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

which her

mental state predisposed her, she exclaimed, hastily:--

 

"But look at her doctor, look!" taking his arm violently and forcing

him to show his features. "My God!" she cried, when she had looked him

in the face.

 

Letting fall the linen bundle in her arms, she threw herself hastily

backwards, and her eyes grew haggard. Passing her white hands rapidly

over her forehead and through her hair, tossing it into disorder, she

seemed to be making an effort to obtain from her memory some dormant

recollection. Then, like a frightened mare, which comes to smell an

object that has given it a momentary terror, she approached la Peyrade

slowly, stooping to look into his face, which he kept lowered, while,

in the midst of a silence inexpressible, she examined him steadily for

several seconds. Suddenly a terrible cry escaped her breast; she ran

for refuge into the arms of Corentin, and pressing herself against him

with all her force, she exclaimed:--

 

"Save me! save me! It is he! the wretch! It is he who did it!"

 

And, with her finger pointed at la Peyrade, she seemed to nail the

miserable object of her terror to his place.

 

After this explosion, she muttered a few disconnected words, and her

eyes closed; Corentin felt the relaxing of all the muscles by which

she had held him as in a vice the moment before, and he took her in

his arms and laid her on the sofa, insensible.

 

"Do not stay here, monsieur," said Corentin. "Go into my study; I will

come to you presently."

 

A few minutes later, after giving Lydie into the care of Katte and

Bruneau, and despatching Perrache for Doctor Bianchon, Corentin

rejoined la Peyrade.

 

"You see now, monsieur," he said with solemnity, "that in pursuing

with a sort of passion the idea of this marriage, I was following, in

a sense, the ways of God."

 

"Monsieur," said la Peyrade, with compunction, "I will confess to

you--"

 

"Useless," said Corentin; "you can tell me nothing that I do not know;

I, on the contrary, have much to tell you. Old Peyrade, your uncle, in

the hope of earning a POT for this daughter whom he idolized, entered

into a dangerous private enterprise, the nature of which I need not

explain. In it he made enemies; enemies who stopped at nothing,

--murder, poison, rape. To paralyze your uncle's action by attacking

him in his dearest spot, Lydie was, not abducted, but enticed from her

home and taken to a house apparently respectable, where for ten days

she was kept concealed. She was not much alarmed by this detention,

being told that it was done at her father's wish, and she spent her

time with her music--you remember, monsieur, how she sang?"

 

"Oh!" exclaimed la Peyrade, covering his face with his hands.

 

"I told you yesterday that you might perhaps have more upon your

conscience than the Thuillier house. But you were young; you had just

come from your province, with that brutality, that frenzy of Southern

blood in your veins which flings itself upon such an occasion.

Besides, your relationship became known to those who were preparing

the ruin of this new Clarissa Harlowe, and I am willing to believe

than an abler and better man than you might not have escaped the

entanglement into which you fell. Happily, Providence has granted that

there is nothing absolutely irreparable in this horrible history. The

same poison, according to the use that is made of it, may give either

death or health."

 

"But, monsieur," said la Peyrade, "shall I not always be to her an

object of horror?"

 

"The doctor, monsieur," said Katte, opening the door.

 

"How is Mademoiselle Lydie?" asked la Peyrade, eagerly.

 

"Very calm," replied Katte. "Just now, when we put her to bed,--though

she did not want to go, saying she felt well,--I took her the bundle

of linen, but she told me to take it away, and asked what I meant her

to do with it."

 

"You see," said Corentin, grasping the Provencal's hand, "you are the

lance of Achilles."

 

And he left the room with Katte to receive Doctor Bianchon.

 

Left alone, Theodose was a prey to thoughts which may perhaps be

imagined. After a while the door opened, and Bruneau, the old valet,

ushered in Cerizet. Seeing la Peyrade, the latter exclaimed:--

 

"Ha! ha! I knew it! I knew you would end by seeing du Portail. And the

marriage,--how does that come on?"

 

"What are you doing here?" asked la Peyrade.

 

"Something that concerns you; or rather, something that we must do

together. Du Portail, who is too busy to attend to business just now,

has sent me in here to see you, and consult as to the best means of

putting a spoke in Thuillier's election; it seems that the government

is determined to prevent his winning it. Have you any ideas about it?"

 

"No," replied la Peyrade; "and I don't feel in the mood just now to be

imaginative."

 

"Well, here's the situation," said Cerizet. "The government has

another candidate, which it doesn't yet produce, because the

ministerial negotiations with him have been rather difficult. During

this time Thuillier's chances have been making headway. Minard, on

whom they counted to create a diversion, sits, the stupid fool, in his

corner; the seizure of that pamphlet has given your blockhead of a

protege a certain perfume of popularity. In short, the ministry are

afraid he'll be elected, and nothing could be more disagreeable to

them. Pompous imbeciles, like Thuillier, are horribly embarrassing in

the Opposition; they are pitchers without handles; you can't take hold

of them anywhere."

 

"Monsieur Cerizet," said la Peyrade, beginning to assume a protecting

tone, and wishing to discover his late associate's place in Corentin's

confidence, "you seem to know a good deal about the secret intentions

of the government; have you found your way to a certain desk in the

rue de Grenelle?"

 

"No. All that I tell you," said Cerizet, "I get from du Portail."

 

"Ah ca!" said la Peyrade, lowering his voice, "who _is_ du Portail? You

seem to have known him for some time. A man of your force ought to

have discovered the real character of a man who seems to me to be

rather mysterious."

