A Start in Life [59]
establishment of its kind in Paris. And here's your eldest son, for
the last ten years at the head of a fine practice and married to
wealth. And you have such charming little granddaughters! You are, as
it were, the head of four great families. Leave us, Oscar; go and look
at the garden, but don't touch the flowers."
"Why, he's eighteen years old!" said uncle Cardot, smiling at this
injunction, which made an infant of Oscar.
"Alas, yes, he is eighteen, my good Monsieur Cardot; and after
bringing him so far, sound and healthy in mind and body, neither bow-
legged nor crooked, after sacrificing everything to give him an
education, it would be hard if I could not see him on the road to
fortune."
"That Monsieur Moreau who got him the scholarship will be sure to look
after his career," said uncle Cardot, concealing his hypocrisy under
an air of friendly good-humor.
"Monsieur Moreau may die," she said. "And besides, he has quarrelled
irrevocably with the Comte de Serizy, his patron."
"The deuce he has! Listen, madame; I see you are about to--"
"No, monsieur," said Oscar's mother, interrupting the old man, who,
out of courtesy to the "fair lady," repressed his annoyance at being
interrupted. "Alas, you do not know the miseries of a mother who, for
seven years past, has been forced to take a sum of six hundred francs
a year for her son's education from the miserable eighteen hundred
francs of her husband's salary. Yes, monsieur, that is all we have had
to live upon. Therefore, what more can I do for my poor Oscar?
Monsieur Clapart so hates the child that it is impossible for me to
keep him in the house. A poor woman, alone in the world, am I not
right to come and consult the only relation my Oscar has under
heaven?"
"Yes, you are right," said uncle Cardot. "You never told me of all
this before."
"Ah, monsieur!" replied Madame Clapart, proudly, "you were the last to
whom I would have told my wretchedness. It is all my own fault; I
married a man whose incapacity is almost beyond belief. Yes, I am,
indeed, most unhappy."
"Listen to me, madame," said the little old man, "and don't weep; it
is most painful to me to see a fair lady cry. After all, your son
bears the name of Husson, and if my dear deceased wife were living she
would wish to do something for the name of her father and of her
brother--"
"She loved her brother," said Oscar's mother.
"But all my fortune is given to my children, who expect nothing from
me at my death," continued the old man. "I have divided among them the
millions that I had, because I wanted to see them happy and enjoying
their wealth during my lifetime. I have nothing now except an annuity;
and at my age one clings to old habits. Do you know the path on which
you ought to start this young fellow?" he went on, after calling to
Oscar and taking him by the arm. "Let him study law; I'll pay the
costs. Put him in a lawyer's office and let him learn the business of
pettifogging; if he does well, if he distinguishes himself, if he
likes his profession and I am still alive, each of my children shall,
when the proper time comes, lend him a quarter of the cost of a
practice; and I will be security for him. You will only have to feed
and clothe him. Of course he'll sow a few wild oats, but he'll learn
life. Look at me: I left Lyon with two double louis which my
grandmother gave me, and walked to Paris; and what am I now? Fasting
is good for the health. Discretion, honesty, and work, young man, and
you'll succeed. There's a great deal of pleasure in earning one's
fortune; and if a man keeps his teeth he eats what he likes in his old
age, and sings, as I do, 'La Mere Godichon.' Remember my words:
Honesty, work, discretion."
"Do you hear that, Oscar?" said his mother. "Your uncle sums up in
three words all that I have been saying to you. You ought to carve the
last word in letters of