Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau ........................................................................................................................1

During winter nights noise never ceases in the Rue SaintHonore except for a short interval.

Kitchengardeners carrying their produce to market continue the stir of carriages returning from theatres and

balls. Near the middle of this sustained pause in the grand symphony of Parisian uproar, which occurs about

one o'clock in the morning, the wife of Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, a perfumer established near the Place

Vendome, was startled from her sleep by a frightful dream. She had seen her double. She had appeared to

herself clothed in rags, turning with a shrivelled, withered hand the latch of her own shop door, seeming to

be at the threshold, yet at the same time seated in her armchair behind the counter. She was asking alms of

herself, and heard herself speaking from the doorway and also from her seat at the desk.

She tried to grasp her husband, but her hand fell on a cold place. Her terror became so intense that she could

not move her neck, which stiffened as if petrified; the membranes of her throat became glued together, her

voice failed her. She remained sitting erect in the same posture in the middle of the alcove, both panels of

which were wide open, her eyes staring and fixed, her hair quivering, her ears filled with strange noises, her

heart tightened yet palpitating, and her person bathed in perspiration though chilled to the bone.

Fear is a halfdiseased sentiment, which presses so violently upon the human mechanism that the faculties

are suddenly excited to the highest degree of their power or driven to utter disorganization. Physiologists

have long wondered at this phenomenon, which overturns their systems and upsets all theories; it is in fact a

thunderbolt working within the being, and, like all electric accidents, capricious and whimsical in its course.

This explanation will become a mere commonplace in the day when scientific men are brought to recognize

Madame Birotteau now passed through several of the shocks, in some sort electrical, which are produced by

terrible explosions of the will forced out, or held under, by some mysterious mechanism. Thus during a

period of time, very short if judged by a watch, but immeasurable when calculated by the rapidity of her

impressions, the poor woman had the supernatural power of emitting more ideas and bringing to the surface

more recollections than, under any ordinary use of her faculties, she could put forth in the course of a whole

day. The poignant tale of her monologue may be abridged into a few absurd sentences, as contradictory and

"There is no reason why Birotteau should leave my bed! He has eaten so much veal that he may be ill. But if

he were ill he would have waked me. For nineteen years that we have slept together in this bed, in this house,

it has never happened that he left his place without telling me,poor sheep! He never slept away except to

pass the night in the guardroom. Did he come to bed tonight? Why, of course; goodness! how stupid I am."

She cast her eyes upon the bed and saw her husband's nightcap, which still retained the almost conical shape

"Can he be dead? Has he killed himself? Why?" she went on. "For the last two years, since they made him

deputymayor, he is allIdon't knowhow. To put him into public life! On the word of an honest woman,

isn't it pitiable? His business is doing well, for he gave me a shawl. But perhaps it isn't doing well? Bah! I

should know of it. Does one ever know what a man has got in his head; or a woman either? there is no

harm in that. Didn't we sell five thousand francs' worth today? Besides, a deputy mayor couldn't kill

She could neither turn her neck, nor stretch out her hand to pull the bell, which would have put in motion a

cook, three clerks, and a shop boy. A prey to the nightmare, which still lasted though her mind was wide

awake, she forgot her daughter peacefully asleep in an adjoining room, the door of which opened at the foot

of her bed. At last she cried "Birotteau!" but got no answer. She thought she had called the name aloud,

"Has he a mistress? He is too stupid," she added. "Besides, he loves me too well for that. Didn't he tell

Madame Roguin that he had never been unfaithful to me, even in thought? He is virtue upon earth, that man.

If any one ever deserved paradise he does. What does he accuse himself of to his confessor, I wonder? He

must tell him a lot of fiddlefaddle. Royalist as he is, though he doesn't know why, he can't froth up his

religion. Poor dear cat! he creeps to Mass at eight o'clock as slyly as if he were going to a bad house. He fears

God for God's sake; hell is nothing to him. How could he have a mistress? He is so tied to my petticoat that

he bores me. He loves me better than his own eyes; he would put them out for my sake. For nineteen years he

has never said to me one word louder than another. His daughter is never considered before me. But Cesarine

is hereCesarine! Cesarine! Birotteau has never had a thought which he did not tell me. He was right

enough when he declared to me at the PetitMatelot that I should never know him till I tried him. And not

She turned her head with difficulty and glanced furtively about the room, then filled with those picturesque

effects which are the despair of language and seem to belong exclusively to the painters of genre. What words

can picture the alarming zigzags produced by falling shadows, the fantastic appearance of curtains bulged

out by the wind, the flicker of uncertain light thrown by a nightlamp upon the folds of red calico, the rays

shed from a curtainholder whose lurid centre was like the eye of a burglar, the apparition of a kneeling

dress,in short, all the grotesque effects which terrify the imagination at a moment when it has no power

except to foresee misfortunes and exaggerate them? Madame Birotteau suddenly saw a strong light in the

room beyond her chamber, and thought of fire; but perceiving a red foulard which looked like a pool of

blood, her mind turned exclusively to burglars, especially when she thought she saw traces of a struggle in

the way the furniture stood about the room. Recollecting the sum of money which was in the desk, a generous

fear put an end to the chill ferment of her nightmare. She sprang terrified, and in her nightgown, into the

very centre of the room to help her husband, whom she supposed to be in the grasp of assassins.

She then saw the perfumer in the middle of the next room, a yardstick in his hand measuring the air, and so

ill wrapped up in his green cotton dressinggown with chocolatecolored spots that the cold had reddened his

legs without his feeling it, preoccupied as he was. When Cesar turned about to say to his wife, "Well, what do

you want, Constance?" his air and manner, like those of a man absorbed in calculations, were so prodigiously

"Goodness! Cesar, if you are not an oddity like that!" she said. "Why did you leave me alone without telling

me? I have nearly died of terror; I did not know what to imagine. What are you doing there, flying open to all

"Come and warm yourself, and tell me what maggot you've got in your head," replied Madame Birotteau

opening the ashes of the fire, which she hastened to relight. "I am frozen. What a goose I was to get up in my

The shopkeeper put his candlestick on the chimneypiece, wrapped his dressinggown closer about him, and

"Here, Mimi, cover yourself up," he said. "Twentytwo by eighteen," he resumed, going on with his

"You had better wait till daylight for your nonsense," she cried, fastening the petticoat beneath her short

"Cesarine is asleep," she said, "she won't hear us. Come, Birotteau, speak up. What is it?"

"I am not dreaming, my beautiful white doe. Listen. People should always do what their position in life

demands. Government has brought me forward into prominence. I belong to the government; it is my duty to

study its mind, and further its intentions by developing them. The Duc de Richelieu has just put an end to the

occupation of France by the foreign armies. According to Monsieur de la Billardiere, the functionaries who

represent the city of Paris should make it their duty, each in his own sphere of influence, to celebrate the

liberation of our territory. Let us show a true patriotism which shall put these liberals, these damned

intriguers, to the blush; hein? Do you think I don't love my country? I wish to show the liberals, my enemies,

"Why, yes, wife, we have enemies. Half our friends in the quarter are our enemies. They all say, 'Birotteau

has had luck; Birotteau is a man who came from nothing: yet here he is deputymayor; everything succeeds

with him.' Well, they are going to be finely surprised. You are the first to be told that I am made a chevalier

"Oh! then," said Madame Birotteau, much moved, "of course we must give the ball, my good friend. But

"Yesterday, when Monsieur de la Billardiere told me the news," said Birotteau, modestly, "I asked myself, as

you do, what claims I had to it; but I ended by seeing what they were, and in approving the action of the

government. In the first place, I am a royalist; I was wounded at SaintRoch in Vendemiaire: isn't it

something to have borne arms in those days for the good cause? Then, according to the merchants, I

exercised my judicial functions in a way to give general satisfaction. I am now deputymayor. The king

grants four crosses to the municipality of Paris; the prefect, selecting among the deputies suitable persons to

be thus decorated, has placed my name first on the list. The king moreover knows me: thanks to old Ragon. I

furnish him with the only powder he is willing to use; we alone possess the receipt of the late queen,poor,

dear, august victim! The mayor vehemently supported me. So there it is. If the king gives me the cross

without my asking for it, it seems to me that I cannot refuse it without failing in my duty to him. Did I seek to

be deputymayor? So, wife, since we are sailing before the wind, as your uncle Pillerault says when he is

jovial, I have decided to put the household on a footing in conformity with our high position. If I can become

anything, I'll risk being whatever the good God wills that I shall be, subprefect, if such be my destiny.

My wife, you are much mistaken if you think a citizen has paid his debt to his country by merely selling

perfumery for twenty years to those who came to buy it. If the State demands the help of our intelligence, we

are as much bound to give it as we are to pay the tax on personal property, on windows and doors, et caetera.

Do you want to stay forever behind your counter? You have been there, thank God, a long time. This ball

shall be our fete,yours and mine. Goodby to economy,for your sake, be it understood. I burn our sign,

'The Queen of Roses'; I efface the name, 'Cesar Birotteau, Perfumer, Successor to Ragon,' and put simply,

'Perfumery' in big letters of gold. On the entresol I place the office, the countingroom, and a pretty little

sanctum for you. I make the shop out of the backshop, the present diningroom, and kitchen. I hire the first

floor of the next house, and open a door into it through the wall. I turn the staircase so as to pass from house

to house on one floor; and we shall thus get a grand appartement, furnished like a nest. Yes, I shall refurnish

your bedroom, and contrive a boudoir for you and a pretty chamber for Cesarine. The shopgirl whom you

will hire, our head clerk, and your lady'smaid (yes, Madame, you are to have one!) will sleep on the second

floor. On the third will be the kitchen and rooms of the cook and the manof allwork. The fourth shall be a

general storehouse for bottle, crystals, and porcelains. The workshop for our people, in the attic! Passersby

shall no longer see them gumming on the labels, making the bags, sorting the flasks, and corking the phials.

Very well for the Rue SaintDenis, but for the Rue SaintHonorefy! bad style! Our shop must be as

comfortable as a drawingroom. Tell me, are we the only perfumers who have reached public honors? Are

there not vinegar merchants and mustard men who command in the National Guard and are very well

received at the Palace? Let us imitate them; let us extend our business, and at the same time press forward

"Goodness! Birotteau, do you know what I am thinking of as I listen to you? You are like the man who looks

for knots in a bulrush. Recollect what I said when it was a question of making you deputymayor: 'your

peace of mind before everything!' You are as fit, I told you, 'to be put forward in public life as my arm is to

turn a windmill. Honors will be your ruin!' You would not listen to me, and now the ruin has come. To play a

part in politics you must have money: have we any? What! would you burn your sign, which cost six hundred

francs, and renounce 'The Queen of Roses,' your true glory? Leave ambition to others. He who puts his hand

in the fire gets burned,isn't that true? Politics burn in these days. We have one hundred good thousand

francs invested outside of our business, our productions, our merchandise. If you want to increase your

fortune, do as they did in 1793. The Funds are at sixtytwo: buy into the Funds. You will get ten thousand

francs' income, and the investment won't hamper our property. Take advantage of the occasion to marry our

daughter; sell the business, and let us go and live in your native place. Why! for fifteen years you have talked

of nothing but buying Les Tresorieres, that pretty little property near Chinon, where there are woods and

fields, and ponds and vineyards, and two dairies, which bring in a thousand crowns a year, with a house

which we both like,all of which we can have for sixty thousand francs; and, lo! Monsieur now wants to

become something under government! Recollect what we are,perfumers. If sixteen years before you

invented the DOUBLE PASTE OF SULTANS and the CARMINATIVE BALM some one had said, 'You are

going to make enough money to buy Les Tresorieres,' wouldn't you have been half sick with joy? Well, you

can acquire that property which you wanted so much that you hardly opened your mouth about anything else,

and now you talk of spending on nonsense money earned by the sweat of our brow: I can say ours, for I've sat

behind the desk through all that time, like a poor dog in his kennel. Isn't it much better to come and visit our

daughter after she is married to a notary of Paris, and live eight months of the year at Chinon, than to begin

here to make five sous six blanks, and of six blanks nothing? Wait for a rise in the Funds, and you can give

eight thousand francs a year to your daughter and we can keep two thousand for ourselves, and the proceeds

of the business will allow us to buy Les Tresorieres. There in your native place, my good little cat, with our

furniture, which is worth a great deal, we shall live like princes; whereas here we want at least a million to

"I expected you to say all this, wife," said Cesar Birotteau. "I am not quite such a fool (though you think me a

great fool, you do) as not to have thought of all that. Now, listen to me. Alexandre Crottat will fit us like a

glove for a soninlaw, and he will succeed Roguin; but do you suppose he will be satisfied with a hundred

thousand francs dot?supposing that we gave our whole property outside of the business to establish our

daughter, and I am willing; I would gladly live on dry bread the rest of my days to see her happy as a queen,

the wife of a notary of Paris, as you say. Well, then, a hundred thousand francs, or even eight thousand francs

a year, is nothing at all towards buying Roguin's practice. Little Xandrot, as we call him, thinks, like all the

rest of the world, that we are richer than we are. If his father, that big farmer who is as close as a snail, won't

sell a hundred thousand francs worth of land Xandrot can't be a notary, for Roguin's practice is worth four or

five hundred thousand. If Crottat does not pay half down, how could he negotiate the affair? Cesarine must

have two hundred thousand francs dot; and I mean that you and I shall retire solid bourgeois of Paris, with

fifteen thousand francs a year. Hein! If I could make you see that as plain as day, wouldn't it shut your

"Yes, I have, my lamb. Yes," he said, taking his wife by the waist and striking her with little taps, under an

emotion of joy which lighted up his features, "I did not wish to tell you of this matter till it was all cooked;

but tomorrow it will be done,that is, perhaps it will. Here it is then: Roguin has proposed a speculation to

me, so safe that he has gone into it with Ragon, with your uncle Pillerault, and two other of his clients. We

are to buy property near the Madeleine, which, according to Roguin's calculations, we shall get for a quarter

of the value which it will bring three years from now, at which time, the present leases having expired, we

shall manage it for ourselves. We have all six taken certain shares. I furnish three hundred thousand

francs,that is, threeeighths of the whole. If any one of us wants money, Roguin will get it for him by

hypothecating his share. To hold the gridiron and know how the fish are fried, I have chosen to be nominally

proprietor of one half, which is, however, to be the common property of Pillerault and the worthy Ragon and

myself. Roguin will be, under the name of Monsieur Charles Claparon, coproprietor with me, and will give

a reversionary deed to his associates, as I shall to mine. The deeds of purchase are made by promises of sale

under private seal, until we are masters of the whole property. Roguin will investigate as to which of the

contracts should be paid in money, for he is not sure that we can dispense with registering and yet turn over

the titles to those to whom we sell in small parcels. But it takes too long to explain all this to you. The ground

once paid for, we have only to cross our arms and in three years we shall be rich by a million. Cesarine will

then be twenty, our business will be sold, and we shall step, by the grace of God, modestly to eminence."

"You don't understand business, my beloved little cat. I shall take the hundred thousand francs which are now

with Roguin; I shall borrow forty thousand on the buildings and gardens where we now have our manufactory

in the Faubourg du Temple; we have twenty thousand francs here in hand,in all, one hundred and sixty

thousand. There remain one hundred and forty thousand more, for which I shall sign notes to the order of

Monsieur Charles Claparon, banker. He will pay the value, less the discount. So there are the three hundred

thousand francs provided for. He who owns rents owes nothing. When the notes fall due we can pay them off

with our profits. If we cannot pay them in cash, Roguin will give the money at five per cent, hypothecated on

my share of the property. But such loans will be unnecessary. I have discovered an essence which will make

the hair growan Oil Comagene, from Syria! Livingston has just set up for me a hydraulic press to

manufacture the oil from nuts, which yield it readily under strong pressure. In a year, according to my

calculations, I shall have made a hundred thousand francs at least. I meditate an advertisement which shall

begin, 'Down with wigs!'the effect will be prodigious. You have never found out my wakefulness,

Madame! For three months the success of Macassar Oil has kept me from sleeping. I am resolved to take the

"So these are the fine projects you've been rolling in your noddle for two months without choosing to tell me?

I have just seen myself begging at my own door,a warning from heaven! Before long we shall have

nothing left but our eyes to weep with. Never while I live shall you do it; do you hear me, Cesar? Underneath

all this there is some plot which you don't perceive; you are too upright and loyal to suspect the trickery of

others. Why should they come and offer you millions? You are giving up your property, you are going

beyond your means; and if your oil doesn't succeed, if you don't make the money, if the value of the land

can't be realized, how will you pay your notes? With the shells of your nuts? To rise in society you are going

to hide your name, take down your sign, 'The Queen of Roses,' and yet you mean to salaam and bow and

scrape in advertisements and prospectuses, which will placard Cesar Birotteau at every corner, and on all the

"Oh! you are not up to it all. I shall have a branch establishment, under the name of Popinot, in some house

near the Rue des Lombards, where I shall put little Anselme. I shall pay my debt of gratitude to Monsieur and

Madame Ragon by setting up their nephew, who can make his fortune. The poor Ragonines look to me

"But what people, my treasure? Is it your uncle Pillerault, who loves us like the apple of his eye, and dines

with us every Sunday? Is it good old Ragon, our predecessor, who has forty upright years in business to boast

of, and with whom we play our game of boston? Is it Roguin, a notary, a man fiftyseven years old,

twentyfive of which he has been in office? A notary of Paris! he would be the flower of the lot, if honest

folk were not all worth the same price. If necessary, my associates will help me. Where is the plot, my white

doe? Look here, I must tell you your defect. On the word of an honest man it lies on my heart. You are as

suspicious as a cat. As soon as we had two sous worth in the shop you thought the customers were all thieves.

I had to go down on my knees to you to let me make you rich. For a Parisian girl you have no ambition! If it

hadn't been for your perpetual fears, no man could have been happier than I. If I had listened to you I should

never have invented the Paste of Sultans nor the Carminative Balm. Our shop has given us a living, but these

two discoveries have made the hundred and sixty thousand francs which we possess, net and clear! Without

my genius, for I certainly have talent as a perfumer, we should now be petty retail shopkeepers, pulling the

devil's tail to make both ends meet. I shouldn't be a distinguished merchant, competing in the election of

judges for the department of commerce; I should be neither a judge nor a deputymayor. Do you know what I

should be? A shopkeeper like Pere Ragon,be it said without offence, for I respect shopkeeping; the best of

our kidney are in it. After selling perfumery like him for forty years, we should be worth three thousand

francs a year; and at the price things are now, for they have doubled in value, we should, like them, have

barely enough to live on. (Day after day that poor household wrings my heart more and more. I must know

more about it, and I'll get the truth from Popinot tomorrow!) If I had followed your adviceyou who have

such uneasy happiness and are always asking whether you will have tomorrow what you have got

todayI should have no credit, I should have no cross of the Legion of honor. I should not be on the

highroad to becoming a political personage. Yes, you may shake your head, but if our affair succeeds I may

become deputy of Paris. Ah! I am not named Cesar for nothing; I succeed. It is unimaginable! outside every

one credits me with capacity, but here the only person whom I want so much to please that I sweat blood and

These phrases, divided by eloquent pauses and delivered like shot, after the manner of those who recriminate,

expressed so deep and constant an attachment that Madame Birotteau was inwardly touched, though, like all

"Well! Birotteau," she said, "if you love me, let me be happy in my own way. Neither you nor I have

education; we don't know how to talk, nor to play 'your obedient servant' like men of the world; how then do

you expect that we could succeed in government places? I shall be happy at Les Tresorieres, indeed I shall. I

have always loved birds and animals, and I can pass my life very well taking care of the hens and the farm.

Let us sell the business, marry Cesarine, and give up your visions. We can come and pass the winters in Paris

with our son inlaw; we shall be happy; nothing in politics or commerce can then change our way of life.

Why do you want to crush others? Isn't our present fortune enough for us? When you are a millionaire can

you eat two dinners; will you want two wives? Look at my uncle Pillerault! He is wisely content with his

little property, and spends his life in good deeds. Does he want fine furniture? Not he! I know very well you

have been ordering furniture for me; I saw Braschon here, and it was not to buy perfumery."

"Well, my beauty, yes! Your furniture is ordered; our improvements begin tomorrow, and are superintended

"But you are not reasonable, my love. Do you think that at thirty seven years of age, fresh and pretty as you

are, you can go and bury yourself at Chinon? I, thank God, am only thirtynine. Chance opens to me a fine

career; I enter upon it. If I conduct myself prudently I can make an honorable house among the bourgeoisie of

Paris, as was done in former times. I can found the house of Birotteau, like the house of Keller, or Jules

Desmartes, or Roguin, Cochin, Guillaume, Lebas, Nucingen, Saillard, Popinot, Matifat, who make their

mark, or have made it, in their respective quarters. Come now! If this affair were not as sure as bars of

"Yes, sure. For two months I have figured at it. Without seeming to do so, I have been getting information on

building from the department of public works, from architects and contractors. Monsieur Grindot, the young

architect who is to alter our house, is in despair that he has no money to put into the speculation."

"Can he take in such men as Pillerault, as Charles Claparon, as Roguin? The profit is as sure as that of the

"But, my dear friend, why should Roguin speculate? He gets his commissions, and his fortune is made. I see

him pass sometimes more full of care than a minister of state, with an underhand look which I don't like; he

hides some secret anxiety. His face has grown in five years to look like that of an old rake. Who can be sure

that he won't kick over the traces when he gets all your property into his own hands. Such things happen. Do

we know him well? He has only been a friend for fifteen years, and I wouldn't put my hand into the fire for

him. Why! he is not decent: he does not live with his wife. He must have mistresses who ruin him; I don't see

any other cause for his anxiety. When I am dressing I look through the blinds, and I often see him coming

home in the mornings: where from? Nobody knows. He seems to me like a man who has an establishment in

town, who spends on his pleasures, and Madame on hers. Is that the life of a notary? If they make fifty

thousand francs a year and spend sixty thousand, in twenty years they will get to the end of their property and

be as naked as the little Saint John; and then, as they can't do without luxury, they will prey upon their friends

without compunction. Charity begins at home. He is intimate with that little scamp du Tillet, our former

clerk; and I see nothing good in that friendship. If he doesn't know how to judge du Tillet he must be blind;

and if he does know him, why does he pet him? You'll tell me, because his wife is fond of du Tillet. Well, I

don't look for any good in a man who has no honor with respect to his wife. Besides, the present owners of

that land must be fools to sell for a hundred sous what is worth a hundred francs. If you met a child who did

not know the value of a louis, wouldn't you feel bound to tell him of it? Your affair looks to me like a theft,

"Good God! how queer women are sometimes, and how they mix up ideas! If Roguin were not in this

business, you would say to me: 'Look here, Cesar, you are going into a thing without Roguin; therefore it is

"Then why is he doing a thing forbidden by law? How do you answer that, you who are guided by law?"

"Let me go on. Roguin is in it, and you tell me the business is worthless. Is that reasonable? You say, 'He is

acting against the law.' But he would put himself openly in the business if it were necessary. Can't they say

the same of me? Would Ragon and Pillerault come and say to me: 'Why do you have to do with this

"Well, my conscience is clear," said Cesar, continuing; "the people who sell, sell because they must; we do

not steal from them any more than you steal from others when you buy their stocks at seventyfive. We buy

the ground today at today's price. In two years it will be another thing; just so with stocks. Know then,

ConstanceBarbe Josephine Pillerault, that you will never catch Cesar Birotteau doing anything against the

most rigid honor, nor against the laws, nor against his conscience, nor against delicacy. A man established

and known for eighteen years, to be suspected in his own household of dishonesty!"

"Come, be calm, Cesar! A woman who has lived with you all that time knows down to the bottom of your

soul. You are the master, after all. You earned your fortune, didn't you? It is yours, and you can spend it. If

we are reduced to the last straits of poverty, neither your daughter nor I will make you a single reproach. But,

listen; when you invented your Paste of Sultans and Carminative Balm, what did you risk? Five or six

thousand francs. Today you put all your fortune on a game of cards. And you are not the only one to play;

you have associates who may be much cleverer than you. Give your ball, remodel the house, spend ten

thousand francs if you like,it is useless but not ruinous. As to your speculations near the Madeleine, I

formally object. You are perfumer: be a perfumer, and not a speculator in land. We women have instincts

which do not deceive us. I have warned you; now follow your own lead. You have been judge in the

department of commerce, you know the laws. So far, you have guided the ship well, Cesar; I shall follow

you! But I shall tremble till I see our fortune solidly secure and Cesarine well married. God grant that my

This submission thwarted Birotteau, who now employed an innocent ruse to which he had had recourse on

"Listen, Constance. I have not given my word; though it is the same as if I had."

"Oh, Cesar, all is said; let us say no more. Honor before fortune. Come, go to bed, dear friend, there is no

more wood. Besides, we shall talk better in bed, if it amuses you. Oh! that horrid dream! My God! to see

one's self! it was fearful! Cesarine and I will have to make a pretty number of neuvaines for the success of

"Doubtless the help of God can do no harm," said Birotteau, gravely. "But the oil in nuts is also powerful,

wife. I made this discovery just as I made that of the Double Paste of Sultans,by chance. The first time by

opening a book; this time by looking at an engraving of Hero and Leander: you know, the woman who pours

oil on the head of her lover; pretty, isn't it? The safest speculations are those which depend on vanity, on

"At a certain age men will turn their souls inside out to get hair, if they haven't any. For some time past

hairdressers have told me that they sell not only Macassar, but all the drugs which are said to dye hair or

make it grow. Since the peace, men are more with women, and women don't like baldheads; hey! hey!

Mimi? The demand for that article grows out of the political situation. A composition which will keep the

hair in good health will sell like bread; all the more if it has the sanction, as it will have, of the Academy of

Sciences. My good Monsieur Vauquelin will perhaps help me once more. I shall go to him tomorrow and

submit my idea; offering him at the same time that engraving which I have at last found in Germany, after

two years' search. He is now engaged in analyzing hair: Chiffreville, his associate in the manufacture of

chemical products, told me so. If my discovery should jump with his, my essence will be bought by both

sexes. The idea is a fortune; I repeat it. Mon Dieu! I can't sleep. Hey! luckily little Popinot has the finest head

of hair in the world. A shopgirl with hair long enough to touch the ground, and who could sayif the thing

were possible without offence to God or my neighbor that the Oil Comagene (for it shall be an oil,

decidedly) has had something to do with it,all the grayheads in Paris will fling themselves upon the

invention like poverty upon the world. Hey! hey! Mignonne! how about the ball? I am not wicked, but I

should like to meet that little scamp du Tillet, who swells out with his fortune and avoids me at the Bourse.

He knows that I know a thing about him which was not fine. Perhaps I have been too kind to him. Isn't it odd,

wife, that we are always punished for our good deeds?here below, I mean. I behaved like a father to him;

"You give me gooseflesh merely speaking of it. If you knew what he wished to make of you, you would

never have kept the secret of his stealing that three thousand francs,for I guessed just how the thing was

done. If you had sent him to the correctional police, perhaps you would have done a service to a good many

"Nothing. If you were inclined to listen to me tonight, I would give you a piece of good advice, Birotteau;

"Won't it seem strange if I exclude him from my house,a clerk for whom I endorsed to the amount of

twenty thousand francs when he first went into business? Come, let us do good for good's sake. Besides,

"What do you mean with your topsyturvy? Everything will be ruled like a sheet of musicpaper. Have you

forgotten what I have just told you about turning the staircase and hiring the first floor of the next

house?which is all settled with the umbrellamaker, Cayron. He and I are going tomorrow to see his

proprietor, Monsieur Molineux. Tomorrow I have as much to do as a minister of state."

"You turn my brain with your projects," said Constance. "I am all mixed up. Besides, Birotteau, I'm asleep."

"Goodday," replied the husband. "Just listen; I say goodday because it is morning, Mimi. Ah! there she is

off, the dear child. Yes! you shall be rich, richissime, or I'll renounce my name of Cesar!"

A glance rapidly thrown over the past life of this household will strengthen the ideas which ought to have

been suggested by the friendly altercation of the two personages in this scene. While picturing the manners

and customs of retail shopkeepers, this sketch will also show by what singular chances Cesar Birotteau

became deputy mayor and perfumer, retired officer of the National Guard, and chevalier of the Legion of

honor. In bringing to light the depths of his character and the causes of his rise, we shall show that fortuitous

commercial events which strong brains dominate, may become irreparable catastrophes for weak ones.

Events are never absolute; their results depend on individuals. Misfortune is a steppingstone for genius, the

baptismal font of Christians, a treasure for the skilful man, an abyss for the feeble.

A vinedresser in the neighborhood of Chinon, named Jean Birotteau, married the waitingmaid of a lady

whose vines he tilled. He had three sons; his wife died in giving birth to the last, and the poor man did not

long survive her. The mistress had been fond of the maid, and brought up with her own sons the eldest child,

Francois, and placed him in a seminary. Ordained priest, Francois Birotteau hid himself during the

Revolution, and led the wandering life of priests not sworn by the Republic, hunted like wild beasts and

guillotined at the first chance. At the time when this history begins he was vicar of the cathedral of Tours, and

had only once left that city to visit his brother Cesar. The bustle of Paris so bewildered the good priest that he

was afraid to leave his room. He called the cabriolets "half coaches," and wondered at all he saw. After a

The second son of the vinedresser, Jean Birotteau, was drafted into the militia, and won the rank of captain

early in the wars of the Revolution. At the battle of Trebia, Macdonald called for volunteers to carry a

battery. Captain Jean Birotteau advanced with his company, and was killed. The destiny of the Birotteaus

demanded, no doubt, that they should be oppressed by men, or by circumstances, wheresoever they planted

The last child is the hero of this story. When Cesar at fourteen years of age could read, write, and cipher, he

left his native place and came to Paris on foot to seek his fortune, with one louis in his pocket. The

recommendation of an apothecary at Tours got him a place as shopboy with Monsieur and Madame Ragon,

perfumers. Cesar owned at this period a pair of hobnailed shoes, a pair of breeches, blue stockings, a

flowered waistcoat, a peasant's jacket, three coarse shirts of good linen, and his travelling cudgel. If his hair

was cut like that of a choirboy, he at least had the sturdy loins of a Tourangian; if he yielded sometimes to

the native idleness of his birthplace, it was counterbalanced by his desire to make his fortune; if he lacked

cleverness and education, he possessed an instinctive rectitude and delicate feelings, which he inherited from

his mother, a being who had, in Tourangian phrase, a "heart of gold." Cesar received from the Ragons his

food, six francs a month as wages, and a pallet to sleep upon in the garret near the cook. The clerks who

taught him to pack the goods, to do the errands, and sweep up the shop and the pavement, made fun of him as

they did so, according to the manners and customs of shopkeeping, in which chaff is a principal element of

instruction. Monsieur and Madame Ragon spoke to him like a dog. No one paid attention to his weariness,

though many a night his feet, blistered by the pavements of Paris, and his bruised shoulders, made him suffer

horribly. This harsh application of the maxim "each for himself,"the gospel of large cities,made Cesar

think the life of Paris very hard. At night he cried as he thought of Touraine, where the peasant works at his

ease, where the mason lays a stone between breakfast and dinner, and idleness is wisely mingled with labor;

but he always fell asleep without having time to think of running away, for he had his errands to do in the

morning, and obeyed his duty with the instinct of a watchdog. If occasionally he complained, the head clerk

"Ah, my boy! all is not rose at 'The Queen of Roses.' Larks don't fall down roasted; you must run after them

The cook, a big creature from Picardy, took the best bits for herself, and only spoke to Cesar when she

wanted to complain of Monsieur and Madame Ragon, who left her nothing to steal. Towards the end of the

first month this girl, who was forced to keep house of a Sunday, opened a conversation with Cesar. Ursula

with the grease washed off seemed charming to the poor shopboy, who, unless hindered by chance, was

likely to strike on the first rock that lay hidden in his way. Like all unprotected boys, he loved the first

woman who threw him a kind look. The cook took Cesar under her protection; and thence followed certain

secret relations, which the clerks laughed at pitilessly. Two years later, the cook happily abandoned Cesar for

a young recruit belonging to her native place who was then hiding in Paris,a lad twenty years old, owning

During those two years the cook had fed her little Cesar well, and had explained to him certain mysteries of

Parisian life, which she made him look at from the bottom; and she impressed upon him, out of jealousy, a

profound horror of evil places, whose dangers seemed not unknown to her. In 1792 the feet of the deserted

Cesar were well toughened to the pavements, his shoulders to the bales, and his mind to what he called the

"humbugs" of Paris. So when Ursula abandoned him he was speedily consoled, for she had realized none of

his instinctive ideas in relation to sentiment. Licentious and surly, wheedling and pilfering, selfish and a

tippler, she clashed with the simple nature of Birotteau without offering him any compensating perspective.

Sometimes the poor lad felt with pain that he was bound by ties that are strong enough to hold ingenuous

hearts to a creature with whom he could not sympathize. By the time that he became master of his own heart

he had reached his growth, and was sixteen years old. His mind, developed by Ursula and by the banter of the

clerks, made him study commerce with an eye in which intelligence was veiled beneath simplicity: he

observed the customers; asked in leisure moments for explanations about the merchandise, whose divers sorts

and proper places he retained in his head. The day came when he knew all the articles, and their prices and

marks, better than any newcomer; and from that time Monsieur and Madame Ragon made a practice of

When the terrible levy of the year II. made a clean sweep in the shop of citizen Ragon, Cesar Birotteau,

promoted to be second clerk, profited by the occasion to obtain a salary of fifty francs a month, and took his

seat at the dinnertable of the Ragons with ineffable delight. The second clerk of "The Queen of Roses,"

possessing already six hundred francs, now had a chamber where he could put away, in longcoveted articles

of furniture, the clothing he had little by little got together. Dressed like other young men of an epoch when

fashion required the assumption of boorish manners, the gentle and modest peasant had an air and manner

which rendered him at least their equal; and he thus passed the barriers which in other times ordinary life

would have placed between himself and the bourgeoisie. Towards the end of this year his integrity won him a

place in the counting room. The dignified citoyenne Ragon herself looked after his linen, and the two

In Vendemiaire, 1794, Cesar, who possessed a hundred louis d'or, changed them for six thousand francs in

assignats, with which he bought into the Funds at thirty, paying for the investment on the very day before the

paper began its course of depreciation at the Bourse, and locking up his securities with unspeakable

satisfaction. From that day forward he watched the movement of stocks and public affairs with secret

anxieties of his own, which made him quiver at each rumor of the reverses or successes that marked this

period of our history. Monsieur Ragon, formerly perfumer to her majesty Queen Marie Antoinette, confided

to Cesar Birotteau, during this critical period, his attachment to the fallen tyrants. This disclosure was one of

the cardinal events in Cesar's life. The nightly conversations when the shop was closed, the street quiet, the

accounts regulated, made a fanatic of the Tourangian, who in becoming a royalist obeyed an inborn instinct.

The recital of the virtuous deeds of Louis XVI., the anecdotes with which husband and wife exalted the

memory of the queen, fired the imagination of the young man. The horrible fate of those two crowned heads,

decapitated a few steps from the shopdoor, roused his feeling heart and made him hate a system of

government which was capable of shedding blood without repugnance. His commercial interests showed him

the death of trade in the Maximum, and in political convulsions, which are always destructive of business.

Moreover, like a true perfumer, he hated the revolution which made a Titus of every man and abolished

powder. The tranquillity resulting from absolutism could alone, he thought, give life to money, and he grew

bigoted on behalf of royalty. When Monsieur Ragon saw that Cesar was well disposed on this point, he

made him headclerk and initiated him into the secrets of "The Queen of Roses," several of whose customers

were the most active and devoted emissaries of the Bourbons, and where the correspondence between Paris

and the West secretly went on. Carried away by the fervor of youth, electrified by his intercourse with the

Georges, the Billardiere, Montauran, Bauvan, Longuy, Manda, Bernier, du Guenic, and the Fontaines, Cesar

flung himself into the conspiracy by which the royalists and the terrorists combined on the 13th Vendemiaire

On that day Cesar had the honor of fighting against Napoleon on the steps of SaintRoch, and was wounded

at the beginning of the affair. Every one knows the result of that attempt. If the aidedecamp of Barras then

issued from his obscurity, the obscurity of Birotteau saved the clerk's life. A few friends carried the

belligerent perfumer to "The Queen of Roses," where he remained hidden in the garret, nursed by Madame

Ragon, and happily forgotten. Cesar Birotteau never had but that one spurt of martial courage. During the

month his convalescence lasted, he made solid reflections on the absurdity of an alliance between politics and

perfumery. Although he remained royalist, he resolved to be, purely and simply, a royalist perfumer, and

On the 18th Brumaire, Monsieur and Madame Ragon, despairing of the royal cause, determined to give up

perfumery, and live like honest bourgeois without meddling in politics. To recover the value of their

business, it was necessary to find a man who had more integrity than ambition, more plain good sense than

ability. Ragon proposed the affair to his headclerk. Birotteau, now master at twenty years of age of a

thousand francs a year from the public Funds, hesitated. His ambition was to live near Chinon as soon as he

could get together an income of fifteen hundred francs, or whenever the First Consul should have

consolidated the public debt by consolidating himself in the Tuileries. Why should he risk his honest and

simple independence in commercial uncertainties? he asked himself. He had never expected to win so large a

fortune, and he owed it to happy chances which only come in early youth; he intended to marry in Touraine

some woman rich enough to enable him to buy and cultivate Les Tresorieres, a little property which, from the

dawn of his reason, he had coveted, which he dreamed of augmenting, where he could make a thousand

crowns a year, and where he would lead a life of happy obscurity. He was about to refuse the offer, when

love suddenly changed all his resolutions by increasing tenfold the measure of his ambition.

After Ursula's desertion, Cesar had remained virtuous, as much through fear of the dangers of Paris as from

application to his work. When the passions are without food they change their wants; marriage then becomes,

to persons of the middle class, a fixed idea, for it is their only way of winning and appropriating a woman.

Cesar Birotteau had reached that point. Everything at "The Queen of Roses" now rested on the headclerk; he

had not a moment to give to pleasure. In such a life wants become imperious, and a chance meeting with a

beautiful young woman, of whom a libertine clerk would scarcely have dreamed, produced on Cesar an

overpowering effect. On a fine June day, crossing by the PontMarie to the Ile SaintLouis, he saw a young

girl standing at the door of a shop at the angle of the Quai d'Anjou. Constance Pillerault was the forewoman

of a linendraper's establishment called Le Petit Matelot,the first of those shops which have since been

established in Paris with more or less of painted signs, floating banners, showcases filled with swinging

shawls, cravats arranged like houses of cards, and a thousand other commercial seductions, such as fixed

prices, fillets of suspended objects, placards, illusions and optical effects carried to such a degree of

perfection that a shop front has now become a commercial poem. The low price of all the articles called

"Novelties" which were to be found at the Petit Matelot gave the shop an unheard of vogue, and that in a

part of Paris which was the least favorable to fashion and commerce. The young forewoman was at this time

cited for her beauty, as was the case in later days with the beautiful lemonadegirl of the cafe of the Milles

Colonnnes, and several other poor creatures who flattened more noses, young and old, against the

windowpanes of milliners, confectioners, and linendrapers, than there are stones in the streets of Paris.

The headclerk of "The Queen of Roses," living between SaintRoch and the Rue de la Sourdiere, knew

nothing of the existence of the Petit Matelot; for the smaller trades of Paris are more or less strangers to

each other. Cesar was so vigorously smitten by the beauty of Constance that he rushed furiously into the shop

to buy six linen shirts, disputing the price a long time, and requiring volumes of linen to be unfolded and

shown to him, precisely like an Englishwoman in the humor for "shopping." The young person deigned to

take notice of Cesar, perceiving, by certain symptoms known to women, that he came more for the seller than

the goods. He dictated his name and address to the young lady, who grew very indifferent to the admiration

of her customer once the purchase was made. The poor clerk had had little to do to win the good graces of

Ursula; in such matters he was as silly as a sheep, and love now made him sillier. He dared not utter a word,

and was moreover too dazzled to observe the indifference which succeeded the smiles of the siren

For eight succeeding days Cesar mounted guard every evening before the PetitMatelot, watching for a look

as a dog waits for a bone at the kitchen door, indifferent to the derision of the clerks and the shop girls,

humbly stepping aside for the buyers and passersby, and absorbed in the little revolving world of the shop.

Some days later he again entered the paradise of his angel, less to purchase handkerchiefs than to

"If you should have need of perfumery, Mademoiselle, I could furnish you in the same manner," he said as he

Constance Pillerault was daily receiving brilliant proposals, in which there was no question of marriage; and

though her heart was as pure as her forehead was white, it was only after six months of marches and

countermarches, in the course of which Cesar revealed his inextinguishable love, that she condescended to

receive his attentions, and even then without committing herself to an answer,a prudence suggested by the

number of her swains, wholesale wine merchants, rich proprietors of cafes, and others who made soft eyes

at her. The lover was backed up in his suit by the guardian of Constance, Monsieur ClaudeJoseph Pillerault,

at that time an ironmonger on the Quai de la Ferraille, whom the young man had finally discovered by

devoting himself to the subterraneous spying which distinguishes a genuine love.

The rapidity of this narrative compels us to pass over in silence the joys of Parisian love tasted with

innocence, the prodigalities peculiar to clerkdom, such as melons in their earliest prime, choice dinners at

Venua's followed by the theatre, Sunday jaunts to the country in hackneycoaches. Without being handsome,

there was nothing in Cesar's person which made it difficult to love him. The life of Paris and his sojourn in a

dark shop had dulled the brightness of his peasant complexion. His abundant black hair, his solid neck and

shoulders like those of a Norman horse, his sturdy limbs, his honest and straightforward manner, all

contributed to predispose others in his favor. The uncle Pillerault, whose duty it was to watch over the

happiness of his brother's daughter, made inquiries which resulted in his sanctioning the wishes of the young

Tourangian. In the year 1800, and in the pretty month of May, Mademoiselle Pillerault consented to marry

Cesar Birotteau, who fainted with joy at the moment when, under a linden at Sceaux,

"My little girl," said Monsieur Pillerault, "you have won a good husband. He has a warm heart and honorable

feelings; he is true as gold, and as good as an infant Jesus,in fact, a king of men."

Constance frankly abdicated the more brilliant destiny to which, like all shopgirls, she may at times have

aspired. She wished to be an honest woman, a good mother of a family, and looked at life according to the

religious programme of the middle classes. Such a career suited her own ideas far better than the dangerous

vanities which seduce so many youthful Parisian imaginations. Constance, with her narrow intelligence, was

a type of the petty bourgeoisie whose labors are not performed without grumbling; who begin by refusing

what they desire, and end by getting angry when taken at their word; whose restless activity is carried into the

kitchen and into the countingroom, into the gravest matters of business, and into the invisible darns of the

household linen; who love while scolding, who conceive no ideas but the simplest (the small change of the

mind); who argue about everything, fear everything, calculate everything, and fret perpetually over the future.

Her cold but ingenuous beauty, her touching expression, her freshness and purity, prevented Birotteau from

thinking of her defects, which moreover were more than compensated by a delicate sense of honor natural to

women, by an excessive love of order, by a fanaticism for work, and by her genius as a saleswoman.

Constance was eighteen years old, and possessed eleven thousand francs of her own. Cesar, inspired by his

love with an excessive ambition, bought the business of "The Queen of Roses" and removed it to a handsome

building near the Place Vendome. At the early age of twentyone, married to a woman he adored, the

proprietor of an establishment for which he had paid three quarters of the price down, he had the right to

view, and did view, the future in glowing colors; all the more when he measured the path which led from his

original point of departure. Roguin, notary of Ragon, who had drawn up the marriage contract, gave the new

perfumer some sound advice, and prevented him from paying the whole purchase money down with the

"Keep the means of undertaking some good enterprise, my lad," he had said to him.

Birotteau looked up to the notary with admiration, fell into the habit of consulting him, and made him his

friend. Like Ragon and Pillerault, he had so much faith in the profession that he gave himself up to Roguin

without allowing himself a suspicion. Thanks to this advice, Cesar, supplied with the eleven thousand francs

of his wife for his start in business, would have scorned to exchange his possessions for those of the First

Consul, brilliant as the prospects of Napoleon might seem. At first the Birotteaus kept only a cook, and lived

in the entresol above the shop,a sort of den tolerably well decorated by an upholsterer, where the bride and

bridegroom began a honeymoon that was never to end. Madame Cesar appeared to advantage behind the

counter. Her celebrated beauty had an enormous influence upon the sales, and the beautiful Madame

Birotteau became a topic among the fashionable young men of the Empire. If Cesar was sometimes accused

of royalism, the world did justice to his honesty; if a few neighboring shopkeepers envied his happiness,

every one at least thought him worthy of it. The bullet which struck him on the steps of SaintRoch gave him

the reputation of being mixed up with political secrets, and also of being a courageous man,though he had

no military courage in his heart, and not the smallest political idea in his brain. Upon these grounds the

worthy people of the arrondissement made him captain of the National Guard; but he was cashiered by

Napoleon, who, according to Birotteau, owed him a grudge for their encounter on the 13th Vendemiaire.

Cesar thus obtained at a cheap rate a varnish of persecution, which made him interesting in the eyes of the

Such was the history of this household, lastingly happy through its feeling, and agitated only by commercial

During the first year Cesar instructed his wife about the sales of their merchandise and the details of

perfumery,a business which she understood admirably. She really seemed to have been created and sent

into the world to fit on the gloves of customers. At the close of that year the assets staggered our ambitious

perfumer; all costs calculated, he would be able in less than twenty years to make a modest capital of one

hundred thousand francs, which was the sum at which he estimated their happiness. He then resolved to reach

fortune more rapidly, and determined to manufacture articles as well as retail them. Contrary to the advice of

his wife, he hired some sheds, with the ground about them, in the Faubourg du Temple, and painted upon

them in big letters, "Manufactory of Cesar Birotteau." He enticed a skilful workman from Grasse, with whom

he began, on equal shares, the manufacture of soaps, essences, and eaudecologne. His connection with this

man lasted only six months, and ended by losses which fell upon him alone. Without allowing himself to be

discouraged, Birotteau determined to get better results at any price, solely to avoid being scolded by his

wife,to whom he acknowledged later that in those depressing days his head had boiled like a saucepan, and

that several times, if it had not been for his religious sentiments, he should have flung himself into the Seine.

Harassed by some unprofitable enterprise, he was lounging one day along the boulevard on his way to

dinner,for the Parisian lounger is as often a man filled with despair as an idler,when among a parcel of

books for six sous apiece, laid out in a hamper on the pavement, his eyes lighted on the following title,

yellow with dust: "Abdeker, or the Art of Preserving Beauty." He picked up the socalled Arab book, a sort

of romance written by a physician of the preceding century, and happened on a page which related to

perfumes. Leaning against a tree on the boulevard to turn over the leaves at his ease, he read a note by the

author which explained the nature of the skin and the cuticle, and showed that a certain soap, or a certain

paste, often produced effects quite contrary to those expected of them, if the soap and the paste toned up a

skin which needed relaxing, or relaxed a skin which required tones. Birotteau bought the book, in which he

saw his fortune. Nevertheless, having little confidence in his own lights, he consulted a celebrated chemist,

Vauquelin, from whom he naively inquired how to mix a twosided cosmetic which should produce effects

appropriate to the diversified nature of the human epidermis. Truly scientific menmen who are really great

in the sense that they never attain in their lifetime the renown which their immense and unrecognized labors

deserveare nearly always kind, and willing to serve the poor in spirit. Vauquelin accordingly patronized

the perfumer, and allowed him to call himself the inventor of a paste to whiten the hands, the composition of

which he dictated to him. Birotteau named this cosmetic the "Double Paste of Sultans." To complete the

work, he applied the same recipe to the manufacture of a lotion for the complexion, which he called the

"Carminative Balm." He imitated in his own line the system of the PetitMatelot, and was the first perfumer

to display that redundancy of placards, advertisements, and other methods of publication which are called,

The Paste of Sultans and the Carminative Balm were ushered into the world of fashion and commerce by

colored placards, at the head of which were these words, "Approved by the Institute." This formula, used for

the first time, had a magical effect. Not only all France, but the continent flaunted with the posters, yellow,

red, and blue, of the monarch of the "The Queen of Roses," who kept in stock, supplied, and manufactured, at

moderate prices, all that belonged to his trade. At a period when nothing was talked of but the East, to name

any sort of cosmetic the "Paste of Sultans" thus divining the magic force of such words in a land where every

man hoped to be a sultan as much as every woman longed to be a sultana, was an inspiration which could

only have come to a common man or a man of genius. The public always judges by results. Birotteau passed

for a superior man, commercially speaking; all the more because he compiled a prospectus whose ridiculous

phraseology was an element of success. In France they only made fun of things which occupy the public

mind, and the public does not occupy itself with things that do not succeed. Though Birotteau perpetrated this

folly in good faith and not as a trick, the world gave him credit for knowing how to play the fool for a

purpose. We have found, not without difficulty, a copy of this prospectus at the establishment of Popinot and

Co., druggists, Rue des Lombards. This curious document belongs to the class which, in a higher sphere,

"For many years a paste for the hands and a lotion for the face offering superior results to those obtained from

EaudeCologne in the domain of the toilet, has been widely sought by both sexes in Europe. Devoting long

vigils to the study of the skin and cuticle of the two sexes, each of whom, one as much as the other, attach the

utmost importance to the softness, suppleness, brilliancy, and velvet texture of the complexion, the Sieur

Birotteau, perfumer, favorably known in this metropolis and abroad, has discovered a Paste and a Lotion

justly hailed as marvellous by the fashion and elegance of Paris. In point of fact, this Paste and this Lotion

possess amazing properties which act upon the skin without prematurely wrinkling it,the inevitable result

of drugs thoughtlessly employed, and sold in these days by ignorance and cupidity. This discovery rests upon

diversities of temperament, which divide themselves into two great classes, indicated by the color of the Paste

and the Lotion, which will be found pink for the skin and cuticle of persons of lymphatic habit, and white for

"This Paste is named the 'Paste of Sultans,' because the discovery was originally made for the Seraglio by an

Arabian physician. It has been approved by the Institute on the recommendation of our illustrious chemist,

Vauquelin; together with the Lotion, fabricated on the same principles which govern the composition of the

"This precious Paste, exhaling as it does the sweetest perfumes, removes all blotches, even those that are

obstinately rebellious, whitens the most recalcitrant epidermis, and dissipates the perspirations of the hand, of

"The Carminative Balm will disperse the little pimples which appear inopportunely at certain times, and

interfere with a lady's projects for a ball; it refreshes and revives the color by opening or shutting the pores of

the skin according to the exigencies of the individual temperament. It is so well known already for its effect

in arresting the ravages of time that many, out of gratitude, have called it the 'Friend of Beauty.'

"EaudeCologne is, purely and simply, a trivial perfume without special efficacy of any kind; while the

Double Paste of Sultans and the Carminative Balm are two operative compounds, of a motive power which

acts without risk upon the internal energies and seconds them. Their perfumes (essentially balsamic, and of a

stimulating character which admirably revives the heart and brain) awake ideas and vivify them; they are as

wonderful for their simplicity as for their merits. In short, they offer one attraction the more to women, and to

"The daily use of the Balm will relieve the smart occasioned by the heat of the razor; it will protect the lips

from chapping, and restore their color; it dispels in time all discolorations, and revives the natural tones of the

skin. Such results demonstrate in man a perfect equilibrium of the juices of life, which tends to relieve all

persons subject to headache from the sufferings of that horrible malady. Finally, the Carminative Balm,

which can be employed by women in all stages of their toilet, will prevent cutaneous diseases by facilitating

the transpiration of the tissues, and communicating to them a permanent texture like that of velvet.

"Address, postpaid, Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, successor to Ragon, former perfumer to the Queen Marie

Antoinette, at The Queen of Roses, Rue SaintHonore, Paris, near the Place Vendome.

"Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, to avoid counterfeits, informs the public that the Paste is wrapped in paper

The success was owing, without Cesar's suspecting it, to Constance, who advised him to send cases of the

Carminative Balm and the Paste of Sultans to all perfumers in France and in foreign cities, offering them at

the same time a discount of thirty per cent if they would buy the two articles by the gross. The Paste and the

Balm were, in reality, worth more than other cosmetics of the sort; and they captivated ignorant people by the

distinctions they set up among the temperaments. The five hundred perfumers of France, allured by the

discount, each bought annually from Birotteau more than three hundred gross of the Paste and the Lotion,a

consumption which, if it gave only a limited profit on each article, became enormous considered in bulk.

Cesar was then able to buy the huts and the land in the Faubourg du Temple; he built large manufactories,

and decorated his shop at "The Queen of Roses" with much magnificence; his household began to taste the

In 1810 Madame Cesar, foreseeing a rise in rents, pushed her husband into becoming chief tenant of the

house where they had hitherto occupied only the shop and the entresol, and advised him to remove their own

appartement to the first floor. A fortunate event induced Constance to shut her eyes to the follies which

Birotteau committed for her sake in fitting up the new appartement. The perfumer had just been elected judge

in the commercial courts: his integrity, his well known sense of honor, and the respect he enjoyed, earned

for him this dignity, which ranked him henceforth among the leading merchants of Paris. To improve his

knowledge, he rose daily at five o'clock, and read lawreports and books treating of commercial litigation.

His sense of justice, his rectitude, his conscientious intentions, qualities essential to the understanding of

questions submitted for consular decision,soon made him highly esteemed among the judges. His defects

contributed not a little to his reputation. Conscious of his inferiority, Cesar subordinated his own views to

those of his colleagues, who were flattered in being thus deferred to. Some sought the silent approbation of a

man held to be sagacious, in his capacity of listener; others, charmed with his modesty and gentleness,

praised him publicly. Plaintiffs and defendants extolled his kindness, his conciliatory spirit; and he was often

chosen umpire in contests where his own good sense would have suggested the swift justice of a Turkish

cadi. During his whole period in office he contrived to use language which was a medley of commonplaces

mixed with maxims and computations served up in flowing phrases mildly put forth, which sounded to the

ears of superficial people like eloquence. Thus he pleased that great majority, mediocre by nature, who are

condemned to perpetual labor and to views which are of the earth earthy. Cesar, however, lost so much time

Towards 1813, the Birotteau household, thanks to its constant harmony, and after steadily plodding on

through life, saw the dawn of an era of prosperity which nothing seemed likely to interrupt. Monsieur and

Madame Ragon, their predecessors, the uncle Pillerault, Roguin the notary, the Messrs. Matifat, druggists in

the Rue des Lombards and purveyors to "The Queen of Roses," Joseph Lebas, woollen draper and successor

to the Messrs. Guillaume at the Maison du Chatquipelote (one of the luminaries of the Rue SaintDenis),

Popinot the judge, brother of Madame Ragon, Chiffreville of the firm of Protez Chiffreville, Monsieur and

Madame Cochin, employed in the treasury department and sleeping partners in the house of Matifat, the

Abbe Loraux, confessor and director of the pious members of this coterie, with a few other persons, made up

the circle of their friends. In spite of the royalist sentiments of Birotteau, public opinion was in his favor; he

was considered very rich, though in fact he possessed only a hundred thousand francs over and above his

business. The regularity of his affairs, his punctuality, his habit of making no debts, of never discounting his

paper, and of taking, on the contrary, safe securities from those whom he could thus oblige, together with his

general amiability, won him enormous credit. His household cost him nearly twenty thousand francs a year,

and the education of Cesarine, an only daughter, idolized by Constance as well as by himself, necessitated

heavy expenses. Neither husband nor wife considered money when it was a question of giving pleasure to

their child, from whom they had never been willing to separate. Imagine the happiness of the poor parvenu

peasant as he listened to his charming Cesarine playing a sonata of Steibelt's on the piano, and singing a

ballad; or when he found her writing the French language correctly, or reading Racine, father and son, and

explaining their beauties, or sketching a landscape, or painting in sepia! What joy to live again in a flower so

pure, so lovely, which had never left the maternal stem; an angel whose budding graces and whose earliest

developments he had passionately watched; an only daughter, incapable of despising her father, or of

When he first came to Paris, Cesar had known how to read, write, and cipher, but his education stopped there;

his laborious life had kept him from acquiring ideas and knowledge outside the business of perfumery.

Mixing wholly with people to whom science and letters were of no importance, and whose information did

not go beyond their specialty, having no time to give to higher studies, the perfumer had become a merely

practical man. He adopted necessarily the language, blunders, and opinions of the bourgeois of Paris, who

admires Moliere, Voltaire, and Rousseau on faith, and buys their books without ever reading them; who

maintains that people should say ormoires, because women put away their gold and their dresses and moire in

those articles of furniture, and that it is only a corruption of the language to say armoires. Potier, Talma, and

Mademoiselle Mars were ten times millionaires, and did not live like other human beings; the great tragedian

ate raw meat, and Mademoiselle Mars sometimes drank dissolved pearls, in imitation of a celebrated

Egyptian actress. The Emperor had leather pockets in his waistcoat, so that he could take his snuff by the

handful; he rode on horseback at full gallop up the stairway of the orangery at Versailles. Writers and artists

died in the hospital, as a natural consequence of their eccentricities; they were, moreover, all atheists, and

people should be very careful not to admit them into their households. Joseph Lebas cited with horror the

history of his stepsister Augustine's marriage with the painter Sommervieux. Astronomers lived on spiders.

