A BARGAIN FOR THE SKIN OF A LIVING MAN.
One of the richest capitalists in Paris at this time was Monsieur
Griffard. Not so very long ago, somewhere about 1780, Griffard was
nothing more than a pastry-cook in one of the suburbs of the city, and
his knowledge of the science of finance was limited to his dealings with
the needy students who ate his wares on credit, and paid for them
accordingly. The Mississippi mania whirled him along with it also. In
those days every man in Paris meant to be a millionaire. In the streets,
alleys, and public squares every one was either buying or selling
Mississippi shares. Monsieur Griffard left his pastry-shop in the charge
of his eldest assistant while he himself went in search of millions,
and, what is more, found them. But one day, like a beautiful
soap-bubble, the whole Mississippi joke collapsed, and Monsieur Griffard
found himself out in the cold with but nine sous in his pocket.
Now, when a man who has not been a millionaire finds he has only nine
sous in his purse, there's no reason why he should be particularly
angry. But when a man has stood on an eminence from whence he can survey
his own coaches, horses, liveried flunkies, magnificently furnished
rooms, sumptuous table, pretty mistresses, and other agreeable things of
the same sort, a relapse into insignificance may be very unpleasant
indeed. So poor Monsieur Griffard, frantic with rage, hastened off to a
cutler's shop, bought a large knife with seven of his sous, and had it
well sharpened with the remaining two; but in the mean time up came a
mob of ragged citizens with Phrygian caps on, bawling at the top of
their voices, "Down with the aristocrats!" and carrying on a pole by way
of a banner the last number of Marat's newspaper, whereupon it occurred
to Monsieur Griffard that he might make a better use of his
well-sharpened knife than applying it to his own throat, so he mingled
with the crowd, and cried, "Down with the aristocrats!" as loudly as
anybody.
How or where he was pitched and tossed about during the next few years
he himself probably could not have told you; but when, a few years
later, we come across him again under the Directory, we find him
attached as commissary of stores to the army of the Rhine, or the army
of Italy, and dodging from one to the other, according as this or that
general showed a disposition to shoot him. For army commissaries are of
two classes, those whose business makes them beggars and those who
become millionaires; the former generally shoot themselves, while the
latter are shot by others. But the last case is much the rarer.
Fortunately for himself, Monsieur Griffard belonged to the class who are
not shot, but become millionaires. He managed to acquire some of the
neat little estates which the _emigré_ magnates had left to the care of
the State, and when they came home again in the days of the Restoration,
Monsieur Griffard was one of the lucky men who watched the gorgeous
pageant of the march of the allied armies through Paris from his own
balcony. Several of the _emigrés_, who came in batches in the rear of
the triumphant hosts, beheld with amazement the splendid five-storeyed
palace in the Boulevard des Italiens, which was not there at all when
they last saw Paris, and when they inquired after its owner, the name
they heard was quite unfamiliar to them.
But it did not remain unfamiliar for long. The owner of millions has
very little difficulty in acquiring distinctions which will admit him
into the very best society. In a short time Monsieur Griffard's name
became one of the most harmonious of passwords. An elegant _soirée_, a
genial _matinée_, a horse race, an orgie, an elopement, were not
considered complete without him, and Monsieur Griffard never remained
away, for all such occasions were so many opportunities to an able
business man for learning all about the passions, the follies, the
status, the extravagance, or the necessities of other people, and
building safe calculations upon what he learnt.
Monsieur Griffard was one of the boldest speculators in the world. He
would lend large amounts to ruined spendthrifts whom their own servants
summoned for their monthly wages, and yet, somehow or other, he always
made his money by it. When I say "his money," I mean that he got back
about twice as much as he expended. He did not risk his money for
nothing. Amongst all the villas and pavilions on the Ile de Jerusalem,
Monsieur Griffard's pleasure-house was the most costly and the most
magnificent. It was built on a little mound, which human ingenuity had
exalted into a hill, and its parade looked into the waters of the Seine.
