A Start in Life
H >> Honore de Balzac >> A Start in Life
"To whom," asked Madame Clapart, "will Monsieur de Serizy's property
go?"
"To his wife, who will bury him," replied Georges. "The countess is
still fine-looking for a woman of fifty-four years of age. She is very
elegant, and, at a little distance, gives one the illusion--"
"She will always be an illusion to you," said Leger, who seemed
inclined to revenge himself on his former hoaxer.
"I respect her," said Georges. "But, by the bye, what became of that
steward whom the count turned off?"
"Moreau?" said Leger; "why, he's the deputy from the Oise."
"Ha! the famous Centre man; Moreau de l'Oise?" cried Georges.
"Yes," returned Leger, "Moreau de l'Oise. He did more than you for the
revolution of July, and he has since then bought the beautiful estate
of Pointel, between Presles and Beaumont."
"Next to the count's," said Georges. "I call that very bad taste."
"Don't speak so loud," said Monsieur de Reybert, "for Madame Moreau
and her daughter, the Baronne de Canalis, and the Baron himself, the
former minister, are in the coupe."
"What 'dot' could he have given his daughter to induce our great
orator to marry her?" said Georges.
"Something like two millions," replied old Leger.
"He always had a taste for millions," remarked Georges. "He began his
pile surreptitiously at Presles--"
"Say nothing against Monsieur Moreau," cried Oscar, hastily. "You
ought to have learned before now to hold your tongue in public
conveyances."
Joseph Bridau looked at the one-armed officer for several seconds;
then he said, smiling:--
"Monsieur is not an ambassador, but his rosette tells us he has made
his way nobly; my brother and General Giroudeau have repeatedly named
him in their reports."
"Oscar Husson!" cried Georges. "Faith! if it hadn't been for your
voice I should never have known you."
"Ah! it was monsieur who so bravely rescued the Vicomte Jules de
Serizy from the Arabs?" said Reybert, "and for whom the count has
obtained the collectorship of Beaumont while awaiting that of
Pontoise?"
"Yes, monsieur," said Oscar.
"I hope you will give me the pleasure, monsieur," said the great
painter, "of being present at my marriage at Isle-Adam."
"Whom do you marry?" asked Oscar, after accepting the invitation.
"Mademoiselle Leger," replied Joseph Bridau, "the granddaughter of
Monsieur de Reybert. Monsieur le comte was kind enough to arrange the
marriage for me. As an artist I owe him a great deal, and he wished,
before his death, to secure my future, about which I did not think,
myself."
"Whom did Pere Leger marry?" asked Georges.
"My daughter," replied Monsieur de Reybert, "and without a 'dot.'"
"Ah!" said Georges, assuming a more respectful manner toward Monsieur
Leger, "I am fortunate in having chosen this particular day to do the
valley of the Oise. You can all be useful to me, gentlemen."
"How so?" asked Monsieur Leger.
"In this way," replied Georges. "I am employed by the 'Esperance,' a
company just formed, the statutes of which have been approved by an
ordinance of the King. This institution gives, at the end of ten
years, dowries to young girls, annuities to old men; it pays the
education of children, and takes charge, in short, of the fortunes of
everybody."
"I can well believe it," said Pere Leger, smiling. "In a word, you are
a runner for an insurance company."
"No, monsieur. I am the inspector-general; charged with the duty of
establishing correspondents and appointing the agents of the company
throughout France. I am only operating until the agents are selected;
for it is a matter as delicate as it is difficult to find honest
agents."
"But how did you lose your thirty thousand a year?" asked Oscar.
"As you lost your arm," replied the son of Czerni-Georges, curtly.
"Then you must have shared in some brilliant action," remarked Oscar,
with a sarcasm not unmixed with bitterness.
"Parbleu! I've too many--shares! that's just what I wanted to sell."
By this time they had arrived at Saint-Leu-Taverny, where all the
passengers got out while the coach changed horses. Oscar admired the
liveliness which Pierrotin displayed in unhooking the traces from the
whiffle-trees, while his driver cleared the reins from the leaders.
"Poor Pierrotin," thought he; "he has stuck like me,--not far advanced
in the world. Georges has fallen low. All the others, thanks to
speculation and to talent, have made their fortune. Do we breakfast
here, Pierrotin?" he said, aloud, slapping that worthy on the
shoulder.
"I am not the driver," said Pierrotin.
"What are you, then?" asked Colonel Husson.
"The proprietor," replied Pierrotin.
"Come, don't be vexed with an old acquaintance," said Oscar, motioning
to his mother, but still retaining his patronizing manner. "Don't you
recognize Madame Clapart?"
