thousand francs which Nucingen had allowed him to shear from the
Parisian sheep, and he portioned his sisters. D’Aiglemont, at a hint
from his cousin Beaudenord, besought Rastignac to accept ten per cent
upon his million if he would undertake to convert it into shares in
a canal which is still to make, for Nucingen worked things with the
Government to such purpose that the concessionaires find it to their
interest not to finish their scheme. Charles Grandet implored Delphine’s
lover to use his interest to secure shares for him in exchange for his
cash. And altogether Rastignac played the part of Law for ten days; he
had the prettiest duchesses in France praying to him to allot shares
to them, and to-day the young man very likely has an income of forty
thousand livres, derived in the first instance from the argentiferous
lead-mines.”
“If every one was better off, who can have lost?” asked Finot.
“Hear the conclusion,” rejoined Bixiou. “The Marquis d’Aiglemont and
Beaudenord (I put them forward as two examples out of many) kept their
allotted shares, enticed by the so-called dividend that fell due a few
months afterwards. They had another three per cent on their capital,
they sang Nucingen’s praises, and took his part at a time when everybody
suspected that he was going bankrupt. Godefroid married his beloved
Isaure and took shares in the mines to the value of a hundred thousand
francs. The Nucingens gave a ball even more splendid than people
expected of them on the occasion of the wedding; Delphine’s present to
the bride was a charming set of rubies. Isaure danced, a happy wife, a
girl no longer. The little Baroness was more than ever a Shepherdess of
the Alps. The ball was at its height when Malvina, the _Andalouse_
of Musset’s poem, heard du Tillet’s voice drily advising her to take
Desroches. Desroches, warmed to the right degree by Rastignac and
Nucingen, tried to come to an understanding financially; but at the
first hint of shares in the mines for the bride’s portion, he broke off
and went back to the Matifat’s in the Rue du Cherche-Midi, only to find
the accursed canal shares which Gigonnet had foisted on Matifat in lieu
of cash.
“They had not long to wait for the crash. The firm of Claparon did
business on too large a scale, the capital was locked up, the
concern ceased to serve its purposes, or to pay dividends, though the
speculations were sound. These misfortunes coincided with the events of
1827. In 1829 it was too well known that Claparon was a man of straw set
up by the two giants; he fell from his pedestal. Shares that had
fetched twelve hundred and fifty francs fell to four hundred, though
intrinsically they were worth six. Nucingen, knowing their value, bought
them up at four.
“Meanwhile the little Baroness d’Aldrigger had sold out of the mines
that paid no dividends, and Godefroid had reinvested the money belonging
to his wife and her mother in Claparon’s concern. Debts compelled
them to realize when the shares were at their lowest, so that of seven
hundred thousand francs only two hundred thousand remained. They made a
clearance, and all that was left was prudently invested in the three per
cents at seventy-five. Godefroid, the sometime gay and careless bachelor
who had lived without taking thought all his life long, found himself
saddled with a little goose of a wife totally unfitted to bear adversity
(indeed, before six months were over, he had witnessed the anserine
transformation of his beloved) to say nothing of a mother-in-law whose
mind ran on pretty dresses while she had not bread to eat. The two
families must live together to live at all. It was only by stirring up
all his considerably chilled interest that Godefroid got a post in
the audit department. His friends?--They were out of town. His
relatives?--All astonishment and promises. ‘What! my dear boy! Oh!
count upon me! Poor fellow!’ and Beaudenord was clean forgotten fifteen
minutes afterwards. He owed his place to Nucingen and de Vandenesse.
“And to-day these so estimable and unfortunate people are living on
a third floor (not counting the entresol) in the Rue du Mont Thabor.
Malvina, the Adolphus’ pearl of a granddaughter, has not a farthing. She
gives music-lessons, not to be a burden upon her brother-in-law. You
may see a tall, dark, thin, withered woman, like a mummy escaped
from Passalacqua’s about afoot through the streets of Paris. In 1830
Beaudenord lost his situation just as his wife presented him with a
fourth child. A family of eight and two servants (Wirth and his wife)
and an income of eight thousand livres. And at this moment the mines are
paying so well, that an original share of a thousand francs brings in a
dividend of cent per cent.
“Rastignac and Mme. de Nucingen bought the shares sold by the Baroness
and Godefroid. The Revolution made a peer of France of Nucingen and a
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor. He has not stopped payment since
1830, but still I hear that he has something like seventeen millions.
He put faith in the Ordinances of July, sold out of all his investments,
and boldly put his money into the funds when the three per cents stood
at forty-five. He persuaded the Tuileries that this was done out
of devotion, and about the same time he and du Tillet between them
swallowed down three millions belonging to that great scamp Philippe
Bridau.
“Quite lately our Baron was walking along the Rue de Rivoli on his way
to the Bois when he met the Baroness d’Aldrigger under the colonnade.
The little old lady wore a tiny green bonnet with a rose-colored lining,
a flowered gown, and a mantilla; altogether, she was more than ever the
Shepherdess of the Alps. She could no more be made to understand the
causes of her poverty than the sources of her wealth. As she went along,
leaning upon poor Malvina, that model of heroic devotion, she seemed
to be the young girl and Malvina the old mother. Wirth followed them,
carrying an umbrella.