In point of style it owed something to almost every age and nation--a
great point with the architects of the day, who, equally rejecting all
pedantic classicism, and all rococo prettiness, strove instead to make
everything they put their hands to as complicated, bizarre, and
incongruous as possible. It was not enough that the garden itself
should stand on an island, but it was surrounded by an artificial stream
meandering in the most masterly style in every direction, and with all
sorts of bridges thrown across it, from an American suspension-bridge to
a rustic Breton bridge, composed of wood and bark, and covered with ivy.
And each of these bridges had its own warden, with a halbert across his
shoulder, and the wardens had little sentry-boxes to correspond with the
style of the bridges, some like hermitages, others like lighthouses, and
their own peculiar trumpets to proclaim loudly to approaching guests
over which of the bridges they ought to go to reach the castle.
Beyond the bridges extended the winding ways of the English garden,
which in those days had quite thrown into the background the earlier
taste for stony, wall-like, rectilinear alleys. A man might now wander
helplessly about for hours among densely foliaged trees without being
able to find his destination. He would see the beds beside him
everywhere thickly planted with flowers in full bloom, and at every turn
he would come upon arcades of jasmine with idyllic benches underneath,
or marble statues of ancient divinities overgrown with creeping gobæas,
or pyramids of modish flowers piled one on the top of the other. In one
place he would behold masterly reproduced ruins, with agaric and cactus
monsters planted amongst them. In another place he would observe an
Egyptian tomb, with real mummies inside, and outside eternally burning
lamps, which were replenished with oil early every morning, or a Roman
altar with vessels of carved stone and Corinthian vases. Here and there,
in more open places, fountains and waterfalls plashed and gurgled in
marble basins, throwing jets of water into the air, and enabling merry
little goldfish to disport themselves, whence the stream flowed among
Oriental reeds into artfully hidden lakes, where, on the tranquil watery
mirror, swam beautiful white swans, which did not sing as sweetly as the
poets would have us believe, but made up for it by eating no end of
Indian corn, which was then very much dearer than pure wheat.
Supposing a man to have safely run the gauntlet of all these
obstructions and admired all these marvels, he would, at last, somehow
or other, stumble upon the terrace leading to this Tusculum, every stage
of which was planted thickly with orange trees, some in bloom, while
others were weighed down by loads of fruit. Among these orange trees
to-day we perceive that young gentleman we have already been fortunate
enough to meet. Nevertheless, as a whole twelve months has elapsed since
then, and the fashion has changed completely, we must look at him pretty
hard before we shall recognize him.
The calicot season is at an end. The young dandy now wears a long
overcoat reaching to the knee, buttoned by broad pendant gew-gaws, with
stiff, inexpressibly high-reaching boots. There is no longer the trace
of a moustache; it has been supplanted by whiskers, of a provocative
description, extending from the ears to the nose, and quite changing the
character of the face. The hair is parted, smoothed in the middle, and
pressed down from the top by a frightful sort of thing, which they
called _chapeau à la Bolivar_, a hat with so broad a rim that it could
serve just as well as an umbrella.
This was Abellino Kárpáthy.
The banker's staircases and antechambers are swarming with hosts of lazy
loafers strutting about in the silvered liveries of lackeys, who hand
the arriving guests on from one to the other, and deprive them on
entering of their overcoats, sticks, hats, and gloves, which they have
to redeem on their return in exchange for liberal _pour-boires_. These
worthy bread-wasters know Abellino of old, for Hungarian magnates are
well aware that it is especially necessary in foreign lands to keep up
the national dignity in the eyes of domestics, and here is only one way
of doing this, _i.e._ by scattering your money right and left, parting
with your guineas, in fact, every time you have a glass of water or drop
your pocket-handkerchief. You know, of course, that a really elegant
cavalier never carries any sort of money about with him short of
guineas, and these, too, must be fresh from the mint, and well sprinkled
with eau de Cologne or some other perfume, so as to be free from the
soil of vulgar hands.
