"My skin! my skin! stop that little scamp--he's stolen my skin!"

XVII

ADVICE OF A FRIEND

On returning home, Cherubin sent for Jasmin and said to him:

"If Monsieur Poterne should ever dare to appear here again, I order you to have him thrown out of doors; you may even go so far as to order the concierge to thrash him; but you must not undertake it yourself, for you are too old and he would return the compliment."

Jasmin uttered a joyful exclamation, and said:

"What! really, monsieur? And without taking the monkey?"

"Oh! I forbid you above all things to take anything whatever from him."

And Cherubin told his old servant what had happened.

"You see, monsieur," said Jasmin, "that Poterne is an outrageous swindler--I was sure of it. His so-called Indian preserves--I gave 'em to Mademoiselle Turlurette to taste; they gave her a very bad stomach ache, and she's been out of order ever since. I'm very much afraid, monsieur, that everything you have bought of that Poterne is like your watch!--And this Monsieur Darena whose man of business he is--hum!"

"Darena was even more furious than I with that man; he swore that he'd thrash him. He was deceived too; it isn't his fault."

"All the same, my dear master, I very much prefer your other friend, Monsieur de Monfreville. Ah! such a difference! he doesn't borrow your tailor; he doesn't induce you to buy things; he doesn't let his steward loose on you."

Cherubin smiled at Jasmin's reflections, but it did not enter his mind that Darena could be a confederate in his agent's wrongdoing. His heart was too frank, too trustful, to suspect cunning and perfidy, and he would have been unable to believe in Monsieur Poterne's shameless rascality had it been less abundantly demonstrated to him.

As for Monsieur Gerondif, who pa.s.sed a large part of his time in sleep, and another large part at the table, and who had adopted the habit of reading Voltaire or Racine to Mademoiselle Turlurette of an evening, telling her that he had composed the lines that morning, when he learned what Monsieur Poterne had done, he exclaimed:

"That man never read _Deuteronomy_, where it says: _Non furtum facies_; or else he mistranslated it."

A few days after this adventure, Monfreville, returning from the country, came at once to see Cherubin. When he spied the pack of hounds, the parrots, the turtle, the canes, the gothic vases, and all the alleged rare objects with which his young friend's house was filled to overflowing, he uttered an exclamation which was not of delight, and said to Cherubin:

"Mon Dieu! what on earth induced you to buy all this stuff?"

"They are all bargains. I was told that they were very fine."

"Fine! Why, they are all horrible, in wretched taste, and of no value whatever. Your parrots are wretched c.o.c.katoos, your dogs are miserable curs that I would not have to guard chickens! Even your canes are common sticks of wood; this rattan is an imitation, it was never what it pretends to be."

"What did I say?" cried Jasmin; "that Poterne is an infernal pickpocket; he has taken us in with everything, just as he did with the jewels.--Tell monsieur the story of our watch, my dear master."

Cherubin told Monfreville what had happened to him.

"If it was Monsieur Poterne who sold you all this," said Monfreville, "I am surprised no longer! But Darena--do you still see him?"

"Yes," replied Cherubin; "he was indignant at his agent's conduct, and he has told me since that he had beaten him and dismissed him from his service."

Monfreville smiled faintly; then he took Cherubin's hand and said:

"My friend, you are still very young, and you cannot be expected to understand men; the knowledge of the world which one acquires only by experience and familiarity, unless one is blessed in youth with a most observant mind, that knowledge is rather melancholy than agreeable! For men are rarely what they choose to appear; frankness is not esteemed as a virtue in society; on the contrary, the man would be considered a fool or a boor who should say frankly what he thought, at the risk of wounding the self-esteem of this one or the susceptibility of that one.

We consider those people delightful who never have any but agreeable and flattering words in their mouths, and we do not worry as to whether they mean what they say. In the world, every man acts as his interest or his pa.s.sions impel him, and they who make the most parade of their virtues, their honor, their good faith, are the ones whom we should trust least; for people who are really virtuous and upright deem it perfectly natural to be so, and quite unnecessary to proclaim it. I have not said all this to you earlier, for I regret to deprive you of the illusions which make a large part of the charm of youth, and with which we begin life; but I take too deep an interest in you not to try to put you on your guard against the snares which may be laid for you."

"What, my dear Monfreville," said Cherubin sadly, "can't we trust anybody in the world?"

"I don't mean to go so far as that. I do not want to make a misanthrope of you--G.o.d forbid! But I warn you that you must be particular in the choice of your friends."

"Monsieur Gerondif has often told me that when a man became learned he became a man to be feared, because a learned man can never be cheated by anybody, as he knows more than other men."

"I don't know whether your tutor is very strong on his authors, but he is rather weak in knowledge of the human heart. In the first place, a person may be very learned without a spark of wit--we have proofs of that every day; and in the second place, those who have the most wit are almost always the ones who are most easily cheated; doubtless Providence so ordained as a recompense to fools."

"So you feel sure that people will try to cheat me?"

"You are young and rich, and you have had very little experience. There are numbers of people who would like to take advantage of that combination. All this that I am saying is very sad--but you will realize later that I am right."

"Have you been caught often, Monsieur de Monfreville?"

This artless question brought a smile to the lips of him to whom it was addressed; he heaved a sigh, however, as he replied:

"Like other men, my friend. Take my advice and do not form an intimacy with Darena. I dislike to speak harshly of anyone; but the more I observe the count, the more strongly I feel that his acquaintance is not at all suitable for you."

"But he is very amusing, very agreeable, very clever."

"I know it, and that makes him all the more dangerous. He has already borrowed money from you, has he not?"

"Why, yes--sometimes."

"He will never pay you."

"Do you think not?"

"I am sure of it. He will urge you to play."

"Yes, he has often proposed it."

"It is the most fatal of pa.s.sions. He is a gambler and he has ruined himself. When a man has reached that point, he tries too often to ruin others; for an unlucky gambler is sometimes far from delicate in the methods to which he resorts to obtain money, in order to gratify his pa.s.sion. Darena has reached that point."

"As you have so bad an opinion of Darena, how does it happen that he is a friend of yours? Why did he come to Gagny with you?"

"Your question is perfectly just; but in society one accepts a man's good qualities and does not concern oneself enough about his bad ones.

Darena bears an honorable name; he is able to behave most becomingly when he chooses; in fact, he has most agreeable and fascinating manners; and n.o.body asks for anything more in society. But, I tell you again, one should look for something more in a friend."

"And the women, my dear Monfreville, the women--must I distrust them too? Ah! that would be a great pity, women are so pretty!"

"It's different with women! As a general rule, men are too fickle to be exacting in the choice of their mistresses, and for that reason such liaisons are not at all dangerous. What does it matter that you are in love with a coquette, with a woman whose reputation is more than shady, with an actress who will make a fool of you? That love will soon be replaced by another, which, in its turn, will be as quickly forgotten! A man's reputation has nothing to fear from all that; on the contrary, the more love-affairs you have, the more flattered the ladies will be to win your love; that fact says more for their self-esteem than for their hearts."

"What do you say? to attract the women, one must deceive them?" cried Cherubin, gazing at Monfreville with an incredulous expression. "Do you mean that it is all the same to them whether we forget them and abandon them?"