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

sold itself to

England. The arrondissement needed a man of such tried convictions to

represent it in the Chamber,--a man holding high and firm the banner

of dynastic opposition, a man who would be, by the mere signification

of his name, a stern lesson given to the authorities."

 

Enforced by an able commentary from la Peyrade, this letter was signed

by Barbet and Metivier and all Brigitte's tradesmen (whom, in view of

the election she had continued to employ since her emigration); also

by the family doctor and apothecary, and by Thuillier's builder, and

Barniol, Phellion's son-in-law, who professed to hold rather

"advanced" political opinions. As for Phellion himself, he thought the

wording of the letter not altogether circumspect, and--always without

fear as without reproach--however much he might expect that this

refusal would injure his son in his dearest interests, he bravely

refrained from signing it.

 

This trial kite had the happiest effect. The ten or a dozen names thus

put forward were considered to express the will of the electors and

were called "the voice of the quarter." Thus Thuillier's candidacy

made from the start such rapid progress that Minard hesitated to put

his own claims in opposition.

 

Delighted now with the course of events, Brigitte was the first to say

that the time had come to attend to the marriage, and Thuillier was

all the more ready to agree because, from day to day, he feared he

might be called upon to pay the twenty-five thousand francs to Madame

Lambert for which he had pledged himself. A thorough explanation now

took place between la Peyrade and the old maid. She told him honestly

of the fear she felt as to the maintenance of her sovereign authority

when a _son-in-law_ of his mind and character was established in the

household.

 

"If we," she ended by saying, "are to oppose each other for the rest

of our days, it would be much better, from the beginning, to make two

households; we shouldn't be the less friends for that."

 

La Peyrade replied that nothing under the sun would induce him to

consent to such a plan; on the contrary, he regarded as amongst his

happiest prospects for the future the security he should feel about

the wise management of the material affairs of the home in such hands

as hers. He should have enough to do in the management of outside

interests, and he could not comprehend, for his part, how she could

suppose he had ever had the thought of interfering in matters that

were absolutely out of his province. In short, he reassured her so

completely that she urged him to take immediate steps for the

publication of the banns and the signature of the marriage contract,

--declaring that she reserved to herself all the preparations relating

to Celeste, whose acceptance of this sudden conclusion she pledged

herself to secure.

 

"My dear child," she said to Celeste the next morning, "I think you

have given up all idea of being Felix Phellion's wife. In the first

place, he is more of an atheist than ever, and, besides, you must have

noticed yourself that his mind is quite shaky. You have seen at Madame

Minard's that Madame Marmus, who married a savant, officer of the

Legion of honor, and member of the Institute. There's not a more

unhappy woman; her husband has taken her to live behind the

Luxembourg, in the rue Duguay-Trouin, a street that is neither paved

nor lighted. When he goes out, he doesn't know where he is going; he

gets to the Champ de Mars when he wants to go to the Faubourg

Poissoniere; he isn't even capable of giving his address to the driver

of a street cab; and he is so absent-minded he couldn't tell if it

were before dinner or after. You can imagine what sort of time a woman

must have with a man whose nose is always at a telescope snuffing

stars."

 

"But Felix," said Celeste, "is not as absent-minded as that."

 

"Of course not, because he is younger; but with years his

absent-mindedness and his atheism will both increase. We have therefore

decided that he is not the husband you want, and we all, your mother,

father, Thuillier and myself, have determined that you shall take la

Peyrade, a man of the world, who will make his way, and one who has

done us great services in the past, and who will, moreover, make your

godfather deputy. We are disposed to give you, in consideration of

him, a much larger 'dot' than we should give to any other husband. So,

my dear, it is settled; the banns are to be published immediately, and

this day week we sign the contract. There's to be a great dinner for

the family and intimates, and after that a reception, at which the

contract will be signed and your trousseau and corbeille exhibited. As

I take all that into my own hands I'll answer for it that everything

shall be of the best kind; especially if you are not babyish, and give

in pleasantly to our ideas."

 

"But, aunt Brigitte," began Celeste, timidly.

 

"There's no 'but,' in the matter," said the old maid, imperiously; "it

is all arranged, and will be carried out, unless, mademoiselle, you

pretend to have more wisdom than your elders."

 

"I will do as you choose, aunt," replied Celeste, feeling as if a

thunder-cloud had burst upon her head, and knowing but too well that

she had no power to struggle against the iron will which had just

pronounced her doom.

 

She went at once to pour her sorrows into Madame Thuillier's soul; but

when she heard her godmother advising patience and resignation the

poor child felt that from that feeble quarter she could get no help

for even the slightest effort of resistance, and that her sacrifice

was virtually accomplished.

 

Precipitating herself with a sort of frenzy into the new element of

activity thus introduced into her life, Brigitte took the field in the

making of the trousseau and the purchase of the corbeille. Like many

misers, who on great occasions come out of their habits and their

nature, the old maid now thought nothing too good for her purpose; and

she flung her money about so lavishly that until the day appointed for

the signing of the contract, the jeweller, dressmaker, milliner,

lingere, etc. (all chosen from the best establishments in Paris),

seemed to occupy the house.