In an instant Abellino's cloak, cap, and cane were wrested from him, the
servants rang to each other, and ran from apartment to apartment, and
the cavalier had scarce reached the last door when the first courier
came running back with the announcement that Monsieur Griffard was ready
to receive him, and with that he threw open the wings of the lofty
mahogany folding-door which led into Monsieur Griffard's confidential
chamber.
There sat Monsieur Griffard surrounded by a heap of newspapers. In front
of the banker, on a little china porcelain table, stood a silver
tea-service, and from time to time he sipped from a half-filled saucer
some fluid or other, possibly a raw egg beaten up in tea and sweetened
by a peculiar sort of crystallized sugar, made from milk which was said
to be a very good remedy against chest complaints, but was
extraordinarily dear, for which reason many a bigwig thought it _de bon
ton_ to suffer from chest complaints, so as to have an excuse for using
the sugar. The banker himself was a very respectable-looking old
gentleman of about seventy, with a face gracious to amiability, and at
first sight certainly most taking. Not only the dress, but the whole
manner of the man, vividly suggested Talleyrand, one of whose greatest
admirers he actually was. His hair was of a marvellously beautiful
white, but his face quite red and clean-shaved, and therefore all the
fresher and more animated; his teeth were white and even, his hands
extraordinarily smooth and delicate, as is generally the case with men
who have had much to do with the kneading of dough.
No sooner did the man of money perceive Abellino at the open door than
he put down the paper which he was reading without the aid of an
eyeglass, and, advancing to meet him to the very threshold, greeted him
with the most engaging affability.
"Monseigneur," exclaimed the young Merveilleux (such was the title of
the dandies of those days), "I am your servant to the very heel of my
shoe."
"Monseigneur," replied Monsieur Griffard, with similar pleasantry, "I am
your servant to the very depths of my cellar."
"Ha, ha, ha! Well said, well said! You answered me there," laughed the
young dandy. "In an hour's time that _bon-mot_ will be repeated in every
salon of the town. Well, what's the news in Paris, my dear money
monarch? I don't want bad news--tell me only the good!"
"The best news," said the banker, "is that we see you in Paris again.
And still better news than that is seeing you here."
"Ah, Monsieur Griffard, you are always so courtly!" cried the young man,
flinging himself into an armchair. "Well, Monsieur Griffard," he
continued, regarding himself at the same time in a little pocket-mirror
to see whether his smooth hair had been rumpled, "if you have only got
good news to tell me, I, on the other hand, have brought you nothing but
bad."
"Par exemple?"
"Par exemple. You know I went to Hungary to look after a certain
inheritance of mine, a certain patrimony which would bring me in a clear
million and a half."
"I know," said the banker, with a cold smile, and one of his hands began
playing with a pen.
"Then you also know, perhaps, that in the Asiatic kingdom where my
inheritance lies, nothing is on such a bad footing as the land, except
it be the king's highways. But no, the law is much the worse. The
highways, if the weather be dry, are tolerable, but the law is always
the same whether there be rain or sunshine."
Here the young Merveilleux stood up as if to allow the banker an
opportunity to congratulate him on this _jeu d'ésprit_, but the other
only smiled calmly.
"You must know, moreover," continued Abellino, "that there is a vile
expression in the Hungarian language, 'Intra dominium et extra
dominium,' which may be expressed in French by 'In possession and out of
possession.' Now, whatever right anybody may have to any property, if he
be out of possession he is in a hobble; while he who happens to be in
possession, let him be the biggest usurper in the world, may laugh at
the other fellow, and spin the case out indefinitely. Now, here am I,
for instance. Just fancy, the inheritance, the rich property, was almost
in my hands; I hasten to the spot in order to enter into my rights, and
I find that some one has been before me, and sits comfortably in
possession."