“‘Dere are beoples whose vordune I vound it imbossible to make,’ said
the Baron, addressing his companion (M. Cointet, a cabinet minister).
‘Now dot de baroxysm off brincibles haf bassed off, chust reinshtate dot
boor Peautenord.’
“So Beaudenord went back to his desk, thanks to Nucingen’s good offices;
and the d’Aldriggers extol Nucingen as a hero of friendship, for he
always sends the little Shepherdess of the Alps and her daughters
invitations to his balls. No creature whatsoever can be made to
understand that the Baron yonder three times did his best to plunder the
public without breaking the letter of the law, and enriched people
in spite of himself. No one has a word to say against him. If anybody
should suggest that a big capitalist often is another word for a
cut-throat, it would be a most egregious calumny. If stocks rise and
fall, if property improves and depreciates, the fluctuations of the
market are caused by a common movement, a something in the air, a tide
in the affairs of men subject like other tides to lunar influences.
The great Arago is much to blame for giving us no scientific theory to
account for this important phenomenon. The only outcome of all this is
an axiom which I have never seen anywhere in print----”
“And that is?”
“The debtor is more than a match for the creditor.”
“Oh!” said Blondet. “For my own part, all that we have been saying seems
to me to be a paraphrase of the epigram in which Montesquieu summed up
_l’Esprit des Lois_.”
“What?” said Finot.
“Laws are like spiders’ webs; the big flies get through, while the
little ones are caught.”
“Then, what are you for?” asked Finot.
“For absolute government, the only kind of government under which
enterprises against the spirit of the law can be put down. Yes.
Arbitrary rule is the salvation of a country when it comes to the
support of justice, for the right of mercy is strictly one-sided. The
king can pardon a fraudulent bankrupt; he cannot do anything for the
victims. The letter of the law is fatal to modern society.”
“Just get that into the electors’ heads!” said Bixiou.
“Some one has undertaken to do it.”
“Who?”
“Time. As the Bishop of Leon said, ‘Liberty is ancient, but kingship is
eternal; any nation in its right mind returns to monarchical government
in one form or another.’”
“I say, there was somebody next door,” said Finot, hearing us rise to
go.
“There always is somebody next door,” retorted Bixiou. “But he must have
been drunk.”
PARIS, November 1837.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Aiglemont, General, Marquis Victor d’
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
A Woman of Thirty
Beaudenord, Godefroid de
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Ball at Sceaux
Bidault (known as Gigonnet)
The Government Clerks
Gobseck
The Vendetta
Cesar Birotteau
A Daughter of Eve
Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
The Purse
A Bachelor’s Establishment
The Government Clerks
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
Beatrix
A Man of Business
Gaudissart II.
The Unconscious Humorists
Cousin Pons
Blondet, Emile
Jealousies of a Country Town
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Peasantry
Claparon, Charles
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Cesar Birotteau
Melmoth Reconciled
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
Cochin, Emile-Louis-Lucien-Emmanuel
Cesar Birotteau
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes
Cochin, Adolphe
Cesar Birotteau
Cointet, Boniface
Lost Illusions
The Member for Arcis
Couture
Beatrix
The Middle Classes
Desroches (son)
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Colonel Chabert
A Start in Life
A Woman of Thirty
The Commission in Lunacy
The Government Clerks
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
Falleix, Martin
The Government Clerks
Finot, Andoche
Cesar Birotteau
A Bachelor’s Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Government Clerks
A Start in Life
Gaudissart the Great
Gobseck, Esther Van
Gobseck
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Grandet, Victor-Ange-Guillaume
Eugenie Grandet
Grandet, Charles
Eugenie Grandet
Matifat (wealthy druggist)
Cesar Birotteau
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Cousin Pons
Matifat, Madame
Cesar Birotteau
Matifat, Mademoiselle
Pierrette
Minard, Auguste-Jean-Francois
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes
Nucingen, Baron Frederic de
Father Goriot
Pierrette
Cesar Birotteau
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Another Study of Woman
The Secrets of a Princess
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty
The Muse of the Department
The Unconscious Humorists
Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de
Father Goriot
The Thirteen
Eugenie Grandet
Cesar Birotteau
Melmoth Reconciled
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Commission in Lunacy
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
Palma (banker)
Cesar Birotteau
Gobseck
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Ball at Sceaux
Rastignac, Eugene de
Father Goriot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Ball at Sceaux
The Interdiction
A Study of Woman
Another Study of Woman
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Gondreville Mystery
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists
Taillefer, Jean-Frederic
Father Goriot
The Magic Skin
The Red Inn
Tillet, Ferdinand du
Cesar Birotteau
The Middle Classes
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Pierrette
Melmoth Reconciled
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
Cousin Betty
The Unconscious Humorists
Toby (Joby, Paddy)
The Secrets of a Princess
Werbrust
Cesar Birotteau
End of Project Gutenberg’s The Firm of Nucingen, by Honore de Balzac