UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
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THE LIBRARY

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gemote tie Balzac



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PARISIAN LIFE

VOLUME IX



LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND COMPLETE COPIES



NO.



7 1 3



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BIXIOU, BLONDET, FINOT AND COUTURE



"This is from Fenelon direct. — Thus, those who
know the world, the observers, the people comme
il faut, the men well-gloved and well-cravated, who

do not blush to many a woman for her fortune, they
proclaim as indispensable a complete separation of
interests and of sentiments. The others are the fools
who love * * * For them, millions are but mud ;
the glove, the camelia, worn by the idol is worth the
millions."



THE NOVELS



OF



HONORE DE BALZAC



NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME
COMPLETELY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

THE SECRETS OF LA PRINCESSE DE CADIGNAN

SARRASINE FACINO CANE

A MAN OF BUSINESS

THE INVOLUNTARY COMEDIANS

BY WILLIAM WALTON



WITH FIVE ETCHINGS BY CHARLES-BERNARD DE BILLY,
AFTER PAINTINGS BY ALCIDE-THEOPHILE ROBAUDI



IN ONE VOLUME



PRINTED ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY

GEORGE BARRIE & SON, PHILADELPHIA



COPYRIGHTED, 1 896, BY G. B. A SON



• . . < • « « * l * ■■,.. >•.•

.. . -.. • ♦..>.-. * ■



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* * •

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o



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN



1899G4



TO MADAME ZULMA CARRAUD

Is it not to you, Madame, whose lofty and upright
intelligence is as a treasure for all your friends, to
you, who are at once for me an entire public and the
most indulgent of sisters, that I should dedicate this
work? Deign to accept it in testimony of a friend-
ship of which I am proud. You and some other
souls, fine as your own, will comprehend my design
in reading The House of Nucingen coupled with
Cesar Birotteau. In this contrast, is there not an
entire social lesson?

De Balzac.



(3)



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

You are acquainted with the thinness of the par-
titions which separate the little apartments, the
cabinets particuliers, in the most elegant restaurants
in Paris. In that of Very, for instance, the largest
room is cut in two by a partition which is removed
and restored at will. This scene is not laid there,
but in a good locality, which it is not convenient for
me to designate. There were two of us. I will say,
then, like the Prudhomme of Henry Monnier; "I
would not wish to compromise her." We were
lingering over the delicacies of a dinner, admirable
in many respects, in a little apartment, in which we
were conversing in low tones, having due regard for
the lack of thickness of the partition. We had pro-
gressed as far as the roast without having had any
neighbors in the apartment adjoining ours, in which
we heard only the crackling of the fire. Eight
o'clock sounded. There was a great noise of feet, the
sound of words exchanged, the waiters brought
candles. It was demonstrated to us that the neigh-
boring apartment was occupied. In recognizing the
voices, I knew what sort of personages were these

(5)



6 THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

occupants. They were four of the most enterprising
cormorants sprung from the foam which tops the
incessantly renewed waves of the present genera-
tion ; good-natured youths, whose support is prob-
lematical, who are not known to possess either
incomes or estates, and yet who live well. These
clever condoltieri of modern industry, which has
become the crudest of wars, leave all the worries to
their creditors, keep all the pleasures for themselves,
and have no other care than that of their apparel.
Moreover, bold enough to smoke, like Jean Bart,
their cigar over a barrel of powder, perhaps in order
not to fail in their particular role; greater scoffers,
even, than the smaller newspapers, scoffers that
would not hesitate to ridicule themselves; perspi-
cacious and incredulous, inquirers into the affairs
of others, avaricious and prodigal, envious of others,
but satisfied with themselves; profound politicians
at moments, analyzing all, guessing at everything,
they had not yet been able to shine in the world in
which they wished to display themselves. One
only of the four had succeeded, but only to the foot
of the ladder. It is nothing to have money, and a
parvenu only knows what is deficient in him after
six months of flatteries. Not much of a talker, cold,
affectedly grave, without wit, this parvenu, whose
name was Andoche Finot, had had heart enough to
prostrate himself on his stomach before those who
could serve him, and wit enough to be insolent to
those of whom he had no need. Like one of the
grotesque figures of the ballet of "Gustave," he was



