THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 Demote toe 
 
 LA COMEDIE HUMA1NE 
 
 VOLUME 1
 
 EDITION DEFINITIVE 
 
 OF WHICH THERE ARE PRINTED ON IMPERIAL JAPAN 
 PAPER ONE THOUSAND COPIES 
 
 No. 3 3 3 
 
 PRINTED FOR 
 MR. AUGUSTUS CLEVELAND TYLER
 
 3Tf)e J^uman (Cometig 
 
 SCENES OF PARISIAN LIFE 
 
 VOLUME I
 
 K
 
 ESTHER'S ATTEMPTED SUICIDE 
 
 The grisette was senseless. A chafing-dish of 
 burned charcoal told the story of the awful morning. 
 Tlie hood and the cloak of the domino lay on the 
 floor. The bed was undisturbed. The poor girl, 
 cut to the heart by a deadly wound, had, no doubt, 
 arranged everything after her return from the 
 Opera.
 
 e tic 13ai?ac NOW 
 
 FIRS T TIME C O MPL ETELY 
 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 
 THE SPLENDORS AND MISERIES OF 
 COURTESANS BY ELLERY 
 SEDGWICK 
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 
 
 ' MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 
 
 3.( 
 
 THE LAST INCARNATION Of-' JVUT/'/.V 
 
 > Al\V^\ W Y> k .li-Auim up* v,y, r ,, - A T 
 WITH SIXTEEN ETCHINGS BY FREDFR'C kJtif&.ry* A 
 
 .VTED OXLY FOR SUPSCRfBERS b ,' 
 GEORGE BARRIE, PHILADELPHIA
 
 ESTHER'S ATTEMPTED SUICIDE 
 
 The grisette teas senseless. A chafing-dish of 
 burned charcoal told the story of the atvfiil morning. 
 The hood and the cloak of the domino lay on the 
 floor. The bed teas undisturbed. The poor girl, 
 cut to the hear' by a deadly wound, had, no doubt, 
 arranged everything after her return from the 
 Opera.
 
 e tie Balzac - 
 
 FIRST TIME C O MPL ETELY 
 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 
 THE SPLENDORS AND MISERIES OF 
 COURTESANS BY ELLERY 
 SEDGWICK 
 
 THE IV AY THAT GIRLS LOVE 
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 
 
 THE END OF BAD ROADS 
 
 THE LAST INCARNATION OF VAUTRIN 
 
 WITH SIXTEEN ETCHINGS BY FREDERIC-EMILE JEANNIN 
 AFTER PAINTINGS BY G ASTON BUSSIERE 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 7'.D O.VLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY 
 GEORGE BARRIE, PHILADELPHIA
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1895, BY G - B -
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 *7 
 v, i 
 
 THE 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE HUMAN COMEDY 
 
 654893
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In giving the title of THE HUMAN COMEDY to a 
 work in which I have been engaged for nearly thir- 
 teen years, I feel it necessary to give a brief explana- 
 tion of its origin, scope and plan, and to attempt this 
 as impartially as if it had no personal interest for me. 
 This is not so difficult as the public may imagine. 
 There are few works that contribute much to a man's 
 vanity, and much labor adds to his share of modesty. 
 This observation accounts for the careful examina- 
 tion that Corneille, Moliere and other great authors 
 made of their own compositions, and if it is impossi- 
 ble for us to equal their lofty conceptions, we may 
 at least strive to imitate them in this characteristic. 
 
 The first idea of THE HUMAN COMEDY came to 
 me like a dream, an impossible project which I wel- 
 comed and then allowed to escape; it was a charm- 
 ing fancy that showed its smiling face but for an in- 
 stant, and spreading its wings fluttered back into a 
 visionary heaven. Still, fancy often changes into 
 fact and its tyrannical commands cannot be resisted. 
 
 The idea occurred to me, in consequence of a com- 
 parison between the human and animal kingdoms. 
 
 It would be a .mistake to believe that the great 
 (Hi)
 
 iv PREFACE 
 
 dispute that has recently arisen between Cuvier and 
 Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire rests upon the ground of a 
 scientific innovation: Unify of composition, expressed 
 in other terms, occupied the greatest minds of the 
 two preceding centuries. On reading over the ex- 
 traordinary works of the mystical writers who have 
 devoted themselves to the various sciences, consid- 
 ered under their relation to the infinite, such as 
 Swedenborg, Saint Martin, etc., and the books of 
 the greatest geniuses in natural history, such as 
 Leibnitz, Buffon, Charles Bonnet, etc., we find in 
 the monads of Leibnitz, in the organic molecules of 
 Buffon, in the vegetative force of Needham, in the 
 perfect adjustment of similar parts of Charles 
 Bonnet, who dared to write, in 1760, that an animal 
 vegetates like a plant; in all these, I say, we find the 
 rudiments of the great law of each for himself, upon 
 which the unity of composition depends. There is but 
 one single animal. The Creator has employed but 
 one and the same model for all organic beings. It is 
 the principle of animal life that each creature should 
 borrow its external form, or, to speak more exactly, 
 the differences of its form, from the environment 
 in which it is destined to become developed. The zoo- 
 logical species result from these differences. The pro- 
 mulgation and maintenance of this system, that is 
 moreover in harmony with our ideas of divine power, 
 will do eternal honor to Geoffrey Saint-Millaire,
 
 PREFACE V 
 
 who surpassed Cuvier on this high scientific 
 ground, and whose triumph was acknowledged by 
 the great Goethe in the last article which he wrote. 
 Far more deeply impressed by this system than 
 by the discussions to which it has given rise, I saw, 
 that, in this respect, society resembled nature. 
 Does not society make of man, in accordance with 
 the environment in which he lives and moves, as 
 many different kinds of men as there are different 
 zoological varieties? The differences between a 
 soldier, an artisan, an administrator, a lawyer, an 
 idler, a scholar, a statesman, a merchant, a sailor 
 a poet, a pauper and a priest, though more diffi- 
 cult to understand, are quite as considerable as 
 those that distinguish the wolf, the lion, the ass, 
 the crow, the shark, the seal and the sheep. 
 There have, therefore, existed, and will always 
 exist, social species, just as there are zoological 
 species. Since Buffon wrote his magnificent work, 
 in which he attempted to include the whole of 
 zoology in the compass of one book, was not there 
 something of the same kind to accomplish in behalf 
 of society? Between the different species of the 
 animal kingdom, nature has set bounds which do 
 not exist in human society. When Buffon described 
 a lion, he needed but few additional words to draw 
 the picture of a lioness; whereas, in society, a 
 woman is not always the female of the male. In
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 one household there can exist two perfectly dissimi- 
 lar beings. A shop-keeper's wife is sometimes 
 worthy of a prince, while a prince's wife may not 
 be the equal of a poor artist's. The social state is 
 subject to possibilities that are not to be found in 
 nature, for it is nature plus society. The descrip- 
 tion of social species is, therefore, at least twice as 
 complex as that of animal species, under the aspect 
 of the two sexes alone. Lastly, there is no confu- 
 sion in the life of animals, and few dramas take 
 place among them; they merely pursue and attack 
 one another. Men also pursue one another, but the 
 greater or less degree of intelligence they possess 
 renders the combat far more complicated. Though 
 some men of science do not as yet admit that a great 
 current of life overflows into humanity from the ani- 
 mal kingdom, it is certain that a grocer may become 
 peer of France, and that a nobleman may sink into 
 the lowest rank of society. Moreover, Buffon has 
 described the life of animals as extremely simple. 
 It needs but few accessories, and they have neither 
 arts nor sciences; whereas man, in obedience to a 
 still undiscovered law, tends to represent his man- 
 ners, life and thought in all that he appropriates to 
 his needs. Although Leuwenhoec, Swammerdam, 
 Spallanzani, Reaumur, Charles Bonnet, Muller, Hal- 
 ler, and other patient zoographers have shown us how 
 interesting the habits of animals are, yet, to our eyes
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 at least, the ways of every animal appear to be the 
 same at all periods; whereas the habits, dress, words 
 and houses of a prince, a banker, an artist, a bour- 
 geois, a priest and a pauper are entirely dissimilar 
 and change with each successive civilization. 
 
 Thus, the work to be written required a triple 
 form: men, women and things that is to say, 
 human beings and the material representationjthey 
 givej to their mode ofjthought; in short, man and his 
 life? 4 
 
 In reading the dry and repellant nomenclatures of 
 facts that are called histories, who has not observed 
 that the writers of all times and all countries, in 
 Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome, have forgotten to 
 give us an account of the customs of the people? 
 The fragment of Petronius on the private life of the 
 Romans does more to irritate than to satisfy our 
 curiosity. The Abbe Barthelemy remarked this 
 immense lacuna in the field of history, and devoted 
 his life to reconstructing the manners of Greece in 
 his Anacharsis. 
 
 But how could I hope to give interest to the drama 
 of three or four thousand persons that a single society 
 presents? How could I, at the same time, please 
 the poet, the philosopher, and the masses who insist 
 upon receiving their poetry and philosophy through 
 the medium of striking images? I conceived the 
 importance and the poetry of the history of the
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 human heart, but I saw no means of realizing my 
 scheme; for, up to our own time, the most famous 
 story-tellers had lavished their talents upon creating 
 one or two typical characters, and painting one side 
 of life. It was with this thought in mind that I read 
 the works of Sir Walter Scott, the modern trouba- 
 dour, who was at that time endowing with enormous 
 charm a species of composition that has been un- 
 justly called secondary. Is it not in reality more 
 difficult to compete with nature in drawing such 
 pictures as Daphnis and Chloe, Roland, Amadis, 
 Panurge, Don Quixote, Manon Lescaut, Clarissa, Love- 
 lace, Robinson Crusoe, Gil Bias, Ossian, Julie 
 d'Etanges, Uncle Toby, Werther, Rene, Corinne, 
 Adolphe, Paul and Virginia, Jeanie Deans, Claver- 
 house, Ivanboe, Manfred and Mignon, than to 
 marshal an array of facts that are much the same in 
 all countries, to study the meaning of laws that 
 have fallen into disuse, to draw up theories that 
 bewilder nations, or, after the fashion of metaphy- 
 sicians, to explain the nature of being? In the first 
 place, almost all these characters, whose existence 
 is longer and more real than that of the generations 
 from the midst of which they spring, live only on 
 condition of offering a faithful image of the present. 
 Conceived in the vitals of their century, they are 
 throbbing with the pulsations of the human heart, 
 and often contain a whole system of philosophy.
 
 PREFACE IX 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, therefore, raised the novel to the 
 philosophic value of history; the novel the branch 
 of literature that, through all the centuries, has 
 incrusted with imperishable diamonds the poetic 
 crown of those countries which have cultivated 
 letters. He infused into it the true spirit of the 
 ancients, combining within its limits drama, dialogue, 
 description, and both portrait and landscape painting; 
 he conferred upon it the two elements of an epic, 
 the true and the marvelous, and gave it poetry in 
 the familiar disguise of the humblest dialects. _But 
 as he had not invented a system, but had rather 
 acquired his method in the heat of his inspiration 
 and the logic of his work, it had not occurred to him 
 to bind his stories each to each, so as to make them 
 into one complete history, every chapter of which 
 should be a novel, and every novel an epoch. On 
 observing this want of connection, which, however, 
 robs Sir Walter Scott of nothing of his greatness, I 
 perceived at the same time the system best adapted 
 to the execution of my work, and the possibility of 
 executing it. Although I may say that I was dazzled 
 by the astounding invention of Sir Walter Scott, 
 who is always original, and never falls below his 
 own level, I did not despair, for I discovered that 
 the root of his talent lay in the infinite variety of 
 human nature. Chance is the greatest romancer in 
 the world, and a man has but to study it to be gifted
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 with invention. French society was to be the his- 
 torian, and I but the secretary. By taking an 
 inventory of virtues and vices, by collecting signal 
 examples of passion, and by painting from life, by 
 making a selection from the chief social events of 
 the time, and by composing types made up of traits 
 taken from several homogeneous characters, I 
 thought I might succeed in writing the history of 
 human manners that has been forgotten by so many 
 historians. Thus, by patience and perseverance, 
 I might be able to realize for France in the nine- 
 teenth century, the book we so much regret, that 
 Rome, Athens, Tyre, Memphis, Persia and India 
 have not left us to tell us of their civilizations; the 
 same work as that which, after the example of the 
 Abbe Barthelemy, the brave and patient Monteil 
 attempted, in a less attractive form, on the subject 
 of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Still, all this was nothing. By confining himself 
 to the most rigorous reproduction, a writer might 
 be more or less faithful, more or less successful, 
 patient or daring as a painter of human types; he 
 might be the narrator of the dramas of private life, 
 and the archeologist of social furnishings; he might 
 catalogue the various professions and keep a record 
 of good and evil; but to deserve the praise that 
 every artist must be ambitious of receiving, was it 
 not necessary for me to study the cause or causes
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 of social effect, and to apprehend the meaning hid- 
 den under this immense mass of figures, passions 
 and events ? And after having sought, even if 
 without success, the cause that is the motor of the 
 whole social machine, was I not called upon to con- 
 sider the principles of nature, and to discover 
 wherein human society approaches the eternal law /. 
 of beauty and truth, and wherein it strays from it. 
 In spite of the extent of the premises which alone 
 might constitute a work, a conclusion would still be 
 required for the completion of my design. Thus 
 described, society would itself bear witness to the 
 cause of its own advance. 
 
 The law that makes a writer what he is, and, as 
 I am not afraid to say, renders him the equal and 
 perhaps the superior of the statesman, is the settled 
 opinion he holds concerning human affairs, and his 
 absolute devotion to fixed principles. Machiavelli, 
 Hobbes, Bossuet, Leibnitz, Kant, and Montesquieu 
 provide the science which statesmen are to apply. 
 "A writer should have decided belief in politics and 
 morals, and should regard himself as a teacher of 
 men; for men have no need of masters to learn how to 
 doubt," said Bonald. I took these great words early 
 for my guide; they are the law of the monarchical 
 writer no less than of the democratic writer. There- 
 fore, when people shall attempt to find me in- 
 volved in contradictions, it will be discovered that
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 they have misinterpreted some sarcasm of mine, or 
 turned against me the speech of one of my charac- 
 ters, as slanderers are fond of doing. As to the 
 inner meaning and soul of my work, I give its fun- 
 damental principles as follows: 
 
 Man is neither good nor evil, but is born with in- 
 stincts and aptitudes; society, far from corrupting 
 him, as Rousseau thought, improves him and makes 
 him better, but self-interest develops his evil as well 
 as his good inclinations. Christianity, and, above 
 all, Catholicism, as I have said in the Country 'Doc- 
 tor ', is a complete system for the repression of the 
 depraved tendencies of man, and the greatest ele- 
 ment of social order. 
 
 By studying attentively a picture of society, taken 
 as it were from life, with all its good and all its 
 evil, we learn the lesson that if thought, or pas- 
 sion, which includes both thought and feeling, is 
 the social element, it is also the destructive ele- 
 ment. In this, the life of society resembles the 
 life of man, inasmuch as a race acquires lon- 
 gevity on condition of moderating its vital action. 
 Instruction, or rather education by means of 
 religious bodies, is consequently the great princi- 
 ple of a people's existence, and the sole means 
 of diminishing the sum of evil and augmenting the 
 sum of good in every society. Thought, the origin 
 of good and ill, can be qualified, ruled and directed
 
 PREFACE xiii 
 
 by religion alone. The only possible religion is 
 Christianity. (See the letter written from Paris in 
 Louis Lambert, in which the young transcendental 
 philosopher explains, with reference to the doctrine 
 of Swedenborg, that there has never been but one 
 religion since the beginning of the world.) Christi- 
 anity has created the modern nations, and will pre- 
 serve them. From this the monarchical principle 
 necessarily results. Catholicism and kingship are 
 twin principles, but in regard to the limits within 
 which they should be confined in order to restrain 
 them from absolute development, it is plain that a 
 preface as succinct as the present one, should not 
 become a political treatise. Therefore I shall enter 
 into neither the religious nor political dissensions of 
 the moment. I am writing by the light of two 
 eternal truths, religion and monarchy, which are 
 proclaimed to be indispensable by contemporary 
 events, and toward which every writer of good sense 
 should endeavor to recall our country. Without 
 being an enemy of the elective system, which I 
 regard as an excellent constituent principle of law, 
 I oppose it considered as the only social method; 
 above all, when it is as ill-organized as it is to-day, 
 for it does not even represent an imposing minority, 
 the ideas and interests of which a monarchical gov- 
 ernment would be obliged to respect. The elective 
 system, universally applied, leads to government
 
 xiv PREFACE 
 
 by the masses, the only government that is irre- 
 sponsible, and in which there are no bounds to 
 tyranny, for it is called the law. For this reason I 
 regard the family and not the individual as the true 
 element of society, and in this respect, at the risk 
 of being considered retrograde, I place myself beside 
 Bossuet and Bonald, instead of allying myself to 
 modern innovators. Since the elective system has 
 become the only social method, if I have recourse 
 to it myself, no contradiction must be inferred be- 
 tween my opinions and my acts. An engineer may 
 announce that a bridge is on the point of breaking 
 down, and that there is danger in crossing it, yet he 
 goes over it himself when it is the only road he can 
 take to town. Napoleon was marvelously success- 
 ful in adapting the elective system to the genius of 
 our country, and the least important deputies of the 
 legislative body established by him made the most 
 famous orators of the Chambers under the Restora- 
 tion. No Chamber has been equal to the legislative 
 body, if we compare the members of it separately. 
 The elective system of the Empire was incontest- 
 ably the better of the two. 
 
 This declaration will strike some persons as proud 
 and pretentious; they will quarrel with a novel- 
 writer for aspiring to be an historian, and will ask for 
 an explanation of his scheme. My reply is that I 
 am now fulfilling an obligation. The work I have
 
 PREFACE XV 
 
 undertaken will have the length of a history, and I 
 am bound to give a clear interpretation, hitherto 
 unrevealed, of its principles and morals. 
 
 I am necessarily forced to suppress those prefaces 
 published for the sake of replying to criticisms of an 
 essentially transient nature, and will quote but one 
 observation from them. 
 
 Those writers who have an aim, even if that aim 
 be merely a return to such principles as are to be 
 found in the past by reason of their eternal truth, 
 are always expected to clear the ground. If a man 
 carry a stone into the domain of ideas, if he call 
 attention to an abuse, or if he set a mark on an evil 
 in order to facilitate its removal, he must perforce 
 be regarded as immoral. The reproach of immoral- 
 ity, which a courageous writer has never failed to 
 receive, is moreover the last that remains to be 
 addressed to a poet, when everything else has been 
 said to him. If your pictures of life are true; if, by 
 dint of toiling day and night, you succeed in writing 
 the most difficult language in the world, the imputa- 
 tion of immorality will be cast in your face. Socrates 
 was immoral, Jesus Christ was immoral, and both 
 were persecuted in the name of the societies that 
 they were endeavoring to overturn or to reform. 
 When a man wants to annihilate anybody he taxes 
 him with immorality. This trick, so familiar to 
 rival factions, is the disgrace of those who employ
 
 xvi PREFACE 
 
 it. Luther and Calvin knew well what they were 
 doing when they injured material interests by using 
 them as a buckler! So it is that their day is past. 
 
 By copying the whole of society and reproducing 
 it in all its tumultuous agitation, it must inevitably 
 result that a composition should exhibit more evil 
 than good, and that part of the fresco should repre- 
 sent a group of guilty characters; but the critic im- 
 mediately cries out on immorality without calling 
 attention to the morality inculcated by another part 
 of the picture, intended as a complete contrast to 
 the first. As my general plan was unknown, how- 
 ever, I could the more readily forgive the criticism I 
 received, especially as it is as impossible to prevent 
 criticism from using its functions, as it would be to 
 stop the workings of sight, speech and judgment. 
 The time of impartiality has not yet come for me. 
 Besides, the author who has not made up his mind 
 to undergo the fire of criticism has no more call to 
 write than a traveler has to set out upon his jour- 
 ney in expectation that the skies will be always 
 clear. On this point I have still to observe that the 
 most conscientious moralists are extremely doubtful 
 whether society can show as many good as bad 
 actions, but in the picture I have drawn of it there 
 are more virtuous than reprehensible characters. I 
 have made all errors, sins and crimes, from the most 
 trifling to the most serious, meet with punishment,
 
 PREFACE XV ii 
 
 human or divine, secret or public. I have done 
 better than the historian, for I am freer than he. 
 Cromwell received no punishment in this world 
 except that inflicted upon him in imagination. He 
 is still the subject of discussion in one school after 
 another. Bossuet himself treated the great regicide 
 with deference. William of Orange, the usurper, 
 and Hugh Capet, also a usurper, died full of days, 
 without being troubled with more doubts and fears 
 than Henri IV. or Charles I. An analysis of the 
 lives of Catharine II. and Louis XIV. would prove 
 them to be utterly destitute of moral principle were 
 they judged from the standpoint of private morality; 
 for, as Napoleon said, for kings and statesmen 
 there is a small and a great code of morals. 
 The Scenes of Political Life are based upon 
 this interesting reflection. It is not the law of 
 history to tend toward the ideal as the novel 
 does. History is or should be what it was, whereas 
 the novel should be a nobler world, as was said by 
 Madame Necker, one of the most distinguished wits 
 of the last century. But the novel would be of no 
 value if the details of the august falsehood were not 
 correct. Sir Walter Scott was obliged to conform 
 to the ideas of a country that was essentially hypo- 
 critical, and his delineation of women was false, as 
 compared with nature, because his models were 
 schismatics. The Protestant woman has no ideal.
 
 xviii PREFACE 
 
 She may be chaste, pure and virtuous, but she is 
 reserved in her affections, which are always calm 
 and disciplined as if she were fulfilling a duty. It 
 would seem that the Virgin Mary had chilled the 
 hearts of the sophists who banished her and her 
 treasures of mercy from heaven. In Protestantism 
 there is nothing further for a woman after her fall, 
 but in the Catholic Church she is exalted by the 
 hope of pardon. Consequently there is but one 
 type of woman for the Protestant writer, whereas 
 the Catholic finds a new woman in every new situ- 
 ation. If Sir Walter Scott had been a Catholic, and 
 had set himself to the task of describing truly the 
 different and successive stages of society in Scot- 
 land, perhaps he, who drew Effie and Alice the 
 only characters that, in later life, he regretted hav- 
 ing created, might have admitted the passions, 
 with all the sins and punishments they entail, and 
 all the virtues that repentance teaches. Human 
 nature is made up of passion, without which religion, 
 history, romance, and art would be useless. 
 
 On seeing that I made a true picture of the many 
 facts I had collected, some people have been so 
 mistaken as to imagine me a votary of the Panthe- 
 istic school, with its two aspects of sensuality and 
 materialism. But they may be, nay, must be, 
 mistaken. I do not believe in the indefinite progress 
 of society; 1 believe in the individual progress of
 
 PREFACE xix 
 
 man. Those who maintain that I consider man as 
 a finite creature are strangely deceived. Seraphita, 
 that shows the workings of the doctrine of the 
 Christian Buddha, seems to me to furnish a suffi- 
 cient answer to this trifling accusation formerly 
 advanced against me. 
 
 In some portions of my long work I have attempted 
 to bring to popular notice the amazing facts, or, I 
 might say, the marvels of electricity, that exerts so 
 incalculable an effect upon man; but how should 
 those cerebral and nervous phenomena, proving the 
 existence of a new moral world, disturb the sure 
 and certain relations between God and his worlds? 
 How should the Catholic dogmas be shaken by 
 them? If, by indisputable fact, thought is one day 
 classed among those fluids which are known only 
 through their effects, and the substance of which 
 evades our senses, however intensified by mechani- 
 cal contrivances, it will be the same thing as when 
 Christopher Columbus observed that the earth was 
 round, or when Galileo demonstrated that it moved 
 upon its axis. Our future cannot be affected by it. 
 Animal magnetism and its miracles, with which I 
 have been familiar since 1820; the interesting 
 researches of Gall, the successor of Lavater; and 
 all those who, for the last fifty years, have been 
 studying thought as the opticians have been study- 
 ing light, that may be called akin to it, are
 
 XX PREFACE 
 
 conclusive in favor of the mystics, who are the 
 disciples of Saint John the Apostle, and in favor of 
 the great thinkers who have established the spiritual 
 world, in which the relations between man and 
 God are revealed. 
 
 If the meaning of my composition be well under- 
 stood, it will be acknowledged that I accord to 
 indubitable facts of every-day life, whether secret 
 or open, to the acts of. individual existence, and to 
 their origin and cause, the same importance that, 
 up to this time, historians have attached to the 
 public life of nations. The unknown struggle 
 between Madame de Mortsauf and her passion, in a 
 valley of the Indre, is perhaps as great as the most 
 glorious of battles (The Lily of the Valley}, for in the 
 battle it is only the fame of a conqueror that is at 
 stake, whereas, with Madame de Mortsauf it is 
 heaven itself. The misfortunes of the Birotteaus, 
 the priest and the maker of perfumes, seem to me 
 the type of those of humanity. La Fosseuse (The 
 Country Doctor) and Madame Graslin (The Village 
 Priest) are like all women. We all have the same 
 troubles every day. I have had to do a hundred 
 times what Richardson did only once. Lovelace 
 has a thousand forms; for social corruption borrows 
 the colors of the environment in which it is de- 
 veloped. On the other hand, Clarissa, that lovely 
 picture of impassioned virtue, is drawn in lines of
 
 PREFACE xxi 
 
 hopeless purity. A man must be a Raphael to draw 
 many Virgins, and perhaps, in this respect, literature 
 is beneath the level of painting. It may, therefore, 
 be allowed me to draw attention to the many char- 
 acters of irreproachable virtue in the published 
 portions of my work: Pierrette Lorrain, Ursule 
 Mirouet, Constance Birotteau, la Fosseuse, Eugenie 
 Grandet, Marguerite Claes, Pauline de Villenoix, 
 Madame Jules, Madame de la Chanterie, Eve 
 Chardon, Mademoiselle d'Esgrignon, Madame Fir- 
 miani, Agathe Rouget, Renee de Maucombe; also 
 many less important characters, who, though thrown 
 into less conspicuous relief than those mentioned 
 above, offer the reader the same example of domes- 
 tic virtue. Do not Joseph Lebas, Genestas, Ben- 
 assis, the priest Bonnet, the doctor Minoret, 
 Pillerault, David Sechard, the two Birotteaus, the 
 priest Chaperon, the judge Popinot, Bourgeat, the 
 Sauviats, the Tascherons, and many others resolve 
 the difficult literary problem of making a virtuous 
 character interesting? 
 
 It was no trifling task to paint the two or three 
 thousand salient figures of the age, for, after all, 
 that is the number of types presented by every 
 generation, and contained in THE HUMAN COMEDY. 
 This multitude of figures, characters and existences 
 required frames, and, if the expression may be 
 forgiven me, galleries. Hence, as is known, I
 
 xxii PREFACE 
 
 naturally divided my work into SCENES OF PRIVATE 
 LIFE, PROVINCIAL LIFE, PARISIAN LIFE, POLITICAL 
 LIFE, MILITARY AND COUNTRY LIFE. In these six 
 books are classified all the STUDIES OF MANNERS 
 AND MORALS that make up the general history of 
 society, or, as our ancestors would have said, the 
 collection of its deeds and exploits. The six books 
 correspond, moreover, to general ideas. Each has 
 its own sense and meaning, and formulates an 
 epoch of human life. I shall now repeat briefly 
 what was written after an inquiry into my plan by 
 a young genius too early lost to the world of letters, 
 Felix Davin: The SCENES OF PRIVATE LIFE repre- 
 sent childhood and youth with the failings peculiar 
 to those two periods of life, and the SCENES OF 
 PROVINCIAL LIFE represent the age of passion, 
 calculation, self-interest and ambition. The SCENES 
 OF PARISIAN LIFE give a picture of the tastes, vices 
 and all the unbridled tendencies called into being 
 by the customs peculiar to a great capital, in which 
 the extremes of good and evil meet. Each of these 
 three parts has its local color: the social antithesis 
 of Paris and the provinces furnished me with 
 immense resources. Not only men, but also the 
 chief events of life are expressed by types. There 
 are situations and typical phases represented in 
 every existence, and I have tried to be especially 
 exact in this branch of my subject. 1 have
 
 PREFACE xxiii 
 
 attempted to give an idea of the different parts of 
 my beautiful country. My book has its geography 
 as well as its genealogy and its families, its places 
 and its things, its people and its facts; as it has its 
 heraldry, its nobles and its bourgeois, its artisans 
 and its peasants, its politicians, its dandies, and its 
 army in fact, its own world. 
 
 After having portrayed social life in these three 
 books, it still remained for me to describe the 
 exceptional existences that resume the interests of 
 some or all of those who are in any respect outside 
 of the ordinary law of life; hence the SCENES OF 
 POLITICAL LIFE. Having achieved this vast picture 
 of society, was not I called to represent it also in a 
 state of warfare, bursting its bounds either for 
 defence or conquest? Therefore I wrote the SCENES 
 OF MILITARY LIFE, still the least complete portion 
 of my work, but a place for which will be reserved 
 in this edition, so that it may be included in it when 
 it is finished. Finally, the SCENES OF COUNTRY 
 LIFE are, so to speak, the evening of the long day, 
 if the social drama may be so named. In this last 
 book are to be found the purest characters, and the 
 application of the great principles of order, wisdom 
 and morality. 
 
 Such is the foundation of tragedy and comedy and 
 their dramatis persons that underlies the PHILO- 
 SOPHIC STUDIES, the second part of this work, in
 
 xxiv PREFACE 
 
 which the social means to every end are discussed, 
 and the ravages of thought described, sentiment by 
 sentiment. The first book of this series, The Shin 
 of the Wild Ass, connects the STUDIES OF MANNERS 
 AND MORALS with the PHILOSOPHIC STUDIES by 
 the link of an Oriental fancy, in which Life itself is 
 represented in a deadly struggle with Desire, the 
 first principle t>f every passion. 
 
 Above these are the ANALYTICAL STUDIES, but I 
 shall say nothing about them, as but one single one 
 has been published, The Physiology of Marriage. 
 
 Later, I mean to add to this two other works of 
 the same character. First, The Pathology of Social 
 Life; then The Anatomy of Universities and the Mono- 
 graph of Virtue. 
 
 On seeing all that there remains for me to do, 
 some one may say of me what my editors said: 
 " May God grant you a long life!" I pray only 
 that I may not be so tormented by men and things 
 as I have been since I embarked in this terrific 
 undertaking. It has been in my favor, and I thank 
 God for it, that the greatest geniuses and noblest 
 characters of the time, and with them sincere friends, 
 as great in private life as the former are in public 
 life, have shaken me encouragingly by the hand. 
 And why should not I acknowledge that friendship 
 such as theirs, and the testimonies received from 
 time to time from strangers, have sustained me in
 
 PREFACE XXV 
 
 my career, protecting me against myself and against 
 the unjust attacks of others, against calumny that 
 has too often pursued me, against despondency and 
 against the too sanguine hope that is so often taken 
 for inordinate vanity. I had resolved to meet all 
 attacks and insults with impassive stoicism, but on 
 two occasions I have been compelled to defend 
 myself against cowardly slander. If those persons 
 who believe that all injuries should be forgiven 
 regret that I showed my powers in literary fencing, 
 there are some Christians who think that, in the 
 time we live in, it is well to point out the generosity 
 of silence. 
 
 In this connection, I should like to observe that I 
 acknowledge as my works only those that bear my 
 name. Besides the HUMAN COMEDY, there is 
 nothing of mine except the Hundred Comic Tales, 
 two plays, and some separate articles, all signed. 
 I am now availing myself of an incontestable right, 
 but my disavowal, even if it should include those 
 works in which I have had some share, is due less 
 to vanity than to a regard for truth. If people 
 persist in attributing to me books which, from a 
 literary point of view, I do not acknowledge as mine, 
 but with the copyright of which I have been en- 
 trusted, I shall allow them to say what they please, 
 for the same reason that I leave the field free to 
 calumny.
 
 XXVi PREFACE 
 
 The immensity of a scheme that embraces at once 
 the history and the criticism of society, the analysis 
 of its evils and the discussion of its principles, author- 
 ized me, I believe, to give my work the title of 
 THE HUMAN COMEDY, under which it appears 
 to-day. Whether it is too ambitious, or only just, 
 the public must decide when the work is finished. 
 
 PARIS, July, 1842.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE
 
 TO HIS HIGHNESS THE PRINCE ALFONSO 
 SERAFINO Dl PORCIA : 
 
 Permit me to place your name before a work 
 essentially Parisian, and contemplated in your 
 house during the past weeks. Is it not natural to 
 offer you flowers of eloquence which have sprouted 
 in your garden and been watered by regrets which 
 brought on homesickness that you have soothed, 
 when I wandered beneath the boschetti whose oaks 
 brought back to my mind the Champs-Elysees? 
 Perhaps by this means I may redeem the crime of 
 having dreamed of Paris before the Duomo, of 
 having longed for our muddy streets on the clean 
 and neat pavements of Porta Renza. When I shall 
 have several volumes ready to publish, which can be 
 dedicated to certain of the Milanese, I shall be glad 
 to find names already dear to the old Italian story- 
 tellers among those of persons whom we love and 
 in memory of whom I ask you to recall 
 
 Yours with sincere affection, 
 >/>, 1838. DE BALZAC. 
 
 (I)
 
 PART FIRST 
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 
 * 
 
 In 1824, at the last ball of the Opera, many mas- 
 queraders were struck with the beauty of a young 
 man who was walking up and down the corridors 
 and foyer, with the appearance of a person in search 
 of some woman, whom unforeseen circumstances 
 had kept at home. The secret of his motions, lazy 
 and hurried by turns, is known only to some old 
 women and to a few habitual loafers. In this vast 
 meeting ground the crowd pays little heed to the 
 crowd: interests are intense; idleness itself is pre- 
 occupied. The young dandy was so completely 
 absorbed in his restless search that he did not per- 
 ceive his success; the exclamations of sarcastic 
 admiration from some masqueraders, marks of gen- 
 uine surprise, gestures of derision, soft words, he 
 heard them not, he saw them not. Although his 
 beauty classed him among those exceptional persons 
 who come to the ball of the Opera in search of 
 adventure, and who wait for it as people used to 
 wait for a lucky stroke at roulette, while Frascati 
 was alive, he appeared to be vulgarly confident of 
 his evening's success. He was evidently the hero 
 
 (3)
 
 4 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 of one of those dramas of three characters which 
 compose the entire masked ball at the Opera and 
 are known only to such persons as play their parts; 
 since, for young women who go simply in order 
 to say "I have seen it," for country folk, for un- 
 sophisticated young people, and for foreigners, the 
 Opera must be the palace of weariness of body 
 and mind. To them this black throng, slow and 
 crowded, which goes, comes, twines, turns, returns, 
 mounts, descends, and which can be compared 
 only to ants on a wood-pile, is no more compre- 
 hensible than the Exchange is to a Breton peasant 
 who has never heard of a ledger. With rare 
 exceptions men in Paris do not mask themselves. 
 A man in a domino looks absurd. Here the char- 
 acter of the nation is strikingly shown. People 
 who are anxious to hide their happiness can go 
 to the ball at the Opera without making their ap- 
 pearance public, and the masks necessary at the 
 door disappear at once within. A most amusing 
 sight is the confusion at the door after the ball has 
 begun: the mass of people making their exit at odds 
 with the new-comers. Then the masked men are 
 jealous husbands come to spy upon their wives, or 
 lucky husbands not caring to be spied upon by them; 
 two situations equally ridiculous. But, though he 
 knew it not, the young man was followed by a fel- 
 low in a murderous-looking mask, fat and short, and 
 lumbering along like a barrel. To the habitue of 
 the Opera, this domino betrayed a manager, an agent 
 on Change, a banker, a notary, some bourgeois
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 5 
 
 suspicious of his unfaithful wife. In truth, in the 
 highest society, nobody courts humiliating evidence. 
 Several masqueraders had already pointed mock- 
 ingly at this monstrous-looking personage; others 
 had called out to him; some youngsters had jeered 
 at him. His bearing and demeanor showed marked 
 contempt for these random shots. He followed 
 wherever the young man led, like a hunted boar 
 who cares not for the bullets that whistle past his 
 ears nor the dogs that bark upon his trail. 
 
 Although, upon their first arrival, pleasure and 
 anxiety had donned the same livery, the famous 
 black gown of Venice, and in spite of the confusion 
 of the Opera ball, the different cliques of which 
 Parisian society is composed, met, greeted one an- 
 other and looked about. For the initiated there are 
 inferences so accurate that this magic volume can 
 be read as easily as an amusing novel. 
 
 The habitues would never have thought this man 
 in luck; he would surely have worn some significant 
 favor red, white, or green, the sign of some former 
 success in love. Was he in pursuit of revenge? 
 As they watched the masked figure dogging the 
 steps of the lucky man, several idlers gave heed 
 once more to the handsome youth about whose face 
 joy had spread her divine halo. The young man 
 attracted more and more attention; the more he 
 walked, the more he aroused the general curiosity. 
 Everything about him displayed habits of refine- 
 ment. In accordance with a fatal law of our 
 epoch, there was little difference, physical or moral,
 
 6 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 between the most distinguished the most well-bred 
 son of a duke or peer, and this attractive boy who had 
 but yesterday been clutched by the iron hand of pov- 
 erty in the midst of Paris. With him, youth and 
 beauty could hide deep gulfs as they can with many 
 young men who are ambitious to play a part in 
 Paris without possessing the capital necessary to 
 support their pretensions, and who every day risk 
 all for all, making sacrifice before the god most 
 worshiped in this royal city, Chance yet his dress 
 and manner were faultless. He trod the classic 
 floor of the foyer like a man accustomed to the Opera 
 from his youth. Who has not noticed that here, 
 as in every zone of Paris, there is a method which 
 reveals who you are, what you are doing, whence 
 you come, and what you wish? 
 
 " How handsome he is! I can turn here to look 
 at him," said a masquerader in whom the habitues 
 recognized a woman of fashion. 
 
 "Don't you remember him?" answered her 
 cavalier. " Yet Madame du Chatelet introduced him 
 to you ." 
 
 " What, the little apothecary whom she was in 
 love with, who turned journalist, Mademoiselle 
 Coralie's lover? " 
 
 " I thought he had fallen too deep ever to climb 
 up again, and I can't understand how he can appear 
 once more in Paris society," said Count Sixte du 
 Chatelet. 
 
 " He has the air of a prince," said the domino, 
 "and that actress with whom he lived never gave it
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 7 
 
 to him; my cousin, who found him out, could never 
 have scrubbed him so clean. I should like to know 
 this Sargine's mistress. Tell me something about 
 her life which can help me to her acquaintance." 
 
 This couple, which followed the young man, whis- 
 pering as they went, were carefully noted by the 
 masquerader with the square shoulders. 
 
 " Dear Mr. Chardon," said the prefect of Charente, 
 taking the dandy's arm, "allow me to present you 
 to a lady who wishes to renew her acquaintance 
 with you." 
 
 " Dear Count Chatelet," answered the young 
 man, " this lady herself has taught me the absurdity 
 of the name by which you address me. A royal 
 prescript has restored to me the name of my mother's 
 ancestors, the Rubempres. Though the newspapers 
 have announced the fact, it concerns such a humble 
 person that I do not blush to recall it alike to friends, 
 enemies and mere acquaintances. Class yourself 
 where you will, but I am sure that you will not dis- 
 approve a step to which I was advised by your wife 
 when she was as yet simply Madame de Bargeton." 
 
 This delicate epigram, at which the lady smiled, 
 made the prefect of Charente feel a nervous chill. 
 
 "Tell her," added Lucien, "that I bear gules, 
 with a mad bull of silver in a field sinople." 
 
 " Mad for silver," repeated Chatelet. 
 
 " Madame la Marquise will explain to you, if you 
 do not know, why this ancient crest is somewhat 
 better than the chamberlain's key and the golden 
 bees of the Empire which may be found in yours to
 
 8 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the great despair of Madame Chatelet, nee Ntyre- 
 pelisse d'Espard/' said Lucien sardonically. 
 
 " Since you have recognized me, I can puzzle you 
 no further, and I can't tell you how much you puzzle 
 me," said the Marquise d'Espard in a low tone, 
 amazed at the impertinence and cleverness of a man 
 whom she had formerly despised. 
 
 " Allow me then, madame, to preserve the sole 
 chance I have of holding your attention by remain- 
 ing in this mysterious shadow," said he with the 
 smile of a man who does not care to imperil happi- 
 ness that is assured. 
 
 The marquise could not repress a slight start on 
 feeling herself (to use an English expression) snubbed 
 by Lucien's conciseness. 
 
 " I congratulate you on your change of position," 
 said the Count du Chatelet. 
 
 "And I accept your compliment in the spirit in 
 which you make it," answered Lucien, bowing to 
 the marquise with surpassing grace. 
 
 " The coxcomb ! " said the count in a low tone to 
 Madame d'Espard, " he has ended by outdoing his 
 ancestors." 
 
 "When fatuity falls upon us young people it 
 means almost invariably good fortune in some high 
 place: but with the rest of you it means bad luck. 
 Besides I should like to know which of our friends 
 has taken this pretty bird under her protection; 
 perhaps I might then find the chance of amusing my- 
 self to-night. Of course, my anonymous note is a 
 spiteful trick arranged by some rival, for it concerns
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 9 
 
 this young man; his impertinence has been dictated 
 to him. Watch him. I am going to take the Duke de 
 Navarreins' arm; you will know where to find me." 
 
 Just as Madame d'Espard was about to speak to 
 her relative, the mysterious masquerader stepped 
 between her and the duke to whisper in her ear: 
 
 " Lucien loves you. He it is who wrote the 
 note. Your prefect is his worst enemy. How could 
 he explain before him?" 
 
 The stranger moved away, leaving Madame d'Es- 
 pard prey to a double surprise. The marquise knew 
 nobody in the world who could play the part of this 
 unknown mask. Fearing a trap, she walked away 
 to find a seat and disappeared. Count Sixte du 
 Chatelet, whose ambitious purpose Lucien had cut 
 short with an affectation which betrayed long con- 
 templated vengeance, followed the consummate 
 dandy, and soon met a young man with whom he 
 thought he could speak freely. 
 
 " Ah, Rastignac, have you seen Lucien? He has 
 shed his skin. He's completely transformed." 
 
 " If I were as good-looking as he, I should be richer 
 than he," answered the young swell in a flippant 
 but shrewd tone, that gave token of attic sarcasm. 
 
 "No," whispered the big masquerader, paying 
 back his sarcasm with interest by the manner in 
 which he accented the monosyllable. 
 
 Rastignac, who was not the man to swallow an 
 insult, stood as if struck by lightning, and allowed 
 himself to be led into the embrasure of a window 
 by an iron grasp which he could not shake off.
 
 10 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 " You young cock, fresh from mother Vauquer's 
 chicken-coop, you who dared not seize old Taille- 
 fer's millions when the hardest part of the work was 
 done, know, for your own safety, if you don't treat 
 Lucien like a brother that you love, that you are 
 in our hands, though we are not in yours. Silence 
 and devotion, or I'll join your game and knock over 
 your nine-pins. Lucien de Rubempre is protected by 
 the greatest power of to-day, the Church. Choose 
 between life and death. Your answer?" 
 
 Rastignac felt his head swim, like a man who has 
 gone to sleep in a forest and wakes up to find him- 
 self beside a hungry lioness. He was afraid: there 
 were no witnesses; at times like this, the bravest 
 men give themselves up to fear. 
 
 "Only he could know and dare ," he said to 
 himself half aloud. 
 
 The mask squeezed his hand to prevent his finish- 
 ing his sentence. 
 
 " Act as if it were he," said he. 
 
 Then Rastignac did as does a millionaire when he 
 is held up on the highroad by a brigand ; he sur- 
 rendered. 
 
 He stepped toward du Chatelet and said: "My 
 dear count, if you value your position, treat Lucien 
 de Rubempre as a man whom, some day, you'll find 
 in a much higher place than yours." 
 
 The black figure allowed an imperceptible gesture 
 of satisfaction to escape him, and walked off after 
 Lucien. 
 
 " Well, my friend, you have changed your opinion
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE II 
 
 of him rather speedily," answered the prefect, nat- 
 urally astonished. 
 
 " As speedily as those who sit in the centre and 
 vote with the right," retorted Rastignac to this 
 deputy-prefect whose vote had been lost to the min- 
 istry during the past few days. 
 
 "Are there any honest opinions nowadays? 
 There are only self-interests," said des Lupeaulx, 
 who was listening to them. "What is it all about?" 
 
 " About Monsieur de Rubempre. Rastignac wants 
 me to think that he is rather important," said the 
 deputy to the general secretary. 
 
 "My dear count," returned des Lupeaulx gravely, 
 "Monsieur de Rubempre is a young man of the 
 greatest merit and so well backed that I should be 
 very pleased to be able to renew my acquaintance 
 with him." 
 
 "There he goes tumbling into the wasp-nest of 
 the rakes of the day," said Rastignac. 
 
 The three speakers turned toward a corner where 
 stood several wits, men more or less famous, and sev- 
 eral swells. These gentlemen shared their observa- 
 tions, their jokes and their scandals, trying to amuse 
 themselves or waiting for some amusement to turn 
 up. In this strangely mingled group were persons 
 with whom Lucien had had varied relations: connec- 
 tions outwardly pleasant and ill-turns glossed over. 
 
 " Well, Lucien, my boy, here we are again, all 
 cleaned and mended. Whence do we come ? So 
 we've remounted our steed by dint of the presents 
 dispatched from Florine's boudoir?" "Bravo, my
 
 12 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 boy!" exclaimed Blondet, dropping Finot's arm in 
 order to grasp Lucien familiarly by the waist and 
 press him to his heart. 
 
 Andoche Finot was the owner of a review for 
 which Lucien had worked almost gratis, and which 
 Blondet was enriching by his collaboration, the wis- 
 dom of his advice and the depths of his opinions. 
 Finot and Blondet personified Bertrand and Raton, 
 with this simple difference that la Fontaine's cat 
 eventually woke up to the fact that he was being 
 duped, while Blondet, though aware all along of the 
 imposture, kept on toiling for Finot. This brilliant 
 condottiere of the pen was, in fact, destined to a long 
 slavery. Beneath a heavy exterior, beneath the 
 dulness of a surly impertinence, Finot concealed a 
 brutal will sprinkled with cleverness as a laborer's 
 bread is spread with garlic. He knew how to gather 
 in the harvest of thoughts and of money which he 
 reaped from the fields of the dissolute lives led by 
 men of letters and men of politics. To his misfor- 
 tune, Blondet had sold his strength to his vices and 
 to his idleness. Constantly overtaken by want, he 
 belonged to the unfortunate band of clever people 
 who can do everything for the fortunes of others 
 and nothing for their own: Aladdins who lend their 
 lamps. These admirable counselors have minds 
 that are clear and just when they are not perverted 
 by self-interest. With them it is the head and not 
 the hand that acts. Thence comes the looseness of 
 their manners, and thence it is that weaker minds 
 load them with contumely. Blondet shared his
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 13 
 
 purse with the comrade he had wounded the night 
 before; he dined, drank, slept with the man he 
 would throttle on the morrow. His amusing para- 
 doxes justified everything. He took the whole 
 world as a joke, and he did not wish to be taken in 
 earnest. Young, popular, almost famous, happy, 
 he did not, like Finot, spend his time in acquiring 
 the fortune that his old age would need. The rarest 
 kind of courage, perhaps, is that which Lucien needed 
 at this moment, to snub Blondet as he had just 
 snubbed Madame d'Espard and Chatelet. Unfortu- 
 nately, with him, the pleasures of vanity interfered 
 with the exercise of pride, which surely is the be- 
 ginning of many great things. His vanity had tri- 
 umphed in the last encounter; he had shown himself 
 rich, happy and disdainful toward two persons who 
 had disdained him when he was poor and wretched. 
 But as a poet, could he, like a hardened diplomat, 
 break from two self-styled friends who had received 
 him in his poverty and given him a bed in the days 
 of his distress? Finot, Blondet and he had debased 
 themselves together, they had revelled in orgies 
 which had swallowed only the gold of their creditors. 
 Like soldiers who do not know how to use their 
 courage, Lucien did what many people in Paris do. 
 He compromised his character afresh by accepting 
 Finot's handshake without discarding Blondet's 
 caress. Whoever has dipped into journalism or 
 is still in it, lies under the hard necessity of 
 bowing to men he despises, smiling upon his worst 
 enemy, consorting with the rankest baseness, and
 
 14 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 dirtying his fingers in his struggle to pay his adver- 
 saries in their own coin. He grows accustomed to 
 seeing evil, to letting it pass; he begins by sanction- 
 ing it, he ends by doing it. As time goes on, the soul, 
 spotted continually by shameful dealings, decays, 
 the spring of noble thoughts rusts, the hinges of 
 low standards swing and turn of themselves. Alceste 
 becomes Philinte; characters weaken, talents de- 
 teriorate, high ideals of work disappear. The man 
 who was wont to pride himself on his paragraphs 
 wastes his energies on wretched articles which, 
 sooner or later, his conscience points at as if they 
 were so many sins. Some have tried, like Lousteau, 
 like Vernou, to be great authors. They become 
 nerveless writers of reviews. We cannot honor too 
 highly writers whose character is as lofty as their 
 talent, men like d'Arthez, who can walk with firm 
 step across the quicksands of literary life. Lucien 
 knew not what to answer to the wheedling of Blon- 
 det, whose mind exercised over him an irresistible 
 fascination the ascendant of the corruptor over his 
 pupil. Besides Blondet had a recognized position 
 in the world through his liaison with the Countess de 
 Montcornet. 
 
 " Has an uncle left you his fortune ?" asked Finot 
 in a sarcastic voice. 
 
 " I have been bowling down fools, after your 
 fashion," answered Lucien in the same tone. 
 
 " Possibly monsieur has a review, some journal?" 
 answered Andoche Finot with all the conceited im- 
 pertinence that the sharper shows toward his victim.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 15 
 
 "Better still," replied Lucien, whose vanity, 
 wounded by the affected superiority of the editor, 
 gave him the spirit his new position warranted. 
 
 " And what may that be, my friend?" 
 
 " I have a purpose." 
 
 "Lucien has one of his purposes," said Vernou 
 smiling. 
 
 " This fellow has beaten you, Finot; I told you 
 he would. Lucien has talent. You have mismanaged 
 him and spoiled him. Think it over, you great 
 blockhead!" exclaimed Blondet. 
 
 Penetrating as musk, Blondet discerned more than 
 one secret in Lucien's gesture, accent and manner. 
 Even as he soothed him, he was able to tighten the 
 curb by his words. He wanted to know the reasons 
 for Lucien's return to Paris, his projects and his 
 means of livelihood. 
 
 " Down on your knees before a superiority that 
 you shall never reach, whoever you are, Finot," he 
 went on. "Admit this gentleman on the instant, 
 to the number of those to whom the future belongs; 
 he is one of us. Witty and handsome, as he is, 
 must not he succeed by your quibuscumque viis. 
 Here he stands in his good Milanese armor, with his 
 strong dagger half drawn and his banner flying. 
 In heaven's name, Lucien, where did you steal that 
 charming waistcoat ? Love alone can discover 
 cloth like that. Have we a home? Just now I need 
 to know my friends' addresses. I have nowhere 
 to sleep. Finot has turned me out for to-night on 
 the common pretext of pleasure."
 
 16 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 " My boy," said Lucien, " I have put into practice 
 an axiom which assures me a quiet life: Fuge, late, 
 face. \ must go." 
 
 " But 1 won't let you go until you pay me a sacred 
 debt that little supper, hey?" said Blondet, who 
 was rather too much given to good cheer and liked 
 to be treated when his pockets were empty. 
 
 "What supper?" demanded Lucien with a hasty 
 gesture of impatience. 
 
 "Don't you remember? This is the way 1 
 recognize a friend's prosperity: his memory is 
 gone." 
 
 "He knows what he owes us. I'll stand surety 
 for his heart," broke in Finot, who understood 
 Blondet's joke. 
 
 "Rastignac," said Blondet, taking the young 
 swell by the arm as he came to the column above 
 the foyer, where the three friends were grouped, 
 "there's a supper stirring; you'll make one of us. 
 At least, unless this gentleman persists in denying a 
 debt of honor; he may." 
 
 "Monsieur de Rubempre is incapable of it, I'll 
 warrant him," said Rastignac, who was thinking of 
 something very different from a jest. 
 
 "There's Bixiou," cried Blondet, "he'll make 
 one. Nothing is complete without him. When 
 he's away, champagne sticks to my tongue and I 
 find everything tasteless even to the spice of epi- 
 grams." 
 
 "Friends," said Bixiou, "I see that you are 
 crowded round the wonder of the day. Our dear
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 17 
 
 Lucien brings back the metamorphoses of Ovid. Just 
 as the gods used to change into peculiar vegetables 
 and other things to seduce women, he has changed Le 
 Chardon into a gentleman to seduce, what? Charles 
 X! My dear Lucien," said he, holding him by a 
 button of his coat, "a journalist who goes about 
 dressed like a lord deserves a pretty reception. If 
 I were in their place," said the pitiless jester, point- 
 ing towards Finot and Vernou, "I should slander 
 you in their paper; you would bring them in a hun- 
 dred francs, ten columns of jokes." 
 
 "Bixiou, a host is sacred for twenty-four hours 
 before and a dozen more after dinner; our distin- 
 guished friend invites us to supper." 
 
 "What! what! " exclaimed Bixiou; "but can there 
 be anything more necessary than to save a great 
 name from oblivion or to endow a needy aristoc- 
 racy with a man of genius? Lucien, the press 
 esteems you; you have been its brightest orna- 
 ment, and we will uphold you. Finot, a filet, the 
 best in Paris! Blondet, a sugared sweetmeat on the 
 fourth page of your paper. Let's advertise the 
 appearance of the finest book of the age, The 
 Archer of Charles IX! Beg Dauriat to give us The 
 Marguerites at once, those divine sonnets of the 
 French Petrarch; carry our friend on the shield of 
 stamped paper which makes and unmakes reputa- 
 tions." 
 
 "If you care to sup," said Lucien to Blondet, 
 endeavoring to rid himself of the throng which 
 threatened to increase, " it seems to me that you
 
 1 8 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 have no need of making use of parables and hyper- 
 bole with an old friend as if he were an idiot. To- 
 morrow evening at Lointier's," said he, darting 
 forward at the sight of a woman. 
 
 "Oh! oh! oh!" cried Bixiou, in three distinct 
 keys and with a scoffing air as he appeared to recog- 
 nize the domino before which Lucien was walking, 
 "this deserves to be looked into." 
 
 And he followed the handsome couple, passed 
 them, scrutinized them carefully and returned, much 
 to the satisfaction of the envious group who were 
 eager to know the source of Lucien's altered for- 
 tunes. 
 
 "My friends, you have long since known Mon- 
 sieur de Rubempre's good fortune," said Bixiou. 
 "It's des Lupeaulx' old rat." 
 
 One of the evils, forgotten nowadays, but common 
 at the opening of this century, was the luxury of 
 rats. "A rat" the word is already antiquated was 
 applied to a girl of ten or eleven years, attached to 
 some theatre, or more often to the Opera, and edu- 
 cated by libertines in a life of vice and infamy. A 
 rat was a kind of devil's page, a girl transformed 
 into a street arab who enjoyed freedom from punish- 
 ment. The rat could steal everything; people had to 
 look out for it as a dangerous animal. It brought 
 into life an element of gayety, the part played in 
 the old comedy by the Scapins, the Sganarelles and 
 the Frontins. A rat was too expensive; it brought 
 neither honor, nor profit, nor pleasure. The fashion 
 of rats passed away so completely that few people
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 19 
 
 of to-day knew this intimate detail of high life before 
 the Restoration until the moment when several 
 writers seized upon the rat as though it were a new 
 subject. 
 
 "What, would Lucien rob us of La Torpille after 
 he has had Coralie killed under him? " 
 
 On hearing these words the broad-shouldered 
 looking masquerader made an involuntary motion 
 which, slight as it was, did not escape Rastignac's 
 notice. 
 
 "That's impossible," answered Finot, "La Tor- 
 pille hasn't a farthing to give him. Nathan told me 
 that she borrowed a thousand francs of Florine." 
 
 "Gentlemen, gentlemen!" said Rastignac, seeking 
 to defend Lucien against these odious imputations. 
 
 " Well," cried Vernou, " has the gentleman, after 
 having been kept by Coralie, turned into an old 
 prude?" 
 
 " Oh," said Bixiou, " those thousand francs make 
 me quite sure that our friend Lucien lives with La 
 Torpille." 
 
 " What an irreparable loss to the choice spirits of 
 literature, science, art and politics! " exclaimed 
 Blondet. " La Torpille is the only woman who 
 has the making of a perfect courtesan. Teach- 
 ing has not spoiled her; she can neither read nor 
 write: she would have understood us. We should 
 have adorned our time with one of those splendid 
 Aspasia-Iike figures without which a century cannot 
 be great. See how du Barry decorates the i8th 
 century, Ninon de Lenclos the I7th, Marion de
 
 20 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Lorme the i6th, Imperce the i5th, Flora the Roman 
 republic, which she made her heir and which was 
 able to pay the public debt with this inheritance! 
 What would Horace be without Lydia, Tibullus 
 without Delia, Catullus without Lesbia, Propertius 
 without Cynthia, Demetrius without Lamia, whose 
 glory she is to-day?" 
 
 " Blondet, talking of Demetrius in the foyer of 
 the Opera, seems to me rather too much like copy 
 for the Debats" whispered Bixiou in his neighbor's 
 ear. 
 
 "And without all these queens what would the 
 empire of the Caesars be?" went on Blondet; 
 " Lais, Rhodope are Greece and Egypt. Besides 
 they are the poetry of the centuries in which they 
 lived. This poetry which Napoleon lacked, for 
 the widow of his great army is a barrack-room joke, 
 was not wanting to the Revolution with its Madame 
 Tallien. And now in France, where it is undecided 
 who shall elect a queen, surely there is a vacant 
 throne. It was our chance. We might have made 
 a queen. I should have given la Torpille an aunt, 
 for it is too well known that her mother died on the 
 field of dishonor; du Tillet would have bought her 
 a house; Lousteau, a carriage; Rastignac, footmen; 
 Lupeaulx, a cook; Finot, bonnets;" Finot could not 
 withhold a start as he smarted beneath this joke ; 
 "Vernou would have puffed her; Bixiou would 
 have made his wittiest speeches for her. The aris- 
 tocracy would have sought their amusements at our 
 Ninon's, and we should have summoned the artists
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 21 
 
 thither under pain of death. Ninon II. would have 
 been superbly impertinent, crushingly luxurious. 
 She would have had her own ideas. At her house 
 some forbidden masterpiece of drama would have 
 been read, or might at need have been written to 
 order. She would not have been democratic; a 
 courtesan is monarchical by nature. Ah, what a loss! 
 She, who should love her generation, adores one 
 small man! Lucien will make a hunting-dog of 
 her." 
 
 " Not one of the royal women you have named 
 has ever grubbed in the street," said Finot, "and 
 this charming rat has wallowed in the mire." 
 
 "Like the seed of a lily in its earth," replied 
 Vernou, " she has grown more beautiful and 
 has bloomed in her dirt. Thence comes her su- 
 periority. Mustn't one know all things in order 
 to create laughter and joy which belongs to all 
 things?" 
 
 "He is right," said Lousteau, who, until then, 
 had looked on in silence; "La Torpille can laugh 
 and make others laugh. This knowledge of great 
 authors and great actors belongs to those who have 
 penetrated to the depths of social life. At eighteen 
 this girl has known already the height of wealth, 
 the abyss of poverty and men of every class. She 
 holds, as it were, a magic wand wherewith she un- 
 chains the brutal appetites so violently compressed 
 within the minds of men who still have some heart 
 though they are busied with the world of politics 
 or of science, of literature or of art. There is no
 
 22 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 woman in Paris who can say to the brute, as she 
 can: ' Up !' And the brute leaves his lair and goes 
 out to revel in debauchery. She seats you at her 
 table, she helps you to drink, to smoke. In short 
 this woman is the salt sung of by Rabelais which, 
 when it is cast on matter, kindles a soul and raises 
 it to the marvelous regions of art. Her gowns dis- 
 play unheard-of splendor. At times, her fingers 
 drop their jewels as her mouth its smiles. She gives to 
 everything the spirit of the hour. Her talk sparkles 
 with brilliant sallies. She has the secret of the 
 brightest and most effective onomatopoeia; she " 
 
 "You are wasting columns of newspaper," said 
 Bixiou, interrupting Lousteau; "La Torpille is im- 
 measurably better than all that. You have all of you 
 been her lovers more or less; not one of you can say 
 that she has been his mistress. She can have you 
 all at any time; you will never have her. You 
 force her door; you have a favor to beg of her." 
 
 "Oh, she's more generous than a bandit chief- 
 tain on the crest of the wave, and more devoted 
 than the best college friend," said Blondet. " You 
 may trust her with your purse and your secrets. 
 But the reason that makes me vote for her as queen 
 is her Bourbon indifference to the fallen favorite." 
 
 " Like her mother, she's much too dear," said des 
 Lupeaulx. "The Dutch beauty would have swal- 
 lowed the revenues of the Archbishop of Toledo. 
 She has devoured two notaries " 
 
 " And reared Maxime de Trailles when he was 
 a page," said Bixiou.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 23 
 
 " La Torpille is too dear, as Raphael, as Carme, 
 as Taglioni, as Lawrence, as Boulle, as all artists of 
 genius were too dear," said Blondet. 
 
 " Esther never had that look of a woman dressed 
 to perfection," said Rastignac, pointing toward the 
 domino to whom Lucien was offering his arm. " I'll 
 bet on Madame de Serizy." 
 
 "There's no doubt about it," cried du Cha"telet. 
 " Monsieur de Rubempre's good fortune is ex- 
 plained." 
 
 " Ah ! The Church knows how to choose her 
 levites. What a charming secretary to an embassy 
 he will make!" said des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " And all the more," replied Rastignac, "as Lucien 
 is a man of talent. These gentlemen have more 
 than one proof of it," added he, turning toward 
 Blondet, Finot and Lousteau. 
 
 "Yes. That fellow's cutout to get on in the 
 world," said Lousteau, who was bursting with 
 jealousy, "and all the more because he has what 
 we call independence of mind." 
 
 "It was you that moulded him," said Vernou. 
 
 "Very well," answered Bixiou, looking at des 
 Lupeaulx, " I appeal to the memory of the general 
 secretary and master of requests. That domino is 
 La Torpille, I'll bet a supper on it." 
 
 "I'll take the bet," said du Chatelet, eager to 
 learn the truth. 
 
 " Come, des Lupeaulx," said Finot, " see whether 
 you can't recognize your old rat's ears." 
 
 "There's no reason for committing treason against
 
 24 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the masquer," answered Bixiou, "La Torpille and 
 Lucien will pass us as they walk back across the 
 foyer, and then I'll prove that it is she, I prom- 
 ise you." 
 
 " So our friend Lucien has come to the surface?" 
 said Nathan, who had joined the group. " I supposed 
 that he had gone back to Angoumois for the rest of 
 his days. Has he discovered some secret against 
 the English?" 
 
 " He has done what you won't do in a hurry. He 
 has paid everything." 
 
 The broad masquerader nodded his head in as- 
 sent. 
 
 " In settling down," said Nathan, "a man always 
 unsettles himself. He loses all his spirit; he be- 
 comes a bondholder." 
 
 " Oh ! He'll always be high and mighty. He'll 
 always have a loftiness of mind that will raise 
 him above his so-called superiors," answered Ras- 
 tignac. 
 
 At this minute journalists, dandies, idlers, all 
 scanned the fascinating object of their bet, like 
 jockeys examining a horse on sale. These judges, 
 hardened among scenes of Parisian depravity, all of 
 excellent minds and each in a different path, corrupt- 
 ors alike, alike corrupt, all devoted to unchecked 
 ambition, accustomed to take everything for granted 
 and to leave nothing undiscovered, had their eyes 
 excitedly fastened upon a masked woman, a woman 
 who could be identified by them alone. Only they 
 and some few habitues of the Opera ball could
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 25 
 
 recognize, beneath the long shroud of the black 
 domino, beneath the hood, beneath the falling cape 
 which hides a woman so completely, the curves of 
 form, the individualities of presence and gait, the 
 movement of the waist, the carriage of the head, the 
 things least noticeable to the common eye and the 
 most easy for them to discern. In spite of the shape- 
 less exterior they could recognize that most moving 
 sight that the eye can see: a woman moved by true 
 love. Whether she were La Torpille, the Duchess of 
 Maufrigneuse or Madame de Serizy, the last or the 
 first round of the social ladder, this creature was 
 an admirable creation, the light of a happy dream. 
 These old young men and young old men alike felt 
 a sensation so poignant that they envied Lucien 
 the exalted privilege of this transformation of a 
 woman into a goddess. The masked figure walked 
 as if she were alone with Lucien. For this woman 
 there were no longer ten thousand people, an atmos- 
 phere heavy and thick with dust. No, she was 
 beneath the heavenly vault of love, as Raphael's 
 Madonnas are beneath their oval fillets of gold. She 
 did not feel the press of the throng; the flame of her 
 glance shot from the twin holes in her mask and 
 darted into Lucien's eyes; the very quivering of her 
 frame seemed to have for its motive the correspond- 
 ing movement of her lover. Whence comes this 
 flame which sheds its light about a woman in love, 
 which marks her from the crowd? Whence comes 
 this fairy lightness which seems to change the laws 
 of weight? Is it the soul escaping? Has happiness
 
 26 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 bodily virtues? The simplicity of a girl, the graces 
 of childhood show forth from beneath the domino. 
 Though they are separate and in motion, these two 
 beings resemble those groups of Flora and Zephyrus 
 cunningly intertwined by the cleverest sculptors. 
 But this was greater than sculpture, the greatest of 
 arts. Lucien and his lovely domino brought to mind 
 those angels playing with birds and flowers which 
 Jean Bellini's brush has placed beneath his pictures 
 of the Virgin mother. Lucien and this woman be- 
 longed to the imagination which is above art as 
 cause is above effect. 
 
 When this woman, forgetful of everything, was 
 at a single step from the group, Bixiou cried out: 
 " Esther!" 
 
 The unfortunate woman turned her head quickly 
 as if she had heard her name, then, recognizing the 
 malicious figure, she hung her head like a dying 
 man as he breathes his last. There was a shrill 
 burst of laughter, and the group melted into the 
 midst of the crowd as frightened field-mice scuttle 
 from the roadside to their holes. Rastignac alone 
 did not go farther than was necessary, in order to 
 avoid the appearance of shrinking before the angry 
 glance of Lucien. He could wonder at two sorrows 
 equally deep although hidden; one, poor Torpille 
 stricken down as if by lightning, the other, the un- 
 known masquerader, the only person in the group 
 who had not stirred. Esther whispered one word 
 in Lucien's ear, her knees trembled beneath her, 
 and Lucien disappeared supporting her. Rastignac
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 27 
 
 looked after the handsome couple and stood buried 
 in his thoughts. 
 
 "Whence came this name of Torpille?" said a 
 gloomy voice which went through him like a knife, 
 for it was no longer disguised. 
 
 " It is he. He has escaped again," said Rastignac 
 aside. 
 
 "Silence or I'll throttle you," answered the mas- 
 querader, assuming a different voice. "I am satis- 
 fied with you; you have kept your word. You have 
 more than one arm to help you. Henceforth be 
 silent as the grave, and before that silence answer 
 my question." 
 
 "This girl is so fascinating that she could have 
 bewitched the Emperor Napoleon, and she can be- 
 witch somebody still more difficult to seduce, you! " 
 replied Rastignac, moving away. 
 
 "One moment," said the masquerader. "lam 
 going to show you that you have never seen me 
 before." 
 
 The man unmasked. Rastignac hesitated a 
 moment as he recognized nothing of the hideous 
 creature he had formerly known in the Maison 
 Vauquer. 
 
 "The devil has let you change everything but 
 your eyes, and those no one can ever forget." 
 
 The iron hand clenched his arm to enjoin an eter- 
 nal silence. 
 
 At three o'clock in the morning des Lupeaulx and 
 Finot found the elegant Rastignac resting against a 
 column on the spot where the terrible masquerader
 
 28 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 had left him. Rastignac had confessed to himself. 
 He had been the priest and the penitent, the judge 
 and the accused. He allowed them to take him 
 away and give him a breakfast and went home 
 completely drunk but silent.
 
 The Rue de Langlade, as well as the adjacent 
 streets, abuts into the Palais Royal and the Rue de 
 Rivoli. This portion of one of the most brilliant 
 quarters of Paris will long preserve the stains left 
 by those heaps of filth which marked the unlawful 
 haunts and "mills" of old Paris. These streets, 
 narrow, sombre and muddy, where business gives 
 little heed to appearances, assume at night a myste- 
 rious look that is full of contrasts. In going from the 
 brilliantly lighted districts of the Rue Saint-Honore, of 
 the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs,and of the Rue de 
 Richelieu, where presses a ceaseless crowd, where 
 glitter the masterpieces of industry, fashion and 
 art, any man unfamiliar with the nights in Paris 
 would feel a gloomy dread as he turned into the 
 network of alleys which encircle that brightness 
 that is reflected to the sky. Thick darkness suc- 
 ceeds to torrents of gas. Here and there a pale 
 lamp throws its uncertain and smoky rays which 
 light only a few black obstacles. The few passers- 
 by walk quickly. The shops are closed; those 
 which are open are of a bad character; a bar-room 
 dirty and dark, a linen-draper's selling cologne. A 
 noxious chill spreads its mantle over your shoulders. 
 Few carriages pass. There are sinister-looking 
 places, among them the Rue de Langlade, the en- 
 trance of the Passage Saint-Guillaume, and several 
 (29)
 
 30 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 winding streets. The city council has as yet been 
 able to do nothing toward cleansing this vast leprosy, 
 for prostitution has long since established her head- 
 quarters there. Perhaps it is for the best interests 
 of Paris to allow these alleys to retain their foul 
 appearance. Passing by in the light of day, it is 
 impossible to imagine what these streets become 
 at night. They are strewn with strange-looking fig- 
 ures people without a caste. White, half-naked 
 forms lean against the walls. The darkness is alive. 
 Between the houses and the roadway flows a stream 
 of gaudily dressed women walking and chattering. 
 Several half-open doors give forth loud peals of 
 laughter. Words fall upon the ear such as Rabe- 
 lais asserted are frozen and melt. Snatches of song 
 rise from between the paving-stones. The sound is 
 not uncertain; it means something: when it is hoarse 
 it is a voice, but if it sound like a chant it loses all 
 kinship with the world; it is a wild, strident noise. 
 Shrill whistles sound constantly; the very boot- 
 heels have something maddening and derisive about 
 their creak. Everything together makes a man 
 dizzy. The atmospherical conditions are altered: it 
 is hot in winter and cold in summer. But whatever 
 the weather, this strange place offers the same 
 spectacle. The fantastic world of Hoffman of Ber- 
 lin is there. The most mathematical accountant 
 believes nothing he has seen there after he has 
 passed back through the districts that lead to respect- 
 able streets where there are passers-by and shops 
 and gaslights. More disdainful or more modest than
 
 the kings and queens of old, who were not ashamed 
 to be seen with courtesans, modern policy and gov- 
 ernment dare not face this plague of great cities. 
 Surely laws must change with time; and those which 
 govern individuals and their liberty are of nice 
 adjustment; but perhaps society should show itself 
 liberal and bold in such matters purely material, as 
 air, light and streets. The moralist, the artist and 
 the wise official alike will lament those ancient 
 wooden galleries of the Palais Royal where those 
 sheep used to wander who will never cease to fol- 
 low the pleasure-seekers. Is it not better that the 
 pleasure-seekers should follow them? What has 
 happened? To-day, the most brilliant quarters of 
 the boulevards are forbidden to the family in the 
 evening. In this respect the police has not made 
 the most of its resources. A few crooked alleys 
 might have saved the public highway. 
 
 The girl, heart-broken by a single word at the 
 Opera ball, had lived for the past month or two in a 
 house of mean appearance on the Rue de Langlade. 
 Propped against the wall of an enormous building, 
 this construction, badly plastered, without depth 
 but of tremendous height, receives its light from the 
 street and bears some resemblance to a parrot's 
 perch. A suite of two rooms is on every story. 
 This house is provided with a slender staircase fitted 
 closely to the wall and curiously lighted by window 
 frames which mark the outline of the stair on the 
 exterior of the house, and where every landing is 
 indicated by a sink, one of the worst of Parisian
 
 32 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 peculiarities. The shop and the ground floor were 
 inhabited at this time by a tinsmith. The proprietor 
 lived on the first floor, and the other four stories 
 were occupied by very respectable grisettes who 
 obtained a discount and favorable terms from the 
 owner and the porter on account of the difficulty of 
 renting a house so singularly built and situated. The 
 uses of this quarter are sufficiently explained by the 
 presence of a number of houses like this, unsuitable 
 for business and which can be devoted only to em- 
 ployments unlicensed, precarious or disreputable. 
 
 At three o'clock in the afternoon the janitress, 
 who had seen Mademoiselle Esther brought back 
 fainting by a young man at two o'clock in the 
 morning, consulted the grisette on the floor above, 
 who, before getting into her carriage on her way 
 to a party, had declared her uneasiness on Esther's 
 account: she had not heard a sound. No doubt 
 Esther was still asleep, but this sleep seemed sus- 
 picious. Alone in her lodge the janitress felt sorry 
 that she could not go and see what was going on in 
 the fourth story where were Mademoiselle Esther's 
 lodgings. Just as she had determined to entrust 
 to the tinsmith's son the care of her lodge, a sort 
 of niche arranged in a corner of the ground floor, 
 a cab stopped in front of the house. A man wrapped 
 from head to foot in a cloak, with the evident pur- 
 pose of concealing his dress or his rank, stepped out 
 and asked for Mademoiselle Esther. The janitress 
 felt entirely reassured. The silence and tranquillity 
 of the recluse seemed quite explained. As the
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 33 
 
 stranger ascended the stairs above the lodge, the 
 janitress noticed the silver buckles which decorated 
 his shoes, and she thought that she could detect the 
 black fringe of the sash of a cassock. She went out 
 and questioned the coachman. He replied without 
 giving an answer, and she understood still better. 
 The priest knocked; no answer came other than 
 faint sighs from within. Then thrusting his shoulder 
 against the door, he burst it open with a vigor 
 lent him by charity no doubt, but which in another 
 would have appeared the result of habit. He rushed 
 into the inner room and saw, before a Virgin of 
 colored plaster, with her hands clasped together, poor 
 Esther on her knees, or rather lying in a heap. 
 
 The grisette was senseless. A chafing-dish of 
 burned charcoal told the story of the awful morning. 
 The hood and the cloak of the domino lay on the 
 floor. The bed was undisturbed. The poor girl, 
 cut to the heart by a deadly wound, had, no doubt, 
 arranged everything after her return from the 
 Opera. The wick of a candle stuck in a socket full 
 of melted wax showed how deeply Esther had been 
 absorbed in her last meditations. A handkerchief 
 steeped in tears proved a sincerity of despair like 
 that of Magdalen, whose classic pose was the same 
 as that of this unholy courtesan. This perfect 
 repentance brought a smile to the priest's face. 
 Not clever at dying, Esther had left her door open 
 without thinking that the air of the two rooms 
 would require a great quantity of charcoal before it 
 could become impossible to breathe. The vapor
 
 34 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 had merely stifled her. The fresh air from the 
 stairs restored her by degrees to the consciousness 
 of her ills. The priest stood wrapt in gloomy 
 thought, untouched by the heavenly beauty of the 
 girl and watching her first movements as though she 
 had been some animal. His eyes wandered from 
 the prostrate body to the different objects scattered 
 about the floor, with apparent indifference. He 
 looked at the furniture of the room, at the red-tiled 
 rough, cold floor, ill concealed by a threadbare carpet. 
 A small bed of painted wood canopied by yellow 
 calico curtains spotted with roses; a single armchair 
 and two chairs, also of painted wood and covered 
 with the same calico, which curtained the window 
 as well; a wall-paper of a gray background flecked 
 with flowers, but blackened by time and grease; a 
 mahagony work-table; a fire-place littered with 
 kitchen utensils of the meanest description; two 
 bundles of kindling-wood; a stone mantel-piece 
 strewn with glasses, ornaments and scissors; a dirty 
 pincushion; gloves white and perfumed; a charming 
 bonnet tossed on a water-pitcher; a shawl from 
 Ternaux which stopped a hole in the window; an 
 elaborate gown hung from a nail; a small sofa, bare, 
 without cushions; old and broken sandals; fascinating 
 slippers; boots to make a queen jealous; plates of 
 chipped crockery stained with the traces of the last 
 repast and heaped up with covers of nickel-plate, the 
 silverware of Parisian poor; a great basket full of 
 potatoes and soiled linen, with a fresh gauze bonnet 
 on top; a bad wardrobe, with a looking-glass, wide
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 35 
 
 open and empty except for a few pawn-tickets from 
 the mont-de-piete which lay on the shelves; such 
 was the collection of things, sad and gay, poor and 
 rich, which met the eye. 
 
 These traces of luxury in broken fragments, this 
 room so perfectly appropriate to the Bohemian life 
 of this girl fallen amongst her unwashed linen like a 
 horse dead in his harness, entangled in his reins 
 beneath the broken shaft did this strange spectacle 
 cause the priest to reflect? Did he say to himself 
 that at least this erring woman must be disinterested, 
 to live in such penury and love a rich young 
 man? Did he attribute the disorder of furniture to 
 disorder of life? Did he feel pity? horror? Was 
 his charity aroused? One who had seen him thus, 
 his arms crossed, his forehead contracted, his lips 
 compressed, his eye fierce, would have thought 
 him filled with gloomy and malignant thoughts, 
 opposing projects, sinister designs. Surely he was 
 blind to the lovely curves of a breast flattened be- 
 neath the weight of her bended figure and to the 
 graceful lines of limbs that could be traced beneath 
 the folds of her black skirt, as she knelt crouched 
 upon the floor. The careless pose of the head, 
 which, viewed from behind, revealed the white 
 neck, soft and flexible, and the fair, ripe shoulders 
 did not move him. He did not raise Esther. He 
 seemed to be deaf even to the tortured gasps which 
 betrayed the return of consciousness. It was not 
 until she heaved a dreadful sob and cast her start- 
 ling glance upon him that he deigned to lift her and
 
 36 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 to place her on the bed with an ease that betokened 
 immense strength. 
 
 " Lucien!" she murmured. 
 
 "Love returns; the woman is not far away," 
 said the priest with a kind of bitterness. 
 
 Then the poor victim of Parisian debauchery 
 noticed the costume of her saviour and said with 
 the smile of a child that seizes some longed-for 
 object. 
 
 " Then I shall not die without a reconciliation 
 with Heaven." 
 
 "You can atone for your sins," said the priest, 
 moistening her forehead with water and holding 
 beneath her nostrils a cruet of vinegar which he 
 had found in a corner. 
 
