The Bachelors Read Online Free PDF Page B

few months they would be civilians. Why not go into partnership? Léon would produce the idea and the capital, Levier undertook to provide the materials.
    All the family joined in. They had faith in Léon's genius: did he not compose at the piano without knowing the notes! And moreover, how splendid to see a young nobleman rolling up his sleeves, loving the workers, being progressive! Levier gave all the necessary guarantees and made a good impression. They saw big. It was no longer simply a question of exploiting an enlarger; they would also deal in cameras. One member of the family put twenty thousand francs into the business, another fifteen, another ten. Within two years it was bankrupt. Levier, who was a man of his word, had remained straight as long as Léon remained serious. As soon as Léon, incapable of application or method, and moreover obsessed by women, ceased to turn up and assumed the role of the titled amateur, Levier proceeded to take advantage of the situation — and it is true that Léon's ignorance and naivety in business matters would have tempted a saint. Then Léon announced that he could no longer work with Levier because his breath smelled, and one may guess how the family, whose financial feathers were falling like snowflakes in this storm, received such an argument. The enlargers cost the Coantrés eighty thousand francs, not counting their initial shareholdings, which Levier promised to pay back gradually. At this very moment M. de Coantré completed their ruin by his stock exchange speculations. As a result, he died. Mme de Coantré was left with sixty thousand francs' worth of debts.
    Léon, impulsive as ever, wanted to kill himself. The Coëtquidans, furious with the Coantrés who had brought all this on their sister, naturally maintained that he was shamming. But he was found with his throat cut. His mother was frantic. Léon said to her, 'I think I'm going mad. I must give up everything at once, not think about anything, or I don't know what I mightn't be capable of. Give me five thousand francs and you won't hear of me for two years. I give you my word of honour that I won't ask for a penny for two years.' Mme de Coantré, who imagined him blowing his brains out if they did not yield at once to his every whim, gave him the five thousand francs.
    He set off — not for California but for Chatenay (Seine), where he stayed two years. He took a room in a widow's house, and did nothing but potter around, shooting, fishing, doing odd jobs; out all day long; dressed like a tramp; chaste as a gelded cat (we shall see this metamorphosis in slow motion later on); happy as a king. Like the kalenderi of Sufism, his principal aim was to escape from custom and convention, and to avoid worries. Foolish and improvident over important things, he was the soul of wisdom and prudence as regards minor details. Noting down his smallest expense to the nearest sou, not once did he exceed by as much as five francs the monthly sum he could allow himself. Mme de Coantré went to see him once a month. Only twice in the two years did he accept the small sums which she offered him on each visit.
    When the two years had elapsed, he returned home. What was to be done with him? Mme de Coantré thought of marrying him off; after all, he had a name. He made no objection. But he refused to move in society. He would only marry a bourgeois or a working-class girl, not an aristocrat. His toolbox never left him, and one day Mme de Coantré found him with a chisel removing the coronet and crest from all his personal silver. 'Kind hearts can do without coronets,' he said.
    In the role of suitor, he anticipated Tristan Bernard's Triplepatte. {1} His poor mother wore herself out trying to arrange interviews, with the help of the family. Everyone would at last be brought together, after enormous pains, and Léon would fail to turn up. That was how he was: smart people made him see red. And then having to dress, what torture! and be on