It was all the nobler of Oscar to present his mother to Pierrotin,
because, at that moment, Madame Moreau de l'Oise, getting out of the
coupe, overheard the name, and stared disdainfully at Oscar and his
mother.
"My faith! madame," said Pierrotin, "I should never have known you;
nor you, either, monsieur; the sun burns black in Africa, doesn't it?"
The species of pity which Oscar thus felt for Pierrotin was the last
blunder that vanity ever led our hero to commit, and, like his other
faults, it was punished, but very gently, thus:--
Two months after his official installation at Beaumont-sur-Oise, Oscar
was paying his addresses to Mademoiselle Georgette Pierrotin, whose
'dot' amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand francs, and he
married the pretty daughter of the proprietor of the stage-coaches of
the Oise, toward the close of the winter of 1838.
The adventure of the journey to Presles was a lesson to Oscar Husson
in discretion; his disaster at Florentine's card-party strengthened
him in honesty and uprightness; the hardships of his military career
taught him to understand the social hierarchy and to yield obedience
to his lot. Becoming wise and capable, he was happy. The Comte de
Serizy, before his death, obtained for him the collectorship at
Pontoise. The influence of Monsieur Moreau de l'Oise and that of the
Comtesse de Serizy and the Baron de Canalis secured, in after years, a
receiver-generalship for Monsieur Husson, in whom the Camusot family
now recognize a relation.
Oscar is a commonplace man, gentle, without assumption, modest, and
always keeping, like his government, to a middle course. He excites
neither envy nor contempt. In short, he is the modern bourgeois.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beaupre, Fanny
Modest Mignon
The Muse of the Department
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Bridau, Joseph
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
Pierre Grassou
Letters of Two Brides
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
Bruel, Jean Francois du
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Government Clerks
A Prince of Bohemia
The Middle Classes
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Daughter of Eve
Cabirolle, Madame
A Bachelor's Establishment
Cabirolle, Agathe-Florentine
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
Canalis, Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de
Letters of Two Brides
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Modeste Mignon
The Magic Skin
Another Study of Woman
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists
The Member for Arcis
Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
Cesar Birotteau
Coralie, Mademoiselle
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
Crottat, Alexandre
Cesar Birotteau
Colonel Chabert
A Woman of Thirty
Cousin Pons
Derville
Gobseck
The Gondreville Mystery
Father Goriot
Colonel Chabert
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Desroches (son)
A Bachelor's Establishment
Colonel Chabert
A Woman of Thirty
The Commission in Lunacy
The Government Clerks
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Firm of Nucingen
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
Finot, Andoche
Cesar Birotteau
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Government Clerks
Gaudissart the Great
The Firm of Nucingen
Gaudron, Abbe
The Government Clerks
Honorine
Giroudeau
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie
Colonel Chabert
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Commission in Lunacy
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons
Godeschal, Marie
A Bachelor's Establishment
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Cousin Pons
Gondreville, Malin, Comte de
The Gondreville Mystery
Domestic Peace
The Member for Arcis
Grevin
The Gondreville Mystery
The Member for Arcis
Grindot
Cesar Birotteau
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Beatrix
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
Lora, Leon de
The Unconscious Humorists
A Bachelor's Establishment
Pierre Grassou
Honorine
Cousin Betty
Beatrix
Loraux, Abbe
A Bachelor's Establishment
Cesar Birotteau
Honorine
Lupin, Amaury
The Peasantry
Marest, Frederic
The Seamy Side of History
The Member for Arcis
Marest, Georges
The Peasantry
Maufrigneuse, Duc de
The Secrets of a Princess
A Bachelor's Establishment
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Poiret, the elder
The Government Clerks
Father Goriot
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes
Rouvre, Marquis du
The Imaginary Mistress
Ursule Mirouet
Schinner, Hippolyte
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
Pierre Grassou
Albert Savarus
The Government Clerks
Modeste Mignon
The Imaginary Mistress
The Unconscious Humorists
Serizy, Comte Hugret de
A Bachelor's Establishment
Honorine
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Serizy, Comtesse de
The Thirteen
Ursule Mirouet
A Woman of Thirty
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Another Study of Woman
The Imaginary Mistress
Serizy, Vicomte de
Modeste Mignon
The Imaginary Mistress
Vandenesse, Marquis Charles de
A Woman of Thirty
A Daughter of Eve
Vandenesse, Comte Felix de
The Lily of the Valley
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Cesar Birotteau
Letters of Two Brides
The Marriage Settlement
The Secrets of a Princess
Another Study of Woman
The Gondreville Mystery
A Daughter of Eve