 " I feel that life, instead of leaving me, flows more 
 strongly than ever, "said she when she had received 
 the priest's care, and expressed her gratitude by 
 gestures full of naturalness. 
 
 This charming pantomime, that the graces them- 
 selves might have copied for the destruction of 
 mankind, was a perfect justification of the surname 
 of this strange girl. 
 
 "Do you feel better?" asked the priest as he 
 handed her a glass of sugar and water to drink. 
 
 This man seemed perfectly accustomed to places 
 such as this; he knew them through and through. 
 He felt completely at home. This privilege of feel- 
 ing at home everywhere belongs only to kings, to 
 girls and to thieves. 
 
 "When you feel quite yourself," went on this
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 37 
 
 singular man after a pause, " you- will tell me the 
 motives which have brought you to commit your 
 latest crime, this attempted suicide." 
 
 " My story is very simple, father," answered she. 
 " Three months ago I was living in the vice in which 
 1 was born. 1 was the last of human beings and the 
 most vile, now 1 am only the most unhappy. Don't 
 make me tell you of my poor mother, murdered ." 
 
 " By a captain in a disreputable den," said the 
 priest interrupting his penitent. " I know your 
 birth, and know that if a person of your sex can be 
 pardoned for living a life of shame it is you who 
 have never had a good example." 
 
 "I have never been even baptized, nor have I 
 ever been taught the precepts of any religion." 
 
 "All can be forgiven, "answered the priest,"if only 
 your faith and your repentance be sincere and with- 
 out regret." 
 
 " Lucien and God fill my heart," said she with 
 touching simplicity. 
 
 "You should say God and Lucien," replied the 
 priest smiling. "You recall to me my reasons for 
 coming. Leave nothing unsaid which concerns this 
 young man." 
 
 " Have you come for his sake?" she asked with 
 a tender glance which would have softened any 
 priest but him. "Oh! he suspected what might 
 happen." 
 
 " No," answered he, "it is not on account of your 
 death, but for your life, that I come here. Come, 
 tell me your relations."
 
 38 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 " In one word," said she. 
 
 The poor girl trembled at the harsh tone of the 
 ecclesiastic, but like a woman whom brutality has 
 long ceased to surprise, she answered: 
 
 " Lucien is Lucien, the loveliest and the best man 
 in the world. But if you know him you cannot 
 think my love unnatural. Three months ago I met 
 him by chance at the Porte Saint Martin, where 1 
 had gone for an outing. For we were given one 
 day a week at the house of Madame Meynardie, 
 where I was. The next day, you see, I ran away 
 without permission. Love had entered into my 
 heart and had changed me so perfectly that when I 
 came back from the theatre I scarcely felt the same 
 person. I loathed myself. Lucien could never find 
 out about me. Instead of telling him where I lived 
 I gave him the address of this lodging. A friend of 
 mine was living here then and she was kind enough 
 to move out for me. I give you my sacred word." 
 
 "You must not swear." 
 
 "Is it swearing simply to give your sacred word? 
 Well, then, since that day I have toiled in this room 
 like a lost soul, making chemises at twenty-eight 
 sous apiece, in order to gain my bread honestly. 
 For a month I have eaten nothing but potatoes, just 
 in order that I might be respectable and worthy of 
 Lucien, who loves and respects me as the purest of 
 the pure. I have made my formal declaration to 
 the police in order to recover my rights and I have 
 been placed under surveillance for two years. It is 
 very hard to get those who are so ready to write
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 39 
 
 your name on the registers of vice, to scratch it off 
 again. The only prayer that I asked of Heaven was 
 to protect my resolution. I shall be nineteen in the 
 month of April, at that age there is hope. It seems 
 as if I were three months old. 1 prayed to God 
 every morning and implored Him never to allow 
 Lucien to know my former life. I bought this Vir- 
 gin that you see, and I have prayed to her in my 
 own way, for I don't know any prayers. 1 can't 
 read or write. I have never entered a church. I 
 have never looked at the Host, except out of curi- 
 osity when it is carried in processions." 
 
 " What do you tell the Virgin? " 
 
 "I talk to her as I talk to Lucien, with those 
 bursts of feeling that make him cry." 
 
 " Ah, he cries?" 
 
 " From joy," she answered quickly. " Poor boy! 
 We know each other so well that we have the same 
 soul. He's so sweet, so caressing, so tender- 
 hearted, so witty, so graceful. He says that he is 
 a poet; I say that he is God. Pardon me, but you 
 priests don't know what love is. There are no 
 others save such as I, who know men well enough to 
 appreciate a Lucien. A Lucien, you see, is as rare 
 as a woman without sin. When you meet him 
 you can love nobody else; that is all. But such 
 a man must have a woman worthy of him. It 
 was for this that I wished to become fit to be loved 
 by my Lucien, and thus came all my misfortune. 
 Yesterday at the Opera I was recognized by some 
 men who have no more heart than tigers have
 
 40 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 compassion; I should sooner expect sympathy from a 
 tiger. The veil of innocence that I wore is fallen 
 from me; their laughter pierced my head and my 
 heart. Don't think that you have saved me; I shall 
 die of sorrow." 
 
 "Your veil of innocence?" said the priest. 
 "Then you have always been cruel to Lucien?" 
 
 "Oh! father, you who know him, how can you 
 ask me such a question. How can a woman resist 
 a god?" 
 
 "Do not blaspheme," said the ecclesiastic in a 
 gentle voice. " Nobody can be like to God. Exjag- 
 geration does not beseem real love. You have not 
 a pure, true love for your idol. Had you felt the 
 change which you boast has come over you, you 
 would have acquired the virtues that belong to 
 youth. You would have known the joy of chastity, 
 the delicacy of shame, those two glories of a girl. 
 You do not love." 
 
 Esther made a gesture of horror which the priest 
 saw, but which did not disturb the rigid calm of 
 the confessor. 
 
 " Yes, you love him for your own sake and not 
 for his; for the pleasures of this world which de- 
 light you, and not for love itself. If you have 
 loved thus, you have never felt that holy tremor 
 the which inspires a creature on whom God has set 
 seal of exquisite perfection. Have you considered 
 that you were degrading him by your past impurity, 
 that you were going to corrupt a child by those hide- 
 ous delights that have brought you your cognomen,
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 41 
 
 notorious in infamy? You have been inconsistent 
 with yourself and with your passion of a day " 
 
 " Of a day!" repeated she, raising her eyes. 
 
 ''What name can I give to a love that is not eternal, 
 which does not unite us, even to the end of a Christ- 
 ian's future, with the person that we love?" 
 
 "Oh, I want to be a Catholic," cried she in a 
 deep, strong voice which would have won her 
 pardon from our Saviour. 
 
 " Is a girl who has received neither the baptism 
 of the Church nor of knowledge; who knows not 
 how to read nor write nor pray; who cannot make 
 one step without the stones rising up to accuse her; 
 worthy of notice only through the fleeting privi- 
 lege of a beauty that sickness may carry away to- 
 morrow, perhaps; is this creature, vitiated, degraded, 
 knowing her degradation had you been more igno- 
 rant and less loving, you had been more excusable 
 is this future victim of suicide and of hell, the woman 
 who could be the wife of Lucien de Rubempre?" 
 
 Each sentence was a dagger-thrust piercing to 
 the bottom of her heart. At each phrase the rising 
 sobs, the fast-flowing tears of the hopeless girl bore 
 witness with what strength the light poured at once 
 into her mind, simple as that of a savage; into her 
 soul, awakened at length; into her nature, over 
 which depravity had spread a cloak of muddy ice 
 that melted in the sun of faith. 
 
 " Why am I not dead?" was the one thought that 
 she gave utterance to in the midst of the torrent 
 of ideas which rushed madly through her brain.
 
 42 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "My daughter," said the awful judge, "there is a 
 love which is hidden before men, and the knowledge 
 of it is welcomed by the angels with smiles of joy." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Love without hope, when it inspires life and 
 instils into it the principle of unselfishness, when it 
 ennobles every act by the thought of attaining an 
 ideal perfection. Yes, the angels commend that 
 love; it leads to the knowledge of God. To perfect, 
 to hide from him even the knowledge of the terrible 
 jealousy that kindles in your heart, to give him 
 everything that he wishes were it to your own hurt, 
 to love what he loves, to have your face turned 
 towards him unceasingly, to make yourself worthy 
 of him you love, to make for him a thousand secret 
 sacrifices, to worship him from afar, to give your 
 blood drop by drop, to sacrifice your self-love for 
 his sake, to have no more pride nor anger with him, 
 toward him, to follow him though he knows it not: 
 this love, religion would have pardoned; it would 
 have offended neither the laws of men nor of God 
 and would have led into a different path from that 
 of your filthy pleasures." 
 
 As she heard this dreadful judgment pronounced 
 in these words and what words they were and 
 with what accent spoken! Esther felt a natural 
 distrust. This speech was like a peal of thunder 
 that presages the bursting of the storm. She looked 
 at the priest and felt that cold sinking of the heart 
 which the boldest feel in the presence of imminent 
 and sudden danger. No look could have read what
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 43 
 
 was passing within this man, but for the bravest 
 there was more to dread than to hope in the aspect 
 of his eyes, clear and yellow as the eyes of tigers 
 and over which austerity and fasting had spread a 
 veil like to that which rests on the horizon through 
 the dog-days: the earth is hot and dazzling, but the 
 mist renders it indistinct and vaporous; it is almost 
 invisible. A severity quite Spanish: deep furrows, 
 made hideous and like to deep ruts by the thousand 
 scars of a frightful attack of small-pox, ploughed his 
 olive, sunburned face. His stern features were set 
 off by the frame of the stiff wig of a priest who cares 
 not how he looks, a wig close cut and of a black 
 that reddened in the light. His athletic chest, his 
 soldier-like hands, his carriage, his powerful shoul- 
 ders were those of the caryatides which architects of 
 the Middle Ages have employed in some palaces 
 of Italy and which recall vaguely the figures on the 
 facade of the theatre of the Porte Saint Martin. 
 The least clear-sighted people might have known 
 that burning passions or strange accidents had 
 thrown this man into the bosom of the Church. 
 Surely the most astounding thunderbolts alone 
 could have changed him, if such a nature could be 
 changed. Women who have led the life so vio- 
 lently repudiated by Esther arrive at a complete 
 indifference to the outward forms of man. They 
 resemble the literary critic of to-day who can be 
 compared to them in several ways, and who becomes 
 absolutely indifferent to the rules of art. He has 
 read so many works, he has seen so many pass
 
 44 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 away, he is so accustomed to written pages, he has 
 witnessed the unraveling of so many plots, he has 
 seen so many dramas, he has written so many 
 articles without saying what he thinks, he has be- 
 trayed the cause of art so often for the sake of his 
 own likes and dislikes, that he comes to feel dis- 
 gust for everything, and yet he continues to pass 
 judgment. There is need of a miracle to enable 
 this writer to produce a great work; just as pure, 
 noble love is only by a miracle born in the heart 
 of a courtesan. The tone and the manner of this 
 priest, who might have stepped from a canvas of 
 Zurbaran, seemed so hostile to this poor girl that, 
 little as exteriors meant for her, she felt herself less 
 an object of the shepherd's care than the central 
 subject of some scheme. Unable to distinguish 
 between the wheedling of self-interest and the holy 
 grace of charity, for only doubled care can detect 
 the false money of a friend, she felt herself, 
 as it were, between the claws of some fierce and 
 monstrous bird which had swooped down on her after 
 circling for some time overhead, and in her terror 
 she said these words in a frightened voice : 
 
 "I thought that priests were bidden to comfort us, 
 and you are killing me!" 
 
 At this cry of innocence the ecclesiastic made a 
 gesture and said nothing; he was collecting his 
 thoughts before answering. During this instant 
 these two persons so singularly brought together 
 scrutinized each other furtively. The priest under- 
 stood the girl, but the girl could not understand the
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 45 
 
 priest. Doubtless he gave up some design which 
 threatened poor Esther and returned to his first plan. 
 
 "We are the healers of souls," said he gently, 
 "and we know what medicines suit their maladies." 
 
 " Much must be forgiven misery," said Esther. 
 
 She thought herself mistaken, and slipping down 
 from her bed she flung herself at the man's feet, 
 kissed his cassock with the deepest humility, and 
 lifted toward him her eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " I thought that I had done much," said she. 
 
 " Listen, my child. Your fatal reputation has 
 plunged Lucien's family into mourning. They are 
 afraid, and with some justice, that you will drag 
 him into dissipation, into a world of follies." 
 
 " It is true; I myself took him to the ball to entrap 
 him." 
 
 " You are so beautiful that he wishes to glory in 
 you before the eyes of the world, to display you 
 proudly and exhibit you like a horse. If it were 
 only money that he wasted! But he will waste his 
 time, his strength; he will lose his desire for the 
 high destinies which they wish to be his. Instead 
 of being some day ambassador, rich, admired, 
 famous, he will become, like many another libertine 
 who has drowned his talents in Paris mud, the lover 
 of an impure woman. As for you, you will later 
 take up your former life, after having risen for a 
 moment to a lofty sphere, for you have not in you, 
 that which a sound education gives strength to 
 resist evil and to think of the future. You will 
 never break loose from your companions any further
 
 46 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 than you have broken loose from those people who 
 shamed you at the Opera this morning. The true 
 friends of Lucien, alarmed by the love which you 
 have inspired in him, have dogged his steps, have 
 learned all. Full of consternation they have sent 
 me to you to sound your feelings and to decide 
 your fate. But although they are strong enough 
 to rid this young man's path of a stumbling-block, 
 they are merciful. Know this, my daughter: a 
 woman whom Lucien loves has a right to their 
 regard, for a true Christian worships the mire 
 where perchance has strayed a ray of the divine 
 light. I have come as the agent of their kindness; 
 but had I found you wholly obstinate and armed 
 with effrontery and cunning, corrupt to the marrow 
 and deaf to the voice of repentance, 1 would have 
 abandoned you to their anger. This civil and po- 
 litical freedom, so hard to get, which for society's 
 sake the police are loath to give, and which I have 
 heard you long for with all the ardor of true re- 
 pentance here it is," said the priest, drawing from 
 his belt a paper of official appearance. " They saw 
 you yesterday; this notification is dated to-day: you 
 see the power of the persons who are interested in 
 Lucien." 
 
 At the sight of this paper, that convulsive tremor 
 which is caused by an unexpected joy moved Esther 
 so sincerely that she had on her lips a smile such 
 as an idiot wears. The priest paused, looked at 
 the child to see whether, deprived of that hideous 
 force which sinful people draw even from their sin
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 47 
 
 and restored to her original frail and delicate nature, 
 she would resist her strongest impulses. Deceitful 
 courtesan, Esther had played the comedy; but be- 
 come once more innocent and true she might die as 
 a blind man suddenly cured may lose his sight 
 afresh if he be struck by too brilliant light. This 
 man at this moment saw human nature to its bot- 
 tom, but he' remained in a calm terrible from 
 its fixity. He was a frozen Alp, white and near 
 to heaven, immovable and disdainful, with sides 
 of granite and yet beneficent. Women of the 
 streets are essentially emotional creatures; they 
 pass from the most obstinate distrust to the most 
 perfect confidence. In this respect they are below 
 the animal. Excessive in everything, in their joys, 
 in their despairs, in their religion, in their irreligion, 
 almost all go mad if death, which has a high rate 
 among their kind, did not decimate them, and if lucky 
 chances did not raise some of them above the mire 
 in which they live. He who would penetrate to the 
 depths of misery of this horrible life must see how 
 deep a woman can sink into madness without rest- 
 ing there by gazing in wonder at the wild ecstasy 
 of La Torpille on her knees before the priest. The 
 poor girl looked at the redeeming paper with an 
 expression which Dante forgot, and which sur- 
 passed the inventions of his hell. But with the 
 reaction came the tears. Esther rose, threw her 
 arms about this man's neck, laid her head on his 
 breast, let her tears trickle down, kissed the coarse 
 cloth that covered this heart of steel, and seemed
 
 48 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 to wish to reach the heart itself. She seized this 
 man, covered his hands with kisses, in a holy burst 
 of gratitude she used all her softest caresses. Lav- 
 ishing upon him the sweetest names, in the midst 
 of her sugared words she whispered: " Give it to 
 me" a thousand times and with a thousand into- 
 nations. She folded him in her tender embraces, 
 covered him with her glances with a rapidity which 
 left him defenceless; at length she succeeded in allay- 
 ing his anger. The priest knew how well this girl had 
 deserved her surname; he knew how hard it was 
 to resist this fascinating creature. All at once he 
 understood Lucien's love and what it was that had 
 seduced the poet. Passion like this hides, beneath 
 a thousand allurements, a barbed hook which soon- 
 est pierces the lofty soul of the artist. These 
 passions, unintelligible to the crowd, are perfectly 
 explained by that thirst for the ideal which charac- 
 terizes creative minds. Does it not bring us near 
 to the angels charged to bring back the erring into 
 the path of right, to purify a creature such as this 
 is it not to create? What an incentive, to unite 
 moral beauty to physical beauty! What proud hap- 
 piness to succeed! What an ideal task is that which 
 needs no weapon but love! These connections, 
 illustrated besides by the example of Aristotle, of 
 Socrates, of Plato, of Alcibiades, of Cethegus, of 
 Pompey, and so monstrous in the eyes of the mul- 
 titude, are founded upon the sentiment which led 
 Louis XIV. to build Versailles, which drives men to 
 all ruinous ventures: to convert the miasmas of a
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 49 
 
 morass into a sweet smelling hill surrounded by 
 running waters; to place a lake upon a hill, as the 
 Prince of Conti did at Nointel, or Swiss landscapes 
 at Cassan, like Bergeret, the farmer of the revenue. 
 In short it is art making incursions into the domain 
 of morality. 
 
 The priest, ashamed of having yielded to this 
 affectionate demonstration, pushed Esther from him 
 sharply. She sat down ashamed too, for he said to 
 her: 
 
 " You are still a courtesan." 
 
 He coolly placed the letter in his belt. Like a child 
 with but one desire in its mind, Esther did not take 
 her eyes from that part of his girdle which covered 
 the paper. 
 
 "My child," went on the priest after a pause, 
 " your mother was a Jewess and you have never 
 been baptized, but you have never been taken to 
 the synagogue. You are within the religious limbo 
 of little children." 
 
 " Little children," repeated she in a pathetic voice. 
 
 "Just as on the police charts you are a figure 
 beyond the pale of society," continued the priest 
 unmoved. " If some chance love has made you 
 believe, three months ago, that you were born again 
 you should feel that since that day you are become 
 a child. Thus you must be guided as though you 
 were a child; you must change absolutely, and it is 
 my duty to make you unrecognizable. First of 
 all, you must forget Lucien." 
 
 The poor girl felt her heart breaking at this word. 
 4
 
 50 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 She looked into the priest's face and made a sign 
 of refusal. She felt that her saviour was her 
 executioner, and could not speak. 
 
 " At least, you will give up seeing him," he went 
 on. " I will take you to a convent where young 
 girls of good family receive their education. You 
 will become a Catholic, you will be instructed 
 in the practice of Christian rites, you will learn 
 religion; you will come away a girl, accomplished, 
 chaste, pure, well-educated, if " 
 
 The man raised his finger and paused. 
 
 "If," he continued, "you have the strength to 
 leave La Torpille behind." 
 
 " Ah," cried the poor child, for whom every word 
 had been a note of music at whose sound the gates 
 of paradise were slowly opening, "ah, if I could 
 spill all my blood here and be made anew!''' 
 
 "Listen." 
 
 She was silent. 
 
 "Your future depends upon your power of for- 
 getting. Think of the obligations you are under. 
 A word, a gesture which should betray La Torpille 
 kills the wife of Lucien; a syllable spoken in a 
 dream, an involuntary thought, an unchaste look, 
 an impatient movement, a recollection of your dis- 
 solute past, a duty left undone, a motion of the 
 head which should reveal what you know or what 
 has been known to your misfortune " 
 
 " Go on, my father," said the girl with the exalta- 
 tion of a saint, "to walk in shoes of red-hot iron 
 and smile, to live clad in a corset armed with teeth
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 51 
 
 and preserve the grace of a dancing girl, to eat 
 bread sprinkled with ashes, and drink wormwood, all 
 will be sweet, easy." 
 
 She fell on her knees, she kissed the priest's 
 shoes, she wet them with her tears, she seized 
 his legs and embraced them, muttering incoherent 
 words through her tears of joy. The fair locks of 
 her wonderful hair streamed down and rested like a 
 carpet beneath the feet of this heavenly messenger, 
 yet when she arose and looked at him she saw him 
 gloomy and severe. 
 
 "In what have I offended you?" said she in 
 alarm. " I have heard of a woman like myself who 
 bathed in perfumes the feet of Jesus Christ. Virtue 
 has made me so poor that I have nothing but tears 
 to offer you." 
 
 " Did you not hear me?" answered he in a cruel 
 voice. " I tell you that you must come out of the 
 house where I shall take you, so changed in body 
 and soul that not a man or woman who has known 
 you can cry out ' Esther* and make you turn your 
 head. Yesterday love did not give you the strength 
 to bury the prostitute too deep to rise again; she 
 appears afresh in worship that is not addressed to 
 God." 
 
 " Was it not he that sent you to me?" she said. 
 
 " If during your education you were even seen 
 by Lucien, all would be lost," replied he. " Re- 
 member that." 
 
 " Who will comfort him?" she asked. 
 
 "In what would you comfort him?" demanded
 
 52 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the priest in a voice which for the first time during 
 the scene betrayed a nervous tremor. 
 
 " I don't know. He is often sad." 
 
 "Sad!" replied the priest. "Did he tell you 
 why?" 
 
 " Never," answered she. 
 
 " He was sad because he loved a girl such as 
 you," cried he. 
 
 "Ah, yes, he must have been," she replied with 
 deep humility. " 1 am the most despicable creature 
 of my sex, and I could only find favor in his eyes 
 by the force of my love." 
 
 " That love should give you courage to obey me 
 blindly. If I were to take you at once to the house 
 where you are to be educated, everybody here 
 would tell Lucien that you had gone away to-day, 
 Sunday, with a priest; he would be on your track. 
 In a week, the janitress, not seeing me return, will 
 take me for that which 1 am not. Then, in the 
 evening seven days from to-day, at seven o'clock, 
 you will slip out quietly and get into a cab which 
 will be in waiting for you below the rue des Fron- 
 deurs. During the week, shun Lucien; contrive 
 excuses, put him off, and when he comes, go up- 
 stairs to some friend's room. I shall know if you 
 have seen him, and in that case everything would 
 be ended; I should not even return. You need this 
 week in order to buy yourself decent gowns and to 
 lay aside your wanton appearance," said he, placing 
 a purse on the mantel-piece. " There is something 
 about your manner and your clothes which Parisians
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 53 
 
 know well and which tells them what you are. Have 
 you never, on the streets or boulevards, met a 
 modest and pure girl walking with her mother?" 
 
 " Oh, yes. It always hurts me. To see a mother 
 with her daughter is one of our worst punishments. 
 It awakens the remorse hidden within the folds of 
 our hearts, which eats into us. I know only too 
 well what it is I need." 
 
 "Very well, then, you know what you are to be 
 next Sunday," said the priest rising. 
 
 "Oh," said she, "teach me a real prayer 
 before you go, so that I may pray to God." 
 
 It was a touching sight to see this priest making 
 this girl repeat the A-ve Maria and the Pater Noster 
 in French. 
 
 " They are very beautiful!" said Esther, after she 
 had twice and without a mistake repeated these two 
 splendid and familiar expressions of the Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 "What is your name?" she asked of the priest 
 when he bade her good-bye. 
 
 " Carlos Herrera. I am a Spaniard and banished 
 from my country." 
 
 Esther took his hand and kissed it; she was no 
 longer a courtesan; she was an angel rising from a 
 fall.
 
 In a house celebrated for the religious and aristo- 
 cratic training which it gave, one Monday morning 
 early in the month of March of this year, the schol- 
 ars saw their pretty group increased by a new- 
 comer, whose beauty triumphed undisputed not 
 only over her comrades, but even over those espe- 
 cial and perfect details of beauty which were found 
 among them. In France it is excessively rare, not to 
 say impossible, to find the thirty famous graces de- 
 scribed in Persian verses carved, they say, within 
 the seraglio , and which a woman must have to be 
 wholly beautiful. In France, although few are 
 combined, there are exquisite detaifsi The impos- 
 ing whole, which sculpture seeks to attain and which 
 it has attained in a few rare works like the Diana 
 and the Calypso, is the privilege of Greece and of 
 Asia Minor. Esther had come from this cradle of 
 the human race, the native land of beauty: her 
 mother was a Jewess. The Jews, although so often 
 degraded by their contact with other peoples, 
 offer amongst their many tribes certain strains which 
 still preserve the sublime type of Asiatic beauty. 
 When they have not a repulsive ugliness they bear 
 the magnificent stamp of Armenian faces. Esther 
 would have borne off the prize at the seraglio; she 
 
 (55)
 
 56 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 possessed the thirty beauties harmoniously inter- 
 mingled. Far from injuring the finished loveliness 
 of her figure or the freshness of her complexion, 
 her strange life had imparted to her something 
 womanly. Her skin had no longer the polished 
 firmness of green fruit, nor yet the mellowness of 
 the overripe: there were still years for her to bloom. 
 A little while more of license would have made her too 
 stout. This richness of health, this perfection of 
 animal life in a woman in whom sensuality usurped 
 the place of thought, must seem extraordinary to 
 the eyes of physiologists. By a circumstance rare, 
 almost impossible among very young girls, her 
 hands, of an admirable mould, were soft, transpar- 
 ent and white as those of the young mother of a 
 second child. She had exactly the foot and the hair, 
 so justly famous, of the Duchesse de Berri, hair that 
 no maid-in-waiting could hold, so abundant was it, 
 and so long that it fell to the floor and lay there in 
 coils; for Esther was of that middle height which 
 allows a woman to be made a sort of plaything to 
 take up, to lay down, to take once more and to carry 
 without fatigue. Her skin, fine as rice-paper and of 
 a warm amber color, shaded by red veins, was 
 radiant without dryness, soft without moisture. 
 Nervous to excess, but delicate in appearance, 
 Esther attracted instant attention by a feature 
 prominent in the faces which Raphael's pencil has 
 best portrayed, for Raphael, of all painters, has stud- 
 ied most and rendered best the Jewish beauty. 
 This wonderful characteristic was formed by depth
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 57 
 
 of the arch beneath which the eye rolled as though 
 it were separate from its frame, and whose sweep, in 
 its clear outlines, resembled the inner curve of an 
 archway. When youth, with its clear translucent 
 tints, paints the lovely arc crowned by thick eye- 
 brows; when the light falls upon the delicate curves 
 below and rests there in its roseate brilliance, there 
 are there treasures of tenderness to satisfy a lover, 
 beauties to make a painter despair. This is the 
 finishing touch of nature, these bright curves where 
 the very shadow is golden, this tissue which has 
 the consistency of a nerve, the flexibility of the 
 most delicate membrane. The eye at rest within 
 is like a magic eye in a nest of silken threads. But 
 later this marvel is filled with a fearful sadness, 
 when passion has darkened these delicate outlines, 
 when sorrow has scarred this network of fibres. 
 Esther's birth betrayed itself in this oriental con- 
 tour of her eyes with their Turkish lashes and 
 their gray slate-color which changed in the light to 
 the bluish black of a raven's wing. The gentle 
 tenderness of her look could alone soften its dazzling 
 brightness. It is only the races sprung from the 
 desert that hold within their eyes the power of fas- 
 cinating every one. For a woman can always 
 fascinate some one. Doubtless, their eyes keep 
 something of the infinite which they have contem- 
 plated. Has nature, in her foresight, provided their 
 retinas, with a reflecting curtain that enables them 
 to retain the image of the sands, the floods of sun- 
 light, the burning cobalt of the atmosphere? Or do
 
 58 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 human beings, like the other things of nature, take 
 something from their environment and keep through 
 all the centuries the qualities which they draw from 
 it? This great solution of the race problem is per- 
 haps hidden within the question itself. Instincts 
 are living facts, of which the cause lies in necessity 
 that has been undergone. The animal species are 
 the results of the use of these instincts. To be 
 convinced of this truth so long sought, it suffices 
 to extend to bodies of men the experiment recently 
 made upon flocks of English and Spanish sheep, which, 
 in the meadows of valleys where grass abounds, 
 graze close together, while they scatter on the 
 mountains, where grass is rare. Take these two varie- 
 ties of sheep away from their respective countries and 
 transport them to Switzerland or to France, the moun- 
 tain sheep will graze apart though the meadow be low 
 and covered with luxuriant grass; the meadow sheep 
 will feed rubbing against one another though they be 
 on an Alp. Many generations hardly alter instincts 
 acquired and transmitted. After a hundred years the 
 character of the mountain breed reappears in an ob- 
 stinate sheep, just as after eighteen hundred years of 
 banishment the east glowed in Esther's eyes and face. 
 This look had no terrible fascination; it cast a gentle 
 warmth, a natural tenderness, and the hardest wills 
 melted beneath its flame. Esther had conquered hate; 
 she had amazed the licentious youth of Paris, yet this 
 look and the softness of her velvet skin had won for 
 her the terrible surname which had almost brought 
 her to the grave. Every part of her was in harmony
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 59 
 
 with the character of the fairy of the blazing sands. 
 Her forehead was strong and proudly moulded. Her 
 nose, like an Arab woman's, was delicate and tender, 
 with oval nostrils well placed and somewhat ex- 
 posed to view. Her mouth, red and fresh, was a 
 rose unstained by trace of orgy. Her chin, modeled 
 as if some loving sculptor had polished its curve, 
 was white as milk. One thing alone, for which 
 she had no remedy, betrayed the fallen courtesan: 
 torn fingernails which needed time before they 
 could look like a lady's, so much had their shape 
 been injured by the lowest cares of housework. 
 Her schoolmates began by envying these miracles 
 of beauty, but their jealousy turned to admiration. 
 The first week did not pass before they were de- 
 voted to the simple Esther, for they were interested 
 in the secret misfortunes of a girl of eighteen who 
 could neither read nor write, who had never learned 
 nor even been taught, and who would bring to the 
 archbishop the glory of the conversion of a Jew to 
 Catholicism, and to the convent the fte of a bap- 
 tism. They felt the superiority of their education 
 and pardoned her beauty. Esther soon acquired 
 the manners, the softness of voice, the bearing 
 and the attitudes of these high-born girls; in short 
 she found once more her earlier nature. The 
 change became so complete that at his first visit, 
 Herrera, who seemed incapable of surprise, was 
 amazed, and the sister superior complimented him 
 on his ward. The teachers had never in their 
 career met with a disposition more lovely, gentleness
 
 60 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 more Christian, modesty more sincere, nor a greater 
 desire to learn. When a girl has suffered the ills 
 that had been heaped upon this poor scholar, and 
 while she awaits a reward such as the Spaniard had 
 promised Esther, it is not hard for her to realize 
 those miracles of the early Church which the Jesuits 
 repeated in Paraguay. 
 
 " She is edifying," said the sister superior, kissing 
 her forehead. 
 
 This word, so thoroughly Catholic, told all. 
 
 During the time for recreation, Esther asked her 
 companions modestly about the simplest things in the 
 world, and for her they were what the first sur- 
 prises of life are for a baby. When she learned 
 that on the day of her baptism and of her first com- 
 munion she would be dressed in white, that she 
 would have a bonnet of white satin, white ribbons, 
 white shoes, white gloves, and that her hair would 
 be tied with white bows, she burst into tears in the 
 midst of her amazed companions. It was the scene 
 of Jephtha on the mountain reversed. The courtesan 
 was afraid of being understood; she cast off her 
 terrible sorrow in the joy that the anticipation of 
 this ceremony caused her. As there is surely as 
 great a gulf between the manners she had left 
 behind and the manners she had assumed, as there 
 is between the savage state and civilization, she 
 had the grace, the simplicity, the depth which dis- 
 tinguish the wonderful heroine of the Puritans of 
 America. She had also, though she herself knew 
 it not, a love gnawing at her heart, a strange love,
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 6 1 
 
 a longing more intense in her who knew everything 
 than it could be in a virgin who knows nothing, even 
 though these two desires had the same cause and 
 the same goal. During the first months the novelty 
 of a secluded life, the surprises of study, the occupa- 
 tions she was taught, the practices of religion, the 
 fervor of a holy purpose, the tenderness of the 
 affection she inspired, and most of all the exercise 
 of the faculties of awakened intelligence every- 
 thing helped her to forget the past, even the fresh 
 efforts of memory which she made: for she had as 
 much to unlearn as to learn. There are, in us, 
 many memories: the body, the mind, each has its 
 own. Homesickness, for example, is a disease of 
 physical memory. During the third month the 
 strength of this virgin soul, which stretched its 
 wings toward heaven, was, not conquered, but 
 shackled by a secret resistance, the cause of which 
 Esther herself did not know. Like the sheep of 
 Scotland, she wished to graze apart; she could not 
 overcome the instincts developed by license. Were 
 the muddy streets of Paris, which she had renounced, 
 calling her to come back? Did the broken chains 
 of her evil habits still hold her by forgotten links? 
 Did she still feel them, as, according to doctors, old 
 soldiers still suffer in the limbs which they have 
 lost? Had vice and its excesses eaten to the mar- 
 row of her bones where the holy water could not 
 reach the devil lurking within? Was the sight of 
 him, for whose sake these angelic efforts were 
 made, necessary to her whom God would pardon for
 
 62 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 mingling human love with love divine? One had 
 led to the other. Had there taken place in her an 
 upheaval of the vital force which entailed this inevi- 
 table suffering? All is doubt and darkness in a 
 situation that science has disdained to examine, 
 finding the subject too immoral and too com- 
 promising, as if the physician, the writer, the priest 
 and the statesman were not above suspicion. In 
 spite of this a physician has had the courage to 
 begin these studies, left incomplete. He was over- 
 taken by death. Perhaps the black melancholy 
 which preyed upon Esther and cast a shadow over 
 her happy life was made up of all these reasons: and, 
 unable to comprehend them, perhaps she suffered 
 as the sick suffer who have never known medicine 
 or surgery. It is a strange thing. Abundant and 
 healthful food instead of the hateful food of excite- 
 ment could not sustain Esther. A pure and regular 
 life, divided between tasks designedly moderate and 
 amusements, substituted for an ill-ordered life where 
 the pleasures were as horrible as the pains, saddened 
 the poor girl. The sweet repose, the quiet nights 
 which replaced exhausting fatigues and cruel emo- 
 tions, gave her a fever which escaped the practiced 
 eye of the matron. In short, good and happiness, 
 succeeding to ill and misfortune, the security follow- 
 ing unrest, were as painful to Esther as her miser- 
 able past would have been to her young companions. 
 Planted in corruption, she had grown up in its 
 midst. The hellish rule of her early home swayed 
 her still in spite of the sovereign commands of an
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 63 
 
 absolute will. That which she hated was her very 
 life, that which she loved was killing her. Her faith 
 was so strong that her piety delighted everybody. 
 She loved to pray. She had opened her soul to the 
 light of the true faith, and she received it without 
 effort, without doubt. The priest who guided her was 
 enraptured; but with her the body thwarted the soul 
 at every turn. Once carp were taken from a muddy 
 pond and placed in beautiful clear water in a marble 
 basin, in order to satisfy a wish of Madame de Main- 
 tenon, who fed them with fragments from the royal 
 table. The carp slowly died. Animals may be 
 devoted, but man will never taint them with the 
 leprosy of flattery. A courtier noticed this silent 
 protest in Versailles. " They are like me," said the 
 unacknowledged queen; " they mourn the dirty pools 
 which they have lost." This sentence is the whole 
 story of Esther. At times the poor girl felt driven 
 to run about the splendid gardens of the convent, 
 she rushed quickly from tree to tree, she flung her- 
 self desperately down in the dark corners, seeking 
 what? She knew not, but she yielded to the 
 demon, she coquetted with the trees, she spoke to 
 them in words she did not pronounce. Sometimes 
 in the evening she glided along the walls like a 
 snake, without a shawl, her shoulders bare. Often 
 at chapel, during the services, she knelt with her 
 eyes fastened on the cross, and everybody marveled 
 at her as her tears ran; but she wept for vexation; 
 in place of the sacred images she longed to see, the 
 dazzling nights when she had led the orgy, as
 
 64 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Habeneck leads a symphony of Beethoven at the 
 Conservatory, those nights filled with mirth and 
 wantonness, quivering with frantic life and laughter, 
 arose before her wild, savage, brutal. Without, 
 she was tranquil as a virgin held to earth by her 
 woman's form alone; within, she was an imperial 
 Messalina. She alone knew this secret combat of 
 devil against angel. When the sister superior re- 
 proved her for doing her hair more elaborately than 
 the rules allowed, she altered it with sweet and 
 ready obedience. She was willing to cut it off, if 
 the sister had ordered it. This homesickness had a 
 touching grace in a girl who had rather die than re- 
 turn to her impure home. She grew pale, changed, 
 thin. The sister superior lightened her tasks and 
 took the interesting girl to her room to question her. 
 Esther was happy; she was delighted with her com- 
 panions; she did not feel wounded in a vital spot, 
 and yet her vitality was deeply wounded. She re- 
 gretted nothing; she wished for nothing. The sister, 
 amazed by her scholar's answers, knew not what to 
 think as she saw her drooping beneath this over- 
 powering languor. When the young girl's condition 
 looked grave the doctor was called, but the doctor 
 knew nothing of Esther's former life and could not 
 suspect it. He found life everywhere, suffering no- 
 where. The malady upset all hypotheses. There 
 remained one way of casting light upon the physi- 
 cian's doubts which entailed a terrible idea. Esther 
 refused obstinately to submit to an examination by 
 the doctor. In this difficulty, the sister called upon
 
 CARLOS AND ESTHER 
 
 " You must wait a few days more and then you 
 shall both be free." 
 
 "Both /" repeated s/ie in ecstasy. 
 
 I 'ie^'ed from a distance this scene amazed both 
 scholars and teachers. They thought that they had 
 7vitncssed some magical transformation, as they 
 compared Est/ier with her former self. The girl, 
 quite c/ianged. lircd once more. Site reappeared in 
 lier true loring nature, sweet, coc/nettis//, impulsire, 
 gay. In a word, s/ie came to life again !
 
 64 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Habeneck le u!s a symphony of Beethoven at the 
 Conserv lose nights filled with mirth and 
 
 wanton nc-ss, quivering with frantic life and laughter, 
 arose !?eiore her wild, savage, brutal. Without. 
 she was tranquil as a virgin held to earth by her 
 woman's form alone; within, she was an imperial 
 Messalina. She alone knew this secret combat of 
 devil against angel. When the sister superior re- 
 proved her ^&ipgi>e(lh^ rojQ^fibyrately than 
 the rules allowed, she altered it with sweet and 
 ready obedience. Sho was willing to cut it off, if 
 the sister had ordered it. This homesickness had a 
 1$mrftr^ g^&.-'WW gt^Xvfi'eVh%^|5jmi^^te^ih re- 
 turn to her impure home. She P$KW&&&9gg& 
 thin. The sister superior lightened her tasks and 
 took the interesting ^ MV^m^queM' her. 
 
 i'he'f tom- 
 
 . 
 
 and yet her vitality was deeply wounded. She re- 
 
 thiak aj.she saWi her droopina beneath this over- 
 Ki TR^^WR^ $$ .XSbV* ^^^Ps^^U .V^VVAY} 'i1u\M 
 
 powering languor. When the young girns condition 
 iW^f^h^^^B^^^^is^l^W^ I Kt&r 
 
 knew nothi.r^^^i^^^r^^ $^W$ ^ ul ^fi^ 
 suspect it. He found life everywhere, suffering no- 
 where. The malady upset all hypotheses. There 
 remained one way of casting light upon the physi- 
 cian's doubts which entailed a terrible idea. Esther 
 refused obstinately to submit to an examination by 
 the doctor. In this difficulty, the sister called upon
 
 CARLOS AND ESTHER 
 
 "Yon must wait -a few days more and then yon 
 shall l>o th be free." 
 
 "Both ?" repeated she in ecstasy. 
 
 1 tczccd from a distance this scene amazed both 
 scholars and teachers. They thought that t/tev had 
 -witnessed some magi cat transformation, as thev 
 Compared ILstlier with her former se/f. The girl, 
 finite changed, tired once more. She reappeared in 
 her true losing nature. sii'CCt, eoanettis/i, impulsive, 
 gay. In a word, she came to life again !
 
 ^ft 
 
 \\ 
 
 \\Vvj7 
 
 Vi'7\\ . 
 
 ( \VVQVi7 ft \\\
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 65 
 
 the Abbe Herrera. The Spaniard came, saw Esther's 
 desperate condition, and talked for a moment in 
 secret with the doctor. After this confidence, the 
 man of science announced to the man of faith that 
 the only hope was a journey to Italy. The priest 
 did not wish this journey to be made before Esther's 
 baptism and first communion. 
 
 " How much time is needed?" asked the doctor. 
 
 " One month," answered the sister. 
 
 " She will be dead," replied the doctor. 
 
 " Yes, but in a state of grace, and saved," said 
 the priest. 
 
 In Spain the religious problem takes precedence 
 of all other problems, be they political, civil, vital. 
 The doctor did not reply to the Spaniard; he turned 
 toward the sister, but the terrible priest held his 
 arm to stop him. 
 
 " Not a word," said he. 
 
 The doctor, pious and monarchical as he was, 
 cast upon Esther a look full of tender compassion. 
 This girl was lovely, a lily bending from its stalk. 
 
 " For the love of God!" cried he as he went out. 
 
 The same day Esther was taken by her protector 
 to the Roc her de Cane ale, for in his desire to save 
 her the priest had recourse to the strangest expedi- 
 ents. He tried a double excess: an excellent dinner 
 to bring back to the poor girl the remembrance of 
 her orgies; the Opera to give her again some glimpses 
 of the world. There was need of all his crushing 
 authority to reconcile the young saint to such world- 
 liness. Herrera disguised himself so completely in a 
 5
 
 66 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 soldier's uniform that Esther could scarcely recog- 
 nize him. He took care to provide a veil for his 
 companion, and placed her in a box where she was 
 hidden from the public gaze. This half-way remedy, 
 that would not endanger an innocence so perfectly 
 regained, was soon exhausted. Esther felt disgust 
 for the dinners of her protector, a religious aversion 
 for the theatre, and soon fell back into her melan- 
 choly. 
 
 " She is dying of love for Lucien," thought Her- 
 rera, who wished to sound the depth of this soul, 
 and to know what could be exacted of it. 
 
 Thus there would come a time when this poor 
 girl would no longer be upheld by her moral strength 
 and when her body must yield. The priest calcu- 
 lated this moment with that horrible sagacity which 
 in former times executioners employed in their art 
 of putting a victim to the torture. He found his 
 pupil in the garden, seated on a bench against an 
 arbor caressed by the April sun; apparently she was 
 cold and trying to warm herself. Her comrades were 
 looking compassionately at her ashen paleness, 
 her eyes like those of a dying doe, and her sad atti- 
 tude. Esther rose to meet the Spaniard with a 
 movement which showed how little she had of life, 
 and, let us say it, how little taste she had for life. 
 This poor vagabond girl, this poor wounded swallow 
 excited for the second time the pity of Carlos Her- 
 rera. This gloomy minister, whom God should use 
 only to fulfill His vengeance, received the sick girl 
 with a smile as bitter as it was tender, as revengeful
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 67 
 
 as it was kind. Accustomed, during her semi-monas- 
 tic life to meditation and to self-questioning, Esther 
 for the second time felt a thrill of distrust at the 
 sight of her protector; but, as at the first time, she 
 was reassured instantly by his words. 
 
 " My dear child," said he, " why have you never 
 spoken to me about Lucien?" 
 
 " I have promised you," answered she, trembling 
 from head to foot with a convulsive shiver, " I have 
 sworn to you never to pronounce that name." 
 
 "And yet you have never ceased to think of him." 
 
 "That, sir, is my only fault. 1 think of him at 
 every hour. As you appeared I was saying that 
 name to myself." 
 
 " Is it absence that is killing you?" 
 
 For answer, Esther bowed her head after the man- 
 ner of the sick who already feel the air of the grave. 
 
 " To see him again?" said he. 
 
 "Would be to live," she answered. 
 
 " Is it your soul alone that thinks of him?" 
 
 "Ah, sir, love cannot be divided in two." 
 
 " Girl of the accursed race! 1 have done every- 
 thing to save you. I give you back to your destiny, 
 you shall see him again!" 
 
 " Why do you hurt my happiness? Can I not 
 love Lucien and be faithful to virtue, which I love 
 as I love him? Am I not as ready to die for her as 
 I should be to die for him? Shall I not die for these 
 two gods, for virtue which should make me worthy 
 of him, for him who has thrown me into the arms of 
 virtue? Yes, ready to die without seeing him again,
 
 68 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 ready to live as I see him once more. God will 
 be my Judge." 
 
 Her color had returned, her pallor was tinged 
 with gold. Yet again Esther awakened his pity. 
 
 " On the morrow of that day when you shall be 
 washed in the waters of baptism, you shall see 
 Lucien and if you believe that in living for him you 
 can live virtuous, you shall never be separated from 
 him." 
 
 Esther's knees gave way and the priest was 
 obliged to lift her. The poor girl had fallen as 
 though the earth had slipped from beneath her feet; 
 the priest seated her on the bench, and as soon as 
 she could speak she said: 
 
 "Why not to-day?" 
 
 " Do you wish to rob his reverence of the triumph 
 of your baptism and conversion? You are too near 
 Lucien not to be far from God." 
 
 " Yes, I forgot everything else." 
 
 " You will never belong to any religion," said the 
 priest, with a gesture of deep irony. 
 
 "God is good," she answered, "He reads my 
 heart." 
 
 Captivated by the enchanting simplicity which 
 broke forth in Esther's voice and look, attitude and 
 gesture, Herrera kissed her for the first time upon 
 her forehead. 
 
 "The libertines have chosen your name well; you 
 would beguile God the Father Himself. You must 
 wait a few days more and then you shall both be 
 free."
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 69 
 
 " Both?" repeated she in ecstasy. 
 
 Viewed from a distance this scene amazed both 
 scholars and teachers. They thought that they had 
 witnessed some magical transformation, as they 
 compared Esther with her former self. The girl, 
 quite changed, lived once more. She reappeared in 
 her true loving nature, sweet, coquettish, impulsive, 
 gay. In a word, she came to life again! 
 
 Herrera lived in the rue Cassette, close to Saint- 
 Sulpice, the church to which he was attached. 
 This church, built in a severe barren style, suited 
 this Spaniard, whose religion was derived from the 
 Dominicans. A forlorn hope of the crafty policy of 
 Ferdinand VII., he opposed the constitutional party 
 though he knew that this devotion could never 
 be rewarded but by the re-establisHrnent of "rey 
 netto." And Carlos Herrera gave himself body and 
 soul to the " Camarilla " at a time when the Cortes 
 seemed in no danger of being overthrown. For the 
 world this conduct bore witness of a lofty soul. 
 The expedition of the Due d'Angoule'me had taken 
 place, King Ferdinand was on the throne, and Carlos 
 Herrera did not go to Madrid to claim the price of 
 his services. Protected from public curiosity by a 
 diplomatic silence, he gave, as reason for his pro- 
 longed stay at Paris, his warm affection for Lucien 
 de Rubempre, and it was to this that the young man 
 owed already the royal grant relative to his change 
 of name. Besides Herrera lived a very retired life 
 after the traditional fashion of priests employed on 
 secret missions. He performed his religious duties
 
 70 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 at Saint-Sulpice, went out only on business and 
 then at night in a carriage. His day was taken up 
 by the Spanish siesta, which sleeps away the hours 
 between the two meals, the time when Paris is 
 most crowded and busy. The Spanish cigar played 
 its part too and consumed as much time as tobacco. 
 Idleness is a mask as well as gravity, for gravity 
 itself is idleness. Herrera lived on the second story 
 of a house in one wing while Lucien occupied the 
 other wing. These apartments were separate and 
 at the same time united by a large reception room, 
 whose antique splendor was equally suited to the 
 grave ecclesiastic and the young poet. The court- 
 yard of this house was gloomy. Tall trees shaded 
 the garden with their thick foliage. Silence and 
 discretion meet in dwellings chosen by priests. 
 Herrera's lodging can be described in two words: a 
 cell. Lucien's suite, resplendent with luxury and 
 furnished with refinements of comfort, contained all 
 the requisites of the elegant life of a dandy, poet 
 and author, ambitious, dissolute, at once proud and 
 vain, neglectful in the extreme yet desirous of order; 
 one of those imperfect geniuses, who have some 
 power of desiring and conceiving (which are perhaps 
 the same thing), but who lack the power of doing. 
 Of themselves Lucien and Herrera formed a complete 
 political combination. There, no doubt, lay the 
 secret of this alliance. Old men, in whom the 
 motive of life has changed its place and settled 
 within the sphere of interest, often feel the want of 
 a pretty toy, of a young and impassioned actor to
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 71 
 
 accomplish their ends. Richelieu found too late a 
 handsome, fair, mustachioed face to toss to the 
 women whom he thought fit to amuse. Misunder- 
 stood by young simpletons he was obliged to banish 
 his master's mother and to overawe the queen; for 
 he had labored to ingratiate himself first with one 
 and then with the other, although his was not a 
 nature to attract the love of queens. Whatever 
 road he take across an ambitious life, a man must 
 brush against a woman at the time he least expects 
 the encounter. However powerful a government 
 be, it needs a woman to play against a woman, just 
 as the Dutch cut diamond with diamond. Rome 
 at the height of her power bowed to this necessity. 
 Remember too, how differently the lives of Mazarin, 
 the Italian cardinal, and Richelieu, the French 
 cardinal, became supreme: Richelieu meets with 
 opposition amongst the great lords; he lays the axe 
 to the root; he dies at the apex of his power, worn 
 out by this duel in which he had only a Capuchin 
 for a second. Mazarin is repulsed by the united 
 burghers and nobles who, armed and sometimes vic- 
 torious, make royalty itself flee before them; but the 
 servant of Anne of Austria cuts off no heads, con- 
 quers all France, and moulds Louis XIV., who 
 finished the work of Richelieu by strangling the 
 nobility with silken cords in the great harem of 
 Versailles. Madame de Pompadour once dead, 
 Choiseul is lost! Had Herrera discovered these 
 deep maxims? Had he done justice to himself 
 earlier than Richelieu had done? Had he chosen a
 
 72 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Cinq-Mars, and a faithful Cinq-Mars, in Lucien? No 
 one could answer these questions nor measure the 
 ambition of this Spaniard, as no one could foresee 
 what should be his end. These questions, asked 
 by such as could steal a glance at this long-secret 
 union, sought to pierce a horrible mystery that 
 Lucien had only known for a few days. Carlos 
 was ambitious for both: this is what his conduct 
 meant to persons who knew him and who believed, 
 every one, that Lucien was the natural son of the 
 priest. 
 
 Fifteen months after his appearance at the Opera 
 which had thrown him too soon into a society where 
 the priest had no wish to see him until he had 
 finished arming him against the world, Lucien had 
 three handsome horses in his stable, a coupe for the 
 evening, a chaise and a tilbury for the morning. 
 He took his meals at restaurants. Herrera's ex- 
 pectations were fulfilled: dissipation had engrossed 
 his pupil; but he had thought it necessary to leave 
 an outlet for the mad love which Lucien felt for 
 Esther. After spending some forty thousand francs, 
 every adventure brought back Lucien more com- 
 pletely to La Torpille. He sought her stubbornly, 
 and as he failed to find her, she became for him 
 what the game is for the hunter. Could Herrera 
 know the nature of a poet's love? When once this 
 sentiment has gained a foothold in the head of one 
 of these little great men, as surely as it has secured 
 his heart and pierced his senses, this poet becomes 
 as far above humanity by the strength of his love
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 73 
 
 as he is by the power of his fancy. Indebted to 
 the caprice of an intellectual birth for the rare 
 faculty of painting nature by images which express 
 both sentiment and thought, the poet gives to his 
 love the wings of his fancy. He feels and he 
 paints; he acts and he thinks; he multiplies his 
 feelings by his thought; he triples present happiness 
 by hopes for the future and recollections of the past; 
 he intermingles those fine delights of the soul which 
 make him the prince of artists. The passion of a 
 poet becomes a mighty poem wherein often the 
 measure of man is surpassed. Does not the poet 
 place his mistress far higher than the region where 
 women like to dwell? Like the sublime cavalier of 
 la Mancha he transforms a workwoman of the 
 fields into a princess. He waves for himself the 
 wand whose touch transforms everything by magic, 
 and thus he increases his happiness by the divine 
 world of the ideal. And this love is a model of 
 passion. It is intemperate in all things: in its hopes, 
 in its despair, in its anger, in its sadness, in its joy; 
 it flies, it leaps, it climbs; it is not like the excite- 
 ments of ordinary men; it is to common love what 
 the eternal torrent of the Alps is to the brooks of the 
 plain. These splendid geniuses are so rarely under- 
 stood that they waste themselves in false hopes: con- 
 sume themselves in searching for their ideal mis- 
 tresses. They die almost always like beautiful insects, 
 that are carefully decked by the most poetic of natures 
 for the feasts of love, and, still virgins, are trodden 
 upon by the foot of a passer-by. But there is another
 
 74 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 danger, when they meet the woman who appeals to 
 their souls, and who is often a baker's daughter, they 
 do as Raphael did, as the beautiful insects do, they die 
 beside the Fornarina. Lucien was one of these. His 
 poet's nature, of need extreme in all things, good and 
 evil alike, divined the angel in the woman rather spot- 
 ted by corruption than corrupt. He saw her always 
 white-winged, pure, mysterious, as though she had 
 made herself for him knowing that he wished her thus. 
 
 Toward the end of the month of May, 1825, Lucien 
 had lost all his vivacity. He stayed at home, dined 
 with Herrera, thought, worked, read the collection 
 of diplomatic treaties, sat cross-legged on a divan, 
 and smoked three or four hookahs a day. His groom 
 was more busied in polishing and perfuming the 
 stems of this beautiful instrument than in currying 
 the horses' coats and in decking their heads 
 with rosettes for a drive in the Bois. On the day 
 that the Spaniard noted Lucien's pale forehead, and 
 traced the germs of illness in the frenzy of hidden 
 love, he wished to penetrate to the heart of this 
 man on whom he had built his life. 
 
 One lovely evening when Lucien, stretched in 
 an armchair, was watching mechanically the set- 
 ting of the sun behind the garden trees, and was 
 blowing a cloud of his perfumed smoke in equal and 
 prolonged puffs, as thoughtful smokers do, he was 
 awakened from his revery by a deep sigh. He 
 turned and saw the priest standing near him with 
 crossed arms. 
 
 " Have you been standing there?" asked the poet.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 75 
 
 "For a long time," answered the priest, "my 
 thoughts have been following the compass of yours." 
 
 Lucien understood. 
 
 " I never claimed for myself an iron nature such 
 as yours. For me life is by turns a heaven and a 
 hell; but when by chance it is neither one nor the 
 other, it wearies me and 1 grow weary of myself." 
 
 " How can a man be weary of life with such 
 splendid hopes before him?" 
 
 "When he ceases to believe in these hopes or 
 when they are too thickly veiled." 
 
 "No nonsense," said the priest; "it is much 
 worthier of you and of me that you should open 
 your heart to me. There lies between us what 
 there ought never to be a secret. This secret has 
 lasted for sixteen months. You love a woman." 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 "A disreputable woman, named La Torpille." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " My son, I have given you leave to take a mis- 
 tress, but a woman of the court, young, beautiful, 
 influential, a countess at the least. 1 picked out 
 Madame d'Espard for you, in order to use her, with- 
 out scruple, as a tool; for she would never have per- 
 verted your heart, she would have left you free. To 
 love a prostitute of the lowest kind, when you can- 
 not, as kings can, make her noble, is a cardinal sin." 
 
 "Am 1 the first to throw ambition to the winds 
 and rush down the path of an unbridled love?" 
 
 "Good," ejaculated the priest, as he picked up 
 the bocchinetto of the hookah, which Lucien had let
 
 76 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 fall, and handed it to him; " 1 understand the epi- 
 gram. Is it impossible to unite ambition and love? 
 Son, you have in old Herrera a mother whose devo- 
 tion is perfect." 
 
 "I know it," said Lucien, taking his hand and 
 shaking it. 
 
 " You wished for the toys of riches. You have 
 them. You wish to shine; 1 guide you in the path 
 of success, I kiss unclean hands that you may rise, 
 and you rise. A little more time and you shall lack 
 nothing that men and women delight in. Your caprices 
 have made you effeminate; you are manly at heart. 
 I know you thoroughly and I pardon everything. 
 You have only to speak, to satisfy your passions of 
 a day. 1 have enriched your life, by giving it that 
 which makes it worshiped by the crowd, the seal 
 of government and power. You shall be as great 
 as you are little; but we must not break the die with 
 which we stamp our coin. I grant you everything 
 except the errors that would ruin your future. When 
 I throw open for you the doors of the Faubourg Saint- 
 Germain, I forbid you to wallow in the gutters. Lu- 
 cien, on your behalf, 1 will be like a bar of iron; I 
 will suffer all things for you, for your sake. It is 
 thus, then, that 1 have transformed your clumsiness in 
 the game of life into the craft of a cunning player." 
 
 Lucien tossed his head back with an angry jerk. 
 
 " 1 have carried away La Torpille!" 
 
 " You?" shrieked Lucien. 
 
 In a burst of wild rage the poet leaped to his 
 feet, threw the golden jeweled bocchinetto into the
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 77 
 
 priest's face, and hurled him, athlete as he was, to the 
 ground. 
 
 " I," said the Spaniard, as he rose, still keeping 
 his awful gravity. The black wig had fallen. A 
 skull smooth as a death's-head gave the man his 
 true expression. It was dreadful. Lucien sat on 
 his divan, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. 
 Overwhelmed, he gazed stupidly at the priest. 
 
 " 1 have carried her away," repeated the eccle- 
 siastic. 
 
 " What have you done with her? You took her 
 off on the day after the masked ball.''' 
 
 " Yes. On the day after 1 had seen a human being 
 who belonged to you insulted by fools whom 1 would 
 not deign to kick." 
 
 " Fools!" cried Lucien, interrupting him. " Call 
 them monsters beside whom the victims of the 
 guillotine are angels. Do you know what poor 
 Torpille has done for three among them? One of 
 them had been her lover for two months. She was 
 poor and picked up her crusts from the gutter. He 
 hadn't a cent. Like me, when first you found me, 
 he was very close to the river. The fellow used to 
 get up at night, and go to the cupboard where were 
 the remnants of the girl's dinner, and eat them. 
 Eventually she discovered this. She understood his 
 sense of shame; took care to leave plenty of rem- 
 nants and was very happy. She told it only to me, 
 in her cab, coming back from the Opera. The sec- 
 ond had stolen; but before his theft was discovered 
 she lent him the money, thus he was enabled to
 
 78 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 refund it, but he never remembered to repay the 
 poor child. As for the third, she made his fortune 
 in playing a comedy that displayed all the genius of 
 Figaro: she passed for his wife and became the mis- 
 tress of an influential man who thought her a most 
 ingenuous and respectable woman. To one life, to 
 another honor, to the last fortune, which to-day is 
 worth them all. And this is how she has been re- 
 warded by them!" 
 
 "Do you wish them to die?" said Herrera, who 
 had a tear in his eye. 
 
 " I know you now. I understand you." 
 
 " No, learn the whole truth, mad poet," said the 
 priest. " La Torpille is no more." 
 
 Lucien sprang so violently at Herrara's neck that 
 another man would have lost his balance; but the 
 Spaniard's arm held the poet firm. 
 
 " Listen," said he coldly, " I have made of her a 
 woman, chaste, pure, well brought up, religious, 
 everything that a woman should be. She is being 
 taught. She can, she must become, beneath the 
 mastery of your love, a Ninon, a Marion Delorme, 
 or a DuBarry, as that journalist said at the opera. 
 You shall acknowledge her as your mistress, or if 
 you follow wiser counsel you shall remain hidden 
 behind a curtain of your own creation. Either 
 course will bring you profit and pride, pleasure and 
 advancement; but if you are as great a statesman as 
 you are a poet, Esther will never be more than your 
 amusement. In time, perhaps, she may be of 
 great use to us, for she's worth her weight in gold.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 79 
 
 Drink, but do not drink too deep. If I had not 
 curbed your passions, where would you be to-day? 
 You would have sunk with La Torpille into the slough 
 of misery, whence I dragged you. Take this, read 
 it," said Herrera, with as much directness as Talma 
 in "Manlius," whom he had never seen. 
 
 A paper fell into the poet's lap and drew him from 
 the utter amazement into which the priest's terrible 
 answer had plunged him. He took it and read the 
 first letter written by Mademoiselle Esther: 
 
 "To Father Carlos Herrera: 
 
 "My dear guardian, will you not think that my 
 gratitude surpasses my love when you see that I 
 make use of the faculty of expressing my thoughts 
 for the first time in giving thanks to you instead of 
 consecrating it to painting a love that Lucien has 
 perhaps forgotten. To you who are a holy man I 
 can tell what I could not confess to him who still 
 wishes to attach my happiness to this earth. Yes- 
 terday's ceremony has poured its wealth of grace 
 upon me and 1 place my destiny in your hands. If 
 1 be called upon to die far from my beloved, I shall 
 die purified, like the Magdalen, and my soul shall 
 become, for his sake, the rival of his guardian angel. 
 Shall 1 ever forget yesterday's fe'te? How can I 
 wish to step down from the glorious throne where I 
 have climbed? Yesterday I washed away all my 
 sins in the waters of baptism, and 1 received the 
 sacred body of our Saviour. I have become one of 
 His temples. At that moment I heard the songs of
 
 80 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 angels; I was more than a woman; I was born to a 
 life of light, attired like a virgin for a heavenly 
 bridegroom, amidst an intoxicating cloud of incense 
 and prayers, while the earth rejoiced and the world 
 was glad. When I felt myself worthy of Lucien, 
 though I had never dared hope it before, I cast 
 away every impure love and I will not walk in other 
 paths than those of virtue. If my body is more 
 feeble than my soul, let it perish. Be the ruler of 
 my destiny, and, if I die, tell Lucien that I died for 
 him as 1 was born unto God. 
 
 "Sunday evening." 
 
 Lucien, with tears in his eyes, looked toward the 
 priest. 
 
 "You know the lodgings of big Caroline Belle- 
 feuille in the Rue Taitbout," said the Spaniard. 
 "This girl, who was left uncared for by the police 
 magistrate, was in frightful want; she was going 
 to be arrested. I bought her rooms outright and she 
 went out with her effects. Esther, the angel who 
 wished to climb to heaven, has corne down and is 
 awaiting you there." 
 
 Just then Lucien heard his horses prancing in the 
 courtyard below. He had no strength to show his ad- 
 miration for devotion that he alone could appreciate. 
 He threw himself into the arms of the man whom 
 he had outraged, and made amends by a single look 
 in which he silently expressed his gratitude; then 
 he leapt down the staircase, shouted Esther's ad- 
 dress to his "tiger," and the horses dashed away as 
 if their legs were animated by their master's passion.
 
 On the following day, a man, who by his dress 
 might have been a disguised gendarme, was pacing 
 the street before a house in the Rue Taitbout, 
 as though he were expecting somebody to come 
 out. His gait betokened anxiety. In Paris it is 
 not uncommon to meet with such excited persons; 
 real gendarmes watching for some refractory sol- 
 dier of the National Guard; bailiffs taking measures 
 for an arrest; creditors contemplating some insult 
 on the debtor who has securely locked his door; 
 jealous lovers; suspicious husbands; friends busied 
 in a friend's business; but it is very rare to come 
 upon a face darkened by the stern and cruel thoughts 
 which animated the gloomy features of a powerfully 
 built man as he walked to and fro beneath Made- 
 moiselle Esther's windows with the blind haste of a 
 caged bear. At twelve o'clock a window opened 
 and allowed a chambermaid's hand to push back the 
 carefully padded shutters. A few moments later, 
 Esther, clad in her dressing-gown, and leaning upon 
 Lucien's arm, came to breathe the air. An observer 
 would have taken them for the original of a pretty 
 English vignette. Suddenly Esther caught sight of 
 the basilisk eyes of the Spanish priest. The poor 
 girl gave a startled cry as though she had been 
 struck by a bullet. 
 
 6 (8r)
 
 82 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "There's the terrible priest," she whispered, 
 pointing him out to Lucien. 
 
 "He!" said Lucien with a smile, "He's no more 
 priest than you." 
 
 "What is he then?" she asked fearfully. 
 
 "Oh, he's an old lascar, who only believes in the 
 devil," replied Lucien. 
 
 Had Esther been less absolutely devoted, this 
 light cast upon the secrets of the false priest might 
 have ruined Lucien forever. As they walked from 
 the bedroom to the dining-room where their break- 
 fast had just been served, the lovers met Carlos 
 Herrera. 
 
 "What have you to do here?" demanded Lucien 
 shortly. " To bless you," answered the undaunted 
 priest as he stopped the couple and obliged them to 
 halt in the little parlor of the suite. "Listen, my 
 dears. Have a good time, be happy. All that 
 is very well. Happiness at any price is my motto. 
 But you," said he to Esther, "you whom I raised 
 from the mire and whom I cleansed body and soul, 
 you can have no claim to block Lucien's path. As 
 for you, my boy," said he turning to Lucien after a 
 pause, "you are no longer poet enough to run a 
 steeplechase after a new Coralie. It is prose that 
 we are writing. What can become of Esther's lover ? 
 Nothing. Perhaps Esther can become Madame de 
 Rubempre? No, well the world, my love," said 
 he laying his hand on Esther's fingers which quivered 
 as though a snake were coiled about them, " the 
 world must not know that you exist, the world,
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 83 
 
 above all things, must never know that a Made- 
 moiselle Esther loves Lucien and that Lucien is 
 in love with her. This apartment shall be your 
 prison, my girl. If you wish to go out and if 
 your health require it, you must walk during the 
 night at hours when you cannot be seen; for your 
 beauty, your youth and the distinction you have 
 gained at the convent, would be too quickly noticed in 
 Paris. The day that the world shall know, " he went 
 on with terrible earnestness and a still more terrible 
 look, " that Lucien is your lover or that you are his 
 mistress, that day shall be the beginning of your end. 
 Though Lucien is a younger son, permission has been 
 obtained for him to carry the arms of his mother's 
 line. But this is not all. The title of marquis has 
 not been granted him, and to secure this, he must 
 marry the daughter of some noble family in whose 
 favor the King will confer this honor upon him. This 
 marriage will place Lucien in the court world. This 
 boy whom I have made a man, shall first become 
 secretary of an embassy; later he shall become min- 
 ister in some German court and aided by God or by 
 me, whichever best serves his turn, he shall sit 
 some day on the benches of the peerage " 
 
 "Or on the benches of ' cried Lucien, inter- 
 rupting the priest. 
 
 " Silence," cried Carlos, covering Lucien's mouth 
 with his large hand. " Such a secret to a woman ! 
 " whispered he in his ear. 
 
 "Esther, a woman?" exclaimed the author of 
 " Marguerites."
 
 84 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "More sonnets and nonsense," said the priest. 
 "All angels become women again sooner or later. 
 But there are times when a woman is at once child 
 and monkey: two creatures who kill us for a joke. 
 Esther, my jewel," said he to the frightened girl, 
 "for your waiting maid, I have found a woman as 
 much bound to me as if she were my daughter. 
 For cook, you shall have a mulatto woman who will 
 give your house an aristocratic air. With Europe 
 and Asia, you can live here, everything included, on 
 a thousand francs a month and live like a queen 
 of the stage. Europe has been seamstress, dress- 
 maker and chorus girl. Asia has cooked for a glut- 
 tonous milord. These two creatures shall serve 
 you like fairies." 
 
 As she saw how small and young Lucien looked 
 beside this being who was capable of falsehood or 
 sacrilege, or worse, this woman, sanctified as she was 
 by love, felt cold terror in her heart. Without a word 
 she drew Lucien aside into the next room. Then 
 she said to him: 
 
 "Is it the devil?" 
 
 " Much worse, forme!" answered he quickly. 
 " But, if you love me, try to imitate his devotion 
 and obey him on pain of death " 
 
 " Of death?" said she, still more alarmed. " Of 
 death," repeated Lucien. " Ah, dear heart, no death 
 could compare with the fate which would be mine 
 if" 
 
 Esther turned pale and faint as she heard these 
 words.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 85 
 
 "Well," cried the priestly forger "haven't you 
 finished plucking the leaves of your Margue- 
 rites?" 
 
 Esther and Lucien reappeared, and the poor girl 
 who dared not raise her eyes to the mysterious 
 priest, answered: " You shall be obeyed, as God is 
 obeyed, sir." " Good!" he answered. " For some 
 time you can be very happy and since you have 
 to provide toilets only for the night and the morning, 
 you can be very economical." 
 
 The lovers turned toward the dining-room but 
 Lucien's protector beckoned the charming couple to 
 stop. They obeyed him. 
 
 " I have just spoken to you of your servants, my 
 child," said he to Esther. " I ought to introduce 
 them." 
 
 The Spaniard rang twice, and the two women 
 whom he called Europe and Asia appeared. It was 
 easy to see the cause of their cognomens. 
 
 Asia who seemed to be a native of the island of 
 Java, offered to the astonished beholder the copper- 
 colored countenance peculiar to the Malays, flat as 
 a board. The nose looked as if it had been knocked 
 in by a violent blow, and the strange position of the 
 maxillary bones gave the lower portion of her face a 
 resemblance to that of a large monkey. The fore- 
 head, although low, did not lack a certain look of 
 intelligence produced by habitual cunning. The 
 two small shining eyes were calm as those of a 
 tiger's, but they never looked you in the face. Asia 
 seemed afraid of frightening those about her. Her
 
 86 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 pale blue lips were slightly parted, showing irregular 
 teeth of dazzling whiteness. The dominant expression 
 of her animal physiognomy was cowardice. Her 
 hair sleek and oily, like the skin of her face, rose in 
 two black bands on either side of a richly colored silk 
 handkerchief. Her ears, which were extraordinarily 
 pretty, were ornamented with two large black pearls. 
 Small, short, thick-set, she looked like one of those 
 preposterous creations that the Chinese allow on 
 their screens or rather, like those Hindoo idols of a 
 scarcely believable type which have been discovered 
 by travelers. Esther shuddered as she saw this 
 monster stand before her dressed in a stuff gown 
 and white apron. 
 
 " Asia," said the Spaniard, toward whom this wo- 
 man raised her head with a motion like that of a dog 
 as he watches his master, "this is your mistress." 
 
 He pointed toward Esther as she stood there in 
 her wrapper. Asia looked at the young sylph with 
 a half-melancholy expression, but simultaneously a 
 stifled flame from beneath her short quivering lashes 
 shot like a spark of fire toward Lucien who, with his 
 gorgeous dressing-gown thrown open, his shirt of 
 fine linen, his red trousers and his loose fair curls 
 escaping from beneath a Turkish fez, looked like a 
 young god. The genius of Italy can invent the 
 story of Othello; the genius of England can adapt it 
 to the stage; but nature alone has the power of 
 being more splendid and more perfect than England 
 and Italy in the expression of jealousy. Esther saw 
 the look, and seizing the Spaniard's arm dug her nails
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 87 
 
 into it like a cat clinging to the edge of a precipice, 
 the depth of which it cannot see. The Spaniard 
 spoke three or four words in an unknown tongue to 
 the strange Asiatic monster who instantly crouched 
 before Esther's feet and kissed them. 
 
 "It is not," said the Spaniard to Esther, "a 
 woman but a man, whose gift for cooking would 
 make Care'me madly jealous. Asia can accomplish 
 anything in a kitchen. She will prepare a simple 
 dish of beans that will make you doubt whether the 
 angels have not intermingled herbs from heaven. 
 Every morning she will go to market, and will fight 
 like the devil she is, in order to get everything at the 
 lowest price; she will weary the curious with her 
 discretion. As you will be supposed to have been 
 in the Indies, Asia will do much to make the story 
 credible, for she is one of those Parisian women 
 who can appear to belong to any country they wish. 
 But my advice is that you do not pass for a for- 
 eigner. Europe, what say you?" 
 
 Europe formed an absolute contrast to Asia, for 
 she was as neat a soubrette as ever Monrose could 
 have wished for a rival on the boards. Slender, and 
 giddy-looking, with little ferret features and turned-up 
 nose, Europe offered to view a face worn by the dis- 
 sipations of Paris, the pale face of a girl fed on raw 
 potatoes, at once flaccid and firm, pliant and obsti- 
 nate. With one small foot advanced and her hands 
 in the pockets of her apron, her animation was so 
 great that she never ceased to fidget, although she 
 did not move from her place. Grisette and ballet-
 
 88 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 dancer as well, she had worked at many trades in 
 spite of her youth. Perverse as all the women of 
 a penitentiary put together, she might have robbed 
 her parents and been acquainted with the benches 
 of the police court. Asia was frightful to look upon, 
 but she could be understood in a moment; she was 
 a lineal descendant of Locuste; whereas Europe in- 
 spired an uneasiness which could not but increase 
 in proportion as she was employed. Her depravity 
 seemed boundless. She could sow discord in heaven, 
 as they say. 
 
 " Perhaps the lady comes from Valenciennes," said 
 Europe, in a small shrill voice. " I do, myself, sir," 
 she added in an affected tone, turning to Lucien. 
 "Will you tell me the name by which I must know 
 Madame?" 
 
 " Madame von Bogseck," answered the Spaniard, 
 giving this assumed name without hesitation. "She 
 is a Jewess, a native of Holland, a merchant's 
 widow, and sick with some liver trouble that she has 
 brought back with her from Java. Not a large for- 
 tune in order not to arouse curiosity." 
 
 "What income? Six thousand francs, and shall 
 we complain of her meanness?" asked Europe. 
 
 "That's it," said the Spaniard, nodding, "you 
 crafty devils!" he added in a terrible voice as he 
 noticed Europe and Asia exchange glances that he 
 did not like. "You know my orders? You serve a 
 queen. You owe her the respect that a queen is 
 entitled to. You will nurse her as you would nurse 
 revenge. You must be as devoted to her as to me.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 89 
 
 Not the janitor, nor the neighbors, nor the lodgers, 
 nobody in the world must know what goes on here. 
 It is your duty to divert any curiosity that may be 
 excited. And this lady," continued he, laying his 
 large hairy hand upon Esther's arm, "must not 
 commit the slightest imprudence. If need be you 
 must prevent her, but always respectfully. Eu- 
 rope, it will be your task to make arrangements 
 for Madame von Bogseck's dresses, and you will do 
 the sewing yourself for economy's sake. Above all, 
 no outsider, however insignificant, must set foot in 
 the apartment. You two must be able to do every- 
 thing. My love," said he to Esther, "when you 
 wish to drive in the evening, you will tell Europe. 
 She knows where to find your servants, for you are 
 to have a groom of my choice, like these two 
 slaves." 
 
 Esther and Lucien could not answer a word. They 
 listened to the Spaniard and gazed at the two price- 
 less servants to whom he gave his orders. To what 
 secret did he owe the obsequious devotion written 
 upon those two faces, one so wickedly rebellious, 
 the other so utterly cruel? The priest divined the 
 thoughts of Esther and Lucien as they stood stupe- 
 fied as Paul and Virginia would have stood at the 
 sight of two horrible serpents, and whispered to 
 them in his softest voice: 
 
 " You can count on them as you can on me. 
 Keep no secret from them. That will please them 
 go to your work, little Asia," said he to the cook 
 " and you, my pet, set one more place at the table,"
 
 go SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 added he to Europe. "The least that these children 
 can do is to invite their papa to breakfast." 
 
 When the two women had closed the door behind 
 them and the Spaniard could hear Europe runn'ng to 
 and fro, he said to Lucien and the girl, as he opened 
 his great hand. 
 
 "I have them." 
 
 Word and gesture were alike terrible. 
 
 "Where did you find them?" cried Lucien. 
 " The deuce!" he answered, " I did not look for them 
 at the foot of thrones! Europe has been drawn, from 
 the mire and is afraid of falling into it again. When 
 they do not satisfy you, threaten them with ' the 
 priest ' and you shall see them shake like mice before 
 a cat. I am a tamer of wild beasts," he added smiling. 
 
 " 1 think you are a demon!" cried Esther prettily, 
 pressing closer to Lucien. 
 
 " My daughter, I have tried to give you to 
 Heaven; but the church always finds a repentant 
 woman a fiction and if there were one she would turn 
 courtesan again in Paradise. You have succeeded in 
 making yourself forgotten and in becoming out- 
 wardly a respectable woman; for at the convent 
 you have learned what you never could have dis- 
 covered in the infamous world in which you lived. 
 You owe me nothing," said he as he saw a lovely 
 look of gratitude come over Esther's face. " I did 
 everything for his sake, " he added pointing at Lucien: 
 " You are a courtesan, you will live a courtesan, and 
 will die a courtesan. In spite of all the attractive 
 theories of trainers, here on earth, an animal remains
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 91 
 
 what it is. The phrenologist is right, you have the 
 bump of love." 
 
 The Spaniard was evidently a fatalist, as Napo- 
 leon, Mohammed and many great statesmen have 
 been fatalists. It is a strange fact that almost all 
 men of action incline toward fatalism, and most 
 thinkers toward Providence. 
 
 "I don't know what I am," answered Esther 
 with heavenly sweetness; "but I love Lucien and 
 shall love him till I die." 
 
 " Come to breakfast," said the Spaniard shortly, 
 "and pray God that Lucien does not marry soon, 
 for if he does, you will never see him again." 
 
 " His marriage would be my death," she said. 
 
 She allowed the counterfeit priest to pass in first, 
 in order that she might raise her lips unseen to 
 Lucien's ear. 
 
 " Is it your will," said she, " that I remain under 
 the power of this man who guards me with these 
 two hyenas?" 
 
 Lucien inclined his head. The poor girl hid her 
 misgivings and tried to seem happy, but she felt 
 terribly ill-at-ease. More than a year of constant 
 and devoted care was needed to accustom her to 
 these two frightful creatures that Carlos Herrera 
 named the " two watch dogs."
 
 Lucien's conduct, since his return to Paris, was 
 marked by an impenetrable reserve which was well 
 calculated to arouse and did arouse the jealousy of 
 all his old friends, upon whom he took no revenge 
 except by exciting their envy by his success, his 
 irreproachable appearance and his manner of holding 
 them at a distance. This poet, who had been so 
 talkative and familiar, became cold and circum- 
 spect. De Marsay, the mirror of the Parisian youth, 
 affected no more punctilio in speech or manner than 
 Lucien. As to wit, the journalist had long ago given 
 ample proof of that. De Marsay, to whom many 
 people were pleased to oppose Lucien, giving the 
 preference to the poet, had the littleness to be vexed. 
 Lucien, who was in high favor with men who stood 
 behind the seats of power, gave up all thoughts of 
 literary glory so entirely that he was indifferent to 
 the success of his romance, published under its true 
 title, "The Archer of Charles IX. /'and to the burst 
 of applause which greeted his book of sonnets en- 
 titled " Marguerites," that was sold by Dauriat in a 
 single week. 
 