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN 7

marquis behind and a villain in front. This indus-
trial prelate kept a train-bearer, Emile Blondet,
editor of a newspaper, a man of a good deal of
ingenuity, but ill-regulated, bright, capable, lazy,
knowing himself exploited, but permitting himself to
be so; perfidious, as he was good, by impulses; one
of those men whom you like and for whom you
have no respect. Sharp as a soubrette of comedy,
incapable of refusing his pen to any one who asked
it and his heart to anyone who borrowed it, Emile
is the most attractive of these girl-men of whom the
most fanciful of our wits has said: "I like them
better in satin slippers than in boots." The third
man, named Couture, supported himself by specula-
tions. He grafted one enterprise upon another; the
success of one covered the failure of the other.
Thus he maintained himself on the surface, sus-
tained by the nervous strength of his activity,
by sharp and audacious strokes. He swam about
here and there, seeking in the immense sea of
Parisian affairs an islet sufficiently contestable
for him to lodge himself thereon. Evidently, he
was not in his place. As to the last, the most
malicious of the four, his name alone will suffice:
Bixiou! Alas, it was no longer the Bixiou of 1825,
but the one of 1836, the misanthropical buffoon,
with his mad fancy and biting wit, a poor devil
exasperated at having expended so much wit in
pure loss, furious at not having picked up his lucky
find in the last revolution, giving a kick to each one
like a true Pierrot of the Funambules, having the



8 THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

knowledge of his own epoch and of its scandalous
adventures on the tips of his fingers, ornamenting
them with his own droll inventions, leaping on
everybody's shoulders like a clown and endeavor-
ing to leave a mark there like an executioner.

After having satisfied the first cravings of gour-
mandizing, our neighbors arrived at the station in
which we were in our dinner, at the dessert; and,
thanks to our silence, they thought themselves alone.
With the smoke of the cigars, with the aid of
the champagne, interspersed with the gastronomical
pleasures of the dessert, they fell into familiar con-
versation. Characterized by that icy spirit which
stiffens the most elastic sentiments, arrests the
most generous inspirations, and gives to laughter
something cutting, this talking, full of the bitter
irony which changes gaiety into sneering, betrayed
the exhaustion of souls delivered over entirely to
themselves, without any other aim than the satis-
faction of egotism, a fruit of the peace in which we
dwell. That pamphlet against man which Diderot
did not dare to publish, le Neveu de Rameau, that
book, which reveals everything in order to show
the wounds, is alone comparable to this pamphlet
uttered without any after-thought, in which the lan-
guage does not even respect that which the thinker
is still discussing, in which nothing is constructed
save with ruins, in which everything is denied, in
which nothing is admired save that which skepti-
cism adopts, — the omnipotence, the omniscience, the
all-congruity of money. After having taken stray



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN 9

shots in the circle of acquaintances, back-biting
now began to massacre intimate friends. One indi-
cation will suffice to explain the desire which I had
to remain and to listen to the moment when
Bixiou began to speak, as will be seen. We then
heard one of those terrible improvisations which
secured for this artist his reputation among a cer-
tain number of blase spirits; and though often
interrupted, commenced and recommenced, it was
stenographed in my memory. Opinions and form,
everything was outside of all literary conditions.
But this is what it was, — a pot-pourri of sinister
things which paint our time, of which should be
recounted none but similar histories, and I leave the
responsibility, moreover, to the principal narrator.
The pantomime, the gestures, in harmony with the
frequent changes of the voice by which Bixiou
depicted the various personages brought on to the
scene, must have been perfect, for his three audi-
tors uttered from time to time approving exclama-
tions and satisfied interjections.

"And Rastignac refused you?" said Blondet to
Finot.

"Flatly."

"But did you threaten him with the papers?"
asked Bixiou.

"He just laughed," answered Finot.

"Rastignac is the direct heir of the late De Mar-
say; he makes his way in politics as in the world,"
said Blondet

"But how did he make his fortune?" asked



IO THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

Couture. "He was in 1819, with the illustrious
Bianchon, in a miserable boarding-house of the Latin
Quarter; his family dined on scraps and drank raw
wine, so as to send him a hundred francs a month;
the estate of his father was not worth a thousand
ecus; he had two sisters and a brother on his hands,
and now — "

"Now, he has an income of forty thousand
francs," resumed Finot; "each of his sisters is
richly dowered, married in the nobility, and he has
left the usufruct of his estate to his mother — "

"In 1827," said Blondet, "I saw him still with-
out a sou."

"Oh! in 1827!" said Bixiou.

