Cousin Bette Read Online Free PDF Page A

from the reverie into which she had fallen.
    â€˜Well, Madame, is a man likely to find a treasure like that again at fifty-two years of age? At fifty-two love costs thirty thousand francs per annum: I have the figures from your husband; and I love Célestine too well to ruin her. Seeing you on that first evening when you received us, I could not understand how that scoundrel Hulot could keep a Jenny Cadine. You looked like an empress. You were not thirty, Madame,’ he went on; ‘to me you seemed young; you were lovely. Ton my word of honour, that day, I was stirred to the depths. I said to myself, “Old Hulot neglects his wife, and if I had not my Josépha she would suit me to a T.” Ah! pardon me, that’s an expression from my old trade. The perfumer breaks through now and again; that’s what stands in the way of my aspiring to be a Deputy.
    â€˜And so when I was done down in such a treacherous way by the Baron – for between old cronies like us our friends’ mistresses should have been sacrosanct – I swore to myself that I would take his wife. It was only fair. The Baron would not be able to say a word, and there was nothing at all hecould do. When I told you of the state of my heart, you showed me the door as if I were a dog with mange at the first words, and in doing that you made my love twice as strong – my infatuation if you like – and you shall be mine!’
    â€˜Indeed? How?’
    â€˜I do not know how, but that’s the way it’s going to be. You see, Madame, an idiot of a perfumer – retired!– who has only one idea in his head, is in a stronger position than a clever man with thousands. I am mad about you, and you are my revenge! That’s as if I were in love twice over. I speak my mind to you, a man with his mind made up. Just as bluntly as you say to me “I will not be yours”, I tell you soberly what I think. I’m putting my cards on the table, as the saying is. Yes, you’ll be mine, when the right moment comes. Oh! even if you were fifty, you should still be my mistress. And you shall, for I don’t expect any difficulty with your husband.…’
    Madame Hulot cast a look of such frozen horror at this calculating businessman that he thought she had gone out of her mind, and stopped.
    â€˜You asked for it; you covered me with your contempt; you defied me, and now I have told you!’ he said, feeling some need to justify the brutality of his last words.
    â€˜Oh! my daughter, my daughter!’ cried the Baroness despairingly.
    â€˜Ah! there’s nothing more I can say!’ Crevel went on. ‘The day Josépha was taken from me I was like a tigress robbed of her whelps.… In fact, I was in just the same state as I see you in now. Your daughter! For me, she is the means of getting you. Yes, I wrecked your daughter’s marriage!… and you will not marry her without my help! However beautiful Mademoiselle Hortense may be, she needs a dowry.’
    â€˜Alas! yes,’ said the Baroness, wiping her eyes.
    â€˜Well, try asking the Baron for ten thousand francs,’ returned Crevel, striking his attitude again.
    He held it for a moment, like an actor pausing to underline a point.
    â€˜If he had the money, he would give it to the girl who will take Josépha’s place!’ he said, speaking with increasing urgency and vehemence. ‘On the road he has taken, does aman stop? He’s too fond of women, to begin with! (There’s a way of moderation in everything, a
juste milieu
, as our King has said). And then vanity has a hand in it! He’s a handsome man! He’ ll see you all reduced to beggary for the sake of his pleasure. Indeed you’re on the high road to ruin already. Look, since I first set foot in your house, you haven’t once been able to do up your drawing-room. The words HARD UP shriek from every split in these covers. Show me the son-in-law who will