power thus undermined by a feeling of hostility
whereof the cause was entirely inexplicable to him,
for the reason that he had himself to blame for hav-
ing had a hand in introducing this redoubtable
adversary into the citadel.
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 21
His first mistake was committed when he yielded
to the empty pleasure of cheating Cerizet's ambition
to be principal tenant; if Brigitte had not, by his
advice and upon his urgent representations, under-
taken the management of the property, the odds v/ere
enormous against her ever making the acquaintance
of Madame de Godollo.
He was guilty of another imprudent act when he
urged the Thuilliers to leave their retreat in the Latin
quarter.
At that time, when his influence had reached its
highest point, Theodose looked upon his marriage
as an accomplished fact, and he felt an almost
childish haste to rush on toward the sphere of fash-
ion and elegance which seemed to be open to him.
He had, therefore, seconded the arguments of the
Hungarian, and it seemed to him as if he were sim-
ply sending the Thuilliers on before to prepare his
bed in the handsome apartment he was some day to
occupy with them. He had seen still another
advantage in this arrangement, that, namely, of
removing Celeste from almost daily association
with a rival whom he could but look upon as dan-
gerous. Felix, deprived of the advantages of con-
venient proximity to his beloved, would be compelled
to make his visits at longer intervals, and it would
be an easier task to ruin his chances in the heart
wherein he was installed only upon condition of
giving satisfactory assurances upon the religious
matters in which he had shown so refractory a
spirit
22 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
But more than one obstacle had arisen to all these
schemes of the Provencal.
To enlarge the Thuillier horizon was to run the
risk of raising up rivals in their admiring affection,
which had thus far been lavished exclusively upon
him. In the sort of provincial circle in which they
lived, having no one with whom to compare him,
Brigitte and his good friend might well have placed
him upon an eminence from which he would inev-
itably be cast down by the juxtaposition of other
superior minds and other refined characters. And
so, even aside from the blows which had been dealt
him stealthily by Madame de Godollo, the idea of
the transpontine emigration was a bad one, from the
standpoint of his relations with the Thuilliers, and
but little better, considered in reference to the Colle-
villes.
The latter had followed their friends to the house
in the Quartier de la Madeleine, and a rear suite on
the entresol had been let to them at a rent consis-
tent with their resources. But Colleville found
that the rooms lacked air and light, and as he was
obliged to journey every day from Boulevard de la
Madeleine to his office in Faubourg Saint- Jacques,
he grumbled constantly about the arrangement of
which he was the victim, and concluded that La
Peyrade was becoming a tyrant On the other hand,
Madame Colleville, on the pretext of raising herself
to the level of the neighborhood to which she had
removed, plunged into a frightful vortex of hats and
mantles and new dresses, which necessitated the
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 23
presentation of a multitude of bills for portentous
amounts, and led daily to more or less stormy
domestic scenes. As to Celeste, she certainly had
fewer opportunities to see young Phellion, but she
also had fewer chances of being drawn into religious
controversies with him, and absence, which is dan-
gerous only to lukewarm attachments, made her
think more tenderly and less theologically of the
man of her dreams.
All these false calculations of Theodose's were as
nothing, however, compared with another matter
which tended to diminish his influence still more and
bore heavily upon him in his precarious situation.
In consideration of an advance of ten thousand
francs to which Thuillier had submitted with very
good grace, that worthy was led to expect that, at
the end of a week, the cross of the Legion of Honor
would gratify the secret longing of his whole life.
But nearly two months had passed and not one
word did he hear of the glorious plaything; and the
quondam deputy-chief, who would have taken such
keen delight in sporting his red ribbon on the
asphalt of Boulevard de la Madeleine, of which he
had become one of the most assiduous frequenters,
still had nothing save the flowers that grow in the
fields to adorn his buttonhole, a privilege enjoyed
by all the world, and of which he was much less
proud than our Beranger.
La Peyrade had spoken, to be sure, of an unfore-
seen and inexplicable opposition which had nullified
all. the Comtesse du Bruel's obliging efforts; but
24 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
Thuillier was ill-satisfied with that explanation, and
in his moments of keen disappointment he did not
hesitate to cry, like Chicaneau in Les Plaideurs:
"Eh! then give me back my money!"