"I understand," said the banker, with a cunning smile, "some
evil-disposed usurper is in actual possession, Monseigneur Kárpáthy, of
the property that was so nearly yours, and will not recognize your
rights, but stupidly appeals to that big book, among whose many
paragraphs you will also find these words written, 'There is no
inheriting the living.'"
The young dandy stared at the banker with all his eyes.
"How much do you know?" he cried.
"I know this much--the evil usurper who makes so free with your
inheritance is none other than your uncle himself, who is so lacking in
discretion as to sufficiently come to himself again after a stroke of
apoplexy, with the aid of a hastily applied lancet, to do you out of
your property, and place you in such an awkward position that you cannot
find a single article in that thick code of laws of yours which will
enable you to bring an action against your uncle, because he had the
indecency not to die."
"Then it is a scandal," cried Kárpáthy, leaping from his seat. "I have
everywhere been proclaiming that I intend to bring an action."
"Pray keep quiet," remarked the banker, blandly. "Every one believes
what you say, but I must know the truth, because I am a banker. But I am
accustomed to keep silence. The family relations of the Rajah of Nepaul
in the East Indies are as well-known to me as is the mode of life of the
greatest Spanish grandee, and it is as useful to me to know of the
_embarras de richesses_ of the one as of the splendour-environed poverty
of the other. I know the position of every stranger who comes to Paris,
wherever he may come from, or whatever racket he may make. During the
last few days, two Hungarian counts have arrived here, who are on a
walking tour through Europe; another is returning from America, and he
travelled third class the whole way; but I know very well that the
properties of these three gentlemen at home are in such excellent
condition that they could lend me money if I wanted it. On the other
hand, there rode through the Porte St. Denis quite recently, in a
gilded carriage, drawn by white horses, and escorted by plumed
outriders, a northern prince, whose name is on every one's lips; but I
know very well that the poor devil carries about with him all the money
he has, for his property has been sequestered on account of some
political scandal."
Kárpáthy impatiently interrupted the banker's speech.
"Well, well!--but why should I be forced to listen to all this?"
"It may serve to show you that there are and will be secrets at the
bottom of the heart and the pocket, that the men who control the money
market know things that they keep to themselves, and that although I am
well aware of your delicate circumstances, you may tell the world quite
another tale, and you'll find it will not doubt your word."
"Enfin, of what use is that to me?"
"Well," replied the banker, with a shrug, "I know very well that it
would not trouble you much if the whole world knew of you what I know,
if only I did not know it. You naturally come to me, intending to
describe to me the symptoms of a disease entirely different to that from
which you are actually suffering; but I am a practical doctor, who can
read the symptoms of my patients from their faces. Suppose, now, I were
able to cure you?"
The bitter jest pleased Abellino. "Hum! feel my pulse then," he said
jestingly, "but put your hand, not on my pulse, but in my pocket."
"There is no necessity for that. Let us consider the symptoms. Are you
not suffering a slight indigestion in consequence of an undigested debt
of some three hundred thousand francs or so?"
"You know I do. Give my creditors something to go away with."
"But that would be hard on the poor fellows. You would not choke off
your upholsterers, your coach-makers, and your horse-dealers because you
can't pay them, I suppose? Would it not be juster to pay them up in
full?"
"How can I?" cried Abellino, furiously. "If only, like Don Juan de
Castro, I could raise money on half of my moustache by sending it to
Toledo! But I can't even do that, for I have cut it off."
"And what will you do if they keep on dunning you?"
"Blow my brains out; that's soon done."
"Ah! don't do that. What would the world say if an eminent Hungarian
nobleman were to blow his brains out for a matter of a paltry hundred
thousand francs or two?"
"And what would it say if they clapped him in gaol for these same paltry
francs?"
The banker smiled, and laid his hand on the young dandy's shoulder;
then, in a confidential tone, he added--
"Now we will try what we can do to save you."
This smile, this condescending tap on the shoulder, revealed the
_parvenu_ most completely.
The banker now took a seat beside him on the ample sofa, and thus
obliged him to sit straight.
