Part 11 (2/2)
The cabman swore and said that he must be a duffer to run into his wheel; Robineau swore too, in order not to seem to be in the wrong; but his oaths did not suffice to extricate him from the fix in which he had involved himself; and, realizing that he would never get out of the tangle himself, he handed the reins to Alfred, saying:
”Do me the favor to drive, my dear fellow, for I am so engrossed by my affairs that I might mistake the road.”
Thanks to Alfred, they cut loose from the cab and arrived without other mishaps at the Palais-Royal. They went to Beauvilliers', and Robineau ordered all the most expensive dishes; if his two companions had not checked him, he would have provided a breakfast for twenty and would have shouted at the top of his lungs that he had twenty-five thousand francs a year.
”By the way,” said Alfred, ”what of Fifine? you don't mention her. She must be much pleased by what has happened to you, isn't she?”
”Fifine!” repeated Robineau, with a distraught air; ”oh! I haven't had time yet to see her since I went to my notary's.--_My notary!_ I say, messieurs, how that rings in the ear! My notary!”
”Do you mean to say, Monsieur Robineau,” said Edouard, ”that you have not yet imparted your good news to her who was so dear to you a week since? Pray consider that when a woman has loved you for yourself alone, you owe her a debt of grat.i.tude; and the least that you can do is to let her share your pleasure in what has happened to you.”
”Edouard is right,” said Alfred; ”when you have had the good luck to fall in with a good, sensible, loyal woman, it seems to me, my friend, that you can hardly do too much for her.”
”Messieurs, messieurs,” replied Robineau, nibbling at the wing of a chicken, ”it is very easy for you to talk; perhaps you would like me to make Mademoiselle Fifine my wife; that would be very pretty!”
”We know very well that you won't do that; but----”
”But I can't keep that little milliner for my mistress either. You must agree that when one has a considerable fortune, one may fly at higher game, more distinguished. And then, messieurs, between ourselves, Mamzelle Fifine isn't exactly a model of virtue; indeed she falls very far short of it. I have noticed several times that--you understand--but I have always pretended not to see anything, because I wasn't in love with her. And then, she has a flighty disposition, a very quick temper; she's a perfect dragon. For my part, I like mild-mannered women. I am accustomed to her face; but the fact is that she isn't pretty; she has a bold look and that's all.”
”Oh! I say, Robineau, you don't propose to tell us now that she hasn't a good figure; she was a Venus the other night.”
”Oh, yes! a strange kind of Venus! And she made me spend all my money on little parties of two; two-thirds of my salary went that way.”
”What, man! a woman who loved you for yourself alone?”
”Yes. Oh! I know that she loved me; but that didn't prevent her being as gluttonous as a cat. However, messieurs, I have no desire to speak ill of her; I shall certainly buy her something; I am too generous to--But let us drop Fifine and talk about my plans. My dear friends, you have no idea what I have in my head--well! it's a chateau!”
”A chateau!” exclaimed Alfred; ”why, my poor Robineau, you are mad; if you buy a chateau you won't have anything left to keep it up!”
”Bah! I know how to calculate. There are chateaux and chateaux! Why can't I put a hundred thousand francs into a nice little estate, an estate with a house on it, built in the old style? My notary a.s.sures me that he can find such a one very readily; and then, my dear friends, I can a.s.sume the name of my estate. That is done every day; and, between ourselves, Robineau is a very vulgar name for a man with twenty-five thousand francs a year.”
”What, Monsieur Robineau!” said Edouard; ”you, who declared that you should never change, whatever might happen, and whose discourse reminded one of Socrates and Cincinnatus!”
”As I have told you, my friends, I have my plans. I look a long way ahead. I buy a small chateau, an estate, no matter where, and I a.s.sume its name; that gives me at once an air of n.o.bility; then I find a rich heiress, I present myself, I make a favorable impression, and I marry.
What do you say to that? It seems to me that's not a bad scheme; and if I had no other name than Robineau, I could never become allied to a distinguished family! Mon Dieu! my dear Uncle Gratien, what a n.o.ble use I will make of your wealth!”
”And to begin with, you propose to discard his name.”
”You must see that I do it from policy. It is decided: I shall buy an estate, I shall have peasants and va.s.sals, and they will call me monseigneur!”
”They won't call you monseigneur, my poor Robineau, because in these days the man who owns lands, houses and farms is not on that account at liberty to dispose at his pleasure of the people who till his fields; and those delightful little prerogatives of _cuissage, jambage, marquette, prelibation,_ and the like, which made the plight of va.s.sals worse than that of beasts of burden, and degraded mankind by exalting one man at the expense of his fellowman--those prerogatives no longer exist; because men love a kind and virtuous master and no longer tremble before an arrogant and dissipated lord; because all men are under the protection of the laws, which ordain obedience and not humiliation; and finally because there are no more serfs except in Russia, where I advise you to go to buy your chateau, if you want to be called monseigneur. But I really believe, Robineau, that if you were left to your own devices, you would become one of the petty tyrants of the olden time, or at least a wolf, like the one in Little Red Riding Hood.”
”I say, messieurs, to my mind, that was a very pretty little prerogative that ent.i.tled the lord to be the first man to put his legs into a newly married woman's bed.--But I will make _rosieres_[2]--that will be just the same thing.”
”Pending the time when you make rosieres, pay the bill and let us go.”
”Already?”
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