Mme. Chambannes had not been gone one hour when a cab stopped outside
her house.
The two MM. Raindal stepped out. In order to avoid any insidious remark
from his brother, the master had donned an old frock-coat. Uncle
Cyprien, on the contrary, had dressed himself in his best clothes, a
tail-coat, the tails of which still showed the folds which a long stay
in the cupboard had given them, a pair of gray check trousers and red
dogskin gloves. He was close-shaved and had replaced his thick
cornel-wood stick with a thin rush cane with a gold handle and two brown
silk tassels inherited from M. Raindal his father.
Firmin the butler opened the door for them; he was so surprised that he
fell back a few steps. He was, moreover, dressed to go out, with a suit
of English check and a felt hat.
"What! M. Raindal!" he exclaimed, as he removed his hat. "But madame is
not here.... She left an hour ago for the Frettes ... and I am joining
her to-morrow morning.... Did not madame warn monsieur?"
Uncle Cyprien was biting his mustache to suppress a laugh that he felt
coming.
"No, madame said nothing to me," M. Raindal kept on repeating
jerkily.... "It's extraordinary. I hope at least there is nothing
serious?"
"I don't think so, monsieur," the man replied. "Madame made up her mind
suddenly about 2 o'clock.... I ran out to Mme. Panhias and she came at
once to help madame pack.... They left with Anna, the maid, as I told
you, not an hour ago. Should monsieur wish to write a note I could give
the letter to madame to-morrow morning...."
M. Raindal reflected. Such offhandedness left him dumfounded; and there
came to his soul an ill-defined impression of anguish, of strange
sorrow. At last he replied:
"No, thank you!... I shall write from home.... Where did you say madame
went?"
"To the Frettes, the château des Frettes, at Villedouillet,
Seine-et-Oise.... Will monsieur remember it?"
"Certainly.... Thank you."
When the door was closed the master glanced at his brother and said,
with an attempt at banter:
"Well, my poor friend.... For your first visit you are not in luck!"
Cyprien nodded and spread his arms in a gesture of assent; then he
straightened suddenly and remarked:
"How does it seem to you? Your Madame Chambannes doesn't appear to be
any more polite than she should!"
The master was on the point of answering when two carriages which came
from opposite directions stopped at the same time in front of the house.
The abbé Touronde came out of the first and the Marquis de Meuze out of
the other. The two men were informed of the circumstances by M. Raindal
and manifested great surprise. Neither of them had been warned; they all
ventured many conjectures as to the possible reason for this strange
lack of courtesy. M. de Meuze especially showed himself very shocked. He
had difficulty in not cursing Gerald. What! a fellow whom he had seen
that very morning, who surely knew all about it and had not said a word
to his father! Really, this was going beyond all bounds of
secretiveness!
"What's to be done?" he declared. "There is only one thing left for us
to do and that is for each one of us to return home.... Are you going
down to Paris, M. Raindal?"
"Yes, certainly," the master replied. "Pardon me, I was forgetting.... I
must introduce my brother, whom I had brought particularly to meet Mme.
Chambannes."
All the men took off their hats, Uncle Cyprien purposely accentuating
his salute to the abbé Touronde. Together they began to walk towards the
centre, the master and the abbé walking first and M. de Meuze behind
with Uncle Cyprien.
Nevertheless, M. Raindal only casually followed the words of the priest
who had started on his favorite subject, the origin and dogma of the
sect of the United Copts. The brutal departure of Mme. Chambannes had
agitated his nerves beyond his control. What struck him as a lack of
courtesy towards her other guests he construed as a real lack of
friendship, in so far as he himself was concerned. Again, the adventure
concealed a mystery which he wished he could fathom. What was the
meaning of this hurried flight, this forgetfulness of all social
obligations? What drama or what caprice had thus unexpectedly sent Mme.
Chambannes out of Paris? And a certain irritation gradually oppressed
him; it was not, of course, jealousy--the mere idea of it made M.
