Part 27

Bianchon’s duties compelled him to be at the hospital, but he had left a few lines for Eugene, telling his friend about the arrangements he had made for the burial service. The house student’s note told Rastignac that a mass was beyond their means, that the ordinary office for the dead was cheaper, and must suffice, and that he had sent word to the undertaker by Christophe. Eugene had scarcely finished reading Bianchon’s scrawl, when he looked up and saw the little circular gold locket that contained the hair of Goriot’s two daughters in Mme. Vauquer’s hands.

“How dared you take it?” he asked.

“Good Lord! is that to be buried along with him?” retorted Sylvie. “It is gold.”

“Of course it shall!” Eugene answered indignantly; “he shall at any rate take one thing that may represent his daughters into the grave with him.”

When the hearse came, Eugene had the coffin carried into the house again, unscrewed the lid, and reverently laid on the old man’s breast the token that recalled the days when Delphine and Anastasie were innocent little maidens, before they began “to think for themselves,” as he had moaned out in his agony.

Rastignac and Christophe and the two undertaker’s men were the only followers of the funeral. The Church of Saint-Etienne du Mont was only a little distance from the Rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve. When the coffin had been deposited in a low, dark, little chapel, the law student looked round in vain for Goriot’s two daughters or their husbands. Christophe was his only fellow-mourner; Christophe, who appeared to think it was his duty to attend the funeral of the man who had put him in the way of such handsome tips. As they waited there in the chapel for the two priests, the chorister, and the beadle, Rastignac grasped Christophe’s hand. He could not utter a word just then.

“Yes, Monsieur Eugene,” said Christophe, “he was a good and worthy man, who never said one word louder than another; he never did any one any harm, and gave nobody any trouble.”

The two priests, the chorister, and the beadle came, and said and did as much as could be expected for seventy francs in an age when religion cannot afford to say prayers for nothing.

The ecclesiatics chanted a psalm, the _Libera nos_ and the _De profundis_. The whole service lasted about twenty minutes. There was but one mourning coach, which the priest and chorister agreed to share with Eugene and Christophe.

“There is no one else to follow us,” remarked the priest, “so we may as well go quickly, and so save time; it is half-past five.”

But just as the coffin was put in the hearse, two empty carriages, with the armorial bearings of the Comte de Restaud and the Baron de Nucingen, arrived and followed in the procession to Pere-Lachaise. At six o’clock Goriot’s coffin was lowered into the grave, his daughters’ servants standing round the while. The ecclesiastic recited the short prayer that the students could afford to pay for, and then both priest and lackeys disappeared at once. The two grave diggers flung in several spadefuls of earth, and then stopped and asked Rastignac for their fee. Eugene felt in vain in his pocket, and was obliged to borrow five francs of Christophe. This thing, so trifling in itself, gave Rastignac a terrible pang of distress. It was growing dusk, the damp twilight fretted his nerves; he gazed down into the grave and the tears he shed were drawn from him by the sacred emotion, a single-hearted sorrow. When such tears fall on earth, their radiance reaches heaven. And with that tear that fell on Father Goriot’s grave, Eugene Rastignac’s youth ended. He folded his arms and gazed at the clouded sky; and Christophe, after a glance at him, turned and went--Rastignac was left alone.

He went a few paces further, to the highest point of the cemetery, and looked out over Paris and the windings of the Seine; the lamps were beginning to shine on either side of the river. His eyes turned almost eagerly to the space between the column of the Place Vendome and the cupola of the Invalides; there lay the shining world that he had wished to reach. He glanced over that humming hive, seeming to draw a foretaste of its honey, and said magniloquently:

“Henceforth there is war between us.”

And by way of throwing down the glove to Society, Rastignac went to dine with Mme. de Nucingen.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Ajuda-Pinto, Marquis Miguel d’ Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Secrets of a Princess Beatrix

Beauseant, Marquis An Episode under the Terror

Beauseant, Vicomte de The Deserted Woman

Beauseant, Vicomtesse de The Deserted Woman Albert Savarus

Bianchon, Horace The Atheist’s Mass Cesar Birotteau The Commission in Lunacy Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor’s Establishment The Secrets of a Princess The Government Clerks Pierrette A Study of Woman Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life Honorine The Seamy Side of History The Magic Skin A Second Home A Prince of Bohemia Letters of Two Brides The Muse of the Department The Imaginary Mistress The Middle Classes Cousin Betty The Country Parson In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: Another Study of Woman La Grande Breteche

Bibi-Lupin (chief of secret police, called himself Gondureau) Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Carigliano, Marechal, Duc de Sarrasine

Collin, Jacques Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Member for Arcis

Derville Gobseck A Start in Life The Gondreville Mystery Colonel Chabert Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Franchessini, Colonel The Member for Arcis

Galathionne, Princess A Daughter of Eve

Gobseck, Jean-Esther Van Gobseck Cesar Birotteau The Government Clerks The Unconscious Humorists

Jacques (M. de Beauseant’s butler) The Deserted Woman

Langeais, Duchesse Antoinette de The Thirteen

Marsay, Henri de The Thirteen The Unconscious Humorists Another Study of Woman The Lily of the Valley Jealousies of a Country Town Ursule Mirouet A Marriage Settlement Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Letters of Two Brides The Ball at Sceaux Modest Mignon The Secrets of a Princess The Gondreville Mystery A Daughter of Eve

Maurice (de Restaud’s valet) Gobseck

Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de The Thirteen Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Another Study of Woman Pierrette The Member for Arcis

Nucingen, Baron Frederic de The Firm of Nucingen Pierrette Cesar Birotteau Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life Another Study of Woman The Secrets of a Princess A Man of Business Cousin Betty The Muse of the Department The Unconscious Humorists

Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de The Thirteen Eugenie Grandet Cesar Birotteau Melmoth Reconciled Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Commission in Lunacy Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life Modeste Mignon The Firm of Nucingen Another Study of Woman A Daughter of Eve The Member for Arcis

Poiret The Government Clerks A Start in Life Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Middle Classes

Poiret, Madame (nee Christine-Michelle Michonneau) Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Middle Classes

Rastignac, Baron and Baronne de (Eugene’s parents) Lost Illusions

Rastignac, Eugene de A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Ball at Sceaux The Interdiction A Study of Woman Another Study of Woman The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve The Gondreville Mystery The Firm of Nucingen Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis The Unconscious Humorists

Rastignac, Laure-Rose and Agathe de Lost Illusions The Member for Arcis

Rastignac, Monseigneur Gabriel de The Country Parson A Daughter of Eve

Restaud, Comte de Gobseck

Restaud, Comtesse Anastasie de Gobseck

Selerier Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Taillefer, Jean-Frederic The Firm of Nucingen The Magic Skin The Red Inn

Taillefer, Victorine The Red Inn

Therese A Daughter of Eve

Tissot, Pierre-Francois A Prince of Bohemia

Trailles, Comte Maxime de Cesar Birotteau Gobseck Ursule Mirouet A Man of Business The Member for Arcis The Secrets of a Princess Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis Beatrix The Unconscious Humorists

“One work. Many languages. One reading experience.”