II

When we try to picture to ourselves, nowadays, what was called a “financier” in times gone by, we invariably imagine enormous corpulence, short legs, a gigantic wig, and a broad face with a triple chin,—­and it is not without reason that we have become accustomed to form such a picture of such a personage.  Everyone knows to what great abuses the royal tax-farming led, and it seems as though there were a law of nature which renders fatter than the rest of mankind those who fatten, not only upon their own laziness, but also upon the work of others.

Monsieur Godeau, among financiers, was one of the most classical to be found,—­that is to say, one of the fattest.  At the present time he had the gout, which was nearly as fashionable in his day as the nervous headache is in ours.  Stretched upon a lounge, his eyes half-closed, he was coddling himself in the coziest corner of a dainty boudoir.  The panel-mirrors which surrounded him, majestically duplicated on every side his enormous person; bags filled with gold covered the table; around him, the furniture, the wainscot, the doors, the locks, the mantel-piece, the ceiling were gilded; so was his coat.  I do not know but that his brain was gilded too.  He was calculating the issue of a little business affair which could not fail to bring him a few thousand louis; and was even deigning to smile over it to himself when Croisilles was announced.  The young man entered with an humble, but resolute air, and with every outward manifestation of that inward tumult with which we find no difficulty in crediting a man who is longing to drown himself.  Monsieur Godeau was a little surprised at this unexpected visit; then he thought his daughter had been buying some trifle, and was confirmed in that thought by seeing her appear almost at the same time with the young man.  He made a sign to Croisilles not to sit down but to speak.  The young lady seated herself on a sofa, and Croisilles, remaining standing, expressed himself in these terms: 

“Sir, my father has failed.  The bankruptcy of a partner has forced him to suspend his payments and unable to witness his own shame he has fled to America, after having paid his last sou to his creditors.  I was absent when all this happened; I have just come back and have known of these events only two hours.  I am absolutely without resources, and determined to die.  It is very probable that, on leaving your house, I shall throw myself into the water.  In all probability, I would already have done so, if I had not chanced to meet, at the very moment, this young lady, your daughter.  I love her, from the very depths of my heart; for two years I have been in love with her, and my silence, until now, proves better than anything else the respect I feel for her; but to-day, in declaring my passion to you, I fulfill an imperative duty, and I would think I was offending God, if, before giving myself over to death, I did not come to ask you Mademoiselle Julie in marriage.  I have not the slightest hope that you will grant this request; but I have to make it, nevertheless, for I am a good Christian, sir, and when a good Christian sees himself come to such a point of misery that he can no longer suffer life, he must at least, to extenuate his crime, exhaust all the chances which remain to him before taking the final and fatal step.”