Raindal laugh cynically--but it resembled disappointment, disillusion,
something, in fine, that was very much like a pained surprise in his
heart. He lifted his hat to wipe from his forehead a few beads of
perspiration.
"You must excuse me!" Uncle Cyprien exclaimed to the marquis, after
having made an unsuccessful jeering comment upon the abbé Touronde. "I
prefer to be frank.... It is stronger than I.... I don't like
priests!..." And seeing that the Marquis remained cold and had
completely closed his gray eyelids, he added rapidly: "On the other
hand, I am willing to admit that I don't like the Jews any better."
Thereupon they very soon proved to be in agreement. M. de Meuze told him
briefly of his misfortune on the stock exchange. Cyprien reciprocated
with the history of his dismissal and a short account of his theory of
the two banks of the river. The marquis approved smilingly and both
concluded that those of the right bank were after all a most deplorable
tribe.
They were, nevertheless, the marquis added, gentlemen who must be
carefully handled and who remained, no matter what one might do, the
lords of the financial market.... Ah, in 1882, at the time of the
_Timbale_, people had been very thoughtless. They had attacked these
Jews without learning their tactics, without suspecting what their
ammunition consisted of, without taking any precaution against their
_ruses de guerre_; and they had been defeated, most thoroughly beaten.
How could one fight more able adversaries than oneself? By divining
their plans, locating all their batteries, regulating one's fire by
theirs, and finally rectifying the parabola according to the ambient
resistance which was apparent there; such as perfidious information, the
mass attacks from the syndicates, the liquidation maneuvers, false news
or any other strategical piece of duplicity. Such was now the only
scientific way in which men of the world were operating on the Bourse.
"Thus, as for myself," the marquis continued, giving up his military
comparisons, "I am deep in the gold mines at present.... Well, you will
perhaps think that I risked myself blindly in this.... Not at all....
The chance of relations brought me into touch with some of those worthy
gentlemen, precisely at the Chambannes, and I can assure you that I made
no bones about acting upon their particulars.... Certainly not!... And,
by the way, I did not find their tips unremunerative...."
"What, you trust those gentry?" the younger M. Raindal asked with
disappointment. "Yet I have been assured that many of them are not very
trustworthy...."
"Who told you this?"
"One of my friends, Johann Schleifmann, one of their co-religionists,
and, I may add, one of the best of men!"
"Your friend exaggerates, monsieur," the marquis said gently. "Of
course, I would not trust them all.... There are some of them whom I
shall not name and whom I am more afraid of than of the plague....
Nevertheless, take, for instance, to mention but one, M. Pums, the
director of the Bank of Galicia. Here is a man who has been advising me
for six months and without any cause for regret.... I could not swear
that I do not lose every now and then ... but when I balance my
accounts, I find that my operations result in profits, I may say
important profits.... Please note also that this cost me neither trouble
nor a proof of servility.... Pums has no desire save to oblige me.... He
is not one of those viziers of high finance who make you pay for their
advice at the rate of sixty humiliations to a hundred per cent.... My M.
Pums is a novice! One can have him for a handshake." The marquis laughed
at his own ingenious comparison. Then he went on.
"As for you, Monsieur, of course you have nothing to do with such
deviltries!"
"No fear," Cyprien exclaimed. "I have invested the wretched twenty
thousand francs which I had scraped sou by sou out of my poor salary in
railway stock. This brings me about three per cent.... It is very
little, I grant you, but it is safe and, with the help of my pension,
allows me to make both ends meet.... I speculate! No, never in my
life!... Then again, what would be the use? I don't need it!"
The marquis fell to dreaming. He was seized with an impulse of
democratic sympathy towards the fiery little official. The latter was
too poor to cause the haughty nobleman to fear any unpleasant
familiarity. The very distance that stood between them brought them
together. He said suddenly in a sententious tone:
"Who knows, perhaps you are wrong! There are at present opportunities
for a man to make a fortune in mines ... and when I see rogues and fools
who become rich over night and the next moment I meet an honest man like
yourself who takes no advantage of the opportunity, I feel tempted to
cry out to him: 'Go on, go ahead! do not lose this opportunity!... An
opportunity which can be met but two or three times in the course of a
century--why, surely it is worth it.'"
