justifying such
demands on the theory of personal interest, he despised men too much,
believing them all corruptible, he was too unscrupulous in the choice of
means, thinking all equally good, he was too thoroughly convinced that
the success of money was the absolution of all moral mechanism, not to
attain his ends sooner or later.

Such a man, standing between the hulks and a vast fortune, was
necessarily vindictive, domineering, quick in decisions, yet as
dissimulating as a Cromwell planning to decapitate the head of
integrity. His real depth was hidden under a light and jesting
mind. Mere clerk as he was, his ambition knew no bounds. With one
comprehensive glance of hatred he had taken in the whole of society,
saying boldly to himself, "Thou shalt be mine!" He had vowed not to
marry till he was forty, and kept his word. Physically, Ferdinand was a
tall, slender young man, with a good figure and adaptive manners, which
enabled him to take, on occasion, the key-note of the various societies
in which he found himself. His ignoble face was rather pleasant at first
sight; but later, on closer acquaintance, expressions were caught such
as come to the surface of those who are ill at ease in their own minds,
and whose consciences groan at certain times. His complexion, which was
sanguine under the soft skin of a Norman, had a crude or acrid color.
The glance of his eye, whose iris was circled with a whitish rim as if
it were lined with silver, was evasive yet terrible when he fixed it
straight upon his victim. His voice had a hollow sound, like that of
a man worn out with much speaking. His thin lips were not wanting in
charm, but his pointed nose and slightly projecting forehead showed
defects of race; and his hair, of a tint like hair that has been dyed
black, indicated a mongrel descent, through which he derived his mental
qualities from some libertine lord, his low instincts from a seduced
peasant-girl, his knowledge from an incomplete education, and his vices
from his deserted and abandoned condition.

Birotteau discovered with much amazement that his clerk went out in
the evening very elegantly dressed, came home late, and was seen at the
balls of bankers and notaries. Such habits displeased Cesar, according
to whose ideas clerks should study the books of the firm and think only
of their business. The worthy man was shocked by trifles, and reproached
du Tillet gently for wearing linen that was too fine, for leaving ca