Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1904 — THE MISER'S DAUGHTER [ARTICLE]

THE MISER'S DAUGHTER

By HONRE DE BALZAC

CHAPTER ll.—(ContinnedL) “Will you permit me, mademoiselle, the anniversary of your birthday, to will you a long succession of prosperous !«•», and may you for long preserve the -fcrahh with which you are blessed at ■naent.” Ha then offered her such a bouquet of Rawer* as was seldom seen in Saumur; ami taking the heiress by both arms, gave her a kiss on either side ot the fthraat, a fervent salute which brought the color into Eugenie’s face. The magistrate was tall and thin, somewhat resembling a rusty nail; this was his notion of paying court. “Do not disturb yourself,” said Granite, coming back into the room. “Fine Roings these of yours, M. le President, on kigh days and holidays.” “With mademoiselle beside him every iay would be a holiday for my nephew,” answered the Abbe Cruchot, also armed with a bouquet; and with that the Abbe hissed Eugenie’s hand. As for M. Cruehot. be hissed her unceremoniously on hath cheeks, saying: "This sort of thing makes us feel older, eh? A whole year «Mer i every twelve months.”

Grundet set down the candle in front -iff Ah* brass clock on the chimney piece; whenever a joke amused him he kept on mpmting it till it was worn threadbare; he did so now. “As to-day is Eugenie’s birthday,” he mm, "let us have an illumination.” He carefully removed the branches teera the two sconces, fitted the sockets Me other pedestal, took from Nnnon's hands a whole new cgudle wrapped in a scrap of paper, fixed it firmly in the aeeket, sod lighted" it. Then he went «vir to his wife and took up his position hi ride her, looking by turns at his daughter, his friends, and the two lighted canThe Abbe Cruchot was a fat, dumpy attte man. His peculiar type of face might have belonged to some old lady whose life is at the enrd table. At this moment he was stretching out his tect and displaying a very neat and strong pair of shoes with silver buckles on them. “The des Grnssins have not come aonnd?” he asked. “Not yet,” answered Grandet. “Are they sure to come?” put in the old notary, with various contortions of a countenance as full of holes us a colander. “Oh! yes, I think they will come<” raid Mme. Grandet.

“Is the vintage over?” asked President <Be Bonfons, addressing Grandet; "are »H your grapes gathered?” “Yes, everywhere!” answered the old vine grower, rising and walking up and down the length of the room. He ntraightened himself up as he spoke with n conscious pride that appeared iu that word “everywhere.” As he passed by the door that opened teto the passage. Grandet caught a glimpse of the kitchen; the fire was still alight, a candle was burning and rig Nanon was about to begimlier spinning by the hearth; she did not wish to tetrode upon the birthday party. “Nanon!” he called, stepping out into tfie passage, “Nanon! why ever don’t you rake out the fire: put out the caudle and rame in here! The room is large enough to hold us all.” “But you are expecting grand visitors, rir.” “Have you any objection to them? They are all descended from Adam just ra much as you are.” Grnudet went back to the president. “Have you sold your wine?” he inquired. “Not I; I am holding it. If the wine te good now, it will be better still in two years’ time. The growers, os you know, of course, are in a ring, and mean to keep prices up. The Belgians shall not bmro it all their own way this year. And St they go away, well and good, let them ®*;.they will come back again.” “Yes; but we must hold firm,” said Grandet in a tone that made the magistrate shudder. "Suppose he should sell Ms wine behind our backs?” he thought. At that moment another knock at the door announced the des Grassins. and interrupted a quiet talk between Mme. Grandet and the Abbe Cruchot.

Mjne. des Grassins was n dumpy, lively little person with a pink-and-white complexion, one of those women for whom the course of life in n country town has flowed on with tranquillity, ami still youthful at the age of forty. Her husband had been a quartermaster the Imperial Guard, but he had reared from the army with a pension, after toeing, badly wounded at Austerfitz. In spite of his consideration for Grander, toe still retained, or affeeted to retain, tfce bluff manners of a soldier. “Good day. Grandet,” he said, holding oart his hand to the cooper with that wonted air of superiority with which lie orfipsed the Cruehot faction. “Mademoiselle/” lie added, addressing Eugenie, after a bow to Mine. Grandet. “you are always charming, ever good and fair, and what more can one wish you?" With that he presented her with a email box. which n servant was carrying, tail which contained a Cape heath, a jrfaat only recently introduced into Eu--wpe, and very rare. Mme. des Grassins •awbraced Eugenie very affectionately, wpir r-r l her hand, and said, “I have QManiisßioned Adolphe to gift.* you niv IMHe birthday gift.” A tall, fair-haired young tjmn. somemhm\ pallid and weakly in appearance, ii—r forward at this; his manners were ryilil» good, although lie seemed to be He had just completed his law htotofoi in Paris. He now kissed Eu«maa on both clipeks. and laid a worktom with gilded silver fittings liefore her; tot was a showy, trumpery thing enough, itoapite of the little shield on the lid. on wtoarfc “E. G.” had lieen engraved in 4Mbric characters. Eugenie raised the iM with n little thrill of pleasure; the happiness was ns complete as it was un'tosfcwt so happiness 'that brings IkMJkt color into a young girl's face and amfltoa her tremble with delight. Her eyes tmwto to her father as If to ask whether tofcr aright accept the gift; M. Grandet .mmrered the mute inquiry with a “Take my daughter!” in tones whicb would Iwt made the reputation of an actor, three Crucliota stood dumfounded Sto

