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 off. His hair was iron-