 " It is a posthumous success," he answered laugh- 
 ingly to Mademoiselle des Touches, who compli- 
 mented him upon it. 
 
 The terrible Spaniard held his creature with an 
 (93)
 
 94 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 iron grasp in the path toward the goal where trumpet 
 blasts and spoils of victory await the patient poli- 
 tician. Lucien had taken Beaudenord's bachelor 
 apartment on the Quai Malaquais, in order to be 
 near the Rue Taitbout. His adviser was lodged in 
 three rooms on the fourth story of the same house. 
 Lucien had now but a single horse for riding and 
 driving, one servant and a groom. When he did not 
 dine out, he dined with Esther. Carlos Herrera 
 watched the household on the Quai Malaquais so 
 carefully that Lucien did not spend in all ten thou- 
 sand francs a year. Ten thousand francs supplied 
 Esther's wants, thanks to the constant, inexpli- 
 cable devotion of Europe and Asia. Lucien em- 
 ployed the greatest precautions in going to and from 
 the Rue Taitbout. He never went there, unless in 
 a cab with drawn curtains, and always made the 
 cabman drive into the courtyard. His passion for 
 Esther, and the existence of the household in the Rue 
 Taitbout, absolutely secret from the world, harmed 
 none of his prospects or connections. Not a word 
 escaped him on this delicate subject. His mistakes 
 in a similar affair with Coralie at the time of his first 
 sojourn in Paris, had taught him his lesson. Besides, 
 his life wore the air of respectable regularity beneath 
 which mysteries are so often hidden. People saw 
 him abroad every evening until one hour after mid- 
 night; they found him at home every morning from 
 ten until an hour after noon. Then he went to the 
 Boisde Boulogne and made calls until five o'clock. 
 He was seldom afoot and thus avoided meeting his
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 95 
 
 old acquaintances. Whenever some newspaper man 
 or one of his former comrades bowed to him, he re- 
 turned the courtesy by an inclination of the head, 
 polite enough to avoid giving offence, yet betraying 
 a deep disdain that was death to French familiarity. 
 Thus he quickly disembarrassed himself of any 
 acquaintance he did not wish to prolong. A long 
 cherished hatred prevented him from going to see 
 Madame d'Espard, who had often asked him to her 
 house. If he met her at the Duchess of Mau- 
 frigneuse's, at Mademoiselle des Touches', at the 
 Countess de Montcornet's or elsewhere, he treated 
 her with the most exquisite politeness. The 
 hatred that Madame d'Espard warmly reciprocated 
 obliged Lucien to be prudent, and we shall see how 
 he had roused it by allowing himself the pleasure 
 of revenge, which cost him a severe admonition 
 from Carlos. 
 
 "You are not strong enough yet to revenge your- 
 self on anybody whomsoever," the Spaniard had 
 said to him. "When a man is journeying beneath 
 a hot sun, he does not stop to pluck the prettiest 
 flower that grows." 
 
 Lucien's prospects were so bright, his real superi- 
 ority so strongly marked that young men, who felt 
 their fortunes dimmed or eclipsed by his return to 
 Paris and his extraordinary good luck, were all de- 
 lighted to pay him an ill turn. Lucien, who knew 
 that he had many enemies, was well aware of the 
 unfavorable temper of his friends, and Herrera 
 showed admirable caution in constant warnings to
 
 96 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 his adopted son against the treachery of the world 
 and the fatal imprudence of youth. Every evening 
 Lucien was questioned by the priest and told him 
 the most minute details of the day. Thanks to the 
 counsel of his mentor he eluded the most inquisi- 
 torial curiosity that exists the curiosity of society. 
 Protected by a gravity that was wholly English, and 
 hedged in by diplomatic caution, he gave to no one 
 either the right or the opportunity to meddle in his 
 affairs. His handsome young face became as im- 
 passive in society as the face of a princess at a 
 public ceremony. 
 
 Toward the middle of the year 1829 everybody 
 talked of his approaching marriage with the eldest 
 daughter of the Duchesse de Grandlieu, who had 
 no less than four girls to provide with husbands. 
 Nobody doubted that in case the match took place, 
 the King would grant Lucien the title of Marquis. 
 This marriage was to decide Lucien 's political career, 
 for he would probably be named minister at some 
 German court. For three years Lucien's life had 
 been unswervingly prudent, and it was concerning 
 him that de Marsay had made the singular remark, 
 "That fellow must have some strong power behind 
 him." 
 
 Thus Lucien was almost famous. His devotion 
 to Esther had been of great service to him in 
 playing his part as a man of sober life. A habit of 
 this kind saves an ambitious man from many foolish 
 ventures. By holding himself aloof from women, 
 he never allows his physical nature to react upon
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 97 
 
 his moral nature. Lucien's happiness realized the 
 dreams of penniless poets starving in a garret. 
 Esther, the very ideal of a loving courtesan, 
 while she recalled to Lucien's mind the actress 
 Coralie, with whom he had lived for a year, 
 effaced her memory completely. All affectionate 
 and devoted women dream of seclusion and incog- 
 nito, and the life of the pearl at the bottom of the 
 sea; but with most of them it is only an attractive 
 fancy, a subject of conversation, or a proof of love 
 which they think of giving and yet never give; 
 but Esther, always living in the delights of her 
 first joy, feeling herself constantly beneath Lucien's 
 first tender glance, lived for four years without feel- 
 ing an impulse of curiosity. She gave her whole 
 mind to obeying the letter of the law laid down by 
 the fatal hand of the Spaniard. Far more than that! 
 In the midst of the most intoxicating delight, she 
 did not make use of that limitless power which the 
 ever re-awakening desires of a man lend to the 
 woman he adores, to ask Lucien a single question in 
 regard to Herrera. The very name of the priest 
 never ceased to alarm her; she dared not think 
 of him. The wise benefits of this man to whom 
 Esther certainly owed her education, her respecta- 
 bility and her regeneration seemed to the poor girl 
 to be the wages of hell. 
 
 " I shall pay dear for it all some day," she said to 
 herself in terror. On every clear night she went 
 out to drive in a cab. She drove about with a speed 
 no doubt enjoined by the priest, in some charming 
 
 7
 
 98 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 forest in the neighborhood of Paris; at Boulogne, 
 Vincennes, Romainville or Ville d'Avray, frequently 
 with Lucien, and sometimes alone with Europe. She 
 went without fear, for whenever Lucien was not 
 by her side, she was accompanied by a mounted 
 groom dressed in the most approved style, armed 
 with a real knife, whose physiognomy and gaunt mus- 
 cular figure gave the impression of great strength. 
 This additional protector was provided, after the 
 English-fashion, with a cane, known technically as 
 the " baton de longueur " a quarterstaff that can 
 keep many assailants at a distance. Obedient to 
 an order of the priest, Esther had never spoken a 
 word to this attendant. Whenever she wished to 
 turn back, Europe called out and the groom then 
 whistled to the coachman, who was never very far 
 away. When Lucien walked with Esther, Europe 
 and the groom kept at a distance of a hundred yards, 
 like two of those infernal pages that the magician 
 lends to his favorites in the " Thousand and One 
 Nights." 
 
 Parisian men, still more often Parisian women, do 
 not know the charms of a wooded path on a lovely 
 night. Silence, moonlight, and solitude calm the 
 body like a bath. Ordinarily, Esther left her house 
 at ten o'clock, walked from midnight until one, and 
 returned by half after two. She never arose before 
 eleven o'clock, and then she took her bath and 
 dressed with that elaborate care, which demands too 
 much time to be employed by Parisian women in 
 general and is only to be found among courtesans,
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 99 
 
 and women of fashion who have their whole day at 
 their disposal . She was never ready until Lucien came 
 and then she went to meet him like a flower that 
 has just blossomed. Her only care was her poet's 
 happiness. She gave herself up to him absolutely 
 and allowed him the most complete liberty. She 
 never tried to look beyond the house whose light 
 she was. The priest had cautioned her in this 
 regard for it was part of his deep laid scheme that 
 Lucien should make love to others. Happiness has 
 no story, and the story-tellers of all countries have 
 recognized that the words "they lived happily" 
 end all the adventures of love. Nothing beyond 
 the reasons for this fanciful happiness in the midst 
 of Paris, can be told. It was happiness in its love- 
 liest guise: a poem, a symphony of four years. 
 Every woman will say " That is a great deal." 
 Neither Esther nor Lucien had said "It-is too much." 
 For them the formula "They lived happily" was 
 still more explicit than in the fairy tale, for they 
 had no children. Thus Lucien could flirt with whom 
 he liked, give way to every poet's caprice, and, let 
 us say it, to the necessities of his position. While 
 he was slowly climbing the ladder, he executed se- 
 cret missions for certain statesmen, co-operating with 
 them in their several schemes. In this service he 
 was singularly discreet. He paid great attention to 
 Madame de Serizy in whose favor, as social gossip 
 said, he stood very high. Madame de Serizy had 
 torn Lucien away from the Duchesse de Mau- 
 frigneuse, who as people said "had lost her hold,"
 
 100 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 one of those phrases which women use to revenge 
 themselves on fortunate rivals. Lucien was, so to 
 speak, in the bosom of the Grand Almonry and in 
 the confidence of several women who were friends 
 of the Archbishop of Paris. Prudent and unassuming 
 he waited with patience. Thus the speech of de Mar- 
 say, who at this time was married and was obliging 
 his wife to lead a life as retired as Esther's, embodied 
 more than one keen observation. But the subma- 
 rine dangers of Lucien's situation will be brought to 
 light during the course of this story. 
 
 In these circumstances on a beautiful night in 
 the month of August, the Baron de Nucingen was 
 driving back to Paris from the estate of a foreign 
 banker established in France at whose house he 
 had been dining. This estate was in Brie at eight 
 leagues from Paris. But as the baron's coachman 
 had boasted that he could drive his master thither 
 and back with his own horses, the man took the 
 liberty of going slowly after night had fallen. As 
 they enter the wood of Vincennes, the situation of 
 horses, servants, and master was as follows: After 
 liberal potations in the pantry of the illustrious au- 
 tocrat of the exchange, the coachman, completely 
 intoxicated, slept, still holding the reins in order to 
 deceive the passers-by. The groom behind, snored 
 as loud as a top that has been brought from Ger- 
 many, the country of tiny figures of carved wood, 
 of great " Reinganum " and tops. The baron was in- 
 clined to reflection, but when the bridge of Gournay 
 was passed, the soothing influence of digestion closed
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE IOI 
 
 his eyes. The slackness of the reins told the horses 
 of the coachman's condition; they heard the deep 
 bass of the groom perched on the dicky, and feel- 
 ing themselves their own masters, they made use of 
 their short period of liberty to move leisurely on at 
 their own sweet wills. Like intelligent slaves, they 
 offered to robbers the opportunity of rifling one of 
 the richest capitalists of France, the most profoundly 
 cunning of all that class which eventually acquired 
 the significant name of "lynxes." In short, now 
 that they were under no control, and attracted by 
 that curiosity which everybody has noticed among 
 domestic animals, they stopped at a turn in the 
 road in front of another pair of horses, to whom 
 they were doubtless saying in brute-language: 
 "Whom do you belong to? What are you doing? 
 Are you happy ? " When the carriage stopped 
 moving, the drowsy baron waked up. At first, 
 he thought that he had not left his friend's 
 park; then he was astonished by a heavenly vision 
 which surprised him without his accustomed weapon, 
 calculation. The moonlight was so brilliant that it 
 was possible to read even a newspaper. In the 
 silence of the woods and in this pure light the baron 
 saw a woman, alone, who was just stepping into 
 her cab watching the extraordinary spectacle of 
 his sleeping carriage. At the sight of this lovely 
 being the Baron de Nucingen felt as though a light 
 had been kindled within him. Perceiving that she 
 was admired, the girl lowered her veil with a fright- 
 ened gesture. The mounted groom uttered a hoarse
 
 102 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 cry. Its significance was well understood by the 
 coachman, for the cab darted off like an arrow. The 
 old banker felt excessively excited. The blood 
 rushed from his feet to his brain and set that on fire, 
 and then the flames turned back to his heart. His 
 throat contracted, and the wretched man feared an 
 attack of indigestion; yet in spite of this supreme 
 apprehension, he sprang to his feet. 
 
 "Hi! Du pig plockhead. After! after!" he 
 screamed. " Ein hundert franc eef du gatch dat 
 garriage." 
 
 At these words, "a hundred francs," the coach- 
 man started up and the groom heard them no doubt 
 in his sleep. The baron repeated the offer; the 
 coachman lashed his horses into a gallop and near 
 the Barriere du Trone succeeded in catching up with 
 a cab that bore some resemblance to that in which 
 Nucingen had seen the heavenly stranger. It was 
 occupied, however, by the commission agent of 
 some large firm and a well-dressed woman of the 
 rue Vivienne. This mistake dismayed the baron, 
 
 " Ef I had taken Chorge meaning George in 
 your stead, du pig prute, he vud haf gaught ze 
 vooman," said he to his servant while the officers 
 examined the carriage. 
 
 " Oh, sir, I think the devil was in that footman's 
 livery, and changed his carriage into this one." 
 
 " Zere ees no tefil," ejaculated the baron. 
 
 The Baron de Nucingen at this time admitted him- 
 self to be sixty years of age. Women had come to 
 be perfectly indifferent to him, and for the strongest
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 103 
 
 of reasons, the woman's. His boast was that he 
 had never known the love that leads to folly. He 
 looked upon his emancipation from women as a 
 blessing and said, calmly, that the most heavenly 
 of them all was not worth her cost even if she gave 
 herself for nothing. People said that he was so 
 surfeited with pleasure that he no longer spent a 
 couple of thousand francs a month for the pleasure 
 of being duped. As he sat in his box at the Opera, 
 his indifferent eye wandered tranquilly over the 
 ballet dancers. No bright glance shot toward the 
 capitalist. From out this dangerous band of old 
 young girls and young old women the delight of 
 Paris pleasure-seekers natural love, false love, 
 self-love, love of respectability and of vanity, love 
 of elegance, virtuous love, married love, whimsical 
 love, the baron had bought them all, had known 
 them all except true love. This love now swooped 
 upon him as a bird on his prey, as it once swooped 
 upon Gentz, the confidant of his Highness, the prince 
 of Metternich. Everybody knows the absurdities that 
 this old diplomat was guilty of for the sake of Fanny 
 Elssler and how he cared far more to see her dance 
 than to listen to the interests of Europe. The woman 
 who had overturned the iron-bound chest, called 
 Nucingen, seemed to him like a woman unique 
 in her generation. We cannot be sure that Titian's 
 mistress, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Raphael's 
 Fornarina were as beautiful as the majestic Esther 
 in whom the most carefully practiced eye in Paris 
 could not have recognized the faintest trace of the
 
 104 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 courtesan. Besides, the baron was overpowered by 
 that fine aristocratic air of womanhood, which Esther, 
 beloved and surrounded by luxury, refinement and 
 devotion, had in the greatest perfection. Happy 
 love is the consecrated oil of woman's life. With it 
 they become proud as empresses. 
 
 For a week the baron drove every night in the 
 wood of Vincennes, then in Bois de Boulogne, then 
 in the wood of Ville-d'Avray, then in the wood of 
 Meudon, and finally through every environ in Paris 
 in a vain search for Esther. Her splendid Jewish 
 face, which he called "a vace of ze piple," was 
 always before his eyes. At the end of a fortnight 
 he lost his appetite. Delphine de Nucingen and her 
 daughter Augusta, whom the baroness was just in- 
 troducing into society, did not perceive at first the 
 change that was wrought in the baron. The mother 
 and daughter never saw him except in the morning 
 at breakfast, and in the evening, at dinner, when- 
 ever they all dined at home, which was only on the 
 days when Delphine had company. But at the end 
 of two months, seized by feverish impatience and a 
 prey to a trouble closely akin to homesickness, the 
 baron, amazed at the uselessness of his money bags, 
 grew thin and appeared so ill that Delphine had 
 secret hopes of becoming a widow. She mourned 
 hypocritically over her husband and kept her daugh- 
 ter at home. She overwhelmed her husband with 
 questions; he answered as the English do when they 
 are provoked, scarcely at all. Delphine de Nucingen 
 gave a great dinner every Sunday. She had chosen
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 105 
 
 to receive on that day because she had noticed that 
 in good society nobody went to the theatre on that 
 day, so that it was ordinarily left quite without 
 engagements. The invasion of shop-keepers or 
 country people makes Sunday almost as dull in 
 Paris as in London. 
 
 Thus the baroness invited the famous Desplein to 
 dine, in order to have a consultation, in spite of the 1 
 sufferer's protestations that he had never felt better 
 in his life. Keller, Rastignac, de Marsay, du Tillet, 
 all friends of the family, had given the baroness to 
 understand that a man like Nucingen must not die 
 suddenly. His vast business demanded precautions; 
 it was essential to know what enterprises should be 
 continued. These gentlemen were asked to dinner 
 and together with them the Comte de Gondreville, 
 Francois Keller's father-in-law, the Chevalier d'Es- 
 pard, des Lupeaulx, Doctor Bianchon, Desplein's 
 favorite pupil; Beaudenord and his wife, the Comte 
 and Comtesse de Montcornet, Blondet, Mademoiselle 
 des Touches and Conti, and lastly, Lucien de Rub- 
 empre, for whom, five years since, Rastignac had 
 conceived the most enthusiastic friendship but 
 "per order," as they say on placards. 
 
 "We sha'nt get rid of him too easily," remarked 
 Blondet to Rastignac, as he saw Lucien enter the 
 drawing-room, handsomer than ever, and dressed 
 with admirable effect. 
 
 " It were better to make a friend of him, for he's 
 to be feared," said Rastignac. 
 
 "He?" interposed de Marsay. "Nobody's position
 
 106 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 is to be feared unless it be clearly defined. His 
 is rather unattacked than impregnable! What do 
 you suppose he lives on? Whence comes his for- 
 tune? I'm sure that he's some sixty thousand francs 
 in debt." 
 
 " He has found a very rich protector in a Spanish 
 priest who is devoted to him," answered Rastignac. 
 
 " He's marrying the eldest Mademoiselle de Grand- 
 lieu," said Mademoiselle des Touches. 
 
 "Yes," returned the Chevalier d'Espard, "but 
 they require him to buy an estate with an income of 
 thirty thousand francs to insure the fortune that his 
 bride will bring him. He needs a million, and a 
 million isn't to be found in the pocket of any 
 Spaniard." 
 
 "That's dear, for Clotilde is very plain," said the 
 baroness. 
 
 Madame de Nucingen habitually called Made- 
 moiselle de Grandlieu by her Christian name, as 
 if she, born a Goriot, were accustomed to such 
 society. 
 
 "No," replied du Tillet, "the daughter of a 
 duchess never looks ugly to our eyes, above all 
 when she brings the title of marquis and a diplo- 
 matic position. But the greatest stumbling-block in 
 the way of the marriage is Madame de Serizy's mad 
 love for Lucien. She probably loads him with 
 money." 
 
 "I'm not surprised to see Lucien so serious; for 
 Madame de Serizy will not be likely to give him 
 a million to help him marry Mademoiselle de
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 107 
 
 Grandlieu. Doubtless he's at a loss what to do," 
 said de Marsay. 
 
 "Yes, but Mademoiselle de Grandlieu worships 
 him," said the Comtesse de Montcornet, "and with 
 her aid perhaps he will get better terms." 
 
 " What will he do with his sister and his brother- 
 in-law d.Angoule'me?" asked the Chevalier d'Espard. 
 
 " But the sister's rich," replied Rastignac, "and 
 now he thinks her certain to become Madame 
 Sechard de Marsac." 
 
 "Difficulties or none, he's a handsome man," 
 added Bianchon, as he rose to greet Lucien. 
 
 " How are you, my boy?" said Rastignac, shaking 
 Lucien warmly by the hand. 
 
 De Marsay returned Lucien's bow with cold polite- 
 ness. 
 
 Before dinner, Desplein and Bianchon, while they 
 laughed and joked, examined the Baron de Nucin- 
 gen and perceived that his trouble was entirely 
 mental. Nobody, however, could divine its cause, 
 for nobody dreamed that this lynx of the Stock Ex- 
 change could be in love. Bianchon, divining that 
 nothing except love which could explain the patho- 
 logical condition of the banker, spoke a word or two 
 to Delphine de Nucingen, who smiled like a woman 
 who has long since guessed her husband's trouble. 
 After dinner when the company went out into the 
 garden, the closer friends of the family scrutinized 
 the banker, trying to comprehend his extraordinary 
 case by listening to Bianchon's opinion that Nucin- 
 gen must be in love.
 
 108 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Are you aware, baron," said de Marsay to the 
 banker, "that you've grown very thin, and that 
 people suspect you of breaking the laws of nature's 
 economy?" 
 
 "Nefer," protested the baron. 
 
 " But they do," insisted de Marsay, "they dare 
 to pretend that you're in love." 
 
 " Eet's drue," answered Nucingen, piteously, " I 
 zigh vor zometing unknown." 
 
 "You, in love, you? You're a fool!" said the 
 Chevalier d'Espard. 
 
 "To pe in luff, at my age, I know vel dat netting 
 ees more riteeculous. But id's drue." 
 
 " Is she a woman in society?" inquired Lucien. 
 
 " But," said de Marsay, " the baron would never 
 waste away if his love were not hopeless. He can 
 afford to buy any woman who needs money or who 
 is on sale." 
 
 " I to nod know her ad all," answered the baron, 
 "ant I can say eet now, for Matame ti Nucingen ees 
 in ze salon; I haf nefer known what luff vas bevore. 
 Luff? I tink it ees to vaste avay." 
 
 " Where was it that you met this guileless crea- 
 ture?" asked Rastignac. 
 
 " In ze garriage ad mitnight, in ze vood of Fin- 
 cennes." 
 
 " Describe her," said de Marsay. 
 
 " Ein vite cauze vrill, pink tress, vite shawl, vite 
 veil. Druly a vace of ze piple. Eyes like vire. A 
 complexion of ze East." 
 
 "You were dreaming!" said Lucien smiling.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 109 
 
 " Eet's drue; I vas zleeping like a log, a pig log," 
 he continued, " for it happenet as I vas coming pack 
 from ze country-blace of mein frient." 
 
 " Was she alone?" demanded du Tillet, interrupt- 
 ing the lynx. 
 
 " Yez," said the baron in a dejected tone, " exzept 
 ein vootman ant eine vaiting vooman." 
 
 " Lucien looks as if he had his suspicions," cried 
 Rastignac, as he noticed a smile on the face of 
 Esther's lover. 
 
 "Who is there who does not know women that 
 might meet Nucingen at midnight?" said Lucien 
 twirling round. 
 
 " Then it isn't a woman who goes into society?" 
 asked the Chevalier d'Espard, "for the baron would 
 have recognized the footman." 
 
 "I haf nefer seen her any vare," replied the 
 baron, "ant for forty tays I haf hat ze bolice look- 
 ing for her ant they to nod fmt her." 
 
 "It is better that she should cost you a few 
 hundred thousands of francs than that she should 
 cost you your life, and at your age an unfed pas- 
 sion is dangerous," said Desplein. "You might die 
 of it." 
 
 "Yes," answered the baron, turning to the last 
 speaker, " ze tings I ead to nod nourish me. Ze air 
 zeems teatly. I go to ze vood at Fincennes to zee 
 ze blace where I zaw her. Ach, ze life zat I leat! 
 I haf nod peen able to attent to ze last loan. I haf 
 asked ze advize of my bartners, ant zey have bitied 
 me. I would gif ein million to know zat vooman.
 
 1 10 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Ich will fmt her, for now I nefer go to ze Exchanghe. 
 Ask ti Dilet." 
 
 "Yes," answered du Tillet. "He has lost all 
 taste for business; he is changing his nature, and 
 that is a symptom of approaching death." 
 
 "A zympdom of luff," continued Nucingen, "ant 
 mit me zat is ze same ting." 
 
 The simplicity of this old man, who was a lynx 
 no longer, now that for the first time in his life he 
 had found something more holy and more sacred 
 than gold, touched this group of worldly people. 
 Some looked at one another and smiled, others 
 looked at Nucingen, plainly thinking: "A man as 
 strong as he to come to this!" Then everybody 
 went back to the drawing-room discussing what had 
 happened. It was certainly an event of a nature 
 most likely to create a great sensation. Madame 
 de Nucingen laughed when Lucien disclosed the 
 banker's secret, but, noticing his wife's derision, the 
 baron took her by the arm and led her into the em- 
 brasure of a window. 
 
 "Matame," said he in a low tone, " haf I efer 
 uttered ein zyllaple of mockery in regart to all your 
 lufs zat you should zneer ad mine? Eine gut vife 
 vud dry to help her husband mitout zneering ad him 
 as you to." 
 
 By the old banker's description, Lucien had recog- 
 nized Esther. Already troubled that his smile had 
 been noted, he profited by a moment's general con- 
 versation while the waiters were passing the coffee 
 about, to disappear.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE III 
 
 "What has become of Monsieur de Rubempre?" 
 asked the Baronne de Nucingen. 
 
 " He is faithful to his motto: "Quid me contine- 
 bit," answered Rastignac. 
 
 "That means 'Who can keep me,' or 'I am in- 
 vincible,' as you will," remarked de Marsay. 
 
 "At the moment that the baron described his 
 vision, Lucien's face relaxed into a smile that made 
 me think the woman must be an acquaintance of 
 his," said Horace Bianchon, not thinking of the 
 danger of so natural an observation. 
 
 "Gut!" said the banker to himself. 
 
 Like all hopeless invalids, the baron grasped at 
 anything which bore the semblance of hope, and 
 he determined to have Lucien watched by other 
 spies than those of Louchard, the cleverest com- 
 mercial detective in Paris, with whom he had been 
 in communication for the past fortnight.
 
 Before he went to Esther, it was Lucien's duty to 
 pass at the Grandlieus' house the two hours which 
 were to make Mademoiselle Clotilde-Frederique de 
 Grandlieu the happiest girl in the Faubourg Saint 
 Germain. The prudence which characterized the 
 conduct of this young and ambitious man counseled 
 him to lose no time in telling Carlos Herrera of the 
 effect which his smile at the baron's description of 
 Esther had produced. Nucingen's love for Esther 
 and his intention of setting the police on the track 
 of his unknown idol were themselves of enough 
 importance to communicate to a man who had sought 
 beneath the cassock the sanctuary which criminals 
 of old found in the church. Besides Lucien's road 
 from the Rue de Saint Lazare, where the banker 
 lived at this time, to the Rue Saint Dominique, where 
 the Grandlieus' house was situated, led directly past 
 his own apartment on the Quai Malaquais. Lucien 
 found his grim friend smoking his breviary, that is 
 to say, puffing a pipe before going to bed. The 
 man's tastes were not so foreign as his nature, and 
 he had given up the Spanish cigars which he found 
 too mild for him. 
 
 " This is growing serious," answered the Spaniard 
 when Lucien had told him all. " Since the baron 
 ("3)
 
 114 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 employs Louchard to hunt down the girl, he may be 
 shrewd enough to have you tracked, and if he does, 
 everything will come to light. I have none too 
 much of the night and morning left to arrange my 
 plans for the game that I shall play against the baron. 
 First of all I shall show him the impotence of the 
 police. When our lynx has lost all hope of finding 
 his lamb, I agree to sell her to him for what she is 
 worth." 
 
 "Sell Esther!" screamed Lucien, whose first im- 
 pulse was always excellent. 
 
 "So, you forget our position," returned Carlos 
 Herrera. 
 
 Lucien hung his head. 
 
 " Money gone," the Spaniard went on, " and sixty 
 thousand francs of debts to pay. If you wish to 
 marry Clotilde de Grandlieu you must buy an estate 
 worth a million to insure the fortune that goes with 
 her ugly face. So you see Esther is the hare and I 
 am coursing her with this lynx, and hope to fleece 
 him of a million. That is my business." 
 
 " Esther would never " 
 
 " That is my business." 
 
 "She will die." 
 
 " That is the funeral's business. Besides after- 
 wards?," cried the brutal priest with a manner 
 that checked Lucien's remonstrances. 
 
 " How many generals died in the prime of their 
 lives for the Emperor Napoleon?" he asked of Lucien 
 after a moment's silence. " A man never wants 
 for women! In 1821, in your eyes, Coralie had
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 11$ 
 
 not her peer: then you had not yet met Esther. 
 After this girl will come, do you know who? The 
 undiscovered woman! Of all women she shall be 
 the most beautiful and you shall seek her in that 
 capital where the son-in-law of the Due de Grandlieu 
 represents the king of France as minister. And 
 tell me, foolish boy, do you think Esther will die? 
 Can the husband of Mademoiselle de Grandlieu still 
 keep Esther? So let me have my way. You 
 haven't the worry of thinking about everything. 
 That's my business. You must do without Esther 
 for a week or two, but you shall go to the Rue 
 Taitbout all the same. Walk your safe path, bill 
 and coo, play your part carefully, slip into Clotilde's 
 hand the burning letter that you wrote this morning 
 and bring me back a note that has some passion in it. 
 Writing will console her for her troubles. That girl 
 suits me. You will find Esther a little sad, but tell 
 her to obey. We need our liveries of virtue, our 
 cloaks of honesty, the screens behind which great 
 men hide their infamy; my present character is at 
 stake, and so is yours, which must never be doubted. 
 Chance has served us better than I calculated, 
 though for the past two months my brains have been 
 busy enough." As Carlos Herrera uttered these 
 terrible sentences, which came out, one by one, 
 with the effect of pistol shots, he was dressing 
 and making ready for a walk. 
 
 "I can see your delight," cried Lucien; "you 
 never loved poor Esther, and you watch in ecstasy 
 for the moment that you can rid yourself of her."
 
 Il6 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "You are never tired of loving her, are you? 
 Just so, I am never tired of hating her. But haven't 
 I always acted as if I were sincerely devoted to the 
 girl, I, who through Asia held her life in my hands? 
 A few poisonous mushrooms in a stew, and all 
 would have been over. And yet Mademoiselle 
 Esther lives! She is happy! Do you know why? 
 It's because you love her. Don't be a child. For 
 four years we have waited to see whether the cards 
 were for or against us; you see we must use some- 
 thing more than skill to pluck the fruit that fate 
 hangs over our path. In every stroke of fortune 
 there is good and ill, and so there is in this. Do 
 you know what I was thinking of as you came in?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Of making myself, here, as at Barcelona, the 
 heir of a devout old woman by Asia's help." 
 
 "A crime?" 
 
 " It is my only chance to make your happiness 
 certain. The creditors are growing uneasy. Once 
 pursued by officers and chased from the Grandlieus' 
 house, what would become of you ? The devil 
 would demand his due." 
 
 Carlos Herrera described with a gesture the sui- 
 cide of a man leaping into the water; then he fixed 
 his penetrating gaze upon Lucien, such a look as 
 forces the will of a strong mind to enter the soul of 
 a weaker man. This fascinating look overcame the 
 last traces of resistance and betrayed the existence 
 not only of secrets of life and death between Lucien 
 and his mentor, but also of passions as far above
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 117 
 
 the ordinary passions of life as the priest was above 
 the baseness of his position. 
 
 Condemned to live apart from society and for- 
 bidden by law ever to return; worn by vice, by 
 anger and by fearful struggles against himself, but 
 endowed with a consuming strength of intellect, this 
 man who was at once mean and great, obscure and 
 famous, burning with a life-long fever of ambition, 
 lived once more in the graceful person of Lucien, 
 whose soul he had made his own. He was repre- 
 sented in society by this poet to whom he gave his 
 character and his iron will. To him Lucien was 
 more than a son, more than a beloved wife, more 
 than a family, more than life itself; he was his re- 
 venge. Thus as strong minds cling more closely to 
 an idea than to reality, he was bound to him by 
 indissoluble ties. 
 
 He had bought Lucien 's life just as the despairing 
 poet was on the verge of suicide, and then he had 
 made with him one of those hellish compacts, which 
 are never seen except in novels, but whose awful 
 possibility has often been shown in court in the 
 famous dramas of the law. Heaping upon Lucien 
 all the pleasures of Parisian life, convincing him that 
 a triumphant future was still possible, he had made 
 him his tool. From the moment that he revived 
 in a second self, no sacrifice was too bitter for this 
 strange man. With all his strength he was so feeble 
 against the whims of his creature that he had event- 
 ually entrusted him with all his secrets. Perhaps 
 this complicity, entirely moral though it was, made
 
 Il8 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 one more bond between them. From the day that 
 LaTorpillehad been carried away, Lucien knew the 
 horrible pedestal on which his happiness stood. 
 
 The cassock of a Spanish priest hid Jacques 
 Collin, a notorious criminal, who ten years before 
 had lived under the ordinary name of Vautrin in 
 the Vauquer boarding-house where Rastignac and 
 Bianchon were quartered at the time. Jacques 
 Collin, surnamed " Trompe-la-Mort," escaped from 
 Rochefort almost immediately after he had been 
 sent back there, and turned to good account the ex- 
 ample given by the famous Comte de Sainte-Helene, 
 while he modified the more criminal portions of 
 Coignard's plan. To go about in the guise of an 
 honest man, and still to lead the life of a galley- 
 slave, is a proposition, in terms so contradictory that 
 eventual detection is inevitable, especially at Paris; 
 for, when a criminal enters a household, he increases 
 tenfold the dangers that surround his imposture. To 
 be beyond pursuit, must not a man reach a level 
 above the commonplace incidents of life? In society 
 a man runs risks which come but rarely to men 
 who have no dealings with society. Then, too, 
 the cassock is the most secure of all disguises, when 
 the counterfeit priest can support it by an exemplary, 
 solitary and inactive life. 
 
 " 1 will turn priest," thought this dead layman, 
 who longed to live once more as a member of society 
 and to satisfy passions as strange as himself. 
 
 The civil war, which the Constitution of 1812 had 
 kindled in Spain, where this man of passionate
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE. 119 
 
 energy had gone, enabled him to have the real 
 Carlos Herrera killed in a secret ambush. Natural 
 son of a noble lord, long since abandoned by his 
 father, ignorant even of her to whom he owed his 
 existence, this priest, at the recommendation of a 
 bishop, was entrusted by King Ferdinand VII. with 
 a secret mission to France. The bishop, who was 
 the only man who felt an interest in Carlos Herrera, 
 died while this forlorn hope of the church was mak- 
 ing the journey from Cadiz to Madrid and from 
 Madrid to France. After his fortunate meeting with 
 a man whose personality was so well adapted to his 
 schemes, Jacques Collin cut gashes in his own 
 back in order to efface the fatal letters, and altered 
 his face by means of chemical processes. Before 
 destroying the priest's body, he transformed his own 
 into the closest possible imitation of it, and suc- 
 ceeded in giving himself some resemblance to his 
 Tosia. To complete a metamorphosis almost as mar- 
 velous as that which is told in the Arabian story, 
 where the dervish in his old age acquires the power of 
 entering a youthful body by the aid of magic spells, 
 the galley-slave, who was already familiar with Span- 
 ish, picked up as much Latin as an Andalusian priest 
 would be likely to know. Banker in three prisons, 
 Collin had enriched himself by the deposits which 
 the prisoners had entrusted to his honesty that was 
 well known and also enforced; for in business like 
 his, dagger-thrusts wipe out mistakes. To these 
 funds he added the money given by the bishop to 
 Carlos Herrera. Before his departure from Spain
 
 120 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 he was able to secure the treasure of a conscience- 
 stricken woman of Barcelona. He had given her 
 absolution and at the same time promised to effect 
 the restoration of sums which his penitent had stolen 
 after committing a murder, and which were the 
 source of all her fortune. Now that he was a priest, 
 entrusted with a secret mission which was to secure 
 for him the most powerful patronage in Paris, 
 Jacques Collin resolved to do nothing to compro- 
 mise the character he had assumed, and abandoned 
 himself to the chances of his new life. On the 
 road from Angoulemeto Paris he fell in with Lucien, 
 who seemed to the false priest to furnish a weapon 
 of extraordinary power. Having saved him from sui- 
 cide he said to him: " Give yourself up to a priest of 
 God as a man gives himself up to the devil, and you 
 shall have all the opportunities of a new destiny. 
 You shall live as in a dream and the worst awaken- 
 ing you can have is the death that you have already 
 tried to give yourself." 
 
 The union of these two beings who became as one 
 rested on this forcible argument, and in addition 
 Carlos Herrera cemented it by a cunningly con- 
 trived complicity in crime. Gifted with a genius 
 for corruption he destroyed Lucien's honesty by 
 plunging him into cruel necessities and rescuing him 
 from them only on his tacit acquiescence in ignoble 
 and shameful actions. Thus still pure, loyal, noble 
 in the eyes of the world, Lucien formed the social 
 splendor in whose shadow the forger wished to 
 dwell.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 121 
 
 " I am the author; you shall be the play. If you 
 fail it is I who shall be hissed," he said to Lucien 
 the day on which he avowed his sacrilegious dis- 
 guise. 
 
 Carlos moved prudently from confession to con- 
 fession, apportioning the infamy of his disclosures to 
 the strength of his success and to the necessities of 
 his pupil. Thus Trompe-la-Mort did not surrender 
 his last secret until the moment when the weak 
 poet, subdued by the habitual enjoyment of Parisian 
 pleasures, of success and of gratified vanity, had 
 become his slave body and soul. In the very spot 
 where Rastignac had formerly been tempted by this 
 devil and stood fast, Lucien fell. More adroitly 
 handled, more craftily compromised, the poet was 
 vanquished above all by his delight at having won a 
 position of eminence. Evil, which in its outward 
 form is poetically called the devil, brought against 
 this man, half woman as he was, all its most alluring 
 temptations, gave him much and asked little in 
 return. Herrera's main argument was that eternal 
 secret that Tartuffe promised to Elmire. Repeated 
 proofs of perfect devotion, like that of Seid for 
 Mohammed, finished the horrid work of the subjuga- 
 tion of Lucien by a Jacques Collin. 
 
 Esther and Lucien had used up all the funds that 
 had been entrusted to the honesty of the prison 
 banker. This exposed them to a terrible day of 
 reckoning; but besides this, the dandy, the forger 
 and the courtesan all had debts. At the moment 
 that Lucien was about to succeed, the tiniest pebble
 
 122 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 beneath the foot of one of these three beings might 
 bring down the whole chimerical framework of a 
 fortune so daringly built. 
 
 At the ball of the Opera Rastignac had recognized 
 Vautrin of the Vauquer establishment, but he knew 
 that indiscretion meant death; besides Madame de 
 Nucingen's lover and Lucien exchanged looks in 
 which fear was hidden on either side beneath the 
 veneer of friendship. In the moment of danger Ras- 
 tignac would undoubtedly have been delighted to 
 provide the cart that should carry Trompe-la-Mort 
 to the scaffold. Everyone can now understand the 
 sinister joy of Carlos Herrera as he heard of the Baron 
 de Nucingen's love and grasped in a single thought 
 all the advantage that a man of his stamp might 
 derive from the unfortunate Esther. 
 
 " Go," he said to Lucien, " the devil protects his 
 almoner." 
 
 " You are smoking in a powder mill," said Lucien. 
 
 " Incedo per ignes," answered Carlos with a 
 smile. "It's my trade."
 
 Toward the middle of the last century the Grand- 
 lieu family was divided into two branches: first the 
 ducal house, destined to come to an end since all the 
 children of the living duke were daughters; secondly, 
 the Vicomtes de Grandlieu, the direct heirs to the 
 title and arms of the elder branch. The ducal line 
 bears gules with three "doulloueres" or golden 
 battle-axes arranged in fesse, with the famous 
 " CAVEO, NON TIMEO!" for a motto, an epitome of 
 the history of the house. 
 
 The escutcheon of the viscounts is quartered 
 with that of the Naverreins, which is gules with 
 embattled fesse in gold stamped with a knight's hel- 
 ment and the motto " GRANDS FAITS, GRAND LIEU!" 
 The present viscountess, a widow since 1813, has a 
 son and a daughter. Although she had come back 
 half ruined after the emigration, she had recovered 
 a moderate fortune through the devotion of Der- 
 ville, her lawyer. 
 
 On their return in 1804 the Due and Duchesse de 
 Grandlieu were assailed by the blandishments of 
 the Emperor; and Napoleon, who saw them at his 
 court, restored all that still remained of the estate, 
 amounting to an income of some forty thousand 
 francs. Of all the nobles of the Faubourg Saint 
 Germain who suffered themselves to be cajoled by 
 (123)
 
 124 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Napoleon, the duke and duchess who was an 
 Ajuda of the elder branch, connected with the Bra- 
 gances were alone in refusing to renounce the 
 Emperor and his benefits. Louis XVIII. commended 
 this fidelity when the Faubourg Saint Germain 
 wished to cast it in the teeth of the Grandlieu family; 
 but possibly Louis XVIII. 's sole desire in this step was 
 to exasperate "monsieur." Everybody expected a 
 match between the young Vicomte de Grandlieu 
 and Marie Athenais, the youngest daughter of the 
 duke, at this time aged nine. Sabine, the next elder, 
 had been married to the Baron de Guenic before 
 the revolution of July. Josephine, the third, had 
 become Madame d'Ajuda-Pinto after the death of 
 the marquis' first wife, Mademoiselle de Rochefide 
 alias Rochegude. The eldest daughter had taken 
 the veil in the year 1822. The second, Mademoiselle 
 CIotilde-Frederique, at this time twenty-seven 
 years of age, was deeply in love with Lucien de 
 Rubempre. We must not ask whether the mansion 
 of the Due de Grandlieu, one of the handsomest on 
 the Rue Saint Dominique, exerted a thousand fasci- 
 nations over Lucien's spirit. Every time that the 
 great gate swung back on its hinges to admit his 
 carriage, he felt that tickled vanity of which Mira- 
 beau used to speak. 
 
 "Though my father was a plain apothecary at 
 Houmeau, I have an entrance here." 
 
 Such was his thought. Besides he would have 
 committed many another crime beyond that of his 
 league with a forger to preserve the privilege of
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 125 
 
 ascending the short flight of steps before the porch, 
 to hear the lackey announce " Monsieur de Rubem- 
 pre!" in the great parlor, dating from the time of 
 Louis XIV., that was built after the fashion of the 
 salons of Versailles, filled with the cream of Parisian 
 society, and known at the time as " le petit 
 chateau." 
 
 The noble Portuguese lady who cared little for 
 going abroad, spent the greater part of her time sur- 
 rounded by her neighbors the Chaulieus, the Naver- 
 reins, and the Lenoncourts. The pretty Baronne 
 de Macumer born a de Chaulieu , the Duchesse 
 de Maufrigneuse, Madame d'Espard, Madame de 
 Camps, and Mademoiselle des Touches who was 
 connected with the Brittany branch of the Grand- 
 lieus often came to call there going or coming from 
 the Opera. The Vicomte de Grandlieu, the Due de 
 Rhetore, the Marquis de Chaulieu, who some day 
 was to be the Due de Lenoncourt-Chaulieu; his 
 wife, Madeline de Mortsauf, granddaughter of the 
 Due de Lenoncourt; the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, the 
 Prince de Blamont-Chauvry, the Marquis de Beau- 
 seant, the Vidame de Pamiers, the Vandenesses, the 
 old Prince de Cadignan, and his son, the Due de 
 Maufrigneuse, were all frequent guests in this splen- 
 did salon, where they breathed the atmosphere of 
 the court, and where manners, fashion and wit were 
 all well suited to the nobility of the family whose 
 aristocratic bearing had eventually effaced the recol- 
 lection of their Napoleonic bondage. 
 
 The old Duchesse d'Uxelles, the mother of the
 
 126 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, was the oracle of this 
 salon which had been closed to Madame de Serizy, 
 although she was one of the de Ronquerolles. 
 
 Introduced by Madame de Maufrigneuse, who had 
 forced her mother to intrigue in favor of Lucien, 
 with whom she had been madly in love for the past 
 two years, the attractive poet held his position, 
 thanks to the influence of the Grand Almonry of 
 France and to the aid of the Archbishop of Paris. 
 He was not, however, admitted until a royal pre- 
 script had restored to him the name and arms of the 
 house of Rubempre. The Due de Rhetore, the 
 Chevalier d'Espard and a few others were jealous 
 of Lucien and periodically succeeded in prejudicing 
 the Due de Grandlieu against him by whispering 
 anecdotes of his antecedents. But the pious duch- 
 ess, surrounded by the dignitaries of the church, and 
 Clotilde de Grandlieu upheld him. Furthermore, 
 Lucien understood the enmity he met with to be in 
 consequence of his former relations with Madame 
 d'Espard's cousin, Madame de Bargeton, who had 
 since become Comtesse du Chatelet. Feeling the 
 importance of obtaining a foothold in so powerful a 
 family and urged by his secret counselor to seduce 
 the affections of Clotilde, Lucien summoned all the 
 courage of an upstart; he went to the house five 
 days out of the seven, he smiled at the poisoned 
 arrows of envy, he endured with grace the most in- 
 solent of glances, and answered wittily to the thrusts 
 of his enemies. His constancy, the charm of his 
 manner and his courtesy hushed every scruple and
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 127 
 
 overcame every obstacle. Always at his best in the 
 parlors of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, whose burn- 
 ing letters written at the height of her passion were 
 carefully preserved by Carlos Herrera; the idol of 
 Madame de Serizy; welcomed to the house of Made- 
 moiselle des Touches, Lucien, well pleased as he 
 was to be received in these three houses, learned 
 from the priest to maintain the utmost reserve in all 
 his relations. 
 
 " You must not devote yourself to many house- 
 holds at once," said his secret mentor. " He who 
 goes everywhere has interest with no one. The 
 great protect only those whom they see every day, 
 who rival their furniture and become a necessity like 
 the sofa that they sit upon." 
 
 Lucien was accustomed to think of the salon of 
 the Grandlieus as his field of battle, and kept all 
 his clever thoughts and words, his news, his courtly 
 graces in reserve for the evenings which he passed 
 there. Insinuating, fascinating, forewarned by Clo- 
 tilde of all the dangers he must avoid, he flattered 
 every passing fancy of M. de Grandlieu. At first 
 Clotilde merely envied the happiness of the Du- 
 chesse de Maufrigneuse, but soon she learned to love 
 Lucien desperately. 
 
 Well aware of all the advantages of such an al- 
 liance, Lucien played the lover's part as Armand, 
 the last young "star" of the Comedie-Franc.aise, 
 would have played it. He wrote Clotilde letters, 
 which were certainly literary masterpieces of the 
 first rank; and Clotilde answered, trying to rival his
 
 128 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 genius in expressing her mad love on paper; for 
 she had but this way of loving. Every Sunday 
 Lucien heard mass at Saint Thomas Aquinas'. To 
 all appearances he was a fervent Catholic, and de- 
 voted himself to writing monarchial and religious 
 tracts which accomplished wonders. And then he 
 wrote admirable articles for all the newspapers de- 
 voted to the congregation. He would not consent 
 to take any pay, and signed his contributions with a 
 simple "L." He brought out political pamphlets at 
 the request of King Charles X., or of the Grand Al- 
 monry without demanding the slightest compensation. 
 
 "The king," he would say, "has done so much 
 for me already that I owe him my life." 
 
 Besides, for some time past Lucien had been con- 
 sidered for the appointment of secretary in the cab- 
 inet of the first minister; but Madame d'Espard had 
 stirred up so much opposition that the Maitre Jacques 
 of Charles X. hesitated to take the step. Not only 
 was Lucien's position too vaguely defined, and the 
 words, "What does he live upon?" that were on 
 every lip as Lucien rose into prominence, unan- 
 swered, but still more, friendly as well as inimical 
 curiosity went from scrutiny to scrutiny and found 
 more than one weak spot in the cuirass of the am- 
 bitious young hero. Clotilde played into the hands 
 of her father and mother as an innocent spy. A few 
 days before, she had drawn Lucien into the em- 
 brasure of a window to talk with him and warn him 
 of the objections of the family. 
 
 " Find an estate worth a million and you shall
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 129 
 
 have my hand. That is what my mother said," 
 Clotilde had told him. 
 
 " They will ask you later whence your money 
 comes," Carlos remarked when Lucien reported this 
 apparently final alternative. 
 
 "My brother-in-law must have made a fortune," 
 Lucien observed. " We shall have a responsible 
 agent in him." 
 
 " Then it's only the million that we need," Carlos 
 cried. " I shall not forget it." 
 
 To explain fully Lucien's position at the Grand- 
 lieu house, we must add that he had never dined 
 there. Not Clotilde, nor the Duchesse d'Uxelles, 
 nor Madame de Maufrigneuse, who was always ex- 
 cellently disposed to Lucien, could wrest this favor 
 from the old duke, so suspicious did that gentleman 
 remain of the poet whom he called " le sire de 
 Rubempre." This shadow, manifest to every one 
 in the room, touched Lucien's pride to the quick as 
 he felt that his presence was scarcely more than tol- 
 erated. The world has a right to be particular; it is 
 so often deceived. To shine in Paris without a well- 
 known fortune, without an avowed calling, is a posi- 
 tion which no artifice can long render tenable. The 
 higher Lucien climbed the greater force he gave to 
 the objection, " What does he live upon?" He had 
 been forced to admit to Madame de Serizy, to whom 
 lie owed the support of the attorney-general Gran- 
 ville and of a minister of state, the Comte Octave 
 de Bauvan, president at a sovereign court, that he 
 was over head and ears in debt. 
 
 9
 
 130 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 As he entered the court-yard of the house where 
 dwelt the realization of his lofty hopes, he said to 
 himself bitterly, thinking of the decision of Trompe- 
 la-Mort: 
 
 " I hear everything cracking beneath my feet." 
 
 He loved Esther, and he wished Mademoiselle de 
 Grandlieu to be his wife! Strange position! He 
 must sell one to have the other; one man alone 
 could make the bargain without hurt to Lucien's 
 honor, and that man was the counterfeit Spaniard. 
 Each must be equally discreet toward the other. A 
 compact like this in which each is by turn master 
 and slave is rare indeed. 
 
 Lucien chased away the clouds that darkened 
 his brow. He entered the salon of the Grandlieu 
 house radiantly gay. The windows chanced to be 
 open, and the sweet smells of the garden perfumed 
 the drawing-room, in the middle of which was a 
 stand covered with a mass of flowers. The duch- 
 ess, seated on a sofa in one corner, chatted with the 
 Duchesse de Chaulieu. Several ladies made up a 
 group that was noticeable for the different attitudes 
 of its members, each calculated to express some 
 feigned sorrow. In society nobody is interested in 
 grief or suffering; there, words are everything. The 
 men were pacing the salon or walking in the garden. 
 Clotilde and Josephine were busied about the 
 tea-table. The Vidame de Pamiers, the Due de 
 Grandlieu, the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, and the Due 
 de Maufrigneuse were playing whist in a corner. 
 When Lucien was announced, he crossed the
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 131 
 
 drawing-room to pay his respects to the duchess, 
 and asked her the reason of the sadness painted upon 
 her face. 
 
 " Madame de Chaulieu has just received some 
 dreadful news: her son-in-law, the Baron de 
 Macumer, the ex-Due de Soria, is dead. The 
 young Due de Soria and his wife, who had gone 
 to Chantepleurs to nurse their brother, have written 
 of the sad event. Louise is completely overcome." 
 
 "A woman is not loved twice in her life as Louise 
 was loved by her husband," said Madeleine de 
 Mortsauf. 
 
 "She will be a rich widow," added the old Du- 
 chesse d'Uxelles, casting her eyes upon Lucien, 
 whose face maintained its impassibility. 
 
 " Poor Louise," said Madame d'Espard, " 1 un- 
 derstand her, and I pity her." 
 
 The Marquise d'Espard had the dreamy air of a 
 woman full of soul and heart. Although Sabine de 
 Grandlieu was but ten years old she glanced know- 
 ingly at her mother, but her almost mocking expres- 
 sion was instantly rebuked by a frown. This is 
 what is called, " bringing up children well." 
 
 " If my daughter resists that frown," said Madame 
 de Chaulieu, with her most motherly air, " her fu- 
 ture will make me uneasy. Louise is very romantic." 
 
 " I cannot imagine," said the old Duchesse 
 d'Uxelles, " from whom our girls have acquired that 
 characteristic." 
 
 "It is difficult nowadays," said an old cardinal, 
 "to reconcile the heart with decorous behavior."
 
 132 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Lucien had not a word to say and went toward the 
 tea-table to pay his compliments to the Mesdemoi- 
 selles de Grandlieu. When the poet was within a few 
 steps of the group of women, the Marquise d'Espard 
 bent toward the Duchesse de Grandlieu. " You are 
 quite sure that he is really in love with your dear 
 Clotilde?" she whispered. 
 
 The perfidy of this question can only be understood 
 after a sketch of Clotilde has been given. That 
 young lady of twenty -seven was standing, and her 
 attitude allowed the malicious glance of the Marquise 
 d'Espard to take in the slight spare figure which 
 looked exactly like a stalk of asparagus. The poor 
 girl's corsage was so flat that it did not even admit 
 of the colonial resource known among dressmakers 
 as "a false fichu." Besides, Clotilde, who knew 
 that her name endowed her with sufficient advan- 
 tages, far from endeavoring to conceal the defect, 
 took heroic measures to make it prominent. By 
 wearing tight-fitting gowns she gave herself the 
 crude stiff figure that sculptors of the middle ages 
 sought to impart to the statues they placed in relief 
 against the background of cathedral niches. Clotilde 
 was five feet four inches. If it be allowable to make 
 use of a familiar expression which has, at least, 
 the merit of being easily understood, she was all 
 legs. This defect in proportion gave the upper part 
 of her body an appearance of deformity. Her com- 
 plexion was dark; her hair black and coarse, her eye- 
 brows bushy, and her brilliant eyes were already 
 surrounded with dark circles. Her face that was
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 133 
 
 curved like the moon in its first quarter was domi- 
 nated by a heavy forehead, and made her the very 
 caricature of her mother, one of the most beautiful 
 women of Portugal. Nature loves to play at such 
 tricks as these. We often notice in families a sister 
 of extraordinary beauty, while the same features in 
 the brother become singularly ugly, although the 
 two faces are not without resemblance. Clotilde's 
 mouth was cut inwards from her face and wore an 
 expression of stereotyped disdain. Her lips more 
 than any other feature of her face betrayed the 
 secret workings of her heart, for love had printed 
 upon them a lovely look all the more strange because 
 her cheeks were too brown to blush and her black 
 eyes too hard to tell her story. In spite of her 
 great disadvantages, in spite of her stiff carriage, 
 she derived from her training and her race an air of 
 grandeur, a lofty countenance and what the French 
 call the "Je ne sais quoi," due, perhaps, to the sim- 
 plicity of her dress, which marked her as the daugh- 
 ter of a noble house. Her looks were improved by 
 her hair, and she passed for a beauty on account of 
 its luxuriant thickness and length. Her voice, which 
 she had cultivated, was charming; she sang exqui- 
 sitely. Clotilde was surely a young woman of 
 whom the world says: " Her eyes are lovely;" or, 
 " Her disposition is delightful." To someone who 
 addressed her after the English fashion as " Your 
 Grace," she answered, "Call me 'Your Slender- 
 ness.'" 
 
 " Why shouldn't a man fall in love with my poor
 
 134 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Clotilde?" the duchess answered the marquise. 
 " Do you know what she said to me yesterday? 
 ' If anyone loves me for the sake of ambition, I 
 shall make him love me for myself.' She is clever 
 and ambitious; there are men who delight in both 
 these qualities. As for him, my dear, he is a dream 
 of beauty. And if he can buy the Rubempre 
 estate the king will give him back his title of mar- 
 quis as a favor to us. After all, his mother is the 
 last Rubempre." 
 
 "Poor man, where can he find the million?" 
 exclaimed the marquise. 
 
 " That is no business of ours," answered the 
 duchess; " but, come what may, he is incapable of 
 stealing it. And besides, we should never give 
 Clotilde to a schemer, nor to any dishonest man 
 even if he were handsome, young and poetic as 
 M. de Rubempre." 
 
 "You are late," said Clotilde, smiling at Lucien 
 with tender interest. 
 
 " Yes, I dined out." 
 
 "You have been going into society a great deal 
 of late," said she, hiding her jealousy and uneasi- 
 ness beneath a smile. 
 
 "In society?" replied Lucien. "No, simply by 
 the merest chance, I have been dining all the week 
 with various bankers; to-day with Nucingen, yes- 
 terday with du Tillet, and the day before at the 
 Kellers." 
 
 Lucien had evidently learned the polished insolence 
 of men of rank.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 135 
 
 "You have many enemies," said Clotilde as she 
 handed him (and with what grace!) a cup of tea. 
 " They have been telling my father that you are so 
 fortunate as to have sixty thousand francs of debts 
 and that in time to come you will have Sainte Pela- 
 gie for a country house. And if you knew what 
 all these calumnies mean to me It all comes home 
 to me It is not of my own sufferings that I speak, 
 though my father's looks cut me to the quick, but 
 of what you must suffer if any of this turn out to be 
 true." 
 
 " Do not be troubled by all this absurdity. Love 
 me as I love you and give me credit for a few 
 months," answered Lucien, as he laid his empty 
 cup upon the chased silver tray. 
 
 " Don't go near my father. He might make some 
 rude remark and as you would never suffer it to 
 pass, we should be lost. That wicked Marquise 
 d'Espard has told him that your mother was a 
 monthly nurse and that your sister has been a 
 sempstress." 
 
 "We have been in the depths of poverty," 
 answered Lucien, whose eyes shone with tears. 
 " This is worse than calumny, it is pure falsehood. 
 To-day my sister has more than a million, and my 
 mother has been dead for two years. They have 
 kept this information for the time when I am on the 
 point of succeeding here." 
 
 " But what did you tell Madame d'Espard?" 
 
 " I was imprudent enough to tell as a joke in the 
 presence of M. de Bauvan and M. de Granville, in
 
 136 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Madame de Serizy's parlor, the story of the suit 
 which she brought for separation from her husband 
 the Marquis d'Espard. Bianchon had told me about 
 it. M. de Granville's opinion supported by Bauvan 
 and Serizy had made the keeper of the seals alter 
 his conclusions. Both of them recoiled before the 
 Gazette des Tribunaux and the scandal, so the 
 grounds for the verdict which put an end to the de- 
 testable affair were very unflattering to the marquise. 
 If M. de Serizy has been indiscreet and has made 
 the marquise my mortal enemy, I have at least won 
 his protection, that of the attorney-general, and 
 especially of Count Octave de Bauvan, whom 
 Madame de Serizy told of the dangerous position in 
 which they had placed me by leaving me to guess 
 the source of their information. The Marquis 
 d'Espard was dolt enough to make me a visit think- 
 ing that 1 was the cause of the decision of the odious 
 lawsuit." 
 
 " I am going to deliver you from Madame 
 d'Espard," said Clotilde. 
 
 "How?" cried Lucien. 
 
 " My mother shall invite the d'Espard children. 
 They are charming and nearly grown up. The 
 father and his two sons will sing your praises here, 
 and we can be very certain never to see their 
 mother again." 
 
 " O Clotilde, you are perfect. If I did not love 
 you for yourself, I should love you for your wit." 
 
 " It is not wit," she said, and all her love showed 
 about her lips. " Good-bye. Let several days pass
 
 THE DUKE DE GRAXDLIEU 
 
 "You liai'c many enemies," said Clotilde as she 
 handed Jiini and :c///t what grace ! a cup of tea. 
 " 77//T hare he en telling mv father t/iat vou arc so 
 ''cTtunate as to hare sixty thousand francs of debts, 
 and that in time to come yon will /tare Sainte 
 l^elagie for a country house."
 
 SPLENDORS AND M' 
 
 de Serizy's 
 . 
 
 \arquis d . Bianchon 
 
 M. de Granville's opinion supported by B 
 and Serizy had made the keeper of the si 
 his conclusions. Both of them recoiled before the 
 Gazette des Tribunaux and the scandal, so the 
 grounds for the verdict which put an end to the de- 
 testable affair were very unflattering to the marquise. 
 If M. de Serizy has been indiscreet ahd has made 
 the maT^^^q^5q^^l'5^n^JDEkv'a.W3east won 
 his protection, that of the attorney-general, and 
 especially of Count -Octave de Bauvan, whom 
 
 spard, said Clotilde. 
 "How?" cried tilde***** 
 " My mother shall invite the d'Espard children. 
 They are charming and nearly grown up. The 
 father and his two sons will sing your praises here, 
 and we can be very certain never to see their 
 mother again." 
 
 " O Clotilde, you are perfect. If I did not love 
 . for yourself, I should love you for your wit." 
 " It is not wit," she said, and all her love showed 
 lips. " Good-bye. Let several days pass

 
 THE DUKE DE GRAXDLIEU 
 
 "You hare many enemies*' said Clotilde as sJic 
 Jianded him and icith li'Jiat grace .' .'? cup of tea. 
 " Tlicv lurcc been telling ur: '^f/icr f/uif von are so 
 +eirtnnatc as to Jiarc si.vfv /'' asan ' of debts 
 
 and tliat in time to conic yon :,'.'// hare Sainte 
 I\'lasric for a country house."
 
 aft
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 137 
 
 before you come again. When you see me at 
 Saint Thomas Aquinas, with a pink scarf you will 
 know that my father's humor has changed. You 
 have an answer glued to the back of the chair on 
 which you sit; it will console you, perhaps. Put 
 the letter you have brought me into my handker- 
 chief." 
 
 This young woman was evidently older than 
 twenty-seven. Lucien took a cab at the Rue de la 
 Planche, left it on the boulevard, took another at 
 the Madeleine and ordered the driver to stop in the 
 Rue Taitbout.
 
 As Lucien entered Esther's room, at eleven 
 o'clock, he found her in tears but attired to do him 
 honor. She was awaiting her Lucien, reclining upon 
 a divan of white satin embroidered with golden 
 flowers, dressed in a fascinating dressing-gown 
 of India muslin, caught up here and there with 
 bunches of cherry-colored ribbon. She wore no 
 stays, her hair was loosely coiled about the back of 
 her head, and her feet were encased in pretty velvet 
 slippers trimmed with cherry satin. Every candle 
 was lighted and the hookah ready, but she had not 
 smoked her own, which lay before her unlit as if to 
 mark her state of mind. As she heard the doors 
 open, she dried her tears, and bounding from her 
 couch like a gazelle, clasped Lucien in her arms as 
 a floating bit of gauze, blown by the wind, twines 
 itself about a tree. 
 
 " Parted," she cried. " Is it true?" 
 
 " Pooh, only for a day or two," answered Lucien. 
 
 Esther loosened her hold of Lucien, and fell 
 back half-fainting on the sofa. In situations like 
 this, most women babble like parrots! Ah! how 
 they love you! After five years their feelings are 
 the same as on the first morrow of their happiness. 
 They cannot leave you; they are superb in their 
 indignation, despair, love, anger, remorse, terror, 
 (139)
 
 140 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 sorrow, foreboding! In a word, they are sublime as 
 a scene from Shakespeare. But, count upon it! 
 Such women do not love. When they are all that 
 they say they are, when they love truly, they do as 
 Esther did, as children do, as true love does. Esther 
 did not say a word; she buried her face in the cush- 
 ions and wept burning tears. Lucien forced himself 
 to raise her. Then he spoke to her. 
 
 "But, child, we are not parted. What! after 
 nearly four years of happiness, is this the way you 
 take a short absence? What is it that I have done 
 to all these women ? " he added to himself as he re- 
 membered how Coralie, too, had loved him thus. 
 
 "Ah, sir, you are very handsome!" said Europe. 
 
 The senses have their ideal of what is perfect. 
 When to such alluring beauty the sweetness of dispo- 
 sition and the poetic charm which distinguished Lucien 
 are added, we can imagine the intense passion of beings 
 who are so peculiarly sensitive to natural gifts and 
 so ingenuous in their admiration. Esther sobbed 
 softly, and her attitude betrayed her deep grief. 
 
 "But, dear heart," said Lucien, "were you not 
 told that my life was at stake?" 
 
 As Lucien spoke these words, Esther sprang up 
 like a wild beast; her hair, uncoiled, clustered about 
 her splendid face like the leaves of a tree. She 
 looked fixedly at Lucien. 
 
 "Your life!" she cried, raising her arms and let- 
 ting them fall with a gesture peculiar to women 
 when they are in danger. " But it is true that 
 brute has written of something serious."
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 141 
 
 She drew a soiled paper from her belt, but seeing 
 Europe, she said to her: 
 
 " Leave us, please." 
 
 When Europe had closed the door: 
 
 "See, this is what he wrote me," she added, 
 handing Lucien a letter that Carlos had sent her. 
 Lucien read it aloud. 
 
 " You will leave to-morrow at five in the morning; 
 they will take you to a keeper's lodge deep in the 
 forest of Saint Germain, where you will have a room 
 on the first floor. Do not stir from this room until I 
 permit you. You shall want for nothing. The 
 keeper and his wife are trustworthy. Do not write 
 to Lucien. Do not show yourself at the window 
 during the day; but you may walk at night under 
 the keeper's care if you wish to get the air. Keep 
 the curtains pulled down on the way thither. 
 Lucien's life is at stake. 
 
 " Lucien will come to-night to bid you good-bye. 
 Burn this before him." 
 
 Lucien burned the note instantly in the flame of 
 a candle. 
 
 " Listen, my Lucien," said Esther, when she had 
 listened to the note as a criminal listens to the sen- 
 tence of death that is pronounced upon him. " I 
 shall not tell you that I love you, that would be 
 silly. It is almost five years since it has seemed 
 as natural to me to love you as to breathe to 
 live. The first day my happiness began, under
 
 142 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the protection of the extraordinary man who has 
 kept me here as men keep a little strange animal in 
 a cage, I learned that you must marry. Marriage 
 is a necessary element in your destiny, and God 
 forbid that I should block the path of your success. 
 Your marriage will be my death. But I shall not 
 trouble you; I shall not act like a grisette and kill 
 myself with a pan of charcoal. 1 have tried it once, 
 and that is enough. Twice would be nauseating, as 
 Mariette says. I shall go very far away, out of 
 France. Asia knows the secrets of her country. 
 She has promised to teach me how to die easily, 
 "fou prick yourself; all is over in an instant. I ask 
 but one thing, my angel of heaven, and that is that 
 I may not be deceived. I have lived my life; since 
 the day I saw you, in 1824, until to-day I have had 
 more happiness than falls to the lot of ten happy 
 women. So take me for what I am, a woman 
 strong in her weakness. Tell me that you are 
 going to marry and I shall only ask you to say 
 good-bye very tenderly, and then you shall never 
 hear of me again." 
 
 There was a moment's pause after this declara- 
 tion. Its sincerity could be matched only by the 
 simplicity of the gestures and the accent. 
 
 "Is it on account of your marriage?" said she, 
 directing one of her fascinating glances, bright as 
 a dagger blade, into Lucien's blue eyes. 
 
 " We have been working for my marriage for 
 eighteen months, and it is not decided yet," 
 answered Lucien. " 1 know not when it will be
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 143 
 
 decided, but this command has nothing to do with 
 that, my darling girl. It relates to the priest and 
 to me and to you. We are threatened dangerously. 
 Nucingen has seen you." 
 
 " Yes," said she. "At Vincennes; then he recog- 
 nized me?" 
 
 "No," answered Lucien, "but he loves you as 
 he loves his bank-book. After dinner, when he had 
 described you and told of your meeting, I smiled in- 
 voluntarily, like a fool; for in society I am beset by 
 as many pitfalls as a savage in the midst of a hostile 
 tribe. Carlos, who saves me the trouble of thinking, 
 believes the situation dangerous. He has under- 
 taken to checkmate Nucingen if Nucingen attempts 
 to set detectives upon us, and he is capable of doing 
 so, for he spoke to me of the impotence of the police. 
 You have lighted a fire in an old soot-filled chimney." 
 
 "And what is your Spaniard going to do?" asked 
 Esther very quietly. 
 
 " I know nothing further. He warned me to sleep 
 with one eye open," answered Lucien, without dar- 
 ing to look into Esther's face. 
 
 " If this is the truth, I obey with the dog's sub- 
 mission that I profess," said Esther, slipping her 
 arm beneath Lucien's and drawing him into her 
 room. " Did you have a good dinner, dear Lucien, 
 at that wicked Nucingen's?" 
 
 "Asia's cookery spoils another dinner, however 
 famous the cook of the house where I dine. But 
 Carme furnished the dinner as he does there every 
 Sunday."
 
 144 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Lucien was involuntarily comparing Esther with 
 Clotilde. His mistress was so beautiful, and her 
 charm so undying, that she had as yet kept away 
 that monster which devours the strongest love, 
 satiety. 
 
 "How hard it is," thought he, "that I should 
 find a wife in two volumes. In one poetry, pleasure, 
 love, devotion, beauty, attraction " 
 
 Esther was restless, as women are before they go 
 to bed. She walked up and down, flitted here and 
 there singing. She was like a humming bird. 
 
 " In the other, nobility, name, race, honor, rank, 
 knowledge of society! And yet there is no way of 
 uniting them in a single person," said he to himself. 
 
 At seven o'clock on the morrow, when he awoke 
 in this charming room of pink and white, the poet 
 found himself alone. He rang the bell and the fan- 
 tastic Europe appeared. 
 
 " What do you wish, sir?" 
 
 " Esther." 
 
 "She left at a quarter before five. By the 
 father's orders I let in a stranger and asked no 
 questions." 
 
 "A woman?" 
 
 "No, sir, an English lady one of those women 
 who do their work at night, and we have orders 
 to treat her as if she were our mistress: what can 
 you want of that scare-crow? Poor lady, how she 
 wept as she got into the carriage! 'There's no 
 other way,' she cried; 'I left him, poor darling, 
 while he slept,' she said to me as she wiped her
 
 IN THE RUE TAITBOUT 
 
 Esther sprang up like a ivild beast ; tier hair, 
 uncoiled, clustered about her splendid face like the 
 leaves of a tree. S/ie looked fixedly at Lucien. 
 
 " Your life /" slic cried.
 
 144 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Lucien was in\ ring Esther with 
 
 Clotilde. H .iiful, and her 
 
 charm so undying, that she had as yet kept away 
 that monster which devours the strongest love, 
 satiety. 
 
 "How hard it is," thought he, "that I should 
 find a wife in two volumes. In one poetry, pleasure, 
 love, devotion, beauty, attraction " 
 
 Esther was restless, as women are before they go 
 to bed. She walked up and down, flitted here and 
 there singing. She was like a humming bird. 
 
 " In ^6te^ b ^& ns SK ra P& honor rank 
 knowledge of society! And yet there is no way of 
 
 uniting them in a single person," said he to himself. 
 At seven o'clock on the morrow, when he awoke 
 
 poet 
 
 tastic Europe a 
 
 " Esther." .^'m -w\i "\ ^ 
 
 " She left at a quarter before five. By the 
 father's orders I let in a stranger and asked no 
 questions." 
 
 "A woman?" 
 
 " No, sir, an English lady one of those women 
 who do their work at night, and we have orders 
 to treat her as if she were our mistress: what can 
 you want of that scare-crow? Poor lady, how she 
 wept as she got into the carriage! 'There's no 
 other way,' she cried; 'I left him, poor darling, 
 c he slept,' she said to me as she wiped her
 
 AY THE RUSAITBOUT 
 
 Esther sprang up like vcild beast ; her hair 
 uncoiled, clustered about h -splendid face like tin 
 leaves of a tree. She lookhfixcdly at Lncicn. 
 
 "Your life T she cried.
 
 YA
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 145 
 
 tears: ' Europe, if he had looked at me or spoken 
 my name I should have staid there, content to die 
 with him.' Do you know, sir, I was so fond of her 
 that I did not point out her successor to her. There's 
 many a waiting-maid who would have broken her 
 heart in such a case." 
 
 " Then the stranger is here then?" 
 
 "She came in the carriage which took away 
 Madame Esther, sir, and I hid her in my room as I 
 was bid." 
 
 " Is she satisfactory?" 
 
 "As satisfactory as a second-hand woman could 
 be. But she will find no difficulty in playing her 
 part if you are careful about yours, sir," said Europe, 
 as she went in search of the false Esther. 
 
 On the previous evening before going to bed, 
 the all-powerful banker had given his orders to his 
 valet, and by seven o'clock the servants ushered 
 the famous Louchard, the keenest of detectives, into 
 a small parlor where the baron, in dressing-gown 
 and slippers, met him. 
 
 "You haf peen making game of me," said he in 
 answer to the officer's salutations. 
 
 " I could not do otherwise than I have done, sir. 
 I keep within my own province, and I had the honor 
 of informing you that 1 could not mix myself up in 
 any affair foreign to my duties. What did I promise 
 you? To put you in communication with the man 
 among my agents who seemed to me best qualified 
 to assist you. But you must be familiar with the
 
 146 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 barriers that exist between people of different 
 trades. When you build a house you do not make 
 a joiner do a locksmith's work. Just so there are 
 two kinds of police the political police and the de- 
 tective police. The agents of the detective police 
 never undertake any work of the political police and 
 vice versa. If you were to address yourself to the 
 chief of the political police you would need a permit 
 from the minister to make use of him for your busi- 
 ness, and you would never dare to explain what it is 
 to the director general of the police of the kingdom. 
 Any agent who should turn a penny on his own 
 account would lose his place. And the detective 
 police is just as circumspect as the political police. 
 Thus nobody at the Ministry of the Interior, or at the 
 Prefecture stirs a foot except in the interest of the 
 State or in the interest of justice. If there's a plot 
 or a crime in the case, why, heavens and earth, 
 the chiefs are at your disposal, but you see, baron, 
 that they have other tunes to whistle beside busying 
 themselves with the fifty thousand intrigues that go 
 on in Paris. As for the rest of us, we ought to at- 
 tend merely to the arrest of debtors; and if we ever 
 go beyond this we run enormous risk in case we 
 disturb anybody's peace. I sent you one of my 
 men, but at the same time I told you that I could 
 not answer for him. You asked him to find you a 
 woman in Paris; Contenson has done you out of a 
 note of a thousand without stirring a finger. You 
 might as well look for a needle in a haystack as to 
 hunt through Paris for a woman supposed to have
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 147 
 
 gone to the wood of Vincennes, and whose descrip- 
 tion corresponds to that of every pretty woman in 
 Paris." 
 
 " Gould not Gondanzon" (Contenson), said the 
 baron, " haf dold me ze druth inzteat of ropping me 
 of a note for a tausent francs?" 
 
 "Listen, sir," said Louchard, " will you give me 
 a thousand crowns? I am going to give you sell 
 you a bit of advice." 
 
 "Ant does atvice gost ein tausent growns?" de- 
 manded Nucingen. 
 
 "I am never caught napping, sir," answered 
 Louchard. "You are in love; you wish to discover 
 the object of your passion. You are shrivelling up 
 like a cabbage without water. Your valet told me 
 that two doctors came here yesterday and thought 
 your life in danger. I, alone, can put you in the 
 hands of a clever man. And if your life isn't 
 worth a thousand crowns what the devil is it 
 worth?" 
 
 " Dell me ze name of dis glever man, and gount 
 on my chenerosidy." 
 
 Louchard took his hat, bowed, and walked away. 
 
 " Ze tefil of a man," cried Nucingen, "gome, 
 dake ze money." 
 
 " You understand," said Louchard, before taking 
 the money, "that lam selling you purely and simply 
 a suggestion. I shall give you the name and address 
 of the one man who can be of assistance to you; 
 but he is a master." 
 
 " Go do ze tefil," cried Nucingen, " dere is no
 
 148 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 name but Varschild vich is vort ein tausent growns 
 ant only venn it is zigned at ze foot of a note. I 
 offer ein tausent francs." 
 
 Louchard, petty sharper, who had never been able 
 to secure a position as solicitor, notary, bailiff or 
 attorney, leered at the baron significantly. 
 
 " For you it is a thousand crowns or nothing. 
 You can get them again in a few seconds at the ex- 
 change," he said. 
 
 "I offer ein tausent francs," reiterated the baron. 
 
 "You would dispute the price of a gold mine!" 
 said Louchard, as he bowed and withdrew. 
 
 " I zhall haf ze attress for ein note of five huntret 
 francs," the baron cried out as he bade his valet 
 send in his secretary. 
 
 Turcaret exists no longer. To-day the greatest, 
 as well as the most petty, banker employs all his 
 sagacity in the smallest matters: he haggles over 
 art, generosity, love; he would haggle with the pope 
 over an absolution. Thus as he listened to Lou- 
 chard, Nucingen had rapidly calculated that since 
 Contenson was the right hand of the detective, he 
 must know the address of the master spy he de- 
 sired. Contenson would let go for five hundred 
 francs what Louchard wished to sell for a thousand 
 crowns. This rapid decision proved conclusively 
 that though the man's heart were a prisoner to love, 
 the old lynx had not lost his head. 
 
 "Go yourzelf, zir," said the baron to his secre- 
 tary, "to ze house of Gondanzon, ze spy of Lichard 
 ze dedectif. Gall a gab, go guickly ant pring him
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 149 
 
 at vonce. I vait for you. You vill go by ze garden 
 toor. Here is ze key, vor it is pest zat no one 
 zould zee ze man at my house. You vill indroduce 
 him into ze leetle garten pafillion. Dry to exegute 
 my gommission mit indelligence." 
 
 People came to talk business with Nucingen: still 
 he waited for Contenson, and dreamed of Esther; he 
 said to himself that before many days had passed he 
 should see the woman to whom he owed emotions 
 he had never thought possible; and he dismissed 
 everybody with vague words, and promises of 
 double meaning. Contenson seemed to him the 
 most important being in Paris; every moment he 
 looked out into his garden. At length, after he had 
 given orders for his door to be kept shut, he had his 
 breakfast served in the pavilion which stood in one 
 corner of the garden.
 
 In business circles the strange behavior and the 
 hesitation of the keenest, craftiest, most politic of 
 Paris bankers appeared inexplicable. 
 
 "What is the matter with the boss?" asked a 
 stockbroker of one of the head clerks. 
 
 " Nobody knows. Apparently they are anxious 
 about his health; yesterday his wife had a consulta- 
 tion with Doctors Desplein and Bianchon." 
 
 One day that some strangers came to see Newton, 
 he was occupied in physicking one of his dogs named 
 Beauty. This Beauty, a female, had destroyed, as 
 everybody knows, an immense work, and Newton 
 had said to her: "Ah, Beauty, you know not what 
 you have ruined." The strangers respected the 
 great man's employment and went away. In every 
 famous life there is a little dog Beauty. When the 
 Marechal de Richelieu came to pay his respects to 
 Louis XV. after the capture of Mahon, one of the 
 greatest exploits of the eighteenth century, the king 
 said to him: " You know the great news. Poor 
 Lansmatt is dead!" Lansmatt was a door-keeper 
 who happened to be privy to the monarch's intrigues. 
 The bankers of Paris never knew the obligations 
 they owed to Contenson, for the detective was the 
 reason of Nucingen's abandoning to them a vast 
 (151)
 
 152 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 enterprise, in which he had already embarked. 
 Every day the lynx could aim at a fortune with the 
 artillery of speculation whereas the man was at the 
 orders of pleasure. 
 