"Do you think it? Do you think so?" Uncle Cyprien repeated; he was still
skeptical but already shaken in his resolves. The marquis went on with
that mania for preaching charity in which fortunate gamblers take
delight.
"After all, what is the prospect so far as you are concerned? There is
really no question of making a fortune. At the most it is a matter of
bettering yourself, of gaining the means to treat yourself to a little
luxury and a little comfort.... Ah, if I were you ... but enough of
this.... I don't want to influence you.... Whenever you feel like it, M.
Raindal, come to see me.... I live at 2 rue de Bourgogne at the corner
of the Place de Palais Bourbon." They caught up with the master and the
abbé, who had stopped at the corner of the Pont de la Concorde. They
took leave of each other. When the two brothers were left alone M.
Raindal asked: "Will you come to dine with us?"
Cyprien did not hear him; he was dreamily contemplating the peach velvet
patches splashed on the discolored horizon by the setting sun.
"I am asking you if you are coming to dine?" M. Raindal repeated.
"What! What's that?" Cyprien started. "Shall I dine with you?... No,
thank you.... Schleifmann is waiting for me at the brasserie.... I can't
disappoint him."
The little green omnibus of the Panthéon-Courcelles was slowly climbing
up the street; he shook his brother's hand rapidly.
"Au revoir.... One of these evenings!"
He climbed on top. As he turned into the Boulevard St. Germain M.
Raindal caught sight of him; he was still waving his supple gold-headed
stick in a friendly gesture.
* * * * *
"Hello! Good evening, my dear friend," said Schleifmann, when Cyprien
settled down at the table next to his own.... "Have you seen the young
person?"
"No, my dear friend ... but I saw one of your enemies."
He related the inexplicable flight of Mme. Chambannes, his walk with the
marquis and the talk about gold mines and asked him, when he had
finished: "Well, my dear Schleifmann, what do you say?"
"About what?"
"Why, this story about the mines, of course!..."
Schleifmann's little eyes shone fiercely and he passed his hand through
his curly hair.
"I say that it is another dirty deal by means of which the Jews of the
Bourse will again take in a large amount of money for themselves and
raise up more hatred against those of their own race.... That is all I
have to say about your mines!"
Raindal, the younger, repressed an impatient gesture.
"Sapristi, Schleifmann! Please try to understand me.... I am not asking
you about the Jews but about myself.... Tell me, yes or no, do you think
that I should take a risk?"
The Galician's face took on an expression of pity.
"You, my dear Raindal? You cannot be serious!... You, a _goy_ (gentile),
and an honest fellow, as well, you have got it into your head to have
dealings with those big bears?... But they will eat you, my friend; they
will chew you up as if you were a mutton chop!..."
"In short," said Uncle Cyprien with resentment, "you are opposed to this
project!..."
Schleifmann sneered and shrugged his shoulders.
"But your project doesn't exist, it's pure folly.... Do as you
please.... But I beg you never to tell me a word of this ludicrous piece
of madness."
Cyprien remained silent, choked by anger. He resented as much the
Galician's disdainful tone as the tenacity with which he dampened the
sparkling hopes of riches which the marquis had lit before him. His
anti-Semitic convictions were now directed, for the first time in ten
years, against Schleifmann. In the stubbornness of his old comrade he
discovered much less a proof of friendship than a characteristic of the
Jewish pride of which his most favorite authors quoted monstrous
examples! Cyprien remained taciturn throughout the evening, recalling to
himself all their names. In these conditions the meeting soon languished
and the two friends parted coldly an hour sooner than usual.
