Read The Girl With the Golden Eyes for Free Online

reflects any image; the latter economize their senses and their life, all the while seeming to throw them both out the window. The former, based on the faith of hope, devote themselves without conviction to a system that is borne forth by a fair wind, but then they jump onto another political craft when the first one starts to go adrift; the latter size up the future, sound it, and see in political loyalty what the English see in commercial probity: an ingredient for success. But where the young man who has something makes a play on words or utters a fine turn of phrase about the change of thrones, the one who has nothing makes a public calculation, or a secret servile act, and succeeds, all the while showering his friends with punches. The former never believe in the abilities of others, take all their ideas as new, as if the world had just been created overnight; they have a limitless confidence in themselves, and have no enemy crueler than their ownperson. But the latter are armed with a continual mistrust of men, whom they value at their true worth, and are just profound enough to have one more thought than the friends they exploit; and at night, when their head is resting on the pillow, they weigh men as a miser weighs his gold coins. The former get angry at an impertinent remark of no importance, and let themselves be made fun of by diplomats who make them pose in front of them while they hold the string of these marionettes, self-esteem; whereas the latter earn the respect of others and choose their victims and their protectors.
    Then, one day, the ones who had nothing, have something; and the ones who had something, have nothing. They regard their comrades who have attained a position as sly little devils, with their hearts in the wrong place, but also as strong men. “He is very strong!” is the immense praise awarded those who have succeeded,
quibuscumque viis
, by whatever means, in politics, or with a woman, or a fortune. Among them, we find certain young men who play this role starting out with debts; and naturally, they are more dangerous than those who play it without having a penny.
    The young man who called himself a friend of Henri de Marsay was a scatterbrain, fresh out of the provinces, whom the young men then in fashion were teaching the art of properly squandering aninheritance; but he had one last piece of pie left to eat in his province, a reliable estate. He was simply an heir who had gone without transition from his meager hundred francs a month to the entire paternal fortune, and who, even if he didn’t have wit enough to see that people were making fun of him, knew enough math to confine himself to two-thirds of his capital. He was just discovering in Paris, in return for a few thousand-franc bills, the exact price of equestrian tack, the art of not taking too much care of his gloves, of listening to expert meditations on what wages to give people, and finding out what fixed sum was the most profitable to settle on with them; he was most eager to be able to talk knowledgeably about his horses or his dog from the Pyrénées, and to recognize what sort of woman a lady was by recognizing her attire, her walk, and her boots; studying the rules of
écarté
, remembering a few fashionable phrases, and, by means of his stay in Parisian society, acquiring the necessary authority to import a taste for tea and English silver later on into the provinces, and to give himself the right to scorn everything around him for the rest of his days. De Marsay had taken him on as a friend to make use of him in society, the way a bold speculator uses a trusted assistant. The false or real friendship of de Marsay gave social position to Paul de Manerville who, for his part,thought he was cunning in thus exploiting his close friend. He lived in his friend’s reflection, constantly sheltered under his umbrella, wore the same shoes as he did, basked in his glow. Standing next to Henri, or even walking alongside him, he