table and devour with their eyes the heaps of silver and gold, and the
bank notes spread out before the croupiers? They do not see that all
that money is there only to allure them, to lead them on; they say to
themselves: “This one wins, that one goes away with his pockets full;
why should not we be as fortunate as they?”--Ah! even if they should,
would the money won in a gambling hell ever serve to enrich a family, to
support a wife; to endow a daughter, to help the unfortunate? No, the
gambler’s heart is hard and unfeeling, his mind is sordid and debased by
the passion which dominates it. If they win to-day, they will play again
to-morrow, until they can no longer procure aught to satisfy the
insatiable greed which draws them to the fatal table. If they return
home with their pockets filled with gold, do not imagine that they will
be more generous with their families. Their wives are ill-clad, their
children lack everything, creditors besiege their door; but they will
give nothing, they will pay nobody, they will laugh at the threats of
those whose wages they hold back, and will be indifferent to the voice
of nature. Soon they will lose the money that a lucky chance caused them
to win, and then woe to the poor creatures that surround them! it is
upon them that they vent their rage, which they do not dare to display
before strangers. It is in their own homes that they abandon themselves
to anger, to brutality, even to the last excesses. They must have money;
they seize upon everything that can still produce it; their children’s
last garments are sold, the result of a day’s work disappears in a
second upon a color or a number. Then they glare darkly about them,
despair is depicted upon all their features; they gaze in frenzy at that
gold which they cannot possess, and at the croupiers, who observe their
despair with the coldest indifference. Then the guiltiest desires and
the basest villainy torment their frantic imagination; they covet their
neighbors’ money; they put out their hand toward it, and often, impelled
by the cruel passion which destroys their wits, they commit the most
shameful crimes. Such examples are only too common; gambling has three
results, but they are inevitable: it leads either to suicide, to the
poor-house or to the stool of repentance.
Edouard did not indulge in these reflections, unfortunately for him. He
watched the game, and after he had mastered its principles, he placed a
twenty-franc piece on the red; that color came out nine times in
succession; and as Edouard had left his stake each time, he won in five
minutes ten thousand two hundred and forty francs. Chevalier
Desfleurets, leaping up and down on his chair in amazement at the sight
of such extraordinary good-fortune, advised Murville in a whisper to
stop there for the time, because, according to the probabilities and the
prickings on his card, the black could not fail to come out next. The
chevalier was very pleased to see the young man win, for he expected to
meet him at Madame de Géran’s, and as he played very badly at écarté and
paid very promptly, it was very satisfactory to know that he was in
funds.
Edouard did not care about probabilities, but he was conscious of a
great void in his stomach; for the occupation with which his new
conquest had provided him all night made him feel the necessity of
renewing his strength. So he rose and left the table, promising the
chevalier to play with him that evening.
At that moment the ball stopped in a compartment, and, contrary to
Desfleurets’s expectations, it rested on the red. Edouard was terribly
vexed that he had left the game so soon, but he promised to make up for
it at the first opportunity. The tall man in the nut-colored coat, who
had overheard the advice which the chevalier had given Edouard, uttered
a vulgar oath when he saw the red come out; whereat Murville was
slightly astonished, in view of the fact that Dufresne had emphasized
the extreme good breeding which prevailed in that establishment; but he
stuffed his gold in his pockets none the less, and left the place,
radiant because of his good luck.
He turned his steps homeward; on the way he thought of his wife; she
must be very anxious, and very angry with him; she had not seen him
since the day before. He felt greatly embarrassed about speaking to her,
but he decided to go to her, and, after taking his money to his office,
where he found his clerk asleep over the _Moniteur_, Edouard went up to
his wife’s apartment.
Despite the indifference which Edouard had felt for his wife for some
time past, he was moved when he saw the change which had taken place in
her whole person since the day before. Adeline was pale and depressed;
her swollen, red eyes were still full of tears; every feature bore the
mark of the most intense suffering. Edouard had no doubt that his long
absence was the cause of his wife’s grief; so he approached her and
tried to find some excuses to palliate his conduct.
“Perhaps you sat up for me last night; no doubt you were anxious; but I
was detained against my will at a party where there was card playing; I
was winning, and I could not decently leave.”