The next day M. Raindal, the younger, proved unable to resist the
itching he felt to know the quotations on the financial market. He
bought an evening paper and took refuge in the Luxemburg in order to
read the reports in peace. But he was unused to them and found the
transversal lines, the perpendicular columns, the quotations of "to-day"
and those of "yesterday" perplexingly confusing. It was only after ten
minutes of effort that he discovered the place where the "advance" was
given. Everywhere on the gold mines it was considerable and almost
general, showing differences of fifteen, twenty, thirty and even fifty
francs.
The stocks sold up in the same way on the next day and the day after.
Uncle Cyprien made a mental calculation of the amounts which he would
have already pocketed but for that mule of a Schleifmann. The dinners at
the brasserie daily showed more signs of these accumulated grudges.
At last, on the fifth day, M. Raindal could contain himself no longer.
At half-past twelve he went home to dress and half-an-hour later stepped
out of a cab in the rue de Bourgogne in front of M. de Meuze's door.
The marquis in a brown coat and with a pipe in his mouth was still at
his dining-table when Cyprien was ushered in.
"How do you do, my dear M. Raindal!" he exclaimed, as he pushed his
chair back. "I am delighted to see you. I am receiving you without any
ceremony.... You will have coffee with me, won't you? A cigar?" he
added, holding out a box of fat Havanas.
"If you please," the ex-official replied.
There was a pause during which M. Raindal gravely lit his cigar, the
red and gold paper band of which he had not dared to remove. He was,
moreover, affected by the majestic aspect of the dining-room. The
ceilings were as high as those of a museum gallery; the windows were
enormous. On all the walls hung old tapestries with fading scenes,
emphasized at intervals by antique chiseled copper ornaments. M. de
Meuze himself, despite his brown coat and his big meerschaum pipe, well
fitted into the atmosphere of high elegance which the surrounding
objects gave to the room.
"Well, M. Raindal, what is your news?" he said between two puffs.
"Well, Monsieur le Marquis! Nothing of importance!" Cyprien replied with
embarrassment.
M. de Meuze stared at him out of his piercing little green eye.
"I wager you came to talk business with me."
Cyprien grinned but did not deny it.
"Ah ha!" the marquis exclaimed victoriously. "What did I say?... I felt
that at once.... I have but one eye but I can see as well as if I had
two...."
Coquettishly he caressed the white wings of his whiskers and, going to
the window, lifted up a curtain.
"Do you see? You must admit that for a first-floor apartment, mine
enjoys a fine view.... The house of our lords is in full sight...."
Through the white-barred windows Cyprien saw the Place de Palais
Bourbon and in front of the ancient door a little soldier dreaming near
his sentry box, holding his rifle at attention. Cyprien said sneeringly:
"Ah! it is there that our lords of the cheque-book dwell."
"Yes, M. Raindal, right there ... the door facing us! This window will
be worth much on the first day of the riots.... But we are gossiping. I
was forgetting the object of your visit.... What was it?... You came for
the mines, didn't you?"
Cyprien agreed that this was the case. He had come under the seal of
secrecy--for, of course, no one, not even his brother, should know of
his attempt--and after serious consideration.
"Quite so," the marquis interrupted. "I guessed as much.... Will you
please come this way.... We shall be more at ease to talk."
They passed into the other room, a vast cabinet furnished in Eastern
style with scimitars and carbines inlaid with mother-of-pearl in
panoplies. He went on:
"So you wish to join the party? Nothing easier.... I am going to write
to M. Pums now and, unless you inform him to the contrary, you must go
and see him to-morrow about three at the Bank of Galicia, 72 rue
Vivienne.... Will this do?..."
He sat down at his huge table and added, while he wrote the note:
"But, take care, no foolishness! Be cautious. The time is favorable....
But you must foresee the débâcle, the inevitable unfortunate débâcle
which always occurs with speculative stocks?... Oh, we are not there
yet.... But you must keep your eyes open.... Don't lose your head! You
had better bother Pums ten times before you give an order ... and at the
slightest break, you must sell at once, sell without paying any heed to
anything! Do you hear?"
