雙語(yǔ)·高老頭 鬼上當(dāng)

The next day Rastignac went at the appointed time to Mme. de Beauséant, who took him with her to the Duchesse de Carigliano's ball. The Maréchale received Eugène most graciously. Mme. de Nucingen was there. Delphine's dress seemed to suggest that she wished for the admiration of others, so that she might shine the more in Eugène's eyes; she was eagerly expecting a glance from him, hiding, as she thought, this eagerness from all beholders. This moment is full of charm for one who can guess all that passes in a woman's mind. Who has not refrained from giving his opinion, to prolong her suspense, concealing his pleasure from a desire to tantalize, seeking a confession of love in her uneasiness, enjoying the fears that he can dissipate by a smile? In the course of the evening the law student suddenly comprehended his position; he saw that, as the cousin of Mme. de Beauséant, he was a personage in this world. He was already credited with the conquest of Mme. de Nucingen, and for this reason was a conspicuous figure; he caught the envious glances of other young men, and experienced the first fruits of vanity. People wondered at his luck, and scraps of these conversations came to his ears as he went from room to room; all the women prophesied his success; and Delphine, in her dread of losing him, promised that this evening she would not refuse the kiss that all his entreaties could scarcely win yesterday.
Rastignac received several invitations. His cousin presented him to other women who were present; women who could claim to be of the highest fashion; whose houses were looked upon as pleasant; and this was the loftiest and most fashionable society in Paris into which he was launched. So this evening had all the charm of a brilliant début; it was an evening that he was to remember even in old age, as a woman looks back on her first ball and the memories of her girlish triumphs.
The next morning, at breakfast, he related the story of his success for the benefit of Old Goriot and the lodgers. Vautrin began to smile in a diabolical fashion.
And do you suppose, cried that cold-blooded logician, "that a young man of fashion can live here in the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, in the Maison Vauquer—an exceedingly respectable boarding-house in every way, I grant you, but an establishment that, nonetheless, falls short of being fashionable? The house is comfortable, it is lordly in its abundance; it is proud to be the temporary abode of a Rastignac; but, after all, it is in the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, and luxury would be out of place here, where we only aim at the purely patriarchalorama. If you mean to cut a figure in Paris, my young friend," Vautrin continued, with half-paternal jocularity, "you must have three horses, a tilbury for the mornings, and a closed carriage for the evening; you should spend altogether about nine thousand francs on your stables. You would show yourself unworthy of your destiny if you spent no more than three thousand francs with your tailor, six hundred in perfumery, a hundred crowns to your shoemaker, and a hundred more to your hatter. As for your laundress, there goes another thousand francs; a young man of fashion is obliged to be extremely particular about his linen; if your linen comes up to the required standard, people often do not look any further. Love and the Church demand a fair altar-cloth. That is fourteen thousand francs. I am saying nothing of losses at play, bets, and presents; it is impossible to allow less than two thousand francs for pocket-money. I have led that sort of life, and I know all about these expenses. Add the cost of necessaries next; three hundred louis for food for the dog, a thousand francs for a kennel. Well, my boy, for all these little wants of ours we had need to have twenty-five thousand francs every year in our purse, or we shall find ourselves in the mud, and people laughing at us, and our career is cut short, good-bye to success, and good-bye to your mistress! I am forgetting your valet and your groom! Is Christophe going to carry your billets-doux for you? Do you mean to employ the stationery you use at present? Suicidal policy! Hearken to the wisdom of your elders!" he went on, his bass voice growing louder at each syllable. "Either take up your quarters in a garret, live virtuously, and wed your work, or set about the thing in a different way."
Vautrin winked and leered in the direction of Mlle. Taillefer to enforce his remarks by a look which recalled the late tempting proposals by which he had sought to corrupt the student's mind.
Several days went by, and Rastignac lived in a whirl of gaiety. He dined almost every day with Mme. de Nucingen, and went wherever she went, only returning to the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève in the small hours. He rose at midday, and dressed to go into the Bois with Delphine if the day was fine, squandering in this way time that was worth far more than he knew. He turned as eagerly to learn the lessons of luxury, and was as quick to feel its fascination, as the flowers of the date palm to receive the fertilizing pollen. He played high, lost and won large sums of money, and at last became accustomed to the extravagant life that young men lead in Paris. He had returned fifteen hundred francs out of his first winnings to his mother and sisters, sending handsome presents as well as the money. He had given out that he meant to leave the Maison Vauquer; but January came and went, and he was still there, still unprepared to go.
One rule holds good of most young men—whether rich or poor. They never have money for the necessaries of life, but they have always money to spare for their caprices—an anomaly which finds its explanation in their youth and in the almost frantic eagerness with which youth grasps at pleasure. They are reckless with anything obtained on credit, while everything for which they must pay in ready money is made to last as long as possible; if they cannot have all that they want, they make up for it, it would seem, by squandering what they have. To state the matter simply—a student is far more careful of his hat than of his coat, because the latter being a comparatively costly article of dress, it is in the nature of things that a tailor should be a creditor; but it is otherwise with the hatter; the sums of money spent with him are so modest, that he is the most independent and unmanageable of his tribe, and it is almost impossible to bring him to terms. The young man in the balcony of a theatre who displays a gorgeous waistcoat for the benefit of the fair owners of opera-glasses, has very probably no socks in his wardrobe, for the hosier is another of the genus of weevils that nibble at the purse. This was Rastignac's condition. His purse was always empty for Mme. Vauquer, always full at the demand of vanity; there was a periodical ebb and flow in his fortunes, which was seldom favorable to the payment of just debts. If he was to leave that unsavory and mean abode, where from time to time his pretensions met with humiliation, the first step was to pay his hostess for a month's board and lodging, and the second to purchase furniture worthy of the new lodgings he must take in his quality of dandy, a course that remained impossible. Rastignac, out of his winnings at cards, would pay his jeweler exorbitant prices for gold watches and chains, and then, to meet the exigencies of play, would carry them to the pawnbroker, that discreet and forbidding-looking friend of youth; but when it was a question of paying for board or lodging, or for the necessary implements of a man of fashion, his imagination and pluck alike deserted him. There was no inspiration to be found in vulgar necessity, in debts contracted for past requirements. Like most of those who trust to their luck, he put off till the last moment the payment of debts that among the bourgeoisie are regarded as sacred engagements, acting on the plan of Mirabeau, who never settled his baker's bill until it underwent a compelling transformation into a bill of exchange.
It was about this time when Rastignac was down on his luck and fell into debt, that it became clear to the law student's mind that he must have some more certain source of income if he meant to live as he had been doing. But while he groaned over the thorny problems of his precarious situation, he felt that he could not bring himself to renounce the pleasures of this extravagant life, and decided that he must continue it at all costs. His dreams of obtaining a fortune appeared more and more chimerical, and the real obstacles grew more formidable. His initiation into the secrets of the Nucingen household had revealed to him that if he were to attempt to use this love affair as a means of mending his fortunes, he must swallow down all sense of decency, and renounce all the generous ideas which absolve the faults of youth. He had chosen this life of apparent splendor, but secretly gnawed by the canker-worm of remorse, a life of fleeting pleasure dearly paid for by persistent pain; like the Absent-Minded Man of La Bruyère, he had descended so far as to make his bed in a ditch; but (also like the Absent-Minded Man) he himself was uncontaminated as yet by the mire that stained his garments.
So we have killed our mandarin, have we? said Bianchon one day as they left the dinner table.
Not yet, he answered, "but he is at his last gasp."
The medical student took this for a joke, but it was not a jest. Eugène had dined in the house that night for the first time for a long while, and had looked thoughtful during the meal. He had taken his place beside Mlle. Taillefer, and stayed through the dessert, giving his neighbor an expressive glance from time to time. A few of the boarders were eating walnuts at the table, and others walked about the room, still taking part in the conversation which had begun among them. People usually went when they chose; the amount of time that they lingered being determined by the amount of interest that the conversation possessed for them, or by the difficulty of the process of digestion. In winter time the room was seldom empty before eight o'clock, when the four women had it all to themselves, and made up for the silence previously imposed upon them by the preponderating masculine element. This evening Vautrin had noticed Eugène's abstractedness, and stayed in the room, though he had seemed to be in a hurry to finish his dinner and go. All through the talk afterwards he had kept out of the sight of the law student, who quite believed that Vautrin had left the room. He now took up his position cunningly in the sitting-room instead of going when the last boarders went. He had fathomed the young man's thoughts, and felt that a crisis was at hand. Rastignac was, in fact, in a dilemma, which many another young man must have known.
Mme. de Nucingen might love him, or might merely be playing with him, but in either case Rastignac had been made to experience all the alternations of hope and despair of genuine passion, and all the diplomatic arts of a Parisienne had been employed on him. After compromising herself by continually appearing in public with Mme. de Beauséant's cousin she still hesitated, and would not give him the lover's privileges which he appeared to enjoy. For a whole month she had so inflamed his senses, that at last she had made an impression on his heart. If in the earliest days the student had fancied himself to be master, Mme. de Nucingen had since become the stronger of the two, for she had skillfully roused and played upon every instinct, good or bad, in the two or three men comprised in a young student in Paris. This was not the result of deep design on her part, nor was she playing a part, for women are in a manner true to themselves even through their grossest deceit, because their actions are prompted by a natural impulse. It may have been that Delphine, who had allowed this young man to gain such an ascendency over her, conscious that she had been too demonstrative, was obeying a sentiment of dignity, and either repented of her concessions or it pleased her to suspend them. It is so natural to a Parisienne, even when passion has almost mastered her, to hesitate and pause before taking the plunge; to probe the heart of him to whom she entrusts her future. And once already Mme. de Nucingen's hopes had been betrayed, and her loyalty to a selfish young lover had been despised. She had good reason to be suspicious. Or it may have been that something in Eugène's manner (for his rapid success was making him conceited) had warned her that the grotesque nature of their position had lowered her somewhat in his eyes. She doubtless wished to assert her dignity; he was young, and she would be great in his eyes; for the lover who had forsaken her had held her so cheap that she was determined that Eugène should not think her an easy conquest, and for this very reason—he knew that de Marsay had been his predecessor. Finally, after the degradation of submission to the pleasure of a heartless young rake, it was so sweet to her to wander in the flower-strewn paths of love, that she lingered gladly to study all its charms, to feel its thrills and the coolness of its breath. The true lover was suffering for the sins of the false. This inconsistency is unfortunately only to be expected so long as men do not know how many flowers are mown down in a young woman's soul by the first stroke of deception.
Whatever her reasons may have been, Delphine was playing with Rastignac, and took pleasure in playing with him, doubtless because she felt sure of his love, and confident that she could put an end to the torture as soon as it was her royal pleasure to do so. Eugène's vanity was engaged; he could not suffer his first passage of love to end in a defeat, and persisted in his suit, like a sportsman determined to bring down at least one partridge to celebrate his first Feast of Saint Hubert. The pressure of anxiety, his wounded self-love, his despair, real or feigned, drew him nearer and nearer to this woman. All Paris credited him with this conquest, and yet he was conscious that he had made no progress since the day when he saw Mme. de Nucingen for the first time. He did not know as yet that a woman's coquetry is sometimes more delightful than the pleasure of secure possession of her love, and was overcome with helpless rage. If, at this time, while she denied herself to love, Eugène gathered the springtide spoils of his life, the fruit, somewhat sharp and green, and dearly bought, was no less delicious to the taste. There were moments when he had not a sou in his pockets, and at such times, in spite of his conscience, his thoughts would revert to Vautrin's offer and the possibility of fortune by a marriage with Mlle. Taillefer. Poverty would clamor so loudly that more than once he was on the point of yielding to the cunning temptations of the terrible sphinx, whose glance had so often exerted a strange spell over him.
Poiret and Mlle. Michonneau went up to their rooms; and Rastignac, thinking that he was alone with the women in the dining-room, sat between Mme. Vauquer and Mme. Couture, who was nodding over the woolen cuffs that she was knitting by the stove, and looked at Mlle. Taillefer so tenderly that she lowered her eyes.
Are you in trouble, M. Eugène? Victorine said after a pause.
Who has not his troubles? answered Rastignac. "If we men were sure of being loved, sure of a devotion which would be our reward for the sacrifices which we are always ready to make, then perhaps we should have no troubles."
For answer Mlle. Taillefer only gave him a glance, but it was impossible to mistake its meaning.
You, for instance, mademoiselle; you feel sure of your heart today, but are you sure that it will never change?
A smile flitted over the poor girl's lips; it seemed as if a ray of light from her soul had lighted up her face. Eugène was dismayed at the sudden explosion of feeling caused by his words.
Ah! but suppose, he said, "that you should be rich and happy to-morrow, suppose that a vast fortune dropped down from the clouds for you, would you still love the man whom you loved in your days of poverty?"
A charming movement of the head was her only answer.
Even if he were very poor?
Again the same mute answer.
What nonsense are you talking, you two? exclaimed Mme. Vauquer.
Never mind, answered Eugène; "we understand each other."
So there is to be an engagement of marriage between M. le Chevalier Eugène de Rastignac and Mlle. Victorine Taillefer, is there? The words were uttered in Vautrin's deep voice, and Vautrin appeared at the door as he spoke.
Oh! how you startled me! Mme. Couture and Mme. Vauquer exclaimed together.
I might make a worse choice, said Rastignac, laughing. Vautrin's voice had thrown him into the most painful agitation that he had yet known.
No more of those poor jokes, gentlemen! said Mme. Couture. "My dear, let us go upstairs."
