Chapter IX: Part 9

“Keep your money,” Petit-Claud broke in. “Let us see: five thousand--why, you want quite another ten thousand francs to settle yourselves comfortably down yonder. Very good, in two hours’ time the Cointets shall bring you fifteen thousand francs----”

Eve started with surprise.

“If you will renounce all claims to the profits under the deed of partnership, and come to an amicable settlement,” said Petit-Claud. “Does that suit you?”

“Will it really be lawfully ours?” asked Eve.

“Very much so,” said the lawyer, smiling. “The Cointets have worked you trouble enough; I should like to make an end of their pretensions. Listen to me; I am a magistrate now, and it is my duty to tell you the truth. Very good. The Cointets are playing you false at this moment, but you are in their hands. If you accept battle, you might possibly gain the lawsuit which they will bring. Do you wish to be where you are now after ten years of litigation? Experts’ fees and expenses of arbitration will be multiplied, the most contradictory opinions will be given, and you must take your chance. And,” he added, smiling again, “there is no attorney here that can defend you, so far as I see. My successor has not much ability. There, a bad compromise is better than a successful lawsuit.”

“Any arrangement that will give us a quiet life will do for me,” said David.

Petit-Claud called to his servant.

“Paul! go and ask M. Ségaud, my successor, to come here.--He shall go to see the Cointets while we breakfast” said Petit-Claud, addressing his former clients, “and in a few hours’ time you will be on your way home to Marsac, ruined, but with minds at rest. Ten thousand francs will bring you in another five hundred francs of income, and you will live comfortably on your bit of property.”

Two hours later, as Petit-Claud had prophesied, Maître Ségaud came back with an agreement duly drawn up and signed by the Cointets, and fifteen notes each for a thousand francs.

“We are much indebted to you,” said Séchard, turning to Petit-Claud.

“Why, I have just this moment ruined you,” said Petit-Claud, looking at his astonished former clients. “I tell you again, I have ruined you, as you will see as time goes on; but I know you, you would rather be ruined than wait for a fortune which perhaps might come too late.”

“We are not mercenary, monsieur,” said Madame Eve. “We thank you for giving us the means of happiness; we shall always feel grateful to you.”

“Great heavens! don’t call down blessings on _me_!” cried Petit-Claud. “It fills me with remorse; but to-day, I think, I have made full reparation. If I am a magistrate, it is entirely owing to you; and if anybody is to feel grateful, it is I. Good-bye.”

As time went on, Kolb changed his opinion of Séchard senior; and as for the old man, he took a liking to Kolb when he found that, like himself, the Alsacien could neither write nor read a word, and that it was easy to make him tipsy. The old “bear” imparted his ideas on vine culture and the sale of a vintage to the ex-cuirassier, and trained him with a view to leaving a man with a head on his shoulders to look after his children when he should be gone; for he grew childish at the last, and great were his fears as to the fate of his property. He had chosen Courtois the miller as his confidant. “You will see how things will go with my children when I am under ground. Lord! it makes me shudder to think of it.”

Old Séchard died in the month of March, 1929, leaving about two hundred thousand francs in land. His acres added to the Verberie made a fine property, which Kolb had managed to admiration for some two years.

David and his wife found nearly a hundred thousand crowns in gold in the house. The department of the Charente had valued old Séchard’s money at a million; rumor, as usual, exaggerating the amount of a hoard. Eve and David had barely thirty thousand francs of income when they added their little fortune to the inheritance; they waited awhile, and so it fell out that they invested their capital in Government securities at the time of the Revolution of July.

Then, and not until then, could the department of the Charente and David Séchard form some idea of the wealth of the tall Cointet. Rich to the extent of several millions of francs, the elder Cointet became a deputy, and is at this day a peer of France. It is said that he will be Minister of Commerce in the next Government; for in 1842 he married Mlle. Popinot, daughter of M. Anselme Popinot, one of the most influential statesmen of the dynasty, deputy and mayor of an arrondissement in Paris.

David Séchard’s discovery has been assimilated by the French manufacturing world, as food is assimilated by a living body. Thanks to the introduction of materials other than rags, France can produce paper more cheaply than any other European country. Dutch paper, as David foresaw, no longer exists. Sooner or later it will be necessary, no doubt, to establish a Royal Paper Manufactory; like the Gobelins, the Sèvres porcelain works, the Savonnerie, and the Imprimerie royale, which so far have escaped the destruction threatened by _bourgeois_ vandalism.