“You are the master of your actions, monsieur,” replied Adeline, without
looking up at her husband; “you would be very foolish to put yourself
out for me.”
Edouard did not expect to find such submission; he dreaded reproaches,
complaints and tears; but Adeline did not say another word; she seemed
resigned, she sighed and held her peace. This behavior produced more
effect on her husband’s heart than outcries and remonstrances; he felt
touched; he was on the point of falling at his wife’s feet and asking
her pardon for his misdeed; but Madame de Géran’s image presented itself
to his mind and changed all his sensations; he repelled a sentimentality
too vulgar for a man of fashion, and returned to his new plans.
“Madame, you have expressed a wish to return to the country; the summer
is advancing and you must take advantage of it. Moreover, I believe that
it will be an excellent thing for our child. I advise you to start at
once. I cannot go with you now, for some important matters keep me in
Paris; but I hope to come to see you often.”
“Very well, monsieur; I will make all necessary preparations for going
away and for my stay in the country, where I shall remain until I
receive your orders to return.”
“On my honor,” said Edouard to himself, “my wife is charming! such
obedience! It is altogether extraordinary.”
He took Adeline’s hand and pressed it lightly; and paying no heed to the
trembling of that once cherished hand, he imprinted a very cold kiss
upon it, and hurried away with the rapidity of a schoolboy when he hears
the bell ring for recess.
“He wants me to go away,” said Adeline to herself when she was alone;
“my presence embarrasses him. Well, we will go. What does it matter to
me now in what part of the world I live, since I shall find happiness
nowhere? I have lost my husband’s love, I have lost honor and repose of
mind; I will go away and conceal my melancholy existence; for my
daughter’s sake only do I desire to preserve it, and I will devote it
entirely to her. Poor child! What would become of you if you should lose
me?”
Adeline embraced her daughter; only by reminding herself that she was a
mother could she succeed in reviving her vanishing courage. She made
preparations for her departure for Villeneuve-Saint-Georges; she would
have been glad to induce her mother to accompany her; but Mamma Germeuil
cared very little for the country; she had her own habits, her
acquaintances in Paris, and old age always grows selfish; she felt that
she had but few pleasures left to enjoy, and she did not care to
sacrifice any of them.
A week was sufficient for Adeline to prepare all that was necessary for
her and her daughter in the country. At the end of that time, during
which she caught a glimpse of her husband at rare intervals, she
prepared to start. But before taking her leave, she determined to make a
last effort, not to recover her husband’s love, for she well knew that
that sentiment cannot be commanded, but to show him Dufresne as he
really was. Edouard did not listen to her and refused to believe her
when she mentioned the villain who was leading him on to his ruin; but
Adeline thought of Madame Dolban; she thought that she would not refuse
to write Murville another letter, wherein she would describe in detail
the wickedness of the man whom he called his friend.
It was for Edouard’s honor and his good name that Adeline took this last
step, which could not restore her happiness but would reassure her
concerning the future of her husband.
The young wife went at once to Madame Dolban’s house and asked the
concierge if she could see her.
“You come too late, madame,” the man replied; “Madame Dolban died three
days ago!”
“She is dead! Why, she wrote to me only nine days ago!”
“Oh! mon Dieu! that’s the way things go in this world! A severe attack
of fever, and then nervous collapse, and I don’t know what else. It
carried her off right away.”
“All is lost,” said Adeline as she turned away; “there is no hope now of
convincing Edouard. Dufresne triumphs. He will drag him to his
destruction!”
Discouraged by this fresh disappointment, the griefstricken Adeline made
haste to leave Paris; she started with her daughter for
Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, and as she sat in the carriage, with none but
her child to witness her grief, she thought of the difference between
that journey and the journey of the preceding year, and she wept over
the rapidity with which her happiness had vanished.
XXII
THE SCHEMERS.--THE GAMBLERS.--THE SWINDLERS
Rid of his wife’s presence, the sight of whom was still disturbing to
his conscience, Edouard abandoned himself without restraint to
Dufresne’s advice, to his love for Madame de Géran, and to his passion
for gambling.
