The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac (freenovel24 TXT) 📖

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