as I went by," replied Cerizet, "that the woman was asleep +in her chair." + +"And well she might be," said the Cardinal, significantly. + +"What, really?" said Cerizet. + +"Parbleu!" replied the fishwife; "what's enough for one is enough for +two; the rest of the stuff went that way." + +"As for the husband, he was there," said Cerizet; "for he gave me a +gracious sign of recognition, which I could have done without." + +"Wait till it is quite dark, and we'll play him a comedy that shall +fool him finely." + +Accordingly, ten minutes later, the fishwife, with a vim that +delighted the usurer, organized for the innocent porter the comedy of +a MONSIEUR who would not, out of politeness, let her accompany him to +the door; she herself with equal politeness insisting. Appearing to +conduct the sham physician into the street gate she pretended that the +wind had blown out of her lamp, and under pretext of relighting it she +put out that of Perrache. All this racket, accompanied by exclamations +and a bewildering loquacity, was so briskly carried out that the +porter, if summoned before the police-court, would not have hesitated +to swear that the doctor, whose arrival he had witnessed, left the +house between nine and ten o'clock. + +When the two accomplices were thus in tranquil possession of the field +of operations Madame Cardinal hung up her rabbit's-hair shawl before +the window to exclude all possible indiscretion on the part of a +neighbor. In the Luxembourg quarter life quiets down early. By ten +o'clock all the sounds in the house as well as those out of doors were +stilled, and Cerizet declared that the moment had come to go to work; +by beginning at once they were certain that the sleeper would remain +under the influence of the drug; besides, if the booty were found at +once, Madame Cardinal could, under pretence of a sudden attack on her +patient, which required her to fetch a remedy from the apothecary, get +the porter to open the street gate for her without suspicion. As all +porters pull the gate-cord from their beds, Cerizet would be able to +get away at the same time without notice. + +Powerful in advice, Cerizet was a very incapable hand in action; and, +without the robust assistance of Mere Cardinal he could never have +lifted what might almost be called the corpse of the former drum- +major. Completely insensible, Toupillier was now an inert mass, a +dead-weight, which could, fortunately, be handled without much +precaution, and the athletic Madame Cardinal, gathering strength from +her cupidity, contrived, notwithstanding Cerizet's insufficient +assistance, to effect the transfer of her uncle from one bed to the +other. + +On rummaging the bed from which the body was moved, nothing was found, +and Madame Cardinal, pressed by Cerizet to explain why she had +confidently asserted that her uncle "was lying on one hundred thousand +francs in gold," was forced to admit that a talk with Madame Perrache, +and her own fervid imagination were the sole grounds of her certainty. +Cerizet was furious; having for one whole day dallied with the idea +and hope of fortune, having, moreover, entered upon a dangerous and +compromising course of action, only to find himself, at the supreme +moment, face to face with--nothing! The disappointment was so bitter +that if he had not been afraid of the muscular strength of his future +mother-in-law, he would have rushed upon her with some frantic +intention. + +His anger, however, spent itself in words. Harshly abused, Madame +Cardinal contented herself by remarking that all hope was not lost, +and then, with a faith that ought to have moved mountains, she set to +work to empty the straw from the mattress she had already vainly +explored in all directions. But Cerizet would not allow that extreme +measure; he remarked that after the autopsy of a straw mattress such +detritus would remain upon the floor as must infallibly give rise to +suspicion. But the Cardinal, who thought this caution ridiculous, was +determined to, at least, take apart the flock bedstead. The passion of +the search gave extraordinary vigilance to her senses, and as she +raised the wooden side-frame she heard the fall of some tiny object on +the floor. Seizing the light she began to search in the mound of filth +of all kinds that was under the bed, and finally laid her hand on a +bit of polished steel about half an inch long, the use of which was to +her inexplicable. + +"That's a key!" cried Cerizet, who was standing beside her with some +indifference, but whose imagination now set off at a gallop. + +"Ha! ha! you see I was right," cried the Cardinal. "But what can it +open?" she added, on reflection; "nothing bigger than a doll's house." + +"No," said Cerizet, "it is a modern invention, and very strong locks +can be opened with that little instrument." + +With a rapid glance he took in all the pieces of furniture in the +room; went to the bureau and pulled out the drawers; looked in the +stove, in the table; but nowhere did he find a lock to which the +little key could be adapted. + +Suddenly the Cardinal had a flash of illumination. + +"See here!" she said. "I remarked that the old thief, as he lay on his +bed, never took his eyes off the wall just opposite to him." + +"A cupboard hidden in the wall!" cried Cerizet, seizing the light +eagerly; "it is not impossible!" + +Examining attentively the door of the alcove, which was opposite the +bed's head, he could see nothing there but a vast accumulation of dust +and spiders' webs. He next employed the sense of touch, and began to +rap and sound the wall in all directions. At the spot to which +Toupillier's constant gaze was directed he thought he perceived in a +very narrow space a slight sonority, and he presently perceived that +he was rapping on wood. He then rubbed the spot vigorously with his +handkerchief, and beneath the thick layer of dust and dirt which he +thus removed he found a piece of oak plank carefully inserted in the +wall. On one side of this plank was a small round hole; it was that of +the lock which the key fitted! + +While Cerizet was turning the key, which worked with great difficulty, +Madame Cardinal, holding the light, was pale and breathless; but, oh! +cruel deception! the cupboard, at last unlocked and open, showed only +an empty space, into which the light in her hand fell uselessly. + +Allowing this bacchante to give vent to her despair by saluting her +much-beloved uncle with the harshest epithets, Cerizet quietly +inserted his arm into the cupboard, and after feeling it over at the +back, he cried out, "An iron safe!" adding, impatiently, "Give me more +light, Madame Cardinal." + +Then, as the light did not penetrate to the depths of the cupboard, he +snatched the candle from the bottle, where, in default of a +candlestick, the Cardinal had stuck it, and, taking it in his hand, +moved it carefully over all parts of the iron safe, the existence of +which was now a certainty. + +"There is no visible lock," he said. "There must be a secret opening." + +"Isn't he sly, that old villain!" exclaimed Madame Cardinal, while +Cerizet's bony fingers felt the side of the safe over minutely. + +"Ha!" he exclaimed, after groping for ten minutes, "I have it!" + +During this time Madame Cardinal's life seemed actually suspended. + +Under the pressure which Cerizet now applied, the iron side rose +quickly into the thickness of the wall above, and in the midst of a +mass of gold thrown pell-mell into a large excavation that was now +exposed to view, lay a case of red morocco, which, from its size and +appearance, gave promise of magnificent booty. + +"I take the diamonds for myself," said Cerizet, when he had opened the +case and seen the splendid jewels it contained; "you won't know how to +get rid of them. I'll leave you the gold for your share. As for the +house and the money in the Funds, they are not worth the trouble it +would be to get the old fellow to make a will." + +"Not so fast, my little man!" replied the Cardinal, who thought this +decision rather summary; "we will first count the money--" + +"Hush!" exclaimed Cerizet, apparently listening to a sound. + +"What is it?" asked the Cardinal. + +"Don't you hear some one moving below?" + +"No, I hear nothing." + +Cerizet, making her a sign to be silent, listened attentively. + +"I hear a step on the stairs," he said, a moment later. + +Then he hastily replaced the morocco case, and made desperate but +unavailing efforts to lower the panel. + +"Yes!" cried Madame Cardinal, terrified; "some one is really coming." +Then, fastening to a hope of safety, she added, "I dare say it is that +insane girl; they say she walks at night." + +At any rate, the insane girl (if it were she) had a key to the room, +for a moment later, this key was inserted in the lock. With a rapid +glance Madame Cardinal measured the distance to the door; should she +have time to push the bolt? No; certain that it was then too late, so +she blew out the candle to give herself at least some chances in the +darkness. + +Useless effort! the intruder who now appeared had brought a candle +with him. + +When Madame Cerizet saw that she had to do with a small, old man of +puny appearance, she flung herself before him with flaming eyes, like +a lioness from whom the hunter is seeking to take her cubs. + +"Be calm, my good woman," said the little man, in a jeering tone; "the +police are sent for; they will be here in a moment." + +At the word "police" the Cardinal's legs gave way. + +"But, monsieur," she said, "why the police? we are not robbers." + +"No matter for that; if I were in your place I shouldn't wait for +them," said the little old man; "they make unfortunate mistakes +sometimes." + +"Can I clear out?" asked the woman, incredulously. + +"Yes, if you empty your pockets of anything which has, BY ACCIDENT, +got into them." + +"Oh! my good monsieur, I haven't a thing in my hands or my pockets; I +wasn't here to harm any one,--only to nurse my poor dear uncle; you +can search me." + +"Come, be off with you! that will do," said the old man. + +Madame Cardinal did not oblige him to repeat the order, and she +rapidly disappeared down the staircase. + +Cerizet made as though he would take the same road. + +"You, monsieur, are quite another thing," said the little old man. +"You and I must talk together; but if you are tractable, the affair +between us can be settled amicably." + +Whether it was that the narcotic had ceased to operate, or that the +noise going on about Toupillier put an end to his sleep, he now opened +his eyes and cast around him the glance of a man who endeavors to +remember where he is; then, seeing his precious cupboard open, he +found in the emotion that sight produced the strength to cry out two +or three times, "Help! help! robbers!" in a voice that was loud enough +to rouse the house. + +"No, Toupillier," said the little old man; "you have not been robbed; +I came here in time to prevent it; nothing has been taken." + +"Why don't you arrest that villain?" shouted the old pauper, pointing +to Cerizet. + +"Monsieur is not a thief," replied the old man. "On the contrary, he +came up with me to lend assistance." Then, turning to Cerizet, he +added, in a low voice: "I think, my good friend, that we had better +postpone the interview I desire to have with you until to-morrow. Come +at ten o'clock to the adjoining house, and ask for Monsieur du +Portail. After what has passed this evening, there will, I ought to +warn you, be some danger to you in not accepting this conference. I +shall find you elsewhere, infallibly; for I have the honor to know who +you are; you are the man whom the Opposition journals were accustomed +to call 'the courageous Cerizet.'" + +In spite of the profound sarcasm of this remark, Cerizet, perceiving +that he was not to be treated more rigorously than Madame Cardinal, +felt so pleased with this conclusion that he promised, very readily, +to keep the appointment, and then slipped away with all the haste he +could. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DU PORTAIL + +The next day Cerizet did not fail to appear at the rendezvous given to +him. Examined, at first, through the wicket of the door, he was +admitted, after giving his name, into the house, and was ushered +immediately to the study of Monsieur du Portail, whom he found at his +desk. + +Without rising, and merely making a sign to his guest to take a chair, +the little old man continued the letter he was then writing. After +sealing it with wax, with a care and precision that denoted a nature +extremely fastidious and particular, or else a man accustomed to +discharge diplomatic functions, du Portail rang for Bruneau, his +valet, and said, as he gave him the letter:-- + +"For the justice-of-peace of the arrondissement." + +Then he carefully wiped the steel pen he had just used, restored to +their places, symmetrically, all the displaced articles on his desk, +and it was only when these little arrangements were completed that he +turned to Cerizet, and said:-- + +"You know, of course, that we lost that poor Monsieur Toupillier last +night?" + +"No, really?" said Cerizet, putting on the most sympathetic air he +could manage. "This is my first knowledge of it." + +"But you probably expected it. When one gives a dying man an immense +bowl of hot wine, which has also been narcotized,--for the Perrache +woman slept all night in a sort of lethargy after drinking a small +glass of it,--it is evident that the catastrophe has been hastened." + +"I am ignorant, monsieur," said Cerizet, with dignity, "of what Madame +Cardinal may have given to her uncle. I have no doubt committed a +great piece of thoughtlessness in assisting this woman to obtain an +inheritance to which she assured me she had legal rights; but as to +attempting the life of that old pauper, I am quite incapable of such a +thing; nothing of the kind ever entered my mind." + +"You wrote me this letter, I think," said du Portail, abruptly, taking +from beneath a bohemian glass bowl a paper which he offered to +Cerizet. + +"A letter?" replied Cerizet, with the hesitation of a man who doesn't +know whether to lie or speak the truth. + +"I am quite sure of what I say," continued du Portail. "I have a mania +for autographs, and I possess one of yours, obtained at the period +when the Opposition exalted you to the glorious rank of martyr. I have +compared the two writings, and I find that you certainly wrote me, +yesterday, the letter which you hold in your hand, informing me of the +money embarrassments of young la Peyrade at the present moment." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "knowing that you had given a home to +Mademoiselle de la Peyrade, who is probably cousin of Theodose, I +thought I recognized in you the mysterious protector from whom, on +more than one occasion, my friend has received the most generous +assistance. Now, as I have a sincere affection for that poor fellow, +it was in his interests that I permitted myself--" + +"You did quite right," interrupted du Portail. "I am delighted to have +fallen in with a friend of la Peyrade. I ought not to conceal from you +that it was this particular fact which protected you last night. But +tell me, what is this about notes for twenty-five thousand francs? Is +our friend so badly off in his affairs? Is he leading a dissipated +life?" + +"On the contrary," replied Cerizet, "he's a puritan. Given to the +deepest piety, he did not choose to take, as a barrister, any other +cases but those of the poor. He is now on the point of making a rich +marriage." + +"Ah! is he going to be married? and to whom?" + +"To a Demoiselle Colleville, daughter of the secretary of the mayor of +the 12th arrondissement. In herself, the girl has no fortune, but a +certain Monsieur Thuillier, her godfather, member of the Council- +general of the Seine, has promised her a suitable 'dot.'" + +"Who has handled this affair?" + +"La Peyrade has been devoted to the Thuillier family, into which he +was introduced by Monsieur Dutocq, clerk of the justice-of-peace of +their arrondissement." + +"But you wrote me that these notes were signed in favor of Monsieur +Dutocq. The affair is a bit of matrimonial brokerage, in short?" + +"Well, something of that kind," replied Cerizet. "You know, monsieur, +that in Paris such transactions are very common. Even the clergy won't +disdain to have a finger in them." + +"Is the marriage a settled thing?" + +"Yes, and within the last few days especially." + +"Well, my good sir, I rely on you to put an end to it. I have other +views for Theodose,--another marriage to propose to him." + +"Excuse me!" said Cerizet, "to break up this marriage would make it +impossible for him to pay his notes; and I have the honor to call your +attention to the fact that these particular bills of exchange are +serious matters. Monsieur Dutocq is in the office of the justice-of- +peace; in other words, he couldn't be easily defeated in such a +matter." + +"The debt to Monsieur Dutocq you shall buy off yourself," replied du +Portail. "Make arrangements with him to that effect. Should Theodose +prove reluctant to carry out my plans, those notes may become a useful +weapon in our hands. You will take upon yourself to sue him for them, +and you shall have no money responsibility in the matter. I will pay +you the amount of the notes for Dutocq, and your costs in suing +Theodose." + +"You are square in business, monsieur," said Cerizet. "There's some +pleasure in being your agent. Now, if you think the right moment has +come, I should be glad if you would give me some better light on the +mission you are doing me the honor to place in my hands." + +"You spoke just now," replied du Portail, "of the cousin of Theodose, +Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade. This young woman, who is not in her +first youth, for she is nearly thirty, is the natural daughter of the +celebrated Mademoiselle Beaumesnil of the Theatre Francais and +Peyrade, the commissary-general of police under the Empire, and the +uncle of our friend. Until his death, which occurred suddenly, leaving +his daughter, whom he loved tenderly, without means of support, I was +bound to that excellent man with the warmest friendship." + +Glad to show that he had some knowledge of du Portail's interior life, +Cerizet hastened to remark:-- + +"And you have secretly fulfilled the duties of that friendship, +monsieur; for, in taking into your home that interesting orphan you +assumed a difficult guardianship. Mademoiselle de la Peyrade's state +of health requires, I am told, a care not only affectionate, but +persevering." + +"Yes," replied du Portail, "the poor girl, after the death of her +father, was so cruelly tried that her mind has been somewhat affected; +but a fortunate change has lately occurred in her condition, and only +yesterday I called in consultation Doctor Bianchon and the two +physicians-in-charge of Bicetre and the Salpetriere. These gentlemen +unanimously declare that marriage and the birth of a first child would +undoubtedly restore her to perfect health. You can readily understand +that the remedy is too easy and agreeable not to be attempted." + +"Then," said Cerizet, "it is to Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade, his +cousin, that you wish to marry Theodose." + +"You have said it," returned du Portail, "and you must not think that +our young friend, if he accepts the marriage, will be called upon to +show a gratuitous devotion. Lydie is very agreeable in person; she has +talents, a charming disposition, and she can bring to bear, in her +husband's interest, a strong influence in public life. She has, +moreover, a pretty fortune, consisting of what her mother left her, +and of my entire property, which, having no heirs myself, I intend to +secure to her in the marriage contract. Besides all this, she has this +very night acquired a not inconsiderable legacy." + +"What!" exclaimed Cerizet, "do you mean that old Toupillier--" + +"By a will in his own handwriting, which I have here, that old pauper +constitutes her his sole legatee. You see, therefore, that I showed +some kindness in not proceeding against you and Madame Cardinal for +your little attempt last night; it was simply our property that you +were trying to pillage." + +"Heavens!" cried Cerizet, "I won't pretend to excuse Madame Cardinal's +misconduct; and yet, as one of the legal heirs, dispossessed by a +stranger, she had, it seems to me, some right to the indulgence which +you certainly showed to her." + +"In that you are mistaken," said du Portail; "the apparent liberality +of the old beggar to Mademoiselle de la Peyrade happens to be only a +restitution." + +"A restitution!" exclaimed Cerizet, in a tone of curiosity. + +"A restitution," repeated du Portail, "and nothing is easier than to +prove it. Do you remember the robbery of some diamonds from one of our +dramatic celebrities about ten years ago?" + +"Yes," replied Cerizet. "I was manager of one of my newspapers at the +time, and I used to write the 'Paris items.' But stay, I remember, the +actress who lost them was Mademoiselle Beaumesnil." + +"Precisely; the mother of Mademoiselle de la Peyrade." + +"Consequently, this miserable old Toupillier--no, I remember that the +thief was convicted; his name was Charles Crochard. It was said, under +the rose, that he was the natural son of a great personage, the Comte +de Granville, attorney-general under the Restoration." [See "A Double +Life."] + +"Well," said du Portail, "this is how it happened. The robbery was +committed in a house in the rue de Tournon, occupied by Mademoiselle +Beaumesnil. Charles Crochard, who was a handsome fellow, was said to +have the run of it--" + +"Yes, yes," cried Cerizet, "I remember Mademoiselle Beaumesnil's +embarrassment when she gave her testimony--and also the total +extinction of voice that attacked her when the judge asked her age." + +"The robbery," continued du Portail, "was audaciously committed in the +daytime; and no sooner did Charles Crochard get possession of the +casket than he went to the church of Saint-Sulpice, where he had an +appointment with an accomplice, who, being supplied with a passport, +was to start immediately with the diamonds for foreign parts. It so +chanced that on entering the church, instead of meeting the man he +expected, who was a trifle late, Charles Crochard came face to face +with a celebrated agent of the detective force, who was well known to +him, inasmuch as the young rascal was not at his first scrimmage with +the police. The absence of his accomplice, this encounter with the +detective, and, lastly, a rapid movement made by the latter, by the +merest chance, toward the door, induced the robber to fancy he was +being watched. Losing his head under this idea, he wanted, at any +cost, to put the casket out of his possession, knowing that if +arrested, as he expected, at the door of the church, it would be a +damning proof against him. Catching sight at that moment of +Toupillier, who was then the giver of holy water, 'My man,' said he, +making sure that no one overheard their colloquy, 'will you take care +of this little package for me? It is a box of lace. I am going near by +to a countess who is slow to pay her bill; and if I have the lace with +me she'll want to see it, for it is a new style, and she'll ask me to +leave it with her on credit, instead of paying the bill; therefore I +don't want to take it. But,' he added, 'be sure not to touch the paper +that wraps the box, for there's nothing harder than to do up a package +in the same folds--'" + +"The booby!" cried Cerizet, naively; "why, that very caution would +make the man want to open it." + +"You are an able casuist," said du Portail. "Well, an hour later, +Charles Crochard, finding that nothing happened to him, returned to +the church to obtain his deposit, but Toupillier was no longer there. +You can imagine the anxiety with which Charles Crochard attended early +mass the next day, and approached the giver of holy water, who was +there, sure enough, attending to his functions. But night, they say, +brings counsel; the worthy beggar audaciously declared that he had +received no package, and did not know what his interlocutor meant." + +"And there was no possibility of arguing with him, for that would be +exposure," remarked Cerizet, who was not far from sympathizing in a +trick so boldly played. + +"No doubt," resumed du Portail; "the robbery was already noised about, +and Toupillier, who was a very able fellow, had calculated that +Charles Crochard would not dare to publicly accuse him, for that would +reveal the theft. In fact, on his trial Charles Crochard never said a +word of his mishap, and during the six years he spent at the galleys +(he was condemned to ten, but four were remitted) he did not open his +lips to a single soul about the treachery of which he had been a +victim." + +"That was pretty plucky," said Cerizet; the tale excited him, and he +showed openly that he saw the matter as an artist and a connoisseur. + +"In that interval," continued du Portail, "Madame Beaumesnil died, +leaving her daughter a few fragments of a once great fortune, and the +diamonds which the will expressly stated Lydie was to receive 'in case +they were recovered.'" + +"Ha! ha!" exclaimed Cerizet, "bad for Toupillier, because, having to +do with a man of your calibre--" + +"Charles Crochard's first object on being liberated was vengeance on +Toupillier, and his first step was to denounce him to the police as +receiver of the stolen property. Taken in hand by the law, Toupillier +defended himself with such singular good-humor, being able to show +that no proof whatever existed against him, that the examining judge +let him off. He lost his place, however, as giver of holy water, +obtaining, with great difficulty, permission to beg at the door of the +church. For my part, I was certain of his guilt; and I managed to have +the closest watch kept upon him; though I relied far more upon myself. +Being a man of means and leisure, I stuck, as you may say, to the skin +of my thief, and did, in order to unmask him, one of the cleverest +things of my career. He was living at that time in the rue du Coeur- +Volant. I succeeded in becoming the tenant of the room adjoining his; +and one night, through a gimlet hole I had drilled in the partition, I +saw my man take the case of diamonds from a very cleverly contrived +hiding-place. He sat for an hour gazing at them and fondling them; he +made them sparkle in the light, he pressed them passionately to his +lips. The man actually loved those diamonds for themselves, and had +never thought of turning them to money." + +"I understand," said Cerizet,--"a mania like that of Cardillac, the +jeweller, which has now been dramatized." + +"That is just it," returned du Portail; "the poor wretch was in love +with that casket; so that when, shortly after, I entered his room and +told him I knew all, he proposed to me to leave him the life use of +what he called the consolation of his old age, pledging himself to +make Mademoiselle de la Peyrade his sole heir, revealing to me at the +same time the existence of a hoard of gold (to which he was adding +every day), and also the possession of a house and an investment in +the Funds." + +"If he made that proposal in good faith," said Cerizet, "it was a +desirable one. The interest of the capital sunk in the diamonds was +more than returned by that from the other property." + +"You now see, my dear sir," said du Portail, "that I was not mistaken +in trusting him. All my precautions were well taken; I exacted that he +should occupy a room in the house I lived in, where I could keep a +close eye upon him. I assisted him in making that hiding-place, the +secret of which you discovered so cleverly; but what you did not find +out was that in touching the spring that opened the iron safe you rang +a bell in my apartment, which warned me of any attempt that was made +to remove our treasure." + +"Poor Madame Cardinal!" cried Cerizet, good-humoredly, "how far she +was from suspecting it!" + +"Now here's the situation," resumed du Portail. "On account of the +interest I feel in the nephew of my old friend, and also, on account +of the relationship, this marriage seems to me extremely desirable; in +short, I unite Theodose to his cousin and her 'dot.' As it is possible +that, considering the mental state of his future wife, Theodose may +object to sharing my views, I have not thought it wise to make this +proposal directly to himself. You have suddenly turned up upon my +path; I know already that you are clever and wily, and that knowledge +induces me to put this little matrimonial negotiation into your hands. +Now, I think, you understand the matter thoroughly; speak to him of a +fine girl, with one little drawback, but, on the other hand, a +comfortable fortune. Do not name her to him; and come here and let me +know how the proposal has been taken." + +"Your confidence delights me as much as it honors me," replied +Cerizet, "and I will justify it the best I can." + +"We must not expect too much," said du Portail. "Refusal will be the +first impulse of a man who has an affair on hand elsewhere; but we +need not consider ourselves beaten. I shall not easily give up a plan +which I know to be just, even if I push my zeal so far as to put la +Peyrade under lock and key in Clichy. I am resolved not to take no for +his answer to a proposal of which, in the end, he cannot fail to see +the propriety. Therefore, in any case, buy up those notes from +Monsieur Dutocq." + +"At par?" asked Cerizet. + +"Yes, at par, if you cannot do better; we are not going to haggle over +a few thousand francs; only, when this transaction is arranged, +Monsieur Dutocq must pledge us either his assistance, or, at the very +least, his neutrality. After what you have said of the other marriage, +it is unnecessary for me to warn you that there is not a moment to +lose in putting our irons into the fire." + +"Two days hence I have an appointment with la Peyrade," said Cerizet. +"We have a little matter of business of our own to settle. Don't you +think it would be best to wait till then, when I can introduce the +proposal incidentally? In case of resistance, I think that arrangement +would best conduce to OUR dignity." + +"So be it," said du Portail; "it isn't much of a delay. Remember, +monsieur, that if you succeed you have, in place of a man able to +bring you to a stern account for your IMPRUDENT ASSISTANCE to Madame +Cardinal, a greatly obliged person, who will be ready at all times to +serve you, and whose influence is greater than is generally supposed." + +After these friendly words, the pair separated with a thoroughly good +understanding, and well satisfied with each other. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN WHICH THE LAMB DEVOURS THE WOLF + +The evening before the day already agreed upon, Theodose received from +Cerizet the following note:-- + +"To-morrow, lease or no lease, Rocher de Cancale, half-past six +o'clock." + +As for Dutocq, Cerizet saw him every day, for he was still his copying +clerk; he therefore gave him his invitation by word of mouth; but the +attentive reader must remark a difference in the hour named: "Quarter- +past-six, Rocher de Cancale," said Cerizet. It was evident, therefore, +that he wanted that fifteen minutes with Dutocq before the arrival of +la Peyrade. + +These minutes the usurer proposed to employ in jockeying Dutocq in the +purchase of the notes; he fancied that if the proposition to buy them +were suddenly put before him without the slightest preparation it +might be more readily received. By not leaving the seller time to +bethink himself, perhaps he might lead him to loosen his grasp, and +the notes once bought below par, he could consider at his leisure +whether to pocket the difference or curry favor with du Portail for +the discount he had obtained. Let us say, moreover, that apart from +self-interest, Cerizet would still have endeavored to scrape a little +profit out of his friend; 'twas an instinct and a need of his nature. +He had as great a horror for straight courses as the lovers of English +gardens show in the lines of their paths. + +Dutocq, having still a portion of the cost of his practice to pay off, +was forced to live very sparingly, so that a dinner at the Rocher de +Cancale was something of an event in the economy of his straitened +existence. He arrived, therefore, with that punctuality which +testifies to an interest in the occasion, and precisely at a quarter +past six he entered the private room of the restaurant where Cerizet +awaited him. + +"It is queer," he said; "here we are returned to precisely the +situation in which we began our business relationship with la Peyrade, +--except, to be sure, that this present place of meeting of the three +emperors is more comfortable; I prefer the Tilsit of the rue +Montgorgeuil to the Tilsit of the Cheval Rouge." + +"Faith!" said Cerizet, "I don't know that the results justify the +change, for, to be frank, where are the profits to US in the scheme of +our triumvirate?" + +"But," said Dutocq, "it was a bargain with a long time limit. It can't +be said that la Peyrade has lost much time in getting installed-- +forgive the pun--at the Thuilleries. The scamp has made his way pretty +fast, you must own that." + +"Not so fast but what his marriage," said Cerizet, "is at the present +moment a very doubtful thing." + +"Doubtful!" cried Dutocq; "why doubtful?" + +"Well, I am commissioned to propose to him another wife, and I'm not +sure that any choice is left to him." + +"What the devil are you about, my dear fellow, lending your hand in +this way to another marriage when you know we have a mortgage on the +first?" + +"One isn't always master of circumstances, my friend; I saw at once +when the new affair was laid before me that the one we had settled on +must infallibly go by the board. Consequently, I've tried to work it +round in our interests, yours and mine." + +"Ah ca! do you mean they are pulling caps for this Theodose? Who is +the new match? Has she money?" + +"The 'dot' is pretty good; quite as much as Mademoiselle +Colleville's." + +"Then I wouldn't give a fig for it. La Peyrade has signed those notes +and he will pay them." + +"Will he pay them? that's the question. You are not a business man, +neither is Theodose; it may come into his head to dispute the validity +of those notes. What security have we that if the facts about their +origin should come out, and the Thuillier marriage shouldn't come off, +the court of commerce mightn't annul them as 'obligations without +cause.' For my part, I should laugh at such a decision; I can stand +it; and, moreover, my precautions are taken; but you, as clerk to a +justice-of-peace, don't you see that such an affair would give the +chancellor a bone to pick with you?" + +"But, my good fellow," said Dutocq, with the ill-humor of a man who +sees himself face to face with an argument he can't refute, "you seem +to have a mania for stirring up matters and meddling with--" + +"I tell you again," said Cerizet, "this came to me; I didn't seek it; +but I saw at once that there was no use struggling against the +influence that is opposing us; so I chose the course of saving +ourselves by a sacrifice." + +"A sacrifice! what sort of sacrifice?" + +"Parbleu! I've sold my share of those notes, leaving those who bought +them to fight it out with Master barrister." + +"Who is the purchaser?" + +"Who do you suppose would step into my shoes unless it were the +persons who have an interest in this other marriage, and who want to +hold a power over Theodose, and control him by force if necessary." + +"Then my share of the notes is equally important to them?" + +"No doubt; but I couldn't speak for you until I had consulted you." + +"What do they offer?" + +"Hang it! my dear fellow, the same that I accepted. Knowing better +than you the danger of their competition I sold out to them on very +bad terms." + +"Well, but what are they, those terms?" + +"I gave up my shares for fifteen thousand francs." + +"Come, come!" said Dutocq, shrugging his shoulders, "what you are +after is to recover a loss (if you made it) by a commission on my +share--and perhaps, after all, the whole thing is only a plot between +you and la Peyrade--" + +"At any rate, my good friend, you don't mince your words; an infamous +thought comes into your head and you state it with charming frankness. +Luckily you shall presently hear me make the proposal to Theodose, and +you are clever enough to know by his manner if there has been any +connivance between us." + +"So be it!" said Dutocq. "I withdraw the insinuation; but I must say +your employers are pirates; I call their proposal throttling people. I +have not, like you, something to fall back upon." + +"Well, you poor fellow, this is how I reasoned: I said to myself, That +good Dutocq is terribly pressed for the last payment on his practice; +this will give him enough to pay it off at one stroke; events have +proved that there are great uncertainties about our Theodose-and- +Thuillier scheme; here's money down, live money, and therefore it +won't be so bad a bargain after all." + +"It is a loss of two-fifths!" + +"Come," said Cerizet, "you were talking just now of commissions. I see +a means of getting one for you if you'll engage to batter down this +Colleville marriage. If you will cry it down as you have lately cried +it up I shouldn't despair of getting you a round twenty thousand out +of the affair." + +"Then you think that this new proposal will not be agreeable to la +Peyrade,--that he'll reject it? Is it some heiress on whom he has +already taken a mortgage?" + +"All that I can tell you is that these people expect some difficulty +in bringing the matter to a conclusion." + +"Well, I don't desire better than to follow your lead and do what is +disagreeable to la Peyrade; but five thousand francs--think of it!--it +is too much to lose." + +At this moment the door opened, and a waiter ushered in the expected +guest. + +"You can serve dinner," said Cerizet to the waiter; "we are all here." + +It was plain that Theodose was beginning to take wing toward higher +social spheres; elegance was becoming a constant thought in his mind. +He appeared in a dress suit and varnished shoes, whereas his two +associates received him in frock-coats and muddy boots. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I think I am a little late, but that devil of a +Thuillier is the most intolerable of human beings about a pamphlet I +am concocting for him. I was unlucky enough to agree to correct the +proofs with him, and over every paragraph there's a fight. 'What I +can't understand,' he says, 'the public can't, either. I'm not a man +of letters, but I'm a practical man'; and that's the way we battle it, +page after page. I thought the sitting this afternoon would never +end." + +"How unreasonable you are, my dear fellow," said Dutocq; "when a man +wants to succeed he must have the courage to make sacrifices. Once +married, you can lift your head." + +"Ah, yes!" said la Peyrade with a sigh, "I'll lift it; for since the +day you made me eat this bread of anguish I've become terribly sick of +it." + +"Cerizet," said Dutocq, "has a plan that will feed you more +succulently." + +Nothing more was said at the moment, for justice had to be done to the +excellent fare ordered by Cerizet in honor of his coming lease. As +usually happens at dinners where affairs are likely to be discussed, +each man, with his mind full of them, took pains not to approach those +topics, fearing to compromise his advantages by seeming eager; the +conversation, therefore, continued for a long time on general +subjects, and it was not until the dessert was served that Cerizet +brought himself to ask la Peyrade what had been settled about the +terms of his lease. + +"Nothing, my friend," replied Theodose. + +"What! nothing? I certainly allowed you time enough to decide the +matter." + +"Well, as to that, something is decided. There will not be any +principal tenant at all; Mademoiselle Brigitte is going to let the +house herself." + +"That's a singular thing," said Cerizet, stiffly. "After your +agreement with me, I certainly did not expect such a result as this." + +"How can I help it, my dear fellow? I agreed with you, barring +amendments on the other side; I wasn't able to give another turn to +the affair. In her natural character as a managing woman and a sample +of perpetual motion, Brigitte has reflected that she might as well +manage that house herself and put into her own pocket the profits you +proposed to make. I said all I could about the cares and annoyances +which she would certainly saddle upon herself. 'Oh! nonsense!' she +said; 'they'll stir my blood and do my health good!'" + +"It is pitiable!" said Cerizet. "That poor old maid will never know +which end to take hold of; she doesn't imagine what it is to have an +empty house, and which must be filled with tenants from garret to +cellar." + +"I plied her with all those arguments," replied la Peyrade; "but I +couldn't move her resolution. Don't you see, my dear democrats, you +stirred up the revolution of '89; you thought to make a fine +speculation in dethroning the noble by the bourgeois, and the end of +it is you are shoved out yourselves. This looks like paradox; but +you've found out now that the peasant and clodhopper isn't malleable; +he can't be forced down and kept under like the noble. The +aristocracy, on behalf of its dignity, would not condescend to common +cares, and was therefore dependent on a crowd of plebeian servitors to +whom it had to trust for three-fourths of the actions of its own life. +That was the reign of stewards and bailiffs, wily fellows, into whose +hands the interests of the great families passed, and who fed and grew +fat on the parings of the great fortunes they managed. But now-a-days, +utilitarian theories, as they call them, have come to the fore,--'We +are never so well served as by ourselves,' 'There's no shame in +attending to one's own business,' and many other bourgeois maxims +which have suppressed the role of intermediaries. Why shouldn't +Mademoiselle Brigitte Thuillier manage her own house when dukes and +peers go in person to the Bourse, where such men sign their own leases +and read the deeds before they sign them, and go themselves to the +notary, whom, in former days, they considered a servant." + +During this time Cerizet had time to recover from the blow he had just +received squarely in the face, and to think of the transition he had +to make from one set of interests to the other, of which he was now +the agent. + +"What you are declaiming there is all very clever," he said, +carelessly, "but the thing that proves to me our defeat is the fact +that you are not on the terms with Mademoiselle Thuillier you would +have us believe you are. She is slipping through your fingers; and I +don't think that marriage is anything like as certain as Dutocq and I +have been fancying it was." + +"Well, no doubt," said la Peyrade, "there are still some touches to be +given to our sketch, but I believe it is well under way." + +"And I think, on the contrary, that you have lost ground; and the +reason is simple: you have done those people an immense service; and +that's a thing never forgiven." + +"Well, we shall see," said la Peyrade. "I have more than one hold upon +them." + +"No, you are mistaken. You thought you did a brilliant thing in +putting them on a pinnacle, but the fact is you emancipated them; +they'll keep you now at heel. The human heart, particularly the +bourgeois heart, is made that way. If I were in your place I shouldn't +feel so sure of being on solid ground, and if something else turned up +that offered me a good chance--" + +"What! just because I couldn't get you the lease of that house do you +want to knock everything to pieces?" + +"No," said Cerizet, "I am not looking at the matter in the light of my +own interests; I don't doubt that as a trustworthy friend you have +done every imaginable thing to promote them; but I think the manner in +which you have been shoved aside a very disturbing symptom. It even +decides me to tell you something I did not intend to speak of; +because, in my opinion, when persons start a course they ought to keep +on steadily, looking neither forward nor back, and not allowing +themselves to be diverted to other aspirations." + +"Ah ca!" cried la Peyrade, "what does all this verbiage mean? Have you +anything to propose to me? What's the price of it?" + +"My dear Theodose," said Cerizet, paying no attention to the +impertinence, "you yourself can judge of the value of discovering a +young girl, well brought-up, adorned with beauty and talents and a +'dot' equal to that of Celeste, which she has in her own right, PLUS +fifty thousand francs' worth of diamonds (as Mademoiselle Georges says +on her posters in the provinces), and, moreover,--a fact which ought +to strike the mind of an ambitious man,--a strong political influence, +which she can use for a husband." + +"And this treasure you hold in your hand?" said la Peyrade, in a tone +of incredulity. + +"Better still, I am authorized to offer it to you; in fact, I might +say that I am charged to do so." + +"My friend, you are poking fun at me; unless, indeed, this phoenix has +some hideous or prohibitory defect." + +"Well, I'll admit," said Cerizet, "that there is a slight objection, +not on the score of family, for, to tell the truth, the young woman +has none--" + +"Ah!" said la Peyrade, "a natural child--Well, what next?" + +"Next, she is not so very young,--something like twenty-nine or so; +but there's nothing easier than to turn an elderly girl into a young +widow if you have imagination." + +"Is that all the venom in it?" + +"Yes, all that is irreparable." + +"What do you mean by that? Is it a case of rhinoplasty?" + +Addressed to Cerizet the word had an aggressive air, which, in fact, +was noticeable since the beginning of the dinner in the whole manner +and conversation of the barrister. But it did not suit the purpose of +the negotiator to resent it. + +"No," he replied, "our nose is as well made as our foot and our waist; +but we may, perhaps, have a slight touch of hysteria." + +"Oh! very good," said la Peyrade; "and as from hysteria to insanity +there is but a step--" + +"Well, yes," interrupted Cerizet, hastily, "sorrows have affected our +brain slightly; but the doctors are unanimous in their diagnosis; they +all say that after the birth of the first child not a trace will +remain of this little trouble." + +"I am willing to admit that doctors are infallible," replied la +Peyrade; "but, in spite of your discouragement, you must allow me, my +friend, to persist in my suit to Mademoiselle Colleville. Perhaps it +is ridiculous to confess it, but the truth is I am gradually falling +in love with that little girl. It isn't that her beauty is +resplendent, or that the glitter of her 'dot' has dazzled me, but I +find in that child a great fund of sound sense joined to simplicity; +and, what to mind is of greater consequence, her sincere and solid +piety attracts me; I think a husband ought to be very happy with her." + +"Yes," said Cerizet, who, having been on the stage, may very well have +known his Moliere, "this marriage will crown your wishes with all +good; it will be filled with sweetness and with pleasures." + +The allusion to Tartuffe was keenly felt by la Peyrade, who took it up +and said, hotly:-- + +"The contact with innocence will disinfect me of the vile atmosphere +in which I have lived too long." + +"And you will pay your notes of hand," added Cerizet, "which I advise +you to do with the least possible delay; for Dutocq here was saying to +me just now that he would like to see the color of your money." + +"I? not at all," interposed Dutocq. "I think, on the contrary, that +our friend has a right to the delay." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "I agree with Cerizet. I hold that the less a +debt is due, and therefore the more insecure and open to contention it +is, the sooner one ought to free one's self by paying it." + +"But, my dear la Peyrade," said Dutocq, "why take this bitter tone?" + +Pulling from his pocket a portfolio, la Peyrade said:-- + +"Have you those notes with you, Dutocq?" + +"Faith! no, my dear fellow," replied Dutocq, "I don't carry them about +with me; besides, they are in Cerizet's hands." + +"Well," said the barrister, rising, "whenever you come to my house +I'll pay you on the nail, as Cerizet can tell you." + +"What! are you going to leave us without your coffee?" said Cerizet, +amazed to the last degree. + +"Yes; I have an arbitration case at eight o'clock. Besides, we have +said all we had to say. You haven't your lease, but you've got your +twenty five thousand francs in full, and those of Dutocq are ready for +him whenever he chooses to come to my office. I see nothing now to +prevent me from going where my private business calls me, and I +therefore very cordially bid you good-bye." + +"Ah ca! Dutocq," cried Cerizet, as la Peyrade disappeared, "this means +a rupture." + +"Prepared with the utmost care," added Dutocq. "Did you notice the air +with which he pulled out that pocket-book?" + +"But where the devil," said the usurer, "could he have got the money?" + +"Probably," replied Dutocq, sarcastically, "where he got that with +which he paid you in full for those notes you sold at a sacrifice." + +"My dear Dutocq," said Cerizet, "I'll explain to you the circumstances +under which that insolent fellow freed himself, and you'll see if he +didn't rob me of fifteen thousand francs." + +"Possibly, but you, my worthy clerk, were trying to get ten thousand +away from me." + +"No, no; I was positively ordered to buy up your claim; and you ought +to remember that my offer had risen to twenty thousand when Theodose +came in." + +"Well," said Dutocq, "when we leave here we'll go to your house, where +you will give me those notes; for, you'll understand that to-morrow +morning, at the earliest decent hour, I shall go to la Peyrade's +office; I don't mean to let his paying humor cool." + +"And right you are; for I can tell you now that before long there'll +be a fine upset in his life." + +"Then the thing is really serious--this tale of a crazy woman you want +him to marry? I must say that in his place, with these money-matters +evidently on the rise, I should have backed out of your proposals just +as he did. Ninas and Ophelias are all very well on the stage, but in a +home--" + +"In a home, when they bring a 'dot,' we can be their guardian," +replied Cerizet, sententiously. "In point of fact, we get a fortune +and not a wife." + +"Well," said Dutocq, "that's one way to look at it." + +"If you are willing," said Cerizet, "let us go and take our coffee +somewhere else. This dinner has turned out so foolishly that I want to +get out of this room, where there's no air." He rang for the waiter. +"Garcon!" he said, "the bill." + +"Monsieur, it is paid." + +"Paid! by whom?" + +"By the gentleman who just went out." + +"But this is outrageous," cried Cerizet. "I ordered the dinner, and +you allow some one else to pay for it!" + +"It wasn't I, monsieur," said the waiter; "the gentleman went and paid +the 'dame du comptoir'; she must have thought it was arranged between +you. Besides, it is not so uncommon for gentlemen to have friendly +disputes about paying." + +"That's enough," said Cerizet, dismissing the waiter. + +"Won't these gentlemen take their coffee?--it is paid for," said the +man before he left the room. + +"A good reason for not taking it," replied Cerizet, angrily. "It is +really inconceivable that in a house of this kind such an egregious +blunder should be committed. What do you think of such insolence?" he +added, when the waiter had left the room. + +"Bah!" exclaimed Dutocq, taking his hat, "it is a schoolboy +proceeding; he wanted to show he had money; it is easy to see he never +had any before." + +"No, no! that's not it," said Cerizet; "he meant to mark the rupture. +'I will not owe you even a dinner,' is what he says to me." + +"But, after all," said Dutocq, "this banquet was given to celebrate +your enthronement as principal tenant of the grand house. Well, he has +failed to get you the lease, and I can understand that his conscience +was uneasy at letting you pay for a dinner which, like those notes of +mine, were an 'obligation without cause.'" + +Cerizet made no reply to this malicious observation. They had reached +the counter where reigned the dame who had permitted the improper +payment, and, for the sake of his dignity, the usurer thought it +proper to make a fuss. After which the two men departed, and the +copying-clerk took his employer to a low coffee-house in the Passage +du Saumon. There Cerizet recovered his good-humor; he was like a fish +out of water suddenly returned to his native element; for he had +reached that state of degradation when he felt ill at ease in places +frequented by good society; and it was with a sort of sensuous +pleasure that he felt himself back in the vulgar place where they were +noisily playing pool for the benefit of a "former conqueror of the +Bastille." + +In this establishment Cerizet enjoyed the fame of being a skilful +billiard-player, and he was now entreated to take part in a game +already begun. In technical language, he "bought his ball"; that is, +one of the players sold him his turn and his chances. Dutocq profited +by this arrangement to slip away, on pretence of inquiring for a sick +friend. + +Presently, in his shirt-sleeves, with a pipe between his lips, Cerizet +made one of those masterly strokes which bring down the house with +frantic applause. As he waited a moment, looking about him +triumphantly, his eye lighted on a terrible kill-joy. Standing among +the spectators with his chin on his cane, du Portail was steadily +watching him. + +A tinge of red showed itself in Cerizet's cheeks. He hesitated to bow +or to recognize the old gentleman, a most unlikely person to meet in +such a place. Not knowing how to take the unpleasant encounter, he +went on playing; but his hand betrayed his uneasiness, and presently +an unlucky stroke threw him out of the game. While he was putting on +his coat in a tolerably ill-humor, du Portail passed, almost brushing +him, on his way to the door. + +"Rue Montmartre, at the farther end of the Passage," said the old man, +in a low tone. + +When they met, Cerizet had the bad taste to try to explain the +disreputable position in which he had just been detected. + +"But," said du Portail, "in order to see you there, I had to be there +myself." + +"True," returned Cerizet. "I was rather surprised to see a quiet +inhabitant of the Saint-Sulpice quarter in such a place." + +"It merely proves to you," said the little old man, in a tone which +cut short all explanation, and all curiosity, "that I am in the habit +of going pretty nearly everywhere, and that my star leads me into the +path of those persons whom I wish to meet. I was thinking of you at +the very moment you came in. Well, what have you done?" + +"Nothing good," replied Cerizet. "After playing me a devilish trick +which deprived me of a magnificent bit of business, our man rejected +your overture with scorn. There is no hope whatever in that claim of +Dutocq's; for la Peyrade is chock-full of money; he wanted to pay the +notes just now, and to-morrow morning he will certainly do so." + +"Does he regard his marriage to this Demoiselle Colleville as a +settled thing?" + +"He not only considers it settled, but he is trying now to make people +believe it is a love-match. He rattled off a perfect tirade to +convince me that he is really in love." + +"Very well," said du Portail, wishing, perhaps, to show that he could, +on occasion, use the slang of a low billiard-room, "'stop the charge'" +(meaning: Do nothing more); "I will undertake to bring monsieur to +reason. But come and see me to-morrow, and tell me all about the +family he intends to enter. You have failed in this affair; but don't +mind that; I shall have others for you." + +So saying, he signed to the driver of an empty citadine, which was +passing, got into it, and, with a nod to Cerizet, told the man to +drive to the rue Honore-Chevalier. + +As Cerizet walked down the rue Montmartre to regain the Estrapade +quarter, he puzzled his brains to divine who that little old man with +the curt speech, the imperious manner, and a tone that seemed to cast +upon all those with whom he spoke a boarding-grapnel, could be; a man, +too, who came from such a distance to spend his evening in a place +where, judging by his clothes alone, he had no business to be. + +Cerizet had reached the Market without finding any solution to that +problem, when he was roughly shaken out of it by a heavy blow in the +back. Turning hastily, he found himself in presence of Madame +Cardinal, an encounter with whom, at a spot where she came every +morning to get fish to peddle, was certainly not surprising. + +Since that evening in Toupillier's garret, the worthy woman, in spite +of the clemency so promptly shown to her, had judged it imprudent to +make other than very short apparitions in her own domicile, and for +the last two days she had been drowning among the liquor-dealers +(called "retailers of comfort") the pangs of her defeat. With flaming +face and thickened voice she now addressed her late accomplice:-- + +"Well, papa," she said, "what happened after I left you with that +little old fellow?" + +"I made him understand in a very few words," replied the banker of the +poor, "that it was all a mistake as to me. In this affair, my dear +Madame Cardinal, you behaved with a really unpardonable heedlessness. +How came you to ask my assistance in obtaining your inheritance from +your uncle, when with proper inquiry you might have known there was a +natural daughter, in whose favor he had long declared he should make a +will? That little old man, who interrupted you in your foolish attempt +to anticipate your legacy, was no other than the guardian of the +daughter to whom everything is left." + +"Ha! guardian, indeed! a fine thing, guardian!" cried the Cardinal. +"To talk of a woman of my age, just because I wanted to see if my +uncle owned anything at all, to talk to ME of the police! It's +hateful! it's DISGUSTING!" + +"Come, come!" said Cerizet, "you needn't complain; you got off +cheaply." + +"Well, and you, who broke the locks and said you were going to take +the diamonds, under color of marrying my daughter! Just as if she +would have you,--a legitimate daughter like her! 'Never, mother,' said +she; 'never will I give my heart to a man with such a nose.'" + +"So you've found her, have you?" said Cerizet. + +"Not until last night. She has left her blackguard of a player, and +she is now, I flatter myself, in a fine position, eating money; has +her citadine by the month, and is much respected by a barrister who +would marry her at once, but he has got to wait till his parents die, +for the father happens to be mayor, and the government wouldn't like +it." + +"What mayor?" + +"11th arrondissement,--Minard, powerfully rich, used to do a business +in cocoa." + +"Ah! very good! very good! I know all about him. You say Olympe is +living with his son?" + +"Well, not to say living together, for that would make talk, though he +only sees her with good motives. He lives at home with his father, but +he has bought their furniture, and has put it, and my daughter, too, +into a lodging in the Chausee d'Antin; stylish quarter, isn't it?" + +"It seems to me pretty well arranged," said Cerizet; "and as Heaven, +it appears, didn't destine us for each other--" + +"No, yes, well, that's how it was; and I think that girl is going to +give me great satisfaction; and there's something I want to consult +you about." + +"What?" demanded Cerizet. + +"Well, my daughter being in luck, I don't think I ought to continue to +cry fish in the streets; and now that my uncle has disinherited me, I +have, it seems to me, a right to an 'elementary allowance.'" + +"You are dreaming, my poor woman; your daughter is a minor; it is you +who ought to be feeding her; the law doesn't require her to give you +aliment." + +"Then do you mean," said Madame Cardinal, "that those who have nothing +are to give to those who have much? A fine thing such a law as that! +It's as bad as guardians who, for nothing at all, talk about calling +the police. Yes! I'd like to see 'em calling the police to me! Let 'em +guillotine me! It won't prevent my saying that the rich are swindlers; +yes, swindlers! and the people ought to make another revolution to get +their rights; and THEN, my lad, you, and my daughter, and barrister +Minard, and that little old guardian, you'll all come down under it--" + +Perceiving that his ex-mother-in-law was reaching stage of exaltation +that was not unalarming, Cerizet hastened to get away, her epithets +pursuing him for more than a hundred feet; but he comforted himself by +thinking that he would make her pay for them the next time she came to +his back to ask for a "convenience." + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SET A SAINT TO CATCH A SAINT + +As he approached his own abode, Cerizet, who was nothing so little as +courageous, felt an emotion of fear. He perceived a form ambushed near +the door, which, as he came nearer, detached itself as if to meet him. +Happily, it was only Dutocq. He came for his notes. Cerizet returned +them in some ill-humor, complaining of the distrust implied in a visit +at such an hour. Dutocq paid no attention to this sensitiveness, and +the next morning, very early, he presented himself at la Peyrade's. + +La Peyrade paid, as he had promised, on the nail, and to a few +sentinel remarks uttered by Dutocq as soon as the money was in his +pocket, he answered with marked coldness. His whole external +appearance and behavior was that of a slave who has burst his chain +and has promised himself not to make a gospel use of his liberty. + +As he conducted his visitor to the door, the latter came face to face +with a woman in servant's dress, who was just about to ring the bell. +This woman was, apparently, known to Dutocq, for he said to her:-- + +"Ha ha! little woman; so we feel the necessity of consulting a +barrister? You are right; at the family council very serious matters +were brought up against you." + +"Thank God, I fear no one. I can walk with my head up," said the +person thus addressed. + +"So much the better for you," replied the clerk of the justice-of- +peace; "but you will probably be summoned before the judge who +examines the affair. At any rate, you are in good hands here; and my +friend la Peyrade will advise you for the best." + +"Monsieur is mistaken," said the woman; "it is not for what he thinks +that I have come to consult a lawyer." + +"Well, be careful what you say and do, my dear woman, for I warn you +you are going to be finely picked to pieces. The relations are furious +against you, and you can't get the idea out of their heads that you +have got a great deal of money." + +While speaking thus, Dutocq kept his eye on Theodose, who bore the +look uneasily, and requested his client to enter. + +Here follows a scene which had taken place the previous afternoon +between this woman and la Peyrade. + +La Peyrade, we may remember, was in the habit of going to early mass +at his parish church. For some little time he had felt himself the +object of a singular attention which he could not explain on the part +of the woman whom we have just seen entering his office, who daily +attended the church at, as Dorine says, his "special hour." Could it +be for love? That explanation was scarcely compatible with the +maturity and the saintly, beatific air of this person, who, beneath a +plain cap, called "a la Janseniste," by which fervent female souls of +that sect were recognized, affected, like a nun, to hide her hair. On +the other hand, the rest of her clothing was of a neatness that was +almost dainty, and the gold cross at her throat, suspended by a black +velvet ribbon, excluded the idea of humble and hesitating mendicity. + +The morning of the day on which the dinner at the Rocher de Cancale +was to take place, la Peyrade, weary of a performance which had ended +by preoccupying his mind, went up to the woman and asked her +pointblank if she had any request to make of him. + +"Monsieur," she answered, in a tone of solemnity, "is, I think, the +celebrated Monsieur de la Peyrade, the advocate of the poor?" + +"I am la Peyrade; and I have had, it is true, an opportunity to render +services to the indigent persons of this quarter." + +"Would it, then, be asking too much of monsieur's goodness that he +should suffer me to consult him?" + +"This place," replied la Peyrade, "is not well chosen for such +consultation. What you have to say to me seems important, to judge by +the length of time you have been hesitating to speak to me. I live +near here, rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, and if you will take the +trouble to come to my office--" + +"It will not annoy monsieur?" + +"Not in the least; my business is to hear clients." + +"At what hour--lest I disturb monsieur--?" + +"When you choose; I shall be at home all the morning." + +"Then I will hear another mass, at which I can take the communion. I +did not dare to do so at this mass, for the thought of speaking to +monsieur so distracted my mind. I will be at monsieur's house by eight +o'clock, when I have ended my meditation, if that hour does not +inconvenience him." + +"No; but there is no necessity for all this ceremony," replied la +Peyrade, with some impatience. + +Perhaps a little professional jealousy inspired his ill-humor, for it +was evident that he had to do with an antagonist who was capable of +giving him points. + +At the hour appointed, not a minute before nor a minute after, the +pious woman rang the bell, and the barrister having, not without some +difficulty, induced her to sit down, he requested her to state her +case. She was then seized with that delaying little cough with which +we obtain a respite when brought face to face with a difficult +subject. At last, however, she compelled herself to approach the +object of her visit. + +"It is to ask monsieur," she said, "if he would be so very good as to +inform me whether it is true that a charitable gentleman, now +deceased, has bequeathed a fund to reward domestic servants who are +faithful to their masters." + +"Yes," replied la Peyrade; "that is to say, Monsieur de Montyon +founded 'prizes for virtue,' which are frequently given to zealous and +exemplary domestic servants. But ordinary good conduct is not +sufficient; there must be some act or acts of great devotion, and +truly Christian self-abnegation." + +"Religion enjoins humility upon us," replied the pious woman, "and +therefore I dare not praise myself; but inasmuch as for the last +twenty years I have lived in the service of an old man of the dullest +description, a savant, who has wasted his substance on inventions, so +that I myself have had to feed and clothe him, persons have thought +that I am not altogether undeserving of that prize." + +"It is certainly under such conditions that the Academy selects its +candidates," said la Peyrade. "What is your master's name?" + +"Pere Picot; he is never called otherwise in our quarter; sometimes he +goes out into the streets as if dressed for the carnival, and all the +little children crowd about him, calling out: 'How d'ye do, Pere +Picot! Good-morning, Pere Picot!' But that's how it is; he takes no +care of his dignity; he goes about full of his own ideas; and though I +kill myself trying to give him appetizing food, if you ask him what he +has had for his dinner he can't tell you. Yet he's a man full of +ability, and he has taught good pupils. Perhaps monsieur knows young +Phellion, a professor in the College of Saint-Louis; he was one of his +scholars, and he comes to see him very often." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, "your master is a mathematician?" + +"Yes, monsieur; mathematics have been his bane; they have flung him +into a set of ideas which don't seem to have any common-sense in them +ever since he has been employed at the Observatory, near here." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "you must bring testimony proving your long +devotion to this old man, and I will then draw up a memorial to the +Academy and take the necessary steps to present it." + +"How good monsieur is!" said the pious woman, clasping her hands; "and +if he would also let me tell him of a little difficulty--" + +"What is it?" + +"They tell me, monsieur, that to get this prize persons must be really +very poor." + +"Not exactly; still, the Academy does endeavor to choose whose who are +in straitened circumstances, and who have made sacrifices too heavy +for their means." + +"Sacrifices! I think I may indeed say I have made sacrifices, for the +little property I inherited from my parents has all been spent in +keeping the old man, and for fifteen years I have had no wages, which, +at three hundred francs a year and compound interest, amount now to a +pretty little sum; as monsieur, I am sure, will agree." + +At the words "compound interest," which evidenced a certain amount of +financial culture, la Peyrade looked at this Antigone with increased +attention. + +"In short," he said, "your difficulty is--" + +"Monsieur will not think it strange," replied the saintly person, "that +a very rich uncle dying in England, who had never done anything for +his family in his lifetime, should have left me twenty-five thousand +francs." + +"Certainly," said the barrister, "there's nothing in that but what is +perfectly natural and proper." + +"But, monsieur, I have been told that the possession of this money +will prevent the judges from considering my claims to the prize." + +"Possibly; because seeing you in possession of a little competence, +the sacrifices which you apparently intend to continue in favor of +your master will be less meritorious." + +"I shall never abandon him, poor, dear man, in spite of his faults, +though I know that this poor little legacy which Heaven has given me +is in the greatest danger from him." + +"How so?" asked la Peyrade, with some curiosity. + +"Eh! monsieur, let him only get wind of that money, and he'd snap it +up at a mouthful; it would all go into his inventions of perpetual +motion and other machines of various kinds which have already ruined +him, and me, too." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, "your desire is that this legacy should +remain completely unknown, not only to your master but to the judges +of the Academy?" + +"How clever monsieur is, and how well he understands things!" she +replied, smiling. + +"And also," continued the barrister, "you don't want to keep that +money openly in your possession?" + +"For fear my master should find it out and get it away from me? +Exactly. Besides, as monsieur will understand, I shouldn't be sorry, +in order to supply the poor dear man with extra comforts, that the sum +should bear interest." + +"And the highest possible interest," said the barrister. + +"Oh! as for that, monsieur, five or six per cent." + +"Very good; then it is not only about the memorial to the Academy for +the prize of virtue, but also about an investment of your legacy that +you have so long been desirous of consulting me?" + +"Monsieur is so kind, so charitable, so encouraging!" + +"The memorial, after I have made a few inquiries, will be easy enough; +but an investment, offering good security, the secret of which you +desire to keep, is much less readily obtained." + +"Ah! if I dared to--" said the pious woman, humbly. + +"What?