[节选]A START IN LIFE

"There's a good reason for that," said the footman. "My master only

goes into your parts about once a year, and then in his own carriage.

He prefers the valley d'Orge, where he has the most beautiful park in

the neighborhood of Paris, a perfect Versailles, a family estate of

which he bears the name. Don't you know Monsieur Moreau?"



"The steward of Presles?"



"Yes. Monsieur le Comte is going down to spend a couple of days with

him."



"Ha! then I'm to carry Monsieur le Comte de Serizy!" cried the coach-

proprietor.



"Yes, my land, neither more nor less. But listen! here's a special

order. If you have any of the country neighbors in your coach you are

not to call him Monsieur le comte; he wants to travel 'en cognito,'

and told me to be sure to say he would pay a handsome pourboire if he

was not recognized."



"So! Has this secret journey anything to do with the affair which Pere

Leger, the farmer at the Moulineaux, came to Paris the other day to

settle?"



"I don't know," replied the valet, "but the fat's in the fire. Last

night I was sent to the stable to order the Daumont carriage to be

ready to go to Presles at seven this morning. But when seven o'clock

came, Monsieur le comte countermanded it. Augustin, his valet de

chambre, attributes the change to the visit of a lady who called last

night, and again this morning,--he thought she came from the country."



"Could she have told him anything against Monsieur Moreau?--the best

of men, the most honest of men, a king of men, hey! He might have made

a deal more than he has out of his position, if he'd chosen; I can

tell you that."



"Then he was foolish," answered the valet, sententiously.



"Is Monsieur le Serizy going to live at Presles at last?" asked

Pierrotin; "for you know they have just repaired and refurnished the

chateau. Do you think it is true he has already spent two hundred

thousand francs upon it?"



"If you or I had half what he has spent upon it, you and I would be

rich bourgeois. If Madame la comtesse goes there--ha! I tell you what!

no more ease and comfort for the Moreaus," said the valet, with an air

of mystery.



"He's a worthy man, Monsieur Moreau," remarked Pierrotin, thinking of

the thousand francs he wanted to get from the steward. "He is a man

who makes others work, but he doesn't cheapen what they do; and he

gets all he can out of the land--for his master. Honest man! He often

comes to Paris and gives me a good fee: he has lots of errands for me

to do in Paris; sometimes three or four packages a day,--either from

monsieur or madame. My bill for cartage alone comes to fifty francs a

month, more or less. If madame does set up to be somebody, she's fond

of her children; and it is I who fetch them from school and take them

back; and each time she gives me five francs,--a real great lady

couldn't do better than that. And every time I have any one in the

coach belonging to them or going to see them, I'm allowed to drive up

to the chateau,--that's all right, isn't it?"



"They say Monsieur Moreau wasn't worth three thousand francs when

Monsieur le comte made him steward of Presles," said the valet.



"Well, since 1806, there's seventeen years, and the man ought to have

made something at any rate."



"True," said the valet, nodding. "Anyway, masters are very annoying;

and I hope, for Moreau's sake, that he has made butter for his bread."



"I have often been to your house in the rue de la Chaussee d'Antin to

carry baskets of game," said Pierrotin, "but I've never had the

advantage, so far of seeing either monsieur or madame."



"Monsieur le comte is a good man," said the footman, confidentially.

"But if he insists on your helping to keep up his cognito there's

something in the wind. At any rate, so we think at the house; or else,

why should he countermand the Daumont,--why travel in a coucou? A peer

of France might afford to hire a cabriolet to himself, one would

think."