Mercadet Part 4

Mme. Mercadet Here comes our daughter. Julie, your father and I have something to say to you on a subject which is always agreeable to a young girl.

Julie M. Minard has then spoken to you, father?

Mercadet M. Minard! Did you expect, madame, to find a M. Minard reigning in the heart of your daughter? Is not this M. Minard that under clerk of mine?

Julie Yes, papa.

Mercadet Do you love him?

Julie Yes, papa.

Mercadet But besides loving, it is necessary for a person to be loved.

Mme. Mercadet Does he love you?

Julie Yes, mamma!

Mercadet Yes, papa; yes, mamma; why don't you say mammy and daddy?--As soon as daughters have pa.s.sed their majority they begin to talk as if they were just weaned. Be polite enough to address your mother as madame.

Julie Yes, monsieur.

Mercadet Oh! you may address me as papa. I sha'n't be annoyed at that. What proof have you that he loves you?

Julie The best proof of all; he wishes to marry me.

Mercadet It is quite true, as has been said, that young girls, like little children, have answers ready enough to knock one silly. Let me tell you, mademoiselle, that a clerk with a salary of eighteen hundred francs does not know how to love. He hasn't got the time, he has to work too hard--

Mme. Mercadet But, unhappy child--

Mercadet Ah! A lucky thought strikes me! Let me talk to her. Julie, listen to me. I will marry you to Minard. (Julie smiles with delight.) Now, look here, you haven't got a single sou, and you know it; what is going to become of you a week after your marriage? Have you thought about that?

Julie Yes, papa--

Mme. Mercadet (with sympathy, to her husband) The poor child is mad.

Mercadet Yes, she is in love. (To Julie) Tell me all about it, Julie. I am not now your father, but your confidant; I am listening.

Julie After our marriage we will still love each other.

Mercadet But will Cupid shoot you bank coupons at the end of his arrows?

Julie Father, we shall lodge in a small apartment, at the extremity of the Faubourg, on the fourth story, if necessary!--And if it can't be helped, I will be his house-maid. Oh! I will take an immense delight in the care of the household, for I shall know that it will all be done for him. I will work for him, while he is working for me. I will spare him every anxiety, and he will never know how straitened we are.

Our home will be spotlessly clean, even elegant--You shall see!

Elegance depends upon such little things; it springs from the soul, and happiness is at once the cause and the effect of it. I can earn enough from my painting to cost him nothing and even to contribute to the expenses of our living. Moreover, love will help us to pa.s.s through the days of hards.h.i.+p. Adolphe has ambition, like all those who are of lofty soul, and these are the successful men--

Mercadet Success is within reach of the bachelor, but, when a man is married, he exhausts himself in meeting his expenses, and runs after a thousand franc bill as a dog runs after a carriage.

Julie But, papa, Adolphe has strength of will, united with such capacity that I feel sure I shall see him some day a Minister, perhaps--

Mercadet In these days, who is there that does not indulge more or less the hope of being a minister? When a man leaves college he thinks himself a great poet, or a great orator! Do you know what your Adolphe will really become?--Why, the father of several children, who will utterly disarrange your plans of work and economy, who will end by landing his excellency in the debtor's prison, and who will plunge you into the most frightful poverty. What you have related to me is the romance and not the reality of life.

Mme. Mercadet Daughter, there can be nothing serious in this love of yours.

Julie It is a love to which both of us are willing to sacrifice everything.

Mercadet I suppose that your friend Adolphe thinks that we are rich?

Julie He has never spoken to me about money.

Mercadet Just so. I can quite understand it. (To Julie) Julie, write to him at once, telling him to come to me.

Julie (kissing him) Dear papa!

Mercadet And you must marry M. de la Brive. Instead of living on a fourth floor in a suburb, you will have a fine house in the Chaussee-d'Antin, and, if you are not the wife of a Minister, you perhaps will be the wife of a peer of France. I am sorry, my daughter, that I have no more to offer you. Remember, you can have no choice in the matter, for M.

Minard is going to give you up.

Julie Oh! he will never do that, papa. He will win your heart--

Mme. Mercadet My dear, suppose he loves her?

Mercadet He is deceiving her--

Julie I shouldn't mind being always deceived in that way.

(A bell is heard without.)

Mme. Mercadet Some one is ringing, and we have no one to open the door.

Mercadet That is all right. Let them ring.

Mme. Mercadet I am all the time thinking that G.o.deau may return.

Mercadet After eight years without any news, you are still expecting G.o.deau!

You seem to me like those old soldiers who are waiting for the return of Napoleon.

Mme. Mercadet They are ringing again.

Mercadet Julie, go and see who it is, and tell them that your mother and I have gone out. If any one is shameless enough to disbelieve a young girl-- it must be a creditor--let him come in.

(Exit Julie.)

Mme. Mercadet This love she speaks of, and which, at least on her side, is sincere, disturbs me greatly.

Mercadet You women are all too romantic.

Julie (returning) It is M. Pierquin, papa.

Mercadet A creditor and usurer--a vile and violent soul, who humors me because he thinks me a man of resources; a wild beast only half-tamed yet cowed by my audacity. If I showed fear he would devour me. (Going to the door.) Come in, Pierquin, come in.