Then, his emotion having subsided, "Monsieur de Gery," he said, "I am happy to have the opportunity to repay a little of the kindness your family has showered upon mine. This very day, if you agree, I take you into my service. You are well educated, you seem intelligent, you can be of very great service to me. I have innumerable plans, innumerable matters in hand. I have been drawn into a mult.i.tude of large industrial undertakings. I need some one to a.s.sist me, to take my place at need.
To be sure, I have a secretary, a steward, that excellent Bompain; but the poor fellow knows nothing of Paris. You will say that you are fresh from the provinces. But that"s of no consequence. Well educated as you are, a Southerner, open-eyed and adaptable, you will soon get the hang of the boulevard. At all events, I"ll undertake your education in that direction myself. In a few weeks you shall have a foot as thoroughly Parisian as mine, I promise you."
Poor man! It was touching to hear him talk about his _Parisian foot_ and his experience, when he was fated never to be more than a beginner.
"Well, it"s a bargain, eh? I take you for my secretary. You shall have a fixed salary which we will agree upon directly; and I will give you a chance to make your fortune quickly."
And as de Gery, suddenly relieved of all his anxieties as a new-comer, a pet.i.tioner, a neophyte, did not stir for fear of waking from a dream, the Nabob added in a softer tone:
"Now come and sit here by me, and let us talk a little about mamma."
III.
MEMOIRS OF A CLERK.--A CASUAL GLANCE AT THE "CAISSE TERRITORIALE."
I had just finished my humble morning meal, and, as my custom is, had bestowed the balance of my provisions in the safe in the directors"
room, a magnificent safe with a secret lock, which has served as my pantry during the four years, or nearly that, of my employment in the _Territoriale_; suddenly the Governor enters the office, red as a turkey-c.o.c.k, his eyes inflamed as if he were fresh from a feast, breathing noisily, and says to me in vulgar phrase, with his Italian accent:
"There"s a horrible smell here, _Moussiou_ Pa.s.sajon."
There was not a horrible smell, if you please. But--shall I say it?--I had sent out for a few onions to put around a bit of knuckle of veal, brought down to me by Mademoiselle Seraphine, the cook on the second floor, whose accounts I write up every evening. I tried to explain to the Governor; but he worked himself into a rage, saying that in his opinion there was no sense in poisoning offices in that way, and that it wasn"t worth while to pay twelve thousand francs a year for a suite of rooms with eight windows on the front, in the best part of Boulevard Malesherbes, to cook onions in. I don"t know what he didn"t say to me in his effervescent state. For my part, I was naturally vexed to be spoken to in that insolent tone. The least one can do is to be polite to people whom one neglects to pay, deuce take it! So I retorted that it was too bad, really; but, if the _Caisse Territoriale_ would pay what they owe me, to wit my arrears of salary for four years, plus seven thousand francs advanced by me to the Governor to pay for carriages, newspapers, cigars and American drinks on the days the council met, I would go and eat like a Christian at the nearest cheap alehouse, and should not be reduced to cooking for myself, in the directors" room, a wretched stew which I owed to the public compa.s.sion of cooks. And there you are!
In speaking thus I gave way to an indignant impulse very excusable in the eyes of anybody who is acquainted with my position here. However, I had said nothing unseemly, but had kept within the limits of language suited to my age and education. (I must have stated somewhere in these memoirs that I pa.s.sed more than thirty of my sixty-five years as apparitor to the Faculty of Letters at Dijon. Hence my taste for reports and memoirs, and those notions of academic style of which traces will be found in many pa.s.sages of this lucubration.) I had, I repeat, expressed myself to the Governor with the greatest reserve, refraining from employing any of those insulting words with which every one here regales him during the day, from our two censors, M. de Monpavon, who laughingly calls him _Fleur-de-Mazas_, whenever he comes here, and M. de Bois-l"Hery of the Trompettes Club, who is as vulgar in his language as a groom, and always says to him by way of adieu: "To your wooden bed, flea!" From those two down to our cashier, whom I have heard say to him a hundred times, tapping his ledger: "There"s enough in here to send you to the galleys whenever I choose." And yet, for all that, my simple observation produced a most extraordinary effect upon him. The circles around his eyes turned bright yellow, and he said, trembling with anger, the wicked anger of his country: "Pa.s.sajon, you"re a blackguard! One word more and I discharge you." I was struck dumb with amazement. Discharge me--me! And what about my four years"
arrears, and my seven thousand francs of advances! As if he read my thoughts as they entered my head, the Governor replied that all the accounts were to be settled, including mine. "By the way," he added, "just call all the clerks to my office. I have some great news to tell them." With that he entered his office and slammed the door behind him.
