“That would be stark ruin,” he said aloud to himself, as he stood among his vines and examined their stems.
He made up his mind at last, and came back to Saumur at dinner time fully determined on his course. He would humor Eugénie, and coax and cajole her so that he might die royally, keeping the control of his millions in his hands until his latest sigh. It happened that he let himself in with his master key; he crept noiselessly as a wolf up the stairs to his wife’s room, which he entered just as Eugénie was setting the dressing-case, in all its golden glory, upon her mother’s bed. The two women had stolen a pleasure in Grandet’s absence; they were looking at the portraits and tracing out Charles’ features in his mother’s likeness.
“It is just his forehead and his mouth!” Eugénie was saying, as the vinegrower opened the door.
Mme. Grandet saw how her husband’s eyes darted upon the gold. “Oh! God have pity upon us!” she cried.
The vinegrower seized upon the dressing-case as a tiger might spring upon a sleeping child.
“What may this be?” he said, carrying off the treasure to the window, where he ensconced himself with it. “Gold! solid gold!” he cried, “and plenty of it too; there is a couple of pounds’ weight here. Aha! so this was what Charles gave you in exchange for your pretty gold pieces! Why did you not tell me? It was a good stroke of business, little girl. You are your father’s own daughter, I see.” (Eugénie trembled from head to foot.) “This belongs to Charles, doesn’t it?” the goodman went on.
“Yes, father; it is not mine. That case is a sacred trust.”
“Tut, tut, tut! he has gone off with your money; you ought to make good the loss of your little treasure.”
“Oh! father! …”
The old man had taken out his pocketknife, with a view to wrenching away a plate of the precious metal, and for the moment had been obliged to lay the case on a chair beside him. Eugénie sprang forward to secure her treasure; but the cooper, who had kept an eye upon his daughter as well as upon the casket, put out his arm to prevent this, and thrust her back so roughly that she fell on to the bed.
“Sir! sir!” cried the mother, rising and sitting upright.
Grandet had drawn out his knife, and was about to insert the blade beneath the plate.
“Father!” cried Eugénie, going down on her knees and dragging herself nearer to him as she knelt; “father, in the name of all the saints, and the Holy Virgin, for the sake of Christ who died on the cross, for your own soul’s salvation, father, if you have any regard for my life, do not touch it! The case is not yours, and it is not mine. It belongs to an unhappy kinsman, who gave it into my keeping, and I ought to give it back to him untouched.”
“What do you look at it for if it is a deposit? Looking at it is worse than touching it.”
“Do not pull it to pieces, father! You will bring dishonor upon me. Father! do you hear me?”
“For pity’s sake, sir!” entreated the mother.
“Father!”
The shrill cry rang through the house and brought the frightened Nanon upstairs. Eugénie caught up a knife that lay within her reach.
“Well?” said Grandet, calmly, with a cold smile on his lips.
“Sir! you are killing me!” said the mother.
“Father, if you cut away a single scrap of gold, I shall stab myself with this knife. It is your doing that my mother is dying, and now my death will also be laid at your door. It shall be wound for wound.”
Grandet held his knife suspended above the case, looked at his daughter, and hesitated.
“Would you really do it, Eugénie?” he asked,
“Yes, sir!” said the mother.
“She would do as she says,” cried Nanon. “Do be sensible, sir, for once in your life.”
The cooper wavered for a moment, looking first at the gold, and then at his daughter.
Mme. Grandet fainted.
“There! sir, you see, the mistress is dying,” cried Nanon.
“There! there! child, do not let us fall out about a box. Just take it back!” cried the cooper hastily, throwing the case on to the bed. “And, Nanon, go for M. Bergerin. Come! come! mother,” he said, and he kissed his wife’s hand; “never mind, there! there! we have made it up, haven’t we, little girl? No more dry bread; you shall eat whatever you like … Ah! she is opening her eyes. Well, now, little mother, dear little mother, don’t take on so! Look! I am going to kiss Eugénie! She loves her cousin, does she? She shall marry him if she likes; she shall keep his little case for him. But you must live for a long while yet, my poor wife! Come! turn your head a little. Listen! you shall have the finest altar at the Fête-Dieu that has ever been seen in Saumur.”
“Oh! mon Dieu! how can you treat your wife and daughter in this way!” moaned Mme. Grandet.
“I will never do so again, never again!” cried the cooper. “You shall see, my poor wife.”
He went to his strong room and returned with a handful of louis d’or, which he scattered on the coverlet.
“There! Eugénie, there! wife, those are for you,” he said, fingering the gold coins as they lay. “Come! cheer up, and get well, you shall want for nothing, neither you nor Eugénie. There are a hundred louis for her. You will not give them away,
