Raul and Enguerrand called on Alain at the hour fixed. "In the first
place," said Raoul, "I must beg you to accept my mother's regrets that
she cannot receive you to-day. She and the Contessa belong to a society
of ladies formed for visiting the poor, and this is their day; but to-
morrow you must dine with us _en famille_. Now to business. Allow me to
light my cigar while you confide the whole state of affairs to
Enguerrand. Whatever he counsels, I am sure to approve."
Alain, as briefly as he could, stated his circumstances, his mortgages,
and the hopes which his avow had encouraged him to place in the friendly
disposition of M. Louvier. When he had concluded, Enguerrand mused for a
few moments before replying. At last he said, "Will you trust me to call
on Louvier on your behalf? I shall but inquire if he is inclined to take
on himself the other mortgages; and if so, on what terms. Our
relationship gives me the excuse for my interference; and to say truth, I
have had much familiar intercourse with the man. I too am a speculator,
and have often profited by Louvier's advice. You may ask what can be his
object in serving me; he can gain nothing by it. To this I answer, the
key to his good offices is in his character. Audacious though he be as a
speculator, he is wonderfully prudent as a politician. This belle France
of ours is like a stage tumbler; one can never be sure whether it will
stand on its head or its feet. Louvier very wisely wishes to feel
himself safe whatever party comes uppermost. He has no faith in the
duration of the Empire; and as, at all events, the Empire will not
confiscate his millions, he takes no trouble in conciliating
Imperialists. But on the principle which induces certain savages to
worship the devil and neglect the _bon Dieu_, because the devil is
spiteful and the bon Dieu is too beneficent to injure them, Louvier, at
heart detesting as well as dreading a republic, lays himself out to
secure friends with the Republicans of all classes, and pretends to
espouse their cause; next to them, he is very conciliatory to the
Orleanists; lastly, though he thinks the Legitimists have no chance, he
desires to keep well with the nobles of that party, because they exercise
a considerable influence over that sphere of opinion which belongs to
fashion,--for fashion is never powerless in Paris. Raoul and myself are
no mean authorities in salons and clubs, and a good word from us is worth
having.
"Besides, Louvier himself in his youth set up for a dandy; and that
deposed ruler of dandies, our unfortunate kinsman, Victor de Mauleon,
shed some of his own radiance on the money-lender's son. But when
Victor's star was eclipsed, Louvier ceased to gleam. The dandies cut
him. In his heart he exults that the dandies now throng to his
_soirees_.
"Bref, the millionaire is especially civil to me,--the more so as I know
intimately two or three eminent journalists; and Louvier takes pains to
plant garrisons in the press. I trust I have explained the grounds on
which I may be a better diplomatist to employ than your _avoue_; and with
your leave I will go to Louvier at once."
"Let him go," said Raoul. "Enguerrand never fails in anything he
undertakes; especially," he added, with a smile half sad, half tender,
"when one wishes to replenish one's purse."
"I too gratefully grant such an ambassador all powers to treat," said
Alain. "I am only ashamed to consign to him a post so much beneath his
genius," and "his birth" he was about to add, but wisely checked himself.
Enguerrand said, shrugging his shoulders, "You can't do me a greater
kindness than by setting my wits at work. I fall a martyr to _ennui_
when I am not in action;" he said, and was gone.
"It makes me very melancholy at times," said Raoul, flinging away the end
of his cigar, "to think that a man so clever and so energetic as
Enguerrand should be as much excluded from the service of his country as
if he were an Iroquois Indian. He would have made a great diplomatist."
"Alas!" replied Alain, with a sigh, "I begin to doubt whether we
Legitimists are justified in maintaining a useless loyalty to a sovereign
who renders us morally exiles in the land of our birth."
"I have no doubt on the subject," said Raoul. "We are not justified on
the score of policy, but we have no option at present on the score of
honour. We should gain so much for ourselves if we adopted the State
livery and took the State wages that no man would esteem us as patriots;
we should only be despised as apostates. So long as Henry V. lives, and
does not resign his claim, we cannot be active citizens; we must be
mournful lookers-on. But what matters it? We nobles of the old race are
becoming rapidly extinct. Under any form of government likely to be
established in France we are equally doomed. The French people, aiming
at an impossible equality, will never again tolerate a race of
gentilshommes. They cannot prevent, without destroying commerce and
capital altogether, a quick succession of men of the day, who form
nominal aristocracies much more opposed to equality than any hereditary
class of nobles; but they refuse these fleeting substitutes of born
patricians all permanent stake in the country, since whatever estate they
buy must be subdivided at their death my poor Alain, you are making it
the one ambition of your life to preserve to your posterity the home and
lands of your forefathers. How is that possible, even supposing you
could redeem the mortgages? You marry some day; you have children, and
Rochebriant must then be sold to pay for their separate portions. How
this condition of things, while rendering us so ineffective to perform
the normal functions of a noblesse in public life, affects us in private
life, may be easily conceived.
