At this moment he is a Commander of the Legion, and (after fishing in the troubled waters of political intrigue) has quite recently been made a peer of France and a count. As yet our friend does not venture to bear his honors; his wife merely puts 'La Comtesse du Bruel' on her cards. The sometime playwright has the Order of Leopold, the Order of Isabella, the cross of Saint-Vladimir, second class, the Order of Civil Merit of Bavaria, the Papal Order of the Golden Spur,--all the lesser orders, in short, besides the Grand Cross.
"Three months ago Claudine drove to La Palferine's door in her splendid carriage with its armorial bearings. Du Bruel's grandfather was a farmer of taxes ennobled towards the end of Louis Quatorze's reign. Cherin composed his coat-of-arms for him, so the Count's coronet looks not amiss above a scutcheon innocent of Imperial absurdities. In this way, in the short space of three years, Claudine had carried out the programme laid down for her by the charming, light-hearted La Palferine.
"One day, just above a month ago, she climbed the miserable staircase to her lover's lodging; climbed in her glory, dressed like a real countess of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, to our friend's garret. La Palferine, seeing her, said, 'You have made a peeress of yourself I know. But it is too late, Claudine; every one is talking just now about the Southern Cross, I should like it see it!'
" 'I will get it for you.'
"La Palferine burst into a peal of Homeric laughter.
" 'Most distinctly,' he returned, 'I do not wish to have a woman as ignorant as a carp for my mistress, a woman that springs like a flying fish from the green-room of the Opera to Court, for I should like to see you at the Court of the Citizen King.'
"She turned to me.
" 'What is the Southern Cross?' she asked, in a sad, downcast voice.
"I was struck with admiration for this indomitable love, outdoing the most ingenious marvels of fairy tales in real life--a love that would spring over a precipice to find a roc's egg, or to gather the singing flower. I explained that the Southern Cross was a nebulous constellation even brighter than the Milky Way, arranged in the form of a cross, and that it could only be seen in southern latitudes.
" 'Very well, Charles, let us go,' said she.
"La Palferine, ferocious though he was, had tears in his eyes; but what a look there was in Claudine's face, what a note in her voice! I have seen nothing like the thing that followed, not even in the supreme touch of a great actor's art; nothing to compare with her movement when she saw the hard eyes softened in tears; Claudine sank upon her knees and kissed La Palferine's pitiless hand. He raised her with his grand manner, his 'Rusticoli air,' as he calls it--'There, child!' he said, 'I will do something for you; I will put you--in my will.'
"Well," concluded Nathan, "I ask myself sometimes whether du Bruel is really deceived. Truly there is nothing more comic, nothing stranger than the sight of a careless young fellow ruling a married couple, his slightest whims received as law, the weightiest decisions revoked at a word from him. That dinner incident, as you can see, is repeated times without number, it interferes with important matters. Still, but for Claudine's caprices, du Bruel would be de Cursy still, one vaudevillist among five hundred; whereas he is in the House of Peers."
"You will change the names, I hope!" said Nathan, addressing Mme. de la Baudraye.
"I should think so! I have only set names to the masks for you. My dear Nathan," she added in the poet's ear, "I know another case on which the wife takes du Bruel's place."
"And the catastrophe?" queried Lousteau, returning just at the end of Mme. de la Baudraye's story.
"I do not believe in catastrophes. One has to invent such good ones to show that art is quite a match for chance; and nobody reads a book twice, my friend, except for the details."
"But there is a catastrophe," persisted Nathan.
"What is it?"
"The Marquise de Rochefide is infatuated with Charles Edward. My story excited her curiosity."
"Oh, unhappy woman!" cried Mme. de la Baudraye.
"Not so unhappy," said Nathan, "for Maxime de Trailles and La Palferine have brought about a rupture between the Marquis and Mme. Schontz, and they mean to make it up between Arthur and Beatrix."
1839 - 1845.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Bianchon, Horace Father Goriot The Atheist's Mass Cesar Birotteau The Commission in Lunacy Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment The Secrets of a Princess The Government Clerks Pierrette A Study of Woman Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Honorine The Seamy Side of History The Magic Skin A Second Home Letters of Two Brides The Muse of the Department The Imaginary Mistress The Middle Classes Cousin Betty The Country Parson In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: Another Study of Woman La Grande Breteche
Bruel, Jean Francois du A Bachelor's Establishment The Government Clerks A Start in Life The Middle Classes A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Daughter of Eve
Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du A Bachelor's Establishment A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Letters of Two Brides The Middle Classes
Chaffaroux Cesar Birotteau The Middle Classes
Chocardelle, Mademoiselle Beatrix A Man of Business Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis
La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de The Muse of the Department Cousin Betty
Laguerre, Mademoiselle The Peasantry
La Palferine, Comte de A Man of Business Cousin Betty Beatrix The Imaginary Mistress
Lousteau, Etienne A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment Scenes from a Courtesan's Life A Daughter of Eve Beatrix The Muse of the Department Cousin Betty A Man of Business The Middle Classes The Unconscious Humorists
Marcas, Zephirin Z. Marcas
Nathan, Raoul Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve Letters of Two Brides The Seamy Side of History The Muse of the Department A Man of Business The Unconscious Humorists
Nathan, Madame Raoul The Muse of the Department Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Government Clerks A Bachelor's Establishment Ursule Mirouet Eugenie Grandet The Imaginary Mistress A Daughter of Eve The Unconscious Humorists
Popinot, Madame Anselme Cesar Birotteau Cousin Betty Cousin Pons
Rochefide, Marquise de Beatrix The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve Sarrasine
Tissot, Pierre-Francois Father Goriot