"Well," resumed Finot, "to-day we see him in a
fair way to become a minister, peer of France, and
everything that he could wish! Three years ago
he got rid of Delphine comfortably ; he will only
marry under good conditions, and he can marry
some young girl of noble rank, he can ! — The scamp
has had the good sense to attach himself to a rich
woman."

"My friends, give him credit for favorable cir-
cumstances," said Blondet; "he fell into the hands
of a clever man when he escaped from the clutches
of poverty."

"You know Nucingen well," said Bixiou; "in
the early days, Delphine and Rastignac found him
good ; a wife seemed to be for him in his house, a
plaything, an ornament. And this is what, for me,
makes this man so remarkable and decided, —



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN II

Nucingen does not hesitate to say that his wife is
the representation of his fortune, an indispensable
thing, but one of secondary value in the life at
high pressure of men in politics and the great finan-
ciers. He said, before me, that Bonaparte was as
stupid as a bourgeois in his first relations with
Josephine, and that, after having had the courage to
take her for a stepping-stone, he was ridiculous in
being willing to make a companion of her."

"Every man of superior qualities should have
concerning women the opinions of the Orient," said
Blondet.

"The baron melted the Oriental and Occidental
doctrines together into a charming Parisian doc-
trine. He held De Marsay in horror, as he was
not manageable, but Rastignac pleased him a great
deal and he exploited him without Rastignac's hav-
ing the least idea of it: he put on him all the charge
of his household. Rastignac took on his back all
the whims of Delphine, he drove her to the Bois, he
accompanied her to the theatre. This great little
man of politics of to-day for a long time passed his
life in reading and writing pretty notes. In the
commencement of things, Eugene was scolded for
trifles; he was lively with Delphine when she was
gay, he was melancholy when she was sad; he sup-
ported the weight of all her headaches, of her confi-
dences; he gave her all his time, his hours, his
precious youth, to fill up the emptiness of the idle-
ness of this Parisian woman. Delphine and he held
great consultations over the adornments which were



12 THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

most becoming to her, he sustained all the fire of
her anger and the broadsides of her poutings; dur-
ing which time, in compensation, she made herself
charming for the baron. The baron, for his part,
laughed in his sleeve; then, when he saw Rastignac
bending under the weight of his duties, he assumed
the air of suspecting something and reunited the two
lovers by a common fear."

"I can understand that a rich woman could have
made Rastignac live, and live honorably; but
where did he get his fortune?" asked Couture.
"A fortune as considerable as his is to-day has
to be found somewhere, and no one has ever
accused him of having invented a good piece of
business?"

"He inherited," said Finot.

"Of whom?" said Blondet.

"Of imbeciles whom he met, " answered Couture.

"He did not take it all, my little loves," said
Bixiou : —

" — Dispense with your unwonted fear;

The age with fraud holds compact dear."

"I will relate to you the origin of his fortune. In
the first place, let us pay homage to talent! Our
friend is not a scamp, as Finot says, but a gentle-
man who knows the game, who is acquainted with
the cards, and whom the gallery respects. Rastignac
has all the wit which it is necessary to have at a
given moment, like a military man who only stakes
his courage at ninety days, three signatures and an



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN 13

endorsement. He may seem heedless, scatter-
brained, without connection in his ideas, without
constancy in his projects, without any fixed opinion ;
but, if there should present itself a serious affair, a
combination to follow, he will not scatter himself,
like Blondet, whom you see, and who goes off into
discussions for the account of his neighbor. Ras-
tignac concentrates himself, gathers himself up,
studies the point at which he must charge, and he
charges furiously. With the valor of Murat, he
drives in the squares, the shareholders, the foun-
ders, and the whole shop; when the charge has
made its hole, he returns to his soft and careless
life, he becomes again the man of the Midi, the vo-
luptuous, thesayer of nothings, the unoccupied Ras-
tignac, who can lie abed till mid-day because he did
not go to bed at the moment of the crisis."

"All this is very well, but let us get to his for-
tune," said Finot.

"Bixiou will only give us one charge," added
Blondet. "The fortune of Rastignac, it is Delphine
de Nucingen, a remarkable woman, and one who
joins audacity to foresight."

"Has she borrowed money of you ?" asked Bixiou.

A general laugh broke out.

"You are mistaken about her," said Couture to
Blondet; "her wit consists in saying more or less
piquant words, in loving Rastignac with a wearying
fidelity, in obeying him blindly, a woman alto-
gether Italian."

