|
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 31
"No more manufacturers?" asked Gazonal.
"The state will manufacture. We shall all be the usufructuaries of
France; each will have his ration as on board ship; and all the world
will work according to their capacity."
"Ah!" said Gazonal, "and while awaiting the time when you can cut off
the heads of aristocrats--"
"I cut their nails," said the radical republican, putting up his tools
and finishing the jest himself.
Then he bowed very politely and went away.
"Can this be possible in 1845?" cried Gazonal.
"If there were time we could show you," said his cousin, "all the
personages of 1793, and you could talk with them. You have just seen
Marat; well! we know Fouquier-Tinville, Collot d'Herbois, Robespierre,
Chabot, Fouche, Barras; there is even a magnificent Madame Roland."
"Well, the tragic is not lacking in your play," said Gazonal.
"It is six o'clock. Before we take you to see Odry in 'Les
Saltimbauques' to-night," said Leon to Gazonal, "we must go and pay a
visit to Madame Cadine,--an actress whom your committee-man Massol
cultivates, and to whom you must therefore pay the most assiduous
court."
"And as it is all important that you conciliate that power, I am going
to give you a few instructions," said Bixiou. "Do you employ workwomen
in your manufactory?"
"Of course I do," replied Gazonal.
"That's all I want to know," resumed Bixiou. "You are not married, and
you are a great--"
"Yes!" cried Gazonal, "you've guessed my strong point, I'm a great
lover of women."
"Well, then! if you will execute the little manoeuvre which I am about
to prescribe for you, you will taste, without spending a farthing, the
sweets to be found in the good graces of an actress."
When they reached the rue de la Victoire where the celebrated actress
lived, Bixiou, who meditated a trick upon the distrustful provincial,
had scarcely finished teaching him his role; but Gazonal was quick, as
we shall see, to take a hint.
The three friends went up to the second floor of a rather handsome
house, and found Madame Jenny Cadine just finishing dinner, for she
played that night in an afterpiece at the Gymnase. Having presented
Gazonal to this great power, Leon and Bixiou, in order to leave them
alone together, made the excuse of looking at a piece of furniture in
another room; but before leaving, Bixiou had whispered in the
actress's ear: "He is Leon's cousin, a manufacturer, enormously rich;
he wants to win a suit before the Council of State against his
prefect, and he thinks it wise to fascinate you in order to get Massol
on his side."
All Paris knows the beauty of that young actress, and will therefore
understand the stupefaction of the Southerner on seeing her. Though
she had received him at first rather coldly, he became the object of
her good graces before they had been many minutes alone together.
"How strange!" said Gazonal, looking round him disdainfully on the
furniture of the salon, the door of which his accomplices had left
half open, "that a woman like you should be allowed to live in such an
ill-furnished apartment."
"Ah, yes, indeed! but how can I help it? Massol is not rich; I am
hoping he will be made a minister."
"What a happy man!" cried Gazonal, heaving the sigh of a provincial.
"Good!" thought she. "I shall have new furniture, and get the better
of Carabine."
"Well, my dear!" said Leon, returning, "you'll be sure to come to
Carabine's to-night, won't you?--supper and lansquenet."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|