Mme. Vauquer followed the two ladies, meaning to pass the evening in their room, an arrangement that economized fire and candlelight. Eugène and Vautrin were left alone.
I felt sure you would come round to it, said the elder man with his usual imperturable coolness. "But stay a moment! I have as much delicacy as anybody else. Don't make up your mind on the spur of the moment; you are a little thrown off your balance just now. You are in debt, and I want you to come over to my way of thinking after sober reflection, and not in a fit of passion or desperation. Perhaps you want a thousand crowns. There, you can have them if you like."
The tempter took out a pocketbook, and drew thence three banknotes, which he fluttered before the student's eyes. Eugène was in a most painful dilemma. He had debts, debts of honor. He owed a hundred louis to the Marquis d'Ajuda and to the Comte de Trailles; he had not the money, and for this reason had not dared to go to Mme. de Restaud's house, where he was expected that evening. It was one of those informal gatherings where tea and little cakes are handed round, but where it is possible to lose six thousand francs at whist in the course of a night.
You must see, said Eugène, struggling to hide a convulsive tremor, "that after what has passed between us, I cannot possibly lay myself under any obligation to you."
Quite right; I should be sorry to hear you speak otherwise, answered the tempter. "You are a fine young fellow, honorable, brave as a lion, and as gentle as a young girl. You would be a fine haul for the devil! I like youngsters of your sort. Get rid of one or two more prejudices, and you will see the world as it is. Make a little scene now and then, and act a virtuous part in it, and a man with a head on his shoulders can do exactly as he likes amid deafening applause from the fools in the gallery. Ah! a few days yet, and you will be with us; and if you would only consent to be my pupil, I would put you in the way of achieving all your ambitions. Every wish you framed could be instantly fulfilled; you should have all your desires—honors, wealth, or women. Civilization should flow with milk and honey for you. You should be our pet and favorite, our Benjamin. We would all work ourselves to death for you with pleasure; every obstacle should be removed from your path. You have a few prejudices left; so you think that I am a scoundrel, do you? Well, M. de Turenne, quite as honorable a man as you take yourself to be, had some little private transactions with bandits, and did not feel that his honor was tarnished. You don't want to put yourself under any obligation to me, eh? You need not draw back on that account," Vautrin went on, and a smile stole over his lips. "Take these bits of paper and write across this," he added, producing a piece of stamped paper, "Accepted the sum of three thousand five hundred francs due this day twelvemonth, and fill in the date. The rate of interest is stiff enough to silence any scruples on your part; it gives you the right to call me a Jew. You can call quits with me on the score of gratitude. I am quite willing that you should despise me today, because I am sure that you will have a kindlier feeling towards me later on. You will find out fathomless depths in my nature, enormous and concentrated forces that weaklings call vices, but you will never find me base or ungrateful. In short, I am neither a pawn nor a bishop, but a castle, my boy."
What manner of man are you? cried Eugène. "Were you created to torment me?"
Why no; I am a good-natured fellow, who is willing to do a dirty piece of work to put you high and dry above the mire for the rest of your days. Do you ask the reason of this devotion? All right; I will tell you that some of these days. A word or two in your ear will explain it. I have begun by shocking you, by showing you the way to ring the changes, and giving you a sight of the mechanism of the social machine; but your first fright will go off like a conscript's terror on the battlefield. You will grow used to regarding men as common soldiers who have made up their minds to lose their lives for some self-constituted king. Times have altered strangely. Once you could say to a bravo, 'Here are a hundred crowns; go and kill Monsieur So-and-so for me,' and you could sup quietly after turning someone off into the dark for the least thing in the world. But nowadays I propose to put you in the way of a handsome fortune; you have only to nod your head, it won't compromise you in any way, and you hesitate. 'Tis an effeminate age.
Eugène accepted the draft, and received the banknotes in exchange for it.
Well, well. Come, now, let us talk sense, Vautrin continued. "I mean to leave this country in a few months' time for America, and set about planting tobacco. I will send you some cigars in token of my good will. If I make money at it, I will help you in your career. If I have no children—which will probably be the case, for I have no anxiety to raise slips of myself here—you shall inherit my fortune. That is what you may call standing by a man; but I myself have a liking for you. I have a mania, too, for devoting myself to someone else. I have done it before. You see, my boy, I live in a loftier sphere than other men do; I look on all actions as means to an end, and the end is all that I look at. What is a man's life to me? Not that," he said, and he snapped his thumb-nail against his teeth. "A man, in short, is everything to me, or just nothing at all. Less than nothing if his name happens to be Poiret; you can crush him like a bed-bug, he flattens and is foul-smelling. But a man is a god when he is like you; he is not a machine covered with a skin, but a stage on which the greatest sentiments are played—great thoughts and feelings—and for these, and these only, I live. A sentiment—what is that but the whole world in a thought? Look at Old Goriot. For him, his two girls are the whole universe; they are the clue by which he finds his way through creation. Well, for my own part, I have fathomed the depths of life, there is only one real sentiment—comradeship between man and man. Pierre and Jaffier, that is my passion. I knew Venice Preserved by heart. Have you met many men who had enough hair on their chests, when a comrade says, 'Let us bury a stiff!' to go and do it without a word or plaguing him by taking a high moral tone? I have done it myself. I should not talk like this to just everybody, but you are not like an ordinary man; one can talk to you, you can understand things. You will not dabble about much longer among the tadpoles in these swamps. Well, then, it is all settled. You will marry. Both of us carry our point. Mine is made of iron, and will never soften, ha! ha!"
Vautrin went out. He would not wait to hear the student's repudiation; he wished to put Eugène at his ease. He seemed to understand the secret springs of the faint resistance still made by the younger man; the struggles in which men seek to preserve their self-respect by justifying their blameworthy actions to themselves.
He may do as he likes; I shall not marry Mlle. Taillefer, that is certain, said Eugène to himself.
He regarded this man with abhorrence, and yet the very cynicism of Vautrin's ideas, and the audacious way in which he used other men for his own ends, raised him in the student's eyes; but the thought of a compact threw Eugène into a fever of apprehension, and not until he had recovered somewhat did he dress, call for a cab, and go to Mme. de Restaud's.
For some days the Countess had paid more and more attention to a young man whose every step seemed a triumphal progress in the great world; it seemed to her that he might be a formidable power before long. He paid MM. de Trailles and d'Ajuda, played at whist for part of the evening, and made good his losses. Most men who have their way to make are more or less of fatalists, and Eugène was superstitious; he chose to consider that his luck was Heaven's reward for his perseverance in the right way. As soon as possible on the following morning he asked Vautrin whether the bill he had given was still in the other's possession; and on receiving a reply in the affirmative, he repaid the three thousand francs with a frank show of pleasure.
Everything is going on well, said Vautrin.
But I am not your accomplice, said Eugène.
I know, I know, Vautrin broke in. "You are still acting like a child. You are making mountains out of molehills at the outset."
Two days later, Poiret and Mlle. Michonneau were sitting together on a bench in the sun. They had chosen a little-frequented alley in the Jardin des Plantes and a gentleman was chatting with them, the same person, as a matter of fact, about whom the medical student had, not without good reason, his own suspicions.
Mademoiselle, this M. Gondureau was saying, "I do not see any cause for your scruples. His Excellency the Minister of Police—"
Ah! echoed Poiret, "his Excellency the Minister of Police!"
Yes, his Excellency is taking a personal interest in the matter, said Gondureau.
Who would think it probable that Poiret, a retired clerk, doubtless possessed of some notions of civic virtue, though there might be nothing else in his head—who would think it likely that such a man would continue to lend an ear to this supposed independent gentleman of the Rue de Buffon, when the latter dropped the mask of a decent citizen by that word "police," and gave a glimpse of the features of a detective from the Rue de Jérusalem? And yet nothing was more natural. Perhaps the following remarks from the hitherto unpublished records made by certain observers will throw a light on the particular species to which Poiret belonged in the great family of fools. There is a race of quill-drivers, confined in the columns of the budget between the first degree of latitude (a kind of administrative Greenland where the salaries begin at twelve hundred francs) and the third degree, a more temperate zone, where incomes grow from three to six thousand francs, a climate where the bonus flourishes like a half-hardy annual in spite of some difficulties of culture. A characteristic trait that best reveals the feeble narrow-mindedness of these inhabitants of petty officialdom is a kind of involuntary, mechanical, and instinctive reverence for the Grand Lama of every Ministry, known to the rank and file only by his signature (an illegible scrawl) and by his title—"His Excellency the Minister," four words which produce as much effect as the il Bondo Cani of the Caliph of Bagdad, four words which in the eyes of this low order of intelligence represent a sacred power from which there is no appeal. The Minister is administratively infallible for the clerks in the employ of the government, as the Pope is infallible for good Catholics. Something of his peculiar radiance invests everything he does or says, or that is said or done in his name; the robe of office covers everything and legalizes everything done by his orders; does not his very title—his Excellency—vouch for the purity of his intentions and the righteousness of his will, and serve as a sort of passport and introduction to ideas that otherwise would not be entertained for a moment? Pronounce the words "His Excellency," and these poor folk will forthwith proceed to do what they would not do for their own interests. Passive obedience is as well known in a government department as in the army itself; and the administrative system silences consciences, annihilates the individual, and ends (give it time enough) by fashioning a man into a vise or a thumbscrew, and he becomes part of the machinery of government. Wherefore M. Gondureau, who seemed to know something of human nature, recognized Poiret at once as one of those dupes of officialdom, and brought out for his benefit, at the proper moment, the deus ex machina, the magical words "his Excellency," so as to dazzle Poiret just as he himself unmasked his batteries, for he took Poiret and the Michonneau for the male and female of the same species.
If his Excellency himself, his Excellency the Minister... Ah! that is quite another thing, said Poiret.
You seem to be guided by this gentleman's opinion, and you hear what he says, said the man of independent means, addressing Mlle. Michonneau. "Very well, his Excellency is at this moment absolutely certain that the so-called Vautrin, who lodges at the Maison Vauquer, is a convict who escaped from penal servitude at Toulon, where he is known by the nickname Trompe-la-Mort."
Trompe-la-Mort? said Pioret. "Dear me, he is very lucky if he deserves that nickname."
Well, yes, said the detective. "They call him so because he has been so lucky as not to lose his life in the very risky enterprises that he has carried through. He is a dangerous man, you see! He has qualities that are out of the common; the thing he is wanted for, in fact, was a matter which gained him no end of credit with his own set—"
Then is he a man of honor? asked Poiret.
Yes, according to his notions. He agreed to take another man's crime upon himself—a forgery committed by a very handsome young fellow that he had taken a great fancy to, a young Italian, a bit of a gambler, who has since gone into the army, where his conduct has been irreproachable.
But if his Excellency the Minister of Police is certain that M. Vautrin is this Trompe-la-Mort, why should he want me? asked Mlle. Michonneau.
Oh yes, said Poiret, "if the Minister, as you have been so obliging as to tell us, really knows for a certainty—"
Certainty is not the word; he only suspects. You will soon understand how things are. Jacques Collin, nicknamed Trompe-la-Mort, is in the confidence of every convict in the three prisons; he is their man of business and their banker. He makes a very good thing out of managing their affairs, which want a man of mark to see about them.
Ha! ha! do you see the pun, mademoiselle? asked Poiret. "This gentleman calls himself a man of mark because he is a marked man— branded, you know."
This so-called Vautrin, said the detective, "receives the money belonging to the convicts, invests it for them, and holds it at the disposal of those who escape, or hands it over to their families if they leave a will, or to their mistresses when they draw upon him for their benefit."
Their mistresses! You mean their wives, remarked Poiret.
No, sir. A convict's wife is usually an illegitimate connection. We call them concubines.
Then they all live in a state of concubinage?
Naturally.
Why, these are abominations that his Excellency ought not to allow. Since you have the honor of seeing his Excellency, you, who seem to have philanthropic ideas, ought really to enlighten him as to their immoral conduct—they are setting a shocking example to the rest of society.
But the government does not hold them up as models of all the virtues, my dear sir.
Of course not, sir; but still—
Just let the gentleman say what he has to say, dearie, said Mlle. Michonneau.
You see how it is, mademoiselle, Gondureau continued. "The government may have the strongest reasons for getting this illicit hoard into its hands; it mounts up to something considerable, by all that we can make out. Trompe-la-Mort not only holds large sums for his friends the convicts, but he has other amounts which are paid over to him by the Society of the Ten Thousand—"
Ten Thousand Thieves! cried Pioret in alarm.
No. The Society of the Ten Thousand is not an association of petty offenders, but of people who set about their work on a large scale—they won't touch a matter unless there are ten thousand francs in it. It is composed of the most distinguished of the men who are sent straight to the Assize Court when they come up for trial. They know the Code too well to risk their necks when they are nabbed. Collin is their confidential agent and legal adviser. By means of the large sums of money at his disposal he has established a sort of detective system of his own; it is widespread and mysterious in its workings. We have had spies all about him for a year, and yet we could not manage to fathom his game. His capital and his cleverness are at the service of vice and crime; this money furnishes the necessary funds for a regular army of blackguards in his pay who wage incessant war against society. If we can catch Trompe-la-Mort, and take possession of his funds, we should strike at the root of this evil. So this job is a kind of government affair—a state secret—and likely to redound to the honor of those who bring the thing to a successful conclusion. You, sir, for instance, might very well be taken into a government department again; they might make you secretary to a Commissary of Police; you could accept that post without prejudice to your retiring pension.
Mlle. Michonneau interposed at this point with, "What is there to hinder Trompe-la-Mort from making off with the money?"