However, there was no rupture, because La Pey-
rade still held him in leash with the famous pam-
phlet, Concerning Taxes and Sinking- Funds. The
conclusion had been postponed during the confusion
of moving. During that agitated period Thuillier
was not able to turn his attention to the revision of
the proof, as to which, it will be remembered, he
had reserved the right of most minute scrutiny.
Realizing at last that, to restore his influence
which was evaporating day by day, he must strike
a decisive blow, the advocate determined to take
this same pettifogging disposition as the starting-
point of a plan, as profound as it was venturesome,
which came into his mind.
One day, as they were going over the last leaves
of the pamphlet, a discussion arose concerning the
word nepotism, which Thuillier desired to strike out
from one of the sentences written by La Peyrade,
on the ground that he had never before seen the
word used anywhere and that it was a neologism,
that is to say, something, in the literary ideas of
the bourgeoisie, equivalent to the idea of '93 and the
Terror.
Ordinarily La Peyrade submitted patiently
enough to the criticisms of his good friend, but on
this occasion he betrayed considerable excitement,
and informed Thuillier that he would have to fmjsh
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 2$
for himself the work which he criticized so lumin-
ously and intelligently, and for several days they
saw nothing of him.
Thuillier supposed at first that it was a mere pass-
ing outbreak of ill-temper; but as La Peyrade's
absence was prolonged he felt that he must make a
conciliatory overture, and he went to the Proven-
cal's office to apologize and put an end to his sulking.
As he preferred, however, to give the proceeding a
turn which would allow his self-esteem a chance to
withdraw with honor, he said carelessly, as he
entered the room: "Well, my dear fellow* we were
both right: nepotism means the authority exerted by
the popes' nephews. I looked in the dictionary and
it gives no other meaning; but from what Phellion
tells me it would seem that the meaning of the word
has been extended, in political parlance, to include
the influence which corrupt ministers allow anybody
to exercise contrary to law; so I think we may
retain the expression, although it isn't understood
in the same way by Napoleon Landais."
La Peyrade, whe, when he greeted his visitor,
affected to be very busy arranging his files of docu-
ments, contented himself with a shrug and made no
reply.
"Well," continued Thuillier, "have you seen the
proofs of the last two sheets? For we must be get-
ting on."
"If you haven't sent anything to the printer,"
replied La Peyrade, "we can have no proofs; for
my part I haven't touched pen to paper."
26 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Why, my dear Theodose," said Thuillier, "it
isn't possible that you have taken offence at so
small a matter. I don't flatter myself on my writ-
ing; but, as I am to sign it, I suppose I can have my
opinion about a word."
"But Mosieu Phellion," retorted the advocate,
"'is a writer; and as you consult him I don't see
why you shouldn't get him to finish the book with
you, for, so far as I'm concerned, I've sworn to have
nothing more to do with it"
"God! what a temper!" cried Brigitte's brother;
"here you are in a rage now, because I seemed to
be in doubt, about an expression, and because I con-
sulted somebody. Why you know very well that I
have read passages from the work, as if it were my
own, to Phellion, Colleville, Minard and Barniol, to
see what effect it will produce on the public; but
that's no reason why I should want to put my name
to what they might write. Do you want to know
how much confidence I have in you ? Madame la
Comtesse de Godollo, when I read a few pages to
her yesterday, told me that the pamphlet was likely
to bring me into collision with the king's attorney:
do you think that stopped me?"
"Ah!" said La Peyrade ironically; "I think the
family oracle looks at things very wisely, and I
have no desire to bring your head to the scaffold."
"That's all nonsense," said Thuillier. "Do you
or do you not intend to leave me in the lurch?"
"Literary questions," replied the advocate, "set
the best friends by the ears even more completely
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 27
than political questions; I desire to put an end to
this cause of disputes between us."
"But, my dear Theodose, I never set up to be a
man of letters; I think I have common sense and
I say what I think; you can't bear me ill-will for
that, and certainly if you play me the scurvy trick
of refusing to work with me, it must be that you
have some other grievance against me that I don't
know of."
"Where's the scurvy trick? There's nothing so
easy for you as to give up writing a pamphlet, and
then you'll be Jerome Thuillier as before."
"But I should say that it was your own sugges-
tion that such a publication would help along my
future election to the Chamber; and then again, I
tell you I've read snatches of it to our friends; I
have spoken about it in the Municipal Council, and
now if the work doesn't appear I am disgraced,
they'll say the government has bought me."