"Condemned to a career of pleasure and frivolity, we can scarcely escape
from the contagion of extravagant luxury which forms the vice of the
time. With grand names to keep up, and small fortunes whereon to keep
them, we readily incur embarrassment and debt. Then neediness conquers
pride. We cannot be great merchants, but we can be small gamblers on the
Bourse, or, thanks to the Credit Mobilier, imitate a cabinet minister,
and keep a shop under another name. Perhaps you have heard that
Enguerrand and I keep a shop. Pray, buy your gloves there. Strange fate
for men whose ancestors fought in the first Crusade--_mais que voulez-
vous_?"
"I was told of the shop," said Alain; "but the moment I knew you I
disbelieved the story."
"Quite true. Shall I confide to you why we resorted to that means of
finding ourselves in pocket-money? My father gives us rooms in his
hotel; the use of his table, which we do not much profit by; and an
allowance, on which we could not live as young men of our class live at
Paris. Enguerrand had his means of spending pocket-money, I mine; but it
came to the same thing,--the pockets were emptied. We incurred debts.
Two years ago my father straitened himself to pay them, saying, 'The next
time you come to me with debts, however small, you must pay them
yourselves, or you must marry, and leave it to me to find you wives.'
This threat appalled us both. A month afterwards, Enguerrand made a
lucky hit at the Bourse, and proposed to invest the proceeds in a shop.
I resisted as long as I could; but Enguerrand triumphed over me, as he
always does. He found an excellent deputy in a _bonne_ who had nursed us
in childhood, and married a journeyman perfumer who understands the
business. It answers well; we are not in debt, and we have preserved our
freedom."
After these confessions Raoul went away, and Alain fell into a mournful
revery, from which he was roused by a loud ring at his bell. He opened
the door, and beheld M. Louvier. The burly financier was much out of
breath after making so steep an ascent. It was in gasps that he
muttered, "Bon jour; excuse me if I derange you." Then entering and
seating himself on a chair, he took some minutes to recover speech,
rolling his eyes staringly round the meagre, unluxurious room, and then
concentrating their gaze upon its occupier.
"_Peste_, my dear Marquis!" he said at last, "I hope the next time I
visit you the ascent may be less arduous. One would think you were in
training to ascend the Himalaya."
The haughty noble writhed under this jest, and the spirit inborn in his
order spoke in his answer.
"I am accustomed to dwell on heights, Monsieur Louvier; the castle of
Rochebriant is not on a level with the town." An angry gleam shot out
from the eyes of the millionaire, but there was no other sign of
displeasure in his answer. "_Bien dit, mon cher_; how you remind me of
your father! Now, give me leave to speak on affairs. I have seen your
cousin Enguerrand de Vandemar. _Homme de moyens_, though _joli garcon_.
He proposed that you should call on me. I said 'no' to the _cher petit_
Enguerrand,--a visit from me was due to you. To cut matters short, M.
Gandrin has allowed me to look into your papers. I was disposed to serve
you from the first; I am still more disposed to serve you now. I
undertake to pay off all your other mortgages, and become sole mortgagee,
and on terms that I have jotted down on this paper, and which I hope will
content you."
He placed a paper in Alain's hand, and took out a box, from which he
extracted a jujube, placed it in his mouth, folded his hands, and
reclined back in his chair, with his eyes half closed, as if exhausted
alike by his ascent and his generosity.
In effect, the terms were unexpectedly liberal. The reduced interest on
the mortgages would leave the Marquis an income of L1,000 a year instead
of L400. Louvier proposed to take on himself the legal cost of transfer,
and to pay to the Marquis 25,000 francs, on the completion of the deed,
as a bonus. The mortgage did not exempt the building-land, as Hebert
desired. In all else it was singularly advantageous, and Alain could but
feel a thrill of grateful delight at an offer by which his stinted income
was raised to comparative affluence.
"Well, Marquis," said Louvier, "what does the castle say to the town?"
"Monsieur Louvier," answered Alain, extending his hand with cordial
eagerness, "accept my sincere apologies for the indiscretion of my
metaphor. Poverty is proverbially sensitive to jests on it. I owe it to
you if I cannot hereafter make that excuse for any words of mine that may
displease you. The terms you propose are most liberal, and I close with
them at once."
"_Bon_," said Louvier, shaking vehemently the hand offered to him; "I
will take the paper to Gandrin, and instruct him accordingly. And now,
may I attach a condition to the agreement which is not put down on
paper? It may have surprised you perhaps that I should propose a
gratuity of 25,000 francs on completion of the contract. It is a droll
thing to do, and not in the ordinary way of business, therefore I must
explain. Marquis, pardon the liberty I take, but you have inspired me
with an interest in your future. With your birth, connections, and
figure you should push your way in the world far and fast. But you
can't do so in a province. You must find your opening at Paris. I wish
you to spend a year in the capital, and live, not extravagantly, like a
nouveau riche, but in a way not unsuited to your rank, and permitting
you all the social advantages that belong to it. These 25,000 francs,
in addition to your improved income, will enable you to gratify my wish
in this respect. Spend the money in Paris; you will want every sou of
it in the course of the year. It will be money well spent. Take my
advice, _cher Marquis. Au plaisir_."
The financier bowed himself out. The young Marquis forgot all the
mournful reflections with which Raoul's conversation had inspired him.
He gave a new touch to his toilette, and sallied forth with the air of a
man on whose morning of life a sun heretofore clouded has burst forth and
bathed the landscape in its light.