Oh! said the detective, "a man is told off to follow him everywhere he goes, with orders to kill him if he were to rob the convicts. Then it is not quite as easy to make off with a lot of money as it is to run away with a young lady of family. Besides, Collin is not the sort of fellow to play such a trick; he would be disgraced, according to his notions."
You are quite right, sir, said Poiret, "utterly disgraced he would be."
But none of all this explains why you do not come and take him without more ado, remarked Mlle. Michonneau.
Very well, mademoiselle, I will explain—but, he added in her ear, "keep your companion quiet, or I shall never have done. The old boy ought to pay people handsomely for listening to him. Trompe-la-Mort, when he came back here," he went on aloud, "slipped into the skin of an honest man; he turned up disguised as a decent Parisian citizen, and took up his quarters in an unpretentious lodging-house. He is cunning, that he is! You don't catch him napping. Then M. Vautrin is a man of consequence, who transacts a good deal of business."
Naturally, said Poiret to himself.
And suppose that the Minister were to make a mistake and get hold of the real Vautrin, he would put every one's back up among the business men in Paris, and public opinion would be against him. The Prefect of Police is on slippery ground; he has enemies. They would take advantage of any mistake. There would be a fine outcry and fuss made by the Opposition, and he would be sent packing. We must set about this just as we did about the Cogniard affair, the sham Comte de Sainte-Hélène; if he had been the real Comte de Sainte-Hélène, we should have been in the wrong box. We want to be quite sure what we are about.
Yes, but what you want is a pretty woman, said Mlle. Michonneau briskly.
Trompe-la-Mort would not let a woman come near him, said the detective. "I will tell you a secret—he does not like women."
Still, I do not see what I can do, supposing that I did agree to identify him for two thousand francs.
Nothing simpler, said the stranger. "I will send you a little bottle containing a dose that will send a rush of blood to the head; it will do him no harm whatever, but he will fall down as if he were in a fit. The drug can be put into wine or coffee; either will do equally well. You carry your man to bed at once, and undress him to see that he is not dying. As soon as you are alone, you give him a slap on the shoulder, and, presto! the letters will appear."
Why, that is just nothing at all, said Poiret.
Well, do you agree? said Gondureau, addressing the old maid.
But, my dear sir, suppose there are no letters at all, said Mlle. Michonneau; "am I to have the two thousand francs all the same?"
No.
What will you give me, then?
Five hundred francs.
It is such a thing to do for so little! It lies on your conscience just the same, and I must quiet my conscience, sir.
I assure you, said Poiret, "that Mademoiselle has a great deal of conscience, and not only so, she is a very amiable person, and very intelligent."
Well, now, Mlle. Michonneau went on, "make it three thousand francs if he is Trompe-la-Mort, and nothing at all if he is an ordinary man."
Done! said Gondureau, "but on the condition that the thing is settled to-morrow."
Not quite so soon, my dear sir; I must consult my confessor first.
You are a sly one, said the detective as he rose to his feet. "Good-bye till to-morrow, then. And if you should want to see me in a hurry, go to the Petite Rue Saint-Anne at the end of the Court of the Sainte Chapelle. There is only one door under the archway. Ask there for M. Gondureau."
Bianchon, on his way back from Cuvier's lecture, overheard the sufficiently striking nickname of Trompe-la-Mort, and caught the celebrated chief detective's "Done!"
Why didn't you close with him? It would be three hundred francs a year, said Poiret to Mlle. Michonneau.
Why didn't I? she asked. "Why, it wants thinking over. Suppose that M. Vautrin is this Trompe-la-Mort, perhaps we might do better for ourselves with him. Still, on the other hand, if you ask him for money, it would put him on his guard, and he is just the man to clear out without paying, and that would be an abominable sell."
And suppose you did warn him, Poiret went on, "didn't that gentleman say that he was closely watched? You would spoil everything."
Anyhow, thought Mlle. Michonneau, "I can't abide him. He says nothing but disagreeable things to me."
But you can do better than that, Poiret resumed. "As that gentleman said (and he seemed to me to be a very good sort of man, besides being very well got up), it is an act of obedience to the laws to rid society of a criminal, however virtuous he may be. Once a thief, always a thief. Suppose he were to take it into his head to murder us all? The deuce! We should be guilty of manslaughter, and be the first to fall victims into the bargain!"
Mlle. Michonneau's musings did not permit her to listen very closely to the remarks that fell one by one from Poiret's lips like water dripping from a leaky tap. When once this elderly babbler began to talk, he would go on like clockwork unless Mlle. Michonneau stopped him. He started on some subject or other, and wandered on through parenthesis after parenthesis, till he came to regions as remote as possible from his premises without coming to any conclusions by the way.
By the time they reached the Maison Vauquer he had tacked together a whole string of examples and quotations more or less irrelevant to the subject in hand, which led him to give a full account of his own deposition in the case of the Sieur Ragoulleau versus Dame Morin, when he had been summoned as a witness for the defence.
As they entered the dining-room, Eugène de Rastignac was talking apart with Mlle. Taillefer; the conversation appeared to be of such thrilling interest that the pair never noticed the two older lodgers as they passed through the room. None of this was lost to Mlle. Michonneau.
I knew how it would end, remarked that lady, addressing Poiret. "They have been making eyes at each other in a heart-rending way for a week past."
Yes, he answered. "So she was found guilty."
Who?
Mme. Morin.
I am talking about Mlle. Victorine, said Mlle. Michonneau, as she entered Poiret's room with an absent air, "and you answer, ‘Mme. Morin.' Who may Mme. Morin be?"
What can Mlle. Victorine be guilty of? demanded Poiret.
Guilty of falling in love with M. Eugène de Rastignac, and going further and further without knowing exactly where she is going, poor innocent!
That morning Mme. de Nucingen had driven Eugène to despair. In his own mind he had completely surrendered himself to Vautrin, and deliberately shut his eyes to the motive for the friendship which that extraordinary man professed for him, nor would he look to the consequences of such an alliance. Nothing short of a miracle could extricate him now out of the gulf into which he had walked an hour ago, when he exchanged vows in the softest whispers with Mlle. Taillefer. To Victorine it seemed as if she heard an angel's voice, that heaven was opening above her; the Vauquer lodging-house took strange and wonderful hues, like a stage fairy-palace. She loved and she was beloved; at any rate, she believed that she was loved; and what woman would not likewise have believed after seeing Rastignac's face and listening to the tones of his voice during that hour snatched under the Argus eyes of the house? He had trampled on his conscience; he knew that he was doing wrong, and did it deliberately; he had said to himself that a woman's happiness should atone for this venial sin. The energy of desperation had lent new beauty to his face; the lurid fire that burned in his heart shone from his eyes. Luckily for him, the miracle took place. Vautrin entered in in high spirits, and at once read the hearts of these two young creatures whom he had brought together by the combinations of his infernal genius, but his deep voice broke in upon their bliss.
"A charming girl is my Fanchette

　 In her simplicity,"
he sang mockingly.
Victorine fled. Her heart was more full than it had ever been, but it was full of joy, and not of sorrow. Poor child! A pressure of the hand, the light touch of Rastignac's hair against her cheek, a word whispered in her ear so closely that she felt the student's warm breath on her, the pressure of a trembling arm about her waist, a kiss upon her throat—such had been her betrothal. The proximity of the stout Sylvie, who might invade that glorified room at any moment, only made these first tokens of love more ardent, more eloquent, more entrancing than the noblest deeds done for love's sake in the most famous romances. This plainsong of love, to use the pretty expression of our forefathers, seemed almost criminal to the devout young girl who went to confession every fortnight. In that one hour she had poured out more of the treasures of her soul than she could give in later days of wealth and happiness, when her whole self followed the gift.
The thing is arranged, Vautrin said to Eugène, who remained. "Our two dandies have fallen out. Everything was done in proper form. It is a matter of opinion. Our pigeon has insulted my hawk. They will meet to-morrow in the redoubt at Clignancourt. By half-past eight in the morning Mlle. Taillefer, calmly dipping her bread and butter in her coffee cup, will be sole heiress of her father's fortune and affections. A funny way of putting it, isn't it? Taillefer's youngster is an expert swordsman, and quite cocksure about it, but he will be bled; I have just invented a thrust for his benefit, a way of raising your sword point and driving it at the forehead. I must show you that thrust; it is an uncommonly handy thing to know."
Rastignac heard him in dazed bewilderment; he could not find a word in reply. Just then Goriot came in, and Bianchon and a few of the boarders likewise appeared.
That is just as I intended. Vautrin said. "You know quite well what you are about. Good, my little eaglet! You are born to command, you are strong, you stand firm on your feet, you have hair on your chest! I respect you."
He made as though he would take Eugène's hand, but Rastignac hastily withdrew it, sank into a chair, and turned ghastly pale; it seemed to him that there was a sea of blood before his eyes.
Oh! so baby's little pants are still spatted with virtue! murmured Vautrin. "But Papa Doliban has three millions; I know the amount of his fortune. Once have her dowry in your hands, and your character will be as white as the bride's white dress, even in your own eyes."
Rastignac hesitated no longer. He made up his mind that he would go that evening to warn the Taillefers, father and son. But just as Vautrin left him, Old Goriot came up and said in his ear, "You look melancholy, my boy; I will cheer you up. Come with me."
The old vermicelli dealer lighted his dip at one of the lamps as he spoke. Eugène went with him, his curiosity had been aroused.
Let us go up to your room, the worthy soul remarked, when he had asked Sylvie for the law student's key. "This morning," he resumed, "you thought that she did not care about you, did you not? Eh? She would have nothing to say to you, and you went away out of humor and despairing. Foolish boy! She wanted you to go because she was expecting me! Now do you understand? We were to complete the arrangements for taking an apartment for you, a charming place, you are to move into it in three days' time. Don't let her know I told you. She wants it to be a surprise; but I couldn't bear to keep the secret from you. You will be in the Rue d'Artois, only a step or two from the Rue Saint-Lazare, and you are to be housed like a prince! Any one might have thought we were furnishing the house for a bride. Oh! we have done a lot of things in the last month, and you knew nothing about it. My attorney has appeared on the scene, and my daughter is to have thirty-six thousand francs a year, the interest on her money, and I shall insist on having her eight hundred thousand francs invested in sound securities, landed property that won't run away."
Eugène was dumb. He folded his arms and paced up and down in his cheerless, untidy room. Old Goriot waited till the student's back was turned, and seized the opportunity to go to the chimney-piece and set upon it a little red morocco case with Rastignac's arms stamped in gold on the leather.
My dear boy, said the kind soul, "I have been up to the eyes in this business. You see, there was plenty of selfishness on my part; I have an interested motive in helping you to change lodgings. You will not refuse me if I ask you something; will you, eh?"
What is it?
There is a room on the fifth floor, up above your rooms, that is to let along with them; that is where I am going to live, isn't that so? I am getting old; I am too far from my girls. I shall not be in the way, but I shall be there, that is all. You will come and talk to me about her every evening. It will not put you about, will it? I shall have gone to bed before you come in, but I shall hear you come up, and I shall say to myself, ‘He has just seen my little Delphine. He has been to a dance with her, and she is happy, thanks to him.' If I were ill, it would do my heart good to hear you moving about below, to know when you leave the house and when you come in. It will be almost like having my daughter there! It is only a step to the Champs-Elysées, where they go every day, so I shall be sure of seeing them, whereas now I am sometimes too late. And then—perhaps she may come to see you! I shall hear her, I shall see her in her soft quilted morning coat tripping about as daintily as a kitten. In this one month she has become my little girl again, so light-hearted and gay. Her soul is recovering, and her happiness is owing to you! Oh! I would do anything in the world for you. Only just now she said to me, 'I am very happy, papa!' When they say ‘father' stiffly, it sends a chill through me; but when they call me ‘papa,' it as if they were little girls again, and it brings all the old memories back. I feel most their father then; I even believe that they belong to me, and to no one else.
The poor man wiped his eyes, he was crying.
It is a long while since I have heard them talk like that, a long, long time since she took my arm as she did today. Yes, indeed, it must be quite ten years since I walked side by side with one of my girls. How pleasant it was to keep step with her, to feel the touch of her gown, the warmth of her arm! Well, I took Delphine everywhere this morning; I went shopping with her, and I brought her home again. Oh! you must let me live near you. You may want someone to do you a service some of these days, and I shall be on the spot to do it. Oh! if only that great dolt of an Alsatian would die, if his gout would have the sense to attack his stomach, how happy my poor child would be! You would be my son-in-law; you would be her husband in the eyes of the world. Bah! she has known no happiness, that excuses everything. Our Father in heaven is surely on the side of fathers on earth who love their children. How fond of you she is! he said, raising his head after a pause. "All the time we were going about together she chatted away about you. 'He is nice-looking, papa; isn't he? He is kind-hearted! Does he talk to you about me?' Pshaw! she said enough about you to fill whole volumes; between the Rue d'Artois and the Passage des Panoramas she poured her heart out into mine. I did not feel old once during that delightful morning; I felt as light as a feather. I told her how you had given that banknote to me; it moved my darling to tears. But what can this be on your chimney-piece?" said Old Goriot at last. Rastignac had showed no sign, and he was dying of impatience.
Eugène stared at his neighbor in dumb and dazed bewilderment. He thought of Vautrin, of that duel to be fought to-morrow morning, and of this realization of his dearest hopes, and the violent contrast between the two sets of ideas gave him all the sensations of nightmare. He went to the chimney-piece, saw the little square case, opened it, and found a watch of Bréguet's make wrapped in paper, on which these words were written:
I want you to think of me every hour,because…
DELPHINE.
