Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  After seven years of unclouded happiness, Goriot lost his wife. It was very unfortunate for him. She was beginning to gain an ascendency over him in other ways; possibly she might have brought that barren soil under cultivation, she might have widened his ideas and given other directions to his thoughts. But when she was dead, the instinct of fatherhood developed in him till it almost became a mania. All the affection balked by death seemed to turn to his daughters, and he found full satisfaction for his heart in loving them. More or less brilliant proposals were made to him from time to time; wealthy merchants or farmers with daughters vied with each other in offering inducements to him to marry again; but he determined to remain a widower. His father-in-law, the only man for whom he felt a decided friendship, gave out that Goriot had made a vow to be faithful to his wife’s memory. The frequenters of the Corn Exchange, who could not comprehend this sublime piece of folly, joked about it among themselves, and found a ridiculous nickname for him. One of them ventured (after a glass over a bargain) to call him by it, and a blow from the vermicelli maker’s fist sent him headlong into a gutter in the Rue Oblin. He could think of nothing else when his children were concerned; his love for them made him fidgety and anxious; and this was so well known, that one day a competitor, who wished to get rid of him to secure the field to himself, told Goriot that Delphine had just been knocked down by a cab. The vermicelli maker turned ghastly pale, left the Exchange at once, and did not return for several days afterwards; he was ill in consequence of the shock and the subsequent relief on discovering that it was a false alarm. This time, however, the offender did not escape with a bruised shoulder; at a critical moment in the man’s affairs, Goriot drove him into bankruptcy, and forced him to disappear from the Corn Exchange.

  As might have been expected, the two girls were spoiled. With an income of sixty thousand francs, Goriot scarcely spent twelve hundred on himself, and found all his happiness in satisfying the whims of the two girls. The best masters were engaged, that Anastasie and Delphine might be endowed with all the accomplishments which distinguish a good education. They had a chaperon — luckily for them, she was a woman who had good sense and good taste; — they learned to ride; they had a carriage for their use; they lived as the mistress of a rich old lord might live; they had only to express a wish, their father would hasten to give them their most extravagant desires, and asked nothing of them in return but a kiss. Goriot had raised the two girls to the level of the angels; and, quite naturally, he himself was left beneath them. Poor man! he loved them even for the pain that they gave him.

  When the girls were old enough to be married, they were left free to choose for themselves. Each had half her father’s fortune as her dowry; and when the Comte de Restaud came to woo Anastasie for her beauty, her social aspirations led her to leave her father’s house for a more exalted sphere. Delphine wished for money; she married Nucingen, a banker of German extraction, who became a Baron of the Holy Roman Empire. Goriot remained a vermicelli maker as before. His daughters and his sons-in-law began to demur; they did not like to see him still engaged in trade, though his whole life was bound up with his business. For five years he stood out against their entreaties, then he yielded, and consented to retire on the amount realized by the sale of his business and the savings of the last few years. It was this capital that Mme. Vauquer, in the early days of his residence with her, had calculated would bring in eight or ten thousand livres in a year. He had taken refuge in her lodging-house, driven there by despair when he knew that his daughters were compelled by their husbands not only to refuse to receive him as an inmate in their houses, but even to see him no more except in private.

  This was all the information which Rastignac gained from a M. Muret who had purchased Goriot’s business, information which confirmed the Duchesse de Langeais’ suppositions, and herewith the preliminary explanation of this obscure but terrible Parisian tragedy comes to an end.

  Towards the end of the first week in December Rastignac received two letters — one from his mother, and one from his eldest sister. His heart beat fast, half with happiness, half with fear, at the sight of the familiar handwriting. Those two little scraps of paper contained life or death for his hopes. But while he felt a shiver of dread as he remembered their dire poverty at home, he knew their love for him so well that he could not help fearing that he was draining their very life-blood. His mother’s letter ran as follows: —

  “MY DEAR CHILD, — I am sending you the money that you asked for.