"You require three hundred thousand francs," continued Monsieur
Griffard, in a gentle, soothing voice, "and I suppose you will not be
alarmed at the idea of paying me back six hundred thousand instead of
that amount when you come into your property?"
"Fi donc!" said Kárpáthy, contemptuously. A feeling of noble pride awoke
within him for an instant, and he coldly withdrew his arm from the
banker's hand. "You are only a usurer, after all," he added.
The banker pocketed the affront with a smile, and tried to smooth the
matter over with a jest.
"The Latin proverb says, '_Bis dat qui cito dat_--'He gives twice who
gives quickly.' Why should I not wish to double my money? Besides, money
is a sort of ware, and if you are at liberty to expect a tenfold return
from grain that you have cast forth, why may you not expect as much from
money that you have cast forth likewise? Take into consideration,
moreover, that this is one of the hardiest speculations in the world.
You may die before the kinsman you hope to inherit. You may be thrown
from your horse at a fox-hunt or a steeplechase and break your neck; you
may be shot through the head in a duel; or a fever or a cold may seize
you, and I shall be obliged to go into mourning for my dear departed
three hundred thousand francs. But let us go further. So far as you are
concerned it is not enough that I pay your debts. You will want at least
twice that amount to live upon every year. Good! I am ready to advance
you that also."
At these words Kárpáthy eagerly turned towards the banker again.
"You are joking?"
"Not in the least. I risk a million to gain two. I risk two millions to
gain four, and so on. I speak frankly. I give much and I lose much. At
the present moment you are in no better a position than Juan de Castro,
who raised a loan on half his moustache from the Saracens of Toledo.
Come now! an Hungarian gentleman's moustache is no worse than a
Spaniard's. I will advance you on it as much as you command, and I'll
boldly venture to doubt whether there is any one except myself and the
Moors of Toledo who would do such a thing? I can answer for nobody
imitating me."
"Good! Let us come to terms," said Abellino taking the matter seriously.
"You give me a million, and I'll give you a bond for two millions,
payable when my uncle expires."
"And if your uncle's vital thread in the hands of the Parcæ prove longer
than the million in your hands?"
"Then you shall give me another million, and so on. You will be
investing your money well, for the Hungarian gentleman is the slave of
his property, and can leave it to nobody but his lawful heir."
"And are you quite certain that you will be the one lawful heir?"
"None but me will bear the name of Kárpáthy after John Kárpáthy's
death."
"I know that; but John Kárpáthy may marry."
Abellino burst out laughing. "You imagine my uncle to be a very amiable
sort of cavalier."
"Not at all. I know very well that he stands at the very brink of death,
and that his vital machinery is so completely out of order that if he
does not change his diet immediately, and give up his gluttonous habits,
of which there is but little hope, I regret to say, he will scarcely
live another year. Pardon me for anticipating so bluntly the decease of
a dear relative!"
"Go on, by all means."
"We who have to do with life assurance transactions are in the habit of
appraising the lives of people, and I am regarding your uncle's life
just as if it had been insured in one of these institutions."
"Your scruples are superfluous. I have no tender concern whatever for my
uncle."
The banker smiled. He knew that even better than Abellino.
"I said just now that your uncle might marry. It would not be a very
rare occurrence. It often happens that elderly gentlemen, who for eighty
years have regarded matrimony with horror, suddenly, in a tender moment,
offer their hands to the very first young woman they may chance to cast
their eyes upon, even if she be only a kitchen wench. Or it may be some
old inclination which, after years and years, suddenly springs into life
again, like some tenacious animal that has lain imprisoned for centuries
in a coal-seam, and the ideals which at sixteen he was unable to make
his own, possibly because he had other ties, he turns to again at
seventy when he finds himself free again."
"My uncle has no ideals. He does not know such a word. Besides, I can
assure you that such a marriage could not possibly have the usual
results."
"I have no uneasiness on that score, otherwise I should scarcely venture
to make you an offer. But there is another point on which I shall
require a satisfactory assurance from you."
