As he replaced the candlestick beside the clock, Grandet, who never forgot his own jokes, and repeated them to satiety when he thought them funny, said,--"As this is Eugenie's birthday let us illuminate."He carefully took off the branches of the candelabra, put a socket on each pedestal, took from Nanon a new tallow candle with paper twisted round the end of it, put it into the hollow, made it firm, lit it, and then sat down beside his wife, looking alternately at his friends, his daughter, and the two candles. The Abbe Cruchot, a plump, puffy little man, with a red wig plastered down and a face like an old female gambler, said as he stretched out his feet, well shod in stout shoes with silver buckles: "The des Grassins have not come?""Not yet," said Grandet.
"But are they coming?" asked the old notary, twisting his face, which had as many holes as a collander, into a queer grimace.
"I think so," answered Madame Grandet.
"Are your vintages all finished?" said Monsieur de Bonfons to Grandet.
"Yes, all of them," said the old man, rising to walk up and down the room, his chest swelling with pride as he said the words, "all of them." Through the door of the passage which led to the kitchen he saw la Grande Nanon sitting beside her fire with a candle and preparing to spin there, so as not to intrude among the guests.
"Nanon," he said, going into the passage, "put out that fire and that candle, and come and sit with us. Pardieu! the hall is big enough for all.""But monsieur, you are to have the great people.""Are not you as good as they? They are descended from Adam, and so are you."Grandet came back to the president and said,--"Have you sold your vintage?"
"No, not I; I shall keep it. If the wine is good this year, it will be better two years hence. The proprietors, you know, have made an agreement to keep up the price; and this year the Belgians won't get the better of us. Suppose they are sent off empty-handed for once, faith! they'll come back.""Yes, but let us mind what we are about," said Grandet in a tone which made the president tremble.
"Is he driving some bargain?" thought Cruchot.
At this moment the knocker announced the des Grassins family, and their arrival interrupted a conversation which had begun between Madame Grandet and the abbe.
Madame des Grassins was one of those lively, plump little women, with pink-and-white skins, who, thanks to the claustral calm of the provinces and the habits of a virtuous life, keep their youth until they are past forty. She was like the last rose of autumn,--pleasant to the eye, though the petals have a certain frostiness, and their perfume is slight. She dressed well, got her fashions from Paris, set the tone to Saumur, and gave parties. Her husband, formerly a quartermaster in the Imperial guard, who had been desperately wounded at Austerlitz, and had since retired, still retained, in spite of his respect for Grandet, the seeming frankness of an old soldier.
"Good evening, Grandet," he said, holding out his hand and affecting a sort of superiority, with which he always crushed the Cruchots.
"Mademoiselle," he added, turning to Eugenie, after bowing to Madame Grandet, "you are always beautiful and good, and truly I do not know what to wish you." So saying, he offered her a little box which his servant had brought and which contained a Cape heather,--a flower lately imported into Europe and very rare.
Madame des Grassins kissed Eugenie very affectionately, pressed her hand, and said: "Adolphe wishes to make you my little offering."A tall, blond young man, pale and slight, with tolerable manners and seemingly rather shy, although he had just spent eight or ten thousand francs over his allowance in Paris, where he had been sent to study law, now came forward and kissed Eugenie on both cheeks, offering her a workbox with utensils in silver-gilt,--mere show-case trumpery, in spite of the monogram E.G. in gothic letters rather well engraved, which belonged properly to something in better taste. As she opened it, Eugenie experienced one of those unexpected and perfect delights which make a young girl blush and quiver and tremble with pleasure.
She turned her eyes to her father as if to ask permission to accept it, and Monsieur Grandet replied: "Take it, my daughter," in a tone which would have made an actor illustrious.