That last word doubtless contained an allusion to some scene that had taken place between them. Eugène felt touched. Inside the gold watch-case his arms had been wrought in enamel. The chain, the key, the workmanship, and design of the trinket all fulfilled his desires, for he had long coveted such a possession. Old Goriot was radiant. Of course he had promised to tell his daughter every little detail of the scene and of the effect produced upon Eugène by her present; he shared in the pleasure and excitement of the young people, and seemed to be not the least happy of the three. He loved Rastignac already for his own as well as for his daughter's sake.
You must go and see her; she is expecting you this evening. That great lout of an Alsatian is going to have supper with his opera dancer. Aha! he looked very foolish when my attorney let him know where he was. He says he idolizes my daughter, does he? He had better let her alone, or I will kill him. To think that my Delphine is his—he heaved a sigh—"it is enough to make me murder him, but it would not be manslaughter to kill that animal; he is a pig with a calf's brains. You will take me with you, will you not?"
Yes, dear Old Goriot; you know very well how fond I am of you—
Yes, I do know very well. You are not ashamed of me, are you? Not you! Let me embrace you, and he flung his arms around the student's neck.
You will make her very happy; promise me that you will! You will go to her this evening, will you not?
Oh! yes. I must go out; I have some urgent business on hand.
Can I be of any use?
My word, yes! Will you go to old Taillefer's while I go to Mme. de Nucingen? Ask him to make an appointment with me some time this evening; it is a matter of life and death.
Really, young man! cried Old Goriot, with a change of countenance; "are you really paying court to his daughter, as those simpletons were saying down below?... Great heavens! you have no notion how Goriot can hit, and if you are playing a double game, I shall put a stop to it by one blow of the fist... Oh! the thing is impossible!"
I swear to you that I love but one woman in the world, said the student. "I only knew it a moment ago."
Oh! what happiness! cried Goriot.
But young Taillefer has been called out; the duel comes off to-morrow morning, and I have heard it said that he may lose his life in it.
But what business is it of yours? said Goriot.
Why, I ought to tell him so, that he may prevent his son from putting in an appearance—
Just at that moment Vautrin's voice broke in upon them; he was standing at the threshold of his door and singing:
　 "Oh! Richard, oh my king!
All the world abandons thee!
　 Broum! broum! broum! broum! broum!
"The same old story everywhere,

A roving heart and a... tra la la."
Gentlemen! shouted Christophe, "the soup is ready, and every one is waiting for you."
Here, Vautrin called down to him, "come and take a bottle of my Bordeaux."
Do you think your watch is pretty? asked Goriot. "She has good taste, hasn't she? Eh?"
Vautrin, Old Goriot, and Rastignac came downstairs in company, and, all three of them being late, were obliged to sit together.
Eugène was as distant as possible in his manner to Vautrin during dinner; but the latter, so charming in Mme. Vauquer's opinion, had never been so witty. His lively sallies and sparkling talk put the whole table in good humor. His assurance and coolness filled Eugène with consternation.
Why, what has come to you today? inquired Mme. Vauquer. "You are as gay as a skylark."
I am always in spirits after I have made a good bargain.
Bargain? said Eugène.
Well, yes, bargain. I have just delivered a lot of goods, and I shall be paid a handsome commission on them—Mlle. Michonneau, he went on, seeing that the elderly spinster was scrutinizing him intently, "have you any objection to some feature in my face, that you are looking at me so sharply? Just let me know, and I will have it changed to oblige you... We shall not fall out about it, Poiret, I dare say?" he added, winking at the superannuated clerk.
Bless my soul, you ought to pose as a Hercules jokester, said the young painter.
I will, upon my word! if Mlle. Michonneau will consent to sit as the graveyard Venus, replied Vautrin.
There's Poiret, suggested Bianchon.
Oh! Poiret shall pose as Poiret. He can be a garden god! cried Vautrin; "his name means a pear—"
An overripe pear! Bianchon put in. "You will come in between the pear and the cheese."
What stuff are you all talking! said Mme. Vauquer; "you would do better to treat us to your Bordeaux; I see the neck of a bottle there. It would keep us all in a good humor, and it is good for the stomach besides."
Gentlemen, said Vautrin, "the Lady President calls us to order. Mme. Couture and Mlle. Victorine will take your jokes in good part, but respect the innocence of Papa Goriot. I propose a bottleorama of Bordeaus, rendered twice illustrious by the name of Laffitte, no political allusions intended. Come, you Chink!" he added, looking at Christophe, who did not offer to stir. "Christophe! Here! What, you don't answer to your own name? Bring us some liquor, Chink!"
Here it is, sir, said Christophe, holding out the bottle.
Vautrin filled Eugène's glass and Goriot's likewise, then he deliberately poured out a few drops into his own glass, and tasted it while his two neighbors drank their wine. All at once he made a grimace.
It tastes of the cork! he cried. "The devil! You can drink the rest of this, Christophe, and go and find another bottle; you know where it is, don't you?—on the right. There are sixteen of us; bring us eight bottles."
If you are going to stand treat, said the painter, "I will pay for a hundred chestnuts."
Oh! oh!
Booououh!
Prrr!
These exclamations came from all parts of the table like squibs from a set firework.
Come now, Mama Vauquer, a couple of bottles of champagne, called Vautrin.
Is that all? Just like you! Why not ask for the whole house at once? A couple of bottles of champagne; that means twelve francs! I shall never see the money back again, I know! But if M. Eugène has a mind to pay for it, I have some currant cordial.
That currant cordial of hers is as bad as a black draught, muttered the medical student.
Shut up, Bianchon, exclaimed Rastignac; "the very mention of black draught makes me want to know— Yes, champagne, by all means; I will pay for it," he added.
Sylvie, called Mme. Vauquer, "bring in some biscuits, and the little cakes."
Those little cakes are big boys, they've grown a beard, said Vautrin. "But trot out the biscuits."
The Bordeaux wine circulated; the dinner table became a livelier scene than ever, and the fun grew fast and furious. Imitations of the cries of various animals mingled with the loud laughter; the Museum official having taken it into his head to mimic a catcall rather like the caterwauling of the animal in question, eight voices simultaneously struck up with the following variations:
Knives to grind!
Chick-weeds for singing bir-ds!
Get your pastry cones, ladies!
China to mend!
Oysters! Oysters!
Beaters for your wife, for your clothes!
Old clothes, old lace, old hats!
Cherries, ripe!
But the palm was awarded to Bianchon for the nasal accent with which he rendered the cry of "Umbrellas!"
A few seconds later, and there was a head-splitting racket in the room, a storm of tomfoolery, a sort of opera, with Vautrin as conductor of the orchestra, the latter keeping an eye the while on Eugène and Old Goriot. The wine seemed to have gone to their heads already. They leaned back in their chairs, looking at the general confusion with an air of gravity, and drank but little; both of them were absorbed in the thought of what lay before them to do that evening, and yet neither of them felt able to rise and go. Vautrin gave a side glance at them from time to time, and watched the change that came over their faces, choosing the moment when their eyes drooped and seemed about to close, to bend over Rastignac and to say in his ear:
My lad, you are not quite shrewd enough to outwit Papa Vautrin yet, and he is too fond of you to let you make a mess of your affairs. When I have made up my mind to do a thing, no one short of Providence can put me off. Aha! we were for going round to warn old Taillefer, telling tales out of school! The oven is hot, the dough is kneaded, the bread is ready for the oven; to-morrow we will eat it up and whisk away the crumbs; and we are not going to spoil the baking? ... No, no, it is all as good as done! We may suffer from a few conscientious scruples, but they will be digested along with the bread. While we are having our forty winks, Colonel Count Franchessini will clear the way to Michel Taillefer's inheritance with the point of his sword. Victorine will come in for her brother's money, a snug fifteen thousand francs a year. I have made inquiries already, and I know that her late mother's property amounts to more than three hundred thousand—
Eugène heard all this, and could not answer a word; his tongue seemed to be glued to the roof of his mouth, an irresistible drowsiness was creeping over him. He still saw the table and the faces round it, but it was through a luminous mist. Soon the noise began to subside; one by one the boarders went. At last, when their numbers had so dwindled that the party consisted of Mme. Vauquer, Mme. Couture, Mlle. Victorine, Vautrin, and Old Goriot, Rastignac watched as though in a dream how Mme. Vauquer busied herself by collecting the bottles, and drained the remainder of the wine out of each to fill others.
Oh! how uproarious they are! what a thing it is to be young! said the widow.
These were the last words that Eugène heard and understood.
There is no one like M. Vautrin for a bit of fun like this, said Sylvie. "There, just look at Christophe, snoring like a top."
Good-bye, mamma, said Vautrin; "I am going to a theatre on the boulevard to see M. Marty in Le Mont Sauvage, a fine play taken from Le Solitaire.... If you like, I will take you and these two ladies—"
No, thank you, said Mme. Couture.
What! my good lady! cried Mme. Vauquer, "decline to see a play founded on the Le Solitaire, a work by Atala de Chateaubriand? We were so fond of that book that we cried over it like Magdalens of Elodie under the line-trees last summer, and then it is an improving work that might edify your young lady."
We are forbidden to go to the play, answered Victorine.
Just look, those two yonder have dropped off where they sit, said Vautrin, shaking the heads of the two sleepers in a comical way.
He altered the sleeping student's position, settled his head more comfortably on the back of his chair, kissed him warmly on the forehead, and began to sing:
"Sleep, my loves, for ever sleep

While for you my watch I keep."
I am afraid he may be ill, said Victorine.
Then stay and take care of him, returned Vautrin. "'Tis your duty as a meek and obedient wife," he whispered in her ear. "The young fellow worships you, and you will be his little wife—there's your fortune for you. In short," he added aloud, "they lived happily ever afterwards, were much looked up to in all the countryside, and had a numerous family.' That is how all the romances end. Now, mamma," he went on, as he turned to Mme. Vauquer and put his arm round her waist, "put on your bonnet, your best flowered silk, and the countess' scarf, while I go out and call a cab—all my own self."
And he started out, singing as he went:
"Oh! sun! divine sun!

Ripening the pumpkins every one."
My goodness! Well, I'm sure! Mme. Couture, I could live happily in a garret with a man like that. There, now! she added, looking round for the old vermicelli-maker, "there is that Old Goriot half-seas-over. He never thought of taking me anywhere, the old skinflint. But he will measure his length somewhere. My word! it is disgraceful to lose his senses like that, at his age! You will be telling me that he couldn't lose what he hadn't got. Sylvie, just take him up to his room!"
Sylvie took him by the arm, supported him upstairs, and flung him just as he was, like a package, across the bed.
Poor young fellow! said Mme. Couture, putting back Eugène's hair that had fallen over his eyes; "he is like a young girl, he does not know what dissipation is."
Well, I can tell you this, I know, said Mme. Vauquer, "I have taken lodgers these thirty years, and a good many have passed through my hands, as the saying is, but I have never seen a nicer nor a more aristocratic looking young man than M. Eugène. How handsome he looks sleeping! Just let his head rest on your shoulder, Mme. Couture. Pshaw! he falls over towards Mlle. Victorine. There's a special providence for young things. A little more, and he would have broken his head against the knob of the chair. They'd make a pretty pair, those two would!"
Hush, my good neighbor, cried Mme. Couture, "you are saying such things—"
Pooh! put in Mme. Vauquer, "he does not hear. Here, Sylvie! come and help me to dress. I shall put on my best stays."
What! your best stays just after dinner, madame? said Sylvie. "No, you can get someone else to lace you. I am not going to be your murderer. It's a rash thing to do, and might cost you your life."
I don't care, I must do honor to M. Vautrin.
Are you so fond of your heirs as all that?
Come, Sylvie, don't argue, said the widow, as she left the room.
At her age, too! said the cook to Victorine, pointing to her mistress as she spoke.
Mme. Couture and her ward were left in the dining-room, and Eugène slept on Victorine's shoulder. The sound of Christophe's snoring echoed through the silent house; Eugène's quiet breathing seemed all the quieter by force of contrast, he was sleeping as peacefully as a child. Victorine was very happy; she was free to perform one of those acts of charity which form an innocent outlet for all the overflowing sentiments of a woman's nature; he was so close to her that she could feel the throbbing of his heart; there was a look of almost maternal protection and conscious pride in Victorine's face. Among the countless thoughts that crowded up in her young innocent heart, there was a wild flutter of joy at this close contact.
Poor, dear child! said Mme. Couture, squeezing her hand.
The old lady looked at the girl. Victorine's innocent, pathetic face, so radiant with the new happiness that had befallen her, called to mind some na?ve work of mediaeval art, when the painter neglected the accessories, reserving all the magic of his brush for the quiet, austere outlines and ivory tints of the face, which seems to have caught something of the golden glory of heaven.
After all, he only took two glasses, mamma, said Victorine, passing her fingers through Eugène's hair.
Indeed, if he had been a dissipated young man, child, he would have carried his wine like the rest of them. His drowsiness does him credit.
There was a sound of wheels outside in the street.
There is M. Vautrin, mamma, said the girl. "Just take M. Eugène. I would rather not have that man see me like this; there are some ways of looking at you that seem to sully your soul and make you feel as though you had nothing on."
Oh, no, you are wrong! said Mme. Couture. "M. Vautrin is a worthy man; he reminds me a little of my late husband, poor dear M. Couture, rough but kind-hearted; his bark is worse than his bite."
Vautrin came in while she was speaking; he did not make a sound, but looked for a while at the picture of the two young faces—the lamplight falling full upon them seemed to caress them.