 The famous banker was sipping his tea and 
 nibbling a few slices of bread and butter with the 
 deliberation of a man whose teeth had been long 
 unwhetted by appetite, when he heard a carriage pull 
 up before the little gate of his garden. In a moment 
 Nucingen's secretary presented Contenson, whom 
 he had found at length in a cafe near Sainte-Pelagie, 
 where the agent was breakfasting on the fee given 
 him by an imprisoned debtor, who had met with the 
 consideration that expects payment. Contenson, 
 you notice, was a true poem, a Parisian poem. From 
 his appearance, at first sight you would have thought 
 that Beaumarchais' Figaro, Moliere's Mascarille, Mari- 
 vaux's Frontin and Dancourt's Lafleur, those great 
 personifications of daring knavery, of ruse at bay, 
 of stratagem rising ever anew from the ashes of its 
 failure, were commonplace in comparison with this 
 colossus of craft and degradation. In Paris a type is 
 no longer a man, but a spectacle, and represents no 
 longer a single moment of life, but a life-time many 
 life-times. Bake thrice in an oven a bust of plaster; 
 it will become a sort of base imitation of Florentine 
 bronze. Just so the fires of countless misfortunes, 
 the necessities of awful situations, had bronzed 
 Contenson 's head as if the heat of an oven had 
 thrice dried the sweat upon his visage. The deep 
 wrinkles could never again grow smooth; they
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 153 
 
 formed life-long folds with whitened furrows. His 
 yellow face was all wrinkles. The skull, shaped 
 like Voltaire's, was rigid as a death's-head, and had 
 it not been for a few wisps of hair behind, it would 
 scarcely have looked human. Beneath an imper- 
 turbable brow his Chinese eyes were set with ex- 
 pressionless gaze, eyes such as those displayed in 
 the window of a tea-shop; unreal eyes simulating 
 life, but the look of which never alters. The nose 
 flat, as that of death's-head, set destiny at defiance, 
 and the mouth, pinched like a miser's, was always 
 open, though it remained discreet as the slit of a 
 letter-box. Calm as a savage, his hands tanned by 
 the sun, Contenson, little, wizened and thin, as he 
 was, still possessed the careless attitude of a Dio- 
 genes, who never bends in protestations of respect. 
 And what commentaries on his life and character 
 were written in his dress for those who can read 
 what dress means? First of all, what trousers! 
 Typical bailiff's trousers, black and shiny as the 
 stuff known as "voile," of which they make law- 
 yers' gowns; a waistcoat of embroidered camel's- 
 hair bought at the Temple; a coat of rusty black; 
 the whole costume brushed till it was almost clean, 
 and adorned by a gold-plated watch-chain. Con- 
 tenson exposed to view a plaited shirt of yellow 
 cambric which formed a background for a false dia- 
 mond pin. His velvet collar looked as if it were 
 made of iron, and over it protruded folds of deep 
 red flesh. His silk hat shone like satin, but the 
 lining could have furnished enough grease to make
 
 154 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 two tallow candles, had some grocer bought it and 
 boiled it down. This is but to catalogue the acces- 
 sories, and it would be more to the purpose to paint 
 the exorbitant pretension that Contenson was able 
 to impart to them. There was a jaunty air about 
 the coat collar and in the fresh polish of the boots 
 with cracked soles to which no French expression 
 can do justice. And to reconcile a mixture of such 
 diverse articles of apparel a clever man would have 
 gathered from Contenson's appearance that had he 
 been a criminal and not an informer, his threadbare 
 clothes would no longer have brought a smile to the 
 lips of a beholder, but would have made him thrill 
 with horror. Judging from his costume an observer 
 would have said, "He is a villain, he drinks, he 
 gambles, he has vices; but he does not get drunk, 
 he does not cheat, he is neither a thief nor a mur- 
 derer." And certainly Contenson was indefinable 
 until the word " spy " came to mind. This man 
 had worked at as many unknown trades as there 
 are trades which are known. The subtle smile of 
 his pale lips, the restlessness of his pale green eyes, 
 the slightly comic turn of his flat nose showed that 
 he did not want for wit. He had a face of tin and 
 the soul within was like the face. The movements 
 of his features were rather grimaces conceded to 
 civility than the expression of inner feelings. Had 
 he been less ludicrous, he would have been terrify- 
 ing. Contenson, one of the most curious products 
 of the scum which floats in the seething caldron of 
 Paris, where everything is in ferment, prided himself
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 155 
 
 above all on being a philosopher. He said without 
 bitterness: 
 
 " I have great talents; but they count for nothing. 
 I might as well be an idiot." 
 
 And he condemned himself, instead of accusing 
 men. Try to find many spies who have not more 
 rancor than Contenson! 
 
 " Circumstances are against us," he would say to 
 his superiors; " we might be crystals, but we are 
 grains of sand, nothing more." 
 
 His cynicism of dress had a purpose; he cared no 
 more for his city dress than an actor cares for his 
 costume; he excelled in disguises and transforma- 
 tions; he might have given lessons to Frederick 
 Le Mattre for he could turn fop when it served his 
 turn. Long ago in his youth he had been brought 
 up among an ill-conditioned set of small trades- 
 people. 
 
 He displayed a deep antipathy to the detec- 
 tive police, for, under the Empire, he had been in 
 Fouche's employ, and he looked upon his former 
 master as a great man. Since the suppression of 
 the ministry of police, for want of better employ- 
 ment, he enlisted as a detective for business arrests, 
 but his well-known capacity and sharpness made 
 him a valued tool, and the secret chiefs of the politi- 
 cal police had kept his name on their lists. Con- 
 tenson, as well as his mates, was only among the 
 chorus of a drama, while the greater parts were 
 played by their chiefs whenever there was political 
 business afoot.
 
 156 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 " Go avay," said Nucingen, dismissing his secre- 
 tary with a wave of his hand. 
 
 " Why is it that this man lives in a fine house 
 and I in a tenement ?" said Contenson to him- 
 self. " He has tricked his creditors three times; 
 he has stolen ; I have never taken a penny 
 that didn't belong to me, and I am cleverer than 
 he." 
 
 " Gondanzon, mein frient," said the baron, "you 
 haf tone me out of ein tausent franc note." 
 
 " My mistress owed everybody and the devil to 
 boot." 
 
 "You haf ein misdress?" cried Nucingen, look- 
 ing at Contenson with admiration mixed with envy. 
 
 "I am only sixty-six," answered Contenson, 
 with the manner of a man whom vice had kept 
 young as a fatal example. 
 
 "Ant vat toes she to?" 
 
 "She helps me," replied Contenson; "when a 
 thief is loved by an honest woman, either she be- 
 comes a thief or he an honest man. For my part, 
 I am still a detective." 
 
 "You still haf need of money?" 
 
 "Still," returned Contenson, smiling, "my natu- 
 ral condition is to want it as yours is to gain it; we 
 can come to an understanding: you bring it to me 
 and I will look after the spending. You will be the 
 well and I the bucket." 
 
 " To you care to earn ein note of fife huntret 
 vrancs?" 
 
 "That's a natural question! Do you think I'm
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 157 
 
 a fool? Do you offer it to help to repair Fortune's 
 injustice toward me?" 
 
 " Py no means; I att it to ze fife huntret vrancs 
 zat you haf taken; zat makes veefteen huntret 
 vrancs zat I gif you altogether." 
 
 "So you give me the thousand francs I have 
 already and you add five hundred francs more." 
 
 " Zat is gorrect!" said Nucingen, nodding his 
 head. 
 
 "That only makes five hundred francs," re- 
 marked Contenson imperturbably. 
 
 " To give!" replied the baron. 
 
 " To take; well, what would M. le Baron buy 
 with this?" 
 
 " I haf heard zat zere was in Baris ein man caba- 
 ple of discofering ze vooman I luf ant zat you know 
 his attress. Ein masder of sbying." 
 
 "It is true." 
 
 " Very veil ; gif me ze attress ant you haf ze 
 fife huntret vrancs." 
 
 " Where are they?" answered Contenson quickly. 
 
 "Here," ejaculated the baron, drawing a bank- 
 note from his pocket. 
 
 "All right, give them to me," said Contenson, 
 stretching out his hand. 
 
 " Vait a pit. Let us go to see ze man ant you 
 shall haf ze money, vor you might zell me blenty 
 of attresses ad zat brice." 
 
 Contenson began to laugh. 
 
 " I suppose that you have the right to think it of 
 me," he said with an air of self-reproof, " the lower
 
 158 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 our fortunes sink the greater need for honesty. But, 
 look you, baron; make it six hundred francs and I 
 will give you good advice." 
 
 " Gif it, and debend on my chenerosidy." 
 
 "I take the risk," said Contenson, "but I am 
 playing high. In my line of business, you know, 
 we move underground. You say: ' Forward, 
 march!' You are rich and you believe that every- 
 thing yields to money. Money counts for some- 
 thing, it is true. But with money, as the two or 
 three able men of my profession always say, you 
 can do no more than buy men. And there are 
 other things that a man does not think of which 
 cannot be bought. He cannot keep chance in his 
 pay. Besides a clever detective doesn't go to work 
 in that way. Will you get into a cab with me? 
 There is one outside. Luck is as apt to be with 
 you as against you." 
 
 " Druly?" said the baron. 
 
 " Lord, yes, sir. It was a horseshoe picked up in 
 the street that led the prefect of the police to dis- 
 cover the infernal machine. So then if we should 
 go in a cab, this evening after nightfall, to see M. de 
 Saint Germain he would not care to see you come 
 into his house any more than you would care to be 
 seen going there." 
 
 " Zat is drue," said the baron. 
 
 " Oh, he's the cleverest of the clever, the famous 
 Corentin's lieutenant, Fouche's right arm; some call 
 him his natural son born at the time that Fouche 
 was a priest; but it's all nonsense I suppose. Fouche
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 159 
 
 made as good a priest as a prefect. But you will 
 never stir that man, mind you, with less than ten 
 bank notes of a thousand francs. Remember that. 
 But your business will be done and well done. 
 Nothing seen or heard as they say. I shall see 
 that M, de Saint-Germain is notified and he will 
 assign you some meeting-place where you may 
 be alone with no danger of eavesdroppers, for 
 he runs a risk in bringing the police system to 
 bear upon private affairs. But what can you expect? 
 He's a fearless man, the king of men, and a man 
 who has undergone the most bitter persecution for 
 having saved France, like me and all the others who 
 have saved her." 
 
 "Well, zen, you vill write me ze hour zat zhall 
 make me habby," said the baron, smiling at his 
 vulgar jest. 
 
 "Aren't you going to grease the wheels, baron?" 
 asked Contenson with an accent at once humble 
 and menacing. 
 
 "Chan," called the baron to his gardener, "ged 
 dwendy vrancs vrom Chorches and pring zem do 
 me." 
 
 "If you have no other directions than those you 
 have already given, I am doubtful whether even 
 such a master can help you, sir." 
 
 "I haf odders," answered the baron supercil- 
 iously. 
 
 " I have the honor of taking my leave, sir," said 
 Contenson as he pocketed the twenty-franc piece; 
 " I shall have the honor of telling Georges where
 
 160 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 our friend will be this evening, for respectable de- 
 tectives never write." 
 
 "Id's ott how zharp zese fellows are," thought 
 the baron, " zeir drade is like pusiness." 
 
 After leaving the baron Contenson walked placidly 
 from the Rue Saint-Lazare to the Rue Saint-Honore 
 and up this street as far as the Cafe David. There 
 he glanced through the window and perceived an 
 old man known throughout the district under the 
 name of Pere Canquoelle.
 
 The Cafe David, situated in the Rue de la Monnaie, 
 at the corner of the Rue Saint-Honore, enjoyed 
 during the first thirty years of this century, a con- 
 siderable reputation confined to the quarter called 
 "des Bourdonnais." It was the resort of old and 
 retired merchants or of rich contractors still in 
 business, men like Camusot, Lebas, Pillerault, and 
 Popinot; a few landlords like little Pere Molineux, 
 and now and then old Pere Guillaume came thither 
 from the Rue du Colombier. The company dis- 
 cussed politics, but with discretion, for the spirit of 
 the place was liberal. They chatted over the gos- 
 sip of the neighborhood, for men must laugh at their 
 fellows. 
 
 Like all cafes of the time, the Cafe David had its 
 original character, and this was Pere Canquoelle, 
 who had been in the habit of going thither ever 
 since 1811, and seemed in such perfect harmony 
 with the honest folk collected about him that nobody 
 hesitated to talk politics in his presence. Occasion- 
 ally this worthy, whose simplicity was the laughing- 
 stock of his friends, disappeared for a month or two 
 at a time; but his absences that were always attrib- 
 uted to his age or infirmities surprised no one, for 
 he was believed to have passed his sixtieth year as 
 long ago as 1811. 
 
 ii (161)
 
 162 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "What has become of Pere Canquoelle?" peo- 
 ple asked of the bar-maid. 
 
 " I suspect," she would answer, "that some day 
 we shall see his death in the Petites Affiches." 
 
 Pere Canquoelle's pronunciation was a perpetual 
 certificate of his origin. He invariably said, " une 
 estatue, especialle, le peuble," and " lure " for Turk. 
 His name was derived from a small estate called 
 " Les Canquoelles" (a provincial word for cock- 
 chafers), situated in the department of Vaucluse, of 
 which he was a native. People had come to address 
 him as "Canquoelle," instead of "des Canquo- 
 e'lles," but he did not take it amiss, as he felt that 
 the nobility had died in 1793. Besides, the property 
 of Les Canquoe'lles did not belong to him, for he was 
 the younger son of a younger branch. Nowadays 
 Pere Canquoelle's costume would look odd in the 
 extreme, but from 1811 to 1820 it aroused nobody's 
 surprise. The old man wore shoes with steel 
 buckles cut like crystals, silk stockings with cir- 
 cular stripes alternately blue and white, and silk 
 breeches with oval buckles to match those on his 
 shoes. An embroidered white waistcoat, an old coat 
 of greenish brown with brass buttons, and a shirt 
 with a plaited frill completed his attire. In the 
 middle of the frill glittered a gold medallion, under 
 the glass of which there was a tiny temple made of 
 hair, one of those charming bits of sentiment that 
 assure a man just as a scare-crow frightens a spar- 
 row. Most men are startled and reassured by noth- 
 ings just as animals are. Pere Canquoelle's breeches
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 163 
 
 were supported by a buckle which, after the fashion 
 of the last century, held them tightly in place above 
 the abdomen. From his girdle hung two parallel 
 chains, composed of several steel strands, each end- 
 ing in a bunch of watch-charms. His white cravat 
 was fastened behind by means of a small gold buckle. 
 His head, that was powdered snow-white, was capped 
 as late as 1816 by the municipal cocked hat, that 
 was also worn by M. Try, President of the Tribunal. 
 This hat, so dear to the old man, Pere Canquoelle 
 had recently replaced (the worthy gentleman thought 
 that he owed the sacrifice to the time) by that in- 
 significant round hat against which nobody has dared 
 to rebel. A small queue tightly braided and tied 
 with a ribbon, traced on the back of his coat a semi- 
 circular mark, the grease of which was half hidden 
 by a fine sprinkling of powder. In contemplating 
 the distinctive feature of his face, a red nose that was 
 covered with protuberances and fit to figure in a 
 dish of truffles, you would have attributed a pliant, 
 dull and good-natured disposition to this most re- 
 spectable old man, who was in reality sharp as a 
 steel trap, and, like everybody who frequented the 
 Cafe David, you would have been duped by him. 
 Nobody there had scrutinized the intelligent fore- 
 head, the sardonic mouth and cold eyes of this old 
 man who was glutted with vices and calm as a 
 Vitellius whose imperial belly was, so to speak, 
 palingenetically resuscitated in him. In 1816 a 
 young traveling salesman, Gaudissart by name, a 
 frequenter of the Cafe David, got drunk between
 
 164 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 eleven o'clock and midnight in company with an 
 officer on half pay. He was so imprudent as to 
 speak of a serious conspiracy brewing against 
 the Bourbons, that was then ready to burst. The 
 cafe was empty except for Pere Can^uoelle, who 
 was apparently asleep, two sleeping waiters and the 
 bar-maid. Within twenty-four hours Gaudissart was 
 arrested, and the plot discovered. Two men per- 
 ished on the scaffold. Neither Gaudissart nor any- 
 body else ever suspected worthy Pere Canquoelle 
 of having divulged the secret. The waiters were 
 dismissed, every precaution was adopted for a year, 
 and Pere Canquoelle who appeared to share the 
 general fear inspired by the police, even spoke of 
 deserting the Cafe David altogether, so great was his 
 detestation of the whole system. 
 
 Contenson entered the cafe, ordered a small glass 
 of brandy and never turned his eyes toward Pere 
 Canquoelle, who was busily reading the newspapers; 
 when he had swallowed the brandy he pulled out 
 the baron's gold piece and summoned the waiter by 
 making three sharp taps on the table. The bar-maid 
 and the waiter examined the gold piece with a solici- 
 tude that was scarcely complimentary to Conten- 
 son; but their distrust was excused by the universal 
 astonishment caused by the detective's appearance. 
 " Is the gold the fruit of theft or murder?" 
 Such was the thought of several intelligent and 
 clear-sighted persons who glanced at Contenson 
 beneath their spectacles while they pretended to be 
 absorbed in their papers. Contenson, who noticed
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 165 
 
 everything and was astonished at nothing, wiped his 
 lips disdainfully with a silk handkerchief in which 
 there were not more than three darns, received his 
 change and placed all his coppers in his fob, the 
 once white lining of which was now black as the 
 material of the trousers, not leaving a single penny 
 for the waiter. 
 
 " There's a gallows bird," remarked Pere Can- 
 quoelle to M. Pillerault, his neighbor. 
 
 "Pooh!" answered M. Camusot, who alone had 
 shown no astonishment, aloud to the whole cafe. 
 " It's Contenson, the right hand of Louchard, our 
 detective. Perhaps the fools have some one to arrest 
 in this neighborhood." 
 
 Fifteen minutes later, the worthy M. Canquoelle 
 rose, took his umbrella and went quietly out. 
 
 It is necessary to explain that a subtle man was 
 hidden beneath the exterior of Pere Canquoelle in the 
 same way that Vautrin was concealed in the priest 
 Carlos. This man was named Peyrade. He was 
 born in the south, at Canquoelles, the only estate 
 of his family, which had formerly been highly re- 
 spectable. In fact, he belonged to the younger 
 branch of the house of Peyrade, an old but poor 
 family of Comtat, which was still in possession of 
 the small landed property of Peyrade. The young- 
 est of seven children, he had come on foot to Paris, 
 at the age of seventeen, with two six-franc pieces 
 in his pocket, in 1772, actuated by the vices of a 
 passionate temperament and by that brutal desire 
 for wealth which attracts so many Southerners to
 
 166 SPLENDORS AND /MISERIES 
 
 the capital when they have learned that the family 
 coffers can never furnish them with money to satisfy 
 their appetites. We shall tell the story of Peyrade's 
 youth by saying that in 1782 he was the secret 
 adviser and even the hero of the general lieuten- 
 ancy of the police, and was especially esteemed by 
 M. Lenoir and M. d'Albert, the last two of the lieu- 
 tenant generals. The Revolution had no police; it 
 needed none. Espionage, common enough then, 
 went by the name of citizenship. The Directory, 
 a slightly more regular government than that of the 
 Committee of Public Safety, was obliged to create a 
 police, and the first consul completed the system 
 by establishing the prefecture of police and the 
 ministry of general police. Peyrade, the tradi- 
 tional man, organized the staff in conjunction with 
 an associate named Corentin, a much stronger per- 
 son than the Peyrade of that time, although younger, 
 and one whose genius was confined to the subter- 
 ranean pathways of the police system. In 1808 
 Peyrade's great services were rewarded by his 
 nomination to the high position of commissary 
 general of the police at Antwerp. In Napoleon's 
 scheme this prefecture of police was equivalent to 
 the ministry of police that was deputed to take 
 charge of Holland. After the campaign of 1809 
 Peyrade was relieved of his command at Antwerp 
 by order of the Emperor's cabinet, conveyed post 
 haste to Paris between two gendarmes and thrown 
 into "La Force." Two months later he emerged 
 from prison, after a warning from his friend Corentin,
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 167 
 
 and after undergoing three general examina- 
 tions of six hours each before the prefect of the 
 police. Did Peyrade owe his disgrace to the mar- 
 vellous activity with which he had seconded Fouche 
 in the defence of the coasts of France, when they 
 were attacked by what was called at the time the 
 expedition of Walcheren in which the Due d'Otrante 
 displayed a capacity that alarmed the Emperor? 
 Fouche suspected it at the time; but nowadays when 
 everybody knows what was passing at that crisis in 
 the council of the ministry convoked by Cambaceres, 
 it is a certainty. Thunderstruck by the news of 
 England's counter-thrust to Napoleon's Boulogne ex- 
 pedition, and surprised in the absence of their mas- 
 ter, who was then intrenched in the island of Lobau 
 where all Europe thought him lost, the ministers 
 knew not what measures to adopt. The general 
 opinion was to dispatch a courier to the Emperor; 
 but Fouche alone aared frame the plan which he 
 proceeded to put into execution. 
 
 " Do as you wish," Cambaceres said to him, "as 
 I value my head I am going to dispatch a message 
 to the Emperor." 
 
 It is well known what an absurd pretext the 
 Emperor employed, on his return, in the presence of 
 the whole council of state to disgrace and punish 
 his minister for having saved France without him. 
 On that day the Emperor doubled the dislike of the 
 two remaining great statesmen of the Revolution, 
 who might perhaps have saved him in 1813, the 
 Prince de Talleyrand and the Due d'Otrante. In
 
 168 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 order to sweep Peyrade out of the way, the common 
 charge of extortion was alleged against him, as he 
 had countenanced contraband trade, by sharing cer- 
 tain profits with rich merchants. This was certainly 
 rough treatment for a man who deserved the baton 
 of a commissariat general for his distinguished ser- 
 vices. As he had grown old amidst the cares of 
 business, he was in possession of the secrets of 
 every government since the year 1775, the date of 
 his appointment to the general-lieutenancy of police. 
 The Emperor, who thought himself strong enough to 
 create men of what stamp he pleased, was deaf to 
 the representations which were made to him as time 
 went on, in favor of a man who was considered one 
 of the most trustworthy, shrewd and clever among 
 those nameless guardians of the state's welfare. He 
 thought it possible to replace Peyrade by Conten- 
 son; but Contenson was at that time profitably en- 
 gaged by Corentin. Peyrade was injured all the 
 more deeply because, libertine and glutton as he 
 was, he found himself that women regarded him as 
 they would a pastry cook who delights in dainties. 
 Vicious habits had become ingrafted into his very 
 nature; he could no longer exist without high living 
 and gambling, in short, he led the life of an unos- 
 tentatious nobleman; a life which fascinates any 
 man of marked ability who has learned to require 
 extravagant pleasures. Besides, until this time he 
 had spent money freely and had squandered it with- 
 out ever being called to account; for the government 
 was never rigorously exact with him or with his
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 169 
 
 friend Corentin. His cynical wit led him to love his 
 position for another reason: he was a philosopher. 
 Last of all, a detective, on whatever round of the 
 police ladder he may be, can never, any more than 
 a galley-slave, return to a profession that men call 
 liberal or honest. Once stamped, once registered, 
 detectives and condemned criminals have assumed, 
 like deacons of the church, a character which can 
 never be washed away. The spy is numbered 
 among those beings on whom society brands a fatal 
 destiny. To his misfortune Peyrade had taken a 
 great fancy to a pretty girl, a child he knew to be his 
 own by a celebrated actress, to whom he had done 
 a great service, and who, in return, had shown him 
 gratitude for three months. Peyrade had brought 
 back his daughter with him from Antwerp and was 
 now living in Paris without other resource than an 
 annual allowance of twelve hundred francs accorded 
 by the prefecture of police to the old pupil of Lenoir. 
 He lodged in the Rue des Moineaux, on the fourth 
 story, in a little suite of five rooms leased at two 
 hundred and fifty francs a year. 
 
 If there is any man who feels the use and the 
 tenderness of friendship, is it not the moral leper, 
 whom the rabble call a spy, the people a detective, 
 and the administration an agent? Thus Peyrade 
 and Corentin were friends like Orestes and Pylades. 
 Peyrade had moulded Corentin as Vien moulded 
 David; but the pupil soon surpassed his master. 
 They had been associates in more than one 
 enterprise (see A Terrible Affair). Peyrade, de-
 
 I JO SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 lighted at having discovered Corentin's merit, had 
 launched him on his career, by preparing for him 
 an easy triumph. He compelled his pupil to make 
 use of a mistress who despised him, as a bait to 
 entrap another man (see The Chouans). At the 
 time Corentin was scarcely twenty-five! Corentin, 
 long one of those generals of whom the minister 
 of police is the constable, had retained, under the 
 Due de Rovigo, the prominent position he had held 
 beneath the Due d'Otrante. But, then, the same 
 system prevailed among the general as among the 
 detective police. In every affair of importance, the 
 three, four, or five cleverest agents were summoned 
 to a conference. 
 
 The minister, forewarned of some scheme or con- 
 spiracy through any medium, would say to one of 
 his police colonels: 
 
 " What do you need to arrive at such a result?" 
 Corentin or Contenson would answer after ripe 
 examination : 
 
 " Twenty, thirty, forty thousand francs." 
 Then when the order to march was once given 
 the exclusive choice of men and methods was left 
 to the judgment of Corentin or of the appointed 
 agent. The detective police, with the famous 
 Vidocq, followed this same system in the discovery 
 of crimes. 
 
 The political as well as the detective police chose 
 its men principallyamong the recognized, registered, 
 habitual agents, who compose, as it were, the rank 
 and file of this secret force, so necessary to a
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 171 
 
 government, despite the rhetoric of philanthropists 
 or of petty moralists. 
 
 The excessive confidence placed in two or three 
 generals of the type of Peyrade and Corentin al- 
 lowed them the privilege of employing unknown 
 persons, although it was still their duty to consult 
 the minister in cases of importance. The experi- 
 ence and the cunning of Peyrade, however, were 
 indispensable to Corentin, who, during the tempest 
 of 1810, made use of his old friend, consulted him 
 in every matter and contributed largely to his support. 
 Corentin found means to bestow about one thousand 
 francs a month on Peyrade. On his side, Peyrade 
 was of immense service to Corentin. In 1816, on 
 the occasion of the disclosure of the plot in which 
 the Bonapartist Gaudissart was concerned, Coren- 
 tin tried to have Peyrade readmitted to the general 
 police force of the kingdom; but an unknown influ- 
 ence defeated Peyrade. This was the reason: in 
 their anxiety to become indispensable, Peyrade, 
 Corentin and Contenson, at the instigation of the 
 Due d'Otrante, had organized, on behalf of Louis 
 XVIII., a counter-police in which the agents of the 
 original force were employed. Louis XVIII. died 
 possessed of secrets which will remain secrets for 
 most carefully informed historians. The struggle 
 between the general police of the kingdom and the 
 counter-police of the king engendered several horri- 
 ble conflicts, the secret of which has been guarded 
 by more than one scaffold. This is neither the 
 time nor the place to enter into the details of this
 
 172 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 subject, for the Seems of Parisian Life are not the 
 Scenes of Political Life ; it is enough to show what 
 were the means of existence of the man whom the 
 whole Cafe David called Pere Canquoelle, and what 
 the threads were that bound him to the mysterious 
 and terrible power of the police. 
 
 From 1817 to 1822, Corentin, Contenson, Peyrade 
 and their agents were often employed to keep watch 
 over the minister himself. This explains the minis- 
 ter's motives in refusing to employ Peyrade and 
 Contenson; for, unknown to them, Corentin had 
 awakened the minister's suspicions about them, in 
 order to use his friend for his own purposes when 
 he thought his reinstatement impossible. The min- 
 istry at this time trusted Corentin, and charged 
 him to keep a careful eye on Peyrade; a step which 
 amused Louis XVIII. Corentin and Peyrade were 
 then masters of the situation. Contenson had long 
 been attached to Peyrade and was still faithful to 
 him. He was admitted into the detective service 
 by the orders of Corentin and of Peyrade. Thus 
 with the mad enthusiasm inspired by a profession 
 that is lovingly followed, these two generals de- 
 lighted to place their cleverest soldiers in the spots 
 where they could pick up most evidence. Besides, 
 Contenson's vices and depraved habits, which had 
 sunk him lower than his two companions, required 
 so much money that he needed extra work. Con- 
 tenson, without committing any indiscretion, had told 
 Louchard that he knew the only man who could 
 satisfy the Baron de Nucingen; and Peyrade was
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 173 
 
 actually the single agent who could usurp the power 
 of the police for the benefit of an individual, without 
 fear of punishment. At Louis XVIII. 's death, Peyrade 
 lost not only all his importance but even the income 
 of his position as his Majesty's attendant detective. 
 Believing himself indispensable, he had continued to 
 lead his accustomed life. Women, good cheer and 
 the Foreigners' Club had swept away every attempt 
 at economy. Peyrade, like all men that are well 
 fitted for vice, enjoyed an iron constitution. But, 
 from 1826 to 1829, when he was almost seventy- 
 four, to use his own expression, he felt the brake 
 on the wheels. Year by year Peyrade saw his 
 fortunes dwindling. He witnessed the decay of the 
 police, and found to his dismay that the government 
 of Charles X. was abandoning its good traditions. 
 Session after session the chamber clipped the ap- 
 propriations on which the existence of the police 
 depended, for its members disliked this method of 
 government and were determined to correct the 
 morals of the institution. 
 
 " They want to do the cooking in white gloves," 
 remarked Peyrade to Corentin. 
 
 Corentin and Peyrade foresaw 1830 in 1822. 
 They knew the secret hatred that Louis XV11I. 
 bore to his successor, a hatred which explained 
 his unceremonious behavior towards the younger 
 branch, and without which his reign and policy 
 would be an insoluble enigma. 
 
 Peyrade's love for his natural daughter had 
 increased as he grew older. For her sake he had
 
 174 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 assumed his civilian's disguise, for he wished to 
 marry his Lydie to an honest man. For the past 
 three years he had desired to install himself either 
 at the prefecture of the police or at the central office 
 of the general police of the kingdom, in some open 
 and avowed position. He had succeeded in invent- 
 ing such a position, the need of which, he told 
 Corentin, was sure to be felt sooner or later. His 
 plan was to create at the prefecture of the police a 
 so-called bureau of evidence, which should serve as 
 an intermediary between the police of Paris proper, 
 the detective police and the police of the kingdom, 
 in order to improve the general administration of all 
 these scattered forces. Peyrade, alone, in spite of 
 his age, and with fifty-five years of experience, would 
 be the link which should join these three separate 
 systems would be, in a word, the keeper of records 
 to whom politics and justice should turn for light in 
 obscure cases. By these means Peyrade hoped that, 
 with the aid of Corentin, he might be able to pick up 
 a dowry and a husband for his little Lydie. Corentin 
 had already mentioned this scheme to the Director- 
 General of the police of the kingdom ; but the 
 Director-General, a Southerner, without speaking of 
 Peyrade, thought it necessary that the proposition 
 should originate with the prefecture. 
 
 At the moment when Contenson had tapped the 
 table thrice with his goldpiece, a signal which meant 
 " 1 have something to say to you," the senior de- 
 tective was intent upon this problem, " By what 
 person, through what interest can I stir the Prefect
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 175 
 
 of police?" Yet all the time he looked a very 
 imbecile as he pored over his Courier Franc.ais. 
 
 "Our poor Fouche!" thought he as he moved 
 slowly along the Rue Saint Honore. " That great 
 man is dead! Our go-betweens with Louis XVIII. 
 are in disgrace. Then, as Corentin was saying to 
 me yesterday, nowadays nobody believes in the 
 activity or intelligence of a man who is past seventy. 
 Ah! why did I ever learn to dine at Very, to drink 
 expensive wine, to sing la Mhe Godichon, and to 
 gamble when I have the money? To make his way 
 a man must have something more than natural wit, 
 as Corentin said; he must have the wit to behave 
 himself. Dear old M. Lenoir was a wise prophet of 
 my lot when he told me I should never come to any- 
 thing after the Collier business, when he learned 
 that I had not stayed in my hiding-place in Oliva's 
 room."
 
 Since the venerable Pere Canquoelle he was 
 called Pere Canquoelle at home had remained in the 
 Rue des Moineaux, fourth floor, you may be sure that 
 he had discovered in the situation of his lodgings pe- 
 culiarities that were favorable to the exercise of his 
 terrible employment. Built at the corner of the Rue 
 Saint-Roch his house was bounded on one side by 
 an empty lot. As it was divided into halves by 
 means of the staircase, on every story there were 
 two rooms completely isolated. These two rooms 
 faced the Rue Saint Roch. Above the fourth story 
 rose the attics, one of which served for a kitchen 
 while the other was the apartment of Pere Can- 
 quoelle's only servant, a Flemish woman named 
 Katt, who had been Lydie's nurse. Pere Canquoelle 
 had chosen as his bed-room the first of the two de- 
 tached chambers; the second he used as his office. 
 A thick partition formed the back wall of this room. 
 The window which looked out on the Rue des Moi- 
 neaux faced a blank corner wall. As the whole 
 length of Peyrade's bed-chamber separated the two 
 friends from the stairway, they feared neither eye 
 nor ear when they discussed their business in the 
 office, that was so perfectly adapted to their horrid 
 trade. By way of precaution, Peyrade had laid a 
 straw mattress, a coarse drugget and a very thick 
 
 12 (177)
 
 178 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 carpet in the servant's bed-room, under the pretext 
 of adding to the comfort of his daughter's nurse. 
 More than this, he had blocked up the chimney, and 
 made use of a stove, the pipe of which, laid through 
 the exterior wall, abutted on the Rue Saint-Roch. 
 Finally he had stretched several carpets on the floor 
 in order to prevent the slightest noise from pene- 
 trating to the lodgers on the lower story. An adept 
 in the art of spying, he sounded partition wall, 
 ceiling and floor once every week, and examined 
 them like a man trying to kill some annoying insect. 
 This absolute security from witnesses or listeners 
 recommended the place to Corentin as a council cham- 
 ber, whenever he did not conduct his deliberations at 
 home. Corentin's dwelling was known only to the 
 Director-General of the police of the kingdom and to 
 Peyrade; he received there persons despatched as 
 emissaries on occasions of grave importance, by 
 either ministry or court; but no agent, no inferior 
 police officer was admitted. He transacted the 
 business of his trade in Peyrade's quarters. In this 
 commonplace-looking room, schemes were laid and 
 resolutions formed which could tell strange tales and 
 curious dramas if the walls had tongues. There, 
 from 1816 to 1826, vast interests were discussed, 
 and discoveries made of the germs of events destined 
 to weigh heavily upon France, and there, ever since 
 1819, Peyrade and Corentin, as far-seeing as Bellart 
 the Attorney-General, and far better informed than 
 he, had whispered to each other: 
 
 " If Louis XVIII. refuses to strike such and such a
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 179 
 
 blow to rid himself of some prince or other, it is a 
 sure sign that he detests his brother. Is it his pur- 
 pose to bequeath him a revolution?" 
 
 Peyrade's door was ornamented with a slate, on 
 which at times there appeared cabalistic signs and 
 figures written in chalk. This infernal algebra 
 offered an easy solution to the initiated. 
 
 Opposite to the meanly furnished apartment of 
 Peyrade, Lydie's suite was composed of an ante- 
 chamber, a small parlor, a bed-chamber and a dress- 
 ing-room. Lydie's door, like that of Peyrade's, was 
 constructed of a plate of sheet-iron, a third of an inch 
 thick, wedged between two strong oaken boards 
 and armed with locks and a system of hinges that 
 rendered it as difficult to force as prison doors. Thus 
 although the house had a narrow entrance, was 
 built over a shop, and was even without the pro- 
 tection of a janitor, Lydie lived there with nothing 
 to fear. The dining-room, the small parlor and the 
 bed-chamber, with boxes of flowers in every win- 
 dow, were dusted with Flemish cleanliness and 
 luxuriously furnished. 
 
 The Flemish nurse had never left Lydie, whom 
 she called her daughter. Both of them went to 
 church with a regularity which gave an excellent 
 opinion of Pere Canquoelle to the royalist grocer 
 who was established in the house at the corner of 
 the Rue des Moineaux and the Rue Neuve-Saint- 
 Roch, and whose family, cook and salesmen occu- 
 pied the ground floor and the first story. The 
 proprietor lived on the second floor, and the third
 
 180 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 had been leased for the past twenty years by a 
 lapidary. Every lodger was given a key to the back 
 door. The grocer's wife was quite content to re- 
 ceive letters and packages addressed to these three 
 peaceable households, especially as the grocery 
 shop was provided with a letter-box. Without these 
 details neither strangers nor those familiar with 
 Paris would have been able to understand the mys- 
 tery and calm, the unconstraint and security which 
 made this house exceptional in Paris. From mid- 
 night till morning, Pere Canquoelle could spin the 
 web of any plot, and receive spies, ministers, women 
 and girls without arousing anybody's suspicion. 
 Peyrade, of whom the Flemish nurse had said to the 
 grocer's cook, " He would not hurt a fly!" passed for 
 the best of men. He spared no expense for his daugh- 
 ter Lydie, who had had Schmucke for a music- 
 teacher, and was enough of a musician to compose. 
 She had learned to wash in sepia, and to paint in 
 two styles of water-color. 
 
 Every Sunday Peyrade dined with his daughter. 
 On that day the worthy man was a father, pure and 
 simple. Although no devotee, Lydie was religious; 
 she received the sacrament at Easter, and confessed 
 every month. Now and then, however, she allowed 
 herself the slight diversion of the theatre, and in 
 fair weather she walked in the gardens of the 
 Tuileries. These were all her pleasures, for she 
 led the most secluded of lives. Lydie adored her 
 father and was completely ignorant of his sinister 
 powers and mysterious business. No ungratified
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE l8l 
 
 wish had troubled the pure life of this pure girl. 
 Slender, beautiful as her mother, gifted with a 
 heavenly voice and a finely moulded face, set off 
 by the blonde curls of her lovely hair, she looked like 
 one of those angels more mystical than real, which 
 some early painters have sketched on the back- 
 grounds of their "Holy Families." The glance of 
 her blue eyes seemed to cast a ray from heaven 
 upon whomsoever she deigned to look. Her dress, 
 simple, maidenly and unexaggerated in style, car- 
 ried with it charming suggestions of respectable 
 home life. Imagine an old Satan, the father of an 
 angel, drinking in new life from her holy companion- 
 ship, and you will have an idea of Peyrade and his 
 daughter. Had anybody stained his diamond, the 
 father would have invented for his destruction one 
 of those horrid pitfalls which under the Restora- 
 tion entrapped so many poor wretches and brought 
 them to the scaffold. Ten thousand francs a year 
 supplied the wants of Lydie and of Katt, whom she 
 called her nurse. 
 
 As he turned down the Rue des Moineaux Peyrade 
 perceived Contenson; he passed him, went up to 
 his apartment, and then, hearing the step of his 
 agent on the stair, let him in before the cook had 
 opened the kitchen door. A bell rung at the open- 
 ing of a latticed door on the third story, warned the 
 lodgers of the third and fourth floors of the approach 
 of any visitor. It is useless to add that after mid- 
 night Peyrade wrapped the bell carefully in cotton. 
 
 " Why such haste, Philosopher?"
 
 1 82 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Philosopher was the nickname that Peyrade gave 
 to Contenson, and it was not undeserved by this 
 Epictetus of detectives. The name of Contenson 
 hid, alas! one of the most ancient names of the 
 feudal nobility of Normandy. 
 
 " But there's something like ten thousand to be 
 earned." 
 
 "What is it? Something political?" 
 
 " No, only tomfoolery! The Baron de Nucingen, 
 you know the old licensed robber I mean, is neighing 
 after a woman he caught sight of in the Bois de Vin- 
 cennes, and have her he must, or he will die of 
 love. They had a consultation of doctors yesterday, 
 so his valet told me. I have already relieved him 
 of a thousand francs under pretence of finding the 
 girl." 
 
 And Contenson described the meeting of Nucin- 
 gen and Esther, adding that the baron had some 
 fresh intelligence of the matter. 
 
 "Good," said Peyrade, "we shall find the Dul- 
 cinea. Bid the baron drive in a close carriage to 
 the Champs Elysees, Avenue Gabriel, at the corner 
 of the Allee de Marigny." 
 
 Peyrade saw Contenson to the stair, and then 
 rapped upon his daughter's door in the way agreed 
 upon between them. He entered radiant. Chance 
 had thrown in his way a means of gaining the place 
 he had so long desired. He threw himself into a deep 
 arm-chair, and after kissing Lydie's forehead, said 
 to her: 
 
 " Play me something."
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 183 
 
 Lydie played him a piece composed by Beethoven 
 for the piano. 
 
 " Prettily played, my darling," said he, taking 
 his daughter in his lap. " Do you know that we 
 are twenty-one years old? We must find a hus- 
 band, for our father is over seventy." 
 
 " I am happy here," she answered. 
 
 " You love nobody else but me, and I so ugly and 
 so old?" asked Peyrade. 
 
 "Whom would you have me love?" 
 
 " I am going to dine with you, my pet, tell Katt. 
 I think of taking a house and finding a place for 
 myself and a husband worthy of you, some excellent 
 young man, full of talent, whom you may be proud 
 of some day." 
 
 " I have never seen but one man whom I should 
 like to be my husband." 
 
 " You have seen one?" 
 
 "Yes; near the Tuileries. He passed me with 
 Madame de Serizy on his arm." 
 
 "What is his name?" 
 
 " Lucien de Rubempre. I was sitting beneath a 
 lime tree with Katt, not thinking of anything. On 
 one side of me were two ladies, and one of them 
 said, ' There go Madame de Serizy and the hand- 
 some Lucien de Rubempre. ' Then I looked at the 
 couple about whom these ladies spoke. 'Ah, my 
 dear,' answered the other, 'some women are very 
 lucky. There is nothing she cannot have, because 
 she was one of the Ronquerolles, and her husband 
 is powerful.' ' But, my dear,' replied the first,
 
 1 84 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 'Lucien costs her dear.' What does that mean, 
 papa?" 
 
 " It is the kind of nonsense they talk in society," 
 replied Peyrade to his daughter, with a kindly air. 
 "Perhaps they were alluding to political events." 
 
 " Now you have questioned me and I have an- 
 swered. If you want me to marry, find me a hus- 
 band who looks like that young man." 
 
 "Child!" answered the father, "among men r 
 beauty is not always the sign of worth. Young 
 people endowed with a pleasing exterior meet with 
 no difficulty at the outset of life; they do not use 
 their talents, they are corrupted by the advances 
 which the world makes toward them, and there 
 comes a time when they must pay interest for their 
 gifts! I long to find for you the man whom rich 
 and stupid citizens leave unaided and unprotected." 
 
 "What kind of a man is that, father?" 
 
 "A man of unrecognized talent. But, my darling 
 girl, I have the means of searching every garret in 
 Paris, and fulfilling your programme by finding for 
 you a man as handsome as the rake whom you 
 describe, only he shall be a man born to glory and 
 to riches, and sure to make his mark in the world. 
 Oh! I never thought of it before, but I must have 
 an army of nephews, and among them perhaps I 
 may find one worthy of you. I am going to write, 
 or ask somebody to write, to Provence." 
 
 Strange to say, at that very moment, a young 
 man, dying of hunger and exhaustion, traveling 
 afoot from the department of Vaucluse, a nephew
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 185 
 
 of Pere Canquoelle, was entering Paris by the 
 Barriere d'ltalie in search of his uncle. In the 
 dreams of the family, to whom their uncle's occu- 
 pation was unknown, Peyrade offered many hopes: 
 they imagined him come back from the Indies with 
 his millions, and it was in consequence of the ro- 
 mances told about him at their fireside that one 
 of his grand-nephews, named Theodose, had under- 
 taken a voyage of circumnavigation in quest of his 
 mythical uncle. 
 
 After he had tasted the joys of fatherhood for 
 several hours, Peyrade washed and dyed his hair 
 (for the powder had been a disguise) and, muffled 
 in a heavy greatcoat of blue cloth buttoned up to 
 the chin, a black cape over his shoulders, thick- 
 soled boots on his feet and a special passport in his 
 pocket, walked with slow steps along the Avenue 
 Gabriel, where Contenson, in the dress of an old 
 market-woman, met him in front of the gardens of 
 the lysee-Bourbon. 
 
 " Monsieur de Saint-Germain," said Contenson, 
 giving his former chief his old nickname, "you 
 have helped me to make five hundred francs; but I 
 have been standing there just to tell you that that 
 cursed baron, before giving them to me, went to get 
 some advice at the house (the prefecture)." 
 
 " I shall need you, no doubt," answered Peyrade. 
 "See our numbers, 7, 10 and 21: we can make 
 use of those men, and no man shall be the wiser, 
 neither they, nor the police, nor the prefecture." 
 
 Contenson walked away and took his stand near
 
 186 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the carriage in which M. de Nucingen was awaiting 
 Peyrade. 
 
 "I am M. de Saint-Germain," said Peyrade to 
 the baron, as he stepped up to the carriage window. 
 
 "Very veil; ged een mit me," replied the baron, 
 who immediately ordered the coachman to drive on 
 toward the Arc de Triomphe de 1'Etoile. 
 
 " You have been to the prefecture, baron? That 
 was scarcely fair. May I ask what you said to the 
 Prefect and what answers he gave you?" inquired 
 Peyrade. 
 
 " Bevore gifing fife hundert vrancs to ein knave 
 like Gondenzon, I vished to know veder he hat 
 earnet zem. I zimply zaid to ze Brevect of ze bolice 
 zat I dezired to embloy an achent of ze name of 
 Beyrate, aproad, on a telicate mission, ant asked eef 
 I could haf an unleemited convidance een him. Ze 
 brevect anzered me zat you vere ein of ze gleverest 
 and mosd honesd men in ze pizness. Zat ees ze 
 whole avvair." 
 
 " Will you tell me your story, sir, now that you 
 have been intrusted with my real name?" 
 
 When the baron had gabbled through a long and 
 elaborate explanation in his frightful Polish Jew 
 accent and had described his meeting with Esther, 
 the cry of the groom who was stationed behind the 
 carriage, and his own futile efforts, he concluded 
 by telling what had passed on the previous evening 
 in his drawing-room; the smile that had escaped 
 Lucien de Rubempre, the suspicions of Bianchon 
 and some of the dandies present relative to an
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 187 
 
 acquaintance between the lovely stranger and the 
 young men. 
 
 " Listen, sir: first of all, you must give me ten 
 thousand francs on account, for expenses; for your 
 very life is at stake in this matter ; and since your 
 life is a perfect manufactory for turning out business, 
 we must leave no stone unturned to unearth this 
 woman for you. Ah! you are caught this time." 
 
 "Yez, gaught." 
 
 " If I need more I shall tell you so, baron; trust 
 to me," answered Peyrade. "I am not, as you 
 think, a detective. In 1807 I was Commissioner- 
 General of the police at Antwerp, and now that 
 Louis XVIII. is dead, I can confide to you that for 
 seven years I directed his counter-police system. I 
 am not to be haggled with. You see, baron, I can- 
 not estimate the selling price of the consciences I 
 must buy, before I have examined a job with care. 
 You need feel no anxiety; I shall succeed. Don't 
 imagine that you can satisfy me with any sum what- 
 ever; I wish something quite different for my re- 
 ward." 
 
 "Eef only eet ees not ein kingtom," said the 
 baron. 
 
 " It is less than nothing for you." 
 
 "Gondent." 
 
 "You know the Kellers?" 
 
 "Very veil inteet." 
 
 " Francois Keller is the son-in-law of the Count 
 de Gondreville; and the Count de Gondreville dined 
 at your table yesterday with his son-in-law."
 
 188 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "How ze tefil to you know?" cried the baron. 
 " Chorches must haf tolt you, for he ees alvays 
 blapping." 
 
 Peyrade laughed. The baron noticed his amuse- 
 ment and conceived strange suspicions of his ser- 
 vant. 
 
 " The Count de Gondreville is in a position to 
 obtain an appointment in the prefecture of the 
 police which I desire, and concerning which the 
 prefect must receive a memorandum within forty- 
 eight hours," said Peyrade. " Demand the appoint- 
 ment for me. Stir up the Count de Gondreville's 
 interest, keep it at the boiling point, and thus you 
 can repay the service I shall do you. I ask nothing 
 more than your word, for if you fail it, sooner or 
 later you shall curse the day that you were born." 
 
 "I gif you my sacret vort to to my pest." 
 
 " If I only did my best for you, it would not be 
 enough." 
 
 " Very veil, I vill to eet, honesdly." 
 
 " Honestly. That is all I ask for," said Peyrade, 
 " and honesty is the only novel gift that we can 
 make each other." 
 
 " Honesdly," reiterated the baron. " Vere to you 
 vish me to led you oud?" 
 
 "At the foot of the Bridge of Louis XVI." 
 
 "At ze pridge of ze Jamber," said the baron to 
 his footman, who came to the carriage window. 
 
 "I zhall haf ze unknown, zen!" thought the 
 baron as he drove away. 
 
 "Strange," thought Peyrade as he walked back
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 189 
 
 to the Palais Royal, where he proposed to attempt 
 to treble the ten thousand francs and make a dowry 
 for Lydie; "it is my duty to scrutinize the private 
 life of the young man whose look alone has be- 
 witched my daughter. He must have the eye to 
 catch a woman," he added to himself, making use 
 of one of those individual expressions which he had 
 invented for his private use. His own observations 
 and those of Corentin were summed up in sen- 
 tences which, though they violated the rules of 
 language, were not deficient in energy and pictur- 
 esqueness.
 
 The Baron de Nucingen entered his house a 
 changed man. He amazed his household and his 
 wife; his color was good and his expression ani- 
 mated. He was in high spirits. 
 
 "Stockholders beware!" said Du Tillet to Rastig- 
 nac. They were taking tea after the opera in 
 Delphine de Nucingen's little parlor. 
 
 "Yez," answered the baron, smiling, for he had 
 overheard his friend's pleasantry, "I lone to to 
 pizness." 
 
 "So you have seen your enchantress?" inquired 
 Madame de Nucingen. 
 
 "No," replied he; "I have only hobe of finding 
 her." 
 
 "Does a man ever love his wife like this?" ex- 
 claimed Madame de Nucingen, feeling a pang of 
 jealousy or pretending that she did. 
 
 "When she is yours, " said Du Tillet to the baron, 
 "you must ask us to sup with her, for I am most 
 curious to examine the woman who has been able 
 to make you so young again." 
 
 "Zheeesein masderbiece of greation, " answered 
 the old banker. 
 
 "He will walk into a trap like a child," whispered 
 Rastignac in Delphine's ear. 
 
 "Pooh! he makes money enough to " 
 (191)
 
 IQ2 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "To lose a little, doesn't he?" suggested Du Til- 
 let, interrupting his hostess. 
 
 The baron was pacing up and down the floor as if 
 his legs needed stretching. 
 
 "Now's the time to induce him to pay your latest 
 debts," whispered Rastignac to Madame de Nu- 
 cingen. 
 
 At this very moment Carlos, who had been in 
 the Rue Taitbout giving his final directions to 
 Europe, the principal actress in a comedy invented 
 to deceive the Baron de Nucingen, was walking 
 confidently away. He was accompanied as far as 
 the boulevard by Lucien, who felt a secret fear at 
 seeing his demoniacal companion disguised so 
 perfectly that he himself could recognize only his 
 voice. 
 
 "Where in the devil did you find a woman more 
 beautiful than Esther?" he demanded of his cor- 
 rupter. 
 
 "She was not to be found in Paris, my boy; com- 
 plexions like that are not made in France." 
 
 " I haven't yet recovered from my amazement. 
 The Callipygian Venus has not such a figure. A 
 man would damn himself for her. But where did 
 you find her?" 
 
 "She's the handsomest woman in London. Drunk 
 with gin, she murdered her lover in a fit of jealousy. 
 The lover was a wretch whom the London police is 
 well rid of, and they have sent the woman to Paris 
 for a time in order to let the affair blow over. The 
 wench has been well educated. She's a parson's
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 193 
 
 daughter, and speaks French as if it were her 
 mother tongue. She knows not and must never 
 know the part she is playing here. She has been 
 told that if she pleased you she could squeeze mil- 
 lions out of you, but that you were jealous as a 
 tiger, and she has been given the same programme 
 of life that Esther had." 
 
 "What if Nucingen should like her better than 
 Esther?" 
 
 "Ah! you've come to that, have you?" cried 
 Carlos. "To-day you are in terror because the 
 very thing that frightened you yesterday has not 
 come to pass. You have no reason to fear. This 
 girl is fair and pale, with blue eyes; she's a com- 
 plete contrast to the lovely Jewess, and nothing less 
 than Esther's eyes can fire a man as worn out with 
 dissipation as Nucingen. How the devil could you 
 hide a scare-crow? When this doll has played her 
 part I shall send her, under trusty guidance, to 
 Rome or to Madrid, where she will have many 
 lovers." 
 
 "Since we have her with us for so brief a space," 
 said Lucien, "I shall return to her." 
 
 "Go, my son; amuse yourself. To-morrow you 
 will have one day more. I myself am waiting for 
 someone whom I have charged to find out what is 
 going on at the Baron de Nucingen's. " 
 
 "Whom?" 
 
 "The mistress of his valet; for we must never be 
 ignorant of what is passing in the enemy's camp." 
 
 At midnight Paccard, Esther's groom, met Carlos 
 13
 
 194 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 on the Pont des Arts, the spot best suited in all 
 Paris for a secret conference. While they talked 
 the groom kept watch on one side, while his master 
 scanned the opposite direction. 
 
 "The baron went to the prefecture of the police 
 this morning between four and five, " said the groom, 
 "and to-night he boasted that they had promised 
 to find for him the woman whom he had seen in the 
 Bois de Vincennes. " 
 
 "We shall be watched," said Carlos, "but by 
 whom?" 
 
 "He has employed Louchard, the commercial de- 
 tective, before." 
 
 "That's nonsense," replied Carlos. "We have 
 only the police night-watch and the detective 
 police to fear; the moment that they halt it is our 
 turn to march." 
 
 "There's one thing more." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "The prison comrades. Yesterday I saw Lapou- 
 raille. He has cooled off a family and he has ten 
 thousand five-franc pieces in gold!" 
 
 "They will catch him," said Jacques Collin; 
 "that's the murder in the Rue Boucher." 
 
 "What are the orders?" asked Paccard, with a 
 deferential air, as if he were a marshal receiving 
 the commands of Louis XVIII. 
 
 "You will go out every evening at ten o'clock," 
 answered the counterfeit priest, "and ride at a 
 smart pace in the Bois de Vincennes, in the Bois de 
 Meudon, and in the Bois de Ville d'Avray. If
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 195 
 
 anybody watches you or follows you, don't disappoint 
 him. Be obliging, communicative, and don't refuse 
 a bribe. You must talk about the jealousy of 
 Rubempre, who is madly in love with madame, and 
 who above all things wants it kept secret that she 
 is his mistress." 
 
 "Enough. Shall I go armed?" 
 
 "Never!" answered Carlos sharply. "Whatgood 
 would a weapon do you ? It would only get you into 
 trouble. Whatever happens don't use your hunt- 
 ing-knife. As you can break the legs of the strongest 
 man by the blow I taught you, and can fight against 
 three sergeants and be certain of stretching two of 
 them on the ground before they can fire at you, 
 what are you afraid of? Haven't you your staff?" 
 
 "You are right," said the groom. 
 
 Paccard, known as Vielle-Garde, Fameux-Lapin, 
 and Bon-Id, was a man with sinews of whipcord and 
 arms of steel. He wore Italian whiskers, hair like 
 an artist's, and a beard like a sapper's. His face 
 was pale and impassive as that of Contenson ; he 
 succeeded in concealing the fierceness of his char- 
 acter, and was blessed with the appearance of a 
 drum-major, that disarmed all suspicion. A criminal 
 escaped from Poissy or from Melun could not have 
 such serious self-conceit nor such unshaken faith in 
 his own merit. The Giafar of the Haroun-al-Ras- 
 chid of the galleys, he displayed toward his master 
 the same affectionate admiration that Peyrade had 
 for Corentin. A tall man, he was excessively long- 
 legged, with a narrow chest and none too much flesh
 
 196 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 on his bones; he walked on his two long pike- 
 staves with a sedate step. His right foot never 
 advanced until his right eye had scanned all exterior 
 appearances with the calm rapidity peculiar to the 
 robber and the spy. The left eye imitated the right. 
 
 A step, and then a look ! Spare, agile, ready for 
 anything at any hour, had it not been for his insid- 
 ious enemy, drink, Paccard, as Jacques declared, 
 would have been quite perfect, so admirably was he 
 equipped with the talents indispensable to a man at 
 war with society. The master, however, had event- 
 ually persuaded the slave to compromise and never 
 touch a drop before evening. On his return home 
 Paccard gulped down the liquid gold that he poured 
 out in a succession of small glasses from a big- 
 bellied stone bottle that had come from Dantzic. 
 
 "I shall keep my eyes open," he said, donning 
 his magnificent hat and plume after bowing to the 
 man whom he called his confessor. 
 
 We have described the train of events by which 
 Jacques Collin, Peyrade, and Corentin, each so 
 strong in his own sphere, came to fight upon the 
 same field and employ their genius in a struggle 
 where every contestant battled for his passions or 
 for his interests. It was a silent but a terrible 
 combat, wherein were lavished talent, hatred, wrath, 
 marches, countermarches, stratagem, and strength 
 enough to build a fortune. Profound mystery en- 
 veloped the men and means employed by Peyrade, 
 who was seconded by his friend Corentin in a piece 
 of work that seemed to them child's play. History
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 197 
 
 is silent on this subject as it is silent on the true 
 causes of many revolutions. 
 
 The result was as follows: 
 
 Five days after the interview between Nucingen 
 and Peyrade in the Champs Elysees, one morning a 
 man of some fifty years, dressed in a blue suit with 
 a somewhat distinguished figure, a face of the leaden 
 whiteness that public life gives to diplomates, and 
 an air that might have marked a minister of state, 
 stepped out of a handsome carriage and tossed the 
 reins to his groom. A lackey who was sitting on a 
 bench in the peristyle rose respectfully to open 
 the splendid plate-glass door, and the stranger asked 
 whether the Baron de Nucingen was visible. 
 
 "Your name, sir?" inquired the servant 
 
 "Tell the baron that I come from the Avenue 
 Gabriel," answered Corentin. "If there are any 
 visitors be careful not to say that name aloud, or 
 you would be turned out of doors." 
 
 A minute later the servant returned and conducted 
 Corentin through several inner rooms to the baron's 
 private office. 
 
 Corentin exchanged an impenetrable look for a 
 look of the same nature from the banker, and both 
 bowed politely. 
 
 "Baron," began Corentin, "1 come to you in 
 Peyrade's name." 
 
 "Gut," ejaculated the baron, clicking the bolts of 
 the two doors. 
 
 "M. de Rubempre's mistress lives in the Rue 
 Taitbout in the old apartment of Mademoiselle de
 
 198 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Bellefeuille, the ex-mistress of M. de Granville, the 
 attorney-general. " 
 
 "Och, zo near me," exclaimed the baron; "how 
 sdrange!" 
 
 "I readily understood how you fell in love with 
 such a magnificent woman; she was a delight to 
 look upon. Lucien is so jealous of the girl that he 
 has forbidden her to show herself; and he is dearly 
 loved in return, since, during the four years that she 
 has succeeded to Mademoiselle Bellefeuille's apart- 
 ment and calling, not even the neighbors, the janitor, 
 nor the lodgers in the house have caught sight of her. 
 The child never goes out except at night; when she 
 goes, the curtains of the carriage windows are drawn, 
 and she herself is veiled. It is not merely for motives 
 of jealousy that Lucien conceals the woman ; he must 
 marry Clotilde de Grandlieu, and he is at present 
 the favored lover of Madame de Serizy. Naturally, 
 he clings to the mistress who advances his 
 fortunes, and to his betrothed. So you are mas- 
 ter of the situation, for Lucien will sacrifice his 
 pleasure to his interests and his vanity. You 
 are rich; this will probably be your last love; 
 be generous. You can gain your end through the 
 waiting-maid. Give the soubrette some ten 
 thousand francs; she will hide you in her mis- 
 tress's room, and for you the game is well worth 
 the candle." 
 
 No figure of rhetoric can describe the short, jerky, 
 concise utterance of Corentin. The baron noticed 
 it, and could not help showing astonishment, an
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 199 
 
 expression that he had long since banished from his 
 impassive features. 
 
 "1 come to ask you for five thousand francs on 
 behalf of my friend Peyrade, who has lost five of 
 your bank notes, a small mishap," continued Co- 
 rentin, in his most commanding tone. "Peyrade 
 knows his Paris too well to spend money on adver- 
 tising, and he has counted upon you. But this is 
 not the most important thing," continued Corentin, 
 in a voice that seemed to deprive his demand for 
 money of all serious import. "If you would avoid 
 sorrow in your old age secure for Peyrade the place 
 he requested ; you can secure it for him with ease. 
 The Director-General of the police of the kingdom 
 received a note yesterday on this subject. All 
 that is necessary is that Gondreville address the 
 Prefect of the police. So, simply tell Malin, Count 
 de Gondreville, that it is to help one of those persons 
 who succeeded in ridding him of the De Simeuse 
 gentlemen, and he will take the proper steps at 
 once." 
 
 "Here, zir," said the baron, producing five notes 
 of a thousand francs each, and presenting them to 
 Corentin. 
 
 "The waiting-maid has an intimate friend, 
 Paccard, a big groom, who lives in the Rue de Pro- 
 vence at a coachmaker's, and lets himself as an 
 outrider to anyone who cares to cut a princely 
 figure. You can reach Madame Van Bogseck's wait- 
 ing-maid through Paccard. He's a big Piedmontese 
 dunce, overfond of his vermouth."
 
 200 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 This confidence so daintily tossed to the baron, in 
 the fashion of a postscriptum, was evidently the 
 compensation for five thousand francs. The baron 
 sought to divine the character of Corentin, who, as 
 he was intelligent enough to perceive, was not a 
 common spy, but rather a director of spies. He no 
 more succeeded, however, in reading Corentin than 
 an archaeologist succeeds in reading an inscription, 
 three-fourths of the letters of which are wanting. 
 
 "Vat ees ze name of ze vaiting-mait?" he de- 
 manded. 
 
 "Eugenie," replied Corentin, who bowed to the 
 baron and went out 
 
 Transported with delight the Baron de Nucingen 
 abandoned his desk and his business and went up 
 to his room, happy as a young man of twenty who 
 enjoys in perspective his first rendezvous with his 
 first mistress. The baron took all the thousand- 
 franc notes from his private safe fifty-five thousand 
 francs, a sum which might have purchased the hap- 
 piness of a village and placed them in his coat 
 pocket The prodigality of millionaires can only 
 be compared to their greed for gain. The instant a 
 Croesus feels a caprice or a passion, money is no 
 longer anything to him; it is harder for him to ac- 
 quire a caprice than gold. Enjoyment is a rare 
 blessing in a life of satiety, crammed with the 
 excitement born of vast speculations, that has long 
 ceased to stir his bloodless heart For example : 
 One of the richest capitalists in Paris, a man of well- 
 known eccentricity, meets one day on the boulevajd
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 2OI 
 
 an excessively pretty little working-girl, accom- 
 panied by her mother; this grisette was leaning on 
 the arm of a young man who was dubiously dressed 
 and strode along with a vulgar swagger ; at the first 
 glance the millionaire falls in love with the young 
 girl. He follows her to her house; he enters; she 
 tells him of her life a medley of balls at the 
 Mabille, of days without bread, of play-going and 
 toil ; he grows interested and leaves five notes of a 
 thousand francs beneath a five-franc piece. Shame- 
 ful generosity! Next morning a famous uphol- 
 sterer, Braschon, comes to take the grisette's orders, 
 furnishes a suite of her choice, and lavishes twenty 
 thousand francs upon it. The working-girl feeds 
 on fantastic hopes. She buys gowns for her mother 
 suited to their altered fortunes; she flatters herself 
 that she will be able to place her former lover in 
 the office of some insurance company. She waits 
 one, two days; then one, two weeks. She thinks 
 that she is bound to be faithful, and runs into debt. 
 The capitalist, called away to Holland, had for- 
 gotten the working-girl ; he never once entered the 
 paradise where he had placed her, and she fell 
 thence as low as a woman can fall in Paris. Nucin- 
 gen did not gamble, Nucingen was no patron of the 
 arts, Nucingen had no imagination; so he was 
 driven headlong into his passion for Esther, with 
 a blind ardor that entered into the calculations of 
 Carlos Herrera. 
 
 After breakfast the baron summoned Georges, his 
 valet, and bade him go to the Rue Taitbout to request
 
 202 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Mademoiselle Eugenie, the waiting-maid of Madame 
 Van Bogseck, to come to his office, in order to dis- 
 cuss an affair of importance. 
 
 "You vill vait vor her ant gonduct her to mein 
 room, ant keep delling her zat her vortune ees 
 mate." 
 
 Georges had endless trouble in persuading Europe- 
 Eugenie to come. Her mistress, she told him, never 
 permitted her to go out; she might lose her position, 
 etc., etc. Nor did Georges fail to sing his own 
 praises in the baron's ear, and received ten louis for 
 his pains. 
 
 "If madame goes out to-night without her," said 
 Georges to his master, whose eyes shone like car- 
 buncles, "she will come about ten o'clock." 
 
 "Gut! You vill gome at nine o'clock to tress me 
 ant aranche my hair, for I vish to look my very 
 pest. I tink zat 1 zhall abbear bevore my miss- 
 dress or elze money ees not money." 
 
 Between twelve and one o'clock the baron dyed 
 his hair and his whiskers. He took a bath before 
 dinner, and at nine o'clock he perfumed himself and 
 attired himself like a bridegroom in his finest clothes. 
 Apprised of this metamorphosis, Madame de Nucin- 
 gen could not resist the pleasure of seeing her hus- 
 band. 
 
 "Heavens! howridiculous you look!" cried she. 
 "At least put on a black satin cravat instead of that 
 white one which makes your whiskers appear still 
 stiffer than they are ; and besides, you are the image 
 of an old fogy of the time of the Empire, and give
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 203 
 
 yourself the air of a parl iamentary councillor. Take 
 off those diamond studs; they are worth a hundred 
 thousand francs apiece. That monkey would beg 
 them of you and you could never refuse her. It is 
 as well to put them in my ears as to offer them to 
 such a woman as she." 
 
 The poor banker, who was struck by the justice 
 of his wife's remarks, reluctantly obeyed her. 
 
 ' ' Reteeculous ! Reteeculous ! I haf nefer zaid zat 
 you vere reteeculous ven you dressed youzelf een 
 you pest vor ze zake of your leetle Mennesir de 
 Rasdignac. " 
 
 "I trust that you have never found me ridiculous. 
 Am I the woman to make such solecisms in my 
 dress ? Look, turn round ! Button your coat up 
 within two buttons of the top like the Due de 
 Maufrigneuse, and, above all, look young." 
 
 "Sir," said Georges, "here is Mademoiselle 
 Eugenie." 
 
 "Atieu, matame, " exclaimed the banker. 
 
 He accompanied his wife beyond the limits of 
 their respective apartments to make sure that she 
 could not listen to the conference. 
 
 He returned, and taking Europe by the hand 
 with a kind of ironical respect, he ushered her into 
 his room. 
 
 "Veil, my tear, you are very lugky, vor youzerve 
 ze luffliest vooman een ze uniferse. Your vordune 
 ees mate eff you vill sbeak een my pehalf ant pe 
 een my eenterests. " 
 
 "I wouldn't do it for ten thousand francs," cried
 
 204 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Europe. "You know, baron, that before all else I 
 am an honest girl." 
 
 "Yez, I exbect to pay veil vor honesdy. Zat ees 
 vat ve gall in pizness guriosidy. " 
 
 "But that's not all," said Europe; "if you 
 shouldn't please my mistress, and that's possible, 
 she will get angry; I shall be discharged and my 
 place is worth a thousand francs a year." 
 
 "Ze gabidal of ein tausent francs ees dventy 
 tausent francs ; ant eef I zhould gif zem to you you 
 vould loose notting. " 
 
 "Ho, ho! if that's the tune you are playing, old 
 boy, " exclaimed Europe, "things are quite changed. 
 Where are they?" 
 
 "Here," replied the baron, displaying the bank 
 notes one by one. 
 
 Each bank note seemed to strike a flash of fire 
 from Europe's eyes, that revealed the cupidity he 
 had anticipated. 
 
 "You pay for the place, but honesty, con- 
 science?" said Europe, raising her crafty face and 
 darting a serio-comic glance at the baron. 
 
 "Gonzience ees gheaper zan ze blace; put led us 
 make eet fife tausent vrancs more," said he, adding 
 five thousand-franc notes. 
 
 "No, twenty thousand francs for the conscience, 
 and five thousand for the place if I lose it." 
 
 "As you blease," he replied, adding the five bills. 
 "Put, to earn zem you must gonzeal me een your 
 misdress' chamber turing ze night, ven zhe ees 
 alone."
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 205 
 
 "If you will swear to me never to tell who it was 
 that let you in, I consent But I warn you of one 
 thing: my mistress is strong as a Turk; she loves 
 M. de Rubempre madly, and if you were to give her 
 a million in bank notes she would not be unfaithful 
 to him. It sounds preposterous, but when she loves 
 she's worse than if she were virtuous. When she 
 goes to walk in the woods with my master he rarely 
 sleeps in the house. She has gone thereto-night, 
 so I can hide you in my room. If she comes back 
 alone I shall come and get you. You will stay in 
 the parlor ; I shall not close the door of her bed-room, 
 and the rest Lord! the rest is for you to do." 
 
 "I vill gif you ze tventy-five tausent vrancs in ze 
 bar lor. Eet iz gif ant take." 
 
 "Ah!" said Europe, "you are no more suspicious 
 than that? Excuse a little" 
 
 "You vill haf jances enough to throddle me; ve 
 zhall begome agguainted virst. " 
 
 "All right. Be in the Rue Taitbout at midnight; 
 but take with you thirty thousand francs at the 
 least A maid's honesty, like a cab, is much dearer 
 after midnight" 
 
 "Eet vould pe more brutentto gif you ein jecque 
 on ze pank. " 
 
 "No, no," said Europe; "bank notes, or the 
 game's up." 
 
 At one o'clock in the morning the Baron de 
 Nucingen, concealed in the garret where Europe 
 slept, was a prey to all the disquietudes of a man in 
 search of adventure. He scarcely breathed, his blood
 
 206 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 seemed to boil down to his very toes, and his head 
 was bursting like an overheated steam engine. 
 
 "I zvear I enchoyed more than ein hundert tau- 
 sent growns' vorth, " said he afterward, when he 
 described his situation to Du Tillet 
 
 He listened for the slightest noises of the street, 
 and at two in the morning caught the sound of his 
 mistress' carriage rolling back from the boulevard. 
 When the front door turned on its hinges his silk 
 waistcoat rose and fell in time with the beating 
 of his heart; he was really to see the heavenly 
 glowing face of Esther! The step on the stairway 
 and the slipping sound of a curtain on its rod 
 pierced his heart. The expectation of this supreme 
 moment excited him more than if his fortune had 
 been at stake. 
 
 "Ah!" moaned he to himself. "Zis ees to liff. 
 Ah ! eet ees to liff too much ; I zhall be capable of 
 notting. " 
 
 "My mistress is alone; comedown," said Europe 
 as she appeared. "Above all, don't make a noise, 
 you fat elephant." 
 
 "Vat elephand, " repeated he smiling, and tread- 
 ing as if red-hot bars of iron were beneath his feet. 
 Europe led the way, with a candle in her hand. 
 
 "Here; gount zem," said the baron, handing the 
 bank notes to Europe as soon as he reached the 
 parlor. 
 
 Europe took the thirty notes with a serious air 
 and went out, closing the door upon the banker. 
 Nucingen walked straight to the bed-room. The
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 2O/ 
 
 handsome Englishwoman was standing there, say- 
 ing, "Is that you, Lucien?" 
 
 "No, mein luff " answered Nucingen, who did 
 not finish his sentence. 
 
 He stood stupefied at the sight of a woman who 
 was the perfect opposite of Esther fair hair instead 
 of the dark tresses which he had seen, weakness 
 instead of the strength he had marveled at, a soft 
 Breton night where the sun of Arabia had glittered ! 
 
 "Ah, where did you come from? what's your 
 name? what do you want?" cried the English- 
 woman, pulling the bell rope, though the bells made 
 no answer. 
 
 "I haf sduffed ze pells mit gotten. Put to not pe 
 afrait. I am going avay," said he. "Tirty tausent 
 vrancs gone to ze togs. You are reely ze misdress 
 of Mennesir Licien te Ripembre?" 
 
 "Something of the kind, my boy," replied the 
 Englishwoman, who spoke French with ease. "Put 
 who may you pe, bray?" she added, mimicking 
 Nucingen's accent 
 
 "A most delutet man," he answered piteously. 
 
 "Delutet in drying to gatch a bretty vooman?" 
 she asked jokingly. 
 
 "Bermid me to zend you do-morro ein zet of 
 chewels to remint you of ze Paron te Nichen- 
 guenne. " 
 
 "1 ton't know heem, " said she, shaking with 
 laughter; "but the set of jewels will be welcome, 
 my fat housebreaker." 
 
 "You to know heern. Atieu, montame. You are
 
 208 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 feet for a king; put I am only ein poor panker of 
 zixty years ant more, ant you haf zhowed me how 
 bowerful ees ze wooman whom I luff, vor your gott- 
 like peaudy has not mate me to vorget her." 
 
 "Put zis luffly greature, as you gall me " re- 
 sponded the Englishwoman. 
 
 "Ees not zo luffly as zhe who virst insbiret me." 
 
 "You were speaking of dirdy thousand francs to 
 whom did you give them?" 
 
 "To your rasgally vaiting-mait. " 
 
 The woman called ; Europe was not far distant. 
 
 "Oh!" shrieked Europe, "a man in your room, 
 and a man who isn't my master. Horrors!" 
 
 "Did he give you thirty thousand francs to in- 
 duce you to let him in?" 
 
 "No, madame; both of us together are not worth 
 as much." 
 
 And Europe began to scream, "Help, thieves!" 
 so violently that the terrified banker rushed to 
 the door. Europe pushed him down the staircase. 
 
 "You fat rascal," she cried, "you would de- 
 nounce me to my mistress! Thieves, robbers!" 
 
 The infatuated but despairing baron succeeded 
 without further molestation in gaining his carriage 
 which was waiting on the boulevard. He no longer 
 knew in what detective to trust. 
 
 "Perhaps madame would like to rob me of my 
 profits?" exclaimed Europe, returning toward her 
 mistress like a Fury. 
 
 "I don't know French customs," said the Eng- 
 lishwoman.
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 209 
 
 "I have but a single word to say to my master 
 and out madame goes to-morrow," replied Europe 
 insolently. 
 
 "Zat gursed vaiting-mait, " said the baron to 
 Georges, who naturally asked whether his master 
 were satisfied, "has ropped me of dirdy tausent 
 vrancs, put it ees all my misdake, my very gread 
 misdake. " 
 
 "So your get-up counted for nothing. The deuce! 
 I don't advise you to perfume yourself again for 
 nothing." 
 
 "Chorches, I tie of tesbair. Mein heart ees gold, 
 gold as ize, Esder, mein frient!" 
 
 Georges was always his master's friend in a 
 great crisis.
 
 Two days after this scene, which Europe had 
 described far more amusingly than it can be writ- 
 ten, for she enlivened it with her mimicry, Carlos 
 was breakfasting alone with Lucien. 
 
 "Neither the police nor anybody else must pry 
 into our business," said he in a low tone, as he 
 borrowed Lucien's cigar to light his own. "It is 
 unwholesome. I have discovered a daring but sure 
 method of keeping our baron and his agents quiet. 
 You will go to see Madame de Serizy and make 
 yourself attractive. You will tell her in conversa- 
 tion that out of kindness to Rastignac, who has long 
 since wearied of Madame de Nucingen, you consent 
 to play the part of a cloak to conceal his mistress. 
 M. de Nucingen, wildly in love with the woman 
 whom Rastignac has secreted this will amuse her 
 has taken into his head to set the police on your 
 track; thus though you are perfectly innocent of 
 the sins of your compatriot, your interests at the 
 Grandlieus are in danger of being compromised. 
 You will then implore the countess to lend you the 
 influence of her husband, who is a minister of state, 
 to obtain admission to the prefecture of the police. 
 Once there make your complaint to the prefect, but 
 make it prudently, like a man who is soon to enter 
 
 (211)
 
 212 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the vast machine of government and to become one 
 of its most important adjuncts. You will discuss 
 the police system as a statesman would; you will 
 praise everything, the prefect included. The most 
 perfect machines will sputter and splash their oil. 
 Don't pretend to be more angry than necessary. 
 You are not to appear displeased with the prefect; 
 but make him promise to oversee his people, and ask 
 him not to act harshly toward anyone. The more 
 suave and gentlemanlike you are the more fiercely 
 will the prefect proceed against his agents. We 
 shall then be left in peace and we can bring back 
 Esther, who must be crying like the does in the 
 forest." 
 
 At that time the Prefect was an old magistrate. 
 Old magistrates are too young as Prefects of the 
 police. Imbued with law, perfectly at home in all 
 legal questions, their hand is slow to use those arbi- 
 trary means that are often enough required by some 
 crisis in which action of the prefecture should 
 resemble that of a fireman ordered to put out a fire. 
 In the presence of the vice-president of the Council 
 of State the Prefect enumerated more defects in the 
 police system than actually existed; he deplored 
 the abuses, and did not forget the visit that the 
 Baron de Nucingen had paid him, and the informa- 
 tion he had demanded concerning Peyrade. The 
 Prefect promised to check the individual excesses of 
 his agents and at the same time thanked Lucien for 
 addressing himself directly to him, swore secrecy, 
 and looked as though he understood the whole
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 213 
 
 intrigue. Fine-sounding phrases concerning private 
 liberty and the inviolability of the home were ex- 
 changed between the minister of state and the 
 Prefect, to whom M. de Serizy observed that though 
 the highest interests of the realm occasionally 
 demanded secret acts that were contrary to law, yet 
 crime began when these methods of state were 
 applied to individual interests. 
 
 The next day, as Peyrade was on his way to his 
 dear Cafe David where he was accustomed to 
 watch the bourgeois with the delight of an artist 
 gazing at budding flowers, a gendarme in civilian's 
 dress accosted him in the street. 
 
 ' ' I was on my way to your house, " he whispered ; 
 "I have orders to conduct you to the prefecture." 
 
 Peyrade hailed a cab and got in, together with 
 the gendarme, without making the slightest remon- 
 strance. 
 
 The Prefect of the police treated Peyrade as 
 if he had been the lowest turnkey of a prison. 
 As he talked he walked up and down the pathway 
 of the small garden of the prefecture of the police, 
 which at that time extended the length of the Quai 
 des Orfevres. 
 
 "It is not without reason, sir, that since 1809 you 
 have been outside of the administration. Don't 
 you know to what you expose us and to what you 
 expose yourself?" 
 