"A satisfactory assurance from me? Now it is the turn of my beard, I
suppose," murmured Abellino, smoothing down his black whiskers.
"The assurance I want from you," said the banker, cheerfully, "is that
you will live long enough."
"Naturally, lest I die before my uncle."
"It might so happen. I will, therefore, not only give you money, but
will take care that no harm happens to your life."
"How?"
"I mean to say, so long as old John Kárpáthy is alive, you must fight no
duels, go to no stag or boar hunts, undertake no long sea voyage, enter
into no liaison with any ballet-dancer; in a word, you must engage to
avoid everything which might endanger your life."
"And I suppose I must also drink no wine and ascend no staircase, as the
drink might fly to my head, and I might fall down and break my neck?"
"I won't bind you too strictly. I admit that you may find the enumerated
prohibitions somewhat grievous, but I know of a case which would free
you from them all."
"And that is----?"
"If you were to marry."
"Parbleu! Rather than do that I would engage never to mount a horse or
handle a weapon."
"Look at it in this way. Suppose you were to honour an elegant young
gentlewoman with your hand. The first year you would be able to pass
happily enough; for surely in all Paris you would be able to find a lady
capable of making a man happy for at least a whole year! At the end of
that year the Kárpáthy family would be enriched by a vigorous young
scion the more, and you would be absolved from your onerous engagement,
and be quite free to blow your brains out or break your neck, according
as the fancy took you. But if, on the other hand, you preferred to enjoy
life, why, then, Paris is large enough; and there's the whole world
beyond. That's not such a very terrible affair, I'm sure."
"We'll see," said Abellino, rising from his seat and smoothing his
ruffled shirt-front with the tips of his nails.
"How?" inquired the banker, attentively. He had foreseen that if he
showed himself ready to help Kárpáthy out of his financial difficulties,
the latter would at once grow coy.
"I say we will see which of the paths before me is the most practicable.
The money you offer I will accept in any case."
"Ah! I hoped as much."
"Only the assurances you require somewhat complicate the matter. I will
try, first of all, if I can put up with the restrictions you have laid
upon me. Oh! don't be afraid. I am accustomed to ascetic deprivations.
Once I cured myself homoeopathically, and for five weeks I was unable to
drink coffee or perfume my hair. I have a great deal of strength of
mind. If, however, I can't stand the test, I'll try matrimony. But it
would be best of all if some one would neatly rid me of my uncle."
"Sir, sir!" cried the banker, leaping to his feet, "I hope this is only
a jest on your part!"
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the young dandy. "I am not thinking of murder or
poison. I am only thinking that the poor old fellow's health may be
shattered by peasant-girls and fat pasties. There are, I must tell you,
pasties so jolly heavy that they call them 'inheritance pasties.'
There's no poison in them, but lots of goose-livers and other
delicacies. Eat your fill of 'em, and throw in some good red wine, and
apoplexy will be waiting for you round the corner."
"I can't say: I never made such things," said the ex-pastry-cook,
gravely.
"Nor did I mean to say that I would have them made for my uncle. I am
capable of killing, I am capable of shooting or cutting down the man I
hate; but it is not in me to kill a man in order to inherit his
property. But so much I may say, that if only I chose to take the
trouble, I could accelerate his departure from the world a little."
"That would be a shame. Wait till he departs of his own accord."
"There's nothing else to do. Meanwhile you must make up your mind to be
my banker. The more money I borrow, the better it will be for you; for
you will get back as much again. What do I care? Whoever comes after me
will have to shut the door."
"Then we are agreed?"
"To-morrow morning, after twelve, you can send your notary to me with
all the documents ready, so that no time may be lost."
"I will not keep you waiting."
Abellino took his leave, and the banker, rubbing his hands, escorted him
out to the very door of the saloon.
And thus there was a very good prospect of one of the largest landed
estates of Hungary falling in a few years into the hands of a foreign
banker.