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

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