These striking points of information on the French language, on dramatic art, politics, literature, and science,

will explain the bearings of the bourgeois intellect. A poet passing through the Rue des Lombards may dream

of Araby as he inhales certain perfumes. He may admire the danseuses in a chauderie, as he breathes the

odors of an Indian root. Dazzled by the blaze of cochineal, he recalls the poems of the Veda, the religion of

Brahma and its castes; brushing against piles of ivory in the rough, he mounts the backs of elephants; seated

in a muslin cage, he makes love like the King of Lahore. But the little retail merchant is ignorant from

whence have come, or where may grow, the products in which he deals. Birotteau, perfumer, did not know an

iota of natural history, nor of chemistry. Though regarding Vauquelin as a great man, he thought him an

exception,of about the same capacity as the retired grocer who summed up a discussion on the method of

importing teas, by remarking with a knowing air, "There are but two ways: tea comes either by caravan, or by

Havre." According to Birotteau aloes and opium were only to be found in the Rue des Lombards. Rosewater,

said to be brought from Constantinople, was made in Paris like eaudecologne. The names of these places

were shams, invented to please Frenchmen who could not endure the things of their own country. A French

merchant must call his discoveries English to make them fashionable, just as in England the druggists

Nevertheless, Cesar was incapable of being wholly stupid or a fool. Honesty and goodness cast upon all the

acts of his life a light which made them creditable; for noble conduct makes even ignorance seem worthy.

Success gave him confidence. In Paris confidence is accepted as power, of which it is the outward sign. As

for Madame Birotteau, having measured Cesar during the first three years of their married life, she was a prey

to continual terror. She represented in their union the sagacious and forecasting side,doubt, opposition,

and fear; while Cesar, on the other hand, was the embodiment of audacity, energy, and the inexpressible

delights of fatalism. Yet in spite of these appearances the husband often quaked, while the wife, in reality,

Thus it happened that a man who was both mediocre and pusillanimous, without education, without ideas,

without knowledge, without force of character, and who might be expected not to succeed in the slipperiest

city in the world, came by his principles of conduct, by his sense of justice, by the goodness of a heart that

was truly Christian, and through his love for the only woman he had really won, to be considered as a

remarkable man, courageous, and full of resolution. The public saw results only. Excepting Pillerault and

Popinot the judge, all the people of his own circle knew him superficially, and were unable to judge him.

Moreover, the twenty or thirty friends he had collected about him talked the same nonsense, repeated the

same commonplaces, and all thought themselves superior in their own line. The women vied with each other

in dress and good dinners; each had said her all when she dropped a contemptuous word about her husband.

Madame Birotteau alone had the good sense to treat hers with honor and respect in public; she knew him to

be a man who, in spite of his secret disabilities, had earned their fortune, and whose good name she shared. It

is true that she sometimes asked herself what sort of world this could be, if all the men who were thought

superior were like her husband. Such conduct contributed not a little to maintain the respectful esteem

bestowed upon the perfumer in a community where women are much inclined to complain of their husbands

The first days of the year 1814, so fatal to imperial France, were marked at the Birotteaus by two events, not

especially remarkable in other households, but of a nature to impress such simple souls as Cesar and his wife,

who casting their eyes along the past could find nothing but tender memories. They had taken as headclerk a

young man twentytwo years of age, named Ferdinand du Tillet. This ladwho had just left a perfumery

where he was refused a share in the business, and who was reckoned a geniushad made great efforts to get

employed at "The Queen of Roses," whose methods, facilities, and customs were well known to him.

Birotteau took him, and gave him a salary of a thousand francs, intending to make him eventually his

Ferdinand had so great an influence on the destinies of this family that it is necessary to say a few words

about him. In the first place he was named simply Ferdinand, without surname. This anonymous condition

seemed to him an immense advantage at the time when Napoleon conscripted all families to fill the ranks. He

was, however, born somewhere, as the result of some cruel and voluptuous caprice. The following are the

only facts preserved about his civil condition. In 1793 a poor girl of Tillet, a village near Andelys, came by

night and gave birth to a child in the garden of the curate of the church at Tillet, and after rapping on the

windowshutters went away and drowned herself. The good priest took the child, gave him the name of the

saint inscribed on the calendar for that day, and fed and brought him up as his own son. The curate died in

1804, without leaving enough property to carry on the education he had begun. Ferdinand, thrown upon Paris,

led a filibustering life whose chances might bring him to the scaffold, to fortune, the bar, the army,

commerce, or domestic life. Obliged to live like a Figaro, he was first a commercial traveller, then a

perfumer's clerk in Paris, where he turned up after traversing all France, having studied the world and made

In 1813 Ferdinand thought it necessary to register his age, and obtain a civil standing by applying to the

courts at Andelys for a judgment, which should enable his baptismal record to be transferred from the registry

of the parish to that of the mayor's office; and he obtained permission to rectify the document by inserting the

name of du Tillet, under which he was known, and which legally belonged to him through the fact of his

exposure and abandonment in that township. Without father, mother, or other guardian than the procureur

imperial, alone in the world and owing no duty to any man, he found society a hard stepmother, and he

handled it, in his turn, without gloves,as the Turks the Moors; he knew no guide but his own interests, and

any means to fortune he considered good. This young Norman, gifted with dangerous abilities, coupled his

desires for success with the harsh defects which, justly or unjustly, are attributed to the natives of his

province. A wheedling manner cloaked a quibbling mind, for he was in truth a hard judicial wrangler. But if

he boldly contested the rights of others, he certainly yielded none of his own; he attacked his adversary at the

right moment, and wearied him out with his inflexible persistency. His merits were those of the Scapins of

ancient comedy; he had their fertility of resource, their cleverness in skirting evil, their itching to lay hold of

all that was good to keep. In short, he applied to his own poverty a saying which the Abbe Terray uttered in

the name of the State,he kept a loophole to become in after years an honest man. Gifted with passionate

energy, with a boldness that was almost military in requiring good as well as evil actions from those about

him, and justifying such demands on the theory of personal interest, he despised men too much, believing

them all corruptible, he was too unscrupulous in the choice of means, thinking all equally good, he was too

thoroughly convinced that the success of money was the absolution of all moral mechanism, not to attain his

Such a man, standing between the hulks and a vast fortune, was necessarily vindictive, domineering, quick in

decisions, yet as dissimulating as a Cromwell planning to decapitate the head of integrity. His real depth was

hidden under a light and jesting mind. Mere clerk as he was, his ambition knew no bounds. With one

comprehensive glance of hatred he had taken in the whole of society, saying boldly to himself, "Thou shalt be

mine!" He had vowed not to marry till he was forty, and kept his word. Physically, Ferdinand was a tall,

slender young man, with a good figure and adaptive manners, which enabled him to take, on occasion, the

keynote of the various societies in which he found himself. His ignoble face was rather pleasant at first

sight; but later, on closer acquaintance, expressions were caught such as come to the surface of those who are

ill at ease in their own minds, and whose consciences groan at certain times. His complexion, which was

sanguine under the soft skin of a Norman, had a crude or acrid color. The glance of his eye, whose iris was

circled with a whitish rim as if it were lined with silver, was evasive yet terrible when he fixed it straight

upon his victim. His voice had a hollow sound, like that of a man worn out with much speaking. His thin lips

were not wanting in charm, but his pointed nose and slightly projecting forehead showed defects of race; and

his hair, of a tint like hair that has been dyed black, indicated a mongrel descent, through which he derived

his mental qualities from some libertine lord, his low instincts from a seduced peasantgirl, his knowledge

from an incomplete education, and his vices from his deserted and abandoned condition.

Birotteau discovered with much amazement that his clerk went out in the evening very elegantly dressed,

came home late, and was seen at the balls of bankers and notaries. Such habits displeased Cesar, according to

whose ideas clerks should study the books of the firm and think only of their business. The worthy man was

shocked by trifles, and reproached du Tillet gently for wearing linen that was too fine, for leaving cards on

which his name was inscribed, F. du Tillet,a fashion, according to commercial jurisprudence, which

belonged only to the great world. Ferdinand had entered the employ of this Orgon with the intentions of a

Tartuffe. He paid court to Madame Cesar, tried to seduce her, and judged his master very much as the wife

judged him herself, and all with alarming rapidity. Though discreet, reserved, and accustomed to say only

what he meant to say, du Tillet unbosomed his opinions on men and life in a way to shock a scrupulous

woman who shared the religious feelings of her husband, and who thought it a crime to do the least harm to a

neighbor. In spite of Madame Birotteau's caution, du Tillet suspected the contempt in which she held him.

Constance, to whom Ferdinand had written a few loveletters, soon noticed a change in his manners, which

grew presuming, as if intended to convey the idea of a mutual good understanding. Without giving the secret

reason to her husband, she advised him to send Ferdinand away. Birotteau agreed with his wife, and the

Two days before it was carried into effect, on a Saturday night when Birotteau was making up his monthly

accounts, three thousand francs were found to be missing. His consternation was dreadful, less for the loss

than for the suspicions which fell upon three clerks, one cook, a shopboy, and several habitual workmen. On

whom should he lay the blame? Madame Birotteau never left her counter. The clerk who had charge of the

desk was a nephew of Monsieur Ragon named Popinot, a young man nineteen years old, who lived with the

Birotteaus and was integrity itself. His figures, which disagreed with the money in the desk, revealed the

deficit, and showed that the abstraction had been made after the balance had been added up. Husband and

wife resolved to keep silence and watch the house. On the following day, Sunday, they received their friends.

The families who made up their coterie met at each other's houses for little festivities, turn and turn about.

While playing at bouillote, Roguin the notary placed on the cardtable some old louis d'or which Madame

Roguin replied that he had won the money, at the house of a banker, from du Tillet, who confirmed the

answer without blushing. Cesar, on the other hand, grew scarlet. When the evening was over, and just as

Ferdinand was going to bed, Birotteau took him into the shop on a pretext of business.

"Du Tillet," said the worthy man, "three thousand francs are missing from the desk. I suspect no one; but the

circumstance of the old louis seems too much against you not to oblige me to speak of it. We will not go to

bed till we have found where the error lies,for, after all, it may be only an error. Perhaps you took

Du Tillet said at once that he had taken the louis. The perfumer opened his ledger and found that his clerk's

"I was in a hurry; but I ought to have made Popinot enter the sum," said Ferdinand.

"That is true," said Birotteau, bewildered by the cool unconcern of the Norman, who well knew the worthy

people among whom he had come meaning to make his fortune. The perfumer and his clerk passed the whole

night in examining accounts, a labor which the good man knew to be useless. In coming and going about the

desk Cesar slipped three bills of a thousand francs each into the moneydrawer, catching them against the top

of it; then he pretended to be much fatigued and to fall asleep and snore. Du Tillet awoke him triumphantly,

with an excessive show of joy at discovering the error. The next day Birotteau scolded Popinot and his little

wife publicly, as if very angry with them for their negligence. Fifteen days later Ferdinand du Tillet got a

situation with a stockbroker. He said perfumery did not suit him, and he wished to learn banking. In leaving

Birotteau, he spoke of Madame Cesar in a way to make people suppose that his master had dismissed him out

of jealousy. A few months later, however, du Tillet went to see Birotteau and asked his endorsement for

twenty thousand francs, to enable him to make up the securities he needed in an enterprise which was to put

him on the highroad to fortune. Observing the surprise which Cesar showed at this impudence, du Tillet

frowned, and asked if he had no confidence in him. Matifat and two other merchants, who were present on

business with Birotteau, also observed the indignation of the perfumer, who repressed his anger in their

presence. Du Tillet, he thought, might have become an honest man; his previous fault might have been

committed for some mistress in distress or from losses at cards; the public reprobation of an honest man

might drive one still young, and possibly repentant, into a career of crime. So this angel took up his pen and

endorsed du Tillet's notes, telling him that he was heartily willing thus to oblige a lad who had been very

useful to him. The blood rushed to his face as he uttered the falsehood. Du Tillet could not meet his eye, and

no doubt vowed to him at that moment the undying hatred which the spirits of darkness feel towards the

From this time du Tillet held his balancepole so well as he danced the tightrope of financial speculation,

that he was rich and elegant in appearance before he became so in reality. As soon as he got hold of a

cabriolet he was always in it; he kept himself in the high sphere of those who mingle business with pleasure,

and make the foyer of the operahouse a branch of the Bourse,in short, the Turcarets of the period. Thanks

to Madame Roguin, whom he had known at the Birotteau's, he was received at once among people of the

highest standing in finance; and, at the moment of which we write, he had reached a prosperity in which there

was nothing fictitious. He was on the best terms with the house of Nucingen, to which Roguin had introduced

him, and he had promptly become connected with the brothers Keller and with several other great

bankinghouses. No one knew from whence this youth had derived the immense capital which he handled,

The Restoration made Cesar a personage, and the turmoil of political crises naturally lessened his recollection

of these domestic misadventures. The constancy of his royalist opinions (to which he had become

exceedingly indifferent since his wound, though he remained faithful to them out of decency) and the

memory of his devotion in Vendemiaire won him very high patronage, precisely because he had asked for

none. He was appointed major in the National Guard, although he was utterly incapable of giving the word of

command. In 1815 Napoleon, always his enemy, dismissed him. During the Hundred Days Birotteau was the

bugbear of the liberals of his quarter; for it was not until 1815 that differences of political opinion grew up

among merchants, who had hitherto been unanimous in their desires for public tranquillity, of which, as they

At the second Restoration the royal government was obliged to remodel the municipality of Paris. The prefect

wished to nominate Birotteau as mayor. Thanks to his wife, the perfumer would only accept the place of

deputymayor, which brought him less before the public. Such modesty increased the respect generally felt

for him, and won him the friendship of the new mayor, Monsieur Flamet de la Billardiere. Birotteau, who had

seen him in the shop in the days when "The Queen of Roses" was the headquarters of royalist conspiracy,

mentioned him to the prefect of the Seine when that official consulted Cesar on the choice to be made.

Monsieur and Madame Birotteau were therefore never forgotten in the invitations of the mayor. Madame

Birotteau frequently took up the collections at SaintRoch in the best of good company. La Billardiere

warmly supported Birotteau when the question of bestowing the crosses given to the municipality came up,

and dwelt upon his wound at SaintRoch, his attachment to the Bourbons, and the respect which he enjoyed.

The government, wishing on the one hand to cheapen Napoleon's order by lavishing the cross of the Legion

of honor, and on the other to win adherents and rally to the Bourbons the various trades and men of arts and

sciences, included Birotteau in the coming promotion. This honor, which suited well with the show that Cesar

made in his arrondissement, put him in a position where the ideas of a man accustomed to succeed naturally

enlarged themselves. The news which the mayor had just given him of his preferment was the determining

reason that decided him to plunge into the scheme which he now for the first time revealed to his wife; he

believed it would enable him to give up perfumery all the more quickly, and rise into the regions of the higher

Cesar was now forty years old. The work he had undertaken in his manufactories had given him a few

premature wrinkles, and had slightly silvered the thick tufts of hair on which the pressure of his hat left a

shining circle. His forehead, where the hair grew in a way to mark five distinct points, showed the simplicity

of his life. The heavy eyebrows were not alarming because the limpid glance of his frank blue eyes

harmonized with the open forehead of an honest man. His nose, broken at the bridge and thick at the end,

gave him the wondering look of a gaby in the streets of Paris. His lips were very thick, and his large chin fell

in a straight line below them. His face, highcolored and square in outline, revealed, by the lines of its

wrinkles and by the general character of its expression, the ingenuous craftiness of a peasant. The strength of

his body, the stoutness of his limbs, the squareness of his shoulders, the width of his feet,all denoted the

villager transplanted to Paris. His powerful hairy hands, with their large square nails, would alone have

attested his origin if other vestiges had not remained in various parts of his person. His lips wore the cordial

smile which shopkeepers put on when a customer enters; but this commercial sunshine was really the image

of his inward content, and pictured the state of his kindly soul. His distrust never went beyond the lines of his

business, his craftiness left him on the steps of the Bourse, or when he closed the pages of his ledger.

Suspicion was to him very much what his printed bill heads were,a necessity of the sale itself. His

countenance presented a sort of comical assurance and conceit mingled with good nature, which gave it

originality and saved it from too close a resemblance to the insipid face of a Parisian bourgeois. Without this

air of naive selfadmiration and faith in his own person, he would have won too much respect; he drew

nearer to his fellows by thus contributing his quota of absurdity. When speaking, he habitually crossed his

hands behind his back. When he thought he had said something striking or gallant, he rose imperceptibly on

the points of his toes twice, and dropped back heavily on his heels, as if to emphasize what he said. In the

midst of an argument he might be seen turning round upon himself and walking off a few steps, as if he had

gone to find objections with which he returned upon his adversary brusquely. He never interrupted, and was

sometimes a victim to this careful observance of civility; for others would take the words out of his mouth,

and the good man had to yield his ground without opening his lips. His great experience in commercial

matters had given him a few fixed habits, which some people called eccentricities. If a note were overdue he

sent for the bailiff, and thought only of recovering capital, interest, and costs; and the bailiff was ordered to

pursue the matter until the debtor went into bankruptcy. Cesar then stopped all proceedings, never appeared

at any meeting of creditors, and held on to his securities. He adopted this system and his implacable contempt

for bankrupts from Monsieur Ragon, who in the course of his commercial life had seen such loss of time in

litigation that he had come to look upon the meagre and uncertain dividends obtained by such compromises

as fully counterbalanced by a better employment of the time spent in coming and going, in making proposals,

"If the bankrupt is an honest man, and recovers himself, he will pay you," Ragon would say. "If he is without

means and simply unfortunate, why torment him? If he is a scoundrel, you will never get anything. Your

known severity will make you seem uncompromising; it will be impossible to negotiate with you;

consequently you are the one who will get paid as long as there is anything to pay with."

Cesar came to all appointments at the expected hour; but if he were kept waiting, he left ten minutes later

with an inflexibility which nothing ever changed. Thus his punctuality compelled all persons who had

The dress adopted by the worthy man was in keeping with his manners and his countenance. No power could

have made him give up the white muslin cravats, with ends embroidered by his wife or daughter, which hung

down beneath his chin. His waistcoat of white pique, squarely buttoned, came down low over his stomach,

which was rather protuberant, for he was somewhat fat. He wore blue trousers, black silk stockings, and

shoes with ribbon ties, which were often unfastened. His surtout coat, olivegreen and always too large, and

his broadbrimmed hat gave him the air of a Quaker. When he dressed for the Sunday evening festivities he

put on silk breeches, shoes with gold buckles, and the inevitable square waistcoat, whose front edges opened

sufficiently to show a pleated shirtfrill. His coat, of maroon cloth, had wide flaps and long skirts. Up to the

year 1819 he kept up the habit of wearing two watchchains, which hung down in parallel lines; but he only

Such was Cesar Birotteau; a worthy man, to whom the fates presiding at the birth of men had denied the

faculty of judging politics and life in their entirety, and of rising above the social level of the middle classes;

who followed ignorantly the track of routine, whose opinions were all imposed upon him from the outside

and applied by him without examination. Blind but good, not spiritual but deeply religious, he had a pure

heart. In that heart there shone one love, the light and strength of his life; for his desire to rise in life, and the

limited knowledge he had gained of the world, both came from his affection for his wife and for his daughter.

As for Madame Cesar, then thirtyseven years old, she bore so close a resemblance to the Venus of Milo that

all who knew her recognized the likeness when the Duc de Riviere sent the beautiful statue to Paris. In a few

months sorrows were to dim with yellowing tints that dazzling fairness, to hollow and blacken the bluish

circle round the lovely greenishgray eyes so cruelly that she then wore the look of an old Madonna; for

amid the coming ruin she retained her gentle sincerity, her pure though saddened glance; and no one ever

thought her less than a beautiful woman, whose bearing was virtuous and full of dignity. At the ball now

planned by Cesar she was to shine with a last lustre of beauty, remarked upon at the time and long

Every life has its climax,a period when causes are at work, and are in exact relation to results. This

midday of life, when living forces find their equilibrium and put forth their productive powers with full

effect, is common not only to organized beings but to cities, nations, ideas, institutions, commerce, and

commercial enterprises, all of which, like noble races and dynasties, are born and rise and fall. From whence

comes the vigor with which this law of growth and decay applies itself to all organized things in this lower

world? Death itself, in times of scourge, has periods when it advances, slackens, sinks back, and slumbers.

Our globe is perhaps only a rocket a little more continuing than the rest. History, recording the causes of the

rise and fall of all things here below, could enlighten man as to the moment when he might arrest the play of

all his faculties; but neither the conquerors, nor the actors, nor the women, nor the writers in the great drama

Cesar Birotteau, who might with reason think himself at the apogee of his fortunes, used this crucial pause as

the point of a new departure. He did not know, moreover neither nations nor kings have attempted to make

known in characters ineffaceable, the cause of the vast overthrows with which history teems, and of which so

many royal and commercial houses offer signal examples. Why are there no modern pyramids to recall

ceaselessly the one principle which dominates the commonweal of nations and of individual life? When the

effect produced is no longer in direct relation nor in equal proportion to the cause, disorganization has

begun. And yet such monuments stand everywhere; it is tradition and the stones of the earth which tell us of

the past, which set a seal upon the caprices of indomitable destiny, whose hand wipes out our dreams, and

shows us that all great events are summed up in one idea. Troy and Napoleon are but poems. May this present

history be the poem of middleclass vicissitudes, to which no voice has given utterance because they have

seemed poor in dignity, enormous as they are in volume. It is not one man with whom we are now to deal,

Cesar's last thought as he fell asleep was a fear that his wife would make peremptory objections in the

morning, and he ordered himself to get up very early and escape them. At the dawn of day he slipped out

noiselessly, leaving his wife in bed, dressed quickly, and went down to the shop, just as the boy was taking

down the numbered shutters. Birotteau, finding himself alone, the clerks not having appeared, went to the

doorway to see how the boy, named Raguet, did his work,for Birotteau knew all about it from experience.

"Popinot, get your hat, put on your shoes, and call Monsieur Celestin; you and I will go and have a talk in the

Popinot, the admirable antipodes of du Tillet, apprenticed to Cesar by one of those lucky chances which lead

us to believe in a Sub Providence, plays so great a part in this history that it becomes absolutely necessary to

sketch his profile here. Madame Ragon was a Popinot. She had two brothers. One, the youngest of the family,

was at this time a judge in the Lower courts of the Seine,courts which take cognizance of all civil contests

involving sums above a certain amount. The eldest, who was in the wholesale wooltrade, lost his property

and died, leaving to the care of Madame Ragon and his brother an only son, who had lost his mother at his

birth. To give him a trade, Madame Ragon placed her nephew at "The Queen of Roses," hoping he might

some day succeed Birotteau. Anselme Popinot was a little fellow and clubfooted,an infirmity bestowed

by fate on Lord Byron, Walter Scott, and Monsieur de Talleyrand, that others so afflicted might suffer no

discouragement. He had the brilliant skin, with frequent blotches, which belongs to persons with red hair; but

his clear brow, his eyes the color of a greyveined agate, his pleasant mouth, his fair complexion, the charm

of his modest youth and the shyness which grew out of his deformity, all inspired feelings of protection in

those who knew him: we love the weak, and Popinot was loved. Little Popinoteverybody called him

sobelonged to a family essentially religious, whose virtues were intelligent, and whose lives were simple

and full of noble actions. The lad himself, brought up by his uncle the judge, presented a union of qualities

which are the beauty of youth; good and affectionate, a little shamefaced though full of eagerness, gentle as

a lamb but energetic in his work, devoted and sober, he was endowed with the virtues of a Christian in the

When he heard of a walk in the Tuileries,certainly the most eccentric proposal that his august master could

have made to him at that hour of the day,Popinot felt sure that he must intend to speak to him about setting

up in business. He thought suddenly of Cesarine, the true queen of roses, the living sign of the house, whom

he had loved from the day when he was taken into Birotteau's employ, two months before the advent of du

Tillet. As he went upstairs he was forced to pause; his heart swelled, his arteries throbbed violently. However,

he soon came down again, followed by Celestin, the head clerk. Anselme and his master turned without a

Popinot was twentyone years old. Birotteau himself had married at that age. Anselme therefore could see no

hindrance to his marriage with Cesarine, though the wealth of the perfumer and the beauty of the daughter

were immense obstacles in the path of his ambitious desires: but love gets onward by leaps of hope, and the

more absurd they are the greater faith it has in them; the farther off was the mistress of Anselme's heart, the

more ardent became his desires. Happy the youth who in those levelling days when all hats looked alike, had

contrived to create a sense of distance between the daughter of a perfumer and himself, the scion of an old

Parisian family! In spite of all his doubts and fears he was happy; did he not dine every day beside Cesarine?

So, while attending to the business of the house, he threw a zeal and energy into his work which deprived it

of all hardship; doing it for the sake of Cesarine, nothing tired him. Love, in a youth of twenty, feeds on

"He is a true merchant; he will succeed," Cesar would say to Madame Ragon, as he praised Anselme's

activity in preparing the work at the factory, or boasted of his readiness in learning the niceties of the trade, or

recalled his arduous labors when shipments had to be made, and when, with his sleeves rolled up and his

arms bare, the lame lad packed and nailed up, himself alone, more cases than all the other clerks put together.

The wellknown and avowed intentions of Alexandre Crottat, headclerk to Roguin, and the wealth of his

father, a rich farmer of Brie, were certainly obstacles in the lad's way; but even these were not the hardest to

conquer. Popinot buried in the depths of his heart a sad secret, which widened the distance between Cesarine

and himself. The property of the Ragons, on which he might have counted, was involved, and the orphan lad

had the satisfaction of enabling them to live by making over to them his meagre salary. Yet with all these

drawbacks he believed in success! He had sometimes caught a glance of dignified approval from Cesarine; in

the depths of her blue eyes he had dared to read a secret thought full of caressing hopes. He now walked

beside Cesar, heaving with these ideas, trembling, silent, agitated, as any young lad might well have been by

"She has seemed rather anxious lately. Does anything trouble her? Listen, my boy; you must not be too

reticent with me. I am half one of the family. I have known your uncle Ragon thirtyfive years. I went to him

in hobnailed shoes, just as I came from my village. That place is called Les Tresorieres, but I can tell you

that all my worldly goods were one louis, given me by my godmother the late Marquise d'Uxelles, a relation

of Monsieur le Duc and Madame la Duchesse de Lenoncourt, who are now customers of ours. I pray every

Sunday for her and for all her family; I send yearly to her niece in Touraine, Madame de Mortsauf, all her

perfumery. I get a good deal of custom through them; there's Monsieur de Vandenesse who spends twelve

hundred francs a year with us. If I were not grateful out of good feeling, I ought to be so out of policy; but as

for you Anselme, I wish you well for you own sake, and without any other thought."

"No, no, my boy, that's not it. I don't say that my headpiece isn't as good as another's; but the thing is, I've

been honest, tenaciously! I've kept to good conduct; I never loved any woman except my wife. Love is a

"Bless me! there's Pere Roguin, on foot at this hour, at the top of the Place Louis XV. I wonder what he is

The suspicions of his wife came back to his mind; and instead of turning in to the Tuileries Gardens,

Birotteau walked on to meet the notary. Anselme followed his master at a distance, without being able to

define the reason why he suddenly felt an interest in a matter so apparently unimportant, and full of joy at the

encouragement he derived from Cesar's mention of the hobnailed shoes, the one louis, and love.

In times gone by, Roguina large stout man, with a pimpled face, a very bald forehead, and black hairhad

not been wanting in a certain force of character and countenance. He had once been young and daring;

beginning as a mere clerk, he had risen to be a notary; but at this period his face showed, to the eyes of an

observer, certain haggard lines, and an expression of weariness in the pursuit of pleasure. When a man

plunges into the mire of excesses it is seldom that his face shows no trace of it. In the present instance the

lines of the wrinkles and the heat of the complexion were markedly ignoble. Instead of the pure glow which

suffuses the tissues of a virtuous man and stamps them, as it were, with the flower of health, the impurities of

his blood could be seen to master the soundness of his body. His nose was ignominiously shortened like those

of men in whom scrofulous humors, attacking that organ, produce a secret infirmity which a virtuous queen

of France innocently believed to be a misfortune common to the whole human race, for she had never

approached any man but the king sufficiently near to become aware of her blunder. Roguin hoped to conceal

this misfortune by the excessive use of snuff, but he only increased the trouble which was the principal cause

Is it not a tooprolonged social flattery to paint men forever under false colors, and never to reveal the actual

causes which underlie their vicissitudes, caused as they so often are by maladies? Physical evil, considered

under the aspect of its moral ravages, examined as to its influence upon the mechanism of life, has been

perhaps too much neglected by the historians of the social kingdom. Madame Cesar had guessed the secret of

From the night of her marriage, the charming and only daughter of the banker Chevrel conceived for the

unhappy notary an insurmountable antipathy, and wished to apply at once for a divorce. But Roguin, happy in

obtaining a rich wife with five hundred thousand francs of her own, to say nothing of expectations, entreated

her not to institute an action for divorce, promising to leave her free, and to accept all the consequences of

such an agreement. Madame Roguin thus became sovereign mistress of the situation, and treated her husband

as a courtesan treats an elderly lover. Roguin soon found his wife too expensive, and like other Parisian

husbands he set up a private establishment of his own, keeping the cost, in the first instance, within the limits

of moderate expenditure. In the beginning he encountered, at no great expense, grisettes who were glad of his

protection; but for the past three years he had fallen a prey to one of those unconquerable passions which

sometimes invade the whole being of a man between fifty and sixty years of age. It was roused by a

magnificent creature known as la belle Hollandaise in the annals of prostitution, for into that gulf she was to

fall back and become a noted personage through her death. She was originally brought from Bruges by a

client of Roguin, who soon after left Paris in consequence of political events, presenting her to the notary in

1815. Roguin bought a house for her in the ChampsElysees, furnished it handsomely, and in trying to satisfy

The gloomy look on the notary's face, which he hastened to lay aside when he saw Birotteau, grew out of

certain mysterious circumstances which were at the bottom of the secret fortune so rapidly acquired by du

Tillet. The scheme originally planned by that adventurer had changed on the first Sunday when he saw, at

Birotteau's house, the relations existing between Monsieur and Madame Roguin. He had come there not so

much to seduce Madame Cesar as to obtain the offer of her daughter's hand by way of compensation for

frustrated hopes, and he found little difficulty in renouncing his purpose when he discovered that Cesar,

whom he supposed to be rich, was in point of fact comparatively poor. He set a watch on the notary, wormed

himself into his confidence, was presented to la belle Hollandaise, made a study of their relation to each

other, and soon found that she threatened to renounce her lover if he limited her luxuries. La belle

Hollandaise was one of those madcap women who care nothing as to where the money comes from, or how

it is obtained, and who are capable of giving a ball with the gold obtained by a parricide. She never thought of

the morrow; for her the future was after dinner, and the end of the month eternity, even if she had bills to pay.

Du Tillet, delighted to have found such a lever, exacted from la belle Hollandaise a promise that she would

love Roguin for thirty thousand francs a year instead of fifty thousand,a service which infatuated old men

One evening, after a supper where the wine flowed freely, Roguin unbosomed himself to du Tillet on the

subject of his financial difficulties. His own estate was tied up and legally settled on his wife, and he had

been led by his fatal passion to take from the funds entrusted to him by his clients a sum which was already

more than half their amount. When the whole were gone, the unfortunate man intended to blow out his brains,

hoping to mitigate the disgrace of his conduct by making a demand upon public pity. A fortune, rapid and

secure, darted before du Tillet's eyes like a flash of lightning in a saturnalian night. He promptly reassured

"With such risks as yours," he said, "a man of your calibre should not behave like a fool and walk on tiptoe,

He advised Roguin to take a large sum from the remaining trustmoneys and give it to him, du Tillet, with

permission to stake it bravely on some large operation, either at the Bourse, or in one of the thousand

enterprises of private speculation then about to be launched. Should he win, they were to form a

bankinghouse, where they could turn to good account a portion of the deposits, while the profits could be

used by Roguin for his pleasures. If luck went against them, Roguin was to get away and live in foreign

countries, and trust to his friend du Tillet, who would be faithful to him to the last sou. It was a rope thrown

to a drowning man, and Roguin did not perceive that the perfumer's clerk had flung it round his neck.

Master of Roguin's secret, du Tillet made use of it to establish his power over wife, mistress, and husband.

Madame Roguin, when told of a disaster she was far from suspecting, accepted du Tillet's attentions, who

about this time left his situation with Birotteau, confident of future success. He found no difficulty in

persuading the mistress to risk a certain sum of money as a provision against the necessity of resorting to

prostitution if misfortunes overtook her. The wife, on the other hand, regulated her accounts, and gathered

together quite a little capital, which she gave to the man whom her husband confided in; for by this time the

notary had given a hundred thousand francs of the remaining trustmoney to his accomplice. Du Tillet's

relations to Madame Roguin then became such that her interest in him was transformed into affection and

finally into a violent passion. Through his three sleepingpartners Ferdinand naturally derived a profit; but

not content with that profit, he had the audacity, when gambling at the Bourse in their name, to make an

agreement with a pretended adversary, a man of straw, from whom he received back for himself certain sums

which he had charged as losses to his clients. As soon as he had gained fifty thousand francs he was sure of

fortune. He had the eye of an eagle to discern the phases through which France was then passing. He played

low during the campaign of the allied armies, and high on the restoration of the Bourbons. Two months after

the return of Louis XVIII., Madame Roguin was worth two hundred thousand francs, du Tillet three hundred

thousand, and the notary had been able to get his accounts once more into order.

La belle Hollandaise wasted her share of the profits; for she was secretly a prey to an infamous scoundrel

named Maxime de Trailles, a former page of the Emperor. Du Tillet discovered the real name of this woman

in drawing out a deed. She was Sarah Gobseck. Struck by the coincidence of the name with that of a

wellknown usurer, he went to the old moneylender (that providence of young men of family) to find out

how far he would back the credit of his relation. The Brutus of usurers was implacable towards his

greatniece, but du Tillet himself pleased him by posing as Sarah's banker, and having funds to invest. The

Norman nature and the rapacious nature suited each other. Gobseck happened to want a clever young man to

examine into an affair in a foreign country. It chanced that an auditor of the Council of State, overtaken by

the return of the Bourbons and anxious to stand well at court, had gone to Germany and bought up all the

debts contracted by the princes during the emigration. He now offered the profits of the affair, which to him

was merely political, to any one who would reimburse him. Gobseck would pay no money down, unless in

proportion to the redemption of the debts, and insisted on a careful examination of the affair. Usurers never

trust any one; they demand vouchers. With them the bird in the hand is everything; icy when they have no

need of a man, they are wheedling and inclined to be gracious when they can make him useful.

Du Tillet knew the enormous underground part played in the world by such men as Werbrust and Gigonnet,

commercial moneylenders in the Rues SaintDenis and SaintMartin; by Palma, banker in the Faubourg

Poissonniere,all of whom were closely connected with Gobseck. He accordingly offered a cash security,

and obtained an interest in the affair, on condition that these gentlemen would use in their commercial loans

certain moneys he should place in their hands. By this means he strengthened himself with a solid support on

Du Tillet accompanied Monsieur Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx to Germany during the Hundred Days, and

came back at the second Restoration, having done more to increase his means of making a fortune than

augmented the fortune itself. He was now in the secret councils of the sharpest speculators in Paris; he had

secured the friendship of the man with whom he had examined into the affair of the debts, and that clever

juggler had laid bare to him the secrets of legal and political science. Du Tillet possessed one of those minds

which understand at half a word, and he completed his education during his travels in Germany. On his return

he found Madame Roguin faithful to him. As to the notary, he longed for Ferdinand with as much impatience

as his wife did, for la belle Hollandaise had once more ruined him. Du Tillet questioned the woman, but

could find no outlay equal to the sum dissipated. It was then that he discovered the secret which Sarah had

carefully concealed from him,her mad passion for Maxime de Trailles, whose earliest steps in a career of

vice showed him for what he was, one of those goodfornothing members of the body politic who seem the

necessary evil of all good government, and whose love of gambling renders them insatiable. On making this

discovery, du Tillet at once saw the reason of Gobseck's insensibility to the claims of his niece.

Under these circumstances du Tillet the banker (for Ferdinand was now a banker) advised Roguin to lay up

something against a rainy day, by persuading his clients to invest in some enterprise which might enable him

to put by for himself large sums of money, in case he were forced to go into bankruptcy through the affairs of

the bank. After many ups and downs, which were profitable to none but Madame Roguin and du Tillet,

Roguin heard the fatal hour of his insolvency and final ruin strike. His misery was then worked upon by his

faithful friend. Ferdinand invented the speculation in lands about the Madeleine. The hundred thousand

francs belonging to Cesar Birotteau, which were in the hands of the notary, were made over to du Tillet; for

the latter, whose object was to ruin the perfumer, had made Roguin understand that he would run less risk if

he got his nearest friends into the net. "A friend," he said, "is more considerate, even if angry."

Few people realize today how little value the lands about the Madeleine had at the period of which we

write; but at that time they were likely to be sold even below their then value, because of the difficulty of

finding purchasers willing to wait for the profits of the enterprise. Now, du Tillet's aim was to seize the

profits speedily without the losses of a protracted speculation. In other words, his plan was to strangle the

speculation and get hold of it as a dead thing, which he might galvanize back to life when it suited him. In

such a scheme the Gobsecks, Palmas, and Werbrusts would have been ready to lend a hand, but du Tillet was

not yet sufficiently intimate with them to ask their aid; besides, he wanted to hide his own hand in conducting

the affair, that he might get the profits of his theft without the shame of it. He felt the necessity of having

under his thumb one of those living layfigures called in commercial language a "man of straw." His former

tool at the Bourse struck him as a suitable person for the post; he accordingly trenched upon Divine right, and

created a man. Out of a former commercial traveller, who was without means or capacity of any kind, except

that of talking indefinitely on all subjects and saying nothing, who was without a farthing or a chance to make

one,able, nevertheless, to understand a part and act it without compromising the play or the actors in it, and

possessed of a rare sort of honor, that of keeping a secret and letting himself be dishonored to screen his

employers,out of such a being du Tillet now made a banker, who set on foot and directed vast enterprises;

The fate of Charles Claparon would be, if du Tillet's scheme ended in bankruptcy, a swift deliverance to the

tender mercies of Jews and Pharisees; and he well knew it. But to a poor devil who was despondently

roaming the boulevard with a future of forty sous in his pocket when his old comrade du Tillet chanced to

meet him, the little gains that he was to get out of the affair seemed an Eldorado. His friendship, his devotion,

to du Tillet, increased by unreflecting gratitude and stimulated by the wants of a libertine and vagabond life,

led him to say amen to everything. Having sold his honor, he saw it risked with so much caution that he

ended by attaching himself to his old comrade as a dog to his master. Claparon was an ugly poodle, but as

ready to jump as Curtius. In the present affair he was to represent half the purchasers of the land, while Cesar

Birotteau represented the other half. The notes which Claparon was to receive from Birotteau were to be

discounted by one of the usurers whose name du Tillet was authorized to use, and this would send Cesar

headlong into bankruptcy so soon as Roguin had drawn from him his last funds. The assignees of the failure

would, as du Tillet felt certain, follow his cue; and he, already possessed of the property paid over by the

perfumer and his associates, could sell the lands at auction and buy them in at half their value with the funds

of Roguin and the assets of the failure. The notary went into this scheme believing that he should enrich

himself by the spoliation of Birotteau and his copartners; but the man in whose power he had placed himself

intended to take, and eventually did take, the lion's share. Roguin, unable to sue du Tillet in any of the courts,

was glad of the bone flung to him, month by month, in the recesses of Switzerland, where he found nymphs

at a reduction. Circumstances, actual facts, and not the imagination of a tragic author inventing a catastrophe,

gave birth to this horrible scheme. Hatred without a thirst for vengeance is like a seed falling on stony

ground; but vengeance vowed to a Cesar by a du Tillet is a natural movement of the soul. If it were not, then

we must deny the warfare between the angels of light and the spirits of darkness.

Du Tillet could not very easily assassinate the man who knew him to be guilty of a petty theft, but he could

fling him into the mire and annihilate him so completely that his word and testimony would count for

nothing. For a long time revenge had germinated in his heart without budding; for the men who hate most are

usually those who have little time in Paris to make plans; life is too fast, too full, too much at the mercy of

unexpected events. But such perpetual changes, though they hinder premeditation, nevertheless offer

opportunity to thoughts lurking in the depths of a purpose which is strong enough to lie in wait for their tidal

chances. When Roguin first confided his troubles to du Tillet, the latter had vaguely foreseen the possibility

of destroying Cesar, and he was not mistaken. Forced at last to give up his mistress, the notary drank the

dregs of his philter from a broken chalice. He went every day to the Champs Elysees returning home early in

From the moment when a man consents to play the part which du Tillet had allotted to Roguin, he develops

the talents of a comedian; he has the eye of a lynx and the penetration of a seer; he magnetizes his dupe. The

notary had seen Birotteau some time before Birotteau had caught sight of him; when the perfumer did see

"I have just been to make the will of a great personage who has only eight days to live," he said, with an easy

manner. "They have treated me like a country doctor,fetched me in a carriage, and let me walk home on

These words chased away the slight shade of suspicion which clouded the face of the perfumer, and which

Roguin had been quick to perceive. The notary was careful not to be the first to mention the land speculation;

"After wills come marriage contracts," said Birotteau. "Such is life. Apropos, when do we marry the

"Well, if it is not today," said the notary, with a diplomatic air, "then never. We are afraid that the affair may

get wind. I am much urged by two of my wealthiest clients, who want a share in this speculation. There it is,

to take or leave. This morning I shall draw the deeds. You have till one o'clock to make up your mind. Adieu;

I am just on my way to read over the rough draft which Xandrot has been making out during the night."

"Well, my mind is made up. I pass my word," said Birotteau, running after the notary and seizing his hand.

"Take the hundred thousand francs which were laid by for my daughter's portion."

For a moment, as Birotteau turned to rejoin little Popinot, he felt a fierce heat in his entrails, the muscles of

"What is the matter, monsieur?" asked the clerk, when he saw his master's pale face.

"Ah, my lad! I have just with one word decided on a great undertaking; no man is master of himself at such a

moment. You are a party to it. In fact, I brought you here that we might talk of it at our ease; no one can

"Monsieur, my uncle and aunt put all their property into the hands of Monsieur de Nucingen, and they were

forced to accept as security certain shares in the mines at Wortschin, which as yet pay no dividends; and it is

"Right, right, Anselme!" said the perfumer, as a tear rolled down his cheek. "You are worthy of the regard I

feel for you. You are about to receive a great recompense for your fidelity to my interests."

As he said these words the worthy man swelled in his own eyes as much as he did in those of Popinot, and he

uttered them with a plebeian and naive emphasis which was the genuine expression of his counterfeit

"Ah, boy, you are bold indeed!" exclaimed Birotteau. "Keep your secret. I promise to forget it. You leave my

house tomorrow. I am not angry with you; in your placethe devil! the devil!I should have done the

"Oh, monsieur!" said the clerk, who felt his shirt getting wet with perspiration.

"My boy, this matter is not one to be settled in a day. Cesarine is her own mistress, and her mother has fixed

ideas. Control yourself, wipe your eyes, hold your heart in hand, and don't let us talk any more about it. I

should not blush to have you for my soninlaw. The nephew of Monsieur Popinot, a judge of the civil

courts, nephew of the Ragons, you have the right to make your way as well as anybody; but there are buts and

ifs and hows and whys. What a devil of a dog you have let loose upon me, in the midst of a business

conversation! Here, sit down on that chair, and let the lover give place to the clerk. Popinot, are you a loyal

man?" he said, looking fixedly at the youth. "Do you feel within you the nerve to struggle with something

"To destroy Macassar Oil!" said Birotteau, rising on his toes like a hero in Plutarch. "Let us not mistake; the

enemy is strong, well entrenched, formidable! Macassar Oil has been vigorously launched. The conception

was strong. The square bottles were original; I have thought of making ours triangular. Yet on the whole I

prefer, after ripe reflection, smaller bottles of thin glass, encased in wicker; they would have a mysterious

"They would be expensive," said Popinot. "We must get things out as cheap as we can, so as to make a good

"Good, my lad! That's the right principle. But now, think of it. Macassar Oil will defend itself; it is specious;

the name is seductive. It is offered as a foreign importation; and we have the illluck to belong to our own

country. Come, Popinot, have you the courage to kill Macassar? Then begin the fight in foreign lands. It

seems that Macassar is really in the Indies. Now, isn't it much better to supply a French product to the Indians

than to send them back what they are supposed to send to us? Make the venture. Begin the fight in India, in

foreign countries, in the departments. Macassar Oil has been thoroughly advertised; we must not underrate its

"What with?" said Birotteau. "That's the way with ardent young people. Listen till I've done."

Anselme fell into position like a soldier presenting arms to a marshal of France.

"Popinot, I have invented an oil to stimulate the growth of hair, to titillate the scalp, to revive the color of

male and female tresses. This cosmetic will not be less successful than my Paste or my Lotion. But I don't

intend to work it myself. I think of retiring from business. It is you, my boy, who are to launch my Oil

Comagene,from the latin word coma, which signifies 'hair,' as Monsieur Alibert, the King's physician,

says. The word is found in the tragedy of Berenice, where Racine introduces a king of Comagene, lover of

the queen so celebrated for the beauty of her hair; the kingno doubt as a delicate flatterygave the name

to his country. What wit and intellect there is in genius! it condescends to the minutest details."

Little Popinot kept his countenance as he listened to this absurd flourish, evidently said for his benefit as an

"Anselme, I have cast my eyes upon you as the one to found a commercial house in the highclass druggist

line, Rue des Lombards. I will be your secret partner, and supply the funds to start with. After the Oil

Comagene, we will try an essence of vanilla and the spirit of peppermint. We'll tackle the drugtrade by

revolutionizing it, by selling its products concentrated instead of selling them raw. Ambitious young man, are

Anselme could not answer, his heart was full; but his eyes, filled with tears, answered for him. The offer

seemed prompted by indulgent fatherhood, saying to him: "Deserve Cesarine by becoming rich and

"That's what I said at your age," cried the perfumer; "that was my motto. If you don't win my daughter, at

"I can't prevent you from hoping, my friend," said Birotteau, touched by Anselme's tone.

"Well, then, monsieur, can I begin today to look for a shop, so as to start at once?"

"Yes, my son. Tomorrow we will shut ourselves up in the workshop, you and I. Before you go to the Rue

des Lombards, call at Livingston's and see if my hydraulic press will be ready to use tomorrow morning.

Tonight we will go, about dinnertime, to the good and illustrious Monsieur Vauquelin and consult him. He

has lately been employed in studying the composition of hair; he has discovered the nature of the coloring

matter and whence it comes; also the structure of the hair itself. The secret is just there, Popinot, and you

shall know it; all we have to do is to work it out cleverly. Before you go to Livingston's, just stop at Pieri

Berard's. My lad, the disinterested kindness of Monsieur Vauquelin is one of the sorrows of my life. I cannot

make him accept any return. Happily, I found out from Chiffreville that he wished for the Dresden Madonna,

engraved by a man named Muller. After two years correspondence with Germany, Berard has at last found

one on Chinese paper before lettering. It cost fifteen hundred francs, my boy. Today, my benefactor will see

it in his antechamber when he bows us out; it is to be all framed, and I want you to see about it. Wethat is,

my wife and Ishall thus recall ourselves to his mind; as for gratitude, we have prayed to God for him daily

for sixteen years. I can never forget him; but you see, Popinot, men buried in the depths of science do forget

everything,wives, friends, and those they have benefited. As for us plain people, our lack of mind keeps

our hearts warm at any rate. That's the consolation for not being a great man. Look at those gentlemen of the

Institute, all brain; you will never meet one of them in a church. Monsieur Vauquelin is tied to his study or

his laboratory; but I like to believe he thinks of God in analyzing the works of His hands.Now, then, it is

understood; I give you the money and put you in possession of my secret; we will go shares, and there's no

need for any papers between us. Hurrah for success! we'll act in concert. Off with you, my boy! As for me,

I've got my part to attend to. One minute, Popinot. I give a great ball three weeks hence; get yourself a

This last kindness touched Popinot so deeply that he caught Cesar's big hand and kissed it; the worthy soul

had flattered the lover by this confidence, and people in love are capable of anything.

"Poor boy!" thought Birotteau, as he watched him hurrying across the Tuileries. "Suppose Cesarine should

love him? But he is lame, and his hair is the color of a warmingpan. Young girls are queer; still, I don't think

that CesarineAnd then her mother wants to see her the wife of a notary. Alexandre Crottat can make her

rich; wealth makes everything bearable, and there is no happiness that won't give way under poverty.

However, I am resolved to leave my daughter mistress of herself, even if it seems a folly."

Birotteau's neighbor was a small dealer in umbrellas, parasols, and canes, named Cayron,a man from

Languedoc, doing a poor business, whom Cesar had several times befriended. Cayron wished nothing better

than to confine himself to the groundfloor and let the rich perfumer take the floor above it, thus diminishing

"Well, neighbor," said Birotteau familiarly, as he entered the man's shop, "my wife consents to the

enlargement of our premises. If you like, we will go and see Monsieur Molineux at eleven o'clock."

"My dear Monsieur Birotteau," said the umbrellaman, "I have not asked you any compensation for this

cession; but you are aware that a good merchant ought to make money out of everything."

"What the devil!" cried Birotteau. "I'm not made of money. I don't know that my architect can do the thing at

all. He told me that before concluding my arrangements I must know whether the floors were on the same

level. Then, supposing Monsieur Molineux does allow me to cut a door in the wall, is it a partywall?

Moreover, I have to turn my staircase, and make a new landing, so as to get a passageway on the same floor.

"Oh, monsieur," said the southerner. "Before you are ruined, the sun will have married the earth and they'll

Birotteau stroked his chin, rose on the points of his toes, and fell back upon his heels.

"Besides," resumed Cayron, "all I ask you to do is to cash these securities for me"

"Ah!" said the perfumer turning them over. "Small fry, two months, three months"

"What can I do, monsieur? I went to your old clerk, du Tillet, and he would not take them at any price. No

"For the want of a thousand francssure to be repaid in four months don't throw me into the hands of the

bloodsuckers who get the best of our profits; do take all, monsieur! I do so little in the way of discount that I

"Well, I'll cash your notes; Celestin will make out the account. Be ready at eleven, will you? There's my

architect, Monsieur Grindot," said the perfumer, catching sight of the young man, with whom he had made an

"Contrary to the custom of men of talent you are punctual, monsieur," said Cesar, displaying his finest

commercial graces. "If punctuality, in the words of our king,a man of wit as well as a statesman,is the

politeness of princes, it is also the wealth of merchants. Time, time is gold, especially to you artists. I permit

myself to say to you that architecture is the union of all the arts. We will not enter through the shop," he

Four years earlier Monsieur Grindot had carried off the grand prix in architecture, and had lately returned

from Rome where he had spent three years at the cost of the State. In Italy the young man had dreamed of art;

in Paris he thought of fortune. Government alone can pay the needful millions to raise an architect to glory; it

is therefore natural that every ambitious youth of that calling, returning from Rome and thinking himself a

Fontaine or a Percier, should bow before the administration. The liberal student became a royalist, and sought

to win the favor of influential persons. When a grand prix man behaves thus, his comrades call him a

trimmer. The young architect in question had two ways open to him,either to serve the perfumer well, or

put him under contribution. Birotteau the deputymayor, Birotteau the future possessor of half the lands

about the Madeleine, where he would sooner or later build up a fine neighborhood, was a man to keep on

good terms with. Grindot accordingly resolved to sacrifice his immediate gains to his future interests. He

listened patiently to the plans, the repetitions, and the ideas of this worthy specimen of the bourgeois class,

the constant butt of the witty shafts and ridicule of artists, and the object of their everlasting contempt,

nodding his head as if to show the perfumer that he caught his ideas. When Cesar had thoroughly explained

"You have now three front windows on the first floor, besides the window on the staircase which lights the

landing; to these four windows you mean to add two on the same level in the next house, by turning the

"To carry out your plan, you must light the new staircase from above, and manage to get a porter's lodge

"As for your own appartement, give me carteblanche to arrange and decorate it. I wish to make it worthy"

"An architect can estimate on a new building almost to a farthing," answered the young man; "but as I don't

know how to deal with a bourgeoisah! excuse me, monsieur, the word slipped outI must warn you that

it is impossible to calculate the costs of tearing down and rebuilding. It will take at least eight days before I

can give even an approximate idea of them. Trust yourself to me: you shall have a charming staircase, lighted

from above, with a pretty vestibule opening from the street, and in the space under the stairway"

"Don't be worriedI will find room for a little porter's lodge. Your house shall be studied and remodelled

con amore. Yes, monsieur, I look to art and not to fortune. Above all things I do not want fame before I have

earned it. To my mind, the best means of winning credit is not to play into the hands of contractors, but to get

"With such ideas, young man," said Birotteau in a patronizing tone, "you will succeed."

"Therefore," resumed Grindot, "employ the masons, painters, locksmiths, carpenters, and upholsterers

yourself. I will simply look over their accounts. Pay me only two thousand francs commission. It will be

money well laid out. Give me the premises tomorrow at twelve o'clock, and have your workmen on the

"From ten to twelve thousand francs," said Grindot. "That does not count the furniture; of course you will

renew that. Give me the address of your cabinetmaker; I shall have to arrange with him about the choice of

"Monsieur Braschon, Rue SaintAntoine, takes my orders," said Birotteau, assuming a ducal air.

The architect wrote down the address in one of those pretty notebooks which invariably come from women.

"Well," said Birotteau, "I trust to you, monsieur; only you must wait till the lease of the adjoining house is

"Send me a note this evening," said the architect; "it will take me all night to draw the planswe would

rather work for a bourgeois than for the King of Prussia, that is to say for ourselves. I will now take the

"It shall be done," said the architect. "The workmen must do without sleep; we will use drying oil in the

paint. But don't let yourself be taken in by the contractors; always ask their price in advance, and have a

"Paris is the only place in the world where you can wave a magic wand like that," said Birotteau, with an

Asiatic gesture worthy of the Arabian Nights. "You will do me the honor to come to my ball, monsieur? Men

of talent are not all disdainful of commerce; and you will meet a scientific man of the first order, Monsieur

Vauquelin of the Institute; also Monsieur de la Billardiere, Monsieur le comte de Fontaine, Monsieur Lebas,

judge and president of the Court of commerce, various magistrates, Monsieur le comte de Grandville of the

royal suite, Monsieur Camusot of the Court of commerce, and Monsieur Cardot, his fatherinlaw, and,

perhaps, Monsieur le duc de Lenoncourt, first gentleman of the bedchamber to the king. I assemble my

friends as muchto celebrate the emancipation of our territoryas to commemorate mypromotion to the

order of the Legion of honor," here Grindot made a curious gesture. "Possibly I showed myself worthy of

thatsignaland royalfavor, by my services on the bench, and by fighting for the Bourbons upon the

steps of SaintRoch on the 13th Vendemiaire, where I was wounded by Napoleon. These claims"

Constance, in a morning gown, here came out of her daughter's bedroom, where she had been dressing; her

first glance cut short Cesar's eloquence just as he was about to formulate in flowing phrase, though modestly,

"Tiens, Mimi, this is Monsieur de Grindot, a young man distinguished in his own sphere of life, and the

possessor of a great talent. Monsieur is the architect recommended to us by Monsieur de la Billardiere to

The perfumer slipped behind his wife and made a sign to the architect to take notice of the word little, putting

"A rough guess!" exclaimed Madame Birotteau. "Monsieur, I entreat you, begin nothing without an estimate

and the specifications signed. I know the ways of contractors: six thousand francs means twenty thousand.

We are not in a position to commit such extravagance. I beg you, monsieur,though of course my husband

"Madame, monsieur the deputymayor has ordered me to deliver the premises, all finished, in twenty days. If

we delay, you will be likely to incur the expense without obtaining the lookedfor result."

"There are expenses and expenses," said the handsome mistress of "The Queen of Roses."

"Ah! madame, do you think an architect who seeks to put up public buildings finds it glorious to decorate a

mere appartement? I have come down to such details merely to oblige Monsieur de la Billardiere; and if you

"Well, well, monsieur," said Constance reentering her daughter's room, where she threw her head on

"Ah, my daughter!" she cried, "your father will ruin himself! He has engaged an architect with mustachios,

who talks about public buildings! He is going to pitch the house out of windows and build us a Louvre. Cesar

is never idle about his follies; he only spoke to me about it in the night, and he begins it in the morning!"

"Never mind, mamma; let papa do as he likes. The good God has always taken care of him," said Cesarine,

kissing her mother and sitting down to the piano, to let the architect know that the perfumer's daughter was

When Grindot came in to measure the bedroom he was surprised and taken aback at the beauty of Cesarine.

Just out of her dressingroom and wearing a pretty morninggown, fresh and rosy as a young girl is fresh and

rosy at eighteen, blond and slender, with blue eyes, Cesarine seemed to the young artist a picture of the

elasticity, so rare in Paris, that fills and rounds the delicate cheek, and tints with the color adored of painters,

the tracery of blue veins throbbing beneath the whiteness of her clear skin. Though she lived in the lymphatic

atmosphere of a Parisian shop, where the air stagnates and the sun seldom shines, her habits gave her the

same advantages which the open air life of Rome gives to the Transteverine peasantwoman. Her hair,

which was abundant, and grew, like that of her father, in points upon her forehead,was caught up in a twist

which showed the lines of a wellset neck, and then rippled downward in curls that were scrupulously cared

for, after the fashion of young shopwomen, whose desire to attract attention inspires the truly English

minutiae of their toilet. The beauty of this young girl was not the beauty of an English lady, nor of a French

duchess, but the round and glowing beauty of a Flemish Rubens. Cesarine had the turnedup nose of her

father, but it was piquant through the delicacy of its modelling, like those noses, essentially French, which

have been so well reproduced by Largilliere. Her skin, of a firm full texture, bespoke the vitality of a virgin;

she had the fine brow of her mother, but it was clear with the serenity of a young girl who knows no care. Her

liquid blue eyes, bathed in rich fluid, expressed the tender grace of a glowing happiness. If that happiness

took from her head the poetry which painters insist on giving to their pictures my making them a shade too

pensive, the vague physical languor of a young girl who has never left her mother's side made up for it, and

gave her a species of ideality. Notwithstanding the graceful lines of her figure, she was strongly built. Her

feet betrayed the peasant origin of her father and her own defects of race, as did the redness of her hands, the

sign of the thoroughly bourgeois life. Sooner or later she would grow stout. She had caught the sentiment of

dress from the elegant young women who came to the shop, and had learned from them certain movements of

the head, certain ways of speaking and of moving; and she could play the wellbred woman in a way that

turned the heads of all the young men, especially the clerks, in whose eyes she appeared truly distinguished.

