第22章

When dinner was well under way, Maxime de Trailles turned to d'Arthez and said smiling:--"You see a great deal, don't you, of the Princesse de Cadignan?"To this question d'Arthez responded by curtly nodding his head.Maxime de Trailles was a "bravo" of the social order, without faith or law, capable of everything, ruining the women who trusted him, compelling them to pawn their diamonds to give him money, but covering this conduct with a brilliant varnish; a man of charming manners and satanic mind.He inspired all who knew him with equal contempt and fear; but as no one was bold enough to show him any sentiments but those of the utmost courtesy he saw nothing of this public opinion, or else he accepted and shared the general dissimulation.He owed to the Comte de Marsay the greatest degree of elevation to which he could attain.De Marsay, whose knowledge of Maxime was of long-standing, judged him capable of fulfilling certain secret and diplomatic functions which he confided to him and of which de Trailles acquitted himself admirably.D'Arthez had for some time past mingled sufficiently in political matters to know the man for what he was, and he alone had sufficient strength and height of character to express aloud what others thought or said in a whisper.

"Is it for her that you neglect the Chamber?" asked Baron de Nucingen in his German accent.

"Ah! the princess is one of the most dangerous women a man can have anything to do with.I owe to her the miseries of my marriage,"exclaimed the Marquis d'Esgrignon.

"Dangerous?" said Madame d'Espard."Don't speak so of my nearest friend.I have never seen or known anything in the princess that did not seem to come from the noblest sentiments.""Let the marquis say what he thinks," cried Rastignac."When a man has been thrown by a fine horse he thinks it has vices and he sells it."Piqued by these words, the Marquis d'Esgrignon looked at d'Arthez and said:--"Monsieur is not, I trust, on such terms with the princess that we cannot speak freely of her?"D'Arthez kept silence.D'Esgrignon, who was not wanting in cleverness, replied to Rastignac's speech with an apologetic portrait of the princess, which put the whole table in good humor.As the jest was extremely obscure to d'Arthez he leaned towards his neighbor, Madame de Montcornet, and asked her, in a whisper, what it meant.

"Excepting yourself--judging by the excellent opinion you seem to have of the princess--all the other guests are said to have been in her good graces.""I can assure you that such an accusation is absolutely false," said Daniel.

"And yet, here is Monsieur d'Esgrignon of an old family of Alencon, who completely ruined himself for her some twelve years ago, and, if all is true, came very near going to the scaffold.""I know the particulars of that affair," said d'Arthez."Madame de Cadignan went to Alencon to save Monsieur d'Esgrignon from a trial before the court of assizes; and this is how he rewards her to-day!"Madame de Montcornet looked at d'Arthez with a surprise and curiosity that were almost stupid, then she turned her eyes on Madame d'Espard with a look which seemed to say: "He is bewitched!"During this short conversation Madame de Cadignan was protected by Madame d'Espard, whose protection was like that of the lightning-rod which draws the flash.When d'Arthez returned to the general conversation Maxime de Trailles was saying:--"With Diane, depravity is not an effect but a cause; perhaps she owes that cause to her exquisite nature; she doesn't invent, she makes no effort, she offers you the choicest refinements as the inspiration of a spontaneous and naive love; and it is absolutely impossible not to believe her."This speech, which seemed to have been prepared for a man of d'Arthez's stamp, was so tremendous an arraignment that the company appeared to accept it as a conclusion.No one said more; the princess was crushed.D'Arthez looked straight at de Trailles and then at d'Esgrignon with a sarcastic air, and said:--"The greatest fault of that woman is that she has followed in the wake of men.She squanders patrimonies as they do; she drives her lovers to usurers; she pockets "dots"; she ruins orphans; she inspires, possibly she commits, crimes, but--"Never had the two men, whom d'Arthez was chiefly addressing, listened to such plain talk.At that BUT the whole table was startled, every one paused, fork in air, their eyes fixed alternately on the brave author and on the assailants of the princess, awaiting the conclusion of that horrible silence.

"But," said d'Arthez, with sarcastic airiness, "Madame la Princesse de Cadignan has one advantage over men: when they have put themselves in danger for her sake, she saves them, and says no harm of any one.

Among the multitude, why shouldn't there be one woman who amuses herself with men as men amuse themselves with women? Why not allow the fair sex to take, from time to time, its revenge?""Genius is stronger than wit," said Blondet to Nathan.

This broadside of sarcasms was in fact the discharge of a battery of cannons against a platoon of musketry.When coffee was served, Blondet and Nathan went up to d'Arthez with an eagerness no one else dared to imitate, so unable were the rest of the company to show the admiration his conduct inspired from the fear of making two powerful enemies.