UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 BROWSING ROOM
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 J tre
 
 tie 
 
 PARISIAN LIFE 
 
 VOLUME X
 
 LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND COMPLETE COPIES 
 
 NO. 
 
 713
 
 TULLIA AND M. THUILLIER 
 
 "For heaven's sake, tell me" said Thuillier to 
 Tullia, the dancer, who happened to be calling at 
 Madame Colleville's, " why women don't get attached 
 to me f I'm not an Apollo Belvedere, but I'm no 
 Vulcan, either; I'm passably good-looking, I'm 
 bright and faithful " 
 
 "Do you want the truth ? " said Tidlia. 
 
 " Yes," said Beau Thuillier. 
 
 "Very good ; although we can sometimes love a 
 stupid man, we never love a fool" 
 
 That thrust was the end of Thuillier.
 
 THE NOVELS 
 
 OF 
 
 HONORE DE BALZAC 
 
 NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME 
 COMPLETELY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 BY GEORGE BURNHAM IVES 
 
 WITH TEN ETCHINGS BY CHARLES-THEODORE DEBLOIS, 
 CLAUDE FAIVRE AND R. DE LOS RIOS, AFTER PAINT- 
 INGS BY ALCIDE-THEOPHILE ROBAUDI 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 PRINTED ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY 
 
 GEORGE BARRIE & SON, PHILADELPHIA
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1896, BY G. B. A SON 
 
 ;;. :.;.: - : . . 

 
 PQ 
 
 V.I 
 
 - 
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 05 
 
 o 
 
 189965
 
 TO CONSTANCE-YICTOIRE 
 
 In the following pages, Madame, will be found 
 one of those stories which come to an author's mind, 
 he knows not whence, and take it captive before he 
 has time to consider what sort of a welcome it will 
 receive from the public, the all-powerful judge of 
 the moment Feeling almost sure of your indul- 
 gence for my infatuation, I dedicate this book to 
 you: is it not fitting that it should belong to you as 
 the tithe in the old days belonged to the Church, 
 in memory of God, by whom everything is made to 
 bloom and to ripen, in the fields and in the intellect? 
 
 A few bits of clay, left by Moliere at the foot of 
 his colossal statue of Tartuffe, are here worked over 
 by a hand more audacious than clever; but, how- 
 ever far below the greatest of writers of comedy I 
 am and must remain, I shall be content to have 
 turned these crumbs picked up in the foreground of 
 his play to some account, by exhibiting the modern 
 hypocrite at work. The thing that most encouraged 
 me in this difficult undertaking was that I found it 
 to be entirely distinct from any religious question 
 which must be put out of sight of one so devout as 
 yourself, and because of that which a great writer 
 has called INDIFFERENCE IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 
 (3)
 
 4 DEDICATION 
 
 May the double signification of your names be 
 prophetic of the book's fortune! Deign to see in 
 these few lines the expression of his most respectful 
 gratitude who ventures to subscribe himself your 
 most devoted servant, 
 
 DE BALZAC.
 
 PART FIRST 
 
 (5)
 
 PART FIRST 
 
 The Turnstile Saint- Jean, that typical detail of 
 Old Paris, the description of which seemed so tedious 
 in its day at the beginning of the study entitled A 
 Double Family (See SCENES OF PRIVATE LIFE) 
 has now no other existence than that typographical 
 one. The construction of the Hotel de Ville as it is 
 to-day swept a whole quarter clean. 
 
 In 1830 passers-by might still see the turnstile 
 painted upon the signboard of a dealer in wines, 
 but that building, its last refuge, has since been 
 torn down. Alas! old Paris is disappearing with 
 frightful rapidity. Here and there we shall find in 
 this work a typical dwelling of the Middle Ages, 
 like that described at the beginning of The Cat and 
 Racket, of which one or two specimens are still in 
 existence; or the house occupied by Judge Popinot 
 on Rue du Fouarre, a specimen of the abodes of the 
 bourgeoisie in the old days. Here are the remains 
 of Fulbert's mansion; there the whole basin of the 
 Seine under Charles IX. Why should not the his- 
 torian of French society, like another Old Mortality, 
 
 (7)
 
 8 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 rescue these interesting relics of the past, as Sir 
 Walter Scott's old man restored the tombs of the 
 Covenanters? Certain it is that for ten years past 
 the shrieks of literature have not been thrown 
 away; art is beginning to disguise with its flowers 
 the mean facades of what are known at Paris as 
 houses of produce, wittily compared by one of our 
 poets to commodes. 
 
 Let us here remark that the creation of the munic- 
 ipal commission del ornamento at Milan, which has 
 supervision of the architecture of the street fronts of 
 all buildings, and to whom all persons proposing to 
 build are required to submit their plans, dates from 
 the twelfth century. And who has not noticed, in 
 that charming capital, the results of the patriotic 
 regard of nobles and commoners for their city, as he 
 has admired the character and originality of the 
 buildings? Hideous, unbridled speculation, which, 
 from year to year, cuts down the height of floors, 
 lays out a whole suite of rooms in the space once 
 occupied by a dismantled salon, and wages war to 
 the knife upon gardens, will inevitably exert an 
 influence upon Parisian morals. People wiJl soon 
 be compelled to live without rather than within. 
 Where is the sanctity of private life, the freedom of 
 one's own fireside, to be found to-day ? It begins 
 with an income of fifty thousand francs. Still, a 
 few millionaires do indulge in the luxury of a little 
 mansion, separated from the street by a court-yard, 
 and sheltered from public curiosity by the thick foli- 
 age of a garden.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 9 
 
 By undertaking to equalize fortunes, that part of 
 the Code which deals with the question of inheri- 
 tances has produced those monsters in unhewn stone 
 which accommodate thirty families and yield a hun- 
 dred thousand francs a year. So it will be that, 
 fifty years hence, we shall be able to count upon our 
 fingers the houses like that which was occupied, at 
 the time this narrative begins, by the Thuillier 
 family; a really interesting house, which is entitled 
 to the honor of a particular description, were it only 
 to compare the bourgeoisie of a former time with the 
 bourgeoisie of to-day. 
 
 Moreover, the situation and appearance of the 
 house, the frame of the ensuing picture of manners, 
 have a savor of the lesser bourgeoisie, which may 
 attract or repel, according to the tastes and inclina- 
 tions of each individual reader. 
 
 In the first place the Thuillier mansion belonged 
 neither to Monsieur nor to Madame, but to Mademoi- 
 selle Thuillier, Monsieur Thuillier's elder sister. 
 
 This house, which had been purchased during the 
 six months immediately following the Revolution of 
 1830 by Mademoiselle Marie- Jeanne-Brigitte Thuil- 
 lier, a damsel of full age, was situated near the 
 middle of RueSaint-Dominique-d'Enfer, at the right 
 as one turned into the street from Rue d'Enfer, so 
 that the building occupied by Monsieur Thuillier 
 faced the south. 
 
 The progressive movement of the people of Paris 
 toward the high land on the right bank of the Seine, 
 and the consequent desertion of the left bank, had
 
 10 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 been for a long time exerting a baneful influence 
 upon the sale of property in the Latin Quarter, so- 
 called, when divers reasons, which will be explained 
 in connection with the character and habits of Mon- 
 sieur Thuillier, led his sister to decide upon the pur- 
 chase of a piece of real estate ; she secured the 
 property in question at the upset price of forty-six 
 thousand francs ; the appurtenances amounted to six 
 thousand more, making a total of fifty-two thousand 
 francs. A description of the property, in the style 
 of an advertisement, and the results obtained by 
 Monsieur Thuillier's labors will make clear the 
 means by which so many fortunes were made in 
 July, 1830, while so many other fortunes were ship- 
 wrecked. 
 
 The facade of the house on the street was of rough 
 stone coated with plaster, marred by lapse of time, 
 and marked with the mason's trowel to imitate 
 blocks of cut stone. This style of house-front is so 
 common in Paris and so ugly that the city ought to 
 offer gratuities to all land-owners who build of hewn 
 stone and have their facades carved. This grisly 
 structure, pierced by seven windows, was three 
 stories in height, and ended in tile-covered attics. 
 The heavy, solidly-built porte-cochere was of a form 
 and style which indicated that the building on the 
 street was erected during the Empire, with the 
 object of utilizing part of the court-yard of an enor- 
 mous, ancient mansion of the time when the Quar- 
 tier d'Enfer was still in favor. 
 
 On one side was the porter's lodge, on the other
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS II 
 
 the staircase of the building with the stone front. 
 Two other buildings, placed against the adjoining 
 houses on each side, had formerly been used as 
 carriage-houses, stables, kitchens and offices in con- 
 nection with the house in the rear; but, since 1830, 
 they had been converted into shops. 
 
 That on the right was let to a wholesale paper- 
 dealer, one Monsieur Metivier nephew ; that on the 
 left to a bookseller named Barbel The premises of 
 each tenant extended above their shops, and the 
 bookseller lived on the first, the paper-dealer on the 
 second floor of the house, facing the street Metivier 
 nephew, who was rather a broker in paper than a 
 dealer, and Barbet, who was much more of a bill- 
 discounter than a bookseller, both had abundance of 
 room in which to store; the former, the piles of 
 paper purchased from needy manufacturers; the 
 other, editions of works given in pledge for his loans. 
 
 The shark of the book-shop and this pike of the 
 paper-mill lived on the best of terms, and their busi- 
 ness operations, lacking the animation attendant 
 upon retail trade, brought but few carriages into the 
 court-yard, which was commonly so peaceful that the 
 concierge was constantly compelled to pull up 
 weeds from between the stones of the pavement 
 Messieurs Barbet and Metivier, who were hardly 
 ready to be laid upon the shelf, paid a visit to their 
 landlord now and then, and their promptness in pay- 
 ing their rent classed them among desirable tenants ; 
 they passed for very honest folk in the eyes of the 
 Thuillier circle.
 
 12 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 The third floor front was divided into two 
 suites ; one was occupied by Monsieur Dutocq, clerk 
 to the justice of the peace, a retired government 
 employe, and a frequenter of the salon Thuillier; 
 the other by the hero of this Scene ; for the moment 
 we must be content to fix the amount of his rent, 
 seven hundred francs, and the position he had taken 
 up in the heart of the citadel three years before the 
 moment when the curtain rises upon this domes- 
 tic drama. 
 
 The clerk, a bachelor of fifty, occupied the larger 
 of the two suites on the third floor ; he had a cook 
 and paid a thousand francs rent Two years after 
 her purchase Mademoiselle Thuillier was in receipt 
 of seventy-two hundred francs a year from a house, 
 of which the blinds were always closed under the 
 former proprietor, because, although he had remod- 
 eled it within, and supplied it plentifully with mir- 
 rors, he was not able to sell or let it; and the 
 Thuilliers, who lived in handsome quarters, as we 
 shall see, enjoyed one of the finest gardens in the 
 neighborhood, the trees of which overhung the quiet 
 little Rue Neuve-Sainte-Catherine. 
 
 Located between court-yard and garden, the house 
 they occupied seemed to have been built to gratify 
 the whim of some newly-rich tradesman, under 
 Louis XIV., that of a president of the Parliament, or 
 the abode of some peaceful scholar. In its regular, 
 even courses of handsome hewn stone there was a 
 sort of Louis Fourteenthish pardon the barbarism 
 grandeur; the red brick window trimmings recalled
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 13 
 
 the stables at Versailles, the arched windows were 
 adorned with grotesque figures at the key of the arch 
 and under the sill. The door, which was of glass in 
 small panes in the upper part and solid below, and 
 through which one caught a glimpse of the garden, 
 was in the straightforward, modest style often em- 
 ployed in the porter's lodges of the royal chateaux. 
 
 There were two floors above the ground floor, 
 with five windows in each, the whole covered by a 
 square roof, ending in a weathercock, and pierced 
 by four large chimneys and skylights. It may be 
 that this edifice was the last fragment of some fine 
 mansion ; but an examination of the old plans of 
 Paris reveals nothing to confirm that conjecture; 
 and furthermore, Mademoiselle Thuillier's title- 
 deeds prove the owner, in Louis the Fourteenth's 
 time, to have been Petitot, the famous painter on 
 enamel, who acquired the property from President 
 Lecamus. It is probable that the president lived 
 there while his famous hotel on Rue de Thorigny 
 was in process of construction. 
 
 Thus we see that art and the gown have alike 
 passed that way. And with what liberal apprecia- 
 tion of one's needs and enjoyment was the interior 
 of the house arranged ! At the right, as you entered 
 a square hall, forming a sort of closed vestibule, 
 was a stone staircase with two windows looking on 
 the garden; under the staircase was the door leading 
 to the cellar. From the vestibule a door opened into 
 the dining-room, which was lighted from the court- 
 yard. The dining-room was connected on the other
 
 14 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 side with a kitchen which was in the rear of Bar- 
 bet's premises. Behind the staircase, on the garden 
 side, was a magnificent long office with two win- 
 dows. The first and second floors formed two com- 
 plete suites, and the location of the servants' quarters 
 under the roof was indicated by the skylights. A 
 magnificent stove adorned this square vestibule, 
 which was lighted by two glass doors facing each 
 other. The floor was of black and white marble 
 tiles, and the ceiling was supported by jutting 
 beams formerly painted and gilded, but which, under 
 the Empire no doubt, had received a coat of plain 
 white paint throughout Opposite the stove was a 
 fountain in red marble with a marble basin. The 
 three doors of the office, the salon and the dining- 
 room, were made with oval panels, the paint upon 
 which awaited a retouching which was more than 
 necessary. The finish of the rooms was rather 
 heavy, but the decorations were not without merit. 
 The salon, which was finished entirely in wood, 
 reminded one of the great century as well by its 
 chimney-piece, in Languedoc marble, as by its 
 ceiling ornamented at the corners, and the shape of 
 the windows, which still retained the small old-fash- 
 ioned panes. The dining-room, which communi- 
 cated with the salon by folding-doors, had a stone 
 floor; the wainscoting was of oak, unpainted, and 
 an atrocious modern wall-paper replaced the tapestry 
 of the old days. The ceiling was in paneled chest- 
 nut, which had been left untouched. The cabinet, 
 modernized by Thuillier, added one more to the
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 15 
 
 incongruities of the place. The gold and white 
 mouldings of the salon had seen such hard service 
 that one could see nothing but red lines where the 
 gold used to be, and the white was streaked with 
 yellow and scaling off in spots. The phrase Otium 
 cum dignitale could never have had a more eloquent 
 illustration in the eyes of a poet than this once 
 splendid dwelling afforded. The ironwork of the 
 stair-rail was of a style befitting the abode of the 
 magistrate and the artist; but to find their traces 
 to-day in the remains of that majestic antiquity the 
 eyes of an artist are requisite. 
 
 The Thuilliers and their predecessors many a 
 time cast dishonor upon this gem among upper 
 middle-class habitations by the introduction of the 
 habits and devices of the petty bourgeoisie. Do 
 you notice the black walnut chairs upholstered in 
 horsehair ; a mahogany table with an oilcloth cover ; 
 mahogany sideboards ; a second-hand carpet under 
 the table; white iron lamps, an ugly wall-paper 
 with a red border, execrable engravings of the 
 gloomiest subjects, and red-fringed calico curtains, 
 in the dining-room where Petitot and his friends 
 feasted? Do you realize the effect produced in the 
 salon by the portraits of Monsieur and Madame and 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier, by Pierre Grassou, the 
 painter affected by well-to-do tradesmen; card- 
 tables which had done service for twenty years, 
 consoles of the time of the Empire, a tea-table of 
 which the legs were in the shape of a bulky lyre, 
 and furniture of prickly mahogany upholstered in
 
 16 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 velvet with flowers painted on a chocolate back- 
 ground; upon the mantel-piece, beside the clock 
 representing the Bellona of the Empire, candelabra 
 with fluted columns; curtains of woolen damask and 
 curtains of embroidered muslin, caught back by 
 bands of stamped copper? On the floor was a 
 second-hand carpet In the finely-proportioned 
 oblong vestibule were velvet-covered benches ; the 
 decorated walls were concealed by cupboards of vari- 
 ous periods brought thither from all the apartments 
 hitherto occupied by the Thuilliers. The fountain 
 was hidden from sight by boards, upon which was 
 a smoky lamp that dated from 1815. Lastly, timid- 
 ity, that unattractive goddess, had dictated the use, 
 on the garden side as well as on the side of the court- 
 yard, of double doors sheathed with iron, which 
 were opened against the wall by day, and closed at 
 night 
 
 It is a simple matter to explain the deplorable 
 profanation of this monument of private life in the 
 seventeenth century by the private life of the nine- 
 teenth. In the early days of the Consulate, we 
 will say, a master mason purchased this little man- 
 sion and conceived the idea of turning the land on 
 the street to some use; so he probably demolished 
 the fine porte-cochere, flanked by little pavilions 
 which put the finishing-touch to this attractive place 
 of sojourn to make use of an old-fashioned expres- 
 sion and the inventive genius of a Parisian land- 
 holder left its brand upon the brow of this master- 
 piece of refined taste, as the newspaper and its
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 17 
 
 presses, the factory and its warehouses, commerce 
 and its counting-houses are replacing the aristocracy, 
 the old bourgeoisie, the financiers and the men of 
 the gown in all those places where their magnifi- 
 cence was formerly displayed. What an interesting 
 study is that of the title-deeds of property in Paris ! 
 On Rue des Batailles a hospital performs its chari- 
 table functions in the house of Chevalier Pierre 
 Bayard du Terrail ; the Third Estate laid out a street 
 over the site of the Hotel Necker. Old Paris is 
 vanishing, following the kings, who have already 
 vanished. For one masterpiece of architecture res- 
 cued from destruction by a Polish princess,* how 
 many small palaces are falling, like Petitot's abode, 
 into the hands of the Thuilliers! 
 
 The causes which led to Mademoiselle Thuillier's 
 becoming the owner of this property were these: 
 
 At the fall of the Villele ministry, Monsieur Louis- 
 Jer&me Thuillier, who had then been twenty-six 
 years in the employ of the treasury, became deputy- 
 chief of a bureau ; but he had barely assumed the 
 subordinate authority conferred by a post which had 
 formerly been beyond his wildest hopes, when the 
 events of July, 1830, forced him to retire. He very 
 shrewdly reckoned that his retiring pension would 
 be promptly and honestly adjusted by people only 
 too glad to have another place at their disposal, and 
 he was right, for his pension was fixed at seventeen 
 hundred francs. 
 
 When the prudent deputy-chief spoke of retiring 
 
 * The Hotel Lambert on lie Saint Louis, occupied by Princess Czartoriska. 
 
 2
 
 18 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 from the government employ, his sister, who was 
 much more truly his helpmeet than was his wife, 
 was apprehensive for his future. 
 
 "What is going to become of Thuillier?" was a 
 question addressed to each other with mutual dismay 
 by Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier, at that time 
 occupying a small third floor apartment on Rue 
 d'Argenteuil. 
 
 "He will be busy for some time getting his pen- 
 sion arranged, " said Mademoiselle Thuillier; "but 
 I'm thinking of an investment of my little savings 
 that will give him something to do. Yes, it'll be 
 almost like being in the government to have some 
 real estate to look after." 
 
 "Oh! dear sister, you will save his life!" cried 
 Madame Thuillier. 
 
 "Yes, I have always kept in mind the possibility 
 of such a crisis in Jerome's life!" replied the old 
 maid, patronizingly. 
 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier had too often heard her 
 brother say: "Such and such a one is dead! he 
 didn't survive his retirement two years!" she had 
 too often heard Colleville, Thuillier's intimate 
 friend and a government clerk like himself, joking 
 about this grand climacteric of the bureaucrats, and 
 saying: "We shall come to it in time!" not to 
 realize the danger incurred by her brother. The 
 transition from activity to retirement is, in truth, 
 the critical period in the clerk's life. Those clerks, 
 who, upon being retired, have not the good fortune to 
 substitute other occupations for those they have laid
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 19 
 
 aside, are apt to change in strange ways : some die ; 
 many fall into dissipation, a form of distraction the 
 emptiness of which bears some resemblance to their 
 work in the government offices; others, more in- 
 clined to mischief, dabble in stocks, throw away 
 their savings and are overjoyed to be admitted to a 
 share in an enterprise, destined to succeed, after the 
 first crash and liquidation, in the more skilful hands 
 which are on the watch ; the ex-clerk thereupon rubs 
 his own hands, now quite empty, say ing to himself: 
 "At all events, I foresaw what the future of that 
 thing would be!" But almost all of them struggle 
 against their former ways of life. 
 
 "There are some," Colleville would say, "who 
 are eaten up with the spleen peculiar to government 
 clerks; they die from going round and round in the 
 same circle; they have, not the ver solitaire tape- 
 worm but the carton solitaire solitary document 
 case Little Poiret couldn't see a white case with 
 a blue edge without changing color at the well-loved 
 sight; he always changed from green to yellow." 
 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier was looked upon as the 
 good genius of her brother's household; she lacked 
 neither force nor decision of character, as the story of 
 her life will prove. This superiority to her sur- 
 roundings made it possible for her to form a just 
 estimate of her brother, although she worshiped him. 
 Having looked on at the death of the hopes which 
 depended upon her idol for their fulfilment, she had 
 too much of the sentiment of maternity to deceive 
 herself as to the deputy-chief's value in society.
 
 20 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Thuillier and his sister were children of the chief 
 concierge at the Treasury Department. Thanks to 
 his near-sightedness, Jerome had escaped the innu- 
 merable drafts and conscriptions. The father's 
 ambition was to have his son enter the employ of 
 the government In the early part of this century 
 there were too many places filled in the army not to 
 leave many vacant ones in the government offices, 
 and the scarcity of clerks in the lower grades made it 
 possible for honest Pere Thuillier to place his son 
 upon the first step of the bureaucratic hierarchy. 
 
 The concierge died in 1814, leaving Jerome on the 
 point of becoming deputy-chief, but bequeathing him 
 no other fortune than that hope. The old gentleman 
 and his wife, who died in 1810, had retired from their 
 post about 1806, with no other means than their 
 retiring pension, having devoted their spare cash to 
 affording Jerome such education as was obtainable 
 at the time, and to supporting him and his sister. 
 
 The influence of the Restoration upon the bureau- 
 cracy is well known. The suppression of forty-one 
 departments left without employment a multitude of 
 worthy clerks requesting appointments to places 
 inferior to those they had formerly held. To their 
 well-earned rights were added the claims of the 
 proscribed families whom the Revolution had 
 ruined. Between these two currents Jerome 
 deemed himself very fortunate not to be discharged 
 altogether on some frivolous pretext He never 
 ceased to tremble until the day when, having by 
 good luck become deputy-chief, he was assured of
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 21 
 
 honorable retirement This rapid summary will 
 explain Monsieur Thuillier's inconsiderable ability 
 and acquirements. He had learned Latin, mathe- 
 matics, history and geography as one learns at 
 boarding-school; but he got no higher than the 
 second class, his father having chosen to avail him- 
 self of an opportunity to get his son into the 
 department by boasting of his superb handwriting. 
 Therefore, although young Thuillier wrote the 
 first inscriptions in the register of the public debt, 
 neither the language nor the philosophy of the 
 scheme was his. 
 
 Having become an integral part of the ministerial 
 machine, he cultivated letters but little, art still less ; 
 he became thoroughly acquainted with the routine 
 work of his place, and as he sometimes had occasion, 
 under the Empire, to enter the sphere occupied by 
 employes of a higher grade, he acquired their 
 superficial manners, which concealed the concierge's 
 son, but he never so much as brushed up his wits 
 there. His ignorance taught him to keep silent, 
 and his silence was of service to him. Under the 
 imperial regime he accustomed himself to the 
 passive obedience which pleased his superiors ; and 
 to that quality he owed his promotion to be deputy- 
 chief at a later period. His strict adherence to 
 routine gave him the name of a man of great ex- 
 perience; his manners and his silence concealed his 
 lack of information. His absolute nothingness was 
 a title to consideration when they needed a man 
 who was absolutely nothing. There was a fear of
 
 22 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 giving offence to both parties in the Chamber, each 
 of which had its favorite candidate, and the minis- 
 try extricated itself from the dilemma by carrying out 
 the law concerning priority of service. That is how 
 Thuillier became deputy-chief. Mademoiselle Thuil- 
 lier, knowing that her brother abhorred reading, 
 and was unlikely to find any employment to replace 
 the bustle of the government offices, shrewdly deter- 
 mined, therefore, to throw upon him the responsibil- 
 ities of a landed proprietor, to employ him in the cul- 
 tivation of a garden, in the infinitely trivial details 
 of middle-class life, and in neighborhood intrigues. 
 
 The adjustment of the details of the purchase and 
 the transplanting of the Thuillier establishment from 
 Rue d'Argenteuil to Rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer, 
 together with the necessary labor of finding a suit- 
 able concierge and proper tenants, furnished Thuil- 
 lier with occupation in 1831 and 1832. When the 
 ceremony of transplanting was concluded, and 
 Jerdme's sister saw that he did not take kindly to 
 the operation, she found other ways of employing 
 his time, which will be described in due course ; but, 
 as her reason for the selection was based upon 
 Thuillier's character, it may not be inadvisable to 
 say a word here upon that subject 
 
 Although he was the son of a government con- 
 cierge, Thuillier was what is called a handsome man ; 
 rather above middle height, slender, with not 
 unpleasant features while he wore his glasses, but 
 horrible to look at, as is frequently the case with 
 myopes, as soon as he took them off; for the habit
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 23 
 
 of looking through goggles had spread a sort of film 
 over his eyes. 
 
 From eighteen to thirty young Thuillier had some 
 success with the fair sex, always in a sphere extend- 
 ing from the class of petty tradesmen to the chiefs 
 of divisions in the government offices ; but everybody 
 knows that, under the Empire, the constant wars 
 left Parisian society somewhat destitute by taking 
 most of the live men away to the battle-field, and 
 it may be, as a great physician has said, that that 
 fact accounts for the supineness of the generation 
 which occupies the stage in the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Thuillier being compelled to resort to other than 
 intellectual fascinations to draw attention to himself, 
 learned to waltz and to perform in contradances so 
 well that he was quoted as an authority; he was 
 called Beau Thuillier. He played billiards to per- 
 fection ; he was an artist in cutting figures out of 
 paper; and his friend Colleville had tutored him 
 so persistently with the tuning-fork that he could 
 sing the fashionable airs of the day. From these 
 trivial accomplishments resulted that appearance of 
 social success which leads young men astray and 
 gives them dazzling dreams of the future. Made- 
 moiselle Thuillier, from 1806 to 1814, believed in her 
 brother as implicitly as Mademoiselle d'Orleans in 
 Louis-Philippe; she was proud of Jer6me, and in 
 her mind's eye she saw him attaining the dignity 
 of a director-generalship, thanks to this factitious 
 vogue which, during those years, opened some
 
 24 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 salons to him to which he assuredly would never 
 have been admitted but for the circumstances which 
 made society under the Empire a chaos. 
 
 But Beau Thuillier's triumphs were generally of 
 short duration, for the women cared as little about 
 keeping him as he cared about joining his fortunes 
 with theirs forever; he would have been a most fit- 
 ting subject of a comedy entitled The Don Juan 
 Against His Will. The profession of beau was so 
 wearisome to Thuillier that he aged visibly; his 
 face, which was as covered with wrinkles as that 
 of an old coquette, made him a good twelve years 
 older than the certificate of his birth. Of his period 
 of social success he retained the habit of looking in 
 the mirror, of grasping his waist in order to make 
 it smaller, and of assuming the attitudes of a dancer, 
 all of which tended to prolong beyond his enjoy- 
 ment of its benefits his lease of the nickname Beau 
 Thuillier! 
 
 What was true in 1806 was an absurdity in 1826. 
 He preserved some relics of the costume affected 
 by the beaus of the Empire, which, to tell the truth, 
 was not ill-suited to the dignity of a deputy-chief. 
 He retained the white cravat with its numerous folds 
 amid which the chin nestled, its two ends threaten- 
 ing passers-by on either side, and calling their 
 attention to a jaunty knot, which used to be tied 
 by fair hands. While following the fashions at a 
 distance he adapted them to his own figure; he 
 wore his hat far back upon his head, and low shoes 
 and fine stockings in summer; his lengthened frock
 
 BEAU THUILLIER 
 
 He played billiards to perfection ; he was an artist 
 in cutting figures out of paper ; and Ids friend 
 Colleville had tortured him so persistently with tJie 
 tuning-fork that he could sing the fashionable airs of 
 the day.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 25 
 
 coats reminded one of the Ifoites worn under the 
 Empire; he had not yet abandoned ample shirt- 
 frills and white waistcoats ; he was always playing 
 with the switch he carried in 1810, and he walked 
 with a slight stoop. No one, to see Thuillier walk- 
 ing on the boulevards, would have taken him for the 
 son of a man who provided lunches for the clerks in 
 the Treasury Department, and wore the livery of 
 Louis XVI. ; he resembled a diplomatist of the 
 Empire or a sub-prefect. Now, not only did Made- 
 moiselle Thuillier flatter her brother's weakness by 
 urging him to take especial pains with his personal 
 appearance, it being, in her case, a sort of continu- 
 ation of her hero-worship, but she also gave him 
 all the pleasures of family life by transplanting 
 beneath their roof a family whose previous exist- 
 ence had been, so to speak, collateral to theirs. 
 
 This was the family of Monsieur Colleville, 
 Thuillier's bosom friend; but before depicting 
 Pylades, it is indispensable to complete our picture 
 of Orestes, especially as we have yet to explain 
 how Thuillier, Beau Thuillier, came to be without 
 a family, for the family does not exist except where 
 children are; and here we must disclose one of 
 those profound mysteries which lie buried in the 
 arcana of family life, and of which some faint indi- 
 cations reach the surface when the agony of a false 
 situation becomes too keen. We must now advert 
 to the lives of Madame and Mademoiselle Thuillier; 
 hitherto we have spoken only of the life, the quasi- 
 public life, of Jerome Thuillier.
 
 Marie- Jeanne-Brigitte Thuillier, who was four 
 years older than her brother, was utterly sacrificed 
 to him ; it was a simpler matter to provide a pro- 
 fession for the one than a dowry for the other. 
 Misfortune is to certain natures a beacon that lights 
 them through the dark paths of the lower strata of 
 social life. Superior to her brother, both in energy 
 and intellect, Brigitte was one of those characters 
 which, under the hammer of persecution, become 
 concentrated, compact, capable of great resistance, 
 not to say inflexible. Being jealous of her indepen- 
 dence, she determined to cut loose from life at the 
 porter's lodge and become the sole arbiter of her own 
 destiny. 
 
 At the age of fourteen she took up her quarters in 
 an attic a few steps from the Treasury, then located 
 on Rue Vivienne, not far from Rue de la Vrilliere, 
 where the Bank still is. She devoted herself with 
 great courage to a little-known branch of industry, 
 she was indebted to her father's patrons for the 
 opportunity, which consisted in making bags for 
 the Bank, for the Treasury, and also for the great 
 banking-houses. In the third year she had two 
 women working for her. By investing her savings 
 in the public funds, she found herself, in 1814, mis- 
 tress of an income of thirty-six hundred francs, 
 earned in fifteen years. She spent but little and 
 (27)
 
 28 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 dined at her father's almost every day while he 
 lived, and, moreover, it is well known that consols 
 fell to between forty and fifty francs during the 
 Empire's dying convulsions; so that this result, 
 which seems exaggerated, explains itself. 
 
 At the death of the former concierge, Brigitte and 
 Jerome, being then twenty-seven and twenty-three 
 years old respectively, joined fortunes. The brother 
 and sister were devotedly attached to each other. 
 If Jer6me, then in the hey-day of his social success, 
 happened to be short of cash, his sister in her stuff 
 gown and with fingers raw from the thread she used 
 in sewing always had a louis or two to give him. 
 In Brigitte's eyes Jerome was the handsomest and 
 most fascinating man in the French Empire. To 
 keep house for her darling brother, to be initiated 
 into the secrets of Lindor and Don Juan, to be his 
 slave, his poodle, was Brigitte's dream; she immo- 
 lated herself almost as a wife or mistress might have 
 done to an idol, whose selfishness was destined to 
 be augmented and sacrificed by her. She sold her 
 business to her forewoman for fifteen thousand 
 francs, and took up her abode with the Thuilliers on 
 Rue d'Argenteuil, assuming the role of mother, pro- 
 tectress and maid-servant of that darling pet of the 
 ladies. With the prudence to be expected from a 
 damsel who owed everything to her own discretion 
 and hard work, Brigitte concealed the amount of her 
 means from her brother ; she feared, no doubt, the 
 extravagant tendencies of a squire of dames, and she 
 contributed but six hundred francs to the expenses
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 29 
 
 of the household; that, however, with Jerdme's 
 eighteen hundred enabled them to make both ends 
 meet 
 
 From the very beginning of their partnership, 
 Thuillier listened to his sister as to an oracle, con- 
 sulted her concerning the most trivial matters of 
 business, hid none of his secrets from her, and thus 
 gave her a taste of the fruit of the thirst for domi- 
 neering, which was the one pardonable flaw in her 
 character. The sister, then, had sacrificed every- 
 thing to her brother; she had made his interests 
 the chief care of her heart, she lived in him. Her 
 ascendancy over him was confirmed, strangely 
 enough, by the marriage she arranged for him about 
 1814. 
 
 When she observed the rough measures of com- 
 pression in the government offices adopted by the 
 new-comers of the Restoration, and especially when 
 she saw how the bourgeoisie were being crowded to 
 the wall by the re-establishment of the old social 
 regime, Brigitte understood, the better as her 
 brother explained it to her, the social crisis where- 
 in their mutual hopes were extinguished. Success 
 was no longer possible for Beau Thuillier among the 
 nobles who succeeded the parvenus of the Empire! 
 
 Thuillier had not sufficient strength of mind to 
 adopt any political opinion, and he felt, as did his 
 sister, the necessity of taking advantage of what 
 remained of his youth to end his career as a lady's 
 man. In that situation of affairs, a woman as jeal- 
 ous as Brigitte would and should seek to find a wife
 
 30 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 for her brother, as much for herself as for him, for 
 she alone could make him happy, and a Madame 
 Thuillier was simply an accessory indispensable for 
 the production of a child or two. If Brigitte had 
 not the intellect suited to her strong will, she had 
 at all events an instinctive consciousness of her 
 power of domination; she had no education, but 
 simply went straight ahead with the obstinacy of a 
 nature accustomed to succeed. She had a genius for 
 housekeeping, an economical mind, good judgment 
 in providing for the table and an intense love of 
 work. She foresaw therefore that she would never 
 succeed in marrying Jerome in a higher sphere than 
 their own, in which families would be likely to 
 make inquiries as to his home life and might be dis- 
 turbed to find a mistress already installed; she 
 looked about in the lower social stratum in search of 
 people to be dazzled, and she found a suitable match 
 close at hand. 
 
 The oldest of the clerks at the Bank, one Lem- 
 prun, had an only daughter named Celeste. Made- 
 moiselle Celeste Lemprun would inherit the 
 fortune of her mother, who was the only daughter 
 of a well-to-do farmer. This fortune consisted of a 
 few acres of land in the suburbs of Paris which the 
 old gentleman still cultivated. Then there was the 
 fortune of the worthy Lemprun himself, who had 
 entered the employ of the Bank at the time of its 
 foundation after long service in the banking-houses 
 of Thelusson and Keller. Lemprun, who was at 
 this time at the head of the employes of the Bank,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 31 
 
 enjoyed the esteem and regard of the government 
 and the censors. 
 
 So it happened that the council of the Bank, 
 hearing some mention of Celeste's marriage with a 
 faithful clerk at the Treasury Department, voted her 
 a gratuity of six thousand francs. This gratuity, 
 added to twelve thousand francs given by Pere 
 Lemprun, and twelve thousand given by Monsieur 
 Galard, market gardener of Auteuil, carried the 
 marriage-portion to thirty thousand francs. Old 
 Galard and Monsieur and Madame Lemprun were 
 delighted with the match; the chief clerk knew 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier to be one of the most 
 honest, worthy women in Paris. Moreover, Brigitte 
 made her holding in the funds glisten in Lemprun's 
 eyes by confiding to him that she should never 
 marry, and neither the chief clerk nor his wife, both 
 of whom were of the age of gold, would have pre- 
 sumed to pass judgment upon Brigitte. They were 
 especially impressed by the splendor of Beau Thuil- 
 lier's position, and the wedding took place, accord- 
 ing to the timeworn phrase, to the satisfaction of 
 all concerned. 
 
 The governor and secretary of the Bank acted as 
 witnesses for the bride, as did Monsieur de la Bil- 
 lardiere, divisional chief, and Monsieur Rabourdin, 
 chief of bureau, for Thuillier. Six days after the 
 marriage, Lemprun was the victim of an audacious 
 theft, which was mentioned in the newspapers of the 
 day, but was speedily forgotten in the exciting 
 events of 1815. The perpetrators of the crime
 
 32 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 having eluded pursuit, Lemprun insisted upon mak- 
 ing up the difference, and, although the Bank had 
 charged the amount to profit and loss, the poor old 
 man died of the grief caused by the misadventure. 
 He considered it an attack upon his long life of 
 stainless probity. 
 
 Madame Lemprun gave up all her husband's prop- 
 erty to her daughter, Madame Thuillier, and went 
 to live with her father at Auteuil, where that old 
 gentleman died through an accident in 1817. Dis- 
 mayed at the prospect of having to carry on her 
 father's farm or to let it, Madame Lemprun besought 
 Brigitte, whose capabilities and upright dealing 
 aroused her admiration, to administer the estate of 
 good man Galard and so arrange matters that her 
 daughter should take over the whole, and should 
 agree to pay her fifteen hundred francs a year and 
 allow her to live in the house at Auteuil. The old 
 farmer's fields, sold in small parcels, brought thirty 
 thousand francs. Lemprun's inheritance yielded a 
 like amount; and these two sums, added to the mar- 
 riage-portion, swelled Celeste's fortune, in 1818, to 
 ninety thousand francs. 
 
 The marriage-portion had been invested in shares 
 in the Bank at a time when they were worth nine 
 hundred francs. Brigitte so invested the sixty 
 thousand as to yield five thousand a year, for the 
 five per cents were at sixty, and one certificate for 
 fifteen hundred francs was placed in the name of 
 the widow Lemprun for her life. Thus, at the 
 beginning of the year 1818, the six hundred francs
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 33 
 
 paid by Brigitte, Thuillier's salary of thirty-four 
 hundred francs, Celeste's thirty-five hundred, and 
 the dividends on thirty-four shares in the Bank gave 
 the Thuillier household a yearly income of eleven 
 thousand francs, which was administered by 
 Brigitte on her own responsibility. It was essen- 
 tial to dispose of the financial question first of all, 
 not only to obviate objections on that score, but to 
 get it out of the way of the drama. 
 
 In the first place Brigitte gave five hundred francs 
 a month to her brother, and steered the ship so that 
 five thousand francs paid all the expenses of the 
 household. She allowed her sister-in-law fifty 
 francs a month, calling her attention to the fact that 
 she herself spent no more than forty. In order to 
 ensure her domination by the power of money, Bri- 
 gitte hoarded the surplus of her own income; it was 
 said in the government offices that she loaned money 
 at usurious rates through the medium of her brother, 
 who came to be looked upon as a bill-discounter. 
 Although Brigitte did amass a capital of sixty thous- 
 and francs between 1813 and 1830, the existence 
 of that sum can be explained by operations in the 
 funds which fluctuated forty per cent in that period, 
 and there is no occasion to resort to accusations, be 
 they well or ill-founded, the truth of which would 
 add nothing to the interest of this narrative. 
 
 In the very beginning Brigitte got poor Madame 
 
 Thuillier under her feet by the first digs she gave 
 
 her with the spur and by her cruel pulling upon the 
 
 bit Refinement of tyranny was not necessary, as 
 
 3
 
 34 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 the victim speedily submitted to the inevitable. 
 Celeste, who was quite devoid of wit and education, 
 and accustomed to a sedentary life and an atmos- 
 phere of tranquillity, had an excessively mild 
 disposition, and Brigitte had gauged her most accu- 
 rately ; she was pious in the most extended sense of 
 the word ; she would have undergone the harshest 
 of penances to atone for the sin of having injured her 
 neighbor, although unwittingly. She knew abso- 
 lutely nothing of life, being accustomed to be waited 
 on by her mother, who kept the house herself, and 
 compelled to abstain from active movement because 
 of a lymphatic tendency which made the slightest 
 exertion wearisome to her ; she was a true daughter 
 of the common people of Paris, among whom the 
 children, seldom beautiful, vary but little, being as 
 they are the fruit of poverty, of excessive toil, and 
 of houses without fresh air, freedom of action or 
 any of the conveniences of life. 
 
 At the time of the marriage Celeste was a short, 
 stout creature, with a fair complexion so faded as to 
 be almost revolting, slow of motion, and with a 
 countenance devoid of expression. Her forehead, 
 far too extensive and prominent, resembled that of 
 a person afflicted with hydrocephalus, and, beneath 
 that wax-colored dome, her face, which was dispro- 
 portionately small and ended in a point like a 
 mouse's muzzle, caused some of her friends to fear 
 that she would go mad sooner or later. Nor did her 
 light blue eyes and her lips wreathed in an almost 
 unchanging smile give the lie to that thought On
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 35 
 
 the solemn day of her nuptials her expression, atti- 
 tude and manner were those of a man condemned to 
 death, who longs to have it over as soon as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 "She's rather a dose!" said Colleville to Thuil- 
 lier. 
 
 Brigitte was the knife to be thrust into this slug- 
 gish nature to which she offered a most striking 
 contrast. In her face could be remarked the traces 
 of a severe, regular style of beauty, marred by the 
 hard, ungrateful toil that had been her unvarying 
 lot since her infancy, and by the secret privations 
 to which she had subjected herself in amassing 
 her little store. Her skin, which was covered 
 with blotches at an early age, had a steel-like tint. 
 Her brown eyes were rimmed with black, or rather 
 with black and blue; her upper lip was ornamented 
 with a line of russet down which resembled a wreath 
 of smoke; her lips were thin, and her commanding 
 brow was surmounted by a mass of hair once black, 
 but now turning gray. She stood as erect as the 
 loveliest of blondes, and everything about her told 
 of severe toil, of extinguished fires, and, as the 
 sheriffs say, of the cost of her exploits. 
 
 In Brigitte's eyes Celeste was simply a fortune to 
 be clutched, a mother to undergo the pains of child- 
 birth, an additional subject in her empire. She 
 soon reproached her for being so soft veule a 
 word of her own, and the jealous old maid, who 
 would have been in despair to have an energetic 
 sister-in-law thrust upon her, felt a savage delight
 
 36 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 in stimulating this weak creature's inactivity. 
 Celeste, ashamed to see her sister-in-law displaying 
 her enthusiasm in the performance of the duties of 
 housemaid and in keeping the house, tried to assist 
 her; she fell ill; Brigitte was instantly all devotion 
 to her ; she waited upon her as if she were the dear- 
 est of sisters, and said to her in Thuillier's pres- 
 ence: "You haven't the strength, little one, so 
 you just do nothing at all !" She exhibited Celeste's 
 incapacity by lavishing consolation upon her, by 
 assuming that air of gentle compassion for the weak 
 in which the strong find a way to sing their own 
 praises. 
 
 As despotic natures which love to display their 
 strength always overflow with compassion for 
 physical suffering, she nursed her sister-in-law so 
 devotedly as to satisfy Celeste's mother when she 
 came to see her. When Madame Thuillier's health 
 was restored, Brigitte spoke of her, in a loud enough 
 tone for her to hear, as a "helpless creature, good 
 for nothing," etc. Celeste went to her room to 
 weep at her ease, and when Thuillier surprised her 
 wiping away her tears, he excused his sister. 
 
 "She's a good creature," said he, "but she's very 
 hasty; she loves you in her way; she treats me 
 just like that" 
 
 Celeste, remembering the motherly care she had 
 received from her sister-in-law, forgave her. Bri- 
 gitte, however, treated her brother as the king of 
 the establishment; she vaunted his qualities to 
 Celeste, she made of him an autocrat, a Ladislas,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 37 
 
 an infallible pope. Madame Thuillier, bereft of her 
 father and grandfather, and almost deserted by her 
 mother, who came to see her on Thursdays, and to 
 whose house she went on Sundays in fine weather, 
 had no one but her husband to love, first, because 
 he was her husband, and next, because, in her 
 eyes, he was still Beau Thuillier. And then, too, 
 he sometimes treated her as his wife, and all these 
 reasons combined to make him the object of her 
 adoration. He seemed the more perfect to her in 
 that he often undertook to defend her and scolded 
 his sister, not out of consideration for his wife, but 
 from pure selfishness and to have peace in the house 
 during the few moments that he remained there. 
 
 Beau Thuillier's practice was to dine at home, 
 and to come home for the night at a very late hour ; 
 he attended balls in his own set, quite alone, just as 
 if he were still a bachelor. Thus the two women 
 were always en tete-d-tete. Celeste insensibly 
 assumed a passive attitude and became what Brigitte 
 wished her to be, a serf. The Queen Elizabeth of 
 the establishment exchanged her domineering atti- 
 tude for a sort of pity for the victim so constantly 
 sacrificed. She ended by moderating her lofty airs, 
 her cutting words, her tone of contempt, when she 
 was certain that she had broken her sister to the 
 yoke. 
 
 As soon as she could see the collar-galls on her 
 victim's neck, she took care of her as of something 
 of her own, and Celeste knew happier days. By 
 dint of comparing the beginning with the sequel,
 
 38 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 she began to feel something like affection for her 
 tormentor. There was but one chance of the poor 
 slave mustering up some energy in her own 
 defence, of her becoming of some importance in the 
 bosom of a family supported by her fortune, without 
 her knowledge, and where she had only the crumbs 
 that fell from the table, but one chance, and that 
 chance did not occur. 
 
 In six years Celeste bore no child. Her sterility, 
 which caused her to shed floods of tears month after 
 month, kept Brigitte's contempt alive for a long 
 while; she taunted her with being a good-for-noth- 
 ing, not even able to bear children. The old maid, 
 who had so often promised to love her brother's child 
 as her own, was many years accustoming herself to 
 the idea of this irremediable state of things. 
 
 At the time when this narrative begins, in 1840, 
 Celeste, at forty-six, had ceased to weep, for she 
 had been forced to accept the sad certainty that she 
 could never become a mother. Strange to say, after 
 twenty-five years of this life, in which she had 
 finally blunted, yes, broken her knife, Brigitte 
 loved Celeste as dearly as Celeste loved Brigitte. 
 Time, comfort, the perpetual friction of domestic 
 life, had no doubt made the angles less sharp, and 
 worn the rough places smooth, and Celeste's lamb- 
 like docility and resignation made the autumn skies 
 serene. The two women were drawn together by 
 the only real sentiment that ever actuated either of 
 them, their adoration for the fortunate, egotistical 
 Thuillier.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 39 
 
 It came to pass that both of them, being childless, 
 had, like all women who have longed in vain for 
 children, lost their hearts to a child. This factitious 
 mother-love, no less powerful, by the way, than the 
 real article, calls for an explanation which will take 
 us to the heart of this drama, and will account for 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier's success in adding to her 
 brother's occupations. 
 
 Thuillier had entered the employ of the govern- 
 ment as a clerk without pay at the same time as 
 Colleville, whom we have already spoken of as his 
 intimate friend. Colleville's mode of life was in 
 striking contrast to the uninteresting machine-like 
 menage of Thuillier, and if it is impossible not to 
 remark that this chance contrast is not altogether 
 moral, we must add that before making up one's 
 mind it is well to go on to the end of the drama, 
 which is unhappily only too true, and for which 
 the dramatist is not responsible. 
 
 This Colleville was the only son of a talented 
 musician, formerly first violin at the Opera under 
 Francoeur and Rebel. In his lifetime he used to 
 tell the same anecdotes, at least six times a month, 
 about the performances of the Devin de Village ; he 
 used to mimic Jean- Jacques Rousseau, and was 
 wonderfully successful in so doing. Colleville and 
 Thuillier were inseparable allies, and had no secrets 
 from each other ; their friendship, which began at 
 the age of fifteen, had endured without a cloud till 
 
 1839- 
 Colleville was one of those clerks who are known
 
 40 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 in the departments as cumulards.* Such clerks 
 always owe their positions to their industrious 
 habits. Colleville, himself no mean musician, was 
 indebted to his father's name and influence for the 
 position of first clarionet at the Opera-Comique, and, 
 so long as he remained single, being somewhat 
 more opulent than Thuillier, often shared with his 
 friend. But, in contrast to Thuillier, Colleville 
 made a love match with Mademoiselle Flavie, the 
 natural daughter of a famous danseuse at the Opera, 
 her putative father being Du Bourguier, one of the 
 richest contractors of the time, who, having ruined 
 himself about 1800, forgot his daughter the more 
 readily because he had some doubt as to the chastity 
 of the famous ballet-dancer. 
 
 Both by birth and personal appearance Flavie 
 seemed destined to a deplorable future, when Colle- 
 ville, who frequently called upon the wealthy oper- 
 atic star, fell in love with Flavie and married her. 
 Prince Galathionne, who was the celebrated dancer's 
 protector in 1815, when she was drawing near the 
 close of her brilliant career, gave Flavie a dot of 
 twenty thousand francs, and the mother added a 
 most magnificent trousseau. The habitues of the 
 house and the premiere's comrades at the Opera 
 made handsome presents of jewelry and plate, so that 
 the Colleville establishment was much richer in 
 luxuries than in capital. Flavie, who had been 
 reared in opulence, was installed in a charming 
 suite, furnished by her mother's upholsterer, and 
 
 * A cumulard performs the duties usually assigned to several.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 41 
 
 there the young woman was enthroned a young 
 woman with a decided liking for art and artists and 
 for a certain amount of refinement 
 
 Madame Colleville was at the same time pretty 
 and piquant, clever, gracious, light of heart, and, to 
 say it all in one word, a fine girl. The ballet- 
 dancer having reached the age of forty-three, left the 
 stage and went into the country, and thus deprived 
 her daughter of the advantages afforded by her 
 soon-dissipated wealth. Madame Colleville kept a 
 pleasant house, but it was very expensive. Between 
 1816 and 1826 she had five children. From seven 
 to nine in the morning Colleville kept books for a 
 tradesman ; at ten o'clock he was at his desk, and 
 in the evening he was a musician. By blowing 
 into a bit of wood at night and keeping accounts by 
 double entry in the morning, he made from seven to 
 eight thousand francs a year. 
 
 Madame Colleville aped the manners of ladies 
 comme il faut; she received on Wednesdays, gave 
 a concert every month and a dinner every fortnight 
 She saw Colleville only at dinner and at night 
 when he came home, about midnight; even then it 
 often happened that she had not returned. She 
 went to the play, for which she often had com- 
 plimentary boxes, and she would leave a line for 
 Colleville to come for her at such and such a 
 house, where she was to dance or take supper. The 
 table at Madame Colleville's was most excellent, 
 and the society there, although somewhat mixed, 
 was extremely entertaining; she received famous
 
 42 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 actresses, painters, literary men, and a few rich 
 ones. Madame Colleville's style of living kept 
 pace with that of Tullia, premiere danseuse at the 
 Opera, with whom she was on intimate terms; but 
 although the Collevilles encroached upon their cap- 
 ital and often had difficulty in paying their monthly 
 bills, Flavie never ran in debt 
 
 Colleville was very happy; he still loved his 
 wife, and was still her best friend. Being always 
 welcomed with an affectionate smile and with con- 
 tagious demonstrations of delight, he yielded to her 
 irresistible, charming ways. The ferocious activ- 
 ity displayed by him in his three occupations was 
 well suited to his character and temperament He 
 was a stout, pleasant-faced fellow, high-colored, 
 jovial, free with his money, and full of whims. In 
 ten years there was not a single quarrel in his 
 household. In the department he was looked upon 
 as a hare-brained creature, like all artists, they 
 said, but superficial observers mistook the con- 
 stant hurry of the hard-working man for the going 
 and coming of a busybody. 
 
 Colleville had wit enough to play the fool ; he 
 boasted of his domestic happiness, and took the 
 trouble of hunting up anagrams, so that he might 
 pose as a man absorbed by that passion. The 
 clerks of his division in the department, the chiefs 
 of bureau, even the divisional chiefs, came to his 
 concerts; from time to time he opportunely slipped 
 a theatre ticket into the proper hand, for his 
 constant absences required extreme indulgence.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 43 
 
 Rehearsals occupied about half of the time he 
 should have passed at his desk, but the musical 
 talent bequeathed him by his father was so genuine 
 and profound that he had only to attend general 
 rehearsals. Thanks to Madame Colleville's con- 
 nections, the theatre and the ministry both bowed 
 to the demands of the worthy pluralist's position; 
 moreover, he was educating with great care a little 
 fellow earnestly recommended by his wife, a great 
 musician in futuro, who sometimes took his place 
 with a promise of succeeding him. 
 
 In 1827, when Colleville resigned, this young man 
 became first clarionet. The only criticism ever 
 made upon Flavie was this: "Madame Colleville is 
 a little slip of a flirt!" The oldest child, born in 
 1816, was the living image of honest Colleville. In 
 1818 Madame Colleville esteemed the cavalry 
 above everything, even art, and at that time she 
 distinguished with her favor a sub-lieutenant of the 
 Saint-Chamans dragoons, the young and wealthy 
 Charles Gondreville, who died sometime afterward 
 in the Spanish campaign; she had already had her 
 second son, who was destined thenceforth to a mili- 
 tary career. In 1820 she looked upon the Bank as 
 the nurse of industry, the mainstay of states, 
 and the great Keller, the renowned orator, was her 
 idol ; she bore at that time a son, Francois, of whom 
 she resolved to make in due season a merchant, and 
 who would never fail to enjoy Keller's protection. 
 Toward the end of 1820, Thuillier, the intimate 
 friend of both Monsieur and Madame Colleville, and
 
 44 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 an admirer of the latter, felt the need of pouring his 
 sorrows into that excellent woman's bosom, and to 
 her he detailed his conjugal wretchedness; he had 
 been trying for six years to have children, but God 
 did not smile upon his efforts, for poor Madame 
 Thuiliier went through with her nine days' devo- 
 tion to no purpose; she had been to Notre-Dame de 
 Liesse! He described Celeste from every point of 
 view, and the words: "Poor Thuiliier!" escaped 
 Madame Colleville, who was herself somewhat low- 
 spirited, as she was without any dominant passion 
 just at that time. She poured her griefs into Thuil- 
 lier's heart The great Keller, the hero of the Left, 
 was in reality full of little meannesses; she knew 
 the reverse side of glory, the idiocies of the Bank, 
 the prosiness of the tribune. The orator never 
 spoke except in the Chamber, and he had behaved 
 very badly to her. Thuiliier waxed wroth. 
 
 "Only stupid men know how to love," said he; 
 "take me!" Beau Thuiliier was reputed to be pay- 
 ing court mildly to Madame Colleville, and he 
 became one of her attentifs, a word dating from the 
 Empire. 
 
 "Aha ! you have an eye on my wife !" said Colle- 
 ville, laughingly; "lookout, she'll plant you as she 
 has all the others." 
 
 A shrewd remark, whereby Colleville saved his 
 dignity as a husband in the department 
 
 In 1820 and 1821 Thuiliier presumed upon his title 
 as a friend of the family to assist Colleville, who 
 had so often assisted him in the old days, and in the
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 45 
 
 course of eighteen months he loaned him nearly ten 
 thousand francs, intending never to mention it. In 
 the spring of 1821 Madame Colleville brought into 
 the world a lovely girl, whose godfather and god- 
 mother were Monsieur and Madame Thuillier; and 
 she was christened Celeste-Louise-Caroline-Bri- 
 gitte, for Mademoiselle Thuillier insisted upon 
 bestowing one of her names upon the little angel. 
 
 The name of Caroline was a graceful compliment 
 to Colleville. Old mother Lemprun undertook to 
 put the little creature out at nurse under her own 
 eyes at Auteuil, where Celeste and her sister-in-law 
 went to see her twice a week. As soon as Madame 
 Colleville had recovered she said to Thuillier, 
 frankly and in a serious tone: 
 
 "My dear friend, if we wish to continue good 
 friends, be nothing more than our friend; Colleville 
 is fond of you, and one's enough in a house." 
 
 "For heaven's sake, tell me," said Thuillier to 
 Tullia, the dancer, who happened to be calling at 
 Madame Colleville's, "why women don't get 
 attached to me? I'm not an Apollo Belvedere, but 
 I'm no Vulcan, either; I'm passably good-looking, 
 I'm bright and faithful" 
 
 "Do you want the truth?" said Tullia. 
 
 "Yes," said Beau Thuillier. 
 
 "Very good; although we can sometimes love a 
 stupid man, we never love a fool." 
 
 That thrust was the end of Thuillier; he never 
 recovered from it; he fell into melancholy and 
 accused women of being capricious.
 
 46 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Didn't I tell you so?" said Colleville. "I'm 
 not Napoleon, my dear fellow, and I'm mighty glad 
 I'm not; but I have my Josephine a pearl !" 
 
 The Secretary-General of the Ministry, des 
 Lupeaulx, to whom Madame Colleville attributed 
 more influence than he really possessed, and of 
 whom she afterward said: ''He was one of my 
 mistakes, " was the next lion of the Colleville salon 
 and reigned there for some time ; but as he had not 
 the power to procure Colleville's appointment to the 
 division of Bois-Levarit, Flavie had the good sense 
 to be angry at his attentions to Madame Rabourdin, 
 the wife of a chief of bureau, a conceited hussy, 
 she called her, who had never invited her to her 
 house, and had twice insulted her by not coming to 
 her concerts. 
 
 Madame Colleville was deeply affected by young 
 Gondreville's death; she was inconsolable; she felt, 
 she said, as if the hand of God were in it. In 1824 
 she reformed, talked about economy, abandoned her 
 receptions, devoted herself to her children, and deter- 
 mined to be a good mater familias ; her friends could 
 not find that she had any favorite; but she went 
 regularly to church, adopted a more subdued style of 
 dress, wore sober grays, and talked of Catholicism 
 and the proprieties; and this approach to mysticism 
 produced, in 1825, a fine little boy, whom she called 
 Theodore, that is to say, a gift from God. 
 
 In 1826, the prosperous days of the Congregation, 
 Colleville was appointed deputy-chief in the Cler- 
 geot division, and in 1828 he became collector of an
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 47 
 
 arrondissement in Paris. He obtained the Cross of 
 the Legion of Honor, so that he might some day 
 send his daughter to Saint-Denis to be educated. 
 The half-free scholarship obtained by Keller for 
 Charles, the eldest of the Colleville children, in 
 1823, was given to the second; Charles went to 
 Saint-Louis College with a full-free scholarship, 
 and the third son, who was honored with the 
 patronage of Madame la Dauphine, had a three- 
 fourths-free scholarship at Henri Quatre College. 
 
 In 1830, Colleville, who had had the good fortune 
 to lose none of his children, was compelled, by his 
 attachment to the dethroned family, to offer his 
 resignation ; but he was shrewd enough to make a 
 bargain, so to speak, whereby he obtained a pension 
 of twenty-four hundred francs in consideration of 
 his long time of service, and an indemnity of ten 
 thousand francs offered by his successor; he was 
 also appointed an officer in the Legion of Honor. 
 Nevertheless he found himself in straitened circum- 
 stances, and in 1832 Mademoiselle Thuillier advised 
 him to take up his abode near them, hinting at the 
 possibility of his obtaining a place in the mayor's 
 office, which he actually obtained a fortnight later, 
 and which was worth a thousand crowns. 
 
