Rise and Fall of César Birotteau | Page 7

daughter and we can keep two thousand
for ourselves, and the proceeds of the business will allow us to buy Les
Tresorieres. There in your native place, my good little cat, with our
furniture, which is worth a great deal, we shall live like princes;
whereas here we want at least a million to make any figure at all."
"I expected you to say all this, wife," said Cesar Birotteau. "I am not
quite such a fool (though you think me a great fool, you do) as not to
have thought of all that. Now, listen to me. Alexandre Crottat will fit us
like a glove for a son-in-law, and he will succeed Roguin; but do you
suppose he will be satisfied with a hundred thousand francs
/dot/?--supposing that we gave our whole property outside of the
business to establish our daughter, and I am willing; I would gladly live
on dry bread the rest of my days to see her happy as a queen, the wife
of a notary of Paris, as you say. Well, then, a hundred thousand francs,
or even eight thousand francs a year, is nothing at all towards buying
Roguin's practice. Little Xandrot, as we call him, thinks, like all the rest
of the world, that we are richer than we are. If his father, that big
farmer who is as close as a snail, won't sell a hundred thousand francs
worth of land Xandrot can't be a notary, for Roguin's practice is worth
four or five hundred thousand. If Crottat does not pay half down, how
could he negotiate the affair? Cesarine must have two hundred
thousand francs /dot/; and I mean that you and I shall retire solid
bourgeois of Paris, with fifteen thousand francs a year. Hein! If I could
make you see that as plain as day, wouldn't it shut your mouth?"
"Oh, if you've got the mines of Peru--"
"Yes, I have, my lamb. Yes," he said, taking his wife by the waist and
striking her with little taps, under an emotion of joy which lighted up
his features, "I did not wish to tell you of this matter till it was all
cooked; but to-morrow it will be done,--that is, perhaps it will. Here it
is then: Roguin has proposed a speculation to me, so safe that he has

gone into it with Ragon, with your uncle Pillerault, and two other of his
clients. We are to buy property near the Madeleine, which, according to
Roguin's calculations, we shall get for a quarter of the value which it
will bring three years from now, at which time, the present leases
having expired, we shall manage it for ourselves. We have all six taken
certain shares. I furnish three hundred thousand francs,--that is,
three-eighths of the whole. If any one of us wants money, Roguin will
get it for him by hypothecating his share. To hold the gridiron and
know how the fish are fried, I have chosen to be nominally proprietor
of one half, which is, however, to be the common property of Pillerault
and the worthy Ragon and myself. Roguin will be, under the name of
Monsieur Charles Claparon, co-proprietor with me, and will give a
reversionary deed to his associates, as I shall to mine. The deeds of
purchase are made by promises of sale under private seal, until we are
masters of the whole property. Roguin will investigate as to which of
the contracts should be paid in money, for he is not sure that we can
dispense with registering and yet turn over the titles to those to whom
we sell in small parcels. But it takes too long to explain all this to you.
The ground once paid for, we have only to cross our arms and in three
years we shall be rich by a million. Cesarine will then be twenty, our
business will be sold, and we shall step, by the grace of God, modestly
to eminence."
"Where will you get your three hundred thousand francs?" said
Madame Birotteau.
"You don't understand business, my beloved little cat. I shall take the
hundred thousand francs which are now with Roguin; I shall borrow
forty thousand on the buildings and gardens where we now have our
manufactory in the Faubourg du Temple; we have twenty thousand
francs here in hand,--in all, one hundred and sixty thousand. There
remain one hundred and forty thousand more, for which I shall sign
notes to the order of Monsieur Charles Claparon, banker. He will pay
the value, less the discount. So there are the three hundred thousand
francs provided for. He who owns rents owes nothing. When the notes
fall due we can pay them off with our profits. If we cannot pay them in
cash, Roguin will give