



Produced by Dagny, and Bonnie Sala





GOBSECK


By Honore De Balzac


Translated By Ellen Marriage




                            DEDICATION

                  To M. le Baron Barchou de Penhoen.

  Among all the pupils of the Oratorian school at Vendome, we are, I
  think, the only two who have afterwards met in mid-career of a
  life of letters--we who once were cultivating Philosophy when by
  rights we should have been minding our De viris. When we met, you
  were engaged upon your noble works on German philosophy, and I
  upon this study. So neither of us has missed his vocation; and
  you, when you see your name here, will feel, no doubt, as much
  pleasure as he who inscribes his work to you.--Your old
  schoolfellow,

       1840                                              De Balzac.





GOBSECK


It was one o'clock in the morning, during the winter of 1829-30, but in
the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu's salon two persons stayed on who did not
belong to her family circle. A young and good-looking man heard the
clock strike, and took his leave. When the courtyard echoed with the
sound of a departing carriage, the Vicomtesse looked up, saw that no one
was present save her brother and a friend of the family finishing their
game of piquet, and went across to her daughter. The girl, standing by
the chimney-piece, apparently examining a transparent fire-screen,
was listening to the sounds from the courtyard in a way that justified
certain maternal fears.

"Camille," said the Vicomtesse, "if you continue to behave to young
Comte de Restaud as you have done this evening, you will oblige me to
see no more of him here. Listen, child, and if you have any confidence
in my love, let me guide you in life. At seventeen one cannot judge of
past or future, nor of certain social considerations. I have only one
thing to say to you. M. de Restaud has a mother, a mother who would
waste millions of francs; a woman of no birth, a Mlle. Goriot; people
talked a good deal about her at one time. She behaved so badly to her
own father, that she certainly does not deserve to have so good a son.
The young Count adores her, and maintains her in her position with
dutifulness worthy of all praise, and he is extremely good to his
brother and sister.--But however admirable _his_ behavior may be," the
Vicomtesse added with a shrewd expression, "so long as his mother lives,
any family would take alarm at the idea of intrusting a daughter's
fortune and future to young Restaud."

"I overheard a word now and again in your talk with Mlle. de Grandlieu,"
cried the friend of the family, "and it made me anxious to put in a word
of my own.--I have won, M. le Comte," he added, turning to his opponent.
"I shall throw you over and go to your niece's assistance."

"See what it is to have an attorney's ears!" exclaimed the Vicomtesse.
"My dear Derville, how could you know what I was saying to Camille in a
whisper?"

"I knew it from your looks," answered Derville, seating himself in a low
chair by the fire.

Camille's uncle went to her side, and Mme. de Grandlieu took up her
position on a hearth stool between her daughter and Derville.

"The time has come for telling a story, which should modify your
judgment as to Ernest de Restaud's prospects."

"A story?" cried Camille. "Do begin at once, monsieur."

The glance that Derville gave the Vicomtesse told her that this tale was
meant for her. The Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, be it said, was one of the
greatest ladies in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, by reason of her fortune
and her ancient name; and though it may seem improbable that a Paris
attorney should speak so familiarly to her, or be so much at home in her
house, the fact is nevertheless easily explained.

When Mme. de Grandlieu returned to France with the Royal family, she
came to Paris, and at first lived entirely on the pension allowed her
out of the Civil List by Louis XVIII.--an intolerable position. The
Hotel de Grandlieu had been sold by the Republic. It came to Derville's
knowledge that there were flaws in the title, and he thought that it
ought to return to the Vicomtesse. He instituted proceedings for nullity
of contract, and gained the day. Encouraged by this success, he used
legal quibbles to such purpose that he compelled some institution or
other to disgorge the Forest of Liceney. Then he won certain lawsuits
against the Canal d'Orleans, and recovered a tolerably large amount
of property, with which the Emperor had endowed various public
institutions. So it fell out that, thanks to the young attorney's
skilful management, Mme. de Grandlieu's income reached the sum of some
sixty thousand francs, to say nothing of the vast sums returned to her
by the law of indemnity. And Derville, a man of high character, well
informed, modest, and pleasant in company, became the house-friend of
the family.

By his conduct of Mme. de Grandlieu's affairs he had fairly earned the
esteem of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and numbered the best families
among his clients; but he did not take advantage of his popularity, as
an ambitious man might have done. The Vicomtesse would have had him sell
his practice and enter the magistracy, in which career advancement would
have been swift and certain with such influence at his disposal; but he
persistently refused all offers. He only went into society to keep up
his connections, but he occasionally spent an evening at the Hotel de
Grandlieu. It was a very lucky thing for him that his talents had been
brought into the light by his devotion to Mme. de Grandlieu, for his
practice otherwise might have gone to pieces. Derville had not an
attorney's soul. Since Ernest de Restaud had appeared at the Hotel de
Grandlieu, and he had noticed that Camille felt attracted to the young
man, Derville had been as assiduous in his visits as any dandy of the
Chausee-d'Antin newly admitted to the noble Faubourg. At a ball only
a few days before, when he happened to stand near Camille, and said,
indicating the Count:

"It is a pity that yonder youngster has not two or three million francs,
is it not?"

"Is it a pity? I do not think so," the girl answered. "M. de Restaud
has plenty of ability; he is well educated, and the Minister, his
chief, thinks well of him. He will be a remarkable man, I have no doubt.
'Yonder youngster' will have as much money as he wishes when he comes
into power."

"Yes, but suppose that he were rich already?"

"Rich already?" repeated Camille, flushing red. "Why all the girls
in the room would be quarreling for him," she said, glancing at the
quadrilles.

"And then," retorted the attorney, "Mlle. de Grandlieu might not be the
one towards whom his eyes are always turned? That is what that red color
means! You like him, do you not? Come, speak out."

Camille suddenly rose to go.

"She loves him," Derville thought.

Since that evening, Camille had been unwontedly attentive to the
attorney, who approved of her liking for Ernest de Restaud. Hitherto,
although she knew well that her family lay under great obligations to
Derville, she had felt respect rather than real friendship for him,
their relation was more a matter of politeness than of warmth of
feeling; and by her manner, and by the tones of her voice, she had
always made him sensible of the distance which socially lay between
them. Gratitude is a charge upon the inheritance which the second
generation is apt to repudiate.



"This adventure," Derville began after a pause, "brings the one romantic
event in my life to my mind. You are laughing already," he went on;
"it seems so ridiculous, doesn't it, that an attorney should speak of
a romance in his life? But once I was five-and-twenty, like everybody
else, and even then I had seen some queer things. I ought to begin at
the beginning by telling you about some one whom it is impossible that
you should have known. The man in question was a usurer.

"Can you grasp a clear notion of that sallow, wan face of his? I wish
the _Academie_ would give me leave to dub such faces the _lunar_
type. It was like silver-gilt, with the gilt rubbed