 Charles Colleville had entered the naval school. 
 The colleges at which the other two boys were being 
 educated were both in the quarter. The seminary 
 of Saint-Sulpice, which the latest comer was some 
 day to attend, was not two steps from the Luxem- 
 bourg. Thuillier and Colleville determined to end
 
 48 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 their days together. In 1833 Madame Colleville, 
 then thirty-five years old, took up her quarters on 
 Rue d'Enfer at the corner of Rue des Deux-Eglises, 
 with Celeste and little Theodore. Colleville was 
 at about the same distance from the mayor's office 
 and from Rue Saint-Dominique. After an exist- 
 ence, alternately brilliant and shabby, full of excite- 
 ment and calm and reposeful, the Colleville house- 
 hold was reduced to plain middle-class obscurity, 
 and to fifty-four hundred francs a year in all. 
 
 Celeste was at this time twelve years old, and 
 gave promise of being a beautiful girl ; she must 
 have masters and her education would cost at least 
 two thousand francs a year. Her mother felt it to 
 be necessary to keep her before the eyes of her god- 
 parents. She therefore adopted the suggestion of 
 Madame Thuillier, which was desirable for other 
 reasons as well ; and that old maid gave Madame 
 Colleville clearly to understand, but without bind- 
 ing herself to anything, that her brother's fortune, 
 her sister-in-law's and her own were all destined 
 for Celeste. The child had remained at Auteuil 
 until she was seven, adored by dear old Madame 
 Lemprun, who died in 1829, leaving a little hoard 
 of twenty thousand francs and a house, which was 
 sold for the enormous sum of twenty-eight thousand 
 francs. The little witch had seen but little of her 
 mother and a great deal of Madame and Mademoi- 
 selle Thuillier after 1829, the date of her return to 
 the paternal roof. In 1833 she fell under the domi- 
 nation of Flavie, who thereupon exerted herself to
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 49 
 
 fulfil her duties, and actually outran them, as all 
 women do who are spurred on by remorse. Without 
 being a cruel mother, she kept her daughter within 
 very strict limits; she remembered her own bring- 
 ing up, and took an oath in her own mind to make 
 Celeste an honest woman, not a wanton. She took 
 her to mass therefore, and had her attend communion 
 for the first time under the guidance of a Parisian 
 cure, who subsequently became a bishop. Celeste's 
 piety was the more genuine because her godmother, 
 Madame Thuillier, was a saint, and the child wor- 
 shiped her godmother; she had a feeling that the 
 poor neglected wife loved her more dearly than her 
 own mother did. 
 
 From 1833 to 1840 she received what was, accord- 
 ing to bourgeois ideas, a magnificent education. The 
 best of music-teachers made her a passable musi- 
 cian; she could paint prettily in water-colors; she 
 danced like a fairy; she had learned the French 
 language and history, geography, English, Italian, 
 everything, in short, that a young ladycomme ilfaut 
 should know. Of medium height, rather stout, and 
 afflicted with nearsightedness, she was neither plain 
 nor pretty; she lacked neither a fair skin nor good 
 coloring, but she was entirely uninstructed in the 
 ways of society. She was very sensitive, though 
 she seldom showed it, and both her godparents and 
 her father and Mademoiselle Thuillier were unani- 
 mous on this point, the great resource of mothers, 
 that Celeste was susceptible to the tender passion. 
 One of her fine points was her magnificent silky 
 
 4
 
 50 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 chestnut hair ; but her 'hands and feet betrayed her 
 bourgeois origin. 
 
 Celeste was possessed of those virtues which 
 attract friendship; she was kind-hearted, simple in 
 her ways, and entirely free from bitterness; she 
 loved her father and mother and would have sub- 
 mitted to any sacrifice herself for them. As she 
 had been brought up in profound admiration of her 
 godfather, as well by Brigitte, who would have the 
 child call her Aunt Brigitte, as by Madame Thuillier, 
 and by her own mother, who became more and more 
 intimate with the old beau of the Empire, Celeste 
 had a most exalted idea of the ex-deputy-chief. The 
 house on Rue Saint-Dominique had much the same 
 effect upon her that the Tuileries has upon a courtier 
 of the new dynasty. 
 
 Thuillier had not successfully resisted the beat- 
 ing-out process of the administrative mill, wherein 
 one becomes thinner in proportion to the length of 
 the process. Worn out by tedious labor, as well 
 as by his exploits as a favorite of the fair sex, the 
 ex-deputy-chief had lost all the faculties he ever 
 possessed when he came to live on Rue Saint-Dom- 
 inique; but his tired face, which wore a surly look, 
 curiously mingled with a certain contented expres- 
 sion resembling the snug self-satisfaction of the 
 upper clerk, made a deep impression upon Celeste. 
 She alone could arouse animation in that pallid face. 
 She knew that she was the joy of the Thuillier 
 household. 
 
 The Collevilles and their children naturally
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 5 1 
 
 became the nucleus of the social circle which Made- 
 moiselle Thuillier was ambitious to collect about her 
 brother. A former clerk in the division La Billar- 
 diere, who had lived more than thirty years in the 
 Quartier Saint- Jacques, one Phellion, major of a 
 legion, was promptly seized upon by the former col- 
 lector and the former deputy-chief at their first con- 
 sultation. Phellion was one of the most highly 
 esteemed men in the arrondissement. He had a 
 daughter, formerly sub-mistress at the Lagrave 
 boarding-school, now married to Monsieur Barniol, 
 a teacher, of Rue Saint-Hyacinthe. 
 
 Phell ion's eldest son was professor of mathematics 
 at a royal college; he gave lessons, took private 
 pupils, and, as his father expressed it, devoted him- 
 self to pure mathematics. The second son was at 
 the School of Bridges and Highways. Phellion had 
 a pension of nine hundred francs and a total income 
 of something over nine thousand, the fruit of his 
 wife's savings and his own during thirty years of 
 hard work and privation. He also owned a little 
 house with a garden, where he made his home, in 
 the Impasse des Feuillantines.-^-In thirty years the 
 old word cul-de-sac has not once been used. 
 
 Dutocq, the clerk to the justice of the peace, was 
 formerly a clerk in the Treasury department; hav- 
 ing fallen a victim to one of those necessities which 
 sometimes occur in representative government, he 
 had submitted to be made the scapegoat in an ad- 
 ministration scandal, brought to light by the budget 
 committee, and secretly rewarded by a round sum
 
 52 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 in cash; he was thus enabled to purchase the office 
 of justice's clerk. This man, who had little sense of 
 honor, and was known as a spy in the department, 
 was not received as cordially as he thought he 
 should have been by the Thuilliers; but the cool- 
 ness of his landlords made him persist in thrusting 
 himself upon them. 
 
 He had never been married, and was not without 
 his vices; he concealed his manner of living most 
 sedulously, and was very clever in winning the 
 good-will of his superiors by flattery. The magis- 
 trate was much attached to Dutocq. The shameless 
 creature succeeded in inducing the Thuilliers to tol- 
 erate him by the mean, vulgar adulation which 
 never fails of its effect He knew Thuillier's life 
 from beginning to end, his relations with the Colle- 
 villes, especially with Madame; they stood in awe 
 of his redoubtable tongue, and the Thuilliers, with- 
 out admitting him among their intimate friends, put 
 up with him. The family which became the bright- 
 est flower in the Thuillier salon was that of a poor 
 little clerk, once an object of charity in the depart- 
 ments, who, incited thereto by poverty, and with 
 an idea, had left the employ of the government in 
 1827, in order to go into business. 
 
 Minard thought that he could see a fortune in one 
 of those immoral schemes, which tend to bring 
 French commerce into disrepute, but, in 1827, had 
 not yet been emasculated by publicity. Minard 
 purchased tea, and mixed with it in equal propor- 
 tions tea that had already been once used ; he also
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 53 
 
 manipulated and changed the component parts of 
 chocolate in such a way as to enable him to sell it 
 at a low price. This traffic in colonial produce, 
 begun in the Quartier Saint-Marcel, constituted 
 Minard a merchant; he had a warehouse, and by 
 virtue of the business connections thus formed he 
 was able to purchase at first hand ; he conducted 
 honestly, and on a large scale, the business which 
 he had at first carried on in a questionable way. 
 He became a distiller, handled enormous quantities 
 of produce, and in 1835 was supposed to be the 
 richest merchant in the Place Maubert district He 
 had purchased one of the finest houses on Rue des 
 Mac.ons-Sorbonne ; he had been deputy-mayor ; and 
 in 1839 he was appointed mayor of his arrondisse- 
 ment and a judge of the Tribunal de Commerce. 
 He had a carriage and an estate near Lagny ; his 
 wife wore diamonds at the court balls, and he was 
 swollen with pride by the rosette of an officer of the 
 Legion of Honor in his buttonhole. 
 
 Minard and his wife were extremely benevolent, 
 however. Perhaps they proposed to restore at re- 
 tail to the poor what they had stolen by wholesale 
 from the public. Phellion, Colleville and Thuillier 
 fell in with Minard at the elections, and there 
 resulted an intimacy with theCollevilles and Thuil- 
 liers which was made doubly close by the fact that 
 Madame Zelie Minard seemed enchanted to have her 
 young lady make the acquaintance of Celeste Colle- 
 ville. It was at a large ball given by the Minards 
 that Celeste, being then sixteen and a half years
 
 54 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 old, made her first appearance in society, dressed in 
 consonance with her name, which seemed to be pro- 
 phetic of her life. Overjoyed as she was to become 
 the friend of Mademoiselle Minard, her senior by 
 four years, she compelled her father and godfather 
 to cultivate the Minard family, with all its untold 
 wealth and its gilded salons, frequented by some 
 second-rate political celebrities: Monsieur Popinot, 
 afterward Minister of Commerce; Cochu, since 
 created Baron Cochu; and a former clerk of the 
 Clergeot division at the Treasury department, who, 
 being deeply interested in a large drug concern, was, 
 jointly with Monsieur Anselme Popinot, the oracle 
 of the Quartier des Lombards and des Bourdonnais. 
 Minard's oldest son, an advocate, who aspired to 
 step into the shoes of the advocates who had been 
 dismissed from the Palais since 1830 for political 
 reasons, was the genius of the family, and his 
 mother and father were equally anxious to find a 
 desirable wife for him. Zelie Minard, once a flower- 
 maker, had a passionate longing for the higher social 
 spheres, and was determined to force her way into 
 them through the marriages of her son and daughter, 
 while Minard, who was wiser than she, and was 
 thoroughly imbued with the sturdy middle-class 
 common-sense which the Revolution of July intro- 
 duced into the veins of the ruling powers, thought 
 of nothing but the question of fortune. 
 
 He haunted the Thuillier salon, seeking to glean 
 information as to the probable amount of Celeste's 
 inheritance. He had heard, as Dutocq and Phellion
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 55 
 
 had, the gossip caused by the intimacy of the 
 Thuilliers with Flavie, and at the first glance he 
 detected the idolatrous affection of the Thuilliers for 
 their godchild. Dutocq, in order to worm his way 
 into Minard's intimacy, flattered him in the most 
 servile way. When Minard, the Rothschild of the 
 neighborhood, appeared in the Thuillier salon, he 
 compared him, not without adroitness, to Napoleon, 
 he found him now so fat and ruddy and blooming, 
 after knowing him long before at the bureau, thin 
 and pale and sickly. "When you were in the 
 division La Billardiere, you were like Napoleon 
 before the eighteenth Brumaire, and now I see be- 
 fore me the Napoleon of the Empire!" Neverthe- 
 less, Minard received his advances coldly and did not 
 invite him; and in this way he made a mortal 
 enemy of the malicious clerk.
 
 * 
 
 Monsieur and Madame Phellion, honest, worthy 
 folk though they were, could not forbear making 
 their little calculations and conceiving hopes. They 
 thought that Celeste would be an excellent match for 
 their son the professor ; and so, in order to have a 
 party of their own in the Thuillier salon they 
 brought thither their son-in-law, Monsieur Barniol, 
 a man much considered in the Faubourg Saint- 
 Jacques, together with an old employe of the mayor's 
 office, whose place Colleville had in a certain 
 sense spirited away, for Monsieur Leudigeois, such 
 was his name, a clerk of twenty years' standing, 
 expected, as a reward of his long service, the secre- 
 taryship secured by Colleville. Thus the Phellions 
 formed a compact phalanx composed of seven per- 
 sons, all faithful to its interests; the Colleville 
 family was quite as numerous, and on certain Sun- 
 days there were thirty people in the Thuillier 
 salon. Thuillier renewed the acquaintance of the 
 Saillards, the Baudoyers, the Falleixes, all people of 
 good standing in the Place-Royale Quartier, and 
 they were often asked to dine. 
 
 Madame Colleville was the most distinguished 
 person among the ladies of this circle, as Minard 
 junior and Professor Phellion were the superior 
 men; all the others, uneducated, devoid of ideas, 
 and sprung from the lower orders, typified all the 
 
 (57)
 
 58 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 absurd characteristics of the lesser bourgeoisie. 
 Although every fortune won by hard work is sup- 
 posed to imply some sort of talent, Minard was a 
 mere bag of wind. Airing his rhetoric in compli- 
 cated sentences, mistaking servility for politeness 
 and set phrases for wit, he uttered commonplaces 
 with a self-possession and flourish which were 
 accepted as flights of eloquence. All those words 
 which mean nothing and answer all purposes: pro- 
 gress, steam, coal, National Guard, democratic ele- 
 ment, tendency to combine, public order, legality, 
 movement and resistance, intimidation, seemed in- 
 vented for Minard, whatever phase politics might 
 assume; he simply paraphrased the ideas of his 
 favorite newspaper. Julien Minard, the young ad- 
 vocate, suffered as much from his father as his 
 father suffered from his wife. With their increase 
 of fortune Zelie had put forward claims to social 
 recognition, although she had never been able to 
 learn French; she had become very stout, and amid 
 her luxurious surroundings resembled nothing so 
 much as a cook married to her master. 
 
 Phellion, the type of the lower middle-class, had 
 as many estimable as absurd qualities. Having 
 been accustomed to a subordinate position during his 
 whole life in the department, he respected his social 
 superiors. For that reason he had nothing to say 
 in Minard's presence. He had succeeded admirably 
 in avoiding the shoals, at the critical period of 
 retirement from office, and this is how he did it 
 The worthy and excellent man had never been
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 59 
 
 able to gratify his inclinations. He loved the city 
 of Paris; he was deeply interested in all such mat- 
 ters as the laying out of streets and squares, and in 
 public improvements generally; he was the sort of 
 man who would stand for two hours in front of a 
 house that was being torn down. He might be seen 
 planted fearlessly on his legs, nose in air, waiting 
 for the fall of a stone which a mason was prying out 
 with a crowbar on top of a wall, nor would he leave 
 the place until the stone fell ; and when at last it 
 fell, he would go his way as well pleased as an 
 academician could be at the failure of a romantic 
 drama. Genuine supernumeraries of the great social 
 comedy, Phellion, Leudigeois and their fellows 
 played the part of the chorus in the old tragedies. 
 They wept when somebody else wept, laughed when 
 it was time to laugh, and sang as a refrain the story 
 of the public woes and joys; triumphing in their 
 corner over the triumphs of Algiers, Constantine, 
 Lisbon and Saint- Jean-d'Ulloa; deploring alike the 
 death of Napoleon and the sad disasters of Saint- 
 Merri and Rue Transnonnain; bewailing the deaths 
 of illustrious men who were utterly unknown to 
 them. But Phellion, it must be said, appeared in 
 two aspects ; he conscientiously weighed the argu- 
 ments of the opposition and those of the government 
 Let there be fighting in the streets and Phellion 
 had the courage to declare his opinions before 
 his neighbors; he hurried to Place Saint-Michel, 
 the rendezvous of his battalion, took pity on the 
 government and did his duty. Before and during
 
 60 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 the emeute he supported the dynasty, the work 
 of the Days of July; but, as soon as the political 
 prosecutions began he went over to the accused. 
 This innocent weathercockism was duplicated in his 
 political opinions; his answer to everything was the 
 Colossus of the North. In his mind, as in that of 
 the old Constitutionnel, England was an old lady with 
 a double face ; alternately perfidious Albion and the 
 model country ; perfidious, when the interests of poor, 
 bruised France, or Napoleon, were at stake; the 
 model country, when the mistakes of the govern- 
 ment were under discussion. With the newspaper 
 he admitted the claims of the democratic element, 
 and, in conversation, refused all composition with 
 the republican spirit The republican spirit meant 
 1793, the barricades, the Terror, the Agrarian law. 
 The democratic element was the development of 
 the petty bourgeoisie, the reign of the Phellions. 
 
 The honest old fellow was always dignified; dig- 
 nity is the best epitome of his life. He brought up 
 his children in a dignified way, he was always their 
 father in their eyes and insisted upon being looked 
 up to in his own house as he looked up to the ruling 
 powers and his superiors. He never ran in debt 
 If he served as a juror, his conscience made him 
 sweat blood and water to follow the intricacies of a 
 lawsuit, and he never laughed even when the court, 
 the audience and the public officials laughed. He 
 was obliging in the last degree and gave away his 
 time and his trouble, everything except his money. 
 Felix Phellion, his son the professor, was his idol ;
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 6 1 
 
 he believed him to be capable of attaining member- 
 ship in the Academy of Sciences. 
 
 Between the audacious nullity of Minard and the 
 straightforward idiocy of Phellion, Thuillier was 
 like some neutral substance, but he had something 
 in common with them both by virtue of his sad 
 experience. He concealed the emptiness of his 
 brain by a profusion of hackneyed phrases, just as 
 he concealed the yellow skin of his skull with the 
 long threads of gray hair, brought over from behind 
 with infinite skill by his hair-dresser's comb. 
 
 "In any other career," he would say, referring to 
 the government employ, "I should have gone ahead 
 much faster." 
 
 He had seen that well-doing was possible in theory, 
 but impossible in practice, and that the proper results 
 did not follow from given premises; he was fond of 
 telling about instances of injustice, petty intrigues 
 and the Rabourdin affair. See The Civil Service. 
 
 "After that, one can believe in anything and 
 nothing," he would say. "Ah! a government is a 
 villainous thing, and I'm very lucky to not have a 
 son to start in on that hunt for places." 
 
 Colleville, always plump and smiling and a good 
 fellow, inveterate punster, maker of anagrams, 
 always busy, was an excellent specimen of the bour- 
 geois of good parts with a taste for raillery, talent 
 without success, persistent work without result, 
 aimless wit, useless talent, for he was an excellent 
 musician and played only for his daughter, and 
 with it all an air of good-humored resignation.
 
 62 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 This salon was, as will be seen, a sort of provin- 
 cial salon, illuminated by the glare of the never- 
 ending Parisian conflagration; in its mediocrity and 
 its platitudes it followed the current of the age. 
 The latest expression and the latest thing, for in 
 Paris the expression and the thing are like the horse 
 and its rider, reached there on the rebound. They 
 always waited impatiently for Monsieur Minard, 
 who was likely to know the truth as to affairs of 
 moment In the Thuillier salon the women were 
 devoted to the Jesuits; the men defended the Uni- 
 versity; but, as a general rule, the women were 
 content to listen. An intelligent man, if he could 
 have endured the insufferable tedium of these even- 
 ing parties, would have laughed as heartily as at 
 one of Moliere's comedies, to hear such remarks as 
 these after endless discussions : 
 
 "Could the Revolution of 1789 have been 
 avoided ? Louis the Fourteenth's heavy loans laid 
 the foundation of it Louis XV., a selfish man, of 
 formal intellect he said: 'If I were Lieutenant of 
 Police I would suppress cabriolets' a dissolute king, 
 you've heard of his Pare aux Cerfs ! had much to 
 do with opening the abyss of revolution. Monsieur 
 de Necker, a mischief-making Genevan, gave the 
 signal. Foreigners have always had a grudge 
 against France. The maximum injured the Revo- 
 lution a good deal. As a matter of law Louis XVI. 
 ought not to have been convicted : he'd have been 
 acquitted by a jury. Why did Charles X. fall? 
 Napoleon was a great man, and the details which
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 63 
 
 prove his genius are all of the nature of anecdotes : 
 he took five pinches of snuff a minute, and kept it 
 in leather-lined pockets made to fasten on his vest. 
 He adjusted all the contractors' accounts; he went 
 to Rue Saint-Denis to find out the price of things. 
 Talma was his friend; Talma taught him his ges- 
 tures, but he always refused to give Talma a decora- 
 tion. The Emperor mounted guard for a soldier who 
 fell asleep, so as to prevent his being shot. Such 
 things as that made the soldiers worship him. Louis 
 XVIII., although he was a man of sense, was unjust 
 to him when he called him Monsieur de Buonaparte. 
 The present government's great mistake is in allow- 
 ing itself to be led instead of leading. They take 
 too low a stand. They're afraid of energetic men ; 
 they ought to have torn the treaties of 1815 to bits, 
 and demanded the Rhine from Europe. They play 
 too much with the same men at the ministry." 
 
 "We've had enough of this intellectual battle," 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier would say after one of these 
 luminous deliverances; "the altar's all ready; make 
 your little offering." 
 
 The old maid always put an end to these discus- 
 sions, of which the women soon tired, with this re- 
 mark. 
 
 If all these preliminary facts, all these general 
 statements had not been presented, as a sort of in- 
 troduction, to form a frame for this Scene, to give an 
 idea of the characteristics of this class of society, 
 the drama would perhaps have suffered for the lack 
 of them. Moreover, this sketch is absolutely true to
 
 64 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 life, and depicts the morals of a social stratum of 
 some consequence, especially if we consider that the 
 political system of the younger branch of the Bour- 
 bons is founded thereon. 
 
 The winter of 1839 was, in a way, the time when 
 the Thuillier salon attained its greatest splendor. 
 The Minards came thither almost every Sunday; 
 when they were invited elsewhere for the evening 
 they would begin by passing an hour there, where 
 Minard would generally leave his wife taking his 
 daughter and his eldest son, the advocate, with 
 him. This assiduity on the part of the Minards was 
 due to a meeting that took place it was strange they 
 had never met before between Messieurs Metivier, 
 Barbet and Minard, on a certain evening when 
 those desirable tenants had remained somewhat 
 longer than usual talking with Mademoiselle Thuil- 
 lier. Minard learned from Barbet that the old maid 
 took his notes for about thirty thousand francs at 
 six months at seven and a half per cent, and that 
 she loaned about the same amount to Metivier, so 
 that she must have at least a hundred and eighty 
 thousand francs available. 
 
 "I discount notes of the trade at twelve per cent, 
 and take only well-secured paper. Nothing could be 
 more convenient to me," said Barbet "1 say that 
 she has a hundred and eighty thousand francs, for 
 she can't borrow at the Bank for longer than ninety 
 days." 
 
 "So she has an account at the Bank?" queried 
 Minard.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 65 
 
 "I think so," said Barbet 
 
 As he was on intimate terms with a governor of the 
 Bank, Minard found out that Mademoiselle Thuillier 
 actually had a loan of two hundred thousand francs, 
 secured by a pledge of forty shares. This security 
 was, so he said, quite unnecessary ; the Bank had 
 great consideration for a person who was so well 
 known to them and who managed the affairs of Ce- 
 leste Lemprun, the daughter of a clerk whose ser- 
 vice was coeval with the Bank's existence at the 
 time of his retirement Moreover, Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier had never once overrun her credit in 
 twenty years. She always sent notes for sixty 
 thousand francs a month on three months' time, 
 which made about a hundred and eighty thousand. 
 The shares pledged represented a hundred and 
 twenty thousand, so that they ran no risk whatever, 
 for the notes were always worth sixty thousand. 
 "So, if she should send us a hundred thousand in 
 notes the third month," said the censeur, "we 
 shouldn't reject a single one of them. She has a 
 house worth more than a hundred thousand, which 
 isn't mortgaged. Besides, all her notes come from 
 Barbet and Metivier, and have four names on them, 
 including hers." 
 
 "Why does Mademoiselle Thuillier work so hard ?" 
 Minard asked Metivier. "That would be a good 
 match tor you," he added. 
 
 "Oh! I can do better by marrying one of my 
 cousins," was the reply; "my Uncle Metivier 
 has told me all about his business; he has a 
 5
 
 66 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 hundred thousand a year, and no one but two 
 daughters." 
 
 What a close-mouthed creature Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier was, to say nothing of her investments to 
 anyone, not even to her brother; although she 
 tossed into her hoard the sums saved out of Madame 
 Thuillier's income, as well as her own, it would be 
 strange if a ray of light did not finally penetrate 
 beneath the bushel which concealed her treasure. 
 
 Dutocq, who haunted Barbet's shop, and who 
 resembled Barbet in more than one point both in 
 character and features, had estimated the savings of 
 theThuilliers at a hundred and fifty thousand francs 
 in 1838 a more accurate estimate than Minard's 
 and he was able to keep track of the accretions 
 secretly, by reckoning the probable profit with the 
 aid of that shrewd bill-broker, Barbet 
 
 "Celeste will have from us two hundred thousand 
 francs in cash," said the old maid in confidence to 
 Barbet, "and Madame Thuillier proposes to provide 
 in the marriage-contract that she shall have the 
 reversion of her property. As for myself, my will is 
 all made. My brother will have it all as long as he 
 lives, and Celeste will be my heiress, when he dies. 
 Monsieur Cardot, my notary, is my executor." 
 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier urged her brother to renew 
 his former relations with the Saillards, Baudoyers 
 and Falleixes, who occupied a position in the Quar- 
 tier Saint-Antoine, where Monsieur Saillard was 
 mayor, analogous to that of the Thuilliers and Mi- 
 nards in their quarter. Cardot, the notary, brought
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 67 
 
 forward a claimant to Celeste's hand in the person 
 of Maitre Godeschal, an advocate and successor to 
 Derville, a man of thirty-six, of good parts ; he had 
 paid a hundred thousand francs down for his office 
 and the two hundred thousand of Celeste's dot 
 would pay the balance. Minard procured Gode- 
 schal's dismissal by informing Mademoiselle Thuil- 
 lier that Celeste would have for a sister-in-law the 
 notorious Mariette, of the Opera. 
 
 "She's out of it," said Colleville, alluding to his 
 wife, "and we'd better not go back again." 
 
 "Besides, Monsieur Godeschal's too old for 
 Celeste," said Brigitte. 
 
 "And shouldn't we let her marry to her taste," 
 suggested Madame Thuillier, timidly, "and be 
 happy?" 
 
 The poor woman had discovered in Felix Phel- 
 lion's heart a true love for Celeste ; love such as a 
 woman trodden under foot by Brigitte and crushed 
 by the indifference of her husband, who cared less 
 for his wife than for a servant, had dreamed that 
 love should be; bold in the heart, timid without; 
 sure of itself, but shrinking; concealed from all eyes, 
 but blooming in solitude. At twenty-three years, 
 Felix Phellion was a gentle-mannered, innocent 
 youth, like all students who cultivate science for 
 science's sake. He had been piously brought up by 
 his father, who took everything seriously and set 
 before him none but good examples, accompanying 
 them with trite maxims. He was a young man of 
 medium height, with light chestnut hair, gray eyes,
 
 68 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 skin covered with red blotches; he was endowed 
 with a musical voice, and dignified bearing; he was 
 a good deal of a dreamer, made but few gestures, 
 said nothing that was not worth saying, never con- 
 tradicted anybody, and was, above all things, inca- 
 pable of a sordid thought, or of scheming in his own 
 interest 
 
 "That's how I'd have liked my husband to be!" 
 Madame Thuillier would often say to herself. 
 
 On a certain evening in the month of February, 
 1840, the various individuals whose silhouettes have 
 been roughly drawn were assembled in the Thuillier 
 salon. It was near the end of the month. Barbet 
 and Metivier, having to request a loan of thirty 
 thousand francs each from Mademoiselle Brigitte, 
 were playing whist with Monsieur Minard and 
 Phellion. At another table were Julien, the advo- 
 cate, a sobriquet bestowed upon the younger 
 Minard by Colleville, Madame Colleville, Monsieur 
 Barniol and Madame Phellion. A game of bouillotte 
 at five sous the chip furnished entertainment to 
 Madame Minard, who knew no other game, Colle- 
 ville, old PereSaillard and Bandoze, his son-in-law; 
 Laudigeois and Dutocq were waiting for an oppor- 
 tunity to join the game. Mesdames Falleix, Bau- 
 doyer, Barniol, and Mademoiselle Minard were 
 playing boston, and Celeste was sitting beside Pru- 
 dence Minard. Young Phellion was listening to 
 Madame Thuillier and looking at Celeste. 
 
 At the other side of the fireplace the Queen Eliza- 
 beth of the family sat enthroned upon a couch, as
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 69 
 
 simply dressed as she had been for thirty years past, 
 for no degree of prosperity could have induced her 
 to change her habits. Her gray hairs were covered 
 by a black gauze cap adorned with Charles X. gera- 
 niums; her currant-colored woolen dress with 
 shirred waist cost fifteen francs; her embroidered 
 fichu was worth six francs and only partially con- 
 cealed the deep furrow between the two muscles 
 that connect the brain with the spinal column. 
 Monvel, playing Augustus in his old age, never 
 exhibited a more gaunt profile than this autocrat's 
 as she sat knitting socks for her brother. In front 
 of the fireplace stood Thuillier, ready to greet any 
 new arrival, and beside him was a youth whose 
 entrance caused a great sensation, when the con- 
 cierge, who always donned his best coat to attend 
 the guests on Sundays, announced Monsieur Olivier 
 Vinet 
 
 A confidential communication from Cardot to the 
 famous procureur-general, the young magistrate's 
 father, was the occasion of this visit. Olivier Vinet 
 had recently gone from the tribunal of Arcis-sur- 
 Aube to the tribunal of the Seine as deputy king's 
 attorney. Cardot had had Thuillier to dine at his 
 house with the procureur-general, who seemed to be 
 in a fair way to become Minister of Justice, and 
 with his son. Cardot estimated the various sums 
 which would eventually fall to Celeste at no less 
 than seven hundred thousand trancs at that moment 
 Vinet junior seemed delighted to be allowed to visit 
 the Thuilliers on Sundays. In these days large
 
 70 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 dowries lead men to do the most idiotic things with- 
 out shame. 
 
 Ten minutes later another young man who had 
 been talking with Thuillier before the deputy's arri- 
 val, raised his voice as he waxed warm in a politi- 
 cal discussion, and forced the magistrate to follow 
 his example because of the animated tone the dis- 
 cussion thereupon assumed. It bore upon the vote 
 by which the Chamber of Deputies overthrew the 
 ministry of May i2th, refusing the allowance 
 demanded for the Due de Nemours. 
 
 "Assuredly," the young man was saying, "I am 
 far from agreeing with those who support the 
 dynasty, and I am far from approving the acces- 
 \/ sion to power of the bourgeoisie. The bour- 
 geoisie has no more right than the aristocracy 
 formerly had to claim to be the whole state. But 
 still the French bourgeoisie took it upon itself 
 to set up a new dynasty, a monarchy of its own, 
 and this is the way it treats it ! When the people 
 allowed Napoleon to rise to supreme power, he cre- 
 ated a splendid, monumental fabric; he was proud 
 of his grandeur, and he nobly gave his blood and the 
 sweat of his brow in constructing the edifice of the 
 Empire. Between the magnificence of the aristo- 
 cratic throne and the imperial purple, between the 
 nobility and the people, the bourgeoisie makes a 
 paltry show; it would pull power down to its 
 level, instead of trying to rise to it. The candle- 
 end economy it practices in its counting-rooms 
 it thinks fit to practice when dealing with princes.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 71 
 
 A thing that is praiseworthy in its warehouses is 
 a mistake and crime in the government. I should 
 have been glad of many changes in the people's in- 
 terest, but I wouldn't have cut down the new Civil 
 List ten millions. Upon becoming almost the only 
 power in France the bourgeoisie ought to give us 
 what the people delight in, splendor without parade, 
 grandeur without class distinctions." 
 
 Olivier Vinet's father was at this time on bad 
 terms with the ruling powers; the robe of Keeper of 
 the Seals, which was his dream, took a long while 
 to fall into his hands. So the young deputy hardly 
 knew how to reply, and thought he would do well 
 by agreeing with the speaker on one branch of the 
 question. 
 
 "You are right, Monsieur," said Olivier. "But 
 the bourgeoisie has certain duties to France to fulfil, 
 before parading its grandeur. The splendor of 
 which you speak should be postponed to urgent 
 duties. The thing that seems to you so blame- 
 worthy was a necessity of the moment. The Cham- 
 ber is very far from having its legitimate share in 
 the government; the ministers are less devoted to 
 France than to the crown, and the Parliament has 
 determined that the ministry shall have, as in Eng- 
 land, a power of its own and not a borrowed power. 
 When the day comes that the ministry acts on its 
 own responsibility, and represents the Chamber in 
 the executive arm of the government, as the Cham- 
 ber represents the country, Parliament will be 
 ready to deal very liberally with the crown. That
 
 72 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 is the question, I state it without expressing any 
 opinion, for the duties of my office imply a sort of 
 fealty to the crown, politically speaking." 
 
 "Aside from the political question," replied the 
 young man, whose tone and accent pointed him out 
 as a child of Provence, "it is true none the less that 
 the bourgeoisie misunderstands its mission; we see 
 procureur's-general, first presidents and peers of 
 France riding in omnibuses, judges who live on 
 their salaries, prefects without means, ministers in 
 debt; whereas the bourgeoisie, when it takes pos- 
 session of these places, should respect them as the 
 aristocracy always respected them, and, instead of 
 devoting all its energies to making fortunes, as 
 all the scandalous prosecutions show has been 
 done, it ought to give attention to spending the 
 revenues " 
 
 "Who is this young fellow?" thought Olivier 
 Vinet, on hearing him; "is he a relation? Cardot 
 would have done well to come here with me the first 
 time." 
 
 "Who is that little fellow?" Minard inquired of 
 Monsieur Barbet; "I've seen him here several 
 times." 
 
 "He's a tenant," replied Metivier, as he dealt the 
 cards. 
 
 "A lawyer," said Barbet, in an undertone; "he 
 lives in a small suite on the third-floor front oh! 
 he's no great shakes, and he has nothing." 
 
 "What is that young man's name?" said Olivier 
 Vinet to Monsieur Thuillier.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 73 
 
 "Theodose de la Peyrade; he's a lawyer," Thuil- 
 lier replied in the deputy-attorney's ear. 
 
 At that moment the women, as well as the men, 
 were looking at the two youths, and Madame Minard 
 could not help saying to Colleville: 
 
 "That's a fine-looking young fellow." 
 
 "I have made an anagram for him, " said Celeste's 
 father; "his full name, Charles-Marie-Theodose de 
 la Peyrade, makes this prophetic sentence: Eh! 
 Monsieur pay era, de la dot, des oies et le char. Eh! 
 monsieur will pay for the dowry with geese and a 
 wagon. So, my dear Mamma Minard, don't think 
 of giving him your daughter." 
 
 "They say that young man's better-looking than 
 my son," said Madame Phellion to Madame Colle- 
 ville; "what do you think?" 
 
 "Why, as far as physique is concerned," was the 
 reply, "a woman might hesitate before making her 
 choice." 
 
 At this juncture young Vinet, as he looked over the 
 salon filled with petty bourgeois, thought it would 
 be a shrewd move on his part to extol the bour- 
 geoisie, so he chimed in with the Provencal advocate, 
 saying that those people who were honored with the 
 confidence of the government ought to imitate the 
 king, whose magnificence far surpassed that of the 
 old court ; and that to save money out of an official 
 salary was the merest folly. Indeed, could it be done, 
 especially in Paris, where the cost of living had 
 increased threefold, where a magistrate's apartment, 
 for instance, cost three thousand francs a year ?
 
 74 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "My father," said he, in conclusion, "gives me a 
 thousand crowns a year, and with my salary in 
 addition I can hardly live in a style befitting my 
 rank." 
 
 When the deputy turned into this boggy road, 
 the Provencal, who had skilfully led him there, ex- 
 changed a glance, undetected by anybody, with 
 Dutocq, who was still waiting to take his place at 
 the bouillotte table. 
 
 "And they need so many places," said the clerk, 
 "that they talk of appointing two justices of the 
 peace in each arrondissement, so that they'll have 
 twelve more clerkships to dispose of. As if they 
 could interfere with our vested rights in these places, 
 for which we had to pay such an exorbitant price!" 
 
 "1 haven't yet had the pleasure of hearing you at 
 the Palace," said the deputy to Monsieur de la 
 Peyrade. 
 
 "I am the poor man's advocate, and I plead cases 
 only before the justice of the peace," replied the 
 Provencal. 
 
 As she listened to the young magistrate's theory 
 as to the necessity of spending one's income, Made- 
 moiselle Thuillier assumed a prim expression, the 
 meaning of which was well known both to the 
 young Provencal and Dutocq. Young Vinet took 
 his leave with Minard and Julien, the advocate, so 
 that de la Peyrade and Dutocq remained masters 
 of the battle-field in front of the fireplace. 
 
 "The upper middle-class," said Dutocq to Thuil- 
 lier, "will do just as the aristocracy used to do.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 75 
 
 The nobility used to look for rich wives to fertilize 
 their estates, our parvenus of to-day are after big 
 dots to put hay in their mows." 
 
 "That's what Monsieur Thuillier was saying this 
 morning," replied the Provencal, boldly. 
 
 "The father," replied Dutocq, "married a Made- 
 moiselle de Chargeboeuf, so he has adopted the 
 opinions of the nobility; he must have a fortune at 
 any price, his wife has a royal train. 
 
 "Bah!" said Thuillier, in whom the jealousy of 
 one bourgeois for another was at once aroused; 
 "take their places away and those fellows will fall 
 back where they came from." 
 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier began to knit at as furious 
 a pace as if her arms were working by steam. 
 
 "Here's your chance, Monsieur Dutocq," said 
 Madame Minard, rising from the bouillotte table. 
 "My feet are cold," she added, drawing near the 
 fire, where the gold ornaments on her turban pro- 
 duced the effect of fireworks in the light shed by 
 the candles of the Aurora, which was making fruit- 
 less efforts to illuminate the vast salon. 
 
 "He's nothing but St John fire, that deputy fel- 
 low !" said Madame Minard, glancing at Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier. 
 
 "St John fire, do you say?" said the Provencal; 
 "that's very clever, Madame " 
 
 "Oh! we have long been accustomed to that sort 
 of thing from Madame," said Beau Thuillier. 
 
 Madame Colleville was scrutinizing the young 
 Provencal, and comparing him with young Phellion,
 
 76 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 who was talking with Celeste, paying no heed to 
 what was taking place around them. This is cer- 
 tainly the moment to attempt a description of the 
 strange personage, who was destined to play so 
 prominent a part in the lives of the Thuilliers, and 
 who well deserves to be called a great artist
 
 There is in Provence, especially in the neighbor- 
 hood of Avignon, a race of men, with fair or chest- 
 nut hair, smooth complexion, and soft eyes, whose 
 expression is rather insipid, calm, or languishing, 
 than keen, ardent, penetrating, as eyes are generally 
 among the Southrons. Let us remark, in passing, 
 that among the Corsicans, who are quick to lose 
 their heads and prone to dangerous fits of anger, 
 we often meet with men of blond type, and of ap- 
 parently tranquil disposition. These pale, rather 
 stout creatures, with restless green or blue eyes, are 
 the worst species of Provengaux, and Charles-Marie- 
 Theodose de la Peyrade was an excellent specimen 
 of the class, whose constitutions would repay a care- 
 ful examination on the part of the medical profession 
 and of philosophical physiologists. There seems to 
 be a sort of bile of bitter humor constantly at work 
 in them, which goes to their head and makes them 
 capable of the most savage deeds, however cold they 
 may be in appearance. Being the result of an inter- 
 nal commotion, this sullen violence is irreconcilable 
 with their almost lymphatic exterior, and with the 
 tranquillity of their benign glance. 
 
 Born in the suburbs of Avignon, the young Pro- 
 
 ven^al whose name we have just mentioned was of 
 
 medium stature, well-proportioned, but almost stout; 
 
 his flesh had a sort of lifeless appearance, it was 
 
 (77)
 
 78 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 neither livid nor dead-white nor ruddy, but gelati- 
 nous; that word alone will convey any idea of the 
 flabby, colorless envelope beneath which lay hidden 
 a mass of nerves, less aptly described as strong and 
 vigorous than as capable of a most determined resist- 
 ance at critical moments. His eyes, of a pale, cold 
 blue, ordinarily expressed a sort of misleading mel- 
 ancholy, which was likely to possess a great charm 
 for women. His well-shaped brow did not lack dis- 
 tinction and harmonized well with his fine, thin, 
 light chestnut hair, which curled naturally, but 
 slightly, at the ends. His nose was an exact copy 
 of a hunting dog's, flat, cleft at the end, inquisitive, 
 prying, intelligent, and always to the wind; it had 
 an expression of satire and mockery, rather than 
 good-fellowship; but these two aspects of his char- 
 acter were not always visible ; it was only when the 
 young man, ceasing to keep watch upon himself, 
 flew into a rage, that he had the power of ejecting 
 the sarcasm and wit which increased tenfold the in- 
 fernal bitterness of his jests. His mouth, which 
 described a graceful curve between lips of the color 
 of a pomegranate, seemed like the mouth of a mar- 
 velous organ, almost soft in its middle tones, to 
 which Theodose generally confined himself, but, in 
 the upper register, vibrating in one's ears like the 
 sound of a gong. This falsetto was the voice of his 
 nerves and his temper. His face, which by virtue 
 of his perfect command over his features was 
 always devoid of expression, was oval in shape. 
 His manners, which were entirely in harmony with
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 79 
 
 the priest-like tranquillity of his face, were very 
 reserved and proper; but there was a certain plia- 
 bility and system in his peculiarities; while they 
 never could be characterized as fawning, they did 
 not lack a certain fascination, which, however, 
 could not be explained after it had disappeared. 
 The power of fascination, when it springs from the 
 heart, leaves deep traces ; that which is only a pro- 
 duct of art, as eloquence is, achieves only ephemeral 
 triumphs ; it obtains its effects at any cost But 
 how many philosophers are there in the world qual- 
 ified to make the comparison? It almost always 
 happens, to use a slang expression, that the trick is 
 done before ordinary people can see through it. 
 
 Everything about this young man of twenty- 
 seven years was in harmony with his real character ; 
 he followed his vocation by cultivating philanthropy, 
 the only expression which can be used to explain 
 the profession of a philanthropist. Theodose loved 
 the people, but he made a sharp distinction in his 
 love of mankind. Just as a horticulturist devotes 
 himself to roses, or dahlias, or violets, or geraniums, 
 and pays no attention to the varieties he has not 
 selected for his specialty, this young La Rochefou- 
 cauld-Liancourt gave himself to the workman, the 
 proletariat, the poverty-stricken wretches of the 
 Faubourgs Saint- Jacques and Saint-Marceau. The 
 strong man, the genius in distress, the shrinking 
 poor of the bourgeois class he cast out from the 
 bosom of charity. In all maniacs the heart resem- 
 bles one of the boxes with compartments in which
 
 80 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 different kinds of sweetmeats are placed ; the suum 
 cuique tribuere is their device, they measure out 
 its dose to every duty. 
 
 There are philanthropists who have pity only for 
 the errors of the condemned. Vanity certainly 
 forms the basis of philanthropy; but in the case of 
 the Provencal it was self-interest, a role deliber- 
 ately assumed, the part of a liberal and democratic 
 hypocrite played with a perfection which no actor 
 could ever attain. He did not attack the rich, he 
 was content not to understand them ; he took them 
 for granted ; every man, in his view, was entitled 
 to enjoy the fruit of his own labors; he had been, 
 he said, a fervent disciple of Saint-Simon, but that 
 fault was to be attributed to his extreme youth; 
 modern society could have no other basis than 
 heredity. An ardent Catholic, like all natives of 
 the Comtat, he went to mass very early in the 
 morning, and concealed his piety. Like almost all 
 philanthropists he was extremely stingy, and gave 
 to the poor only his time, advice and eloquence, 
 and the money he extorted from the rich for them. 
 His costume consisted of boots, and a black broad- 
 cloth suit worn until the seams turned white. Nature 
 had done much for Theodose in not endowing him 
 with that rare, virile southern beauty which creates 
 in others cravings of the imagination which it is 
 more than difficult for a man to gratify. As it cost 
 him but little to make himself agreeable, he was a 
 pleasant fellow or a very ordinary one, as he chose, 
 when it suited him. Never since his admission
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 8 1 
 
 to the Thuillier circle had he dared, as on the even- 
 ing in question, to raise his voice and deliver him- 
 self so consequentially as he had just ventured to do 
 with Olivier Vinet; but it may well be that Theo- 
 dose de la Peyrade was not sorry to make an effort 
 to emerge from the shadow in which he had thus far 
 remained ; then, too, it was necessary for him to get 
 rid of the young magistrate just as the Minards had 
 formerly demolished the hopes of Godeschal, the 
 advocate. Like all superior minds, for he did not 
 lack elements of superiority, the deputy had not 
 lowered his glances to the level at which the threads 
 of these bourgeois spider-webs become visible, and 
 he had plunged head first, like an unwary fly, into 
 the almost invisible trap to which Theodose had 
 lured him by a stratagem which cleverer men than 
 Olivier might not have suspected. 
 
 To complete the portrait of the poor man's lawyer 
 it may not be unprofitable to tell the circumstances 
 of his first appearance in the Thuillier household. 
 
 Theodose had come to the house late in the year 
 1837; having then had his degree in law for five 
 years, he had gone through the necessary course at 
 Paris, preparatory to becoming an advocate; but 
 unknown circumstances, as to which he held his 
 tongue, prevented him from entering his name on 
 the roll of advocates and he was still on probation. 
 But when he was once installed in the little room on 
 the third floor, with the furniture absolutely required 
 for the practice of his noble profession for the order 
 of advocates will not admit a new member unless 
 6
 
 82 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 he has a suitable office and library, and it takes meas- 
 ures to satisfy itself on both points Theodose de la 
 Peyrade became an advocate of the royal court at 
 Paris. 
 
 The whole of the year 1838 was occupied in bring- 
 ing about that change in his situation, and he led a 
 most regular life. He studied at home in the 
 morning until the dinner-hour, and went sometimes 
 to the Palais when an important case was on. 
 Having formed an acquaintance with Dutocq, with 
 great difficulty, according to the latter, he rendered 
 the service of pleading their cases before the tribunal, 
 to some few poor fellows in the Faubourg Saint- 
 Jacques whom the justice's clerk recommended to 
 his charity; he brought their cases before the 
 advocates, who, in accordance with the statutes of 
 their order, attend in turn to the interests of poor 
 litigants, and, as he took none but perfectly sure 
 cases he won them all. Having business relations 
 with some large offices, he became known to the bar 
 by these praiseworthy acts, and these circumstances 
 led in the first place to his admission with some 
 'eclat to the conference of advocates on probation, 
 and then to his name being inscribed on the roll of 
 the order. Thenceforth he was the poor man's ad- 
 vocate before the justice of the peace, and he con- 
 tinued to be the protector of the common people. 
 Theodose's clients freery expressed their gratitude 
 and their admiration among the concierges, despite 
 the injunctions of the young advocate, and many of 
 his kind offices were soon known to the landlords.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 83 
 
 Overjoyed to have so commendable and so charita- 
 ble a person for their tenant, the Thuilliers deter- 
 mined to lure him to their salon and questioned 
 Dutocq on the subject. The clerk talked as jealous 
 men talk, and, while doing full justice to the young 
 man's talents, said that his avarice was something 
 remarkable, although it might be due to his poverty. 
 
 "I have gleaned some information about his 
 early days," said he. "He belongs to the old de la 
 Peyrade family of the Comtat d'Avignon; he came 
 here in the latter part of 1829, looking after an uncle 
 who was supposed to be quite wealthy; he finally 
 found out where he lived just three days after his 
 death, and the household furniture of the defunct 
 just paid the expenses of his funeral and his debts. 
 A friend of this useless uncle sent our fortune- 
 hunter a hundred louis on the condition that he should 
 study law and follow a legal career ; these hundred 
 louis paid his expenses for three years in Paris, 
 where he lived like an anchorite; but as he was 
 never able to see or even to find out his unknown 
 patron the poor student was in great distress in 
 1833. 
 
 "He then went into politics and literature, as all 
 law-students do, and kept himself out of actual want 
 for some time; he couldn't hope for anything from 
 his family; his father, the youngest brother of the 
 deceased uncle on Rue des Moineaux, had a flock of 
 eleven children who lived on a small estate called 
 Canquoelles. 
 
 "At last he joined a ministerial journal managed
 
 84 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 by the famous Cerizet, who acquired such great 
 celebrity on account of the persecution he was sub- 
 jected to under the Restoration for his attachment to 
 the liberals, and whom the men of the New Left 
 have never forgiven for becoming a supporter of the 
 ministry. As the ruling powers of to-day take but 
 little trouble to defend their most devoted adherents, 
 witness the Gisquet affair, the republicans suc- 
 ceeded at last in ruining Cerizet I say this to 
 explain to you how it happens that Cerizet is now a 
 copyist in my office. 
 
 "Well, in the days when he was flourishing as 
 the manager of a newspaper set up by the Perier 
 ministry to repel the attacks of incendiary journals 
 like the Tribune and others of that stamp, Cerizet, 
 who is a good sort of fellow after all, but is a 
 little too fond of wine, women and song, was very 
 useful to Theodose, who was his political editor; 
 and had it not been for the death of Casimir Perier 
 the youngster would have been appointed deputy 
 king's attorney for Paris. In 1834 and 1835 he 
 was down again, despite his talent, for his collab- 
 oration in the ministerial journal injured him. 'If 
 it had not been for my religious principles,' he said 
 to me at that time, 'I should have thrown myself 
 into the Seine.' It seems, however, that his uncle's 
 friend found him out in his misery, for he received 
 the wherewithal to defray the necessary expenses 
 of becoming an advocate; but he still is entirely 
 ignorant of the name and abode of this mysterious 
 patron. After all, his economy is excusable under
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 85 
 
 the circumstances, and he must have a deal of 
 strength in his character to refuse what the poor 
 devils offer him when he wins their cases for them. 
 It's a shameful thing to see people speculating on the 
 impossibility of the poor wretches paying in advance 
 the costs of the unjust suits they bring against 
 them. Oh! it will come at last; I sha'n't be sur- 
 prised to see that boy reach a very brilliant posi- 
 tion; he's persistent and honest and brave! He 
 studies and digs away at his work." 
 
 Notwithstanding the favorable reception accorded 
 him, de la Peyrade wore a very grave face in the 
 Thuillier salon. But when they scolded him for his 
 reserve he appeared more frequently and ended by 
 going there every Sunday; he was invited to all the 
 dinner-parties, and he became so intimate in the 
 family that if he came to the house to speak to 
 Thuillier about four o'clock, they would force him 
 to sit down and take pot-luck with them. 
 
 "Then we can be sure that the poor fellow will 
 have a good dinner," Mademoiselle Thuillier would 
 say. 
 
 A social phenomenon, which has certainly been 
 remarked, but which has never as yet been formu- 
 lated, published if you choose, although it well 
 deserves to be, is the return of the customs, manners 
 and modes of thought of their earlier days, in the 
 case of some people who, between youth and old 
 age, have risen above the condition of life in which 
 they were born. Thus, morally speaking, Thuillier 
 had become the concierge's son once more; he
 
 86 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 repeated some of his father's jokes, and ended by 
 allowing a little of the mire of his early life to 
 appear on the surface, in his declining days. 
 
 Five or six times a month, when the meat soup 
 was particularly good, he would say, as if it were 
 an entirely novel proposition, laying his spoon in 
 his empty place: "That's better than a kick on 
 the shins!" When he heard this jocose sally for 
 the first time, Theodose, who was not familiar with 
 it, lost his gravity, and laughed so heartily that 
 Thuillier's, Beau Thuillier's, vanity was tickled as 
 it never had been before. After that Theodose 
 always greeted that particular joke with a slight 
 appreciative smile. This trifling detail will account 
 for the fact that, on the morning of the same day 
 when Theodose had his skirmish with the young 
 deputy, he made free to say to Thuillier, as they 
 were walking in the garden to see the effect of the 
 frost : 
 
 "You have much more mind than you think!" 
 
 And received this reply : 
 
 "In any other career, my dear Theodose, I should 
 have risen very high, but the fall of the Emperor 
 broke my neck." 
 
 "There's time yet, " said the young advocate. "In 
 the first place, tell me what that mountebank of a 
 Colleville ever did to get the Cross?" 
 
 With that question Maitre de la Peyrade put his 
 finger on the wound that Thuillier concealed from 
 every eye, so that not even his sister suspected it; 
 but the younger man, who took great interest in
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 87 
 
 studying the characters of all these good bourgeois, 
 had guessed at the secret jealousy which was gnaw- 
 ing at the heart of the ex-deputy-chief. 
 
 "If you, with all your experience, will do me the 
 honor to follow my advice," added the philanthro- 
 pist, "and above all things never mention our 
 agreement to anybody, not even your good sister, 
 unless I consent, I will undertake to procure a 
 decoration for you with the approval of the whole 
 quarter." 
 
 "Oh! if we should succeed," cried Thuillier, 
 "you don't know what I would be to you!" 
 
 This explains why Thuillier bridled up so, a 
 moment before, when Theodose had the audacity to 
 loan him opinions. 
 
 In the arts, and perhaps Moliere has raised hypoc- 
 risy to the level of an art, by placing Tartuffe for- 
 ever among actors, there exists a perfection, beneath 
 which comes mere talent, and which genius alone 
 attains. There is so little difference between the 
 work of genius and the work of talent, that men of 
 genius alone can realize the distance that separates 
 Raphael from Correggio, Titian from Rubens. More 
 than that, the ordinary observer is completely de- 
 ceived therein. The stamp of genius is a certain 
 appearance of facility. In a word, its work should 
 appear no more than ordinary at first glance, it is 
 always so true to nature even in the most lofty 
 subjects. 
 
 Many peasant women hold their children as the 
 celebrated Dresden Madonna holds her child. The
 
 88 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 acme of art, in a man of Theodose's strength of 
 character, is so to act that it will be said of him 
 later: "Anybody might have been taken in by 
 him!" Now, he saw that a spirit of contradiction 
 was beginning to crop out in the Thuillier salon ; he 
 detected in Colleville the keen afid critical nature 
 of the unsuccessful artist The advocate knew that 
 he was disliked by Colleville, who, as the result of 
 circumstances not worth recording, was led to 
 believe implicitly in the science of anagrams. No 
 one of his anagrams had ever failed to speak the 
 truth. They made fun of him in the department, 
 when upon being asked for the anagram of poor Au- 
 guste-Jean-Frangois Minard's name, he produced 
 this: J'amassai une si grande fortune, I amassed 
 such a great fortune but the event justified the 
 anagram ten years later. Theodose's anagram was 
 fatal. His own wife's made him tremble, and he 
 had never told of it, for Flavie Minard Colleville 
 yielded: La vieille C , nom fletri, vole. Old C , 
 tarnished name, steals. 
 
 Several times prior to the evening in question 
 Theodose had made advances to the jovial mayor's 
 secretary, and felt distinctly repelled by a frigid 
 demeanor most unnatural in so talkative a person. 
 When the game of bouillotte was at an end Colle- 
 ville led Thuillier into a window recess, and said 
 to him : 
 
 "You're letting that advocate fellow get too much 
 of a footing here; he bore the brunt of the conver- 
 sation to-night"
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 89 
 
 "Thanks, my friend, a man warned is as good as 
 two," replied Thuillier, inwardly sneering at Colle- 
 ville. 
 
 Theodose, who was talking with Madame Colle- 
 ville at the moment, had his eyes on the two friends, 
 and with the same prescience that enables women 
 to divine when people are talking about them and 
 what they are saying, from one corner of a salon to 
 another, he divined that Colleville was trying to 
 injure him in the esteem of the weak and asinine 
 Thuillier. 
 
 "Madame," he said in the pious creature's ear, 
 "if there is anyone here able to appreciate you I am 
 the one. Seeing you here one would say that a 
 pearl had fallen into the mud; you are not forty-two 
 years old, for a woman is only as old as she seems 
 to be, and many women of thirty who are greatly 
 inferior to you would be only too glad to have your 
 figure and that sublime face over which love has 
 passed without ever filling the void in your heart. 
 You have given yourself to God, I know, and I have 
 too much religious feeling to seek to be anything 
 more than your friend ; but you gave yourself to him 
 because you never found any mortal worthy of you. 
 In short, you have been loved, but you have never 
 felt that you were adored; that I have guessed. 
 But there's your husband, who has never been able 
 to place you in the position to which your merit 
 entitles you ; he hates me as if he suspected me of 
 being in love with you, and prevents me from telling 
 you of the means I think I have found of placing you
 
 90 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 in the sphere which you were made to adorn. No, 
 madame," he added aloud, rising as he spoke, "the 
 Abbe Gondrin is not to preach the lenten sermons 
 this year at our humble church of Saint-Jacques du 
 Haut-Pas ; we are to have Monsieur d'Estival, a coun- 
 tryman of mine, who has devoted himself to preach- 
 ing in the interest of the poorer classes, and you 
 will hear one of the most impressive preachers I 
 know ; a priest, whose exterior is far from attractive, 
 but what a soul !" 
 
 "My longing will be gratified, then, " said poor 
 Madame Thuillier, "for I have never been able to 
 understand the famous preachers!" 
 
 A smile played about the lips of Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier and of several others in the company. 
 
 "They're thinking altogether too much of theo- 
 logical demonstrations; that's been my opinion for 
 a long time," said Theodose; "but I never talk reli- 
 gion, and except for Madame de Colleville " 
 
 "So they have demonstrations in theology, do 
 they?" was the innocent inquiry of the matter-of- 
 fact professor of mathematics. 
 
 "1 do not think, Monsieur," replied Theodose, 
 looking Felix Phellion in the face, "that you asked 
 that question seriously." 
 
 "Felix," said Phellion the elder, coming clumsily 
 to his son's assistance as he detected a pained ex- 
 pression on Madame Thuillier's face, "Felix divides 
 religion into two categories: he looks at it from a 
 human standpoint and from a divine standpoint, 
 tradition and common-sense."
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS QI 
 
 "What heresy, Monsieur!" rejoined Theodose; 
 "religion is indivisible; it demands faith before all 
 else." 
 
 Pere Phellion, transfixed by that sentence, glanced 
 at his wife : 
 
 "It's time, my dear " 
 
 And he pointed to the clock. 
 
 "Oh! Monsieur Felix," whispered Celeste to the 
 straightforward mathematician, "couldn't you be a 
 scholar and religious at the same time, like Pascal 
 and Bossuet?" 
 
 The Phellions, when they left the house, took the 
 Collevilles with them ; and soon nobody was left 
 but Dutocq, Theodose and the Thuilliers. 
 
 Theodose's flattering remarks to Flavie savored 
 strongly of the commonplace; but it should be 
 observed, in fairness to this narrative, that the advo- 
 cate kept himself on the level of these commonplace 
 minds; he sailed in their waters and spoke their 
 language. His painter was Pierre Grassou, not 
 Joseph Bridau ; his book was Paul et Virginie. The 
 greatest living poet in his opinion was Casimir Dela- 
 vigne; in his eyes the mission of art was utility 
 before all else. Parmentier, the author of The 
 Potato, he considered to be worth twenty Raphaels; 
 the man in the little blue cloak seemed to him a 
 Sister of Charity. He sometimes remembered these 
 expressions of Thuillier's. 
 
