associate editors who were to be picked up later
and whom La Peyrade, thanks to his facility with
the pen, could do without for the moment, the first
number was put forth.
Once more Thuillier began the tour of explora-
tion through Paris, which we have seen him under-
take at the time of the publication of his pamphlet
Entering reading-rooms and cafes he would ask for
the cho de la Btivre, and when, as was unhappily
too often the case, the reply was that they knew no
such paper, he would cry:
"It's incredible that a self-respecting house
shouldn't take in a sheet of such wide circulation !"
And with that he would stalk disdainfully forth,
not noticing that in many places, where the people
understood this traveling-salesman business, they
paid no further attention to him than to laugh in his
face.
On the evening of the day when the inaugural
article appeared, Brigitte had a great crowd in her
salon although it was not Sunday. Reconciled to
La Peyrade, whom her brother had brought home
to dinner, the old maid declared that, flattery aside,
his first article seemed to her tremendously well
hit off. Indeed, according to all those who were
present, the public was delighted with the first
number, which had appeared that morning.
The public, everyone knows what that means:
for every man who launches a written word on the
world, the public consists of five or six intimate
252 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
friends who do not know how they can avoid mak-
ing the acquaintance of his lucubrations without
getting into trouble with the author.
"For my part," cried Colleville, "I can say that
it's the first political article I ever read that didn't
put me to sleep."
"It is certain," said Phellion, "that the article
seemed to me instinct with a vigor combined with
a pithy style which one ordinarily seeks in vain in
the editorial columns of the public prints."
"Yes," said Dutocq, "it's very well presented;
and then there's a way of turning a sentence, you
know, that every man can't get. But we must see
how it stands the test I fancy the Echo de la Bllvre
will be bitterly attacked by the other papers to-
morrow."
"Parbleu!" said Thuillier, "that's just what we
want, and if the government would do us the favor
of seizing us "
"Thanks, my worthy patron!" said Fleury,
whom Thuillier had also brought with him to din-
ner, "I prefer not to enter on the discharge of my
duties quite so quickly."
"Oh! seized " said Dutocq "you won't be
seized; but I guess the ministerial journals will
discharge a fine broadside at you."
The next morning Thuillier was at the office at
eight o'clock in order to be the first to receive this
formidable volley. Having looked through all the
papers he found that there was no more mention of
the Echo de la Bilwe than if it did not exist
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 253
When La Peyrade arrived he found his unfortunate
friend in dismay.
"So that surprises you!" said the Provencal
coolly; "I let you go ahead last night with your
anticipations of a hot encounter with the press; but
I knew perfectly well that there wouldn't be a word
about us this morning. Don't you know that,
against every paper that starts in with some promise
of success, there's always a conspiracy of silence for
a fortnight, and sometimes for whole months?"
"A conspiracy of silence!" echoed Thuillier
admiringly.
He had no idea what it meant, but in the simple
expression there was a flavor of grandeur, something
that appealed to the imagination. When La Pey-
rade explained to him that by the conspiracy of
silence was to be understood a determination on the
part of existing newspapers to remain absolutely
mute on the subject of new-comers in the field, in
order to avoid furnishing them with a gratuitous
advertisement by discussing them, his mind was
hardly more completely satisfied than it was in the
first instance by the swelling roundness of the
phrase. So is the bourgeois constituted ; the phrase
is coin which always passes current with him with-
out protest. At a phrase he becomes excited or de-
pressed, waxes wroth or applauds. With a phrase
he can be led on to organize a revolution and over-
throw the government of his choice.
But the newspaper was only the means; the end
was Thuillier's candidacy; it was hinted at rather
254 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
than declared in the early numbers; but one morn-
ing a letter appeared in the columns of the Echo,
signed by several electors, thanking their represen-
tative in the General Council for the firm and
frankly liberal attitude he had maintained in look-
ing after the interests of the commune. "This
firmness had subjected him to the persecution of a
government which, suffering itself to be dragged
along in the tow of foreign countries, had abandoned
Poland and sold itself to England; the arrondisse-
ment needed, to represent it in the Chamber, a man
of tried convictions, who, holding firmly aloft the
banner of dynastic opposition, would, by his sig-
nificant name alone, teach a stern lesson to the
powers that be."
