|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 18
"You think you can laugh at me, great man," returned Vauvinet, once
more jovial and caressing; "you've turned La Fontaine's fable of 'Le
Chene et le Roseau' into an elixir-- Come, Gubetta, my old
accomplice," he continued, seizing Bixiou round the waist, "you want
money; well, I can borrow three thousand francs from my friend Cerizet
instead of two; 'Let us be friends, Cinna!' hand over your colossal
cabbages,--made to trick the public like a gardener's catalogue. If I
refused you it was because it is pretty hard on a man who can only do
his poor little business by turning over his money, to have to keep
your Ravenouillet notes in the drawer of his desk. Hard, hard, very
hard!"
"What discount do you want?" asked Bixiou.
"Next to nothing," returned Vauvinet. "It will cost you a miserable
fifty francs at the end of the quarter."
"As Emile Blondet used to say, you shall be my benefactor," replied
Bixiou.
"Twenty per cent!" whispered Gazonal to Bixiou, who replied by a punch
of his elbow in the provincial's oesophagus.
"Bless me!" said Vauvinet opening a drawer in his desk as if to put
away the Ravenouillet notes, "here's an old bill of five hundred
francs stuck in the drawer! I didn't know I was so rich. And here's a
note payable at the end of the month for four hundred and fifty;
Cerizet will take it without much diminution, and there's your sum in
hand. But no nonsense, Bixiou! Hein? to-night, at Carabine's, will you
swear to me--"
"Haven't we RE-friended?" said Bixiou, pocketing the five-hundred-
franc bill and the note for four hundred and fifty. "I give you my
word of honor that you shall see du Tillet, and many other men who
want to make their way--their railway--to-night at Carabine's."
Vauvinet conducted the three friends to the landing of the staircase,
cajoling Bixiou on the way. Bixiou kept a grave face till he reached
the outer door, listening to Gazonal, who tried to enlighten him on
his late operation, and to prove to him that if Vauvinet's follower,
Cerizet, took another twenty francs out of his four hundred and fifty,
he was getting money at forty per cent.
When they reached the asphalt Bixiou frightened Gazonal by the laugh
of a Parisian hoaxer,--that cold, mute laugh, a sort of labial north
wind.
"The assignment of the contract for that railway is adjourned,
positively, by the Chamber; I heard this yesterday from that marcheuse
whom we smiled at just now. If I win five or six thousand francs at
lansquenet to-night, why should I grudge sixty-five francs for the
power to stake, hey?"
"Lansquenet is another of the thousand facets of Paris as it is," said
Leon. "And therefore, cousin, I intend to present you to-night in the
salon of a duchess,--a duchess of the rue Saint-Georges, where you
will see the aristocracy of the lorettes, and probably be able to win
your lawsuit. But it is quite impossible to present you anywhere with
that mop of Pyrenean hair; you look like a porcupine; and therefore
we'll take you close by, Place de la Bourse, to Marius, another of our
comedians--"
"Who is he?"
"I'll tell you his tale," said Bixiou. "In the year 1800 a Toulousian
named Cabot, a young wig-maker devoured by ambition, came to Paris,
and set up a shop (I use your slang). This man of genius,--he now has
an income of twenty-four thousand francs a year, and lives, retired
from business, at Libourne,--well, he saw that so vulgar and ignoble a
name as Cabot could never attain celebrity. Monsieur de Parny, whose
hair he cut, gave him the name of Marius, infinitely superior, you
perceive, to the Christian names of Armand and Hippolyte, behind which
patronymics attacked by the Cabot evil are wont to hide. All the
successors of Cabot have called themselves Marius. The present Marius
is Marius V.; his real name is Mongin. This occurs in various other
trades; for 'Botot water,' and for 'Little-Virtue' ink. Names become
commercial property in Paris, and have ended by constituting a sort of
ensign of nobility. The present Marius, who takes pupils, has created,
he says, the leading school of hair-dressing in the world.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|