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

"this honest go-between

had some interest in exaggerating my value. One thing is very sure;

this monsieur had a debt of twenty-five thousand francs which harassed

him much; and a short time before the seizure this same monsieur, who

had no means of his own, paid off that debt; and unless you can tell

me where else he got the money, the inference I think is not difficult

to draw."

 

It was la Peyrade's turn to look fixedly at Thuillier.

 

"Monsieur Thuillier," he said, raising his voice, "let us get out of

enigmas and generalities; will you do me the favor to name that

person?"

 

"Well, no," replied Thuillier, striking his hand upon the table, "I

shall not name him, because of the sentiments of esteem and affection

which formerly united us; but you have understood me, Monsieur la

Peyrade."

 

"I ought to have known," said the Provencal, in a voice changed by

emotion, "that in bringing a serpent to this place I should soon be

soiled by his venom. Poor fool! do you not see that you have made

yourself the echo of Cerizet's calumny?"

 

"Cerizet has nothing to do with it; on the contrary, he has told me

the highest good of you. How was it, not having a penny the night

before,--and I had reason to know it,--that you were able to pay

Dutocq the round sum of twenty-five thousand francs the next day?"

 

La Peyrade reflected for a moment.

 

"No," he said, "it was not Dutocq who told you that. He is not a man

to wrestle with an enemy of my strength without a strong interest in

It was Cerizet; he's the infamous calumniator, from whose hands I

wrenched the lease of your house near the Madeleine,--Cerizet, whom in

kindness, I went to seek on his dunghill that I might give him the

chance of honorable employment; that is the wretch, to whom a benefit

is only an encouragement to treachery. Tiens! if I were to tell you

what that man is I should turn you sick with disgust; in the sphere of

infamy he has discovered worlds."

 

This time Thuillier made an able reply.

 

"I don't know anything about Cerizet except through you," he said;

"you introduced him to me as a manager, offering every guarantee; but,

allowing him to be blacker than the devil, and supposing that this

communication comes from him, I don't see, my friend, that all that

makes YOU any the whiter."

 

"No doubt I was to blame," said la Peyrade, "for putting such a man

into relations with you; but we wanted some one who understood

journalism, and that value he really had for us. But who can ever

sound the depths of souls like his? I thought him reformed. A manager,

I said to myself, is only a machine; he can do no harm. I expected to

find him a man of straw; well, I was mistaken, he will never be

anything but a man of mud."

 

"All that is very fine," said Thuillier, "but those twenty-five

thousand francs found so conveniently in your possession, where did

you get them? That is the point you are forgetting to explain."

 

"But to reason about it," said la Peyrade; "a man of my character in

the pay of the police and yet so poor that I could not pay the ten

thousand francs your harpy of a sister demanded with an insolence

which you yourself witnessed--"

 

"But," said Thuillier, "if the origin of this money is honest, as I

sincerely desire it may be, what hinders you from telling me how you

got it?"

 

"I cannot," said la Peyrade; "the history of that money is a secret

entrusted to me professionally."

 

"Come, come, you told me yourself that the statutes of your order

forbid all barristers from doing business of any kind."

 

"Let us suppose," said la Peyrade, "that I have done something not

absolutely regular; it would be strange indeed after what I risked, as

you know, for you, if you should have the face to reproach me with

it."

 

"My poor friend, you are trying to shake off the hounds; but you can't

make me lose the scent. You wish to keep your secret; then keep it. I

am master of my own confidence and my own esteem; by paying you the

forfeit stipulated in our deed I take the newspaper into my own

hands."

 

"Do you mean that you dismiss me?" cried la Peyrade. "The money that

you have put into the affair, all your chances of election, sacrificed

to the calumnies of such a being as Cerizet!"

 

"In the first place," said Thuillier, "another editor-in-chief can be

found; it is a true saying that no man is indispensable. As for

election to the Chamber I would rather never receive it than owe it to

the help of one who--"

 

"Go on," said la Peyrade, seeing that Thuillier hesitated, "or rather,

no, be silent, for you will presently blush for your suspicions and

ask my pardon humbly."

 

By this time la Peyrade saw that without a confession to which he must

compel himself, the influence and the future he had just recovered

would be cut from under his feet. Resuming his speech he said,

solemnly:--

 

"You will remember, my friend, that you were pitiless, and, by

subjecting me to a species of moral torture, you have forced me to

reveal to you a secret that is not mine."

 

"Go on," said Thuillier, "I take the whole responsibility upon myself.

Make me see the truth clearly in this darkness, and if I have done

wrong I will be the first to say so."

 

"Well," said la Peyrade, "those twenty-five thousand francs are the

savings of a servant-woman who came to me and asked me to take them

and to pay her interest."

 

"A servant with twenty-five thousand francs of savings! Nonsense; she

must serve in monstrously rich households."

 

"On the contrary, she is the one servant of an infirm old savant; and

it was on account of the discrepancy which strikes your mind that she

wanted to put her money in my hands as a sort of trustee."

 

"Bless me! my friend," said Thuillier, flippantly, "you said we were

in want of a romance-feuilletonist; but really, after this, I sha'n't

be uneasy. Here's imagination for you!"

 

"What?" said la Peyrade, angrily, "you don't believe me?"

 

"No, I do not believe you. Twenty-five thousand francs savings in the

service of an old savant! that is about as believable as the officer

of La Dame Blanche buying a chateau with his pay."

 

"But if I prove to you the truth of my words; if I let you put your

finger upon it?"

 

"In that case, like Saint Thomas, I shall lower my flag before the

evidence. Meanwhile you must permit me, my noble friend, to wait until

you offer me that proof."

