pleasures, patrons, and acquaintances are his capital. Suppose a
merchant runs a risk of a million, for twenty years he can neither

sleep, eat, nor amuse himself, he is brooding over his million, it
makes him run about all over Europe; he worries himself, goes to the

devil in every way that man has invented. Then comes a liquidation,
such as I have seen myself, which very often leaves him penniless and

without a reputation or a friend. The spendthrift, on the other hand,
takes life as a serious game and sees his horses run. He loses his

capital, perhaps, but he stands a chance of being nominated Receiver-
General, of making a wealthy marriage, or of an appointment of attache

to a minister or ambassador; and he has his friends left and his name,
and he never wants money. He knows the standing of everybody, and uses

every one for his own benefit. Is this logical, or am I a madman after
all? Haven't you there all the moral of the comedy that goes on every

day in this world? . . . Your work is completed' he went on after a
pause; 'you are immensely clever! Well, you have only arrived at my

starting-point. Now, you had better look after its success yourself;
it is the surest way. You will make allies in every clique, and secure

applause beforehand. I mean to go halves in your glory myself; I shall
be the jeweler who set the diamonds in your crown. Come here to-morrow

evening, by way of a beginning. I will introduce you to a house where
all Paris goes, all OUR Paris, that is--the Paris of exquisites,

millionaires, celebrities, all the folk who talk gold like Chrysostom.
When they have taken up a book, that book becomes the fashion; and

if it is something really good for once, they will have declared it
to be a work of genius without knowing it. If you have any sense, my

dear fellow, you will ensure the success of your "Theory," by a
better understanding of the theory of success. To-morrow evening you

shall go to see that queen of the moment--the beautiful Countess
Foedora. . . .'

" 'I have never heard of her. . . .'
" 'You Hottentot!' laughed Rastignac; 'you do not know Foedora? A

great match with an income of nearly eighty thousand livres, who has
taken a fancy to nobody, or else no one has taken a fancy to her. A

sort of feminine enigma, a half Russian Parisienne, or a half Parisian
Russian. All the romantic productions that never get published are

brought out at her house; she is the handsomest woman in Paris, and
the most gracious! You are not even a Hottentot; you are something

between the Hottentot and the beast. . . . Good-bye till to-morrow.'
"He swung round on his heel and made off without waiting for my

answer. It never occurred to him that a reasoning being could refuse
an introduction to Foedora. How can the fascination of a name be

explained? FOEDORA haunted me like some evil thought, with which you
seek to come to terms. A voice said in me, 'You are going to see

Foedora!' In vain I reasoned with that voice, saying that it lied to
me; all my arguments were defeated by the name 'Foedora.' Was not the

name, and even the woman herself, the symbol of all my desires, and
the object of my life?

"The name called up recollections of the conventionalglitter of the
world, the upper world of Paris with its brilliant fetes and the

tinsel of its vanities. The woman brought before me all the problems
of passion on which my mind continually ran. Perhaps it was neither

the woman nor the name, but my own propensities, that sprang up within
me and tempted me afresh. Here was the Countess Foedora, rich and

loveless, proof against the temptations of Paris; was not this woman
the very incarnation of my hopes and visions? I fashioned her for

myself, drew her in fancy, and dreamed of her. I could not sleep that
night; I became her lover; I overbrimmed a few hours with a whole

lifetime--a lover's lifetime; the experience of its prolific delights
burned me.

"The next day I could not bear the tortures of delay; I borrowed a
novel, and spent the whole day over it, so that I could not possibly

think nor keep account of the time till night. Foedora's name echoed
through me even as I read, but only as a distant sound; though it

could be heard, it was not troublesome. Fortunately, I owned a fairly
creditable black coat and a white waistcoat; of all my fortune there

now remained abut thirty francs, which I had distributed about among
my clothes and in my drawers, so as to erect between my whims and the

spending of a five-franc piece a thornybarrier of search, and an
adventurous peregrination round my room. While I as dressing, I dived

about for my money in an ocean of papers. This scarcity of specie will
give you some idea of the value of that squandered upon gloves and

cab-hire; a month's bread disappeared at one fell swoop. Alas! money
is always forthcoming for our caprices; we only grudge the cost of

things that are useful or necessary. We recklessly fling gold to an
opera-dancer, and haggle with a tradesman whose hungry family must

wait for the settlement of our bill. How many men are there that wear
a coat that cost a hundred francs, and carry a diamond in the head of

their cane, and dine for twenty-five SOUS for all that! It seems as
though we could never pay enough for the pleasures of vanity.