Dufresne had kept half of the sum produced by the sale of the consols.
He had always intended to appropriate a portion of Edouard’s fortune,
upon whose purse he had already been drawing for some time, because, as
he said, business was not good. But Dufresne added to all his other
vices that of gambling, and the sum that he kept was speedily lost in
the gulf in which he had, in a very short time, squandered Madame
Dolban’s fortune.
Edouard passed a large part of his days in the academies, and his nights
with Madame de Géran, at whose house there was gambling of the wildest
sort. People reasonably well dressed, but whose faces denoted the vilest
sort of characters, resorted every evening to the house of the general’s
widow, where they were certain to find Monsieur Murville and some other
dupes, over whom the schemers and kept women disputed.
But Madame de Géran did not lose sight of her lover; she did not propose
that her slave should escape her; she was an adept at working all the
springs of coquetry; all sorts of stratagems, all methods were employed
to bewilder and blind a man who believed himself to be adored, and who
made every conceivable sacrifice to gratify the wishes of his mistress.
Madame de Géran led her lovers a rapid pace: cards, theatres, dinners,
drives, select parties, dresses, shawls, jewels, suppers, love,
caresses!--only with the aid of all these could one rely even upon
ostensible fidelity from her. But it must be confessed too, that amid
all these diversions, Edouard had not a moment to himself; he did not
even find time to be bored; and that is rarely the case when one is
surfeited with everything.
But luck had ceased to be favorable to him. After winning at roulette
several times in succession, he experienced the inconstancy of fortune
and lost considerable sums. Instead of stopping, he persisted
obstinately in going on; that is the inevitable result of a first gain,
which acts as a bait to people who are beginning to frequent gambling
hells; so that the bankers watch with a smile the gambler who goes out
with his pockets full of gold, feeling very sure that the next day the
unfortunate wretch will lose twice what he has won.
“S’il est quelque joueur qui vive de son gain,
On en voit tous les jours mille mourir de faim.”[C]
[C]
If some gamblers there be who live by their gains,
We see thousands who but starve for their pains.
After trying trente-et-un, dice and roulette, and after losing twenty
thousand francs in an hour, the last remnant of the sum which Dufresne
had handed him before his wife’s departure, Edouard returned to his
house, gloomy and anxious; he scolded his servants and talked roughly to
everybody without reason; but he felt the need of venting a part of his
ill-humor upon his people. He entered his office, where he found the
clerk asleep on his desk; he shook him roughly.
“What are you doing here? Is this the way you attend to your work?”
The young man yawned, stretched his arms, rubbed his eyes, and gazed at
his employer, who was pacing the floor of the office.
“Well! do you hear me, monsieur? Why aren’t you at work?”
“Why, monsieur, you know very well that I haven’t any.”
“Why aren’t you writing circulars for the provinces?”
“Monsieur knows too that we sent several of his circulars to the same
people, and they haven’t answered.”
“You’re a fool! You don’t know how to manage an affair. And what about
that house that someone wanted to buy?”
“Monsieur, the person came three times to obtain information, but he
didn’t find you.”
“You ought to have given it to him!”
“But, monsieur, I knew nothing about it.”
“And that investment that someone wanted to make?”
“The person made two appointments with you that you didn’t keep.”
“For heaven’s sake, do these people think that I am at their orders?”
“They say that you should be prompt.”
“Hold your tongue! You are an insolent fellow! I have no need of a
fellow who sleeps on my desk. I discharge you.”
“Monsieur will please pay me my wages first.”
“Your wages! You earn them by sleeping.”
“Monsieur, it isn’t my fault that there isn’t anything to do in your
office; pay me and----”
“I’ll pay you; leave me.”
Edouard was well aware that he had nothing with which to pay his clerk;
he opened the desk, examined all the drawers, and found nothing. He
relied upon the sum which Dufresne still had in his hands, and
determined to see him and urge him to sell at once at any price; he
absolutely must have money. Fatigued and discomfited by his sitting at
the gaming table, he did not wish to go out before he had changed his
clothes, and he decided to send someone at once to summon Dufresne. He
rang and called his servant, but no one replied. The servants had become
unaccustomed to seeing their master since Adeline had left the house;
Edouard sometimes passed several nights in succession away; the servants
no longer observed any restraint, and spent their time amusing
themselves. Faithful Marie, the only honest one of them all, had left
the house after her mistress’s departure.
