The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane - Alain René le Sage (best fiction books of all time .txt) 📗

the evening I found Don

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,