His mother and Madame Descoings were
unwilling, out of delicacy, to remind him of his promise. The year
went by without one of those coins which Leon Gozlan so vigorously
called "tigers with five claws" finding its way from Philippe's pocket
to the household purse. It is true that the colonel quieted his
conscience on this score by seldom dining at home.
"Well, he is happy," said his mother; "he is easy in mind; he has a
place."
Through the influence of a feuilleton, edited by Vernou, a friend of
Bixiou, Finot, and Giroudeau, Mariette made her appearance, not at the
Panorama-Dramatique but at the Porte-Saint-Martin, where she triumphed
beside the famous Begrand. Among the directors of the theatre was a
rich and luxurious general officer, in love with an actress, for whose
sake he had made himself an impresario. In Paris, we frequently meet
with men so fascinated with actresses, singers, or ballet-dancers,
that they are willing to become directors of a theatre out of love.
This officer knew Philippe and Giroudeau. Mariette's first appearance,
heralded already by Finot's journal and also by Philippe's, was
promptly arranged by the three officers; for there seems to be
solidarity among the passions in a matter of folly.
The mischievous Bixiou was not long in revealing to his grandmother
and the devoted Agathe that Philippe, the cashier, the hero of heroes,
was in love with Mariette, the celebrated ballet-dancer at the
Porte-Saint-Martin. The news was a thunder-clap to the two widows;
Agathe's religious principles taught her to think that all women on
the stage were brands in the burning; moreover, she thought, and so
did Madame Descoings, that women of that kind dined off gold, drank
pearls, and wasted fortunes.
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