"Listen, Monsieur Crevel," said the Baroness, too to be able to laugh, "you are fifty—ten years than Monsieur Hulot, I know; but at my age a woman's ought to be by beauty, youth, fame, merit—some one of the which can us to the point of making us all else at our age. Though you may have fifty thousand a year, your age your fortune; thus you have nothing of what a woman looks for "
"But love!" said the officer, and forward. "Such love as "
"No, monsieur, such obstinacy!" said the Baroness, him to put an end to his absurdity.
"Yes, obstinacy," said he, "and love; but something still a "
"A claim!" Madame Hulot, with scorn, defiance, and indignation. "But," she on, "this will us to no issues; I did not ask you to come here to discuss the which to your in of the our families "
"I had so."
"What! still?" she. "Do you not see, monsieur, by the entire and with which I can speak of lovers and love, of least to a woman, that I am perfectly secure in my own virtue? I nothing—not to myself in alone with you. Is that the of a weak woman? You know full well why I you to come."
"No, madame," Crevel, with an of great coldness. He up his lips, and again an attitude.
"Well, I will be brief, to our common discomfort," said the Baroness, looking at Crevel.
Crevel an bow, in which a man who the would have the of a bagman.
"Our son married your "
"And if it were to do again " said Crevel.
"It would not be done at all, I suspect," said the hastily. "However, you have nothing to complain of. My son is not only one of the leading of Paris, but for the last year he has sat as Deputy, and his speech was to lead us to that long he will be in office. Victorin has twice been called upon to report on measures; and he might now, if he chose, be Attorney-General in the Court of Appeal. So, if you to say that your son-in-law has no "
"Worse than that, madame, a son-in-law I am to maintain," Crevel. "Of the five hundred thousand that my daughter's marriage portion, two hundred thousand have vanished—God how! in paying the gentleman's debts, in his house splendaciously—a house five hundred thousand francs, and in fifteen thousand, since he the larger part of it, while he two hundred and sixty thousand of the purchase-money. The rent he pays the on the debt. I have had to give my twenty thousand this year to help her to make ends meet. And then my son-in-law, who was making thirty thousand a year at the Assizes, I am told, is going to that up for the Chamber "
"This, again, Monsieur Crevel, is the mark; we are from the point. Still, to of it finally, it may be said that if my son into office, if he has you an officer of the Legion of Honor and of the of Paris, you, as a retired perfumer, will not have much to complain of "
"Ah! there we are again, madame! Yes, I am a tradesman, a shopkeeper, a retail in almond-paste, eau-de-Portugal, and hair-oil, and was only too much when my only was married to the son of Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervy—my will be a Baroness! This is Regency, Louis XV., (Eil-de-boeuf—quite tip-top! very good.) I love Celestine as a man loves his only child—so well indeed, that, to her from having either or sister, I myself to all the of a widower—in Paris, and in the of life, madame. But you must that, in of this for my daughter, I do not to my for the of your son, are not for—in my eyes, as an old man of business."
"Monsieur, you may at this day see in the Ministry of Commerce Monsieur Popinot, a in the Rue Lombards "
"And a friend of mine, madame," said the ex-perfumer. "For I, Celestin Crevel, once to old Cesar Birotteau, up the said Cesar Birotteau's stock; and he was Popinot's father-in-law. Why, that very Popinot was no more than a shopman in the establishment, and he is the to me of it; for he is not proud, to do him justice, to men in a good position with an of sixty thousand in the funds."
"Well then, monsieur, the you term ‘Regency' are out of date at a time when a man is taken at his personal worth; and that is what you did when you married your to my son."
"But you do not know how the marriage was about!" Crevel. "Oh, that life! But for my misconduct, my Celestine might at this day be Vicomtesse Popinot!"
"Once more have done with over facts," said the Baroness anxiously. "Let us discuss the I have on your behavior. My Hortense had a of marrying; the match on you; I you some of generosity; I you would do to a woman who has had a in her for any man but her husband, that you would have how necessary it is for her not to a man who may her, and that for the of the family with which you are you would have been to promote Hortense's settlement with Monsieur le Conseiller Lebas. And it is you, monsieur, you have the marriage."
"Madame," said the ex-perfumer, "I the part of an man. I was asked the two hundred thousand to be settled on Mademoiselle Hortense would be forthcoming. I in these words: ‘I would not answer for it. My son-in-law, to the Hulots had promised the same sum, was in debt; and I that if Monsieur Hulot d'Ervy were to die tomorrow, his would have nothing to live on.'—There, lady."
"And would you have said as much, monsieur," asked Madame Hulot, looking Crevel in the face, "if I had been false to my duty?"
"I should not be in a position to say it, Adeline," this adorer, the Baroness, "for you would have the amount in my pocket-book."
And adding action to word, the on one and Madame Hulot's hand, that his speech had her with horror, which he took for hesitancy.
"What, my daughter's at the cost of ?Rise, monsieur—or I ring the bell."