 

"My friend," replied Cerizet, "du Portail is a pretty strong man. He's

an old slyboots, who has had some post, I fancy, in the administration

of the national domain, or something of that kind, under government;

in which, I think, he must have been employed in the departments

suppressed under the Empire."

 

"Yes?" said la Peyrade.

 

"That's where I think he made his money," continued Cerizet; "and

being a shrewd old fellow, and having a natural daughter to marry, he

has concocted this philanthropic tale of her being the daughter of an

old friend named Peyrade; and your name being the same may have given

him the idea of fastening upon you--for, after all, he has to marry

her to somebody."

 

"Yes, that's all very well; but his close relations with the

government, and the interest he takes in elections, how do you explain

all that?"

 

"Naturally enough," replied Cerizet. "Du Portail is a man who loves

money, and likes to handle it; he has done Rastignac, that great

manipulator of elections, who is, I think, his compatriot, several

signal services as an amateur; Rastignac, in return, gives him

information, obtained through Nucingen, which enables him to gamble at

the Bourse."

 

"Did he himself tell you all this?" asked la Peyrade.

 

"What do you take me for?" returned Cerizet. "With that worthy old

fellow, from whom I have already wormed a promise of thirty thousand

francs, I play the ninny; I flatten myself to nothing. But I've made

Bruneau talk, that old valet of his. You can safely ally yourself to

his family, my dear fellow; du Portail is powerfully rich; he'll get

you made sub-prefect somewhere; and thence to a prefecture and a

fortune is but one step."

 

"Thanks for the information," said la Peyrade; "at least, I shall know

on which foot to hop. But you yourself, how came you to know him?"

 

"Oh! that's quite a history; by my help he was able to get back a lot

of diamonds which had been stolen from him."

 

At this moment Corentin entered the room.

 

"All is well," he said to la Peyrade. "There are signs of returning

reason. Bianchon, to whom I have told all, wishes to confer with you;

therefore, my dear Monsieur Cerizet, we will postpone until this

evening, if you are willing, our little study over the Thuillier

election."

 

"Well, so here you have him, at last!" said Cerizet, slapping la

Peyrade's shoulder.

 

"Yes," said Corentin, "and you know what I promised; you may rely on

that."

 

Cerizet departed joyful.

 

CHAPTER XVI (CHECKMATE TO THUILLIER)

 

The day after that evening, when Corentin, la Peyrade, and Cerizet

were to have had their consultation in reference to the attack on

Thuillier's candidacy, the latter was discussing with his sister

Brigitte the letter in which Theodose declined the hand of Celeste,

and his mind seemed particularly to dwell on the postscript where it

was intimated that la Peyrade might not continue the editor of the

"Echo de la Bievre." At this moment Henri, the "male domestic,"

entered the room to ask if his master would receive Monsieur Cerizet.

 

Thuillier's first impulse was to deny himself to that unwelcome

visitor. Then, thinking better of it, he reflected that if la Peyrade

suddenly left him in the lurch, Cerizet might possibly prove a

precious resource. Consequently, he ordered Henri to show him in. His

manner, however, was extremely cold, and in some sort expectant. As

for Cerizet, he presented himself without the slightest embarrassment

and with the air of a man who had calculated all the consequences of

the step he was taking.

 

"Well, my dear monsieur," he began, "I suppose by this time you have

been posted as to the Sieur la Peyrade."

 

"What may you mean by that?" said Thuillier, stiffly.

 

"Well, the man," replied Cerizet, "who, after intriguing to marry your

goddaughter, breaks off the marriage abruptly--as he will, before

long, break that lion's-share contract he made you sign about his

editorship--can't be, I should suppose, the object of the same blind

confidence you formerly reposed in him."

 

"Ah!" said Thuillier, hastily, "then do you know anything about la

Peyrade's intention of leaving the newspaper?"

 

"No," said the other; "on the terms I now am with him, you can readily

believe we don't see each other; still less should I receive his

confidences. But I draw the induction from the well-known character of

the person, and you may be sure that when he finds it for his interest

to leave you, he'll throw you away like an old coat--I've passed that

way, and I speak from experience."

 

"Then you must have had some difficulties with him before you joined

my paper?" said Thuillier, interrogatively.

 

"Parbleu!" replied Cerizet; "the affair of this house which he helped

you to buy was mine; I started that hare. He was to put me in relation

with you, and make me the principal tenant of the house. But the

unfortunate affair of that bidding-in gave him a chance to knock me

out of everything and get all the profits for himself."

 

"Profits!" exclaimed Thuillier. "I don't see that he got anything out

of that transaction, except the marriage which he now refuses--"

 

"But," interrupted Cerizet, "there's the ten thousand francs he got

out of you on pretence of the cross which you never received, and the

twenty-five thousand he owes to Madame Lambert, for which you went

security, and which you will soon have to pay like a good fellow."

 

"What's this I hear?" cried Brigitte, up in arms; "twenty-five

thousand francs for which you have given security?"

 

"Yes, mademoiselle," interposed Cerizet; "behind that sum which this

woman had lent him there was a mystery, and if I had not laid my hand

on the true explanation, there would certainly have been a very dirty

ending to it. La Peyrade was clever enough not only to whitewash

himself in Monsieur Thuillier's eyes, but to get him to secure the

debt."

 

"But," said Thuillier, "how do you know that I did give security for

that debt, if you have not seen him since then?"

 

"I know it from the