 "This young Felix Phellion," he said, "is the 
 type of the university man of our day, the product 
 of a science which has put God to flight. Great
 
 92 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Heavens ! what are we coming to ? There is nothing 
 but religion that can save France, for there's noth- 
 ing but the fear of hell to preserve us from domestic 
 theft, which is carried on every day in every house- 
 hold, and eats into the fortunes of the wealthiest. 
 You all have a secret war on hand in the bosom of 
 your family." 
 
 With this shrewd outburst, which made a deep 
 impression upon Brigitte, he took his leave, followed 
 by Dutocq, after wishing the Thuilliers good- 
 night 
 
 "That young fellow is full of expedients!" re- 
 marked Thuillier, sententiously. 
 
 "Faith, he is," said Brigitte, as she put out the 
 lamps. 
 
 "He's a religious man," said Madame Thuillier, 
 leading the way from the salon. 
 
 "Mdsieur," said Phellion to Colleville, when 
 they were abreast of the School of Mines and he had 
 made sure that they were alone in the street, "it is 
 my custom to yield my opinions to those of other 
 people, but I can't help thinking that that young 
 lawyer carries things with a pretty high hand at our 
 friends, the Thuilliers'." 
 
 "My private opinion," replied Colleville, who 
 was walking with Phellion behind their wives and 
 Celeste, all three of whom were arm in arm, "is that 
 he's a Jesuit, and I don't like those fellows. The 
 best of them is good for nothing. To my mind the 
 Jesuit means knavery, and knavery ready to cheat; 
 they cheat for the sake of cheating, to keep their
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 93 
 
 hand in, you might say. That's my opinion and I 
 make no bones about giving it" 
 
 "I understand you, Mosieur," said Phellion, tak- 
 ing Colleville's arm. 
 
 "No, Monsieur Phellion," chimed in Flavie in a 
 shrill voice, "you don't understand Colleville, but I 
 know what he means, and he'll do well to stop where 
 he is. That sort of thing isn't to be discussed in 
 the street at eleven at night, and in a young lady's 
 presence." 
 
 "You are right, wife," said Colleville. 
 
 When they reached Rue des Deux-Eglises, which 
 Phellion was to take, they bade one another good- 
 night. Felix Phellion thereupon said to Colleville: 
 
 "Monsieur, your son Francois might enter the 
 Polytechnic School if he were thoroughly coached ; I 
 will undertake to fit him to pass the examinations 
 this year." 
 
 "That's an offer not to be refused! thanks, my 
 friend," said Colleville; "we'll see about it" 
 
 "Good!" said Phellion to his son. 
 
 "That's very clever of you!" cried the mother. 
 
 "Why, what do you see in it?" asked Felix. 
 
 "Why, it's a very shrewd way of paying court to 
 Celeste's parents." 
 
 "May I never solve my problem if I thought of 
 such a thing!" cried the young professor ; "1 learned 
 from talking with the little Collevilles that Francois 
 has a bent for mathematics, and I thought it my duty 
 to enlighten his father " 
 
 "It's all right, my son!" said Phellion, "I
 
 94 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 wouldn't have you other than you are. My wishes 
 are fulfilled, for my son is upright and honorable, he 
 has the civic and private virtues which I wish him 
 to have." 
 
 "Colleville," said Flavie, when Celeste was 
 safely in bed, "don't express your opinion of people 
 so bluntly without knowing them thoroughly. When 
 you talk of Jesuits I know you're thinking of priests, 
 and I beg you to do me the favor of keeping your 
 ideas about religion to yourself whenever you're in 
 your daughter's presence. We have the right to sac- 
 rifice our own souls, but not our children's. Would 
 you like to have a creature without any religion for 
 your daughter's husband? You see, my boy, that 
 we're at everybody's mercy; we have four children 
 to provide for, and can you say that, sometime or 
 other, you may not need this man's help or that 
 man's? So don't go making enemies; you haven't 
 any now, for you're a good fellow, and, thanks to 
 that quality, which, in your case, amounts to fas- 
 cination, we have got along pretty well so far!" 
 
 "Enough! enough!" said Colleville, throwing his 
 coat on a chair and untying his cravat; "I am 
 wrong and you're right, my dear Flavie." 
 
 "At the first opportunity, my dear old sheep, " said 
 the sly creature, patting her husband's cheek, "try 
 to be civil to that young lawyer; he's a shrewd one, 
 and we must have him on our side. He's playing a 
 comedy, you say? very good, play it with him; 
 pretend to be his dupe, and if he really has talent, 
 and a future, make a friend of him. Do you suppose
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 95 
 
 I want to see you tied forever to your mayor's 
 office?" 
 
 "Come, Mother Colleville," laughed the quondam 
 first clarionet of the Opera-Comique, patting his 
 knee to indicate the position he wished his wife to 
 take, "let's warm our toes and chat When I look 
 at you I am more and more convinced of the truth 
 that a woman's youth is in her figure " 
 
 "And in her heart " 
 
 "Both," rejoined Colleville; "a slender figure and 
 a heavy heart " 
 
 "No, no, you great idiot deep." 
 
 "The good thing about you is that you have pre- 
 served your white skin without resorting to corpu- 
 lence! But then you have small bones. Look 
 you, Flavie, if I were beginning life over again, I 
 wouldn't have any other wife than you." 
 
 "You know very well that I have always pre- 
 ferred you to the others. What a pity Monseigneur 
 is dead! Do you know what I'd like for you?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "A place in the employ of the city of Paris, with 
 twelve thousand francs a year or so; something like 
 a cashier's place, either at the city treasury or the 
 one at Poissy, or else a manufacturer." 
 
 "Any of those would suit me." 
 
 "Well, suppose that beast of an advocate could do 
 something for you in that line? he's a schemer; 
 let's make up to him. I'll sound him let me have 
 my way and above all things don't interfere with 
 his game at the Thuilliers'!"
 
 96 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Theodose had touched the sore spot in Flavie 
 Colleville's heart; this requires an explanation 
 which may have some value as a comprehensive 
 glance at the life of women in general. 
 
 At forty years of age a woman, especially a 
 woman who has nibbled at the poisoned apple of 
 passion, has a feeling of solemn dismay; she real- 
 izes that for her there are two deaths in store: the 
 death of the body and the death of the heart. Con- 
 sidering women as divided into two great categories 
 corresponding to the ideas most commonly accepted, 
 calling them virtuous or guilty, we may be 
 allowed to say that when their years reach that 
 lamentable figure they are conscious of the keenest, 
 most atrocious suffering. If they be virtuous and 
 foiled in the desires with which nature endowed 
 them, whether they have had the courage to submit, 
 or have buried their rebellious impulses in their 
 hearts or at the altar's foot, they can not say to 
 themselves, without agony, that everything is at an 
 end for them. This thought has such strange, dia- 
 bolical possibilities that in it may be found the 
 explanation of many of those cases of apostasy, 
 which at times surprise and terrify society. If they 
 be guilty, they find themselves in one of those dis- 
 tracting plights which often, alas! lead to madness, 
 or end in death, or in outbursts of passion as terrific 
 as the situation itself. 
 
 This crisis may be thus expressed in the form of 
 a dilemma: Either they have been happy, have 
 made a virtue of their happiness, and can breathe
 
 M. COLLEVILLE AND FLAVIE 
 
 "S0 don't go making enemies ; you haven't any 
 now, for you're a good fellow, and, thanks to that 
 quality, which, in your case, amounts to fascination, 
 we have got along pretty well so far ! " 
 
 "Enough ! enough / " said Colleville, throwing his 
 coat on a chair and untying his cravat ; "/ am 
 wrong and you're right, my dear Flavie'.' 
 
 "At the first opportunity, my dear old sheep" said 
 the sly creature, patting her husband's cheek, " try to 
 be civil to that young lawyer ; he's a shrewd one, and 
 zve must have him on our side."
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 97 
 
 only that incense-laden air, can live only in that 
 perfumed atmosphere in which every flattering word 
 is a caress, and in that case how can they renounce 
 it all ? Or and this phenomenon is even more 
 curious than rare they have found only fatiguing 
 pleasure in pursuit of a happiness which constantly 
 eluded them, sustained in the eager chase by the 
 teasing incitements of vanity, priding themselves 
 on the game they are playing as a gambler prides 
 himself upon his nerve; for, to them, these last 
 days of beauty are the last stake on the green cloth 
 of despair. 
 
 "You have been loved, but not adored!" 
 
 This remark from Theodose, accompanied by a 
 keen glance which read, not her heart but her life, 
 was the solution of a riddle, and Flavie felt that she 
 was detected. 
 
 The advocate had repeated some few ideas which 
 frequent use has made mere truisms; but of what 
 consequence is the material or the shape of the 
 whip, when it strikes the gall on the race-horse's 
 flank ? The poetry was in Flavie and not in the 
 ode, just as the noise is not in the avalanche, 
 although it occasions it. 
 
 A young officer, two dandies, a banker, a stupid 
 young man and poor Colleville, that was a mel- 
 ancholy list of attempts. Once in her life Madame 
 Colleville had dreamed of happiness, but had not 
 really known it; for death made haste to put an end 
 to the only passion in which Flavie had found any 
 real charm. She then listened two years to the 
 7
 
 98 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 voice of religion, which told her that neither the 
 church nor the Soc'^ty of Jesus has aught to say 
 of happiness or love, but only of duty and resig- 
 nation ; that, in the estimation of those two great 
 powers, happiness consists in the satisfaction caused 
 by the performance of difficult or painful duties, and 
 that the reward is not to be looked for in this world. 
 But she heard at the same time a much shriller 
 voice than that; and, inasmuch as her religion was 
 simply a mask it was necessary to wear, and not a 
 real conversion, as she did not choose to lay it aside 
 because she saw in it a possible resource, and as 
 devotion, whether real or feigned, was an accom- 
 plishment adapted to adorn her future, she remained 
 in the church, as if it were a cross-road in the mid- 
 dle of a forest, seated on a bench, reading the sign- 
 posts, and awaiting what chance might bring to 
 pass, as she felt that night was at hand. 
 
 So it was that her interest was keenly aroused 
 when she heard Theodose describe her secret plight 
 without any appearance of intending to take advan- 
 tage of it, but directing his attack against that part 
 of her existence which was purely internal, and 
 promising to build for her upon a stable foundation 
 a castle in Spain which had been seven or eight 
 times demolished. 
 
 Since the beginning of the winter she had noticed 
 that Theodose was observing her closely and study- 
 ing her, although he did it by stealth. More than 
 once she had arrayed herself in her gray watered 
 silk, her best black lace, and her head-dress of
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 99 
 
 flowers interwoven with mechlin, in order to show 
 herself to the best advantage, and men always know 
 when a toilette has been made for their benefit The 
 ghastly old dandy of the Empire murdered her with 
 vulgar flattery, she was the queen of the salon, but 
 the Provencal said still a thousand times more with 
 one of his sly glances. 
 
 From Sunday to Sunday Flavie awaited a declara- 
 tion. 
 
 "He knows that I am ruined and haven't a sou!" 
 she would say to herself. "Perhaps he is really 
 pious." 
 
 Theodose did not propose to hurry matters, and 
 like a skilful conductor he had marked the place in 
 the symphony where the blow was to be struck on 
 the tom-tom. When he saw that Colleville was 
 trying to arouse Thuillier's suspicions in his regard, 
 he fired his broadside, which he had carefully pre- 
 pared during the three or four months he had been 
 studying Flavie, and he had succeeded with her as 
 he had succeeded in the morning with Thuillier. 
 
 As he got into bed he said to himself: 
 
 "The wife is on my side, but the husband can't 
 endure me; about this time they'll be quarreling, 
 and I shall come out ahead, for she does what she 
 pleases with her husband." 
 
 The Provencal was mistaken in this; there had 
 not been the slightest disagreement, and Colleville 
 was sleeping beside his dear little Flavie, while she 
 was saying to herself: 
 
 "Theodose is a superior man."
 
 Many men owe their superiority, as La Peyrade 
 did, to the audacity or difficulty of the task they 
 undertake; the strength they put forth increases the 
 size of their muscles, they exert themselves prodig- 
 iously ; and then, whether they attain success or make 
 a failure, the world is amazed to find what small, 
 pitiful, worn-out creatures they are. After he had ex- 
 cited to a feverish pitch the curiosity of the two per- 
 sons upon whom Celeste's fate depended, Theodose 
 played the busy man : for five or six days he was 
 away from the house from morning till night, so 
 that he did not see Flavie again until her desire had 
 reached the point at which one disregards propri- 
 eties ; and so that he compelled the old beau to come 
 to him. 
 
 On the following Sunday he felt almost certain of 
 finding Madame Colleville at church; as a matter of 
 fact they left the church at the same moment and 
 met on Rue des Deux-Eglises; Theodose offered his 
 arm to Flavie, who accepted it, bidding her daughter 
 go on before with her brother Anatole. The latter, 
 a boy of twelve, was to enter the Seminary, and 
 was a day-scholar at the Barniol institution, receiv- 
 ing elementary instruction; naturally enough Phel- 
 lion's son-in-law had made a reduction in the price 
 of tuition in view of the hoped-for union between 
 Phellion and Celeste. 
 
 (KM)
 
 102 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Have you done me the honor and the favor to 
 think over what I said to you so awkwardly the 
 other day?" the advocate inquired in a wheedling 
 tone of the pretty devotee, pressing her arm against 
 his heart with a movement that was at once gentle 
 and strong, as if he were putting constraint upon his 
 impulses in order to appear duly respectful. "Do 
 not misunderstand my meaning," he continued, as 
 he received from Madame Colleville one of those 
 glances which women broken to the harness of pas- 
 sion have at command, and which, so far as their 
 expression goes, are equally consistent with stern 
 indignation and with secret harmony of sentiment. 
 "I love you as one loves a beautiful character in the 
 toils of misfortune; Christian charity ministers to 
 the strong as well as to the weak, and its treas- 
 ures are the property of all. Lovely, graceful, 
 refined as you are, made to be the ornament of the 
 highest society, what man can look upon you with- 
 out boundless, heartfelt compassion, mingling with 
 these hateful plebeians who know nothing of you, 
 not even the inestimable value of one of your aris- 
 tocratic gestures, of one of your glances, or of one 
 of the charming tones of your voice ! Ah ! if I were 
 rich ! ah ! if I had the power, your husband, who is 
 certainly a good sort of fellow, should be receiver- 
 general, and you would procure his election as dep- 
 uty ! But 1 am a poor, ambitious devil, whose first 
 duty it is to silence my ambition, finding myself at 
 the bottom of the bag like the last number on a 
 family lottery ticket, and I can offer you my arm
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 103 
 
 only, instead of offering you my heart I have 
 everything to hope from an advantageous marriage, 
 and I pray you to believe that I would not only make 
 my wife happy, but she should be one of the first in 
 the land, as I should receive from her the means of 
 achieving success. It's a lovely day, come and take 
 a turn in the Luxembourg," he added, as they 
 reached Rued'Enfer and Madame Colleville's house, 
 opposite which was a passage leading to the Luxem- 
 bourg garden by way of the staircase of a small 
 building, the last fragment of the famous Carthusian 
 convent. 
 
 The pliability of the arm he held denoted tacit 
 acquiescence on Flavie's part, but, as she was en- 
 titled to the distinction of being constrained to go, 
 he drew her quickly across the street, adding: 
 
 "Come! we sha'n't often have so good an 
 opportunity. Oh!" he exclaimed, "your husband's 
 looking at us; he's at the window; let's walk 
 slowly " 
 
 "Have no fear of Monsieur Colleville," said 
 Flavie, with a smile, "he leaves me entirely free to 
 do as 1 choose." 
 
 "Ah! you are the woman I have dreamed of!" 
 cried the Provencal, with the enthusiasm which 
 burns only in Southern hearts and the accent which 
 issues from none but Southern lips. "Forgive me, 
 Madame," he continued, recovering his self-posses- 
 sion and returning from a higher world to the ban- 
 ished angel at his side, at whom he gazed with 
 pious veneration; "forgive me! I return to what I
 
 104 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 was saying. Ah ! how can one fail to feel sympathy 
 for the sorrows one experiences one's self, when one 
 sees that they have fallen to the lot of a being to 
 whom life should bring naught but joy and happi- 
 ness! Your suffering is mine; I am no more in my 
 proper place than you are in yours; the same ill- 
 fortune makes us brother and sister. Dear Flavie ! 
 the first day that I was permitted to see you, it was 
 the last Sunday in September, 1838, you were very 
 lovely; I shall see you often again in that pretty 
 woolen dress with the tartan of some Scotch clan or 
 other! That day I said to myself: 'Why is that 
 woman at the Thuilliers' ? and why has she ever 
 had relations with a Thuillier?' " 
 
 "Monsieur! " exclaimed Flavie, terrified at the 
 turn the Provencal was giving to their conversation. 
 
 "Oh! I know all about it," he cried, accompany- 
 ing his words with an expressive movement of the 
 shoulder, "and I have worked out my own explana- 
 tion and I think none the less of you for it. Bah ! 
 it isn't the sin of an ugly woman or a cripple. You 
 have to reap the fruits of your error and I'll help 
 you to do it! Celeste will be very rich, and therein 
 lies your hope for the future; you can have but one 
 son-in-law, so be shrewd enough to choose him 
 wisely. An ambitious man may become a minister, 
 but he will humiliate you, worry you to death and 
 make your daughter unhappy ; and if he throws her 
 fortune away he'll never pick it up again, that you 
 may be sure of. Yes, I love you," said he, "and I 
 love you with a love that knows no bounds; you
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 105 
 
 are above all the paltry considerations in which 
 fools entangle themselves. Let us understand each 
 other." 
 
 Flavie's breath was taken away ; she was never- 
 theless conscious of the extreme freedom of such 
 language, and she said to herself: "He doesn't 
 mince matters, at all events!" But she inwardly 
 confessed that she had never been so deeply moved 
 and stirred as by this young man. 
 
 "Monsieur, I can't imagine who can have led you 
 astray concerning my past, or by what right " 
 
 "Ah! forgive me, Madame," interposed the Pro- 
 vencal, with a coldness bordering upon contempt, 
 "I have been dreaming. I said to myself: 'She is 
 all that!' but 1 was deceived by appearances. I know 
 now why you will always remain on the fourth floor 
 over yonder on Rue d'Enfer. " 
 
 He enforced his words with an emphatic gesture, 
 pointing to the windows of Colleville's apartments, 
 which could be seen from the avenue in the Luxem- 
 bourg where they were walking, alone in that vast 
 field ploughed by so many youthful ambitions. 
 
 "1 have been perfectly frank and I expected reci- 
 procity. 1 have known what it is to be without 
 bread, Madame; I have succeeded in living, study- 
 ing law, and obtaining my degree here in Paris, 
 with two thousand francs for my whole capital, and 
 I had entered the city through the Barriere d'ltalie 
 with five hundred francs in my pocket, swearing, 
 like one of my compatriots, that I would some day 
 be one of the first men in the land. And the man
 
 106 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 who has often taken his food from the baskets in 
 which the restaurant-keepers throw their refuse, and 
 which are emptied at their doors at six in the morn- 
 ing, when the scavengers have got through with 
 them that man will not recoil from any avowable 
 expedient Do you believe me to be a friend of the 
 people? " he continued with a smile; "fame must 
 have a speaking-trumpet, you know; it can hardly 
 make itself heard speaking in its natural voice! 
 and without fame of what use is talent? The poor 
 man's advocate will be the rich man's. Is it enough 
 to open your mind to me? Open your heart Say: 
 'Let us be friends,' and we shall both be happy 
 some day." 
 
 "My God! why did I come here? why did 1 take 
 your arm? " cried Flavie. 
 
 "Because your destiny so willed!" he replied. 
 "Oh! my dear, darling Flavie," he added, pressing 
 her arm against his heart, "did you expect to hear 
 mere commonplace talk from me ? We are brother 
 and sister, that's the whole story." 
 
 And he escorted her back toward the passage, to 
 return to Rue d'Enfer. 
 
 Flavie was conscious of a feeling of terror beneath 
 the satisfaction which violent emotions afford all 
 women, and she mistook this terror for the sort of 
 dismay consequent upon a new passion ; but she felt 
 that she was under a spell and she walked along in 
 utter silence. 
 
 "Of what are you thinking?" queried Theodose 
 in the middle of the passage.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 107 
 
 "Of all that you have said to me," was her 
 reply. 
 
 "Why," he retorted, "at our age one can dispense 
 with preliminaries; we aren't children and we are 
 both moving in a sphere in which people ought to 
 understand one another. However," he added, as 
 they came out on Rue d'Enfer, "remember this, 
 that I am entirely at your service." 
 
 And he bowed to the ground. 
 
 "The irons are in the fire!" he said to himself as 
 he looked after his bewildered victim. 
 
 As he was returning to his own room, Theodose 
 found upon the landing an individual who is to play 
 what might be called a submarine part in this nar- 
 rative, like the buried church upon which rests the 
 facade of a palace. The sight of this man, who, 
 after ringing to no purpose at Theodose's door, had 
 just rung at Dutocq's, made the young Provencal 
 advocate shudder, but it was an internal shudder, 
 and nothing in his external appearance betrayed his 
 deep emotion. This man was Cerizet, whom 
 Dutocq had mentioned to Thuillier as his copyist 
 
 Cerizet, although he was but thirty-eight, looked 
 to be a man of fifty, for everything that can bring 
 old age prematurely upon a man had combined to 
 produce that effect upon him. His head, entirely 
 bereft of hair, afforded a view of a yellowish skull, 
 badly covered by a wig which had turned red in 
 spots. His pale, flabby face, coarse beyond expres- 
 sion, was the more horrible to look at, in that the 
 nose was partially eaten away, but not to such an
 
 108 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 extent that he could resort to a false organ to replace 
 it; from the top of the nose, where it joins the fore- 
 head, to the nostrils, it existed as nature made it; 
 but the horrible disease, after eating away the wings 
 toward the end, left only two holes of a curious 
 shape, the result being that his pronunciation was 
 impaired and speech made difficult for him. His 
 eyes, which were once handsome, but had been 
 weakened by abuse of every description and by 
 nights passed without sleep, were red around the 
 rims, and had changed tremendously for the worse; 
 his look, when it was charged with malice by his 
 evil heart, would have terrified judges or crimi- 
 nals, those persons, that is to say, whom nothing 
 terrifies. 
 
 His mouth, quite unfurnished save for a few black 
 stumps of teeth, gave a threatening expression to 
 his face; from it oozed a fine, frothy saliva which 
 never got beyond the thin, colorless lips. Cerizet 
 was a small man, dried up rather than lean ; he tried 
 to make up for his ugliness of feature by his cos- 
 tume, and although he did not dress richly, his dress 
 was always scrupulously neat, but perhaps that very 
 quality only served to make its shabbiness more 
 noticeable. In him everything seemed doubtful, 
 everything partook of the character of his age and 
 his nose and his look. It was impossible to say 
 whether he was thirty-eight years old or sixty, 
 whether his blue pantaloons, faded to be sure, but 
 very well-fitting, would soon be in fashion, or were 
 in fashion in the year 1835. His boots, down at the
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 109 
 
 heel and thrice patched, but carefully polished they 
 were fine shoes in their day had perhaps walked 
 upon ministerial carpets. His frogged overcoat, 
 shrunken by exposure to the rain, whereon the olive- 
 shaped buttons were so indiscreet as to afford 
 glimpses of their moulds, bore witness by its shape 
 to its bygone elegance. His satin neck-cloth very 
 luckily concealed his linen, but it was torn behind 
 by the tongue of the buckle, and the gloss of the 
 satin was heightened by a sort of oil distilled from 
 the wig. 
 
 In the days of its youth his waistcoat did not lack 
 freshness, but it was one of the waistcoats which 
 are sold for four francs and come from the depths of 
 the stock of a dealer in ready-made clothing. Every- 
 thing was carefully brushed, like his shiny, battered 
 silk hat Each part of the costume was in harmony 
 with every other, and reconciled one to the black 
 gloves that concealed the hands of this secondary 
 Mephistopheles, whose life prior to his introduction 
 to the reader is here presented in a few words. 
 
 He was an artist in evil, with whom, at the 
 beginning, evil had proved successful, so that, led 
 on by his early good luck, he continued to devise 
 infamous schemes, keeping always within the law. 
 Having become manager of a printing-office by 
 betraying his master, he had been convicted of con- 
 ducting a liberal newspaper; and in the provinces, 
 during the Restoration, he was one of the betes 
 noires of the government and was the unfortunate 
 Ceri%et, like the unfortunate Chauvet and the
 
 1 10 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 heroic Mercier. To this reputation for patriotism he 
 owed his appointment as a sub-prefect in 1830; six 
 months after, he was dismissed; but he claimed 
 that he was tried without a hearing, and he made 
 such an outcry that under the ministry of Casimir 
 Perier he became manager of an anti-republican 
 journal in the pay of the ministry. He abandoned 
 that to go into business on his own account, and one 
 of his ventures proved to be one of the most rascally 
 of stock-company swindles ; it was investigated by 
 the criminal tribunals, and he proudly submitted to 
 the severe sentence he received, declaring that it was 
 mere underhand vengeance on the part of the repub- 
 licans, who, he said, would never forgive him for 
 dealing them such rough blows in his journal, 
 inflicting ten wounds for their one. He served his 
 sentence in a hospital. The government finally felt 
 ashamed of a man who was brought up in a found- 
 ling asylum, and whose intemperate habits and 
 shameful exploits in connection with a former 
 banker named Claparon, had finally brought him 
 into well-deserved disrepute. Thus Cerizet, having 
 fallen by degrees to the lowest rung of the social 
 ladder, had to depend upon some lingering feeling 
 of pity to obtain the place of copyist in Dutocq's 
 office. In his hopeless poverty the man dreamed of 
 revenge, and as he had nothing more to lose, no 
 means were too base for him. Dutocq and he found 
 in their depraved habits a bond of union. Cerizet 
 was to Dutocq, in the quarter, what the hound is to 
 the hunter. Cerizet, being acquainted with all the
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS III 
 
 requirements of all kinds of misfortune, practised 
 that gutter variety of usury called extortion; he 
 began by sharing with Dutocq, and the former Paris 
 gamin, become the banker of the women hawkers, 
 the bill-discounter of chair-porters, was the pest of 
 two faubourgs. 
 
 "Well," said Cerizet, as Dutocq opened his door, 
 "Theodose has come home, so let's go up to his 
 room." 
 
 The poor man's lawyer stepped aside to allow his 
 two friends to precede him. 
 
 The three men passed through a small room with 
 a polished tile floor, where the light shone in through 
 calico curtains upon a layer of red encaustic, dis- 
 closing to view a modest round black walnut table 
 and a walnut buffet, on which stood a lamp. 
 Thence, they passed into a tiny red-curtained salon, 
 furnished in mahogany covered with red Utrecht 
 velvet; the wall opposite the windows was occupied 
 by a library filled with books on jurisprudence. On 
 the mantel-piece were a few common ornaments : a 
 clock with four mahogany pillars, and candles under 
 glass. The office, where the three friends proceeded 
 to seat themselves before a peat fire, was the typical 
 office of an advocate just beginning practice: the 
 furniture consisted of a desk, the regulation arm- 
 chair, narrow green silk curtains at the windows, a 
 green carpet, a case for boxes, and a couch, above 
 which was an ivory crucifix upon a velvet back- 
 ground. The bedroom, kitchen and the othei 
 rooms of the suite looked on the court-yard.
 
 112 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Well," said Cerizet, "is everything going on all 
 right? Are we getting ahead ?" 
 
 "Why, yes," replied Theodose. 
 
 "You must agree that it was a brilliant idea of 
 mine," cried Dutocq, "to think out a way of in- 
 veigling that idiot of a Thuillier." 
 
 "Yes, but I'm not behind hand," cried Cerizet; 
 "I have come this morning to bring you the cords to 
 tie the old maid up by the thumbs and make her 
 spin round like a teetotum. Don't make any mis- 
 take! Mademoiselle Thuillier is everything in this 
 business; with her on our side the place is taken. 
 Let us talk a bit, but let's speak our minds, as befits 
 clever men like us. My old partner, Claparon, is a 
 fool, as you know, and he ought to be all his life just 
 what he was, a mere dummy. Well, at this moment 
 his name is being used by a Paris notary who is mixed 
 up with certain building-contractors, and they're all 
 coming to grief, notary and masons and all ! Cl-iparon 
 has to stand the brunt of it: he has never failed, but 
 there has to be a first time for everything, and at this 
 moment he's in hiding in my shanty on Rue des 
 Poules, where no one will ever find him. My Cl .p- 
 aron is in a fearful rage, for he hasn't a sou; rmd 
 among the five or six houses to be sold in liquida- 
 tion there's a little gem of a house, built of cut 
 stone, close to the Madeleine, the front ornamented 
 like a melon, with delicious sculptures, but it isn't 
 finished and won't fetch more than a hundred thous- 
 and francs; by spending twenty-five thousand on it, 
 it may be worth ten thousand a year a couple of
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 113 
 
 years hence. By suggesting to Mademoiselle Thuil- 
 lier to become the proprietor of that piece of prop- 
 erty, you will become her love, for you can make 
 her understand that you can put such opportunities 
 in her way every year. The way to get hold of 
 vain people is either to flatter their self-esteem or 
 to frighten them; you have a miser under your 
 thumb when you attack his purse or when you fill 
 it for him. And as we're working for ourselves, 
 after all, by working for Thuillier, why we must let 
 him have the benefit of this stroke of business." 
 
 "And the notary," said Dutocq; "why does he 
 let things go?" 
 
 "The notary, my dear fellow? he's just the man 
 who saves us! Being compelled to sell his office, 
 and utterly ruined besides, he has reserved this por- 
 tion of the ruin for himself. Trusting to the honesty 
 of Claparon the imbecile, he has left it to him to 
 find a nominal purchaser; for trustworthiness is as 
 essential as prudence in his agent We will let him 
 think that Mademoiselle Thuillier is an unsuspecting 
 creature who lends her name to poor Claparon, and 
 they'll both be taken in, Claparon and the notary, 
 too. I owe my friend Claparon this little trick, for 
 he left me to bear the whole brunt of that stock- 
 company business, in which we were put under the 
 harrow by Couture I wouldn't like you to be in his 
 skin, by the way!" he said, with a gleam of infernal 
 hatred in his lack-lustre eyes. "I have said my say, 
 Messeigneurs!" he added, raising his voice, which 
 issued entirely from his nasal cavities, and striking 
 8
 
 114 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 a theatrical attitude; for, at one time, when he was 
 in the last stages of poverty, he had taken to the 
 boards. 
 
 As he concluded his harangue, some one rang the 
 bell and La Peyrade went to open the door. 
 
 "Are you still satisfied with him?" Cerizet asked 
 Dutocq. "There's a something about him, you 
 see I'm a connoisseur in treachery." 
 
 "He is so entirely in our power," said Dutocq, 
 "that I don't take the trouble to watch him ; but, 
 between ourselves, I had no idea he was so much of 
 a man as he is. You see we thought we were put- 
 ting a frisky horse between the legs of a man who 
 didn't know how to ride, and the rascal turns out to 
 be an old jockey! That's the whole story " 
 
 "Let him beware!" said Cerizet, threateningly ; 
 "I can blow him over like a house built of cards. 
 As for you, Papa Dutocq, you can see him at work 
 and watch him every moment; keep your eye on 
 him! However, 1 have a way of feeling him by 
 having Claparon propose to him to throw us over, 
 and we can judge him then. " 
 
 "That's all right," said Dutocq, "you haven't got 
 cold in your eyes." 
 
 "/ know a thing or two, that's all !" said Cerizet. 
 
 These words were exchanged in a low voice while 
 Theodose answered the door-bell and returned to 
 them. Cerizet was looking around the office when 
 the advocate reappeared. 
 
 "It's Thuillier, " said Theodose; "I was expect- 
 ing him; he's in the salon now. He mustn't see
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 11$ 
 
 Cerizet's overcoat," he added, with a smile; "those 
 frogs would make him uneasy." 
 
 "Nonsense! you receive poor devils here; that's 
 part of your game. Are you in need of money?" 
 added Cerizet, producing a hundred francs from his 
 fob. "There, there, that'll do nicely." 
 
 And he placed the pile of coins on the mantel- 
 piece. 
 
 "At all events, we can go out through the bed- 
 room," said Dutocq. 
 
 "Well, adieu," said the Provencal, opening the 
 concealed door leading from his office to his bedroom. 
 "Come in, dear Monsieur Thuillier," he cried to 
 the old beau of the Empire. 
 
 When he saw him at the door of the office he 
 escorted his two confederates through his bedroom, 
 dressing-room and kitchen, the latter of which had 
 a door opening on the courtyard. 
 
 "In six months, you ought to be Celeste's hus- 
 band, and on the high-road to fame. You're a lucky 
 fellow; you haven't sat in the dock of the police 
 court twice as I have! the first time in 1825, when 
 I was prosecuted on account of the alleged implica- 
 tions in some articles I never wrote ; and the second 
 time on account of the profits of a stock-company 
 that we just got a sniff of! Come! we must rush 
 this thing, deuce take me ! for Dutocq and 1 are both 
 damnably in need of our twenty-five thousand francs ; 
 keep up your pluck, my friend!" he added, giving 
 his hand to Theodose, and mentally making that 
 hand-shake a test of his good faith.
 
 Il6 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 The Provencal gave Cerizet his right hand, and 
 pressed his with much warmth. 
 
 "My boy, you may be very sure that, whatever 
 position I may be in, I shall never forget that from 
 which you extricated me to put me on horseback 
 here. I am your hook, but you have given me the 
 best part of the prey, and I must be viler than a 
 galley-slave who turns spy, not to play a fair game. " 
 
 As soon as the door was closed Cerizet looked 
 through the keyhole to get a glimpse of Theodose's 
 face; but the Provencal had turned and gone to join 
 Thuillier, so that his suspicious associate was unable 
 to discover the expression of his features. 
 
 It was neither disgust nor vexation, but pure 
 delight, that was depicted on Theodose's face when 
 the necessity for dissimulation was removed. He 
 saw that his prospects of success were increasing, 
 and he flattered himself that he could easily get rid 
 of his low confederates, to whom, however, he owed 
 everything. Poverty has unfathomable depths of 
 filth, especially in Paris, and, when a man who has 
 been drowned therein rises to the surface, his body 
 and his clothes are covered with slime. Cerizet, the 
 once opulent friend, the patron of Theodose, was the 
 slime that still clung to the Provencal from that im- 
 mersion, and the former company-promoter shrewdly 
 guessed that he proposed to give himself a brushing 
 now that he found himself in a sphere where decent 
 garb was a requisite of success. 
 
 "Well, my dear Theodose," said Thuillier, "we 
 have hoped to see you every day this week, and
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 117 
 
 every day our hopes have been disappointed. As 
 this is the Sunday when we have a dinner-party, my 
 wife and sister sent me to insist on your coming." 
 
 "I have been so busy," said Theodose, "that I 
 haven't had two minutes to give to anybody, not 
 even to you, whom I look upon as my friend; and I 
 had something to say to you " 
 
 "What! are you really thinking seriously of what 
 you said to me?" cried Thuillier, interrupting him. 
 
 "If you hadn't come here so that we could have 
 an understanding, I shouldn't think so much of you 
 as I do," replied La Peyrade, with a smile. "You 
 have been a deputy-chief; therefore you have 
 some little ambition remaining, and it's devil- 
 ishly right you should have, come then! between 
 ourselves, when we see a Minard, a gilded jug, 
 going to pay his respects to the king and prancing 
 about at the Tuileries; a Popinot in a fair way to 
 become a minister; and you, a man broken down 
 by hard work in the departments, a man with thirty 
 years' experience, who has seen six governments, 
 doing nothing but pick flowers. Think of it! 1 tell 
 you frankly, my dear Thuillier, I propose to push 
 you because you'll draw me along after. This is 
 my plan. We shall soon have to choose a member 
 of the General Council in this arrondissement and 
 you must be the man! And," he added, emphati- 
 cally, "you shall be! Some day you'll be Deputy 
 of the chamber for the arrondissement, when a new 
 Chamber is chosen, and that will be before long. 
 The votes that send you to the Municipal Council
 
 Il8 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 will be for you still when there's a deputy to be 
 elected, trust me for that." 
 
 "But what means do you propose to use ? " cried 
 Thuillier, completely fascinated. 
 
 "You shall know in good time, but just let me 
 manage the business; it will be a hard job and 
 will take a long time; if you are guilty of any in- 
 discretion as to what is said, or done, or agreed 
 between us, why I'll drop you and be your humble 
 servant!" 
 
 "Oh! you can rely on the absolute dumbness of 
 an ex-deputy-chief clerk ; I have had secrets before 
 now " 
 
 "Very good ! but this is a matter of having secrets 
 from your wife and sister and Monsieur and Madame 
 Colleville." 
 
 "Not a muscle of my face shall move," said 
 Thuillier, forcing himself to be calm. 
 
 "Good!" rejoined La Peyrade; "I'll test you. 
 In order to be eligible you must pay the rate, and 
 you don't pay it" 
 
 "I beg your pardon! I'm all right for election to 
 the General Council. I pay two francs eighty-six 
 centimes." 
 
 "True, but to be eligible to the Chamber, the 
 rate is five hundred francs, and there's no time to 
 lose, for we must be prepared to prove eligibility 
 for a year." 
 
 "The devil!" exclaimed Thuillier, "to be taxed 
 five hundred francs for something a year ahead " 
 
 "You must pay them by the end of July at latest;
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 119 
 
 my devotion to your interests carries me so far as 
 to let you into the secret of a little scheme by which 
 you can earn thirty or forty thousand francs a year 
 on a capital of a hundred and fifty thousand at the 
 outside. But your sister has managed the financial 
 affairs of your whole family for a long time; and I 
 am very far from condemning that way of doing 
 business; she has, as they say, more judgment 
 than any one I ever saw : so you must begin by allow- 
 ing me to win Mademoiselle Brigitte's good-will and 
 affection by suggesting this investment to her, and 
 for this reason. If Mademoiselle Thuillier had no 
 faith in me we should experience some unpleasant 
 sensations; and then, too, is it for you to suggest 
 to your sister to take the deed of the property in 
 your name? It's much better that the suggestion 
 should come from me. However, you shall both 
 make up your own minds about the matter. As for 
 my means of procuring your election to the Munici- 
 pal Council of the Seine, they are these: Phellion 
 has a fourth of the votes in the quarter at his dis- 
 posal ; he and Laudigeois have lived here thirty 
 years and they're listened to like oracles. I have a 
 friend who can turn over another fourth, and the 
 cure of Saint- Jacques, whose virtuous qualities give 
 him a certain amount of influence, may have some 
 few votes. Dutocq, who, as well as the justice of 
 the peace, is thrown constantly in contact with the 
 people, will help me, especially if I'm not acting on 
 my own account; and lastly, Colleville, as mayor's 
 secretary, represents a fourth of the votes."
 
 120 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Why, you're quite right, antl I'm as good as 
 elected!" cried Thuillier. Jjf 
 
 "Do you think so ?" rejoined La Peyrade, in a tone 
 of indescribable irony; "well, just go and ask your 
 friend Colleville to help you, and you'll see what 
 answer he'll make. In these election matters a 
 triumph is never won by the candidate himself, but 
 by his friends. He must never ask anything him- 
 self for himself, but he must arrange it so that he'll 
 be entreated to accept, and must seem to have no 
 ambition." 
 
 "La Peyrade !" cried Thuillier, rising and grasp- 
 ing the young lawyer's hand, "you're a very supe- 
 rior man!" 
 
 "Not so superior as you, but I have some little 
 shrewdness of my own," replied the Provencal with 
 a smile. 
 
 "But if we succeed how am I to repay you?" 
 asked Thuillier, innocently. 
 
 "Ah ! there we are. You'll think me impertinent ; 
 but pray consider that I am inspired by a sentiment 
 which should excuse whatever I may say, for it has 
 given me the courage for this undertaking! I am in 
 love and I choose you as my confidant." 
 
 "In love with whom?" said Thuillier. 
 
 "Your dear little Celeste," replied La Peyrade, 
 "and my love is your guarantee of my devotion to 
 your interests; what wouldn't I do for a. father-in- 
 law ! It's pure selfishness on my part ; I am working 
 for myself" 
 
 "Hush!" cried Thuillier.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 121 
 
 "Why, my friend," said La Peyrade, laying his 
 hand on Thuillier's shoulder, "if Flavie were not 
 my friend, if I didn't know everything, should I 
 speak to you about it? But wait for her on that 
 subject, and don't broach/ it to her. Hark ye; I am 
 of the stuff ministers are made of, and 1 don't want 
 Celeste unless I have earned her : so you will not 
 give her to me until the eve of the election when 
 your name comes out from the urn often enough to 
 make it the name of a deputy for Paris. To be 
 deputy for Paris, you must get ahead of Minard: 
 you must therefore crush Minard, you must retain 
 your means of influence, and to obtain that result, 
 leave Celeste as a hope ; we will play them all for her. 
 Some day Madame Colleville and you and 1 will be 
 people of consequence. Pray don't think that I am 
 actuated by any material interest; 1 want Celeste 
 without fortune, with hopes and nothing more. To 
 live in your family, to leave my wife in your midst, 
 that is my programme. You see I have no hidden 
 motive. As for yourself, six months after your elec- 
 tion to the General Council you'll have the Cross, 
 and when you are elected to the Chamber, you can 
 procure your own appointment as an officer in the 
 Legion. When we come to your speeches in the 
 Chamber, why, we'll write them together ! It may 
 be necessary for you to appear as the author of a 
 serious work on some half-moral, half-political sub- 
 ject, such as charitable establishments considered 
 from an ethical standpoint, or the reform of the 
 pawn-shops, which are a frightful scandal. Let us
 
 122 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 add a little lustre to your name, that will do good, 
 especially in this district. I have said to you: 
 'You shall have the Cross, and become a member of 
 the General Council of the department of the 
 Seine.' Very good; rely upon me; don't think of 
 taking me into your family until you have a ribbon 
 in your buttonhole, or until the day after you take 
 your seat in the Chamber. Meanwhile, I will do 
 more for you; I will give you forty thousand francs 
 a year." 
 
 "For either one of the three things alone, you 
 should have our Celeste!" 
 
 "Such a pearl among women!" ejaculated La 
 Peyrade, looking at the ceiling; "I am weak enough 
 to pray God for her welfare every day. She's a 
 charming creature, and she looks like you, too. 
 What the devil ! do I need any arguments to make 
 me love her ? Great God ! it was Dutocq who told 
 it all to me. Farewell until to-night! I am going 
 to Phellion's to work for you. Ah! it goes without 
 saying that you are a hundred miles from thinking 
 of me as Celeste's husband, otherwise you'd cut 
 off my arms and legs. Not a word about this, even 
 to Flavie! Wait till she speaks to you. Phellion 
 will be ready to use force on you to-night, to bring 
 you over to his plan of proposing you as a candi- 
 date." 
 
 "To-night?" said Thuillier. 
 
 "To-night," replied La Peyrade, "unless I fail to 
 find him." 
 
 Thuillier left the room, saying to himself:
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 123 
 
 "That's a superior man! we always understand 
 each other perfectly, and faith ! we might find it 
 hard to pick up a better man than him for Celeste ; 
 they'll live with us, as part of the family, and 
 that's a great thing; he's a good fellow, a fine 
 man " 
 
 To minds of the quality of Thuillier's a secondary 
 consideration is as weighty as an argument of the 
 first importance. Theodose's good-fellowship had 
 been charming throughout
 
 The house toward which Theodose bent his steps 
 a few moments later had been Phellion's hoc erat in 
 votis for twenty years; and it was as unmistakably 
 the house for the Phellion family as the frogs on 
 Cerizet's redingote were its necessary ornaments. 
 
 It was planted in front of a much larger house and 
 was but one room deep, about twenty feet; at 
 each end was a sort of pavilion with a single 
 window. Its principal attractions were a garden 
 about sixty yards wide, and longer than the house- 
 front by the whole length of a courtyard upon the 
 street, and a clump of yew trees. Beyond the second 
 pavilion the court-yard was shut off from the street 
 by two gratings with a small two-winged gate 
 between them. 
 
 The building was of rough stone covered with 
 plaster painted yellow, and was two stories high; 
 the blinds and shutters on the ground-floor were 
 green. The kitchen was on the ground-floor of the 
 pavilion that opened on the court-yard, and the cook, 
 a stout, rugged girl, protected by two huge dogs, 
 performed the functions of concierge. The facade, 
 in which there were five windows beside the two 
 pavilions, which jutted out a yard or more, was of 
 the Phellion style of architecture. Above the door 
 he had inserted a white marble tablet, upon which 
 (125)
 
 126 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 were these words in letters of gold : Aurea Mediocri- 
 tas. Above the semi-dial, drawn in one of the 
 courses of the facade, might be read this wise 
 maxim : Umbra mea vita, sic I 
 
 The window-sills had been recently replaced by 
 others of red Languedoc marble, picked up at 
 a stone-yard. At the back of the garden was 
 a colored statue which reminded passers-by of a 
 nurse with a child at her breast Phellion was 
 his own gardener. The ground-floor contained only 
 a salon and a dining-room, separated by the stair- 
 case, the landing being the only reception-room. 
 At the end of the salon was a small room used by 
 Phellion as an office. 
 
 On the first floor were the apartments of Phellion 
 and his wife, and the young professor; on the 
 second floor the children's rooms and the servants' ; 
 for Phellion, in view of his own age and his wife's, 
 had burdened himself with a male domestic about 
 fifteen years old, since his son had become a teacher. 
 At the left as you entered the court-yard were some 
 small outbuildings now used as wood sheds; the last 
 owner had used them for a porter's lodge. The Phel- 
 lions were doubtless waiting for the marriage of their 
 son, the professor, before indulging in that luxury. 
 
 This property, on which Phellion had long had 
 his eye, cost him eighteen thousand francs in 1831. 
 The house was separated from the court-yard by a 
 balustrade, upon a hewn stone foundation, decorated 
 with roof-tiles laid one upon another, and covered 
 with flagstones. This little wall, which was about
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 127 
 
 breast-high, was lined with Bengal rose bushes, and 
 in the middle was a wooden gate made in imitation 
 of a grating, opposite the double gate leading to the 
 street 
 
 Those who are familiar with the Impasse des 
 Feuillantines will understand that the Phellion 
 house, standing at right angles to the street, had a 
 full southern exposure and was sheltered on the 
 northern side by the high party-wall against which 
 it stood. The dome of the Pantheon and that of the 
 Val-de-Grace were like two giants as seen from 
 there, and so diminished the supply of air that one 
 walking in the garden felt as if he were hemmed in 
 between two mountains. Moreover, nothing can be 
 more deathly silent than the Impasse des Feuillan- 
 tines. Such was the retreat of the great unknown 
 citizen who was now tasting the sweets of repose, 
 after paying his debt to his country by toiling at 
 the Treasury Department, from which he had retired 
 after thirty-six years' service. 
 
 In 1832 he led his battalion of the National Guard 
 to the attack on Saint-Merri, but neighbors saw that 
 there were tears in his eyes at the thought of being 
 obliged to fire upon the misguided Frenchmen. The 
 affair was decided before the legion crossed Pont 
 Notre-Dame on the double-quick, coming from the 
 Quai aux Fleurs. This praiseworthy hesitation 
 won for him the esteem of the whole quarter, but 
 he lost by it the decoration of the Legion of Honor ; 
 the colonel remarked aloud that one should not stop 
 to deliberate when under arms; a remark made
 
 128 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 by Louis-Philippe to the National Guard of Metz. 
 Nevertheless, the bourgeois virtues of Phellion, and 
 the profound respect entertained for him in the 
 quarter kept him in command of the battalion for 
 eight years. He was nearing sixty, and, as the 
 moment approached when he must lay aside the 
 sword and gorget, he hoped that the king would 
 vouchsafe to acknowledge his services by bestowing 
 the Cross upon him. 
 
 Truth compels us to state, notwithstanding the 
 stain that this meanness of spirit leaves upon so 
 estimable a character, that Major Phellion walked 
 about on tiptoe at the receptions at the Tuileries; 
 he put himself forward, watched the Citizen-King 
 from the wings when he sat at dinner, engaged 
 in dark schemes, and yet had not succeeded in 
 obtaining a look from the king of his choice. The 
 worthy man had more than once thought of asking 
 Minard to assist in furthering his secret ambition. 
 
 Phellion, the upholder of passive obedience, was 
 an absolute stoic in the matter of doing his duty, 
 and a man of bronze in everything in which his 
 conscience was concerned. To conclude this sketch 
 with a word as to Phellion's physical appearance: 
 at fifty-nine years he had thickened, to use a 
 bourgeois expression; his uninteresting, pock- 
 marked face was like a full moon, so that his lips, 
 once unpleasantly thick, now seemed no more than 
 ordinarily so. His weak, spectacled eyes no longer 
 exhibited the simplicity of their faded blue and no 
 longer aroused a smile; his grizzled hair had at last
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 1 29 
 
 brought an expression of gravity to the features 
 which once bordered close on idiocy, and readily lent 
 themselves to ridicule. Time, which changes for 
 the worse faces with refined, delicate features, has 
 a beneficial effect upon those which, in their youth, 
 are drawn upon coarse and massive lines, as was the 
 case with Phellion. He employed the leisure of his 
 declining years composing an abridged French his- 
 tory, for Phellion was the author of several works 
 adopted by the University. 
 
 When La Peyrade made his appearance the whole 
 family was together : Madame Barniol had come to 
 give her mother the latest news concerning one of 
 her children who was slightly indisposed. The 
 student at the Academy of Roads and Bridges was 
 passing the day at home. They were all sitting, 
 dressed in their Sunday best, before the fire in the 
 salon finished in wood painted in two shades of 
 gray upon second-hand wooden arm-chairs, and 
 they all started when they heard the voice of Gene- 
 vieve, the cook, announcing the individual of whom 
 they were talking that moment in connection with 
 Celeste, whom Felix Phellion loved so dearly that 
 he had been to mass to see her. The learned mathe- 
 matician had made that effort that very morning, 
 and they were joking him mildly thereupon, wish- 
 ing that Celeste and her parents would realize the 
 value of the treasure that was offered them. 
 
 "Alas! the Thuilliers seem to me to have got a 
 very dangerous man on their hands," said Madame 
 Phellion; "he gave his arm to Madame Colleville 
 9
 
 130 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 this morning and they went off to the Luxembourg 
 together." 
 
 "There's something wrong about that lawyer," 
 cried Felix Phellion; "it wouldn't surprise me to 
 learn that he had committed a crime. " 
 
 "You go too far," said Phellion senior; "he is 
 own cousin to Tartuffe, that immortal figure done in 
 bronze by our virtuous Moliere, for virtue and 
 patriotism, my children, were the foundation of 
 Moliere's genius." 
 
 It was at this juncture that Genevieve entered the 
 room and said : 
 
 "Monsieur de la Peyrade would like to speak to 
 Monsieur." 
 
 "To me?" cried Monsieur Phellion. "Show him 
 in!" he added with the solemn manner which, when 
 assumed on such trifling provocation, made him 
 appear a little ridiculous, but which had hitherto 
 awed his family, who looked upon him as their king. 
 
 Phellion, his two sons, his wife and his daughter 
 rose and received the advocate's general salutation. 
 
 "To what do we owe the honor of your visit, 
 M6sieur?" said Phellion, sternly. 
 
 "To your eminence in the quarter, my dear Mon- 
 sieur Phellion, and to matters of public interest," 
 replied Theodose. 
 
 "Let us go into my study, then," said Phel- 
 lion. 
 
 "No, no, my dear," said Madame Phellion, a 
 short, dried up little woman, flat as a flounder, 
 whose face never lost the wrinkled sternness with
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 131 
 
 which she gave instruction in music at young 
 ladies' boarding-schools; "no, no, we will leave 
 you." 
 
 An upright Erard piano, between the two windows 
 on the side of the room opposite the fire-place, bore 
 witness to the devotion of the virtuoso to her favor- 
 ite amusement 
 
 "Must I be so unfortunate as to send you away?" 
 said Theodose, smiling pleasantly at the mother and 
 daughter. "You have a delightful little nook here," 
 he continued, "and you lack nothing now but a 
 pretty daughter-in-law to enable you to pass the rest 
 of your days happily in that aurea mediocritas, for 
 which the Latin poet longed, and surrounded by the 
 delights of family life. Your past is eminently 
 deserving of that recompense, for, if I may believe 
 what I hear, dear Monsieur Phellion, you are both a 
 good citizen and a patriarch " 
 
 "Mosieur," said Phellion, much embarrassed, 
 "M&sieur, I have done my duty, nothing more." 
 
 At the word daughter-in-law, Madame Barniol, 
 who was as like her mother as one drop of water is 
 like another, glanced at Madame Phellion and Felix 
 with an expression which said: "Can we have been 
 mistaken?" 
 
 The wish to discuss the incident sent the mother 
 and her three children into the garden, for the 
 weather was quite spring-like, in Paris, at least, in 
 March, 1840. 
 
 "Major," said Theodose, when he was alone with 
 the worthy bourgeois, who was always flattered to
 
 132 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 be so addressed, "I wanted to talk with you about 
 the election " 
 
 "Ah! yes, we have to choose a member of the 
 Municipal Council," Phellion interrupted. 
 
 "Yes, and I have ventured to intrude upon your 
 Sunday privacy in connection with a certain person's 
 candidacy; after all, perhaps we sha'n't have to go 
 outside the family circle." 
 
 It was impossible for Phellion to be more Phellion 
 than Theodose was at that moment 
 
 "I won't allow you to say a word more," rejoined 
 the Major, taking advantage of Theodose's pause to 
 observe the effect of what he had said; "my selec- 
 tion is made." 
 
 "We must have had the same idea!" cried Theo- 
 dose; "well-meaning minds may think alike as well 
 as great minds." 
 
 "I don't believe in that phenomenon in this 
 instance," replied Phellion. "This district has been 
 represented in the municipal government by the 
 most virtuous of men as he was the greatest of mag- 
 istrates, to wit, the late Monsieur Popinot, who died 
 a councillor of the royal court. When his place had 
 to be filled, his nephew, who inherited his benevo- 
 lence, did not live in the quarter; but since then he 
 has bought, and now occupies, the house where his 
 uncle used to live on Rue de la Montagne-Sainte- 
 Genevieve; he's the physician at the Polytechnic 
 School and at one of our hospitals; he's an honor to 
 the quarter ; for these reasons, and to do honor to 
 the uncle's memory in the person of the nephew, a
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 133 
 
 few of the electors of the quarter and myself have 
 determined to bring forward Dr. Horace Bianchon, 
 member of the Academy of Sciences, as you know, 
 and one of the younger ornaments of the illustrious 
 Parisian school. A man isn't great in our eyes 
 simply because he is famous, and the late Councillor 
 Popinot, to my way of thinking, was almost a Saint 
 Vincent de Paul." 
 
 "A physician isn't an administrator," replied 
 Theodose, "and more than that I have come to ask 
 your vote for a man to whom your dearest interests 
 bid you to sacrifice a mere predilection, which, after 
 all, hasn't any special reference to the public wel- 
 fare." 
 
 "Ah! M&sieur!" cried Phellion, rising and 
 assuming the attitude of Lafon in Le Glorieux, "do 
 you think so poorly of me as to believe that personal 
 interest would ever influence my political con- 
 science? As soon as the public good is in question, 
 I am a good citizen, nothing more nor less than that " 
 
 Theodose smiled to himself at the thought of the 
 combat about to take place between the father and 
 the citizen. 
 
 "Don't make any binding agreements, I beg you, " 
 said La Peyrade, "for your dear Felix's happiness 
 is deeply concerned." 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" demanded Phel- 
 lion, stopping in the middle of his salon and strik- 
 ing an attitude, with his hand thrust in his waistcoat 
 from right to left, a gesture copied from the illus- 
 trious Odilon Barrot
 
 134 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Why, I come to you in behalf of our mutual 
 friend, the worthy and excellent Monsieur Thuillier, 
 whose control over the destiny of pretty Celeste 
 Colleville is well known ; and if, as I assume, your 
 son, a young man of whom any family would be 
 proud, and whose merit is incontestable, is paying 
 court to Celeste with a view to a union which would 
 meet all possible requirements, you could do nothing 
 better calculated to earn the everlasting gratitude of 
 the Thuilliers than to put forward your worthy friend 
 for the suffrages of your fellow-citizens. So far as 
 I am personally concerned, although I am a new- 
 comer in the quarter, I might undertake to do it 
 myself, thanks to the influence I have acquired by 
 virtue of some trifling acts of kindness among the 
 poorer classes; but service rendered the poor makes 
 but little impression upon those who are more com- 
 fortably fixed, and then any such notoriety would ill 
 befit my modest way of living. I have consecrated 
 my life, Monsieur, to the service of the weak, like 
 the late Councillor Popinot, a sublime man, as you 
 were saying; and, even if I were not in a measure 
 destined for a religious life, which has but little in 
 common with the obligations of the marriage tie, my 
 inclination, my second calling would be to the ser- 
 vice of God, to the Church. I don't make a great 
 noise, as the false philanthropists do; I don't write, 
 but I act, for I am a man devoted heart and soul to 
 the practice of the Christian virtue of Charity. I 
 have thought that I could detect the ambition of our 
 friend Thuillier, and I intended to contribute to the
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 135 
 
 happiness of two beings who are made for each other, 
 when I suggested to you a method of gaining access 
 to Thuillier's somewhat cold heart." 
 
 Phellion was confounded by this admirably deliv- 
 ered speech ; he was dazzled and deeply impressed ; 
 but he remained the same Phellion, and walked 
 straight up to the advocate, holding out his hand, 
 which La Peyrade took in his. 
 
 They exchanged such a handshake as was com- 
 monly exchanged, about August, 1830, between the 
 bourgeoisie and the men of the future. 
 
 "M6sieur," said the Major, with emotion, "I 
 misjudged you. This that you have done me the 
 honor to confide to me will die here! " pointing to 
 his heart "There are few men like you, but those 
 few may well console us for many evils which are 
 inherent in our social organization. Good men are 
 so rare that it is natural for us weak creatures to 
 distrust appearances. You have a friend in me, if 
 you will permit me to do myself the honor of assum- 
 ing that title. But you will know me better in time, 
 Mosieur ; 1 should lose my own esteem if I proposed 
 Thuillier. No, my son shall not owe his happiness 
 to an unworthy action on his father's part I will 
 not change my candidate, because it would be for my 
 son's interest that I should do so. That is the path 
 of virtue, Mosieur!" 
 
 La Peyrade took out his handkerchief, rubbed his 
 eyes until he succeeded in producing a tear, and 
 said, as he gave his hand to Phellion and turned 
 away his head:
 
 1 36 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Your words, Monsieur, tell the story of a sublime 
 struggle between private interests and political in- 
 terests. Had I come hither only to see this sight, 
 my visit would not be wasted. What can I say? in 
 your place, 1 should do as you have done. You are 
 that greatest of God's works, a good man ! a citizen 
 a la Jean-Jacques! With many citizens of his 
 temper, O France ! O my country ! to what heights 
 would you rise! Nay, Monsieur, 1 crave the honor 
 of being your friend." 
 
 "What's going on here?" cried Madame Phellion, 
 looking through the window at this moving scene; 
 "your father and that beast of a man are em- 
 bracing!" 
 
 Phellion and the advocate left the salon and 
 joined the family in the garden. 
 
 "My dear Felix," said the old gentleman, waving 
 his hand toward La Peyrade, who was saluting 
 Madame Phellion, "you should be very grateful to 
 this excellent young man ; he'll do you more good 
 than harm." 
 