 The reprimand ended in a thunder-clap. The 
 Prefect announced harshly to poor Peyrade that not 
 only was his annual allowance to be stopped, but
 
 214 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 that in addition he himself would be the object of 
 special supervision. The old man received this 
 blow with perfect calmness. Nothing is more im- 
 movable or impassive than a ruined man. Peyrade 
 had lost all his money at the gambling table. 
 Lydie's father had counted on his appointment and 
 found himself left without other resource than the 
 alms of his friend Corentin. 
 
 "I have been Prefect of the police; I admit that 
 you are entirely right," said the old man quietly to 
 the official, who, enveloped in his judicial majesty, 
 shrugged his shoulders significantly. "But permit 
 me, without any attempt to excuse myself, to explain 
 to you that you don't understand me at all," Pey- 
 rade went on, casting a searching glance at the Pre- 
 fect "Your words are either too severe for the old 
 Commissary-General of the police of Holland or too 
 gentle for a mere detective. Only," added Pey- 
 rade, after a pause as he perceived that the prefect 
 kept silence, "remember what I have had the honor 
 to tell you, sir, though I shall not interfere with your 
 police nor importune you with my own justification, 
 you will have occasion to see that in this matter 
 somebody is deceived; at this moment it is your 
 servant, later you will say, 'It was I.' ' 
 
 And he bowed to the Prefect who stood apparently 
 wrapt in thought, trying to conceal his astonish- 
 ment He returned to his lodging, his body weak 
 and trembling, mad with rage against the Baron de 
 Nucingen. The fat financier alone could have be- 
 trayed a secret concentrated within the brains of
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 215 
 
 Contenson, Peyrade and Corentin. The old detec- 
 tive accused the banker of trying to avoid payment 
 when once his end was attained. A single inter- 
 view had sufficed for him to divine the sagacity of 
 the most sagacious of bankers. 
 
 "He makes everybody bankrupt, even ourselves; 
 but I shall have my revenge," said Peyrade to him- 
 self. " 1 have never asked a favor of Corentin, but I 
 shall ask him now to help me revenge myself on this 
 fat-witted old money-bags. Damned baron ! You 
 shall know the stuff I am made of when you wake up 
 some morning to find your daughter dishonored. 
 But does he love his daughter?" 
 
 The evening of this catastrophe, which destroyed 
 the old man's last hopes, he seemed ten years older. 
 Talking with his friend Corentin he mingled his 
 lamentations with tears that fell at the thought of 
 the sad future which he must bequeath to his 
 daughter, who was his idol, his pearl, his thank- 
 offering to God. 
 
 "We shall follow up this matter," said Coren- 
 tin; "but first of all we must know whether it was 
 the baron who betrayed you. Were we wise in 
 relying on Gondreville? That old rascal owes us 
 too great a grudge not to attempt our ruin; besides 
 I must have his son-in-law Keller watched. He's 
 an ass in politics, and quite capable of dipping into 
 some conspiracy to overturn the elder branch for 
 the benefit of the younger. To-morrow 1 shall know 
 what is going on at Nucingen's house, whether he has 
 seen his mistress, and who it is that has tightened
 
 2l6 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the curb so suddenly. Don't lose heart. The 
 Prefect will not keep his position long. The times 
 are ripe for revolutions, and revolutions are our sun- 
 shine. " 
 
 A singular whistle resounded in the street 
 
 "It's Contenson," said Peyrade, as he placed a 
 light in the window, "and it's some private business 
 of mine." 
 
 The next instant the faithful Contenson appeared 
 before these two gnomes of the police whom he 
 revered as genii. 
 
 "What brings you?" demanded Corentin. 
 
 "Something new. I was coming out of 113 where 
 I had lost everything; whom should I see in the 
 galleries? Georges! He has been discharged by 
 the baron under suspicion of being a spy." 
 
 ' ' So this is the effect of a sm ile that escaped me, ' ' 
 said Peyrade. 
 
 "Oh, the disasters that I have seen caused by 
 smiles!" exclaimed Corentin. 
 
 "Without counting those caused by horse-whip- 
 ping," added Peyrade, alluding to the Simeuse affair. 
 (See A Terrible Affair.) "But tell us, Contenson, 
 what happened?" 
 
 "This is what happened," replied Contenson:"! 
 loosened Georges' tongue, and paid for liquor of 
 every color under heaven till he was drunk; I my- 
 self must be like an alembic. Our baron went to 
 the Rue Taitbout, redolent of perfume. He found 
 there the handsome woman whom you know. But 
 the whole thing was a farce. The Englishwoman
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 217 
 
 was not his luffly sdranger, and he had spent thirty 
 thousand francs to bribe the chambermaid; sheer 
 madness ! He thinks himself a great man because he 
 accomplishes little things with an enormous capital; 
 invert the phrase and you have the problem that the 
 man of genius solves. The baron came back in a 
 pitiful plight. The following day Georges played the 
 saint and said to his master: 'Why do you employ 
 these gallows-birds? If you would trust to me I 
 should find his unknown love, for the description you 
 have given me is quite enough; I will ransack all 
 Paris.' 'Go,' said the baron, 'I will pay you well!' 
 Georges confided all this to me, mingled with the 
 most ridiculous details. It never rains but it pours, 
 and the next day the baron received an anonymous 
 letter which read somewhat like this: 'M. de Nucin- 
 gen is dying of love for an unknown woman, he 
 has already thrown a great deal of money to the 
 dogs; if he consent to stand at midnight at the 
 further end of the Pont de Neuilly, to get into a 
 carriage behind which he will see the mounted 
 groom of the Bois de Vincennes, and to allow his 
 eyes to be bandaged, he will see her whom he loves. 
 Since his wealth may lead him to suspect the purity 
 of the intentions of those who act thus, M. le Baron 
 may be accompanied by his faithful Georges. 
 There will be no one else in the carriage.' The 
 baron goes there with Georges, without telling him 
 anything. Both of them allow their eyes to be 
 blindfolded and their heads to be swathed in 
 veils. The baron recognizes the groom. Two
 
 2l8 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 hours later the carriage, which jogged along like a 
 coach of Louis XVIII. God bless his soul! He was 
 a king who knew what the police ought to be 
 stopped in the midst of a wood. The baron, whose 
 eyes have been unbandaged, sees his quest in a car- 
 riage that has also stopped, then she disappears in- 
 stantly; and the carriage at the same pace as Louis 
 XVIII. 's coach takes him back to the Pont de 
 Neuilly, where he finds his own conveyance. They 
 had put in Georges' hands a small note which read 
 thus: 'How many thousand-franc notes has M. le 
 Baron spent in order to meet his love ?' Georges 
 gave the note to his master, and the baron, believing 
 Georges is in league with me or with you, Monsieur 
 Peyrade, to fleece his master, discharged him 
 promptly. The dolt of a banker ! He never should 
 have sent Georges away until he hatmedmit%uc%ess." 
 
 "Did Georges see the woman?" inquired Co- 
 rentin. 
 
 "Yes," replied Contenson. 
 
 "Well," cried Peyrade, "what does she look 
 like?" 
 
 "Oh!" answered Contenson, "he said but a 
 word, a sun of beauty!" 
 
 "We're tricked by rogues cleverer than we !" ex- 
 claimed Peyrade. ' ' The scoundrels want to sell the 
 woman to the baron for all that she'll bring." 
 
 "Ja, mein herr!" replied Contenson; "when I 
 learned that your ears were boxed at the prefecture, 
 I persuaded Georges to blab." 
 
 "I should like to know who bowled me over,"
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 219 
 
 remarked Peyrade; "we should see whose blade 
 was the longer." 
 
 "We must play at eavesdropping," said Conten- 
 son. 
 
 "He's right," said Peyrade; "we must slip into 
 the crannies to listen and wait " 
 
 "That's the method to study," exclaimed Coren- 
 tin. "Just at present I've nothing to do. Be very 
 cautious, Peyrade ; we must always be obedient to 
 the Prefect" 
 
 "M. de Nucingen is a good subject to bleed," 
 observed Contenson. "He has too many thousand- 
 franc bank notes in his veins." 
 
 "Lydie's dowry was in it!" whispered Peyrade 
 in Corentin's ear. 
 
 "Come, Contenson, we must be going. We'll 
 leave our father to sleep. Fare well ; to morrow !" 
 
 "What an odd bit of business our friend was aim- 
 ing at," said Contenson to Corentin on the door- 
 step. "What! to marry his daughter with the price 
 of Ha! Ha! It might make the theme for 
 a charming play a moral one, too, called The 
 Maiden's Dower." 
 
 "Ah! How you are made, you people, and what 
 ears you have!" said Corentin to Contenson. 
 "Surely mother nature provides all her species with 
 the qualities necessary to the services she expects 
 of them ! Society is but a second nature !" 
 
 "What you say is very philosophic, " replied Con- 
 tenson ; "a professor would develop it into a system !" 
 
 "Keep yourself informed of everything that goes
 
 220 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 on at M. de Nucingen's in connection with the fair 
 unknown," continued Corentin with a smile, as he 
 walked along the street in company with the detec- 
 tive; "in a general way, I mean; don't use too 
 much finesse about it." 
 
 "We can watch and see whether the chimneys 
 smoke," said Contenson. 
 
 "A man like the baron can't be a successful lover 
 without having it known," continued Corentin. 
 "Besides, men are our cards; we must never let 
 them trick us." 
 
 "The deuce! That would be like the criminal at 
 the scaffold amusing himself by cutting the execu- 
 tioner's throat, "exclaimed Contenson. 
 
 "Your little joke is always ready," answered 
 Corentin, with a faint smile that scarcely wrinkled 
 his plaster masque. 
 
 The affair was of immense importance apart from 
 its results. If the baron had not betrayed Peyrade, 
 who could have taken the trouble to interview the 
 Prefect of the police ? For Corentin it involved the 
 possible discovery of traitors among his men. He 
 went to bed musing upon the same question which 
 agitated Peyrade. 
 
 "Who made the complaint to the Prefect? To 
 whom can this woman belong?" 
 
 Thus each side in perfect ignorance of the other, 
 Jacques Collin, Peyrade and Corentin, drew nearer 
 and nearer together; while poor Esther, Nucingen 
 and Lucien were fated to be swept into a struggle 
 that was already begun, and was destined to assume
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 221 
 
 terrible proportions in consequence of the vanity 
 peculiar to police officials. 
 
 Thanks to Europe's ability the most menacing 
 portion of the sixty thousand francs of debt weigh- 
 ing upon Lucien and Esther was cancelled. The 
 confidence of the creditors was not even shaken. 
 For a moment Lucien and his corrupter could pause 
 for breath, like hunted beasts lapping a little water 
 on the border of some marsh ; they could continue to 
 skirt the edge of the precipice along which the 
 strong man led his weak disciple to the gallows or 
 to success. 
 
 "To-day," said Carlos to his slave, "we stake all 
 for all ; but luckily the cards are marked and the 
 gamesters children." 
 
 For some time in obedience to his terrible mentor 
 Lucien devoted himself to Madame de Serizy. He 
 was never to be suspected of having a kept mis- 
 tress; and besides, from the delight of being loved, 
 from the allurements of a worldly life he borrowed 
 strength to shake off his besetting cares. He fol- 
 lowed Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu's direc- 
 tions and never saw her except in the Bois or in the 
 Champs Elysees. 
 
 On the day following Esther's imprisonment in 
 the keeper's lodge, the enigmatical and terrible being 
 of whom she stood so much in awe came to ask her 
 to sign three blank papers that were stamped, and 
 moreover bore the hazardous words: "Accepted for 
 sixty thousand francs," on the first; "accepted for 
 one hundred and twenty thousand francs," on the
 
 222 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 second; "accepted for one hundred and twenty 
 thousand francs," on the third. In all, three hun- 
 dred thousand francs of acceptances. By writing 
 "good for," you make an ordinary note. The word 
 "accepted" constitutes a bill of exchange and sub- 
 jects you to arrest, and renders the imprudent signer 
 liable to five years' imprisonment, a penalty almost 
 never inflicted by the police court, but which is 
 applied to old offenders by the court of assizes. 
 The law concerning imprisonment is a remnant of 
 the dark ages, which is not only stupid but has also 
 the rare merit of being useless, for it is never able 
 to reach criminals. (See Lost Illusions.} 
 
 "It is to save Lucien from embarrassment," said 
 the Spaniard to Esther. 
 
 "We are sixty thousand francs in debt, and with 
 these three hundred thousand francs perhaps we 
 may clear ourselves." 
 
 Having antedated these bills of exchange by six 
 months, Carlos had them drawn on Esther by a man 
 who was still unfathomed by the police, and whose 
 adventures, in spite of the excitement they had at 
 first aroused, had been quickly forgotten, drowned 
 as they were by the uproar of the mighty symphony 
 of July, 1830. 
 
 This young man, one of the most bare-faced of 
 swindlers, son of a bailiff of Boulogne, near Paris, 
 was named Georges-Marie Destourny. The father, 
 forced to sell his office on account of business re- 
 verses,left his son, in 1824, without resources of any 
 kind, except for the brilliant education that small
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 223 
 
 tradesmen take a foolish delight in bestowing upon 
 their children. At twenty-three, the young and 
 gifted law student had already abjured his father 
 by writing his name thus on his cards : 
 
 GEORGES D'ESTOURNY. 
 
 This card lent him a flavor of aristocracy. The 
 young dandy had the audacity to keep a tilbury 
 and groom, and to haunt the clubs. His story needs 
 but a word : he had become the confidant of several 
 women of doubtful character, and did business at 
 the Stock Exchange with their money. At length 
 he came to grief with the police, and was indicted 
 for using cards that were suspiciously lucky. He 
 had accomplices, young men whom he had led astray, 
 devoted slaves, the sharers of his fashion and his 
 credit Compelled to flee, he neglected to pay his 
 balance at the Exchange. All Paris, the Paris of 
 robbers and clubs, of boulevards and manufactures, 
 was shaken by his double misdemeanor. 
 
 In the days of his glory Georges d'Estourny, 
 handsome, kindhearted and generous as a highway- 
 man, had maintained la Torpille for several months. 
 The counterfeit Spaniard based his calculations on 
 Esther's acquaintance with the famous blackleg 
 an accident peculiar to women of her class. 
 
 Georges d'Estourny, whose ambition grew bolder 
 with success, had taken under his protection a man 
 who had come from a remote corner of some de- 
 partment to do business at Paris, and whom the
 
 224 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Liberal party wished to indemnify for the fines he 
 had courageously incurred during the struggle of 
 the press against the government of Charles X., the 
 persecution of which had slackened under the Mar- 
 tignac ministry. It was then that they had par- 
 doned Sieur Cerizet, the responsible newspaper 
 editor, who was surnamed Cerizet the fearless. 
 
 But Cerizet, outwardly patronized by the chief 
 Radicals on the Left, engaged in an occupation 
 which combined the qualities of business agency, 
 bank and commission house alike. His position in 
 the business world recalled the servants who adver- 
 tised in Petites Affiches, representing themselves 
 perfectly qualified for everything. Cerizet was de- 
 lighted to ally himself with Georges d'Estourny, 
 who thenceforth became the director of his steps. 
 
 By virtue of the anecdote concerning Ninon, 
 Esther must pass for the faithful guardian of a por- 
 tion of Georges d'Estourny's fortune. An endorse- 
 ment in blank, signed "Georges d'Estourny," ren- 
 dered Carlos Herrera master of the sums he had 
 created. The danger of this forgery ceased the 
 instant that either Mademoiselle Esther, or some- 
 body else on her account, could or should pay, 
 
 After he had made careful inquiries in regard to 
 the business house of Cerizet, Carlos understood the 
 man to be an obscure personage determined to 
 make his fortune but lawfully. Cerizet, who was 
 d'Estourny's real backer, held as security certain 
 important sums then involved in speculations at the 
 Exchange, which gave him what title he had to call
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 225 
 
 himself a "banker." All this takes place at Paris; 
 for though people may despise a man, nobody can 
 despise his money. 
 
 Carlos went to see Cerizet with the intention of 
 making use of him for his own purposes ; for by 
 good fortune he had come into possession of all the 
 secrets of this worthy associate of d'Estourny. 
 
 The courageous Cerizet dwelt on the entresol 
 of a house in the rue du Gros-Chenet, and Carlos, 
 who had himself mysteriously announced as an 
 envoy on behalf of Georges d'Estourny, surprised 
 the so-called banker, still pale with alarm at the 
 message. The priest found in the modest office a 
 small man with thin, fair hair, and recognized from 
 Lucien's description the Judas of David Sechard. 
 
 "Can we talk herewith no danger of being over- 
 heard?" said the Spaniard, who had been suddenly 
 metamorphosed into an Englishman with red hair 
 and blue spectacles, neat and proper as a Puritan on 
 his way to meeting. 
 
 "And why, sir?" inquired Cerizet "Who are 
 you?" 
 
 "M. William Barker, creditor of M. d'Estourny; 
 but since you desire it I will show you the need 
 of closing your doors. We are well aware, sir, what 
 your relations are with the Petit-Clauds, the Coin- 
 tets, and the Sechards of Angoule'me. " 
 
 At these words Cerizet sprang to the door, shut 
 it, and dashing to another door which opened into 
 a bed-room, bolted that too; then he said to the 
 stranger, "Not so loud, sir!" 
 15
 
 226 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 He gazed at the sham Englishman intently as he 
 said, "What do you want of me?" 
 
 "Lord bless you, sir!" answered William Barker, 
 "every man for himself in this world. You have 
 in your possession the funds of that fool d'Estourny. 
 Don't be alarmed ; I haven't come to demand them 
 of you ; but, upon my pressing him, that rascal, who 
 richly deserves the gallows this is between you 
 and me has given me these bills, telling me that 
 there was a chance of raising money upon them ; 
 and as I don't wish to pursue the business in my 
 own name, he told me that you would not refuse me 
 yours." 
 
 Cerizet examined the bills of exchange ; then he 
 said, "But he's no longer at Frankfort" 
 
 "I know it," answered Barker; "but he might 
 have been there at the date of these drafts. ' 
 
 "But I don't care to be responsible," said 
 Cerizet 
 
 "I don't ask such a sacrifice of you," replied 
 Barker; "but you can accept them. If you receipt 
 them and the drafts, I'll see to their being cashed." 
 
 "I am amazed to see d'Estourny so suspicious of 
 me," observed Cerizet 
 
 "In his position," answered Barker, "you can't 
 blame him for placing his eggs in more than one 
 basket" 
 
 "Do you think so?" inquired the petty man of 
 business, handing to the sham Englishman the bills 
 of exchange properly endorsed. 
 
 "1 know that you keep his funds carefully," said
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 227 
 
 Barker; "I am sureof it! They are at this moment 
 lying on the gaming-table of the Exchange." 
 
 "My fortune depends upon " 
 
 "Upon losing them ostensibly," interrupted 
 Barker. 
 
 "Sir!" cried Cerizet 
 
 "Stop, my dear Monsieur Cerizet," said Barker 
 coldly, interrupting Cerizet, "you have done me a 
 service in expediting this payment Be so kind as 
 to write me a letter in which you say that you 
 return me these receipted bills on behalf of d'Es- 
 tourny, and that the prosecuting sheriff is to con- 
 sider the bearer of the letter as the possessor of 
 these three drafts." 
 
 "Will you tell me your names?" 
 
 "No name!" replied the English capitalist 
 "Write: 'The bearer of this letter and of the bills.' 
 You shall be well paid for your services." 
 
 "How?" demanded Cerizet 
 
 "To be brief, you remain in France, don't you?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Well, Georges d'Estourny will never enter 
 France again. " 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "To my certain knowledge there are more than 
 five persons who are ready to murder him, and he 
 knows it" 
 
 "I am no longer surprised that he writes me for 
 money to embark on a venture in the Indies!" 
 exclaimed Cerizet "And unfortunately he has 
 obliged me to invest everything in government
 
 228 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 bonds. We are already in debt to the house of Du 
 Tillet for the balance of sundry accounts. I live 
 from hand to mouth." 
 
 "Try to get out of your scrape." 
 
 "Ah, if I had only known this sooner!" cried 
 Cerizet "I have missed my fortune." 
 
 "One last word!" said Barker. "Discretion! You 
 are capable of that; but there is another quality less 
 certain fidelity. We shall meet again, and I shall 
 make your fortune." 
 
 After having cast this wretch a hope well calcu- 
 lated to insure his discretion for a long time to come, 
 Carlos, still disguised as Barker, called upon a 
 sheriff, on whom he could count, and charged him to 
 procure a definitive judgment against Esther. "They 
 are sure to pay," said he to the sheriff; "it's an 
 affair of honor; we simply wish to proceed accord- 
 ing to rule." 
 
 Barker made arrangements that Mademoiselle 
 Esther should be represented before the Tribunal 
 of Commerce by an attorney, in order that judg- 
 ment might be made after the hearing of both 
 parties. The sheriff, who had orders to act court- 
 eously, made a copy of all the acts of procedure, and 
 went in person to attach the furniture in the Rue 
 Taitbout, where he was received by Europe. The 
 sentence of arrest for debt once promulgated, Esther 
 was apparently at the mercy of three hundred and 
 odd thousand francs of indisputable debts. 
 
 This step did not call upon Carlos for great inven- 
 tive power. This vaudeville of false debts is very
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 229 
 
 often played in Paris. There live subordinates to 
 Gobseck and to Gigonnet, who, in consideration of a 
 percentage, lend themselves to this quibble, for they 
 make a joke of this scandalous trick. In Paris all 
 things are done in jest, even crimes. Thus they 
 fleece recalcitrant relations or niggardly passions 
 which yield to flagrant necessity or pretended dis- 
 honor. Maxime de Trailles had many times made 
 use of this method derived from comedies of the old 
 school. Only Carlos Herrera, who wished to save 
 the honor of his cloth and keep Lucien's reputation 
 untarnished, had recourse to a forgery in which 
 there is no danger, and the practice of which is 
 still rousing the indignation of the law. 
 
 In the neighborhood of the Palais Royal there is, 
 1 am told, an exchange for these forged bills, where 
 any man may purchase a signature for three francs. 
 
 Before entering upon the problem of the three 
 hundred thousand francs destined to stand guard 
 before the bed-chamber, Carlos determined that 
 M. de Nucingen should pay him an extra hundred 
 thousand francs at the start This was his plan : 
 
 By his orders Asia posed before the infatuated 
 baron as an old woman in the confidence of the fair 
 unknown. Even down to the present day painters 
 of manners have brought upon the scene many men 
 in the guise of usurers; but they have forgotten the 
 woman usurer, the Madame la Resource of to-day, a 
 singularly curious personage, called by the polite 
 world the dealer in cast-off finery. This part was 
 well suited to the fierce Asia, who owned two
 
 230 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 establishments, one at the Temple, and the other 
 in the Rue Neuve Saint Marc ; both managed by 
 women of her own choice. 
 
 "You must assume the character of Madame^ 
 Saint Estfrve," he said to her. 
 
 Herrera wished to see Asia in her disguise. The 
 sham procuress was attired in a gown of flowered 
 damask, remade from the old curtains of some 
 boudoir attached for debt Over her shoulders was 
 spread one of those old-fashioned cashmere shawls, 
 too threadbare to have a market price, that end their 
 lives on the back of women such as she. She wore a 
 collar of handsome lace, frayed at the edges, and a 
 hideous hat; her feet were encased in Irish-leather 
 shoes, above which protruded her fat legs, clad in 
 black silk open-work stockings. 
 
 "See the buckle of my belt!" she exclaimed, 
 pointing to the doubtful jeweled clasp of a girdle 
 which stood out in front of her large vulgar per- 
 son. "What style! And the whole effect how 
 charmingly ugly it makes me! Oh! MameNouris- 
 son has given just the right swagger to my dress." 
 
 "Be sweet as honey," said Carlos; "be almost 
 timid, and suspicious as a cat; above all make the 
 baron blush for having made use of the police, with- 
 out seeming to be in the least afraid of its agents. 
 Finally give him practically to understand in terms 
 more or less clear that you defy all the police in the 
 world to discover the prize. Cover your traces 
 well. When the baron becomes so familiar that 
 you can slap him on the stomach and call him 'fat
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 231 
 
 rascal,' grow insolent and make him step about 
 like a lackey." 
 
 After a warning from the procuress that any 
 appeal to the police would destroy his chances of 
 ever seeing her again, Nucingen caught sight of 
 Asia as he made his way afoot to the Bourse. She 
 was sitting mysteriously in a wretched shop in 
 the Rue Nueve Saint Marc. How many times have 
 amorous millionaires trod these muddy byways, and 
 with what delight, the Paris pavements know! 
 Madame de Saint Esteve aroused despair, then hope, 
 and played each against the other. The baron 
 desired to learn every particular in regard to his 
 beloved at any price. 
 
 During all this time the sheriff was not idle, and 
 advanced all the faster because, in the absence of 
 all opposition on Esther's part, he acted within the 
 time prescribed by law, without a delay of even 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 Lucien, under the escort of his mentor, paid five 
 or six visits to the recluse at Saint Germain. The 
 brutal contriver of these machinations had con- 
 sidered these interviews necessary to prevent 
 Esther's beauty from fading; for her beauty was 
 his capital. No sooner had they emerged from the 
 keeper's lodge than the priest led Lucien and the 
 poor courtesan to a spot beside an untraveled road, 
 where there was a view of Paris, and where they 
 could not be overheard. As the sun rose, all three 
 sat down upon the trunk of a fallen poplar and 
 looked at the landscape, one of the most splendid in
 
 232 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the world, embracing the course of the Seine, Mont- 
 martre, Paris and Saint Denis. 
 
 "My children," said Carlos, "your dream is 
 dreamed. You, my sweet, will never again see 
 Lucien ; or, if you should see him, it can only be as 
 if you had known him five years ago for a very few 
 days. ' ' 
 
 "So death has come to me!" she said, without 
 shedding a single tear. 
 
 "It's five years since you were taken ill," replied 
 Herrera. "Call yourself a consumptive and die 
 without bothering us with your lamentations. But 
 you will see that you can live yet, and happily too! 
 Leave us, Lucien; go and cull a few sonnets," said 
 he, pointing to a field a few steps away. 
 
 Lucien cast upon Esther an imploring glance, a 
 glance peculiar to men at once feeble and covetous, 
 of tender heart and cowardly character. Esther 
 answered by a nod which meant: "I am about to 
 listen to the headsman and learn how I must place 
 my head beneath the axe. I shall have the courage 
 to die well." Her gesture was so lovely, yet so 
 full of horror that the poet wept; Esther sprang to 
 him, clasped him in her arms, drank the tear upon 
 his cheek, and whispered, ' ' Don't be afraid. ' ' One 
 of those sentences spoken with the gesture, the 
 glance and the tone of delirium. 
 
 Carlos made his explanation concise and without 
 ambiguity. He painted with fiercely characteristic 
 words Lucien's critical situation, his footing in the 
 Grandlieu household, his splendid fortune in case
 
 THE WAY THAT GIRLS LOVE 233 
 
 of success, and lastly, the necessity for Esther to 
 sacrifice herself for his glorious future. 
 
 "What must I do?" she cried frantically. 
 
 "Obey me blindly," replied Carlos, "and of 
 what have you a right to complain ? It only rests 
 with you to ensure yourself a happy lot. Like 
 your old friends, Tullia, Florine, Mariette, la Val- 
 Noble, you must become the mistress of a rich man 
 whom you do not love. Our plans once fulfilled, 
 your lover is rich enough to make you happy." 
 
 "Happy!" said she, raising her eyes toward 
 heaven. 
 
 "You have had four years of paradise. Can you 
 not live on such memories?" 
 
 "I shall obey you," she answered, drying the 
 tears in the corners of her eyes. "You needn't 
 feel disturbed for my fate. As you have said, my 
 love is a mortal illness." 
 
 "That is not all," continued Carlos; "you must 
 still be beautiful. At twenty-two years and a half, 
 thanks to your good fortune, you are at the highest 
 point of your beauty. Lastly, above all else, become 
 la Torpille once more. Be light-hearted, prodigal, 
 crafty, with no pity for the millionaire whom I shall 
 give to you. Listen to me : the man is a robber of 
 well-lined purses; he has been without compassion 
 for multitudes of people ; he has grown fat on the 
 fortunes of the widow and the orphan ; you shall 
 be their revenge. Asia will come for you in a cab, 
 and to-night you will be in Paris. To allow the 
 slightest suspicion of your four years' love for
 
 234 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Lucien to escape would be to discharge a pistol into 
 his brain. You will be asked what became of you. 
 You will answer that you have been traveling with 
 an excessively jealous Englishman. You used to 
 have wit enough to carry off a hoax, and you must 
 try to get it back again." 
 
 Have you ever seen a dazzling kite, the giant 
 butterfly of childhood, all sparkling with gold, hover- 
 ing in mid-air ? For an instant the children forget 
 the string, a passer-by cuts it, and, in college phrase, 
 gives the meteor its head ; the kite falls with terrific 
 rapidity. Such was Esther after listening to Carlos.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN
 

 
 ARREST OF ESTHER 
 
 At the moment that Esther opened her door and 
 appeared, ill-covered by her dress ing-gcncn, her bare 
 feet in slippers, her hair floating loose, so beautiful 
 that the angel Raphael rvould have lost heaven for 
 her sake, Jive unclean wretches burst in through 
 the parlor door and advanced toward the heavenly 
 creature as she stood like an angel in some religious 
 picture of the Flemish school.

 
 PART SECOND 
 
 Almost every day for a week Nucingen made his 
 to the shop in the Rne_ NVuve Saint Marc to 
 bargain for the delivery of tlu n he loved. 
 
 enthroned among a medley of . 
 
 wh \$ ^TO^^t 1 q^R^^N^VA^^ 
 become rags. The frame was in har 
 
 of bflWuRi .W^^^ 6 ?^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 clotllS Which death hat tossed dpwn^ ^th^is fl^h, 
 less hand; he hears the deaTH-rattle of a consump- 
 tive echoing from the folds of a shawl, and pictures 
 the anguish of poverty hidden under a gown stitched 
 with gold. Fearful struggles between luxury and 
 hunger have left their mark upon the fluttc 
 laces. It to imagine the face of a qu 
 
 bene:; med turban, which from its position 
 
 the features of its former owner. It 
 hideous in the beautiful ! The scourge of 
 (237)
 
 ARREST OF ESTHER 
 
 At the moment that Esther opened her door and 
 appeared, ill-covered by her dressing-gown, her bare 
 feet in slippers, her hair floating loose, so beautiful 
 that the angel Raphael would have lost heaven for 
 her sake, Jive unclean wretches burst in through 
 the parlor door and advanced toward the heavenly 
 creature as she stood like an angel in some religious 
 picture of the Flemish school.
 
 PART SECOND 
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 
 * 
 
 Almost every day for a week Nucingen made his 
 way to the shop in the Rue Neuve Saint Marc to 
 bargain for the delivery of the woman he loved. 
 There, at one time under the title of Saint Esteve, 
 at another under the name of her creature, Madame 
 Nourisson, Asia sat enthroned among a medley of 
 splendid garments, worn to that unpleasing stage in 
 which gowns are no longer gowns, and yet have not 
 become rags. The frame was in harmony with the 
 picture which this woman presented, for shops of 
 this kind are one of the most sinister peculiarities 
 of Paris. Here the stranger sees heaps of old 
 clothes which death has tossed down with his flesh- 
 less hand ; he hears the death-rattle of a consump- 
 tive echoing from the folds of a shawl, and pictures 
 the anguish of poverty hidden under a gown stitched 
 with gold. Fearful struggles between luxury and 
 hunger have left their mark upon the fluttering 
 laces. It is easy to imagine the face of a queen 
 beneath a plumed turban, which from its position 
 vividly recalls the features of its former owner. It 
 is the hideous in the beautiful ! The scourge of 
 (237)
 
 240 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 is honesty itself; she had nothing but herself. 
 She said to me, 'Dear Madame Saint Esteve, I am 
 hunted down, you alone can help me; give me 
 twenty thousand francs and I will mortgage my 
 heart to you. ' Oh ! what a lovely heart she has ! 
 None but I know where she is. The slightest 
 indiscretion would cost me my twenty thousand 
 francs. Formerly she used to live in the Rue 
 Taitbout. Before she left, her furniture was 
 attached for the expenses. Those thieves of 
 bailiffs! You know what they are, you, who are 
 a power in the Exchange. But as I was saying, she 
 wasn't stupid; she rented her apartment for two 
 months to an Englishwoman, a beauty, who had that 
 little numskull, Rubempre, for a lover, and he was 
 so jealous that he never allowed her out of the house 
 except at night. But since the furniture is to be 
 sold, the Englishwoman has packed up and left for, 
 besides, she was much too expensive a luxury for a 
 little tomtit like Lucien." 
 
 "Youtoein panking pizness, " remarked Nucin- 
 gen. 
 
 "Naturally," said Asia, "I lend money to pretty 
 women. It pays me, for I get a double percentage." 
 
 Asia was delighted to caricature the part of those 
 women who, however acrid they might be, were yet 
 more insinuating and more gentle than she, and seek 
 to justify their trade by excuses overflowing with 
 the most charitable motives. Asia posed as a 
 woman bereft of her illusions, her five lovers and 
 her children, who, in spite of her experience, allowed
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 241 
 
 herself to be "robbed" by everybody. From time to 
 time she paraded certificates issued by the Mont de 
 Piete in order to display the luckless chances to 
 which her business was subject She represented her- 
 self as bent beneath a load of debt, and to complete her 
 sorrows she was so unaffectedly hideous that the baron 
 ended by believing her the person she claimed to be. 
 
 "Very veil, eef I bay ze hundert tausent vrancs, 
 vere zhall I zee her?" said he with the gesture of a 
 man whose mind is resolved for every sacrifice. 
 
 "In that case, my fat friend, you will come this 
 very night in your carriage and stop opposite the 
 Gymnase; that's the way," said Asia. "You will 
 stop at the corner of the Rue Sainte Barbe. I shall 
 be there on the watch ; we shall go on together and 
 find my black-haired mortgage. Ah! what lovely 
 hair my mortgage has! Esther has but to take 
 out her comb and she is covered from head to foot. 
 Even if you do know figures, you look stupid enough 
 about everything else. I advise you to stow the girl 
 away, for they will shut her up at Sainte Pelagic 
 without delay the day after they find her, and they 
 are searching now." 
 
 "Vould eet pe bossible to puy pack ze trafts?" 
 inquired the incorrigible lynx. 
 
 "The sheriff has them, but they can't be secured 
 now. The child was carried away by a foolish 
 infatuation, and ran through a sum which had been 
 entrusted to her charge and which she is now asked 
 to return. She is only twenty-two, and a little 
 foolish still." 
 
 16
 
 242 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Gut! gut! I vill zee to eet, " said Nucingen, 
 assuming his shrewdest air. " Eet ees veil unter- 
 zdood zat I zhall pe her brodecdor. " 
 
 "Ah, you fat rascal! To make her love you is 
 your own affair, and you have means enough to buy 
 a make-believe love that is almost as good as if it 
 were real. I put the princess in your hands; she 
 must follow you, and I shan't worry about the rest 
 But she is accustomed to luxury and the utmost 
 attention. Ah, my boy, she's everything that a 
 woman should be. Had she not been, do you sup- 
 pose that 1 should have lent her twenty thousand 
 francs?" 
 
 "Zo zen, eet ees a pargain. Zis efening!" 
 
 The baron arrayed himself once more in the 
 bridal attire which he had donned on a former 
 occasion. This time the certainty of success made 
 him double his powders and his perfumes. At nine 
 o'clock he met the detestable woman at the appointed 
 place and took her into his carriage. 
 
 "Vere?" demanded the baron. 
 
 "Where?" replied Asia. " In the Rue de la Perle 
 at the Marais, an address to fit the circumstances. 
 For your pearl is in the mire, but you'll wash her, 
 won't you?" 
 
 When they had arrived at the place indicated by 
 this direction, the counterfeit Madame de Saint 
 Esteve said to Nucingen with an ugly grin: 
 
 "We must go a few steps further afoot. I was not 
 fool enough to give you the right address." 
 
 "You rememper eferyting," replied Nucingen.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 243 
 
 " It's my trade," she answered. 
 
 Asia guided Nucingen to the Rue Barbette, whence 
 he was conducted to the fourth story of a furnished 
 house occupied by an upholsterer of the district 
 When he beheld, in the midst of a poverty- 
 stricken room, Esther in the dress of a working- 
 woman, toiling over a piece of embroidery, the 
 millionaire grew pale. At the end of a quarter of 
 an hour, during which Asia appeared to be engaged 
 in a whispered conversation with Esther, the young- 
 old man could scarcely speak. 
 
 "Montemisselle," he stammered finally to the 
 poor girl, "vill you haf ze gutness to aczept me vor 
 your brotecdor?" 
 
 "I must perforce, sir," said Esther, while two big 
 tears slipped from her eyes. 
 
 "Ton't gry. I vish to renter you ze habbiest of 
 voomankint. Only luff me ant you vill fmt dis 
 ees zo. " 
 
 "But, my pet, the gentleman is reasonable," said 
 Asia; "he is well aware that he is past sixty, and 
 he will be very indulgent Look up, my sweet 
 angel, it is a father I have brought you. ' ' 
 
 "I must tell her so," whispered Asia in the ear 
 of the ill-contented banker. "You can't catch 
 swallows by firing pistols. Come this way, ' ' added 
 Asia, as she led Nucingen into the next room. 
 "You remember our little agreement, my cherub?" 
 
 Nucingen drew a pocket-book from his coat and 
 counted out the hundred thousand francs, while 
 Carlos, who was hidden in a closet, waited with
 
 244 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES' 
 
 lively impatience until Asia placed them in his 
 hands. 
 
 "Here are a hundred thousand francs that our 
 man has invested in Asia; now we are going to in- 
 duce him to invest as many in Europe," said Carlos 
 to his accomplice, as they stood on the stairway. 
 
 He disappeared after having given his instructions 
 to Asia, who returned to the room where Esther sat, 
 weeping hot tears. Like a criminal condemned to 
 death, the child had spun for herself a romance of 
 hope, and now the fatal hour had struck. 
 
 "My dear children," said Asia, "where are you 
 going? For the Baron de Nucingen " 
 
 Esther gazed at the famous banker with a gesture 
 of astonishment, admirably counterfeited. 
 
 "Yes, meinchilt, lamzeParonte Nichinguenne. " 
 
 "The Baron de Nucingen must not, cannot remain 
 in a pig-sty like this. Listen to me. Your old 
 waiting-maid, Eugenie " 
 
 "Ichenie! of ze Rie Daidpoud?" exclaimed the 
 baron. 
 
 "Yes, yes; the legitimate guardian of the furni- 
 ture," continued Asia, "the person who leased the 
 suite to the English beauty." 
 
 "Ach, I unterstant!" said the baron. 
 
 "Your old waiting-maid," continued Asia, with 
 a respectful gesture toward Esther, "will be glad to 
 receive you to-night; and the detectives will never 
 dream of searching the old apartment which you 
 left three months ago. ' ' 
 
 "Atmiraple! atmiraple!" cried the baron. "Be-
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 245 
 
 zides, I know ze dedectifes ant I know ze vorts to 
 make zem fanish. " 
 
 "You will find Eugenie a sly one," said Asia. 
 "It was I who gave her to this lady." 
 
 "I know her veil," the baron exclaimed with a 
 laugh. "Ichenie haz zdolen vrom medirdytausent 
 vrancs. ' ' 
 
 Esther made a gesture so full of horror that an 
 honest man would have staked his fortune on its 
 sincerity. 
 
 "Oh! py mein own vault," added the baron; "I 
 vas in bursuit of you," and he went on to tell the 
 blunder to which the lease of the apartment to an 
 Englishwoman had given rise. 
 
 "So you see, madame, " said Asia, "Eugenie 
 never told you a word about that Ah, she's a sly 
 fox! But this lady has grown accustomed to the 
 girl," she added to the baron, "so after all you had 
 better keep her." 
 
 Asia took Nucingen aside and said to him: 
 
 "Five hundred francs a month to Eugenie, who is 
 busy feathering her nest, and you will know every- 
 thing her mistress does. Let her be her maid. 
 Eugenie will be all the more kindly disposed toward 
 you now that she has fleeced you a bit. No chain 
 binds women to a man more strongly than the recol- 
 lection of having fleeced him. But keep a tight 
 rein on Eugenie; she'll do anything in the world for 
 money; it's horrible!" 
 
 ."Ant you?" 
 
 "I," rejoined Asia, "I repay myself."
 
 246 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Nucingen, profound calculator as he was, had a 
 bandage over his eyes; he acted like a child. The 
 sight of this pure-minded and adorable Esther, dry- 
 ing her eyes and passing her needle through the 
 border of her embroidery with all the modesty of a 
 guileless maiden, gave once more to this infatuated 
 old man the sensations which he had felt in the 
 Bois de Vincennes; he would have given away the 
 key of his safe; his youth had come again; his 
 heart was overflowing with adoration, and he was 
 only waiting for Asia's departure to throw himself 
 on his knees before this Raphael Madonna. This 
 sudden birth of childhood in the heart of a sly old 
 man is one of the social phenomena that physiology 
 can most easily explain. The hidden cause of the 
 effect was youth with all its sublime illusions that 
 still lay hidden, crushed under the weight of busi- 
 ness, stifled by ceaseless calculation and the per- 
 petual pressure of money-getting cares, ready to 
 burst into bloom like a forgotten seed, the splendid 
 blossoms of which are called into being by a few 
 late gleams of transitory sunlight. At twelve years 
 of age, a clerk in the old house of Aldrigger, in 
 Strasbourg, the baron had never set foot in the 
 world of sentiment. Thus he stood motionless 
 before his idol, a million confused speeches in his 
 brain and not one upon his lips. Then the man of 
 sixty-six returned and the baron obeyed a brutal 
 impulse. 
 
 "Vill you gome to ze Rie Daidboud?" said he. 
 
 "Where you will, sir," answered Esther rising.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 247 
 
 "Vere youvill!" repeated he rapturously. "You 
 are ein anchel gome town vrom heafen, ant I luff 
 you as eef I vere ein fery young man, aldough I haff 
 gray hair." 
 
 "Ah! you might as well call it white. For 
 it's much too black to be called gray," said Asia. 
 
 "Pe off, you file zeller of human vlesh. You 
 haff your money. To not zlopper ofer zis vlower of 
 luff," cried the banker, balancing his account for all 
 the indignities he had swallowed by this savage 
 apostrophe. 
 
 "You old blackguard, you shall pay for your 
 words!" exclaimed Asia, menacing the banker with 
 a gesture worthy of the fish-market, that made him 
 shrug his shoulders. "Between the cup and the 
 lip there's room for a viper and there you shall find 
 me," she added, frenzied by Nucingen's disdain. 
 
 A millionaire, whose money is guarded by the 
 Bank of France, whose house is protected by a 
 regiment of servants,and who himself drives abroad 
 safely ensconced in a carriage drawn by swift Eng- 
 lish horses, fears no misfortune; so the baron sur- 
 veyed Asia calmly with the conscious superiority of 
 a man who had just given her one hundred thousand 
 francs. 
 
 This majesty produced its effect Asia beat her 
 retreat down the stairway, grumbling and mutter- 
 ing some excessively revolutionary phrases about a 
 scaffold. 
 
 "What did you say to her?" asked the Virgin of 
 the needlework. "She's a good woman."
 
 248 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Zhe has zolt you, zhe has sdolen vrom you." 
 
 "When a girl is as wretched as I," answered she, 
 with an accent that would have melted the heart of 
 a diplomat, "who succors or cares for her?" 
 
 "Boor tarling!" said Nucingen, "tonotzday here 
 einoder minute." 
 
 Nucingen gave his arm to Esther, led her away 
 just as she was, and assisted her into his carriage 
 with more respect, perhaps, than he would have felt 
 for the handsome Duchesse de Maufrigneuse. 
 
 "You zhall haf ein splentit garriage, ze brittiest 
 in Baris, " said Nucingen, as they drove along. "All 
 ze telights of luxury zhall pe pestowed on you. 
 Eine queen zhall not pe more rige zan you. You 
 zhall pe resbected like a Cherman girl avder her 
 pedrotal ; you shall pe vree. To not gry. Listen ! I 
 luff you druly mit ein bure luff. Efery dear cf 
 yours bierces mein heard." 
 
 "Can a man love, with real love, the woman he 
 buys?" asked the poor girl in an entrancing voice. 
 
 "Choseff was solt py his prothers pecause of his 
 firdue; eet zays zo in ze Piple. Resides, in ze East 
 ein man puys his lechitimade wife." 
 
 Once again in the Rue Taitbout Esther could not 
 look upon the scene of her past happiness without 
 the most painful emotions. She lay upon a divan, 
 motionless, and dried her tears one by one without 
 hearing a word of the passionate phrases of love 
 which the banker poured forth. He knelt at her 
 feet; she gave no heed; she let him keep her hands 
 when he took them, yet she was ignorant, as it were,
 
 IN THE RUE BARBETTE 
 
 "Pe off, you file seller of human vlesh. You 
 liaff your money. To not zlopper ofer sis viewer 
 of luff" cried the banker, balancing his account for 
 all the indignities he had swallowed by this savage 
 apostrophe. 
 
 "You old blackguard, you shall pay for your 
 words /" exclaimed Asia, menacing the banker with 
 >i gesture ivorthy of the fish-market, that made him 
 shrug his shoulders.
 
 248 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "7! It you, zhe has sdolen vrom you." 
 
 "When a girl is as wretched as I," answ. 
 with an accent that would have melted the heart uf 
 a diplomat, "who succors or cares for her?" 
 
 "Boor tarling!" said Nucingen, "tonotzday ! 
 einoder minute." 
 
 Nucingen gave his arm to Esther, led her away 
 just as she was, and assisted her into his carriage 
 with more respect, perhaps, than he would have felt 
 for the haTO3ra5Qt^e^5HeTOTJfr?&fieuse. 
 
 "You zhall haf ein splentit garriage, ze brittiest 
 in Baris," said Nucingen, as they drove along. "All 
 ze telights of luxury zhall pe pestowed on you. 
 
 '' You 
 ^wlef^tter 
 
 nedrotal : you shall pe,vr,ee. , Tex nqt gry. LteteaJ I 
 
 *\JtaWY&su& "lw\W5iVjiQ ,;vrX \vv>vs 'ySftTvsy^ :vu\\ TO, 
 
 lurf you druiy mit em bure lurr. Efery aear cf 
 
 "Can a man love, with real love, th 
 buys?" asked the poor girl in an entrancing^ voice. 
 
 of his 
 
 ^ ^^ftm v 
 
 Once again in the Rue Taitbolit "Esther coumnot 
 
 look upon the scene of her pasf^^^^^wiW^it 
 the most painful emotions. She lay upon a divan, 
 motionless, and dried her tears one by one without 
 hearing a word of the passionate phrases of love 
 which the banker poured forth. He knelt at her 
 feet ; she gave no heed ; she let him keep her hands 
 when he took them, yet she was ignorant, as it were,
 
 IN THE RUE BARBETTE 
 
 "Pe off, you file seller of human vlcsh. You 
 Kaff your money. To not zloppcr ofer zis vlower 
 6 f l u ff" cried the banker, balancing his account for 
 all the indignities lie had swallowed by this savage 
 apostrophe. 
 
 "You old blackguard, you shall pay for your 
 words /" exclaimed Asia, menacing the banker with 
 a gesture ivort/iy of the fish-market, that made him 
 shrug his shoulders.
 
 VA 
 
 \\Ti
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 249 
 
 even of the sex of the creature who was warming 
 her feet, which he had discovered to be very cold. 
 She continued to weep burning tears over the baron's 
 head, and he to rub her ice-cold feet from midnight 
 until two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 "Ichenie, " said the baron at length, summoning 
 Europe, "dry to eentuce your misdress to go to 
 bett." 
 
 "No," cried Esther, springing to her feet like a 
 frightened deer, "never here." 
 
 "Wait, sir; I know my mistress; she is meek and 
 gentle as a lamb," said Europe to the banker. 
 "Only don't oppose her too abruptly; you must 
 influence her gradually. She has been so unhappy 
 here! See how worn the furniture is! Let her 
 have her own way. Have some charming little 
 house furnished for her as prettily as can be. 
 Perhaps, when she sees everything about her quite 
 changed she will be changed too. Perhaps she will 
 think you better than you are and will be heavenly 
 sweet. Oh ! she has not her peer ! And you can 
 boast of having made a most admirable purchase: a 
 kind heart, pretty manners, a delicate instep, such 
 a complexion, and such a color ! Ah ! and wit to 
 make a man laugh at the gallows' foot. She is 
 capable of attachment, too and how well she knows 
 what becomes her ! Then, if she is expensive, a 
 man, as they say, gets something for his money. 
 Here, all her gowns are attached, so her clothes are 
 three months behind the style. But she is so good 
 that I love her myself, though she is my mistress.
 
 250 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 But try to be reasonable, and think what it is for 
 such d woman as she to see herself in the midst of 
 furniture that has been attached and for whom? 
 For a miserable wretch who has tossed her aside. 
 Poor little woman! she's no longer herself." 
 
 ' ' Esder, Esder, ' ' murmured the baron. ' ' Go to bett, 
 my anchel. Ah ! eef eet ees I zat you vear, I zhall not 
 zdir vrom zis zova," he cried, burning with the purest 
 love as he looked at Esther, who was always weeping. 
 
 "Then," answered Esther, as she took the baron's 
 hand and kissed it with a tender expression of 
 gratitude that made something very like a tear 
 gather in the lynx's eye, "I am very grateful." 
 
 And, running into her bed-room, she closed the 
 door behind her. 
 
 "Zere ees zometing inexblicable in dis," thought 
 Nucingen in his excitement. "Vat vill zey zay at 
 home?" 
 
 He got up and looked out of the window : 
 
 "Mein garriage ees zdill zere. Ze tay vill preak 
 zoon." 
 
 He walked up and down the room. 
 
 "How Montame te Nichinguenne vould make vun 
 of me, eef zhe zhould efer know how I haf bassed 
 zis night." 
 
 He felt as if he had acted foolishly, and pressed 
 his ear against the bed-room door. 
 
 "Esder!" 
 
 No answer. 
 
 "Mein Gott! zhe ees sdill grying," said he, as 
 he walked across the room and lay down on the sofa.
 
 Some ten minutes after sunrise the Baron de 
 Nucingen, who had been lying stretched upon a sofa 
 in a restless and unnatural sleep, was startled by 
 Europe from a dream such as comes to a man under 
 such circumstances, full of those swift combinations 
 that are one of the inexplicable phenomena of medi- 
 cal physiology. 
 
 "Ah, heavens!" cried she. "Madame! Soldiers! 
 Gendarmes ! The law ! They are going to arrest 
 us" 
 
 At the moment that Esther opened her door and 
 appeared, ill-covered by her dressing-gown, her bare 
 feet in slippers, her hair floating loose, so beautiful 
 that the angel Raphael would have lost heaven for 
 her sake, five unclean wretches burst in through the 
 parlor door and advanced toward the heavenly 
 creature as she stood like an angel in some religious 
 picture of the Flemish school. A man stepped for- 
 ward Contenson; the horrid Contenson laid his 
 hand on Esther's moist shoulder. 
 
 "You are Mademoiselle Esther van " he said. 
 
 With a single blow upon Contenson' s cheek 
 Europe sent him sprawling his whole length on the 
 floor, making use at the same time of the well- 
 known boxing trick to administer to him a sharp 
 (251)
 
 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 kick in the legs, known to those who practice boxing 
 in France. 
 
 ' ' Back !' ' she shrieked. ' ' Hands off my mistress !' ' 
 
 "She has broken my leg," groaned Contenson, 
 rising with difficulty; "she shall pay for it" 
 
 From out of the mass of five bailiffs, in bailiff's 
 uniform, with hideous hats cocked upon their yet 
 more hideous heads of streaked mahogany, with 
 leering eyes, mutilated noses and grinning mouths, 
 stepped Louchard dressed more decently than his 
 men, but with his hat still on his head and an 
 expression at once derisive and conciliating. 
 
 "Mademoiselle, 1 arrest you," said he to Esther; 
 "and as for you, woman," he added, turning toward 
 Europe, "if you are refractory you will be punished, 
 and all resistance is useless." 
 
 The rattle of guns as their butts fell upon the 
 marble tiles of the dining-room and hall, announced 
 that there was another force outside, and lent 
 emphasis to this speech. 
 
 "And why arrest me?" asked Esther innocently. 
 
 "Our little debt," answered Louchard. 
 
 "Ah! it's true!" exclaimed Esther. "Let me 
 dress. ' ' 
 
 "I am sorry, mademoiselle, but I must first make 
 sure that you have no means of escape in your bed- 
 room," said Louchard. 
 
 Everything had passed so rapidly that the baron 
 had not yet had time to interfere. 
 
 "Veil, I am noweine zeller of human vlesh, Paron 
 te Nichiguenne!" cried the terrible Asia, as she
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 253 
 
 glided past the bailiffs to the divan, pretending to 
 be surprised at discovering the banker there. 
 
 "File wredch," exclaimed Nucingen, drawing 
 himself up in all his financial majesty. The next 
 instant he threw himself between Esther and Lou- 
 chard, who took off his hat at an exclamation from 
 Contenson. 
 
 "Baron de Nucingen!" 
 
 At a gesture from Louchard, the bailiffs withdrew 
 from the room, uncovering their heads respectfully 
 as they went Contenson alone remained. 
 
 "Will you pay, baron?" inquired the detective, 
 his hat in his hand. 
 
 "I bay," answered he, "put I muss know vat 
 eet ees all apout" 
 
 "Three hundred and twelve thousand francs and 
 some centimes, expenses paid; but this does not 
 include the arrest" 
 
 "Dree huntert tausent vrancs!" cried the baron. 
 "Zat ees doo tear ein avakening vor ein man who 
 has bassed ze night on a zofa," he added in a 
 whisper to Europe. 
 
 "Is this really the Baron de Nucingen?" asked 
 Europe of Louchard, accentuating her doubt with a 
 gesture that Mademoiselle du Pont, the latest sou- 
 brette of the Theatre Frangais, might have envied. 
 
 "Yes, mademoiselle," said Louchard. 
 
 "Yes," replied Contenson. 
 
 "I anzer vor her," said the baron, for Europe's 
 doubt touched him in a sensitive spot; "allow me 
 to sbeak ein vort to her."
 
 254 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Esther and her elderly lover went into the bed- 
 room. Louchard thought it necessary to press his 
 ear against the lock. 
 
 "I luff you petter zan my life, Esder; put vy gif 
 to your greditors money zat vould petter fit your 
 burse ? Go to brison, I vill go ant puy up zese hun- 
 tert tausent growns mit ein huntert tausent vrancs 
 ant you zhall haf dwo huntert tausent vrancs for 
 yourzelf." 
 
 "The scheme is useless," cried Louchard. "The 
 creditor is not in love with mademoiselle ! not he. 
 You understand? He wants more than ever since 
 he has learned that you were at her feet" 
 
 "You vool!" exclaimed Nucingen to Louchard, 
 opening the door to let him come into the room. 
 "You don't know vat you zay; I vill gif you dventy 
 ber zent eef you vill arranche ze avvair." 
 
 "Impossible, baron." 
 
 "What, sir, have you the heart to allow my mis- 
 tress to go to prison?" broke in Europe. "Do you 
 need my wages, my savings ? Take them, madame ; 
 I have forty thousand francs." 
 
 "Ah! my poor girl, I have never known you 
 before!" cried Esther, clasping Europe in her arms. 
 
 Europe burst into tears. 
 
 "I bay," said the baron, piteously drawing out a 
 memorandum book whence he took one of those 
 little squares of printed paper which the bank gives 
 to bankers, and upon which they have but to fill in 
 the desired sum clearly in figures to create drafts 
 payable to bearer.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 255 
 
 "It's no use, baron," said Louchard; "I have 
 orders not to receive payment except in gold and 
 silver specie ; but since it is you, I will be satis- 
 fied with bank notes." 
 
 "Der tefll!" cried the baron. "Zhow me your 
 varrants. ' ' 
 
 Contenson displayed three packages covered with 
 blue paper, which the baron took, still looking at 
 Contenson, in whose ear he whispered : 
 
 "You vould haf tone ein petter tay's vork py 
 varning me." 
 
 "Eh! did I know you were here?" answered the 
 detective, indifferent whether Louchard overheard 
 him or not "You are unfortunate in not keeping 
 me in your confidence. They are fleecing you," 
 added the profound philosopher, shrugging his 
 shoulders. 
 
 "Drue," thought the baron. "Ah! mein tar- 
 ling," he added aloud, his eyes fastened on the 
 drafts, although he was speaking to Esther, "you are 
 ze fictim of ein invernal sgountrel, of ein zvintler!" 
 
 "Oh, God! yes," said poor Esther, "yet he 
 loved me well!" 
 
 "Eef I hat known, I zhould haf but a varning, 
 indo your hants, not do bay." 
 
 "You are crazy, baron," said Louchard ; "there is 
 a second endorsee." 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "zere ees a zegont entorzee 
 Cerissed, a man to pe varnt against" 
 
 "He has a mental disorder, and is trying to make 
 a pun," said Contenson, smiling.
 
 256 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Will you write a line to your cashier, sir?" said 
 Louchard. "I'll despatch Contenson to him and go 
 myself to look after my people. It's growing late, 
 and everybody will know." 
 
 "Go, Gondenson!" cried Nucingen. "Meincazhier 
 lifes on ze gorner of ze Rie tes Madhirins and ze 
 Argate. Here ees an order zo zat he shall go to Ti 
 Dilet or to ze Kellers', in gase ve haf not dree hun- 
 tret tausent vrancs, vor our money ees all at ze 
 pank. Tress yourzelf, mein anchel," added he to 
 Esther, "you are vree. Olt vomen, " he exclaimed, 
 turning to Asia, "are more tancherous zan young 
 ones. ' ' 
 
 "I am going to put the creditor in a good humor 
 and he will give me something to amuse myself 
 with to-day," said Madame de Saint Esteve to Asia ; 
 then, with a mocking bow, added "/ pear no 
 maleece, paron ! ' ' 
 
 Louchard took his vouchers from the baron's 
 hands, and remained alone with him in the parlor, 
 where, half an hour afterward, the cashier returned, 
 followed by Contenson. A moment later Esther ap- 
 peared in a dress that was charming, although it had 
 been so hastily assumed. When the money had been 
 counted out by Louchard, the baron desired to ex- 
 amine the vouchers once more; but Esther seized 
 them with the quickness of a cat and laid them 
 away in her secretary. 
 
 "What are you going to give to the rabble, 
 baron?" asked Contenson of Nucingen. 
 
 "You haf nod peen ofer bolide," said the baron.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 257 
 
 "And what do you say to my leg?" cried Con- 
 tenson. 
 
 "Luchart, you vill gif Gondenson huntret vrancs 
 on ze palance of ze pill." 
 
 "Zheees eine peautiful voman !" said the cashier 
 to the Baron de Nucingen as they left the Rue Tait- 
 bout; "put she gosts Mennesir le Paron ferry tear." 
 
 "Geep my zecret," said the baron, who had also 
 enjoined secrecy on Contenson and on Louchard. 
 
 Louchard went away, followed by Contenson ; but 
 Asia, who was on the watch, stopped him on the 
 street. 
 
 "The bailiff and creditor are there in a cab; 
 they are thirsty," she said, "and there's grease to 
 be had." 
 
 While Louchard counted the bills, Contenson was 
 at liberty to examine the client He caught sight 
 of Carlos' eyes and distinguished the shape of his 
 forehead beneath the wig, which he judged rightly 
 to be a disguise ; he took the number of the cab 
 while seeming in perfect ignorance of everything 
 that went on about him. Asia and Europe puzzled 
 him to the last degree. He thought the baron a 
 victim of extraordinarily clever persons, and with 
 the more reason because Louchard had been 
 strangely reserved when he had demanded his 
 services; besides, Europe's blow had not struck 
 Contenson on the tibia alone. 
 
 "That shows she has been at Saint-Lazare," 
 said he, rising. 
 
 Carlos dismissed the bailiff, paid him generously, 
 17
 
 258 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 and said to the cabman as he handed him his 
 fare: 
 
 "Drive to the steps of the Palais Royal." 
 
 "Ah! in the morning?" thought Contenson, who 
 overheard the order. "Something's in the wind." 
 
 Carlos reached the Palais Royal at a pace which 
 gave him little to fear from followers. Then he 
 traversed the galleries, after his fashion, and taking 
 a second cab on the Place du Chateau-d'Eau, gave 
 his order to the coachman : 
 
 "Passage de 1'Opera, on the side towards the Rue 
 Pinon." 
 
 Fifteen minutes later he entered the Rue Tait- 
 bout. The moment that she saw him, Esther cried 
 out: 
 
 "Here are the fatal notes!" 
 
 Carlos took the drafts, examined them, and then 
 went to burn them in the kitchen fire. 
 
 "The game is played!" he cried, displaying the 
 three hundred and ten thousand francs rolled up in 
 a package which he produced from the pocket of 
 his greatcoat "These and the hundred thousand 
 francs that Asia got out of him enable us to act." 
 
 "My God! my God!" moaned poor Esther. 
 
 "Fool," said the savage calculator; "be but 
 ostensibly the mistress of Nucingen, and you will 
 be able to see Lucien; he is Nucingen's friend, and 
 I don't forbid you to love him." 
 
 Esther saw a faint glimmer of light through the 
 darkness of her life; she breathed again. 
 
 "Europe, my girl," said Carlos, drawing her into
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 259 
 
 a corner of the boudoir where no one could over- 
 hear a word of their conversation, "Europe, I am 
 pleased with you." 
 
 Europe raised her head and looked at him with 
 an expression which altered her faded countenance 
 to such a degree that Asia, who was watching the 
 scene from the doorway, wondered whether the 
 interests by which Carlos held Europe might not be 
 still deeper than those which riveted her to the 
 Spaniard. 
 
 "This is not all, my girl. Four hundred thousand 
 francs are nothing for me. Paccard will give you a 
 bill for the silver-plate amounting to thirty thousand 
 francs, on which there are certain receipts for partial 
 payments; but our jeweler, Biddin, has incurred 
 expenses. Our furniture which was seized by him 
 will doubtless be advertised to-morrow. Go and 
 see Biddin; he lives in the Rue de 1'Arbre-Sec; 
 he will give you certificates from the Mont de 
 Piete for ten thousand francs. You understand: 
 Esther has ordered a quantity of silver-plate and 
 has put it in pawn, although she has not paid for 
 it; she will be threatened with a trifling indictment 
 for fraud. Thus the jeweler must be given thirty 
 thousand francs and the Mont de Piete ten thousand 
 more in order to get back the plate. Total, forty- 
 three thousand francs, including expenses. The 
 plate is full of alloy, the baron will have it renewed, 
 and in this way we may be able to pick up a few 
 thousand-franc notes extra. You owe what to the 
 dressmaker for two years?"
 
 260 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Possibly six thousand francs," replied Europe. 
 
 1 ' Very well ; if Madame Auguste wishes to be paid 
 and to preserve her custom she must make a 
 memorandum of thirty thousand francs dating from 
 four years ago. The milliner must do the same. 
 The jeweler, Samuel Frisch, the Jew in the Rue 
 Sainte-Avoie, will lend you promissory notes; we 
 must owe him twenty-five thousand francs, and we 
 shall have had six thousand francs advanced on 
 our jewels at the Mont de Piete. We shall return 
 the jewels to the jeweler; the stones will be half 
 imitation, but the baron will never look at them. 
 Thus you will make our punter disgorge a hundred 
 and fifty thousand francs within a week." 
 
 "Madame ought to help me somewhat, " answered 
 Europe; "speak to her, for she sits there as though 
 she were struck dumb, and makes me exert more 
 wit than three authors do in a play." 
 
 "If Esther plays the prude, tell me," said Carlos. 
 "Nucingen owes her a carriage and pair; she 
 will prefer to choose and buy them herself. You 
 must select the horsedealer and carriagemaker with 
 whom Paccard lodges. We can buy handsome 
 horses of him at a high price; they will go lame 
 within the month and then we can change 
 them." 
 
 "We might make six thousand francs on a per- 
 fumer's bill," said Europe. 
 
 "No!" he answered, shaking his head, "gogently 
 on from one concession to another. Nucingen has 
 only put his arm in the machine; we must have his
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 261 
 
 head. Besides all this I need five hundred thousand 
 francs. ' ' 
 
 "You can have them, " replied Europe; "madame 
 could get about six hundred thousand out of the fat 
 imbecile by melting a little towards him, and then 
 ask four hundred for loving him." 
 
 "Listen to this, child," said Carlos; "the day 
 when I am in possession of the last hundred thou- 
 sand francs, there will be twenty thousand francs 
 for you. ' ' 
 
 "What good can they bring me?" said Europe, 
 letting her arms drop like a woman for whom life is 
 no longer possible. 
 
 "You can go back to Valenciennes, set yourself 
 up handsomely in business and become an honest 
 woman if you like; there are all sorts of tastes in 
 the world. Paccard thinks of it sometimes ; there 
 is no brand on his shoulders and almost none on 
 his conscience. You might suit each other, " replied 
 Carlos. 
 
 "Back to Valenciennes! Do you think of it, 
 sir?" cried Europe, startled. 
 
 Born at Valenciennes, the daughter of two poor 
 weavers, Europe was sent, at the age of seven, to a 
 cotton manufactory, where modern industry abused 
 her physical strength, and vice degraded her before 
 her time. Seduced at twelve and a mother at 
 thirteen, she became bound to persons living in the 
 depths of degradation. In a trial for murder, she 
 was summoned as a witness before the court of 
 assizes, and at sixteen she was induced, by a
 
 262 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 remnant of right feeling and by the terror that sur- 
 rounds the law, to secure, by her testimony, the 
 condemnation of the accused to twenty years at 
 hard labor. The criminal, one of those men whose 
 very natures are fed by a passion for revenge when 
 they are beneath the hand of justice, had said to 
 the child in the presence of the entire court: 
 
 " In ten years, as now, Prudence Europe's name 
 was Prudence Servien I shall return to kill you 
 were I to be guillotined for it." 
 
 The president of the court endeavored to comfort 
 Prudence Servien by promising her the support 
 and influence of the law; but the poor girl was 
 struck with such terror that she fell ill and remained 
 for nearly a year in the hospital. Justice is a 
 creation of the brain, represented by a collection 
 of individuals, uninterruptedly renewed, whose 
 memories and good intentions are like themselves, 
 excessively changeable. Bars and tribunals can do 
 nothing to prevent crime. They are invented to 
 accept it when it is already in existence. On this 
 account a preventive police would be a benefit to 
 the country; but the word "police" alarms the 
 legislator of to-day, who is no longer able to distin- 
 guish between the words, " 'to govern, " "to adminis- 
 trate, " and "to make laws. " The legislator strives 
 to concentrate all power in the State, as though the 
 State were able to act! Then the galley-slave is 
 free to meditate upon his victim and to wreak his 
 revenge, since justice thinks of neither. Prudence, 
 who had a general instinctive idea of her danger,
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 263 
 
 left Valenciennes, and at seventeen went to Paris 
 to hide herself. There she practiced four trades 
 of which the most respectable was that of chorus 
 girl in a small theatre. She met Paccard and told 
 him the story of her misfortunes. Paccard, the 
 right arm, the zealot of Jacques Collin, spoke of 
 Prudence to his master, and when the master had 
 need of a slave, he said to Prudence : 
 
 "If you will serve me as men serve the devil, I 
 will rid you of Durut" 
 
 Durut was the galley-slave, the sword of Damocles 
 suspended above the head of Prudence Servien. 
 Without these details many critics would have 
 found Europe's attachment to her master somewhat 
 fantastical, and no reader could have understood the 
 extraordinary effect which Carlos was about to pro- 
 duce upon her. 
 
 "Yes, child, you can return to Valenciennes. 
 Take this and read it" 
 
 And he handed her the journal of the evening 
 before, pointing with his finger to the following 
 paragraph : 
 
 "Toulon. Yesterday took place the execution of 
 Jean Francois Durut In the morning the garrison, ' ' 
 etc. 
 
 Prudence let the paper fall. Her legs gave way 
 beneath the weight of her body. Life was once 
 more before her ; for, as she said, she had not cared 
 for bread since the menace of Durut 
 
 "You see, I have kept my word. I needed four 
 years to secure Durut's execution by drawing him
 
 264 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 into a trap. Finish my work well here, and 
 you will find yourself at the head of a small 
 business in your own country, with twenty thou- 
 sand francs in your pocket and Paccard for a hus- 
 band; for I shall allow him to retreat into 
 respectability." 
 
 Europe picked up the paper and read unweariedly 
 with glistening eyes every one of those details 
 which the newspapers have never wearied of giving 
 concerning the execution of galley-slaves during the 
 past twenty years the impressive spectacle, the 
 priest who has always absolved the sufferer, the old 
 criminal exhorting his ex-colleagues, the leveled 
 guns, the kneeling criminals; then the commonplace 
 reflections that never do anything toward changing 
 the system of the galleys swarming with eighteen 
 thousand crimes. 
 
 "Asia must be reinstated in the house," said 
 Carlos. 
 
 Asia stepped forward, still mystified by Europe's 
 pantomime. 
 
 "In order to have her installed as cook here, you 
 will begin by serving the baron a dinner such as he 
 has never eaten before, ' ' he continued. ' ' Then you 
 will tell him that Asia has lost her money at play, 
 and has been obliged to take a situation again. 
 We shall need no groom. Paccard will be coach- 
 man; coachmen are rarely obliged to leave their 
 seats and once in them they are scarcely accessible, 
 so detectives will find him difficult to reach. Your 
 mistress must make him wear a powdered wig and
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 265 
 
 a cocked felt hat with lace trimmings. That will 
 alter him; besides I'll make him up." 
 
 "Are we to have other servants with us?" de- 
 manded Asia, glancing askance at the priest 
 
 "We shall have several honest people," replied 
 Carlos. 
 
 "All numskulls!" added the mulatto. 
 
 "If the baron rents a house, Paccard has a friend 
 who is suitable for janitor; we shall not need more 
 than one valet and a kitchen-maid. It will be easy 
 for you to watch two strangers. ' ' 
 
 As Carlos was about to go, Paccard appeared. 
 
 "Stay here, there are people in the street," said 
 the groom. This speech, simple as it was, startled 
 everybody. Carlos went upstairs to Europe's room 
 and remained there until Paccard came for him in 
 a hired carriage, which drove into the courtyard. 
 Carlos lowered the curtains and was carried away 
 at a pace well calculated to disconcert pursuit 
 
 When he reached the Faubourg Saint-Antoine he 
 ordered the carriage to stop in the neighborhood of a 
 cab-stand, whither he walked on foot and soon after 
 entered the Quais Malaquais, secure from all curious 
 observation. 
 
 "Look here, child," said he to Lucien, showing 
 him four hundred bills of one thousand francs each ; 
 "this, I hope, goes on account for the price of the 
 Rubempre estate. We'll speculate with a hundred 
 thousand of it Omnibuses have just been started 
 in Paris. The Parisians are sure to take to them, 
 as they are a novelty; in three months we shall
 
 266 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 triple our funds. I know all about the business; 
 they will pay splendid dividends out of the capital 
 in order to advertise the stock a trick they learned 
 from Nucingen. When we repair the Rubempre 
 estate we shall not pay for everything immediately. 
 You must go and see des Lupeaulx and you beg 
 him to recommend you himself to an attorney named 
 Desroches, a shrewd devil whom you will visit at 
 his office. You will speak to him about going to 
 Rubempre and examining the estate and will promise 
 him twenty thousand francs for himself, provided 
 that he can buy land about the ruins of the chateau 
 to the amount of eight hundred thousand francs, 
 and arrange matters so that it will bring you in an 
 income of thirty thousand francs." 
 
 "How you go on! on! on!" 
 
 "I never stop. It's no time for joking. You will 
 invest three hundred thousand francs of it in 
 Treasury bonds so as not to lose any interest You 
 may leave them with Desroches. He's as honest 
 as he is cunning. This done, you must hurry away 
 to Angouleme, and induce your sister and brother- 
 in-law to lay a friendly little lie upon their con- 
 sciences. Your relations can declare that they have 
 presented you with six hundred thousand francs in 
 order to facilitate your marriage with Clotilde de 
 Grandlieu. There's nothing dishonorable in that " 
 
 "We're saved!" cried Lucien, dazzled at the 
 thought 
 
 "You, yes!" answered Carlos; "but you will 
 never be perfectly secure until you come forth from
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 267 
 
 Saint Thomas Aquinas' with Clotilde as your 
 wife." 
 
 "What do you fear?" inquired Lucien, apparently 
 full of solicitude for his counsellor. 
 
 "There are busy-bodies on my trail. I am forced 
 to maintain the appearance of a real priest and it's 
 very troublesome. The devil even won't protect 
 me any more when he sees me with a breviary 
 under my arm." 
 
 At this same moment the Baron de Nucingen, 
 who had walked away arm in arm with his cashier, 
 reached the door of his mansion. 
 
 "1 vear much," said he as he entered, "zat I haf 
 mate put a zorry gampaign. Pah ! ve vill mague 
 ub vor eet" 
 
 "Ze meesvortune ees zat ze paron vill pe dalked 
 apout," answered the honest German, anxious only 
 for decorum's sake. 
 
 "Yes, meine misdress, py rights, zhould pe in a 
 bozission vorthy of me," answered this Louis XIV. 
 of the counting-house.
 
 Confident of possessing Esther sooner or later, 
 the baron became once more the great financier 
 which he had been. He returned to the manage- 
 ment of his business with such alacrity that his 
 cashier, on discovering him the next morning at six 
 o'clock in his office, looking over papers, rubbed his 
 hands together in delight 
 
 "Tecitetly, paron, lasd efening vas egonomigal 
 vor you," said he, with a German smile, half 
 shrewd, half foolish. 
 
 If rich people like the Baron de Nucingen have 
 more chances than others of losing money they have 
 also more chances of winning it, even when they 
 surrender themselves to their passions. Although 
 explanation of the financial policy of the celebrated 
 house of Nucingen will be found elsewhere, it may be 
 observed here that such vast fortunes are not acquired 
 or made, and do not increase or endure, in the 
 midst of the commercial, political and industrial 
 revolutions of our time, without immense losses of 
 capital, or, if you like, without levying assessments 
 upon private property. Very little new wealth is 
 poured into the common treasury of the world. 
 Every fresh monopoly represents a new injustice in 
 the general redistribution. The State gives back 
 what it demands, but what a house of Nucingen 
 (269)
 
 270 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 takes, it keeps. This terrible blow at the nation 
 eludes the law for the same reason that Frederick 
 II. would have turned into a Jacques Collin or a 
 Mandrin, if, instead of battling for provinces he had 
 speculated in the smuggling trade or on floating 
 capital. To compel the states of Europe to borrow 
 at ten or twenty per cent, to gain this ten or twenty 
 per cent from the public funds, to exact wholesale 
 contributions from the industries of the country by 
 securing complete control of raw materials, to toss to 
 the originator of an undertaking a rope holding him 
 above water until he has resuscitated his half- 
 drowned enterprise, in short all those struggles for 
 financial success, constitute the vital policy of 
 money. There are surely risks for the banker as 
 well as for the conqueror; but there are so few 
 people in a position to engage in these contests that 
 the lambs have no place in them. The shepherds 
 play the great parts. Besides, as the executes (to use 
 the slang word current in the Exchange) are guilty of 
 having wished to gain too much, but little interest 
 is taken in the misfortunes caused by the schemes 
 of men like Nucingen. A speculator blows out his 
 brains, a broker absconds, a notary runs away with 
 the money of a hundred households a worse crime 
 than murder a banker becomes insolvent: and all 
 these catastrophes are forgotten in a few months at 
 Paris, soon covered by the oceanic turmoil of the 
 mighty city. The colossal fortunes of Jacques Coeur, 
 of the Medici, of Ango of Dieppe, of Aufredi of La 
 Rochelle, of Fugger, of Tiepolo, and of Corner were
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 271 
 
 honestly made in former times, through privileges 
 due to ignorance in regard to the origin of all 
 precious commodities; while to-day clearness of 
 vision has penetrated so far among the masses, and 
 competition has reduced the profits to such a degree 
 that every fortune, rapidly built, is the effect of a 
 chance discovery, or the result of a legal theft. Per- 
 verted by scandalous examples, petty trade has 
 responded, especially during the past decade, to the 
 dishonesty of the schemes of larger firms by tamper- 
 ing with raw materials. Wherever chemistry is 
 practiced wine is no longer drunk; and the culture 
 of vines is falling into disuse. People sell adulter- 
 ated salt in order to escape a tax. The law is 
 appalled by this universal fraudulence, French com- 
 merce is suspected by the entire world, and England 
 is equally demoralized. In France, the evil comes 
 from political legislation. The charter proclaimed 
 the reign of money, and thus success becomes the 
 highest criterion of an atheistic age. In addition to 
 this, corruption in the higher spheres, in spite of 
 results that are outwardly brilliant and specious 
 reasoning, is infinitely more hideous than the 
 ignoble, almost personal, corruption in the lower 
 spheres, a few details of which add a grotesque, or 
 I might say a terrible element to this "Scene of 
 Parisian Life." The government that takes fright 
 at every new idea, has banished from the theatre 
 all comic representations of what actually exists 
 to-day. The townspeople, less liberal than Louis 
 XIV., tremble at the approach of the Manage de
 
 2/2 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Figaro, forbid the performance of the political Tar- 
 tuffe, and surely would never permit Turcaret on 
 the stage. For Turcaret now reigns supreme. 
 From this time comedy is told, not played ; and the 
 book becomes the less rapid but surer arm of a poet. 
 
 During this morning, in the midst of the going 
 and coming of audiences, directions and rapid con- 
 ferences, which made Nucingen's office a kind of 
 financial Salle des pas Perdus, one of his brokers 
 announced to him the disappearance of one of the 
 cleverest and richest members of the firm, Jacques 
 Falleix, brother of Martin Falleix, and successor of 
 Jules Desmarets. Jacques Falleix was nominally 
 a broker employed by the firm of Nucingen, but, in 
 concert with Du Tillet and the Kellers, the baron 
 had plotted his destruction as deliberately as 
 if he were discussing the slaughter of a Paschal 
 lamb. 
 
 "He coult holt oud no longer," answered the 
 baron complacently. 
 
 Jacques Falleix had rendered vast services in 
 stock jobbing. In a crisis, a few months before, he 
 had helped the firm out of serious difficulty by an 
 audacious manoeuvre ; but to expect gratitude from 
 men of Nucingen's class is it not like looking in mid- 
 winter for tenderness among Ukrainian wolves? 
 
 ' ' Poor man !' ' returned the broker. ' ' He expected 
 this catastrophe so little that he had furnished a 
 small house in the Rue Saint Georges for his mis- 
 tress and spent a hundred and fifty thousand francs 
 in paintings and furniture for it. He was so fond
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 273 
 
 of Madame du Val Noble! There's a woman forced 
 to leave it all. Everything there is owed for." 
 
 "Gut! gut!" said the baron to himself. "Zis 
 ees chust ze chance to rebair my loszes of lasd 
 night. He has baid vor nodding?" demanded he 
 of the broker. 
 
