Savinien

“ Still, all social laws have their exceptions. Savinien thought he might bend his mother's pride before the inborn nobility of Ursula. The struggle began at once. As soon as they were seated at table his mother told him of the horrible letters, as she called them, which the Kergarouets and the Portendueres had written her.
"There is no such thing as family in these days, mother," replied Savinien, "nothing but individuals! The nobles are no longer a compact body. No one asks or cares whether I am a Portenduere, or brave, or a statesmen ”

“ Zelie asked him.
"What do you believe in?" he answered, smiling.
"They are all sly," thought Zelie,—"every one of them! They want to deceive us. That old priest and the old justice and that young scamp Savinien have got some plan in their heads. Dreams! no more dreams than there are hairs on the palm of my hand."
With two stiff, curt bows she left the room.
"I know why Savinien went to Fontainebleau," said Ursula to the abbe, telling him about the duel and begging him to use his influence to prevent it. ”

“ I love without the possibility of changing. It would therefore be a crime if I married a man to whom I could take nothing but a soul that is Savinien's. But, madame, since you force me to be explicit, I must tell you that even if I did not love Monsieur de Portenduere I could not bring myself to bear the troubles and joys of life in the company of your son. If Monsieur Savinien made debts, you have often paid those of your son. Our characters have neither the similarities nor the differences which enable two persons to live together without bitterness. ”

“ The three young men (who brought an excellent dinner with them) discussed Savinien's situation while drinking de Marsay's wine, ostensibly to arrange for his future but really, no doubt, to judge of him.
"When a man is named Savinien de Portenduere," cried Rastignac, "and has a future peer of France for a cousin and Admiral Kergarouet for a great-uncle, and commits the enormous blunder of allowing himself to be put in Sainte-Pelagie, it is very certain that he must not stay there, my good fellow." ”

“ The next day La Bougival carried the following letter to Savinien.
“I don’t know what the dear child has written to you,” she said, “but she is almost dead this morning.”
Who, reading this letter to her lover, could fail to understand the sufferings the poor girl had gone through during the night.
My dear Savinien,—Your mother wishes you to marry Mademoiselle du Rouvre, and perhaps she is right. You are placed between a life that is almost poverty-stricken and a life of opulence; between the betrothed of your heart and a wife in conformity with the demands of the world ”

“ Monsieur Savinien went back to Paris that evening, and I have not seen him since. The street seems empty; he took my heart away with him—but he does not know it."
"Is that all?" asked the old man.
"All, dear godfather," she said, with a sigh of regret that there was not more to tell.
"My little girl," said the doctor, putting her on his knee; "you are nearly sixteen and your womanhood is beginning. You are now between your blessed childhood, which is ending, and the emotions of love, which will make your life a tumultuous one; for you have a nervous system of exquisite sensibility. ”

“ The players smiled ironically. When the game was over the doctor, who had hitherto seemed anxious and pensive, turned to Savinien with the air of a man who fulfills a duty.
"Monsieur," he said, "I am grateful for the feeling which leads you to make me this early visit; but your mother attributes unworthy and underhand motives to what I have done, and I should give her the right to call them true if I did not request you to refrain from coming here, in spite of the honor your visits are to me, and the pleasure I should otherwise feel in cultivating your society. ”

“ When Savinien, who was almost maddened by these proceedings, carried this letter to the abbe, the poor priest read it and re-read it; so amazed and horror-stricken was he to see the perfection with which his own handwriting and signature were imitated. The dangerous condition into which this last atrocity threw poor Ursula sent Savinien once more to the procureur du roi with the forged letter.
"A murder is being committed by means that the law cannot touch," he said, "upon an orphan whom the Code places in your care as legal guardian. What is to be done?" ”

“ At Savinien's slow pace they came at last to small marble-topped tables under a striped awning. Savinien, with loud gasps, let himself down upon an exiguous chair, rested both fat hands upon the head of his stick, and smiled ruefully across the table at Cobb. A tinge of blue had come out around his lips.
"Even to walk," he gasped, "that discomposes me, as you see. It is terrible."
"Take it easy," counseled Cobb.
An aproned waiter served them, Cobb with beer, Savinien with a treacly liqueur in a glass the size of a thimble. ”

