The Lesser Bourgeoisie

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"Providence is very powerful, monsieur," replied the Abbe Gondrin.
"God will protect Monsieur Felix Phellion wherever he may be, and
I have the firmest hope that three years hence he will be among
his friends once more."

"But three years!" said Monsieur Picot. "Will it still be time?
Will Mademoiselle Colleville have waited for him?"

"Yes, I swear it!" cried the young girl, carried away by an
impulse she could not control.

Then she sat down again, quite ashamed, and burst into tears.

"And you, Mademoiselle Thuillier, and you, Madame Colleville, will
you permit this young lady to reserve herself for one who is
worthy of her?"

"Yes! Yes!" cried everybody; for Monsieur Picot's voice, which is
very full and sonorous, seemed to have tears in it and affected
everybody.

"Then it is time," he said, "to forgive Providence."

And rushing suddenly to the door, where my ear was glued to the
keyhole, he very nearly caught me.

"Announce," he said to me, in a very loud tone of voice, "Monsieur
Felix Phellion and his family."

And thereupon the door of a side room opened, and five or six
persons came out, who were led by Monsieur Picot into the salon.

At the sight of her _lover_, Mademoiselle Colleville was taken ill,
but the faint lasted only a minute; seeing Monsieur Felix at her
feet she threw herself into Madame Thuillier's arms, crying out:--

"Godmother! you always told me to hope."

Mademoiselle Thuillier, who, in spite of her harsh nature and want
of education, I have always myself thought a remarkable woman, now
had a fine impulse. As the company were about to go into the
dining-room,--

"One moment!" she said.

Then going up to Monsieur Phellion, senior, she said to him:

"Monsieur and old friend! I ask you for the hand of Monsieur Felix
Phellion for our adopted daughter, Mademoiselle Colleville."

"Bravo! bravo!" they call cried in chorus.

"My God!" said Monsieur Phellion, with tears in his eyes; "what
have I done to deserve such happiness?"

"You have been an honest man and a Christian without knowing it,"
replied the Abbe Gondrin.

Here la Peyrade flung down the manuscript.

"You did not finish it," said Corentin, taking back the paper.
"However, there's not much more. Monsieur Henri confesses to me that
the scene had _moved him_; he also says that, knowing the interest I
had formerly taken in the marriage, he thought he ought to inform me
of its conclusion; ending with a slightly veiled suggestion of a fee.
No, stay," resumed Corentin, "here is a detail of some importance:--"

The English woman seems to have made it known during dinner that,
having no heirs, her fortune, after the lives of herself and her
husband, will go to Felix. That will make him powerfully rich one
of these days.

La Peyrade had risen and was striding about the room with rapid steps.

"Well," said Corentin, "what is the matter with you?"

"Nothing."

"That is not true," said the great detective. "I think you envy the
happiness of that young man. My dear fellow, permit me to tell you
that if such a conclusion were to your taste, you should have acted as
he has done. When I sent you two thousand francs on which to study
law, I did not intend you to succeed me; I expected you to row your
galley laboriously, to have the needful courage for obscure and
painful toil; your day would infallibly have come. But you chose to
violate fortune--"

"Monsieur!"

"I mean hasten it, reap it before it ripened. You flung yourself into
journalism; then into business, questionable business; you made
acquaintance with Messieurs Dutocq and Cerizet. Frankly, I think you
fortunate to have entered the port which harbors you to-day. In any
case, you are not sufficiently simple of heart to have really valued
the joys reserved for Felix Phellion. These bourgeois--"

"These bourgeois," said la Peyrade, quickly,--"I know them now. They
have great absurdities, great vices even, but they have virtues, or,
at the least, estimable qualities; in them lies the vital force of our
corrupt society."

"_Your_ society!" said Corentin, smiling; "you speak as if you were
still in the ranks. You have another sphere, my dear fellow; and you
must learn to be more content with your lot. Governments pass,
societies perish or dwindle; but we--_we_ dominate all things; the
police is eternal."



TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

Note.--This volume ("Les Petits Bourgeois") was not published
until 1854, more than three years after Balzac's death; although
he says of it in March, 1844: "I must tell you that my work
entitled 'Les Petits Bourgeois,' owing to difficulties of
execution, requires still a month's labor, although the book is
entirely written." And again, in October, 1846, he says: "It is to
such scruples" (care in perfecting his work) "that delays which
have injured several of my works are due; for instance, 'Les
Paysans,' which has long been nearly finished, and 'Les Petits
Bourgeois,' which has been in type at the printing office for the
last eighteen months."



ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Barbet
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Man of Business
The Seamy Side of History
The Middle Classes

Baudoyer, Isidore
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons

Beaumesnil, Mademoiselle
The Middle Classes
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
A Second Home

Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
Cesar Birotteau
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 the following:
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche

Bousquier, Du (or Du Croisier or Du Bourguier)
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Middle Classes

Brisetout, Heloise
Cousin Betty
Cousin Pons
The Middle Classes

Bruel, Jean Francois du
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Government Clerks
A Start in Life
A Prince of Bohemia
The Middle Classes
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Daughter of Eve

Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Prince of Bohemia
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
The Middle Classes

Bruno
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Cardot (Parisian notary)
The Muse of the Department
A Man of Business
Jealousies of a Country Town
Pierre Grassou
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons

Cerizet
Lost Illusions
A Man of Business
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Chaffaroux
Cesar Birotteau
A Prince of Bohemia
The Middle Classes

Claparon, Charles
A Bachelor's Establishment
Cesar Birotteau
Melmoth Reconciled
The Firm of Nucingen
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes

Cochin, Emile-Louis-Lucien-Emmanuel
Cesar Birotteau
The Government Clerks
The Firm of Nucingen
The Middle Classes

Colleville
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Colleville, Flavie Minoret, Madame
The Government Clerks
Cousin Betty
The Middle Classes

Corentin
The Chouans
The Gondreville Mystery
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Couture
Beatrix
The Firm of Nucingen
The Middle Classes

Crochard, Charles
A Second Home
The Middle Classes

Desroches (son)
A Bachelor's Establishment
Colonel Chabert
A Start in Life
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

Dutocq
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Fleury
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Galathionne, Prince and Princess (both not in each story)
The Secrets of a Princess
The Middle Classes
Father Goriot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Daughter of Eve
Beatrix

Godard, Joseph
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie
Colonel Chabert
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Start in Life
The Commission in Lunacy
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons

Grassou, Pierre
Pierre Grassou
A Bachelor's Establishment
Cousin Betty
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons

Grindot
Cesar Birotteau
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Start in Life
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Beatrix
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty

Katt
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Keller, Adolphe
The Middle Classes
Pierrette
Cesar Birotteau

La Peyrade, Charles-Marie-Theodose de
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

La Peyrade, Madame de
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

La Roche-Hugon, Martial de
Domestic Peace
The Peasantry
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty

Laudigeois
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Lousteau, Etienne
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
A Daughter of Eve
Beatrix
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty
A Prince of Bohemia
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
The Unconscious Humorists

Metivier
Lost Illusions
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Metivier (nephew)
The Seamy Side of History
The Middle Classes

Minard, Auguste-Jean-Francois
The Government Clerks
The Firm of Nucingen
The Middle Classes

Minard, Madame
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Phellion
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Poiret, the elder
The Government Clerks
Father Goriot
A Start in Life
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Poiret, Madame (nee Christine-Michelle Michonneau)
Father Goriot
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Popinot, Jean-Jules
Cesar Birotteau
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
Cesar Birotteau
The Middle Classes

Saillard
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Thuillier
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Thuillier, Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Thuillier, Louis-Jerome
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Tillet, Ferdinand du
Cesar Birotteau
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 Member for Arcis
Cousin Betty
The Unconscious Humorists

Vinet
Pierrette
The Member for Arcis
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons

Vinet, Olivier
The Member for Arcis
Cousin Pons
The Middle Classes