David Séchard, beloved by his wife, father of two boys and a girl, has the good taste to make no allusion to his past efforts. Eve had the sense to dissuade him from following his terrible vocation; for the inventor like Moses on Mount Horeb, is consumed by the burning bush. He cultivates literature by way of recreation, and leads a comfortable life of leisure, befitting the landowner who lives on his own estate. He has bidden farewell for ever to glory, and bravely taken his place in the class of dreamers and collectors; for he dabbles in entomology, and is at present investigating the transformations of insects which science only knows in the final stage.

Everybody has heard of Petit-Claud’s success as attorney-general; he is the rival of the great Vinet of Provins, and it is his ambition to be President of the Court-Royal of Poitiers.

Cérizet has been in trouble so frequently for political offences that he has been a good deal talked about; and as one of the boldest _enfants perdus_ of the Liberal party he was nicknamed the “Brave Cérizet.” When Petit-Claud’s successor compelled him to sell his business in Angoulême, he found a fresh career on the provincial stage, where his talents as an actor were like to be turned to brilliant account. The chief stage heroine, however, obliged him to go to Paris to find a cure for love among the resources of science, and there he tried to curry favor with the Liberal party.

As for Lucien, the story of his return to Paris belongs to the _Scenes of Parisian_ life.

ADDENDUM

Note: Eve and David is the part three of a trilogy. Part one is entitled Two Poets and part two is A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. In other addendum référénces parts one and three are usually combined under the title Lost Illusions.

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Cérizet
Two Poets
A Man of Business
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Middle Classes

Chardon, Madame (nee Rubempré)
Two Poets
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Châtelet, Sixte, Baron du
Two Poets
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Thirteen

Châtelet, Marie-Louise-Anais de Nègrepelisse, Baronne du
Two Poets
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Government Clerks

Cointet, Boniface
Two Poets
The Firm of Nucingen
The Member for Arcis

Cointet, Jean
Two Poets

Collin, Jacques
Father Goriot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Member for Arcis

Conti, Gennaro
Beatrix

Courtois
Two Poets

Courtois, Madame
Two Poets

Hautoy, Francis du
Two Poets

Herrera, Carlos
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Marron
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Marsay, Henri de
The Thirteen
The Unconscious Humorists
Another Study of Woman
The Lily of the Valley
Father Goriot
Jealousies of a Country Town
Ursule Mirouet
A Marriage Settlement
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
The Ball at Sceaux
Modeste Mignon
The Secrets of a Princess
The Gondreville Mystery
A Daughter of Eve

Métivier
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes

Milaud
The Muse of the Department

Nucingen, Baron Frederic de
The Firm of Nucingen
Father Goriot
Pierrette
Cesar Birotteau
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Another Study of Woman
The Secrets of a Princess
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty
The Muse of the Department
The Unconscious Humorists

Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de
Father Goriot
The Thirteen
Eugenie Grandet
Cesar Birotteau
Melmoth Reconciled
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Commission in Lunacy
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Modeste Mignon
The Firm of Nucingen
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis

Petit-Claud
Two Poets

Pimentel, Marquis and Marquise de
Two Poets

Postel
Two Poets

Prieur, Madame
Two Poets

Rastignac, Baron and Baronne de (Eugène’s parents)
Father Goriot
Two Poets

Rastignac, Eugène de
Father Goriot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Ball at Sceaux
The Commission in Lunacy
A Study of Woman
Another Study of Woman
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Gondreville Mystery
The Firm of Nucingen
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists

Rubempré, Lucien-Chardon de
Two Poets
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Government Clerks
Ursule Mirouet
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Séchard, Jerome-Nicholas
Two Poets

Séchard, David
Two Poets
A Distinguished Provincial At Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Séchard, Madame David
Two Poets
A Distinguished Provincial At Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Senonches, Jacques de
Two Poets

Senonches, Madame Jacques de
Two Poets

Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des
Beatrix
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve
Honorine
Beatrix
The Muse of the Department

Victorine
Massimilla Doni
Letters of Two Brides
Gaudissart II