" You have only to say that you are the friend of
the incorruptible Phellion, that will atone for every-
thing; you can even give Celeste to that booby of
a son of his, and that alliance will protect you more
surely against suspicion."
"Theodose," thereupon said Thuillier, "there's
something you don't tell me; it isn't natural that
for a mere quarrel over a word you should be deter-
mined to ruin your friend's reputation."
"Well, yes," said La Peyrade, having apparently
made up his mind to speak, "I don't love ingrati-
tude."
28 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"Nor do I," said Thuillier with animation, "and
if you have any idea of accusing me of any-
thing so low and vile I call on you to explain your-
self; you must stop your hinting sooner or later ;
what have you to complain of? what reproach have
you to make against the man whom only a few days
ago you still called your friend?"
"Nothing and everything," said La Peyrade;
"you and your sister are much too clever to break
openly with a man who has put a million in your
hands at the risk of his reputation ; but I'm not so
simple that I can't see through a mill-stone when
there's a hole in it: there are people about you who
are at work, secretly, to ruin me, and Brigitte has
but one thought now, and that is to find some
honest excuse for not keeping her promises. Men
iike myself don't send notes of that sort to protest,
and I certainly don't propose to force myself on her,
but I confess that I was very far from expecting such
treatment."
"Come, come," said Thuillier earnestly, as he
spied a tear glistening in the advocate's eyes and
was entirely taken in thereby; "I don't know what
Brigitte may have done to you, but one thing is
certain and that is that I have never ceased to be
your most devoted friend."
"No," said La Peyrade, "since the setback in
the matter of the Cross, I am not even worth throw-
ing to the dogs, as they say. Can I contend against
these hidden forces ? Great God ! perhaps it's this
very pamphlet that you've talked so much about
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 29
that has disturbed the government and prevented
your appointment. Ministers are such idiots that
they prefer to wait until their hand is forced by the
noise the thing makes when it's published, instead
of doing it with good grace simply to reward your
services. But these are political mysteries that
never occur to your sister's mind."
"What the devil!" said Thuillier, "I flatter my-
self that I am reasonably clear-sighted, and I haven't
noticed that Brigitte has changed toward you."
"True," retorted La Peyrade, "your sight is so
clear that you don't even see by her side this Mad-
ame de Godollo, without whom she can't seem to
live now."
"Aha!" said Thuillier slyly; "so we're having a
touch of jealousy!"
"I don't know whether jealousy's the right word, "
replied La Peyrade, "but, after all, your sister,
whose mind isn't above the ordinary, and whom I'm
amazed that a man of your intellectual superiority
should allow to assume the authority which she uses
and abuses "
"What can I do, my dear fellow?" interrupted
Thuillier, swallowing the flattery, "she's so en-
tirely devoted to me!"
"I admit that weakness," rejoined La Peyrade,
"but, I say again, your sister is vastly inferior to
you. Well, I say that when a man with the quali-
ties you are pleased to credit me with does her the
honor to advise her and devote himself to her as I
have done, he can't be expected to like it, when he
30 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
finds himself supplanted in her confidence by a
woman from no one knows where, and all because
of a few rags of curtains and a few old arm-chairs
she has helped her to buy."
"With women, as you know," replied Thuillier,
"household affairs are of more importance than any-
thing else."
"Believe me, Brigitte, who handles all the money,
assumes also to manage affairs of the heart with a
high hand, and, as you're so very perspicacious,
you must have seen that nothing is less settled now
in Brigitte's mind than my marriage to Mademoiselle
Colleville; and yet my love for her was solemnly
authorized by you."
"Upon my word!" exclaimed Thuillier; "I should
like to see anyone try to interfere with our arrange-
ments."
"Without speaking of Brigitte," said the advo-
cate, "I can tell you someone whose mind is wholly
intent upon upsetting them, and that someone is
Mademoiselle Celeste; in spite of the obstacles
which their divergent opinions on religious matters
seem to place between them, her innocent heart is
still filled with the image of little Phellion."