Cyprien thanked him profusely and gave his solemn promise.
Once in the street, he walked briskly towards the Champs Elysées. The
sky had freshened and showed a radiant spring gayety. The faces of the
women he met seemed more beautiful and Uncle Cyprien bestowed gallant
looks at them.
He sat in a chair facing the carriages which passed in the splendid
avenue. A hopeful joy dilated his whole being. How sweet it would be if
he could open his soul about this with someone! What a pity that
Schleifmann proved so intractable! Once more M. Raindal was carried away
by the bitterest reflections against him.
* * * * *
And the next day he presented his card at the Bank of Galicia and was
received at once.
M. Pums at once assured him of his sympathy. The friendship of M. de
Meuze and the fact that he was M. Raindal's brother was a double
recommendation and one too great for M. Pums not to feel very much
disposed to help his visitor.
"By the way," exclaimed Cyprien, "I should be indebted to you if you
would say nothing of this to my brother.... He might become alarmed and
imagine that I have fallen a prey to the passion of gambling and such
nonsense.... I prefer...."
"There is no need to insist," M. Pums declared. "In business discretion
is the rule.... Moreover, it is quite enough that you should ask me...."
He explained to Cyprien the mechanism of buying and selling stock. He
would put his visitor in touch with a broker, M. Talloire, the bank's
own agent, that of the marquis and of a quantity of other personages and
respectable houses. M. Talloire would open an account for M. Raindal,
who would then have nothing else to do but give his orders.
"Hm! Hm!" Cyprien remarked, blinking. "Shall I have to go to this
Talloire myself?... It is very unpleasant."
M. Pums smiled cordially.
"Oh, it is not indispensable.... If you wish it, we can assume the
responsibility of transmitting your orders in this way...."
While he analyzed the process that would have to be followed, the
ex-official was speaking to his own soul. He liked little M. Pums. It
would be really impossible to meet a more courteous and obliging man. As
for that Jewish appearance which Cyprien had expected to notice in him,
the professor's brother was compelled to admit that Pums did not show
any sign of it. His big chocolate-colored eyes, yellow skin and black
mustache gave him the head of a creole, a Spaniard, a Turk or a rich
Kirghiz. Even the very slight accent seemed to Cyprien quite different
from what might be expected from a naturalized "Prussian."
"I thank you," he said, when the other had concluded. "And now, one
question, please! How much shall I risk? Is five thousand enough?"
"Anything you like, monsieur. Twenty thousand francs or ten sous,
according to your fancy.... You understand very well that I am treating
you as a friend and not as a client.... I am only sorry for one thing,
that you did not come a fortnight sooner.... With five thousands francs
that I could have placed for you a week ago, a straight profit of three
thousand francs would have fallen into your pocket at the settlement on
the 15th...."
"Three thousand francs," Uncle Cyprien repeated sadly. "Well, it's too
late!... Don't let's think of it!... And since five thousand francs seem
enough to you, please be so good as to buy me five thousand francs'
worth of mining stock...."
"Which ones, monsieur?" Pums inquired gravely. "There are hundreds of
them."
"I don't know," murmured Uncle Cyprien. "You must advise me!... Do for
me as you would for the marquis!"
Pums gave him a list of mining stocks which the Bank of Galicia and its
affiliated houses were backing on the markets. Cyprien was confused by
this enumeration and decided according to the prettiness or the
strangeness of the names. He selected the "Pink Star of South Africa,"
the "Fountain of the Red Diamond," the "Source of Carbuncles," the
"Pummigan and Kraft," and the "Deemerhuis and Haarblinck," the names of
which Pums obligingly translated for his benefit.
He then rose, apologizing for having claimed so much precious time. The
banker retorted that he was only too glad and went as far as the outside
corridor to see his visitor off. He hoped to see him again in a week at
the time of the settlement, since they would have to talk it over again.
"What a charming man!" Uncle Cyprien thought, when the door was closed
behind him.
