A Start in Life

One of the habitual follies of those who have fallen in the world is to recognize and desire the recognition of others.

“You are much changed,” said the ex-farmer, now twice a millionaire.

“All things change,” said Georges. “Look at the Lion d’Argent and Pierrotin’s coach; they are not a bit like what they were fourteen years ago.”

“Pierrotin now controls the whole service of the Valley of the Oise,” replied Monsieur Leger, “and sends out five coaches. He is the bourgeois of Beaumont, where he keeps a hotel, at which all the diligences stop, and he has a wife and daughter who are not a bad help to him.”

An old man of seventy here came out of the hotel and joined the group of travellers who were waiting to get into the coach.

“Come along, Papa Reybert,” said Leger, “we are only waiting now for your great man.”

“Here he comes,” said the steward of Presles, pointing to Joseph Bridau.

Neither Georges nor Oscar recognized the illustrious artist, for his face had the worn and haggard lines that were now famous, and his bearing was that which is given by success. The ribbon of the Legion of honor adorned his black coat, and the rest of his dress, which was extremely elegant, seemed to denote an expedition to some rural fete.

At this moment a clerk, with a paper in his hand, came out of the office (which was now in the former kitchen of the Lion d’Argent), and stood before the empty coupe.

“Monsieur and Madame de Canalis, three places,” he said. Then, moving to the door of the interieur, he named, consecutively, “Monsieur Bellejambe, two places; Monsieur de Reybert, three places; Monsieur – your name, if you please?” he said to Georges.

“Georges Marest,” said the fallen man, in a low voice.

The clerk then moved to the rotunde, before which were grouped a number of nurses, country-people, and petty shopkeepers, who were bidding each other adieu. Then, after bundling in the six passengers, he called to four young men who mounted to the imperial; after which he cried: “Start!” Pierrotin got up beside his driver, a young man in a blouse, who called out: “Pull!” to his animals, and the vehicle, drawn by four horses brought at Roye, mounted the rise of the faubourg Saint-Denis at a slow trot.

But no sooner had it got above Saint-Laurent than it raced like a mail-cart to Saint-Denis, which it reached in forty minutes. No stop was made at the cheese-cake inn, and the coach took the road through the valley of Montmorency.

It was at the turn into this road that Georges broke the silence which the travellers had so far maintained while observing each other.

“We go a little faster than we did fifteen years ago, hey, Pere Leger?” he said, pulling out a silver watch.

“Persons are usually good enough to call me Monsieur Leger,” said the millionaire.

“Why, here’s our blagueur of the famous journey to Presles,” cried Joseph Bridau. “Have you made any new campaigns in Asia, Africa, or America?”

“Sacrebleu! I’ve made the revolution of July, and that’s enough for me, for it ruined me.”

“Ah! you made the revolution of July!” cried the painter, laughing. “Well, I always said it never made itself.”

“How people meet again!” said Monsieur Leger, turning to Monsieur de Reybert. “This, papa Reybert, is the clerk of the notary to whom you undoubtedly owe the stewardship of Presles.”

“We lack Mistigris, now famous under his own name of Leon de Lora,” said Joseph Bridau, “and the little young man who was stupid enough to talk to the count about those skin diseases which are now cured, and about his wife, whom he has recently left that he may die in peace.”

“And the count himself, you lack him,” said old Reybert.

“I’m afraid,” said Joseph Bridau, sadly, “that the last journey the count will ever take will be from Presles to Isle-Adam, to be present at my marriage.”

“He still drives about the park,” said Reybert.

“Does his wife come to see him?” asked Leger.

“Once a month,” replied Reybert. “She is never happy out of Paris. Last September she married her niece, Mademoiselle du Rouvre, on whom, since the death of her son, she spends all her affection, to a very rich young Pole, the Comte Laginski.”

“To whom,” asked Madame Clapart, “will Monsieur de Serizy’s property go?”

“To his wife, who will bury him,” replied Georges. “The countess is still fine-looking for a woman of fifty-four years of age. She is very elegant, and, at a little distance, gives one the illusion – ”

“She will always be an illusion to you,” said Leger, who seemed inclined to revenge himself on his former hoaxer.

“I respect her,” said Georges. “But, by the bye, what became of that steward whom the count turned off?”

“Moreau?” said Leger; “why, he’s the deputy from the Oise.”

“Ha! the famous Centre man; Moreau de l’Oise?” cried Georges.