Accompanied by an adroit comment by La Pey-
rade, this letter was signed by Barbet and Metivier,
both tenants of the house on Rue Saint-Domi-
nique, and the latter of whom furnished the
paper on which the journal was printed, and by
almost all Brigitte's tradesmen, whom, with
the election in view, she had continued to
patronize since her emigration; Thuillier's physi-
cian, druggist and architect, and lastly Barniol,
Phell ion's son-in-law, who professed very advanced
opinions, had also put their names at the foot of
this letter.
As to Phell ion himself, he considered the terms
of the letter too uncompromising, and being always
without fear as without reproach, although he might
well have thought that his refusal would injure his
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 255
son's amatory interests, he had courageously with-
held his name.
This experiment had the happiest results; the ten
or twelve names thus put forward were taken to
express the general desire of the electors, and were
spoken of as "the voice of the quarter;" first of all,
Thuillier's candidacy received such an impetus
that Minard hesitated to come forward as an op-
posing candidate.
Delighted at the turn affairs had taken, Brigitte
was the first to say that the question of the marriage
must be taken hold of, and Thuillier was the more
inclined to agree with her because he feared from
moment to moment that he might be called upon to
pay the sum for which he had become surety. The
Provencal had a thorough explanation with the old
maid. She did not conceal from him the apprehen-
sions she had conceived relative to the maintenance
of her sovereign authority, when a son-in-law of his
talents and character should be established in the
house. "If we are going to run counter to each
other," said she, "it's much better to live apart from
the first; we shan't be any worse friends for that"
La Peyrade replied that he would not for any-
thing in the world agree to such an arrangement as
she proposed ; on the other hand, he reckoned among
the happiest omens of his future the sense of secur-
ity he should enjoy respecting the proper manage-
ment of the material concerns of his household by
reason of Brigitte's retaining the superintendence in
her own hands. He should have enough to do with
256 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
looking after outside matters, and he did not under-
stand how anyone could suppose that he should
think of interfering in the details of housekeeping
for which he was utterly unfitted. . In short he
reassured and persuaded Brigitte so thoroughly that
she urged him to take the necessary steps for the
publication of the banns without delay, taking it
upon herself to prepare Celeste for a speedy catas-
trophe, and agreeing to make her accept it without
winking.
"My dear little girl," said she one morning to
Celeste, "I take it you have given up the idea of
becoming Felix Phellion's wife. In the first place,
he's more of an atheist than ever, and, more than
that, you've noticed yourself that his head's getting
twisted. You must have seen that Madame Marmus
at Madame Minard's she married a scientific man,
an officer of the Legion of Honor, and a member of
the Institute too. There's no sadder woman in
the world; her husband put her in lodgings be-
hind the Luxembourg, on Rue Duguay-Trouin, near
Rue Notre-Dame des Champs; the street isn't
paved or lighted. When he goes out he don't know
where he's going, and brings up at the Champ de
Mars when he started for Faubourg Poissoniere; he
ain't even capable of giving his address to a cab-
driver, and he's so absent-minded that he can't tell
you whether it's before or after dinner. You can
imagine how a woman must pass her time with peo-
ple who always have their noses into telescopes to
look at the stars!"
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 257
"But Felix isn't as absent-minded as all that,"
said Celeste.
"Of course not, because he's younger, but his
absent-mindedness will grow on him with age, and
so will his atheism; so we all agree that he ain't
the husband for you, and your mother and father
and Thuillier and myself, everybody in the house,
in short, with any common sense, have decided that
you must declare yourself in favor of La Peyrade,
a man of the world who'll make his way, who has
rendered us very great services, and who's going to
make your godfather a deputy. We are inclined,
on his account, to give you such a dot as we cer-
tainly wouldn't give you for anybody else. So, it's
settled, the banns are going to be published, and to-
day week we sign the contract There'll be a big
dinner for the relations and intimate friends, and
then an evening party at which the papers will be
signed, and your trousseau and wedding presents
exhibited, and as I'm to run the thing, I promise
you it will be done in good style, especially if you
don't act like a child, and if you fall in with our
plans like a good girl."
"But, Aunt Brigitte " Celeste began timidly.