Edouard left his office and went over the house; he found the kitchen
empty, but the cellar door was open; he went down and found his
concierge drinking his wine with the cook. The servants were dumfounded
at the appearance of their master. He swore and stormed and seized the
concierge by the ear, while he administered a kick to the cook.
“Monsieur,” stammered the half-tipsy concierge, “you don’t eat in the
house any more, and we came here to find out whether the wine was
getting spoiled.”
Edouard drove the servants before him, left the cellar, and returned to
the first floor. Thinking that he heard a noise in his wife’s dressing
room, he entered suddenly and found his valet deeply engrossed in close
intercourse with the wife of the concierge, a rather attractive young
woman, who loved love as much as her husband loved wine.
“Morbleu!” cried Edouard, “what a household! what disorder! Do you think
that I will put up with this, you curs? I discharge you all!”
“As monsieur pleases,” rejoined the valet, with perfect unconcern, as he
attended to his costume, while the concierge’s wife held her hands over
her breast and did her utmost to shield herself further from the
observation to which her dear friend had exposed her, “just pay us our
wages, and we’ll go.”
Edouard left the room in a passion, and shut himself into his office.
Since his wife’s departure, he had not given a sou to his servants, for
he had never had money enough to provide for his own expenses, and now
he was compelled to retain wretches who robbed him, and turned
everything upside down in his house. But he reflected that Dufresne
would supply him with the means to extricate himself from embarrassment;
he was about to go in search of him when Dufresne himself entered the
office, with an air of desperation.
“Ah! you come most opportunely,” cried Edouard; “I was anxious to see
you, my dear fellow! I must have money! I must have some this very day!”
“That will be rather hard,” replied Dufresne in a gloomy voice.
“What! haven’t you the consols?”
“I have come to tell you of a terrible calamity: the man in whose hands
I had placed them, as well as the blank power of attorney----”
“Well?”
“He has sold them, but he has gone off with the money.”
“Gone off?”
“Yes, he has disappeared; it is impossible to find out anything about
him.”
Edouard was thunderstruck. He threw himself into a chair in despair.
“I am ruined! I have lost everything!”
“Ruined! what nonsense! when a man has credit and acquaintances! Come,
be yourself; I give you my word that I will repair this disaster. Trust
to my zeal, my friend; I made the mistake through my over-confidence; I
propose to get you out of the scrape.”
“But how?”
“There are a thousand ways.”
“Remember that I haven’t a sou, and that I need money every moment,
especially with Madame de Géran, from whom I desire to conceal this
disaster.”
“You will be very wise, although I am convinced that she adores you.”
“I have promised her a lovely cashmere shawl, which she is very anxious
to have.”
“You shall give it to her.--Here, sign this.”
“What is it?”
“Notes to my order for twenty thousand francs.”
“But I don’t owe you anything.”
“Of course not; and this is simply to raise money. That is called
‘flying kites.’”
“Ah! is it allowable?”
“Allowable! parbleu! we don’t ask permission to do it.”
“But it’s rather a delicate matter to----”
“Ha! ha! you make me laugh with your scruples. After all, you will pay
them, so what right will anyone have to say anything?”
“And you hope to discount them?”
“I am very sure of it; you are thought to be rich, you have an expensive
establishment, and your party did you much good. Never fear; I will
bring you the money to-morrow, and all you will need is a streak of luck
to win twice what you have lost to-day.”
“That infernal roulette,--a long series of odd numbers!”
“Oh! that was mere luck! It doesn’t happen twice. That devil of a
chevalier has found an infallible martingale, he says; but it requires
funds to start it.”
“Perhaps we shall not have enough.”
“Oh! I have resources. But sign quickly, and I will go and attend to
discounting your notes.”
