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

of that article; thinking

it incredible that, having solicited our suffrages, you should, on the

eve of this election, and from a most mistaken puritanism, have cast

disorder and disunion into our ranks, and probably have caused the

triumph of the ministerial candidate. A candidate does not belong to

himself; he belongs to the electors who have promised to honor him

with their votes. But," continued the orator, casting his eye at

Minard, "the presence in these precincts of the candidate whom you

have gone out of your way to recommend to us, indicates that between

you and him there is connivance; and I have no need to ask who is

being here deceived."

 

"No, messieurs, no," said Thuillier; "I have not renounced my

candidacy. That article was written and printed without my knowledge

or consent. To-morrow you will see the denial of it in the same paper,

and you will also learn that the infamous person who has betrayed my

confidence is no longer the editor of this journal."

 

"Then," said the orator of the deputation, "in spite of your

declaration to the contrary, you do continue to be the candidate of

the Opposition?"

 

"Yes, messieurs, until death; and I beg you to use your utmost

influence in the quarter to neutralize the effect of this deliberate

falsehood until I am able to officially present the most formal

disavowal."

 

"Hear! hear!" said the electors.

 

"And, as for the presence of Monsieur Minard, my competitor, in these

precincts, I have not invited it; and at the moment when you entered

this room, I was engaged in a very sharp and decided explanation with

him."

 

"Hear! hear!" said the electors again.

 

Then, after cordially shaking the hand of the apothecary, Thuillier

conducted the deputation to the outer door of the apartment; after

which, returning to the editorial sanctum, he said:--

 

"My dear Minard, I withdraw the words which wounded you; but you can

see now what justification I had for my indignation."

 

Here Coffinet again opened the door and announced:--

 

"Messieurs the electors of the eleventh arrondissement."

 

The arrondissement was represented this time by seven persons. A

linen-draper, chairman of the delegation, addressed Thuillier in the

following speech:--

 

"Monsieur, it is with sincere admiration that we have learned this

morning from the columns of your paper, the great civic act by which

you have touched all hearts. You have shown, in thus retiring, a most

unusual disinterestedness, and the esteem of your fellow-citizens--"

 

"Excuse me," said Thuillier, interrupting him, "I cannot allow you to

continue; the article about which you are so good as to congratulate

me, was inserted by mistake."

 

"What!" said the linen-draper; "then do you not retire? Can you

suppose that in opposition to the candidacy of Monsieur Minard (whose

presence in these precincts seems to me rather singular) you have the

slightest chance of success?"

 

"Monsieur," said Thuillier, "have the goodness to request the electors

of your arrondissement to await the issue of to-morrow's paper, in

which I shall furnish categorical explanations of the most distinct

character. The article to-day is the result of a misunderstanding."

 

"It will be a sad pity, monsieur," said the linen-draper, "if you lose

this occasion to place yourself in the eyes of your fellow-citizens

beside the Washingtons and other great men of antiquity."

 

"I say again, _to-morrow_, messieurs," said Thuillier. "I am none the

less sensible to the honor you do me, and I trust that when you know

the whole truth, I shall not suffer in your esteem."

 

"A pretty queer mess this seems to be," said the voice of an elector.

 

"Yes," said another; "it looks as if they meant to bamboozle us."

 

"Messieurs, messieurs!" cried the chairman, putting a stop to the

outbreak; "to-morrow--we will wait until to-morrow for the promised

explanations."

 

Whereupon, the deputation retired.

 

It is not likely that Thuillier would have accompanied them beyond the

door of the sanctum, but in any case he was prevented by the sudden

entrance of la Peyrade.

 

"I have just come from your house, my dear fellow," said the

Provencal; "they told me I should find you here."

 

"You have come, doubtless, for the purpose of explaining to me the

strange article you allowed yourself to insert in my name."

 

"Precisely," said la Peyrade. "The remarkable man whom you know, and

whose powerful influence you have already felt, confided to me

yesterday, in your interests, the plans of the government, and I saw

at once that your defeat was inevitable. I wished therefore to secure

to you an honorable and dignified retreat. There was no time to lose;

you were absent from Paris, and therefore--"

 

"Very good, monsieur," said Thuillier; "but you will take notice that

from the present moment you are no longer the editor of this paper."

 

"That is what I came to tell you."

 

"Perhaps you also came to settle the little account we have together."

 

"Messieurs," said Minard, "I see that this is a business interview; I

shall therefore take leave of you."

 

As soon as Minard had left the room, la Peyrade pulled out his

pocket-book.

 

"Here are ten thousand francs," he said, "which I will beg you to

remit to Mademoiselle Brigitte; and here, also, is the bond by which

you secured the payment of twenty-five thousand francs to Madame

Lambert; that sum I have now paid in full, and here is the receipt."

 

"Very good, monsieur," said Thuillier.

 

La Peyrade bowed and went away.

 

"Serpent!" said Thuillier as he watched him go.

 

"Cerizet said the right thing," thought la Peyrade,--"a pompous

imbecile!"

 

The blow struck at Thuillier's candidacy was mortal, but Minard did

not profit by it. While the pair were contending for votes, a

government man, an aide-de-camp to the king, arrived with his hands

full of tobacco licenses and other electoral small change, and, like

the third thief, he slipped between the two who were thumping each

other, and carried off the booty.

 

It is needless to say that Brigitte did not get her farm in Beauce.

