The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac (freenovel24 TXT) 📖
- Author: Honore de Balzac
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deference and submission.
"It seems," said Brigitte, re-entering the salon, "that Thuillier
finds some great interest in that creature's talk, for he ordered me
bluntly to leave them, though the little old fellow did say, rather
civilly, that they would soon be through. But Jerome added: '_Mind_,
you are to wait for me.' Really, since he has taken to making
newspapers I don't know him; he has set up an air as if he were
leading the world with his wand."
"I am very much afraid he is being entangled by some adventurer," said
la Peyrade. "I am pretty sure I saw that old man at Madame de
Godollo's the day I went to warn her off the premises; he must be of
the same stripe."
"Why didn't you tell me?" cried Brigitte. "I'd have asked him for news
of the countess, and let him see we knew what we knew of his
Hungarian."
Just then the sound of moving chairs was heard, and Brigitte darted
back to the keyhole.
"Yes," she said, "he is really going, and Thuillier is bowing him out
respectfully!"
As Thuillier did not immediately return, Colleville had time to go to
the window and exclaim at seeing the little old gentleman driving away
in an elegant coupe, of which the reader has already heard.
"The deuce!" cried Colleville; "what an ornate livery! If he is an
adventurer he is a number one."
At last Thuillier re-entered the room, his face full of care, his
manner extremely grave.
"My dear la Peyrade," he said, "you did not tell us that another
proposal of marriage had been seriously considered by you."
"Yes, I did; I told you that a very rich heiress had been offered to
me, but that my inclinations were here, and that I had not given any
encouragement to the affair; consequently, of course, there was no
serious engagement."
"Well, I think you do wrong to treat that proposal so lightly."
"What! do you mean to say, in presence of these ladies, that you blame
me for remaining faithful to my first desires and our old engagement?"
"My friend, the conversation that I have just had has been a most
instructive one to me; and when you know what I know, with other
details personal to yourself, which will be confided to you, I think
that you will enter into my ideas. One thing is certain; we shall not
go to the notary to-day; and as for you, the best thing that you can
do is to go, without delay, to Monsieur du Portail."
"That name again! it pursues me like a remorse," exclaimed la Peyrade.
"Yes; go at once; he is awaiting you. It is an indispensable
preliminary before we can go any farther. When you have seen that
excellent man and heard what he has to say to you--well, _then_ if you
persist in claiming Celeste's hand, we might perhaps carry out our
plans. Until then we shall take no steps in the matter."
"But, my poor Thuillier," said Brigitte, "you have let yourself be
gammoned by a rascal; that man belongs to the Godollo set."
"Madame de Godollo," replied Thuillier, "is not at all what you
suppose her to be, and the best thing this house can do is never to
say one word about her, either good or evil. As for la Peyrade, as
this is not the first time he has been requested to go and see
Monsieur du Portail, I am surprised that he hesitates to do so."
"Ah ca!" said Brigitte, "that little old man has completely befooled
you."
"I tell you that that little old man is all that he appears to be. He
wears seven crosses, he drives in a splendid equipage, and he has told
me things that have overwhelmed me with astonishment."
"Well, perhaps he's a fortune-teller like Madame Fontaine, who managed
once upon a time to upset me when Madame Minard and I, just to amuse
ourselves, went to consult her."
"Well, if he is not a sorcerer he certainly has a very long arm," said
Thuillier, "and I think a man would suffer for it if he didn't respect
his advice. As for you, Brigitte, he saw you only for a minute, but he
told me your whole character; he said you were a masterful woman, born
to command."
"The fact is," said Brigitte, licking her chops at this compliment,
like a cat drinking cream, "he has a very well-bred air, that little
old fellow. You take my advice, my dear," she said, turning to la
Peyrade; "if such a very big-wig as that wants you to do so, go and
see this du Portail, whoever he is. That, it seems to me, won't bind
you to anything."
"You are right, Brigitte," said Colleville; "as for me, I'd follow up
all the Portails, or Port_ers_, or Port_ents_ for the matter of that, if
they asked me to."
The scene was beginning to resemble that in the "Barber of Seville,"
where everybody tells Basil to go to bed, for he certainly has a
fever. La Peyrade, thus prodded, picked up his hat in some ill-humor,
and went where his destiny called him,--"quo sua fata vocabant."
CHAPTER XV (AT DU PORTAIL'S)On reaching the rue Honore-Chevalier la Peyrade felt a doubt; the
dilapidated appearance of the house to which he was summoned made him
think he had mistaken the number. It seemed to him that a person of
Monsieur du Portail's evident importance could not inhabit such a
place. It was therefore with some hesitation that he accosted Sieur
Perrache, the porter. But no sooner had he entered the antechamber of
the apartment pointed out to him than the excellent deportment of
Bruneau, the old valet, and the extremely comfortable appearance of
the furniture and other appointments made him see that he was probably
in the right place. Introduced at once, as soon as he had given his
name, into the study of the master of the house, his surprise was
great when he found himself in presence of the commander, so called,
the friend of Madame de Godollo, and the little old man he had seen
half an hour earlier with Thuillier.
