Part 16 (2/2)

”I would rather have had less hope, and you to dinner,” whispered Celestine, looking at him with a vexed air which might very well pa.s.s for an expression of wounded love.

”This must win my pardon,” he returned, giving her an invitation to the ministry for the following Tuesday.

Celestine opened the letter, and a flush of pleasure came into her face.

No enjoyment can be compared to that of gratified vanity.

”You know what the countess's Tuesdays are,” said des Lupeaulx, with a confidential air. ”To the usual ministerial parties they are what the 'Pet.i.t-Chateau' is to a court ball. You will be at the heart of power! You will see there the Comtesse Feraud, who is still in favor notwithstanding Louis XVIII.'s death, Delphine de Nucingen, Madame de Listomere, the Marquise d'Espard, and your dear Firmiani; I have had her invited to give you her support in case the other women attempt to black-ball you. I long to see you in the midst of them.”

Celestine threw up her head like a thoroughbred before the race, and re-read the invitation just as Baudoyer and Saillard had re-read the articles about themselves in the newspapers, without being able to quaff enough of it.

”/There/ first, and /next/ at the Tuileries,” she said to des Lupeaulx, who was startled by the words and by the att.i.tude of the speaker, so expressive were they of ambition and security.

”Can it be that I am only a stepping-stone?” he asked himself. He rose, and went into Madame Rabourdin's bedroom, where she followed him, understanding from a motion of his head that he wished to speak to her privately.

”Well, your husband's plan,” he said; ”what of it?”

”Bah! the useless nonsense of an honest man!” she replied. ”He wants to suppress fifteen thousand offices and do the work with five or six thousand. You never heard of such nonsense; I will let you read the whole doc.u.ment when copied; it is written in perfect good faith.

His a.n.a.lysis of the officials was prompted only by his honesty and rect.i.tude,--poor dear man!”

Des Lupeaulx was all the more rea.s.sured by the genuine laugh which accompanied these jesting and contemptuous words, because he was a judge of lying and knew that Celestine spoke in good faith.

”But still, what is at the bottom of it all?” he asked.

”Well, he wants to do away with the land-tax and subst.i.tute taxes on consumption.”

”Why it is over a year since Francois Keller and Nucingen proposed some such plan, and the minister himself is thinking of a reduction of the land-tax.”

”There!” exclaimed Celestine, ”I told him there was nothing new in his scheme.”

”No; but he is on the same ground with the best financier of the epoch,--the Napoleon of finance. Something may come of it. Your husband must surely have some special ideas in his method of putting the scheme into practice.”

”No, it is all commonplace,” she said, with a disdainful curl of her lip. ”Just think of governing France with five or six thousand offices, when what is really needed is that everybody in France should be personally enlisted in the support of the government.”

Des Lupeaulx seemed satisfied that Rabourdin, to whom in his own mind he had granted remarkable talents, was really a man of mediocrity.

”Are you quite sure of the appointment? You don't want a bit of feminine advice?” she said.

”You women are greater adepts than we in refined treachery,” he said, nodding.

”Well, then, say /Baudoyer/ to the court and clergy, to divert suspicion and put them to sleep, and then, at the last moment, write /Rabourdin/.”

”There are some women who say /yes/ as long as they need a man, and /no/ when he has played his part,” returned des Lupeaulx, significantly.

”I know they do,” she answered, laughing; ”but they are very foolish, for in politics everything recommences. Such proceedings may do with fools, but you are a man of sense. In my opinion the greatest folly any one can commit is to quarrel with a clever man.”

”You are mistaken,” said des Lupeaulx, ”for such a man pardons. The real danger is with the petty spiteful natures who have nothing to do but study revenge,--I spend my life among them.”

When all the guests were gone, Rabourdin came into his wife's room, and after asking for her strict attention, he explained his plan and made her see that it did not cut down the revenue but on the contrary increased it; he showed her in what ways the public funds were employed, and how the State could increase tenfold the circulation of money by putting its own, in the proportion of a third, or a quarter, into the expenditures which would be sustained by private or local interests. He finally proved to her plainly that his plan was not mere theory, but a system teeming with methods of execution. Celestine, brightly enthusiastic, sprang into her husband's arms and sat upon his knee in the chimney-corner.

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