knots. Rastignac trembled for Delphine's money. He stipulated that

Delphine must be independent and her estate separated from her
husband's, swearing to himself that he would repay her by trebling her

fortune. As, however, Rastignac said nothing of himself, Nucingen
begged him to take, in the event of success, twenty-five shares of a

thousand francs in the argentiferous lead-mines, and Eugene took them
--not to offend him! Nucingen had put Rastignac up to this the day

before that evening in the Rue Joubert when our friend counseled
Malvina to marry. A cold shiver ran through Rastignac at the sight of

so many happy folk in Paris going to and fro unconscious of the
impending loss; even so a young commander might shiver at the first

sight of an army drawn up before a battle. He saw the d'Aiglemonts,
the d'Aldriggers, and Beaudenord. Poor little Isaure and Godefroid

playing at love, what were they but Acis and Galatea under the rock
which a hulking Polyphemus was about to send down upon them?"

"That monkey of a Bixiou has something almost like talent," said
Blondet.

"Oh! so I am not maundering now?" asked Bixiou, enjoying his success
as he looked round at his surprised auditors.--"For two months past,"

he continued, "Godefroid had given himself up to all the little
pleasures of preparation for the marriage. At such times men are like

birds building nests in spring; they come and go, pick up their bits
of straw, and fly off with them in their beaks to line the nest that

is to hold a brood of young birds by and by. Isaure's bridegroom had
taken a house in the Rue de la Plancher at a thousand crowns, a

comfortable little house neither too large nor too small, which suited
them. Every morning he went round to take a look at the workmen and to

superintend the painters. He had introduced 'comfort' (the only good
thing in England)--heating apparatus to maintain an even temperature

all over the house; fresh, soft colors, carefully chosen furniture,
neither too showy nor too much in fashion; spring-blinds fitted to

every window inside and out; silver plate and new carriages. He had
seen to the stables, coach-house, and harness-room, where Toby Joby

Paddy floundered and fidgeted about like a marmot let loose,
apparently rejoiced to know that there would be women about the place

and a 'lady'! This ferventpassion of a man that sets up housekeeping,
choosing clocks, going to visit his betrothed with his pockets full of

patterns of stuffs, consulting her as to the bedroom furniture, going,
coming, and trotting about, for love's sake,--all this, I say, is a

spectacle in the highest degree calculated to rejoice the hearts of
honest people, especially tradespeople. And as nothing pleases folk

better than the marriage of a good-looking young fellow of seven-and-
twenty and a charming girl of nineteen that dances admirably well,

Godefroid in his perplexity over the corbeille asked Mme. de Nucingen
and Rastignac to breakfast with him and advise him on this all-

important point. He hit likewise on the happy idea of asking his
cousin d'Aiglemont and his wife to meet them, as well as Mme. de

Serizy. Women of the world are ready enough to join for once in an
improvised breakfast-party at a bachelor's rooms."

"It is their way of playing truant," put in Blondet.
"Of course they went over the new house," resumed Bixiou. "Married

women relish these little expeditions as ogres relish warm flesh; they
feel young again with the young bliss, unspoiled as yet by fruition.

Breakfast was served in Godefroid's sitting-room, decked out like a
troop horse for a farewell to bachelor life. There were dainty little

dishes such as women love to devour, nibble at, and sip of a morning,
when they are usually alarmingly hungry and horribly afraid to confess

to it. It would seem that a woman compromises herself by admitting
that she is hungry.--'Why have you come alone?' inquired Godefroid

when Rastignac appeared.--'Mme. de Nucingen is out of spirits; I will
tell you all about it,' answered Rastignac, with the air of a man

whose temper has been tried.--'A quarrel?' hazarded Godefroid.--'No.'
--At four o'clock the women took flight for the Bois de Boulogne;

Rastignac stayed in the room and looked out of the window, fixing his
melancholy gaze upon Toby Joby Paddy, who stood, his arms crossed in

Napoleonic fashion, audaciously posted in front of Beaudenord's cab
horse. The child could only control the animal with his shrill little

voice, but the horse was afraid of Joby Toby.
" 'Well,' began Godefroid, 'what is the matter with you, my dear

fellow? You look gloomy and anxious; your gaiety is forced. You are
tormented by incomplete happiness. It is wretched, and that is a fact,

when one cannot marry the woman one loves at the mayor's office and
the church.'

" 'Have you courage to hear what I have to say? I wonder whether you
will see how much a man must be attached to a friend if he can be

guilty of such a breach of confidence as this for his sake.'
"Something in Rastignac's voice stung like a lash of a whip.

" 'WHAT?' asked Godefroid de Beaudenord, turning pale.
" 'I was unhappy over your joy; I had not the heart to keep such a

secret to myself when I saw all these preparations, your happiness in
bloom.'

" 'Just say it out in three words!'
" 'Swear to me on your honor that you will be as silent as the

grave----'
" 'As the grave,' repeated Beaudenord.

" 'That if one of your relatives were concerned in this secret, he
should not know it.'

" 'No.'
" 'Very well. Nucingen started to-night for Brussels. He must file his

schedule if he cannot arrange a settlement. This very morning Delphine
petitioned for the separation of her estate. You may still save your

fortune.'
" 'How?' faltered Godefroid; the blood turned to ice in his veins.

" 'Simply write to the Baron de Nucingen, antedating your letter a
fortnight, and instruct him to invest all your capital in shares.'--

Rastignac suggested Claparon and Company, and continued--'You have a
fortnight, a month, possibly three months, in which to realize and

make something; the shares are still going up----'
" 'But d'Aiglemont, who was here at breakfast with us, has a million

in Nucingen's bank.'
" 'Look here; I do not know whether there will be enough of these

shares to cover it; and besides, I am not his friend, I cannot betray
Nucingen's confidence. You must not speak to d'Aiglemont. If you say a

word, you must answer to me for the consequences.'
"Godefroid stood stock still for ten minutes.

" 'Do you accept? Yes or no!' said the inexorable Rastignac.
"Godefroid took up the pen, wrote at Rastignac's dictation, and signed

his name.
" 'My poor cousin!' he cried.

" 'Each for himself,' said Rastignac. 'And there is one more settled!'
he added to himself as he left Beaudenord.

"While Rastignac was manoeuvring thus in Paris, imagine the state of
things on the Bourse. A friend of mine, a provincial, a stupid

creature, once asked me as we came past the Bourse between four and
five in the afternoon what all that crowd of chatterers was doing,

what they could possibly find to say to each other, and why they were
wandering to and fro when business in public securities was over for

the day. 'My friend,' said I, 'they have made their meal, and now they
are digesting it; while they digest it, they gossip about their

neighbors, or there would be no commercialsecurity in Paris. Concerns
are floated here, such and such a man--Palma, for instance, who is

something the same here as Sinard at the Academie Royale des Sciences
--Palma says, "let the speculation be made!" and the speculation is

made.' "
"What a man that Hebrew is," put in Blondet; "he has not had a

university education, but a universal education. And universal does
not in his case mean superficial; whatever he knows, he knows to the

bottom. He has a genius, an intuitive faculty for business. He is the