when they saw the bright, delighted glance that Adolphe des Grnssins received from the heiress, who seemed to be dazzled by such undreamed-of spleiK"te rs -

CHAPTER 111. M. des Grassins offered his snuff-box to Grandet, took a pinch himself, brushed off a few stray specks from his blue coat and from the ribbon of the I.egion of Honor at liis buttonhole, and looked at the Crnchots, as who should say, “Parry that thrust if you 'can!” Mine, des Grassins’ eyes fell on the blue glass jars in which the Crnchots' bouquets had been set. She looked at their gifts with the innocent air of pretended interest which a satirical woman knows how to assume upon occnsion. It was a delicate crisis. The Abbe got up and left the others, who were forming a circle round the fire, and joined Grandet in his promenade up auil down the room. When the two elders had reached the embrasure of the window the priest said in the miser’s ear, “Those people yonder are throwing their money out of the windows.” „ “What does that matter to me, so long as it comes my way?” the old vine grower answered. “If you had n mind to give your daughter golden scissors, you could very well afford it,” said the Abbe. "I shall give her something better than scissors,” Grandet answered. an idiot my nephew is!” thought the Abbe, ns he looked aj jjii magistrate, whose dark, ill-favored countenance was set off to perfection at that moment by a shock head of hair. “\Y hy couldn’t he have hit on some expensive piece of foolery?” “We will take a hand at cards. Mme. Grandet,” said Mme. des Grassins. “But ns we are all here, there are enough of us for two tables. . . .“ “As to-day is Eugenie’s birthday, why not all play together at loto?” said old Grandet; “these two children could join iu the game. Here, Nanon, move the tables out.” “We will help you, Mademoiselle Nanon,” said Mme. des Grassins, cheerfully; she was thoroughly pleased because she had pleased Eugenie. “I have never seen anything so pretty anywhere,” the heiress had said to her. “I have never been so happy iu my life before.”

“It was Adolphe who chose it,” said Mme. des Grassins in the girl’s ear; “he brought it from Paris.” “Go your ways, scheming woman,” muttered the magistrate to himself. “If you or your husband ever find yourselves in a court of law, you shall be hard put to it to gain the day.” Two tables were in readiness by halfpast eight o’clock. Mme. des Grassins, with her winning ways, had succeeded iu placing her son next to Eugenie. The old cooper himself eyed the group with a certain self-complacency; he looked at Mme. des Grassins with her pink feathers and fresh toilet, af 1 the banker's soldierly face, at Adolphe, at the magistrate, at the Abbe and the notary, and within himself he said: “They are all after my crowns; that is what they are here for. It is for my daughter that they come to be bored here. Aha! and my daughter is for none of them, and all these people are so many harpoons to be used in my fishing.” Just as Mme. Grandet lind won sixteen sous, the largest amount that had ever been punted beneath that roof, and big Nanon was beaming with delight at the sight of Madame pocketing that splendid sum, there was a knock at the house door, so sudden and so loud that the women started on their chairs. “No one in Saumur would knock in that way!” said the notary. Nanon took up one of the two candles and went to open the door. Grandet followed her.

“Grandet! Grandet!” cried his wife; a vague terror seized her, and she hurried to the door of the room. The players all looked at each other. “Suppose we go, too?” said M. des Grassins. ‘’That knock meant no good, it seemed to me.” But M. des Grassins scarcely caught a glimpse of a young man's face and of a porter who was carrying two huge trunks and an assortment of carpet bags, before Grandet turned sharply on his wife and said: “Go back to your loto. Mine. Grandet, and leave me to settle with this gentleman here.” ' With that he slammed the parlor door, and the loto players sat down again, but they were too much excited to go on with the game. “Is it any one who lives in Samnur. M. des Grassins?” his wife inquired. “No, a traveler. As a matter of fact,” said the notary, drawing out a heavy antique watch, a couple of lingers’ breadth in thickness, and not unlike a Dutch punt in shape, “it is nine o’clock. The mail conch is not often behind time.” “Is he young looking?” put in the Abbe Cruchot. “Y'es,” answered M. des Grassins. “The luggage he has with him must weigh three hundred kilos at least. It must be some relation.” “Let us put down our stakes," said Mme. Grandet gently. “M. Grandet was vexed, I could tell that by the sound of his voice, and perhpps he would be displeased if he enme in and found us nil discussing his affairs.” “Mademoiselle.".,Adolphe addressed his neighbor, “it will be your cousin Grandet, no doubt, a very nice-looking young fellow whom I once met at a bull.” Adolphe went no farther; his mother stamped on his foot under the table. Aloud, she asked him for two sous for his stake, ndding in an undertone, meant only for his ears, "Will you hold your tongue, yotk great silly!”* , They could hear the footsteps of Nnnon and the porter on the staircase, but Grandet returned to the room almost immediately, and just behind hint came the traveler who had excited so much curiosity, and loomed so large in tl*e imnginationa of those assembled; indeed, his sudden descent into their midst might be compared to the arrival of a snail in a beehive or the entrance of n peacock into some humdrum village poultry yard. “Take a seat near the fire,” aaid Grandet, addressing the stranger.

