Victorin Hulot, under the of his family, had the touch which makes or mars the man. He was perfection. In the great of life we act like the captain of a ship who, under the of a hurricane, the ship of its cargo. The lawyer his self-conscious pride, his too assertiveness, his as an and his political pretensions. He was as a man what his wife was as a woman. He up his mind to make the best of his Celestine—who did not his dreams—and was wise to life at its true value by himself in all with the second best. He to his duties, so much had he been by his father's example.
These were as he by his mother's on the day when she was out of danger. Nor did this come single. Claude Vignon, who called every day from the Prince de Wissembourg to as to Madame Hulot's progress, the re-elected to go with him to see the Minister.
"His Excellency," said he, "wants to talk over your family with you."
The Prince had long Victorin Hulot, and him with a that promised well.
"My dear fellow," said the old soldier, "I promised your uncle, in this room, that I would take of your mother. That woman, I am told, is well again; now is the time to oil into your wounds. I have for you here two hundred thousand francs; I will give them to you "
The lawyer's was of his uncle the Marshal.
"Be easy," said the Prince, smiling; "it is money in trust. My days are numbered; I shall not always be here; so take this sum, and my place your family. You may use this money to pay off the on your house. These two hundred thousand are the property of your mother and your sister. If I gave the money to Madame Hulot, I that, in her to her husband, she would be to waste it. And the of those who it to you is, that it should produce for Madame Hulot and her daughter, the Countess Steinbock. You are a man, the son of your mother, the true nephew of my friend the Marshal; you are here, you see—and elsewhere. So be the of your family, and take this as a from your uncle and me."
"Monseigneur," said Hulot, taking the Minister's hand and pressing it, "such men as you know that thanks in nothing; must be proven."
"Prove yours " said the old man.
"In what way?"
"By what I have to offer you," said the Minister. "We to you to be attorney to the War Office, which just now is in in of the plan for Paris; also to the Prefecture of Police; and a of the Board of the Civil List. These three will secure you salaries to eighteen thousand francs, and will you politically free. You can vote in the Chamber in to your opinions and your conscience. Act in perfect on that score. It would be a thing for us if there were no national opposition!
"Also, a lines from your uncle, a day or two he his last, what I do for your mother, he loved very truly. Mesdames Popinot, de Rastignac, de Navarreins, d'Espard, de Grandlieu, de Carigliano, de Lenoncourt, and de la Batie have a place for your mother as a Lady Superintendent of their charities. These ladies, presidents of of work, cannot do themselves; they need a lady of who can act for them by going to see the objects of their beneficence, that is not upon, and the help those who for it, out that the who are to beg, and so forth. Your mother will an function; she will be in with none but and these ladies; she will be paid six thousand and the cost of her coaches.
"You see, man, that a pure and man can still his family, from the grave. Such a name as your uncle's is, and ought to be, a against in a well-organized of society. Follow in his path; you have started in it, I know; continue in it."
"Such cannot me in my mother's friend," said Victorin. "I will try to come up to all your hopes."
"Go at once, and take to your family. By the way," added the Prince, as he hands with Victorin, "your father has disappeared?"
"Alas! yes."
"So much the better. That man has his wit, in which, indeed, he is not lacking."
"There are of his to be met."
"Well, you shall have six months' pay of your three in advance. This pre-payment will help you, perhaps, to the notes out of the hands of the money-lender. And I will see Nucingen, and may succeed in your father's pension, to him, without its you or our office a sou. The has not killed the banker in Nucingen; he is insatiable; he wants some concession. I know not what "
So on his return to the Rue Plumet, Victorin out his plan of his mother and sister under his roof.
The lawyer, already famous, had, for his fortune, one of the houses in Paris, purchased in 1834 in for his marriage, on the the Rue de la Paix and the Rue Louis-le-Grand. A had two houses the and the street; and these, with the gardens and to the and back, there still a wing, the of the of the Verneuils. The Hulot had purchased this property, on the of Mademoiselle Crevel's marriage-portion, for one francs, when it was put up to auction, paying five hundred thousand down. He on the ground floor, to pay the out of the rest; but though it is safe to in house-property in Paris, such are or fire, on circumstances.
As the Parisian may have observed, the the Rue de la Paix and the Rue Louis-le-Grand but slowly; it took so long to and itself, that did not set up its there till 1840—the gold of the money-changers, the fairy-work of fashion, and the of shop-fronts.
In of two hundred thousand by Crevel to his at the time when his was by this marriage, the Baron had him of Josepha; in of the two hundred thousand paid off by Victorin in the of seven years, the property was still with a of five hundred thousand francs, in of Victorin's to his father. Happily, a in rents and the of the had at this time the value of the houses. The was itself after eight years' patience, which the lawyer had every nerve to pay the and some of the borrowed.