Crevel rose with great difficulty. This him so that he again his attitude. Most men have some position by which they that they to the best the good points on them by nature. This in Crevel in his arms like Napoleon, his three-quarters face, and his on the horizon, as the painter has the Emperor in his portrait.
"To be faithful," he began, with well-acted indignation, "so to a "
"To a husband who is of such fidelity," Madame Hulot put in, to Crevel from saying a word she did not choose to hear.
"Come, madame; you to me here, you ask the for my conduct, you drive me to with your airs, your scorn, and your contempt! Any one might think I was a Negro. But I repeat it, and you may me, I have a right to—to make love to you, for- But no; I love you well to my tongue."
"You may speak, monsieur. In a days I shall be eight-and-forty; I am no prude; I can you can say."
"Then will you give me your word of as an woman—for you are, for me! an woman—never to mention my name or to say that it was I who the secret?"
"If that is the condition on which you speak, I will to tell any one from I the you to tell me, not my husband."
"I should think not indeed, for only you and he are concerned."
Madame Hulot pale.
"Oh, if you still love Hulot, it will you. Shall I say no more?"
"Speak, monsieur; for by your account you wish to in my the you have to make me, and your in a woman of my age, only wish is to see her married, and then—to die in peace "
"You see; you are unhappy."
"I, monsieur?"
"Yes, beautiful, creature!" Crevel. "You have been too wretched!"
"Monsieur, be and go—or speak to me as you ought."
"Do you know, madame, how Master Hulot and I acquaintance? At our mistresses', madame."
"Oh, monsieur!"
"Yes, madame, at our mistresses'," Crevel in a tone, and his position to his right hand.
"Well, and what then?" said the Baroness coolly, to Crevel's great amazement.
Such cannot a great soul.
"I, a five years since," Crevel began, in the of a man who has a to tell, "and not to again for the of the I adore, not either to any such in my own establishment, though I had at the time a very lady-accountant. I set up, ‘on her own account,' as they say, a little of fifteen—really a of beauty, with I in love. And in fact, madame, I asked an aunt of my own, my mother's sister, I sent for from the country, to live with the sweet and keep an on her, that she might as well as might be in this rather—what shall I say—shady? no, position.
"The child, for music was striking, had masters, she was educated—I had to give her something to do. Besides, I to be at once her father, her benefactor, and well out with it—her lover; to kill two with one stone, a good action and a sweetheart. For five years I was very happy. The girl had one of those voices that make the of a theatre; I can only her by saying that she is a Duprez in petticoats. It cost me two thousand a year only to her as a singer. She me music-mad; I took a box at the for her and for my daughter, and there with Celestine or Josepha."
"What, the famous singer?"
"Yes, madame," said Crevel with pride, "the famous Josepha to me. At last, in 1834, when the child was twenty, that I had her to me for ever, and being very weak where she was concerned, I I would give her a little amusement, and I her to a little actress, Jenny Cadine, life had been like her own. This also to a protector who had her up in leading-strings. That protector was Baron Hulot."
"I know that," said the Baroness, in a voice without the least agitation.
"Bless me!" Crevel, more and more astounded. "Well! But do you know that your of a husband took Jenny Cadine in hand at the age of thirteen?"
"What then?" said the Baroness.
"As Jenny Cadine and Josepha were twenty when they met," the ex-tradesman on, "the Baron had been playing the part of Louis XV. to Mademoiselle de Romans since 1826, and you were twelve years then "
"I had my reasons, monsieur, for Monsieur Hulot his liberty."
"That falsehood, madame, will surely be to out every you have committed, and to open to you the gates of Paradise," Crevel, with a air that the color to the Baroness' cheeks. "Sublime and woman, tell that to those who will it, but not to old Crevel, who has, I may tell you, too often as one of four with your husband not to know what your high are! Many a time has he himself when as he has on your perfections. Oh, I know you well! A might you and a girl of twenty. I do not "
"Monsieur!"
"Well, I say no more. But you must know, and woman, that a husband under will tell about his wife to his that will her."
Tears of to Madame Hulot's long the National Guardsman. He stopped short, and his attitude.
"To proceed," said he. "We intimate, the Baron and I, through the two hussies. The Baron, like all lots, is very pleasant, a good fellow. Yes, he took my fancy, the old rascal. He be so funny! Well, of those reminiscences. We got to be like brothers. The scoundrel—quite Regency in his notions—tried to me altogether, Saint-Simonism as to women, and all of ideas; but, you see, I was of my girl to have married her, only I was of having children.
"Then two old daddies, such friends as—as we were, what more natural than that we should think of our children marrying each other? Three months after his son had married my Celestine, Hulot—I don't know how I can the wretch's name! he has us both, madame—well, the did me out of my little Josepha. The that he was in the of Jenny Cadine by a lawyer and by an artist—only two of them! for the girl had more and more of a success, and he my sweet little girl, a perfect darling—but you must have her at the opera; he got her an there. Your husband is not so well as I am. I am as as a of music-paper. He had a good of money on Jenny Cadine, who must have cost him near on thirty thousand a year. Well, I can only tell you that he is himself for Josepha.
