Chương Chương 43 · 第43章

“Child!” said Eugene.

“Ah! have we changed places, and am I the child to-night?” she asked,

laughingly.

Eugene went back to the Maison Vauquer, never doubting but that he

should leave it for good on the morrow; and on the way he fell to

dreaming the bright dreams of youth, when the cup of happiness has left

its sweetness on the lips.

“Well?” cried Goriot, as Rastignac passed by his door.

“Yes,” said Eugene; “I will tell you everything to-morrow.”

“Everything, will you not?” cried the old man. “Go to bed. To-morrow our

happy life will begin.”

Next day, Goriot and Rastignac were ready to leave the lodging-house,

and only awaited the good pleasure of a porter to move out of it;

but towards noon there was a sound of wheels in the Rue

Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, and a carriage stopped before the door of the

Maison Vauquer. Mme. de Nucingen alighted, and asked if her father was

still in the house, and, receiving an affirmative reply from Sylvie, ran

lightly upstairs.

It so happened that Eugene was at home all unknown to his neighbor. At

breakfast time he had asked Goriot to superintend the removal of

his goods, saying that he would meet him in the Rue d’Artois at four

o’clock; but Rastignac’s name had been called early on the list at

the Ecole de Droit, and he had gone back at once to the Rue

Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve. No one had seen him come in, for Goriot had gone

to find a porter, and the mistress of the house was likewise out. Eugene

had thought to pay her himself, for it struck him that if he left this,

Goriot in his zeal would probably pay for him. As it was, Eugene went

up to his room to see that nothing had been forgotten, and blessed his

foresight when he saw the blank bill bearing Vautrin’s signature lying

in the drawer where he had carelessly thrown it on the day when he had

repaid the amount. There was no fire in the grate, so he was about to

tear it into little pieces, when he heard a voice speaking in Goriot’s

room, and the speaker was Delphine! He made no more noise, and stood

still to listen, thinking that she should have no secrets from him;

but after the first few words, the conversation between the father

and daughter was so strange and interesting that it absorbed all his

attention.

“Ah! thank heaven that you thought of asking him to give an account of

the money settled on me before I was utterly ruined, father. Is it safe

to talk?” she added.

“Yes, there is no one in the house,” said her father faintly.

“What is the matter with you?” asked Mme. de Nucingen.

“God forgive you! you have just dealt me a staggering blow, child!” said

the old man. “You cannot know how much I love you, or you would not have

burst in upon me like this, with such news, especially if all is not

lost. Has something so important happened that you must come here about

it? In a few minutes we should have been in the Rue d’Artois.”

“Eh! does one think what one is doing after a catastrophe? It has turned

my head. Your attorney has found out the state of things now, but it

was bound to come out sooner or later. We shall want your long business

experience; and I come to you like a drowning man who catches at a

branch. When M. Derville found that Nucingen was throwing all sorts of

difficulties in his way, he threatened him with proceedings, and told

him plainly that he would soon obtain an order from the President of the

Tribunal. So Nucingen came to my room this morning, and asked if I meant

to ruin us both. I told him that I knew nothing whatever about it, that

I had a fortune, and ought to be put into possession of my fortune, and

that my attorney was acting for me in the matter; I said again that I

knew absolutely nothing about it, and could not possibly go into the

subject with him. Wasn’t that what you told me to tell him?”

“Yes, quite right,” answered Goriot.

“Well, then,” Delphine continued, “he told me all about his affairs.

He had just invested all his capital and mine in business speculations;

they have only just been started, and very large sums of money are

locked up. If I were to compel him to refund my dowry now, he would be

forced to file his petition; but if I will wait a year, he undertakes,

on his honor, to double or treble my fortune, by investing it in

building land, and I shall be mistress at last of the whole of my

property. He was speaking the truth, father dear; he frightened me! He

asked my pardon for his conduct; he has given me my liberty; I am free

to act as I please on condition that I leave him to carry on my business

in my name. To prove his sincerity, he promised that M. Derville might

inspect the accounts as often as I pleased, so that I might be assured

that everything was being conducted properly. In short, he put himself

in my power, bound hand and foot. He wishes the present arrangements

as to the expenses of housekeeping to continue for two more years, and

entreated me not to exceed my allowance. He showed me plainly that it

was all that he could do to keep up appearances; he has broken with his

opera dancer; he will be compelled to practise the most strict economy

(in secret) if he is to bide his time with unshaken credit. I scolded, I

did all I could to drive him to desperation, so as to find out more. He

showed me his ledgers--he broke down and cried at last. I never saw

a man in such a state. He lost his head completely, talked of killing

himself, and raved till I felt quite sorry for him.”

