“Ha! ha! you make me laugh with your scruples. After all, you will pay them, so what right will anyone have to say anything?”
“And you hope to discount them?”
“I am very sure of it; you are thought to be rich, you have an expensive establishment, and your party did you much good. Never fear; I will bring you the money to-morrow, and all you will need is a streak of luck to win twice what you have lost to-day.”
“That infernal roulette,—a long series of odd numbers!”
“Oh! that was mere luck! It doesn’t happen twice. That devil of a chevalier has found an infallible martingale, he says; but it requires funds to start it.”
“Perhaps we shall not have enough.”
“Oh! I have resources. But sign quickly, and I will go and attend to discounting your notes.”
Edouard signed notes amounting to twenty thousand francs; and to divert his thoughts, went to see his mistress. She pouted a little when she found that he had not brought the shawl that she coveted, but he promised it for the next day, and she became charmingly amiable once more; she scolded her devoted friend for his solemn and distraught air; he apologized by saying that he was engrossed by an affair of great importance, and she kissed him and fondled him and caressed him. A man who is engaged in great speculations, and who is generous—what an invaluable treasure to preserve!
The regular company soon arrived. If it was far from select, it was numerous, at all events: ruined marquises, nobles without a château, landed proprietors without property, knights of industry, business agents like Edouard, all gamblers or schemers, and some young men of good family who had nothing left to lose, and some idiots who fancied themselves in the best society—such in the main were the male guests. The ladies were worthy of these gentlemen: old intrigantes, panders, kept women, or those who wished to be, habitués of the gambling hells to which the fair sex is admitted; such was the assemblage at Madame de Géran’s, where they affected decent behavior, grand airs, refined manners, and severely scrupulous language, which soon became obscene, when the passions of these ladies and gentlemen were so far excited as to make them forget their costumes and the rank which they were supposed to occupy.
Madame de Géran gave a punch: that is a shrewd way of exciting the gamblers’ brains, and of making the women seem attractive to them. The imagination heated by liquor attributes charms to superannuated and withered beauties. The glasses circulate, heads become confused, the stakes increase in amount, the heat is stifling, the ladies remove their neckerchiefs; the eye of a connoisseur standing behind the chair of a fair gambler rests upon a breast which a pitiless corset strives to keep at a predetermined height; if he looks behind, he sees reasonably white shoulders, a perfectly bare back, and his wandering vision easily divines the little that is concealed. How deny the siren who turns and borrows twenty-five louis, with a glance full of meaning touching the mode of payment; whereupon you proceed to take an instalment by sitting down beside your fascinating debtor, and doing whatever you choose; for she offers no resistance; and thus it is that acquaintances are made at large parties. Edouard did not admire the breasts and backs of the ladies, because he was completely subjugated by a single one; but he took his seat at a table after borrowing thirty louis of his mistress, because, he said, he had forgotten to bring money. She readily lent it to him, being certain he would return it with interest the next day.