"Josepha, madame, is a Jewess. Her name is Mirah, the of Hiram, an Israelite mark that her, for she was a up in Germany, and the I have prove that she is the child of a rich Jew banker. The life of the theatre, and, above all, the teaching of Jenny Cadine, Madame Schontz, Malaga, and Carabine, as to the way to an old man, have developed, in the child I had in a and not too way of life, all the native Hebrew for gold and jewels—for the calf.
"So this famous singer, for plunder, now wants to be rich, very rich. She her ‘prentice hand on Baron Hulot, and soon him bare—plucked him, ay, and him to the skin. The man, after trying to with one of the Kellers and with the Marquis d'Esgrignon, perfectly about Josepha, to say nothing of unknown worshipers, is about to see her off by that very rich Duke, who is such a of the arts. Oh, what is his name? a dwarf. Ah, the Duc d'Herouville. This on having Josepha for his very own, and all that set are talking about it; the Baron nothing of it as yet; for it is the same in the Thirteenth Arrondissement as in every other: the lover, like the husband, is last to the news.
"Now, do you my claim? Your husband, dear lady, has me of my in life, the only I have since I a widower. Yes, if I had not been so unlucky as to come across that old rip, Josepha would still be mine; for I, you know, should have her on the stage. She would have obscure, well conducted, and mine. Oh! if you but have her eight years ago, and wiry, with the skin of an Andalusian, as they say, black as as satin, an that under long lashes, the of a in every movement, the of a dependent, grace, and the of a wild fawn. And by that Hulot's doing all this and purity has been to a man-trap, a money-box for five-franc pieces! The girl is the Queen of Trollops; and she every one—she who nothing, not that word."
At this stage the retired his eyes, which were full of tears. The of his touched Madame Hulot, and her from the into which she had sunk.
"Tell me, madame, is a man of fifty-two likely to such another jewel? At my age love thirty thousand a year. It is through your husband's that I know the price, and I love Celestine too to be her ruin. When I saw you, at the party you gave in our honor, I how that Hulot keep a Jenny Cadine—you had the manner of an Empress. You do not look thirty," he on. "To me, madame, you look young, and you are beautiful. On my word of honor, that I was to the heart. I said to myself, ‘If I had not Josepha, since old Hulot neglects his wife, she would fit me like a glove.' Forgive me—it is a of my old business. The will up now and then, and that is what me from to be elected deputy.
"And then, when I was so by the Baron, for old like us our friend's should be sacred, I I would have his wife. It is but justice. The Baron say nothing; we are of impunity. You me the door like a dog at the I as to the of my feelings; you only my passion—my obstinacy, if you will—twice as strong, and you shall be mine."
"Indeed; how?"
"I do not know; but it will come to pass. You see, madame, an of a perfumer—retired from business—who has but one idea in his head, is than a who has a thousand. I am with you, and you are the means of my revenge; it is like being in love twice over. I am speaking to you frankly, as a man who what he means. I speak to you, just as you do to me, when you say, ‘I will be yours,' In fact, as they say, I play the game with the cards on the table. Yes, you shall be mine, sooner or later; if you were fifty, you should still be my mistress. And it will be; for I anything from your husband!"
Madame Hulot looked at this with such a of terror, that he she had gone mad, and he stopped.
"You on it, you me with scorn, you me—and I have spoken," said he, that he must the of his last words.
"Oh, my daughter, my daughter," the Baroness in a voice like a woman's.
"Oh! I have all else," Crevel on. "The day when I was of Josepha I was like a of her cubs; in short, as you see me now. Your daughter? Yes, I her as the means of you. Yes, I put a spoke in her marriage—and you will not her married without my help! Handsome as Mademoiselle Hortense is, she needs a "
"Alas! yes," said the Baroness, her eyes.
"Well, just ask your husband for ten thousand francs," said Crevel, his once more. He waited a minute, like an actor who has a point.
"If he had the money, he would give it to the woman who will take Josepha's place," he on, his tones. "Does a man up on the road he has taken? In the place, he is too sweet on women. There is a happy medium in all things, as our King has told us. And then his is implicated! He is a man! He would you all to for his pleasure; in fact, you are already on the to the workhouse. Why, look, since I set in your house have you been able to do up your drawing-room furniture. ‘Hard up' is the word by every in the stuff. Where will you a son-in-law who would not turn his in of the ill-concealed of the most there is—that of people in society? I have shop, and I know. There is no so quick as that of the Paris to from its sham. You have no money," he said, in a voice. "It is everywhere, on your man-servant's coat.
"Would you like me to any more that are from you?"
"Monsieur," Madame Hulot, was wet through with her tears, "enough, enough!"
"My son-in-law, I tell you, his father money, and this is what I particularly wanted to come to when I by speaking of your son's expenses. But I keep an on my daughter's interests, be easy."
"Oh, if I but see my married, and die!" the woman, her head.
"Well, then, this is the way," said the ex-perfumer.
Madame Hulot looked at Crevel with a expression, which so her countenance, that this alone ought to have touched the man's and have him to his schemes.