“Yes,” returned Leger, “Moreau de l’Oise. He did more than you for the revolution of July, and he has since then bought the beautiful estate of Pointel, between Presles and Beaumont.”

“Next to the count’s,” said Georges. “I call that very bad taste.”

“Don’t speak so loud,” said Monsieur de Reybert, “for Madame Moreau and her daughter, the Baronne de Canalis, and the Baron himself, the former minister, are in the coupe.”

“What ‘dot’ could he have given his daughter to induce our great orator to marry her?” said Georges.

“Something like two millions,” replied old Leger.

“He always had a taste for millions,” remarked Georges. “He began his pile surreptitiously at Presles – ”

“Say nothing against Monsieur Moreau,” cried Oscar, hastily. “You ought to have learned before now to hold your tongue in public conveyances.”

Joseph Bridau looked at the one-armed officer for several seconds; then he said, smiling: —

“Monsieur is not an ambassador, but his rosette tells us he has made his way nobly; my brother and General Giroudeau have repeatedly named him in their reports.”

“Oscar Husson!” cried Georges. “Faith! if it hadn’t been for your voice I should never have known you.”

“Ah! it was monsieur who so bravely rescued the Vicomte Jules de Serizy from the Arabs?” said Reybert, “and for whom the count has obtained the collectorship of Beaumont while awaiting that of Pontoise?”

“Yes, monsieur,” said Oscar.

“I hope you will give me the pleasure, monsieur,” said the great painter, “of being present at my marriage at Isle-Adam.”

“Whom do you marry?” asked Oscar, after accepting the invitation.

“Mademoiselle Leger,” replied Joseph Bridau, “the granddaughter of Monsieur de Reybert. Monsieur le comte was kind enough to arrange the marriage for me. As an artist I owe him a great deal, and he wished, before his death, to secure my future, about which I did not think, myself.”

“Whom did Pere Leger marry?” asked Georges.

“My daughter,” replied Monsieur de Reybert, “and without a ‘dot.’”

“Ah!” said Georges, assuming a more respectful manner toward Monsieur Leger, “I am fortunate in having chosen this particular day to do the valley of the Oise. You can all be useful to me, gentlemen.”

“How so?” asked Monsieur Leger.

“In this way,” replied Georges. “I am employed by the ‘Esperance,’ a company just formed, the statutes of which have been approved by an ordinance of the King. This institution gives, at the end of ten years, dowries to young girls, annuities to old men; it pays the education of children, and takes charge, in short, of the fortunes of everybody.”

“I can well believe it,” said Pere Leger, smiling. “In a word, you are a runner for an insurance company.”

“No, monsieur. I am the inspector-general; charged with the duty of establishing correspondents and appointing the agents of the company throughout France. I am only operating until the agents are selected; for it is a matter as delicate as it is difficult to find honest agents.”

“But how did you lose your thirty thousand a year?” asked Oscar.

“As you lost your arm,” replied the son of Czerni-Georges, curtly.

“Then you must have shared in some brilliant action,” remarked Oscar, with a sarcasm not unmixed with bitterness.

“Parbleu! I’ve too many – shares! that’s just what I wanted to sell.”

By this time they had arrived at Saint-Leu-Taverny, where all the passengers got out while the coach changed horses. Oscar admired the liveliness which Pierrotin displayed in unhooking the traces from the whiffle-trees, while his driver cleared the reins from the leaders.

“Poor Pierrotin,” thought he; “he has stuck like me, – not far advanced in the world. Georges has fallen low. All the others, thanks to speculation and to talent, have made their fortune. Do we breakfast here, Pierrotin?” he said, aloud, slapping that worthy on the shoulder.

“I am not the driver,” said Pierrotin.

“What are you, then?” asked Colonel Husson.

“The proprietor,” replied Pierrotin.

“Come, don’t be vexed with an old acquaintance,” said Oscar, motioning to his mother, but still retaining his patronizing manner. “Don’t you recognize Madame Clapart?”

It was all the nobler of Oscar to present his mother to Pierrotin, because, at that moment, Madame Moreau de l’Oise, getting out of the coupe, overheard the name, and stared disdainfully at Oscar and his mother.

“My faith! madame,” said Pierrotin, “I should never have known you; nor you, either, monsieur; the sun burns black in Africa, doesn’t it?”