Popinot swore that he would have no other wife than Cesarine. The liquid brightness of that eye, which a

look, or a tone of reproach, might cause to overflow in tears, was all that kept him to a sense of masculine

superiority. The charming girl inspired love without leaving time to ask whether she had mind enough to

make it durable. But of what value is the thing they call in Paris mind to a class whose principal element of

In her moral qualities Cesarine was like her mother, somewhat bettered by the superfluities of education; she

loved music, drew the Madonna della Sedia in chalk, and read the works of Mmes. Cottin and Riccoboni, of

Bernadin de SaintPierre, Fenelon, and Racine. She was never seen behind the counter with her mother

except for a few moments before sitting down to dinner, or on some special occasion when she replaced her.

Her father and mother, like all persons who have risen from small beginnings, and who cultivate the

ingratitude of their children by putting them above themselves, delighted in deifying Cesarine, who happily

Madame Birotteau followed the architect with an anxious and appealing eye, watching with terror, and

pointing out to her daughter, the fantastic movements of the fourfoot rule, that wand of architects and

builders, with which Grindot was measuring. She saw in those mysterious weavings a conjuring spirit that

augured evil; she wished the walls were less high, the rooms less large, and dared not question the young man

"Do not be afraid, madame, I shall carry nothing off," said the artist, smiling.

"Monsieur," said Constance, in a supplicating voice, not even noticing the titfortat of the young man,

Before starting to see Monsieur Molineux, the owner of the adjoining house, Cesar wished to get from

Roguin the private deed about the transference of the lease which Alexandre Crottat had been ordered to draw

up. As he left the notary's house, he saw du Tillet at the window of Roguin's study. Although the liaison of

his former clerk with the lawyer's wife made it not unlikely that he should see du Tillet there at this hour

when the negotiations about the Madeleine were going on, Birotteau, in spite of his extreme confidence, felt

uneasy. The excited manner of du Tillet seemed the sign of a discussion. "Can he be in it?" thought Cesar,

with a flash of commercial prudence. The suspicion passed like lightning through his mind. He looked again

and saw Madame Roguin, and the presence of du Tillet was no longer suspicious. "Still, suppose Constance

were right?" he said to himself. "What a fool I am to listen to women's notions! I'll speak of it to my uncle

Pillerault this morning; it is only a step from the Cour Batave, where Monsieur Molineux lives, to the Rue

A cautious observer, or a merchant who had met with swindlers in his business career, would have been

saved by this sight; but the antecedents of Birotteau, the incapacity of his mind, which had little power to

follow up the chain of inductions by which a superior man reaches a conclusion, all conspired to blind him.

He found the umbrellaman in full dress, and they were about to start, when Virginie, the cook, caught him

"That's true. My neighbor," he said to Cayron, "I have so many things in my head that I can't think of my

stomach. Do me the kindness to go forward; we will meet at Monsieur Molineux' door, unless you are willing

Monsieur Molineux was a grotesque little man, living on his rents,a species of being that exists nowhere

but in Paris, like a certain lichen which grows only in Iceland. This comparison is all the more apt because he

belonged to a mixed nature, to an animalvegetable kingdom which some modern Mercier might build up of

cryptograms that push up upon, and flower, and die in or under the plastered walls of the strange unhealthy

houses where they prefer to cluster. The first aspect of this human plantumbelliferous, judging by the

fluted blue cap which crowned it, with a stalk encased in greenish trousers, and bulbous roots swathed in list

shoesoffered to the eye a flat and faded countenance, which certainly betrayed nothing poisonous. In this

queer product might be recognized the typical stockholder, who believes every report which the daily press

baptizes with ink, and is content, for all response, to say, "Read what the papers say,"the bourgeois,

essentially the friend of order, always revolting in his moral being against power, though always obeying it; a

creature feeble in the mass but fierce in isolated circumstances, hard as a constable when his own rights are in

question, yet giving fresh chickweed to his bird and fishbones to his cat, interrupting the signing of a lease

to whistle to a canary, suspicious as a jailer, but apt to put his money into a bad business and then endeavor to

get it back by niggardly avarice. The evil savor of this hybrid flower was only revealed by use; its nauseous

bitterness needed the stewing of some business in which his interests were mingled with those of other men,

to bring it fully out. Like all Parisians, Molineux had the lust of dominating; he craved the share of

sovereignty which is exercised more or less by every one, even a porter, over a greater or lesser number of

victims, over wife, children, tenants, clerks, horses, dogs, monkeys, to whom they send, on the rebound,

the mortifications they have endured in the higher spheres to which they aspired.

This annoying old man had neither wife, child, nephew, or niece. He bullied his servantofallwork too

much to make her a victim; for she escaped all contact with her master by doing her work and keeping out of

his way. His appetite for tyranny was thus balked; and to satisfy it in some way he patiently studied the laws

relating to rentals and partywalls; he fathomed the jurisprudence which regulates the dwellings of Paris in

an infinite number of petty questions as to tenants, abutters, liabilities, taxes, repairs, sweepings, decorations

for the FeteDieu, wastepipes, lighting, projections over the public way, and the neighborhood of unhealthy

buildings. His means, his strength, in fact his whole mind was spent in keeping his proprietary rights on a

complete warfooting. He had made it an amusement, and the amusement had become a monomania. He was

fond of protecting citizens against the encroachment of illegal proceedings; but finding such subjects of

complaint rare, he had finally turned upon his own tenants. A tenant became his enemy, his inferior, his

subject, his vassal; he laid claim to his subservience, and looked upon any man as a brute who passed him on

the stairway without speaking. He wrote out his bills for rent himself, and sent them on the morning of the

day they fell due. The debtor who was behindhand in his payment received a legal notice to quit at an

appointed time. Then followed seizures, lawsuits, costs, and the whole judicial array set in motion with the

rapidity of what the head'sman calls the "mechanism." Molineux granted neither grace nor time; his heart

"I will lend you the money if you want it," he would say to a man he thought solvent, "but pay my rent; all

delays carry with them a loss of interest for which the law does not indemnify us."

After long study of the caprices and capers of tenants who persisted, after the fashion of dynasties, in

upsetting the arrangements of their predecessors, he had drawn up a charter of his own and followed it

religiously. In accordance therewith, the old fellow made no repairs: no chimney ever smoked, the stairs were

clean, the ceilings white, the cornices irreproachable, the floors firm on their joists, the paint satisfactory; the

locks were never more than three years old, not a pane of glass was missing, there were no cracks, and he saw

no broken tiles until a tenant vacated the premises. When he met the tenants on their first arrival he was

accompanied by a locksmith and a painter and glazier,very convenient folks, as he remarked. The lessee

was at liberty to make improvements; but if the unhappy man did so, little Molineux thought night and day of

how he could dislodge him and relet the improved appartement on better terms. He watched and waited and

spun the web of his mischievous legal proceedings. He knew all the tricks of Parisian legislation in the matter

of leases. Factious and fond of scribbling, he wrote polite and specious letters to his tenants; but at the bottom

of all his civil sentences could be seen, as in his faded and cozening face, the soul of a Shylock. He always

demanded six months' rent in advance, to be deducted from the last quarter of the lease under an array of

prickly conditions which he invented. If new tenants offered themselves, he got information about them from

the police; for he would not have people of certain callings,he was afraid, for instance, of hammers. When

the lease was to be signed, he kept the deed and spelled it over for a week, fearing what he called the et

Outside of his notions as a proprietor, JeanBaptiste Molineux seemed good and obliging. He played at

boston without complaining of the players; he laughed at the things which make a bourgeois laugh; talked of

what others of his kind talked about,the arbitrary powers of bakers who nefariously sell false weights, of

the police, of the heroic seventeen deputies of the Left. He read the "Good Sense" of the Cure Meslier, and

went to Mass; not that he had any choice between deism and Christianity, but he took the wafer when offered

to him, and argued that he was therefore safe from the interfering claims of the clergy. The indefatigable

litigant wrote letters on this subject to the newspapers, which the newspapers did not insert and never

answered. He was in other respects one of those estimable bourgeois who solemnly put Christmas logs on

their fire, draw kings at play, invent Aprilfools, stroll on the boulevards when the weather is fine, go to see

the skating, and are always to be found on the terrace of the Place Louis XV. at two o'clock on the days of the

fireworks, with a roll in their pockets so that they may get and keep a front place.

The Cour Batave, where the little old man lived, is the product of one of those fantastic speculations of which

no man can explain the meaning after they are once completed. This cloistral structure, with arcades and

interior galleries built of freestone, with a fountain at one end,a parched fountain, which opens its lion's

mouth less to give water than to ask it from the passersby,was doubtless invented to endow the

SaintDenis quarter with a species of PalaisRoyal. The place, unhealthy and buried on all four sides by the

high walls of its houses, has no life or movement except in the daytime; it is a central spot where dark

passages meet, and connect the quarter of the markets with the SaintMartin quarter by means of the famous

Rue Quincampoix, damp ways in which hurried footpassengers contract rheumatism. But at night no spot

in Paris is more deserted; it might be called the catacombs of commerce. In it there are various industrial

cloaca, very few Dutchmen, but a great many grocers. The appartements in this merchantplace have,

naturally, no other outlook than that of the common court on which all the windows give, so that rents are at a

Monsieur Molineux lived in one of the angles, on the sixth floor for sanitary reasons, the air not being pure at

a less height than seventy feet above the ground. At this altitude the worthy proprietor enjoyed an enchanting

view of the windmills of Montmartre as he walked among the gutters on the roof, where he cultivated

flowers, in spite of police regulations against the hanging gardens of our modern Babylon. His appartement

was made up of four rooms, without counting the precious anglaises on the floor above him of which he had

the key; they belonged to him, he had made them, and he felt he was legally entitled to them. On entering his

appartement, a repulsive barrenness plainly showed the avarice of the owner: in the antechamber were six

straw chairs and a porcelain stove; on the walls, which were covered with a bottlegreen paper, were four

engravings bought at auction. In the diningroom were two sideboards, two cages full of birds, a table

covered with oilcloth, a barometer, a windowdoor which opened on the hanging gardens, and chairs of

dark mahogany covered with horsehair. The salon had little curtains of some old greensilk stuff, and

furniture of painted whitewood covered with green worsted velvet. As to the chamber of the old celibate it

was furnished with Louis XV. articles, so dirty and disfigured through long usage that a woman dressed in

white would have been afraid of soiling herself by contact with them. The chimneypiece was adorned by a

clock with two columns, between which was a dialcase that served as a pedestal to Pallas brandishing her

lance: a myth. The floor was covered with plates full of scraps intended for the cats, on which there was

much danger of stepping. Above a chest of drawers in rosewood hung a portrait done in pastel,Molineux in

his youth. There were also books, tables covered with shabby green bandboxes, on a bracket a number of his

deceased canaries stuffed; and, finally, a chilly bed that might formerly have belonged to a Carmelite.

Cesar Birotteau was delighted with the extreme politeness of Molineux, whom he found wrapped in a gray

woollen dressinggown, watching his milk in a little metal heater on the edge of his fireplace, while his

coffeegrounds were boiling in a little brown earthenware jug from which, every now and then, he poured a

few drops into his coffeepot. The umbrellaman, anxious not to disturb his landlord, had gone to the door to

admit Birotteau. Molineux held the mayors and deputies of the city of Paris in much esteem;: he called them

"my municipal officers." At sight of the magistrate he rose, and remained standing, cap in hand, until the

"No, monsieur; yes, monsieur; ah, monsieur, if I had known I should have had the honor of receiving in the

bosom of my humble penates a member of the municipality of Paris, believe me I should have made it my

duty to call upon you, although I am your landlordor, on the point of becoming so."

"No, I shall not; not until you are seated, and have replaced yours, if you feel the cold. My room is chilly, the

smallness of my means not permittingGod grant your wishes!" he added, as Birotteau sneezed while he felt

in his pockets for the deeds. In presenting them to Molineux Cesar remarked, to avoid all unnecessary delay,

"I do not dispute the legal talents of Monsieur Roguin, an old name wellknown in the notariat of Paris; but I

have my own little customs, I do my own business (an excusable hobby), and my notary is"

"But this matter is very simple," said the perfumer, who was used to the quick business methods of

"Simple!" cried Molineux. "Nothing is simple in such matters. Ah! you are not a landlord, monsieur, and you

may think yourself happy. If you knew to what lengths of ingratitude tenants can go, and to what precautions

And for a quarter an hour he recounted how a Monsieur Gendrin, designer, had deceived the vigilance of his

porter, Rue SaintHonore. Monsieur Gendrin had committed infamies worthy of Marat,obscene drawings

at which the police winked. This Gendrin, a profoundly immoral artist, had brought in women of bad lives,

and made the staircase intolerable,conduct worthy of a man who made caricatures of the government. And

why such conduct? Because his rent had been asked for on the 15th! Gendrin and Molineux were about to

have a lawsuit, for, though he did not pay, Gendrin insisted on holding the empty appartement. Molineux

received anonymous letters, no doubt from Gendrin, which threatened him with assassination some night in

"It has got to such a pass, monsieur," he said, winding up the tale, "that monsieur the prefect of police, to

whom I confided my trouble (I profited by the occasion to drop him a few words on the modifications which

should be introduced into the laws to meet the case), has authorized me to carry pistols for my personal

"But, monsieur, you have nothing to fear from me," said Birotteau, looking at Cayron, and giving him a

Molineux detected it; he was mortified at such a look from an officer of the municipality, whose duty it was

to protect all persons under his administration. In any one else he might have pardoned it, but in Birotteau the

"Monsieur," he said in a dry tone, "an esteemed commercial judge, a deputymayor, and an honorable

merchant would not descend to such petty meannesses,for they are meannesses. But in your case there is

an opening through the wall which must be agreed to by your landlord, Monsieur le comte de Grandville;

there are stipulations to be made and agreed upon about replacing the wall at the end of your lease. Besides

which, rents have hitherto been low, but they are rising; the Place Vendome is looking up, the Rue

"Let us come to a settlement," said Birotteau, amazed. "How much do you want? I know business well

enough to be certain that all your reasons can be silenced by the superior consideration of money. Well, how

"That's only fair, monsieur the deputy. How much longer does your own lease run?"

"Think what my first floor will be worth in seven years!" said Molineux. "Why, what would two furnished

rooms let for in that quarter?more than two hundred francs a month perhaps! I am binding

myselfbinding myself by a lease. The rent ought to be fifteen hundred francs. At that price I will consent to

the transfer of the two rooms by Monsieur Cayron, here present," he said, with a sly wink at the

umbrellaman; "and I will give you a lease of them for seven consecutive years. The costs of piercing the

wall are to belong to you; and you must procure the consent of Monsieur le comte de Grandville and the

cession of all his rights in the matter. You are responsible for all damage done in making this opening. You

will not be expected to replace the wall yourself, that will be my business; but you will at once pay me five

hundred francs as an indemnity towards it. We never know who may live or die, and I can't run after anybody

"Next," said Molineux. "You must pay me seven hundred and fifty francs, hic et hinc, to be deducted from

the last six months of your lease; this will be acknowledged in the lease itself. Oh, I will accept small bills for

the value of the rent at any date you please! I am prompt and square in business. We will agree that you are to

close up the door on my staircase (where you are to have no right of entry), at your own cost, in masonry.

Don't fear,I shall ask you no indemnity for that at the end of your lease; I consider it included in the five

"We merchants are not so sharp," said the perfumer. "It would not be possible to do business if we made so

"Oh, in business, that is very different, especially in perfumery, where everything fits like a glove," said the

old fellow with a sour smile; "but when you come to letting houses in Paris, nothing is unimportant. Why, I

"Monsieur," said Birotteau, "I am sorry to detain you from your breakfast: here are the deeds, correct them. I

agree to all that you propose, we will sign them tomorrow; but today let us come to an agreement by word

of mouth, for my architect wants to take possession of the premises in the morning."

"Monsieur," resumed Molineux with a glance at the umbrellamerchant, "part of a quarter has expired;

Monsieur Cayron would not wish to pay it; we will add it to the rest, so that your lease may run from January

"But," said Birotteau, "if you deprive me of the right of entrance, that is not fair."

"Oh, you are a tenant," said little Molineux, peremptorily, up in arms for the principle. "You must pay the tax

on doors and windows and your share in all the other charges. If everything is clearly understood there will

be no difficulty. You must be doing well, monsieur; your affairs are prospering?"

"Yes," said Birotteau. "But my motive is, I may say, something different. I assemble my friends as much to

celebrate the emancipation of our territory as to commemorate my promotion to the order of the Legion of

"Yes," said Birotteau, "possibly I showed myself worthy of that signal and royal favor by my services on the

Bench of commerce, and by fighting for the Bourbons upon the steps of SaintRoch on the 13th

"Are equal to those of our brave soldiers of the old army. The ribbon is red, for it is dyed with their blood."

At these words, taken from the "Constitutionnel," Birotteau could not keep from inviting little Molineux to

the ball, who thanked him profusely and felt like forgiving the disdainful look. The old man conducted his

new tenant as far as the landing, and overwhelmed him with politeness. When Birotteau reached the middle

"I did not think there could exist suchweak beings!" he said, with difficulty keeping back the word fools.

Birotteau might easily believe himself a superior being in the presence of Monsieur Molineux; the answer of

the umbrellaman made him smile agreeably, and he bowed to him with a truly royal air as they parted.

"I am close by the Markets," thought Cesar; "I'll attend to the matter of the nuts."

After an hour's search, Birotteau, who was sent by the marketwomen to the Rue de Lombards where nuts for

sugarplums were to be found, heard from his friend Matifat that the fruit in bulk was only to be had of a

certain Madame Angelique Madou, living in the Rue PerrinGasselin, the sole establishment which kept the

The Rue PerrinGasselin is one of the narrow thoroughfares in a square labyrinth enclosed by the quay, the

Rue SaintDenis, the Rue de la Ferronnerie, and the Rue de la Monnaie; it is, as it were, one of the entrails of

the city. There swarm an infinite number of heterogeneous and mixed articles of merchandise, evilsmelling

and jaunty, herrings and muslin, silks and honey, butter and gauze, and above all a number of petty trades, of

which Paris knows as little as a man knows of what is going on in his pancreas, and which, at the present

moment, had a bloodsucker named Bidault, otherwise called Gigonnet, a moneylender, who lived in the

Rue Grenetat. In this quarter old stables were filled with oilcasks, and the carriagehouses were packed with

bales of cotton. Here were stored in bulk the articles that were sold at retail in the markets.

Madame Madou, formerly a fishwoman, but thrown, some ten years since, into the driedfruit trade by a

liaison with the former proprietor of her present business (an affair which had long fed the gossip of the

markets), had originally a vigorous and enticing beauty, now lost however in a vast embonpoint. She lived on

the lower floor of a yellow house, which was falling to ruins, and was held together at each story by iron

crossbars. The deceased proprietor had succeeded in getting rid of all competitors, and had made his

business a monopoly. In spite of a few slight defects of education, his heiress was able to carry it along, and

take care of her stores, which were in coachhouses, stables, and old workshops, where she fought the vermin

with eminent success. Not troubled with desk or ledgers, for she could neither read nor write, she answered a

letter with a blow of her fist, considering it an insult. In the main she was a good woman, with a highcolored

face, and a foulard tied over her cap, who mastered with bugle voice the wagoners when they brought the

merchandise; such squabbles usually ending in a bottle of the "right sort." She had no disputes with the

agriculturists who consigned her the fruit, for they corresponded in ready money,the only possible method

of communication, to receive which Mere Madou paid them a visit in the fine season of the year.

Birotteau found this shrewish trader among sacks of filberts, nuts, and chestnuts.

"Your dear!" she said. "Hey! my son, what's there agreeable between us? Did we ever mount guard over

"I am a perfumer, and what is more I am deputymayor of the second arrondissement; thus, as magistrate and

"I marry when I please," said the virago. "I don't trouble the mayor, or bother his deputies. As for my

customers, they adore me, and I talk to 'em as I choose. If they don't like it, they can snake off elsewhere."

"Popole!that's my godson,he must have got into mischief. Have you come about him, my worthy

"Well, well! and what's your name, my lad? Haven't seen you about before, have I?"

"If you take that tone, you ought to sell your nuts cheap," said Birotteau, who proceeded to give his name and

"Ha! you're the Birotteau that's got the handsome wife. And how many of the sweet little nuts may you want,

"That's all I have," said the seller, in a voice like a hoarse flute. "My dear monsieur, you are not one of the

sluggards who waste their time on girls and perfumes. God bless you, you've got something to do! Excuse me

a bit. You'll be a jolly customer, dear to the heart of the woman I love best in the world."

"Twentyfive francs!" cried Birotteau. "Fifteen hundred francs! I shall want perhaps a hundred thousand a

"But just look how fine they are; fresh as a daisy," she said, plunging her red arm into a sack of filberts.

"Plump, no empty ones, my dear man. Just think! grocers sell their beggarly trash at twenty four sous a

pound, and in every four pounds they put a pound of hollows. Must I lose my profits to oblige you? You're

nice enough, but you don't please me all that! If you want so many, we might make a bargain at twenty

francs. I don't want to send away a deputymayor, bad luck to the brides, you know! Now, just handle

those nuts; heavy, aren't they? Less than fifty to the pound; no worms there, I can tell you."

"Well, then, send six thousand weight, for two thousand francs at ninety days' sight, to my manufactory, Rue

"You're in as great a hurry as a bride! Well, adieu, monsieur the mayor; don't bear me a grudge. But if it is all

the same to you," she added, following Birotteau through the yard, "I would like your note at forty days,

because I have let you have them too cheap, and I don't want to lose the discount. Pere Gigonnet may have a

"Well, then, fifty days. But they are to be weighed by the hundred pounds, so that there may be no hollow

"Ah, the dog! he knows what he's about," said Madame Madou; "can't make a fool of him! It is those rascals

in the Rue des Lombards who have put him up to that! Those big wolves are all in a pack to eat up the

This lamb was five feet high and three feet round, and she looked like a milepost, dressed in striped calico,

The perfumer, lost in thought, was ruminating as he went along the Rue SaintHonore about his duel with

Macassar Oil. He was meditating on the labels and the shape of the bottles, discussing the quality of the

corks, the color of the placards. And yet people say there is no poetry in commerce! Newton did not make

more calculations for his famous binomial than Birotteau made for his Comagene Essence,for by this time

the Oil had subsided into an Essence, and he went from one description to the other without observing any

difference. His head spun with his computations, and he took the lively activity of its emptiness for the

substantial work of real talent. He was so preoccupied that he passed the turn leading to his uncle's house in

ClaudeJoseph Pillerault, formerly an ironmonger at the sign of the Cloche d'Or, had one of those faces

whose beauty shines from the inner to the outer; about him all things harmonized,dress and manners, mind

and heart, thought and speech, words and acts. He was the sole relation of Madame Birotteau, and had

centred all his affections upon her and upon Cesarine, having lost, in the course of his commercial career, his

wife and son, and also an adopted child, the son of his housekeeper. These heavy losses had driven the good

man into a kind of Christian stoicism,a noble doctrine, which gave life to his existence, and colored his

latter days with the warm, and at the same time chilling, tones which gild the sunsets of winter. His head, thin

and hollowed and swarthy, with ochre and bistre tints harmoniously blended, offered a striking likeness to

that which artists bestow on Time, though it vulgarized it; for the habits of commercial life lowered the stern

and monumental character which painters, sculptors, and clockmakers exaggerate. Of medium height,

Pillerault was more thickset than stout; Nature had built him for hard work and long life; his broad

shoulders showed a strong frame; he was dry by temperament, and his skin had, as it were, no emotions,

though it was not insensible. Little demonstrative, as was shown by his composed face and quiet attitude, the

old man had an inward calm not expressed in phrases nor by emphasis. His eye, the pupil of which was green,

mingled with black lines, was remarkable for its unalterable clearness. His forehead, wrinkled in straight lines

and yellowed by time, was small and narrow, hard, and crowned with silvergray hair cut so short that it

looked like felt. His delicate mouth showed prudence, but not avarice. The vivacity of his eye showed the

purity of his life. Integrity, a sense of duty, and true modesty made, as it were, a halo round his head, bringing

For sixty years he had led the hard and sober life of a determined worker. His history was like Cesar's, except

in happiness. A clerk till thirty years of age, his property was all in his business at the time when Cesar put

his savings into the Funds; he had suffered, like others, under the Maximum, and the pickaxes and other

implements of his trade had been requisitioned. His reserved and judicious nature, his forethought and

mathematical reflection, were seen in his methods of work. The greater part of his business was conducted by

word of mouth, and he seldom encountered difficulties. Like all thoughtful people he was a great observer; he

let people talk, and then studied them. He often refused advantageous bargains on which his neighbors

pounced; later, when they regretted them, they declared that Pillerault had "a nose for swindlers." He

preferred small and certain gains to bold strokes which put large sums of money in jeopardy. He dealt in

castiron chimney backs, gridirons, coarse firedogs, kettles and boilers in cast or wrought iron, hoes, and all

the agricultural implements of the peasantry. This line, which was sufficiently unremunerative, required an

immense mechanical toil. The gains were not in proportion to the labor; the profits on such heavy articles,

difficult to move and expensive to store, were small. He himself had nailed up many a case, packed and

unpacked many a bale, unloaded many a wagon. No fortune was ever more nobly won, more legitimate or

more honorable, than his. He had never overcharged or sought to force a bargain. In his latter business days

he might be seen smoking his pipe before the door of his shop looking at the passersby, and watching his

clerks as they worked. In 1814, the period at which he retired from business, his fortune consisted, in the first

place, of seventy thousand francs, which he placed in the public Funds, and from which he derived an income

of five thousand and some odd hundred francs a year; next of forty thousand francs, the value of his business,

which he had sold to one of his clerks; this sum was to be paid in full at the end of five years, without

interest. Engaged for thirty years in a business which amounted to a hundred thousand francs a year, he had

made about seven per cent profit on the amount, and his living had absorbed one half of that profit. Such was

his record. His neighbors, little envious of such mediocrity, praised his excellence without understanding it.

At the corner of the Rue de la Monnaie and the Rue SaintHonore is the cafe David, where a few old

merchants, like Pillerault, take their coffee in the evenings. There, the adoption of the son of his cook had

been the subject of a few jests, such as might be addressed to a man much respected, for the ironmonger

inspired respectful esteem, though he never sought it; his inward selfrespect sufficed him. So when he lost

the young man, two hundred friends followed the body to the cemetery. In those days he was heroic. His

sorrow, restrained like that of all men who are strong without assumption, increased the sympathy felt in his

neighborhood for the "worthy man,"a term applied to Pillerault in a tone which broadened its meaning and

ennobled it. The sobriety of Claude Pillerault, long become a habit, did not yield before the pleasures of an

idle life when, on quitting his business, he sought the rest which drags down so many of the Parisian

bourgeoisie. He kept up his former ways of life, and enlivened his old age by convictions and interests, which

belonged, we must admit, to the extreme Left. Pillerault belonged to that working men's party which the

Revolution had fused with the bourgeoisie. The only blot upon his character was the importance he attached

to the triumph of that party; he held to all the rights, to the liberty, and to the fruits of the Revolution; he

believed that his peace of mind and his political stability were endangered by the Jesuits, whose secret power

was proclaimed aloud by the Liberals, and menaced by the principles with which the "Constitutionnel"

endowed Monsieur. He was quite consistent in his life and ideas; there was nothing narrow about his politics;

he never insulted his adversaries, he dreaded courtiers and believed in republican virtues; he thought Manuel

a pure man, General Foy a great one, Casimir Perier without ambition, Lafayette a political prophet, and

Courier a worthy fellow. He had indeed some noble chimeras. The fine old man lived a family life; he went

about among the Ragons, his niece Birotteau, the judge Popinot, Joseph Lebas, and his friend Matifat. Fifteen

hundred francs a year sufficed for all his personal wants. As to the rest of his income he spent it on good

deeds, and in presents to his greatniece; he gave a dinner four times a year to his friends, at Roland's, Rue du

Hasard, and took them afterwards to the theatre. He played the part of those old bachelors on whom married

women draw at sight for their amusements,a country jaunt, the opera, the MontagnesBeaujon, et caetera.

Pillerault was made happy by the pleasure he gave; his joys were in the hearts of others. Though he had sold

his business, he did not wish to leave the neighborhood to which all his habits tied him; and he took a small

appartement of three rooms in the Rue des Bourdonnais on the fourth floor of an old house.

Just as the moral nature of Molineux could be seen in his strange interior, the pure and simple life of

Pillerault was revealed by the arrangements of his modest home, consisting of an antechamber, a

sittingroom, and a bedroom. Judged by dimensions, it was the cell of a Trappist. The antechamber, with a

redtiled floor, had only one window, screened by a cambric curtain with a red border; mahogany chairs,

covered with reddish sheep's leather put on with gilt nails, walls hung with an olivegreen paper, and

otherwise decorated with the American Declaration of Independence, a portrait of Bonaparte as First Consul,

and a representation of the battle of Austerlitz. The salon, decorated undoubtedly by an upholsterer, had a set

of furniture with arched tops covered in yellow, a carpet, chimney ornaments of bronze without gilding, a

painted chimneyboard, a console bearing a vase of flowers under a glass case, a round table covered with a

cloth, on which stood a liqueurstand. The newness of this room proclaimed a sacrifice made by the old man

to the conventions of the world; for he seldom received any one at home. In his bedroom, as plain as that of a

monk or an old soldier (the two men best able to estimate life), a crucifix with a basin of holywater first

caught the eye. This profession of faith in a stoical old republican was strangely moving to the heart of a

An old woman came to do his household work; but his respect for women was so great that he would not let

her black his boots, and he subscribed to a bootblack for that service. His dress was simple, and invariably

the same. He wore a coat and trousers of darkblue cloth, a waistcoat of some printed cotton fabric, a white

cravat, high shoes, and on gala days he put on a coat with brass buttons. His habits of rising, breakfasting,

going out, dining, his evening resorts, and his returning hours were all stamped with the strictest punctuality;

for regular habits are the secret of long life and sound health. Politics never came to the surface in his

intercourse with Cesar, the Ragons, or the Abbe Loraux; for the good people of that circle knew each other

too well to care to enter the region of proselytism. Like his nephew and like the Ragons, he put implicit

confidence in Roguin. To his mind the notary was a being worthy of veneration,the living image of

probity. In the affair of the lands about the Madeleine, Pillerault had undertaken a private examination, which

was the real cause of the boldness with which Cesar had combated his wife's presentiments.

The perfumer went up the seventyeight stairs which led to the little brown door of his uncle's appartement,

thinking as he went that the old man must be very hale to mount them daily without complaining. He found a

frockcoat and pair of trousers hanging on the hatstand outside the door. Madame Vaillant brushed and

cleaned them while this genuine philosopher, wrapped in a gray woollen garment, breakfasted in his

chimneycorner and read the parliamentary debates in the "Constitutionnel" or the "Journal du Commerce."

"Uncle," said Cesar, "the matter is settled; they are drawing up their deeds; but you have any fears or regrets,

"Why should I give it up? The thing is good; though it may be a long time before we realize anything, like all

safe investments. My fifty thousand francs are in the bank. I received yesterday the last instalment, five

thousand francs, from my business. As for the Ragons, they have put their whole fortune into the affair."

"Uncle, I understand!" said Birotteau, deeply moved, pressing the hand of the austere old man.

"I am in for three eighths, you and the Ragons for one eighth. I shall credit you for that on my books until the

"Good! My boy, you must be getting rich to put three hundred thousand francs into it. It seems to me you are

risking a good deal outside of your business. Won't the business suffer? However, that is your affair. If you

get a setback, why the Funds are at eighty, and I could sell two thousand francs worth of my consolidated

stock. But take care, my lad; for if you have to come upon me, it will be your daughter's fortune that you will

"General Foy was touching mine in quite another fashion just now. Well, go on; settle the business; lands

can't fly away. We are getting them at half price. Suppose we do have to wait six years, there will always be

some returns; there are woodyards which will bring in a rent. We can't really lose anything. There is but one

"She says there is too much in his nose; and like men who can't have women, he is furious to"

With a smile of incredulity, Pillerault tore a strip from a little book, wrote down an amount, and signed the

"There," said he, "there's a cheque on the Bank of France for a hundred thousand francs for the Ragons and

for me. Those poor folks have just sold to your scoundrel of a du Tillet their fifteen shares in the mines at

Wortschin to make up the amount. Worthy people in trouble,it wrings my heart; and such good, noble

souls, the very flower of the old bourgeoisie! Their brother, Popinot, the judge, knows nothing about it; they

hid it from him so that he may not feel obliged to give up his other works of charity. People who have

"God grant that the Oil of Comagene may triumph!" cried Birotteau. "I shall be doubly happy. Adieu; come

and dine on Sunday with the Ragons, Roguin, and Monsieur Claparon. We shall sign the papers the day after

"Uncle, I shall never believe that the day on which the Son of God was put to death by man can be a fortunate

"If it were not for his political opinions," thought Birotteau as he went down stairs, "I don't believe he would

have his equal here below. What are politics to him? He would be just as well off if he never thought of them.

"Monsieur, do you mean to take these securities?" asked Celestin, showing him the notes of the

"Yes; at six per cent, without commission. Wife, get my dressing things all ready; I am going to see Monsieur

Birotteau gave a few orders to the clerks. Not seeing Popinot, he concluded that his future partner had gone to

dress; and he went gaily up to his room, where the Dresden Madonna, magnificently framed according to his

"Upon my word! a daughter who scolds her father! Well, well! To my taste I like Hero and Leander quite as

much. The Virgin is a religious subject, suitable for a chapel; but Hero and Leander, ah! I shall buy it, for that

"Virginie! a hackneycoach!" cried Cesar, in stentorian tones, as soon as he had trimmed his beard and seen

little Popinot appear, who was dragging his foot timidly because Cesarine was there.

The lover had never yet perceived that his infirmity no longer existed in the eyes of his mistress. Delicious

sign of love!which they on whom chance has inflicted a bodily imperfection can alone obtain.

"Monsieur, it is the joy of having found a shop, a backshop, kitchen, chambers above them, and

"We must take a lease of eighteen years," said Birotteau. "But let us start for Monsieur Vauquelin's. We can

Cesar and Popinot got into the hackneycoach before the eyes of the astonished clerks, who did not know

what to make of these gorgeous toilets and the abnormal coach, ignorant as they were of the great project

"There you have my secret," said the perfumer. "I've let loose the word nuts,all is there. The oil of nuts is

the only oil that has any real effect upon hair. No perfumer has ever dreamed of it. I saw an engraving of

Hero and Leander, and I said to myself, If the ancients used all that oil on their heads they had some reason

for it; for the ancients are the ancients, in spite of all the moderns may say; I stand by Boileau about the

ancients. I took my departure from that point and got the oil of nuts, thanks to your relation, little Bianchon

the medical student; he told me that at school his comrades used nut oil to promote the growth of their

whiskers and mustachios. All we need is the approval of Monsieur Vauquelin; enlightened by his science, we

shall mislead the public. I was in the markets just now, talking to a seller of nuts, so as to get hold of the raw

material, and now I am about to meet one of the greatest scientific men in France, to get at the quintessence

of that commodity. Proverbs are no fools; extremes meet. Now see, my boy, commerce is the intermediary

between the productions of the vegetable kingdom and science. Angelique Madou gathers, Monsieur

Vauquelin extracts, we sell an essence. Nuts are worth five sous a pound, Monsieur Vauquelin will increase

their value one hundredfold, and we shall, perhaps, do a service to humanity; for if vanity is the cause of the

The religious admiration with which Popinot listened to the father of Cesarine stimulated Birotteau's

eloquence, who allowed himself to expatiate in phrases which certainly were extremely wild for a bourgeois.

"Be respectful, Anselme," he said, as they reached the street where Monsieur Vauquelin lived, "we are about

to enter the sanctuary of science. Put the Virgin in full sight, but not ostentatiously, in the diningroom, on a

chair. Pray heaven, I may not get mixed up in what I have to say!" cried Cesar, naively. "Popinot, this man

has a chemical effect upon me; his voice heats my stomach, and even gives me a slight colic. He is my

These words struck Popinot with a cold chill, and he began to step as if he were walking on eggs, looking

nervously at the wall. Monsieur Vauquelin was in his study when Birotteau was announced. The academician

"You do not forget me in the midst of your distinctions," he said, "there is only a hand'sbreadth, however,

"Ah, monsieur! between your genius and the plainness of a man like me there is infinity. I owe to you what

you call my distinctions: I shall never forget it in this world, nor in the next."

"Is that your son?" asked Vauquelin, looking at little Popinot, who was amazed at not seeing anything

extraordinary in the sanctum, where he expected to find monstrosities, gigantic engines, flyingmachines,

"No, monsieur, but a young man whom I love, and who comes to ask a kindness equal to your genius,and

that is infinite," said Cesar with shrewd courtesy. "We have come to consult you, a second time, on an

"I know that hair has lately occupied all your vigils, and that you have given yourself up to analyzing it;

"Dear Monsieur Birotteau, what is it you want of me,the analysis of hair?" He took up a little paper. "I am

about to read before the Academy of Sciences a monograph on that subject. Hair is composed of a rather

large quantity of mucus, a small quantity of white oil, a great deal of greenish oil, iron, a few atoms of oxide

of manganese, some phosphate of lime, a tiny quantity of carbonate of lime, a little silica, and a good deal of

sulphur. The differing proportions of these component parts cause the differences in the color of the hair. Red

"Nine things!" cried Birotteau. "What! are there metals and oils in hair? Unless I heard it from you, a man I

venerate, I could not believe it. How amazing! God is great, Monsieur Vauquelin."

"Hair is produced by a follicular organ," resumed the great chemist, "a species of pocket, or sack, open at

both extremities. By one end it is fastened to the nerves and the blood vessels; from the other springs the hair

itself. According to some of our scientific brotherhood, among them Monsieur Blainville, the hair is really a

dead matter expelled from that pouch, or crypt, which is filled with a species of pulp."

"Then hair is what you might call threads of sweat!" cried Popinot, to whom Cesar promptly administered a

"He knows something, doesn't he?" said Cesar, looking at Popinot. "But, monsieur, if the hair is stillborn, it

is impossible to give it life, and I am lost! my prospectus will be ridiculous. You don't know how queer the

"That it has got manure upon its head," said Popinot, wishing to make Vauquelin laugh again.

"My nuts are bought!" cried Birotteau, alive to the commercial loss. "If this is so why do they sell"

"Don't be frightened," said Vauquelin, smiling, "I see it is a question of some secret about making the hair

grow or keeping it from turning gray. Listen! this is my opinion on the subject, as the result of my studies."

"The discoloration of this substance, be it living or dead, is, in my judgment, produced by a check to the

secretion of the coloring matter; which explains why in certain cold climates the fur of animals loses all color

"It is evident," resumed Vauquelin, "that alterations in the color of the hair come from changes in the

"Yes," said Vauquelin, "from hot and cold changes, or from internal phenomena which produce the same

effect. Probably headaches and other cephalagic affections absorb, dissipate, or displace the generating fluids.

However, the interior of the head concerns physicians. As for the exterior, bring on your cosmetics."

"Monsieur," said Birotteau, "you restore me to life! I have thought of selling an oil of nuts, believing that the

ancients made use of that oil for their hair; and the ancients are the ancients, as you know: I agree with

"Olive oil is quite as good as nut oil," said Vauquelin, who was not listening to Birotteau. "All oil is good to

preserve the bulb from receiving injury to the substances working within it, or, as we should say in chemistry,

in liquefaction. Perhaps you are right; Dupuytren told me the oil of nuts had a stimulating property. I will

look into the differences between the various oils, beechnut, colza, olive, and hazel, etc."

"Then I am not mistaken," cried Birotteau, triumphantly. "I have coincided with a great man. Macassar is

overthrown! Macassar, monsieur, is a cosmetic giventhat is, sold, and sold dearto make the hair grow."

"My dear Monsieur Birotteau," said Vauquelin, "there are not two ounces of Macassar oil in all Europe.

Macassar oil has not the slightest action upon the hair; but the Malays buy it up for its weight in gold,

thinking that it preserves the hair: they don't know that whaleoil is just as good. No power, chemical, or

"But, my dear monsieur, the first law of God is to be consistent with Himself; without unity, no power"

"No power, as I say, can make the hair grow on bald heads; just as you can never dye, without serious danger,

red or white hair. But in advertising the benefits of oil you commit no mistake, you tell no falsehood, and I

"Oh! there is no discovery in all that," said Vauquelin. "Besides, charlatans have so abused the name of the

Academy that it would not help you much. My conscience will not allow me to think the oil of nuts a

"What would be the best way to extract it; by pressure, or decoction?" asked Birotteau.

"Pressure between two hot slabs will cause the oil to flow more abundantly; but if obtained by pressure

between cold slabs it will be of better quality. It should be applied to the skin itself," added Vauquelin,

"Recollect all that, Popinot," said Birotteau, with an enthusiasm that sent a glow into his face. "You see

before you, monsieur, a young man who will count this day among the finest in his life. He knew you, he

venerated you, without ever having seen you. We often talk of you in our home: a name that is in the heart is

often on the lips. We pray for you every day, my wife and daughter and I, as we ought to pray for our

"Too much for so little," said Vauquelin, rather bored by the voluble gratitude of the perfumer.

"Ta, ta, ta!" exclaimed Birotteau, "you can't prevent our loving you, you who will take nothing from us. You

are like the sun; you give light, and those whom you illuminate can give you nothing in return."

"Anselme, look well at this room. You permit it, monsieur? Your time is precious, I know, but he will never

"Well, have you got all you wanted?" said Vauquelin to Birotteau. "After all, we are both commercial men."

"Pretty nearly, monsieur," said Birotteau, retreating towards the diningroom, Vauquelin following. "But to

"'Comagene' and 'Essence' are two words that clash. Call your cosmetic 'Oil of Birotteau'; or, if you don't

want to give your name to the world, find some other. Why, there's the Dresden Madonna! Ah, Monsieur

"Monsieur Vauquelin," said the perfumer, taking the chemist's hand. "This treasure has no value except the

time that I have spent in finding it. We had to ransack all Germany to find it on China paper before lettering. I

knew that you wished for it and that your occupations did not leave you time to search for it; I have been your

commercial traveller, that is all. Accept therefore, not a paltry engraving, but efforts, anxieties, despatches to

and fro, which are the evidence of my complete devotion. Would that you had wished for something growing

on the sides of precipices, that I might have sought it and said to you, 'Here it is!' Do not refuse my gift. We

have so much reason to be forgotten; allow me therefore to place myself, my wife, my daughter, and the

soninlaw I expect to have, beneath your eyes. You must say when you look at the Virgin, 'There are some

Popinot and Birotteau wiped their eyes, so affected were they by the kindly tone in which the academician

"I assemble my friends"he rose from his heels, taking, nevertheless, a modest air"as much to celebrate

the emancipation of our territory as to commemorate my promotion to the order of the Legion of honor"

"Possibly I showed myself worthy of that signal and royal favor, by my services on the Bench of commerce,

and by fighting for the Bourbons upon the steps of SaintRoch, on the 13th Vendemiaire, where I was

wounded by Napoleon. My wife gives a ball, three weeks from Sunday; pray come to it, monsieur. Do us the

honor to dine with us on that day. Your presence would double the happiness with which I receive my cross. I

"My heart swells with joy!" cried the perfumer, when he got into the street. "He comes to my house! I am

"What a great man! what a glance, what penetration!" said Birotteau. "Ah! he made no bones about it; he

guessed our thoughts at the first word; he has given us the means of annihilating Macassar oil. Yes! nothing

can make the hair grow; Macassar, you lie! Popinot, our fortune is made. We'll go to the manufactory

tomorrow morning at seven o'clock; the nuts will be there, and we will press out some oil. It is all very well

for him to say that any oil is good; if the public knew that, we should be lost. If we didn't put some scent and

the name of nuts into the oil, how could we sell it for three or four francs the four ounces?"

Cesar's triumphant air, as if certain of fortune, was observed by the clerks, who made signs at each other; for

the trip in the hackney coach, and the full dress of the cashier and his master had thrown them all into the

wildest regions of romance. The mutual satisfaction of Cesar and Anselme, betrayed by looks diplomatically

exchanged, the glance full of hope which Popinot cast now and then at Cesarine, proclaimed some great event

and gave color to the conjectures of the clerks. In their busy and half cloistral life the smallest events have the

interest which a prisoner feels in those of his prison. The bearing of Madame Cesar, who replied to the

Olympian looks of her lord with an air of distrust, seemed to point to some new enterprise; for in ordinary

times Madame Cesar, delighted with the smallest routine success, would have shared his contentment. It

happened, accidentally, that the receipts for the day amounted to more than six thousand francs; for several

The diningroom and the kitchen, lighted from a little court, and separated from the diningroom by a

passage, from which the staircase, taken out of a corner of the backshop, opened up, was on the

entresol where in former days Cesar and Constance had their appartement; in fact, the diningroom, where

the honeymoon had been passed, still wore the look of a little salon. During dinner Raguet, the trusty boy of

all work, took charge of the shop; but the clerks came down when the dessert was put on table, leaving Cesar,

his wife and daughter to finish their dinner alone by the chimney corner. This habit was derived from the

Ragons, who kept up the oldfashioned usages and customs of former commercial days, which placed an

enormous distance between the masters and the apprentices. Cesarine or Constance then prepared for

Birotteau his cup of coffee, which he took sitting on a sofa by the corner of the fire. At this hour he told his

wife all the little events of the day, and related what he had seen in the streets, what was going on in the

Faubourg du Temple, and the difficulties he had met with in the manufactory, et caetera.

"Wife," he said, when the clerks had gone down, "this is certainly one of the most important days in our life!

The nuts are bought, the hydraulic press is ready to go to work, the land affair is settled. Here, lock up that

cheque on the Bank of France, he added, handing her Pillerault's paper. "The improvements in the house are

ordered, the dignity of our appartement is about to be increased. Bless me! I saw, down in the Cour Batave, a

"I see," said his wife, interrupting him in the middle of a tirade, "that you have gone in debt two hundred

"That is true, wife," said Cesar, with mock humility, "Good God, how shall we pay them? It counts for

nothing that the lands about the Madeleine will some day become the finest quarter of Paris."

"Alas!" he said, going on with his joke, "my three eighths will only be worth a million in six years. How shall

I ever pay that two hundred thousand francs?" said Cesar, with a gesture of alarm. "Well, we shall be reduced

to pay them with that," he added, pulling from his pocket a nut, which he had taken from Madame Madou

He showed the nut between his fingers to Constance and Cesarine. His wife was silent, but Cesarine, much

puzzled, said to her father, as she gave him his coffee, "What do you mean, papa,are you joking?"

The perfumer, as well as the clerks, had detected during dinner the glances which Popinot had cast at

"Well, my little daughter," he said, "this nut will revolutionize our home. From this day forth there will be

Cesarine looked at her father with an eye which seemed to say, "What is that to me?"

Though Cesar was a poor observer, and had, moreover, prepared his phrase as much to herald the creation of

the house of A. Popinot and Company, as to set a trap for his daughter, yet his paternal tenderness made him

guess the confused feelings which rose in Cesarine's heart, blossomed in roses on her cheek, suffused her

forehead and even her eyes as she lowered them. Cesar thought that words must have passed between

Cesarine and Popinot. He was mistaken; the two children comprehended each other, like all timid lovers,

Some moralists hold that love is an involuntary passion, the most disinterested, the least calculating, of all the

passions, except maternal love. This opinion carries with it a vulgar error. Though the majority of men may

be ignorant of the causes of love, it is none the less true that all sympathy, moral or physical, is based upon

calculations made either by the mind, or by sentiment or brutality. Love is an essentially selfish passion. Self

means deep calculation. To every mind which looks only at results, it will seem at first sight singular and

unlikely that a beautiful girl like Cesarine should love a poor lame fellow with red hair. Yet this phenomenon

is completely in harmony with the arithmetic of middleclass sentiments. To explain it, would be to give the

reason of marriages which are constantly looked upon with surprise,marriages between tall and beautiful

women and puny men, or between ugly little creatures and handsome men. Every man who is cursed with

some bodily infirmity, no matter what it is,club feet, a haltinggait, a humpedback, excessive ugliness,

claret stains upon the cheek, Roguin's species of deformity, and other monstrosities the result of causes

beyond the control of the sufferer,has but two courses open to him: either he must make himself feared, or

he must practise the virtues of exquisite lovingkindness; he is not permitted to float in the middle currents of

average conduct which are habitual to other men. If he takes the first course he probably has talent, genius, or

strength of will; a man inspires terror only by the power of evil, respect by genius, fear through force of mind.

If he chooses the second course, he makes himself adored; he submits to feminine tyranny, and knows better

Anselme, brought up by virtuous people, by the Ragons, models of the honorable bourgeoisie, and by his

uncle the judge, had been led, through his ingenuous nature and his deep religious sentiments, to redeem the

slight deformity of his person by the perfection of his character. Constance and Cesar, struck by these

tendencies, so attractive in youth, had repeatedly sung his praises before Cesarine. Petty as they might be in

many ways, husband and wife were noble by nature, and understood the deep things of the heart. Their

praises found an echo in the mind of the young girl, who, despite her innocence, had read in Anselme's pure

eyes the violent feeling, which is always flattering whatever be the lover's age, or rank, or personal

appearance. Little Popinot had far more reason to adore a woman than a handsome man could ever have. If

she were beautiful, he would love her madly to her dying day; his fondness would inspire him with ambition;

he would sacrifice his own life that his wife's might be happy; he would make her mistress of their home, and

be himself the first to accept her sway. Thus thought Cesarine, involuntarily perhaps, yet not altogether

crudely; she gave a bird'seye glance at the harvest of love in her own home, and reasoned by induction; the

happiness of her mother was before her eyes,she wished for no better fate; her instinct told her that

Anselme was another Cesar, improved by his education, as she had been improved by hers. She dreamed of

Popinot as mayor of an arrondissement, and liked to picture herself taking up the collections in their parish

church as her mother did at SaintRoch. She had reached the point of no longer perceiving the difference

between the left leg and the right leg of her lover, and was even capable of saying, in all sincerity, "Does he

limp?" She loved those liquid eyes, and liked to watch the effect her own glance had upon them, as they

Roguin's headclerk, Alexandre Crottat, who was gifted with the precocious experience which comes from

knowledge acquired in a lawyer's office, had an air and manner that was half cynical, half silly, which

revolted Cesarine, already disgusted by the trite and commonplace character of his conversation. The silence

of Popinot, on the other hand, revealed his gentle nature; she loved the smile, partly mournful, with which he

listened to trivial vulgarities. The silly nonsense which made him smile filled her with repulsion; they were

grave or gay in sympathy. This hidden vantageground did not hinder Anselme from plunging into his work,

and his indefatigable ardor in it pleased Cesarine, for she guessed that when his comrades in the shop said,

"Mademoiselle Cesarine will marry Roguin's head clerk," the poor lame Anselme, with his red hair, did not

"Where is he going?" asked Cesarine of her father, trying to appear indifferent.

"He is to set up for himself in the Rue des CinqDiamants; and, my faith! by the grace of God!" cried Cesar,

When Birotteau encountered a moral difficulty he did as the insects do when there is an obstacle in their

way,he turned either to the right or to the left. He therefore changed the conversation, resolving to talk

"I told all your fears and fancies about Roguin to your uncle, and he laughed," he said to Constance.

"You should never tell what we say to each other!" cried Constance. "That poor Roguin may be the best man

She stopped short, seeing that Cesarine was listening attentively, and made a sign to Cesar.

Cesar took his wife by the hands and kissed her brow; that answer always conveyed her tacit assent to her

"Now, then," cried the perfumer, to his clerks, when he went back to them, "the shop will be closed at ten

o'clock. Gentlemen, lend a hand! a great feat! We must move, during the night, all the furniture from the first

floor to the second floor. We shall have, as they say, to put the little pots in the big pots, for my architect

must have his elbows free tomorrow morningPopinot has gone out without my permission," he cried,

looking round and not seeing his cashier. "Ah, true, he does not sleep here any more, I forget that. He is

gone," thought Cesar, "either to write down Monsieur Vauquelin's ideas, or else to hire the shop."

"We all know the cause of this household change," said Celestin, speaking in behalf of the two other clerks

and Raguet, grouped behind him. "Is it allowable to congratulate monsieur upon an honor which reflects its

"Hey, hey! my children, it is all true. I have been decorated. I am about to assemble my friends, not only to

celebrate the emancipation of our territory, but to commemorate my promotion to the order of the Legion of

honor. I may, possibly, have shown myself worthy of that signal and royal favor by my services on the Bench

of commerce, and by fighting for the royal cause; which I defendedat your ageupon the steps of

SaintRoch on the 13th Vendemiaire, and I give you my word that Napoleon, called emperor, wounded me

himself! wounded me in the thigh; and Madame Ragon nursed me. Take courage! recompense comes to

"Let us hope so," said Cesar, who thereupon went off into an harangue to the clerks, which he wound up by

The vision of a ball inspired the three clerks, Raguet, and Virginie the cook with an ardor that gave them the

strength of acrobats. They came and went up and down the stairs, carrying everything and breaking nothing.

By two o'clock in the morning the removal was effected. Cesar and his wife slept on the second floor.

Popinot's bedroom became that of Celestin and the second clerk. On the third floor the furniture was stored

In the grasp of that magnetic ardor, produced by an influx of the nervous fluid, which lights a brazier in the

midriff of ambitious men and lovers intent on high emprise, Popinot, so gentle and tranquil usually, pawed

the earth like a thoroughbred before the race, when he came down into the shop after dinner.

"Oh, what a day! my dear fellow, what a day! I am set up in business, and Monsieur Cesar is decorated."

Popinot did not answer; he disappeared, driven by a furious wind,the wind of success.

"Lucky!" said one of the clerks, who was sorting gloves by the dozen, to another who was comparing prices

on the tickets. "Lucky! the master has found out that Popinot is making eyes at Mademoiselle Cesarine, and,

as the old fellow is pretty clever, he gets rid of Anselme; it would be difficult to refuse him pointblank, on

Anselme Popinot went down the Rue SaintHonore and rushed along the Rue des DeuxEcus to seize upon a

young man whom his commercial secondsight pointed out to him as the principal instrument of his future

fortune. Popinot the judge had once done a great service to the cleverest of all commercial travellers, to him

whose triumphant loquacity and activity were to win him, in coming years, the title of The Illustrious.

Devoted especially to the hattrade and the article Paris, this prince of travellers was called, at the time of

which we write, purely and simply, Gaudissart. At the age of twentytwo he was already famous by the

power of his commercial magnetism. In those days he was slim, with a joyous eye, expressive face,

unwearied memory, and a glance that guessed the wants of every one; and he deserved to be, what in fact he

became, the king of commercial travellers, the Frenchman par excellence. A few days earlier Popinot had

met Gaudissart, who mentioned that he was on the point of departure; the hope of finding him still in Paris

sent the lover flying into the Rue des DeuxEcus, where he learned that the traveller had engaged his place at

the MessageriesRoyales. To bid adieu to his beloved capital, Gaudissart had gone to see a new piece at the

Vaudeville; Popinot resolved to wait for him. Was it not drawing a cheque on fortune to entrust the launching

of the oil of nuts to this incomparable steersman of mercantile inventions, already petted and courted by the

richest firms? Popinot had reason to feel sure of Gaudissart. The commercial traveller, so knowing in the art

of entangling that most wary of human beings, the little provincial trader, had himself become entangled in

the first conspiracy attempted against the Bourbons after the Hundred Days. Gaudissart, to whom the open

firmament of heaven was indispensable, found himself shut up in prison, under the weight of an accusation

for a capital offence. Popinot the judge, who presided at the trial, released him on the ground that it was

nothing worse than his imprudent folly which had mixed him up in the affair. A judge anxious to please the

powers in office, or a rabid royalist, would have sent the luckless traveller to the scaffold. Gaudissart, who

believed he owed his life to the judge, cherished the grief of being unable to make his savior any other return

than that of sterile gratitude. As he could not thank a judge for doing justice, he went to the Ragons and

While waiting about for Gaudissart, Anselme naturally went to look at the shop in the Rue des

CinqDiamants, and got the address of the owner, for the purpose of negotiating a lease. As he sauntered

through the dusky labyrinth of the great market, thinking how to achieve a rapid success, he suddenly came,

in the Rue AubryleBoucher, upon a rare chance, and one of good omen, with which he resolved to regale

Cesar on the morrow. Soon after, while standing about the door of the Hotel du Commerce, at the end of the

Rue des DeuxEcus, about midnight, he heard, in the far distance of the Rue de Grenelle, a vaudeville chorus

sung by Gaudissart, with a cane accompaniment significantly rapped upon the pavement.

"Eleven, if you like," said the commercial traveller, brandishing his loaded cane over the aggressor.