The were to offer good rents for the shops, on condition of being for eighteen years. The rose in value by the shifting of the centre in Paris life—henceforth transferred to the region the Bourse and the Madeleine, now the seat of the political power and financial authority in Paris. The money paid to him by the Minister, added to a year's rent in and the premiums paid by his tenants, would the to two hundred thousand francs. The two houses, if let, would in a hundred thousand a year. Within two years more, which the Hulots live on his salaries, added to by the Marshal's investments, Victorin would be in a position.
This was from heaven. Victorin give up the of his own house to his mother, and the second to Hortense, two rooms for Lisbeth. With Cousin Betty as the housekeeper, this all these charges, and yet keep up a good appearance, as a of note. The great of the law-courts were disappearing; and Victorin Hulot, with a and honesty, was to by the Bench and Councillors; he his cases thoroughly, and nothing that he not prove. He would not every that offered; in fact, he was a to the bar.
The Baroness' home in the Rue Plumet had so to her, that she allowed herself to be taken to the Rue Louis-le-Grand. Thus, by her son's care, Adeline a apartment; she was all the daily of life; for Lisbeth to again, of economy, such as she had for Madame Marneffe, here a way of her on those three lives, the object, each, of her hatred, which was by the of all her hopes.
Once a month she to see Valerie, sent, indeed, by Hortense, who wanted news of Wenceslas, and by Celestine, who was at the and well-known her father and a woman to her mother-in-law and sister-in-law their and their sorrows. As may be supposed, Lisbeth took of this to see Valerie as often as possible.
Thus, about twenty months passed by, which the Baroness her health, though her left her. She herself familiar with her duties, which her a from her and food for the of her heart. She also it as an opportunity for her husband in the of one of those which took her into every part of Paris.
During this time, Vauvinet had been paid, and the pension of six thousand was almost redeemed. Victorin maintain his mother as well as Hortense out of the ten thousand on the money left by Marshal Hulot in trust for them. Adeline's salary to six thousand a year; and this, added to the Baron's pension when it was freed, would presently secure an of twelve thousand a year to the mother and daughter.
Thus, the woman would have been almost happy but for her as to the Baron's fate; for she to have him with her to the that on the family; and but for the of her daughter; and but for the terrible and her by Lisbeth, had free course.
A which took place at the of the month of March 1843 will the results of Lisbeth's and hatred, still seconded, as she always was, by Madame Marneffe.
Two great events had in the Marneffe household. In the place, Valerie had birth to a still-born child, little had cost her two thousand a year. And then, as to Marneffe himself, eleven months since, this is the report by Lisbeth to the Hulot family one day on her return from a visit of at the hotel Marneffe.
"This morning," said she, "that Valerie sent for Doctor Bianchon to ask the medical men who had her husband yesterday had no mistake. Bianchon that to-night at the latest that will to the that him. Old Crevel and Madame Marneffe saw the doctor out; and your father, my dear Celestine, gave him five gold pieces for his good news.
"When he came into the drawing-room, Crevel cut like a dancer; he that woman, exclaiming, ‘Then, at last, you will be Madame Crevel!'—And to me, when she had gone to her husband's bedside, for he was at his last gasp, your father said to me, ‘With Valerie as my wife, I can a of France! I shall an I have my on—Presles, which Madame de Serizy wants to sell. I shall be Crevel de Presles, of the Common Council of Seine-et-Oise, and Deputy. I shall have a son! I shall be I have to be.'—‘Heh!' said I, ‘and what about your daughter?'—‘Bah!' says he, ‘she is only a woman! And she is too much of a Hulot. Valerie has a of them all. My son-in-law has to come to this house; why has he himself such as a Mentor, a Spartan, a Puritan, a philanthropist? Besides, I have with my daughter; she has had all her mother's fortune, and two hundred thousand to that. So I am free to act as I please. I shall judge of my son-in-law and Celestine by their on my marriage; as they behave, so shall I. If they are to their stepmother, I will them. I am a man, after all!'—In short, all this rhodomontade! And an like Napoleon on the column."
The ten months' on by the law had now some days since. The of Presles was purchased. Victorin and Celestine had that very sent Lisbeth to make as to the marriage of the to the Mayor of Paris, now a of the Common Council of the Department of Seine-et-Oise.
Celestine and Hortense, in the of had been closer since they had under the same roof, were almost inseparable. The Baroness, away by a of which her to the of her place, herself to the work of of which she was the agent; she was out almost every day from eleven till five. The sisters-in-law, in their for the children they together, sat at home and worked. They had at the which thinks aloud, and were a picture of two sisters, one and the other sad. The less happy of the two, handsome, lively, high-spirited, and clever, by her manner to her painful situation; while the Celestine, sweet and calm, and as as itself, might have been to have some grief. It was this contradiction, perhaps, that added to their warm friendship. Each the other with what she lacked.