Well, he remarked, folding his arms, "here is a picture! It would have suggested some pleasing pages to Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (good soul), who wrote Paul et Virginie. Youth is very charming, Mme. Couture! Sleep on, poor boy," he added, looking at Eugène, "luck sometimes comes while we are sleeping.—There is something touching and attractive to me about this young man, madame," he continued; "I know that his soul is as beautiful as his face. Just look, the head of a cherub on an angel's shoulder! He deserves to be loved. If I were a woman, I would die (no—not such a fool), I would live for him." He bent lower and spoke in the widow's ear. "When I see those two together, madame, I cannot help thinking that Providence meant them for each other; He works by secret ways, and scratches the heart and the strength of man," he said in a loud voice. "And when I see you, my children, thus united by a like purity and by all human affections, I say to myself that it is quite impossible that the future should separate you. God is just." He turned to Victorine. "It seems to me," he said, "that I have seen the line of success in your hand. Let me look at it, Mlle. Victorine; I am well up in palmistry, and I have told fortunes many a time. Come, now, don't be frightened. Ah! what do I see? Upon my word, you will be one of the richest heiresses in Paris before very long. You will heap riches on the man who loves you. Your father will want you to go and live with him. You will marry a young and handsome man with a title, who adores you."
The heavy footsteps of the coquettish widow, who was coming down the stairs, interrupted Vautrin's fortune-telling. "Here is Mamma Vauquerre, fair as a starr-r-r, dressed within an inch of her life. Aren't we a trifle pinched for room?" he inquired, with his arm round the lady; "we are screwed up very tightly about the bust, mamma! If we are much agitated, there may be an explosion; but I will pick up the fragments with all the care of an antiquary."
There is a man who can talk the language of French gallantry! said the widow, bending to speak in Mme. Couture's ear.
Good-bye, my children! said Vautrin, turning to Eugène and Victorine. "Bless you both!" and he laid a hand on either head. "Take my word for it, young lady, an honest man's prayers are worth something; they should bring you happiness, for God hears them."
Good-bye, dear, said Mme. Vauquer to her lodger. "Do you think that M. Vautrin has intentions on my person?" she added, lowering her voice.
Hem! said the widow.
Oh! mamma dear, suppose it should really happen as that kind M. Vautrin said! said Victorine with a sigh, as she looked at her hands. The two women were alone together.
Why, it wouldn't take much to bring it to pass, said the elderly lady; "just a fall from his horse, and your monster of a brother—"
Oh! mamma.
Good Lord! Well, perhaps it is a sin to wish bad luck to an enemy, the widow remarked. "I will do penance for it. Still, I would strew flowers on his grave with the greatest pleasure, and that is the truth. Black-hearted, that he is! The coward couldn't speak up for his own mother, and cheats you out of your share by deceit and trickery. My cousin had a pretty fortune of her own, but unluckily for you, nothing was said in the marriage contract about anything that she might come in for."
It would be very hard if my good fortune is to cost someone else his life, said Victorine. "If I cannot be happy unless my brother is to be taken out of the world, I would rather stay here all my life."
My God! it is just as that good M. Vautrin says, and he is full of piety, you see, Mme. Couture remarked. "I am very glad to find that he is not an unbeliever like the rest of them that talk of the Almighty with less respect than they do of the Devil. Well, as he was saying, who can know the ways by which it may please Providence to lead us?"
With Sylvie's help the two women at last succeeded in getting Eugène up to his room; they laid him on the bed, and the cook loosened his clothes to make him more comfortable. Before they left the room, Victorine snatched an opportunity when her guardian's back was turned, and pressed a kiss on Eugène's forehead, feeling all the joy that this stolen pleasure could give her. Then she went back to her own room, and gathering up, as it were, into one single thought all the untold bliss of that day, she made a picture of her memories, and dwelt upon it until she slept, the happiest creature in Paris.
That evening's merrymaking, in the course of which Vautrin had given the drugged wine to Eugène and Old Goriot, was his own ruin. Bianchon, flustered with wine, forgot to open the subject of Trompe-la-Mort with Mlle. Michonneau. The mere mention of the name would have set Vautrin on his guard; for Vautrin, or, to give him his real name, Jacques Collin, was in fact the notorious escaped convict.
But it was the joke about the graveyard Venus that finally decided his fate. Mlle. Michonneau had very nearly made up her mind to warn the convict and to throw herself on his generosity, with the idea of making a better bargain for herself by helping him to escape that night; but, as it was, she went out escorted by Poiret in search of the famous chief of detectives in the Petite Rue Saint-Anne, still thinking that it was the district superintendent— one Gondureau—with whom she had to do. The head of the department received his visitors courteously. There was a little talk, and the details were definitely arranged. Mlle. Michonneau asked for the draught that she was to administer in order to set about her investigation. But the great man's evident satisfaction set Mlle. Michonneau thinking; and she began to see that this business involved something more than the mere capture of a runaway convict. She racked her brains while he looked in a drawer in his desk for the little phial, and it dawned upon her that in consequence of treacherous revelations made by the prisoners the police were hoping to lay their hands on a considerable sum of money. But on hinting her suspicions to the old fox of the Petite Rue Sainte-Anne, that officer began to smile, and tried to put her off the scent.
A delusion, he said. "Collin is the most dangerous sorbonne that has yet been found among the thieves. That is all, and the rascals are quite aware of it. They rally round him; he is the backbone of the federation, its Bonaparte, in short; he is very popular with them all. The rogue will never leave his tronche in the Place de Grève."
As Mlle. Michonneau seemed mystified, Gondureau explained the two slang words for her benefit. Sorbonne and tronche are two forcible expressions borrowed from thieves' Latin, thieves, of all people, being compelled to consider the human head in its two aspects. A sorbonne is the head of a living man, his faculty of thinking—his council; a tronche is a contemptuous epithet that implies how little a human head is worth after the axe has done its work.
Collin is playing a game with us, he continued. "When we come across a man like a bar of steel tempered in the English fashion, there is always one resource left—we can kill him if he takes it into his head to make the least resistance. We are reckoning on several methods of killing Collin to-morrow morning. It saves a trial, and society is rid of him without all the expense of guarding and feeding him. What with getting up the case, summoning witnesses, paying their expenses, and carrying out the sentence, it costs a lot to go through all the proper formalities before you can get quit of one of these good-for-nothings, over and above the three thousand francs that you are going to have. There is a saving in time as well. One good thrust of the bayonet into Trompe-la-Mort's paunch will prevent scores of crimes, and save fifty scoundrels from following his example; they will be very careful to keep themselves out of the police courts. That is doing the work of the police thoroughly, and true philanthropists will tell you that it is better to prevent crime than to punish it."
And you do a service to our country, said Poiret.
Really, you are talking in a very sensible manner tonight, that you are, said the head of the department. "Yes, of course, we are serving our country, and we are very hardly used too. We do society very great services that are not recognized. In fact, a superior man must rise above vulgar prejudices, and a Christian must resign himself to the mishaps that doing right entails, when right is done in an out-of-the-way style. Paris is Paris, you see! That is the explanation of my life. I have the honor to wish you a good evening, mademoiselle. I shall bring my men to the Jardin du Roi in the morning. Send Christophe to the Rue du Buffon, tell him to ask for M. Gondureau in the house where you saw me before. Your servant, sir. If you should ever have anything stolen from you, come to me, and I will do my best to get it back for you."
Well, now, Poiret remarked to Mlle. Michonneau, "there are idiots who are scared out of their wits by the word police. That was a very pleasant spoken gentleman, and what he wants you to do is as plain as saying ‘Good day.'"
The next day was destined to be one of the most extraordinary in the annals of Vauquer's. Hitherto the most startling occurrence in its tranquil existence had been the portentous, meteor-like apparition of the sham Comtesse de l'Ambermesnil. But the catastrophes of this great day were to cast all previous events into the shade, and supply an inexhaustible topic of conversation for Mme. Vauquer and her boarders so long as she lived.
In the first place, Goriot and Eugène de Rastignac both slept till close upon eleven o'clock. Mme. Vauquer, who came home about midnight from the Ga?té, lay abed till half-past ten. Christophe, after a prolonged slumber (he had finished Vautrin's first bottle of wine), was behindhand with his work, but Poiret and Mlle. Michonneau uttered no complaint, though breakfast was delayed. As for Victorine and Mme. Couture, they also slept late. Vautrin went out before eight o'clock, and only came back just as breakfast was ready. Nobody protested, therefore, when Sylvie and Christophe went up at a quarter past eleven, knocked at all the doors, and announced that breakfast was waiting. While Sylvie and the man were upstairs, Mlle. Michonneau, who came down first, poured the contents of the phial into the silver cup belonging to Vautrin—it was standing with the others in the boiler that kept the cream hot for the morning coffee. The old maid had reckoned on this particular arrangeement of the house for carrying out her design. The seven lodgers were at last gathered together, not without some difficulty. Just as Eugène came downstairs, stretching himself and yawning, a messenger handed him a letter from Mme. de Nucingen. It ran thus:
I feel neither false vanity nor anger where you are concerned, my friend. Till two o'clock this morning I waited for you. Oh, that waiting for one whom you love! No one that had passed through that torture could inflict it on another. I know now that you have never loved before. What can have happened? Anxiety has taken hold of me. I would have come myself to find out what had happened, if I had not feared to betray the secrets of my heart. How can I walk out or drive out at this time of day? Would it not be ruin? I have felt to the full how wretched it is to be a woman. Send a word to reassure me, and explain how it is that you have not come after what my father told you. I shall be angry, but I will forgive you. Are you ill? Why stay so far away? One word, for pity's sake. You will come to me very soon, will you not? If you are busy, a word will be enough. Say, "I will hasten to you," or else, "I am ill." But if you were ill my father would have come to tell me so. What can have happened?...
Yes, indeed, what has happened? exclaimed Eugène, and, hurrying down to the dining-room, he crumpled up the letter without reading any more. "What time is it?"
Half-past eleven, said Vautrin, dropping a lump of sugar into his coffee.
The escaped convict cast a glance at Eugène, a cold and fascinating glance; men gifted with this magnetic power can quell furious lunatics in a madhouse by such a glance, it is said. Eugène shook in every limb. There was the sound of wheels in the street, and in another moment a man with a scared face rushed into the room. It was one of M. Taillefer's servants; Mme. Couture recognized the livery at once.
Mademoiselle, he cried, "your father is asking for you—something terrible has happened! M. Frédéric has fought a duel and has been wounded in the forehead The doctors have given him up. You will scarcely be in time to say good-bye to him!—he is unconscious."
Poor young fellow! exclaimed Vautrin. "How can people brawl when they have a certain income of thirty thousand francs? Young people have bad manners, and that is a fact."
Sir! cried Eugène.
Well, what then, you big baby! said Vautrin, swallowing down his coffee imperturbably, an operation which Mlle. Michonneau watched with such close attention that she had no emotion to spare for the amazing news that had struck the others dumb with amazement. "Are there not duels every morning in Paris?" added Vautrin.
I will go with you, Victorine, said Mme. Couture, and the two women hurried away at once without either hats or shawls. But before she went, Victorine, with her eyes full of tears, gave Eugène a glance that said, "How little I thought that our happiness should cost me tears!"
Dear me, you are a prophet, M. Vautrin, said Mme. Vauquer.
I am all sorts of things, said Jacques Collin.
Queer, isn't it? said Mme. Vauquer, stringing together a succession of commonplaces suited to the occasion. "Death takes us off without consulting our plans. The young often go before the old. It is a lucky thing for us women that we don't have to fight duels, but we have other complaints that men don't suffer from. We bear children, and it takes a long time to get over it. What a windfall for Victorine! Her father will have to acknowledge her now!"
There! said Vautrin, looking at Eugène, "yesterday she had not a penny; this morning she has several millions to her fortune."
I say, M. Eugène! cried Mme. Vauquer, "you have landed on your feet!"
At this exclamation, Old Goriot looked at the student, and saw the crumpled letter still in his hand.
You have not read it through! What does this mean? Are you going to be like the rest of them? he asked.
Madame, I shall never marry Mlle. Victorine, said Eugène, turning to Mme. Vauquer with an expression of terror and loathing that surprised the onlookers at this scene.
Old Goriot caught the student's hand and grasped it warmly. He could have kissed it.
Oh, ho! said Vautrin, "the Italians have a good proverb—Col tempo."
Is there any answer? said Mme. de Nucingen's messenger, addressing Eugène.
Say that I will come directly.
The man went. Eugène was in a state of such violent excitement that he could not be prudent.
What is to be done? he exclaimed aloud. "There are no proofs!"
Vautrin began to smile. Though the drug he had taken was doing its work, the convict was so vigorous that he rose to his feet, gave Rastignac a look, and said in hollow tones, "Luck comes to us while we sleep, my boy," and fell stiff and stark, as if he were struck dead.
So there is a Divine Justice! said Eugène.
Well, if ever! What has happened to that poor dear M. Vautrin?
A stroke! cried Mlle. Michonneau.
Here, Sylvie! girl, run for the doctor, called the widow. "Oh, M. Rastignac, just go for M. Bianchon, and be as quick as you can; Sylvie might not be in time to catch our doctor, M. Grimprel."
Rastignac was glad of an excuse to leave that den of horrors; his hurry for the doctor was nothing but a flight.
Here, Christophe, go round to the chemist's and ask for something that's good for the apoplexy.
Christophe obeyed.
Old Goriot, just help us to get him upstairs.
They lifted Vantrin, and managed to get him to his room, where they put him on the bed.