"Enough!" cried Gaudissart, recognizing him. "What do you need? Money? absent, on leave, but we can

"Come and talk with me for ten minutes; not in your room,we might be overheard,but on the Quai de

l'Horloge; there's no one there at this hour," said Popinot. "It is about something important."

In ten minutes Gaudissart, put in possession of Popinot's secret, saw its importance.

sang Gaudissart, mimicking Lafon in the role of the Cid. "I shall grab every shopkeeper in France and

Navarre.Oh, an idea! I was about to start; I remain; I shall take commissions from the Parisian perfumers."

"To strangle your rivals, simpleton! If I take their orders I can make their perfidious cosmetics drink oil,

simply by talking and working for yours only. A firstrate traveller's trick! Ha! ha! we are the diplomatists of

commerce. Famous! As for your prospectus, I'll take charge of that. I've got a friendearly

childhoodAndoche Finot, son of the hatmaker in the Rue du Coq, the old buffer who launched me into

travelling on hats. Andoche, who has a great deal of wit,he got it all out of the heads tiled by his

father,he is in literature; he does the minor theatres in the 'Courrier des Spectacles.' His father, an old dog

chockfull of reasons for not liking wit, won't believe in it; impossible to make him see that mind can be

sold, sells itself in fact: he won't believe in anything but the threesixes. Old Finot manages young Finot by

famine. Andoche, a capable man, no fool,I don't consort with fools, except commercially,Andoche

makes epigrams for the 'Fidele Berger,' which pays; while the other papers, for which he works like a

galleyslave, keep him down on his marrowbones in the dust. Are not they jealous, those fellows? Just the

same in the articleParis! Finot wrote a superb comedy in one act for Mademoiselle Mars, most glorious of

the glorious!ah, there's a woman I love!Well, in order to get it played he had to take it to the Gaite.

Andoche understands prospectuses, he worms himself into the mercantile mind; and he's not proud, he'll

concoct it for us gratis. Damn it! with a bowl of punch and a few cakes we'll get it out of him; for, Popinot,

no nonsense! I am to travel on your commission without pay: your competitors shall pay; I'll diddle it out of

them. Let us understand each other clearly. As for me, this triumph is an affair of honor. My reward is to be

best man at your wedding! I shall go to Italy, Germany, England! I shall carry with me placards in all

languages, paste them everywhere, in villages, on doors of churches, all the best spots I can find in provincial

towns! The oil shall sparkle, scintillate, glisten on every head. Ha! your marriage shall not be a sham; we'll

make it a pageant, colors flying! You shall have your Cesarine, or my name shall not be

ILLUSTRIOUS,that is what Pere Finot calls me for having got off his gray hats. In selling your oil I keep

to my own sphere, the human head; hats and oil are wellknown preservatives of the public hair."

Popinot returned to his aunt's house, where he was to sleep, in such a fever, caused by his visions of success,

that the streets seemed to him to be running oil. He slept little, dreamed that his hair was madly growing, and

saw two angels who unfolded, as they do in melodramas, a scroll on which was written "Oil Cesarine." He

woke, recollected the dream, and vowed to give the oil of nuts that sacred name, accepting the sleeping fancy

Cesar and Popinot were at their workshop in the Faubourg du Temple the next morning long before the

arrival of the nuts. While waiting for Madame Madou's porters, Popinot triumphantly recounted his treaty of

"Have we indeed the illustrious Gaudissart? Then are we millionaires!" cried the perfumer, extending his

hand to his cashier with an air which Louis XIV. must have worn when he received the Marechal de Villars

"We have something besides," said the happy clerk, producing from his pocket a bottle of a squat shape, like

a pumpkin, and ribbed on the sides. "I have found ten thousand bottles like that, all made ready to hand, at

"Anselme, said Birotteau, contemplating the wondrous shape of the flask, "yesterday [here his tone of voice

became solemn] in the Tuileries,yes, no later than yesterday,you said to me, 'I will succeed.' Today

II say to you, 'You will succeed.' Four sous! six months! an unparalleled shape! Macassar trembles to its

foundations! Was I not right to seize upon the only nuts in Paris? Where did you find these bottles?"

"Coming down the Rue AubryleBoucher, I saw in a wholesale glass place, where they make blown glass

and cases,an immense place,I caught sight of this flask; it blinded my eyes like a sudden light; a voice

"I asked for glass cases for the little wax Jesus; and while I was bargaining about them I found fault with the

shape of the bottles. From one thing to another, I trapped the man into admitting that Faille and Bouchot, who

lately failed, were starting a new cosmetic and wanted a peculiar style of bottle; he was doubtful about them

and asked for half the money down. Faille and Bouchot, expecting to succeed, paid the money; they failed

while the bottles were making. The assignees, when called upon to pay the bill, arranged to leave him the

bottles and the money in hand, as an indemnity for the manufacture of articles thought to be ridiculous in

shape, and quite unsalable. They cost originally eight sous; he was glad to get rid of them for four; for, as he

said, God knows how long he might have on his hands a shape for which there was no sale! 'Are you willing,'

I said to him, 'to furnish ten thousand at four sous? If so, I may perhaps relieve you of them. I am a clerk at

Monsieur Birotteau's.' I caught him, I led him, I mastered him, I worked him up, and he is all ours."

"Four sous!" said Birotteau. "Do you know that we could use oil at three francs, and make a profit of thirty

"Oil Cesarine?Ah, lover! would you flatter both father and daughter? Well, well, so be it; Oil Cesarine!

"Because he never used our oil. Three francs for the Oil Cesarine, while Macassar Oil costs double!

Gaudissart to the fore! We shall make a hundred thousand francs this year, for we'll pour on every head that

respects itself a dozen bottles a year,eighteen francs; say eighteen thousand heads,one hundred and

The nuts delivered, Raguet, the workmen, Popinot, and Cesar shelled a sufficient quantity, and before four

o'clock they had produced several pounds of oil. Popinot carried the product to show to Vauquelin, who made

him a present of a recipe for mixing the essence of nuts with other and less costly oleaginous substances, and

scenting it. Popinot went to work at once to take out a patent for the invention and all improvements thereon.

The devoted Gaudissart lent him the money to pay the fees, for Popinot was ambitious to pay his share in the

Prosperity brings with it an intoxication which inferior men are unable to resist. Cesar's exaltation of spirit

had a result not difficult to foresee. Grindot came, and presented a colored sketch of a charming interior view

of the proposed appartement. Birotteau, seduced, agreed to everything; and soon the house, and the heart of

Constance, began to quiver under the blows of pick and hammer. The housepainter, Monsieur Lourdois, a

very rich contractor, who had promised that nothing should be wanting, talked of gilding the salon. On

"Monsieur Lourdois," she said, "you have an income of thirty thousand francs, you occupy your own house,

"Madame, commerce ought to shine and not permit itself to be kept in the shade by the aristocracy. Besides,

"Yes, but he still keeps a shop," said Constance, in the hearing of the clerks and the five persons who were

listening to her. "Neither he, nor I, nor his friends, nor his enemies will forget that."

Birotteau rose upon the points of his toes and fell back upon his heels several times, his hands crossed behind

"My wife is right," he said; "we should be modest in prosperity. Moreover, as long as a man is in business he

should be careful of his expenses, limited in his luxury; the law itself imposes the obligation,he must not

allow himself 'excessive expenditures.' If the enlargement of my home and its decoration were to go beyond

due limits, it would be wrong in me to permit it; you yourself would blame me, Lourdois. The neighborhood

has its eye upon me; successful men incur jealousy, envy. Ah! you will soon know that, young man," he said

to Grindot; "if we are calumniated, at least let us give no handle to the calumny."

"Neither calumny nor evilspeaking can touch you," said Lourdois; "your position is unassailable. But your

business habits are so strong that you must argue over every enterprise; you are a deep one"

"True, I have some experience in business. You know, of course, why I make this enlargement? If I insist on

"Well, my wife and I are about to assemble our friends, as much to celebrate the emancipation of our territory

"Yes; I may possibly have shown myself worthy of that signal royal favor by my services on the Bench of

commerce, and by fighting for the Bourbons upon the steps of SaintRoch, on the 13th Vendemiaire, where I

"Charmed with the honor you deign to pay me," said Lourdois (a liberal). "But you are a deep one, Papa

Birotteau; you want to make sure that I shall not break my word,that's the reason you invite me. Well, I'll

employ my best workmen; we'll build the fires of hell and dry the paint. I must find some desiccating process;

it would never do to dance in a fog from the wet plaster. We will varnish it to hide the smell."

Three days later the commercial circles of the quarter were in a flutter at the announcement of Birotteau's

ball. Everybody could see for themselves the props and scaffoldings necessitated by the change of the

staircase, the square wooden funnels down which the rubbish was thrown into the carts stationed in the street.

The sight of men working by torchlightfor there were day workmen and night workmen arrested all the

idlers and busybodies in the street; gossip, based on these preparations, proclaimed a sumptuous forthcoming

On Sunday, the day Cesar had appointed to conclude the affair of the lands about the Madeleine, Monsieur

and Madame Ragon, and uncle Pillerault arrived about four o'clock, just after vespers. In view of the

demolition that was going on, so Cesar said, he could only invite Charles Claparon, Crottat, and Roguin. The

notary brought with him the "Journal des Debats" in which Monsieur de la Billardiere had inserted the

"We learn that the deliverance of our territory will be feted with enthusiasm throughout France. In Paris the

members of the municipal body feel that the time has come to restore the capital to that accustomed splendor

which under a becoming sense of propriety was laid aside during the foreign occupation. The mayors and

deputymayors each propose to give a ball; this national movement will no doubt be followed, and the winter

promises to be a brilliant one. Among the fetes now preparing, the one most talked of is the ball of Monsieur

Birotteau, lately named chevalier of the Legion of honor and wellknown for his devotion to the royal cause.

Monsieur Birotteau, wounded in the affair of SaintRoch, judges in the department of commerce, and

"How well they write nowadays," cried Cesar. "They are talking about us in the papers," he said to Pillerault.

"Well, what of it?" answered his uncle, who had a special antipathy to the "Journal des Debats."

"That article may help to sell the Paste of Sultans and the Carminative Balm," whispered Madame Cesar to

Madame Ragon, a tall woman, dry and wrinkled, with a pinched nose and thin lips, bore a spurious

resemblance to a marquise of the old court. The circles round her eyes had spread to a wide circumference,

like those of elderly women who have known sorrow. The severe and dignified, although affable, expression

of her countenance inspired respect. She had, withal, a certain oddity about her, which excited notice, but

never ridicule; and this was exhibited in her dress and habits. She wore mittens, and carried in all weathers a

cane sunshade, like that used by Queen MarieAntoinette at Trianon; her gown (the favorite color was

palebrown, the shade of dead leaves) fell from her hips in those inimitable folds the secret of which the

dowagers of the olden time have carried away with them. She retained the black mantilla trimmed with black

lace woven in large square meshes; her caps, oldfashioned in shape, had the quaint charm which we see in

silhouettes relieved against a white background. She took snuff with exquisite nicety and with the gestures

which young people of the present day who have had the happiness of seeing their grandmothers and

greataunts replacing their gold snuffboxes solemnly on the tables beside them, and shaking off the grains

The Sieur Ragon was a little man, not over five feet high, with a face like a nutcracker, in which could be

seen only two eyes, two sharp cheekbones, a nose and a chin. Having no teeth he swallowed half his words,

though his style of conversation was effluent, gallant, pretentious, and smiling, with the smile he formerly

wore when he received beautiful great ladies at the door of his shop. Powder, well raked off, defined upon his

cranium a nebulous halfcircle, flanked by two pigeonwings, divided by a little queue tied with a ribbon. He

wore a bottleblue coat, a white waistcoat, smallclothes and silk stockings, shoes with gold buckles, and

black silk gloves. The most marked feature of his behavior was his habit of going through the street holding

his hat in his hand. He looked like a messenger of the Chamber of Peers, or an usher of the king's

bedchamber, or any of those persons placed near to some form of power from which they get a reflected light,

"Well, Birotteau," he said, with a magisterial air, "do you repent, my boy, for having listened to us in the old

"Yes, indeed," answered Constance, always under the spell of the cane parasol, the butterfly cap, the tight

"Cesarine is charming. Come here, my love," said Madame Ragon, in her shrill voice and patronizing

"We are waiting for Monsieur Claparon," said Roguin, "I left him dressing himself."

"Monsieur Roguin," said Cesar, "I hope you told him that we should dine in a wretched little room on the

"I have put Raguet on guard in the shop. We can't go through our own door; everything is pulled down."

"No, my love," said Madame Ragon; "Anselme, dear boy, is working himself to death. That badsmelling

Rue des CinqDiamants, without sun and without air, frightens me. The gutter is always blue or green or

black. I am afraid he will die of it. But when a young man has something in his head" and she looked at

"Yesterday, before a notary," replied Ragon. "He took the place for eighteen years, but they exacted six

"Well, Monsieur Ragon, are you satisfied with me?" said the perfumer. "I have given him the secret of a great

"We know you by heart, Cesar," said little Ragon, taking Cesar's hands and pressing them with religious

Roguin was not without anxiety as to Claparon's entrance on the scene; for his tone and manners were quite

likely to alarm these virtuous and worthy people; he therefore thought it advisable to prepare their minds.

"You are going to see," he said to Pillerault and the two ladies, "a thorough original, who hides his methods

under a fearfully bad style of manners; from a very inferior position he has raised himself up by intelligence.

He will acquire better manners through his intercourse with bankers. You may see him on the boulevard, or

on a cafe tippling, disorderly, betting at billiards, and think him a mere idler; but he is not; he is thinking and

"I understand that," said Birotteau; "I got my great ideas when sauntering on the boulevard; didn't I, Mimi?"

"Claparon," resumed Roguin, "makes up by nightwork the time lost in looking about him in the daytime,

and watching the current of affairs. All men of great talent lead curious lives, inexplicable lives; well, in spite

of his desultory ways he attains his object, as I can testify. In this instance he has managed to make the

owners of these lands give way: they were unwilling, doubtful, timid; he fooled them all, tired them out, went

At this moment a curious broum! broum! peculiar to tipplers of brandy and other liquors, announced the

arrival of the most fantastic personage of our story, and the arbiter in flesh and blood of the future destinies of

Cesar Birotteau. The perfumer rushed headlong to the little dark staircase, as much to tell Raguet to close the

shop as to pour out his excuses to Claparon for receiving him in the dining room.

"What of that? It's the very place to juggle aI mean to settle a piece of business."

In spite of Roguin's clever precautions, Monsieur and Madame Ragon, people of oldfashioned middleclass

breeding, the observer Pillerault, Cesarine, and her mother were disagreeably impressed at first sight by this

About twentyeight years of age at the time of which we write, the late commercial traveller possessed not a

hair on his head, and wore a wig curled in ringlets. This headgear needed, by rights, a virgin freshness, a

lacteal purity of complexion, and all the softer corresponding graces: as it was, however, it threw into ignoble

relief a pimpled face, brownishred in color, inflamed like that of the conductor of a diligence, and seamed

with premature wrinkles, which betrayed in the puckers of their deepcut lines a licentious life, whose

misdeeds were still further evidenced by the badness of the man's teeth, and the black speckles which

appeared here and there on his corrugated skin. Claparon had the air of a provincial comedian who knows all

the roles, and plays the clown with a wink; his cheeks, where the rouge never stuck, were jaded by excesses,

his lips clammy, though his tongue was forever wagging, especially when he was drunk; his glances were

immodest, and his gestures compromising. Such a face, flushed with the jovial features of punch, was enough

to turn grave business matters into a farce; so that the embryo banker had been forced to put himself through

a long course of mimicry before he managed to acquire even the semblance of a manner that accorded with

Du Tillet assisted in dressing him for this occasion, like the manager of a theatre who is uneasy about the

debut of his principal actor; he feared lest the vulgar habits of this devilmaycare life should crop up to the

surface of the newlyfledged banker. "Talk as little as you can," he said to him. "No banker ever gabbles; he

acts, thinks, reflects, listens, weighs. To seem like a banker you must say nothing, or, at any rate, mere

nothings. Check that ribald eye of yours, and look serious, even if you have to look stupid. If you talk

politics, go for the government, but keep to generalities. For instance: 'The budget is heavy'; 'No compromise

is possible between the parties'; 'The Liberals are dangerous'; 'The Bourbons must avoid a conflict';

'Liberalism is the cloak of a coalition'; 'The Bourbons are inaugurating an era of prosperity: let us sustain

them, even if we do not like them'; 'France has had enough of politics,' etc. Don't gorge yourself at every table

where you dine; recollect you are to maintain the dignity of a millionaire. Don't shovel in your snuff like an

old Invalide; toy with your snuffbox, glance often at your feet, and sometimes at the ceiling, before you

answer; try to look sagacious, if you can. Above all, get rid of your vile habit of touching everything; in

society a banker ought to seem tired of seeing and touching things. Hang it! you are supposed to be passing

wakeful nights; finance makes you brusque, so many elements must be brought together to launch an

enterprise,so much study! Remember to take gloomy views of business; it is heavy, dull, risky, unsettled.

Now, don't go beyond that, and mind you specify nothing. Don't sing those songs of Beranger at table; and

don't get fuddled. If you are drunk, your future is lost. Roguin will keep an eye on you. You are going now

among moral people, virtuous people; and you are not to scare them with any of your pot house principles."

This lecture produced upon the mind of Charles Claparon very much the effect that his new clothes produced

upon his body. The jovial scapegrace, easygoing with all the world, and long used to a comfortable

shabbiness, in which his body was no more shackled than his mind was shackled by language, was now

encased in the new clothes his tailor had just sent home, rigid as a picketstake, anxious about his motions as

well as about his speech; drawing back his hand when it was imprudently thrust out to grasp a bottle, just as

he stopped his tongue in the middle of a sentence. All this presented a laughable discrepancy to the keen

observation of Pillerault. Claparon's red face, and his wig with its profligate ringlets, gave the lie to his

apparel and pretended bearing, just as his thoughts clashed and jangled with his speech. But these worthy

people ended by crediting such discordances to the preoccupation of his busy mind.

"He is rich, clever, and extremely honorable," he said, stooping to Madame Ragon's ear.

"Something may be forgiven in consideration of such qualities," said Pillerault to Ragon.

Madame Ragon, Cesarine, and Constance left the contracting parties to listen to the deeds read over to them

by Alexandre Crottat. Cesar signed, in favor of one of Roguin's clients, a mortgage bond for forty thousand

francs, on his grounds and manufactories in the Faubourg du Temple; he turned over to Roguin Pillerault's

cheque on the Bank of France, and gave, without receipt, bills for twenty thousand francs from his current

funds, and notes for one hundred and forty thousand francs payable to the order of Claparon.

"I have no receipt to give you," said Claparon; "you deal, for your half of the property, with Monsieur

Roguin, as I do for ours. The sellers will get their pay from him in cash; all that I engage to do is to see that

you get the equivalent of the hundred and forty thousand francs paid to my order."

"Well, gentlemen, let us call in the ladies; it is cold without them," said Claparon, glancing at Roguin, as if to

"Ladies! Ah! mademoiselle is doubtless yours," said Claparon, holding himself very straight and looking at

Birotteau; "hey! you are not a bungler. None of the roses you distil can be compared with her; and perhaps it

"You do a great deal of business?" said Pillerault, seating himself intentionally next to Claparon.

"Quantities; by the gross," answered the banker. "But it is all heavy, dull; there are risks, canals. Oh, canals!

you have no idea how canals occupy us; it is easy to explain. Government needs canals. Canals are a want

especially felt in the departments; they concern commerce, you know. 'Rivers,' said Pascal, 'are walking

markets.' We must have markets. Markets depend on embankments, tremendous earthworks; earth works

employ the laboringclasses; hence loans, which find their way back, in the end, to the pockets of the poor.

Voltaire said, 'Canaux, canards, canaille!' But the government has its own engineers; you can't get a finger in

the matter unless you get on the right side of them; for the Chamber,oh, monsieur, the Chamber does us all

the harm in the world! It won't take in the political question hidden under the financial question. There's bad

faith on one side or the other. Would you believe it? there's Keller in the Chamber: now Francois Keller is an

orator, he attacks the government about the budget, about canals. Well, when he gets home to the bank, and

we go to him with proposals, canals, and so forth, the sly dog is all the other way: everything is right; we

must arrange it with the government which he has just been been impudently attacking. The interests of the

orator and the interests of the banker clash; we are between two fires! Now, you understand how it is that

business is risky; we have got to please everybody,clerks, chambers, antechambers, ministers"

"Ministers?" said Pillerault, determined to get to the bottom of this coassociate.

"There's my uncle talking politics," said Birotteau. "Monsieur Claparon has won his heart."

"Devilish rogues, the newspapers," said Claparon. "Monsieur, the newspapers do all the mischief. They are

useful sometimes, but they keep me awake many a night. I wish they didn't. I have put my eyes out reading

"Ministers are a mere necessity of government. Ah! what am I eating? ambrosia?" said Claparon, breaking

off. "This is a sauce you'll never find except at a tradesman's table, for the pothouses"

Here the flowers in Madame Ragon's cap skipped like young rams. Claparon perceived the word was low,

"In bank circles," he said, "we call the best cafes.Very, and the Freres Provencaux,pothouses in jest.

Well, neither those infamous pothouses nor our most scientific cooks can make us a sauce like this;

mellifluous! Some give you clear water soured with lemon, and the rest drugs, chemicals."

Pillerault tried throughout the dinner to fathom this extraordinary being; finding only a void, he began to

"I shall get out of these clothes tonight, at any rate," answered Claparon, who was choking.

"Monsieur," said Cesar, addressing him, "we are compelled to dine in this little room because we are

preparing, eighteen days hence, to assemble our friends, as much to celebrate the emancipation of our

"Right, monsieur; I myself am for the government. I belong, in opinion, to the statu quo of the great man who

guides the destinies of the house of Austria, jolly dog! Hold fast that you may acquire; and, above all, acquire

that you may hold. Those are my opinions, which I have the honor to share with Prince Metternich."

"as to commemorate my promotion to the order of the Legion of honor," continued Cesar.

"He pours out phrases, phrases, phrases," said Pillerault, "enough to drown you."

"Possibly I showed myself worthy of this signal, royal favor," resumed Birotteau.

"By your labors in perfumery; the Bourbons know how to reward all merit. Ah! let us support those generous

princes, to whom we are about to owe unheardof prosperity. Believe me, the Restoration feels that it must

run a tilt against the Empire; the Bourbons have conquests to make, the conquests of peace. You will see their

"Monsieur will perhaps do us the honor to be present at our ball?" said Madame Cesar.

"To pass an evening with you, Madame, I would sacrifice the making of millions."

While the declining glory of perfumery was about to send forth its setting rays, a star was rising with feeble

light upon the commercial horizon. Anselme Popinot was laying the cornerstone of his fortune in the Rue

des CinqDiamants. This narrow little street, where loaded wagons can scarcely pass each other, runs from

the Rue des Lombards at one end, to the Rue AubryleBoucher at the other, entering the latter opposite to

the Rue Quincampoix, that famous thoroughfare of old Paris where French history has so often been enacted.

In spite of this disadvantage, the congregation of druggists in that neighborhood made Popinot's choice of the

little street a good one. The house, which stands second from the Rue des Lombards, was so dark that except

at certain seasons it was necessary to use lights in open day. The embryo merchant had taken possession, the

preceding evening, of the dingy and disgusting premises. His predecessor, who sold molasses and coarse

sugars, had left the stains of his dirty business upon the walls, in the court, in the storerooms. Imagine a

large and spacious shop, with great ironbound doors, painted a dragongreen, strengthened with long iron

bars held on by nails whose heads looked like mushrooms, and covered with an iron trelliswork, which

swelled out at the bottom after the fashion of the bakers'shops in former days; the floor paved with large

white stones, most of them broken, the walls yellow, and as bare as those of a guardroom. Next to the shop

came the backshop, and two other rooms lighted from the street, in which Popinot proposed to put his

office, his books, and his own workroom. Above these rooms were three narrow little chambers pushed up

against the partywall, with an outlook into the court; here he intended to dwell. The three rooms were

dilapidated, and had no view but that of the court, which was dark, irregular, and surrounded by high walls, to

which perpetual dampness, even in dry weather, gave the look of being daubed with fresh plaster. Between

the stones of this court was a filthy and stinking black substance, left by the sugars and the molasses that once

occupied it. Only one of the bedrooms had a chimney, all the walls were without paper, and the floors were

Since early morning Gaudissart and Popinot, helped by a journeyman whose services the commercial

traveller had invoked, were busily employed in stretching a fifteensous paper on the walls of these horrible

rooms, the workman pasting the lengths. A collegian's mattress on a bedstead of red wood, a shabby

nightstand, an old fashioned bureau, one table, two armchairs, and six common chairs, the gift of Popinot's

uncle the judge, made up the furniture. Gaudissart had decked the chimneypiece with a frame in which was

a mirror much defaced, and bought at a bargain. Towards eight o'clock in the evening the two friends, seated

before the fireplace where a fagot of wood was blazing, were about to attack the remains of their breakfast.

"Down with the cold mutton!" cried Gaudissart, suddenly, "it is not worthy of such a housewarming."

"But," said Popinot, showing his solitary coin of twenty francs, which he was keeping to pay for the

A knock resounded throughout the court, naturally empty and echoing of a Sunday, when the workpeople

"Here comes the faithful slave of the Rue de la Poterie!" cried the illustrious Gaudissart.

Sure enough, a waiter entered, followed by two scullions bearing in three baskets a dinner, and six bottles of

"The man of letters!" cried Gaudissart, "don't forget him. Finot loves the pomps and the vanities; he is

coming, the innocent boy, armed with a dishevelled prospectusthe word is pat, hein? Prospectuses are

always thirsty. We must water the seed if we want flowers. Depart, slaves!" he added, with a gorgeous air,

"Thank you, Monsieur Gaudissart," said the scullions, better pleased with the jest than with the money.

"As for you, my son," he said to the waiter, who stayed to serve the dinner, "below is a porter's wife; she lives

in a lair where she sometimes cooks, as in other days Nausicaa washed, for pure amusement. Find her,

implore her goodness; interest her, young man, in the warmth of these dishes. Tell her she shall be blessed,

and above all, respected, most respected, by Felix Gaudissart, son of JeanFrancois Gaudissart, grandson of

all the Gaudissarts, vile proletaries of ancient birth, his forefathers. March! and mind that everything is hot, or

A stout, chubbyfaced fellow of medium height, from head to foot the evident son of a hatmaker, with

round features whose shrewdness was hidden under a restrained and subdued manner, suddenly appeared. His

face, which was melancholy, like that of a man weary of poverty, lighted up hilariously when he caught sight

of the table, and the bottles swathed in significant napkins. At Gaudissart's shout, his paleblue eyes sparkled,

his big head, hollowed like that of a Kalmuc Tartar, bobbed from right to left, and he bowed to Popinot with a

queer manner, which meant neither servility nor respect, but was rather that of a man who feels he is not in

his right place and will make no concessions. He was just beginning to find out that he possessed no literary

talent whatever; he meant to stay in the profession, however, by living on the brains of others, and getting

astride the shoulders of those more able than himself, making his profit there instead of struggling any longer

at his own illpaid work. At the present moment he had drunk to the dregs the humiliation of applications and

appeals which constantly failed, and he was now, like people in the higher walks of finance, about to change

his tone and become insolent, advisedly. But he needed a small sum in hand on which to start, and Gaudissart

gave him a share in the present affair of ushering into the world the oil of Popinot.

"You are to negotiate on his account with the newspapers. But don't play double; if you do I'll fight you to the

Popinot gazed at "the author" which much uneasiness. People who are purely commercial look upon an

author with mingled sentiments of fear, compassion, and curiosity. Though Popinot had been well brought

up, the habits of his relations, their ideas, and the obfuscating effect of a shop and a countingroom, had

lowered his intelligence by bending it to the use and wont of his calling,a phenomenon which may often be

seen if we observe the transformations which take place in a hundred comrades, when ten years supervene

between the time when they leave college or a public school, to all intents and purposes alike, and the period

when they meet again after contact with the world. Andoche accepted Popinot's perturbation as a

"Now then, before dinner, let's get to the bottom of the prospectus; then we can drink without an

afterthought," said Gaudissart. "After dinner one reads askew; the tongue digests."

"And for plebeians like myself," said Andoche, "fortune is nothing more than a prospectus."

"Ha, very good!" cried Gaudissart, "that rogue of a Finot has the wit of the forty Academicians."

The impatient Gaudissart seized the manuscript and began to read in a loud voice, with much emphasis,

"My friend," said Gaudissart, "you don't know the provincials; there's a surgical operation called by that

name, and they are such stupids that they'll think your oil is meant to facilitate childbirth. To drag them back

"Without wishing to defend my term," said the author, "I must ask you to observe that 'Cephalic Oil' means

Here follows the prospectus; the same which the trade receives, by the thousand, to the present day (another

"No cosmetic can make the hair grow, and no chemical preparation can dye it without peril to the seat of

intelligence. Science has recently made known the fact that hair is a dead substance, and that no agent can

prevent it from falling off or whitening. To prevent Baldness and Dandruff, it is necessary to protect the bulb

from which the hair issues from all deteriorating atmospheric influences, and to maintain the temperature of

the head at its right medium. CEPHALIC OIL, based upon principles laid down by the Academy of Sciences,

produces this important result, sought by the ancients,the Greeks, the Romans, and all Northern

nations,to whom the preservation of the hair was peculiarly precious. Certain scientific researches have

demonstrated that nobles, formerly distinguished for the length of their hair, used no other remedy than this;

their method of preparation, which had been lost in the lapse of ages, has been intelligently rediscovered by

"To preserve, rather than provoke a useless and injurious stimulation of the instrument which contains the

bulbs, is the mission of CEPHALIC OIL. In short, this oil, which counteracts the exfoliation of pellicular

atoms, which exhales a soothing perfume, and arrests, by means of the substances of which it is composed

(among them more especially the oil of nuts), the action of the outer air upon the scalp, also prevents

influenzas, colds in the head, and other painful cephalic afflictions, by maintaining the normal temperature of

the cranium. Consequently, the bulbs, which contain the generating fluids, are neither chilled by cold nor

parched by heat. The hair of the head, that magnificent product, priceless alike to man and woman, will be

preserved even to advanced age, in all the brilliancy and lustre which bestow their charm upon the heads of

"METHOD OF USING CEPHALIC OIL.It is quite useless to oil the hair; this is not only a vulgar and

foolish prejudice, but an untidy habit, for the reason that all cosmetics leave their trace. It suffices to wet a

little sponge in the oil, and after parting the hair with the comb, to apply it at the roots in such a manner that

the whole skin of the head may be enabled to imbibe it, after the scalp has received a preliminary cleansing

"The oil is sold in bottles bearing the signature of the inventor, to prevent counterfeits. Price, THREE

"N.B. The house of A. Popinot supplies all oils and essences appertaining to druggists: lavender, oil of

"My dear friend," said the illustrious Gaudissart to Finot, "it is admirably written. Thunder and lightning! we

are in the upper regions of science. We shirk nothing; we go straight to the point. That's useful literature; I

"A prospectus which slays Macassar at the first word," continued Gaudissart, rising with a magisterial air to

deliver the following speech, which he divided by gestures and pauses in his most parliamentary manner.

"Nohaircan be madeto grow! Hair cannot be dyed withoutdanger! Ha! ha! success is there.

Modern science is in union with the customs of the ancients. We can deal with young and old alike. We can

say to the old man, 'Ha, monsieur! the ancients, the Greeks and Romans, knew a thing or two, and were not

so stupid as some would have us believe'; and we can say to the young man, 'My dear boy, here's another

discovery due to progress and the lights of science. We advance; what may we not obtain from steam and

telegraphy, and other things! This oil is based on the scientific treatise of Monsieur Vauquelin!' Suppose we

print an extract from Monsieur Vauquelin's report to the Academy of Sciences, confirming our statement,

hein? Famous! Come, Finot, sit down; attack the viands! Soak up the champagne! let us drink to the success

"I felt," said the author modestly, "that the epoch of flimsy and frivolous prospectuses had gone by; we are

entering upon an era of science; we need an academical tone,a tone of authority, which imposes upon the

"We'll boil that oil; my feet itch, and my tongue too. I've got commissions from all the rival hair people; none

of them give more than thirty per cent discount; we must manage forty on every hundred remitted, and I'll

answer for a hundred thousand bottles in six months. I'll attack apothecaries, grocers, perfumers! Give 'em

The three young fellows devoured their dinner like lions, and drank like lords to the future success of

Gaudissart poured out a series of jokes and puns upon hats and heads, and hair and hairoil, etc. In the midst

of Homeric laughter a knock resounded, and was heard, in spite of an uproar of toasts and reciprocal

"The uncle of my friend Popinot is a judge," said Gaudissart to Finot, "and he is not to be hoaxed; he saved

my life. Ha! when one gets to the pass where I was, under the scaffoldQouick, and goodby to your

hair,"imitating the fatal knife with voice and gesture. "One recollects gratefully the virtuous magistrate

who saved the gutter where the champagne flows down. Recollect?I'd recollect him dead drunk! You

don't know what it is, Finot, unless you have stood in need of Monsieur Popinot. Huzza! we ought to fire a

The virtuous magistrate was now asking for his nephew at the door. Recognizing his voice, Anselme went

The illustrious Gaudissart bowed profoundly. Finot examined the magistrate with a tipsy eye, and thought

"You have not much luxury here," said the judge, gravely, looking round the room. "Well, my son, if we wish

"Ah! you here, monsieur?" said the judge, recognizing the commercial traveller; "and what are you doing

"Monsieur, I am contributing to the best of my small ability to the success of your dear nephew. We have just

been studying a prospectus for his oil; you see before you the author of that prospectus, which seems to us the

finest essay in the literature of wigs." The judge looked at Finot. "Monsieur," said Gaudissart, "is Monsieur

Andoche Finot, a young man distinguished in literature, who does highclass politics and the little theatres in

the government newspapers,I may say a statesman on the highroad to becoming an author."

"Well, well, my sons," said the judge, to whom these words explained the aspect of the table, where there

stilled remained the tokens of a very excusable feast. "Anselme," said the old gentleman to his nephew,

"dress yourself, and come with me to Monsieur Birotteau's, where I have a visit to pay. You shall sign the

deed of partnership, which I have carefully examined. As you mean to have the manufactory for your oil on

the grounds in the Faubourg du Temple, I think you had better take a formal lease of them. Monsieur

Birotteau might have others in partnership with him, and it is better to settle everything legally at once; then

there can be no discussion. These walls seem to me very damp, my dear boy; take up the straw matting near

"Permit me, monsieur," said Gaudissart, with an ingratiating air, "to explain to you that we have just pasted

"Look here," said Gaudissart in Finot's ear, "my friend Popinot is a virtuous young man; he is going with his

The journalist showed the empty lining of his pockets. Popinot saw the gesture, and slipped his twentyfranc

The judge had a coach at the end of the street, in which he carried off his nephew to the Birotteaus.

Pillerault, Monsieur and Madame Ragon, and Monsieur Roguin were playing at boston, and Cesarine was

embroidering a handkerchief, when the judge and Anselme arrived. Roguin, placed opposite to Madame

Ragon, near whom Cesarine was sitting, noticed the pleasure of the young girl when she saw Anselme enter,

"This is to be a day of deeds, then?" said the perfumer, when the greetings were over and the judge told him

Cesar, Anselme, and the judge went up to the perfumer's temporary bedroom on the second floor to discuss

the lease and the deed of partnership drawn up by the magistrate. A lease of eighteen years was agreed upon,

so that it might run the same length of time as the lease of the shop in the Rue des CinqDiamants,an

insignificant circumstance apparently, but one which did Birotteau good service in after days. When Cesar

and the judge returned to the entresol, the latter, surprised at the general upset of the household, and the

presence of workmen on a Sunday in the house of a man so religious as Birotteau, asked the meaning of

"Though you care very little for the world, monsieur," he said, "you will see no harm in celebrating the

deliverance of our territory. That, however, is not all. We are about to assemble a few friends to

"Possibly I showed myself worthy of that signal and royal favor by my services on the Benchoh! of

"of SaintRoch on the 13th Vendemiaire, where I was wounded by Napoleon. May I not hope that you and

"Xandrot," said Roguin to his clerk, as they left the house, "give up all thoughts of marrying Cesarine; six

"My dear fellow, Birotteau is going to spend a hundred thousand francs on his ball, and he is involving his

whole fortune, against my advice, in that speculation in lands. Six weeks hence he and his family won't have

bread to eat. Marry Mademoiselle Lourdois, the daughter of the housepainter. She has three hundred

thousand francs dot. I threw out that anchor to windward for you. If you will pay me a hundred thousand

The splendors of the approaching ball were announced by the newspapers to all Europe, and were also made

known to the world of commerce by rumors to which the preparations, carried on night and day, had given

rise. Some said that Cesar had hired three houses, and that he was gilding his salons; others that the supper

would furnish dishes invented for the occasion. On one hand it was reported that no merchants would be

invited, the fete being given to the members of the government; on the other hand, Cesar was severely

blamed for his ambition, and laughed at for his political pretensions: some people even went so far as to deny

his wound. The ball gave rise to more than one intrigue in the second arrondissement. The friends of the

family were easy in their minds, but the demands of mere acquaintances were enormous. Honors bring

sycophants; and there was a goodly number of people whose invitations cost them more than one application.

The Birotteaus were fairly frightened at the number of friends whom they did not know they had. These eager

attentions alarmed Madame Birotteau, and day by day her face grew sadder as the great solemnity drew near.

In the first place, as she owned to Cesar, she should never learn the right demeanor; next, she was terrified by

the innumerable details of such a fete: where should she find the plate, the glassware, the refreshments, the

china, the servants? Who would superintend it all? She entreated Birotteau to stand at the door of the

appartement and let no one enter but invited guests; she had heard strange stories of people who came to

bourgeois balls, claiming friends whose names they did not know. When, a week before the fateful day,

Braschon, Grindot, Lourdois, and Chaffaroux, the builder, assured Cesar positively that the rooms would be

ready for the famous Sunday of December the 17th, an amusing conference took place, in the evening after

dinner, between Cesar, his wife, and his daughter, for the purpose of making out the list of guests and

addressing the invitations,which a stationer had sent home that morning, printed on pink paper, in flowing

"If we forget any one," said Constance, "they won't forget it. Madame Derville, who never called before,

"And yet before her marriage she was even less than I was," said Constance. "She did plain sewing in the Rue

"Well, now let us begin the list," said Birotteau, "with the upper crust people. Cesarine, write down

"Good heavens, Cesar!" said Constance, "don't send a single invitation to people whom you only know as

customers. Are you going to invite the Princesse de BlamontChavry, who is more nearly related to your

godmother, the late Marquise d'Uxelles, than the Duc de Lenoncourt? You surely don't mean to invite the two

Messieurs de Vandenesse, Monsieur de Marsay, Monsieur de Ronquerolles, Monsieur d'Aiglemont, in short,

"Well, but there's Monsieur le Comte de Fontaine and his family, hein? the one that always went by the

Monsieur de la Billardiere, who was called the NANTAIS at 'The Queen of Roses' before the 13th

Vendemiaire. In those days it was all handshaking, and 'Birotteau, take courage; let yourself be killed, like

"Very good, put them down," said Constance. "If Monsieur de la Billardiere comes he will want somebody to

"Cesarine, write," said Birotteau. "Primo, Monsieur the prefect of the Seine; he'll come or he won't come, but

any way he commands the municipality,honor to whom honor is due. Monsieur de la Billardiere and his

son, the mayor. Put the number of the guests after their names. My colleague, Monsieur Granet,

deputymayor, and his wife. She is very ugly, but never mind, we can't dispense with her. Monsieur Curel,

the jeweller, colonel of the National Guard, his wife, and two daughters. Those are what I call the authorities.

Now come the big wigs,Monsieur le Comte and Madame la Comtesse de Fontaine, and their daughter,

"An insolent girl, who makes me leave the shop and speak to her at the door of the carriage, no matter what

the weather is," said Madame Cesar. "If she comes, it will only be to ridicule me."

"Then she'll be sure to come," said Cesar, bent on getting everybody. "Go on, Cesarine. Monsieur le Comte

and Madame la Comtesse de Grandville, my landlord,the longest head at the royal court, so Derville says.

Ah ca! Monsieur de la Billardiere is to present me as a chevalier tomorrow to Monsieur le Comte de

Lacepede himself, high chancellor of the Legion of honor. It is only proper that I should send him an

invitation for the ball, and also to the dinner. Monsieur Vauquelin; put him down for ball and dinner both,

Cesarine. And (so as not to forget them) put down all the Chiffrevilles and the Protez; Monsieur and Madame

Popinot, judge of the Lower Court of the Seine; Monsieur and Madame Thirion, gentlemanusher of the

bedchamber to the king, friends of Ragon, and their daughter, who, they tell me, is to marry the son of

"Cesar, don't forget that little Horace Bianchon, the nephew of Monsieur Popinot, and cousin of Anselme,"

"Whew! Cesarine has written a four after the name of Popinot. Monsieur and Madame Rabourdin, one of the

undersecretaries in Monsieur de la Billardiere's division; Monsieur Cochin, same division, his wife and son,

sleepingpartners of Matifat, and Monsieur, Madame, and Mademoiselle Matifat themselves."

"The Matifats," said Cesarine, "are fishing for invitations for Monsieur and Madame Colleville, and

"We will see about that," said Cesar. "Put down my broker, Monsieur and Madame Jules Desmarets."

"She will be the loveliest woman in the room," said Cesarine. "I like heroh! better than any one else."

"Put down Monsieur and Madame Coquelin, the successors to my uncle Pillerault," said Constance. "They

are so sure of an invitation that the poor little woman has ordered my dressmaker to make her a superb

balldress, a skirt of white satin, and a tulle robe with succory flowers embroidered all over it. A little more

and she would have ordered a courtdress of gold brocade. If you leave them out we shall make bitter

"Put them down, Cesarine; all honor to commerce, for we belong to it! Monsieur and Madame Roguin."

"Mamma, Madame Roguin will wear her diamond fillet and all her other diamonds, and her dress trimmed

"Monsieur and Madame Lebas," said Cesar; "also Monsieur le president of the Court of Commerce,I

forgot him among the authorities,his wife, and two daughters; Monsieur and Madame Lourdois and their

daughter; Monsieur Claparon, banker; Monsieur du Tillet; Monsieur Grindot; Monsieur Molineux; Pillerault

and his landlord; Monsieur and Madame Camusot, the rich silkmerchants, and all their children, the one at

the Ecole Polytechnique, and the lawyer; he is to be made a judge because of his marriage to Mademoiselle

"Monsieur Cardot, fatherinlaw of Camusot, and all the Cardot children. Bless me, and the Guillaumes, Rue

du Colombier, the father inlaw of Lebasold people, but they'll sit in a corner; Alexandre Crottat;

"Papa, don't forget Monsieur Andoche Finot and Monsieur Gaudissart, two young men who are very useful to

"Gaudissart? he was once in the hands of justice. But never mind, he is going to travel for our oil and starts in

"Let's put him down, papa; we want more dancers. Besides, he wrote the beautiful prospectus for the oil."

"Put Monsieur Mitral, my bailiff; Monsieur Haudry, our doctor, as a matter of form,he won't come."

"Now, Cesar, I do hope you mean to invite the Abbe Loraux to the dinner," said Constance.

"Oh! and don't forget the sisterinlaw of Monsieur Lebas, Madame Augustine Sommervieux," said

Cesarine. "Poor little woman, she is so delicate; she is dying of grief, so Monsieur Lebas says."

"That's what it is to marry artists!" cried her father. "Look! there's your mother asleep," he whispered. "La!

la! a very good night to you, Madame CesarNow, then," he added, "about your mother's balldress?"

"Yes, papa, it will be all ready. Mamma thinks she will wear her chinacrape like mine. The dressmaker is

"How many people have you got down," said Cesar aloud, seeing that Constance opened her eyes.

"Where shall we ever put them all?" said Madame Birotteau. "But, anyhow, after that Sunday," she added

Nothing can be done simply and naturally by people who are stepping from one social level to another. Not a

soulnot Madame Birotteau, nor Cesar himselfwas allowed to put foot into the new appartement on the

first floor. Cesar had promised Raguet, the shopboy, a new suit of clothes for the day of the ball, if he

mounted guard faithfully and let no one enter. Birotteau, like the Emperor Napoleon at Compiegne, when the

chateau was redecorated for his marriage with Maria Louisa of Austria, was determined to see nothing

piecemeal; he wished to enjoy the surprise of seeing it as a whole. Thus the two antagonists met once more,

all unknown to themselves, not on the field of battle, but on the peaceful ground of bourgeois vanity. It was

arranged that Monsieur Grindot was to take Cesar by the hand and show him the appartement when

finished,just as a guide shows a gallery to a sightseer. Every member of the family had provided his, or

her, private "surprise." Cesarine, dear child, had spent all her little hoard, a hundred louis, on buying books

for her father. Monsieur Grindot confided to her one morning that there were two bookcases in Cesar's

room, which enclosed an alcove,an architectural surprise to her father. Cesarine flung all her girlish

savings upon the counter of a bookseller's shop, and obtained in return, Bossuet, Racine, Voltaire,

JeanJacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, Moliere, Buffon, Fenelon, Delille, Bernardin de SaintPierre, La

Fontaine, Corneille, Pascal, La Harpe,in short, the whole array of matterofcourse libraries to be found

everywhere and which assuredly her father would never read. A terrible bill for binding was in the

background. The celebrated and dilatory binder, Thouvenin, had promised to deliver the volumes at twelve

o'clock in the morning of the 16th. Cesarine confided her anxiety to her uncle Pillerault, and he had promised

to pay the bill. The "surprise" of Cesar to his wife was the gown of cherrycolored velvet, trimmed with lace,

of which he spoke to his accomplice, Cesarine. The "surprise" of Madame Birotteau to the new chevalier was

a pair of gold shoebuckles, and a diamond pin. For the whole family there was the surprise of the new

appartement, and, a fortnight later, the still greater surprise of the bills when they came in.

Cesar carefully weighed the question as to which invitations should be given in person, and which should be

sent by Raguet. He ordered a coach and took his wifemuch disfigured by a bonnet with feathers, and his

last gift, a shawl which she had coveted for fifteen yearson a round of civilities. In their best array, these

Cesar excused his wife from the labor and difficulty of preparing at home the various viands demanded by

the splendor of the entertainment. A diplomatic treaty was arranged between the famous Chevet and the

perfumer. Chevet furnished superb silver plate (which brought him an income equal to that of land); he

supplied the dinner, the wines, and the waiters, under the orders of a majordomo of dignified aspect, who

was responsible for the proper management of everything. Chevet exacted that the kitchen, and the

diningroom on the entresol, should be given up to him as headquarters; a dinner for twenty people was to be

served at six o'clock, a superb supper at one in the morning. Birotteau arranged with the cafe Foy for ices in

the shape of fruits, to be served in pretty saucers, with gilt spoons, on silver trays. Tanrade, another illustrious

"Don't be worried," said Cesar to his wife, observing her uneasiness on the day before the great event,

"Chevet, Tanrade, and the cafe Foy will occupy the entresol, Virginie will take charge of the second floor, the

shop will be closed; all we shall have to do is to enshrine ourselves on the first floor."

At two o'clock, on the 16th, the mayor, Monsieur de la Billardiere, came to take Cesar to the Chancellerie of

the Legion of honor, where he was to be received by Monsieur le Comte de Lacepede, and about a dozen

chevaliers of the order. Tears were in his eyes when he met the mayor; Constance had just given him the

"It is very sweet to be so loved," he said, getting into the coach in presence of the assembled clerks, and

Cesarine, and Constance. They, one and all, gazed at Cesar, attired in black silk kneebreeches, silk

stockings, and the new bottleblue coat, on which was about to gleam the ribbon that, according to Molineux,

was dyed in blood. When Cesar came home to dinner, he was pale with joy; he looked at his cross in all the

mirrors, for in the first moments of exultation he was not satisfied with the ribbon,he wore the cross, and

"My wife," he said, "Monsieur the high chancellor is a charming man. On a hint from La Billardiere he

accepted my invitation. He is coming with Monsieur Vauquelin. Monsieur de Lacepede is a great man,yes,

as great as Monsieur Vauquelin; he has continued the work of Buffon in forty volumes; he is an author, peer

of France! Don't forget to address him as, Your Excellence, or, Monsieur le comte."

"Do eat something," said his wife. "Your father is worse than a child," added Constance to Cesarine.

"How well it looks in your buttonhole," said Cesarine. "When we walk out together, won't they present

Just at this moment Grindot was coming downstairs with Braschon. It had been arranged that after dinner,

monsieur, madame, and mademoiselle were to enjoy a first sight of the new appartement; Braschon's foreman

"A bill of two hundred francs at Trudon's," said Madame Cesar, whose murmurs were checked by a glance

Birotteau whispered to himself, "Flatterers already! The Abbe Loraux urged me not to fall into that net, but to

Cesar did not perceive the meaning of the rich upholsterer's speech. Braschon made a dozen useless attempts

to get invitations for himself, his wife, daughter, motherinlaw, and aunt. He called the perfumer Monsieur

The rehearsal began. Cesar, his wife, and Cesarine went out by the shopdoor and reentered the house from

the street. The entrance had been remodelled in the grand style, with double doors, divided into square panels,

in the centre of which were architectural ornaments in castiron, painted. This style of door, since become

common in Paris, was then a novelty. At the further end of the vestibule the staircase went up in two straight

flights, and between them was the space which had given Cesar some uneasiness, and which was now

converted into a species of box, where it was possible to seat an old woman. The vestibule, paved in black

and white marble, with its walls painted to resemble marble, was lighted by an antique lamp with four jets.

The architect had combined richness with simplicity. A narrow red carpet relieved the whiteness of the stairs,

which were polished with pumice stone. The first landing gave an entrance to the entresol; the doors to each

appartement were of the same character as the streetdoor, but of finer work by a cabinetmaker.

The family reached the first floor and entered an antechamber in excellent taste, spacious, parquetted, and

simply decorated. Next came a salon, with three windows on the street, in white and red, with cornices of an

elegant design which had nothing gaudy about them. On a chimneypiece of white marble supported by

columns were a number of mantel ornaments chosen with taste; they suggested nothing to ridicule, and were

in keeping with the other details. A soft harmony prevailed throughout the room, a harmony which artists

alone know how to attain by carrying uniformity of decoration into the minutest particulars,an art of which

the bourgeois mind is ignorant, though it is much taken with its results. A glass chandelier, with twenty four

waxcandles, brought out the color of the red silk draperies; the polished floor had an enticing look, which

"Exactly, mademoiselle," said the architect; "the charm comes from the harmony which reigns between the

wainscots, walls, cornices, and the decorations; I have gilded nothing, the colors are sober, and not

"Here I have put a bed," said Grindot, opening the doors of an alcove cleverly hidden between the two

bookcases. "If you or madame should chance to be ill, each can have your own room."

"But this bookcase full of books, all bound! Oh! my wife, my wife!" cried Cesar.

"Pardon the feelings of a father," said Cesar to the architect, as he kissed his daughter.

Brown was the prevailing color in the study, relieved here and there with green, for a thread of harmony led

through all the rooms and allied them with one another. Thus the color which was the leading tone of one

room became the relieving tint of another. The engraving of Hero and Leander shone on one of the panels of

The bedroom of Madame Birotteau came next. The architect had there displayed a magnificence well

calculated to please the worthy people whom he was anxious to snare; he had really kept his word and

studied this decoration. The room was hung in blue silk, with white ornaments; the furniture was in white

cassimere touched with blue. On the chimneypiece, of white marble, stood a clock representing Venus

crouching, on a fine block of marble; a moquette carpet, of Turkish design, harmonized this room with that of

Cesarine, which opened out of it, and was coquettishly hung with Persian chintz. A piano, a pretty wardrobe

with a mirror door, a chaste little bed with simple curtains, and all the little trifles that young girls like,

completed the arrangements of the room. The diningroom was behind the bedroom of Cesar and his wife,

and was entered from the staircase; it was treated in the style called Louis XIV., with a clock in buhl, buffets

of the same, inlaid with brass and tortoiseshell; the walls were hung with purple stuff, fastened down by gilt

nails. The happiness of these three persons is not to be described, more especially when, reentering her

room, Madame Birotteau found upon her bed (where Virginie had just carried it, on tiptoe) the robe of

"Monsieur, this appartement will win you great distinction," said Constance to Grindot. "We shall receive a

hundred and more persons tomorrow evening, and you will win praises from everybody."

"I shall recommend you," said Cesar. "You will meet the very heads of commerce, and you will be better

Constance, much moved, thought no longer of costs, nor of blaming her husband; and for the following

reason: That morning, when he brought the engraving of Hero and Leander, Anselme Popinot, whom

Constance credited with much intelligence and practical ability, had assured her of the inevitable success of

Cephalic Oil, for which he was working night and day with a fury that was almost unprecedented. The lover

promised that no matter what was the round sum of Birotteau's extravagance, it should be covered in six

months by Cesar's share in the profits of the oil. After fearing and trembling for nineteen years it was so

sweet to give herself up to one day of unalloyed happiness, that Constance promised her daughter not to

poison her husband's pleasure by any doubts or disapproval, but to share his happiness heartily. When

therefore, about eleven o'clock, Grindot left them, she threw herself into her husband's arms and said to him

with tears of joy, "Cesar! ah, I am beside myself! You have made me very happy!"

People who are sufficiently largeminded to perceive their own innate weakness will admit that an orphan

girl who eighteen years earlier was saleswoman at the PetitMatelot, Ile SaintLouis, and a poor peasant lad

coming from Touraine to Paris with hobnailed shoes and a cudgel in his hand, might well be flattered and

"Bless my heart!" cried Cesar. "I'd give a hundred francs if someone would only come in now and pay us a

The abbe entered. He was at that time vicar of SaintSulpice. The power of the soul was never better

manifested than in this saintly priest, whose intercourse with others left upon the minds of all an indelible

impression. His grim face, so plain as to check confidence, had grown sublime through the exercise of

Catholic virtues; upon it shone, as it were by anticipation, the celestial glories. Sincerity and candor, infused

into his very blood, gave harmony to his unsightly features, and the fires of charity blended the discordant

lines by a phenomenon, the exact counterpart of that which in Claparon had debased and brutalized the

human being. Faith, Hope, and Charity, the three noblest virtues of humanity, shed their charm among the

abbe's wrinkles; his speech was gentle, slow, and penetrating. His dress was that of the priests of Paris, and

he allowed himself to wear a brown frockcoat. No ambition had ever crept into that pure heart, which the

angels would some day carry to God in all its pristine innocence. It required the gentle firmness of the

daughter of Louis XVI. to induce him to accept a benefice in Paris, humble as it was. As he now entered the

room he glanced with an uneasy eye at the magnificence before him, smiled at the three delighted people, and

"My children," he said, "my part in life is not to share in gaieties, but to visit the afflicted. I came to thank

Monsieur Cesar for his invitation, and to congratulate you. I shall come to only one fete here,the marriage

After the short visit the abbe went away without seeing the various apartments, which the perfumer and his

wife dared not show him. This solemn apparition threw a few drops of cold water into the boiling delight of

Cesar's heart. Each of the party slept amid their new luxury, taking possession of the good things and the

pretty things they had severally wished for. Cesarine undressed her mother before a toilettable of white

marble with a long mirror. Cesar had given himself a few superfluities, and longed to make use of them at

On that morrow Cesarine and her mother, having been to Mass, and having read their vespers, dressed about

four o'clock in the afternoon, after resigning the entresol to the secular arm of Chevet and his people. No

attire ever suited Madame Cesar better than this cherrycolored velvet dress with lace trimmings, and short

sleeves made with jockeys: her beautiful arms, still fresh and youthful, her bosom, sparklingly white, her

throat and shoulders of a lovely shape, were all heightened in effect by the rich material and the resplendent

color. The naive delight which every woman feels when she sees herself in the plenitude of her power gave

an inexpressible sweetness to the Grecian profile of this charming woman, whose beauty had all the delicacy

of a cameo. Cesarine, dressed in white crape, wore a wreath of white roses, a rose at her waist, and a scarf

"These people crush us," said Madame Roguin to her husband as they went through the appartement.

The notary's wife was furious at appearing less beautiful than Madame Cesar; for every woman knows how

"Bah!" whispered Roguin to his wife, "it won't last long; you will soon bespatter her when you meet her

Vauquelin showed perfect tact; he came with Monsieur de Lacepede, his colleague of the Institute, who had

called to fetch him in a carriage. On beholding the resplendent mistress of the fete they both launched into

"Ah, madame, you possess a secret of which science is ignorant," said the chemist, "the recipe for remaining

"You are, as I may say, partly at home here, Monsieur l'academicien," said Birotteau. "Yes, Monsieur le

comte," he added, turning to the high chancellor of the Legion of honor, "I owe my fortune to Monsieur

Vauquelin. I have the honor to present to your lordship Monsieur le president of the Court of Commerce.

This is Monsieur le Comte de Lacepede, peer of France," he said to Joseph Lebas, who accompanied the

The guests were punctual. The dinner, like all commercial dinners, was extremely gay, full of good humor,

and enlivened by the rough jests which always raise a laugh. The excellence of the dishes and the goodness of

the wines were fully appreciated. It was halfpast nine o'clock when the company returned to the salons to

take their coffee. A few hackneycoaches had already brought the first impatient dancers. An hour later the

rooms were full, and the ball took the character of a rout. Monsieur de Lacepede and Monsieur Vauquelin

went away, much to the grief of Cesar, who followed them to the staircase, vainly entreating them to remain.