"But why not tell Flavie to regulate that matter ? "
"No one knows Flavie root and branch better than
you do, my dear fellow. She's a woman before she's
a mother ; I have found it necessary to pay court to
her a bit, and, you understand, although she is will-
ing the marriage should come off, she has no very
keen desire for it"
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 31
"Well then, "said Thuillier, "I'll undertake to
speak to Celeste; it sha'n't be said that a slip of a
girl told us what we should do and what we
shouldn't"
"That's just what I don't want," cried La Pey-
rade, "that you should take a hand in the matter at
all ; aside from your relations with your sister you
have a will of iron, and I don't propose to have it
said that you exerted your authority to force Celeste
into my arms ; I propose, on the contrary, that the
child shall be left entirely free to dispose of her
heart; but I do think 1 am entitled to ask that she
should declare herself plainly between Monsieur
Felix and myself, for I can't continue in this situa-
tion, which is killing me. If postponed to the time
when you are chosen deputy, the marriage becomes
a dream ; it is impossible for me to consent that the
most important event of my life should be left at the
mercy of future contingencies; and then, there was
a savor of bargaining that wasn't at all agreeable to
me in the plan upon which we agreed in the first
place. I am inclined to confide something to you,
my dear fellow, in view of all the unpleasant things
I am compelled to submit to. Dutocq can tell you
that before you left your quarters on Rue Saint-
Dominique, an heiress was in perfect good faith
offered to me in his presence, one who will have a
greater fortune than you will leave to Mademoiselle
Celeste. 1 refused, because I was foolish enough to
have lost my heart, and because an alliance with so
honorable a family as yours seemed to me most
32 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
desirable; but after all, Brigitte must understand
plainly that even if Celeste refuses me, I am not
to be thrown over."
"I should say not," said Thuillier; "but the idea
of leaving the decision of the affair . ~o that little
ninny, if as you say, she has a fan. for Felix! "'
"It's all the same to me," said the advocate, "I
must get out of this position at any cost; I can't
stand it any longer; you talk about your pamphlet,
I'm not capable of finishing it; you're a ladies'
man, and you must know how the heartless creatures
take possession of one's whole being."
"Pshaw!" said Thuillier with a fatuous expres-
sion, "they have had me, but I never gave in to them
very often; I took them up and put them down."
"Very good, but I, with my southern nature, feel
more warmly; and then, you know, Celeste has
attractions of a different sort from all your lights-o'-
love. Brought up by you, under your eyes, she has
become an adorable creature ; but it was a great
mistake to allow that youngster, who isn't suited to
her in any way, to set himself up in her heart."
"You are right ten times over, but it's a mere
childish friendship; Felix and she used to play
together, and you came on the scene much later ;
indeed it's a sure proof of our great esteem for you,
that as soon as you appeared we abandoned our
former plans."
"You, yes," said La Peyrade. "With a power-
ful brain, and literary tastes, which are often man-
ifested in ideas replete with cleverness and good
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 33
sense, you have a heart of gold ; but you will see
how Brigitte will resist when you suggest putting
forward the marriage!"
"But I think that Brigitte has always wanted you
and still wants yo for a son-in-law, if I may so
express myself; ev.-,/j> if she didn't, I beg you to
believe that, in matters of importance, I know how
to enforce my wishes. But let us understand exactly
what you desire; then we will start off with the
left foot, and you'll see that everything will go along
all right"
"I desire," said La Peyrade, "to put the finishing
touch to the pamphlet, for I think of you first of all."
"Certainly," said Thuillier, "we mustn't go
down in sight of land."
"Well, start with the idea that I am completely
used up and dazed by the way this marriage is hang-
ing fire, and, you see, you won't get a page out of
me until the question's settled in one way or
another."
"But how do you state the question?" asked
Thuillier.
"If Celeste's decision is to be adverse to me, I
naturally desire to know it as soon as possible. If
I am doomed to marry for money why I mustn't lose
the opportunity I spoke of."
"Very good; how long a time will you give us?"
"It seems to me that a girl ought to find out what
she wants in a fortnight."
"Of course she ought," said Thuillier, "but I
hate to leave it to Celeste to decide without appeal- "
3
34 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"I'll take the chance; I shall be relieved from
this uncertainty, which is the most important point
to me; and then, between ourselves, I'm not so ven-
turesome as I seem to be; a son of Phellion's, that
is to say pigheadedness incarnate in stupidity, will
never have done with his philosophical hesitation in
a fortnight, and certainly Celeste won't accept him
for a husband until he has given her pledges of his
conversion."