The species of pity which Oscar thus felt for Pierrotin was the last blunder that vanity ever led our hero to commit, and, like his other faults, it was punished, but very gently, thus: —

Two months after his official installation at Beaumont-sur-Oise, Oscar was paying his addresses to Mademoiselle Georgette Pierrotin, whose ‘dot’ amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand francs, and he married the pretty daughter of the proprietor of the stage-coaches of the Oise, toward the close of the winter of 1838.

The adventure of the journey to Presles was a lesson to Oscar Husson in discretion; his disaster at Florentine’s card-party strengthened him in honesty and uprightness; the hardships of his military career taught him to understand the social hierarchy and to yield obedience to his lot. Becoming wise and capable, he was happy. The Comte de Serizy, before his death, obtained for him the collectorship at Pontoise. The influence of Monsieur Moreau de l’Oise and that of the Comtesse de Serizy and the Baron de Canalis secured, in after years, a receiver-generalship for Monsieur Husson, in whom the Camusot family now recognize a relation.

Oscar is a commonplace man, gentle, without assumption, modest, and always keeping, like his government, to a middle course. He excites neither envy nor contempt. In short, he is the modern bourgeois.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy

Beaupre, Fanny

Modest Mignon

The Muse of the Department

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Bridau, Joseph

The Purse

A Bachelor’s Establishment

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Modeste Mignon

Another Study of Woman

Pierre Grassou

Letters of Two Brides

Cousin Betty

The Member for Arcis

Bruel, Jean Francois du

A Bachelor’s Establishment

The Government Clerks

A Prince of Bohemia

The Middle Classes

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Daughter of Eve

Cabirolle, Madame

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Cabirolle, Agathe-Florentine

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Canalis, Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de

Letters of Two Brides

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Modeste Mignon

The Magic Skin

Another Study of Woman

Beatrix

The Unconscious Humorists

The Member for Arcis

Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Bachelor’s Establishment

At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Cesar Birotteau

Coralie, Mademoiselle

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Crottat, Alexandre

Cesar Birotteau

Colonel Chabert

A Woman of Thirty

Cousin Pons

Derville

Gobseck

The Gondreville Mystery

Father Goriot

Colonel Chabert

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Desroches (son)

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Colonel Chabert

A Woman of Thirty

The Commission in Lunacy

The Government Clerks

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Firm of Nucingen

A Man of Business

The Middle Classes

Finot, Andoche

Cesar Birotteau

A Bachelor’s Establishment

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Government Clerks

Gaudissart the Great

The Firm of Nucingen

Gaudron, Abbe

The Government Clerks

Honorine

Giroudeau

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie

Colonel Chabert

A Bachelor’s Establishment

The Commission in Lunacy

The Middle Classes

Cousin Pons

Godeschal, Marie

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Cousin Pons

Gondreville, Malin, Comte de

The Gondreville Mystery

Domestic Peace

The Member for Arcis

Grevin

The Gondreville Mystery

The Member for Arcis

Grindot

Cesar Birotteau

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Beatrix

The Middle Classes

Cousin Betty

Lora, Leon de

The Unconscious Humorists

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Pierre Grassou

Honorine

Cousin Betty

Beatrix

Loraux, Abbe

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Cesar Birotteau

Honorine

Lupin, Amaury

The Peasantry

Marest, Frederic

The Seamy Side of History

The Member for Arcis

Marest, Georges

The Peasantry

Maufrigneuse, Duc de

The Secrets of a Princess

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Poiret, the elder

The Government Clerks

Father Goriot

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Middle Classes

Rouvre, Marquis du

The Imaginary Mistress

Ursule Mirouet

Schinner, Hippolyte

The Purse

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Pierre Grassou

Albert Savarus

The Government Clerks

Modeste Mignon

The Imaginary Mistress

The Unconscious Humorists

Serizy, Comte Hugret de

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Honorine

Modeste Mignon

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Serizy, Comtesse de

The Thirteen

Ursule Mirouet

A Woman of Thirty

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Another Study of Woman

The Imaginary Mistress

Serizy, Vicomte de

Modeste Mignon

The Imaginary Mistress

Vandenesse, Marquis Charles de

A Woman of Thirty

A Daughter of Eve

Vandenesse, Comte Felix de

The Lily of the Valley

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Cesar Birotteau

Letters of Two Brides

The Marriage Settlement

The Secrets of a Princess

Another Study of Woman

The Gondreville Mystery

A Daughter of Eve