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Page 17
"You must indeed me hard-up if you can't oblige this poor Bixiou,"
said Leon de Lora; "for he can be very sharp-tongued when he hasn't a
sou."
"Well," said Bixiou, "I could never say anything but good of Vauvinet;
he's full of goods."
"My dear friend," said Vauvinet, "if I had the money, I couldn't
possibly discount, even at fifty per cent, notes which are drawn by
your porter. Ravenouillet's paper isn't in demand. He's not a
Rothschild. I warn you that his notes are worn thin; you had better
invent another firm. Find an uncle. As for a friend who'll sign notes
for us there's no such being to be found; the matter-of-factness of
the present age is making awful progress."
"I have a friend," said Bixiou, motioning to Leon's cousin. "Monsieur
here; one of the most distinguished manufacturers of cloth in the
South, named Gazonal. His hair is not very well dressed," added
Bixiou, looking at the touzled and luxuriant crop on the provincial's
head, "but I am going to take him to Marius, who will make him look
less like a poodle-dog, an appearance so injurious to his credit, and
to ours."
"I don't believe in Southern securities, be it said without offence to
monsieur," replied Vauvinet, with whom Gazonal was so entertained that
he did not resent his insolence.
Gazonal, that extremely penetrating intellect, thought that the
painter and Bixiou intended, by way of teaching him to know Paris, to
make him pay the thousand francs for his breakfast at the Cafe de
Paris, for this son of the Pyrenees had never got out of that armor of
distrust which incloses the provincial in Paris.
"How can you expect me to have outstanding business at seven hundred
miles from Paris?" added Vauvinet.
"Then you refuse me positively?" asked Bixiou.
"I have twenty francs, and no more," said the young usurer.
"I'm sorry for you," said the joker. "I thought I was worth a thousand
francs."
"You are worth two hundred thousand francs," replied Vauvinet, "and
sometimes you are worth your weight in gold, or at least your tongue
is; but I tell you I haven't a penny."
"Very good," replied Bixiou; "then we won't say anything more about
it. I had arranged for this evening, at Carabine's, the thing you most
wanted--you know?"
Vauvinet winked an eye at Bixiou; the wink that two jockeys give each
other when they want to say: "Don't try trickery."
"Don't you remember catching me round the waist as if I were a pretty
woman," said Bixiou, "and coaxing me with look and speech, and saying,
'I'll do anything for you if you'll only get me shares at par in that
railroad du Tillet and Nucingen have made an offer for?' Well, old
fellow, du Tillet and Nucingen are coming to Carabine's to-night,
where they will meet a number of political characters. You've lost a
fine opportunity. Good-bye to you, old carrot."
Bixiou rose, leaving Vauvinet apparently indifferent, but inwardly
annoyed by the sense that he had committed a folly.
"One moment, my dear fellow," said the money-lender. "Though I haven't
the money, I have credit. If your notes are worth nothing, I can keep
them and give you notes in exchange. If we can come to an agreement
about that railway stock we could share the profits, of course in due
proportion and I'll allow you that on--"
"No, no," said Bixiou, "I want money in hand, and I must get those
notes of Ravenouillet's cashed."
"Ravenouillet is sound," said Vauvinet. "He puts money into the
savings-bank; he is good security."
"Better than you," interposed Leon, "for HE doesn't stipend lorettes;
he hasn't any rent to pay; and he never rushes into speculations which
keep him dreading either a rise or fall."
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