Scenes from a Courtesan's Life [110]
to get yourself up as a foreigner to indulge your fancy."
"You can understand that Peyrade, or old Canquoelle of the Rue des Moineaux----"
"Ay, neither of them would have suited Madame du Val-Noble," Carlos put in, delighted to have picked up Canquoelle's address. "Before the Revolution," he went on, "I had for my mistress a woman who had previously been kept by the gentleman-in-waiting, as they then called the executioner. One evening at the play she pricked herself with a pin, and cried out--a customary ejaculation in those days--'Ah! Bourreau!' on which her neighbor asked her if this were a reminiscence?--Well, my dear Peyrade, she cast off her man for that speech.
"I suppose you have no wish to expose yourself to such a slap in the face.--Madame du Val-Noble is a woman for gentlemen. I saw her once at the opera, and thought her very handsome.
"Tell the driver to go back to the Rue de la Paix, my dear Peyrade. I will go upstairs with you to your rooms and see for myself. A verbal report will no doubt be enough for Monsieur le Prefet."
Carlos took a snuff-box from his side-pocket--a black snuff-box lined with silver-gilt--and offered it to Peyrade with an impulse of delightful good-fellowship. Peyrade said to himself:
"And these are their agents! Good Heavens! what would Monsieur Lenoir say if he could come back to life, or Monsieur de Sartines?"
"That is part of the truth, no doubt, but it is not all," said the sham lawyer, sniffing up his pinch of snuff. "You have had a finger in the Baron de Nucingen's love affairs, and you wish, no doubt, to entangle him in some slip-knot. You missed fire with the pistol, and you are aiming at him with a field-piece. Madame du Val-Noble is a friend of Madame de Champy's----"
"Devil take it. I must take care not to founder," said Peyrade to himself. "He is a better man than I thought him. He is playing me; he talks of letting me go, and he goes on making me blab."
"Well?" asked Carlos with a magisterial air.
"Monsieur, it is true that I have been so foolish as to seek a woman in Monsieur de Nucingen's behoof, because he was half mad with love. That is the cause of my being out of favor, for it would seem that quite unconsciously I touched some important interests."
The officer of the law remained immovable.
"But after fifty-two years' experience," Peyrade went on, "I know the police well enough to have held my hand after the blowing up I had from Monsieur le Prefet, who, no doubt, was right----"
"Then you would give up this fancy if Monsieur le Prefet required it of you? That, I think, would be the best proof you could give of the sincerity of what you say."
"He is going it! he is going it!" thought Peyrade. "Ah! by all that's holy, the police to-day is a match for that of Monsieur Lenoir."
"Give it up?" said he aloud. "I will wait till I have Monsieur le Prefet's orders.--But here we are at the hotel, if you wish to come up."
"Where do you find the money?" said Carlos point-blank, with a sagacious glance.
"Monsieur, I have a friend----"
"Get along," said Carlos; "go and tell that story to an examining magistrate!"
This audacious stroke on Carlos' part was the outcome of one of those calculations, so simple that none but a man of his temper would have thought it out.
At a very early hour he had sent Lucien to Madame de Serizy's. Lucien had begged the Count's private secretary--as from the Count--to go and obtain from the Prefet of Police full particulars concerning the agent employed by the Baron de Nucingen. The secretary came back provided with a note concerning Peyrade, a copy of the summary noted on the back of his record:--
"In the police force since 1778, having come to Paris from Avignon two years previously.
"Without money or character; possessed of certain State secrets.
"Lives in the Rue des Moineaux under the name of Canquoelle, the name of a little estate where his family resides in the department of Vaucluse; very respectable people.
"Was lately inquired for by a grand-nephew named Theodore
"You can understand that Peyrade, or old Canquoelle of the Rue des Moineaux----"
"Ay, neither of them would have suited Madame du Val-Noble," Carlos put in, delighted to have picked up Canquoelle's address. "Before the Revolution," he went on, "I had for my mistress a woman who had previously been kept by the gentleman-in-waiting, as they then called the executioner. One evening at the play she pricked herself with a pin, and cried out--a customary ejaculation in those days--'Ah! Bourreau!' on which her neighbor asked her if this were a reminiscence?--Well, my dear Peyrade, she cast off her man for that speech.
"I suppose you have no wish to expose yourself to such a slap in the face.--Madame du Val-Noble is a woman for gentlemen. I saw her once at the opera, and thought her very handsome.
"Tell the driver to go back to the Rue de la Paix, my dear Peyrade. I will go upstairs with you to your rooms and see for myself. A verbal report will no doubt be enough for Monsieur le Prefet."
Carlos took a snuff-box from his side-pocket--a black snuff-box lined with silver-gilt--and offered it to Peyrade with an impulse of delightful good-fellowship. Peyrade said to himself:
"And these are their agents! Good Heavens! what would Monsieur Lenoir say if he could come back to life, or Monsieur de Sartines?"
"That is part of the truth, no doubt, but it is not all," said the sham lawyer, sniffing up his pinch of snuff. "You have had a finger in the Baron de Nucingen's love affairs, and you wish, no doubt, to entangle him in some slip-knot. You missed fire with the pistol, and you are aiming at him with a field-piece. Madame du Val-Noble is a friend of Madame de Champy's----"
"Devil take it. I must take care not to founder," said Peyrade to himself. "He is a better man than I thought him. He is playing me; he talks of letting me go, and he goes on making me blab."
"Well?" asked Carlos with a magisterial air.
"Monsieur, it is true that I have been so foolish as to seek a woman in Monsieur de Nucingen's behoof, because he was half mad with love. That is the cause of my being out of favor, for it would seem that quite unconsciously I touched some important interests."
The officer of the law remained immovable.
"But after fifty-two years' experience," Peyrade went on, "I know the police well enough to have held my hand after the blowing up I had from Monsieur le Prefet, who, no doubt, was right----"
"Then you would give up this fancy if Monsieur le Prefet required it of you? That, I think, would be the best proof you could give of the sincerity of what you say."
"He is going it! he is going it!" thought Peyrade. "Ah! by all that's holy, the police to-day is a match for that of Monsieur Lenoir."
"Give it up?" said he aloud. "I will wait till I have Monsieur le Prefet's orders.--But here we are at the hotel, if you wish to come up."
"Where do you find the money?" said Carlos point-blank, with a sagacious glance.
"Monsieur, I have a friend----"
"Get along," said Carlos; "go and tell that story to an examining magistrate!"
This audacious stroke on Carlos' part was the outcome of one of those calculations, so simple that none but a man of his temper would have thought it out.
At a very early hour he had sent Lucien to Madame de Serizy's. Lucien had begged the Count's private secretary--as from the Count--to go and obtain from the Prefet of Police full particulars concerning the agent employed by the Baron de Nucingen. The secretary came back provided with a note concerning Peyrade, a copy of the summary noted on the back of his record:--
"In the police force since 1778, having come to Paris from Avignon two years previously.
"Without money or character; possessed of certain State secrets.
"Lives in the Rue des Moineaux under the name of Canquoelle, the name of a little estate where his family resides in the department of Vaucluse; very respectable people.
"Was lately inquired for by a grand-nephew named Theodore