“ ‘M. le Comte,’ said I, after the usual greetings, ‘I fail to see why you should need me to effect an introduction to Van Gobseck, the most civil and smooth-spoken of capitalists. Money will be forthcoming if he has any, or rather, if you can give him adequate security.’
“ ‘Monsieur,’ said he, ‘it does not enter into my thoughts to force you to do me a service, even though you have passed your word.’
“ ‘Sardanapalus!’ said I to myself, ‘am I going to let that fellow imagine that I will not keep my word with him?’
“ ‘I had the honor of telling you yesterday,’ said he, ‘that I had fallen out with Daddy Gobseck most inopportunely; and as there is scarcely another man in Paris who can come down on the nail with a hundred thousand francs, at the end of the month, I begged of you to make my peace with him. But let us say no more about it—’
“M. de Trailles looked at me with civil insult in his expression, and made as if he would take his leave.
“ ‘I am ready to go with you,’ said I.
“When we reached the Rue de Grès, my dandy looked about him with a circumspection and uneasiness that set me wondering. His face grew livid, flushed, and yellow, turn and turn about, and by the time that Gobseck’s door came in sight the perspiration stood in drops on his forehead. We were just getting out of the cabriolet, when a hackney cab turned into the street. My companion’s hawk eye detected a woman in the depths of the vehicle. His face lighted up with a gleam of almost savage joy; he called to a little boy who was passing, and gave him his horse to hold. Then we went up to the old bill discounter.
“ ‘M. Gobseck,’ said I, ‘I have brought one of my most intimate friends to see you (whom I trust as I would trust the Devil,’ I added for the old man’s private ear). ‘To oblige me you will do your best for him (at the ordinary rate), and pull him out of his difficulty (if it suits your convenience).’
“M. de Trailles made his bow to Gobseck, took a seat, and listened to us with a courtier-like attitude; its charming humility would have touched your heart to see, but my Gobseck sits in his chair by the fireside without moving a muscle, or changing a feature. He looked very like the statue of Voltaire under the peristyle of the Théâtre-Français, as you see it of an evening; he had partly risen as if to bow, and the skull cap that covered the top of his head, and the narrow strip of sallow forehead exhibited, completed his likeness to the man of marble.
“ ‘I have no money to spare except for my own clients,’ said he.
“ ‘So you are cross because I may have tried in other quarters to ruin myself?’ laughed the Count.
“ ‘Ruin yourself!’ repeated Gobseck ironically.
“ ‘Were you about to remark that it is impossible to ruin a man who has nothing?’ inquired the dandy. ‘Why, I defy you to find a better stock in Paris!’ he cried, swinging round on his heels.
“This half-earnest buffoonery produced not the slightest effect upon Gobseck.
“ ‘Am I not on intimate terms with the Ronquerolles, the Marsays, the Franchessinis, the two Vandenesses, the Ajuda-Pintos—all the most fashionable young men in Paris, in short? A prince and an ambassador (you know them both) are my partners at play. I draw my revenues from London and Carlsbad and Baden and Bath. Is not this the most brilliant of all industries!’
“ ‘True.’
“ ‘You make a sponge of me, begad! you do. You encourage me to go and swell myself out in society, so that you can squeeze me when I am hard up; but you yourselves are sponges, just as I am, and death will give you a squeeze some day.’
“ ‘That is possible.’
“ ‘If there were no spendthrifts, what would become of you? The pair of us are like soul and body.’
“ ‘Precisely so.’
“ ‘Come, now, give us your hand, Grandaddy Gobseck, and be magnanimous if this is “true” and “possible” and “precisely so.” ’
“ ‘You come to me,’ the usurer answered coldly, ‘because Girard, Palma, Werbrust, and Gigonnet are full up of your paper; they are offering it at a loss of fifty percent; and as it is likely they only gave you half the figure on the face of the bills, they are not worth five-and-twenty percent of their supposed value. I am your most obedient! Can I in common decency lend a stiver to a man who owes thirty thousand francs, and has not one farthing?’ Gobseck continued. ‘The day before yesterday you lost ten thousand francs at a ball at the Baron de Nucingen’s.’
“ ‘Sir,’ said the Count, with rare impudence, ‘my affairs are no concern of yours,’ and he looked the old man up and down. ‘A man has no debts till payment is due.’
“ ‘True.’
“ ‘My bills will be duly met.’
“ ‘That is possible.’
“ ‘And at this moment the question between you and me is simply whether the security I am going to offer is sufficient for the sum I have come to borrow.’
“ ‘Precisely.’
“A cab stopped at the door, and the sound of wheels filled the room.
“ ‘I will bring something directly which perhaps will satisfy you,’ cried the young man, and he left the room.
“ ‘Oh! my son,’ exclaimed Gobseck, rising to his feet, and stretching out his arms to me, ‘if he has good security, you have saved my life. It would be the death of me. Werbrust and Gigonnet imagined that they were going to play off a trick on me; and now, thanks to you, I shall have a good laugh at their expense tonight.’
“There was something frightful about the old man’s ecstasy. It was the one occasion when he opened his heart to me; and that flash of joy, swift though it was, will never