He succeeded, however, in keeping Monsieur Popinot the judge, and Monsieur de la Billardiere. With the

exception of three women who severally represented the aristocracy, finance, and government

circles,namely, Mademoiselle de Fontaine, Madame Jules, and Madame Rabourdin, whose beauty, dress,

and manners were sharply defined in this assemblage,all the other women wore heavy, over loaded

dresses, and offered to the eye that anomalous air of richness which gives to the bourgeois masses their

vulgar aspect, made cruelly apparent on this occasion by the airy graces of the three other women.

The bourgeoisie of the Rue SaintDenis displayed itself majestically in the plenitude of its native powers of

jocose silliness. It was a fair specimen of that middle class which dresses its children like lancers or national

guards, buys the "Victoires et Conquetes," the "Soldatlaboureur," admires the "Convoi du Pauvre," delights

in mounting guard, goes on Sunday to its own countryhouse, is anxious to acquire the distinguished air, and

dreams of municipal honors,that middle class which is jealous of all and of every one, and yet is good,

obliging, devoted, feeling, compassionate, ready to subscribe for the children of General Foy, or for the

Greeks, whose piracies it knows nothing about, or the Exiles until none remained; duped through its virtues

and scouted for its defects by a social class that is not worthy of it, for it has a heart precisely because it is

ignorant of social conventions,that virtuous middleclass which brings up ingenuous daughters to an

honorable toil, giving them sterling qualities which diminish as soon as they are brought in contact with the

superior world of social life; girls without mind, among whom the worthy Chrysale would have chosen his

wife,in short, a middleclass admirably represented by the Matifats, druggists in the Rue des Lombards,

Madame Matifat, wishing to give herself a dignified air, danced in a turban and a heavy robe of scarlet shot

with gold threads,a toilet which harmonized well with a selfimportant manner, a Roman nose, and the

splendors of a crimson complexion. Monsieur Matifat, superb at a review of the National Guard, where his

protuberant paunch could be distinguished at fifty paces, and upon which glittered a gold chain and a bunch

of trinkets, was under the yoke of this Catherine II. of commerce. Short and fat, harnessed with spectacles

and a shirtcollar worn above his ears, he was chiefly distinguished for his bass voice and the richness of his

vocabulary. He never said Corneille, but "the sublime Corneille"; Racine was "the gentle Racine"; Voltaire,

"Oh! Voltaire, second in everything, with more wit than genius, but nevertheless a man of genius"; Rousseau,

"a gloomy mind, a man full of pride, who hanged himself." He related in his prosy way vulgar anecdotes of

Piron, a poet who passes for a prodigy among the bourgeoisie. Matifat, a passionate lover of the stage, had a

slight leaning to obscenity. It was even said that, in imitation of Cadot and the rich Camusot, he kept a

mistress. Sometimes Madame Matifat, seeing him about to relate some questionable anecdote, would hasten

to interrupt him by screaming out: "Take care what you are saying, old man!" She called him habitually her

"old man." This voluminous queen of drugs caused Mademoiselle de Fontaine to lose her aristocratic

countenance, for the impertinent girl could not help laughing as she overheard her saying to her husband:

It is more difficult to explain the nature of the difference between the great world and the bourgeoisie than it

is for the bourgeoisie to obliterate it. These women, embarrassed by their fine clothes and very conscious of

them, displayed a naive pleasure which proved that a ball was a rarity in their busy lives; while the three

women, who each represented a sphere in the great world, were then exactly what they would be on the

morrow. They had no appearance of having dressed purposely for the ball, they paid no heed to the splendor

of their jewels, nor to the effect which they themselves produced; all had been arranged when they stood

before their mirrors and put the last touches on their toilets. Their faces showed no excitement or excessive

interest, and they danced with the grace and ease which unknown genius has given to certain statues of

The others, on the contrary, stamped with the mark of toil, retained their vulgar attitudes, and amused

themselves too heartily; their eyes were full of inconsiderate curiosity; their voices ranged above the low

murmur which gives inimitable piquancy to the conversations of a ballroom; above all, they had none of

that composed impertinence which contains the germs of epigram, nor the tranquil attitude which

characterizes those who are accustomed to maintain empire over themselves. Thus Madame Rabourdin,

Madame Jules, and Mademoiselle de Fontaine, who had expected much amusement from the ball of their

perfumer, were detached from the background of the bourgeoisie about them by their soft and easy grace, by

the exquisite taste of their dress and bearing,just as three leading singers at an opera stand out in relief

from the stolid array of their supernumeraries. They were watched with jealous, wondering eyes. Madame

Roguin, Constance, and Cesarine formed, as it were, a link which united the three types of feminine

There came, as there does at all balls, a moment when the animation of the scene, the torrents of light, the

gaiety, the music, the excitement of dancing brought on a species of intoxication which puts out of sight these

gradations in the crescendo of the tutti. The ball was beginning to be noisy, and Mademoiselle de Fontaine

made a movement to retire; but when she looked about for the arm of her venerable Vendeen, Birotteau, his

"There is a perfume of good taste about this appartement which really amazes me," remarked that impertinent

Birotteau was so intoxicated by compliments that he did not comprehend her meaning; but his wife colored,

"I have seldom seen such a ball," said Monsieur de la Billardiere, to whom an official falsehood was of no

"What an enchanting scene! What a fine orchestra! Will you often give us a ball?" said Madame Lebas.

Birotteau ventured on a fib, and allowed her to suppose that he had designed it.

Cesarine, who was asked, of course, for all the dances, understood very well Anselme's delicacy in that

"If I thought only of my own wishes," he had whispered as they left the dinnertable, "I should beg you to

grant me the favor of a quadrille; but my happiness would be too costly to our mutual self love."

Cesarine, who thought all men walked ungracefully if they stood straight on their legs, was resolved to open

the ball with Popinot. Popinot, emboldened by his aunt, who told him to dare all, ventured to tell his love to

the charming girl, during the pauses of the quadrille, using, however, the roundabout terms of a timid lover.

"Gaudissart! Gaudissart!" exclaimed Anselme, when the quadrille was over, pressing the arm of his friend

with Herculean force. "Succeed, or I'll blow my brains out! Success, and I shall marry Cesarine! she has told

"Yes, she is prettily tricked out," said Gaudissart, "and rich. We'll fry her in oil."

The good understanding between Mademoiselle Lourdois and Alexandre Crottat, the promised successor to

Roguin, was noticed by Madame Birotteau, who could not give up without a pang the hope of seeing her

Uncle Pillerault, who had exchanged bows with little Molineux, seated himself in an armchair near the

bookshelves. He looked at the card players, listened to the conversations, and went to the doorway every

now and then to watch the oscillating bouquet of flowers formed by the circling heads of the dancers in the

moulinet. The expression of his face was that of a true philosopher. The men were dreadful,all, that is,

except du Tillet, who had acquired the manners of the great world, little La Billardiere, a budding

fashionable, Monsieur Desmarets, and the official personages. But among all the faces, more or less comical,

from which the assemblage took its character, there was one that was particularly washedout, like a

fivefranc piece of the Republic, and whose owner's apparel rendered him a curiosity. We guess at once the

little tyrant of the Cour Batave, arrayed with linen yellowed by lying by in a cupboard, and exhibiting to the

eye a shirt frill of lace that had been an heirloom, fastened with a bluish cameo set as a pin; he wore short

blacksilk breeches which revealed the skinny legs on which he boldly stood. Cesar showed him,

triumphantly, the four rooms constructed by the architect out of the first floors of the two houses.

"Hey! hey! Well, it is your affair, Monsieur Birotteau," said Molineux. "My first floor thus improved will be

Birotteau answered with a jest; but he was pricked as if with a pin at the tone in which the little old man had

"I shall soon have my first floor back again; the man will ruin himself." Such was the real meaning of the

The sallow face and vindictive eye of the old man struck du Tillet, whose attention had first been attracted by

a watchchain from which hung a pound of jingling gewgaws, and by a green coat with a collar

whimsically cocked up, which gave the old man the semblance of a rattlesnake. The banker approached the

"There, monsieur," said Molineux, planting one foot in the boudoir, "I stand upon the property of Monsieur le

Comte de Grandville; but here," he added, showing the other, "I stand upon my own. I am the owner of this

Molineux was so ready to lend himself to any one who would listen to him, and so delighted by du Tillet's

attentive manner, that he gave a sketch of his life, related his habits and customs, told the improper conduct

of the Sieur Gendrin, and, finally, explained all his arrangements with the perfumer, without which, he said,

"Ah! Monsieur Cesar let you settle the lease?" said du Tillet. "It is contrary to his habits."

"If Pere Birotteau fails," thought du Tillet, "this little imp would make an excellent assignee. His sharpness is

invaluable; when he is alone he must amuse himself by catching flies, like Domitian."

Du Tillet went to the cardtable, where Claparon was already stationed, under orders; Ferdinand thought that

under shelter of a game of bouillotte his counterfeit banker might escape notice. Their demeanor to each other

was that of two strangers, and the most suspicious man could have detected nothing that betrayed an

understanding between them. Gaudissart, who knew the career of Claparon, dared not approach him after

receiving a solemnly frigid glance from the promoted commercial traveller which warned him that the upstart

banker was not to be recognized by any former comrade. The ball, like a brilliant rocket, was extinguished by

five o'clock in the morning. At that hour only some forty hackneycoaches remained, out of the hundred or

more which had crowded the Rue SaintHonore. Within, they were dancing the boulangere, which has since

been dethroned by the cotillon and the English galop. Du Tillet, Roguin, Cardot junior, the Comte de

Grandville, and Jules Desmarets were playing at bouillotte. Du Tillet won three thousand francs. The day

began to dawn, the wax lights paled, the players joined the dancers for a last quadrille. In such houses the

final scenes of a ball never pass off without some impropriety. The dignified personages have departed; the

intoxication of dancing, the heat of the atmosphere, the spirits concealed in the most innocent drinks, have

mellowed the angularities of the old women, who goodnaturedly join in the last quadrille and lend

themselves to the excitement of the moment; the men are heated, their hair, lately curled, straggles down their

faces, and gives them a grotesque expression which excites laughter; the young women grow volatile, and a

few flowers drop from their garlands. The bourgeois Momus appears, followed by his revellers. Laughs ring

loudly; all present surrender to the amusement of the moment, knowing that on the morrow toil will resume

its sway. Matifat danced with a woman's bonnet on his head; Celestin called the figures of the interminable

country dance, and some of the women beat their hands together excitedly at the words of command.

"You have given the most magnificent ball I have ever seen, and I have seen many," said du Tillet, bowing to

Among the eight symphonies of Beethoven there is a theme, glorious as a poem, which dominates the finale

of the symphony in C minor. When, after slow preparations by the sublime magician, so well understood by

Habeneck, the enthusiastic leader of an orchestra raises the rich veil with a motion of his hand and calls forth

the transcendent theme towards which the powers of music have all converged, poets whose hearts have

throbbed at those sounds will understand how the ball of Cesar Birotteau produced upon his simple being the

same effect that this fecund harmony wrought in theirs,an effect to which the symphony in C minor owes

its supremacy over its glorious sisters. A radiant fairy springs forward, lifting high her wand. We hear the

rustle of the violet silken curtains which the angels raise. Sculptured golden doors, like those of the baptistery

at Florence, turn on their diamond hinges. The eye is lost in splendid vistas: it sees a long perspective of rare

palaces where beings of a loftier nature glide. The incense of all prosperities sends up its smoke, the altar of

all joy flames, the perfumed air circulates! Beings with divine smiles, robed in white tunics bordered with

blue, flit lightly before the eyes and show us visions of supernatural beauty, shapes of an incomparable

delicacy. The Loves hover in the air and waft the flames of their torches! We feel ourselves beloved; we are

happy as we breathe a joy we understand not, as we bathe in the waves of a harmony that flows for all, and

pours out to all the ambrosia that each desires. We are held in the grasp of our secret hopes which are

realized, for an instant, as we listen. When he has led us through the skies, the great magician, with a deep

mysterious transition of the basses, flings us back into the marshes of cold reality, only to draw us forth once

more when, thirsting for his divine melodies, our souls cry out, "Again! Again!" The psychical history of that

rare moment in the glorious finale of the C minor symphony is also that of the emotions excited by this fete

in the souls of Cesar and of Constance. The flute of Collinet sounded the last notes of their commercial

Weary, but happy, the Birotteaus fell asleep in the early morning amid echoes of the fete,which for

building, repairs, furnishing, suppers, toilets, and the library (repaid to Cesarine), cost not less, though Cesar

was little aware of it, than sixty thousand francs. Such was the price of the fatal red ribbon fastened by the

king to the buttonhole of an honest perfumer. If misfortunes were to overtake Cesar Birotteau, this mad

extravagance would be sufficient to arraign him before the criminal courts. A merchant is amenable to the

laws if, in the event of bankruptcy, he is shown to have been guilty of "excessive expenditure." It is perhaps

more dreadful to go before the lesser courts charged with folly or blundering mistakes, than before the Court

of Assizes for an enormous fraud. In the eyes of some people, it is better to be criminal than a fool.

Eight days after his ball, the last dying flash of a prosperity of eighteen years now about to be extinguished,

Cesar Birotteau watched the passersby from the windows of his shop, thinking over the expansion of his

affairs, and beginning to find them burdensome. Until then all had been simple in his life; he manufactured

and sold, or bought to sell again. Today the land speculation, his share in the house of A. Popinot and

Company, the repayment of the hundred and sixty thousand francs thrown upon the market, which

necessitated either a traffic in promissory notes (of which his wife would disapprove), or else some

unheardof success in Cephalic Oil, all fretted the poor man by the multiplicity of ideas which they involved;

he felt he had more irons in the fire than he could lay hold of. How would Anselme guide the helm? Birotteau

treated Popinot as a professor of rhetoric treats a pupil,he distrusted his methods, and regretted that he was

not at his elbow. The kick he had given Popinot to make him hold his tongue at Vauquelin's explains the

Birotteau took care that neither his wife nor his daughter nor the clerks should suspect his anxiety; but he was

in truth like a humble boatman on the Seine whom the government has suddenly put in command of a frigate.

Troubled thoughts filled his mind, never very capable of reflection, as if with a fog; he stood still, as it were,

and peered about to see his way. At this moment a figure appeared in the street for which he felt a violent

antipathy; it was that of his new landlord, little Molineux. Every one has dreamed dreams filled with the

events of a lifetime, in which there appears and reappears some wayward being, commissioned to play the

mischief and be the villain of the piece. To Birotteau's fancy Molineux seemed delegated by chance to fill

some part in his life. His weird face had grinned diabolically at the ball, and he had looked at its

magnificence with an evil eye. Catching sight of him again at this moment, Cesar was all the more reminded

of the impression the little skinflint (a word of his vocabulary) had made upon him, because Molineux

"Monsieur," said the little man, in his atrociously hypocritical voice, "we settled our business so hastily that

Birotteau took the lease to repair the mistake. The architect came in at this moment, and bowed to the

"Monsieur," he whispered to Cesar presently, "you can easily understand that the first steps in a profession

are difficult; you said you were satisfied with me, and it would oblige me very much if you would pay me my

Birotteau, who had stripped himself of ready money when he put his current cash into Roguin's hands two

weeks earlier, called to Celestin to make out an order for two thousand francs at ninety days' sight, and to

"I am very glad you took part of your neighbor's rental on yourself," said Molineux in a sly, halfsneering

tone. "My porter came to tell me just now that the sheriff has affixed the seals to the Sieur Cayron's

"Cayron always seemed to do a good business," said Lourdois, who just then came in to bring his bill.

"A merchant is never safe from commercial reverses until he has retired from business," said little Molineux,

The architect watched the queer old man with the enjoyment all artists find in getting hold of a caricature

"When we have got our head under an umbrella we generally think it is protected from the rain," he said.

Molineux noticed the mustachios and the little chintuft of the artist much more than he did his face, and he

despised that individual folly as much as Grindot despised him. He waited to give him a parting scratch as he

went out. By dint of living so long with his cats Molineux had acquired, in his manners as well as in his eyes,

"We have been talking of the land affair with the judge," said Ragon in Cesar's ear; "he says that in a

speculation of that kind we must have a warranty from the sellers, and record the deeds, and pay in cash,

"Ah! you are talking of the lands about the Madeleine," said Lourdois; "there is a good deal said about them:

The painter who had come intending to have his bill settled, suddenly thought it more to his interest not to

"I brought my bill because it was the end of the year," he whispered to Cesar; "but there's no hurry."

"What is the matter, Cesar?" said Pillerault, noticing the amazement of his nephew, who, having glanced at

"Oh, a trifle. I took notes to the amount of five thousand francs from my neighbor, a dealer in umbrellas, and

he has failed. If he has given me bad securities I shall be caught, like a fool."

"And yet I have warned you many times," cried Ragon; "a drowning man will catch at his father's leg to save

himself, and drown him too. I have seen so many failures! People are not exactly scoundrels when the

"If I ever get into the Chamber of Deputies, and ever have any influence in the government," said Birotteau,

Molineux, interested in any discussion about law, lingered in the shop; and as the attention of a few persons

is apt to make others attentive, Pillerault and Ragon listened as gravely as the three strangers, though they

"I would have," said the perfumer, "a court of irremovable judges, with a magistracy to attend to the

application and execution of the laws. After the examination of a case, during which the judge should fulfil

the functions of agent, assignee, and commissioner, the merchant should be declared insolvent with rights of

reinstatement, or else bankrupt. If the former, he should be required to pay in full; he should be left in control

of his own property and that of his wife; all his belongings and his inherited property should belong to his

creditors, and he should administer his affairs in their interests under supervision; he should still carry on his

business, signing always 'Soandso, insolvent,' until the whole debt is paid off. If bankrupt, he should be

condemned, as formerly, to the pillory on the Place de la Bourse, and exposed for two hours, wearing a green

cap. His property and that of his wife, and all his rights of every kind should be handed over to his creditors,

"Business would be more secure," said Lourdois; "people would think twice before launching into

"The existing laws are not enforced," cried Cesar, lashing himself up. "Out of every hundred merchants there

are more than fifty who never realize seventyfive per cent of the whole value of their business, or who sell

their merchandise at twentyfive per cent below the invoice price; and that is the destruction of commerce."

"Monsieur is very right," said Molineux; "the law leaves a great deal too much latitude. There should either

"Damn it!" said Cesar, "at the rate things are going now, a merchant will soon be a licensed thief. With his

"All insolvents are suspicious characters," said Cesar, exasperated by his little loss, which sounded in his ears

At this moment the late majordomo brought in Chevet's account, followed by a clerk sent by Felix, a waiter

"I am busy," said Cesar to the messengers; who all left the bills and went away.

"Monsieur Grindot," said Lourdois, observing that the architect was folding up Birotteau's cheque, "will you

certify my account? You need only to add it up; the prices were all agreed to by you on Monsieur Birotteau's

"Prices agreed upon between the architect and contractor?" he said in a low voice to his nephew,"they have

"Monsieur," he said, "you listened to me, but you did not understand me,I wish you the protection of an

The architect was frightened. The more illegal a man's gains the more he clings to them: the human heart is

so made. Grindot had really studied the appartement lovingly; he had put all his art and all his time into it; he

had given ten thousand francs worth of labor, and he felt that in so doing he had been the dupe of his vanity:

the contractors therefore had little trouble in seducing him. The irresistible argument and threat, fully

understood, of injuring him professionally by calumniating his work were, however, less powerful than a

remark made by Lourdois about the lands near the Madeleine. Birotteau did not expect to hold a single house

upon them; he was speculating only on the value of the land; but architects and contractors are to each other

very much what authors and actors are, mutually dependent. Grindot, ordered by Birotteau to stipulate the

costs, went for the interests of the builders against the bourgeoisie; and the result was that three large

contractorsLourdois, Chaffaroux, and Thorein the carpenterproclaimed him "one of those good fellows

it is a pleasure to work for." Grindot guessed that the contractor's bills, out of which he was to have a share,

would be paid, like his commission, in notes; and little Molineux had just filled his mind with doubts as to

their payment. The architect was about to become pitiless,after the manner of artists, who are most

By the end of December bills to the amount of sixty thousand francs had been sent in. Felix, the cafe Foy,

Tanrade, and all the little creditors who ought to be paid in ready money, had asked for payment three times.

Failure to pay such trifles as these do more harm in business than a real misfortune,they foretell it: known

losses are definite, but a panic defies all reckoning. Birotteau saw his coffers empty, and terror seized him:

such a thing had never happened throughout his whole commercial life. Like all persons who have never

struggled long with poverty, and who are by nature feeble, this circumstance, so common among the greater

number of the petty Parisian tradesmen, disturbed for a moment Cesar's brain. He ordered Celestin to send

round the bills of his customers and ask for payment. Before doing so, the head clerk made him repeat the

unheardof order. The clients,a fine term applied by retail shopkeepers to their customers, and used by

Cesar in spite of his wife, who however ended by saying, "Call them what you like, provided they pay!"his

clients, then, were rich people, through whom he had never lost money, who paid when they pleased, and

among whom Cesar often had a floating amount of fifty or sixty thousand francs due to him. The second

clerk went through the books and copied off the largest sums. Cesar dreaded his wife: that she might not see

"Good morning, monsieur," said Grindot, entering with the lively manner artists put on when they speak of

business, and wish to pretend they know nothing about it; "I cannot get your paper cashed, and I am obliged

to ask you to give me the amount in ready money. I am truly unhappy in making this request, but I don't wish

to go to the usurers. I have not hawked your signature about; I know enough of business to feel sure it would

"Monsieur," said Birotteau, horrified, "speak lower if you please; you surprise me strangely."

The poor man stopped short; he was about to ask the painter to take the note given to Grindot, ridiculing the

architect with the good nature of a merchant sure of his own standing; but he saw a cloud upon Lourdois'

brow, and he shuddered at his own imprudence. The innocent jest would have been the death of his suspected

credit. In such a case a prosperous merchant takes back his note, and does not offer it elsewhere. Birotteau

felt his head swim, as though he had looked down the sides of a precipice into a measureless abyss.

"My dear Monsieur Birotteau," said Lourdois, drawing him to the back of the shop, "my account has been

examined, audited, and certified; I must ask you to have the money ready for me tomorrow. I marry my

daughter to little Crottat; he wants money, for notaries will not take paper; besides, I never give promissory

"Send to me on the day after tomorrow," said Birotteau proudly, counting on the payment of his own bills.

"I have my workmen in the faubourg to pay," said Birotteau, who knew not how to lie.

He took his hat once more intending to follow them out, but the mason, Thorein, and Chaffaroux stopped him

"Well, I have not the mines of Peru," said Cesar, walking quickly away from them. "There is something

beneath all this," he said to himself. "That cursed ball! All the world thinks I am worth millions. Yet Lourdois

He walked along the Rue SaintHonore, in no special direction, and feeling much discomposed. At the

corner of a street he ran against Alexandre Crottat, just as a ram, or a mathematician absorbed in the solution

"Ah, monsieur," said the future notary, "one word! Has Roguin given your four hundred thousand francs to

"The business was settled in your presence. Monsieur Claparon gave me no receipt; my acceptances were to

benegotiated. Roguin was to give himmy two hundred and forty thousand francs. He was told that he

was to pay for the property definitely. Monsieur Popinot the judge said The receipt!butwhy do you

"Why ask the question? To know if your two hundred and forty thousand francs are still with Roguin. Roguin

was so long connected with you, that perhaps out of decent feeling he may have paid them over to Claparon,

and you will escape! But, no! what a fool I am! He has carried off Claparon's money as well! Happily,

Claparon had only paid over, to my care, one hundred thousand francs. I gave them to Roguin just as I would

give you my purse, and I have no receipt for them. The owners of the land have not received one penny; they

have just been talking to me. The money you thought you raised upon your property in the Faubourg du

Temple had no existence for you, or the borrower; Roguin has squandered it, together with your hundred

thousand francs, which he used up long ago,and your last hundred thousand as well, for I just remember

"Your hundred thousand francs in his hands, my hundred thousand for his practice, a hundred thousand from

Claparon,there's three hundred thousand francs purloined, not to speak of other thefts which will be

discovered," exclaimed the young notary. "Madame Roguin is not to be counted on. Du Tillet has had a

narrow escape. Roguin tormented him for a month to get into that land speculation, but happily all his funds

were tied up in an affair with Nucingen. Roguin has written an atrocious letter to his wife; I have read it. He

has been making free with his clients' money for years; and why? for a mistress,la belle Hollandaise. He

left her two weeks ago. The squandering hussy hasn't a farthing left; they sold her furniture,she had signed

promissory notes. To escape arrest, she took refuge in a house in the Palais Royal, where she was

assassinated last night by a captain in the army. God has quickly punished her; she has wasted Roguin's

whole fortune and much more. There are some women to whom nothing is sacred: think of squandering the

trust moneys of a notary! Madame Roguin won't have a penny, except by claiming her rights of dower; the

scoundrel's whole property is encumbered to its full value. I bought the practice for three hundred thousand

francs,I, who thought I was getting a good thing!and paid a hundred thousand down. I have no receipt;

the creditors will think I am an accomplice if I say a word about that hundred thousand francs, and when a

man is starting in life he must be careful of his reputation. There will hardly be thirty per cent saved for the

creditors. At my age, to get such a setback! A man fiftynine years of age to keep a mistress! the old villain!

It is only two weeks since he told me not to marry Cesarine; he said you would soon be without bread,the

Alexandre might have talked on indefinitely, for Birotteau stood still, petrified. Every phrase was a calamity,

like the blows of a bludgeon. He heard the deathbells tolling in his ears,just as his eyes had seen, at the

first word, the flames of his fortune. Alexandre Crottat, who thought the worthy perfumer a strong and able

man, was alarmed at his paleness and rigidity. He was not aware that Roguin had carried off Cesar's whole

property. The thought of immediate suicide passed through the brain of the victim, deeply religious as he

was. In such a case suicide is only a way to escape a thousand deaths; it seems logical to take it. Alexandre

Crottat gave him his arm, and tried to make him walk on, but it was impossible: his legs gave way under him

"What is the matter?" said Crottat. "Dear Monsieur Cesar, take courage! it is not the death of a man. Besides,

you will get back your forty thousand francs. The lender hadn't the money ready, you never received it,that

"My ballmy crosstwo hundred thousand francs in paper on the market,no money in hand! The

A rain of confused words, revealing a weight of crushing thoughts and unutterable suffering, poured from his

"I wish they would cut off my head," he said at last; "its weight troubles me, it is good for nothing."

"My God! I cannot go home as I am," said Birotteau. "You who are my friend, if there are friends,you in

whom I took an interest, who have dined at my house,take me somewhere in a carriage, for my wife's sake.

The young notary compassionately put the inert mechanism which bore the name of Cesar into a street coach,

"Xandrot," said the perfumer, in a voice choked with tears,for the tears were now falling from his eyes,

and loosening the iron band which bound his brow,"stop at my shop; go in and speak to Celestin for me.

My friend, tell him it is a matter of life or death, that on no consideration must he or any one talk about

Roguin's flight. Tell Cesarine to come down to me, and beg her not to say a word to her mother. We must

The change in Birotteau's voice startled Crottat, who began to understand the importance of the warning; he

fulfilled the instructions of the poor man, whom Celestin and Cesarine were horrified to find pale and half

From thence they went, at Cesar's request, to a judge of the commercial courts. The conference between

Crottat and the magistrate lasted long, and the president of the chamber of notaries was summoned. Cesar

was carried about from place to place, like a bale of goods; he never moved, and said nothing. Towards seven

in the evening Alexandre Crottat took him home. The thought of appearing before Constance braced his

nerves. The young notary had the charity to go before, and warn Madame Birotteau that her husband had had

"His ideas are rather cloudy," he said, with a gesture implying disturbance of the brain. "Perhaps he should be

"No wonder," said Constance, far from dreaming of a disaster; "he did not take his precautionary medicine at

the beginning of the winter, and for the last two months he has been working like a galley slave, just as if

The wife and daughter entreated Cesar to go to bed, and they sent for his old friend Monsieur Haudry. The

old man was a physician of the school of Moliere, a great practitioner and in favor of the old fashioned

formulas, who dosed his patients neither more nor less than a quack, consulting physician though he was. He

came, studied the expression of Cesar's face, and observing symptoms of cerebral congestion, ordered an

It often becomes a physician's duty to utter deliberately some silly falsehood, to save honor or life, to those

who are about a sickbed. The old doctor had seen much in his day, and he caught the meaning of half a

word. Cesarine followed him to the staircase, and asked for directions in managing the case.

Madame Cesar passed two days at the bedside of her husband, who seemed to her at times delirious. He lay

in her beautiful blue room, and as he looked at the curtains, the furniture, and all the costly magnificence

"He must be out of his mind," she whispered to Cesarine, as Cesar rose up in bed and recited clauses of the

At the end of three terrible days, during which his reason was in danger, the strong constitution of the

Tourangian peasant triumphed; his head grew clear. Monsieur Haudry ordered stimulants and generous diet,

and before long, after an occasional cup of coffee, Cesar was on his feet again. Constance, wearied out, took

"Come, papa, take courage! you are so superior a man that you will triumph in the end. This trouble won't

Cesarine said these vague words in the tender tones which give courage to a stricken heart, just as the songs

"Yes, my child, I shall struggle on; but say not a word to any one, not to Popinot who loves us, nor to your

uncle Pillerault. I shall first write to my brother; he is canon and vicar of the cathedral. He spends nothing,

and I have no doubt he has means. If he saves only three thousand francs a year, that would give him at the

end of twenty years one hundred thousand francs. In the provinces the priests lay up money."

Cesarine hastened to bring her father a little table with writing things upon it,among them the surplus of

"Burn all that!" cried her father. "The devil alone could have prompted me to give that ball. If I fail, I shall

seem to have been a swindler. Stop!" he added, "words are of no avail." And he wrote the following letter:

My dear Brother,I find myself in so severe a commercial crisis that I must ask you to send me all the

Your niece, Cesarine, who is watching me as I write, while my poor wife sleeps, sends you her tender

This postscript was added at Cesarine's urgent request; she then took the letter and gave it to Raguet.

"Father," she said, returning, "here is Monsieur Lebas, who wants to speak to you."

"Monsieur Lebas!" cried Cesar, frightened, as though his disaster had made him a criminal,"a judge!"

"My dear Monsieur Birotteau, I take too great an interest in you," said the stout draper, entering the room,

"we have known each other too long,for we were both elected judges at the same time,not to tell you

that a man named Bidault, called Gigonnet, a usurer, has notes of yours turned over to his order, and marked

'not guaranteed,' by the house of Claparon. Those words are not only an affront, but they are the death of your

"Monsieur Claparon wishes to speak to you," said Celestin, entering; "may I tell him to come up?"

"Monsieur," said Cesar to Claparon, as he entered, "this is Monsieur Lebas, a judge of the commercial courts,

"Ah! monsieur is Monsieur Lebas?" interrupted Claparon. "Delighted with the opportunity, Monsieur Lebas

of the commercial courts; there are so many Lebas, you know, of one kind or another"

"He has seen," said Birotteau, cutting the gabbler short, "the notes which I gave you, and which I understood

from you would not be put into circulation. He has seen them bearing the words 'not guaranteed.'"

"Well," said Claparon, "they are not in general circulation; they are in the hands of a man with whom I do a

great deal of business,Pere Bidault. That is why I affixed the words 'not guaranteed.' If the notes were

intended for circulation you would have made them payable to his order. Monsieur Lebas will understand my

position. What do these notes represent? The price of landed property. Paid by whom? By Birotteau. Why

should I guarantee Birotteau by my signature? We are to pay, each on his own account, our half of the price

of the said land. Now, it is enough to be jointly and separately liable to the sellers. I hold inflexibly to one

commercial rule: I never give my guarantee uselessly, any more than I give my receipt for moneys not yet

"Yes, monsieur," said Claparon, "I have already guaranteed Birotteau to the sellers, why should I guarantee

him again to the bankers? The circumstances in which we are placed are very hard. Roguin has carried off a

hundred thousand francs of mine; therefore, my half of the property costs me five hundred thousand francs

instead of four hundred thousand. Roguin has also carried off two hundred and forty thousand francs of

Birotteau's. What would you do in my place, Monsieur Lebas? Stand in my skin for a moment and view the

case. Give me your attention. Say that we are engaged in a transaction on equal shares; you provide the

money for your share, I give bills for mine; I offer them to you, and you undertake, purely out of kindness, to

convert them into money. You learn that I, Claparon,banker, rich, respected (I accept all the virtues under

the sun),that the virtuous Claparon is on the verge of failure, with six million of liabilities to meet: would

you, at such a moment, give your signature to guarantee mine? Of course not; you would be mad to do it.

Well, Monsieur Lebas, Birotteau is in the position which I have supposed for Claparon. Don't you see that if I

endorse for him I am liable not only for my own share of the purchase, but I shall also be compelled to

"without gaining his half of the property?" said Claparon, paying no attention to the interruption. "For I

should have no rights in it; I should have to buy it over again; consequently, I repeat, I should have to pay for

"Very good," said Claparon. "But you have been a judge, and you are a clever merchant; you know very well

that we should look ahead and foresee everything; you can't be surprised that I should attend to my business

"I am right," said Claparon,"right commercially. But this is an affair of landed property. Now, what must I

have? Money, to pay the sellers. We won't speak now of the two hundred and forty thousand francs,which

I am sure Monsieur Birotteau will be able to raise soon," said Claparon, looking at Lebas. "I have come now

to ask for a trifle, merely twentyfive thousand francs," he added, turning to Birotteau.

"Twentyfive thousand francs!" cried Cesar, feeling ice in his veins instead of blood. "What claim have you,

"What claim? Hey! we have to make a payment and execute the deeds before a notary. Among ourselves, of

course, we could come to an understanding about the payment, but when we have to do with a financial

public functionary it is quite another thing! He won't palaver; he'll trust you no farther than he can see. We

have got to come down with forty thousand francs, to secure the registration, this week. I did not expect

reproaches in coming here, for, thinking this twentyfive thousand francs might be inconvenient to you just

"What?" said Birotteau, with that rending cry of anguish which no man ever mistakes.

"A trifle! The notes amounting to twentyfive thousand francs on divers securities which Roguin gave me to

negotiate I have credited to you, for the registration payment and the fees, of which I will send you an

account; there will be a small amount to deduct, and you will then owe me about six or seven thousand

"All that seems to me perfectly proper," said Lebas. "In your place, monsieur, I should do the same towards a

"Monsieur Birotteau won't die of it," said Claparon; "it takes more than one shot to kill an old wolf. I have

"Who could have foreseen such villany as Roguin's?" said Lebas, as much alarmed by Cesar's silence as by

the discovery of such enormous speculations outside of his friend's legitimate business of perfumery.

"I came very near giving Monsieur Birotteau a receipt for his four hundred thousand francs," said Claparon.

"I should have blown up if I had, for I had given Roguin a hundred thousand myself the day before. Our

mutual confidence is all that saved me. Whether the money were in a lawyer's hands or in mine until the day

"It would have been better," said Lebas, "to have kept the money in the Bank of France until the time came to

"Roguin was the bank to me," said Cesar. "But he is in the speculation," he added, looking at Claparon.

"Yes, for onefourth, by verbal agreement only. After being such a fool as to let him run off with my money,

I sha'n't be such a fool as to throw any more after it. If he sends me my hundred thousand francs, and two

hundred thousand more for his half of our share, I shall then see about it. But he will take good care not to

send them for an affair which needs five years' potboiling before you get any broth. If he has only carried

off, as they say, three hundred thousand francs, he will want the income of all of that to live suitably in

"Eh! the devil take him! It was a woman who got him where he is," said Claparon. "Where's the old man who

can answer for himself that he won't be the slave of his last fancy? None of us, who think ourselves so

virtuous, know how we shall end. A last passion,eh! it is the most violent of all! Look at Cardot, Camusot,

Matifat; they all have their mistresses! If we have been gobbled up to satisfy Roguin's, isn't it our own fault?

Why didn't we distrust a notary who meddles with speculations? Every notary, every broker, every trustee

who speculates is an object of suspicion. Failure for them is fraudulent bankruptcy; they are sure to go before

the criminal courts, and therefore they prefer to run out of the country. I sha'n't commit such a stupid blunder

again. Well, well! we are too shaky ourselves in the matter not to let judgment go by default against the men

we have dined with, who have given us fine balls,men of the world, in short. Nobody complains; we are all

"Very much to blame," said Birotteau. "The laws about failures and insolvency should be looked into."

"Monsieur does not need any one," said the irrepressible chatterbox, whose floodgates du Tillet had set wide

open when he turned on the water,for Claparon was now repeating a lesson du Tillet had cleverly taught

him. "His course is quite clear. Roguin's assets will give fifty per cent to the creditors, so little Crottat tells

me. Besides this, Monsieur Birotteau gets back the forty thousand on his note to Roguin's client, which the

lender never paid over; then, of course, he can borrow on that property. We have four months ahead before

we are obliged to make a payment of two hundred thousand francs to the sellers. Between now and then,

Monsieur Birotteau can pay off his notes; though of course he can't count on what Roguin has carried off to

meet them. Even if Monsieur Birotteau should be rather pinched, with a little manipulation he will come out

The poor man took courage, as he heard Claparon analyzing the affair and summing it up with advice as to

his future conduct. His countenance grew firm and decided; and he began to think highly of the late

commercial traveller's capacity. Du Tillet had thought best to let Claparon believe himself really the victim of

Roguin. He had given Claparon a hundred thousand francs to pay over to Roguin the day before the latter's

flight, and Roguin had returned the money to du Tillet. Claparon, therefore, to that extent was playing a

genuine part; and he told whoever would listen to him that Roguin had cost him a hundred thousand francs.

Du Tillet thought Claparon was not bold enough, and fancied he had still too much honor and decency to

make it safe to trust him with the full extent of his plans; and he knew him to be mentally incapable of

"If our first friend is not our first dupe, we shall never find a second," he made answer to Claparon, on the

day when his catchpenny banker reproached him for the trick; and he flung him away like a wornout

"I shall pull through," said Birotteau to himself. "My liabilities amount to two hundred and thirtyfive

thousand francs; that is, sixty five thousand in bills for the cost of the ball, and a hundred and seventyfive

thousand given in notes for the lands. To meet these, I have my share of Roguin's assets, say perhaps one

hundred thousand francs; and I can cancel the loan on my property in the Faubourg du Temple, as the

mortgage never paid the money,in all, one hundred and forty thousand. All depends on making a hundred

thousand francs out of Cephalic Oil, and waiting patiently, with the help of a few notes, or a credit at a

banker's, until I repair my losses or the lands about the Madeleine reach their full value."

When a man crushed by misfortune is once able to make the fiction of a hope for himself by a series of

arguments, more or less reasonable, with which he bolsters himself up to rest his head, it often happens that

he is really saved. Many a man has derived energy from the confidence born of illusions. Possibly, hope is

the better half of courage; indeed, the Catholic religion makes it a virtue. Hope! has it not sustained the weak,

and given the fainting heart time and patience to await the chances and changes of life? Cesar resolved to

confide his situation to his wife's uncle before seeking for succor elsewhere. But as he walked down the Rue

SaintHonore towards the Rue des Bourdonnais, he endured an inward anguish and distress which shook him

so violently that he fancied his health was giving way. His bowels seemed on fire. It is an established fact that

persons who feel through their diaphragms suffer in those parts when overtaken by misfortune, just as others

whose perceptions are in their heads suffer from cerebral pains and affections. In great crises, the physical

powers are attacked at the point where the individual temperament has placed the vital spark. Feeble beings

have the colic. Napoleon slept. Before assailing the confidence of a lifelong friendship, and breaking down

all the barriers of pride and selfassurance, an honorable man must needs feel in his heartand feel it more

than once the spur of that cruel rider, necessity. Thus it happened that Birotteau had been goaded for two

days before he could bring himself to seek his uncle; it was, indeed, only family reasons which finally

decided him to do so. In any state of the case, it was his duty to explain his position to the severe old

ironmonger, his wife's uncle. Nevertheless, as he reached the house he felt that inward faintness which a child

feels when taken to a dentist's; but this shrinking of the heart involved the whole of his life, past, present, and

to come, it was not the fugitive pain of a moment. He went slowly up the stairs.

The old man was reading the "Constitutionnel" in his chimneycorner, before a little round table on which

stood his frugal breakfast,a roll, some butter, a plate of Brie cheese, and a cup of coffee.

"Well!" said Pillerault, taking off his spectacles, "I heard at the cafe David last night about Roguin's affair,

and the assassination of his mistress, la belle Hollandaise. I hope, as we desire to be actual owners of the

"Alas! uncle, no. The trouble is just there,you have put your finger upon the sore."

"Good God! you are ruined!" cried Pillerault, letting fall his newspaper, which Birotteau picked up, though it

Pillerault was so violently roused by his reflections that his face like the image on a medal and of the same

stern charactertook a deep bronze tone, such as the metal itself takes under the oscillating tool of a coiner;

he remained motionless, gazing through the windowpanes at the opposite wall, but seeing

nothing,listening, however, to Birotteau. Evidently he heard and judged, and weighed the pros and

cons with the inflexibility of a Minos who had crossed the Styx of commerce when he quitted the Quai des

"Well, uncle?" said Birotteau, who waited for an answer, after closing what he had to say with an entreaty

"Well, my poor nephew, I cannot do it; you are too heavily involved. The Ragons and I each lose our fifty

thousand francs. Those worthy people have, by my advice, sold their shares in the mines of Wortschin: I feel

obliged, in case of loss, not to return the capital of course, but to succor them, and to succor my niece and

"Yes, bread. See things as they are, Cesar. You cannot extricate yourself. With five thousand six hundred

francs income, I could set aside four thousand francs for you and the Ragons. If misfortune overtakes you,I

know Constance, she will work herself to the bone, she will deny herself everything; and so will you, Cesar."

Birotteau left Pillerault without another word. He had come to seek courage and consolation, and he received

a blow less severe, perhaps, than the first; but instead of striking his head it struck his heart, and his heart was

"Monsieur," he said, in a cold voice, "Constance knows nothing. Keep my secret at any rate; beg the Ragons

to say nothing, and not to take from my home the peace I need so much in my struggle against misfortune."

"Courage, Cesar!" he said. "I see you are angry with me; but later, when you think of your wife and daughter,

Discouraged by his uncle's opinion, and recognizing its clear sightedness, Cesar tumbled from the heights of

hope into the miry marshes of doubt and uncertainty. In such horrible commercial straits a man, unless his

soul is tempered like that of Pillerault, becomes the plaything of events; he follows the ideas of others, or his

own, as a traveller pursues a willo'thewisp. He lets the gust whirl him along, instead of lying flat and not

looking up as it passes; or else gathering himself together to follow the direction of the storm till he can

escape from the edges of it. In the midst of his pain Birotteau bethought him of the steps he ought to take

about the mortgage on his property. He turned towards the Rue Vivienne to find Derville, his solicitor, and

institute proceedings at once, in case the lawyer should see any chance of annulling the agreement. He found

Derville sitting by the fire, wrapped in a white woollen dressinggown, calm and composed in manner, like

all lawyers long used to receiving terrible confidences. Birotteau noticed for the first time in his life this

necessary coldness, which struck a chill to the soul of a man grasped by the fever of imperilled

interests,passionate, wounded, and cruelly gashed in his life, his honor, his wife, his child, as Cesar

"If it can be proved," said Derville, after listening to him, "that the lender no longer had in Roguin's hands the

sum which Roguin pretended to borrow for you upon your property, then, as there has been no delivery of the

money, there is ground for annulling the contract; the lender may seek redress through the warranty, as you

will for your hundred thousand francs. I will answer for the case, however, as much as one can ever answer.

The opinion of so able a lawyer restored Cesar's courage a little, and he begged Derville to obtain a judgment

within a fortnight. The solicitor replied that it might take three months to get such a judgment as would annul

"Though we may get the case at once on the docket, we cannot make your adversary keep pace with us. He

will employ all the law's delays, and the barristers are seldom ready. Perhaps your opponents will let the case

"Oh!" said the lawyer, "the judges of the commercial courts and the judges of the civil courts are different

sorts of judges. You dash through things. At the Palais de Justice we have stricter forms. Forms are the

bulwarks of law. How would you like slapdash judgments, which can't be appealed, and which would make

you lose forty thousand francs? Well, your adversary, who sees that sum involved, will defend himself.

"You are right," said Birotteau, bidding Derville goodby, and going hurriedly away, with death in his heart.

"They are all right. Money! money! I must have money!" he cried as he went along the streets, talking to

himself like other busy men in the turbulent and seething city, which a modern poet has called a vat. When he

entered his shop, the clerk who had carried round the bills informed him that the customers had returned the

Five days went by; five days during which Braschon, Lourdois, Thorein, Grindot, Chaffaroux, and all the

other creditors with unpaid bills passed through the chameleon phases that are customary to uneasy creditors

before they take the sanguinary colors of the commercial Bellona, and reach a state of peaceful confidence. In

Paris the astringent stage of suspicion and mistrust is as quick to declare itself as the expansive flow of

confidence is slow in gathering way. The creditor who has once turned into the narrow path of commercial

fears and precautions speedily takes a course of malignant meanness which puts him below the level of his

debtor. He passes from specious civility to impatient rage, to the surly clamor of importunity, to bursts of

disappointment, to the livid coldness of a mind made up to vengeance, and the scowling insolence of a

summons before the courts. Braschon, the rich upholsterer of the Faubourg SaintAntoine, who was not

invited to the ball, and was therefore stabbed in his selflove, sounded the charge; he insisted on being paid

within twentyfour hours. He demanded security; not an attachment on the furniture, but a second mortgage

In spite of such attacks and the violence of these recriminations, a few peaceful intervals occurred, when

Birotteau breathed once more; but instead of resolutely facing and vanquishing the first skirmishings of

adverse fortune, Cesar employed his whole mind in the effort to keep his wife, the only person able to advise

him, from knowing anything about them. He guarded the very threshold of his door, and set a watch on all

around him. He took Celestin into confidence so far as to admit a momentary embarrassment, and Celestin

examined him with an amazed and inquisitive look. In his eyes Cesar lessened, as men lessen in presence of

disasters when accustomed only to success, and when their whole mental strength consists of knowledge

Menaced as he was on so many sides at once, and without the energy or capacity to defend himself, Cesar

nevertheless had the courage to look his position in the face. To meet the payments on his house and on his

loans, and to pay his rents and his current expenses, he required, between the end of December and the

fifteenth of January, a sum of sixty thousand francs, half of which must be obtained before the thirtieth of

December. All his resources put together gave him a scant twenty thousand; he lacked ten thousand francs for

the first payments. To his mind the position did not seem desperate; for like an adventurer who lives from day

to day, he saw only the present moment. He resolved to attempt, before the news of his embarrassments was

made public, what seemed to him a great stroke, and seek out the famous Francois Keller, banker, orator, and

philanthropist, celebrated for his benevolence and for his desire to serve the interests of Parisian

commerce,with the view, we may add, of being always returned to the Chamber as a deputy of Paris.

The banker was Liberal, Birotteau was Royalist; but the perfumer judged by his own heart, and believed that

the difference in their political opinions would only be one reason the more for obtaining the credit he

intended to ask. In case actual securities were required he felt no doubt of Popinot's devotion, from whom he

expected to obtain some thirty thousand francs, which would enable him to await the result of his lawsuit by

satisfying the demands of the most exacting of the creditors. The demonstrative perfumer, who told his dear

Constance, with his head on her pillow, the smallest thoughts and feelings of his whole life, looking for the

lights of her contradiction, and gathering courage as he did so, was now prevented from speaking of his

situation to his headclerk, his uncle, or his wife. His thoughts were therefore doubly heavy,and yet the

generous martyr preferred to suffer, rather than fling the fiery brand into the soul of his wife. He meant to tell

her of the danger when it was over. The awe with which she inspired him gave him courage. He went every

"If I do not meet a soldier coming home from SaintRoch, my request will be granted. That will be God's

And he was overjoyed when it happened that he did not meet a soldier. Still, his heart was so heavy that he

needed another heart on which to lean and moan. Cesarine, to whom from the first he confided the fatal truth,

knew all his secrets. Many stolen glances passed between them, glances of despair or smothered

hope,interpellations of the eye darted with mutual eagerness, inquiries and replies full of sympathy, rays

passing from soul to soul. Birotteau compelled himself to seem gay, even jovial, with his wife. If Constance

asked a questionbah! everything was going well; Popinot (about whom Cesar knew nothing) was

succeeding; the oil was looking up; the notes with Claparon would be paid; there was nothing to fear. His

mock joy was terrible to witness. When his wife had fallen asleep in the sumptuous bed, Birotteau would rise

to a sitting position and think over his troubles. Cesarine would sometimes creep in with her bare feet, in her

Birotteau sank into such a torpor, after writing the letter which asked for an interview with the great Francois

Keller, that his daughter took him out for a walk through the streets of Paris. For the first time he was roused

to notice enormous scarlet placards on all the walls, and his eyes encountered the words "Cephalic Oil."

While catastrophes thus threatened "The Queen of Roses" to westward, the house of A. Popinot was rising,

radiant in the eastern splendors of success. By the advice of Gaudissart and Finot, Anselme launched his oil

heroically. Two thousand placards were pasted in three days on the most conspicuous spots in all Paris. No

one could avoid coming face to face with Cephalic Oil, and reading a pithy sentence, constructed by Finot,

which announced the impossibility of forcing the hair to grow and the dangers of dyeing it, and was

judiciously accompanied by a quotation from Vauquelin's report to the Academy of Sciences,in short, a

regular certificate of life for dead hair, offered to all those who used Cephalic Oil. Every hairdresser in

Paris, and all the perfumers, ornamented their doorways with gilt frames containing a fine impression of the

prospectus on vellum, at the top of which shone the engraving of Hero and Leander, reduced in size, with the

following assertion as an epigraph: "The peoples of antiquity preserved their hair by the use of Cephalic Oil."

"He has devised frames, permanent frames, perpetual placards," said Birotteau to himself, quite dumbfounded

"Then you have not seen," said his daughter, "the frame which Monsieur Anselme has brought with his own

The poor man, bewildered by the clash of bells which misery jangles in the ears of its victims, lived and

moved in a dazed condition. The night before, Popinot had waited more than an hour to see him, and went

away after talking with Constance and Cesarine, who told him that Cesar was absorbed in his great enterprise.

Happily, Popinotwho for a month had never left the Rue des Cinq Diamants, sitting up all night, and

working all Sunday at the manufactoryhad seen neither the Ragons, nor Pillerault, nor his uncle the judge.

He allowed himself but two hours' sleep, poor lad! he had only two clerks, but at the rate things were now

going, he would soon need four. In business, opportunity is everything. He who does not spring upon the

back of success and clutch it by the mane, lets fortune escape. Popinot felt that his suit would prosper if six

months hence he could say to his uncle and aunt, "I am secure; my fortune is made," and carry to Birotteau

thirty or forty thousand francs as his share of the profits. He was ignorant of Roguin's flight, of the disasters

and embarrassments which were closing down on Cesar, and he therefore could say nothing indiscreet to

Popinot had promised Finot five hundred francs for every puff in a firstclass newspaper, and already there

were ten of them; three hundred francs for every secondrate paper, and there were ten of those,in all of

them Cephalic Oil was mentioned three times a month! Finot saw three thousand francs for himself out of

these eight thousandhis first stake on the vast green table of speculation! He therefore sprang like a lion on

his friends and acquaintances; he haunted the editorial rooms; he wormed himself to the very bedsides of

editors in the morning, and prowled about the lobby of the theatres at night. "Think of my oil, dear friend; I

have no interest in itbit of good fellowship, you know!" "Gaudissart, jolly dog!" Such was the first and the

last phrase of all his allocutions. He begged for the bottom lines of the final columns of the newspapers, and

inserted articles for which he asked no pay from the editors. Wily as a supernumerary who wants to be an

actor, wideawake as an errandboy who earns sixty francs a month, he wrote wheedling letters, flattered the

selflove of editorsinchief, and did them base services to get his articles inserted. Money, dinners,

platitudes, all served the purpose of his eager activity. With tickets for the theatre, he bribed the printers who

about midnight are finishing up the columns of a newspaper with little facts and readymade items kept on

hand. At that hour Finot hovered around printingpresses, busy, apparently, with proofs to be corrected.

Keeping friends with everybody, he brought Cephalic Oil to a triumphant success over Pate de Regnauld, and

Brazilian Mixture, and all the other inventions which had the genius to comprehend journalistic influence and

the suction power that reiterated newspaper articles have upon the public mind. In these early days of their

innocence many journalists were like cattle; they were unaware of their inborn power; their heads were full of

actresses,Florine, Tullia, Mariette, etc. They laid down the law to everybody, but they picked up nothing

for themselves. As Finot's schemes did not concern actresses who wanted applause, nor plays to be puffed,

nor vaudevilles to be accepted, nor articles which had to be paid for,on the contrary, he paid money on

occasion, and gave timely breakfasts,there was soon not a newspaper in Paris which did not mention

Cephalic Oil, and call attention to its remarkable concurrence with the principles of Vauquelin's analysis;

ridiculing all those who thought hair could be made to grow, and proclaiming the danger of dyeing it.

These articles rejoiced the soul of Gaudissart, who used them as ammunition to destroy prejudices, bringing

to bear upon the provinces what his successors have since named, in honor of him, "the charge of the

tonguebattery." In those days Parisian newspapers ruled the departments, which were still (unhappy

regions!) without local organs. The papers were therefore soberly studied, from the title to the name of the

printer,a last line which may have hidden the ironies of persecuted opinion. Gaudissart, thus backed up by

the press, met with startling success from the very first town which he favored with his tongue. Every

shopkeeper in the provinces wanted the gilt frames, and the prospectuses with Hero and Leander at the top of

In Paris, Finot fired at Macassar Oil that delightful joke which made people so merry at the Funambules,

when Pierrot, taking an old hair broom, anointed it with Macassar Oil, and the broom incontinently became

a mop. This ironical scene excited universal laughter. Finot gaily related in after days that without the

thousand crowns he earned through Cephalic Oil he should have died of misery and despair. To him a

thousand crowns was fortune. It was in this campaign that he guessed let him have the honor of being the

first to do sothe illimitable power of advertisement, of which he made so great and so judicious a use.

Three months later he became editorinchief of a little journal which he finally bought, and which laid the

foundation of his ultimate success. Just as the tonguebattery of the illustrious Gaudissart, that Murat of

travellers, when brought to bear upon the provinces and the frontiers, made the house of A. Popinot and

Company a triumphant mercantile success in the country regions, so likewise did Cephalic Oil triumph in

Parisian opinion, thanks to Finot's famishing assault upon the newspapers, which gave it as much publicity as

that obtained by Brazilian Mixture and the Pate de Regnauld. From the start, public opinion, thus carried by

storm, begot three successes, three fortunes, and proved the advance guard of that invasion of ambitious

schemes which since have poured their crowded battalions into the arena of journalism, for which they have

createdoh, mighty revolution!the paid advertisement. The name of A. Popinot and Company now

flaunted on all the walls and all the shopfronts. Incapable of perceiving the full bearing of such publicity,

He did not understand the difference of the times, nor appreciate the power of the novel methods of

execution, whose rapidity and extent took in, far more promptly than ever before, the whole commercial

universe. Birotteau had not set foot in his manufactory since the ball; he knew nothing therefore of the energy

and enterprise displayed by Popinot. Anselme had engaged all Cesar's workmen, and often slept himself on

the premises. His fancy pictured Cesarine sitting on the cases, and hovering over the shipments; her name

seemed printed on the bills; and as he worked with his coat off, and his shirtsleeves rolled up, courageously

nailing up the cases himself, in default of the necessary clerks, he said in his heart, "She shall be mine!"

The following day Cesar went to Francois Keller's house in Rue du Houssaye, having spent the night turning

over in his mind what he ought to say, or ought not to say, to a leading man in banking circles. Horrible

palpitations of the heart assailed him as he approached the house of the Liberal banker, who belonged to a

party accused, with good reason, of seeking the overthrow of the restored Bourbons. The perfumer, like all

the lesser tradesmen of Paris, was ignorant of the habits and customs of the upper banking circles. Between

the higher walks of finance and ordinary commerce, there is in Paris a class of secondary houses, useful

intermediaries for banking interests, which find in them an additional security. Constance and Birotteau, who

had never gone beyond their means, whose purse had never run dry, and who kept their moneys in their own

possession, had so far never needed the services of these intermediary houses; they were therefore unknown

in the higher regions of a bank. Perhaps it is a mistake not to take out credits, even if we do not need them.