 The advocate walked back and forth beneath the 
 leafless yews for five minutes, with Madame Barniol 
 and Madame Phellion, and, in view of the grave 
 dilemma brought about by Phellion's political pig- 
 headedness, gave them certain counsel, the result of 
 which was certain to appear during the evening, its 
 more immediate effect being to convert those two 
 ladies into ardent admirers of his talents, his frank- 
 ness and his many inestimable qualities. The ad- 
 vocate was escorted to the street-door by the whole
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 137 
 
 family in a body, and every eye was upon him until 
 he turned into Rue Faubourg-Saint-Jacques. As 
 Madame Phellion took her husband's arm to return 
 to the salon, she said : 
 
 "How's this, my dear? can it be that such a good 
 father as you are will allow the most splendid match 
 our Felix could make to fall through from excess of 
 delicacy?" 
 
 "My love," replied Phellion, "the great men of 
 antiquity, Brutus and the rest, were never fathers 
 when it was a matter of proving themselves good 
 citizens. The bourgeoisie is held much more strictly 
 to the practice of the loftier virtues than the nobil- 
 ity whose shoes it is called upon to fill. Monsieur 
 de Saint-Hilaire didn't think of the arm he had lost 
 as he stood beside Turenne's dead body. We have 
 to prove our worthiness; let us prove it at every 
 step of the social ladder. Should I impress these 
 principles upon my family, to disregard them my- 
 self when the time comes to apply them ? No, my 
 love, weep to-day, if you choose; you will esteem 
 me for it to-morrow!" he added, seeing that his 
 meagre little better-half had tears in her eyes. 
 
 These noble words were uttered on the step of the 
 door above which was written : Aurea Mediocritas. 
 
 "1 should have added: et digna !" said Phellion, 
 pointing to the tablet, "but those two words might 
 seem to imply self-praise." 
 
 "Father," said Marie-Theodore Phellion, the 
 future builder of roads and bridges, when all the 
 family were once more assembled in the salon, "it
 
 138 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 seems to me that there's no dishonor in changing 
 one's mind in the matter of a choice between two 
 men, when the public welfare is not concerned." 
 
 "Not concerned, my son!" cried Phellion. 
 "Between ourselves I may say, and Felix is of 
 the same opinion: Monsieur Thuillier is absolutely 
 without intellectual resources; he knows nothing! 
 Monsieur Horace Bianchon is a capable man; he 
 will obtain a hundred things for our arrondissement, 
 and Thuillier not one! But understand, my son, 
 that to change a proper decision for an improper one, 
 for selfish reasons, is a shameful act which men 
 cannot control, but which God punishes. I am, or 
 I think I am, blameless in the sight of my con- 
 science, and I owe it to you to leave an unspotted 
 reputation behind me. So nothing will make me 
 change my mind." 
 
 "Oh! dear father," cried little Madame Barniol, 
 throwing herself on a cushion at Phellion's feet, 
 "don't ride such a high horse! There are plenty of 
 idiots and donkeys in the Municipal Council, and 
 France goes on just the same. Good Thuillier will 
 vote blindly as he's told. Just remember that 
 Celeste will have five hundred thousand francs, per- 
 haps." 
 
 "If she had millions !" said Phellion, "I'd see them 
 I don't care where. I wouldn't propose Thuillier 
 when I owe it to the memory of the most upright of 
 men to secure the election of Horace Bianchon. 
 Popinot in heaven is looking on and applauding 
 me !" he cried excitedly. "Such reasoning as yours
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 139 
 
 is what degrades France and brings the bourgeoisie 
 into disrepute." 
 
 "Father is right," said Felix, emerging from a fit 
 of deep abstraction, "and he deserves our love and 
 respect as he has done throughout his modest, busy, 
 honorable life. I would not owe my happiness to 
 anything that would fill his soul with remorse, nor 
 to intriguing of any sort; I love Celeste as well as 
 I love my own family, but I place my father's honor 
 above everything and the moment that a doubt 
 springs up in his conscience, why, we'll say no more 
 about it" 
 
 Phellion, his eyes filled with tears, rushed to his 
 eldest son and threw his arms about him. 
 
 "My son! my son!" he exclaimed in a choking 
 voice. 
 
 "This is all folly," said Madame Phellion in 
 Madame Barniol's ear; "come and help me dress, 
 we must put an end to this. I know your father ; 
 he's made up his mind. To carry out the plan that 
 exemplary and pious young man suggested to us, 
 Theodore, 1 may need your assistance ; so be ready, 
 my son." 
 
 At that moment Genevieve appeared and handed 
 Monsieur Phellion a letter. 
 
 "An invitation for my wife, Felix and myself to 
 dine at the Thuilliers'," said he.
 
 The advocate's superb but astounding scheme had 
 upset the Thuillier family as completely as it did the 
 Phellions; and Jerome, without confiding anything 
 to his sister, for he was already priding himself on 
 keeping faith with his Mephistopheles, went home 
 in a tremor of excitement 
 
 "My dear little girl," said he to Brigitte he 
 always appealed to her heart with those words, 
 "we shall have some big wigs to dinner to-day; I 
 am going to invite the Minards, so take care about 
 dinner; I am writing to invite Monsieur and Madame 
 Phellion ; it's a little late in the day, but we needn't 
 stand on ceremony with them. As for the Minards 
 we must throw a little dust in their eyes, for 1 need 
 their help." 
 
 "Four Minards, three Phellions, four Collevilles 
 and ourselves; that makes thirteen " 
 
 "La Peyrade, fourteen, and it may be well to 
 invite Dutocq; he may be able to help us, too; I'll 
 go up there." 
 
 "What are you up to now?" cried his sister; 
 "fifteen at dinner; there's forty francs at least 
 thrown into the gutter!" 
 
 "Don't fret about it, little one, and above all 
 things make yourself agreeable to our young friend 
 La Peyrade. There's a friend indeed you shall 
 (141)
 
 142 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 have proof of it! If you love me, look after him 
 like the apple of your eye." 
 
 With that he left Brigitte completely dumfounded. 
 
 "Oh! yes, I'll wait for proofs!" she said to her- 
 self. "I'm not to be caught with fine words! He's 
 a pleasant fellow enough, but before I take him to 
 my heart I must study him a little more closely." 
 
 Having invited Dutocq, Thuillier arrayed himself 
 in his most splendid garb, and sallied forth to the 
 Minard mansion on Rue des Macons-Sorbonne, to 
 fascinate the coarse Zelie, and gloss over the tardi- 
 ness of the invitation. 
 
 Minard had purchased one of the large, sumptuous 
 edifices built by the old religious orders in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Sorbonne, and as he ascended a flight 
 of massive stone steps with a wrought-iron railing 
 which proved to what an extent the arts of the 
 second order flourished under Louis XIII., Thuillier's 
 heart was filled with envy of the mayor's abode as 
 well as of his official position. 
 
 The vast structure, with a court-yard in front and 
 a garden behind, was distinguished by the refine- 
 ment and nobility of style characteristic of the reign 
 of Louis XIII., so curiously interposed between the 
 wretched taste of the expiring Renaissance and the 
 grandeur of Louis XIV. at the dawn of his career. 
 This transition is marked by many still-existing 
 monuments. The massive scrolls upon the facades, 
 as at the Sorbonne, and upon the pillars straightened 
 in accordance with the canons of Greek art, begin 
 to appear in the architecture of this period.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 143 
 
 A former grocer, a lucky swindler, replaced the 
 reverend manager of an institution called in former 
 times the Economat, a dependency of the general 
 agency of the old French clergy, founded by the far- 
 sighted genius of Richelieu. Thuillier's name was 
 enough to open the doors of the salon, where, arrayed 
 in red velvet and gold, amid a profusion of magnifi- 
 cent ornaments, sat a poor woman who weighed very 
 heavily upon the hearts of princes and princesses at 
 the popular balls at the Chateau. 
 
 "Isn't that enough to justify La Caricature?" said 
 a would-be maid of honor one day, with a smile to a 
 duchess, who was unable to repress her merriment 
 at the sight of Zelie, loaded with diamonds, red 
 as a poppy squeezed into a gaudy dress, and rolling 
 about like one of the casks of wine in her old shop. 
 
 "Will you forgive me, dear madame," said Thuil- 
 lier, assuming, after numerous contortions, attitude 
 number two of his repertory of 1807, "for leaving 
 this invitation on my desk, thinking it had been 
 sent? It is for to-day; perhaps I am too late?" 
 
 Zelie looked at her husband's face as he came 
 forward to greet Thuillier before she replied: 
 
 "We were to go and look at an estate in the coun- 
 try, and dine at some restaurant haphazard, but we 
 will give up our plan the more willingly as I con- 
 sider it infernally vulgar to go out of Paris on Sun- 
 day." 
 
 "We'll have a little gymnastics on the piano for 
 the young people, if there are many of us, as I sup- 
 pose there will be! I have said a word to Phellion;
 
 144 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 his wife is intimate with Madame Pron, the suc- 
 cessor successeur ' ' 
 
 "Successoress successerice ," interposed Ma- 
 dame Minard. 
 
 "Why, no, it would be successeresse," replied 
 Thuillier, "as we say the mairesse the succes- 
 seresse of Mademoiselle Lagrave; she is a Barniol, 
 you know." 
 
 "Must I dress?" said Madame Minard. 
 
 "Oh! yes, indeed!" cried Thuillier; "if you 
 didn't I should get a jolly scolding from my sister. 
 No, it's a family party! Under the Empire, 
 Madame, people got to know one another at balls. 
 In those great days a fine dancer was esteemed as 
 highly as a good soldier. To-day, we're going too 
 much into the positive " 
 
 "Let's not talk politics," said the mayor, with a 
 smile. "The king is a great and a clever man, 
 and I live in constant admiration of my day and of 
 the institutions we have set up for ourselves. Then, 
 too, the king is very well aware what he's doing by 
 developing our manufactures; he's engaging in a 
 hand-to-hand struggle with England, and we are 
 doing her more harm during this fruitful peace than 
 by all the wars of the Empire " 
 
 "What a deputy Minard would make!" cried Zelie, 
 naively; "he's practicing speaking at home, and 
 you'll help us to get him elected, won't you, Thuil- 
 iiei ?" 
 
 "Let's not talk politics," retorted Thuillier; 
 "come at five o'clock?"
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 145 
 
 "Will that little Vinet be there?" asked Minard; 
 "he came on Celeste's account, of course." 
 
 "He may as well put on mourning for her," replied 
 Thuillier; "Brigitte won't hear his name men- 
 tioned." 
 
 Zelie and Minard exchanged a smile of satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 "To think that we must associate with such low 
 creatures for our son's sake!" cried Zelie, when 
 Thuillier was on the staircase, whither the mayor 
 escorted him. 
 
 "Aha! so you want to be deputy!" said Thuillier 
 to himself as he went down stairs. "Nothing will 
 satisfy these grocers! Great God! what would 
 Napoleon say to see power in the hands of such fel- 
 lows ! At all events, I am a legislator ! What a 
 rival! What will La Peyrade say? " 
 
 The ambitious deputy-chief went on to invite 
 the whole Laudigeois family for the evening, and 
 thence to Colleville's, to make sure that Celeste 
 would be becomingly dressed. He found Flavie in a 
 very pensive mood ; she hesitated about coming, but 
 Thuillier put an end to her indecision. 
 
 "My old but still young friend," said he, putting 
 his arm about her waist, for she was alone in her 
 room, "I do not propose to have any secrets from 
 you. There's some talk about something that 
 would be a big thing for me. I can't say any more, 
 but I can ask you to be particularly agreeable to a 
 certain young man. " 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 10
 
 146 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Young La Peyrade." 
 
 "Why so, Charles?" 
 
 "Because he has my future in his hands; he's a 
 man of genius, too. Oh ! I know what I'm talking 
 about. He has this sort of thing!" said Thuillier 5 
 going through the motion of a dentist pulling a back 
 tooth. "We must make sure of him, Flavie! but 
 above all things we mustn't let him see anything, 
 nor let him suspect the secret of his power. With 
 him I shall be giving for what I am to get." 
 
 "Tell me, am I to flirt with him a little?" 
 
 "Not too much, my angel," Thuillier replied with 
 a conceited air. 
 
 And he took his leave without noticing the sort of 
 stupefaction which seemed to have seized upon 
 Flavie. 
 
 "That young man is a power," said she to her- 
 self. "We shall see." 
 
 That was why she wore feathers in her hair and 
 her pretty pink and gray dress, giving a glimpse of 
 her white shoulders through her black mantle, and 
 why she was careful to keep Celeste in a short, 
 high-necked silk dress with broad tucker, and to 
 have her hair dressed in flat braids and parted in 
 the centre.
 
 At half-past four Theodose was at his post; he 
 had assumed his silly, almost servile air and his 
 softest voice, and went first of all into the garden 
 with Thuillier. 
 
 "My friend, I have no doubt of your triumph, but 
 I feel that I must once more urge you to say abso- 
 lutely nothing. If you are questioned upon any 
 subject whatever, especially concerning Celeste, 
 reply evasively, so as to leave the questioner in 
 doubt; you must have learned how to do so in the 
 department" 
 
 "Agreed!" replied Thuillier. "But are you cer- 
 tain?" 
 
 "You'll see the dessert I have prepared for you. 
 Above all things, be modest Here are the Minards; 
 let me set a bait for them. Bring them out here 
 and then clear out" 
 
 After the customary greetings La Peyrade took 
 pains to keep close to the mayor, and at the first 
 opportunity led him aside. 
 
 "Monsieur le Maire," said he, "it can't be that 
 a man of your consequence, politically speaking, 
 comes here to be bored without some object; I have 
 no purpose to pass judgment on your motives, for 
 I haven't the slightest right to do so, and the part I 
 play here is one of non-interference with earthly 
 powers; but I beg you to forgive my presumption, 
 (147)
 
 148 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 and to deign to listen to a word of advice that I 
 make bold to give you. If I do you a favor to-day, 
 you are in a position to do me two to-morrow; and 
 so, if it happens that what I have to say helps you 
 at all, I am listening to the promptings of self- 
 interest when I say it Our friend Thuillier is in 
 despair because he is nobody, and he has taken it 
 into his head to become somebody, a personage of 
 consequence in his arrondissement " 
 
 "Oho!" exclaimed Minard. 
 
 "Oh! he doesn't aim high; he would like to be 
 chosen a member of the Municipal Council. I know 
 that Phellion, realizing the power such a service 
 would give him, proposes to bring our poor friend 
 forward as a candidate. Very good ; you may pos- 
 sibly find it essential to the success of your plans to 
 get the start of him in this. Thuillier's election 
 cannot be otherwise than favorable to you 1 mean 
 agreeable; and he'll hold up his end in the Council ; 
 there are smaller men than he there. Moreover, if 
 he is indebted to you for such a lift, he will cer- 
 tainly look at things through your eyes ; he will con- 
 sider you one of the principal lights of the city." 
 
 "My dear fellow, I am greatly obliged to you," 
 said Minard; "you have rendered me a service for 
 which I can never be grateful enough and which 
 proves " 
 
 "That I do not like those Phellions," interposed 
 La Peyrade, availing himself of a momentary hesi- 
 tation on the part of the mayor, who was afraid 
 of saying something in which the advocate might
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 149 
 
 detect a flavor of contempt ; "I hate people who make 
 such a parade of their honesty, and coin money 
 with noble sentiments." 
 
 "You know them well," said Minard; "they're 
 sycophants! That fellow for ten years past has 
 been making a fool of himself over this bit of red 
 ribbon," added the mayor, pointing to his button- 
 hole. 
 
 "Be careful!" said the advocate, "his son is in 
 love with Celeste, and he holds the citadel." 
 
 "True, but my son has twelve thousand a year of 
 his own." 
 
 "Upon my word!" exclaimed the advocate with 
 a bound; "why, Mademoiselle Brigitte told me the 
 other day that she was determined that Celeste's 
 husband should have at least as much as that But 
 before six months are gone you'll find thatThuillier 
 owns real estate worth forty thousand a year." 
 
 "Deuce take me ! I suspected as much !" rejoined 
 the mayor. "Well, he shall be a member of the 
 Municipal Council." 
 
 "Whatever happens, don't mention my name to 
 him," said the poor man's lawyer, turning away to 
 greet Madame Phellion. "Well, my dear lady, did 
 you succeed?" 
 
 "I waited until four o'clock, but the excellent 
 man wouldn't let me finish ; he is too busy to accept 
 such a position, and Monsieur Phellion has read the 
 letter in which Doctor Bianchon thanks him for his 
 kind intentions and says that, so far as he is 
 concerned, his candidate is Monsieur Thuillier. He
 
 150 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 is exerting his influence in his favor and begs my 
 husband to do the same." 
 
 "What did your admirable spouse say to that?" 
 
 " 'I did my duty,' he said; 'I haven't betrayed my 
 conscience, and now 1 am all for Thuillier.' " 
 
 "Well, everything's all right then," said La Pey- 
 rade. "Just forget my visit and take all the credit 
 of the idea to yourself." 
 
 With that he walked toward Madame Colleville, 
 assuming a most respectful bearing as he approached 
 her. 
 
 "Madame," said he, "be good enough to bring 
 good Papa Colleville here a moment; there's a 
 surprise in store for Thuillier, and he must be in the 
 secret." 
 
 While La Peyrade was exerting his artistic talent 
 upon Colleville and indulging in divers very clever 
 jests as he explained the proposed candidacy to him 
 and told him that he ought to support it as a family 
 affair if for no other reason, Flavie was listening, 
 stupefied and with tingling ears, to the following 
 conversation in the salon : 
 
 "I'd like to know what Messieurs Colleville 
 and La Peyrade are talking about to make them 
 laugh so much," said Madame Thuillier stupidly, 
 looking through the window. 
 
 "They're talking nonsense, as all men do among 
 themselves," replied Mademoiselle Thuillier, who 
 not infrequently attacked the other sex with the 
 natural instinct of old maids. 
 
 '''He is incapable of it," said Phellion, gravely,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS I$I 
 
 "for Monsieur de la Peyrade is one of the most 
 talented young men I ever met Every one knows 
 how much I think of Felix: well, I place him on the 
 same level, and 1 would even be glad to know that 
 my son had a little of Monsieur Theodose's exem- 
 plary piety!" 
 
 "He is, in truth, a man of merit, and he'll make 
 his mark," observed Minard. "So far as my vote- 
 it would be unseemly to say my patronage is con- 
 cerned, it's at his service" 
 
 "He pays more for lamp-oil than for bread,'* 
 said Dutocq; "I know that" 
 
 "His mother, if he's lucky enough to have one, 
 must be very proud of him," said Madame Phellion, 
 sententiously. 
 
 "He's a downright treasure to us," said Thuil- 
 lier, "and if you knew how modest he is ! he doesn't 
 make the best of himself." 
 
 "The one thing I can answer for," chimed in 
 Dutocq, "is that no young man ever maintained a 
 nobler attitude in poverty, and he triumphed over 
 it; but he has suffered, any one can see that." 
 
 "Poor fellow!" cried Zelie; "oh! such things 
 make me ill!" 
 
 "You can safely trust your secrets or your for- 
 tune to him," said Thuillier, "and in these days 
 that's the highest praise one can give a man." 
 "Colleville makes him laugh," cried Dutocq. 
 At that moment Colleville and La Peyrade were 
 returning from the end of the garden, the best 
 friends imaginable.
 
 I$2 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 'Messieurs!" said Brigitte, "the soup and the 
 king must not be kept waiting; give your hands to 
 the ladies!" 
 
 Five minutes after uttering this jest, a reminis- 
 cence of her life in the porter's lodge, Brigitte had 
 the satisfaction of seeing her table surrounded by the 
 leading characters of this drama, all of whom, by 
 the way, both great and small, except the repulsive 
 Cerizet, her salon was to contain that evening. 
 It may be that the old bag-maker's portrait would be 
 incomplete if we should omit a description of one of 
 her best dinners. Moreover, the features of the 
 bourgeois cook of 1840 are among the details most 
 essential to the history of manners, and observing 
 housekeepers may glean some information there- 
 from. A woman does not spend twenty years mak- 
 ing bags without looking for a way to fill one now 
 and then. Now there was this peculiarity about 
 Brigitte, she united the economy which is the 
 foundation of fortune with a thorough understanding 
 of what expenses were necessary. Her comparative 
 prodigality, when her brother's needs or Celeste's 
 were to be taken into consideration, was the very 
 antipodes of avarice. Indeed she often complained 
 because she was not a miser. At her last dinner- 
 party she had told how, after struggling with herself 
 for ten minutes and suffering martyrdom, she had 
 finally given ten francs to a poor working-girl of the 
 quarter who had, as she knew, fasted for two days. 
 
 "Nature," said she naively, "was stronger than 
 common sense."
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 153 
 
 The soup was almost colorless; for even on an 
 occasion of this sort the cook was enjoined to make 
 a large quantity of soup; and as the beef was to 
 furnish food for the family on the two following 
 days, the less strength it furnished to the soup the 
 more nourishing power it retained. The beef, 
 cooked but little, was always taken away when 
 Brigitte remarked, as her brother plunged the knife 
 into it: 
 
 "I think it's rather tough; anyway let it go, 
 Thuillier, no one will eat it, and we have something 
 else." 
 
 The soup was, on this occasion, flanked by four 
 dishes perched upon old worn silver chafing-dishes. 
 At this dinner, called the dinner of the candidacy, 
 the first course consisted of two ducks with olives 
 opposite a large meat-pie with quenelles, and an eel 
 a la tartare opposite a fricandeau of veal with 
 chicory. The second course had for a centre-piece 
 a lordly goose stuffed with chestnuts, on one side 
 of which was a lettuce salad garnished with rounds 
 of beetroot, on the other side jars of cream, and at 
 the ends turnips au sucre facing a timbale of maca- 
 roni. This typical dinner of the concierge who 
 caters for weddings and birthday parties cost twenty 
 francs at most, and the remains kept the whole 
 household two days. But Brigitte would say: 
 
 "Bless me! when one entertains, the money flies! 
 it's frightful !" 
 
 The table was lighted by two horrible four- 
 branched candelabra of silvered copper, in which
 
 154 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 were burning the economical candles known by the 
 name of the Aurora. The linen was of dazzling 
 whiteness; the old-fashioned silver-plate was part 
 of the paternal inheritance, purchased during the 
 Revolution by Pere Thuillier, and used by him in 
 the restaurant kept by him under another name in 
 his lodge; these restaurants were abolished in 1816 
 in all the departments. Thus the good cheer was 
 in harmony with the dining-room, with the house 
 itself, and with the Thuilliers, who were not likely 
 to rise above this level. The Minards, the Colle- 
 villes, and La Peyrade exchanged glances which 
 denoted that the same sarcastic thought was in all 
 their minds. They alone knew what luxury really 
 was, and the Minards scarcely concealed their motive 
 in accepting an invitation to such a repast La 
 Peyrade, seated beside Flavie, whispered in her 
 ear: 
 
 "Confess that they are sadly in need of being 
 taught how to live, and that you and Colleville are 
 feeding on what is known as mad cow,* an old 
 acquaintance of mine! But those Minards what 
 ghastly cupidity ! Your daughter would be forever 
 lost to you ; these parvenus have all the vices of the 
 great nobles of the old days without their refinement 
 Their son, who has twelve thousand a year, can find 
 women enough in the Potasse family without their 
 dragging the rake of their speculation through this 
 
 * To feed on mad cow (manger de la vache enragee) is an idiomatic expression 
 meaning to be reduced to the point of eating the meat of a cow that had gone 
 mad, that is to say, to be reduced to extreme destitution.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 155 
 
 house. What fun it is to play on such fellows as 
 one plays on a tuba or a clarionet!" 
 
 Flavie listened with a smile on her face, and did 
 not take her foot away when Theodose rested his 
 lightly upon it. 
 
 "That's just to tell you what's going on," said 
 he; "we'll communicate by the pedal; you must 
 know me by heart since this morning, and I'm not 
 the man to indulge in such trifling ." 
 
 Flavie was not mistaken as to Theodose's supe- 
 riority ; his keen, off-hand manner dazzled her, and 
 the clever prestidigitator had offered battle in such 
 a way as to put her, so to speak, between yes and 
 no; she must either accept or reject him abso- 
 lutely; and, as his whole conduct was carefully 
 planned beforehand, he watched with a mild eye, 
 but with mental shrewdness, the results of his fas- 
 cination. 
 
 While they were removing the dishes after the 
 second course, Minard, fearing that Phellion might 
 anticipate him, addressed Thuillier with a solemn 
 face. 
 
 "My dear Thuillier," said he, "my reason for 
 accepting your invitation to dinner was that there 
 is an important communication to be made to you, 
 a communication so honorable to you it should be 
 made in the presence of all your guests." 
 
 Thuillier turned pale. 
 
 "You have obtained the Cross for me ? " he cried, 
 receiving a glance from Theodose, and desirous to 
 show him that he did not lack finesse.
 
 156 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "You will have it some day," the mayor replied; 
 "but I refer to something better than that. The 
 Cross is a mere favor due to a minister's good-will, 
 while in this case it's a matter of an election in 
 which the assent of all your fellow-citizens is con- 
 cerned. In a word, a sufficient number of the elec- 
 tors of your arrondissement are looking to you, and 
 desire to honor you with their confidence by entrust- 
 ing to you the representation of this arrondissement 
 in the Municipal Council of Paris, which is, as every- 
 one knows, the General Council of the Seine " 
 
 "Bravo!" shouted Dutocq. 
 
 Phellion rose. 
 
 "Monsieur le Maire has anticipated me," he 
 said, in a voice trembling with emotion, "but it is 
 so flattering to our friend to be solicited by all good 
 citizens at one and the same time and to hear the 
 voice of the public speaking from all parts of the 
 capital, that I cannot complain of having to take the 
 second place, and besides, it is for those in high 
 office to take the initiative! " here he bowed 
 respectfully to Minard "Yes, Mosieur Thuillier, 
 several electors think of bestowing their votes upon 
 you, in that part of the district where I have set up 
 my humble household gods, and you have this 
 special advantage, that your name was suggested to 
 them by an illustrious man," Sensation. "by a 
 man, in whose person we are glad to honor one of 
 the most estimable inhabitants of the arrondisse- 
 ment, who was twenty years its father 1 refer to 
 the late Monsieur Popinot, in his lifetime councillor
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 157 
 
 at the royal court and our mouthpiece in the Munic- 
 ipal Council. But his nephew, Doctor Bianchon, 
 one of those men who reflect glory upon us, has 
 declined, on account of his engrossing occupations, 
 the responsibility which might have been thrust 
 upon him ; while thanking us for our homage, he 
 suggests mark what I say he suggests Monsieur 
 le Maire's candidate as a proper person to be voted 
 for, as being, in his opinion, the best fitted, by reason 
 of his long experience in the office he so lately 
 quitted, to perform the duties of a municipal magis- 
 trate!" 
 
 Phellion resumed his seat amid murmurs of ap- 
 probation. 
 
 "Thuillier, you can count on your old friend," 
 said Colleville. 
 
 At that moment the attention of all the guests 
 was attracted to the affecting spectacle presented by 
 old Brigitte and Madame Thuillier. The tears were 
 slowly following one another down Brigitte's cheeks, 
 which were as white as if she were on the point of 
 fainting, tears of profound joy they were, while 
 Madame Thuillier sat with fixed eyes, as though 
 thunderstruck. Suddenly the old maid darted into 
 the kitchen, crying to Josephine: 
 
 "Come to the cellar with me, my girl ! we must 
 have some of the wine from behind the wood- 
 pile!" 
 
 "My friends," said Thuillier, with deep emotion, 
 "this is the happiest day of my life, happier even 
 than the day of my election will be, if 1 can make up
 
 158 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 my mind to submit myself to the suffrages of my 
 fellow-citizens (Hear! hear!), for I feel that I am 
 pretty well worn out by thirty years of public ser- 
 vice, and you will agree that an honorable man 
 should consult his strength and his capabilities 
 before assuming the duties of a municipal magis- 
 trate," 
 
 "I expected no less from you, MSsieur Thuillier!" 
 cried Phellion. "I beg pardon! this is the first 
 time in my life that I ever interrupted anybody, 
 and a former superior, too; but there are circum- 
 stances " 
 
 "Accept! accept!" cried Zelie; "God bless my 
 soul ! we need men like you to govern us." 
 
 "Make up your mind, my chief!" said Dutocq; 
 "long live the future municipal councillor! But we 
 haven't anything to drink " 
 
 "Well, it's settled that you are our candidate?" 
 said Minard. 
 
 "You expect a good deal of me," replied Thuil- 
 lier. 
 
 "Nonsense!" cried Colleville; "a man who's 
 slaved thirty years in the Treasury Department 
 will be a treasure for the city!" 
 
 "You're much too modest!" said Minard the 
 younger; "your capacity is well known to us; it 
 has become proverbial in the department " 
 
 "It will be your own fault! " cried Thuillier. 
 
 "The king will be well pleased with our selection, 
 I can promise you that," said Minard, puffing out his 
 chest
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 159 
 
 "Messieurs, " said La Peyrade, "will you permit a 
 newcomer in the Faubourg Saint- Jacques to make 
 one observation not altogether unimportant?" 
 
 The universal appreciation of the young advo- 
 cate's abilities caused his remarks to be awaited in 
 absolute silence. 
 
 "The influence of his Honor, the mayor of the 
 neighboring arrondissement, which is very great in 
 our own, where he is so pleasantly remembered; 
 the influence of Monsieur Phellion, the oracle I 
 will tell the truth," he added, as Phellion raised his 
 hand, "the oracle of his battalion ; the no less potent 
 influence which Monsieur Colleville owes to his out- 
 spokenness and his urbanity; the equally efficacious 
 influence of our friend, the clerk to the justice of the 
 peace, and the slight efforts I am able to make in my 
 limited sphere of activity, are pledges of success; 
 but they are not success! In order to obtain a swift 
 and complete triumph, we ought all to agree to 
 maintain the strictest secrecy as to the manifesta- 
 tion that has taken place here. We should arouse, 
 without knowing it or intending to do it, envy and 
 the lesser passions which would eventually throw 
 obstacles in our way. The political force of the 
 new social organization, its very foundations and 
 the guaranty of its existence lie in a certain divi- 
 sion of power with the middle-class, the real living 
 force of modern society, the abode of morality, right 
 feeling and intelligent toil; but we can not blind 
 our eyes to the fact that the extension of the prin- 
 ciple of election to almost all offices has caused
 
 160 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 the incitements of ambition and the rage to be 
 something, excuse the expression, to penetrate 
 to social depths which should be beyond their 
 reach. Some people see in this state of things 
 an advantage, others an evil; it isn't for me to 
 decide the question in presence of those to whose 
 superior wisdom I gladly bow; I am content if I 
 have so stated it as to make clear the risk our 
 friend's standard may have to run. For instance, 
 our late honorable representative in the Municipal 
 Council has been dead hardly a week, and already 
 the arrondissement is aroused by the ambition of 
 second-rate men. They are determined to put 
 themselves on exhibition at any price. The order 
 for a new election may not take effect for a month. 
 Think how many intrigues will be set on foot in 
 that time ! Let us not, I beg, set up our friend 
 Thuillier for a target for his rivals! let us not 
 abandon him to public discussion, that modern 
 harpy which is simply the speaking-trumpet of 
 slander and envy, the pretext grasped by one's 
 enemies to debase everything great, defame every- 
 thing worthy of respect, dishonor everything sacred ; 
 let us do as a third part of the Chamber does 
 hold our tongues and vote." 
 
 "He speaks well," said Phellion to his neighbor 
 Dutocq. 
 
 "And what a lot he knows! " 
 
 Minard's son had turned green and yellow with 
 envy. 
 
 "That's well said and true!" cried Minard.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 161 
 
 "Unanimously agreed," said Colleville; "Mes- 
 sieurs, we are honorable men, and it's enough for 
 us to understand one another on this matter." 
 
 "He who wishes to accomplish a thing must 
 adopt the proper means," said Phellion, emphat- 
 ically. 
 
 ii
 
 At this juncture Mademoiselle Thuillier appeared 
 followed by her two servants ; she had the key of 
 the cellar thrust in her girdle, and three bottles of 
 champagne, three of old Hermitage, and one of 
 Malaga were placed on the table; but she carried in 
 her own hands with something like veneration a 
 small bottle, of slender, delicate shape, which she 
 placed in front of herself. Amid the hilarity caused 
 by this abundance of good things which the old 
 maid was induced by her gratitude to produce, and 
 which, in her excitement, she distributed with a 
 profusion which amounted to condemnation of her 
 stingy fortnightly hospitality, numerous varieties 
 of dessert arrived: heaps of raisins, figs, almonds 
 and filberts, pyramids of oranges, sweetmeats and 
 preserved fruits produced from the inmost depths of 
 her cupboards, and which would never have graced 
 her cloth except for this happy occurrence. 
 
 "Celeste, Josephine will bring you a bottle of eau- 
 de-vie my father had in 1802; make an orange salad 
 with it!" she cried to her sister-in-law. "Monsieur 
 Phellion, pour the champagne; that bottle is for you 
 three. Monsieur Dutocq, take this! Monsieur 
 Colleville, you know how to make corks fly! " 
 
 The two maids distributed champagne glasses, 
 claret glasses and liqueur glasses, for Josephine had 
 produced three bottles of claret
 
 164 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Bottled in the year of the comet!" cried Thuil- 
 lier. "Messieurs, you have driven my sister out of 
 her head." 
 
 "And this evening we'll have punch and cake," 
 said she. "1 have sent to the druggist's for some 
 tea. Mon Dieu ! if I'd known there was to be an 
 election," she cried, looking at her sister-in-law, 
 "I'd have had the turkey" 
 
 This remark was greeted with general laughter. 
 
 "Oh! but we had a goose," said Minard junior 
 laughing. 
 
 "The world's coming to an end!" cried Madame 
 Thuillier, as iced chestnuts and meringues were 
 served. 
 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier's face was on fire; she 
 was superb; never did sister love take so furious 
 an expression. 
 
 "It's very touching to anyone who knows her!" 
 cried Madame Colleville. 
 
 The glasses were full, the guests were looking at 
 one another as if awaiting a toast, and La Peyrade 
 said: 
 
 "Messieurs, let us drink to something sub- 
 lime!" 
 
 Everybody was amazed. 
 
 "To Mademoiselle Brigitte! " 
 
 They rose and jingled their glasses, and cried: 
 "Vive Mademoiselle Thuillier!" in the enthusiasm 
 produced by real emotion. 
 
 "Messieurs," said Phellion, reading from a paper 
 on which some lines were written in pencil, "to
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 165 
 
 hard work and its glorious results, in the person of 
 our former comrade, now one of the mayors of 
 Paris, Monsieur Minard, and his wife!" 
 
 After five minutes of general conversation, Thuil- 
 lier rose. 
 
 "Messieurs," said he, "to the king and royal 
 family ! I say no more, for the toast says all that is 
 necessary." 
 
 "To my brother's election!" said Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier. 
 
 "I am going to make you laugh," La Peyrade 
 whispered to Flavie; and he rose to his feet. 
 
 "To the ladies! to the fascinating creatures to 
 whom we owe so much pleasure, to say nothing of 
 our mothers, our sisters and our wives! " 
 
 This toast aroused general mirth, and Colleville, 
 who was beginning to be very merry, shouted: 
 
 "Villain! you took the words out of my mouth!" 
 
 The mayor rose and profound silence reigned. 
 
 "Messieurs, to our institutions! to them we owe 
 the strength and grandeur of dynastic France!" 
 
 The bottles disappeared amid a chorus of admira- 
 tion of the amazing good-tellowship and subtlety of 
 the liquids. 
 
 "Mamma, may I propose a toast?" said Celeste 
 Colleville, timidly. 
 
 The poor girl had noticed the bewildered face of her 
 godmother, utterly unnoticed, though she was the 
 mistress of the house, and almost reminding one of 
 a dog uncertain what master to obey, as she looked 
 from her terrible sister-in-law's face to Thuillier's,
 
 166 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 watching their expressions and entirely oblivious 
 of herself; but the joy depicted upon those docile 
 features, accustomed as they were to express noth- 
 ing, to repress all evidence of thought or feeling, 
 produced the effect of a pale sun shining through 
 a winter mist: it cast a dim, regretful light upon 
 that flabby, faded flesh. The gauze cap trimmed 
 with sombre flowers, the disheveled hair, the dun- 
 colored dress whose only ornament was a heavy gold 
 chain everything about her, even to her face, 
 increased the affection felt for her by young 
 Celeste, who, alone in all the world, really knew 
 the worth of this tongue-tied creature, who knew 
 everything that was going on about her, to whom 
 everything brought suffering, and who sought con- 
 solation in her and in God. 
 
 "Let the dear child propose her little toast," said 
 La Peyrade to Madame Colleville. 
 
 "Go on, my dear," cried Colleville; "there's 
 some Hermitage left, and it's hoary with age!" 
 
 "To my dear godmother!" said the girl, lowering 
 her glass respectfully before Madame Thuillier, and 
 handing it to her. 
 
 The poor terrified woman looked first at her sister, 
 then at her husband, through a veil of tears ; but her 
 position in the family was so well known, and there 
 was something so touching in the homage paid by in- 
 nocence to weakness, that the emotion was general ; 
 all the men rose and bowed to Madame Thuillier. 
 
 "Ah! Celeste, I wish I had a kingdom to lay at 
 your feet!" said Felix Phellion.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 167 
 
 Honest Phellion wiped away a tear, and even 
 Dutocq was moved. 
 
 "What a dear, lovely child!" said Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier, leaving her seat, to go and kiss her sister- 
 in-law. 
 
 "My turn!" said Colleville, assuming an ath- 
 letic pose. "Listen to me! To friendship! 
 Empty your glasses! fill your glasses! Good! To 
 the fine arts! the flower of social life. Empty your 
 glasses! fill your glasses! To a feast like this on 
 the day after election!" 
 
 "What's that little bottle?" Dutocq inquired 
 of Mademoiselle Thuillier. 
 
 "It's one of my three bottles of Madame Am- 
 phoux's liqueur," she replied; "the second is for 
 Celeste's wedding-day, and the third for the day 
 her first child is baptized." 
 
 "My sister has almost lost her head," said Thuil- 
 lier to Colleville. 
 
 The dinner was brought to an end by a toast pro- 
 posed by Thuillier, to whom it was suggested by 
 Theodose when the Malaga shone in the liqueur 
 glasses like so many rubies. 
 
 "Colleville, Messieurs, drank to friendship; 1 drink 
 to my friends, in this generous wine." 
 
 A burst of warm applause greeted this bit of sen- 
 timent; but, as Dutocq whispered to Theodose: 
 
 "It's a crime to furnish such Malaga as this to 
 gullets of the lowest order. " 
 
 "Ah! if we could only imitate this, my dear 
 friend," cried the mayoress, making her glass ring
 
 168 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 by the way she sucked the Spanish wine, "what a 
 fortune we would make! " 
 
 Zelie had reached her highest point of incandes- 
 cence; she was a terrifying object. 
 
 "But our fortune is made!" rejoined Minard. 
 
 "Do you agree with me, sister," said Brigitte to 
 Madame Thuillier, "that we'd better have our coffee 
 in the salon? " 
 
 Madame Thuillier, obeying the implied command, 
 or pretending to act as hostess, rose to her feet. 
 
 "Ah! you're a wonderful magician," said Flavie 
 Colleville, as she took La Peyrade's arm to go from 
 the dining-room to the salon. 
 
 "Yet I have no wish to try my magic art on any- 
 one but you," he replied; "and I am simply taking 
 my revenge, believe me; you are more bewitching 
 to-day than ever!" 
 
 "Fancy Thuillier imagining himself a politician !" 
 said she, seeking to avoid the combat. 
 
 "But, my dear, one-half of the absurdities that 
 happen in society are the result of such conspira- 
 cies as this; the man isn't so much to be blamed in 
 this sort of thing as people think. In how many 
 families do you not see the husband and children 
 and friends of the family persuading a foolish 
 mother that she is bright and intellectual, a mother 
 of fifty that she is young and lovely? Such things 
 are inexpressibly comical to those who are not inter- 
 ested. One man owes his sickening, fatuous con- 
 ceit to the idolatry of a mistress, and his persistence 
 in making bad rhymes to people who are paid to
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 169 
 
 make him think he is a great man. Every family 
 has its great man, and the result is general darkness, 
 as in the Chamber, with all the greatest lights of 
 France. Meanwhile, the people who know some- 
 thing are laughing in their sleeves, that's all. You 
 have all the wit and beauty of this little bourgeois 
 circle; that's why 1 dedicated my heart to you; but 
 my second thought was to take you away from it 
 all, for I love you sincerely; and more as a friend 
 than a lover, although a good deal of love has found 
 its way in," he added, pressing her to his heart 
 under cover of the window-recess to which he had 
 led her. 
 
 "Madame Phellion will officiate at the piano," 
 said Colleville; "everything must dance to-day: 
 the bottles, Brigitte's twenty-sou pieces, and our 
 little girls! I'll go and get my clarionet." 
 
 He handed his empty coffee cup to his wife, smil- 
 ing to see her on such harmonious terms with Theo- 
 dose. 
 
 "Pray, what have you done to my husband?" 
 inquired Flavie of her charmer. 
 
 "Must we tell each other all our secrets?" 
 
 "Ah! you don't love me, then?" she retorted, 
 glancing at him with the sly coquetry cf a woman 
 whose mind is almost made up. 
 
 "Oh! as you tell me all yours," he rejoined, 
 with a renewed outburst of the characteristic Pro- 
 vencal gaiety, which is so charming and apparently 
 so spontaneous, "1 would not have a single thought 
 concealed from you in my heart "
 
 IJO THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 He led her back to the same recess, and said with 
 a smile: 
 
 "Colleville, poor man, has recognized in me the 
 true artist oppressed by all these bourgeois, holding 
 his peace before them because he sees that he is 
 misunderstood, misjudged, persecuted; but he has 
 felt the heat of the sacred flame that consumes me. 
 Yes," he continued, with an air of deep conviction, 
 "I am an artist in speech after the style of Berryer ; 
 I could make jurors weep by weeping myself, for I 
 am as nervous as a woman. And then, that man, 
 who has a holy horror of this whole bourgeois con- 
 nection, joked with me about it; we began with 
 laughter, and when we came to be serious he found 
 that I am as strong as he. I told him of the plan we 
 had devised to make something of Thuillier, and I 
 showed him how much benefit it might be to him to 
 have a political automaton to do his bidding: 'If 
 it were only to become Monsieur de Colleville,' I 
 said, 'and to place your wife where 1 would like to 
 see her; suppose you could get a good berth as 
 receiver-general, where you would have to be a 
 deputy? for, in order to take the position you 
 deserve, it will be enough for you to go and live a 
 year or two in some little town in the Upper or 
 Lower Alps, where everybody will be attached to 
 you, and your wife will fascinate everybody. And 
 all this,' 1 added, 'you cannot miss, especially if you 
 give your dear Celeste to a man able to exert influ- 
 ence in the Chamber. ' Common-sense, translated 
 into pleasantry, has the virtue of making a much
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 171 
 
 deeper impression than it could do unaided upon 
 certain temperaments: so Colleville and I are the 
 best friends in the world. Didn't he say to me at 
 the table: 'Villain, you took the words out of my 
 mouth !' Before the evening is over we shall be call- 
 ing each other thee and thou. Then a nice little 
 party, one of the kind at which artists accustomed 
 to home diet always compromise themselves, and to 
 which I'll find a way to induce him to go, will 
 make us as warm friends as he and Thuillier; more 
 so, perhaps, for I have told him that Thuillier was 
 bursting with jealousy of his rosette. There, my 
 dear love, you see what a heartfelt sentiment gives a 
 man the courage to do! Wasn't it necessary that 
 Colleville should adopt me, so that I might call upon 
 you with his consent? But then you could make 
 me lick a leper's sores, or swallow live frogs, or 
 seduce Brigitte; yes, I would run that great pole 
 through my heart, if it were necessary to use it as 
 a crutch to drag myself to your feet!" 
 
 "This morning," said she, "you frightened me " 
 
 "And this evening you are reassured? Have no 
 fear," he said; "no harm will ever come to you from 
 me." 
 
 "Ah! you are a most extraordinary man, I con- 
 fess" 
 
 "Why, no; my most trivial, as well as my 
 greatest efforts are but the reflection of the fire you 
 have kindled, and I desire to be your son-in-law 
 so that we need never part My wife, great 
 heavens! can never be anything more than a
 
 172 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 machine to produce children; but the sublime being 
 in my eyes, my divinity, will be yourself," he 
 whispered. 
 
 "You are Satan himself!" she exclaimed, with a 
 shudder. 
 
 "No, I am something of a poet, like all the people 
 of my province. Come! be my Josephine! 1 will 
 come to you to-morrow at two ; I have a most eager 
 desire to see where you sleep, the furniture you use, 
 the color of the hangings, the arrangement of the 
 things amid which your life is passed to admire the 
 pearl in its shell!" 
 
 With that he shrewdly walked away, preferring 
 not to listen to her reply. 
 
 Flavie, in all whose experience love had never 
 spoken the impassioned language of romance, 
 remained where he left her, bewildered but happy, 
 with palpitating heart, saying to herself that it was 
 very difficult not to yield to such an influence. 
 
 For the first time Theodose had arrayed himself in 
 new breeches, gray silk stockings and pumps, a black 
 silk waistcoat and black satin cravat, in whose folds 
 glistened a pretty, tasteful pin. He wore a new 
 coat of the latest cut, and yellow gloves that stood 
 out against his white wristbands; he was the only 
 man with refined manners and dignified bearing 
 among the guests who slowly filled the salon. 
 
 Madame Pron, nee Barniol, arrived with two of 
 her boarding-school pupils, each about seventeen 
 years old, who had been entrusted to her motherly 
 care by families living at Bourbon and Martinique.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 173 
 
 Monsieur Pron, professor of rhetoric in a college 
 managed by priests, was a man of the Phellion 
 type; but instead of being always in evidence, 
 establishing his claim to consideration by pompous 
 phrases and argumentation, and constantly posing 
 as an exemplar, he was dull and sententious. Mon- 
 sieur and Madame Pron, the bright particular stars 
 of the Phellion salon, received on Mondays; they 
 were very closely allied to the Phellions through the 
 Barniols. Although a dignified professor, little Pron 
 was addicted to dancing. The great celebrity of 
 the Lagrave institution, to which Monsieur and 
 Madame Phellion had been attached for twenty 
 years, had attained even greater proportions under 
 the management of Mademoiselle Barniol, the most 
 proficient and oldest in service of the sub-mistresses. 
 Monsieur Pron was a very influential personage in 
 that portion of the quarter bounded by the Boule- 
 vard du Mont-Parnasse, the Luxembourg, and Rue 
 de Sevres. So it was that Phellion, as soon as he 
 saw his friend, took him by the arm without for- 
 mality, and led him aside to take him into the secret 
 of the Thuillier conspiracy, and after talking 
 together ten minutes they both went in search of 
 Thuillier; thereupon the window-recess opposite 
 that where Flavie still stood absorbed in her reflec- 
 tions was treated without doubt to a trio worthy, 
 in its way, to be ranked beside that of the three 
 Swiss in Wilhelm Tell. 
 
 "Do you see the upright and virtuous Phellion 
 intriguing?" Theodose said to Flavie. "Give the
 
 174 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 upright man an excuse, and he'll wallow about very 
 comfortably in the filthiest kind of corruption; at 
 all events he's hooked little Pron, and Pron's cover- 
 ing his footsteps, solely in the interest of Felix 
 Phellion, who has your little Celeste in hand at this 
 moment. Pray go and separate them; they've been 
 together ten minutes and young Minard is prowling 
 about them like an angry bull-dog." 
 
 Felix, still under the spell of the keen emotion 
 caused by Celeste's kind act wherein her heart 
 spoke so plainly, when everybody else except Ma- 
 dame Thuillier had quite forgotten it, had recourse to 
 one of those ingenious subterfuges, which are the 
 honest knavery of true love ; but he was not accus- 
 tomed to the business, for mathematics furnished all 
 his distraction. He went up to Madame Thuillier, 
 imagining shrewdly that Madame Thuillier would 
 attract Celeste. This deep scheme, as it would 
 have been had it been due to aught but a profound 
 passion, was the more successful, in that Minard, the 
 advocate, who saw nothing in Celeste but a good- 
 sized marriage-portion, had no such happy inspira- 
 tion, and was drinking his coffee and talking politics 
 with Laudigeois, Monsieur Barniol and Dutocq, by 
 command of his father, who was thinking of the new 
 legislature to be chosen in 1842. 
 
 " Who would not be fond of Celeste? " said Felix 
 to Madame Thuillier. 
 
 " Poor dear child, she is the only person on earth 
 who cares for me," replied the outcast, keeping back 
 her tears.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 175 
 
 "Eh? Madame, there are two of us who love 
 you," rejoined this innocent Mathieu Laensberg, 
 with a smile. 
 
 "What are you saying?" asked Celeste of her 
 godmother, as she approached them. 
 
 "My child," said the pious creature, drawing her 
 goddaughter to her side and kissing her on the brow, 
 "he says that you and he make two who love me." 
 
 "Don't be offended at my presumption, Mademoi- 
 selle," said the future candidate for the Academy of 
 Sciences, in a low voice, "but let me do what 1 can 
 to show my sincerity ! That's the way I was made, 
 you see ; injustice shocks me deeply. Ah ! how great 
 was the wisdom of the Savior of mankind in prom- 
 ising future blessedness to the kind of heart, to the 
 lambs that are sacrificed ! A man who had simply 
 loved you before, Celeste, would adore you after 
 your sublime outburst at the table! But innocence 
 alone can console the martyr ! You are a tender- 
 hearted girl, and you will be one of the women who 
 are at once the glory and the happiness of a family. 
 A lucky man will he be who wins your heart!" 
 
 "Dear godmother, through whose eyes does Mon- 
 sieur Felix see me, pray?" 
 
 "He appreciates you, my little angel, and I will 
 pray God for you " 
 
 "If you only knew how happy I am that my father 
 is able to be of service to Monsieur Thuillier, and 
 how glad 1 would be to be useful to your brother! " 
 
 "In short," said Celeste, "you love the whole 
 family?"
 
 176 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Well, yes," replied Felix. 
 
 True love always wraps itself in the mysteries 
 of modesty, even in its manner of expression, for 
 it proves itself by itself; it feels not the need, as 
 false love does, of kindling a conflagration, and a 
 disinterested observer, who could have insinuated 
 himself into the Thuillier salon, might have found 
 material for a book in a comparison of the two 
 scenes, the extensive and complicated preparation 
 of Theodose, and Felix's simplicity; one repre- 
 sented society, the other nature; the true and the 
 false were brought face to face. 
 
 In truth, as she watched her daughter, blissfully 
 pouring forth her heart through every pore of her 
 face, and fair as a young girl plucking the first 
 flowers of an indirect declaration, Flavie felt a 
 thrill of jealousy at her heart; she went to 
 Celeste and whispered in her ear : 
 
 "You aren't behaving very well, my child ; every- 
 body is looking at you, and you are compromising 
 yourself by talking so long with Monsieur Felix, 
 without first finding out whether it's agreeable to 
 us." 
 
 "But, mamma, my godmother is here." 
 
 "Oh! I beg your pardon! my dear friend," said 
 Madame Colleville, "I didn't see you " 
 
 "You do as everybody else does," retorted the St 
 John Chrysostom. 
 
 This rebuke annoyed Madame Colleville, who re- 
 ceived it like a barbed arrow ; she glanced haughtily 
 at Felix, and said to Celeste: "Come and sit here,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 177 
 
 my child," as she seated herself beside Madame 
 Thuillier, and pointed to a chair beside her own. 
 
 "I will kill myself with work," said Felix there- 
 upon to Madame Thuillier, "or I'll become a mem- 
 ber of the Academy ot Sciences, and I will make 
 some great discovery and win her hand by making 
 my name glorious." 
 
 "Ah!" said the poor woman to herself, "I ought 
 to have married some kind, quiet student like him ! 
 I should have developed slowly under cover of a 
 retired life. Thou didst will otherwise, O my God! 
 but I pray Thee to join the hands of these two 
 children and shelter them ! they are made for each 
 other." 
 
 She sat pensively by, listening to the infernal 
 hubbub her sister was making, for the latter was a 
 veritable draugnt-horse, and was now at work 
 assisting her two servants to clear the table and 
 remove everything from the dining-room, to give 
 the dancers a clear field; and she was shouting like 
 the captain of a frigate on his quarter-deck, prepar- 
 ing to take his ship into action: "Have you got any 
 more currant syrup? Go and buy some orgeat!" 
 or: "There aren't many glasses and only a little 
 weak wine and water ; go and get the six bottles of 
 *uin ordinaire 1 have just brought up. Look out that 
 Coffmet, the porter, doesn't take any! Caroline, 
 my girl, stay by the sideboard. You shall have a 
 slice of ham in case they're still dancing at one 
 o'clock. No chattering! have an eye on every- 
 thing. Pass me the broom ; put oil in the lamps
 
 178 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 and look out for accidents. Arrange what's left of 
 the dessert so as to make the sideboard look nice. 
 See if my sister will come and help us! I don't 
 know what the slow-coach is thinking about My 
 God ! how slow she is ! bah ! take away the chairs, 
 and they'll have more room." 
 
 The salon was filled with Barniols, Collevilles, 
 Laudigeois, Phellions, and all those who were drawn 
 thither by the report that there was to be a dance 
 at the Thuilliers', which report was circulated in the 
 Luxembourg gardens between two and four o'clock, 
 when the bourgeoisie of the quarter was taking its 
 promenade. 
 
 "Are you ready, Brigitte?" asked Colleville, 
 rushing into the dining-room ; "it's nine o'clock, and 
 they're packed as close as herrings in your salon. 
 Cardot, his wife and son and daughter and son-in- 
 law that is to be, have just come, with the young 
 deputy king's attorney, Vinet, and the Faubourg 
 Saint-Antoine is marching in at this moment Shall 
 we move the piano in here from the salon, eh?" 
 
 He gave the signal on his clarionet, his spirited 
 flourish thereon being welcomed with a shout in the 
 salon. 
 
 It is a thankless task to describe a ball of this 
 sort The dresses, the faces, the conversation, 
 everything was in harmony with a single detail 
 which should be sufficient for the least vivid imagi- 
 nation ; for in every such function the nature and 
 color of any single fact serve to stamp the whole 
 affair. Ordinary glasses filled with pure wine,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 179 
 
 wine and water and eau sucree, were passed 
 about on shabby, discolored plates. The trays on 
 which were the glasses of orgeat and syrup appeared 
 only at long intervals. There were five card-tables 
 and twenty-five players! eighteen couples danc- 
 ing! At one in the morning, Madame Thuillier, 
 Mademoiselle Brigitte, Madame Phellion, to say 
 nothing of Phellion pere, were enticed into the wild 
 evolutions of a contra-dance vulgarly called La 
 Boulangtre, in which Dutocq figured with his head 
 veiled after the manner of the Kabyles! The ser- 
 vants, who were waiting for their masters with 
 those of the household, formed an audience, and as 
 the interminable dance lasted a full hour, they 
 insisted upon carrying Brigitte in triumph when she 
 announced supper; but she divined the necessity of 
 concealing a dozen bottles of old Burgundy. They 
 all enjoyed themselves so thoroughly, staid matrons 
 as well as young girls, that Thuillier made bold to 
 say: 
 
 "Well, we hardly expected this morning that we 
 should have such a celebration as this to-day! " 
 
 "Nothing is ever more pleasant than these par- 
 ties gotten up on the spur of the moment," said 
 Cardot, the notary. "Don't talk to me about the 
 stiff, formal affairs that everyone goes to well- 
 groomed!" 
 
 This idea is a sort of axiom in bourgeois circles. 
 
 "Nonsense!" said Madame Minard; "for my own 
 part, I'm very fond of papa, and I'm very fond of 
 mamma, but "
 
 180 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "We don't say that for you, Madame, beneath 
 whose roof pleasure has chosen to make her home," 
 said Dutocq. 
 
 When La Boulanglre was at an end, Theodose 
 dragged Dutocq away from the sideboard, where he 
 was taking a slice of tongue. 
 
 "Let's go home," said he, "for we must be at 
 Cerizet's early in the morning to find out all there 
 is to know about the affair we all have in mind; it's 
 not so easy as Cerizet thinks." 
 
 "Why not?" queried Dutocq, eating his piece of 
 tongue in the salon. 
 
 "Why, don't you know the laws? " 
 
 "I know enough of them to be quite well aware of 
 the risk of the thing. If the notary wants the 
 house, and we whistle it away from him, there's a 
 way for him to take it from us again, and he may 
 put himself in the position of a registered creditor. 
 According to the law now in force concerning mort- 
 gages, when a house is sold at the request of a cred- 
 itor, if the price obtained at the sale isn't enough to 
 pay all the debts, the creditors have a right to bid 
 it in; and the notary, having been caught once, will 
 think better of it." 
 
 "Very good," said La Peyrade; "that seems to 
 me to deserve some attention." 
 
 "All right!" said the clerk; "we'll go and see 
 Cerizet." 
 
 These words: "We'll go and see Cerizet," were 
 overheard by the advocate Minard, who was close on 
 the heels of the two confederates ; but they meant
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS l8l 
 
 nothing to him. The two men were so far removed 
 from his path and his plans that he listened to them 
 without hearing. 
 
 "This has been one of the happiest days in our 
 whole life," said Brigitte, when she was at last 
 alone with her brother at half-past two in the morn- 
 ing, in the deserted salon; "what a glorious thing 
 it is to be thus selected by one's fellow-citizens!" 
 
 "Don't make any mistake, Brigitte; we owe all 
 this to one man, my child " 
 
 "Who is that?" 
 
 "Our friend La Peyrade. "
 
 Not until the second day after, Tuesday, did 
 Dutocq and Theodose call upon Cerizet, the clerk 
 having bethought himself that that worthy was 
 accustomed to take a vacation on Sunday and Mon- 
 day, availing himself of the scarcity of customers at 
 the justice's court on those two days, which were 
 devoted by the common people to debauchery. The 
 house toward which they bent their steps is one of 
 the salient features of the physiognomy of Faubourg 
 Saint- Jacques, and it is as important to be studied 
 here as Thuillier's or Phellion's. No one knows 
 true, no commission has yet been appointed to 
 investigate this phenomenon no one knows how or 
 why the various quarters are becoming degraded and 
 debased, morally as well as physically; how the 
 former abiding-places of the court and the Church, 
 the Luxembourg and the Latin Quarter, have 
 become what they are to-day, notwithstanding one 
 of the most beautiful palaces in the world, to say 
 nothing of the soaring dome of Sainte-Genevieve, 
 and that of Mansard at Val-de-Grace,and the beauties 
 of the Jardin des Plantes. One wonders why all 
 the refinements of life are vanishing; how it is 
 that the houses of the Vauquers, the Phel lions and 
 the Thuilliers, and the boarding-schools, are mul- 
 tiplying to such an extent on the sites of so many 
 noble edifices devoted to good works, and why 
 (183)
 
 1 84 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 squalor and vulgar industry and poverty have 
 pitched their tents upon a mountain, instead of pa- 
 rading themselves far away from the noble old city ? 
 No sooner was the angel dead who formerly hovered 
 over the quarter, with protecting wings outspread, 
 than petty usury hastened to the spot. A Cerizet 
 succeeded Councillor Popinot; and it is a curious 
 fact, and one well worth studying, that the effect 
 produced, socially speaking, was very slight Pop- 
 inot loaned without interest and expected to lose; 
 Cerizet lost nothing, and compelled the poor devils 
 to work hard and be more prudent The poor adored 
 Popinot, but they had no feeling of hatred for Cer- 
 izet Here we see at work the lowest wheels of 
 the Parisian financial machine. At the top are the 
 Maison Nucingen, the Kellers, the Du Tillets, the 
 Mongenods; a little lower, the Palmas, the Gigon- 
 nets, the Gobsecks; lower still, the Samanons, the 
 Chaboisseaus, the Barbets; and finally, below the 
 Mont-de-Piete, that king of usurers, who stretches 
 his nets at street corners in order to take every poor 
 man by the throat, and let not one escape, below 
 the Mont-de-Piete come the Cerizets! 
 