Seated in a little summer-house in the garden, which the speculator's had by some of the builder's, who that he was these hundred square of earth for his own pleasure, they were the green of the lilac-trees, a which can only be in Paris when the have for six months of what means, among the of where the of to and fro.
"Celestine," said Hortense to her sister-in-law, who had that in such weather her husband should be at the Chamber, "I think you do not your happiness. Victorin is a perfect angel, and you sometimes him."
"My dear, men like to be tormented! Certain of are a proof of affection. If your mother had only been—I will not say exacting, but always prepared to be exacting, you would not have had so much to over."
"Lisbeth is not come back. I shall have to sing the song of Malbrouck," said Hortense. "I do long for some news of Wenceslas! What he live on? He has not done a thing these two years."
"Victorin saw him, he told me, with that woman not long ago; and he that she him in idleness. If you only would, dear soul, you might your husband to you yet."
Hortense her head.
"Believe me," Celestine on, "the position will long be intolerable. In the instance, rage, despair, indignation, gave you strength. The that have come upon us since—two deaths, ruin, and the of Baron Hulot—have your mind and heart; but now you live in peace and silence, you will it hard to the in your life; and as you cannot, and will the path of virtue, you will have to be to Wenceslas. Victorin, who loves you so much, is of that opinion. There is something than one's even, and that is Nature!"
"But such a creature!" the proud Hortense. "He for that woman she him. And has she paid his debts, do you suppose? Good Heaven! I think of that man's position day and night! He is the father of my child, and he is himself."
"But look at your mother, my dear," said Celestine.
Celestine was one of those who, when you have them to a Breton peasant, still go for the hundredth time to their original argument. The of her face, flat, dull, and common, her light-brown in stiff, bands, her very spoke of a woman, of charm, but also of weakness.
"The Baroness would go to join her husband in his disgrace, to him and him in her from every eye," Celestine on. "Why, she has a room for Monsieur Hulot, as if she to him and him home from one day to the next."
"Oh yes, my mother is sublime!" Hortense. "She has been so every minute of every day for six-and-twenty years; but I am not like her, it is not my nature. How can I help it? I am angry with myself sometimes; but you do not know, Celestine, what it would be to make terms with infamy."
"There is my father!" said Celestine placidly. "He has started on the road that yours. He is ten years than the Baron, to be sure, and was only a tradesman; but how can it end? This Madame Marneffe has a of my father; he is her dog; she is of his and his opinions, and nothing can open his eyes. I when I that their of marriage are already published! My husband means to make a last attempt; he thinks it a to try to and the family, and that woman to account for all her crimes. Alas! my dear Hortense, such as Victorin and like ours come too late to a of the world and its ways! This is a secret, dear, and I have told you you are in it, but by a word or a look it to Lisbeth, or your mother, or anybody, for "
"Here is Lisbeth!" said Hortense. "Well, cousin, and how is the Inferno of the Rue Barbet going on?"
"Badly for you, my children. Your husband, my dear Hortense, is more about that woman than ever, and she, I must own, is in love with him. Your father, dear Celestine, is blind. That, to be sure, is nothing; I have had occasion to see it once a fortnight; really, I am lucky to have had anything to do with men, they are creatures. Five days hence you, dear child, and Victorin will have your father's fortune."
"Then the are cried?" said Celestine.
"Yes," said Lisbeth, "and I have just been your case. I pointed out to that monster, who is going the way of the other, that if he would only you out of the you are in by paying off the on the house, you would your and your "
Hortense started in horror.
"Victorin will see about that," said Celestine coldly.
"But do you know what Monsieur le Maire's answer was?" said Lisbeth. "‘I to them where they are. Horses can only be in by of food, sleep, and sugar.'—Why, Baron Hulot was not so as Monsieur Crevel.
"So, my dears, you may say good-bye to the money. And such a fortune! Your father paid three for the Presles estate, and he has thirty thousand a year in stocks! Oh! he has no from me. He talks of the Hotel de Navarreins, in the Rue du Bac. Madame Marneffe herself has thousand a year. Ah! here is our angel, here comes your mother!" she exclaimed, the of wheels.
And presently the Baroness came the garden steps and joined the party. At fifty-five, though by so many troubles, and as if with ague, Adeline, was and wrinkled, still had a figure, a outline, and natural dignity. Those who saw her said, "She must have been beautiful!" Worn with the of not her husband's fate, of being unable to with him this in the of Paris, this peace and and the that was on the family, her was the of a ruin. As each of died out, each day of search proved vain, Adeline into of that her children to despair.