Opinions vary on this point. However that may be, Birotteau now deeply regretted that his signature was

unknown. Still, as deputymayor, and therefore known in politics, he thought he had only to present his name

and be admitted: he was quite ignorant of the ceremonial, half regal, which attended an audience with

Francois Keller. He was shown into a salon which adjoined the study of the celebrated banker, celebrated

in various ways. Birotteau found himself among a numerous company of deputies, writers, journalists,

stockbrokers, merchants of the upper grades, agents, engineers, and above all satellites, or henchmen, who

passed from group to group, and knocked in a peculiar manner at the door of the study, which they were, as it

"What am I in the midst of all this?" thought Birotteau, quite bewildered by the stir of this intellectual kiln,

where the daily bread of the opposition was kneaded and baked, and the scenes of the grand tragicomedy

played by the Left were rehearsed. On one side he heard them discussing the question of loans to complete

the network of canals proposed by the department on highways; and the discussion involved millions! On

the other, journalists, pandering to the banker's selflove, were talking about the session of the day before,

and the impromptu speech of the great man. In the course of two long hours Birotteau saw the banker three

times, as he accompanied certain persons of importance three steps from the door of his study. But Francois

When the banker returned to his study, the troop of courtiers, friends, and selfseekers pressed round him like

dogs pursuing a bitch. A few bold curs slipped, in spite of him, into the sanctum. The conferences lasted five,

ten, or fifteen minutes. Some went away chap fallen; others affected satisfaction, and took on airs of

importance. Time passed; Birotteau looked anxiously at the clock. No one paid the least attention to the

hidden grief which moaned silently in the gilded armchair in the chimney corner, near the door of the cabinet

where dwelt the universal panaceacredit! Cesar remembered sadly that for a brief moment he too had been

a king among his own people, as this man was a king daily; and he measured the depth of the abyss down

which he had fallen. Ah, bitter thought! how many tears were driven back during those waiting hours! how

many times did he not pray to God that this man might be favorable to him! for he saw, through the coarse

varnish of popular good humor, a tone of insolence, a choleric tyranny, a brutal desire to rule, which terrified

his gentle spirit. At last, when only ten or twelve persons were left in the room, Birotteau resolved that the

next time the outer door of the study turned on its hinges he would rise and face the great orator, and say to

him, "I am Birotteau!" The grenadier who sprang first into the redoubt at Moscow displayed no greater

"After all, I am his mayor," he said to himself as he rose to proclaim his name.

The countenance of Francois Keller at once became affable; he evidently desired to be cordial. He glanced at

Cesar's red ribbon, and stepping back, opened the door of his study and motioned him to enter, remaining

himself for some time to speak with two men, who rushed in from the staircase with the violence of a

"It is a question of defeating the Pavillon Marsan!" cried the other. "The King's eyes are opened. He is

"We will go together to the Chamber," said the banker, striking the attitude of the frog who imitates an ox.

The sun of successful superiority dazzled the perfumer, as light blinds those insects who seek the falling day

or the halfshadows of a starlit night. On a table of immense size lay the budget, piles of the Chamber

records, open volumes of the "Moniteur," with passages carefully marked, to throw at the head of a Minister

his forgotten words and force him to recant them, under the jeering plaudits of a foolish crowd incapable of

perceiving how circumstances alter cases. On another table were heaped portfolios, minutes, projects,

specifications, and all the thousand memoranda brought to bear upon a man into whose funds so many

nascent industries sought to dip. The royal luxury of this cabinet, filled with pictures, statues, and works of

art; the encumbered chimneypiece; the accumulation of many interests, national and foreign, heaped

together like bales,all struck Birotteau's mind, dwarfed his powers, heightened his terror, and froze his

blood. On Francois Keller's desk lay bundles of notes and checks, letters of credit, and commercial circulars.

Keller sat down and began to sign rapidly such letters as needed no examination.

At these words, uttered for him alone by a voice which influenced all Europe, while the eager hand was

running over the paper, the poor perfumer felt something that was like a hot iron in his stomach. He assumed

the ingratiating manner which for ten years past the banker had seen all men put on when they wanted to get

the better of him for their own purposes, and which gave him at once the advantage over them. Francois

Keller accordingly darted at Cesar a look which shot through his head,a Napoleonic look. This imitation of

Napoleon's glance was a silly satire, then popular with certain parvenus who had never seen so much as the

base coin of their emperor. This glance fell upon Birotteau, a devotee of the Right, a partisan of the

government, himself an element of monarchical election,like the stamp of a customhouse officer

"Monsieur, I will not waste your time; I will be brief. I come on commercial business only,to ask if I can

obtain a credit. I was formerly a judge of the commercial courts, and known to the Bank of France. You will

easily understand that if I had plenty of ready money I need only apply there, where you are yourself a

director. I had the honor of sitting on the Bench of commerce with Monsieur le baron Thibon, chairman of

the committee on discounts; and he, most assuredly, would not refuse me. But up to this time I have never

made use of my credit or my signature; my signature is virgin,and you know what difficulties that puts in

"Monsieur, these are the facts," he resumed. "I am engaged in an affair of landed property, outside of my

Francois Keller, who continued to sign and read his documents, without seeming to listen to Birotteau, here

turned round and made him a little sign of attention, which encouraged the poor man. He thought the matter

"Yes; I heard Nucingen speak of that immense affair,undertaken, I believe, by Claparon and Company."

"Well," continued Cesar, "a credit of a hundred thousand francs, secured on my share of the purchase, will

suffice to carry me along until I can reap certain profits from a discovery of mine in perfumery. Should it be

necessary, I will cover your risk by notes on a new establishment,the firm of A. Popinot"

Keller seemed to care very little about the firm of Popinot; and Birotteau, perceiving that he had made a false

move, stopped short; then, alarmed by the silence, he resumed, "As for the interest, we"

"Yes, yes," said the banker, "the matter can be arranged; don't doubt my desire to be of service to you. Busy

as I am,for I have the finances of Europe on my shoulders, and the Chamber takes all my time,you will

not be surprised to hear that I leave the vast bulk of our affairs to the examination of others. Go and see my

brother Adolphe, downstairs; explain to him the nature of your securities; if he approves of the operation,

come back here with him tomorrow or the day after, at five in the morning,the hour at which I examine

into certain business matters. We shall be proud and happy to obtain your confidence. You are one of those

consistent royalists with whom, of course, we are political enemies, but whose goodwill is always

"Monsieur," said Cesar, elated by this specimen of tribune eloquence, "I trust I am as worthy of the honor you

do me as I was of the signal and royal favor which I earned by my services on the Bench of commerce, and

"Yes, yes," interrupted the banker, "your reputation is a passport, Monsieur Birotteau. You will, of course,

A lady, Madame Keller, one of the two daughters of the Comte de Gondreville, here opened a door which

"It is two o'clock," exclaimed the banker; "the battle has begun. Excuse me, monsieur, it is a question of

He conducted the perfumer to the door of the salon, and said to one of the servants, "Show monsieur the way

As Cesar traversed a labyrinth of staircases, under the guidance of a man in livery, towards an office far less

sumptuous but more useful than that of the head of the house, feeling himself astride the gentle steed of hope,

he stroked his chin, and augured well from the flatteries of the great man. He regretted that an enemy of the

Full of these illusions he entered a cold bare room, furnished with two desks on rollers, some shabby

armchairs, a threadbare carpet, and curtains that were much neglected. This cabinet was to that of the elder

brother like a kitchen to a diningroom, or a workroom to a shop. Here were turned inside out all matters

touching the bank and commerce; here all enterprises were sifted, and the first tithes levied, on behalf of the

bank, upon the profits of industries judged worthy of being upheld. Here were devised those bold strokes by

which shortlived monopolies were called into being and rapidly sucked dry. Here defects of legislation were

chronicled; and bargains driven, without shame, for what the Bourse terms "pickings to be gobbled up,"

commissions exacted for the smallest services, such as lending their name to an enterprise, and allowing it

credit. Here were hatched the specious, legal plots by which silent partnerships were taken in doubtful

enterprises, that the bank might lie in wait for the moment of success, and then crush them and seize the

property by demanding a return of the capital at a critical moment,an infamous trick, which involves and

The two brothers had each selected his appropriate part. Upstairs, Francois, the brilliant man of the world and

of politics, assumed a regal air, bestowed courtesies and promises, and made himself agreeable to all. His

manners were easy and complying; he looked at business from a lofty standpoint; he intoxicated new recruits

and fledgling speculators with the wine of his favor and his fervid speech, as he made plain to them their own

ideas. Downstairs, Adolphe unsaid his brother's words, excused him on the ground of political preoccupation,

and cleverly slipped the rake along the cloth. He played the part of the responsible partner, the careful

business man. Two words, two speeches, two interviews, were required before an understanding could be

reached with this perfidious house. Often the gracious "yes" of the sumptuous upper floor became a dry "no"

in Adolphe's region. This obstructive manoeuvre gave time for reflection, and often served to fool unskilful

applicants. As Cesar entered, the banker's brother was conversing with the famous Palma, intimate adviser of

the house of Keller, who retired on the appearance of the perfumer. When Birotteau had explained his errand,

Adolphemuch the cleverest of the two brothers, a thorough lynx, with a keen eye, thin lips, and a dry

skincast at Birotteau, lowering his head to look over his spectacles as he did so, a look which we must call

the bankerlook,a cross between that of a vulture and that of an attorney; eager yet indifferent, clear yet

"Have the goodness to send me the deeds relating to the affair of the Madeleine," he said; "our security in

making you this credit lies there: we must examine them before we consent to make it, or discuss the terms. If

the affair is sound, we shall be willing, so as not to embarrass you, to take a share of the profits in place of

"Well," thought Birotteau, as he walked away, "I see what it means. Like the hunted beaver, I am to give up a

It was not until the 29th of December that Birotteau was allowed to reenter Adolphe's cabinet. The first time

he called, Adolphe had gone into the country to look at a piece of property which the great orator thought of

buying. The second time, the two Kellers were deeply engaged for the whole day, preparing a tender for a

loan proposed in the Chamber, and they begged Monsieur Birotteau to return on the following Friday. These

delays were killing to the poor man. But Friday came at last. Birotteau found himself in the cabinet, placed in

one corner of the fireplace, facing the light from a window, with Adolphe Keller opposite to him.

"They are all right, monsieur," said the banker, pointing to the deeds. "But what payments have you made on

"But supposing you have paid more than the present value of the property, where will be our security? It will

rest solely on the respect you inspire, and the consideration in which you are held. Business is not conducted

on sentiment. If you had paid two hundred thousand francs, supposing that there were another one hundred

thousand paid down in advance for possession of the land, we should then have had the security of a hundred

thousand francs, to warrant us in giving you a credit of one hundred thousand. The result might be to make us

owners of your share by our paying for it, instead of your doing so; consequently we must be satisfied that the

affair is a sound one. To wait five years to double our capital won't do for us; it is better to employ it in other

ways. There are so many chances! You are trying to circulate paper to pay your notes when they fall due,a

dangerous game. It is wiser to step back for a better leap. The affair does not suit us."

This sentence struck Birotteau as if the executioner had stamped his shoulder with the markingiron; he lost

"Come," said Adolphe, "my brother feels a great interest in you; he spoke of you to me. Let us examine into

your affairs," he added, glancing at Cesar with the look of a courtesan eager to pay her rent.

Birotteau became Molineux,a being at whom he had once laughed so loftily. Enticed along by the

banker,who enjoyed disentangling the bobbins of the poor man's thought, and who knew as well how to

cross question a merchant as Popinot the judge knew how to make a criminal betray himself,Cesar

recounted all his enterprises; he put forward his Double Paste of Sultans and Carminative Balm, the Roguin

affair, and his lawsuit about the mortgage on which he had received no money. As he watched the smiling,

attentive face of Keller and the motions of his head, Birotteau said to himself, "He is listening; I interest him;

I shall get my credit!" Adolphe Keller was laughing at Cesar, just as Cesar had laughed at Molineux. Carried

away by the lust of speech peculiar to those who are made drunk by misfortune, Cesar revealed his inner

man; he gave his measure when he ended by offering the security of Cephalic Oil and the firm of

Popinot,his last stake. The worthy man, led on by false hopes, allowed Adolphe Keller to sound and

fathom him, and he stood revealed to the banker's eyes as a royalist jackass on the point of failure. Delighted

to foresee the bankruptcy of a deputymayor of the arrondissement, an official just decorated, and a man in

power, Keller now curtly told Birotteau that he could neither give him a credit nor say anything in his favor to

his brother Francois. If Francois gave way to idiotic generosity, and helped people of another way of thinking

from his own, men who were his political enemies, he, Adolphe, would oppose with might and main any

attempt to make a dupe of him, and would prevent him from holding out a hand to the adversary of Napoleon,

wounded at SaintRoch. Birotteau, exasperated, tried to say something about the cupidity of the great

bankinghouses, their harshness, their false philanthropy; but he was seized with so violent a pain that he

could scarcely stammer a few words about the Bank of France, from which the Kellers were allowed to

"Yes," said Adolphe Keller; "but the Bank would never discount paper which a private bank refused."

"The Bank of France," said Birotteau, "has always seemed to me to miss its vocation when it congratulates

itself, as it does in presenting its reports, on never losing more than one or two hundred thousand francs

through Parisian commerce: it should be the guardian and protector of Parisian commerce."

"If the Bank were mixed up as silent partners with people who are involved in the most knavish and

hazardous market in the world, it would soon have to hand in its schedule. It has, even now, immense

difficulty in protecting itself against forgeries and false circulations of all kinds. Where would it be if it had to

take account of the business of every one who wanted to get something out of it?"

"Where shall I find ten thousand francs for tomorrow, the THIRTIETH?" cried Birotteau, as he crossed the

According to Parisian custom, notes were paid on the thirtieth, if the thirtyfirst was a holiday.

As Cesar reached the outer gate, his eyes bathed in tears, he scarcely saw a fine English horse, covered with

sweat, which drew the handsomest cabriolet that rolled in those days along the pavements of Paris, and which

was now pulled up suddenly beside him. He would gladly have been run over and crushed by it; if he died by

accident, the confusion of his affairs would be laid to that circumstance. He did not recognize du Tillet, who

in elegant morning dress jumped lightly down, throwing the reins to his groom and a blanket over the back of

Du Tillet knew very well what it was, for the Kellers had made inquiries of Claparon, who by referring them

to du Tillet had demolished the past reputation of the poor man. Though quickly checked, the tears on Cesar's

"It is possible that you have asked assistance from these Bedouins?" said du Tillet, "these cutthroats of

commerce, full of infamous tricks; who run up indigo when they have monopolized the trade, and pull down

rice to force the holders to sell at low prices, and so enable them to manage the market? Atrocious pirates,

who have neither faith, nor law, nor soul, nor honor! You don't know what they are capable of doing. They

will give you a credit if they think you have got a good thing, and close it the moment you get into the thick

of the enterprise; and then you will be forced to make it all over to them, at any villanous price they choose to

give. Havre, Bordeaux, Marseilles, could tell you tales about them! They make use of politics to cover up

their filthy ways. If I were you I should get what I could out of them in any way, and without scruple. Let us

walk on, Birotteau. Joseph, lead the horse about, he is too hot: the devil! he is a capital of a thousand

"Come, my dear master,for you were once my master,tell me, are you in want of money? Have they

asked you for securities, the scoundrels? I, who know you, I offer you money on your simple note. I have

made an honorable fortune with infinite pains. I began it in Germany; I may as well tell you that I bought up

the debts of the king, at sixty per cent of their amount: your endorsement was very useful to me at that time,

and I am not ungrateful,not I. If you want ten thousand francs, they are yours."

"Du Tillet!" cried Cesar, "can it be true? you are not joking with me? Yes, I am rather pinched, but only for a

"I know,that affair of Roguin," replied du Tillet. "Hey! I am in for ten thousand francs which the old rogue

borrowed of me just before he went off; but Madame Roguin will pay them back from her dower. I have

advised the poor woman not to be so foolish as to spend her own fortune in paying debts contracted for a

prostitute. Of course, it would be well if she paid everything, but she cannot favor some creditors to the

detriment of others. You are not a Roguin; I know you," said du Tillet,"you would blow your brains out

rather than make me lose a sou. Here we are at Rue de la Chausseed'Antin; come home with me."

They entered a bedroom, with which Madame Birotteau's compared like that of a chorussinger's on a fourth

floor with the appartement of a primadonna. The ceiling was of violetcolored satin, heightened in its effect

by folds of white satin; a rug of ermine lay at the bedside, and contrasted with the purple tones of a Turkish

carpet. The furniture and all the accessories were novel in shape, costly, and choice in character. Birotteau

paused before an exquisite clock, decorated with Cupid and Psyche, just designed for a famous banker, from

whom du Tillet had obtained the sole copy ever made of it. The former master and his former clerk at last

reached an elegant coquettish cabinet, more redolent of love than finance. Madame Roguin had doubtless

contributed, in return for the care bestowed upon her fortune, the paperknife in chiselled gold, the

paperweights of carved malachite, and all the costly knickknacks of unrestrained luxury. The carpet, one

of the rich products of Belgium, was as pleasant to the eye as to the foot which felt the soft thickness of its

texture. Du Tillet made the poor, amazed, bewildered perfumer sit down at a corner of the fireplace.

"Tell Monsieur Legras to come here, and then find Joseph at the door of the Messrs. Keller; tell him to return

to the stable. Leave word with Adolphe Keller that instead of going to see him, I shall expect him at the

A little tiger, about a thumb high, set out a table, which Birotteau had not observed, so slim was it, and

brought in a pate de foie gras, a bottle of claret, and a number of dainty dishes which only appeared in

Birotteau's household once in three months, on great festive occasions. Du Tillet enjoyed the effect. His

hatred towards the only man who had it in his power to despise him burned so hotly that Birotteau seemed,

even to his own mind, like a sheep defending itself against a tiger. For an instant, a generous idea entered du

Tillet's heart: he asked himself if his vengeance were not sufficiently accomplished. He hesitated between this

"I can annihilate him commercially," he thought; "I have the power of life or death over him,over his wife

who insulted me, and his daughter whose hand once seemed to me a fortune. I have got his money; suppose I

content myself with letting the poor fool swim at the end of a line I'll hold for him?"

Honest minds are devoid of tact; their excellence is uncalculating, even unreflecting, because they are wholly

without evasions or mental reservations of their own. Birotteau now brought about his downfall; he incensed

the tiger, pierced him to the heart without knowing it, made him implacable by a thoughtless word, a eulogy,

a virtuous recognition,by the kindheartedness, as it were, of his own integrity. When the cashier entered,

"Monsieur Legras, bring me ten thousand francs, and a note of hand for that amount, drawn to my order, at

Du Tillet cut the pate, poured out a glass of claret, and urged Cesar to eat. The poor man felt he was saved,

and gave way to convulsive laughter; he played with his watchchain, and only put a mouthful into his

mouth, when du Tillet said to him, "You are not eating!" Birotteau thus betrayed the depths of the abyss into

which du Tillet's hand had plunged him, from which that hand now withdrew him, and into which it had the

power to plunge him again. When the cashier returned, and Cesar signed the note, and felt the ten banknotes

in his pocket, he was no longer master of himself. A moment sooner, and the Bank, his neighborhood, every

one, was to know that he could not meet his payments, and he must have told his ruin to his wife; now, all

was safe! The joy of this deliverance equalled in its intensity the tortures of his peril. The eyes of the poor

"What is the matter with you, my dear master?" asked du Tillet. "Would you not do for me tomorrow what I

"Du Tillet," said the worthy man, with gravity and emphasis, and rising to take the hand of his former clerk,

"What! had I lost it?" cried du Tillet, so violently stabbed in the very bosom of his prosperity that the color

"Lost?well, not precisely," said Birotteau, thunderstruck at his own stupidity: "they told me certain things

about your liaison with Madame Roguin. The devil! taking the wife of another man"

"You are beating round the bush, old fellow," thought du Tillet, and as the words crossed his mind he came

back to his original project, and vowed to bring that virtue low, to trample it under foot, to render despicable

in the marts of Paris the honorable and virtuous merchant who had caught him, redhanded, in a theft. All

hatreds, public or private, from woman to woman, from man to man, have no other cause then some such

detection. People do not hate each other for injured interests, for wounds, not even for a blow; all such

wrongs can be redressed. But to have been seized, flagrante delicto, in a base act! The duel which follows

between the criminal and the witness of his crime ends only with the death of the one or of the other.

"Oh! Madame Roguin!" said du Tillet, jestingly, "don't you call that a feather in a young man's cap? I

understand you, my dear master; somebody has told you that she lent me money. Well, on the contrary it is I

who have protected her fortune, which was strangely involved in her husband's affairs. The origin of my

fortune is pure, as I have just told you. I had nothing, you know. Young men are sometimes in positions of

frightful necessity. They may lose their selfcontrol in the depths of poverty, and if they make, as the

Republic made, forced loanswell, they pay them back; and in so doing they are more honest than France

"Provided," answered du Tillet, stabbed afresh by this quotation, "provided they do not carry off the

property of their neighbors, basely, meanly; as, for example, you would do if you failed within three months,

"I fail!" cried Birotteau, who had taken three glasses of wine, and was halfdrunk with joy. "Everybody

knows what I think about failure! Failure is death to a merchant; I should die of it!"

"Your health and prosperity," returned Cesar. "Why don't you buy your perfumery from me?"

"The fact is," said du Tillet, "I am afraid of Madame Cesar; she always made an impression on me. If you had

"You are not the first to think her beautiful; others have desired her; but she loves me! Well, now, du Tillet,

Birotteau explained the affair of the lands to his former clerk, who pretended to open his eyes wide, and

complimented the perfumer on his perspicacity and penetration, and praised the enterprise.

"Well, I am very glad to have your approbation; you are thought one of the wiseheads of the banking

business, du Tillet. Dear fellow, you might get me a credit at the Bank of France, so that I can wait for the

"I can give you a letter to the firm of Nucingen," answered du Tillet, perceiving that he could make his victim

My dear Baron,The bearer of this letter is Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, deputymayor of the second

arrondissement, and one of the best known manufacturers of Parisian perfumery; he wishes to have business

relations with your house. You can confidently do all that he asks of you; and in obliging him you will oblige

Du Tillet did not dot the i in his signature. To those with whom he did business this intentional error was a

sign previously agreed upon. The strongest recommendations, the warmest appeals contained in the letter

were to mean nothing. All such letters, in which exclamation marks were suppliants and du Tillet placed

himself, as it were, upon his knees, were to be considered as extorted by necessity; he could not refuse to

write them, but they were to be regarded as not written. Seeing the i without a dot, the correspondent was to

amuse the petitioner with empty promises. Even men of the world, and sometimes the most distinguished, are

thus gulled like children by business men, bankers, and lawyers, who all have a double signature,one dead,

the other living. The cleverest among them are fooled in this way. To understand the trick, we must

"Thank heaven!" said du Tillet, "ask for what money you want. When Nucingen reads my letter he will give

you all you need. Unhappily, my own funds are tied up for a few days; if not, I certainly would not send you

to the great banking princes. The Kellers are mere pygmies compared to Baron de Nucingen. Law reappears

on earth in Nucingen. With this letter of mine you can face the 15th of January, and after that, we will see

about it. Nucingen and I are the best friends in the world; he would not disoblige me for a million."

"It is a guarantee in itself," thought Birotteau, as he went away full of gratitude to his old clerk. "Well, a

benefit is never lost!" he continued, philosophizing very wide of the mark. Nevertheless, one thought

embittered his joy. For several days he had prevented his wife from looking into the ledgers; he had put the

business on Celestin's shoulders and assisted in it himself; he wished, apparently, that his wife and daughter

should be at liberty to take full enjoyment out of the beautiful appartement he had given them. But the first

flush of happiness over, Madame Birotteau would have died rather than renounce her right of personally

inspecting the affairs of the house,of holding, as she phrased it, the handle of the fryingpan. Birotteau

was at his wits' end; he had used all his cunning in trying to hide from his wife the symptoms of his

embarrassment. Constance strongly disapproved of sending round the bills; she had scolded the clerks and

accused Celestin of wishing to ruin the establishment, thinking that it was all his doing. Celestin, by

Birotteau's order, had allowed himself to be scolded. In the eyes of the clerks Madame Cesar governed her

husband; for though it is possible to deceive the public, the inmates of a household are never deceived as to

who exercises the real authority. Birotteau knew that he must now reveal his real situation to his wife, for the

account with du Tillet needed an explanation. When he got back to the shop, he saw, not without a shudder,

that Constance was sitting in her old place behind the counter, examining the expense account, and no doubt

"How will you meet your payments tomorrow?" she whispered as he sat down beside her.

"With money," he answered, pulling out the bankbills, and signing to Celestin to take them.

"I'll tell you all about it this evening. Celestin, write down, 'Last of March, note for ten thousand francs, to du

"I am going to see Popinot," said Cesar; "it is very wrong in me not to have gone before. Have we sold his

"Birotteau, don't go out; I want to speak to you," said Constance, taking him by the arm, and leading him into

her bedroom with an impetuosity which would have caused a laugh under other circumstances. "Du Tillet,"

she said, when she had made sure no one but Cesarine was with them,"du Tillet, who robbed us of three

thousand francs! So you are doing business with du Tillet,a monster, who wished to seduce me," she

"Folly of youth," said Birotteau, assuming for the nonce the tone of a freethinker.

"Listen to me, Birotteau! You are all upset; you don't go to the manufactory any more; there is something the

"Well," said Birotteau, "we came very near being ruined,we were ruined this very morning; but it is all

"Yes, mamma," cried Cesarine, "and papa has been so courageous! All that I desire in life is to be loved as he

"My dream is fulfilled!" said the poor woman, dropping upon the sofa at the corner of the fireplace, pale,

livid, terrified. "I foresaw it all. I warned you on that fatal night, in our old room which you pulled to pieces,

that we should have nothing left but our eyes to weep with. My poor Cesarine, I"

"Now, there you go!" cried Cesar; "you will take away from me the courage I need."

"Forgive me, dear friend," said Constance, taking his hand, and pressing it with a tenderness which went to

the heart of the poor man. "I do wrong. Misfortune has come; I will be silent, resigned, strong to bear it. No,

you shall never hear a complaint from me." She threw herself into his arms, weeping, and whispering,

"I'll go and see him," cried Cesar, deeply moved by the passionate accents of his wife, who after nineteen

years of married life was not yet fully known to him. "Constance, fear nothing! Here, read du Tillet's letter to

Monsieur de Nucingen; we are sure to obtain a credit. Besides," he said, allowing himself a necessary lie,

Birotteau, relieved of a heavy weight, walked away like a man suddenly set at liberty, though he felt within

him that indefinable sinking which succeeds great moral struggles in which more of the nervous fluid, more

of the will is emitted than should be spent at one time, and by which, if we may say so, the capital of the

The house of A. Popinot, Rue des CinqDiamants, had undergone a great change in two months. The shop

was repainted. The shelves, revarnished and gilded and crowded with bottles, rejoiced the eye of those who

had eyes to see the symptoms of prosperity. The floors were littered with packages and wrappingpaper. The

storerooms held small casks of various oils, obtained for Popinot on commission by the devoted Gaudissart.

The ledgers, the accounts, and the desks were moved into the rooms above the shop and the backshop. An

old cook did all the household work for the master and his three clerks. Popinot, penned up in a corner of the

shop closed in with glass, might be seen in a serge apron and long sleeves of green linen, with a pen behind

his ear, in the midst of a mass of papers, where in fact Birotteau now found him, as he was overhauling his

letters full of proposals and checks and orders. At the words "Hey, my boy!" uttered by his old master,

Popinot raised his head, locked up his cubbyhole, and came forward with a joyous air and the end of his

The clerks crowded round to look at the distinguished perfumer, the decorated deputymayor, the partner of

their own master. Birotteau, so pitifully small at the Kellers, felt a craving to imitate those magnates; he

stroked his chin, rose on his heels with native self complacency, and talked his usual platitudes.

"Yes, monsieur. But the means employed to sell it count for something. I have set your diamond well."

"Profits! at the end of two months! How can you expect it? Friend Gaudissart has only been on the road for

twentyfive days; he took a postchaise without saying a word to me. Oh, he is devoted! We owe a great deal

to my uncle. The newspapers alone (here he whispered in Birotteau's ear) will cost us twelve thousand

"Then you know nothing," said Popinot. "Twenty thousand francs worth of placards, gilt frames, copies of

the prospectus. One hundred thousand bottles bought. Ah, it is all paying through the nose at this moment!

We are manufacturing on a grand scale. If you had set foot in the faubourg, where I often work all night, you

would have seen a little nutcracker which isn't to be sneezed at, I can tell you. On my own account, I have

made, in the last five days, not less than ten thousand francs, merely by commissions on the sale of druggists'

"What a capable head!" said Birotteau, laying his hand on little Popinot's thick hair and rubbing it about as if

"On Sunday we dine at your aunt Ragon's," added Cesar, leaving Popinot to go on with his business, for he

"It is amazing! A clerk becomes a merchant in twentyfour hours," thought Birotteau, who understood the

happiness and selfassurance of Anselme as little as the dandy luxury of du Tillet. "Anselme put on a little

stiff air when I patted him on the head, just as if he were Francois Keller himself."

Birotteau never once reflected that the clerks were looking on, and that the master of the establishment had

his dignity to preserve. In this instance, as in the case of his speech to du Tillet, the worthy soul committed a

folly out of pure goodness of heart, and for lack of knowing how to withhold an honest sentiment vulgarly

expressed. By this trifling act Cesar would have wounded irretrievably any other man than little Popinot.

The Sunday dinner at the Ragon's was destined to be the last pleasure of the nineteen happy years of the

Birotteau household,years of happiness that were full to overflowing. Ragon lived in the Rue du

PetitBourbonSaintSulpice, on the second floor of a dignified old house, in an appartement decorated with

large panels where painted shepherdesses danced in panniers, before whom fed the sheep of our nineteenth

century, the sober and serious bourgeoisie,whose comical demeanor, with their respectful notions about

the nobility, and their devotion to the Sovereign and the Church, were all admirably represented by Ragon

himself. The furniture, the clocks, linen, dinnerservice, all seemed patriarchal; novel in form because of

their very age. The salon, hung with old damask and draped with curtains in brocatelle, contained portraits of

duchesses and other royalist tributes; also a superb Popinot, sheriff of Sancerre, painted by Latour,the

father of Madame Ragon, a worthy, excellent man, in a picture out of which he smiled like a parvenu in all

his glory. When at home, Madame Ragon completed her natural self with a little King Charles spaniel, which

presented a surprisingly harmonious effect as it lay on the hard little sofa, rococo in shape, that assuredly

Among their many virtues, the Ragons were noted for the possession of old wines which had come to perfect

mellowness, and for certain of Madame Anfoux's liqueurs, which certain persons, obstinately (though it was

said hopelessly) bent on making love to Madame Ragon, had brought her from the West Indies. Thus their

little dinners were much prized. Jeannette, the old cook, took care of the aged couple with blind devotion: she

would have stolen the fruit to make their sweetmeats. Instead of taking her money to the savingsbank, she

put it judiciously into lotteries, hoping that some day she could bestow a good round sum on her master and

mistress. On the appointed Sundays when they received their guests, she was, despite her years, active in the

kitchen to superintend the dishes, which she served at the table with an agility that (to use a favorite

expression of the worthy Ragon) might have given points to Mademoiselle Contat when she played Susanne

The guests on this occasion were Popinot the judge, Pillerault, Anselme, the three Birotteaus, three Matifats,

and the Abbe Loraux. Madame Matifat, whom we lately met crowned with a turban for the ball, now wore a

gown of blue velvet, with coarse cotton stockings, leather shoes, gloves of chamoisskin with a border of

green plush, and a bonnet lined with pink, filled in with white puffs about the face. These ten personages

assembled at five o'clock. The old Ragons always requested their guests to be punctual. When this worthy

couple were invited out, their hosts always put the dinner at the same hour, remembering that stomachs which

were sixtyfive years old could not adapt themselves to the novel hours recently adopted in the great world.

Cesarine was sure that Madame Ragon would place her beside Anselme; for all women, be they fools or

saints, know what is what in love. The daughter of "The Queen of Roses" therefore dressed with the intention

of turning Popinot's head. Her motherhaving renounced, not without pain, the thought of marrying her to

Crottat, who to her eyes played the part of heirapparentassisted, with some bitter thoughts, at the toilet.

Maternal forethought lowered the modest gauzy neckerchief to show a little of Cesarine's shoulders and the

spring of her graceful throat, which was remarkably elegant. The Grecian bodice, crossing from left to right

with five folds, opened slightly, showing delicious curves; the gray merino dress with green furbelows

defined the pretty waist, which had never looked so slender nor so supple. She wore earrings of gold

fretwork, and her hair, gathered up a la chinoise, let the eye take in the soft freshness of a skin traced with

blue veins, where the light shone chastely on the pure white tones. Cesarine was so coquettishly lovely that

Madame Matifat could not help admitting it, without, however, perceiving that mother and daughter had the

Neither Birotteau, his wife, Madame Matifat nor any of the others disturbed the sweet converse which the

young people, thrilling with love, held in whispering voices within the embrasure of a window, through

whose chinks the north wind blew its chilly whistle. The conversation of the elders became animated when

Popinot the judge let fall a word about Roguin's flight, remarking that he was the second notary who had

absconded,a crime formerly unknown. Madame Ragon, at the word Roguin, touched her brother's foot,

Pillerault spoke loudly to drown his voice, and both made him a sign to remember Madame Birotteau.

"Well, then," said Madame Matifat to Birotteau, who humbly bowed his head, "how much did he carry of? If

"He had two hundred thousand francs of mine," said Cesar. "As to the forty thousand he pretended to make

me borrow from one of his clients, whose property he had already squandered, I am now bringing a suit to

"The case will be decided this week," said Popinot. I thought you would not be unwilling that I should

explain your situation to Monsieur le president; he has ordered that all Roguin's papers be submitted to the

custody of the court, so as to ascertain the exact time when Roguin made away with the funds of his client,

and thus verify the facts alleged by Derville, who made the argument himself to save you the expense."

"I don't know," answered Popinot. "Though I belong to the court in which the suit is bought, I shall abstain

"Can there be any doubt in such a simple case?" said Pillerault. "Such deeds make mention that payment has

been made, and notaries are obliged to declare that they have seen the money passed from the lender to the

"According to my ideas," said the judge, "the lender ought to have sued Roguin for the costs and the

cautionmoney; but it sometimes happens at the Cour Royale that in matters even more plain than this the

"Mademoiselle, what are they saying? Has Monsieur Roguin absconded?" said Anselme, hearing at last what

was going on about him. "Monsieur said nothing of it to me,to me who would shed my blood for him"

Cesarine fully understood that the whole family were included in the "for him"; for if the innocent girl could

mistake the accent, she could not misunderstand the glance, which wrapped her, as it were, in a rosy flame.

"I know you would; I told him so. He hid everything from my mother, and confided only in me."

"You spoke to him of me?" said Popinot; "you have read my heart? Have you read all that is there?"

"I am very happy," said Popinot. "If you would lighten all my fears in a year I shall be so prosperous that

your father cannot object when I speak to him of our marriage. From henceforth I shall sleep only five hours

"Do not injure yourself," said Cesarine, with an inexpressible accent and a look in which Popinot was

"Wife," said Cesar, as they rose from table, "I think those young people love each other."

"Well, so much the better," said Constance, in a grave voice; "my daughter will be the wife of a man of sense

She left the room hastily and went to Madame Ragon's bedchamber. Cesar during the dinner had make

various fatuous remarks, which caused the judge and Pillerault to smile, and reminded the unhappy woman of

how unfitted her poor husband was to grapple with misfortune. Her heart was full of tears; and she

instinctively dreaded du Tillet, for every mother knows the Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes, even if she does

not know Latin. Constance wept in the arms of Madame Ragon and her daughter, though she would not tell

The rest of the evening was spent by the elders at the cardtable, and by the young people in those little

games called innocent because they cover the innocent byplay of bourgeois love. The Matifats joined in

"Cesar," said Constance as they drove home, "go and see Monsieur le Baron de Nucingen on the 8th so as to

be sure of having your payments ready in advance of the 15th. If there should be any hitch, how could you

"I will see to it, wife," said Cesar, pressing his wife's hand and his daughter's, adding, "Ah, my dear white

The two women, unable to see him in the obscurity of the hackney coach, felt his tears falling hot upon their

"All will go well, papa; Monsieur Anselme Popinot told me he would shed his blood for you."

"For me?" said Cesar, trying to speak gaily; "and for the family as well. Isn't it so?"

Cesarine pressed her father's hand, as if to let him know she was betrothed to Anselme.

During the first three days of the year, two hundred visiting cards were sent to Birotteau. This rush of

fictitious friendship, these empty testimonials of favor, are horrible to those who feel themselves drawn down

into the vortex of misfortune. Birotteau presented himself three times at the hotel of the famous banker, the

Baron de Nucingen, but in vain. The opening of the year with all its festivities sufficiently explained the

absences of the financier. On the last occasion Birotteau got as far as the office of the banker, where the

headclerk, a German, told him that Monsieur de Nucingen had returned at five in the morning from a ball at

the Kellers', and would not be visible until halfpast nine o'clock. Birotteau had the luck to interest this man

in his affairs, and remained talking with him more than half an hour. In the course of the afternoon this prime

minister of the house of Nucingen wrote Birotteau that the baron would receive him the next day, 13th, at

noon. Though every hour brought its drop of absinthe, the day went by with frightful rapidity. Cesar took a

hackney coach, but stopped it several paces distant from the hotel, whose courtyard was crowded with

carriages. The poor man's heart sank within him when he saw the splendors of that noted house.

"And yet he has failed twice," he said to himself as he went up a superb staircase banked with flowers, and

crossed the sumptuous rooms which helped to make Madame Delphine de Nucingen famous in the Chaussee

d'Antin. The baronne's ambition was to rival the great ladies of the Faubourg SaintGermain, to whose

houses she was not as yet admitted. The baron was breakfasting with his wife. In spite of the crowd which

was waiting for him in the countingroom, he had left word that any friend of du Tillet was to be admitted.

Birotteau trembled with hope as he noticed the change which the baron's order had wrought in the hitherto

"Pardon me, my tear," said the baron to his wife, in a strong German accent, as he rose and nodded to

Birotteau, "monsieur is a good royalist, and der intimate frient of tu Tillet. Bezides, monsieur is

debudymayor of der zecond arrondissement, and gifs palls of Aziatigue magnifissence; so vill you mak his

"spoke of the ball with great admiration, which is all the more valuable because he usually admires

nothing. Ferdinand is a harsh critic; in his eyes everything ought to be perfect. Shall you soon give another

"Madame, poor people, such as we are, seldom have many amusements of that kind," said the perfumer, not

knowing whether she meant to ridicule him, or was merely paying an empty compliment.

"Monsieur Grindot suberintented der resdoration of your abbartement, I zink?" said the baron.

"Ah, Grindot! that nice little architect who has just returned from Rome," said Delphine de Nucingen. "I dote

No culprit enduring the torments of hell in Venetian dungeons ever suffered more from the torture of the boot

than Birotteau did, standing there in his ordinary clothes. He felt a sneer in every word.

"Vill you gif oder little palls?" said the banker, with a searching look at the perfumer. "You see all der vorld

"Will Monsieur Birotteau breakfast with us, without ceremony?" said Delphine, motioning towards the table

Delphine made a little sign of assent, saying to her husband, "Are you going to buy perfumery?" The baron

"His ledder gif you in my house a creydit vich is only limided by der limids of my privade fortune."

The exhilarating balm infused into the water offered by the angel to Hagar in the desert, must have been the

same cordial which flowed through Cesar's veins as he listened to these words. The wily banker retained the

horrible pronunciation of the German Jews,possibly that he might be able to deny promises actually given,

"You shall haf a running aggont. Ve vill broceed in dis vay" said this great and good and venerable

Birotteau doubted no longer; he was a merchant, and new very well that those who have no intention of

"I neet not tell you dat der Bank demands of all, graat and small alaike, dree zignatures. So denn, you traw a

cheque to die order of our frient tu Tillet, and I vill sent it, same tay, to der Bank mit mein zignature; so shall

you haf, at four o'clock, der amount of die cheque you trew in der morning; and at der costs of die Bank. I vill

not receif a commission, no! I vill haf only der blaysure to be agreeaple to you. But I mak one condeetion,"

he added, laying his left finger lightly on his nose with an inimitably sly gesture.

"Monsieur le baron, it is granted on the sport," said Birotteau, who thought it concerned some tithe to be

"A condeetion to vich I attache der graatest imbortance, because I vish Matame de Nucingen should receif, as

"Monsieur Pirodot," said the financier, with a serious air, "it is deen agreet; you vill invite us to your nex

pall? My vife is shalous; she vish to see your abbartement, of vich she hear so mooch."

"Oh! if you reffuse me, no creydit! Yes, I know der Prayfic of die Seine was at your las pall."

"You had Pillartiere, shentelman of der betchamber; goot royalist like you, who vas vounded at

"Hey! der tefle! dont pe zo humple, Monsieur der debudymayor; I haf heard dat der king say dat your

"The king?" exclaimed Birotteau, who was destined to hear no more, for, at this moment, a young man

entered the room familiarly, whose step, recognized from afar by the beautiful Delphine de Nucingen,

"Goot morning, my tear te Marsay; tak my blace. Dere is a crowd, zey tell me, waiting in der gountingroom.

I know vy. Der mines of Wortschin bay a graat divitent! I haf receifed die aggonts. You vill haf one hundert

tousant francs, Matame de Nucingen, so you can buy chewels and oder tings to make you bretty,as if you

"Egzactly," said Monsieur de Nucingen, turning back when he was almost at the door. "I zink tat dose

personste Marsay, dis is Monsieur Pirodot, your berfumer, who gifs palls of a magnifissence druly

De Marsay lifted his eyeglass, and said, "Ah! true, I thought the face was not unknown to me. So you are

"Ah! dose Rakkons," interrupted the baron, making a grimace expressive of disgust; "dey had an aggont mit

us; I fafored dem, and dey could haf made der fortune, but dey would not wait one zingle day longer."

The worthy man thought his own prospects extremely doubtful, and without bowing to Madame de

Nucingen, or to de Marsay, he hastily followed the banker. The baron was already on the staircase, and

Birotteau caught him at the bottom just as he was about to enter the countingroom. As Nucingen opened the

door he saw the despairing gesture of the poor creature behind him, who felt himself pushed into a gulf, and

Birotteau, thinking that de Marsay might have some influence with Nucingen, ran back with the rapidity of a

swallow, and slipped into the diningroom where he had left the baronne and the young man, and where

Delphine was waiting for a cup of cafe a la creme. He saw that the coffee had been served, but the baronne

and the dandy had disappeared. The footman smiled at the astonishment of the worthy man, who slowly

redescended the stairs. Cesar rushed to du Tillet's, and was told that he had gone into the country with

Madame Roguin. He took a cabriolet, and paid the driver well to be taken rapidly to Nogent surMarne. At

NogentsurMarne the porter told him that monsieur and madame had started for Paris. Birotteau returned

home, shattered in mind and body. When he related his wildgoose chase to his wife and daughter he was

amazed to find his Constance, usually perched like a bird of ill omen on the smallest commercial mishap,

now giving him the tenderest consolation, and assuring him that everything would turn out well.

The next morning, Birotteau mounted guard as early as seven o'clock before du Tillet's door. He begged the

porter, slipping ten francs into his hand, to put him in communication with du Tillet's valet, and obtained

from the latter a promise to show him in to his master the moment that du Tillet was visible: he slid two

pieces of gold into the valet's hand. By such little sacrifices and great humiliations, common to all courtiers

and petitioners, he was able to attain his end. At halfpast eight, just as his former clerk was putting on a

dressing gown, yawning, stretching, and shaking off the cobwebs of sleep, Birotteau came face to face with

Cesar stated, with painful trepidation, the answer and requirements of Monsieur de Nucingen to the

inattentive ears of du Tillet, who was looking for the bellows and scolding his valet for the clumsy manner in

The valet listened. At first Cesar did not notice him; when he did so he stopped short, confused, but resumed

what he was saying as du Tillet touched him with the spur exclaiming, "Go on! go on! I am listening to you."

The poor man's shirt was wet; his perspiration turned to ice as du Tillet looked fixedly at him, and he saw the

silverlined pupils of those eyes, streaked with threads of gold, which pierced to his very heart with a

"My dear master, the Bank has refused to take your notes which the house of Claparon passed over to

Gigonnet not guaranteed. Is that my fault? How is it that you, an old commercial judge, should commit such

blunders? I am, first and foremost, a banker. I will give you my money, but I cannot risk having my signature

refused at the Bank. My credit is my life; that is the case with all of us. Do you want money?"

"Are the chimneybricks coming down on my head?" exclaimed du Tillet, bursting into a laugh.

Cesar, misled by the luxury about him, fancied it was the laugh of a man to whom the sum was a mere trifle;

"These fellows take advantage of me! It is halfpast eight o'clock, and he ought to have done a million francs'

"Only twenty thousand francs. Monsieur gave orders to buy into the Funds to the amount of thirty thousand

"If truth were banished from this earth, she would leave her last word with a cashier," said du Tillet. "Haven't

you some interest in this little Popinot, who has set up for himself?" he added, after a dreadful pause, in

"Yes," he answered, naively. "Do you think you could discount his signature for a large amount?"

"Bring me his acceptances for fifty thousand francs, and I will get them discounted for you at a reasonable

rate by old Gobseck, who is very easy to deal with when he has funds to invest; and he has some now."

Birotteau went home brokenhearted, not perceiving that the bankers were tossing him from one to the other

like a shuttlecock; but Constance had already guessed that credit was unattainable. If three bankers refused

it, it was very certain that they had inquired of each other about so prominent a man as a deputymayor; and

"Try to renew your notes," she said; "go and see Monsieur Claparon, your copartner, and all the others to

whom you gave notes for the 15th, and ask them to renew. It will be time enough to go to the moneylenders

In the language of his own prospectus, he enjoyed a sanguine temperament, which was subject to an

enormous waste through emotions and the pressure of thought, and imperatively demanded sleep to repair it.

Cesarine took her father into the salon and played to him "Rousseau's Dream,"a pretty piece of music by

Herold; while Constance sat sewing beside him. The poor man laid his head on a cushion, and every time he

looked up at his wife he saw a soft smile upon her lips; and thus he fell asleep.

"Poor man!" said Constance; "what misery is in store for him! God grant he may have strength to bear it!"

"Oh! what troubles you, mamma?" said Cesarine, seeing that her mother was weeping.

"Dear daughter, I see a failure coming. If your father is forced to make an assignment, we must ask no one's

pity. My child, be prepared to become a simple shopgirl. If I see you accepting your life courageously, I

shall have strength to begin my life over again. I know your father,he will not keep back one farthing; I

shall resign my dower; all that we possess will be sold. My child, you must take your jewels and your clothes

Cesarine was seized with a terror beyond control as she listened to these words, spoken with religious

simplicity. The thought came into her mind to go and see Anselme; but her native delicacy checked it.

On the morrow, at nine o'clock, Birotteau, following his wife's advice, went to find Claparon in the Rue de

Provence, in the grasp of anxieties quite other than those through which he had lately passed. To ask for a

credit is an ordinary business matter; it happens every day that those who undertake an enterprise are obliged

to borrow capital; but to ask for the renewal of notes is in commercial jurisprudence what the correctional

police is to the court of assizes, a first step towards bankruptcy, just as a misdemeanor leads to crime. The

secret of your embarrassment is in other hands than your own. A merchant delivers himself over, bound hand

and foot, to another merchant; and mercy is a virtue not practised at the Bourse.

Cesar, who once walked the streets of Paris with his head high and his eye beaming with confidence, now,

unstrung by perplexity, shrank from meeting Claparon; he began to realize that a banker's heart is mere

viscera. Claparon had seemed to him so brutal in his coarse jollity, and he had felt the man's vulgarity so

"But he is nearer to the people; perhaps he will therefore have more heart!" Such was the first reproachful

Birotteau drew upon the dregs of his courage, and went up the stairway of a mean little entresol, at whose

windows he had caught a glimpse of green curtains yellowed by the sun. He read the word "Offices,"

stamped in black letters on an oval copperplate; he rapped, nobody answered, and he went in. The place,

worse than humble, conveyed an idea of penury, or avarice, or neglect. No employe was to be seen behind the

brass lattice which topped an unpainted white wooden enclosure, breasthigh, within which were tables and

desks in stained black wood. These deserted places were littered with inkstands, in which the ink was mouldy

and the pens as rumpled as a ragammufin's head, and twisted like sunfish; with boxes and papers and printed

matter,all worthless, no doubt. The floor was as dirty, defaced, and damp as that of a boardinghouse. The

second room, announced by the word "CountingRoom" on its door, harmonized with the grim facetiae of its

neighbor. In one corner was a large space screened off by an oak balustrade, trellised with copper wire and

furnished with a sliding cathole, within which was an enormous iron chest. This space, apparently given

over to the rioting of rats, also contained an odd looking desk, with a shabby armchair, which was ragged,

green, and torn in the seat,from which the horsehair protruded, like the wig of its master, in half a

hundred libertine curls. The chief adornment of this room, which had evidently been the salon of the

appartement before it was converted into a bankingoffice, was a round table covered with a green cloth,

round which stood a few old chairs of black leather with tarnished gilt nails. The fireplace, somewhat elegant,

showed none of the sooty marks of a fire; the hearth was clean; the mirror, covered with flyspecks, had a

paltry air, in keeping with a mahogany clock bought at the sale of some old notary, which annoyed the eye,

already depressed by two candelabras without candles and the sticky dust that covered them. The wallpaper,

mouse gray with a pink border, revealed, by certain fuliginous stains, the unwholesome presence of

smokers. Nothing ever more faithfully represented that prosaic precinct called by the newspapers an

"editorial sanctum." Birotteau, fearing that he might be indiscreet, knocked sharply three times on the door

"Come in!" cried Claparon, the reverberation of whose voice revealed the distance it had to traverse and the

emptiness of the room,in which Cesar heard the crackling of a good fire, though the owner was apparently

The room was, in truth, Claparon's private office. Between the ostentatious receptionroom of Francois

Keller and the untidy abode of the counterfeit banker, there was all the difference that exists between

Versailles and the wigwam of a Huron chief. Birotteau had witnessed the splendors of finance; he was now to

see its fooleries. Lying in bed, in a sort of oblong recess or den opening from the farther end of the office, and

where the habits of a slovenly life had spoiled, dirtied, greased, torn, defaced, obliterated, and ruined

furniture which had been elegant in its day, Claparon, at the entrance of Birotteau, wrapped his filthy

dressinggown around him, laid down his pipe, and drew together the curtains of the bed with a haste which

Claparon, without his wig, his head wrapped up in a bandanna handkerchief twisted awry, seemed all the

more hideous to Birotteau because, when the dressinggown gaped open, he saw an undershirt of knitted

"Will you breakfast with me?" said Claparon, recollecting the perfumer's ball, and thinking to make him a

Cesar now perceived a round table, hastily cleared of its litter, which bore testimony to the presence of jovial

company by a pate, oysters, white wine, and vulgar kidneys, sautes au vin de champagne, sodden in their

Two covers and two napkins, soiled by the supper of the previous night, might have enlightened the purest

innocence. Claparon, thinking himself very clever, pressed his invitation in spite of Cesar's refusal.

"I was to have had a guest, but that guest has disappointed me," said the crafty traveller, in a voice likely to

"Monsieur," said Birotteau, "I came solely on business, and I shall not detain you long."

"I'm used up," said Claparon, pointing to the desk and the tables piled with documents; "they don't leave me a

poor miserable moment to myself! I don't receive people except on Saturdays. But as for you, my dear friend,

I'll see you at any time. I haven't a moment to love or to loaf; I have lost even the inspiration of business; to

catch its vim one must have the sloth of ease. Nobody ever sees me now on the boulevard doing nothing.

Bah! I'm sick of business; I don't want to talk about business; I've got money enough, but I never can get

enough happiness. My gracious! I want to travel,to see Italy! Oh, that dear Italy! beautiful in spite of all

her reverses! adorable land, where I shall no doubt encounter some angel, complying yet majestic! I have

always loved Italian women. Did you ever have an Italian woman yourself? No? Then come with me to Italy.

We will see Venice, the abode of doges,unfortunately fallen into those intelligent Austrian hands that

know nothing of art! Bah! let us get rid of business, canals, loans, and peaceful governments. I'm a good

"One word, monsieur, and I will release you," said Birotteau. "You made over my notes to Monsieur

"Impossible!" snapped the banker. "I'm not alone in the matter. We have met in council,regular Chamber;

but we all agreed like bacon in a fryingpan. The devil! we deliberated. Those lands about the Madeleine

don't amount to anything; we are operating elsewhere. Hey! my dear sir, if we were not involved in the

Champs Elysees and at the Bourse which they are going to finish, and in the quartier Saint Lazare and at

Tivoli, we shouldn't be, as that fat Nucingen says, in peaseness at all. What's the Madeleine to us?a midge

of a thing. Prrr! We don't play low, my good fellow," he said, tapping Birotteau on the stomach and

catching him round the waist. "Come, let's have our breakfast, and talk," added Claparon, wishing to soften

"Very good," said Birotteau. "So much the worse for the other guest," he thought, meaning to make Claparon

drunk, and to find out who were his real associates in an affair which began to look suspicious to him.

"Tell the clerks that I can't see any one,not even Nucingen, Keller, Gigonnet, and all the rest of them."

"He can receive the great people," said Claparon; "the small fry are not to get beyond the first room. They are

To make an old commercial traveller drunk is an impossibility. Cesar mistook the elation of the man's

"That infamous Roguin is still connected with you," he began; "don't you think you ought to write and tell

him to assist an old friend whom he has compromised,a man with whom he dined every Sunday, and

"Roguin? A fool! his share is ours now. Don't be worried, old fellow, all will go well. Pay up to the 15th, and

after that we will seeI say, we will see. Another glass of wine? The capital doesn't concern me one atom;

pay or don't pay, I sha'n't make faces at you. I'm only in the business for a commission on the sales, and for a

share when the lands are converted into money; and it's for that I manage the owners. Don't you understand?

You have got solid men behind you, so I'm not afraid, my good sir. Nowadays, business is all parcelled out in

portions. A single enterprise requires a combination of capacities. Go in with us; don't potter with pomatum

"It is abstract commerce," said Claparon,"commerce which won't be developed for ten years to come,

according to Nucingen, the Napoleon of finance; commerce by which a man can grasp the totality of

fractions, and skim the profits before there are any. Gigantic idea! one way of pouring hope into pint

cups,in short, a new necromancy! So far, we have only got ten or a dozen hard heads initiated into the

Cesar opened his eyes and ears, endeavoring to understand this composite phraseology.

"Listen," said Claparon, after a pause. "Such masterstrokes need men. There's the man of genius who hasn't

a soulike all men of genius. Those fellows spend their thoughts and spend their money just as it comes.

Imagine a pig rooting round a trufflepatch; he is followed by a jolly fellow, a moneyed man, who listens for

the grunt as piggy finds the succulent. Now, when the man of genius has found a good thing, the moneyed

man taps him on the shoulder and says, 'What have you got there? You are rushing into the fiery furnace, my

good fellow, and you haven't the loins to run out again. There's a thousand francs; just let me take it in hand

and manage the affair.' Very good! The banker then convokes the traders: 'My friends, let us go to work:

write a prospectus! Down with humbug!' On that they get out the huntinghorns and shout and

clamor,'One hundred thousand francs for five sous! or five sous for a hundred thousand francs! gold

mines! coal mines!' In short, all the claptrap of commerce. We buy up men of arts and sciences; the show

begins, the public enters; it gets its money's worth, and we get the profits. The pig is penned up with his

potatoes, and the rest of us wallow in banknotes. There it all is, my good sir. Come, go into the business with

us. What would you like to be,pig, buzzard, clown, or millionaire? Reflect upon it; I have now laid before

you the whole theory of the modern loansystem. Come and see me often; you'll always find me a jovial,

jolly fellow. French jovialitygaiety and gravity, all in onenever injures business; quite the contrary. Men

who quaff the sparkling cup are born to understand each other. Come, another glass of champagne! it is good,

I tell you! It was sent to me from Epernay itself, by a man for whom I once sold quantities at a good priceI

used to be in wines. He shows his gratitude, and remembers me in my prosperity; very rare, that."

Birotteau, overcome by the frivolity and heedlessness of a man to whom the world attributed extreme depth

and capacity, dared not question him any further. In the midst of his own haziness of mind produced by the

champagne, he did, however, recollect a name spoken by du Tillet; and he asked Claparon who Gobseck the

"Have you got as far as that?" said Claparon. "Gobseck is a banker, just as the headsman is a doctor. The first

word is 'fifty per cent'; he belongs to the race of Harpagon; he'll take canary birds at all seasons, fur tippets in

summer, nankeens in winter. What securities are you going to offer him? If you want him to take your paper

without security you will have to deposit your wife, your daughter, your umbrella, everything down to your

hatbox, your socks (don't you go in for ribbed socks?), your shovel and tongs, and the very wood you've got

in the cellar! Gobseck! Gobseck! in the name of virtuous folly, who told you to go to that commercial

"Ah! the scoundrel, I recognize him! We used to be friends. If we have quarrelled so that we don't speak to

each other, you may depend upon it my aversion to him is wellfounded; he let me read down to the bottom

of his infamous soul, and he made me uncomfortable at that beautiful ball you gave us. I can't stand his

impudent airsall because he has got a notary's wife! I could have countesses if I wanted them; I sha'n't

respect him any the more for that. Ah! my respect is a princess who'll never give birth to such as he. But, I

say, you are a funny fellow, old man, to flash us a ball like that, and two months after try to renew your

paper! You seem to have some go in you. Let's do business together. You have got a reputation which would

be very useful to me. Oh! du Tillet was born to understand Gobseck. Du Tillet will come to a bad end at the

Bourse. If he is, as they say, the tool of old Gobseck, he won't be allowed to go far. Gobseck sits in a corner

of his web like an old spider who has travelled round the world. Sooner or later, ztit! the usurer will toss him

off as I do this glass of wine. So much the better! Du Tillet has played me a trickoh! a damnable trick."

At the end of an hour and a half spend in just such senseless chatter, Birotteau attempted to get away, seeing

that the late commercial traveller was about to relate the adventure of a republican deputy of Marseilles, in

love with a certain actress then playing the part of la belle Arsene, who, on one occasion, was hissed by a

"He stood up in his box," said Claparon, "and shouted: 'Arrest whoever hissed her! Eugh! If it's a woman, I'll

kiss her; if it's a man, we'll see about it; if it's neither the one nor the other, may God's lightning blast it!'