He spent the following week in a fever of pleasant anxiety. The stocks
were rising. But he feared he had made a mistake. He was afraid of
having exaggerated the profits which, according to his calculations,
were already in the neighborhood of two thousand francs. This spoiled
his happiness every night.
Consequently he felt a sudden emotion when, on the morning of the 29th,
as he was leaving his house to go to the brasserie, the concierge handed
him a yellow envelope with the heading of the Talloire house. What did
this long envelope contain? Supposing he had miscalculated? If, instead
of the expected profits, it were to tell him of losses?
He walked to the high door of the house and tore the envelope open when
he was behind it. It contained only a single sheet of paper, striped
zebra-like with columns, figures, abbreviated words, and the trembling
of his hands further increased the chaos. Two trade expressions caught
his eye, on the left: Dr.; on the right: Cr. Above these he read:
M. CYPRIEN RAINDAL
_His account in settlement of April 30 with M. Talloire, Broker, 96
rue de Choiseul._
"Hm! I must be cool! Do I win or do I lose?" the uncle murmured, while
his eyes scanned the page. He noticed at last a little gathering of
figures in a corner, with, next to the word _Total_, the mention:
_Creditor_: 7700 fr.
"Seven thousand, seven hundred francs!" he muttered, his heart beating
fast against his ribs. "From 7700 I take out the 5000 I put in.... There
remains 2700! Two thousand, seven hundred francs profit! There must be
some mistake.... And yet I must be right; whoever receives, he owes;
whoever owes, he receives.... I am the creditor.... I win."
Yet a doubt lurked in his mind, despite this certainty. He wanted to
free himself from it at once, to know, and it was nothing but the fear
of importuning the agent that prevented him from rushing to the rue de
Choiseul. This distressful feeling was met with a sudden remembrance of
the Marquis' advice, "to bother Pums ten times rather than one." The
solution was clear, since Pums himself had offered his services
beforehand. Uncle Cyprien jumped into a cab.
All the way, in order to prop up his own faith, he repeated in rhythmic
time: "Who receives owes!... who owes receives!... Nevertheless, this
axiom did not altogether reassure him. Only the jovial reception Pums
gave him restored Cyprien's serenity.
"Well!" the banker exclaimed, when he saw his protégé. "It seems to me
that we have no cause to complain.... If my calculations are right, M.
Raindal, you have made about 500 francs!"
Silently, Raindal pushed his paper forward.
"Here you are!"
"Ah!" exclaimed Pums, as he looked at the figures. "Two thousand, seven
hundred francs profit!... You are going well for a beginner!... Bravo!
Congratulations! Of course, it goes without saying that you are keeping
your position?"
"I beg your pardon?" M. Raindal asked, with an anxious expression.
"I mean to say that I take it you will leave your profit on the same
securities."
Cyprien thought a while, then asked very meekly:
"Could I not draw some of it out?"
"Anything you like! This money belongs to you. You are its lord and
master.... Don't be afraid.... Name your figure!"
"Seven hundred francs!" Cyprien said resolutely. "I draw seven hundred
out, I leave seven thousand in.... This leaves a round sum, does it
not?" Then he added in a less assured voice, "Can I cash it here?"
"Hm!" Pums replied. "It is not very regular.... Well, since it is for
you, for a friend!... Just sign this power for me to cash at
Talloire's.... I am going to give you a check which you need only to
present at our cashier's office...."
Cyprien signed it.
"And we retain your confidence?" M. Pums asked as he rose. "You still
wish me to direct your orders?"
"What! Are you laughing at me, M. Pums?" Cyprien replied. "My
confidence.... My gratitude, you should say ... my deep gratitude! Buy
me, if you please, the same stocks, or buy me any other that you think
more advisable.... I am convinced that you are acting for my best
interests.... Au revoir, monsieur, and thank you again!"
When he reached the street he turned instinctively towards the Bourse.