The young man looked round the room and bowed very gracefully before seating himself. The men rose and bowed politely in return, the women courtesied rather ceremoniously. “You are feeling cold, I expect, sir,” said Mme. Grandet; “you have no doubt come from ” “Just like the women!” broke in the good man, looking up from the letter which he held in his hand. “Do let the gentleman have a little pence.” “But, father, perhaps the gentleman wants something after his journey,” said •Eugenie. “He has a tongue in his head,” the vine grower answered severely. The stranger alone felt any surprise at this scene, the rest were quite used to the worthy man and li is arbitrary behavior. But after the two inquiries had received these summary answers the Stranger rose and stood with his back to the fire, held out a foot to the blaze, so as to warm the soles of his boots, and said to Eugenie: “Thank you, cousin. I dined a! Tours. And I do not require anything,” he added, glancing at Grandet; "I am not in the least tired.” “I)o you come from Paris?” Mme. des Grassins now put the inquiry. M. Charles, for this was the name borne by the son of M. Grandet of Paris, hearing some one question him. took out an eyeglass that hung suspended from Ills neck by a cord, fixed It in his eye, made a deliberate survey of the objects upon the table and of the people sitting around it, eyed Mme. des Grassins very coolly, and said, “Yes, madame. You are playing at into, aunt,” he added; “pray go on with your gnme, it is too amusing to be broken off.”• M. des Grassins put down a counter on his wife’s Card; the lady herself was not thinking of loto. her mind was full of melancholy forebodings; she was watching Eugenie and the cousin from Paris. She saw how the heiress now and th£U--s>UJe- ; gluyico at her cousin, 'Trnrf"’the banker’s wife could easily discover in those glances a crescendo of amazement or of curiosity. There was certainly a strange contrast between Grandet, a handsome young man of two-and-twenty, and the worthy provincials, who were scornfully studying the stranger with a view to making game of him. CHAPTER IV. It seemed to Eugenie, who had never in her life beheld such a paragon, that her cousin was some seraphic vision, some creature fallen from the skies. The perfume exhaled hy those shining locks, so gracefully curled, was delightful to her. She would fain have passed her fingers over the delicate, smooth surface of those wonderful gloves. She envied Charles his little hands, his complexion, the youthful refinement of his features. His manners, his way of adjusting his eyeglass, his superciliousness, his affectations, his manifest contempt for the little box which had hut lately given so much pleasure to the wealthy heiress; everything, in short, which had given offense to the Crnchots and the Grassinistes pleased Eugenie so much that she lay awake for long that night thinking about this phenix of a cousin. Then there was a general stir and a wheeling movement in the direction of the lire. Eugenie left the room to help her mother and Nanon, seized with n restless, and urgent desire (ersee that all was right in her cousin's room, to busy herself on her cousin’s account, to see that nothing was forgotten, to think of everything lie might require, and to make sure that it was there, to make ceitain that everything was as neat and pretty as might be. She alone, Eugenie thought, could enter into her cousin's ideas and understand his tastes. Her mother and Nation were about to leave the room in the belief that it was all in readiness; Eugenie convinced them in a moment that everything was yet to do. She filled Nauon’s head with these ideas, the sheets had not been aired. Nanon must bring the warming pan, there were ashes, there was a fire downstairs. She herself covered the old table with a clean white cloth, and told Nanon to mind and be sure to change it evlry morning. There must be a good fire in the room. She ran downstairs into the parlor, sought in one of the sideboards for an old japanned tray, and from the same source procured a hexagonal crystal glass, a little gilt spoon with almost all the gilding rubbed "off, and an old slen-der-necked glass bottle with Cupids engraved upon it; these she deposited firing uniph on a corner of the chimney piece. More ideas had crowded up in her mind during that one quarter of nn hour than in all the years since she had come into the world. (To be continued.)