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

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