I can do no good here, so I shall go to see my daughter, said M. Goriot.
Selfish old thing! cried Mme. Vauquer. "Yes, go; I hope you may die like a dog yourself."
Just go and see if you can find some ether, said Mlle. Michonneau to Mme. Vauquer; the former, with some help from Poiret, had loosened Vautrin's clothes.
Mme. Vauquer went down to her room, and left Mlle. Michonneau mistress of the situation.
Now! just take off his shirt and turn him over, quick! You might try to keep me from seeing him stark naked, she said to Poiret, "instead of standing there with your mouth open."
Vautrin was turned over; Mlle. Michonneau gave his shoulder a sharp slap, and the two portentous letters appeared, white against the red.
There, you have earned your three thousand francs very easily, exclaimed Poiret, supporting Vautrin while Mlle. Michonneau slipped on the shirt again. "Ouf! How heavy he is," he added, as he laid the convict down.
Hush! Suppose there is a strong box here! said the old maid briskly; her glances seemed to pierce the walls; she scrutinized every article of the furniture with greedy eyes. "Could we find some excuse for opening that desk?"
It mightn't be quite right, responded Poiret to this.
Where is the harm? It is money stolen from all sorts of people, so it doesn't belong to any one now. But we haven't time, there is the Vauquer.
Here is the ether, said that lady. "I must say that this is an eventful day. Lord! that man can't have had a stroke; he is as white as a chicken."
White as a chicken? echoed Poiret.
And his pulse is steady, said the widow, laying her hand on his breast.
Steady? said the astonished Poiret.
He is all right.
Do you think so? asked Poiret.
Lord! Yes, he looks as if he were sleeping. Sylvie has gone for a doctor. I say, Mlle. Michonneau, he is sniffing the ether. Pooh! it is only a spasm. His pulse is good. He is as strong as a Turk. Just look at the thick hair on his belly, mademoiselle, that is the sort of man to live till he is a hundred. His wig holds on tightly, however. Dear me, it is glued on, and his own hair is red; that is why he wears a wig. They always say that red-haired people are either the worst or the best. Is he one of the good ones, I wonder?
Good to hang, said Poiret.
Round a pretty woman's neck, you mean, said Mlle Michonneau hastily. "Just go away, M. Poiret. It is a woman's duty to nurse you men when you are ill. Besides, for all the help you are you may as well take yourself off," she added. "Mme. Vauquer and I will take care for dear M. Vautrin."
Poiret went out on tiptoe without a murmur, like a dog kicked out of the room by his master.
Rastignac had gone out for the sake of physical exertion; he wanted to breathe the air, he felt stifled. Yesterday evening he had meant to prevent the murder arranged for half-past eight that morning. What had happened? What ought he to do now? He trembled to think that he himself might be implicated. Vautrin's coolness still further dismayed him.
Suppose he should die without saying a word? Rastignac asked himself.
He hurried along the paths of the Luxembourg Gardens as if the hounds of justice were after him, and he already heard the baying of the pack.
Well? shouted Bianchon, "you have seen the Pilot?"
The Pilot was a Radical sheet, edited by M. Tissot. It came out several hours later than the morning papers, and was meant for the benefit of country subscribers; for it brought the morning's news into provincial districts twenty-four hours sooner than the ordinary local journals.
There is a wonderful story in it, said the house student of the Cochin Hopital. "Young Taillefer called out Count Franchessini, of the Old Guard, and the Count put a couple of inches of steel into his forehead. And here is little Victorine one of the richest heiresses in Paris! If we had known that, eh? What a game of chance death is! They say Victorine was sweet on you; was there any truth in it?"
Shut up, Bianchon; I shall never marry her. I am in love with a charming woman, and she is in love with me, so—
You said that as if you were screwing yourself up to be faithful to her. I should like to see the woman worth the sacrifice of Master Taillefer's money!
Are all the devils of hell at my heels? cried Rastignac.
What is the matter with you? Are you mad? Give us your hand, said Bianchon, "and let me feel your pulse. You are feverish."
Just go to Mother Vauquer's, said Rastignac; "that scoundrel Vautrin has dropped down like one dead."
Aha! said Bianchon, leaving Rastignac to his reflections, "you confirm my suspicions, and now I mean to make sure for myself."
The law student's long walk was a memorable one for him. He made in some sort a survey of his conscience. After a close scrutiny, after hesitation and self-examination, his honor at any rate came out scatheless from this sharp and terrible ordeal, like a bar of iron that is proof against every shock. He remembered Old Goriot's confidences of the evening before; he recollected the rooms taken for him in the Rue d'Artois, so that he might be near Delphine; and then he thought of his letter, and read it again and kissed it.
Such a love is my anchor of safety, he said to himself. "How the old man's heart must have been wrung! He says nothing about all that he has been through; but who could not guess? Well, then, I will be like a son to him; his life shall be made happy. If she cares for me, she will often come to spend the day with him. That grand Comtesse de Restaud is a heartless thing; she would make her father into her hall porter. Dear Delphine! she is kinder to the old man; she is worthy to be loved. Ah! this evening I shall be very happy!"
He took out his watch and admired it.
I have had nothing but success! If two people mean to love each other for ever, they may help each other, and I can take this. Besides, I shall succeed, and I will pay her a hundredfold. There is nothing criminal in this affair; nothing that could cause the most austere moralist to frown. How many respectable people contract similar unions! We deceive nobody; it is deception that makes a position humiliating. If you lie, you lower yourself at once. She and her husband have lived apart for a long while. Besides, suppose I called upon that Alsatian to give up a wife whom he cannot make happy?
Rastignac's battle with himself went on for a long while; and though the scruples of youth inevitably gained the day, an irresistible curiosity led him, about half-past four, to return to Vauquer's through the gathering dusk. Though he had sworn to leave it for ever, he must know whether Vautrin were dead.
Bianchon had given Vautrin an emetic, reserving the contents of the stomach for chemical analysis at the hospital. Mlle. Michonneau's officious eagerness that they should be thrown away had still further strengthened his suspicions of her. Vautrin, moreover, had recovered so quickly, that it was impossible not to suspect some plot against the gay dog who was the life of the boarding-house. Vautrin was standing in front of the stove in the dining-room when Rastignac came in. All the lodgers were assembled sooner than usual beacuse of the news of young Taillefer's duel. They were curious to hear any detail about the affair, and to talk over the probable change in Victorine's prospects. Old Goriot alone was absent, but the rest were chatting. No sooner had Eugène come into the room, than his eyes met the inscrutable gaze of Vautrin. It was the same look that had read his thoughts before—the look that had such power to waken evil chords in his heart. He shuddered.
Well, dear boy, said the convict, "I am likely to cheat death for a good while yet. According to these ladies, I have had a stroke that would have felled an ox, and come off with flying colors."
A bull you might say, cried the widow.
Perhaps you are sorry to see me still alive, said Vautrin in Rastignac's ear, thinking that he guessed the student's thoughts. "Maybe I'm a damned strong man."
Mlle. Michonneau was talking the day before yesterday about a gentleman called Trompe-la-Mort, said Bianchon; "and, upon my word, that name would do very well for you."
Vautrin seemed thunderstruck. He turned pale, and staggered back. He turned his magnetic glance, like a ray of vivid light, on Mlle. Michonneau; the old maid shrank and trembled under the influence of that strong will, and collapsed into a chair. The mask of good nature had dropped from the convict's face; from the unmistakable ferocity of that sinister look, Poiret felt that the old maid was in danger, and hastily stepped between them. None of the lodgers understood this scene in the least, they looked on in mute amazement. There was a pause. Just then there was a sound of tramping feet outside; there were soldiers there, it seemed, for there was a ring of several rifles on the cobble stones of the street. Collin was mechanically looking round the walls for a way of escape, when four men entered by way of the sitting-room.
In the name of the king and the law! said an officer, but the words were almost lost in a murmur of astonishment.
Silence fell on the room. The lodgers made way for three of the men, who had each a hand on a cocked pistol in a side pocket. Two policemen, who followed the detectives, kept the entrance to the sitting-room, and two more appeared in the doorway that gave access to the staircase. A sound of footsteps came from the garden, and again the rifles of several soldiers rang on the cobble-stones under the window. All hope of flight was cut off from Trompe-la-Mort, on whom every eye instinctively turned. The chief walked straight up to him, and commenced operations by giving him a sharp blow on the head, so that the wig fell off, and Collin's face was revealed in all its ugliness. There was a terrible suggestion of strength mingled with cunning in the short, brick-red crop of hair, the whole head was in harmony with his powerful frame, and at that moment the fires of hell seemed to gleam from his eyes. In that flash the real Vautrin shone forth, revealed at once before them all; they understood his past, his present, and future, his pitiless doctrines, his actions, the religion of his own good pleasure, the majesty with which his cynicism and contempt for mankind invested him, the physical strength of an organization proof against all trials. The blood flew to his face, and his eyes glared like the eyes of a wild cat. He started back with savage energy and a fierce growl that drew exclamations of alarm from the lodgers. At that leonine start the police caught at their pistols under cover of the general clamor. Collin saw the gleaming muzzles of the weapons, saw his danger, and instantly gave proof of a power of the highest order. There was something horrible and majestic in the spectacle of the sudden transformation in his face; he could only be compared to a cauldron full of dense steam that can upheave mountains, a terrific force dispelled in a moment by a drop of cold water. The drop of water that cooled his wrathful fury was a reflection that flashed across his brain like lightning. He began to smile, and looked down at his wig.
You are not very polite today, he remarked to the chief, and he held out his hands to the policemen with a jerk of his head.
Gentlemen, he said, "put on the bracelets or the handcuffs. I call on those present to witness that I make no resistance."
A murmur of admiration ran through the room at the sudden outpouring like fire and lava flood from this human volcano, and its equally sudden cessation.
That's something you didn't bargain for, wise guy, the convict added, looking at the famous director of police.
Come, strip! said he of the Petite Rue Saint-Anne, contemptuously.
Why? asked Collin. "There are ladies present; I deny nothing, and surrender."
He paused, and looked round the room like an orator who is about to overwhelm his audience.
Take this down, Daddy Lachapelle, he went on, addressing a little, white-haired old man who had seated himself at the end of the table; and after drawing a printed form from the portfolio, was proceeding to draw up a document. "I acknowledge myself to be Jacques Collin, otherwise known as Trompe-la-Mort, condemned to twenty years' penal servitude, and I have just proved that I have come fairly by my nickname. If I had as much as raised my hand," he went on, addressing the other lodgers, "those three sneaking wretches yonder would have spilled blood on Mamma Vauquer's floor. The rogues have laid their heads together to set a trap for me."
Mme. Vauquer felt sick and faint at these words.
Good Lord! she cried, "this does give one a turn; and me at the Ga?té with him only last night!" she said to Sylvie.
Summon your philosophy, mamma, Collin resumed. "Is it a misfortune to have sat in my box at the Ga?té yesterday evening? After all, are you better than we are? The brand upon our shoulders is less shameful than the brand set on your hearts, you flabby members of a society rotten to the core. Not the best man among you could stand up to me." His eyes rested upon Rastignac, to whom he spoke with a pleasant smile that seemed strangely at variance with the savage expression in his eyes. "Our little bargain still holds good, pretty boy; you can accept any time you like! Do you understand?" And he sang:
"A charming girl is my Fanchette

　 In her simplicity."
Don't you trouble yourself, he went on; "I can get in my money. They are too much afraid of me to swindle me."
The convicts' prison, its language and customs, its sudden sharp transitions from the humorous to the horrible, its appalling grandeur, its triviality and its dark depths, were all revealed in turn by the speaker's discourse; he seemed to be no longer a man, but the type and mouthpiece of a degenerate race, a brutal, supple, clear-headed race of savages. In one moment Collin became the poet of an inferno, wherein all thoughts and passions that move human nature (save repentance) find a place. He looked about him like a fallen archangel who is for war to the end. Rastignac lowered his eyes, and acknowledged this kinship claimed by crime as an expiation of his own evil thoughts.
Who betrayed me? said Collin, and his terrible eyes traveled round the room. Suddenly they rested on Mlle. Michonneau.
It was you, old whore! he said. "That sham stroke of apoplexy was your doing, lynx eyes!... Two words from me, and your throat would be cut in less than a week, but I forgive you, I am a Christian. You did not sell me either. But who did—Aha! you may rummage upstairs!" he shouted, hearing the police officers opening his cupboards and taking possession of his effects. "The nest is empty, the birds flew away yesterday, and you will be none the wiser. My ledgers are here," he said, tapping his forehead. "Now I know who sold me! It could only be that son of a bitch Fil-de-Soie. That is who it was, old catch 'em, eh?" he said, turning to the chief. "It was timed so neatly to get the banknotes up there. There is nothing left for you—spies! As for Fil-de-Soie, he will be under the daisies in less than a fortnight, even if you were to tell off the whole force to protect him. How much did you give the Michonnette?" he asked of the police officers. "A thousand crowns? Oh you decayed Ninon, you tattered Pompadour, Venus of the graveyard, I was worth more than that! If you had given me warning, you should have had six thousand francs. Ah! you had no suspicion of that, old whoremonger, or I should have had the preference. Yes, I would have given six thousand francs to save myself an inconvenient journey and some loss of money," he said, as they fastened the handcuffs on his wrists. "These folks will amuse themselves by dragging out this business till the end of time to keep me idle! If they were to send me straight to jail, I should soon be back at my old tricks in spite of the duffers at the Quai des Orfèvres. Down yonder they will all turn themselves inside out to help their general—their good Trompe-la-Mort—to get clear away. Is there a single one among you that can say, as I can, that he has ten thousand brothers ready to do anything for him?" he asked proudly. "There is some good there," he said, tapping his heart; "I have never betrayed any one! Look you here, you slut," he said to the old maid, "they are all afraid of me, do you see, but the sight of you turns them sick. Rake in your gains."