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Monsieur understands me?" + +"I? not the least in the world." + +"And yet I prayed earnestly just now that monsieur might be willing to +keep this money for me. I should feel such confidence if it were in +his hands; I know he would return it to me, and never speak of it." + +La Peyrade gathered, at this instant, the fruit of his comedy of legal +devotion to the necessitous classes. The choir of porters chanting his +praises to the skies could alone have inspired this servant-woman with +the boundless confidence of which he found himself the object. His +thoughts reverted instantly to Dutocq and his notes, and he was not +far from thinking that this woman had been sent to him by Providence. +But the more he was inclined to profit by this chance to win his +independence, the more he felt the necessity of seeming to yield only +to her importunity; consequently his objections were many. + +Moreover, he had no great belief in the character of his client, and +did not care, as the common saying is, to uncover Saint Peter to cover +Saint Paul; in other words, to substitute for a creditor who, after +all, was his accomplice, a woman who might at any time become exacting +and insist in repayment in some public manner that would injure his +reputation. He decided, therefore, to play the game with a high hand. + +"My good woman," he said, "I am not in want of money, and I am not +rich enough to pay interest on twenty-five thousand francs for which I +have no use. All that I can do for you is to place that sum, in my +name, with the notary Dupuis. He is a religious man; you can see him +every Sunday in the warden's pew in our church. Notaries, you know, +never give receipts, therefore I could not give you one myself; I can +only promise to leave among my papers, in case of death, a memorandum +which will secure the restitution of the money into your hands. The +affair, you see, is one of blind confidence, and I am very unwilling +to make it. If I do so, it is only to oblige a person whose piety and +the charitable use she intends to make of the proceeds of her little +fortune entitle her to my good-will." + +"If monsieur thinks that the matter cannot be otherwise arranged--" + +"This appears to me the only possible way," said la Peyrade. "I shall +hope to get you six per cent interest, and you may rely that it will +be paid with the utmost regularity. But remember, six months, or even +a year, may elapse before the notary will be in a position to repay +this money, because notaries invest such trust funds chiefly in +mortgages which require a certain time to mature. Now, when you have +obtained the prize for virtue, which, according to all appearance, I +can readily do for you, there will be no reason to hide your little +property any longer,--a reason which I fully understand; but you will +not be able to withdraw it from the notary's hands immediately; and in +case of any difficulty arising, I should be forced to explain the +situation, the manner in which you have concealed your prosperity from +your master, to whom you have been supposed to be wholly devoted. +This, as you will see, would put you in the position of falsely +professing virtue, and would do great harm to your reputation for +piety." + +"Oh! monsieur," said the saintly woman, "can it be that any one would +think me a person who did not speak the truth?" + +"Bless you! my good creature, in business it is necessary to foresee +everything. Money embroils the best friends, and leads to actions they +never foresaw. Therefore reflect; you can come and see me again in a +few days. It is possible that between now and then you will find some +better investment; and I myself, who am doing at this moment a thing I +don't altogether like, may have found other difficulties which I do +not now expect." + +This threat, adroitly thrown out as an afterthought, was intended to +immediately clinch the matter. + +"I have reflected carefully," said the pious woman, "and I feel sure +that in the hands of so religious a man as monsieur I run no risks." + +Taking from her bosom a little pocket-book, she pulled out twenty-five +bank notes. The rapid manner in which she counted them was a +revelation to la Peyrade. The woman was evidently accustomed to handle +money, and a singular idea darted through his mind. + +"Can it be that she is making me a receiver of stolen property? No," +he said aloud, "in order to draw up the memorial for the Academy, I +must, as I told you, make a few inquiries; and that will give me +occasion to call upon you. At what hour can I see you alone?" + +"At four o'clock, when monsieur goes to take his walk in the +Luxembourg." + +"And where do you live?" + +"Rue du Val-de-Grace, No. 9." + +"Very good; at four o'clock; and if, as I doubt not, the result of my +inquiry is favorable, I will take your money then. Otherwise, if there +are not good grounds for your application for the prize of virtue +there will be no reason why you should make a mystery of your legacy. +You could then invest it in some more normal manner than that I have +suggested to you." + +"Oh! how cautious monsieur is!" she said, with evident disappointment, +having thought the affair settled. "This money, God be thanked! I have +not stolen, and monsieur can make what inquiries he likes about me in +the quarter." + +"It is quite indispensable that I should do so," said la Peyrade, +dryly, for he did not at all like, under this mask of simplicity, the +quick intelligence that penetrated his thoughts. "Without being a +thief, a woman may very well not be a Sister of Charity; there's a +wide margin between the two extremes." + +"As monsieur chooses," she replied; "he is doing me so great a service +that I ought to let him take all precautions." + +Then, with a piously humble bow, she went away, taking her money with +her. + +"The devil!" thought la Peyrade; "that woman is stronger than I; she +swallows insults with gratitude and without the sign of a grimace! I +have never yet been able to master myself like that." + +He began now to fear that he had been too timid, and to think that his +would-be creditor might change her mind before he could pay her the +visit he had promised. But the harm was done, and, although consumed +with anxiety lest he had lost a rare chance, he would have cut off a +leg sooner than yield to his impulse to go to her one minute before +the hour he had fixed. The information he obtained about her in the +quarter was rather contradictory. Some said his client was a saint; +otherwise declared her to be a sly creature; but, on the whole, +nothing was said against her morality that deterred la Peyrade from +taking the piece of luck she had offered him. + +When he met her at four o'clock he found her in the same mind. + +With the money in his pocket he went to dine with Cerizet and Dutocq +at the Rocher de Cancale; and it is to the various emotions he had +passed through during the day that we must attribute the sharp and +ill-considered manner in which he conducted his rupture with his two +associates. This behavior was neither that of his natural disposition +nor of his acquired temperament; but the money that was burning in his +pockets had slightly intoxicated him; its very touch had conveyed to +him an excitement and an impatience for emancipation of which he was +not wholly master. He flung Cerizet over in the matter of the lease +without so much as consulting Brigitte; and yet, he had not had the +full courage of his duplicity; for he had laid to the charge of the +old woman a refusal which was merely the act of his own will, prompted +by bitter recollections of his fruitless struggles with the man who +had so long oppressed him. + +In short, during the whole day, la Peyrade had not shown himself the +able and infallible man that we have hitherto seen him. Once before, +when he carried the fifteen thousand francs entrusted to him by +Thuillier, he had been led by Cerizet into an insurrectionary +proceeding which necessitated the affair of Sauvaignou. Perhaps, on +the whole, it is more difficult to be strong under good than under +evil fortune. The Farnese Hercules, calm and in still repose, +expresses more energetically the plenitude of muscular power than a +violent and agitated Hercules represented in the over-excited energy +of his labors. + + + + +PART II + +THE PARVENUS + + + +CHAPTER I + +PHELLION, UNDER A NEW ASPECT + +Between the first and second parts of this history an immense event +had taken place in the life of Phellion. + +There is no one who has not heard of the misfortunes of the Odeon, +that fatal theatre which, for years, ruined all its directors. Right +or wrong, the quarter in which this dramatic impossibility stands is +convinced that its prosperity depends upon it; so that more than once +the mayor and other authorities of the arrondissement have, with a +courage that honors them, taken part in the most desperate efforts to +galvanize the corpse. + +Now to meddle with theatrical matters is one of the eternally +perennial ambitions of the lesser bourgeoisie. Always, therefore, the +successive saviours of the Odeon feel themselves magnificently +rewarded if they are given ever so small a share in the administration +of that enterprise. It was at some crisis in its affairs that Minard, +in his capacity as mayor of the 11th arrondissement, had been called +to the chairmanship of the committee for reading plays, with the power +to join unto himself as assistants a certain number of the notables of +the Latin quarter,--the selection being left to him. + +We shall soon know exactly how near was the realization of la +Peyrade's projects for the possession of Celeste's "dot"; let us +merely say now that these projects in approaching maturity had +inevitably become noised abroad; and as this condition of things +pointed, of course, to the exclusion of Minard junior and also of +Felix the professor, the prejudice hitherto manifested by Minard pere +against old Phellion was transformed into an unequivocal disposition +towards friendly cordiality; there is nothing that binds and soothes +like the feeling of a checkmate shared in common. Judged without the +evil eye of paternal rivalry, Phellion became to Minard a Roman of +incorruptible integrity and a man whose little treatises had been +adopted by the University,--in other words, a man of sound and tested +intellect. + +So that when it became the duty of the mayor to select the members of +the dramatic custom-house, of which he was now the head, he +immediately thought of Phellion. As for the great citizen, he felt, on +the day when a post was offered to him in that august tribunal, that a +crown of gold had been placed upon his brow. + +It will be well understood that it was not lightly, nor without having +deeply meditated, that a man of Phellion's solemnity had accepted the +high and sacred mission which was offered to him. He said within +himself that he was called upon to exercise the functions of a +magistracy, a priestly office. + +"To judge of men," he replied to Minard, who was much surprised at his +hesitation, "is an alarming task, but to judge of minds!--who can +believe himself equal to such a mission?" + +Once more the family--that rock on which the firmest resolutions split +--had threatened to infringe on the domain of his conscience. The +thought of boxes and tickets of which the future member of the +committee could dispose in favor of his own kin had excited in the +household so eager a ferment that his freedom of decision seemed for a +moment in danger. But, happily, Brutus was able to decide himself in +the same direction along which a positive uprising of the whole +Phellionian tribe intended to push him. From the observations of +Barniol, his son-in-law, and also by his own personal inspiration, he +became persuaded that by his vote, always given to works of +irreproachable morality, and by his firm determination to bar the way +to all plays that mothers of families could not take their daughters +to witness, he was called upon to render the most signal services to +morals and public order. Phellion, to use his own expression, had +therefore become a member of the areopagus presided over by Minard, +and--still speaking as he spoke--he was issuing from the exercise of +his functions, which were both delicate and interesting, when the +conversation we are about to report took place. A knowledge of this +conversation is necessary to an understanding of the ulterior events +of this history, and it will also serve to put into relief the envious +insight which is one of the most marked traits of the bourgeois +character. + +The session of the committee had been extremely stormy. On the subject +of a tragedy entitled, "The Death of Hercules," the classic party and +the romantic party, whom the mayor had carefully balanced in the +composition of his committee, had nearly approached the point of +tearing each other's hair out. Twice Phellion had risen to speak, and +his hearers were astonished at the quantity of metaphors the speech of +a major of the National Guard could contain when his literary +convictions were imperilled. As the result of a vote, victory remained +with the opinions of which Phellion was the eloquent organ. It was +while descending the stairway of the theatre with Minard that he +remarked:-- + +"We have done a good work this day. 'The Death of Hercules' reminded +me of 'The Death of Hector,' by the late Luce de Lancival; the work we +have just accepted sparkles with sublime verses." + +"Yes," said Minard, "the versification has taste; there are some +really fine lines in it, and I admit to you that I think this sort of +literature rather above the anagrams of Master Colleville." + +"Oh!" replied Minard, "Colleville's anagrams are mere witticisms, +which have nothing in common with the sterner accents of Melpomene." + +"And yet," said Minard, "I can assure you he attaches the greatest +importance to that rubbish, and apropos to his anagrams, as, indeed, +about many other things, he is not a little puffed up. Since their +emigration to the Madeleine quarter it seems to me that not only the +Sieur Colleville, but his wife and daughter, and the Thuilliers and +the whole coterie have assumed an air of importance which is rather +difficult to justify." + +"No wonder!" said Phellion; "one must have a pretty strong head to +stand the fumes of opulence. Our friends have become so very rich by +the purchase of that property where they have gone to live that we +ought to forgive them for a little intoxication; and I must say the +dinner they gave us yesterday for a house-warming was really as well +arranged as it was succulent." + +"I myself," said Minard, "have given a few remarkable dinners to which +men in high government positions have not disdained to come, yet I am +not puffed up with pride on that account; such as my friends have +always known me, that I have remained." + +"You, Monsieur le maire, have long been habituated to the splendid +existence you have made for yourself by your high commercial talents; +our friends, on the contrary, so lately embarked on the smiling ship +of Fortune, have not yet found, as the vulgar saying is, their sea- +legs." + +And then to cut short a conversation in which Phellion began to think +the mayor rather "caustic," he made as if he intended to take leave of +him. In order to reach their respective homes they did not always take +the same way. + +"Are you going through the Luxembourg?" asked Minard, not allowing +Phellion to give him the slip. + +"I shall cross it, but I have an appointment to meet Madame Phellion +and the little Barniols at the end of the grand alley." + +"Then," said Minard, "I'll go with you and have the pleasure of making +my bow to Madame Phellion; and I shall get the fresh air at the same +time, for, in spite of hearing fine things, one's head gets tired at +the business we have just been about." + +Minard had felt that Phellion gave rather reluctant assent to his +sharp remarks about the new establishment of the Thuilliers, and he +did not attempt to renew the subject; but when he had Madame Phellion +for a listener, he was very sure that his spite would find an echo. + +"Well, fair lady," he began, "what did you think of yesterday's +dinner?" + +"It was very fine," replied Madame Phellion; "as I tasted that soup 'a +la bisque' I knew that some caterer, like Chevet, had supplanted the +cook. But the whole affair was dull; it hadn't the gaiety of our old +meetings in the Latin quarter. And then, didn't it strike you, as it +did me, that Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier no longer seemed +mistresses of their own house? I really felt as if I were the guest of +Madame--what IS her name? I never can remember it." + +"Torna, Comtesse de Godollo," said Phellion, intervening. "The name is +euphonious enough to remember." + +"Euphonious if you like, my dear; but to me it never seems a name at +all." + +"It is a Magyar, or to speak more commonly, a Hungarian name. Our own +name, if we wanted to discuss it, might be said to be a loan from the +Greek language." + +"Very likely; at any rate we have the advantage of being known, not +only in our own quarter, but throughout the tuition world, where we +have earned an honorable position; while this Hungarian countess, who +makes, as they say, the good and the bad weather in the Thuilliers' +home, where does she come from, I'd like to know? How did such a fine +lady,--for she has good manners and a very distinguished air, no one +denies her that,--how came she to fall in love with Brigitte; who, +between ourselves, keeps a sickening odor of the porter's lodge about +her. For my part, I think this devoted friend is an intriguing +creature, who scents money, and is scheming for some future gain." + +"Ah ca!" said Minard, "then you don't know the original cause of the +intimacy between Madame la Comtesse de Godollo and the Thuilliers?" + +"She is a tenant in their house; she occupies the entresol beneath +their apartment." + +"True, but there's something more than that in it. Zelie, my wife, +heard it from Josephine, who wanted, lately, to enter our service; the +matter came to nothing, for Francoise, our woman, who thought of +marrying, changed her mind. You must know, fair lady, that it was +solely Madame de Godollo who brought about the emigration of the +Thuilliers, whose upholsterer, as one might say, she is." + +"What! their upholsterer?" cried Phellion,--"that distinguished woman, +of whom one may truly say, 'Incessu patuit dea'; which in French we +very inadequately render by the expression, 'bearing of a queen'?" + +"Excuse me," said Minard. "I did not mean that Madame de Godollo is +actually in the furniture business; but, at the time when Mademoiselle +Thuillier decided, by la Peyrade's advice, to manage the new house +herself, that little fellow, who hasn't all the ascendancy over her +mind he thinks he has, couldn't persuade her to move the family into +the splendid apartment where they received us yesterday. Mademoiselle +Brigitte objected that she should have to change her habits, and that +her friends and relations wouldn't follow her to such a distant +quarter--" + +"It is quite certain," interrupted Madame Phellion, "that to make up +one's mind to hire a carriage every Sunday, one wants a prospect of +greater pleasure than can be found in that salon. When one thinks +that, except on the day of the famous dance of the candidacy, they +never once opened the piano in the rue Saint-Dominique!" + +"It would have been, I am sure, most agreeable to the company to have +a talent like yours put in requisition," remarked Minard; "but those +are not ideas that could ever come into the mind of that good +Brigitte. She'd have seen two more candles to light. Five-franc pieces +are her music. So, when la Peyrade and Thuillier insisted that she +should move into the apartment in the Place de la Madeleine, she +thought of nothing but the extra costs entailed by the removal. She +judged, rightly enough, that beneath those gilded ceilings her old +'penates' might have a singular effect." + +"See how all things link together," remarked Phellion, "and how, from +the summits of society, luxury infiltrates itself, sooner or later, +through the lower classes, leading to the ruin of empires." + +"You are broaching there, my dear commander," said Minard, "one of the +most knotty questions of political economy. Many good minds think, on +the contrary, that luxury is absolutely demanded in the interests of +commerce, which is certainly the life of States. In any case, this +view, which isn't yours, appears to have been that of Madame de +Godollo, for, they tell me, her apartment is very coquettishly +furnished; and to coax Mademoiselle Brigitte into the same path of +elegance she made a proposal to her as follows: 'A friend of mine,' +she said, 'a Russian princess for whom one of the first upholsterers +has just made splendid furniture, is suddenly recalled to Russia by +the czar, a gentleman with whom no one dares to trifle. The poor woman +is therefore obliged to turn everything she owns here into money as +fast as possible; and I feel sure she would sell this furniture for +ready money at a quarter of the price it cost her. All of it is nearly +new, and some things have never been used at all.'" + +"So," cried Madame Phellion, "all that magnificence displayed before +our eyes last night was a magnificent economical bargain?" + +"Just so," replied Minard; "and the thing that decided Mademoiselle +Brigitte to take that splendid chance was not so much the desire to +renew her shabby furniture as the idea of doing an excellent stroke of +business. In that old maid there's always something of Madame la +Ressource in Moliere's 'Miser.'" + +"I think, Monsieur le maire, that you are mistaken," said Phellion. +"Madame la Ressource is a character in 'Turcaret,' a very immoral play +by the late Le Sage." + +"Do you think so?" said Minard. "Well, very likely. But what is +certain is that, though the barrister ingratiated himself with +Brigitte in helping her to buy the house, it was by this clever +jockeying about the furniture that the foreign countess got upon the +footing with Brigitte that you now see. You may have remarked, +perhaps, that a struggle is going on between those two influences; +which we may designate as the house, and its furniture." + +"Yes, certainly," said Madame Phellion, with a beaming expression that +bore witness to the interest she took in the conversation, "it did +seem to me that the great lady allowed herself to contradict the +barrister, and did it, too, with a certain sharpness." + +"Very marked sharpness," resumed Minard, "and that intriguing fellow +perceives it. It strikes me that the lady's hostility makes him +uneasy. The Thuilliers he got cheaply; for, between ourselves you +know, there's not much in Thuillier himself; but he feels now that he +has met a tough adversary, and he is looking anxiously for a weak spot +on which to attack her." + +"Well, that's justice," said Madame Phellion. "For some time past that +man, who used to make himself so small and humble, has been taking +airs of authority in the house which are quite intolerable; he behaves +openly as the son-in-law; and you know very well, in that affair of +Thuillier's election he jockeyed us all, and made us the stepping- +stone for his matrimonial ambition." + +"Yes; but I can assure you," said Minard, "that at the present time +his influence is waning. In the first place, he won't find every day +for his dear, good friend, as he calls him, a fine property worth a +million to be bought for a bit of bread." + +"Then they did get that house very cheap?" said Madame Phellion, +interrogatively. + +"They got it for nothing, as the result of a dirty intrigue which the +lawyer Desroches related to me the other day. If it ever became known +to the council of the bar, that little barrister would be badly +compromised. The next thing is the coming election to the Chamber. +Eating gives appetite, as they say, and our good Thuillier is hungry; +but he begins to perceive that Monsieur de la Peyrade, when it becomes +a question of getting him that mouthful, hasn't his former opportunity +to make dupes of us. That is why the family is turning more and more +to Madame de Godollo, who seems to have some very high acquaintances +in the political world. Besides all this, in fact, without dwelling on +the election business, which is still a distant matter, this Hungarian +countess is becoming, every day, more and more a necessity to +Brigitte; for it must be owned that without the help of the great +lady, the poor soul would look in the midst of her gilded salon like a +ragged gown in a bride's trousseau." + +"Oh, Monsieur le maire, you are cruel," said Madame Phellion, +affecting compunction. + +"No, but say," returned Minard, "with your hand on your conscience, +whether Brigitte, whether Madame Thuillier could preside in such a +salon? No, it is the Hungarian countess who does it all. She furnished +the rooms; she selected the male domestic, whose excellent training +and intelligence you must have observed; it was she who arranged the +menu of that dinner; in short, she is the providence of the parvenu +colony, which, without her intervention, would have made the whole +quarter laugh at it. And--now this is a very noticeable thing--instead +of being a parasite like la Peyrade, this Hungarian lady, who seems to +have a fortune of her own, proves to be not only disinterested, but +generous. The two gowns that you saw Brigitte and Madame Thuillier +wear last night were a present from her, and it was because she came +herself to superintend the toilet of our two 'amphitryonesses' that +you were so surprised last night not to find them rigged in their +usual dowdy fashion." + +"But what can be the motive," asked Madame Phellion, "of this maternal +and devoted guardianship?" + +"My dear wife," said Phellion, solemnly, "the motives of human actions +are not always, thank God! selfishness and the consideration of vile +interests. There are hearts in this world that find pleasure in doing +good for its own sake. This lady may have seen in our good friends a +set of people about to enter blindly into a sphere they knew nothing +about, and having encouraged their first steps by the purchase of this +furniture, she may, like a nurse attached to her nursling, find +pleasure in giving them the milk of her social knowledge and her +counsels." + +"He seems to keep aloof from our strictures, the dear husband!" cried +Minard; "but just see how he goes beyond them!" + +"I!" said Phellion; "it is neither my intention nor my habit to do +so." + +"All the same it would be difficult to say more neatly that the +Thuilliers are geese, and that Madame de Godollo is bringing them up +by hand." + +"I do not accept for these friends of ours," said Phellion, "a +characterization so derogatory to their repute. I meant to say that +they were lacking, perhaps, in that form of experience, and that this +noble lady has placed at their service her knowledge of the world and +its usages. I protest against any interpretation of my language which +goes beyond my thought thus limited." + +"Well, anyhow, you will agree, my dear commander, that in the idea of +giving Celeste to this la Peyrade, there is something more than want +of experience; there is, it must be said, blundering folly and +immorality; for really the goings on of that barrister with Madame +Colleville--" + +"Monsieur le maire," interrupted Phellion, with redoubled solemnity, +"Solon, the law-giver, decreed no punishment for parricide, declaring +it to be an impossible crime. I think the same thing may be said of +the offence to which you seem to make allusion. Madame Colleville +granting favors to Monsieur de la Peyrade, and all the while intending +to give him her daughter? No, monsieur, no! that passes imagination. +Questioned on this subject, like Marie Antoinette, by a human +tribunal, Madame Colleville would answer with the queen, 'I appeal to +all mothers.'" + +"Nevertheless, my friend," said Madame Phellion, "allow me to remind +you that Madame Colleville is excessively light-minded, and has given, +as we al know, pretty good proofs of it." + +"Enough, my dear," said Phellion. "The dinner hour summons us; I think +that, little by little, we have allowed this conversation to drift +toward the miry slough of backbiting." + +"You are full of illusions, my dear commander," said Minard, taking +Phellion by the hand and shaking it; "but they are honorable +illusions, and I envy them. Madame, I have the honor--" added the +mayor, with a respectful bow to Madame Phellion. + +And each party took its way. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PROVENCAL'S PRESENT POSITION + +The information acquired by the mayor of the 11th arrondissement was +by no means incorrect. In the Thuillier salon, since the emigration to +the Madeleine quarter, might be seen daily, between the tart Brigitte +and the plaintive Madame Thuillier, the graceful and attractive figure +of a woman who conveyed to this salon an appearance of the most +unexpected elegance. It was quite true that through the good offices +of this lady, who had become her tenant in the new house, Brigitte had +made a speculation in furniture not less advantageous in its way, but +more avowable, than the very shady purchase of the house itself. For +six thousand francs in ready money she had obtained furniture lately +from workshops representing a value of at least thirty thousand. + +It was still further true that in consequence of a service which went +deep into her heart, Brigitte was showing to the beautiful foreign +countess the respectful deference which the bourgeoisie, in spite of +its sulky jealousy, is much less indisposed to give to titles of +nobility and high positions in the social hierarchy than people think. +As this Hungarian countess was a woman of great tact and accomplished +training, in taking the direction which she had thought it wise to +assume over the affairs of her proteges, she had been careful to guard +her influence from all appearance of meddlesome and imperious +dictation. On the contrary, she flattered Brigitte's claim to be a +model housekeeper; in her own household expenses she affected to ask +the spinster's advice; so that by reserving to herself the department +of luxurious expenses, she had more the air of giving information than +of exercising supervision. + +La Peyrade could not disguise from himself that a change was taking +place. His influence was evidently waning before that of this +stranger; but the antagonism of the countess was not confined to a +simple struggle for influence. She made no secret of being opposed to +his suit for Celeste; she gave her unequivocal approval to the love of +Felix Phellion, the professor. Minard, by whom this fact was not +unobserved, took very good care, in the midst of his other +information, not to mention it to those whom it most concerned. + +La Peyrade was all the more anxious at being thus undermined by a +hostility the cause of which was inexplicable to him, because he knew +he had himself to blame for bringing this disquieting adversary into +the very heart of his citadel. His first mistake was in yielding to +the barren pleasure of disappointing Cerizet in the lease of the +house. If Brigitte by his advice and urging had not taken the +administration of the property into her own hands there was every +probability that she would never have made the acquaintance of Madame +de Godollo. Another imprudence had been to urge the Thuilliers to +leave their old home in the Latin quarter. + +At this period, when his power and credit had reached their apogee, +Theodose considered his marriage a settled thing; and he now felt an +almost childish haste to spring into the sphere of elegance which +seemed henceforth to be his future. He had therefore furthered the +inducements of the countess, feeling that he thus sent the Thuilliers +before him to make his bed in the splendid apartment he intended to +share with them. By thus removing them from their old home he saw +another advantage,--that of withdrawing Celeste from daily intercourse +with a rival who seemed to him dangerous. Deprived of the advantage of +propinquity, Felix would be forced to make his visits farther apart; +and therefore there would be greater facilities to ruin him in the +girl's heart, where he was installed on condition of giving religious +satisfaction,--a requirement to which he showed himself refractory. + +But in all these plans and schemes various drawbacks confronted him. +To enlarge the horizon of the Thuilliers was for la Peyrade to run the +chance of creating competition for the confidence and admiration of +which he had been till then the exclusive object. In the sort of +provincial life they had hitherto lived, Brigitte and his dear, good +friend placed him, for want of comparison, at a height from which the +juxtaposition of other superiorities and elegances must bring him +down. So, then, apart from the blows covertly dealt him by Madame de +Godollo, the idea of the transpontine emigration had proved to be, on +the whole, a bad one. + +The Collevilles had followed their friends the Thuilliers, to the new +house near the Madeleine, where an entresol at the back had been +conceded to them at a price conformable to their budget. But +Colleville declared it lacked light and air, and being obliged to go +daily from the boulevard of the Madeleine to the faubourg Saint- +Jacques, where his office was, he fumed against the arrangement of +which he was the victim, and felt at times that la Peyrade was a +tyrant. Madame Colleville, on the other hand, had flung herself into +an alarming orgy of bonnets, mantles, and new gowns, requiring the +presentation of a mass of bills, which led not infrequently to scenes +in the household which were more or less stormy. As for Celeste, she +had undoubtedly fewer opportunities to see young Phellion, but she had +also fewer chances to rush into religious controversy; and absence, +which is dangerous to none but inferior attachments, made her think +more tenderly and less theologically of the man of her dreams. + +But all these false calculations of Theodose were as nothing in the +balance with another cause for his diminishing influence which was now +to weigh heavily on his situation. + +He had assured Thuillier that, after a short delay and the payment of +ten thousand francs, to which his dear, good friend submitted with +tolerable grace, the cross of the Legion of honor would arrive to +realize the secret desire of all his life. Two months had now passed +without a sign of that glorious rattle; and the former sub-director, +who would have felt such joy in parading his red ribbon on the +boulevard of the Madeleine, of which he was now one of the most +assiduous promenaders, had nothing to adorn his buttonhole but the +flowers of the earth, the privilege of everybody,--of which he was far +less proud than Beranger. + +La Peyrade had, to be sure, mentioned an unforeseen and inexplicable +difficulty by which all the efforts of the Comtesse du Bruel had been +paralyzed; but Thuillier did not take comfort in the explanation; and +on certain days, when the disappointment became acute, he was very +near saying with Chicaneau in Les Plaideurs, "Return my money." + +However, no outbreak happened, for la Peyrade held him in leash by the +famous pamphlet on "Taxation and the Sliding-Scale"; the conclusion of +which had been suspended during the excitement of the moving; for +during that agitating period Thuillier had been unable to give proper +care to the correction of proofs, about which, we may remember, he had +reserved the right of punctilious examination. La Peyrade had now +reached a point when he was forced to see that, in order to restore +his influence, which was daily evaporating, he must strike some grand +blow; and it was precisely this nagging and vexatious fancy about the +proofs that the barrister decided to take as the starting-point of a +scheme, both deep and adventurous, which came into his mind. + +One day, when the pair were engaged on the sheets of the pamphlet, a +discussion arose upon the word "nepotism," which Thuillier wished to +eliminate from one of la Peyrade's sentences, declaring that never had +he met with it anywhere; it was pure neologism--which, to the literary +notions of the bourgeoisie, is equivalent to the idea of 1793 and the +Terror. + +Generally la Peyrade took the ridiculous remarks of his dear, good +friend pretty patiently; but on this occasion he made himself +exceedingly excited, and signified to Thuillier that he might +terminate himself a work to which he applied such luminous and +intelligent criticism; after which remark he departed and was not seen +again for several days. + +At first Thuillier supposed this outbreak to be a mere passing effect +of ill-humor; but when la Peyrade's absence grew prolonged he felt the +necessity of taking some conciliatory step, and accordingly he went to +see the barrister, intending to make honorable amends and so put an +end to his sulkiness. Wishing, however, to give this advance an air +which allowed an honest issue to his own self-love, he entered la +Peyrade's room with an easy manner, and said, cheerfully:-- + +"Well, my dear fellow, it turns out that we were both right: +'nepotism' means the authority that the nephews of popes take in +public affairs. I have searched the dictionary and it gives no other +explanation; but, from what Phellion tells me, I find that in the +political vocabulary the meaning of the word has been extended to +cover the influence which corrupt ministers permit certain persons to +exercise illegally. I think, therefore, that we may retain the +expression, though it is certainly not taken in that sense by Napoleon +Landais." + +La Peyrade, who, in receiving his visitor, had affected to be +extremely busy in sorting his papers, contented himself by shrugging +his shoulders and saying nothing. + +"Well," said Thuillier, "have you got the last proofs? We ought to be +getting on." + +"If you have sent nothing to the printing-office," replied la Peyrade, +"of course there are no proofs. I myself haven't touched the +manuscript." + +"But, my dear Theodose," said Thuillier, "it isn't possible that for +such a trifle you are affronted. I don't pretend to be a writer, only +as my name is on the book I have, I think, the right to my opinion +about a word." + +"But 'Mossie' Phellion," replied Theodose, "is a writer; and inasmuch +as you have consulted him, I don't see why you can't engage him to +finish the work in which, for my part, I have resolved not to +co-operate any longer." + +"Heavens! what temper!" cried Thuillier; "here you are furious just +because I seemed to question a word and then consulted some one. You +know very well that I have read passages to Phellion, Colleville, +Minard, and Barniol as if the work were mine, in order to see the +effect it would produce upon the public; but that's no reason why I +should be willing to give my name to the things they are capable of +writing. Do you wish me to give you a proof of the confidence I have +in you? Madame la Comtesse de Godollo, to whom I read a few pages last +night, told me that the pamphlet was likely to get me into trouble +with the authorities; but I wouldn't allow what she said to have any +influence upon me." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "I think that the oracle of the family sees +the matter clearly; and I've no desire to bring your head to the +scaffold." + +"All that is nonsense," said Thuillier. "Have you, or have you not, an +intention to leave me in the lurch?" + +"Literary questions make more quarrels among friends than political +questions," replied Theodose. "I wish to put an end to these +discussions between us." + +"But, my dear Theodose, never have I assumed to be a literary man. I +think I have sound common-sense, and I say out my ideas; you can't be +angry at that; and if you play me this trick, and refuse to +collaborate any longer, it is because you have some other grudge +against me that I know nothing about." + +"I don't see why you call it a trick. There's nothing easier for you +than not to write a pamphlet; you'll simply be Jerome Thuillier, as +before." + +"And yet it was you yourself who declared that this publication would +help my election; besides, I repeat, I have read passages to all our +friends, I have announced the matter in the municipal council, and if +the work were not to appear I should be dishonored; people would be +sure to say the government had bought me up." + +"You have only to say that you are the friend of Phellion, the +incorruptible; that will clear you. You might even give Celeste to his +booby of a son; that alliance would certainly protect you from all +suspicion." + +"Theodose," said Thuillier, "there is something in your mind that you +don't tell me. It is not natural that for a simple quarrel about a +word you should wish to lose a friend like me." + +"Well, yes, there is," replied la Peyrade, with the air of a man who +makes up his mind to speak out. "I don't like ingratitude." + +"Nor I either; I don't like it," said Thuillier, hotly; "and if you +accuse me of so base an action, I summon you to explain yourself. We +must get out of these hints and innuendoes. What do you complain of? +What have you against a man whom only a few days ago you called your +friend?" + +"Nothing and everything," replied la Peyrade. "You and your sister are +much too clever to break openly with a man who, at the risk of his +reputation, has put a million in your hands. But I am not so simple +that I don't know how to detect changes. There are people about you +who have set themselves, in an underhand way, to destroy me; and +Brigitte has only one thought, and that is, how to find a decent way +of not keeping her promises. Men like me don't wait till their claims +are openly protested, and I certainly do not intend to impose myself +on any family; still, I was far, I acknowledge, from expecting such +treatment." + +"Come, come," said Thuillier, kindly, seeing in the barrister's eye +the glint of a tear of which he was completely the dupe, "I don't know +what Brigitte may have been doing to you, but one thing is very +certain: I have never ceased to be your most devoted friend." + +"No," said la Peyrade, "since that mishap about the cross I am only +good, as the saying is, to throw to the dogs. How could I have +struggled against secret influences? Possibly it is that pamphlet, +about which you have talked a great deal too much, that has hindered +your appointment. The ministers are so stupid! They would rather wait +and have their hand forced by the fame of the publication than do the +thing with a good grace as the reward of your services. But these are +political mysteries which would never enter your sister's mind." + +"The devil!" cried Thuillier. "I think I've got a pretty observing +eye, and yet I can't see the slightest change in Brigitte toward you." + +"Oh, yes!" said la Peyrade, "your eyesight is so good that you have +never seen perpetually beside her that Madame de Godollo, whom she now +thinks she can't live without." + +"Ha, ha!" said Thuillier, slyly, "so it is a little jealousy, is it, +in our mind?" + +"Jealousy!" retorted la Peyrade. "I don't know if that's the right +word, but certainly your sister--whose mind is nothing above the +ordinary, and to whom I am surprised that a man of your intellectual +superiority allows a supremacy in your household which she uses and +abuses--" + +"How can I help it, my dear fellow," interrupted Thuillier, sucking in +the compliment; "she is so absolutely devoted to me." + +"I admit the weakness, but, I repeat, your sister doesn't fit into +your groove. Well, I say that when a man of the value which you are +good enough to recognize in me, does her the honor to consult her and +devote himself to her as I have done, it can hardly be agreeable to +him to find himself supplanted by a woman who comes from nobody knows +where--and all because of a few trumpery chairs and tables she has +helped her to buy!" + +"With women, as you know very well," replied Thuillier, "household +affairs have the first place." + +"And Brigitte, who wants a finger in everything, also assumes to carry +matters with a high hand in affairs of the heart. As you are so +extraordinarily clear-sighted you ought to have seen that in +Brigitte's mind nothing is less certain than my marriage with +Mademoiselle Colleville; and yet my love has been solemnly authorized +by you." + +"Good gracious!" cried Thuillier, "I'd like to see any one attempt to +meddle with my arrangements!" + +"Well, without speaking of Brigitte, I can tell you of another +person," said Theodose, "who is doing that very thing; and that person +is Mademoiselle Celeste herself. In spite of their quarrels about +religion, her mind is none the less full of that little Phellion." + +"But why don't you tell Flavie to put a stop to it?" + +"No one knows Flavie, my dear Thuillier, better than you. She is a +woman rather than a mother. I have found it necessary to do a little +bit of courting to her myself, and, you understand, while she is +willing for this marriage she doesn't desire it very much." + +"Well," said Thuillier, "I'll undertake to speak to Celeste myself. It +shall never be said that a slip of a girl lays down the law to me." + +"That's exactly what I don't want you to do," cried la Peyrade. "Don't +meddle in all this. Outside of your relations to your sister you have +an iron will, and I will never have it said that you exerted your +authority to put Celeste in my arms; on the contrary, I desire that +the child may have complete control over her own heart. The only thing +I request is that she shall decide positively between Felix Phellion +and myself; because I do not choose to remain any longer in this +doubtful position. It is true we agreed that the marriage should only +take place after you became a deputy; but I feel now that it is +impossible to allow the greatest event of my life to remain at the +mercy of doubtful circumstances. And, besides, such an arrangement, +though at first agreed upon, seems to me now to have a flavor of a +bargain which is unbecoming to both of us. I think I had better make +you a confidence, to which I am led by the unpleasant state of things +now between us. Dutocq may have told you, before you left the +apartment in the rue Saint-Dominique, that an heiress had been offered +to me whose immediate fortune is larger than that which Mademoiselle +Colleville will eventually inherit. I refused, because I have had the +folly to let my heart be won, and because an alliance with a family as +honorable as yours seemed to me more desirable; but, after all, it is +as well to let Brigitte know that if Celeste refuses me, I am not +absolutely turned out into the cold." + +"I can easily believe that," said Thuillier; "but as for putting the +whole decision into the hands of that little girl, especially if she +has, as you tell me, a fancy for Felix--" + +"I can't help it," said the barrister. "I must, at any price, get out +of this position; it is no longer tenable. You talk about your +pamphlet; I am not in a fit condition to finish it. You, who have been +a man of gallantry, you must know the dominion that women, fatal +creatures! exercise over our whole being." + +"Bah!" said Thuillier, conceitedly, "they cared for me, but I did not +often care for them; I took them, and left them, you know." + +"Yes, but I, with my Southern nature, love passionately; and Celeste +has other attractions besides fortune. Brought up in your household, +under your own eye, you have made her adorable. Only, I must say, you +have shown great weakness in letting that young fellow, who does not +suit her in any respect, get such hold upon her fancy." + +"You are quite right; but the thing began in a childish friendship; +she and Felix played together. You came much later; and it is a proof +of the great esteem in which we hold you, that when you made your +offer we renounced our earlier projects." + +"YOU did, yes," said la Peyrade, "and with some literary manias-- +which, after all, are frequently full of sense and wit--you have a +heart of gold; with you friendship is a sure thing, and you know what +you mean. But Brigitte is another matter; you'll see, when you propose +to her to hasten the marriage, what a resistance she will make." + +"I don't agree with you. I think that Brigitte has always wanted you +and still wants you for son-in-law--if I may so express myself. But +whether she does or not, I beg you to believe that in all important +matters I know how to have my will obeyed. Only, let us come now to a +distinct understanding of what you wish; then we can start with the +right foot foremost, and you'll see that all will go well." + +"I wish," replied la Peyrade, "to put the last touches to your +pamphlet; for, above all things, I think of you." + +"Certainly," said Thuillier, "we ought not to sink in port." + +"Well, in consequence of the feeling that I am oppressed, stultified +by the prospect of a marriage still so doubtful, I am certain that not +a page of manuscript could be got out of me in any form, until the +question is settled." + +"Very good," said Thuillier; "then how do you present that question?" + +"Naturally, if Celeste's decision be against me, I should wish an +immediate solution. If I am condemned to make a marriage of +convenience I ought to lose no time in taking the opportunity I +mentioned to you." + +"So be it; but what time do you intend to allow us?" + +"I should think that in fifteen days a girl might be able to make up +her mind." + +"Undoubtedly," replied Thuillier; "but it is very repugnant to me to +let Celeste decide without appeal." + +"For my part, I will take that risk; in any case, I shall be rid of +uncertainty; and that is really my first object. Between ourselves, I +am not risking as much as you think. It will take more than fifteen +days for a son of Phellion, in other words, obstinacy incarnate in +silliness, to have done with philosophical hesitations; and it is very +certain that Celeste will not accept him for a husband unless he gives +her some proofs of conversion." + +"That's probable. But suppose Celeste tries to dawdle; suppose she +refuses to accept the alternative?" + +"That's your affair," said the Provencal. "I don't know how you regard +the family in Paris; I only know that in my part of the country it is +an unheard-of thing that a girl should have such liberty. If you, your +sister (supposing she plays fair in the matter), and the father and +mother can't succeed in making a girl whom you dower agree to so +simple a thing as to make a perfectly free choice between two suitors, +then good-bye to you! You'll have to write upon your gate-post that +Celeste is queen and sovereign of the house." + +"Well, we haven't got to that point yet," said Thuillier, with a +capable air. + +"As for you, my old fellow," resumed la Peyrade, "I must postpone our +business until after Celeste's decision. Be that in my favor or not, I +will then go to work, and in three days the pamphlet can be finished." + +"Now," said Thuillier, "I know what you have had on your mind. I'll +talk about it with Brigitte." + +"That's a sad conclusion," said la Peyrade; "but, unhappily, so it +is." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I would rather, as you can easily imagine, hear you say of yourself +that the thing shall be done; but old habits can't be broken up." + +"Ah ca! do you think I'm a man without any will, any initiative of my +own?" + +"No! but I'd like to be hidden in a corner and hear how you will open +the subject with your sister." + +"Parbleu! I shall open it frankly. I WILL, very firmly said, shall +meet every one of her objections." + +"Ah, my poor fellow!" said la Peyrade, clapping him on the shoulder, +"from Chrysale down how often have we seen brave warriors lowering +their penants before the wills of women accustomed to master them!" + +"We'll see about THAT," replied Thuillier, making a theatrical exit. + +The eager desire to publish his pamphlet, and the clever doubt thrown +upon the strength of his will had made him furious,--an actual tiger; +and he went away resolved, in case of opposition, to reduce his +household, as the saying is, by fire and sword. + +When he reached home Thuillier instantly laid the question before +Brigitte. She, with her crude good sense and egotism, pointed out to +him that by thus hastening the period formerly agreed upon for the +marriage, they committed the blunder of disarming themselves; they +could not be sure that when the election took place la Peyrade would +put the same zeal into preparing for it. It might be," said the old +maid, "just as it has been about the cross." + +"There's this difference," said Thuillier; "the cross doesn't depend +directly upon la Peyrade, whereas the influence he exerts in the 12th +arrondissement he can employ as he will." + +"And suppose he willed, after we have feathered his nest," said +Brigitte, "to work his influence for his own election? He is very +ambitious, you know." + +This danger did not fail to strike the mind of the future legislator, +who thought, however, that he might feel some security in the honor +and morality of la Peyrade. + +"A man's honor can't be very delicate," returned Brigitte, "when he +tries to get out of a bargain; and this fashion of dangling a bit of +sugar before us about getting your pamphlet finished, doesn't please +me at all. Can't you get Phellion to help you, and do without +Theodose? Or, I dare say, Madame de Godollo, who knows everybody in +politics, could find you a journalist--they say there are plenty of +them out at elbows; a couple of hundred francs would do the thing." + +"But the secret would get into the papers," said Thuillier. "No, I +must absolutely have Theodose; he knows that, and he makes these +conditions. After all, we did promise him Celeste, and it is only +fulfilling the promise a year earlier--what am I saying?--a few +months, a few weeks, possibly; for the king may dissolve the Chamber +before any one expects it." + +"But suppose Celeste won't have him?" objected Brigitte. + +"Celeste! Celeste, indeed!" ejaculated Thuillier; "she MUST have +whomsoever we choose. We ought to have thought of that when we made +the engagement with la Peyrade; our word is passed now, you know. +Besides, if the child is allowed to choose between la Peyrade and +Phellion--" + +"So you really think," said the sceptical old maid, "that if Celeste +decides for Phellion you can still count on la Peyrade's devotion?" + +"What else can I do? Those are his conditions. Besides, the fellow has +calculated the whole thing; he knows very well that Felix will never +bring himself in two weeks to please Celeste by going to confession, +and unless he does, that little monkey will never accept him for a +husband. La Peyrade's game is very clever." + +"Too clever," said Brigitte. "Well, settle the matter as you choose; I +shall not meddle; all this manoeuvring is not to my taste." + +Thuillier went to see Madame Colleville, and intimated to her that she +must inform Celeste of the designs upon her. + +Celeste had never been officially authorized to indulge her sentiment +for Felix Phellion. Flavie, on the contrary, had once expressly +forbidden her to encourage the hopes of the young professor; but as, +on the part of Madame Thuillier, her godmother and her confidant, she +knew she was sustained in her inclination, she had let herself gently +follow it without thinking very seriously of the obstacles her choice +might encounter. When, therefore, she was ordered to choose at once +between Felix and la Peyrade, the simple-hearted girl was at first +only struck by the advantages of one half of the alternative, and she +fancied she did herself a great service by agreeing to an arrangement +which made her the mistress of her own choice and allowed her to +bestow it as her heart desired. + +But la Peyrade was not mistaken in his calculation when he reckoned +that the religious intolerance of the young girl on one side, and the +philosophical inflexibility of Phellion's son on the other, would +create an invincible obstacle to their coming together. + + + +CHAPTER III + +GOOD BLOOD CANNOT LIE + +The evening of the day on which Flavie had communicated to Celeste the +sovereign orders of Thuillier, the Phellions called to spend the +evening with Brigitte, and a very sharp engagement took place between +the two young people. Mademoiselle Colleville did not need to be told +by her mother that it would be extremely unbecoming if she allowed +Felix to know of the conditional approval that was granted to their +sentiments. Celeste had too much delicacy, and too much real religious +feeling to wish to obtain the conversion of the man she loved on any +other ground than that of his conviction. Their evening was therefore +passed in theological debate; but love is so strange a Proteus, and +takes so many and such various forms, that though it appeared on this +occasion in a black gown and a mob cap, it was not at all as +ungraceful and displeasing as might have been imagined. But Phellion +junior was in this encounter, the solemnity of which he little knew, +unlucky and blundering to the last degree. Not only did he concede +nothing, but he took a tone of airy and ironical discussion, and ended +by putting poor Celeste so beside herself that she finally declared an +open rupture and forbade him to appear in her presence again. + +It was just the case for a lover more experienced than the young +savant to reappear the very next day, for young hearts are never so +near to understanding each other as when they have just declared the +necessity of eternal separation. But this law is not one of +logarithms, and Felix Phellion, being incapable of guessing it, +thought himself positively and finally banished; so much so, that +during the fifteen days granted to the poor girl to deliberate (as +says the Code in the matter of beneficiary bequests), although he was +expected day by day, and from minute to minute by Celeste, who gave no +more thought to la Peyrade than if he had nothing to do with the +question, the deplorably stupid youth did not have the most distant +idea of breaking his ban. + +Luckily for this hopeless lover, a beneficent fairy was watching over +him, and the evening before the day on which the young girl was to +make her decision the following affair took place. + +It was Sunday, the day on which the Thuilliers still kept up their +weekly receptions. + +Madame Phellion, convinced that the housekeeping leakage, vulgarly +called "the basket dance," was the ruin of the best-regulated +households, was in the habit of going in person to her tradespeople. +From time immemorial in the Phellion establishment, Sunday was the day +of the "pot-au-feu," and the wife of the great citizen, in that +intentionally dowdy costume in which good housekeepers bundle +themselves when they go to market, was prosaically returning from a +visit to the butcher, followed by her cook and the basket, in which +lay a magnificent cut of the loin of beef. Twice had she rung her own +doorbell, and terrible was the storm gathering on the head of the +foot-boy, who by his slowness in opening the door was putting his +mistress in a situation less tolerable than that of Louis XIV., who +had only ALMOST waited. In her feverish impatience Madame Phellion had +just given the bell a third and ferocious reverberation, when, judge +of her confusion, a little coupe drew up with much clatter at the door +of her house, and a lady descended, whom she recognized, at this +untimely hour, as the elegant Comtesse Torna de Godollo! + +Turning a purplish scarlet, the unfortunate bourgeoise lost her head, +and, floundering in excuses, she was about to complicate the position +by some signal piece of awkwardness, when, happily for her, Phellion, +attracted by the noise of the bell, and attired in a dressing-gown and +Greek cap, came out of his study to inquire what was the matter. After +a speech, the pompous charm of which did much to compensate for his +dishabille, the great citizen, with the serenity that never abandoned +him, offered his hand very gallantly to the lady, and having installed +her in the salon, said:-- + +"May I, without indiscretion, ask Madame la comtesse what has procured +for us the unhoped-for advantage of this visit?" + +"I have come," said the lady, "to talk with Madame Phellion on a +matter which must deeply interest her. I have no other way of meeting +her without witnesses; and therefore, though I am hardly known to +Madame Phellion, I have taken the liberty to call upon her here." + +"Madame, your visit is a great honor to this poor dwelling. But where +is Madame Phellion?" added the worthy man, impatiently, going towards +the door. + +"No, I beg of you, don't disturb her," said the countess; "I have +heedlessly come at a moment when she is busy with household cares. +Brigitte has been my educator in such matters, and I know the respect +we ought to pay to good housekeepers. Besides, I have the pleasure of +your presence, which I scarcely expected." + +Before Phellion could reply to these obliging words, Madame Phellion +appeared. A cap with ribbons had taken the place of the market bonnet, +and a large shawl covered the other insufficiencies of the morning +toilet. When his wife arrived, the great citizen made as though he +would discreetly retire. + +"Monsieur Phellion," said the countess, "you are not one too many in +the conference I desire with madame; on the contrary, your excellent +judgment will be most useful in throwing light upon a matter as +interesting to you as to your wife. I allude to the marriage of your +son." + +"The marriage of my son!" cried Madame Phellion, with a look of +astonishment; "but I am not aware that anything of the kind is at +present in prospect." + +"The marriage of Monsieur Felix with Mademoiselle Celeste is, I think, +one of your strongest desires--" + +"But we have never," said Phellion, "taken any overt steps for that +object." + +"I know that only too well," replied the countess; "on the contrary, +every one in your family seems to study how to defeat my efforts in +that direction. However, one thing is clear in spite of the reserve, +and, you must allow me to say so, the clumsiness in which the affair +has been managed, and that is that the young people love each other, +and they will both be unhappy if they do not marry. Now, to prevent +this catastrophe is the object with which I have come here this +morning." + +"We cannot, madame, be otherwise than deeply sensible of the interest +you are so good as to show in the happiness of our son," said +Phellion; "but, in truth, this interest--" + +"Is something so inexplicable," interrupted the countess, "that you +feel a distrust of it?" + +"Oh! madame!" said Phellion, bowing with an air of respectful dissent. + +"But," continued the lady, "the explanation of my proceeding is very +simple. I have studied Celeste, and in that dear and artless child I +find a moral weight and value which would make me grieve to see her +sacrificed." + +"You are right, madame," said Madame Phellion. "Celeste is, indeed, an +angel of sweetness." + +"As for monsieur Felix, I venture to interest myself because, in the +first place, he is the son of so virtuous a father--" + +"Oh, madame! I entreat--" said Phellion, bowing again. + +"--and he also attracts me by the awkwardness of true love, which +appears in all his actions and all his words. We mature women find an +inexpressible charm in seeing the tender passion under a form which +threatens us with no deceptions and no misunderstandings." + +"My son is certainly not brilliant," said Madame Phellion, with a +faint tone of sharpness; "he is not a fashionable young man." + +"But he has the qualities that are most essential," replied the +countess, "and a merit which ignores itself,--a thing of the utmost +consequence in all intellectual superiority--" + +"Really, madame," said Phellion, "you force us to hear things that--" + +"That are not beyond the truth," interrupted the countess. "Another +reason which leads me to take a deep interest in the happiness of +these young people is that I am not so desirous for that of Monsieur +Theodose de la Peyrade, who is false and grasping. On the ruin of +their hopes that man is counting to carry out his swindling purposes." + +"It is quite certain," said Phellion, "that there are dark depths in +Monsieur de la Peyrade where light does not penetrate." + +"And as I myself had the misfortune to marry a man of his description, +the thought of the wretchedness to which Celeste would be condemned by +so fatal a connection, impels me, in the hope of saving her, to the +charitable effort which now, I trust, has ceased to surprise you." + +"Madame," said Phellion, "we do not need the conclusive explanations +by which you illumine your conduct; but as to the faults on our part, +which have thwarted your generous efforts, I must declare that in +order to avoid committing them in future, it seems to me not a little +desirable that you should plainly indicate them." + +"How long is it," asked the countess, "since any of your family have +paid a visit to the Thuilliers'?" + +"If my memory serves me," said Phellion, "I think we were all there +the Sunday after the dinner for the house-warming." + +"Fifteen whole days of absence!" exclaimed the countess; "and you +think that nothing of importance could happen in fifteen days?" + +"No, indeed! did not three glorious days in July, 1830, cast down a +perjured dynasty and found the noble order of things under which we +now live?" + +"You see it yourself!" said the countess. "Now, tell me, during that +evening, fifteen days ago, did nothing serious take place between your +son and Celeste?" + +"Something did occur," replied Phellion,--"a very disagreeable +conversation on the subject of my son's religious opinions; it must be +owned that our good Celeste, who in all other respects has a charming +nature, is a trifle fanatic in the matter of piety." + +"I agree to that," said the countess; "but she was brought up by the +mother whom you know; she was never shown the face of true piety; she +saw only the mimicry of it. Repentant Magdalens of the Madame +Colleville species always assume an air of wishing to retire to a +desert with their death's-head and crossed bones. They think they +can't get salvation at a cheaper rate. But after all, what did Celeste +ask of Monsieur Felix? Merely that he would read 'The Imitation of +Christ.'" + +"He has read it, madame," said Phellion, "and he thinks it a book +extremely well written; but his convictions--and that is a misfortune +--have not been affected by the perusal." + +"And do you think he shows much cleverness in not assuring his +mistress of some little change in his inflexible convictions?" + +"My son, madame, has never received from me the slightest lesson in +cleverness; loyalty, uprightness, those are the principles I have +endeavored to inculcate in him." + +"It seems to me, monsieur, that there is no want of loyalty when, in +dealing with a troubled mind, we endeavor to avoid wounding it. But +let us agree that Monsieur Felix owed it to himself to be that iron +door against which poor Celeste's applications beat in vain; was that +a reason for keeping away from her and sulking in his tent for fifteen +whole days? Above all, ought he to have capped these sulks by a +proceeding which I can't forgive, and which--only just made known to +us--has struck the girl's heart with despair, and also with a feeling +of extreme irritation?" + +"My son capable of any such act! it is quite impossible, madame!" +cried Phellion. "I know nothing of this proceeding; but I do not +hesitate to affirm that you have been ill-informed." + +"And yet, nothing is more certain. Young Colleville, who came home +to-day for his half-holiday, has just told us that Monsieur Felix, who +had previously gone with the utmost punctuality to hear him recite has +ceased entirely to have anything to do with him. Unless your son is +ill, I do not hesitate to say that this neglect is the greatest of +blunders, in the situation in which he now stands with the sister he +ought not to have chosen this moment to put an end to these lessons." + +The Phellions looked at each other as if consulting how to reply. + +"My son," said Madame Phellion, "is not exactly ill; but since you +mention a fact which is, I acknowledge, very strange and quite out of +keeping with his nature and habits, I think it right to tell you that +from the day when Celeste seemed to signify that all was at an end +between them, a very extraordinary change has come over Felix, which +is causing Monsieur Phellion and myself the deepest anxiety." + +"Yes, madame," said Phellion, "the young man is certainly not in his +normal condition." + +"But what is the matter with him?" asked the countess, anxiously. + +"The night of that scene with Celeste," replied Phellion, "after his +return home, he wept a flood of hot tears on his mother's bosom, and +gave us to understand that the happiness of his whole life was at an +end." + +"And yet," said Madame de Godollo, "nothing very serious happened; but +lovers always make the worst of things." + +"No doubt," said Madame Phellion; "but since that night Felix has not +made the slightest allusion to his misfortune, and the next day he +went back to his work with a sort of frenzy. Does that seem natural to +you?" + +"It is capable of explanation; work is said to be a great consoler." + +"That is most true," said Phellion; "but in Felix's whole personality +there is something excited, and yet repressed, which is difficult to +describe. You speak to him, and he hardly seems to hear you; he sits +down to table and forgets to eat, or takes his food with an absent- +mindedness which the medical faculty consider most injurious to the +process of digestion; his duties, his regular occupations, we have to +remind him of--him, so extremely regular, so punctual! The other day, +when he was at the Observatory, where he now spends all his evenings, +only coming home in the small hours, I took it upon myself to enter +his room and examine his papers. I was terrified, madame, at finding a +paper covered with algebraic calculations which, by their vast extent +appeared to me to go beyond the limits of the human intellect." + +"Perhaps," said the countess, "he is on the road to some great +discovery." + +"Or to madness," said Madame Phellion, in a low voice, and with a +heavy sigh. + +"That is not probable," said Madame de Godollo; "with an organization +so calm and a mind so well balanced, he runs but little danger of that +misfortune. I know myself of another danger that threatens him +to-morrow, and unless we can take some steps this evening to avert it, +Celeste is positively lost to him." + +"How so?" said the husband and wife together. + +"Perhaps you are not aware," replied the countess, "that Thuillier and +his sister have made certain promises to Monsieur de la Peyrade about +Celeste?" + +"We suspected as much," replied Madame Phellion. + +"The fulfilment of these pledges was postponed to a rather distant +period, and subordinated to certain conditions. Monsieur de la +Peyrade, after enabling them to buy the house near the Madeleine, +pledged himself not only to obtain the cross for Monsieur Thuillier, +but to write in his name a political pamphlet, and assist him in his +election to the Chamber of Deputies. It sounds like the romances of +chivalry, in which the hero, before obtaining the hand of the +princess, is compelled to exterminate a dragon." + +"Madame is very witty," said Madame Phellion, looking at her husband, +who made her a sign not to interrupt. + +"I have no time now," said the countess; "in fact it would be useless +to tell you the manoeuvres by which Monsieur de la Peyrade has +contrived to hasten the period of this marriage; but it concerns you +to know that, thanks to his duplicity, Celeste is being forced to +choose between him and Monsieur Felix; fifteen days were given her in +which to make her choice; the time expires to-morrow, and, thanks to +the unfortunate state of feeling into which your son's attitude has +thrown her, there is very serious danger of seeing her sacrifice to +her wounded feelings the better sentiments of her love and her +instincts." + +"But what can be done to prevent it?" asked Phellion. + +"Fight, monsieur; come this evening in force to the Thuilliers'; +induce Monsieur Felix to accompany you; lecture him until he promises +to be a little more flexible in his philosophical opinions. Paris, +said Henri IV., is surely worth a mass. But let him avoid all such +questions; he can certainly find in his heart the words and tones to +move a woman who loves him; it requires so little to satisfy her! I +shall be there myself, and I will help him to my utmost ability; +perhaps, under the inspiration of the moment, I may think of some way +to do effectually. One thing is very certain: we have to fight a great +battle to-night, and if we do not ALL do our duty valorously, la +Peyrade may win it." + +"My son is not here, madame," said Phellion, "and I regret it, for +perhaps your generous devotion and urgent words would succeed in +shaking off his torpor; but, at any rate, I will lay before him the +gravity of the situation, and, beyond all doubt, he will accompany us +to-night to the Thuilliers'." + +"It is needless to say," added the countess, rising, "that we must +carefully avoid the very slightest appearance of collusion; we must +not converse together; in fact, unless it can be done in some casual +way, it would be better not to speak." + +"I beg you to rely, madame, upon my prudence," replied Phellion, "and +kindly accept the assurance--" + +"Of your most distinguished sentiments," interrupted the countess, +laughing. + +"No, madame," replied Phellion, gravely, "I reserve that formula for +the conclusion of my letters; I beg you to accept the assurance of my +warmest and most unalterable gratitude." + +"We will talk of that when we are out of danger," said Madame de +Godollo, moving towards the door; "and if Madame Phellion, the +tenderest and most virtuous of mothers, will grant me a little place +in her esteem, I shall count myself more than repaid for my trouble." + +Madame Phellion plunged headlong into a responsive compliment; and the +countess, in her carriage, was at some distance from the house before +Phellion had ceased to offer her his most respectful salutations. + +As the Latin-quarter element in Brigitte's salon became more rare and +less assiduous, a livelier Paris began to infiltrate it. Among his +colleagues in the municipal council and among the upper employees of +the prefecture of the Seine, the new councillor had made several very +important recruits. The mayor, and the deputy mayors of the +arrondissement, on whom, after his removal to the Madeleine quarter, +Thuillier had called, hastened to return the civility; and the same +thing happened with the superior officers of the first legion. The +house itself had produced a contingent; and several of the new tenants +contributed, by their presence, to change the aspect of the dominical +meetings. Among the number we must mention Rabourdin [see +"Bureaucracy"], the former head of Thuillier's office at the ministry +of finance. Having had the misfortune to lose his wife, whose salon, +at an earlier period, checkmated that of Madame Colleville, Rabourdin +occupied as a bachelor the third floor, above the apartment let to +Cardot, the notary. As the result of an odious slight to his just +claims, Rabourdin had voluntarily resigned his public functions. At +this time, when he again met Thuillier, he was director of one of +those numerous projected railways, the construction of which is always +delayed by either parliamentary rivalry or parliamentary indecision. +Let us say, in passing, that the meeting with this able administrator, +now become an important personage in the financial world, was an +occasion to the worthy and honest Phellion to display once more his +noble character. At the time of the resignation to which Rabourdin had +felt himself driven, Phellion alone, of all the clerks in the office, +had stood by him in his misfortunes. Being now in a position to bestow +a great number of places, Rabourdin, on meeting once more his faithful +subordinate, hastened to offer him a position both easy and lucrative. + +"Mossieu," said Phellion, "your benevolence touches me and honors me, +but my frankness owes you an avowal, which I beg you not to take in +ill part: I do not believe in 'railways,' as the English call them." + +"That's an opinion to which you have every right," said Rabourdin, +smiling; "but, meanwhile, until the contrary is proved, we pay the +employees in our office well, and I should be glad to have you with me +in that capacity. I know by experience that you are a man on whom I +can count." + +"Mossieu," returned the great citizen, "I did my duty at that time, +and nothing more. As for the offer you have been so good as to make to +me, I cannot accept it; satisfied with my humble fortunes, I feel +neither the need nor the desire to re-enter an administrative career; +and, in common with the Latin poet, I may say, 'Claudite jam rivos, +pueri, sat prata biberunt.'" + +Thus elevated in the character of its habitues, the salon Thuillier +still needed a new element of life. Thanks to the help of Madame de +Godollo, a born organizer, who successfully put to profit the former +connection of Colleville with the musical world, a few artists came to +make diversion from bouillotte and boston. Old-fashioned and +venerable, those two games were forced to beat a retreat before whist, +the only manner, said the Hungarian countess, in which respectable +people can kill time. + +Like Louis XVI., who began by putting his own hand to reforms which +subsequently engulfed his throne, Brigitte had encouraged, at