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The Firm of Nucingen-Part12_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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beloved) to say nothing of a mother-in-law whose mind ran on pretty

dresses while she had not bread to eat. The two families must live



together to live at all. It was only by stirring up all his

considerably chilled interest that Godefroid got a post in the audit



department. His friends?--They were out of town. His relatives?--All

astonishment and promises. 'What! my dear boy! Oh! count upon me! Poor



fellow!' and Beaudenord was clean forgotten fifteen minutes

afterwards. He owed his place to Nucingen and de Vandenesse.



"And to-day these so estimable and unfortunate people are living on a

third floor (not counting the entresol) in the Rue du Mont Thabor.



Malvina, the Adolphus' pearl of a granddaughter, has not a farthing.

She gives music-lessons, not to be a burden upon her brother-in-law.



You may see a tall, dark, thin, withered woman, like a mummy escaped

from Passalacqua's about afoot through the streets of Paris. In 1830



Beaudenord lost his situation just as his wife presented him with a

fourth child. A family of eight and two servants (Wirth and his wife)



and an income of eight thousand livres. And at this moment the mines

are paying so well, that an original share of a thousand francs brings



in a dividend of cent per cent.

"Rastignac and Mme. de Nucingen bought the shares sold by the Baroness



and Godefroid. The Revolution made a peer of France of Nucingen and a

Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor. He has not stopped payment since



1830, but still I hear that he has something like seventeen millions.

He put faith in the Ordinances of July, sold out of all his



investments, and boldly put his money into the funds when the three

per cents stood at forty-five. He persuaded the Tuileries that this



was done out of devotion, and about the same time he and du Tillet

between them swallowed down three millions belonging to that great



scamp Philippe Bridau.

"Quite lately our Baron was walking along the Rue de Rivoli on his way



to the Bois when he met the Baroness d'Aldrigger under the colonnade.

The little old lady wore a tiny green bonnet with a rose-colored



lining, a flowered gown, and a mantilla; altogether, she was more than

ever the Shepherdess of the Alps. She could no more be made to



understand the causes of her poverty than the sources of her wealth.

As she went along, leaning upon poor Malvina, that model of heroic



devotion, she seemed to be the young girl and Malvina the old mother.

Wirth followed them, carrying an umbrella.



" 'Dere are beoples whose vordune I vound it imbossible to make,' said

the Baron, addressing his companion (M. Cointet, a cabinet minister).



'Now dot de baroxysm off brincibles haf bassed off, chust reinshtate

dot boor Peautenord.'



"So Beaudenord went back to his desk, thanks to Nucingen's good

offices; and the d'Aldriggers extol Nucingen as a hero of friendship,



for he always sends the little Shepherdess of the Alps and her

daughters invitations to his balls. No creature whatsoever can be made



to understand that the Baron yonder three times did his best to

plunder the public without breaking the letter of the law, and



enriched people in spite of himself. No one has a word to say against

him. If anybody should suggest that a big capitalist often is another



word for a cut-throat, it would be a most egregious calumny. If stocks

rise and fall, if property improves and depreciates, the fluctuations



of the market are caused by a common movement, a something in the air,

a tide in the affairs of men subject like other tides to lunar



influences. The great Arago is much to blame for giving us no

scientific theory to account for this important phenomenon. The only



outcome of all this is an axiom which I have never seen anywhere in

print----"



"And that is?"

"The debtor is more than a match for the creditor."



"Oh!" said Blondet. "For my own part, all that we have been saying

seems to me to be a paraphrase of the epigram in which Montesquieu



summed up l'Espirit des Lois."

"What?" said Finot.



"Laws are like spiders' webs; the big flies get through, while the

little ones are caught."



"Then, what are you for?" asked Finot.

"For absolute government, the only kind of government under which



enterprises against the spirit of the law can be put down. Yes.

Arbitrary rule is the salvation of a country when it comes to the



support of justice, for the right of mercy is strictly one-sided. The

king can pardon a fraudulent bankrupt; he cannot do anything for the



victims. The letter of the law is fatal to modern society."




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