"Rastignac, punctual to his appointment, smiled at the transformation,
and joked about it. On the way he gave me benevolent advice as to my

conduct with the countess; he described her as mean, vain, and
suspicious; but though mean, she was ostentatious, her vanity was

transparent, and her mistrust good-humored.
" 'You know I am pledged,' he said, 'and what I should lose, too, if I

tried a change in love. So my observation of Foedora has been quite
cool and disinterested, and my remarks must have some truth in them. I

was looking to your future when I thought of introducing you to her;
so mind very carefully what I am about to say. She has a terrible

memory. She is clever enough to drive a diplomatist wild; she would
know it at once if he spoke the truth. Between ourselves, I fancy that

her marriage was not recognized by the Emperor, for the Russian
ambassador began to smile when I spoke of her; he does not receive her

either, and only bows very coolly if he meets her in the Bois. For all
that, she is in Madame de Serizy's set, and visits Mesdames de

Nucingen and de Restaud. There is no cloud over her here in France;
the Duchesse de Carigliano, the most-strait-laced marechale in the

whole Bonapartist coterie, often goes to spend the summer with her at
her country house. Plenty of young fops, sons of peers of France, have

offered her a title in exchange for her fortune, and she has politely
declined them all. Her susceptibilities, maybe, are not to be touched

by anything less than a count. Aren't you a marquis? Go ahead if you
fancy her. This is what you may call receiving your instructions.'

"His raillery made me think that Rastignac wished to joke and excite
my curiosity, so that I was in a paroxysm of my extemporized passion

by the time that we stopped before a peristyle full of flowers. My
heart beat and my color rose as we went up the great carpeted

staircase, and I noticed about me all the studied refinements of
English comfort; I was infatuatedly bourgeois; I forgot my origin and

all my personal and family pride. Alas! I had but just left a garret,
after three years of poverty, and I could not just then set the

treasures there acquired above such trifles as these. Nor could I
rightly estimate the worth of the vast intellectual" target="_blank" title="n.知识分子">intellectual capital which

turns to riches at the moment when opportunity comes within our reach,
opportunity that does not overwhelm, because study has prepared us for

the struggles of public life.
"I found a woman of about twenty-two years of age; she was of average

height, was dressed in white, and held a feather fire-screen in her
hand; a group of men stood around her. She rose at the sight of

Rastignac, and came towards us with a gracious smile and a musically-
uttered compliment, prepared no doubt beforehand, for me. Our friend

had spoken of me as a rising man, and his clever way of making the
most of me had procured me this flatteringreception. I was confused

by the attention that every one paid to me; but Rastignac had luckily
mentioned my modesty. I was brought in contact with scholars, men of

letters, ex-ministers, and peers of France. The conversation,
interrupted a while by my coming, was resumed. I took courage, feeling

that I had a reputation to maintain, and without abusing my privilege,
I spoke when it fell to me to speak, trying to state the questions at

issue in words more or less profound, witty or trenchant, and I made a
certain sensation. Rastignac was a prophet for the thousandth time in

his life. As soon as the gathering was large enough to restore freedom
to individuals, he took my arm, and we went round the rooms.

" 'Don't look as if you were too much struck by the princess,' he
said, 'or she will guess your object in coming to visit her.'

"The rooms were furnished in excellent taste. Each apartment had a
character of its own, as in wealthy English houses; and the silken

hangings, the style of the furniture, and the ornaments, even the most
trifling, were all subordinated to the original idea. In a gothic

boudoir the doors were concealed by tapestried curtains, and the