第16章

"Ah! How can you keep the best people in the town from finding out faults in their neighbors? They do not know what to do with themselves from morning to night.And so M.le Comte's losses at play are all reckoned up.Thirty thousand francs have taken flight during these two months, and everybody wonders where he gets the money.If they mention it when I am present, I just call them to order.Ah! but--'Do you suppose' (I told them this morning), 'do you suppose that if the d'Esgrignon family have lost their manorial rights, that therefore they have been robbed of their hoard of treasure? The young Count has a right to do as he pleases; and so long as he does not owe you a half-penny, you have no right to say a word.' "Mlle, Armande held out her hand, and the notary kissed it respectfully.

"Good Chesnel!...But, my friend, how shall we find the money for this journey? Victurnien must appear as befits his rank at court.""Oh! I have borrowed money on Le Jard, mademoiselle.""What? You have nothing left! Ah, heaven! what can we do to reward you?""You can take the hundred thousand francs which I hold at your disposal.You can understand that the loan was negotiated in confidence, so that it might not reflect on you; for it is known in the town that I am closely connected with the d'Esgrignon family."Tears came into Mlle.Armande's eyes.Chesnel saw them, took a fold of the noble woman's dress in his hands, and kissed it.

"Never mind," he said, "a lad must sow his wild oats.In great salons in Paris his boyish ideas will take a new turn.And, really, though our old friends here are the worthiest folk in the world, and no one could have nobler hearts than they, they are not amusing.If M.le Comte wants amusement, he is obliged to look below his rank, and he will end by getting into low company."Next day the old traveling coach saw the light, and was sent to be put in repair.In a solemn interview after breakfast, the hope of the house was duly informed of his father's intentions regarding him--he was to go to court and ask to serve His Majesty.He would have time during the journey to make up his mind about his career.The navy or the army, the privy council, an embassy, or the Royal Household,--all were open to a d'Esgrignon, a d'Esgrignon had only to choose.The King would certainly look favorably upon the d'Esgrignons, because they had asked nothing of him, and had sent the youngest representative of their house to receive the recognition of Majesty.

But young d'Esgrignon, with all his wild pranks, had guessed instinctively what society in Paris meant, and formed his own opinions of life.So when they talked of his leaving the country and the paternal roof, he listened with a grave countenance to his revered parent's lecture, and refrained from giving him a good deal of information in reply.As, for instance, that young men no longer went into the army or the navy as they used to do; that if a man had a mind to be a second lieutenant in a cavalry regiment without passing through a special training in the Ecoles, he must first serve in the Pages; that sons of the greatest houses went exactly like commoners to Saint-Cyr and the Ecole polytechnique, and took their chances of being beaten by base blood.If he had enlightened his relatives on these points, funds might not have been forthcoming for a stay in Paris; so he allowed his father and Aunt Armande to believe that he would be permitted a seat in the King's carriages, that he must support his dignity at court as the d'Esgrignon of the time, and rub shoulders with great lords of the realm.

It grieved the Marquis that he could send but one servant with his son; but he gave him his own valet Josephin, a man who can be trusted to take care of his young master, and to watch faithfully over his interests.The poor father must do without Josephin, and hope to replace him with a young lad.

"Remember that you are a Carol, my boy," he said; "remember that you come of an unalloyed descent, and that your scutcheon bears the motto Cil est nostre; with such arms you may hold your head high everywhere, and aspire to queens.Render grace to your father, as I to mine.We owe it to the honor of our ancestors, kept stainless until now, that we can look all men in the face, and need bend the knee to none save a mistress, the King, and God.This is the greatest of your privileges."Chesnel, good man, was breakfasting with the family.He took no part in counsels based on heraldry, nor in the inditing of letters addressed to divers mighty personages of the day; but he had spent the night in writing to an old friend of his, one of the oldest established notaries of Paris.Without this letter it is not possible to understand Chesnel's real and assumed fatherhood.It almost recalls Daedalus' address to Icarus; for where, save in old mythology, can you look for comparisons worthy of this man of antique mould?

"MY DEAR AND ESTIMABLE SORBIER,--I remember with no little pleasure that I made my first campaign in our honorable profession under your father, and that you had a liking for me, poor little clerk that I was.And now I appeal to old memories of the days when we worked in the same office, old pleasant memories for our hearts, to ask you to do me the one service that I have ever asked of you in the course of our long lives, crossed as they have been by political catastrophes, to which, perhaps, I owe it that I have the honor to be your colleague.And now I ask this service of you, my friend, and my white hairs will be brought with sorrow to the grave if you should refuse my entreaty.It is no question of myself or of mine, Sorbier, for I lost poor Mme.Chesnel, and Ihave no child of my own.Something more to me than my own family (if I had one) is involved--it is the Marquis d'Esgrignon's only son.I have had the honor to be the Marquis' land steward ever since I left the office to which his father sent me at his own expense, with the idea of providing for me.The house which nurtured me has passed through all the troubles of the Revolution.