The seven 100-franc notes which they had given him formed a little hard
protuberance in his inside pocket, and he laid his hand on it at every
step. He was filled with schemes of generous bounty. He paused a little
while to contemplate the tumult of the Bourse, the shouting crowd that
was perhaps to make him richer again soon. Entering the nearest tobacco
shop he asked for special brand cigars and was shown several kinds. He
sniffed them in expert fashion and, by squeezing them in the middle,
made them crackle against his ear. Finally he bought a box at one franc
apiece and added two packets of American cigarettes to this purchase.
But when he went out, he caught sight of a pipe merchant's window near
the shop and still on the place de la Bourse. Supported with invisible
props or laid in luxurious cases, with stems that were brutally straight
and stems with serpentine curves, meerschaum and briar pipes mingled
their white and brown colors. Gold and silver rings encircled amber
cigar cases; all of them, in their velvet cases, had the air of fine
jewels destined for princely lips. Cyprien looked at them and shook his
head. All at once a look of satisfaction shone in his eyes. What if he
were to buy one of those pipes, a nice, fat meerschaum, like that of the
Marquis, for his old comrade Schleifmann of whom, their dispute
notwithstanding, he was very fond! And he entered the shop.
His selection proved to be so long, so careful an affair that it was
past 12.45 by the clock of the Brasserie Klapproth when M. Raindal
arrived.
"A little present for you, my dear Schleifmann!" he said, sitting down
to the left of the Galician. "A little present which I have been
considering for a long time.... Take it ... yes, open it; it is for
you!"
Slowly Schleifmann opened the parcel.
"A pipe!" he exclaimed, as he played with the case.
"Quite so, and a pipe de luxe! The result of six months' savings in
cigarettes, my dear friend!"
The pipe represented a mermaid, whose double twisted tail curled around
the stem as far as the amber mouthpiece and whose seductive head had
been hollowed for the bowl. Schleifmann could not conceal his
admiration.
"It is marvelous ... colossal, colossal!" he repeated, using the German
expression which to him signified supreme enthusiasm.... "I am going to
smoke it now.... Waiter, matches!"
Uncle Cyprien watched the preparations for the inauguration with a
glorious and softened feeling.
"Exquisite!" Schleifmann declared, after two whiffs. "A child could
smoke it.... You are very kind, my dear Cyprien."
He took up the case and examined the lining, a coat of dark red plush
with the maker's name stamped in gold letters. Brusquely, he knocked on
the table with his fist.
"Raindal!" he shouted. "Look me in the eyes!"
"Here!" the ex-official replied, looking furtively at his friend, his
face slantwise.
"You are gambling at the Bourse, my friend!"
"I!" said Uncle Cyprien, in shocked rebellion.
"Yes, you! This address tells me everything: Place de la Bourse! You are
gambling on the mines!... Have a care, Raindal! This is an adventure
which may cost a great deal more than you imagine!"
He replaced the pipe in its case with a gesture of renunciation.
"You make me tired, Schleifmann!" grumbled Cyprien. "You upset me
considerably.... What! I take the trouble to buy you a pipe, to choose
it as if for myself! And this is all I get for it: words of
ill-omen!... Well, yes; there.... I have gambled.... I have even won....
I won seven hundred francs.... But it is fi-ni-shed, all finished!
To-day I stopped everything.... Are you satisfied, you silly?"
"Finished!" the Galician sneered. "I do not believe a word of it, my
dear fellow.... Begun, yes.... But finished, after such a profit! You
take me for a fool, Raindal!"
Cyprien made a haughty grimace.
"As you like! Don't believe me! I cannot compel you to believe me....
Very well, then.... I am still gambling.... I gamble until I am all out
of breath.... Quite so.... And you are leaving me my pipe?... You
couldn't do anything pleasanter!"
Unwittingly, Schleifmann glanced with regret at the plump siren which,
lying on her side, seemed as if asleep.
"There! I don't want to upset you, my dear Cyprien!... Nevertheless, I
am shamed to take your pipe.... I ought not to.... It isn't right."
