Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1904 — The Riser's Daughter [ARTICLE]

The Riser's Daughter

By HONRE DE BALZAC

* CHAPTER XlX.— (Continued.) ‘ “Nanon, we are alone, you and I.'’ “Yes, mnm’selle; if I only knew w here Be tins, the charming young gentleman, l< would set off on foot to find him." “The sea lies between us,” said Eu*raie. When the poor lonely heiress, with jicr faithful old servant for company, iWas shedding tears in the old, dark llcuse, which was all the world she wnew, men talked from Orleans to Nnnfot* of nothing but Mlle Grandet and her (■eventeen millions. One of hei first acts iww to settle a pension of twelve hun4nd francs on Nanon, wjio, possessing '•trendy an income of six hundred francs ieC her own, at once became a great ireatch. In lees than a month she ex(ebanged her condition of spinster for Mat of wife, at the instance and through Me persuasion of Antoine Cornoil’.er, (who Was promoted to the position of (Bailiff and keeper to Mlle. Grahdet. r Eugenie was a woman of thirty and as jjet had known none of the happiness lit tife. It seemed hardly probable that .she would marry while she still wore mourning. Her sincere piety was well Inown. So the Cruchot family, counKted by the astute old Abbe, was fain be content with surrounding the ißeiress with the most affectionate attenMons. Her dining room was filled every levening with the warmest and most de.Wted Cruchotins. M. le President de Boufoos was the hero of the circle; they (tended his talents, his personal appear••ncr, his learning, his amiability; he |Wa» an inexhaustible subject of admirSfeg comment. ”M. le President” had striven to act •p to the part he wanted to play. He was 40 years old, his countenance was dark and ill-favored, he had, moreover, wizened look which is frequently ■ten in men of his profession; but he affected the airs of youth, sported a maBwca cane, and went to Mlle. Grandet’s Bouse arrayed in a white cravat and a shirt with huge frills. He called the feir heiress “our dear Eugenie," and spoke as if he were an intimate friend Of the family. The pack was still in pursuit of Eugenie’s millions; it was a more numerous pack now; they gave tongue together, and hunted down their prey more systematically. If Charles had come back from the Ise-off Indies, he would have found the some motives at work and almost the some people. Mme. des Grassins, for whom Eugenie had nothing but kindness and pity, still remained to vex the Cruefiots. Eugenie’s face still shone out ■gainst the dark background, and Charles, though invisible, reigned there ■upreme as in other days. Yet some advance had been made. Eugenie’s birthday bouquet was never evening he brought the heodilup*6N.. ft had become an institution; every evenS<g he brought the heiress a huge and wonderful bouquet. Mme. Cornoiller ostentatiously placed these offerings in a vase. and promptly flung them into a corner of the yard as soon as the visiters hod departed. In the early spring Mme. des Gras•hts made a move, and sought to trou*l > the felicity of the Cruchotins by talking to Eugenie of the Marquis de Froidfond, whose mined fortunes might >•> retrieved if the heiress would return lis estates to him by a marriage contract. Mme, des Grassins lauded the wirquis and his title to the skies; and, fttkmg Eugenie’s quiet smile for consent, ■he went about saying that M. le President Cruchot’s marriage was not such a (settled thing as some people imagined. "M. de Froidfond may be fifty years ■ld," she said, “but he looks no older than 81. Cruchot; he is a widower, and Was tWamily, it is true; but he is a mar•uis. he will be a peer of France one of these days, it is not such a bad match «s times go. I know of my own certain knowledge that when old Grandet added ■is own property to the Froidfond estate he meant to graft his family into Me Eroidfonds. He often told me as »Bch. Oh! he was a shrewd old man, .was Grandet.” “Ah! Nanon,” Eugenie said one evenfes. ns she went to bed, “why has he not •ace written to me in seven years?”

CHAPTER XX. While these events were taking place -to Banmur, Charles was making his fortone in the East. His first venture was wry successful. He had promptly resfised the sum of six thousand dollars, bussing the line had cured him of many ossiy prejudices; he soon saw very clcar- .»> that the best and quickest way of Hanking money was the same in the tropSrs as in Europe—by buying and selling ■sata. He made a descent on the African exists and bargained for negroes nnd •ikrr goods in demand in various mar■ska. He threw himself heart and soul kata his business, and thought of nothing afcr. He set one clear aim before him, to reappear in Paris, and to dazzle the xarid there with his wealth, to attain m position even higher than the one from which he had fallen. By dint of rubbing shoulders with aaony men, traveling in many lauds, comfcw in contact with various customs, ids *ndb had been relaxed. His notions of togM and wrong became less rigid when Br Sound that what was looked upon as <w crime in one country was lield up to admiration in another. He saw that eves? one was working for himself, that dtteterestedness was rarely to be met vnMb, and grew selfish and suspicious; Star hereditary failings of the Grandets «m» out in him —the hardness, the ■Mftiness, and the greed of gain. He nah* Chinese coolies, negro slaves, swal- ** neqts, children, artists, anything «■* everything that brought in money. * became a money lender on a large Skafg* Eong practice in cheating the cusSmu* authorities had made him unscrupujjtuto ki other ways. ' Poring, his first voyage Eugenie's pure saad nobib face bad been with him; he Bn* aJkV-'hutrtd his first success to a kind ‘IX 'sesaad by her ¥ ut on, adventures -tely effaced ail rocL w jeTdksin, of the old house, e»>ch, and of the kiss that ho had ipatched b ths passage. He remem-