That devil of a man! No matter how well you may know him, know what a liar he is and what an actor, he always finds a way to put you off with his palaver. My account! Why, I was so excited that my legs ran away with me while I was going about to notify the staff.
Theoretically there are twelve of us at the _Caisse Territoriale_, including the Governor and the dandy Moessard, manager of the _Verite Financiere_; but really there are less than half that number. In the first place, since the _Verite_ ceased to appear--that was two years ago--M. Moessard hasn"t once set foot inside our doors. It seems that he is swimming in honors and wealth, that he has for a dear friend a queen, a real queen, who gives him all the money he wants. Oh! what a Babylon this Paris is! The others look in occasionally to see if by chance there is anything new at the _Caisse_; and, as there never is, weeks pa.s.s without our seeing them. Four or five faithful ones, poor old fellows all, like myself, persist in appearing regularly every morning, at the same hour, as a matter of habit, because they have nothing else to do, and are at a loss to know what to turn their hand to; but they all busy themselves with matters that have no connection whatever with the office. One must live, there"s no doubt of that! And then a man cannot pa.s.s his day lounging from chair to chair, from window to window, to look out (eight front windows on the boulevard).
So we try to get such work as we can. For my part, I write for Mademoiselle Seraphine and another cook in the house. Then I write up my memoirs, which takes no small amount of time. Our receiving teller--there"s a fellow who hasn"t a very laborious task with us--makes netting for a house that deals in fishermen"s supplies. One of our two copyists, who writes a beautiful hand, copies plays for a dramatic agency; the other makes little toys worth a sou, which are sold by hucksters at the street corners toward New Year"s Day, and in that way succeeds in keeping himself from starving to death the rest of the year. Our cashier is the only one who does no outside work. He would think that he had forfeited his honor. He is a very proud man, who never complains, and whose only fear is that he may seem to be short of linen. Locked into his office, he employs his time from morning till night, making shirt-fronts, collars and cuffs out of paper. He has attained very great skill, and his linen, always dazzlingly white, would deceive any one, were it not that, at the slightest movement, when he walks, when he sits down, it cracks as if he had a pasteboard box in his stomach. Unluckily all that paper does not feed him; and he is so thin, he has such a gaunt look, that one wonders what he can live on. Between ourselves, I suspect him of sometimes paying a visit to my pantry. That"s an easy matter for him; for, in his capacity of cashier, he has the "word" that opens the secret lock, and I fancy that, when my back is turned, he does a little foraging among my supplies.
Surely this is a most extraordinary, incredible banking-house. And yet what I am writing is the solemn truth, and Paris is full of financial establishments of the same sort as ours. Ah! if I ever publish my memoirs. But let me take up the interrupted thread of my narrative.
When we were all a.s.sembled in his office, the manager said to us with great solemnity:
"Messieurs and dear comrades, the time of our trials is at an end. The _Caisse Territoriale_ is entering upon a new phase of its existence."
With that he began to tell us about a superb _combin.a.z.ione_--that is his favorite word, and he says it in such an insinuating tone!--a _combin.a.z.ione_ in which the famous Nabob of whom all the papers are talking is to have a part. Thus the _Caisse Territoriale_ would be able to discharge its obligation to its loyal servants, to reward those who had shown devotion to its service and lop off those who were useless.
