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

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