The Baroness had gone out that with fresh hopes, and was expected. An official, who was under to Hulot, to he his position and advancement, that he had the Baron in a box at the Ambigu-Comique theatre with a woman of beauty. So Adeline had gone to call on the Baron Verneuil. This personage, while that he had positively his old patron, and that his to the woman an establishment, told Madame Hulot that to avoid meeting him the Baron had left long the end of the play.
"He looked like a man at home with the damsel, but his dress some of means," said he in conclusion.
"Well?" said the three as the Baroness came them.
"Well, Monsieur Hulot is in Paris; and to me," said Adeline, "it is a of only to know that he is of us."
"But he not to have his ways," Lisbeth when Adeline had her report of her visit to Baron Verneuil. "He has taken up some little work-girl. But where can he the money from? I that he of his mistresses—Mademoiselle Jenny Cadine or Josepha."
The Baroness more than ever; every nerve quivered; she away the that rose to her and looked up to heaven.
"I cannot think that a Grand Commander of the Legion of Honor will have so low," said she.
"For his what would he not do?" said Lisbeth. "He the State, he will private persons, murder—who knows?"
"Oh, Lisbeth!" the Baroness, "keep such to yourself."
At this moment Louise came up to the family group, now by the of the two Hulot children and little Wenceslas to see if their grandmother's pockets did not some sweetmeats.
"What is it, Louise?" asked one and another.
"A man who wants to see Mademoiselle Fischer."
"Who is the man?" asked Lisbeth.
"He is in rags, mademoiselle, and with like a mattress-picker; his nose is red, and he of brandy. He is one of those men who work of the week at most."
This picture had the of making Lisbeth into the of the house in the Rue Louis-le-Grand, where she a man a pipe in a that him an artist in tobacco.
"Why have you come here, Pere Chardin?" she asked. "It is that you go, on the Saturday in every month, to the gate of the Hotel Marneffe, Rue Barbet-de-Jouy. I have just come after waiting there for five hours, and you did not come."
"I did go there, good and lady!" the mattress-picker. "But there was a game at going on at the Cafe Savants, Rue du Cerf-Volant, and every man has his fancy. Now, mine is billiards. If it wasn't for billiards, I might be off plate. For, I tell you this," and he for a of paper in his pocket, "it is that leads on to a and plum-brandy. It is ruinous, like all things, in the it leads to. I know your orders, but the old ‘un is in such a that I came on to grounds. If the was all hair, we might sleep on it; but it is mixed. God is not for all, as the saying goes. He has His favorites—well, He has the right. Now, here is the of your relative and my very good friend—his political opinion."
Chardin to some lines in the air with the of his right hand.
Lisbeth, not to him, read these words:
"DEAR COUSIN,—Be my Providence; give me three hundred this
day.
"HECTOR."
"What he want so much money for?"
"The lan'lord!" said Chardin, still trying to sketch arabesques. "And then my son, you see, has come from Algiers through Spain and Bayonee, and, and—he has nothing—against his rule, for a is my son, saving your presence. How can he help it, he is in want of food; but he will all we him, for he is going to up a company. He has ideas, he has, that will him "
"To the police court," Lisbeth put in. "He my uncle; I shall not that."
"He—why, he not a chicken, lady."
"Here are the three hundred francs," said Lisbeth, taking fifteen gold pieces out of her purse. "Now, go, and come here again."
She saw the father of the Oran off the premises, and pointed out the old to the porter.
"At any time when that man comes here, if by he should come again, do not let him in. If he should ask Monsieur Hulot junior or Madame la Baronne Hulot here, tell him you know of no such persons."
"Very good, mademoiselle."
"Your place on it if you make any mistake, without it," said Lisbeth, in the woman's ear. "Cousin," she on to Victorin, who just now came in, "a great is over your head."
"What is that?" said Victorin.
"Within a days Madame Marneffe will be your wife's stepmother."
"That to be seen," Victorin.
For six months past Lisbeth had very paid a little to Baron Hulot, her protector, she now protected; she the of his dwelling-place, and Adeline's tears, saying to her, as we have seen, when she saw her and hopeful, "You may to my cousin's name in the papers some day under the ‘Police Report.'"
But in this, as on a occasion, she let her her too far. She had the of Victorin. He had to be of this Damocles' so over them by Lisbeth, and of the female to his mother and the family so many woes. The Prince de Wissembourg, all about Madame Marneffe's conduct, of the lawyer's project; he had promised him, as a President of the Council can promise, the of the police, to Crevel and a from the of the courtesan, he not either for the death of Marshal Hulot or for the Baron's ruin.