 "Not he," replied the latter; "what upholsterer 
 would have been idiot enough to refuse credit to 
 Jacques Falleix? It seems that there is an admira- 
 ble cellar too. By the bye, the house is for sale ; 
 he counted upon buying it The lease is in his 
 name. What stupidity ! Silver, furniture, wines, 
 carriage, horses, will all be sold wholesale, and 
 what will the creditors realize?" 
 
 "Gome do-morrow," said Nucingen; "I zhall haf 
 zeen to all zat, ant eef zey ton't teclare pankrubtzy, 
 but gonzent to arranche madders amigably, I 
 autorize you to ovver ein reasonaple brice vor ze 
 vurnidure, ant you may dake ze leaze." 
 
 "That's easily done," said the broker. "Go there 
 this morning and you will find one of Falleix's 
 partners there with the upholsterers, who are 
 anxious to secure the proceeds of the sale; but 
 Madame Val Noble holds their invoices in Falleix's 
 name." 
 
 The Baron de Nucingen despatched a clerk forth- 
 with to his notary. Jacques Falleix had spoken 
 to him about this house which was worth, at the 
 most, sixty thousand francs; and he wished to take 
 immediate possession for the sake of enjoying a 
 landlord's privileges in regard to the rents. 
 
 18
 
 2/4 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 The cashier honest man that he was! came to 
 ask whether his master had lost anything in Falleix's 
 failure. 
 
 "On ze gondrairy, mein gut vriend Volfgang, I 
 am going to make ein huntert tausand vrancs. " 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "I zhall haf ze leetle house zat ze boor tefil Valleix 
 has peen brebaring vor his misdress vor ze bast 
 year. I zhall haf ze whole py ovvering ze greditors 
 feefty tausand vrancs ant Masder Gartod, mein 
 nodary, vill haf mein orters apoud ze house, vor ze 
 brobrietor is een neet of money. I neu eet pivore 
 put mein prain hat gone. Een a leetle vhile meine 
 tifme Esder vill haf ein leetle balace. Valleix has 
 daken me zere, eet ees ein miragle and gloze py. 
 Zis veets me like ein glov." 
 
 Falleix's failure obliged the baron to go to the 
 Stock Exchange; but it was impossible for him to 
 leave the Rue Saint Lazare without passing through 
 the Rue Taitbout. He was already suffering because 
 he had been for a few hours absent from Esther, 
 and longed to have her always at his side. The gains 
 which he counted upon making from the spoils of his 
 broker made him think very lightly of the loss of four 
 hundred thousand francs that he had encountered. 
 Enchanted with the thought of announcing to his 
 anchel the news of her approaching translation from 
 the Rue Taitbout to the Rue Saint Georges, where 
 she should have ein leetle balace, in which memories 
 could no longer obscure their happiness, the very 
 paving stones felt soft beneath his feet, and he
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 275 
 
 walked like a young man in a young man's dream. 
 At the corner of the Rue des Trois-Freres, in the 
 middle of his dream, the baron saw himself con- 
 fronted by Europe, who was approaching with a 
 very forlorn countenance. 
 
 "Vere are you coing?" he asked. 
 
 " Ah ! I was on my way to your house, sir. You 
 were quite right, yesterday! Now, I believe it 
 would have been better if my poor mistress had gone 
 to prison for a few days. What do women know 
 about money matters ? The moment her creditors 
 learned that she had returned to her house they all 
 swooped down on us like birds of prey. Yesterday 
 evening at seven they came and pasted up hideous 
 placards saying that her furniture was to be sold 
 next Saturday. But this is nothing. My mistress, 
 who is all kindness, once wished to assist that 
 monster you know whom I mean?" 
 
 "Vat monsder?" 
 
 "Oh, the one she loved, that d'Estourny; ah! 
 he was fascinating, but he gambled, and that tells 
 the story." 
 
 "He gampled mit markt gards " 
 
 "Well, and what do you do at the Stock Exchange ? 
 But let me go on. One day, to prevent Georges from 
 blowing out his brains, as he said he should do, she 
 put all her silver and jewels in pawn at the Mont 
 de Piete though they had never been paid for. The 
 creditors learned that she had paid something on a 
 debt, and they all flocked to the house and made a 
 dreadful scene. They threatened her with the
 
 276 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 police court your angel sitting in the dock! Isn't 
 that enough to make a wig stand on end? She 
 bursts into tears; talks of throwing herself into the 
 river. Oh! she'll do it" 
 
 "Eef I am to zee you, gut-pye to ze Exchange!" 
 cried Nucingen. "Ant eet ees imbossiple vor me 
 not to go zere, vor I zhall make zometing vor her. 
 Go ant galm her; I vill bay her tets; I zhall zee 
 her ad vour o'glock. Put, Ichenie, dell me zat zhe 
 luffs me ein leetle. " 
 
 "What! a little? A great deal. Why, sir, 
 nothing but generosity can win a woman's heart. 
 Certainly you might have economized perhaps 
 a hundred thousand francs by letting her go 
 to prison. But then you never could have 
 gained her heart. She said to me, 'Eugenie, he 
 is very generous, very kind. He has a noble 
 soul!'" 
 
 "Zhesaitzat, Ichenie?" cried the baron. 
 
 "Yes, sir, to me." 
 
 "Here are den louis, dake zem. " 
 
 "Thank you. But she is crying at this moment. 
 Since yesterday she has wept as many tears as 
 Mary Magdalene wept in a month. The woman 
 you love is in despair, and, worse than all, for debts 
 which are not her own. Oh ! what creatures men 
 are! They are as content to live on a woman's 
 bounty as a woman is to live upon an old man's!" 
 
 "Vimen are all alike! Bromising to bay. Eef 
 she vill zign nodding more I bay, put eef zhe write 
 anodder signature, 1 "
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 277 
 
 "What would you do?" said Europe, striking an 
 attitude. 
 
 "Mem Gott, I haf no bower ofer her. I vill 
 look avder her leetle pizness. Co ant gonzole her 
 and dell her zat in ein month zhe zhall haf ein leetle 
 balace. " 
 
 "You have invested at a high rate of interest in 
 a woman's heart, baron. Even I can see that you 
 have grown younger, though I am but a lady's 
 maid; I have often witnessed this phenomenon. It 
 is happiness! Happiness is reflected in a man's 
 face. If you have made several disbursements don't 
 regret them, you will see what they bring you in 
 return. Then, as I told my mistress, she would be 
 the lowest of the low a monster, if she did not 
 love you, for you are saving her from a hell. Once 
 that she is free from care, you will know her as 
 she is. Between you and me, I can promise you, 
 the night when she wept so much but what can 
 you expect? A woman clings to the esteem of a 
 man who is going to support her. She dared not 
 tell you all. She wished to run away," 
 
 "Run avay!" exclaimed the baron, startled at 
 the thought "Put ze Exchange, ze Exchange. 
 Go, go, I zhall not go een ; put eef I vere to zee 
 her at her vindowze zight vould gif me new heart" 
 
 Esther smiled at Monsieur de Nucingen as he 
 passed before the house and he walked clumsily 
 along, saying to himself: 
 
 "Zhe ees eine anchel." 
 
 This was the measure Europe had taken to procure
 
 278 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 an impossible result. Toward half past two 
 Esther had finished attiring herself as she used to 
 do when she expected Lucien. She was fascinat- 
 ing. Seeing her thus Prudence exclaimed with a 
 glance toward the window : 
 
 "Here he comes!" 
 
 The poor girl thinking that it was Lucien, sprang 
 forward and saw Nucingen. 
 
 "Ah, how you hurt me!" she said. 
 
 "It was the only way to make you appear atten- 
 tive to a poor old man who is going to pay all your 
 debts," answered Europe; "for, at length, they are 
 really to be paid." 
 
 "What debts ?' ' cried the girl, who had no thought 
 but to hold fast the love which cruel hands sought 
 to tear from her. 
 
 "Those which M. Carlos has made for you." 
 
 "What! They amount to more than four hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand francs already!" exclaimed 
 Esther. 
 
 "They still amount to a hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand francs. But the baron has borne it all very 
 well. He is going to take you away from here and 
 place you een ein leetle Palace. Heavens ! you are 
 not unlucky! If I were in your place, and had him 
 so firmly in hand, after satisfying Carlos, I should 
 have myself presented with a house and an income. 
 You are certainly the most beautiful woman I have 
 ever seen and the most attractive, but ugliness comes 
 so quickly; I have been fresh and pretty myself, 
 and look at me now! I am twenty-three, almost as
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 279 
 
 young as you, and I seem ten years older. An ill- 
 ness is enough. But when a woman has a house in 
 Paris and an income, she is in no danger of ending 
 her life on the street." 
 
 Esther no longer heard Europe-Eugenie-Prudence 
 Servien. The will of a man gifted with the genius 
 of corruption had plunged her once again into the 
 mire, with the same force which he had used to draw 
 her thence. They who know love in its infinitude 
 know no one can enjoy its pleasures without learn- 
 ing some of its virtues. Since the scene in her 
 squalid room in the Rue de Langlade, Esther had 
 forgotten her old life completely. Until now she 
 had loved very virtuously, cloistered within her pas- 
 sion. In order to avoid every obstacle the wise 
 corrupter had had the craft to lay his toils in such a 
 way that the poor girl, spurred on by her devotion, 
 was forced into giving her consent to roguery that 
 was already consummated or on the point of con- 
 summation. This nicety of cunning reveals the 
 genius of the corrupter, and indicates the method by 
 which he had overcome Lucien. He had created 
 terrible necessities, had dug the mine, filled it with 
 powder, and at the critical moment said to the 
 accomplice: "Give the sign and everything will be 
 blown into the air !" Esther had been formerly im- 
 bued with the morality of a courtesan, and had found 
 all these pleasing modes so natural that she estimated 
 her rivals solely by the sums they could induce a man 
 to spend upon them. Ruined fortunes are the chev- 
 rons of creatures such as she had been. Carlos, in
 
 280 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 counting upon Esther's remembrances, was not de- 
 ceived. These stratagems and artifices of war, a 
 thousand times employed by spendthrifts as well as 
 by the women of her class, did not disturb Esther's 
 mind. The poor girl felt nothing but her degradation. 
 She adored Lucien, and had become the ostensible 
 mistress of the Baron de Nucingen ; that was her 
 sorrow. That the counterfeit Spaniard had taken 
 the earnest money ; that Lucien was building the 
 castle of his fortune with the stones of Esther's 
 tomb ; that a single night of pleasure should cost 
 the old banker a few thousand-franc notes more or 
 less, or that Europe should trick him out of some 
 hundred thousand francs by methods more or less 
 ingenious: no thoughts such as these entered the 
 mind of the loving girl. This was the canker eat- 
 ing at her heart; for five years she had thought 
 herself spotless as an angel. She loved, she was 
 happy. She had not been guilty of the slightest 
 infidelity. This pure exquisite love was to be soiled. 
 Her mind did not draw a contrast between the fair 
 secluded life she had led and the impure life which 
 lay before her. Her feeling was distinct from cal- 
 culation or poetical feeling. She was conscious of 
 an indefinable and overwhelming sense that from 
 white she had become black; from pure, impure; 
 from noble, ignoble. She longed to be white as 
 snow, and moral stain seemed insupportable. Thus, 
 when the baron had spoken to her of his love, 
 the thought of throwing herself out of the window 
 had come into her mind. She had loved Lucien
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 28 1 
 
 absolutely as a woman is rarely capable of loving a 
 man. Women who say, and often think they love more 
 than anybody else in the world, dance, waltz, flirt, 
 with other men, dress for society, and go thither to 
 reap their harvest of admiring glances ; but Esther 
 had accomplished the miracles of true love without 
 self-sacrifice. For six years she had loved Lucien 
 with the love of actresses and courtesans, who, after 
 having been immersed in filth and impurity, thirst 
 after the nobleness and the devotion of true love, 
 and observe it in its exclusiveness, if I may use this 
 word to express an idea that is so seldom put into 
 practice ; nations of the past, Greece, Rome and the 
 East have always secluded their women ; the woman 
 who loves should seclude herself. Thus the reader 
 can imagine that, on leaving the fairy palace which 
 had been the scene of her happy romance, to enter 
 the leette balace of a cold old man, Esther was seized 
 by a kind of moral illness. Pressed down by an 
 iron hand she was half sunk in infamy before she 
 had had time to reflect; now for two days she had 
 been reflecting and her heart felt cold as death. 
 
 At the words, "ending on the street," she rose 
 quickly and said: 
 
 "In the street? No, better end in the Seine." 
 
 "In the Seine? And how about M. Lucien?" said 
 Europe. 
 
 At this single word Esther fell backward into her 
 chair where she sat with her eyes fixed upon a 
 flower in the carpet, her tears drying up in her 
 burning brain. At four o'clock, Nucingen found his
 
 282 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 angel plunged in that ocean of reflections and of reso- 
 lutions on which a woman's spirit floats, and from 
 which her only escape lies in words that are incom- 
 prehensible to those who have not sailed upon the 
 same seas. 
 
 "Clear your prow, meine bet," said the baron as 
 he took his seat by her side; "youzhallhaf no more 
 tets. I zhall make ein arranchement mit Ichenie 
 ant in ein month you vill leaf zis abardmend do 
 ender ein leetle balace. Oh, vat eine luffly hant! 
 gif eet to me zat I may kees eet. Esther let him 
 take her hand as a dog gives its paw. Ah! you 
 gif ze hant ant not ze heard, ant eet's ze heard zat I 
 luff." 
 
 These words were spoken with so sincere an ac- 
 cent that poor Esther turned her eyes toward the old 
 man with an expression of pity that almost crazed 
 him. Like martyrs, lovers are conscious of a kin- 
 ship with all who suffer. One sorrow under- 
 stands another better than any other two feelings 
 in the world. 
 
 "Poor man!" said she. "He loves." 
 
 The baron heard this word and misunderstood it 
 He grew pale; the blood boiled in his veins; he 
 breathed the air of heaven. At his age, millionaires 
 pay as much gold as a woman asks for a sensation 
 such as this. 
 
 "I luff you as I luff my taughder!" he exclaimed. 
 "Ant I veel zere," he added, laying his hand on 
 his heart, "zat I gannot pear to zee you oddervise 
 zan habby. "
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 283 
 
 "If you only wished to be my father, I would 
 love you dearly ; I would never leave you and you 
 would find that I am not wicked, venal nor selfish as 
 I seem to be now. ' ' 
 
 "You haf peen voolish, like all breddy vomen," 
 answered the baron; "zat ees all. Led's dalk 
 no more apout eet; our own pizness ees to 
 mague money vor you. Pe habby; I reely 
 vish to pe your vader for a vew tays, vor you 
 must haf dime to aggusdom yourselve to mein boor 
 gargase. ' ' 
 
 "Honestly?" cried Esther, rising and springing 
 upon Nucingen's knees and slipping her arm around 
 his neck in a close embrace. 
 
 "Honesdly," he answered, trying to contract his 
 features into a smile. 
 
 She kissed his forehead, believing in an impossibil- 
 ity : to stay pure and to see Lucien. She caressed 
 the baron so tenderly that La Torpille revived. 
 
 She bewitched the old man and he promised to 
 remain her father for forty days. These forty days 
 were required for the purchase and the furnishing of 
 the house in the Rue Saint Georges. Once in the 
 street, on his homeward way, the baron said to him- 
 self, " 1 am ein ass." 
 
 It was true that although he acted as a child in 
 Esther's presence, the moment he had left her he 
 wrapped his lynx's skin about him just as Le Joueur 
 falls once more in love with Angelique when he 
 has lost his last penny. 
 
 "Ein half million, ant to pe vere I am; zis ees
 
 284 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 doo sdoobid. Put luckily nopody vill know any- 
 ding apout eet, " said he, three weeks later. 
 
 He made excellent resolutions to break loose from 
 a woman whom he had bought so dear ; and then, 
 when Esther stood before him, he spent every 
 moment he could spare her in making amends for 
 the brutality of his intention. 
 
 "I to not vish," he said at the end of a month, 
 "to pecome ze edernal vater. " 
 
 In the latter part of the month of December, 
 
 1829, on the day before Esther's installation in the 
 small house in the Rue Saint Georges, the baron 
 invited Du Tillet to conduct Florine thither in order 
 to see whether everything were in harmony with 
 Nucingen's fortune, whether the words ein leetle 
 loalace had been realized by the artists commissioned 
 to make this cage worthy of its bird. Every luxu- 
 rious invention dating from before the revolution of 
 
 1830, contributed to make this house the model of 
 good taste. Grindot, the architect, acknowledged 
 it as the masterpiece of his decorative talent The 
 staircase had been rebuilt in marble, the stucco and 
 draperies and gilding applied with sober judgment, 
 and the slightest details, as well as the general effect, 
 surpassed everything of the kind that the century 
 of Louis XV. has left in Paris. 
 
 "This is my dream; this and virtue!" said 
 Florine smiling. "And for whose sake are you 
 spending this money ? " she asked of Nucingen. 
 " Is it a virgin who has suffered herself to fall from 
 heaven ? "
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 285 
 
 "Get ees eine voman who ees rising zizzer, " re- 
 plied the baron. 
 
 "One way of posing yourself as Jupiter," 
 answered the actress; "and when shall we see 
 her?" 
 
 "Oh, the day of the housewarming," exclaimed 
 Du Tillet 
 
 "Not pefore, " said the baron. 
 
 "We must all prink, and powder, and adorn our- 
 selves," continued Florine. "Oh, how the women 
 will burden the lives of their dressmakers and hair- 
 dressers for that evening! When is it?" 
 
 " 1 am not ze masder. ' ' 
 
 "Ah! what a woman!" exclaimed Florine. "How 
 I should like to see her." 
 
 "I zhould doo, " replied the baron ingenuously. 
 
 "What! Are the house, woman, and furniture all 
 new?" 
 
 "Even the banker," added Du Tillet; "for my 
 friend seems to me very young indeed." 
 
 "He must return to his twentieth year, if only for 
 a moment," said Florine.
 
 During the early days of 1830, all Paris was talk- 
 ing about Nucingen's mad love and the boundless 
 luxury of his house. The poor baron, lampooned, 
 ridiculed, and bursting with rage that may easily 
 be imagined, like the financier he was, determined 
 to act upon a plan in accordance with the passion 
 in his heart He wished to kindle the first fire on 
 his new hearth with the cloak of his magnanimous 
 fatherhood and to secure the reward of his long self- 
 sacrifice. Constantly rebuffed by La Torpille, he 
 resolved to continue his negotiations by letter in order 
 to obtain from her a written agreement. Bankers 
 have no faith except in promissory notes. Thus 
 the lynx arose early on one of the first days of this 
 year, locked himself in his study, and began to com- 
 pose the following letter, written in excellent 
 French, for, although he pronounced badly, he 
 wrote with great accuracy: 
 
 "DEAR ESTHER: 
 
 "Blossom of my thoughts and sole happiness of 
 my life, when I told you that 1 loved you as 
 my daughter I deceived you and deceived myself. 
 I simply wished to express to you in this way 
 the sanctity of my feelings, which are unlike all 
 that men have felt before; first, because 1 am an 
 (287)
 
 288 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 elderly man, and secondly, because I have never 
 loved till now. 1 love you so well that if you were 
 to cost me my fortune I could not love you less. Do 
 not be unjust. Most men could not see in you the 
 angel which I have discerned; I have never even 
 glanced at your past. I love you both as I love my 
 daughter Augusta, who is my only child, and as I 
 should love my wife had she ever loved me. If 
 happiness be the sole absolution possible for an old 
 man, ask yourself whether I am not playing a 
 ridiculous part. I have made you the consolation 
 and the joy of my declining years. You know very 
 well that until my death you will be as happy as a 
 woman can be, and you may be sure that after I die 
 you will be rich enough to be envied by many 
 another woman. In every transaction that I have 
 carried on since I have had the happiness of know- 
 ing you, a share of the gain is allotted to you and 
 you have an interest in the house of Nucingen. In 
 a few days you will enter a house, which, if it 
 please you, shall be yours sooner or later. Will you 
 receive me there still as your father or shall I, at 
 length, be rewarded? Pardon me for writing you 
 so plainly; but when I am by your side my courage 
 deserts me, and I feel but too strongly that you are 
 my mistress. I do not mean to offend you; I only 
 wish to tell you all that I suffer, and how cruel wait- 
 ing is, when at my age every day deprives me of 
 some hope and some enjoyment. The delicacy of 
 my conduct is an additional proof of the sincerity of 
 my intentions. Have I ever acted the part of a
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 289 
 
 creditor ? You are like a citadel, and I am no longer 
 young. To my complaints you answer that your 
 life is at stake, and you force me to believe it when 
 I listen to you; but now I fall back among dark 
 griefs and doubts, which are dishonoring to us both. 
 You have seemed to me as candid and as good as 
 you are lovely, but you are pleased to destroy my 
 convictions. Judge for yourself. You tell me that 
 your heart is filled with a great and pitiless passion, 
 yet you refuse to confide to me the name of him you 
 love. Is this natural ? You have changed a man 
 of some strength into a man of inconceivable weak- 
 ness. See to what straits I am come. After five 
 months I am driven to ask of you what future you 
 hold in reserve for my love. Besides, I must know 
 what part I am to play at your approaching house- 
 warming. Money means nothing to me when it is 
 spent for you; I shall not be so silly as to attempt 
 to make this disdain a merit in your eyes; but, 
 though my love knows no bounds, there are limits 
 to my fortune, and I keep it only for your sake. 
 Thus, if by endowing you with all that I possess I 
 could in my poverty secure your affection, I should 
 rather be poor and loved by you than rich and de- 
 spised by you. You have changed me so completely, 
 my dear Esther, that nobody recognizes me ; I paid 
 ten thousand francs for a picture by Joseph Bridau, 
 because you told me that he was a man of talent, 
 although but little known. Besides all this I give 
 five francs in your name to every beggar whom I 
 meet. What, I ask, does this old man demand, who 
 19
 
 290 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 counts himself your debtor, when you do him the 
 honor of accepting any gift at his hands? He 
 wishes only for hope. And, great heavens! what 
 hope it is ! Is it not rather the certainty of never 
 receiving from you what I passionately long for? 
 Yet the very flame in my heart will aid your cruel 
 deceit. You will find me ready to submit to every 
 condition that you may care to impose upon my 
 happiness and my rare pleasures, but at least tell 
 me that on the day when you take possession of 
 your house, you will accept the heart and the thrall- 
 dom of him who signs himself for the rest of his 
 days 
 
 "Your slave, 
 
 "FREDERIC DE NUCINGEN." 
 
 "How this old money-bags wearies me!" ex- 
 claimed Esther, once more a courtesan. 
 
 She took a sheet of scented paper and wrote, in 
 as large a hand as the sheet allowed, the celebrated 
 phrase which, to the glory of Scribe, has passed 
 into a proverb, "Prenez mon ours." 
 
 Fifteen minutes later, Esther was seized with 
 remorse and wrote the following letter : 
 
 "MONSIEUR LE BARON: 
 
 "Do not pay the least attention to the letter 
 you received from me; I had fallen back into 
 the folly of my youth; so pardon this fault, 
 sir, in a poor girl who ought to be a slave. I have 
 never felt the degradation of my position so keenly
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 29! 
 
 as since the day that I was given up to you. You 
 have paid ; I owe myself. There is nothing more 
 sacred than the debts of dishonor. I have no right 
 to liquidate them by throwing myself into the Seine. 
 A debt can always be paid in that horrid coin 
 which is good only on one side : thus I am ready to 
 obey your commands. I wish to pay in one night all 
 the sums for which, up to this fatal moment, obliga- 
 tions have been given, for I am more than certain that 
 one night with me is worth millions, especially as it 
 will be the only one and my last night When 
 I have ceased to be a debtor, I can leave this 
 life. An honest woman has chances to rise from a 
 fall, but the rest of us have fallen too low. Thus 
 my resolution is so firmly taken that I beg you to 
 keep this letter in testimony of the cause of the 
 death of her who signs herself for a day, 
 "Your servant, 
 
 " ESTHER." 
 
 The letter once despatched, Esther regretted it 
 Ten minutes later she wrote the following letter : 
 
 "Pardon, dear baron, it is I once more. I have 
 had no wish to mock you or to wound you ; I sim- 
 ply ask you to reflect upon this simple reasoning: 
 if we remain together in the relations of father 
 and daughter, you will have a pleasure slight, 
 but lasting. If you demand the fulfilment of the 
 contract, you will mourn for me. I do not wish 
 to trouble you longer; the day that you choose
 
 2Q2 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 pleasure instead of content shall be without a 
 morrow for me. 
 
 "Your daughter, 
 
 "ESTHER." 
 
 At the first letter the baron was the victim of 
 one of those fits of cold anger that may bring death 
 to millionaires; he glanced at himself in the look- 
 ing-glass, and then rang the bell. 
 
 "Ein voot path," he cried to his new valet. 
 
 As he was taking his foot bath, the second letter 
 arrived. He read it and fell back senseless. The 
 millionaire was carried to his bed, and when the 
 financier revived, Madame de Nucingen was seated 
 on the foot of the bed. 
 
 "The girl is right," said she. "Why do you 
 wish to buy love? Is it sold in the market? Let 
 me see your letter." 
 
 The baron handed her the various rough copies 
 which he had made. 
 
 Madame de Nucingen read them with a smile. 
 The third letter arrived. 
 
 "She is a most extraordinary woman!" exclaimed 
 the baroness after reading the last letter. 
 
 "Vat zhall I to, montame?" demanded the baron 
 of his wife. 
 
 "Wait." 
 
 "Vait!" he repeated, "nadure ees bityless. " 
 
 "Now, my dear," said the baroness, "you have 
 ended by being very kind to me, and 1 am going to 
 give you good advice."
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 293 
 
 "You are eine gut vooman!" said he. "Gon- 
 dract your tebts, I vill bay vor zem." 
 
 "What happened to you at the receipt of the 
 girl's letter touches a woman more than millions 
 spent upon her, or than any letters, no matter how 
 tender they may be. Let her hear about it in- 
 directly, and perhaps you may win her. And don't 
 be too scrupulous; she won't die of it," added the 
 baroness, looking fixedly at her husband. 
 
 Madame de Nucingen was completely ignorant of 
 the child of nature. 
 
 "How glever Montame de Nichengueene ees!" 
 thought the baron, when his wife left him to him- 
 self. 
 
 But the more the baron admired the policy of the 
 advice which the baroness had given him, the 
 less he could formulate a plan for making use of it 
 He not only thought himself stupid, but actually 
 admitted it to himself. 
 
 The stupidity of a moneyed man, although it 
 has become almost proverbial, is, nevertheless, 
 merely relative. The faculties of our minds are like 
 the aptitudes of our bodies. The dancer's strength 
 is in his legs; the blacksmith's muscle is in his 
 arms; the strong porter in the market practices 
 carrying heavy loads; the singer cultivates his 
 larynx, and the pianist trains his wrists. A banker 
 grows accustomed to combining business operations, 
 to studying his affairs and setting various interests 
 in motion, as the playwright strives to combine 
 situations, to study subjects and to give life to his
 
 294 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 characters. It is as unfair to expect witty conver- 
 sation from the Baron de Nucingen as it would be 
 to demand poetic imagery in the demonstration of 
 a mathematician. How many poets are there in an 
 epoch who, in the common intercourse of life, talked 
 as wittily or elegantly as Madame Cornuel ? Buffon 
 was heavy ; Newton never loved ; Lord Byron loved 
 nobody except himself; Rousseau was gloomy and 
 half mad, and La Fontaine was heedless of others. 
 If it be equally distributed, intellect produces fools 
 or mediocrity everywhere; if it be divided un- 
 equally it engenders those differences to which we 
 give the name of genius, and which, if they could 
 take visible shape, would appear deformities. The 
 same law rules the body ; perfect beauty is almost 
 invariably accompanied by want of animation, or 
 stupidity. That Pascal should be at once a great 
 geometrician and a great writer; thatBeaumarchais 
 should be an admirable man of business, and that 
 Zamet should be a skillful courtier, are rare ex- 
 ceptions that confirm the principle of the differen- 
 tiation of intelligence. In the sphere of specula- 
 tive calculations the banker employs as much wit, 
 address and shrewdness as an astute diplomatist 
 does in that of national interests. Were the 
 banker still remarkable outside of his office he 
 would be a great man. Nucingen multiplied by the 
 Prince de Ligne, by Mazarin, or by Diderot is a 
 human formula that is almost impossible ; and yet 
 it exists under the names of Pericles, Aristotle, 
 Voltaire, and Napoleon, The glory of the imperial
 
 sun ought not to hamper a man in his private life; 
 the Emperor was well-informed, witty and fascin- 
 ating. M. de Nucingen, purely banker, and like 
 most bankers, without the inventive faculty, apart 
 from his calculations, believed solely in absolute 
 values. In matters of art, he had the good sense to 
 apply, with his purse in his hand, to experts, and 
 always secured the best architect, the best surgeon, 
 the finest connoisseur of pictures or statues, the 
 most able lawyer, whenever he was interested in 
 building a house, in watching over his health, in 
 the purchase of a curiosity, or of an estate. But 
 since there does not exist an avowed expert in 
 intrigues, nor a connoisseur in passions, a banker is 
 at a disadvantage when he loves, and in a sorry 
 plight when he attempts the management of a 
 woman. Nucingen could contrive nothing better 
 than to follow his old path and give money to some 
 male or female Frontin to act or think for him. 
 Madame de Sainte Esteve alone could put the 
 baroness' suggestion into practice, and the banker 
 regretted bitterly that he had ever quarreled with 
 the odious procuress. Nevertheless, confident of 
 the magnetism of his cheque book, and of the 
 sedative effect of drafts signed Garat, he rang for 
 his valet and bade him find the horrible widow in 
 the rue Neuve-Saint-Marc, and ask her to come to 
 his house. In Paris extremes meet on the com- 
 mon ground of passion. There vice welds together 
 rich and poor, small and great; the Empress 
 consults with Mademoiselle Lenormand, and the
 
 296 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 noble lord can always find a Ramponneau in 
 every century. 
 
 The new valet returned two hours later. 
 
 "Madame de Saint Esteve is ruined, sir," he 
 announced. 
 
 M Ach, zo much ze petter!" exclaimed the baron 
 joyously. "Zen I haf her." 
 
 "The good woman is apparently rather fond of 
 gambling," replied the valet "Furthermore, she 
 is under the thumb of a low comedian of one of the 
 theatres in the suburbs, whom, for decency's sake, 
 she tries to pass off as her god-son. It seems she 
 is an excellent cook, and is looking for a situation. " 
 
 "Zese tefilish beddy cheniuses haf den vays of 
 making money ant ein tossen vays of sbenting it," 
 said the baron to himself, quite ignorant that he 
 was uttering the sentiments of Panurge. 
 
 He despatched his servant again in quest of 
 Madame de Saint Esteve, who did not make her 
 appearance until the next day. Interrogated by Asia 
 the new valet disclosed to the she-detective the 
 terrible results of the letters written by the baron's 
 mistress. 
 
 "He must dote upon that woman," said the valet 
 in conclusion, "for he very nearly died. I myself 
 advised him never to return to her, for she would 
 twist him about her finger in no time. The woman 
 has cost the baron five hundred thousand francs 
 already, people say, without counting the sums he 
 has spent on the little house in the Rue Saint 
 Georges! But she wants money, and nothing but
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 297 
 
 When the baroness left my master's room 
 she exclaimed laughingly, 'If this goes on, that 
 woman will make me a widow.' " 
 
 "The devil!" answered Asia. "It will never do 
 to kill the hen that lays the golden eggs." 
 
 "The baron rests all his hopes upon you," said 
 the valet 
 
 "Ah, that's because I know the way to come 
 round a woman." 
 
 "Go in, then," said the valet, bowing low before 
 this occult power. 
 
 "So, you are meeting with some trifling annoy- 
 ance, sir," said the pseudo Madame de Saint Esteve, 
 as she entered the sick-room with an humble 
 air. "What can you expect? Everybody is attacked 
 in their weak spot. I, too, have seen misfortune. 
 In two months fortune's wheel has played me an odd 
 turn, for here I am looking for a situation. Neither 
 of us has been reasonable. If you were willing to 
 give me the position of cook in Madame Esther's 
 household, you would find in me the truest of the 
 true, and I would be very useful in watching 
 Eugenie and madame. " 
 
 "Eet has nodding to to mit zat, " said the baron. 
 "I gannot sugzeed in begoming ze masder ant I am 
 dvirled apout like " 
 
 "A top," interrupted Asia. "You have managed 
 everybody else, papa, but the little girl has you in 
 her power, and is amusing herself at your expense. 
 Heaven is just!" 
 
 "Chust!" ejaculated the baron. "I tit not
 
 298 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 zent for you een orter to hear you dalk apout 
 moral idy." 
 
 "Bah, my boy, a little morality hurts nobody. 
 It's the salt of life for such as we, just as vice is 
 for devotees. Tell me : Did you act generously ? 
 Did you pay her debts?" 
 
 "Yes," whined the baron. 
 
 "That was right. You have redeemed her 
 property, that was still better. But be very sure, 
 this is not enough. You have not as yet given her 
 anything to do, and these women do love to cut a 
 figure. ' ' 
 
 "I am breparing ein leetle surbrize for her in Rue 
 Saint Chorches. Zhe knows eet, put I ton't vish 
 to pe ein ass." 
 
 "Very well then, leave her." 
 
 "I am avraid zatzhe vould led me go," exclaimed 
 the baron. 
 
 "And we wish her in return for our money, my 
 boy," replied Asia. "Listen! We have squeezed 
 millions out of the public. People say that you 
 have twenty-five. ' ' 
 
 The baron could not repress a smile. 
 
 "Well then, you must let one go." 
 
 "I vould glatly led eet go," answered the baron, 
 "put no zooner zhall I have led ze virst go zan zey 
 vill temant ein segond. " 
 
 "Yes, I understand," replied Asia. "You do not 
 wish to say B, for fear of going all the way to Z. 
 Yet Esther is an honest woman." 
 
 "Mosd vunterfully honesd!" cried the banker.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 299 
 
 "She ees villing to sguare aggounts, put az eef zhe 
 vere baying ein tebd. " 
 
 "In short, she doesn't wish to be your mistress ; she 
 feels some repugnance. I can imagine it; the child 
 has always obeyed her whims. When a woman 
 knows only charming young men, an old gentleman 
 doesn't look attractive. You are not handsome. You 
 are fat as Louis XVIII. and a trifle dull, as every man 
 is who wheedles fortune and lets women alone. Now 
 then, if you have six hundred thousand francs to 
 spare," added Asia, "I will guarantee that she shall 
 become everything you could wish her to be." 
 
 "Zix huntert tausent vrancs," cried the baron 
 making a slight start, "Esder has gost me ein mill- 
 ion alreaty. " 
 
 "Happiness is well worth sixteen hundred thou- 
 sand francs, my fat rascal. You know men to-day 
 who have run through more than two millions with 
 their mistresses. I know women who have even cost 
 lives; women for whom men have been guillotined. 
 You remember that doctor who poisoned his friend ? 
 He wished for money in order to secure a woman's 
 happiness." 
 
 "Yez, I rememper; put eef I am een luff, I am not 
 an itiot, ad leasd here ; vor ven I zee her I vould 
 glatly gif her mein bockedpook. " 
 
 "Listen, sir," said Asia, striking the pose of 
 aSemiramis. "You have been cleaned out enough. 
 As truly as my business name is Saint Esteve, I 
 am on your side." 
 
 "Gut, I vill revart you."
 
 300 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "I believe it, for I have shown you that I know 
 how to revenge myself. Besides, remember this, 
 papa," she added, with a terrible look at the baron. 
 "I have the means of putting an end to Esther, as 
 easily as I could extinguish a candle. I know my 
 woman! When the little wretch has made you 
 happy, she will be still more necessary to you than 
 she is at this moment. You have paid me well, 
 you had to be dunned enough, but you did pay the 
 piper. For my part, I fulfilled my engagements, 
 didn't I ? And now I am going to propose a bargain. " 
 
 "Whatees eet?" 
 
 "You give me a situation as cook in Madame 
 Esther's house; you engage me for ten years. I 
 have a thousand francs a year; you pay the last 
 five years in advance, as earnest money ; what does 
 that amount to ? Once settled in madame's house 
 I shall find means of inducing her to grant the foil ow- 
 ing concessions: for instance, you order an entranc- 
 ing gown of Madame Auguste, who knows madame's 
 taste and style, and you give directions for the new 
 carriage to be at the door at four o'clock. After 
 the Stock Exchange you go and see her, and then 
 take a short drive in the Bois de Boulogne. In this 
 way the girl confesses that she is your mistress, and 
 pledges herself to you in the sight of all Paris. One 
 hundred thousand francs. You dine with her I 
 know how to make a dinner such as you want ; 
 you take her to a stage box at the theatre, the 
 Varietes, for instance; and all Paris says, 'There's 
 that old rogue Nucingen with his mistress." And
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 301 
 
 it's rather complimentary that you should be thought 
 so. All these advantages, as 1 am an honest woman, 
 are comprised in the first hundred thousand francs. 
 In this way you will have made great progress 
 before a week is over." 
 
 "I zhall haf sbent ein huntert tausent vrancs. " 
 "The second week," continued Asia, who did not 
 seem to hear this piteous exclamation, "madame 
 will be persuaded by these preliminaries to leave 
 her little apartment and to take up her abode in the 
 house you offer her. By this time your Esther has 
 tasted the world again, and has met her old com- 
 panions; she will be eager to shine, and will do the 
 honors of her palace. This is in the law of nature. 
 Another hundred thousand francs! Lord, sir! you 
 have got what you wanted ; Esther is compromised, 
 she is yours. The rest is simple, for you play the 
 principal part, you old elephant that makes the fat 
 monster open his eyes . Very well, then, I'll 
 undertake it myself. Four hundred thousand. But 
 you won't have to give them until the day after, 
 old fellow. Isn't that honest? I have more con- 
 fidence in you than you have in me. If I per- 
 suade madame to appear in public as your mis- 
 tress, to compromise herself, to accept all that 
 you give her, and all this to-day, perhaps you 
 will believe me capable of inducing her to sur- 
 render her last redoubt It's difficult, for it is as 
 much work for you to drag your artillery there 
 as it was for the First Consul to draw his over 
 the Alps."
 
 302 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Vy?" 
 
 "Her heart is overflowing with love, rasibus, as 
 you people who know Latin say," replied Asia. 
 "She thinks herself a Queen of Sheba, because she 
 has bathed herself in the sacrifices which she has 
 made for her lover. It's an idea that women take 
 into their heads! Ah, my boy, we must be fair; 
 it's only right that we should. The little goose 
 might die of sorrow because she belonged to you, 
 and I should not be very much surprised ; but one 
 thing reassures me, and to raise your spirits I'll tell 
 you that she's a courtesan at heart" 
 
 "You haf a chenius vor gorrubtion, " said the 
 baron, who had listened to Asia in silent admira- 
 tion. "Chust as I haf a chenius vor panking. " 
 
 "Is it a bargain, my duck?" said Asia. 
 
 "Done vor feefdy tausent vrancs eenztead of ein 
 huntert tausent, ant ze morning afder mein driumph 
 I vill gif you fife huntert tausent." 
 
 "Well then, I'll go about my work," answered 
 Asia. "Ah, you can come," continued she respect- 
 fully. "You will find madame already as sweet as 
 honey, and perhaps disposed to be kind." 
 
 "Go, go, meine gut vooman," said the baron 
 rubbing his hands. 
 
 Then, after a smile toward the hideous mulatto 
 woman, he said to himself: 
 
 "How fery nezzessary eet ees to haf blenty of 
 money." 
 
 He jumped out of bed, went to his desk and took 
 up the threads of his vast business with a light heart.
 
 Nothing could be more fatal for Esther than the 
 plan which Nucingen had adopted. When she 
 fought against infidelity the poor courtesan was 
 fighting for her life. Natural as this defense was, 
 Carlos called it silly prudery. Without disregard- 
 ing the precautions employed in such cases, Asia 
 lost no time in informing Carlos of the interview 
 she had had with the baron, and how she had 
 turned it to account Carlos' anger was terrible as 
 himself; he took a carriage on the spot and, with 
 the curtains drawn, drove into Esther's courtyard. 
 This double forger was still pale with rage as he 
 went up stairs and appeared before the poor girl. 
 She was standing as she looked at him, then her 
 legs gave way beneath her, and she fell back into 
 an armchair. ' ' What do you want, sir ?' ' she asked, 
 trembling in every limb. 
 
 "Leave us, Europe," said he. Esther looked at 
 the maid as a child looks at the mother from whose 
 side he is torn by a blood-thirsty assassin. 
 
 "Do you know where you are driving Lucien?" 
 said Carlos, when he was left alone with Esther. 
 
 "Where?" she asked in a faint voice as she 
 glanced fearfully at her executioner. 
 
 "To the place I have come from, my jewel." 
 
 The room swam before Esther's eyes as she 
 looked at the man. 
 
 (303)
 
 304 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "To the galleys!" he added in a low voice. 
 
 Esther's eyes closed, her legs grew limp, her arms 
 fell to her side; she grew very white. The man 
 rang and Prudence appeared. 
 
 "Bring her back to consciousness, " said he coolly, 
 "I have not finished." 
 
 He paced up and down the room while he waited. 
 Prudence Europe was obliged to beg him to place 
 Esther on the bed ; he lifted her with a facility that 
 betokened the strength of an athlete. The most 
 violent remedies of the apothecary were needed to 
 restore Esther to the remembrance of her sorrows. 
 An hour later the poor girl recovered strength 
 enough to listen to the living nightmare, who sat on 
 the foot of the bed, his eyes fixed and glistening 
 like two drops of molten lead. 
 
 "Sweetheart," he said, "Lucien stands between 
 a life that is brilliant, honored, fitting, happy, and 
 the muddy ditch filled with slime and gravel, on the 
 verge of which he stood when 1 rescued him. The 
 Grandlieu family demand that your darling possess 
 an estate worth a million before they secure for him 
 the title of marquis and present him with that great 
 catch, called Clotilde, by whose aid he will climb to 
 power. Thanks to us both, Lucien has just bought 
 his maternal manor, the old Chateau de Rubempre. 
 It didn't cost much, thirty thousand francs but 
 his attorney by fortunate negotiations has succeeded 
 in addingto it about a million's worth of real estate, 
 on which three hundred thousand francs have been 
 paid. The chateau, the costs and the premiums
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 305 
 
 paid to those whom we brought forward in order to 
 disguise our operations from the neighborhood, have 
 absorbed the rest. We have, it is true, invested a 
 hundred thousand francs which a few months hence 
 will be worth from two to three hundred thousand 
 francs; but this will still leave a deficit of four hun- 
 dred thousand francs. In three -days Lucien will 
 return from Angoule'me, whither he went in order 
 to avoid suspicion of having made his fortune through 
 your intrigues." 
 
 "Oh, no," said she, looking upwards with an 
 exalted expression. 
 
 "I ask you whether this is the moment to scare 
 the baron?" said he quietly; "yet the day before 
 yesterday you almost killed him. When he read 
 your second letter he fainted like a woman. You 
 have an imperious style, and I compliment you 
 upon it. If the baron were dead, what would be- 
 come of us? When Lucien walks out from Saint 
 Thomas Aquinas' as the son-in-law of the Due de 
 Grandlieu, if you really wish for the Seine, my 
 love, I'll offer you my arm, and we'll make the 
 plunge together. That's one way of ending. But 
 think it over; would it not be better to live and be 
 able to say over and over again, 'How brilliant his 
 fortune is! What a happy family!' For he will 
 have children. Children! Have you ever imagined 
 the delight of passing your fingers through the hair 
 of his children?" 
 
 Esther closed her eyes; a slight tremor passed 
 over her.
 
 306 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "And when you see the edifice of his happiness 
 complete, you can say, 'It was my work!' " 
 
 He paused and these two beings gazed at each 
 other. 
 
 "This is what I have tried to make of a despair- 
 ing wretch on the verge of suicide. Am I an egoist ? 
 This is how I love him! A man devotes himself 
 thus to his king alone; but I have crowned him 
 king Lucien! Should they rivet me to my old 
 chains for the rest of my days I think that I should 
 stay there content, while I repeated to myself, 'He 
 is at the ball; be is at court. ' My mind and thoughts 
 would triumph, though my carcass were given up to 
 the tormentors. You are nothing but a miserable 
 woman, and you love as a woman loves ! But love 
 might be, in a courtesan as in any degraded creature, 
 the means of making you a mother in spite of that 
 nature which has smitten you with barrenness. But 
 I ! if ever they should detect the criminal that I have 
 been, beneath the gown of Carlos Herrera, do you 
 know what I would do in order to avoid compromis- 
 ing Lucien?" 
 
 Esther awaited his answer in a kind of strange 
 anxiety. 
 
 " I would die," continued he after a short pause ; 
 "I would die like the negroes, by swallowing my 
 tongue, and you, with all your airs and graces, point 
 out my way to me. What is it I have asked of you ? 
 To wear once more the garb of La Torpille for six 
 months, for six weeks, and to use it to secure a 
 million. Lucien will never forget you. Men don't
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 307 
 
 forget the being who is recalled to their remem- 
 brance by the happiness which they enjoy anew 
 every morning when they awake to find themselves 
 rich. Lucien is worth more than you. He began 
 by loving Coralie; she died well and good; he did 
 not have a penny with which to bury her, but poet 
 as he was, he didn't do as you did a moment ago, he 
 didn't swoon ; he wrote six drinking songs and earned 
 three hundred francs to pay for Coralie's burial. 
 I have those songs, I know them by heart Go and 
 do likewise; compose your songs; be gay! be wild! 
 be irresistible ! and be insatiable. You have under- 
 stood me ? Don't ask me to say more. Kiss papa. 
 Adieu." 
 
 Half an hour later, when Europe entered her mis- 
 tress' room, she found her kneeling before a crucifix 
 in the pose that the most religious of painters gave 
 to Moses before the bush of Horeb, when he sought 
 to depict his deep and perfect adoration before 
 Jehovah. When she had uttered her last prayer, 
 Esther renounced her fair life, the honor which she 
 had won, her glory, her virtue, and her love. She 
 rose. 
 
 ' ' Oh, madame, you will never be like this again !'* 
 exclaimed Prudence Servien, motionless before the 
 sublime beauty of her mistress. 
 
 She turned the mirror quickly so that the poor 
 girl could see herself. Her eyes still retained a 
 portion of the soul that was leaving her for heaven. 
 The complexion of the Jewess was brilliant Steeped 
 in tears and dried by the fire of prayer, her eyelashes
 
 308 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 looked like foliage after a summer's rain; the 
 sun of pure love was lighting them for the last time. 
 The expression of her lips was as if she had uttered 
 her last invocation to the angels, from whom, no 
 doubt, she had borrowed the martyr's palm and to 
 whose keeping she had entrusted her life without 
 spot. In a word, she possessed the majesty which 
 must have transfigured Mary Stuart, when she bade 
 good-bye to her crown, to earth and to love. 
 
 "I wish that Lucien could have seen me thus," 
 said she, with a stifled sob. ' ' But now, ' ' she added 
 in a rasping voice, "to humbug." 
 
 As Europe heard this word she stood stupefied as 
 if she had heard an angel blaspheme. 
 
 "Why do you look at me as though my teeth had 
 become cloves? I am nothing now but a vile and 
 infamous creature, a woman of the streets, a thief, 
 and I am waiting for milord. Heat me a bath and 
 bring me my gown. It's twelve o'clock; the baron 
 will certainly come on his way from the Stock Ex- 
 change. I will tell him that I have been expecting 
 him. I want Asia to serve him a dainty dinner, 
 and I mean to drive him to distraction. Come, 
 Europe, make haste; we are going to be merry, and 
 that means that we are going to set to work." 
 
 She sat down at her table and wrote the following 
 letter : 
 
 "MY FRIEND: 
 
 "Had the cook you sent me yesterday never 
 been in my service, I should have thought it
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 309 
 
 was your intention to inform me of the number of 
 fainting fits that you experienced the day before 
 yesterday upon the receipt of my three notes. You 
 must excuse me, I was dreadfully nervous on that 
 day, for I was brooding over reminiscences of my 
 deplorable existence. But I know Asia's sincerity. 
 I do not repent of having caused you some sorrow, 
 since it has served to prove how dearly you hold 
 me. We poor despised creatures are ever thus: 
 true affection touches us far more than to see our- 
 selves the object of wild extravagance. I myself 
 have always been afraid of becoming the peg on 
 which you hang your vanity. I was sad that I 
 could be nothing else for you. Yes, in spite of your 
 loud protestations I thought that you took me for a 
 bought woman, and now you will find me disposed 
 to be kind, but on condition that you will never 
 be wholly disobedient. If this letter can replace 
 your doctor's prescriptions, you will prove it to me 
 by coming to see me immediately after leaving the 
 Stock Exchange. You will find, dressed in her best 
 and loaded with your gifts, her, who signs herself 
 for life, 
 
 "Your pleasure machine, 
 
 "ESTHER." 
 
 At the Exchange the Baron de Nucingen was so 
 gay, happy and pleasant, and allowed himself to be 
 the butt of so many jokes that Du Tillet and Keller, 
 who were present, could not refrain from asking him 
 the reason of his hilarity.
 
 310 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "I am luffed. Zat house-varming vill gomezoon, " 
 said he to Du Tillet 
 
 ' ' How much does it cost you ?' ' demanded Francois 
 Keller brusquely. People said that Madame Colle- 
 ville had cost Francois twenty-five thousand francs 
 a year. 
 
 "Zis vooman ees eine anchel; zhe has nefer 
 asked me vor ein single benny." 
 
 "They never do," replied Du Tillet. "They 
 provide themselves with aunts and mothers so that 
 they need ask for nothing for themselves." 
 
 On the way from the Exchange to the Rue Tait- 
 bout, the baron said seven times to his coachman : 
 
 "You are nod moofmg. Vip ze horse." 
 
 He climbed the stairs hurriedly, and for the 
 first time he saw his mistress beautiful as are those 
 women whose only occupation is the care of their 
 garments and of their beauty. Fresh from the bath, 
 the flower was sweet and so perfumed that Robert 
 d'Arbrissel would have been conquered. Esther 
 was dressed with fascinating unconventionality. 
 A jacket of black reps adorned with trimmings of 
 rose-colored silk was left open to disclose a skirt 
 of gray satin, the costume that was worn later by 
 the fair Amigo, in / Puritani. A scarf of English 
 point lace fell loosely from her shoulders. The 
 sleeves of her gown were caught in with cording, 
 so as to divide the puffs, which for some time past 
 had replaced the overgrown leg-of-mutton sleeves, 
 discarded by fashionable women. Esther had pinned 
 upon her splendid hair a cap of Mechlin lace, of the
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 311 
 
 style known as d, la folk, always ready to fall, yet 
 never falling, which gave her an appearance of un- 
 combed disorder, although the straight white part 
 was distinctly visible on her little head between 
 the heavy locks of hair. 
 
 'Ms it not dreadful to see madame so beautiful and 
 sitting in a shabby room like this?" said Europe to 
 the baron as she opened the parlor door. 
 
 "Zen gome to ze Rie Saint Chorches," replied 
 the baron as he stood motionless in the doorway, 
 like a dog before a partridge. "Ze weader ees 
 magneeficent; ve vill dake ein valk een ze Jamps 
 Elusees, ant Montame Saind Esdefe mit Ichenie vill 
 dransbort all your glothes ant leenen ant our tinner 
 to ze Rie Saint Chorches." 
 
 "I will do everything that you wish," said Esther, 
 "if you will be so kind as to call my cook, Asia, and 
 Eugenie, Europe. I have given these names to all 
 the women who have served me since the first two 
 I ever had. I do not like change." 
 
 "Ada, Irobe," repeated the baron, laughing. 
 "How ott you are! You are vull of imachination; 
 I zhould haf eaden numperless tinners pefore galling 
 eine cook Acia. " 
 
 "Oddity is our nature," said Esther. "Can't 
 a poor girl be fed by Asia and dressed by 
 Europe when you live on the whole world? It 
 is a myth ! There are women who would devour 
 the earth, while I do not ask for more than half. 
 There!" 
 
 "Vat eine vooman Montame Saind Esdefe ees!"
 
 312 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 thought the baron as he admired Esther's change of 
 costume. 
 
 "Europe, my girl," said Esther, "I need a hat. 
 I ought to have a black satin cape trimmed with 
 rose-color and lace." 
 
 "Madame Thomas hasn't sent it. Come, baron, 
 quickly; away with you. Begin your duties of 
 hard labor, that is, of happiness; for pleasure is a 
 heavy burden! You have your carriage; go to 
 Madame Thomas, " said Europe to the baron. ' ' Tell 
 your groom to ask for Madame Van Bogseck's cape, 
 and, above all," she added in the baron's ear, 
 "bring her back the prettiest bouquet in Paris. It 
 is winter, so try to get tropical flowers." 
 
 The baron descended the stairs and said to his 
 groom : 
 
 "Montame Dhomas. " 
 
 The coachman drew up before the door of a 
 famous pastry-cook. 
 
 "Id ees eine milliner, you pig plockhead, nod ein 
 basdry-zhob, " exclaimed the baron as he hurried 
 away to the Palais Royal to Madame Prevot's, 
 where he had a bouquet made up for ten louis, 
 while his groom went to find the fashionable 
 milliner. 
 
 As he walks about Paris, the superficial observer 
 wonders what fools buy the fabulous flowers that 
 decorate the windows of the famous florist, and the 
 hot-house fruits of the European Chevet, at whose 
 shop alone, if we except the Rocher de Cancale, 
 there is to be seen a genuine and attractive review cf
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 313 
 
 two worlds. Every day in Paris more than a hun- 
 dred infatuations such as Nucingen's spring into 
 being, and prove their reality by offering upon 
 bended knee rarities that queens dare not afford, to 
 women who, in Asia's words, love to cut a figure. 
 Without this little detail an honest bourgeoise could 
 not understand how a fortune melts in the hands of 
 these creatures whose social function, according to 
 the system of Fourier, is perhaps to repair the 
 disasters of avarice and cupidity. These dissipa- 
 tions serve, doubtless, the same purpose in the 
 social body that the incision of a lancet does in a 
 too plethoric body. In two months Nucingen had 
 sprinkled trade with more than two hundred thou- 
 sand francs. 
 
 When the elderly lover returned, night was fall- 
 ing, and the bouquet was useless. In winter the time 
 for going to the Champs Elysees is from two o'clock 
 until four; nevertheless the carriage proved of 
 service in transporting Esther from the Rue Taitbout 
 to the Rue Saint Georges, where she took possession 
 of the leetle balace. Never before, let us say it, had 
 Esther been the object of such worship, nor of such 
 profusion ; she was amazed at it, but after the pattern 
 of ungrateful royalty she was careful not to display 
 the slightest mark of surprise. When you enter 
 Saint Peter's at Rome, in order to make you appre- 
 ciate the length and height of the queen of cathe- 
 drals, the guide points out the little finger of a 
 statue which, though it is of vast dimensions, 
 appears to be the natural size of a little finger.
 
 314 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Descriptions, however necessary they may be to 
 the history of our customs, have so often been 
 criticised that in this place we must imitate the 
 Roman cicerone. Thus when he entered the din- 
 ing-room, the baron could not refrain from asking 
 Esther to feel the material of the window curtains, 
 draped with regal abundance, lined with white 
 watered silk, and trimmed with embroidery worthy 
 of the gown of a Portuguese princess. The stuff was 
 made of silk from Canton, and on it the patient 
 Chinese had painted the birds of Asia with a per- 
 fection of which the prototype only exists upon the 
 vellum parchments of the Middle Ages, or in the 
 missal of Charles the Fifth, the pride of the imperial 
 library at Vienna. 
 
 "Eet gost dwo tausent vrancs ze yart. I paught 
 eet of ein Milord who hat prought eet vrom ze 
 Inties." 
 
 "Very pretty! Charming! Howpleasant it will 
 be to drink champagne here," said Esther; "the 
 foam will not stain the tiles." 
 
 "Oh, madame," said Europe, "only look at the 
 carpet!" 
 
 "Zince zey hattesignedze garbed vor mein frient 
 ze Tuke Dorlonia, who vound eet too tear, 1 dook it 
 vrom him vor you, vor you are eine gueen!" ex- 
 claimed Nucingen. 
 
 By some chance this carpet, the work of one of our 
 most ingenious designers, harmonized with the 
 most fanciful Chinese drapery. The walls painted 
 by Schinner and Leon de Lora, represented volup-
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 315 
 
 tuous scenes thrown into relief by carved ebony, 
 bought for a goodly sum from Dusommerard, and 
 forming panels, the simple gold lines of which 
 reflected the light soberly. Now you can judge of 
 the rest. 
 
 "You have done well to bring me here," said 
 Esther; "I shall need a full week before I can grow 
 perfectly accustomed to my house, and lay aside 
 the air of an upstart." 
 
 "Mein house!" repeated the baron gleefully. 
 "Zen you agzebt eet?" 
 
 "Yes, a thousand times yes, you stupid animal," 
 she answered, smiling. 
 
 "Ze animal vas " 
 
 "Stupid enough to be caressed," said she, glanc- 
 ing at him. 
 
 The poor lynx took Esther's hand and pressed it 
 to his heart; he was animal enough to feel, but too 
 stupid to find a word. 
 
 "Zee how eet peats at ein leetle vort of denter- 
 ness!" said he. 
 
 Nucingenledhis goddess (cottess)io her bedroom. 
 
 "Oh! madame," exclaimed Eugenie, "I can't stay 
 here. That bed looks too inviting." 
 
 "And so," said Esther, "I wish to make the 
 magician who works these wonders happy. Come, 
 my fat elephant, after dinner we'll go to the 
 theatre. I am famished for a play. "
 
 It was exactly five years since Esther had been to 
 the theatre. At this time all Paris was flocking to 
 the Porte Saint Martin to see a play that borrowed 
 a terrible reality from the power of the actors, 
 Richard Darlington. Like all ingenuous natures, 
 Esther enjoyed shuddering with terror as well as 
 melting into tears of tenderness. 
 
 "Let's go to see Frederick Lemaitre," said she; 
 "he is an actor I adore." 
 
 "Eet ees ein zafage trama," said Nucingen, who 
 saw that he was suddenly obliged to make himself 
 notorious. 
 
 The baron despatched his servant to secure one 
 of the two lower stage boxes. Another Parisian 
 peculiarity! When success, always so transitory 
 in its nature, fills the house there is invariably 
 a stage box to let ten minutes before the cur- 
 tain rises. When it is not destined to receive a 
 Nucingen and his mistress, the directors reserve 
 it for themselves. Like the hot-house fruits of 
 Chevet, this box is a tax levied upon the whims of 
 the Parisian Olympia. 
 
 It is needless to speak of the table service. Nucin- 
 gen had amassed three several services: a small 
 set, a medium set, and a large set All the dessert 
 plates and dishes of the large set were of embossed
 
 318 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 silver gilt In order to avoid the appearance of over- 
 loading the table with too great a mass of gold and 
 silver, the baron had added to each service, dishes 
 of Dresden china of the most charming fragility, 
 and more expensive than a complete silver service. 
 On the table, the linen of Saxony, of England, 
 of Flanders and of France rivaled one another in 
 the perfection of their damasked flowers. 
 
 At dinner it was the baron's turn to be surprised 
 as he tasted Asia's cooking. 
 
 "lunterstant," said he, "vy you name her Acia; 
 zis ees Aciatic gookery. " 
 
 "Ah, I begin to believe that he loves me," said 
 Esther to Europe; "he has made something like a 
 joke." 
 
 "I haf mate odders, doo, " remarked he. 
 
 "He'smore like Turcaret than any one imagines," 
 exclaimed the courtesan, laughing at this answer 
 that was worthy of a place among the celebrated 
 ingenuous speeches of which the banker had been 
 guilty. 
 
 The dishes were highly seasoned and gave the 
 baron such a fit of indigestion that he was obliged 
 to go home at an early hour ; and this was all the 
 pleasure he gathered from his first interview with 
 Esther. At the play he was obliged to leave her 
 between the acts and swallow an infinite number of 
 glasses of eau sucr'ee. By a coincidence, so evidently 
 the result of forethought that it could not be called 
 chance, Tullia, Mariette and Madame du Val Noble 
 were at the play that evening. Richard Darlington
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 319 
 
 was one of those extreme, yet deserved successes 
 that never occur except in Paris. It was a drama 
 that made all the men imagine they could throw their 
 lawful wives out of the window, and all the women 
 were delighted to see themselves unjustly oppressed. 
 The women said: "This is intolerable! We are too 
 much plagued but we are used to that sort of thing !' ' 
 
 A creature of Esther's beauty, dressed in Esther's 
 gown, could not cut a figure with impunity in a 
 front box of the Porte Saint Martin. The second 
 act had scarcely begun, when great excitement 
 arose in the box occupied by the two opera dancers, 
 owing to the sudden identification of the beautiful 
 stranger with La Torpille. 
 
 "Where can she have come from?" asked 
 Mariette of Madame du Val Noble. "I supposed 
 that she had been drowned." 
 
 "Is it she? She seems to me a hundred times 
 younger and lovelier than she was six years ago." 
 
 "Perhaps she has been preserved in ice, like 
 Madame d'Espard and Madame Zayonchek, " re- 
 marked the Count de Brambourg, who had escorted 
 the three women to the play, and had engaged one 
 of the lower tier of boxes. "Isn't she the girl you 
 wished to send me to wheedle my uncle?" added 
 he, turning to Tullia. 
 
 "Exactly," answered the singer. "Du Bruel, go 
 to the orchestra and see whether it's really she." 
 
 "How she tosses her head!" exclaimed Madame 
 du Val Noble, making use of an admirable expression 
 from the vocabulary of women of her class.
 
 320 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Oh!" cried the Count de Brambourg, "she has 
 the right to do so, for she's with my friend, the 
 Baron de Nucingen. I'm going to them." 
 
 "Can that be the pretended Jeanne d'Arc, who 
 has overthrown Nucingen and with whose praises 
 we have been deafened for the past three months?" 
 said Mariette. 
 
 "Good evening, baron," said Philippe Bridau, 
 as he entered Nucingen's box. "So you and Made- 
 moiselle Esther are married? Mademoiselle, I am a 
 poor officer, whom you once helped out of a scrape 
 at Issoudun Philippe Bridau." 
 
 " Don't know you, " said Esther, looking about the 
 house with her opera glass. 
 
 "Montemoiselle's name," observed the baron, 
 "ees no longer simply Esther ; her name ees Matame 
 te Jamby (Champy), ein leetle esdate zat I pought 
 vor her." 
 
 "If you give her so many things," said the count, 
 "the ladies who are with me say that Madame de 
 Champy gives herself airs. If you do not care to 
 remember me, deign to recollect Mariette, Tullia 
 and Madame du Val Noble," added this upstart, 
 who had ingratiated himself with the Dauphin 
 through the support of the Duke de Maufrigneuse. 
 
 "If your ladies are so good tome, I am inclined 
 to be very polite to them," answered Madame de 
 Champy dryly. 
 
 "Good!" exclaimed Philippe. "They are very 
 friendly; they have even surnamed you Jeanne 
 d'Arc."
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 321 
 
 "Veil, eef zese laties vish your gombany, " said 
 Nucingen, "I vill leaf you alone, vor I haf ofer- 
 eaden. Your garriage ant your zerfants vill gome 
 vor you. Ze tefil take Ada." 
 
 "For the first time you would leave me alone!" 
 said Esther. "Do your duty; you must learn to die 
 at your post. I shall need an escort going out If 
 I were insulted I might look for help in vain." 
 
 The egotism of the old millionaire was compelled 
 to yield to the obligations of the lover. The baron 
 suffered and remained. Esther had reasons for de- 
 taining her escort. If she were to receive her old ac- 
 quaintances she could not be questioned as seriously 
 in company as she might be alone. Philippe 
 Bridau returned hastily to his box, and described 
 the state of things to the three ballet dancers. 
 
 " Ah ! It is she who has inherited my house in the 
 Rue Saint Georges!" remarked Madame du Val Noble 
 bitterly, for in the language of her class she was afoot. 
 
 "Probably," answered the colonel; "Du Tillet 
 told me that the baron has spent thrice as much on 
 the house as your poor Falleix. " 
 
 "Let's go and see her," said Tullia. 
 
 "No indeed," replied Mariette; "she's too hand- 
 some. I shall call upon her at her house." 
 
 "I am self-satisfied enough to venture," said 
 Tullia. 
 
 Between the acts the leading opera dancer 
 was bold enough to traverse the theatre and try to 
 renew her acquaintance with Esther, who confined 
 herself to generalities. 
 
 21
 
 322 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "And where do you come from, my dear child?" 
 inquired the dancer, overcome with curiosity. 
 
 "Oh! I have spent the past five years in a cha- 
 teau among the Alps with an English speculator who 
 was jealous as a tiger. I called him speck, for short, 
 because he was smaller than the bailiff of Ferrette. 
 Then I fell into the hands of a banker, from 
 Charylla to Sybdis, as Florine says; and now that I 
 have come back to Paris I am so eager for amuse- 
 ment that I shall become a perfect carnival. I shall 
 keep open house. Ah ! I must make up for five years 
 of solitude, and I am beginning to make myself 
 amends. Five years of an Englishman is too much. 
 According to the programme six weeks is enough." 
 
 "Did the baron give you this lace?" 
 
 "No, that is a vestige of the nabob. Wasn't I 
 unlucky, my dear? He was yellow as a woman 
 laughing at a friend's success. I supposed that he 
 would die before ten months were up. Bah, he was 
 strong as an Alp. Distrust every man who says 
 he has trouble with his liver. I don't want to 
 hear them talk about their livers. Lord deliver 
 me! The nabob robbed me; he died without 
 making a will and the family pushed me out of 
 doors as though I had had the plague. So I said 
 to this fat man, 'Pay for two.' You are right to 
 call me Jeanne d'Arc, I have lost England! And 
 perhaps I shall be burned " 
 
 "With love?" asked Tullia. 
 
 "Burned alive," replied Esther, who grew dreamy 
 at this.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 323 
 
 The baron laughed uproariously at these broad 
 jests, but as he did not comprehend them instantly, 
 his laugh sounded like a forgotten fuse exploding 
 after a show of fireworks is over. 
 
 We all live in some sphere of life, and the in- 
 habitants of every sphere are endowed with an 
 equal share of curiosity. The following evening, 
 at the Opera, Esther's return was the talk of the 
 green-room. During the morning hours from two 
 to four, all the Paris of the Champs filysees had 
 recognized La Torpille and knew that she was the 
 object of Nucingen's adoration. 
 
 "Do you know," said Blondet to De Marsay in 
 the lobby of the Opera, "that La Torpille dis- 
 appeared the very day after we had recognized her 
 here as the mistress of that little Rubempre?" 
 
 At Paris, as in the provinces, nothing is secret 
 The police of the Rue de Jerusalem is not so well 
 organized as that of the world, where every one is 
 a detective, though he knows it not Carlos had 
 surmised correctly the danger of Lucien's position 
 during the episode in the Rue Taitbout and in the 
 days following its conclusion. 
 
 There does not exist a more horrible situation 
 than that in which Madame du Val Noble was 
 placed, and the word afoot describes it perfectly. 
 The carelessness and prodigality of these women 
 prevent them from thinking of the future. In the 
 exceptional world to which they belong, and which 
 is far more amusing and witty than people think, 
 the women who are not beautiful with that absolute
 
 324 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 and almost unalterable beauty, so easy to recog- 
 nize, in short the women who can be loved only 
 through some caprice, alone think of their old 
 age, and lay by a fortune : the more beautiful they 
 are, the more improvident. "So you are saving 
 your income for fear of growing ugly," Florineonce 
 said to Mariette, and this throws light on one of the 
 reasons of their prodigality. When a speculator 
 commits suicide, when a spendthrift comes to the 
 end of his tether, these women fall with frightful 
 rapidity from boundless wealth to absolute penury. 
 Then they fall into the power of the pawnbroker ; 
 they sell their exquisite jewels for a song; they 
 contract debts ; they do anything to maintain them- 
 selves in an apparent luxury, which allows them 
 to recover what they have lost, a coffer from which 
 they can draw. These heights and depths of their 
 life explain very clearly the vast cost of an intrigue, 
 almost always managed in real life by the same 
 method that Asia had employed when she hooked 
 another word in the same vocabulary Nucingen 
 to Esther. Besides, those who know their Paris well 
 are at no loss to guess the reason, when they meet 
 in that moving and tumultuous bazaar, the Champs 
 Elysees, some woman in a hackney cab, whom six 
 months or a year before they had noticed in a car- 
 riage, gorgeous in its luxury and fashion. "When 
 you fall into Sainte-Pelagie, you must know how 
 to bounce back to the Bois de Boulogne," Florine 
 had said as she was joking with Blondet about the 
 little Vicount de Portenduere. A few wise women
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 325 
 
 never risk this contrast. They remain immured in 
 cheap lodging houses or else expiate their profusion 
 by privations such as travelers suffer, lost in some 
 Sahara, but even they do not comprehend the 
 slightest notion of economy. They venture to 
 masque balls; they make a trip into the country; 
 they dress in fine clothes, and walk on the boule- 
 vards on bright days. To one another they display 
 that devotion which is the distinctive mark of pre- 
 scribed classes. Almsgiving costs little to the 
 woman on the crest of the wave who says to 
 herself, "To-morrow I shall be like this." The 
 most efficacious protection, however, is that fur- 
 nished by women who deal in old clothes. When 
 a usurer of this description becomes a creditor, she 
 stirs up the hearts of old men to pay off the mort- 
 gage she holds on hats and slippers. Unable to 
 foresee the ruin of a very rich and shrewd broker, 
 Madame du Val Noble was taken unawares. She 
 had been accustomed to spend Falleix's money for 
 the gratification of her caprices and relied upon 
 him for her future. "How could I have expected 
 this," said she to Mariette, "from a man who has 
 always been such & good fellow ? " In almost every 
 class of society the good fellow is a generous man 
 v/ho lends a few louis here and there without asking 
 for repayment, and rules his conduct in accordance 
 with the dictates of a certain refinement beyond 
 the current, enforced, commonplace morality. Some 
 men called, like Nucingen, virtuous and upright, 
 have ruined their benefactors, while others who
 
 326 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 are not ignorant of the police court are extraor- 
 dinarily honest toward women. Perfect virtue 
 as embodied in Alceste, the dream of Moliere, is 
 excessively rare. Yet it does exist everywhere, 
 even in Paris. The good fellow is the product 
 of a certain grace of character which proves 
 nothing. A man is thus, just as a cat is sleek, or a 
 slipper comfortable. So, according to the general 
 acceptance of the expression "good fellow" among 
 women of this class, Falleix should have warned his 
 mistress of his failure and left her something to live 
 upon. D'Estourny, the genteel swindler, was a 
 good fellow; he cheated at play, but he had put 
 aside thirty thousand francs for his mistress. Thus 
 at gay suppers women answered his accusers: 
 "It makes no difference, you may say what you 
 will; Georges was a good fellow; he had charming 
 manners, he deserved a better fate. ' ' In this society 
 women mock at laws, and adore a certain kind of 
 refinement; they can sell themselves, as Esther 
 did, for some secret ideal that is their religion. 
 After saving, with great difficulty, a few jewels from 
 the wreck of her fortunes, Madame du Val Noble sank 
 beneath the weight of the terrible accusation that 
 she had ruined Falleix. She had reached the age 
 of thirty, and, although she was in all the fulness 
 of her beauty, yet she might easily pass for a 
 woman past her prime. For in a crisis such as this 
 a woman has all her rivals against her. Mariette, 
 Florine and Tullia received their friend kindly at 
 dinner, and gave her some assistance; but not
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 327 
 
 knowing the amount of her debts they did not dare 
 to sound the depth of the gulf. An interval of six 
 years amidst the fluctuations of the Parisian sea 
 separated La Torpille from Madame du Val Noble too 
 widely to allow the woman afoot to turn for help to 
 the woman in a carriage ; but Madame du Val Noble, 
 knowing Esther's generosity well, and feeling 
 sometimes that Esther had inherited her fortune 
 from her, determined to contrive a meeting which 
 should appear the result of chance, although in 
 reality premeditated. 
 
 In order to arrive at this end, Madame du Val 
 Noble, fashionably dressed, walked up and down 
 the Champs Elysees on the arm of Theodore 
 Gaillard, who finally married her, and who in 
 this trouble had behaved with great kindness 
 toward his former mistress, giving her boxes at the 
 theatre and securing invitations for her to every 
 entertainment. She hoped that on some fine day 
 Esther might be driving there, and that they 
 might meet face to face. Esther had Paccard for a 
 coachman, for within five days her household had 
 been so organized by Asia, Europe and Paccard, 
 acting under Carlos' orders, that the house in 
 the Rue Saint Georges had become an impregnable 
 fortress. 
 
 On his part, Peyrade, moved by his profound 
 hatred, by his desire for vengeance, and above all, 
 by his purpose of providing a dowry for his dear 
 Lydie, had chosen the Champs Elysees as the end 
 of his daily walk from the time that Contenson had
 
 328 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 told him that M. de Nucingen's mistress was to 
 be seen there. Peyrade could get himself up so 
 perfectly as an Englishman, and could speak French 
 so admirably with the chirping accent which the 
 English introduce into our language; he knew Eng- 
 lish so completely and was so intimately versed in 
 the affairs of that country, whither he had been 
 three times sent by the Parisian police in 1779 and 
 1786, that he played the part of an Englishman 
 both at the English embassy and in London with- 
 out awakening suspicion. He had acquired much 
 of the skill of Musson, the famous conjurer, and 
 could disguise himself with so much art that one 
 day Contenson failed to recognize him. Accom- 
 panied by Contenson disguised as a mulatto, Pey- 
 rade scrutinized Esther and her servants with that 
 seemingly inattentive glance that does not lose the 
 least detail. So it consequently happened that he 
 was in the side alley in which people walk in fine, 
 dry weather after leaving their carriages, the very 
 day that Esther met there with Madame du Val 
 Noble. Peyrade, followed by his mulatto in livery, 
 walked naturally along, like a true nabob, thinking 
 only of himself, behind the two women at such a 
 distance that he could overhear some snatches of 
 their conversation. 
 
 "Do come to see me, my dear child," Esther was 
 saying to Madame du Val Noble; "Nucingen owes 
 it to himself not to leave the mistress of his broker 
 without a penny." 
 
 "All the more because people say that it was he
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 329 
 
 /ho ruined him," said Theodore Gaillard, "and 
 that we can make him squeal by threatening to 
 expose him." 
 
 "He dines with me to-morrow. Come," said 
 Esther. 
 
 Then she added in a low tone : 
 
 "I make him do everything that I wish, and he 
 hasn't had that of me yet." 
 
 With this she placed one of her gloved fingers 
 beneath the prettiest of her teeth and made that 
 familiar gesture which means emphatically, "Noth- 
 ing at all." 
 
 -"You have him tight?" 
 
 "My dear, as yet he has only paid my debts." 
 
 "Is he close-fisted?" exclaimed Suzanne du Val 
 Noble. 
 
 "Oh!" replied Esther, "my debts were enough 
 to frighten a minister of finance. Now I wish to 
 get an income of thirty thousand francs before the 
 clock strikes midnight! Oh, he's complaisance 
 itself; I have nothing to complain of. Everything's 
 going well. We shall have a house-warming within 
 the week and you shall be of the party. To-morrow 
 he must offer me the deed of the house in the Rue 
 Saint Georges. A woman can't live decently in such 
 a house as that without an income of thirty thousand 
 francs to turn to in case of mishap. I have known 
 poverty, and I want no more of it. There are cer- 
 tain experiences which you can't see too little of." 
 
 "To think of your saying: 'fortune and I are 
 one !' How you have changed !' ' exclaimed Suzanne.
 
 330 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "It is the air of Switzerland. One becomes 
 economical there. It's the place for you, my dear! 
 Get hold of a Swiss and perhaps he will turn out a 
 husband! For they haven't yet learned to under- 
 stand women like you and me. In any case you 
 will return with a desire for an income on the pub- 
 lic ledger a most honest and refined desire! 
 Adieu." 
 
 Esther stepped into her handsome carriage drawn 
 by the most magnificent pair of dapple-gray mares 
 to be found in Paris. 
 
 "The woman getting into her carriage is not to 
 be despised, but I like the one who walks still 
 better," said Peyrade to Contenson, in English; 
 "follow her and find out who she is." 
 
 "Hear what that Englishman has just been say- 
 ing in English," said Theodore Gaillard, repeating 
 Peyrade's words to Madame du Val Noble. 
 
 Before venturing to speak in English, Peyrade 
 had uttered a single exclamation in that tongue 
 which caused an expression in Theodore Gaillard's 
 face that made the journalist's acquaintance with 
 English very evident. Madame du Val Noble walked 
 leisurely homeward to a very respectable boarding 
 house in the Rue Louis le Grand, looking to one side 
 to see whether the mulatto were still following her. 
 This establishment belonged to a Madame Gerard, 
 who had received assistance from Madame du Val 
 Noble in the days of her splendor, and was now 
 showing her gratitude by lodging the unlucky woman 
 in a suitable fashion. This good woman, middle
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 331 
 
 class, honest, virtuous, even pious, received the 
 courtesan as a being of a higher order; she had 
 always seen her surrounded by luxury; she took 
 her for a fallen queen ; she confided her daughters 
 to her care ; and, what was more natural perhaps 
 than we may think, the courtesan was as scrupulous 
 when she took them to the theatre as a mother 
 would have been. The two Mademoiselle Gerards 
 loved her in return. The good and worthy hostess 
 was like those sublime priests who see a creature 
 to save and to love in a woman without the pale 
 of law. Madame du Val Noble respected this 
 goodness, and often as they talked together in the 
 evenings deploring her misfortunes, she envied her. 
 "You are still handsome; you can still come to a 
 good end," Madame Gerard would say to her. 
 Moreover Madame du Val Noble had only fallen 
 relatively. The wardrobe of this lavish and extrava- 
 gant woman was yet in sufficiently good repair to 
 allow her to appear on occasions like the evening 
 of Richard Darlington, at the Porte Saint Martin, in 
 all her glory. Madame Gerard besides paid with 
 a good grace for the carriages that were required to 
 drive this woman who had lost her means of sub- 
 sistence to some restaurant for her dinner, or to 
 take her to the theatre and to bring her home. 
 
 "Well, my dear Madame Gerard, " said she to 
 that excellent woman, "my lot is going to change, 
 I think" 
 
 "Then, madame, so much the better; but don't 
 be led astray; think of the future. Don't run into
 
 332 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 debt I have so much trouble in getting rid of your 
 creditors!" 
 
 "Oh! don't waste a thought on those dogs: they 
 have all stolen enormous sums from me. Here are 
 tickets to the Varietes for your daughters a good 
 box on the balcony. If anybody asks for me before 
 I return let him be shown upstairs. Adele, my old 
 waiting-maid, will be there; I am going to send her 
 to you." 
 
 Madame du Val Noble, who had neither aunt nor 
 mother, was obliged to have recourse to her maid 
 (afoot, too) in order to make her play the part of a 
 Saint Esteve with the stranger whose conquest 
 would permit her to regain her rank. She was 
 going to dine with Theodore Gaillard, who on that 
 day had a pleasure party on hand ; that is to say, a 
 dinner given by Nathan in payment of a wager; 
 one of those orgies to which the host invites his 
 guest with the words, "There will be women 
 there."
 
