A Start in Life | Page 7

me five francs,--a real great lady couldn't
do better than that. And every time I have any one in the coach
belonging to them or going to see them, I'm allowed to drive up to the
chateau,--that's all right, isn't it?"
"They say Monsieur Moreau wasn't worth three thousand francs when
Monsieur le comte made him steward of Presles," said the valet.
"Well, since 1806, there's seventeen years, and the man ought to have
made something at any rate."
"True," said the valet, nodding. "Anyway, masters are very annoying;
and I hope, for Moreau's sake, that he has made butter for his bread."
"I have often been to your house in the rue de la Chaussee d'Antin to
carry baskets of game," said Pierrotin, "but I've never had the
advantage, so far of seeing either monsieur or madame."
"Monsieur le comte is a good man," said the footman, confidentially.
"But if he insists on your helping to keep up his cognito there's
something in the wind. At any rate, so we think at the house; or else,
why should he countermand the Daumont,--why travel in a coucou? A
peer of France might afford to hire a cabriolet to himself, one would
think."
"A cabriolet would cost him forty francs to go there and back; for let
me tell you, if you don't know it, that road was only made for
squirrels,--up-hill and down, down-hill and up!" said Pierrotin. "Peer of
France or bourgeois, they are all looking after the main chance, and
saving their money. If this journey concerns Monsieur Moreau, faith,

I'd be sorry any harm should come to him! Twenty good Gods! hadn't I
better find some way of warning him?--for he's a truly good man, a
kind man, a king of men, hey!"
"Pooh! Monsieur le comte thinks everything of Monsieur Moreau,"
replied the valet. "But let me give you a bit of good advice. Every man
for himself in this world. We have enough to do to take care of
ourselves. Do what Monsieur le comte asks you to do, and all the more
because there's no trifling with him. Besides, to tell the truth, the count
is generous. If you oblige him so far," said the valet, pointing half-way
down his little finger, "he'll send you on as far as that," stretching out
his arm to its full length.
This wise reflection, and the action that enforced it, had the effect,
coming from a man who stood as high as second valet to the Comte de
Serizy, of cooling the ardor of Pierrotin for the steward of Presles.
"Well, adieu, Monsieur Pierrotin," said the valet.
A glance rapidly cast on the life of the Comte de Serizy, and on that of
his steward, is here necessary in order to fully understand the little
drama now about to take place in Pierrotin's vehicle.
CHAPTER II
THE STEWARD IN DANGER
Monsieur Huguet de Serisy descends in a direct line from the famous
president Huguet, ennobled under Francois I.
This family bears: party per pale or and sable, an orle counterchanged
and two lozenges counterchanged, with: "i, semper melius eris,"--a
motto which, together with the two distaffs taken as supporters, proves
the modesty of the burgher families in the days when the Orders held
their allotted places in the State; and the naivete of our ancient customs
by the pun on "eris," which word, combined with the "i" at the
beginning and the final "s" in "melius," forms the name (Serisy) of the
estate from which the family take their title.

The father of the present count was president of a parliament before the
Revolution. He himself a councillor of State at the Grand Council of
1787, when he was only twenty-two years of age, was even then
distinguished for his admirable memoranda on delicate diplomatic
matters. He did not emigrate during the Revolution, and spent that
period on his estate of Serizy near Arpajon, where the respect in which
his father was held protected him from all danger. After spending
several years in taking care of the old president, who died in 1794, he
was elected about that time to the Council of the Five Hundred, and
accepted those legislative functions to divert his mind from his grief.
After the 18th Brumaire, Monsieur de Serizy became, like so many
other of the old parliamentary families, an object of the First Consul's
blandishment. He was appointed to the Council of State, and received
one of the most disorganized departments of the government to
reconstruct. This scion of an old historical family proved to be a very
active wheel in the grand and magnificent organization which we owe
to Napoleon.
The councillor of State was soon called from his particular
administration to a ministry. Created count and senator by the Emperor,