Luxury - Gluttony: Two of the Seven Cardinal Sins. Эжен Сю

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СКАЧАТЬ we wait for the return of your wife, I have a little favour to ask of you."

      "At last!" exclaimed Dutertre, rubbing his hands with evident satisfaction; "better late than never."

      "You had a cashier named Marcelange?"

      "Yes, unfortunately."

      "Unfortunately?"

      "He committed, while in my employ, not an act of dishonesty, for I should not, at any price, have saved him from the punishment he merited; but he was guilty of an indelicacy under circumstances which proved to me that the man was a wretch, and I dismissed him."

      "Marcelange told me, in fact, that you sent him away."

      "You are acquainted with him?" replied Dutertre, in surprise, as he recalled his father's words.

      "Some days ago he came to see me. He wished to get a position in the Durand house."

      "He? Among such honourable people?"

      "Why not? He was employed by you."

      "But, as I have told you, my dear M. Pascal, I sent him away as soon as his conduct was known to me."

      "I understand perfectly. Only, as he is without a position, he must have, in order to enter the Durand house, a letter of recommendation from you, as the Durands are not willing to accept the poor fellow otherwise; now this letter, my dear Dutertre, I come honestly to ask of you."

      After a moment of astonishment, Dutertre said, with a smile:

      "After all, I ought not to be astonished. You are so kind! This man is full of artifice and falsity, and knows how to take advantage of your confidence."

      "I believe, really, that Marcelange is very false, very sly; but that need not prevent your giving me the letter I ask."

      Dutertre could not believe that he had heard aright, or that he understood M. Pascal, and replied:

      "I beg your pardon, sir. I have just told you that — "

      "You have reason to complain of an act of indelicacy on the part of this fellow, but, bah! what does that matter?"

      "What! M. Pascal, you ask, what does it matter? Know then, that, in my eyes, this man's act was even more blamable than fraud in money matters."

      "I believe you, my dear Dutertre, I believe you; there is no better judge of honourable dealing than yourself. Marcelange seems to me truly a cunning rascal, and, if I must tell you, it is on that account that I insist — insist very much on his being recommended by you."

      "Honestly, M. Pascal, I believe that I should be acting a dishonourable part in aiding the entrance of Marcelange into a thoroughly respectable house."

      "Come, now, do this for me!"

      "You are not speaking seriously, M. Pascal?"

      "I am speaking very seriously."

      "After what I have just confided to you?"

      "My God! yes, why not?"

      "You! you! honour and loyalty itself!"

      "I, the impersonation of honour and loyalty, ask you to give me this letter."

      Dutertre looked at M. Pascal, bewildered; then, after a moment's reflection, he replied, in a tone of affectionate reproach:

      "Ah, sir, after a year has elapsed, was this proof necessary?"

      "What proof?"

      "To propose an unworthy action to me, that you might feel assured that I deserved your confidence."

      "My dear Dutertre, I repeat to you that I must have this letter. It concerns an affair which is very important to me."

      M. Pascal was speaking seriously. Dutertre could no longer doubt it. He then remembered the words of his father, the antipathy of his little girl, and, seized with a vague dread, he replied, in a constrained voice:

      "So, monsieur, you forget the grave responsibility which would rest upon me if I did what you desire."

      "Eh, my God! my brave Dutertre, if we only asked easy things of our friends!"

      "You ask of me an impossible thing, monsieur."

      "So, then, you refuse to do it for me, do you?"

      "M. Pascal," said Dutertre, with an accent at the same time firm and full of emotion, "I owe you everything. There is not a day that I, my wife, and my father do not recall the fact that, one year ago, without your unexpected succour, our own ruin, and the ruin of many other people, would have been inevitable. All that gratitude can inspire of respect and affection we feel for you. Every possible proof of devotion we are ready to give you with pleasure, with happiness, but — "

      "One word more, and you will understand me," interrupted M. Pascal. "Since I must tell you, Dutertre, I have a special interest in having some one who belongs to me — entirely to me, you understand, entirely mine — in the business house of Durand. Now, you can comprehend that, holding Marcelange by this letter which you will give me for him, and by what I know of his antecedents, I can make him my creature, my blind instrument. This is entirely between us, my dear Dutertre, and, counting on your absolute discretion, I will go further even, and I will tell you that — "

      "Not a word more on this subject, sir, I beg," exclaimed Dutertre, with increasing surprise and distress, for up to that time he had believed Pascal to be a man of incorruptible integrity. "Not a word more. There are secrets whose confidence one does not wish to accept."

      "Why?"

      "Because they might become very embarrassing, sir."

      "Really! The confidences of an old friend can become an annoyance! Very well, I will keep them. Then, give me this letter without any more explanations."

      "I repeat to you, sir, that it is impossible for me to do so."

      M. Pascal bit his lips and unconsciously knit his eyebrows; as surprised as he was angry at the refusal of Dutertre, he could scarcely believe that a man who was dependent upon him could have the audacity to oppose his will, or the courage to sacrifice the present and the future to a scruple of honour.

      However, as he had a special interest in this letter, he replied, with a tone of affectionate reproach:

      "What! You refuse me that, my dear Dutertre, — refuse me, your friend?"

      "I refuse you above all, — you who have had faith enough in my incorruptible honesty to advance for me, without even knowing me, a considerable amount."

      "Come, my dear Dutertre, do not make me more adventurous than I am. Are not your honesty, your intelligence, your interest even, and at any rate the material in your factory, sufficient security for my capital? Am I not always in a safe position, by the right I reserve to myself, to exact repayment at will? A right which I will СКАЧАТЬ