Vauquer's boarders were of her opinion. With the faculty for
severe logic sedulously cultivated" target="_blank" title="a.在耕作的；有教养的">cultivated by elderly women during long

evenings of gossip till they can always find an hypothesis to fit
all circumstances, she was wont to reason thus:

"If Father Goriot had daughters of his own as rich as those
ladies who came here seemed to be, he would not be lodging in my

house, on the third floor, at forty-five francs a month; and he
would not go about dressed like a poor man."

No objection could be raised to these inferences. So by the end
of the month of November 1819, at the time when the curtain rises

on this drama, every one in the house had come to have a very
decided opinion as to the poor old man. He had never had either

wife or daughter; excesses had reduced him to this sluggish
condition; he was a sort of human mollusk who should be classed

among the capulidoe, so one of the dinner contingent, an employe
at the Museum, who had a pretty wit of his own. Poiret was an

eagle, a gentleman, compared with Goriot. Poiret would join the
talk, argue, answer when he was spoken to; as a matter of fact,

his talk, arguments, and responses contributed nothing to the
conversation, for Poiret had a habit of repeating what the others

said in different words; still, he did join in the talk; he was
alive, and seemed capable of feeling; while Father Goriot (to

quote the Museum official again) was invariably at zero--Reaumur.
Eugene de Rastignac had just returned to Paris in a state of mind

not unknown to young men who are conscious of unusual powers, and
to those whose faculties are so stimulated by a difficult

position, that for the time being they rise above the ordinary
level.

Rastignac's first year of study for the preliminary examinations
in law had left him free to see the sights of Paris and to enjoy

some of its amusements. A student has not much time on his hands
if he sets himself to learn the repertory of every theatre, and

to study the ins and outs of the labyrinth of Paris. To know its
customs; to learn the language, and become familiar with the

amusements of the capital, he must explore its recesses, good and
bad, follow the studies that please him best, and form some idea

of the treasures contained in galleries and museums.
At this stage of his career a student grows eager and excited

about all sorts of follies that seem to him to be of immense
importance. He has his hero, his great man, a professor at the

College de France, paid to talk down to the level of his
audience. He adjusts his cravat, and strikes various attitudes

for the benefit of the women in the first galleries at the Opera-
Comique. As he passes through all these successive initiations,

and breaks out of his sheath, the horizons of life widen around
him, and at length he grasps the plan of society with the

different human strata of which it is composed.
If he begins by admiring the procession of carriages on sunny

afternoons in the Champs-Elysees, he soon reaches the further
stage of envying their owners. Unconsciously, Eugene had served

his apprenticeship before he went back to Angouleme for the long
vacation after taking his degrees as bachelor of arts and

bachelor of law. The illusions of childhood had vanished, so also
had the ideas he brought with him from the provinces; he had

returned thither with an intelligence developed, with loftier
ambitions, and saw things as they were at home in the old manor

house. His father and mother, his two brothers and two sisters,
with an aged aunt, whose whole fortune consisted in annuities,

lived on the little estate of Rastignac. The whole property
brought in about three thousand francs; and though the amount

varied with the season (as must always be the case in a vine-
growing district), they were obliged to spare an unvarying twelve

hundred francs out of their income for him. He saw how constantly
the poverty, which they had generouslyhidden from him, weighed

upon them; he could not help comparing the sisters, who had
seemed so beautiful to his boyish eyes, with women in Paris, who

had realized the beauty of his dreams. The uncertain future of
the whole family depended upon him. It did not escape his eyes

that not a crumb was wasted in the house, nor that the wine they
drank was made from the second pressing; a multitude of small

things, which it is useless to speak of in detail here, made him
burn to distinguish himself, and his ambition to succeed

increased tenfold.
He meant, like all great souls, that his success should be owing

entirely to his merits; but his was pre-eminently a southern
temperament, the execution of his plans was sure to be marred by

the vertigo that seizes on youth when youth sees itself alone in
a wide sea, uncertain how to spend its energies, whither to steer

its course, how to adapt its sails to the winds. At first he
determined to fling himself heart and soul into his work, but he

was diverted from this purpose by the need of society and
connections; then he saw how great an influence women exert in

social life, and suddenly made up his mind to go out into this
world to seek a protectress there. Surely a clever and high-

spirited young man, whose wit and courage were set off to
advantage by a graceful figure and the vigorous kind of beauty

that readily strikes a woman's imagination, need not despair of
finding a protectress. These ideas occurred to him in his country

walks with his sisters, whom he had once joined so gaily. The
girls thought him very much changed.

His aunt, Mme. de Marcillac, had been presented at court, and had
moved among the brightest heights of that lofty region. Suddenly

the young man's ambition discerned in those recollections of
hers, which had been like nursery fairy tales to her nephews and

nieces, the elements of a social success at least as important as
the success which he had achieved at the Ecole de Droit. He began

to ask his aunt about those relations; some of the old ties might
still hold good. After much shaking of the branches of the family

tree, the old lady came to the conclusion that of all persons who
could be useful to her nephew among the selfish genus of rich

relations, the Vicomtesse de Beauseant was the least likely to
refuse. To this lady, therefore, she wrote in the old-fashioned

style, recommending Eugene to her; pointing out to her nephew
that if he succeeded in pleasing Mme. de Beauseant, the

Vicomtesse would introduce him to other relations. A few days
after his return to Paris, therefore, Rastignac sent his aunt's

letter to Mme. de Beauseant. The Vicomtesse replied by an
invitation to a ball for the following evening. This was the

position of affairs at the Maison Vauquer at the end of November
1819.

A few days later, after Mme. de Beauseant's ball, Eugene came in
at two o'clock in the morning. The persevering student meant to

make up for the lost time by working until daylight. It was the
first time that he had attempted to spend the night in this way

in that silent quarter. The spell of a factitious energy was upon
him; he had beheld the pomp and splendor of the world. He had not

dined at the Maison Vauquer; the boarders probably would think
that he would walk home at daybreak from the dance, as he had

done sometimes on former occasions, after a fete at the Prado, or
a ball at the Odeon, splashing his silk stockings thereby, and

ruining his pumps.
It so happened that Christophe took a look into the street before

drawing the bolts of the door; and Rastignac, coming in at that
moment, could go up to his room without making any noise,

followed by Christophe, who made a great deal. Eugene exchanged
his dress suit for a shabbyovercoat and slippers, kindled a fire

with some blocks of patent fuel, and prepared for his night's
work in such a sort that the faint sounds he made were drowned by

Christophe's heavy tramp on the stairs.
Eugene sat absorbed in thought for a few moments before plunging

into his law books. He had just become aware of the fact that the