 The frogged overcoat should have given you a 
 glimpse already of the hovel that sheltered this 
 stock-company swindler, and fugitive from the sixth 
 chamber. 
 
 It was a house eaten up with saltpetre; the walls 
 were reeking with dampness and were covered, 
 enameled as it were, with great blotches of mildew. 
 It was located at the corner of Rue des Postes
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 185 
 
 and Rue des Poules, and the ground-floor was occu- 
 pied in part by a wine-shop of the lowest class, 
 painted a brillaint red on the outside, and adorned 
 with red calico curtains; the counter was covered 
 with lead and protected with formidable iron bars. 
 
 Above the door leading into a filthy hall swung 
 a dirty lantern, whereon were the words: "Lodging 
 for the night" The walls were dotted with iron 
 supports which bore witness to the instability of 
 their construction. The wine merchant was the 
 owner of the property and lived on the entresol. 
 Widow Poiret nee Michonneau kept furnished 
 rooms to let on the first, second and third floors, 
 consisting mostly of small bedrooms let to workmen 
 and the poorer class of students. 
 
 Cerizet occupied one room on the ground-floor and 
 one on the entresol, reached by an inner staircase ; 
 the entresol was lighted from a horrible paved court- 
 yard from which a most disgusting stench arose. 
 Cerizet paid Widow Poiret forty francs a month for 
 breakfast and dinner ; he thus acquired the land- 
 lady's good graces by becoming her boarder, and 
 the wine merchant's by helping him to an enormous 
 traffic in wines and liquors, most of which was 
 carried on before sunrise. Monsieur Cadenet's 
 counting-room was open earlier than Cerizet's, who 
 began operations on Tuesday about three o'clock in 
 the morning in summer, and about five in winter. It 
 was regulated by the hour for opening the great mar- 
 ket whither many of his customers of both sexes were 
 on their way. Monsieur Cadenet, in consideration
 
 186 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 of this custom, which he owed entirely to Cer- 
 izet, charged him only eighty francs a year for the 
 two rooms, and he had signed a lease for twelve 
 years which Cerizet alone had the right to put an 
 end to, without penalty, at three months' notice. 
 Every day Cadenet in person brought his invalua- 
 ble tenant an excellent bottle of wine for his dinner, 
 and when Cerizet's pockets were empty he simply 
 had to say to his friend: "Cadenet, lend me a hun- 
 dred crowns, will you?" But he invariably paid 
 them back. 
 
 Cadenet had, so he said, proof positive that the 
 Widow Poiret had entrusted two thousand francs to 
 Cerizet, which fact would explain his upward pro- 
 gress from the day he took up his abode in the 
 quarter with his last thousand-franc note and 
 Dutocq's patronage. Cadenet, with a thirst for 
 gain which was increased by success, had suggested 
 at the beginning of the year loaning twenty thous- 
 and francs to his friend Cerizet, but Cerizet 
 declined the loan, on the pretext that he was then 
 taking risks of a nature to make trouble between 
 him and any partner he might have. 
 
 "I couldn't pay you more than six per cent any- 
 way," said he, "and you can make more than that 
 in your business. We'll go in together later on a 
 matter of some consequence; but a good opportunity 
 is worth at least fifty thousand francs ; when you 
 have that sum by you, why we can talk." 
 
 Cerizet had gone to Theodose about the matter of 
 the house because he found that Madame Poiret,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 187 
 
 Cadenet and himself could not raise a hundred thous- 
 and francs between them. 
 
 The money-lender was perfectly safe in this den, 
 where he would have found plenty to lend him a 
 hand in case of need. On some mornings there 
 were from sixty to eighty people, men and women, 
 on the wine merchant's premises, either sitting on 
 the stairs in the hall, or in the office, where the 
 suspicious Cerizet would not admit more than six 
 persons at one time. The first comers were served 
 first, and as everyone was admitted by number, the 
 wine merchant or his clerk numbered the men on 
 their hats and the women on their backs. 
 
 Those at the head of the line sold their numbers 
 to those at the foot, as cab-drivers do on the cab 
 stands. On certain days, when business was press- 
 ing at the market, a place at the head would bring 
 a glass of eau-de-vie and a sou. The exit of one 
 number was the signal for the following number to 
 enter Cerizet's office, and if any dispute arose 
 Cadenet would at once interpose : 
 
 "If you get the guard and the police here, will you 
 be any better off? He will shut up shop." 
 
 He was Cerizet's name. If a wretched, desperate 
 woman, without bread and with children dying of 
 hunger at home, came in to borrow ten or twenty 
 sous, she would ask the wine-shop keeper or his 
 head clerk: 
 
 "Is /** in?" 
 
 Cadenet, a short, thickset man, dressed in blue, 
 with black stuff sleeves pulled over his coat sleeves,
 
 1 88 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 a bartender's apron, and a white cap, seemed an 
 angel in disguise to these poor mothers when he 
 would say: 
 
 "He told me you were an honest woman and that 
 I might give you forty sous. You know what you'll 
 have to do." And, incredible fact, he was blessed, 
 as Popinot was blessed before him. 
 
 But they cursed Cerizet on Sunday morning when 
 they settled up with him; they cursed him even 
 more on Saturday when they were working away, 
 in order to be able to return the sum loaned, with 
 interest! But he was Providence, he was God him- 
 self, from Tuesday to Friday of every week. 
 
 The room in which he carried on his business, 
 formerly the kitchen of the first-floor suite, was 
 unfurnished; the whitewashed beams of the floor 
 above were blackened with smoke. The walls, 
 along which settees were placed, and the sandstone 
 tiles of which the floor was made, alternately stored 
 up and exuded moisture. The fireplace was replaced 
 by an iron stove in which Cerizet burned pit coal 
 in cold weather ; but the bell-shaped funnel was still 
 in place. Beneath the funnel was a platform some 
 six feet square and about six inches from the floor, 
 and on it a table worth twenty sous and a wooden 
 arm-chair with a round cushion covered with green 
 leather. Behind his seat Cerizet had had the wall 
 sheathed with what had once been the floor-boards 
 of a boat. Then he was flanked by a little white 
 wood screen to shelter him from the draught from 
 the door and window ; but the screen it had two
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 189 
 
 leaves was so arranged as to give him full benefit of 
 the heat from the stove. The window was fur- 
 nished with heavy inside shutters, lined with sheet- 
 iron and kept in place by an iron bar. The door 
 likewise enjoined respect by a lining of the same 
 material. 
 
 At the back of the room, in a corner, was a spiral 
 staircase, once a part of some demolished store and 
 purchased by Cadenet on Rue Chapon. The top 
 of the staircase was fitted into the floor of the entre- 
 sol, and to make all communication with the first 
 floor impossible Cerizet had demanded that the door 
 on the landing of the entresol should be walled up. 
 Thus his domicile was a regular fortress. Above 
 was his bedroom, which had for furniture a carpet 
 for which he paid twenty francs, an iron bed, a 
 bureau, two chairs, one arm-chair, and an iron 
 chest, after the style of a secretary, made by an 
 excellent mechanic, and purchased by him at second- 
 hand. He shaved before the glass over the mantel- 
 piece; he possessed two pairs of cotton sheets, six 
 fine calico shirts and other things in keeping. 
 Once or twice Cadenet had seen Cerizet dressed 
 like any dandy; in the lower drawer of his bureau 
 lay hid a complete disguise in which he could go to 
 the Opera, aye, or into society, without fear of 
 being recognized, for, had it not been for his voice, 
 Cadenet would have said to him, "What can I do 
 for you?" 
 
 The one thing about this man that pleased his 
 customers more than anything else, was his jovial
 
 190 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 humor, his ready repartees; he spoke their lan- 
 guage. Cadenet, his two clerks and Cerizet, living 
 in the very midst of the most squalid poverty, were 
 always as calm and unconcerned as an undertaker's 
 mute with the heirs-at-law, or an old sergeant of the 
 Guard among the dead on the battlefield; they no 
 more groaned as they listened to the shrieks of hun- 
 ger and despair, than surgeons groan as they listen 
 to their patients in the hospital; and they would 
 say, just as the surgeons and their assistants do, 
 some such meaningless words as: " Have patience, 
 have a litle courage! What's the use of getting 
 desperate? Suppose you kill yourself, what then? 
 A man can get used to anything; have a little 
 common sense," etc. 
 
 Although Cerizet took the precaution to conceal 
 the money necessary for his morning's operations 
 in the double back of the chair in which he sat, 
 to take out but a hundred francs at once, which he 
 put in his breeches pocket, and to draw on his 
 reserve only between two batches of clients, keeping 
 his door closed and not reopening it until the fresh 
 supply was safely in his pocket, he had nothing 
 to fear from the different varieties of despair which 
 flocked from all sides to this rendezvous of cash. It 
 is beyond question that there are many ways of 
 being honest or virtuous, and the Monographic de la 
 Vertu^ has no other foundation than that social 
 axiom. Man is false to his conscience, he openly 
 
 * A work after the style of the Ptysiologie du Manage, at which the author 
 has been at work since 1833. when it was announced. (Author's note.)
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 191 
 
 violates every canon of delicacy, he fails in his duty 
 in nice points of honor, and yet he may not fall into 
 general disesteem ; he casts honor to the winds alto- 
 gether, and yet, even if he lands in the police court, 
 he may not be liable to be brought before the assizes ; 
 and, after the verdict of the jury, which makes him 
 a felon, he may be honored at the galleys by carry- 
 ing thither with him that species of honesty which 
 is known among thieves, and which consists in tell- 
 ing no tales, in dividing plunder fairly, and in incur- 
 ring the same risks. This last mentioned variety 
 of honesty, which may be the result of calculation, a 
 necessity, if you please, and the practice of which 
 affords a man some opportunities of gaining renown 
 and of profit, too, was never deviated from in Ceri- 
 zet's transactions with his clients. Cerizet never 
 made mistakes, nor did his indigent debtors: 
 neither denied the other anything, on the one side 
 in the way of capital, on the other, interest It had 
 happened several times that Cerizet, who was him- 
 self of the people, had corrected from one week to 
 another an unintentional error, to the profit of some 
 wretched creature who had not discovered it. So it 
 was that he was looked upon as a dog, if you will, 
 but an honest dog; his word, in that city of sorrow, 
 was sacred. A woman died, who had just borrowed 
 thirty francs. 
 
 "There go my profits!" he said to his assembled 
 clients, "and yet you call me names. However, I 
 sha'n't disturb her little brats! and Cadenet has 
 taken them some bread and sour wine."
 
 IQ2 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Since that cleverly devised stroke it was com- 
 monly said of him in two faubourgs: 
 
 "He's not a bad sort!" 
 
 This business of loaning at extortionate rates for 
 very short periods, as carried on by Cerizet, was 
 not, all things considered, so painful a wound in 
 the side of society as the Mont-de-Piete. Cerizet 
 loaned ten francs on Tuesday on condition that 
 twelve francs should be paid him on Sunday morn- 
 ing. Thus he doubled his capital in five weeks, but 
 there was much work to be done for it. His gener- 
 osity consisted in sometimes recovering only eleven 
 francs and a half; they still owed him the balance. 
 When he loaned fifty francs for sixty to some petty 
 fruit vender, or a hundred for a hundred and twenty 
 to a dealer in peat, he took some chances. 
 
 As they walked through Rue des Postes to the 
 corner of Rue des Poules, Theodose and Dutocq 
 noticed a crowd of men and women, and as the light 
 shed by the lamps outside the wine-shop fell upon 
 them, the two friends were almost terrified by the 
 aspect of that confused mass of faces of every pos- 
 sible description, red, grimy, seamed, wrinkled, dis- 
 torted, bearded, beardless, bloated with wine, made 
 gaunt with absinthe, some threatening, others re- 
 signed, some full of banter, others subdued by 
 suffering, some bright, others stupid and all rising 
 above a wilderness of rags and tatters that no painter 
 has ever surpassed, even in the wildest flights of 
 his fancy. 
 
 "1 shall be recognized!" said Theodose, drawing
 
 CERIZETS OFFICE 
 
 As they walked through Rue des Posies to the 
 corner of Rue des Poules, Theodose and Dutocq 
 noticed a crowd of men and women, and as the 
 light shed by the lamps outside the wine-shop fell 
 upon them, the two friends were almost terrified by 
 the aspect of that confused mass of faces of every 
 possible description, * * * and all rising above a 
 wilderness of rags and tatters that no painter has 
 ever surpassed, even in the wildest flights of his fancy.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 193 
 
 Dutocq away; "we did a foolish thing to come here 
 while he's right in the midst of his morning's busi- 
 ness. " 
 
 "Especially as we didn't remember that Claparon 
 sleeps in this den of his, the interior of which we 
 know nothing about. Look here; there are some 
 reasons why it may be inconvenient for you, but 
 there are none so far as I am concerned ; I may well 
 have something to say to my copyist, and I'll go 
 and ask him to come to dinner, for there's a session 
 of the court to-day and we shall have no time for 
 lunch ; we will make an appointment to meet at the 
 Chaumilre in one of the booths in the garden " 
 
 "That's a wretched place; somebody may be 
 listening and we not know it, " replied the advocate ; 
 "I prefer the Petit Rocker de Cancale, where people 
 have rooms to themselves and talk low." 
 
 "Suppose you are seen with Cerizet?" 
 
 "All right, let's go to the Cheval Rouge, Quai de 
 la Tournelle." 
 
 "That's much better; at seven o'clock we sha'n't 
 find any one there." 
 
 Dutocq thereupon advanced alone into the centre 
 of the congress of beggars, and heard his name re- 
 peated here and there in the crowd, for it would 
 have been strange if he had not fallen in with some 
 police court frequenter there, just as Theodose was 
 likely to encounter some of his clients. 
 
 In these neighborhoods the justice of the peace is 
 the court of last resort, and all disputes are settled 
 before him, especially since the enactment of the law 
 13
 
 194 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 giving him exclusive and final jurisdiction in all 
 cases where the amount at issue does not exceed one 
 hundred and forty francs. Therefore they made 
 way for the clerk, who was no less dreaded than the 
 magistrate himself. He saw women sitting on the 
 stairs, like flowers arranged on steps, a ghastly 
 spectacle, for among them there were young women 
 and pale-faced, sickly women ; the variety of colors, 
 the mixture of neckerchiefs and caps and dresses and 
 aprons made the comparison more apt than compari- 
 sons are wont to be, perhaps. Dutocq was almost 
 suffocated when he opened the door of the room 
 through which sixty persons had already passed, 
 leaving their odors behind them. 
 
 "Your number? what number?" was the cry. 
 
 "Hold your tongues!" cried a hoarse voice in the 
 street; "it's the justice's quill-driver." 
 
 Profound silence at once reigned throughout the 
 crowd. 
 
 Dutocq found his copyist arrayed in a waistcoat 
 of yellow leather like the gloves worn by the gen- 
 darmerie, but beneath it Cerizet wore a vulgar 
 knitted woolen waistcoat. One can imagine the 
 effect produced by that ghastly face protruding from 
 such a sheath, and enveloped by a soiled handker- 
 chief which left his forehead and neck bare, and 
 imparted to his features an expression no less dis- 
 gusting than formidable, especially by the light of a 
 twelve to the pound candle. 
 
 "Things can't go on in this way, Papa Lanti- 
 meche," he was saying to an old man, apparently
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 195 
 
 seventy years of age, who stood before him with 
 his red woolen cap in his hand, showing his bald 
 head, and through the holes in his wretched smock a 
 breast covered with white hair; "tell me what it is 
 you propose to undertake ! A hundred francs aren't 
 to be let loose like a dog in a church, even on condi- 
 tion of paying back a hundred and twenty. " 
 
 The other five occupants of the room, two of whom 
 were women, both nurses, one knitting and the other 
 with a child at her breast, roared with laughter. 
 
 When he saw Dutocq, Cerizet rose respectfully 
 and walked quickly to meet him, adding as he did 
 so: 
 
 "You have time enough to reflect; for, d'ye know, 
 it troubles me to have an old journeyman locksmith 
 like you wanting a hundred francs." 
 
 "But it's for an invention! " cried the old man. 
 
 "An invention and a hundred francs! You don't 
 know the laws; you need two thousand francs," 
 said Dutocq; "you must have a patent and ca- 
 veats " 
 
 "True," said Cerizet, who always reckoned on 
 contingencies of that sort; "I'll tell you, Papa Lanti- 
 meche, come to-morrow morning at six and we'll 
 talk it over : people don't talk about their inventions 
 in a crowd." 
 
 Thereupon Cerizet turned to listen to Dutocq, 
 whose first words were : 
 
 "If it's a good thing, let's go halves! " 
 
 "Why do you get up so early to come and say 
 that?" demanded the suspicious Cerizet, indignant
 
 196 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 at the let's go halves. "You could have seen me at 
 the office." 
 
 He looked askance at Dutocq, who, although he 
 told him the truth, speaking of Claparon and of the 
 necessity of moving promptly in Theodose's affair, 
 seemed to shuffle and squirm. 
 
 "You might have seen me this morning at the 
 office," Cerizet repeated, as he accompanied Dutocq 
 to the door. 
 
 "There's a man," he said to himself as he 
 resumed his seat, "who acts as if he had blown out 
 his lantern so that I can't see what I'm about. Oh, 
 well, we'll just step out of our copyist's place. Ah! 
 there you are, little mother!" he cried; "so you're 
 having imaginary children. That's very amusing, 
 although it's a very familiar trick!" 
 
 It would be useless to describe the interview 
 between the three confederates, because the ar- 
 rangements they agreed upon were the basis of The- 
 odose's confidential communication to Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier; but it is essential to remark that the 
 ingenuity displayed by La Peyrade well nigh terri- 
 fied Cerizet and Dutocq. After that conference the 
 poor man's banker had in his mind, in germ, the idea 
 of slipping out of the game, as he found himself 
 associated with such skilful players. To win the 
 stake at any price, and snatch it away from cleverer 
 players, even though it be by cheating, is one im- 
 pulse of the type of vanity peculiar to devotees of 
 the green cloth. Whence the terrible blow La Pey- 
 rade was destined to receive.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 197 
 
 He knew his two associates thoroughly ; and for 
 that reason, nothing, not even the perpetual work- 
 ing of his intellectual powers, not even the constant 
 thought required by his ten-faced character 
 fatigued him so much as to play his part with them. 
 Dutocq was a consummate cheat, and Cerizet had 
 once been an actor ; they were artists in expression. 
 An inexpressive face, a la Talleyrand, would have 
 caused them to break with the Provencal, who found 
 that he was in their clutches; so that it was neces- 
 sary for him to assume an ease of manner, a confi- 
 dence, a disposition to play fair, which is certainly 
 the acme of art. To deceive the pit is a triumph 
 that may be won any day, but to deceive Mademoi- 
 selle Mars, Frederick Lemaitre, Potier, Talma, 
 Monrose, shows the consummate artist. 
 
 The result of this conference, then, was to cause 
 La Peyrade, who was quite as clever as Cerizet, to 
 feel a secret dread, which, during the last part of 
 this far-reaching game, heated his blood and excited 
 his heart at times to such a degree that he became 
 like the inveterate gambler following the roulette 
 ball with his eyes when he has staked his last sou. 
 At such times the faculties act with a clearsighted- 
 ness, the intelligence attains a reach for which 
 human science has no measure. 
 
 On the day following the conference La Peyrade 
 dined with the Thuilliers, and, on the transparent 
 pretext that he had to call upon Madame de Saint- 
 Foudrille, wife of the famous scientist, whose 
 interest he desired to secure, Thuillier carried off
 
 198 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 his wife and left Theodose with Brigitte. Neither 
 Thuillier nor his sister nor Theodose was the dupe 
 in the comedy that was being played; diplomacy, 
 the old beau of the Empire called it 
 
 "Young man, do not impose upon my sister's in- 
 nocence, but respect it," said Thuillier solemnly 
 before leaving the house. 
 
 "Mademoiselle," said Theodose, as he moved his 
 chair near the couch on which Brigitte sat knitting, 
 "have you thought of enlisting the business men of 
 the arrondissement in Thuillier's candidacy?" 
 
 "How, pray?" said she. 
 
 "Why, you have business relations with Barbet 
 and Metivier. " 
 
 "Of course! you're right! Bless my soul!" said 
 she after a pause; "you're no fool!" 
 
 "When one is fond of people one tries to be of 
 service to them!" he replied, shortly and distantly. 
 
 The seduction of Brigitte was the culminating 
 point in this long battle which had been in progress 
 two years, it might be compared to carrying the 
 great redoubt a la Moskowa, it was the climax of 
 the battle. But it was necessary that the old maid 
 should be possessed as the devil was supposed to 
 possess people in the Middle Ages, and in such a 
 way as to make it impossible that she should 
 ever awake. For three days La Peyrade had 
 been comparing his own powers with the task, 
 and had made the circuit of the works in order 
 to judge accurately the difficulties to be encoun- 
 tered! Flattery, that infallible expedient in skilful
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 199 
 
 hands, passed harmlessly over the head of a damsel 
 who had known for many years that she had no 
 pretensions to beauty. But to the determined man 
 no place is impregnable and the Lamarques will 
 always find a way to carry Caprea by storm. We 
 must, therefore, omit no detail of the memorable 
 scene that took place on that evening; everything 
 has its importance moments of silence, lowered 
 eyes, tones of the voice and glances. 
 
 "But you have already proved your affection for 
 us," rejoined Brigitte. 
 
 "Did your brother speak to you?" 
 
 "No, he simply said that you had something to 
 say to me." 
 
 "And so I have, Mademoiselle, for you are the 
 man of the family; but on reflection I have found 
 that 1 incur considerable risk in the matter, and a man 
 doesn't compromise himself thus for his neighbors. 
 There's a whole fortune at stake, thirty or forty 
 thousand francs a year, and not a particle of specu- 
 lation about it, real estate! The necessity of giv- 
 ing Thuillier a fortune to live on misled me first of 
 all. There's a sort of fascination about it, as I said 
 to him ; for, unless a man's a fool, he must ask him- 
 self: 'Why is he so anxious to put me ahead?' 
 And, as I said to him : in working for him I flattered 
 myself that I was working for myself. If he wants 
 to be a deputy two things are absolutely necessary : 
 to pay the tax and get some man of note to propose 
 his name. If I carry my friendship so far as to try 
 and help him compose a book on the public credit,
 
 200 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 or any other subject, no matter what I must think 
 about his fortune, too, and it would be absurd for 
 you to give him this house. " 
 
 "My brother? Why I'd put it in his name to- 
 morrow!" cried Brigitte; "you don't know me " 
 
 "I don't know you perfectly," said La Peyrade, 
 "but I know things of you that have made me regret 
 that I didn't tell you everything at the beginning, 
 the moment I devised the plan to which Thuillier 
 will owe his election. There will be those who 
 envy him the next day, and he'll certainly have a 
 hard task ; but we must cover them with confusion, 
 and deprive his rivals of every possible pretext!" 
 
 "But about this business you were speaking of," 
 said Brigitte, "what are the difficulties ?" 
 
 "Mademoiselle, the difficulties come from my con- 
 science, and I certainly shall not serve you in this 
 matter without consulting my confessor. As far as 
 the world is concerned, why it's perfectly legal, and 
 I, you will understand that I, an advocate whose 
 name is inscribed on the roll, and member of an 
 order governed by the strictest rules, am incapable 
 of suggesting a blameworthy project My excuse 
 will be in the first place that I do not make one sou 
 out of it." 
 
 Brigitte was on the gridiron, her cheeks were on 
 fire, she kept breaking her yarn and tying knots in 
 it, and did not know what attitude to take. 
 
 "Nowadays," said she, "you can't get forty 
 thousand francs a year out of real estate unless you 
 lay out a million and three quarters. "
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 2OI 
 
 "Oh! I'll undertake that you shall see the prop- 
 erty and estimate the probable income from it, and 
 I will see that Thuillier gets it for fifty thousand 
 francs." 
 
 "Well, if you should put such a thing as that in 
 our way," cried Brigitte, excited to the highest 
 pitch by the spur of her thoroughly aroused cupid- 
 ity, "why, my dear Monsieur Theodose " 
 
 She paused. 
 
 "Well, Mademoiselle?" 
 
 "You'll have done a good stroke of work for your- 
 self, perhaps " 
 
 "Ah! if Thuillier has told you my secret, I'll 
 leave the house." 
 
 Brigitte raised her head. 
 
 "Has he told you that I love Celeste?" 
 
 "No, on an honest woman's word!" cried Bri- 
 gitte; "but 1 was going to speak to you about her." 
 
 "To offer her to me! Oh! may God forgive us! 
 I prefer to owe her hand to herself, to her parents, 
 to her unbiased choice. No, I ask nothing from you 
 but your good will and your good word. Promise, 
 as Thuillier has done, as the reward of my services, 
 your friendship, your influence; tell me that you 
 will treat me as a son. And, in that case, I will 
 consult you. I will abide by your decision and say 
 nothing to my confessor. In these two years that I 
 have been watching the family into which I hoped 
 to introduce my name, and which I should be happy 
 to endow with my energetic nature for I shall suc- 
 ceed! I have noticed especially your old-fashioned
 
 202 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 probity, your upright, unerring judgment You are 
 a good business woman, and one likes to have such 
 qualities in one's neighbors. With a mother-in-law 
 of your strength of character my home life would be 
 freed from a mass of petty financial details which 
 bar one's progress in politics, as soon as one has to 
 give his attention to them. I really admired you on 
 Sunday night Ah! You were beautiful then! 
 And you moved everything yourself! In ten min- 
 utes the dining-room was cleared! And, without 
 leaving the house, you laid your hand on everything 
 that was needed for refreshments and for the sup- 
 per. 'That's a woman in ten thousand!' 1 said to 
 myself." 
 
 Brigitte's nostrils dilated as she breathed in the 
 young advocate's words ; and he cast a glance at her 
 out of the corner of his eyes to enjoy his triumph. 
 He had touched the sensitive chord. 
 
 "Ah!" said she, "I'm used to housekeeping; I 
 know all about that!" 
 
 "If I consult a clean, pure conscience?" mused 
 Theodose; "yes, that will satisfy my scruples." 
 
 He was standing, but he resumed his seat and 
 began : 
 
 "This is how the case stands, my dear aunt for 
 you will be my aunt in a way " 
 
 "Be still, you bad boy!" said Brigitte; "go on." 
 
 "I am going to tell you everything frankly, and 
 do you take notice that I compromise myself by so 
 doing, for these are professional secrets entrusted to 
 me as a lawyer. Imagine if you please that we are
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 203 
 
 committing together the crime of assailing the sanc- 
 tity of the lawyer's office! A notary in Paris went 
 into partnership with an architect, and they pur- 
 chased real estate and built upon it; at the present 
 moment values are falling rapidly they went astray 
 in their reckoning, but we won't bother about all 
 that. Among the houses put up by them during their 
 illegal association, for notaries are not permitted to 
 engage in building operations there is one which, 
 being unfinished, is depreciating so rapidly that it 
 can be bought for little more than a hundred thous- 
 and francs, although the land and the building have 
 already cost more than four hundred thousand. 
 There is nothing to be done to it except on the 
 inside, and as the necessary finishings are all ready 
 in the contractors' hands and they will sell them at 
 a bargain, the whole additional outlay won't be 
 more than fifty thousand francs; nothing is easier 
 than to estimate it Its location is such that the 
 house will bring in forty thousand a year, clear of 
 taxes. It is built of cut stone and the party-walls are 
 all of rough stone ; the front is covered with rich 
 carvings, more than twenty thousand francs were 
 spent on them ; the window-frames are of iron in 
 the new style, called Cremona." 
 
 "Well, what's the difficulty?" 
 
 "It's just this: the notary reserved this for him- 
 self out of the spoil he gave up, and he is one of the 
 creditors, in the name of some friend, who is look- 
 ing on while the property is sold by the assignee in 
 bankruptcy ; there has been no prosecution, for that
 
 204 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 would cost too much the whole thing is voluntary. 
 Now, this notary has applied to one of my clients 
 to lend him his name as a purchaser; my client is 
 a poor devil, and he said to me: 'There's fortune in 
 this, if we can get it away from the notary ' " 
 
 "Such things are done in business!" said Bri- 
 gitte, eagerly. 
 
 "If there were no obstacle but that," rejoined 
 Theodose, "I might say, as one of my friends said 
 to a pupil, who was complaining because it was so 
 hard to paint great pictures: 'My dear boy, if it 
 weren't so hard, our footmen would do it!' But, 
 Mademoiselle, if we should succeed in getting the 
 better of this horrid notary, who, upon my word, 
 deserves to be caught, for he has destroyed many 
 private fortunes, he's a very shrewd fellow, 
 although he is a notary, and it might be very hard 
 to catch him twice. When a person purchases real 
 estate, if they who have loaned money on it find 
 themselves in danger of losing something on account 
 of the insufficiency of the price, they have the right, 
 within a certain time, to outbid the purchaser, 
 that is to say, to offer a larger sum and keep the 
 property for themselves. If the first purchaser can- 
 not get the better of his antagonist within the time 
 allowed him to make a further bid, he must substi- 
 tute some new ruse for the former one. But is this 
 really a legal transaction? Ought one to enter into 
 it for the benefit of the family he wishes to enter? 
 That's the question I've been asking myself for 
 three days. "
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 2O$ 
 
 Brigitte, it must be confessed, hesitated, and 
 Theodose thereupon resorted to his last expedient 
 
 "Take the night for reflection," he said, "and 
 to-morrow we will talk further about it. " 
 
 "Listen, my boy," said Brigitte, looking at the 
 advocate with an expression that was almost amor- 
 ous, "first of all we must see the house. Where is 
 it?" 
 
 "Near the Madeleine! that will be the heart of 
 Paris ten years hence ! And, if you did but know it, 
 people have had their eyes on that region since 1819! 
 The fortune of Du Tillet, the banker, was obtained 
 there. The notorious failure of Roguin, the notary, 
 which threw Paris into such a panic, and dealt such 
 a blow at the esteem commonly entertained for the 
 notarial office, the failure that broke the noted per- 
 fumer Birotteau, had no other cause than this, that 
 they bought property there for speculative purposes 
 a little too soon." 
 
 "I remember that," said Brigitte. 
 
 "The house can certainly be finished by the end 
 of this year, and the rents begin to come in about 
 the middle of next year." 
 
 "Can we go there to-morrow?" 
 
 "My dear aunt, 1 am at your service." 
 
 "Stop that! don't call me that before anybody. 
 As to the matter in hand," she continued, "1 can't 
 form any opinion until I've seen the house." 
 
 "It has six floors, nine windows on the front, a 
 fine court-yard, four shops, and it's on a corner. 
 Oh! the notary knows what he's about, never
 
 206 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 fear! But let some political crisis come, and consols 
 and all other securities fall. If I were in your 
 place, I'd sell everything Madame Thuillier has and 
 all your holdings in the public funds, to buy this fine 
 property for Thuillier, and then make good the poor 
 pious creature's fortune out of future savings. Can 
 consols ever go higher than they are to-day? A 
 hundred and twenty-two! it's perfectly fabulous; 
 you must make haste." 
 
 Brigitte smacked her lips; she saw a way of keep- 
 ing her own capital intact and of enriching her 
 brother at Madame Thuillier's expense. 
 
 "My brother is quite right," said she to Theodose, 
 "you're a rare man, and you'll succeed." 
 
 "He will go ahead of me!" replied Theodose, with 
 a sincerity which touched the old maid's heart 
 
 "You shall be one of the family," said she. 
 
 "There will be obstacles in the way," said The- 
 odose, "Madame Thuillier's mind is a little awry 
 and she scarcely loves me." 
 
 "Ah! I'd like to see her interfere!" cried Brigitte. 
 "Let us put this business through if it can be done, 
 and do you leave your interests in my hands." 
 
 "Thuillier, member of the General Council, pro- 
 prietor of an estate let for forty thousand a year, 
 decorated with the Cross, author of a profound, 
 thoughtful political work, will surely be chosen 
 deputy at an early date. But, between ourselves, 
 my dear aunt, a man can't show such devotion as 
 this to anyone except his real father-in-law " 
 
 "You are right"
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 207 
 
 "Although I have no fortune, I shall have doubled 
 yours; and if this matter is carried through dis- 
 creetly, I shall look about for others." 
 
 "Until I have seen the house," said Mademoiselle 
 Thuillier, "I can decide upon nothing." 
 
 "Very well; we'll take a carriage to-morrow and 
 go there; I will have a permit in the morning to in- 
 spect the house." 
 
 "To-morrow about noon," Brigitte replied, giving 
 him her hand to cement the compact between them ; 
 but he deposited thereupon the most affectionate and 
 at the same time the most respectful kiss that 
 Brigitte had ever received. 
 
 "Adieu, my child!" said she, when he was at the 
 door. 
 
 She hastily summoned one of her servants, and 
 said to her when she appeared : 
 
 "Josephine, go at once to Madame Colleville's 
 and ask her to come here and talk with me." 
 
 Fifteen minutes later Flavie entered the salon, 
 where Brigitte was pacing back and forth in tre- 
 mendous excitement 
 
 "My dear," said she, "you can do me a very 
 great service in a matter that concerns our dear Ce- 
 leste. You know Tullia, the dancer at the Opera? 
 My brother used to din her praises into my ears, 
 when " 
 
 "Yes, my dear; but she isn't a dancer now, she is 
 Madame la Comtesse du Bruel. Isn't her husband 
 a peer of France " 
 
 "Is she still fond of you?"
 
 208 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "We never see each other now." 
 
 "Well, I know that Chaffaroux, the rich contrac- 
 tor, is her uncle," said the old maid. "He's an old 
 man and very rich. Do you go and see your former 
 friend, and get her to write a line to her uncle tell- 
 ing him that he would do her a very great favor if 
 he would consent to give a little friendly advice 
 upon a matter of business that you wish to consult 
 him upon, and then we'll go and see him at one 
 o'clock to-morrow. But tell her that she must make 
 him promise absolute secrecy. Go, my child! 
 Celeste, our dear girl, will be a millionaire, and she 
 shall have, from my hand, you understand, a hus- 
 band who will place her at the top of the tree." 
 
 "Do you want me to tell you the first letter of his 
 name?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Theodose de la Peyrade! You are quite right. 
 He's a man, who, with such a woman as you behind 
 him, may yet be a minister!" 
 
 "It was God who sent him to our house," cried 
 the old maid. 
 
 At that moment, Monsieur and Madame Thuillier 
 returned.
 
 Five days afterward, in the month of April, the 
 warrant summoning the electors to assemble on the 
 twentieth of that month for the selection of a mem- 
 ber of the Municipal Council, was inserted in the 
 Moniteur and posted throughout Paris. For several 
 weeks the so-called ministry of March i had been 
 in office. Brigitte was in a most charming humor, 
 for she had verified all Theodose's assertions. Old 
 Chaff aroux inspected the house from top to bottom 
 and declared it to be a masterpiece of the builder's 
 art. Poor Grindot, the architect who was interested 
 in the affairs of the notary and Claparon, thought 
 that he was working for the contractor; Madame du 
 Bruel's uncle imagined that his niece was personally 
 interested, and he said that he would finish the 
 house for thirty thousand francs. And so La Pey- 
 rade had been, for a week, Brigitte's god; she 
 proved to him by the most innocently pernicious 
 arguments that fortune must be seized and held 
 when she comes within reach. 
 
 "Well, if there is anything wrong about it," she 
 said to him one day in the garden, "you can ease 
 your mind in the confessional " 
 
 "Nonsense, my dear," cried Thuillier; "deuce 
 take it! a man owes something to his relations " 
 
 "I will make up my mind to do it," replied La 
 14 (209)
 
 210 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Peyrade, with emotion, "but only on certain condi- 
 tions. I do not propose to be taxed with cupidity 
 or avariciousness because 1 marry Celeste. If you 
 give me cause for remorse, at least let me remain 
 what I am in the eyes of the public. Give to 
 Celeste, my old friend Thuillier, nothing but a re- 
 versionary interest in the house I am going to put in 
 your way " 
 
 "That's fair." 
 
 "Don't rob yourself," said Theodose, "and my 
 dear little aunt must bear the same thing in mind in 
 reference to the contract. Invest the balance of the 
 floating capital in the funds in Madame Thuillier's 
 name, and let her do what she pleases. Then we 
 will all live together, and I will undertake to make 
 my own fortune as soon as my mind is at rest con- 
 cerning the future." 
 
 "That's what I like," cried Thuillier. "Spoken 
 like an honest man." 
 
 "Let me kiss you, my boy!" cried the old maid; 
 "but there must be a dot all the same, and we'll 
 give Celeste sixty thousand francs." 
 
 "For her dress," said La Peyrade. 
 
 "We are all three honorable people," cried Thuil- 
 lier. "It's agreed that you will arrange the affair 
 of the house for us, we will write my political work 
 together, and you will do your best to get me the 
 Cross. " 
 
 "That will come on the first of May, as you will 
 then be a Municipal Councillor. But, do you, my 
 good friend, and you, too, dear aunt, preserve the
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 211 
 
 utmost secrecy, and don't listen to the slanderous 
 stories that will be flying around about me when all 
 the men I propose to hoodwink turn against me. I 
 shall be a vagabond, a knave, a dangerous man, a 
 Jesuit, an ambitious scoundrel, a fortune-hunter. 
 Will you listen to such charges without losing your 
 head?" 
 
 "Never fear," said Brigitte. 
 
 From that day forth Thuillier became everybody's 
 good friend. Good friend was the name given him 
 by Theodose, in tones expressive of so many differ- 
 ent varieties of affection, that Flavie was bewildered. 
 But the dear aunt, the title which so flattered 
 Brigitte, was used only among the Thuilliers, some- 
 times before Flavie, and was whispered when others 
 were present. The activity of Theodose and of 
 Dutocq, Cerizet, Barbet, Metivier, the Minards, the 
 Phellions, the Laudigeois, Colleville, Pron and 
 Barniol, was something incredible. Great and 
 small alike put their hands to the plough. Cadenet 
 procured thirty votes in his section; he wrote for 
 seven electors who could do no more than make 
 their mark. On the thirtieth of April Thuillier was 
 declared a Member of the General Council of the 
 Department of the Seine, by a most imposing 
 majority, for he received all but sixty of the votes 
 cast. On May i, Thuillier joined the Council and 
 went with it to the Tuileries to congratulate the 
 king upon his birthday. He returned radiant with 
 joy ! He had entered the chateau in Minard's wake. 
 
 Ten days after the election a yellow placard
 
 212 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 announced the sale of the house under voluntary 
 bankruptcy proceedings, the upset price being fixed 
 at seventy-five thousand francs; the final adjust- 
 ment was to take place in the latter part of July. 
 On this subject there was an understanding between 
 Cerizet and Claparon, whereby Cerizet promised to 
 contribute fifteen thousand francs, in words, be it 
 understood, to Claparon, in case he should succeed 
 in hoodwinking the notary beyond the time allowed 
 by law for raising the bid. Mademoiselle Thuillier, 
 when notified by Theodose, agreed unconditionally 
 to this secret arrangement, for she understood that 
 the abettors of this pretty bit of treachery must be 
 paid. The money was to pass through the conscien- 
 tious advocate's hands. Claparon made an appoint- 
 ment at midnight on Place de 1'Observatoire with 
 his accomplice, the notary, whose office was still 
 unsold, although offered for sale by a decision of the 
 disciplinary committee of the Notaries of Paris. 
 
 This young man, Leopold Mannequin's successor, 
 had undertaken to attain fortune by running to meet 
 it instead of going at a foot pace; he still fancied 
 that better things were in store for him, and he was 
 trying to smooth matters over. In this interview 
 he went so far as to offer ten thousand francs to 
 make himself secure in this corrupt affair; he was 
 to hand the sum to Claparon after the purchaser at 
 the sale had executed a defeasance. The notary 
 knew that this money was all that Claparon had to 
 depend upon for the nucleus of a new fortune, and 
 he thought he was sure of him.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 213 
 
 "Who is there in Paris who could give me such a 
 commission for an affair of this sort?" said Claparon, 
 with feigned simplicity. "Go to sleep on both 
 ears ; I shall put forward as the ostensible purchaser 
 one of those so-called honorable men who are too 
 stupid to have ideas of your sort. He's an old re- 
 tired government clerk; you give him the money to 
 pay, and he'll sign your defeasance." 
 
 When the notary had made it clear to Claparon 
 that he could get no more than ten thousand francs 
 out of him, Cerizet offered his quondam partner 
 twelve thousand and then demanded fifteen thousand 
 from Theodose, with the intention of turning over 
 only twelve thousand to Claparon. All this hag- 
 gling among these four men was seasoned with 
 most exalted speeches concerning sentiment and 
 business rectitude; and concerning what those men, 
 whose destiny it was to work thus in unison and to 
 be constantly together, owed to one another. While 
 these submarine works were being constructed for 
 the benefit of Thuillier, to whom Theodose described 
 them with continual asseverations of his profound 
 distaste for meddling in such underhand business, 
 the two friends were meditating together upon the 
 great work which my good friend was to give to the 
 world ; and the member of the General Council of 
 the Seine became firmly imbued with the conviction 
 that he could never make anything of himself with- 
 out the aid of this man of genius, whose intellect 
 aroused his wondering admiration, whose marvelous 
 facility surprised him, so that each day he discovered
 
 214 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 some new unanswerable argument for making him 
 his son-in-law. After the first of June, Theodose 
 dined four days out of the seven with his good friend. 
 
 It was the moment when Theodose reigned with- 
 out a rival over the whole family; he was honored 
 with the approbation of all their friends. This is 
 how it came about. The Phellions, when they heard 
 Brigitte and Thuillier singing Theodose's praises, 
 feared to offend those two powers, and so they 
 joined in the chorus, however much these perpetual 
 eulogies might annoy them or seem exaggerated to 
 them. It was the same with the Minard family. 
 Moreover, La Peyrade's bearing, now that he had 
 become the friend of the family, was invariably 
 sublime; he disarmed suspicion by the way in 
 which he effaced himself; he was like an additional 
 piece of furniture in the house; he made the Phel- 
 lions and the Minards believe that he had been 
 reckoned up and weighed by Brigitte and Thuillier 
 and found too light to be anything more than a 
 pleasant young fellow for whom they might do 
 something. 
 
 "Perhaps he thinks my sister will put him down 
 in her will," said Thuillier one day to Minard; "he 
 hardly knows her." 
 
 This remark, which was Th6odose's work, quieted 
 the suspicious Minard's anxiety. 
 
 "He is devoted to us," said the old maid to Phel- 
 lion one day, "but indeed he ought to be grateful to 
 us; we give him his rent, and he almost lives here." 
 
 This fling, which was also inspired by Theodose,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 215 
 
 flew from ear to ear in the families which fre- 
 quented the Thuillier salon, and put all fear to flight. 
 Theodose, too, emphasized the caustic utterances of 
 Thuillier and his sister by affecting the servile 
 demeanor of a parasite. At whist he explained his 
 good friend's misplays. His smile, as unchanging 
 and benignant as Madame Thuillier's, was ever ready 
 to welcome the inane vulgar witticisms of the 
 brother and sister. 
 
 He obtained what he most ardently desired, the 
 contempt of his real antagonists, and used it as a 
 cloak to hide his power. For four months his face 
 wore the torpid expression of a serpent as he sali- 
 vates and digests his prey. He would run into the 
 garden at intervals with Colleville or Flavie to lay 
 aside his mask, to laugh at will, to rest and renew 
 his strength, abandoning himself to nervous out- 
 breaks of passion in the presence of his future 
 mother-in-law, which terrified her or touched her 
 heart. 
 
 "Don't you pity me?" he said to her the night 
 before the preliminary adjudication, at which Thuil- 
 lier bought the house for seventy-five thousand 
 francs. "To see a man like me crawling about like 
 a cat, holding back my epigrams, eating my own 
 gall ! and to cap the climax, having to put up with 
 your cruelty!" 
 
 "My friend, my child!" said Flavie, who had not 
 yet made up her mind what course to pursue. 
 
 These words are a thermometer which will indi- 
 cate the temperature at which this accomplished
 
 2l6 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 artist maintained his intrigue with Flavie. The 
 poor woman was wavering between the promptings 
 of her heart and the precepts of morality, between 
 religion and the mysterious passion. 
 
 Meanwhile, Felix Phellion, with praiseworthy de- 
 votion and perseverance, was giving lessons to 
 young Colleville; he was most lavish of his time, 
 and fancied that he was working for his future 
 family. In acknowledgment of his zeal, and by 
 Theodose's advice, the professor was invited to dine 
 with the Collevilles on Thursdays, and the advocate 
 never failed to be there. Flavie made purses, slip- 
 pers and cigar-cases for the happy youth, who 
 would exclaim: 
 
 "I am too well paid, Madame, by the joy it affords 
 me to be of service to you." 
 
 "We aren't rich, Monsieur," Colleville would 
 reply, "but, deuce take it! we're not ungrateful." 
 
 Old Phellion would rub his hands as he listened 
 to his son on his return from these joyous occasions, 
 and he could already see his dear, his noble Felix 
 leading Celeste to the altar ! 
 
 Nevertheless, the more truly Celeste loved him, 
 the more serious and thoughtful was her demeanor 
 with Felix, especially as her mother had preached 
 rather sharply to her one evening. 
 
 "Don't give young Phellion any hope, my child," 
 she said. "Neither your father nor 1 will have any 
 hand in marrying you; you have definite prospects 
 to keep in mind; it's of much less importance to be 
 agreeable to a penniless professor than to make sure
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 217 
 
 of Mademoiselle Brigitte's affection and your god- 
 father's. If you don't want to kill your mother, 
 my angel, yes, kill me, obey me blindly in this 
 affair, and get the idea fixed in your brain that we 
 desire your happiness before everything." 
 
 As the final adjudication was appointed for the 
 latter part of July, Theodose advised Brigitte, 
 toward the end of June, to make her preparations, 
 and she sold all of her sister's holdings and her own 
 in the public funds just in time. The catastrophe 
 of the treaty between the Four Powers, a downright 
 insult to France, is a fact in history, but it is neces- 
 sary to remember that, from early in July until 
 late in August, French rentes, affected by the pros- 
 pect of war, which Monsieur Thiers was a little too 
 willing to risk, fell twenty francs, and the three per 
 cents sold at sixty. Nor was that all ; the financial 
 panic had a most disastrous effect upon real estate 
 values in Paris, and all property of that description 
 sold at auction in those days brought almost noth- 
 ing. Thus Theodose was proved to be a prophet, a 
 man of genius, in the eyes of Brigitte and Thuillier, 
 to whom the property was finally awarded for sev- 
 enty-five thousand francs. The notary, who was 
 involved in this political disaster, and whose office 
 was sold, found it advisable to go into the country 
 for a few days; but he clung to Claparon's ten 
 thousand francs. By Theodose's advice, Thuillier 
 made a contract with Grindot, who supposed he was 
 finishing the house for the notary; and as crowds 
 of mechanics were left with nothing to do but
 
 2l8 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 fold their hands by the suspension of work on many 
 buildings during this period of financial distur- 
 bance, the architect was able to complete a task after 
 his own heart in splendid style at a very low figure. 
 For twenty-five thousand francs he gilded four 
 salons! Theodose demanded that the contract be 
 put in writing and that fifty thousand francs be sub- 
 stituted for twenty-five. 
 
 This purchase doubled Thuillier's importance. 
 As for the notary, he had lost his head in conse- 
 quence of the political upheaval, which was like a 
 thunderbolt out of a cloudless sky. Theodose, sure 
 of his ascendancy, relying upon the services he had 
 rendered the family, holding Thuillier fast by vir- 
 tue of the work they were jointly engaged upon, 
 and vastly admired by Brigitte because of his dis- 
 cretion, for he never made the slightest allusion to 
 his own narrow means and never mentioned money, 
 Theodose began to assume a somewhat less ser- 
 vile manner than formerly. 
 
 "Nothing can deprive you of our esteem," said 
 Brigitte and Thuillier; "this is your home. Min- 
 ard's opinion and Phellion's, which you seem so 
 afraid of, are worth as much as one of Victor Hugo's 
 couplets to us. So, hold up your head, let them 
 say what they please!" 
 
 "We need them to secure Thuillier's election to 
 the Chamber !" said Theodose. "Follow my advice ; 
 you find it's good, don't you? When the house is 
 really yours, you will have got it for nothing, for 
 you can buy three per cents at sixty in Madame
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 219 
 
 Thuillier's name, and restore her whole fortune. 
 Just wait until the time has expired for raising our 
 bid, and have the fifteen thousand francs ready for 
 our rascals." 
 
 Brigitte did not wait; she invested all her capital, 
 except a hundred and twenty thousand francs, 
 and, deducting her sister-in-law's fortune, she pur- 
 chased four hundred thousand francs of three 
 per cents twelve thousand a year in Madame 
 Thuillier's name, for two hundred and forty thous- 
 and; and ten thousand a year in the same funds in 
 her own name, having determined to have done 
 with the bother of discounting notes. She con- 
 sidered it certain that her brother would have forty 
 thousand a year besides his pension; Madame Thuil- 
 lier had twelve thousand a year, and she herself 
 eighteen thousand ; in all seventy thousand a year, 
 besides the house they occupied, which she valued 
 at eight thousand. 
 
 "Now we're as well off as the Minards!" she 
 cried. 
 
 "Let's not shout victory yet," said Theodose: 
 "the time for raising our bid won't expire for a 
 week. I have attended to your business for you, 
 but my own affairs are in a very bad way." 
 
 "My dear child, you have friends!" cried Brigitte, 
 "and if you want twenty-five louis you will always 
 find them here!" 
 
 At that Theodose exchanged a smile with Thuil- 
 lier, who took him aside and said : 
 
 "You must excuse my sister; she looks at the
 
 220 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 world through the neck of a bottle. But if you 
 should need twenty-five thousand francs, I would lend 
 them to you, out of my first rents," he added. 
 
 "Thuillier, I have a rope around my neck," 
 cried Theodose. "Since I have been an advocate I 
 have given notes but mum's the word! " he 
 added, as if dismayed at having divulged the secret 
 of his situation. "I am in the clutches of a lot of 
 scoundrels, 1 propose to crush them " 
 
 Theodose had a twofold motive in letting his 
 secret escape him; to test Thuillier, and to ward off 
 a dangerous blow which might be aimed at him in 
 the bitter, ominous struggle he had long anticipated. 
 Two words will suffice to explain his horrible plight 
 
 During the period of utter destitution, through 
 which he had passed, Cerizet was the only person 
 who came to see him, and he did so one very 
 cold day in the attic where he was lying in bed 
 for lack of clothes. He had nothing on but a 
 shirt. For three days he had lived on a single loaf 
 of bread, cutting it off in small pieces with great 
 forethought; and he was just asking himself: 
 "What am I to do?" when his former patron 
 appeared, having been released from prison by par- 
 don. It woald be useless to tell of the schemes 
 formed by these two men as they sat before a fire of 
 twigs, one enveloped in his landlady's coverlet, the 
 other in his infamy. The next day Cerizet, who 
 had met Dutocq during the morning, brought Theo- 
 dose a pair of breeches, a waistcoat, a coat, a hat 
 and boots purchased at the Temple, and carried him
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 221 
 
 off to dinner at Pinson's, Rue de 1'Ancienne-Come- 
 die, where the Provencal ate half of a dinner that 
 cost forty-seven francs. At dessert, between two 
 glasses of wine, Cerizet said to his friend: 
 
 "Will you give me your notes for fifty thousand 
 francs payable when I procure your admission as an 
 advocate?" 
 
 "You wouldn't get five thousand francs for them, " 
 replied Theodose. 
 
 "That doesn't concern you; you'll pay them in 
 full; that's our share, his who pays for this din- 
 ner, and mine, in a little matter in which you risk 
 nothing, but which will be worth to you the title of 
 advocate, a handsome practice, and the hand of a 
 damsel about the age of an old dog, and with twenty 
 to thirty thousand francs a year. Neither Dutocq 
 nor I can marry her ; so we must fit you out, make 
 you look like an honest man, feed you, set you up 
 in lodgings and furnish them for you. Of course, 
 we must be secured. I don't say that for myself, 
 for I know you, but for monsieur who will act 
 through me. We'll fit you out as a corsair, eh? to 
 trade in white women. If we don't capture that 
 dot, why, we'll try something else. Between our- 
 selves we don't need to handle things with tongs, 
 that's plain enough. We will give you your instruc- 
 tions, for the affair is likely to be a long one; 
 there'll be lots of pulling and hauling! 1 have the 
 stamps all ready " 
 
 "Bring pen and ink, waiter!" said Theodose. 
 
 "That's the kind of man I like!" cried Dutocq.
 
 222 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Sign 'Theodose de la Peyrade,' and describe 
 yourself: 'Advocate, RueSaint-Dominique-d'Enfer,' 
 under the words: Accepted for ten thousand; we'll 
 put in the date, and bring suit against you, all in 
 secret, so as to have the right to arrest you. The 
 owners ought to have some security when the cap- 
 tain and his brig are at sea." 
 
 On the day following his reception as an advo- 
 cate, the clerk to the justice of the peace did Ceri- 
 zet the service of issuing a writ secretly; he called 
 upon the advocate in the evening, and everything 
 was arranged without publicity. The Tribunal of 
 Commerce issues such judgments by the hundred 
 at every session. 
 
 Everyone knows the strict regulations of the 
 council of the order of advocates of the Paris bar. 
 That body and the order of attorneys maintain 
 stern discipline among their members. An advo- 
 cate who becomes liable to imprisonment at Clichy 
 would be stricken from the roll. Cerizet, by 
 Dutocq's advice, had taken the only measures 
 against their puppet that seemed certain to assure 
 them twenty-five thousand francs each out of Ce- 
 leste's dowry. When he signed the notes Theo- 
 dose saw nothing beyond the fact that his life was 
 saved; but as the horizon grew brighter, as he 
 mounted step by step to a more and more elevated 
 position on the social ladder, playing the part 
 assigned him, he dreamed of getting rid of his two 
 partners. If he could get twenty-five thousand 
 francs from Thuillier, he hoped to be able to
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 223 
 
 compromise with Cerizet, and take up his notes at 
 fifty per cent of their face value. 
 
 Unhappily such infamous speculations as this are 
 by no means exceptional, they are carried on in 
 Paris with too little pretence of disguise for the his- 
 torian to pass them by in an accurate and complete 
 picture of society. Dutocq, a thorough libertine, 
 still owed fifteen thousand francs of the price of his 
 clerkship, and, in the hope of a successful issue to 
 his speculation, he was endeavoring, to use a vulgar 
 expression, to stretch the thong until the latter part 
 of 1840. 
 
 Up to this time no one of the three had flinched 
 or howled. Each of them realized his strength 
 and was conscious of the danger. The same sus- 
 picion, the same close watch upon one another, 
 the same apparent confidence, the same threaten- 
 ing silence or threatening glance when their mutual 
 distrust showed for a moment in their faces or their 
 words. For the last two months Theodose's position 
 had given him an advantage quite unshared by 
 them. Dutocq and Cerizet had a heap of pow- 
 der under their skiff and the match was always 
 lighted; but the wind might blow out the match and 
 the devil might drench the powder. 
 
 The moment when wild animals are about to feed 
 has always been deemed the most dangerous, and 
 this moment arrived with these three starving tigers. 
 Cerizet's eyes would sometimes say to La Peyrade, 
 with that revolutionary gleam which sovereigns 
 have seen twice in this century :
 
 224 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "I have made you king, and I am nobody. So 
 long as 1 am not everything, 1 am nobody." 
 
 A jealous reaction was carrying everything before 
 it like an avalanche in Cerizet's mind. Dutocq 
 found himself at the mercy of his enriched copyist 
 Theodose would have liked to burn up his two fellow- 
 swindlers and their papers in two separate fires. All 
 three were too intent upon concealing their thoughts 
 for the others not to guess them. Theodose's life 
 was worse than three hells as he thought behind his 
 cards of his stake and his future. His exclamation 
 to Thuillier was a shriek of despair; he took sound- 
 ings in the old bourgeois' waters, and found only 
 twenty-five thousand francs. 
 
 "And to be worse than nobody a month hence, 
 perhaps!" he said to himself, as he went to his 
 room. 
 
 He conceived an intense hatred of the Thuilliers. 
 But he held Thuillier by a harpoon fastened in the 
 very vitals of his self-esteem by a projected work 
 entitled, Concerning Taxes and the Sinking- Fund, 
 wherein he proposed to arrange the ideas published 
 by the Saint-Simonian Globe newspaper, coloring 
 them with his Southern style, and systematizing 
 them. Thuillier's lack of knowledge of the subject- 
 matter was Theodose's reliance. He took his stand 
 thereon, and resolved to combat the vanity of a 
 donkey with no better base of operations than that. 
 It may prove to be of granite or of sand, according 
 to the character of the man. Upon reflection, he 
 was glad that he had confided in him.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 22$ 
 
 "When he sees that I make his fortune certain by 
 turning over the fifteen thousand francs just when 
 I am so sorely in need of money, he will look upon 
 me as the god of probity." 
 
 Claparon and Cerizet took the following measures 
 with the notary two days before the expiration of 
 the time allowed for outbidding the purchaser of 
 the house. Cerizet, having received the pass-word 
 from Claparon, who told him where the notary was 
 in hiding, went to see him. 
 
 "One of my friends," he said, "Claparon, whom 
 you know, asked me to come and see you ; he will 
 look for you day after to-morrow in the evening, 
 you know where; he has the paper you are waiting 
 for, and he will hand it to you in exchange for the ten 
 thousand francs agreed upon ; but I am to be present 
 when the money is paid, for he owes me five thous- 
 and, and I warn you, my dear sir, that the name 
 in the defeasance is left blank." 
 
 "I will be there," said the ex-notary. 
 
 The poor devil waited all night at the rendezvous 
 in an agony of anxiety that can be imagined, for it 
 was a question of his salvation or his final ruin. 
 But, at sunrise, instead of Claparon a sheriff's offi- 
 cer appeared, armed with a judgment in due form, 
 and informed him that he must accompany him to 
 Clichy. 
 
 Cerizet had made a bargain with one of the ill- 
 fated notary's creditors, undertaking to betray him 
 in consideration of half the amount of his debt. Out 
 of the ten thousand francs intended for Claparon, 
 15
 
 226 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 the victim of this ambuscade was compelled to pay 
 six thousand on the spot to retain his freedom. 
 That was the full amount of the debt 
 
 "There's a thousand crowns," said Cerizet to 
 himself, as he pocketed his share of the extortion, 
 "with which to pack Claparon off." 
 
 He called again upon the notary and said to him : 
 "Claparon's a mean scoundrel, Monsieur! he has 
 received fifteen thousand francs from the purchaser, 
 who retains the property. Threaten to disclose his 
 hiding-place to his creditors, and to enter a com- 
 plaint against him alleging fraudulent bankruptcy, 
 and he'll give you half of it" 
 
 In his rage the notary wrote a blustering letter to 
 Claparon. Claparon was in despair, fearing arrest, 
 and Cerizet undertook to procure him a passport. 
 
 "You have made a fool of me many a time, Clap- 
 aron," said Cerizet; "but do you listen to me now 
 and judge me. My whole fortune is a thousand 
 crowns, I am going to give them to you ! Go to 
 America, and start over again to make your fortune, 
 as I am doing here." 
 
