Monsieur Bernard
Description
The factor at Maison Roux, a French trading house and counting house near Alexandria’s harbour, run behind lattice screens and shutters drawn against the heat. A Marseillais in a silk waistcoat, and an unreconstructed royalist — he greets Adrien’s aristocratic title with the relish of a man delighted the restored Bourbon order still means something abroad, working “Monsieur le Vicomte” into nearly every sentence.
Background
Maison Roux is a pre-Revolution Levant trading house with roots in Marseille, still doing business out of Alexandria despite decades of upheaval back home. Bernard runs the Alexandria counting house and clearly savours any opportunity to treat a genuine French nobleman with the deference such men were owed before 1789. Capitaine Thibault, a retired Armée d’Orient officer Adrien struck up an acquaintance with in Alexandria, walked Adrien to Maison Roux personally and vouched for him.
Bernard honoured Adrien’s paper at a favourable 2% exchange rate — the best rate in Alexandria — waving off any need for a formal negotiation given Adrien’s credit standing, reputation, and Thibault’s introduction. Coffee arrived before the ledger, and with it roughly half an hour of harbour intelligence, freely given. The visit closed with a soft, unspoken obligation: that Adrien “remember the house.”
Motivations
- Genuine royalist sentiment — delight at doing business with restored nobility rather than revolutionary upstarts or Napoleonic parvenus.
- Wants Maison Roux remembered favourably by a well-connected French aristocrat, and by extension kept in mind for future business.
Connections
- Adrien de Montferrand — treats him with extravagant deference on account of his title; offers the 2% rate and coffee.
- Capitaine Thibault — walks Adrien to Maison Roux personally and vouches for him with Bernard.
Appearances
Relationships
- Deferential-to Adrien de Montferrand — Addresses Adrien as 'Monsieur le Vicomte' in every sentence; offers a favourable exchange rate and coffee
- Professional-acquaintance Capitaine Thibault — Thibault personally walks Adrien to Maison Roux and vouches for him