first, +this domestic revolution; the need of sustaining her position suitably +in the new quarter to which she had emigrated had made her docile to +all suggestions of comfort and elegance. But the day on which occurred +the scene we are about to witness, an apparently trivial detail had +revealed to her the danger of the declivity on which she stood. The +greater number of the new guests, recently imported by Thuillier, knew +nothing of his sister's supremacy in his home. On arrival, therefore, +they all asked Thuillier to present them to MADAME, and, naturally, +Thuillier could not say to them that his wife was a figure-head who +groaned under the iron hand of a Richelieu, to whom the whole +household bent the knee. It was therefore not until the first homage +rendered to the sovereign "de jure" was paid, that the new-comers were +led up to Brigitte, and by reason of the stiffness which displeasure +at this misplacement of power gave to her greeting they were scarcely +encouraged to pay her any further attentions. Quick to perceive this +species of overthrow, Queen Elizabeth said to herself, with that +profound instinct of domination which was her ruling passion:-- + +"If I don't take care I shall soon be nobody in this house." + +Burrowing into that idea, she came to think that if the project of +making a common household with la Peyrade, then Celeste's husband, +were carried out, the situation which was beginning to alarm her would +become even worse. From that moment, and by sudden intuition, Felix +Phellion, that good young man, with his head too full of mathematics +ever to become a formidable rival to her sovereignty, seemed to her a +far better match than the enterprising lawyer, and she was the first, +on seeing the Phellion father and mother arrive without the son, to +express regret at his absence. Brigitte, however, was not the only one +to feel the injury that the luckless professor was doing to his +prospects in thus keeping away from her reception. Madame Thuillier, +with simple candor, and Celeste with feigned reserve, both made +manifest their displeasure. As for Madame de Godollo, who, in spite of +a very remarkable voice, usually required much pressing before she +would sing (the piano having been opened since her reign began), she +now went up to Madame Phellion and asked her to accompany her, and +between two verses of a song she said in her ear:-- + +"Why isn't your son here?" + +"He is coming," said Madame Phellion. "His father talked to him very +decidedly; but to-night there happens to be a conjunction of I don't +know what planets; it is a great night at the Observatory, and he did +not feel willing to dispense with--" + +"It is inconceivable that a man should be so foolish!" exclaimed +Madame de Godollo; "wasn't theology bad enough, that he must needs +bring in astronomy too?" + +And her vexation gave to her voice so vibrating a tone that her song +ended in the midst of what the English call a thunder of applause. La +Peyrade, who feared her extremely, was not one of the last, when she +returned to her place, to approach her, and express his admiration; +but she received his compliments with a coldness so near to incivility +that their mutual hostility was greatly increased. La Peyrade turned +away to console himself with Madame Colleville, who had still too many +pretensions to beauty not to be the enemy of a woman made to intercept +all homage. + +"So you also, you think that woman sings well?" she said, +contemptuously, to Theodose. + +"At any rate, I have been to tell her so," replied la Peyrade, +"because without her, in regard to Brigitte, there's no security. But +do just look at your Celeste; her eyes never leave that door, and +every time a tray is brought in, though it is an hour at least since +the last guest came, her face expresses disappointment." + +We must remark, in passing, that since the reign of Madame de Godollo +trays were passed round on the Sunday reception days, and that without +scrimping; on the contrary, they were laden with ices, cakes, and +syrups, from Taurade's, then the best confectioner. + +"Don't harass me!" cried Flavie. "I know very well what that foolish +girl has in her mind; and your marriage will take place only too +soon." + +"But you know it is not for myself I make it," said la Peyrade; "it is +a necessity for the future of all of us. Come, come, there are tears +in your eyes! I shall leave you; you are not reasonable. The devil! as +that Prudhomme of a Phellion says, 'Whoso wants the end wants the +means.'" + +And he went toward the group composed of Celeste, Madame Thuillier, +Madame de Godollo, Colleville, and Phellion. Madame Colleville +followed him; and, under the influence of the feeling of jealousy she +had just shown, she became a savage mother. + +"Celeste," she said, "why don't you sing? These gentlemen wish to hear +you." + +"Oh, mamma!" cried the girl, "how can I sing after Madame de Godollo, +with my poor thread of a voice? Besides, you know I have a cold." + +"That is to say that, as usual, you make yourself pretentious and +disagreeable; people sing as they can sing; all voices have their own +merits." + +"My dear," said Colleville, who, having just lost twenty francs at the +card-tables, found courage in his ill-humor to oppose his wife, "that +saying, 'People sing as they can sing' is a bourgeois maxim. People +sing with a voice, if they have one; but they don't sing after hearing +such a magnificent opera voice as that of Madame la comtesse. For my +part, I readily excuse Celeste for not warbling to us one of her +sentimental little ditties." + +"Then it is well worth while," said Flavie, leaving the group, "to +spend so much money on expensive masters who are good for nothing." + +"So," said Colleville, resuming the conversation which the invasion of +Flavie had interrupted, "Felix no longer inhabits this earth; he lives +among the stars?" + +"My dear and former colleague," said Phellion, "I am, as you are, +annoyed with my son for neglecting, as he does, the oldest friends of +his family; and though the contemplation of those great luminous +bodies suspended in space by the hand of the Creator presents, in my +opinion, higher interest than it appears to have to your more eager +brain, I think that Felix, by not coming here to-night, as he promised +me he would, shows a want of propriety, about which, I can assure you +I shall speak my mind." + +"Science," said la Peyrade, "is a fine thing, but it has, +unfortunately, the attribute of making bears and monomaniacs." + +"Not to mention," said Celeste, "that it destroys all religious +sentiments." + +"You are mistaken there, my dear child," said Madame de Godollo. +"Pascal, who was himself a great example of the falseness of your +point of view, says, if I am not mistaken, that a little science draws +us from religion, but a great deal draws us back to it." + +"And yet, madame," said Celeste, "every one admits that Monsieur Felix +is really very learned; when he helped my brother with his studies +nothing could be, so Francois told me, clearer or more comprehensible +than his explanations; and you see, yourself, he is not the more +religious for that." + +"I tell you, my dear child, that Monsieur Felix is not irreligious, +and with a little gentleness and patience nothing would be easier than +to bring him back." + +"Bring back a savant to the duties of religion!" exclaimed la Peyrade. +"Really, madame, that seems to me very difficult. These gentlemen put +the object of their studies before everything else. Tell a +geometrician or a geologist, for example, that the Church demands, +imperatively, the sanctification of the Sabbath by the suspension of +all species of work, and they will shrug their shoulders, though God +Himself did not disdain to rest from His labors." + +"So that in not coming here this evening," said Celeste, naively, +"Monsieur Felix commits not only a fault against good manners, but a +sin." + +"But, my dearest," said Madame de Godollo, "do you think that our +meeting here this evening to sing ballads and eat ices and say evil of +our neighbor--which is the customary habit of salons--is more pleasing +to God than to see a man of science in his observatory busied in +studying the magnificent secrets of His creation?" + +"There's a time for all things," said Celeste; "and, as Monsieur de la +Peyrade says, God Himself did not disdain to rest." + +"But, my love," said Madame de Godollo, "God has time to do so; He is +eternal." + +"That," said la Peyrade, "is one of the wittiest impieties ever +uttered; those are the reasons that the world's people put forth. They +interpret and explain away the commands of God, even those that are +most explicit and imperative; they take them, leave them, or choose +among them; the free-thinker subjects them to his lordly revision, and +from free-thinking the distance is short to free actions." + +During this harangue of the barrister Madame de Godollo had looked at +the clock; it then said half-past eleven. The salon began to empty. +Only one card-table was still going on, Minard, Thuillier, and two of +the new acquaintances being the players. Phellion had just quitted the +group with which he had so far been sitting, to join his wife, who was +talking with Brigitte in a corner; by the vehemence of his pantomimic +action it was easy to see that he was filled with some virtuous +indignation. Everything seemed to show that all hope of seeing the +arrival of the tardy lover was decidedly over. + +"Monsieur," said the countess to la Peyrade, "do you consider the +gentlemen attached to Saint-Jacques du Haut Pas in the rue des Postes +good Catholics?" + +"Undoubtedly," replied the barrister, "religion has no more loyal +supporters." + +"This morning," continued the countess, "I had the happiness to be +received by Pere Anselme. He is thought the model of all Christian +virtues, and yet the good father is a very learned mathematician." + +"I have not said, madame, that the two qualities were absolutely +incompatible." + +"But you did say that a true Christian could not attend to any species +of work on Sunday. If so, Pere Anselme must be an unbeliever; for when +I was admitted to his room I found him standing before a blackboard +with a bit of chalk in his hand, busy with a problem which was, no +doubt, knotty, for the board was three-parts covered with algebraic +signs; and I must add that he did not seem to care for the scandal +this ought to cause, for he had with him an individual whom I am not +allowed to name, a younger man of science, of great promise, who was +sharing his profane occupation." + +Celeste and Madame Thuillier looked at each other, and both saw a +gleam of hope in the other's eyes. + +"Why can't you tell us the name of that young man of science?" Madame +Thuillier ventured to say, for she never put any diplomacy into the +expression of her thoughts. + +"Because he has not, like Pere Anselme, the saintliness which would +absolve him in the eyes of monsieur here for this flagrant violation +of the Sabbath. Besides," added Madame de Godollo, in a significant +manner, "he asked me not to mention that I had met him there." + +"Then you know a good many scientific young men?" said Celeste, +interrogatively; "this one and Monsieur Felix--that makes two." + +"My dear love," said the countess, "you are an inquisitive little +girl, and you will not make me say what I do not choose to say, +especially after a confidence that Pere Anselme made to me; for if I +did, your imagination would at once set off at a gallop." + +The gallop had already started, and every word the countess said only +added to the anxious eagerness of the young girl. + +"As for me," said la Peyrade, sarcastically, "I shouldn't be at all +surprised if Pere Anselme's young collaborator was that very Felix +Phellion. Voltaire always kept very close relations with the Jesuits +who brought him up; but he never talked religion with them." + +"Well, my young savant does talk of it to his venerable brother in +science; he submits his doubts to him; in fact, that was the beginning +of their scientific intimacy." + +"And does Pere Anselme," asked Celeste, "hope to convert him?" + +"He is sure of it," replied the countess. "His young collaborator, +apart from a religious education which he certainly never had, has +been brought up to the highest principles; he knows, moreover, that +his conversion to religion would make the happiness of a charming girl +whom he loves, and who loves him. Now, my dear, you will not get +another word out of me, and you may think what you like." + +"Oh! godmother!" whispered Celeste, yielding to the freshness of her +feelings, "suppose it were he!" + +And the tears filled her eyes as she pressed Madame Thuillier's hand. + +At this moment the servant threw open the door of the salon, and, +singular complication! announced Monsieur Felix Phellion. + +The young professor entered the room, bathed in perspiration, his +cravat in disorder, and himself out of breath. + +"A pretty hour," said Phellion, sternly, "to present yourself." + +"Father," said Felix, moving to the side of the room where Madame +Thuillier and Celeste were seated, "I could not leave before the end +of the phenomenon; and then I couldn't find a carriage, and I have run +the whole way." + +"Your ears ought to have burned as you came," said la Peyrade, "for +you have been for the last half-hour in the minds of these ladies, and +a great problem has been started about you." + +Felix did not answer. He saw Brigitte entering the salon from the +dining-room where she had gone to tell the man-servant not to bring in +more trays, and he hurried to greet her. + +After listening to a few reproaches for the rarity of his visits and +receiving forgiveness in a very cordial "Better late than never," he +turned towards his pole, and was much astonished to hear himself +addressed by Madame de Godollo as follows:-- + +"Monsieur," she said, "I hope you will pardon the indiscretion I have, +in the heat of conversation, committed about you. I have told these +ladies where I met you this morning." + +"Met me?" said Felix; "if I had the honor to meet you, madame, I did +not see you." + +An almost imperceptible smile flickered on la Peyrade's lips. + +"You saw me well enough to ask me to keep silence as to where I had +met you; but, at any rate, I did not go beyond a simple statement; I +said you saw Pere Anselme sometimes, and had certain scientific +relations with him; also that you defended your religious doubts to +him as you do to Celeste." + +"Pere Anselme!" said Felix, stupidly. + +"Yes, Pere Anselme," said la Peyrade, "a great mathematician who does +not despair of converting you. Mademoiselle Celeste wept for joy." + +Felix looked around him with a bewildered air. Madame de Godollo fixed +upon him a pair of eyes the language of which a poodle could have +understood. + +"I wish," he said finally, "I could have given that joy to +Mademoiselle Celeste, but I think, madame, you are mistaken." + +"Ah! monsieur, then I must be more precise," said the countess, "and +if your modesty still induces you to hide a step that can only honor +you, you can contradict me; I will bear the mortification of having +divulged a secret which, I acknowledge, you trusted implicitly to my +discretion." + +Madame Thuillier and Celeste were truly a whole drama to behold; never +were doubt and eager expectation more plainly depicted on the human +face. Measuring her words deliberately, Madame de Godollo thus +continued:-- + +"I said to these ladies, because I know how deep an interest they take +in your salvation, and because you are accused of boldly defying the +commandments of God by working on Sundays, that I had met you this +morning at the house of Pere Anselme, a mathematician like yourself, +with whom you were busy in solving a problem; I said that your +scientific intercourse with that saintly and enlightened man had led +to other explanations between you; that you had submitted to him your +religious doubts, and he did not despair of removing them. In the +confirmation you can give of my words there is nothing, I am sure, to +wound your self-esteem. The matter was simply a surprise you intended +for Celeste, and I have had the stupidity to divulge it. But when she +hears you admit the truth of my words you will have given her such +happiness that I shall hope to be forgiven." + +"Come, monsieur," said la Peyrade, "there's nothing absurd or +mortifying in having sought for light; you, so honorable and so truly +an enemy to falsehood, you cannot deny what madame affirms with such +decision." + +"Well," said Felix, after a moment's hesitation, "will you, +Mademoiselle Celeste, allow me to say a few words to you in private, +without witnesses?" + +Celeste rose, after receiving an approving sign from Madame Thuillier. +Felix took her hand and led her to the recess of the nearest window. + +"Celeste," he said, "I entreat you: wait! See," he added, pointing to +the constellation of Ursa Minor, "beyond those visible stars a future +lies before us; I will place you there. As for Pere Anselme, I cannot +admit what has been said, for it is not true. It is an invented tale. +But be patient with me; you shall soon know all." + +"He is mad!" said the young girl, in tones of despair, as she resumed +her place beside Madame Thuillier. + +Felix confirmed this judgment by rushing frantically from the salon, +without perceiving the emotion in which his father and his mother +started after him. After this sudden departure, which stupefied +everybody, la Peyrade approached Madame de Godollo very respectfully, +and said to her:-- + +"You must admit, madame, that it is difficult to drag a man from the +water when he persists in being drowned." + +"I had no idea until this moment of such utter simplicity," replied +the countess; "it is too silly. I pass over to the enemy; and with +that enemy I am ready and desirous to have, whenever he pleases, a +frank and honest explanation." + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HUNGARY VERSUS PROVENCE + +The next day Theodose felt himself possessed by two curiosities: How +would Celeste behave as to the option she had accepted? and this +Comtesse Torna de Godollo, what did she mean by what she had said; and +what did she want with him? + +The first of these questions seemed, undoubtedly, to have the right of +way, and yet, by some secret instinct, la Peyrade felt more keenly +drawn toward the conclusion of the second problem. He decided, +therefore, to take his first step in that direction, fully +understanding that he could not too carefully arm himself for the +interview to which the countess had invited him. + +The morning had been rainy, and this great calculator was, of course, +not ignorant how much a spot of mud, tarnishing the brilliancy of +varnished boots, could lower a man in the opinion of some. He +therefore sent his porter for a cabriolet, and about three o'clock in +the afternoon he drove from the rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer toward the +elegant latitudes of the Madeleine. It may well be believed that +certain cares had been bestowed upon his toilet, which ought to +present a happy medium between the negligent ease of a morning costume +and the ceremonious character of an evening suit. Condemned by his +profession to a white cravat, which he rarely laid aside, and not +venturing to present himself in anything but a dress-coat, he felt +himself being drawn, of necessity, to one of the extremes he desired +to avoid. However by buttoning up his coat and wearing tan instead of +straw-colored gloves, he managed to UNSOLEMNIZE himself, and to avoid +that provincial air which a man in full dress walking the streets of +Paris while the sun is above the horizon never fails to convey. + +The wary diplomatist was careful not to drive to the house where he +was going. He was unwilling to be seen from the countess' entresol +issuing from a hired cab, and from the first floor he feared to be +discovered stopping short on his way up at the lower floor,--a +proceeding which could not fail to give rise to countless conjectures. + +He therefore ordered the driver to pull up at the corner of the rue +Royale, whence, along a pavement that was now nearly dry, he picked +his way on tiptoe to the house. It so chanced that he was not seen by +either the porter or his wife; the former being beadle of the church +of the Madeleine, was absent at a service, and the wife had just gone +up to show a vacant apartment to a lodger. Theodose was therefore able +to glide unobserved to the door of the sanctuary he desired to +penetrate. A soft touch of his hand to the silken bell-rope caused a +sound which echoed from the interior of the apartment. A few seconds +elapsed, and then another and more imperious bell of less volume +seemed to him a notification to the maid that her delay in opening the +door was displeasing to her mistress. A moment later, a waiting-woman, +of middle age, and too well trained to dress like a "soubrette" of +comedy, opened the door to him. + +The lawyer gave his name, and the woman ushered him into a +dining-room, severely luxurious, where she asked him to wait. A moment +later, however, she returned, and admitted him into the most +coquettish and splendid salon it was possible to insert beneath the +low ceilings of an entresol. The divinity of the place was seated +before a writing-table covered with a Venetian cloth, in which gold +glittered in little spots among the dazzling colors of the tapestry. + +"Will you allow me, monsieur, to finish a letter of some importance?" +she said. + +The barrister bowed in sign of assent. The handsome Hungarian then +concluded a note on blue English paper, which she placed in an +envelope; after sealing it carefully, she rang the bell. The maid +appeared immediately and lighted a little spirit lamp; above the lamp +was suspended a sort of tiny crucible, in which was a drop of sealing- +wax; as soon as this had melted, the maid poured it on the envelope, +presenting to her mistress a seal with armorial bearings. This the +countess imprinted on the wax with her own beautiful hands, and then +said:-- + +"Take the letter at once to that address." + +The woman made a movement to take the letter, but, either from haste +or inadvertence, the paper fell from her hand close to la Peyrade's +feet. He stooped hastily to pick it up, and read the direction +involuntarily. It bore the words, "His Excellency the Minister of +Foreign Affairs"; the significant words, "For him only," written +higher up, seemed to give this missive a character of intimacy. + +"Pardon, monsieur," said the countess, receiving the paper, which he +had the good taste to return to her own hands in order to show his +eagerness to serve her. "Be so good, mademoiselle, as to carry that in +a way not to lose it," she added in a dry tone to the unlucky maid. +The countess then left her writing-table and took her seat on a sofa +covered with pearl-gray satin. + +During these proceedings la Peyrade had the satisfaction of making an +inventory of all the choice things by which he was surrounded. +Paintings by good masters detached themselves from walls of even tone; +on a pier-table stood a very tall Japanese vase; before the windows +the jardinieres were filled with lilium rubrum, showing its handsome +reversely curling petals surmounted by white and red camellias and a +dwarf magnolia from China, with flowers of sulphur white with scarlet +edges. In a corner was a stand of arms, of curious shapes and rich +construction, explained, perhaps, by the lady's Hungarian nationality +--always that of the hussar. A few bronzes and statuettes of exquisite +selection, chairs rolling softly on Persian carpets, and a perfect +anarchy of stuffs of all kinds completed the arrangement of this +salon, which the lawyer had once before visited with Brigitte and +Thuillier before the countess moved into it. It was so transformed +that it seemed to him unrecognizable. With a little more knowledge of +the world la Peyrade would have been less surprised at the marvellous +care given by the countess to the decoration of the room. A woman's +salon is her kingdom, and her absolute domain; there, in the fullest +sense of the word, she reigns, she governs; there she offers battle, +and nearly always comes off victorious. + +Coquettishly lying back in a corner of the sofa, her head carelessly +supported by an arm the form and whiteness of which could be seen +nearly to the elbow through the wide, open sleeve of a black velvet +dressing-gown, her Cinderella foot in its dainty slipper of Russia +leather resting on a cushion of orange satin, the handsome Hungarian +had the look of a portrait by Laurence or Winterhalter, plus the +naivete of the pose. + +"Monsieur," she said, with the slightly foreign accent which lent an +added charm to her words, "I cannot help thinking it rather droll that +a man of your mind and rare penetration should have thought you had an +enemy in me." + +"But, Madame la comtesse," replied la Peyrade, allowing her to read in +his eyes an astonishment mingled with distrust, "all the appearances, +you must admit, were of that nature. A suitor interposes to break off +a marriage which has been offered to me with every inducement; this +rival does me the service of showing himself so miraculously stupid +and awkward that I could easily have set him aside, when suddenly a +most unlooked-for and able auxiliary devotes herself to protecting him +on the very ground where he shows himself most vulnerable." + +"You must admit," said the countess, laughing, "that the protege +showed himself a most intelligent man, and that he seconded my efforts +valiantly." + +"His clumsiness could not have been, I think, very unexpected to you," +replied la Peyrade; "therefore the protection you have deigned to give +him is the more cruel to me." + +"What a misfortune it would be," said the countess, with charmingly +affected satire, "if your marriage with Mademoiselle Celeste were +prevented! Do you really care so much, monsieur, for that little +school-girl?" + +In that last word, especially the intonation with which it was +uttered, there was more than contempt, there was hatred. This +expression did not escape an observer of la Peyrade's strength, but +not being a man to advance very far on a single remark he merely +replied:-- + +"Madame, the vulgar expression, to 'settle down,' explains this +situation, in which a man, after many struggles and being at an end of +his efforts and his illusions, makes a compromise with the future. +When this compromise takes the form of a young girl with, I admit, +more virtue than beauty, but one who brings to a husband the fortune +which is indispensable to the comfort of married life, what is there +so astonishing in the fact that his heart yields to gratitude and that +he welcomes the prospect of a placid happiness?" + +"I have always thought," replied the countess, "that the power of a +man's intellect ought to be the measure of his ambition; and I +imagined that one so wise as to make himself, at first, the poor man's +lawyer, would have in his heart less humble and less pastoral +aspirations." + +"Ah! madame," returned la Peyrade, "the iron hand of necessity compels +us to strange resignations. The question of daily bread is one of +those before which all things bend the knee. Apollo was forced to 'get +a living,' as the shepherd of Admetus." + +"The sheepfold of Admetus," said Madame de Godollo, "was at least a +royal fold; I don't think Apollo would have resigned himself to be the +shepherd of a--bourgeois." + +The hesitation that preceded that last word seemed to convey in place +of it a proper name; and la Peyrade understood that Madame de Godollo, +out of pure clemency, had suppressed that of Thuillier, had turned her +remark upon the species and not the individual. + +"I agree, madame, that your distinction is a just one," he replied, +"but in this case Apollo has no choice." + +"I don't like persons who charge too much," said the countess, "but +still less do I like those who sell their merchandise below the market +price; I always suspect such persons of trying to dupe me by some +clever and complicated trick. You know very well, monsieur, your own +value, and your hypocritical humility displeases me immensely. It +proves to me that my kindly overtures have not produced even a +beginning of confidence between us." + +"I assure you, madame, that up to the present time life has never +justified the belief in any dazzling superiority in me." + +"Well, really," said the Hungarian, "perhaps I ought to believe in the +humility of a man who is willing to accept the pitiable finale of his +life which I threw myself into the breach to prevent." + +"Just as I, perhaps," said la Peyrade, with a touch of sarcasm, "ought +to believe in the reality of a kindness which, in order to save me, +has handled me so roughly." + +The countess cast a reproachful look upon her visitor; her fingers +crumpled the ribbons of her gown; she lowered her eyes, and gave a +sigh, so nearly imperceptible, so slight, that it might have passed +for an accident in the most regular breathing. + +"You are rancorous," she said, "and you judge people by one aspect +only. After all," she added, as if on reflection, "you are perhaps +right in reminding me that I have taken the longest way round by +meddling, rather ridiculously, in interests that do not concern me. Go +on, my dear monsieur, in the path of this glorious marriage which +offers you so many combined inducements; only, let me hope that you +may not repent a course with which I shall no longer interfere." + +The Provencal had not been spoilt by an experience of "bonnes +fortunes." The poverty against which he had struggled so long never +leads to affairs of gallantry, and since he had thrown off its harsh +restraint, his mind being wholly given up to the anxious work of +creating his future, the things of the heart had entered but slightly +into his life; unless we must except the comedy he had played on +Flavie. We can therefore imagine the perplexity of this novice in the +matter of adventures when he saw himself placed between the danger of +losing what seemed to be a delightful opportunity, and the fear of +finding a serpent amid the beautiful flowers that were offered to his +grasp. Too marked a reserve, too lukewarm an eagerness, might wound +the self-love of that beautiful foreigner, and quench the spring from +which he seemed invited to draw. On the other hand, suppose that +appearance of interest were only a snare? Suppose this kindness (ill- +explained, as it seemed to him), of which he was so suddenly the +object, had no other purpose than to entice him into a step which +might be used to compromise him with the Thuilliers? What a blow to +his reputation for shrewdness, and what a role to play!--that of the +dog letting go the meat for the shadow! + +We know that la Peyrade was trained in the school of Tartuffe, and the +frankness with which that great master declares to Elmire that without +receiving a few of the favors to which he aspired he could not trust +in her tender advances, seemed to the barrister a suitable method to +apply to the present case, adding, however, a trifle more softness to +the form. + +"Madame la comtesse," he said, "you have turned me into a man who is +much to be pitied. I was cheerfully advancing to this marriage, and +you take all faith in it away from me. Suppose I break it off, what +use can I--with that great capacity you see in me--make of the liberty +I thus recover?" + +"La Bruyere, if I am not mistaken, said that nothing freshens the +blood so much as to avoid committing a folly." + +"That may be; but it is, you must admit, a negative benefit; and I am +of an age and in a position to desire more serious results. The +interest that you deign to show to me cannot, I think, stop short at +the idea of merely putting an end to my present prospects. I love +Mademoiselle Colleville with a love, it is true, which has nothing +imperative about it; but I certainly love her, her hand is promised to +me, and before renouncing it--" + +"So," said the countess, hastily, "in a given case you would not be +averse to a rupture? And," she added, in a more decided tone, "there +would be some chance of making you see that in taking your first +opportunity you cut yourself off from a better future, in which a more +suitable marriage may present itself?" + +"But, at least, madame, I must be enabled to foresee it definitely." + +This persistence in demanding pledges seemed to irritate the countess. + +"Faith," she said, "is only a virtue when it believes without seeing. +You doubt yourself, and that is another form of stupidity. I am not +happy, it seems, in my selection of those I desire to benefit." + +"But, madame, it cannot be indiscreet to ask to know in some remote +way at least, what future your kind good-will has imagined for me." + +"It is very indiscreet," replied the countess, coldly, "and it shows +plainly that you offer me only a conditional confidence. Let us say no +more. You are certainly far advanced with Mademoiselle Colleville; she +suits you, you say, in many ways; therefore marry her. I say again, +you will no longer find me in your way." + +"But does Mademoiselle Colleville really suit me?" resumed la Peyrade; +"that is the very point on which you have lately raised my doubts. Do +you not think there is something cruel in casting me first in one +direction and then in the other without affording me any ground to go +upon?" + +"Ah!" said the countess, in a tone of impatience, "you want my opinion +on the premises! Well, monsieur, there is one very conclusive fact to +which I can bring proof: Celeste does not love you." + +"So I have thought," said la Peyrade, humbly. "I felt that I was +making a marriage of mere convenience." + +"And she cannot love you, because," continued Madame de Godollo, with +animation, "she cannot comprehend you. Her proper husband is that +blond little man, insipid as herself; from the union of those two +natures without life or heat will result in that lukewarm existence +which, in the opinion of the world where she was born and where she +has lived, is the ne plus ultra of conjugal felicity. Try to make that +little simpleton understand that when she had a chance to unite +herself with true talent she ought to have felt highly honored! But, +above all, try to make her miserable, odious family and surroundings +understand it! Enriched bourgeois, parvenus! there's the roof beneath +which you think to rest from your cruel labor and your many trials! +And do you believe that you will not be made to feel, twenty times a +day, that your share in the partnership is distressingly light in the +scale against their money? On one side, the Iliad, the Cid, Der +Freyschutz, and the frescos of the Vatican; on the other, three +hundred thousand francs in good, ringing coin! Tell me which side they +will trust and admire! The artist, the man of imagination who falls +into the bourgeois atmosphere--shall I tell you to what I compare him? +To Daniel cast into the lion's den, less the miracle of Holy Writ." + +This invective against the bourgeoisie was uttered in a tone of heated +conviction which could scarcely fail to be communicated. + +"Ah! madame," cried la Peyrade, "how eloquently you say things which +again and again have entered my troubled and anxious mind! But I have +felt myself lashed to that most cruel fate, the necessity of gaining a +position--" + +"Necessity! position!" interrupted the countess, again raising the +temperature of her speech,--"words void of meaning! which have not +even sound to able men, though they drive back fools as though they +were formidable barriers. Necessity! does that exist for noble +natures, for those who know how to will? A Gascon minister uttered a +saying which ought to be engraved on the doors of all careers: 'All +things come to him who knows how to wait.' Are you ignorant that +marriage, to men of a high stamp, is either a chain which binds them +to the lowest vulgarities of existence, or a wing on which to rise to +the highest summits of the social world? The wife you need, monsieur, +--and she would not be long wanting to your career if you had not, +with such incredible haste, accepted the first 'dot' that was offered +you,--the wife you should have chosen is a woman capable of +understanding you, able to divine your intellect; one who could be to +you a fellow-worker, an intellectual confidant, and not a mere +embodiment of the 'pot-au-feu'; a woman capable of being now your +secretary, but soon the wife of a deputy, a minister, an ambassador; +one, in short, who could offer you her heart as a mainspring, her +salon for a stage, her connections for a ladder, and who, in return +for all she would give you of ardor and strength, asks only to shine +beside your throne in the rays of the glory she predicts for you!" + +Intoxicated, as it were, with the flow of her own words, the countess +was really magnificent; her eyes sparkled, her nostrils dilated; the +prospect her vivid eloquence thus unrolled she seemed to see, and +touch with her quivering fingers. For a moment, la Peyrade was dazzled +by this sunrise which suddenly burst upon his life. + +However, as he was a man most eminently prudent, who had made it his +rule of life never to lend except on sound and solvent security, he +was still impelled to weigh the situation. + +"Madame la comtesse," he said, "you reproached me just now for +speaking like a bourgeois, and I, in return, am afraid that you are +talking like a goddess. I admire you, I listen to you, but I am not +convinced. Such devotions, such sublime abnegations may be met with in +heaven, but in this low world who can hope to be the object of them?" + +"You are mistaken, monsieur," replied the countess, with solemnity; +"such devotions are rare, but they are neither impossible nor +incredible; only, it is necessary to have the heart to find them, and, +above all, the hand to take them when they are offered to you." + +So saying, the countess rose majestically. + +La Peyrade saw that he had ended by displeasing her, and he felt that +she dismissed him. He rose himself, bowed respectfully, and asked to +be received again. + +"Monsieur," said Madame de Godollo, "we Hungarians, primitive people +and almost savages that we are, have a saying that when our door is +open both sides of it are opened wide; when we close it it is double- +locked and bolted." + +That dignified and ambiguous speech was accompanied by a slight +inclination of the head. Bewildered, confounded by this behavior, to +him so new, which bore but little resemblance to that of Flavie, +Brigitte, and Madame Minard, la Peyrade left the house, asking himself +again and again whether he had played his game properly. + + + +CHAPTER V + +SHOWING HOW NEAR THE TARPEIAN ROCK IS TO THE CAPITOL + +On leaving Madame de Godollo, la Peyrade felt the necessity of +gathering himself together. Beneath the conversation he had just +maintained with this strange woman, what could he see,--a trap, or a +rich and distinguished marriage offered to him. Under such a doubt as +this, to press Celeste for an immediate answer was neither clever nor +prudent; it was simply to bind himself, and close the door to the +changes, still very ill-defined, which seemed offered to him. The +result of the consultation which Theodose held with himself as he +walked along the boulevard was that he ought, for the moment, to think +only of gaining time. Consequently, instead of going to the +Thuilliers' to learn Celeste's decision, he went home, and wrote the +following little note to Thuillier:-- + + My dear Thuillier,--You will certainly not think it extraordinary + that I should not present myself at your house to-day,--partly + because I fear the sentence which will be pronounced upon me, and + partly because I do not wish to seem an impatient and unmannerly + creditor. A few days, more or less, will matter little under such + circumstances, and yet Mademoiselle Colleville may find them + desirable for the absolute freedom of her choice. I shall, + therefore, not go to see you until you write for me. + + I am now more calm, and I have added a few more pages to our + manuscript; it will take but little time to hand in the whole to + the printer. + +Ever yours, +Theodose de la Peyrade. + + +Two hours later a servant, dressed in what was evidently the first +step towards a livery, which the Thuilliers did not as yet venture to +risk, the "male domestic," whom Minard had mentioned to the Phellions, +arrived at la Peyrade's lodgings with the following note:-- + + Come to-night, without fail. We will talk over the whole affair + with Brigitte. + +Your most affectionately devoted +Jerome Thuillier. + + +"Good!" said la Peyrade; "evidently there is some hindrance on the +other side; I shall have time to turn myself round." + +That evening, when the servant announced him in the Thuillier salon, +the Comtesse de Godollo, who was sitting with Brigitte, hastened to +rise and leave the room. As she passed la Peyrade she made him a very +ceremonious bow. There was nothing conclusive to be deduced from this +abrupt departure, which might signify anything, either much or +nothing. + +After talking of the weather and so forth for a time, as persons do +who have met to discuss a delicate subject about which they are not +sure of coming to an understanding, the matter was opened by Brigitte, +who had sent her brother to take a walk on the boulevard, telling him +to leave her to manage the affair. + +"My dear boy," she said to Theodose, "it was very nice of you not to +come here to-day like a GRASP-ALL, to put your pistol at our throats, +for we were not, as it happened, quite ready to answer you. I think," +she added, "that our little Celeste needs a trifle more time." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, quickly, "she has not decided in favor of +Monsieur Felix Phellion?" + +"Joker!" replied the old maid, "you know very well you settled that +business last night; but you also know, of course, that her own +inclinations incline her that way." + +"Short of being blind, I must have seen that," replied la Peyrade. + +"It is not an obstacle to my projects," continued Mademoiselle +Thuillier; "but it serves to explain why I ask for Celeste a little +more time; and also why I have wished all along to postpone the +marriage to a later date. I wanted to give you time to insinuate +yourself into the heart of my dear little girl--but you and Thuillier +upset my plans." + +"Nothing, I think, has been done without your sanction," said la +Peyrade, "and if, during these fifteen days, I have not talked with +you on the subject, it was out of pure delicacy. Thuillier told me +that everything was agreed upon with you." + +"On the contrary, Thuillier knows very well that I refused to mix +myself up on your new arrangements. If you had not made yourself so +scarce lately, I might have been the first to tell you that I did not +approve of them. However, I can truly say I did nothing to hinder +their success." + +"But that was too little," said la Peyrade; "your active help was +absolutely necessary." + +"Possibly; but I, who know women better than you, being one of them,-- +I felt very sure that if Celeste was told to choose between two +suitors she would consider that a permission to think at her ease of +the one she liked best. I myself had always left her in the vague as +to Felix, knowing as I did the proper moment to settle her mind about +him." + +"So," said la Peyrade, "you mean that she refuses me." + +"It is much worse than that," returned Brigitte; "she accepts you, and +is willing to pledge her word; but it is so easy to see she regards +herself as a victim, that if I were in your place I should feel +neither flattered nor secure in such a position." + +In any other condition of mind la Peyrade would probably have answered +that he accepted the sacrifice, and would make it his business to win +the heart which at first was reluctantly given; but delay now suited +him, and he replied to Brigitte with a question:-- + +"Then what do you advise? What course had I better take?" + +"Finish Thuillier's pamphlet, in the first place, or he'll go crazy; +and leave me to work the other affair in your interests," replied +Brigitte. + +"But am I in friendly hands? For, to tell you the truth, little aunt, +I have not been able to conceal from myself that you have, for some +time past, changed very much to me." + +"Changed to you! What change do you see in me, addled-pate that you +are?" + +"Oh! nothing very tangible," said la Peyrade; "but ever since that +Countess Torna has had a footing in your house--" + +"My poor boy, the countess has done me many services, and I am very +grateful to her; but is that any reason why I should be false to you, +who have done us still greater services?" + +"But you must admit," said la Peyrade, craftily, "that she has told +you a great deal of harm of me." + +"Naturally she has; these fine ladies are all that way; they expect +the whole world to adore them, and she sees that you are thinking only +of Celeste; but all she has said to me against you runs off my mind +like water from varnished cloth." + +"So, then, little aunt, I may continue to count on you?" persisted la +Peyrade. + +"Yes; provided you are not tormenting, and will let me manage this +affair." + +"Tell me how you are going to do it?" asked la Peyrade, with an air of +great good-humor. + +"In the first place, I shall signify to Felix that he is not to set +foot in this house again." + +"Is that possible?" said the barrister; "I mean can it be done +civilly?" + +"Very possible; I shall make Phellion himself tell him. He's a man who +is always astride of principles, and he'll be the first to see that if +his son will not do what is necessary to obtain Celeste's hand he +ought to deprive us of his presence." + +"What next?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Next, I shall signify to Celeste that she was left at liberty to +choose one husband or the other, and as she did not choose Felix she +must make up her mind to take you, a pious fellow, such as she wants. +You needn't be uneasy; I'll sing your praises, especially your +generosity in not profiting by the arrangement she agreed to make +to-day. But all that will take a week at least, and if Thuillier's +pamphlet isn't out before then, I don't know but what we shall have to +put him in a lunatic asylum." + +"The pamphlet can be out in two days. But is it very certain, little +aunt, that we are playing above-board? Mountains, as they say, never +meet, but men do; and certainly, when the time comes to promote the +election, I can do Thuillier either good or bad service. Do you know, +the other day I was terribly frightened. I had a letter from him in my +pocket, in which he spoke of the pamphlet as being written by me. I +fancied for a moment that I had dropped it in the Luxembourg. If I +had, what a scandal it would have caused in the quarter." + +"Who would dare to play tricks with such a wily one as you?" said +Brigitte, fully comprehending the comminatory nature of la Peyrade's +last words, interpolated into the conversation without rhyme or +reason. "But really," she added, "why should you complain of us? It is +you who are behindhand in your promises. That cross which was to have +been granted within a week, and that pamphlet, which ought to have +appeared a long time ago--" + +"The pamphlet and the cross will both appear in good time; the one +will bring the other," said la Peyrade, rising. "Tell Thuillier to +come and see me to-morrow evening, and I think we can then correct the +last sheet. But, above all, don't listen to the spitefulness of Madame +de Godollo; I have an idea that in order to make herself completely +mistress of this house she wants to alienate all your old friends, and +also that she is casting her net for Thuillier." + +"Well, in point of fact," said the old maid, whom the parting shot of +the infernal barrister had touched on the ever-sensitive point of her +authority, "I must look into that matter you speak of there; she is +rather coquettish, that little woman." + +La Peyrade gained a second benefit out of that speech so adroitly +flung out; he saw by Brigitte's answer to it that the countess had not +mentioned to her the visit he had paid her during the day. This +reticence might have a serious meaning. + +Four days later, the printer, the stitcher, the paper glazier having +fulfilled their offices, Thuillier had the inexpressible happiness of +beginning on the boulevards a promenade, which he continued through +the Passages, and even to the Palais-Royal, pausing before all the +book-shops where he saw, shining in black letters on a yellow poster, +the famous title:-- + + TAXATION AND THE SLIDING-SCALE + by J. Thuillier, +Member of the Council-General of the Seine. + +Having reached the point of persuading himself that the care he had +bestowed upon the correction of proofs made the merit of the work his +own, his paternal heart, like that of Maitre Corbeau, could not +contain itself for joy. We ought to add that he held in very low +esteem those booksellers who did not announce the sale of the new +work, destined to become, as he believed, a European event. Without +actually deciding the manner in which he would punish their +indifference, he nevertheless made a list of these rebellious persons, +and wished them as much evil as if they had offered him a personal +affront. + +The next day he spent a delightful morning in writing a certain number +of letters, sending the publication to friends, and putting into paper +covers some fifty copies, to which the sacramental phrase, "From the +author," imparted to his eyes an inestimable value. + +But the third day of the sale brought a slight diminution of his +happiness. He had chosen for his editor a young man, doing business at +a breakneck pace, who had lately established himself in the Passage +des Panoramas, where he was paying a ruinous rent. He was the nephew +of Barbet the publisher, whom Brigitte had had as a tenant in the rue +Saint-Dominique d'Enfer. This Barbet junior was a youth who flinched +at nothing; and when he was presented to Thuillier by his uncle, he +pledged himself, provided he was not shackled in his advertising, to +sell off the first edition and print a second within a week. + +Now, Thuillier had spent about fifteen hundred francs himself on costs +of publication, such, for instance, as copies sent in great profusion +to the newspapers; but at the close of the third day SEVEN copies only +had been sold, and three of those on credit. It might be believed that +in revealing to the horror-stricken Thuillier this paltry result the +young publisher would have lost at least something of his assurance. +On the contrary, this Guzman of the book-trade hastened to say:-- + +"I am delighted at what has happened. If we had sold a hundred copies +it would trouble me far more than the fifteen hundred now on our +hands; that's what I call hanging fire; whereas this insignificant +sale only proves that the edition will go off like a rocket." + +"But when?" asked Thuillier, who thought this view paradoxical. + +"Parbleu!" said Barbet, "when we get notices in the newspapers. +Newspaper notices are only useful to arouse attention. 'Dear me!' says +the public, 'there's a publication that must be interesting.' The +title is good,--'Taxation and the Sliding-Scale,'--but I find that the +more piquant a title is, the more buyers distrust it, they have been +taken in so often; they wait for the notices. On the other hand, for +books that are destined to have only a limited sale, a hundred ready- +made purchasers will come in at once, but after that, good-bye to +them; we don't place another copy." + +"Then you don't think," said Thuillier, "that the sale is hopeless?" + +"On the contrary, I think it is on the best track. When the 'Debats,' +the 'Constitutionnel,' the 'Siecle,' and the 'Presse' have reviewed +it, especially if the 'Debats' mauls it (they are ministerial, you +know), it won't be a week before the whole edition is snapped up." + +"You say that easily enough," replied Thuillier; "but how are we to +get hold of those gentlemen of the press?" + +"Ah! I'll take care of that," said Barbet. "I am on the best of terms +with the managing editors; they say the devil is in me, and that I +remind them of Ladvocat in his best days." + +"But then, my dear fellow, you ought to have seen to this earlier." + +"Ah! excuse me, papa Thuillier; there's only one way of seeing to the +journalists; but as you grumbled about the fifteen hundred francs for +the advertisements, I did not venture to propose to you another extra +expense." + +"What expense?" asked Thuillier, anxiously. + +"When you were nominated to the municipal council, where was the plan +mooted?" asked the publisher. + +"Parbleu! in my own house," replied Thuillier. + +"Yes, of course, in your own house, but at a dinner, followed by a +ball, and the ball itself crowned by a supper. Well, my dear master, +there are no two ways to do this business; Boileau says:-- + + "'All is done through the palate, and not through the mind; + And it is by our dinners we govern mankind.'" + +"Then you think I ought to give a dinner to those journalists?" + +"Yes; but not at your own house; for these journalists, you see, if +women are present, get stupid; they have to behave themselves. And, +besides, it isn't dinner they want, but a breakfast--that suits them +best. In the evening these gentlemen have to go to first +representations, and make up their papers, not to speak of their own +little private doings; whereas in the mornings they have nothing to +think about. As for me, it is always breakfasts that I give." + +"But that costs money, breakfasts like that," said Thuillier; +"journalists are gourmands." + +"Bah! twenty francs a head, without wine. Say you have ten of them; +three hundred francs will see you handsomely through the whole thing. +In fact, as a matter of economy, breakfasts are preferable; for a +dinner you wouldn't get off under five hundred francs." + +"How you talk, young man!" said Thuillier. + +"Oh, hang it! everybody knows it costs dear to get elected to the +Chamber; and all this favors your nomination." + +"But how can I invite those gentlemen? Must I go and see them myself?" + +"Certainly not; send them your pamphlet and appoint them to meet you +at Philippe's or Vefour's--they'll understand perfectly." + +"Ten guests," said Thuillier, beginning to enter into the idea. "I did +not know there were so many leading journals." + +"There are not," said the publisher; "but we must have the little dogs +as well, for they bark loudest. This breakfast is certain to make a +noise, and if you don't ask them they'll think you pick and choose, +and everyone excluded will be your enemy." + +"Then you think it is enough merely to send the invitations?" + +"Yes; I'll make the list, and you can write the notes and send them to +me. I'll see that they are delivered; some of them I shall take in +person." + +"If I were sure," said Thuillier, undecidedly, "that this expense +would have the desired effect--" + +"IF I WERE SURE,--that's a queer thing to say," said Barbet. "My dear +master, this is money placed on mortgage; for it, I will guarantee the +sale of fifteen hundred copies,--say at forty sous apiece; allowing +the discounts, that makes three thousand francs. You see that your +costs and extra costs are covered, and more than covered." + +"Well," said Thuillier, turning to go, "I'll talk to la Peyrade about +it." + +"As you please, my dear master; but decide soon, for nothing gets +mouldy so fast as a book; write hot, serve hot, and buy hot,--that's +the rule for authors, publishers, and public; all is bosh outside of +it, and no good to touch." + +When la Peyrade was consulted, he did not think in his heart that the +remedy was heroic, but he had now come to feel the bitterest animosity +against Thuillier, so that he was well pleased to see this new tax +levied on his self-important inexperience and pompous silliness. + +As for Thuillier, the mania for posing as a publicist and getting +himself talked about so possessed him that although he moaned over +this fresh bleeding of his purse, he had decided on the sacrifice +before he even spoke to la Peyrade. The reserved and conditional +approval of the latter was, therefore, more than enough to settle his +determination, and the same evening he returned to Barbet junior and +asked for the list of guests whom he ought to invite. + +Barbet gaily produced his little catalogue. Instead of the ten guests +originally mentioned, there proved to be fifteen, not counting himself +or la Peyrade, whom Thuillier wanted to second him in this encounter +with a set of men among whom he himself felt he should be a little out +of place. Casting his eyes over the list, he exclaimed, vehemently:-- + +"Heavens! my dear fellow, here are names of papers nobody ever heard +of. Where's the 'Moralisateur,' the 'Lanterne de Diogene,' the +'Pelican,' the 'Echo de la Bievre'?" + +"You'd better be careful how you scorn the 'Echo de la Bievre,'" said +Barbet; "why, that's the paper of the 12th arrondissement, from which +you expect to be elected; its patrons are those big tanners of the +Mouffetard quarter!" + +"Well, let that go--but the 'Pelican'?" + +"The 'Pelican'? that's a paper you'll find in every dentist's waiting- +room; dentists are the first PUFFISTS in the world! How many teeth do +you suppose are daily pulled in Paris?" + +"Come, come, nonsense," said Thuillier, who proceeded to mark out +certain names, reducing the whole number present to fourteen. + +"If one falls off we shall be thirteen," remarked Barbet. + +"Pooh!" said Thuillier, the free-thinker, "do you suppose I give in to +that superstition?" + +The list being finally closed and settled at fourteen, Thuillier +seated himself at the publisher's desk and wrote the invitations, +naming, in view of the urgency of the purpose, the next day but one +for the meeting, Barbet having assured him that no journalist would +object to the shortness of the invitation. The meeting was appointed +at Vefour's, the restaurant par excellence of the bourgeoisie and all +provincials. + +Barbet arrived on the day named before Thuillier, who appeared in a +cravat which alone was enough to create a stir in the satirical circle +in which he was about to produce himself. The publisher, on his own +authority, had changed various articles on the bill of fare as +selected by his patron, more especially directing that the champagne, +ordered in true bourgeois fashion to be served with the dessert, +should be placed on the table at the beginning of breakfast, with +several dishes of shrimps, a necessity which had not occurred to the +amphitryon. + +Thuillier, who gave a lip-approval to these amendments, was followed +by la Peyrade; and then came a long delay in the arrival of the +guests. Breakfast was ordered at eleven o'clock; at a quarter to +twelve not a journalist had appeared. Barbet, who was never at a loss, +made the consoling remark that breakfasts at restaurants were like +funerals, where, as every one knew, eleven o'clock meant mid-day. + +Sure enough, shortly before that hour, two gentlemen, with pointed +beards, exhaling a strong odor of tobacco, made their appearance. +Thuillier thanked them effusively for the "honor" they had done him; +after which came another long period of waiting, of which we shall not +relate the tortures. At one o'clock the assembled contingent comprised +five of the invited guests, Barbet and la Peyrade not included. It is +scarcely necessary to say that none of the self-respecting journalists +of the better papers had taken any notice of the absurd invitation. + +Breakfast now had to be served to this reduced number. A few polite +phrases that reached Thuillier's ears about the "immense" interest of +his publication, failed to blind him to the bitterness of his +discomfiture; and without the gaiety of the publisher, who had taken +in hand the reins his patron, gloomy as Hippolytus on the road to +Mycenae, let fall, nothing could have surpassed the glum and glacial +coldness of the meeting. + +After the oysters were removed, the champagne and chablis which had +washed them down had begun, nevertheless, to raise the thermometer, +when, rushing into the room where the banquet was taking place, a +young man in a cap conveyed to Thuillier a most unexpected and +crushing blow. + +"Master," said the new-comer to Barbet (he was a clerk in the +bookseller's shop), "we are done for! The police have made a raid upon +us; a commissary and two men have come to seize monsieur's pamphlet. +Here's a paper they have given me for you." + +"Look at that," said Barbet, handing the document to la Peyrade, his +customary assurance beginning to forsake him. + +"A summons to appear at once before the court of assizes," said la +Peyrade, after reading a few lines of the sheriff's scrawl. + +Thuillier had turned as pale as death. + +"Didn't you fulfil all the necessary formalities?" he said to Barbet, +in a choking voice. + +"This is not a matter of formalities," said la Peyrade, "it is a +seizure for what is called press misdemeanor, exciting contempt and +hatred of the government; you probably have the same sort of +compliment awaiting you at home, my poor Thuillier." + +"Then it is treachery!" cried Thuillier, losing his head completely. + +"Hang it, my dear fellow! you know very well what you put in your +pamphlet; for my part, I don't see anything worth whipping a cat for." + +"There's some misunderstanding," said Barbet, recovering courage; "it +will all be explained, and the result will be a fine cause of +complaint--won't it, messieurs?" + +"Waiter, pens and ink!" cried one of the journalists thus appealed to. + +"Nonsense! you'll have time to write your article later," said another +of the brotherhood; "what has a bombshell to do with this 'filet +saute'?" + +That, of course, was a parody on the famous speech of Charles XII., +King of Sweden, when a shot interrupted him while dictating to a +secretary. + +"Messieurs," said Thuillier, rising, "I am sure you will excuse me for +leaving you. If, as Monsieur Barbet thinks, there is some +misunderstanding, it ought to be explained at once; I must therefore, +with your permission, go to the police court. La Peyrade," he added in +a significant tone, "you will not refuse, I presume, to accompany me. +And you, my dear publisher, you would do well to come too." + +"No, faith!" said Barbet, "when I breakfast, I breakfast; if the +police have committed a blunder, so much the worse for them." + +"But suppose the matter is serious?" cried Thuillier, in great +agitation. + +"Well, I should say, what is perfectly true, that I had never read a +line of your pamphlet. One thing is very annoying; those damned juries +hate beards, and I must cut off mine if I'm compelled to appear in +court." + +"Come, my dear amphitryon, sit down again," said the editor of the +"Echo de la Bievre," "we'll stand by you; I've already written an +article in my head which will stir up all the tanners in Paris; and, +let me tell you, that honorable corporation is a power." + +"No, monsieur," replied Thuillier, "no; a man like me cannot rest an +hour under such an accusation as this. Continue your breakfast without +us; I hope soon to see you again. La Peyrade, are you coming?" + +"He's charming, isn't he?" said Barbet, when Thuillier and his counsel +had left the room. "To ask me to leave a breakfast after the oysters, +and go and talk with the police! Come, messieurs, close up the ranks," +he added, gaily. + +"Tiens!" said one of the hungry journalists, who had cast his eyes +into the garden of the Palais-Royal, on which the dining-room of the +restaurant opened, "there's Barbanchu going by; suppose I call him +in?" + +"Yes, certainly," said Barbet junior, "have him up." + +"Barbanchu! Barbanchu!" called out the journalist. + +Barbanchu, his hat being over his eyes, was some time in discovering +the cloud above him whence the voice proceeded. + +"Here, up here!" called the voice, which seemed to Barbanchu celestial +when he saw himself hailed by a man with a glass of champagne in his +hand. Then, as he seemed to hesitate, the party above called out in +chorus:-- + +"Come up! come up! THERE'S FAT TO BE HAD!" + +When Thuillier left the office of the public prosecutor he could no +longer have any illusions. The case against him was serious, and the +stern manner in which he had been received made him see that when the +trial came up he would be treated without mercy. Then, as always +happens among accomplices after the non-success of an affair they have +done in common, he turned upon la Peyrade in the sharpest manner: La +Peyrade had paid no attention to what he wrote; he had given full +swing to his stupid Saint-Simonian ideas; HE didn't care for the +consequences; it was not HE who would have to pay the fine and go to +prison! Then, when la Peyrade answered that the matter did not look to +him serious, and he expected to get a verdict of acquittal without +difficulty, Thuillier burst forth upon him, vehemently:-- + +"Parbleu! the thing is plain enough; monsieur sees nothing in it? +Well, I shall not put my honor and my fortune into the hands of a +little upstart like yourself; I shall take some great lawyer if the +case comes to trial. I've had enough of your collaboration by this +time." + +Under the injustice of these remarks la Peyrade felt his anger rising. +However, he saw himself disarmed, and not wishing to come to an open +rupture, he parted from Thuillier, saying that he forgave a man +excited by fear, and would go to see him later in the afternoon, when +he would probably be calmer; they could then decide on what steps they +had better take. + +Accordingly, about four o'clock, the Provencal arrived at the house in +the Place de la Madeleine. Thuillier's irritation was quieted, but +frightful consternation had taken its place. If the executioner were +coming in half an hour to lead him to the scaffold he could not have +been more utterly unstrung and woe-begone. When la Peyrade entered +Madame Thuillier was trying to make him take an infusion of linden- +leaves. The poor woman had come out of her usual apathy, and proved +herself, beside the present Sabinus, another Eponina. + +As for Brigitte, who presently appeared, bearing a foot-bath, she had +no mercy or restraint towards Theodose; her sharp and bitter +reproaches, which were out of all proportion to the fault, even +supposing him to have committed one would have driven a man of the +most placid temperament beside himself. La Peyrade felt that all was +lost to him in the Thuillier household, where they now seemed to seize +with joy the occasion to break their word to him and to give free rein +to revolting ingratitude. On an ironical allusion by Brigitte to the +manner in which he decorated his friends, la Peyrade rose and took +leave, without any effort being made to retain him. + +After walking about the streets for awhile, la Peyrade, in the midst +of his indignation, turned to thoughts of Madame de Godollo, whose +image, to tell the truth, had been much in his mind since their former +interview. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +'TWAS THUS THEY BADE ADIEU + +Not only once when the countess met the barrister at the Thuilliers +had she left the room; but the same performance took place at each of +their encounters; and la Peyrade had convinced himself, without +knowing exactly why, that in each case, this affectation of avoiding +him, signified something that was not indifference. To have paid her +another visit immediately would certainly have been very unskilful; +but now a sufficient time had elapsed to prove him to be a man who was +master of himself. Accordingly, he returned upon his steps to the +Boulevard de la Madeleine, and without asking the porter if the +countess was at home, he passed the lodge as if returning to the +Thuilliers', and rang the bell of the entresol. + +The maid who opened the door asked him, as before, to wait until she +notified her mistress; but, on this occasion, instead of showing him +into the dining-room, she ushered him into a little room arranged as a +library. + +He waited long, and knew not what to think of the delay. Still, he +reassured himself with the thought that if she meant to dismiss him he +would not have been asked to wait at all. Finally the maid reappeared, +but even then it was not to introduce him. + +"Madame la comtesse," said the woman, "was engaged on a matter of +business, but she begged monsieur be so kind as to wait, and to amuse +himself with the books in the library, because she might be detained +longer than she expected." + +The excuse, both in form and substance, was certainly not +discouraging, and la Peyrade looked about him to fulfil the behest to +amuse himself. Without opening any of the carved rosewood bookcases, +which enclosed a collection of the most elegantly bound volumes he had +ever laid his eyes upon, he saw on an oblong table with claw feet a +pell-mell of books sufficient for the amusement of a man whose +attention was keenly alive elsewhere. + +But, as he opened one after another of the various volumes, he began +to fancy that a feast of Tantalus had been provided for him: one book +was English, another German, a third Russian; there was even one in +cabalistic letters that seemed Turkish. Was this a polyglottic joke +the countess had arranged for him? + +One volume, however, claimed particular attention. The binding, unlike +those of the other books, was less rich than dainty. Lying by itself +at a corner of the table, it was open, with the back turned up, the +edges of the leaves resting on the green table-cloth in the shape of a +tent. La Peyrade took it up, being careful not to lose the page which +it seemed to have been some one's intention to mark. It proved to be a +volume of the illustrated edition of Monsieur Scribe's works. The +engraving which presented itself on the open page to la Peyrade's +eyes, was entitled "The Hatred of a Woman"; the principal personage of +which is a young widow, desperately pursuing a poor young man who +cannot help himself. There is hatred all round. Through her devilries +she almost makes him lose his reputation, and does make him miss a +rich marriage; but the end is that she gives him more than she took +away from him, and makes a husband of the man who was thought her +victim. + +If chance had put this volume apart from the rest, and had left it +open at the precise page where la Peyrade found it marked, it must be +owned that, after what had passed between himself and the countess, +chance can sometimes seem clever and adroit. As he stood there, +thinking over the significance which this more or less accidental +combination might have, la Peyrade read through a number of scenes to +see whether in the details as well as the general whole they applied +to the present situation. While thus employed, the sound of an opening +door was heard, and he recognized the silvery and slightly drawling +voice of the countess, who was evidently accompanying some visitor to +the door. + +"Then I may promise the ambassadress," said a man's voice, "that you +will honor her ball with your presence?" + +"Yes, commander, if my headache, which is just beginning to get a +little better, is kind enough to go away." + +"Au revoir, then, fairest lady," said the gentleman. After which the +doors were closed, and silence reigned once more. + +The title of commander reassured la Peyrade somewhat, for it was not +the rank of a young dandy. He was nevertheless curious to know who +this personage was with whom the countess had been shut up so long. +Hearing no one approach the room he was in, he went to the window and +opened the curtain cautiously, prepared to let it drop back at the +slightest noise, and to make a quick right-about-face to avoid being +caught, "flagrante delicto," in curiosity. An elegant coupe, standing +at a little distance, was now driven up to the house, a footman in +showy livery hastened to open the door, and a little old man, with a +light and jaunty movement, though it was evident he was one of those +relics of the past who have not yet abandoned powder, stepped quickly +into the carriage, which was then driven rapidly away. La Peyrade had +time to observe on his breast a perfect string of decorations. This, +combined with the powdered hair, was certain evidence of a diplomatic +individual. + +La Peyrade had picked up his book once more, when a bell from the +inner room sounded, quickly followed by the appearance of the maid, +who invited him to follow her. The Provencal took care NOT to replace +the volume where he found it, and an instant later he entered the +presence of the countess. + +A pained expression was visible on the handsome face of the foreign +countess, who, however, lost nothing of her charm in the languor that +seemed to overcome her. On the sofa beside her was a manuscript +written on gilt-edged paper, in that large and opulent handwriting +which indicates an official communication from some ministerial office +or chancery. She held in her hand a crystal bottle with a gold +stopper, from which she frequently inhaled the contents, and a strong +odor of English vinegar pervaded the salon. + +"I fear you are ill, madame," said la Peyrade, with interest. + +"Oh! it is nothing," replied the countess; "only a headache, to which +I am very subject. But you, monsieur, what has become of you? I was +beginning to lose all hope of ever seeing you again. Have you come to +announce to me some great news? The period of your marriage with +Mademoiselle Colleville is probably so near that I think you can speak +of it." + +This opening disconcerted la Peyrade. + +"But, madame," he answered, in a tone that was almost tart, "you, it +seems to me, must know too well everything that goes on in the +Thuillier household not to be aware that the event you speak of is not +approaching, and, I may add, not probable." + +"No, I assure you, I know nothing; I have strictly forbidden myself +from taking any further interest in an affair which I felt I had +meddled with very foolishly. Mademoiselle Brigitte and I talk of +everything except Celeste's marriage." + +"And it is no doubt the desire to allow me perfect freedom in the +matter that induces you to take flight whenever I have the honor to +meet you in the Thuillier salon?" + +"Yes," said the countess, "that ought to be the reason that makes me +leave the room; else, why should I be so distant?" + +"Ah! madame, there are other reasons that might make a woman avoid a +man's presence. For instance, if he has displeased her; if the advice, +given to him with rare wisdom and kindness, was not received with +proper eagerness and gratitude." + +"Oh, my dear monsieur," she replied, "I have no such ardor in +proselytizing that I am angry with those who are not docile to my +advice. I am, like others, very apt to make mistakes." + +"On the contrary, madame, in the matter of my marriage your judgment +was perfectly correct." + +"How so?" said the countess, eagerly. "Has the seizure of the +pamphlet, coming directly after the failure to obtain the cross, led +to a rupture?" + +"No," said la Peyrade, "my influence in the Thuillier household rests +on a solid basis; the services I have rendered Mademoiselle Brigitte +and her brother outweigh these checks, which, after all, are not +irreparable." + +"Do you really think so?" said the countess. + +"Certainly," replied la Peyrade; "when the Comtesse du Bruel takes it +into her head to seriously obtain that bit of red ribbon, she can do +so, in spite of all obstacles that are put in her way." + +The countess received this assertion with a smile, and shook her head. + +"But, madame, only a day or two ago Madame du Bruel told Madame +Colleville that the unexpected opposition she had met with piqued her, +and that she meant to go in person to the minister." + +"But you forget that since then this seizure has been made by the +police; it is not usual to decorate a man who is summoned before the +court of assizes. You seem not to notice that the seizure argues a +strong ill-will against Monsieur Thuillier, and, I may add, against +yourself, monsieur, for you are known to be the culprit. You have not, +I think, taken all this into account. The authorities appear to have +acted not wholly from legal causes." + +La Peyrade looked at the countess. + +"I must own," he said, after that rapid glance, "that I have tried in +vain to find any passage in that pamphlet which could be made a legal +pretext for the seizure." + +"In my opinion," said the countess, "the king's servants must have a +vivid imagination to persuade themselves they were dealing with a +seditious publication. But that only proves the strength of the +underground power which is thwarting all your good intentions in favor +of Monsieur Thuillier." + +"Madame," said la Peyrade, "do you know our secret enemies?" + +"Perhaps I do," replied the countess, with another smile. + +"May I dare to utter a suspicion, madame?" said la Peyrade, with some +agitation. + +"Yes, say what you think," replied Madame de Godollo. "I shall not +blame you if you guess right." + +"Well, madame, our enemies, Thuillier's and mine, are--a woman." + +"Supposing that is so," said the countess; "do you know how many lines +Richelieu required from a man's hand in order to hang him?" + +"Four," replied la Peyrade. + +"You can imagine, then, that a pamphlet of two hundred pages might +afford a--slightly intriguing woman sufficient ground for +persecution." + +"I see it all, madame, I understand it!" cried la Peyrade, with +animation. "I believe that woman to be one of the elite of her sex, +with as much mind and malice as Richelieu! Adorable magician! it is +she who has set in motion the police and the gendarmes; but, more than +that, it is she who withholds that cross the ministers were about to +give." + +"If that be so," said the countess, "why struggle against her?" + +"Ah! I struggle no longer," said la Peyrade. Then, with an assumed air +of contrition, he added, "You must, indeed, HATE me, madame." + +"Not quite as much as you may think," replied the countess; "but, +after all, suppose that I do hate you?" + +"Ah! madame," cried la Peyrade, ardently, "I should then be the +happiest of unhappy men; for that hatred would seem to me sweeter and +more precious than your indifference. But you do not hate me; why +should you feel to me that most blessed feminine sentiment which +Scribe has depicted with such delicacy and wit?" + +Madame de Godollo did not answer immediately. She lowered her eyelids, +and the deeper breathing of her bosom gave to her voice when she did +speak a tremulous tone:-- + +"The hatred of a woman!" she said. "Is a man of your stoicism able to +perceive it?" + +"Ah! yes, madame," replied la Peyrade, "I do indeed perceive it, but +not to revolt against it; on the contrary, I bless the harshness that +deigns to hurt me. Now that I know my beautiful and avowed enemy, I +shall not despair of touching her heart; for never again will I follow +any road but the one that she points out to me, never will I march +under any banner but hers. I shall wait--for her inspiration, to +think; for her will, to will; for her commands, to act. In all things +I will be her auxiliary,--more than that, her slave; and if she still +repulses me with that dainty foot, that snowy hand, I will bear it +resignedly, asking, in return for such obedience one only favor,--that +of kissing the foot that spurns me, of bathing with tears the hand +that threatens me." + +During this long cry of the excited heart, which the joy of triumph +wrung from a nature so nervous and impressionable as that of the +Provencal, he had slidden from his chair, and now knelt with one knee +on the ground beside the countess, in the conventional attitude of the +stage, which is, however, much more common in real life than people +suppose. + +"Rise, monsieur," said the countess, "and be so good as to answer me." +Then, giving him a questioning look from beneath her beautiful +frowning brows, she continued: "Have you well-weighed the outcome of +the words you have just uttered? Have you measured the full extent of +your pledge, and its depth? With your hand on your heart and on your +conscience, are you a man to fulfil those words? Or are you one of the +falsely humble and perfidious men who throw themselves at our feet +only to make us lose the balance of our will and our reason?" + +"I!" exclaimed la Peyrade; "never can I react against the fascination +you have wielded over me from the moment of our first interview! Ah! +madame, the more I have resisted, the more I have struggled, the more +you ought to trust in my sincerity and its tardy expression. What I +have said, I think; that which I think aloud to-day I have thought in +my soul since the hour when I first had the honor of admittance to +you; and the many days I have passed in struggling against this +allurement have ended in giving me a firm and deliberate will, which +understands itself, and is not cast down by your severity." + +"Severity?" said the countess; "possibly. But you ought to think of +the kindness too. Question yourself carefully. We foreign women do not +understand the careless ease with which a Frenchwoman enters upon a +solemn engagement. To us, our YES is sacred; our word is a bond. We do +and we will nothing by halves. The arms of my family bear a motto +which seems significant under the present circumstances,--'All or +Nothing'; that is saying much, and yet, perhaps, not enough." + +"That is how I understand my pledge," replied la Peyrade; "and on +leaving this room my first step will be to break with that ignoble +past which for an instant I seemed to hold in the balance against the +intoxicating future you do not forbid me to expect." + +"No," said the countess, "do it calmly and advisedly; I do not like +rash conduct; you will not please me by taking open steps. These +Thuilliers are not really bad at heart; they humiliated you without +knowing that they did so; their world is not yours. Is that their +fault? Loosen the tie between you, but do not violently break it. And, +above all, reflect. Your conversion to my beliefs is of recent date. +What man is certain of what his heart will say to him to-morrow?" + +"Madame," said la Peyrade, "I am that man. We men of Southern blood do +not love as you say a Frenchwoman loves." + +"But," said the countess, with a charming smile, "I thought it was +hatred we were talking of." + +"Ah, madame," cried the barrister, "explained and understood as it has +been, that word is still a thing that hurts me. Tell me rather, not +that you love me, but that the words you deigned to say to me at our +first interview were indeed the expression of your thoughts." + +"My friend," said the countess, dwelling on the word; "one of your +moralists has said: 'There are persons who say, THAT IS or THAT IS +NOT.' Do me the favor to count me among such persons." + +So saying, she held out her hand to her suitor with a charming gesture +of modesty and grace. La Peyrade, quite beside himself, darted upon +that beautiful hand and devoured it with kisses. + +"Enough, child!" said the countess, gently freeing her imprisoned +fingers; "adieu now, soon to meet again! Adieu! My headache, I think, +has disappeared." + +La Peyrade picked up his hat, and seemed about to rush from the +apartment; but at the door he turned and cast upon the handsome +creature a look of tenderness. The countess made him, with her head, a +graceful gesture of adieu; then, seeing that la Peyrade was inclined +to return to her, she raised her forefinger as a warning to control +himself and go. + +La Peyrade turned and left the apartment. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HOW TO SHUT THE DOOR IN PEOPLE'S FACES + +On the staircase la Peyrade stopped to exhale, if we may so express +it, the happiness of which his heart was full. The words of the +countess, the ingenious preparation she had made to put him on the +track of her sentiments, seemed to him the guarantee of her sincerity, +and he left her full of faith. + +Possessed by that intoxication of happy persons which shows itself in +their gestures, their looks, their very gait, and sometimes in actions +not authorized by their common-sense, after pausing a moment, as we +have said, on the staircase, he ran up a few steps till he could see +the door of the Thuilliers' apartment. + +"At last!" he cried, "fame, fortune, happiness have come to me; but, +above all, I can now give myself the joy of vengeance. After Dutocq +and Cerizet, I will crush YOU, vile bourgeois brood!" + +So saying, he shook his fist at the innocent door. Then he turned and +ran out; the popular saying that the earth could not hold him, was +true at that moment of his being. + +The next day, for he could not restrain any longer the tempest that +was swelling within him, la Peyrade went to see Thuillier in the +bitterest and most hostile of moods. What was therefore his amazement +when, before he had time to put himself on guard and stop the +demonstration of union and oblivion, Thuillier flung himself into his +arms. + +"My friend," cried the municipal councillor, as he loosened his clasp, +"my political fortune is made; this morning all the newspapers, +without exception, have spoken of the seizure of my pamphlet; and you +ought to see how the opposition sheets have mauled the government." + +"Simple enough," said la Peyrade, not moved by this enthusiasm; "you +are a topic for them, that's all. But this does not alter the +situation; the prosecution will be only the more determined to have +you condemned." + +"Well, then," said Thuillier, proudly raising his head, "I will go to +prison, like Beranger, like Lamennais, like Armand Carrel." + +"My good fellow, persecution is charming at a distance; but when you +hear the big bolts run upon you, you may be sure you won't like it as +well." + +"But," objected Thuillier, "prisoners condemned for political offences +are always allowed to do their time in hospital if they like. Besides, +I'm not yet convicted. You said yourself you expected to get me +acquitted." + +"Yes, but since then I have heard things which make that result very +doubtful; the same hand that withheld your cross has seized your +pamphlet; you are being murdered with premeditation." + +"If you know who that dangerous enemy is," said Thuillier, "you can't +refuse to point him out to me." + +"I don't know him," replied la Peyrade; "I only suspect him. This is +what you get by playing too shrewd a game." + +"Playing a shrewd game!" said Thuillier, with the curiosity of a man +who is perfectly aware that he has nothing of that kind on his +conscience. + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "you made a sort of decoy of Celeste to +attract young bloods to your salon. All the world has not the +forbearance of Monsieur Godeschal, who forgave his rejection and +generously managed that affair about the house." + +"Explain yourself better," said Thuillier, "for I don't see what you +mean." + +"Nothing is easier to understand. Without counting me, how many +suitors have you had for Mademoiselle Colleville? Godeschal, Minard +junior, Phellion junior, Olivier Vinet, the substitute judge,--all men +who have been sent about their business, as I am." + +"Olivier Vinet, the substitute judge!" cried Thuillier, struck with a +flash of light. "Of course; the blow must have come from him. His +father, they say, has a long arm. But it can't be truly said that we +sent him about his business,--to use your expression, which strikes me +as indecorous,--for he never came to the house but once, and made no +offer; neither did Minard junior or Phellion junior, for that matter. +Godeschal is the only one who risked a direct proposal, and he was +refused at once, before he dipped his beak in the water." + +"It is always so!" said la Peyrade, still looking for a ground of +quarrel. "Straightforward and outspoken persons are always those that +sly men boast of fooling." + +"Ah ca! what's all this?" said Thuillier; "what are you insinuating? +Didn't you settle everything with Brigitte the other day? You take a +pretty time to come and talk to me about your love-affairs, when the +sword of justice is hanging over my head." + +"Oh!" said la Peyrade, ironically; "so now you are going to make the +most of your interesting position of accused person! I knew very well +how it would be; I was certain that as soon as your pamphlet appeared +the old cry of not getting what you expected out of me would come up." + +"Parbleu! your pamphlet!" cried Thuillier. "I think you are a fine +fellow to boast of that when, on the contrary, it has caused the most +deplorable complications." + +"Deplorable? how so? you have just said your political fortune was +made." + +"Well, truly, my dear Theodose," said Thuillier, with feeling, "I +should never have thought that you would choose the hour of adversity +to come and put your pistol at our throats and make me the object of +your sneers and innuendoes." + +"Well done!" said la Peyrade; "now it is the hour of adversity! A +minute ago you were flinging yourself into my arms as a man to whom +some signal piece of luck had happened. You ought really to choose +decidedly between being a man who needs pity and a glorious victor." + +"It is all very well to be witty," returned Thuillier; "but you can't +controvert what I say. I am logical, if I am not brilliant. It is very +natural that I should console myself by seeing that public opinion +decides in my favor, and by reading in its organs the most honorable +assurances of sympathy; but do you suppose I wouldn't rather that +things had taken their natural course? Besides, when I see myself the +object of unworthy vengeance on the part of persons as influential as +the Vinets, how can I help measuring the extent of the dangers to +which I am exposed?" + +"Well," said la Peyrade, with pitiless persistency, "I see that you +prefer to play the part of Jeremiah." + +"Yes," said Thuillier, in a solemn tone. "Jeremiah laments over a +friendship I did think true and devoted, but which I find has only +sarcasms to give me when I looked for services." + +"What services?" asked la Peyrade. "Did you not tell me positively, no +later than yesterday, that you would not accept my help under any form +whatever? I offered to plead your case, and you answered that you +would take a better lawyer." + +"Yes; in the first shock of surprise at such an unexpected blow, I did +say that foolish thing; but, on reflection, who can explain as well as +you can the intention of the words you wrote with your own pen? +Yesterday I was almost out of my mind; but you, with your wounded +self-love, which can't forgive a momentary impatience, you are very +caustic and cruel." + +"So," said la Peyrade, "you formally request me to defend you before +the jury?" + +"Yes, my dear fellow; and I don't know any other hands in which I +could better place my case. I should have to pay a monstrous sum to +some great legal luminary, and he wouldn't defend me as ably as you." + +"Well, I refuse. Roles have changed, as you see, diametrically. +Yesterday, I thought, as you do, that I was the man to defend you. +To-day, I see that you had better take the legal luminary, because, +with Vinet's antagonism against you the affair is taking such +proportions that whoever defends it assumes a fearful responsibility." + +"I understand," said Thuillier, sarcastically. "Monsieur has his eye +on the magistracy, and he doesn't want to quarrel with a man who is +already talked of for Keeper of the Seals. It is prudent, but I don't +know that it is going to help on your marriage." + +"You mean," said la Peyrade, seizing the ball in its bound, "that to +get you out of the claws of that jury is a thirteenth labor of +Hercules, imposed upon me to earn the hand of Mademoiselle Colleville? +I expected that demands would multiply in proportion to the proofs of +my devotion. But that is the very thing that has worn me out, and I +have come here to-day to put an end to this slave labor by giving back +to you your pledges. You may dispose of Celeste's hand; for my part, I +am no longer a suitor for it." + +The unexpectedness and squareness of this declaration left Thuillier +without words or voice, all the more because at this moment entered +Brigitte. The temper of the old maid had also greatly moderated since +the previous evening, and her greeting was full of the most amicable +familiarity. + +"Ah! so here you are, you good old barrister," she said. + +"Mademoiselle, your servant," he replied, gravely. + +"Well," she continued, paying no attention to the stiffness of his +manner, "the government has got itself into a pretty mess by seizing +your pamphlet. You ought to see how the morning papers lash it! Here," +she added, giving Thuillier a small sheet printed on sugar-paper, in +coarse type, and almost illegible,--"here's another, you didn't read; +the porter has just brought it up. It is a paper from our old quarter, +'L'Echo de la Bievre.' I don't know, gentlemen, if you'll be of my +opinion, but I think nothing could be better written. It is droll, +though, how inattentive these journalists are! most of them write your +name without the H; I think you ought to complain of it." + +Thuillier took the paper, and read the article inspired to the +reviewer of the tanner's organ by stomach gratitude. Never in her life +had Brigitte paid the slightest attention to a newspaper, except to +know if it was the right size for the packages she wrapped up in it; +but now, suddenly, converted to a worship of the press by the ardor of +her sisterly love, she stood behind Thuillier and re-read, over his +shoulder, the more striking passages of the page she thought so +eloquent, pointing her finger to them. + +"Yes," said Thuillier, folding up the paper, "that's warm, and very +flattering to me. But here's another matter! Monsieur has come to tell +me that he refuses to plead for me, and renounces all claim to +Celeste's hand." + +"That is to say," said Brigitte, "he renounces her if, after having +pleaded, the marriage does not take place 'subito.' Well, poor fellow, +I think that's a reasonable demand. When he has done that for us there +ought to be no further delay; and whether Mademoiselle Celeste likes +it or not, she must accept him, because, you know, there's an end to +all things." + +"Do you hear that, my good fellow?" said la Peyrade, seizing upon +Brigitte's speech. "When I have pleaded, the marriage is to take +place. Your sister is frankness itself; she, at least, doesn't +practise diplomacy." + +"Diplomacy!" echoed Brigitte. "I'd like to see myself creeping +underground in matters. I say things as I think them. The workman has +worked, and he ought to have his pay." + +"Do be silent," cried Thuillier, stamping his foot; "you don't say a +word that doesn't turn the knife in the wound." + +"The knife in the wound?" said Brigitte, inquiringly. "Ah ca! are you +two quarrelling?" + +"I told you," said Thuillier, "that la Peyrade had returned our +promises; and the reason he gives is that we are asking him another +service for Celeste's hand. He thinks he has done us enough without +it." + +"He has done us some services, no doubt," said Brigitte; "but it seems +to me that we have not been ungrateful to him. Besides, it was he who +made the blunder, and I think it rather odd he should now wish to +leave us in the lurch." + +"Your reasoning, mademoiselle," said la Peyrade, "might have some +appearance of justice if I were the only barrister in Paris; but as +the streets are black with them, and as, only yesterday, Thuillier +himself spoke of engaging some more important lawyer than myself, I +have not the slightest scruple in refusing to defend him. Now, as to +the marriage, in order that it may not be made the object of another +brutal and forcible demand upon me, I here renounce it in the most +formal manner, and nothing now prevents Mademoiselle Colleville from +accepting Monsieur Felix Phellion and all his advantages." + +"As you please, my dear monsieur," said Brigitte, "if that's your last +word. We shall not be at a loss to find a husband for Celeste,--Felix +Phellion or another. But you must permit me to tell you that the +reason you give is not the true one. We can't go faster than the +fiddles. If the marriage were settled to-day, there are the banns to +publish; you have sense enough to know that Monsieur le maire can't +marry you before the formalities are complied with, and before then +Thuillier's case will have been tried." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "and if I lose the case it will be I who have +sent him to prison,--just as yesterday it was I who brought about the +seizure." + +"As for that, it seems to me that if you had written nothing the +police would have found nothing to bite." + +"My dear Brigitte," said Thuillier, seeing la Peyrade shrug his +shoulders, "your argument is vicious in the sense that the writing was +not incriminating on any side. It is not la Peyrade's fault if persons +of high station have organized a persecution against me. You remember +that little substitute, Monsieur Olivier Vinet, whom Cardot brought to +one of our receptions. It seems that he and his father are furious +that we didn't want him for Celeste, and they've sworn my +destruction." + +"Well, why did we refuse him," said Brigitte, "if it wasn't for the +fine eyes of monsieur here? For, after all, a substitute in Paris is a +very suitable match." + +"No doubt," said la Peyrade, nonchalantly. "Only, he did not happen to +bring you a million." + +"Ah!" cried Brigitte, firing up. "If you are going to talk any more +about that house you helped us to buy, I shall tell you plainly that +if you had had the money to trick the notary you never would have come +after us. You needn't think I have been altogether your dupe. You +spoke just now of a bargain, but you proposed that bargain yourself. +'Give me Celeste and I'll get you that house,'--that's what you said +to us in so many words. Besides which, we had to pay large sums on +which we never counted." + +"Come, come, Brigitte," said Thuillier, "you are making a great deal +out of nothing." + +"Nothing! nothing!" exclaimed Brigitte. "Did we, or did we not, have +to pay much more than we expected?" + +"My dear Thuillier," said la Peyrade, "I think, with you, that the +matter is now settled, and it can only be embittered by discussing it +further. My course was decided on before I came here; all that I have +now heard can only confirm it. I shall not be the husband of Celeste, +but you and I can remain good friends." + +He rose to leave the room. + +"One moment, monsieur," said Brigitte, barring his way; "there is one +matter which I do not consider settled; and now that we are no longer +to have interests in common, I should not be sorry if you would be so +good as to tell me what has become of a sum of ten thousand francs +which Thuillier gave you to bribe those rascally government offices in +order to get the cross we have never got." + +"Brigitte!" cried Thuillier, in anguish, "you have a devil of a +tongue! You ought to be silent about that; I told it to you in a +moment of ill-temper, and you promised me faithfully never to open +your lips about it to any one, no matter who." + +"So I did; but," replied the implacable Brigitte, "we are parting. +When people part they settle up; they pay their debts. Ten thousand +francs! For my part, I thought the cross itself dear at that; but for +a cross that has melted away, monsieur himself will allow the price is +too high." + +"Come, la Peyrade, my friend, don't listen to her," said Thuillier, +going up to the barrister, who was pale with anger. "The affection she +has for me blinds her; I know very well what government offices are, +and I shouldn't be surprised if you had had to pay out money of your +own." + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, "I am, unfortunately, not in a position +to return to you, instantly, that money, an accounting for which is so +insolently demanded. Grant me a short delay; and have the goodness to +accept my note, which I am ready to sign, if that will give you +patience." + +"To the devil with your note!" cried Thuillier; "you owe me nothing; +on the contrary, it is we who owe you; for Cardot told me I ought to +give you at least ten thousand francs for enabling us to buy this +magnificent property." + +"Cardot! Cardot!" said Brigitte; "he is very generous with other +people's money. We were giving monsieur Celeste, and that's a good +deal more than ten thousand francs." + +La Peyrade was too great a comedian not to turn the humiliation he had +just endured into a scene finale. With tears in his voice, which +presently fell from his eyes, he turned to Brigitte. + +"Mademoiselle," he said, "when I had the honor to be received by you I +was poor; you long saw me suffering and ill at ease, knowing, alas! +too well, the indignities that poverty must bear. From the day that I +was able to give you a fortune which I never thought of for myself I +have felt, it is true, more assurance; and your own kindness +encouraged me to rise out of my timidity and depression. To-day, when +I, by frank and loyal conduct, release you from anxiety,--for, if you +chose to be honest, you would acknowledge that you have been thinking +of another husband for Celeste,--we might still remain friends, even +though I renounce a marriage which my delicacy forbids me to pursue. +But you have not chosen to restrain yourself with the limits of social +politeness, of which you have a model beside you in Madame de Godollo, +who, I am persuaded, although she is not at all friendly to me, would +never have approved of your odious behavior. Thank Heaven! I have in +my heart some religious sentiment at least; the Gospel is not to me a +mere dead-letter, and--understand me well, mademoiselle--I FORGIVE +YOU. It is not to Thuillier, who would refuse them, but to you that I +shall, before long, pay the ten thousand francs which you insinuate I +have applied to my own purposes. If, by the time they are returned to +you, you feel regret for your unjust suspicions, and are unwilling to +accept the money, I request that you will turn it over to the bureau +of Benevolence to the poor--" + +"To the bureau of Benevolence!" cried Brigitte, interrupting him. "No, +I thank you! the idea of all that money being distributed among a +crowd of do-nothings and devotes, who'll spend it in junketing! I've +been poor too, my lad; I made bags for the money of others long before +I had any money of my own; I have some now, and I take care of it. So, +whenever you will, I am ready to receive that ten thousand francs and +keep it. If you didn't know how to do what you undertook to do, and +spent that money in trying to put salt on a sparrow's tail, so much +the worse for you." + +Seeing that he had missed his effect, and had made not the slightest +impression on Brigitte's granite, la Peyrade cast a disdainful look +upon her and left the room majestically. As he did so he noticed a +movement made by Thuillier to follow him, and also the imperious +gesture of Brigitte, always queen and mistress, which nailed her +brother to his chair. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +At the moment when la Peyrade was preparing to lay at the feet of the +countess the liberty he had recovered in so brutal a manner, he +received a perfumed note, which made his heart beat, for on the seal +was that momentous "All or Nothing" which she had given him as the +rule of the relation now to be inaugurated between them. The contents +of the note were as follows:-- + + Dear Monsieur,--I have heard of the step you have taken; thank + you! But I must now prepare to take my own. I cannot, as you may + well think, continue to live in this house, and among these people + who are so little of our own class and with whom we have nothing + in common. To arrange this transaction, and to avoid explanations + of the fact that the entresol welcomes the voluntary exile from + the first-floor, I need to-day and to-morrow to myself. Do not + therefore come to see me until the day after. By that time I shall + have executed Brigitte, as they say at the Bourse, and have much + to tell you. + +Tua tota, +Torna de Godollo. + + +That "Wholly thine" in Latin seemed charming to la Peyrade, who was +not, however, astonished, for Latin is a second national language to +the Hungarians. The two days' waiting to which he was thus condemned +only fanned the flame of the ardent passion which possessed him, and +on the third day when reached the house by the Madeleine his love had +risen to a degree of incandescence of which only a few days earlier he +would scarcely have supposed himself capable. + +This time the porter's wife perceived him; but he was now quite +indifferent as to whether or not the object of his visit should be +known. The ice was broken, his happiness was soon to be official, and +he was more disposed to cry it aloud in the streets than to make a +mystery of it. + +Running lightly up the stairs, he prepared to ring the bell, when, on +putting out his hand to reach the silken bell-cord he perceived that +the bell-cord had disappeared. La Peyrade's first thought was that one +of those serious illnesses which make all noises intolerable to a +patient would explain its absence; but with the thought came other +observations that weakened it, and which, moreover, were not in +themselves comforting. + +From the vestibule to the countess's door a stair carpet, held at each +step by a brass rod, made a soft ascent to the feet of visitors; this, +too, had been removed. A screen-door covered with green velvet and +studded with brass nails had hitherto protected the entrance to the +apartment; of that no sign, except the injury to the wall done by the +workmen in taking it away. For a moment the barrister thought, in his +agitation, that he must have mistaken the floor, but, casting his eye +over the baluster he saw that he had not passed the entresol. Madame +de Godollo must, therefore, be in the act of moving away. + +He then resigned himself to make known his presence at the great +lady's door as he would have done at that of a grisette. He rapped +with his knuckles, but a hollow sonority revealing the void, +"intonuere cavernae," echoed beyond the door which he vainly appealed +to with his fist. He also perceived from beneath that door a ray of +vivid light, the sure sign of an uninhabited apartment where curtains +and carpets and furniture no longer dim the light or deaden sound. +Compelled to believe in a total removal, la Peyrade now supposed that +in the rupture with Brigitte, mentioned as probable by Madame de +Godollo, some brutal insolence of the old maid had necessitated this +abrupt departure. But why had he not been told of it? And what an +idea, to expose him to this ridiculous meeting with what the common +people call, in their picturesque language, "the wooden face"! + +Before leaving the door finally, and as if some doubt still remained +in his mind, la Peyrade made a last and most thundering assault upon +it. + +"Who's knocking like that, as if they'd bring the house down?" said +the porter, attracted by the noise to the foot of the staircase. + +"Doesn't Madame de Godollo still live here?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Of course she doesn't live here now; she has moved away. If monsieur +had told me he was going to her apartment I would have spared him the +trouble of battering down the door." + +"I knew that she was going to leave the apartment," said la Peyrade, +not wishing to seem ignorant of the project of departure, "but I had +no idea she was going so soon." + +"I suppose it was something sudden," said the porter, "for she went +off early this morning with post-horses." + +"Post-horses!" echoed la Peyrade, stupefied. "Then she has left +Paris?" + +"That's to be supposed," said the porter; "people don't usually take +post-horses and a postilion to change from one quarter of Paris to +another." + +"And she did not tell you where she was going?" + +"Ah! monsieur, what an idea! Do people account to us porters for what +they do?" + +"No, but her letters--those that come after her departure?" + +"Her letters? I am ordered to deliver them to Monsieur le commandeur, +the little old gentlemen who came to see her so often; monsieur must +have met him." + +"Yes, yes, certainly," said la Peyrade, keeping his presence of mind +in the midst of the successive shocks which came upon him,--"the +powered little man who was here every day." + +"I couldn't say every day; but he came often. Well, I am told to give +the countess's letters to him." + +"And for other persons of her acquaintance," said la Peyrade, +carelessly, "did she leave no message?" + +"None, monsieur." + +"Very well," said la Peyrade, "good-morning." And he turned to go out. + +"But I think," said the porter, "that Mademoiselle Thuillier knows +more about it than I do. Won't monsieur go up? She is at home; and so +is Monsieur Thuillier." + +"No, never mind," said la Peyrade, "I only came to tell Madame de +Godollo about a commission she asked me to execute; I haven't time to +stop now." + +"Well, as I told you, she left with post-horses this morning. Two +hours earlier monsieur might still have found her; but now, with post- +horses, she must by this time have gone a good distance." + +La Peyrade departed, with a sense of despair in his heart. Added to +the anxiety caused by this hasty departure, jealousy entered his soul, +and in this agonizing moment of disappointment the most distressing +explanations crowded on his mind. + +Then, after further reflection, he said to himself:-- + +"These clever diplomatic women are often sent on secret missions which +require the most absolute silence, and extreme rapidity of movement." + +But here a sudden revulsion of thought overcame him:-- + +"Suppose she were one of those intriguing adventurers whom foreign +governments employ as agents? Suppose the tale, more or less probable, +of that Russian princess forced to sell her furniture to Brigitte were +also that of this Hungarian countess? And yet," he continued, as his +brain made a third evolution in this frightful anarchy of ideas and +feelings, "her education, her manners, her language, all bespoke a +woman of the best position. Besides, if she were only a bird of +passage, why have given herself so much trouble to win me over?" + +La Peyrade might have continued to plead thus for and against for a +long time had he not been suddenly grasped round the shoulders by a +strong arm and addressed in a well-known voice. + +"Take care! my dear barrister; a frightful danger threatens you; you +are running right into it." + +La Peyrade, thus arrested, looked round and found himself in the arms +of Phellion. + +The scene took place in front of a house which was being pulled down +at the corner of the rues Duphot and Saint-Honore. Posted on the +pavement of the other side of the street, Phellion, whose taste for +watching the process of building our readers may remember, had been +witnessing for the last fifteen minutes the drama of a wall about to +fall beneath the united efforts of a squadron of workmen. Watch in +hand, the great citizen was estimating the length of the resistance +which that mass of freestone would present to the destructive labor of +which it was the object. Precisely at the crucial moment of the +impending catastrophe la Peyrade, lost in the tumult of his thoughts, +was entering, heedless of the shouts addressed to him on all sides, +the radius within which the stones would fall. Seen by Phellion (who, +it must be said, would have done the same for a total stranger) la +Peyrade undoubtedly owed his life to him; for, at the moment when he +was violently flung back by the vigorous grasp of the worthy citizen, +the wall fell with the noise of a cannon-shot, and the stones rolled +in clouds of dust almost to his very feet. + +"Are you blind and deaf?" said the workman whose business it was to +warn the passers, in a tone of amenity it is easy to imagine. + +"Thank you, my dear friend," said la Peyrade, recalled to earth. "I +should certainly have been crushed like an idiot if it hadn't been for +you." + +And he pressed Phellion's hand. + +"My reward," replied the latter, "lies in the satisfaction of knowing +that you are saved from an imminent peril. And I may say that that +satisfaction is mingled, for me, with a certain pride; for I was not +mistaken by a single second in the calculation which enabled me to +foresee the exact moment when that formidable mass would be displaced +from its centre of gravity. But what were you thinking of, my dear +monsieur? Probably of the plea you are about to make in the Thuillier +affair. The public prints have informed me of the danger of +prosecution by the authorities which hangs above the head of our +estimable friend. You have a noble cause to defend, monsieur. +Habituated as I am, through my labors as a member of the reading +committee of the Odeon, to judge of works of intellect, and with my +hand upon my conscience, I declare that after reading the incriminated +passages, I can find nothing in the tone of that pamphlet which +justifies the severe measures of which it is the object. Between +ourselves," added the great citizen, lowering his voice, "I think the +government has shown itself petty." + +"So I think," said la Peyrade, "but I am not employed for the defence. +I have advised Thuillier to engage some noted lawyer." + +"It may be good advice," said Phellion; "at any rate, it speaks well +for your modesty. Poor man! I went to him at once when the blow fell, +but I did not see him; I saw only Brigitte, who was having a +discussion with Madame de Godollo. There is a woman with strong +political views; it seems she predicted that the seizure would be +made." + +"Did you know that the countess had left Paris?" said la Peyrade, +rushing at the chance of speaking on the subject of his present +monomania. + +"Ah! left Paris, has she?" said Phellion. "Well, monsieur, I must tell +you that, although there was not much sympathy between us, I regard +her departure as a misfortune. She will leave a serious void in the +salon of our friends. I say this, because it is my belief, and I am +not in the habit of disguising my convictions." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "she is certainly a very distinguished woman, +with whom in spite of her prejudice against me, I think I should have +come to an understanding. But this morning, without leaving any word +as to where she was going, she started suddenly with post-horses." + +"Post-horses!" said Phellion. "I don't know whether you will agree +with me, monsieur, but I think that travelling by post is a most +agreeable method of conveyance. Certainly Louis XI., to whom we owe +the institution, had a fortunate inspiration in the matter; although, +on the other hand, his sanguinary and despotic government was not, to +my humble thinking, entirely devoid of reproach. Once only in my life +have I used that method of locomotion, and I can truly say I found it +far superior, in spite of its inferior relative rapidity, to the +headlong course of what in England are called RAILWAYS; where speed is +attained only at the price of safety." + +La Peyrade paid but little attention to Phellion's phraseology. "Where +can she have gone?"--round that idea he dug and delved in every +direction, an occupation that would have made him indifferent to a far +more interesting topic. However, once started, like the locomotive he +objected to, the great citizen went on:-- + +"I made that journey at the period of Madame Phellion's last +confinement. She was in Perche, with her mother, when I learned that +serious complications were feared from the milk-fever. Overcome with +terror at the danger which threatened my wife, I went instantly to the +post-office to obtain a seat in the mail-coach, but all were taken; I +found they had been engaged for more than a week. Upon that, I came to +a decision; I went to the rue Pigalle, and, for a very large sum in +gold a post-chaise and three horses were placed at my disposal, when +unfortunately the formality of a passport, with which I had neglected +to supply myself, and without which, in virtue of the decrees of the +consulate of 17 Nivose, year VII., the post agents were not permitted +to deliver horses to travellers--" + +The last few words were like a flash of light to la Peyrade, and +without waiting for the end of the postal odyssey of the great +citizen, he darted away in the direction of the rue Pigalle, before +Phellion, in the middle of his sentence, perceived his departure. + +Reaching the Royal postal establishment, la Peyrade was puzzled as to +whom to address himself in order to obtain the information he wanted. +He began by explaining to the porter that he had a letter to send to a +lady of his acquaintance that morning by post, neglecting, very +thoughtlessly, to send him her address, and that he thought he might +discover it by means of the passport which she must have presented in +order to obtain horses. + +"Was it a lady accompanied by a maid whom I took up on the boulevard +de la Madeleine?" asked a postilion sitting in the corner of the room +where la Peyrade was making his preliminary inquiry. + +"Exactly," said la Peyrade, going eagerly up to the providential +being, and slipping a five-franc piece into his hand. + +"Ah! well, she's a queer traveller!" said the man, "she told me to +take her to the Bois de Boulogne, and there she made me drive round +and round for an hour. After that, we came back to the Barriere de +l'Etoile, where she gave me a good 'pourboire' and got into a hackney +coach, telling me to take the travelling carriage back to the man who +lets such carriages in the Cour des Coches, Faubourg Saint-Honore." + +"Give me the name of that man?" said la Peyrade, eagerly. + +"Simonin," replied the postilion. + +Furnished with that information la Peyrade resumed his course, and +fifteen minutes later he was questioning the livery-stable keeper; but +that individual knew only that a lady residing on the Boulevard de la +Madeleine had hired, without horses, a travelling-carriage for half a +day; that he had sent out the said carriage at nine that morning, and +it was brought back at twelve by a postilion of the Royal Post house. + +"Never mind," thought la Peyrade, "I am certain now she has not left +Paris, and is not avoiding me. Most probably, she wants to break +utterly with the Thuilliers, and so has invented this journey. Fool +that I am! no doubt there's a letter waiting for me at home, +explaining the whole thing." + +Worn out with emotion and fatigue, and in order to verify as quickly +as possible this new supposition, la Peyrade flung himself into a +street cab, and in less than a quarter of an hour, having promised the +driver a good pourboire, he was deposited at the house in the rue +Saint-Dominique d'Enfer. There he was compelled to endure still longer +the tortures of waiting. Since Brigitte's departure, the duty of the +porter, Coffinet, had been very negligently performed, and when la +Peyrade rushed to the lodge to inquire for his letter, which he +thought he saw in the case that belonged to him, the porter and his +wife were both absent and their door was locked. The wife was doing +some household work in the building, and Coffinet himself, taking +advantage of that circumstance, had allowed a friend to entice him +into a neighboring wine-shop, where, between two glasses, he was +supporting, against a republican who was talking disrespectfully +against it, the cause of the owners of property. + +It was twenty minutes before the worthy porter, remembering the +"property" entrusted to his charge, decided to return to his post. It +is easy to imagine the reproaches with which la Peyrade overwhelmed +him. He excused himself by saying that he had gone to do a commission +for Mademoiselle, and that he couldn't be at the door and where his +masters chose to send him at the same time. At last, however, he gave +the lawyer a letter bearing the Paris postmark. + +With his heart rather than his eyes la Peyrade recognized the +handwriting, and, turning over the missive, the arms and motto +confirmed the hope that he had reached the end of the cruellest +emotion he had ever in his life experienced. To read that letter +before that odious porter seemed to him a profanation. With a +refinement of feeling which all lovers will understand, he gave +himself the pleasure of pausing before his happiness; he would not +even unseal that blissful note until the moment when, with closed +doors and no interruptions to distract him, he could enjoy at his ease +the delicious sensation of which his heart had a foretaste. + +Rushing up the staircase two steps at a time, the now joyous lover +committed the childish absurdity of locking himself in; then, having +settled himself at his ease before his desk, and having broken the +seal with religious care, he was forced to press his hand on his +heart, which seemed to burst from his bosom, before he could summon +calmness to read the following letter:-- + + Dear Monsieur,--I disappear forever, because my play is played + out. I thank you for having made it both attractive and easy. By + setting against you the Thuilliers and Collevilles (who are fully + informed of your sentiments towards them), and by relating in a + manner most mortifying to their bourgeois self-love the true + reason of your sudden and pitiless rupture with them, I am proud + and happy to believe that I have done you a signal service. The + girl does not love you, and you love nothing but the eyes of her + "dot"; I have therefore saved you both from a species of hell. + But, in exchange for the bride you have so curtly rejected, + another charming girl is proposed to you; she is richer and more + beautiful than Mademoiselle Colleville, and--to speak of myself-- + more at liberty than + +Your unworthy servant, +Torna "Comtesse de Godollo." + + P.S. For further information apply, without delay, to Monsieur du + Portail, householder, rue Honore-Chevalier, near the rue de la + Cassette, quartier Saint-Sulpice, by whom you are expected. + + +When he had read this letter the advocate of the poor took his head in +his hands; he saw nothing, heard nothing, thought nothing; he was +annihilated. + +Several days were necessary to la Peyrade before he could even begin +to recover from the crushing blow which had struck him down. The shock +was terrible. Coming out of that golden dream which had shown him a +perspective of the future in so smiling an aspect, he found himself +fooled under conditions most cruel to his self-love, and to his +pretensions to depth and cleverness; irrevocably parted from the +Thuilliers; saddled with a hopeless debt of twenty-five thousand +francs to Madame Lambert, together with another of ten thousand to +Brigitte, which his dignity required him to pay with the least delay +possible; and, worst of all,--to complete his humiliation and his +sense of failure,--he felt that he was not cured of the passionate +emotion he had felt for this woman, the author of his great disaster, +and the instrument of his ruin. + +Either this Delilah was a very great lady, sufficiently high in +station to allow herself such compromising caprices,--but even so, she +would scarcely have cared to play the role of a coquette in a +vaudeville where he himself played the part of ninny,--OR she was some +noted adventuress who was in the pay of this du Portail and the agent +of his singular matrimonial designs. Evil life or evil heart, these +were the only two verdicts to be pronounced on this dangerous siren, +and in either case, it would seem, she was not very deserving of the +regrets of her victim; nevertheless, he was conscious of feeling them. +We must put ourselves in the place of this son of Provence, this +region of hot blood and ardent heads, who, for the first time in his +life finding himself face to face with jewelled love in laces, +believed he was to drink that passion from a wrought-gold cup. Just as +our minds on waking keep the impression of a vivid dream and continue +in love with what we know was but a shadow, la Peyrade had need of all +his mental energy to drive away the memory of that treacherous +countess. We might go further and say that he never ceased to long for +her, though he was careful to drape with an honest pretext the intense +desire that he had to find her. That desire he called curiosity, ardor +for revenge; and here follow the ingenious deductions which he drew +for himself:-- + +"Cerizet talked to me about a rich heiress; the countess, in her +letter, intimates that the whole intrigue she wound about me was to +lead to a rich marriage; rich marriages flung at a man's head are not +so plentiful that two such chances should come to me within a few +weeks; therefore the match offered by Cerizet and that proposed by the +countess must be the crazy girl they are so frantic to make me marry; +therefore Cerizet, being in the plot, must know the countess; +therefore, through him I shall get upon her traces. In any case, I am +sure of information about this extraordinary choice that has fallen +upon me; evidently, these people, whoever they are, who can pull the +wires of such puppets to reach their ends must be persons of +considerable position; therefore, I'll go and see Cerizet." + +And he went to see Cerizet. + +Since the dinner at the Rocher de Cancale, the pair had not met. Once +or twice la Peyrade had asked Dutocq at the Thuilliers' (where the +latter seldom went now, on account of the distance to their new abode) +what had become of his copying clerk. + +"He never speaks of you," Dutocq had answered. + +Hence it might be inferred that resentment, the "manet alta mente +repostum" was still living in the breast of the vindictive usurer. La +Peyrade, however, was not stopped by that consideration. After all, he +was not going to ask for anything; he went under the pretext of +renewing an affair in which Cerizet had taken part, and Cerizet never +took part in anything unless he had a personal interest in it. The +chances were, therefore, that he would be received with affectionate +eagerness rather than unpleasant acerbity. Moreover, he decided to go +and see the copying clerk at Dutocq's office; it would look, he +thought, less like a visit than if he went to his den in the rue des +Poules. It was nearly two o'clock when la Peyrade made his entrance +into the precincts of the justice-of-peace of the 12th arrondissement. +He crossed the first room, in which were a crowd of persons whom civil +suits of one kind or another summoned before the magistrate. Without +pausing in that waiting-room, la Peyrade pushed on to the office +adjoining that of Dutocq. There he found Cerizet at a shabby desk of +blackened wood, at which another clerk, then absent, occupied the +opposite seat. + +Seeing his visitor, Cerizet cast a savage look at him and said, +without rising, or suspending the copy of the judgment he was then +engrossing:-- + +"You here, Sieur la Peyrade? You have been doing fine things for your +friend Thuillier!" + +"How are you?" asked la Peyrade, in a tone both resolute and friendly. + +"I?" replied Cerizet. "As you see, still rowing my galley; and, to +follow out the nautical metaphor, allow me to ask what wind has blown +you hither; is it, perchance, the wind of adversity?" + +La Peyrade, without replying, took a chair beside his questioner, +after which he said in a grave tone:-- + +"My dear fellow, we have something to say to each other." + +"I suppose," said Cerizet, spitefully, "the Thuilliers have grown cold +since the seizure of the pamphlet." + +"The Thuilliers are ungrateful people; I have broken with them," +replied la Peyrade. + +"Rupture or dismissal," said Cerizet, "their door is shut against you; +and from what Dutocq tells me, I judge that Brigitte is handling you +without gloves. You see, my friend, what it is to try and manage +affairs alone; complications come, and there's no one to smooth the +angles. If you had got me that lease, I should have had a footing at +the Thuilliers', Dutocq would not have abandoned you, and together we +could have brought you gently into port." + +"But suppose I don't want to re-enter that port?" said la Peyrade, +with some sharpness. "I tell you I've had enough of those Thuilliers, +and I broke with them myself; I warned them to get out of my sun; and +if Dutocq told you anything else you may tell him from me that he +lies. Is that clear enough? It seems to me I've made it plain." + +"Well, exactly, my good fellow, if you are so savage against your +Thuilliers you ought to have put me among them, and then you'd have +seen me avenge you." + +"There you are right," said la Peyrade; "I wish I could have set you +at their legs--but as for that matter of the lease I tell you again, I +was not master of it." + +"Of course," said Cerizet, "it was your conscience which obliged you +to tell Brigitte that the twelve thousand francs a year I expected to +make out of it were better in her pocket than in mine." + +"It seems that Dutocq continues the honorable profession of spy which +he formerly practised at the ministry of finance," said la Peyrade, +"and, like others who do that dirty business, he makes his reports +more witty than truthful--" + +"Take care!" said Cerizet; "you are talking of my patron in his own +lair." + +"Look here!" said la Peyrade. "I have come to talk to you on serious +matters. Will you do me the favor to drop the Thuilliers and all their +belongings, and give me your attention?" + +"Say on, my friend," said Cerizet, laying down his pen, which had +never ceased to run, up to this moment, "I am listening." + +"You talked to me some time ago," said la Peyrade, "about marrying a +girl who was rich, fully of age, and slightly hysterical, as you were +pleased to put it euphemistically." + +"Well done!" cried Cerizet. "I expected this; but you've been some +time coming to it." + +"In offering me this heiress, what did you have in your mind?" asked +la Peyrade. + +"Parbleu! to help you to a splendid stroke of business. You had only +to stoop and take it. I was formally charged to propose it to you; +and, as there wasn't any brokerage, I should have relied wholly on +your generosity." + +"But you are not the only person who was commissioned to make me that +offer. A woman had the same order." + +"A woman!" cried Cerizet in a perfectly natural tone of surprise. "Not +that I know of." + +"Yes, a foreigner, young and pretty, whom you must have met in the +family of the bride, to whom she seems to be ardently devoted." + +"Never," said Cerizet, "never has there been the slightest question of +a woman in this negotiation. I have every reason to believe that I am +exclusively charged with it." + +"What!" said la Peyrade, fixing upon Cerizet a scrutinizing eye, "did +you never hear of the Comtesse Torna de Godollo?" + +"Never, in all my life; this is the first time I ever heard that +name." + +"Then," said la Peyrade, "it must really have been another match; for +that woman, after many singular preliminaries, too long to explain to +you, made me a formal offer of the hand of a young woman much richer +than Mademoiselle Colleville--" + +"And hysterical?" asked Cerizet. + +"No, she did not embellish the proposal with that accessory; but +there's another detail which may put you on the track of her. Madame +de Godollo exhorted me, if I wished to push the matter, to go and see +a certain Monsieur du Portail--" + +"Rue Honore-Chevalier?" exclaimed Cerizet, quickly. + +"Precisely." + +"Then it is the same marriage which is offered to you through two +different mediums. It is strange I was not informed of this +collaboration!" + +"In short," said la Peyrade, "you not only didn't have wind of the +countess's intervention, but you don't know her, and you can't give me +any information about her--is that so?" + +"At present I can't," replied Cerizet, "but I'll find out about her; +for the whole proceeding is rather cavalier towards me; but this +employment of two agents only shows you how desirable you are to the +family." + +At this moment the door of the room was opened cautiously, a woman's +head appeared, and a voice, which was instantly recognized by la +Peyrade, said, addressing the copying-clerk:-- + +"Ah! excuse me! I see monsieur is busy. Could I say a word to monsieur +when he is alone?" + +Cerizet, who had an eye as nimble as a hand, instantly noticed a +certain fact. La Peyrade, who was so placed as to be plainly seen by +the new-comer, no sooner heard that drawling, honeyed voice, than he +turned his head in a manner to conceal his features. Instead therefore +of being roughly sent away, as usually happened to petitioners who +addressed the most surly of official clerks, the modest visitor heard +herself greeted in a very surprising manner. + +"Come in, come in, Madame Lambert," said Cerizet; "you won't be kept +waiting long; come in." + +The visitor advanced, and then came face to face with la Peyrade. + +"Ah! monsieur!" cried his creditor, whom the reader has no doubt +recognized, "how fortunate I am to meet monsieur! I have been several +times to his office to ask if he had had time to attend to my little +affair." + +"I have had many engagements which have kept me away from my office +lately; but I attended to that matter; everything has been done right, +and is now in the hands of the secretary." + +"Oh! how good monsieur is! I pray God to bless him," said the pious +woman, clasping her hands. + +"Bless me! do you have business with Madame Lambert?" said Cerizet; +"you never told me that. Are you Pere Picot's counsel?" + +"No, unfortunately," said Madame Lambert, "my master won't take any +counsel; he is so self-willed, so obstinate! But, my good monsieur, +what I came to ask is whether the family council is to meet." + +"Of course," said Cerizet, "and not later than to-morrow." + +"But monsieur, I hear those gentlemen of the Royal court said the +family had no rights--" + +"Yes, that's so," said the clerk; "the lower court and the Royal court +have both, on the petition of the relatives, rejected their demand for +a commission." + +"I should hope so!" said the woman; "to think of making him out a +lunatic! him so full of wisdom and learning!" + +"But the relations don't mean to give up; they are going to try the +matter again under a new form, and ask for the appointment of a +judicial counsel. That's what the family council meets for to-morrow; +and I think, this time, my dear Madame Lambert, your old Picot will +find himself restrained. There are serious allegations, I can tell +you. It was all very well to take the eggs, but to pluck the hen was +another thing." + +"Is it possible that monsieur can suppose--" began the devote, +clasping her hands under her chin. + +"I suppose nothing," said Cerizet; "I am not the judge of this affair. +But the relations declare that you have pocketed considerable sums, +and made investments about which they demand inquiry." + +"Oh! heavens!" said the woman, casting up her eyes; "they can inquire; +I am poor; I have not a deed, nor a note, nor a share; not the +slightest security of any kind in my possession." + +"I dare say not," said Cerizet, glancing at la Peyrade out of the +corner of his eye; "but there are always friends to take care of such +things. However, that is none of my business; every one must settle +his own affairs in his own way. Now, then, say what you have to say, +distinctly." + +"I came, monsieur," she replied, "to implore you, monsieur, to implore +Monsieur the judge's clerk, to speak in our favor to Monsieur the +justice-of-peace. Monsieur the vicar of Saint-Jacques is also to speak +to him. That poor Monsieur Picot!" she went on, weeping, "they'll kill +him if they continue to worry him in this way." + +"I sha'n't conceal from you," said Cerizet, "that the justice-of-peace +is very ill-disposed to your cause. You must have seen that the other +day, when he refused to receive you. As for Monsieur Dutocq and +myself, our assistance won't help you much; and besides, my good +woman, you are too close-mouthed." + +"Monsieur asked me if I had laid by a few little savings; and I +couldn't tell him that I had, be--because they have gone to keep the +h--house of that poor Monsieur Pi--i--cot; and now they accuse me of +r--robbing him!" + +Madame Lambert sobbed. + +"My opinion is," said Cerizet, "that you are making yourself out much +poorer than you are; and if friend Peyrade here, who seems to be more +in your confidence, hadn't his tongue tied by the rules of his +profession--" + +"I!" said la Peyrade, hastily, "I don't know anything of madame's +affairs. She asked me to draw up a petition on a matter in which there +was nothing judicial or financial." + +"Ah! that's it, is it?" said Cerizet. "Madame had doubtless gone to +see you about this petition the day Dutocq met her at your office, the +morning after our dinner at the Rocher de Cancale--when you were such +a Roman, you know." + +Then, without seeming to attach any importance to the reminiscence, he +added:-- + +"Well, my good Madame Lambert, I'll ask my patron to speak to the +justice-of-peace, and, if I get a chance, I'll speak to him myself; +but, I repeat it, he is very much prejudiced against you." + +Madame Lambert retired with many curtseys and protestations of +gratitude. When she was fairly gone la Peyrade remarked:-- + +"You don't seem to believe that that woman came to me about a +petition; and yet nothing was ever truer. She is thought a saint in +the street she lives in, and that old man they accuse her of robbing +is actually kept alive by her devotion, so I'm told. Consequently, the +neighbors have put it into the good woman's head to apply for the +Montyon prize; and it was for the purpose of putting her claims in +legal shape that she applied to me." + +"Dear! dear! the Montyon prize!" cried Cerizet; "well, that's an idea! +My good fellow, we ought to have cultivated it before,--I, especially, +as banker of the poor, and you, their advocate. As for this client of +yours, it is lucky for her Monsieur Picot's relatives are not members +of the French academy; it is in the correctional police-court, sixth +chamber, where they mean to give her the reward of virtue. However, to +come back to what we were talking about. I tell you that after all +your tergiversations you had better settle down peaceably; and I +advise you, as your countess did, to go and see du Portail." + +"Who and what is he?" asked la Peyrade. + +"He is a little old man," replied Cerizet, "as shrewd as a weasel. He +gives me the idea of having dealings with the devil. Go and see him! +Sight, as they say, costs nothing." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "perhaps I will; but, first of all, I want you +to find out for me about this Comtesse de Godollo." + +"What do you care about her? She is nothing but a supernumerary, that +countess." + +"I have my reasons," said la Peyrade; "you can certainly get some +information about her in three days; I'll come and see you then." + +"My good fellow," said Cerizet, "you seem to me to be amusing yourself +with things that don't pay; you haven't fallen in love with that go- +between, have you?" + +"Plague take him!" thought la Peyrade; "he spies everything; there's +no hiding anything from him! No," he said, aloud, "I am not in love; +on the contrary, I am very cautious. I must admit that this marriage +with a crazy girl doesn't attract me, and before I go a step into it I +want to know where I put my feet. These crooked proceedings are not +reassuring, and as so many influences are being brought to bear, I +choose to control one by another. Therefore don't play sly, but give +me all the information you get into your pouch about Madame la +Comtesse Torna de Godollo. I warn you I know enough to test the +veracity of your report; and if I see you are trying to overreach me +I'll break off short with your du Portail." + +"Trying to overreach you, monseigneur!" replied Cerizet, in the tone +and manner of Frederic Lemaitre. "Who would dare attempt it?" + +As he pronounced those words in a slightly mocking tone, Dutocq +appeared, accompanied by his little clerk. + +"Bless me!" he exclaimed, seeing la Peyrade and Cerizet together; +"here's the trinity reconstituted! but the object of the alliance, the +'casus foederis,' has floated off. What have you done to that good +Brigitte, la Peyrade? She is after your blood." + +"What about Thuillier?" asked la Peyrade. + +Moliere was reversed; here was Tartuffe inquiring for Orgon. + +"Thuillier began by not being very hostile to you; but it now seems +that the seizure business has taken a good turn, and having less need +of you he is getting drawn into his sister's waters; and if the +tendency continues, I haven't a doubt that he'll soon come to think +you deserving of hanging." + +"Well, I'm out of it all," said la Peyrade, "and if anybody ever +catches me in such a mess again!--Well, adieu, my friends," he added. +"And you, Cerizet, as to what we were speaking about, activity, +safety, and discretion!" + +When la Peyrade reached the courtyard of the municipal building, he +was accosted by Madame Lambert, who was lying in wait for him. + +"Monsieur wouldn't believe, I am sure," she said, in a deprecating +tone, "the villainous things that Monsieur Cerizet said about me; +monsieur knows it was the little property I received from my uncle in +England that I placed in his hands." + +"Yes, yes," said la Peyrade, "but you must understand that with all +these rumors set about by your master's relatives the prize of virtue +is desperately endangered." + +"If it is God's will that I am not to have it--" + +"You ought also to understand how important it is for your interests +to keep secret the other service which I did for you. At the first +appearance of any indiscretion on your part that money, as I told you, +will be peremptorily returned to you." + +"Oh! monsieur may be easy about that." + +"Very well; then good-bye to you, my dear," said la Peyrade, in a +friendly tone. + +As he turned to leave her, a nasal voice was heard from a window on +the staircase. + +"Madame Lambert!" cried Cerizet, who, suspecting the colloquy, had +gone to the staircase window to make sure of it. "Madame Lambert! +Monsieur Dutocq has returned; you may come up and see him, if you +like." + +Impossible for la Peyrade to prevent the conference, although he knew +the secret of that twenty-five thousand francs ran the greatest +danger. + +"Certainly," he said to himself as he walked away, "I'm in a run of +ill-luck; and I don't know where it will end." + +In Brigitte's nature there was such an all-devouring instinct of +domination, that it was without regret, and, we may even say, with a +sort of secret joy that she saw the disappearance of Madame de +Godollo. That woman, she felt, had a crushing superiority over her; +and this, while it had given a higher order to the Thuillier +establishment, made her ill at ease. When therefore the separation +took place, which was done, let us here say, on good terms, and under +fair and honorable pretexts, Mademoiselle Thuillier breathed more +freely. She felt like those kings long swayed by imperious and +necessary ministers, who celebrate within their hearts the day when +death delivers them from a master whose services and rival influence +they impatiently endured. + +Thuillier was not far from having the same sentiment about la Peyrade. +But Madame de Godollo was only the elegance, whereas la Peyrade was +the utility of the house they had now simultaneously abandoned; and +after the lapse of a few days, a terrible need of Theodose made itself +felt in the literary and political existence of his dear, good friend. +The municipal councillor found himself suddenly appointed to draft an +important report. He was unable to decline the task, saddled as he was +with the reputation, derived from his pamphlet, of being a man of +letters and an able writer; therefore, in presence of the perilous +honor conferred upon him by his colleagues of the general Council, he +sat down terrified by his solitude and his insufficiency. + +In vain did he lock himself into his study, gorge himself with black +coffee, mend innumerable pens, and write a score of times at the head +of his paper (which he was careful to cut of the exact dimensions as +that used by la Peyrade) the solemn words: "Report to the Members of +the Municipal Council of the City of Paris," followed, on a line by +itself, by a magnificent MESSIEURS--nothing came of it! He was fain to +issue furious from his study, complaining of the horrible household +racket which "cut the thread of his ideas"; though really no greater +noise than the closing of a door or the opening of a closet or the +moving of a chair had made itself heard. All this, however, did not +help the advancement of the work, which remained, as before--simply +begun. + +Most fortunately, it happened that Rabourdin, wanting to make some +change in his apartment, came, as was proper, to submit his plan to +the owner of the house. Thuillier granted cordially the request that +was made to him, and then discoursed to his tenant about the report +with which he was charged,--being desirous, he said, to obtain his +ideas on the subject. + +Rabourdin, to whom no administrative question was foreign, very +readily threw upon the subject a number of very clear and lucid ideas. +He was one of those men to whom the quality of the intellect to which +they address themselves is more or less indifferent; a fool, or a man +of talent who will listen to them, serves equally well to think aloud +to, and they are, as a stimulant, about the same thing. After +Rabourdin had said his say, he observed that Thuillier had not +understood him; but he had listened to himself with pleasure, and he +was, moreover, grateful for the attention, obtuse as it was, of his +hearer, and also for the kindliness of the landlord in receiving his +request. + +"I must have among my papers," he said as he went away, "something on +this subject; I will look it up and send it to you." + +Accordingly, that same evening Thuillier received a voluminous +manuscript; and he spent the entire night in delving into that +precious repository of ideas, from which he extracted enough to make a +really remarkable report, clumsily as the pillage was managed. When +read before the council it obtained a very great success, and +Thuillier returned home radiant and much elated by the congratulations +he had received. From that moment--a moment that was marked in his +life, for even to advanced old age he still talked of the "report he +had had the honor of making to the Council-general of the Seine"--la +Peyrade went down considerably in his estimation; he felt then that he +could do very well without the barrister, and this thought of +emancipation was strengthened by another happiness which came to him +at almost the same time. + +A parliamentary crisis was imminent,--a fact that caused the ministry +to think about depriving its adversaries of a theme of opposition +which always has great influence on public opinion. It resolved +therefore to relax its rigor, which of late had been much increased +against the press. Being included in this species of hypocritical +amnesty, Thuillier received one morning a letter from the barrister +whom he had chosen in place of la Peyrade. This letter announced that +the Council of State had dismissed the complaint, and ordered the +release of the pamphlet. + +Then Dutocq's prediction was realized. That weight the less within his +bosom, Thuillier took a swing toward insolence; he chorused Brigitte, +and came at last to speak of la Peyrade as a sort of adventurer whom +he had fed and clothed, a tricky fellow who had EXTRACTED much money +from him, and had finally behaved with such ingratitude that he was +thankful not to count him any longer among his friends. Orgon, in +short, was in full revolt, and like Dorine, he was ready to cry out: +"A beggar! who, when he came, had neither shoes nor coat worth a brass +farthing." + +Cerizet, to whom these indignities were reported by Dutocq, would +gladly have served them up hot to la Peyrade; but the interview in +which the copying clerk was to furnish information about Madame de +Godollo did not take place at the time fixed. La Peyrade made his own +discoveries in this wise: + +Pursued by the thought of the beautiful Hungarian, and awaiting, or +rather not awaiting the result of Cerizet's inquiry, he scoured Paris +in every direction, and might have been seen, like the idlest of +loungers, in the most frequented places, his heart telling him that +sooner or later he must meet the object of his ardent search. + +One evening--it was towards the middle of October--the autumn, as +frequently happens in Paris, was magnificent, and along the +boulevards, where the Provencal was airing his love and his +melancholy, the out-door life and gaiety were as animated as in +summer. On the boulevard des Italiens, formerly known as the boulevard +de Gand, as he lounged past the long line of chairs before the Cafe de +Paris, where, mingled with a few women of the Chaussee d'Antin +accompanied by their husbands and children, may be seen toward evening +a cordon of nocturnal beauties waiting only a gloved hand to gather +them, la Peyrade's heart received a cruel shock. From afar, he thought +he saw his adored countess. + +She was alone, in a dazzling toilet scarcely authorized by the place +and her isolation; before her, mounted on a chair, trembled a tiny +lap-dog, which she stroked from time to time with her beautiful hands. +After convincing himself that he was not mistaken, la Peyrade was +about to dart upon that celestial vision, when he was forestalled by a +dandy of the most triumphant type. Without throwing aside his cigar, +without even touching his hat, this handsome young man began to +converse with the barrister's ideal; but when she saw la Peyrade +making towards her the siren must have felt afraid, for she rose +quickly, and taking the arm of the man who was talking to her, she +said aloud:-- + +"Is your carriage here, Emile? Mabille closes to-night, and I should +like to go there." + +The name of that disreputable place thus thrown in the face of the +unhappy barrister, was a charity, for it saved him from a foolish +action, that of addressing, on the arm of the man who had suddenly +made himself her cavalier, the unworthy creature of whom he was +thinking a few seconds earlier with so much tenderness. + +"She is not worth insulting," he said to himself. + +But, as lovers are beings who will not allow their foothold to be +taken from them easily, the Provencal was neither convinced nor +resigned as yet. Not far from the place which his countess had left, +sat another woman, also alone; but this one was ripe with years, with +feathers on her head, and beneath the folds of a cashmere shawl she +concealed the plaintive remains of tarnished elegance and long past +luxury. There was nothing imposing about this sight, nor did it +command respect, but the contrary. La Peyrade went up to the woman +without ceremony and addressed her. + +"Madame," he said, "do you know that woman who has just gone away on +the arm of a gentleman?" + +"Certainly, monsieur; I know nearly all the women who come here." + +"And her name is?