"You will have to come and see me," said Claparon; "that first scrap of paper you gave Cayron has come

back to us protested; I endorsed it, so I've paid it. I shall send after you; business before everything."

Birotteau felt stabbed to the heart by this cold and grinning kindness as much as by the harshness of Keller or

the coarse German banter of Nucingen. The familiarity of the man, and his grotesque gabble excited by

champagne, seemed to tarnish the soul of the honest bourgeois as though he came from a house of financial

illfame. He went down the stairway and found himself in the streets without knowing where he was going.

As he walked along the boulevards and reached the Rue Saint Denis, he recollected Molineux, and turned

into the Cour Batave. He went up the dirty, tortuous staircase which he once trod so proudly. He recalled to

mind the mean and niggardly acrimony of Molineux, and he shrank from imploring his favor. The landlord

was sitting in the chimneycorner, as on the occasion of Cesar's first visit, but his breakfast was now in

"Renew a note for twelve hundred francs?" said Molineux, with mocking incredulity. "Have you got to that,

monsieur? If you have not twelve hundred francs to pay me on the 15th, do you intend to send back my

receipt for the rent unpaid? I shall be sorry; but I have not the smallest civility in moneymatters,my rents

are my living. Without them how could I pay what I owe myself? No merchant will deny the soundness of

that principle. Money is no respecter of persons; money has no ears, it has no heart. The winter is hard, the

price of wood has gone up. If you don't pay me on the 15th, a little summons will be served upon you at

twelve o'clock on the 16th. Bah! the worthy Mitral, your bailiff, is mine as well; he will send you the writ in

Dismayed by the curt malevolence of the old man, Cesar was cowed; he heard the knell of failure ringing in

his ears, and every jangle woke a memory of the stern sayings his pitiless justice had uttered against

bankrupts. His former opinions now seared, as with fire, the soft substance of his brain.

"By the by," said Molineux, "you neglected to put upon your notes, 'for value received in rental,' which

"My position will prevent me from doing anything to the detriment of my creditors," said Cesar, stunned by

"Very good, monsieur, very good; I thought I knew everything relating to rentals and tenants, but I have

learned through you never to take notes in payment. Ah! I shall sue you, for your answer shows plainly

enough that you are not going to meet your liabilities. Hard cash is a matter which concerns every landlord in

Birotteau went out, weary of life. It is in the nature of such soft and tender souls to be disheartened by a first

rebuff, just as a first success encourages them. Cesar no longer had any hope except in the devotion of little

Popinot, to whom his thoughts naturally turned as he crossed the Marche des Innocents.

"Poor boy! who could have believed it when I launched him, only six weeks ago, in the Tuileries?"

It was just four o'clock, the hour at which the judges left their courtrooms. Popinot the elder chanced to go

and see his nephew. This judge, whose mind was singularly acute on all moral questions, was also gifted with

a secondsight which enabled him to discover secret intentions, to perceive the meaning of insignificant

human actions, the germs of crime, the roots of wrongdoing; and he now watched Birotteau, though Birotteau

was not aware of it. The perfumer, who was annoyed at finding the judge with his nephew, seemed to him

harassed, preoccupied, pensive. Little Popinot, always busy, with his pen behind his ear, lay down as usual

flat on his stomach before the father of his Cesarine. The empty phrases which Cesar addressed to his partner

seemed to the judge to mask some important request. Instead of going away, the crafty old man stayed in

spite of his nephew's evident desire, for he guessed that the perfumer would soon try to get rid of him by

going away himself. Accordingly, when Birotteau went out the judge followed, and saw Birotteau hanging

about that part of the Rue des CinqDiamants which leads into the Rue AubryleBoucher. This trifling

circumstance roused the suspicions of old Popinot as to Cesar's intentions; he turned into the Rue des

Lombards, and when he saw the perfumer reenter Anselme's door, he came hastily back again.

"My dear Popinot," said Cesar to his partner, "I have come to ask a service of you."

"Ah! you save my life," exclaimed the poor man, comforted by this warmth of heart which flamed upon the

"You must give me a note for fifty thousand francs on my share of the profits; we will arrange later about the

Popinot looked fixedly at Cesar. Cesar dropped his eyes. At this moment the judge reentered.

"My sonah! excuse me, Monsieur BirotteauAnselme, I forget to tell you" and with an imperious

gesture he led his nephew into the street and forced him, in his shirtsleeves and bareheaded, to listen as they

walked towards the Rue des Lombards. "My nephew, your old master may find himself so involved that he

will be forced to make an assignment. Before taking that step, honorable men who have forty years of

integrity to boast of, virtuous men seeking to save their good name, will play the part of reckless gamblers;

they become capable of anything; they will sell their wives, traffic with their daughters, compromise their

best friends, pawn what does not belong to them; they will frequent gamblingtables, become dissemblers,

hypocrites, liars; they will even shed tears. I have witnessed strange things. You yourself have seen Roguin's

respectability,a man to whom they would have given the sacraments without confession. I do not apply

these remarks in their full force to Monsieur Birotteau,I believe him to be an honest man; but if he asks

you to do anything, no matter what, against the rules of business, such as endorsing notes out of good

nature, or launching into a system of 'circulations,' which, to my mind, is the first step to swindling,for it is

uttering counterfeit papermoney,if he asks you to do anything of the kind, promise me that you will sign

nothing without consulting me. Remember that if you love his daughter you must notin the very interests

of your love you must notdestroy your future. If Monsieur Birotteau is to fall, what will it avail if you fall

too? You will deprive yourselves, one as much as the other, of all the chances of your new business, which

"Thank you, my uncle; a word to the wise is enough," said Popinot, to whom Cesar's heartrending

The merchant in oils, refined and otherwise, returned to his gloomy shop with an anxious brow. Birotteau

"Will you do me the honor to come up into my bedroom? We shall be better there. The clerks, though very

Birotteau followed Popinot, a prey to the anxiety a condemned man goes through from the moment of his

"My dear benefactor," said Anselme, "you cannot doubt my devotion; it is absolute. Permit me only to ask

you one thing. Will this sum clear you entirely, or is it only a means of delaying some catastrophe? If it is

that, what good will it do to drag me down also? You want notes at ninety days. Well, it is absolutely

"UNGRATEFUL!" said his master, who spent his whole remaining strength in hurling the word at Anselme's

Birotteau walked to the door, and went out. Popinot, rousing himself from the sensation which the terrible

word produced upon him, rushed down the staircase and into the street, but Birotteau was out of sight.

Cesarine's lover heard that dreadful charge ringing in his ears, and saw the distorted face of the poor

distracted Cesar constantly before him; Popinot was to live henceforth, like Hamlet, with a spectre beside

Birotteau wandered about the streets of the neighborhood like a drunken man. At last he found himself upon

the quay, and followed it till he reached Sevres, where he passed the night at an inn, maddened with grief,

while his terrified wife dared not send in search of him. She knew that in such circumstances an alarm,

imprudently given, might be fatal to his credit, and the wise Constance sacrificed her own anxiety to her

husband's commercial reputation: she waited silently through the night, mingling her prayers and terrors. Was

Cesar dead? Had he left Paris on the scent of some last hope? The next morning she behaved as though she

knew the reasons for his absence; but at five o'clock in the afternoon when Cesar had not returned, she sent

for her uncle and begged him to go at once to the Morgue. During the whole of that day the courageous

creature sat behind her counter, her daughter embroidering beside her. When Pillerault returned, Cesar was

with him; on his way back the old man had met him in the PalaisRoyal, hesitating before the entrance to a

This was the 14th. At dinner Cesar could not eat. His stomach, violently contracted, rejected food. The

evening hours were terrible. The shaken man went through, for the hundredth time, one of those frightful

alternations of hope and despair which, by forcing the soul to run up the scale of joyous emotion and then

precipitating it to the last depths of agony, exhaust the vital strength of feeble beings. Derville, Birotteau's

advocate, rushed into the handsome salon where Madame Cesar was using all her persuasion to retain her

husband, who wished to sleep on the fifth floor,"that I may not see," he said, "these monuments of my

At these words Cesar's drawn face relaxed; but his joy alarmed Derville and Pillerault. The women left the

"It would be imprudent," said Derville; "they have appealed; the court might reverse the judgment; but in a

Cesar fell into a sort of slumber, from which no one tried to rouse him,a species of catalepsy, in which the

body lived and suffered while the functions of the mind were in abeyance. This respite, bestowed by chance,

was looked upon by Constance, Cesarine, Pillerault, and Derville as a blessing from God. And they judged

rightly: Cesar was thus enabled to bear the harrowing emotions of that night. He was sitting in a corner of the

sofa near the fire; his wife was in the other corner watching him attentively, with a soft smile upon her

lips,the smile which proves that women are nearer than men to angelic nature, in that they know how to

mingle an infinite tenderness with an allembracing compassion; a secret belonging only to angels seen in

dreams providentially strewn at long intervals through the history of human life. Cesarine, sitting on a little

stool at her mother's feet, touched her father's hand lightly with her hair from time to time, as she gave him a

caress into which she strove to put the thoughts which, in such crises, the voice seems to render intrusive.

Seated in his armchair, like the Chancelier de l'Hopital on the peristyle of the Chamber of Deputies,

Pilleraulta philosopher prepared for all events, and showing upon his countenance the wisdom of an

Egyptian sphinxwas talking to Derville and his niece in a suppressed voice. Constance thought it best to

consult the lawyer, whose discretion was beyond a doubt. With the balancesheet written in her head, she

explained the whole situation in low tones. After an hour's conference, held in presence of the stupefied

"Madame," he said, with the horrible coolness of his profession, "you must give in your schedule and make

an assignment. Even supposing that by some contrivance you could meet the payments for tomorrow, you

would have to pay down at least three hundred thousand francs before you could borrow on those lands. Your

liabilities are five hundred thousand. To meet them you have assets that are very promising, very productive,

but not convertible at present; you must fail within a given time. My opinion is that it is better to jump out of

"Poor father!" said Cesarine, who rose softly to lay a kiss on Cesar's head. "Then Anselme could do

"UNGRATEFUL!" cried Cesar, struck by the name of Anselme in the only living part of his memory,as

From the moment when that word "Ungrateful" was flung at him like an anathema, little Popinot had not had

an hour's sleep nor an instant's peace of mind. The unhappy lad cursed his uncle, and finally went to see him.

To get the better of that experienced judicial wisdom he poured forth the eloquence of love, hoping it might

seduce a being from whose mind human speech slips like water from a duck's back,a judge!

"From a commercial point of view," he said, "custom does allow the managingpartner to advance a certain

sum to the sleepingpartner on the profits of the business, and we are certain to make profits. After close

examination of my affairs I do feel strong enough to pay forty thousand francs in three months. The known

integrity of Monsieur Cesar is a guarantee that he will use that forty thousand to pay off his debts. Thus the

creditors, if there should come a failure, can lay no blame on us. Besides, uncle, I would rather lose forty

thousand francs than lose Cesarine. At this very moment while I am speaking, she has doubtless been told of

my refusal, and will cease to esteem me. I vowed my blood to my benefactor! I am like a young sailor who

"Good heart and bad merchant, you will never lose my esteem," said the judge, pressing the hand of his

nephew. "I have thought a great deal of this," he added. "I know you love Cesarine devotedly, and I think you

"Advance Birotteau fifty thousand on his share in your oil, which has now become a species of property,

Anselme embraced his uncle and rushed home, made notes to the amount of fifty thousand francs, and ran

from the Rue des CinqDiamants to the Place Vendome, so that just as Cesarine, her mother, and Pillerault

were gazing at Cesar, amazed at the sepulchural tone in which he had uttered the word "Ungrateful!" the door

"My dear and beloved master!" he cried, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, "here is what you asked

of me!" He held out the notes. "Yes, I have carefully examined my situation; you need have no fear, I shall be

"I was sure of him!" cried Cesarine, seizing Popinot's hand, and pressing it with convulsive force.

Madame Cesar embraced him; Birotteau rose up like the righteous at the sound of the last trumpet, and

issued, as it were, from the tomb. Then he stretched out a frenzied hand to seize the fifty stamped papers.

"Stop!" said the terrible uncle, Pillerault, snatching the papers from Popinot, "one moment!"

The four individuals present,Cesar, his wife, Cesarine, and Popinot, bewildered by the action of the old

man and by the tone of his voice, saw him tear the papers and fling them in the fire, without attempting to

Four voices and but one heart; a startling unanimity! Uncle Pillerault passed his arm round Popinot's neck,

"You are worthy of the love of those who have hearts," he said. "If you loved a daughter of mine, had she a

million and you had nothing but that [pointing to the black ashes of the notes], you should marry her in a

fortnight, if she loved you. Your master," he said, pointing to Cesar, "is beside himself. My nephew,"

resumed Pillerault, gravely, addressing the poor man,"my nephew, away with illusions! We must do

business with francs, not feelings. All this is noble, but useless. I spent two hours at the Bourse this afternoon.

You have not one farthing's credit; every one is talking of your disaster, of your attempts to renew, of your

appeals to various bankers, of their refusals, of your follies,going up six flights of stairs to beg a gossiping

landlord, who chatters like a magpie, to renew a note of twelve hundred francs!your ball, given to conceal

your embarrassments. They have gone so far as to say you had no property in Roguin's hands; according to

your enemies, Roguin is only a blind. A friend of mine, whom I sent about to learn what is going on,

confirms what I tell you. Every one foresees that Popinot will issue notes, and believes that you set him up in

business expressly as a last resource. In short, every calumny or slander which a man brings upon himself

when he tries to mount a rung of the social ladder, is going the rounds among business men today. You

might hawk about those notes of Popinot in vain; you would meet humiliating refusals; no one would take

them; no one could be sure how many such notes you are issuing; every one expects you to sacrifice the poor

lad to your own safety. You would destroy to no purpose the credit of the house of Popinot. Do you know

how much the boldest moneylender would give you for those fifty thousand francs? Twenty thousand at the

most; twenty thousand, do you hear me? There are crises in business when we must stand up three days

before the world without eating, as if we had indigestion, and on the fourth day we may be admitted to the

larder of credit. You cannot live through those three days; and the whole matter lies there. My poor nephew,

take courage! file your schedule, make an assignment. Here is Popinot, here am I; we will go to work as soon

"Cesar, would you choose a shameful failure, in which there are no assets? Your share in the house of

Cesar, awakened by this last and fatal stream of light, saw at length the frightful truth in its full extent; he fell

back upon the sofa, from thence to his knees, and his mind seemed to wander; he became like a little child.

His wife thought he was dying. She knelt down to raise him, but joined her voice to his when she saw him

clasp his hands and lift his eyes, and recite, with resigned contrition, in the hearing of his uncle, his daughter,

"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it

is in heaven; GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD; and forgive us our offences, as we forgive those

Tears came into the eyes of the stoic Pillerault; Cesarine, overcome and weeping, leaned her head upon

It was halfpast eleven when they left Cesar to the care of his wife and daughter. Just at that moment

Celestin, the headclerk, to whom the management of the house had been left during this secret tumult, came

up to the appartement and entered the salon. Hearing his step, Cesarine ran to meet him, that he might not see

"Among the letters this evening there was one from Tours, which was misdirected and therefore delayed. I

"Ah, I am saved!" cried Cesar. "My brother! oh, my brother!" He kissed the letter, as he broke the seal, and

My beloved Brother,Your letter gave me the deepest pain. As soon as I had read it, I went at once and

offered to God the holy sacrifice of the Mass, imploring Him by the blood which His Son, our divine

Redeemer, shed for us, to look with mercy upon your afflictions. At the moment when I offered the prayer

Pro meo fratre Caesare, my eyes were filled with tears as I thought of you,from whom, unfortunately, I

am separated in these days when you must sorely need the support of fraternal friendship. I have thought that

the worthy and venerable Monsieur Pillerault would doubtless replace me. My dear Cesar, never forget, in the

midst of your troubles, that this life is a scene of trial, and is passing away; that one day we shall be rewarded

for having suffered for the holy name of God, for His holy Church, for having followed the teachings of His

Gospel and practised virtue. If it were otherwise, this world would have no meaning. I repeat to you these

maxims, though I know how good and pious you are, because it may happen that those who, like you, are

flung into the storms of life upon the perilous waves of human interests might be tempted to utter

blasphemies in the midst of their adversity,carried away as they are by anguish. Curse neither the men who

injure you nor the God who mingles, at His will, your joy with bitterness. Look not on life, but lift your eyes

to heaven; there is comfort for the weak, there are riches for the poor, there are terrors for the

"We will read it over and over hereafter," said Cesar, wiping his eyes and turning over the page,letting fall,

as he did so, a Treasury note. "I was sure of him, poor brother!" said Birotteau, picking up the note and

I went to Madame de Listomere, and without telling her the reason of my request I asked her to lend me all

she could dispose of, so as to swell the amount of my savings. Her generosity has enabled me to make up a

thousand francs; which I send herewith, in a note of the ReceiverGeneral of Tours on the Treasury.

By retrenching a few superfluities in my life, I can return the four hundred francs Madame de Listomere has

lent me in three years; so do not make yourself uneasy about them, my dear Cesar. I send you all I have in the

world; hoping that this sum may help you to a happy conclusion of your financial difficulties, which

doubtless are only momentary. I well know your delicacy, and I wish to forestall your objections. Do not

dream of paying me any interest for this money, nor of paying it back at all in the day of prosperity which ere

long will dawn for you if God deigns to hear the prayers I offer to Him daily. After I received your last letter,

two years ago, I thought you so rich that I felt at liberty to spend my savings upon the poor; but now, all that I

have is yours. When you have overcome this little commercial difficulty, keep the sum I now send for my

niece Cesarine; so that when she marries she may buy some trifle to remind her of her old uncle, who daily

lifts his hands to heaven to implore the blessing of God upon her and all who are dear to her. And also, my

dear Cesar, recollect I am a poor priest who dwells, by the grace of God, like the larks in the meadow, in

quiet places, trying to obey the commandment of our divine Saviour, and who consequently needs but little

money. Therefore, do not have the least scruple in the trying circumstances in which you find yourself; and

Our excellent Abbe Chapeloud, to whom I have not revealed your situation, desires me to convey his friendly

regards to every member of your family, and his wishes for the continuance of your prosperity. Adieu, dear

and wellbeloved brother; I pray that at this painful juncture God will be pleased to preserve your health, and

also that of your wife and daughter. I wish you, one and all, patience and courage under your afflictions.

Francois Birotteau, Priest, Vicar of the Cathedral and Parochial Church of SaintGatien de Tours.

"Put them away," said Cesar gravely; "they are all he had. Besides, they belong to our daughter, and will

"My God! my God!" cried Birotteau. "I once thought thus of poor, unhappy people who were doubtless as I

Terribly anxious about Cesar's state, mother and daughter sat plying their needles by his side, in profound

silence. At two in the morning Popinot gently opened the door of the salon and made a sign to Madame Cesar

"My child, there is hope," he said; "all is not lost. But your husband could not bear the uncertainty of the

negotiations which Anselme and I are about to undertake. Don't leave your shop tomorrow, and take the

addresses of all the bills; we have till four o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th. Here is my plan: Neither

Ragon nor I am to be considered. Suppose that your hundred thousand francs deposited with Roguin had been

remitted to the purchasers, you would not have them then any more than you have them now. The hundred

and forty thousand francs for which notes were given to Claparon, and which must be paid in any state of the

case, are what you have to meet. Therefore it is not Roguin's bankruptcy which as ruined you. I find, to meet

your obligations, forty thousand francs which you can, sooner or later, borrow on your property in the

Faubourg du Temple, and sixty thousand for your share in the house of Popinot. Thus you can make a

struggle, for later you may borrow on the lands about the Madeleine. If your chief creditor agrees to help you,

I shall not consider my interests; I shall sell out my Funds and live on dry bread; Popinot will get along

between life and death, and as for you, you will be at the mercy of the smallest commercial mischance; but

Cephalic Oil will undoubtedly make great returns. Popinot and I have consulted together; we will stand by

you in this struggle. Ah! I shall eat my dry bread gaily if I see daylight breaking on the horizon. But

everything depends on Gigonnet, who holds the notes, and the associates of Claparon. Popinot and I are

going to see Gigonnet between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, and then we shall know what their

Constance, wholly overcome, threw herself into her uncle's arms, voiceless except through tears and sobs.

Neither Popinot nor Pillerault knew or could know that Bidault, called Gigonnet, and Claparon were du Tillet

under two shapes; and that du Tillet was resolved to read in the "Journal des Petites Affiches" this terrible

"Judgment of the Court of Commerce, which declares the Sieur Cesar Birotteau, merchantperfumer, living

in Paris, Rue SaintHonore, no. 397, insolvent, and appoints the preliminary examination on the 17th of

January, 1819. Commissioner, Monsieur Gobenheim Keller. Agent, Monsieur Molineux."

Anselme and Pillerault examined Cesar's affairs until daylight. At eight o'clock in the morning the two brave

friends,one an old soldier, the other a young recruit, who had never known, except by hearsay, the terrible

anguish of those who commonly went up the staircase of Bidault called Gigonnet,wended their way,

without a word to each other, towards the Rue Grenetat. Both were suffering; from time to time Pillerault

The Rue Grenetat is a street where all the houses, crowded with trades of every kind, have a repulsive aspect.

The buildings are horrible. The vile uncleanliness of manufactories is their leading feature. Old Gigonnet

lived on the third floor of a house whose windowsashes, with small and very dirty panes, swung by the

middle, on pivots. The staircase opened directly upon the street. The porter's lodge was on the entresol, in a

space which was lighted only from the staircase. All the lodgers, with the exception of Gigonnet, worked at

trades. Workmen were continually coming and going. The stairs were caked with a layer of mud, hard or soft

according to the state of the atmosphere, and were covered with filth. Each landing of this noisome stairway

bore the names of the occupants in gilt letters on a metal plate, painted red and varnished, to which were

attached specimens of their craft. As a rule, the doors stood open and gave to view queer combinations of the

domestic household and the manufacturing operations. Strange cries and grunts issued therefrom, with songs

and whistles and hisses that recalled the hour of four o'clock in the Jardin des Plantes. On the first floor, in an

evilsmelling lair, the handsomest braces to be found in the articleParis were made. On the second floor,

the elegant boxes which adorn the shopwindows of the boulevards and the PalaisRoyal at the beginning of

the new year were manufactured, in the midst of the vilest filth. Gigonnet eventually died, worth eighteen

hundred thousand francs, on a third floor of this house, from which no consideration could move him; though

his niece, Madame Saillard, offered to give him an appartement in a hotel in the Place Royalle.

"Courage!" said Pillerault, as he pulled the deer's hoof hanging from the bellrope of Gigonnet's clean gray

Gigonnet opened the door himself. Cesar's two supporters, entering the precincts of bankruptcy, crossed the

first room, which was clean and chilly and without curtains to its windows. All three sat down in the inner

room where the moneylender lived, before a hearth full of ashes, in the midst of which the wood was

successfully defending itself against the fire. Popinot's courage froze at sight of the usurer's green boxes and

the monastic austerity of the room, whose atmosphere was like that of a cellar. He looked with a wondering

eye at the miserable blueish paper sprinkled with tricolor flowers, which had been on the walls for

twentyfive years; and then his anxious glance fell upon the chimneypiece, ornamented with a clock shaped

like a lyre, and two oval vases in Sevres blue richly mounted in coppergilt. This relic, picked up by

Gigonnet after the pillage of Versailles, where the populace broke nearly everything, came from the queen's

boudoir; but these rare vases were flanked by two candelabra of abject shape made of wroughtiron, and the

barbarous contrast recalled the circumstances under which the vases had been acquired.

"I know that you have not come on your own account," said Gigonnet, "but on behalf of the great Birotteau.

"We can tell you nothing that you do not already know; so I will be brief," said Pillerault. "You have notes to

"Will you exchange the first fifty thousand of those notes against the notes of Monsieur Popinot, here

Gigonnet took off the terrible green cap which seemed to have been born on him, pointed to his skull,

denuded of hair and of the color of fresh butter, made his usual Voltairean grimace, and said: "You wish to

"If you choose to jest, there is nothing to be done but to beat a retreat," said Pillerault.

"You speak like the wise man that you are," answered Gigonnet, with a flattering smile.

"Well, suppose I endorse Monsieur Popinot's notes?" said Pillerault, playing his last card.

"You are gold by the ingot, Monsieur Pillerault; but I don't want bars of gold, I want my money."

Pillerault and Popinot bowed and went away. Going down the stairs, Popinot's knees shook under him.

"They say so," replied the other. "My boy, always bear in mind this short interview. Anselme, you have just

seen the bankingbusiness unmasked, without its cloak of courtesy. Unexpected events are the screw of the

press, we are the grapes, the bankers are the casks. That land speculation is no doubt a good one; Gigonnet, or

some one behind him, means to strangle Cesar and step into his skin. It is all over; there's no remedy. But

After this horrible morning, during which Madame Birotteau for the first time sent away those who came for

their money, taking their addresses, the courageous woman, happy in the thought that she was thus sparing

her husband from distress, saw Popinot and Pillerault, for whom she waited with evergrowing anxiety,

return at eleven o'clock, and read her sentence in their faces. The assignment was inevitable.

"I could almost wish he might," said Pillerault, solemnly; "but he is so religious that, as things are now, his

Pillerault, Popinot, and Constance waited while a clerk was sent to bring the Abbe Loraux, before they

carried up to Cesar the schedule which Celestin had prepared, and asked him to affix his signature. The clerks

were in despair, for they loved their master. At four o'clock the good priest came; Constance explained the

misfortune that had fallen upon them, and the abbe went upstairs as a soldier mounts the breach.

"My son," said the priest, "your feelings of resignation to the Divine will have long been known to me; it now

remains to apply them. Keep your eyes upon the cross; never cease to behold it, and think upon the

humiliations heaped upon the Saviour of men. Meditate upon the agonies of his passion, and you will be able

"My brother, the abbe, has already prepared me," said Cesar, showing the letter, which he had reread and

"You have a good brother," said Monsieur Loraux, "a virtuous and gentle wife, a tender daughter, two good

friends,your uncle and our dear Anselme,two indulgent creditors, the Ragons: all these kind hearts will

pour balm upon your wounds daily, and will help you to bear your cross. Promise me to have the firmness of

"My resignation is unbounded," said Cesar, calmly. "Dishonor has come; I must now think only of

The firm voice of the poor man and his whole manner surprised Cesarine and the priest. Yet nothing could be

more natural. All men can better bear a known and definite misfortune than the cruel uncertainties of a fate

"I have dreamed a dream for twentytwo years; today I awake with my cudgel in my hand," said Cesar, his

Pillerault pressed his nephew in his arms as he heard the words. Birotteau saw that his wife, Anselme, and

Celestin were present. The papers which the headclerk held in his hand were significant. Cesar calmly

"Stay!" he said, unfastening his cross, which he held out to the Abbe Loraux; "give it back to me on the day

when I can wear it without shame. Celestin," he added, "write my resignation as deputymayor, Monsieur

l'abbe will dictate the letter to you; date it the 14th, and send it at once to Monsieur de la Billardiere by

Celestin and the abbe went down stairs. For a quarter of an hour silence reigned unbroken in Cesar's study.

Such strength of mind surprised the family. Celestin and the abbe came back, and Cesar signed his

resignation. When his uncle Pillerault presented the schedule and the papers of his assignment, the poor man

"My God, have pity upon me!" he said, signing the dreadful paper, and holding it out to Celestin.

"Monsieur," said Anselme Popinot, over whose dejected brow a luminous light flashed suddenly, "madame,

At these words tears came into the eyes of all present except Cesar; he rose, took Anselme by the hand and

said, in a hollow voice, "My son, you shall never marry the daughter of a bankrupt."

Anselme looked fixedly at Birotteau and said: "Monsieur, will you pledge yourself, here, in presence of your

whole family, to consent to our marriage, if mademoiselle will accept me as her husband, on the day when

There was an instant's silence, during which all present were affected by the emotions painted on the worn

Anselme made a gesture of unspeakable joy, as he took the hand which Cesarine held out to him, and kissed

"Now that I am one of the family, I have the right to concern myself in its affairs," he said, with a strange,

He left the room precipitately, that he might not show a joy which contrasted too cruelly with the sorrow of

his master. Anselme was not actually happy at the failure, but love is such an egoist! Even Cesarine felt

"Now that we have got so far," whispered Pillerault to Constance, "shall we strike the last blow?"

"That would not be my judgment," said Pillerault. "Take my advice, wind up everything, make over your

whole assets to your creditors, and keep out of business. I have often imagined how it would be if I were in a

situation such as yoursAh, one has to foresee everything in business! a merchant who does not think of

failure is like a general who counts on never being defeated; he is only half a merchant. I, in your position,

would never have continued in business. What! be forced to blush before the men I had injured, to bear their

suspicious looks and tacit reproaches? I can conceive of the guillotinea moment, and all is over. But to

have the head replaced, and daily cut off anew, that is agony I could not have borne. Many men take up

their business as if nothing had happened: so much the better for them; they are stronger than ClaudeJoseph

Pillerault. If you pay in cash, and you are obliged to do so, they say that you have kept back part of your

assets; if you are without a penny, it is useless to attempt to recover yourself. No, give up your property, sell

"Well," said Pillerault, "look for a situation. You have influential friends,the Duc and the Duchesse de

Lenoncourt, Madame de Mortsauf, Monsieur de Vandenesse. Write to them, go and see them; they might get

you a situation in the royal household which would give you a thousand crowns or so; your wife could earn

as much more, and perhaps your daughter also. The situation is not hopeless. You three might earn nearly ten

thousand francs a year. In ten years you can pay off a hundred thousand francs, for you shall not use a penny

of what you earn; your two women will have fifteen hundred francs a year from me for their expenses, and,

Constance and Cesar laid these wise words to heart. Pillerault left them to go to the Bourse, which in those

days was held in a provisional wooden building of a circular shape, and was entered from the Rue Faydeau.

The failure, already known, of a man lately noted and envied, excited general comment in the upper

commercial circles, which at that period were all "constitutionnel." The gentry of the Opposition claimed a

monopoly of patriotism. Royalists might love the king, but to love your country was the exclusive privilege

of the Left; the people belonged to it. The downfall of the protege of the palace, of a ministeralist, an

incorrigible royalist who on the 13th Vendemiaire had insulted the cause of liberty by fighting against the

glorious French Revolution,such a downfall excited the applause and tittletattle of the Bourse. Pillerault

wished to learn and study the state of public opinion. He found in one of the most animated groups du Tillet,

GobenheimKeller, Nucingen, old Guillaume, and his sonin law Joseph Lebas, Claparon, Gigonnet,

Mongenod, Camusot, Gobseck, Adolphe Keller, Palma, Chiffreville, Matifat, Grindot, and Lourdois.

"What caution one needs to have!" said Gobenheim to du Tillet. "It was a mere chance that one of my

"I am in for ten thousand francs," said du Tillet; "he asked me for them two weeks ago, and I let him have

them on his own note without security. But he formerly did me some service, and I am willing to lose the

"Your nephew has done like all the rest," said Lourdois to Pillerault, "given balls and parties! That a

scoundrel should try to throw dust in people's eyes, I can understand; but it is amazing that a man who passed

for as honest as the day should play those wornout, knavish tricks which we are always finding out and

"Hey! mein freint," said the fat Nucingen to du Tillet, "you haf joust missed blaying me a bretty drick in

zenting Pirodot to me. I don't know," he added, addressing Gobenheim the manufacturer, "vy he tid not ask

"Oh, no, Monsieur le baron," said Joseph Lebas, "you knew very well that the Bank had refused his paper;

you made them reject it in the committee on discounts. The affair of this unfortunate man, for whom I still

"Yes," said Mongenod, "it seems impossible to believe what has happened, unless we believe that concealed

behind Gigonnet there are certain bankers who want to strangle the speculation in the lands about the

"What has happened is what happens always to those who go out of their proper business," said Claparon,

hastily interrupting Mongenod. "If he had set up his own Cephalic Oil instead of running up the price of all

the land in Paris by pouncing upon it, he might have lost his hundred thousand francs with Roguin, but he

Roguin, in the parlance of such worthy merchants, was now the "unfortunate Roguin." Cesar had become

"that wretched Birotteau." The one seemed to them excused by his great passion; the other they considered all

Gigonnet, after leaving the Bourse, went round by the Rue Perrin Gasselin on his way home, in search of

"Soso," said Madame Madou, respectfully, offering her only armchair to the usurer, with a show of attention

Mother Madou, who would have floored a recalcitrant or toofamiliar wagoner and gone fearlessly to the

assault of the Tuileries on the 10th of October, who jeered her best customers and was capable of speaking up

to the king in the name of her associate marketwomen, Angelique Madou received Gigonnet with abject

respect. Without strength in his presence, she shuddered under his rasping glance. The lower classes will long

tremble at sight of the executioner, and Gigonnet was the executioner of petty commerce. In the markets no

power on earth is so respected as that of the man who controls the flow of money; all other human institutions

are as nothing beside him. Justice herself takes the form of a commissioner, a familiar personage in the eyes

of the market; but usury seated behind its green boxes, usury, entreated with fear tugging at the

heartstrings, dries up all jesting, parches the throat, lowers the proudest look, and makes the commonest

"A trifle, a mere nothing. Hold yourself ready to make good those notes of Birotteau; the man has failed, and

Madame Madou's eyes contracted like those of a cat for a second, and then shot out flames.

"Ah, the villain! Ah, the scoundrel! He came and told me himself he was a deputymayor,a trumpedup

story! Reprobate! is that what he calls business? There is no honor among mayors; the government deceives

"Hey! at such times everybody looks out for himself, my dear!" said Gigonnet, lifting his leg with the quaint

little action of a cat fearing to cross a wet place,a habit to which he owed his nickname. "There are some

"Yes, and I'll pull my nuts out of the fire, too! MarieJeanne, bring my clogs and my rabbitskin cloak; and

"There'll be warm work down there!" thought Gigonnet, rubbing his hands as he walked away. "Du Tillet will

be satisfied; it will make a fine scandal all through the quarter. I don't know what that poor devil of a

perfumer has done to him; for my part I pity the fellow as I do a dog with a broken leg. He isn't a man, he has

Madame Madou bore down, like an insurrectionary wave from the Faubourg SaintAntoine, upon the

shopdoor of the hapless Birotteau, which she opened with excessive violence, for her walk had increased

"Heap of vermin! I want my money; I will have my money! You shall give me my money, or I carry off your

scentbags, and that satin trumpery, and the fans, and everything you've got here, for my two thousand

francs. Who ever heard of mayors robbing the people? If you don't pay me I'll send you to the galleys; I'll go

to the police,justice shall be done! I won't leave this place till I've got my money."

She made a gesture as if to break the glass before the shelves on which the valuables were placed.

The virago overheard him,for in paroxysms of passion the organs are either paralyzed or trebly

acute,and she forthwith applied to Celestin's ear the most vigorous blow that ever resounded in a Parisian

"Learn to respect women, my angel," she said, "and don't smirch the names of the people you rob."

"Madame," said Madame Birotteau, entering from the backshop, where she happened to be with her

husband,whom Pillerault was persuading to go with him, while Cesar, to obey the law, was humbly

expressing his willingness to go to prison,"madame, for heaven's sake do not raise a mob, and bring a

"Hey! let them come," said the woman; "I'll tell them a tale that will make you laugh the wrong side of your

mouth. Yes, my nuts and my francs, picked up by the sweat of my brow, helped you to give balls. There you

are, dressed like the queen of France in woollen which you sheared off the backs of poor sheep such as me!

Good God! it would burn my shoulders, that it would, to wear stolen goods! I've got nothing but rabbitskin

"Put that down, madame!" said Cesar, coming forward, "nothing here is mine; everything belongs to my

creditors. I own nothing but my own person; if you wish to seize that and put me in prison, I give you my

word of honor"the tears fell from his eyes"that I will wait here till you have me arrested."

The tone and gesture were so completely in keeping with his words that Madame Madou's anger subsided.

"My property has been carried off by a notary; I am innocent of the disasters I cause," continued Cesar, "but

you shall be paid in course of time if I have to die in the effort, and work like a galleyslave as a porter in the

"Come, you are a good man," said the marketwoman. "Excuse my words, madame; but I may as well go and

drown myself, for Gigonnet will hound me down. I can't get any money for ten months to redeem those

"Come and see me tomorrow morning," said Pillerault, showing himself. "I will get you the money from

"Hey! if it isn't the worthy Pere Pillerault! Why, to be sure, he's your uncle," she said to Constance. "Well,

you are all honest people, and I sha'n't lose my money, shall I? Tomorrow morning, then, old fellow!" she

Cesar was determined to live on amid the wreck of his fortunes at "The Queen of Roses," insisting that he

would see his creditors and explain his affairs to them himself. Despite Madame Birotteau's earnest

entreaties, Pillerault seemed to approve of Cesar's decision and took him back to his own room. The wily old

man then went to Monsieur Haudry, explained the case, and obtained from him a prescription for a sleeping

draught, which he took to be made up, and then returned to spend the evening with the family. Aided by

Cesarine he induced her father to drink with them. The narcotic soon put Cesar to sleep, and when he woke

up, fourteen hours later, he was in Pillerault's bedroom, Rue des Bourdonnais, fairly imprisoned by the old

When Constance heard the coach containing Pillerault and Cesar roll away from the door, her courage

deserted her. Our powers are often stimulated by the necessity of upholding some being feebler than

ourselves. The poor woman wept to find herself alone in her home as she would have wept for Cesar dead.

"Mamma," said Cesarine, sitting on her mother's knee, and caressing her with the pretty kittenish grace which

women only display to perfection amongst themselves, "you said that if I took up my life bravely, you would

have strength to bear adversity. Don't cry, dear mother; I am ready and willing to go into some shop, and I

shall never think again of what we once were. I shall be like you in your young days; and you shall never hear

a complaint, nor even a regret, from me. I have a hope. Did you not hear what Monsieur Anselme said?"

"Sorry has one good," said Cesarine, kissing her mother; "it teaches us to know our true friends."

The daughter at last eased the pain of the poor woman by changing places and playing the mother to her. The

next morning Constance went to the house of the Duc de Lenoncourt, one of the gentlemen of the king's

bedchamber, and left a letter asking for an interview at a later hour of the day. In the interval she went to

Monsieur de la Billardiere, and explained to him the situation in which Roguin's flight had placed Cesar,

begging him to go with her to the duke and speak for her, as she feared she might explain matters ill herself.

She wanted a place for Birotteau. Birotteau, she said, would be the most upright of cashiers,if there could

"The King has just appointed the Comte de Fontaine master of his household; there is no time to be lost in

At two o'clock Monsieur de la Billardiere and Madame Cesar went up the grand staircase of the Hotel de

Lenoncourt, Rue SaintDominique, and were ushered into the presence of the nobleman whom the king

preferred to all others,if it can be said that Louis XVIII. ever had a preference. The gracious welcome of

this great lord, who belonged to the small number of true gentlemen whom the preceding century bequeathed

to ours, encouraged Madame Cesar. She was dignified, yet simple, in her sorrow. Grief ennobles even the

plainest people; for it has a grandeur of its own; to reflect its lustre, a nature must needs be true. Constance

The question was, how to speak to the king at once. In the midst of the conference Monsieur de Vandenesse

Madame Birotteau was not unknown to this young man, who had been to her shop two or three times in

search of those trifles which are sometimes of more importance than greater things. The duke explained

Monsieur de la Billardiere's wishes. As soon as he learned the misfortune which had overtaken the godson of

the Marquise d'Uxelles, Vandenesse went at once, accompanied by Monsieur de la Billardiere, to the Comte

de Fontaine, begging Madame Birotteau to wait their return. Monsieur le Comte de Fontaine was, like

Monsieur de la Billardiere, one of those fine provincial gentlemen, the heroes, almost unknown, who made

"la Vendee." Birotteau was not a stranger to him, for he had seen him in the old days at "The Queen of

Roses." Men who had shed their blood for the royal cause enjoyed at this time certain privileges, which the

Monsieur de Fontaine, always a favorite with Louis XVIII., was thought to be wholly in his confidence. Not

only did the count positively promise a place, but he returned with the two gentlemen to the Duc de

Lenoncourt, and asked him to procure for him an audience that very evening; and also to obtain for

Billardiere an audience with MONSIEUR, who was greatly attached to the old Vendeen diplomatist.

The same evening, the Comte de Fontaine came from the Tuileries to "The Queen of Roses," and announced

to Madame Birotteau that as soon as the proceedings in bankruptcy were over, her husband would be

officially appointed to a situation in the Sinkingfund Office, with a salary of two thousand five hundred

francs,all the functions in the household of the king being overcrowded with noble supernumeraries to

This success was but one part of the task before Madame Birotteau. The poor woman now went to the

"Maison du Chatquipelote," in the Rue SaintDenis, to find Joseph Lebas. As she walked along she met

Madame Roguin in a brilliant equipage, apparently making purchases. Their eyes met; and the shame which

the rich woman could not hide as she looked at the ruined woman, gave Constance fresh courage.

"Never will I roll in a carriage bought with the money of others," she said to herself.

Joseph Lebas received her kindly, and she begged him to obtain a place for Cesarine in some respectable

commercial establishment. Lebas made no promises; but eight days later Cesarine had board, lodging, and a

salary of three thousand francs from one of the largest linendrapers in Paris, who was about to open a

branch establishment in the quartier des Italiens. Cesarine was put in charge of the desk, and the

superintendence of the new shop was entrusted to her; she filled, in fact, a position above that of forewoman,

Madame Cesar went from the "Chatquipelote" to the Rue des Cinq Diamants, and asked Popinot to let

her take charge of his accounts and do his writing, and also manage his household. Popinot felt that his was

the only house where Cesar's wife could meet with the respect that was due to her, and find employment

without humiliation. The noble lad gave her three thousand francs a year, her board, and his own room; going

himself into an attic occupied by one of his clerks. Thus it happened that the beautiful woman, after one

month's enjoyment of her sumptuous home, came to live in the wretched chamber looking into a damp, dark

When Molineux, appointed agent by the Court of Commerce, came to take possession of Cesar Birotteau's

assets, Madame Birotteau, aided by Celestin, went over the inventory with him. Then the mother and

daughter, plainly dressed, left the house on foot and went to their uncle Pillerault's, without once turning their

heads to look at the home where they had passed the greater part of their lives. They walked in silence to the

Rue des Bourdonnais, where they were to dine with Cesar for the first time since their separation. It was a sad

dinner. Each had had time for reflection,time to weigh the duties before them, and sound the depths of

their courage. All three were like sailors ready to face foul weather, but not deceived as to their danger.

Birotteau gathered courage as he was told of the interest people in high places had taken in finding

employment for him, but he wept when he heard what his daughter was to become. Then he held out his hand

to his wife, as he saw the courage with which she had returned to labor. Old Pillerault's eyes were wet, for the

last time in his life, as he looked at these three beings folded together in one embrace; from the centre of

which Birotteau, feeblest of the three and the most stricken, raised his hands, saying:

"You shall live with me," said Pillerault, "for the sake of economy; you shall have my chamber, and share my

bread. I have long been lonely; you shall replace the poor child I lost. From my house it is but a step to your

"God of mercy!" exclaimed Birotteau; "in the worst of a storm a star guides me."

Resignation is the last stage of man's misfortune. From this moment Cesar's downfall was accomplished; he

After admitting his insolvency and filing his schedule, a merchant should find some retired spot in France, or

in foreign countries, where he may live without taking part in life, like the child that he is; for the law

declares him a minor, and not competent for any legal action as a citizen. This, however, is never done.

Before reappearing he obtains a safeconduct, which neither judge nor creditor ever refuses to give; for if the

debtor were found without this exeat he would be put in prison, while with it he passes safely, as with a flag

of truce, through the enemy's camp,not by way of curiosity, but for the purpose of defeating the severe

intention of the laws relating to bankruptcy. The effect of all laws which touch private interests is to develop,

enormously, the knavery of men's minds. The object of a bankrupt, like that of other persons whose interests

The status of civil death in which the bankrupt remains a chrysalis lasts for about three months,a period

required by formalities which precede a conference at which the creditors and their debtor sign a treaty of

peace, by which the bankrupt is allowed the ability to make payments, and receives a bankrupt's certificate.

This transaction is called the concordat,a word implying, perhaps, that peace reigns after the storm and

As soon as the insolvent's schedule is filed, the Court of commerce appoints a judgecommissioner, whose

duty it is to look after the interests of the still unknown body of creditors, and also to protect the insolvent

against the vexatious measures of angry creditors,a double office, which might be nobly magnified if the

judges had time to attend to it. The commissioner, however, delegates an agent to take possession of the

property, the securities, and the merchandise, and to verify the schedule; when this is done, the court appoints

a day for a meeting of the creditors, notice of which is trumpeted forth in the newspapers. The creditors, real

or pretended, are expected to be present and choose the provisional assignees, who are to supersede the agent,

step into the insolvent's shoes, became by a fiction of law the insolvent himself, and are authorized to

liquidate the business, negotiate all transactions, sell the property,in short, recast everything in the interest

of the creditors, provided the bankrupt makes no opposition. The majority of Parisian failures stop short at

The appointment of one or more permanent assignees is an act which gives opportunity for the bitterest action

on the part of creditors who are thirsting for vengeance, who have been tricked, baffled, cozened, trapped,

duped, robbed, and cheated. Although, as a general thing, all creditors are cheated, robbed, duped, trapped,

cozened, tricked, and baffled, yet there is not in all Paris a commercial passion able to keep itself alive for

ninety days. The paper of commerce alone maintains its vitality, and rises, athirst for payment, in three

months. Before ninety days are over, the creditors, worn out by coming and going, by the marches and

countermarches which a failure entails, are asleep at the side of their excellent little wives. This may help a

stranger to understand why it is that the provisional in France is so often the definitive: out of every thousand

provisional assignees, not more than five ever become permanent. The subsidence of passions stirred up by

But here it becomes necessary to explain to persons who have not had the happiness to be in business the

whole drama of bankruptcy, so as to make them understand how it constitutes in Paris a monstrous legal

farce; and also how the bankruptcy of Cesar Birotteau was a signal exception to the general rule.

This fine commercial drama is in three distinct acts,the agent's act, the assignee's act, the concordat, or

certificateofbankruptcy act. Like all theatrical performances, it is played with a double intent: it is put

upon the stage for the public eye, but it also has a hidden purpose; there is one performance for the pit, and

another for the sidescenes. Posted in the sidescenes are the bankrupt and his solicitor, the attorney of the

creditors, the assignees, the agent, and the judgecommissioner himself. No one out of Paris knows, and no

one in Paris does not know, that a judge of the commercial courts is the most extraordinary magistrate that

society ever allowed itself to create. This judge may live in dread of his own justice at any moment. Paris has

seen the president of her courts of commerce file his own schedule. Instead of being an experienced retired

merchant, to whom the magistracy might properly be made the reward of a pure life, this judge is a trader,

bending under the weight of enormous enterprises, and at the head of some large commercial house. The sine

qua non condition in the election of this functionary, whose business it is to pass judgment on the avalanche

of commercial suits incessantly rolling through the courts, is that he shall have the greatest difficulty in

managing his own affairs. This commercial tribunal, far from being made a useful means of transition

whereby a merchant might rise, without ridicule, into the ranks of the nobility, is in point of fact made up of

traders who are trading, and who are liable to suffer for their judgments when they next meet with dissatisfied

The commissioner is of necessity a personage before whom much is said; who listens, recollecting all the

while his own interests, and leaves the cause to the assignees and the attorneys,except, possibly, in a few

strange and unusual cases where dishonesty is accompanied by peculiar circumstances, when the judge

usually observes that the debtor, or the creditors, as it may happen, are clever people. This personage, set up

in the drama like the royal bust in a public audiencechamber, may be found early in the morning at his

woodyard, if he sells wood; in his shop, if, like Birotteau, he is a perfumer; or, in the evenings, at his dessert

after dinner,always, it should be added, in a terrible hurry; as a general thing he is silent. Let us, however,

do justice to the law: the legislation that governs his functions, and which was pushed through in haste, has

tied the hands of this commissioner; and it sometimes happens that he sanctions fraud which he cannot

The agent to whom the judge delegates the first proceedings, instead of serving the creditors, may become if

he please a tool of the debtor. Every one hopes to swell his own gains by getting on the right side of the

debtor, who is always supposed to keep back a hidden treasure. The agent may make himself useful to both

parties; on the one hand by not laying the bankrupt's business in ashes, on the other by snatching a few

morsels for men of influence,in short, he runs with the hare and holds with the hounds. A clever agent has

frequently arrested judgment by buying up the debts and then releasing the merchant, who then rebounds like

an indiarubber ball. The agent chooses the beststocked crib, whether it leads him to cover the largest

creditors and shear the debtor, or to sacrifice the creditors for the future prosperity of the restored merchant.

The action of the agent is decisive. This man, together with the bankrupt's solicitor, plays the utility role in

the drama, where it may be said neither the one nor the other would accept a part if not sure of their fees.

Taking the average of a thousand failures, an agent would be found nine hundred and fifty times on the side

of the bankrupt. At the period of our history, the solicitors frequently sought the judge with the request that

he would appoint an agent whom they proposed to him, a man, as they said, to whom the affairs of the

bankrupt were well known, who would know how to reconcile the interests of the whole body of creditors

with those of a man honorably overtaken by misfortune. For some years past the best judges have sought the

advice of the solicitors in this matter for the purpose of not taking it, endeavoring to appoint some other agent

During this act of the drama the creditors, real or pretended, come forward to select the provisional assignees,

who are often, as we have said, the final ones. In this electoral assembly all creditors have the right to vote,

whether the sum owing to them is fifty sous, or fifty thousand francs. This assembly, in which are found

pretended creditors introduced by the bankrupt,the only electors who never fail to come to the

meeting,proposes the whole body of creditors as candidates from among whom the commissioner, a

president without power, is supposed to select the assignees. Thus it happens that the judge almost always

appoints as assignees those creditors whom it suits the bankrupt to have,another abuse which makes the

catastrophe of bankruptcy one of the most burlesque dramas to which justice ever lent her name. The

honorable bankrupt overtaken by misfortune is then master of the situation, and proceeds to legalize the theft

he premeditated. As a rule, the petty trades of Paris are guiltless in this respect. When a shopkeeper gets as far

as making an assignment, the worthy man has usually sold his wife's shawl, pawned his plate, left no stone

unturned, and succumbs at last with empty hands, ruined, and without enough money to pay his attorney,

The law requires that the concordat, at which is granted the bankrupt's certificate that remits to the merchant

a portion of his debt, and restores to him the right of managing his affairs, shall be attended by a majority of

the creditors, and also that they shall represent a certain proportion of the debt. This important action brings

out much clever diplomacy, on the part of the bankrupt, his assignees, and his solicitor, among the

contending interests which cross and jostle each other. A usual and very common manoeuvre is to offer to

that section of the creditors who make up in number and amount the majority required by law certain

premiums, which the debtor consents to pay over and above the dividend publicly agreed upon. This

monstrous fraud is without remedy. The thirty commercial courts which up to the present time have followed

one after the other, have each known of it, for all have practised it. Enlightened by experience, they have

lately tried to render void such fraudulent agreements; and as the bankrupts have reason to complain of the

extortion, the judges had some hope of reforming to that extent the system of bankruptcy. The attempt,

however, will end in producing something still more immoral; for the creditors will devise other rascally

methods, which the judges will condemn as judges, but by which they will profit as merchants.

Another muchused stratagem, and one to which we owe the term "serious and legitimate creditor," is that of

creating creditors,just as du Tillet created a banker and a bankinghouse,and introducing a certain

quantity of Claparons under whose skin the bankrupt hides, diminishing by just so much the dividends of the

true creditors, and laying up for the honest man a store for the future; always, however, providing a sufficient

majority of votes and debts to secure the passage of his certificate. The "gay and illegitimate creditors" are

like false electors admitted into the electoral college. What chance has the "serious and legitimate creditor"

against the "gay and illegitimate creditor?" Shall he get rid of him by attacking him? How can he do it? To

drive out the intruder the legitimate creditor must sacrifice his time, his own business, and pay an attorney to

help him; while the said attorney, making little out of it, prefers to manage the bankruptcy in another

To dislodge the illegitimate creditor it is necessary to thread the labyrinth of proceedings in bankruptcy,

search among past events, ransack accounts, obtain by injunction the books of the false creditors, show the

improbability of the fiction of their existence, prove it to the judges, sue for justice, go and come, and stir up

sympathy; and, finally, to charge like Don Quixote upon each "gay and illegitimate creditor," who if

convicted of "gaiety" withdraws from court, saying with a bow to the judges, "Excuse me, you are mistaken, I

am very 'serious.'" All this without prejudice to the rights of the bankrupt, who may carry Don Quixote and

his remonstrance to the upper courts; during which time Don Quixote's own business is suffering, and he is

The upshot of all this is, that in point of fact the debtor appoints his assignees, audits his own accounts, and

Given these premises, it is easy to imagine the devices of Frontin, the trickeries of Sganarelle, the lies of

Mascarille, and the empty bags of Scapin which such a system develops. There has never been a failure

which did not generate enough matter to fill the fourteen volumes of "Clarissa Harlowe," if an author could

be found to describe them. A single example will suffice. The illustrious Gobseck,ruler of Palma,

Gigonnet, Werbrust, Keller, Nucingen, and the like,being concerned in a failure where he attempted to

roughly handle the insolvent, who had managed to get the better of him, obtained notes from his debtor for an

amount which together with the declared dividend made up the sum total of his loss. These notes were to fall

due after the concordat. Gobseck then brought about a settlement in the concordat by which sixtyfive per

cent was remitted to the bankrupt. Thus the creditors were swindled in the interests of Gobseck. But the

bankrupt had signed the illicit notes with the name of his insolvent firm, and he was therefore able to bring

them under the reduction of sixtyfive per cent. Gobseck, the great Gobseck, received scarcely fifty per cent

As all operations undertaken by an insolvent within ten days before his failure can be impeached, prudent

men are careful to enter upon certain affairs with a certain number of creditors whose interest, like that of the

bankrupt, is to arrive at the concordat as fast as possible. Skilful creditors will approach dull creditors or very

busy ones, give an ugly look into the failure, and buy up their claims at half what they are worth at the

liquidation; in this way they get back their money partly by the dividend on their own claims, partly from the

A failure is the closer, more or less hermetically tight, of a house where pillage has left a few remaining bags

of silver. Lucky the man who can get in at a window, slide down a chimney, creep in through a cellar or

through a hole, and seize a bag to swell his share! In the general rout, the sauve qui peut of Beresina is passed

from mouth to mouth; all is legal and illegal, false and true, honest and dishonest. A man is admired if he

"covers" himself. To "cover" himself means that he seizes securities to the detriment of the other creditors.

France has lately rung with the discussion of an immense failure that took place in a town where one of the

upper courts holds its sittings, and where the judges, having current accounts with the bankrupts, wore such

heavy indiarubber mantles that the mantle of justice was rubbed into holes. It was absolutely necessary, in

order to avert legitimate suspicion, to send the case for judgment in another court. There was neither judge

nor agent nor supreme court in the region where the failure took place that could be trusted.

This alarming commercial tangle is so well understood in Paris, that unless a merchant is involved to a large

amount he accepts a failure as total shipwreck without insurance, passes it to his profitandloss account, and

does not commit the folly of wasting time upon it; he contents himself with brewing his own malt. As to the

petty trader, worried about his monthly payments, busied in pushing the chariot of his little fortunes, a long

and costly legal process terrifies him. He gives up trying to see his way, imitates the substantial merchant,

The wholesale merchants seldom fail, nowadays; they make friendly liquidations; the creditors take what is

given to them, and hand in their receipts. In this way many things are avoided,dishonor, judicial delays,

fees to lawyers, and the depreciation of merchandise. All parties think that bankruptcy will give less in the

end than liquidation. There are now more liquidations than bankruptcies in Paris.

The assignee's act in the drama is intended to prove that every assignee is incorruptible, and that no collusion

has ever existed between any of them and the bankrupt. The pitwhich has all, more or less, been assignee

in its dayknows very well that every assignee is a "covered" merchant. It listens, and believes as it likes.

After three months employed in auditing the debtor and creditor accounts, the time comes for the concordat.

The provisional assignees make a little report at the meeting, of which the following is the usual formula:

Messieurs,There is owing to the whole of us, in bulk, about a million. We have dismantled our man like a

condemned frigate. The nails, iron, wood, and copper will bring about three hundred thousand francs. We

shall thus get about thirty per cent of our money. Happy in obtaining this amount, when our debtor might

have left us only one hundred thousand, we hereby declare him an Aristides; we vote him a premium and

crown of encouragement, and propose to leave him to manage his assets, giving him ten or twelve years in

which to pay us the fifty per cent which he has been so good as to offer us. Here is the certificate of

At this speech, all the fortune creditors congratulate each other and shake hands. After the ratification of the

certificate, the bankrupt becomes once more a merchant, precisely such as he was before; he receives back his

securities, he continues his business, he is not deprived of the power to fail again, on the promised

dividend,an additional little failure which often occurs, like the birth of a child nine months after the

If the certificate of bankruptcy is not granted, the creditors then select the permanent assignees, take extreme

measures, and form an association to get possession of the whole property and the business of their debtor,

seizing everything that he has or ever will have, his inheritance from his father, his mother, his aunt, et

caetera. This stern measure can only be carried through by an association of creditors.

There are therefore two sorts of failures,the failure of the merchant who means to repossess himself of his

business, and the failure of the merchant who has fallen into the water and is willing to sink to the bottom.

