At the Sign of the Cat Racket | Page 7

two of these young
fellows, who were confided to his care by their fathers, rich
manufacturers at Louviers and at Sedan, had only to ask and to have a
hundred thousand francs the day when they were old enough to settle in
life, Guillaume regarded it as his duty to keep them under the rod of an
old-world despotism, unknown nowadays in the showy modern shops,
where the apprentices expect to be rich men at thirty. He made them
work like Negroes. These three assistants were equal to a business
which would harry ten such clerks as those whose sybaritical tastes
now swell the columns of the budget. Not a sound disturbed the peace
of this solemn house, where the hinges were always oiled, and where
the meanest article of furniture showed the respectable cleanliness
which reveals strict order and economy. The most waggish of the three
youths often amused himself by writing the date of its first appearance
on the Gruyere cheese which was left to their tender mercies at
breakfast, and which it was their pleasure to leave untouched. This bit
of mischief, and a few others of the same stamp, would sometimes
bring a smile on the face of the younger of Guillaume's daughters, the
pretty maiden who has just now appeared to the bewitched man in the
street.
Though each of these apprentices, even the eldest, paid a round sum for
his board, not one of them would have been bold enough to remain at
the master's table when dessert was served. When Madame Guillaume
talked of dressing the salad, the hapless youths trembled as they
thought of the thrift with which her prudent hand dispensed the oil.
They could never think of spending a night away from the house
without having given, long before, a plausible reason for such an
irregularity. Every Sunday, each in his turn, two of them accompanied
the Guillaume family to Mass at Saint-Leu, and to vespers.
Mesdemoiselles Virginie and Augustine, simply attired in cotton print,
each took the arm of an apprentice and walked in front, under the
piercing eye of their mother, who closed the little family procession
with her husband, accustomed by her to carry two large prayer-books,

bound in black morocco. The second apprentice received no salary. As
for the eldest, whose twelve years of perseverance and discretion had
initiated him into the secrets of the house, he was paid eight hundred
francs a year as the reward of his labors. On certain family festivals he
received as a gratuity some little gift, to which Madame Guillaume's
dry and wrinkled hand alone gave value--netted purses, which she took
care to stuff with cotton wool, to show off the fancy stitches, braces of
the strongest make, or heavy silk stockings. Sometimes, but rarely, this
prime minister was admitted to share the pleasures of the family when
they went into the country, or when, after waiting for months, they
made up their mind to exert the right acquired by taking a box at the
theatre to command a piece which Paris had already forgotten.
As to the other assistants, the barrier of respect which formerly divided
a master draper from his apprentices was that they would have been
more likely to steal a piece of cloth than to infringe this time-honored
etiquette. Such reserve may now appear ridiculous; but these old
houses were a school of honesty and sound morals. The masters
adopted their apprentices. The young man's linen was cared for,
mended, and often replaced by the mistress of the house. If an
apprentice fell ill, he was the object of truly maternal attention. In a
case of danger the master lavished his money in calling in the most
celebrated physicians, for he was not answerable to their parents merely
for the good conduct and training of the lads. If one of them, whose
character was unimpeachable, suffered misfortune, these old tradesmen
knew how to value the intelligence he had displayed, and they did not
hesitate to entrust the happiness of their daughters to men whom they
had long trusted with their fortunes. Guillaume was one of these men of
the old school, and if he had their ridiculous side, he had all their good
qualities; and Joseph Lebas, the chief assistant, an orphan without any
fortune, was in his mind destined to be the husband of Virginie, his
elder daughter. But Joseph did not share the symmetrical ideas of his
master, who would not for an empire have given his second daughter in
marriage before the elder. The unhappy assistant felt that his heart was
wholly given to Mademoiselle Augustine, the younger. In order to
justify this passion, which had grown up in secret, it is necessary to
inquire a little further into the springs of the absolute