  Make a good use of it. Even to save your life I could not raise so

  large a sum a second time without your father’s knowledge, and

  there would be trouble about it. We should be obliged to mortgage

  the land. It is impossible to judge of the merits of schemes of

  which I am ignorant; but what sort of schemes can they be, that

  you should fear to tell me about them? Volumes of explanation

  would not have been needed; we mothers can understand at a word,

  and that word would have spared me the anguish of uncertainty. I

  do not know how to hide the painful impression that your letter

  has made upon me, my dear son. What can you have felt when you

  were moved to send this chill of dread through my heart? It must

  have been very painful to you to write the letter that gave me so

  much pain as I read it. To what courses are you committed? You are

  going to appear to be something that you are not, and your whole

  life and success depends upon this? You are about to see a society

  into which you cannot enter without rushing into expense that you

  cannot afford, without losing precious time that is needed for

  your studies. Ah! my dear Eugene, believe your mother, crooked

  ways cannot lead to great ends. Patience and endurance are the two

  qualities most needed in your position. I am not scolding you; I

  do not want any tinge of bitterness to spoil our offering. I am

  only talking like a mother whose trust in you is as great as her

  foresight for you. You know the steps that you must take, and I,

  for my part, know the purity of heart, and how good your

  intentions are; so I can say to you without a doubt, ‘Go forward,

  beloved!’ If I tremble, it is because I am a mother, but my

  prayers and blessings will be with you at every step. Be very

  careful, dear boy. You must have a man’s prudence, for it lies

  with you to shape the destinies of five others who are dear to

  you, and must look to you. Yes, our fortunes depend upon you, and

  your success is ours. We all pray to God to be with you in all

  that you do. Your aunt Marcillac has been most generous beyond

  words in this matter; she saw at once how it was, even down to

  your gloves. ‘But I have a weakness for the eldest!’ she said

  gaily. You must love your aunt very much, dear Eugene. I shall

  wait till you have succeeded before telling you all that she has

  done for you, or her money would burn your fingers. You, who are

  young, do not know what it is to part with something that is a

  piece of your past! But what would we not sacrifice for your

  sakes? Your aunt says that I am to send you a kiss on the forehead

  from her, and that kiss is to bring you luck again and again, she

  says. She would have written you herself, the dear kind-hearted

  woman, but she is troubled with the gout in her fingers just now.

  Your father is very well. The vintage of 1819 has turned out

  better than we expected. Good-bye, dear boy; I will say nothing

  about your sisters, because Laure is writing to you, and I must

  let her have the pleasure of giving you all the home news. Heaven

 
send that you may succeed! Oh! yes, dear Eugene, you must succeed.

  I have come, through you, to a knowledge of a pain so sharp that I

  do not think I could endure it a second time. I have come to know

  what it is to be poor, and to long for money for my children’s

  sake. There, good-bye! Do not leave us for long without news of

  you; and here, at the last, take a kiss from your mother.”

  By the time Eugene had finished the letter he was in tears. He thought of Father Goriot crushing his silver keepsake into a shapeless mass before he sold it to meet his daughter’s bill of exchange.

  “Your mother has broken up her jewels for you,” he said to himself; “your aunt shed tears over those relics of hers before she sold them for your sake. What right have you to heap execrations on Anastasie? You have followed her example; you have selfishly sacrificed others to your own future, and she sacrifices her father to her lover; and of you two, which is the worse?”

  He was ready to renounce his attempts; he could not bear to take that money. The fires of remorse burned in his heart, and gave him intolerable pain, the generous secret remorse which men seldom take into account when they sit in judgment upon their fellow-men; but perhaps the angels in heaven, beholding it, pardon the criminal whom our justice condemns. Rastignac opened his sister’s letter; its simplicity and kindness revived his heart.

  “Your letter came just at the right time, dear brother. Agathe and

  I had thought of so many different ways of spending our money,

  that we did not know what to buy with it; and now you have come

  in, and, like the servant who upset all the watches that belonged

  to the King of Spain, you have restored harmony; for, really and

  truly, we did not know which of all the things we wanted we wanted

  most, and we were always quarreling about it, never thinking, dear

  Eugene, of a way of spending our money which would satisfy us

  completely. Agathe jumped for you. Indeed, we have been like two

  mad things all day, ‘to such a prodigious degree’ (as aunt would

  say), that mother said, with her severe expression, ‘Whatever can

  be the matter with you, mesdemoiselles?’ I think if we had been

  scolded a little, we should have been still better pleased. A

  woman ought to be very glad to suffer for one she loves! I,

  however, in my inmost soul, was doleful and cross in the midst of

  all my joy. I shall make a bad wife, I am afraid, I am too fond of

  spending. I had bought two sashes and a nice little stiletto for

  piercing eyelet-holes in my stays, trifles that I really did not

  want, so that I have less than that slow-coach Agathe, who is so

  economical, and hoards her money like a magpie. She had two

  hundred francs! And I have only one hundred and fifty! I am nicely

  punished; I could throw my sash down the well; it will be painful

  to me to wear it now. Poor dear, I have robbed you. And Agathe was

  so nice about it. She said, ‘Let us send the three hundred and

  fifty francs in our two names!’ But I could not help telling you

  everything just as it happened.

  “Do you know how we managed to keep your commandments? We took our

  glittering hoard, we went out for a walk, and when once fairly on

  the highway we ran all the way to Ruffec, where we handed over the

  coin, without more ado, to M. Grimbert of the Messageries Royales.