Edouard signed notes amounting to twenty thousand francs; and to divert
his thoughts, went to see his mistress. She pouted a little when she
found that he had not brought the shawl that she coveted, but he
promised it for the next day, and she became charmingly amiable once
more; she scolded her devoted friend for his solemn and distraught air;
he apologized by saying that he was engrossed by an affair of great
importance, and she kissed him and fondled him and caressed him. A man
who is engaged in great speculations, and who is generous--what an
invaluable treasure to preserve!
The regular company soon arrived. If it was far from select, it was
numerous, at all events: ruined marquises, nobles without a château,
landed proprietors without property, knights of industry, business
agents like Edouard, all gamblers or schemers, and some young men of
good family who had nothing left to lose, and some idiots who fancied
themselves in the best society--such in the main were the male guests.
The ladies were worthy of these gentlemen: old _intrigantes_, panders,
kept women, or those who wished to be, habitués of the gambling hells to
which the fair sex is admitted; such was the assemblage at Madame de
Géran’s, where they affected decent behavior, grand airs, refined
manners, and severely scrupulous language, which soon became obscene,
when the passions of these ladies and gentlemen were so far excited as
to make them forget their costumes and the rank which they were supposed
to occupy.
Madame de Géran gave a punch: that is a shrewd way of exciting the
gamblers’ brains, and of making the women seem attractive to them. The
imagination heated by liquor attributes charms to superannuated and
withered beauties. The glasses circulate, heads become confused, the
stakes increase in amount, the heat is stifling, the ladies remove their
neckerchiefs; the eye of a connoisseur standing behind the chair of a
fair gambler rests upon a breast which a pitiless corset strives to keep
at a predetermined height; if he looks behind, he sees reasonably white
shoulders, a perfectly bare back, and his wandering vision easily
divines the little that is concealed. How deny the siren who turns and
borrows twenty-five louis, with a glance full of meaning touching the
mode of payment; whereupon you proceed to take an instalment by sitting
down beside your fascinating debtor, and doing whatever you choose; for
she offers no resistance; and thus it is that acquaintances are made at
large parties. Edouard did not admire the breasts and backs of the
ladies, because he was completely subjugated by a single one; but he
took his seat at a table after borrowing thirty louis of his mistress,
because, he said, he had forgotten to bring money. She readily lent it
to him, being certain he would return it with interest the next day.
A certain Marquis de Monclair, an intimate friend of the Chevalier
Desfleurets, suggested to Edouard a game of écarté; they took their
places and Desfleurets took his stand behind Edouard, with the purpose,
he said, of bringing him luck. But Murville lost every game; the thirty
louis which he had borrowed were soon gone; then his opponent willingly
played with him on credit, because he was aware how promptly he always
paid.
Madame de Géran caused the punch to circulate with profusion; she
herself drank several glasses in order to do the honors of her reception
with more grace. Everyone seemed very much engrossed, either by the
cards or by gallantry; the ordinary reserve was replaced by uproar; the
guests generally forgot themselves; artificial modesty gave place to
somewhat indecorous hilarity on the part of the ladies, oaths were heard
in one direction, loud laughter in another; there was quarrelling and
teasing; the card players disputed over the game, there was love-making
on sofas, and the result was a most varied and animated tableau, wherein
each actor had his own private interest to subserve.
Madame de Géran herself seemed greatly heated, although she was not
playing; she approached Edouard’s table for a moment, saw that he was
absorbed with his game, and left the salon, to cool off.
Edouard was unable to win a single game; rage and despair were rampant
in his heart; he already owed fifteen thousand francs to the marquis,
and constantly doubled his stake, hoping to make up his losses; but his
expectations were always disappointed. Pale, trembling, wild-eyed, he no
longer knew what he was doing; his hands were clenched, his nerves were
on edge, and he could hardly breathe.
“I will play you for the fifteen thousand francs at one stake,” he said
at last to his adversary, in a trembling voice.
“I agree,” replied the marquis; “I am a bold player, as you see; in
truth, I am terribly distressed to see you lose so constantly.”
Edouard made no reply; he was intent upon the game that was about to
begin; his eyes were unswervingly fixed upon the cards which were to
decide his fate; there were no other witnesses than Desfleurets, who
still stood behind Edouard, and an old _intrigante_, who was very
intimate with the marquis and was deeply interested in his play. All the
other guests were engaged at other tables.