“ Sometimes there escaped from him some low word of thieves' slang, a vulgar gesture—vestiges of his former horrible existence—and he felt the pain one feels when old wounds re-open; the more because he fancied that he sometimes saw in Savinien the awakening of an unhealthy curiosity. When the young man, already tempted by the pleasures which Paris offers to the poorest, asked him about the mysteries of the great city, Jean François feigned ignorance and turned the subject; but he felt a vague inquietude for the future of his friend. ”

“ My dear aunt,—I am more annoyed than surprised at Savinien's pranks. As I am married and the father of two sons and one daughter, my fortune, already too small for my position and prospects, cannot be lessened to ransom a Portenduere from the hands of the Jews. Sell your farm, pay his debts, and come and live with us at Portenduere. You shall receive the welcome we owe you, even though our views may not be entirely in accordance with yours. You shall be made happy, and we will manage to marry Savinien, whom my wife thinks charming. This little outbreak is nothing; do not make yourself unhappy ”

“ The walls of Nemours spoke no more. But the quarrel between Minoret and his wife endured, and Savinien maintained a savage silence. The marriage of the eldest Mademoiselle Massin with the future notary ten days after these events, was common talk. Mademoiselle Massin, on her side, had eighty thousand francs and her plainness, Goupil had his deformity and his practice; so this union seemed both probable and suitable. ”

“ And, pushing open the door, he entered, pale as death, into the room where he saw the landlord and the stupefied servant in a corner, and the man from Auvergne on his knees amid the disordered clothes, lovingly kissing his gold pieces.
“Enough of this,” he said in a thick voice. “It is I who have taken the money and who have put it in my comrade’s trunk. But that is too disgusting. I am a thief and not a Judas. Go hunt for the police. I’ll not try to save myself. Only, I must say a word in private to Savinien, who is here.” ”

“ Savinien, still too young, and out of sheer gentlemanly honor, did not dare confess his financial position to Madame de Sérizy. Madame de Portenduère, just when her son did not know which way to turn, sent twenty thousand francs—all that she possessed—in consequence of a letter in which Savinien, initiated by his friends into the ballistics of the wiles directed by children against the paternal strong-box, spoke of bills to be paid and of the disgrace of allowing his signature to be protested. ”

“ Military service does, in fact, give a certain grave decision to the air and carriage and gestures of a man, and an erect bearing which enables the most superficial observer to recognize a military man even in plain clothes. The habit of command produces this result. Ursula loved Savinien the better for it, and took a childlike pleasure in walking round the garden with him, taking his arm, and hearing him relate the part he played (as midshipman) in the taking of Algiers. Evidently Savinien had taken the city. ”

“ Savinien also became enamored of Leontine de Serizy; was on intimate terms with Marsay, Rastignac, Rubempre, Maxime de Trailles, Blondet and Finot; soon lost a considerable sum of money, and, laden with debts, became a boarder at Sainte-Pelagie; he then received Marsay, Rastignac and Rubempre, the latter wishing to relieve his distress, much to the amusement of Florine, afterwards Madame Nathan. [Secrets from a Courtesan's Life.] ”

“ And so Savinien’s great-uncle was the Vice-admiral Kergarouët, and his cousin the Comte de Portenduère, the admiral’s grandson, both of them very rich. The Vice-admiral de Kergarouët lived in Paris, and the Comte de Portenduère at the castle of that name in the Dauphiné. His cousin the count represented the elder branch, and Savinien was the only offspring of the younger De Portenduère. The count, past forty years of age, and married to a rich woman, had three children. His fortune, accruing from several legacies, amounted—so it was said—to sixty thousand francs income. ”

