The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac (best ereader for graphic novels TXT) π
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- Author: Honore de Balzac
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to dine with the Thuilliers, and on the commonplace pretext of a visit
to pay, Thuillier carried off his wife, leaving Theodose alone with
Brigitte. Neither Thuillier, nor his sister, nor Theodose, were the
dupes of this comedy; but the old beau of the Empire considered the
manoeuvre a piece of diplomacy.
"Young man, do not take advantage of my sister's innocence; respect
it," said Thuillier solemnly, as he departed.
"Mademoiselle," said Theodose, drawing his chair closer to the sofa
where Brigitte sat knitting, "have you thought of inducing the
business men of the arrondissement to support Thuillier's interests?"
"How can I?" she asked.
"Why! you are in close relations with Barbet and Metivier."
"Ah! you are right! Faith! you are no blunderer!" she said after a
pause.
"When we love our friends, we serve them," he replied, sententiously.
To capture Brigitte would be like carrying the redoubt of the Moskowa,
the culminating strategic point. But it was necessary to possess that
old maid as the devil was supposed in the middle ages to possess men,
and in a way to make any awakening impossible for her. For the last
three days la Peyrade had been measuring himself for the task; he had
carefully reconnoitred the ground to see all difficulty. Flattery,
that almost infallible means in able hands, would certainly miscarry
with a woman who for years had known she had no beauty. But a man of
strong will finds nothing impregnable; the Lamarques could never have
failed to take Capri. Therefore, nothing must be omitted from the
memorable scene which was now to take place; all things about it had
their own importance,--inflections of the voice, pauses, glances,
lowered eyes.
"But," rejoined Brigitte, "you have already proved to us your
affection."
"Your brother has told you--?"
"No, he merely told me that you had something to tell me."
"Yes, mademoiselle, I have; for you are the man of the family. In
reflecting on this matter, I find many dangers for myself, such as a
man only risks for his nearest and dearest. It involves a fortune;
thirty to forty thousand francs a year, and not the slightest
speculation--a piece of landed property. The hope of helping Thuillier
to win such a fortune enticed me from the first. 'It fascinates me,' I
said to him--for, unless a man is an absolute fool, he can't help
asking himself: 'Why should he care to do us all this good?' So I told
him frankly that in working for his interests, I flattered myself I
was working for my own, as I'll explain to you later. If he wishes to
be deputy, two things are absolutely necessary: to comply with the law
as to property, and to win for his name some sort of public celebrity.
If I myself push my devotion to the point of helping him to write a
book on public financiering--or anything else, no matter what--which
would give him that celebrity, I ought also to think of the other
matter, his property--it would be absurd to expect you to give him
this house--"
"For my brother? Why, I'd put it in his name to-morrow," cried
Brigitte. "You don't know me."
"I don't know you thoroughly," said la Peyrade, "but I do know things
about you which now make me regret that I did not tell you the whole
affair from its origin; I mean from the moment when I conceived the
plan to which Thuillier will owe his nomination. He will be hunted
down by envy and jealousy, and the task of upholding him will be a
hard one; we must, however, get the better of his rivals and take the
wind out of their sails."
"But this affair," said Brigitte, "what are the difficulties?"
"Mademoiselle, the difficulties lie within my own conscience.
Assuredly, I could not serve you in this matter without first
consulting my confessor. From a worldly point of view--oh! the affair
is perfectly legal, and I am--you'll understand me?--a barrister
inscribed on the panel, that is, member of a bar controlled by the
strictest rules. I am therefore incapable of proposing an enterprise
which might give occasion for blame. In the first place, I myself
don't make a penny by it."
Brigitte was on thorns; her face was flaming; she broke her wool,
mended it, broke it again, and did not know which way to look.
"One can't get," she said, "in these days, forty thousand francs a
year from landed property unless it is worth one million eight hundred
thousand."
"Well, I will undertake that you shall see a piece of property and
estimate yourself its probable revenue, which I can make Thuillier the
owner of for fifty thousand francs down."
"Oh! if you can make us obtain that!" cried Brigitte, worked up to the
highest excitement by the spur of her natural cupidity. "Go on, my
dear Monsieur Theodose, and--"
She stopped short.
"Well, mademoiselle?"
"You will, perhaps, have done yourself a service."
"Ah! if Thuillier has told you my secret, I must leave this house."
Brigitte looked up.
"Did he tell you that I love Celeste?"
"No, on my word of honor!" cried Brigitte, "but I myself was just
about to speak of her."
"And offer her to me? Oh! may God forgive us! I can only win her of
herself, her parents, by a free choice--No, no, all I ask of you is
your good-will, your protection. Promise me, as Thuillier has, in
return for my services your influence, your friendship; tell me that
you will treat me as a son. If you will do that, I will abide by your
decision in this matter; I can trust it; I need not speak to my
confessor. For the last two years, ever since I have seen much of this
family, to whom I would fain give my powers and devote my utmost
energy--for, I shall succeed! surely I shall!--I have observed that
your integrity, your honor is that of the olden time, your judgment
righteous and inflexible. Also, you have a knowledge of business; and
these qualities combined are precious helps to a man. With a
mother-in-law, as I may say, of your powers, I should find my home life
relieved of a crowd of cares and details as to property, which hinder
a man's advance in a political career if he is forced to attend to
them. I admired you deeply on Sunday evening. Ah! you were fine! How
you did manage matters! In ten minutes that dining-room was cleared!