 

"It is like a procession," said Josephine, the cook, admiringly, to

Francoise, the Minards' maid; "the bell never stops ringing from

morning till night." 

CHAPTER XII (A STAR)

The dinner on the great occasion was ordered from Chabot and Potel,

and not from Chevet, by which act Brigitte intended to prove her

initiative and her emancipation from the late Madame de Godollo. The

invited guests were as follows: three Collevilles, including the

bride, la Peyrade the groom, Dutocq and Fleury, whom he had asked to

be his witnesses, the extremely limited number of his relatives

leaving him no choice, Minard and Rabourdin, chosen as witnesses for

Celeste, Madame and Mademoiselle Minard and Minard junior, two of

Thuillier's colleagues in the Council-general; the notary Dupuis,

charged with the duty of drawing up the contract, and lastly, the Abbe

Gondrin, director of the consciences of Madame Thuillier and Celeste,

who was to give the nuptial blessing.

 

The latter was the former vicar of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas, whose

great refinement of manner and gift of preaching had induced the

archbishop to remove him from the humble parish where his career had

begun to the aristocratic church of the Madeleine. Since Madame

Thuillier and Celeste had again become his parishioners, the young

abbe visited them occasionally, and Thuillier, who had gone to him to

explain, after his own fashion, the suitableness of the choice made

for Celeste in the person of la Peyrade (taking pains as he did so to

cast reflections on the religious opinions of Felix Phellion), had

easily led him to contribute by his persuasive words to the

resignation of the victim.

 

When the time came to sit down to table three guests were missing,

--two Minards, father and son, and the notary Dupuis. The latter had

written a note to Thuillier in the morning, excusing himself from the

dinner, but saying that at nine o'clock precisely he would bring the

contract and place himself at the orders of Mademoiselle Thuillier. As

for Julien Minard, his mother excused him as being confined to his

room with a sore-throat. The absence of Minard senior remained

unexplained, but Madame Minard insisted that they should sit down to

table without him; which was done, Brigitte ordering that the soup be

kept hot for him, because in the bourgeois code of manners and customs

a dinner without soup is no dinner at all.

 

The repast was far from gay, and though the fare was better, the

vivacity and the warmth of the conversation was far, indeed, from that

of the famous improvised banquet at the time of the election to the

Council-general. The gaps occasioned by the absence of three guests

may have been one reason; then Flavie was glum; she had had an

interview with la Peyrade in the afternoon which ended in tears;

Celeste, even if she had been content with the choice imposed on her,

would scarcely, as a matter of propriety, have seemed joyful; in fact,

she made no effort to brighten a sad face, and dared not look at her

godmother, whose own countenance gave the impression, if we may so

express it, of the long bleating of a sheep. The poor girl seeing this

feared to exchange a look with her lest she might drive her to tears.

Thuillier now felt himself, on all sides, of such importance that he

was pompous and consequential; while Brigitte, uneasy out of her own

world, where she could lord it over every one without competition,

seemed constrained and embarrassed.

 

Colleville tried by a few jovialities to raise the temperature of the

assemblage; but the coarse salt of his witticisms had an effect, in

the atmosphere in which he produced them, of a loud laugh in a

sick-chamber; and a mute intimation from his wife, Thuillier, and la

Peyrade to _behave himself_ put a stopper on his liveliness and

turbulent expansion. It was somewhat remarkable that the gravest

member of the party, aided by Rabourdin, was the person who finally

warmed up the atmosphere. The Abbe Gondrin, a man of a most refined

and cultivated mind, had, like every pure and well-ordered soul, a

fund of gentle gaiety which he was well able to communicate, and

liveliness was beginning to dawn upon the party when Minard entered

the room.

 

After making his excuses on the ground of important duties, the mayor

of the eleventh arrondissement, who was in the habit of taking the

lead in the conversation wherever he went, said, having swallowed a

few hasty mouthfuls:--

 

"Messieurs and mesdames, have you heard the great news?"

 

"No, what is it?" cried several voices at once.

 

"The Academy of Sciences received, to-day, at its afternoon session,

the announcement of a vast discovery: the heavens possess a new star!"

 

"Tiens!" said Colleville; "that will help to replace the one that

Beranger thought was lost when he grieved (to that air of 'Octavie')

over Chateaubriand's departure: 'Chateaubriand, why fly thy land?'"

 

This quotation, which he sang, exasperated Flavie, and if the custom

had been for wives to sit next to their husbands, the former clarionet

of the Opera-Comique would not have escaped with a mere "Colleville!"

imperiously calling him to order.

 

"The point which gives this great astronomical event a special

interest on this occasion," continued Minard, "is that the author of

the discovery is a denizen of the twelfth arrondissement, which many

of you still inhabit, or have inhabited. But other points are striking

in this great scientific fact. The Academy, on the reading of the

communication which announced it, was so convinced of the existence of

this star that a deputation was appointed to visit the domicile of the

modern Galileo and compliment him in the name of the whole body. And

yet this star is not visible to either the eye or the telescope! It is

only by the power of calculation and induction that its existence