第36章

THE SALON OF MADAME D'ESPARD

About two months before the nomination of Simon Giguet, at eleven o'clock one evening, in a mansion of the faubourg Saint-Honore belonging to the Marquise d'Espard, while tea was being served the Chevalier d'Espard, brother-in-law to the marquise, put down his tea-cup, and, looking round the circle, remarked:--"Maxime was very melancholy to-night,--didn't you think so?""Yes," replied Rastignac, "but his sadness is easily accounted for.He is forty-eight years old; at that age a man makes no new friends, and now that we have buried de Marsay, Maxime has lost the only man capable of understanding him, of being useful to him, and of using him.""He probably has pressing debts.Couldn't you put him in the way of paying them?" said the marquise to Rastignac.

At this period Rastignac was, for the second time, in the ministry; he had just been made count almost against his will.His father-in-law, the Baron de Nucingen, was peer of France, his younger brother a bishop, the Comte de Roche-Hugon, his brother-in-law, was an ambassador, and he himself was thought to be indispensable in all future combinations of the ministry.

"You always forget, my dear marquise," replied Rastignac, "that our government exchanges its silver for gold only; it pays no heed to men.""Is Maxime a man who would blow out his brains?" inquired the banker du Tillet.

"Ha! you wish I were; we should be quits then," said Comte Maxime de Trailles, whom everybody supposed to have left the house.

The count rose suddenly, like an apparition, from the depths of an arm-chair placed exactly behind that of the Chevalier d'Espard.

Every one present laughed.

"Will you have a cup of tea?" said the young Comtesse de Rastignac, whom the marquise had asked to do the honors in her place.

"Gladly," replied the count, standing before the fireplace.

This man, the prince of fashionable scoundrels, had managed to maintain himself until now in the high and mighty position of a dandy in Paris, then called Gants Jaunes (lemon-kid-glovers), and since, "lions." It is useless to relate the history of his youth, full of questionable adventures, with now and then some horrible drama, in which he had always known how to save appearances.To this man women were never anything else than a means; he believed no more in their griefs than he did in their joys; he regarded them, like the late de Marsay, as naughty children.After squandering his own fortune, he had spent that of a famous courtesan, La Belle Hollandaise, the mother of Esther Gobseck.He had caused the misery of Madame Restaud, sister of Madame Delphine de Nucingen, the mother of the young Comtesse de Rastignac.

The world of Paris offers many unimaginable situations.The Baronne de Nucingen was at this moment in Madame d'Espard's salon in presence of the author of all her sister's misery, in presence of a murderer who killed only the happiness of women.That, perhaps, was the reason why he was there.Madame de Nucingen had dined at Madame d'Espard's with her daughter, married a few months earlier to the Comte de Rastignac, who had begun his political career by occupying the post of under-secretary of state in the famous ministry of the late de Marsay, the only real statesman produced by the Revolution of July.

Comte Maxime de Trailles alone knew how many disasters he had caused;but he had always taken care to shelter himself from blame by scrupulously obeying the laws of the Man-Code.Though he had squandered in the course of his life more money than the four galleys of France could have stolen in the same time, he had kept clear of justice.Never had he lacked in honor; his gambling debts were paid scrupulously.An admirable player, his partners were chiefly the great seigneurs, ministers, and ambassadors.He dined habitually with all the members of the diplomatic body.He fought duels, and had killed two or three men in his life; in fact, he had half murdered them, for his coolness and self-possession were unparalleled.No young man could compare with him in dress, in the distinction of his manners, the elegance of his witty speech, the grace of his easy carriage,--in short, what was called in those days "the grand air." In his capacity of page to the Emperor, trained from the age of twelve in the art of riding, he was held to be the skilfulest of horsemen.Having always fine horses in his stable, he raised some, and ruled the fashion in equestrianism.No man could stand a supper of young bloods better than he; he drank more than the best-trained toper, but he came out fresh and cool, and ready to begin again as if orgy were his element.

Maxime, one of those despised men who know how to repress the contempt they inspire by the insolence of their attitude and the fear they cause, never deceived himself as to his actual position.Hence his real strength.Strong men are always their own critics.

Under the Restoration he had made the most of his former condition of page to the Emperor.He attributed to his pretended Bonapartist opinions the rebuffs he met with from the different ministers when he asked for an office under the Bourbons; for, in spite of his connections, his birth, and his dangerous aptitudes, he never obtained anything.After the failure of these attempts he entered the secret cabal which led in time to the fall of the Elder branch.