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Bureaucracy-Part25_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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women are just what we men are. Twenty-eight years old, virtuous, and

living here in the rue Duphot!--a rare piece of luck and worth



cultivating," thought the elderlybutterfly as he fluttered down the

staircase.



"Good heavens! that man, without his glasses, must look funny enough

in a dressing-gown!" thought Celestine, "but the harpoon is in his



back and he'll tow me where I want to go; I am sure now of that

invitation. He has played his part in my comedy."



When, at five o'clock in the afternoon, Rabourdin came home to dress

for dinner, his wife presided at his toilet and presently laid before



him the fatal memorandum which, like the slipper in the Arabian

Nights, the luckless man was fated to meet at every turn.



"Who gave you that?" he asked, thunderstruck.

"Monsieur des Lupeaulx."



"So he has been here!" cried Rabourdin, with a look which would

certainly have made a guilty woman turn pale, but which Celestine



received with unruffled brow and a laughing eye.

"And he is coming back to dinner," she said. "Why that startled air?"



"My dear," replied Rabourdin, "I have mortally offended des Lupeaulx;

such men never forgive, and yet he fawns upon me! Do you think I don't



see why?"

"The man seems to me," she said, "to have good taste; you can't expect



me to blame him. I really don't know anything more flattering to a

woman than to please a worn-out palate. After--"



"A truce to nonsense, Celestine. Spare a much-tried man. I cannot get

an audience of the minister, and my honor is at stake."



"Good heavens, no! Dutocq can have the promise of a good place as soon

as you are named head of the division."



"Ah! I see what you are about, dear child," said Rabourdin; "but the

game you are playing is just as dishonorable as the real thing that is



going on around us. A lie is a lie, and an honest woman--"

"Let me use the weapons employed against us."



"Celestine, the more that man des Lupeaulx feels he is foolishly

caught in a trap, the more bitter he will be against me."



"What if I get him dismissed altogether?"

Rabourdin looked at his wife in amazement.



"I am thinking only of your advancement; it was high time, my poor

husband," continued Celestine. "But you are mistaking the dog for the



game," she added, after a pause. "In a few days des Lupeaulx will have

accomplished all that I want of him. While you are trying to speak to



the minister, and before you can even see him on business, I shall

have seen him and spoken with him. You are worn out in trying to bring



that plan of your brain to birth,--a plan which you have been hiding

from me; but you will find that in three months your wife has



accomplished more than you have done in six years. Come, tell me this

fine scheme of yours."



Rabourdin, continuing to shave, cautioned his wife not to say a word

about his work, and after assuring her that to confide a single idea



to des Lupeaulx would be to put the cat near the milk-jug, he began an

explanation of his labors.



"Why didn't you tell me this before, Rabourdin?" said Celestine,

cutting her husband short at his fifth sentence. "You might have saved



yourself a world of trouble. I can understand that a man should be

blinded by an idea for a moment, but to nurse it up for six or seven



years, that's a thing I cannot comprehend! You want to reduce the

budget,--a vulgar and commonplace idea! The budget ought, on the



contrary, to reach two hundred millions. Then, indeed, France would be

great. If you want a new system let it be one of loans, as Monsieur de



Nucingen keeps saying. The poorest of all treasuries is the one with a

surplus that it never uses; the mission of a minister of finance is to



fling gold out of the windows. It will come back to him through the

cellars; and you, you want to hoard it! The thing to do is to increase



the offices and all government employments, instead of reducing them!

So far from lessening the public debt, you ought to increase the



creditors. If the Bourbons want to reign in peace, let them seek

creditors in the towns and villages, and place their loans there;



above all, they ought not to let foreigners draw interest away from

France; some day an alien nation might ask us for the capital. Whereas



if capital and interest are held only in France, neither France nor

credit can perish. That's what saved England. Your plan is the



tradesman's plan. An ambitious public man should produce some bold

scheme,--he should make himself another Law, without Law's fatal ill-



luck; he ought to exhibit the power of credit, and show that we should

reduce, not principal, but interest, as they do in England."






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