"Money apart," said Andoche Finot, sharply.



14 THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

"Come, come," resumed Bixiou, in a wheedling
voice, "after what we have just said, will you still
dare to reproach this poor Rastignac with having
lived at the expense of the house of Nucingen, with
having been set up in his house neither more nor
less than was La Torpille formerly by our friend
des Lupeaulx? You will fall into the vulgarity of
the Rue Saint-Denis. To begin with, speaking
abstractly, as Royer-Collard says, the question may
bring up 'the criticism of pure reason;' while as
to that of impure reason — "

"Now he is off," said Finot to Blondet

"But," cried Blondet, "he is right. The ques-
tion is very ancient; it was the great word in the
famous duel to death between La Chataigneraie
and Jarnac. Jarnac was accused of being on good
terms with his mother-in-law, who furnished the
pomp of the too-much loved son-in-law. When a
fact is so true, it should not be uttered. Through
his devotion for the king, Henri II., who had permit-
ted himself this evil speaking, La Chataigneraie
took it on his own account; hence this duel, which
has enriched the French language with the expres-
sion coup de jarnac."

"Ah! if the expression comes from so far back,
it is then noble?" said Finot.

"You might be ignorant of that in your character
of a former proprietor of newspapers and reviews,"
said Blondet.

"There are women," resumed Bixiou, gravely,
"there are also men, who can saw their existence in



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN I 5

two, and only give away a part of it — observe that I
phrase my opinion after the humanitarian formula — .
For those men, all material interest is outside of the
sentiments; they give their life, their time, their
honor, to a woman, and consider that it is not good
style to spend between them that silk paper on which
is engraved: 'The law punishes the counterfeiter
with death.' Reciprocally, these individuals accept
nothing from a woman. Yes, everything becomes
dishonoring if there is a community of interest as
there is a community of souls. This doctrine is
confessed; it is rarely applied."

"Well," said Blondet, "what punctiliousness!
The Marechal de Richelieu, who was versed in the
science of gallantry, granted a pension of a thous-
and louis to Madame de la Popeliniere, after the
adventure of the chimney plaque. Agnes Sorel
brought quite naively to the king, Charles VII., her
fortune, and the king took it. Jacques Cceur con-
tributed to the support of the French crown, which
allowed him to do so, and was as ungrateful as a
woman."

"Monsieur," said Bixiou, "that love which does
not consist of an indissoluole friendship seems to
me a momentary libertinism. What is an entire
abandonment in which something is reserved?
Between these two doctrines, thus opposed and as
profoundly immoral one as the other, there is no pos-
sible conciliation. According to my ideas, those who
fear a complete liaison doubtless fear that it may
come to an end, and then, adieu illusion! Passion



16 THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

which does not believe itself eternal is hideous.
— This is from Fenelon direct. — Thus, those who
know the world, the observers, the people comme
il feint, the men well-gloved and well-cravated, who
do not blush to marry a woman for her fortune, they
proclaim as indispensable a complete separation of
interests and of sentiments. The others are the
fools who love, who believe themselves alone in the
world with their mistress! For them, millions are
but mud; the glove, the camelia, worn by the idol
is worth the millions. If you never find among
them any traces of the base metal dissipated, you
will find the remains of flowers hidden in pretty
cedar-boxes. They are not to be distinguished one
from the other. For them, there is no longer any
I. THOU, that is their incarnate Word. What
would you have! Would you hinder this secret
malady of the heart? There are idiots who love
without any kind of calculation, and there are sages
who calculate in loving."

"Bixiou seems to me sublime," cried Blondet.
"What does Finot say about it?"

"Everywhere else," replied Finot, settling his
cravat, "I would say like the gentleman; but, here,
I think—"

"Like the infamous badly disposed persons with
whom you have the honor of being," interrupted
Bixiou.

"Faith, yes," said Finot.

"And you?" said Bixiou to Couture.

"Imbecilities," cried Couture. "A woman who



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN 17

does not make of her body a stepping-stone to enable
the man she distinguishes to arrive at his aim, is
a woman who has a heart for no one but herself."

"And you, Blondet?"

"I — I practice."

