“We must subtract from the total, Bertrand, three hundred francs that I have promised to pay for a pretty mercer’s apprentice, whose furniture a heartless bailiff proposed to seize; two hundred francs which I am lending to Virginie, and ten louis for some bracelets that I am going to buy to-night.”
Bertrand nearly swallowed the pen that he had in his mouth.
“You can’t mean it, lieutenant!” he cried; “before long you won’t have anything left.”
“Look you, my friend, I promised all these things when I was still rich; shall I break my promises just because a villain has ruined me? You wouldn’t do it yourself. But I swear that these shall be my last follies. Henceforth I propose to be virtue itself; besides, you must remember that we shall also have the proceeds of the sale of my two horses and my cabriolet, for I can no longer indulge in a carriage! I must cut down my establishment, dismiss Tony, and go on foot.—Does that make you feel sad, Bertrand?”
“For your sake, lieutenant!”
“Oh! very likely I shall be all the better for it, my friend. Exercise is essential to good health—I’ve heard you say that a thousand times. Do you think that people who go on foot aren’t just as good as those who ride in carriages?”
“Oh! you don’t think I’m such a fool as that, lieutenant!”
“Well then, why regret a thing one can do so well without! With money, hasn’t one always a cab at his command, without having horses and a groom to keep? Upon my word, I can’t understand now why I ever had a cabriolet.”
“But all those grisettes who come to tell you about their little troubles, to have you comfort them, and the great ladies whose heads you turned—don’t you think, lieutenant, that your cabriolet had something to do with their display of affection for you?”
“That would be an additional reason for not regretting it. Henceforth I shall know the hearts of the women to whom I make love; I shall be sure of being loved for myself; and if I triumph over a youthful beauty, if I carry the day over a rival, I shall have no reason to fear that I owe the preference accorded me to my fortune and to that alone.”