This last for me, I imagine. And finally: "Make up your accounts. They will all be settled to-morrow." Unfortunately he has so often soothed our feelings with lying words that his discourse produced no effect.
Formerly those fine promises of his always succeeded. On the announcement of a new _combin.a.z.ione_, we used to caper about and weep with joy in the offices, and embrace one another like shipwrecked sailors at sight of a sail.
Everyone prepared his account for the next day, as he had told us. But the next day, no Governor. The next day but one, still no Governor. He had gone on a little journey.
At last, when we were all together, exasperated beyond measure, putting out our tongues, crazy for the water that he had held to our mouths, the Governor arrived, dropped into a chair, hid his face in his hands, and, before we had time to speak to him, exclaimed: "Kill me, kill me!
I am a miserable impostor. The _combin.a.z.ione_ has fallen through.
_Pechero!_ the _combin.a.z.ione_ has fallen through!" And he cried and sobbed, threw himself on his knees, tore out his hair by handfuls and rolled on the carpet; he called us all by our nicknames, begged us to take his life, spoke of his wife and children, whom he had utterly ruined. And not one of us had the courage to complain in the face of such despair. What do I say? We ended by sharing it. No, never since theatres existed, has there been such an actor. But to-day, it is all over, our confidence has departed. When he had gone everybody gave a shrug. I must confess, however, that for a moment I was shaken. The a.s.surance with which he talked about discharging me, and the name of the Nabob, who was so wealthy--
"Do you believe that?" said the cashier. "Why, you"ll always be an innocent, my poor Pa.s.sajon. Never you fear! The Nabob"s in it just about as much as Moessard"s queen was."
And he went back to his shirt-fronts.
His last remark referred back to the time when Moessard was paying court to his queen and had promised the Governor that, in case he was successful, he would induce Her Majesty to invest some funds in our enterprise. All of us in the office were informed of that new prospect and deeply interested, as you may imagine, in its speedy realization, since our money depended on it. For two months that fable kept us in breathless suspense. We were consumed with anxiety, we scrutinized Moessard"s face; we thought that the effects of his a.s.sociation with the lady were very visible there; and our old cashier, with his proud, serious air, would reply gravely from behind his grating, when we questioned him on the subject: "There"s nothing new," or: "The affair"s in good shape." With that everybody was content and we said to each other: "It"s coming along, it"s coming along," as if it were a matter in the ordinary course of business. No, upon my word, Paris is the only place in the world where such things can be seen. It positively makes one"s head spin sometimes. The upshot of it was that, one fine morning, Moessard stopped coming to the office. He had succeeded, it seems; but the _Caisse Territoriale_ did not seem to him a sufficiently advantageous investment for his dear friend"s funds. That was honorable, wasn"t it?
However, the sentiment of honor is so easily lost that one can scarcely believe it. When I think that I, Pa.s.sajon, with my white hair, my venerable appearance, my spotless past--thirty years of academic service--have accustomed myself to living amid these infamies and base intrigues like a fish in water! One may well ask what I am doing here, why I remain here, how I happened to come here.
How did I happen to come here? Oh! bless your soul, in the simplest way you can imagine. Nearly four years ago, my wife being dead and my children married, I had just accepted my retiring pension as apparitor to the Faculty, when an advertis.e.m.e.nt in the newspaper happened to come to my notice. "WANTED, a clerk of mature age at the _Caisse Territoriale_, 56 Boulevard Malesherbes. Good references." Let me make a confession at once. The modern Babylon had always tempted me. And then I felt that I was still vigorous, I could see ten active years before me, during which I might earn a little money, much perhaps, by investing my savings in the banking-house I was about to enter. So I wrote, inclosing my photograph by Crespon, Place De Marche, in which I am represented with a clean-shaven chin, a bright eye under my heavy white eyebrows, wearing my steel chain around my neck, my insignia as an academic official, "with the air of a conscript father on his curule chair!" as our dean, M. Chalmette, used to say. (Indeed he declared that I looked very much like the late Louis XVIII., only not so heavy.)