--" + +"Madame Komorn." + +"Is she as impregnable as the fortress of that name?" + +Our readers will doubtless remember that at the time of the +insurrection in Hungary our ears were battered by the press and by +novelists about the famous citadel of Komorn; and la Peyrade knew that +by assuming a tone of indifference or flippancy he was more likely to +succeed with his inquiries. + +"Has monsieur any idea of making her acquaintance?" + +"I don't know," replied la Peyrade, "but she is a woman who makes +people think of her." + +"And a very dangerous woman, monsieur," added his companion; "a +fearful spendthrift, but with no inclination to return generously what +is done for her. I can speak knowingly of that; when she first arrived +here from Berlin, six months ago, she was very warmly recommended to +me." + +"Ah!" exclaimed la Peyrade. + +"Yes, at that time I had in the environs of Ville d'Avray a very +beautiful place, with park and coverts and a stream for fishing; but +as I was alone I found it dull, and several of these ladies and +gentlemen said to me, 'Madame Louchard, why don't you organize parties +in the style of picnics?'" + +"Madame Louchard!" repeated la Peyrade, "are you any relation to +Monsieur Louchard of the commercial police?" + +"His wife, monsieur, but legally separated from him. A horrid man who +wants me to go back to him; but I, though I'm ready to forgive most +things, I can't forgive a want of respect; just imagine that he dared +to raise his hand against me!" + +"Well," said la Peyrade, trying to bring her back to the matter in +hand; "you organized those picnics, and Madame de Godo--I mean Madame +Komorn--" + +"Was one of my first lodgers. It was there she made acquaintance with +an Italian, a handsome man, and rich, a political refugee, but one of +the lofty kind. You understand it didn't suit my purposes to have +intrigues going on in my house; still the man was so lovable, and so +unhappy because he couldn't make Madame Komorn like him, that at last +I took an interest in this particular love affair; which produced a +pot of money for madame, for she managed to get immense sums out of +that Italian. Well, would you believe that when--being just then in +great need--I asked her to assist me with a trifling little sum, she +refused me point-blank, and left my house, taking her lover with her, +who, poor man, can't be thankful for the acquaintance now." + +"Why not? What happened to him?" asked la Peyrade. + +"It happened to him that this serpent knows every language in Europe; +she is witty and clever to the tips of her fingers, but more +manoeuvring than either; so, being, as it appears, in close relations +to the police, she gave the government a lot of papers the Italian +left about carelessly, on which they expelled him from France." + +"Well, after his departure, Madame Komorn--" + +"Since then, she has had a good many adventures and upset several +fortunes, and I thought she had left Paris. For the last two months +she was nowhere to be seen, but three days ago she reappeared, more +brilliant than ever. My advice to monsieur is not to trust himself in +that direction; and yet, monsieur looks to me a Southerner, and +Southerners have passions; perhaps what I have told him will only +serve to spur them up. However, being warned, there's not so much +danger, and she is a most fascinating creature--oh! very fascinating. +She used to love me very much, though we parted such ill-friends; and +just now, seeing me here, she came over and asked my address, and said +she should come and see me." + +"Well, madame, I'll think about it," said la Peyrade, rising and +bowing to her. + +The bow was returned with extreme coldness; his abrupt departure did +not show him to be a man of SERIOUS intentions. + +It might be supposed from the lively manner in which la Peyrade made +these inquiries that his cure though sudden was complete; but this +surface of indifference and cool self-possession was only the +stillness of the atmosphere that precedes a storm. On leaving Madame +Louchard, la Peyrade flung himself into a street-cab and there gave +way to a passion of tears like that Madame Colleville had witnessed on +the day he believed that Cerizet had got the better of him in the sale +of the house. + +What was his position now? The investment of the Thuilliers, prepared +with so much care, all useless; Flavie well avenged for the odious +comedy he had played with her; his affairs in a worse state than they +were when Cerizet and Dutocq had sent him, like a devouring wolf, into +the sheepfold from which he had allowed the stupid sheep to drive him; +his heart full of revengeful projects against the woman who had so +easily got the better of what he thought his cleverness; and the +memory, still vivid, of the seductions to which he had succumbed,-- +such were the thoughts and emotions of his sleepless night, sleepless +except for moments shaken by agitated dreams. + +The next day la Peyrade could think no more; he was a prey to fever, +the violence of which became sufficiently alarming for the physician +who attended him to take all precautions against the symptoms now +appearing of brain fever: bleeding, cupping, leeches, and ice to his +head; these were the agreeable finale to his dream of love. We must +hasten to add, however, that this violent crisis in the physical led +to a perfect cure of the mental being. The barrister came out of his +illness with no other sentiment than cold contempt for the treacherous +Hungarian, a sentiment which did not even rise to a desire for +vengeance. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +GIVE AND TAKE + +Once more afoot, and reckoning with his future, on which he had lost +so much ground, la Peyrade asked himself if he had not better try to +renew his relations with the Thuilliers, or whether he should be +compelled to fall back on the rich crazy woman who had bullion where +others have brains. But everything that reminded him of his disastrous +campaign was repulsive to him; besides, what safety was there in +dealing with this du Portail, a man who could use such instruments for +his means of action? + +Great commotions of the soul are like those storms which purify the +atmosphere; they induce reflection, they counsel good and strong +resolutions. La Peyrade, as the result of the cruel disappointment he +had just endured, examined his own soul. He asked himself what sort of +existence was this, of base and ignoble intrigue, which he had led for +the past year? Was there for him no better, no nobler use to make of +the faculties he felt within him? The bar was open to him as to +others; that was a broad, straight path which could lead him to all +the satisfaction of legitimate ambition. Like Figaro, who displayed +more science and calculation in merely getting a living than statesmen +had shown in governing Spain for a hundred years, he, la Peyrade, in +order to install and maintain himself in the Thuillier household and +marry the daughter of a clarionet and a smirched coquette, had spent +more mind, more art, and--it should also be said, because in a corrupt +society it is an element that must be reckoned--more dishonesty than +was needed to advance him in some fine career. + +"Enough of such connections as Dutocq and Cerizet," he said to +himself; "enough of the nauseating atmosphere of the Minards and +Phellions and Collevilles and Barniols and all the rest of them. I'll +shake off this province 'intra muros,' a thousand times more absurd +and petty than the true provinces; they at least, side by side with +their pettiness, have habits and customs that are characteristic, a +'sui generis' dignity; they are frankly what they are, the antipodes +of Parisian life; this other is but a parody of it. I will fling +myself upon Paris." + +In consequence of these reflections, la Peyrade went to see two or +three barristers who had offered to introduce him at the Palais in +secondary cases. He accepted those that presented themselves at once, +and three weeks after his rupture with the Thuilliers he was no longer +the "advocate of the poor," but a barrister pleading before the Royal +court. + +He had already pleaded several cases successfully when he received, +one morning, a letter which greatly disturbed him. The president of +the order of barristers requested him to come to his office at the +Palais in the course of the day, as he had something of importance to +say to him. La Peyrade instantly thought of the transaction relating +to the purchase of the house on the boulevard de la Madeleine; it must +have come, he thought, to the ears of the Council of Discipline; if so +he was accountable to that tribunal and he knew its severity. + +Now this du Portail, whom he had never yet been to see, in spite of +his conditional promise to Cerizet, was likely to have heard the whole +story of that transaction from Cerizet himself. Evidently all means +were thought good by that man, judging by the use he had made of the +Hungarian woman. In his savage determination to bring about the +marriage with the crazy girl, had this virulent old man denounced him? +On seeing him courageously and with some appearance of success +entering a career in which he might find fame and independence, had +his persecutor taken a step to make that career impossible? Certainly +there was enough likelihood in this suggestion to make the barrister +wait in cruel anxiety for the hour when he might learn the true nature +of the alarming summons. + +While breakfasting rather meagrely, his mind full of these painful +conjectures, Madame Coffinet, who had the honor to take charge of his +housekeeping, came up to ask if he would see Monsieur Etienne +Lousteau. [See "The Great Man of the Provinces in Paris."] + +Etienne Lousteau! la Peyrade had an idea that he had heard the name +before. + +"Show him into my office," he said to the portress. + +A moment later he met his visitor, whose face did not seem utterly +unknown to him. + +"Monsieur," said this new-comer, "I had the honor of breakfasting with +you not long ago at Vefour's; I was invited to that meeting, +afterwards rather disturbed, by Monsieur Thuillier." + +"Ah, very good!" said the barrister, offering a chair; "you are +attached to the staff of a newspaper?" + +"Editor-in-chief of the 'Echo de la Bievre,' and it is on the subject +of that paper that I have now called to see you. You know what has +happened?" + +"No," said la Peyrade. + +"Is it possible you are not aware that the ministry met with terrible +defeat last night? But instead of resigning, as every one expected, +they have dissolved the Chamber and appeal to the people." + +"I knew nothing of all that," said la Peyrade. "I have not read the +morning papers." + +"So," continued Lousteau, "all parliamentary ambitions will take the +field, and, if I am well informed, Monsieur Thuillier, already member +of the Council-general, intends to present himself as candidate for +election in the 12th arrondissement." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "that is likely to be his intention." + +"Well, monsieur, I desire to place at his disposition an instrument +the value of which I am confident you will not underestimate. The +'Echo de la Bievre,' a specialist paper, can have a decisive influence +on the election in that quarter." + +"And you would be disposed," asked la Peyrade, "to make that paper +support Monsieur Thuillier's candidacy?" + +"Better than that," replied Lousteau. "I have come to propose to +Monsieur Thuillier that he purchase the paper itself. Once the +proprietor of it he can use it as he pleases." + +"But in the first place," said la Peyrade, "what is the present +condition of the enterprise? In its character as a specialist journal +--as you called it just now--it is a sheet I have seldom met with; in +fact, it would be entirely unknown to me were it not for the +remarkable article you were so good as to devote to Thuillier's +defence at the time his pamphlet was seized." + +Etienne Lousteau bowed his thanks, and then said: + +"The position of the paper is excellent; we can give it to you on easy +terms, for we were intending shortly to stop the publication." + +"That is strange for a prosperous journal." + +"On the contrary, it happens to be quite natural. The founders, who +were all representatives of the great leather interest, started this +paper for a special object. That object has been attained. The 'Echo +de la Bievre' has therefore become an effect without a cause. In such +a case, stockholders who don't like the tail end of matters, and are +not eager after small profits, very naturally prefer to sell out." + +"But," asked la Peyrade, "does the paper pay its costs?" + +"That," replied Lousteau, "is a point we did not consider; we were not +very anxious to have subscribers; the mainspring of the whole affair +was direct and immediate action on the ministry of commerce to obtain +a higher duty on the introduction of foreign leathers. You understand +that outside of the tannery circle, this interest was not very +exciting to the general reader." + +"I should have thought, however," persisted la Peyrade, "that a +newspaper, however circumscribed its action, would be a lever which +depended for its force on the number of its subscribers." + +"Not for journals which aim for a single definite thing," replied +Lousteau, dogmatically. "In that case, subscribers are, on the +contrary, an embarrassment, for you have to please and amuse them, and +in so doing, the real object has to be neglected. A newspaper which +has a definite and circumscribed object ought to be like the stroke of +that pendulum which, striking steadily on one spot, fires at a given +hour the cannon of the Palais-Royal." + +"At any rate," said la Peyrade, "what price do you put upon a +publication which has no subscribers, does not pay its expenses, and +has until now been devoted to a purpose totally different from that +you propose for it?" + +"Before answering," returned Lousteau, "I shall ask you another +question. Have you any intention of buying it?" + +"That's according to circumstances," replied la Peyrade. "Of course I +must see Thuillier; but I may here remark to you that he knows +absolutely nothing about newspaper business. With his rather bourgeois +ideas, the ownership of a newspaper will seem to him a ruinous +speculation. Therefore, if, in addition to an idea that will scare +him, you suggest an alarming price, it is useless for me to speak to +him. I am certain he would never go into the affair." + +"No," replied Lousteau. "I have told you we should be reasonable; +these gentlemen have left the whole matter in my hands. Only, I beg to +remark that we have had propositions from other parties, and in giving +Monsieur Thuillier this option, we intended to pay him a particular +courtesy. When can I have your answer?" + +"To-morrow, I think; shall I have the honor of seeing you at your own +house, or at the office of the journal?" + +"No," said Lousteau, "to-morrow I will come here, at the same hour, if +that is convenient to you." + +"Perfectly," replied la Peyrade, bowing out his visitor, whom he was +inclined to think more consequential than able. + +By the manner in which the barrister had received the proposition to +become an intermediary to Thuillier, the reader must have seen that a +rapid revolution had taken place in his ideas. Even if he had not +received that extremely disquieting letter from the president of the +order of barristers, the new situation in which Thuillier would be +placed if elected to the Chamber gave him enough to think about. +Evidently his dear good friend would have to come back to him, and +Thuillier's eagerness for election would deliver him over, bound hand +and foot. Was it not the right moment to attempt to renew his marriage +with Celeste? Far from being an obstacle to the good resolutions +inspired by his amorous disappointment and his incipient brain fever, +such a finale would ensure their continuance and success. Moreover, if +he received, as he feared, one of those censures which would ruin his +dawning prospects at the bar, it was with the Thuilliers, the +accomplices and beneficiaries of the cause of his fall, that his +instinct led him to claim an asylum. + +With these thoughts stirring in his mind la Peyrade obeyed the summons +and went to see the president of the order of barristers. + +He was not mistaken; a very circumstantial statement of his whole +proceeding in the matter of the house had been laid before his +brethren of the bar; and the highest dignitary of the order, after +stating that an anonymous denunciation ought always to be received +with great distrust, told him that he was ready to receive and welcome +an explanation. La Peyrade dared not entrench himself in absolute +denial; the hand from which he believed the blow had come seemed to +him too resolute and too able not to hold the proofs as well. But, +while admitting the facts in general, he endeavored to give them an +acceptable coloring. In this, he saw that he had failed, when the +president said to him:-- + +"After the vacation which is now beginning I shall report to the +Council of the order the charges made against you, and the statements +by which you have defended yourself. The Council alone has the right +to decide on a matter of such importance." + +Thus dismissed, la Peyrade felt that his whole future at the bar was +imperilled; but at least he had a respite, and in case of condemnation +a new project on which to rest his head. Accordingly, he put on his +gown, which he had never worn till now, and went to the fifth court- +room, where he was employed upon a case. + +As he left the court-room, carrying one of those bundles of legal +papers held together by a strip of cotton which, being too voluminous +to hold under the arm, are carried by the hand and the forearm pressed +against the chest, la Peyrade began to pace about the Salle des Pas +perdus with that harassed look of business which denotes a lawyer +overwhelmed with work. Whether he had really excited himself in +pleading, or whether he was pretending to be exhausted to prove that +his gown was not a dignity for show, as it was with many of his legal +brethren, but an armor buckled on for the fight, it is certain that, +handkerchief in hand, he was mopping his forehead as he walked, when, +in the distance, he spied Thuillier, who had evidently just caught +sight of him, and was beginning on his side to manoeuvre. + +La Peyrade was not surprised by the encounter. On leaving home he had +told Madame Coffinet he was going to the Palais, and should be there +till three o'clock, and she might send to him any persons who called +on business. Not wishing to let Thuillier accost him too easily, he +turned abruptly, as if some thought had changed his purpose, and went +and seated himself on one of the benches which surround the walls of +that great antechamber of Justice. There he undid his bundle, took out +a paper, and buried himself in it with the air of a man who had not +had time to examine in his study a case he was about to plead. It is +not necessary to say that while doing this the Provencal was watching +the manoeuvres of Thuillier out of the corner of his eye. Thuillier, +believing that la Peyrade was really occupied in some serious +business, hesitated to approach him. + +However, after sundry backings and fillings the municipal councillor +made up his mind, and sailing straight before the wind he headed for +the spot he had been reconnoitring for the last ten minutes. + +"Bless me, Theodose!" he cried as soon as he had got within hailing +distance. "Do you come to the Palais now?" + +"It seems to me," replied Theodose, "that barristers at the Palais are +like Turks at Constantinople, where a friend of mine affirmed you +could see a good many. It is YOU whom it is rather surprising to see +here." + +"Not at all," said Thuillier, carelessly. "I've come about that cursed +pamphlet. Is there ever any end to your legal bothers? I was summoned +here this morning, but I don't regret it, as it gives me the happy +chance of meeting you." + +"I, too," said la Peyrade, tying up his bundle. "I am very glad to see +you, but I must leave you now; I have an appointment, and I suppose +you want to do your business at once." + +"I have done it," said Thuillier. + +"Did you speak to Olivier Vinet, that mortal enemy of yours? he sits +in that court," asked la Peyrade. + +"No," said Thuillier, naming another official. + +"Well, that's queer!" said the barrister; "that fellow must have the +gift of ubiquity; he has been all the morning in the fifth court-room, +and has just this minute given a judgment on a case I pleaded." + +Thuillier colored, and got out of his hobble as best he could. "Oh, +hang it!" he said; "those men in gowns are all alike, I don't know one +from another." + +La Peyrade shrugged his shoulders and said aloud, but as if to +himself: "Always the same; crafty, crooked, never straightforward." + +"Whom are you talking about?" asked Thuillier, rather nonplussed. + +"Why, of you, my dear fellow, who take me for an imbecile, as if I and +the whole world didn't know that your pamphlet business came to an end +two weeks ago. Why, then, summon you to court?" + +"Well, I was sent for," said Thuillier, with embarrassment; "something +about registry fees,--it is all Greek to me, I can't comprehend their +scrawls." + +"And they chose," said la Peyrade, "precisely the very day when the +Moniteur, announcing the dissolution of the Chamber, made you think +about being a candidate for the 12th arrondissement." + +"Why not?" asked Thuillier, "what has my candidacy to do with the fees +I owe to the court?" + +"I'll tell you," said la Peyrade, dryly. "The court is a thing +essentially amiable and complaisant. 'Tiens!' it said to itself, +'here's this good Monsieur Thuillier going to be a candidate for the +Chamber; how hampered he'll be by his attitude to his ex-friend +Monsieur de la Peyrade, with whom he wishes now he hadn't quarrelled. +I'll summon him for fees he doesn't owe; that will bring him to the +Palais where la Peyrade comes daily; and in that way he can meet him +by chance, and so avoid taking a step which would hurt his self-love." + +"Well, there you are mistaken!" cried Thuillier, breaking the ice. "I +used so little craft, as you call it, that I've just come from your +house, there! and your portress told me where to find you." + +"Well done!" said la Peyrade, "I like this frankness; I can get on +with men who play above-board. Well, what do you want of me? Have you +come to talk about your election? I have already begun to work for +it." + +"No, really?" said Thuillier, "how?" + +"Here," replied la Peyrade, feeling under his gown for his pocket and +bringing out a paper, "here's what I scribbled just now in the court- +room while the lawyer on the other side rambled on like an expert." + +"What is it about?" asked Thuillier. + +"Read and you'll see." + +The paper read as follows:-- + + Estimate for a newspaper, small size, at thirty francs a year. + + Calculating the editions at 5,000 the costs are:-- + Paper, 5 reams at 12 francs . . . . . . . . . . 1,860 francs. + Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,400 " + Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 " + One administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 " + One clerk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 " + One editor (also cashier) . . . . . . . . . . . 200 " + One despatcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 " + Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 " + One office boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 " + Office expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 " + Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 " + License and postage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,500 " + Reporting and stenographic news . . . . . . . . 1,800 " + --------- + Total monthly, 15,110 " + " yearly, 181,320 " + +"Do you want to set up a paper?" asked Thuillier, in dread. + +"I?" asked la Peyrade, "I want nothing at all; you are the one to be +asked if you want to be a deputy." + +"Undoubtedly I do; because, when you urged me to become a municipal +councillor, you put the idea into my head. But reflect, my dear +Theodose, one hundred and eighty one thousand three hundred and twenty +francs to put out! Have I a fortune large enough to meet such a +demand?" + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, "you could very well support that expense, for +considering the end you want to obtain there is nothing exorbitant in +it. In England they make much greater sacrifices to get a seat in +Parliament; but in any case, I beg you to observe that the costs are +very high on that estimate, and some could be cut off altogether. For +instance, you would not want an administrator. You, yourself, an old +accountant, and I, an old journalist, can very well manage the affair +between us. Also rent, we needn't count that; you have your old +apartment in the rue Saint-Dominique which is not yet leased; that +will make a fine newspaper office." + +"All that costs off two thousand four hundred francs a year," said +Thuillier. + +"Well, that's something; but your error consists in calculating on the +yearly cost. When do the elections take place?" + +"In two months," said Thuillier. + +"Very good; two months will cost you thirty thousand francs, even +supposing the paper had no subscribers." + +"True," said Thuillier, "the expense is certainly less than I thought +at first. But does a newspaper really seem to you essential?" + +"So essential that without that power in our hands, I won't have +anything to do with the election. You don't seem to see, my poor +fellow, that in going to live in the other quarter you have lost, +electorally speaking, an immense amount of ground. You are no longer +the man of the place, and your election could be balked by the cry of +what the English call 'absenteeism.' This makes your game very hard to +play." + +"I admit that," said Thuillier; "but there are so many things wanted +besides money,--a name for one thing, a manager, editorial staff, and +so forth." + +"A name, we have one made to hand; editors, they are you and I and a +few young fellows who grow on every bush in Paris. As for the manager, +I have a man in view." + +"What name is it?" asked Thuillier. + +"L'Echo de la Bievre." + +"But there is already a paper of that name." + +"Precisely, and that's why I give my approval to the affair. Do you +think I should be fool enough to advise you to start an entirely new +paper? 'Echo de la Bievre!' that title is a treasure to a man who +wants support for his candidacy in the 12th arrondissement. Say the +word only, and I put that treasure into your hands." + +"How?" asked Thuillier, with curiosity. + +"Parbleu! by buying it; it can be had for a song." + +"There now, you see," said Thuillier in a discouraged tone; "you never +counted in the cost of purchase." + +"How you dwell on nothings!" said la Peyrade, hunching his shoulders; +"we have other and more important difficulties to solve." + +"Other difficulties?" echoed Thuillier. + +"Parbleu!" exclaimed la Peyrade; "do you suppose that after all that +has taken place between us I should boldly harness myself to your +election without knowing exactly what benefit I am to get for it?" + +"But," said Thuillier, rather astonished, "I thought that friendship +was a good exchange for such services." + +"Yes; but when the exchange consists in one side giving all and the +other side nothing, friendship gets tired of that sort of sharing, and +asks for something a little better balanced." + +"But, my dear Theodose, what have I to offer you that you have not +already rejected?" + +"I rejected it, because it was offered without heartiness, and +seasoned with Mademoiselle Brigitte's vinegar; every self-respecting +man would have acted as I did. Give and keep don't pass, as the old +legal saying is; but that is precisely what you persist in doing." + +"I!--I think you took offence very unreasonably; but the engagement +might be renewed." + +"So be it," replied la Peyrade; "but I will not put myself at the +mercy of either the success of the election or Mademoiselle Celeste's +caprices. I claim the right to something positive and certain. Give +and take; short accounts make good friends." + +"I perfectly agree with you," said Thuillier, "and I have always +treated you with too much good faith to fear any of these precautions +you now want to take. But what guarantees do you want?" + +"I want that the husband of Celeste should manage your election, and +not Theodose de la Peyrade." + +"By hurrying things as much as possible, so Brigitte said, it would +still take fifteen days; and just think, with the elections only eight +weeks off, to lose two of them doing nothing!" + +"Day after to-morrow," replied la Peyrade, "the banns can be published +for the first time at the mayor's office, in the intervals of +publication some things could be done, for though the publishing of +the banns is not a step from which there is no retreat, it is at least +a public pledge and a long step taken; after that we can get your +notary to draw the contract at once. Moreover, if you decide on buying +this newspaper, I shouldn't be afraid that you would go back on me, +for you don't want a useless horse in your stable, and without me I am +certain you can't manage him." + +"But, my dear fellow," said Thuillier, going back to his objections, +"suppose that affair proves too onerous?" + +"There's no need to say that you are the sole judge of the conditions +of the purchase. I don't wish any more than you do to buy a pig in a +poke. If to-morrow you authorize me, I won't say to buy, but to let +these people know that you may possibly make the purchase, I'll confer +with one of them on your behalf, and you may be certain that I'll +stand up for your interests as if they were my own." + +"Very good, my dear fellow," said Thuillier, "go ahead!" + +"And as soon as the paper is purchased we are to fix the day for +signing the contract?" + +"Yes," replied Thuillier; "but will you bind yourself to use your +utmost influence on the election?" + +"As if it were my own," replied la Peyrade, "which, by the bye, is not +altogether an hypothesis. I have already received suggestions about my +own candidacy, and if I were vindictive--" + +"Certainly," said Thuillier, with humility, "you would make a better +deputy than I; "but you are not of the required age, I think." + +"There's a better reason than that," said la Peyrade; "you are my +friend; I find you again what you once were, and I shall keep the +pledges I have given you. As for the election, I prefer that people +say of me, 'He makes deputies, but will be none himself.' Now I must +leave you and keep my appointment. To-morrow in my own rooms, come and +see me; I shall have something to announce." + +Whoso has ever been a newspaper man will ever be one; that horoscope +is as sure and certain as that of drunkards. Whoever has tasted that +feverishly busy and relatively lazy and independent life; whoever has +exercised that sovereignty which criticises intellect, art, talent, +fame, virtue, absurdity, and even truth; whoever has occupied that +tribune erected by his own hands, fulfilled the functions of that +magistracy to which he is self-appointed,--in short, whosoever has +been, for however brief a span, that proxy of public opinion, looks +upon himself when remanded to private life as an exile, and the moment +a chance is offered to him puts out an eager hand to snatch back his +crown. + +For this reason when Etienne Lousteau went to la Peyrade, a former +journalist, with an offer of the weapon entitled the "Echo de la +Bievre," all the latter's instincts as a newspaper man were aroused, +in spite of the very inferior quality of the blade. The paper had +failed; la Peyrade believed he could revive it. The subscribers, on +the vendor's own showing, were few and far between, but he would +exercise upon them a "compelle intrare" both powerful and +irresistible. In the circumstances under which the affair was +presented to him it might surely be considered provincial. Threatened +with the loss of his position at the bar, he was thus acquiring, as we +said before, a new position and that of a "detached fort"; compelled, +as he might be, to defend himself, he could from that vantage-ground +take the offensive and oblige his enemies to reckon with him. + +On the Thuillier side, the newspaper would undoubtedly make him a +personage of considerable importance; he would have more power on the +election; and by involving their capital in an enterprise which, +without him, they would feel a gulf and a snare, he bound them to him +by self-interests so firmly that there was nothing to fear from their +caprice or ingratitude. + +This horizon, rapidly taken in during Etienne Lousteau's visit, had +fairly dazzled the Provencal, and we have seen the peremptory manner +in which Thuillier was forced into accepting with some enthusiasm the +discovery of this philosopher's-stone. + +The cost of the purchase was ridiculously insignificant. A bank-note +for five hundred francs, for which Etienne Lousteau never clearly +accounted to the share-holders, put Thuillier in possession of the +name, property, furniture, and good-will of the newspaper, which he +and la Peyrade at once busied themselves in reorganizing. + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN WHICH CERIZET PRACTISES THE HEALING ART AND +THE ART OF POISONING ON THE SAME DAY + +While this regeneration was going on, Cerizet went one morning to see +du Portail, with whom la Peyrade was now more than ever determined to +hold no communication. + +"Well," said the little old man to the poor man's banker, "what effect +did the news we gave to the president of the bar produce on our man? +Did the affair get wind at the Palais?" + +"Phew!" said Cerizet, whose intercourse, no doubt pretty frequent, +with du Portail had put him on a footing of some familiarity with the +old man, "there's no question of that now. The eel has wriggled out of +our hands; neither softness nor violence has any effect upon that +devil of a man. He has quarrelled with the bar, and is in better odor +than ever with Thuillier. 'Necessity,' says Figaro, 'obliterates +distance.' Thuillier needs him to push his candidacy in the quartier +Saint-Jacques, so they kissed and made up." + +"And no doubt," said du Portail, without much appearance of feeling, +"the marriage is fixed for an early day?" + +"Yes," replied Cerizet, "but there's another piece of work on hand. +That crazy fellow has persuaded Thuillier to buy a newspaper, and +he'll make him sink forty thousand francs in it. Thuillier, once +involved, will want to get his money back, and in my opinion they are +bound together for the rest of their days." + +"What paper is it?" + +"Oh, a cabbage-leaf that calls itself the 'Echo de la Bievre'!" replied +Cerizet with great scorn; "a paper which an old hack of a journalist +on his last legs managed to set up in the Mouffetard quarter by the +help of a lot of tanners--that, you know, is the industry of the +quarter. From a political and literary point of view the affair is +nothing at all, but Thuillier has been made to think it a masterly +stroke." + +"Well, for local service to the election the instrument isn't so bad," +remarked du Portail. "La Peyrade has talent, activity, and much +resource of mind; he may make something out of that 'Echo.' Under what +political banner will Thuillier present himself?" + +"Thuillier," replied the beggars' banker, "is an oyster; he hasn't any +opinions. Until the publication of his pamphlet he was, like all those +bourgeois, a rabid conservative; but since the seizure he has gone +over to the Opposition. His first stage will probably be the Left- +centre; but if the election wind should blow from another quarter, +he'll go straight before it to the extreme left. Self-interest, for +those bourgeois, that's the measure of their convictions." + +"Dear, dear!" said du Portail, "this new combination of la Peyrade's +may assume the importance of a political danger from the point of view +of my opinions, which are extremely conservative and governmental." +Then, after a moment's reflection, he added, "I think you did +newspaper work once upon a time; I remember 'the courageous Cerizet.'" + +"Yes," replied the usurer, "I even managed one with la Peyrade,--an +evening paper; and a pretty piece of work we did, for which we were +finely recompensed." + +"Well," said du Portail, "why don't you do it again,--journalism, I +mean,--with la Peyrade." + +Cerizet looked at du Portail in amazement. + +"Ah ca!" he cried, "are you the devil, monsieur? Can nothing ever be +hidden from you?" + +"Yes," said du Portail, "I know a good many things. But what has been +settled between you and la Peyrade?" + +"Well, remembering my experience in the business, and not knowing whom +else to get, he offered to make me manager of the paper." + +"I did not know that," said du Portail, "but it was quite probable. +Did you accept?" + +"Conditionally; I asked time for reflection. I wanted to know what you +thought of the offer." + +"Parbleu! I think that out of an evil that can't be remedied we should +get, as the proverb says, wing or foot. I had rather see you inside +than outside of that enterprise." + +"Very good; but in order to get into it there's a difficulty. La +Peyrade knows I have debts, and he won't help me with the thirty- +three-thousand francs' security which must be paid down in my name. I +haven't got them, and if I had, I wouldn't show them and expose myself +to the insults of creditors." + +"You must have a good deal left of that twenty-five thousand francs la +Peyrade paid you not more than two months ago," remarked du Portail. + +"Only two thousand two hundred francs and fifty centimes," replied +Cerizet. "I was adding it up last night; the rest has all gone to pay +off pressing debts." + +"But if you have paid your debts you haven't any creditors." + +"Yes, those I've paid, but those I haven't paid I still owe." + +"Do you mean to tell me that your liabilities were more than twenty- +five thousand francs?" said du Portail, in a tone of incredulity. + +"Does a man go into bankruptcy for less?" replied Cerizet, as though +he were enunciating a maxim. + +"Well, I see I am expected to pay that sum myself," said du Portail, +crossly; "but the question is whether the utility of your presence in +this enterprise is worth to me the interest on one hundred and thirty- +three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three francs, thirty-three +centimes." + +"Hang it!" said Cerizet, "if I were once installed near Thuillier, I +shouldn't despair of soon putting him and la Peyrade at loggerheads. +In the management of a newspaper there are lots of inevitable +disagreements, and by always taking the side of the fool against the +clever man, I can increase the conceit of one and wound the conceit of +the other until life together becomes impossible. Besides, you spoke +just now of political danger; now the manager of a newspaper, as you +ought to know, when he has the intellect to be something better than a +man of straw, can quietly give his sheet a push in the direction +wanted. + +"There's a good deal of truth in that," said du Portail, "but defeat +to la Peyrade, that's what I am thinking about." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "I think I have another nice little insidious +means of demolishing him with Thuillier." + +"Say what it is, then!" exclaimed du Portail, impatiently; "you go +round and round the pot as if I were a man it would do you some good +to finesse with." + +"You remember," said Cerizet, coming out with it, "that some time ago +Dutocq and I were much puzzled to know how la Peyrade was, all of a +sudden, able to make that payment of twenty-five thousand francs?" + +"Ha!" said the old man quickly, "have you discovered the origin of +that very improbable sum in our friend's hands; and is that origin +shady?" + +"You shall judge," said Cerizet. + +And he related in all its details the affair of Madame Lambert,-- +adding, however, that on questioning the woman closely at the office +of the justice-of-peace, after the meeting with la Peyrade, he had +been unable to extract from her any confession, although by her whole +bearing she had amply confirmed the suspicions of Dutocq and himself. + +"Madame Lambert, rue du Val-de-Grace, No. 9; at the house of Monsieur +Picot, professor of mathematics," said du Portail, as he made a note +of the information. "Very good," he added; "come back and see me +to-morrow, my dear Monsieur Cerizet." + +"But please remark," said the usurer, "that I must give an answer to +la Peyrade in the course of to-day. He is in a great hurry to start +the business." + +"Very well; you must accept, asking a delay of twenty-four hours to +obtain your security. If, after making certain inquiries I see it is +more to my interests not to meddle in the affair, you can get out of +it by merely breaking your word; you can't be sent to the court of +assizes for that." + +Independently of a sort of inexplicable fascination which du Portail +exercised over his agent, he never lost an opportunity to remind him +of the very questionable point of departure of their intercourse. + +The next day Cerizet returned. + +"You guessed right," said du Portail. "That woman Lambert, being +obliged to conceal the existence of her booty, and wanting to draw +interest on her stolen property, must have taken it into her head to +consult la Peyrade; his devout exterior may have recommended him to +her. She probably gave him that money without taking a receipt. In +what kind of money was Dutocq paid?" + +"In nineteen thousand-franc notes, and twelve of five-hundred francs." + +"That's precisely it," said du Portail. "There can't be the slightest +doubt left. Now, what use do you expect to make of this information +bearing upon Thuillier." + +"I expect to put it into his head that la Peyrade, to whom he is going +to give his goddaughter and heiress, is over head and ears in debt; +that he makes enormous secret loans; and that in order to get out of +his difficulties he means to gnaw the newspaper to the bone; and I +shall insinuate that the position of a man so much in debt must be +known to the public before long, and become a fatal blow to the +candidate whose right hand he is." + +"That's not bad," said du Portail; "but there's another and even more +conclusive use to be made of the discovery." + +"Tell me, master; I'm listening," said Cerizet. + +"Thuillier has not yet been able, has he, to explain to himself the +reason of the seizure of the pamphlet?" + +"Yes, he has," replied Cerizet. "La Peyrade was telling me only +yesterday, by way of explaining Thuillier's idiotic simplicity, that +he had believed a most ridiculous bit of humbug. The 'honest +bourgeois' is persuaded that the seizure was instigated by Monsieur +Olivier Vinet, substitute to the procureur-general. The young man +aspired for a moment to the hand of Mademoiselle Colleville, and the +worthy Thuillier has been made to imagine that the seizure of his +pamphlet was a revenge for the refusal." + +"Good!" said du Portail; "to-morrow, as a preparation for the other +version of which you are to be the organ, Thuillier shall receive from +Monsieur Vinet a very sharp and decided denial of the abuse of power +he foolishly gave ear to." + +"Will he?" said Cerizet, with curiosity. + +"But another explanation must take its place," continued du Portail; +"you must assure Thuillier that he is the victim of police +machinations. That is all the police is good for, you know,-- +machinations." + +"I know that very well; I've made that affirmation scores of times +when I was working for the republican newspapers and--" + +"When you were 'the courageous Cerizet,'" interrupted du Portail. +"Well, the present machination, here it is. The government was much +displeased at seeing Thuillier elected without its influence to the +Council-general of the Seine; it was angry with an independent and +patriotic citizen who showed by his candidacy that he could do without +it; and it learned, moreover, that this excellent citizen was +preparing a pamphlet on the subject, always a delicate one, of the +finances, as to which this dangerous adversary had great experience. +So, what did this essentially corrupt government do? It suborned a man +in whom, as it learned, Thuillier placed confidence, and for a sum of +twenty-five thousand francs (a mere trifle to the police), this +treacherous friend agreed to insert into the pamphlet three or four +phrases which exposed it to seizure and caused its author to be +summoned before the court of assizes. Now the way to make the +explanation clinch the doubt in Thuillier's mind is to let him know +that the next day la Peyrade, who, as Thuillier knew, hadn't a sou, +paid Dutocq precisely that very sum of twenty-five thousand francs." + +"The devil!" cried Cerizet, "it isn't a bad trick. Fellows of the +Thuillier species will believe anything against the police." + +"We shall see, then," continued du Portail, "whether Thuillier will +want to keep such a collaborator beside him, and above all, whether he +will be so eager to give him his goddaughter." + +"You are a strong man, monsieur," said Cerizet, again expressing his +approbation; "but I must own that I feel some scruples at the part +assigned me. La Peyrade came and offered me the management of the +paper, and, you see, I should be working to evict him." + +"And that lease he knocked you out of in spite of his promises, have +you forgotten that?" asked the little old man. "Besides, are we not +aiming for his happiness, though the obstinate fellow persists in +thwarting our benevolent intentions?" + +"It is true," said Cerizet, "that the result will absolve me. Yes, +I'll go resolutely along the ingenious path you've traced out for me. +But there's one thing more: I can't fling my revelation at Thuillier's +head at the very first; I must have time to prepare the way for it, +but that security will have to be paid in immediately." + +"Listen to me, Monsieur Cerizet," said du Portail, in a tone of +authority; "if the marriage of la Peyrade to my ward takes place it is +my intention to reward your services, and the sum of thirty thousand +francs will be your perquisite. Now, thirty thousand from one side and +twenty-five thousand from the other makes precisely fifty-five +thousand francs that the matrimonial vicissitudes of your friend la +Peyrade will have put into your pocket. But, as country people do at +the shows of a fair, I shall not pay till I come out. If you take that +money out of your own hoard I shall feel no anxiety; you will know how +to keep it from the clutches of your creditors. If, on the contrary, +my money is at stake, you will have neither the same eagerness nor the +same intelligence in keeping it out of danger. Therefore arrange your +affairs so that you can pay down your own thirty-three thousand; in +case of success, that sum will bring you in pretty nearly a hundred +per cent. That's my last word, and I shall not listen to any +objections." + +Cerizet had no time to make any, for at that moment the door of du +Portail's study opened abruptly, and a fair, slender woman, whose face +expressed angelic sweetness, entered the room eagerly. On her arm, +wrapped in handsome long clothes, lay what seemed to be the form of an +infant. + +"There!" she said, "that naughty Katte insisted that the doctor was +not here. I knew perfectly well that I had seen him enter. Well, +doctor," she continued, addressing Cerizet, "I am not satisfied with +the condition of my little one, not satisfied at all; she is very +pallid, and has grown so thin. I think she must be teething." + +Du Portail made Cerizet a sign to accept the role so abruptly thrust +upon him. + +"Yes, evidently," he said, "it is the teeth; children always turn pale +at that crisis; but there's nothing in that, my dear lady, that need +make you anxious." + +"Do you really think so, doctor," said the poor crazed girl, whom our +readers have recognized as du Portail's ward, Lydie de la Peyrade; +"but see her dear little arms, how thin they are getting." + +Then taking out the pins that fastened the swathings, she exhibited to +Cerizet a bundle of linen which to her poor distracted mind +represented a baby. + +"Why, no, no," said Cerizet, "she is a trifle thin, it is true, but +the flesh is firm and her color excellent." + +"Poor darling!" said Lydie, kissing her dream lovingly. "I do think +she is better since morning. What had I better give her, doctor? Broth +disgusts her, and she won't take soup." + +"Well," said Cerizet, "try panada. Does she like sweet things?" + +"Oh, yes!" cried the poor girl, her face brightening, "she adores +them. Would chocolate be good for her?" + +"Certainly," replied Cerizet, "but without vanilla; vanilla is very +heating." + +"Then I'll get what they call health-chocolate," said Lydie, with all +the intonations of a mother, listening to the doctor as to a god who +reassured her. "Uncle," she added, "please ring for Bruneau, and tell +him to go to Marquis at once and get some pounds of that chocolate." + +"Bruneau has just gone out," said her guardian; "but there's no hurry, +he shall go in the course of the day." + +"There, she is going to sleep," said Cerizet, anxious to put an end to +the scene, which, in spite of his hardened nature, he felt to be +painful. + +"True," said the girl, replacing the bandages and rising; "I'll put +her to bed. Adieu, doctor; it is very kind of you to come sometimes +without being sent for. If you knew how anxious we poor mothers are, +and how, with a word or two, you can do us such good. Ah, there she is +crying!" + +"She is so sleepy," said Cerizet; "she'll be much better in her +cradle." + +"Yes, and I'll play her that sonata of Beethoven that dear papa was so +fond of; it is wonderful how calming it is. Adieu, doctor," she said +again, pausing on the threshold of the door. "Adieu, kind doctor!" And +she sent him a kiss. + +Cerizet was quite overcome. + +"You see," said du Portail, "that she is an angel,--never the least +ill-humor, never a sharp word; sad sometimes, but always caused by a +feeling of motherly solicitude. That is what first gave the doctors +the idea that if reality could take the place of her constant +hallucination she might recover her reason. Well, this is the girl +that fool of a Peyrade refuses, with the accompaniment of a +magnificent 'dot.' But he must come to it, or I'll forswear my name. +Listen," he added as the sound of a piano came to them; "hear! what +talent! Thousands of sane women can't compare with her; they are not +as reasonable as she is, except on the surface." + +When Beethoven's sonata, played from the soul with a perfection of +shades and tones that filled her hardened hearer with admiration, had +ceased to sound, Cerizet said:-- + +"I agree with you, monsieur; la Peyrade refuses an angel, a treasure, +a pearl, and if I were in his place--But we shall bring him round to +your purpose. Now I shall serve you not only with zeal, but with +enthusiasm, I may say fanaticism." + +As Cerizet was concluding this oath of fidelity at the door of the +study, he heard a woman's voice which was not that of Lydie. + +"Is he in his study, the dear commander?" said that voice, with a +slightly foreign accent. + +"Yes, madame, but please come into the salon. Monsieur is not alone; I +will tell him you are here." + +This was the voice of Katte, the old Dutch maid. + +"Stop, go this way," said du Portail quickly to Cerizet. + +And he opened a hidden door which led through a dark corridor directly +to the staircase, whence Cerizet betook himself to the office of the +"Echo de la Bievre," where a heated discussion was going on. + +The article by which the new editors of every newspaper lay before the +public their "profession of faith," as the technical saying is, always +produces a laborious and difficult parturition. In this particular +case it was necessary, if not openly to declare Thuillier's candidacy, +to at least make it felt and foreseen. The terms of the manifesto, +after la Peyrade had made a rough draft of it, were discussed at great +length. This discussion took place in Cerizet's presence, who, acting +on du Portail's advice, accepted the management, but postponed the +payment of the security till the next day, through the latitude +allowed in all administrations for the accomplishment of that +formality. + +Cleverly egged on by this master-knave, who, from the start, made +himself Thuillier's flatterer, the discussion became stormy, and +presently bitter; but as, by the deed of partnership the deciding word +was left to la Peyrade in all matters concerning the editorship, he +finally closed it by sending the manifesto, precisely as he had +written it, to the printing office. + +Thuillier was incensed at what he called an abuse of power, and +finding himself alone with Cerizet later in the day, he hastened to +pour his griefs and resentments into the bosom of his faithful +manager, thus affording the latter a ready-made and natural +opportunity to insinuate the calumnious revelation agreed upon with du +Portail. Leaving the knife in the wound, Cerizet went out to make +certain arrangements to obtain the money necessary for his bond. + +Tortured by the terrible revelation, Thuillier could not keep it to +himself; he felt the need of confiding it, and of talking over the +course he would be compelled to take by this infernal discovery. +Sending for a carriage he drove home, and half an hour later he had +told the whole story to his Egeria. + +Brigitte had from the first very vehemently declared against all the +determinations made by Thuillier during the last few days. For no +purpose whatever, not even for the sake of her brother's election, +would she agree to a renewal of the relation to la Peyrade. In the +first place, she had treated him badly, and that was a strong reason +for disliking him; then, in case that adventurer, as she now called +him, married Celeste, the fear of her authority being lessened gave +her a species of second-sight; she had ended by having an intuitive +sense of the dark profundities of the man's nature, and now declared +that under no circumstances and for no possible price would she make +one household with him. + +"Ruin yourself if you choose," she said, "you are the master of that, +and you can do as you like; a fool and his money are soon parted." + +When, therefore, she listened to her brother's confidences it was not +with reproaches, but, on the contrary, with a crow of triumph, +celebrating the probable return of her power, that she welcomed them. + +"So much the better!" she cried; "it is well to know at last that the +man is a spy. I always thought so, the canting bigot! Turn him out of +doors without an explanation. WE don't want him to work that +newspaper. This Monsieur Cerizet seems, from what you tell me, the +right sort of man, and we can get another manager. Besides, when +Madame de Godollo went away she promised to write to me; and she can +easily put us in the way of finding some one. Poor, dear Celeste! what +a fate we were going to give her!" + +"How you run on!" said Thuillier. "La Peyrade, my dear, is so far only +accused. He must be heard in his defence. And besides, there's a deed +that binds us." + +"Ah, very good!" said Brigitte; "I see how it will be; you'll let that +man twist you round his finger again. A deed with a spy! As if there +could be deeds with such fellows." + +"Come, come, be calm, my good Brigitte," returned Thuillier. "We +mustn't do anything hastily. Certainly, if la Peyrade cannot furnish a +justification, clear, categorical, and convincing, I shall decide to +break with him, and I'll prove to you that I am no milksop. But +Cerizet himself is not certain; these are mere inductions, and I only +came to consult you as to whether I ought, or ought not, to demand an +explanation outright." + +"Not a doubt about it," replied Brigitte. "You ought to demand an +explanation and go to the bottom of this thing; if you don't, I cast +you off as my brother." + +"That suffices," said Thuillier, leaving the room with solemnity; "you +shall see that we will come to an understanding." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +EXPLANATIONS AND WHAT CAME OF THEM + +On his return to the office after his conference with Brigitte, +Thuillier found la Peyrade at his post as editor-in-chief, and in a +position of much embarrassment, caused by the high hand he had +reserved for himself as the sole selector of articles and +contributors. At this moment, Phellion, instigated by his family, and +deeply conscious of his position on the reading-committee of the +Odeon, had come to offer his services as dramatic critic. + +"My dear monsieur," he said, continuing his remarks to la Peyrade, +after inquiring of Thuillier about his health, "I was a great student +of the theatre in my youth; the stage and its scenic effects continue +to have for me peculiar attractions; and the white hairs which crown +my brow to-day seem to me no obstacle to my allowing your interesting +publication to profit by the fruit of my studies and my experience. As +member of the reading-committee of the Odeon theatre, I am conversant +with the modern drama, and--if I may be quite sure of your discretion +--I will even confide to you that among my papers it would not be +impossible for me to find a certain tragedy entitled 'Sapor,' which in +my young days won me some fame when read in salons." + +"Ah!" said la Peyrade, endeavoring to gild the refusal he should be +forced to give, "why not try to have it put upon the stage? We might +be able to help you in that direction." + +"Certainly," said Thuillier, "the director of any theatre to whom we +should recommend--" + +"No," replied Phellion. "In the first place, as member of the reading- +committee of the Odeon, having to sit in judgment upon others, it +would not become me to descend into the arena myself. I am an old +athlete, whose business it is to judge of blows he can no longer give. +In this sense, criticism is altogether within my sphere, and all the +more because I have certain views on the proper method of composing +dramatic feuilletons which I think novel. The 'castigat ridendo mores' +ought to be, according to my humble lights, the great law, I may say +the only law of the stage. I should therefore show myself pitiless for +those works, bred of imagination, in which morality has no part, and +to which mothers of families--" + +"Excuse me," said la Peyrade, "for interrupting you; but before +allowing you to take the trouble to develop your poetical ideas, I +ought to tell you that we have already made arrangements for our +dramatic criticism." + +"Ah! that's another thing," said Phellion; "an honest man must keep +his word." + +"Yes," said Thuillier, "we have our dramatic critic, little thinking +that you would offer us your valuable assistance." + +"Well," said Phellion, suddenly becoming crafty,--for there is +something in the newspaper atmosphere, impossible to say what, which +flies to the head, the bourgeois head especially,--"since you are good +enough to consider my pen capable of doing you some service, perhaps a +series of detached thoughts on different subjects, to which I should +venture to give the name of 'Diversities,' might be of a nature to +interest your readers." + +"Yes," said la Peyrade, with a maliciousness that was quite lost upon +Phellion, "thoughts, especially in the style of la Rochefoucauld or la +Bruyere, might do. What do you think yourself, Thuillier?" + +He reserved to himself the right to leave the responsibility of +refusals, as far as he could, to the proprietor of the paper. + +"But I imagine that thoughts, especially if detached, cannot be very +consecutive," said Thuillier. + +"Evidently not," replied Phellion; "detached thoughts imply the idea +of a very great number of subjects on which the author lets his pen +stray without the pretension of presenting a whole." + +"You will of course sign them?" said la Peyrade. + +"Oh, no!" replied Phellion, alarmed. "I could not put myself on +exhibition in that way." + +"Your modesty, which by the bye I understand and approve, settles the +matter," said la Peyrade. "Thoughts are a subject altogether +individual, which imperatively require to be personified by a name. +You must be conscious of this yourself. 'Divers Thoughts by Monsieur +Three-Stars' says nothing to the public." + +Seeing that Phellion was about to make objections, Thuillier, who was +in a hurry to begin his fight with la Peyrade, cut the matter short +rather sharply. + +"My dear Phellion," he said, "I beg your pardon for not being able to +enjoy the pleasure of your conversation any longer, but we have to +talk, la Peyrade and I, over a matter of much importance, and in +newspaper offices this devilish time runs away so fast. If you are +willing, we will postpone the question to another day. Madame Phellion +is well, I trust?" + +"Perfectly well," said the great citizen, rising, and not appearing to +resent his dismissal. "When does your first number appear?" he added; +"it is eagerly awaited in the arrondissement." + +"To-morrow I think our confession of faith will make its appearance," +replied Thuillier, accompanying him to the door. "You will receive a +copy, my dear friend. We shall meet again soon, I hope. Come and see +us, and bring that manuscript; la Peyrade's point of view may be a +little arbitrary." + +With this balm shed upon his wound, Phellion departed, and Thuillier +rang the bell for the porter. + +"Could you recognize the gentlemen who has just gone out the next time +you see him?" asked Thuillier. + +"Oh, yes, m'sieu, his round ball of a head is too funny to forget; +besides, it is Monsieur Phellion; haven't I opened the door to him +hundreds of times?" + +"Well, whenever he comes again neither I nor Monsieur de la Peyrade +will be here. Remember that's a positive rule. Now leave us." + +"The devil!" cried la Peyrade, when the two partners were alone, "how +you manage bores. But take care; among the number there may be +electors. You did right to tell Phellion you would send him a copy of +the paper; he has a certain importance in the quarter." + +"Well," said Thuillier, "we can't allow our time to be taken up by all +the dull-heads who come and offer their services. But now you and I +have to talk, and talk very seriously. Be seated and listen." + +"Do you know, my dear fellow," said la Peyrade, laughing, "that +journalism is making you into something very solemn? 'Be seated, +Cinna,'--Caesar Augustus couldn't have said it otherwise." + +"Cinnas, unfortunately, are more plentiful than people think," replied +Thuillier. + +He was still under the goad of the promise he had made to Brigitte, +and he meant to fulfil it with cutting sarcasm. The top continued the +whirling motion imparted to it by the old maid's lash. + +La Peyrade took a seat at the round table. As he was puzzled to know +what was coming, he endeavored to seem unconcerned, and picking up the +large scissors used for the loans which all papers make from the +columns of their brethren of the press, he began to snip up a sheet of +paper, on which, in Thuillier's handwriting, was an attempt at a +leading article, never completed. + +Though la Peyrade was seated and expectant, Thuillier did not begin +immediately; he rose and went toward the door which stood ajar, with +the intention of closing it. But suddenly it was flung wide open, and +Coffinet appeared. + +"Will monsieur," said Coffinet to la Peyrade, "receive two ladies? +They are very well-dressed, and the young one ain't to be despised." + +"Shall I let them in?" said la Peyrade to Thuillier. + +"Yes, since they are here," growled Thuillier; "but get rid of them as +soon as possible." + +Coffinet's judgment on the toilet of the two visitors needs revision. +A woman is well-dressed, not when she wears rich clothes, but when her +clothes present a certain harmony of shapes and colors which form an +appropriate and graceful envelope to her person. Now a bonnet with a +flaring brim, surmounted by nodding plumes, an immense French cashmere +shawl, worn with the awkward inexperience of a young bride, a plaid +silk gown with enormous checks and a triple tier of flounces with far +too many chains and trinkets (though to be just, the boots and gloves +were irreproachable), constituted the apparel of the younger of these +ladies. As for the other, who seemed to be in the tow of her dressy +companion, she was short, squat, and high-colored, and wore a bonnet, +shawl, and gown which a practised eye would at once have recognized as +second hand. Mothers of actresses are always clothed by this very +economical process. Their garments, condemned to the service of two +generations, reverse the order of things, and go from descendants to +ancestors. + +Advancing two chairs, la Peyrade inquired, "To whom have I the honor +of speaking?" + +"Monsieur," said the younger visitor, "I am a dramatic artist, and as +I am about to make my first appearance in this quarter, I allow myself +to hope that a journal of this locality will favor me." + +"At what theatre?" asked la Peyrade. + +"The Folies, where I am engaged for the Dejazets." + +"The Folies?" echoed la Peyrade, in a tone that demanded an +explanation. + +"Folies-Dramatiques," interposed the agreeable Madame Cardinal, whom +the reader has doubtless recognized. + +"When do you appear?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Next week, monsieur,--a fairy piece in which I play five parts." + +"You'll encourage her, monsieur, won't you?" said Madame Cardinal, in +a coaxing voice; "she's so young, and I can certify she works day and +night." + +"Mother!" said Olympe, with authority, "the public will judge me; all +I want is that monsieur will kindly promise to notice my debut." + +"Very good, mademoiselle," said la Peyrade in a tone of dismissal, +beginning to edge the pair to the door. + +Olympe Cardinal went first, leaving her mother to hurry after her as +best she could. + +"At home to no one!" cried Thuillier to the office-boy as he closed +the door and slipped the bolt. "Now," he said, addressing la Peyrade, +"we will talk. My dear fellow," he went on, starting with irony, for +he remembered to have heard that nothing was more confusing to an +adversary, "I have heard something that will give you pleasure. I know +now why MY pamphlet was seized." + +So saying, he looked fixedly at la Peyrade. + +"Parbleu!" said the latter in a natural tone of voice, "it was seized +because they chose to seize it. They wanted to find, and they found, +because they always find the things they want, what the king's +adherents call 'subversive doctrine.'" + +"No, you are wrong," said Thuillier; "the seizure was planned, +concocted, and agreed upon before publication." + +"Between whom?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Between those who wanted to kill the pamphlet, and the wretches who +were paid to betray it." + +"Well, in any case, those who paid," said la Peyrade, "got mighty +little for their money; for, persecuted though it was, I don't see +that your pamphlet made much of a stir." + +"Those who sold may have done better?" said Thuillier with redoubled +irony. + +"Those who sold," returned la Peyrade, "were the cleverer of the two." + +"Ah, I know," said Thuillier, "that you think a great deal of +cleverness; but allow me to tell you that the police, whose hand I see +in all this, doesn't usually throw its money away." + +And again he looked fixedly at la Peyrade. + +"So," said the barrister, without winking, "you have discovered that +the police had plotted in advance the smothering of your pamphlet?" + +"Yes, my dear fellow; and what is more, I know the actual sum paid to +the person who agreed to carry out this honorable plot." + +"The person," said la Peyrade, thinking a moment,--"perhaps I know the +person; but as for the money, I don't know a word about that." + +"Well, I can tell you the amount. It was twenty-five--thousand-- +francs," said Thuillier, dwelling on each word; "that was the sum paid +to Judas." + +"Oh! excuse me, my dear fellow, but twenty-five thousand francs is a +good deal of money. I don't deny that you have become an important +man; but you are not such a bugbear to the government as to lead it to +make such sacrifices. Twenty-five thousand francs is as much as would +ever be given for the suppression of one of those annoying pamphlets +about the Civil list. But our financial lucubrations didn't annoy in +that way; and such a sum borrowed from the secret-service money for +the mere pleasure of plaguing you, seems to me rather fabulous." + +"Apparently," said Thuillier, acrimoniously, "this honest go-between +had some interest in exaggerating my value. One thing is very sure; +this monsieur had a debt of twenty-five thousand francs which harassed +him much; and a short time before the seizure this same monsieur, who +had no means of his own, paid off that debt; and unless you can tell +me where else he got the money, the inference I think is not difficult +to draw." + +It was la Peyrade's turn to look fixedly at Thuillier. + +"Monsieur Thuillier," he said, raising his voice, "let us get out of +enigmas and generalities; will you do me the favor to name that +person?" + +"Well, no," replied Thuillier, striking his hand upon the table, "I +shall not name him, because of the sentiments of esteem and affection +which formerly united us; but you have understood me, Monsieur la +Peyrade." + +"I ought to have known," said the Provencal, in a voice changed by +emotion, "that in bringing a serpent to this place I should soon be +soiled by his venom. Poor fool! do you not see that you have made +yourself the echo of Cerizet's calumny?" + +"Cerizet has nothing to do with it; on the contrary, he has told me +the highest good of you. How was it, not having a penny the night +before,--and I had reason to know it,--that you were able to pay +Dutocq the round sum of twenty-five thousand francs the next day?" + +La Peyrade reflected for a moment. + +"No," he said, "it was not Dutocq who told you that. He is not a man +to wrestle with an enemy of my strength without a strong interest in +it. It was Cerizet; he's the infamous calumniator, from whose hands I +wrenched the lease of your house near the Madeleine,--Cerizet, whom in +kindness, I went to seek on his dunghill that I might give him the +chance of honorable employment; that is the wretch, to whom a benefit +is only an encouragement to treachery. Tiens! if I were to tell you +what that man is I should turn you sick with disgust; in the sphere of +infamy he has discovered worlds." + +This time Thuillier made an able reply. + +"I don't know anything about Cerizet except through you," he said; +"you introduced him to me as a manager, offering every guarantee; but, +allowing him to be blacker than the devil, and supposing that this +communication comes from him, I don't see, my friend, that all that +makes YOU any the whiter." + +"No doubt I was to blame," said la Peyrade, "for putting such a man +into relations with you; but we wanted some one who understood +journalism, and that value he really had for us. But who can ever +sound the depths of souls like his? I thought him reformed. A manager, +I said to myself, is only a machine; he can do no harm. I expected to +find him a man of straw; well, I was mistaken, he will never be +anything but a man of mud." + +"All that is very fine," said Thuillier, "but those twenty-five +thousand francs found so conveniently in your possession, where did +you get them? That is the point you are forgetting to explain." + +"But to reason about it," said la Peyrade; "a man of my character in +the pay of the police and yet so poor that I could not pay the ten +thousand francs your harpy of a sister demanded with an insolence +which you yourself witnessed--" + +"But," said Thuillier, "if the origin of this money is honest, as I +sincerely desire it may be, what hinders you from telling me how you +got it?" + +"I cannot," said la Peyrade; "the history of that money is a secret +entrusted to me professionally." + +"Come, come, you told me yourself that the statutes of your order +forbid all barristers from doing business of any kind." + +"Let us suppose," said la Peyrade, "that I have done something not +absolutely regular; it would be strange indeed after what I risked, as +you know, for you, if you should have the face to reproach me with +it." + +"My poor friend, you are trying to shake off the hounds; but you can't +make me lose the scent. You wish to keep your secret; then keep it. I +am master of my own confidence and my own esteem; by paying you the +forfeit stipulated in our deed I take the newspaper into my own +hands." + +"Do you mean that you dismiss me?" cried la Peyrade. "The money that +you have put into the affair, all your chances of election, sacrificed +to the calumnies of such a being as Cerizet!" + +"In the first place," said Thuillier, "another editor-in-chief can be +found; it is a true saying that no man is indispensable. As for +election to the Chamber I would rather never receive it than owe it to +the help of one who--" + +"Go on," said la Peyrade, seeing that Thuillier hesitated, "or rather, +no, be silent, for you will presently blush for your suspicions and +ask my pardon humbly." + +By this time la Peyrade saw that without a confession to which he must +compel himself, the influence and the future he had just recovered +would be cut from under his feet. Resuming his speech he said, +solemnly:-- + +"You will remember, my friend, that you were pitiless, and, by +subjecting me to a species of moral torture, you have forced me to +reveal to you a secret that is not mine." + +"Go on," said Thuillier, "I take the whole responsibility upon myself. +Make me see the truth clearly in this darkness, and if I have done +wrong I will be the first to say so." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "those twenty-five thousand francs are the +savings of a servant-woman who came to me and asked me to take them +and to pay her interest." + +"A servant with twenty-five thousand francs of savings! Nonsense; she +must serve in monstrously rich households." + +"On the contrary, she is the one servant of an infirm old savant; and +it was on account of the discrepancy which strikes your mind that she +wanted to put her money in my hands as a sort of trustee." + +"Bless me! my friend," said Thuillier, flippantly, "you said we were +in want of a romance-feuilletonist; but really, after this, I sha'n't +be uneasy. Here's imagination for you!" + +"What?" said la Peyrade, angrily, "you don't believe me?" + +"No, I do not believe you. Twenty-five thousand francs savings in the +service of an old savant! that is about as believable as the officer +of La Dame Blanche buying a chateau with his pay." + +"But if I prove to you the truth of my words; if I let you put your +finger upon it?" + +"In that case, like Saint Thomas, I shall lower my flag before the +evidence. Meanwhile you must permit me, my noble friend, to wait until +you offer me that proof." + +Thuillier felt really superb. + +"I'd give a hundred francs," he said to himself, "if Brigitte could +have been here and heard me impeach him." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "suppose that without leaving this office, +and by means of a note which you shall read, I bring into your +presence the person from whom I received the money; if she confirms +what I say will you believe me?" + +This proposal and the assurance with which it was made rather +staggered Thuillier. + +"I shall know what to do when the time comes," he replied, changing +his tone. "But this must be done at once, now, here." + +"I said, without leaving this office. I should think that was clear +enough." + +"And who will carry the note you write?" asked Thuillier, believing +that by thus examining every detail he was giving proofs of amazing +perspicacity. + +"Carry the note! why, your own porter of course," replied la Peyrade; +"you can send him yourself." + +"Then write it," said Thuillier, determined to push him to the wall. + +La Peyrade took a sheet of paper with the new heading and wrote as +follows, reading the note aloud:-- + + Madame Lambert is requested to call at once, on urgent business, + at the office of the "Echo de la Bievre," rue Saint-Dominique + d'Enfer. The bearer of this note will conduct her. She is awaited + impatiently by her devoted servant, + +Theodose de la Peyrade. + + +"There, will that suit you?" said the barrister, passing the paper to +Thuillier. + +"Perfectly," replied Thuillier, taking the precaution to fold the +letter himself and seal it. "Put the address," he added. + +Then he rang the bell for the porter. + +"You will carry this letter to its address," he said to the man, "and +bring back with you the person named. But will she be there?" he +asked, on reflection. + +"It is more than probable," replied la Peyrade; "in any case, neither +you nor I will leave this room until she comes. This matter must be +cleared up." + +"Then go!" said Thuillier to the porter, in a theatrical tone. + +When they were alone, la Peyrade took up a newspaper and appeared to +be absorbed in its perusal. + +Thuillier, beginning to get uneasy as to the upshot of the affair, +regretted that he had not done something the idea of which had come to +him just too late. + +"Yes, I ought," he said to himself, "to have torn up that letter, and +not driven him to prove his words." + +Wishing to do something that might look like retaining la Peyrade in +the position of which he had threatened to deprive him, he remarked +presently:-- + +"By the bye, I have just come from the printing-office; the new type +has arrived, and I think we might make our first appearance +to-morrow." + +La Peyrade did not answer; but he got up and took his paper nearer to +the window. + +"He is sulky," thought Thuillier, "and if he is innocent, he may well +be. But, after all, why did he ever bring a man like that Cerizet +here?" + +Then to hide his embarrassment and the preoccupation of his mind, he +sat down before the editor's table, took a sheet of the head-lined +paper and made himself write a letter. + +Presently la Peyrade returned to the table and sitting down, took +another sheet and with the feverish rapidity of a man stirred by some +emotion he drove his pen over the paper. + +From the corner of his eye, Thuillier tried hard to see what la +Peyrade was writing, and noticing that his sentences were separated by +numbers placed between brackets, he said:-- + +"Tiens! are you drawing up a parliamentary law?" + +"Yes," replied la Peyrade, "the law of the vanquished." + +Soon after this, the porter opened the door and introduced Madame +Lambert, whom he had found at home, and who arrived looking rather +frightened. + +"You are Madame Lambert?" asked Thuillier, magisterially. + +"Yes, monsieur," said the woman, in an anxious voice. + +After requesting her to be seated and noticing that the porter was +still there as if awaiting further orders he said to the man:-- + +"That will do; you may go; and don't let any one disturb us." + +The gravity and the lordly tone assumed by Thuillier only increased +Madame Lambert's uneasiness. She came expecting to see only la +Peyrade, and she found herself received by an unknown man with a +haughty manner, while the barrister, who had merely bowed to her, said +not a word; moreover, the scene took place in a newspaper office, and +it is a well-known fact that to pious persons especially all that +relates to the press is infernal and diabolical. + +"Well," said Thuillier to the barrister, "it seems to me that nothing +hinders you from explaining to madame why you have sent for her." + +In order to leave no loophole for suspicion in Thuillier's mind la +Peyrade knew that he must put his question bluntly and without the +slightest preparation; he therefore said to her "ex abrupto":-- + +"We wish to ask you, madame, if it is not true that about two and a +half months ago you placed in my hands, subject to interest, the sum, +in round numbers, of twenty-five thousand francs." + +Though she felt the eyes of Thuillier and those of la Peyrade upon +her, Madame Lambert, under the shock of this question fired at her +point-blank, could not restrain a start. + +"Heavens!" she exclaimed, "twenty-five thousand francs! and where +should I get such a sum as that?" + +La Peyrade gave no sign on his face of the vexation he might be +supposed to feel. As for Thuillier, who now looked at him with +sorrowful commiseration, he merely said:-- + +"You see, my friend!" + +"So," resumed la Peyrade, "you are very certain that you did not place +in my hands the sum of twenty-five thousand francs; you declare this, +you affirm it?" + +"Why, monsieur! did you ever hear of such a sum as that in the pocket +of a poor woman like me? The little that I had, as everybody knows, +has gone to eke out the housekeeping of that poor dear gentleman whose +servant I have been for more than twenty years." + +"This," said Thuillier, pompously, "seems to me categorical." + +La Peyrade still did not show the slightest sign of annoyance; on the +contrary, he seemed to be playing into Thuillier's hand. + +"You hear, my dear Thuillier," he said, "and if necessary I shall call +for your testimony, that madame here declares that she did not possess +twenty-five thousand francs and could not therefore have placed them +in my hands. Now, as the notary Dupuis, in whose hands I fancied I had +placed them, left Paris this morning for Brussels carrying with him +the money of all his clients, I have no account with madame, by her +own showing, and the absconding of the notary--" + +"Has the notary Dupuis absconded?" screamed Madame Lambert, driven by +this dreadful news entirely out of her usual tones of dulcet sweetness +and Christian resignation. "Ah, the villain! it was only this morning +that he was taking the sacrament at Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas." + +"To pray for a safe journey, probably," said la Peyrade. + +"Monsieur talks lightly enough," continued Madame Lambert, "though +that brigand has carried off my savings. But I gave them to monsieur, +and monsieur is answerable to me for them; he is the only one I know +in this transaction." + +"Hey?" said la Peyrade to Thuillier, pointing to Madame Lambert, whose +whole demeanor had something of the mother-wolf suddenly bereft of her +cubs; "is that nature? tell me! Do you think now that madame and I are +playing a comedy for your benefit?" + +"I am thunderstruck at Cerizet's audacity," said Thuillier. "I am +overwhelmed with my own stupidity; there is nothing for me to do but +to submit myself entirely to your discretion." + +"Madame," said la Peyrade, gaily, "excuse me for thus frightening you; +the notary Dupuis is still a very saintly man, and quite incapable of +doing an injury to his clients. As for monsieur here, it was necessary +that I should prove to him that you had really placed that money in my +hands; he is, however, another myself, and your secret, though known +to him, is as safe as it is with me." + +"Oh, very good, monsieur!" said Madame Lambert. "I suppose these +gentlemen have no further need of me?" + +"No, my dear madame, and I beg you to pardon me for the little terror +I was compelled to occasion you." + +Madame Lambert turned to leave the room with all the appearance of +respectful humility, but when she reached the door, she retraced her +steps, and coming close to la Peyrade said, in her smoothest tones:-- + +"When does monsieur expect to be able to refund me that money?" + +"But I told you," said la Peyrade, stiffly, "that notaries never +return on demand the money placed in their hands." + +"Does monsieur think that if I went to see Monsieur Dupuis himself and +asked him--" + +"I think," said la Peyrade, interrupting her, "that you would do a +most ridiculous thing. He received the money from me in my own name, +as you requested, and he knows only me in the matter." + +"Then monsieur will be so kind, will he not, as to get back that money +for me as soon as possible? I am sure I would not wish to press +monsieur, but in two or three months from now I may want it; I have +heard of a little property it would suit me to buy." + +"Very good, Madame Lambert," said la Peyrade, with well-concealed +irritation, "it shall be done as you wish; and in less time, perhaps, +than you have stated I shall hope to return your money to you." + +"That won't inconvenience monsieur, I trust," said the woman; "he told +me that at the first indiscretion I committed--" + +"Yes, yes, that is all understood," said la Peyrade, interrupting her. + +"Then I have the honor to be the very humble servant of these +gentlemen," said Madame Lambert, now departing definitively. + +"You see, my friend, the trouble you have got me into," said la +Peyrade to Thuillier as soon as they were alone, "and to what I am +exposed by my kindness in satisfying your diseased mind. That debt was +dormant; it was in a chronic state; and you have waked it up and made +it acute. The woman brought me the money and insisted on my keeping +it, at a good rate of interest. I refused at first; then I agreed to +place it in Dupuis's hands, explaining to her that it couldn't be +withdrawn at once; but subsequently, when Dutocq pressed me, I +decided, after all, to keep it myself." + +"I am dreadfully sorry, dear friend, for my silly credulity. But don't +be uneasy about the exactions of that woman; we will manage to arrange +all that, even if I have to make you an advance upon Celeste's 'dot.'" + +"My excellent friend," said la Peyrade, "it is absolutely necessary +that we should talk over our private arrangements; to tell you the +truth, I have no fancy for being hauled up every morning and +questioned as to my conduct. Just now, while waiting for that woman, I +drew up a little agreement, which you and I will discuss and sign, if +you please, before the first number of the paper is issued." + +"But," said Thuillier, "our deed of partnership seems to me to +settle--" + +"--that by a paltry forfeit of five thousand francs, as stated in +Article 14," interrupted Theodose, "you can put me, when you choose, +out of doors. No, I thank you! After my experience to-day, I want some +better security than that." + +At this moment Cerizet with a lively and all-conquering air, entered +the room. + +"My masters!" he exclaimed, "I've brought the money; and we can now +sign the bond." + +Then, remarking that his news was received with extreme coldness, he +added:-- + +"Well? what is it?" + +"It is this," replied Thuillier: "I refuse to be associated with +double-face men and calumniators. We have no need of you or your +money; and I request you not to honor these precincts any longer with +your presence." + +"Dear! dear! dear!" said Cerizet; "so papa Thuillier has let the wool +be pulled over his eyes again!" + +"Leave the room!" said Thuillier; "you have nothing more to do here." + +"Hey, my boy!" said Cerizet, turning to la Peyrade, "so you've twisted +the old bourgeois round your finger again? Well, well, no matter! I +think you are making a mistake not to go and see du Portail, and I +shall tell him--" + +"Leave this house!" cried Thuillier, in a threatening tone. + +"Please remember, my dear monsieur, that I never asked you to employ +me; I was well enough off before you sent for me, and I shall be +after. But I'll give you a piece of advice: don't pay the twenty-five +thousand francs out of your own pocket, for that's hanging to your +nose." + +So saying, Cerizet put his thirty-three thousand francs in banknotes +back into his wallet, took his hat from the table, carefully smoothed +the nap with his forearm and departed. + +Thuillier had been led by Cerizet into what proved to be a most +disastrous campaign. Now become the humble servant of la Peyrade, he +was forced to accept his conditions, which were as follows: five +hundred francs a month for la Peyrade's services in general; his +editorship of the paper to be paid at the rate of fifty francs a +column,--which was simply enormous, considering the small size of the +sheet; a binding pledge to continue the publication of the paper for +six months, under pain of the forfeiture of fifteen thousand francs; +an absolute omnipotence in the duties of editor-in-chief,--that is to +say, the sovereign right of inserting, controlling, and rejecting all +articles without being called to explain the reasons of his actions,-- +such were the stipulations of a treaty in duplicate made openly, "in +good faith," between the contracting parties. BUT, in virtue of +another and secret agreement, Thuillier gave security for the payment +of the twenty-five thousand francs for which la Peyrade was +accountable to Madame Lambert, binding the said Sieur de la Peyrade, +in case the payment were required before his marriage with Celeste +Colleville could take place, to acknowledge the receipt of said sum +advanced upon the dowry. + +Matters being thus arranged and accepted by the candidate, who saw no +chance of election if he lost la Peyrade, Thuillier was seized with a +happy thought. He went to the Cirque-Olympique, where he remembered to +have seen in the ticket-office a former employee in his office at the +ministry of Finance,--a man named Fleury; to whom he proposed the post +of manager. Fleury, being an old soldier, a good shot, and a skilful +fencer, would certainly make himself an object of respect in a +newspaper office. The working-staff of the paper being thus +reconstituted, with the exception of a few co-editors or reporters to +be added later, but whom la Peyrade, thanks to the facility of his +pen, was able for the present to do without, the first number of the +new paper was launched upon the world. + +Thuillier now recommenced the explorations about Paris which we saw +him make on the publication of his pamphlet. Entering all reading- +rooms and cafes, he asked for the "Echo de la Bievre," and when +informed, alas, very frequently, that the paper was unknown in this or +that establishment, "It is incredible!" he would exclaim, "that a +house which respects itself does not take such a widely known paper." + +On that, he departed disdainfully, not observing that in many places, +where this ancient trick of commercial travellers was well understood, +they were laughing behind his back. + +The evening of the day when the inauguration number containing the +"profession of faith" appeared, Brigitte's salon, although the day was +not Sunday, was filled with visitors. Reconciled to la Peyrade, whom +her brother had brought home to dinner, the old maid went so far as to +tell him that, without flattery, she thought his leading article was a +famous HIT. For that matter, all the guests as they arrived, reported +that the public seemed enchanted with the first number of the new +journal. + +The public! everybody knows what that is. To every man who launches a +bit of writing into the world, the public consists of five or six +intimates who cannot, without offending the author, avoid knowing +something more or less of his lucubrations. + +"As for me!" cried Colleville, "I can truthfully declare that it is +the first political article I ever read that didn't send me to sleep." + +"It is certain," said Phellion, "that the leading article seems to me +to be stamped with vigor joined to an atticism which we may seek in +vain in the columns of the other public prints." + +"Yes," said Dutocq, "the matter is very well presented; and besides, +there's a turn of phrase, a clever diction, that doesn't belong to +everybody. However, we must wait and see how it keeps on. I fancy that +to-morrow the 'Echo de la Bievre' will be strongly attacked by the +other papers." + +"Parbleu!" cried Thuillier, "that's what we are hoping for; and if the +government would only do us the favor to seize us--" + +"No, thank you," said Fleury, whom Thuillier had also brought home to +dinner, "I don't want to enter upon those functions at first." + +"Seized!" said Dutocq, "oh, you won't be seized; but I think the +ministerial journals will fire a broadside at you." + +The next day Thuillier was at the office as early as eight o'clock, in +order to be the first to receive that formidable salvo. After looking +through every morning paper he was forced to admit that there was no +more mention of the "Echo de la Bievre" than if it didn't exist. When +la Peyrade arrived he found his unhappy friend in a state of +consternation. + +"Does that surprise you?" said the Provencal, tranquilly. "I let you +enjoy yesterday your hopes of a hot engagement with the press; but I +knew myself that in all probability there wouldn't be the slightest +mention of us in to-day's papers. Against every paper which makes its +debut with some distinction, there's always a two weeks', sometimes a +two months' conspiracy of silence." + +"Conspiracy of silence!" echoed Thuillier, with admiration. + +He did not know what it meant, but the words had a grandeur and a +SOMETHING that appealed to his imagination. After la Peyrade had +explained to him that by "conspiracy of silence" was meant the +agreement of existing journals to make no mention of new-comers lest +such notice should serve to advertise them, Thuillier's mind was +hardly better satisfied than it had been by the pompous flow of the +words. The bourgeois is born so; words are coins which he takes and +passes without question. For a word, he will excite himself or calm +down, insult or applaud. With a word, he can be brought to make a +revolution and overturn a government of his own choice. + +The paper, however, was only a means; the object was Thuillier's +election. This was insinuated rather than stated in the first numbers. +But one morning, in the columns of the "Echo," appeared a letter from +several electors thanking their delegate to the municipal council for +the firm and frankly liberal attitude in which he had taken on all +questions of local interests. "This firmness," said the letter, "had +brought down upon him the persecution of the government, which, towed +at the heels of foreigners, had sacrificed Poland and sold itself to +England. The arrondissement needed a man of such tried convictions to +represent it in the Chamber,--a man holding high and firm the banner +of dynastic opposition, a man who would be, by the mere signification +of his name, a stern lesson given to the authorities." + +Enforced by an able commentary from la Peyrade, this letter was signed +by Barbet and Metivier and all Brigitte's tradesmen (whom, in view of +the election she had continued to employ since her emigration); also +by the family doctor and apothecary, and by Thuillier's builder, and +Barniol, Phellion's son-in-law, who professed to hold rather +"advanced" political opinions. As for Phellion himself, he thought the +wording of the letter not altogether circumspect, and--always without +fear as without reproach--however much he might expect that this +refusal would injure his son in his dearest interests, he bravely +refrained from signing it. + +This trial kite had the happiest effect. The ten or a dozen names thus +put forward were considered to express the will of the electors and +were called "the voice of the quarter." Thus Thuillier's candidacy +made from the start such rapid progress that Minard hesitated to put +his own claims in opposition. + +Delighted now with the course of events, Brigitte was the first to say +that the time had come to attend to the marriage, and Thuillier was +all the more ready to agree because, from day to day, he feared he +might be called upon to pay the twenty-five thousand francs to Madame +Lambert for which he had pledged himself. A thorough explanation now +took place between la Peyrade and the old maid. She told him honestly +of the fear she felt as to the maintenance of her sovereign authority +when a SON-IN-LAW of his mind and character was established in the +household. + +"If we," she ended by saying, "are to oppose each other for the rest +of our days, it would be much better, from the beginning, to make two +households; we shouldn't be the less friends for that." + +La Peyrade replied that nothing under the sun would induce him to +consent to such a plan; on the contrary, he regarded as amongst his +happiest prospects for the future the security he should feel about +the wise management of the material affairs of the home in such hands +as hers. He should have enough to do in the management of outside +interests, and he could not comprehend, for his part, how she could +suppose he had ever had the thought of interfering in matters that +were absolutely out of his province. In short, he reassured her so +completely that she urged him to take immediate steps for the +publication of the banns and the signature of the marriage contract,-- +declaring that she reserved to herself all the preparations relating +to Celeste, whose acceptance of this sudden conclusion she pledged +herself to secure. + +"My dear child," she said to Celeste the next morning, "I think you +have given up all idea of being Felix Phellion's wife. In the first +place, he is more of an atheist than ever, and, besides, you must have +noticed yourself that his mind is quite shaky. You have seen at Madame +Minard's that Madame Marmus, who married a savant, officer of the +Legion of honor, and member of the Institute. There's not a more +unhappy woman; her husband has taken her to live behind the +Luxembourg, in the rue Duguay-Trouin, a street that is neither paved +nor lighted. When he goes out, he doesn't know where he is going; he +gets to the Champ de Mars when he wants to go to the Faubourg +Poissoniere; he isn't even capable of giving his address to the driver +of a street cab; and he is so absent-minded he couldn't tell if it +were before dinner or after. You can imagine what sort of time a woman +must have with a man whose nose is always at a telescope snuffing +stars." + +"But Felix," said Celeste, "is not as absent-minded as that." + +"Of course not, because he is younger; but with years his absent- +mindedness and his atheism will both increase. We have therefore +decided that he is not the husband you want, and we all, your mother, +father, Thuillier and myself, have determined that you shall take la +Peyrade, a man of the world, who will make his way, and one who has +done us great services in the past, and who will, moreover, make your +godfather deputy. We are disposed to give you, in consideration of +him, a much larger 'dot' than we should give to any other husband. So, +my dear, it is settled; the banns are to be published immediately, and +this day week we sign the contract. There's to be a great dinner for +the family and intimates, and after that a reception, at which the +contract will be signed and your trousseau and corbeille exhibited. As +I take all that into my own hands I'll answer for it that everything +shall be of the best kind; especially if you are not babyish, and give +in pleasantly to our ideas." + +"But, aunt Brigitte," began Celeste, timidly. + +"There's no 'but,' in the matter," said the old maid, imperiously; "it +is all arranged, and will be carried out, unless, mademoiselle, you +pretend to have more wisdom than your elders." + +"I will do as you choose, aunt," replied Celeste, feeling as if a +thunder-cloud had burst upon her head, and knowing but too well that +she had no power to struggle against the iron will which had just +pronounced her doom. + +She went at once to pour her sorrows into Madame Thuillier's soul; but +when she heard her godmother advising patience and resignation the +poor child felt that from that feeble quarter she could get no help +for even the slightest effort of resistance, and that her sacrifice +was virtually accomplished. + +Precipitating herself with a sort of frenzy into the new element of +activity thus introduced into her life, Brigitte took the field in the +making of the trousseau and the purchase of the corbeille. Like many +misers, who on great occasions come out of their habits and their +nature, the old maid now thought nothing too good for her purpose; and +she flung her money about so lavishly that until the day appointed for +the signing of the contract, the jeweller, dressmaker, milliner, +lingere, etc. (all chosen from the best establishments in Paris), +seemed to occupy the house. + +"It is like a procession," said Josephine, the cook, admiringly, to +Francoise, the Minards' maid; "the bell never stops ringing from +morning till night." + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A STAR + +The dinner on the great occasion was ordered from Chabot and Potel, +and not from Chevet, by which act Brigitte intended to prove her +initiative and her emancipation from the late Madame de Godollo. The +invited guests were as follows: three Collevilles, including the +bride, la Peyrade the groom, Dutocq and Fleury, whom he had asked to +be his witnesses, the extremely limited number of his relatives +leaving him no choice, Minard and Rabourdin, chosen as witnesses for +Celeste, Madame and Mademoiselle Minard and Minard junior, two of +Thuillier's colleagues in the Council-general; the notary Dupuis, +charged with the duty of drawing up the contract, and lastly, the Abbe +Gondrin, director of the consciences of Madame Thuillier and Celeste, +who was to give the nuptial blessing. + +The latter was the former vicar of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas, whose +great refinement of manner and gift of preaching had induced the +archbishop to remove him from the humble parish where his career had +begun to the aristocratic church of the Madeleine. Since Madame +Thuillier and Celeste had again become his parishioners, the young +abbe visited them occasionally, and Thuillier, who had gone to him to +explain, after his own fashion, the suitableness of the choice made +for Celeste in the person of la Peyrade (taking pains as he did so to +cast reflections on the religious opinions of Felix Phellion), had +easily led him to contribute by his persuasive words to the +resignation of the victim. + +When the time came to sit down to table three guests were missing,-- +two Minards, father and son, and the notary Dupuis. The latter had +written a note to Thuillier in the morning, excusing himself from the +dinner, but saying that at nine o'clock precisely he would bring the +contract and place himself at the orders of Mademoiselle Thuillier. As +for Julien Minard, his mother excused him as being confined to his +room with a sore-throat. The absence of Minard senior remained +unexplained, but Madame Minard insisted that they should sit down to +table without him; which was done, Brigitte ordering that the soup be +kept hot for him, because in the bourgeois code of manners and customs +a dinner without soup is no dinner at all. + +The repast was far from gay, and though the fare was better, the +vivacity and the warmth of the conversation was far, indeed, from that +of the famous improvised banquet at the time of the election to the +Council-general. The gaps occasioned by the absence of three guests +may have been one reason; then Flavie was glum; she had had an +interview with la Peyrade in the afternoon which ended in tears; +Celeste, even if she had been content with the choice imposed on her, +would scarcely, as a matter of propriety, have seemed joyful; in fact, +she made no effort to brighten a sad face, and dared not look at her +godmother, whose own countenance gave the impression, if we may so +express it, of the long bleating of a sheep. The poor girl seeing this +feared to exchange a look with her lest she might drive her to tears. +Thuillier now felt himself, on all sides, of such importance that he +was pompous and consequential; while Brigitte, uneasy out of her own +world, where she could lord it over every one without competition, +seemed constrained and embarrassed. + +Colleville tried by a few jovialities to raise the temperature of the +assemblage; but the coarse salt of his witticisms had an effect, in +the atmosphere in which he produced them, of a loud laugh in a sick- +chamber; and a mute intimation from his wife, Thuillier, and la +Peyrade to BEHAVE HIMSELF put a stopper on his liveliness and +turbulent expansion. It was somewhat remarkable that the gravest +member of the party, aided by Rabourdin, was the person who finally +warmed up the atmosphere. The Abbe Gondrin, a man of a most refined +and cultivated mind, had, like every pure and well-ordered soul, a +fund of gentle gaiety which he was well able to communicate, and +liveliness was beginning to dawn upon the party when Minard entered +the room. + +After making his excuses on the ground of important duties, the mayor +of the eleventh arrondissement, who was in the habit of taking the +lead in the conversation wherever he went, said, having swallowed a +few hasty mouthfuls:-- + +"Messieurs and mesdames, have you heard the great news?" + +"No, what is it?" cried several voices at once. + +"The Academy of Sciences received, to-day, at its afternoon session, +the announcement of a vast discovery: the heavens possess a new star!" + +"Tiens!" said Colleville; "that will help to replace the one that +Beranger thought was lost when he grieved (to that air of 'Octavie') +over Chateaubriand's departure: 'Chateaubriand, why fly thy land?'" + +This quotation, which he sang, exasperated Flavie, and if the custom +had been for wives to sit next to their husbands, the former clarionet +of the Opera-Comique would not have escaped with a mere "Colleville!" +imperiously calling him to order. + +"The point which gives this great astronomical event a special +interest on this occasion," continued Minard, "is that the author of +the discovery is a denizen of the twelfth arrondissement, which many +of you still inhabit, or have inhabited. But other points are striking +in this great scientific fact. The Academy, on the reading of the +communication which announced it, was so convinced of the existence of +this star that a deputation was appointed to visit the domicile of the +modern Galileo and compliment him in the name of the whole body. And +yet this star is not visible to either the eye or the telescope! It is +only by the power of calculation and induction that its existence and +the place it occupies in the heavens have been proved in the most +irrefutable manner: 'There MUST be THERE a hitherto unknown star; I +cannot see it, but I am sure of it,'--that is what this man of science +said to the Academy, whom he instantly convinced by his deductions. +And do you know, messieurs, who is this Christopher Columbus of a new +celestial world? An old man, two-thirds blind, who has scarcely eyes +enough to walk in the street." + +"Wonderful! Marvellous! Admirable!" came from all sides. + +"What is the name of this learned man?" asked several voices. + +"Monsieur Picot, or, if you prefer it, pere Picot, for that is how +they call him in the rue du Val-de-Grace, where he lives. He is simply +an old professor of mathematics, who has turned out several very fine +pupils,--by the bye, Felix Phellion, whom we all know, studied under +him, and it was he who read, on behalf of his blind old master, the +communication to the Academy this afternoon." + +Hearing that name, and remembering the promise Felix had made her to +lift her to the skies, which, as he said it, she had fancied a sign of +madness, Celeste looked at Madame Thuillier, whose face had taken a +sudden glow of animation, and seemed to say to her, "Courage, my +child! all is not lost." + +"My dear Theodose," said Thuillier, "Felix is coming here to-night; +you must take him aside and get him to give you a copy of that +communication; it would be a fine stroke of fortune for the 'Echo' to +be the first to publish it." + +"Yes," said Minard, assuming the answer, "that would do good service +to the public, for the affair is going to make a great noise. The +committee, not finding Monsieur Picot at home, went straight to the +Minister of Public Instruction; and the minister flew to the Tuileries +and saw the King; and the 'Messager' came out this evening--strange to +say, so early that I could read it in my carriage as I drove along-- +with an announcement that Monsieur Picot is named Chevalier of the +Legion of honor, with a pension of eighteen hundred francs from the +fund devoted to the encouragement of science and letters." + +"Well," said Thuillier, "there's one cross at least well bestowed." + +"But eighteen hundred francs for the pension seems to me rather +paltry," said Dutocq. + +"So it does," said Thuillier, "and all the more because that money +comes from the tax-payers; and, when one sees the taxes, as we do, +frittered away on court favorites--" + +"Eighteen hundred francs a year," interrupted Minard, "is certainly +something, especially for savants, a class of people who are +accustomed to live on very little." + +"I think I have heard," said la Peyrade, "that this very Monsieur +Picot leads a strange life, and that his family, who at first wanted +to shut him up as a lunatic, are now trying to have guardians +appointed over him. They say he allows a servant-woman who keeps his +house to rob him of all he has. Parbleu! Thuillier, you know her; it +is that woman who came to the office the other day about some money in +Dupuis's hands." + +"Yes, yes, true," said Thuillier, significantly; "you are right, I do +know her." + +"It is queer," said Brigitte, seeing a chance to enforce the argument +she had used to Celeste, "that all these learned men are good for +nothing outside of their science; in their homes they have to be +treated like children." + +"That proves," said the Abbe Gondrin, "the great absorption which +their studies give to their minds, and, at the same time, a simplicity +of nature which is very touching." + +"When they are not as obstinate as mules," said Brigitte, hastily. +"For myself, monsieur l'abbe, I must say that if I had had any idea of +marriage, a savant wouldn't have suited me at all. What do they do, +these savants, anyhow? Useless things most of the time. You are all +admiring one who has discovered a star; but as long as we are in this +world what good is that to us? For all the use we make of stars it +seems to me we have got enough of them as it is." + +"Bravo, Brigitte!" said Colleville, getting loose again; "you are +right, my girl, and I think, as you do, that the man who discovers a +new dish deserves better of humanity." + +"Colleville," said Flavie, "I must say that your style of behavior is +in the worst taste." + +"My dear lady," said the Abbe Gondrin, addressing Brigitte, "you might +be right if we were formed of matter only; and if, bound to our body, +there were not a soul with instincts and appetites that must be +satisfied. Well, I think that this sense of the infinite which is +within us, and which we all try to satisfy each in our own way, is +marvellously well helped by the labors of astronomy, that reveal to us +from time to time new worlds which the hand of the Creator has put +into space. The infinite in you has taken another course; this passion +for the comfort of those about you, this warm, devoted, ardent +affection which you feel for your brother, are equally the +manifestation of aspirations which have nothing material about them, +and which, in seeking their end and object, never think of asking, +'What good does that do? what is the use of this?' Besides, I must +assure you that the stars are not as useless as you seem to think. +Without them how would navigators cross the sea? They would be puzzled +to get you the vanilla with which you have flavored the delicious +cream I am now eating. So, as Monsieur Colleville has perceived, there +is more affinity than you think between a dish and a star; no one +should be despised,--neither an astronomer nor a good housekeeper--" + +The abbe was here interrupted by the noise of a lively altercation in +the antechamber. + +"I tell you that I will go in," said a loud voice. + +"No, monsieur, you shall not go in," said another voice, that of the +man-servant. "The company are at table, I tell you, and nobody has the +right to force himself in." + +Thuillier turned pale; ever since the seizure of his pamphlet, he +fancied all sudden arrivals meant the coming of the police. + +Among the various social rules imparted to Brigitte by Madame de +Godollo, the one that most needed repeating was the injunction never, +as mistress of the house, to rise from the table until she gave the +signal for retiring. But present circumstances appeared to warrant the +infraction of the rule. + +"I'll go and see what it is," she said to Thuillier, whose anxiety she +noticed at once. "What IS the matter?" she said to the servant as soon +as she reached the scene of action. + +"Here's a gentleman who wants to come in, and says that no one is ever +dining at eight o'clock at night." + +"But who are you, monsieur?" said Brigitte, addressing an old man very +oddly dressed, whose eyes were protected by a green shade. + +"Madame, I am neither a beggar nor a vagabond," replied the old man, +in stentorian tones; "my name is Picot, professor of mathematics." + +"Rue du Val-de-Grace?" asked Brigitte. + +"Yes, madame,--No. 9, next to the print-shop." + +"Come in, monsieur, come in; we shall be only too happy to receive +you," cried Thuillier, who, on hearing the name, had hurried out to +meet the savant. + +"Hein! you scamp," said the learned man, turning upon the man-servant, +who had retired, seeing that the matter was being settled amicably, "I +told you I should get in." + +Pere Picot was a tall old man, with an angular, stern face, who, +despite the corrective of a blond wig with heavy curls, and that of +the pacific green shade we have already mentioned, expressed on his +large features, upon which the fury of study had produced a surface of +leaden pallor, a snappish and quarrelsome disposition. Of this he had +already given proof before entering the dining-room, where every one +now rose to receive him. + +His costume consisted of a huge frock-coat, something between a +paletot and a dressing-gown, between which an immense waistcoat of +iron-gray cloth, fastened from the throat to the pit of the stomach +with two rows of buttons, hussar fashion, formed a sort of buckler. +The trousers, though October was nearing its close, were made of black +lasting, and gave testimony to long service by the projection of a +darn on the otherwise polished surface covering the knees, the polish +being produced by the rubbing of the hands upon those parts. But, in +broad daylight, the feature of the old savant's appearance which +struck the eye most vividly was a pair of Patagonian feet, imprisoned +in slippers of beaver cloth, the which, moulded upon the mountainous +elevations of gigantic bunions, made the spectator think, +involuntarily, of the back of a dromedary or an advanced case of +elephantiasis. + +Once installed in a chair which was hastily brought for him, and the +company having returned to their places at table, the old man suddenly +burst out in thundering tones, amid the silence created by +curiosity:-- + +"Where is he,--that rogue, that scamp? Let him show himself; let him +dare to speak to me!" + +"Who is it that offends you, my dear monsieur?" said Thuillier, in +conciliating accents, in which there was a slight tone of patronage. + +"A scamp whom I couldn't find in his own home, and they told me he was +here, in this house. I'm in the apartment, I think, of Monsieur +Thuillier of the Council-general, place de la Madeleine, first story +above the entresol?" + +"Precisely," said Thuillier; "and allow me to add, monsieur, that you +are surrounded with the respect and sympathy of all." + +"And you will doubtless permit me to add," said Minard, "that the +mayor of the arrondissement adjoining that which you inhabit +congratulates himself on being here in presence of Monsieur Picot,-- +THE Monsieur Picot, no doubt, who has just immortalized his name by +the discovery of a star!" + +"Yes, monsieur," replied the professor, elevating to a still higher +pitch the stentorian diapason of his voice, "I am Picot (Nepomucene), +but I have not discovered a star; I don't concern myself with any such +fiddle-faddle; besides, my eyes are very weak; and that insolent young +fellow I have come here to find is making me ridiculous with such +talk. I don't see him here; he is hiding himself, I know; he dares not +look me in the face." + +"Who is this person who annoys you?" asked several voices at once. + +"An unnatural pupil of mine," replied the old mathematician; "a scamp, +but full of ideas; his name is Felix Phellion." + +The name was received, as may well be imagined, with amazement. +Finding the situation amusing, Colleville and la Peyrade went off into +fits of laughter. + +"You laugh, fools!" cried the irate old man, rising. "Yes, come and +laugh within reach of my arm." + +So saying, he brandished a thick stick with a white china handle, +which he used to guide himself, thereby nearly knocking over a +candelabrum on the dinner-table upon Madame Minard's head. + +"You are mistaken, monsieur," cried Brigitte, springing forward and +seizing his arm. "Monsieur Felix is not here. He will probably come +later to a reception we are about to give; but at present he has not +arrived." + +"They don't begin early, your receptions," said the old man; "it is +past eight o'clock. Well, as Monsieur Felix is coming later, you must +allow me to wait for him. I believe you were eating your dinners; +don't let me disturb you." + +And he went back peaceably to his chair. + +"As you permit it, monsieur," said Brigitte, "we will continue, or, I +should say, finish dinner, for we are now at the dessert. May I offer +you anything,--a glass of champagne and a biscuit?" + +"I am very willing, madame," replied the intruder. "No one ever +refuses champagne, and I am always ready to eat between my meals; but +you dine very late." + +A place was made for him at table between Colleville and Mademoiselle +Minard, and the former made it his business to fill the glass of his +new neighbor, before whom was placed a dish of small cakes. + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade in a cajoling tone, "you saw how surprised +we were to hear you complain of Monsieur Felix Phellion,--so amiable, +so inoffensive a young man. What has he done to you, that you should +feel so angry with him?" + +With his mouth full of cakes, which he was engulfing in quantities +that made Brigitte uneasy, the professor made a sign that he would +soon answer; then, having mistaken his glass and swallowed the +contents of Colleville's, he replied:-- + +"You ask what that insolent young man had done to me? A rascally +thing; and not the first, either. He knows that I cannot abide stars, +having very good reason to hate them, as you shall hear: In 1807, +being attached to the Bureau of Longitudes, I was part of the +scientific expedition sent to Spain, under the direction of my friend +and colleague, Jean-Baptiste Biot, to determine the arc of the +terrestrial meridian from Barcelona to the Balearic isles. I was just +in the act of observing a star (perhaps the very one my rascally pupil +has discovered), when suddenly, war having broken out between France +and Spain, the peasants, seeing me perched with a telescope on Monte +Galazzo, took it into their heads that I was making signals to the +enemy. A mob of savages broke my instruments, and talked of stringing +me up. They were just going to do it, when the captain of a vessel +took me prisoner and thrust me into the citadel of Belver, where I +spent three years in the harshest captivity. Since them, as you may +well believe, I loathe the whole celestial system; though I was, +without knowing it, the first to observe the famous comet of 1811; but +I should have taken care not to say a word about it if it had not been +for Monsieur Flauguergues, who announced it. Like all my pupils, +Phellion knows my aversion to stars, and he knew very well the worst +trick he could play me would be to saddle one on my back; and that +deputation that came to play the farce of congratulating me was mighty +lucky not to find me at home, for if they had, I can assure those +gentlemen of the Academy, they would have had a hot reception." + +Everybody present thought the old mathematician's monomania quite +delightful, except la Peyrade, who now, in perceiving Felix Phellion's +part in the affair, regretted deeply having caused the explanation. + +"And yet, Monsieur Picot," said Minard, "if Felix Phellion is only +guilty of attributing his discovery to you, it seems to me that his +indiscreet behavior has resulted in a certain compensation to you: the +cross of the Legion of honor, a pension, and the glory attached to +your name are not to be despised." + +"The cross and the pension I take," said the old man, emptying his +glass, which, to Brigitte's terror, he set down upon the table with a +force that threatened to smash it. "The government has owed them to me +these twenty years; not for the discovery of stars,--things that I +have always despised,--but for my famous 'Treatise on Differential +Logarithms' (Kepler thought proper to call them monologarithms), which +is a sequel to the tables of Napier; also for my 'Postulatum' of +Euclid, of which I was the first to discover the solution; but above +all, for my 'Theory of Perpetual Motion,'--four volumes in quarto with +plates; Paris, 1825. You see, therefore, monsieur, that to give me +glory is bringing water to the Seine. I had so little need of Monsieur +Felix Phellion to make me a position in the scientific world that I +turned him out of my house long ago." + +"Then it isn't the first star," said Colleville, flippantly, "that he +dared to put upon you?" + +"He did worse than that," roared the old man; "he ruined my +reputation, he tarnished my name. My 'Theory of Perpetual Motion,' the +printing of which cost me every penny I owned, though it ought to have +been printed gratis at the Royal Printing-office, was calculated to +make my fortune and render me immortal. Well, that miserable Felix +prevented it. From time to time, pretending to bring messages from my +editor, he would say, the young sycophant, 'Papa Picot, your book is +selling finely; here's five hundred francs--two hundred francs--and +once it was two thousand--which your publisher charged me to give +you.' This thing went on for years, and my publisher, who had the +baseness to enter into the plot, would say to me, when I went to the +shop: 'Yes, yes, it doesn't do badly, it BUBBLES, that book; we shall +soon be at the end of this edition.' I, who didn't suggest anything, I +pocketed my money, and thought to myself: 'My book is liked, little by +little its ideas are making their way; I may now expect, from day to +day, that some great capitalist will come to me and propose to apply +my system--'" + +"--of 'Absorption of Liquids'?" asked Colleville, who had been +steadily filling the old fellow's glass. + +"No, monsieur, my 'Theory of Perpetual Motion,' 4 vols. in quarto with +plates. But no! days, weeks went by and nobody came; so, thinking that +my publisher did not put all the energy he should into the matter, I +tried to sell the second edition to another man. It was that, +monsieur, that enabled me to discover the whole plot, on which, as I +said before, I turned that serpent out of my house. In six years only +nine copies had been sold! Kept quiet in false security I had done +nothing for the propagation of my book, which had been left to take +care of itself; and thus it was that I, victim of black and wicked +jealousy, was shamefully despoiled of the value of my labors." + +"But," said Minard, making himself the mouthpiece of the thoughts of +the company, "may we not see in that act a manner as ingenious as it +was delicate to--" + +"To give me alms! is that what you mean?" interrupted the old man, +with a roar that made Mademoiselle Minard jump in her chair; "to +humiliate me, dishonor me--me, his old professor! Am I in need of +charity? Has Picot (Nepomucene), to whom his wife brought a dowry of +one hundred thousand francs, ever stretched out his palm to any one? +But in these days nothing is respected. Old fellows, as they call us, +our religion and our good faith is taken advantage of so that these +youths may say to the public: 'Old drivellers, don't you see now they +are good for nothing? It needs US, the young generation, US, the +moderns, US, Young France, to bring them up on a bottle.' Young +greenhorn! let me see YOU try to feed ME! Old drivellers know more in +their little finger than you in your whole brain, and you'll never be +worth us, paltry little intriguer that you are! However, I know my day +of vengeance will come; that young Phellion can't help ending badly; +what he did to-day, reading a statement to the Academy, under my name, +was forgery, forgery! and the law will send him to the galleys for +that." + +"True," said Colleville, "forgery of a public star." + +Brigitte, who quaked for her glasses, and whose nerves were +exacerbated by the monstrous consumption of cakes and wine, now gave +the signal to return to the salon. Besides, she had heard the door- +bell ring several times, announcing the arrival of guests for the +evening. The question then was how to transplant the professor, and +Colleville politely offered him his arm. + +"No, monsieur," he said, "you must allow me to stay where I am. I am +not dressed for a party, and besides, a strong light hurts my eyes. +Moreover, I don't choose to give myself as a spectacle; it will be +best that my interview with Felix Phellion should take place between +'four-eyes,' as they say." + +"Well, let him alone, then," said Brigitte to Colleville. + +No one insisted,--the old man having, unconsciously, pretty nigh +discrowned himself in the opinion of the company. But before leaving, +the careful housewife removed everything that was at all fragile from +his reach; then, by way of a slight attention, she said:-- + +"Shall I send you some coffee?" + +"I'll take it, madame," responded pere Picot, "and some cognac with +it." + +"Oh! parbleu! he takes everything," said Brigitte to the male +domestic, and she told the latter to keep an eye on the old madman. + +When Brigitte returned to the salon she found that the Abbe Gondrin +had become the centre of a great circle formed by nearly the whole +company, and as she approached, she heard him say:-- + +"I thank Heaven for bestowing upon me such a pleasure. I have never +felt an emotion like that aroused by the scene we have just witnessed; +even the rather burlesque form of this confidence, which was certainly +very artless, for it was quite involuntary, only adds to the honor of +the surprising generosity it revealed. Placed as I am by my ministry +in the way of knowing of many charities, and often either the witness +or intermediary of good actions, I think I never in my life have met +with a more touching or a more ingenious devotion. To keep the left +hand ignorant of what the right hand does is a great step in +Christianity; but to go so far as to rob one's self of one's own fame +to benefit another under such conditions is the gospel applied in its +highest precepts; it is being more than a Sister of Charity; it is +doing the work of an apostle of beneficence. How I should like to know +that noble young man, and shake him by the hand." + +With her arm slipped through that of her godmother, Celeste was +standing very near the priest, her ears intent upon his words, her arm +pressing tighter and tighter that of Madame Thuillier, as the abbe +analyzed the generous action of Felix Phellion, until at last she +whispered under her breath:-- + +"You hear, godmother, you hear!" + +To destroy the inevitable effect which this hearty praise would surely +have on Celeste, Thuillier hastened to say:-- + +"Unfortunately, Monsieur l'abbe, the young man of whom you speak so +warmly is not altogether unknown to you. I have had occasion to tell +you about him, and to regret that it was not possible to follow out +certain plans which we once entertained for him; I allude to the very +compromising independence he affects in his religious opinions." + +"Ah! is that the young man?" said the abbe; "you surprise me much; I +must say such an idea would never have crossed my mind." + +"You will see him presently, Monsieur l'abbe," said la Peyrade, +joining in the conversation, "and if you question him on certain +grounds you will have no difficulty in discovering the ravages that a +love of science can commit in the most gifted souls." + +"I am afraid I shall not see him," said the abbe, "as my black gown +would be out of place in the midst of the more earthly gaiety that +will soon fill this salon. But I know, Monsieur de la Peyrade, that +you are a man of sincerely pious convictions, and as, without any +doubt, you feel as much interest in the young man's welfare as I do +myself, I shall say to you in parting: Do not be uneasy about him; +sooner or later, such choice souls come back to us, and if the return +of these prodigals should be long delayed I should not fear, on seeing +them go to God, that His infinite mercy would fail them." + +So saying, the abbe looked about to find his hat, and proceeded to +slip quietly away. + +Suddenly a fearful uproar was heard. Rushing into the dining-room, +whence came a sound of furniture overturned and glasses breaking, +Brigitte found Colleville occupied in adjusting his cravat and looking +himself over to be sure that his coat, cruelly pulled awry, bore no +signs of being actually torn. + +"What is the matter?" cried Brigitte. + +"It is that old idiot," replied Colleville, "who is in a fury. I came +to take my coffee with him, just to keep him company, and he took a +joke amiss, and collared me, and knocked over two chairs and a tray of +glasses because Josephine didn't get out of his way in time." + +"It is all because you've been teasing him," said Brigitte, crossly; +"why couldn't you stay in the salon instead of coming here to play +your jokes, as you call them? You think you are still in the orchestra +of the Opera-Comique." + +This sharp rebuke delivered, Brigitte, like the resolute woman that +she was, saw that she absolutely must get rid of the ferocious old man +who threatened her household with flames and blood. Accordingly, she +approached pere Picot, who was tranquilly engaged in burning brandy in +his saucer. + +"Monsieur," she said, at the top of her lungs, as if she were speaking +to a deaf person (evidently thinking that a blind one ought to be +treated in the same manner), "I have come to tell you something that +may annoy you. Monsieur and Madame Phellion have just arrived, and +they inform me that their son, Monsieur Felix, is not coming. He has a +cold and a sore-throat." + +"Then he got it this afternoon reading that lecture," cried the +professor, joyfully. "That's justice!--Madame, where do you get your +brandy?" + +"Why, at my grocer's," replied Brigitte, taken aback by the question. + +"Well, madame, I ought to tell you that in a house where one can drink +such excellent champagne, which reminds me of that we used to quaff at +the table of Monsieur de Fontanes, grand-master of the University, it +is shameful to keep such brandy. I tell you, with the frankness I put +into everything, that it is good only to wash your horses' feet, and +if I had not the resource of burning it--" + +"He is the devil in person," thought Brigitte; "not a word of excuse +about all that glass, but he must needs fall foul of my brandy too!-- +Monsieur," she resumed, in the same raised diapason, "as Monsieur +Felix is not coming, don't you think your family will be uneasy at +your absence?" + +"Family? I haven't any, madame, owing to the fact that they want to +make me out a lunatic. But I have a housekeeper, Madame Lambert, and I +dare say she will be surprised not to see me home by this time. I +think I had better go now; if I stay later, the scene might be more +violent. But I must own that in this strange quarter I am not sure if +I can find my way." + +"Then take a carriage." + +"Carriage here, carriage there, indeed! my spiteful relations wouldn't +lose the chance of calling me a spendthrift." + +"I have an important message to send into your quarter," said +Brigitte, seeing she must resolve to make the sacrifice, "and I have +just told my porter to take a cab and attend to it. If you would like +to take advantage of that convenience--" + +"I accept it, madame," said the old professor, rising; "and, if it +comes to the worst, I hope you will testify before the judge that I +was niggardly about a cab." + +"Henri," said Brigitte to the man-servant, "take monsieur down to the +porter and tell him to do the errand I told him about just now, and to +take monsieur to his own door, and be very careful of him." + +"Careful of him!" echoed the old man. "Do you take me for a trunk, +madame, or a bit of cracked china?" + +Seeing that she had got her man fairly to the door, Brigitte allowed +herself to turn upon him. + +"What I say, monsieur, is for your good. You must allow me to observe +that you have not an agreeable nature." + +"Careful of him! careful of him!" repeated the old man. "Don't you +know, madame, that by the use of such words you may get people put +into lunatic asylums? However, I will not reply rudely to the polite +hospitality I have received,--all the more because, I think, I have +put Monsieur Felix, who missed me intentionally, in his right place." + +"Go, go, go, you old brute!" cried Brigitte, slamming the door behind +him. + +Before returning to the salon she was obliged to drink a whole +glassful of water, the restraint she had been forced to put upon +herself in order to get rid of this troublesome guest having, to use +her own expression, "put her all about." + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MAN WHO THINKS THE STAR TOO BRIGHT + +The next morning Minard paid a visit to Phellion in his study. The +great citizen and his son Felix were at that moment engaged in a +conversation which seemed to have some unusual interest for them. + +"My dear Felix," cried the mayor of the eleventh arrondissement, +offering his hand warmly to the young professor, "it is you who bring +me here this morning; I have come to offer you my congratulations." + +"What has occurred?" asked Phellion. "Have the Thuilliers--" + +"It has nothing to do with the Thuilliers," interrupted the mayor. +"But," he added, looking hard at Felix, "can that sly fellow have +concealed the thing even from you?" + +"I do not think," said Phellion, "that ever, in his life, has my son +concealed a thing from me." + +"Then you know about the sublime astronomical discovery which he +communicated to the Academy of Sciences yesterday?" + +"Your kindness for me, Monsieur le maire," said Felix, hastily, "has +led you astray; I was only the reader of the communication." + +"Oh! let me alone!" said Minard; "reader, indeed! I know all about +it." + +"But see," said Felix, offering Minard the "Constitutionnel," "here's +the paper; not only does it announce that Monsieur Picot is the maker +of the discovery, but it mentions the rewards which, without losing a +moment, the government has bestowed upon him." + +"Felix is right," said Phellion; "that journal is to be trusted. On +this occasion I think the government has acted very properly." + +"But, my dear commander, I repeat to you that the truth of the affair +has got wind, and your son is shown to be a most admirable fellow. To +put his own discovery to the credit of his old professor so as to +obtain for him the recognition and favor of the authorities--upon my +word, in all antiquity I don't know a finer trait!" + +"Felix!" said Phellion, beginning to show some emotion, "these immense +labors to which you have devoted so much time of late, these continual +visits to the Observatory--" + +"But, father," interrupted Felix, "Monsieur Minard has been +misinformed." + +"Misinformed!" cried Minard, "when I know the whole affair from +Monsieur Picot himself!" + +At this argument, stated in a way to leave no possible doubt, the +truth began to dawn upon Phellion. + +"Felix, my son!" he said, rising to embrace him. + +But he was obliged to sit down again; his legs refused to bear his +weight; he turned pale; and that nature, ordinarily so impassible, +seemed about to give way under the shock of this happiness. + +"My God!" said Felix, terrified, "he is ill; ring the bell, I entreat +you, Monsieur Minard." + +And he ran to the old man, loosened his cravat and unfastened the +collar of his shirt, striking him in the palms of his hands. But the +sudden faintness was but momentary; almost immediately himself again, +Phellion gathered his son to his heart, and holding him long in his +embrace, he said, in a voice broken by the tears that came to put an +end to this shock of joy:-- + +"Felix, my noble son! so great in heart, so great in mind!" + +The bell had been rung by Minard with magisterial force, and with such +an accent that the whole household was alarmed, and came running in. + +"It is nothing, it is nothing," said Phellion to the servants, sending +them away. But almost at the same moment, seeing his wife, who now +entered the room, he resumed his habitual solemnity. + +"Madame Phellion," he said, pointing to Felix, "how many years is it +since you brought that young man into the world?" + +Madame Phellion, bewildered by the question, hesitated a moment, and +then said:-- + +"Twenty-five years next January." + +"Have you not thought, until now, that God had amply granted your +maternal desires by making this child of your womb an honest man, a +pious son, and by gifting him for mathematics, that Science of +sciences, with an aptitude sufficiently remarkable?" + +"I have," said Madame Phellion, understanding less and less what her +husband was coming to. + +"Well," continued Phellion, "you owe to God an additional +thanksgiving, for He has granted that you be the mother of a man of +genius; his toil, which lately we rebuked, and which made us fear for +the reason of our child, was the way--the rough and jagged way--by +which men come to fame." + +"Ah ca!" cried Madame Phellion, "can't you stop coming yourself to an +explanation of what you mean, and get there?" + +"Your son," said Minard, cautious this time in measuring the joy he +was about to bestow, fearing another fainting-fit of happiness, "has +just made a very important scientific discovery." + +"Is it true?" said Madame Phellion, going up to Felix, and taking him +by both hands as she looked at him lovingly. + +"When I say important," continued Minard, "I am only sparing your +maternal emotions; it is, in truth, a sublime, a dazzling discovery. +He is only twenty-five years old, but his name, from henceforth, is +immortal." + +"And this is the man," said Madame Phellion, half beside herself, and +kissing Felix with effusion, "to whom that la Peyrade is preferred!" + +"No, not preferred, madame," said Minard, "for the Thuilliers are not +the dupes of that adventurer. But he has made himself necessary to +them. Thuillier fancies that without la Peyrade he could not be +elected; the election is still doubtful, and they are sacrificing +everything to it." + +"But isn't it odious," cried Madame Phellion, "to consider such +interests before the happiness of their child!" + +"Ah!" said Minard, "but Celeste is not their child, only their adopted +daughter." + +"Brigitte's, if you like," said Madame Phellion; "but as for +Thuillier--" + +"My good wife," said Phellion, "no censoriousness. The good God has +just sent us a great consolation; and, indeed, though certainly far +advanced, this marriage, about which I regret to say Felix does not +behave with all the philosophy I could desire, may still not take +place." + +Seeing that Felix shook his head with a look of incredulity, Minard +hastened to say:-- + +"Yes, yes, the commander is quite right. Last night there was a hitch +about signing the contract, and it was not signed. You were not there, +by the bye, and your absence was much remarked upon." + +"We were invited," said Phellion, "and up to the last moment we +hesitated whether to go or not. But, as you will readily see, our +position was a false one; besides, Felix--and I see now it must have +been in consequence of his lecture at the Academy--was completely worn +out with fatigue and emotion. To present ourselves without him would +have seemed very singular; therefore we decided that it would be +wisest and best to absent ourselves." + +The presence of the man whom he had just declared immortal did not +deter Minard, when the occasion was thus made for him, from plunging +eagerly into one of the most precious joys of bourgeois existence, +namely, the retailing of gossip. + +"Just imagine!" he began; "last night at the Thuilliers' the most +extraordinary things took place, one after another." + +First he related the curious episode of pere Picot. Then he told of +the hearty approbation given to Felix's conduct by the Abbe Gondrin, +and the desire the young preacher had expressed to meet him. + +"I'll go and see him," said Felix; "do you know where he lives?" + +"Rue de la Madeleine, No. 8," replied Minard. "But the great event of +the evening was the spectacle of that fine company assembled to listen +to the marriage-contract, and waiting in expectation a whole hour for +the notary, who--never came!" + +"Then the contract is not signed?" said Felix, eagerly. + +"Not even read, my friend. Suddenly some one came in and told Brigitte +that the notary had started for Brussels." + +"Ah! no doubt," said Phellion, naively; "some very important +business." + +"Most important," replied Minard; "a little bankruptcy of five hundred +thousand francs which the gentleman leaves behind him." + +"But who is this public officer," demanded Phellion, "so recreant, in +this scandalous manner, to the sacred duties of his calling?" + +"Parbleu! your neighbor in the rue Saint-Jacques, the notary Dupuis." + +"What!" said Madame Phellion, "that pious man? Why, he is churchwarden +of the parish!" + +"Eh! madame, those are the very ones," said Minard, "to run off--there +are many precedents for that." + +"But," said Phellion, "such news cast suddenly among the company must +have fallen like a thunderbolt." + +"Especially," said Minard, "as it was brought in the most unexpected +and singular manner." + +"Tell us all about it," said Madame Phellion, with animation. + +"Well, it seems," continued Minard, "that this canting swindler had +charge of the savings of a number of servants, and that Monsieur de la +Peyrade--because, you see, they are all of a clique, these pious +people--was in the habit of recruiting clients for him in that walk of +life--" + +"I always said so!" interrupted Madame Phellion. "I knew that +Provencal was no good at all." + +"It seems," continued the mayor, "that he had placed in Dupuis's hands +all the savings of an old housekeeper, pious herself, amounting to a +pretty little sum. Faith! I think myself it was worth some trouble. +How much do you suppose it was? Twenty-five thousand francs, if you +please! This housekeeper, whose name is Madame Lambert--" + +"Madame Lambert!" cried Felix; "why, that's Monsieur Picot's +housekeeper; close cap, pale, thin face, speaks always with her eyes +lowered, shows no hair?" + +"That's she," said Minard,--"a regular hypocrite!" + +"Twenty-five thousand francs of savings!" said Felix. "I don't wonder +that poor pere Picot is always out of money." + +"And that someone had to meddle with the sale of his book," said +Minard, slyly. "However that may be, you can imagine that the woman +was in a fine state of mind on hearing of the flight of the notary. +Off she went to la Peyrade's lodgings; there she was told he was +dining at the Thuilliers'; to the Thuilliers' she came, after running +about the streets--for they didn't give her quite the right address-- +till ten o'clock; but she got there while the company were still +sitting round waiting for the notary, and gaping at each other, no one +knowing what to say and do, for neither Brigitte nor Thuillier have +faculty enough to get out of such a scrape with credit; and we all +missed the voice of Madame de Godollo and the talent of Madame +Phellion." + +"Oh! you are too polite, Monsieur le maire," said Madame Phellion, +bridling. + +"Well, as I said," continued Minard, "at ten o'clock Madame Lambert +reached the antechamber of Monsieur the general-councillor, and there +she asked, in great excitement, to see la Peyrade." + +"That was natural," said Phellion; "he being the intermediary of the +investment, this woman had a right to question him." + +"You should just have seen that Tartuffe!" continued Minard. "He had +no sooner gone out than he returned, bringing the news. As everybody +was longing to get away, there followed a general helter-skelter. And +then what does our man do? He goes back to Madame Lambert, who was +crying that she was ruined! she was lost!--which might very well be +true, but it might also be only a scene arranged between them in +presence of the company, whom the woman's outcries detained in the +antechamber. 'Don't be anxious, my good woman,' said la Peyrade; 'the +investment was made at your request, consequently, I owe you nothing; +BUT it is enough that the money passed through my hands to make my +conscience tell me I am responsible. If the notary's assets are not +enough to pay you I will do so.'" + +"Yes," said Phellion, "that was my idea as you told it; the +intermediary is or ought to be responsible. I should not have +hesitated to do as Monsieur de la Peyrade did, and I do not think that +after such conduct as that he ought to be taxed with Jesuitism." + +"Yes, you would have done so," said Minard, "and so should I, but we +shouldn't have done it with a brass band; we should have paid our +money quietly, like gentlemen. But this electoral manager, how is he +going to pay it? Out of the 'dot'?" + +At this moment the little page entered the room and gave a letter to +Felix Phellion. It came from pere Picot, and was written at his +dictation by Madame Lambert, for which reason we will not reproduce +the orthography. The writing of Madame Lambert was of those that can +never be forgotten when once seen. Recognizing it instantly, Felix +hastened to say:-- + +"A letter from the professor"; then, before breaking the seal, he +added, "Will you permit me, Monsieur le maire." + +"He'll rate you finely," said Minard, laughing. "I never saw anything +so comical as his wrath last night." + +Felix, as he read the letter, smiled to himself. When he had finished +it, he passed it to his father, saying:-- + +"Read it aloud if you like." + +Whereupon, with his solemn voice and manner, Phellion read as +follows:-- + + My dear Felix,--I have just received your note; it came in the + nick of time, for I was, as they say, in a fury with you. You tell + me that you were guilty of that abuse of confidence (about which I + intended to write you a piece of my mind) in order to give a + knock-down blow to my relations by proving that a man capable of + making such complicated calculations as your discovery required + was not a man to put in a lunatic asylum or drag before a + judiciary council. That argument pleases me, and it makes such a + good answer to the infamous proceedings of my relations that I + praise you for having had the idea. But you sold it to me, that + argument, pretty dear when you put me in company with a star, for + you know very well THAT propinquity wouldn't please me at all. It + is not at my age, and after solving the great problem of perpetual + motion, that a man could take up with such rubbish as that,--good + only for boys and greenhorns like you; and that is what I have + taken the liberty this morning to go and tell the minister of + public instruction, by whom I must say I was received with the + most perfect urbanity. I asked him to see whether, as he had made + a mistake and sent them to the wrong address, he could not take + back his cross and his pension,--though to be sure, as I told him, + I deserved them for other things. + + "The government," he replied, "is not in the habit of making + mistakes; what it does is always properly done, and it never + annuls an ordinance signed by the hand of his Majesty. Your great + labors have deserved the two favors the King has granted you; it + is a long-standing debt, which I am happy to pay off in his name." + + "But Felix?" I said; "because after all for a young man it is not + such a bad discovery." + + "Monsieur Felix Phellion," replied the minister, "will receive in + the course of the day his appointment to the rank of Chevalier of + the Legion of honor; I will have it signed this morning by the + king. Moreover, there is a vacant place at the Academy of + Sciences, and if you are not a candidate for it--" + + "I, in the Academy!" I interrupted, with the frankness of speech + you know I always use; "I execrate academies; they are stiflers, + extinguishers, assemblages of sloths, idlers, shops with big signs + and nothing to sell inside--" + + "Well, then," said the minister, smiling, "I think that at the + next election Monsieur Felix Phellion will have every chance, and + among those chances I count the influence of the government which + is secured to him." + + There, my poor boy, is all that I have been able to do to reward + your good intentions and to prove to you that I am no longer + angry. I think the relations are going to pull a long face. Come + and talk about it to-day at four o'clock,--for I don't dine after + bedtime, as I saw some people doing last night in a house where I + had occasion to mention your talents in a manner that was very + advantageous to you. Madame Lambert, who does better with a + saucepan than with pen and ink, shall distinguish herself, though + it is Friday, and she never lets me off a fast day. But she has + promised us a fish dinner worthy of an archbishop, with a fine + half-bottle of champagne (doubled if need be) to wash it down. + +Your old professor and friend, +Picot (Nepomucene), +Chevalier of the Legion of honor. + + P.S.