Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/178

 of a rocket He soared as high as to the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, and he relapsed into his native town, where he atones for his trespasses between an old catarrhal father and a game of whist at two-penny points. Tell Madame de Sérizy your position quite simply, without shame; she would be very useful to you; whilst, if you play the charade of a first love with her, she will pose as a Raphael Madonna, play at forfeits and make you journey at great expense into the Land of Love.”

Savinien, still too young, and out of sheer gentlemanly honor, did not dare confess his financial position to Madame de Sérizy. Madame de Portenduère, just when her son did not know which way to turn, sent twenty thousand francs—all that she possessed—in consequence of a letter in which Savinien, initiated by his friends into the ballistics of the wiles directed by children against the paternal strong-box, spoke of bills to be paid and of the disgrace of allowing his signature to be protested. With this assistance he reached the end of the first year. The second year, still bound to the chariot wheels of Madame de Sérizy, who was seriously in love with him and who also improved him, he availed himself of the dangerous aid of usurers. A deputy among his friends, a friend of his cousin De Portenduère, Des Lupeaulx, directed him, one day of distress, to Gobseck, to Gigonnet and to Palma, who, rightly and duly informed of the value of his mother’s property, gave him delightfully easy discount. The usurer and the delusive help of