 That evening Claparon, disguised by Cerizet as 
 an old woman, started for Havre by diligence. 
 Cerizet thus found himself in a position to receive 
 the fifteen thousand francs demanded by Claparon, 
 and he calmly awaited Theodose's coming, without 
 undertaking to hasten matters. This man, whose 
 intelligence was really of a rare order, had at his 
 disposal, under the name of a creditor for two 
 thousand francs, a contractor for labor who was not
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 227 
 
 upon the list of those regularly entitled to offer a bid 
 in excess of the sum paid at the forced sale. It was an 
 idea of Dutocq's, which Cerizet was not slow to put 
 in execution. They could readily demand fifteen 
 thousand francs to get rid of this latest rival, which 
 meant seven thousand five hundred more in his 
 pocket, and he needed it to adjust a matter exactly 
 similar to Thuillier's; it had been suggested to him 
 by Claparon, whom disaster seemed to render stupid. 
 There was a house on Rue Geoff roy-Marie which 
 was to be sold for sixty thousand francs. The 
 Widow Poiret offered him ten thousand, the wine 
 merchant a similar sum and notes for ten thousand. 
 These thirty thousand francs, with what he was 
 soon to have and six thousand he already had, would 
 permit him to try his luck, especially as the twenty- 
 five thousand francs due from Theodose seemed cer- 
 tain to be paid. 
 
 "The time for raising our bid has passed," said 
 Theodose to himself, as he was on his way to ask 
 Dutocq to send for Cerizet; "suppose I should try 
 to shake off my bloodsucker?" 
 
 "You can't arrange this affair anywhere except 
 at Cerizet's, for Claparon is there," said Dutocq. 
 
 So, between seven and eight o'clock, Theodose 
 went to the lair of the poor man's banker, whom 
 Dutocq had advised in the morning of the intended 
 visit of their capitalist 
 
 La Peyrade was received by Cerizet in the ghastly 
 kitchen where sufferings were hashed, and the mis- 
 eries, of which we have caught a glimpse, were
 
 228 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 cooked. The two men paced to and fro, for all the 
 world like caged beasts, as they enacted the follow- 
 ing scene: 
 
 "Have you brought the fifteen thousand francs?" 
 
 "No, but I have them at home." 
 
 "Why not in your pocket?" demanded Cerizet, 
 sourly. 
 
 "You shall know," replied the advocate, who had 
 decided on the course he would adopt, on his way 
 from Rue Saint-Dominique to the Estrapade. As 
 he twisted and turned on the gridiron on which his 
 two confederates had placed him, the Provencal saw 
 a bright idea sparkling amid the glowing coals. 
 Peril has its inspirations. He relied upon the power 
 of perfect frankness, which has its effect upon every 
 man, even a swindler. One almost always thinks 
 well of an adversary who strips himself to the waist 
 in a duel. 
 
 "Good," said Cerizet, "the farce is beginning " 
 
 This was an ominous retort, and had a most 
 horrible sound, being uttered entirely through the 
 nose. 
 
 "You have put me in a magnificent position, and 
 I shall never forget it, my friend," continued Theo- 
 dose, with emotion. 
 
 "Oh! that's your game!" said Cerizet 
 
 "Look here: you don't doubt my intentions?" 
 
 "Indeed I do!" retorted the usurer. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "You don't mean to give up the fifteen thous- 
 and."
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 229 
 
 Theodose shrugged his shoulders and looked 
 Cerizet squarely in the eye; that worthy was duly 
 impressed by these two movements and held his 
 peace. 
 
 "Could you live in the position I am in, knowing 
 that you were at the muzzle of a loaded cannon, 
 without wishing to put an end to it? Listen to me. 
 You are engaged in a dangerous business, and you 
 would be very glad to have a protector you can 
 depend upon at the fountain-head of justice in Paris. 
 I can, if I follow my own road, be deputy king's 
 attorney, perhaps avocat general, three years hence. 
 To-day I offer you a firm friendship, which will cer- 
 tainly be of service to you, were it only to regain 
 an honorable position hereafter. Here are my con- 
 ditions " 
 
 "Conditions!" cried Cerizet. 
 
 "In ten minutes I will bring you twenty-five 
 thousand francs, in exchange for all the notes you 
 hold against me." 
 
 "And Dutocq? and Claparon?" cried Cerizet. 
 
 "You can throw them over," whispered Theodose 
 in his friend's ear. 
 
 "That's very pretty" said Cerizet, "and you 
 have thought up this sleight-of-hand performance 
 because you happen to be in command of fifteen 
 thousand francs that don't belong to you!" 
 
 "I am adding ten thousand to them. But, come, 
 we know each other " 
 
 "If you can get ten thousand francs out of your 
 bourgeois friends," said Cerizet, quickly, "you
 
 230 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 shall ask them for fifteen. At thirty I'm your 
 man. Frankness for frankness." 
 
 "You ask what is impossible!" cried Theodose. 
 
 "At this moment, if you were dealing with a 
 Claparon, your fifteen thousand francs would be lost, 
 for the house belongs to our Thuillier. " 
 
 "I'll go and tell him," replied Cerizet, making 
 a show of consulting Claparon by going upstairs to 
 the room whence the said Claparon had departed, 
 ensconced in a cab, ten minutes before Theodose 
 appeared. 
 
 The two adversaries had spoken, of course, in 
 such a way as not to be overheard, and, as soon as 
 Theodose raised his voice, Cerizet by a gesture 
 gave him to understand that Claparon might be lis- 
 tening to them. The five minutes, during which 
 Theodose heard what sounded like the murmur of 
 two voices over his head, were a period of torture 
 to him, for he was playing with his whole life for 
 the stake. Cerizet came down at last and went to 
 his accomplice with a smile upon his lips, his eyes 
 gleaming with infernal malice, trembling with joy, 
 a perfect Lucifer in good-humor. 
 
 "I know nothing about such things myself," he 
 said, with a shrug, "but Claparon knows all about 
 it; he has worked for high-grade bankers, and he 
 began to laugh. 'I suspected as much!' said he. 
 You will have to bring me to-morrow the twenty-five 
 thousand you just offered me, and you'll need as 
 much more to take up your notes, my boy." 
 
 "Why so? " demanded Theodose, feeling as if
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 231 
 
 some internal current of the electric fluid had 
 melted his spinal column. 
 
 "The house is ours!" 
 
 "How so?" 
 
 "Claparon has put in a bid in the name of a con- 
 tractor, the first creditor who sued him, a little toad 
 named Sauvaignou; Desroches, the attorney, has 
 charge of the case, and you'll receive notice in 
 the morning. It's a matter of consequence enough 
 to put Claparon, Dutocq, and myself on the look- 
 out for funds. What would become of me without 
 Claparon? So I've forgiven him, I forgive him, 
 and, although perhaps you won't believe me, my 
 dear friend, I kissed him! Change your condi- 
 tions!" 
 
 This last phrase was terrible to hear, especially 
 when emphasized by Cerizet's face, as he gave 
 himself the pleasure of acting a scene from the 
 Legataire, in the midst of his keen study of the 
 Provencal's character. 
 
 "Oh! Cerizet!" cried Theodose; "and I meant 
 to do so well by you!" 
 
 "You see, my dear boy," replied Cerizet, "be- 
 tween ourselves, a fellow must have some of this ! " 
 
 And he struck himself a blow over the heart 
 
 "You haven't any. As soon as you think you've 
 got a twist on us you try to flatten us out I res- 
 cued you from the vermin and the horrors of hunger ! 
 You were dying like an idiot We put you in the 
 way to make a fortune, we threw the finest kind of 
 a social skin over your shoulders, and set you down
 
 232 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 where there was something to be got and there 
 you are! Now I know you; we will go armed." 
 
 "This is war!" exclaimed Theodose. 
 
 "You fired first on me," said Cerizet 
 
 "But if you crush me, adieu to your hopes! and if 
 you don't crush me you have me for your enemy!" 
 
 "That's just what I was saying yesterday to Du- 
 tocq, " replied Cerizet, coldly; "but what would you 
 have? we will choose between the two we'll act 
 according to circumstances. I'm a good fellow," he 
 continued after a pause; "bring me your twenty- 
 five thousand francs to-morrow at nine o'clock, and 
 Thuillier may keep the house. We'll continue to 
 work for you at both ends, and you shall pay us. 
 After what's happened, my boy, isn't that fair?" 
 
 And Cerizet brought his hand down on Theodose's 
 shoulder with a cynicism more dishonoring than 
 ever branding-iron was in the executioner's hands. 
 
 "Well, give me till noon," replied the Provencal; 
 "for there's much pulling and tugging to be done, 
 as you would say." 
 
 "I'll try to persuade Claparon; he's in a great 
 hurry, is that fellow!" 
 
 "Well, until to-morrow," said Theodose, with the 
 air of a man whose mind is made up. 
 
 "Good-night, my friend," said Cerizet with a 
 nasal twang that disgraced the most beautiful word 
 in the language. "There goes a fellow who has 
 got what he deserves; he's a sucker!" he said to 
 himself as he watched Theodose walking along the 
 street like a drunken man.
 
 When Theodose was once more in Rue des Postes 
 he walked swiftly toward Madame Colleville's house, 
 intensely excited and talking to himself aloud. 
 The fire of his aroused passions, that sort of internal 
 conflagration with which many Parisians are famil- 
 iar, for such horrible situations as his are common 
 enough in Paris, excited him to frenzy, and to a 
 pitch of eloquence which a single expression will 
 illustrate. At the corner of Saint- Jacques du Haut- 
 Pas, in the little Rue des Deux-Eglises, he cried: 
 
 "I will kill him!" 
 
 "There's a fellow who doesn't seem contented!" 
 said a workman, whose pleasantry soothed the 
 white-hot fury from which Theodose was suffering. 
 
 As he left Cerizet it occurred to him that he would 
 make a confidante of Flavie and tell her everything. 
 It is a characteristic of the Southern nature to be 
 strong until assailed by certain passions, when every- 
 thing falls to pieces. He entered. Flavie was 
 alone in her room; she caught sight of Theodose and 
 thought she was either ravished or dead. 
 
 "What's the matter?" she cried. 
 
 "The matter is " he said. "Do you ove me, 
 Flavie?" 
 
 "Oh! can you doubt it?" 
 
 "Do you love me absolutely even criminally?" 
 
 "Has he killed someone?" she said to herself. 
 (233)
 
 234 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 She answered with a nod. 
 
 Theodose, overjoyed to seize this willow branch, 
 went from his chair to Flavie's couch, and there, 
 floods of tears flowed from his eyes amid sobs that 
 would have made a hardened old judge weep. 
 
 "I am at home to nobody!" said Flavie to her 
 maid. 
 
 She closed the doors and returned to Theodose, 
 moved as deeply as any mother for her suffering 
 child. She found the child of Provence stretched 
 out on the couch, his head thrown back, and weeping 
 bitterly. He had taken her handkerchief, and when 
 Flavie tried to take it from him it was laden with 
 tears. 
 
 "But what is it? what's the matter?" she asked. 
 
 Nature, more acute than art, served Theodose's 
 purpose admirably; he was no longer playing a 
 part, he was himself; and the tears, the nervous 
 paroxysm, were his sign-manual to the comedy he 
 had recently acted. 
 
 "You're nothing but a child!" said she, in a soft 
 voice, running her hand through Theodose's hair as 
 his tears ceased to flow. 
 
 "I can see nobody but you in the whole world!" 
 he cried, kissing her hands in a sort of frenzy, "and 
 if you remain true to me, if you are mine as the 
 body is the soul's, as the soul is the body's," he 
 said, recovering his self-possession and with infinite 
 charm of manner, "why, I shall have courage!" 
 
 He rose and began to pace the floor. 
 
 "Yes, I will struggle, 1 will recover my strength,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 235 
 
 like Antaeus, by embracing my mother ! and I will 
 strangle in my hands the serpents that are twined 
 about me, giving me serpents' kisses, leaving their 
 foul slaver on my cheeks, and trying to suck my 
 blood and honor! Oh! poverty! Ah! how great 
 are they who can remain standing under its weight 
 and hold their heads erect! I should have allowed 
 myself to die of hunger on my wretched pallet three 
 years and a half ago ! The coffin is a soft bed com- 
 pared with the life I am leading! For eighteen 
 months I have been feeding on bourgeois I and just 
 as I am on the point of beginning to lead an upright, 
 happy life, with the prospect of a glorious future; 
 just as I am going forward to take a seat at the 
 social board, the executioner lays his hand on my 
 shoulder yes, the monster taps me on the shoulder 
 and says: 'Pay the devil's tithe, or die!' And I 
 didn't crush them! I didn't plunge my arm down 
 their throats to their very bowels! Ah! but I 
 will do it! Look, Flavie, are my eyes dry? Now, 
 I laugh, I realize my own strength, and my faculties 
 are returning. Oh ! tell me that you love me tell 
 me again! It is to me at this moment like the 
 word: 'Pardon!' to the man condemned to death." 
 
 "You are terrible, my dear!" said Flavie; "oh! 
 you have killed me!" 
 
 She understood nothing of it all, but she fell on the 
 couch like a dead woman, worn out by the excite- 
 ment, and thereupon Theodose knelt by her side. 
 
 "Forgive me! forgive me!" he said. 
 
 "But what is the matter?"
 
 236 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "They are seeking to ruin me. Oh! promise to 
 give me Celeste, and you will see what a lovely life 
 you will share with us! If you hesitate why, it 
 means that you will be mine, and I take you! " 
 
 He made such an impulsive movement, that 
 Flavie sprang to her feet in dismay and began to 
 walk the floor. 
 
 "Oh ! my angel ! here at your feet What a mira- 
 cle! Surely God is on my side! A ray of light has 
 penetrated my brain. I have a sudden inspiration ! 
 Oh! I thank thee, my good angel, great Theo- 
 dosius! thou hast saved me!" 
 
 Flavie gazed in admiration at this chameleon-like 
 creature, as with one knee on the floor, his hands 
 folded on his breast and his eyes gazing upward, 
 he repeated a prayer like the most fervent of Catho- 
 lics, and crossed himself. It was as fine as the 
 communion of Saint- Jer6me. 
 
 "Adieu!" said he, with a melancholy expression 
 and accent which would have seduced a saint 
 
 "Oh! leave me my handkerchief," cried Flavie. 
 
 Theodose rushed downstairs and into the street 
 like a madman, and hurried away to Thuillier's; 
 but he turned his head, saw Flavie at the window, 
 and waved his hand triumphantly. 
 
 "What a man!" she said to herself. 
 
 "My good friend," said he in a calm, soft, almost 
 wheedling voice, to Thuillier, "we are in the hands 
 of infernal swindlers; but I propose to give them a 
 little lesson." 
 
 "What's the trouble?" said Brigitte.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 237 
 
 "Why, they want twenty-five thousand francs, 
 and in order to get the law on their side, the notary 
 or his accomplices have fabricated a bid to beat ours ; 
 take five thousand francs with you, Thuillier, and 
 come with me; I'll see that you have the house. I 
 am making implacable enemies!" he cried, "and 
 they'll do their best to kill me morally. But if you 
 refuse to believe their infamous slanders, and don't 
 change to me, that's all I ask. What does it all 
 amount to after all ? If I succeed, you'll pay a hun- 
 dred and twenty-five thousand for the house instead 
 of a hundred and twenty." 
 
 "Sha'n't we have it all to do again?" asked Bri- 
 gitte uneasily, her eyes dilating under the pressure 
 of a horrible suspicion. 
 
 "Registered creditors alone have the right to raise 
 our bid, and as this is the only one who has availed 
 himself of the right, we're safe enough. The debt 
 is only two thousand francs, but in such cases we 
 have to pay the attorneys well, and not mind an 
 extra thousand-franc note for the creditor." 
 
 "Go and get your hat and gloves, Thuillier," 
 said Brigitte, "and you'll find the money you know 
 where." 
 
 "As 1 let the fifteen thousand francs go to no pur- 
 pose, I don't care to have any more money pass 
 through my hands. Thuillier shall pay it himself, " 
 said Theodosewhen he was left alone with Brigitte. 
 "You made twenty thousand francs on the bargain 
 I made for you with Grindot, who supposed he was 
 working for the notary ; and you have a piece of
 
 238 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 property that will be worth nearly a million five 
 years from now. It's a corner on the boule- 
 vard!" 
 
 Brigitte was ill at ease as she listened, exactly 
 like a cat who feels mice under the floor. She 
 looked Theodose in the eye, and despite the good 
 sense of his observations she conceived doubts. 
 
 "What's the matter, little aunt?" 
 
 "Oh! I shall be in mortal terror until we are 
 really in possession " 
 
 "You would gladly give twenty thousand francs, 
 wouldn't you," said Theodose, "to feel that Thuil- 
 lier was what we call the indefeasible proprietor ? 
 Well, remember that I have won that amount twice 
 over for you." 
 
 "Where are we going?" asked Thuillier. 
 
 "To Master Godeschal ! we must retain him to 
 act for us . " 
 
 "Why, we refused him Celeste's hand!" cried the 
 old maid. 
 
 "That's the very reason I'm going to him, " replied 
 Theodose; "I have studied him, he's an honorable 
 man and will be glad to do you a service." 
 
 Godeschal, Derville's successor, had been chief 
 clerk to Desroches for more than ten years. Theo- 
 dose, who was aware of that circumstance, heard 
 this name whispered in his ear by an inward voice 
 in the midst of his despair, and he thought he could 
 see a possibility of depriving Claparon of the weapon 
 Cerizet was brandishing at him. But, first of all, 
 it was essential to make his way into Desroches'
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 239 
 
 office, and get some light as to the position of his 
 adversaries. Godeschal alone, by reason of the 
 intimacy subsisting between clerk and employer, 
 could guide him thither. 
 
 The attorneys of Paris, when they are connected 
 as Godeschal and Desroches were, live upon really 
 fraternal terms among themselves, and the effect is 
 apparent in the facility with which matters suscep- 
 tible of amicable adjustment are adjusted. They 
 obtain from one another such reciprocal concessions 
 as are obtainable, by applying the proverb: "Pass 
 me the rhubarb, and I'll pass you the senna," which 
 is put in practice in all the professions, among 
 ministers, in the army, among judges and among 
 business men ; everywhere, in short, where a spirit 
 of hostility has not erected insuperable barriers be- 
 tween the parties. 
 
 "I get a very good fee out of this settlement," is 
 an argument which does not need to be expressed in 
 words, for it is implied in the tone, in the look, in 
 the gesture. And, as attorneys are so situated that 
 they are likely to find themselves in the same boat 
 again, the matter is arranged. The counterpoise 
 to this good-fellowship is found in what we must call 
 the conscience of the profession. Thus society must 
 believe the physician, who, when called upon to act 
 in a medico-legal capacity, says: "This body con- 
 tains arsenic;" no selfish consideration can destroy 
 the self-esteem of the actor, the probity of the law- 
 maker, the independence of the public minister. 
 The attorney says good-naturedly: "You never can
 
 240 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 obtain that, my client's a madman;" and the other 
 replies: "Well, we shall see. " 
 
 Now, La Peyrade, a very shrewd young man, had 
 worn his gown at the Palais enough to know to how 
 great an extent the customs of the profession would 
 serve his purposes. 
 
 "Stay in the cab," he said to Thuillier when the 
 carriage stopped on Rue Vivienne, where Godeschal 
 had become an employer of clerks on the scene of 
 his first labors as clerk ; "you will not appear un- 
 less he undertakes the case." 
 
 It was eleven o'clock in the evening, and La 
 Peyrade had not miscalculated in hoping to find an 
 attorney of recent creation in his office at that hour. 
 
 "To what am I indebted for the advocate's 
 visit?" said Godeschal, as he walked forward to 
 meet La Peyrade. 
 
 Strangers, provincials, society folk are perhaps 
 not aware that advocates are to attorneys what gen- 
 erals are to marshals; there is a line of demarca- 
 tion strictly adhered to between the order of 
 advocates and the society of attorneys. However 
 venerable an attorney may be, however great in 
 his profession, he must call upon the advocate. The 
 attorney is the administrative officer who lays out 
 the plan of campaign, collects supplies, and puts 
 everything in train; the advocate fights the battle. 
 No one knows why the law gives the client two men 
 for one any more than we know why the author 
 must have a printer and a publisher. The order of 
 advocates forbids its members to do any act properly
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 241 
 
 within the attorney's province. It very rarely 
 happens that a great advocate steps inside an office; 
 they are consulted at the Palais; but, in the world, 
 the barrier ceases to exist, and some advocates, 
 especially those in La Peyrade's position, occasion- 
 ally condescend to call upon an attorney; but such 
 cases are rare and are almost always justified by the 
 urgency of the matter in hand. 
 
 "Mon Dieu," said La Peyrade, "it's quite a 
 serious matter, and there's a question of etiquette 
 involved which we must decide between us. Thuil- 
 lier is at the door in a cab, and I have come to you, 
 not as an advocate, but as Thuillier's friend. You, 
 and you alone, are in a position to do him a very 
 great service, and I told him that you are too 
 high-souled a man, for you are a worthy successor 
 of the great Derville, not to put all your talents at 
 his service. This is the case." 
 
 Having explained, entirely to his own advantage, 
 the trickery which it was necessary to meet with 
 legal skill, for lying clients are more common with 
 attorneys than truthful ones, the advocate sketched 
 his plan of campaign. 
 
 "My dear sir, you must call upon Desroches this 
 evening, disclose this plot to him, and get him to 
 promise to send for his client, this Sauvaignou, to- 
 morrow morning; between us three we will put him 
 in the confessional, and if he wants a thousand- 
 franc note over and above his claim, we'll let him 
 have it, to say nothing of five hundred francs for 
 yourself and as much for Desroches, if Thuillier has 
 
 16
 
 242 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Sauvaignou's release at ten o'clock to-morrow. 
 What does this Sauvaignou want? His money of 
 course! A man of his stamp isn't likely to resist a 
 bait of a thousand francs, even if he is but the tool 
 of some greedy fellow hiding behind him. The dis- 
 cussion between him and those who are working 
 him is of little consequence to us. Come, help the 
 Thuillier family out of this " 
 
 "1 will go to Desroches instantly, " said Godeschal. 
 
 "Not until Thu-illier has signed a power of attor- 
 ney and handed you five thousand francs. You 
 must have the money on the table in such cases." 
 
 After a further interview, at which Thuillier was 
 present, La Peyrade put him and Godeschal in a 
 cab, and they drove to Desroches' office on Rue 
 Bethisy, where they dropped Godeschal, La Peyrade 
 saying that they might as well return to Rue Saint- 
 Dominique-d'Enfer by that route: and on the steps 
 at Desroches' door, he made an appointment for the 
 next morning at seven o'clock. 
 
 La Peyrade's fortune and his future depended on 
 the result of that conference. So we must not be 
 surprised to learn that he ignored the customs of 
 his order so far as to go to Desroches' office, in order 
 to study Sauvaignou, to take a hand in the fight, 
 notwithstanding the risk he ran in an encounter 
 with the most redoubtable of Paris attorneys. 
 
 As he entered and exchanged salutations, he kept 
 his eye on Sauvaignou. He was, as his name 
 seemed to imply, a Marseillais, a contractor for labor, 
 occupying a position, as his title of marchandeur
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 243 
 
 taskmaster indicated, between workmen and 
 master-builders to make tenders for the labor on 
 contracts undertaken by the latter. The contractor's 
 profit consists of the difference between the price 
 he pays the marchandeur and what he receives from 
 the owner, excluding materials, as only the labor is 
 taken into account. 
 
 The master-builder having failed, Sauvaignou had 
 procured a judgment from the Tribunal of Commerce 
 giving him a lien on the property, and had been 
 duly registered as a creditor entitled to overbid. 
 This little affair had put an end to the panic. 
 
 Sauvaignou, a short, thickset man, dressed in a 
 gray woolen blouse, with a workman's cap on his 
 head, was sitting in an arm-chair. Three one thous- 
 and franc notes lying in front of him on Desroches' 
 desk, told La Peyrade plainly enough that the skir- 
 mish had taken place and the attorneys had been 
 beaten. Godeschal's eyes spoke volumes, and the 
 glance that Desroches shot at the poor man's lawyer 
 was like the blow of a pickaxe in a trench. His 
 faculties stimulated by danger, the Provencal was 
 superb ; he placed his hand on the notes and folded 
 them to put them in his pocket. 
 
 "Thuillier withdraws his offer," he said to Des- 
 roches. 
 
 "Very good; then we're all agreed," replied the 
 terrible attorney. 
 
 "Yes; your client must bring us fifty thousand 
 francs that we've laid out on the property accord- 
 ing to the contract between Thuillier and Grindot
 
 244 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 I didn't tell you that yesterday," he said, turning 
 to Godeschal. 
 
 "Do you hear that?" said Desroches to Sauvaig- 
 nou. "That means a lawsuit that I won't under- 
 take without security." 
 
 "But, Messieurs," said the taskmaster, "1 can't 
 do anything until I've seen the worthy man who 
 handed me five hundred francs on account for sign- 
 ing a bit of a power of attorney." 
 
 "Are you from Marseilles?" said La Peyrade to 
 Sauvaignou in patois. 
 
 "Oh! if he attacks him in patois, he's lost!" 
 muttered Desroches to Godeschal. 
 
 "Yes, Monsieur." 
 
 "Well, you poor devil," continued Theodose, 
 "they mean to ruin you. Do you know what you 
 must do? Pocket these three thousand francs, and 
 when the other man comes, take your rule and give 
 him a good thrashing; tell him he's a beggar, that 
 he wanted to make a tool of you, that you revoke 
 your power of attorney, and that you'll return 
 his money in the week that has three Thursdays. 
 Then, with the thirty-five hundred francs and your 
 savings, go to Marseilles. And, if anything hap- 
 pens to you, come and see this gentleman, he'll 
 know where to find me and I'll help you out; for, 
 you see, I am not only a good Provencal, but I am 
 one of the leading advocates of Paris and the friend 
 of the poor " 
 
 When the fellow found a compatriot furnish- 
 ing him with arguments in support of the reasons
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 245 
 
 he had for betraying the usurer, he capitulated, but 
 demanded thirty-five hundred francs. 
 
 "A good thrashing, said Sauvaignou," when his 
 demand was acceded to, "is well worth that, for it 
 may get me into the police court" 
 
 "No, don't hit him unless he says nasty things 
 to you," said La Peyrade; "then it will be self- 
 defence." 
 
 When Desroches had confirmed La Peyrade's state- 
 ment that he was a practising advocate, Sauvaignou 
 signed a release containing a receipt for the principal 
 of his claim with costs and interest; the release was 
 to be executed in duplicate by Thuillier and himself, 
 attended by their respective attorneys, so that the 
 document would finally extinguish the claim. 
 
 "We will leave the fifteen hundred francs for 
 you," said La Peyrade in a low tone to Desroches 
 and Godeschal, "but only on condition that you give 
 me the release; I'll take it and have Thuillier sign 
 at his notary, Cardot's; the poor fellow didn't close 
 his eyes last night" 
 
 "Very well!" said Desroches. "You can flatter 
 yourself," he added to Sauvaignou, as he handed 
 him the pen, "on having made fifteen hundred francs 
 very quickly." 
 
 "They are surely mine, Monsieur Attorney?" 
 demanded the Marseillais, already ill at ease. 
 
 "Oh! yes, quite legitimately," replied Desroches. 
 "But you must notify your man this morning of the 
 revocation of his power of attorney under date of 
 yesterday; go into the office, here, this way "
 
 246 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Desroches told his chief clerk what was to be 
 done, and bade one of the students see to it that a 
 messenger was at Cerizet's before ten o'clock. 
 
 "I am greatly obliged to you, Desroches," said 
 La Peyrade, pressing the attorney's hand; "you 
 think of everything, and I won't forget this service. " 
 
 "Don't leave the release at Cardot's until the 
 afternoon." 
 
 "Look you, my countryman," cried the advocate 
 to Sauvaignou, in the Provencal dialect, "take your 
 Margot to Belleville for the day, and above all things 
 don't go home " 
 
 "I understand," said Sauvaignou; "your hand; 
 till to-morrow!" 
 
 "Right you are!" exclaimed La Peyrade, making 
 use of a familiar Provencal phrase. 
 
 "There's something behind this," said Desroches 
 to Godeschal, as the advocate was returning from 
 the office to the attorney's private room. 
 
 "The Thuilliers have a magnificent estate for 
 nothing," said Godeschal, "that's all." 
 
 "La Peyrade and Cerizet remind me of two divers 
 fighting under water. What shall I say to Cerizet, 
 who employed me in the matter?" Desroches 
 asked the advocate, after making that shrewd com- 
 parison to Godeschal in an undertone. 
 
 "That your hand was forced by Sauvaignou," 
 replied La Peyrade. 
 
 "And have you no fear?" Desroches demanded, 
 point blank. 
 
 "Oh! I have something to teach him!"
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 247 
 
 "I shall know about it to-morrow; there's nobody 
 so talkative as a man who's been whipped," said 
 Desroches to Godeschal. 
 
 La Peyrade left them with the release in his 
 pocket At eleven o'clock he was present at the 
 opening of the justice's court, calm and determined, 
 and as Cerizet came in, pale with rage, he whispered 
 to him: 
 
 "My dear boy, I'm a good fellow, too! I still 
 have twenty-five thousand francs in bank notes at 
 your disposal in exchange for all my notes of hand 
 that you hold." 
 
 Cerizet glared at the poor man's lawyer, unable 
 to find words to reply; he was fairly green with the 
 bile he was absorbing.
 
 * 
 
 "I have an indefeasible title to the property 
 now!" cried Thuillier, returning from Jacquinot's, 
 Cardot's son-in-law. "No human power can steal 
 my house from me. They told me so!" 
 
 The bourgeois have much more faith in what a 
 notary says to them than in what an attorney says. 
 The notary is of more importance in their eyes 
 than any other ministerial officer. The average 
 citizen of Paris never calls upon his attorney with- 
 out a feeling of terror, for the man's belligerent 
 manner and audacity bewilder him, whereas each 
 time that he climbs the stairs to his notary's office, 
 he does so with renewed pleasure, for he admires his 
 sagacity and common sense. 
 
 "Cardot, who is on the lookout for a good house, 
 has asked me for one of the apartments on the sec- 
 ond floor," he continued; "if I wish he will intro- 
 duce to me on Sunday a tenant who proposes to take 
 a lease of the whole property for eighteen years at 
 forty thousand francs, he to pay the taxes. What 
 do you say to it, Brigitte?" 
 
 "We must wait," she replied. "Ah! our dear 
 Theodose gave me a pretty scare!" 
 
 "Nonsense, my dear ! Why, do you know, Cardot 
 asked me who put me in the way of this trade, and 
 told me 1 ought to make him a present of ten thousand 
 francs at least. In truth, I owe him everything!" 
 (249)
 
 250 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Well, he's the child of the house," replied 
 Brigitte. 
 
 "Poor fellow, to do him justice he never asks for 
 anything." 
 
 "Well, my good friend," said La Peyrade, when 
 he returned from the magistrate's at three o'clock, 
 "now you're the richest of the rich!" 
 
 "All through you, my dear Theodose " 
 
 "And have you come back to life, dear aunt ? Ah ! 
 you weren't half as frightened as I was. I put your 
 interests before my own. I tell you, I didn't 
 breathe freely until eleven o'clock this forenoon; 
 and now I am sure of having at my heels two mortal 
 enemies in the two people I have deceived for your 
 sake. As I was coming home I was wondering at 
 your influence over me which led me to commit this 
 I might almost say crime ! and whether the joy of 
 being one of your family, of becoming your child, will 
 wipe out the stain I can see upon my conscience." 
 
 "Bah! you can tell it to your confessor," said 
 Thuillier, the skeptic. 
 
 "Now," said Theodose to Brigitte, "you can 
 safely pay the price of the house, eighty thousand 
 francs, and the thirty thousand to Grindot, a hun- 
 dred and twenty thousand in all, including costs and 
 expenses, and this last twenty thousand makes a 
 hundred and forty. If you let the whole to one ten- 
 ant, demand the last year's rent in advance, and 
 reserve the whole first-floor above the entresol for 
 my wife and myself. You can get forty thousand a 
 year for twelve years on those conditions. If you
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 251 
 
 choose to leave this quarter for the neighborhood of 
 the Chamber, there'll be plenty of room for you with 
 us on that huge first-floor, which has stable and car- 
 riage-house and everything necessary for a life of 
 grandeur. And now, Thuillier, I propose to get the 
 cross of the Legion of Honor for you!" 
 
 At this last stroke, Brigitte cried: 
 
 "Faith, my boy, you have looked after our busi- 
 ness so well, that I leave the letting of the house to 
 you." 
 
 "Don't abdicate, my dear aunt," said Theodose, 
 "and God keep me from taking a step without you! 
 you are the good genius of the family. I was just 
 thinking of the day when Thuillier enters the 
 Chamber. You'll be in receipt of forty thousand 
 francs two months from now. And that won't pre- 
 vent Thuillier from getting his ten thousand at the 
 end of the first quarter." 
 
 Having tossed this hope to the old maid, who was 
 in high spirits, he led Thuillier into the garden, and 
 said to him without beating about the bush : 
 
 "My good friend, find an excuse for asking your 
 sister for ten thousand francs, but don't let her sus- 
 pect that they are for me ; tell her that amount is 
 necessary for use in the department to secure your 
 appointment as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, 
 and that you know how to distribute it and to 
 whom." 
 
 "That will do," said Thuillier; "I'll pay it back 
 to her out of the rent " 
 
 "Have the money to-night, my good friend; I am
 
 252 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 going out now to see about your Cross, and to- 
 morrow we shall know what to depend on." 
 
 "What a man you are!" cried Thuillier. 
 
 "The ministry of the first of March is going by 
 the board, and we must get that much out of it," 
 rejoined Theodose, with a knowing look. 
 
 He hurried to Madame Colleville's, and said to 
 her as he went in : 
 
 "1 have won; we shall have for Celeste a piece 
 of real estate worth a million, the reversion of which 
 will be assured to her by Thuillier in the contract; 
 but we must keep the secret or all the peers in 
 France will be after your daughter. However, that 
 provision will be made only in my favor. Now I 
 want you to dress and go to Madame la Comtesse du 
 Bruel; she can get the Cross for Thuillier. While 
 you are putting on your war paint I'll go and pay 
 my court to Celeste a bit; then we can talk in the 
 carriage." 
 
 La Peyrade had seen Celeste and Felix Phellion 
 talking together in the salon. Flavie had such en- 
 tire confidence in her daughter that she had left her 
 with the young professor. After his great triumph 
 of the morning Theodose felt that it was time for him 
 to begin to pay his addresses to Celeste. The hour 
 for making trouble between the lovers had arrived, 
 and he did not scruple to put his ear to the door of 
 the salon before going in, so that he might know 
 what letter they had reached in the alphabet of 
 love; and he was invited, so to speak, to commit 
 this domestic crime by sundry bursts of loud talking,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 253 
 
 which seemed to mean that they were quarreling. 
 Love, according to one of our poets, is the privilege 
 two people accord each other of mutually torment- 
 ing each other about nothing. 
 
 Once Felix was chosen by her heart to be her 
 companion for life, Celeste desired not so much to 
 study him as to be one with him in that communion 
 of hearts which is the beginning of all affection, and 
 which, in young people, leads instinctively to scru- 
 tiny. The quarrel to which Theodose was prepar- 
 ing to listen had its source in a serious disagreement 
 that had taken place between Celeste and the 
 mathematician several days before. 
 
 The young girl, who was the moral product of 
 the years when Madame Colleville was trying to 
 repent of her sins, was sincerely pious ; her piety 
 was deep-seated ; she belonged to the flock of the 
 truly faithful, and in her character, absolute Catholi- 
 cism, tempered by the mysticism which is so 
 attractive to youthful hearts, was a sort of inborn 
 poesy, a life within a life. Starting from that point, 
 young women grow up to be extremely frivolous or 
 saints. But, during that lovely period of their 
 youth, they have a touch of absolutism in their 
 hearts; in their thoughts they have always before 
 their eyes the image of perfection, and everything 
 must be celestial, angelic or divine. Outside of 
 their ideal, nothing exists; all is filth and corruption. 
 This idea leads many girls to look with scorn upon 
 diamonds of the first water, who, as women grown, 
 adore paste.
 
 254 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Now, Celeste had come to realize that Felix was 
 not irreligious, but indifferent, in religious matters. 
 Like the majority of geometricians, chemists, mathe- 
 maticians and great naturalists, he had subjected 
 religion to the test of argument: he recognized 
 therein a problem as insoluble as that of squaring 
 the circle. A deist in petto, he adhered to the relig- 
 ion of the majority of Frenchmen without attaching 
 more importance to it than does the new law hatched 
 in July. There must be a God in heaven just as 
 there must be a bust of the king on a pedestal at 
 the mayor's office. Felix Phellion, a worthy son of 
 his father, had never spread the slightest veil over 
 his conscience; with the absent-mindedness of a 
 solver of problems he allowed Celeste to read what 
 was written there; and the maiden confused the 
 religious question with the civil question; she 
 professed a profound horror of atheism, and her 
 confessor told her that the deist is the cousin-german 
 of the atheist. 
 
 "Have you thought about doing what you prom- 
 ised, Felix ?" said Celeste, as soon as Madame Colle- 
 ville left them alone. 
 
 "No, my dear Celeste," replied Felix. 
 
 "Oh! to think of breaking your promise!" she 
 cried gently. 
 
 "It would be a profanation," said Felix. "I love 
 you so dearly and my affection is so weak when 
 opposed to your wishes, that I promised something 
 contrary to my conscience. Conscience, Celeste, 
 is our treasure, our strength, our mainstay. How
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 255 
 
 can you wish me to go to church and kneel at the 
 feet of a priest in whom I can see only a man ? You 
 would have despised me if I had obeyed you." 
 
 "And so you do not intend to go to church?" said 
 Celeste, with a tearful glance at the man she loved. 
 "If I were your wife you would let me go to church 
 alone ? You don't love me as I love you ! for even 
 now I have in my heart a feeling for an atheist con- 
 trary to what God would have me entertain." 
 
 "An atheist!" cried Felix. "Oh! no. Listen 
 to me, Celeste. There certainly is a God ; I believe 
 in Him, but I have higher ideas concerning Him than 
 your priests have; I don't pull Him down to my 
 level, but I try to raise myself to His. I listen to 
 the voice He has placed within me, which honest 
 men call conscience, and I try not to obscure the 
 divine rays which come to me. Therefore I shall 
 never injure anyone and I shall never do aught con- 
 trary to the teachings of the world-wide moral law, 
 which was the moral law of Confucius, of Moses, 
 of Pythagoras, of Socrates, as well as of Jesus 
 Christ I shall stand erect in God's presence; my 
 acts will be my prayers; I shall never lie, my word 
 will be sacred, and I shall never do anything base 
 or mean. Such are the precepts I learned from my 
 virtuous father, and I wish to bequeath them to my 
 children. All the good I can do 1 will do, though I 
 must suffer thereby. What more can you ask of a 
 man?" 
 
 This profession of faith caused Celeste to shake 
 her head with a pained expression.
 
 256 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Read the Imitations of Jesus Christ carefully," 
 said she. "Try to become a convert to the Catho- 
 lic, Apostolic, Roman Church, and you will see how 
 absurd your words are. Listen, Felix; marriage is 
 not, in the eye of the Church, a matter of a day, or 
 entered into for the mere gratification of our desires; 
 it is for eternity. What! we are to be together 
 night and day, we are to be one flesh, one voice, 
 and yet we shall have in our hearts two languages, 
 two religions, a perpetual cause of discord! You 
 would condemn me to shed tears for the state of 
 your soul, and to hide them from you; could I appeal 
 to God, when 1 saw His laws constantly invoked 
 against you? Your deistic blood and your convic- 
 tions might be inherited by my children! Oh! my 
 God! what wretchedness to undergo for a husband! 
 No, such thoughts are intolerable. O Felix! be of 
 my faith, for I cannot be of yours ! Do not place a 
 gulf between us. If you loved me, you would have 
 read the Imitation of Jesus Christ before this." 
 
 The Phel lions, true offspring of the Constitution- 
 net, were not fond of the priestly mind. Felix was 
 imprudent enough to reply to this prayer from the 
 depths of a loving heart: 
 
 "You are simply repeating a lesson you have 
 learned from your confessor, Celeste, and nothing is 
 so fatal to happiness, believe me, as the interference 
 of priests in family affairs." 
 
 "Oh!" cried Celeste, indignantly, for love alone 
 had inspired her words, "you do not love me! The 
 voice of my heart does not go to yours! You didn't
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 257 
 
 understand me, for you didn't listen to me, and I 
 forgive you, for you know not what you say." 
 
 She enveloped herself in haughty silence, and 
 Felix went and drummed on the window with his 
 fingers: familiar music to those who are absorbed by 
 bitter thoughts. Felix, in truth, proceeded to pro- 
 pound to himself these nice and curious questions 
 suggested by the Phellion conscience: 
 
 "Celeste is a wealthy heiress, and if I yield to 
 her ideas, disregarding the voice of natural religion, 
 I should be influenced by the prospect of an advan- 
 tageous marriage : an infamous deed. As father of 
 a family I could not allow priests to have the least 
 influence in my house; if I yield to-day, I am guilty 
 of a weakness which will be followed by many 
 others equally disastrous to a father's and husband's 
 authority. All this is unbefitting a philosopher." 
 
 He returned to his beloved. 
 
 "Celeste, I implore you on my knees, let us not 
 mingle what the law in its wisdom has separated. 
 We live for two worlds, society and heaven. Let 
 every man seek salvation in his own way; but, as 
 far as society is concerned, do we not obey God when 
 we observe its laws? Christ "said: 'Render unto 
 Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' Caesar is the 
 political world. Let us forget this trifling dispute !" 
 
 "A trifling dispute!" cried the young enthusiast. 
 "I wish you to have all my heart as I wish to 
 have all yours, and you divide it in two! Is not 
 that misfortune? You forget that marriage is a sac- 
 rament." 
 17
 
 258 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Your black gowns have turned your head!" ex- 
 claimed the mathematician, testily. 
 
 "Monsieur Phellion, you have said enough upon 
 that subject, " interposed Celeste, sharply. 
 
 At this juncture Theodose deemed it expedient 
 to make his appearance on the scene, and found 
 Celeste very pale and the young professor as 
 anxious as any lover who has just angered his 
 mistress. 
 
 "I heard the word enough! That meant that 
 there was too much, I suppose?" he said, looking 
 inquiringly from Celeste to Felix. 
 
 "We were talking of religion," Felix replied, 
 "and I was saying to Mademoiselle what a wretched 
 thing outside religious influence is in a family." 
 
 "That's not the question, Monsieur," said Ce- 
 leste, sharply, "but whether a husband and wife 
 can have but one heart when one is an atheist and 
 the other a Catholic." 
 
 "Can it be that there are such things as athe- 
 ists? " cried Theodose, feigning profound amaze- 
 ment "Can a Catholic marry a Protestant? Why, 
 there is no possible salvation for husband and wife 
 except in perfect accord in religious matters! I, 
 to be sure, I am from the Comtat, and belong to a 
 family that numbers a pope among its ancestors, for 
 our crest is a silver key gules, and we have for sup- 
 porters a monk holding up a church and a pilgrim 
 with a golden staff, with the device: / open and I 
 close \ am absolutely ferocious on the subject But 
 to-day, thanks to the modern system of education.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 259 
 
 it doesn't seem extraordinary to agitate such ques- 
 tions! Why, I have said that I wouldn't marry 
 a Protestant, no matter how many millions she 
 might have, not even if I loved her to distraction! 
 Faith isn't a matter to be discussed. Una fides, 
 units Dominus, is my political motto." 
 
 "You hear!" cried Celeste, with a triumphant 
 glance at Felix. 
 
 "I am no devotee," continued La Peyrade; "I go 
 to mass at six in the morning, when no one sees 
 me; I fast on Fridays; 1 am, in short, a son of the 
 Church, and I would not enter upon any serious un- 
 dertaking without first offering up a prayer, accord- 
 ing to the old custom of our ancestors. No one 
 notices my religion. In the Revolution of 1789 
 something happened in my family which bound us 
 all more closely than ever to our Holy Mother Church. 
 A poor girl belonging to the elder branch of the La 
 Peyrades, who own the little estate of La Peyrade, 
 for we are Peyrades des Canquoelles, but the two 
 branches inherit from each other, well, this young 
 woman married, six years before the Revolution, 
 an advocate who was, as the fashion was among 
 advocates in those days, a Voltairean, that is to say, 
 a doubter, a deist if you choose. He chimed in with 
 the Revolutionary ideas and abounded in the pretty 
 conceits you've heard about the worship of the 
 Goddess Reason and the rest He came into our 
 province saturated with the Convention, a perfect 
 fanatic. His wife was very beautiful and he com- 
 pelled her to play the r61e of Liberty; the poor
 
 260 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 creature went mad. She died a madwoman ! Well, 
 in these days, we can see a repetition of 1793." 
 
 This fable, invented on the spur of the moment, 
 made so deep an impression upon Celeste's fresh, 
 young imagination, that she rose, bowed to the 
 young men and withdrew to her own room. 
 
 "Ah! Monsieur, what did you say to her?" cried 
 Felix, struck to the heart by the cold glance Celeste 
 darted at him with an affectation of profound indif- 
 ference. "She thinks she is already transformed 
 into the Goddess of Reason." 
 
 "What was the trouble, pray?" Theodose asked. 
 
 "My indifference in religious matters." 
 
 "The great curse of the age," rejoined Theodose, 
 solemnly. 
 
 "Here I am," said Madame Colleville, as she 
 entered the room, dressed with great taste. "But 
 what's happened to my poor daughter ? she's cry- 
 ing-" 
 
 "She's crying, Madame!" cried Felix; "tell her 
 that I'll begin studying the Imitation of Jesus Christ 
 at once." 
 
 He went down stairs with Theodose and Flavie, 
 the advocate pressing Flavie's arm to imply that he 
 would explain the young scholar's dementia when 
 they were in the cab. 
 
 An hour later, Colleville, Madame Colleville, 
 Celeste and Theodose arrived at the Thuilliers' to 
 dinner. Theodose and Flavie took Thuillier into 
 the garden, and Theodose said to him : 
 
 "My good friend, you shall have the Cross in a
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 261 
 
 week. Our dear friend here will tell you about our 
 call on Madame la Comtesse du Bruel " 
 
 He abruptly broke off and left Thuillier, as he saw 
 Mademoiselle Thuillier escorting Desroches into the 
 garden ; he went to meet the attorney with a horri- 
 ble presentiment that made his blood run cold. 
 
 "My dear master," said Desroches in his ear, "I 
 come to see if you can get hold of twenty-five thous- 
 and francs and twenty-six hundred and eighty 
 francs sixty centimes costs." 
 
 "You are Cerizet's attorney?" cried the advo- 
 cate. 
 
 "He has handed the papers to Louchard and you 
 know what you have to expect, after an arrest Is 
 Cerizet mistaken in thinking that you have twenty- 
 five thousand francs in your desk ? You offered them 
 to him and it's quite natural for him not to let you 
 keep them " 
 
 "I thank you for what you have done, my dear 
 master," said Theodose ; "I anticipated this attack. " 
 
 "Between ourselves," replied Desroches, "you 
 fooled him in great style. The rascal won't stop at 
 anything to revenge himself, for if you choose to 
 throw your gown to the dogs and go to prison, he 
 loses everything " 
 
 "I go to prison !" cried Theodose ; "I'll pay ! But 
 there are five more acceptances for five thousand 
 each ; what does he mean to do with them ?" 
 
 "Oh! after this morning, I can't tell you any- 
 thing; but my client is a shrewd, mangy dog, and 
 he has his little schemes "
 
 262 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Tell me, Desroches," said La Peyrade, putting 
 his hand on the thin, gaunt attorney's shoulder, 
 "you still have the notes, haven't you?" 
 
 "Do you mean to pay?" 
 
 "Yes; in three hours." 
 
 "All right ; be at my office at nine o'clock ; I'll take 
 your money and hand you the notes ; but at half- 
 past nine they'll be in Louchard's hands." 
 
 "Very well, this evening at nine." 
 
 "At nine," assented Desroches, whose keen glance 
 embraced the whole family assembled in the garden. 
 
 Celeste, red-eyed, was talking with her god- 
 mother, Colleville and Brigitte, Flavie and Thuil- 
 lier, on the broad steps leading up from the garden 
 to the hall. 
 
 "You can well afford to take up your notes," said 
 Desroches to Theodose, as he escorted him to the 
 door. 
 
 At a single glance Desroches understood the ad- 
 vocate's vast projects. 
 
 The next morning at daybreak Theodose called 
 upon the costermongers' banker to see the effect 
 produced upon his enemy by the payment of his 
 notes punctually at the time appointed on the pre- 
 vious evening, and to make one more attempt to rid 
 himself of the gadfly. 
 
 He found Cerizet standing, in consultation with a 
 woman, and received from him an imperative com- 
 mand to remain at a distance and not interrupt their 
 interview. The advocate was therefore reduced to 
 conjecture as to what the woman's business could
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 263 
 
 be, for its importance was clearly indicated by the 
 usurer's thoughtful expression. Theodose had a 
 presentiment, extremely vague to be sure, that the 
 conference would have some effect upon Cerizet's 
 plans, for he saw in his countenance the complete 
 transformation produced by hope. 
 
 "But, dear Mother Cardinal" 
 
 "Yes, my good man " 
 
 "What do you want?" 
 
 "We must make up our minds " 
 
 Such beginning or ends of sentences were the only 
 rays of light that this animated conversation, carried 
 on in low tones, mouth to ear and ear to mouth, cast 
 upon the motionless witness, whose attention was 
 concentrated on Madame Cardinal. 
 
 Madame Cardinal was one of Cerizet's first cus- 
 tomers, a fishhawker. Parisians may be familiar 
 with this class of creatures, peculiar to their soil, 
 but foreigners do not suspect their existence, and 
 Mere Cardinal, as she was technically called, was 
 deserving of the interest she aroused in the advo- 
 cate's mind. One meets so many women of her 
 stamp in the streets that the passer-by pays little 
 more heed to them than to the three thousand pic- 
 tures of an exposition. But, in this digression, La 
 Cardinal has all the interest of a masterpiece hang- 
 ing by itself, for she was a perfect type of her 
 species. 
 
 She stood upon muddy wooden clogs ; but her feet 
 were carefully enveloped in socks, and were further 
 protected by stout milled stockings. Her calico
 
 264 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 dress, enriched with a flounce of mud, bore the 
 marks of the strap that held her fishbasket, diago- 
 nally across her short back. Her principal garment 
 was a shawl of the variety known as rabbit's skin 
 cashmere, the ends of which were tied above her 
 tournure, we must employ the word current in 
 fashionable society, to describe the effect produced 
 by the impression of the strap across her skirts, 
 which rose in the shape of a cabbage. A piece of 
 coarse cotton, worn as a neckerchief, left bare a red 
 neck, seamed like the basin of La Villette after 
 people have been skating there. Her head-dress 
 was a yellow silk handkerchief, twisted pictur- 
 esquely. 
 
 Short and stout was Mere Cardinal, and of a rich 
 coloring that suggested a glass of eau-de-vie in the 
 morning. She had been beautiful. The Market 
 reproached her, in its boldly metaphorical speech, of 
 having more than once turned night into day. Her 
 voice, in order to meet the requirements of ordinary 
 conversation, was obliged to compress its volume as 
 one does in a sick-room ; but then it issued thick 
 and muffled from a palate accustomed to shout the 
 names of the fish she had for sale at each season so 
 that she could be heard in the loftiest attics. Her 
 nose a la Roxelane, her well-shaped mouth, her blue 
 eyes, all that had once contributed to make her 
 beautiful were swallowed up in layers of healthy fat 
 which told of a life passed in the open air. Her 
 stomach and bosom were noticeable for their 
 Rubens-like amplitude.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 265 
 
 "Do you want me to lie on straw?" she said to 
 Cerizet "What do I care for the Toupilliers ? Ain't 
 1 a Toupillier? Where do you want to put the 
 Toupilliers?" 
 
 This fierce outbreak was repressed by Cerizet 
 with a prolonged hush ! of the sort that all conspira- 
 tors heed. 
 
 "Well, go and see what it amounts to and come 
 back," said Cerizet, edging her toward the door, 
 where he whispered a word or two in her ear. 
 
 "Well, my dear friend," said Theodose, "you 
 have your money?" 
 
 "Yes," was the reply; "we have measured our 
 claws, and they are of equal length and strength and 
 toughness. What next?" 
 
 "Shall I tell Dutocq that you received twenty-five 
 thousand francs yesterday?" 
 
 "Oh! my dear friend, not a word if you love 
 me!" cried Cerizet 
 
 "Look you," retorted Theodose, "I must know 
 once for all what you want I have definitely made 
 up my mind that I will not remain twenty-four 
 hours more on the gridiron where you have placed 
 me. It is a matter of perfect indifferenc to me how 
 much you gull Dutocq; but I propose that you and I 
 shall have an understanding. Twenty-five thousand 
 francs is a fortune to you, for you must have made 
 ten thousand in your business, and it's enough to 
 make you an honest man. Cerizet, if you will let 
 me alone, if you won't interfere with my marrying 
 Mademoiselle Colleville, I shall get to be something
 
 266 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 like king's advocate in Paris; you couldn't do better 
 than make sure of a protector in that direction." 
 
 "Here are my conditions, and they're not to be 
 discussed; you can accept them or not. You see 
 that I have the Thuillier house as principal tenant 
 on an eighteen years' lease, and I will hand you one 
 of the other five notes discharged. You won't find 
 me in your way any more and you can arrange 
 about the four others with Dutocq. You will have 
 got rid of me, and Dutocq isn't strong enough to 
 fight with you " 
 
 "I agree if you will pay forty-eight thousand 
 francs a year for the house, the last year in advance, 
 and let the rent begin in October next" 
 
 "All right, but I'll only pay forty-three thous- 
 and in cash; your note makes up the forty-eight. 
 I have seen the house and looked it over and it 
 suits me." 
 
 "One last condition," said Theodose: "you will 
 assist me against Dutocq?" 
 
 "No," replied Cerizet, "you've cooked him quite 
 enough, without my sticking the larding-pin into 
 him; he'd lose all his juice. We must be reasona- 
 ble. The poor devil doesn't know how he is to pay 
 the last fifteen thousand francs on the price of his 
 clerkship, and it's enough for you to know that you 
 can take up your notes for fifteen thousand." 
 
 "Well, give me a fortnight to get your lease for 
 you." 
 
 "Not longer than till next Monday ! On Tuesday 
 your note for five thousand will be in Louchard's
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 267 
 
 hands, unless you pay it or Thuillier agrees to give 
 me the lease, by Monday." 
 
 "Very well, Monday it is!" said Theodose. "Are 
 we friends?" 
 
 "We shall be Monday," replied Cerizet 
 
 "All right, until Monday; will you pay for my 
 dinner?" said Theodose, laughingly. 
 
 "Yes, at the Rocker de Cancale if I get the lease. 
 Dutocq will be there and we'll have some sport 
 It's a long time since I laughed." 
 
 Theodose and Cerizet exchanged a grasp of the 
 hand, and the words : 
 
 "I'll see you again soon!"
 
 Cerizet had not allowed himself to be so promptly 
 appeased without cause. In the first place, as 
 Desroches said: "Bile doesn't facilitate business," 
 and the usurer was too sensible of the wisdom of the 
 remark not to make up his mind in cold blood to 
 make the most of his situation, and strangle, the 
 technical word, the shrewd young Provencal. 
 
 "You have your revenge to take, " said Desroches, 
 "and you've got that young fellow. Be sure and 
 extract his quintessence." 
 
 In the last ten years Cerizet had seen more than 
 one man enriched by carrying on the trade of prin- 
 cipal tenant. The principal tenant is to the owner 
 of buildings in Paris what the farmer is to the owner 
 of estates in the country. All Paris has seen one of 
 its most famous tailors building a most magnificent 
 structure at his own expense on the celebrated Fras- 
 cati property, and paying fifty thousand a year rent 
 therefor as principal tenant, the building to belong 
 to the owner of the land at the expiration of a nine- 
 teen-years' lease. Despite the expense of construc- 
 tion, which was something like seven hundred 
 thousand francs, the net profits of the lease were 
 very handsome. 
 
 Cerizet, on the watch for business opportunities, 
 reckoned up the chances of profit offered by the loca- 
 tion of the building stolen by Thuillier, as he told 
 (269)
 
 270 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 Desroches, and was satisfied that he could sublet it 
 for more than sixty thousand francs at the end of six 
 years. It had four shops, two in each front, and 
 occupied a corner lot on the boulevard. 
 
 Cerizet hoped to make at least twelve thousand a 
 year for twelve years, without reckoning the possi- 
 bilities, the premiums paid at each renewal of a lease 
 by the tradesmen who had established a good busi- 
 ness there, to whom he would not give leases for a 
 longer term than six years at first. He proposed to 
 sell the good will of his usury office to the Widow 
 Poiret and Cadenet for twelve thousand francs, and 
 as he already had more than thirty thousand he was 
 possessed of the means of paying the year's rent in 
 advance which landlords are accustomed to demand, 
 as security, from principal tenants. Cerizet there- 
 fore had passed a very happy night; his sleep was 
 one long dream in which he fancied himself in a fair 
 way to adopt an honest business, and to become a 
 good citizen like Thuillier and Minard and many 
 others. 
 
 He abandoned all thought of the house in process 
 of construction on Rue Geoffroy-Marie. But he had 
 an awakening which he did not expect; he found 
 Fortune standing beside him in the person of Mad- 
 ame Cardinal, and pouring forth gifts upon him in 
 abundance from her horn of plenty. 
 
 He had always treated this woman with consider- 
 ation, and had promised her, for a year or more, the 
 necessary funds to purchase a donkey and a little 
 cart, so that she might carry on her business on a
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 271 
 
 large scale, and go from Paris into the suburbs. 
 Madame Cardinal was the widow of one of the pil- 
 lars of the Market, and she had an only daughter, 
 whose beauty was much vaunted to Cerizet by other 
 gossips. Olympe Cardinal was about thirteen years 
 old when Cerizet began to loan money in the quar- 
 ter, in 1837, and he showed the greatest attention 
 to La Cardinal, to serve his own base ends; he 
 raised her out of the depths of want, hoping to make 
 Olympe his mistress; but, in 1838, the girl left her 
 mother, and was doubtless making her living, to use 
 the phrase with which the common people of Paris 
 describe the misuse of the precious gifts of nature 
 and youth. 
 
 To look for a girl in Paris is like looking for a 
 sole in the Seine; one can simply take the chance 
 of a lucky cast of the net This lucky cast had been 
 made. Mere Cardinal, who had entertained one of 
 her lady friends by taking her to the Bobino Theatre, 
 had recognized her daughter in the "leading lady" 
 whom the "first" comic had had under his protection 
 for three years. The mother was flattered at first 
 to see the heiress in a lovely, spangled gown, with 
 her hair dressed like a duchess's, open-work stock- 
 ings and satin shoes, and to hear the shouts of ap- 
 plause that greeted her when she appeared ; but she 
 ended by shouting to her from her seat: 
 
 "You shall hear from me, you murderer of your 
 mother! I'll find out if dirty strollers have any 
 right to ruin girls of sixteen!" 
 