bered nothing but the little garden shut in by its crumbling walls where he had learned the fate that lay in store for him; but he rejected all connection with the family. His uncle was an old fox who had filched his jewels. Eugenie had no place in his heart, he never gave her a thought; but she occupied a page in his ledger as a creditor for six thousand francs. Such conduct and such ideas explained Charles Grandet’s silence. In the East Indies, on the coast of Africa, at Lisbon, in the United States, Charles Grandet the adventurer was known as Carl Sepherd, a pseudonym which ho assumed so as not to compromise his real name. Carl Sepherd could be indefatigable, brazen and greedy of gain; could conduct himself, in short, like a man who resolves to make a fortune no matter what way, and makes haste to have done with villainy as soon as possible, in order to live respected for the rest of his days. With such methods his career of prosperity was rapid and brilliant, . and in 1827 he returned to Bordeaux on board a fine brig belonging to n Royalist firm. He had nineteen hundred thousand francs with him in gold dust, carefully secreted in three strong casks; he hoped to sell it to the Paris mint, and to make eight per cent on the transaction. There was also on board the brig a gentle-man-in-ordinary to his Majesty Charles X., a M. d’Aubrion, a worthy old man who had been rash enough to marry a woman of fashion whose money came from estates in the West India Islands. Mme. d’Aubrion’s reckless extravagance had obliged him to go out to the Indies to sell her property. M. and Mme. d’Aubrion were now in straitened circumstances. They had a bare twenty thousand francs of income and a daughter, a very plain girl, whom her mother made up her mind to marry without a dowry. It was an enterprise the success of which might have seemed somewhat problematical to a man of the ■world, in spite of the cleverness with which a woman of fashion is generally credited. Perhaps even Mme. d’Aubrion herself, when she looked at her daughter, “was almost ready to despair of getting rid of her to any one, even to the most besotted worshiper of rank and titles.

Mlle. d’Aubrion was a tall, spare demoiselle; she had a disdainful mouth, overshadowed by a long nose, thick at the tip, sallow in its normal condition, but very red after a meal.- From some points of view she was all that a worldly mother, who was 38 years of age, and had still some pretentions to beauty, could desire. But by way ot compensating advantages, the Marquis d’Aubrion’s distinguished air had been inherited by her daughter. Her mother had taught her how to dress herself. Under the same instructor she had acquired a charming manner, and had learned to assume that pensive expression which interests a man and leads him to imagine that here, surely, is the angel whom he has hitherto sought in vain. Charles became very intimate with Mme. d’Aubrion; the lady had her own reasons for encouraging him. People said that during the time on board she left no stone unturned to secure such a prize for a son-in-law. It is at any rate certain that when they landed at Bordeaux Charles stayed in the same hotel wdth M., Mme. and Mlle d’Aubrion, and they all traveled together to Paris. The hotel d’Aubrion was hampered with mortgages, and Charles was intended to come to the rescue. The mother had gone so far as to say that it would give her great pleasure to establish a son-in-law on the ground floor. She did not share M. d’Aubrion’s aristocratic prejudices and promised Charles Grandet to obtain letters patent which should' authorize him, Grandet, to bear the name and assume the arms of the d’Aubrions, and to succeed to the property of Aubrion, which was worth about thirty-six thousand livres a year, to say nothing of the titles of Capal de Buch and Marquis d’Aubrion. They could be very useful to each other, in short; and what with this arrangement of a joint establishment, and one or two posts about the court, the hotel d’Aubrion might count upon an income of a hundred thousand francs and more.

“And w’hen a man Im&a hundred thousand francs a year, a name, a family and a position at court, the rest is easy. You can be secretary to an embassy.” She fairly turned his head with these ambitious schemes. He never doubted but that his uncle had paid his father's creditors. He resolved to strain every nerve to reach those- pinnacles of glory which his egotistical would-be mother-in-law had pointed out to him. His cousin was only a dim speck in the remote past; she had no place in tfiis brilliant future, no part in his dreams, but he went to see Annette. That experienced woman of the world gave counsel to her old friend; he must by no means let slip such an opportunity for an alliance; she promised to aid him in all his schemes of advancement. He had grown very attractive during his stay in the Indies; his complexion had grown darker, he had gained in manliness and self-posses-sion; he spoke in the firm, decided tones of a man who is used to command' and to success. Ever since Charles Grandet had discovered that there was a definite part for him to play in Paris, he was himself at once.

