Scenes from a Courtesan's Life [62]
you were born--you have Peyrade's word for that."
"I gif you mein vort of honor to do vat is possible."
"If I do no more for you than is possible, it will not be enough."
"Vell, vell, I vill act qvite frankly."
"Frankly--that is all I ask," said Peyrade, "and frankness is the only thing at all new that you and I can offer to each other."
"Frankly," echoed the Baron. "Vere shall I put you down."
"At the corner of the Pont Louis XVI."
"To the Pont de la Chambre," said the Baron to the footman at the carriage door.
"Then I am to get dat unknown person," said the Baron to himself as he drove home.
"What a queer business!" thought Peyrade, going back on foot to the Palais-Royal, where he intended trying to multiply his ten thousand francs by three, to make a little fortune for Lydie. "Here I am required to look into the private concerns of a very young man who has bewitched my little girl by a glance. He is, I suppose, one of those men who have an eye for a woman," said he to himself, using an expression of a language of his own, in which his observations, or Corentin's, were summed up in words that were anything rather than classical, but, for that very reason, energetic and picturesque.
The Baron de Nucingen, when he went in, was an altered man; he astonished his household and his wife by showing them a face full of life and color, so cheerful did he feel.
"Our shareholders had better look out for themselves," said du Tillet to Rastignac.
They were all at tea, in Delphine de Nucingen's boudoir, having come in from the opera.
"Ja," said the Baron, smiling; "I feel ver' much dat I shall do some business."
"Then you have seen the fair being?" asked Madame de Nucingen.
"No," said he; "I have only hoped to see her."
"Do men ever love their wives so?" cried Madame de Nucingen, feeling, or affecting to feel, a little jealous.
"When you have got her, you must ask us to sup with her," said du Tillet to the Baron, "for I am very curious to study the creature who has made you so young as you are."
"She is a cheff-d'oeufre of creation!" replied the old banker.
"He will be swindled like a boy," said Rastignac in Delphine's ear.
"Pooh! he makes quite enough money to----"
"To give a little back, I suppose," said du Tillet, interrupting the Baroness.
Nucingen was walking up and down the room as if his legs had the fidgets.
"Now is your time to make him pay your fresh debts," said Rastignac in the Baroness' ear.
At this very moment Carlos was leaving the Rue Taitbout full of hope; he had been there to give some last advice to Europe, who was to play the principal part in the farce devised to take in the Baron de Nucingen. He was accompanied as far as the Boulevard by Lucien, who was not at all easy at finding this demon so perfectly disguised that even he had only recognized him by his voice.
"Where the devil did you find a handsomer woman than Esther?" he asked his evil genius.
"My boy, there is no such thing to be found in Paris. Such a complexion is not made in France."
"I assure you, I am still quite amazed. Venus Callipyge has not such a figure. A man would lose his soul for her. But where did she spring from?"
"She was the handsomest girl in London. Drunk with gin, she killed her lover in a fit of jealousy. The lover was a wretch of whom the London police are well quit, and this woman was packed off to Paris for a time to let the matter blow over. The hussy was well brought up--the daughter of a clergyman. She speaks French as if it were her mother tongue. She does not know, and never will know, why she is here. She was told that if you took a fancy to her she might fleece you of millions, but that you were as jealous as a tiger, and she was told how Esther lived."
"But supposing Nucingen should prefer her to Esther?"
"Ah, it is out at last!" cried Carlos. "You dread now lest what dismayed you yesterday should not take place after all! Be quite easy. That fair and fair-haired girl has blue eyes; she is the antipodes of the beautiful Jewess, and only
"I gif you mein vort of honor to do vat is possible."
"If I do no more for you than is possible, it will not be enough."
"Vell, vell, I vill act qvite frankly."
"Frankly--that is all I ask," said Peyrade, "and frankness is the only thing at all new that you and I can offer to each other."
"Frankly," echoed the Baron. "Vere shall I put you down."
"At the corner of the Pont Louis XVI."
"To the Pont de la Chambre," said the Baron to the footman at the carriage door.
"Then I am to get dat unknown person," said the Baron to himself as he drove home.
"What a queer business!" thought Peyrade, going back on foot to the Palais-Royal, where he intended trying to multiply his ten thousand francs by three, to make a little fortune for Lydie. "Here I am required to look into the private concerns of a very young man who has bewitched my little girl by a glance. He is, I suppose, one of those men who have an eye for a woman," said he to himself, using an expression of a language of his own, in which his observations, or Corentin's, were summed up in words that were anything rather than classical, but, for that very reason, energetic and picturesque.
The Baron de Nucingen, when he went in, was an altered man; he astonished his household and his wife by showing them a face full of life and color, so cheerful did he feel.
"Our shareholders had better look out for themselves," said du Tillet to Rastignac.
They were all at tea, in Delphine de Nucingen's boudoir, having come in from the opera.
"Ja," said the Baron, smiling; "I feel ver' much dat I shall do some business."
"Then you have seen the fair being?" asked Madame de Nucingen.
"No," said he; "I have only hoped to see her."
"Do men ever love their wives so?" cried Madame de Nucingen, feeling, or affecting to feel, a little jealous.
"When you have got her, you must ask us to sup with her," said du Tillet to the Baron, "for I am very curious to study the creature who has made you so young as you are."
"She is a cheff-d'oeufre of creation!" replied the old banker.
"He will be swindled like a boy," said Rastignac in Delphine's ear.
"Pooh! he makes quite enough money to----"
"To give a little back, I suppose," said du Tillet, interrupting the Baroness.
Nucingen was walking up and down the room as if his legs had the fidgets.
"Now is your time to make him pay your fresh debts," said Rastignac in the Baroness' ear.
At this very moment Carlos was leaving the Rue Taitbout full of hope; he had been there to give some last advice to Europe, who was to play the principal part in the farce devised to take in the Baron de Nucingen. He was accompanied as far as the Boulevard by Lucien, who was not at all easy at finding this demon so perfectly disguised that even he had only recognized him by his voice.
"Where the devil did you find a handsomer woman than Esther?" he asked his evil genius.
"My boy, there is no such thing to be found in Paris. Such a complexion is not made in France."
"I assure you, I am still quite amazed. Venus Callipyge has not such a figure. A man would lose his soul for her. But where did she spring from?"
"She was the handsomest girl in London. Drunk with gin, she killed her lover in a fit of jealousy. The lover was a wretch of whom the London police are well quit, and this woman was packed off to Paris for a time to let the matter blow over. The hussy was well brought up--the daughter of a clergyman. She speaks French as if it were her mother tongue. She does not know, and never will know, why she is here. She was told that if you took a fancy to her she might fleece you of millions, but that you were as jealous as a tiger, and she was told how Esther lived."
"But supposing Nucingen should prefer her to Esther?"
"Ah, it is out at last!" cried Carlos. "You dread now lest what dismayed you yesterday should not take place after all! Be quite easy. That fair and fair-haired girl has blue eyes; she is the antipodes of the beautiful Jewess, and only