 It was not without weighty reasons that Peyrade 
 had decided to enter the lists in person. Moreover 
 his curiosity, as well as that of Corentin, was so 
 violently aroused that even without reasons he 
 would have willingly mingled in the drama. At 
 this moment the policy of Charles X. had completed 
 its last evolution. When he had intrusted the helm 
 of state to ministers of his own choice, the king 
 prepared to conquer Algiers in order to use the 
 ensuing glory as a passport to what has been called 
 his coup d'etat. Within the kingdom conspiracy 
 had died out; Charles X. thought himself without 
 an enemy. In politics, as on the ocean, there are 
 treacherous calms. Thus Corentin had fallen into 
 absolute inaction. In this situation a true hunter, 
 in order to keep his hand in practice, kills crows 
 when partridges have flown. Domitian, himself, 
 killed flies when there were no more Christians. 
 A witness of Esther's arrest, Contenson had, with 
 the exquisite perception of a detective, passed an 
 accurate judgment on that operation. As we have 
 seen, the fellow had not even taken pains to con- 
 ceal his opinion from the Baron de Nucingen. 
 "For whose profit are they levying contributions on 
 the baron's passions?" was the first question that 
 the two friends asked of each other. When he had 
 (333)
 
 334 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 recognized Asia as an actress in the comedy, Con- 
 tenson had hoped to reach the author of the con- 
 spiracy through her. She had eluded him, however, 
 hiding for some time like an eel in the mud of Paris, 
 and when he discovered her in the capacity of 
 Esther's cook, the co-operation of the mulatto 
 woman seemed inexplicable. For the first time 
 these two artists in espionage had met with an 
 indecipherable text, although they suspected that it 
 concealed a dark story. After three successive and 
 bold attacks upon the house in the Rue Taitbout, 
 Contenson had encountered nothing but the most 
 obstinate silence. As long as Esther lived in 
 the house the porter seemed under the influence of 
 the most profound terror. Perhaps Asia had 
 promised the entire household that poisonous 
 dishes should revenge the slightest indiscretion. 
 The day following that on which Esther had left her 
 apartment, Contenson had found the porter some- 
 what more reasonable: he regretted the departure 
 of the lady who, he said, had fed him with frag- 
 ments from her table. Contenson, disguised as a 
 broker, bargained for the apartment and lent his 
 ear to the porter's sorrows, made fun of him, and 
 cast a slur of suspicion over everything he said by 
 continually repeating "Is it possible?" "Yes, sir, 
 the little lady lived here for five years without 
 leaving the house, while her lover, who was jealous, 
 although she was without reproach, used the greatest 
 precaution in coming and going. He was a very 
 handsome young man, too."
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 335 
 
 Lucien was still at Marsac, staying with his 
 sister, Madame Sechard ; but after his return Con- 
 tenson despatched the porter to the Quai Malaquais 
 to ask M. de Rubempre whether he would consent 
 to sell the furniture of the apartment lately left 
 vacant by Madame Van Bogseck. The porter then 
 recognized in Lucien the mysterious lover of the 
 young widow, and Contenson cared not to know 
 more. It is easy to imagine the profound though 
 concealed amazement with which Lucien and Carlos 
 were seized. They seemed to think the porter mad 
 and trie.d to persuade him of his insanity. 
 
 Within twenty-four hours a counter-police was 
 organized by Carlos, which surprised the detective 
 in the very act of spying. Contenson, disguised 
 as a butcher's boy, had twice already delivered the 
 provisions purchased by Asia in the morning, and 
 twice he had succeeded in entering the little house 
 in the Rue Saint Georges. Corentin, on his part, 
 was not idle ; but the appearance of Carlos Herrera 
 on the scene stopped him short, for he knew at once 
 that this priest, the secret envoy of Ferdinand VII., 
 had come to Paris toward the end of the year 1823. 
 Nevertheless, Corentin felt it necessary to study 
 the reasons which had led the Spaniard to protect 
 Lucien de Rubempre, and it was soon clear to him 
 that Esther had been Lucien's mistress for full five 
 years. Thus the substitution of the Englishwoman 
 for Esther had taken place in the dandy's interests. 
 Lucien had no means of subsistence. The hand of 
 Mademoiselle de Grandlieu had been refused him,
 
 336 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 and yet he had lately paid a million of francs for 
 the Rubempre estate. Corentin adroitly excited 
 the interest of the Director-General of the police 
 of the kingdom, who was informed by the Prefect 
 of police that the complainants in the case of Pey- 
 rade had been none other than the Count de Serizy 
 and Lucien de Rubempre. 
 
 "Now we have it!" exclaimed Corentin and Pey- 
 rade. 
 
 The plan of the two friends was drawn in an 
 instant. 
 
 "This girl has had intrigues," said Corentin; 
 "she has friends among the women of her class, 
 and among these friends one at least must have 
 been unlucky. One of us shall play the part of a 
 rich foreigner and make her his mistress; we will 
 keep her on the best of terms with Madame Van 
 Bogseck. They always need one another's help in 
 the game of love, and so we shall be within their 
 inmost walls." 
 
 It was quite natural for Peyrade to think of as- 
 suming the disguise of an Englishman. The life 
 of debauchery which must precede the discovery of 
 the plot of which he had been the victim, pleased 
 his fancy, while Corentin, who had grown old in 
 the harness and whose health was none too vigor- 
 ous, cared little for such excesses. By his disguise 
 as a mulatto Contenson escaped at once from all 
 danger of Carlos' counter-police. Three days be- 
 fore Peyrade's encounter with Madame du Val 
 Noble in the Champs Elysees, the last of the
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 337 
 
 agents of MM. de Sartine and Lenoir, furnished with 
 a formally correct passport, registered at the Hotel 
 Mirabeau in the Rue de la Paix. He had arrived 
 from the colonies by way of Havre, in a small car- 
 riage quite muddy enough to have come all the way 
 from Havre, although it had only made the journey 
 from Saint Denis to Paris. 
 
 On his side Carlos Herrera had his passport 
 signed at the Spanish Embassy, and made all his 
 arrangements in the Quai Malaquais preparatory to 
 his journey to Madrid. This was his reason: 
 within a few days Esther was to become the 
 owner of the small house in the Rue Saint Georges, 
 she was to obtain in advance a bond of thirty 
 thousand francs ; Europe and Asia were sufficiently 
 shrewd to sell it in her name and bring the money 
 secretly to Lucien. Lucien, reputed to be rich 
 through the generosity of his sister, would thus be 
 enabled to pay the balance of the debt on the 
 Rubempre estate. Nobody could find fault with his 
 conduct in this respect. Esther alone had the 
 power to be indiscreet, but she would rather die 
 than betray the least sign of complicity. Clotilde 
 had lately displayed a rose-colored scarf about her 
 stork-like neck, and therefore the day was won in 
 the Grandlieu mansion. The stock of the omnibus 
 system already paid three hundred per cent. By 
 disappearing for a few days, Carlos would disarm 
 all suspicion. Human prudence had foreseen every- 
 thing; a mistake was impossible. The pseudo- 
 Spaniard was to depart the day after that on which
 
 338 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Peyrade had met Madame du Val Noble on the 
 Champs filysees. But on that very night at two 
 o'clock in the morning Asia came to the Quai 
 Malaquais in a cab, and found the engineer of the 
 machine smoking in his room, absorbed in a review 
 of the scheme we have described, like an author 
 scanning a proof sheet of his book, seeking for some 
 error. A man such as he could not repeat an 
 omission like that of the porter in the Rue Taitbout. 
 
 "Paccard," whispered Asia in her master's ear, 
 "recognized Contenson yesterday at half-past two 
 in the Champs Elysees, disguised as a mulatto ser- 
 vant to an Englishman, who for the past three days 
 has been walking up and down the Champs Ely- 
 sees, in order to watch Esther. Paccard recognized 
 him this morning by his eyes, as I did when he 
 was disguised as a butcher's boy. Paccard drove 
 our little lady in such a manner as to keep the ras- 
 cal in sight. He is at the Hotel Mirabeau, and he 
 has interchanged so many signals of intelligence 
 with the Englishman that Paccard says that the 
 Englishman can't be an Englishman." 
 
 "We have a gad-fly after us," said Carlos. "I 
 shall not go until the day after to-morrow. Con- 
 tenson is evidently the man who has spurred on 
 the porter of the Rue Taitbout to follow us to our 
 very door. We must make certain whether the 
 sham Englishman is our enemy." 
 
 At twelve o'clock M. Samuel Johnson's mulatto 
 was waiting gravely upon his master, who, faithful 
 to his custom, always ate a sumptuous breakfast
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 339 
 
 Peyrade wished to pass for an Englishman of the 
 drinking species: he never rose from table till his 
 second bottle was empty. He wore black cloth 
 gaiters, extending as far as his knees and padded so 
 as to increase the dimensions of his legs; his pan- 
 taloons were lined with thick cloth, his waistcoat was 
 buttoned up to his chin ; his blue cravat muffled his 
 neck up to the cheeks ; his head was covered by a 
 small red peruke ; he had increased his height by 
 three inches : the oldest habitue of the Cafe David 
 would have failed to recognize him. By his square- 
 cut coat, black, ample and well brushed as an English 
 coat always is, a stranger would have taken him 
 for a British millionaire. Contenson had displayed 
 the cool insolence of the confidential valet of a nabob : 
 he was silent, surly, distant, uncommunicative, made 
 foreign gestures and uttered ferocious exclamations. 
 Peyrade was finishing his second bottle when a 
 waiter introduced, without ceremony, into the apart- 
 ment a man whom Peyrade, as well as Contenson, 
 recognized as a gendarme in civilian's dress. 
 
 "Monsieur Peyrade," said the gendarme in a 
 whisper to the nabob, "1 have orders to take you 
 to the Prefecture." 
 
 Peyrade rose without a word and went to get his 
 hat. 
 
 "You will find a cab at the door," said the gen- 
 darme, on the stairway. "The Prefect wished to 
 arrest you, but he has contented himself with 
 requiring an explanation of your conduct through a 
 constable whom you will find injthe carriage."
 
 340 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Shall I get in with you?" asked the gendarme 
 of the constable, when Peyrade had taken his seat 
 in the carriage. 
 
 "No," replied the officer. "Tell the coachman 
 quietly to go to the Prefecture." 
 
 Peyrade and Carlos sat together in the same car- 
 riage. Carlos had a poignard within reach. The 
 cab was driven by a confidential coachman, quite 
 capable of allowing Carlos to slip out unnoticed, 
 and of being amazed to find a corpse in the carriage 
 when he came to his journey's end. A detective's 
 body is never reclaimed. Justice permits this class 
 of murderers to go unpunished; they are too difficult 
 to trace. Peyrade cast his searching glance over the 
 magistrate whom the Prefect of Police had com- 
 missioned to examine him. Carlos' appearance was 
 satisfactory: a bald head, furrowed with wrinkles 
 in the back ; powdered hair ; then, over sore eyes, 
 bordered with red, and evidently in constant need 
 of care, a pair of gold spectacles, very light and 
 very bureaucratic, with two thicknesses of green 
 glass. These eyes were certificates of some foul 
 disease. A linen shirt, with smoothly ironed 
 ruffles, a waistcoat of worn black satin, constable's 
 trousers, black grogram stockings, and shoes tied 
 with ribbons, a long black surtout, two-franc 
 gloves, black and worn for ten days, a gold 
 watch-chain. He was neither more nor less 
 than the inferior magistrate whom men misterm 
 constable. 
 
 "My dear Monsieur Peyrade, I regret that a man
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 341 
 
 like you should be the object of surveillance which 
 you are careful to justify by your behavior. Your 
 disguise is not to the Prefect's taste. If you think 
 that you can escape our vigilance by this means 
 you are mistaken. Doubtless you joined the route 
 from England at Beaumont-sur-Oise?" 
 
 "At Beaumont-sur-Oise?" replied Peyrade. 
 
 "Or at Saint Denis?" suggested the pseudo mag- 
 istrate. 
 
 Peyrade felt troubled. This new question re- 
 quired an answer, but every answer was dangerous. 
 An affirmation would be mockery, a denial, if the 
 man knew the truth, meant ruin. 
 
 "He's clever," thought Peyrade. 
 
 He tried to smile at the officer, and gave him this 
 smile for an answer. The smile was accepted 
 without protest. 
 
 "What was your purpose in assuming your dis- 
 guise, in taking an apartment in the Hotel Mira- 
 beau, and in dressing Contenson as a mulatto?" 
 demanded the constable. 
 
 "The Prefect may do with me as he wishes, but 
 I owe account of my actions to no man but my 
 superiors," said Peyrade with dignity. 
 
 "If you wish me to understand that you are act- 
 ing on behalf of the general police of the kingdom," 
 replied the sham constable dryly, "we will change 
 our direction and go to the Rue de Crenelle instead 
 of the Rue de Jerusalem. My orders in respect to 
 you are most specific. But take care; they are 
 not nursing any deep grudge against you, and yet
 
 342 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 in a moment you would ruin yourself. For my 
 part, I wish you no harm. But, out with it! Tell 
 me the truth." 
 
 "The truth is this," said Peyrade, casting a 
 scrutinizing glance at the eyes of his Cerberus. 
 
 The face of the pretended magistrate remained 
 motionless and impassive; he did justice to his art; 
 all truth appeared indifferent to him ; he seemed to 
 be annoyed with the Prefect for some whim. Pre- 
 fects have their crotchets. 
 
 "I am madly in love with a woman, the mistress 
 of that broker who is traveling for his own pleasure 
 and for the displeasure of his creditors, Falleix. " 
 
 "Madame du Val Noble," said the officer. 
 
 "Yes," continued Peyrade. "To be able to sup- 
 port her for a month, which will not cost me more 
 than three thousand francs, I dressed myself as a 
 nabob, and took Contenson for my domestic. This, 
 monsieur, is so true that if you will leave me in 
 the cab, where I will wait for you, on the word of 
 an old Commissary-General of police, and go into 
 the hotel, you can question Contenson. Not only 
 will Contenson confirm what I have had the honor 
 of telling you, but you will meet Madame du Val 
 Noble's maid who is this morning to bring us a 
 consent to my proposal, or the conditions of her 
 mistress. You can tell an old monkey by his grim- 
 aces. I have offered a thousand francs a month, a 
 carriage that makes fifteen hundred; five hun- 
 dred francs in presents, as much in entertainments, 
 dinners, plays; you see that I am not a penny out
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 343 
 
 of the way in telling you three thousand francs. 
 A man of my age can easily spend three thousand 
 francs on her latest whim." 
 
 "Ah! Papa Peyrade, do you still love women 
 enough to ? But you surpass me there ; I am sixty 
 years old and I get on very well without them. 
 Nevertheless, if everything is as you say, I sup- 
 pose that your foreign dress was necessary for the 
 gratification of your fancy. ' ' 
 
 "You see that Peyrade or Pere Canquoelle of 
 the Rue des Moineaux " 
 
 "Yes, neither of them would have suited Madame 
 du Val Noble," interrupted Carlos, delighted to 
 learn Pere Canquoelle's address. "Before the 
 revolution 1 had for my mistress a woman who had 
 belonged to the Jack Ketch of that time. One day, 
 at the theatre, she pricks herself with a pin, and 
 exclaims, as people did in those days, 'Ah! bloody!' 
 'Is it a reminiscence?' asked her neighbor. Well, 
 my dear Peyrade, she left her husband on account 
 of the joke. I imagine that you don't care to 
 expose yourself to a similar insult. Madame du 
 Val Noble moves in a fashionable sphere. I saw 
 her at the Opera once and thought her very 
 handsome. My dear sir, ask the coachman to 
 drive back to the Rue de la Paix; I will go up 
 to your room with you and see everything for 
 myself. A verbal report will doubtless satisfy the 
 Prefect" 
 
 Carlos drew from his side pocket a snuff box of 
 black card-board, lined with vermilion, and offered
 
 344 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 it to Peyrade with a gesture of charming cordiality. 
 Peyrade said to himself: 
 
 "These are their agents! Lord! if M. Lenoir 
 or M. de Sartine should come to earth again, what 
 would they say?" 
 
 "That's no doubt a portion of the truth, but it's 
 not all, my dear friend," said the counterfeit offi- 
 cer, as he sniffed the last grains of his pinch of 
 snuff. "You have been meddling in the love affairs 
 of the Baron de Nucingen, and doubtless you pur- 
 pose to catch him in some slip-noose; you have 
 missed him with your pistol and now you wish to 
 bring your heavy artillery to bear. Madame du 
 Val Noble is a friend of Madame de Champy " 
 
 "Ah, the devil! the game's up!" thought Pey- 
 rade. "He's more wily than I supposed. He's 
 tricking me; he talks about letting me go, and yet 
 he continues to pump me." 
 
 "Well?" demanded Carlos, with a magisterial 
 air. 
 
 "Monsieur, it is true that I made the mistake 
 of searching, on M. de Nucingen's behalf, for a 
 woman with whom he was wildly in love. It is 
 the reason of my present disgrace, for it seems that 
 I have unintentionally touched upon very grave 
 interests." 
 
 The petty magistrate was impassible. 
 
 "But after fifty-two years' experience I know the 
 police well enough," continued Peyrade, "to keep 
 myself well away from them since the scolding I 
 received from the Prefect, who certainly was right. ' '
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 345 
 
 "Then you would give up your caprice if the 
 Prefect should require it? That, I think, would be 
 the best proof of the sincerity of what you have 
 told me." 
 
 "How he runs on! how he runs on!" said Pey- 
 rade to himself. "Who would have believed it? 
 The agents of to-day are as good as those of M. 
 Lenoir!" 
 
 "Give it up!" replied Peyrade aloud. "I shall 
 wait the Prefect's orders. But if you care to come 
 in, here we are at the hotel." 
 
 "Where does your money come from?" demanded 
 Carlos point-blank, with an air of extreme sagacity. 
 
 "Monsieur, I have a friend " said Peyrade. 
 
 "Tell that," answered Carlos, "to a judge in 
 court." 
 
 This bold scene was, on Carlos' part, the result 
 of one of those combinations whose simplicity could 
 proceed from no brain except that of a man of his 
 stamp. Very early in the morning he had sent 
 Lucien to call upon the Countess de Serizy. Lu- 
 cien requested the count's private secretary to go 
 to the Prefect on behalf of the count, and ask for 
 information concerning the agents employed by 
 the Baron de Nucingen. The secretary had re- 
 turned, provided with a memorandum concerning 
 Peyrade, a copy of the summary in the form of 
 an indorsement: 
 
 "In the police since 1778, and come to Paris from 
 Avignon two years before.
 
 346 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 ' ' Without money and without morality. A depositary 
 of state secrets. 
 
 "Lives in the Rue des Moimaux, under the name of 
 Canquoelle, the name of a small estate in the depart- 
 ment of Vaucluse, where his family lives. The family 
 was, moreover, honorable. Has been recently inquired 
 after by one of his grand-nephews, named Theodore de la 
 Peyrade. (See the report of an agent. Docket No. 
 370" 
 
 "He must be the Englishman whose mulatto ser- 
 vant is Contenson," Carlos had exclaimed when 
 Lucien added some extra information given him by 
 word of mouth. 
 
 In three hours' time this man, active as a Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, had discovered, through the ser- 
 vices of Paccard, an innocent accomplice well fitted 
 to play the part of the gendarme, and had disguised 
 himself as a constable. Three times in the cab he 
 had been on the point of assassinating Peyrade; 
 but he had made a firm resolution never again to 
 commit murder with his own hands, and adhering 
 to his principle he determined to rid himself of 
 Peyrade by pointing him out as a millionaire to a 
 few liberated galley-slaves. 
 
 Peyrade and his mentor could hear the voice of 
 Contenson as he talked with Madame du Val 
 Noble's waiting-maid. Peyrade made a sign to 
 Carlos to remain in the ante-room, with an air that 
 seemed to mean, "You are going to judge of my 
 sincerity."
 
 347 
 
 "Madame consents to all," Adele was saying. 
 "At this moment madame is visiting one of her 
 friends, Madame de Champy, who has secured for 
 another year a furnished apartment in the Rue 
 Taitbout, which no doubt she will be glad to let 
 my mistress have. It will be more convenient 
 for madame to meet M. Johnson there, for the 
 furniture is still in good condition, and monsieur 
 can buy it for madame by making a bargain with 
 Madame de Champy." 
 
 "All right, the leaves are there if the carrot's 
 wanting," said the mulatto to the surprised maid; 
 "but we'll share" 
 
 "There's a negro for you!" exclaimed Mademoi- 
 selle Adele. "If your nabob is a nabob, he'll not 
 find it hard to present madame with the furniture. 
 The lease expires in April, 1830; your nabob may 
 renew it if he thinks fit." 
 
 "I am well satisfied," answered Peyrade in bad 
 French, as he entered the room and tapped the 
 maid on the shoulder. Then he made signal of 
 inquiry to Carlos, who implied by a gesture of 
 assent that the nabob should not depart from 
 his role. At this juncture the scene was sud- 
 denly changed by the entrance of a person 
 against whom both Carlos and the Prefect of 
 police were powerless. Corentin suddenly ap- 
 peared. He, finding the door open, had stepped in 
 casually to see how Peyrade was acting his part as 
 nabob. 
 
 ' ' The Prefect invariably sniffs me out !' ' whispered
 
 348 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Peyrade in Corentin's ear. "He has discovered 
 that I am playing nabob." 
 
 "We shall checkmate the Prefect," whispered 
 Corentin in return. 
 
 Then, after a cold bow, he began to examine the 
 magistrate surreptitiously. 
 
 "Stay here until my return; I am going to 
 the Prefecture," said Carlos. "If you don't 
 see me again, you are at liberty to carry out your 
 whim." 
 
 After having whispered these words in Peyrade's 
 ear so as not to disgrace the nabob in the eyes of 
 the waiting-maid, Carlos made his exit, not caring 
 to remain longer beneath the scrutiny of the new- 
 comer, in whom he recognized one of those fair- 
 complexioned persons whose blue eyes are at once 
 terrible and cold. 
 
 "He is the constable that the Prefect sent after 
 me," explained Peyrade to Corentin. 
 
 "He?" replied Corentin. "You have put your 
 foot in it. That man has three thicknesses of card- 
 board in his soles, as you can tell by the position of 
 his foot in the shoe; and then a constable has no 
 reason to disguise himself." 
 
 Corentin hurried downstairs in order to verify 
 his suspicions; Carlos was stepping into the cab. 
 
 "Hi! Monsieur 1'Abbe," cried Corentin. 
 
 Carlos turned his head, perceived Corentin and 
 sprang into his cab. Nevertheless Corentin had 
 time to say, as the door was closing: 
 
 "That's all I cared to know."
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 349 
 
 "Quai Malaquais!" cried Corentin to the driver 
 with a voice and look of devilish irony. 
 
 "Well," thought Jacques Collin; "it's all up 
 with me. They are aroused. I must get the start 
 of them, and above all find out what they want of 
 me." 
 
 Corentin had seen the Abbe Carlos Herrerafive or 
 six times, and the aspect of this man could not be 
 forgotten. Corentin had recognized first the 
 squareness of his shoulders, then certain swellings 
 on his face, and the three false inches obtained by 
 an interior heel. 
 
 "Ah, ha! old man, they have been making game 
 of you," said Corentin, perceiving that Peyrade 
 and Contenson were alone in the bed-chamber. 
 
 "Who?" exclaimed Peyrade in a voice of metal- 
 lic vibration; "I shall spend my last days in fasten- 
 ing him to a gridiron and broiling him alive." 
 
 "It's the Abbe Carlos Herrera, probably the Co- 
 rentin of Spain. Everything's explained. He's an 
 accomplished villain, who wished to make the for- 
 tune of a young man by coining money in a pretty 
 woman's mint. It's for you to decide whether you 
 care to tilt with a diplomat who seems to me most 
 devilishly crafty." 
 
 "Oh!" cried Contenson, "he received the three 
 hundred thousand francs the day that Esther was 
 arrested ; he was in the cab. I remember his eyes, 
 his forehead and certain traces of small-pox." 
 
 "Ah, what a dowry my poor Lydie might have 
 had!" exclaimed Peyrade.
 
 350 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "You can be a nabob still," said Corentin. "In 
 order to keep an eye on Esther we must bind her 
 fast to Madame du Val Noble ; she was the real mis- 
 tress of Lucien de Rubempre. " 
 
 "They have bled Nucingen of more than five 
 hundred thousand francs already, " remarked Con- 
 tenson. 
 
 "They need as much more," continued Coren- 
 tin. "The Rubempre estate costs a million. Papa," 
 he added, slapping Peyrade's shoulder; "you can 
 have more than a hundred thousand francs to marry 
 Lydie with." 
 
 "Don't tell me that, Corentin. If your plan 
 fails, I don't know what I may be capable of " 
 
 "You shall have them to-morrow, perhaps! The 
 priest is very cunning; we must tame him. He's 
 an arch-devil, but I have him fast; he's no fool and 
 he'll surrender. Try to be as stupid as a nabob 
 and fear nothing."
 
 The evening of the day on which the real adver- 
 saries met face to face on a fair field, Lucien went 
 to pass the evening at the Grandlieu house. The 
 assembled company was numerous. In the sight of 
 all her guests, the duchess detained Lucien long by 
 her side and treated him with marked attention. 
 
 "You have been on a little journey?" said she. 
 
 "Yes, madame. In her desire to compass my 
 marriage, my sister has made very great sacrifices, 
 and I have been enabled to purchase the Rubempre 
 estate and to remodel it entirely. I have found, in 
 my Paris lawyer, a man shrewd enough to avoid 
 the claims which the late rascally owners would 
 have raised had they known the name of the pur- 
 chaser." 
 
 "Is there a chateau?" asked Clotilde smiling. 
 
 "There is something which resembles a chateau, 
 but the wisest plan will be to use its materials to 
 build a modern house." 
 
 Clotilde's eyes shot flames of happiness across 
 her smiles of content. 
 
 "To-night you will play a rubber with my 
 father," said she to Lucien in a low voice; "in a 
 fortnight I trust you will be invited to dinner." 
 
 "Ah, my dear sir," said the Duke de Grandlieu, 
 "they tell me that you have bought the Rubempre 
 estate ; allow me to offer you my congratulations. 
 (350
 
 352 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 It is a fitting answer to those who accused you of 
 being in debt. People such as we can have a pub- 
 lic debt, like England and France; but, you see, 
 people without money beginners can't indulge in 
 that sort of thing." 
 
 "But, your lordship, I still owe five hundred 
 thousand francs on my land." 
 
 "Then you must marry a girl who will bring 
 them to you. But you will find it a difficult task to 
 discover a bride with a fortune like that in our 
 Faubourg, where men give small dowries to their 
 daughters." 
 
 "Their name alone is enough," replied Lucien. 
 
 "We are but three for a game of whist Manfri- 
 gneuse, d'Espard and I; will you make the fourth?" 
 said the duke to Lucien, pointing toward the card- 
 table. 
 
 Clotilde came to the table to watch her father 
 play. 
 
 "Does she mean me to take this compliment to 
 myself?" said the duke, patting his daughter's 
 hands and casting a side-glance at Lucien, who re- 
 mained quite serious. 
 
 Lucien, the partner of M. d'Espard, lost twenty 
 louis. 
 
 "Dear mother," said Clotilde to the duchess, "he 
 was clever enough to lose." 
 
 At eleven o'clock, after exchanging a few words 
 of love with Mademoiselle de Grandlieu, Lucien 
 drove back to his lodgings, and went to bed think- 
 ing of the complete triumph in store for him within
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 353 
 
 a month, for he no longer doubted that he would be 
 accepted as Clotilde's betrothed, and married be- 
 fore the Lent of 1830. 
 
 The next day,after breakfast, while Lucien was 
 smoking his cigarette in company with Carlos, who 
 had become very anxious, the servant announced 
 that M. de Saint Esteve what an epigram! would 
 like to speak either with the Abbe Carlos Herrera 
 or with M. Lucien de Rubempre. 
 
 "Was he told that I had gone ?" asked the priest. 
 
 "Yes, monsieur," answered the groom. 
 
 "Receive him," said Carlos to Lucien; "but 
 don't utter a single compromising word; don't let a 
 gesture of surprise escape you it's the enemy." 
 
 "You shall listen to me," replied Lucien. 
 
 Carlos concealed himself in a neighboring apart- 
 ment, and looking through a crack in the door, he 
 saw Corentin enter. Such was that great man's 
 genius for transformation, that the priest could 
 recognize his voice alone. On this occasion Co- 
 rentin represented an old chief of division in the 
 department of finance. 
 
 "I have not the honor of being known to you," 
 said Corentin ; "but " 
 
 "Excuse me for interrupting you, sir," said Lu- 
 cien; "but" 
 
 "But, I wish to speak to you concerning your 
 marriage with Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu, 
 which will not come to pass," replied Corentin 
 quickly. 
 
 Lucien sat down and did not answer. 
 23
 
 354 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "You are in the hands of a man who has the 
 power, the will and the readiness to prove to the 
 Duke de Grandlieu that the Rubempre estate will 
 be bought with the price that a blockhead has paid 
 for your mistress, Mademoiselle Esther," continued 
 Corentin. "It will be easy to discover the minutes 
 of the judgments in virtue of which Mademoiselle 
 Esther has been prosecuted, and I have the means 
 of loosening d' Estourny 's tongue. The exceedingly 
 adroit manoeuvres employed against the baron will 
 be brought to light. Now, everything can be ar- 
 ranged. Give me a hundred thousand francs and 
 you will be left in peace. This has nothing to do 
 with me. I am merely the agent of those who are 
 playing this game, nothing more." 
 
 Corentin might have talked for an hour; Lucien 
 smoked his cigarette with an air of perfect indif- 
 ference. 
 
 "Monsieur," he answered, "I do not wish to 
 know who you are, for people who undertake such 
 commissions as this are nameless so far as I am 
 concerned. I have heard you quietly to the end; 
 I am at home. You do not appear to be destitute 
 of sense. Listen to my dilemma. " 
 
 There was a pause, during which Lucien, with 
 an icy stare, met the cat's eyes that Corentin 
 directed toward him. 
 
 "Whether you found your assertions on facts en- 
 tirely false, and I shall take no note of this," con- 
 tinued Lucien, "or whether your statements are 
 correct, by giving you one hundred thousand francs,
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 355 
 
 I should give you the right of demanding of me as 
 many hundred thousands of francs as your employer 
 can discover Saint Esteves to send me. But to 
 cut short your estimable negotiation, learn that I, 
 Lucien de Rubempre, fear nobody. I have no part 
 in the practices about which you are talking. If 
 the Grandlieu family stir up any difficulty, there 
 are other young and aristocratic women whom I can 
 marry; lastly, it is no reproach for me to remain a 
 bachelor, especially when, as you believe, I am car- 
 rying on so prosperous a trade." 
 
 "If M. 1'Abbe Carlos Herrera " 
 
 "Monsieur," said Lucien, interrupting Corentin, 
 "the Abbe Carlos Herrera is at this moment on his 
 way to Spain. He has nothing to do with my mar- 
 riage, and no concern in my interests. He is a 
 politician, and has been kind enough to aid me for 
 years with his advice, but he is obliged to render 
 an account of himself to his Majesty, the King of 
 Spain; if you have business with him I advise you 
 to take a journey to Madrid." 
 
 "Sir," said Corentin shortly, "you shall never 
 be the husband of Mademoiselle Clotilde de 
 Grandlieu." 
 
 "So much the worse for her," replied Lucien, 
 pushing Corentin impatiently toward the door. 
 
 "Have you reflected soberly?" asked Corentin 
 coldly. 
 
 "Sir, I do not recognize your right to interfere in 
 my affairs, nor to deprive me of a cigarette," said 
 Lucien, tossing away his extinguished cigarette.
 
 356 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Good-bye, sir," said Corentin. "We shall not 
 see each other again. But certainly there will 
 come a time in your life when you would give half 
 your fortune to have decided to stop me as I walked 
 down your staircase." 
 
 In answer to this menace Carlos drew his hand 
 across his throat. 
 
 "To work, now!" he cried, looking at Lucien 
 who had grown pale after this terrible conference. 
 
 If, among the limited number of readers who 
 study the moral and philosophical style of a book, 
 there is a single person capable of believing in the 
 satisfaction of the Baron de Nucingen, that one per- 
 son would prove how difficult it is to subject the 
 heart of a courtesan to any physiological maxims 
 whatsoever. Esther had resolved to make the poor 
 millionaire pay dearly for what that millionaire called 
 his "tay of driumph." In the early days of Feb- 
 ruary, 1830, the house-warming had not yet been 
 given in the leetle balace. 
 
 "But," said Esther confidentially to her friends, 
 who repeated the speech to the baron at the carni- 
 val, "I keep open house and I wish to make my 
 husband happy as a plaster cock.'" 
 
 This phrase became proverbial in the world of 
 these women. 
 
 The baron gave himself up to lamentation. Like 
 married men, he became somewhat ridiculous; he 
 began to bewail his fate in the presence of his con- 
 fidential friends, and his discontent was noised
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 357 
 
 abroad. Nevertheless Esther continued conscien- 
 tiously to play her part as the Madame de Pompa- 
 dour of the prince of speculation. She had already 
 given two or three receptions solely for the purpose of 
 introducing Lucien into her house. Lousteau, Rastig- 
 nac, Du Tillet, Bixiou, Nathan, the Count de Bram- 
 bourg, the flower of rakes, were all constant guests 
 at her salon. Finally Esther accepted as actresses 
 for the piece which she was playing, Tullia, Floren- 
 tine, Fanny Beaupre, Florine, two actresses and two 
 danseuses, and besides these Madame du Val Noble. 
 Nothing is more melancholy than the house of a cour- 
 tesan without the salt of rivalry, competition among 
 gowns, and diversity of faces. Within six weeks 
 Esther became the wittiest, most amusing, love- 
 liest, most elegant among those female pariahs who 
 compose the class to which she belonged. Placed 
 on her true pedestal, she tasted all the delights of 
 vanity which seduce ordinary women, but always 
 as a woman whom some secret thought has raised 
 above her caste. She kept within her heart an 
 image of herself in which she gloried even though 
 it made her blush; the hour of her abdication was 
 always present to her consciousness ; and thus she 
 lived doubly, while her inward life did not cease to 
 pity her outer existence. Her sarcasm was impreg- 
 nated with her inner disposition where there re- 
 mained the deep loathing, which the angel of love 
 dwelling within the courtesan, felt toward the in- 
 famous part, vilely played by the body in the pres- 
 ence of the soul. At once the spectator and the
 
 358 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 actor, the judge and the accused, she fulfilled the 
 admirable fiction of Arabian fairy tales, where 
 there is almost always a sublime being hidden be- 
 neath a degraded envelope, whose type, under the 
 name of Nebuchadnezzar, appears in the book of 
 books, the Bible. The victim who had been 
 granted life only to the day of her infidelity, might 
 well amuse herself at the expense of her execu- 
 tioner. Besides, the information which Esther had 
 acquired concerning the secretly shameful methods 
 to which the baron owed his colossal fortune, 
 removed the last scruples from her mind, and 
 she delighted to play the part of the goddess Ate, 
 Vengeance, as Carlos had called it. Now she made 
 herself charming, now detestable, to this million- 
 aire who lived only in her. When at length the 
 baron had reached such a stage of suffering that he 
 resolved to desert Esther, she would rivet him to 
 her more strongly than ever by some tender 
 scene. 
 
 Herrera departed publicly for Spain, and went no 
 further than Tours. His carriage had proceeded as 
 far as Bordeaux, where a servant was left to play 
 the part of his master and to await his coming, in a 
 Bordeaux hotel. Returning by diligence in the 
 guise of a commercial traveler, Carlos had secretly 
 installed himself in the Rue Saint Georges, where, 
 through the medium of Asia, Europe and Paccard, 
 he directed his machinations with care, and watched 
 everybody, especially Peyrade. 
 
 About a fortnight before the day chosen for her
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 359 
 
 fte, which was to be on the evening following the 
 first ball at the Opera, the courtesan, whose wit had 
 begun to render her redoubtable, sat in the The- 
 atre des Italiens, in the back of a box that the 
 baron obliged to furnish a box had secured on the 
 ground floor in order to conceal his mistress and avoid 
 appearing by her side in public, at a few steps from 
 Madame de Nucingen. Esther had chosen a position 
 which enabled her to see Madame de Serizy, in 
 whose train Lucien was almost always to be found. 
 It was the poor courtesan's happiness to be able to 
 contemplate Lucien on Tuesdays, Thursdays and 
 Saturdays as he talked to Madame de Serizy. 
 Toward half past nine o'clock Esther saw Lucien 
 enter the countess' box. His brow was contracted 
 and pale, and his face looked almost distorted. 
 These signs of inward trouble were visible only to 
 Esther. The knowledge of a man's face is, for the 
 woman who loves him, what the wide sea is for a 
 mariner. 
 
 "Heavens! what can it be? what has happened? 
 Can he have need to speak with that angel of 
 hell who is his guardian angel, and who lives hid- 
 den in a garret between the rooms of Europe and 
 Asia?" 
 
 Filled with such cruel thoughts Esther scarcely 
 heard the music. We may easily believe that she 
 had no ear for the baron who sat holding his 
 anchel's hand between his own, chattering to her 
 in his Polish-Jew patois, which must be as painful 
 to those who read as to those who heard it.
 
 360 .SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Esder, " said he, loosing her hand and pushing it 
 from him with a slight movement of vexation, 
 "you to nod lisden do me." 
 
 "Baron, you jabber love as you jabber French." 
 
 "Der tefil!" 
 
 "This is not my boudoir.; I am at the Italiens. 
 If you were not one of those safes manufactured by 
 Huret or Fichet, and metamorphosed into a man by 
 some strange whim of nature, you wouldn't make so 
 much disturbance in the box of a woman who loves 
 music. Of course I don't listen to you. You sit 
 there bustling about my gown like a cock-chafer 
 in a pile of papers, and you force me to smile from 
 mere pity. You tell me, 'you are luffly; you are 
 zweed enough to ead !' You old sot! suppose that 
 I were to answer, 'You are less displeasing to me 
 to-day than yesterday; let us go home?' Why, by 
 the way in which you breathe for even if I did not 
 hear you I couldn't help perceiving you I see that 
 you have overeaten enormously and that your di- 
 gestion is beginning. Learn this of me, for I cost 
 you dearly enough to give you now and then a bit of 
 advice for your money ! learn, my dear, that when 
 a person has a troubled digestion like yours he is 
 not permitted to say indiscriminately to his mis- 
 tress at all times and seasons, 'You are luffly.' An 
 old soldier died of that lunacy in the arms of Re- 
 ligion, as Blondet said. It is ten o'clock. At nine 
 o'clock you finished dining with Du Tillet and your 
 pigeon, the Count de Brambourg. You have millions 
 of truffles to digest; call again to-morrow at ten."
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 361 
 
 "How gruel you are!" exclaimed the baron, who 
 recognized the perfect justice of this medical argu- 
 ment. 
 
 "Cruel!" repeated Esther without taking her 
 eyes off Lucien. "Have you not consulted Bian- 
 chon, Desplein and old Haudry? Since you have 
 discerned the aurora of your happiness, do you 
 know the appearance you present to me?" 
 
 "Vat?" 
 
 "A fat countryman, swathed in flannel, who 
 hour after hour walks from his arm-chair to his 
 window to see whether the thermometer is precisely 
 at ninety, the temperature ordered by his phy- 
 sician." 
 
 "You are eine ungradevul vooman !" exclaimed 
 the baron, despairing of hearing music such as 
 elderly lovers often hear at the Italiens. 
 
 "Ungrateful!" said Esther. "And what have 
 you given me until now ? A great deal of discom- 
 fort ! Think a moment, papa ; can I be proud of you ? 
 You are proud of me ; I look well in your laces and 
 your livery. You have paid my debts ! Well and 
 good! But you have milked the public of millions 
 enough ah, don't make a face ; I know all about 
 you to make this too trifling to think of. Yet it 
 is your best title to glory. A woman from the 
 streets, and a thief; nothing could make a better 
 match. You have built a magnificent cage for a 
 paroquet that pleases you. Go and ask of some 
 Brazilian macaw whether he owes a debt of grat- 
 itude to the keeper who has shut him in his cage.
 
 362 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Don't look at me like that; you look like a heathen 
 priest. You show your red and white macaw to all 
 Paris. You say, 'Is there anybody else in Paris 
 who owns such a paroquet as this ? How he chat- 
 ters! how cleverly he hits on the right word!' Du 
 Tillet enters; he says to him, 'Good morning, you 
 young rascal.' You are happy as a Dutchman with 
 a unique tulip, as an old nabob living in Asia on an 
 English pension, who has just bought of a commer- 
 cial traveler the first Swiss snuff-box that has the 
 advantage of three openings. You wish for my 
 heart ; wait, I will show you the means of gaining it. ' ' 
 
 "Dell me, dell me! I vill to everyding vor you. 
 I luff to pe plackguartet by you !" 
 
 "Be young, be handsome, be like Lucien de Ru- 
 bempre, who stands there near your wife, and you 
 shall have gratis that which you can never buy with 
 all your millions." 
 
 "I leaf you, vor ubon mein vort, you are egse- 
 graple zis efening!" said the lynx, drawing a long 
 face. 
 
 "Good-night then," replied Esther. "Bid 
 Chorches raise the head of your bed very high and 
 let your feet slope downward for to-night. Your 
 complexion looks apoplectic. Now, dear, never say 
 that I take no interest in your health." 
 
 The baron was standing with his hand on the 
 door-knob. 
 
 "Come here, Nucingen!" said Esther, calling 
 him back with a haughty wave of her hand. The 
 baron bent over her with canine servility.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 363 
 
 "Do you want me to be kind to you and give 
 you eau sucree to drink at my house to-night, 
 while I caress you, you fat monster?" 
 
 "You preak my heard." 
 
 " 'Preakyour heard,' that's described in a single 
 word, gife!" replied she, mimicking the baron's pro- 
 nunciation. "Send Lucien to me. I want to in- 
 vite him to our Balthasar's Feast; I'm sure that he 
 will not refuse. If you succeed in this small nego- 
 tiation, I'll tell you so sweetly that I love you, my 
 fat Frederick, that you will believe me." 
 
 "You are eine enghandress, " said the baron, 
 kissing Esther's glove. "I vould gonzent to have 
 you rail ad me vor ein hour eef zere were zurely 
 eine garesse ad ze ent " 
 
 "Go. If I am not obeyed, I " said she, men- 
 acing the baron with her finger as mothers do to 
 children. 
 
 The baron raised his head like a bird caught in 
 a trap, as it looks imploringly toward the hunter. 
 
 "Oh, God! What can have happened to Lu- 
 cien?" said she to herself. When left alone she no 
 longer restrained the tears which fell fast from her 
 eyes. "He has never been so sad before!" 
 
 This is what had happened to Lucien that very 
 evening. At nine o'clock, according to his usual 
 custom, Lucien had driven out in a cab on his way 
 to the Grandlieu mansion. Reserving his saddle 
 horse and his driving horse for the morning, as all 
 young men do, he had hired a coupe for his winter 
 evenings, and had selected from the stock of a
 
 364 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 fashionable livery stable one of the most magnifi- 
 cent, drawn by magnificent horses to match. For a 
 month past everything had smiled on him: he had 
 dined thrice at the Grandlieu table; the duke had 
 been most cordial ; his stock in the omnibus system, 
 sold for three hundred thousand francs, had enabled 
 him to pay another third toward the purchase of 
 his estate; Clotilde de Grandlieu, who now made 
 the most careful toilettes, had at least ten pots of 
 paint on her face when he entered the parlor, and 
 she openly avowed her love for him. Several per- 
 sons of distinction talked of the marriage of Lucien 
 with Mademoiselle de Grandlieu as a probable 
 event. The Duke de Chaulieu, former ambassador 
 to Spain, and, for a brief moment, Minister of For- 
 eign Affairs, had promised the Duchess de Grand- 
 lieu to beg of the king the title of marquis for Lu- 
 cien. After taking dinner with Madame de Serizy, 
 Lucien had gone that evening from the Rue de 
 la Chausee d'Antin to the Faubourg Saint Ger- 
 main to make his daily visit. Arrived there, his 
 coachman called, the gates were opened, and 
 the cab stopped at the door of the house. As 
 he stepped from his equipage, Lucien noticed 
 four carriages in the court-yard. Immediately 
 upon perceiving M. de Rubempre, one of the foot- 
 men, who opened and closed the door of the 
 peristyle, advances, walks out upon the porch 
 and stands before the door like a soldier at his 
 post of duty. 
 
 "His grace is not at home!" says he.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 365 
 
 "Madame la Duchesse is receiving," observed 
 Lucien to the valet. 
 
 " Madame la Duchesse is out," replied the valet 
 with gravity. 
 
 "Mademoiselle Clotilde " 
 
 "I believe that Mademoiselle Clotilde does not 
 receive, sir, in the absence of Madame la 
 Duchesse." 
 
 "But there are people here," replied Lucien, 
 thunderstruck. 
 
 "I do not know," answered the footman, endeav- 
 oring to be at once uncommunicative and respectful. 
 
 There is nothing so terrible as etiquette for those 
 who admit it to be the most formidable law of 
 society. Lucien was at no loss to understand 
 the full significance of this scene, disastrous for 
 him: the duke and the duchess were unwilling 
 to receive him. He felt the spinal marrow freez- 
 ing within the rings of his vertebral column, and 
 a few drops of cold sweat stood out upon his 
 forehead. This conversation had taken place in 
 the presence of his own valet, who held the 
 handle of the carriage door and was waiting to 
 close it Lucien nodded his readiness to depart, 
 but as he was stepping into the cab he heard a 
 scuttling noise, such as people make when they de- 
 scend a staircase, and then the successive cries of 
 the footman: "The servants of his lordship, the 
 Duke de Chaulieu! The servants of Madame la 
 Vicountess de Grandlieu!" Lucien said but a word 
 to his valet, "To the Theatre des Italiens; be
 
 366 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 quick!" In spite of his haste the unfortunate 
 dandy could not avoid the Duke de Chaulieu and 
 his son, the Duke de Rhetore, with whom he was 
 obliged to exchange salutes, for they did not say 
 a word. A great catastrophe at court, the fall of a 
 redoubtable favorite is often consummated on the 
 threshold of a cabinet by the words of a doorkeeper, 
 with the face of a plaster cast. 
 
 "How can this disaster be instantly made known 
 to my counsellor ?" Lucien had asked himself on 
 his way to the Italiens. "What can be happen- 
 ing?" 
 
 He became lost in conjectures. This is what 
 had taken place: That same morning, at eleven 
 o'clock, the Duke de Grandlieu had said to Clotilde 
 as he entered the little parlor where the family 
 breakfasted in the absence of company, "My child, 
 until further orders have nothing to do with M. de 
 Rubempre. " 
 
 Then he had taken the duchess by the hand and 
 had led her into the embrasure of a window to say 
 to her in a low voice a few words which made poor 
 Clotilde change color. As Mademoiselle de Grand- 
 lieu watched her mother listening to the duke, she 
 saw a startled look of surprise come over her face. 
 
 "Jean," the duke had said to one of his domes- 
 tics, "here, take this short note to his lordship, the 
 Duke de Chaulieu; ask him to give you an answer, 
 'yes' or 'no.' I am inviting him to dine with us 
 to-day," he added, turning toward his wife. 
 
 The breakfast had been profoundly sad. The
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 367 
 
 duchess seemed thoughtful; the duke appeared 
 angry with himself, and Clotilde could scarcely 
 hold back her tears. 
 
 "My child, your father is right; obey him," the 
 mother had said to her daughter in a compassionate 
 voice. "I cannot say, like him, 'do not think of 
 Lucien;' no, I understand your sorrow. Clotilde 
 kissed her mother's hand. But, my angel, my ad- 
 vice to you is: Wait without taking a single step; 
 suffer in silence, since you love him, and trust in 
 the fond care of your parents ! Noble ladies, my 
 child, are noble because they know how to do their 
 duty on all occasions with nobleness." 
 
 "What is it about?" asked Clotilde, pale as a 
 lily. 
 
 "Things too grave to speak of in your presence, 
 dear heart," answered the duchess; "for if they 
 are false they would sully your thoughts to no pur- 
 pose, and if true, you must never know them." 
 
 At six o'clock the Duke de Chaulieu had found 
 the Duke de Grandlieu awaiting him in his study. 
 
 "Advise me, Henri these two dukes called each 
 other familiarly by their first names. It is one of 
 those shades of etiquette invented in order to mark 
 the degrees of intimacy, to repel the advances of 
 French familiarity, and to humiliate pride of 
 others advise me, Henri. I am in such a quan- 
 dary that I can take counsel only of an old friend 
 who knows the world, and you know it by heart. 
 My daughter Clotilde is in love, as you have 
 heard, with that little Rubempre, to whom they
 
 368 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 have half obliged me to promise her hand. I have 
 always opposed the match, but the truth of the 
 matter is that Madame de Grandlieu could not defend 
 herself against Clotilde's love. When the fellow 
 had bought his estate and had paid three-quarters 
 of the purchase-money, I could no longer make any 
 objection. And then last night I received an anony- 
 mous letter you know such things should be taken 
 with a grain of salt in which I was told that the 
 fellow's fortune comes from a dishonest source, and 
 that his story, that the funds necessary to the pur- 
 chase of his property came from his sister, was all 
 a lie. The letter ended by advising me, in the 
 name of my daughter's happiness and of my fam- 
 ily's honor, to make inquiries and pointed out to 
 me the means of enlightening myself. Here it is, 
 read it" 
 
 "I share your opinion of anonymous letters, my 
 dear Ferdinand," replied the Duke de Chaulieu, 
 when he had read the letter to the end; "but dis- 
 trust them as he may, a man ought to make use of 
 them. These letters are precisely like spies. 
 Close your doors to this fellow, and proceed with 
 your investigation. Ah ! I know exactly what you 
 want. Your lawyer is Derville, a man in whom 
 we have entire confidence; he has the secrets of 
 many a family, and can keep this one as well. 
 He's a man of integrity, a man of weight, a man of 
 honor; he's adroit and cunning, but he has only 
 the shrewdness that belongs to business ; you should 
 employ him only to obtain proofs of which you
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 369 
 
 must be the judge. We have at the ministry of 
 foreign affairs, through the police of the kingdom, 
 an extraordinary man, whom we often employ to 
 discover state secrets. Apprise Derville that in 
 this affair he will have a lieutenant. Our detec- 
 tive is a gentleman who will present himself deco- 
 rated with the Legion of Honor; he will have all the 
 air of a diplomat This fellow will be the hunts- 
 man, and Derville will simply assist in the chase. 
 Your attorney will tell you whether the mountain 
 bringeth forth a mouse or whether you ought to 
 break with young Rubempre. In a week you will 
 know what course to take." 
 
 "The young man is scarcely enough of a marquis 
 at present to take offence because he finds me 'out' 
 for a week," remarked the Duke de Grandlieu. 
 
 "Certainly not if you give him your daughter," 
 replied the ex-minister. "If the anonymous letter 
 is right, how can it inconvenience you? You will 
 send Clotilde on a journey with my daughter-in- 
 law Madeleine, who wants to go to Italy." 
 
 "You solve my difficulty! and yet I scarcely 
 know whether I ought to thank you " 
 
 "Wait for the outcome." 
 
 "Ah!" exclaimed the Duke de Grandlieu, "what 
 is the gentleman's name? I must tell Derville. 
 Send him to me to-morrow at four o'clock; I shall 
 have Derville ; I will introduce them to each other. " 
 
 "The real name," said the ex-minister, "is, I 
 believe, Corentin a name that you must be 
 ignorant of; but this gentleman will come to your 
 24
 
 370 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 house under his ministerial name. He is called 
 M. de Saint something ah! Saint Yves! Sainte 
 Valere! either of them will do. You can trust 
 him; Louis XVIII. trusted him completely." 
 
 After this conference the major-domo received 
 orders to close the door to M. de Rubempre ; a com- 
 mand which was fulfilled.
 
 Lucien was walking up and down the foyer of 
 the Italiens like a drunken man. He saw himself 
 the talk of all Paris. In the Duke de Rhetore he 
 had one of those pitiless enemies on whom a man 
 must smile without the possibility of revenge, 
 since their attacks are conformable to the laws of 
 the world. The Duke de Rhetore knew the scene 
 which had just taken place on the porch of the 
 Grandlieu mansion. Lucien, who felt the neces- 
 sity of telling this disaster speedily to his intimate 
 privy-counselor, feared lest he might compromise 
 himself still further by going to Esther's house, 
 where he would be apt to meet acquaintances. So 
 great was the confusion of his mind that he forgot 
 Esther's presence in the theatre; and in the midst 
 of his perplexity he was obliged to talk with 
 Rastignac, who, not having heard the news, con- 
 gratulated him on his approaching marriage. At 
 this moment Nucingen advanced with a smiling 
 face and said to Lucien : 
 
 "Vill you to me ze kintness of goming to zee 
 Montame te Jamby, who vishes to eenfite you her- 
 zelf to our house-varming. " 
 
 "Gladly, baron," answered Lucien, to whom the 
 financier appeared like a protecting angel. 
 
 "Leave us," said Esther to M. de Nucingen, 
 when she saw him entering with Lucien; "go and 
 
 (37i)
 
 372 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 see Madame du Val Noble, whom I see sitting with 
 her nabob in a box in the third tier. He is very 
 much like the nabobs in the Indies," she added, 
 casting an intelligent glance toward Lucien. 
 
 "And he," said Lucien, smiling, "bears a ter- 
 rible resemblance to yours." 
 
 "And," added Esther, answering Lucien by 
 another look full of meaning, while she continued 
 to talk to the baron, "bring her and her nabob 
 hither; he is very anxious to make your acquaint- 
 ance ; they say that he is immensely rich. The 
 poor woman has already sung countless elegies to 
 me. She complains that her nabob is immovable ; 
 if you rid him of his money bags, he'll have less 
 ballast." 
 
 "You zeem to dake us vor roppers!" said the 
 baron as he went out. 
 
 "What is the matter, my Lucien?" whispered 
 Esther in her lover's ear, which her lips touched 
 as the door of the box closed. 
 
 "I am lost! I have just been refused admittance 
 to the Grandlieu house, under the pretext that 
 nobody was at home. The duke and duchess were 
 there, and five fine carriages were waiting in the 
 courtyard." 
 
 "What! your marriage broken off?" said Esther, 
 in an agitated tone, as if she could see a distant 
 Paradise. 
 
 "As yet, I do not even know the conspiracy against 
 me." 
 
 "My Lucien," she answered in a strangely
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 373 
 
 fascinating voice, "why are you sad? You will 
 make a better marriage, later. I will win two 
 estates for you. ' ' 
 
 "Give a supper to-night so that I can speak se- 
 cretly with Carlos, and above all invite the sham 
 Englishman and Madame du Val Noble. This nabob 
 is the cause of my ruin; he is our enemy; we must 
 get him in our power and then we'll " 
 
 But Lucien stopped with a gesture of despair. 
 
 "What is it now ?" asked the poor girl, who felt as 
 if she were seated on' live coals. 
 
 "Oh! Madame de Serizy sees me!" exclaimed 
 Lucien, "and to complete my misfortunes, the Duke 
 de Rhetore, one of the witnesses of my discomfiture, 
 is with her." 
 
 It was true. At that very moment, the Duke de 
 Rhetore was playing upon the sorrow of the Count- 
 ess de Serizy. 
 
 "You allow Lucien to show himself in Mademoi- 
 selle Esther's box?" the young duke was saying as 
 he pointed out the box and Lucien. "You, who take 
 an interest in him, should warn him that this kind 
 of thing must not be. He can sup at her house or per- 
 haps even but, upon my word, I am not astonished 
 at the coolness of the Grandlieu toward this fellow: 
 I just saw him refused admittance, on the porch." 
 
 ' ' Those women are very dangerous !' ' said Madame 
 de Serizy, who held her lorgnette leveled against 
 Esther's box. 
 
 "Yes, "said the duke, "as dangerous for what they 
 can do as for what they would like ".
 
 374 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "They will ruin him!" said Madame de Serizy, 
 "for I am told that they are as expensive when a 
 man does not pay them as when he does." 
 
 "Not for him!" replied the young duke, feign- 
 ing astonishment. "They are far from costing him 
 anything; they would give him money were he in 
 want. They all run after him." 
 
 About the corners of the countess' mouth there 
 came a little nervous twitch, which could not be 
 included within the category of her smiles. 
 
 "As you will," said Esther; "come to supper at 
 midnight Bring Blondet and Rastignac. Have at 
 least two amusing people, and let us not be more 
 than nine." 
 
 "Some method must be found to induce the baron 
 to summon Europe, under the pretext of giving direc- 
 tions to Asia, and you must tell her what has hap- 
 pened to me so that Carlos may know it before he 
 has the nabob in his clutches." 
 
 "It shall be done," said Esther. 
 
 Thus Peyrade was probably to be beneath the roof 
 that covered his adversary. The tiger was coming 
 into the lion's den, and the lion was well guarded. 
 
 When Lucien re-entered Madame de Serizy's box, 
 instead of turning her head toward him, of smiling 
 upon him, and of arranging her gown so that he 
 might sit by her side, she paid not the least atten- 
 tion to the new-comer and continued to gaze across 
 the theatre, through her lorgnette ; but Lucien per- 
 ceived by the trembling of her cheeks that the 
 countess was a prey to one of those terrible fits of
 
 375 
 
 agitation which are the expiation of unlawful love. 
 He advanced, nevertheless, to the front of the box, 
 near her, and stationed himself in the opposite angle, 
 leaving a small empty space between the countess 
 and him; he leaned against the railing of the box, 
 rested his right elbow upon it, and his chin upon 
 his gloved hand ; then he posed as for a three-quarters 
 portrait, waiting for her to speak. When the middle 
 of the act came, the countess had not uttered a word. 
 She had not even looked at him. 
 
 ' ' I do not know, ' ' she said at length, ' ' why you are 
 here; your place is in Mademoiselle Esther's box." 
 
 "I go thither," said Lucien, who went out with- 
 out looking at the countess. 
 
 "Ah! my dear," said Madame du Val Noble, as 
 she entered Esther's box in company with Peyrade, 
 whom the Baron de Nucingen did not recognize, "I 
 am delighted to present to you M. Samuel Johnson; 
 he is a warm admirer of M. de Nucingen's talent" 
 
 "Really, monsieur?" said Esther, smiling toward 
 Peyrade. 
 
 "Oh! yes, very great," said Peyrade in bad 
 French. 
 
 "Well, baron, here is French that is as like yours as 
 Bas Breton is like Burgundian. It will amuse me im- 
 mensely to hear you talk about money-matters. Do 
 you know what I demand of you, monsieur nabob, in 
 return for making the acquaintance of my baron?" 
 said she smiling. 
 
 "Oh! I thank you, then you will present me to 
 monsir le beronnette. ' '
 
 376 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Yes," she replied, "you must do me the pleasure 
 of supping with me. There is no pitch which 
 attaches men to one another like champagne; it 
 seals every matter of business, especially the deep- 
 est. Come to-night, you will find good company 
 and, as to you my little Frederic," she added in the 
 baron's ear, "you have your carriage; hurry to the 
 Rue Saint Georges and bring Europe to me; I must 
 have a word or two with her in regard to my supper. 
 I have secured Lucienjhe will bring a couple of 
 wits with him. We'll make the Englishman pose as 
 a laughing stock," whispered she to Madame du Val 
 Noble. 
 
 Peyrade and the baron left the two women alone. 
 
 "Ah! my dear, you will be clever if you ever 
 succeed in making that brute a laughing stock," 
 said La Val Noble. 
 
 "If it were impossible, you would lend him to me 
 for a week," answered Esther laughing. 
 
 "No, you would never keep him half a day," 
 replied Madame du Val Noble. "My bread is too 
 hard; it breaks my teeth. As long as I live I hope 
 never to have another Englishman's happiness in 
 my keeping. They are all cold-blooded egoists, 
 pigs in men's clothes." 
 
 "What, no tenderness?" asked Esther smiling. 
 
 "Not an atom, my dear. The monster has never 
 called me by an endearing name." 
 
 "Never?" said Esther. 
 
 "The wretch invariably calls me 'madame,' and 
 at the times when all men are more or less tender,
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 377 
 
 always keeps perfectly cool. Love! heavens and 
 earth! For him it's like shaving. He wipes his 
 razors; he puts them into the case, he looks at him- 
 self in the glass and seems to be saying: '1 have not 
 cut myself. ' He treats me with a respect that drives 
 a woman wild. This villainous stink-pot milord 
 amused himself with making poor Theodore hide, 
 and leaving him standing in my dressing-room for 
 half a day at a time. Then he tries to cross me in 
 everything. And close-fisted! As Gobseck and 
 Gigonnet together. He takes me out to dinner and 
 doesn't pay for the carriage that brings me home, if 
 1 have not ordered my own." 
 
 "What does he give you?" said Esther. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, absolutely nothing. Five hun- 
 dred francs a month, no extras, except my carriage. 
 And what is that? A carriage such as grocers hire 
 to go to the mayor's office on their wedding day or 
 to drive to church or the Cadran bleu. He pesters 
 me with his respect. If I pretend to be nervous and 
 unwell he is quite indifferent, and says, 'I want 
 milady to do exactly as she pleases, for nothing is 
 more detestable, ungraceful, than to say to a pretty 
 woman, 'you are a bale of cotton, a piece of mer- 
 chandise. Eh ! Eh ! You belong to a member of the 
 society of temperance and anti-slavery.' And my 
 prize stands there pale, self-contained, cold, thus 
 giving me to understand that he respects me as 
 he would respect a negro. It has nothing to do 
 with his heart, but rather with his abolitionist 
 opinions."
 
 378 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "He couldn't be more odious," said Esther, "but 
 1 would ruin such a beast." 
 
 ' ' Ruin him ?' ' objected Madame du Val Noble. How 
 could I unless he loved me? But even you would 
 scarcely care to ask him for a penny. He would 
 listen to you gravely and would answer you with 
 those Britannic formalities, which make you long to 
 box his ears, that he was paying dearly enough 
 for the trifling difference that love made in his poor 
 life." 
 
 "To think that in our sphere we can meet with 
 men such as he!" exclaimed Esther. 
 
 "Ah, my dear, you have had the chance your- 
 self! Take care of your Nucingen. " 
 
 "But your nabob has a purpose." 
 
 "That is what Adele told me," replied Madame 
 du Val Noble. 
 
 "Now, my dear, perhaps he intends to become 
 hateful to a woman so as to be sent away after a 
 time," suggested Esther. 
 
 "Or perhaps he wants to make some business 
 venture with Nucingen, and chooses me because he 
 knows how intimate you and I are; that's what 
 Adele believes," continued Madame du Val Noble. 
 "That is why 1 introduced him to you this evening. 
 Ah ! If I could be certain what his plans are, what 
 a neat arrangement I might make with you and 
 Nucingen!" 
 
 "You don't fly into a passion?" said Esther, "you 
 don't tell him his business from time to time?" 
 
 "You might try it, you are very clever; but, in
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 379 
 
 spite of all your attractions, he would kill you with 
 his icy smiles. He would answer you: 'I am on the 
 side of anti-slavery and you are free.' However 
 amusing you might be, he would look at you and 
 say, 'Very good,' and you would see that in his 
 eyes you were nothing more than a Punchinello." 
 
 "How about anger?" 
 
 "The same thing! It would amuse him. You might 
 cut into his left breast without hurting him a parti- 
 cle; his heart must be made of tin. I told him so. 
 His answer was, 'I am quite content with this physi- 
 cal arrangement.' Always polite, my dear; his 
 very soul is gloved. I am going to suffer this martyr- 
 dom for several days longer in order to satisfy my 
 curiosity. Had it not been for that, I should have 
 had his ears boxed long ago by Philip, who has not 
 his equal at fencing. There is nothing else that " 
 
 "I was just going to suggest it!" exclaimed Esther ; 
 "but first you should find out whether he knows how 
 to box, for among these old Englishmen that saves 
 them from attacks of malice " 
 
 "That man has not his equal! If you saw him 
 waiting for my orders, asking at what hour he may 
 present himself so as to surprise me when every- 
 thing was arranged beforehand! and employing all 
 the outward formulas of respect, such as gentlemen 
 use, you would say, 'This woman is worshipped,' 
 and there's not a woman living who wouldn't say as 
 much." 
 
 "And yet people envy us, my dear!" said Esther. " 
 
 "True!" exclaimed Madame da Val Noble. "We
 
 380 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 have all learned, more or less, in our lives how little 
 men care for us ; but, dearest, I have never been so 
 cruelly, so deeply, so thoroughly hurt by brutality as 
 I am by the respect of this gross wine-bibber. When 
 he is drunk he goes away, so as not to be unpleasant, 
 as he said to Adele, and so as not to 'belong to two 
 powers at once, wine and woman.' He monopolizes 
 my carriage and makes use of it far more than I. 
 Oh! if we could only make him roll about under 
 the table to-night! But he drinks ten bottles and is 
 merely intoxicated; his eye looks clouded, but he 
 can see clearly." 
 
 "He's like people who live in a house with win- 
 dows dirty on the outside," said Esther; "they 
 can see everything that goes on without. I know 
 this peculiarity among mankind ; Du Tillet has this 
 quality in a superlative degree." 
 
 " Try to have Du Tillet and add Nucingen; if they 
 could drag him into some of their combinations, I 
 should be revenged! They would reduce him to 
 beggary! Ah! my dear, to fall to a hypocrite of a 
 Protestant after poor Falleix, who was so amusing, 
 so kind-hearted, so droll. How we have laughed 
 together. They say that brokers are always 
 stupid; his wit was never lacking but once " 
 
 "When he left you without a penny? That 
 taught you the pains of pleasure." 
 
 Europe, under M. de Nucingen's escort, put her 
 viper-like head in at the door and, after having heard 
 a few sentences which her mistress whispered in 
 her ear, she disappeared.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 38 1 
 
 At half past eleven o'clock that night, five car- 
 riages were waiting, in the Rue Saint Georges, 
 before the door of the illustrious courtesan; one 
 belonged to Lucien, who came with Rastignac, Blon- 
 det, and Bixiou, another to Du Tillet, a third to the 
 Baron de Nucingen, the fourth to the nabob, and the 
 fifth to Florine, who had been carried off by Du Tillet. 
 The threefold windows were hidden by magnificent 
 curtains of Chinese silk. The supper was to be 
 served at one o'clock. The candles burned brightly; 
 the little parlor and the dining-room, displayed all 
 their splendor. Everything promised one of those 
 nights of debauch such as these three women and 
 these men alone could undergo. The company was 
 to play cards, for there were nearly two hours to 
 while away. 
 
 "Do you play, milord?" asked Du Tillet of 
 Peyrade. 
 
 "I have played with O'Connell, Pitt, Fox, Can- 
 ning, Lord Brougham, Lord " 
 
 "Rattle off at once the names of an infinity of 
 lords," said Bixiou. 
 
 "Lord Fitz-William, Lord Ellenborough, Lord 
 Hertfort, Lord" 
 
 Bixiou looked at Peyrade's shoes and bowed. 
 
 "What are you looking for?" asked Blondet of 
 his friend. 
 
 "A spring to press and stop the machine," said 
 Florine. 
 
 "Do you play for twenty francs the hand?" asked 
 Lucien.
 
 382 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "I play for all you care to lose, " replied the nabob. 
 
 "Is he good at the game?" said Esther to Lucien. 
 "They all take him for an Englishman!" 
 
 Du Tillet, Nucingen, Peyrade and Rastignac sa't 
 down at the whist table. Florine, Madame du Val 
 Noble, Esther, Blondet and Bixiou grouped them- 
 selves about the fire to talk. Lucien passed the 
 time in turning over the leaves of a magnificent 
 volume of engravings. 
 
 "Madame, dinner is served," said Paccard, 
 dressed in a resplendent livery. 
 
 Peyrade, placed at Florine's left, was flanked on 
 the right by Bixiou, who had received instructions 
 from Esther to thoroughly intoxicate the nabob 
 by constant challenges to drink. Bixiou possessed 
 the faculty of drinking indefinitely. Never in his 
 whole life had Peyrade viewed such splendor, 
 tasted such dishes, nor seen such beautiful women. 
 
 "To-night," thought he, "is worth the three 
 thousand francs which La Val Noble has cost me 
 already. Besides I have just won a thousand." 
 
 "Here is an example to follow, nabob," exclaimed 
 Madame du Val Noble, who was sitting beside 
 Lucien, as she pointed out the magnificence of the 
 dining-room with a gesture. 
 
 Esther had placed Lucien by her side, and held 
 one of his feet pressed between both of hers, beneath 
 the table. 
 
 "Do you hear?" demanded La Val Noble, looking 
 at Peyrade, who seemed blind to his surroundings. 
 "This is the manner in which you should arrange
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 383 
 
 a house for me. When a man returns from the 
 Indies, with millions, and wishes to do business 
 with Nucingens, he should rise to their level." 
 
 "I belong to the society of temperance." 
 
 "Then you shall drink with a will !" said Bixiou. 
 "For it's hot in the Indies, isn't it, uncle?" 
 
 Bixiou's joke during the supper was to treat 
 Peyrade as one of his uncles returned from the 
 Indies. 
 
 "Montame ti Fal Nople has tolt me zat you hat 
 blans?" asked Nucingen, examining Peyrade with 
 attention. 
 
 "This is what I've been waiting for," said Du 
 Tillet to Rastignac, "a chance to hear these two 
 jabberers together." 
 
 "You will see that they will end by understand- 
 ing each other," said Bixiou, who guessed what 
 Du Tillet would say to Rastignac. 
 
 "Sir beronette, I have thought of a little specula- 
 tion, Oh, very comfortable. Very profitable indeed, 
 and rich in its percentages." 
 
 "Do listen to him," said Blondet to Du Tillet 
 "He will not talk for an instant without bringing 
 in Parliament and the English government" 
 
 "It is in China opium." 
 
 "Yez, I know," replied Nucingen quickly, with 
 the air of a man who owns his commercial world; 
 "but ze Enclish cofernment has daken gondrol of ze 
 obium trate ant vould nod allow us." 
 
 "Nucingen got ahead of him on the mention of 
 the government," said Du Tillet to Blondet
 
 384 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Ah! you have traded in opium?" exclaimed 
 Madame du Val Noble; "now I understand why 
 you are so stupefying; it has stuck to your heart" 
 
 " Vy !" exclaimed the baron to the supposed opium- 
 merchant, as he pointed toward Madame du Val 
 Noble; "you are like me; millionaires can nefer 
 make vomen to luff zem. " 
 
 "I love dearly and often, milady," answered 
 Peyrade. 
 
 "Always for temperance's sake," said Bixiou, 
 who had succeeded in persuading Peyrade to finish 
 his third bottle of Bordeaux, and was now inducing 
 him to broach a bottle of port wine. 
 
 "Oh!" exclaimed Peyrade, "it is very fine Portu- 
 guese wine made in England." 
 
 Blondet, Du Tillet and Bixiou exchanged smiles. 
 Peyrade had the power of disguising everything 
 about him, even his mind. There are few English- 
 men who will not assure you that gold and silver 
 are better in England than elsewhere. The chickens 
 and the eggs coming from Normandy and expressed 
 to the London market enable Englishmen to main- 
 tain that the London chickens and eggs are superior 
 very fine to those of Paris, which come from pre- 
 cisely the same districts. Esther and Lucien 
 remained stupefied before this masterpiece of cos- 
 tume, language and audacity. 
 
 The company drank and ate so much and so 
 heartily that amid stories and laughter, it came to 
 be four o'clock in the morning. Bixiou thought that 
 he had borne off one of those victories so pleasantly
 
 HOW MUCH .LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 385 
 
 described by Brillat-Savarin. But at the moment 
 when he said to himself, as he filled his uncle's 
 glass: "I have conquered England," Peyrade 
 answered the brutal scoffer with a "Never say die, 
 my boy," in excellent French, which was heard by 
 Bixiou alone. 
 
 "Ho, there! you people! He's as much English 
 as I am! My uncle is a Gascon! I could never 
 have had another kind." 
 
 Bixiou was alone with Peyrade, and so nobody 
 heard this revelation. Peyrade fell from his chair 
 to the floor, whence he was immediately lifted by 
 Paccard and carried to an attic room, where he was 
 laid, wrapped in a profound sleep. 
 
 At six o'clock in the evening the nabob was 
 awakened by the application of a damp cloth 
 rubbing his face, and found himself lying on 
 a wretched springless bed, face to face with 
 Asia, who was masked and covered with a black 
 domino. 
 
 "Ah! ha! Papa Peyrade, let's come to terms," 
 said she. 
 
 "Where am I?" said he, looking about him. 
 
 "Listen to me. It will make you sober," replied 
 Asia. "If you don't love Madame du Val Noble, 
 you do love your daughter, don't you?" 
 
 "My daughter?" cried Peyrade, reddening. 
 
 "Yes, Mademoiselle Lydie." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Well, she's no longer in the Rue des Moineaux; 
 she is kidnapped." 
 25
 
 386 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Peyrade sobbed like a soldier dying of mortal 
 wounds on the field of battle. 
 
 "While you were counterfeiting the Englishman, 
 somebody else was counterfeiting Peyrade. Your 
 little Lydie supposed that she was following her 
 father. She is in a safe place. Oh! you'll never 
 find her, unless you make good the harm you have 
 done." 
 
 "What harm?" 
 
 ' ' Yesterday the door of the Duke de Grandl ieu was 
 closed to M. Lucien de Rubempre. This result is 
 due to your intrigues and to the man whom you set 
 upon our trail. Not a word. Listen!" said Asia, as 
 Peyrade opened his lips. "You shall never have 
 your daughter, pure and without spot," she con- 
 tinued, emphasizing the ideas by the accent which 
 she placed upon each syllable, "until the morrow of 
 that day on which M. de Rubempre comes forth 
 from Saint Thomas Aquinas' married to Mademoi- 
 selle Clotilde. If within ten days Lucien de 
 Rubempre is not received on the same footing as 
 formerly, in the Grandl ieu house, you shall die a 
 violent death, for no precaution can ward off the 
 blow which threatens you. Then when you feel 
 the touch of death upon you, you shall have leisure 
 before you die to ponder over this thought: 'My 
 daughter will live impure for the rest of her days!' 
 Although you have been stupid enough to fall into 
 our clutches, you still have wit enough to meditate 
 upon this communication of our government. Don't 
 squeal, don't say a word. Go to Contenson's
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 387 
 
 lodging and change your costume ; return home, and 
 Katt will tell you that, at your bidding, your little 
 Lydie went out and has not returned. If you make 
 a complaint, if you take any steps, they will begin 
 by taking that revenge on your daughter to which 
 I told you they would resort; she is promised to De 
 Marsay. With Pere Canquoelle, there's no need of 
 pretty speeches nor of gloved hands, is there ? Go 
 down stairs and think twice before you meddle with 
 our business again." 
 
 Asia left Peyrade in a pitiable state ; every word 
 had fallen like a blow from a hammer. Two tears 
 were in the detective's eyes and two wet streams 
 ran down his cheeks. 
 
 "They are awaiting M. Johnson for dinner," 
 said Europe, showing her head at the door a moment 
 later. 
 
 Peyrade did not answer; he walked down the 
 stairs and through the streets until he came to a cab 
 stand. He hastened to Contenson's lodging and 
 undressed himself, but he did not say a word to his 
 friend. Dressed once more as Pere Canquoelle, he 
 reached his dwelling at eight o'clock. He climbed 
 the stairs with a beating heart When the Flemish 
 woman heard her master, she said to him so 
 naturally: "And mademoiselle where is she?" 
 that the old detective leaned against the wall for 
 support The blow was too great for his strength. 
 He entered his daughter's room and fainted from 
 the violence of his grief when he saw that the room 
 was empty and when Katt recounted to him the
 
 388 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 circumstances of an abduction as craftily planned as 
 if he himself had been its author. 
 
 "Now," thought he, "I must yield; later I will 
 have my revenge. Now to see Corentin ! For the 
 first time we have met our match. Corentin shall 
 leave the pretty boy free to marry empresses if he 
 will. Ah ! I understand how my daughter fell in 
 love with him at first sight. Oh! the Spanish 
 priest was a good judge. Courage, Papa Peyrade. 
 Disgorge your prey!" 
 
 The poor father did not suspect the awful blow in 
 store for him. 
 
 When he had reached Corentin's house, Bruno, 
 the confidential servant, who knew Peyrade said: 
 "Monsieur is away." 
 
 "For long?" 
 
 "For ten days." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 "My God, I am going mad! I ask where? As if 
 we were apt to tell servants," thought he.
 
 Some hours before the time when Peyrade was 
 awakened in his attic in the Rue Saint Georges, 
 Corentin, newly arrived from his country place at 
 Passy, presented himself at the door of the Duke de 
 Grandlieu in the costume of a valet belonging to 
 some aristocratic family. In a buttonhole of his 
 black coat the ribbon of the Legion of Honor was 
 displayed. His appearance was that of an old man, 
 with powdered hair, very wrinkled and pale. His 
 eyes were covered by eyeglasses with tortoise-shell 
 rims. In a word he had the air of some ex-chief of 
 the Police Department. When he had given his 
 name, M. de Saint Denis, he was conducted into 
 the duke's study, where he found Derville reading 
 the letter which he himself had dictated to one of 
 his agents, a secretary. The duke took Corentin 
 aside to explain to him everything that Corentin 
 already knew. M. de Saint Denis listened calmly 
 and respectfully, and amused himself meanwhile 
 studying the grand seigneur, penetrating to the 
 bed-rock, clothed though it was with velvet, and 
 bringing to light his true life, then and always 
 absorbed in whist and the consideration of the house 
 of Grandlieu. Grands seigneurs speak so unaffect- 
 edly to their inferiors, that Corentin had not asked 
 many questions of the duke in his humble manner be- 
 fore he drew upon himself a torrent of impertinence. 
 (389)
 
 390 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "If you will trust me, monsieur," said Corentin 
 to Derville after having been formally presented to 
 the attorney, "we leave to-night for Angouleme by 
 the Bordeaux diligence, which makes the journey 
 quite as quickly as the mail ; we shall not need to 
 delay there more than six hours in order to obtain 
 the information that his lordship wishes. If I have 
 rightly understood your lordship, will it not suffice 
 to ascertain whether the sister and brother-in-law 
 of M. de Rubempre have been able to give him 
 twelve hundred thousand francs?" said he, address- 
 ing the duke. 
 
 "You have understood perfectly," replied the 
 peer of France. 
 
 "We can be here again in four days," continued 
 Corentin, looking at Derville, "and neither of us 
 will be obliged to leave his business long enough 
 to give rise to any inconvenience." 
 
 "That was the sole objection I had to make to his 
 lordship," said Derville. "It is four o'clock; I 
 return to say a word to my head clerk, to pack my 
 valise, and after dinner, at eight o'clock I shall be- 
 But can we secure places?" asked he of M. de Saint 
 Denis, interrupting himself. 
 
