The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗
- Author: Alain René le Sage
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Bernard harping on the captain’s figure, and charmingly disposed
to believe all the fine things I could have said of him, if my
tongue had not been tied. Gil Blas, said he, who is that great
shark I saw with you awhile ago? I told him it was an alguazil,
and thought to have got off with that answer, but he returned to
the charge; and observing my confusion, from the remembrance of
the threats used by Rolando, broke off the conversation abruptly
and went to bed. The next morning, when I had performed my
ordinary duties, he counted me over six ducats instead of six
rials, and said — Here, my friend, this is what I give you for
your services up to this day. Go and look out for another place.
A servant keeping such high company is too much for me. I
bethought myself of saying, in my own defence, that I had known
that alguazil, by having prescribed for him at Valladolid, while
I was practising medicine. Very good, replied my master, the
shift is ingenious enough; you might have thought of it last
night, and not have looked so foolish. Sir, rejoined I, in good
truth prudence kept me silent, and gave to my reserve the aspect
of guilt. Undoubtedly, resumed he, tapping me softly on the
shoulder, it was carrying prudence very far, even to the confines
of cunning. Go, lad, I have no further occasion for your
services.
I went immediately to acquaint Melendez with the bad news, who
told me, for my comfort, that he would engage to procure me a
better berth. Indeed, some days after, he said — Gil Blas, my
friend, you have no notion of the good luck in store for you. You
will have the most agreeable post in the world. I am going to
settle you with Don Matthias de Silva. He is a man of the first
fashion, one of those young noblemen commonly distinguished by
the appellation of beaus. I have the honour of his custom. He
takes up goods of me, on tick, indeed, but these great men are
good pay in the long run, they often marry rich heiresses, and
then old scores are wiped off; or, should that fail, a tradesman
who understands his business puts such a price upon his articles,
that if three-fourths of his debts are bad, he is no loser. Don
Matthias’s steward is my intimate friend. Let us go and look for
him. It will be for him to present you to his master, and you may
rely upon it, that for my sake he will treat you with high
consideration.
As we were on our way to Don Matthias’s house, this honest
shopkeeper said — It is fit, methinks, that you should be let
into the steward’s character. His name is Gregorio Rodriguez.
Between ourselves, he is a man of low birth, with a talent for
intrigue, in which vocation he has laboured till a stewardship in
two distressed families completed their ruin, and made his
fortune. I give you notice, that his vanity is excessive; he
loves to see the under-servants creeping and crawling at his
feet. It is with him they must make interest if they have any
favour to beg of their master, for should they happen to obtain
it without his interference, he has always some shift or other at
hand to get the boon revoked, or at least render it of no avail.
Regulate your conduct on this hint, Gil Blas; pay court to Signor
Rodriguez in preference to your master himself, and leave no
stone unturned to get into his good graces. His friendship will
be of material service to you. He will pay your wages to the day;
and, if you have management enough to worm yourself into his
confidence, you may chance to pick up some of the fragments which
fall from his table. There are enough for an hungrier dog than
you! Don Matthias is a young nobleman, with no thought to throw
away but on his pleasures, nor the slightest suspicion how his
own affairs are going on. What a house for a steward who knows
how to be a steward!
When we got to our journey’s end, we asked to speak with Signor
Rodriguez. We were told that we should find him in his own
apartment. There he was, sure enough, and with him a clownish
sort of fellow holding a blue bag, full of money. The steward,
looking more wan and yellow than a girl in a hurry for a husband,
ran up to Melendez with open arms; the draper was not behindhand
with him, and they each hugged the other with a shew of
friendship, at least as much indebted to art as nature for its
plausible effect. After this, the next question was about me.
Rodriguez examined me from top to toe; saying very civilly at the
same time that I was just such an one as Don Matthias wanted, and
that he would with pleasure take upon himself to present me to
that nobleman. Thereupon Melendez gave him to understand how
deeply he was interested in my behalf; he begged the steward to
take me under his protection, and leaving me with him, after
plenty of compliments, withdrew. As soon as he was gone out,
Rodriguez said, I will introduce you to my master the moment I
have dispatched this honest husbandman. He called the country man
to him forthwith, and taking his bag, Talego, said he, let us see
if the five hundred pistoles are all right. He counted over the
money himself. As the sum was found to be exact, the countryman
took a receipt and went away. The cash was put back again into
the bag. It was my turn next to be attended to. We may now, said
my new patron, go to my master’s levee. He usually gets up about
noon, it is now near one o’clock, and must be daylight in his
apartment.