"There's no but nor */," retorted the old maid
imperiously; "it's all arranged as I tell you, and
unless, mademoiselle, you claim to know more than
all your relations "
"I will do whatever you choose, dear aunt,"
replied Celeste, who felt as if a thunder-cloud were
about to burst over her head, and was not strong
17
258 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
enough to struggle against the iron will whose decree
she had just heard.
She rushed at once to pour her grief into Madame
Thuillier's bosom, and when her godmother coun-
seled patience and resignation, the poor child felt
that she could not expect any support from that
quarter, in even the slightest attempt at resistance,
and she could but look upon her sacrifice as an
accomplished fact
Plunging with a sort of frenzy into the new cur-
rent of activity she had introduced into her life,
Brigitte at once took the field to prepare the trous-
seau and purchase the wedding gifts. Like misers
who, on great occasions, lay aside their usual
habits and character, the old maid could find noth-
ing handsome enough and fairly threw money out
of the window, so that, until the day appointed for
signing the contract, the jeweler, the dressmaker,
the linendraper, the milliner, the upholsterer, all
selected from among the most famous houses, were
permanently settled on Brigitte's premises.
"It's like a procession," said Josephine the cook
admiringly, to Madame Minard's Francoise; "the
bell don't stop ringing from morning till night"
The dinner was ordered at Chabot and Potel's
and not at Chevet's. Brigitte chose in this way to
establish her independence and to follow no longer
in the tracks of Madame de Godollo. The dinner-
party was thus made up: three Thuilliers, three
Collevilles, including the bride-elect; La Peyrade,
the bridegroom ; Dutocq, and Fleury, manager of the
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 259
tcho de la B&vre, whom he had requested to serve
as witnesses, the infinitesimally small number of
his relations leaving him no alternative; Minard
and Rabourdin, selected as witnesses on Celeste's
behalf; Madame and Mademoiselle Minard and Mi-
nard junior; two of Thuillier's colleagues in the
General Council ; Dupuis the notary, who was
employed to draw up the contract, and lastly Abbe
Gondrin, spiritual adviser to Madame Thuillier and
Celeste, who was to perform the marriage ceremony.
This last-named of the elect was a former vicar of
Saint- Jacques du Haut-Pas, whose extremely refined
manners and talent as a preacher had led Monsei-
gneur the Archbishop to translate him from the poor
parish in which he began his career to the aristo-
cratic sanctuary of La Madeleine. Since his two
penitents had become his parishioners once more
the young abbe sometimes visited them, and Thuil-
lier, when he went to him and explained in his own
way the propriety of his choice of La Peyrade, tak-
ing occasion to slander Felix Phellion's religious
opinions, readily obtained his consent to contrib-
ute to the resignation of the victim with his unc-
tuous and persuasive eloquence.
When they took their seats at the table three
guests were missing: Minard the elder, his son and
the notary Dupuis. The latter had sent Thuillier a
note that morning to say that they need not expect
him at dinner, but that he would be in the salon at
precisely nine o'clock with the contract, and at
Mademoiselle Thuillier's service. Julien Minard's
260 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
absence was explained by his mother, who said that
he was confined to his room by a severe sore throat;
but as to Minard the elder, who did not arrive with
his wife and daughter, no explanation was forth-
coming, and as the dinner-hour had passed, Madame
Minard, all the while insisting that her husband
would come, urged Brigitte to sit down without him.
Brigitte ordered the soup to be kept hot, because,
according to bourgeois ideas, a dinner without soup
is no dinner at all.
The banquet was but moderately animated, and,
although the viands may have been better, what a
contrast, in the matter of gaiety and constant flow of
jovial conversation, to the famous improvised feast
at the time of the election to the General Council.
The absence of three invited guests was a promi-
nent cause of the lack of animation ; and then Flavie
was melancholy, for she had seen La Peyrade again
at her own house, and had a tear-bedewed explana-
tion with him. Celeste, even if she had been
happy in the choice that had been made for her,
could not with propriety have exhibited her delight
externally; so she made hardly any attempt to
brighten up her countenance, and did not even dare
to glance at her godmother, whose face, if we may
so express it, looked as if she were indulging in one
prolonged bleat; the poor child feared that an ex-
change of glances between them would bring tears
to the eyes of both. Thuillier had grown in im-
portance in a thousand directions, and was, in
consequence, preter naturally solemn, and Brigitte,
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 261
feeling that she was no longer in her own circle,
where she reigned without a rival, also seemed put
out and embarrassed.