"Well," resumed Bixiou, in his most biting voice,
"Rastignac was not of your opinion. To take and
not to give is horrible and even somewhat light;
but to take in order to have the right to imitate the
Lord, in returning an hundred-fold, is a chivalrous
act. Thus thought Rastignac. Rastignac was pro-
foundly humiliated at his community of interests
with Delphine de Nucingen. I can speak of his
regrets; 1 have seen him with tears in his eyes,
deploring his position. Yes, he wept of it verita-
bly — after supper! Well, according to us — "

"Ah! now you are ridiculing us," said Finot.

"Not the least in the world. It concerns Ras-
tignac, whose mortification would be, according to
you, a proof of his corruption; for he then loved
Delphine much less. But what would you have ! the
poor boy had this thorn in his heart. He is a gen-
tleman profoundly depraved, as you see, and we are
virtuous artists. Then, Rastignac wished to enrich
Delphine, he poor, she rich! Would you believe
it? — he succeeded. Rastignac, who would have
combated like Jarnac, went over from that time to
the opinion of Henri II., in virtue of his fine saying:
'There is no absolute virtue, but there are circum-
stances.' This is connected with the history of his
fortune."
2



18 THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

"You would do well to go on with your story
instead of enticing us to calumniate ourselves," said
Blondet, with a gracious good-fellowship.

"Ah! ah! my little one," said Bixiou to him, giv-
ing him the baptism of a little tap on the occiput,
"you will pick yourself up again in the cham-
pagne."

"Oh! by the holy name of the stockholder,"
said Couture, "tell us your story!"

"1 am within a notch of it," answered Bixiou;
"but, with your oath, you have brought me to the
denouement."

"There are, then, stockholders in the history?"
asked Finot

"Multo-rich as yours," answered Bixiou.

"It seems to me," said Finot in a stiff voice,
"that you owe some consideration to a good lad with
whom you find occasionally a note of five hun-
dred—"

"Waiter!" cried Bixiou.

"What are you going to ask of the waiter?" said
Blondet to him.

"Five hundred francs, to return them to Finot, in
order that I may disengage my tongue and tear up
my receipt."

"Tell your story," resumed Finot, feigning to
laugh.

"You are all witnesses," said Bixiou, "that I do
not belong to this impertinent who thinks that my
silence is only worth five hundred francs! You will
never be minister if you do not know how to gauge



THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN 19

consciences. Well, yes," he said, in a cajoling
voice, "my good Finot, 1 will tell the history with-
out any personalities, and we will be quits."

"He is going to demonstrate to us," said Couture,
smiling, "that Nucingen made the fortune of Ras-
tignac. "

"You are not so far from it as you think," re-
sumed Bixiou. "You do not know what Nucingen
is, financially speaking."

"You do not even know," said Blondet, "one
thing about his beginnings?"

"I have only known him in his own house," said
Bixiou, "but we might have seen each other in
other times on the highway. "

"The prosperity of the house of Nucingen is one
of the most extraordinary phenomena of our epoch, "
resumed Blondet. "In 1804, Nucingen was but
little known; the bankers of that day would have
trembled to have known that there were on the
market a hundred thousand ecus of his acceptances.
This grand financier was conscious of his inferiority.
How to make himself known? He suspended pay-
ment. Good! His name, restricted to Strasbourg
and to the Quartier Poissonniere, resounded in all
the exchanges! He indemnified all his creditors
with non-interest bearing securities and resumed
payment ; immediately his papers circulated through-
out France. By an unheard-of chance, the stocks
came up again, resumed their value, paid dividends.
Nucingen was very much sought after. The year
181 5 arrived, my hero consolidates his capital, buys



20 THE HOUSE OF NUCINGEN

funds before the Battle of Waterloo, suspends pay-
ment at the moment of the crisis, liquidates with
shares in the mines of Wortschin which he had pro-
cured at twenty per cent less than the value at
which he had put them out himself! yes, Mes-
sieurs ! He took from Grandet a hundred and fifty
thousand bottles of champagne to cover himself,
foreseeing the failure of this virtuous father of the
present Comte d'Aubrion, and as many from
Duberghe in Bordeaux wines. These three hun-
dred thousand bottles accepted, accepted, my dear
fellow, at thirty sous, he caused the allies to drink
at six francs, at the Palais-Royal, from 1817 to 1819.
The paper of the house of Nucingen and his name
became European. This illustrious baron had lifted
himself out of the abyss in which others would have
sunk. Twice his liquidation had produced immense
advantages to his creditors: he wished to get the
best of them, impossible! He passed for the most