The Firm of Nucingen | Page 5

income of forty thousand livres," continued Finot; "his
sisters had a handsome fortune apiece and married into noble families;
he leaves his mother a life interest in the property----"
"Even in 1827 I have known him without a penny," said Blondet.
"Oh! in 1827," said Bixiou.
"Well," resumed Finot, "yet to-day, as we see, he is in a fair way to be a
Minister, a peer of France--anything that he likes. He broke decently
with Delphine three years ago; he will not marry except on good
grounds; and he may marry a girl of noble family. The chap had the
sense to take up with a wealthy woman."
"My friends, give him the benefit of extenuating circumstances," urged
Blondet. "When he escaped the clutches of want, he dropped into the
claws of a very clever man."
"You know what Nucingen is," said Bixiou. "In the early days,
Delphine and Rastignac thought him 'good-natured'; he seemed to
regard a wife as a plaything, an ornament in his house. And that very
fact showed me that the man was square at the base as well as in
height," added Bixiou. "Nucingen makes no bones about admitting that
his wife is his fortune; she is an indispensable chattel, but a wife takes a
second place in the high-pressure life of a political leader and great
capitalist. He once said in my hearing that Bonaparte had blundered
like a bourgeois in his early relations with Josephine; and that after he
had had the spirit to use her as a stepping-stone, he had made himself
ridiculous by trying to make a companion of her."

"Any man of unusual powers is bound to take Oriental views of
women," said Blondet.
"The Baron blended the opinions of East and West in a charming
Parisian creed. He abhorred de Marsay; de Marsay was unmanageable,
but with Rastignac he was much pleased; he exploited him, though
Rastignac was not aware of it. All the burdens of married life were put
on him. Rastignac bore the brunt of Delphine's whims; he escorted her
to the Bois de Boulogne; he went with her to the play; and the little
politician and great man of to-day spent a good deal of his life at that
time in writing dainty notes. Eugene was scolded for little nothings
from the first; he was in good spirits when Delphine was cheerful, and
drooped when she felt low; he bore the weight of her confidences and
her ailments; he gave up his time, the hours of his precious youth, to fill
the empty void of that fair Parisian's idleness. Delphine and he held
high councils on the toilettes which went best together; he stood the fire
of bad temper and broadsides of pouting fits, while she, by way of
trimming the balance, was very nice to the Baron. As for the Baron, he
laughed in his sleeve; but whenever he saw that Rastignac was bending
under the strain of the burden, he made 'as if he suspected something,'
and reunited the lovers by a common dread."
"I can imagine that a wealthy wife would have put Rastignac in the way
of a living, and an honorable living, but where did he pick up his
fortune?" asked Couture. "A fortune so considerable as his at the
present day must come from somewhere; and nobody ever accused him
of inventing a good stroke of business."
"Somebody left it to him," said Finot.
"Who?" asked Blondet.
"Some fool that he came across," suggested Couture.
"He did not steal the whole of it, my little dears," said Bixiou.
"Let not your terrors rise to fever-heat, Our age is lenient with those
who cheat.
Now, I will tell you about the beginnings of his fortune. In the first
place, honor to talent! Our friend is not a 'chap,' as Finot describes him,
but a gentleman in the English sense, who knows the cards and knows
the game; whom, moreover, the gallery respects. Rastignac has quite as
much intelligence as is needed at a given moment, as if a soldier should
make his courage payable at ninety days' sight, with three witnesses

and guarantees. He may seem captious, wrong-headed, inconsequent,
vacillating, and without any fixed opinions; but let something serious
turn up, some combination to scheme out, he will not scatter himself
like Blondet here, who chooses these occasions to look at things from
his neighbor's point of view. Rastignac concentrates himself, pulls
himself together, looks for the point to carry by storm, and goes full tilt
for it. He charges like a Murat, breaks squares, pounds away at
shareholders, promoters, and the whole shop, and returns, when the
breach is made, to his lazy, careless life. Once more he becomes the
man of the South, the man of pleasure, the trifling, idle Rastignac.