 She undertook to watch for her daughter when she
 
 2/2 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 left the theatre, but the leading lady and the first 
 comic must have leaped over the footlights and have 
 gone out with the spectators, instead of by the stage- 
 door where the Widow Cardinal and Mere Mahou- 
 deau, her good friend, made an infernal uproar 
 which two municipal guards pacified. Those august 
 functionaries, in obedience to whom the two 
 women lowered the pitch of their voices, called the 
 mother's attention to the fact that at sixteen her 
 daughter was old enough to go on the stage, and that, 
 instead of shrieking at the door for the manager, she 
 could summon him before the justice of the peace or 
 the police court, as she chose. 
 
 The next morning Madame Cardinal was intend- 
 ing to consult Cerizet, having in view the fact that 
 he was employed by the justice of the peace; but 
 before she had started for his den on Rue des Poules, 
 she was struck dumb by the concierge of the house 
 where old Toupillier, her uncle, lived; he had not 
 two days to live, being in the last stages of consump- 
 tion, so the man told her. 
 
 "Well, what do you want me to do?" the widow 
 inquired. 
 
 "We count on you, dear Madame Cardinal; you 
 won't forget us for the good advice we give you. 
 Here's the way it is : just lately your poor uncle, 
 being as he couldn't move, trusted me to collect 
 the rents of his house, Rue Notre-Dame de Naz- 
 areth, and the back money on a certificate he has 
 on the Treasury for eighteen hundred francs a 
 year."
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 273 
 
 From that instant the Widow Cardinal's eyes, 
 which had been wandering vaguely around, became 
 fixed. 
 
 "Yes, my dear," continued Master Perrache, 
 the little lame concierge; "and, seeing that you're 
 the only one that ever thought of him, and took him 
 fish now and then, you may find he's done the hand- 
 some thing by you. My wife's been looking out for 
 him latterly and sitting up with him; she mentioned 
 you to him, but he wouldn't let her tell you he was 
 sick. You see it's high time for you to show your- 
 self. Dame, it's near two months since he did any 
 business." 
 
 "Come, my old leather-scratcher, " said Mere 
 Cardinal to the concierge, a shoemaker by trade, 
 as they hurried off to Rue Honore-Chevalier, 
 where her uncle dwelt in a filthy attic, "you'll agree 
 that the hair might have grown long on my hand 
 before I'd have imagined that! What! My uncle 
 Toupillier rich! Oh! the honest pauper of Saint- 
 Sulpice!" 
 
 "Ah!" rejoined the concierge, "he looked out for 
 himself all right, he went to bed every night with 
 his good friend, a big bottle of Roussillon. My wife 
 has tasted it; but he told us it was six-franc wine. 
 He got it at the wine-shop on Rue des Canettes. " 
 
 "Don't blab about this, my boy, " said the widow, 
 as she parted from her informant, "I'll look after 
 you, if there's anything in it." 
 
 This Toupillier, once a drum-major in the Garde- 
 Francaise, had entered the service of the Church 
 
 18
 
 274 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 two years before 1789, becoming verger at Saint- 
 Sulpice. The Revolution deprived him of his job, 
 and he became horribly poor. He was thereupon 
 compelled to take up the profession of a model, for he 
 enjoyed a fine physique. 
 
 When the religion was rehabilitated he resumed 
 his staff; but he was dismissed in 1816, as much on 
 account of his bad moral character as of his political 
 opinions; he was supposed to be a Bonapartist. 
 However, as a compensation, he was allowed to 
 stand at the door, where he distributed holy water. 
 Later, a scandalous affair, whereof we shall have a 
 word to say anon, deprived him of his sprinkler ; but 
 he found still another method of attaching himself 
 to the sanctuary and obtained leave to sit at the 
 church door in the capacity of a pauper. At this 
 period, rich in the memories of the seventy-two years 
 he had lived, he laid claim to ninety-six, and began 
 the role of centenarian. 
 
 In all Paris it was impossible to find such a beard 
 and such hair as Toupillier's. He was bent almost 
 double as he walked, holding a staff in one trem- 
 bling hand, covered with lichen like that that grows 
 upon granite, and in the other his classic, soiled and 
 patched broad-brimmed hat, wherein alms fell plen- 
 tifully. His legs, encased in ragged bandages, ter- 
 minated in horribly dilapidated shoes of coarse 
 matting, within which he filled, however, excellent 
 horse-hair soles. He smeared his face with various 
 compounds which simulated the marks left by severe 
 maladies, blotches and seams, and he counterfeited
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 275 
 
 the senility of the centenarian to admiration. He 
 had been one hundred years old since 1830, and he 
 was in fact eighty. He was the dean of the church 
 poor, the master of the square, and all those who 
 came to beg beneath the arches of the church, out of 
 reach of the police agents, and under the protection 
 of the verger, the beadle, the dispenser of holy water 
 and the parish, paid him a sort of tithe. 
 
 When an heiress or a bridegroom or a godfather 
 would say, as they left the church: "Here's some- 
 thing for all of you, and don't annoy anybody," 
 Toupillier, indicated by his successor in the ver- 
 gership, would pocket three-fourths of the gratuities 
 and give only one-fourth to his acolytes, from whom 
 he exacted as tribute a sou a day. Money and wine 
 were his two great passions ; but he kept the second 
 under control and surrendered unconditionally to 
 the first, without neglecting his comfort. He drank 
 at night after dinner, when the church was closed ; 
 he slept for twenty years in the arms of drunken- 
 ness, his last mistress. 
 
 In the morning, at dawn, he was at his post with 
 all his properties. From that time until dinner, 
 which he took at Pere Lathuile's, made famous by 
 Charlet, he gnawed crusts of bread for nourishment 
 and he gnawed them most artistically in a way that 
 brought him alms galore. The verger and the dis- 
 penser of holy water, with whom he had an under- 
 standing perhaps, used to say of him : 
 
 "He's the church pauper; he knew Languet the 
 cure, who built Saint-Sulpice; he was verger twenty
 
 276 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 years both before and after the Revolution ; he's a 
 hundred years old." 
 
 This little biography, familiar to good churchmen, 
 was the best of all advertisements and in all Paris 
 no hat was passed with more satisfactory results. 
 He bought his house in 1826 and his rentes in 1830. 
 
 Judging from the value of the two properties, his 
 receipts must have amounted to six thousand francs 
 a year and must have been invested in some usuri- 
 ous business like Cerizet's, for the house cost forty 
 thousand francs and the rentes forty-eight thousand. 
 His niece, who was thoroughly hoodwinked by her 
 uncle, as were the concierges, the petty church func- 
 tionaries and the charitable pious folk, believed him 
 to be in greater want than herself, and when she 
 had any fish that were a little tainted she would 
 carry them to the poor man. 
 
 She deemed herself fully entitled, therefore, to reap 
 what advantage she could from her liberality and 
 her compassion for her uncle, who was sure to have 
 a multitude of collateral relations who were stran- 
 gers to her, for she was the third and last Toupillier 
 girl; she had four brothers, and her father, who 
 drove a hand-cart, used to talk to her in her child- 
 hood of three aunts and four uncles, all of whom 
 had the oddest of careers. 
 
 After she had seen the sick man she went off at 
 a gallop to consult Cerizet and told him about find- 
 ing her daughter, and detailed the arguments for 
 and against the idea that her uncle had a heap of 
 gold concealed in his wretched bed. Mere Cardinal
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 277 
 
 did not feel quite sure enough of her position to 
 seize upon the succession legally or illegally, and 
 she went to Cerizet intending to abide by his 
 advice. 
 
 The petty usurer, like the men who work in 
 sewers, had at last found a diamond in the slime he 
 had been wallowing in for four years, espying 
 therein one of those lucky chances which are some- 
 times met with, so they say, in the faubourgs, 
 where heirs to great estates have been seen in clogs. 
 This was the secret of his good humor with the man 
 whose ruin he had sworn to accomplish. We can 
 imagine his anxiety as he awaited the return of the 
 Widow Cardinal, to whom the crafty deviser of 
 shady schemes had imparted the means of verifying 
 her suspicions as to the existence of the treasure, 
 promising her complete success if she chose to en- 
 trust to him the task of garnering the harvest He 
 was not the man to recoil before a crime, especially 
 when he saw an opportunity to induce somebody 
 else to commit it, while he himself reaped all the 
 benefit to be derived from it Then he would 
 buy the house on Rue Geoff roy-Marie, and he 
 could see himself already a Parisian bourgeois, a 
 capitalist in a position to undertake great business 
 enterprises. 
 
 "My Benjamin," said the fishvender, approach- 
 ing Cerizet with features inflamed by greed no less 
 than by the swift pace at which she had come, "my 
 uncle's lying on more than a hundred thousand 
 francs in gold! and I know that the Perraches have
 
 278 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 spotted the stuff while they've been pretending to 
 take care of him." 
 
 "Cut up among forty heirs," said Cerizet, "that 
 fortune wouldn't give each one a very big slice. 
 Look here, Mere Cardinal, I'm going to marry your 
 daughter : give her your uncle's gold, and you can 
 have the rente and the house for life." 
 
 "Don't we run any risk?" 
 
 "None at all." 
 
 "Done," said Madame Cardinal, grasping her 
 future son-in-law's hand. "Six thousand a year: 
 that's not bad!" 
 
 "And a son-in-law like me, you know!" added 
 Cerizet. 
 
 "I'll be an honest citizeness of Paris!" cried La 
 Cardinal. 
 
 "Now," continued Cerizet, after a pause, during 
 which the son-in-law and mother-in-law embraced, 
 "I must go and look over the ground. Don't you 
 leave the place again ; you just tell the concierge 
 you're waiting for a doctor. I'll be the doctor and 
 you pretend not to know me." 
 
 "You're a sly villain!" said Mere Cardinal, 
 giving him a friendly tap on the chest by way 
 of adieu. 
 
 An hour afterward, Cerizet, dressed entirely in 
 black, disguised by a red beard and a countenance 
 of artistic workmanship, arrived at Rue Honore- 
 Chevalier in a regulation turnout He asked the 
 cobbler-concierge to direct him to the lodging of a 
 poor man named Toupillier.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 279 
 
 "Is Monsieur the doctor expected by Madame 
 Cardinal?" the concierge asked. 
 
 Cerizet had reflected, no doubt, upon the serious 
 character of the part he had undertaken, for he 
 evaded a direct reply. 
 
 "Is this the way?" he said, walking at random 
 toward one side of the court-yard. 
 
 "No, Monsieur," Perrache replied, and he led 
 him to a servant's staircase leading to the attic 
 occupied by the pauper. 
 
 The inquisitive concierge was reduced to the 
 necessity of questioning the cab driver, and we will 
 leave him pursuing investigations in that direction. 
 
 The house in which Toupillier lived is one of 
 those which are likely to lose half their depth when 
 the streets are laid out according to the new plan, 
 for Rue Honore-Chevalier is one of the narrowest in 
 the whole Saint-Sulpice quarter. The owner, being 
 prohibited by law from building additional stories 
 or repairing, was compelled to let the barrack in the 
 condition in which it was when he purchased it 
 The street front was excessively ugly. The struc- 
 ture consisted of a first-floor and attics above the 
 ground-floor, and a little square building on either 
 side. The courtyard ended in a garden, well stocked 
 with trees, which was let with the first-floor. This 
 garden, which was separated from the courtyard by 
 an iron fence, would have made it possible for a 
 wealthy proprietor to sell the house to the munici- 
 pality and rebuild it on the courtyard site; but the 
 whole first-floor was let on an eighteen-years* lease
 
 280 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 to a mysterious personage, concerning whom neither 
 the official presumption of the concierge nor the 
 curiosity of the other tenants had been able to glean 
 a morsel of information to feed upon. 
 
 This tenant, who was then sixty-six years old, 
 had, in 1829, put up a staircase to the rear window 
 of the house looking on the garden, so that he could 
 go down and walk there without passing through the 
 court-yard. The left-hand half of the ground-floor 
 was occupied by a bookstitcher who had made the 
 carriage-houses and stables over into workshops ten 
 years before, and the other half by a bookbinder. 
 Each of these tenants occupied half of the attic-floor 
 upon the street The attics above one of the ells in 
 the rear formed part of the quarters of the mysteri- 
 ous tenant Lastly, Toupillier paid a hundred francs 
 for the garret above the little ell at the left, reached 
 by a staircase which had only a borrowed light. 
 The porte cochere was in a circular recess, indis- 
 pensable in a narrow street where two carriages can 
 not pass each other. 
 
 Cerizet seized a cord which served as a rail and 
 climbed the sort of ladder leading to the room where 
 the centenarian was dying; in that room the ghastly 
 spectacle of simulated misery awaited him. 
 
 In Paris, everything that is done for an express 
 purpose is wonderfully successful. In this respect 
 the pauper is as clever as the shopkeeper in arrang- 
 ing his show-cases, as the pretended rich man seek- 
 ing to obtain credit 
 
 The floor had never been swept; the tiles were
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 281 
 
 invisible beneath heaps of litter of all sorts, filth, 
 dust, dried mud and everything that Toupillier had 
 thrown there. A wretched iron stove, whose funnel 
 led into a gap in a condemned chimney, was the 
 most prominent article 6f furniture in the disgust- 
 ing den; at the back of an alcove was placed the 
 tent-bed, with green serge valances and head- 
 curtains which the worms had made into lace. 
 The window, almost obscured, had a coating of filth 
 upon the panes which made curtains unnecessary. 
 The whitewashed walls presented a smoke-dried 
 appearance due to the charcoal and peat the poor 
 man burned in his stove. On the mantel-piece were 
 two bottles, a chipped water-pitcher and a cracked 
 plate. A wretched worm-eaten commode contained 
 his linen and clean clothes. The other furniture 
 consisted of a light stand of the commonest sort, a 
 table worth forty sous, and two kitchen chairs 
 almost destitute of straw. The centenarian's pic- 
 turesque costume was hanging on a nail, and on the 
 floor beneath it the shapeless pieces of matting that 
 he used as shoes; his illusive staff and his hat 
 formed a sort of panoply of poverty. 
 
 As he entered the room, Cerizet's keen glance took 
 in every detail of the old man's appearance. His 
 head was resting on a pillow brown with dirt, with- 
 out a cover, and his angular profile, like those which 
 the engravers of the last century delighted to make 
 with landscapes with frowning cliffs, was outlined 
 in black against the green background of the cur- 
 tains. Toupillier, who was nearly six feet high,
 
 282 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 was staring fixedly at an imaginary object at the 
 foot of his bed; he did not move when he heard the 
 groaning of the heavy door, sheathed with iron and 
 furnished with a stout lock, which secured his 
 domicile against intrusion. 
 
 "Is he conscious?" queried Cerizet, as La Cardi- 
 nal fell back before him, for she did not recognize 
 him until he spoke. 
 
 "Almost," said she. 
 
 "Come out on the staircase, so that he can't hear 
 us," said Cerizet. "This is what we must do," he 
 said in his future mother-in-law's ear. "He is weak, 
 but his face doesn't look bad, and we have a good 
 week before us. I'll go and get the kind of a doctor 
 that we want, and I'll come back one of these nights 
 with six poppy-heads. In the state he's in some 
 poppy tea will put him in a sound sleep. I'll send 
 you a cot-bed on the pretext of fixing things for you 
 to pass the nights with him. When he's asleep 
 we'll change him from the green bed to the cot, and 
 when we have found out how much the precious old 
 thing contains, why, we sha'n't lack means of cart- 
 ing it off. The doctor'll tell us if he's in condition 
 to live a few days, and above all things to make a 
 will." 
 
 "My son!-" 
 
 "But we must find who lives in this barrack; the 
 Perraches may give the alarm and every tenant's a 
 possible spy." 
 
 "Bah! I know already." rejoined Madame Cardi- 
 nal, "that the first-floor tenant, Monsieur du Portail,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 283 
 
 a little old fellow, is taking care of a madwoman; I 
 heard an old Flemish woman named Katt call her 
 Lydie this morning. " (See Splendors and Miseries.) 
 "His only servant, named Bruno, is another old 
 fellow like himself, and does everything but cook." 
 
 "But the bookbinder and the stitcher are at work 
 early in the morning. However, we must look 
 round," he added, like a man who has no definite 
 plan formed. "I'll go to the mayor's office in your 
 arrondissement meanwhile, and get the certificate of 
 Olympe's birth and get ready for the banns to be 
 published. We'll be married next Saturday week !" 
 
 "How he goes on! how he goes on! the beggar!" 
 said Mere Cardinal, nudging this redoubtable son- 
 in-law with her shoulder. 
 
 As he went down, Cerizet was surprised to see 
 the little old man, Du Portail, walking in the gar- 
 den with one of the most important personages in 
 the government, Comte Martial de la Roche-Hugon. 
 He remained in the courtyard, scrutinizing the old 
 house, which was built under Louis XIV., and whose 
 yellow walls, although of hewn stone, seemed to 
 stoop like old Toupillier. He looked into the two 
 shops and counted the workmen. The place was as 
 silent as a cloister. Finding that he was watched 
 himself, Cerizet went away, reflecting on the diffi- 
 culty of getting hold of the money hidden by the 
 dying man, although there was but little on top of it 
 
 "Could we take it away at night?" he muttered; 
 "the concierges are on the watch, and in the daytime 
 we should be seen by twenty people. It's no easy
 
 284 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 matter to carry twenty-five thousand francs in gold 
 on one's person." 
 
 Societies may theoretically become perfect under 
 two forms ; the first is a state of civilization in which 
 morality, being equally distributed to all, does not 
 admit even the idea of crime; the Jesuits attained 
 that sublime condition, first presented by the primi- 
 tive Church; the second is another state of civili- 
 zation in which the surveillance of the citizens by 
 one another makes crime impossible. The form of 
 perfection sought to be attained by modern society 
 is that wherein wrong-doing encounters so many 
 obstacles that one must shut one's ears to reason 
 before trying to commit it. Indeed, no one of the 
 iniquitous deeds which the law does not reach 
 really goes unpunished, and the judgment of society 
 is more severe than that of the courts. Let a man 
 suppress an unwitnessed will, as was done by Min- 
 oret, postmaster at Nemours, and the crime is 
 hunted down by the spies of virtue as a theft is 
 hunted down by the police. No indelicacy passes 
 unnoticed, and wherever there is a bruise the mark 
 is ineradicable. Nor can inanimate things be put 
 out of sight any more readily than men, for, es- 
 pecially in Paris, objects are carefully numbered, 
 houses guarded, and streets and squares watched. 
 To live at ease, crime needs some sanction like 
 that enjoyed by members of the Bourse, or like that 
 afforded by Cerizet's clients, who never com- 
 plained, and who would have trembled not to find 
 their flayer in his kitchen on a Tuesday.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 285 
 
 "Well, my dear sir," said the concierge, going to 
 meet Cerizet, "how is the poor man, God's friend?" 
 
 "I'm no doctor," replied Cerizet, by no means in- 
 clined to undertake the role; "1 am Madame Cardi- 
 nal's man of business; I just advised her to have a 
 bed made up so that she can be on hand, day and 
 night, to look after her uncle; but perhaps he'll need 
 a nurse." 
 
 "I can nurse him," said Madame Perrache; "I've 
 nursed women through their lying-in." 
 
 "Well, we'll see," said Cerizet; "I'll arrange 
 about that Who's the tenant of your first 
 floor ?" 
 
 "Monsieur du Portail. Oh! he's been living here 
 for thirty years ; he has an annuity, Monsieur, and 
 he's a very respectable old party. Men who have 
 annuities, you know, live on their income. He used 
 to be in business. Eleven years now he's been try- 
 ing to cure one of his friends' daughters, Mademoi- 
 selle Lydie de la Peyrade, of insanity. She's well 
 taken care of, I tell you, by two of the biggest doctors 
 in Paris, and they had a consultation this very 
 morning. But, so far, nothing seems to do her any 
 good, and they even have to keep a close watch on 
 her, for sometimes she gets up at night " 
 
 "Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade!" cried Ceri- 
 zet; "are you quite sure of the name?" 
 
 "Madame Katt, her companion, who does what 
 little cooking they have to do, has told me so a thous- 
 and times, although she nor Monsieur Bruno, the 
 servant, don't talk much as a general thing. It's
 
 286 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 like talking to the wall to try to get anything out of 
 them. We've been here for twenty years, and we 
 haven't ever found out anything about Monsieur du 
 Portail. You see, my dear man, he owns the little 
 house alongside ; do you see that inside door ? Well, 
 he can go in and out as he pleases and have people 
 come to see him through there without me knowing 
 anything about it. Our landlord isn't any further 
 ahead than we are, so far as that goes ; when anyone 
 rings at the little door Monsieur Bruno answers the 
 bell" 
 
 "So you didn't see the gentleman go in that the 
 old mystery-monger's talking with now?" 
 
 "Faith! no." 
 
 "She must be Theodose's uncle's daughter," said 
 Cerizet to himself, as he returned to his cab. "1 
 wonder if this Du Portail can be the unknown pre- 
 server who sent my rascal twenty-five hundred francs 
 some time ago? Suppose I should send the old fel- 
 low an anonymous letter, telling him of the danger 
 our worthy advocate is in, all on account of certain 
 notes for twenty-five thousand francs?" 
 
 An hour later a cot-bed with all its appurtenances 
 arrived for Madame Cardinal, to whom the inquisi- 
 tive portress offered her services in the way of sup- 
 plying her with food. 
 
 "Do you want to see Monsieur le Cure?" Mere 
 Cardinal asked her uncle. She had noticed that the 
 arrival of the bed seemed to rouse him from his 
 somnolent condition. 
 
 "I want wine!" replied the miser.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 287 
 
 "How do you feel, Pere Toupillier?" queried 
 Madame Perrache, in her most wheedling tones. 
 
 "I tell you I want wine!" repeated the old fellow 
 with a persistence and energy which were hardly to 
 be expected from one in his weak state. 
 
 "We don't know if it's good for you, nunkie," 
 said La Cardinal, soothingly; "we must wait and 
 see what the doctor says." 
 
 "Doctor! I won't have a doctor," cried Toupil- 
 lier, "and what are you doing here? I don't need 
 anyone." 
 
 "Dear uncle, I came to find out if there wasn't 
 something that 'ud tickle your appetite; I've got 
 some nice fresh sole: eh? a bit o' sole with a slice 
 of lemon?" 
 
 "Nice stuff your fish is," replied Toupillier; 
 "rotten's no name for it ! The last you brought me, 
 six weeks ago and more, is still in the cupboard; you 
 can take it back." 
 
 "God! these sick people are ungrateful !" said La 
 Cardinal in an undertone to Dame Perrache. 
 
 At the same time, to show her solicitude, she 
 shook up the pillow under the sick man's head. 
 
 "There, nunkie; ain't that better ?" 
 
 "Let me alone," growled Toupillier, wrathfully, 
 "I want to be alone; give me some wine and leave 
 me in peace!" 
 
 "Don't get mad, little uncle; we're going to find 
 the wine for you." 
 
 "Six francs the bottle, Rue des Canettes!" cried 
 the miser.
 
 288 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "All right," rejoined Mere Cardinal; "but let 
 me see what change I've got. I want to stock 
 your cellar handsome. An uncle's a second father, 
 you know, and we mustn't stick at trifles for 
 him!" 
 
 As she spoke she sat down on one of the dilapi- 
 dated chairs, with her legs spread apart, and emp- 
 tied all the contents of her pockets into her apron ; 
 a knife, her snuff-box, two Mont-de-Piete tickets, 
 crusts of bread, and a quantity of small change, in 
 which she finally found a few silver coins. 
 
 This exhibition, which was intended as a demon- 
 stration of the most open-hearted, impulsive devo- 
 tion, had no effect Toupillier did not even appear 
 to have noticed it. Exhausted by the feverish 
 energy with which he had demanded his favorite 
 remedy, he made an effort to change his position, 
 and with his back turned to his two nurses, having 
 again muttered : "Wine! wine!" he made no further 
 sound save the stertorous respiration which indicated 
 that the chest was beginning to fill. 
 
 "Still, I suppose 1 must go there and get his wine!" 
 said La Cardinal, sulkily, replacing in her pockets 
 the cargo she had taken therefrom. 
 
 "If you don't want to put yourself out, Mere Car- 
 dinal?" suggested Dame Perrache, still eager to 
 offer her services. 
 
 The fishwoman hesitated a moment; but, upon 
 reflection, it occurred to her that she might possibly 
 learn something from a conversation with the wine- 
 shop keeper, and, so long as Toupillier was lying on
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 289 
 
 his treasure, there was no objection to leaving the 
 concierge alone with him. 
 
 "Thank you, Madame Perrache, " said she; "it's 
 just as well for me to know the people he trades 
 with." 
 
 Having found behind the light stand a dirty bottle 
 which would hold a good two litres, she said: 
 
 "It's Rue des Canettes, ain't it?" 
 
 "Corner of Rue Guisarde," replied Dame Per- 
 rache, "Legrelu, a tall, good-looking man with big 
 whiskers and no hair." 
 
 Then lowering her voice she said: "his six-franc 
 wine, you know, \sfirst Roussillon. The wine-shop 
 man's all right, though; it will be enough for you 
 just to tell him that you come for his customer, the 
 poor man of Saint-Sulpice." 
 
 "I don't need to be told a thing twice," replied 
 La Cardinal, opening the door, and making a pre- 
 tence of going. "By the way," said she, coming 
 back, "what the devil does he burn in his stove, 
 if there's any medicine to be heated?" 
 
 "Dame," replied the concierge, "he hasn't laid 
 in his winter stock yet; and here in the middle of 
 summer " 
 
 "And not so much as a saucepan! not a pot!" 
 continued La Cardinal; "good God! what house- 
 keeping! I'd like something to bring provisions 
 home in: for it's a shame to have everybody see 
 what you bring from the market" 
 
 "I can lend you a market basket," said the con- 
 cierge, still eager and officious. 
 19
 
 2QO THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Thank'ee, I'll buy a basket," replied the fish- 
 woman, thinking more about what there might be 
 to take away from the miser's abode than about 
 what there was to be taken thither. "Ain't there 
 an Auvergnat somewhere about here?" she added. 
 
 "At the corner of Rue Ferou, you'll find what you 
 want: a fine place where they have painted logs 
 on the outside of the shop, so natural you'd think 
 they were going to speak to you." 
 
 "I see it from here," said Madame Cardinal. 
 
 Before taking her final departure she indulged in 
 a bit of most profound hypocrisy. We have seen 
 how she hesitated to leave the concierge alone with 
 the invalid. 
 
 "Madame Perrache," said she, "don't leave the 
 dear man until I get back!"
 
 The reader will have noticed that Cerizet had not 
 adopted a very decided course in the affair he had 
 undertaken. The role of physician, which he had 
 at first thought of assuming, eventually frightened 
 him, and he represented himself to the Perraches as 
 his accomplice's man of business. As soon as he 
 was alone he considered the matter more carefully, 
 and saw that his plan, involving the presence of a 
 doctor, a nurse and a notary, was surrounded by 
 most serious difficulties. A regularly executed will 
 in Madame Cardinal's favor was not a thing to be 
 procured on the spur of the moment. It would take 
 a long while to accustom the miser's stubborn, sus- 
 picious mind to the idea, and death was lurking 
 there, and could defeat the most skilful preparations 
 with a turn of his hand. 
 
 As to repeating the famous scene from Regnard's 
 Legataire, how dream of such a thing amid the sub- 
 tleties of a police organization and a civilization, 
 which seem to think of nothing but depriving the 
 drama and the novel of what little vivifying air is 
 still left for them to breathe ! 
 
 Of course, if the idea of inducing the dying man 
 
 to make a will was abandoned, the eighteen hundred 
 
 francs a year in the public funds and the house on 
 
 Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth must be left to the 
 
 (291)
 
 292 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 heirs-at-law ; and Madame Cardinal, for whom it 
 had been their scheme to obtain a direct bequest 
 of those two things, would simply come in for her 
 share in the succession: but to abandon that visible 
 portion of the inheritance was the surest way to 
 appropriate the hidden portion Moreover, when 
 that was once safely housed, what was there to pre- 
 vent their returning to the matter of the will ? 
 
 Thus reducing the operation to much simpler 
 terms, Cerizet restricted it to the device of the 
 poppy-heads, of which he had already spoken, and, 
 provided with no other implement of war than that, 
 he was returning to Toupillier's to give Madame 
 Cardinal fresh instructions, when he met her, with 
 the basket she had just purchased on her arm; in 
 the basket was the sick man's panacea. 
 
 "Well, well," said the usurer, "is this the way 
 you stay at your post?" 
 
 "I had to go out and buy some wine. He cried 
 like a crazy man to be left in peace; he wanted to 
 be alone and wanted his drink! The critter's got 
 the idea in his head that prime Roussillon is the 
 best thing for him. I'll swell his belly! when he's 
 slewed perhaps he won't be so uneasy." 
 
 "You're right," said Cerizet, sententiously. 
 "We must never gainsay sick people; but we must 
 fix the wine, you know: by making an infusion of 
 these" and he lifted one of the lids of the basket 
 and slipped in the poppy-heads "you will give the 
 poor old man five or six hours' good sound sleep; I'll 
 come and see you this evening, and then I don't
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 293 
 
 think there'll be anything to prevent our looking 
 into the size of the inheritance a bit" 
 
 "I see!" said Madame Cardinal, with a wink. 
 
 "Till to-night, then!" said the usurer, and the 
 interview came to an end. 
 
 He felt that he had engaged in a difficult, ugly 
 affair, and he did not care to be seen on the street 
 talking with his confederate. 
 
 When she returned to the pauper's garret, she 
 found him still in the same lethargic state; she dis- 
 missed Madame Perrache, and went to the door to 
 get a bundle of sawed wood she had ordered from 
 the Auvergnat on Rue Ferou. 
 
 In an earthen saucepan with which she had pro- 
 vided herself, and which fitted the opening in the 
 upper part of the stove, commonly used by the poor 
 for the teakettle, she placed the poppy-heads swim- 
 ming in the two-thirds of the wine she had brought, 
 and kindled a hot fire underneath, so as to obtain the 
 desired decoction as soon as possible. The crackling 
 of the wood, and the heat which soon made itself 
 felt in the room aroused Toupillier from his stupor. 
 
 "Fire here!" he cried when he saw that there 
 was a fire in the stove; "do you want to burn the 
 house down?" 
 
 "But it's wood I bought with my own money, 
 nunkie, to warm your wine. The doctor doesn't 
 want you to drink it cold." 
 
 "Where is the wine ?" demanded Toupillier, some- 
 what soothed to find that the culinary operations 
 were not being carried on at his expense.
 
 294 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Must let it come to a boil," replied the nurse; 
 "the doctor said we must be sure about that. But 
 if you'll be good I'll give you half a glass cold just 
 to wet your whistle. I'll take the risk if you won't 
 tell!" ' 
 
 "I don't want your doctors ; they're a pack of ras- 
 cals trying to kill everybody off!" cried Toupillier, 
 roused to renewed life by the prospect of having 
 something to drink. "Well, where's the wine?" he 
 added, in the tone of a man whose patience was 
 exhausted. 
 
 Feeling sure that, even if it did no harm to oblige 
 him, it could do no good, La Cardinal filled a glass 
 half full, and handed it to the sick man with one 
 hand while with the other she raised him to a sit- 
 ting position, so that he could drink. 
 
 With his lean, eager fingers Toupillier snatched 
 the glass and absorbed its contents at a single 
 draught. 
 
 "That's fine for a taste!" he said, "but there was 
 water in it!" 
 
 "Ah! you mustn't say that, nunkie! I went and 
 got it myself at Pere Legrelu's, and I gave it to you 
 just as it came ; but let the other simmer ; the doctor 
 said we could give you some when you're thirsty." 
 
 Toupillier resigned himself to his fate with a 
 shrug, and after fifteen minutes, the decoction being 
 then in a state to be administered, La Cardinal, 
 without further appeal, carried him a glass filled to 
 the brim. 
 
 The avidity with which the old man drank did not
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 295 
 
 permit him to detect at first that the wine had been 
 tampered with ; but at the last swallow he noticed 
 a nasty sickening taste, and threw the glass down 
 on the bed, crying out that she was trying to poison 
 him. 
 
 "Ah, yes! this is how much poison there is in it," 
 retorted the fishwife, inverting the glass so that 
 what was left in the bottom dropped into her mouth ; 
 thereupon she declared that if the wine tasted dif- 
 ferently to the old man, it was because his mouth 
 was bad. 
 
 At the close of this discussion, which lasted some 
 little time, the narcotic began to work, and within 
 an hour the invalid was in a heavy sleep. 
 
 In her enforced idleness while awaiting Cerizet, 
 La Cardinal had a brilliant idea: it occurred to her 
 that, in order to facilitate all the going and coming 
 that might be necessary when the time had arrived 
 to carry away the treasure, it would be well to mod- 
 erate the watchfulness of the Per r aches. Conse- 
 quently, having first taken the precaution to throw 
 away the poppy-heads, she called the female con- 
 cierge, and said to her : 
 
 "Come and taste his wine, Mere Perrache! 
 Wouldn't you 'a' thought he was all right to guzzle 
 a cask of it? And here after one glass he's had 
 enough!" 
 
 "Your health," said the concierge, clinking 
 glasses with La Cardinal, who was careful to honor 
 the toast in undoctored wine. 
 
 Being a less accomplished gourmand than the
 
 296 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 pauper, Madame Perrache failed to detect in the 
 insidious beverage, which she drank cold, any taste 
 which might lead her to suspect its narcotic powers; 
 on the contrary, she declared that it was like velvet, 
 and regretted that her husband was not there to get 
 his share of the spoil. 
 
 After chatting together for some time, the two 
 gossips separated; whereupon, with the sausages 
 she had purchased and the remains of the Roussil- 
 lon, Madame Cardinal made a hearty meal, which 
 she topped off with a nap. Without reckoning the 
 excitement of the day, the influence of one of the 
 headiest wines in the world would sufficiently ex- 
 plain the soundness and duration of her siesta; 
 when she awoke night was beginning to fall. 
 
 Her first thought was to cast a glance at the sick 
 bed. The invalid was sleeping restlessly and 
 dreaming aloud. 
 
 "Diamonds!" he cried, "diamonds? When I'm 
 dead! not before!" 
 
 "Hoity-toity!" said Madame Cardinal; "that's 
 the only thing we need now that he should have 
 diamonds " 
 
 She saw that Toupillier was in the clutches of an 
 ugly nightmare, and, instead of relieving him by 
 helping him to change his position, she leaned over 
 his head in order not to lose a word, hoping to glean 
 some important revelation. 
 
 At that moment a sharp tap at the door, from 
 which the thoughtful nurse had been careful to take 
 the key, announced Cerizet's coming.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 297 
 
 "Well?" said he, as he entered. 
 
 "He took the drug. For a good four hours he's 
 been sleeping like a Jesus. Just now he was talk- 
 ing about diamonds in his dreams." 
 
 "Damnation!" said Cerizet, "there'd be nothing 
 surprising about it if we should find some. These 
 paupers, when they set about getting rich, get hold 
 of everything." 
 
 "Look here! my boy," said La Cardinal, "what 
 the devil made you go and tell Mere Perrache you 
 were my man of business, and that you ain't in the 
 medical way ? We agreed this morning that you 
 was to come here as a doctor." 
 
 Cerizet did not choose to admit that the assump- 
 tion of that title seemed to him fraught with danger ; 
 he was afraid of discouraging his accomplice. 
 
 "I saw the woman was preparing to consult me 
 professionally," he said, "and I took that way of 
 getting rid of her." 
 
 "Well, well!" said La Cardinal, "great minds 
 think alike; that was my little game, too, to turn 
 the thing off that way; seeing a man of business 
 come here seemed to give Madame Leather-scratcher 
 something to chew over. Did the Perraches see 
 you come in?" 
 
 "1 thought the woman seemed to be asleep in her 
 chair," Cerizet replied. 
 
 "Well she may," rejoined La Cardinal, signifi- 
 cantly. 
 
 "Really?" queried Cerizet. 
 
 "Parbleu!" said the fishwoman, "when there's
 
 298 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 enough for one, there's enough for two ; I made her 
 take all there was left" 
 
 "The husband's on deck," said Cerizet, "for he 
 looked up from his cobbling to give me a gracious nod 
 of recognition I could very well have done without" 
 
 Just wait till it's dark, then, and we'll play him a 
 trick that'll make him see sparks." 
 
 A quarter of an hour later, with a nerve that 
 moved the usurer to admiration, the fishvender 
 regaled the gullible concierge with a fairy story 
 about a monsieur who did not want her to show him 
 out and whom she insisted on rivaling in courtesy. 
 As she was going through the form of escorting the 
 imaginary doctor to the street door, she pretended 
 that the wind had blown out her light, and while she 
 was trying to relight it she put out Perrache's. All 
 this fuss, accompanied with exclamations and deaf- 
 ening chatter, was so cleverly managed, that if he 
 had been summoned before the court the concierge 
 would not have hesitated to declare on oath that the 
 doctor, of whose arrival he was personally cognizant, 
 had come down from the pauper's quarters and left 
 the house between nine and ten o'clock. 
 
 When the two confederates were thus left in 
 peaceful possession of the theatre of their opera- 
 tions, La Cardinal unwittingly took the part of 
 Beranger, and, as if she were seeking to conceal the 
 amours of a Lisette, she arranged her rabbit skin 
 shawl like a curtain before the window, in order to 
 prevent any prying neighbor from seeing any part 
 of the scene that was in preparation.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 299 
 
 In the Luxembourg quarter day ends at an early 
 hour, and, just before ten o'clock, all sounds, within 
 as well as without the house, had almost entirely 
 ceased. A neighbor, deeply interested in a serial 
 romance, held the conspirators in check for some 
 time ; but as soon as he had placed the extinguisher 
 over his candle, Cerizet gave the signal for setting 
 about their task. If they should begin without delay, 
 they could have more confidence that the sleeper 
 would remain under the influence of the narcotic; 
 and, furthermore, if the search for the treasure did 
 not occupy much time, there would be no reason why 
 La Cardinal should not have the street door opened 
 on the pretext that she must go to the druggist's for 
 some medicine imperatively required by a change 
 for the worse in the invalid's condition. They 
 might well hope that the Perraches, after the custom 
 of concierges aroused from their first sleep, would 
 simply pull the cord without rising. Cerizet could 
 then go out with his accomplice, and they could put 
 part of the booty in safe keeping on their first trip. 
 It would be easy to invent some way of taking 
 care of the balance during the following day. 
 
 Strong as he was at the council board, Cerizet's 
 physical strength was decidedly inadequate, and, 
 except for the assistance of the robust Madame Car- 
 dinal, he would never have succeeded in lifting 
 from his bed what might be called the corpse of the 
 ex-drum-major. In his deathly sleep, completely 
 unconscious, Toupillier was simply an inert mass 
 which luckily could be moved about without many
 
 300 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 precautions. Endowed with renewed strength by 
 her greed, the athletic fishwoman, notwithstanding 
 the very slight assistance rendered by her man of 
 business, succeeded in accomplishing the trans-ship- 
 ment of her uncle without accident, and the bed was 
 at last given over to her eager investigations. 
 
 At first they found nothing, and La Cardinal, 
 being pressed to explain how she had satisfied her- 
 self in the morning that her uncle was lying upon a 
 hundred thousand francs in gold, was forced to con- 
 fess that a conversation with the Perraches and her 
 own vivid imagination were almost entirely respon- 
 sible for her pretended certainty. Cerizet was 
 beside himself: to have passed the whole day nurs- 
 ing the thought and the hope of a fortune, to have 
 decided to attempt a hazardous and compromising 
 step, and, after all, to find himself face to face with 
 nothing! The disappointment was so cruel that, if 
 he had not feared that he might get the worst of an 
 encounter with the muscular force of his future 
 stepmother, he would have taken extreme measures 
 with her in his rage. 
 
 However, he vented his wrath in words. La 
 Cardinal made no other reply to the harsh tongue- 
 lashing she received than to say that all hope was 
 not lost, and with a confidence that would have 
 moved mountains, she went on overhauling the bed 
 from end to end, and finally set about emptying the 
 wretched pallet which she had explored so thor- 
 oughly on the outside to no purpose; but Cerizet 
 would not give his consent to that extreme measure,
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 301 
 
 reminding her that after she had concluded her 
 autopsy of the mattress, a quantity of broken straw 
 would remain on the floor and might arouse suspi- 
 cion. 
 
 To avoid self-reproach thereafter, La Cardinal, 
 despite the opposition of Cerizet, who thought it an 
 absurd thing to do, determined to remove the corded 
 bottom of the bed ; and her faculties must have been 
 tremendously sharpened by the excitement of the 
 search, for, as she raised the wooden frame, she 
 heard the sound of some small object falling on the 
 floor. 
 
 Attaching to this incident, which nobody else 
 would have noticed, an importance that nothing 
 seemed to justify, the ardent explorer at once seized 
 the light, and, after fumbling about for some time in 
 the filth of every description which lay deep upon 
 the floor, she at last put her hand upon a small piece 
 of polished iron, half an inch long, the use whereof 
 was utterly inexplicable to her. 
 
 "It's a key!" cried Cerizet, who had walked to 
 her side with an indifferent air, but whose imagina- 
 tion at once set off at a gallop. 
 
 "Aha ! you see !" exclaimed La Cardinal, triumph- 
 antly; "but what can this thing open?" she added, 
 thoughtfully; "a doll's wardrobe?" 
 
 "Not at all," Cerizet replied; "it's a modern in- 
 vention, and big locks are worked with little tools 
 like that." 
 
 As he spoke he took in with a swift glance every- 
 thing the room contained in the way of furniture,
 
 302 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 went to the commode and pulled out all the drawers, 
 looked into the stove and the table drawer; but 
 nowhere was there any semblance of a lock that 
 that key would fit. 
 
 Suddenly La Cardinal had an inspiration. 
 
 "Wait!" said she; "I saw that the old shark never 
 once took his eyes off the wall in front of him when 
 he was lying in bed." 
 
 "A cupboard hidden in the wall? that isn't im- 
 possible," said Cerizet, excitedly seizing the light. 
 
 After scrutinizing with great care the door of the 
 recess which was opposite the head of the bed, he 
 could see nothing there but a vast network of dust 
 and spiders' webs. 
 
 He thereupon resorted to the sense of touch, which 
 goes more to the root of things, and began to sound 
 and tap the wall in all directions. He found at last 
 that, for a limited space around the spot on which 
 Toupillier had kept his eyes fixed, the wall gave 
 forth a hollow sound, and that in that spot he was 
 striking upon wood. He thereupon rubbed the place 
 violently with his handkerchief rolled into a ball, 
 arid beneath the layer of dust he removed he 
 speedily discovered a strip of oak hermetically 
 sealed in the wall : at one side of the board he spied 
 a small round hole, which proved to be that of the 
 lock for which the key was made. 
 
 While Cerizet was turning the bolt, which worked 
 very smoothly, La Cardinal, pale and gasping for 
 breath, held the light; but, O cruel disappointment! 
 when the cupboard was opened nothing was to be
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 303 
 
 seen save an empty space, which the candle hastily 
 thrust in by the fishvender lighted up to no purpose. 
 
 While this infuriated Bacchante uttered shrieks of 
 despair and addressed her beloved uncle by all the 
 most abusive epithets one can imagine, Cerizet 
 retained his self-possession. 
 
 Having thrust his arm into the opening and felt 
 the back and sides, he exclaimed : 
 
 "An iron cupboard!" and in the next breath he 
 added, testily: "Give me a light for God's sake, 
 Madame Cardinal!" 
 
 As the candle did not cast a satisfactory light into 
 the place he wished to explore, he pulled it out of 
 the neck of the bottle in which La Cardinal had 
 stuck it in default of a candlestick, and, taking it 
 in his hand, passed it carefully along every portion 
 of the iron-walled cavity whose existence they had 
 discovered. 
 
 "No keyhole!" he exclaimed, after a minute 
 examination; "there must be a secret lock." 
 
 "What a swindler the old hunks is!" said Mad- 
 ame Cardinal, while Cerizet was passing his bony 
 fingers over every inch of the surface. 
 
 "Ah!" he exclaimed, "I've got it!" after feeling 
 and tapping for more than half an hour. 
 
 Meanwhile, Madame Cardinal was hovering be- 
 tween life and death, as it were. 
 
 Under the constant pressure to which it was ex- 
 posed, the iron plate suddenly went up into the 
 wall, and amid a mass of gold tossed haphazard into 
 a cavity of considerable size which was thus exposed
 
 304 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 to view, lay a red morocco jewel-case, which, by its 
 size, aroused hopes of a magnificent booty. 
 
 "I take the diamonds for Olympe's dot," said 
 Cerizet, looking at the reflection of his face in the 
 superb jewels contained in the case. "You wouldn't 
 know how to dispose of them, Mother: 1 leave 
 you the gold for your share. As for the rentes and 
 the house, they're not worth the struggle we should 
 have to induce the good man to make a new will." 
 
 "Wait a bit, my boy!" retorted La Cardinal, 
 inclined to rebel at this somewhat summary division 
 of the spoil, "we'll count the cash first" 
 
 "Hush!" said Cerizet, as if listening. 
 
 "What is it?" asked La Cardinal. 
 
 "Didn't you hear something moving below?" 
 
 "I didn't hear nothing," replied the fishwoman. 
 
 Cerizet motioned to her to be silent, and listened 
 more attentively. 
 
 "I hear footsteps on the stairs," said he, a moment 
 later. 
 
 And he hastily replaced the jewel-case in the cup- 
 board and tried to pull down the sliding panel. 
 
 While he was wasting his strength in fruitless 
 efforts the steps came nearer. 
 
 "Yes, some one's coming up!" said La Cardinal, 
 in dismay. "Bah! perhaps it's the madwoman," 
 she added, clutching at a straw of hope; "they say 
 she walks 'round at nights."
 
 Wliile Cerizet was turning the bolt, ivhick worked 
 very smoothly, La Cardinal, pale and gasping for 
 breath, held the light ; but, O cruel disappointment ! 
 when the cupboard zvas opened nothing was to be 
 seen save an empty space, which the candle hastily 
 thrust in by the fishvender lighted up to no purpose. 
 
 Having thrust his arm into the opening and felt 
 the back and sides, he exclaimed :
 
 At all events, the madwoman had a key to the room, 
 for a key was inserted in the lock the next minute. 
 With a rapid glance, La Cardinal measured the 
 distance that separated her from the door; would 
 she have time to run and throw the bolt? But, con- 
 sidering that she would probably be too late, she 
 hastily blew out the light, in order to have some 
 chance of escape under cover of the darkness. 
 
 Vain precaution ! The marplot who entered the 
 room had a lighted candle in his hand. 
 
 When she saw that she had to do with a little old 
 man of mean aspect, Madame Cardinal, with fire in 
 her eye, rushed forward to meet the new-comer like 
 a lioness in danger of having her little ones stolen 
 from her. 
 
 "Calm yourself, my good woman," said the old 
 man, with a cunning leer; "I have sent for the police 
 and they'll be here in a moment" 
 
 The word police broke Madame Cardinal's legs, 
 to use a slang expression. 
 
 "The police, Monsieur!" she exclaimed, greatly 
 agitated; "we ain't thieves!" 
 
 "If 1 were in your place I wouldn't wait for them, 
 all the same," said the old man; "they sometimes 
 make embarrassing mistakes." 
 
 "Can I cut sticks, then?" asked the fishwoman 
 incredulously. 
 
 20 (305)
 
 306 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Yes, when you've put back anything that may 
 have wandered into your pockets, by accident." 
 
 "Oh! kind sir, there's nothing in my hands or in 
 my pockets; I didn't come here for no harm; I only 
 came to take care of my poor cherub of an uncle ; 
 search me." 
 
 "Come, vamoose, it's all right!" said the little 
 old man. 
 
 The fishwoman did not wait to be told twice, but 
 went swiftly down the stairs. 
 
 Cerizet seemed much inclined to take the same 
 course. 
 
 "As to you, Monsieur, it's a different matter," 
 the old man said to him ; "we must have a little talk 
 together; but if you are tractable everything can be 
 amicably arranged." 
 
 Whether the effect of the narcotic had passed 
 away, or the unusual noise around Toupillier's bed 
 had put an end to his sleep, at all events he opened 
 his eyes and looked about with the expression of a 
 man trying to collect his thoughts ; but, after a little, 
 seeing that his precious cupboard was open, his 
 emotion gave him strength to shout two or three 
 times loud enough to wake the whole house: 
 "Thieves! thieves!" 
 
 "No, Toupillier," said the little old man, "you 
 haven't been robbed; I came in time, and nothing 
 has been disturbed." 
 
 "Why don't you have that beggar arrested !" cried 
 the miser, pointing to Cerizet. 
 
 "Monsieur isn't a thief," replied the old man;
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 307 
 
 "on the contrary, he's a friend who came up with 
 me to lend me a hand." 
 
 He turned to Cerizet. 
 
 "I think, my dear sir," he said, in an undertone, 
 "that we shall do well to postpone the interview I 
 wish to have with you. To-morrow at ten o'clock, 
 at Monsieur du Portail's, in the house adjoining. 
 After what has taken place to-night, I ought to warn 
 you that it may be made somewhat unpleasant for 
 you if you don't keep this appointment; I should 
 find you beyond any question, for I have the honor 
 of knowing who you are; you are the man whom 
 the opposition journals long called 'the courageous 
 Cerizet'" 
 
 Despite the biting sarcasm of this reminder, Ceri- 
 zet, finding that he would not be treated more 
 harshly than Madame Cardinal had been, was only 
 too well pleased with this conclusion, and lost no 
 time in taking to his heels after promising to keep 
 the appointment punctually. 
 
 The next morning Cerizet was on hand at the 
 appointed hour. 
 
 Having first been identified through a wicket, as 
 he declined. to give his name, he was admitted to 
 the house and immediately ushered into Monsieur 
 du Portail's study, where he found that gentleman 
 engaged in writing. 
 
 Without rising, the little old man motioned his 
 visitor to a seat, and continued the letter he had 
 begun. After he had sealed it with a solicitude as 
 to the perfect impression of the seal which would
 
 308 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 lead one to imagine either that he was naturally 
 very neat and fussy, or that he had had diplomatic 
 experience, Du Portail rang for Bruno, his valet, 
 and said, as he handed him the letter : 
 
 "For the justice of the peace of this arrondisse- 
 ment" 
 
 He then carefully wiped the steel pen he had been 
 using and arranged symmetrically all the articles 
 that lay in disorder about his desk; not till all these 
 trifling details were duly attended to did he turn to 
 Cerizet 
 
 "You know that we lost poor Monsieur Toupillier 
 last night?" he said. 
 
 "No, truly," replied Cerizet, with the most sym- 
 pathetic expression he could command; "you are 
 the first to tell me of it, Monsieur." 
 
 "You ought at least to have suspected it; when 
 one gives a dying man an enormous bowl of hot 
 wine, which had probably been narcotized in addi- 
 tion, for the Perrache woman lay all night in a 
 lethargic state after drinking a small glass of it, it 
 seems clear that there is a purpose to hasten the 
 catastrophe." 
 
 "I have no idea, Monsieur," said Cerizet, with 
 dignity, "what Madame Cardinal may have given 
 her uncle. I have been guilty, no doubt, of the folly 
 of helping the woman in the preservative care she 
 thought it her duty to bestow on an inheritance 
 in which she gave me to understand that she 
 had vested rights; but as for making an attempt 
 on the old man's life, why I am incapable of such
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 309 
 
 a thing and no such thought ever entered my 
 mind." 
 
 "Did you write me this letter?" demanded Du 
 Portail, abruptly, taking a paper from under a paper- 
 weight of Bohemian glass, and handing it to his 
 interlocutor. 
 
 "This letter?" replied Cerizet, with the hesita- 
 tion of a man who does not know whether he had 
 better lie or confess. 
 
 "I am sure of what I say," continued Du Portail ; 
 "I have a mania for autographs and I have one of 
 yours, which I added to my collection when opposi- 
 tion had raised you to the exalted position of a mar- 
 tyr; I have compared this writing with it, and I say 
 that you are the man who advised me yesterday, by 
 this writing, of young La Peyrade's pecuniary em- 
 barrassment at this moment" 
 
 "Knowing that you had with you a Mademoiselle 
 de la Peyrade, who must be Theodose's cousin," 
 said the denizen of Rue des Poules, "I fancied that 
 I had discovered in you the unknown protector, from 
 whom my friend has more than once received most 
 generous assistance; as I am very fond of the poor 
 fellow, I ventured in his interest " 
 
 "You did well," interrupted Du Portail. "I am 
 delighted to have fallen in with one of La Peyrade's 
 friends. Indeed I will not conceal from you that it 
 was the fact that you are his friend that was chiefly 
 instrumental in protecting you last night. But what 
 do these notes for twenty-five thousand francs mean ? 
 Is our friend in a bad way? Is he dissipated?"
 
 310 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "On the contrary, " replied Cerizet, "he's a down- 
 right Puritan. In the exaltation of his piety, he 
 wouldn't take any other clients, as an advocate, than 
 poor people. However, he's on the point of making 
 a wealthy marriage." 
 
 "Ah! he's to be married: to whom?" 
 
 "1 believe it's a girl named Colleville, daughter of 
 the mayor's secretary of the twelfth. She has no 
 fortune in her own right, but one Monsieur Thuil- 
 lier, her godfather, member of the General Council 
 of the Seine, has promised to give her a suitable 
 dot." 
 
 "Who has managed the affair?" 
 
 "La Peyrade has been very devoted to the Thuil- 
 lier family : he was introduced to them by Monsieur 
 Dutocq, clerk to the justice of the peace of the dis- 
 trict." 
 
 "But you write me that these notes are held by 
 this Monsieur Dutocq. Is it some marriage-brokerage 
 business?" 
 
 "There may be something of that sort in it," re- 
 plied Cerizet "You know, Monsieur, that such 
 transactions are common enough in Paris: even 
 ecclesiastics do not disdain to take a hand in them." 
 
 "Has the affair gone very far?" 
 
 "Why, yes, matters have progressed very rapidly, 
 especially during the last few days." 
 
 "Well, my dear sir, I rely upon you to make it 
 fall through; I have other plans for Theodose, 
 another match to suggest to him." 
 
 "If you'll allow me!" replied Cerizet; "the way
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 311 
 
 to put an end to his marriage is to make it impossible 
 for him to pay his debt; and I have the honor to 
 remind you that these notes of hand are genuine 
 obligations. Monsieur Dutocq is clerk to a magis- 
 trate; that is to say, in such matters it isn't easy to 
 get the better of him." 
 
 "You must buy Monsieur Dutocq's claim," re- 
 joined Du Portail; "you will find a way to come to 
 an understanding with him on the subject In case 
 of need, if Theodose should kick too violently against 
 my plans, the notes would become a valuable 
 weapon in our hands; you must undertake to sue 
 them in your own name, and you will be put to no 
 inconvenience whatever; I will agree to pay the 
 principal sum and costs." 
 
 "You're a downright man of business, Monsieur!" 
 said Cerizet, "and it's really a pleasure to act for 
 you. When you consider that the time has arrived 
 to explain the mission which you do me the honor 
 to think of entrusting to me " 
 
 "You were speaking just now," rejoined Du Por- 
 tail, "of Theodose's cousin, Mademoiselle Lydie de 
 la Peyrade. That young woman, who is no longer 
 in her first youth, for she is approaching thirty, is 
 the natural daughter of the famous Mademoiselle 
 Beaumesnil of the Theitre-Francais, and La Pey- 
 rade, Commissioner of Police under the Empire, 
 and our friend's uncle." (See Splendors and Mis- 
 eries.) "Up to the very moment of his death, which 
 came very suddenly and left his daughter, whom he 
 loved to adoration and had acknowledged, entirely
 
 312 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 penniless, I was on most intimate and friendly 
 terms with that excellent man." 
 
 Well pleased to show that he had some knowledge 
 of Du Portail's household, Cerizet interposed: 
 
 "And you have most devoutly discharged the obli- 
 gations imposed upon you by that friendship, Mon- 
 sieur; for when you received the interesting orphan 
 under your roof, you undertook a laborious guar- 
 dianship; Mademoiselle de la Peyrade's state of 
 health, as I am informed, requires most watchful 
 attention no less than affectionate care." 
 
 "Yes," replied Du Portail, "the poor child was 
 so cruelly bereaved by her father's death, that her 
 mind was somewhat affected; but there has been of 
 late a marked improvement in her condition, and no 
 longer ago than yesterday I procured a consultation 
 between Doctor Bianchon, and the chief physicians 
 at Bicetre and La Salpetriere. These gentlemen 
 are unanimously of the opinion that marriage and the 
 birth of a child will infallibly lead to her complete 
 recovery; you understand that that is too simple 
 and too agreeable a remedy not to be tried." 
 
 "In that case," said Cerizet, "Mademoiselle 
 Lydie de la Peyrade is the wife you have in mind 
 for Theodose?" 
 
 "You have said it," assented Du Portail; "but you 
 mustn't think that I should require of our young 
 friend a devotion entirely without recompense if he 
 should fall in with my views. Lydie is good look- 
 ing, she is talented and has a charming disposition, 
 and will be able to give her husband an important
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 313 
 
 position in public affairs; moreover, she has a pretty 
 little fortune consisting of something that her mother 
 left her and all that I possess, which I intend to 
 promise her in the marriage-contract, in default of 
 heirs of my own; and lastly, of an inheritance of 
 considerable value which became hers only last 
 night." 
 
 "What!" cried Cerizet, "did old Toupillier " 
 
 "By a will in his own handwriting, which I have 
 here, the miser makes her his sole legatee. So you 
 see I am entitled to some credit for not taking any 
 steps in consequence of your escapade and Madame 
 Cardinal's, for it was our property that you proposed 
 to pillage." 
 
 "God knows, " said Cerizet, "that I don't pretend 
 to excuse Madame Cardinal's vagaries: and yet as 
 one of the next of kin, disinherited for a stranger, 
 it seems to me that she had some claim to the indul- 
 gence you were good enough to show her." 
 
 "That's where you are wrong," replied Du Por- 
 tail, "for the apparent liberality of which Made- 
 moiselle de la Peyrade is the object, is restitution, 
 pure and simple." 
 
 "Restitution?" exclaimed Cerizet, curiously. 
 
 "Restitution," repeated Du Portail, "and nothing 
 is more easily susceptible of proof. Do you remem- 
 ber a diamond robbery committed some twelve years 
 ago, of which one of our dramatic celebrities was the 
 victim?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed," Cerizet replied; "I was manager 
 of one of my newspapers at the time, and I prepared
 
 314 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 the item in Paris News. But one moment ! the ce- 
 lebrity you speak of was Mademoiselle Beaumesnil. " 
 
 "Exactly: Mademoiselle Lydie de la Peyrade's 
 mother." 
 
 "So this wretched Toupillier but no, I remember, 
 the thief was convicted. His name was Charles 
 Crochard. It was whispered that he was the natural 
 son of a great personage, Comte Granville, At- 
 torney-General at Paris after the Restoration." 
 (See A Double Family.') 
 
 "Well," continued Du Portail, "this is what 
 actually happened. The theft, you will also remem- 
 ber, was committed in a house on Rue de Tournon 
 occupied by Mademoiselle Beaumesnil. Charles 
 Crochard, who was a handsome fellow, was on very 
 intimate terms there, as it appeared." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said Cerizet, "I can see now Made- 
 moiselle Beaumesnil's embarrassment when she 
 testified, and her almost total loss of voice when the 
 president of the court asked her age." 
 