--Do you think you could obtain from your respectable mother a + little flask of that old and excellent cognac you once gave me? + Not a drop remains, and yesterday I was forced to drink some stuff + only fit to bathe horses' feet, as I did not hesitate to say to + the beautiful Hebe who served it to me. + + +"Of course he shall have some," said Madame Phellion; "not a flask, +but a gallon." + +"And I," said Minard, "who pique myself on mine, which didn't come +from Brigitte's grocer either, I'll send him several bottles; but +don't tell him who sent them, Monsieur le chevalier, for you never can +tell how that singular being will take things." + +"Wife," said Phellion, suddenly, "get me my black coat and a white +cravat." + +"Where are you going?" asked Madame Phellion. "To the minister, to +thank him?" + +"Bring me, I say, those articles of habiliment. I have an important +visit to make; and Monsieur le maire will, I know, excuse me." + +"I myself must be off," said Minard. "I, too, have important business, +though it isn't about a star." + +Questioned in vain by Felix and his wife, Phellion completed his +attire with a pair of white gloves, sent for a carriage, and, at the +end of half an hour, entered the presence of Brigitte, whom he found +presiding over the careful putting away of the china, glass, and +silver which had performed their several functions the night before. +Leaving these housekeeping details, she received her visitor. + +"Well, papa Phellion," she said, when they were both seated in the +salon, "you broke your word yesterday; you were luckier than the rest. +Do you know what a trick that notary played us?" + +"I know all," said Phellion; "and it is the check thus unexpectedly +given to the execution of your plans that I shall take for the text of +an important conversation which I desire to have with you. Sometimes +Providence would seem to take pleasure in counteracting our best-laid +schemes; sometimes, also, by means of the obstacles it raises in our +path, it seems to intend to indicate that we are bearing too far to +the right or to the left, and should pause to reflect upon our way." + +"Providence!" said Brigitte the strong-minded,--"Providence has +something else to do than to look after us." + +"That is one opinion," said Phellion; "but I myself am accustomed to +see its decrees in the little as well as the great things of life; and +certainly, if it had allowed the fulfilment of your engagements with +Monsieur de la Peyrade to be even partially begun yesterday, you would +not have seen me here to-day." + +"Then," said Brigitte, "do you think that by default of a notary the +marriage will not take place? They do say that for want of a monk the +abbey won't come to a standstill." + +"Dear lady," said the great citizen, "you will do me the justice to +feel that neither I, nor my wife, have ever attempted to influence +your decision; we have allowed our young people to love each other +without much consideration as to where that attachment would lead--" + +"It led to upsetting their minds," said Brigitte; "that's what love +is, and that's why I deprived myself of it." + +"What you say is, indeed, true of my unfortunate son," resumed +Phellion; "for, notwithstanding the noble distractions he has +endeavored to give to his sorrow, he is to-day so miserably overcome +by it that this morning, in spite of the glorious success he has just +obtained, he was speaking to me of undertaking a voyage of +circumnavigation around the globe,--a rash enterprise which would +detain him from his native land at least three years, if, indeed, he +escaped the dangers of so prolonged a journey." + +"Well," said Brigitte, "it isn't a bad idea; he'll return consoled, +having discovered three or four more new stars." + +"His present discovery suffices," said Phellion, with double his +ordinary gravity, "and it is under the auspices of that triumph, which +has placed his name at so great a height in the scientific world, that +I have the assurance to say to you, point-blank: Mademoiselle, I have +come to ask you, on behalf of my son, who loves as he is beloved, for +the hand in marriage of Mademoiselle Celeste Colleville." + +"But, my dear man," replied Brigitte, "it is too late; remember that +we are DIAMETRICALLY engaged to la Peyrade." + +"It is never, they say, too late to do well, and yesterday it would +have been in my judgment too early. My son, having to offer an +equivalent for a fortune, could not say to you until to-day: 'Though +Celeste, by your generosity has a "dot" which mine is far from +equalling, yet I have the honor to be a member of the Royal order of +the Legion of honor, and shortly, according to appearance, I shall be +a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, one of the five branches of +the Institute.'" + +"Certainly," said Brigitte; "Felix is getting to be a very pretty +match, but we have passed our word to la Peyrade; the banns are +published at the mayor's office, and unless something extraordinary +happens the contract will be signed. La Peyrade is very busy about +Thuillier's election, which he has now got into good shape; we have +capital engaged with him in the affair of this newspaper; and it would +be impossible to go back on our promise, even if we wished to do so." + +"So," said Phellion, "in one of the rare occasions of life when reason +and inclination blend together, you think you must be guided solely by +the question of material interests. Celeste, as we know, has no +inclination for Monsieur de la Peyrade. Brought up with Felix--" + +"Brought up with Felix!" interrupted Brigitte. "She was given a period +of time to choose between Monsieur de la Peyrade and your son,--that's +how we coerce her, if you please,--and she would not take Monsieur +Felix, whose atheism is too well known." + +"You are mistaken, mademoiselle, my son is not an atheist; for +Voltaire himself doubted if there could be atheists; and no later than +yesterday, in this house, an ecclesiastic, as admirable for his +talents as for his virtues, after making a magnificent eulogy of my +son, expressed the desire to know him." + +"Parbleu! yes, to convert him," said Brigitte. "But as for this +marriage, I am sorry to tell you that the mustard is made too late for +the dinner; Thuillier will never renounce his la Peyrade." + +"Mademoiselle," said Phellion, rising, "I feel no humiliation for the +useless step I have this day taken; I do not even ask you to keep it +secret, for I shall myself mention it to our friends and +acquaintances." + +"Tell it to whom you like, my good man," replied Brigitte, +acrimoniously. "Because your son has discovered a star,--if, indeed, +he did discover it, and not that old fool the government decorated--do +you expect him to marry a daughter of the King of the French?" + +"Enough," said Phellion, "we will say no more. I might answer that, +without depreciating the Thuilliers, the Orleans family seems to me +more distinguished; but I do not like to introduce acerbity into the +conversation, and therefore, begging you to receive the assurance of +my humble respects, I retire." + +So saying, he made his exit majestically, and left Brigitte with the +arrow of his comparison, discharged after the manner of the Parthian +"in extremis," sticking in her mind, and she herself in a temper all +the more savage because already, the evening before, Madame Thuillier, +after the guests were gone, had the incredible audacity to say +something in favor of Felix. Needless to relate that the poor helot +was roughly put down and told to mind her own business. But this +attempt at a will of her own in her sister-in-law had already put the +old maid in a vile humor, and Phellion, coming to reopen the subject, +exasperated her. Josephine, the cook, and the "male domestic," +received the after-clap of the scene which had just taken place. +Brigitte found that in her absence everything had been done wrong, and +putting her own hand to the work, she hoisted herself on a chair, at +the risk of her neck, to reach the upper shelves of the closet, where +her choicest china, for gala days, was carefully kept under lock and +key. + +This day, which for Brigitte began so ill, was, beyond all gainsaying, +one of the stormiest and most portentous of this narrative. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A STORMY DAY + +As an exact historian, we must go back and begin the day at six in the +morning, when we can see Madame Thuillier going to the Madeleine to +hear the mass that the Abbe Gondrin was in the habit of saying at that +hour, and afterwards approaching the holy table,--a viaticum which +pious souls never fail to give themselves when it is in their minds to +accomplish some great resolution. + +About mid-day the abbe received a visit in his own home from Madame +Thuillier and Celeste. The poor child wanted a little development of +the words by which the priest had given security, the evening before, +in Brigitte's salon, for the eternal welfare of Felix Phellion. It +seemed strange to the mind of this girl-theologian that, without +practising religion, a soul could be received into grace by the divine +justice; for surely the anathema is clear: Out of the Church there is +no salvation. + +"My dear child," said the Abbe Gondrin, "learn to understand that +saying which seems to you so inexplicable. It is more a saying of +thanksgiving for those who have the happiness to live within the pale +of our holy mother the Church than a malediction upon those who have +the misfortune to live apart from her. God sees to the depths of all +hearts; He knows His elect; and so great is the treasure of His +goodness that to none is it given to limit its riches and its +munificence. Who shall dare to say to God: Thou wilt be generous and +munificent so far and no farther. Jesus Christ forgave the woman in +adultery, and on the cross He promised heaven to a thief, in order to +prove to us that He deals with men, not according to human sentiments, +but according to HIS wisdom and HIS mercy. He who thinks himself a +Christian may be in the eyes of God an idolator; and another who is +thought a pagan may, by his feelings and his actions be, without his +own knowledge, a Christian. Our holy religion has this that is divine +about it; all grandeur, all heroism are but the practice of its +precepts. I was saying yesterday to Monsieur de la Peyrade that pure +souls must be, in course of time, its inevitable conquest. It is all- +important to give them their just credit; that is a confidence which +returns great dividends; and, besides, charity commands it." + +"Ah! my God!" cried Celeste, "to learn that too late! I, who could +have chosen between Felix and Monsieur de la Peyrade, and did not dare +to follow the ideas of my heart! Oh! Monsieur l'abbe, couldn't you +speak to my mother? Your advice is always listened to." + +"Impossible, my dear child," replied the vicar. "If I had the +direction of Madame Colleville's conscience I might perhaps say a +word, but we are so often accused of meddling imprudently in family +matters! Be sure that my intervention here, without authority or +right, would do you more harm than good. It is for you and for those +who love you," he added, giving a look to Madame Thuillier, "to see if +these arrangements, already so far advanced, could be changed in the +direction of your wishes." + +It was written that the poor child was to drink to the dregs the cup +she had herself prepared by her intolerance. As the abbe finished +speaking, his housekeeper came in to ask if he would receive Monsieur +Felix Phellion. Thus, like the Charter of 1830, Madame de Godollo's +officious falsehood was turned into truth. + +"Go this way," he said hastily, showing his two penitents out by a +private corridor. + +Life has such strange encounters that it does sometimes happen that +the same form of proceeding must be used by courtesans and by the men +of God. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," said Felix to the young vicar as soon as they met, +"I have heard of the kind manner in which you were so very good as to +speak of me in Monsieur Thuillier's salon last night, and I should +have hastened to express my gratitude if another interest had not +drawn me to you." + +The Abbe Gondrin passed hastily over the compliments, eager to know in +what way he could be useful to his fellow-man. + +"With an intention that I wish to think kindly," replied Felix, "you +were spoken to yesterday about the state of my soul. Those who read it +so fluently know more than I do about my inner being, for, during the +last few days I have felt strange, inexplicable feelings within me. +Never have I doubted God, but, in contact with that infinitude where +he has permitted my thought to follow the traces of his work I seem to +have gathered a sense of him less vague, more immediate; and this has +led me to ask myself whether an honest and upright life is the only +homage which his omnipotence expects of me. Nevertheless, there are +numberless objections rising in my mind against the worship of which +you are the minister; while sensible of the beauty of its external +form in many of its precepts and practices, I find myself deterred by +my reason. I shall have paid dearly, perhaps by the happiness of my +whole life, for the slowness and want of vigor which I have shown in +seeking the solution of my doubts. I have now decided to search to the +bottom of them. No one so well as you, Monsieur l'abbe, can help me to +solve them. I have come with confidence to lay them before you, to ask +you to listen to me, to answer me, and to tell me by what studies I +can pursue the search for light. It is a cruelly afflicted soul that +appeals to you. Is not that a good ground for the seed of your word?" + +The Abbe Gondrin eagerly protested the joy with which, notwithstanding +his own insufficiency, he would undertake to reply to the scruples of +conscience in the young savant. After asking him for a place in his +friendship, and telling him to come at certain hours for conversation, +he asked him to read, as a first step, the "Thoughts" of Pascal. A +natural affinity, on the side of science, would, he believed, be +established between the spirit of Pascal and that of the young +mathematician. + +While this scene was passing, a scene to which the greatness of the +interests in question and the moral and intellectual elevation of the +personages concerned in it gave a character of grandeur which, like +all reposeful, tranquil aspects, is easier far to comprehend than to +reproduce, another scene, of sharp and bitter discord, that chronic +malady of bourgeois households, where the pettiness of minds and +passions gives open way to it, was taking place in the Thuillier home. + +Mounted upon her chair, her hair in disorder and her face and fingers +dirty, Brigitte, duster in hand, was cleaning the shelves of the +closet, where she was replacing her library of plates, dishes, and +sauce-boats, when Flavie came in and accosted her. + +"Brigitte," she said, "when you have finished what you are about you +had better come down to our apartment, or else I'll send Celeste to +you; she seems to me to be inclined to make trouble." + +"In what way?" asked Brigitte, continuing to dust. + +"I think she and Madame Thuillier went to see the Abbe Gondrin this +morning, and she has been attacking me about Felix Phellion, and talks +of him as if he were a god; from that to refusing to marry la Peyrade +is but a step." + +"Those cursed skull-caps!" said Brigitte; "they meddle in everything! +I didn't want to invite him, but you would insist." + +"Yes," said Flavie, "it was proper." + +"Proper! I despise proprieties!" cried the old maid. "He's a maker of +speeches; he said nothing last night that wasn't objectionable. Send +Celeste to me; I'll settle her." + +At this instant a servant announced to Brigitte the arrival of a clerk +from the office of the new notary chosen, in default of Dupuis, to +draw up the contract. Without considering her disorderly appearance, +Brigitte ordered him to be shown in, but she made him the +condescension of descending from her perch instead of talking from the +height of it. + +"Monsieur Thuillier," said the clerk, "came to our office this morning +to explain to the master the clauses of the contract he has been so +good as to entrust to us. But before writing down the stipulations, we +are in the habit of obtaining from the lips of each donor a direct +expression of his or her intentions. In accordance with this rule, +Monsieur Thuillier told us that he gives to the bride the reversion, +at his death, of the house he inhabits, which I presume to be this +one?" + +"Yes," said Brigitte, "that is the understanding. As for me, I give +three hundred thousand francs a year in the Three-per-cents, capital +and interest; but the bride is married under the dotal system." + +"That is so," said the clerk, consulting his notes. "Mademoiselle +Brigitte, three thousand francs a year. Now, there is Madame Celeste +Thuillier, wife of Louis-Jerome Thuillier, who gives six thousand in +the Three-per-cents, capital and interest, and six thousand more at +her death." + +"All that is just as if the notary had written it down," said +Brigitte; "but if it is your custom you can see my sister-in-law; they +will show you the way." + +So saying, the old maid ordered the "male domestic" to take the clerk +to Madame Thuillier. + +A moment later the clerk returned, saying there was certainly some +misunderstanding, and that Madame Thuillier declared she had no +intention of making any agreement in favor of the marriage. + +"That's a pretty thing!" cried Brigitte. "Come with me, monsieur." + +Then, like a hurricane, she rushed into Madame Thuillier's chamber; +the latter was pale and trembling. + +"What's this you have told monsieur?--that you give nothing to +Celeste's 'dot'?" + +"Yes," said the slave, declaring insurrection, although in a shaking +voice; "my intention is to do nothing." + +"Your intention," said Brigitte, scarlet with anger, "is something +new." + +"That is my intention," was all the rebel replied. + +"At least you will give your reasons?" + +"The marriage does not please me." + +"Ha! and since when?" + +"It is not necessary that monsieur should listen to our discussion," +said Madame Thuillier; "it will not appear in the contract." + +"No wonder you are ashamed of it," said Brigitte; "the appearance you +are making is not very flattering to you--Monsieur," she continued, +addressing the clerk, "it is easier, is it not, to mark out passages +in a contract than to add them?" + +The clerk made an affirmative sign. + +"Then put in what you were told to write; later, if madame persists, +the clause can be stricken out." + +The clerk bowed and left the room. + +When the two sisters-in-law were alone together, Brigitte began. + +"Ah ca!" she cried, "have you lost your head? What is this crotchet +you've taken into it?" + +"It is not a crotchet; it is a fixed idea." + +"Which you got from the Abbe Gondrin; you dare not deny that you went +to see him with Celeste." + +"It is true that Celeste and I saw our director this morning, but I +did not open my lips to him about what I intended to do." + +"So, then, it is in your own empty head that this notion sprouted?" + +"Yes. As I told you yesterday, I think Celeste can be more suitably +married, and my intention is not to rob myself for a marriage of which +I disapprove." + +"YOU disapprove! Upon my word! are we all to take madame's advice?" + +"I know well," replied Madame Thuillier, "that I count for nothing in +this house. So far as I am concerned, I have long accepted my +position; but, when the matter concerns the happiness of a child I +regard as my own--" + +"Parbleu!" cried Brigitte, "you never knew how to have one; for, +certainly, Thuillier--" + +"Sister," said Madame Thuillier, with dignity, "I took the sacrament +this morning, and there are some things I cannot listen to." + +"There's a canting hypocrite for you!" cried Brigitte; "playing the +saint, and bringing trouble into families! And you think to succeed, +do you? Wait till Thuillier comes home, and he'll shake this out of +you." + +By calling in the marital authority in support of her own, Brigitte +showed weakness before the unexpected resistance thus made to her +inveterate tyranny. Madame Thuillier's calm words, which became every +moment more resolute, baffled her completely, and she found no +resource but insolence. + +"A drone!" she cried; "a helpless good-for-nothing! who can't even +pick up her own handkerchief! that thing wants to be mistress of this +house!" + +"I wish so little to be its mistress," said Madame Thuillier, "that +last night I allowed you to silence me after the first words I said in +behalf of Celeste. But I am mistress of my own property, and as I +believe that Celeste will be wretched in this marriage, I keep it to +use as may seem best to me." + +"Your property, indeed!" said Brigitte, with a sneer. + +"Yes, that which I received from my father and my mother, and which I +brought as my 'dot' to Monsieur Thuillier." + +"And pray who invested it, this property, and made it give you twelve +thousand francs a year?" + +"I have never asked you for any account of it," said Madame Thuillier, +gently. "If it had been lost in the uses you made of it, you would +never have heard a single word from me; but it has prospered, and it +is just that I should have the benefit. It is not for myself that I +reserve it." + +"Perhaps not; if this is the course you take, it is not at all sure +that you and I will go out of the same door long." + +"Do you mean that Monsieur Thuillier will send me away? He must have +reasons for doing that, and, thank God! I have been a wife above +reproach." + +"Viper! hypocrite! heartless creature!" cried Brigitte, coming to an +end of her arguments. + +"Sister," said Madame Thuillier, "you are in my apartment--" + +"Am I, you imbecile?" cried the old maid, in a paroxysm of anger. "If +I didn't restrain myself--" + +And she made a gesture both insulting and threatening. + +Madame Thuillier rose to leave the room. + +"No! you shall not go out," cried Brigitte, pushing her down into her +chair; "and till Thuillier comes home and decides what he will do with +you you'll stay locked up here." + +Just as Brigitte, her face on fire, returned to the room where she had +left Madame Colleville, her brother came in. He was radiant. + +"My dear," he said to the Megaera, not observing her fury, "everything +is going on finely; the conspiracy of silence is broken; two papers, +the 'National' and a Carlist journal, have copied articles from us, +and there's a little attack in a ministerial paper." + +"Well, all is not going on finely here," said Brigitte, "and if it +continues, I shall leave the barrack." + +"Whom are you angry with now?" asked Thuillier. + +"With your insolent wife, who has made me a scene; I am trembling all +over." + +"Celeste make you a scene!" said Thuillier; "then it is the very first +time in her life." + +"There's a beginning to everything, and if you don't bring her to +order--" + +"But what was it about--this scene?" + +"About madame's not choosing that la Peyrade should marry her +goddaughter; and out of spite, to prevent the marriage, she refused to +give anything in the contract." + +"Come, be calm," said Thuillier, not disturbed himself, the admission +of the "Echo" into the polemic making another Pangloss of him. "I'll +settle all that." + +"You, Flavie," said Brigitte, when Thuillier had departed to his wife, +"you will do me the pleasure to go down to your own apartment, and +tell Mademoiselle Celeste that I don't choose to see her now, because +if she made me any irritating answer I might box her ears. You'll tell +her that I don't like conspiracies; that she was left at liberty to +choose Monsieur Phellion junior if she wanted him, and she did not +want him; that the matter is now all arranged, and that if she does +not wish to see her 'dot' reduced to what you are able to give her, +which isn't as much as a bank-messenger could carry in his waistcoat +pocket--" + +"But, my dear Brigitte," interrupted Flavie, turning upon her at this +impertinence, "you may dispense with reminding us in this harsh way of +our poverty; for, after all, we have never asked you for anything, and +we pay our rent punctually; and as for the 'dot,' Monsieur Felix +Phellion is quite ready to take Celeste with no more than a bank- +messenger could carry in his BAG." + +And she emphasized the last word by her way of pronouncing it. + +"Ha! so you too are going to meddle in this, are you?" cried Brigitte. +"Very good; go and fetch him, your Felix. I know, my little woman, +that this marriage has never suited you; it IS disagreeable to be +nothing more than a mother to your son-in-law." + +Flavie had recovered the coolness she had lost for an instant, and +without replying to this speech she merely shrugged her shoulders. + +At this moment Thuillier returned; his air of beatitude had deserted +him. + +"My dear Brigitte," he said to his sister, "you have a most excellent +heart, but at times you are so violent--" + +"Ho!" said the old maid, "am I to be arraigned on this side too?" + +"I certainly do not blame you for the cause of the trouble, and I have +just rebuked Celeste for her assumption; but there are proper forms +that must be kept." + +"Forms! what are you talking about? What forms have I neglected?" + +"But, my dear friend, to raise your hand against your sister!" + +"I, raise my hand against that imbecile? What nonsense you talk!" + +"And besides," continued Thuillier, "a woman of Celeste's age can't be +kept in prison." + +"Your wife!--have I put her in prison?" + +"You can't deny it, for I found the door of her room double-locked." + +"Parbleu! all this because in my anger at the infamous things she was +spitting at me I may have turned the key of the door without intending +it." + +"Come, come," said Thuillier, "these are not proper actions for people +of our class." + +"Oh! so it is I who am to blame, is it? Well, my lad, some day you'll +remember this, and we shall see how your household will get along when +I have stopped taking care of it." + +"You'll always take care of it," said Thuillier. "Housekeeping is your +very life; you will be the first to get over this affair." + +"We'll see about that," said Brigitte; "after twenty years of +devotion, to be treated like the lowest of the low!" + +And rushing to the door, which she slammed after her with violence, +she went away. + +Thuillier was not disturbed by this exit. + +"Were you there, Flavie," he asked, "when the scene took place?" + +"No, it happened in Celeste's room. What did she do to her?" + +"What I said,--raised her hand to her and locked her in like a child. +Celeste may certainly be rather dull-minded, but there are limits that +must not be passed." + +"She is not always pleasant, that good Brigitte," said Flavie; "she +and I have just had a little set-to." + +"Oh, well," said Thuillier, "it will all pass off. I want to tell you, +my dear Flavie, what fine success we have had this morning. The +'National' quotes two whole paragraphs of an article in which there +were several sentences of mine." + +Thuillier was again interrupted in the tale of his great political and +literary success,--this time by the entrance of Josephine the cook. + +"Can monsieur tell me where to find the key of the great trunk?" she +said. + +"What do you want with it?" asked Thuillier. + +"Mademoiselle told me to take it to her room." + +"What for?" + +"Mademoiselle must be going to make a journey. She is getting her +linen out of the drawers, and her gowns are on the bed." + +"Another piece of nonsense!" said Thuillier. "Flavie, go and see what +she has in her head." + +"Not I," said Madame Colleville; "go yourself. In her present state of +exasperation she might beat me." + +"And my stupid wife, who must needs raise a fuss about the contract!" +cried Thuillier. "She really must have said something pretty sharp to +turn Brigitte off her hinges like this." + +"Monsieur has not told me where to find the key," persisted Josephine. + +"I don't know anything about it," said Thuillier, crossly; "go and +look for it, or else tell her it is lost." + +"Oh, yes!" said Josephine, "it is likely I'd dare to go and tell her +that." + +Just then the outer door-bell rang. + +"No doubt that's la Peyrade," said Thuillier, in a tone of +satisfaction. + +The Provencal appeared a moment later. + +"Faith, my dear friend," cried Thuillier, "it is high time you came; +the house is in revolution, all about you, and it needs your silvery +tongue to bring it back to peace and quietness." + +Then he related to his assistant editor the circumstances of the civil +war which had broken out. + +La Peyrade turned to Madame Colleville. + +"I think," he said, "that under the circumstances in which we now +stand there is no impropriety in my asking for an interview of a few +moments with Mademoiselle Colleville." + +In this the Provencal showed his usual shrewd ability; he saw that in +the mission of pacification thus given to him Celeste Colleville was +the key of the situation. + +"I will send for her, and we will leave you alone together," said +Flavie. + +"My dear Thuillier," said la Peyrade, "you must, without any violence, +let Mademoiselle Celeste know that her consent must be given without +further delay; make her think that this was the purpose for which you +have sent for her; then leave us; I will do the rest." + +The man-servant was sent down to the entresol with orders to tell +Celeste that her godfather wished to speak to her. As soon as she +appeared, Thuillier said, to carry out the programme which had been +dictated to him:-- + +"My dear, your mother has told us things that astonish us. Can it be +true that with your contract almost signed, you have not yet decided +to accept the marriage we have arranged for you?" + +"Godfather," said Celeste, rather surprised at this abrupt summons, "I +think I did not say that to mamma." + +"Did you not just now," said Flavie, "praise Monsieur Felix Phellion +to me in the most extravagant manner?" + +"I spoke of Monsieur Phellion as all the world is speaking of him." + +"Come, come," said Thuillier, with authority, "let us have no +equivocation; do you refuse, yes or no, to marry Monsieur de la +Peyrade?" + +"Dear, good friend," said la Peyrade, intervening, "your way of +putting the question is rather too abrupt, and, in my presence, +especially, it seems to me out of place. In my position as the most +interested person, will you allow me to have an interview with +mademoiselle, which, indeed, has now become necessary? This favor I am +sure will not be refused by Madame Colleville. Under present +circumstances, there can surely be nothing in my request to alarm her +maternal prudence." + +"I would certainly yield to it," said Flavie, "if I did not fear that +these discussions might seem to open a question which is irrevocably +decided." + +"But, my dear madame, I have the strongest desire that Mademoiselle +Celeste shall remain, until the very last moment, the mistress of her +own choice. I beg you, therefore, to grant my request." + +"So be it!" said Madame Colleville; "you think yourself very clever, +but if you let that girl twist you round her finger, so much the worse +for you. Come, Thuillier, since we are 'de trop' here." + +As soon as the pair were alone together, la Peyrade drew up a chair +for Celeste, and took one himself, saying:-- + +"You will, I venture to believe, do me the justice to say that until +to-day I have never annoyed you with the expression of my sentiments. +I was aware of the inclinations of your heart, and also of the +warnings of your conscience. I hoped, after a time, to make myself +acceptable as a refuge from those two currents of feeling; but, at the +point which we have now reached, I think it is not either indiscreet +or impatient to ask you to let me know plainly what course you have +decided upon." + +"Monsieur," replied Celeste, "as you speak to me so kindly and +frankly, I will tell you, what indeed you know already, that, brought +up as I was with Monsieur Felix Phellion, knowing him far longer than +I have known you, the idea of marrying alarmed me less in regard to +him than it would in regard to others." + +"At one time, I believe," remarked la Peyrade, "you were permitted to +choose him if you wished." + +"Yes, but at that time difficulties grew up between us on religious +ideas." + +"And to-day those difficulties have disappeared?" + +"Nearly," replied Celeste. "I am accustomed to submit to the judgment +of those who are wiser than myself, monsieur, and you heard yesterday +the manner in which the Abbe Gondrin spoke of Monsieur Phellion." + +"God forbid," said la Peyrade, "that I should seek to invalidate the +judgment of so excellent a man; but I venture to say to you, +mademoiselle, that there are great differences among the clergy; some +are thought too stern, some far too indulgent; moreover, the Abbe +Gondrin is more of a preacher than a casuist." + +"But, Monsieur Felix," said Celeste, eagerly, "seems to wish to fulfil +Monsieur l'abbe's hopes of him, for I know that he went to see him +this morning." + +"Ah!" said la Peyrade, with a touch of irony, "so he really decided to +go to Pere Anselme! But, admitting that on the religious side Monsieur +Phellion may now become all that you expect of him, have you +reflected, mademoiselle, on the great event which has just taken place +in his life?" + +"Undoubtedly; and that is not a reason to think less of him." + +"No, but it is a reason why he should think more of himself. For the +modesty which was once the chief charm of his nature, he is likely to +substitute great assumption, and you must remember, mademoiselle, that +he who has discovered one world will want to discover two; you will +have the whole firmament for rival; in short, could you ever be happy +with a man so entirely devoted to science?" + +"You plead your cause with such adroitness," said Celeste, smiling, +"that I think you might be as a lawyer more disquieting than an +astronomer." + +"Mademoiselle," said la Peyrade, "let us speak seriously; there is +another and far more serious aspect to the situation. Do you know +that, at this moment, in this house, and without, I am sure, desiring +it, you are the cause of most distressing and regrettable scenes?" + +"I, monsieur!" said Celeste, in a tone of surprise that was mingled +with fear. + +"Yes, concerning your godmother. Through the extreme affection that +she has for you she seems to have become another woman; for the first +time in her life she has shown a mind of her own. With an energy of +will which comes at times to those who have never expended any, she +declares that she will not make her proposed liberal gift to you in +the contract; and I need not tell you who is the person aimed at in +this unexpected refusal." + +"But, monsieur, I entreat you to believe that I knew nothing of this +idea of my godmother." + +"I know that," said la Peyrade, "and the matter itself would be of +small importance if Mademoiselle Brigitte had not taken this attitude +of your godmother, whom she has always found supple to her will, as a +personal insult to herself. Very painful explanations, approaching at +last to violence, have taken place. Thuillier, placed between the +hammer and the anvil, has been unable to stop the affair; on the +contrary, he has, without intending it, made matters worse, till they +have now arrived at such a point that Mademoiselle Brigitte is packing +her trunks to leave the house." + +"Monsieur! what are you telling me?" cried Celeste, horrified. + +"The truth; and the servants will confirm it to you--for I feel that +my revelations are scarcely believable." + +"But it is impossible! impossible!" said the poor child, whose +agitation increased with every word of the adroit Provencal. "I cannot +be the cause of such dreadful harm." + +"That is, you did not intend to be, for the harm is done; and I pray +Heaven it may not be irremediable." + +"But what am I to do, good God!" cried Celeste, wringing her hands. + +"I should answer, without hesitation, sacrifice yourself, +mademoiselle, if it were not that I should then be forced to play the +painful part of victimizer." + +"Monsieur," said Celeste, "you interpret ill the resistance that I +have made, though, in fact, I have scarcely expressed it. I have +certainly had a preference, but I have never considered myself in the +light of a victim; and whatever it is necessary to do to restore peace +in this house to which I have brought trouble, I shall do it without +repugnance, and even willingly." + +"That would be for me," said la Peyrade, humbly, "more than I could +dare ask for myself; but, for the result which we both seek, I must +tell you frankly that something more is needed. Madame Thuillier has +not changed her nature to instantly change back again on the mere +assurance by others of your compliance. It is necessary that she +should hear from your own lips that you accede to my suit, and that +you do so with eagerness,--assumed, indeed, but sufficiently well +assumed to induce her to believe in it." + +"So be it," said Celeste. "I shall know how to seem smiling and happy. +My godmother, monsieur, has been a mother to me; and for such a +mother, what is there that I would not endure?" + +The position was such, and Celeste betrayed so artlessly the depth +and, at the same time, the absolute determination of her sacrifice, +that with any heart at all la Peyrade would have loathed the part he +was playing; but Celeste, to him, was a means of ascent, and provided +the ladder can hold you and hoist you, who would ever ask if it cared +to or not? It was therefore decided that Celeste should go to her +godmother and convince her of the mistake she had made in supposing an +objection to la Peyrade which Celeste had never intended to make. +Madame Thuillier's opposition overcome, all was once more easy. La +Peyrade took upon himself the duty of making peace between the two +sisters-in-law, and we can well imagine that he was not at a loss for +fine phrases with which to assure the artless girl of the devotion and +love which would take from her all regret for the moral compulsion she +had now undergone. + +When Celeste went to her godmother she found her by no means as +difficult to convince as she had expected. To go to the point of +rebellion which Madame Thuillier had actually reached, the poor woman, +who was acting against her instincts and against her nature, had +needed a tension of will that, in her, was almost superhuman. No +sooner had she received the false confidences of her goddaughter than +the reaction set in; the strength failed her to continue in the path +she had taken. She was therefore easily the dupe of the comedy which +Celeste's tender heart was made to play for la Peyrade's benefit. + +The tempest calmed on this side, the barrister found no difficulty in +making Brigitte understand that in quelling the rebellion against her +authority she had gone a little farther than was proper. This +authority being no longer in danger, Brigitte ceased to be incensed +with the sister-in-law she had been on the point of beating, and the +quarrel was settled with a few kind words and a kiss, poor Celeste +paying the costs of war. + +After dinner, which was only a family meal, the notary, to whose +office they were to go on the following day to sign the contract (it +being impossible to give a second edition of the abortive party), made +his appearance. He came, he said, to submit the contract to the +parties interested before engrossing it. This attention was not +surprising in a man who was just entering into business relations with +so important a person as the municipal councillor, whom it was his +interest to firmly secure for a client. + +La Peyrade was far too shrewd to make any objections to the terms of +the contract, which was now read. A few changes requested by Brigitte, +which gave the new notary a high idea of the old maid's business +capacity, showed la Peyrade plainly that more precautions were being +taken against him than were altogether becoming; but he was anxious +not to raise difficulties, and he knew that the meshes of a contract +are never so close that a determined and clever man cannot get through +them. The appointment was then made for the signing of the contract +the next day, at two o'clock, in the notary's office, the family only +being present. + +During the rest of the evening, taking advantage of Celeste's pledge +to seem smiling and happy, la Peyrade played, as it were, upon the +poor child, forced her, by a specious exhibition of gratitude and +love, to respond to him on a key that was far, indeed, from the true +state of a heart now wholly filled by Felix. Flavie, seeing the manner +in which la Peyrade put forth his seductions, was reminded of the +pains he had formerly taken to fascinate herself. "The monster!" she +said, beneath her breath. But she was forced to bear the torture with +a good grace; la Peyrade was evidently approved by all, and in the +course of the evening a circumstance came to light, showing a past +service done by him to the house of Thuillier, which brought his +influence and his credit to the highest point. + +Minard was announced. + +"My dear friends," he said, "I have come to make a little revelation +which will greatly surprise you, and will, I think, prove a lesson to +all of us when a question arises as to receiving foreigners in our +homes." + +"What is it?" cried Brigitte, with curiosity. + +"That Hungarian woman you were so delighted with, that Madame Torna, +Comtesse de Godollo--" + +"Well?" exclaimed the old maid. + +"Well," continued Minard, "she was no better than she should be; you +were petting in your house for two months the most impudent of kept +women." + +"Who told you that tale?" asked Brigitte, not willing to admit that +she had fallen into such a snare. + +"Oh, it isn't a tale," said the mayor, eagerly. "I know the thing +myself, 'de visu.'" + +"Dear me! do you frequent such women?" said Brigitte, resuming the +offensive. "That's a pretty thing! what would Zelie say if she knew +it?" + +"In the discharge of my duties," said Minard, stiffly, provoked at +this reception of his news, "I have seen YOUR FRIEND, Madame de +Godollo, in company with others of her class." + +"How do you know it was she if you only saw her?" demanded Brigitte. + +The wily Provencal was not the man to lose an occasion that fell to +him ready-made. + +"Monsieur le maire is not mistaken," he said, with decision. + +"Tiens! so you know her, too," said Brigitte; "and you let us consort +with such vermin?" + +"No," said la Peyrade, "on the contrary. Without scandal, without +saying a word to any one, I removed her from your house. You remember +how suddenly the woman left it? It was I who compelled her to do so; +having discovered what she was, I gave her two days to leave the +premises; threatening her, in case she hesitated, to tell you all." + +"My dear Theodose," said Thuillier, pressing his hand, "you acted with +as much prudence as decision. This is one more obligation that we owe +to you." + +"You see, mademoiselle," said la Peyrade, addressing Celeste, "the +strange protectress whom a friend of yours selected." + +"Thank God," said Madame Thuillier. "Felix Phellion is above such vile +things." + +"Ah ca! papa Minard, we'll keep quiet about all this; silence is the +word. Will you take a cup of tea?" + +"Willingly," replied Minard. + +"Celeste," said the old maid, "ring for Henri, and tell him to put the +large kettle on the fire." + +Though the visit to the notary was not to be made till two in the +afternoon, Brigitte began early in the morning of the next day what +Thuillier called her RAMPAGE, a popular term which expresses that +turbulent, nagging, irritating activity which La Fontaine has +described so well in his fable of "The Old Woman and her Servants." +Brigitte declared that if you didn't take time by the forelock no one +would be ready. She prevented Thuillier from going to his office, +insisting that if he once got off she never should see him again; she +plagued Josephine, the cook, about hurrying the breakfast, and in +spite of what had happened the day before she scarcely restrained +herself from nagging at Madame Thuillier, who did not enter, as she +thought she should have done, into her favorite maxim, "Better be +early than late." + +Presently down she went to the Collevilles' to make the same +disturbance; and there she put her veto on the costume, far too +elegant, which Flavie meditated wearing, and told Celeste the hat and +gown she wished her to appear in. As for Colleville, who could not, he +declared, stay away all the morning from his official duties, she +compelled him to put on his dress-suit before he went out, made him +set his watch by hers, and warned him that if he was late no one would +wait for him. + +The amusing part of it was that Brigitte herself, after driving every +one at the point of the bayonet, came very near being late herself. +Under pretext of aiding others, independently of minding her own +business, which, for worlds, she would never have spared herself, she +had put her fingers and eyes into so many things that they ended by +overwhelming her. However, she ascribed the delay in which she was +almost caught to the hairdresser, whom she had sent for to make, on +this extraordinary occasion, what she called her "part." That artist +having, unadvisedly, dressed her hair in the fashion, he was +compelled, after she had looked at herself in the glass, to do his +work over again, and conform to the usual style of his client, which +consisted chiefly in never being "done" at all, a method that gave her +head a general air of what is vulgarly called "a cross cat." + +About half-past one o'clock la Peyrade, Thuillier, Colleville, Madame +Thuillier, and Celeste were assembled in the salon. Flavie joined them +soon after, fastening her bracelets as she came along to avoid a +rebuff, and having the satisfaction of knowing that she was ready +before Brigitte. As for the latter, already furious at finding herself +late, she had another cause for exasperation. The event of the day +seemed to require a corset, a refinement which she usually discarded. +The unfortunate maid, whose duty it was to lace her and to discover +the exact point to which she was willing to be drawn in, alone knew +the terrors and storms of a corset day. + +"I'd rather," said the girl, "lace the obelisk; I know it would lend +itself to being laced better than she does; and, anyhow, it couldn't +be bad-tongued." + +While the party in the salon were amusing themselves, under their +breaths, at the "flagrante delicto" of unpunctuality in which Queen +Elizabeth was caught, the porter entered, and gave to Thuillier a +sealed package, addressed to "Monsieur Thuillier, director of the +'Echo de la Bievre.' IN HASTE." + +Thuillier opened the envelope, and found within a copy of a +ministerial journal which had hitherto shown itself discourteous to +the new paper by refusing the EXCHANGE which all periodicals usually +make very willingly with one another. + +Puzzled by the fact of this missive being sent to his own house and +not to the office of the "Echo," Thuillier hastily opened the sheet, +and read, with what emotion the reader may conceive, the following +article, commended to his notice by a circle in red ink:-- + + An obscure organ was about to expire in its native shade when an + ambitious person of recent date bethought himself of galvanizing + it. His object was to make it a foothold by which to climb from + municipal functions to the coveted position of deputy. Happily + this object, having come to the surface, will end in failure. + Electors will certainly not be inveigled by so wily a manner of + advancing self-interests; and when the proper time arrives, if + ridicule has not already done justice on this absurd candidacy, we + shall ourselves prove to the pretender that to aspire to the + distinguished honor of representing the nation something more is + required than the money to buy a paper and pay an underling to put + into good French the horrible diction of his articles and + pamphlets. We confine ourselves to-day to this limited notice, but + our readers may be sure that we shall keep them informed about + this electoral comedy, if indeed the parties concerned have the + melancholy courage to go on with it. + +Thuillier read twice over this sudden declaration of war, which was +far from leaving him calm and impassible; then, taking la Peyrade +aside, he said to him:-- + +"Read that; it is serious." + +"Well?" said la Peyrade, after reading the article. + +"Well? how well?" exclaimed Thuillier. + +"I mean, what do you find so serious in that?" + +"What do I find so serious?" repeated Thuillier. "I don't think +anything could be more insulting to me." + +"You can't doubt," said la Peyrade, "that the virtuous Cerizet is at +the bottom of it; he has thrown this firecracker between your legs by +way of revenge." + +"Cerizet, or anybody else who wrote that diatribe is an insolent +fellow," cried Thuillier, getting angry, "and the matter shall not +rest there." + +"For my part," said la Peyrade, "I advise you to make no reply. You +are not named; though, of course, the attack is aimed at you. But you +ought to let our adversary commit himself farther; when the right +moment comes, we'll rap him over the knuckles." + +"No!" said Thuillier, "I won't stay quiet one minute under such an +insult." + +"The devil!" said the barrister; "what a sensitive epidermis! Do +reflect, my dear fellow, that you have made yourself a candidate and a +journalist, and therefore you really must harden yourself better than +that." + +"My good friend, it is a principle of mine not to let anybody step on +my toes. Besides, they say themselves they are going on with this +thing. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to cut short such +impertinence." + +"But do consider," said la Peyrade. "Certainly in journalism, as in +candidacy, a hot temper has its uses; a man makes himself respected, +and stops attacks--" + +"Just so," said Thuillier, "'principiis obsta.' Not to-day, because we +haven't the time, but to-morrow I shall carry that paper into court." + +"Into court!" echoed la Peyrade; "you surely wouldn't go to law in +such a matter as this? In the first place, there is nothing to proceed +upon; you are not named nor the paper either, and, besides, it is a +pitiable business, going to law; you'll look like a boy who has been +fighting, and got the worst of it, and runs to complain to his mamma. +Now if you had said that you meant to make Fleury intervene in the +matter, I could understand that--though the affair is rather personal +to you, and it might be difficult to make it seem--" + +"Ah ca!" said Thuillier, "do you suppose I am going to commit myself +with a Cerizet or any other newspaper bully? I pique myself, my dear +fellow, on possessing civic courage, which does not give in to +prejudices, and which, instead of taking justice into its own hands, +has recourse to the means of defence that are provided by law. +Besides, with the legal authority the Court of Cassation now has over +duelling, I have no desire to put myself in the way of being +expatriated, or spending two or three years in prison." + +"Well," said la Peyrade, "we'll talk it over later; here's your +sister, and she would think everything lost if this little matter +reached her ears." + +When Brigitte appeared Colleville shouted "Full!" and proceeded to +sing the chorus of "La Parisienne." + +"Heavens! Colleville, how vulgar you are!" cried the tardy one, +hastening to cast a stone in the other's garden to avoid the throwing +of one into hers. "Well, are you all ready?" she added, arranging her +mantle before a mirror. "What o'clock is it? it won't do to get there +before the time, like provincials." + +"Ten minutes to two," said Colleville; "I go by the Tuileries." + +"Well, then we are just right," said Brigitte; "it will take about +that time to get to the rue Caumartin. Josephine," she cried, going to +the door of the salon, "we'll dine at six, therefore be sure you put +the turkey to roast at the right time, and mind you don't burn it, as +you did the other day. Bless me! who's that?" and with a hasty motion +she shut the door, which she had been holding open. "What a nuisance! +I hope Henri will have the sense to tell him we are out." + +Not at all; Henri came in to say that an old gentleman, with a very +genteel air, had asked to be received on urgent business. + +"Why didn't you say we were all out?" + +"That's what I should have done if mademoiselle had not opened the +door of the salon so that the gentleman could see the whole family +assembled." + +"Oh, yes!" said Brigitte, "you are never in the wrong, are you?" + +"What am I to say to him?" asked the man. + +"Say," replied Thuillier, "that I am very sorry not to be able to +receive him, but I am expected at a notary's office about a marriage +contract; but that if he could return two hours hence--" + +"I have told him all that," said Henri, "and he answered that that +contract was precisely what he had come about, and that his business +concerned you more than himself." + +"You had better go and see him, Thuillier, and get rid of him in +double-quick," said Brigitte; "that's shorter than talking to Henri, +who is always an orator." + +If la Peyrade had been consulted he might not have joined in that +advice, for he had had more than one specimen of the spokes some +occult influence was putting into the wheels of his marriage, and the +present visit seemed to him ominous. + +"Show him into my study," said Thuillier, following his sister's +advice; and, opening the door which led from the salon to the study, +he went to receive his importunate visitor. + +Brigitte immediately applied her eye to the keyhole. + +"Goodness!" she exclaimed, "there's my imbecile of a Thuillier +offering him a chair! and away in a corner, too, where I can't hear a +word they say!" + +La Peyrade was walking about the room with an inward agitation covered +by an appearance of great indifference. He even went up to the three +women, and made a few lover-like speeches to Celeste, who received +them with a smiling, happy air in keeping with the role she was +playing. As for Colleville, he was killing the time by composing an +anagram on the six words of "le journal 'l'Echo de la Bievre,'" for +which he had found the following version, little reassuring (as far as +it went) for the prospects of that newspaper: "O d'Echo, jarni! la +bevue reell"--but as the final "e" was lacking to complete the last +word, the work was not altogether as satisfactory as it should have +been. + +"He's taking snuff!" said Brigitte, her eye still glued to the +keyhole; "his gold snuff-box beats Minard's--though, perhaps, it is +only silver-gilt," she added, reflectively. "He's doing the talking, +and Thuillier is sitting there listening to him like a buzzard. I +shall go in and tell them they can't keep ladies waiting that way." + +But just as she put her hand on the lock she heard Thuillier's visitor +raise his voice, and that made her look through the keyhole again. + +"He is standing up; he's going," she said with satisfaction. + +But a moment later she saw she had made a mistake; the little old man +had only left his chair to walk up and down the room and continue the +conversation with greater freedom. + +"My gracious! I shall certainly go in," she said, "and tell Thuillier +we are going without him, and he can follow us." + +So saying, the old maid gave two little sharp and very imperious raps +on the door, after which she resolutely entered the study. + +La Peyrade, goaded by anxiety, had the bad taste to look through the +keyhole himself at what was happening. Instantly he thought he +recognized the small old man he had seen under the name of "the +commander" on that memorable morning when he had waited for Madame de +Godollo. Then he saw Thuillier addressing his sister with impatience +and with gestures of authority altogether out of his usual habits of +deference and submission. + +"It seems," said Brigitte, re-entering the salon, "that Thuillier +finds some great interest in that creature's talk, for he ordered me +bluntly to leave them, though the little old fellow did say, rather +civilly, that they would soon be through. But Jerome added: 'MIND, you +are to wait for me.' Really, since he has taken to making newspapers I +don't know him; he has set up an air as if he were leading the world +with his wand." + +"I am very much afraid he is being entangled by some adventurer," said +la Peyrade. "I am pretty sure I saw that old man at Madame de +Godollo's the day I went to warn her off the premises; he must be of +the same stripe." + +"Why didn't you tell me?" cried Brigitte. "I'd have asked him for news +of the countess, and let him see we knew what we knew of his +Hungarian." + +Just then the sound of moving chairs was heard, and Brigitte darted +back to the keyhole. + +"Yes," she said, "he is really going, and Thuillier is bowing him out +respectfully!" + +As Thuillier did not immediately return, Colleville had time to go to +the window and exclaim at seeing the little old gentleman driving away +in an elegant coupe, of which the reader has already heard. + +"The deuce!" cried Colleville; "what an ornate livery! If he is an +adventurer he is a number one." + +At last Thuillier re-entered the room, his face full of care, his +manner extremely grave. + +"My dear la Peyrade," he said, "you did not tell us that another +proposal of marriage had been seriously considered by you." + +"Yes, I did; I told you that a very rich heiress had been offered to +me, but that my inclinations were here, and that I had not given any +encouragement to the affair; consequently, of course, there was no +serious engagement." + +"Well, I think you do wrong to treat that proposal so lightly." + +"What! do you mean to say, in presence of these ladies, that you blame +me for remaining faithful to my first desires and our old engagement?" + +"My friend, the conversation that I have just had has been a most +instructive one to me; and when you know what I know, with other +details personal to yourself, which will be confided to you, I think +that you will enter into my ideas. One thing is certain; we shall not +go to the notary to-day; and as for you, the best thing that you can +do is to go, without delay, to Monsieur du Portail." + +"That name again! it pursues me like a remorse," exclaimed la Peyrade. + +"Yes; go at once; he is awaiting you. It is an indispensable +preliminary before we can go any farther. When you have seen that +excellent man and heard what he has to say to you--well, THEN if you +persist in claiming Celeste's hand, we might perhaps carry out our +plans. Until then we shall take no steps in the matter." + +"But, my poor Thuillier," said Brigitte, "you have let yourself be +gammoned by a rascal; that man belongs to the Godollo set." + +"Madame de Godollo," replied Thuillier, "is not at all what you +suppose her to be, and the best thing this house can do is never to +say one word about her, either good or evil. As for la Peyrade, as +this is not the first time he has been requested to go and see +Monsieur du Portail, I am surprised that he hesitates to do so." + +"Ah ca!" said Brigitte, "that little old man has completely befooled +you." + +"I tell you that that little old man is all that he appears to be. He +wears seven crosses, he drives in a splendid equipage, and he has told +me things that have overwhelmed me with astonishment." + +"Well, perhaps he's a fortune-teller like Madame Fontaine, who managed +once upon a time to upset me when Madame Minard and I, just to amuse +ourselves, went to consult her." + +"Well, if he is not a sorcerer he certainly has a very long arm," said +Thuillier, "and I think a man would suffer for it if he didn't respect +his advice. As for you, Brigitte, he saw you only for a minute, but he +told me your whole character; he said you were a masterful woman, born +to command." + +"The fact is," said Brigitte, licking her chops at this compliment, +like a cat drinking cream, "he has a very well-bred air, that little +old fellow. You take my advice, my dear," she said, turning to la +Peyrade; "if such a very big-wig as that wants you to do so, go and +see this du Portail, whoever he is. That, it seems to me, won't bind +you to anything." + +"You are right, Brigitte," said Colleville; "as for me, I'd follow up +all the Portails, or PortERS, or PortENTS for the matter of that, if +they asked me to." + +The scene was beginning to resemble that in the "Barber of Seville," +where everybody tells Basil to go to bed, for he certainly has a +fever. La Peyrade, thus prodded, picked up his hat in some ill-humor, +and went where his destiny called him,--"quo sua fata vocabant." + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AT DU PORTAIL'S + +On reaching the rue Honore-Chevalier la Peyrade felt a doubt; the +dilapidated appearance of the house to which he was summoned made him +think he had mistaken the number. It seemed to him that a person of +Monsieur du Portail's evident importance could not inhabit such a +place. It was therefore with some hesitation that he accosted Sieur +Perrache, the porter. But no sooner had he entered the antechamber of +the apartment pointed out to him than the excellent deportment of +Bruneau, the old valet, and the extremely comfortable appearance of +the furniture and other appointments made him see that he was probably +in the right place. Introduced at once, as soon as he had given his +name, into the study of the master of the house, his surprise was +great when he found himself in presence of the commander, so called, +the friend of Madame de Godollo, and the little old man he had seen +half an hour earlier with Thuillier. + +"At last!" said du Portail, rising, and offering la Peyrade a chair, +"at last we meet, my refractory friend; it has taken a good deal to +bring you here." + +"May I know, monsieur," said la Peyrade, haughtily, not taking the +chair which was offered to him, "what interest you have in meddling +with my affairs? I do not know you, and I may add that the place where +I once saw you did not create an unconquerable desire in me to make +your acquaintance." + +"Where have you seen me?" asked du Portail. + +"In the apartment of a strumpet who called herself Madame de Godollo." + +"Where monsieur, consequently, went himself," said the little old man, +"and for a purpose much less disinterested than mine." + +"I have not come here," said la Peyrade, "to bandy words with any one. +I have the right, monsieur, to a full explanation as to the meaning of +your proceedings towards me. I therefore request you not to delay them +by a facetiousness to which, I assure you, I am not in the humor to +listen." + +"Then, my dear fellow," said du Portail, "sit down, for I am not in +the humor to twist my neck by talking up at you." + +The words were reasonable, and they were said in a tone that showed +the old gentleman was not likely to be frightened by grand airs. La +Peyrade therefore deferred to the wishes of his host, but he took care +to do so with the worst grace possible. + +"Monsieur Cerizet," said du Portail, "a man of excellent standing in +the world, and who has the honor to be one of your friends--" + +"I have nothing to do with that man now," said la Peyrade, sharply, +understanding the malicious meaning of the old man's speech. + +"Well, the time has been," said du Portail, "when you saw him, at +least, occasionally: for instance, when you paid for his dinner at the +Rocher de Cancale. As I was saying, I charged the virtuous Monsieur +Cerizet to sound you as to a marriage--" + +"Which I refused," interrupted la Peyrade, "and which I now refuse +again, more vehemently than ever." + +"That's the question," said the old man. "I think, on the contrary, +that you will accept it; and it is to talk over this affair with you +that I have so long desired a meeting." + +"But this crazy girl that you are flinging at my head," said la +Peyrade, "what is she to you? She can't be your daughter, or you would +put more decency into your hunt for a husband." + +"This young girl," replied du Portail, "is the daughter of one of my +friends who died about ten years ago; at his death I took her to live +with me, and have given her all the care her sad condition needed. Her +fortune, which I have greatly increased, added to my own, which I +intend to leave to her, will make her a very rich heiress. I know that +you are no enemy to handsome 'dots,' for you have sought them in +various places,--Thuillier's house, for instance, or, to use your own +expression, that of a strumpet whom you scarcely knew. I have +therefore supposed you would accept at my hands a very rich young +woman, especially as her infirmity is declared by the best physicians +to be curable; whereas you can never cure Monsieur and Mademoiselle +Thuillier, the one of being a fool, the other of being a fury, any +more than you could cure Madame Komorn of being a woman of very medium +virtue and extremely giddy." + +"It may suit me," replied la Peyrade, "to marry the daughter of a fool +and a fury if I choose her, or I might become the husband of a clever +coquette, if passion seized me, but the Queen of Sheba herself, if +imposed upon me, neither you, monsieur, nor the ablest and most +powerful man living could force me to accept." + +"Precisely; therefore it is to your own good sense and intelligence +that I now address myself; but we have to come face to face with +people in order to speak to them, you know. Now, then, let us look +into your present situation, and don't get angry if, like a surgeon +who wants to cure his patient, I lay my hand mercilessly on wounds +which have long tormented and harassed you. The first point to state +is that the Celeste Colleville affair is at an end for you." + +"Why so?" demanded la Peyrade. + +"Because I have just seen Thuillier and terrified him with the history +of the misfortunes he has incurred, and those he will incur if he +persists in the idea of giving you his goddaughter in marriage. He +knows now that it was I who paralyzed Madame du Bruel's kind offices +in the matter of the cross; that I had his pamphlet seized; that I +sent that Hungarian woman into his house to handle you all, as she +did; and that my hand is opening fire in the ministerial journals, +which will only increase from bad to worse,--not to speak of other +machinations which will be directed against his candidacy. Therefore +you see, my good friend, that not only have you no longer the credit +in Thuillier's eyes of being his great helper to that election, but +that you actually block the way to his ambition. That is enough to +prove to you that the side by which you have imposed yourself on that +family--who have never sincerely liked or desired you--is now +completely battered down and dismantled." + +"But to have done all that which you claim with such pretension, who +are you?" demanded la Peyrade. + +"I shall not say that you are very inquisitive, for I intend to answer +your question later; but for the present let us continue, if you +please, the autopsy of your existence, dead to-day, but which I +propose to resuscitate gloriously. You are twenty-eight years old, and +you have begun a career in which I shall not allow you to make another +step. A few days hence the Council of the order of barristers will +assemble and will censure, more or less severely, your conduct in the +matter of the property you placed with such candor in Thuillier's +hands. Do not deceive yourself; censure from that quarter (and I +mention only your least danger) is as fatal to a barrister as being +actually disbarred." + +"And it is to your kind offices, no doubt," said la Peyrade, "that I +shall owe that precious result?" + +"Yes, I may boast of it," replied du Portail, "for, in order to tow +you into port it has been necessary to strip you of your rigging; +unless that were done, you would always have tried to navigate under +your own sails the bourgeois shoals that you are now among." + +Seeing that he, undoubtedly, had to do with a strong hand, la Peyrade +thought best to modify his tone; and so, with a more circumspect air, +he said:-- + +"You will allow me, monsieur, to reserve my acknowledgments until I +receive some fuller explanation." + +"Here you are, then," continued du Portail, "at twenty-eight years of +age, without a penny, virtually without a profession; with antecedents +that are very--middling; with associates like Monsieur Dutocq and the +courageous Cerizet; owing to Mademoiselle Thuillier ten thousand +francs, and to Madame Lambert twenty-five thousand, which you are no +doubt extremely desirous to return to her; and finally, this marriage, +your last hope, your sheet-anchor, has just become an utter +impossibility. Between ourselves, if I have something reasonable to +propose to you, do you not think that you had much better place +yourself at my disposal?" + +"I have time enough to prove that your opinion is mistaken," returned +la Peyrade; "and I shall not form any resolutions so long as the +designs you choose to have upon me are not more fully explained." + +"You were spoken to, at my instigation, about a marriage," resumed du +Portail. "This marriage, as I think, is closely connected with a past +existence from which a certain hereditary or family duty has devolved +upon you. Do you know what that uncle of yours, to whom you applied in +1829, was doing in Paris? In your family he was thought to be a +millionaire; and, dying suddenly, you remember, before you got to him, +he did not leave enough for his burial; a pauper's grave was all that +remained to him." + +"Did you know him?" asked la Peyrade. + +"He was my oldest and dearest friend," replied du Portail. + +"If that is so," said la Peyrade, hastily, "a sum of two thousand +francs, which I received on my arrival in Paris from some unknown +source--" + +"Came from me," replied du Portail. "Unfortunately, engaged at the +time in a rush of important affairs, which you shall hear of later, I +could not immediately follow up the benevolent interest I felt in you +for your uncle's sake; this explains why I left you in the straw of a +garret, where you came, like a medlar, to that maturity of ruin which +brought you under the hand of a Dutocq and a Cerizet." + +"I am none the less grateful to you, monsieur," said la Peyrade; "and +if I had known you were that generous protector, whom I was never able +to discover, I should have been the first to seek occasion to meet you +and to thank you." + +"A truce to compliments," said du Portail; "and, to come at once to +the serious side of our present conference, what should you say if I +told you that this uncle, whose protection and assistance you came to +Paris to obtain, was an agent of that occult power which has always +been the theme of feeble ridicule and the object of silly prejudice?" + +"I do not seize your meaning," said la Peyrade, with uneasy curiosity; +"may I ask you to be more precise?" + +"For example, I will suppose," continued du Portail, "that your uncle, +if still living, were to say to you to-day: 'You are seeking fortune +and influence, my good nephew; you want to rise above the crowd and to +play your part in all the great events of your time; you want +employment for a keen, active mind, full of resources, and slightly +inclined to intrigue; in short, you long to exert in some upper and +elegant sphere that force of will and subtlety which at present you +are wasting in the silly and useless manipulation of the most barren +and tough-skinned animal on earth, to wit: a bourgeois. Well, then, +lower your head, my fine nephew; enter with me through the little door +which I will open to you; it gives admittance to a great house, often +maligned, but better far than its reputation. That threshold once +crossed, you can rise to the height of your natural genius, whatever +its spark may be. Statesmen, kings even, will admit you to their most +secret thoughts; you will be their occult collaborator, and none of +the joys which money and the highest powers can bestow upon a man will +be lacking to you." + +"But, monsieur," objected la Peyrade, "without venturing to understand +you, I must remark that my uncle died so poor, you tell me, that +public charity buried him." + +"Your uncle," replied du Portail, "was a man of rare talent, but he +had a certain weak side in his nature which compromised his career. He +was eager for pleasure, a spendthrift, thoughtless for the future; he +wanted also to taste those joys that are meant for the common run of +men, but which for great, exceptional vocations are the worst of +snares and impediments: I mean the joys of family. He had a daughter +whom he madly loved, and it was through her that his terrible enemies +opened a breach in his life, and prepared the horrible catastrophe +that ended it." + +"Is that an encouragement to enter this shady path, where, you say, he +might have asked me to follow him?" + +"But if I myself," said du Portail, "should offer to guide you in it, +what then?" + +"You, monsieur!" said la Peyrade, in stupefaction. + +"Yes, I--I who was your uncle's pupil at first, and later his +protector and providence; I, whose influence the last half-century has +daily increased; I, who am wealthy; I, to whom all governments, as +they fall one on top of the others like houses of cards, come to ask +for safety and for the power to rebuild their future; I, who am the +manager of a great theatre of puppets (where I have Columbines in the +style of Madame de Godollo); I, who to-morrow, if it were necessary to +the success of one of my vaudevilles or one of my dramas, might +present myself to your eyes as the wearer of the grand cordon of the +Legion of honor, of the Order of the Black Eagle, or that of the +Golden Fleece. Do you wish to know why neither you nor I will die a +violent death like your uncle, and also why, more fortunate than +contemporaneous kings, I can transmit my sceptre to the successor whom +I myself may choose? Because, like you, my young friend, in spite of +your Southern appearance, I was cold, profoundly calculating, never +tempted to lose my time on trifles at the outskirts; because heat, +when I was led by force of circumstances to employ it, never went +below the surface. It is more than probable that you have heard of me; +well, for you I will open a window in my cloud; look at me, observe me +well; have I a cloven hoof, or a tail at the end of my spine? On the +contrary, am I not a model of the most inoffensive of householders in +the Saint-Sulpice quarter? In that quarter, where I have enjoyed, I +may say it, universal esteem for the last twenty-five years, I am +called du Portail; but to you, if you will allow me, I shall now name +myself CORENTIN." + +"Corentin!" cried la Peyrade, with terrified astonishment. + +"Yes, monsieur; and you see that in telling you that secret I lay my +hand upon you, and enlist you. Corentin! 