Des Grassins, hearing of his return; his approaching marriage, and his large fortune, came to see him, and spoke of the three hundred thousand francs still owing to his father’s creditors. He found Charles closeted with a goldsmith, from whom he had ordered jewels for Mlle. d’Aubrion’s corbeille, and who was submitting designs. Charles himself had brought magnificent diamonds from the Indies, but the coat of setting them, together with the silver plate and jewelry of the new establishment, amounted to more than two hundred thousand franca. He did not recognize des Grassins at first, and treated him with the cool Insolence of a young man of fashion who is conscious that he has killed four men in as many duels in the Indies. As M. des Grassins had already called three or four times, Charles vouchsafed to hear him, but it was with bare politeness, and

■he did not pay the slightest attenittea to what the banker said. “My father’s debts are not mine,” he said coolly. “I am obliged to you, sir, for the trouble you have been good enough to take, but I am none the better for it that I can see. I have not scraped together a couple of millions, earned with the sweat of my-brow, to fling it to my father’s creditors." "But suppose that your father were to be declared a bankrupt in a few days’ time?" “In a few days’ time I shall be the Compte d’Aubrion, sir: so you can see that it is a matter of entire indifference to me. Besides, you know even Letter than I do that when a man has a hundred thousand livres a year, his father never has been a bankrupt,” and he politely edged the deputy des Grassins to the door.

CHAPTER XXL In the early days of the month of August, in' that same-year, Eugenie was sitting on the little bench in the garden where her cousin had sworn eternal love, and where she often took breakfast In summer mornings. The poor girl was almost happy for a few brief moments; she went over all the great and little events of her love before those-catastro-phes that followed. The morning was fresh and bright, and the garden was full of sunlight; her eyes wandered over the wall with its moss and flowers: it was full of cracks now, and all but in ruins, but no one was allowed to touch it. The postman knocked at tlie door, and gave a letter into the hands of Mme. Cornoiller. who hurried into the garden, crying, “Mademoiselle! A letter! Is it the letter?” she added, as she handed it to her. mistress. The words rang through Eugenie’s heart as the spoken sounds rang from the ramparts and the old garden wall. Paris! It is his writing! Then he has come back.” Eugenie’s face grew white; for several seconds she kept the seal unbroken, for her heart beat so fast that she could neither move nor sec. Big Nanon stood and waited with both hands on her hips; joy seemed to puff like smoke from every wrinkle in her brown face. “Oh! why docs he come back by way of Paris, Nanon, when he went by way of Saumur?” “Read it; the letter will tell you why.” Eugenie’s fingers trembled as she opened the envelope; a check fell out of It and fluttered down. Nanon picked it up. Eugenie read the letter through. It ran as follows:

“My Dear Cousin —You will, I am sure, hear with pleasure of the success of my enterprise. You brought me luck; I have come back to France a wealthy man. My dear cousin, the day of illusions is gone by for me. I I am sorry, but it cannot be lielped. You are free, my cousin, and I, too, am free still; there is apparently nothing to hinder the realization of our youthful hopes, but I am too straightforward to hide my present situation from you. I have not for a moment forgotten that I am bound to you. I have always remembered th* little wooden bench ’’ Eugenie started up as if she were sitting on burning coals, and sat down on one of the broken stone steps in the yard. —“the little wooden bench wherf we vowed to love each other forever; the passage, the gray parlor, my attic room, the night when in your thoughtfulness and tact you made my future easier for me. Yes; these memories have been my support; but I cannot deal insincerely with you. Your bringing up, your ways of life, and your tastes have not fitted you for Parisian life, nor would they harmonize with the future which I have marked out for myself. I posses* at the time of writing an income of 80,000 livres. With this fortune I am able to marry into the d’Aubrion family; I should take/heir name on my marriage with their only daughter, a girl of nineteen, and secure at the same time a Aery brilliant position in society. I will assure you that I have not the slightest affection for Mlle. d’Aubrion, but by this marriage I shall secure for my children a social rank which will be of inestimable value in the future. When I tell you plainly that my marriage Is solely a marriage of suitability, and that I have not forgotten the love of our youthful days, am I not putting mysulf entirely into your hands, and making you the arbitress of my fate? Is it not implied that if I must renounce my social ambitions, I shall willingly content myself with the simple and pure happiness which is always called up by the thought of you “Tra-la-la-tan-ta-ti!" saug Charles Grandet, as he signed his name. “That is acting handsomely.” he said to himself. He looked about him for the check, slipped It in, and added a postscript. (To be continued.!