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Updated: May 25, 2025
It is so natural to a Parisienne, even when passion has almost mastered her, to hesitate and pause before taking the plunge; to probe the heart of him to whom she intrusts her future. And once already Mme. de Nucingen's hopes had been betrayed, and her loyalty to a selfish young lover had been despised. She had good reason to be suspicious.
"'Yes, she has a mother with a great liking for rose-color. said du Tillet; and with that epigram he cut Nucingen's diplomatic efforts short. "After dinner the Baron de Nucingen informed Wilhelmine Adolphus that she had barely four hundred thousand francs deposited with him.
Du Tillet had no suspicion of his own complicity in Nucingen's plot; and the bold Baron had learned from his previous experiments in suspensions of payment that he must have some man whom he could trust to act at need as a lever upon the creditor.
"While du Tillet, Werbrust, Claparon, Gigonnet, and others that thought themselves clever were fetching in Nucingen's paper from abroad with a premium of one per cent for it was still worth their while to exchange it for securities in a rising market there was all the more talk on the Bourse, because there was nothing now to fear.
"Good-evening, my dear Baron," said Philippe Bridau, as he went into Nucingen's box. "So here you are, married to Mademoiselle Esther. Mademoiselle, I am an old officer whom you once on a time were to have got out of a scrape at Issoudun Philippe Bridau " "I know nothing of it," said Esther, looking round the house through her opera-glasses.
"Rather, my son," said the lady, who spoke French well, "But vat vas you?" she went on, mimicking Nucingen's accent. "Ein man vat is ver' much took in," replied he lamentably. "Is a man took in ven he finds a pretty voman?" asked she, with a laugh. "Permit me to sent you to-morrow some chewels as a soufenir of de Baron von Nucingen." "Don't know him!" said she, laughing like a crazy creature.
These operations were more or less like Nucingen's settlements." "The thing may look queer on a small scale," said Blondet, "but on a large we call it finance. There are high-handed proceedings criminal between man and man that amount to nothing when spread out over any number of men, much as a drop of prussic acid becomes harmless in a pail of water. You take a man's life, you are guillotined.
"Now Palma was the Keller's oracle, and the Kellers were brimful of Nucingen's paper. A hint from Palma would be enough. Werbrust arranged with Palma, and he rang the alarm bell. There was a panic next day on the Bourse.
Would you hesitate between a Richelieu, a Mazarin, or a Potemkin, each with his hundreds of millions of francs, and a conscientious Robert Lindet that could make nothing out of assignats and national property, or one of the virtuous imbeciles who ruined Louis XVI.? Go on, Bixiou." "I will not go into the details of the speculation which we owe to Nucingen's financial genius.
So Madame de Nucingen's lover and Lucien had exchanged glances in which fear lurked, on both sides, under an expression of amity. In the moment of danger, Rastignac, it is clear, would have been delighted to provide the vehicle that should convey Jacques Collin to the scaffold.
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