He was silent for a moment, and looked round at the lodgers' faces.
What fools you are, all of you! Have you never seen a convict before? A convict of Collin's stamp, whom you see before you, is a man less weak-kneed than others; he lifts up his voice against the colossal fraud of the Social Contract, as Jean Jacques did, whose pupil he is proud to declare himself. In short, I stand here single-handed against a Government and a whole subsidized machinery of tribunals and police, and I am a match for them all.
Ye gods! cried the painter, "what a magnificent model he would make!"
Look here, you gentlemen-in-waiting to his highness the gibbet, master of ceremonies to the widow—a nickname full of sombre poetry, given by prisoners to the guillotine—"be a good fellow, and tell me if it really was Fil-de-Soie who sold me. I don't want him to suffer for someone else, that would not be fair."
But before the chief had time to answer, the rest of the party returned from making their investigations upstairs. Everything had been opened and inventoried. A few words passed between them and the chief, and the official preliminaries were complete.
Gentlemen, said Collin, addressing the lodgers, "they will take me away directly. You have all made my stay among you very agreeable, and I shall look back upon it with gratitude. Receive my adieux, and permit me to send you figs from Provence."
He advanced a step or two, and then turned to look once more at Rastignac.
Good-bye, Eugène, he said, in a sad and gentle tone, a strange transition from his previous rough and stern manner. "If you should be hard up, I have left you a devoted friend," and, in spite of his shackles, he managed to assume a posture of defence, called, "One, two!" like a fencing master, and lunged. "If anything goes wrong, apply in that quarter. Man and money, all at your service."
The strange speaker's manner was sufficiently burlesque, so that no one but Rastignac knew that there was a serious meaning underlying the pantomime.
As soon as the police, soldiers, and detectives had left the house, Sylvie, who was rubbing her mistress' temples with vinegar, looked round at the bewildered lodgers.
Well, said she, "he was a man, he was, for all that."
Her words broke the spell. Every one had been too much excited, too much moved by very various feelings to speak. But now the lodgers began to look at each other, and then all eyes were turned at once on Mlle. Michonneau, a thin, shriveled, dead-alive, mummy-like figure crouching by the stove; her eyes were downcast, as if she feared that the green eye-shade could not shut out the expression of those faces from her. This figure and the feeling of repulsion she had so long excited were explained all at once. A smothered murmur filled the room; it was so unanimous, that it seemed as if the same feeling of loathing had pitched all the voices in one key. Mlle. Michonneau heard it, and did not stir. It was Bianchon who was the first to move; he bent over his neighbor, and said in a low voice, "If that creature is going to stop here, and have dinner with us, I shall clear out."
In the twinkling of an eye it was clear that every one in the room, save Poiret, was of the medical student's opinion, so that the latter, strong in the support of the majority, went up to that elderly person.
You are more intimate with Mlle. Michonneau than the rest of us, he said; "speak to her, make her understand that she must go, and go at once."
At once! echoed Poiret in amazement.
Then he went across to the old woman, and spoke a few words in her ear.
I have paid beforehand for the quarter; I have as much right to be here as any one else, she said, with a viperous look at the boarders.
Never mind that! We will club together and pay you the money back, said Rastignac.
Monsieur is taking Collin's part, she said, with a questioning, malignant glance at the law student; "it is not difficult to guess why."
Eugène started forward at the words, as if he meant to spring upon her and wring her neck. That glance, and the depths of treachery that it revealed, had been a hideous enlightenment.
Let her alone! cried the boarders.
Rastignac folded his arms, and was silent.
Let us have no more of Mlle. Judas, said the painter, turning to Mme. Vauquer. "If you don't show the Michonneau the door, madame, we shall all leave your hovel, and wherever we go we shall say that there are only convicts and spies left there. If you do the other thing, we will hold our tongues about the business; for when all is said and done, it might happen in the best society until they brand them on the forehead, when they send them to the galleys. They ought not to let convicts go about Paris disguised like decent citizens, so as to carry on their antics like a set of rascally humbugs, which they are."
At this Mme. Vauquer recovered miraculously. She sat up and folded her arms; her eyes were wide open now, and there was no sign of tears in them.
Why, do you really mean to be the ruin of my establishment, my dear sir? There is M. Vautrin—Goodness, she cried, interrupting herself, "I can't help calling him by the name he passed himself off by for an honest man! There is one room to let already, and you want me to turn out two more lodgers in the middle of the season, when no one is moving—"
Gentlemen, let us take our hats and go and dine at Flicoteaux's in the Place Sorbonne, cried Bianchon.
Mme. Vauquer glanced round, and saw in a moment on which side her interest lay. She waddled across to Mlle. Michonneau.
Come, now, she said; "you would not be the ruin of my establishment, would you, eh? There's a dear, kind soul. You see what a pass these gentlemen have brought me to; just go up to your room for this evening."
Never a bit of it! cried the boarders. "She must go, and go this minute!"
But the poor lady has had no dinner, said Poiret, with piteous entreaty.
She can go and dine where she likes, shouted several voices.
Turn her out, the spy!
Turn them both out! Spies!
Gentlemen, cried Poiret, his heart swelling with the courage of a lovesick ram, "respect the weaker sex."
Spies are of no sex! said the painter.
A precious sexorama!
Turn her into the streetorama!
Gentlemen, this is not manners! If you turn people out of the house, it ought not to be done so unceremoniously and with no notice at all. We have paid our money, and we are not going, said Poiret, putting on his cap, and taking a chair beside Mlle. Michonneau, with whom Mme. Vauquer was remonstrating.
Naughty boy! said the painter, with a comical look; "run away, naughty little boy!"
Look here, said Bianchon; "if you do not go, all the rest of us will," and the boarders, to a man, made for the sitting-room door.
Oh! mademoiselle, what is to be done? cried Mme. Vauquer. "I am a ruined woman. You can't stay here; they will go further, do something violent."
Mlle. Michonneau rose to her feet.
She is going!—She is not going!—She is going!—No, she isn't.
These alternate exclamations, and a suggestion of hostile intentions, borne out by the behavior of the insurgents, compelled Mlle. Michonneau to take her departure. She made some stipulations, speaking in a low voice in her hostess' ear, and then: "I shall go to Mme. Buneaud's," she said, with a threatening look.
Go where you please, mademoiselle, said Mme. Vauquer, who regarded this choice of an opposition establishment as an atrocious insult. "Go and lodge with the Buneaud; the wine would make a goat sick, and the food is second-hand."
The boarders stood aside in two rows to let her pass; not a word was spoken. Poiret looked so wistfully after Mlle. Michonneau, and so artlessly revealed that he was in two minds whether to go or stay, that the boarders, in their joy at being quit of Mlle. Michonneau, burst out laughing at the sight of him.
Hist!—st!—st! Poiret, shouted the painter. "Hallo! I say, Poiret, hallo!" The employe from the Museum began to sing:
"Leaving port for Syria,

That fine young man Dunois..."
Get along with you; you must be dying to go, trahit sua quemque voluptas! said Bianchon.
Every one to his taste—free rendering from Virgil, said the tutor.
Mlle. Michonneau made a movement as if to take Poiret's arm, with an appealing glance that he could not resist. The two went out together, the old maid leaning upon him, and there was a burst of applause, followed by peals of laughter.
Bravo, Poiret!
Who would have thought it of old Poiret!
Apollo Poiret!
Mars Poiret!
Intrepid Poiret!
A messenger came in at that moment with a letter for Mme. Vauquer, who read it through, and collapsed in her chair.
The house might as well be burned down at once, cried she, "if there are to be any more of these thunderbolts! Young Taillefer died at three o'clock this afternoon. It serves me right for wishing well to those ladies at that poor man's expense. Mme. Couture and Victorine want me to send their things, because they are going to live with her father. M. Taillefer allows his daughter to keep old Mme. Couture with her as lady companion. Four rooms to let! and five lodgers gone!..."
She sat up, and seemed about to burst into tears.
Bad luck has come to lodge here, I think, she cried.
Once more there came a sound of wheels from the street outside.
What! another windfall for somebody! was Sylvie's comment.
But it was Goriot who came in, looking so radiant, so flushed with happiness, that he seemed to have grown young again.
Goriot in a cab! cried the boarders; "the world is coming to an end."
The good soul made straight for Eugène, who was standing wrapt in thought in a corner, and laid a hand on the young man's arm.
Come, he said, with gladness in his eyes.
Then you haven't heard the news? said Eugène. "Vautrin was an escaped convict; they have just arrested him; and young Taillefer is dead."
Very well, but what business is it of ours? replied Old Goriot. "I am going to dine with my daughter in your house, do you understand? She is expecting you. Come!"
He carried off Rastignac with him by main force, and they departed in as great a hurry as a pair of eloping lovers.
Now, let us have dinner, cried the painter, and every one drew his chair to the table.
Well, I never, said the portly Sylvie. "Nothing goes right today! The mutton stew has stuck to the bottom of the pan! Bah! you will have to eat it, burnt as it is, so much the worse for you!"
Mme. Vauquer was so dispirited that she could not say a word as she looked round the table and saw only ten people where eighteen should be; but every one tried to comfort and cheer her. At first the dinner contingent, as was natural, talked about Vautrin and the day's events; but the conversation wound round to such topics of interest as duels, jails, justice, prison life, and alterations that ought to be made in the laws. They soon wandered miles away from Jacques Collin and Victorine and her brother. There might be only ten of them, but they made noise enough for twenty; indeed, there seemed to be more of them than usual; that was the only difference between yesterday and today. Indifference to the fate of others is a matter of course in this selfish world, which, on the morrow of tragedy, seeks among the events of Paris for a fresh sensation for its daily renewed appetite, and this indifference soon gained the upper hand. Mme. Vauquer herself grew calmer under the soothing influence of hope, and the mouthpiece of hope was the portly Sylvie.
That day had gone by like a dream for Eugène, and the sense of unreality lasted into the evening; so that, in spite of his energetic character and clear-headedness, his ideas were a chaos as he sat beside Goriot in the cab. The old man's voice was full of unwonted happiness, but Eugène had been shaken by so many emotions that the words sounded in his ears like words spoken in a dream.
It was finished this morning! All three of us are going to dine there together, together! Do you understand? I have not dined with my Delphine, my little Delphine, these four years, and I shall have her for a whole evening! We have been at your lodging the whole time since morning. I have been working like a porter in my shirt-sleeves, helping to carry in the furniture. Aha! you don't know what pretty ways she has; at table she will look after me, 'Here, papa, just try this, it is nice.' And I shall not be able to eat. Oh, it is a long while since I have been with her in quiet every day life as we shall have her.
It really seems as if the world had been turned upside down.
Upside down? repeated Old Goriot. "Why, the world has never been so right-side up. I see none but smiling faces in the streets, people who shake hands cordially and embrace each other, people who all look as happy as if they were going to dine with their daughter, and gobble down a nice little dinner that she went with me to order of the chef at the Café des Anglais. But, pshaw! with her beside you gall and wormwood would be as sweet as honey."
I feel as if I were coming back to life again, said Eugène.
Hurry up there, driver! cried Old Goriot, letting down the window in front. "Drive faster; I will give you five francs if you get to the place I told you of in ten minutes' time."
With this prospect before him the cabman crossed Paris with miraculous celerity.
How that fellow crawls! said Old Goriot.
But where are you taking me? Eugène asked him.
To your own house, said Goriot.
The cab stopped in the Rue d'Artois. Old Goriot stepped out first and flung ten francs to the man with the recklessness of a widower returning to bachelor ways.
Come along upstairs, he said to Rastignac. They crossed a courtyard, and climbed up to the third floor of a new and handsome house. Here they stopped before a door; but before Goriot could ring, it was opened by Thérèse, Mme. de Nucingen's maid. Eugène found himself in a charming set of chambers; an ante-room, a little drawing-room, a bedroom, and a study, looking out upon a garden. The furniture and the decoration of the little drawing-room were of the most daintily charming description, the room was full of soft light, and Delphine rose up from a low chair by the fire and stood before him. She set her fire-screen down in the chimney-piece, and spoke with tenderness in every tone of her voice.
So we had to go in search of you, sir, you who are so slow to understand!
Thérèse left the room. The student took Delphine in his arms and held her in a tight clasp, his eyes filled with tears of joy. This last contrast between his present surroundings and the scenes he had just witnessed was too much for Rastignac's overwrought nerves, after the day's strain and excitement that had wearied heart and brain; he was almost overcome by it.
I felt sure myself that he loved you, murmured Old Goriot, while Eugène lay back bewildered on the sofa, utterly unable to speak a word or to reason out how and why the magic wand had been waved to bring about this final transformation scene.
But you must see your rooms, said Mme. de Nucingen. She took his hand and led him into a room carpeted and furnished like her own; indeed, down to the smallest details, it was a reproduction in miniature of Delphine's apartment.
There is no bed, said Rastignac.
No, monsieur, she answered, reddening, and pressing his hand. Eugène, looking at her, understood, young though he yet was, how deeply modesty is implanted in the heart of a woman who loves.
You are one of those beings whom we cannot choose but to adore for ever, he said in her ear. "Yes, the deeper and truer love is, the more mysterious and closely veiled it should be; I can dare to say so, since we understand each other so well. No one shall learn our secret."
