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Updated: June 24, 2025
Desclavettes jump upon her seat, explaining that he learned all these details from M. de Thaller, who had often commissioned him to pay his wife's debts, and also from the baroness herself, who did not hesitate to call sometimes at the office for twenty francs; for such was her want of order, that, after borrowing all the savings of her servants, she frequently had not two cents to throw to a beggar.
Instead of which: "Well, isn't it perfectly natural?" said M. Desclavettes. "It seems to me more than natural," insisted Mme. Desclavettes, "that a man should be anxious to preserve from ruin his wife and children." "Of course," put in M. Favoral. Stepping resolutely toward her father: "Have you, then, taken such precautions yourself?" demanded Mlle. Gilberte.
"The money is gone; and appearances are against me." His wife had drawn near to him, and taken his hand. "The misfortune is immense," she said, "but not irreparable. We will sell everything we have." "Have you not friends? Are we not here," insisted the others, M. Desclavettes, M. Desormeaux, and M. Chapelain. Gently he pushed his wife aside, and coldly.
Desclavettes had been completely subjugated by the grand manners of this pretender; and M. Desclavettes did not hesitate to affirm that he had rarely met any one who pleased him more. The others, M. Chapelain and old Desormeaux, did not, doubtless, share this optimism; but M. Costeclar's annual half-million obscured singularly their clear-sightedness.
Tears of indignation filled Mlle. Gilberte's eyes. "Mme. Desclavettes," she exclaimed, "forgets something. She forgets that this gentleman dared to tell me that he proposed to settle upon the woman he marries a large fortune, of which his creditors would thus be cheated in case of his failure in business." She thought, in her simplicity, that a cry of indignation would rise at these words.
And, at the moment of disappearing himself, "Continue to dine without me," said he to his guests, with a last effort at self-control. "I shall soon catch up with you. This will take but a moment. Do not be uneasy in the least." They were not uneasy, but surprised, and, above all, shocked at the manners of M. de Thaller. "What a brute!" muttered Mme. Desclavettes.
"All my father's friends are not as indulgent as you are," said Maxence, "M. Desclavettes, for instance." "Have you seen him?" "Yes, last night, about twelve o'clock. He came to ask us to get father to pay him back, if we should ever see him again." "That might be an idea!" Mlle. Gilberte started. "What!" said she, "you, too, sir, can imagine that my father has run away with millions?"
He had never received at his table any one but a fellow-clerk at the factory, named Desclavettes, who had just married the daughter of a dealer in bronzes, and succeeded to his business. "Is it possible?" exclaimed Mme. Favoral. "So it is. The question is now, how much would a first-class dinner cost, the best of every thing?" "That depends upon the number of guests." "Say three or four persons."
And one Saturday evening, as he was talking with his friends, M. Chapelain, the worthy Desclavettes, and old man Desormeaux, pointing to his wife and daughter: "Those d -d women rob me," he said, "for the benefit of my son; and they do it so cleverly that I can't find out how.
The situation struck them as rather pleasant. The others, M. Desclavettes, M. Chapelain, and the worthy M. Desormeaux himself, could have racked their brains in vain to find terms wherein to express the immensity of their astonishments. Vincent Favoral, their old friend, paying for cashmeres, diamonds, and parlor sets! Such an idea could not enter in their minds.
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