Don Matthias had indeed just risen. He was still in his morning
gown, kicking his heels in a great chair, with a leg tossed over
one of the elbows, swinging backwards and forwards, and
manufacturing his own snuff. His conversation was addressed to a
footman in waiting, who officiated as a temporary valet-de-chambre. My lord, said the steward, here is a young man whom I
take the liberty of presenting to your lordship in the place of
him you discharged the day before yesterday. Your draper,
Melendez, has given him a character; he undertakes for his
qualifications, and I believe you will be very well pleased with
him. That is enough, answered the young nobleman, since he has
your recommendation, I adopt him blindfold into my retinue. He is
my valet-de-chambre at once; that business is settled. Let us
talk of other matters, Rodriguez, you are come just in time, I
was going to send for you. I have a budget of bad news, my dear
Rodriguez. I played with ill luck last night, an hundred pistoles
in my pocket lost, and two hundred more on credit. You know how
indispensable it is for persons of high rank to pay their debts
of honour. As for any other, it is no matter when they are paid.
Punctuality is all very well between one tradesman and another,
but they cannot expect it from one of us. These two hundred
pistoles must be raised forthwith and sent to the Countess de
Pedrosa. Sir, quoth the steward, that is sooner said than done.
Where, prythee, am I to get such a sum? Threaten as I will, I
never touch a maravedi from your tenants. And yet your
establishment is to be kept up in style, and I am wearing myself
to a thread in furnishing the ways and means. It is true that
hitherto, heaven be praised, we have rubbed on, but what witch to
conjure for a wind, now, I know not, the case is desperate. All
this prosing is extremely impertinent, interrupted Don Matthias;
this countinghouse talk makes me hideously nervous. So then,
Rodriguez, you really think to undertake my reform, and
metamorphose me into a plodding manager of my own estates? A very
elegant sort of pastime for a man in my station of life; a man of
rank and fashion! Grant me patience, replied the steward; at the
rate we are driving now, it is easily calculated how soon you
will be released from all those cares. You are a very great bore,
resumed the young nobleman rather peevishly, this brutal
importunity is downright murder to one’s feelings. I hate loud
music, be so good as to let me be ruined pianissimo. I tell you I
want two hundred pistoles, and I must have them. Why, then, said
Rodriguez, we must have recourse to the old rascal who has lent
you so much already on usurious terms. Have recourse to the
devil, if he will do you any good, answered Don Matthias; only
let me have two hundred pistoles, and it is the same thing to me
how you manage to get them.
While he was uttering these words in a hasty and fretful tone,
the steward went out; and Don Antonio Centell�s, a young man of
quality, came in. What is the matter, my friend? said this last
to my master: your atmosphere is overcast; I trace passion in the
lines of your countenance. Who can have ruffled that sweet
temper? I would lay a wager, it was that booby just gone out.
Yes, answered Don Matthias, he is my steward. Every time he comes
to speak to me, I am in an agony for a quarter of an hour or
twenty minutes. He rings the changes on the state of my affairs;
and tells me that I am spending principal and interest A beast!
He will say next, that I have ruined him into the bargain! My
dear fellow, replied Don Antonio, I am exactly in the same
situation. My man of business is just such another scarecrow as
your steward. When the sneaking scoundrel, after repeated
demands, brings me some niggardly supply, it is just as if he was
lending me his own. He expostulates most barbarously. Sir, says
he, you are going to rack and ruin; there is an execution out
against you. I am obliged to cut him short, and beg him to
remonstrate in epitome. The worst of it is, said Don Matthias,
that there is no doing without these fellows; they are the
penance attached to our elegant indiscretions. Just so, replied
Centell�s. But listen, pursued he, bursting into a fit of
laughter; a pleasant idea has just struck me. Nothing was ever
more farcically fancied. We may introduce a buffo caricato into
our serious opera, and relieve the knell of our departed goods
and chattels with an humorous divertissement. The plot is thus:
let me try to borrow from your steward whatever you want. You
shall do the same with my man of business. Then let them both
preach as they please; we shall hearken with the utmost
composure. Your steward will come and open his case to me; my man
of business will plead the poverty of the land to you. I shall
hear of nothing but your extravagance; and you will see your own
in mine as in a glass. It will be vastly entertaining.
A thousand brilliant conceits followed this flight of genius, and
put the young patricians into high spirits, so that they kept up
the ball with vivacity, if not with wit. Their conversation was
interrupted by Gregorio Rodriguez, who brought back with him a
little old man with a bald head. Don Antonio was for moving off.
Farewell, Don Matthias, said he, we shall meet again anon. I
leave you with these gentlemen; you have,
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