Your mother will fulfil an
angelic function; she will be thrown in with none but priests and
these charitable ladies; she will be paid six thousand francs and the
cost of her hackney coaches.
"You see, young man, that a pure and nobly virtuous man can still
assist his family, even from the grave. Such a name as your uncle's
is, and ought to be, a buckler against misfortune in a well-organized
scheme of society. Follow in his path; you have started in it, I know;
continue in it."
"Such delicate kindness cannot surprise me in my mother's friend,"
said Victorin. "I will try to come up to all your hopes."
"Go at once, and take comfort to your family.--By the way," added the
Prince, as he shook hands with Victorin, "your father has
disappeared?"
"Alas! yes."
"So much the better. That unhappy man has shown his wit, in which,
indeed, he is not lacking."
"There are bills of his to be met."
"Well, you shall have six months' pay of your three appointments in
advance. This pre-payment will help you, perhaps, to get the notes out
of the hands of the money-lender. And I will see Nucingen, and perhaps
may succeed in releasing your father's pension, pledged to him,
without its costing you or our office a sou. The peer has not killed
the banker in Nucingen; he is insatiable; he wants some concession.--I
know not what----"
So on his return to the Rue Plumet, Victorin could carry out his plan
of lodging his mother and sister under his roof.
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