So I furnished the best of references, the most flattering recommendations from the gentlemen of the Faculty. By return mail the Governor answered my letter to the effect that my face pleased him--I should think so, _parbleu!_ a reception room guarded by an imposing countenance like mine is a tempting bait to the investor,--and that I might come when I chose. I ought, you will tell me, to have made inquiries on my own account. Oh! of course I ought. But I had so much information to furnish about myself that it never occurred to me to ask them for any about themselves. Moreover, how could one have a feeling of distrust after seeing these superb quarters, these lofty ceilings, these strong-boxes, as large as wardrobes, and these mirrors in which you can see yourself from head to foot? And then the sonorous prospectuses, the millions that I heard flying through the air, the colossal enterprises with fabulous profits. I was dazzled, fascinated.
I must say, also, that at that time the establishment had a very different look from that it has to-day. Certainly affairs were going badly--they have always gone badly, have our affairs--and the journal appeared only at irregular intervals. But one of the Governor"s little _combin.a.z.ioni_ enabled him to save appearances.
He had conceived the idea, if you please, of opening a patriotic subscription to erect a statue to General Paolo Paoli, a great man of his country. The Corsicans are not rich, but they are as vain as turkeys. So money poured into the _Territoriale_. But unfortunately it did not last. In two months the statue was devoured, before it was erected, and the succession of protests and summonses began again.
To-day I am used to it. But when I first came from my province, the notices posted by order of the court, the bailiffs at the door, made a painful impression upon me. Inside, no attention was paid to them. They knew that at the last moment a Monpavon or a Bois-l"Hery was certain to turn up to appease the bailiffs; for all those gentlemen, being deeply involved in the affair, are interested to avoid a failure. That is just what saves our evil-minded little Governor. The others run after their money--everyone knows what that means in gambling--and they would not be pleased to know that all the shares they have in their hands are worth nothing more than their weight as old paper.
From the smallest to the greatest, all of us in the house are in that plight. From the landlord, to whom we owe two years" rent and who keeps us on for nothing for fear of losing it all, down to us poor clerks, to myself, who am in for seven thousand francs of savings and my four years" back pay, we are all running after our money. That is why I persist in remaining here.
Doubtless, notwithstanding my advanced age, I might have succeeded, by favor of my education, my general appearance and the care I have always taken of my clothes, in getting a place in some other office. There is a very honorable person of my acquaintance, M. Joyeuse, bookkeeper for Hemerlingue and Son, the great bankers on Rue Saint-Honore, who never fails to say to me whenever he meets me:
"Pa.s.sajon, my boy, don"t stay in that den of thieves. You make a mistake in staying on there; you"ll never get a sou out of it. Come to Hemerlingue"s. I"ll undertake to find some little corner for you. You will earn less, but you"ll receive very much more."
I feel that he is right, the honest fellow. But it"s stronger than I am, I cannot make up my mind to go. And yet this is not a cheerful life that I lead here in these great cold rooms where no one ever comes, where every one slinks into a corner without speaking. What would you have? We know one another too well, that"s the whole of it. Up to last year we had meetings of the council of supervision, meetings of stockholders, stormy, uproarious meetings, genuine battles of savages, whose yells could be heard at the Madeleine. And subscribers used to come too, several times a week, indignant because they had never heard anything from their money. Those were the times when our Governor came out strong. I have seen people go into his office, monsieur, as fierce as wolves thirsty for blood, and come out, after a quarter of an hour, milder than sheep, satisfied, rea.s.sured, and their pockets comforted with a few bank-notes. For there was the cunning of the thing: to ruin with money the poor wretches who came to demand it. To-day the shareholders of the _Caisse Territoriale_ never stir. I think that they are all dead or resigned to their fate. The council never meets. We have sessions only on paper; it is my duty to make up a so-called balance-sheet--always the same--of which I make a fresh copy every three months. We never see a living soul, except that at rare intervals some subscriber to the Paoli statue drops down on us from the wilds of Corsica, anxious to know if the monument is progressing; or perhaps some devout reader of the _Verite Financiere_, which disappeared more than two years ago, comes with an air of timidity to renew his subscription, and requests that it be forwarded a little more regularly, if possible. There is a confidence which nothing weakens.