Colleville tried hard, by repeated jocose sallies,
to raise the temperature of the assemblage, but the
coarse salt of his artistic witticisms, produced the
effect, in his present surroundings of a burst of
laughter in a sick-room, and an unspoken hint, con-
veyed to him at the same moment by Thuillier, La
Peyrade and his wife, to hold himself back, put a
damper on his enthusiasm and his turbulent expan-
sion of spirits. It was a remarkable circumstance
that it was the most serious individual in the party
who finally succeeded, with Rabourdin's assistance,
in warming up the atmosphere. The Abbe Gon-
drin, a man of a most refined and cultivated mind,
like all pure, well-ordered souls, possessed a fund
of modest humor, which he could make contagious
when he chose, and the conversation was just be-
ginning to sparkle when Minard the elder appeared.
After apologizing for his tardiness, alleging an
important matter of business at the mayor's office,
which had to be concluded at one sitting, he ex-
changed a glance with his wife, which would have
led one much more readily to believe that he had
been employed upon some private business. La
Peyrade and Thuillier had received a box for the
first performance of the Tel'egraphe d' 'Amour, the
famous fairy-play in which Olympe Cardinal was
to make her debut, and they were not fooled by
Julien Minard's supposed indisposition. They too
262 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
looked at each other after noticing the significant
look exchanged between the husband and wife, and
they seemed to be asking each other if the secret
had not been discovered, and if the worthy mayor
of the eleventh arrondissement had not been de-
tained till that hour by the necessity of investigat-
ing the vagaries of his son the advocate?
Being accustomed, wherever he was, to take the
lead in conversation, and thinking doubtless that he
would do well to conceal his paternal anxiety
beneath an appearance of perfect freedom from care,
Minard, after he had hastily swallowed a few mor-
sels, said:
"Gentlemen, have you heard the great news?"
"What is it?" he was asked with much interest
in several quarters.
"The Academy of Sciences at its session to-day
was informed of a momentous discovery : we have
a new star in the sky."
"Good!" said Colleville, "it will do to take the
place of the one Beranger couldn't find there, when
he bewailed the departure of Chateaubriand, to the
tune of Octavie:
" 'Chateaubriand, why fly thy native land?' "
This quotation, which was sung, exasperated
Flavie, and if it had been customary for ladies to
sit beside their husbands at table, the former first
clarionet at the Opera-Comique would not have
been let off with a "Colleville!" in a threatening,
imperative tone, addressed to him as a call to order.
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 263
"The fact that makes this great astronomical
event particularly interesting to this party of which
I have the honor to make one, is that the author of
the discovery is a resident of the twelfth arrondisse-
ment where several of you still live or did live for
a long while. Besides, everything connected with
this great scientific fact borders on the marvelous.
The Academy, after listening to the paper announc-
ing the discovery, was so entirely convinced of its
truth that, when the session was at an end, a depu-
tation went to the modern Galileo's house to con-
gratulate him in the name of the whole body, and
yet the new star is not visible either to the naked
eye or with the telescope; its existence and the
place it occupies in the sky are demonstrated in the
most irrefragable way by reasoning and computa-
tion. 'There must be an unknown star there; I
don't see it, but I am sure of it' That's what the
astronomer said to the Academy, which body he
convinced at once by his deductions; and who do
you suppose this Christopher Columbus of the new
celestial world is, gentlemen? an old man three-
quarters blind, who can see just enough to find his
way along the street"
"Wonderful! marvelous!" was heard on all
sides.
"What's the man's name?" asked several voices.
"Monsieur Picot, or, if you prefer, Pere Picot, for
that's what everyone calls him on Rue du Val -de-
Grace, where he lives; he's simply an old professor
of mathematics, who has turned out some very
264 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
promising pupils by the way: why, Felix Phellion,
whom you all know, studied with him, and he was
the man who read the paper to the Academy in his
old master's name."