 "The theft was committed boldly in broad day- 
 light," continued Du Portail, "and as soon as Cro- 
 chard had the jewel-case in his possession he went 
 off to Saint-Sulpice Church, where he had appointed 
 to meet a confederate. Having received the dia- 
 monds from him, and being already provided with 
 a passport, this accomplice was to start immediately 
 for some foreign country. As luck would have it, 
 Crochard, on entering the church, found himself 
 confronted, not by the man he expected, who was a 
 few moments behind time, but by a celebrated
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 315 
 
 detective who was perfectly well known to him, as 
 this was not the young rascal's first misunderstand- 
 ing with the law. The absence of his confederate ; 
 the chance encounter with this officer, who, as he 
 imagined, looked at him in a singular way; the 
 revolt of his conscience; and, finally, a rapid 
 movement toward one of the doors which the 
 detective happened by the merest chance to make, 
 convinced the thief that he was under surveil- 
 lance. In his excitement he lost his head and 
 determined at any price to get rid of the jewel- 
 case which would put him in the position of being 
 caught flagrante delicti, if, as he did not doubt, he 
 were arrested when he left the church, which he 
 fancied was surrounded by the police. His eye fell 
 on Toupillier, who was at that time dispenser of holy 
 water; he went to his stall, and, after making sure 
 that their colloquy was noticed by no one, said 
 to him: 'Will you keep this little package for 
 me? It is lace. I am going to see a countess 
 near by who's very poor pay; instead of settling 
 my bill she wanted to see these articles, which are 
 the latest things out, and asked me to let her have 
 them on credit. I'd rather not have them with me. 
 Be very careful,' he added, 'not to touch the paper 
 around the box, for there's nothing so hard as to do 
 up a bundle in the same folds.' " 
 
 "The bungler!" cried Cerizet, naively, "all his 
 injunctions must have made the other man anxious 
 to look." 
 
 "You're a clever moralist," said Du Portail.
 
 316 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "An hour later, when Charles Crochard, having 
 seen nothing to cause alarm, returned to get his 
 package, Toupillier wasn't at his post. You can 
 imagine the eagerness with which Crochard, at 
 early mass on the following day, accosted the dis- 
 penser of holy water, whom he found attending to 
 his duties; but night, as they say, brings counsel; 
 the good man boldly declared that he had received 
 nothing from him and didn't know what he was 
 talking about" 
 
 "And he couldn't attack him and make a noise 
 about it!" remarked Cerizet, who was not far from 
 sympathizing with a trick so audaciously played. 
 
 "Of course the theft was already noised abroad," 
 continued Du Portail, "and Toupillier, who was a 
 very shrewd fellow, had cunningly calculated that 
 the thief could not accuse him without betraying 
 himself and putting himself in a position where he 
 would have to restore the property. At the trial 
 Crochard didn't mention his misadventure, and dur- 
 ing the six years that he passed at the galleys, a 
 portion of his sentence of ten years at hard labor 
 having been remitted, he never hinted to anyone 
 that he was the victim of misplaced confidence." 
 
 "That was true grit!" said Cerizet; the narrative 
 aroused his keenest interest, and he allowed himself 
 to regard the affair from the standpoint of a connois- 
 seur and artist. 
 
 "In the interval," continued Du Portail, "Madame 
 Beaumesnil had died, leaving her daughter some 
 trifling remnants of a handsome fortune, and notably
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 317 
 
 these diamonds, which were expressly mentioned in 
 her will and bequeathed to Lydie if they should 
 be recovered. 
 
 "Aha!" said Cerizet, "that was hard on Toupil- 
 lier; for, having to do with a man of your cali- 
 bre" 
 
 "Filled with the idea of vengeance, Charles Cro- 
 chard's first step on regaining his liberty was to 
 denounce Toupillier as receiver of the diamonds. 
 But when he was arrested and subjected to exami- 
 nation he defended himself with such extraordinary 
 simplicity and good humor, that, as there was no 
 evidence in support of the accusation, the magistrate 
 finally discharged him. He lost his place, however, 
 as dispenser of holy water, and had great difficulty 
 in obtaining permission to beg at the door of Saint- 
 Sulpice. I was entirely convinced of his guilt; 
 notwithstanding the magistrate's decision I suc- 
 ceeded in having a strict watch kept upon his move- 
 ments, but I relied most of all upon myself. Being 
 an annuitant, with considerable leisure time, I 
 attached myself to our thief's skin, and undertook 
 the most important enterprise of my whole life in 
 order to unmask him. He lived at that time on 
 Rue du Coeur- Volant; I succeeded in hiring a room 
 adjoining his, and one night, through a hole which 
 I had with much labor drilled in the wall that sepa- 
 rated us, I saw our man take the case from a very 
 ingeniously contrived hiding-place, and pass well 
 nigh an hour gazing in ecstasy at our diamonds, 
 holding them so that the light would make them
 
 3l8 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 sparkle, and pressing his lips passionately to them; 
 the man loved them for themselves and had never 
 thought of turning them into money." 
 
 "I understand," said Cerizet; "a mania some- 
 thing like Cardillac's, the jeweler that somebody 
 wrote a play about" 
 
 "That's about it," said Du Portail ; "the wretch 
 had fallen in love with the jewels; and so, a few 
 days after, when I went to him and gave him to 
 understand that I knew everything, he proposed to 
 me, in order not to be deprived of what he called 
 the consolation of his life, that we should let him 
 keep them while he lived, and pledged himself in 
 his gratitude to make Mademoiselle de la Peyrade 
 his sole legatee ; at the same time he informed me 
 that he possessed a considerable sum in gold, to 
 which he was adding every day, as well as a piece 
 of real estate and something in the public funds." 
 
 "If he was acting in good faith," said Cerizet, "the 
 proposition was worth accepting; the interest of the 
 capital locked up in the diamonds was abundantly 
 made up by the remainder of the inheritance." 
 
 "You see, my dear man," said Du Portail, "that I 
 made no mistake in trusting him. However, my 
 precautions were taken ; I demanded that he should 
 occupy a room in my house, where I watched him 
 very closely; the hiding-place of which you so 
 cleverly discovered the secret was prepared under 
 my directions, but one thing that you don't know is 
 that the secret spring, at the same time that it 
 opened the iron cupboard, rang a peal on a very
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 319 
 
 noisy bell in my apartment, placed there for the 
 purpose of giving me notice of any attempt that 
 might be made to carry off our treasure." 
 
 "Poor Madame Cardinal !" cried Cerizet, jocosely, 
 "how far she was out in her reckoning!" 
 
 "So this is the situation," said Du Portail : "be- 
 cause of my interest in my old friend's nephew, 
 and also because, on account of the relationship, this 
 marriage seems to me to be an eminently suitable 
 one, I intend that Theodose shall marry his cousin 
 and this dot. As it is possible that La Peyrade 
 may be disinclined to fall in with my plans on 
 account of his cousin's mental condition, I did not 
 think best to make the proposition directly to him. 
 You came in my way, I know you to be clever and 
 cunning, and immediately it occurred to me to em- 
 ploy you in this little matrimonial negotiation. 
 Now you understand! you will say to him that you 
 know of a wealthy girl, who has one slight draw- 
 back, but, to balance it, a good round dowry ; you 
 will mention no names, and will come at once to me 
 and tell me how the suggestion is received." 
 
 "Your confidence," rejoined Cerizet, "pleases me 
 as much as it honors me, and I will do my best to 
 justify it" 
 
 "We must make no mistake," continued Du Por- 
 tail ; "to refuse is likely to be the first impulse of a 
 man who is playing a game elsewhere, but we won't 
 admit that we're beaten. I don't readily abandon 
 my ideas when I think they are wise, and even if 
 we should have to carry our zeal for La Peyrade's
 
 320 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 welfare so far as to shut him up at Clichy, I am 
 determined not to be balked in an arrangement of 
 which I am certain that he will eventually recognize 
 the wisdom. And so, in any event, you must buy 
 Monsieur Dutocq's claim." 
 
 "At its face value?" asked Cerizet 
 
 "Yes, at its face value if you can do no better; 
 we won't haggle over a few thousand francs; but, 
 when the bargain is made, Monsieur Dutocq must 
 assure us of his assistance, or, at all events, of his 
 neutrality. Judging from what you have told me 
 of the other marriage, I think it useless to remind 
 you that we haven't a moment to lose before putting 
 the irons in the fire." 
 
 "1 have an appointment with La Peyrade two 
 days hence," observed Cerizet; ".we have a little 
 matter of business to settle. Don't you think it 
 would be well to wait until that meeting, when 1 can 
 bring this other matter up incidentally ? If he kicks, 
 that course would be more consistent with our dig- 
 nity, it seems to me." 
 
 "Very well," said Du Portail, "that's not a long 
 delay; and remember, Monsieur, that if you are 
 successful, instead of a man entitled to hold you to 
 a strict account of your imprudent connivance with 
 Madame Cardinal, you will have in me a debtor, 
 ready to serve you in any way, and whose influence 
 goes farther than is generally supposed." 
 
 After such kind words the two new friends could 
 not part otherwise than on the best of terms and 
 well content with each other.
 
 Like the Tourniquet Saint-Jean, the Rocker de 
 Cancale, whither the scene is now to change, is 
 naught but a memory to-day. A wine-shop with 
 pewter-counters has taken the place of that Temple 
 of Taste, that European sanctuary which had shel- 
 tered within its walls all the epicures of the Empire 
 and the Restoration. 
 
 On the day preceding that appointed for the 
 meeting, La Peyrade received a line from Cerizet to 
 this effect: 
 
 "To-morrow at half-past six at the Rocker, lease 
 or no lease." 
 
 Cerizet had occasion to see Dutocq every day, 
 being his copyist, so he notified him by word of 
 mouth ; but the careful reader will remark the differ- 
 ence in the hour named to this other guest "Be at 
 the Rocker at quarter past six," Cerizet said to him ; 
 it was evident that he desired to have at least a 
 quarter of an hour for consultation before La Pey- 
 rade's arrival. 
 
 This quarter of an hour the usurer intended to 
 employ in driving a bargain for Dutocq's notes, and 
 he thought that the offer would be likely to be more 
 favorably received if made point-blank, and without 
 time for preparation. By giving the vender no oppor- 
 tunity for reflection he might perhaps be induced 
 to loosen his hold, and, when he had purchased 
 21 (321;
 
 $22 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 the claim at less than its face value, the man 
 from Rue des Poules could make up his mind at his 
 leisure whether he could safely appropriate the dif- 
 ference, or whether it would be better to account 
 honestly to Du Portail for the rebate he had obtained 
 for him. We ought to say, however, that, aside 
 from any question of self-interest, Cerizet would still 
 have tried to gain a point on his friend ; it was an 
 instinct with him and a necessity of his nature; in 
 business he had the same horror of a straight line 
 that amateur gardeners in England exhibit inlaying 
 out their paths. 
 
 Having still a part of the price of his clerkship to 
 pay, and being compelled to live most sparingly, 
 Dutocq's ordinary fare was not so sumptuous that a 
 dinner at the Rocher de Cancale was not an event 
 of importance in the domestic economy of his exist- 
 ence. He kept his appointment, therefore, with a 
 promptness which bore witness to the interest he 
 took in the meeting, and at precisely a quarter past 
 six made his appearance in the private room of the 
 restaurant where Cerizet was awaiting him. 
 
 "It's ver> funny, " said he, "that we are once more 
 in the same situation in which our relations with 
 La Peyrade began ; but the place for the meeting 
 between the three emperors is selected this time 
 with more regard to comfort, and I much prefer the 
 Tilsit of Rue Montorgeuil to the Tilsit of Rue de 
 I'Ancienne-Comedie, that dreary Restaurant Pin- 
 son." 
 
 "Faith," replied Cerizet, "I doubt if the results
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 323 
 
 obtained will justify the substitution ; for, after all, 
 where do our profits from the formation of the 
 triumvirate come in?" 
 
 "Why, when you come to that," said Dutocq, 
 "it was a one-sided bargain. No one can say that 
 La Peyrade lost much time, in arranging for his 
 installation at the Tuileries, if I may permit myself 
 the pun. The rascal has gone ahead fast, we must 
 admit." 
 
 "Not so fast but that his marriage is not, at this 
 moment, terribly compromised." 
 
 "What's that! compromised?" 
 
 "Yes; I have been employed to suggest a woman 
 to him in an indirect way, and I doubt if he has 
 any choice in the matter." 
 
 "What the devil, my dear fellow ! do you mean to 
 say that you're thinking of lending a hand to an 
 opposition marriage, when we have a mortgage on 
 the other?" 
 
 "My friend, a man can't always control circum- 
 stances; I saw from the way things were working, 
 that the one we had a hand in arranging was bound 
 to go by the board, so I have tried to get a pick- 
 ing out of the new negotiations." 
 
 "Ah! so this Theodose is going to get away from 
 us? Who's the new one? is there a fortune?" 
 
 "The dot is very fair, quite equal to Mademoi- 
 selle Colleville's." 
 
 "Then I snap my fingers at him; La Peyrade 
 signed the notes and he shall pay them." 
 
 "He shall pay, he shall pay; that's just the
 
 324 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 question. You're no business man, no more is 
 Theodose; he may take it into his head to dispute 
 the notes. How do you know that when their ori- 
 gin is disclosed, and the Thuillier marriage falls 
 through, the court won't declare them void for lack 
 of consideration ? As for myself I can snap my fin- 
 gers at the dispute: 1 have no concern in it, and 
 besides I have taken rny precautions; but you're 
 clerk to a justice of the peace don't you catch a 
 glimpse of a crow to pluck with the chancellor's 
 office as a result of such a lawsuit?" 
 
 "It seems to me, my dear fellow," said Dutocq, 
 with the testy air of a man who finds himself con- 
 fronted by an argument he can not answer, "it 
 seems to me that you have a passion for stirring 
 things up and meddling. " 
 
 "I tell you," retorted Cerizet, "that this affair 
 sought me out, and I saw so plainly at the outset that 
 it was hopeless to struggle against the evil influ- 
 ences that are at work against us, that 1 made up my 
 mind to save myself by a sacrifice." 
 
 "What sort of a sacrifice, may I ask?" 
 
 "Parbleu! I sold my claim, leaving to those who 
 bought it the pleasure of arranging with Monsieur 
 1'Avocat" 
 
 "But who bought it?" 
 
 "Who do you suppose would have put themselves 
 in my shoes, if not the people who have enough in- 
 terest in bringing about the other marriage to try 
 and force Monsieur Theodose into it even by shut- 
 ting him up?"
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 325 
 
 "Then my notes are equally necessary to them ?" 
 
 "No doubt, but 1 didn't want to dispose of them 
 without consulting you." 
 
 "Well, what do they offer?" 
 
 "Bless me ! just what I accepted myself ; knowing 
 better than you the danger of the competition I 
 decided to sell out on unfavorable terms." 
 
 "What were the terms?" 
 
 "1 let the notes go for fifteen thousand." 
 
 "Nonsense!" said Dutocq, with a shrug: "it's 
 very evident that you expect to make yourself whole 
 out of the brokerage of the affair, which, for all 
 I know, may be a scheme concocted by La Peyrade 
 and yourself." 
 
 "You don't mince words, old fellow, at all 
 events; an infamous idea comes into your brain, 
 and you eject it with the most delightful indif- 
 ference. Luckily you'll hear me broach the subject 
 to Theodose in a moment, and you can judge 
 from his manner how much connivance there is 
 between us." 
 
 "All right!" said Dutocq, "I withdraw my insinu- 
 ation; but upon my word your employers are 
 regular pirates; it's wicked to slaughter folks so; 
 another blow, and I haven't like you a reserve that 
 1 can fall back on." 
 
 "My poor fellow, this is how I argued : 'That good 
 Dutocq is hard put to it to pay the balance due on 
 his clerkship; here's a way for him to settle it at 
 one stroke; the result proves how much uncer- 
 tainty there is in the La Peyrade compromise, they
 
 326 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 offer him spot-cash, and so perhaps it's not a very 
 bad bargain for him.' " 
 
 "Agreed; but to lose the two-fifths!" 
 
 "Look here!" said Cerizet, "you said something 
 just now about a reserve; I can see a possible way 
 of starting one for you ; and if you choose to under- 
 take to lead an attack on the Colleville affair and 
 take the reverse of the part you've played in it thus 
 far, I don't despair of getting a round twenty thous- 
 and out of it for you." 
 
 "Then you think this new arrangement won't be 
 satisfactory to La Peyrade? that he'll fight against 
 it ? Is it some heiress that the rascal's already taken 
 earnest-money from?" 
 
 "All I can tell you is that we must wait for the 
 drawing to know the result" 
 
 "I ask nothing better than to draw as you say, 
 and to make myself unpleasant to La Peyrade ; but 
 five thousand francs; think of it! it's too much to 
 lose!" 
 
 At that moment the door opened and a waiter in- 
 troduced the expected guest 
 
 "You can serve the dinner," said Cerizet to the 
 waiter; "we expect no one else." 
 
 It was easy to see that Theodose was beginning 
 to take his flight toward higher social spheres. 
 Elegance in dress had become his constant thought. 
 He was in full evening dress, dress-coat and patent- 
 leathers, while his partners received him in red- 
 ingote and muddy boots. 
 
 "Messeigneurs," said he, "I fear that I'm a little
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 327 
 
 late ; but that devil of a Thuillier, with the pamphlet 
 I'm putting together for him, is the most unbearable 
 creature. I was unfortunate enough to arrange with 
 him that we should look over the proofs together ; at 
 every new paragraph we have a struggle. 'The 
 public won't understand what I can't understand,' 
 he always says : 'I'm no literary man, but I'm a 
 practical man.' And I have to fight over every sen- 
 tence. I thought the session we've just had would 
 never end." 
 
 "What do you expect, my dear fellow?" said 
 Dutocq; "when one wants to get ahead he must 
 have the courage to make some sacrifice; when 
 you're safely married you can hold up your 
 head." 
 
 "Ah yes!" said La Peyrade with a sigh, "I will 
 hold it up too; for, ever since the time you made 
 me eat the bread of anguish I have been getting 
 terribly weary." 
 
 "Cerizet's going to regale us with succulent food 
 to-day," said Dutocq. 
 
 And at first they turned their attention exclusively 
 to the menu which the principal tenant that-was-to- 
 be, with his memories of happier days, had ordered. 
 As is always the case at political dinners where 
 every guest, although his mind is full of the burning 
 questions of the day, makes a point of not mention- 
 ing them for fear of relinquishing his advantages by 
 seeming too eager, the conversation for a long while 
 turned upon none but matters of general interest, 
 and not until the dessert appeared did Cerizet make
 
 328 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 up his mind to ask La Peyrade what had been 
 decided regarding the terms of the lease. 
 
 "Nothing, my dear fellow," said La Peyrade. 
 
 "What! nothing? Why, I certainly gave you 
 time enough to come to some decision " 
 
 "And something is decided, namely, that there 
 will be no principal tenant; Mademoiselle Brigitte 
 proposes to manage the building herself." 
 
 "That's a different matter," said Cerizet with an 
 affected air. "After the agreement you made with 
 me I confess that I was far from expecting such a 
 result" 
 
 "What could I do, my dear man? I promised sub- 
 ject to ratification, and I had no way of giving any 
 different turn to the affair. In her capacity of mas- 
 terful woman and specimen of perpetual movement, 
 Mademoiselle Brigitte reflected that she could herself 
 undertake the management of the property as well 
 as not, and thus put in her own pocket the profits 
 you calculated on. I wasted my breath talking to her 
 about the fuss and worry she would subject herself 
 to; 'Bah! bah!' she retorted, 'it will keep my blood 
 moving and be an excellent thing for my health.' " 
 
 "Why it's pitiful !" exclaimed Cerizet; "the poor 
 woman won't know where to begin; she has no idea 
 what an unoccupied building is, and that she's got 
 to find tenants for it from top to bottom." 
 
 "1 gave her the benefit of all those arguments," 
 rejoined La Peyrade, "but I didn't even shake her 
 resolution. There you are, my dear democrats; 
 you brewed the Revolution of '89; you fancied that
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 329 
 
 you were making an excellent speculation in 
 dethroning the noble by the bourgeois, and you 
 simply put yourselves in the gutter. This sounds 
 like a paradox, but it wasn't the peasant who was 
 made to pay taxes and work on the roads at plea- 
 sure, it was the noble. The aristocracy, solicitous 
 for their dignity, denied themselves a multitude of 
 plebeian accomplishments, even that of learning to 
 write, and so were in fact dependent upon the whole 
 mass of underlings whom they were obliged to em- 
 ploy and to trust in three-fourths of the acts of their 
 lives. That was the reign of intendants, of intelli- 
 gent and cunning clerks, through whose hands all 
 the affairs of the great families passed, and who, 
 although they did not deserve the shocking reputa- 
 tion they acquired by force of circumstances, grew 
 rich simply by the parings of the vast fortunes they 
 administered. Now we have a host of utilitarian 
 aphorisms: 'One is never so well served as by 
 himself. There is no shame in attending to one's 
 own affairs,' and a thousand other bourgeois max- 
 ims, which, by making action every man's proper 
 sphere, have done away with the employment of 
 middle-men. Why shouldn't Mademoiselle Brigitte 
 Thuillier undertake the management of her own 
 property, when dukes and peers of France go in 
 person to the Bourse, when they negotiate their 
 own leases, read over their contracts themselves 
 before signing them and dispute about their pro- 
 visions at the notary's office, whom they used in 
 old days disdainfully to call a scrivener?"
 
 330 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 During La Peyrade's harangue Cerizet had had 
 time to recover from the blow he had received full 
 in the face, and he now said, carelessly, paving the 
 way for a transition to the other subject he had 
 undertaken to negotiate : 
 
 "All that you say is very clever, my dear boy; 
 but the thing that proves our setback most clearly 
 in my eyes is that you are not on so influential a 
 footing with Mademoiselle Thuillier as you would 
 have us believe. She escapes you handily at need, 
 and I begin to doubt whether the marriage is so sure 
 to take place as Dutocq and I have been glad to 
 think it was." 
 
 "Of course," replied La Peyrade, "there is still 
 much to be done to complete our task, but 1 think 
 it's well advanced." 
 
 "Well, I think, on the contrary, that you've lost 
 ground, and it's very easy to see why; you've 
 done your people an enormous favor, and they'll 
 never forgive you." 
 
 "Well, we shall see," said La Peyrade; "I still 
 have more than one hold on them." 
 
 "No, indeed you haven't; you thought you were 
 doing marvels by heaping favors on them, and now 
 that they've shaken clear of you they'll make no 
 account of you ; that's the way the human heart is 
 made, especially the bourgeois heart; it isn't, you 
 see, because I get the reflex action of this failure 
 that I feel you're going to meet with, but, if 1 were 
 you, I wouldn't feel as if 1 were on firm ground, and 
 if I saw any chance to turn "
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 331 
 
 "What! because I couldn't get a lease for you, am 
 1 to throw the helve after the axe?" 
 
 "I say again," retorted Cerizet, "that I don't look 
 at the matter with interested eyes; but, as I have 
 no doubt that you acted as a true friend should and 
 did your utmost to get what I wanted, I look upon 
 the way you were shown the door as a very ominous 
 symptom; indeed it prompts me to tell you some- 
 thing I shouldn't otherwise have mentioned, because 
 I find that when you have an end in view you 
 should go straight on without looking behind or in 
 front, and without allowing any other aspiration to 
 turn you aside." 
 
 "Come, come!" said La Peyrade, "What does all 
 this talk mean? What have you to propose to me? 
 What will it cost?" 
 
 "My dear fellow," rejoined Cerizet, without heed- 
 ing the impertinence, "you yourself can fix a value 
 on such a find as a young woman, well-educated, 
 good-looking, talented, with a dowry at least equal 
 to Celeste's, and which she will have at first hand ; 
 also, a hundred thousand francs in diamonds, like 
 Mademoiselle Georges on provincial play-bills; and 
 lastly and this ought above all things to make an 
 impression on a man of ambitious temperament 
 power to dispose of political preferment in her hus- 
 band's favor." 
 
 "And you have this treasure in your hand?" 
 demanded La Peyrade, incredulously. 
 
 "Better than that; I am authorized to offer it to you, 
 3 had almost said that I have it in charge to do so."
 
 332 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "My friend, you're laughing at me, and unless I 
 assume that this phoenix has some fearful defect that 
 would vitiate any contract " 
 
 "I agree," said Cerizet, "that there is a trifling 
 matter to be taken into account; not on the part of 
 the family, for, to tell the truth, the young woman 
 hasn't any." 
 
 "Ah !" said La Peyrade, "a natural child, well ?" 
 
 "Well, she's been a virgin now for some time; 
 she may perhaps be twenty-nine years old; but 
 there's nothing so easy as to make a young widow 
 out of an aging girl, in imagination." 
 
 "And is that all the poison there is?" 
 
 "Yes, all that is irreparable." 
 
 "What do you mean by that? Has rhinoplasty 
 to be tried?" 
 
 As addressed to Cerizet this question had an 
 aggressive tone which indeed had been noticeably 
 present in the advocate's conversation since the 
 dinner began. But it did not enter into the nego- 
 tiator's role to seem to notice it 
 
 "No," he replied, "our nose is as perfect as our 
 foot and our figure, but we may be a little inclined 
 to hysteria." 
 
 "Good !" exclaimed La Peyrade, "and as it's only 
 a step from hysteria to mental alienation " 
 
 "Well, yes," said Cerizet hastily, "sorrow has 
 left a slight derangement in our brain; but the doc- 
 tors are unanimous in their diagnosis, that with 
 the first child every trace of this little disturbance 
 of mind will disappear."
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 333 
 
 "I consider the doctors quite infallible," retorted 
 the advocate, "but, in the face of all your discour- 
 agement, you will permit me, my friend, to perse- 
 vere with Mademoiselle Colleville. It is an ab- 
 surd thing to confess, perhaps, but it is a fact 
 that I am gradually falling in love with the little 
 creature. It isn't that her beauty is so resplendent, 
 or that the splendor of her dowry dazzles me, but I 
 find in the child perfect sincerity combined with a 
 great supply of common sense, and, and this is 
 the decisive consideration in my mind her sincere 
 and deep-rooted piety has a great attraction for me; 
 I think a husband will be happy with her." 
 
 "Yes," said Cerizet, who, having been an actor 
 in his day, might well have this fleeting reminis- 
 cence of Moliere: 
 
 "Your hymen will be steeped in pleasures and de- 
 lights." 
 
 The allusion to Tartuffe was keenly felt by La 
 Peyrade, who at once took it up and added : 
 
 "By contact with her innocence, I shall throw 
 off the infection of the base society in which I have 
 lived too long." 
 
 "And you will pay your notes," retorted Cerizet, 
 "which I advise you to do with the least possible 
 delay, for Dutocq here just informed me that he 
 shouldn't be at all sorry to see the color of your 
 money at last." 
 
 "I? not at all," interposed Dutocq; "on the con- 
 trary 1 consider that our friend has delayed no longer 
 than he has a perfect right to do."
 
 334 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Well, for my part," said La Peyrade, "I am of 
 Cerizet's opinion, and I hold that the less just a debt 
 is, and on that account the more debatable and 
 shadowy, the more haste one should be in to be free 
 from it." 
 
 "But you take a very bitter tone, my dear La 
 Peyrade!" said Dutocq. 
 
 La Peyrade drew a wallet from his pocket 
 
 "Have you your notes here, Dutocq?" said he. 
 
 "Faith, no, my dear fellow," said the clerk; "I 
 don't carry them about me because they're in Ceri- 
 zet's hands." 
 
 "Well," said the advocate rising, "if you choose 
 to call on me, I pay on demand; Cerizet can give 
 you some information on that subject." 
 
 "What! you are going to leave us before we have 
 our coffee?" said Cerizet in the utmost astonish- 
 ment 
 
 "Yes; at eight o'clock I have an appointment 
 before an arbitrator; besides, we've said what we 
 had to say; you haven't your lease, but you have 
 your twenty-five thousand francs, and Dutocq's 
 are ready for him when he pleases to apply to my 
 cash-box; so I see no reason why i shouldn't go 
 about my business and bid you a most cordial good- 
 evening. " 
 
 "Aha!" said Cerizet, as La Peyrade left the 
 room, "a rupture!" 
 
 "And emphasized with the utmost care," observed 
 Dutocq. "What an air he put on when he pulled 
 out his wallet!"
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 335 
 
 "But where the devil can he have got the money ?" 
 asked the usurer. 
 
 "In the same place, no doubt," retorted the clerk 
 ironically, "where he got what he needed to take up 
 the notes you were obliged to part with at such an 
 enormous reduction." 
 
 "My dear Dutocq," said Cerizet, "I'll explain to 
 you just how the insolent cur cleared his slate with 
 me, and you'll see if he didn't, as a matter of fact, 
 steal fifteen thousand francs from me." 
 
 "That may be; but you, my genial copyist, un- 
 dertook to take ten thousand from me." 
 
 "No indeed; I was actually employed to buy up 
 your claim, and my offer had risen to twenty thous- 
 and when the fine Theodose came in." 
 
 "Well," said the clerk, "when we leave here 
 we'll go to your place, and you'll give me the notes, 
 because you understand that at the earliest Chris- 
 tian hour to-morrow morning I propose to call on 
 what our gentleman calls his cash box. I don't 
 want his paying humor to grow cold." 
 
 "And you will act very wisely, for I promise you 
 that it won't be long before there'll be a blow-up in 
 his career." 
 
 "Do you mean that there's any truth in this tale 
 of a madwoman that you want him to marry ? I 
 must confess that if I were in his place, with affairs 
 going on as swimmingly as they are with him, I 
 wouldn't have wasted much time on the matter 
 either ; the Ninas and Ophelias are very interesting 
 on the stage, but in a family "
 
 336 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "In a family, when they bring with them a hand- 
 some dowry, you're their guardian," rejoined Ceri- 
 zet sententiously, "and you may say that you have 
 the fortune and not the wife." 
 
 "True," said Dutocq, "that's one way to look at 
 it" 
 
 "If you don't object," said Cerizet, "we'll go 
 somewhere else for our coffee. This dinner has 
 turned out so badly, that I'm in a hurry to get out 
 of this closet, there's no air here either." 
 
 He summoned the waiter. 
 
 "The bill!" said he. 
 
 "Why ; it's paid, m'sieu." 
 
 "Paid! who paid it?" 
 
 "The gentleman who just went out" 
 
 "Why I never heard of such a thing!" cried Cer- 
 izet; "I order the dinner and you let a stranger pay 
 for it!" 
 
 "1 didn't do it, m'sieu," said the waiter; "the gen- 
 tleman paid the cashier ; it's likely she thought it was 
 all understood ; people aren't very common who go out 
 of their way to pay bills that don't belong to them. " 
 
 "All right, you can go!" said Cerizet, dismissing 
 him. 
 
 "Don't the gentlemen take coffee?" he asked 
 before leaving the room; "it's paid for." 
 
 "That's just why we won't take it," snarled 
 Cerizet "Upon my word it is past belief that such 
 blunders should be made in a house like this. Can 
 you imagine such cheek?" he asked when the 
 waiter had gone.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 337 
 
 "Pshaw!" said Dutocq taking up his hat, "it is a 
 regular school-boy's trick ; he wants to show that he 
 has money; anybody can see he isn't used to it." 
 
 "No, no, not at all," said Cerizet, "it's one way 
 of giving point to the rupture. It's as if he said : 
 'I don't want to be indebted to you even for a din- 
 ner.'" 
 
 "You see, my dear fellow," suggested Dutocq as 
 they went down stairs, "this banquet was given to 
 celebrate your enthronement as principal tenant 
 He failed to get the lease for you. I can understand 
 that his conscience may have troubled him at the 
 thought of letting you pay for the dinner, which thus 
 became, like my notes, an obligation without con- 
 sideration." 
 
 Cerizet let this malicious explanation pass with- 
 out comment. They had reached the cashier's desk, 
 presided over by the lady who had allowed herself 
 to be paid unseasonably, and in the interest of his 
 dignity the usurer felt called upon to make a scene. 
 
 22
 
 The boon-companions at last left the house 
 together, and the man from Rue des Poules took his 
 employer to a low wine-shop on Passage du Saumon 
 for their coffee. 
 
 There the host who had come off so cheaply 
 recovered his good humor; he was iike a stranded 
 fish thrown back into the water; having reached 
 that stage of degradation at which a man feels ill at 
 ease in places frequented by respectable people, 
 Cerizet felt something like ecstasy when he found 
 himself once more in his element in this resort, 
 where a noisy game of pool was in progress for the 
 benefit of one of the conquerors of the Bastile. 
 
 He had a reputation as a skilful billiardist in the 
 establishment and was urged to take part in the 
 game that was already begun. In technical lan- 
 guage, he bought a ball ; that is to say one of the 
 players sold him his turn and his chances. Dutocq 
 availed himself of this arrangement to take to his 
 heels, ostensibly to go and inquire for a sick friend. 
 
 Soon after, in his shirt-sleeves and with a pipe 
 between his teeth, Cerizet had just achieved one 
 of those master-strokes which call forth frenzied 
 applause from the galleries, when the triumphant 
 glance which he cast about met with a terrible kill- 
 joy. 
 
 Among the audience was Du Portail, gazing at 
 
 (339)
 
 340 THE PETTY -BOURGEOIS 
 
 him over the head of his cane on which his chin 
 was resting. 
 
 A painful flush overspread Cerizet's cheeks, and 
 he hesitated whether he should recognize and salute 
 the annuitant, who seemed so out of place there. 
 Without making up his mind what course to adopt 
 touching this embarrassing meeting he was much 
 preoccupied; his play showed the effect of his pre- 
 occupation, and before long an ill-judged stroke put 
 him out of the game. 
 
 While he was putting on his coat in exceeding ill- 
 humor, Du Portail rose and brushed by him on his 
 way out 
 
 "Rue Montmartre, at the end of the passage," he 
 said in a low tone. 
 
 When they met, Cerizet had the bad taste to try 
 and explain the unseemly plight in which he had 
 been surprised. 
 
 "Why, in order too see you there, I must have 
 been there myself," said Du Portail. 
 
 "True," replied the usurer, "I was considerably 
 astonished to meet a peaceful resident of the Quar- 
 tier Saint-Sulpice in that place." 
 
 "Which goes to prove," retorted the annuitant in 
 a tone which nipped in the bud all hope of explana- 
 tion and all inquisitiveness, "that I am accustomed 
 to go everywhere, and that I have a star that guides 
 me to the path of people I wish to meet; I was think- 
 ing of you when you came in. Well, what have you 
 done?" 
 
 "Nothing worth doing," said Cerizet "After
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 341 
 
 playing me a trick he ought to be hanged for, and 
 cheating me out of a magnificent business opportu- 
 nity, our man rejected the proposal with the most 
 supreme contempt. There's no hope of getting Du- 
 tocq's notes; La Peyrade appeared to be in funds, 
 for he wanted to take up the notes on the spot, and 
 he will certainly pay them off to-morrow morning." 
 
 "Then he looks upon his marriage with this 
 Mademoiselle Colleville as settled?" 
 
 "Not only does he look upon it as settled but he 
 undertakes now to make us believe that it's an affair 
 of the heart He spouted a long tirade to persuade 
 me that he's really in love." 
 
 "Very well!" said Du Portail, taking occasion to 
 show that he also could talk the dialect of the wine- 
 shops, "stop the expense. 11 Which means: 'Don't 
 do anything more about it' "I'll undertake to 
 checkmate monsieur. But do you come and see 
 me to-morrow to post me as to the family he 
 proposes to enter. You have failed in one affair ; 
 but never fear : with me others are sure to turn up. " 
 
 With that he signaled to the driver of an empty 
 cab that was passing, and bestowing a friendly but 
 patronizing nod upon Cerizet, he gave the address 
 on Rue Honore-Chevalier. 
 
 As he went down Rue Montmartre on his way back 
 to the Estrapade quarter, Cerizet tortured his brain 
 trying to guess at the identity of this little old man, 
 of few words, imperious in his suggestions, who had 
 the appearance of casting grappling-irons at people 
 when he spoke to them, and who went so far from
 
 342 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 home to pass his evening in a resort where, in view 
 of the air of distinction which characterized his 
 whole person, he was certainly most tremendously 
 out of place. 
 
 When he reached the neighborhood of the Market, 
 Cerizet had not solved the problem; but at that 
 moment his attention was rudely withdrawn from it 
 by a mighty blow on the back. 
 
 Turning quickly about he found himself face to 
 face with Madame Cardinal, whom he might not 
 unnaturally have expected to meet with in that 
 region, which she visited every morning to replenish 
 her stock in trade. 
 
 Since the memorable evening on Rue Honore- 
 Chevalier, the worthy woman, notwithstanding the 
 clemency with which she had been treated, had not 
 deemed it prudent to make other than very brief 
 appearances at her domicile, and for two days past 
 she had been drowning her chagrin over her misad- 
 venture among the gin-shops, known as licensed 
 comforters. 
 
 Her speech was thick and her face inflamed. 
 
 "Well, papa," she said to Cerizet, "how did you 
 come off with the little old fellow?" 
 
 "In a few words," replied the usurer, "I con- 
 vinced him that there was nothing between him 
 and me but a misunderstanding. In the whole busi- 
 ness, my poor Madame Cardinal, you acted with 
 really unpardonable levity; tell me, when you asked 
 me to help you to make sure of your uncle's prop- 
 erty, did you know that he had a natural daughter
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 343 
 
 to whom he had long before declared his purpose of 
 leaving everything by will ? The little old man 
 who interrupted you in your absurd attempt to 
 anticipate your inheritance was no other than the 
 legatee's guardian." 
 
 "Ah! so he's a guardian!" said La Cardinal; 
 "well, guardians are polite folks. To talk to a 
 woman as old as me about sending for the police, 
 because she wanted to find out whether her uncle 
 was leaving anything! If that ain't horrible, 
 enough to sicken you!" 
 
 "Come, come!" said Cerizet, "you mustn't com- 
 plain, Mere Cardinal ; you got out of it mighty well. " 
 
 "Well, what about you, who picked the locks and 
 wanted to fasten on to the diamonds, under cover of 
 marrying my daughter ! Do you suppose my daugh- 
 ter wants any part of you ? a lawful daughter too ! 
 'Mother,' says she, 'I'll never give my heart to a 
 man with a nose like that!' " 
 
 "So you've found your daughter, have you?" 
 
 "No longer ago than last night; she's dropped her 
 drunken player, and I can flatter myself she's in a 
 superb position, eating off o' silver-piate, with her 
 carriage by the month, and made much of by a law- 
 yer who'd marry her to-morrow only he's got to 
 wait till his father and mother die, because his 
 father's a mayor, and the marriage might make a 
 row in the government." 
 
 "Get out, my good woman," said Cerizet, "what 
 devilish fol-de-rol are you giving me? the father's a 
 mire mother "
 
 344 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Well, why not ! mayor of his arrondissement and 
 that's the eleventh Monsieur Minard, a retired 
 cocoa-dealer, and rich as rich." 
 
 "Ah! very good! very good! I know him. And 
 you say Olympe is with his son?" 
 
 "That is, they don't live together, to stop tongues 
 from wagging, though he only sees her on the 
 square; he lives with his father, and meantime 
 they've bought their stuff and put it and my child 
 in lodgings over Chaussee-d'Antin way: a stylish 
 neighborhood, eh!" 
 
 "Why that seems to me a very good arrange- 
 ment," said Cerizet; "and then, you see, heaven 
 didn't intend us for each other " 
 
 "Yes, that's so ; I think the child will end by giving 
 me a good deal of satisfaction, and that reminds me 
 that there's something I want to consult you about " 
 
 "What is it?" asked Cerizet. 
 
 "Why, as my daughter's in luck, I can't go on 
 crying fish in the streets; and then, considering that 
 my uncle's disinherited me, it seems to me I have a 
 right to an elementary pension." 
 
 "You're dreaming, my poor woman! your daugh- 
 ter's a minor, and you're bound to support her, she 
 isn't bound to supply you with food." 
 
 "In that case," said Madame Cardinal, growing 
 warm, "those who haven't anything must give to 
 those who have! That's just like the law it's as 
 amiable as the guardian who talks about sending for 
 the police for nothing. Well ! let him send for the 
 police! let him have my head cut off! That won't
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 345 
 
 prevent my saying that the rich people are all 
 thieves, and the people must get up a revolution to 
 get their rights, what you, my boy, and my daugh- 
 ter and that lawyer Minard and the little guardian 
 kick to one side d'ye hear?" 
 - Seeing that his ex-mother-in-law-to-be had 
 reached an alarming stage of excitement, Cerizet 
 lost no time in taking to his heels, and when he was 
 more than fifty feet away, he heard her still hurling 
 epithets at him, which he promised himself to make 
 her pay for in full the first time she came to the 
 bank on Rue des Poules to ask for accommodation. 
 
 As he approached his house, Cerizet, who was 
 nothing less than courageous, felt a thrill of terror 
 as he spied a figure standing in the shadow near his 
 door, which, as he drew near, moved toward him. 
 
 Happily it was only Dutocq. He had come for 
 his notes. Cerizet turned them over to him with a 
 very bad grace, complaining of the suspicion im- 
 plied by a visit at so unseasonable an hour. 
 
 Dutocq paid little heed to his sensitiveness, but 
 presented himself at La Peyrade's bright and early 
 in the morning. 
 
 La Peyrade paid the notes to the last sou, and 
 replied with marked coldness to some sentimental 
 remarks which Dutocq allowed himself to indulge in 
 when he had the money safely in his pocket. 
 
 Everything in the advocate's exterior suggested 
 the slave who has broken his chains and does not 
 contemplate making a very Christianlike use of his 
 liberty.
 
 As he was bowing his creditor out, the latter 
 found himself face to face with a woman in the 
 dress of a servant, who was apparently on the point 
 of pulling La Peyrade's bell. 
 
 This woman seemed to be an acquaintance of 
 Dutocq, for he said to her : 
 
 "Aha! little mother, we have felt the need of 
 consulting a lawyer; you are right; at the family 
 council some very serious charges were made, in 
 respect to you." 
 
 "1 am not afraid of anybody, thank God! and I 
 can hold my head up anywhere," retorted the per- 
 son thus addressed. 
 
 "So much the better !" said the magistrate's clerk, 
 "so much the better ! but you will probably be sum- 
 moned soon before the magistrate who has the case 
 to investigate. However, you're in good hands, 
 and my friend La Peyradewill advise you wisely. " 
 
 "Monsieur is mistaken," replied the servant; "I 
 haven't come to consult the advocate on the subject 
 he imagines." 
 
 "Nevertheless, keep your eyes open, my dear 
 woman, for 1 tell you now that you'll be hauled over 
 the coals in fine shape. The relations are in a 
 furious rage with you, and no one can make them 
 believe that you're not very rich." 
 
 (347)
 
 348 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 As he spoke Dutocq had his eye upon Theodose, 
 who shrank from his gaze and invited his client to 
 enter. 
 
 This is what had taken place between La Peyrade 
 and this woman on the preceding day. 
 
 La Peyrade, as the reader will remember, was in 
 the habit of attending early morning mass at the 
 church of his parish. For some time he had found 
 that he was the object of a peculiarly intent scru- 
 tiny, which he was sadly at a loss to explain, on 
 the part of the woman whom we have just seen 
 enter his office, and who, to speak as Dorine spoke 
 of Tartuffe, was always careful to be on hand at his 
 precise hour. 
 
 Was it an affair of the heart? That explanation 
 was not compatible with the advanced age and 
 saintly air of the devotee, who affected, like a nun, 
 to conceal her hair beneath the scanty cap, called 
 the Jansenist, by which a few fervent remnants of 
 that sect in the Quartier Saint-Jacques can still be 
 recognized; on the other hand her clothes, which 
 were scrupulously neat and almost rich, and a golden 
 cross hanging at her neck by a black velvet ribbon, 
 excluded the idea of timid and shrinking mendicity, 
 which might have taken all this time to find courage 
 to declare itself. 
 
 In the morning of the day when the dinner at the 
 Rocker de Cancale was to take place, tired of a pro- 
 ceeding which had finally become a source of seri- 
 ous preoccupation, and noticing, moreover, that his 
 enigma in a round cap was preparing to accost him.
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 349 
 
 La Peyrade went up to her and asked if she had any 
 request to make of him. 
 
 "Monsieur," was the reply with an accent of 
 profound mystery, "is the renowned Monsieur de la 
 Peyrade, the poor man's advocate?" 
 
 "I am La Peyrade, and I have had occasion to 
 render some services to the poor people of the quar- 
 ter." 
 
 Thus spoke the uncertain modesty of the Pro- 
 vencal, who, at that moment, did not exhibit the 
 most salient peculiarity of his countrymen. 
 
 "Might I then hope that monsieur in his generos- 
 ity would listen to me in consultation?" 
 
 "The place," replied La Peyrade, "is not well 
 adapted to a conference. What you have to say to 
 me is evidently of consequence, for you have been 
 trying to make up your mind to speak to me for a 
 long time; I live near by Rue Saint-Dominique- 
 d'Enfer, and if you will take the trouble to come to 
 my office " 
 
 "That will not incommode monsieur?" 
 
 "Not the least in the world; it's my profession to 
 listen to clients." 
 
 "At what hour, please, that I may not disturb 
 monsieur?" 
 
 "Whenever you choose; I shall be at home all 
 the morning." 
 
 "Then I will wait and hear another mass at which 
 I will receive the communion; I should not have 
 dared to do so at this one, the thought of monsieur 
 would have taken my mind too much from my
 
 350 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 devotions. When I have concluded them, I will call 
 upon monsieur about eight o'clock, if that will not 
 inconvenience him." 
 
 "Why no, and there's no need of so much cere- 
 mony," said La Peyrade with a touch of impa- 
 tience. 
 
 There may have been a suspicion of professional 
 jealousy in that little testy movement, for he evi- 
 dently had to do with a combatant who was able to 
 give him points in humility. 
 
 At the appointed hour, not a moment before or 
 after, the devotee rang at the advocate's door, and 
 after inducing her with some difficulty to take a 
 seat, he invited her to begin. 
 
 She thereupon had an attack of that little dilatory 
 cough to which some people resort to obtain a breath- 
 ing-space when they are face to face with a difficult 
 subject At last, however, she decided to enter upon 
 the object of her visit. 
 
 "I hoped," said she, "that monsieur would deign 
 to tell me if it is true that a very charitable man, 
 lately deceased, has left a fund to reward servants 
 who serve their masters faithfully?" 
 
 "It is the fact," replied La Peyrade, "that Mon- 
 sieur de Montyon established certain prizes for vir- 
 tuous conduct, which are often awarded to zealous 
 and exemplary servants ; but good conduct alone is 
 not sufficient; to be entitled to one of these prizes, 
 one must have shown the most praiseworthy devo- 
 tion and Christian self-abnegation." 
 
 "Religion," said the devotee, "enjoins humility
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 351 
 
 upon us, and I certainly should not presume to sound 
 my own praises, but as I have been for more than 
 twenty years in the service of an old man, dull be- 
 yond words, a scientific man who has eaten up all his 
 property in inventions, so that I am obliged to sup- 
 port him, some people have thought that perhaps I 
 might not be held wholly undeserving of the prize." 
 
 "The Academy often selected its candidates from 
 persons in your condition, I think," said La Pey- 
 rade. "What is your master's name?" 
 
 "Pere Picot; he's not known by any other name 
 in the quarter, where he often goes out dressed as 
 if it were carnival time, so that the children crowd 
 around him and all begin to shout: 'Good-day, 
 Pere Picot, good-day, Pere Picot!' But you see he 
 doesn't care what people think of him ; he goes along 
 engrossed by his own thoughts, and 1 find it's no 
 use to spoil my temper cooking up some appetizing 
 little thing for him to eat, for if you should ask him 
 what he had for dinner he couldn't tell you ; and 
 yet he's a man full of expedients, and he has turned 
 out some promising pupils; perhaps monsieur knows 
 young Monsieur Phellion, professor at Saint-Louis 
 College, who comes to our house very often." 
 
 "So your master's a mathematician?" said La 
 Peyrade. 
 
 "Yes, monsieur, mathematics is what brought 
 him to grief; he lost his way in a mass of ideas, 
 which apparently have no sense at all, after destroy- 
 ing his sight at the Observatory, near by, where he 
 was employed for years."
 
 352 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "Well," said La Peyrade, "you will need to have 
 affidavits attesting your long-continued devotion to 
 this old man; then I will draw up a memorial to the 
 Academy and do what I can." 
 
 "How kind monsieur is!" exclaimed the devotee 
 clasping her hands, "and if he would permit me to 
 mention a little difficulty " 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 "I have been told, monsieur, that in order to 
 obtain the prizes one must be actually in want" 
 
 "Not exactly that; and yet the Academy undoubt- 
 edly means to select persons who are not in easy 
 circumstances, and who have had occasion to make 
 sacrifices they could not really afford." 
 
 It seems to me I can claim to have made sacrifices, 
 when a little property that I inherited has all been 
 used up in running the house, and for fifteen years 
 1 haven't had one sou in wages; monsieur will 
 agree that at three hundred francs a year with com- 
 pound interest they'd amount to a pretty little 
 sum." 
 
 At the suggestion of compound interest, which 
 seemed to denote some financial knowledge, La Pey- 
 rade observed this Antigone with more attention. 
 
 "But this difficulty that you spoke of ? " he said. 
 
 "Monsieur will not think it a misfortune, I 
 fancy," replied the saintly creature, "that a very 
 rich uncle, who lately died in England, and who had 
 never done anything for his family in his lifetime, 
 should have left me twenty-five thousand francs in 
 his will."
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 353 
 
 "Surely," said the advocate, "there's nothing 
 that isn't perfectly natural arid quite legitimate about 
 that" 
 
 "And yet, monsieur, 1 have said to myself that 
 that might prejudice my case before the judges." 
 
 "It's possible, because, being now in possession 
 of a small competence, the sacrifices which you 
 doubtless will continue to make for your master will 
 seem something less meritorious." 
 
 "Certainly I shall never abandon him, poor dear 
 man, in spite of all his faults, although the poor 
 little hoard that has just come to me should be 
 endangered." 
 
 "How so?" queried La Peyrade with interest 
 
 "Ah! monsieur, just let him once find out that 
 I've a little money, and it will be only a mouthful, 
 it will all go into the perpetual motion contrivances 
 and the other machines in which he's already ruined 
 himself and me too." 
 
 "Then, "said La Peyrade,"you would like to have 
 this legacy that has fallen to you kept a secret 
 from the Academy as well as from your master?" 
 
 "How clever monsieur is, and how quickly he 
 understands things!" said the devotee with a 
 smile. 
 
 "And, again," continued the advocate, "you don't 
 want to keep the money by you?" 
 
 "So that my master can find it and take it! 
 Besides, monsieur will understand, I shouldn't be 
 sorry to have the money earning interest, so that I 
 could buy the good man a few little comforts." 
 23
 
 354 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 "And the largest possible interest?" said the 
 advocate. 
 
 "Oh! monsieur, five or six per cent" 
 
 "Then I understand that you have been so long 
 desirous of consulting me on two matters, a memo- 
 rial to help you obtain a prize for virtue, and an 
 investment?" 
 
 "Monsieur is so kind and charitable and encour- 
 aging!" 
 
 "The memorial, after some little inquiry, will be 
 an easy matter ; but it's much more difficult to sug- 
 gest an investment that will be perfectly safe, and 
 of which the secret will be religiously kept" 
 
 "Ah! if I only dared!" said the devotee. 
 
 "Dared do what?" asked La Peyrade. 
 
 "Monsieur understands me " 
 
 "I? not in the least in the world." 
 
 "And yet I prayed just now that monsieur might 
 be led to consent to take the money for me ; I should 
 have entire confidence that he would return it to me 
 and would not mention it" 
 
 At that moment La Peyrade was reaping the fruit 
 of his comedy of devotion to the necessitous classes. 
 The chorus of the concierges of the quarter lauding 
 him to the skies was the only thing that could have 
 inspired this servant with the unlimited confidence 
 she manifested in him. He immediately thought of 
 Dutocq, and was not far from believing that this 
 woman was sent to him by Providence. But the 
 more desirous he felt of availing himself of the 
 opportunity to assert his independence, the more
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 355 
 
 essential it appeared to him that he should seem to 
 yield to importunity, and his objections were with- 
 out end. 
 
 In truth he had no great faith in his client's char- 
 acter, and did not care, as the saying goes, to rob 
 Peter to pay Paul, to substitute for a creditor who 
 was, after all, his accomplice, a woman who might 
 at any moment become troublesome, harass him 
 with demands for payment and subject him to scan- 
 dalous scenes which would injure his reputation 
 incalculably. He decided, therefore, to play to win 
 or lose the whole. 
 
 "My dear woman," said he to the devotee, "I am 
 in no need of money, nor am I rich enough to pay 
 you interest on twenty-five thousand francs without 
 putting it to some use. All I can do is to deposit it 
 in my name with Dupuis, the notary; he is a devout 
 man, and you can see him Sundays sitting in the 
 churchwardens' pew at your parish church. Nota- 
 ries, you know, give no receipt, nor will I give you 
 any, I simply promise to leave among my papers, 
 if I die, a memorandum which will assure the resti- 
 tution of the sum to you. It's a matter of blind 
 confidence, you see, and I do it against my inclina- 
 tion, and solely to oblige a person whose pious sen- 
 timents and the charitable use she intends to make 
 of her little fortune, commend her in an especial 
 way to my good will." 
 
 "If monsieur thinks that the matter can not be 
 arranged in any other way " 
 
 "It seems to me to be the only possible way,"
 
 356 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 said La Peyrade. "However, I don't despair of 
 getting six per cent interest for you, and you can 
 rely upon its being paid to you with the utmost 
 promptitude. But six months or a year may elapse 
 before the notary is in condition to repay the prin- 
 cipal, because the funds which notaries invest in 
 mortgages as a general rule must be loaned for a 
 fixed time, long or short as the case may be. Now, 
 when you have the prize for virtue, which in all 
 probability I shall be able to obtain for you, as you 
 will no longer have any reason for concealing your 
 little hoard, although you have a reason to-day that 
 I can readily understand I must warn you that in 
 case of any indiscretion on your part your money 
 will be immediately returned to you, and I shall 
 make no bones of telling everyone how you tried to 
 conceal your inheritance from that master to whom 
 you were supposed to have devoted yourself in the 
 most self-sacrificing way. That, you must see, 
 would place you in the position of a fraud, and 
 would greatly impair your reputation for sanctity." 
 
 "Oh!" said the devotee, "can it be that monsieur 
 believes me to be the kind of a woman to say what 
 I ought not?" 
 
 "Good heavens! my good woman, in business we 
 must provide for all contingencies; money sets the 
 best friends at variance and leads one on to do the 
 things he was least likely to have anticipated. So 
 think the matter over, and come to see me again in 
 a few days ; it's very possible that, meanwhile you 
 will have thought of some better scheme, and 1
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 357 
 
 myself, who have rashly offered to do something that 
 is really distasteful to me, may have then discov- 
 ered difficulties in our arrangement which I do not 
 now see." 
 
 This menace, adroitly brought in at the close, was 
 calculated to bring matters to a head at once. 
 
 "I have reflected," said the devotee; "with so 
 devout a man as monsieur, one can run no risk." 
 
 Producing a little purse from beneath her wimple 
 she took from it twenty-five bank notes. The rap- 
 idity with which she counted them was a revelation 
 to La Peyrade. The woman was evidently accus- 
 tomed to handling money and a strange thought 
 passed through his mind. 
 
 "Suppose she's making me a receiver of stolen 
 property?" he thought "No," he said aloud, "to 
 draw up the memorial which I am to present to the 
 Academy, I shall need, as I told you, to make some 
 few inquiries, and by-and-by 1 shall have occasion 
 naturally enough to call on you. At what hour shall 
 you be alone?" 
 
 "About four o'clock monsieur goes out to walk at 
 the Luxembourg." 
 
 "Where do you live?" 
 
 "Number 9 Rue du Val-de-Grace. " 
 
 "Very well, at four o'clock; and if, as I doubt 
 not, my information is favorable, I will take your 
 money. Otherwise, if we are not likely to carry 
 out the idea of obtaining the prize, you will have 
 no reason for making a mystery of your inherit- 
 ance; you could then invest your money under
 
 358 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 more normal conditions than those I am obliged to 
 propose to you." 
 
 "Oh! monsieur is very prudent," said the devo- 
 tee, who had thought the affair concluded "Thank 
 God ! I didn't steal the money, and monsieur can 
 find out all about me in the quarter." 
 
 "That is just what it's indispensable that I should 
 do," said La Peyrade dryly, for he did not like this 
 keen intelligence which divined all his thoughts, 
 hidden beneath a cloak of simplicity; "the prizes 
 for virtue are not awarded on any one's word, and 
 without being a thief you may not be exactly a Sis- 
 ter of Charity ; there's a wide range between those 
 two extremes. " 
 
 "As monsieur pleases," said the devotee, "and 
 he does me too great a service for me to object to 
 his taking all possible precautions." 
 
 With that she bestowed a most unctuous salute 
 upon him and went out, taking her money with her. 
 
 "The devil!" mused La Peyrade, "the woman is 
 stronger than I am; she swallows snakes with an 
 expression of gratitude and without a suspicion of a 
 wry face. I haven't yet achieved such a mastery 
 over my emotions." 
 
 He was afraid he had been too timorous, and that 
 his prospective creditor might have changed her 
 mind in the time intervening before his promised 
 call upon her. 
 
 But the harm was done, and although he was 
 worried by the thought that he had perhaps let an 
 opportunity slip through his fingers, he would have
 
 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 359 
 
 let his leg be cut off rather than yield to the impulse 
 to anticipate, even by a single minute, the hour 
 appointed for his visit 
 
 The information he gathered in the quarter was 
 quite contradictory; some people called his client a 
 saint, others declared that she was a sly creature ; 
 but he learned nothing so prejudicial to her moral 
 character as to induce him to draw back his hand 
 from the good fortune she offered him. 
 
 When he saw her again at four o'clock he found 
 her in the same mind. 
 
 With the cash in his pocket he betook himself to 
 the Rocker de Cancale, and the unintentional aggres- 
 siveness with which he managed his rupture with 
 his two partners should perhaps be attributed to 
 the various emotions through which he had passed 
 during that day. His ill-judged asperity on that 
 occasion was consistent neither with his natural nor 
 his acquired disposition ; but the money that was 
 burning his pocket had intoxicated him to a certain 
 extent, and the mere touch of it stirred him to such 
 a pitch of excitement and impatience of restraint, 
 that he could not readily control himself. He had 
 thrown Cerizet over without so much as consulting 
 Brigitte, and yet he had not altogether had the cour- 
 age of his duplicity, for he had charged to the old 
 maid's account a decision which emanated entirely 
 from his own will and from the bitter memory of his 
 struggles with the man who had long dominated him. 
 
 In fact La Peyrade throughout the day had failed 
 to show himself the infallible man, armed at all
 
 360 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 
 
 points, whom we have seen hitherto; once before, 
 when he carried Cerizet the fifteen thousand francs 
 handed him by Thuillier, he had been drawn into 
 an insurrectionary movement against the usurer 
 which had necessitated the decisive stroke of the 
 Sauvaignou affair. The fact is that it is perhaps 
 more difficult to be strong in good than in evil for- 
 tune. 
 
 The Farnese Hercules, calm and reposeful, 
 expresses more emphatically the plenitude of mus- 
 cular power than all the other Hercules, excited and 
 violent and represented struggling with strained 
 muscles at their superhuman tasks.
 
 LIST OF ETCHINGS 
 
 VOLUME X 
 
 PACK 
 
 TULLIA AND M. THUILLIER Fronts. 
 
 BEAU THUILLIER 24 
 
 M. COLLEVILLE AND FLAVIE 96 
 
 CERIZET'S OFFICE Ig2 
 
 CERIZET AND LA CARDINAL 304 
 
 10 N. R., P. B. 36l
 
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