'the greatest man of the +police in modern times,' as the author of an article in the +'Biographies of Living Men' has said of me--as to whom I ought in +justice to remark that he doesn't know a thing about my life." + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, "I can assure you that I shall keep that +secret; but the place which you offer me near you--in your employ--" + +"That frightens you, or, at least, it makes you uneasy," said +Corentin, quickly. "Before you have even considered the thing the word +scares you, does it? The police! POLICE! you are afraid to encounter +the terrible prejudice that brands it on the brow." + +"Certainly," said la Peyrade, "it is a necessary institution; but I do +not think that it is always calumniated. If the business of those who +manage it is honorable why do they conceal themselves so carefully?" + +"Because all that threatens society, which it is the mission of the +police to repress," replied Corentin, "is plotted and prepared in +hiding. Do thieves and conspirators put upon their hats, 'I am +Guillot, the shepherd of this flock'? And when we are after them must +we ring a bell to let them know we are coming?" + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, "when a sentiment is universal it ceases +to be a prejudice, it becomes an opinion; and this opinion ought to be +a law to every man who desires to keep his own esteem and that of +others." + +"And when you robbed that notary to enrich the Thuilliers for your own +advantage," said Corentin, "did you keep your own esteem and that of +the Council of barristers? And who knows, monsieur, if in your life +there are not still blacker actions than that? I am a more honorable +man than you, because, outside of my functions, I have not one +doubtful act upon my conscience; and when the opportunity for GOOD has +been presented to me I have done it--always and everywhere. Do you +think that the guardianship of that poor insane girl in my home has +been all roses? But she was the daughter of my old friend, your uncle, +and when, feeling the years creep on me, I propose to you, between +sacks of money, to fit yourself to take my place--" + +"What!" cried la Peyrade, "is that girl my uncle's daughter?" + +"Yes; the girl I wish you to marry is the daughter of your uncle +Peyrade,--for he democratized his name,--or, if you like it better, +she was the daughter of Pere Canquoelle, a name he took from the +little estate on which your father lived and starved with eleven +children. You see, in spite of the secrecy your uncle always kept +about his family, that I know all about it. Do you suppose that before +selecting you as your cousin's husband I had not obtained every +possible information about you? And what I have learned need not make +you quite so supercilious to the police. Besides, as the vulgar saying +is, the best of your nose is made of it. Your uncle belonged to the +police, and, thanks to that, he became the confidant, I might almost +say the friend, of Louis XVIII., who took the greatest pleasure in his +companionship. And you, by nature and by mind, also by the foolish +position into which you have got yourself, in short, by your whole +being, have gravitated steadily to the conclusion I propose to you, +namely, that of succeeding me,--of succeeding Corentin. That is the +question between us, Monsieur. Do you really believe now that I have +not a grasp or a 'seizin,' as you call it, upon you, and that you can +manage to escape me for any foolish considerations of bourgeois +vanity?" + +La Peyrade could not have been at heart so violently opposed to this +proposal as he seemed, for the vigorous language of the great master +of the police and the species of appropriation which he made of his +person brought a smile to the young man's lips. + +Corentin had risen, and was walking up and down the room, speaking, +apparently, to himself. + +"The police!" he cried; "one may say of it, as Basile said of calumny +to Batholo, 'The police, monsieur! you don't know what you despise!' +And, after all," he continued, after a pause, "who are they who +despise it? Imbeciles, who don't know any better than to insult their +protectors. Suppress the police, and you destroy civilization. Do the +police ask for the respect of such people? No, they want to inspire +them with one sentiment only: fear, that great lever with which to +govern mankind,--an impure race whose odious instincts God, hell, the +executioner, and the gendarmes can scarcely restrain!" + +Stopping short before la Peyrade, and looking at him with a disdainful +smile, he continued:-- + +"So you are one of those ninnies who see in the police nothing more +than a horde of spies and informers? Have you never suspected the +statesmen, the diplomats, the Richelieus it produces? Mercury, +monsieur,--Mercury, the cleverest of the gods of paganism,--what was +he but the police incarnate? It is true that he was also the god of +thieves. We are better than he, for we don't allow that junction of +forces." + +"And yet," said la Peyrade, "Vautrin, or, I should say, Jacques +Collin, the famous chief of the detective police--" + +"Yes, yes! but that's in the lower ranks," replied Corentin, resuming +his walk; "there's always a muddy place somewhere. Still, don't be +mistaken even in that. Vautrin is a man of genius, but his passions, +like those of your uncle, dragged him down. But go up higher (for +there lies the whole question, namely, the rung of the ladder on which +a man has wits enough to perch). Take the prefect, for instance, that +honored minister, flattered and respected, is he a spy? Well, I, +monsieur, am the prefect of the secret police of diplomacy--of the +highest statesmanship. And you hesitate to mount that throne!--to seem +small and do great things; to live in a cave comfortably arranged like +this, and command the light; to have at your orders an invisible army, +always ready, always devoted, always submissive; to know the OTHER +SIDE of everything; to be duped by no intrigue because you hold the +threads of all within your fingers; to see through all partitions; to +penetrate all secrets, search all hearts, all consciences,--these are +the things you fear! And yet you were not afraid to go and wallow in a +Thuillier bog; you, a thoroughbred, allowed yourself to be harnessed +to a hackney-coach, to the ignoble business of electing that parvenu +bourgeois." + +"A man does what he can," said la Peyrade. + +"Here's a very remarkable thing," pursued Corentin, replying to his +own thought; "the French language, more just than public opinion, has +given us our right place, for it has made the word police the synonym +of civilization and the antipodes of savage life, when it said and +wrote: 'l'Etat police,' from the Greek words state and city. So, I can +assure you, we care little for the prejudice that tries to brand us; +none know men as we do; and to know them brings contempt for their +contempt as well as for their esteem." + +"There is certainly much truth in what you say with such warmth," said +la Peyrade, finally. + +"Much truth!" exclaimed Corentin, going back to his chair, "say, +rather, that it is all true, and nothing but the truth; yet it is not +the whole truth. But enough for to-day, monsieur. To succeed me in my +functions, and to marry your cousin with a 'dot' that will not be less +than five hundred thousand francs, that is my offer. I do not ask you +for an answer now. I should have no confidence in a determination not +seriously reflected upon. To-morrow, I shall be at home all the +morning. I trust that my conviction may then have formed yours." + +Dismissing his visitor with a curt little bow, he added: "I do not bid +you adieu, but au revoir, Monsieur de la Peyrade." + +Whereupon Corentin went to a side-table, where he found all that he +needed to prepare a glass of "eau sucree," which he had certainly +earned, and, without looking at la Peyrade, who left the room rather +stunned, he seemed to have no other interest on his mind than that +prosaic preparation. + +Was it, indeed, necessary that the morning after this meeting with +Corentin a visit from Madame Lambert, now become an exacting and +importunate creditor, should come to bear its weight on la Peyrade's +determination? As the great chief had pointed out to him the night +before, was there not in his nature, in his mind, in his aspirations, +in the mistakes and imprudences of his past life, a sort of +irresistible incline which drew him down toward the strange solution +of existence thus suddenly offered to him? + +Fatality, if we may so call it, was lavish of the inducements to which +he was destined to succumb. This day was the 31st of October; the +vacation of the Palais was just over. The 2nd of November was the day +on which the courts reopened, and as Madame Lambert left his room he +received a summons to appear on that day before the Council of his +order. + +To Madame Lambert, who pressed him sharply to repay her, under +pretence that she was about to leave Monsieur Picot and return to her +native place, he replied: "Come here the day after to-morrow, at the +same hour, and your money will be ready for you." + +To the summons to give account of his actions to his peers he replied +that he did not recognize the right of the Council to question him on +the facts of his private life. That was an answer of one sort, +certainly. Inevitably it would result in his being stricken from the +roll of the barristers of the Royal courts; but, at least, it had an +air of dignity and protestation which saved, in a measure, his self- +love. + +Finally, he wrote a letter to Thuillier, in which he said that his +visit to du Portail had resulted in his being obliged to accept +another marriage. He therefore returned to Thuillier his promise, and +took back his own. All this was curtly said, without the slightest +expression of regret for the marriage he renounced. In a postscript he +added: "We shall be obliged to discuss my position on the newspaper," +--indicating that it might enter into his plans not to retain it. + +He was careful to make a copy of this letter, and an hour later, when, +in Corentin's study, he was questioned as to the result of his night's +reflections, he gave that great general, for all answer, the +matrimonial resignation he had just despatched. + +"That will do," said Corentin. "But as for your position on the +newspaper, you may perhaps have to keep it for a time. The candidacy +of that fool interferes with the plans of the government, and we must +manage in some way to trip up the heels of the municipal councillor. +In your position as editor-in-chief you may find a chance to do it, +and I think your conscience won't kick at the mission." + +"No, indeed!" said la Peyrade, "the thought of the humiliations to +which I have been so long subjected will make it a precious joy to +lash that bourgeois brood." + +"Take care!" said Corentin; "you are young, and you must watch against +those revengeful emotions. In our austere profession we love nothing +and we hate nothing. Men are to us mere pawns of wood or ivory, +according to their quality--with which we play our game. We are like +the blade that cuts what is given it to cut, but, careful only to be +delicately sharpened, wishes neither harm nor good to any one. Now let +us speak of your cousin, to whom, I suppose, you have some curiosity +to be presented." + +La Peyrade was not obliged to pretend to eagerness, that which he felt +was genuine. + +"Lydie de la Peyrade," said Corentin, "is nearly thirty, but her +innocence, joined to a gentle form of insanity, has kept her apart +from all those passions, ideas, and impressions which use up life, and +has, if I may say so, embalmed her in a sort of eternal youth. You +would not think her more than twenty. She is fair and slender; her +face, which is very delicate, is especially remarkable for an +expression of angelic sweetness. Deprived of her full reason by a +terrible catastrophe, her monomania has something touching about it. +She always carries in her arms or keeps beside her a bundle of linen +which she nurses and cares for as though it were a sick child; and, +excepting Bruneau and myself, whom she recognizes, she thinks all +other men are doctors, whom she consults about the child, and to whom +she listens as oracles. A crisis which lately happened in her malady +has convinced Horace Bianchon, that prince of science, that if the +reality could be substituted for this long delusion of motherhood, her +reason would assert itself. It is surely a worthy task to bring back +light to a soul in which it is scarcely veiled; and the existing bond +of relationship has seemed to me to point you out as specially +designated to effect this cure, the success of which Bianchon and two +other eminent doctors who have consulted with him declare to be beyond +a doubt. Now, I will take you to Lydie's presence; remember to play +the part of doctor; for the only thing that makes her lose her +customary serenity is not to enter into her notion of medical +consultation." + +After crossing several rooms Corentin was on the point of taking la +Peyrade into that usually occupied by Lydie when employed in cradling +or dandling her imaginary child, when suddenly they were stopped by +the sound of two or three chords struck by the hand of a master on a +piano of the finest sonority. + +"What is that?" asked la Peyrade. + +"That is Lydie," replied Corentin, with what might be called an +expression of paternal pride; "she is an admirable musician, and +though she no longer writes down, as in the days when her mind was +clear, her delightful melodies, she often improvises them in a way +that moves me to the soul--the soul of Corentin!" added the old man, +smiling. "Is not that the finest praise I can bestow upon her? But +suppose we sit down here and listen to her. If we go in, the concert +will cease and the medical consultation begin." + +La Peyrade was amazed as he listened to an improvisation in which the +rare union of inspiration and science opened to his impressionable +nature a source of emotions as deep as they were unexpected. Corentin +watched the surprise which from moment to moment the Provencal +expressed by admiring exclamations. + +"Hein! how she plays!" said the old man. "Liszt himself hasn't a +firmer touch." + +To a very quick "scherzo" the performer now added the first notes of +an "adagio." + +"She is going to sing," said Corentin, recognizing the air. + +"Does she sing too?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Like Pasta, like Malibran; but hush, listen to her!" + +After a few opening bars in "arpeggio" a vibrant voice resounded, the +tones of which appeared to stir the Provencal to the depths of his +being. + +"How the music moves you!" said Corentin; "you were undoubtedly made +for each other." + +"My God! the same air! the same voice!" + +"Have you already met Lydie somewhere?" asked the great master of the +police. + +"I don't know--I think not," answered la Peyrade, in a stammering +voice; "in any case, it was long ago--But that air--that voice--I +think--" + +"Let us go in," said Corentin. + +Opening the door abruptly, he entered, pulling the young man after +him. + +Sitting with her back to the door, and prevented by the sound of the +piano from hearing what happened behind her, Lydie did not notice +their entrance. + +"Now have you any remembrance of her?" said Corentin. + +La Peyrade advanced a step, and no sooner had he caught a glimpse of +the girl's profile than he threw up his hands above his head, striking +them together. + +"It is she!" he cried. + +Hearing his cry, Lydie turned round, and fixing her attention on +Corentin, she said:-- + +"How naughty and troublesome you are to come and disturb me; you know +very well I don't like to be listened to. Ah! but--" she added, +catching sight of la Peyrade's black coat, "you have brought the +doctor; that is very kind of you; I was just going to ask you to send +for him. The baby has done nothing but cry since morning; I was +singing to put her to sleep, but nothing can do that." + +And she ran to fetch what she called her child from a corner of the +room, where with two chairs laid on their backs and the cushions of +the sofa, she had constructed a sort of cradle. + +As she went towards la Peyrade, carrying her precious bundle with one +hand, with the other she was arranging the imaginary cap of her +"little darling," having no eyes except for the sad creation of her +disordered brain. Step by step, as she advanced, la Peyrade, pale, +trembling, and with staring eyes, retreated backwards, until he struck +against a seat, into which, losing his equilibrium, he fell. + +A man of Corentin's power and experience, and who, moreover, knew to +its slightest detail the horrible drama in which Lydie had lost her +reason, had already, of course, taken in the situation, but it suited +his purpose and his ideas to allow the clear light of evidence to +pierce this darkness. + +"Look, doctor," said Lydie, unfastening the bundle, and putting the +pins in her mouth as she did so, "don't you see that she is growing +thinner every day?" + +La Peyrade could not answer; he kept his handkerchief over his face, +and his breath came so fast from his chest that he was totally unable +to utter a word. + +Then, with one of those gestures of feverish impatience, to which her +mental state predisposed her, she exclaimed, hastily:-- + +"But look at her doctor, look!" taking his arm violently and forcing +him to show his features. "My God!" she cried, when she had looked him +in the face. + +Letting fall the linen bundle in her arms, she threw herself hastily +backwards, and her eyes grew haggard. Passing her white hands rapidly +over her forehead and through her hair, tossing it into disorder, she +seemed to be making an effort to obtain from her memory some dormant +recollection. Then, like a frightened mare, which comes to smell an +object that has given it a momentary terror, she approached la Peyrade +slowly, stooping to look into his face, which he kept lowered, while, +in the midst of a silence inexpressible, she examined him steadily for +several seconds. Suddenly a terrible cry escaped her breast; she ran +for refuge into the arms of Corentin, and pressing herself against him +with all her force, she exclaimed:-- + +"Save me! save me! It is he! the wretch! It is he who did it!" + +And, with her finger pointed at la Peyrade, she seemed to nail the +miserable object of her terror to his place. + +After this explosion, she muttered a few disconnected words, and her +eyes closed; Corentin felt the relaxing of all the muscles by which +she had held him as in a vice the moment before, and he took her in +his arms and laid her on the sofa, insensible. + +"Do not stay here, monsieur," said Corentin. "Go into my study; I will +come to you presently." + +A few minutes later, after giving Lydie into the care of Katte and +Bruneau, and despatching Perrache for Doctor Bianchon, Corentin +rejoined la Peyrade. + +"You see now, monsieur," he said with solemnity, "that in pursuing +with a sort of passion the idea of this marriage, I was following, in +a sense, the ways of God." + +"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, with compunction, "I will confess to +you--" + +"Useless," said Corentin; "you can tell me nothing that I do not know; +I, on the contrary, have much to tell you. Old Peyrade, your uncle, in +the hope of earning a POT for this daughter whom he idolized, entered +into a dangerous private enterprise, the nature of which I need not +explain. In it he made enemies; enemies who stopped at nothing,-- +murder, poison, rape. To paralyze your uncle's action by attacking him +in his dearest spot, Lydie was, not abducted, but enticed from her +home and taken to a house apparently respectable, where for ten days +she was kept concealed. She was not much alarmed by this detention, +being told that it was done at her father's wish, and she spent her +time with her music--you remember, monsieur, how she sang?" + +"Oh!" exclaimed la Peyrade, covering his face with his hands. + +"I told you yesterday that you might perhaps have more upon your +conscience than the Thuillier house. But you were young; you had just +come from your province, with that brutality, that frenzy of Southern +blood in your veins which flings itself upon such an occasion. +Besides, your relationship became known to those who were preparing +the ruin of this new Clarissa Harlowe, and I am willing to believe +than an abler and better man than you might not have escaped the +entanglement into which you fell. Happily, Providence has granted that +there is nothing absolutely irreparable in this horrible history. The +same poison, according to the use that is made of it, may give either +death or health." + +"But, monsieur," said la Peyrade, "shall I not always be to her an +object of horror?" + +"The doctor, monsieur," said Katte, opening the door. + +"How is Mademoiselle Lydie?" asked la Peyrade, eagerly. + +"Very calm," replied Katte. "Just now, when we put her to bed,--though +she did not want to go, saying she felt well,--I took her the bundle +of linen, but she told me to take it away, and asked what I meant her +to do with it." + +"You see," said Corentin, grasping the Provencal's hand, "you are the +lance of Achilles." + +And he left the room with Katte to receive Doctor Bianchon. + +Left alone, Theodose was a prey to thoughts which may perhaps be +imagined. After a while the door opened, and Bruneau, the old valet, +ushered in Cerizet. Seeing la Peyrade, the latter exclaimed:-- + +"Ha! ha! I knew it! I knew you would end by seeing du Portail. And the +marriage,--how does that come on?" + +"What are you doing here?" asked la Peyrade. + +"Something that concerns you; or rather, something that we must do +together. Du Portail, who is too busy to attend to business just now, +has sent me in here to see you, and consult as to the best means of +putting a spoke in Thuillier's election; it seems that the government +is determined to prevent his winning it. Have you any ideas about it?" + +"No," replied la Peyrade; "and I don't feel in the mood just now to be +imaginative." + +"Well, here's the situation," said Cerizet. "The government has +another candidate, which it doesn't yet produce, because the +ministerial negotiations with him have been rather difficult. During +this time Thuillier's chances have been making headway. Minard, on +whom they counted to create a diversion, sits, the stupid fool, in his +corner; the seizure of that pamphlet has given your blockhead of a +protege a certain perfume of popularity. In short, the ministry are +afraid he'll be elected, and nothing could be more disagreeable to +them. Pompous imbeciles, like Thuillier, are horribly embarrassing in +the Opposition; they are pitchers without handles; you can't take hold +of them anywhere." + +"Monsieur Cerizet," said la Peyrade, beginning to assume a protecting +tone, and wishing to discover his late associate's place in Corentin's +confidence, "you seem to know a good deal about the secret intentions +of the government; have you found your way to a certain desk in the +rue de Grenelle?" + +"No. All that I tell you," said Cerizet, "I get from du Portail." + +"Ah ca!" said la Peyrade, lowering his voice, "who IS du Portail? You +seem to have known him for some time. A man of your force ought to +have discovered the real character of a man who seems to me to be +rather mysterious." + +"My friend," replied Cerizet, "du Portail is a pretty strong man. He's +an old slyboots, who has had some post, I fancy, in the administration +of the national domain, or something of that kind, under government; +in which, I think, he must have been employed in the departments +suppressed under the Empire." + +"Yes?" said la Peyrade. + +"That's where I think he made his money," continued Cerizet; "and +being a shrewd old fellow, and having a natural daughter to marry, he +has concocted this philanthropic tale of her being the daughter of an +old friend named Peyrade; and your name being the same may have given +him the idea of fastening upon you--for, after all, he has to marry +her to somebody." + +"Yes, that's all very well; but his close relations with the +government, and the interest he takes in elections, how do you explain +all that?" + +"Naturally enough," replied Cerizet. "Du Portail is a man who loves +money, and likes to handle it; he has done Rastignac, that great +manipulator of elections, who is, I think, his compatriot, several +signal services as an amateur; Rastignac, in return, gives him +information, obtained through Nucingen, which enables him to gamble at +the Bourse." + +"Did he himself tell you all this?" asked la Peyrade. + +"What do you take me for?" returned Cerizet. "With that worthy old +fellow, from whom I have already wormed a promise of thirty thousand +francs, I play the ninny; I flatten myself to nothing. But I've made +Bruneau talk, that old valet of his. You can safely ally yourself to +his family, my dear fellow; du Portail is powerfully rich; he'll get +you made sub-prefect somewhere; and thence to a prefecture and a +fortune is but one step." + +"Thanks for the information," said la Peyrade; "at least, I shall know +on which foot to hop. But you yourself, how came you to know him?" + +"Oh! that's quite a history; by my help he was able to get back a lot +of diamonds which had been stolen from him." + +At this moment Corentin entered the room. + +"All is well," he said to la Peyrade. "There are signs of returning +reason. Bianchon, to whom I have told all, wishes to confer with you; +therefore, my dear Monsieur Cerizet, we will postpone until this +evening, if you are willing, our little study over the Thuillier +election." + +"Well, so here you have him, at last!" said Cerizet, slapping la +Peyrade's shoulder. + +"Yes," said Corentin, "and you know what I promised; you may rely on +that." + +Cerizet departed joyful. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CHECKMATE TO THUILLIER + +The day after that evening, when Corentin, la Peyrade, and Cerizet +were to have had their consultation in reference to the attack on +Thuillier's candidacy, the latter was discussing with his sister +Brigitte the letter in which Theodose declined the hand of Celeste, +and his mind seemed particularly to dwell on the postscript where it +was intimated that la Peyrade might not continue the editor of the +"Echo de la Bievre." At this moment Henri, the "male domestic," +entered the room to ask if his master would receive Monsieur Cerizet. + +Thuillier's first impulse was to deny himself to that unwelcome +visitor. Then, thinking better of it, he reflected that if la Peyrade +suddenly left him in the lurch, Cerizet might possibly prove a +precious resource. Consequently, he ordered Henri to show him in. His +manner, however, was extremely cold, and in some sort expectant. As +for Cerizet, he presented himself without the slightest embarrassment +and with the air of a man who had calculated all the consequences of +the step he was taking. + +"Well, my dear monsieur," he began, "I suppose by this time you have +been posted as to the Sieur la Peyrade." + +"What may you mean by that?" said Thuillier, stiffly. + +"Well, the man," replied Cerizet, "who, after intriguing to marry your +goddaughter, breaks off the marriage abruptly--as he will, before +long, break that lion's-share contract he made you sign about his +editorship--can't be, I should suppose, the object of the same blind +confidence you formerly reposed in him." + +"Ah!" said Thuillier, hastily, "then do you know anything about la +Peyrade's intention of leaving the newspaper?" + +"No," said the other; "on the terms I now am with him, you can readily +believe we don't see each other; still less should I receive his +confidences. But I draw the induction from the well-known character of +the person, and you may be sure that when he finds it for his interest +to leave you, he'll throw you away like an old coat--I've passed that +way, and I speak from experience." + +"Then you must have had some difficulties with him before you joined +my paper?" said Thuillier, interrogatively. + +"Parbleu!" replied Cerizet; "the affair of this house which he helped +you to buy was mine; I started that hare. He was to put me in relation +with you, and make me the principal tenant of the house. But the +unfortunate affair of that bidding-in gave him a chance to knock me +out of everything and get all the profits for himself." + +"Profits!" exclaimed Thuillier. "I don't see that he got anything out +of that transaction, except the marriage which he now refuses--" + +"But," interrupted Cerizet, "there's the ten thousand francs he got +out of you on pretence of the cross which you never received, and the +twenty-five thousand he owes to Madame Lambert, for which you went +security, and which you will soon have to pay like a good fellow." + +"What's this I hear?" cried Brigitte, up in arms; "twenty-five +thousand francs for which you have given security?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle," interposed Cerizet; "behind that sum which this +woman had lent him there was a mystery, and if I had not laid my hand +on the true explanation, there would certainly have been a very dirty +ending to it. La Peyrade was clever enough not only to whitewash +himself in Monsieur Thuillier's eyes, but to get him to secure the +debt." + +"But," said Thuillier, "how do you know that I did give security for +that debt, if you have not seen him since then?" + +"I know it from the woman herself, who tells the whole story now she +is certain of being paid." + +"Well," said Brigitte to her brother, "a pretty business you are +engaged in!" + +"Mademoiselle," said Cerizet, "I only meant to warn Monsieur Thuillier +a little. I think myself that you are sure to be paid. Without knowing +the exact particulars of this new marriage, I am certain the family +would never allow him to owe you to such mortifying debts; if +necessary, I should be very glad to intervene." + +"Monsieur," said Thuillier, stiffly, "thanking you for your officious +intervention, permit me to say that it surprises me a little, for the +manner in which we parted would not have allowed me to hope it." + +"Ah ca!" said Cerizet; "you don't think I was angry with you for that, +do you? I pitied you, that was all. I saw you under the spell, and I +said to myself: 'Leave him to learn la Peyrade by experience.' I knew +very well that the day of justice would dawn for me, and before long, +too. La Peyrade is a man who doesn't make you wait for his +questionable proceedings." + +"Allow me to say," remarked Thuillier, "that I do not consider the +rupture of the marriage we had proposed a questionable proceeding. The +matter was arranged, I may say, by mutual consent." + +"And the trick he is going to play you by leaving the paper in the +lurch, and the debt he has saddled you with, what are they?" + +"Monsieur Cerizet," continued Thuillier, still holding himself on the +reserve, "as I have said more than once to la Peyrade, no man is +indispensable; and if the editorship of my paper becomes vacant, I +feel confident that I shall at once meet with persons very eager to +offer me their services." + +"Is it for me you say that?" asked Cerizet. "Well, you haven't hit the +nail; if you did me the honor to want my services it would be +impossible for me to grant them. I have long been disgusted with +journalism. I let la Peyrade, I hardly know why, persuade me to make +this campaign with you; it didn't turn out happily, and I have vowed +to myself to have no more to do with newspapers. It was about another +matter altogether than I came to speak to you." + +"Ah!" said Thuillier. + +"Yes," continued Cerizet, "remembering the business-like manner in +which you managed the affair of this house in which you do me the +honor to receive me, I thought I could not do better than to call your +attention to a matter of the same kind which I have just now in hand. +But I shall not do as la Peyrade did,--make a bargain for the hand of +your goddaughter, and profess great friendship and devotion to you +personally. This is purely business, and I expect to make my profit +out of it. Now, as I still desire to become the principal tenant of +this house,--the letting of which must be a care and a disappointment +to mademoiselle, for I saw as I came along that the shops were still +unrented,--I think that this lease to me, if you will make it, might +be reckoned in to my share of the profits. You see, monsieur, that the +object of my visit has nothing to do with the newspaper." + +"What is this new affair?" said Brigitte; "that's the first thing to +know." + +"It relates to a farm in Beauce, which has just been sold for a song, +and it is placed in my hands to resell, at an advance, but a small +one; you could really buy it, as the saying is, for a bit of bread." + +And Cerizet went on to explain the whole mechanism of the affair, +which we need not relate here, as no one but Brigitte would take any +interest in it. The statement was clear and precise, and it took close +hold on the old maid's mind. Even Thuillier himself, in spite of his +inward distrust, was obliged to own that the affair had all the +appearance of a good speculation. + +"Only," said Brigitte, "we must first see the farm ourselves." + +This, the reader will remember, was her answer to la Peyrade when he +first proposed the purchase of the house at the Madeleine. + +"Nothing is easier than that," said Cerizet. "I myself want to see it, +and I have been intending to make a little excursion there. If you +like, I'll be at your door this afternoon with a post-chaise, and +to-morrow morning, very early, we can examine the farm, breakfast at +some inn near by, and be back in time for dinner." + +"A post-chaise!" said Brigitte, "that's very lordly; why not take the +diligence?" + +"Diligences are so uncertain," replied Cerizet; "you never know at +what time they will get to a place. But you need not think about the +expense, for I should otherwise go alone, and I am only too happy to +offer you two seats in my carriage." + +To misers, small gains are often determining causes in great matters; +after a little resistance "pro forma," Brigitte ended by accepting the +proposal, and three hours later the trio were on the road to Chartres, +Cerizet having advised Thuillier not to let la Peyrade know of his +absence, lest he might take some unfair advantage of it. + +The next day, by five o'clock, the party had returned, and the brother +and sister, who kept their opinions to themselves in presence of +Cerizet, were both agreed that the purchase was a good one. They had +found the soil of the best quality, the buildings in perfect repair, +the cattle looked sound and healthy; in short, this idea of becoming +the mistress of rural property seemed to Brigitte the final +consecration of opulence. + +"Minard," she remarked, "has only a town-house and invested capital, +whereas we shall have all that and a country-place besides; one can't +be really rich without it." + +Thuillier was not sufficiently under the charm of that dream--the +realization of which was, in any case, quite distant--to forget, even +for a moment, the "Echo de la Bievre" and his candidacy. No sooner had +he reached home than he asked for the morning's paper. + +"It has not come," said the "male domestic." + +"That's a fine distribution, when even the owner of the paper is not +served!" cried Thuillier, discontentedly. + +Although it was nearly dinner-time, and after his journey he would +much rather have taken a bath than rush to the rue Saint-Dominique, +Thuillier ordered a cab and drove at once to the office of the "Echo." + +There a fresh disappointment met him. The paper "was made," as they +say, and all the employees had departed, even la Peyrade. As for +Coffinet, who was not to be found at his post of office-boy, nor yet +at his other post of porter, he had gone "of an errand," his wife +said, taking the key of the closet in which the remaining copies of +the paper were locked up. Impossible, therefore, to procure the number +which the unfortunate proprietor had come so far to fetch. + +To describe Thuillier's indignation would be impossible. He marched up +and down the room, talking aloud to himself, as people do in moments +of excitement. + +"I'll turn them all out!" he cried. And we are forced to omit the rest +of the furious objurgation. + +As he ended his anathema a rap was heard on the door. + +"Come in!" said Thuillier, in a tone that depicted his wrath and his +frantic impatience. + +The door opened, and Minard rushed precipitately into his arms. + +"My good, my excellent friend!" cried the mayor of the eleventh +arrondissement, concluding his embrace with a hearty shake of the +hand. + +"Why! what is it?" said Thuillier, unable to comprehend the warmth of +this demonstration. + +"Ah! my dear friend," continued Minard, "such an admirable proceeding! +really chivalrous! most disinterested! The effect, I assure you, is +quite stupendous in the arrondissement." + +"But what, I say?" cried Thuillier, impatiently. + +"The article, the whole action," continued Minard, "so noble, so +elevated!" + +"But what article? what action?" said the proprietor of the "Echo," +getting quite beside himself. + +"The article of this morning," said Minard. + +"The article of this morning?" + +"Ah ca! did you write it when you were asleep; or, like Monsieur +Jourdain doing prose, do you do heroism without knowing it?" + +"I! I haven't written any article!" cried Thuillier. "I have been away +from Paris for a day, and I don't even know what is in this morning's +paper; and the office-boy is not here to give me a copy." + +"I have one," said Minard, pulling the much desired paper from his +pocket. "If the article is not years you have certainly inspired it; +in any case, the deed is done." + +Thuillier hurriedly unfolded the sheet Minard had given him, and +devoured rather than read the following article:-- + + Long enough has the proprietor of this regenerated journal + submitted without complaint and without reply to the cowardly + insinuations with which a venal press insults all citizens who, + strong in their convictions, refuse to pass beneath the Caudine + Forks of power. Long enough has a man, who has already given + proofs of devotion and abnegation in the important functions of + the aedility of Paris, allowed these sheets to call him ambitious + and self-seeking. Monsieur Jerome Thuillier, strong in his + dignity, has suffered such coarse attacks to pass him with + contempt. Encouraged by this disdainful silence, the stipendiaries + of the press have dared to write that this journal, a work of + conviction and of the most disinterested patriotism, was but the + stepping-stone of a man, the speculation of a seeker for election. + Monsieur Jerome Thuillier has held himself impassible before these + shameful imputations because justice and truth are patient, and he + bided his time to scotch the reptile. That time has come. + +"That deuce of a Peyrade!" said Thuillier, stopping short; "how he +does touch it off!" + +"It is magnificent!" cried Minard. + +Reading aloud, Thuillier continued:-- + + Every one, friends and enemies alike, can bear witness that + Monsieur Jerome Thuillier has done nothing to seek a candidacy + which was offered to him spontaneously. + +"That's evident," said Thuillier, interrupting himself. Then he +resumed:-- + + But, since his sentiments are so odiously misrepresented, and his + intentions so falsely travestied, Monsieur Jerome Thuillier owes + it to himself, and above all to the great national party of which + he is the humblest soldier, to give an example which shall + confound the vile sycophants of power. + +"It is fine, the way la Peyrade poses me!" said Thuillier, pausing +once more in his reading. "I see now why he didn't send me the paper; +he wanted to enjoy my surprise--'confound the vile sycophants of +power!' how fine that is!" + +After which reflection, he continued:-- + + Monsieur Thuillier was so far from founding this journal of + dynastic opposition to support and promote his election that, at + the very moment when the prospects of that election seem most + favorable to himself and most disastrous to his rivals, he here + declares publicly, and in the most formal, absolute, and + irrevocable manner that he RENOUNCES HIS CANDIDACY. + +"What?" cried Thuillier, thinking he had read wrong, or had +misunderstood what he read. + +"Go on! go on!" said the mayor of the eleventh. + +Then, as Thuillier, with a bewildered air, seemed not disposed to +continue his reading, Minard took the paper from his hands and read +the rest of the article himself, beginning where the other had left +off:-- + + Renounces his candidacy; and he strongly urges the electors to + transfer to Monsieur Minard, mayor of the eleventh arrondissement + and his friend and colleague in his municipal functions, all the + votes with which they seemed about to honor him. + +"But this is infamous!" cried Thuillier, recovering his speech; "you +have bought that Jesuit la Peyrade." + +"So," said Minard, stupefied by Thuillier's attitude, "the article was +not agreed upon between you?" + +"The wretch has profited by my absence to slip it into the paper; I +understand now why he prevented a copy from reaching me to-day." + +"My dear friend," said Minard, "what you tell me will seem incredible +to the public." + +"I tell you it is treachery; it is an abominable trap. Renounce my +candidacy!--why should I?" + +"You understand, my dear friend," said Minard, "that I am truly sorry +if your confidence has been abused, but I have just issued my circular +manifesto; the die is cast, and luck to the lucky now." + +"Leave me," said Thuillier; "it is a comedy for which you have paid." + +"Monsieur Thuillier," said Minard, in a threatening voice, "I advise +you not to repeat those words, unless you are ready to give me +satisfaction for them." + +Happily for Thuillier, who, we may remember, had made his profession +of faith as to civic courage some time before, he was relieved from +answering by Coffinet, who now opened the door of the editorial +sanctum, and announced:-- + +"Messieurs the electors of the twelfth arrondissement." + +The arrondissement was represented on this occasion by five persons. +An apothecary, chairman of the deputation, proceeded to address +Thuillier in the following terms:-- + +"We have come, monsieur, after taking cognizance of an article +inserted this morning in the 'Echo de la Bievre,' to inquire of you +what may be precisely the origin and bearing of that article; thinking +it incredible that, having solicited our suffrages, you should, on the +eve of this election, and from a most mistaken puritanism, have cast +disorder and disunion into our ranks, and probably have caused the +triumph of the ministerial candidate. A candidate does not belong to +himself; he belongs to the electors who have promised to honor him +with their votes. But," continued the orator, casting his eye at +Minard, "the presence in these precincts of the candidate whom you +have gone out of your way to recommend to us, indicates that between +you and him there is connivance; and I have no need to ask who is +being here deceived." + +"No, messieurs, no," said Thuillier; "I have not renounced my +candidacy. That article was written and printed without my knowledge +or consent. To-morrow you will see the denial of it in the same paper, +and you will also learn that the infamous person who has betrayed my +confidence is no longer the editor of this journal." + +"Then," said the orator of the deputation, "in spite of your +declaration to the contrary, you do continue to be the candidate of +the Opposition?" + +"Yes, messieurs, until death; and I beg you to use your utmost +influence in the quarter to neutralize the effect of this deliberate +falsehood until I am able to officially present the most formal +disavowal." + +"Hear! hear!" said the electors. + +"And, as for the presence of Monsieur Minard, my competitor, in these +precincts, I have not invited it; and at the moment when you entered +this room, I was engaged in a very sharp and decided explanation with +him." + +"Hear! hear!" said the electors again. + +Then, after cordially shaking the hand of the apothecary, Thuillier +conducted the deputation to the outer door of the apartment; after +which, returning to the editorial sanctum, he said:-- + +"My dear Minard, I withdraw the words which wounded you; but you can +see now what justification I had for my indignation." + +Here Coffinet again opened the door and announced:-- + +"Messieurs the electors of the eleventh arrondissement." + +The arrondissement was represented this time by seven persons. A +linen-draper, chairman of the delegation, addressed Thuillier in the +following speech:-- + +"Monsieur, it is with sincere admiration that we have learned this +morning from the columns of your paper, the great civic act by which +you have touched all hearts. You have shown, in thus retiring, a most +unusual disinterestedness, and the esteem of your fellow-citizens--" + +"Excuse me," said Thuillier, interrupting him, "I cannot allow you to +continue; the article about which you are so good as to congratulate +me, was inserted by mistake." + +"What!" said the linen-draper; "then do you not retire? Can you +suppose that in opposition to the candidacy of Monsieur Minard (whose +presence in these precincts seems to me rather singular) you have the +slightest chance of success?" + +"Monsieur," said Thuillier, "have the goodness to request the electors +of your arrondissement to await the issue of to-morrow's paper, in +which I shall furnish categorical explanations of the most distinct +character. The article to-day is the result of a misunderstanding." + +"It will be a sad pity, monsieur," said the linen-draper, "if you lose +this occasion to place yourself in the eyes of your fellow-citizens +beside the Washingtons and other great men of antiquity." + +"I say again, TO-MORROW, messieurs," said Thuillier. "I am none the +less sensible to the honor you do me, and I trust that when you know +the whole truth, I shall not suffer in your esteem." + +"A pretty queer mess this seems to be," said the voice of an elector. + +"Yes," said another; "it looks as if they meant to bamboozle us." + +"Messieurs, messieurs!" cried the chairman, putting a stop to the +outbreak; "to-morrow--we will wait until to-morrow for the promised +explanations." + +Whereupon, the deputation retired. + +It is not likely that Thuillier would have accompanied them beyond the +door of the sanctum, but in any case he was prevented by the sudden +entrance of la Peyrade. + +"I have just come from your house, my dear fellow," said the +Provencal; "they told me I should find you here." + +"You have come, doubtless, for the purpose of explaining to me the +strange article you allowed yourself to insert in my name." + +"Precisely," said la Peyrade. "The remarkable man whom you know, and +whose powerful influence you have already felt, confided to me +yesterday, in your interests, the plans of the government, and I saw +at once that your defeat was inevitable. I wished therefore to secure +to you an honorable and dignified retreat. There was no time to lose; +you were absent from Paris, and therefore--" + +"Very good, monsieur," said Thuillier; "but you will take notice that +from the present moment you are no longer the editor of this paper." + +"That is what I came to tell you." + +"Perhaps you also came to settle the little account we have together." + +"Messieurs," said Minard, "I see that this is a business interview; I +shall therefore take leave of you." + +As soon as Minard had left the room, la Peyrade pulled out his pocket- +book. + +"Here are ten thousand francs," he said, "which I will beg you to +remit to Mademoiselle Brigitte; and here, also, is the bond by which +you secured the payment of twenty-five thousand francs to Madame +Lambert; that sum I have now paid in full, and here is the receipt." + +"Very good, monsieur," said Thuillier. + +La Peyrade bowed and went away. + +"Serpent!" said Thuillier as he watched him go. + +"Cerizet said the right thing," thought la Peyrade,--"a pompous +imbecile!" + +The blow struck at Thuillier's candidacy was mortal, but Minard did +not profit by it. While the pair were contending for votes, a +government man, an aide-de-camp to the king, arrived with his hands +full of tobacco licenses and other electoral small change, and, like +the third thief, he slipped between the two who were thumping each +other, and carried off the booty. + +It is needless to say that Brigitte did not get her farm in Beauce. +That was only a mirage, by help of which Thuillier was enticed out of +Paris long enough for la Peyrade to deal his blow,--a service rendered +to the government on the one hand, but also a precious vengeance for +the many humiliations he had undergone. + +Thuillier had certainly some suspicions as to the complicity of +Cerizet, but that worthy managed to justify himself; and by +manoeuvring the sale of the "Echo de la Bievre," now become a +nightmare to the luckless owner, he ended by appearing as white as +snow. + +The paper was secretly bought up by Corentin, and the late opposition +sheet became a "canard" sold on Sundays in the wine-shops and +concocted in the dens of the police. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN THE EXERCISE OF HIS FUNCTIONS + +About two months after the scene in which la Peyrade had been +convinced that through a crime of his past life his future was +irrevocably settled, he (being now married to his victim, who was +beginning to have lucid intervals, though the full return of her +reason would not take place until the occasion indicated by the +doctors) was sitting one morning with the head of the police in the +latter's office. Taking part in the work of the department, the young +man was serving an apprenticeship under that great master in the +difficult and delicate functions to which he was henceforth riveted. +But Corentin found that his pupil did not bring to this initiation all +the ardor and amiability that he desired. It was plain that in la +Peyrade's soul there was a sense of forfeiture and degradation; time +would get the better of that impression, but the callus was not yet +formed. + +Opening a number of sealed envelopes enclosing the reports of his +various agents, Corentin glanced over these documents, seldom as +useful as the public suppose, casting them one after another +contemptuously into a basket, whence they issued in a mass for a +burning. But to one of them the great man evidently gave some +particular attention; as he read it a smile flickered on his lips, and +when he had finished, instead of adding it to the pile in the basket, +he gave it to la Peyrade. + +"Here," he said, "here's something that concerns you; it shows that in +our profession, which just now seems to you unpleasantly serious, we +do occasionally meet with comedies. Read it aloud; it will cheer me +up." + +Before la Peyrade began to read, Corentin added:-- + +"I ought to tell you that the report is from a man called Henri, whom +Madame Komorn introduced as man-servant at the Thuilliers'; you +probably remember him." + +"So!" said la Peyrade, "servants placed in families! is that one of +your methods?" + +"Sometimes," replied Corentin; "in order to know all, we must use all +means. But a great many lies are told about us on that subject. It is +not true that the police, making a system of it, has, at certain +periods, by a general enrolment of lacqueys and lady's-maids, +established a vast network in private families. Nothing is fixed and +absolute in our manner of proceeding; we act in accordance with the +time and circumstances. I wanted an ear and an influence in the +Thuillier household; accordingly, I let loose the Godollo upon it, and +she, in turn, partly to assist herself, installed there one of our +men, an intelligent fellow, as you will see for yourself. But for all +that, if, at another time, a servant came and offered to sell me the +secrets of his master, I should have him arrested, and let a warning +reach the ears of the family to distrust the other servants. Now go +on, and read that report." + + Monsieur the Director of the Secret Police, + +read la Peyrade aloud,-- + + I did not stay long with the little baron; he is a man wholly + occupied in frivolous pleasures; and there was nothing to be + gathered there that was worthy of a report to you. I have found + another place, where I have already witnessed several thing which + fit into the mission that Madame de Godollo gave me, and + therefore, thinking them likely to interest you, I hasten to bring + them to your knowledge. The household in which I am now employed + is that of an old savant, named Monsieur Picot, who lives on a + first floor, Place de la Madeleine, in the house and apartment + formerly occupied by my late masters, the Thuilliers-- + +"What!" cried la Peyrade, interrupting his reading, "Pere Picot, that +ruined old lunatic, occupying such an apartment as that?" + +"Go on, go on!" said Corentin; "life is full of many strange things. +You'll find the explanation farther along; for our correspondent--it +is the defect of those fellows to waste themselves on details--is only +too fond of dotting his i's." + +La Peyrade read on:-- + + The Thuilliers left this apartment some weeks ago to return to + their Latin quarter. Mademoiselle Brigitte never really liked our + sphere; her total want of education made her ill at ease. Just + because I speak correctly, she was always calling me 'the orator,' + and she could not endure Monsieur Pascal, her porter, because, + being beadle in the church of the Madeleine, he had manners; she + even found something to say against the dealers in the great + market behind the church, where, of course, she bought her + provisions; she complained that they gave themselves CAPABLE airs, + merely because they are not so coarse-tongued as those of the + Halle, and only laughed at her when she tried to beat them down. + She has leased the whole house to a certain Monsieur Cerizet (a + very ugly man, with a nose all eaten away) for an annual rent of + fifty-five thousand francs. This tenant seems to know what he is + about. He has lately married an actress at one of the minor + theatres, Mademoiselle Olympe Cardinal, and he was just about to + occupy himself the first-floor apartment, where he proposed to + establish his present business, namely, insurance for the "dots" + of children, when Monsieur Picot, arriving from England with his + wife, a very rich Englishwoman, saw the apartment and offered such + a good price that Monsieur Cerizet felt constrained to take it. + That was the time when, by the help of M. Pascal, the porter, with + whom I have been careful to maintain good relations, I entered the + household of Monsieur Picot. + +"Monsieur Picot married to a rich Englishwoman!" exclaimed la Peyrade, +interrupting himself again; "but it is incomprehensible." + +"Go on, I tell you," said Corentin; "you'll comprehend it presently." + + The fortune of my new master, + +continued la Peyrade, + + is quite a history; and I speak of it to Monsieur le directeur + because another person in whom Madame de Godollo was interested + has his marriage closely mixed up in it. That other person is + Monsieur Felix Phellion, the inventor of a star, who, in despair + at not being able to marry that demoiselle whom they wanted to + give to the Sieur la Peyrade whom Madame de Godollo made such a + fool of-- + +"Scoundrel!" said the Provencal, in a parenthesis. "Is that how he +speaks of me? He doesn't know who I am." + +Corentin laughed heartily and exhorted his pupil to read on. + + --who, in despair at not being able to marry that demoiselle . . . + went to England in order to embark for a journey round the world-- + a lover's notion! Learning of this departure, Monsieur Picot, his + former professor, who took great interest in his pupil, went after + him to prevent that nonsense, which turned out not to be + difficult. The English are naturally very jealous of discoveries, + and when they saw Monsieur Phellion coming to embark at the heels + of their own savants they asked him for his permit from the + Admiralty; which, not having been provided, he could not produce; + so then they laughed in his face and would not let him embark at + all, fearing that he should prove more learned than they. + +"He is a fine hand at the 'entente cordiale,' your Monsieur Henri," +said la Peyrade, gaily. + +"Yes," replied Corentin; "you will be struck, in the reports of nearly +all our agents, with this general and perpetual inclination to +calumniate. But what's to be done? For the trade of spies we can't +have angels." + + Left upon the shore, Telemachus and his mentor-- + +"You see our men are lettered," commented Corentin. + + --Telemachus and his mentor thought best to return to France, and + were about to do so when Monsieur Picot received a letter such as + none but an Englishwoman could write. It told him that the writer + had read his "Theory of Perpetual Motion," and had also heard of + his magnificent discovery of a star; that she regarded him as a + genius only second to Newton, and that if the hand of her who + addressed him, joined to eighty thousand pounds sterling--that is, + two millions--of "dot," was agreeable to him it was at his + disposal. The first thought of the good man was to make his pupil + marry her, but finding that impossible, he told her, before + accepting on his own account, that he was old and three-quarters + blind, and had never discovered a star, and did not own a penny. + The Englishwoman replied that Milton was not young either, and was + altogether blind; that Monsieur Picot seemed to her to have + nothing worse than a cataract, for she knew all about it, being + the daughter of a great oculist, and she would have him operated + upon; that as for the star, she did not care so very much about + that; it was the author of the "Theory of Perpetual Motion" who + was the man of her dreams, and to whom she again offered her hand + with eighty thousand pounds sterling (two millions) of "dot." + Monsieur Picot replied that if his sight were restored and she + would consent to live in Paris, for he hated England, he would let + himself be married. The operation was performed and was + successful, and, at the end of three weeks the newly married pair + arrived in the capital. These details I obtained from the lady's + maid, with whom I am on the warmest terms. + +"Oh! the puppy!" said Corentin, laughing. + + The above is therefore hearsay, but what remains to be told to + Monsieur le directeur are facts of which I can speak "de visu," + and to which I am, consequently, in a position to certify. As + soon as Monsieur and Madame Picot had installed themselves, which + was done in the most sumptuous and comfortable manner, my master + gave me a number of invitations to dinner to carry to the + Thuillier family, the Colleville family, the Minard family, the + Abbe Gondrin, vicar of the Madeleine, and nearly all the guests + who were present at another dinner a few months earlier, when he + had an encounter with Mademoiselle Thuillier, and behaved, I must + say, in a rather singular manner. All the persons who received + these invitations were so astonished to learn that the old man + Picot had married a rich wife and was living in the Thuilliers' + old apartment that most of them came to inquire of Monsieur + Pascal, the porter, to see if they were hoaxed. The information + they obtained being honest and honorable, the whole society + arrived punctually on time; but Monsieur Picot did not appear. + The guests were received by Madame Picot, who does not speak + French and could only say, "My husband is coming soon"; after + which, not being able to make further conversation, the company + were dull and ill at ease. At last Monsieur Picot arrived, and all + present were stupefied on seeing, instead of an old blind man, + shabbily dressed, a handsome young elderly man, bearing his years + jauntily, like Monsieur Ferville of the Gymnase, who said with a + lively air: + + "I beg your pardon, mesdames, for not being here at the moment of + your arrival; but I was at the Academy of Sciences, awaiting the + result of an election,--that of Monsieur Felix Phellion, who has + been elected unanimously less three votes." + + This news seemed to have a great effect upon the company. So then + Monsieur Picot resumed:-- + + "I must also, mesdames, ask your pardon for the rather improper + manner in which I behaved a short time ago in the house where we + are now assembled. My excuse must be my late infirmity, the + annoyances of a family lawsuit, and of an old housekeeper who + robbed me and tormented me in a thousand ways, from whom I am + happily delivered. To-day you see me another man, rejuvenated and + rich with the blessings bestowed upon me by the amiable woman who + has given me her hand; and I should be in the happiest frame of + mind to receive you if the recollection of my young friend, whose + eminence as a man of science has just been consecrated by the + Academy, did not cast upon my mind a veil of sadness. All here + present," continued Monsieur Picot, raising his voice, which is + rather loud, "are guilty towards him: I, for ingratitude when he + gave me the glory of his discovery and the reward of his immortal + labors; that young lady, whom I see over there with tears in her + eyes, for having foolishly accused him of atheism; that other + lady, with the stern face, for having harshly replied to the + proposals of his noble father, whose white hairs she ought rather + to have honored; Monsieur Thuillier, for having sacrificed him to + ambition; Monsieur Colleville, for not performing his part of + father and choosing for his daughter the worthiest and most + honorable man; Monsieur Minard, for having tried to foist his son + into his place. There are but two persons in the room at this + moment who have done him full justice,--Madame Thuillier and + Monsieur l'Abbe Gondrin. Well, I shall now ask that man of God + whether we can help doubting the divine justice when this generous + young man, the victim of all of us, is, at the present hour, at + the mercy of waves and tempests, to which for three long years he + is consigned." + + "Providence is very powerful, monsieur," replied the Abbe Gondrin. + "God will protect Monsieur Felix Phellion wherever he may be, and + I have the firmest hope that three years hence he will be among + his friends once more." + + "But three years!" said Monsieur Picot. "Will it still be time? + Will Mademoiselle Colleville have waited for him?" + + "Yes, I swear it!" cried the young girl, carried away by an + impulse she could not control. + + Then she sat down again, quite ashamed, and burst into tears. + + "And you, Mademoiselle Thuillier, and you, Madame Colleville, will + you permit this young lady to reserve herself for one who is + worthy of her?" + + "Yes! Yes!" cried everybody; for Monsieur Picot's voice, which is + very full and sonorous, seemed to have tears in it and affected + everybody. + + "Then it is time," he said, "to forgive Providence." + + And rushing suddenly to the door, where my ear was glued to the + keyhole, he very nearly caught me. + + "Announce," he said to me, in a very loud tone of voice, "Monsieur + Felix Phellion and his family." + + And thereupon the door of a side room opened, and five or six + persons came out, who were led by Monsieur Picot into the salon. + + At the sight of her LOVER, Mademoiselle Colleville was taken ill, + but the faint lasted only a minute; seeing Monsieur Felix at her + feet she threw herself into Madame Thuillier's arms, crying out:-- + + "Godmother! you always told me to hope." + + Mademoiselle Thuillier, who, in spite of her harsh nature and want + of education, I have always myself thought a remarkable woman, now + had a fine impulse. As the company were about to go into the + dining-room,-- + + "One moment!" she said. + + Then going up to Monsieur Phellion, senior, she said to him: + + "Monsieur and old friend! I ask you for the hand of Monsieur Felix + Phellion for our adopted daughter, Mademoiselle Colleville." + + "Bravo! bravo!" they call cried in chorus. + + "My God!" said Monsieur Phellion, with tears in his eyes; "what + have I done to deserve such happiness?" + + "You have been an honest man and a Christian without knowing it," + replied the Abbe Gondrin. + +Here la Peyrade flung down the manuscript. + +"You did not finish it," said Corentin, taking back the paper. +"However, there's not much more. Monsieur Henri confesses to me that +the scene had MOVED HIM; he also says that, knowing the interest I had +formerly taken in the marriage, he thought he ought to inform me of +its conclusion; ending with a slightly veiled suggestion of a fee. No, +stay," resumed Corentin, "here is a detail of some importance:--" + + The English woman seems to have made it known during dinner that, + having no heirs, her fortune, after the lives of herself and her + husband, will go to Felix. That will make him powerfully rich one + of these days. + +La Peyrade had risen and was striding about the room with rapid steps. + +"Well," said Corentin, "what is the matter with you?" + +"Nothing." + +"That is not true," said the great detective. "I think you envy the +happiness of that young man. My dear fellow, permit me to tell you +that if such a conclusion were to your taste, you should have acted as +he has done. When I sent you two thousand francs on which to study +law, I did not intend you to succeed me; I expected you to row your +galley laboriously, to have the needful courage for obscure and +painful toil; your day would infallibly have come. But you chose to +violate fortune--" + +"Monsieur!" + +"I mean hasten it, reap it before it ripened. You flung yourself into +journalism; then into business, questionable business; you made +acquaintance with Messieurs Dutocq and Cerizet. Frankly, I think you +fortunate to have entered the port which harbors you to-day. In any +case, you are not sufficiently simple of heart to have really valued +the joys reserved for Felix Phellion. These bourgeois--" + +"These bourgeois," said la Peyrade, quickly,--"I know them now. They +have great absurdities, great vices even, but they have virtues, or, +at the least, estimable qualities; in them lies the vital force of our +corrupt society." + +"YOUR society!" said Corentin, smiling; "you speak as if you were +still in the ranks. You have another sphere, my dear fellow; and you +must learn to be more content with your lot. Governments pass, +societies perish or dwindle; but we--WE dominate all things; the +police is eternal." + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + Note.--This volume ("Les Petits Bourgeois") was not published + until 1854, more than three years after Balzac's death; although + he says of it in March, 1844: "I must tell you that my work + entitled 'Les Petits Bourgeois,' owing to difficulties of + execution, requires still a month's labor, although the book is + entirely written." And again, in October, 1846, he says: "It is to + such scruples" (care in perfecting his work) "that delays which + have injured several of my works are due; for instance, 'Les + Paysans,' which has long been nearly finished, and 'Les Petits + Bourgeois,' which has been in type at the printing office for the + last eighteen months." + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Barbet + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Man of Business + The Seamy Side of History + The Middle Classes + +Baudoyer, Isidore + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Beaumesnil, Mademoiselle + The Middle Classes + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Second Home + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Bousquier, Du (or Du Croisier or Du Bourguier) + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Middle Classes + +Brisetout, Heloise + Cousin Betty + Cousin Pons + The Middle Classes + +Bruel, Jean Francois du + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + A Prince of Bohemia + The Middle Classes + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + +Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Prince of Bohemia + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Middle Classes + +Bruno + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Cardot (Parisian notary) + The Muse of the Department + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Cerizet + Lost Illusions + A Man of Business + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Chaffaroux + Cesar Birotteau + A Prince of Bohemia + The Middle Classes + +Claparon, Charles + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + Melmoth Reconciled + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Cochin, Emile-Louis-Lucien-Emmanuel + Cesar Birotteau + The Government Clerks + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + +Colleville + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Colleville, Flavie Minoret, Madame + The Government Clerks + Cousin Betty + The Middle Classes + +Corentin + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Couture + Beatrix + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + +Crochard, Charles + A Second Home + The Middle Classes + +Desroches (son) + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + A Start in Life + A Woman of Thirty + The Commission in Lunacy + The Government Clerks + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Dutocq + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Fleury + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Galathionne, Prince and Princess (both not in each story) + The Secrets of a Princess + The Middle Classes + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + +Godard, Joseph + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie + Colonel Chabert + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Start in Life + The Commission in Lunacy + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Grassou, Pierre + Pierre Grassou + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Betty + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Grindot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + +Katt + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + +La Peyrade, Charles-Marie-Theodose de + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +La Peyrade, Madame de + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +La Roche-Hugon, Martial de + Domestic Peace + The Peasantry + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + +Laudigeois + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Metivier + Lost Illusions + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Metivier (nephew) + The Seamy Side of History + The Middle Classes + +Minard, Auguste-Jean-Francois + The Government Clerks + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + +Minard, Madame + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Phellion + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Poiret, the elder + The Government Clerks + Father Goriot + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Poiret, Madame (nee Christine-Michelle Michonneau) + Father Goriot + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Popinot, Jean-Jules + Cesar Birotteau + Honorine + The Commission in Lunacy + The Seamy Side of History + The Middle Classes + +Rabourdin, Xavier + The Government Clerks + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + +Saillard + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Thuillier + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Thuillier, Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Thuillier, Louis-Jerome + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Pierrette + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Vinet + Pierrette + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Vinet, Olivier + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Pons + The Middle Classes + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Lesser Bourgeoisie, by de Balzac + diff --git a/old/lsbrg10.zip b/old/lsbrg10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..953e76a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lsbrg10.zip |