At the mention of Felix, Celeste, remembering
his talk about a future in the sky, which she took
at the time for an attack of madness, glanced at
Madame Thuillier, whose face had lighted up, and
who seemed to say to her: "Courage, my child!
all is not lost."
"My dear fellow," said Thuillier to La Peyrade,
"Felix is to be here this evening, and we must
handle him very carefully in order to get him to let
us have the paper; it would be a great hit for our
Echo, if we could be the first to publish it."
"Ah!" said Minard, taking it upon himself to
reply, "that would gratify the public curiosity, for
the affair will make a great sensation. The depu-
tation, not finding Monsieur Picot at home, went at
once to the Minister of Public Instruction; the min-
ister flew to the Tuileries, and the Messager, in an
extra edition published this evening, which I read
in my carriage as I drove here, announces that Mon-
sieur Picot is made a knight of the Legion of Honor,
and that a pension of eighteen hundred francs is
assigned him from the fund set aside for the encour-
agement of science and letters."
"There's a Cross well placed at all events," said
Thuillier.
"But a pension of eighteen hundred francs seems
pretty mean to me," said Dutocq.
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 265
"True enough," said Thuillier, "especially as
it's the taxpayers' money, after all, and when we
see it squandered on anybody that's recommended
by the camarilla "
"Eighteen hundred francs is something, how-
ever," rejoined Minard, "especially for a scientific
man. Those people have almost no wants and are
used to living on very little."
"I fancy too," said La Peyrade, "that the excel-
lent Monsieur Picot doesn't lead a very well-ordered
life, for his family, who tried in the first place to
have him put under guardianship, are at work at
the present moment to secure the appointment of a
commission of lunacy; they claim that he allows
himself to be stripped by a woman who works for
him. Parbleu! You know her, Thuillier; she's
the woman who came to the office the other day,
when somebody had made her believe that Dupuis
the notary, in whose hands she had some money,
had absconded and taken it with him."
"Yes, yes," said Thuillier in a meaning tone,
"you're right, I know her."
"It's a strange thing," said Brigitte, seizing the
opportunity to enforce once more the argument she
had drawn a few days previously from the absent-
mindedness of Marnus the academician; "it's a
strange thing that all these scientific men, outside
of their science, are good for nothing, and in their
housekeeping you're obliged to lead them like
children."
"That proves," said Abbe Gondrin, "how deeply
266 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
absorbed they are by their studies, and at the same
time shows an innocent, unsuspicious nature which
has a very touching side."
"When they ain't ugly as donkeys," rejoined
Brigitte hastily. "I tell you, Monsieur 1'Abbe, that
a scholar wouldn't have suited me at all if I'd ever
thought of marrying. In the first place what do
they spend their time on ? Nonsensical things most
of the time; for here you are all staring in admira-
tion because someone's discovered a star, but what
good will any one of us get out of it? For all the
good stars are, it seems to me we had enough
already!"
"Bravo! Brigitte," exclaimed Colleville, break-
ing loose once more; "you're on the right track, my
girl, and I agree with you that the man who should
discover a new dish would deserve much better of
mankind."
"Colleville," said Flavie, "I must tell you that
your eccentricities are in the worst form."
"My dear mademoiselle," said Abbe Gondrin,
addressing Brigitte, "you might be right, if we
were made of matter only and if there were not,
joined to our bodies, a soul whose instincts and
appetites also demand to be satisfied. Now I
believe that this consciousness of the infinite which
is in every one of us, and which we seek to satisfy,
each in his own way, is wonderfully well served by
the labors of the astronomers, who reveal to us day
by day the new worlds which the hand of the Creator
has planted in space. In your case this yearning
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 267
for the infinite has taken a different course; it
looks nearer home, and your passionate desire for
the welfare of all about you, your warm, fervent,
devoted affection for your excellent brother, are
likewise manifestations of those earnest aspirations
in which there is nothing earthly, and which, as
they seek to attain their purpose and their goal,
never think of asking themselves:. 'What good will
this do?' or 'Of what use is that?' I can tell you,
moreover, that the stars are not as useless as you
persuade yourself that they are; without them
navigators would be sorely puzzled to find their
way, and they could not sail to far-off countries to
bring home the vanilla to flavor the delicious cream
of your manufacture which I am eating at this
moment And so, as Monsieur Colleville will see,