concern of yours,' and he looked the old man up and down. 'A man has
no debts till
payment is due.'
" 'True.'
" 'My bills will be duly met.'
" 'That is possible.'
" 'And at this moment the question between you and me is simply
whether the
security I am going to offer is sufficient for the sum I
have come to borrow.'
" 'Precisely.'
"A cab stopped at the door, and the sound of wheels filled the room.
" 'I will bring something directly which perhaps will satisfy you,'
cried the young man, and he left the room.
" 'Oh! my son,' exclaimed Gobseck, rising to his feet, and stretching
out his arms to me, 'if he has good
security, you have saved my life.
It would be the death of me. Werbrust and Gigonnet imagined that they
were going to play off a trick on me; and now, thanks to you, I shall
have a good laugh at their expense to-night.'
"There was something
frightful about the old man's
ecstasy. It was the
one occasion when he opened his heart to me; and that flash of joy,
swift though it was, will never be effaced from my memory.
" 'Favor me so far as to stay here,' he added. 'I am armed, and a sure
shot. I have gone tiger-hunting, and fought on the deck when there was
nothing for it but to win or die; but I don't care to trust yonder
elegant scoundrel.'
"He sat down again in his
armchair before his
bureau, and his face
grew pale and impassive as before.
" 'Ah!' he continued, turning to me, 'you will see that lovely
creature I once told you about; I can hear a fine lady's step in the
corridor; it is she, no doubt;' and, as a matter of fact, the young
man came in with a woman on his arm. I recognized the Countess, whose
levee Gobseck had described for me, one of old Goriot's two daughters.
"The Countess did not see me at first; I stayed where I was in the
window bay, with my face against the pane; but I saw her give Maxime a
suspicious glance as she came into the money-lender's damp, dark room.
So beautiful she was, that in spite of her faults I felt sorry for
her. There was a terrible storm of
anguish in her heart; her haughty,
proud features were drawn and distorted with pain which she
strove in
vain to
disguise. The young man had come to be her evil
genius. I
admired Gobseck, whose perspicacity had
foreseen their future four
years ago at the first bill which she endorsed.
" 'Probably,' said I to myself, 'this
monster with the angel face
controls every possible spring of action in her: rules her through
vanity,
jealousy, pleasure, and the current of life in the world.' "
The Vicomtesse de Grandlieu broke in on the story.
"Why, the woman's very virtues have been turned against her," she
exclaimed. "He has made her shed tears of
devotion, and then abused
her kindness and made her pay very
dearly for unhallowed bliss."
Derville did not understand the signs which Mme. de Grandlieu made to
him.
"I confess," he said, "that I had no
inclination to shed tears over
the lot of this
unhappy creature, so
brilliant in society, so
repulsive to eyes that could read her heart; I
shuddered rather at the
sight of her
murderer, a young angel with such a clear brow, such red
lips and white teeth, such a
winning smile. There they stood before
their judge, he scrutinizing them much as some fifteenth-century
Dominican inquisitor might have peered into the dungeons of the Holy
Office while the
torture was administered to two Moors.
"The Countess spoke tremulously. 'Sir,' she said, 'is there any way of
obtaining the value of these diamonds, and of keeping the right of
repurchase?' She held out a jewel-case.
" 'Yes, madame,' I put in, and came forwards.
"She looked at me, and a
shudder ran through her as she recognized me,
and gave me the glance which means, 'Say nothing of this,' all the
world over.
" 'This,' said I, 'constitutes a sale with
faculty of redemption, as
it is called, a
formalagreement to
transfer and deliver over a piece
of property, either real
estate or personalty, for a given time, on
the expiry of which the
previous owner recovers his title to the
property in question, upon
payment of a stipulated sum.'
"She breathed more
freely. The Count looked black; he had grave doubts
whether Gobseck would lend very much on the diamonds after such a fall
in their value. Gobseck, impassive as ever, had taken up his
magnifying glass, and was quietly scrutinizing the jewels. If I were
to live for a hundred years, I should never forget the sight of his
face at that moment. There was a flush in his pale cheeks; his eyes
seemed to have caught the
sparkle of the stones, for there was an
unnatural
glitter in them. He rose and went to the light,
holding the
diamonds close to his toothless mouth, as if he meant to
devour them;
mumbling vague words over them,
holding up bracelets, sprays,
necklaces, and tiaras one after another, to judge their water,
whiteness, and cutting;
taking them out of the jewel-case and putting
them in again, letting the play of the light bring out all their
fires. He was more like a child than an old man; or, rather, childhood
and dotage seemed to meet in him.
" 'Fine stones! The set would have fetched three hundred thousand
francs before the Revolution. What water! Genuine Asiatic diamonds
from Golconda or Visapur. Do you know what they are worth? No, no; no
one in Paris but Gobseck can
appreciate them. In the time of the
Empire such a set would have cost another two hundred thousand
francs!'
"He gave a disgusted shrug, and added:
" 'But now diamonds are going down in value every day. The Brazilians
have swamped the market with them since the Peace; but the Indian
stones are a better color. Others wear them now besides court ladies.
Does madame go to court?'
"While he flung out these terrible words, he examined one stone after
another with delight which no words can describe.
" 'Flawless!' he said. 'Here is a speck! . . . here is a flaw! . . . A
fine stone that!'