And, without going outside of your own apartment, you had everything
at hand for the refreshments, for the supper! 'There,' I said to
myself, as I watched you, 'is a true "maitresse-femme"--a masterly
woman!'"
Brigitte's nostrils dilated; she breathed in the words of the young
lawyer. He gave her a side-long glance to enjoy his triumph; he had
touched the right chord in her breast.
At this moment he was standing, but he now resumed his seat beside
her, and said:--
"Now here is our affair, dear aunt--for you will be a sort of aunt--"
"Hush! you naughty fellow!" said Brigitte, "and go on."
"I'll tell you the matter roughly--and remark, if you please, that I
compromise myself in telling it to you; for these secrets are
entrusted to me as a lawyer. Therefore understand that you and I are
both committing a crime, so to speak, of leze-confidence! A notary of
Paris was in partnership with an architect; they bought land and built
upon it; at the present moment, property has come down with a rush;
they find themselves embarrassed--but all that doesn't concern us.
Among the houses built by this illegal partnership--for notaries, you
know, are sworn to have nothing to do with enterprises--is a very good
one which, not being finished, must be sold at a great sacrifice; so
great that they now ask only one hundred thousand francs for it,
although the cost of the land and the building was at least four
hundred thousand. As the whole interior is still unfinished, the value
of what is still to do is easily appraised; it will probably not be
more than fifty thousand francs. Now, owing to its excellent position,
this house, when finished, will certainly bring in a rental, over and
above the taxes, of forty thousand francs a year. It is built of
freestone, the corners and copings of cut granite; the facade is
covered with handsome carvings, on which they spent more than twenty
thousand francs; the windows are plate glass with a new style of
fastening called 'cremona.'"
"Well, where is the difficulty?"
"Just here: the notary wants to reserve to himself this bit of the
cake he is forced to surrender; he is, under the name of a friend, the
creditor who requests the sale of the property by the assignee of the
bankruptcy. The case has not been brought into court; for legal
proceedings cost so much money. The sale is to be made by voluntary
agreement. Now, this notary has applied to one of my clients to lend
him his name for this purchase. My client, a poor devil, says to me:
'There's a fortune to made out of that house by fooling the notary.'"
"And they do that sort of thing in business!" said Brigitte, quickly.
"If that were the only difficulty," continued Theodose, "it would be,
as a friend of mine said to his pupil, who was complaining of the
length of time it took to produce masterpieces in painting: 'My dear
young fellow, if it were not so, our valets would be painting
pictures.' But, mademoiselle, if we now get the better of this notary,
who certainly deserves it, for he has compromised a number of private
fortunes, yet, as he is a very shrewd man (though a notary), it might
perhaps be very difficult to do it a second time, and here's the rub:
When a piece of landed property is bought at a forced sale, if those
who have lent money on that property see that is likely to be sold so
low as not to cover the sum loaned upon it, they have the right, until
the expiration of a certain time, to bid it in; that is, to offer more
and keep the property in their own hands. If this trickster can't be
hoodwinked as to the sale being a bona fide one until the time when
his right to buy it expires, some other scheme must be resorted to.
Now, is this business strictly legal? Am I justified in doing it for
the benefit of a family I seek to enter? That is the question I have
been revolving in my mind for the last three days."
Brigitte, we must acknowledge, hesitated, and Theodose then brought
forward his last card:--
"Take the night to think of it," he said, "to-morrow we will talk it
over."
"My young friend," said Brigitte, looking at the lawyer with an almost
loving air, "the first thing to be done is to see the house. Where is
it?"
"Near the Madeleine. That will be the heart of Paris in ten years. All
that property has been desirable since 1819; the banker Du Tillet's
fortune was derived from property about there. The famous failure of
Maitre Roquin, which carried terror to all Paris, and did such harm to
the confidence given to the notariat, was also caused by it; they went
into heavy speculations on that land too soon; they should have waited
until now."
"I remember about that," said Brigitte.
"The house might be finished by the end of the year," continued
Theodose, "and the rentals could begin next spring."
"Could we go there to-morrow?"
"Dear aunt, I am at your orders."
"Ah ca!" she cried, "don't call me that before people. As to this
affair," she continued, "I can't have any opinion until I have seen
the house."
"It has six storeys; nine windows on the front; a fine courtyard, four
shops, and it stands on a corner. Ah! that notary knows what he is
about in wishing to hold on to such pieces of property! But let
political events interfere, and down go the Funds! If I were you, I
should sell out all that you and Madame Thuillier have on the Grand
Livre and buy this fine piece of real estate for Thuillier, and I'd
recover the fortune of that poor, pious creature by savings from its
proceeds. Can the Funds go higher than they are to-day? One hundred
and twenty-two! it is fabulous; I should make haste to sell."
Brigitte licked her lips; she perceived the means of keeping her own
property intact, and of enriching her brother by this use of Madame
Thuillier's fortune.
"My brother is right," she said to Theodose; "you certainly are a rare
man; you'll get on in the world."
"And he'll walk before me," responded Theodose with a naivete that
touched the old maid.
"You will live in the family," she said.
"There may be obstacles to that," he remarked. "Madame Thuillier is
very queer at times; she doesn't like me."
"Ha! I'll settle
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