 

Thuillier felt really superb.

 

"I'd give a hundred francs," he said to himself, "if Brigitte could

have been here and heard me impeach him."

 

"Well," said la Peyrade, "suppose that without leaving this office,

and by means of a note which you shall read, I bring into your

presence the person from whom I received the money; if she confirms

what I say will you believe me?"

 

This proposal and the assurance with which it was made rather

staggered Thuillier.

 

"I shall know what to do when the time comes," he replied, changing

his tone. "But this must be done at once, now, here."

 

"I said, without leaving this office. I should think that was clear

enough."

 

"And who will carry the note you write?" asked Thuillier, believing

that by thus examining every detail he was giving proofs of amazing

perspicacity.

 

"Carry the note! why, your own porter of course," replied la Peyrade;

"you can send him yourself."

 

"Then write it," said Thuillier, determined to push him to the wall.

 

La Peyrade took a sheet of paper with the new heading and wrote as

follows, reading the note aloud:--

 

Madame Lambert is requested to call at once, on urgent business,

at the office of the "Echo de la Bievre," rue Saint-Dominique

d'Enfer. The bearer of this note will conduct her. She is awaited

impatiently by her devoted servant,

 

                                 Theodose de la Peyrade.

 

 

"There, will that suit you?" said the barrister, passing the paper to

Thuillier.

 

"Perfectly," replied Thuillier, taking the precaution to fold the

letter himself and seal it. "Put the address," he added.

 

Then he rang the bell for the porter.

 

"You will carry this letter to its address," he said to the man, "and

bring back with you the person named. But will she be there?" he

asked, on reflection.

 

"It is more than probable," replied la Peyrade; "in any case, neither

you nor I will leave this room until she comes. This matter must be

cleared up."

 

"Then go!" said Thuillier to the porter, in a theatrical tone.

 

When they were alone, la Peyrade took up a newspaper and appeared to

be absorbed in its perusal.

 

Thuillier, beginning to get uneasy as to the upshot of the affair,

regretted that he had not done something the idea of which had come to

him just too late.

 

"Yes, I ought," he said to himself, "to have torn up that letter, and

not driven him to prove his words."

 

Wishing to do something that might look like retaining la Peyrade in

the position of which he had threatened to deprive him, he remarked

presently:--

 

"By the bye, I have just come from the printing-office; the new type

has arrived, and I think we might make our first appearance

to-morrow."

 

La Peyrade did not answer; but he got up and took his paper nearer to

the window.

 

"He is sulky," thought Thuillier, "and if he is innocent, he may well

But, after all, why did he ever bring a man like that Cerizet

here?"

 

Then to hide his embarrassment and the preoccupation of his mind, he

sat down before the editor's table, took a sheet of the head-lined

paper and made himself write a letter.

 

Presently la Peyrade returned to the table and sitting down, took

another sheet and with the feverish rapidity of a man stirred by some

emotion he drove his pen over the paper.

 

From the corner of his eye, Thuillier tried hard to see what la

Peyrade was writing, and noticing that his sentences were separated by

numbers placed between brackets, he said:--

 

"Tiens! are you drawing up a parliamentary law?"

 

"Yes," replied la Peyrade, "the law of the vanquished."

 

Soon after this, the porter opened the door and introduced Madame

Lambert, whom he had found at home, and who arrived looking rather

frightened.

 

"You are Madame Lambert?" asked Thuillier, magisterially.

 

"Yes, monsieur," said the woman, in an anxious voice.

 

After requesting her to be seated and noticing that the porter was

still there as if awaiting further orders he said to the man:--

 

"That will do; you may go; and don't let any one disturb us."

 

The gravity and the lordly tone assumed by Thuillier only increased

Madame Lambert's uneasiness. She came expecting to see only la

Peyrade, and she found herself received by an unknown man with a

haughty manner, while the barrister, who had merely bowed to her, said

not a word; moreover, the scene took place in a newspaper office, and

it is a well-known fact that to pious persons especially all that

relates to the press is infernal and diabolical.

 

"Well," said Thuillier to the barrister, "it seems to me that nothing

hinders you from explaining to madame why you have sent for her."

 

In order to leave no loophole for suspicion in Thuillier's mind la

Peyrade knew that he must put his question bluntly and without the

slightest preparation; he therefore said to her "ex abrupto":--

 

"We wish to ask you, madame, if it is not true that about two and a

half months ago you placed in my hands, subject to interest, the sum,

in round numbers, of twenty-five thousand francs."

 

Though she felt the eyes of Thuillier and those of la Peyrade upon

her, Madame Lambert, under the shock of this question fired at her

point-blank, could not restrain a start.

 

"Heavens!" she exclaimed, "twenty-five thousand francs! and where

should I get such a sum as that?"

 

La Peyrade gave no sign on his face of the vexation he might be

supposed to feel. As for Thuillier, who now looked at him with

sorrowful commiseration, he merely said:--

 

"You see, my friend!"

 

"So," resumed la Peyrade, "you are very certain that you did not place

in my hands the sum of twenty-five thousand francs; you declare this,

you affirm it?"

 

"Why, monsieur! did you ever hear of such a sum as that in the pocket

of a poor woman like me? The little that I had, as everybody knows,

has gone to eke out the housekeeping of that poor dear gentleman whose

servant I have been for more than twenty years."

 

"This," said Thuillier, pompously, "seems to me categorical."

 

La Peyrade still did not show the slightest sign of annoyance; on the

contrary, he seemed to be playing into Thuillier's hand.

 

"You hear, my dear Thuillier," he said, "and if necessary I shall