“Do you really believe that silly rubbish?”... cried her father. “It was

all got up for your benefit! I have had to do with Germans in the way

of business, honest and straightforward they are pretty sure to be, but

when with their simplicity and frankness they are sharpers and humbugs

as well, they are the worst rogues of all. Your husband is taking

advantage of you. As soon as pressure is brought to bear on him he shams

dead; he means to be more the master under your name than in his own. He

will take advantage of the position to secure himself against the risks

of business. He is as sharp as he is treacherous; he is a bad lot! No,

no; I am not going to leave my girls behind me without a penny when I go

to Pere-Lachaise. I know something about business still. He has sunk

his money in speculation, he says; very well then, there is something to

show for it--bills, receipts, papers of some sort. Let him produce them,

and come to an arrangement with you. We will choose the most promising

of his speculations, take them over at our own risk, and have the

securities transferred into your name; they shall represent the separate

estate of Delphine Goriot, wife of the Baron de Nucingen. Does that

fellow really take us for idiots? Does he imagine that I could stand

the idea of your being without fortune, without bread, for forty-eight

hours? I would not stand it a day--no, not a night, not a couple of

hours! If there had been any foundation for the idea, I should never get

over it. What! I have worked hard for forty years, carried sacks on

my back, and sweated and pinched and saved all my life for you, my

darlings, for you who made the toil and every burden borne for you seem

light; and now, my fortune, my whole life, is to vanish in smoke! I

should die raving mad if I believed a word of it. By all that’s holiest

in heaven and earth, we will have this cleared up at once; go through

the books, have the whole business looked thoroughly into! I will not

sleep, nor rest, nor eat until I have satisfied myself that all your

fortune is in existence. Your money is settled upon you, God be thanked!

and, luckily, your attorney, Maitre Derville, is an honest man. Good

Lord! you shall have your snug little million, your fifty thousand

francs a year, as long as you live, or I will raise a racket in Paris, I

will so! If the Tribunals put upon us, I will appeal to the Chambers.

If I knew that you were well and comfortably off as far as money is

concerned, that thought would keep me easy in spite of bad health and

troubles. Money? why, it is life! Money does everything. That great dolt

of an Alsatian shall sing to another tune! Look here, Delphine, don’t

give way, don’t make a concession of half a quarter of a farthing to

that fathead, who has ground you down and made you miserable. If he

can’t do without you, we will give him a good cudgeling, and keep him

in order. Great heavens! my brain is on fire; it is as if there were

something redhot inside my head. My Delphine lying on straw! You! my

Fifine! Good gracious! Where are my gloves? Come, let us go at once;

I mean to see everything with my own eyes--books, cash, and

correspondence, the whole business. I shall have no peace until I know

for certain that your fortune is secure.”

“Oh! father dear, be careful how you set about it! If there is the least

hint of vengeance in the business, if you show yourself openly hostile,

it will be all over with me. He knows whom he has to deal with; he

thinks it quite natural that if you put the idea into my head, I should

be uneasy about my money; but I swear to you that he has it in his own

hands, and that he had meant to keep it. He is just the man to abscond

with all the money and leave us in the lurch, the scoundrel! He knows

quite well that I will not dishonor the name I bear by bringing him into

a court of law. His position is strong and weak at the same time. If we

drive him to despair, I am lost.”

“Why, then, the man is a rogue?”

“Well, yes, father,” she said, flinging herself into a chair, “I wanted

to keep it from you to spare your feelings,” and she burst into tears;

“I did not want you to know that you had married me to such a man as

he is. He is just the same in private life--body and soul and

conscience--the same through and through--hideous! I hate him; I despise

him! Yes, after all that that despicable Nucingen has told me, I cannot

respect him any longer. A man capable of mixing himself up in such

affairs, and of talking about them to me as he did, without the

slightest scruple,--it is because I have read him through and through

that I am afraid of him. He, my husband, frankly proposed to give me my

liberty, and do you know what that means? It means that if things

turn out badly for him, I am to play into his hands, and be his

stalking-horse.”