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

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

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