He fed each wide nostril with the Brobdingnagian pinch he had held suspended while he talked, and said, snorting:
“We shall see if, for all his cartloads of wine sent to their barracks, and his rolls of ten-franc pieces scattered among the rank-and-file, he is served better than the man who scorned to flatter, and more loved than he who did not bribe.... Who said: ‘Follow me, and I will show you capitals to plunder!’ and when they were conquered, said: ‘Help yourselves, one and all, there are fat and lean!’”
He plunged his shaking fingers back into the box, sputtered a little, and said a trifle wildly:
“Though there was a good deal of fasting going to set against the seasons of plenty. During the Retreat from Moscow in October, 1812, I had a handful of unset diamonds in my haversack, and a beryl weighing thirteen pounds, worth ninety-five thousand francs, upon my word of honor! Well, I swopped that crystal with a Bavarian aide-de-camp of the Staff for a pudding made of horse’s blood mixed with bran and flour.... The man who sold me the pudding was Luitpold von Widinitz, a cousin of your mother’s. It was a dirty action I have never pardoned. Pardieu! Morbleu! A comrade, and sell—not share! Prince be damned!... Huckster! Sutler! Tschah! Faugh! Pouah!”
He dropped the crutch he had tucked under his arm, and, recalled from his ancient reminiscence by Hector’s picking up the stick and giving it to him, said, with a formidable bending of the brows:
“You came here, not out of filial duty, but upon some private affair or other. Spit it out, and have done!—I have no time to waste.”
Hector obeyed.
“I have spent my mother’s dowry as you always hoped I should. Chiefly upon gratifications—pleasures—luxuries, that I once pretended to despise. I have acquired the taste for these things. That ought to gratify you. With the money I have wasted, many prejudices and convictions that you found objectionable in past days have been scattered to the winds. If you are still disposed to give, I am very willing to take. I have no more to say!”
Seldom has an appeal for pecuniary aid been preferred less ingratiatingly. The Marshal glared and champed for several moments before he could reply:
“I do not doubt you are willing, sir.... ’Credieu! Do you suppose I have not seen this coming?—though the insolence of your approach goes beyond anything that I could have conceived.... I have my informants, understand!... I am aware of your infernal folly, your crazy infatuation.... As for that de Roux woman who leads you by the nose, she is a jade who will land you in the gutter, and a harlot into the bargain. Do you hear?”