"His
haggard face was so lighted up by the sparkling jewels, that it
put me in mind of a dingy old mirror, such as you see in country inns.
The glass receives every
luminous image without reflecting the light,
and a traveler bold enough to look for his face in it beholds a man in
an apoplectic fit.
" 'Well?' asked the Count, clapping Gobseck on the shoulder.
"The old boy trembled. He put down his playthings on his
bureau, took
his seat, and was a money-lender once more--hard, cold, and polished
as a
marble column.
" 'How much do you want?'
" 'One hundred thousand francs for three years,' said the Count.
" 'That is possible,' said Gobseck, and then from a
mahogany box
(Gobseck's jewel-case) he drew out a faultlessly adjusted pair of
scales!
"He weighed the diamonds, calculating the value of stones and setting
at sight (Heaven knows how!), delight and
severity struggling in the
expression of his face the
meanwhile. The Countess had plunged in a
kind of stupor; to me, watching her, it seemed that she was fathoming
the depths of the abyss into which she had fallen. There was remorse
still left in that woman's soul. Perhaps a hand held out in human
charity might save her. I would try.
" 'Are the diamonds your personal property, madame?' I asked in a
clear voice.
" 'Yes, monsieur,' she said, looking at me with proud eyes.
" 'Make out the deed of purchase with power of redemption,
chatterbox,' said Gobseck to me, resigning his chair at the
bureau in
my favor.
" 'Madame is without doubt a married woman?' I tried again.
"She nodded abruptly.
" 'Then I will not draw up the deed,' said I.
" 'And why not?' asked Gobseck.
" 'Why not?' echoed I, as I drew the old man into the bay window so as
to speak aside with him. 'Why not? This woman is under her husband's
control; the
agreement would be void in law; you could not possibly
assert your
ignorance of a fact recorded on the very face of the
document itself. You would be compelled at once to produce the
diamonds deposited with you, according to the weight, value, and
cutting
therein described.'
"Gobseck cut me short with a nod, and turned towards the guilty
couple.
" 'He is right!' he said. 'That puts the whole thing in a different
light. Eighty thousand francs down, and you leave the diamonds with
me,' he added, in the husky, flute-like voice. 'In the way of
property, possession is as good as a title.'
" 'But----' objected the young man.
" 'You can take it or leave it,' continued Gobseck, returning the
jewel-case to the lady as he spoke.
" 'I have too many risks to run.'
" 'It would be better to throw yourself at your husband's feet,' I
bent to
whisper in her ear.
"The usurer
doubtless knew what I was
saying from the
movement of my
lips. He gave me a cool glance. The Count's face grew livid. The
Countess was visibly wavering. Maxime stepped up to her, and, low as
he spoke, I could catch the words:
" 'Adieu, dear Anastasie, may you be happy! As for me, by to-morrow my
troubles will be over.'
" 'Sir!' cried the lady, turning to Gobseck. 'I accept your offer.'
" 'Come, now,' returned Gobseck. 'You have been a long time in coming
to it, my fair lady.'
"He wrote out a cheque for fifty thousand francs on the Bank of
France, and handed it to the Countess.
" 'Now,' continued he with a smile, such a smile as you will see in
portraits of M. Voltaire, 'now I will give you the rest of the amount
in bills, thirty thousand francs' worth of paper as good as bullion.
This gentleman here has just said, "My bills will be met when they are
due," ' added he, producing certain drafts
bearing the Count's
signature, all protested the day before at the request of some of the
confraternity, who had probably made them over to him (Gobseck) at a
considerably reduced figure.
"The young man growled out something, in which the words 'Old
scoundrel!' were
audible. Daddy Gobseck did not move an
eyebrow. He
drew a pair of pistols out of a pigeon-hole, remarking coolly:
" 'As the insulted man, I fire first.'
" 'Maxime, you owe this gentleman an explanation,' cried the trembling
Countess in a low voice.
" 'I had no
intention of giving offence,' stammered Maxime.
" 'I am quite sure of that,' Gobseck answered
calmly; 'you had no
intention of meeting your bills, that was all.'
"The Countess rose, bowed, and vanished, with a great dread gnawing
her, I doubt not. M. de Trailles was bound to follow, but before he
went he managed to say:
" 'If either of you gentlemen should forget himself, I will have his
blood, or he will have mine.'
" 'Amen!' called Daddy Gobseck as he put his pistols back in their
place; 'but a man must have blood in his veins though before he can
risk it, my son, and you have nothing but mud in yours.'
"When the door was closed, and the two vehicles had gone, Gobseck rose
to his feet and began to
prance about.
" 'I have the diamonds! I have the diamonds!' he cried again and
again, 'the beautiful diamonds! such diamonds! and tolerably cheaply.
Aha! aha! Werbrust and Gigonnet, you thought you had old Papa Gobseck!
Ego sum papa! I am master of the lot of you! Paid! paid,
principal and
interest! How silly they will look to-night when I shall come out with
this story between two games of dominoes!'
"The dark glee, the
savageferocity aroused by the possession of a few
water-white pebbles, set me
shuddering. I was dumb with amazement.
" 'Aha! There you are, my boy!' said he. 'We will dine together. We
will have some fun at your place, for I haven't a home of my own, and
these restaurants, with their broths, and sauces, and wines, would
poison the Devil himself.'
"Something in my face suddenly brought back the usual cold, impassive
expression to his.