"At last!" said du Portail, rising, and offering la Peyrade a chair,
"at last we meet, my refractory friend; it has taken a good deal to
bring you here."
"May I know, monsieur," said la Peyrade, haughtily, not taking the
chair which was offered to him, "what interest you have in meddling
with my affairs? I do not know you, and I may add that the place where
I once saw you did not create an unconquerable desire in me to make
your acquaintance."
"Where have you seen me?" asked du Portail.
"In the apartment of a strumpet who called herself Madame de Godollo."
"Where monsieur, consequently, went himself," said the little old man,
"and for a purpose much less disinterested than mine."
"I have not come here," said la Peyrade, "to bandy words with any one.
I have the right, monsieur, to a full explanation as to the meaning of
your proceedings towards me. I therefore request you not to delay them
by a facetiousness to which, I assure you, I am not in the humor to
listen."
"Then, my dear fellow," said du Portail, "sit down, for I am not in
the humor to twist my neck by talking up at you."
The words were reasonable, and they were said in a tone that showed
the old gentleman was not likely to be frightened by grand airs. La
Peyrade therefore deferred to the wishes of his host, but he took care
to do so with the worst grace possible.
"Monsieur Cerizet," said du Portail, "a man of excellent standing in
the world, and who has the honor to be one of your friends--"
"I have nothing to do with that man now," said la Peyrade, sharply,
understanding the malicious meaning of the old man's speech.
"Well, the time has been," said du Portail, "when you saw him, at
least, occasionally: for instance, when you paid for his dinner at the
Rocher de Cancale. As I was saying, I charged the virtuous Monsieur
Cerizet to sound you as to a marriage--"
"Which I refused," interrupted la Peyrade, "and which I now refuse
again, more vehemently than ever."
"That's the question," said the old man. "I think, on the contrary,
that you will accept it; and it is to talk over this affair with you
that I have so long desired a meeting."
"But this crazy girl that you are flinging at my head," said la
Peyrade, "what is she to you? She can't be your daughter, or you would
put more decency into your hunt for a husband."
"This young girl," replied du Portail, "is the daughter of one of my
friends who died about ten years ago; at his death I took her to live
with me, and have given her all the care her sad condition needed. Her
fortune, which I have greatly increased, added to my own, which I
intend to leave to her, will make her a very rich heiress. I know that
you are no enemy to handsome 'dots,' for you have sought them in
various places,--Thuillier's house, for instance, or, to use your own
expression, that of a strumpet whom you scarcely knew. I have
therefore supposed you would accept at my hands a very rich young
woman, especially as her infirmity is declared by the best physicians
to be curable; whereas you can never cure Monsieur and Mademoiselle
Thuillier, the one of being a fool, the other of being a fury, any
more than you could cure Madame Komorn of being a woman of very medium
virtue and extremely giddy."
"It may suit me," replied la Peyrade, "to marry the daughter of a fool
and a fury if I choose her, or I might become the husband of a clever
coquette, if passion seized me, but the Queen of Sheba herself, if
imposed upon me, neither you, monsieur, nor the ablest and most
powerful man living could force me to accept."
"Precisely; therefore it is to your own good sense and intelligence
that I now address myself; but we have to come face to face with
people in order to speak to them, you know. Now, then, let us look
into your present situation, and don't get angry if, like a surgeon
who wants to cure his patient, I lay my hand mercilessly on wounds
which have long tormented and harassed you. The first point to state
is that the Celeste Colleville affair is at an end for you."
"Why so?" demanded la Peyrade.
"Because I have just seen Thuillier and terrified him with the history
of the misfortunes he has incurred, and those he will incur if he
persists in the idea of giving you his goddaughter in marriage. He
knows now that it was I who paralyzed Madame du Bruel's kind offices
in the matter of the cross; that I had his pamphlet seized; that I
sent that Hungarian woman into his house to handle you all, as she
did; and that my hand is opening fire in the ministerial journals,
which will only increase from bad to worse,--not to speak of other
machinations which will be directed against his candidacy. Therefore
you see, my good friend, that not only have you no longer the credit
in Thuillier's eyes of being his great helper to that election, but
that you actually block the way to his ambition. That is enough to
prove to you that the side by which you have imposed yourself on that
family--who have never sincerely liked or desired you--is now
completely battered down and dismantled."
"But to have done all that which you claim with such pretension, who
are you?" demanded la Peyrade.
"I shall not say that you are very inquisitive, for I intend to answer
your question later; but for the present let us continue, if you
please, the autopsy of your existence, dead to-day, but which I
propose to resuscitate gloriously. You are twenty-eight years old, and
you have begun a career in which I shall not allow you to make
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