For answer Mlle. Taillefer only gave him a glance but it was impossible to mistake its meaning.
“You, for instance, mademoiselle; you feel sure of your heart to-day, but are you sure that it will never change?”
A smile flitted over the poor girl’s lips; it seemed as if a ray of light from her soul had lighted up her face. Eugene was dismayed at the sudden explosion of feeling caused by his words.
“Ah! but suppose,” he said, “that you should be rich and happy to-morrow, suppose that a vast fortune dropped down from the clouds for you, would you still love the man whom you loved in your days of poverty?”
A charming movement of the head was her only answer.
“Even if he were very poor?”
Again the same mute answer.
“What nonsense are you talking, you two?” exclaimed Mme. Vauquer.
“Never mind,” answered Eugene; “we understand each other.”
“So there is to be an engagement of marriage between M. le Chevalier Eugene de Rastignac and Mlle. Victorine Taillefer, is there?” The words were uttered in Vautrin’s deep voice, and Vautrin appeared at the door as he spoke.
“Oh! how you startled me!” Mme. Couture and Mme. Vauquer exclaimed together.
“I might make a worse choice,” said Rastignac, laughing. Vautrin’s voice had thrown him into the most painful agitation that he had yet known.
“No bad jokes, gentlemen!” said Mme. Couture.
“My dear, let us go upstairs.”
Mme. Vauquer followed the two ladies, meaning to pass the evening in their room, an arrangement that economized fire and candlelight.
Eugene and Vautrin were left alone.
“I felt sure you would come round to it,” said the elder man with the coolness that nothing seemed to shake.
“But stay a moment! I have as much delicacy as anybody else.
Don’t make up your mind on the spur of the moment; you are a little thrown off your balance just now.
You are in debt, and I want you to come over to my way of thinking after sober reflection, and not in a fit of passion or desperation.
Perhaps you want a thousand crowns.
There, you can have them if you like.”
The tempter took out a pocketbook, and drew thence three banknotes, which he fluttered before the student’s eyes.
Eugene was in a most painful dilemma.
He had debts, debts of honor. He owed a hundred louis to the Marquis d’Ajuda and to the Count de Trailles; he had not the money, and for this reason had not dared to go to Mme. de Restaud’s house, where he was expected that evening.
It was one of those informal gatherings where tea and little cakes are handed round, but where it is possible to lose six thousand francs at whist in the course of a night.
“You must see,” said Eugene, struggling to hide a convulsive tremor, “that after what has passed between us, I cannot possibly lay myself under any obligation to you.”
“Quite right; I should be sorry to hear you speak otherwise,” answered the tempter.
“You are a fine young fellow, honorable, brave as a lion, and as gentle as a young girl.
You would be a fine haul for the devil!
I like youngsters of your sort.
Get rid of one or two more prejudices, and you will see the world as it is.
Make a little scene now and then, and act a virtuous part in it, and a man with a head on his shoulders can do exactly as he likes amid deafening applause from the fools in the gallery.
Ah! a few days yet, and you will be with us; and if you would only be tutored by me, I would put you in the way of achieving all your ambitions.
You should no sooner form a wish than it should be realized to the full; you should have all your desires — honors, wealth, or women.
Civilization should flow with milk and honey for you.
You should be our pet and favorite, our Benjamin. We would all work ourselves to death for you with pleasure; every obstacle should be removed from your path.
You have a few prejudices left; so you think that I am a scoundrel, do you?
Well, M. de Turenne, quite as honorable a man as you take yourself to be, had some little private transactions with bandits, and did not feel that his honor was tarnished.
You would rather not lie under any obligation to me, eh?
You need not draw back on that account,” Vautrin went on, and a smile stole over his lips.
“Take these bits of paper and write across this,” he added, producing a piece of stamped paper,
“Accepted the sum of three thousand five hundred francs due this day twelvemonth, and fill in the date.
The rate of interest is stiff enough to silence any scruples on your part; it gives you the right to call me a Jew. You can call quits with me on the score of gratitude.
I am quite willing that you should despise me to-day, because I am sure that you will have a kindlier feeling towards me later on.
You will find out fathomless depths in my nature, enormous and concentrated forces that weaklings call vices, but you will never find me base or ungrateful.
In short, I am neither a pawn nor a bishop, but a castle, a tower of strength, my boy.”
“What manner of man are you?” cried Eugene.
“Were you created to torment me?”
“Why no; I am a good-natured fellow, who is willing to do a dirty piece of work to put you high and dry above the mire for the rest of your days.