Cousin Betty | Page 6

"you are fifty--ten years younger than Monsieur Hulot, I know;
but at my age a woman's follies ought to be justified by beauty, youth,
fame, superior merit--some one of the splendid qualities which can
dazzle us to the point of making us forget all else--even at our age.
Though you may have fifty thousand francs a year, your age
counterbalances your fortune; thus you have nothing whatever of what
a woman looks for----"
"But love!" said the officer, rising and coming forward. "Such love
as----"
"No, monsieur, such obstinacy!" said the Baroness, interrupting him to
put an end to his absurdity.
"Yes, obstinacy," said he, "and love; but something stronger still--a
claim----"
"A claim!" cried Madame Hulot, rising sublime with scorn, defiance,
and indignation. "But," she went on, "this will bring us to no issues; I
did not ask you to come here to discuss the matter which led to your
banishment in spite of the connection between our families----"
"I had fancied so."
"What! still?" cried she. "Do you not see, monsieur, by the entire ease

and freedom with which I can speak of lovers and love, of everything
least creditable to a woman, that I am perfectly secure in my own virtue?
I fear nothing--not even to shut myself in alone with you. Is that the
conduct of a weak woman? You know full well why I begged you to
come."
"No, madame," replied Crevel, with an assumption of great coldness.
He pursed up his lips, and again struck an attitude.
"Well, I will be brief, to shorten our common discomfort," said the
Baroness, looking at Crevel.
Crevel made an ironical bow, in which a man who knew the race would
have recognized the graces of a bagman.
"Our son married your daughter----"
"And if it were to do again----" said Crevel.
"It would not be done at all, I suspect," said the baroness hastily.
"However, you have nothing to complain of. My son is not only one of
the leading pleaders of Paris, but for the last year he has sat as Deputy,
and his maiden speech was brilliant enough to lead us to suppose that
ere long he will be in office. Victorin has twice been called upon to
report on important measures; and he might even now, if he chose, be
made Attorney-General in the Court of Appeal. So, if you mean to say
that your son-in-law has no fortune----"
"Worse than that, madame, a son-in-law whom I am obliged to
maintain," replied Crevel. "Of the five hundred thousand francs that
formed my daughter's marriage portion, two hundred thousand have
vanished--God knows how!--in paying the young gentleman's debts, in
furnishing his house splendaciously--a house costing five hundred
thousand francs, and bringing in scarcely fifteen thousand, since he
occupies the larger part of it, while he owes two hundred and sixty
thousand francs of the purchase-money. The rent he gets barely pays
the interest on the debt. I have had to give my daughter twenty
thousand francs this year to help her to make both ends meet. And then

my son-in-law, who was making thirty thousand francs a year at the
Assizes, I am told, is going to throw that up for the Chamber----"
"This, again, Monsieur Crevel, is beside the mark; we are wandering
from the point. Still, to dispose of it finally, it may be said that if my
son gets into office, if he has you made an officer of the Legion of
Honor and councillor of the municipality of Paris, you, as a retired
perfumer, will not have much to complain of----"
"Ah! there we are again, madame! Yes, I am a tradesman, a shopkeeper,
a retail dealer in almond-paste, eau-de-Portugal, and hair-oil, and was
only too much honored when my only daughter was married to the son
of Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervy--my daughter will be a Baroness!
This is Regency, Louis XV., (Eil-de-boeuf--quite tip-top!--very good.)
I love Celestine as a man loves his only child--so well indeed, that, to
preserve her from having either brother or sister, I resigned myself to
all the privations of a widower--in Paris, and in the prime of life,
madame. But you must understand that, in spite of this extravagant
affection for my daughter, I do not intend to reduce my fortune for the
sake of your son, whose expenses are not wholly accounted for--in my
eyes, as an old man of business."
"Monsieur, you may at this day see in the Ministry of Commerce
Monsieur Popinot, formerly a druggist in the Rue des Lombards----"
"And a friend of mine, madame," said the ex-perfumer. "For I, Celestin
Crevel, foreman once to old Cesar Birotteau, brought up the said Cesar
Birotteau's stock; and he was Popinot's father-in-law. Why, that very
Popinot was no more than a shopman in