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"I recognize your hand in it," said the poor man, much affected. "Now, here you are, free, and we are only a few steps from the Rue des Cinq-Diamants; come and see my nephew," said Ragon.
While the declining glory of perfumery was about to send forth its setting rays, a star was rising with feeble light upon the commercial horizon. Anselme Popinot was laying the corner-stone of his fortune in the Rue des Cinq-Diamants.
"Where is he going?" asked Cesarine of her father, trying to appear indifferent. "He is to set up for himself in the Rue des Cinq-Diamants; and, my faith! by the grace of God!" cried Cesar, whose exclamations were not understood by his wife, nor by his daughter.
A lease of eighteen years was agreed upon, so that it might run the same length of time as the lease of the shop in the Rue des Cinq-Diamants, an insignificant circumstance apparently, but one which did Birotteau good service in after days.
Cesarine was put in charge of the desk, and the superintendence of the new shop was entrusted to her; she filled, in fact, a position above that of forewoman, and supplied the place of both master and mistress. Madame Cesar went from the "Chat-qui-pelote" to the Rue des Cinq-Diamants, and asked Popinot to let her take charge of his accounts and do his writing, and also manage his household.
Pillerault, who had just been informed of what had happened in the Rue des Cinq-Diamants, feared that his nephew was scarcely fit to bear the shock of joy which the sudden knowledge of his restoration would cause him; for Pillerault was a daily witness of the moral struggles of the poor man, whose mind stood always face to face with his inflexible doctrines against bankruptcy, and whose vital forces were used and spent at every hour.
The house of A. Popinot, Rue des Cinq-Diamants, had undergone a great change in two months. The shop was repainted. The shelves, re-varnished and gilded and crowded with bottles, rejoiced the eye of those who had eyes to see the symptoms of prosperity. The floors were littered with packages and wrapping-paper.
"Monsieur," he said, "the press will be ready to work to-morrow." "Why, what's the matter, Popinot?" asked Cesar, as he saw Anselme blush. "Monsieur, it is the joy of having found a shop, a back-shop, kitchen, chambers above them, and store-rooms, all for twelve hundred francs a year, in the Rue des Cinq-Diamants." "We must take a lease of eighteen years," said Birotteau.
Happily, Popinot who for a month had never left the Rue des Cinq-Diamants, sitting up all night, and working all Sunday at the manufactory had seen neither the Ragons, nor Pillerault, nor his uncle the judge. He allowed himself but two hours' sleep, poor lad! he had only two clerks, but at the rate things were now going, he would soon need four. In business, opportunity is everything.
The lease Cesar had granted to Popinot, which went with the sale to du Tillet, now hindered the transfer to the canal company. The banker came to the Rue des Cinq-Diamants to see the druggist. If du Tillet was indifferent to Popinot, it is very certain that the lover of Cesarine felt an instinctive hatred for du Tillet.
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