"That's very probable. But what if Celeste
should try to spin the matter out, and refuse to ac-
cept the alternative?"
"That's your affair," said the Provencal. "I don't
know what you understand by 'the family' in Paris;
but I know that in our Comtat of Avignon, it's an
unprecedented thing to give a young girl such liberty.
If you, your sister supposing that she is playing a
square game and a father and mother can't suc-
ceed between you in making a child, whose dowry
you are to provide, content to do so simple and so
reasonable a thing as to choose as she pleases
between two suitors, why excuse me! You'd
better just write on the house door that Celeste is
queen and mistress."
"We haven't quite got to that point yet," said
Thuillier with a knowing look.
"As for you, old boy," rejoined La Peyrade, "I
put you off until Celeste has decided ; then, what-
ever luck I have, I'll go to work, and in three days
it will be all done."
"At all events," said Thuillier, "I know now
THE PETTY BOURGEOIS 35
what you've got in your mind, and I'll have a talk
with Brigitte."
"Your conclusion is rather melancholy," said La
Peyrade, "but unhappily that's how it is."
"What's that? what do you mean?"
"I should prefer, as you can imagine, to hear you
tell me that the matter is settled ; but old creases
can't be ironed out"
"Ah! you think, then, that I'm a man with no
will of my own, and that I can't act on my own
responsibility?"
"Not at all ! but I'd like to be in a corner, and see
how you approach the question with your sister."
"Parbleu! I'll approach it boldly, and a sharp /
will, will make short work of all objections."
"Ah! my poor boy," said La Peyrade, bringing
his hand down on his shoulder, "since Chrysale in
Les Femmes Savantes, how many of these warlike
blasts have we seen lower the flag before the will
of a woman accustomed to lord it over them!"
"Well, we shall see!" said Thuillier, making a
theatrical exit
His intense eagerness for the appearance of his
pamphlet, and the doubt adroitly suggested concern-
ing the inflexibility of his will, had transformed
Thuillier into a raging tiger; he left La Peyrade in
a state of mind to devote his whole household to fire
and sword if they offered any resistance to him.
He broached the question to Brigitte as soon as he
reached home. She, enlightened by her unvar-
nished common sense and her selfishness, observed
that by thus anticipating the date originally fixed
for the marriage, they would commit the mistake of
disarming themselves; when the time for the elec-
tion arrived they could not be sure that the advo-
cate would exert himself as zealously as he might to
bring about a successful result; it would be the same
way, said the old maid, that it was with the Cross.
"There's a difference, "said Thuillier; "the Cross
isn't directly at La Peyrade's disposal, while he can
do what he pleases with the influence he has suc-
ceeded in acquiring in the twelfth arrondissement"
"And suppose an ambitious fellow like him pleases
to work on his own account, after we've feathered
his nest for him?"
This danger did not fail to impress the future
candidate, who professed to find some security in La
Peyrade's moral character.
(37)
38 THE PETTY BOURGEOIS
"A man's sensibilities aren't so very keen,"
retorted Brigitte, "when he keeps threatening to
break with people, and this way of making us dance
like griffins before a lump of sugar in order to get
your pamphlet finished, doesn't suit me at all.
Couldn't you get along without him by getting
Phellion to help you? or perhap. , now I think of it,
Madame de Godollo, who knows so many people in
politics might find a newspaper man to take it up for
you ; they say they're all as poor as Job : for twenty
crowns one of them would see the thing through."
"And let the secret be known to two or three
people?" rejoined Thuillier. "No! I absolutely
need La Peyrade; he feels it and makes his condi-
tions. But, after all is said and done, we've prom-
ised him Celeste, and it is only putting it ahead a
year at most ; what am I saying ? only a few months,
or it may be weeks ; the king has a way of dissolv-
ing the Chamber when no one expects it"
"But suppose Celeste won't have him?" objected
Brigitte.
"Celeste! Celeste!" retorted Thuillier, "why,
she must be made to do what we want her to. You
ought to have thought of that when we made the
agreement with La Peyrade, for our word is pledged,
whatever you may say; besides he agrees that the
child may choose between him and Phellion!"
"So that," queried the sceptical Brigitte, "you