Part 31 (1/2)
”Pray be cautious. De Finisterre is not a man I should implicitly trust in such matters.”
”Why? Do you know anything against him? He is in the best society,--perfect gentilhomme,--and, as his name may tell you, a fellow-Breton. You yourself allow, and so does Enguerrand, that the purchases he made for me--in this apartment, my horses, etc.--are singularly advantageous.”
”Quite true; the Chevalier is reputed sharp and clever, is said to be very amusing, and a first-rate piquet-player. I don't know him personally,--I am not in his set. I have no valid reason to disparage his character, nor do I conjecture any motive he could have to injure or mislead you. Still, I say, be cautious how far you trust to his advice or recommendation.”
”Again I ask why?”
”He is unlucky to his friends. He attaches himself much to men younger than himself; and somehow or other I have observed that most of them have come to grief. Besides, a person in whose sagacity I have great confidence warned me against making the Chevalier's acquaintance, and said to me, in his blunt way, 'De Finisterre came to Paris with nothing; he has succeeded to nothing; he belongs to no ostensible profession by which anything can be made. But evidently now he has picked up a good deal; and in proportion as any young a.s.sociate of his becomes poorer, De Finisterre seems mysteriously to become richer. Shun that sort of acquaintance.'”
”Who is your sagacious adviser!”
”Duplessis.”
”Ah, I thought so. That bird of prey fancies every other bird looking out for pigeons. I fancy that Duplessis is, like all those money-getters, a seeker after fas.h.i.+on, and De Finisterre has not returned his bow.”
”My dear Alain, I am to blame; nothing is so irritating as a dispute about the worth of the men we like. I began it, now let it be dropped; only make me one promise,--that if you should be in arrear, or if need presses, you will come at once to me. It was very well to be absurdly proud in an attic, but that pride will be out of place in your appartement au premier.”
”You are the best fellow in the world, Frederic, and I make you the promise you ask,” said Alain, cheerfully, but yet with a secret emotion of tenderness and grat.i.tude. ”And now, mon cher, what day will you dine with me to meet Raoul and Enguerrand, and some others whom you would like to know?”
”Thanks, and hearty ones, but we move now in different spheres, and I shall not trespa.s.s on yours. Je suis trop bourgeois to incur the ridicule of le bourgeois gentilhomme.”
”Frederic, how dare you speak thus? My dear fellow, my friends shall honour you as I do.”
”But that will be on your account, not mine. No; honestly that kind of society neither tempts nor suits me. I am a sort of king in my own walk; and I prefer my Bohemian royalty to va.s.salage in higher regions. Say no more of it. It will flatter my vanity enough if you will now and then descend to my coteries, and allow me to parade a Rochebriant as my familiar crony, slap him on the shoulder, and call him Alain.”
”Fie! you who stopped me and the English aristocrat in the Champs Elysees, to humble us with your boast of having fascinated une grande dame,--I think you said a d.u.c.h.esse.”
”Oh,” said Lemercier, conceitedly, and pa.s.sing his hand through his scented locks, ”women are different; love levels all ranks. I don't blame Ruy Blas for accepting the love of a queen, but I do blame him for pa.s.sing himself off as a n.o.ble,--a plagiarism, by the by, from an English play. I do not love the English enough to copy them. A propos, what has become of ce beau Grarm Varn? I have not seen him of late.”
”Neither have I.”
”Nor the belle Italienne?”
”Nor her,” said Alain, slightly blus.h.i.+ng.
At this moment Enguerrand lounged into the room. Alain stopped Lemercier to introduce him to his kinsman. ”Enguerrand, I present to you M.
Lemercier, my earliest and one of my dearest friends.”
The young n.o.ble held out his hand with the bright and joyous grace which accompanied all his movements, and expressed in cordial words his delight to make M. Lemercier's acquaintance. Bold and a.s.sured as Frederic was in his own circles, he was more discomposed than set at ease by the gracious accost of a lion, whom he felt at once to be of a breed superior to his own. He muttered some confused phrases, in which ravi and flatte were alone audible, and evanished.
”I know M. Lemercier by sight very well,” said Enguerrand, seating himself. ”One sees him very often in the Bois; and I have met him in the Coulisses and the Bal Mabille. I think, too, that he plays at the Bourse, and is lie with M. Duplessis, who bids fair to rival Louvier one of these days. Is Duplessis also one of your dearest friends?”
”No, indeed. I once met him, and was not prepossessed in his favour.”
”Nevertheless, he is a man much to be admired and respected.”
”Why so?”
”Because he understands so well the art of making what we all covet,--money. I will introduce you to him.”