Father Goriot HonorĂ© de Balzac (love books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: Honoré de Balzac
Book online «Father Goriot HonorĂ© de Balzac (love books to read .TXT) đ». Author HonorĂ© de Balzac
The tempter took out a pocketbook, and drew thence three banknotes, which he fluttered before the studentâs eyes. EugĂšne was in a most painful dilemma. He had debts, debts of honor. He owed a hundred louis to the Marquis dâAjuda and to the Count de Trailles; he had not the money, and for this reason had not dared to go to Mme. de Restaudâs house, where he was expected that evening. It was one of those informal gatherings where tea and little cakes are handed round, but where it is possible to lose six thousand francs at whist in the course of a night.
âYou must see,â said EugĂšne, struggling to hide a convulsive tremor, âthat after what has passed between us, I cannot possibly lay myself under any obligation to you.â
âQuite right; I should be sorry to hear you speak otherwise,â answered the tempter. âYou are a fine young fellow, honorable, brave as a lion, and as gentle as a young girl. You would be a fine haul for the devil! I like youngsters of your sort. Get rid of one or two more prejudices, and you will see the world as it is. Make a little scene now and then, and act a virtuous part in it, and a man with a head on his shoulders can do exactly as he likes amid deafening applause from the fools in the gallery. Ah! a few days yet, and you will be with us; and if you would only be tutored by me, I would put you in the way of achieving all your ambitions. You should no sooner form a wish than it should be realized to the full; you should have all your desiresâ âhonors, wealth, or women. Civilization should flow with milk and honey for you. You should be our pet and favorite, our Benjamin. We would all work ourselves to death for you with pleasure; every obstacle should be removed from your path. You have a few prejudices left; so you think that I am a scoundrel, do you? Well, M. de Turenne, quite as honorable a man as you take yourself to be, had some little private transactions with bandits, and did not feel that his honor was tarnished. You would rather not lie under any obligation to me, eh? You need not draw back on that account,â Vautrin went on, and a smile stole over his lips. âTake these bits of paper and write across this,â he added, producing a piece of stamped paper, âAccepted the sum of three thousand five hundred francs due this day twelvemonth, and fill in the date. The rate of interest is stiff enough to silence any scruples on your part; it gives you the right to call me a Jew. You can call quits with me on the score of gratitude. I am quite willing that you should despise me today, because I am sure that you will have a kindlier feeling towards me later on. You will find out fathomless depths in my nature, enormous and concentrated forces that weaklings call vices, but you will never find me base or ungrateful. In short, I am neither a pawn nor a bishop, but a castle, a tower of strength, my boy.â
âWhat manner of man are you?â cried EugĂšne. âWere you created to torment me?â
âWhy no; I am a good-natured fellow, who is willing to do a dirty piece of work to put you high and dry above the mire for the rest of your days. Do you ask the reason of this devotion? All right; I will tell you that some of these days. A word or two in your ear will explain it. I have begun by shocking you, by showing you the way to ring the changes, and giving you a sight of the mechanism of the social machine; but your first fright will go off like a conscriptâs terror on the battlefield. You will grow used to regarding men as common soldiers who have made up their minds to lose their lives for some self-constituted king. Times have altered strangely. Once you could say to a bravo, âHere are a hundred crowns; go and kill Monsieur So-and-so for me,â and you could sup quietly after turning someone off into the dark for the least thing in the world. But nowadays I propose to put you in the way of a handsome fortune; you have only to nod your head, it wonât compromise you in any way, and you hesitate. âTis an effeminate age.â
EugĂšne accepted the draft, and received the banknotes in exchange for it.
âWell, well. Come, now, let us talk rationally,â Vautrin continued. âI mean to leave this country in a few monthsâ time for America, and set about planting tobacco. I will send you the cigars of friendship. If I make money at it, I will help you in your career. If I have no childrenâ âwhich will probably be the case, for I have no anxiety to raise slips of myself hereâ âyou shall inherit my fortune. That is what you may call standing by a man; but I myself have a liking for you. I have a mania, too, for devoting myself to someone else. I have done it before. You see, my boy, I live in a loftier sphere than other men do; I look on all actions as means to an end, and the end is all that I look at. What is a manâs life to me? Not that,â he said, and he snapped his thumbnail against his teeth. âA man, in short, is everything to me, or just nothing at all. Less than nothing if his name happens to be Poiret; you can crush him like a bug, he is flat and he is offensive. But a man is a god when he is like you; he is
Comments (0)