Pillerault knew the difference. It was, to his thinking and to that of Ragon, as hard to come out pure from the

first as to come out safe from the second. After advising Cesar to abandon everything to his creditors, he went

to the most honorable solicitor in such matters, that immediate steps might be taken to liquidate the failure

and put everything at once at the disposition of the creditors. The law requires that while the drama is being

acted, the creditors shall provide for the support of the bankrupt and his family. Pillerault notified the

Du Tillet had worked all things together to make the failure a prolonged agony for his old master; and this is

how he did it. Time is so precious in Paris that it is customary, when two assignees are appointed, for only

one to attend to the affair: the duty of the other is merely formal,he approves and signs, like the second

notary in notarial deeds. By this means, the largest failures in Paris are so vigorously handled that, in spite of

the law's delays, they are adjusted, settled, and secured with such rapidity that within a hundred days the

Du Tillet meant to compass Cesar's commercial death. The names of the assignees selected through the

influence of du Tillet were very significant to Pillerault. Monsieur Bidault, called Gigonnet,the principal

creditor,was the one to take no active part; and Molineux, the mischievous old man who lost nothing by

the failure, was to manage everything. Du Tillet flung the noble commercial carcass to the little jackal, that he

might torment it as he devoured it. After the meeting at which the creditors appointed the assignees, little

Molineux returned home "honored," so he said, "by the suffrages of his fellow citizens"; happy in the

prospect of hectoring Birotteau, just as a child delights in having an insect to maltreat. The landlord, astride

of his hobby,the law,begged du Tillet to favor him with his ideas; and he bought a copy of the

commercial Code. Happily, Joseph Lebas, cautioned by Pillerault, had already requested the president of the

Board of Commerce to select a sagacious and wellmeaning commissioner. GobenheimKeller, whom du

Tillet hoped to have, found himself displaced by Monsieur Camusot, a substitutejudge,a rich silk

merchant, Liberal in politics, and the owner of the house in which Pillerault lived; a man counted honorable.

One of the cruellest scenes of Cesar's life was his forced conference with little Molineux,the being he had

once regarded as a nonentity, who now by a fiction of law had become Cesar Birotteau. He was compelled to

go to the Cour Batave, to mount the six flights, and reenter the miserable appartement of the old man, now

his custodian, his quasi judge,the representative of his creditors. Pillerault accompanied him.

"I have seen him from time to time for fifteen years past at the cafe David, where he plays dominoes. That is

Monsieur Molineux showed the utmost politeness to Pillerault, and much disdainful condescension to the

bankrupt; he had thought over his part, studied the shades of his demeanor, and prepared his ideas.

"What information is it that you need?" asked Pillerault. "There is no dispute as to the claims."

"Oh," said little Molineux, "the claims are in order,they have been examined. The creditors are all serious

and legitimate. But the law, monsieur,the law! The expenditures of the bankrupt have been disproportional

"cost nearly sixty thousand francs, and at that time the assets of the insolvent amounted to not more than

one hundred and a few thousand francs. There is cause to arraign the bankrupt on a charge of wilful

"Is that your intention?" said Pillerault, noticing the despondency into which these words had cast Birotteau.

"Monsieur, I make a distinction; the Sieur Birotteau was a member of the municipality"

"You have not sent for us, I presume, to explain that we are to be brought into a criminal police court?" said

The opinion of the cafe David seemed to frighten the old man, who looked at Pillerault with a startled air. He

had counted on meeting Birotteau alone, intending to pose as the sovereign arbiter of his fate,a legal

Jupiter. He meant to frighten him with the thunderbolt of an accusation, to brandish the axe of a criminal

charge over his head, enjoy his fears and his terrors, and then allow himself to be touched and softened, and

persuaded at last to restore his victim to a life of perpetual gratitude. Instead of his insect, he had got hold of

"Excuse me," said Pillerault. "You have negotiated largely with Monsieur Claparon; you have neglected the

interests of the main body of the creditors, so as to make sure that certain claims shall have a preference. Now

I can as one of the creditors interfere. The commissioner is to be taken into account."

"I am aware of it," said Pillerault. "You have only taken your iron out of the fire, as they say. You are keen;

"Oh, monsieur!" said the assignee, suddenly dropping into the landlord,just as the cat metamorphosed into

a woman ran after a mouse when she caught sight of it,"my affair of the Rue Montorgeuil is not yet settled.

What they call an impediment has arisen. The tenant is the chief tenant. This conspirator declares that as he

has paid a year in advance, and having only one more year to"here Pillerault gave Cesar a look which

advised him to pay strict attention "and, the year being paid for, that he has the right to take away his

furniture. I shall sue him! I must hold on to my securities to the last; he may owe something for repairs before

"But," said Pillerault, "the law only allows you to take furniture as security for the rent"

"And its accessories!" cried Molineux, assailed in his trenches. "That article in the Code has been interpreted

by various judgments rendered in the matter: however, there ought to be legislative rectification to it. At this

very moment I am elaborating a memorial to his Highness, the Keeper of the Seals, relating to this flaw in our

statutes. It is desirable that the government should maintain the interests of landlords. That is the chief

"You are well fitted to enlighten the government," said Pillerault; "but in what way can we enlighten

"I wish to know," said Molineux, with pompous authority, "if Monsieur Birotteau has received moneys from

Then followed a discussion on Birotteau's interests in the house of Popinot, from which it appeared that

Popinot had the right to have all his advances paid in full, and that he was not involved in the failure to the

amount of half the costs of his establishment, due to him by Birotteau. Molineux, judiciously handled by

Pillerault, insensibly got back to gentler ways, which only showed how he cared for the opinion of those who

frequented the cafe David. He ended by offering consolation to Birotteau, and by inviting him, as well as

Pillerault, to share his humble dinner. If the experfumer had gone alone, he would probably have irritated

Molineux, and the matter would have become envenomed. In this instance, as in others, old Pillerault was his

Commercial law imposes a horrible torture upon the bankrupt; he is compelled to appear in person at the

meeting of his creditors, when they decide upon his future fate. For a man who can hold himself above it all,

or for a merchant who expects to recover himself, this ceremony is little feared. But to a man like Cesar

Birotteau it was agony only to be compared to the last day of a criminal condemned to death. Pillerault did all

The steps taken by Molineux, and agreed to by the bankrupt, were as follows: The suit relating to the

mortgage on the property in the Faubourg du Temple having been won in the courts, the assignees decided to

sell that property, and Cesar made no opposition. Du Tillet, hearing privately that the government intended to

cut a canal which should lead from SaintDenis to the upper Seine through the Faubourg du Temple, bought

the property of Birotteau for seventy thousand francs. All Cesar's rights in the lands about the Madeleine

were turned over to Monsieur Claparon, on condition that he on his side would abandon all claim against

Birotteau for half the costs of drawing up and registering the contracts; also for all payments on the price of

the lands, by receiving himself, under the failure, the dividend which was to be paid over to the sellers. The

interests of the perfumer in the house of Popinot and Company were sold to the said Popinot for the sum of

fortyeight thousand francs. The business of "The Queen of Roses" was bought by Celestin Crevel at

fiftyseven thousand francs, with the lease, the fixtures, the merchandise, furniture, and all rights in the Paste

of Sultans and the Carminative Balm, with twelve years' lease of the manufactories, whose various appliances

were also sold to him. The assets when liquidated came to one hundred and ninetyfive thousand francs, to

which the assignees added seventy thousand produced by Birotteau's claims in the liquidation of the

"unfortunate" Roguin. Thus the total amount made over to Cesar's creditors was two hundred and fiftyfive

thousand francs. The debts amounted to four hundred and forty thousand; consequently, the creditors

Bankruptcy is a species of chemical transmutation, from which a clever merchant tries to emerge in fresh

shape. Birotteau, distilled to the last drop in this retort, gave a result which made du Tillet furious. Du Tillet

looked to see a dishonorable failure; he saw an honorable one. Caring little for his own gains, though he was

about to get possession of the lands around the Madeleine without ever drawing his pursestrings, he wanted

to see his old master dishonored, lost, and vilified. The creditors at the general meeting would undoubtedly

By degrees, as Birotteau's courage came back to him, Pillerault, like a wise doctor, informed him, by gradual

doses, of the transactions resulting from his failure. These harsh tidings were like so many blows. A merchant

cannot learn without a shock the depreciation of property which represents to him so much money, so much

solicitude, so much labor. The facts his uncle now told him petrified the poor man.

"Fiftyseven thousand francs for 'The Queen of Roses'! Why, the shop alone cost ten thousand; the

appartement cost forty thousand; the mere outlay on the manufactories, the utensils, the frames, the boilers,

cost thirty thousand. Why! at fifty per cent abatement, if my creditors allow me that, there would still be ten

thousand francs worth of property in the shop. Why! the Paste and the Balm are solid property,worth as

Poor Cesar's jeremiads made no impression upon Pillerault. The old merchant took them as a horse takes a

downpour; but he was alarmed by the gloomy silence Birotteau maintained when it was a question of the

meeting. Those who comprehend the vanities and weaknesses which in all social spheres beset mankind, will

know what a martyrdom it was for this poor man to enter as a bankrupt the commercial tribunal of justice

where he once sat as judge; to meet affronts where so often he had been thanked for services rendered,he,

Birotteau, whose inflexible opinions about bankruptcy were so well known; he who had said, "A man may be

honest till he fails, but he comes out of a meeting of his creditors a swindler." Pillerault watched for the right

moment to familiarize Cesar's mind with the thought of appearing before his creditors as the law demands.

The thought killed him. His mute grief and resignation made a deep impression on his uncle, who often heard

him at night, through the partition, crying out to himself, "Never! never! I will die sooner."

Pillerault, a strong man,strong through the simplicity of his life, was able to understand weakness. He

resolved to spare Cesar the anguish of appearing before his creditors,a terrible scene which the law renders

inevitable, and to which, indeed, he might succumb. On this point the law is precise, formal, and not to be

evaded. The merchant who refused to appear would, for that act alone, be brought before the criminal police

courts. But though the law compels the bankrupt to appear, it has no power to oblige the creditor to do so. A

meeting of creditors is a ceremony of no real importance except in special cases,when, for instance, a

swindler is to be dispossessed and a coalition among the creditors agreed upon, when there is difference of

opinion between the privileged creditors and the unsecured creditors, or when the concordat is specially

dishonest, and the bankrupt is in need of a deceptive majority. But in the case of a failure when all has been

given up, the meeting is a mere formality. Pillerault went to each creditor, one after the other, and asked him

to give his proxy to his attorney. Every creditor, except du Tillet, sincerely pitied Cesar, after striking him

down. Each knew that his conduct was scrupulously honest, that his books were regular, and his business as

clear as the day. All were pleased to find no "gay and illegitimate creditor" among them. Molineux, first the

agent and then the provisional assignee, had found in Cesar's house everything the poor man owned, even the

engraving of Hero and Leander which Popinot had given him, his personal trinkets, his breastpin, his gold

buckles, his two watches,things which an honest man might have taken without thinking himself less than

honest. Constance had left her modest jewelcase. This touching obedience to the law struck the commercial

mind keenly. Birotteau's enemies called it foolishness; but men of sense held it up to its true light as a

magnificent supererogation of integrity. In two months the opinion of the Bourse had changed; every one,

even those who were most indifferent, admitted this failure to be a rare commercial wonder, seldom seen in

the markets of Paris. Thus the creditors, knowing that they were secure of nearly sixty per cent of their

claims, were very ready to do what Pillerault asked of them. The solicitors of the commercial courts are few

in number; it therefore happened that several creditors employed the same man, giving him their proxies.

Pillerault finally succeeded in reducing the formidable assemblage to three solicitors, himself, Ragon, the two

Monsieur Ragon wished to accompany his debtor. When the former master of "The Queen of Roses" first

made known the wish in his little dry voice, his exsuccessor turned pale; but the good old man opened his

arms, and Birotteau threw himself into them as a child into the arms of its father, and the two perfumers

mingled their tears. The bankrupt gathered courage as he felt the indulgences shown to him, and he got into

the coach with his uncle and Ragon. Precisely at half past ten o'clock the three reached the cloister

SaintMerri, where the Court of Commerce was then held. At that hour there was no one in the Hall of

Bankruptcy. The day and the hour had been chosen by agreement with the judge and the assignees. The three

solicitors were already there on behalf of their clients. There was nothing, therefore, to distress or intimidate

Cesar Birotteau; yet the poor man could not enter the office of Monsieur Camusotwhich chanced to be the

one he had formerly occupiedwithout deep emotion, and he shuddered as he passed through the Hall of

"It is cold," said Monsieur Camusot to Birotteau. "I am sure these gentlemen will not be sorry to stay here,

instead of our going to freeze in the Hall." He did not say the word "Bankruptcy." "Gentlemen, be seated."

Each took his seat, and the judge gave his own armchair to Birotteau, who was bewildered. The solicitors and

"In consideration of the surrender of your entire property," said Camusot to Birotteau, "your creditors

unanimously agree to relinquish the rest of their claims. Your certificate is couched in terms which may well

soften your pain; your solicitor will see that it is promptly recorded; you are now free. All the judges of this

court, dear Monsieur Birotteau," said Camusot, taking him by the hand, "feel for your position, and are not

surprised at your courage; none have failed to do justice to your integrity. In the midst of a great misfortune

you have been worthy of what you once were here. I have been in business for twenty years, and this is only

the second time that I have seen a fallen merchant gaining, instead of losing, public respect."

Birotteau took the hands of the judge and wrung them, with tears in his eyes. Camusot asked him what he

now meant to do. Birotteau replied that he should work till he had paid his creditors in full to the last penny.

"If to accomplish that noble task you should ever want a few thousand francs, you will always find them with

me," said Camusot. "I would give them with a great deal of pleasure to witness a deed so rare in Paris."

"Well! that wasn't the ocean to drink," said Pillerault, as they left the courtroom.

"Now, here you are, free, and we are only a few steps from the Rue des CinqDiamants; come and see my

A cruel pang shot through Cesar's heart when he saw Constance sitting in a little office in the damp, dark

entresol above the shop, whose single window was one third darkened by a sign which intercepted the

"Behold a lieutenant of Alexander," said Cesar, with the gaiety of grief, pointing to the sign.

This forced gaiety, through which an inextinguishable sense of the superiority which Birotteau attributed to

himself was naively revealed, made Ragon shudder in spite of his seventy years. Cesar saw his wife passing

down letters and papers for Popinot to sign; he could neither restrain his tears nor keep his face from turning

"As if I were living with my own son," she answered, with a tender manner that struck her husband.

"Let us hope!" said Popinot. "Your oil succeedsthanks to my advertisements in the newspapers, and to

Gaudissart, who has travelled over the whole of France; he has inundated the country with placards and

prospectuses; he is now at Strasburg getting the prospectuses printed in the German language, and he is about

to descend, like an invasion, upon Germany itself. We have received orders for three thousand gross."

"And I have bought a piece of land in the Faubourg SaintMarceau,not dear,where I am building a

"Wife," whispered Cesar to Constance, "with a little help we might have pulled through."

After that fatal day Cesar, his wife, and daughter understood each other. The poor clerk resolved to attain an

end which, if not impossible, was at least gigantic in its enterprise,namely, the payment of his debts to

their last penny. These three beings,father, mother, daughter,bound together by the tie of a passionate

integrity, became misers, denying themselves everything; a farthing was sacred in their eyes. Out of sheer

calculation Cesarine threw herself into her business with the devotion of a young girl. She sat up at night,

taxing her ingenuity to find ways of increasing the prosperity of the establishment, and displaying an innate

commercial talent. The masters of the house were obliged to check her ardor for work; they rewarded her by

presents, but she refused all articles of dress and the jewels which they offered her. Money! money! was her

cry. Every month she carried her salary and her little earnings to her uncle Pillerault. Cesar did the same; so

did Madame Birotteau. All three, feeling themselves incapable, dared not take upon themselves the

responsibility of managing their money, and they made over to Pillerault the whole business of investing their

savings. Returning thus to business, the latter made the most of these funds by negotiations at the Bourse. It

was known afterwards that he had been helped in this work by Jules Desmarets and Joseph Lebas, both of

whom were eager to point out opportunities which Pillerault might take without risk.

Cesar, though he lived with his uncle, never ventured to question him as to what was done with the money

acquired by his labor and that of his wife and daughter. He walked the streets with a bowed head, hiding from

every eye his stricken, dull, distraught face. He felt, with selfreproach, that the cloth he wore was too good

"At least," he said to Pillerault, with a look that was angelic, "I do not eat the bread of my creditors. Your

bread is sweet to me, though it is your pity that gives it; thanks to your sacred charity, I do not steal a farthing

The merchants, his old associates, who met the clerk could see no vestige of the perfumer. Even careless

minds gained an idea of the immensity of human disaster from the aspect of this man, on whose face sorrow

had cast its black pall, who revealed the havoc caused by that which had never before appeared in him,by

thought! N'est pas detruit qui veut. Lightminded people, devoid of conscience, to whom all things are

indifferent, can never present such a spectacle of disaster. Religion alone sets a special seal upon fallen

human beings; they believe in a future, in a divine Providence; from within them gleams a light that marks

them, a look of saintly resignation mingled with hope, which lends them a certain tender emotion; they

realize all that they have lost, like the exiled angel weeping at the gates of heaven. Bankrupts are forbidden to

enter the Bourse. Cesar, driven from the regions of integrity, was like an angel sighing for pardon. For

fourteen months he lived on, full of religious thoughts with which his fall inspired him, and denying himself

every pleasure. Though sure of the Ragons' friendship, nothing could induce him to dine with them, nor with

the Lebas, nor the Matifats, nor the Protez and Chiffrevilles, not even with Monsieur Vauquelin; all of whom

were eager to do honor to his rare virtue. Cesar preferred to be alone in his room rather than meet the eye of a

creditor. The warmest greetings of his friends reminded him the more bitterly of his position. Constance and

Cesarine went nowhere. On Sundays and fete days, the only days when they were at liberty, the two women

went to fetch Cesar at the hour for Mass, and they stayed with him at Pillerault's after their religious duties

were accomplished. Pillerault often invited the Abbe Loraux, whose words sustained Cesar in this life of trial.

And in this way their lives were spent. The old ironmonger had too tough a fibre of integrity not to approve

of Cesar's sensitive honor. His mind, however, turned on increasing the number of persons among whom the

poor bankrupt might show himself with an open brow, and an eye that could meet the eyes of his fellows.

In the month of May, 1821, this family, ever grappling with adversity, received a first reward for its efforts at

a little fete which Pillerault, the arbiter of its destinies, prepared for it. The last Sunday of that month was the

anniversary of the day on which Constance had consented to marry Cesar. Pillerault, in concert with the

Ragons, hired a little countryhouse at Sceaux, and the worthy old ironmonger silently prepared a joyous

"Cesar," said Pillerault, on the Saturday evening, "tomorrow we are all going into the country, and you must

Cesar, who wrote a superb hand, spent his evenings in copying for Derville and other lawyers. On Sundays,

"Your wife and daughter ought to have some reward. You will meet none but our particular friends,the

Cesar and his wife, carried along by the whirlwind of business, had never revisited Sceaux, though from time

to time each longed to see once more the tree under which the headclerk of "The Queen of Roses" had

fainted with joy. During the trip, which Cesar made in a hackney coach with his wife and daughter, and

Popinot who escorted them, Constance cast many meaning glances at her husband without bringing to his lips

a single smile. She whispered a few words in his ear; for all answer he shook his head. The soft signs of her

tenderness, ever present yet at the moment forced, instead of brightening Cesar's face made it more sombre,

and brought the longrepressed tears into his eyes. Poor man! he had gone over this road twenty years before,

young, prosperous, full of hope, the lover of a girl as beautiful as their own Cesarine; he was dreaming then

of happiness. Today, in the coach before him, sat his noble child pale and worn by vigils, and his brave

wife, whose only beauty now was that of cities through whose streets have flowed the lava waves of a

volcano. Love alone remained to him! Cesar's sadness smothered the joy that welled up in the hearts of

Cesarine and Anselme, who embodied to his eyes the charming scene of other days.

"Be happy, my children! you have earned the right," said the poor father in heartrending tones. "You may

As he said these words he took his wife's hands and kissed them with a sacred and admiring effect which

touched Constance more than the brightest gaiety. When they reached the house where Pillerault, the Ragons,

the Abbe Loraux, and Popinot the judge were waiting for them, these five choice people assumed an air and

manner and speech which put Cesar at his ease; for all were deeply moved to see him still on the morrow of

"Go and take a walk in the Aulnay woods," said Pillerault, putting Cesar's hand into that of Constance; "go

"Poor souls, we should be a restraint upon them," said Madame Ragon, touched by the deep grief of her

To forget is the great secret of strong, creative natures,to forget, in the way of Nature herself, who knows

no past, who begins afresh, at every hour, the mysteries of her untiring travail.

Feeble existences, like that of Birotteau, live sunk in sorrows, instead of transmuting them into doctrines of

experience: they let them saturate their being, and are wornout, finally, by falling more and more under the

When the two couples reached the path which leads to the woods of Aulnay, placed like a crown upon the

prettiest hillside in the neighborhood of Paris, and from which the ValleeauxLoups is seen in all its

coquetry, the beauty of the day, the charm of the landscape, the first spring verdure, the delicious memory of

the happiest day of all his youth, loosened the tight chords in Cesar's soul; he pressed the arm of his wife

against his beating heart; his eye was no longer glassy, for the light of pleasure once more brightened in it.

"At last," said Constance to her husband, "I see you again, my poor Cesar. I think we have all behaved well

"Ought I?" said the poor man. "Ah! Constance, thy affection is all that remains to me. Yes, I have lost even

my old selfconfidence; I have no strength left; my only desire is that I may live to die discharged of debt on

earth. Thou, dear wife, thou who art my wisdom and my prudence, thou whose eyes saw clear, thou who art

irreproachable, thou canst have pleasure. I aloneof us threeam guilty. Eighteen months ago, in the midst

of that fatal ball, I saw my Constance, the only woman I have ever loved, more beautiful than the young girl I

followed along this path twenty years agolike our children yonder! In eighteen months I have blasted that

beauty,my pride, my legitimate and sanctioned pride. I love thee better since I know thee well. Oh, dear!"

he said, giving to the word a tone which reached to the inmost heart of his wife, "I would rather have thee

"I did not think," she said, "that after twenty years of married life the love of a wife for her husband could

These words drove from Cesar's mind, for one brief moment, all his sorrows; his heart was so true that they

were to him a fortune. He walked forward almost joyously to their tree, which by chance had not been felled.

Husband and wife sat down beneath it, watching Anselme and Cesarine, who were sauntering across the

grassy slope without perceiving them, thinking probably that they were still following.

"Mademoiselle," Anselme was saying, "do not think me so base and grasping as to profit by your father's

share which I have acquired in the Cephalic Oil. I am keeping his share for him; I nurse it with careful love. I

invest the profits; if there is any loss I put it to my own account. We can only belong to one another on the

day when your father is restored to his position, free of debt. I work for that day with all the strength that love

"Soon," said Popinot. The word was uttered in a tone so full of meaning, that the chaste and pure young girl

inclined her head to her dear Anselme, who laid an eager and respectful kiss upon her brow,so noble was

"Papa, all is well," she said to Cesar with a little air of confidence. "Be good and sweet; talk to us, put away

When this family, so tenderly bound together, reentered the house, even Cesar, little observing as he was,

saw a change in the manner of the Ragons which seemed to denote some remarkable event. The greeting of

Madame Ragon was particularly impressive; her look and accent seemed to say to Cesar, "We are paid."

At the dessert, the notary of Sceaux appeared. Pillerault made him sit down, and then looked at Cesar, who

began to suspect a surprise, though he was far indeed from imagining the extent of it.

"My nephew, the savings of your wife, your daughter, and yourself, for the last eighteen months, amounted to

twenty thousand francs. I have received thirty thousand by the dividend on my claim. We have therefore fifty

thousand francs to divide among your creditors. Monsieur Ragon has received thirty thousand francs for his

dividend, and you have now paid him the balance of his claim in full, interest included, for which monsieur

here, the notary of Sceaux, has brought you a receipt. The rest of the money is with Crottat, ready for

Lourdois, Madame Madou, the mason, carpenter, and the other most pressing creditors. Next year, we may

Birotteau's joy is not to be described; he threw himself into his uncle's arms, weeping.

The confessor fastened the red ribbon to Cesar's buttonhole. The poor clerk looked at himself again and again

during the evening in the mirrors of the salon, manifesting a joy at which people thinking themselves superior

"Ah, there you are, good soul!" she cried. "I didn't recognize you, you have turned so gray. Yet you don't

really drudge, you people; you've got good places. As for me, I work like a turnspit that deserves baptism."

"Never mind, I don't mean it as a reproach," she said. "You have got my receipt."

"I came to tell you that I shall pay you tomorrow, at Monsieur Crottat's, the rest of your claim in full, with

"Hey! there's honor for you! good measure and running over!" she cried with naive admiration. "Look here,

my good monsieur, I am doing a fine trade with your little redhead. He's a nice young fellow; he lets me

earn a fair penny without haggling over it, so that I may get an equivalent for that loss. Well, I'll get you a

receipt in full, anyhow; you keep the money, my poor old man! La Madou may get in a fury, and she does

scold; but she has got something here" she cried, thumping the most voluminous mounds of flesh ever yet

"Then I won't deny you the pleasure," she said; "and tomorrow I'll trumpet your conduct through the

The worthy man had much the same scene, with variations, at Lourdois the house painter's, fatherinlaw of

Crottat. It was raining; Cesar left his umbrella at the corner of the door. The prosperous painter, seeing the

water trickling into the room where he was breakfasting with his wife, was not tender.

"Come, what do you want, my poor Pere Birotteau?" he said, in the hard tone which some people take to

"To be at his office this morning at half past eleven, and give me a receipt for the payment of your claims in

"Ah, that's another thing! Sit down, Monsieur Birotteau, and eat a mouthful with us."

"No, monsieur, I have lived from hand to mouth, that I might scrape up this money; but I hope, in time, to

"Ah!" said the painter, swallowing a mouthful of pate de foie gras, "you are truly a man of honor."

"If you ever need me, my dear Monsieur Birotteau, come and see me," said Lourdois. "I might help"

This first result gave courage to the poor bankrupt, but not peace of mind. On the contrary, the thought of

regaining his honor agitated his life inordinately; he completely lost the natural color of his cheeks, his eyes

grew sunken and dim, and his face hollow. When old acquaintances met him, in the morning at eight o'clock

or in the evening at four, as he went to and from the Rue de l'Oratoire, wearing the surtout coat he wore at the

time of his fall, and which he husbanded as a poor sublieutenant husbands his uniform,his hair entirely

white, his face pale, his manner timid,some few would stop him in spite of himself; for his eye was alert to

"Your conduct is known, my friend," said one; "everybody regrets the sternness with which you treat

"No, but the wounds of the soul do," the poor worn Cesar answered one day to his friend Matifat.

At the beginning of the year 1822, the Canal SaintMartin was begun. Land in the Faubourg du Temple

increased enormously in value. The canal would cut through the property which du Tillet had bought of Cesar

Birotteau. The company who obtained the right of building it agreed to pay the banker an exorbitant sum,

provided they could take possession within a given time. The lease Cesar had granted to Popinot, which went

with the sale to du Tillet, now hindered the transfer to the canal company. The banker came to the Rue des

Cinq Diamants to see the druggist. If du Tillet was indifferent to Popinot, it is very certain that the lover of

Cesarine felt an instinctive hatred for du Tillet. He knew nothing of the theft and the infamous scheme of the

prosperous banker, but an inward voice cried to him, "The man is an unpunished rascal." Popinot would

never have transacted the smallest business with him; du Tillet's very presence was odious to his feelings.

Under the present circumstances it was doubly so, for the banker was now enriched through the forced

spoliation of his former master; the lands about the Madeleine, as well as those in the Faubourg du Temple,

were beginning to rise in price, and to foreshadow the enormous value they were to reach in 1827. So that

after du Tillet had explained the object of his visit, Popinot looked at him with concentrated wrath.

"I shall not refuse to give up my lease; but I demand sixty thousand francs for it, and I shall not take one

"Sixty thousand francs!" exclaimed du Tillet, making a movement to leave the shop.

"I have fifteen years' lease still to run; it will, moreover, cost me three thousand francs a year to get other

buildings. Therefore, sixty thousand francs, or say no more about it," said Popinot, going to the back of the

The discussion grew warm, Birotteau's name was mentioned; Madame Cesar heard it and came down, and

saw du Tillet for the first time since the famous ball. The banker was unable to restrain a gesture of surprise

at the change which had come over the beautiful woman; he lowered his eyes, shocked at the result of his

"Monsieur," said Popinot to Madame Cesar, "is going to make three hundred thousand francs out of

"Threethousandfrancs!" said Madame Cesar, slowly, in a clear, penetrating voice.

Du Tillet turned pale. Popinot looked at Madame Birotteau. There was a moment of profound silence, which

"Sign your relinquishment of the lease, which I have made Crottat draw up," said du Tillet, drawing a

stamped paper from a sidepocket. "I will give you a cheque on the Bank of France for sixty thousand

Popinot looked at Madame Cesar without concealing his astonishment; he thought he was dreaming. While

du Tillet was writing his cheque at a high desk, Madame Cesar disappeared and went upstairs. The druggist

and the banker exchanged papers. Du Tillet bowed coldly to Popinot, and went away.

"At last, in a few months," thought Popinot, as he watched du Tillet going towards the Rue des Lombards,

where his cabriolet was waiting, "thanks to this extraordinary affair, I shall have my Cesarine. My poor little

wife shall not wear herself out any longer. A look from Madame Cesar was enough! What secret is there

Popinot sent the cheque at once to the Bank, and went up to speak to Madame Birotteau; she was not in the

countingroom, and had doubtless gone to her chamber. Anselme and Constance lived like motherinlaw

and soninlaw when people in that relation suit each other; he therefore rushed up to Madame Cesar's

appartement with the natural eagerness of a lover on the threshold of his happiness. The young man was

prodigiously surprised to find her, as he sprang like a cat into the room, reading a letter from du Tillet, whose

handwriting he recognized at a glance. A lighted candle, and the black and quivering phantoms of burned

letters lying on the floor made him shudder, for his quick eyes caught the following words in the letter which

"What power have you over du Tillet that could force him to agree to such terms?" he said with a convulsive

"No," said Popinot, bewildered; "let us rather talk of the end of all your troubles." Anselme turned on his heel

towards the window, and drummed with his fingers on the panes as he gazed into the court. "Well," he said to

himself, "even if she did love du Tillet, is that any reason why I should not behave like an honorable man?"

"The total of the net profits of Cephalic Oil mount up to two hundred and fortytwo thousand francs; half of

that is one hundred and twenty one thousand," said Popinot, brusquely. "If I withdraw from that amount the

fortyeight thousand francs which I paid to Monsieur Birotteau, there remains seventythree thousand,

which, joined to these sixty thousand paid for the relinquishment of the lease, gives you one hundred and

Madame Cesar listened with fluctuations of joy which made her tremble so violently that Popinot could hear

"Well, I have always considered Monsieur Birotteau as my partner," he went on; "we can use this sum to pay

his creditors in full. Add the twentyeight thousand you have saved and placed in our uncle Pillerault's hands,

and we have one hundred and sixtyone thousand francs. Our uncle will not refuse his receipt for his own

claim of twentyfive thousand. No human power can deprive me of the right of lending to my fatherinlaw,

by anticipating our profits of next year, the necessary sum to make up the total amount due to his creditor,

"Restored!" cried Madame Cesar, falling on her knees beside a chair. She joined her hands and said a prayer;

as she did so, the letter slid from her fingers. "Dear Anselme," she said, crossing herself, "dear son!" She took

his head in her hands, kissed him on the forehead, pressed him to her heart, and seemed for a moment beside

herself. "Cesarine is thine! My daughter will be happy at last. She can leave that shop where she is killing

"Listen to a little secret," said Popinot, glancing at the fatal letter from a corner of his eye. "I helped Celestin

to buy your business; but I did it on one condition,your appartement was to be kept exactly as you left it. I

had an idea in my head, though I never thought that chance would favor it so much. Celestin is bound to sub

let to you your old appartement, where he has never set foot, and where all the furniture will be yours. I have

kept the second story, where I shall live with Cesarine, who shall never leave you. After our marriage I shall

come and pass the days from eight in the morning till six in the evening here. I will buy out Monsieur Cesar's

share in this business for a hundred thousand francs, and that will give you an income to live on. Shall you

The angelic attitude of Madame Cesar, the purity of her eyes, the innocence of her candid brow, contradicted

so gloriously the thoughts which surged in the lover's brain that he resolved to make an end of their

monstrosities forever. Sin was incompatible with the life and sentiments of such a woman.

"My dear, adored mother," said Anselme, "in spite of myself, a horrible suspicion has entered my soul. If you

"Without intending it," he resumed, alarmed at the terror painted on Constance's face, "I read the first words

of this letter of du Tillet. The words coincide in a singular manner with the power you have just shown in

forcing that man to accept my absurd exactions; any man would explain it as the devil explains it to me, in

"Stop!" said Madame Cesar, taking the letter and burning it. "My son, I am severely punished for a trifling

error. You shall know all, Anselme. I shall not allow a suspicion inspired by her mother to injure my

daughter; and besides, I can speak without blushing. What I now tell you, I could tell my husband. Du Tillet

wished to seduce me; I informed my husband of it, and du Tillet was to have been dismissed. On the very day

"I was sure of it!" said Popinot, expressing his hatred by the tones of his voice.

"Anselme, your future, your happiness, demand this confidence; but you must let it die in your heart, just as it

is dead in mine and in Cesar's. Do you not remember how my husband scolded us for an error in the

accounts? Monsieur Birotteau, to avoid a policecourt which might have destroyed the man for life, no doubt

placed in the desk three thousand francs,the price of that cashmere shawl which I did not receive till three

years later. All this explains the scene. Alas! my dear child, I must admit my foolishness; du Tillet wrote me

three loveletters, which pictured him so well that I kept them," she said, lowering her eyes and sighing, "as a

curiosity. I have not reread them more than once; still, it was imprudent to keep them. When I saw du Tillet

just now I was reminded of them, and I came upstairs to burn them; I was looking over the last as you came

Anselme knelt for a moment beside her and kissed her hand with an unspeakable emotion, which brought

tears into the eyes of both; Madame Cesar raised him, stretched out her arms and pressed him to her heart.

This day was destined to be a day of joy to Cesar. The private secretary of the king, Monsieur de Vandenesse,

called at the Sinking Fund Office to find him. They walked out together into the little courtyard.

"Monsieur Birotteau," said the Vicomte de Vandenesse, "your efforts to pay your creditors in full have

accidentally become known to the king. His Majesty, touched by such rare conduct, and hearing that through

humility you no longer wear the cross of the Legion of honor, has sent me to command you to put it on again.

Moreover, wishing to help you in meeting your obligations, he has charged me to give you this sum from his

privy purse, regretting that he is unable to make it larger. Let this be a profound secret. His Majesty thinks it

derogatory to the royal dignity to have his good deeds divulged," said the private secretary, putting six

thousand francs into the hand of the poor clerk, who listened to this speech with unutterable emotion. The

words that came to his lips were disconnected and stammering. Vandenesse waved his hand to him, smiling,

The principle which actuated poor Cesar is so rare in Paris that his conduct by degrees attracted admiration.

Joseph Lebas, Popinot the judge, Camusot, the Abbe Loraux, Ragon, the head of the important house where

Cesarine was employed, Lourdois, Monsieur de la Billardiere, and others, talked of it. Public opinion,

"He is indeed a man of honor!" The phrase even sounded in Cesar's ears as he passed along the streets, and

caused him the emotion an author feels when he hears the muttered words: "That is he!" This noble recovery

of credit enraged du Tillet. Cesar's first thought on receiving the banknotes sent by the king was to use them

in paying the debt still due to his former clerk. The worthy man went to the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin just

"Poor!" exclaimed the debtor proudly, "I am very rich. I shall lay my head this night upon my pillow with the

This speech, ringing with integrity, sent a sharp pang through du Tillet. In spite of the esteem he publicly

enjoyed, he did not esteem himself; an inextinguishable voice cried aloud within his soul, "The man is

Feeling sure that du Tillet would not repeat what he told him, Birotteau answered: "I shall never go back to

business, monsieur. No human power could have foreseen what has happened to me there. Who knows that I

might not be the victim of another Roguin? But my conduct has been placed under the eyes of the king; his

heart has deigned to sympathize with my efforts; he has encouraged them by sending me a sum of money

"Do you want a receipt?" said du Tillet, interrupting him; "are you going to pay"

"In full, with interest. I must ask you to come with me now to Monsieur Crottat, only two steps from here."

"Monsieur; I am not forbidden to aim at my complete reinstatement; to obtain it, all deeds and receipts must

"Come, then," said du Tillet, going out with Birotteau; "it is only a step. But where did you take all that

"Alas! yes; that is my largest debt. I think sometimes I shall die before I pay it."

As he went home the poor man passed, inadvertently, along the Rue SaintHonore; for he was in the habit of

making a circuit to avoid seeing his shop and the windows of his former home. For the first time since his fall

he saw the house where eighteen years of happiness had been effaced by the anguish of three months.

"I hoped to end my days there," he thought; and he hastened his steps, for he caught sight of the new sign,

"Am I dazzled, am I going blind? Was that Cesarine?" he cried, recollecting a blond head he had seen at the

He had actually seen his daughter, his wife, and Popinot. The lovers knew that Birotteau never passed before

the windows of his old home, and they had come to the house to make arrangements for a fete which they

intended to give him. This amazing apparition so astonished Birotteau that he stood stockstill, unable to

"There is Monsieur Birotteau looking at his old house," said Monsieur Molineux to the owner of a shop

"Poor man!" said the perfumer's former neighbor; "he gave a fine ball two hundred carriages in the street."

"I was there; and he failed in three months," said Molineux. "I was the assignee."

Pillerault, who had just been informed of what had happened in the Rue des CinqDiamants, feared that his

nephew was scarcely fit to bear the shock of joy which the sudden knowledge of his restoration would cause

him; for Pillerault was a daily witness of the moral struggles of the poor man, whose mind stood always face

to face with his inflexible doctrines against bankruptcy, and whose vital forces were used and spent at every

hour. Honor was to Cesar a corpse, for which an Easter morning might yet dawn. This hope kept his sorrow

incessantly active. Pillerault took upon himself the duty of preparing his nephew to receive the good news;

and when Birotteau came in he was thinking over the best means of accomplishing his purpose. Cesar's joy as

he related the proof of interest which the king had bestowed upon him seemed of good augury, and the

astonishment he expressed at seeing Cesarine at "The Queen of Roses" afforded, Pillerault thought, an

"Well, Cesar," said the old man, "do you know what is at the bottom of it?the hurry Popinot is in to marry

Cesarine. He cannot wait any longer; and you ought not, for the sake of your exaggerated ideas of honor, to

make him pass his youth eating dry bread with the fumes of a good dinner under his nose. Popinot wishes to

"Besides," exclaimed Pillerault, pretending anger, "you may have the right to immolate yourself if you

"Hey! if Popinot lent you nothing," cried Pillerault, "if he had called you his partner, if he had considered the

price which he paid to the creditors for your share in the Oil as an advance upon the profits, so as not to strip

Pillerault feigned to be defeated by this argument. He knew the human heart well enough to be certain that

during the night Cesar would go over the question in his own mind, and the mental discussion would

"But how came my wife and daughter to be in our old appartement?" asked Birotteau, while they were

"Anselme wants to hire it, and live there with Cesarine. Your wife is on his side. They have had the banns

published without saying anything about it, so as to force you to consent. Popinot says there will be much

less merit in marrying Cesarine after you are reinstated. You take six thousand francs from the king, and you

won't accept anything from your relations! I can well afford to give you a receipt in full for all that is owing

"No," said Cesar; "but that won't keep me from saving up everything to pay you."

"Irrational folly!" cried Pillerault. "In matters of honor I ought to be believed. What nonsense were you

saying just now? How have you robbed your creditors when you have paid them all in full?"

Cesar looked earnestly at Pillerault, and Pillerault was touched to see, for the first time in three years, a

"It is true," he said, "they would be paid; but it would be selling my daughter."

The lovers had heard Birotteau's last words as they came on tiptoe through the antechamber of their uncle's

little appartement, Madame Birotteau following. All three had driven round to the creditors who were still

unpaid, requesting them to meet at Alexandre Crottat's that evening to receive their money. The allpowerful

logic of the enamored Popinot triumphed in the end over Cesar's scruples, though he persisted for some time

in calling himself a debtor, and in declaring that he was circumventing the law by a substitution. But the

refinements of his conscience gave way when Popinot cried out: "Do you want to kill your daughter?"

"Well, then," said Popinot, "I have the right to convey to you the sum which I conscientiously believe to be

"Very good; then let us go at once to Crottat and settle the matter, so that there may be no backing out of it.

A petition for reinstatement with corroborative documents was at once deposited by Derville at the office of

During the month required for the legal formalities and for the publication of the banns of marriage between

Cesarine and Anselme, Birotteau was a prey to feverish agitation. He was restless. He feared he should not

live till the great day when the decree for his vindication would be rendered. His heart throbbed, he said,

without cause. He complained of dull pains in that organ, worn out as it was by emotions of sorrow, and now

wearied with the rush of excessive joy. Decrees of rehabilitation are so rare in the bankrupt court of Paris that

To those persons who take society in its serious aspects, the paraphernalia of justice has a grand and solemn

character difficult perhaps to define. Institutions depend altogether on the feelings with which men view them

and the degree of grandeur which men's thoughts attach to them. When there is no longer, we will not say

religion, but belief among the people, whenever early education has loosened all conservative bonds by

accustoming youth to the practice of pitiless analysis, a nation will be found in process of dissolution; for it

will then be held together only by the base solder of material interests, and by the formulas of a creed created

Bred in religious ideas, Birotteau held justice to be what it ought to be in the eyes of men,a representation

of society itself, an august utterance of the will of all, apart from the particular form by which it is expressed.

The older, feebler, grayer the magistrate, the more solemn seemed the exercise of his function,a function

which demands profound study of men and things, which subdues the heart and hardens it against the

influence of eager interests. It is a rare thing nowadays to find men who mount the stairway of the old Palais

Few persons have noticed the majestic solemnity of that stairway, admirably placed as it is to produce a

solemn effect. It rises, beyond the outer peristyle which adorns the courtyard of the Palais, from the centre of

a gallery leading, at one end, to the vast hall of the Pas Perdus, and at the other to the SainteChapelle,two

architectural monuments which make all buildings in their neighborhood seem paltry. The church of

SaintLouis is among the most imposing edifices in Paris, and the approach to it through this long gallery is

at once sombre and romantic. The great hall of the Pas Perdus, on the contrary, presents at the other end of

the gallery a broad space of light; it is impossible to forget that the history of France is linked to those walls.

The stairway should therefore be imposing in character; and, in point of act, it is neither dwarfed nor crushed

by the architectural splendors on either side of it. Possibly the mind is sobered by a glimpse, caught through

the rich gratings, of the Place du PalaisdeJustice, where so many sentences have been executed. The

staircase opens above into an enormous space, or antechamber, leading to the hall where the Court holds its

Imagine the emotions with which the bankrupt, susceptible by nature to the awe of such accessories, went up

that stairway to the hall of judgment, surrounded by his nearest friends,Lebas, president of the Court of

Commerce, Camusot his former judge, Ragon, and Monsieur l'Abbe Loraux his confessor. The pious priest

made the splendors of human justice stand forth in strong relief by reflections which gave them still greater

solemnity in Cesar's eyes. Pillerault, the practical philosopher, fearing the danger of unexpected events on the

worn mind of his nephew, had schemed to prepare him by degrees for the joys of this festal day. Just as Cesar

finished dressing, a number of his faithful friends arrived, all eager for the honor of accompanying him to the

bar of the Court. The presence of this retinue roused the honest man to an elation which gave him strength to

meet the imposing spectacle in the halls of justice. Birotteau found more friends awaiting him in the solemn

After the cases were called over, Birotteau's attorney made his demand for reinstatement in the usual terms.

On a sign from the presiding judge, the procureurgeneral rose. In the name of his office this public

prosecutor, the representative of public vindictiveness, asked that honor might be restored to the merchant

who had never really lost it,a solitary instance of such an appeal; for a condemned man can only be

pardoned. Men of honor alone can imagine the emotions of Cesar Birotteau as he heard Monsieur de

"Gentlemen," said that celebrated official, "on the 16th of January, 1820, Birotteau was declared a bankrupt

by the commercial tribunal of the Seine. His failure was not caused by imprudence, nor by rash speculations,

nor by any act that stained his honor. We desire to say publicly that this failure was the result of a disaster

which has again and again occurred, to the detriment of justice and the great injury of the city of Paris. It has

been reserved for our generation, in which the bitter leaven of republican principles and manners will long be

felt, to behold the notariat of Paris abandoning the glorious traditions of preceding centuries, and producing

in a few years as many failures as two centuries of the old monarchy had produced. The thirst for gold rapidly

acquired has beset even these officers of trust, these guardians of the public wealth, these mediators between

On this text followed an allocution, in which the Comte de Grandville, obedient to the necessities of his role,

contrived to incriminate the Liberals, the Bonapartists, and all other enemies of the throne. Subsequent events

"The flight of a notary of Paris who carried off the funds which Birotteau had deposited in his hands, caused

the fall of your petitioner," he resumed. "The Court rendered in that matter a decree which showed to what

extent the confidence of Roguin's clients had been betrayed. A concordat was held. For the honor of your

petitioner, we call attention to the fact that his proceedings were remarkable for a purity not found in any of

the scandalous failures which daily degrade the commerce of Paris. The creditors of Birotteau received the

whole property, down to the smallest articles that the unfortunate man possessed. They received, gentlemen,

his clothes, his jewels, things of purely personal use,and not only his, but those of his wife, who

abandoned all her rights to swell the total of his assets. Under these circumstances Birotteau showed himself

worthy of the respect which his municipal functions had already acquired for him; for he was at the time a

deputymayor of the second arrondissement and had just received the decoration of the Legion of honor,

granted as much for his devotion to the royal cause in Vendemiaire, on the steps of the SaintRoch, which

were stained with his blood, as for his conciliating spirit, his estimable qualities as a magistrate, and the

modesty with which he declined the honors of the mayoralty, pointing out one more worthy of them, the

Baron de la Billardiere, one of those noble Vendeens whom he had learned to value in the dark days."

"At that time the creditors, who received sixty per cent of their claims through the aforesaid relinquishment

on the part of this loyal merchant, his wife, and his daughter of all that they possessed, recorded their respect

for their debtor in the certificate of bankruptcy granted at the concordat which then took place, giving him at

the same time a release from the remainder of their claims. This testimonial is couched in terms which are

"After receiving such expressions of goodwill, gentlemen, most merchants would have considered

themselves released from obligation and free to return boldly into the vortex of business. Far from so doing,

Birotteau, without allowing himself to be cast down, resolved within his conscience to toil for the glorious

day which has at length dawned for him here. Nothing disheartened him. Our beloved sovereign granted to

the man who shed his blood on the steps of SaintRoch an office where he might earn his bread. The salary

of that office the bankrupt laid by for his creditors, taking nothing for his own wants; for family devotion has

"His wife and his daughter poured their earnings into the common fund, for they too espoused the noble hope

of Birotteau. Each came down from the position she had held and took an inferior one. These sacrifices,

gentlemen, should be held in honor, for they are harder than all others to bear. I will now show you what sort

Here the procureurgeneral read a summingup of the schedule, giving the amounts which had remained

"Each of these sums, with the interest thereon, has been paid, gentlemen; and the payment is not shown by

receipts under private seal, which might be questioned: they are payments made before a notary, properly

authenticated; and according to the inflexible requirements of this Court they have been examined and

verified by the proper authority. We now ask you to restore Birotteau, not to honor, but to all the rights of

which he was deprived. In doing this you are doing justice. Such exhibitions of character are so rare in this

Court that we cannot refrain from testifying to the petitioner how heartily we applaud his conduct, which an

The prosecuting officer closed by reading his charge in the customary formal terms.

The Court deliberated without retiring, and the president rose to pronounce judgement.

"The Court," he said, in closing, "desires me to express to Birotteau the satisfaction with which it renders

Birotteau, clothed with the caftan of honor which the speech of the illustrious procureurgeneral had cast

about him, stood dumb with joy as he listened to the solemn words of the president, which betrayed the

quiverings of a heart beneath the impassibility of human justice. He was unable to stir from his place before

the bar, and seemed for a moment nailed there, gazing at the judges with a wondering air, as though they

were angels opening to him the gates of social life. His uncle took him by the arm and led him from the hall.

Cesar had not as yet obeyed the command of Louis XVIII., but he now mechanically fastened the ribbon of

the Legion of honor to his button hole. In a moment he was surrounded by his friends and borne in triumph

"Where are you taking me, my friends?" he said to Joseph Lebas, Pillerault, and Ragon.

"To the Bourse!" said Pillerault to the coachman, making an expressive sign to Joseph Lebas, for he saw

The late perfumer reentered the Bourse leaning on the arms of the two honored merchants, his uncle and

Joseph Lebas. The news of his rehabilitation had preceded him. The first person who saw them enter,

"Ah! my dear master," he cried, "I am delighted that you have pulled through. I have perhaps contributed to

this happy ending of your troubles by letting that little Popinot drag a feather from my wing. I am as glad of

"You could not be otherwise," said Pillerault. "Such a thing can never happen to you."

"Oh! all in good part," said Lebas, smiling at the malicious meaning of Pillerault, who, without knowing the

Matifat caught sight of Cesar, and immediately the most noted merchants surrounded him and gave him an

ovation boursiere. He was overwhelmed with flattering compliments and grasped by the hand, which roused

some jealousy and caused some remorse; for out of every hundred persons walking about that hall fifty at

least had "liquidated" their affairs. Gigonnet and Gobseck, who were talking together in a corner, looked at

the man of commercial honor very much as a naturalist must have looked at the first electriceel that was

ever brought to him,a fish armed with the power of a Leyden jar, which is the greatest curiosity of the

animal kingdom. After inhaling the incense of his triumph, Cesar got into the coach to go to his own home,

where the marriage contract of his dear Cesarine and the devoted Popinot was ready for signature. His

It is a fault of youth to think the whole world vigorous with its own vigor,a fault derived from its virtues.

Youth sees neither men nor things through spectacles; it colors all with the reflex glory of its ardent fires, and

casts the superabundance of its own life upon the aged. Like Cesar and like Constance, Popinot held in his

memory a glowing recollection of the famous ball. Constance and Cesar through their years of trial had often,

though they never spoke of it to each other, heard the strains of Collinet's orchestra, often beheld that festive

company, and tasted the joys so swiftly and so cruelly chastised,as Adam and Eve must have tasted in after

times the forbidden fruit which gave both death and life to all posterity; for it appears that the generation of

Popinot, however, could dream of the fete without remorse, nay, with ecstasy. Had not Cesarine in all her

glory then promised herself to himto him, poor? During that evening had he not won the assurance that he

was loved for himself alone? So when he bought the appartement restored by Grindot, from Celestin, when

he stipulated that all should be kept intact, when he religiously preserved the smallest things that once

belonged to Cesar and to Constance, he was dreaming of another ball,his ball, his weddingball! He made

loving preparation for it, imitating his old master in necessary expenses, but eschewing all follies,follies

that were now past and done with. So the dinner was to be served by Chevet; the guests were to be mostly the

same: the Abbe Loraux replaced the chancellor of the Legion of honor; the president of the Court of

Commerce, Monsieur Lebas, had promised to be there; Popinot invited Monsieur Camusot in

acknowledgment of the kindness he had bestowed upon Birotteau; Monsieur de Vandenesse and Monsieur de

Fontaine took the place of Roguin and his wife. Cesarine and Popinot distributed their invitations with much

discretion. Both dreaded the publicity of a wedding, and they escaped the jar such scenes must cause to pure

and tender hearts by giving the ball on the evening of the day appointed for signing the marriagecontract.

Constance found in her room the gown of cherry velvet in which she had shone for a single night with

fleeting splendor. Cesarine cherished a dream of appearing before Popinot in the identical balldress about

which, time and time again, he had talked to her. The appartement was made ready to present to Cesar's eyes

the same enchanting scene he had once enjoyed for a single evening. Neither Constance, nor Cesarine, nor

Popinot perceived the danger to Cesar in this sudden and overwhelming surprise, and they awaited his arrival

Following close upon the unspeakable emotion his reentrance at the Bourse had caused him, the hero of

commercial honor was now to meet the sudden shock of felicity that awaited him in his old home. He entered

the house, and saw at the foot of the staircase (still new as he had left it) his wife in her velvet robe, Cesarine,

the Comte de Fontaine, the Vicomte de Vandenesse, the Baron de la Billardiere, the illustrious Vauquelin. A

light film dimmed his eyes, and his uncle Pillerault, who held his arm, felt him shudder inwardly.

"It is too much," said the philosopher to the happy lover; "he can never carry all the wine you are pouring out

Joy was so vivid in their hearts that each attributed Cesar's emotion and his stumbling step to the natural

intoxication of his feelings, natural, but sometimes mortal. When he found himself once more in his own

home, when he saw his salon, his guests, the women in their ball dresses, suddenly the heroic measure in the

finale of the great symphony rang forth in his head and heart. Beethoven's ideal music echoed, vibrated, in

many tones, sounding its clarions through the membranes of the weary brain, of which it was indeed the

Oppressed with this inward harmony, Cesar took the arm of his wife and whispered, in a voice suffocated by

Constance, alarmed, led him to her bedroom; he reached it with difficulty, and fell into a chair, saying:

The Abbe Loraux came, followed by the guests and the women in their balldresses, who stopped short, a

frightened group. In presence of that shining company Cesar pressed the hand of his confessor and laid his

head upon the bosom of his kneeling wife. A vessel had broken in his heart, and the rush of blood strangled

"Behold the death of the righteous!" said the Abbe Loraux solemnly, pointing to Cesar with the divine

gesture which Rembrandt gave to Christ in his picture of the Raising of Lazarus.

Jesus commanded the earth to give up its prey; the priest called heaven to behold a martyr of commercial

Bianchon, Horace Father Goriot The Atheist's Mass The Commission in Lunacy Lost Illusions A

Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment The Secrets of a Princess The Government

Clerks Pierrette A Study of Woman Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Honorine The Seamy Side of History The

Magic Skin A Second Home A Prince of Bohemia Letters of Two Brides The Muse of the Department The

Imaginary Mistress The Middle Classes Cousin Betty The Country Parson In addition, M. Bianchon narrated

Bidault (known as Gigonnet) The Government Clerks Gobseck The Vendetta The Firm of Nucingen A

Camusot A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment Cousin Pons The Muse of the

Camusot de Marville, Madame The Vendetta Jealousies of a Country Town Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Cardot, JeanJeromeSeverin A Start in Life Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's

Claparon, Charles A Bachelor's Establishment Melmoth Reconciled The Firm of Nucingen A Man of

Cochin, EmileLouisLucienEmmanuel The Government Clerks The Firm of Nucingen The Middle

Crottat, Alexandre Colonel Chabert A Start in Life A Woman of Thirty Cousin Pons

Finot, Andoche A Bachelor's Establishment A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's

Life The Government Clerks A Start in Life Gaudissart the Great The Firm of Nucingen

Fontaine, Comte de The Chouans Modeste Mignon The Ball at Sceaux The Government Clerks

Gaudissart, Felix Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Cousin Pons Honorine Gaudissart the Great

Gobseck, JeanEsther Van Gobseck Father Goriot The Government Clerks The Unconscious Humoriists

Gobseck, Sarah Van Gobseck The Maranas Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Member for Arcis

Granville, Vicomte de (later Comte) The Gondreville Mystery Honorine A Second Home Farewell (Adieu)

Grindot Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Start in Life Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Haudry (doctor) The Thirteen A Bachelor's Establishment The Seamy Side of History Cousin Pons

Keller, Francois Domestic Peace Eugenie Grandet The Government Clerks The Member for Arcis

La Billardiere, AthanaseJeanFrancoisMichel, Baron Flamet de The Chouans The Government Clerks

Lenoncourt, Duc de The Lily of the Valley Jealousies of a Country Town The Gondreville Mystery Beatrix

Matifat (wealthy druggist) A Bachelor's Establishment Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The

Nucingen, Baron Frederic de The Firm of Nucingen Father Goriot Pierrette Lost Illusions A Distinguished

Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Another Study of Woman The Secrets of a Princess A Man

Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de Father Goriot The Thirteen Eugenie Grandet Melmoth Reconciled Lost

Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Commission in Lunacy Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Modeste Mignon The Firm of Nucingen Another Study of Woman A Daughter of Eve The Member for Arcis

Palma (banker) The Firm of Nucingen Gobseck Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Ball at

Popinot, JeanJules Honorine The Commission in Lunacy The Seamy Side of History The Middle Classes

Rabourdin, Xavier The Government Clerks At the Sign of the Cat and Racket The Middle Classes

Roguin, Madame At the Sign of the Cat and Racket Pierrette A Second Home A Daughter of Eve

Tillet, Ferdinand du The Firm of Nucingen The Middle Classes A Bachelor's Establishment Pierrette

Melmoth Reconciled A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve The

Trailles, Comte Maxime de Father Goriot Gobseck Ursule Mirouet A Man of Business The Member for Arcis

Vandenesse, Marquise Charles de The Ball at Sceaux Ursule Mirouet A Daughter of Eve

Vandenesse, Comte Felix de The Lily of the Valley Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Letters

of Two Brides A Start in Life The Marriage Settlement The Secrets of a Princess Another Study of Woman