Melmoth Reconciled | Page 9

prospectus. Then Aquilina found it so nice to run about barefooted on the
carpet in her room, that Castanier must have soft carpets laid everywhere for the pleasure
of playing with Naqui. A bathroom, too, was built for her, everything to the end that she
might be more comfortable.
Shopkeepers, workmen, and manufacturers in Paris have a mysterious knack of enlarging
a hole in a man's purse. They cannot give the price of anything upon inquiry; and as the
paroxysm of longing cannot abide delay, orders are given by the feeble light of an
approximate estimate of cost. The same people never send in the bills at once, but ply the
purchaser with furniture till his head spins. Everything is so pretty, so charming; and
every one is satisfied.
A few months later the obliging furniture dealers are metamorphosed, and reappear in the
shape of alarming totals on invoices that fill the soul with their horrid clamor; they are in
urgent want of the money; they are, as you may say on the brink of bankruptcy, their
tears flow, it is heartrending to hear them! And then----the gulf yawns, and gives up
serried columns of figures marching four deep, when as a matter of fact they should have
issued innocently three by three.
Before Castanier had any idea of how much he had spent, he had arranged for Aquilina to
have a carriage from a livery stable when she went out, instead of a cab. Castanier was a
gourmand; he engaged an excellent cook; and Aquilina, to please him, had herself made
the purchases of early fruit and vegetables, rare delicacies, and exquisite wines. But, as
Aquilina had nothing of her own, these gifts of hers, so precious by reason of the thought
and tact and graciousness that prompted them, were no less a drain upon Castanier's purse;
he did not like his Naqui to be without money, and Naqui could not keep money in her
pocket. So the table was a heavy item of expenditure for a man with Castanier's income.
The ex-dragoon was compelled to resort to various shifts for obtaining money, for he
could not bring himself to renounce this delightful life. He loved the woman too well to
cross the freaks of the mistress. He was one of those men who, through self-love or
through weakness of character, can refuse nothing to a woman; false shame overpowers
them, and they rather face ruin than make the admissions: "I cannot----" "My means will
not permit----" "I cannot afford----"
When, therefore, Castanier saw that if he meant to emerge from the abyss of debt into
which he had plunged, he must part with Aquilina and live upon bread and water, he was
so unable to do without her or to change his habits of life, that daily he put off his plans
of reform until the morrow. The debts were pressing, and he began by borrowing money.

His position and previous character inspired confidence, and of this he took advantage to
devise a system of borrowing money as he required it. Then, as the total amount of debt
rapidly increased, he had recourse to those commercial inventions known as
accommodation bills. This form of bill does not represent goods or other value received,
and the first endorser pays the amount named for the obliging person who accepts it. This
species of fraud is tolerated because it is impossible to detect it, and, moreover, it is an
imaginary fraud which only becomes real if payment is ultimately refused.
When at length it was evidently impossible to borrow any longer, whether because the
amount of the debt was now so greatly increased, or because Castanier was unable to pay
the large amount of interest on the aforesaid sums of money, the cashier saw bankruptcy
before him. On making this discovery, he decided for a fraudulent bankruptcy rather than
an ordinary failure, and preferred a crime to a misdemeanor. He determined, after the
fashion of the celebrated cashier of the Royal Treasury, to abuse the trust deservedly won,
and to increase the number of his creditors by making a final loan of the sum sufficient to
keep him in comfort in a foreign country for the rest of his days. All this, as has been
seen, he had prepared to do.
Aquilina knew nothing of the irksome cares of this life; she enjoyed her existence, as
many a woman does, making no inquiry as to where the money came from, even as
sundry other folk will eat their buttered rolls untroubled by any restless spirit of curiosity
as to the culture and growth of wheat; but as the labor and miscalculations of agriculture
lie on the other side of the baker's oven, so beneath the unappreciated luxury of many a
Parisian household