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"He is right," said Eve; "you yourself were saying, were you not, that

he ought to go to Paris at once?"
David took Eve's hand in his, and drew her into the narrow little room

where she had slept for seven years.
"Love, you were saying just now that he would want two thousand

francs?" he said in her ear. "Postel is only lending one thousand."
Eve gave her betrothed a look, and he read all her anguish in her

eyes.
"Listen, my adored Eve, we are making a bad start in life. Yes, my

expenses have taken all my capital; I have just two thousand francs
left, and half of it will be wanted to carry on the business. If we

give your brother the thousand francs, it will mean that we are giving
away our bread, that we shall live in anxiety. If I were alone, I know

what I should do; but we are two. Decide for us."
Eve, distracted, sprang to her lover's arms, and kissed him tenderly,

as she answered through her tears:
"Do as you would do if you were alone; I will work to earn the money."

In spite of the most impassioned kiss ever given and taken by
betrothed lovers, David left Eve overcome with trouble, and went out

to Lucien.
"Do not worry yourself," he said; "you shall have your two thousand

francs."
"Go in to see Postel," said Mme. Chardon, "for you must both give your

signatures to the bill."
When Lucien and David came back again unexpectedly, they found Eve and

her mother on their knees in prayer. The women felt sure that Lucien's
return would bring the realization of many hopes; but at the moment

they could only feel how much they were losing in the parting, and the
happiness to come seemed too dearly bought by an absence that broke up

their life together, and would fill the coming days with innumerable
fears for Lucien.

"If you could ever forget this sight," David said in Lucien's ear,
"you would be the basest of men."

David, no doubt, thought that these brave words were needed; Mme. de
Bargeton's influence seemed to him less to be feared than his friend's

unlucky instability of character, Lucien was so easily led for good or
evil. Eve soon packed Lucien's clothes; the Fernando Cortez of

literature carried but little baggage. He was wearing his best
overcoat, his best waistcoat, and one of the two fine shirts. The

whole of his linen, the celebrated coat, and his manuscript made up so
small a package that to hide it from Mme. de Bargeton, David proposed

to send it by coach to a paper merchant with whom he had dealings, and
wrote and advised him to that effect, and asked him to keep the parcel

until Lucien sent for it.
In spite of Mme. de Bargeton's precautions, Chatelet found out that

she was leaving Angouleme; and with a view to discovering whether she
was traveling alone or with Lucien, he sent his man to Ruffec with

instructions to watch every carriage that changed horses at that
stage.

"If she is taking her poet with her," thought he, "I have her now."
Lucien set out before daybreak the next morning. David went with him.

David had hired a cabriolet, pretending that he was going to Marsac on
business, a little piece of deception which seemed probable under the

circumstances. The two friends went to Marsac, and spent part of the
day with the old "bear." As evening came on they set out again, and in

the beginning of the dawn they waited in the road, on the further side
of Mansle, for Mme. de Bargeton. When the seventy-year old traveling

carriage, which he had many a time seen in the coach-house, appeared
in sight, Lucien felt more deeply moved than he had ever been in his

life before; he sprang into David's arms.
"God grant that this may be for your good!" said David, and he climbed

into the shabby cabriolet and drove away with a feeling of dread
clutching at his heart; he had terrible presentiments of the fate

awaiting Lucien in Paris.
ADDENDUM

Note: Two Poets is part one of a trilogy. The second part is A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris and details the further adventures

of Lucien. Part three is titled Eve and David and continues their
story. In other addendum references parts one and three are combined

under the title of Lost Illusions.
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bargeton, Madame de (see Chatelet, Baronne du)
Cerizet

Eve and David
A Man of Business

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Chardon, Madame (nee Rubempre)
Eve and David

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Chatelet, Sixte, Baron du

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

The Thirteen
Chatelet, Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, Baronne du

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Government Clerks

Cointet, Boniface
Eve and David

The Firm of Nucingen
The Member for Arcis

Cointet, Jean
Eve and David

Courtois
Eve and David

Courtois, Madame
Eve and David

Desplein
The Atheist's Mass

Cousin Pons
The Thirteen

The Government Clerks
Pierrette

A Bachelor's Establishment
The Seamy Side of History

Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Honorine
Gentil

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Grozier, Abbe

The Commission in Lunacy
Hautoy, Francis du

Eve and David
Maucombe, Comte de

Letters of Two Brides
Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de

The Thirteen
Father Goriot

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Another Study of Woman

Pierrette
The Member for Arcis

Negrepelisse, De
The Commission in Lunacy

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Petit-Claud

Eve and David
Pimentel, Marquis and Marquise de

Eve and David
Postel

Eve and David
Prieur, Madame

Eve and David
Rastignac, Baron and Baronne de (Eugene's parents)

Father Goriot
Rastignac, Laure-Rose and Agathe de

Father Goriot
The Member for Arcis

Rubempre, Lucien-Chardon de
Eve and David

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Government Clerks

Ursule Mirouet
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Sechard, Jerome-Nicolas
Eve and David

Sechard, David
Eve and David

A Distinguished Provincial At Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Sechard, Madame David
Eve and David

A Distinguished Provincial At Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Senonches, Jacques de
Eve and David

Senonches, Madame Jacques de
Eve and David

Stanhope, Lady Esther
The Lily of the Valley

End


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