THE HOUSE OF MONGENOD
The next day, as Godefroid rose amid the appointments of modern luxury and the choice appliances of English "comfort," he remembered the details of his visit to that cloister of Notre-Dame, and the meaning of the things he had seen there came into his mind.The three unknown and silent men, whose dress, attitude, and stillness acted powerfully upon him, were no doubt boarders like the priest.The solemnity of Madame de la Chanterie now seemed to him a secret dignity with which she bore some great misfortune.But still, in spite of the explanations which Godefroid gave himself, he could not help fancying there was an air of mystery about those sober figures.
He looked around him and selected the pieces of furniture that he would keep, those that were indispensable to him; but when he transported them in thought to the miserable lodging in the rue Chanoinesse, he began to laugh at the contrast they would make there, resolving to sell all and let Madame de la Chanterie furnish the rooms for him.He wanted a new life, and the very sight of these objects would remind him of that which he wished to forget.In his desire for transformation (for he belonged to those characters who spring at a bound into the middle of a situation, instead of advancing, as others do, step by step), he was seized while he breakfasted with an idea,--he would turn his whole property into money, pay his debts, and place the remainder of his capital in the banking-house with which his father had done business.
This house was the firm of Mongenod and Company, established in 1816or 1817, whose reputation for honesty and uprightness had never been questioned in the midst of the commercial depravity which smirched, more or less, all the banking-houses of Paris.In spite of their immense wealth, the houses of Nucingen, du Tillet, the Keller Brothers, Palma and Company, were each regarded, more or less, with secret disrespect, although it is true this disrespect was only whispered.Evil means had produced such fine results, such political successes, dynastic principles covered so completely base workings, that no one in 1834 thought of the mud in which the roots of these fine trees, the mainstay of the State, were plunged.Nevertheless there was not a single one of those great bankers to whom the confidence expressed in the house of Mongenod was not a wound.Like English houses, the Mongenods made no external display of luxury.They lived in dignified stillness, satisfied to do their business prudently, wisely, and with a stern uprightness which enabled them to carry it from one end of the globe to the other.
The actual head of the house, Frederic Mongenod, is the brother-in-law of the Vicomte de Fontaine; therefore, this numerous family is allied through the Baron de Fontaine to Monsieur Grossetete, the receiver-general, brother of the Grossetete and Company of Limoges, to the Vandenesses, and to Planat de Baudry, another receiver-general.These connections, having procured for the late Mongenod, father of the present head of the house, many favors in the financial operations under the Restoration, obtained for him also the confidence of the old /noblesse/, whose property and whose savings, which were immense, were deposited in this bank.Far from coveting a peerage, like the Kellers, Nucingen, and du Tillet, the Mongenods kept away from politics, and only knew as much about them as their banking interests demanded.
The house of Mongenod is established in a fine old mansion in the rue de la Victoire, where Madame Mongenod, the mother, lived with her two sons, all three being partners in the house,--the share of the Vicomtesse de Fontaine having been bought out by them on the death of the elder Mongenod in 1827.
Frederic Mongenod, a handsome young man about thirty-five years of age, cold, silent, and reserved in manner like a Swiss, and neat as an Englishman, had acquired by intercourse with his father all the qualities necessary for his difficult profession.Better educated than the generality of bankers, his studies had the breadth and universality which characterize the polytechnic training; and he had, like most bankers, predilections and tastes outside of his business,--he loved mechanics and chemistry.The second brother, who was ten years younger than Frederic, held the same position in the office of his elder brother that a head clerk holds in that of a notary or lawyer.Frederic trained him, as he had himself been trained by his father, in the variety of knowledge necessary to a true banker, who is to money what a writer is to ideas,--they must both know all of that with which they have to deal.
When Godefroid reached the banking house and gave his name, he saw at once the estimation in which his father had been held; for he was ushered through the offices without delay to the private counting-room of the Mongenods.This counting-room was closed with a glass door, so that Godefroid, without any desire to listen, overheard as he approached it what was being said there.
"Madame, your account is balanced to sixteen hundred thousand francs,"said the younger Mongenod."I do not know what my brother's intentions are; he alone can say whether an advance of a hundred thousand francs can be made.You must have been imprudent.Sixteen hundred thousand francs should not be entrusted to any business.""Do not speak so loud, Louis!" said a woman's voice."Your brother has often told you to speak in a low voice.There may be some one in the next room."At this moment Frederic Mongenod himself opened the door of communication between his private house and the counting-room.He saw Godefroid and crossed the room, bowing respectfully to the lady who was conversing with his brother.
"To whom have I the honor of speaking?" he said to Godefroid.