Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/95



The doctor’s father-in-law, the famous harpsichord player and instrument maker, Valentine Mirouët, one of our most celebrated organists, died in 1785, leaving a natural son, the child of his old age, acknowledged and bearing his name, but an exceedingly worthless fellow. Upon his deathbed, he was denied the consolation of seeing this spoilt child. Joseph Mirouët, singer and composer, after having come out at the Italiens under an assumed name, had eloped to Germany with a young girl. The old manufacturer commended this really talented boy to his son-in-law, reminding him that he had refused to marry the mother so as not to wrong Madame Minoret. The doctor promised that he would give half the inheritance of the manufacturer, whose business had been bought by Erard, to this wretched man. He made diplomatic inquiries about his natural brother-in-law, Joseph Mirouët; but Grimm told him one night that after having enlisted in a Prussian regiment the artist had deserted, taking a false name, and had baffled all pursuit. For fifteen years Joseph Mirouët, gifted by nature with a seductive voice, a desirable figure, a handsome face, besides being a composer full of taste and spirit, led that bohemian life which has been so well described by the Berlinese Hoffmann. And so, when about forty years old, he was the victim of