The next day, when Maxime de Trailles rose, Finot (whom he had summoned the night before) was announced. Maxime requested his visitor to arrange, as if by accident, a breakfast at the cafe Anglais, where Finot, Couture, and Lousteau should gossip beside him. Finot, whose position toward the Comte de Trailles was that of a sub-lieutenant before a marshall of France, could refuse him nothing; it was altogether too dangerous to annoy that lion. Consequently, when Maxime came to the breakfast, he found Finot and his two friends at table and the conversation already started on Madame Schontz, about whom Couture, well manoeuvred by Finot and Lousteau (Lousteau being, though not aware of it, Finot's tool), revealed to the Comte de Trailles all that he wanted to know about her.
About one o'clock, Maxime was chewing a toothpick and talking with du Tillet on Tortoni's portico, where speculation held a little Bourse, a sort of prelude to the great one. He seemed to be engaged in business, but he was really awaiting the Comte de la Palferine, who, within a given time, was certain to pass that way. The boulevard des Italiens is to-day what the Pont Neuf was in 1650; all persons known to fame pass along it once, at least, in the course of the day. Accordingly, at the end of about ten minutes, Maxime dropped du Tillet's arm, and nodding to the young Prince of Bohemia said, smiling:--"One word with you, count."
The two rivals in their own principality, the one orb on its decline, the other like the rising sun, sat down upon four chairs before the Cafe de Paris. Maxime took care to place a certain distance between himself and some old fellows who habitually sunned themselves like wall-fruit at that hour in the afternoon, to dry out their rheumatic affections. He had excellent reasons for distrusting old men.
"Have you debts?" said Maxime, to the young count.
"If I had none, should I be worthy of being your successor?" replied La Palferine.
"In putting that question to you I don't place the matter in doubt; Ionly want to know if the total is reasonable; if it goes to the five or the six?""Six what?"
"Figures; whether you owe fifty or one hundred thousand? I have owed, myself, as much as six hundred thousand."La Palferine raised his hat with an air as respectful as it was humorous.
"If I had sufficient credit to borrow a hundred thousand francs," he replied, "I should forget my creditors and go and pass my life in Venice, amid masterpieces of painting and pretty women and--""And at my age what would you be?" asked Maxime.
"I should never reach it," replied the young count.
Maxime returned the civility of his rival, and touched his hat lightly with an air of laughable gravity.
"That's one way of looking at life," he replied in the tone of one connoisseur to another. "You owe--?""Oh! a mere trifle, unworthy of being confessed to an uncle; he would disinherit me for such a paltry sum,--six thousand.""One is often more hampered by six thousand than by a hundred thousand," said Maxime, sententiously. "La Palferine, you've a bold spirit, and you have even more spirit than boldness; you can go far, and make yourself a position. Let me tell you that of all those who have rushed into the career at the close of which I now am, and who have tried to oppose me, you are the only one who has ever pleased me."La Palferine colored, so flattered was he by this avowal made with gracious good-humor by the leader of Parisian adventurers. This action of his own vanity was however a recognition of inferiority which wounded him; but Maxime divined that unpleasant reaction, easy to foresee in so clever a mind, and he applied a balm instantly by putting himself at the discretion of the young man.
"Will you do something for me that will facilitate my retreat from the Olympic circus by a fine marriage? I will do as much for you.""You make me very proud; it realizes the fable of the Rat and the Lion," said La Palferine.
"I shall begin by lending you twenty thousand francs," continued Maxime.
"Twenty thousand francs! I knew very well that by dint of walking up and down this boulevard--" said La Palferine, in the style of a parenthesis.
"My dear fellow, you must put yourself on a certain footing," said Maxime, laughing. "Don't go on your own two feet, have six; do as Ido, I never get out of my tilbury."
"But you must be going to ask me for something beyond my powers.""No, it is only to make a woman love you within a fortnight.""Is it a lorette?"
"Why?"
"Because that's impossible; but if it concerns a woman, and a well-bred one who is also clever--"
"She is a very illustrious marquise."
"You want her letters?" said the young count.
"Ah! you are after my own heart!" cried Maxime. "No, that's not it.""Then you want me to love her?"
"Yes, in the real sense--"
"If I am to abandon the aesthetic, it is utterly impossible," said La Palferine. "I have, don't you see, as to women a certain honor; we may play the fool with them, but not--""Ah! I was not mistaken!" cried Maxime. "Do you think I'm a man to propose mere twopenny infamies to you? No, you must go, and dazzle, and conquer. My good mate, I give you twenty thousand francs, and ten days in which to triumph. Meet me to-night at Madame Schontz'.""I dine there."
"Very good," returned Maxime. "Later, when you have need of me, Monsieur le comte, you will find me," he added in the tone of a king who binds himself, but promises nothing.
"This poor woman must have done you some deadly harm," said La Palferine.