"Don't be so fussy," said Raindal, with an air of affection. "Take it
back quickly ... since as I tell you I'm not gambling any more!"
"The Lord be praised, if you are telling the truth!" Schleifmann
murmured, as he lit his pipe.
The conversation once more became friendly. From time to time,
Schleifmann exhaled between two puffs: "Delicious.... Colossal!" Uncle
Cyprien thought that his deception had succeeded and ventured in a
careless tone:
"Ah, by the way! While I think of it!... You realize that, because of
this little affair, I owe a certain courtesy to the Marquis de Meuze....
Would it hurt your feelings to lunch here with him?"
"Between you and me, I wouldn't care to," the Galician grunted after a
pause.
"Why not? Oh! I can guess.... The Marquis's opinions! Well, first of
all, if there is nothing else to stop you, you may rest assured.... I
have already told him you were a good Jew."
"My dear friend, I wish you would not use that expression!" Schleifmann
said nervously. "Have I not taught you that there are no bad Jews? At
the most, it can only be said that there are degenerate Jews...."
"Besides," Cyprien went on, "the Marquis seemed to me very much calmed
down on this subject! If you knew all the kind things he said concerning
several of your co-religionists!"
"It was one of two things," Schleifmann said dryly. "Either he was
laughing at you or he is a bad Catholic."
"He! He adores the curés!"
"He may adore the curés," the Galician retorted, in the same tone. "But,
as a good Catholic, he cannot love the Jews.... Catholic religion means
universal religion.... So long as there remains one heretic on the
globe, the crusade remains open.... Wriggle out of this if you can!...
And is it not natural? Religions thrive on fanaticism alone and perish
through tolerance alone."
"So, you approve of the Saint Bartholomew, the Inquisition, and the
Dragonnades?" exclaimed Cyprien, whose bourgeois background was shocked
by the sharpness of these aphorisms.
"As of the Terror!" Schleifmann replied. "Or rather I do not approve of
them, but I can explain their existence.... Such events are political
measures which happen to be useful to a party.... You cannot sow the
seeds of such beliefs on dry soil, by means of reasoning; they germinate
only in blood and blossom only through fear."
"Accordingly, if the Revolution were to come back, you would, if
necessary, have my head cut off!"
"Who knows?" Schleifmann replied, with a half sarcastic smile. "If you
had become too rich!"
Although he relished a jest of this nature very little, M. Raindal
affected to be amused.
"All right, Schleifmann! In advance of getting my head chopped off, you
already seem to be pulling my leg, old man. I have told you, and I
repeat it, the Marquis no longer harbors any appreciable intolerance.
Going, going, going! Do you refuse to lunch with him?"
"Well, I am willing," the Galician replied contemptuously. "But later,
say in a year, I shall be more precise and name the day; it shall be on
the day that follows the smash up of the mines.... Yes, on that day, I
shall be delighted to converse with your friend the Marquis about the
Jews and tolerance."
Cyprien shrugged his shoulders. "One cannot be serious for a minute with
you.... Oh, well! Let's drop it. You refuse to join us; we can eat
without you!"
Schleifmann did not reply, but busied himself with stuffing the head of
his mermaid.
"What about your brother?" he asked suddenly. "What does your brother
think of all this?"
"My brother? Don't talk to me about him! He bores me perhaps even more
than you do, my dear man! I don't know what is the matter with him this
last fortnight.... But I should not be so very much surprised if someone
were to tell me that the departure of Mme. Rhâm-Bâhan is at the bottom
of it.... You should see his temper!... and his face! In short, he is
not to be spoken to."
Cyprien added confidentially: "And not a word, please, about this mining
business, in case you happen to meet him! There would be everlasting
sermons and warnings!"
Schleifmann promised to keep the secret. Uncle Cyprien lifted up one
hand in a gesture of disgust.
"My brother! Ah! la! la! he is a bore, regular bore, these days!"