"But,madame,"he objected,for her words aroused a lively curiosity,"is not the Heron under your protection?""One is obliged to be civil to one's worst enemies in society,"protested she;"one may be bored,but one must look as if the talk was amusing,and not seldom one seems to sacrifice friends the better to serve them.Are you still a novice?You mean to write,and yet you know nothing of current deceit?My cousin apparently sacrificed you to the Heron,but how could she dispense with his influence for you?Our friend stands well with the present ministry;and we have made him see that your attacks will do him service--up to a certain point,for we want you to make it up again some of these days.Chatelet has received compensations for his troubles;for,as des Lupeaulx said,'While the newspapers are making Chatelet ridiculous,they will leave the Ministry in peace.'"There was a pause;the Marquise left Lucien to his own reflections.
"M.Blondet led me to hope that I should have the pleasure of seeing you in my house,"said the Comtesse de Montcornet."You will meet a few artists and men of letters,and some one else who has the keenest desire to become acquainted with you--Mlle.des Touches,the owner of talents rare among our sex.You will go to her house,no doubt.Mlle.
de Touches (or Camille Maupin,if you prefer it)is prodigiously rich,and presides over one of the most remarkable salons in Paris.She has heard that you are as handsome as you are clever,and is dying to meet you."Lucien could only pour out incoherent thanks and glance enviously at Emile Blondet.There was as great a difference between a great lady like Mme.de Montcornet and Coralie as between Coralie and a girl out of the streets.The Countess was young and witty and beautiful,with the very white fairness of women of the north.Her mother was the Princess Scherbellof,and the Minister before dinner had paid her the most respectful attention.
By this time the Marquise had made an end of trifling disdainfully with the wing of a chicken.
"My poor Louise felt so much affection for you,"she said."She took me into her confidence;I knew her dreams of a great career for you.
She would have borne a great deal,but what scorn you showed her when you sent back her letters!Cruelty we can forgive;those who hurt us must have still some faith in us;but indifference!Indifference is like polar snows,it extinguishes all life.So,you must see that you have lost a precious affection through your own fault.Why break with her?Even if she had scorned you,you had your way to make,had you not?--your name to win back?Louise thought of all that.""Then why was she silent?"
"EH!mon Dieu!"cried the Marquise,"it was I myself who advised her not to take you into her confidence.Between ourselves,you know,you seemed so little used to the ways of the world,that I took alarm.Iwas afraid that your inexperience and rash ardor might wreck our carefully-made schemes.Can you recollect yourself as you were then?
You must admit that if you could see your double to-day,you would say the same yourself.You are not like the same man.That was our mistake.But would one man in a thousand combine such intellectual gifts with such wonderful aptitude for taking the tone of society?Idid not think that you would be such an astonishing exception.You were transformed so quickly,you acquired the manner of Paris so easily,that I did not recognize you in the Bois de Boulogne a month ago."Lucien heard the great lady with inexpressible pleasure;the flatteries were spoken with such a petulant,childlike,confiding air,and she seemed to take such a deep interest in him,that he thought of his first evening at the Panorama-Dramatique,and began to fancy that some such miracle was about to take place a second time.Everything had smiled upon him since that happy evening;his youth,he thought,was the talisman that worked this change.He would prove this great lady;she should not take him unawares.
"Then,what were these schemes which have turned to chimeras,madame?"asked he.
"Louise meant to obtain a royal patent permitting you to bear the name and title of Rubempre.She wished to put Chardon out of sight.Your opinions have put that out of the question now,but THEN it would not have been so hard to manage,and a title would mean a fortune for you.
"You will look on these things as trifles and visionary ideas,"she continued;"but we know something of life,and we know,too,all the solid advantages of a Count's title when it is borne by a fashionable and extremely charming young man.Announce 'M.Chardon'and 'M.le Comte de Rubempre'before heiresses or English girls with a million to their fortune,and note the difference of the effect.The Count might be in debt,but he would find open hearts;his good looks,brought into relief by his title,would be like a diamond in a rich setting;M.Chardon would not be so much as noticed.WE have not invented these notions;they are everywhere in the world,even among the burgeois.
You are turning your back on fortune at this minute.Do you see that good-looking young man?He is the Vicomte Felix de Vandenesse,one of the King's private secretaries.The King is fond enough of young men of talent,and Vandenesse came from the provinces with baggage nearly as light as yours.You are a thousand times cleverer than he;but do you belong to a great family,have you a name?You know des Lupeaulx;his name is very much like yours,for he was born a Chardin;well,he would not sell his little farm of Lupeaulx for a million,he will be Comte des Lupeaulx some day,and perhaps his grandson may be a duke.--You have made a false start;and if you continue in that way,it will be all over with you.See how much wiser M.Emile Blondet has been!He is engaged on a Government newspaper;he is well looked on by those in authority;he can afford to mix with Liberals,for he holds sound opinions;and soon or later he will succeed.But then he understood how to choose his opinions and his protectors.