  We came back again like swallows on the wing. ‘Don’t you think

  that happiness has made us lighter?’ Agathe said. We said all

  sorts of things, which I shall not tell you, Monsieur le Parisien,

  because they were all about you. Oh, we love you dearly, dear

  brother; it was all summed up in those few words. As for keeping

  the secret, little masqueraders like us are capable of anything

  (according to our aunt), even of holding our tongues. Our mother

  has been on a mysterious journey to Angouleme, and the aunt went

  with her, not without solemn councils, from which we were shut

  out, and M. le Baron likewise. They are silent as to the weighty

  political considerations that prompted their mission, and

  conjectures are rife in the State of Rastignac. The Infantas are

  embroidering a muslin robe with open-work sprigs for her Majesty

  the Queen; the work progresses in the most profound secrecy. There

  be but two more breadths to finish. A decree has gone forth that

  no wall shall be built on the side of Verteuil, but that a hedge

  shall be planted instead thereof. Our subjects may sustain some

  disappointment of fruit and espaliers, but strangers will enjoy

  a fair prospect. Should the heir-presumptive lack

  pocket-handkerchiefs, be it known unto him that the dowager Lady

  of Marcillac, exploring the recesses of her drawers and boxes

  (known respectively as Pompeii and Herculaneum), having brought to

  light a fair piece of cambric whereof she wotted not, the Princesses

  Agathe and Laure place at their brother’s disposal their thread,

  their needles, and hands somewhat of the reddest. The two young

  Princes, Don Henri and Don Gabriel, retain their fatal habits of

  stuffing themselves with grape-jelly, of teasing their sisters, of

  taking their pleasure by going a-bird-nesting, and of cutting

  switches for themselves from the osier-beds, maugre the laws of

  the realm. Moreover, they list not to learn naught, wherefore the

  Papal Nuncio (called of the commonalty, M. le Cure) threateneth

  them with excommunication, since that they neglect the sacred

  canons of grammatical construction for the construction of other

  canon, deadly engines made of the stems of elder.

  “Farewell, dear brother, never did letter carry so many wishes for

  your success, so much love fully satisfied. You will have a great

  deal to tell us when you come home! You will tell me everything,

  won’t you? I am the oldest. From something the aunt let fall, we

  think you must have had some success.

  “Something was said of a lady, but nothing more was said...

  “Of course not, in our family! Oh, by-the-by, Eugene, would you

  rather that we made that piece of cambric into shirts for you

  instead of pocket-handkerchiefs? If you want some really nice

  shirts at once, we ought to lose no time in beginning upon them;

  and if the fashion is different now in Paris, send us one for a

  pattern; we want more particularly to know about the cuffs. Good-

  bye! Good-bye! Take my kiss on the left side of your forehead, on

  the temple that belongs to me, and to no one else in the world. I

  am leaving the other side of the sheet for Agathe, who has

  solemnly promised not to read a word that I have written; but, all

  the same, I mean to sit by her side while she writes, so as to be

  quite sure that she keeps her word. — Your loving sister,

  “LAURE DE RASTIGNAC.”

  “Yes!” said Eugene to himself. “Yes! Success at all costs now! Riches could not repay such devotion as this. I wish I could give them every sort of happiness! Fifteen hundred and fifty francs,” he went on after a pause. “Every shot must go to the mark! Laure is right. Trust a woman! I have only calico shirts. Where some one else’s welfare is concerned, a young girl becomes as ingenious as a thief. Guileless where she herself is in question, and full of foresight for me, — she is like a heavenly angel forgiving the strange incomprehensible sins of ea
rth.”

  The world lay before him. His tailor had been summoned and sounded, and had finally surrendered. When Rastignac met M. de Trailles, he had seen at once how great a part the tailor plays in a young man’s career; a tailor is either a deadly enemy or a staunch friend, with an invoice for a bond of friendship; between these two extremes there is, alack! no middle term. In this representative of his craft Eugene discovered a man who understood that his was a sort of paternal function for young men at their entrance into life, who regarded himself as a stepping-stone between a young man’s present and future. And Rastignac in gratitude made the man’s fortune by an epigram of a kind in which he excelled at a later period of his life.

  “I have twice known a pair of trousers turned out by him make a match of twenty thousand livres a year!”

  Fifteen hundred francs, and as many suits of clothes as he chose to order! At that moment the poor child of the South felt no more doubts of any kind. The young man went down to breakfast with the indefinable air which the consciousness of the possession of money gives to youth. No sooner are the coins slipped into a student’s pocket than his wealth, in imagination at least, is piled into a fantastic column, which affords him a moral support. He begins to hold up his head as he walks; he is conscious that he has a means of bringing his powers to bear on a given point; he looks you straight in the face; his gestures are quick and decided; only yesterday he was diffident and shy, any one might have pushed him aside; to-morrow, he will take the wall of a prime minister. A miracle has been wrought in him. Nothing is beyond the reach of his ambition, and his ambition soars at random; he is light-hearted, generous, and enthusiastic; in short, the fledgling bird has discovered that he has wings. A poor student snatches at every chance pleasure much as a dog runs all sorts of risks to steal a bone, cracking it and sucking the marrow as he flies from pursuit; but a young man who can rattle a few runaway gold coins in his pocket can take his pleasure deliberately, can taste the whole of the sweets of secure possession; he soars far above earth; he has forgotten what the word poverty means; all Paris is his. Those are days when the whole world shines radiant with light, when everything glows and sparkles before the eyes of youth, days that bring joyous energy that is never brought into harness, days of debts and of painful fears that go hand in hand with every delight. Those who do not know the left bank of the Seine between the Rue Saint-Jacques and the Rue des Saints-Peres know nothing of life.