The Complete Works: Short Stories, Novels, Plays, Poetry, Memoirs and more. Guy de Maupassant
Duroy was seized with an idea, and going back to the doorkeeper, said: “Monsieur Walter made an appointment for me to call on him here at three o’clock. At all events, see whether my friend, Monsieur Forestier, is here.”
He was at once ushered along a lengthy passage, which brought him to a large room where four gentlemen were writing at a large green-covered table.
Forestier standing before the fireplace was smoking a cigarette and playing at cup and ball. He was very clever at this, and kept spiking the huge ball of yellow boxwood on the wooden point. He was counting “Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five.”
“Twenty-six,” said Duroy.
His friend raised his eyes without interrupting the regular movement of his arm, saying: “Oh! here you are, then. Yesterday I landed the ball fifty-seven times right off. There is only Saint-Potin who can beat me at it among those here. Have you seen the governor? There is nothing funnier than to see that old tubby Norbert playing at cup and ball. He opens his mouth as if he was going to swallow the ball every time.”
One of the others turned round towards him, saying: “I say, Forestier, I know of one for sale, a beauty in West Indian wood; it is said to have belonged to the Queen of Spain. They want sixty francs for it. Not dear.”
Forestier asked: “Where does it hang out?”
And as he had missed his thirty-seventh shot, he opened a cupboard in which Duroy saw a score of magnificent cups and balls, arranged and numbered like a collection of art objects. Then having put back the one he had been using in its usual place, he repeated: “Where does this gem hang out?”
The journalist replied: “At a box-office keeper’s of the Vaudeville. I will bring it you tomorrow, if you like.”
“All right. If it is really a good one I will take it; one can never have too many.” Then turning to Duroy he added: “Come with me. I will take you in to see the governor; otherwise you might be getting mouldy here till seven in the evening.”
They recrossed the waiting-room, in which the same people were waiting in the same order. As soon as Forestier appeared the young woman and the old actress, rising quickly, came up to him. He took them aside one after the other into the bay of the window, and although they took care to talk in low tones, Duroy noticed that they were on familiar terms.
Then, having passed through two padded doors, they entered the manager’s room. The conference which had been going on for an hour or so was nothing more than a game at ecarté with some of the gentlemen with the flat brimmed hats whom Duroy had noticed the night before.
Monsieur Walter dealt and played with concentrated attention and crafty movements, while his adversary threw down, picked up, and handled the light bits of colored pasteboard with the swiftness, skill, and grace of a practiced player. Norbert de Varenne, seated in the managerial armchair, was writing an article. Jacques Rival, stretched at full length on a couch, was smoking a cigar with his eyes closed.
The room smelled close, with that blended odor of leather-covered furniture, stale tobacco, and printing-ink peculiar to editors’ rooms and familiar to all journalists. Upon the black wood table, inlaid with brass, lay an incredible pile of papers, letters, cards, newspapers, magazines, bills, and printed matter of every description.
Forestier shook hands with the punters standing behind the card players, and without saying a word watched the progress of the game; then, as soon as Daddy Walter had won, he said: “Here is my friend, Duroy.”
The manager glanced sharply at the young fellow over the glasses of his spectacles, and said:
“Have you brought my article? It would go very well to-day with the Morel debate.”
Duroy took the sheets of paper folded in four from his pocket, saying: “Here it is sir.”
The manager seemed pleased, and remarked, with a smile: “Very good, very good. You are a man of your word. You must look through this for me, Forestier.”
But Forestier hastened to reply: “It is not worth while, Monsieur Walter. I did it with him to give him a lesson in the tricks of the trade. It is very well done.”
And the manager, who was gathering up the cards dealt by a tall, thin gentleman, a deputy belonging to the Left Center, remarked with indifference: “All right, then.”
Forestier, however, did not let him begin the new game, but stooping, murmured in his ear: “You know you promised me to take on Duroy to replace Marambot. Shall I engage him on the same terms?”
“Yes, certainly.”
Taking his friend’s arm, the journalist led him away, while Monsieur Walter resumed the game.
Norbert de Varenne had not lifted his head; he did not appear to have seen or recognized Duroy. Jacques Rival, on the contrary, had taken his hand with the marked and demonstrative energy of a comrade who may be reckoned upon in the case of any little difficulty.
They passed through the waiting-room again, and as everyone looked at them, Forestier said to the youngest of the women, in a tone loud enough to be heard by the rest: “The manager will see you directly. He is just now engaged with two members of the Budget Committee.”
Then he passed swiftly on, with an air of hurry and importance, as though about to draft at once an article of the utmost weight.
As soon as they were back in the reporters’ room Forestier at once took up his cup and ball, and as he began to play with it again, said to Duroy, breaking his sentences in order to count: “You will come here every day at three o’clock, and I will tell you the places you are to go to, either during the day or in the evening, or the next morning — one — I will give you, first of all, a letter of introduction to the head of the First Department of the Préfecture of Police — two — who will put you in communication with one of his clerks. You will settle with him about all the important information — three — from the Préfecture, official and quasi-official information, you know. In all matters of detail you will apply to Saint-Potin, who is up in the work — four — You can see him by-and-by, or tomorrow. You must, above all, cultivate the knack of dragging information out of men I send you to see — five — and to get in everywhere, in spite of closed doors — six — You will have for this a salary of two hundred francs a month, with two sous a line for the paragraphs you glean — seven — and two sous a line for all articles written by you to order on different subjects — eight.”
Then he gave himself up entirely to his occupation, and went on slowly counting: “Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.” He missed the fourteenth, and swore, “Damn that thirteen, it always brings me bad luck. I shall die on the thirteenth of some month, I am certain.”
One of his colleagues who had finished his work also took a cup and ball from the cupboard. He was a little man, who looked like a boy, although he was really five-and-thirty. Several other journalists having come in, went one after the other and got out the toy belonging to each of them. Soon there were six standing side by side, with their backs to the wall, swinging into the air, with even and regular motion, the balls of red, yellow, and black, according to the wood they were made of. And a match having begun, the two who were still working got up to act as umpires. Forestier won by eleven points. Then the little man, with the juvenile aspect, who had lost, rang for the messenger, and gave the order, “Nine bocks.” And they began to play again pending the arrival of these refreshments.
Duroy drank a glass of beer with his new comrades, and then said to his friend: “What am I to do now?”
“I have nothing for you to-day. You can go if you want to.”
“And our — our — article, will it go in tonight?”
“Yes, but do not bother yourself about it; I will correct the proofs. Write the continuation for tomorrow, and come here at three o’clock, the same as to-day.”
Duroy having shaken hands with everyone, without even knowing