Oh! so I am nobody, I suppose, growled the father.
You know quite well that 'we' means you.
Ah! that is what I wanted. You will not mind me, will you? I shall go and come like a good fairy who makes himself felt everywhere without being seen, shall I not? Eh, Delphinette, Ninette, Dedel—was it not a good idea of mine to say to you, 'There are some nice rooms to let in the Rue d'Artois; let us furnish them for him?' And she would not hear of it! Ah! your happiness has been all my doing. I am the author of your happiness and of your existence. Fathers must always be giving if they would be happy themselves; always giving—they would not be fathers else.
Was that how it happened? asked Eugène.
Yes. She would not listen to me. She was afraid that people would talk, as if the rubbish that they say about you were to be compared with happiness! Why, all women dream of doing what she has done—
Old Goriot found himself without an audience, for Mme. de Nucingen had led Rastignac into the study; he heard a kiss given and taken, low though the sound was.
The study was furnished as elegantly as the other rooms, and nothing was wanting there.
Have we guessed your wishes rightly? she asked, as they returned to the drawing-room for dinner.
Yes, he said, "only too well, alas! For all this luxury so well carried out, this realization of pleasant dreams, the elegance that satisfies all the romantic fancies of youth, appeals to me so strongly that I cannot but feel that it is my rightful possession, but I cannot accept it from you, and I am too poor as yet to—"
Ah! are you resisting? she said with arch imperiousness, and a charming little pout of the lips, a woman's way of laughing away scruples.
But Eugène had submitted so lately to that solemn self-questioning, and Vautrin's arrest had so plainly shown him the depths of the pit that lay ready to his feet, that the instincts of generosity and honor had been strengthened in him, and he could not allow himself to be coaxed into abandoning his high-minded determinations. Profound sadness took possession of him.
Do you really mean to refuse? said Mme. de Nucingen. "And do you know what such a refusal means? That you are not sure of yourself, that you do not dare to bind yourself to me. Are you really afraid of betraying my affection? If you love me, if I—love you, why should you shrink back from such a slight obligation? If you but knew what a pleasure it has been to see after all the arrangements of this bachelor establishment, you would not hesitate any longer, you would ask me to forgive you for your hesitation. I had some money that belonged to you, and I have made good use of it, that is all. You mean this for magnanimity, but it is very little of you. You are asking me for far more than this.... Ah!" she cried, as Eugène's passionate glance was turned on her, "and you are making difficulties about the merest trifles. Of, if you feel no love whatever for me, refuse, by all means. My fate hangs on a word from you. Speak! Father," she said after a pause, "make him listen to reason. Does he think that I am less jealous of our honor than he?"
Old Goriot was looking on and listening to this pretty quarrel with the fixed smile of an opium eater.
Child that you are! she cried again, catching Eugène's hand. "You are just beginning life; you find barriers at the outset that many a man finds insurmountable; a woman's hand opens the way, and you shrink back! Why, you are sure to succeed! You will have a brilliant future. Success is written on that broad forehead of yours, and will you not be able to repay me my loan of today? Did not a lady in olden times arm her knight with sword and helmet and coat of mail, and find him a charger, so that he might fight for her in the tournament? Well, then, Eugène, these things that I offer you are the weapons of this age; every one who means to be something must have such tools as these. A pretty place your garret must be if it is like papa's room! See, dinner is waiting all this time. Do you want to make me unhappy?—Why don't you answer?" she said, shaking his hand. Heavens! papa, make up his mind for him, or I will go away and never see him any more."
I will make up your mind, said Goriot, coming down from the clouds. "Now, my dear M. Eugène, the next thing is to borrow money of the Jews, isn't it?"
There is positively no help for it, said Eugène.
All right, I will give you credit, said the other, drawing out a cheap leather pocket-book, much the worse for wear. "I have turned Jew myself; I paid for everything; here are the invoices. You do not owe a penny for anything here. It did not come to very much—five thousand francs at most, and I am going to lend you the money myself. I am not a woman—you can refuse me. You shall give me a receipt on a scrap of paper, and you can return it some time or other."
Delphine and Eugène looked at each other in amazement, tears sprang to their eyes. Rastignac held out his hand and grasped Goriot's warmly.
Well, what is all this about? Are you not my children?
Oh! my poor father, said Mme. de Nucingen, "how did you do it?"
Ah! now you ask me. When I made up my mind to move him nearer to you, and saw you buying things as if they were wedding presents, I said to myself, 'She will never be able to pay for them.' The attorney says that those law proceedings will last quite six months before your husband can be made to return your fortune. Well and good. I sold my government stock that brought in thirteen hundred and fifty livres a year, and bought a safe annuity of twelve hundred francs a year for fifteen thousand francs. Then I paid your tradesmen out of the rest of the capital. As for me, children, I have a room upstairs for which I pay fifty crowns a year; I can live like a prince on two francs a day, and still have something left over. I shall not have to spend anything much on clothes, for I never wear anything out. This fortnight past I have been laughing in my sleeve, thinking to myself, ‘How happy they are going to be!' and—well, now, are you not happy?
Oh, papa! papa! cried Mme. de Nucingen, springing to her father, who took her on his knee. She covered him with kisses, her fair hair brushed his cheek, her tears fell on the withered face that had grown so bright and radiant.
Dear father, what a father you are! No, there is not another father like you under the sun. If Eugène loved you before, what must he feel for you now?
Why, children! why, Delphinette! cried Goriot, who had not felt his daughter's heart beat against his breast for ten years, "do you want me to die of joy? My poor heart will break! Come, M. Eugène, we are quits already." And the old man strained her to his breast with such fierce and passionate force that she cried out.
Oh! you are hurting me! she said.
I am hurting you! He grew pale at the words. The pain expressed in his face seemed greater than it is given to humanity to know. The agony of this Christ of paternity can only be compared with the masterpieces of those princes of the palette who have left for us the record of their visions of an agony suffered for a whole world by the Saviour of men. Old Goriot pressed his lips very gently against the waist that his fingers had grasped too roughly.
Oh! no, no, he cried. "I have not hurt you, have I?" and his smile seemed to repeat the question. "You have hurt me with that cry just now. The things cost rather more than that," he said in her ear, with another gentle kiss, "but I had to deceive him about it, or he would have been angry."
Eugène sat dumb with amazement in the presence of this inexhaustible love; he gazed at Goriot, and his face betrayed the artless admiration which shapes the beliefs of youth.
I will be worthy of all this, he cried.
Oh! my Eugène, that is nobly said, and Mme. de Nucingen kissed the law student on the forehead.
He gave up Mlle. Taillefer and her millions for you, said Old Goriot. "Yes, the little thing was in love with you, and now that her brother is dead she is as rich as Croesus."
Oh! why did you tell her? cried Rastignac.
Eugène, Delphine said in his ear, "I have one regret now this evening. Ah! how I will love you! and for ever!"
This is the happiest day I have had since you two were married! cried Goriot. "God may send me any suffering, so long as I do not suffer through you, and I can still say, 'In this short month of February I had more happiness than other men have in their whole lives.' Look at me, Fifine!" he said to his daughter. "She is very beautiful, is she not? Tell me, now, have you seen many women with that pretty soft color—that little dimple of hers? No, I thought not. Ah well, and but for me this lovely woman would never have been. And very soon happiness will make her a thousand times lovelier, happiness through you. I could give up my place in heaven to you, neighbor, if needs be, and go down to hell instead. Come, let us have dinner," he added, scarcely knowing what he said, "everything is ours."
Poor dear father!
He rose and went over to her, and took her face in his hands, and set a kiss on the plaits of hair. "If you only knew, little one, how happy you can make me—how little it takes to make me happy! Will you come and see me sometimes? I shall be just above, so it is only a step. Promise me, say that you will!"
Yes, dear father.
Say it again.
Yes, I will, my kind father.
Hush! hush! I should make you say it a hundred times over if I followed my own wishes. Let us have dinner.
The three behaved like children that evening, and Old Goriot's spirits were certainly not the least wild. He lay at his daughter's feet, kissed them, gazed into her eyes, rubbed his head against her dress; in short, no young lover could have been more extravagant or more tender.
You see! Delphine said with a look at Eugène, "so long as my father is with us, he monopolizes me. He will be rather in the way sometimes."
Eugène had himself already felt certain twinges of jealousy, and could not blame this speech that contained the germ of all ingratitude.
And when will the rooms be ready? asked Eugène, looking round. "We must all leave them this evening, I suppose."
Yes, but to-morrow you must come and dine with me, she answered, with an eloquent glance. "It is our night at the Italiens."
I shall go to the pit, said her father.
It was midnight. Mme. de Nucingen's carriage was waiting for her, and Old Goriot and the student walked back to the Maison Vauquer, talking of Delphine, and warming over their talk till there grew up a curious rivalry between the two violent passions. Eugène could not help seeing that the father's selfless love was deeper and more steadfast than his own. For this worshiper Delphine was always pure and fair, and her father's adoration drew its fervor from a whole past as well as a future of love.
They found Mme. Vauquer by the stove, with Sylvie and Christophe to keep her company; the old landlady, sitting like Marius among the ruins of Carthage, was waiting for the two lodgers that yet remained to her, and bemoaning her lot with the sympathetic Sylvie. Tasso's lamentations as recorded in Byron's poem are undoubtedly eloquent, but for sheer force of truth they fall far short of the widow's cry from the depths.
Only three cups of coffee in the morning, Sylvie! Oh dear! to have your house emptied in this way is enough to break your heart. What is life, now my lodgers are gone? Nothing at all. Just think of it! It is just as if all the furniture had been taken out of the house, and your furniture is your life. How have I offended Heaven to draw down all this trouble upon me? And haricot beans and potatoes laid in for twenty people! The police in my house, too! We shall have to live on potatoes now, and Christophe will have to go!
The Savoyard, who was fast asleep, suddenly woke up at this, and said, "Madame?" questioningly.
Poor fellow! said Sylvie, "he is like a watch-dog."
In the dead season, too! Nobody is moving now. I would like to know where the lodgers are to drop down from. It drives me distracted. And that old witch of a Michonneau goes and takes Poiret with her! What can she have done to make him so fond of her? He runs about after her like a poodle.
Lord! said Sylvie, flinging up her head, "those old maids are up to all sorts of tricks."
There's that poor M. Vautrin that they made out to be a convict, the widow went on. "Well, you know that is too much for me, Sylvie; I can't bring myself to believe it. Such a lively man as he was, and paid fifteen francs a month for his coffee of an evening, paid you to the last penny, too."
And open-handed he was! said Christophe.
There is some mistake, said Sylvie.
Why, no there isn't! he said so himself! said Mme. Vauquer. "And to think that all these things have happened in my house, and in a quarter where you never see a cat go by. On my word as an honest woman, it's like a dream. For, look here, we saw Louis XVI meet with his mishap; we saw the fall of the Emperor; and we saw him come back and fall again; there was nothing out of the way in all that, but lodging-houses are not liable to revolutions. You can do without a king, but you must eat all the same; and so long as a decent woman, a de Conflans born and bred, will give you all sorts of good things for dinner, nothing short of the end of the world ought to—but there, it is the end of the world, that is just what it is!"
And to think that Mlle. Michonneau who made all this mischief is to have a thousand crowns a year for it, so I hear, cried Sylvie.
Don't speak of her, she is a wicked woman! said Mme. Vauquer. "She is going to the Buneaud, who charges less than cost. But the Buneaud is capable of anything; she must have done frightful things, robbed and murdered people in her time. She ought to be put in jail for life instead of that poor dear—"
Eugène and Goriot rang the door-bell at that moment.
Ah! here are my two faithful lodgers, said the widow, sighing.
But the two faithful lodgers, who retained but shadowy recollections of the misfortunes of their lodging-house, announced to their hostess without more ado that they were about to remove to the Chaussée d'Antin.
Sylvie! cried the widow, "this is the last straw. Gentlemen, this will be the death of me! It has quite upset me! There's a weight on my chest! I am ten years older for this day! Upon my word, I shall go out of my senses! And what is to be done with the beans!—Oh, well, if I am to be left here all by myself, you shall go to-morrow, Christophe. Good-night, gentlemen," and she went.
What is the matter now? Eugène inquired of Sylvie.
Lord! everybody has left because of what happened, and that has addled her wits. There! she is crying upstairs. It will do her good to snivel a bit. It's the first time she has cried since I've been with her.
By the morning, Mme. Vauquer, to use her own expression, had "made up her mind to it." True, she still wore a doleful countenance, as might be expected of a woman who had lost all her lodgers, and whose manner of life had been suddenly revolutionized, but she had all her wits about her. Her grief was genuine and profound; it was real pain of mind, for her purse had suffered, the routine of her existence had been broken. A lover's farewell glance at his lady-love's window is not more mournful than Mme. Vauquer's survey of the empty places round her table. Eugène administered comfort, telling the widow that Bianchon, whose term of residence at the hospital was about to expire, would doubtless take his (Rastignac's)place; that the official from the Museum had often expressed a desire to have Mme. Couture's rooms; and that in a very few days her household would be on the old footing.
God grant it may be so, my dear sir! but bad luck has come to lodge here. There'll be a death in the house before ten days are out, you'll see, and she gave a lugubrious look round the dining-room. "Whose turn will it be, I wonder?"
It is just as well that we are moving out, said Eugène to Old Goriot in a low voice.
Madame, said Sylvie, running in with a scared face, "I have not seen Mistigris these three days."
Ah! well, if my cat is dead, if he has gone and left us, I—