That was only a mirage, by help of which Thuillier was enticed out of

Paris long enough for la Peyrade to deal his blow,--a service rendered

to the government on the one hand, but also a precious vengeance for

the many humiliations he had undergone.

 

Thuillier had certainly some suspicions as to the complicity of

Cerizet, but that worthy managed to justify himself; and by

manoeuvring the sale of the "Echo de la Bievre," now become a

nightmare to the luckless owner, he ended by appearing as white as

snow.

 

The paper was secretly bought up by Corentin, and the late opposition

sheet became a "canard" sold on Sundays in the wine-shops and

concocted in the dens of the police.

CHAPTER XVIII (N THE EXERCISE OF HIS FUNCTIONS)

About two months after the scene in which la Peyrade had been

convinced that through a crime of his past life his future was

irrevocably settled, he (being now married to his victim, who was

beginning to have lucid intervals, though the full return of her

reason would not take place until the occasion indicated by the

doctors) was sitting one morning with the head of the police in the

latter's office. Taking part in the work of the department, the young

man was serving an apprenticeship under that great master in the

difficult and delicate functions to which he was henceforth riveted.

But Corentin found that his pupil did not bring to this initiation all

the ardor and amiability that he desired. It was plain that in la

Peyrade's soul there was a sense of forfeiture and degradation; time

would get the better of that impression, but the callus was not yet

formed.

 

Opening a number of sealed envelopes enclosing the reports of his

various agents, Corentin glanced over these documents, seldom as

useful as the public suppose, casting them one after another

contemptuously into a basket, whence they issued in a mass for a

burning. But to one of them the great man evidently gave some

particular attention; as he read it a smile flickered on his lips, and

when he had finished, instead of adding it to the pile in the basket,

he gave it to la Peyrade.

 

"Here," he said, "here's something that concerns you; it shows that in

our profession, which just now seems to you unpleasantly serious, we

do occasionally meet with comedies. Read it aloud; it will cheer me

up."

 

Before la Peyrade began to read, Corentin added:--

 

"I ought to tell you that the report is from a man called Henri, whom

Madame Komorn introduced as man-servant at the Thuilliers'; you

probably remember him."

 

"So!" said la Peyrade, "servants placed in families! is that one of

your methods?"

 

"Sometimes," replied Corentin; "in order to know all, we must use all

means. But a great many lies are told about us on that subject. It is

not true that the police, making a system of it, has, at certain

periods, by a general enrolment of lacqueys and lady's-maids,

established a vast network in private families. Nothing is fixed and

absolute in our manner of proceeding; we act in accordance with the

time and circumstances. I wanted an ear and an influence in the

Thuillier household; accordingly, I let loose the Godollo upon it, and

she, in turn, partly to assist herself, installed there one of our

men, an intelligent fellow, as you will see for yourself. But for all

that, if, at another time, a servant came and offered to sell me the

secrets of his master, I should have him arrested, and let a warning

reach the ears of the family to distrust the other servants. Now go

on, and read that report."

 

Monsieur the Director of the Secret Police,

 

read la Peyrade aloud,--

 

I did not stay long with the little baron; he is a man wholly

occupied in frivolous pleasures; and there was nothing to be

gathered there that was worthy of a report to you. I have found

another place, where I have already witnessed several thing which

fit into the mission that Madame de Godollo gave me, and

therefore, thinking them likely to interest you, I hasten to bring

them to your knowledge. The household in which I am now employed

is that of an old savant, named Monsieur Picot, who lives on a

first floor, Place de la Madeleine, in the house and apartment

formerly occupied by my late masters, the Thuilliers--

 

"What!" cried la Peyrade, interrupting his reading, "Pere Picot, that

ruined old lunatic, occupying such an apartment as that?"

 

"Go on, go on!" said Corentin; "life is full of many strange things.

You'll find the explanation farther along; for our correspondent--it

is the defect of those fellows to waste themselves on details--is only

too fond of dotting his i's."

 

La Peyrade read on:--

 

The Thuilliers left this apartment some weeks ago to return to

their Latin quarter. Mademoiselle Brigitte never really liked our

sphere; her total want of education made her ill at ease. Just

because I speak correctly, she was always calling me 'the orator,'

and she could not endure Monsieur Pascal, her porter, because,

being beadle in the church of the Madeleine, he had manners; she

even found something to say against the dealers in the great

market behind the church, where, of course, she bought her

provisions; she complained that they gave themselves _capable_

airs, merely because they are not so coarse-tongued as those of

the Halle, and only laughed at her when she tried to beat them

down. She has leased the whole house to a certain Monsieur Cerizet

(a very ugly man, with a nose all eaten away) for an annual rent of

fifty-five thousand francs. This tenant seems to know what he is

about. He has lately married an actress at one of the minor

theatres, Mademoiselle Olympe Cardinal, and he was just about to

occupy himself the first-floor apartment, where he proposed to

establish his present business, namely, insurance for the "dots"

of children, when Monsieur Picot, arriving from England with his

wife, a very rich Englishwoman, saw the apartment and offered such

a good price that Monsieur Cerizet felt constrained to take it.

That was the time when, by the help of M. Pascal, the porter, with

whom I have been careful to maintain good relations, I entered the

household of Monsieur Picot.

 

"Monsieur Picot married to a rich Englishwoman!" exclaimed la