“ Savinien, himself of a weak and egotistical nature, let things take their course, satisfied only in finding a companion who shared his horror of the wine-shop. The two friends lived together in a fairly comfortable lodging, but their resources were very limited. They were obliged to take into their room a third companion, an old Auvergnat, gloomy and rapacious, who found it possible out of his meagre salary to save something with which to buy a place in his own country. Jean François and Savinien were always together. ”

“ She married a post-captain, nephew of the famous Admiral de Portenduere, the rival of the Suffrens, the Kergarouets, and the Simeuses; bore him a son, Savinien; she survived her husband; was on intimate terms with the Rouvres, her country neighbors; for, having but little means, she lived, during the Restoration, in the little village of Nemours, on the rue des Bourgeois, where Denis Minoret was domiciled. Savinien's prodigal dissipation and the long opposition to his marriage to Ursule Mirouet saddened, or at least distrubed, Madame de Portenduere's last days. [Ursule Mirouet.] ”

“ The curé remained about half an hour singing the praises of Doctor Minoret, who had intended making a conquest of the old lady, and had succeeded.
“He is wonderful for his age,” she said, “he talks of going to Paris and arranging my son’s affairs as if he were only twenty-five years old. He has been in good society.”
“The best, madame; and, nowadays, more than one son of a poor French peer would be glad to marry his ward, who is worth a million. Ah! if this idea entered Savinien’s head, times are so changed, that the greatest objections would not be on your side after your son’s behavior.” ”

“ By cultivating the society of the doctor, the abbe, and Monsieur Bongrand, Savinien proved the excellence of his character. The love of this young man for Ursula, so devoid of self-interest, and so persistent, interested the three friends deeply, and they now never separated the lovers in their thoughts. Soon the monotony of this patriarchal life, and the certainty of a future before them, gave to their affection a fraternal character. The doctor often left the pair alone together. He judged the young man rightly ”

“ No one can trick me, not me. Do you know that I needed only two others like those to pay for my vineyard? Come on, let us look through the things of these comrades, or I will call the police. Make haste!”
“All right,” said the voice of the householder; “we’ll search with Maria. So much the worse if you find nothing, and if the masons get angry. It is you who have forced me to it.”
Jean François felt his heart fill with fear. He recalled the poverty and the petty borrowings of Savinien, the sombre manner he had borne the last few days. ”

“ And she rang the bell violently, calling to her servants.
“Think well about what I have said!” repeated Savinien, who, unheeding Zélie’s tirade, went out, leaving this sword of Damocles hanging over the couple.
“Now then! Minoret,” said Zélie to her husband, “will you explain the meaning of this? A young man does not come without any reason into a private house and make that terrible uproar and demand the blood of a son of the family.”
“It is some trick on the part of that horrid ape Goupil, whom I had promised to help in having him appointed notary if he got me Le Rouvre cheap. ”

“ It is all the more to be regretted because Savinien has, for the moment, tied our hands by allowing the authorities to arrest him.
If my nephew had not shown a foolish passion for me and sacrificed our relationship to the vanity of a lover, we could have sent him to travel in Germany while his affairs were being settled here. Monsieur de Kergarouet intended to get him a place in the War office; but this imprisonment for debt will paralyze such efforts. You must pay his debts; let him enter the navy; he will make his way like the true Portenduere that he is ”

“ One evening when he was climbing the stairs of his lodging, absorbed in his preoccupations, he heard in the room he was about to enter a dialogue of irritated voices, and he recognized one as that of the old man from Auvergne, who lodged with him and Savinien. An old [Pg 384] habit of suspicion made him pause on the landing, and he listened to learn the cause of the trouble. ”

“ But one does not get out of that except to go back again, and you would have become a pillar of the police tribunals and the courts of assizes. I know all about them. I have done seven years in the Reform School, one year at Sainte-Pélagie, three years at Poissy, and five years at Toulon. Now, have no fear. All is arranged. I have taken this affair on my shoulders.”
41. “Unhappy fellow!” cried Savinien; but hope was already coming back to his cowardly heart.
42. “When the elder brother is serving under the colors, the younger does not go,” Jean François went on. ”