THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ÉMILE ZOLA. Эмиль Золя

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СКАЧАТЬ a vague odour of ruin. Seals were to be seen everywhere with their white bands and large blotches of red wax.

      Marius crossed three rooms without meeting anyone. He at length discovered a clerk who had come to remove a few objects belonging to him from a desk, and who answered him sharply that M. Bérard was in his office.

      The young man entered all of a tremble, forgetting to close the door. He perceived the banker quietly at work, writing letters, setting papers in order and balancing accounts. He was young, tall, had a handsome and intelligent face, was dressed with great care, wore rings on his fingers, and presented the appearance of a gallant and wealthy man. One would have said he had just had a brush-up to receive his customers and explain his disaster to them himself.

      Moreover his attitude appeared courageous. This man was either a victim of circumstances, full of resignation, or else an arrant rascal brazening out his infamy.

      On seeing Marius enter, he looked him in the face, and his countenance wore an expression of sad straightforwardness.

      “I was awaiting you, dear sir,” he said, in an unsteady voice. “You see I am waiting for all those whose ruin I have brought about. I shall have courage to the end, I want each of them to assure himself that I have no cause to be ashamed.”

      He took up a register from his writing-table and opened it with some affectation.

      “Here are my accounts,” he continued. “My liabilities are a million, my assets one million five hundred thousand francs. The Court will adjudicate and I believe my creditors will lose nothing. I am the first to suffer, I have lost my fortune and credit, I have allowed insolvent debtors to rob me in a most barefaced way.”

      Marius had not yet uttered a word. In face of Bérard’s broken-down serenity, in presence of this display of austere grief he could not find a single reproach, not one word of indignation. He almost pitied this man who was heading the storm.

      “Sir,” he said to him at last, “why did you not warn me when you saw your affairs getting into a mess and turning to the bad? My mother was a friend of your mother’s. In remembrance of our former intimacy, you should have made me withdraw this money, which you were about to compromise, from your control. Your present ruin strips me of everything, and plunges me in despair.”

      Bérard ran forward and grasped Marius’ hands.

      “Do not say that!” he exclaimed, in a voice broken by tears, “do not overwhelm me. Ah! you have no idea of the regret that is tormenting me. When I saw the abyss I sought to catch hold of the branches; I struggled till the last moment, hoping to be able to save the amounts deposited in my hands. You cannot imagine what terrible risks are run by those who deal in money.”

      Marius had nothing to answer. What could he say to a man who found his excuse in self-accusation? He had no proofs, he did not dare call Bérard a scamp, it only remained to him to withdraw. The banker spoke in such an aggrieved tone of voice, in such a convinced and straightforward manner that he hastened to go away and leave him to himself. He felt oppressed at his misfortune.

      As he was crossing the empty offices again, the clerk who had at last gathered his things together, took his bundle and hat and followed him. This clerk was muttering between his teeth. At each step he looked in a strange way at Marius and shrugged his shoulders. Below, on the pavement, he suddenly approached him.

      “Well!” said he, “what think you of M. Bérard? He’s a splendid actor, isn’t he? The door of his office was open and it made me laugh to see his distressed manner. He almost wept, the honest fellow! Permit me to tell you that you have just allowed yourself to be duped in the most beautiful way.”

      “I don’t understand you,” answered Marius.

      “So much the better. That is because you are an honest man. For my part, I have just left this shop with profound satisfaction. I long since expected a stroke of business like this: I foresaw the issue of this high comedy of theft. I possess a peculiar knack for ferreting out jobbery in a firm.”

      “Explain yourself.”

      “Oh! the story is simple. I’ll relate it to you in a few words. Ten years ago Bérard started a banking business. At the present day I have no doubt that he prepared his bankruptcy from the first moment. This was his reasoning: ‘I wish to be rich because I have many desires, and to be so as rapidly as possible, because I am in a hurry to satisfy them. But the straight road is rough and long, I prefer to follow the paths of cheating and get my million together in ten years. I will make myself a banker, I shall have a counting-house where I will take the people’s money as a bird-catcher snares the feathered songsters. Each year I will pilfer a round sum. That will last as long as is necessary, I will stop when my pockets are full. Then I shall quietly suspend payment; on two millions that will have been entrusted to me, I will generously return two or three hundred thousand francs to my creditors. The remainder, hidden away in a little corner I know of, will assist me to live as I desire, as an idler and a voluptuary.’ Do you understand, dear sir?”

      Marius had listened to the clerk with stupefaction.

      “But,” he exclaimed at last, “what you are telling me is impossible. Bérard has just confided to me that his liabilities amount to a million, and his assets to a million and a half. We shall all be paid in full.”

      The clerk held his sides with laughter.

      “Ah! Goodness, gracious! How simple you are!” he continued. “Do you really believe in these assets of a million and a half? First of all, they will deduct Madame Bérard’s marriage-portion from the amount. Now, Madame Bérard brought her husband fifty thousand francs, which he, in the marriage contract, transformed into the handsome sum of five hundred thousand francs. That, as you see, was a little robbery of four hundred and fifty thousand francs. There remains a million, and that million is almost entirely represented by suspicious book debts. Oh! the proceeding is simple enough. There are persons at Marseille who sell their signatures for a hundred sou piece; and they live very well at this easy and lucrative business. Bérard had got men of straw to sign him numbers of acceptances, and he pocketed the money which he now pretends he lent to insolvent debtors. If they give you ten per cent, on your claim, you may esteem yourself lucky; and you will only receive that in eighteen months or two years when the assignees of the bankruptcy have concluded their work.” Marius was completely upset. Thus the fifty thousand francs left him by his mother would be useless to him. He wanted money at once and they talked to him of waiting two years. And his ruin and despair were the work of a scoundrel who had just been laughing at him! He flew into a passion.

      “This Bérard is a rascal,” he burst out. “He will be vigorously hunted down. Society must be freed of these crafty men who enrich themselves by the ruin of others. The galleys await them.”

      The clerk again burst out laughing.

      “Bérard,” he continued, “will perhaps get a fortnight’s imprisonment That is all. You don’t seem to understand again? Listen to me.”

      The two young men had been standing on the pavement, elbowed by the passersby. They returned into the hall of the banker’s house.

      “You say the galleys await Bérard,” continued the clerk. “The galleys only await clumsy folk. During the ten years that our customer has been hatching and nursing his bankruptcy he has taken his precautions; infamy, such as this, is quite a work of art. His accounts are in order, and he has the law on his side. He knew beforehand how slight was the risk he ran. The most the court can do will be to reproach him with heavy personal expenses; they will tax him, besides, with having put СКАЧАТЬ