honor of the Bérauds had moldered in the bottom of her basket along with the overdue bills of the capital’s prostitutes. When she learned of the story, she all but forced her brother on the unfortunate family even as his wife lay dying. Aunt Elisabeth ended up believing that she owed a debt of gratitude to this woman, so gentle, so humble, and so devoted to Renée as to find the unfortunate girl a husband from her own family. The aunt’s first interview with Saccard took place in the apartment on the rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière. The city-hall employee, who had come in through the carriage entrance on the rue Papillon, saw Mme Aubertot enter by way of the shop and the hidden staircase and immediately grasped the ingenious contrivance of the two entrances. He was as tactful and polite as could be. He treated the marriage as a business deal, but with the attitude of a man of the world settling a gambling debt. Aunt Elisabeth trembled a good deal more than he. She stammered and did not dare mention the hundred thousand francs she had promised him. It was he who brought up the matter of money, and he did so with the detachment of an attorney discussing the case of a client. In his view, a hundred thousand francs was a ridiculously small sum for Mademoiselle Renée’s prospective husband to bring to the marriage. He laid slight stress on the word “mademoiselle.” M. Béraud Du Châtel, already ill disposed toward his future son-in-law, would be all the more contemptuous if the prospective bridegroom appeared to be impoverished. The judge would accuse him of seducing his daughter for her fortune, and it might even occur to him to make private inquiries. Mme Aubertot, unsettled, not to say alarmed, by Saccard’s calm and polite presentation, lost her head and agreed to double the sum when he let it be known that with anything less than 200,000 francs in his pocket he would never dare to ask for Renée’s hand lest he be mistaken for a contemptible fortune-hunter. The worthy lady departed in a state of considerable confusion, not knowing what to think of a young man capable of such indignation yet willing to enter into such a bargain.
This first interview was followed by an official visit: Aunt Elisabeth called on Aristide Saccard in his apartment on the rue Payenne, this time on behalf of M. Béraud. The former magistrate had refused to see “that man,” as he referred to his daughter’s seducer, so long as he was not married to Renée, whom he had also banished from his home. Mme Aubertot had full powers to make all the arrangements. She seemed pleased to find the clerk ensconced in such luxurious surroundings, having been afraid that the brother of the rather bedraggled-looking Mme Sidonie might turn out to be a man of no refinement. He greeted her in a sumptuous dressing gown. These were the days when the adventurers who had swept to power in the wake of the December coup, having paid off their debts, flung their worn boots and frayed waistcoats into the sewers, shaved the week’s growth from their faces, and became proper gentlemen. Saccard had at last joined the gang. He now cleaned his nails and daubed himself with priceless powders and perfumes after his bath. He was stylish, and he changed tactics, affecting a prodigious lack of interest in the entire affair. When the old woman brought up the contract, he made a gesture as if to say that the whole thing was of no importance to him. For the past week he had been studying the Code14 and pondering a grave question on which his future freedom to wheel and deal would depend.
“If you please, let’s dispose of this disagreeable matter of money. . . . My view is that Mademoiselle Renée ought to retain control of her fortune and I of mine. The notary will take care of all that.”
Aunt Elisabeth approved of this way of looking at the matter. She had a vague sense that this young man had a grip of iron and felt some trepidation that he might want to lay hands on her niece’s dowry, which was her next order of business.
“My brother,” she said, “has a fortune consisting mainly of land and houses.