When one of those innocent creatures falls in the midst of our half-starved band, it is something terrible. We surround him, we embrace him, we try to get his name on one of our lists, and, in case he resists, if he will subscribe neither to the Paoli monument nor to the Corsican railways, then those gentry perform what they call--my pen blushes to write it--what they call "the drayman trick."
This is how it is done: we always have in the office a package prepared beforehand, a box tied with stout string which arrives, presumably from some railway station, while the visitor is there. "Twenty francs cartage,"
says the one of us who brings in the package. (Twenty francs, or some times thirty, according to the victim"s appearance.) Every one at once begins to fumble in his pocket. "Twenty francs cartage! I haven"t it."--"Nor I--What luck!" Some one runs to the counting-room.--Closed!
They look for the cashier. Gone out. And the hoa.r.s.e voice of the drayman waxing impatient in the ante-room: "Come, come, make haste." (I am generally selected for the drayman"s part, because of my voice.) What is to be done? Send back the package? the Governor won"t like that. "Messieurs, I beg you to allow me," the innocent victim ventures to observe, opening his purse.--"Ah! monsieur, if you would."--He pays his twenty francs, we escort him to the door, and as soon as his back is turned we divide the fruit of the crime, laughing like brigands.
Fie! Monsieur Pa.s.sajon. Such performances at your time of life! Oh!
_Mon Dieu_! I know all about it. I know that I should honor myself much more if I left this vile place. But, what then? why, I must abandon all that I have at stake here. No, it is not possible. It is urgently necessary that I remain, that I keep a close watch, that I am always on hand to have the advantage of a windfall, if one should come.
Oh! I swear by my ribbon, by my thirty years of academic service, if ever an affair like this of the Nabob makes it possible for me to recoup my losses, I will not wait a moment, I will take myself off in hot haste to look after my little vineyard near Monbars, cured forever of my speculative ideas. But alas! that is a very chimerical hope,--played out, discredited, well known as we are on "Change, with our shares no longer quoted at the Bourse, our obligations fast becoming waste paper, such a wilderness of falsehood and debts, and the hole that is being dug deeper and deeper. (We owe at this moment three million five hundred thousand francs. And yet that three millions is not what embarra.s.ses us. On the other hand it is what keeps us up; but we owe the concierge a little bill of a hundred and twenty five francs for postage stamps, gas and the like. That"s the dangerous thing.) And they would have us believe that a man, a great financier like this Nabob, even though he was just from the Congo or had come from the moon this very day, is fool enough to put his money in such a trap.
Nonsense! Is it possible? Tell that story elsewhere, my dear Governor.
IV.
A DeBUT IN SOCIETY.
"Monsieur Bernard Jansoulet!"
That plebeian name, proudly announced by the liveried footman in a resounding voice, rang through Jenkins"s salons like the clash of cymbals, like one of the gongs that announce fantastic apparitions in a fairy play. The candles paled, flames flashed from every eye, at the dazzling prospect of Oriental treasures, of showers of pearls and sequins let fall by the magic syllables of that name, but yesterday unknown.
Yes, it was he, the Nabob, the richest of the rich, the great Parisian curiosity, flavored with that spice of adventure that is so alluring to surfeited mult.i.tudes. All heads were turned, all conversation was interrupted; there was a grand rush for the door, a pushing and jostling like that of the crowds on the quay at a seaport, to watch the arrival of a felucca with a cargo of gold.
Even the hospitable Jenkins, who was standing in the first salon to receive his guests, despite his usual self-possession abruptly left the group of men with whom he was talking and bore away to meet the galleons.