A Start in Life [56]
Madame Clapart ended by kissing
him to console him for being scolded.
"In future," she said, "you will listen to your mother, and will
follow her advice; for a mother can give nothing but good counsel to
her child. We will go and see your uncle Cardot; that is our last
hope. Cardot owed a great deal to your father, who gave him his
sister, Mademoiselle Husson, with an enormous dowry for those days,
which enabled him to make a large fortune in the silk trade. I think
he might, perhaps, place you with Monsieur Camusot, his successor and
son-in-law, in the rue des Bourdonnais. But, you see, your uncle
Cardot has four children. He gave his establishment, the Cocon d'Or,
to his eldest daughter, Madame Camusot; and though Camusot has
millions, he has also four children by two wives; and, besides, he
scarcely knows of our existence. Cardot has married his second
daughter, Mariane, to Monsieur Protez, of the firm of Protez and
Chiffreville. The practice of his eldest son, the notary, cost him
four hundred thousand francs; and he has just put his second son,
Joseph, into the drug business of Matifat. So you see, your uncle
Cardot has many reasons not to take an interest in you, whom he sees
only four times a year. He has never come to call upon me here, though
he was ready enough to visit me at Madame Mere's when he wanted to
sell his silks to the Emperor, the imperial highnesses, and all the
great people at court. But now the Camusots have turned ultras. The
eldest son of Camusot's first wife married a daughter of one of the
king's ushers. The world is mighty hump-backed when it stoops!
However, it was a clever thing to do, for the Cocon d'Or has the
custom of the present court as it had that of the Emperor. But to-
morrow we will go and see your uncle Cardot, and I hope that you will
endeavor to behave properly; for, as I said before, and I repeat it,
that is our last hope."
Monsieur Jean-Jerome-Severin Cardot had been a widower six years. As
head-clerk of the Cocon d'Or, one of the oldest firms in Paris, he had
bought the establishment in 1793, at a time when the heads of the
house were ruined by the maximum; and the money of Mademoiselle
Husson's dowry had enabled him to do this, and so make a fortune that
was almost colossal in ten years. To establish his children richly
during his lifetime, he had conceived the idea of buying an annuity
for himself and his wife with three hundred thousand francs, which
gave him an income of thirty thousand francs a year. He then divided
his capital into three shares of four hundred thousand francs each,
which he gave to three of his children,--the Cocon d'Or, given to his
eldest daughter on her marriage, being the equivalent of a fourth
share. Thus the worthy man, who was now nearly seventy years old,
could spend his thirty thousand a year as he pleased, without feeling
that he injured the prospects of his children, all finely provided
for, whose attentions and proofs of affection were, moreover, not
prompted by self-interest.
Uncle Cardot lived at Belleville, in one of the first houses above the
Courtille. He there occupied, on the first floor, an apartment
overlooking the valley of the Seine, with a southern exposure, and the
exclusive enjoyment of a large garden, for the sum of a thousand
francs a year. He troubled himself not at all about the three or four
other tenants of the same vast country-house. Certain, through a long
lease, of ending his days there, he lived rather plainly, served by an
old cook and the former maid of the late Madame Cardot,--both of whom
expected to reap an annuity of some six hundred francs apiece on the
old man's death. These two women took the utmost care of him, and were
all the more interested in doing so because no one was ever less fussy
or less fault-finding than he. The apartment, furnished by the late
Madame Cardot, had remained in the same condition for the last six
him to console him for being scolded.
"In future," she said, "you will listen to your mother, and will
follow her advice; for a mother can give nothing but good counsel to
her child. We will go and see your uncle Cardot; that is our last
hope. Cardot owed a great deal to your father, who gave him his
sister, Mademoiselle Husson, with an enormous dowry for those days,
which enabled him to make a large fortune in the silk trade. I think
he might, perhaps, place you with Monsieur Camusot, his successor and
son-in-law, in the rue des Bourdonnais. But, you see, your uncle
Cardot has four children. He gave his establishment, the Cocon d'Or,
to his eldest daughter, Madame Camusot; and though Camusot has
millions, he has also four children by two wives; and, besides, he
scarcely knows of our existence. Cardot has married his second
daughter, Mariane, to Monsieur Protez, of the firm of Protez and
Chiffreville. The practice of his eldest son, the notary, cost him
four hundred thousand francs; and he has just put his second son,
Joseph, into the drug business of Matifat. So you see, your uncle
Cardot has many reasons not to take an interest in you, whom he sees
only four times a year. He has never come to call upon me here, though
he was ready enough to visit me at Madame Mere's when he wanted to
sell his silks to the Emperor, the imperial highnesses, and all the
great people at court. But now the Camusots have turned ultras. The
eldest son of Camusot's first wife married a daughter of one of the
king's ushers. The world is mighty hump-backed when it stoops!
However, it was a clever thing to do, for the Cocon d'Or has the
custom of the present court as it had that of the Emperor. But to-
morrow we will go and see your uncle Cardot, and I hope that you will
endeavor to behave properly; for, as I said before, and I repeat it,
that is our last hope."
Monsieur Jean-Jerome-Severin Cardot had been a widower six years. As
head-clerk of the Cocon d'Or, one of the oldest firms in Paris, he had
bought the establishment in 1793, at a time when the heads of the
house were ruined by the maximum; and the money of Mademoiselle
Husson's dowry had enabled him to do this, and so make a fortune that
was almost colossal in ten years. To establish his children richly
during his lifetime, he had conceived the idea of buying an annuity
for himself and his wife with three hundred thousand francs, which
gave him an income of thirty thousand francs a year. He then divided
his capital into three shares of four hundred thousand francs each,
which he gave to three of his children,--the Cocon d'Or, given to his
eldest daughter on her marriage, being the equivalent of a fourth
share. Thus the worthy man, who was now nearly seventy years old,
could spend his thirty thousand a year as he pleased, without feeling
that he injured the prospects of his children, all finely provided
for, whose attentions and proofs of affection were, moreover, not
prompted by self-interest.
Uncle Cardot lived at Belleville, in one of the first houses above the
Courtille. He there occupied, on the first floor, an apartment
overlooking the valley of the Seine, with a southern exposure, and the
exclusive enjoyment of a large garden, for the sum of a thousand
francs a year. He troubled himself not at all about the three or four
other tenants of the same vast country-house. Certain, through a long
lease, of ending his days there, he lived rather plainly, served by an
old cook and the former maid of the late Madame Cardot,--both of whom
expected to reap an annuity of some six hundred francs apiece on the
old man's death. These two women took the utmost care of him, and were
all the more interested in doing so because no one was ever less fussy
or less fault-finding than he. The apartment, furnished by the late
Madame Cardot, had remained in the same condition for the last six