 "I will answer for them," said Corentin; "at 
 eight o'clock be in the waiting-room of the Principal 
 Department If there are no places, I shall have 
 some made, for this is the manner ia which his lord- 
 ship the Duke de Grandlieu must be served." 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the duke with infinite grace, 
 "as yet I do not thank you. "
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 391 
 
 Corentin and the attorney, who took this phrase as 
 a permission to depart, bowed and went out. At 
 the moment when Peyrade was questioning Coren- 
 tin's servant, M. de Saint Denis and Derville, seated 
 within the coupe of the Bordeaux diligence, looked 
 about them in silence as they passed the outskirts 
 of Paris. The next morning, on the way from 
 Orleans to Tours, Derville, who was greatly bored, 
 became talkative and Corentin deigned to amuse 
 him, although with some reserve, and allowed the 
 lawyer to suppose that he belonged to diplomatic 
 circles and that he was expecting to become Consul- 
 General under the protection of the Duke de Grand- 
 lieu. 
 
 Two days after their departure from Paris, Coren- 
 tin and Derville stopped at Mansle, to the great 
 astonishment of the attorney, who supposed that he 
 was on his way to Angoule'me. 
 
 "In this little town," said Corentin to Derville, 
 "we shall meet with trustworthy information con- 
 cerning Madame Sechard. " 
 
 "You know her then?" asked Derville, surprised 
 to find Corentin so well informed. 
 
 ' ' I loosened the driver's tongue when I learned that 
 he was from Angoule'me. He told me that madame 
 lives at Marsac, and Marsac is but a league away 
 from Mansle ; I thought that we should be better 
 situated here than in Angoule'me, to learn the truth. " 
 
 "Moreover," thought Derville, "as his lordship 
 told me, I am simply the witness of investigations 
 made by this confidential agent."
 
 392 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 The landlord of the inn of Mansle, called "La 
 Belle toile," was one of those big, bloated men 
 whom a stranger expects never to see again, yet 
 who still stand on their door-steps ten years later, 
 with the same quantity of flesh, the same cotton 
 cap, the same apron, the same knife, the same greasy 
 locks, the same triple chin, and who are stereotyped 
 in the books of all romancers from the immortal 
 Cervantes to the immortal Walter Scott. Do they 
 not all boast of their kitchen's excellence, are they 
 not ready to do everything to serve you, and do they 
 not give you at length a bony chicken and vege- 
 tables cooked in rancid butter? They all praise 
 their delectable wines and force you to swallow the 
 vintage of the neighborhood. Since his early youth 
 Corentin had learned to draw from an innkeeper 
 things more substantial than doubtful dishes and 
 apocryphal wines. Thus he pretended to be easily 
 satisfied and told his fat host that he relied entirely 
 upon the discretion of the best cook in Mansle. 
 
 "I have no trouble in being the best, for there 
 is no other," replied the landlord. 
 
 "Give us our dinner in a private room," said 
 Corentin, winking at Derville, "and above all don't 
 forget to light a fire; it takes the stiffness out of a 
 man's fingers." 
 
 "It was none too hot in the coupe, " said Derville. 
 
 "Is it far from here to Marsac?" asked Corentin 
 of the innkeeper's wife, who had descended from 
 the upper regions upon hearing that the diligence 
 had set down travelers before her door.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 393 
 
 "Are you going to Marsac, sir?" demanded the 
 hostess. 
 
 "I don't know," replied he, somewhat dryly. "Is 
 the distance from here to Marsac great?" he asked 
 once more after he had given his hostess time to 
 observe his red ribbon. 
 
 "If you drive, it's a matter of half an hour at the 
 most," replied the landlady. 
 
 "Do you think that M. and Madame Sechard are 
 there in winter?" 
 
 "Doubtless. They stay there the year round." 
 
 "It is five o'clock; we shall find them still up at 
 nine?" 
 
 "Oh! until ten; they have company every even- 
 ing the cure, M. Marron the doctor " 
 
 "They are excellent people?" said Derville. 
 
 "Oh! monsieur, nobody better!" replied the 
 landlady; "honest, upright people, and not ambi- 
 tious; why, though M. Sechard is comfortably off, 
 he would have had millions, people say, if he had 
 not allowed himself to be cheated out of an inven- 
 tion which he discovered in the manufacture of 
 paper, and which has filled the pockets of the 
 Cointet brothers." 
 
 "Ah! yes! the Cointet brothers," said Corentin. 
 
 "Hush," said the innkeeper, "what do these 
 gentlemen care whether M. Sechard has or has not 
 the right to the patent of an invention for making 
 paper? These gentlemen are not stationers. If 
 you intend to pass the night at my house, the Belle 
 Etoile" continued the host, turning toward the
 
 394 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 two travelers, "here is the book; 1 beg of you to 
 register your names. We have a brigadier of police 
 who has nothing to do and who spends his time in 
 meddling with our business " 
 
 "The devil ! 1 supposed that the Sechards were 
 very rich," said Corentin, while Derville wrote his 
 name and his profession as lawyer at the Tribunal of 
 First Instance of the Seine. 
 
 "There are people," replied the landlord, "who 
 say that they are millionaires, but you might as 
 well try to keep a river from flowing as to keep 
 tongues from wagging. M. Sechard has- put two 
 hundred thousand francs aside for a rainy day, as 
 they say, and that's a large sum for a man who 
 began life as a common workman. His savings have 
 perhaps amounted to as much, for he has succeeded 
 in drawing from ten to twelve thousand francs from 
 his estate. This is on the supposition that, for ten 
 years, he has been too stupid to put out his money at 
 interest! But call it three hundred thousand francs, 
 if he has exacted usury, as people suspect, and you 
 have it all. Five hundred thousand francs is a long 
 way from a million. If my fortune were only the 
 difference I should not be at the Belle fitoile. " 
 
 "What," said Corentin, "have not M. David 
 Sechard and his wife property amounting to two 
 or three millions of francs?" 
 
 "But," exclaimed the innkeeper's wife, "that's 
 what they ascribe to the MM. Cointet who robbed 
 him of his invention, and never gave him more than 
 twenty thousand francs. Where do you suppose
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 395 
 
 honest people like them could have picked up mill- 
 ions? They were in great embarrassment during 
 their father's life. Without Kolb, their administrator, 
 and Madame Kolb, who is as devoted to their inter- 
 ests as her husband is, they would have had scarcely 
 enough to live upon. What did they have then, 
 including La Verberie ? a thousand crowns a year !" 
 
 Corentin took Derville aside and said to him : "/ 
 vino veritas! Truth lies beneath the corks. For my 
 own part, I regard an inn as the official register of a 
 district ; the notary is not a whit better informed than 
 the tavern keeper of what is going on in a small 
 community. You see, we are supposed to know Coin- 
 tet, Kolb, etc. An innkeeper is the living catalogue 
 of everything that takes place; he acts as the police 
 without suspecting it. A government should support 
 two hundred spies at the most. For in a country like 
 France there are ten millions of honest detectives. 
 But we are not obliged to rely upon this report, 
 although in this little town, people would be apt to 
 know something of the twelve hundred thousand 
 francs that have disappeared to pay for the Rubem- 
 pre estate. We shall not stay here long." 
 
 "I hope not," said Derville. 
 
 "This is the reason why," continued Corentin. 
 "I have discovered the most natural method in the 
 world to make Sechard and his wife tell the truth. 
 I count upon you to support, with your legal author- 
 ity, the little ruse which I shall make use of to 
 enable you to hear a clear and concise statement of 
 their fortune. After dinner we shall leave you to
 
 396 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 pay a visit to M. Sechard," said Corentin, turning 
 to the landlady, "you will make sure to get our beds 
 ready; we wish to have two apartments. There 
 must be room at the 'Belle Etoile. ' " 
 
 "Oh! monsieur," said the woman, "we have 
 found the ensign." 
 
 "Oh! puns are used in all the departments," 
 said Corentin, "you have no monopoly on them." 
 
 "Your dinner is ready, messieurs," said the 
 landlord. 
 
 "Where the devil could this young man have 
 found his money? Was the anonymous letter 
 right? Was it the money of some pretty woman ?" 
 said Dervilleto Corentin as they sat down to dinner. 
 
 "Ah! that would be the subject of another in- 
 quiry," said Corentin. "Lucien de Rubempre 
 lives, so the Duke de Chaulieu told me, with a 
 converted Jewess, who passes herself off for a Dutch 
 woman, named Esther van Bogseck. " 
 
 "What an odd coincidence!" exclaimed the law- 
 yer;"! am investigating the inheritance of a Dutch- 
 man named Gobseck; it's the same name with a 
 change of consonants." 
 
 "Ah!" remarked Corentin, "I shall give you 
 information concerning their affiliation upon my 
 return to Paris." 
 
 An hour later these two agents of the noble house 
 of Grandlieu started for La Verberie, the house of 
 M. and Madame Sechard. Never had Lucien felt 
 emotions so stirring as those which came over him 
 at La Verberie, as he compared his own destiny
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 397 
 
 with that of his brother-in-law. The two Parisians 
 were destined to find the same spectacle which, but 
 a few days before, had struck Lucien's imagination. 
 Everything breathed calm and plenty. At the time 
 when the two strangers were about to arrive, the 
 drawing-room of La Verberie was occupied by a 
 company of four persons: the cure of Marsac, a 
 young priest of twenty-five, who had become, at 
 Madame Sechard's request, the instructor of her son 
 Lucien; the village doctor, M. Marron byname; the 
 mayor of the commune, and an old colonel retired 
 from the service, who cultivated roses on a small 
 estate across the street from La Verberie. Every 
 winter evening this company assembled to play an 
 innocent game of cards at one centime a point, to 
 borrow newspapers or to return those which they 
 had read. 
 
 When M. and Madame Sechard bought La Ver- 
 berie, a handsome house built of sandstone and 
 covered with tiles, its dependencies proper con- 
 sisted of a garden of two acres. As time went on, 
 consecrating her economies to this single purpose, 
 Madame Sechard had extended her garden as far as 
 a small watercourse, and sacrificing the vineyards 
 which she purchased, she converted them into lawns 
 varied by clumps of trees. At the time of this 
 story, La Verberie, surrounded by a park of some 
 twenty acres, passed for the most important estate 
 in the neighborhood. The house of the late M. 
 Sechard and its dependencies furnished for cultiva- 
 tion rather more than twenty acres of vines,
 
 398 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 bequeathed by him to his son, beside five farms 
 yielding an annual revenue of some six thousand 
 francs, and ten acres of meadow land situated on 
 the other side of the watercourse, directly opposite 
 the park of La Verberie, and Madame Sechard 
 counted upon adding to them the following year. 
 Already throughout the neighborhood people digni- 
 fied La Verberie by the title of chateau and called 
 Eve Sechard the Lady of Marsac. In satisfying his 
 vanity, Lucien had only imitated the peasants and 
 workers in the vineyards. Courtois, the proprietor 
 of a picturesque mill a few gunshots away from the 
 fields of La Verberie, was, people said, negotiating 
 for its sale to Madame Sechard. This probable 
 acquisition would give La Verberie the proportions 
 of an estate of the first rank in the department 
 Madame Sechard, who gave much to charity with as 
 much discernment as generosity, was esteemed as 
 well as beloved. Her beauty, become magnificent, 
 had reached the height of its development. Although 
 nearly twenty-six years old, she had retained the 
 freshness of youth, thanks to the repose and abun- 
 dance that life in the country bestows. She was a 
 loving wife and respected in her husband a man 
 whose modest talents suffered him to renounce the 
 turmoil of a life of glory; in short to describe her it 
 is perhaps enough to say that in all her life she had 
 never felt a single heart-beat that was not inspired 
 by her children or by her husband. The tribute 
 which this household paid misfortune was, as may 
 be imagined, the deep sorrow caused by Lucien, in
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 399 
 
 whose life Eve Sechard felt that there were myster- 
 ies and dreaded them all the more because during 
 his last visit Lucien brusquely cut short every 
 question of his sister by telling her that ambitious 
 men owed account of their actions to them- 
 selves alone. In six years Lucien had seen his 
 sister thrice and he had not written her more 
 than six letters. His first visit to La Verberie 
 had taken place after the death of his mother, 
 and his last had for its object the demand of 
 the falsehood so necessary to his career. This 
 had occasioned between M. and Madame Sechard 
 and their brother a serious scene, which left 
 hideous doubts in the heart of this sweet and 
 noble life. 
 
 The interior of the house, transformed as com- 
 pletely as the exterior, was comfortable without 
 any appearance of luxury. The reader can judge of 
 this by a rapid glance about the room in which the 
 company were gathered at this moment. A pretty 
 carpet from Aubusson, twill hangings of gray cotton 
 with green silk trimmings, paintings representing 
 the forest of Spa, a table of carved mahogany, cov- 
 ered with gray cashmere and green embroidery. 
 Flower pots filled with flowers, in spite of the sea- 
 son, offered a picture very pleasing to the eye. 
 The green curtains, the ornaments on the mantel- 
 piece, the frames of the mirrors, were free from that 
 bad taste which spoils everything provincial; in 
 short, all things, fitting and neat to the smallest 
 details, gave repose to the soul and the eye by that
 
 400 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 poetry which a loving and intelligent wife can 
 introduce into her household. 
 
 Madame Sechard, still in mourning for her father, 
 was sitting near the fireplace, working over a piece 
 of embroidery, aided by Madame Kolb, the house- 
 keeper, to whose care she intrusted the details of the 
 household. Just as the carriage reached the out- 
 skirts of Marsac, the accustomed company of La 
 Verberie was increased by the arrival of Courtois, 
 the miller, a widower, who wished to retire from 
 business and was anxious to sell his property at a 
 round price. Madame Eve seemed desirous to buy 
 it, and Courtois knew the reason why. 
 
 "A carriage is stopping here!" said Courtois, hear- 
 ing the rumbling of wheels at the door, "and to 
 judge from the rattling it comes from the neighbor- 
 hood." 
 
 "It must be Postel and his wife on their way to 
 see us," said the doctor. 
 
 "No," said Courtois, "the carriage comes from 
 the direction of Mansle. " 
 
 "Montame," said Kolb, a large and stout Alsatian, 
 whom we know see Lost Illusions "here ees ein 
 zolicetor vrom Baris who veshes do speak do 
 mennesir. " 
 
 "A solicitor?" cried Sechard. "The very name 
 gives me the colic." 
 
 "Thanks," said the mayor of Marsac, Cachan by 
 name, who for twenty years had been a lawyer in 
 Angoulme, who had once been employed in prose- 
 cuting Sechard.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 401 
 
 "My poor David will never change, he will always 
 be absent-minded," said Eve, smiling. 
 
 "A solicitor from Paris," said Courtois; "then 
 you have business in Paris?" 
 
 "No," said Eve. 
 
 "You have a brother there," remarked Courtois. 
 
 "Take care lest it be about old M. Sechard's prop- 
 erty," said Cachan. "The old gentleman always 
 did business in an odd fashion!" 
 
 Corentin and Derville entered, and after bowing 
 to the company and repeating the names of the differ- 
 ent guests, they requested a private conversation 
 with Madame Sechard and her husband. 
 
 "Certainly," said Sechard. "But is it on busi- 
 ness?" 
 
 "Only in regard to your father's property," 
 replied Corentin. 
 
 "Then kindly allow the mayor, who is an old 
 attorney of Angoule'me, to be present at the confer- 
 ence. " 
 
 "You are M. Derville?" asked Cachan, looking 
 at Corentin. 
 
 "No, monsieur, that is he," replied Corentin, 
 pointing to the attorney, who bowed. 
 
 "But," said Sechard, "we are quite private here, 
 we have no secrets from our neighbors. There is 
 no need of adjourning to my study, where there is no 
 fire. Our life is perfectly open." 
 
 "But your father's," said Corentin, "has har- 
 bored some mysteries, which perhaps you would 
 not care to make public." 
 26
 
 402 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Is it, then, anything to be ashamed of?" asked 
 Eve, alarmed. 
 
 "Oh, no! It is a youthful peccadillo," said 
 Corentin, setting one of his thousand professional 
 snares with the utmost coolness. ' ' Your father gave 
 you an elder brother." 
 
 "Ah! the old fox!" cried Courtois;"he loved you 
 little enough, Monsieur Sechard, and yet he never 
 let you know it, sly old dog! Ah! now I understand 
 what he meant when he said : 'You will see strange 
 things when I am dead and buried.' " 
 
 "Oh! Don't be alarmed, sir," said Corentin to 
 Sechard, examining Eve with a sidelong glance. 
 
 "A brother!" exclaimed the doctor. "That cuts 
 your inheritance in two." 
 
 Derville made a pretence of looking at the hand- 
 some before-letter proof engravings which were 
 hung upon the panels of the drawing-room. 
 
 "Don't be alarmed, madame," repeated Coren- 
 tin, seeing the surprise which appeared upon Madame 
 Sechard's beautiful face. "This was merely a 
 natural son. The title of a natural child is not that 
 of a legitimate son. This child is in terrible poverty ; 
 he has a right to a sum based upon the size of the 
 inheritance the millions left by your father." 
 
 At this word millions, there was an exclamation 
 of the most complete unanimity throughout the room. 
 At this juncture Derville ceased to examine the 
 engravings. 
 
 "Old Sechard, millions?" said the fat Courtois. 
 "Who told you that some peasant?"
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 403 
 
 "Sir," said Cachan, "you do not belong to the 
 Treasury, therefore you could not have been told 
 how" 
 
 "You need not be afraid," said Corentin; "I give 
 you my word of honor that I am not a real estate 
 agent" 
 
 Cachan, who had just motioned to everybody to 
 keep quiet, made a visible gesture of satisfaction. 
 
 "Sir," continued Corentin, "were it but a mill- 
 ion, the portion of an illegitimate child would still 
 be considerable. We do not come to bring suit ; on 
 the contrary, we come to make a proposal to you. 
 Give us a hundred thousand francs and we leave 
 you. ' ' 
 
 "A hundred thousand francs," cried Cachan, 
 interrupting Corentin. "But, sir, Sechard senior 
 left twenty acres of vineyard, five small farms, 
 ten acres of pasture at Marsac and not a penny 
 with it" 
 
 "Nothing in the world," exclaimed David Se- 
 chard, intervening between the disputants, "would 
 induce me to tell a lie, Monsieur Cachan, and still 
 less were it to favor my own interests. Monsieur," 
 said he to Corentin and to Derville, "my father left 
 us, besides his estate" 
 
 Courtois and Cachan motioned in vain to Sechard 
 to be silent 
 
 He continued: 
 
 "Three hundred thousand francs, which brings 
 the amount of his property to about five hundred 
 thousand francs."
 
 404 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Monsieur Cachan," said Eve Sechard, "what 
 portion does the law give to a natural child?" 
 
 "Madame," said Corentin, "we are not unreason- 
 able ; we simply ask you to give us your word in the 
 presence of these gentlemen that you have not 
 received more than three hundred thousand francs 
 in cash from the inheritance of your father- 
 in-law, and we shall certainly come to an under- 
 standing. " 
 
 "First, give your word of honor," said the old 
 attorney of Angouleme to Derville, "that you are a 
 lawyer." 
 
 "Here are my credentials," said Derville to 
 Cachan, handing him a paper folded in legal form, 
 "and this gentleman is not, as you might think, a 
 general inspector of real estate. You need not be 
 disturbed," added Derville. "It was simply that 
 we had the most powerful motives to learn the truth 
 concerning the Sechard succession and now we 
 know it." 
 
 Derville took Madame Eve by the hand and led 
 her very courteously to the other end of the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 "Madame," said he in a low voice, "if the honor 
 and the future of the house of Grandlieu were not 
 at stake in this question, I should not have lent 
 myself to the stratagem invented by this decorated 
 gentleman ; but you will excuse it, it helps to uncover 
 the lie by the aid of which your brother has abused 
 the justice of a noble family. Take good care not 
 to spread the report that you have given your
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 405 
 
 brother twelve hundred thousand francs to enable 
 him to buy the estate of Rubempre. " 
 
 "Twelve hundred thousand francs!" exclaimed 
 Madame Sechard, growing pale; "where can my 
 unhappy brother have got them?" 
 
 "Ah!" said Derville, "I fear that the source of 
 this fortune cannot be honest" 
 
 The company could see tears gather in Eve's eyes. 
 
 "Perhaps we have rendered him a great service, " 
 said Derville, "in preventing him from plunging 
 deeper in a lie which may prove dangerous." 
 
 Derville left Madame Sechard seated, still pale 
 and with the tears yet upon her cheeks, and bowed 
 to the company. 
 
 "To Mansle!" said Corentintothe small boy who 
 drove the carriage. 
 
 The diligence from Bordeaux to Paris, which 
 passed Mansle in the night, had a single empty 
 place; Derville begged Corentin to allow him to 
 profit by it, pleading the importance of his business, 
 for at bottom he distrusted his companion, whose 
 diplomatic dexterity and self-possession appeared 
 to him the results of habit Corentin remained for 
 three days at Mansle, unable to get away ; eventually 
 he was obliged to write to Bordeaux and to engage 
 a place from there to Paris, which he was unable 
 to reach until nine days after his departure.
 
 During this time, Peyrade went every morning 
 to Corentin's house, both at Passy and in Paris, to 
 find out whether he had returned. On the eighth 
 day he left at both houses a letter written in a pri- 
 vate cipher, in order to explain to his friend the 
 nature of the fate that hung over him, the abduction 
 of Lydie, and the hideous destiny to which his 
 enemies devoted her. Attacked, as he had long 
 been accustomed to attack others, Peyrade, deprived 
 of Corentin, but assisted by Contenson, still re- 
 mained disguised as a nabob. Although his unseen 
 enemies had discovered him, he judged with wisdom 
 that he might gain some light by standing his ground 
 on the battlefield. Contenson had set all his 
 acquaintances upon Lydie's trail and he hoped to 
 discover the house in which she was concealed; but 
 day by day the impossibility of ascertaining the 
 slightest information grew more and more evident 
 and added to Peyrade's despair. The old detective 
 had himself surrounded by a guard of twelve or fif- 
 teen of the ablest men in the secret service. All the 
 approaches to the Rue des Moineaux and the Rue 
 Taitbout, where the nabob was living with Madame 
 du Val Noble, were watched with scrupulous care. 
 During the last three days of the fateful delay granted 
 by Asia to re-establish Lucien on his old footing with 
 the Grandlieus, Contenson did not stir from the side 
 (407)
 
 408 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 of the veteran of the former lieutenant-generalcy of 
 police. Thus the poetry of terror which the strata- 
 gems of hostile tribes spread throughout the heart 
 of the American forests, the poetry which Cooper 
 has used so well, clung to the most trivial details 
 of Parisian life. The passers-by, the shops, the 
 cabs, a person standing at a window, all lent to the 
 men-numbers, to whom old Peyrade's life was 
 intrusted, the vast interest which, in Cooper's 
 novels, is offered by the trunk of a tree, a colony 
 of beavers, a rock, a bison's skin, a motionless 
 canoe or leafy branches overhanging the water. 
 
 "If the Spaniard has gone, you have nothing to 
 fear," said Contenson to Peyrade, pointing out to 
 him the undisturbed tranquillity which they en- 
 jcyed. 
 
 "And if he has not gone?" replied Peyrade. 
 
 "He took one of my men behind his calash; but, 
 at Blois, the agent was obliged to get off, and could 
 not regain the carriage." 
 
 Five days after Derville's return, Lucien received, 
 in the morning, a visit from Rastignac. 
 
 "My dear boy," said the dandy, "it gives me 
 great pain to fulfill a duty which has been intrusted 
 to me on account of our intimacy. Your hopes of 
 marriage are at an end and they can never again 
 be renewed. You can nevermore set foot within 
 the Grandlieu threshold. To marry Clotilde, you 
 must wait for her father's death, and her father has 
 become too much of an egoist to die soon. Old 
 whist players remain long upon the very brink of
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 409 
 
 a card table. Clotilde is going to Italy with Made- 
 leine de Lenoncourt-Chaulieu. The poor girl loves 
 you so deeply, my boy, that the family have been 
 obliged to have her watched ; she wished to come and 
 see you, she had even made her little plan of escape. 
 That must be a consolation in your sorrow." 
 
 Lucien did not answer ; he looked at Rastignac. 
 
 "After all, is it a misfortune?" continued his 
 compatriot; "you will easily find another girl as 
 noble and more fair than Clotilde. Madame de 
 Serizy will arrange a marriage for you out of 
 revenge; she'cannot abide the Grandlieus, who have 
 never consented to receive her; she has a niece, 
 little Clemence de Rouvre. " 
 
 "My dear Rastignac," replied Lucien at length, 
 "since our last supper, I have not been on good terms 
 with Madame de Serizy; she saw me in Esther's 
 box, a scene followed, and since then I have left her 
 to go her own way." 
 
 "A woman of forty odd does not quarrel for long 
 with a young man as handsome as you are," said 
 Rastignac. "I know something about these setting 
 suns ; they last for ten minutes on the horizon and 
 for ten years in a woman's heart" 
 
 "For a week I have been waiting for a letter 
 from her." 
 
 "Go there!" 
 
 "It would be wise." 
 
 "At least come to see La Val Noble. Her nabob is 
 returning to Nucingenthe supper which he received 
 of him."
 
 410 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "I am invited and I shall go," said Lucien seri- 
 ously. 
 
 On the evening following the confirmation of his 
 misfortune, of which intelligence had been immedi- 
 ately given by Asia to Carlos, Lucien, with Ras- 
 tignac and Nucingen, made their appearance at the 
 house of the false nabob. 
 
 At midnight, Esther's former dining-room united 
 almost all the actors of this drama, yet its deep inter- 
 ests, which lay beneath all these tempestuous exist- 
 ences, were known only to Esther, Lucien, Peyrade, 
 the mulatto Contenson, and to Paccard, who had 
 come to serve his mistress. Unknown to Peyrade 
 and to Contenson, Asia had been requested by 
 Madame du Val Noble to come to her cook's assist- 
 ance. As he sat down at table Peyrade, who had 
 given five hundred francs to Madame du Val Noble 
 to furnish a handsome supper, found within his 
 napkin a scrap of paper on which he read these 
 words written in pencil : The ten days expire the 
 instant that you sit down at table. Peyrade handed 
 the paper to Contenson, who stood behind him, say- 
 ing to him in English: "Did you tuck my name 
 there?" 
 
 Contenson read this Mene, Tekel, Phares by the 
 light of the candles and put the paper into his 
 pocket; but he knew well how difficult it is to verify 
 writing in pencil and especially a sentence written 
 in capital letters, that is to say with lines mathe- 
 matically arranged, since the capital letters are 
 composed entirely of curves and straight lines, in
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 411 
 
 which it is impossible to recognize the habits of the 
 hand, as in the handwriting known as "running." 
 
 The supper was without gaiety. Peyrade was a 
 prey to visible preoccupation. Of the young high 
 livers, accustomed to enliven a supper, Lucien and 
 Rastignac alone were present. Lucien was very 
 sad and dreamy, while Rastignac, who had lost two 
 thousand francs before supper, drank and ate with 
 the sole idea of making them good after supper. 
 The three women, struck with this cheerlessness, 
 looked at one another. Melancholy despoiled every 
 dish of its savor. Like plays and books, suppers 
 must take their chances. 
 
 At the end of supper, the guests were served with 
 ices called plomb&res. As everybody knows, this 
 kind of ice contains tiny comfits of fruit placed upon 
 its surface, and is served in small glasses without 
 any pretence to pyramidal form. These ices had been 
 ordered by Madame du Val Noble of Tortoni, whose 
 celebrated establishment is at the corner of the Rue 
 Taitbout and the Boulevard. The cook had the 
 mulatto called to pay the caterer's bill. Contenson, 
 to whom the boy's importunity seemed unnatural, 
 went down-stairs and silenced him with these words : 
 
 "You don't come from Tortoni?" 
 
 Then he returned to the dining-room instantly. 
 
 But Paccard had already profited by this absence 
 to serve the ices to the guests. Scarcely had the 
 mulatto reached the door of the apartment when 
 one of the agents who were guarding the Rue des 
 Moineaux called from below:
 
 412 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Number twenty-seven." 
 
 "What is it?" answered Contenson, hurrying 
 down the flight of stairs. 
 
 "Tell papa that his daughter has returned, but in 
 such a state! My God! Tell him to hurry; she is 
 dying." 
 
 Just as Contenson re-entered the dining-room, 
 old Peyrade, who had drunk deeply, was swallowing 
 the little cherry of his plombiere. Madame du Val 
 Noble's health was being toasted; the nabob filled 
 his glass with "wine of Constance," and emptied 
 it. Troubled as Contenson was by the news which 
 he was about to deliver to Peyrade, he was struck, 
 as he entered, by the rapt attention with which 
 Paccard gazed at the nabob. The two eyes of 
 Madame de Champy's valet looked like two fixed 
 flames. This observation, in spite of its impor- 
 tance, was not enough to delay the mulatto, and he 
 bent over his master at the moment when Peyrade 
 replaced his empty glass upon the table. 
 
 "Lydie is at home," said Contenson, "but in a 
 sad condition." 
 
 Peyrade gave vent to the Frenchest of French 
 oaths in a southern accent so pronounced that deep 
 amazement appeared on the faces of the company. 
 Perceiving his error, Peyrade threw off the mask, 
 by saying to Contenson in good French: 
 
 "Call a cab! I come instantly." 
 
 Everybody rose from the table. 
 
 "Who then are you?" cried Lucien. 
 
 "Yez!" said the baron.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 413 
 
 "Bixiou told me that you could play the English- 
 man better than he, and I wouldn't believe him," 
 said Rastignac. 
 
 "It is some discovered bankrupt," said Du Tillet 
 aloud. "I suspected as much!" 
 
 "What a singular place Paris is," said Madame 
 du Val Noble; "after having failed in his quarter of 
 the city, a merchant reappears as a nabob or a dandy 
 in the Champs Elysees without the slightest hesita- 
 tion. Oh! I was born under an evil star; failure 
 follows me like a gad-fly." 
 
 "They say that every flower has its own," said 
 Esther quietly; "mine, like Cleopatra's, is an asp." 
 
 "Who am I?" said Peyrade, at the door. "Ah! 
 you shall know, for if I die I shall come out of my 
 grave nightly to clutch your feet." 
 
 As he said these last words, he looked at Esther 
 and at Lucien ; then, profiting by the general aston- 
 ishment, he disappeared with extraordinary dexter- 
 ity, for he wished to rush to his house without 
 waiting for a cab. In the street, Asia, enveloped 
 in a black cloak, with a hood such as women wore 
 to balls at that time, touched the detective's arm on 
 the steps of the porte cochere. 
 
 "Send for the sacraments, Papa Peyrade," she 
 said to him, in the same voice which had already 
 prophesied misfortune. A carriage stood by, Asia 
 stepped into it and the carriage disappeared as if it 
 were borne away by the wind. There were five 
 carriages about the door ; Peyrade's men could dis- 
 cover nothing.
 
 414 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 On arriving at his country house, situated in one 
 of the most retired and smiling spots of the little 
 town of Passy, the Rue de Vignes, Corentin, who 
 passed for a tradesman with a hobby for gardening, 
 found the cipher of his friend Peyrade. Without 
 wasting an instant he stepped into the cab which 
 had brought him, drove directly to the Rue des 
 Moineaux and found Katt alone. He learned 
 from the Flemish woman the story of Lydie's 
 disappearance, and pondered in amazement over 
 the lack of foresight which Peyrade and he had 
 displayed. 
 
 "They don't know me yet," he said to himself. 
 " Those people are capable of anything ; I must learn 
 whether they kill Peyrade, for if they do I shall not 
 show myself." 
 
 The more infamous a man's life is, the more 
 tightly he clings to it; it becomes a protestation, a 
 revenge never forgotten for an instant. Corentin 
 descended the stairs and hurrying to his house dis- 
 guised himself as a little poverty-stricken old man, 
 with a little straggling beard, wrapped in a little 
 coat, worn to a greenish hue, and returned afoot, 
 spurred on by his friendship for Peyrade. He 
 wished to give orders to his most reliable and effi- 
 cient Numbers. As he made his way along the Rue 
 Saint Honore, from the Place Vendome to the Rue 
 Saint Roch, he walked behind a girl dressed as if 
 for the night, with her feet encased in slippers. 
 This girl, wrapped in a white night-dress, with a 
 night-cap on her head, sobbed as she walked,and
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 415 
 
 groaned involuntarily; Corentin made a few steps 
 past her and recognized Lydie. 
 
 "I am the friend of your father, M. Canquoelle," 
 said he in his natural voice. 
 
 "Ah! then there is some one in whom I can 
 trust!" said she. 
 
 "Pretend that you don't know me," continued 
 Corentin, "for we are pursued by cruel enemies 
 and forced to disguise ourselves. But tell me what 
 has happened." 
 
 "Oh! sir," said the poor girl, "my story tells 
 itself, but I may not tell it I am dishonored, lost, 
 though I cannot explain how." 
 
 "Where do you come from?" 
 
 "I don't know, sir ; I ran away so hurriedly, I have 
 passed through so many streets and turned so many 
 corners, thinking that I was followed. And when 
 I met an honest man I asked my way to the Boule- 
 vards in order to get to the Rue de la Paix. At 
 last, after I had walked for what time is it?" 
 
 "Half-past eleven!" said Corentin. 
 
 "I escaped at nightfall; then I have been walk- 
 ing for five hours!" exclaimed Lydie. 
 
 "You will find rest, you will find your good Katt " 
 
 "Oh! monsieur, there is no more rest for me! I 
 don't wish to rest anywhere but in my grave; and I 
 shall await my time in a convent, if they think me 
 worthy to enter." 
 
 "Poor little girl, you did all that you could.'' 
 
 "Ah, sir, if you knew what vile creatures I have 
 been thrown among. "
 
 416 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "They must have put you to sleep?" 
 
 "Ah! that was it," said poor Lydie. "A little 
 more strength and I shall reach the house. I feel 
 faint and my ideas are not very distinct. Just now 
 I thought that I was in a garden." 
 
 Corentin carried Lydie in his arms; she lost con- 
 sciousness and he bore her up the stairway. 
 
 "Katt!" he cried. 
 
 Katt appeared, crying for joy. 
 
 "Don't rejoice too soon!" said Corentin senten- 
 tiously; "the girl is very sick." 
 
 When Lydie had been laid upon her bed, and 
 when by the light of the two candles which Katt 
 had lighted, she recognized her chamber, she grew 
 delirious. She sang snatches of sweet tunes, and 
 then of a sudden, screamed horrible phrases which 
 she had heard! Her lovely face was streaked with 
 tints of violet. She mingled the remembrances of 
 her pure life with those of the ten days of infamy. 
 Katt wept Corentin paced up and down the room, 
 stopping by moments to examine Lydie. 
 
 "She is paying her father's debt!" said he; "can 
 there be a Providence ? Oh ! I have been right to 
 have no family. A child, I'll swear to it, is a host- 
 age to misfortune, as some philosopher says." 
 
 "Oh!" said the poor girl, raising herself upon her 
 elbow, and letting her lovely hair fall backward, 
 "in place of being laid here, Katt, I ought to be laid 
 upon the sand at the bottom of the Seine." 
 
 "Katt, instead of cry ing and looking at your child, 
 which will not cure her, you ought to go and find a
 
 THE DEATH OF PEYRADE 
 
 
 Contenson, who appeared with his face cleansed 
 from its black disguise, stood as though transformed 
 into a bronze statue, when he heard Lydie say : 
 
 "Then you won't pardon in:, father.'' It was 
 
 ;iy fault.'" 
 
 She did not know that her father was dead.
 
 416 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "They must have put you to sleep?" 
 
 "Ah! that was it," said poor Ly die. "A little 
 more strength and I shall reach the house. I feel 
 faint and my ideas are not very distinct. Just now 
 I thought that I was in a garden." 
 
 Corentin carried Lydie in his arms; she lost con- 
 sciousness and he bore her up the stairway. 
 
 "Katt!" he cried. 
 
 Katt appeared, crying for joy. 
 
 "Don't rejoice too soon!" said Corentin senten- 
 
 Whefr cydie nad been laia upon ner bed, and 
 when by the light of the two candles which Katt 
 had lighted, 'she recognized her chamber, she grew 
 
 and 
 
 ti nts >#fc. , - She 
 
 < -& 
 
 7 < - ' : ,. 
 
 Katt wept Corentin paced 'up and down the room, 
 stopping by moments to examine LydwP^- ' ! - w 
 
 can 
 
 there be a Providence? Oh! I have been right to 
 have no family. A child, I'll swear to it, is a host- 
 age to misfortune, as some philosopher says." 
 
 "Oh!" said the poor girl, raising herself upon her 
 elbow, and letting her lovely hair fall backward, 
 "in place of being laid here, Katt, I ought to be laid 
 upon the sand at the bottom of the Seine." 
 
 "Katt, instead of crying and looking at your child, 
 which will not cure her, you ought to go and find a
 
 THE DEATH OF PEYRADE 
 
 Contcnson, w/io appeared zvith his face cleansed 
 from its black disguise, stood as tJiougli transformed 
 into a bronze statue, wlicn he heard Lydie say : 
 
 ''Then you won't pardon me, father ? It was 
 not my fault ! " 
 
 She did not kncnv that her father was dead.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 417 
 
 doctor ; first the one at the mayor's office and then 
 MM. Desplein and Bianchon. We must save this 
 innocent creature." 
 
 Corentin wrote down the addresses of these two 
 celebrated physicians. At this moment a familiar 
 step climbed the staircase; the door opened. Pey- 
 rade, his face purple and covered with sweat, his 
 eyes almost bleeding, breathing like a porpoise, 
 sprang from the parlor door to Lydie's room, crying: 
 
 "Where is my daughter?" 
 
 Peyrade saw a melancholy gesture of Corentin; 
 his look followed the gesture. Lydie's condition 
 can only be compared to that of a flower lovingly 
 reared by some botanist, which has fallen from its 
 stalk and been trodden beneath the hob-nailed boots 
 of a peasant Transport this image into a father's 
 heart and you can understand the blow that fell 
 upon Peyrade. Big tears welled up in his eyes. 
 
 "Somebody is crying; it is my father," said the 
 child. 
 
 Lydie could still recognize her father ; she raised 
 herself from her bed and fell down at the old man's 
 knees, just as he sank into an arm-chair. 
 
 1 ' Pardon, papa !' ' said she in a voice which pierced 
 Peyrade's heart at the moment when he felt as if a 
 hammer beat against his skull. 
 
 "I am dying. Ah! the villains!" were his last 
 words. 
 
 Corentin went to his friend's assistance ; and saw 
 him breathe his last. 
 
 "Death from poison!" said Corentin to himself. 
 27
 
 418 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Ah! here's the doctor," he exclaimed, hearing the 
 rumbling of a carriage. 
 
 Contenson, who appeared with his face cleansed 
 from its black disguise, stood as though transformed 
 into a bronze statue, when he heard Lydie say: 
 
 "Then you won't pardon me, father? It was not 
 my fault!" 
 
 She did not know that her father was dead. 
 
 " Oh! how his eyes stare at me!" said the crazed 
 girl. 
 
 "I must close them, "said Contenson as he laid 
 the dead Peyrade upon the bed. 
 
 " We are acting like fools," said Corentin; "let 
 us carry him to his room. His daughter is half -mad; 
 she will become wholly so, if she sees that he is 
 dead, for she will think that she has killed him." 
 
 Lydie watched them bear away her father, and 
 sat still as if she were dazed. 
 
 "There lies my only friend!" said Corentin, who 
 seemed deeply moved when Peyrade was laid upon 
 the bed in his own room. " In all his life he had 
 but one avaricious thought and that was for his 
 daughter! Let it be a lesson to you, Contenson. 
 Every station of life has its honor. Peyrade did 
 wrong to meddle with private affairs; our business 
 is with public matters. But, come what may, I 
 swear," said he, while his accent, look and gesture 
 struck Contenson with dread, " to revenge my poor 
 Peyrade! I will unearth the authors of his death, 
 and those of his daughter's shame! And by my own 
 selfishness, by the few days which yet remain to
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 419 
 
 me and which I risk in this revenge, every man 
 among them shall end his life at four o'clock in the 
 morning, in excellent health, clean shaven, in the 
 Place de Greve!" 
 
 "And I will aid you!" said Contenson, much 
 moved. 
 
 Nothing is more affecting than the sight of passion 
 in a cold, calculating, methodical man, who for 
 twenty years has never been seen to display the 
 slightest indication of sensibility. His the bar of 
 iron, in fusion, which melts everything with which it 
 comes into contact. Contenson's very entrails were 
 stirred within him. 
 
 " Poor Pere Canquoelle!" continued he, looking 
 at Corentin, " he has often paid for my dinner and 
 none but vicious people would do a thing like this 
 he often gave me ten francs to play. " 
 
 After this funeral oration, Peyrade's two avengers, 
 hearing Katt and the physician from the mayor's 
 office upon the staircase, went into Lydie's room. 
 
 " Go to the Commissioner of Police," said Coren- 
 tin, " the public prosecutor would never find warrant 
 for a prosecution, but we must have a report left at 
 the Prefecture; that, perhaps, may be of some use. 
 Sir," said he to the physician, "you will find in that 
 room a dead man; I do not think that his death was 
 natural. You will make an autopsy in the presence 
 of the Commissioner of Police, who will come at 
 my request. Try to discover traces of poison; you 
 will be assisted in a few moments by MM. Desplein 
 and Bianchon, whom I have summoned to examine
 
 420 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 the daughter of my best friend, for her condition is 
 worse than her father's, though he is dead." 
 
 " I have no need of these gentlemen's assistance 
 in the practice of my profession," said the doctor. 
 
 " Ah! good!" thought Corentin. " Don't let us 
 interfere with you, sir," continued he aloud. "To 
 be brief, this is my opinion: those who have killed 
 the father have also dishonored the daughter." 
 
 At daybreak Lydie had at length succumbed to 
 her fatigue: she was sleeping when the distinguished 
 surgeon and the young doctor appeared. The 
 physician entrusted with the autopsy had opened 
 Peyrade's body and was searching for the causes of 
 death. 
 
 "While you wait for your patient to awake," 
 said Corentin to the two famous doctors, " would 
 you aid one of your medical brethren in a demon- 
 stration which you will surely not find uninteresting? 
 Your opinion will not be without weight in the legal 
 statement." 
 
 "Your relative died of apoplexy," said the 
 doctor; " there are proofs of a horrible cerebral con- 
 gestion." 
 
 " Make an examination, gentlemen," said Coren- 
 tin, "and look to see whether, in the catalogue of 
 poisons, there are not any which produce the same 
 effect." 
 
 "The stomach," said the doctor, "was com- 
 pletely filled with matter, but so far as I can see, 
 without the apparatus for a chemical analysis, there 
 is no trace of poison."
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 421 
 
 "If the characteristics of cerebral congestion are 
 perfectly evident, that," said Desplein, pointing to 
 the great quantity of ill-digested food, "is, consider- 
 ing the subject's age, a sufficient cause for death." 
 
 "Did he eat here?" asked Bianchon. 
 
 "No," said Corentin, "he came here hurriedly 
 from the Boulevard and found his daughter dis- 
 honored. " 
 
 "There is the real poison, if he loved his daugh- 
 ter," said Bianchon. 
 
 "What poison is there which could produce that 
 effect?" demanded Corentin, without abandoning 
 his idea. 
 
 "There is but one," said Desplein, after a care- 
 ful examination. "It is a poison of the Javanese 
 archipelago, taken from a species of bush which 
 as yet is little known. It is akin to strychnine, 
 and serves to poison that most dangerous weapon, 
 the Malay creese at least, so they say." 
 
 The Commissioner of Police arrived; Corentin 
 informed him of his suspicions, and requesting him 
 to write out a report, he stated in what house and 
 with what persons Peyrade had taken supper ; next 
 he advised him of the plot formed against Peyrade's 
 life and the cause of Lydie's condition. When he 
 had concluded, Corentin stepped toward the apart- 
 ment of the poor girl, where Desplein and Bianchon 
 were examining the patient; but he met them at 
 the door. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen?" inquired Corentin. 
 
 "Place the girl in an asylum; if she does not
 
 4-22 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 recover her reason in childbirth, that is if she be- 
 comes pregnant, she will be a maniac and melancholy 
 to the end of her days. For her cure there is no other 
 resource than the sentiment of maternity, if it 
 wakens. " 
 
 Corentin gave forty francs in gold to each 
 doctor, and turned to the Commissioner of Police, 
 who pulled him by the sleeve. 
 
 " The doctor maintains that the death is natural," 
 said the officer, " and it will be all the more difficult to 
 make a report since Pere Canquoelle is the subject: 
 he meddled with many people's affairs and we should 
 never know whom we might fall foul of men like 
 him often die per order. " 
 
 " My name is Corentin," said Corentin in the 
 commissioner's ear. The commissioner betrayed a 
 gesture of surprise. 
 
 "Make a note of these facts," continued Coren- 
 tin. " It will be very useful later, and don't send it 
 unless under the heading of confidential informa- 
 tion. The crime cannot be proved and I know that 
 the preparations would be cut short at the very first 
 step. But some day I will deliver up the guilty to 
 Justice. I am going to watch them and catch them 
 with the blood still on their hands." 
 
 The Commissioner of Police bowed to Corentin 
 and went away. 
 
 " Sir," said Katt, " mademoiselle, will do nothing 
 but sing and dance; what can I do?" 
 
 "Something has happened then?" 
 
 " She has learned that her father is dead. "
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 423 
 
 "Put her in a cab, and take her with all gentle- 
 ness to Charenton; I am going to write a line 
 to the Director-General of the Police of the Kingdom, 
 so that she may be suitably cared for. The 
 daughter at Charenton, the father in the Potter's 
 Field!" said Corentin. " Contenson go and get the 
 cart for the dead poor. Now you have two men to 
 settle with, Don Carlos Herrera!" 
 
 "Carlos?" ejaculated Contenson; "he is in 
 Spain." 
 
 "He is in Paris!" said Corentin peremptorily. 
 " He has within him the genius of Spain in the time 
 of Philip II., but I have traps for everybody, even 
 for kings.
 
 At nine o'clock in the morning of the fifth day after 
 the disappearance of the nabob, Madame du Val Noble 
 was seated at the foot of Esther's bed and was crying 
 there, for she felt herself upon the brink of penury. 
 
 " If I had an income of but a hundred louis! With 
 that, my dear, a woman could retire into some little 
 village somewhere and be able to marry. " 
 
 " I can get it for you!" said Esther. 
 
 " How?" exclaimed Madame du Val Noble. 
 
 " Oh! very simply. Listen to me. You are bent 
 upon suicide; play that comedy well; you will sum- 
 mon Asia and offer her ten thousand francs for two 
 black pearls, contained in very thin glass. They 
 hold a poison which kills in one second; you will bring 
 them to me; I'll give you fifty thousand francs. " 
 
 " Why not ask for them yourself?" said Madame 
 du Val Noble. 
 
 " Asia would not sell them to me." 
 
 " It is not for you?" said Madame du Val Noble. 
 
 "Perhaps." 
 
 " You, who are living in the midst of pleasure and 
 luxury in a house of your own! on the eve of a fe"te, 
 which people will talk about for ten years to come, 
 and which costs Nucingen twenty thousand francs! 
 The guests, they say, will eat strawberries in the 
 month of February asparagus, grapes, melons. 
 There will be three thousand francs' worth of 
 flowers in your rooms." 
 
 (425)
 
 426 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Is that all? There are three thousand francs' 
 worth of roses on the staircase alone." 
 
 "I have heard that your gown costs ten thousand 
 francs." 
 
 "Yes, my gown is made out of point lace from 
 Brussels; and Delphine, his wife, is furious. But I 
 wished to look like a wife myself." 
 
 " Where are the ten thousand francs ?" said 
 Madame du Val Noble. 
 
 " It is all my money," said Esther, smiling. 
 "Open my dressing-case; they are beneath my 
 curl-papers. " 
 
 "When people talk of dying, it is seldom that 
 they kill themselves," said Madame du Val Noble. 
 "If it were to commit " 
 
 " A crime? out with it!" said Esther, finishing 
 the sentence which her friend hesitated to complete. 
 "You need not fear," she continued; "I don't 
 wish to kill anybody. I had a friend, a woman 
 who was very happy; she is dead; I shall follow 
 her that is all." 
 
 " Are you mad? " 
 
 "Why are you surprised? We had promised this 
 to each other." 
 
 " You must protest that note!" said her friend, 
 smiling. 
 
 " Do what I say and go away. I hear a carriage 
 coming, and it is Nucingen. That man will go mad 
 with his happiness. He really loves me. Why is it 
 we never love those who love us. They do every- 
 thing to please us."
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 427 
 
 " Ah," said Madame du Val Noble, " that is the 
 story of the herring, the most loving of fish!" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "No one has ever learned." 
 
 "Away with you, my pet! I must ask for your 
 fifty thousand francs." 
 
 "Then adieu." 
 
 For three days past Esther's behavior toward the 
 baron had changed completely. The monkey had 
 become a cat and the cat was turning into a woman. 
 Esther lavished the riches of her affection upon 
 this old man, and had .made herself irresistible. 
 Her conversation, divested of malice and bitter- 
 ness and full of tender insinuations, had brought 
 conviction into the mind of the fat-witted banker. 
 She called him Fritz ; he thought that he was 
 loved. 
 
 "My poor Fritz, I have tried you in the fire," said 
 she. "I have tormented you; your patience has been 
 sublime. You love me, I recognize it, and you shall 
 have your reward. You please me now, and I know 
 not how it is, but I prefer you to a young man. Per- 
 haps it is the result of experience. In the end a 
 woman comes to believe that pleasure is the soul's 
 fortune, and that it is no more flattering to be loved 
 for pleasure than to be loved for one's money. 
 Young men are too egotistical; they think more of 
 themselves than they do of us; while you think of 
 nothing but me. I am all your life; I wish nothing 
 more of you; my only desire is to prove to you the 
 extent of my disinterested affection."
 
 428 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "I have gifen you nodding," answered the de- 
 lighted baron. "I eentent to make ofer to you 
 do-morrow an ingome of dirdy tausent vrancs. Eet 
 ees my vedding cake." 
 
 Esther embraced Nucingen so tenderly that he 
 grew pale. 
 
 "Oh!" said she, "don't think that it is your 
 thirty thousand francs that makes me thus; it is 
 because now I love you, my fat Frederic. " 
 
 " Och, mein Gott, vy tid you broof me I zhould 
 haf peen so habby vor dree months." 
 
 "Is it in three per cents or in fives, my pet?" 
 said Esther, passing her hands through Nucingen's 
 hair and arranging it according to her fancy. 
 
 "Een drees I haf guandities." 
 
 The same morning the baron brought a duplicate 
 of the entry in his ledger; he came to breakfast with 
 his dear little girl, in order to receive her orders for 
 the morrow, the glorious Saturday, the great day! 
 
 " Dake zis, meine leetle vife, meine only vife," 
 said the banker joyously, his face radiant with hap- 
 piness; "here ees sonneting to bay for ze exbenses of 
 your dable for ze resd of your tays." 
 
 Esther took the paper without the slightest emo- 
 tion, folded it, and laid it in her dressing-case. 
 
 "Now you are happy, monster of iniquity," said 
 she, gently tapping Nucingen's cheek, "at seeing 
 me at last accept something from you. I can't tell 
 you the truth about yourself any more, for now I 
 share the fruits of what you call your business. 
 That's not a gift, my poor boy; it's a restitution.
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 429 
 
 Now don't put on your Stock Exchange expression; 
 you know very well that I love you." 
 
 "Meine peaudiful Esder, meine anchel of luff," 
 said the banker, "to not dalk any more een zis vay. 
 I zhould not gare eef ze whole vorld zhould gall me 
 ein ropper, eef in your eyes I vas an honesd man. 
 I luff you more ant more efery tay." 
 
 "1 intend that you should," said Esther; "I will 
 not say another word to hurt your feelings, my pet 
 elephant, for you have become simple as a child. 
 Lord, you fat rascal, you never had any innocence. 
 The little that you had when you came into the 
 world must have reappeared on the surface; but it 
 had sunk so deep that it never reappeared until after 
 sixty-six years and then it was drawn up by love's 
 hook. This phenomenon occurs among old men. 
 And this is why I have come to love you; you are 
 young, very young. No one but I shall have ever 
 known this, Frederic. I alone. For you were a 
 banker at fifteen. I suppose that you lent your col- 
 lege friends one bank note on the condition that they 
 should give you two in return." 
 
 Seeing him smile she leaped into his lap. 
 
 " Do what you will, rob men, lead the way, I'll 
 help you. Men are not worth the trouble of loving 
 them; Napoleon killed them like flies. What do the 
 French care whether it is to you or to the budget 
 that they pay their contributions? They are not in 
 love with the budget, and good Lord, get to your 
 work; I have thought it over; you are right. Shear 
 the sheep. It says so in the gospel according to
 
 430 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Beranger. Kiss your Esder. Ah! do say that you 
 will give that poor Val Noble all the furniture in the 
 Rue Taitbout apartments! and then to-morrow you 
 will offer her fifty thousand francs. That will look 
 very well. Listen, my darling ; you killed Falleix. 
 They began a hue and cry after you. This gen- 
 erosity will appear Babylonian, and all the women 
 will be talking about you. Oh! you will be all that 
 is great and noble in Paris; and the world is so con- 
 stituted that it will forget Falleix. Thus, after all, 
 'tis but money placed at interest." 
 
 "You are right, meine anchel, you know ze 
 vorld, " said he, "you zhall pe meine gounseller." 
 
 "So you see," replied Esther, " how careful I am 
 of my friend's interests, of his reputation and of his 
 honor. Go and come back with the fifty thousand 
 francs." 
 
 She wished to rid herself of Nucingen in order that 
 she might summon a stock-broker and sell the bond 
 that same afternoon at the Exchange. 
 
 " Ant vy ad vunce?" demanded he. 
 
 "Why, my pet, you must offer them, in a little 
 satin box, under a fan. You will say to her, ' Here, 
 madame, is a fan which I trust may please you.' 
 People think you are but a Turcaret; you will sur- 
 pass Beaujon." 
 
 "Jarming! Jarming!" exclaimed the baron; " zen 
 I zhall pe glever! Yez, I zhall rebeat your vorts." 
 
 As poor Esther sat down, exhausted by the effort 
 she had made in playing her part, Europe entered. 
 
 "Madame," said she, "a messenger sent from
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 431 
 
 the Quai Malaquais by Celestin, M. Lucien's 
 valet." 
 
 " Let him come in! No. I will go into the other 
 room." 
 
 " There is a letter from Celestin for madame." 
 
 Esther sprang into the antechamber; she looked 
 at the messenger and saw nothing suspicious in his 
 appearance. 
 
 " Tell him to come down!" said Esther feebly, as 
 she sank into a chair, when she had finished reading 
 the letter. " Lucien wishes to kill himself," she 
 added in Europe's ear; "show him the letter." 
 
 Carlos Herrera, still dressed as a commercial trav- 
 eler, came downstairs without hesitation, but when 
 he perceived a stranger in the room his glance fell 
 instantly upon the messenger. 
 
 " You told me that there was nobody," whispered 
 he to Europe. 
 
 Then with extraordinary prudence, he passed at 
 once into the parlor, casting a searching look at the 
 messenger. Trompe-la-Mort did not know that for 
 some time past the famous Chief of the Secret Ser- 
 vice, who had arrested him in Madame Vauquier's 
 boarding house, had a rival, thought by many more 
 fit than he for his position. This rival was the 
 messenger. 
 
 " They are right," said the sham messenger to 
 Contenson, who was waiting for him in the street; 
 "the man you described is in the house; but he is 
 not a Spaniard, and I will burn my hand off if our 
 bird isn't hidden beneath his cassock."
 
 432 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "He's no more priest than Spaniard," said Con- 
 tenson. 
 
 " I'm sure of it," said the agent of the Secret Ser- 
 vice. 
 
 " Oh! if we were right!" said Contenson. 
 
 Lucien had in fact been away for two days, and 
 his enemies had profited by his absence to set this 
 trap; but he returned the same evening, and Esther's 
 anxiety was calmed. 
 
 The next morning, just as the courtesan was 
 returning to bed after her bath, her friend arrived. 
 
 " I have the two pearls," said the Val Noble. 
 
 " Let me see them," said Esther, raising herself 
 and burying her pretty elbow in a pillow trimmed 
 with lace. 
 
 Madame du Val Noble held toward her friend two 
 black balls like gooseberries. The baron had pre- 
 sented Esther with a pair of small greyhounds of a 
 famous breed, which will eventually bear the name 
 of a great poet of our era, who has brought them 
 into fashion. Proud of the gift, the courtesan had 
 kept for them the names of their ancestors, Romeo 
 and Juliet. It is superfluous to speak of the charm, 
 the whiteness, the grace of these animals, made for 
 the drawing-room, whose behavior had something 
 of English discretion. Esther called Romeo; Romeo 
 ran toward her. His legs were so lithe, so slender, 
 so strong, so nervous that they looked like rods of 
 steel. He looked at his mistress. Esther made a 
 gesture as if to throw him one of the two pearls in 
 order to arouse his attention. "His name destines
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 433 
 
 him to die thus!" said Esther, tossing the pearl 
 which Romeo crunched between his teeth. 
 
 The dog did not utter a cry; he rolled over quite 
 dead. The deed was done while Esther was still 
 saying the words of her funeral oration. 
 
 "Ah, angels of Heaven!" exclaimed Madame du 
 Val Noble. 
 
 "You have a cab; carry away the late Romeo," 
 said Esther; " his death would make an uproar here; 
 I shall have given him to you, and you will have 
 lost him. Advertise. Hurry; to-night you shall have 
 your fifty thousand francs." 
 
 This was said with the perfect insensibility of a 
 courtesan, and so quietly that Madame du Val Noble 
 exclaimed involuntarily: 
 
 "You are indeed our queen !" 
 
 " Come early, and look your best !" 
 
 At five o'clock in the evening Esther dressed her- 
 self in a bridal costume. A lace gown covered her 
 white satin skirt; she wore a white girdle, and shoes 
 of white satin. Over her beautiful shoulders was 
 thrown a scarf of English lace. Her hair was inter- 
 twined with real white camelias, in imitation of the 
 head-dress of some young girl. She displayed upon 
 her neck a collar of pearls, the gift of Nucingen, 
 bought for thirty thousand francs. Although her 
 toilette was completed at six o'clock, she closed her 
 doors to everybody, even to Nucingen. Europe 
 knew that Lucien was to be introduced into the bed- 
 chamber. Lucien arrived on the stroke of seven, 
 and Europe found means to lead him unperceived to 
 28
 
 434 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 Esther's room. When Lucien saw Esther, he said 
 to himself: 
 
 " Why should I not go and live with her at 
 Rubempre, far from the world, and never again 
 return to Paris ? I have had five years as earnest 
 of the future, and this woman will never deceive 
 me. Where can I find a masterpiece like her ?" 
 
 "My dearest, you whom I have made my god," 
 said Esther, kneeling on a cushion before Lucien, 
 "bless me." 
 
 Lucien wished to raise Esther and embrace her, 
 saying, "What is this pleasantry, my love?" He 
 tried to grasp her waist, but she disengaged herself 
 with a movement that expressed as much respect as 
 horror. 
 
 "I am no longer worthy of you, Lucien," said 
 she, suffering the tears to roll down from her eyes. 
 "I beg of you to bless me, and swear to me that 
 you will endow two beds at the hospital, since 
 another's prayers in church will never buy my par- 
 don from God. I have loved you too well, Lucien. 
 Tell me that 1 have made you happy, and that 
 sometimes you will think of me. Tell me !" 
 
 Lucien saw that Esther was deeply in earnest; he 
 stood, thoughtful. 
 
 " You wish to kill yourself," said he at length, in 
 a voice which denoted deep meditation. 
 
 " No, my love; but to-day, as you know, marks 
 the death of the pure, chaste, loving woman you 
 have known and I fear that I shall die of sorrow." 
 
 " Poor child, wait !" said Lucien. " For two days
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 435 
 
 past I have been making every effort, I have even 
 been able to reach Clotilde " 
 
 " Nothing but Clotilde !" ejaculated Esther, with 
 an accent of concentrated rage. 
 
 " Yes," he replied; " we are in communication. 
 Tuesday morning she leaves Paris; but on her way 
 to Italy, I shall have an interview with her at Fon- 
 tainebleau." 
 
 "Ah, heavens! what would you men have for 
 wives ? Sticks of wood !" cried poor Esther. "An- 
 swer me this: If I had seven or eight millions, would 
 you not marry me?" 
 
 "Child! I was going to tell you that if all is 
 over for me, I do not wish another wife than you." 
 
 Esther lowered her head to conceal her sudden 
 paleness and the tears which she wiped away. 
 
 " You love me?" said she, looking at Lucien with 
 deep sadness. " Let my blessing go with you. 
 Don't compromise yourself. Go out by the side 
 door, and act as if you were coming from the ante- 
 chamber to the drawing-room. Kiss me on the 
 forehead," she said. 
 
 She took Lucien in her arms, pressed him 
 frantically to her heart, and said, "Go, go or I 
 live." 
 
 When the dying woman appeared in the drawing- 
 room, there was a cry of admiration. Esther's eyes 
 had cast aside the depths of thought in which her 
 soul was plunged. The blue black of her fine hair 
 was set off by the camelias. In a word, every 
 effect which this splendid courtesan had sought to
 
 .436 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 produce had been obtained. She had no rivals. 
 She seemed like the supreme expression of the 
 boundless luxury by whose creations she was sur- 
 rounded. She was sparkling with wit. She led the 
 orgy with that cold and calm power which Habeneck 
 displays in the Conservatory at those concerts in 
 which the first musicians of Europe rise to the sub- 
 limities of execution in their interpretations of 
 Mozart and of Beethoven. She noticed, neverthe- 
 less, with consternation that Nucingen ate little, 
 drank nothing, and did the honors of the house. 
 At midnight, nobody was in possession of his facul- 
 ties. Glasses were broken past repair ; two hand- 
 painted curtains of Chinese silk were torn. For the 
 second time in his life, Bixiou was intoxicated; no- 
 body could stand erect; the women went fast asleep 
 on divans. The guests could not carry out the jest 
 which they had carefully arranged beforehand, of 
 conducting Nucingen and Esther to their bed-room, 
 ranged in two rows, with candelabra in their hands 
 and singing in unison the Buona sera of the Barbier 
 de Seville. Nucingen gave his arm to Esther. Drunk 
 as he was, Bixiou perceived them, and still found 
 strength to say, as Rivarol did in regard to the last 
 marriage of the Duke de Richelieu, " The Prefect 
 of Police must be warned; danger is impending." 
 The jester thought to jest; he was a prophet.
 
 M. de Nucingen did not return to his house until 
 Monday toward mid-day; but at one o'clock his 
 broker informed him that Mademoiselle Esther Van 
 Bogseck had sold, since Wednesday, the thirty 
 thousand francs a year in bonds, and that she had 
 lately realized the price. 
 
 "But Monsieur le baron," said he, "M. Der- 
 ville's head clerk happened to come to my house as 
 I was speaking of this transfer; and after he had 
 seen Mademoiselle Esther's real name, he told me 
 that she was the heiress of a fortune of seven 
 millions." 
 
 "Pah!" 
 
 "Yes, she is probably the sole heiress of Gob- 
 seek, the old discounter. Derville is going to verify 
 the facts. If your mistress' mother is the beautiful 
 Dutch woman, she inherits " 
 
 " I know eet," said the banker; "she haz tolt me 
 ze zdory of her life. I vill wride eine line do Ter- 
 file." 
 
 The baron sat down at his desk, wrote a brief 
 note to Derville, and despatched it by one of his 
 servants. Then leaving the stock exchange at three 
 o'clock, he went straight to Esther's door. 
 
 "Madame has left orders that she is not to be 
 disturbed for any reason whatsoever; she is in bed 
 and asleep." 
 
 (437)
 
 438 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 "Ah, ze tefil," exclaimed the baron, " Irobe, zhe 
 vould not pe zorry to learn zat zhe has pegome 
 enormouzly rech. Zhe eenhereds sefen millions. 
 Olt Copseck ees teat and leafes his sefen millions, 
 ant your misdress ees his zole heiress, her modder 
 peing ze own niece of Copseck, who, pesides, has 
 mate ein vill. I coult nefer imachine zat ein mill- 
 ionaire like him zhoult leaf Esder in boferdy." 
 
 "Ah, then your reign is over, you old moun- 
 tebank!" said Europe, eyeing the baron with an 
 effrontery worthy of a servant in Moliere. "You 
 old Alsatian crow, she loves you about as well as 
 you love the plague. Lord of heaven! Millions! She 
 can marry her love. Oh! how happy she will be!" 
 
 And Prudence Servien left the Baron de Nucingen 
 completely thunderstruck, to rush and announce, 
 she first of all! this stroke of fortune to her mistress. 
 The old man, intoxicated with joy more than mor- 
 tal, and believing in the security of his happiness, 
 felt his love drowned in cold water at the very in- 
 stant that it attained its highest degree of incandes- 
 cence. 
 
 "Zhe dezeivet me," he cried, with tears in his 
 eyes. "Zhe dezeivet me! Oh, Esder; oh, mein 
 life. Vool zat I am. To zuch vlowers efer grow 
 vor olt men? 1 can puy eferything excebt youth! 
 Oh, mein gott! vot zhall I to? Vat vill habben? 
 Zie gruel Irobe ees right. Esder, once rech, esgabes 
 me. I might as veil go ant hang myzelf. Vat ees 
 life widout ze define vlame of loff zat I have dasded? 
 Oh, mein gott! "
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 439 
 
 The baron snatched away the tuft of false hair 
 that for three months past he had mingled with his 
 gray hairs. A piercing cry uttered by Europe made 
 Nucingen shudder to his very entrails. The poor 
 banker arose and walked with his legs reeling like 
 those of a drunken man from the cup of disenchant- 
 ment which he had emptied, for nothing intoxicates 
 like the strong wine of misfortune. 
 
 From the door of the bed chamber he could see 
 Esther lying rigidly upon the bed, her face discolored 
 with the poison, dead! He walked to the bed and 
 fell upon his knees. 
 
 "You are right; zhe hat zait zo! Zhe diet of 
 me!" 
 
 Paccard, Asia, all the household-, ran thither. It 
 was a scene of excitement and surprise, not of afflic- 
 tion. Everybody felt some uncertainty. The baron 
 became a banker once more; his suspicions were 
 aroused, and he was so imprudent as to ask where 
 were the seven hundred and fifty thousand francs. 
 Paccard, Asia and Europe looked at one another in 
 so singular a manner that M. de Nucingen made his 
 escape at once for fear of robbery or murder. 
 Europe, who caught sight of a sealed package, 
 whose softness betrayed the presence of bank notes, 
 beneath the pillow of her mistress, at once set about 
 "laying out the body," as she called it. 
 
 "Go and inform Carlos, Asia! To die before 
 knowing that she had seven millions! Gobseck 
 was the uncle of our late mistress!" cried she. 
 
 Europe's manoeuvre was understood by Paccard.
 
 440 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 The second that Asia turned her back, Europe un- 
 sealed the package on which the poor courtesan had 
 written : " To be given to M. Lucien de Rubempre." 
 Seven hundred and fifty notes, each of a thousand 
 francs, gleamed before the eyes of Prudence Ser- 
 vien, who exclaimed: 
 
 " Why not be happy and honest for the rest of 
 our days!" 
 
 Paccard made no objection; the thief within him 
 was stronger than his devotion to Trompe-la-Mort. 
 
 " Durut is dead," answered he, taking the bank 
 notes; "my shoulder has not been branded yet. 
 Let's fly together, divide the sum so as not to put 
 all our eggs into one basket, and then we'll marry/' 
 
 " But where can we hide?" said Prudence. 
 
 " In Paris," answered Paccard. 
 
 Prudence and Paccard descended the stairs imme- 
 diately with the speed of two honest people turned 
 thieves. 
 
 " My child," said Trompe-la-Mort to Asia, when she 
 had uttered the first few words of her recital, "find a 
 letter written by Esther, while I write a will in proper 
 form, and you will carry to Girard copies of the tes- 
 tament and of the letter. But in order to save time, 
 I must slip the testament beneath Esther's pillow 
 before the officers come to seal up her belongings." 
 
 He drew up the following testament : 
 
 " Having never loved any person in the world ex- 
 cepting M. Lucien Chardon de Rubempre, and having 
 resolved to put an end to my life rather than return
 
 THE DEATH OF ESTHER 
 
 The poor 'banker arose and ^valked with his legs 
 reeling like those of a drunken man from the cup 
 of disenchantment which he had emptied, for nothing 
 intoxicates like the strong wine of misfortune. 
 
 From the door of the bed chamber he could see 
 Esther lying rigidly upon the bed, her face discolored 
 ivith the poison, dead ! He walked to the bed and 
 fell upon his knees. 
 
 " Yon are right ; she hat zait zo ! Zlie diet of 
 me /"
 
 440 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 id that Asia turned her back, Europe un- 
 J the package on which the poor courtesan had 
 written : " To be given to M. Lucien de Rubempre." 
 Seven hundred and fifty notes, each of a thousand 
 francs, gleamed before the eyes of Prudence Ser- 
 vien, who exclaimed: 
 
 " Why not be happy and honest for the rest of 
 
 ourdays!''^ ^ ^ 
 
 Paccard made no objection; the thief within him 
 was stronger than his devotion to Trompe-la-Mort. 
 
 " Durut is dead," answered he, taking the bank 
 
 Let's fly together, divide the sum so as not to put 
 ^i K&W j&vYMuvvb &* i& w>w w\\ "^y$pff\ 
 Basket, and men we n many. 
 
 ar our eggs ino one 
 
 In 
 Prudence and Paccard descended the stairs imme- 
 
 letter written by Esther, while I 
 K^^'^ d ^^ u v V'^^^y^Q^ird^^e^ ^ 
 tament and of the letter. But in order to save tjme, 
 I must slip the testament beneath Esther's pillb^ 
 before the officers come to seal up her belongings." 
 He drew up the following testament : 
 
 " Having never loved any person in the world ex- 
 cepting M. Lucien Chardon de Rubempr6, and having 
 resolved to put an end to my life rather than return
 
 ' 

 
 The poor banker arose and walked with Ids legs 
 reeling like those of a drunken man from the cup 
 of disenchantment which he had emptied, for nothing 
 intoxicates like the strong wine of misfortune. 
 
 from the door of the bed chamber he could see 
 Esther lying rigidly upon the bed, her face discolored 
 witli the poison, dead ! He walked to the bed and 
 fell npon his knees. 
 
 " You are right ; she hat zait so ! ZJic diet of 
 me /"
 
 \\w\\ 
 
 -A\ 
 
 \Vi\
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 441 
 
 to the life of vice and infamy, whence his charity 
 has rescued me, I give and bequeath to the aforesaid 
 Lucien Chardon de Rubempre everything that I 
 possess on the day of my decease, on condition that 
 a foundation be made in the parish of St. Roch for 
 the continual saying of masses for the repose of her 
 who has given him all, even her last thought. 
 
 " ESTHER GOBSECK." 
 
 " That is like enough to her style," thought 
 Trompe-la-Mort. 
 
 At seven o'clock that night, the testament, written 
 and sealed, was placed by Asia beneath Esther's 
 pillow. 
 
 "Jacques," said she, rushing upstairs with pre- 
 cipitation, "just as I left the room the officers of 
 justice arrived." 
 
 " Do you mean a Justice of the Peace?" 
 
 " No, sonny. There was indeed the Justice of the 
 Peace among them, but he was accompanied by 
 gendarmes. The Public Prosecutor and a Judge of 
 the Probate Court are with him ; the doors are 
 guarded." 
 
 " This death has stirred up a very sudden com- 
 motion," remarked Collin. 
 
 " Europe and Paccard have not yet reappeared. 
 I'm afraid the birds have flown with seven hundred 
 and fifty thousand francs," said Asia. 
 
 " Ah! the wretches!" said Trompe-la-Mort; "with 
 their vile schemes, they'll ruin us!" 
 
 Human justice and the justice of Paris that is to
 
 442 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 say, the most suspicious, the most acute, the 
 cleverest, the most learned justice of this world 
 too acute even, for at every instant she is interpret- 
 ing the law at length laid her hand on the machi- 
 nators of this horrible plot. The Baron de Nucingen, 
 recognizing the effects of poison, and not finding his 
 seven hundred and fifty thousand francs, at once 
 suspected one of the two odious personages whom 
 he detested, Europe or Paccard, to be guilty of the 
 crime. In his first burst of mad rage, he rushed to 
 the Prefecture of Police. It was an alarm-bell, 
 which collected all of Corentin's numbers. The 
 Prefecture, the criminal bar, the Commissioner of 
 Police, the Justice of the Peace, the Judge of the 
 Probate Court everybody was aroused. At nine 
 o'clock at night, three physicians, who had been 
 summoned, assisted at the autopsy of poor Esther's 
 body, and the investigation began. 
 
 Trompe-la-Mort, warned by Asia, exclaimed: 
 " They don't know that I am here. I can get a 
 breath of air." 
 
 He raised himself by the frame of his garret 
 window, and with matchless agility sprang out 
 upon the roof, whence he began to study the sur- 
 roundings with the matter-of-fact coolness of a 
 mason laying tiles. 
 
 " Good," said he, as he saw a garden in the Rue 
 de Provence, separated from them by five houses. 
 "That's what I want." 
 
 "Your game is up, Trompe-la-Mort!" The sud- 
 den cry came from Contenson, who stepped from
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 443 
 
 behind the chimney. "You will explain to M. 
 Camusot what mass you were about to celebrate on 
 the roof, Monsieur 1'Abbe; and above all, why you 
 were trying to escape." 
 
 " I have enemies in Spain," said Carlos Herrera. 
 
 "Escape to Spain by your garret," retorted 
 Contenson. 
 
 The counterfeit Spaniard seemed to yield; but 
 suddenly propping himself against the support of the 
 window, which was raised considerably above the 
 surface of the roof, he seized Contenson and hurled 
 him backward with such violence that the detective 
 fell headlong into the gutter of the Rue Saint 
 Georges. Contenson died on his field of honor; 
 Jacques Collin returned quietly into his garret and 
 went to bed. 
 
 "Give me something which will make me very ill 
 without killing me, "said he to Asia, "for I must be in 
 the agony of death so that I can give no answer to 
 their inquisitivemss. Fear nothing; I am a priest, and 
 a priest I shall remain. I have just rid myself, most 
 naturally, of one of the few who can detect me." 
 
 At seven o'clock the night before, Lucien had set 
 off post-haste in his carriage, with a passport which 
 he had secured that very morning for Fontainebleau, 
 and spent the night at the last inn in the direction 
 of Nemours. Toward six o'clock the next morning, 
 he walked on alone through the forest, and went as 
 far as Bouron. 
 
 " It was in that fatal spot," thought he, as he sat
 
 444 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES 
 
 down upon one of those rocks which command the 
 lovely landscape of Bouron, "that Napoleon hoped 
 to make one mighty effort, on the day before his 
 abdication." 
 
 At daybreak he heard the noise of a post-chaise, 
 and saw a carriage pass him in which he could dis- 
 tinguish the servants of the young Duchess of 
 Lenoncourt-Chaulieu and the waiting maid of Clo- 
 tilde de Grandlieu. 
 
 "There they are," thought Lucien. "Now for 
 a successful comedy, and I am saved. I shall be 
 the duke's son-in-law whether he will or no." 
 
 An hour later the closed carriage, containing the 
 two women, rolled toward him with that unmistak- 
 able gliding rumbling which heralds the approach of 
 a fashionable traveling carriage. The two ladies 
 had given orders for the carriage to stop on the hill 
 overlooking Bouron, and the valet on the dickey 
 told the coachman to halt. At this moment Lucien 
 advanced. 
 
 " Clotilde!" he cried, tapping at the window. 
 
 " No," said the young duchess to her friend, " he 
 must not get into the carriage; we must not be 
 alone with him, my dear girl. Have one last con- 
 versation with him, I consent to it; but it shall be on 
 the high road, where we will go afoot, followed by 
 Baptiste. The day is fine, we are warmly dressed, 
 and have nothing to fear from the cold. The car- 
 riage shall follow us " 
 
 The two women stepped out. 
 
 "Baptiste," said the young duchess, "the postilion
 
 HOW MUCH LOVE COSTS OLD MEN 445 
 
 will drive on very slowly; we wish to walk for a 
 short distance, and you will accompany us." 
 
 Madeleine de Mortsauf took her friend's arm, 
 and allowed Lucien to talk with Clotilde. They 
 walked along together thus as far as the little vil- 
 lage of Grez. It was then eight o'clock, and there 
 Clotilde bade Lucien good-bye. 
 
 "So, my friend," said she, ending this long con- 
 versation with dignity, "I shall never marry any- 
 body else. I prefer to believe in you rather than in 
 other men; than in my father or my mother. Did 
 woman ever give a stronger proof of attachment? 
 Now try to dispel the fatal cloud which hangs over 
 you." 
 
 The sound of galloping horses approached, and to 
 the great astonishment of the two ladies, a company 
 of gendarmes surrounded the little group. 
 
 "What do you want?" demanded Lucien, with 
 all the arrogance of fashion. 
 
 "You are M. Lucien de Rubempre?" said the 
 Public Prosecutor of Fontainebleau. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "You will sleep to-night at the Force," continued 
 he. "I have a warrant of arrest against you." 
 
 "Who are these ladies?" exclaimed the brigadier. 
 
 "Ah! yes; your pardon, ladies. May I see your 
 passports? For according to my information M. 
 Lucien has acquaintances who, for his sake, are 
 capable of " 
 
 "You take the Duchess de Lenoncourt-Chaulieu 
 fo.rawoman of the streets!" said Madeleine, casting
 
 446 SPLENDORS AND MISERIES. 
 
 a look well worthy of a duchess upon the Public 
 Prosecutor. 
 
 "You are handsome enough to be a duchess," re- 
 plied the magistrate, tactfully. 
 
 "Baptiste, show our passports," answered the 
 young duchess, smiling. 
 
 "Of what crime does this gentleman stand ac- 
 cused?" said Clotilde, while the duchess was en- 
 deavoring to push her into the carriage. 
 
 "Of complicity in robbery and murder," replied 
 the brigadier of gendarmes. 
 
 Baptiste lifted Mademoiselle de Grandlieu in the 
 carriage, for she had fainted dead away. 
 
 At midnight Lucien entered the Force, a prison 
 situated on the corner of the Rue Payenne and the 
 Rue des Ballets, where he was placed in a solitary 
 cell. The Abbe Carlos Herrera had been confined 
 there since his arrest.
 
 LIST OF ETCHINGS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ESTHER'S ATTEMPTED SUICIDE Fronts. 
 
 CARLOS HERRERA VISITS ESTHER 64 
 
 IN THE DRAWING-ROOM OF THE DUKE DE GRAND- 
 LIEU : CLOTILDE AND LUCIEN 136 
 
 IN THE RUE TAITBOUT : ESTHER AND LUCIEN ... 144 
 IN THE RUE TAITBOUT: ESTHER'S ARREST .... 237 
 IN THE RUE BARBETTE: ESTHER, NUCINGEN AND 
 
 ASIA 248 
 
 THE DEATH OF PEYRADE 416 
 
 THE DEATH OF ESTHER 440 
 
 i C. H.,S. & M. J. 
 
 447
 
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